What Could Go Wrong Farm - Homesteading Wit & Wisdom

WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

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The 10-Second Survival Scan

After years of writing about preparedness and teaching survival skills, I’ve learned something that is easy to forget: The fundamentals aren't exciting—but they are what keep you functioning when everything else gets complicated. People naturally gravitate toward the flashy stuff. The newest gear. The latest threat. The newest piece of technology. The dramatic headline about some crisis halfway around the world. There’s nothing wrong with paying attention to those things. But

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Looking for Pointers? We've Got 'Em!

Homesteading Tips & Tricks

for Beginners & Experienced Alike

How to Brew Your Own Fire Cider at Home

If you’ve spent any time poking around traditional homestead kitchens, folk herbalism books, or mountain homesteading forums, you’ve likely heard whisperings of "fire cider." Rooted in ancient kitchen-medicinal traditions—tracing back to the oxymels (vinegar and honey blends) of ancient Greece and Rome—fire cider was modernized in the 1980s by legendary herbalist Rosemary Gladstar. It has since become a staple preserving project for self-reliant homesteaders looking to keep t

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Secret Skill Every Homesteader is Ignoring

For anyone building a homestead, the dream usually starts with a garden, a few chickens, and maybe some backyard livestock. But sooner or later, self-reliance takes you past the fence line and straight to the edge of the woods. If you grew up without a family hunting tradition, stepping into the woods as an adult can feel intimidating. Culturally, we’ve built hunting up as an exclusive club with a steep barrier to entry—complete with a secret language, specialized gear lists,

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Why Self-Reliance Includes Your Health

If you live on a homestead, you likely already question mainstream systems. You grow your own food to avoid industrial chemicals, harvest rainwater or dig wells to bypass municipal treatment plants, and fix your own fence lines instead of calling a contractor. You understand a fundamental truth: self-reliance is freedom. Yet, many people who grow their own vegetables and raise their own livestock still hand over their most precious asset—their health—to a centralized, corpora

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3 Wild Mushrooms That Could Save Your Life

When you’re building a self-reliant homestead, every square foot of your property—and the woods beyond your fence line—can be a source of food, medicine, and resilience. But when it comes to wild mushrooms, the stakes are entirely different than picking wild berries or planting a patch of squash. A mistake doesn't just ruin dinner; it can destroy your liver. For the amateur homesteader, mastering wild fungi is one of the most rewarding high-value skills you can add to your to

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Homesteaders, Pay Attention to This!

Homesteading is about more than growing vegetables, raising chickens, or learning to preserve food. For many people, it’s about independence: developing practical skills, taking responsibility for your household, and having the freedom to make informed decisions about how you live. Today, much of that knowledge comes from the internet. Whether you’re learning to repair a tractor, build a fence, maintain tools, or understand the laws that affect your property, online resources

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Don't Throw Away the Dandelion Root!

If you’re trying to become more self-sufficient, one of the best places to start might be right outside your back door. Before you pull those dandelions out of your garden, consider this: that stubborn yellow-flowered weed is also a source of edible greens, flowers, and roots. For generations, people have found ways to use dandelions in the kitchen. You can toss the young leaves into a salad, cook them up as a side dish, fry the flowers into crispy fritters, brew a simple flo

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12 Things Your Truck Needs Before the First Frost

If you live on a homestead, you know that cold weather rarely waits until you're ready. One morning, you're hauling feed, checking fences, picking the last tomatoes, or heading into town for supplies. The next, you're scraping ice off the windshield and wondering whether your truck will start. After 50, most of us have learned that a little preparation can save a lot of trouble. We don't need to spend a fortune on fancy survival gear. We need dependable tools, warm clothing,

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The Go-To Homemade Ant Bait

If you've spent any time keeping a home or homestead, you know how quickly ants can find their way into the kitchen. One day, everything looks fine. The next, there's a trail of tiny visitors heading straight for the sugar bowl, fruit basket, or something sweet you just set on the counter. It's especially frustrating when you're busy cooking, baking, or putting up the harvest. The good news? You can make a simple homemade ant bait with just a couple of common ingredients. It'

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The Homesteader’s Guide to Allergy Relief

If you’re over 50 and still spending your days in the garden, tending chickens, mowing the pasture, or putting up the harvest, you know that homesteading doesn’t come with a retirement button. Unfortunately, neither does pollen season. One day you’re picking ripe tomatoes, and the next you’re sneezing your way through the garden, rubbing itchy eyes, and reaching for another tissue. Seasonal allergies can make even the most enjoyable outdoor chores miserable. But a few practic

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Do Homesteaders Need a PDW?

