Ranch Of The Week: Major Cattle Company The Major Cattle company horse program began back in the 1930's with Mike's grandfather, Malcomb Major. The ranch was north of Magdalena, New Mexico, and it all began with calvary remount studs. In the 1950's Mike's dad, Buddy Major, bought a Leo and Hardtwist stud to up grade the horse herd for the nine ranches he had put together in New Mexico and Colorado. Buddy ran a lot of his horses on the track and had some of the best cow and rope horses around. By the late 1970's Mike was breaking most all of the colts, but desired to raise his own herd. Mike tried to buy a handful of fillies that he thought were the best of the bunch, but his dad wouldn't sell them to him. The only way Mike was going to get those mares was to break and ride five mules Buddy had purchased. Mike really didn't want to break those five mules, with all the good colts they had around, but it was the only chance he had to get Buddy to trade him for the mares. Mike really wanted the fillies, and he finally did get them, But says now, "You couldn't give me a mule today even if it had a thousand dollar bill tied to it's neck." These were the first brood mares in Mikes mare band. The first stud Mike owned was a black horse named Leovada Chick, with Leo and Three chicks breeding. In 1982 Mike ventured out on his own starting his horse operation in Vequita, New Mexico. Here Mike traded for another horse, a Mito Bars, and Sugar Bars stud. In 1989 another purchase was made, a gray stud named Joys Double Feature, Smoky. He had Beduino, Rebel Cause, and Truckle Feature breeding. Smoky was an outstanding rope and cow horse, anything you wanted from him he would give you everything he had. He was an excellent stallion with a lot of speed and cow, who won several ranch rodeos, and ropings. Several of Smokey's fillies are still in the brood mare band today being crossed on the cow breed studs. In 1990 he purchased the Flying A ranch in Fowler, Colorado, where he currently still lives. The ranch got it's name from the previous owners, Gene Autry, and Harry Knight. This is where there rodeo company was ran. In 2000 Mike and Holly were married, and it didn't take long for Mike to realize that she was just as crazy about good horses as he is. Owning, and riding several good Doc O' Dynamite horses previously Mike and Holly made there next purchase in Montana at John Scott's dispersal sale. Smart Whiskey Doc, and Dynamite Bravo Doc were purchased. Then in 2001 Mike and Holly went to the Forth Worth futurity where they purchased a Playgun colt, and a Playgun mare. At the next sale Mike was watching the horses warm up, he looked around, and dang if Holly hadn’t just bought another stud, a Doc's Stylish Oak. Still wanting a Smart Little Lena stud for there horse program; in 2003 Mike and Holly went to Virginia where they purchased Love a Little Devil, an own son of Smart Little Lena and out of a Colonel Freckles mare. Although some of their mares still trace back to some of the first horses raised by the major cattle company, 70 years ago, Mike and Holly have purchased several more cow bred mares, and continue to upgrade the horse program. They have tried to bring some of the best blood lines into this part of the country that you can get. Mike and Holly are very excited to get the crosses with these studs, and think that the colts have the ability and mind to go in any direction a performance horse could go. The hope is that people who buy colts from us, or breed to our stallions are as happy with the horses as we are, and come back again. Although the horses are a huge part of the ranch, the ranch is still a working cattle ranch. Mike and Holly work hard running a large cattle operation of yearlings every year on the Flying A Ranch, and a large cow calf operation on the Rio Puerco in Belen, New Mexico. Like the horses, the cattle have always been a main part of all the ranches. In the future they believe, anyone seeing an animal with the stik horse brand will know the quality and care that stands behind the mark.

Wolf Attack So, yesterday a friend an I took our families out sliding and ended up having a little more excitement than we had anticipated. There we were having a good time......Rod was towing 3 of the kids (2 four yr olds and a 3 yr old) on a tobogan behind the quad, at the bottom of the hill. I was in the Argo with my 3 month old at the other end of the hill. Rods wife was warming up in the truck with there 2 yr old and my wife was at the top of the hill with our dog...........we had no idea that all hell was about to break loose......... Two wolves appear out of nowere............and they are heading toward the "bait" dragging behind the quad.... at first I had no idea what was up, but I heard my wife start yelling. I look up at her and see the dog break out of her arms and start running like mad, diagonally down the hill toward the truck (the direction Rod was heading with the kids). Rod sees the wolves coming, just as he is getting close to the truck, he speeds up a little, but can't go too hard for fear that one of the kids might fall off. As he gets to the truck the wolves are about 20 feet from the kids, on the tobogan. Rod bolts back toward the kids, just as my dog "Shadow" intercepts the lead wolf. Teeth flash and the battle is started............Rods wife leaps from the truck and starts throwing kids inside, as Rod grabs a shovel from the back of the truck, smashing the shovel blade off as he goes to help the dog. Second wolf has joined the fight, and although Shadow is a very heafty 120lbs+ Rotty Cross, he is not faring all too well. The wolves break off as Rod gets close, but they are not afraid, they circle around and stay about 50 feet out of reach....Click on the title to read the whole post and see photos. Hat tip to Wolf Crossing

That's woman's work
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

By Julie Carter

Chauvinist is a cowboy word. You won't hear them say it, and most likely, without a little help, they can't spell it. However, they live it with a subtlety that defies description.

In the heart and mind of a cowboy, there is a long list of things that fall under the category of “woman's work” and even if they have to be sneaky about it, they are determined to make it her job, forever.

One of the most common frailties he will portray, almost diabolically, is his inability to shop for anything that doesn't involve horses, cattle, roping or tools for his shop.

A well-traveled worldly kind of cowboy I know has navigated remote ranches, big cities that even include San Antonio, South America, Europe, Canada and Japan. He cannot possibly find the toothpaste hidden in Wal-Mart.

This results in a pitiful situation where his bride does all the shopping even if he has just made a trip to town himself.

To further this travesty, he promotes his innocent lack of understanding about shopping by offering to help unload the groceries if she'll just wait an hour while he finishes his urgent task of, oh say, riding his horse.

Meanwhile, with milk, frozen food and perishables standing by, his bride knows he'll be right along as soon as it is all safely put away.

The same principal of innocence is offered if the cowboy has his eye set on a new horse that he is sure he needs to buy for his string.

Justification comes via generosity.

He will gift his bride with one of his current horses under the auspices of her needing an upgrade. He is more than willing to part with one of his prize steeds to help her out. That leaves him one horse short, and almost magically, a replacement will appear.

Sometimes this plotted horse trade will take months because his bride is not as thrilled with the idea as he seems to be. Often it means trading off her old dependable, trustworthy horse to some needy relative who simply cannot do without him. Again, this idea is his.

The trade often involves old women or children to add to the tender nature of the generosity. Tactfully, he will make his bride feel obligated to part with the security of her old horse for the betterment of mankind.

Cowboys and computers find a love-hate relationship where he cannot possibly pull up the bank statement for reconciliation but for a couple years has been able to navigate ropinghorses.com with a knowledgeable dexterity.

The same guy that can mix complicated chemical formulas to spray brush and crops, and even fly the plane to put it on the land, will deny any ability to run a lawnmower, grocery cart, and certainly not the washing machine, dishwasher or microwave.

In the interest of full disclosure, the cowboy hero does offer some redeeming qualities. In the kitchen, he is completely willing to be in complete charge of Quality Control. Usually that entails sampling everything once, sometimes twice, most often in the case of pies.

Other valuable lessons for the cowboy's bride provided by the cowboy include:

---No matter how many exotic gourmet dishes you can make, cowboys prefer chicken fried steak, gravy, potatoes and beans to all the cuisines in the world.

---The best dessert in anybody's book is chocolate cake with gooey icing.

---You can always trust that the market will come up $20 to hit the break-even on any new set of cattle he wants to buy, trust him on that, he says.

---Always get on a fresh horse with his head in the corner so that he can't buck too hard.

---Never say to the wannabe, who might buy that unbroken colt, that his hat is on backwards.

---Always pick your spot with your back to the wind when holding herd.

Recently, this worldly braniac cowboy claimed to not to know how to put mouse D-con in the barn. Some things just are not worth the fight.

Visit Julie’s Web site and updated blog at www.julie-carter.com. Her book, Cowgirl Sass & Savvy, continues to bring laughs and smiles to readers everywhere.


It’s The Pitts: A Little Slow

I don't know about you but I just can't stand people who are intolerant of others. Here we were at night without any headlights, with an overweight load of bulls in the back, on a narrow and windy two lane road, going about 7 miles an hour with 27 cars behind us honking their horns like they were in a Mexican wedding!

Some people just don't have any patience.

It all started when I had a little car trouble and was forced to hitch a ride back home from a bull sale from my good friend Gary. Now, when he was a little boy Gary dreamed of owning a 1956 Chevy. He finally got one in 1996. The Chevy stock truck was a real machine too, going from zero to forty in about a week and a half. But what the heck, I needed a ride home so who was I to be choosy?

