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A Washington State bill that would narrow the definition of what a service animal is has an Olympia man hissing mad. The new bill seeks to limit the species that could be considered service animals to only dogs and miniature horses. Daniel Green uses a snake. He says he's taught the snake to hug him when it feels an epileptic seizure coming on. From the article: "At a Senate Labor committee hearing, Green said the new law would preclude him from going to many places. Green kept his snake in a bag during the hearing, but did take it out outside the building. Restaurants and other retailers have backed the measure, saying that allowing any animal to be considered a service animal creates health hazards and other problems to their customers."

An anonymous reader writes "We all know the impact that Ham radio can have in emergencies, but that often slips by the public and the authorities. Not so in Oregon, where a day after getting inundated with torrential rains and winds and suffering from the usual calamities those cause, Oregon's Governor called the local Ham radio operators heroes. When discussing how the storm affected communications, the governor stated: "I'm going to tell you who the heroes were from the very beginning of this...the ham radio operators." Kudos to the Oregon Ham operators for helping out in a bad situation, and getting the recognition they deserve."

An anonymous reader writes "So, according to a KPTV newscast, a Simpsons fan with too much time on his hands grafted a tobacco plant and a tomato plant and, ta-da: tomacco! Leaves and most likely the fruit (yes, tomato is a fruit technically) contain nicotine. Delicious AND deadly!" Simpsonschannel.com has a small news piece on the breakthrough, but in a Frink-like move, although scientists have found "nicotine in the leaves", it turns out "the lab hasn't tested if the actual tomato has nicotine in it yet, but they say it probably does."