NEW MEXICO LIVESTOCK BOARD
Sources tell me the NM Livestock Board held a special meeting this afternoon and that Dan Manzanares, the Executive Director, has submitted his resignation.
I was told this was in line with the Governor's wishes.
Sources also said his replacement would be Myles Culbertson, currently of Las Cruces, NM.
Stay tuned....
Friday, June 22, 2007
June 21, 2007
MEMORANDUM
From: Jeff Eisenberg
Executive Director
Public Lands Council
To: Public Lands Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Subject: Western Watersheds Project v. Kraayenbrink, No. CV-05-297 (D. Id. June 8, 2007)
Introduction
In July 2006, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued final regulations for the administration of grazing lands. These regulations contain a number of provisions restore strengthening the balance of multiple uses on public lands. A number of environmental groups led by the Western Watersheds Project sued the BLM immediately upon issuance of the regulations seeking to set them aside. The Public Lands Council (PLC) joined the litigation as an intervenor on behalf of BLM.
On June 8, Judge Winmill issued a decision barring implementation of the regulations on the grounds they violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Federal
Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA), and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This Decision is a significant setback to implementation of the regulations. We are in the process of gathering information to help inform our own decision making.
The Decision
1. Public Participation
A. NEPA
The court first considered changes to public participation in the grazing program. The 2006 rule authorized the BLM to drop a group from participating in decisions if the group received notice of pending decision but failed to submit a comment. The rule eliminated public participation in decisions affecting: (1) adjustments to allotment boundaries; (2) changes in active use; (3) emergency allotment closures; (4) issuance or renewal of individual permits or leases; and, (5) issuance of temporary nonrenewable grazing permits and leases. The public would continue to participate in decisions in which the BLM issues, renews, or modifies a grazing permit for a certain allotment.
Judge Winmill stated the standard rule that agencies must take a “hard look” under NEPA as to why actions are proposed, in this case why public participation should be more limited than in the 1995 regulation. BLM explained that one reason for limiting public participation was to reduce the cost of maintaining a list of “interested publics” that must get “periodic mailings at taxpayer expense” but have not “participated . . . in years.” He observed that BLM did not list the specific costs it incurred in maintaining the list, and concluded “[i]t is impossible to evaluate this claim without knowing the specific costs involved.”
BLM further justified the limitation on public participation by asserting that in-depth public involvement can delay routine management responses. The Judge dismissed this assertion stating “the agency’s management of public input cannot defeat NEPA’s purpose of ‘ensuring that the agency will have . . . detailed information concerning significant environmental impacts, and . . . that the public can . . . contribute to that body of information. . . .’” The Judge also noted that interested publics would not receive proposed TNR permit decisions under the new regulations, even though TNRs have often been used to increase grazing levels.
B. FLPMA
Under this statute, BLM is required to establish procedures to give the public adequate notice and an opportunity to comment upon the formulation of standards and criteria for, and to participate in the preparation and execution of plans and programs for, the management of, the public lands. 43 U.S.C. 1739(e). The Judge stated that “[g]razing permit (or TNR permit) issues are the crucial ‘management’ and ‘execution’ tools of the BLM to carry out its long-range plans.” He ruled that Congress did not give the BLM any discretion to cut the public out of these management and execution issues, thereby finding a facial violation of FLPMA.
2. Fundamentals of Rangeland Health (FRH) and Range Improvement Ownership
The 2006 Rule changed the BLM’s reliance on FRH in four ways. First, it eliminated the need to rely on FRH at all if state-specific Standards and Guidelines are in place. Second, the Rule required monitoring data to support a conclusion that Standards and Guidelines are being violated. Third, the Rule allowed BLM to take 24 months to adopt a new grazing decision and then take an additional year to implement that decision. Finally, the Rule required BLM to phase-in reductions in grazing of more than 10% over five years.
The 2006 Rule allowed shared title of permanent range improvements constructed under cooperative range improvement agreements. Title would be shared in proportion to the permittee’s and Government’s contribution to the on-the-ground project development and construction costs.
A team of experts assembled by BLM to review these and other proposals for new grazing regulations stated that BLM lacked sufficient funding and staffing to perform the monitoring necessary to support the changes to FRH. The experts concluded that the changes to the FRH could have significant and long-term adverse effects on wildlife resources and biological biodiversity in general. BLM published the proposed regulations before the agency completed its review of the report of the expert. BLM did not address in the record these comments of the experts.
The Judge considered these events and concluded BLM failed to take the required “hard look” under NEPA with regard to the environmental impact of the changes to the FRH. He recognized that BLM has broad discretion to resolve conflicts among its own experts. However, “the recitation of that conflict and its resolution must take place in the EIS.”
3. Delay
Judge Winmill next addressed provisions in the regulations that he characterized as raising “the potential for delay in correcting grazing abuses,” including the requirement that any adverse determination made by the agency be supported by monitoring data. He relied on statements by Fish and Wildlife Service officials that monitoring will not be completed in a timely, effective manner because of the lack of funding and staff. These same officials concluded that the new monitoring requirement “would make most of the standards and guidelines unenforceable for the foreseeable future on many, and perhaps most, grazing allotments.”
Based on an evaluation of 7,437 high-priority allotments, BLM argued that grazing adversely affected only 16% of all allotments, so the limitations on monitoring would not have a significant adverse impacts on resources. The Judge countered that 16% of all allotments still amounted to 23 million acres with adverse impacts, and another 83 million acres had not been assessed at all.
The Judge charged that BLM failed to offer any rationale in the EIS that would support delay in taking administrative action for violations of Standards and Guidelines. “NEPA requires the BLM to explain itself so the public and decision-makers can determine if this change in course is acceptable. The FEIS does not contain that explanation and so violates NEPA. For the same reasons, these delaying revisions violate FLPMA.”
4. Endangered Species Act (ESA)
BLM considered the effects of the proposed regulations on threatened and endangered species and determined they had no effect. Judge Winmill cites the ESA regulations for the proposition that the duty to consult applies to the promulgation of regulations. He cited a number of statements from FWS and BLM staff, and statements outside the administrative record, to show the regulations will in fact have an adverse effect on listed species. Not one of the statements relied on by the Judge relates the apprehension of adverse effect to any experience on the ground. Without assessing the merits of the BLM determination, the Judge concluded BLM’s failure to consult was arbitrary and capricious.
Questions about the Decision
Judge Winmill is completely comfortable substituting his judgment for that of the agency. This approach to the case undergirds a number of rulings that would seem to be ripe for reversal as a matter of law. He derides agency assessments of range conditions. He does not seem to attach any value to requiring monitoring to support decision making. Conveniently, the Judge’s views about managing an agency budget and program do not extend to a complete program for managing BLM rangelands. He certainly does not cite any part of the record for the environmental benefits of keeping ranches intact. Nor does he propose how he would reorder numerous BLM range activities within its existing budget to suit his preferences. All he really is sure of is that the BLM grazing regulation is wrong as a matter of law. The feelings Judge Winmill expressed in his decision may not withstand legal scrutiny.
For example, attacking the failure to identify “specific” costs for administering participation would seem to go to the question whether the agency had a rational basis to limit participation under the “arbitrary and capricious” standard of the Administrative Procedure Act. Failure to identify costs may not be a violation of NEPA which is aimed at forcing the disclosure of the environmental consequences of a proposed action. The Judge reaches what is for him the easy conclusion that the limitation on public participation is also a violation of the FLPMA requirement to provide for public participation in the formulation and execution of plans for the administration of the public lands. Nothing in this statute dictates precisely the aspects of administration in which the public must be allowed to participate. Drawing these lines is discretion Congress obviously vested in the Secretary. The 2006 Rule allows the public to participate in the major decisions affecting permit administration, and limits participation in more minor decisions. Some legal uncertainty attends BLM’s decision to limit participation in the issuance of TNR permits.
Judge Winmill made two broad attacks on the changes to the FRH. First, he rules BLM failed to resolve conflicts among experts in the EIS. Nothing in NEPA requires BLM to formulate a draft EIS in conformity with earlier draft materials prepared by agency or departmental staff. The agency prepares a draft proposal, the public comments, and the agency reconciles conflicts in the final document. Nevertheless, the Judge rejected the changes to the FRH, in part because the agency failed to adequately address comments raised in a pre-draft document (the ARC-DEIS).
Second, he asserts the agency failed to offer “any rationale” to support delaying implementation of adverse grazing decisions. Without the rationale, the public cannot decide if the change is “acceptable”. He rejects the agency’s effort to sample allotments to determine the general condition of the range and how many allotments are affected by adverse grazing impacts. However, neither the environmental groups nor the Judge make any showing that the delays will actually impact the resource either positively or negatively. They do not do so, because they cannot. No one knows the impact of the 2006 Rule on resources until it has been implemented.
On balance, the priority of administrative activities reflected in the regulation may allow the agency to focus on the most serious resource problems and improve the agency’s stewardship of its vast land portfolio. In the meantime, it is legally irelevant under NEPA whether the changes in the regulation are “acceptable”. Judge Winmill offered no suggestion how the asserted absence of a rationale to support delay is a violation of FLPMA.
With respect to the ESA, the Judge ignores the agency’s position and record in support of the conclusion that the regulations will have “no effect” on listed species. What he does do is draw on statements in the record he likes to conclude BLM was obligated to consult under the ESA in promulgating the regulations. As a visceral matter, it is hard to understand how any conclusion can be drawn about the impact of the regulations on resources, without the implementation of the regulations. Whether BLM followed its own procedures and developed an adequate record to support this conclusion is an open question.
So What to Do?
The Department is understandably reluctant to cure defects identified in the opinion by starting a NEPA process over from scratch for one or more issues at this late date in the Administration. However, the issues identified above may very well be reversible as a matter of law. Rehabilitation of the agency’s position on the discussed issues would not require opening up a new NEPA process.
The one issue which may require additional process is consultation under the ESA. It is not clear whether BLM complied with the FWS and BLM rules in concluding the regulations would have “no effect” on species. This is a determination the Department will have to make.
Perhaps most troubling about the decision, is the Judge’s easy willingness to substitute his judgment for that of the agency. Many of his rulings will have an effect on agency activity far beyond the grazing regulations, and run afoul of the principles of broad agency discretion recently articulated by the Supreme Court in the Southern Utah Wilderness case. Should the Administration not appeal the decision, it will cede considerable authority to shape agency activities to environmentalists and Judge Winmill, and the judiciary generally.
In particular, does the Secretary really want to have its discretion limited under FLPMA as the Judge has done here? Does the Secretary and/or the Administration really want to allow courts to decide how much pre-EIS material must be addressed in an EIS? Is the Secretary ready to cede to the courts authority for deciding how to prioritize and carry out the Department’s many and often conflicting responsibilities? Is the Secretary or the Administration for that matter prepared to allow wild speculation about future events to limit its options at the present time?
Conclusion
We believe Judge Winmill’s decision poses important obstacles to preserving the Secretary’s discretion regarding grazing and other programs under his jurisdiction. We urge the Department to seek an appeal of the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
MEMORANDUM
From: Jeff Eisenberg
Executive Director
Public Lands Council
To: Public Lands Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Subject: Western Watersheds Project v. Kraayenbrink, No. CV-05-297 (D. Id. June 8, 2007)
Introduction
In July 2006, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued final regulations for the administration of grazing lands. These regulations contain a number of provisions restore strengthening the balance of multiple uses on public lands. A number of environmental groups led by the Western Watersheds Project sued the BLM immediately upon issuance of the regulations seeking to set them aside. The Public Lands Council (PLC) joined the litigation as an intervenor on behalf of BLM.
On June 8, Judge Winmill issued a decision barring implementation of the regulations on the grounds they violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Federal
Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA), and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This Decision is a significant setback to implementation of the regulations. We are in the process of gathering information to help inform our own decision making.
The Decision
1. Public Participation
A. NEPA
The court first considered changes to public participation in the grazing program. The 2006 rule authorized the BLM to drop a group from participating in decisions if the group received notice of pending decision but failed to submit a comment. The rule eliminated public participation in decisions affecting: (1) adjustments to allotment boundaries; (2) changes in active use; (3) emergency allotment closures; (4) issuance or renewal of individual permits or leases; and, (5) issuance of temporary nonrenewable grazing permits and leases. The public would continue to participate in decisions in which the BLM issues, renews, or modifies a grazing permit for a certain allotment.
Judge Winmill stated the standard rule that agencies must take a “hard look” under NEPA as to why actions are proposed, in this case why public participation should be more limited than in the 1995 regulation. BLM explained that one reason for limiting public participation was to reduce the cost of maintaining a list of “interested publics” that must get “periodic mailings at taxpayer expense” but have not “participated . . . in years.” He observed that BLM did not list the specific costs it incurred in maintaining the list, and concluded “[i]t is impossible to evaluate this claim without knowing the specific costs involved.”
BLM further justified the limitation on public participation by asserting that in-depth public involvement can delay routine management responses. The Judge dismissed this assertion stating “the agency’s management of public input cannot defeat NEPA’s purpose of ‘ensuring that the agency will have . . . detailed information concerning significant environmental impacts, and . . . that the public can . . . contribute to that body of information. . . .’” The Judge also noted that interested publics would not receive proposed TNR permit decisions under the new regulations, even though TNRs have often been used to increase grazing levels.
B. FLPMA
Under this statute, BLM is required to establish procedures to give the public adequate notice and an opportunity to comment upon the formulation of standards and criteria for, and to participate in the preparation and execution of plans and programs for, the management of, the public lands. 43 U.S.C. 1739(e). The Judge stated that “[g]razing permit (or TNR permit) issues are the crucial ‘management’ and ‘execution’ tools of the BLM to carry out its long-range plans.” He ruled that Congress did not give the BLM any discretion to cut the public out of these management and execution issues, thereby finding a facial violation of FLPMA.
2. Fundamentals of Rangeland Health (FRH) and Range Improvement Ownership
The 2006 Rule changed the BLM’s reliance on FRH in four ways. First, it eliminated the need to rely on FRH at all if state-specific Standards and Guidelines are in place. Second, the Rule required monitoring data to support a conclusion that Standards and Guidelines are being violated. Third, the Rule allowed BLM to take 24 months to adopt a new grazing decision and then take an additional year to implement that decision. Finally, the Rule required BLM to phase-in reductions in grazing of more than 10% over five years.
The 2006 Rule allowed shared title of permanent range improvements constructed under cooperative range improvement agreements. Title would be shared in proportion to the permittee’s and Government’s contribution to the on-the-ground project development and construction costs.
A team of experts assembled by BLM to review these and other proposals for new grazing regulations stated that BLM lacked sufficient funding and staffing to perform the monitoring necessary to support the changes to FRH. The experts concluded that the changes to the FRH could have significant and long-term adverse effects on wildlife resources and biological biodiversity in general. BLM published the proposed regulations before the agency completed its review of the report of the expert. BLM did not address in the record these comments of the experts.
