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Here’s what’s worth reading today, Thursday, June 27, 2019:
Hundreds of Brushy Creek fish killed after over 100,000 gallons of sewage leaks from wastewater plant: There are a lot of dead fish in Brushy Creek, and officials said a sewage release from a wastewater treatment plant is to blame. At 3 p.m. Monday, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Kills and Spills Team, along with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, were notified of a fish kill in Brushy Creek near Round Rock. After conducting an on-site investigation, TPWD said staff determined the fish kill was caused by a sewage release from the Brushy Creek Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant East. TCEQ said the release was an unauthorized discharge from a manhole at the plant.
Trio of sharks kills California college student snorkeling in the Bahamas: An American tourist has died in a shark attack while snorkeling with her family in the Bahamas, authorities say. Royal Bahamas Police Force Deputy Commissioner Paul Rolle says 21-year-old Jordan Lindsey of Torrance, California, was attacked by three sharks near Rose Island around 2 p.m. Wednesday. The U.S. State Department confirmed that a U.S. citizen died of her injuries following a shark attack. KABC-TV says Lindsey’s parents and other family members saw the sharks and yelled a warning but she didn’t hear them in time. Officials say her arms, legs and buttocks were bitten and her right arm was severed.
‘Dead Zone’ threatens livelihood of Gulf of Mexico fishermen: Tuan Tran has been catching shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico ever since he was a child and cannot imagine doing anything else. “I always had a passion for shrimping. I always loved the Gulf,” Tran said. “Some reason when I do this, I feel like I belong there.” For Tran, it is an adventure. For his family, it is a trade they had known in Vietnam before they made their way to Port Arthur, Texas after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Tran and his family of shrimpers have faced many challenges created by mother nature. The latest weather-related problem in the Gulf is a giant dead zone predicted to grow to a near record in coming weeks.
In Texas, where mosquitoes thrive, tick-borne diseases are often overlooked: For some Texans, a mosquito bite can cause more than just an itch. From yellow fever to West Nile virus, there’s a long history of mosquito-borne diseases in Texas, some of them causing serious harm or even death. Ticks, on the other hand, haven’t been a major concern in the Lone Star state – until now. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that instances of tick-borne diseases have more than doubled across the country in recent years, as their geographic reach spreads and new infectious agents are identified.
Louisiana high schools can now form fishing teams: High schools across Louisiana can now form teams for a new prep sport … bass fishing. It comes after the Louisiana High School Athletics Association approved it as a trial sport. LHSAA Assistant Executive Director Adam MacDowell says 173 schools in the state said they wanted to see fishing as an official sport. “Hopefully they can hoist that trophy up next to their football trophy and their basketball trophy, so that those kids who have not had an opportunity to participate on a sports team for their school will have an opportunity to.”
Magnet fishing is a slimy new hobby where people pull guns, bikes and weird stuff out of Milwaukee-area rivers, lakes and lagoons: Some folks in southern Wisconsin find themselves facing a magnetic attraction to the region’s hidden heavy metal scene. They have taken up what’s known as magnet fishing, a hobby that — measured in terms of social media — is all the rage in Europe but is just now becoming a pastime in the Midwest. The hobby consists of attaching a powerful magnet to a rope, then tossing the magnet into a waterway. Once the magnet hits bottom, you drag it until it locks onto something metal. Then you haul the item to the surface.
Pa. Senate votes to allow hunting on three Sundays out of the entire year: A proposal to end Pennsylvania’s ban on Sunday hunting has the approval of the state Senate. Senators voted 36 to 14 on Wednesday for a bill that would permit hunting on one Sunday during deer rifle season, one during deer archery season, and on a third day. Sunday hunting is currently allowed in all of Pennsylvania’s neighboring states. Pennsylvania has banned Sunday hunting since 1873, although there are exceptions for crows, foxes and coyotes.
Upstate NY man pleads guilty to homicide charge in deer-hunting fatality case: A Tioga County man pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide earlier this week in County Court for shooting his neighbor in a deer-hunting incident in December. Dean A. Brockoff, of Lockwood, pleaded guilty in Tioga County Court to the Class E felony before Judge Gerald Keene. He admitted that on Dec 9 he was hunting at 7 a.m. before legal sunrise and fired a shot at some movement without identifying his target. He fired his Winchester bolt-action, 30.06 rifle, hitting David Barden, 73, in the torso, according to District Attorney Kirk Martin, who prosecuted the case.
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