by Whitney Webb, True Activist

Beach goers in South Florida were dismayed to find thousands of dead and dying bees washed up along the shoreline.

South Florida beach goers might not have expected to be stung by a bee in the surf, however, that’s exactly what’s been happening. In a rare occurrence, thousands of dead and dying bees have been washing up onto a popular beach in Naples, FL. Martha Duff, a Naples, FL resident told NBC Miami, “I’ve been stung a couple of times and at first, I didn’t know what it was and then I realized and then I had an allergic reaction.” Residents are confused and concerned asking questions like those posed by Duff: “Why are there bees? Where are they coming from? And why are they in a very specific area of the beach?” Some visitors to the area, local residents, as well as families with children are avoiding the beach due to concerns about bee stings, causing concern throughout the local community regarding the impact the unexpected event could have on tourism.

by Jessica Murray, True Activist

The wildlife bridges allow animals to safely pass over or under main roads.

An increasing number of animal bridges are being put up across the globe by conservationists to ensure the safety of the world’s animals. These relatively new wildlife crossings are a huge and innovative upgrade from the simple road signs on highways which show a brief warning that animals may be in the area. These bridge methods are being employed with the sole purpose of protecting wildlife and preventing human-animal conflict and in turn preserving the world’s ecosystems, by helping to stop habitat fragmentation. In the United States alone, estimations have shown that the current road systems affect the ecology of a huge one-fifth of the country’s land, whilst vehicle-animal collisions are costing the US around $8 billion a year, according to a recent report.

By: The Free Thought Project   JACKSON, Miss. (CN) — Mississippi sued 10 people and 15 corporations this week to recoup more than $800 million in state money lost in a seven-year prison bribery scandal.

Defendants in the 11 lawsuits included former Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps, and former Republican state House Member Cecil McCrory, the key figures in the conspiracy. They and four other people pleaded guilty to their involvement in the conspiracy.

Attorney General Jim Hood says in the lawsuits that multiple corporations, including prominent private prison contractors, paid millions of dollars in bogus “consulting fees” to people who used the money to pay bribes and kickbacks to Epps.

Epps then steered approximately $800 million in public contracts to those private prison contractors.

“The state of Mississippi has been defrauded through a pattern of bribery, kickbacks, misrepresentations, fraud, concealment, money laundering and other wrongful conduct,” Hood said in a statement. “These individuals and corporations that benefited by stealing from taxpayers must not only pay the state’s losses, but state law requires that they must also forfeit and return the entire amount of the contracts paid by the state.”

by Jessica Murray, True Activist

by Jessica Murray, True Activist

After 100 whales were helped back into the ocean, a further 240 arrived and became stranded.

After 300 pilot whales were found dead on a New Zealand beach, with a further 140 found struggling for survival on the coast on Friday, a further 240 arrived the following day, making the situation even worse. Magazine writer and editor Cheree Morrison stumbled across the scene as she took a pre-dawn trip to capture the sunrise, accompanied by a photographer and guide. She described the scene before her, claiming that it was the sounds of soft sighs and cries that first struck her before she ventured closer and saw the full extent of what has been described as one of the worst whale strandings in the nation’s history. She said,

“You could hear the sounds of splashing, of blowholes being cleared, of sighing. The young ones were the worst. Crying is the only way to describe it.”