NEWS ROUNDUP

Montana wildfire still spreading An enormous wildfire that has prompted the evacuation of hundreds of people continued to spread Monday, though winds didn't kick up as much as firefighters had feared, a Forest Service official said. "We're still working on this thing on all fronts," said Dixie Dees, a fire information officer. The fire, in south-central Montana, has burned 26 homes and is classified as the nation's No. 1 firefighting priority. It has spread across 180,000 acres, or more than 280 square miles, since lightning sparked it on Aug. 22. It was only about 20 percent contained, authorities said. The fire is not following the typical pattern: growing more active in the afternoon, then calming as darkness falls, Dies said. "We'll probably have an active fire until midnight or so before it quiets down," she said. About 265 homes were evacuated in just a few hours Sunday night on the western flank of the fast-moving blaze, said Kelly O'Connell, Sweetgrass County disaster and emergency services coordinator. Fire officials feared that wind and higher temperatures this week would create extreme fire conditions....
Dalidio takes property fight on the road For more than a decade, Ernie Dalidio and his ranch west of town have been bywords in and around San Luis Obispo, and the rancher’s development proposals have dominated the city’s politics for most of the 21st century. Now Dalidio, through an initiative on the Nov. 7 ballot, is taking his shopping center proposal on the road. He is asking voters throughout the county, from San Miguel to Nipomo, from Shandon to Oceano, to take a stand on his proposed shopping center, known as the Dalidio Ranch initiative and labeled Measure J on the ballot. But why should voters countywide care? For Dalidio’s chief spokesman, that one is easy: They should care because Ernie Dalidio has gotten a raw deal over the years. "I don’t think it’s about shopping," says Dave Cox of Barnett Cox & Associates, Dalidio’s public relations firm. "It’s about what’s fair and not fair," Cox said. "It’s about right and wrong. That’s the bottom line." Cox notes that Dalidio has been trying for 17 years to put some sort of shopping center on his property south of Madonna Road and west of Highway 101....
Coaxing oil from huge U.S. shale deposits Underneath the high, scrub-covered rangeland of northwest Colorado is the world's biggest oil field. Getting the oil out of the ground, however, is one of the world's biggest headaches. The area's deposits of oil shale are believed to be larger than all the oil reserves of the Middle East. But past attempts to get at this oil locked in tarry rock have cost billions of dollars and raised the prospect of strip-mining large areas of the Rocky Mountain West. Now, as the federal government makes another push to develop oil shale, Shell and other companies say they have developed techniques that may extract this treasure with much less environmental impact. Shell's project is stunningly complex. Instead of strip-mining the rock and then processing it, Shell plans to superheat huge underground areas for several years, gradually percolating oil out of the stone and pumping it to the surface. Years of testing still lie ahead. Shell's heating process risks polluting local water supplies, and the enormous amounts of electricity needed would require construction of the West's largest power plants. But even opponents say the new technology might just succeed....
Rule delisting wolves in Idaho, Montana imminent? A rule to lift federal Endangered Species Act protections from gray wolves in most of Idaho and Montana but not Wyoming could be made public by winter, state and federal officials say. The ruling would help clear the way for controlled hunts of the predators that have thrived in the northern Rocky Mountains since their 1995 reintroduction. Wyoming, unlike Montana and Idaho, hasn't won approval for its management plan. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn't agree its plan is adequate to keep wolves from going extinct again. Under the ESA, all three states normally would have to have such plans, before protections are lifted. Still, there's concern Wyoming's plan will be tied up in court for years. As a result, the U.S. Interior Department, led by Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, is "seriously considering" alternatives suggested last year by Kempthorne while he was Idaho governor, and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, "that would reward states that are doing good jobs at management and have plans in place," said Ed Bangs, Fish and Wildlife's gray wolf recovery coordinator in Helena, Mont....
Wild horses, gentler men: Inmates break horses, learn about selves Mike Buchanan can look into the eyes of a horse and tell what's in a man's soul. Was the man abused or was he the abuser? Did he betray the trust of a young child with his sexual urges or did he betray himself through drug addiction? On this day, standing in the August-baked dust, he begins to read the men who line the fence of a round pen. His tool is a wild horse that bolts into the ring, its eyes wide with the unknown, its entire frame girded for possible danger. Buchanan, a weathered horseman and rancher of 37-plus years, falls silent and lets the horse do the talking. The animal canters the ring's perimeter, eyeing each of the nine convicts as it passes. When the horse finally "settles" on an inmate, it pauses in front of Roy Davis, letting out a snort, twitching its ears. "He'll pick out the most aggressive of the bunch," Buchanan whispers. "He'll stop right in front of 'em and say, 'Bring it on."'....
