A federal judge on Tuesday ordered federal wildlife officials to reconsider how to help endangered jaguars survive, saying the decision to not protect habitat for them was based on bad criteria and inconsistent with the US Endangered Species Act. The largest cats native to the Western hemisphere live primarily in Mexico, Central and South America. But they’re known to roam in southern Arizona and New Mexico, and one was captured for the first time southeast of Tucson, Arizona, last month. The Interior Department abandoned a recovery plan for the endangered species last year after concluding too few of the cats had been spotted to warrant it. The US Fish and Wildlife Service said US land represents less than 1 percent of the species’ range, so its survival depends on other nations. US District Judge John Roll said in his ruling that Fish and Wildlife did not use the best scientific evidence available in not establishing critical habitat for the species. “Denying the jaguar protection because it is overly endangered is an oxymoron,” said Michael Robinson, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. “That was the essence of the government’s plan, that there are so few jaguars that they don’t need a recovery plan. And the judge saw right through that.”
■ UNITED STATES
No behavior classes for trio
A federal judge in Pennsylvania said that three teenage girls who posed semi-nude for pictures distributed via cellular phone could not be forced to attend behavior classes as a prosecutor demanded. The temporary restraining order filed on Monday by Judge James Munley stops District Attorney George Skumanick from filing child pornography charges against the girls, who were 13 when the pictures were taken. Munley said the pictures were not illegal and that there was no reason to prosecute. Teachers at the girls’ high school alerted the authorities in October after discovering a waist-up image of two girls wearing bras, and another image of a girl topless on the portable telephones of several students. Skumanik called for the girls to undergo five weeks of behavior courses and take a drug test or face prosecution and having to register as sex offenders.
■ UNITED STATES
Man crashes barstool
Falling off a barstool can hurt one’s pride, if not more, but a Newark, Ohio, man got into trouble with the law for crashing his motorized version. Kile Wygle, 28, hurt his head in the March 4 mishap with a motorized barstool and was charged with drunken driving and driving on a suspended license, police said on Tuesday. While being treated by paramedics, Wygle told an officer he consumed “a lot” of beers — at least 15 —- before crashing the barstool at 32kph, a police account showed. Wygle later told a local TV station he got drunk after, not before, the crash. “I drank quite a bit after I wrecked because my head hurt so bad. I went in and drank a half a bottle of whiskey,” he said. The barstool was towed away.
■ UNITED STATES
‘Simpsons’ getting stamped
The Simpsons, the bumbling, dysfunctional cartoon family, will soon be on postage stamps, the Postal Service said. It plans five US$0.44 stamps, featuring Homer, Marge and their children Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Artwork for the stamps was done by Simpson’s creator Matt Groening and will preview next Thursday.
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