Yak escapes to Virginia mountains

LOVINGSTON, Va. (AP) — Authorities in Virginia say a yak on its way to the butcher’s shop escaped to the nearby mountains avoiding animal control officers and treats trying to lure it back into a trailer.

The News & Advance reports the yak named Meteor was on its last ride Tuesday from Buckingham, Virginia, to the butcher when it got out of its trailer.

The escape was called in as livestock on the loose, and Nelson County Animal Control officer Kevin Wright says he figured he was looking for a cow.

Wright says the yak crossed a busy highway and avoided officers trying to capture it by heading for the mountains.

The yak was last spotted Wednesday at an inn, where the owners tried unsuccessfully to lure it into a trailer using treats.

Strike looms at General Motors

DETROIT (AP) — Leaders of the United Auto Workers union have extended contracts with Ford and Fiat Chrysler indefinitely, but the pact with General Motors is still set to expire tonight.

The move, plus a widening corruption investigation of union leadership, puts added pressure on bargainers for both sides as they approach the contract deadline and the union starts to make preparations for a strike.

The union has picked GM as the target company, meaning it is the focus of bargaining and would be the first company to face a walkout. GM’s contract with the union is scheduled to expire at 11:59 p.m. today.

It’s possible that the four-year GM contract also could be extended or a deal could be reached, but it’s more likely that 49,200 UAW members could walk out of GM plants as early as Sunday because union and company demands are so far apart.

Picket line schedules already have been posted near the entrance to one local UAW office in Detroit.

Art Wheaton, an auto industry expert at the Worker Institute at Cornell University, expects the GM contract to be extended for a time, but he says the gulf between both sides is wide.