An animal welfare group intent on sending a message in support of veganism hid until closing time then poured red paint over the Iowa State Fair's butter cow. But the damage was quickly scraped away and visitors never knew the iconic sculpture had been damaged.

Iowans for Animal Liberation claimed responsibility for the attack in a news release emailed Sunday night, saying members hid in the cavernous Agriculture Building on Saturday night and emerged after the fair closed for the day. They then broke into a refrigerated room where the sculpted cow and other butter sculptures are displayed and poured red paint over the cow.

The words "Freedom for all" were scrawled on a display window.

"The paint represents the blood of 11 billion animals murdered each year in slaughterhouses, egg farms, and dairies," the group said in the statement. "We intend this action to serve as a wake up call to all who continue to consume meat, dairy, eggs, leather, and all animal products: You are directly supporting suffering and misery on the largest scale the world has ever known."

Chilling video from a home in Dekalb County, Ga., shows local police entering a house illegally, berating the home's residents and then tackling them to the ground.


The entire incident took place because the mother of the home, Natania Griffin, was two weeks late on paying a $1,000 fee to the county.

Griffin's 23-year-old son, Donovan Hall, recorded the event. He was alarmed and confused when police began banging loudly on his door in the middle of the night.

"I was immediately confused as to why the police would be at my house," Hall told the Huffington Post. "The knocks became more and more aggressive."

On the video, Hall timidly opens the door and asks the police why they are at the house. But police quickly enter the home and soon pin Donovan and his brother on the ground.

Los Andes - 17 condors with apparent symptoms of poisoning were rescued by travelers en route to the crossing of the Andes from Santiago to Mendoza.

Witnesses said a large number of birds were flying erratically and several collapsed while trying to land on rocks.

Two of the birds died electrocuted in power lines and other collided with rocks on the hills. Bystanders and Chilean uniformed police personnel (Carabineros) rescued 17 birds, 10 males and 7 females, of various ages.

The birds were taken to a veterinary clinic in the city of Los Andes for assessment and recovery.

Six of the birds which were in worse condition were later transferred to Santiago Zoo facilities for intensive care.

According to the veterinary staff of the Agriculture and Livestock Service of Chile (SAG), the birds showed obvious symptoms of poisoning, including diarrhea and phlegm in their beaks.

In the wake of recent news that the NSA is spying on Americans, I have been particularly struck by the argument that "if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear."

At first blush, this argument might seem sound - after all, if the government is merely conducting anti-terrorism surveillance, non-terrorists shouldn't be affected, right? But if you look more closely, you'll see this idea is full of holes.

The "nothing to hide" argument mistakenly suggests that privacy is something only criminals desire. In fact, we choose to do many things in private - sing in the shower, make love, confide in family and friends - even though they are not wrong or illegal. Who would not be embarrassed if all of their most intimate details were exposed? Fences and curtains are ways to ensure a measure of privacy, not indicators of criminal behavior. Privacy is a fundamental part of a dignified life.

The "nothing to hide" argument also has things backwards when it suggests that we are all worthy of suspicion until proven otherwise. Our system of justice treats us all as innocent until proven guilty. That applies in everyday life - when the government wants to spy on our daily activities and private conversations - as much as it applies in court. The state bears the burden of showing there is a good reason for suspicion, not the other way around. The refrain "nothing to hide" should not be a license for sweeping government surveillance.

During the current legislative session, more than 300 provisions were introduced across the country to prevent access to abortion, including some of the most severe abortion restrictions we've ever seen. For months, we have been lamenting that these extremist politicians must think we're stupid if they think we won't realize that their legislative maneuvering is part of a coordinated, national plan to outlaw women's health clinics and cut off access to abortion care.

Well at least one former political operative is willing to come out and say the truth - abortion opponents' true goal is not to make abortion clinics safer, but to close all abortion clinics.

In a recent op-ed published in the Huntsville Times, J. Pepper Bryars, the former press secretary and speechwriter for Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, writes about an Alabama state law that places onerous and medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion providers. In defending that law he quotes a representative from Planned Parenthood Southeast:

"'The true goal of the law is to make all abortion illegal and inaccessible in Alabama,' said Nikema Williams, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood Southeast, when the Alabama bill passed last April. Despite all the talk about ensuring the facilities are safe and well-regulated, Williams and others believe the true goal is to close the state's abortion clinics."

Bryars' response: "Of course it is."