To say that the trip was slow was a bit of an understatement. Dogs were still peeing on our tires once we reached our cruising speed. Bicycles even passed us. Needless to say this did not make the ever-growing line of cars behind us very happy. Especially since there were so few places to pass. When there was a brief stretch of open road twenty cars would try to pass all at the same time. As you can easily understand, the drivers of the passing cars were shaking their fists and honking their horns as they went by. I became adept at reading their lips and they were saying cuss words that would sizzle bacon. But Gary was oblivious. He chuckled to himself, thought they were just being neighborly, honked his horn and returned the greeting.

Initially it was a real pleasure trip for us seeing how the wives weren't along. And we were making real good time too. At the rate we were going the bulls might get home before the breeding season was over. We were swapping lies and having a large time as it gradually turned pitch black outside and a gentle rain began to fall.

That's when it happened!

First the radio went dead, then the road ahead disappeared and then our windshield wipers went into the intermittent mode, this despite the fact that intermittent windshield wipers were not invented in 1956.

"I hate it when that happens," said Gary calmly.

"When what happens?" I yelled as Gary slammed on the brakes to let a tree go by.

"The darn alternator is going out again. We'll just have to go on without windshield wipers or the heater and hope we got enough juice to run the headlights. It might slow us down some though."

Meanwhile, the gentle showers turned into a downpour. I was shivering and wondered if I’d die of frostbite or in a head-on collision and I thought I should do something. I offered, "I'll hang out the window and wipe the rain off the front windshield with my handkerchief for you."

"Oh, don't bother. I can't see anyway. Forgot and left my darn glasses at home," said Gary, further instilling a great dread in me that I would not live long enough to apologize to my wife for ever criticizing her driving skills.

Despite the dim headlights every now and then Gary would actually turn when the road did. Meanwhile, the cars were really piling up behind us as we passed several turnouts. But Gary was completely oblivious. When a car would attempt to pass the drivers would lay on their horns but Gary would just laugh and honk back.

I never did really understand Gary's complacency until we arrived at our destination and I got out of the truck. As I kissed the ground I noticed on the back of Gary's 1956 Chevy stock truck was a bumper sticker that read, "Honk, if you're horny."

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Scientists fleeing border, smugglers Biologist Karen Krebbs used to study bats in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on the Arizona-Mexico border. Then, she got tired of dodging drug smugglers all night. "I use night-vision goggles, and you could see them very clearly" - caravans of men with guns and huge backpacks full of drugs, trudging through the desert, Krebbs said. After her 10th or 11th time hiding in bushes and behind rocks, she abandoned her research. "I'm just not willing to risk my neck anymore," she said. Across the southwestern U.S. border and in northern Mexico, scientists such as Krebbs say their work is increasingly threatened by smugglers as tighter border security pushes trafficking into the most remote areas where botanists, zoologists and geologists do their research. "In the last year, it's gotten much worse," said Jack Childs, who uses infrared cameras to study endangered jaguars in eastern Arizona. He loses one or two of the cameras every month to smugglers. Scientists, especially those working on the Mexican side of the border, have long shared the wilderness with marijuana growers and immigrants trying to enter the United States illegally. But tension is rising because of crackdowns on smugglers by the Mexican military, increased vigilance in the Caribbean Sea, new border fences, air patrols, a buildup of U.S. Border Patrol agents and a turf war between cartels. Smugglers are increasingly jealous of their smuggling routes and less tolerant of scientists poking around, researchers say. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument stopped granting most new research permits in January because of increasing smuggling activity. Scientists must sign a statement acknowledging that the National Park Service cannot guarantee their safety from "potentially dangerous persons entering the park from Mexico."....
Gun seized after Katrina? NRA wants you The National Rifle Association has hired private investigators to find hundreds of people whose firearms were seized by city police in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to court papers filed this week. The NRA is trying to locate gun owners for a federal lawsuit that the lobbying group filed against Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley over the city's seizure of firearms after the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane. In the lawsuit, the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation claim the city violated gun owners' constitutional right to bear arms and left them "at the mercy of roving gangs, home invaders, and other criminals" after Katrina. The NRA says the city seized more than 1,000 guns that weren't part of any criminal investigation after the hurricane. Police have said they took only guns that had been stolen or found in abandoned homes. NRA lawyer Daniel Holliday said investigators have identified about 300 of the gun owners and located about 75 of them. Some of them could be called to testify during a trial, he added....
Deaths surge for law officers A record number of fatal traffic incidents and a sharp rise in shooting deaths has led to one of the deadliest years for law enforcement officers in the United States in almost two decades. With the exception of 2001, which saw a dramatic increase in deaths because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, 2007 was the deadliest year for law enforcement since 1989, according to a preliminary report being released jointly today by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and the Concerns of Police Survivors. The report lists 186 deaths as of Wednesday, up from 145 last year. Eighty-one officers have died in traffic incidents, which surpassed the record of 78 set in 2000, the report said. Shooting deaths increased from 52 to 69, a rise of about 33 percent. Texas led the nation with 22 fatalities, followed by Florida (16), New York (12) and California (11). Police fatalities have generally declined since peaking at 277 in 1974, the report says. At one time, officers were more likely to be killed in an attack than to die accidentally, but 60 percent of this year's deaths were accidental....

Not So Hot If a scientific paper appeared in a major journal saying that the planet has warmed twice as much as previously thought, that would be front-page news in every major paper around the planet. But what would happen if a paper was published demonstrating that the planet may have warmed up only half as much as previously thought? Nothing. Earlier this month, Ross McKitrick from Canada's University of Guelph and I published a manuscript in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres saying precisely that. Scientists have known for years that temperature records can be contaminated by so-called "urban warming," which results from the fact that long-term temperature histories tend to have originated at points of commerce. The bricks, buildings, and pavement of cities retain the heat of the day and impede the flow of ventilating winds. For example, downtown Washington is warmer than nearby (and more rural) Dulles Airport. As government and services expand down the Dulles Access road, it, too, is beginning to warm compared to more rural sites to the west. Adjusting data for this effect, or using only rural stations, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states with confidence that less than 10% of the observed warming in long-term climate histories is due to urbanization. That's a wonderful hypothesis, and Ross and I decided to test it....
Lawsuit alleges countywide conspiracy The owners of Lauxmont Farms in Lower Windsor Township filed a lawsuit against York County Monday, claiming that the county commissioners' efforts to take their land by eminent domain for a park caused them financial problems. But the lawsuit goes beyond that, alleging the existence of a wide-ranging conspiracy by public officials in York County. According to the allegations, the members of the conspiracy wanted to get the Kohrs' land for considerably less-than-market value, motivated in part by personal dislike, and conducted a prolonged harassment campaign against the family that eventually drove their mother to suicide. "They're out millions of dollars," the Kohrs' lawyer, John Snyder, said in a phone interview. "They have lost a mother in this process, which they believe, and I concur with them, was a result of this process. They've lost time and opportunity and buyers, and they've had their civil rights trampled on."....