What older homesteaders should consider before adding a personal-defense weapon to their preparedness plan. When you live on a homestead, security is about more than locking the front door. You may have livestock to check, equipment scattered across the property, a long driveway, and outbuildings that sit well away from the house. When something goes wrong, help might not arrive as quickly as it would in town. That makes preparedness important. But it also raises a practical

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Your Homestead May Have a Plastic Problem

Simple, affordable changes to your kitchen, garden, and home that can help you reduce everyday plastic exposure without turning your homestead upside down. One of the best things about homesteading is knowing where your food comes from, learning useful old-fashioned skills, and making your home a little more self-sufficient. Whether you've been raising a garden for years or you're just getting started after 50, you probably want a simpler, healthier way of life. But there's o

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Your Land May Not Be Safe

If you’ve spent years living close to the land, you probably know how quickly the weather can change. A dry pasture can turn muddy overnight. A peaceful creek can rise after a hard rain. And a familiar stretch of land can become dangerous when conditions change upstream. For homesteaders over 50, preparedness isn’t about living in fear. It’s about using experience, paying attention to the land, and making smart decisions before trouble starts. A deadly flash flood at the Gran

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Homesteader’s Guide to Using a Compass

If you live on a homestead, you probably spend plenty of time outdoors. You might be checking fence lines, walking wooded property, looking for a good spot for a garden, or keeping an eye on your water supply. Most days, your phone can help you find your way around. But what happens when the battery dies, you lose your signal, or your GPS stops working? That’s when an old-fashioned compass can come in handy. Learning to use a compass is a practical skill that doesn’t require

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The $2 Food Worth Stockpiling

When people talk about long-term food storage, the usual suspects get all the attention: rice, wheat and dry beans. Those foods deserve a place in a serious pantry. But there's another inexpensive staple that doesn't get nearly enough attention from preppers: lentils. They're cheap, compact, nutritious, easy to store and—perhaps most importantly when you're thinking about a prolonged power outage or fuel shortage—they don't require soaking and cook much faster than most dried

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The 10-Second Survival Scan

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The Hidden Cost of Clean Water

When you're over 50 and you've been preparing for a while, you've probably learned an important lesson: Every piece of gear you add to your property eventually becomes another thing you have to maintain. That's easy to forget when the equipment is cheap—or better yet, free. Water is a perfect example. After a major disaster, municipal water systems can fail, wells can become contaminated, pumps can quit, and infrastructure can be damaged. That's when having your own dependabl

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10 Weird Homestead Moneymakers

Most homesteaders make the same mistake when they think about earning money from their property. They grow what everybody else grows. Tomatoes. Peppers. Zucchini. Maybe some eggs, honey, or firewood. There’s nothing wrong with any of those. In fact, they’re proven products. But if you're already putting in the work, there may be a smarter question to ask: What can I produce that people want but few local producers are supplying? That is where things get interesting. You don't

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DOJ Says Federal Handgun Sales Ban for 18–20-Year-Olds Is Unconstitutional

A major change in the federal government’s position on firearm law could affect how adults ages 18 to 20 obtain handguns—but there are still important details to understand before assuming the rules have completely changed. On September 17, 2026, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issued an opinion concluding that federal laws restricting federally licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to otherwise eligible adults ages 18 to 20 cannot constitutio

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Bear Attack? Know This First

Most people want bear safety reduced to a simple formula: Black bear = fight. Grizzly = play dead. That's easy to remember. It's also incomplete. A real bear encounter doesn't happen in a classroom. You may not get a good look at the animal. You may not know whether it's protecting cubs, defending food, startled by you, or treating you as potential prey. And you may have only seconds to react. The better approach is to understand bear behavior, distance, terrain, and the diff

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The Poison Ivy Mistake Hikers Keep Making

If you spend enough time in the woods, eventually you learn a simple truth: The forest doesn't care how experienced you are. You can have a well-stocked pack, good boots, a compass, fire-starting skills, and decades of outdoor experience—and still ruin a weekend by grabbing the wrong vine. Poison ivy is one of those hazards that's easy to underestimate. Most people remember the old saying: “Leaves of three, let it be.” That's a useful warning, but it's not a complete identifi

