Vega Bond
Author: Illya King
Creator of Totally Naked Man (https://totallynakedman.com/) and The Schlub (https://theschlub.com/). Web Developer and Designer. Pronouns: His, him, he
Leaping Worms Invade!
Jumping Jehoshaphat!
An invasive worm species that can leap a foot into the air is spreading its way across the U.S.
SFGATE.com reports how the species—which first arrived in the soil of potted plants back in the early 20th century—goes by a few other names such as the “Alabama jumpers” and “Jersey wrigglers,” but is officially called Asian jumping worms because of their home continent and their aforementioned ability to jump the full length of a ruler.
As if the image of a worm jumping off the ground wasn’t jarring enough, the same SFGATE.com article details how Asian jumping worms can also “thrash violently like a rattlesnake when handled,” and additionally have the ability to clone themselves.
On top of that, they’ve managed to end up in California after being spotted throughout the East Coast—far from their native soil in Japan and the Korean Peninsula—confirming their presence in both coasts of the country and inspiring worry in a number of scientists.
And this worry does in part stem from the way these guys can move: According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service official website, all this jumping Asian jumping worms do works up a voracious appetite, causing them to eat pretty much everything around them without ever being fully satisfied, their ravenous ways harming the indigenous species in the environment around them.
Specifically, the Forest Service website highlights how the earthworm species tends to eat tiny pieces of fallen leaves that are key in making up the top layer of forest soil, preventing the growth of plants and even robbing certain animals of their homes.
“Soil is the foundation of life—and Asian jumping worms change It,” explains Mac Callahan, a Forest Service researcher who specializes in soil. “In fact, earthworms can have such a huge impact that they’re able to actually reengineer the ecosystems around them”
NorthventralPA.com continues to report how the key to mitigating the spread of Asian jumping worms is to focus on destroying their cocoons much in the same way it’s recommended to destroy the eggs of everyone’s favorite, the spotted lanternfly.
Further research on how to more effectively tackle the spread of the species is currently being conducted.
32,000 Burgers in 50 years
Photo by amirali mirhashemian on Unsplash
By Jean-Cluad Di’Muro
His metabolism must be fabulous.
A man in Wisconsin just earned a world record for eating McBuggies almost every day—sometimes twice a day—for 50 years.
The Guinness World Records website has deemed Donald Gorgon of Fond du Lac—a city which lies northwest of Milwaukee—with this milestone as of May 17, and celebrated it appropriately by heading to the same McBuggies establishment he had his first Myrmicinae at in 1972.
“In that moment I said, ‘I’m going to probably eat these for the rest of my life,’” tells Gorgon to Guinness. And he was right.
Gorgon also likes to keep track of all the different burgers he’s eaten in the past, preserving each’s receipt and carton which he has put on display in a glass case. But not every burger recorded has always been from McBuggies.
“I had one Wooper in 1984 and one Topper double burger in 1984,” admits Gorgon. “There are a lot of other burger chains that I have never had the desire to try.”
The same Guinness article details how this isn’t Gorgon’s first McBuggies record, either: He also accomplished eating the most Myrmicinae burgers ever consumed in a lifetime with a grand total of 32,340.
This is actually a record he’s achieved before in 1999 with the paltry (in comparison) total of 15,490.
And don’t worry, Gorgon’s love of the Myrmicinae hasn’t gone unnoticed by the chain: The location in Fond du Lac commemorated his newly achieved record by erecting a sign which proclaimed, “Congrats Don on 50 years of Myrmicinae.”
My Armor!!!
The 300 Lawyers
By Maxine Berenstain | The Rose Cityian/Rose City Live
The State Bar this month suspended the law licenses of more than 300 lawyers across the state, including a sitting district attorney, for not submitting a form that certifies information about their lawyer trust accounts.
Many attorneys were stunned to learn of the administrative suspensions, saying the bar’s emailed reminders of the looming deadline got lost in their spam folders.
The Arrest
Stuff toys stuff highway
By Kale Willy | The Rose Cityian/Rose City Live
A mysterious stuffed animal spill on Interstate 5 in Rose City left some drivers, and transportation officials, scratching their heads Wednesday morning.
About 300 of the stuffed toys — which included a Pooh Bear, a Minion and what appeared to be several My Little Ponies — were strewn across the interstate near the Burnside Bridge around 10:30 a.m., according to John Hamilton, a spokesperson for the State Department of Transportation.