The Judge considered these events and concluded BLM failed to take the required “hard look” under NEPA with regard to the environmental impact of the changes to the FRH. He recognized that BLM has broad discretion to resolve conflicts among its own experts. However, “the recitation of that conflict and its resolution must take place in the EIS.”
3. Delay
Judge Winmill next addressed provisions in the regulations that he characterized as raising “the potential for delay in correcting grazing abuses,” including the requirement that any adverse determination made by the agency be supported by monitoring data. He relied on statements by Fish and Wildlife Service officials that monitoring will not be completed in a timely, effective manner because of the lack of funding and staff. These same officials concluded that the new monitoring requirement “would make most of the standards and guidelines unenforceable for the foreseeable future on many, and perhaps most, grazing allotments.”
Based on an evaluation of 7,437 high-priority allotments, BLM argued that grazing adversely affected only 16% of all allotments, so the limitations on monitoring would not have a significant adverse impacts on resources. The Judge countered that 16% of all allotments still amounted to 23 million acres with adverse impacts, and another 83 million acres had not been assessed at all.
The Judge charged that BLM failed to offer any rationale in the EIS that would support delay in taking administrative action for violations of Standards and Guidelines. “NEPA requires the BLM to explain itself so the public and decision-makers can determine if this change in course is acceptable. The FEIS does not contain that explanation and so violates NEPA. For the same reasons, these delaying revisions violate FLPMA.”
4. Endangered Species Act (ESA)
BLM considered the effects of the proposed regulations on threatened and endangered species and determined they had no effect. Judge Winmill cites the ESA regulations for the proposition that the duty to consult applies to the promulgation of regulations. He cited a number of statements from FWS and BLM staff, and statements outside the administrative record, to show the regulations will in fact have an adverse effect on listed species. Not one of the statements relied on by the Judge relates the apprehension of adverse effect to any experience on the ground. Without assessing the merits of the BLM determination, the Judge concluded BLM’s failure to consult was arbitrary and capricious.
Questions about the Decision
Judge Winmill is completely comfortable substituting his judgment for that of the agency. This approach to the case undergirds a number of rulings that would seem to be ripe for reversal as a matter of law. He derides agency assessments of range conditions. He does not seem to attach any value to requiring monitoring to support decision making. Conveniently, the Judge’s views about managing an agency budget and program do not extend to a complete program for managing BLM rangelands. He certainly does not cite any part of the record for the environmental benefits of keeping ranches intact. Nor does he propose how he would reorder numerous BLM range activities within its existing budget to suit his preferences. All he really is sure of is that the BLM grazing regulation is wrong as a matter of law. The feelings Judge Winmill expressed in his decision may not withstand legal scrutiny.
For example, attacking the failure to identify “specific” costs for administering participation would seem to go to the question whether the agency had a rational basis to limit participation under the “arbitrary and capricious” standard of the Administrative Procedure Act. Failure to identify costs may not be a violation of NEPA which is aimed at forcing the disclosure of the environmental consequences of a proposed action. The Judge reaches what is for him the easy conclusion that the limitation on public participation is also a violation of the FLPMA requirement to provide for public participation in the formulation and execution of plans for the administration of the public lands. Nothing in this statute dictates precisely the aspects of administration in which the public must be allowed to participate. Drawing these lines is discretion Congress obviously vested in the Secretary. The 2006 Rule allows the public to participate in the major decisions affecting permit administration, and limits participation in more minor decisions. Some legal uncertainty attends BLM’s decision to limit participation in the issuance of TNR permits.
Judge Winmill made two broad attacks on the changes to the FRH. First, he rules BLM failed to resolve conflicts among experts in the EIS. Nothing in NEPA requires BLM to formulate a draft EIS in conformity with earlier draft materials prepared by agency or departmental staff. The agency prepares a draft proposal, the public comments, and the agency reconciles conflicts in the final document. Nevertheless, the Judge rejected the changes to the FRH, in part because the agency failed to adequately address comments raised in a pre-draft document (the ARC-DEIS).
Second, he asserts the agency failed to offer “any rationale” to support delaying implementation of adverse grazing decisions. Without the rationale, the public cannot decide if the change is “acceptable”. He rejects the agency’s effort to sample allotments to determine the general condition of the range and how many allotments are affected by adverse grazing impacts. However, neither the environmental groups nor the Judge make any showing that the delays will actually impact the resource either positively or negatively. They do not do so, because they cannot. No one knows the impact of the 2006 Rule on resources until it has been implemented.
On balance, the priority of administrative activities reflected in the regulation may allow the agency to focus on the most serious resource problems and improve the agency’s stewardship of its vast land portfolio. In the meantime, it is legally irelevant under NEPA whether the changes in the regulation are “acceptable”. Judge Winmill offered no suggestion how the asserted absence of a rationale to support delay is a violation of FLPMA.
With respect to the ESA, the Judge ignores the agency’s position and record in support of the conclusion that the regulations will have “no effect” on listed species. What he does do is draw on statements in the record he likes to conclude BLM was obligated to consult under the ESA in promulgating the regulations. As a visceral matter, it is hard to understand how any conclusion can be drawn about the impact of the regulations on resources, without the implementation of the regulations. Whether BLM followed its own procedures and developed an adequate record to support this conclusion is an open question.
So What to Do?
The Department is understandably reluctant to cure defects identified in the opinion by starting a NEPA process over from scratch for one or more issues at this late date in the Administration. However, the issues identified above may very well be reversible as a matter of law. Rehabilitation of the agency’s position on the discussed issues would not require opening up a new NEPA process.
The one issue which may require additional process is consultation under the ESA. It is not clear whether BLM complied with the FWS and BLM rules in concluding the regulations would have “no effect” on species. This is a determination the Department will have to make.
Perhaps most troubling about the decision, is the Judge’s easy willingness to substitute his judgment for that of the agency. Many of his rulings will have an effect on agency activity far beyond the grazing regulations, and run afoul of the principles of broad agency discretion recently articulated by the Supreme Court in the Southern Utah Wilderness case. Should the Administration not appeal the decision, it will cede considerable authority to shape agency activities to environmentalists and Judge Winmill, and the judiciary generally.
In particular, does the Secretary really want to have its discretion limited under FLPMA as the Judge has done here? Does the Secretary and/or the Administration really want to allow courts to decide how much pre-EIS material must be addressed in an EIS? Is the Secretary ready to cede to the courts authority for deciding how to prioritize and carry out the Department’s many and often conflicting responsibilities? Is the Secretary or the Administration for that matter prepared to allow wild speculation about future events to limit its options at the present time?
Conclusion
We believe Judge Winmill’s decision poses important obstacles to preserving the Secretary’s discretion regarding grazing and other programs under his jurisdiction. We urge the Department to seek an appeal of the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
NEWS ROUNDUP
Senate okays big hike in fuel rule In a bitter defeat for Michigan automakers and lawmakers, the U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to hike fuel economy requirements by 40 percent by 2020. The fuel economy measure, which requires automakers to increase combined fuel economy for passenger cars and light trucks to 35 miles per gallon, was added to a broad energy bill the Senate could approve today despite weeks of heavy lobbying from automakers. Automakers said if the new rules become law it would cost them billions of dollars and force them to dramatically alter their vehicle lineups. The Chrysler Group said the bill could bankrupt the company. Environmentalists say better gas mileage is necessary to reduce U.S. consumption of foreign oil and mitigate global warming....
Groups want tiny fish to be protected Environmental and tribal groups have filed a petition to list the minnow-like least chub as an endangered or threatened species, adding more pressure to the already intense Utah-Nevada fight over the effects of groundwater pumping in the Snake Valley. In the petition filed Tuesday, the Center for Biological Diversity, Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, the Great Basin chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Utah chapter of the Sierra Club said the species' survival is threatened by the Southern Nevada Water Authority's plan to pump up to 200,000 acre feet of water each year from the arid valleys of eastern Nevada and western Utah to feed population growth in Las Vegas. Snake Valley is northeast of Great Basin National Park on the Utah-Nevada line. The three least chub populations in the valley - half the populations remaining statewide - are doing fine now, Center for Biological Diversity biologist Allison Jones said Thursday. "But if we lose Snake Valley, the fish is in big trouble," she said....
Piñon Canyon expansion call: "Our land is our life" The U.S. Army's proposal to expand Fort Carson's Piñon Canyon training site in southeast Colorado by more than 400,000 acres - taking over dozens of farms and ranches - has been greeted like a foreign occupation. That's understandable, if you are faced with losing your home and livelihood with no opportunity for appeal. The proposal, which would affect as many as 5,000 people in six counties, has set off shock waves of fear, anger and frustration. Some 500 ranchers and farmers have banded in opposition. "Our land is our life," they say. We're a nation of people on the move, and may not understand the emotion that "our land" can evoke. We move from job to job, to new or different housing, to another town, across the country, drifting like fall leaves. The Army moves its people, too. Farmers and ranchers live and work on their land. They know how crops or pasture should look every day of the year, how the sheep, cattle, horses should be in every season. Kids work alongside their parents, often living in houses that once sheltered their ancestors. The tie to the land is far beyond economic value. Many remember that the 1983 Environmental Impact Statement issued when Piñon Canyon was acquired (by eminent domain) said the Army would never increase the size of the training facility, and that no live ammunition rounds would be used. Neither has been honored....
Allard wants Army's planning to go forward on Pinon Canyon Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., stopped short Thursday of saying he would protect the Army's ability to start work on expanding Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, but said the environmental and economic studies that would be part of that process "need to go forward." Allard, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, stepped around the question of whether he would remove the amendment blocking the Pinon Canyon expansion that Reps. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., and John Salazar, D-Colo., added to the House version of the 2008 military construction appropriations bill last week. The Senate is scheduled to take up its version of the bill early in July and Allard is likely to be named to the conference committee that hammers out a compromise version of the bill. Allard met with Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren early Thursday. He gave Geren a list of questions to answer by early July, including what alternatives the Army has studied for training Fort Carson soldiers elsewhere. He also requested an assessment of the economic impact on the Mountain Post if the Army is not allowed to expand the 238,000-acre Pinon Canyon training area. Asked if he would remove the Musgrave-Salazar amendment if the Army answers his questions on time, Allard deflected the question, saying he hadn't taken a position yet....
Military Land Grab President Dwight Eisenhower's farewell speech gets quoted a lot these days. In it he prophetically warned us that, "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes." How can we know when the military has "acquired unwarranted influence?" How will we recognize a "disaster rise of misplaced power" by the military-industrial complex? At what point has it endangered our liberties and democratic processes? Perhaps it's when American citizens have to defend their homes and their lands against an invasion by their own military. That's what is happening in Southeastern Colorado where the Department of Defense is threatening to use eminent domain to force the removal of ranchers from land that four and five generations of their ancestors were born on, married on and buried on. It's part of a proposal to triple the size of Fort Carson's Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, currently the Army's second largest training range. ...
Bone-Crushing Wolves Roamed Alaska During Ice Age Gray wolves that roamed Alaska during the last ice age were built to tackle prey much larger than themselves and devour them completely—bones and all—a new study says. The ancient wolves had short snouts, strong jaws, and massive canine teeth unlike those on any wolves today. But these Alaskan wolves died out along with mastodons, saber-toothed cats, and other big animals at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, about 10,000 years ago. The finding is based on an analysis of skull and tooth bones collected decades ago from the permafrost and stored today at museums in the U.S. and Canada. The wolves were specially adapted to a highly competitive life on the vast, icy Alaskan expanses, according to the study, which examined bone shape and DNA and chemical signatures in the bones. "Certainly, competition would favor those adaptations," said study co-author Blaire Van Valkenburgh, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She noted that the ancient wolves in Alaska didn't have to compete with larger relatives called dire wolves. This allowed the Alaskan gray wolves to fill a niche unavailable to gray wolf populations farther south....
Climate of the future? Jeff Dukes wants to know what New England will look like in a warmer, wetter world. So, the biology professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston will spend five years simulating future climatic conditions on an old farm in Waltham. During the $1 million Boston-Area Climate Experiment at the university's agricultural facility on Beaver Street, ceramic heaters will warm 2-square-meter plots of earth to simulate the effects of global warming. Corrugated polycarbonate roofing panels and sprinklers overhead will control the amount of rain that reaches the ground over specific plots. The overall temperature in the Northeast in the next century may increase 4, 7, or 12 degrees, according to some scientists. But no one knows for sure. The climate experiment will vary the temperature and rainfall amounts within 36 individual plots. In other words, Dukes is shaping three dozen microclimates -- some wetter, some drier, some cooler, some hotter -- that do not yet exist in New England. Dukes will study how the climate changes affect the growth of grasses and wildflowers, as well as microbes in the soil....
Ex-Marine kills bear with log A camping trip to Low Gap Camp Grounds turned into a harrowing experience for Chris Everhart and his three sons when they tangled with a 300-pound black bear. But the encounter last weekend proved fatal for the bear. The bear had taken the Everharts' cooler and was heading back to the woods when 6-year-old Logan hurled a shovel at it. Fearing what might happen next, the Norcross father and ex-Marine grabbed the closest thing he could find - a log. "(I) threw it at it and it happened to hit the bear in the head," Chris Everhart said. "I thought it just knocked it out but it actually ended up killing the bear." The man was given a ticket for failing to secure his camp site, said Ken Riddleberger, a region supervisor for game management with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Riddleberger said some U.S. Forest Service agents were at the camp issuing a citation in an unrelated case. They got to the scene in a few minutes and verified what happened, he said. Riddleberger said fines are usually set by counties, but Everhart's will be set by the federal government since the incident happened on federal property....
Microsoft to Fund Humane Society of the United States According to the Animal Agriculture Alliance, Microsoft will be making donations to the Humane Society of the United States. It involves a pilot program called the ''i’m Initiative.'' Whenever a Windows Live Messenger user has a conversation using i’m, Microsoft will give a portion of the program’s advertising revenue to one of 10 organizations that the user selects. HSUS is among the choices, and there is no limit to the amount of money that can be received. Groups such as the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, have urged Microsoft to end its support of HSUS, but the company has passed on the idea. Tara Kriese, a Microsoft representative, says the program is “a great way to enable people to help causes that are important to them.” "Apparently she missed the October 2006 statement from Miyun Park, HSUS’ vice president of farm animal welfare, who said the organization’s long-term goal for the egg laying and broiler chicken industry is, ''to get rid of the industry','' notes an Alliance spokesperson. The agriculture industry's concern, of course, is that such a dynamo as Microsoft is teaming up with such a radical organization as HSUS. ''Clearly someone at Microsoft has not done their homework. Otherwise they would know that HSUS is just like PETA, but in a nice suit,'' says Kay Johnson, executive vice president of Animal Agriculture Alliance....