Cattlemen Seek Checkoff Changes Cattle producers in Nebraska and other states are pushing for the first significant change to the national beef checkoff program since it started more than 20 years ago. The beef checkoff program is behind the popular "Beef, It's What's for Dinner" ads that feature the distinctive voice of actor Sam Elliott. At a dollar a head, the checkoff fee pools about $80 million annually for beef promotion, research and education, among other things. But more than two decades of inflation have decreased the buying power of that dollar, say checkoff supporters. Some state chapters of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association want Congress to hike the checkoff to $2, while others want producers who pay the checkoff to vote on whether it should rise. The program remains much the same since Congress authorized the U.S. Department of Agriculture to start it in the mid-1980s, according to association representative Don Ricketts. The Colorado-based group administers many of the beef checkoff dollars. "There are so many more issues today, and the dollar doesn't go as far as it used to," Ricketts said. Ricketts said that under one proposal, future hikes in the checkoff would require only a vote of those who pay the checkoff and not approval from Congress. The association plans to meet in February to vote on proposals and then lobby Congress to approve the changes....
Dutch milk suspected behind Japanese mad cow outbreaks Dutch-produced milk made from animal fat powder may have been a cause of the outbreak of mad cow disease in Hokkaido and Kanto, the agricultural ministry said in an investigative report Friday, according to a Kyodo news report. The report, based on investigations on 32 of the 33 Japanese cows that have been confirmed infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), found that it was likely that 13 of the 32 cows had been infected through milk made on animal fat powder produced by a feed plant in the Netherlands. The ministry, however, said that its conclusion is not definite, partly because Dutch and other reports deny that animal fat is a cause of BSE. The 13 cows were all born in either Hokkaido or in the Kanto region between 1995 and 1996....
Senate Slips Chicken Into COOL Farm Bill Provision The Senate added chicken to its version of the country-of-origin labeling provision in the 2007 farm bill passed late Friday, even though nearly all chicken consumed in the United States is grown domestically. "Chicken meat will be treated no differently than other cuts of meat under the law now," Majority Communications Director for the Senate Agriculture Committee Kate Cyrul told Meatingplace.com. The legislative language says "whole chicken, or in part." The National Chicken Council did not oppose the amendment, spokesman Richard Lobb told Meatingplace.com. "It's getting to the point that there will be some poultry imported," he said, noting the recently signed free trade agreement allows Chile to export chicken to the United States. "And there are a number of other countries in the queue that sooner or later will get authorization." Currently, "about 99.9 percent" of all chicken consumed in the United States is produced domestically. But with red meat COOL labeling on the horizon, Lobb said consumers might start wondering where the chicken they purchase came from....
A Business Plan To Advance Animal Disease Traceability Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service We are advising the public that we are making available for review and comment a Business Plan to Advance Animal Disease Traceability. The Business Plan details recommended strategies and actions to enable existing State and Federal regulated and voluntary animal health programs, industry-administered management and marketing programs, and various animal identification methods to work in harmony with the National Animal Identification System. The Business Plan is available on the Internet at http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/.
National Animal Identification System; User Guide and Additional Information Resources Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service We are advising the public that we are have prepared a revised version of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) User Guide that was originally released in draft form in November 2006. The revised User Guide contains the most current information on how the system works and how producers may participate in the NAIS. We are making the revised User Guide available for review and comment. The revised User Guide is available on the Internet at http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/.
K-State Tests Animal ID System That Might Detect Cattle Disease Thanks to research taking place at K-State's Beef Stocker Unit, modern-day cowboys could soon be using a bit of old-fashioned science to fight disease in the feedlot. Dale Blasi, a K-State professor of animal sciences and industry, is researching the effectiveness of a new radio-frequency identification ear tag that takes the animal's temperature. Elevated temperature is thought to be a precursor to the onset of disease. The tag, which is manufactured and marketed by a company called TekVet, looks like a traditional plastic identification tag, except that it has an active, battery-powered radio frequency transmitter attached to it. The tag goes on the animal's left side and has a flexible thermometer that slides down the ear canal next to the tympanic membrane. The thermometer periodically takes the calf's temperature and transmits the data to a dish located in the feed yard. The dish then transmits the temperature data to tracking software developed by the same company. Blasi said that the software can be set by temperature - normal for a cow is in the 100-102 degree range - to alert lot managers of an elevated reading. This gives workers who do visual inspections a heads up on which cows might be sick....
Congress slashes animal ID funding USDA is going to have less money than hoped for the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) this year. Congress trimmed the Bush administration's budget request for NAIS in fiscal year 2008 by more than two-thirds. This past Wednesday, USDA unveiled a new business plan for the NAIS. Later that day, USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Bruce Knight told Brownfield one of the reasons the new plan will work is because the Bush administration planned to fully fund the program. "Because of the importance of animal ID, we're carrying forward full speed ahead with the optimism that we will be able to garner enough funds from Congress and from carryover to be able to implement this program in a robust and full manner," Knight said. But Congress didn’t cooperate. In the omnibus spending measure passed by Congress last week, lawmakers approved just $9.75 million for the NAIS animal in fiscal year 2008, less than a third of the more than $33.2 million requested by USDA....
EU makes sheep and goat tags compulsory by end of '09 EU ministers agreed on Monday to introduce electronic tags for millions of sheep and goats across the European Union by the end of 2009, part of a strategy to prevent epidemics of contagious diseases like foot-and-mouth. Back in December 2003, the bloc's farm ministers agreed new animal tagging rules to replace a system where only flocks of sheep and herds of goats are tracked when moved from farm to farm, sold at market or sent for slaughter. But at that time, electronic tagging systems were not sufficiently advanced or developed for this to be feasible, so it was agreed that more research needed to be conducted first. After studying a European Commission assessment report of pilot projects, the ministers agreed to delay introducing compulsory tagging by two years to the end of 2009, rather than the start of January 2008. Italy and Spain voted against. Unique identifier codes are carried by the animal either on an eartag or inside its digestive tract. The identification number can then be read using either a portable or fixed electronic reader....
Austin cloning firm to propose animal registry An Austin animal cloning company is to announce plans today to build a national registry of most cloned animals in an attempt to quiet concerns from the meat and dairy industry. The registry will track the animals using a radio frequency identification and could be used by food and dairy producers to tout their products as "clone-free." Austin-based ViaGen and Iowa-based Trans Ova Genetics, two of the top animal cloning companies, are to present the plan in a conference call today. The registry is being unveiled as two pieces of legislation in Congress are being pushed that would stop the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from releasing a final assessment clearing cloned animals and their offspring as safe for the food supply. The legislation asks for more studies on the issue of milk and meat from cloned animals and is supported by Consumers Union and the Humane Society of the United States....

Family fun turns into a wolf scare for tobogganers A tobogganing trip near Fort Nelson went from fun to fright for two families after they were chased by wolves. The families were on an outing 100 kilometres east of Fort Nelson Friday when two wolves started to chase a sleighful of three children, said 36-year-old Kyle Keays, who was among the group. The children -- one aged four, and two others, both three -- were being towed along the base of a hill by an all-terrain vehicle when the wolves appeared. Keays said his wife first noticed the wolves and shouted at him to watch out. The ATV's driver, Rod Barrie, turned around and pulled the sled back toward his truck. "I looked back and I just saw the wolves coming out of the ditch," said Keays, who works in the area as a gas plant operator. The wolves were within six metres of the children when the youngsters were hustled into the truck. At that moment, Keays' Rottweiler-cross, Shadow, intercepted the lead wolf and got into a scuffle. "When Shadow saw the wolves, he immediately broke free and bee-lined down the hill to attack the lead wolf," Keays said. As Barrie swung a shovel at the wolves, they backed off, but didn't run, said Keays, who grabbed his rifle from his nearby camp. "They definitely weren't afraid," he said. "They backed off 50 feet and started circling side to side."....
Alaskans Weigh the Cost of Gold The gold mine proposed for this stunning open country might be the largest in North America. It would involve building the biggest dam in the world at the headwaters of the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery, which it would risk obliterating. Epic even by Alaskan standards, the planned Pebble Mine has divided a state normally enthusiastic about extracting whatever value can be found in its wide-open spaces. Environmentalists and commercial fishing interests have mounted a well-funded public relations campaign against the project. Mining companies are investing hundreds of millions to make it inevitable. The two sides agree only that Pebble's fate is likely to pivot on the sentiments of a few thousand local residents who would have to live beside it. The effort is led by Northern Dynasty Minerals, a Vancouver company that signed a partnership this summer with global mining giant Anglo-American to develop the site on the peninsula between Cook Inlet and Bristol Bay, 180 miles southwest of Anchorage. The joint effort will spend almost $100 million this year on exploratory drilling and consultants hired to prepare an environmental impact statement that starts the permitting process. Though the mine itself remains years from reality, the priority is hiring. So far, about one-third of the 150 people working at Pebble's local headquarters in the village of Iliamna are natives from the surrounding area. "It's all about getting the 'social license,' " said one Northern Dynasty manager, using industry jargon for obtaining permission of the local community, and speaking privately because the company authorized only Magee to be quoted. "It's not rape and pillage anymore. It can't be." By all appearances it's an uphill battle. A recent survey by Bristol Bay Native Corp., which under federal law represents 8,000 natives with roots in the area, found 69 percent oppose the mine, 57 percent "strongly." The problem is salmon. Wild sockeye course through the bay and famously surge up the rivers that converge exactly where geologists found rich deposits of gold and copper....
Questions Linger at A Utah Coal Mine Nearly five months after a thunderous cave-in at Utah's Crandall Canyon mine, the cause of the original disaster is still under investigation and the fate of the mine is officially unresolved. Six miners were caught in the Aug. 6 cave-in. Ten days later, three men were killed in another collapse while trying to tunnel through the quivering mountain to the victims. After that, the rescue effort was abandoned. The state has said it will not declare the six miners dead without bodies, but it is not clear that the six bodies can ever be recovered. The mine's co-owner, Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp., will not say whether it plans to reopen it, but such a move, which would require the approval of the Bureau of Land Management, appears unlikely. The mine does not have much coal left, and since the accident, the company has stripped it of conveyer belts, power lines and other equipment and let shafts fill with water, said James F. Kohler, a bureau official in Utah....