The GOP has lost more support among voters over 65 than any other demographic group in recent months, according to a new poll.

As bad as things get for Republicans -- with women, with minorities, with youths -- there's always been one group they can count on: the old. But now one Democratic pollster sees evidence that even seniors are starting to turn on the GOP.

Just 28 percent of voters 65 and older had a favorable view of the Republican Party in a national survey conducted last month by the Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg, versus 40 percent who had a positive view of the Democrats. That's a reversal from a poll Greenberg conducted in early 2011, when 43 percent of seniors saw Republicans favorably and 37 percent saw Democrats that way.

"It is now strikingly clear that [seniors] have turned sharply against the GOP," Erica Seifert, a senior associate at Greenberg's firm, wrote on the company's website this week. "We have seen other voters pull back from the GOP, but among no group has this shift been as sharp as it is among senior citizens."

A judge in the US has ordered a baby's first name to be changed from Messiah to Martin, arguing that the only true messiah is Jesus Christ, reports say.

The parents of seven-month old Messiah DeShawn Martin had gone to court in Tennessee over his last name. But Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew ordered the first name changed too, local broadcaster WBIR-TV said. Last year more than 700 babies were named Messiah in the US, according to the Social Security Administration.

Christianity sees Jesus as the Messiah, while Judaism uses the term to mean an anticipated saviour of the Jews. Dictionary definitions say the word can mean anyone seen as a saviour or a liberator.

'No choice'

The judge in Cocke County said the name Messiah could cause the boy difficulties if he grew up in a predominantly Christian area.

"It could put him at odds with a lot of people and at this point he has had no choice in what his name is," Judge Ballew said.

Conventions and large gatherings are not unusual. What is unusual, according to KOB 4, is the high level of secrecy surrounding the event. Something is going on at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya that no one wants to talk about. Everyone is hush-hush. KOB Eyewitness News 4 has been told the entire place has been sold out the last three nights.

When KOB sent one of our photographers out tonight, he was stopped at a roadblock about a mile from the high-end resort on Santa Ana Pueblo. A Tamaya insider tells KOB the entire place was rented out by the Koch brothers. KOB was also told former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan was at Tamaya.

While there's nothing wrong with renting out an entire resort, especially if you can pay for it, the level of secrecy in this case is quite unusual. KOB ran a check on the tail number of a jet seen parked at Cutter Aviation and it came back as being registered to Koch Leasing.

The posters lined the street near the El Farouq Mosque on Sauer Conrad Drive at Westview.


In black letters, the signs read, "No Muslim parking in the Westview Shopping Center. Your car will be towed."

Many Muslims heading to worship services were offended.

"I feel sorry for the person who wrote it," said Ahmed Hassan. "This is what comes to mind because obviously he has a lot of hate."

"I'm very shocked because we do live in a society that's supposed to be very accepting and this is what we all preach," said Yara Aboshady. "That we all have the freedom of religion."

The mosque sits across the street from the shopping center. Store employees did not want to go on camera, but admit they get angry when mosque members park in their lot, taking up spots meant for customers.

With the Muslim month-long fast for the holy month of Ramadan ending, and a crowd expected at the mosque, the signs anonymously appeared. No shopping center employees would take credit. One worker said the shopping center owner, Steve Kwon, posted the signs.

So Local 2 took the mosque members' concerns to Kwon.

"I did not put up the signs," said Kwon.

Aboshady wondered about the sign writer's true motive.

"It could be no parking for the sake of patrons that come in," Aboshady said. "Or it really could be a prejudice and just a mean thing to say."

She and others still find the signs insensitive and offensive.

"It's really offensive and it's hateful," said Hassan.

The owner says they will be calling a tow company to try to get all of the cars that shouldn't be parked here out. And he says he'll be checking the property to make there are no more of the offending parking signs.

A disabled U.S. Army veteran, who served our country for 19 years, says he was kicked off the North Wildwood boardwalk last night, simply for having his service dog by his side.

Jared Goering served 1 tour in Iraq, 2 in Afghanistan, and spent 19 years as an active member of the Army. Jared said, "I served from 1993 to 2012." He then told NBC40 he couldn't sleep Thursday night because he felt so disrespected by a North Wildwood police officer.

Goering said, "Just like any veteran with disabilities with a service dog, to come back and be harassed and shown no respect, it upset me - it really bothered me. I was up most of the night thinking about it."