Roughstock legend Shouders dies in Oklahoma Rodeo legend Jim Shoulders died in his sleep early Wednesday in his Henryetta, Okla., home from complications related to heart disease. He was 79, and his death notice was sent through a press release from the ProRodeo Cowboys Association. Congestive heart failure had taken a toll on Shoulders’ health in recent years and he was receiving hospice care until his death from kidney failure at 3:30 a.m. His wife, Sharon, was with him at the time of his death. Shoulders won an astonishing PRCA-record 16 world championships during his ProRodeo Hall of Fame career five all-around, seven bull riding and four bareback riding standing as nearly unbeatable during the 1950s. "Even in coming generations, I don’t think there will be a hero as strong as Jim Shoulders," said rodeo announcer and long-time friend Clem McSpadden, of Chelsea, Okla. "The biggest tree in the rodeo forest has fallen." Shoulders was the only man to win the Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days Rodeo all-around title four times and was a seven-time winner of the Calgary Stampede. In addition to his 16 world championships, he was reserve champion another 10 times, including four second-place finishes in the all around....
Senate okays big hike in fuel rule In a bitter defeat for Michigan automakers and lawmakers, the U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to hike fuel economy requirements by 40 percent by 2020. The fuel economy measure, which requires automakers to increase combined fuel economy for passenger cars and light trucks to 35 miles per gallon, was added to a broad energy bill the Senate could approve today despite weeks of heavy lobbying from automakers. Automakers said if the new rules become law it would cost them billions of dollars and force them to dramatically alter their vehicle lineups. The Chrysler Group said the bill could bankrupt the company. Environmentalists say better gas mileage is necessary to reduce U.S. consumption of foreign oil and mitigate global warming....
Groups want tiny fish to be protected Environmental and tribal groups have filed a petition to list the minnow-like least chub as an endangered or threatened species, adding more pressure to the already intense Utah-Nevada fight over the effects of groundwater pumping in the Snake Valley. In the petition filed Tuesday, the Center for Biological Diversity, Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, the Great Basin chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Utah chapter of the Sierra Club said the species' survival is threatened by the Southern Nevada Water Authority's plan to pump up to 200,000 acre feet of water each year from the arid valleys of eastern Nevada and western Utah to feed population growth in Las Vegas. Snake Valley is northeast of Great Basin National Park on the Utah-Nevada line. The three least chub populations in the valley - half the populations remaining statewide - are doing fine now, Center for Biological Diversity biologist Allison Jones said Thursday. "But if we lose Snake Valley, the fish is in big trouble," she said....
Piñon Canyon expansion call: "Our land is our life" The U.S. Army's proposal to expand Fort Carson's Piñon Canyon training site in southeast Colorado by more than 400,000 acres - taking over dozens of farms and ranches - has been greeted like a foreign occupation. That's understandable, if you are faced with losing your home and livelihood with no opportunity for appeal. The proposal, which would affect as many as 5,000 people in six counties, has set off shock waves of fear, anger and frustration. Some 500 ranchers and farmers have banded in opposition. "Our land is our life," they say. We're a nation of people on the move, and may not understand the emotion that "our land" can evoke. We move from job to job, to new or different housing, to another town, across the country, drifting like fall leaves. The Army moves its people, too. Farmers and ranchers live and work on their land. They know how crops or pasture should look every day of the year, how the sheep, cattle, horses should be in every season. Kids work alongside their parents, often living in houses that once sheltered their ancestors. The tie to the land is far beyond economic value. Many remember that the 1983 Environmental Impact Statement issued when Piñon Canyon was acquired (by eminent domain) said the Army would never increase the size of the training facility, and that no live ammunition rounds would be used. Neither has been honored....
Allard wants Army's planning to go forward on Pinon Canyon Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., stopped short Thursday of saying he would protect the Army's ability to start work on expanding Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, but said the environmental and economic studies that would be part of that process "need to go forward." Allard, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, stepped around the question of whether he would remove the amendment blocking the Pinon Canyon expansion that Reps. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., and John Salazar, D-Colo., added to the House version of the 2008 military construction appropriations bill last week. The Senate is scheduled to take up its version of the bill early in July and Allard is likely to be named to the conference committee that hammers out a compromise version of the bill. Allard met with Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren early Thursday. He gave Geren a list of questions to answer by early July, including what alternatives the Army has studied for training Fort Carson soldiers elsewhere. He also requested an assessment of the economic impact on the Mountain Post if the Army is not allowed to expand the 238,000-acre Pinon Canyon training area. Asked if he would remove the Musgrave-Salazar amendment if the Army answers his questions on time, Allard deflected the question, saying he hadn't taken a position yet....
Military Land Grab President Dwight Eisenhower's farewell speech gets quoted a lot these days. In it he prophetically warned us that, "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes." How can we know when the military has "acquired unwarranted influence?" How will we recognize a "disaster rise of misplaced power" by the military-industrial complex? At what point has it endangered our liberties and democratic processes? Perhaps it's when American citizens have to defend their homes and their lands against an invasion by their own military. That's what is happening in Southeastern Colorado where the Department of Defense is threatening to use eminent domain to force the removal of ranchers from land that four and five generations of their ancestors were born on, married on and buried on. It's part of a proposal to triple the size of Fort Carson's Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, currently the Army's second largest training range. ...
Bone-Crushing Wolves Roamed Alaska During Ice Age Gray wolves that roamed Alaska during the last ice age were built to tackle prey much larger than themselves and devour them completely—bones and all—a new study says. The ancient wolves had short snouts, strong jaws, and massive canine teeth unlike those on any wolves today. But these Alaskan wolves died out along with mastodons, saber-toothed cats, and other big animals at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, about 10,000 years ago. The finding is based on an analysis of skull and tooth bones collected decades ago from the permafrost and stored today at museums in the U.S. and Canada. The wolves were specially adapted to a highly competitive life on the vast, icy Alaskan expanses, according to the study, which examined bone shape and DNA and chemical signatures in the bones. "Certainly, competition would favor those adaptations," said study co-author Blaire Van Valkenburgh, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She noted that the ancient wolves in Alaska didn't have to compete with larger relatives called dire wolves. This allowed the Alaskan gray wolves to fill a niche unavailable to gray wolf populations farther south....
Climate of the future? Jeff Dukes wants to know what New England will look like in a warmer, wetter world. So, the biology professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston will spend five years simulating future climatic conditions on an old farm in Waltham. During the $1 million Boston-Area Climate Experiment at the university's agricultural facility on Beaver Street, ceramic heaters will warm 2-square-meter plots of earth to simulate the effects of global warming. Corrugated polycarbonate roofing panels and sprinklers overhead will control the amount of rain that reaches the ground over specific plots. The overall temperature in the Northeast in the next century may increase 4, 7, or 12 degrees, according to some scientists. But no one knows for sure. The climate experiment will vary the temperature and rainfall amounts within 36 individual plots. In other words, Dukes is shaping three dozen microclimates -- some wetter, some drier, some cooler, some hotter -- that do not yet exist in New England. Dukes will study how the climate changes affect the growth of grasses and wildflowers, as well as microbes in the soil....
Ex-Marine kills bear with log A camping trip to Low Gap Camp Grounds turned into a harrowing experience for Chris Everhart and his three sons when they tangled with a 300-pound black bear. But the encounter last weekend proved fatal for the bear. The bear had taken the Everharts' cooler and was heading back to the woods when 6-year-old Logan hurled a shovel at it. Fearing what might happen next, the Norcross father and ex-Marine grabbed the closest thing he could find - a log. "(I) threw it at it and it happened to hit the bear in the head," Chris Everhart said. "I thought it just knocked it out but it actually ended up killing the bear." The man was given a ticket for failing to secure his camp site, said Ken Riddleberger, a region supervisor for game management with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Riddleberger said some U.S. Forest Service agents were at the camp issuing a citation in an unrelated case. They got to the scene in a few minutes and verified what happened, he said. Riddleberger said fines are usually set by counties, but Everhart's will be set by the federal government since the incident happened on federal property....
Microsoft to Fund Humane Society of the United States According to the Animal Agriculture Alliance, Microsoft will be making donations to the Humane Society of the United States. It involves a pilot program called the ''i’m Initiative.'' Whenever a Windows Live Messenger user has a conversation using i’m, Microsoft will give a portion of the program’s advertising revenue to one of 10 organizations that the user selects. HSUS is among the choices, and there is no limit to the amount of money that can be received. Groups such as the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, have urged Microsoft to end its support of HSUS, but the company has passed on the idea. Tara Kriese, a Microsoft representative, says the program is “a great way to enable people to help causes that are important to them.” "Apparently she missed the October 2006 statement from Miyun Park, HSUS’ vice president of farm animal welfare, who said the organization’s long-term goal for the egg laying and broiler chicken industry is, ''to get rid of the industry','' notes an Alliance spokesperson. The agriculture industry's concern, of course, is that such a dynamo as Microsoft is teaming up with such a radical organization as HSUS. ''Clearly someone at Microsoft has not done their homework. Otherwise they would know that HSUS is just like PETA, but in a nice suit,'' says Kay Johnson, executive vice president of Animal Agriculture Alliance....
Roughstock legend Shouders dies in Oklahoma Rodeo legend Jim Shoulders died in his sleep early Wednesday in his Henryetta, Okla., home from complications related to heart disease. He was 79, and his death notice was sent through a press release from the ProRodeo Cowboys Association. Congestive heart failure had taken a toll on Shoulders’ health in recent years and he was receiving hospice care until his death from kidney failure at 3:30 a.m. His wife, Sharon, was with him at the time of his death. Shoulders won an astonishing PRCA-record 16 world championships during his ProRodeo Hall of Fame career five all-around, seven bull riding and four bareback riding standing as nearly unbeatable during the 1950s. "Even in coming generations, I don’t think there will be a hero as strong as Jim Shoulders," said rodeo announcer and long-time friend Clem McSpadden, of Chelsea, Okla. "The biggest tree in the rodeo forest has fallen." Shoulders was the only man to win the Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days Rodeo all-around title four times and was a seven-time winner of the Calgary Stampede. In addition to his 16 world championships, he was reserve champion another 10 times, including four second-place finishes in the all around....
FLE
Militarizing Mexico’s Drug War Seven months ago, President Felipe Calderón of the conservative National Action Party took office and declared war on drug traffickers, ordering 20,000 troops into the streets to put an end to drug-cartel related murders. Despite the troops, the number of drug-related murders has tripled and the army’s massive deployment has yielded tales of widespread human rights violations, like that of Sara. More than 1,000 people, mostly police officers, soldiers and members of enemy cartels, have been killed since Jan. 1. In Veracruz, elite armed gangs linked to the Gulf Cartel planted a decapitated head outside an army barracks with a note: “We’re going to keep going when the federal forces get here.” In Tabasco, men in a Jeep Cherokee delivered a refrigerator to the front door of the newspaper Tabasco Hoy; inside security agents found the severed head of a city councilman. Drug trafficking across the Mexico-United States border exploded in the ’80s in the wake of U.S. moves to quash traffickers from Colombia and the Caribbean. Since the ’90s, drug traffickers have moved an estimated $10 billion worth of cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines across the border each year. As much as 70 percent of the cocaine that enters the United States crosses the border from Mexico. Drug-related violence between warring cartels has plagued the borderlands for years, increasing in the ’90s and then exploding in the last two years. Three thousand people died of drug-related violence during the six-year reign of former President Vicente Fox. Last year, more than 20 police officers and rival gang members were beheaded, and their heads were often put on public display in harrowing fashion. In Acapulco, two police officers’ heads were posted on the fence outside a state government building above a poster-board sign that read: “So that you learn some respect.” In Michoacán, assassins stepped into a crowded nightclub and rolled five severed heads onto the dance floor....
Lawmakers Probe Prosecution of Border Agents Who Shot Mexican Drug Runner Pressure is growing on Capitol Hill to investigate the prosecution of two former Border Patrol agents doing prison time for their on-duty shooting of a Mexican man who was transporting drugs into the United States. Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos are serving 12 and 11 years, respectively, for the non-fatal shooting in 2005 of Osvaldo Aldrete Davila. The agents shot Davila in the buttocks as he was transporting more than 700 pounds of marijuana into the United States through Fabens, Texas. Davila was given immunity in exchange for his testimony against the agents. Now the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight is organizing a hearing on any influence the Mexican government may have had on prosecuting Compean and Ramos. Rep. Bill Delahunt, the Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee, said a formal invitation to testify will be also be sent to U.S. prosecutor Johnny Sutton "so there will be no confusion as to whether he’s available or whether he’s willing to appear."....
Ashcroft Tells of Surveillance Disputes Former attorney general John D. Ashcroft told the House intelligence committee yesterday about disputes in the Bush administration over aspects of its domestic surveillance program, which peaked in the March 2004 visit to his hospital bedside by White House officials seeking his change of heart. House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.) said the two-hour closed-door hearing covered Ashcroft's "whole tenure as attorney general." The hearing, Reyes said, examined how the administration viewed the use of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provisions requiring a special court to issue warrants for domestic eavesdropping. The panel heard last week from former deputy attorney general James B. Comey, whose mid-May testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the 2004 hospital episode sparked an outcry among congressional Democrats. Next month, Reyes said, the committee will hear private testimony from Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and CIA Director Michael V. Hayden, with the goal of holding public hearings in the fall. Reyes declined to detail the specifics of Ashcroft's testimony but said the former attorney general, now in private practice, gave the panel "very candid advice" as it considers drafting new legislation that could rewrite FISA. There was "robust and enormous debate" within the Bush administration about the post-Sept. 11, 2001, program, he said....
Inconvenient Truths On 21 December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was 38 minutes into its journey when it was blown up at 31,000 feet. The explosion was so powerful that the nose of the aircraft was torn clean off. Within three seconds of the bomb detonating, the cockpit, fuselage and No. 3 engine were falling separately out of the sky. It happened so quickly that no distress call was sent out and no oxygen masks deployed. With the cockpit gone, the fuselage depressurised instantly and the passengers in the rear section of the aircraft found themselves staring out into the Scottish night air. Anyone or anything not strapped down was whipped out of the plane; the change in air pressure made the passengers’ lungs expand to four times their normal volume and everyone lost consciousness. As the fuselage plummeted and the air pressure began to return to normal, some passengers came round, including the captain. A few survived all the way down, until they hit the ground. Rescuers found them clutching crucifixes, or holding hands, still strapped into their seats. The fuselage of the plane landed on a row of family houses in the small Scottish town of Lockerbie. The impact was so powerful that the British Geological Survey registered a seismic event measuring 1.6 on the Richter scale. The wing section of the Boeing 747, loaded with enough fuel for a transatlantic flight, hit the ground at more than 500 miles an hour and exploded in a fireball that lit the sky. The cockpit, with the first-class section still attached, landed beside a church in the village of Tundergarth....
