A Gray Wolf Visited Los Angeles County Last Week for the First Time in a Century

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A Gray Wolf Visited Los Angeles County Last Week for the First Time in a Century, Marking a Major Milestone in the Species’ Recovery (Maria)

The author writes, “A gray wolf has graced Los Angeles County with its presence for the first time in about a century. The visit marks a major milestone for the species, which had once been completely pushed out of the state. The 3-year-old female, called BEY03F, was spotted in the morning of February 7 in the town of Neenach in the northwestern part of the county, reports LAist’s Laura Dux. ‘This signifies a historic moment in the return of wolves for California,’ says John Marchwick, a writer for the nonprofit California Wolf Watch, to Lila Seidman at the Los Angeles Times.” 

‘I Have Been Here Too Long’: Read Letters from the Children Detained at ICE’s Dilley Facility (Laura)

From ProPublica: “Hundreds of children are currently being held with their parents at an immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas. In letters and drawings, eight kids convey the pain of feeling trapped with no end in sight.”

British Woman Shot by Dad in Texas After ‘Arguing About Donald Trump’ (Sean)

The author writes, “A British woman who was shot dead by her father while visiting his home in Texas had argued with him about US President Donald Trump earlier that day, an inquest has heard. Lucy Harrison, from Warrington in Cheshire, was shot in the chest on 10 January 2025 in Prosper, near Dallas. Police in the town investigated the 23-year-old’s death as possible manslaughter but no criminal case was brought against Kris Harrison after a grand jury in Collin County declined to indict him.” 

Trump’s Quest to Name Things After Himself Takes an Even More Desperate Turn (Reader Jim)

From CNN: “Donald Trump’s insatiable desire to name things after himself has been clear for a very long time. And as president, he’s rapidly pushed the envelope in that regard, naming things after himself in ways it appears no previous president ever has. But even by his standards, this quest has taken a desperate — and seemingly politically unwise — turn. Trump last month sought to have Congress rename Dulles International Airport near DC and New York City’s Penn Station after himself. CNN’s Manu Raju and Adam Cancryn report that Trump pitched the renamings to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as a condition for releasing billions of dollars in frozen funds for a major New York infrastructure project.”

How a Sacramento Woman’s Grandad Made It Possible for Trump to Threaten Greenland (Reader Steve)

From The Sacramento Bee: “When President Trump threatened to annex Greenland last month, a woman in Sacramento thought of her grandfather, whose audacious move 85 years ago inadvertently opened the door to US aggression that startled her and the world. The first time Bettina Redway really felt her grandfather Henrik Kauffman’s shadow fall across the present, it wasn’t in an archive or a classroom. It was in the headlines. … Kauffmann had been Denmark’s ambassador to the United States during World War II. He had done something bold then, so bold that even now it sounds unreal. Acting without authorization from Copenhagen and on contested legal grounds, Kauffmann signed the 1941 Greenland defense agreement giving the United States access to Greenland for military defense.”

‘Textbooks Will Need to Be Updated’: Jupiter Is Smaller and Flatter Than We Thought, Juno Spacecraft Reveals (Dana)

The author writes, “Jupiter is slightly smaller and flatter than scientists thought for decades, a new study finds. Researchers used radio data from the Juno spacecraft to refine measurements of the solar system’s largest planet. Although the differences between the current and previous measurements are small, they are improving models of Jupiter’s interior and of other gas giants like it outside the solar system. … Until now, scientists’ understanding of Jupiter’s size and shape have been based on six measurements performed by the Voyager 1 and 2 and Pioneer 10 and 11 missions. Those measurements, which have since been adopted as standard, were performed around 50 years ago using radio beams, according to the statement. But the Juno mission, which has been gathering data on Jupiter and its moons since it arrived at the gas giant in 2016, has collected much more of this radio data in the past two years.”