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Politics 2012: Ron Paul strategy keeps things interesting
WASHINGTON, April 19 (UPI) -- The farm bill being negotiated in the U.S. Congress could speed the extinction of honeybees and other pollinators by encouraging crops in areas now wild.
There are a number of suspects in the search for the cause of colony collapse disorder, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. They include pesticides designed to be safe for humans that disrupt insects' nervous systems and monoculture, in which huge fields devoted to one crop deprive insects of food for most of the year.
The final bill is expected to provide incentives to grow grain in high prairie areas where farmers are now paid to keep land wild, the Chronicle said. Many beekeepers send their hives to the Dakotas to rest when crops that need pollinating in California are not in bloom.
Jim Ringelman, director of conservation for Ducks Unlimited in North Dakota, said the result could be the loss of much of the protected land to agriculture. He said the result could be a disaster for native pollinating insects and birds as well as bees.
"Most birds won't use cropland to reproduce in," he said. "It's just not habitat that works for them."
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WASHINGTON, May 28 (UPI) --
Rolling Thunder motorcyclists moved into Washington as part of the annual Memorial Day weekend ride held in remembrance of war dead and those missing in action.
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NEW YORK, May 28 (UPI) --
"Sex and the City" actress Cynthia Nixon married her girlfriend, education activist Christine Marinoni, in New York, officials say.
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To avoid a meltdown in 2006, Ford Motor Co. mortgaged the farm putting up its assets – including its Blue Oval logo, and F-150 pickup and iconic Mustang trademarks – to secure $23.5 billion in credit.
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TOLEDO, Ohio, May 28 (UPI) --
Authorities in Ohio said a man clad in a Darth Vader mask and black clothes robbed a bank with a semi-automatic pistol instead of a light saber and the Force.
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