Hunting

BLAIRSVILLE, Pa. -- They say you can get almost anything at Walmart. But the Pennsylvania Game Commission says one deer hunter took it too far.

SALT LAKE CITY — A top National Rifle Association executive will deliver a keynote speech at a hunting expo in Salt Lake City.

Wayne LaPierre will open a banquet Saturday night at the Salt Palace convention hall.

LaPierre has been a polarizing figure in the recent national gun debate. He’s calling for armed guards in schools while fighting efforts in Congress to ban assault weapons. He’s rallying gun owners around the Second Amendment.

The gun debate flared anew after the shooting of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut school in December.

MORGAN — Business is crazy busy at Bingham’s Custom Meats, where Nathan and Sharlie Bingham defied the risks of setting up shop in a down economy.

“Business is up 200 percent over last year,” Nathan said.

The couple was pricing equipment when they first saw what was to become Bingham’s Custom Meats, 371 E. 300 North.

The growl of my truck engine dropped an octave as I shifted gears to climb a hill and then began making my way around a bend. The twisty road in the woods of Central Virginia was dappled with late-afternoon sunlight. My mind was on what I would make for dinner — I wondered whether I had any sour cream — until I came around the bend and saw an SUV stopped in the middle of the road. I slammed on my brakes and squealed to a stop.

Moments before I arrived on the scene, the SUV’s driver’s plans for the day had been interrupted by a black bear trotting out in front of her vehicle. She’d hit the bear, wrecking the front end of her SUV in the process. Another vehicle had immediately also clipped the bear, and now all three of us were out of our cars, trying to sort the situation out. The bear and the SUV were the only casualties.

Florida is turning to cold hard cash to lure adventure seekers into the Everglades to bag a Burmese python, the state’s slithering non-native enemy No. 1.

In the midst of holiday festivities, a deadline looms for those hoping to get in on an early but limited opportunity to hunt turkeys next spring.

EDEN — Visitors to Walt Prothero’s house are immediately greeted by a smorgasbord of North American mammals — the heads of moose, deer, elk and mountain goats cover the walls of the room just inside the front door.

One room over, the decor takes on a distinct African theme. Zebra skins, elephant tusks and a crocodile skin lie on the floor. An African lion stands, baring its teeth. The walls are covered with the heads of a warthog and various types of exotic sheep and antelope.