Straight Talk: Videotaping Police Last month, Brian Kelly of Carlisle, Pa., was riding with a friend when the car he was in was pulled over by a local police officer. Kelly, an amateur videographer, had his video camera with him and decided to record the traffic stop. The officer who pulled over the vehicle saw the camera and demanded Kelly hand it over. Kelly obliged. Soon after, six more police officers pulled up. They arrested Kelly on charges of violating an outdated Pennsylvania wiretapping law that forbids audio recordings of any second party without their permission. In this case, that party was the police officer. Kelly was charged with a felony, spent 26 hours in jail, and faces up to 10 years in prison. All for merely recording a police officer, a public servant, while he was on the job. There's been a rash of arrests of late for videotaping police, and it's a disturbing development. Last year, Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly threatened Internet activist Mary T. Jean with arrest and felony prosecution for posting a video to her website of state police swarming a home and arresting a man without a warrant. Michael Gannon of New Hampshire was also arrested on felony wiretapping charges last year after recording a police officer who was being verbally abusive on his doorstep. Photojournalist Carlos Miller was arrested in February of this year after taking pictures of on-duty police officers in Miami. And Philadelphia student Neftaly Cruz was arrested last year after he took pictures of a drug bust with his cell phone. As noted, police are public servants, paid with taxpayer dollars. Not only that, but they're given extraordinary power and authority we don't give to other public servants: They're armed; they can make arrests; they're allowed to break the very laws they're paid to enforce; they can use lethal force for reasons other than self-defense; and, of course, the police are permitted to videotape us
without our consent....
Militarizing Mexico’s Drug War Seven months ago, President Felipe Calderón of the conservative National Action Party took office and declared war on drug traffickers, ordering 20,000 troops into the streets to put an end to drug-cartel related murders. Despite the troops, the number of drug-related murders has tripled and the army’s massive deployment has yielded tales of widespread human rights violations, like that of Sara. More than 1,000 people, mostly police officers, soldiers and members of enemy cartels, have been killed since Jan. 1. In Veracruz, elite armed gangs linked to the Gulf Cartel planted a decapitated head outside an army barracks with a note: “We’re going to keep going when the federal forces get here.” In Tabasco, men in a Jeep Cherokee delivered a refrigerator to the front door of the newspaper Tabasco Hoy; inside security agents found the severed head of a city councilman. Drug trafficking across the Mexico-United States border exploded in the ’80s in the wake of U.S. moves to quash traffickers from Colombia and the Caribbean. Since the ’90s, drug traffickers have moved an estimated $10 billion worth of cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines across the border each year. As much as 70 percent of the cocaine that enters the United States crosses the border from Mexico. Drug-related violence between warring cartels has plagued the borderlands for years, increasing in the ’90s and then exploding in the last two years. Three thousand people died of drug-related violence during the six-year reign of former President Vicente Fox. Last year, more than 20 police officers and rival gang members were beheaded, and their heads were often put on public display in harrowing fashion. In Acapulco, two police officers’ heads were posted on the fence outside a state government building above a poster-board sign that read: “So that you learn some respect.” In Michoacán, assassins stepped into a crowded nightclub and rolled five severed heads onto the dance floor....
Lawmakers Probe Prosecution of Border Agents Who Shot Mexican Drug Runner Pressure is growing on Capitol Hill to investigate the prosecution of two former Border Patrol agents doing prison time for their on-duty shooting of a Mexican man who was transporting drugs into the United States. Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos are serving 12 and 11 years, respectively, for the non-fatal shooting in 2005 of Osvaldo Aldrete Davila. The agents shot Davila in the buttocks as he was transporting more than 700 pounds of marijuana into the United States through Fabens, Texas. Davila was given immunity in exchange for his testimony against the agents. Now the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight is organizing a hearing on any influence the Mexican government may have had on prosecuting Compean and Ramos. Rep. Bill Delahunt, the Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee, said a formal invitation to testify will be also be sent to U.S. prosecutor Johnny Sutton "so there will be no confusion as to whether he’s available or whether he’s willing to appear."....
Ashcroft Tells of Surveillance Disputes Former attorney general John D. Ashcroft told the House intelligence committee yesterday about disputes in the Bush administration over aspects of its domestic surveillance program, which peaked in the March 2004 visit to his hospital bedside by White House officials seeking his change of heart. House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.) said the two-hour closed-door hearing covered Ashcroft's "whole tenure as attorney general." The hearing, Reyes said, examined how the administration viewed the use of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provisions requiring a special court to issue warrants for domestic eavesdropping. The panel heard last week from former deputy attorney general James B. Comey, whose mid-May testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the 2004 hospital episode sparked an outcry among congressional Democrats. Next month, Reyes said, the committee will hear private testimony from Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and CIA Director Michael V. Hayden, with the goal of holding public hearings in the fall. Reyes declined to detail the specifics of Ashcroft's testimony but said the former attorney general, now in private practice, gave the panel "very candid advice" as it considers drafting new legislation that could rewrite FISA. There was "robust and enormous debate" within the Bush administration about the post-Sept. 11, 2001, program, he said....
Inconvenient Truths On 21 December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was 38 minutes into its journey when it was blown up at 31,000 feet. The explosion was so powerful that the nose of the aircraft was torn clean off. Within three seconds of the bomb detonating, the cockpit, fuselage and No. 3 engine were falling separately out of the sky. It happened so quickly that no distress call was sent out and no oxygen masks deployed. With the cockpit gone, the fuselage depressurised instantly and the passengers in the rear section of the aircraft found themselves staring out into the Scottish night air. Anyone or anything not strapped down was whipped out of the plane; the change in air pressure made the passengers’ lungs expand to four times their normal volume and everyone lost consciousness. As the fuselage plummeted and the air pressure began to return to normal, some passengers came round, including the captain. A few survived all the way down, until they hit the ground. Rescuers found them clutching crucifixes, or holding hands, still strapped into their seats. The fuselage of the plane landed on a row of family houses in the small Scottish town of Lockerbie. The impact was so powerful that the British Geological Survey registered a seismic event measuring 1.6 on the Richter scale. The wing section of the Boeing 747, loaded with enough fuel for a transatlantic flight, hit the ground at more than 500 miles an hour and exploded in a fireball that lit the sky. The cockpit, with the first-class section still attached, landed beside a church in the village of Tundergarth....
Straight Talk: Videotaping Police Last month, Brian Kelly of Carlisle, Pa., was riding with a friend when the car he was in was pulled over by a local police officer. Kelly, an amateur videographer, had his video camera with him and decided to record the traffic stop. The officer who pulled over the vehicle saw the camera and demanded Kelly hand it over. Kelly obliged. Soon after, six more police officers pulled up. They arrested Kelly on charges of violating an outdated Pennsylvania wiretapping law that forbids audio recordings of any second party without their permission. In this case, that party was the police officer. Kelly was charged with a felony, spent 26 hours in jail, and faces up to 10 years in prison. All for merely recording a police officer, a public servant, while he was on the job. There's been a rash of arrests of late for videotaping police, and it's a disturbing development. Last year, Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly threatened Internet activist Mary T. Jean with arrest and felony prosecution for posting a video to her website of state police swarming a home and arresting a man without a warrant. Michael Gannon of New Hampshire was also arrested on felony wiretapping charges last year after recording a police officer who was being verbally abusive on his doorstep. Photojournalist Carlos Miller was arrested in February of this year after taking pictures of on-duty police officers in Miami. And Philadelphia student Neftaly Cruz was arrested last year after he took pictures of a drug bust with his cell phone. As noted, police are public servants, paid with taxpayer dollars. Not only that, but they're given extraordinary power and authority we don't give to other public servants: They're armed; they can make arrests; they're allowed to break the very laws they're paid to enforce; they can use lethal force for reasons other than self-defense; and, of course, the police are permitted to videotape us
without our consent....
Thursday, June 21, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
China Becomes World's Biggest Carbon Dioxide Emitter China overtook the U.S. last year as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas blamed for the bulk of global warming, a policy group that advises the Dutch government said. China produced 6,200 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and producing cement last year, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said in a statement posted yesterday on its Web site. That pushed it past the U.S., which produced 5,800 million tons of the gas, the agency said. ``Given the urgency of climate change, what China really needs to do is not to repeat the mistakes made by developed countries,'' said Ailun Yang, climate campaigner for Greenpeace China. ``It has to develop in a cleaner way.'' Greenhouse gases are blamed by the United Nations for causing the Earth to warm, increasing the risk of rising sea- levels, droughts and floods. At present, neither China nor the U.S. are subject to targets under the only international treaty requiring emissions cuts, the Kyoto Protocol, whose provisions expire in 2012. European leaders hope this year to kick-start negotiations for a successor agreement. China's rapid industrialization has meant it's long been predicted to overtake the U.S. as the world's biggest emitter....
Blue party, green plans for Dem convention Blue is the color of Democratic territory on the national map, but green will be the unofficial color of next summer's Democratic National Convention. Party officials are vowing to make the convention the most environmentally friendly gathering in memory. Thousands of delegates will be encouraged to ride bicycles between their hotels and the Pepsi Center, to recycle everything from confetti to coffee cups and to buy "carbon offsets" to repair the damage done from travelers flying to Denver from around the world. "It will be the greenest convention we've ever had," said Leah Daughtry, CEO of the convention. "We want to incorporate green principles into everything we do." The Democrats are hoping their efforts to give the convention a green tint will boost their fortunes in the crucial western states, where the environment is a big issue....
Big tax on big oil advances in Senate A proposal to hit oil companies with $29 billion in new taxes advanced in the Senate on Tuesday, targeting the money to energy conservation, wind turbines, electric hybrid cars and clean coal technology. The massive tax package, double what Democrats had discussed as recently as last week, is "designed to promote clean and sustainable energy," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Finance Committee that approved the measure by a 15-5 vote. It is expected later this week to be added to energy legislation being considered by the full Senate. Senators acknowledged that oil companies would howl over the new taxes. But Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Finance Committee's top Republican, said, "We have entered a new era in energy markets ... (that) requires a dramatic shift away from tax incentives for oil and gas production" and toward support for other energy sources and efficiency....
Property owner fights for a fair deal Nancy Esposito has never been shy with her criticisms of Stanley Seligson's plan to redevelop her neighborhood. Last week, her voice got louder - and her opposition to eminent domain sharper. "Hell No, We Won't Go!" reads a banner slung from the side of her business at West Avenue and Merwin Street. That shop, Casey's Sheet Metal, sits in the path of Seligson's redevelopment plan. Esposito is worried that talks with Seligson - who has purchased much of the property in his plan but still has several deals to make - will fail, and the city will pursue eminent domain to seize remaining land. Eminent domain allows governments to appropriate private property for public use. Ideally, Esposito said, Seligson would integrate her business into the redevelopment plan, or find her a new property in the neighborhood. City officials have pledged to use eminent domain as a last resort, as Mayor Richard Moccia did earlier this year when he and Seligson unveiled the West Avenue master plan at City Hall....
Army wants more elbow room The Army, needing more room for combat practice with advanced battlefield technology, wants to expand its training areas by up to 70% in the next four years, says a Pentagon official who oversees training. The Army now uses about 7 million acres on 102 training sites and ranges across the USA. Its wish list for land acquisition by 2011 totals another 4.9 million acres, says James Gunlicks, Army deputy director for training. That's about the size of Connecticut, Delaware and the District of Columbia combined. Proposals already underway in California, Colorado and Hawaii would add 540,000 acres. Those include a 120,000-acre addition to the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin in California and a controversial proposal to almost triple the size of Colorado's 235,900-acre Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site. Gunlicks says the need for 4.9 million acres "does not necessarily mean the Army will be able to purchase that much. But we would like to have that additional (land)." He says that most training sites aren't big enough to accommodate realistic maneuvers using modern combat tools: faster fighting vehicles, advanced weapons and more sophisticated command and communications gear....
Salazar gives Army 30-day ultimatum on Pinon Canyon Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., gave the Army an ultimatum Wednesday to quickly explain how it intends to provide economic benefits to Southern Colorado with the expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site - or Salazar will vote against the expansion in the upcoming 2008 Defense military construction appropriations bill. Both Salazar and Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., are feeling pressure over Pinon Canyon, now that the House overwhelmingly passed legislation last Friday that would block the Army from spending any money next year on the planned 414,000-acre expansion. Talking to reporters, Salazar said that if he doesn't get detailed answers on economic assistance from the Army, he would "look at the appropriate legislative vehicles to stop the Army from moving forward" until he does. Lon Robertson, president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, said his members are baffled by Salazar's willingness to offer the Army a chance to make doubtful economic promises to the community. The coalition, which has about 1,000 members, including ranchers, rural business people and like-minded groups, is opposed to any expansion. "Given the strong vote we had in the House, it makes us wonder who Sen. Salazar is listening to," Robertson said....
Forest Service considers limiting target practice The U.S. Forest Service said Wednesday it may have to limit target practice along the Front Range because of a growing problem trying to balance the rights of shooters with hikers, bikers and others who want to use national forests. Regional Forester Rick Cables told state lawmakers his agency is conducting a multiple-forest survey called the Urban Front Country Initiative in an effort to determine whether some areas along the Front Range need to be closed to shooters because of the danger to others. "We're not trying to single out shooters. We're trying to manage the whole spectrum of recreational use," Cables told lawmakers who requested the meeting. Legislators expressed concern after the Boulder Ranger District of the Roosevelt National Forest began researching the effect of dispersed camping, the use of campfires and shooting. District foresters indicated there is a possibility shooting could be prohibited in the forest....
Judges deny groups' request to halt Montana logging project An appeals court panel has denied a request from environmental groups to stop the logging of beetle-killed trees on 2,600 acres in and around the Basin Creek watershed south of here. The groups asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year to halt the project pending their appeal. The request was denied Tuesday in an order filed by judges Edward Leavy, Pamela Ann Rymer and Thomas G. Nelson, all Republican appointees to the appeals court. "Obviously, we are disappointed," said Tom Woodbury, a Missoula lawyer representing the environmental groups. Butte officials lauded the decision as a chance to salvage rotting, beetle-killed timber while reducing the potential for a major wildfire in the Basin Creek reservoir, which is the source of roughly 40 percent of Butte's municipal water....
EPA frowns on Yellowstone snowmobile proposal A new proposal for snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park doesn't go far enough in ensuring the protection of air quality, human health, wildlife and quiet spaces, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA says the National Park Service should either change its current "preferred alternative" or choose a different option. Earlier this year, the Park Service released a draft plan that would allow 720 snowmobiles and 78 snowcoaches per day into Yellowstone. The machines would have to meet noise and pollution standards and snowmobilers would have to be with a commercial guide. The proposal, expected to be finalized last year, is the latest attempt to resolve the long-running controversy over snowmobiling in Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks....
Park mauling makes Lander man a minor celebrity Dennis VanDenbos, mauled by a grizzly bear, is home now, and grateful his wounds aren't worse. Meanwhile, the Park Service has taken some heat for leaving a carcass out in the open near people, in an area just yards away from cabins at Jackson Lake Lodge. VanDenbos, a 54-year-old Lander resident was walking near the Jackson Lake Lodge July 13 when he surprised a mother grizzly and three cubs feeding on a freshly killed elk calf. The mother charged him, biting him and tearing flesh in the back and buttocks....
