While getting stuck in muck is rare — it does occasionally happen. An experienced hiker found that out the hard way in Arches National Park on Sunday, when a normal day on the trail turned into a scary ordeal. Austin Dirks, 33, was walking through the upper end of the park’s Courthouse Wash area just before sunrise when his left leg broke through what he assumed was solid ground. He was able to remove his leg, only to step more firmly onto the right leg, which felt like he “had stepped into concrete,” according to an interview with local news station…

Saying that gun rights are civil rights shouldn’t be controversial. After all, most of what we term as civil liberties are enshrined in the Bill of Rights, from freedom of speech and religion to protection against illegal search and seizure, and many others. The Second Amendment is smack dab in the middle of all of those. Saying the right to keep and bear arms is a civil right isn’t controversial; it’s obvious. But some people can’t seem to wrap their gray matter around that.Among them are some critics of the Department of Justice actually treating…

“We have more guns in this country than we have humans. So one of the things that is going to be important is to create a registry so we know where the guns are. We know when they go into the wrong hands when they’re stolen. And we can actually start a buyback program. I know that some of the Minnesota legislators have had that legislation and that’s something that we should be thinking about on a federal level.” — Rep. Ilhan Omar 🚨 Make no mistake: So-called “gun registries” are the first step to firearm confiscations. @IlhanMN’s agenda has…

If you need to build strength as you prepare for military training, you should add weightlifting, load-bearing exercises, weight-vest calisthenics and other resistance workouts to your routine. Maintaining or improving muscle stamina and endurance is difficult when you are focused primarily on gaining strength, but it can be done. One way is to set up training blocks that incorporate calisthenics, cardio and lifting to get stronger or gain weight. It requires balance, innovative programming, adequate sleep and good nutrition to achieve proper recovery and see the benefits in this work. Think of this type of tactical fitness training as putting…

Banks are closing branches at an astonishing rate. Banks in the United States have shuttered 439 branches in the third quarter alone, the S&P Global data show. That was up from 199 in the prior quarter. Accoridng to a report by American Banker, this also marked the highest quarterly level of net closings since the first quarter of 2022, when banks turned out the lights on 960 locations. The latest quarterly decline extended a 15-year trend. In 2009, there were nearly 100,000 branches in the U.S. But this trend isn’t necessarily an indication of anything being wrong. Some analysts say…

There’s no doubt about it: Many skiers and snowboarders and not happy with the soaring prices of even a daily lift ticket at most resorts. Viral videos like this one about $300 lift tickets reflect a growing frustration with the state of the ski industry. The video ends with the skier giving up and going home rather than paying an exorbitant price tag for a single day on the slopes. That’s the kind of dissatisfaction among non-wealthy skiers that Vail Resorts is evidently trying to target with a new initiative. The ski industry behemoth now says it will offer a…