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The Lost Art of Family Survival: Why Your Grandchildren Can't Cook or Build

When the SHTF or the modern economy finally hits a wall, what are you actually leaving the next generation? A fading bank account? A mortgage on a tract house? A pile of plastic gadgets that will end up in a landfill? If the grid goes down or corporate supply chains vanish overnight, a stack of fiat currency won't teach your grandchildren how to put food on the table. Real generational security isn't about a trust fund managed by people who hate your values. It’s about buildi

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Why Every Prepper Needs This Battlefield-Tested Healer in Their Med-Kit

When the grid goes down, pharmacy shelves will empty in hours. If you’re relying on store-bought ointments to treat cuts, burns, scrapes, and rough working hands when things hit the fan, you’re already behind. Real preparedness means self-reliance, and that includes mastering field medicine using what you can grow, harvest, and process yourself. Enter Calendula (Calendula officinalis), an absolute powerhouse of a medicinal herb that belongs in every serious prepper’s homestea

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How to Preserve Tomatoes

When SHTF or grocery store shelves run bare, self-reliance isn't just a hobby—it’s a duty. If you’ve spent the spring and summer sweating over your garden, the last thing you want is to watch your hard-earned harvest rot on the vine or go to waste on the counter. Real men know that putting food by for the winter is non-negotiable. Whether you’re prepping for economic instability, supply chain gridlock, or just want to eat healthier away from corporate additives, mastering tom

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White House Overturns Restrictions to Unleash American Hunters

For decades, real outdoorsmen and self-reliant Americans have watched federal bureaucrats, red tape, and environmental special interests slowly lock us out of our own public lands. From absurd restrictions on traditional lead ammunition to "landlocked" federal acreage guarded by bureaucratic gatekeepers, the traditional American way of life has been under constant assault. Now, a major shift has arrived. The White House has officially dropped a sweeping directive aimed square

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The Deep State’s Newest Loophole: No-Fault Gun Confiscation

Ever since the Supreme Court handed down the historic Bruen decision, anti-gun politicians and judges have been throwing a relentless tantrum. Instead of respecting the Constitution, liberal bureaucrats are inventing backdoor workarounds to strip law-abiding citizens of their God-given right to self-defense. Take New York, for instance. In places like Nassau County, local authorities piled on punishing firearm licensing rules—demanding mountains of character references, digit

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Why Online Hacking Doesn't Scare Preppers

Let’s talk straight. If you spend any time online, you’ve seen them: slick, polished videos of guys in clean clothes showing off "mind-blowing" survival hacks. They carve a pine-pitch axe, build a plastic-wrap shelter, or rig up some overly complex, gadget-heavy fire starter that looks like it came out of a Hollywood prop department. The internet loves these videos because they get clicks. But if SHTF and you find yourself cold, wet, tired, and miles from the nearest paved ro

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Why Your Campfire Won’t Save You

Pride tells a man he can handle anything the backcountry throws at him. Experience tells him that when things go south, you use every tool in your kit to stack the odds back in your favor. If you’re ever stranded miles from the nearest blacktop, a standard campfire isn’t going to cut it. Rescuers aren’t looking for comfort—they’re looking for a beacon. If you want to make it back to your family, you need a signal fire engineered to dominate the horizon. 1. Location Dictates S

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The Prepper’s Secret: How to Render and Store Beef Tallow

If you've been prepping for a while, you already know the rule: don't depend on the store for something you can make yourself. That's why beef tallow deserves a place in a serious prepper's pantry. Tallow is simply rendered beef fat. It has been used for generations as a cooking fat and for making candles, soap, skin preparations, and other household products. Properly rendered tallow contains very little moisture or solid material, which helps it keep well when stored correc

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Your Go-Bag Is Probably Wrong

If you've been prepping for a while, you've probably got plenty of gear. Water. Food. Flashlights. Batteries. First-aid supplies. Maybe a radio, tools, and enough equipment to make a Boy Scout jealous. But here's the problem: an evacuation isn't a camping trip. When you're told to leave, you may have minutes—not hours—to get out. Your destination may be a friend's house, a motel, a shelter, or somewhere you've never been before. Roads may be jammed. Cell service may be unreli

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Virginia’s Gun Control Problem