Heartbreak on Sam's Knob? Sam's Knob has become more like Heartbreak Hill for the Aspen Skiing Co. The Skico's quest to rebuild a restaurant at the Sam's Knob section of Snowmass Ski Area has turned into a one-year nightmare. The U.S. Forest Service first rejected the project for not blending in well enough with the forest environment. Now, the redesign, soaring construction costs and the Skico's desire to meet a national standard for environmental design have forced the company to delay the project. The company wants to construct the restaurant next summer and open it for the 2008-09 ski season. There's just one problem with that plan: It promised the town of Snowmass Village in writing to have a new restaurant open for the 2007-08 ski season. If not, the Skico faces a fine of $1,000 per day....
Huntsman, DWR look at updating bear policy As this summer's unusually high number of bear encounters continues to grow, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said Wednesday he's taking another look at how the public can be informed about threatening animals. U.S. Forest Service and Division of Wildlife Resources officials have closed two campgrounds in Utah and set traps for foraging bears — just days after Utah's first recorded fatal black bear attack. Samuel Evan Ives, 11, was killed in American Fork Canyon. The Ledgefork campground above the Smith and Morehouse Reservoir in the eastern Uinta Mountains has been closed for three days as DWR officials have tried to catch an aggressive bear that has visited the site regularly over the past two weeks. In the Spanish Fork ranger district Tuesday, DWR employees set a trap for a bear that has rummaged in a Dumpster. According to Uinta National Forest spokeswoman Loyal Clark, the Blackhawk campground on the Mount Nebo loop will remain closed — with barricades — until the foraging bear is caught and relocated to another area. Closing a campground with a live bear trap is standard practice, Clark said....
Forest Service seeks closure of worn-out roads By the Forest Service's count, there are nearly 25,000 miles of low standard or unauthorized roads on the 13 national forests that span the agency's Northern Region. The Wilderness Society's Joe Kerkvliet calls them “ticking time bombs.” Without proper maintenance, forest roads can spew sediment that harms fish habitat and water quality. “When a road starts falling apart, it begins to deliver tons of sediment into nearby streams,” Kerkvliet said. “Heavy rains or rain on snow can cause massive failures or landslides. These roads have the potential to create serious environmental damage.” Congress is considering a new $65 million program to decommission roads the Forest Service either doesn't want or didn't authorized. The “Legacy Roads and Trails Remediation Initiative” under consideration by the House would set aside funding for road decommissioning, road and trail repair and maintenance, and the removal of fish barriers. The program is part of a bill that funds the Interior Department and U.S. Forest Service. It successfully passed the full House Appropriations Committee the first week of June and could be considered by the full House as early as next week....
Senate Finance Committee OKs new safety net legislation A push to extend the timber safety net another four years received a boost Tuesday from the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. The committee, by a 15-5 vote, approved an energy tax bill. The safety net provision was added as an amendment to the legislation. The plan mirrors one passed by the Senate last month and included in the emergency supplemental funding bill. The House would not agree to the multiyear extension at that time, however. The final bill signed by President George W. Bush included a one-year emergency extension of the safety net. Oregon timber counties received $280 million in safety net payments in the current fiscal year. Overall, $2.9 billion was provided to 700 counties in 39 states over the past six years. Under the proposed Senate extension, future payments to Oregon, Washington and California counties — the major safety net recipients — would decrease by 10 percent per year. Bingaman and some other powerful senators had been lukewarm about the safety net extension until that provision was added to the Senate version of the spending bill that had been part of the emergency supplemental budget fight....
Funds to hire 3,000 more park rangers included in Senate bill A Senate Appropriations subcommittee today approved increased funding for Forest Service firefighter preparedness and 3,000 more National Park Service rangers as part of a $27.2 billion spending bill for the Interior Department and related agencies. Among the highlights of the bill, approved by the subcommittee on Interior, environment and related agencies and headed to full committee Thursday: • $7.8 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency, including $2.8 billion for pollution reduction and $773 million for science and technology research programs. • $2.5 billion for the National Park Service, including $2.0 billion for operations and hiring new park rangers. • $4.6 billion for the Forest Service, including $676 million for firefighter preparedness, $108 million more than the president’s request....Sources say this appropriations bill is headed for a veto.
U.S. Cattlemen's Association Opposes Plan to Regionalize Beef Trade With Argentina In a letter sent June 19, 2007 to the Senate Finance Committee, the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) made it clear that opposing regionalization of Argentina, related to animal health disease issues for import purposes, is one of the organization’s "top member-driven policy issues." USCA urged Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, to "strongly oppose any attempt to weaken oversight or regulation of trade with Argentina." Despite widespread problems with foot and mouth disease (FMD), a highly contagious infection that can destroy entire cattle herds, Argentina has proposed a plan to export beef to the United States from certain regions. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is currently considering adoption of the proposal to relax restrictions on Argentine beef from some areas by regionalizing trade areas. USCA is deeply concerned that proper enforcement of regionalized trade would be impossible and that these regions would become gateways for beef from non-approved areas of Argentina and Brazil. Brazil also has FMD issues....
Fire Kills 24 Horses in Kentucky Barn A barn fire at an award-winning American Saddlebred farm in south-central Kentucky killed 24 horses, the owner said Wednesday. Seven colts and 17 mares were in the barn at 3-T Farm in Allen County when the fire broke out Tuesday morning, said Paige Tabor, one of the owners. All but one of the horses were American Saddlebreds, she said. "When you lose a barn full, it's overwhelming, but you just pick yourself up and find a way to go on," Tabor said. The farm has about 300 horses, she said. A farm worker reported the fire, Tabor said. Investigators were trying to determine the cause of the blaze, Halifax Fire Chief Tim Shockley said....
Idaho Basque community celebrates center The descendants of Basque sheepherders who helped settle southwestern Idaho early last century opened a 7,600-square foot center dedicated to promoting their culture. The 300-member Basque club Txoco Ona -- pronounced Cho-ko On-uh -- played host to a packed house Sunday at the new building, with traditional Basque card games, music, dancing and members showing off feats of athletic prowess, such as hefting 250-pound concrete blocks. The group raised $450,000 for the building. John Vergara, a proponent of the Basque community, said the weightlifting games all have roots in everyday tasks performed by his ancestors in their homeland on the French-Spanish border and when they arrived in the United States with little more than their muscle power. "These guys used to have to work like this," he said. Some 15,000 Basques live in southwestern Idaho and make up the third-largest Basque population in the world, after an enclave in Argentina and in Spain and France....
And They're Off At The Cowboy Races Working on the wild, open range might as well be the battle of Troy for most folks. It’s something that happened long ago, in some other, distant place. But not for everyone. This weekend organizer Craig Cameron will bring his touring Extreme Cowboy Race to the king of cowtowns to show city-folk and ranching aficionados alike some of the best on-the-range skill sets rural America has to offer. After a life involved with horses and their riders, Cameron looked around the competitive cowboy world four years ago and said to himself: Wait a minute. Why in the world aren’t these things held, you know, outdoors? “I realized every event is in an arena,” Cameron says. “It’s not natural. It’s not the riders’ natural environment.” The weekend-long event at the Saddle and Sirloin Club will feature real cowboys showing off the horsemanship skills they use everyday....
200 miles of training in cowboy On a sunny near-summer afternoon, three teens on horseback, with three pack horses trailing, made an unorthodox caravan as they reached the Pozo Saloon. Clad in jeans, chaps, Western-style shirts and cowboy hats, the 17-yearolds were on the next to last leg of a 200-mile trip that took them from Ojai to Santa Margarita, concluding Tuesday evening at the Santa Margarita Ranch after 12 days on the trail. The group, which included William Hockey of Templeton, was on its way home for the summer from Thacher School, a private boarding high school in Ventura County. They took the trip — which they had wanted to do since freshman year — to connect with the school’s early history. Their school prepared them well. Instruction and practice of Western horsemanship is an extracurricular class at Thacher, and students take regular extended camping trips on horseback into the wilderness. The trip hearkens back to the school’s early days when it was founded just for boys in 1889. Then students came from across the state, mostly on horseback....
China Becomes World's Biggest Carbon Dioxide Emitter China overtook the U.S. last year as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas blamed for the bulk of global warming, a policy group that advises the Dutch government said. China produced 6,200 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and producing cement last year, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said in a statement posted yesterday on its Web site. That pushed it past the U.S., which produced 5,800 million tons of the gas, the agency said. ``Given the urgency of climate change, what China really needs to do is not to repeat the mistakes made by developed countries,'' said Ailun Yang, climate campaigner for Greenpeace China. ``It has to develop in a cleaner way.'' Greenhouse gases are blamed by the United Nations for causing the Earth to warm, increasing the risk of rising sea- levels, droughts and floods. At present, neither China nor the U.S. are subject to targets under the only international treaty requiring emissions cuts, the Kyoto Protocol, whose provisions expire in 2012. European leaders hope this year to kick-start negotiations for a successor agreement. China's rapid industrialization has meant it's long been predicted to overtake the U.S. as the world's biggest emitter....
Blue party, green plans for Dem convention Blue is the color of Democratic territory on the national map, but green will be the unofficial color of next summer's Democratic National Convention. Party officials are vowing to make the convention the most environmentally friendly gathering in memory. Thousands of delegates will be encouraged to ride bicycles between their hotels and the Pepsi Center, to recycle everything from confetti to coffee cups and to buy "carbon offsets" to repair the damage done from travelers flying to Denver from around the world. "It will be the greenest convention we've ever had," said Leah Daughtry, CEO of the convention. "We want to incorporate green principles into everything we do." The Democrats are hoping their efforts to give the convention a green tint will boost their fortunes in the crucial western states, where the environment is a big issue....
Big tax on big oil advances in Senate A proposal to hit oil companies with $29 billion in new taxes advanced in the Senate on Tuesday, targeting the money to energy conservation, wind turbines, electric hybrid cars and clean coal technology. The massive tax package, double what Democrats had discussed as recently as last week, is "designed to promote clean and sustainable energy," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Finance Committee that approved the measure by a 15-5 vote. It is expected later this week to be added to energy legislation being considered by the full Senate. Senators acknowledged that oil companies would howl over the new taxes. But Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Finance Committee's top Republican, said, "We have entered a new era in energy markets ... (that) requires a dramatic shift away from tax incentives for oil and gas production" and toward support for other energy sources and efficiency....
Property owner fights for a fair deal Nancy Esposito has never been shy with her criticisms of Stanley Seligson's plan to redevelop her neighborhood. Last week, her voice got louder - and her opposition to eminent domain sharper. "Hell No, We Won't Go!" reads a banner slung from the side of her business at West Avenue and Merwin Street. That shop, Casey's Sheet Metal, sits in the path of Seligson's redevelopment plan. Esposito is worried that talks with Seligson - who has purchased much of the property in his plan but still has several deals to make - will fail, and the city will pursue eminent domain to seize remaining land. Eminent domain allows governments to appropriate private property for public use. Ideally, Esposito said, Seligson would integrate her business into the redevelopment plan, or find her a new property in the neighborhood. City officials have pledged to use eminent domain as a last resort, as Mayor Richard Moccia did earlier this year when he and Seligson unveiled the West Avenue master plan at City Hall....
Army wants more elbow room The Army, needing more room for combat practice with advanced battlefield technology, wants to expand its training areas by up to 70% in the next four years, says a Pentagon official who oversees training. The Army now uses about 7 million acres on 102 training sites and ranges across the USA. Its wish list for land acquisition by 2011 totals another 4.9 million acres, says James Gunlicks, Army deputy director for training. That's about the size of Connecticut, Delaware and the District of Columbia combined. Proposals already underway in California, Colorado and Hawaii would add 540,000 acres. Those include a 120,000-acre addition to the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin in California and a controversial proposal to almost triple the size of Colorado's 235,900-acre Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site. Gunlicks says the need for 4.9 million acres "does not necessarily mean the Army will be able to purchase that much. But we would like to have that additional (land)." He says that most training sites aren't big enough to accommodate realistic maneuvers using modern combat tools: faster fighting vehicles, advanced weapons and more sophisticated command and communications gear....
Salazar gives Army 30-day ultimatum on Pinon Canyon Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., gave the Army an ultimatum Wednesday to quickly explain how it intends to provide economic benefits to Southern Colorado with the expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site - or Salazar will vote against the expansion in the upcoming 2008 Defense military construction appropriations bill. Both Salazar and Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., are feeling pressure over Pinon Canyon, now that the House overwhelmingly passed legislation last Friday that would block the Army from spending any money next year on the planned 414,000-acre expansion. Talking to reporters, Salazar said that if he doesn't get detailed answers on economic assistance from the Army, he would "look at the appropriate legislative vehicles to stop the Army from moving forward" until he does. Lon Robertson, president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, said his members are baffled by Salazar's willingness to offer the Army a chance to make doubtful economic promises to the community. The coalition, which has about 1,000 members, including ranchers, rural business people and like-minded groups, is opposed to any expansion. "Given the strong vote we had in the House, it makes us wonder who Sen. Salazar is listening to," Robertson said....
Forest Service considers limiting target practice The U.S. Forest Service said Wednesday it may have to limit target practice along the Front Range because of a growing problem trying to balance the rights of shooters with hikers, bikers and others who want to use national forests. Regional Forester Rick Cables told state lawmakers his agency is conducting a multiple-forest survey called the Urban Front Country Initiative in an effort to determine whether some areas along the Front Range need to be closed to shooters because of the danger to others. "We're not trying to single out shooters. We're trying to manage the whole spectrum of recreational use," Cables told lawmakers who requested the meeting. Legislators expressed concern after the Boulder Ranger District of the Roosevelt National Forest began researching the effect of dispersed camping, the use of campfires and shooting. District foresters indicated there is a possibility shooting could be prohibited in the forest....
Judges deny groups' request to halt Montana logging project An appeals court panel has denied a request from environmental groups to stop the logging of beetle-killed trees on 2,600 acres in and around the Basin Creek watershed south of here. The groups asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year to halt the project pending their appeal. The request was denied Tuesday in an order filed by judges Edward Leavy, Pamela Ann Rymer and Thomas G. Nelson, all Republican appointees to the appeals court. "Obviously, we are disappointed," said Tom Woodbury, a Missoula lawyer representing the environmental groups. Butte officials lauded the decision as a chance to salvage rotting, beetle-killed timber while reducing the potential for a major wildfire in the Basin Creek reservoir, which is the source of roughly 40 percent of Butte's municipal water....
EPA frowns on Yellowstone snowmobile proposal A new proposal for snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park doesn't go far enough in ensuring the protection of air quality, human health, wildlife and quiet spaces, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA says the National Park Service should either change its current "preferred alternative" or choose a different option. Earlier this year, the Park Service released a draft plan that would allow 720 snowmobiles and 78 snowcoaches per day into Yellowstone. The machines would have to meet noise and pollution standards and snowmobilers would have to be with a commercial guide. The proposal, expected to be finalized last year, is the latest attempt to resolve the long-running controversy over snowmobiling in Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks....
