NEWS ROUNDUP

Use of anti-racketeering law costs attorneys Lawyers who leveled racketeering allegations last year against three U.S. Forest Service employees and a Big Bear-area environmentalist were sanctioned Monday in federal court for filing a frivolous lawsuit, attorneys said. Wayne Rosenbaum and Suzanne Washington of Foley and Lardner, a San Diego-based firm, will have to pay attorneys fees and costs amounting to $267,000, according to Monday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Manuel Real. Jon Wilson, who heads litigation for Foley and Lardner, said the firm plans to appeal. The suit, filed on behalf of developers of a disputed condominium project in Fawnskin, was the first known attempt by builders to use the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to combat opposition to such a project....
Frogs trump fish ANGLERS can expect to get skunked at some Sierra lakes this summer as crews kill trout to protect a rare frog. Officials are eliminating the prized game fish from 22 lakes, mainly in and around Sequoia National Park and the Eastern Sierra. The fish eat mountain yellow-legged frogs and their tadpoles, pushing the amphibian closer to the endangered species list. The frogs have declined by at least 80% since the 1950s. For anglers, the fish-removal program puts their conservation credentials to the test. While some say losing a few trout to save nature is a fair exchange, others fear it's the beginning of the end for high-country fishing. "It makes no sense killing trout to save frogs. It's environmentalism gone too far," says Tom Raftican, president of United Anglers of Southern California. For years, Bob Tanner has been taking anglers to fish via his Red's Meadow Pack Train near Mammoth Lakes. He says his clients ride mules into the high country to fish; they surely won't come for frogs. He fears too many environmental restrictions will hurt his business....
Judge Halts Oil and Gas Lease Extensions Off California Coast A federal judge on Friday barred the government from extending 37 undeveloped oil and gas leases off California's coast, declaring that the government improperly considered risks to the ocean and marine life. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled from the bench in Oakland federal court even before issuing a written opinion because if she had waited, the government could have extended the leases as early as today. The judge's ruling came one day after the California Coastal Commission voted unanimously Thursday to reject the proposal to extend the leases by the Mineral Management Service (MMS), a division of the U.S. Department of Interior. Still, the MMS could have extended the leases over the commission's objection. Attorneys for 10 conservation groups that sued to block the agency hailed the judge's decision....
Nesting Of Endangered Birds Suspends Rail-Line Construction Work on the North County Transit District's Sprinter track will be put on hold through Sept. 15, when the nesting season ends for an endangered species of birds that has taken over the construction area. Biologists discovered the least Bell's vireo this spring and continue to monitor a three-mile section of the train track inhabited by the nesting birds, North County Transit District spokesman Tom Kelleher said Friday. Sprinter construction crews were scheduled this summer to install drainage pipes and a basin to collect overflow from the nearby Loma Alta Creek. Work cannot resume until the birds leave the area, Kelleher said....
Editorial: Land mismanagement A CAPTIVE REGULATOR is one that has so thoroughly internalized the priorities of the industry it is supposed to be regulating that it acts more like a lobbyist than a watchdog. The Bureau of Land Management has managed to give this venerable Washington tradition a new twist: instead of merely acceding to industry's wishes, it has hired industry consultants. The BLM is facing a severe backlog in processing applications for oil and gas drilling, which have more than tripled to nearly 6,400 in the last five years. This year, the office in Vernal, Utah, the agency's second-busiest, allowed an oil and gas industry group to "donate" some experts to help review projects. The result was predictable: A report that was favorable to industry. After environmentalists and other federal agencies protested, the BLM had to withdraw it. Chronic understaffing is a problem at the BLM. But the response should not be to ask consultants from the National Foxes Assn. to help design a henhouse management plan. The BLM should have funds adequate to protect the public interest....
N.M. Lawmakers to Consider Landowner Protection Against Oil, Gas Firms Legislators were urged Thursday to consider offering some kind of protection for landowners when they have disputes with oil or gas companies drilling on their property. Mark Fesmire, director of the state's Oil Conservation Division, told members of the Legislative Finance Committee that "split estates", where the mineral rights are held by one person and the land ownership rights by another, is one of the most pressing issues facing his department. Under the law as it stands now, owners of the mineral rights are allowed to use as much land as is "reasonably necessary." Land owners are not entitled to compensation for damage done during drilling, except for that caused by negligence, Fesmire said. That has caused problems for some, like San Juan County rancher Tim Gomez. "Some of them are really good and try to work with the ranchers, and some of them aren't," Gomez said. "We should come up with some kind of fair-market value for damage done to the property. "A lot of these companies feel like they've got the rights to drill, and they just walk all over you." A bill was introduced in the Legislature last year by Rep. Andy Nunez, D-Hatch, that would have been the most restrictive in the nation toward oil and gas companies, Fesmire said....