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Hoover Planned Mass Jailing in 1950 A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty. Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began. It envisioned putting suspect Americans in military prisons. Hoover wanted President Harry S. Truman to proclaim the mass arrests necessary to “protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage.” The F.B.I would “apprehend all individuals potentially dangerous” to national security, Hoover’s proposal said. The arrests would be carried out under “a master warrant attached to a list of names” provided by the bureau. The names were part of an index that Hoover had been compiling for years. “The index now contains approximately twelve thousand individuals, of which approximately ninety-seven per cent are citizens of the United States,” he wrote. “In order to make effective these apprehensions, the proclamation suspends the Writ of Habeas Corpus,” it said....
FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad. Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law. The increasing use of biometrics for identification is raising questions about the ability of Americans to avoid unwanted scrutiny. It is drawing criticism from those who worry that people's bodies will become de facto national identification cards. Critics say that such government initiatives should not proceed without proof that the technology really can pick a criminal out of a crowd. The use of biometric data is increasing throughout the government. For the past two years, the Defense Department has been storing in a database images of fingerprints, irises and faces of more than 1.5 million Iraqi and Afghan detainees, Iraqi citizens and foreigners who need access to U.S. military bases. The Pentagon also collects DNA samples from some Iraqi detainees, which are stored separately. The Department of Homeland Security has been using iris scans at some airports to verify the identity of travelers who have passed background checks and who want to move through lines quickly. The department is also looking to apply iris- and face-recognition techniques to other programs. The DHS already has a database of millions of sets of fingerprints, which includes records collected from U.S. and foreign travelers stopped at borders for criminal violations, from U.S. citizens adopting children overseas, and from visa applicants abroad. There could be multiple records of one person's prints....
Judge Supports Arizona Law on Immigrants A new Arizona law considered among the nation’s toughest against employers who hire illegal immigrants will go into effect on Jan. 1 after federal judges on Friday refused to block it. Both a United States district judge in Phoenix and a federal appeals court in San Francisco, ruling on separate lawsuits by business and civil rights groups, declined to stand in the way. The law calls for suspending the license of an employer found to have knowingly hired an illegal worker, and revocation for a second offense. First, Judge Neil Vincent Wake of Federal District Court in Phoenix issued a sharp defense of the rights of lawful workers and said the law would not burden businesses in the short run. Then on Friday night, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit deferred a decision on an injunction until after a hearing by Judge Wake on Jan. 16, provided a “decision is reached with reasonable promptness.”....
CIA chief to drag White House into torture cover-up storm THE CIA chief who ordered the destruction of secret videotapes recording the harsh interrogation of two top Al-Qaeda suspects has indicated he may seek immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying before the House intelligence committee. Jose Rodriguez, former head of the CIA’s clandestine service, is determined not to become the fall guy in the controversy over the CIA’s use of torture, according to intelligence sources. It has emerged that at least four White House staff were approached for advice about the tapes, including David Addington, a senior aide to Dick Cheney, the vice-president, but none has admitted to recommending their destruction. Vincent Cannistraro, former head of counterterrorism at the CIA, said it was impossible for Rodriguez to have acted on his own: “If everybody was against the decision, why in the world would Jose Rodriguez – one of the most cautious men I have ever met – have gone ahead and destroyed them?”....

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Washington's Gift

By THOMAS FLEMING

December 24, 2007

There is a Christmas story at the birth of this country that very few Americans know. It involves a single act by George Washington -- his refusal to take absolute power -- that affirms our own deepest beliefs about self-government, and still has profound meaning in today's world. To appreciate its significance, however, we must revisit a dark period at the end of America's eight-year struggle for independence.

The story begins with Gen. Washington's arrival in Annapolis, Md., on Dec. 19, 1783. The country was finally at peace -- just a few weeks earlier the last British army on American soil had sailed out of New York harbor. But the previous eight months had been a time of terrible turmoil and anguish for Gen. Washington, outwardly always so composed. His army had been discharged and sent home, unpaid, by a bankrupt Congress -- without a victory parade or even a statement of thanks for their years of sacrifices and sufferings.
['General George Washington Resigning His Commission,' by John Trumbull, 1824.]
"General George Washington Resigning His Commission," by John Trumbull, 1824.

Instead, not a few congressmen and their allies in the press had waged a vitriolic smear campaign against the soldiers -- especially the officers, because they supposedly demanded too much money for back pay and pensions. Washington had done his utmost to persuade Congress to pay them, yet failed, in this failure losing the admiration of many of the younger officers. Some sneeringly called him "The Great Illustrissimo" -- a mocking reference to his world-wide fame. When he said farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York early in December, he had wept at the sight of anger and resentment on many faces.

Congressman Alexander Hamilton, once Washington's most gifted aide, had told him in a morose letter that there was a "principle of hostility to an army" loose in the country and too many congressmen shared it. Bitterly, Hamilton added that he had "an indifferent opinion of the honesty" of the United States of America.

Soon Hamilton was spreading an even lower opinion of Congress. Its members had fled Philadelphia when a few hundred unpaid soldiers in the city's garrison surrounded the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall), demanding back pay. Congressman Hamilton called the affair "weak and disgusting to the last degree" and soon resigned his seat.

The rest of the country agreed. There were hoots of derision and contempt for Congress in newspapers from Boston to Savannah. The politicians took refuge in the village of Princeton, N.J., where they rejected Washington's advice to fund a small postwar regular army, then wandered to Annapolis.

In Amsterdam, where brokers were trying to sell shares in an American loan negotiated by John Adams, sales plummeted. Even America's best friend in Europe, the Marquis de Lafayette, wondered aloud if the United States was about to collapse. A deeply discouraged Washington admitted he saw "one head turning into thirteen."

Was there anyone who could rescue the situation? Many people thought only George Washington could work this miracle.

Earlier in the year he had been urged to summarily dismiss Congress and rule as an uncrowned king, under the title of president. He emphatically refused to consider the idea. Now many people wondered if he might have changed his mind. At the very least he might appear before Congress and issue a scathing denunciation of their cowardly flight from Philadelphia and their ingratitude to his soldiers. That act would destroy whatever shreds of legitimacy the politicians had left.

At noon on Dec. 23, Washington and two aides walked from their hotel to the Annapolis State House, where Congress was sitting. Barely 20 delegates had bothered to show up.

The general and his aides took designated seats in the assembly chamber. The president of Congress, Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania, began the proceedings: "Sir, the United States in Congress assembled are prepared to receive your communications."

Mifflin had been one of the generals who attempted to humiliate Washington into resigning during the grim winter at Valley Forge. He had smeared Washington as a puffed-up egotist, denigrated his military ability, and used his wealth to persuade not a few congressmen to agree with him. A few months later, Mifflin was forced to quit the army after being accused of stealing millions as quartermaster general.

Addressing this scandal-tarred enemy, Washington drew a speech from his coat pocket and unfolded it with trembling hands. "Mr. President," he began in a low, strained voice. "The great events on which my resignation depended having at length taken place; I now have the honor of offering my sincere congratulations to Congress and of presenting myself before them to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me, and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country."

Washington went on to express his gratitude for the support of "my countrymen" and the "army in general." This reference to his soldiers ignited feelings so intense, he had to grip the speech with both hands to keep it steady. He continued: "I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my official life by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God and those who have the superintendence of them [Congress] to his holy keeping."

For a long moment, Washington could not say another word. Tears streamed down his cheeks. The words touched a vein of religious faith in his inmost soul, born of battlefield experiences that had convinced him of the existence of a caring God who had protected him and his country again and again during the war. Without this faith he might never have been able to endure the frustrations and rage he had experienced in the previous eight months.

Washington then drew from his coat a parchment copy of his appointment as commander in chief. "Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theater of action and bidding farewell to this august body under whom I have long acted, I here offer my commission and take leave of all the employments of public life." Stepping forward, he handed the document to Mifflin.

This was -- is -- the most important moment in American history.

The man who could have dispersed this feckless Congress and obtained for himself and his soldiers rewards worthy of their courage was renouncing absolute power. By this visible, incontrovertible act, Washington did more to affirm America's government of the people than a thousand declarations by legislatures and treatises by philosophers.

Thomas Jefferson, author of the greatest of these declarations, witnessed this drama as a delegate from Virginia. Intuitively, he understood its historic dimension. "The moderation. . . . of a single character," he later wrote, "probably prevented this revolution from being closed, as most others have been, by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to establish."

In Europe, Washington's resignation restored America's battered prestige. It was reported with awe and amazement in newspapers from London to Vienna. The Connecticut painter John Trumbull, studying in England, wrote that it had earned the "astonishment and admiration of this part of the world."

Washington shook hands with each member of Congress and not a few of the spectators. Meanwhile, his aides were bringing their horses and baggage wagons from their hotel. They had left orders for everything to be packed and ready for an immediate departure.