Park mauling makes Lander man a minor celebrity Dennis VanDenbos, mauled by a grizzly bear, is home now, and grateful his wounds aren't worse. Meanwhile, the Park Service has taken some heat for leaving a carcass out in the open near people, in an area just yards away from cabins at Jackson Lake Lodge. VanDenbos, a 54-year-old Lander resident was walking near the Jackson Lake Lodge July 13 when he surprised a mother grizzly and three cubs feeding on a freshly killed elk calf. The mother charged him, biting him and tearing flesh in the back and buttocks....
Heartbreak on Sam's Knob? Sam's Knob has become more like Heartbreak Hill for the Aspen Skiing Co. The Skico's quest to rebuild a restaurant at the Sam's Knob section of Snowmass Ski Area has turned into a one-year nightmare. The U.S. Forest Service first rejected the project for not blending in well enough with the forest environment. Now, the redesign, soaring construction costs and the Skico's desire to meet a national standard for environmental design have forced the company to delay the project. The company wants to construct the restaurant next summer and open it for the 2008-09 ski season. There's just one problem with that plan: It promised the town of Snowmass Village in writing to have a new restaurant open for the 2007-08 ski season. If not, the Skico faces a fine of $1,000 per day....
Huntsman, DWR look at updating bear policy As this summer's unusually high number of bear encounters continues to grow, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said Wednesday he's taking another look at how the public can be informed about threatening animals. U.S. Forest Service and Division of Wildlife Resources officials have closed two campgrounds in Utah and set traps for foraging bears — just days after Utah's first recorded fatal black bear attack. Samuel Evan Ives, 11, was killed in American Fork Canyon. The Ledgefork campground above the Smith and Morehouse Reservoir in the eastern Uinta Mountains has been closed for three days as DWR officials have tried to catch an aggressive bear that has visited the site regularly over the past two weeks. In the Spanish Fork ranger district Tuesday, DWR employees set a trap for a bear that has rummaged in a Dumpster. According to Uinta National Forest spokeswoman Loyal Clark, the Blackhawk campground on the Mount Nebo loop will remain closed — with barricades — until the foraging bear is caught and relocated to another area. Closing a campground with a live bear trap is standard practice, Clark said....
Forest Service seeks closure of worn-out roads By the Forest Service's count, there are nearly 25,000 miles of low standard or unauthorized roads on the 13 national forests that span the agency's Northern Region. The Wilderness Society's Joe Kerkvliet calls them “ticking time bombs.” Without proper maintenance, forest roads can spew sediment that harms fish habitat and water quality. “When a road starts falling apart, it begins to deliver tons of sediment into nearby streams,” Kerkvliet said. “Heavy rains or rain on snow can cause massive failures or landslides. These roads have the potential to create serious environmental damage.” Congress is considering a new $65 million program to decommission roads the Forest Service either doesn't want or didn't authorized. The “Legacy Roads and Trails Remediation Initiative” under consideration by the House would set aside funding for road decommissioning, road and trail repair and maintenance, and the removal of fish barriers. The program is part of a bill that funds the Interior Department and U.S. Forest Service. It successfully passed the full House Appropriations Committee the first week of June and could be considered by the full House as early as next week....
Senate Finance Committee OKs new safety net legislation A push to extend the timber safety net another four years received a boost Tuesday from the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. The committee, by a 15-5 vote, approved an energy tax bill. The safety net provision was added as an amendment to the legislation. The plan mirrors one passed by the Senate last month and included in the emergency supplemental funding bill. The House would not agree to the multiyear extension at that time, however. The final bill signed by President George W. Bush included a one-year emergency extension of the safety net. Oregon timber counties received $280 million in safety net payments in the current fiscal year. Overall, $2.9 billion was provided to 700 counties in 39 states over the past six years. Under the proposed Senate extension, future payments to Oregon, Washington and California counties — the major safety net recipients — would decrease by 10 percent per year. Bingaman and some other powerful senators had been lukewarm about the safety net extension until that provision was added to the Senate version of the spending bill that had been part of the emergency supplemental budget fight....
Funds to hire 3,000 more park rangers included in Senate bill A Senate Appropriations subcommittee today approved increased funding for Forest Service firefighter preparedness and 3,000 more National Park Service rangers as part of a $27.2 billion spending bill for the Interior Department and related agencies. Among the highlights of the bill, approved by the subcommittee on Interior, environment and related agencies and headed to full committee Thursday: • $7.8 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency, including $2.8 billion for pollution reduction and $773 million for science and technology research programs. • $2.5 billion for the National Park Service, including $2.0 billion for operations and hiring new park rangers. • $4.6 billion for the Forest Service, including $676 million for firefighter preparedness, $108 million more than the president’s request....Sources say this appropriations bill is headed for a veto.
U.S. Cattlemen's Association Opposes Plan to Regionalize Beef Trade With Argentina In a letter sent June 19, 2007 to the Senate Finance Committee, the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) made it clear that opposing regionalization of Argentina, related to animal health disease issues for import purposes, is one of the organization’s "top member-driven policy issues." USCA urged Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, to "strongly oppose any attempt to weaken oversight or regulation of trade with Argentina." Despite widespread problems with foot and mouth disease (FMD), a highly contagious infection that can destroy entire cattle herds, Argentina has proposed a plan to export beef to the United States from certain regions. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is currently considering adoption of the proposal to relax restrictions on Argentine beef from some areas by regionalizing trade areas. USCA is deeply concerned that proper enforcement of regionalized trade would be impossible and that these regions would become gateways for beef from non-approved areas of Argentina and Brazil. Brazil also has FMD issues....
Fire Kills 24 Horses in Kentucky Barn A barn fire at an award-winning American Saddlebred farm in south-central Kentucky killed 24 horses, the owner said Wednesday. Seven colts and 17 mares were in the barn at 3-T Farm in Allen County when the fire broke out Tuesday morning, said Paige Tabor, one of the owners. All but one of the horses were American Saddlebreds, she said. "When you lose a barn full, it's overwhelming, but you just pick yourself up and find a way to go on," Tabor said. The farm has about 300 horses, she said. A farm worker reported the fire, Tabor said. Investigators were trying to determine the cause of the blaze, Halifax Fire Chief Tim Shockley said....
Idaho Basque community celebrates center The descendants of Basque sheepherders who helped settle southwestern Idaho early last century opened a 7,600-square foot center dedicated to promoting their culture. The 300-member Basque club Txoco Ona -- pronounced Cho-ko On-uh -- played host to a packed house Sunday at the new building, with traditional Basque card games, music, dancing and members showing off feats of athletic prowess, such as hefting 250-pound concrete blocks. The group raised $450,000 for the building. John Vergara, a proponent of the Basque community, said the weightlifting games all have roots in everyday tasks performed by his ancestors in their homeland on the French-Spanish border and when they arrived in the United States with little more than their muscle power. "These guys used to have to work like this," he said. Some 15,000 Basques live in southwestern Idaho and make up the third-largest Basque population in the world, after an enclave in Argentina and in Spain and France....
And They're Off At The Cowboy Races Working on the wild, open range might as well be the battle of Troy for most folks. It’s something that happened long ago, in some other, distant place. But not for everyone. This weekend organizer Craig Cameron will bring his touring Extreme Cowboy Race to the king of cowtowns to show city-folk and ranching aficionados alike some of the best on-the-range skill sets rural America has to offer. After a life involved with horses and their riders, Cameron looked around the competitive cowboy world four years ago and said to himself: Wait a minute. Why in the world aren’t these things held, you know, outdoors? “I realized every event is in an arena,” Cameron says. “It’s not natural. It’s not the riders’ natural environment.” The weekend-long event at the Saddle and Sirloin Club will feature real cowboys showing off the horsemanship skills they use everyday....
200 miles of training in cowboy On a sunny near-summer afternoon, three teens on horseback, with three pack horses trailing, made an unorthodox caravan as they reached the Pozo Saloon. Clad in jeans, chaps, Western-style shirts and cowboy hats, the 17-yearolds were on the next to last leg of a 200-mile trip that took them from Ojai to Santa Margarita, concluding Tuesday evening at the Santa Margarita Ranch after 12 days on the trail. The group, which included William Hockey of Templeton, was on its way home for the summer from Thacher School, a private boarding high school in Ventura County. They took the trip — which they had wanted to do since freshman year — to connect with the school’s early history. Their school prepared them well. Instruction and practice of Western horsemanship is an extracurricular class at Thacher, and students take regular extended camping trips on horseback into the wilderness. The trip hearkens back to the school’s early days when it was founded just for boys in 1889. Then students came from across the state, mostly on horseback....
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Eco-arsonist was in rush to 'save the world' The federal law enforcement agents were stymied. For weeks they had been trying to break into computers and Palm Pilots confiscated from members of a radical environmental group known as The Family, a cell of the Earth Liberation Front. The computers were believed to hold GPS coordinates for caches of weapons and other information vital to the criminal prosecutions of 11 associates of the shadowy organization. But try as they might, the feds couldn't crack the sophisticated encryption code. So they arranged a "field trip" for an inmate named Chelsea Gerlach. Once one of the most senior members of The Family, highly respected by the others, Gerlach had been arrested for her role in 20 arsons across five states, including the 1998 torchings atop Vail Mountain. At the time of her arrest, she was selling drugs in Portland with her boyfriend, another member of the radical environmental movement, prosecutors said. After a few weeks in solitary confinement, and hours more of meditation, Gerlach had agreed to meet with prosecutors and federal agents. The agents asked her for her help. She had long been angry and distrustful of the government, but on this day she was prepared to react differently. She was ready for a change. Sitting down in a Portland computer forensics office, a series of computers and PDAs in front of her, Gerlach went to work. ...
Getting Lost in the Great Indoors "Kids don't think about going outside like they used to, and unless there is some scheduled activity, I don't think they know what to do outdoors anymore," Pelzman said. Pelzman's view is shared by a growing number of children's advocates, environmentalists, business executives and political leaders who fear that this might be the first generation of "indoor children," largely disconnected from nature. Concerns about long-term consequences -- affecting emotional well-being, physical health, learning abilities, environmental consciousness -- have spawned a national movement to "leave no child inside." In recent months, it has been the focus of Capitol Hill hearings, state legislative action, grass-roots projects, a U.S. Forest Service initiative to get more children into the woods and a national effort to promote a "green hour" in each day. Tomorrow 40 civic leaders -- representing several governors, three big-city mayors, Walt Disney Co., Sesame Workshop, DuPont, the gaming industry and others -- will launch a campaign to raise $20 million that will ultimately fund 20 initiatives across the country to encourage children to do what once seemed second nature: go outdoors....
Bear Attacks Destroyed Family Sheepherding Business Years of bear attacks were enough to drive one Utah sheepherder out of business. One rancher tells Eyewitness News he lost hundreds of sheep to what he calls a constant string of hungry bears. Sheepherder Kevin Beckstrom holds one of the few lambs left in his herd. He used to have 2,500 sheep, now he has about 100. The rest have been sold because Beckstrom gave up sheepherding. He says he was losing too many to bear attacks. Beckstrom says, "We can see paw tracks, they're in the dirt around. You can tell by the way they maul them." Beckstrom says bear attacks on sheep herds is a dirty little secret in the Wasatch Mountains. Those bears are hungry, aggressive and plentiful, he says. Each one of his ewes is worth about $150, the small lambs about $120. Over the years, Kevin Beckstrom says his family has lost about $150,000, just to bear attacks. "The last five years it's been devastating. You can only borrow so much and pay back so much," he says. Beckstrom says his losses are tied to an increase in the black bear population. He and his staff have killed 17 bears in the last three years....
Army site expansion falls in laps of senators Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar always have cast a big shadow on the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site expansion debate by virtue of being in the U.S. Senate, where a single senator has the power to bring legislation to a halt on matters that affect only their state. Allard, a Republican, and Salazar, a Democrat, are now feeling that pressure after the House last week gave overwhelming support to an amendment to block the Army from spending any money next year on expanding the 238,000-acre training area northeast of Trinidad by an additional 414,000 acres. The amendment, co-sponsored by Reps. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., and John Salazar, D-Colo., was added to the 2008 Defense military construction appropriations bill by a stunning vote of 383-34. The Senate's version of that bill - without any Pinon Canyon amendment - came out of committee last week and is now awaiting a full Senate vote, which is expected soon. The big question for Allard and Ken Salazar is whether they will support keeping the Musgrave-Salazar amendment when the House and Senate bills are merged into a compromise bill in a conference committee....
Gas infuses, confuses quiet cowboy community In the shadow of the snow-clad Wind River Mountains, Suzy Michnevich runs cattle on the family ranch near Boulder where she grew up. Throw a stone one way and you’d hit the wilderness hills. Throw the other direction and it would land in the Jonah natural gas field. Jonah is where Michnevich used to graze her herd part of the year – until energy development pushed her off her Bureau of Land Management leases several years ago. The royalty check she gets for the gas wells on her own ranch, she jokingly says, goes to support her cattle habit. A self-proclaimed “proponent” of the gas field, she isn’t comfortable with all the changes the boom has brought. Michnevich represents the ambivalent and ambiguous relationship residents of the county have with its golden geese – natural gas and natural wonders. As energy development has swept across Sublette’s steppe, pushing aside wildlife and cowboys, residents embrace and decry the change, seeing both opportunity and upset as thousands of wells are drilled into the earth. As the energy boom spreads across the West it’s perhaps nowhere more evident than Sublette County, where cattle, antelope and retirees used to make up the bulk of the population. Today a whirlwind of change bringing roughnecks, drillers, roustabouts, derrick hands and company men is winding its way throughout the county....
Bear attack: Why no warning at campground? Samuel Evan Ives was excited to go camping with his family on Sunday night, eager to try out the new, two-room tent his stepdad had received for a Father's Day present. But if the 11-year-old's parents had known that less than 48 hours earlier, in the same location, a 300-pound black bear had sliced open a similar tent and swiped at its occupants, the family never would have stayed at the American Fork Canyon campground that later became the site of Sam's gruesome death. Eldon Ives, Sam's grandfather and family spokesman, said at a media gathering Tuesday that U.S. Forest Service officials should have closed the primitive camping area where the bear had previously bothered other campers. If there had been some kind of warning, then maybe Sam would still be alive and the family would not be enduring this "surreal nightmare," Ives said as he held back tears and shook with emotion. "It's hard for us to go around placing blame on people, but we do feel that the campgrounds should have been closed down and that there should have been a warning to campers that there had been problems with a bear in that same area," Ives said. "If there's anything positive that can come out of this, we hope that the Forest Service will do a better job at protecting campers in the future."....
Atheist group sues over Dakota Boys, Girls Ranch The nation’s largest group of atheists and agnostics is suing North Dakota officials, saying public money is being used to religiously “indoctrinate” young people at the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch. The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation filed the lawsuit in federal court in Bismarck on Tuesday against Lisa Bjergaard, director of juvenile services for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and Daniel Richter, director of Ward County Social Services. The lawsuit lists the plaintiffs as Dorothy Manley of Mandan, and Ken and Judy Mischka of Valley City. The ranch’s Web site says it has been affiliated with two Lutheran groups, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in providing services to troubled young people, with facilities in Minot, Fargo and Bismarck. The lawsuit alleges that referrals are funded by taxpayer money, and that the ranch “attempts to modify behavior by directing children to find faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”....