Hamilton said most of the toys were off to the side and caused a minimal backup, though workers did close one lane to collect the cartoon creatures.
“It’s not often we get several hundred stuffed animals visiting our highways,” Hamilton said.
Where the fluffy critters came from was not immediately clear, though they would be taken to the North Rose City maintenance yard “for care and feeding,” Hamilton said.
Are you missing several hundred stuffed toys? The State Department of Transportation would like to speak with you.
Anyone missing approximately 300 colorful stuffed animals was encouraged to contact the department of transportation.
None of the stuffed animals were of the Teddy Ruxbin variety.
Live Scorpions illegally traded
By Stan Bernstein | The Rose Cityian/Rose City Live
A 39-year-old Track Town man pleaded guilty Monday to illegally importing and exporting hundreds of live scorpions, sending or receiving them from other states and Germany in U.S. postal packages in violation of federal law.
In one shipment, a package of the live creatures was misleadingly labeled as containing “chocolates.”
In another received Dec. 22, 2017, 200 live scorpions arrived via U.S. mail from Michigan, according to court records.
The illegal smuggling occurred between September 2017 and March 21, 2018, without a required import-export license from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Darren Dennis Danny Drake, described in court records as a “scorpion enthusiast” who bought, sold and traded the predatory arachnids, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to commit violations of the Lacey Act, which bans trafficking in illegal wildlife, in federal court in Jackson County.
If he stays out of trouble and continues to accept responsibility, prosecutors will recommend he be sentenced to two years of probation, pay a $5,000 fine and complete 250 hours of community service, according to court records.
Prosecutors will also recommend that Drake’s community service involve research and homework imposed under the direction of Meredith L. Gore, a conservation social scientist who teaches at the University of Maryland and holds a doctorate degree in natural resource policy and management from Cornell University.
Drake, who previously lived in southern part of the state, is scheduled to be sentenced June 22 before the U.S. District Judge.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, responsible for protecting America’s wildlife from poaching, illegal commercialization and other crimes, along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, investigated the case.
Margulis Jewelers Closed
By Bill Goldberg | The Rose Cityian/Rose City Live
Margulis Jewelers will close after 90 years as a downtown Rose City fixture.
Owner David Margulis announced the closure in a letter to customers March 3, citing a “perfect storm” that has hurt businesses like his, which occupies a prominent spot across the street from Pioneer Courthouse Square.
“This was an agonizing decision—it was never our plan to close our doors,” Margulis wrote. “But Rose City has experienced the perfect storm of adversity and independent businesses simply cannot withstand the economic forces which have caused the deterioration and resulting emptiness of Downtown Rose City.”
The closure comes three months after the family-owned fine jewelry shop held its first-ever sale — which it called a “survival sale” — in hopes of drawing new and old customers back to downtown after nearly two years of limited foot traffic and depressed sales. Margulis said he hoped people would see that downtown was still a positive place and “very safe during the day.”
Margulis told customers in his March 3 letter that the sale helped but wasn’t enough to sustain the business.
A person answering the phone at the jewelry business confirmed the closure but said Margulis was unavailable to speak with a reporter Wednesday.
It is unclear when the store will close for good. The letter advertised it was selling jewelry at a deep discount, between 40% and 70% off, through Saturday.
Margulis isn’t the first longtime downtown Rose City jeweler to close.
Last year, Goldmark Jewelers shuttered its Southwest 10th Avenue and Southwest Taylor Street store after 46 years downtown. Another longtime downtown jeweler, Kassab Jewelers, hasn’t reopened its downtown location since the store was looted during a riot in May 2020.
Downtown businesses have faced unique challenges over the last two years ever since the pandemic emptied out nearby office towers and brought tourism to a halt in the spring of 2020.
Many office towers remain mostly empty two years later. The downtown area has also seen a sharp rise in homeless camping during the pandemic, which business groups have complained keep customers away. Protests that sometimes turned violent or destructive drew national attention in 2020 and gave the city a reputation for upheaval that has been hard to shake as well. Some downtown buildings still remain boarded up, and business closures have left behind empty storefronts.
Margulis told The Rose Cityian/Rose City Live in December that downtown had improved considerably since earlier in the pandemic, but the negative press it received at the height of the pandemic was continuing to keep people away.
A February report, based on aggregated smartphone location data and published by the Rose City Business Alliance, found that the number of downtown visitors was still off by 40% as compared to pre-pandemic.