NEWS ROUNDUP

Analysis: Dems chase green vote for 2004 Although a Senate committee approved the nomination of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency, President Bush's choice to head the agency still faces a tough battle ahead that signals Democratic hopes to make the environment a key election issue next year. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee vote had been delayed from Oct. 1 when committee Democrats staged a protest by not showing up for a scheduled vote on the nomination, and Leavitt now faces several Democrats vowing to block his nomination from being voted on by the entire Senate. The Democrats said their aim is to call attention to the Bush administration's environmental policies and the White House's unwillingness to provide information about controversial practices and polices. While Senate Democrats may have some genuine concerns about the Bush administration's environmental polices, there is a clear political element in their actions on Leavitt's nomination that smacks of both their powerlessness to control this administration and craving for regained control of the White House. Environmental policy may yet prove to be key to that effort...Bills would boost forest conservation Nonprofit groups could use tax-exempt bonds to buy forest land for conservation purposes under competing bills passed by the House and Senate. The measures initially were aimed at helping preserve more than 100,000 acres in the Cascade foothills of Washington state east of Seattle, but have been broadened to allow other groups to take advantage of the proposed tax savings. A bill sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Wash., would authorize $250 million in tax-exempt bonds for conservation projects in Washington state. A separate measure sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., would allow $2 billion in bonds for projects nationwide. The forestry amendment, in a larger bill granting billions of dollars in tax breaks for charitable contributions, demonstrates that "collaboration works better than confrontation," Dunn said. The two bills now go to a conference committee of House and Senate negotiators, with a vote on a compromise agreement likely in the next few weeks...Referendum ignites water wars in Colo. It has pitted farmers against city folk, environmentalists against Front Range governments and conservative Republicans against the GOP governor. Although lawmakers intended a $2 billion bond referendum on Colorado's Nov. 4 ballot to find solutions for a record drought, it instead has ignited water wars over how best to use and conserve the state's limited resource. Influential western Colorado politicians, lobbying groups and residents are concerned that Referendum A will enable thirsty, populated areas in eastern Colorado to take their water with little regard for the region's future...Column: Grizzly attack inevitable A self-proclaimed bear expert, Treadwell carved himself a career out of living close to (some called it harassing) Alaskan grizzlies. Treadwell had said that he discovered Alaska by accident a decade ago when he was "at my wits end" and "a troubled person." He traveled to Alaska allegedly to end his life. When the bears didn't immediately eat him, he believed it was because they had accepted him as a spiritual equal. He decided he had something worth living for: protecting the bears from poaching. The tragedy didn't end with the death of Treadwell and his companion. Park rangers killed two grizzlies in the vicinity of Treadwell's camp the next day. It's ironic that a man whose stated goal was to protect the bears ended up being the cause of their demise...King Ranch Horses Assault limped when he trotted but ran like the wind, the only Texas-born horse to ever win the coveted Triple Crown. He spread the fame of the King Ranch far beyond the Lone Star State. Assault's victories in 1946 capped a remarkable run for the ranch, which also boasted the world's first registered American Quarter Horse and the first new cattle breed ever registered in the United States. All three accomplishments came within half a dozen years. Assault, a chestnut-red son of Bold Venture out of Igual, was born in 1943. Disaster struck, however, when the colt stepped on a surveyor's stake in a pasture. The accident split Assault's right front hoof. His racing career seemed to be over before it had begun. There was even talk of putting him down. But Kleberg refused. Ranch veterinarian J.K. Northway devised a special shoe to cushion Assault's mangled hoof. The thoroughbred limped and sometimes stumbled when his rider urged him into a trot. Rodolfo "Yoyo" Silguero, a descendant of one of the ranch's original Kineños, who worked with Assault as an exercise boy, remembers when the horse's handlers discovered a way around his infirmity...Click here for the other articles on the history of the King Ranch, starting a three day series... No jail for boot beating A Winnipeg man received a nine-month conditional sentence yesterday for trying to fend off a domestic attack by beating his wife with a cowboy boot. The man confronted his wife -- who was significantly bigger than him -- after she came home drunk from a bar, court heard. She flew into a rage, and pushed him onto the bed, court heard. "He grabbed the closest thing to him, which was ... a cowboy boot, and he started to hit her," said defence lawyer Wendy Martin White. The man's guilty plea was entered on the basis that he acted in self-defence but used excessive force in trying to protect himself, Martin White told the court...