House lawmakers: Cut in fire budget 'irresponsible' House lawmakers on Tuesday criticized the Bush administration's wildfire prevention strategy, which they say has contributed to bigger and costlier fires in recent years. As wildfires blazing in western Colorado forced the evacuation of 60 homes, lawmakers said they fear firefighting costs will continue to rise because the administration has long underfunded forest thinning and state fire assistance. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who directs U.S. forest policy, told a House panel on national parks, forests and public lands that the government is prepared for the 2007 fire season. But lawmakers said they were concerned because President Bush's 2008 budget proposal recommended $96 million less in state fire assistance and other wildfire preparedness programs. Government auditors also said the Interior Department and Forest Service still haven't developed a long-term strategy to clear and thin forests to prevent fires while controlling the cost of fighting fires....
U.S. Group Claims Banned Canadian Cows Moving Across Border A U.S. food safety group is complaining that older Canadian cows are making their way across the border despite the fact that they're still banned. In a letter this week to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Michael Johanns, Food and Water Watch claims cattle older than 30 months, thought to be at higher risk of mad cow disease, are "routinely" entering the U.S. food supply. The watchdog group attached affidavits from five unnamed government inspection workers at slaughterhouses in three states. The workers say there have been direct orders from supervisors not to intervene when an older Canadian animal is being processed, in violation of regulations, reports the Canadian Press. They say policies are inconsistent from one plant to another and complain they can't physically examine the animals to see if the age matches the paperwork. The food safety group is opposed to U.S. plans to resume trade in older cattle, perhaps within months. Meantime, a U.S. appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments next month in the latest bid by a persistent American ranchers group to restrict all Canadian cattle imports....
The power just came back on, after being out for almost two hours. So I'm posting what I have while I can.
Eco-arsonist was in rush to 'save the world' The federal law enforcement agents were stymied. For weeks they had been trying to break into computers and Palm Pilots confiscated from members of a radical environmental group known as The Family, a cell of the Earth Liberation Front. The computers were believed to hold GPS coordinates for caches of weapons and other information vital to the criminal prosecutions of 11 associates of the shadowy organization. But try as they might, the feds couldn't crack the sophisticated encryption code. So they arranged a "field trip" for an inmate named Chelsea Gerlach. Once one of the most senior members of The Family, highly respected by the others, Gerlach had been arrested for her role in 20 arsons across five states, including the 1998 torchings atop Vail Mountain. At the time of her arrest, she was selling drugs in Portland with her boyfriend, another member of the radical environmental movement, prosecutors said. After a few weeks in solitary confinement, and hours more of meditation, Gerlach had agreed to meet with prosecutors and federal agents. The agents asked her for her help. She had long been angry and distrustful of the government, but on this day she was prepared to react differently. She was ready for a change. Sitting down in a Portland computer forensics office, a series of computers and PDAs in front of her, Gerlach went to work. ...
Getting Lost in the Great Indoors "Kids don't think about going outside like they used to, and unless there is some scheduled activity, I don't think they know what to do outdoors anymore," Pelzman said. Pelzman's view is shared by a growing number of children's advocates, environmentalists, business executives and political leaders who fear that this might be the first generation of "indoor children," largely disconnected from nature. Concerns about long-term consequences -- affecting emotional well-being, physical health, learning abilities, environmental consciousness -- have spawned a national movement to "leave no child inside." In recent months, it has been the focus of Capitol Hill hearings, state legislative action, grass-roots projects, a U.S. Forest Service initiative to get more children into the woods and a national effort to promote a "green hour" in each day. Tomorrow 40 civic leaders -- representing several governors, three big-city mayors, Walt Disney Co., Sesame Workshop, DuPont, the gaming industry and others -- will launch a campaign to raise $20 million that will ultimately fund 20 initiatives across the country to encourage children to do what once seemed second nature: go outdoors....
Bear Attacks Destroyed Family Sheepherding Business Years of bear attacks were enough to drive one Utah sheepherder out of business. One rancher tells Eyewitness News he lost hundreds of sheep to what he calls a constant string of hungry bears. Sheepherder Kevin Beckstrom holds one of the few lambs left in his herd. He used to have 2,500 sheep, now he has about 100. The rest have been sold because Beckstrom gave up sheepherding. He says he was losing too many to bear attacks. Beckstrom says, "We can see paw tracks, they're in the dirt around. You can tell by the way they maul them." Beckstrom says bear attacks on sheep herds is a dirty little secret in the Wasatch Mountains. Those bears are hungry, aggressive and plentiful, he says. Each one of his ewes is worth about $150, the small lambs about $120. Over the years, Kevin Beckstrom says his family has lost about $150,000, just to bear attacks. "The last five years it's been devastating. You can only borrow so much and pay back so much," he says. Beckstrom says his losses are tied to an increase in the black bear population. He and his staff have killed 17 bears in the last three years....
Army site expansion falls in laps of senators Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar always have cast a big shadow on the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site expansion debate by virtue of being in the U.S. Senate, where a single senator has the power to bring legislation to a halt on matters that affect only their state. Allard, a Republican, and Salazar, a Democrat, are now feeling that pressure after the House last week gave overwhelming support to an amendment to block the Army from spending any money next year on expanding the 238,000-acre training area northeast of Trinidad by an additional 414,000 acres. The amendment, co-sponsored by Reps. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., and John Salazar, D-Colo., was added to the 2008 Defense military construction appropriations bill by a stunning vote of 383-34. The Senate's version of that bill - without any Pinon Canyon amendment - came out of committee last week and is now awaiting a full Senate vote, which is expected soon. The big question for Allard and Ken Salazar is whether they will support keeping the Musgrave-Salazar amendment when the House and Senate bills are merged into a compromise bill in a conference committee....
Gas infuses, confuses quiet cowboy community In the shadow of the snow-clad Wind River Mountains, Suzy Michnevich runs cattle on the family ranch near Boulder where she grew up. Throw a stone one way and you’d hit the wilderness hills. Throw the other direction and it would land in the Jonah natural gas field. Jonah is where Michnevich used to graze her herd part of the year – until energy development pushed her off her Bureau of Land Management leases several years ago. The royalty check she gets for the gas wells on her own ranch, she jokingly says, goes to support her cattle habit. A self-proclaimed “proponent” of the gas field, she isn’t comfortable with all the changes the boom has brought. Michnevich represents the ambivalent and ambiguous relationship residents of the county have with its golden geese – natural gas and natural wonders. As energy development has swept across Sublette’s steppe, pushing aside wildlife and cowboys, residents embrace and decry the change, seeing both opportunity and upset as thousands of wells are drilled into the earth. As the energy boom spreads across the West it’s perhaps nowhere more evident than Sublette County, where cattle, antelope and retirees used to make up the bulk of the population. Today a whirlwind of change bringing roughnecks, drillers, roustabouts, derrick hands and company men is winding its way throughout the county....
Bear attack: Why no warning at campground? Samuel Evan Ives was excited to go camping with his family on Sunday night, eager to try out the new, two-room tent his stepdad had received for a Father's Day present. But if the 11-year-old's parents had known that less than 48 hours earlier, in the same location, a 300-pound black bear had sliced open a similar tent and swiped at its occupants, the family never would have stayed at the American Fork Canyon campground that later became the site of Sam's gruesome death. Eldon Ives, Sam's grandfather and family spokesman, said at a media gathering Tuesday that U.S. Forest Service officials should have closed the primitive camping area where the bear had previously bothered other campers. If there had been some kind of warning, then maybe Sam would still be alive and the family would not be enduring this "surreal nightmare," Ives said as he held back tears and shook with emotion. "It's hard for us to go around placing blame on people, but we do feel that the campgrounds should have been closed down and that there should have been a warning to campers that there had been problems with a bear in that same area," Ives said. "If there's anything positive that can come out of this, we hope that the Forest Service will do a better job at protecting campers in the future."....
Atheist group sues over Dakota Boys, Girls Ranch The nation’s largest group of atheists and agnostics is suing North Dakota officials, saying public money is being used to religiously “indoctrinate” young people at the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch. The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation filed the lawsuit in federal court in Bismarck on Tuesday against Lisa Bjergaard, director of juvenile services for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and Daniel Richter, director of Ward County Social Services. The lawsuit lists the plaintiffs as Dorothy Manley of Mandan, and Ken and Judy Mischka of Valley City. The ranch’s Web site says it has been affiliated with two Lutheran groups, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in providing services to troubled young people, with facilities in Minot, Fargo and Bismarck. The lawsuit alleges that referrals are funded by taxpayer money, and that the ranch “attempts to modify behavior by directing children to find faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”....
House lawmakers: Cut in fire budget 'irresponsible' House lawmakers on Tuesday criticized the Bush administration's wildfire prevention strategy, which they say has contributed to bigger and costlier fires in recent years. As wildfires blazing in western Colorado forced the evacuation of 60 homes, lawmakers said they fear firefighting costs will continue to rise because the administration has long underfunded forest thinning and state fire assistance. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who directs U.S. forest policy, told a House panel on national parks, forests and public lands that the government is prepared for the 2007 fire season. But lawmakers said they were concerned because President Bush's 2008 budget proposal recommended $96 million less in state fire assistance and other wildfire preparedness programs. Government auditors also said the Interior Department and Forest Service still haven't developed a long-term strategy to clear and thin forests to prevent fires while controlling the cost of fighting fires....
U.S. Group Claims Banned Canadian Cows Moving Across Border A U.S. food safety group is complaining that older Canadian cows are making their way across the border despite the fact that they're still banned. In a letter this week to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Michael Johanns, Food and Water Watch claims cattle older than 30 months, thought to be at higher risk of mad cow disease, are "routinely" entering the U.S. food supply. The watchdog group attached affidavits from five unnamed government inspection workers at slaughterhouses in three states. The workers say there have been direct orders from supervisors not to intervene when an older Canadian animal is being processed, in violation of regulations, reports the Canadian Press. They say policies are inconsistent from one plant to another and complain they can't physically examine the animals to see if the age matches the paperwork. The food safety group is opposed to U.S. plans to resume trade in older cattle, perhaps within months. Meantime, a U.S. appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments next month in the latest bid by a persistent American ranchers group to restrict all Canadian cattle imports....
The power just came back on, after being out for almost two hours. So I'm posting what I have while I can.
Rancher Ben Cain loses battle with cancer
Rancher Ben Cain, who was part of a deal that allows Spaceport America to coexist with ranching operations near the spaceport site in southern Sierra County, has died. He was 78. Cain passed away Sunday after a long battle with cancer, his wife Jane said. "He was my husband, my partner and a father to my children and the best guy you ever saw in all three fields," Jane Cain said. In December, the Bar Cross Ranch — owned by the Cains — and Lewis Cain Ranch reached an agreement with the New Mexico Spaceport Authority that gave the soon-to-be-built Spaceport America access to 18,000 acres of land already leased to the two ranches. Jane Cain said her husband supported Spaceport America. She said Ben Cain witnessed the first successful launch from the site in late April and was pleased. "He thought it was the past meeting the future and it was quite an ordeal," Jane Cain said, adding that her husband wasn't able to go to the spaceport site because of his illness but witnessed the launch from the porch at the couple's home....
Rancher Ben Cain, who was part of a deal that allows Spaceport America to coexist with ranching operations near the spaceport site in southern Sierra County, has died. He was 78. Cain passed away Sunday after a long battle with cancer, his wife Jane said. "He was my husband, my partner and a father to my children and the best guy you ever saw in all three fields," Jane Cain said. In December, the Bar Cross Ranch — owned by the Cains — and Lewis Cain Ranch reached an agreement with the New Mexico Spaceport Authority that gave the soon-to-be-built Spaceport America access to 18,000 acres of land already leased to the two ranches. Jane Cain said her husband supported Spaceport America. She said Ben Cain witnessed the first successful launch from the site in late April and was pleased. "He thought it was the past meeting the future and it was quite an ordeal," Jane Cain said, adding that her husband wasn't able to go to the spaceport site because of his illness but witnessed the launch from the porch at the couple's home....
Rep. Rob Bishop’s Opening Statement from Today’s Hearing On The National Landscape Conservation System
Rep. Bishop is the Ranking Member on the U.S. House Subcommittee on Parks, Forests & Public Lands, which conducted today’s hearing.
“I have serious concerns with H.R. 2016. Coming from a state where much of our land is already under federal lock and key, you should be able to understand why I am less than enthusiastic to see another layer of bureaucracy placed over us.
“On the surface, proponents of the bill claim that this does nothing more than codify a program created by the Clintonadministration which serves to protect lands that have the remarkable ability to, as Ms. Daly put it, ‘define who we are as a nation’. Indeed, some of these lands are remarkable, but much of this land was created at the whim of special interest groups by a sympathetic President.
“Now we are told we need to create a ‘system’ for these lands. Believe it or not we already have a ‘system’ to protect ‘nationally significant’ lands; it is called the National Park Service. This appears to be a thinly veiled attempt to insert restrictive National Park Service management methods in order to lock up public lands which were intended to be multiuse.
“The Chairman’s bill uses language which has haunted National Park Service managers, to the delight of trial attorneys, in their responsibility to balance conservation and recreation. This bill introduces the concept of ‘values’ into the BLM. My question is what is a value to the BLM? In the National Park Service, a value is now interpreted to include such subjective things as sound-scapes, view-sheds, and the occasional smell-shed. Should we anticipate future legislation to protect these ‘values’ on bureau lands?
“Initially I thought this bill was at worst was the camel’s nose under the tent. However, upon closer examination, this bill would invite the camel into to the tent and into the sleeping bag.
“Let’s look directly at the legislation. Section 3- Establishment: In order to conserve, protect, and restore nationally significant landscapes that have outstanding cultural, ecological, and scientific values for the benefit of current and future generations, there is established in the Bureau of Land Management the National Landscape Conservation System.
“This may as well be the National Park Service organic act. This is the same language. Unfortunately it goes on. This bill further directs the Secretary to manage these lands ‘in a manner that protects the values for which the components of the system were designated’. Again, we are presented with the vague concept of values. This legislation is the biggest invitation to a lawsuit since the slip and fall scheme was invented. I can see the day when a judge decides that in light of this language, all units of this system will have to be managed in a uniform and consistent way. It is unconscionable to force our multiuse public lands down the same path that forced personal watercraft out of National Recreation Areas and put snowmobiles on the endangered species list. It appears the language in this bill was ripped from the Redwood’s Amendment to the general authorities of the National Park Service which has imperiled recreation and entombed park units.
“This bill also creates yet another federal designation. The Chairman’s bill will include ‘any area designated by Congress to be administered for conservation purposes’ within this new system. After this bill has become law, we should expect an onslaught of bills for new units of the National Landscape Conservation System.
“Finally, witnesses will testify today about the impacts these designations have on people’s lives. We will ask our witnesses, who have been included in these designations against their wishes, how making this system permanent will directly impact them. This legislation also puts at risk hard-won rights of Alaska natives that are of critical importance to me and to the Ranking Member Don Young.