Rancher donates 10,000 acres for conservation easement In a major boost to preservation of the pristine tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and The Nature Conservancy on Friday announced the donation of a conservation easement encompassing 10,000 acres. The donation from Bill and Maggie Haw is part of an ongoing effort to put 70,000 acres of the prairie into conservation easements within three years. The donation Friday brings conservation easements to date in the Flint Hills to 15,000 acres, said Alan Pollom, state director of The Nature Conservancy. Four other unnamed landowners have also contributed. Another donation of 1,760 acres is expected in two or three months, he said. The group has concentrated its efforts to preserving views along the Kansas Turnpike from south Emporia to Cassoday, Pollom said....
Capt. Clark's signature restored on possibly 4 occasions Beneath the signature of William Clark etched into the sandstone at Pompeys Pillar National Monument, an interpretive sign explains the significance of the artifact. It reads: "The ground on which Clark stood has weathered away but his signature has not. Because of this remaining physical evidence, the site is one of the few places along the entire Lewis and Clark Trail where you can be assured of standing in the footsteps of William Clark and other members of the Expedition." No one is likely to challenge the second part of that statement, since Clark wrote in his journal on July 25, 1806, that he carved his name and date on the "remarkable rock." The first sentence, however, is not entirely true. Capt. Clark's signature is clear and easily legible now, but only because it has been restored and deepened - or possibly re-created - on at least two occasions, and possibly three or four....
Texas Farms and Ranches Done In by Mean Drought The effects of a long, stubborn drought are everywhere here: in the parched, wasted fields and the bony cows nosing the dirt for nonexistent grass; in the cracks splitting stone-hard earth and the worried faces of farmers running out of savings, and options. "It's sad when you see what's going on all around you," said Windy Watkins, a feed-store manager. "This has been the lives of so many for so long, and now it's gone. It's heartbreaking." Canton, a rural cattle- and sweet-potato-producing area 60 miles east of Dallas, is hardly alone in its misery. From Florida to Arizona and north through the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin, drought has wiped out summer crops and forced ranchers to sell cattle they can no longer afford to feed. Crop and livestock losses have reached a record $4.1 billion in Texas alone this year, nearly double the $2.1-billion mark set in 1998, according to Texas Cooperative Extension economists. The projected loss for rural businesses that provide equipment and services to Texas farmers and ranchers is an additional $3.9 billion. "It's as bad as it gets," said Texas A&M University agronomist Travis Miller....
Ranchers decry grass-fed beef rule plan Meat-eaters usually assume a grass-fed steak came from cattle contentedly grazing for most of their lives on lush pastures, not crowded into feedlots. If the government has its way, the grass-fed label could be used to sell beef that didn't roam the range and ate more than just grass. The Agriculture Department has proposed a standard for grass-fed meat that doesn't say animals need pasture and that broadly defines grass to include things like leftovers from harvested crops. Critics say the proposal is so loose that it would let more conventional ranchers slap a grass-fed label on their beef, too. "In the eye of the consumer, grass-fed is tied to open pasture-raised animals, not confinement or feedlot animals," said Patricia Whisnant, a Missouri rancher who heads the American Grassfed Association. "In the consumer's eye, you're going to lose the integrity of what the term 'grass-fed' means."....
It's All Trew: Retired teacher has a lifetime of memories Like the battery-powered rabbit on TV, Aunt Lois Wilkinson Aldrich of Capitan, N.M., just keeps going. At age 97, she has outlived her siblings, a husband and most of her old friends. As a lifetime schoolteacher, she was teaching third-generation students when she finally retired. Though moving at a slower pace now, her mind is sharp, she knows and remembers almost everyone in the Capitan area and she is still an active member in the Lincoln County Republican Women, serving as chaplain of her chapter. Her father worked on a threshing crew, following the harvests through Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. He married the daughter of a South Dakota customer and started his large family. They made the Oklahoma Land Run, settling on property near Alva, Okla....