A recent case in Virginia is raising a basic question that deserves more attention: Are authorities doing enough to enforce the laws already on the books before imposing new restrictions on people who have committed no crime? The case began after a 2025 shooting incident at a residential building in Arlington. According to reporting cited by NRA-ILA, police arrested a man accused of opening fire following a dispute. Investigators allegedly found a firearm equipped with an ext

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Why Preppers Still Debate .22

For generations, the .22 LR has been the workhorse of the shooting world. It is inexpensive, widely available, easy to shoot and useful for everything from target practice to small-game hunting. Those qualities also make .22 LR handguns attractive to people interested in preparedness. But there's an important distinction between a cartridge that is easy and economical to shoot and one that is the best choice for a defensive role. The latest generation of .22 LR handguns makes

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That Possum Might Be Helping You

If you’ve spent enough time around a farm, acreage, or hunting property, you’ve probably encountered one: a gray, long-snouted creature shuffling through the darkness, raiding the feed area or wandering beneath the porch. Your first reaction might be, “Get that thing off my property.” But before you reach for a trap, consider what you’re looking at. The Virginia opossum is North America’s only native marsupial, and despite its rough appearance, it can actually provide some us

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The Prepper’s Vaccine Question

Preppers are taught one fundamental rule: don’t blindly trust a system you haven’t examined. That principle applies to food, water, communications, firearms, fuel—and medical decisions. A recent Natural News article makes an extreme claim that mRNA vaccines amount to a “bioterrorism distribution platform.” That allegation goes considerably beyond what has been established by mainstream medical evidence, but it raises a question worth taking seriously: How much should ordinary

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The Next Crisis Starts With Water

If you've been preparing for emergencies for a while, you already know something important: The best time to prepare is before everyone else realizes there's a problem. Right now, drought is putting pressure on three things Americans depend on every single day: water, food, and reliable infrastructure. This isn't about predicting the next catastrophe. It's about recognizing a trend and taking sensible steps while supplies are available and prices haven't gotten even worse. Ac

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The Drought Warning You Can’t Ignore

If you've been prepping for a while, you already know the rule: The time to prepare is before everyone else realizes there's a problem. That's especially true with drought. A dry spell isn't just about brown lawns or lower lake levels. When drought conditions spread across major parts of the country, they can put pressure on water supplies, wildfire risk, agriculture, livestock, transportation and grocery prices—all at the same time. And that's exactly why this year's drought

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7 Things Every Prepper Should Do Now

September is a good reminder that preparedness isn't something you do once and forget about. The men who have been doing this for years already know the drill: check the gear, fix what is broken, replace what has been used, and get ahead of the weather. You don't need another pile of gadgets. You need the basics ready to work when you need them. Get Ready for Winter Now Winter has a way of exposing every weakness in your preparedness. Take a hard look at your heat situation b

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The Diesel Problem Nobody Can Ignore

If you've been prepping for a while, you already understand something that most people don't: the first sign of a crisis isn't necessarily an empty shelf. It's a rising price. And right now, diesel deserves your attention. U.S. diesel prices have climbed to a record national average of about $5.85 per gallon, according to AAA data reported by NPR. That's important because diesel isn't just what powers pickup trucks. It is deeply tied to the machinery that keeps America moving

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The 50+ Prepper’s Secret Garden

There's a hard truth every serious prepper eventually has to face: Your body changes. The garden you could dig, weed, haul, and harvest at 40 may not be the garden you can manage at 60 or 70. That doesn't mean you stop producing food. It means you build smarter. For older preppers, one of the most interesting options is aquaponics—a system that combines fish and plants, with water circulating between them. Properly designed, an aquaponics setup can put much of your food produ

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The Roadless Rule Is Ending: What It Could Mean for America’s Backcountry

For more than two decades, a federal rule has limited road construction and timber harvesting across millions of acres of National Forest System land. Now, that rule is on the chopping block. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a policy that currently applies to nearly 45 million acres of national forest land. The Forest Service says the change would give local managers more flexibility to deal with wildfire ris

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Your Rifle Could Be in the Crosshairs

A major Second Amendment fight is moving toward the U.S. Supreme Court—and the outcome could have consequences for millions of American gun owners. The National Rifle Association, together with the Independence Institute and American Suppressor Association, has filed an amicus brief in two cases challenging so-called “assault weapons” bans: Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins. The cases involve restrictions adopted in Cook County, Illinois, and Connecticut. For fir