The next day, after an overnight stop at a tavern, they rode at a steady pace toward Mount Vernon. Finally, as twilight shrouded the winter sky, the house came into view beside the Potomac River. Past bare trees and wintry fields the three horsemen trotted toward the white-pillared porch and the green shuttered windows, aglow with candlelight. Waiting for them at the door was Martha Washington and two grandchildren. It was Christmas eve. Ex-Gen. Washington -- and the United States of America -- had survived the perils of both war and peace.

Mr. Fleming is the author, most recently, of "The Perils of Peace: America's Struggle for Survival After Yorktown" (Collins, 2007).

The Christ in Christmas
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

By Julie Carter

At daylight on an icy, snowy Christmas morning, my dad went to the barn to do the usual daily chores. He was also keeping a secret there and the secret needed to be watered and fed.

Hidden in our barn was a coal black Shetland pony he'd ended up with in one of his horse trades.

He had sold a perfectly good 2-year-old bay gelding for some Christmas cash and somehow ended up with this "prize" pony as part of the deal.

My dad hated ponies, believing that if you wanted to ride, you should ride a real horse and there were plenty of those around.

That point was driven home, literally, when the pony unloaded him on Christmas morning when he rode him bareback to the creek for water.

Landing hard on his jean pockets on the frozen ground left my dad with a broken tailbone that offered a painful reminder of his horse-trading abilities for months to follow.

While my dad provided many opportunities for memories during my formative years, there isn't a Christmas day I don't think about that incident and the many years that followed with the black pony adventures.

That simple, almost accidental, gift to us children became a memorable bookmark in our childhoods through many seasons.

I look at my children and wonder what parts of a tradition-filled holiday do they remember?

I'm sure there are individual stories for them, too, but generally, they remember the traditional things passed through generations of our family.

My teenage son tops his list with family get-togethers and big dinners. Food to fuel a growing boy's stomach is still a big part of his priority list.

However, with that is the delight in having the relatives gathered in one place.

My daughters recall the traditions they now carry on with their children. A cookie-decorating event, a family tree-trimming night, making grandma's recipe for homemade caramels and peanut brittle, the hanging of the stockings designed and sewed by grandma and the arranging of the traditional Christmas village.

A family favorite for generations has been the nativity display, complete with real straw to litter the barn floor and a light to represent the star in the East.

Bringing forth the solemn wonder of Christ's birth was, and is, as much part of our tradition as any one thing. Unlike the Christmas pony, it was not an accidental gift.

It is the one true gift that has kept on giving.

Political correctness makes every effort to sterilize the season by making it improper and, in places, even illegal to use the term "Merry Christmas." It is only a matter of time before they realize their "Happy Holidays" is only a version of "Happy Holy Days."

Somewhere in all the red and green everything, the masses of lights and never-ending glitter, it is important for us, as individuals, as a family and as a nation, to hold on to the true meaning of the season. The Christ in Christmas.

I never was very politically correct. Merry Christmas!

Visit Julie’s website at www.julie-carter.com

FLE

TSA ranked among least-liked agencies Hand sanitizer makes it through security in one airport, then it's confiscated at another. Screening lines back up because only two of six lanes are open. And then there's the occasional all-too-intimate pat down. Those complaints and other frustrations make the nation's airport security agency about as popular as the IRS. Indeed, only the Federal Emergency Management Agency, still suffering from its mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, ranks below the Transportation Security Administration among the least-liked federal agencies, according to a new Associated Press-Ipsos poll. TSA tied with the perennially unpopular tax collectors in a favorability ranking of a dozen executive branch agencies. "I am so frustrated with TSA that I am ready to stop flying," one traveler wrote in a Sept. 7 complaint filed with the agency. "I'm sure this doesn't matter to you because my tax dollars are already paying you."....
D.C. family wins suit over raid on home A Capitol Hill family won a lawsuit against the D.C. government after their row house was raided in a search for evidence that their renovation plans violated the city's historic preservation laws. About a dozen police officers and D.C. Consumer and Regulatory Affairs inspectors searched the home of Laura Elkins and John Robbins four years ago, entering the bedrooms of their teenage children who were home sick from school, and searching through drawers, behind furniture and under carpets. The parents were raising and repairing the roof of their home. A neighbor's complaint that the renovation was out of character with the rest of the neighborhood led to the raid. Last week, Judge Rosemary M. Collyer, of the U.S. District for the District of Columbia, ruled that the raid was an "unreasonable search and seizure" that violated the family's constitutional rights to privacy. A separate trial in the spring will determine the amount of damages the District must pay. "It's crazy," Ms. Elkins said. "We had all of our permits. It was just a fishing expedition to intimidate us."....
Border Fence Construction to Begin Amid Public Outcry in Texas It's been a year of protests, outcry, and worry for Texans opposed to a federal plan to build more than 80 miles of steel border fencing along the Rio Grande. In meeting after meeting, city leaders and residents from Brownsville to El Paso have begged the federal government to reconsider plans to build the 26 proposed sections of 15-foot-high, two- or three-layer fencing that can withstand a hit from a 10,000-pound vehicle going 40 mph. Despite the pleas, U.S. Homeland Security officials say the fence project should be done by the end of 2008. "The committed date is the end of 2008 for the completion of fencing that will get us to a total of 370 miles of pedestrian fence (at the Mexican border)," said Michael Friel, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Washington. Some residents and elected officials in South Texas have tried to block the government's progress by refusing to let surveyors come on border properties to look at land that could be the site of new fencing....
Congress OKs Va. Tech-inspired gun bill Congress on Wednesday passed a long-stalled bill inspired by the Virginia Tech shootings that would more easily flag prospective gun buyers who have documented mental health problems. The measure also would help states with the cost. Passage by voice votes in the House and Senate came after months of negotiations between Senate Democrats and the lone Republican, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who had objected and delayed passage. It was not immediately clear whether President Bush intended to sign, veto or ignore the bill. If Congress does not technically go out of session, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has threatened, the bill would become law if Bush does not act within 10 days. The measure would clarify what mental health records should be reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which help gun dealers determine whether to sell a firearm to a prospective buyer, and give states financial incentives for compliance. The attorney general could penalize states if they fail to meet compliance targets. Despite the combined superpowers of bill's supporters, Coburn held it up for months because he worried that millions of dollars in new spending would not be paid for by cuts in other programs. His chief concern, he said, was that it did not pay for successful appeals by veterans or other people who say they are wrongly barred from buying a gun. Just before midnight Tuesday, Coburn and the Democratic supporters of the bill struck a deal: The government would pay for the cost of appeals by gun owners and prospective buyers who argue successfully in court that they were wrongly deemed unqualified for mental health reasons. The compromise would require that incorrect records — such as expunged mental health rulings that once disqualified a prospective gun buyer but no longer do — be removed from system within 30 days....
U.S. senators attempt to soften park gun rules Both of Alaska's U.S. senators have signed a letter asking the Interior Department to repeal federal gun rules for national parks and wildlife refuges, saying that the existing guidelines are "confusing, burdensome and unnecessary." If federal officials agree, the result could be people being able to legally carry loaded guns onto federal lands in Alaska where they're now banned, including much of Denali National Park. The letter was drafted by U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, who asked Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to change rules that prohibit visitors to most national parks and wildlife refuges from carrying operable, loaded guns. Such changes would "respect the second amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners, while providing a consistent application of state weapons laws across all land ownership boundaries" Crapo said in his letter. The letter was signed by 47 senators, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens, both Republicans. Current gun regulations on federal lands vary, depending on the agency and the purpose of the land. Active, operable guns are allowed on federal land overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, for example, as long as the applicable state and local firearms laws are followed. Nationwide, guns are generally allowed on national wildlife refuges and in national parks -- but only if the owner has broken down the firearm and has it in a carrying case, rendering it inoperable....
States Take Sides on D.C. Gun Ban Challenge When the U.S. Supreme Court takes up D.C.'s gun ban in March, it could open up a new battle between the states. States across the country are lining up on both sides, filing friends of the court briefs for or against the District's law banning handguns. D.C. has the toughest gun control law in the country. Virginia, along with Arkansas and Texas, are joining the challenge of the ban. "This is a case of fundamental importance to the interpretation of the Constitution of the United States that is going to impact every state and every territory in the Union based on how they rule," Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell says. Maryland, New York, Illinois and Hawaii are filing briefs backing the law....

