Drought

HOUSTON - For millions of Dallas-area residents, one of the most severe droughts in Texas history is no longer a concern - for now. The U.S. Drought Monitor, in its weekly map posted Thursday, classified the Dallas-Fort Worth area as officially out of drought for the first time since July. That will likely herald the lifting of water restrictions on the more than six million people in the nation's fourth-largest metro area, and the region north and northeast to the Oklahoma and Arkansas borders.

With pastures withered from a lingering drought, farmers in Texas and northwest Louisiana have abandoned donkeys by the hundreds, turning them into wandering refugees that have severely tested animal rescue groups. The nation's biggest donkey rescue group says that since March 2011, it has taken in nearly 800 donkeys abandoned in Texas, where ranchers mainly used the animals to guard their herds. Many of the cattle and goats have been sold off, largely because of the drought and the nation's economic slump, putting the donkeys out of a job. And although the drought that began in late 2010 is over now, the flood of donkeys continues, said Mark Meyers, executive director of Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue.

It's official: You can stop worrying about drought. So far in 2011, the region has received about an entire's year worth of rain, with roughly half of that coming in August. Today, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced that it has decided to lift the "drought watch" that covered Philadelphia, its neighboring counties and 35 others. No advisories had been posted in New Jersey. The watch, declared Aug. 5, was the legacy of a dry May, June, and July when precipitation was almost 4.5 inches below normal in Philadelphia.

As the unrelenting drought worsens, withering cucumbers in Michigan and malt barley in North Dakota, analysts are trying to determine when the brunt will reach the nation's supermarkets and how hard consumers will be hit. Already, consumers are seeing slightly higher prices for breakfast cereals and baking flour. But those increases have been offset by sagging meat prices, caused by cattlemen slaughtering herds early because of rising feed costs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture does not expect a dramatic effect from the drought.

The U.S. agriculture secretary came to a farm in this northern York County community yesterday to promise swift action for drought-stricken farmers, but he left without ever seeing a parched stalk of corn. He had to rely on Polaroid snapshots instead. Agriculture Secretary Richard E. Lyng, Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. William F. Goodling showed up at a farm in Yocumtown, where five inches of rain fell over the weekend. But they did hear from a dozen or so farmers from southern York County, where drought conditions continue to devastate one of the state's richest agricultural areas.

Caln Township has banned outdoor burning during the drought, officials announced at the Board of Commissioners meeting last week. Township Manager Samuel Moore said the ban took effect Tuesday "and it's probably going to stay on until we get some good soaking rain. " The heat also has made more work for the Caln Police Department, which handled 600 complaints in June, well above the normal monthly total of 500. Chief James Franciscus blamed the increase in complaints on high temperatures that have made people irritable.

Helio Castroneves took advantage of a superior car and an aggressive strategy to win the Firestone Indy 400 yesterday, ending team owner Roger Penske's open-wheel drought at Michigan International Speedway. Castroneves beat Vitor Meira by 1.62 seconds, earning his series-high fourth victory of the season and moving past teammate Sam Hornish Jr. for the points lead in the Indy Racing League. The average speed of the race was 193.972 mph, the third-fastest event in the IRL's 11-year history.

Chicken prices were down, but they're gonna go up dramatically. Beef prices are up, but they could go down a bit before they go up again. The same is true of lamb, but nobody seems to care all that much. In most parts of the country, we don't eat much lamb anyway. Pork is almost certain to cost us more in the not-too-distant future, but it will just as certainly be the second to come down in price - right after chickens come down after they go up. Is that all clear? Explaining meat prices is always and at best a complicated process.

Greg Maddux insists nothing is wrong. His pitching coach agrees, and so does his manager. Only one thing is out of place. The four-time Cy Young Award winner is stuck with a 5-5 record. Maddux's winless streak reached five starts, his longest drought in five seasons, and Mark Clark pitched the New York Mets past the visiting Atlanta Braves, 3-2, last night. Maddux, coming off one of his worst outings ever, gave up eight hits and three runs - two of them earned - in seven innings.

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - Suddenly slumping Reading was shut out for the fourth time in five games when the Binghamton Mets defeated the Phillies, 7-0, in the Eastern League last night. Pablo Ochoa retired the first 16 batters of the game and allowed only three hits in a complete-game victory. He struck out six and didn't walk a batter. Ochoa (7-9) also singled in two runs in a six-inning first, when Binghamton scored four unearned runs. The Mets have won six straight. TRENTON 9, ERIE 2 TRENTON - A six-run third inning helped Justin Duchscherer and the Thunder beat the Sea Wolves in the Eastern League.