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The Fall Mulch Trick Every Gardener Should Know

Fall cleanup doesn’t have to mean filling bags with leaves and hauling them away. If you’ve got a garden, flower beds, trees, or even a few struggling patches of soil, those leaves can do useful work for you all winter. Used properly, fall mulch helps protect the ground, hold moisture, moderate temperature swings, and reduce the amount of work waiting for you when spring arrives. And the best part? Much of the material is already sitting in your yard. Put Nature to Work Walk

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NRA Launches 2026 Battleground Tour

The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action has launched a nationwide bus tour designed to engage gun owners ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections. The 2026 NRA Gun Bus Battleground Tour began August 27, when an NRA-branded bus departed the organization’s headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. The campaign is scheduled to run for more than two months and conclude on Election Day. According to NRA-ILA, the tour includes 63 planned stops across 13 states:

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Turn Your Yard Into Food

When most people hear the word homestead, they picture a farmhouse, a big garden, a barn, livestock and enough land to disappear into. That’s the traditional picture. But you don't need 40 acres—or even five—to start producing more of your own food. A backyard, side yard, patio or even a small patch of ground can become a surprisingly productive mini-farm if you use the space intelligently. And there's a practical reason to consider it: every tomato, pepper, cucumber or dozen

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Could Fasting Calm Your Pain?

If you're over 50 and dealing with nagging back pain, aching joints, nerve pain or another chronic condition, you've probably tried plenty of ways to get some relief. Now researchers have found an intriguing new clue: fasting may influence how the body processes chronic pain. But there's an important catch. This wasn't a study of men—or even people. It was a study of mice. So don't mistake an interesting laboratory finding for a proven treatment. Still, the results are worth

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Don’t Be Helpless Over a Torn Seam

There was a time when throwing away a perfectly good pair of pants because of a torn seam would have seemed foolish. People owned fewer clothes, took better care of them, and repaired what they could. A needle, some thread, and a little know-how could keep a favorite shirt, work pants, socks, boots, pack, or piece of outdoor gear in service for years. Today, we're accustomed to replacing things. That's convenient—until the store isn't available, money is tight, you're miles f

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The Next War Could Hit Home

It is tempting to tune out wars that are happening thousands of miles away. After a while, the headlines blur together. Another strike. Another escalation. Another warning from Washington or Moscow. Another story about the Middle East or tensions involving China. But distance can be misleading. For Americans, a major international conflict doesn't have to put enemy troops on our soil to create serious problems at home. It can affect fuel, food, inflation, financial markets, s

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Fall Bass Want Bugs. Here’s Why.

When summer starts fading and the mornings turn crisp, a lot of bass fishermen automatically reach for bigger bait. That can be a mistake. As fall approaches, insects can become an increasingly important part of a bass's diet. And when bass are looking for bugs along the shoreline, a small, properly worked imitation can produce some surprisingly good fish. You don't need a tackle box full of fancy new lures. Sometimes the old ideas still work just fine. Fall Changes What Bass

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The Simple Habit Men Forget

If you're over 50 and want to stay sharp, independent and mentally tough as you age, the latest research points to an incredibly simple habit: get outside during the day. A large 2026 study involving more than 87,000 adults found that greater exposure to bright daytime light was associated with a lower risk of developing dementia. Researchers tracked participants for roughly eight years using wrist-worn devices that measured both light exposure and physical activity. During t

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Trump’s 90-Day Beef Bet

American consumers are paying more for beef, and President Donald Trump wants to bring those prices down. His latest move, however, is raising a different question: Will cheaper beef today come at the expense of American cattle producers tomorrow? On August 21, Trump announced a 90-day plan allowing as much as 300,000 metric tons of ground-beef imports into the United States without the additional tariff normally charged once existing quotas are exceeded. The administration s

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A Major Second Amendment Win: The Gun Registry Just Took a Hit

For decades, gun owners have dealt with a federal system that demanded paperwork, fingerprints, photographs, approvals and registration for certain commonly owned firearms and suppressors. Now, a federal court has delivered a major blow to that system. The case centers on a simple constitutional question: If Congress removes the tax that supposedly justified a federal regulatory scheme, what happens to the regulations that depended on that tax? A federal judge in Texas has an

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