Ranch hand disputes claim that he lured endangered wolf A Catron County rancher is disputing a report that he baited an endangered wolf into killing a pregnant cow. The June 23 kill on the Adobe-Slash Ranch in the Gila National Forest triggered a key provision of the federal government's Mexican wolf recovery program: a rule that requires removing a wolf from the wild if it is found to have killed livestock three times in one year. After the livestock kill, federal officials ordered the Durango pack female, with three strikes against her, shot and killed. She was fatally shot on July 5. The article, written by contributing editor John Dougherty, reported that Miller "branded cattle less than a half-mile from the wolves' den, the enticing aroma of seared flesh surely reaching the pack's super sensitive nostrils." Miller said Thursday that he did not try to bait the Durango pack alpha female into a cattle-kill that would require her removal. "He (Dougherty) should be writing children's books," Miller said. "He made that all up, that whole story. I sat there and laughed at it. ... There ain't nothing about that whole story that has any truth to it." High Country News editor Jonathan Thompson said the magazine stands by its story. Representatives of environmental organizations in Arizona and New Mexico, where the wolves are being reintroduced, said they are outraged by the account and called on federal officials to suspend the ranch's grazing leases....

The Great Divide The key lesson to be drawn from the recently concluded U.N. climate conference in Bali is that the central issue for climate change is no longer the science. It is how rich and poor countries will divide the burden of solving the problem. The Kyoto Protocol, concluded ten years ago, required significant emissions reductions from the developed world, but imposed no requirements on developing countries. The United States refused to ratify the agreement partly on the grounds that any agreement that exempted poor nations would do little to reduce the overall risks. In the last decade, emissions have been growing at explosive rates in India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. At the same time, many developing nations--above all China, whose emissions will soon dwarf, and likely already exceed, those of the United States--have taken a strong stand against emissions limitations, pointing to their relative poverty and their "right to development." In Bali, the United States argued that if developed nations were to commit to emissions reductions, developing nations should do so as well. The United States also opposed the idea that wealthy nations should be required to provide significant financial subsidies to poor ones. For its part, the developing world resisted binding emissions limits and insisted that wealthy nations should agree to provide economic support for any mitigation measures. The final agreement is a compromise, and a remarkably vague one at that. It includes two key provisions. The first, applicable only to the developed world, calls for verifiable "commitments" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The second, applicable only to developing countries, does not call for specific "commitments," but only for "appropriate mitigation actions" that are financed or otherwise supported by the developed countries. For those who seek a sensible climate change agreement, there is some good news here. For the first time, poor nations, most importantly China, appear to have accepted the idea that they should take measurable steps toward mitigation. Equally important, rich nations have agreed in principle to provide financial help to poor countries, which have consistently resisted reducing emissions on their own. (Climate change is simply not among their top priorities.) The bad news is that no nation has agreed to do anything but talk....
Hot Air and Wind The House of Representatives passed an energy-independence bill two weeks ago intended to make America more secure. Last week, the Senate rejected a provision in the bill establishing a "renewable portfolio standard" requiring all investor-owned utilities (but not municipal systems and rural cooperatives) to obtain 2.75 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2010 and 15 percent by 2020. A renewable portfolio standard is irrelevant to promises of energy independence and security. Over 95 percent of our power comes from domestic or nearby sources: coal (49 percent), gas (20 percent), uranium (20 percent), and water (7 percent). None of these resources is insecure or held hostage by foreign actors. Nor will the RPS advance "renewable energy" writ large. It will, in effect, be a wind-energy requirement. Wind's technology is advancing, and it offers investors accelerated depreciation and a 1.9-cent per kilowatt-hour federal tax credit (extended to some other renewables in 2005). By contrast, solar energy remains uneconomic in most applications. Geothermal resources are regionally restricted and large enough to attract complaints from environmentalists in the permitting process. Biomass burners look like fossil-fueled plants, emit the same pollutants, and are sited under the same stringent standards. Wind's aesthetics and economics have changed. Bucolic images of windmills are fading as noisy newer models top 400 feet, and public resistance keeps states like Massachusetts from meeting their own renewable energy quotas. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, wind's costs per kilowatt-hour hit bottom in 2002 and have since increased by 60 percent. In 2004, the levelized cost of a coal-fired kilowatt hour was 3.53 cents, compared to 4.31 cents for nuclear, 5.47 for gas and 5.7 for wind. According to a study by Gilbert Metcalf of Tufts University for the National Bureau of Economic Research, removing subsidies to nuclear and wind power takes the former to 5.94 cents and the latter to 6.64....

Court Passes on Chance to Require Milk Warnings for Lactose Intolerant Like common food allergies, lactose intolerance is generally known and does not warrant a warning label on milk cartons, a federal appeals court has ruled. "A bout of indigestion does not justify a race to the courthouse," the unanimous three-judge panel said. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that if people could sue over such obvious food risks, food manufacturers, restaurants and convenience stores would face millions of lawsuits every day. Ten District of Columbia residents filed suit in October 2005 to force grocery stores and other retailers to stop selling dairy products until they carried warning labels about lactose intolerance. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the suit in August 2006. The court determined that federal labeling regulations preempted the proposed warnings, no public safety concerns were at issue and sellers had no duty to warn about lactose in milk. On appeal the D.C. Circuit confirmed that a manufacturer or seller does not have to provide warnings when product ingredients and the risks associated with them are well-known or obvious to consumers....
SC Monks to End Egg Farm After Criticism A monastery will halt its egg farming business after claims by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that the trappist monks mistreated hens. Father Stan Gumula of Mepkin Abbey said in a statement late Wednesday that pressure from PETA has made it difficult for the monks to live a quiet life of prayer, work and sacred reading. He said the monks were sad to give up "a hard and honorable work of which they are proud." The monks admitted no wrongdoing in the statement, and a spokeswoman declined to elaborate. The egg farm business will be phased out over the next 18 months, according to the statement. "We will be looking for a new industry to help us meet our daily expenses," the abbot said. Gumula told the National Catholic Reporter that the abbey produces about 9 million eggs a year, and that the product is delivered to retailers in the Charleston area. The abbey also has a store that sells the eggs. PETA began its criticism of Mepkin Abbey in February, saying it had undercover video of thousands of hens crammed into small cages. The group also said the abbey's suppliers cut off the hens' beaks and killed off males....

Congress Gives Alaska "Ferry To Nowhere" Twice in the past two years, Alaska lawmakers were forced to abandon plans to build two "bridges to nowhere" costing hundreds of millions of dollars after Congress was embarrassed by public complaints over earmarks hidden in annual spending bills. This year, Alaska Republicans Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens found another way to move cash to their state: Stevens secured more than $20 million for an "expeditionary craft" that will connect Anchorage with the windblown rural peninsula of Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Now what Alaska has, budget watchdogs contend, is a ferry to nowhere. The $555 billion annual "omnibus" spending bill approved by Congress this week and the $459 billion defense bill passed last month collectively contain more than 11,000 earmarks, despite Democrats' vow to use their first year in the majority to slash the number of such pet projects....