PENN STATE hadn't won the distance medley relay at the Penn Relays since 1959. So what took so long? Yesterday at the Carnival, the Nittany Lions broke Yale's record for longest span between victories in this event. The Bulldogs won the first one, in 1915, then didn't win again until 1961. That's also their last one. When the Nits won here 54 years ago (to go with wins in 1920, '28 and '48), their time was 9 minutes, 58.2 seconds. This time, they did slightly better. Robby Creese came up with a closing 3:58.9 in the 1,600 meters, to give PSU a 9:24.68 - which broke a program record that had stood since 1980 - and a 2.12-second win over Villanova, which snuck past Oregon for second.

DES MOINES, Iowa - As spring rains soaked the central United States and helped conquer the historic drought, a new problem has sprouted: The fields have turned to mud. Farmers may be thankful the land is no longer parched, but it's too wet to plant in corn country and freezing temperatures and lingering snow have ruined the winter wheat crop. "Right now, we're wishing it would dry up so we can get in the field," said Iowa farmer Jerry Main, who plants corn and soybeans on about 500 acres in the southeast Iowa.

If veteran Danny Briere played his last home game in a Flyers uniform Thursday night, he made a theatrical exit, scoring his first goal in 20 games in his team's 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders. At the same time, rookie defenseman Oliver Lauridsen was, in a sense, making an entrance to the 2013-14 season. There are no guarantees, of course, but the 6-foot-6, 220-pound Lauridsen has opened eyes with his physical play, and it could lead to a roster spot when next year rolls around.

ONCE, IT WAS a question asked with anticipation. Now it is one posed with fear. Which of our pro teams, we have been quizzed at various intervals over the last 15 years, is closest to a championship. Anyone, anyone? The Eagles? Man, you must loooove Chip Kelly. The Phillies? With all their ifs, buts and nuts? And speaking of nuts, are we really sure the Flyers will be better without Ilya Bryzgalov? Based, exactly, on what? And speaking of nuts again, maybe the Sixers should sign Andrew Bynum.

THE CONTRADICTION couldn't have been greater. At halftime of Sunday's home finale, the Sixers honored the 30th anniversary of their 1982-83 team - the last one to win an NBA championship for Philadelphia. The 18,764 fans at the Wells Fargo Center were delirious with joy seeing their conquering heroes who helped hang one of just two NBA championship banners in South Philadelphia. Then reality crashed the party and the 2012-13 version of the Sixers played 24 more minutes against the Cleveland Cavaliers to complete the home schedule.

TAMPA, Fla. - Max Talbot was the Flyers' best player on Monday night against the Lightning. And the previous game. And two games before that. As well as he's playing, Talbot is not going to carry the Flyers to the Stanley Cup playoffs - and that's not a knock on him. The only route to the playoffs - if they still are a realistic possibility - is through production from their top line. And Scott Hartnell and Claude Giroux have been on a milk carton for serious stretches of eight straight games.

WHEN John Giannini was coaching at Maine, he watched Saint Joseph's, circa 2002-04, smash bigger opponents with its three- and sometimes four-guard lineup. When he got to La Salle in the summer of 2004, he got an up-close look at Villanova's four-guard lineup from 2004-06 that routinely trashed teams. "We built the program three times," Giannini said. "The first time with the players that we were fortunate to inherit. Then, we went with a big, long interchangeable team and it worked.

WICHITA, KAN. - Years of drought are reshaping the U.S. beef industry with feedlots and a major meatpacking plant closing because there are too few cattle left in the United States to support them. Some feedlots in the nation's major cattle-producing states have already been dismantled, and others are sitting empty. Operators say they don't expect a recovery anytime soon, with high feed prices, much of the country still in drought and a long time needed to rebuild herds. The closures are the latest ripple in the shockwave the drought sent through rural communities.

The distance between Peach Bottom, Pa., and Wajir, Kenya, is 7,800 miles. That also happens to be the distance of Karl Frey's life trajectory, which has arced from growing up Mennonite on his family's Lancaster County dairy farm to helping improve children's health in a drought-stricken area of eastern Africa. Don't even bother asking Frey if he's got milk - the answer will be yes. "I did drink a lot of milk when I was growing up," said Frey, 50. "It is the best thing out there in terms of nutrients, right?"

ST. LOUIS - Despite getting some big storms last month, much of the United States is still desperate for relief from the nation's longest dry spell in decades. And experts say it will take an absurd amount of snow to ease the woes of farmers and ranchers. The same fears haunt firefighters, water utilities, and communities across the country. Winter storms have dropped more than 15 inches of snow on parts of the Midwest and East in recent weeks. Climatologists say it would take at least 8 feet of snow - and likely far more - to return the soil to its pre-drought condition in time for spring planting.