Southeast
Man banned from Buc-ee's after bringing his service duck inside Tennessee store
A man who brought his service duck into a Buc-ee’s store in Tennessee has been banned from the chain, according to a YouTube video he posted.
Justin Wood brought his service pet known as Wrinkle the Duck into the store, where they shopped around and received plenty of positive attention from shoppers who wanted to pet Wrinkle and ask about her.
Wrinkle remained inside a stroller for most of the visit, occasionally coming out to high five interested onlookers with her beak.
Wood posted the video to his YouTube channel “SeDUCKtive” recently, where he has dozens of videos of his excursions around the country with Wrinkle. The channel has 2.7 million subscribers and that video had nearly 170,000 views by Saturday evening.
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A man who brought his service duck into a Buc-ee’s store has now been banned by the chain. (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images/ACCESSWIRE/AP Newsroom)
After they entered the store, they were approached by an employee who told him that “service dogs” were the only animals allowed inside the store. “She’s a service duck,” Wood responded.
They were allowed to continue on until a second employee told him, “Pets are not allowed in here.”
“OK, but she is a service animal” he said, adding that he could give the store three forms of identification to prove it. They were allowed to keep shopping until a third employee told him, “unfortunately your animal can’t be in here.”
“There’s no pets in here. Your animal, even if it’s considered a service animal, you have to be able to contain it, and it can fly out,” she added. “If it was a dog it’d have to be on a leash.”
“Can I put her on a leash?” he asked, and the employee said it would be fine. At that point, Wood put Wrinkle on an imaginary leash and the duck continued to follow him around the store.
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Buc-ee’s sign in Tennessee. (Google Maps)
As he made his purchases, he was informed by an employee that “the cops are outside.”
Once he left the store, he was approached by a police officer who told him, “They’re requesting you to be banned from the store,” adding that it was, in fact, every Buc-ee’s location and that he would be charged with trespassing if he was caught in another one duck or no.
The officer reminded Wood it wasn’t his decision during their friendly exchange.
“Who loves Buc-ee’s?” Wood said in the video. “He don’t love us. That’s OK.”
He added with a shrug, “She did nothing but make everybody happy in there.”
Wood ended the video by saying, “It’s not an adventure if something doesn’t go wrong … Whenever you get some downs you know some ups and waiting around the corner.”
Buc-ee’s pet policy says “The Health Code prohibits live animals, including dogs, where food could potentially be contaminated. There are exceptions, however, for service animals and animals that work with police officers. For people with disabilities, specially trained service animals play an absolutely vital role. They make it possible for those with disabilities to work, travel, stay safe, and, in some cases, stay alive.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Buc-ee’s and Wood for comment.
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West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice announced that he would delay his U.S. Senate swearing-in, thereby preventing a whirlwind of four governors in a 10-day period due to coinciding changes in Charleston’s legislative leadership.
In doing so, it leaves federal Republicans’ Senate majority briefly at two instead of three seats. Justice alluded to such in remarks late Thursday, saying he wants to do what’s best for Mountaineers.
“My whole thinking behind all of this is that the continuity of government is essential during transitions. . . . When I took this job, I took this job to serve the people of West Virginia.”
Justice said he doesn’t expect much to happen between Jan. 3 – when Congress is sworn in – and Jan. 20 – when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, but that in Charleston, many things might transpire.
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Donald Trump shakes hands with West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, who announced during the rally that he would switch parties from Democrat to Republican, during a Make America Great Again Rally at Big Sandy Arena in Huntington, West Virginia. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
West Virginia is one of seven states that does not have an independently-appointed or elected lieutenant governor. In Charleston, it is instead a statutory title given to the state Senate leader.
So, if Justice were to join the U.S. Senate on-schedule, current state Senate President Craig Blair would initially assume the role.
However, Blair lost the GOP primary for his Martinsburg seat in April, and therefore leaves office on Jan. 8 when the new legislature is sworn in.
On Jan. 8, the newly-selected leader, Sen. Randy Smith from Tucker County, would assume the governorship until Gov.-elect Patrick Morrisey took office on Jan. 13.
“Between January 3rd and when President Trump takes office, there’ll be some things that happen, but there won’t be anything happening [in the U.S. Congress] really until when President Trump takes office,” Justice said Thursday.
“I’m in constant contact with President Trump about my feelings about his selections for his appointments, my feelings about where we’re going to go on all kinds of issues like energy and on and on and on and everything,” he added.
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West Virginia Governor Jim Justice poses at his desk with his pet bulldog, Babydog. (Fox News Digital/Office of Governor Jim Justice)
“So, I don’t think that there’s anything there that is going to rise to the level of what could happen here [in my absence].”
Republicans also flipped the Senate by a comfortable-enough 53-47 margin that Justice’s absence will still allow a two-member buffer.
“I don’t think that West Virginia needs to have four governors in 10 days,” he said.
Justice said Thursday he made the decision after speaking about the situation with both the House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader-designate.