Family awarded $26.5 million in eminent domain case A Superior Court jury has awarded $26.5 million to a family whose Otay Mesa land was targeted for condemnation by the state Department of Transportation so it could build a freeway. The award was made to Anderprises Inc., a small San Diego family business that has owned land on Otay Mesa since 1974. The land was bought by Phil and Marjorie Anderson; their four sons and their families now own it. After a three-week trial before Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett, the jury deliberated one day before making the award Wednesday. At issue was the value of a piece of land that the Andersons controlled off Otay Mesa Road east of Interstate 805 and south of Brown Field. Caltrans had used eminent domain to take a 2.8-acre sliver of a 58-acre parcel, said Vincent Bartolotta, Jr. the Andersons' lawyer. But by doing that, the family claimed the majority of the parcel was cut off and landlocked – with no viable access in or out. The agency contended it did not have to pay damages for the balance of the land and offered $172,410 for the 2.8 acres, Bartolotta said. The agency argued that the land was slated to be used for open space anyway and could not be developed. But the Andersons rejected the offer, setting the stage for the trial. The jury ruled unanimously in favor of the landholders. The panel concluded the value of the 2.8-acre parcel was $1.3 million. Additionally, it set damages for the lost use of the landlocked property at $20.1 million....
Leave Those Car Buyers Alone ast week, environmentalists and the auto industry struck a deal to require new cars sold 13 years hence to average 35 miles per gallon; a 40-percent increase over the existing 27.5 mpg mandate. Hands were held, tears were shed, and "Kum-ba-ya" broke out all over Washington. As the president prepares to sign the energy bill passed yesterday by the House, Congress's 32-year-old fight over automotive fuel-economy standards is probably over ... for now. That's too bad, because while there are a number of parties claiming victory from this political peace treaty, consumers will almost certainly be the biggest losers. Of the 1,153 passenger vehicle models on the road today, only two presently meet the proposed 35 mpg standard. According to a quick review of EPA data undertaken by Marlo Lewis at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, those cars are the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic hybrid. Nine other vehicles, Lewis reports, get 35 mpg in city or highway driving conditions, but not both — and all of those vehicles are either subcompacts or compacts. Hence, the auto fleet is going to have to change — and change a lot — for new cars to average 35 mpg by 2020. The industry has three routes it can go. First, it can lighten cars and thus improve mileage. Second, it can reengineer cars by reducing engine power and incorporating advanced technology to improve fuel efficiency. Third, it can simply stop making low-mileage cars and trucks or, alternatively, increase their prices so much that a substantial number of consumers opt for the fuel-efficient alternatives. Of course, mixing and matching is not only possible, but probable. None of those options, however, represent a Christmas gift to car buyers. Reducing vehicle weight is the cheapest way to improve fuel efficiency, but that would increase highway deaths, just as it has done in the past according to a 2002 study by the National Academy of Sciences. Reengineering cars will reduce automotive performance in ways that car-buyers probably won't like while increasing automotive prices by as much as $3,500 a car according to the same NAS study. Cross-subsidies might be the most direct way to meet the standard, but that represents a rather steep tax on people with large families, big dogs, and those who for whatever reason need to haul around a lot of stuff — not to mention those who simply have a preference for zippy sports cars or riding high off the road. So how does that square with claim that consumers win with more fuel-efficient cars?....
EPA chief is said to have ignored staff The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ignored his staff's written findings in denying California's request for a waiver to implement its landmark law to slash greenhouse gases from vehicles, sources inside and outside the agency told The Times on Thursday. "California met every criteria . . . on the merits. The same criteria we have used for the last 40 years on all the other waivers," said an EPA staffer. "We told him that. All the briefings we have given him laid out the facts." EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson announced Wednesday that because President Bush had signed an energy bill raising average fuel economy that there was no need or justification for separate state regulation. He also said that California's request did not meet the legal standard set out in the Clean Air Act. But his staff, which had worked for months on the waiver decision, concluded just the opposite, the sources said Thursday. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk with the media or because they feared reprisals. California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols said she was also told by EPA staff that they were overruled by Johnson....
FWP Commission OKs tentative hunting plan for wolves Up to 130 wolves could be hunted this fall in Montana under a proposal tentatively adopted Thursday by the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission. The wolf hunting season, slated to run from Sept. 15 to Nov. 30, is contingent upon the wolves being struck from the federal list of endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expects to do that in February 2008 but anticipates lawsuits to follow, which could delay any hunting season. The FWP Commission decision also could change after it presents the plan at 44 town meetings in January, and through the public comment period. The commission is scheduled to make a final decision on all of Montana’s hunting seasons for the next two years at its February meeting, although wolf season issues may be postponed. This tentative decision mirrors recommendations made earlier this month by Montana’s Wolf Management Advisory Council. The 12-person group of ranchers, hunters, scientists and others decided that 130 wolves could be killed in Montana without reducing the overall number of wolves in the state, and expected that half of those deaths would probably be for preying on livestock. The 130 figure is similar to the anticipated population increase next year because of births and immigration, according to Carolyn Sime, statewide wolf coordinator for FWP....

Wolves blamed in two Eagle River attacks Wolves blamed in two Eagle River attacks. A KTVA Channel 11 story reports on a group of at least seven wolves that waylaid three women running with their dogs on Artillery Road in Eagle River. The pack, despite being pepper-sprayed by one of the women, circled the group for a time before attacking and injuring one of the dogs, according to the story. The women were not hurt in the episode, but a bulldog, Buddy, underwent surgery to fix his wounds. “They were not afraid of us, and I’m afraid that if I was out here by myself, they would attack me,” Buddy’s owner, Camas Barkemeyer, says in the story. The report says the episode came about an hour after a dog on a chain was attacked and killed in an Eagle River backyard. State Department of Fish and Game officials believe both attacks may have involved the same wolves, according to the story. Meanwhile, a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story today says that Fish and Game officials in that community have set up a hot line and an Internet site to handle reports of wolf sightings. A pack of wolves is believed to be responsible for at least three dog deaths in the region in recent months....Go here to view the KTVA Video report.

A Year of Problems Has USDA Rethinking Safety Rules For beef lovers, 2007 will go down as another year of eating dangerously. Since the spring, meat suppliers have recalled more than 30 million pounds of ground beef contaminated with the potentially lethal bacteria E. coli O157:H7, including the 21.7 million pounds recalled by New Jersey-based Topps Meat in September. After three relatively quiet years, the 20 recalls this year have raised new doubts about whether the beef industry's attempts to keep the pathogen out of ground beef, and the government's oversight of those efforts, are working. Agriculture Department officials, who oversee the safety of pork, beef and poultry, say they did not recognize that anything was seriously amiss with the beef supply until the Topps recall hit. Microbiologists say the prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 in the environment is highly variable, and no one can say with certainty what caused the spike in outbreaks. In several instances this year, however, USDA officials missed red flags and were slow to correct longstanding deficiencies in the way they monitor beef processors' efforts to contain the pathogen....

'The Dying West' Used to be that Jim Kemp would run cows along dirt paths from Campo north to Mount Laguna and south to Mexico. But then the roads through the region were paved, so he began using them to move the cows from pasture to pasture. "Now, I shudder just to drive them across the highway," he says, speaking quietly, his voice carrying a hint of Jack Palance gravel. At 77 years old, Kemp is a remnant of a once-vibrant breed. Cattle ranchers, dusty denim and spur-wearing cowboys, are fading into San Diego County's history. Between 1997 and 2002, the number of cattle farms in the county dropped 40 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Since 1975, the USDA says the number of cattle dropped from 61,000 to 22,000. Ranchers who ran 6,000 cattle a few decades ago are lucky to run 300 today. Higher land prices and the region’s dry climate have transformed ranching from a full-time business into a supplemental job. The transition has had significant implications for development and conservation, a trend that continues while ranching endures its long and sustained decline. For more than a century, ranching has defined much of San Diego County's landscape. Look no further than the place names given to the region's neighborhoods: Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Peñasquitos, Otay Ranch. As ranching continues becoming less profitable and prolific, many wonder what will take its place. The decline has historically provided opportunities for housing subdivisions. But tighter county zoning laws and massive efforts to buy ranchland for parks and open-space preserves have changed that over the last 15 years....

FDA Decision on Cloned Meat Looms The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is scheduled to make a final decision before the end of the year on whether meat and milk from cloned animals can enter the food supply. The FDA released a draft risk assessment late last year indicating that cloned products are as safe as other products on the market today, but it has not indicated the exact date of its final ruling on the matter. "I am expecting that we will essentially get the same ruling - the same findings -- that they had in the draft risk assessment," Mark Walton, president of the animal cloning firm ViaGen, told Cybercast News Service. "The draft risk assessment was so thorough, contained essentially all of the data that was available, and then there was new data added during the public comment period, but the new data supported the conclusions the FDA had already made," Walton added. "I would anticipate that cloned animals and the offspring of cloned animals and the products that come from those are as safe as conventionally produced products," he said....

Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday. "We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference. A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old. They also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and will continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months, they told the news conference. Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free -- provided residents renounce their US citizenship, Means said....

