Cyanide traps halted after boy, dog sickened
POCATELLO, Idaho — A youth and his dog were walking last month on a hill near their home when they came across something in the ground that looked like a sprinkler head. But when the boy touched it, it exploded and spewed powder that sickened him and poisoned his dog to death.
The object was one of the M-44 cyanide traps that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has long used to kill predators that threaten livestock — and the damage it had done to Canyon Mansfield, 14, and his Labrador retriever, Casey, quickly fueled outrage over the devices’ use on public lands.
On Monday, the controversy led the USDA agency that places the traps, Wildlife Services, to announce a moratorium on their use in Idaho.
Two dogs were killed by a cyanide trap in Wyoming earlier in March, according to news reports and the petition. USDA records also show that the bombs have unintentionally killed more than 200 feral dogs since 2008, as well as 22 pets and livestock animals since 2013.
N.Y. nixes Pa. pipeline
ALBANY, N.Y. — State environmental regulators have blocked development of a second major pipeline that would have carried natural gas from Pennsylvania’s shale fields to New York and other markets.
New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation informed National Fuel Gas Co. on Friday it was denying a water quality permit for the 97-mile Northern Access Pipeline to western New York, saying it endangered wetlands, streams and other habitat.
The permit denial came about a year after the DEC derailed the 124-mile Constitution Pipeline from Pennsylvania to eastern New York by denying a water quality permit.
AT&T’s $1.6B acquisition
DALLAS — AT&T is racing to build a 5G network with faster speeds and reliability to support video streaming, virtual and augmented reality, connected home, car, and health devices, and self-driving cars.
The telecom giant says it’s getting a step closer by acquiring Straight Path Communications. The Virginia company owns a large nationwide portfolio of spectrum, or airwave, licenses. The acquisition, announced Monday, has a total value of $1.6 billion. That total includes the liabilities and amounts that Straight Path must pay the FCC from a previous settlement.
Charges in fake death
MARQUETTE, Mich. — Tysen Benz was in his room when he read text messages saying someone he knew had committed suicide. Shortly after, the 11-year-old boy from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula hanged himself.
Now, a 13-year-old girl, whose name was not released, is facing criminal charges in connection to his death. Marquette County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Wiese said the girl posed as someone else when she faked her own death during a text conversation with Tysen on March 14. And the boy, for reasons still unclear, believed it and killed himself within two hours of receiving the messages, Mr. Wiese said.
Mr. Wiese said he could not confirm the relationship between Tysen and the girl, but media reports say she was his girlfriend.
Also in the nation ...
An explosion Tuesday at the sprawling Lake City Army Ammunition Plant near Kansas City, Mo., killed one worker and injured four others, the U.S. Army said. ... There’s a big string attached to New York’s free middleclass college tuition initiative: Students must stay in the state after graduation or else pay back the benefit.