“Senator Thune is really a good man. He’s going to do a great job as our leader and everything. And we had this discussion, and at the end of the day, I think you’ll find that everyone totally understands the complexities and everything and totally understands [my decision],” Justice said.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., Justice’s counterpart next session, said she looks forward to serving with him and working together to advance Trump’s agenda.
“I very much respect Governor Justice’s decision to honor his commitment to complete his term as Governor of the State of West Virginia,” she said in a statement.
“I believe this with all my soul,” Justice further told reporters. “The people of West Virginia elected me to this office, and they expected me to do right by them always . . . t has been an honor beyond belief being their governor.”
Travelers are greeted by a West Virginia welcome sign after crossing the East River Mountain Tunnel on I-77 in Princeton. (Charles Creitz)
A billionaire coal businessman who also owns The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, Justice was originally elected as a Democrat but changed parties during a 2017 rally with Trump in his first term in Charleston – and was re-elected as a Republican.
Justice’s turn to the GOP and the retirement of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., completes a full shift from the blue state that for decades elected Sen. Robert Byrd and Rep. Nick Joe Rahall to a deep-red state that Democratic presidential candidates since Hillary Clinton have lost by double-digits.
Bearing the wait until Jan. 13, Justice reiterated, will be worth it because he loves Trump “with all my soul.”
“I think the world of his family and everything. And I’m going to be there [and] super supportive of what he’s doing. And we’re going to try in every way to . . . put this nation back on the right track.”
“The people of West Virginia will know exactly where I stand with them.”
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Following President Biden’s move to commute the sentences of 37 prisoners on federal death row, Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., called the clemency granted to two of the individuals “horribly misguided and insulting.”
In the 37 cases, Biden commuted the sentences to life sentences without the potential for parole.
Manchin — a Democrat-turned-independent senator who will soon leave office — said he felt a responsibility to speak out on behalf of the parents of Samantha Burns, who was slain in 2002 at the age of 19, according to reports.
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Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., speaks during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Special Diabetes Program on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 11, 2023. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for JDRF)
“After speaking to Samantha Burns’ parents, I believe it is my duty to speak on their behalf and say President Biden’s decision to commute the death sentences for the two men convicted in her brutal murder is horribly misguided and insulting,” the lawmaker declared in a statement posted on X.
“Particularly since Samantha’s family wrote letters to President Biden & the Department of Justice, pleading for them not to do this, but their concerns were unheard. I can’t imagine the grief that Kandi and John Burns are reliving and dealing with during the holiday season,” Manchin continued. “As their U.S. Senator and a father, I want to express my deepest sympathy for their continued suffering. Please know that Samantha will forever be in our prayers.”
Brandon Basham is pictured after escaping from the Hopkins County Jail in Madisonville, Kentucky, on Nov. 4, 2002. He went on an interstate crime spree with fellow escapee Chadrick Fulks that included the murders of two women. (Ashland Police Department/Getty Images)
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Southeast
Georgia lawmakers can subpoena Fani Willis for information related to Trump case, court rules
A Georgia judge has ruled that state lawmakers can subpoena Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as part of an inquiry into whether she engaged in misconduct during her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump.
In his Dec. 23 order, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram gave Willis until Jan. 13 to file a list of claimed privileges and objections to anything that has been subpoenaed.
Willis plans to appeal the decision.
“We believe the ruling is wrong and will appeal,” former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, who is representing Willis in the case, wrote in an email to The Associated Press.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seen in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer, Getty Images)
Earlier this month, an appeals court removed Willis from the Georgia election interference case against Trump and others, citing an “appearance of impropriety.” The panel also cited the romantic relationship between Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
“This is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings,” the court said.
At the time, Trump called the case a “disgrace to justice.”
“It was started by the Biden DOJ as an attack on his political opponent, Donald Trump,” he said, “They used anyone and anybody, and she has been disqualified, and her boyfriend has been disqualified, and they stole funds and went on trips.”
President-elect Donald Trump points at AmericaFest, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024, in Phoenix. On Monday, Trump pledged to have the Justice Department pursue the death penalty following President Biden’s move to commute death sentences for 37 inmates. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
In August, the Republican-led Senate committee sent subpoenas to Willis seeking to compel her to testify in September. She skipped a hearing that month when lawmakers hoped to question her.
The committee was formed to examine misconduct allegations against Willis during her prosecution of Trump over efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 election loss in Georgia.
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Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade. (Getty Images)
Barnes, Willis’ attorney, argued the subpoenas were overly broad and not related to a legitimate legislative need and that the Senate committee didn’t have the power to subpoena her in the first place.
One issue raised is that the Georgia legislative term will end when lawmakers are sworn in for their new term on Jan. 13. Republican state Sen. Greg Dolezal said last week that he plans to file legislation to re-establish the committee at the beginning of the 2025 legislative session.
“The law is clear, and the ruling confirms what we knew all along,” Dolezal wrote in a text Friday. “Judge Ingram rejected every argument made by Willis in her attempt to dodge providing testimony to the committee under oath. I look forward to D.A. Willis honoring the subpoena and providing documents and testimony to our committee.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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