As was so accurately pointed out by the Safari Club International this week, there's a vacancy in Congress, but you haven't heard much about it in the mainstream. You've not heard much about it anywhere, actually, so thanks to SCI for staying on top of the fall of Kentucky Representative Edward Whitfield (R).

Whitfield, a member of the United States House of Representatives since 1995, was strongly rebuked by the House Ethics Committee on July 14 after finding Whitfield guilty of what was, at best, shaky ethical behavior. Seems his wife, Constance Harriman, is a registered lobbyist for the Humane Society of the United States -yes, that HSUS. And after review of 140,000 documents, it became obvious that Harriman was certainly taking advantage of her marriage to Whitfield when it came to influencing policy.

So strong was her influence that the Ethics Committee report says: "HSLF (the HSUS' Legislative Fund) understood that Ms. Harriman's connection to the Republican Party, a constituency not traditionally aligned with the Humane Society, was an advantage it intended to use to its benefit."

And it did - to the point that Whitfield's announced "retirement" was accelerated and his departure is under less than positive circumstances. As to the HSUS/HSLF, well, it seems that their practices are apparently OK with the majority of the media. Imagine what would have happened if the spouse in question had been a lobbyist for a pro-hunting, pro-gun group?

Meanwhile, Reuters News Service is reporting that two former executives of Forjas Taurus (FJTA4.SA) have been indicted by Brazilian authorities for allegedly shipping 8,000 handguns in 2013 to Fares Mohammed Hassan Mana'a, a man identified as "an arms smuggler active around the Horn of Africa" by the United Nations. He's also someone who had done business with Taurus since 2007.

Reportedly the handguns in question were shipped to Djibouti, then redirected to Yemen where they were funneled into that country's civil war.

Attorneys for former Taurus export execs Eduardo Pezzoul and Leonardo Sperry, say the accusations in the indictment "do not reflect the facts of the matter." He also says all of the acts covered in the case were carried out entirely within the company and within legal limits- whatever that means.

But there's still action underway in U-S courts when it comes to guns. According to reports in the Boston Globe, both Remington and Glock have filed suit against Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey after her launch of a "sweeping investigation" into guns manufactured by those two companies. According to the Globe, Healey's invoking her powers under the state's consumer protection laws to demand that both companies turn over a "wide range of documents, including safety-related complaints from customers and the company's responses."

In response, both Glock and Remington have sued, saying Healey's abusing her powers. Glock's suit says her statements calling gun violence a "public health crisis" and "epidemic" are masking the true purpose of her investigation "to harass an industry that the attorney general finds distasteful and to make political headlines by pursuing members of the firearms industry."

Finally, you read in yesterday's wire about the assault on a California Department of Fish and Wildlife officer when he attempted to capture a couple of poachers spotlighting deer in Humboldt County. The poacher fired on the officer, then fled on foot after crashing the truck and escaped.


Now, a strange mix of organizations is getting together to offer a reward of up to $10,000 for the capture, arrest and convictions of Shawn Eugene Hof, Jr.

We're all for the incentive to bring Hof to justice, but the "strange mix" of organizations posting the reward include the California Wildlife Officers Foundation, the California Waterfowl Association, The Sportfishing Alliance, The Nature Conservancy, private donors and - no kidding- the Humane Society of the United States.

We'll keep you posted on this case.