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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Farm Bill Would "Fortify" NH Animal-Fighting Laws

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Tuesday, August 6, 2013   

NASHUA, N.H. - No spectators, no fighting. That's the message from animal-welfare groups trying to make it a federal crime, punishable by jail, for being a spectator at an animal fight. Both the U.S. House and Senate versions of the national Farm Bill, under negotiation now, include prohibitions against attending animal fights.

According to John Goodwin, director of animal-cruelty policy for the Humane Society of the United States, spectators are not innocent bystanders, and federal law enforcement should be able to go after them.

"There is one individual in New Hampshire that advertises fighting roosters for sale on a pretty regular basis, even though that's a felony crime in New Hampshire," Goodwin charged. "And he's selling them all over the country."

Dog-fighting is also a felony in New Hampshire, and so is being a spectator at a dog fight.

Goodwin said that, in states where there's little or no penalty for animal-fighting spectators, a raid on a dog fight can lead to handlers abandoning their fighting dogs.

"Many of these guys have discovered that if they abandon their animals at the first sign of a raid they can avoid prosecution," the Humane Society official said. "We want to take that loophole away and ensure the entire cast of characters at animal fights is prosecuted."

New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte is a co-sponsor of the measure.

Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said the spectator prohibition act would fortify the law in New Hampshire, and hopefully eliminate incentives for dog-fighting and cockfighting across the nation.

It is meant "to crack down on the people who are bringing children to dog fights and cockfights, and for people who are just there to watch and to gamble on the outcome," he said.

The House and Senate have each passed their own versions of the Farm Bill. Before Congress broke for its August recess, conferees were trying to work out the differences.




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