US removes gray wolf from endangered list

The US has removed gray wolves off of the endangered list. The US government is removing 1,300 wolves off of the endangered list in the Rocky mountain regions. They are also looking to remove wolves off of the endangered list in the western Great Lakes region because they believe they have recovered to a healthy population.

Hunting of these animals will resume in Idaho, Montanta, parts of Utah, Oregon and Washington. They will still be protected in Wyoming as the state still needs a management plan on their population of the wolves.

This has been a legal battle since 2008 since the Fish and Wildlife service took steps to remove the wolves off of the endangered list. An annex was added to the disputed budget bill last month, removing the wolves from federal protection. This makes it the first time Congress has been involved in the removing of an animal from the endangered species list.

I can't say that I like this article, but its sort of sad. We worked so hard to re grow the almost non existent population of the gray wolf and now we want to go back to hunting it. I obviously understand we have to in order to keep the population under control. They are extremely beautiful creatures though.

article:http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-gray-wolf-endangered.html

New Genetic Test Leads to Exposure of Incest

An article was published in the journal Lancet on February 11, 2011 about the exposure of incest cases from genetic tests. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston have been studying child birth defects and developmental delays, and have been performing a new type of genetic test, called single nucleotide polymorphism-based arrays, to plot out a person's genetic makeup. The tests enable them to locate missing or duplicated genes by mapping out a child's genetic code. Often, the inconsistencies found in these tests can explain the child's disability. In several cases, however, scientists found large, duplicate pieces of DNA believed to be inherited from an inappropraite relationship between two relatives. The main concern that stems from this discovery is the possibility of evidence of child sexual abuse, most often girls between ages twelve and sixteen. Doctors now have routine tests to check if a child's disability is caused by incest. If a case does involve incest, doctors are obligated to tell authorities about cases of suspected child abuse.

This discovery of incest cases from new genetic tests has left teams of researchers with an abundance of legal and ethical questions. Dr. Arthur Beaudet, chairman of molecular and human genetics at Baylor, says, "The concern mainly stems from the possibility of children being sexually abused in the home." I think this discovery could turn out to be extremely helpful in court cases of child sexual abuse where no other evidence is available. It may expose some dark family secrets, but it may also provide closure for the victims of this type of abuse. What do you think?