Conservation, Development & Class Conflict: The Case of Ameya Preserve Fifty miles north of Yellowstone National Park, in Montana’s aptly named Paradise Valley, an ambitious North Dakota native and Wall Street millionaire named Wade Dokken is planning a unique luxury home community called the Ameya Preserve. Unlike its brethren around the Rocky Mountain West, the Ameya Preserve will have no fancy golf course, no private ski hill, no Prada boutiques or mega-mansions behind high walls. Instead, there will be lots of wildlife, open space, energy efficient houses, and a host of cultural amenities of a decidedly high-brow ilk. Dokken makes a rather bold claim: “I’m not a developer,” he says. “I’m a conservationist.” He touts his credentials as a liberal Democrat, and says the 300-plus-home Ameya Preserve, set on 9,500 acres of pristine ranchland, will be nothing less than "the most sustainable community ever built." It's being marketed to wealthy people around the world who will likely spend only a few months or weeks a year there (a single lot at Ameya was the most expensive gift in this year's Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog, at a cool $2.3 million)....
Congress bans incandescent bulbs In addition to raising auto fuel efficiency standards 40 percent, an energy bill passed by Congress yesterday bans the incandescent light bulb by 2014. President Bush signed the 822-page measure into law today after it was sent up Pennsylvania Avenue in a Toyota Prius hybrid vehicle. The House passed the bill by a 314-100 vote after approval by the Senate last week. Rep. John D. Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the legislation will boost the energy efficiency of "almost every significant product and tool and appliance that we use, from light bulbs to light trucks." The phase-out of incandescent light is to begin with the 100-watt bulb in 2012 and end in 2014 with the 40-watt. All light bulbs must use 25 percent to 30 percent less 2014. By 2020, bulbs must be 70 percent more efficient than they are today....
The Nature Conservancy in Kansas Provides Release Site for First Black-Footed Ferrets On Tuesday, at The Nature Conservancy (http://www.nature.org/)'s 17,000-acre Smoky Valley Ranch preserve in Logan County, Kansas, 10 endangered black footed-ferrets were released into the wild by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). This reintroduction marks the first time that live ferrets, once believed extinct, have been documented on Kansas soil in 50 years. "The black-footed ferret is the rarest mammal in North America, and the only ferret species native to this country," said Alan Pollom, state director for The Nature Conservancy in Kansas (http://www.nature.org/kansas). "But today's historic event represents significant conservation progress, and shows that we are one step closer to removing these incredible animals from the federal Engendered Species list." The nocturnal black-footed ferret, which weighs no more than three pounds and measures less than two feet, has been at the brink of extinction in recent decades due to disease, loss of native grasslands from land conversion and development, and a steep decline in the number of prairie dogs, their main food source. According to the U.S. FWS, populations of black-footed have decreased by approximately 95 to 98 percent over the last century. "Efforts to change the species' status from endangered to threatened involve establishing 10 free-ranging populations of ferrets, spread over large areas in the Western U.S.," said Dan Mulhern of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Our goal is to have 1,500 breeding adult ferrets established in the wild by 2010."....
Pearce not happy with wolf program Rep. Stevan Pearce is expressing his discontent with regards to the direction the Mexican gray wolf recovery program is heading in New Mexico. "I am disappointed more of my colleagues could not see the wisdom in eliminating an unsuccessful, ineffective program that has not only failed to produce results, but also threatens the lives and livelihoods of New Mexicans," he said. "We have tried the reintroduction program for 10 years and have seen only growing problems and more wolf-human interactions." Pearce said he believes the time has come to concede that wolves cannot successfully be reintroduced into New Mexico, and is disappointed Congress has not yet reached that view. "I will continue working to ensure that we are protected from these captive-bred habituated wolves," he said. "The Fish and Wildlife Service must take active steps to better manage problem wolves and guarantee that farmers, ranchers, their families, and their livestock are not repeatedly stalked and attacked....
Pinon Canyon delay included in omnibus budget bill President Bush and congressional Democrats may have have settled their long fight over the 2008 budget when the Senate approved the $555 billion omnibus bill Monday night that includes important amendments for Colorado, including a one-year ban on the Army spending any money on expanding the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. The Pinon Canyon amendment began with Reps. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., and John Salazar, D-Colo., and it prohibits the Army from spending any money next year on the proposed 414,000-acre expansion of the Pinon Canyon training site northeast of Trinidad. Musgrave and Salazar argue that nearly tripling the size of the Army training area will ruin the ranching economy of Las Animas County and the surrounding area. "As many as 400,000 head of cattle are raised in this region of the state," Salazar said in a statement Tuesday. "The one-year moratorium on expanding Pinon Canyon marks a significant victory for farmers and ranchers throughout Colorado."....
Prairie dog decision delayed until February A U.S. Forest Service official says a decision on the poisoning of prairie dogs on some national grasslands in South Dakota and Nebraska has been delayed until at least early February. Nebraska National Forest supervisor Don Bright says the first part of the decision will deal with grasslands outside the southwestern South Dakota areas where endangered black-footed ferrets have been reintroduced. He says the second decision will follow within a few months to deal with ferret recovery areas. The Nebraska National Forest manages the federally owned grasslands in South Dakota. It issued draft plans in June to allow varying levels of poisoning and other methods of controlling prairie dogs on interior sections of the grasslands....
Beef packing houses once dotted the coast At the end of the Civil War, Confederate soldiers returned to South Texas to find huge numbers of almost wild, unbranded longhorns. They took those not branded and drove them to Kansas railheads where they were shipped to northern cities hungry for beef. In 1866, the year after the war ended, 260,000 longhorns went up the trail. It was too much. This flood of beef glutted the market and prices fell to almost nothing. In 1867, only 37,000 head went north, for little gain. The value of the longhorn had been quickly reduced to the value of its hide, tallow that could be rendered for candles, horns and bones that could be used to make buttons and knife handles. Almost overnight, beef slaughter houses sprang up all along the coast, from Padre Island to the Rockport area. Such slaughterhouses were not unknown here before. Henry Kinney, founder of Corpus Christi, opened a slaughterhouse on North Beach in the 1840s where mustangs and longhorns were killed for their hides. In the 1850s, C.R. Hopson, with Kinney as his partner, operated a beef packing house at Peoples and Water, the center of town. After the Civil War, in 1866, rancher Richard King built a packing house inside the city limits on the south side....

MEXICAN GRAY WOLF

Last chance for the Lobo Miller keeps an eye on predators that may threaten livestock, especially the Mexican gray wolf. After being hunted to the brink of extinction, the wolf is once again roaming the grasslands, mountains and streams of western New Mexico and eastern Arizona. So Miller was concerned when the Durango female showed up near his house about a dozen times. Yet instead of trying to scare it off, he did the opposite. On June 21, he branded cattle less than a half-mile from the wolves’ den, the enticing aroma of seared flesh surely reaching the pack’s super-sensitive nostrils. Miller was, in essence, offering up a cow as a sacrifice. The government’s Mexican gray wolf reintroduction rulebook says that a rancher cannot shoot a wolf simply because she threatens his livestock. But if a single wolf kills three cows or sheep or other domestic animals in a single year, then federal officers may kill or capture the wolf. The wolf Miller had his eye on already had two strikes against her; Miller was hoping for a third. "We would sacrifice a calf to get a third strike," Miller told High Country News, candidly revealing a tactic that could help ranchers get the upper hand in their protracted, bloody war against the endangered Mexican wolves....
Ranch Hand Admits to Baiting Wolves to Prey on Livestock; Results in Removal of Endangered Wolves Today, High Country News reported in an article, Last Chance for the Lobo, that a ranch hand working on the Adobe-Slash Ranch in New Mexico abandoned a pregnant cow that was about to give birth in an area wolves were known to inhabit, in order to lure wolves into attacking livestock which would provide an excuse for removing the wolves. According to the article, the ranch hand knew where the wolves were by using radio-tracking data provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which is meant to help ranchers avoid livestock losses. As the article reports, this baiting incident resulted in the lethal removal of the Durango pack's alpha female. "If the accusations detailed in Last Chance for the Lobo are true, it is deeply disturbing that someone would use the very tools offered to help them avoid conflict with wolves as a means to derail the recovery of the Mexican wolf. Defenders of Wildlife has worked hard to help ranchers coexist with wolves through compensation, cooperation and trust. It appears that ranch hand Mike Miller abused that trust and deliberately sacrificed livestock under his care to force the removal of endangered wolves....

Feds make minor changes to Idaho's roadless plan The U.S. Forest Service made minor changes in an Idaho plan to protect 8.7 million acres of roadless national forest. The agency released its draft environmental impact statement on the plan written by former Gov. and now Lt. Gov. Jim Risch and has the endorsement of current Gov. Butch Otter. It plans to schedule more than a dozen public meetings around the state in January and February. The proposed roadless plan would release 609,500 acres of lands currently protected as roadless under the 2001 roadless rule pushed by the Clinton administration. That would allow logging, road building, mining and other activities. But the rest of the land would be managed under four other designations that offer progressively more restricted limits on development. The most controversial, called backcountry restoration areas, would allow temporary roads and logging "to protect public health and safety in cases of significant risk or imminent threat of flood, fire, or other catastrophic event." These areas account for more than 5 million of the total 9.3 million acres currently protected under the Clinton rule....
EPA blocks California bid to limit greenhouse gases from cars The Bush administration blocked efforts by California and 16 other states Wednesday to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, setting up a political and legal fight over whether states can take a lead role in combatting global warming. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson rejected California's request for a waiver from the federal government to impose its tough tailpipe emissions standards. The other states were poised to adopt similar rules if California's request was granted. The states represent nearly half the U.S. population, and their laws would effectively require automakers to cut greenhouse gas emissions nationwide, despite President Bush's rejection of mandatory national standards. Johnson said Congress' passage of an energy bill this week that raises fuel economy standards for all cars and trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 made the state laws unnecessary. Bush signed the law Wednesday morning....
Whales may have evolved from raccoon-sized creature In the search for a missing evolutionary link to modern whales, scientists have come up with an unlikely land cousin -- a raccoon-sized creature with the body of a small deer. Prior molecular studies have proposed the hippo as the closest land relative of today's whales, but researchers reporting in the journal Nature on Wednesday suggest a four-footed creature from India known as Indohyus, which probably hid in water in times of danger. Scientists have long known that whales had ancestors that walked on land. Now a team lead by Hans Thewissen of Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy have pieced together a series of intermediate fossils that trace the whale's evolutionary journey from land to sea....