Otero Mesa fight pits state officials against each other New Mexico's Commissioner of Public Lands, Patrick Lyons, on Monday sought to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the governor and attorney general to restrict development on Otero Mesa. Lyons, a Republican, filed a motion today to join the federal Bureau of Land Management in its efforts to open the region to natural gas and oil development. Gov. Bill Richardson and New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid, who sued the BLM in federal court to limit development there, are Democrats. The land commissioner said he supports responsible energy exploration and development on the mesa "under tight controls proposed by the BLM," according to a news release from Lyons' office. The motion to intervene would allow the land commissioner to be a party in the lawsuit and to join the federal agency in its "fight against the governor and attorney general."....
Residents seek to deflect plan to boost Front Range drilling Farmers, ranchers and real-estate developers on Monday urged the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to reject a plan to increase oil and natural-gas drilling in Weld and Adams counties. About 75 landowners told members of the commission that increased drilling could lead to a range of problems - from interference with crop irrigation to plummeting property values. "The more you chop it up, it's like someone reaching into your retirement account and taking a $10,000 bill out," said Linda Shoeneman, who owns property near Roggen. Under a proposal before the commission, energy companies EnCana Corp., Kerr-McGee Corp. and Noble Energy Inc. are seeking to drill more wells in an area roughly bounded by Byers to the east, Interstate 25 to the west, Denver International Airport to the south and Fort Collins to the north. Lance Astrella, an attorney for the landowners, said the plan would allow companies to drill a well on every 20 acres instead of the currently permitted 40 acres....
Legislative Action On Trust Land Reform Hinted Backers of a new state trust land reform ballot initiative say their package avoids the pitfalls of previously unsuccessful measures, but lawmakers who say they were left out of the process are suggesting that a legislative solution might be necessary. The proposed constitutional change, dubbed Conserving Arizona’s Future, has three primary aims. If enough signatures are gathered to place it on the November 2006 general election ballot, and if a majority of voters who vote on it approve, the initiative would set aside 694,000 acres for conservation, provide state and local authorities with the power to limit and control development and guarantee a funding stream for public education. The initiative establishes a board of trustees to oversee transactions and provides funding for the Arizona Land Department from a percentage of the proceeds of trust land sales, making the agency more self-sufficient and less dependent on the state General Fund....
Ancient floor a work of nature, not nurture The 67-year-old western Colorado mystery of the cellar with a tiled floor has an explanation now, and the Western Investigations Team has a new notch in its belt. The solution is that the seeming inlaid-tile floor discovered in 1937 by Collbran-area rancher Tom Kenney was one of nature's little twists. It was not, as had been speculated, placed and fitted by man thousands of years before. Rather, it was the handiwork of nature. For years, though, said members of the investigations team made up of the Museum of Western Colorado and Mesa State College, the tiled floor was the stuff of archaeological dreams....
Editorial: N.M. makes a stand at border New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson took an extraordinary step last week, declaring a state of emergency in four Mexico border counties, areas crippled by the burgeoning effects of illegal immigration. His move not only needles the federal government for its ineffective immigration policy, but it sounds the call for national reform. Congress is in its August recess but could take up immigration legislation when it returns. Richardson, however, isn't waiting. Fresh from a helicopter and ground tour of the area near Columbus, N.M., the Democratic governor last week declared in an executive order that the region has been "devastated by the ravages and terror of human smuggling, drug smuggling, kidnapping, murder, destruction of property and the death of livestock." The immigration issue seems to be moving to a boiling point in this country, and Richardson's voice, as a Democrat and Hispanic, is a welcome addition to the call for sensible reform....
It's All Trew: What a smoker smokes can reveal personality I venture to guess that almost every family history contains one or more members who seemed to always be smoking a cigarette, cigar or pipe. For some reason, smoking a cigar or pipe seemed different from smoking a cigarette. My grandfather Charley Trew was a devout Christian yet smoked a Roi Tan cigar once a week during his favorite Sunday-morning church radio broadcast. I can still smell the cigar odor and see grandma fanning to clear the air as she sat nearby piecing quilt tops. Remember the little square table in many houses with an ash tray and pipe holder on top? When you opened the small door the smell of blended tobacco contained in a press-top can was presented. In addition to the tobacco humidor other smoking aids might be present....

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