“We should consider this proposal carefully because the special interests have already put ‘multiuse’ in jeopardy.”
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2016
To establish the National Landscape Conservation System, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 24, 2007
Mr. GRIJALVA (for himself, Mr. MORAN of Virginia, Mrs. BONO, Mr. RENZI, Mr. UDALL of New Mexico, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. INSLEE, Mr. PALLONE, Mrs. MALONEY of New York, Ms. BERKLEY, Mrs. CAPPS, Ms. LEE, Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico, Mr. UDALL of Colorado, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. GILCHREST, and Mr. KIRK) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A BILL
To establish the National Landscape Conservation System, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `National Landscape Conservation System Act'.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) SECRETARY- The term `Secretary' means the Secretary of the Interior.
(2) SYSTEM- The term `system' means the National Landscape Conservation System established by section 3(a).
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NATIONAL LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION SYSTEM.
(a) Establishment- In order to conserve, protect, and restore nationally significant landscapes that have outstanding cultural, ecological, and scientific values for the benefit of current and future generations, there is established in the Bureau of Land Management the National Landscape Conservation System.
(b) Components- The system shall include each of the following areas administered by the Bureau of Land Management:
(1) Each area that is designated as--
(A) a national monument;
(B) a national conservation area;
(C) an outstanding natural area;
(D) a wilderness study area;
(E) a component of the National Trails System;
(F) a component of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System; or
(G) a component of the National Wilderness Preservation System.
(2) Any area designated by Congress to be administered for conservation purposes, including--
(A) the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area, as designated under section 101(a) of the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act of 2000 (16 U.S.C. 460nnn-11(a));
(B) the Headwaters Forest Reserve; and
(C) any additional area designated by Congress for inclusion in the system.
(c) Management- The Secretary shall manage the system--
(1) in accordance with any applicable law (including regulations) relating to any component of the system included under subsection (b); and
(2) in a manner that protects the values for which the components of the system were designated.
SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out this Act.
Please note the inclusion of Wilderness Study Areas in this bill. That means those WSAs, even the ones found not suitable for wilderness, will never be returned to multiple use.
Rep. Bishop is the Ranking Member on the U.S. House Subcommittee on Parks, Forests & Public Lands, which conducted today’s hearing.
“I have serious concerns with H.R. 2016. Coming from a state where much of our land is already under federal lock and key, you should be able to understand why I am less than enthusiastic to see another layer of bureaucracy placed over us.
“On the surface, proponents of the bill claim that this does nothing more than codify a program created by the Clintonadministration which serves to protect lands that have the remarkable ability to, as Ms. Daly put it, ‘define who we are as a nation’. Indeed, some of these lands are remarkable, but much of this land was created at the whim of special interest groups by a sympathetic President.
“Now we are told we need to create a ‘system’ for these lands. Believe it or not we already have a ‘system’ to protect ‘nationally significant’ lands; it is called the National Park Service. This appears to be a thinly veiled attempt to insert restrictive National Park Service management methods in order to lock up public lands which were intended to be multiuse.
“The Chairman’s bill uses language which has haunted National Park Service managers, to the delight of trial attorneys, in their responsibility to balance conservation and recreation. This bill introduces the concept of ‘values’ into the BLM. My question is what is a value to the BLM? In the National Park Service, a value is now interpreted to include such subjective things as sound-scapes, view-sheds, and the occasional smell-shed. Should we anticipate future legislation to protect these ‘values’ on bureau lands?
“Initially I thought this bill was at worst was the camel’s nose under the tent. However, upon closer examination, this bill would invite the camel into to the tent and into the sleeping bag.
“Let’s look directly at the legislation. Section 3- Establishment: In order to conserve, protect, and restore nationally significant landscapes that have outstanding cultural, ecological, and scientific values for the benefit of current and future generations, there is established in the Bureau of Land Management the National Landscape Conservation System.
“This may as well be the National Park Service organic act. This is the same language. Unfortunately it goes on. This bill further directs the Secretary to manage these lands ‘in a manner that protects the values for which the components of the system were designated’. Again, we are presented with the vague concept of values. This legislation is the biggest invitation to a lawsuit since the slip and fall scheme was invented. I can see the day when a judge decides that in light of this language, all units of this system will have to be managed in a uniform and consistent way. It is unconscionable to force our multiuse public lands down the same path that forced personal watercraft out of National Recreation Areas and put snowmobiles on the endangered species list. It appears the language in this bill was ripped from the Redwood’s Amendment to the general authorities of the National Park Service which has imperiled recreation and entombed park units.
“This bill also creates yet another federal designation. The Chairman’s bill will include ‘any area designated by Congress to be administered for conservation purposes’ within this new system. After this bill has become law, we should expect an onslaught of bills for new units of the National Landscape Conservation System.
“Finally, witnesses will testify today about the impacts these designations have on people’s lives. We will ask our witnesses, who have been included in these designations against their wishes, how making this system permanent will directly impact them. This legislation also puts at risk hard-won rights of Alaska natives that are of critical importance to me and to the Ranking Member Don Young.
“We should consider this proposal carefully because the special interests have already put ‘multiuse’ in jeopardy.”
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2016
To establish the National Landscape Conservation System, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 24, 2007
Mr. GRIJALVA (for himself, Mr. MORAN of Virginia, Mrs. BONO, Mr. RENZI, Mr. UDALL of New Mexico, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. INSLEE, Mr. PALLONE, Mrs. MALONEY of New York, Ms. BERKLEY, Mrs. CAPPS, Ms. LEE, Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico, Mr. UDALL of Colorado, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. GILCHREST, and Mr. KIRK) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A BILL
To establish the National Landscape Conservation System, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `National Landscape Conservation System Act'.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) SECRETARY- The term `Secretary' means the Secretary of the Interior.
(2) SYSTEM- The term `system' means the National Landscape Conservation System established by section 3(a).
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NATIONAL LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION SYSTEM.
(a) Establishment- In order to conserve, protect, and restore nationally significant landscapes that have outstanding cultural, ecological, and scientific values for the benefit of current and future generations, there is established in the Bureau of Land Management the National Landscape Conservation System.
(b) Components- The system shall include each of the following areas administered by the Bureau of Land Management:
(1) Each area that is designated as--
(A) a national monument;
(B) a national conservation area;
(C) an outstanding natural area;
(D) a wilderness study area;
(E) a component of the National Trails System;
(F) a component of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System; or
(G) a component of the National Wilderness Preservation System.
(2) Any area designated by Congress to be administered for conservation purposes, including--
(A) the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area, as designated under section 101(a) of the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act of 2000 (16 U.S.C. 460nnn-11(a));
(B) the Headwaters Forest Reserve; and
(C) any additional area designated by Congress for inclusion in the system.
(c) Management- The Secretary shall manage the system--
(1) in accordance with any applicable law (including regulations) relating to any component of the system included under subsection (b); and
(2) in a manner that protects the values for which the components of the system were designated.
SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out this Act.
Please note the inclusion of Wilderness Study Areas in this bill. That means those WSAs, even the ones found not suitable for wilderness, will never be returned to multiple use.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
FLE
Court Rules E-Mail Search Without Warrant Violates Fourth Amendment Federal investigators overstepped constitutional bounds by searching stored e-mails without a warrant in a fraud investigation, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. In a case closely watched by civil-liberties advocates in the still-emerging field of Internet privacy, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that e-mail users have a reasonable expectation of privacy. "It goes without saying that like the telephone earlier in our history, e-mail is an ever-increasing mode of private communication, and protecting shared communications through this medium is as important to Fourth Amendment principles today as protecting telephone conversations has been in past," the appeals court said. The appeals court said the lower court correctly reasoned that e-mails stored at a service provider "were roughly analogous to sealed letters, in which the sender maintains an expectation of privacy. This privacy interest requires that law enforcement officials obtain a warrant, based on a showing of probable cause." Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd in Washington said the decision was being reviewed. The government could appeal to the full 6th Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court....
Court: Passenger can challenge traffic stop A passenger in a car pulled over for a traffic violation can challenge the stop for violating the constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday. The justices held that the California Supreme Court was wrong in ruling that any constitutional violations when a police officer illegally stops a vehicle may be challenged only by the driver. The high court's opinion written by Justice David Souter said the passenger in such cases can be considered "seized," basically unable to leave the scene when the police make the traffic stop, and can also challenge the stop. Souter said any reasonable passenger would understand the police officers would not let people depart without permission or move around in a way that might impede an investigation....
Illegal Immigrant Cases Clogging Federal Courts If you drive by the federal courthouse in Las Cruces, N.M., on a Sunday night, you'll probably see something odd: the lights are burning. Workers in the Court Clerk's Office for the District of New Mexico are working late on Sundays, getting ready for Monday mornings. "[My staff] is stretched pretty thin," admitted Clerk of the Court Matt Dykman. "You'll have 50 or 60 new complaints coming in, and that starts at 8:30 [on a Monday], so there's no way to get ready unless you come in at 5 A.M." Instead, "they come in at seven on Sunday." New Mexico is one of five U.S. District Courts -- the others are Arizona, Southern California, Western Texas, and Southern Texas -- on the front line of the illegal immigration debate. An investigation into those courts reveals a system stretched to the breaking point. Cybercast News Service looked at each of the more than 90 U.S. District and Territorial Courts' criminal case filings since 2002. The five border districts saw an average of 3,730 criminal cases a year, compared to just 425 criminal cases in the other federal courts (see spreadsheet). The difference, say law enforcement and prosecutors on the border, is illegal immigration. More than half the criminal cases in each of the five border districts deal with federal immigration charges (an average of 2,264 cases a year). In New Mexico, 71 percent of all criminal cases in 2006 were immigration-related, while 70 percent of all cases in Southern Texas that year were linked to immigration....
US agencies disobey 6 laws that president challenged Federal officials have disobeyed at least six new laws that President Bush challenged in his signing statements, a government study disclosed yesterday. The report provides the first evidence that the government may have acted on claims by Bush that he can set aside laws under his executive powers. In a report to Congress, the non partisan Government Accountability Office studied a small sample of the bill provisions that Bush has signed into law but also challenged with signing statements. The GAO found that agencies disobeyed six such laws, while enforcing 10 others as written even though Bush had challenged them. Bush's signing statements have drawn fire because he has used them to challenge more than 1,100 sections of bills -- more than all previous presidents combined. The sample the GAO studied represents a small portion of the laws Bush has targeted, but its report concluded that sometimes the government has gone on to disobey those laws. None of the laws the GAO investigated included the president's most controversial claims involving national security, such as his assertion that he can set aside a torture ban and new oversight provisions in the USA Patriot Act because he is the commander in chief. Such material is classified. Virginia Sloan , president of the Constitution Project -- a bipartisan think-tank that has condemned signing statements as a threat to the checks and balances that limit presidential power -- said yesterday that the GAO report shows that signing statements matter. "The findings of this report should come as no great surprise: When the president tells federal agencies they don't have to follow the law, they often don't," Sloan said. "This report should put to rest any doubts as to the real impact of signing statements. The Constitution does not bestow upon the president the power to simply ignore portions of laws he doesn't like."....
6 states defy law requiring ID cards Six state legislatures are defying a federal law requiring new driver's licenses that aim to prevent identity theft, fraud and terrorism. The states have passed laws in the past two months, saying the federal law has a steep cost and invades privacy by requiring 240 million Americans to get highly secure licenses by 2013. The 9/11 Commission urged the first standards for licenses to stop fraud and terrorists such as the Sept. 11 hijackers, who lied on residency statements to get licenses and state IDs. Lawmakers in Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Washington say new standards would be expensive to implement and result in a national ID card that compromises privacy. The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that it will cost states more than $11 billion. State resistance has drawn criticism from the Homeland Security Department. "I cannot imagine a state official anywhere that would want to have to testify before Congress about … how their non-compliant licenses contributed to a terrorist attack," department spokesman Russ Knocke said. Knocke said the federal government can't force states to comply. But he said each state's residents are likely to bring pressure on their local governments when they learn they'll be barred from boarding airplanes because their state's licenses don't meet federal standards. Airline passengers can use other government photo identification, such as passports and military IDs. Some lawmakers say any inconvenience is outweighed by the cost and potential privacy invasion for each state to create a photo database of license holders. "The people of New Hampshire are adamantly opposed to any kind of 'papers-please' society reminiscent of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia," said Neal Kurk, a Republican state representative from New Hampshire. "This is another effort of the federal government to keep track of all its citizens."....
Airport boss snared by no-fly list in U.S. Steve Baker, head of the London International Airport, knows first-hand the pain Canadian flyers may now face. On the day a new no-fly security list threatened to ground an unknown number of Canadian air travellers, Baker yesterday revealed he was on the U.S. version of that list -- which bars people from flying -- about a year ago. "There was someone with the exact name, Steven James Baker," he said. In fact, the first time his name popped up on the no-fly list was as he tried to fly out of his own airport to the U.S. "I was able to travel that day. But every time I flew I had to go through the same process," said Baker, president of the London airport. It took Baker four months of paperwork to convince U.S. authorities he wasn't the Steven James Baker on the U.S. Homeland Security list....
Court Rules E-Mail Search Without Warrant Violates Fourth Amendment Federal investigators overstepped constitutional bounds by searching stored e-mails without a warrant in a fraud investigation, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. In a case closely watched by civil-liberties advocates in the still-emerging field of Internet privacy, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that e-mail users have a reasonable expectation of privacy. "It goes without saying that like the telephone earlier in our history, e-mail is an ever-increasing mode of private communication, and protecting shared communications through this medium is as important to Fourth Amendment principles today as protecting telephone conversations has been in past," the appeals court said. The appeals court said the lower court correctly reasoned that e-mails stored at a service provider "were roughly analogous to sealed letters, in which the sender maintains an expectation of privacy. This privacy interest requires that law enforcement officials obtain a warrant, based on a showing of probable cause." Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd in Washington said the decision was being reviewed. The government could appeal to the full 6th Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court....
Court: Passenger can challenge traffic stop A passenger in a car pulled over for a traffic violation can challenge the stop for violating the constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday. The justices held that the California Supreme Court was wrong in ruling that any constitutional violations when a police officer illegally stops a vehicle may be challenged only by the driver. The high court's opinion written by Justice David Souter said the passenger in such cases can be considered "seized," basically unable to leave the scene when the police make the traffic stop, and can also challenge the stop. Souter said any reasonable passenger would understand the police officers would not let people depart without permission or move around in a way that might impede an investigation....
Illegal Immigrant Cases Clogging Federal Courts If you drive by the federal courthouse in Las Cruces, N.M., on a Sunday night, you'll probably see something odd: the lights are burning. Workers in the Court Clerk's Office for the District of New Mexico are working late on Sundays, getting ready for Monday mornings. "[My staff] is stretched pretty thin," admitted Clerk of the Court Matt Dykman. "You'll have 50 or 60 new complaints coming in, and that starts at 8:30 [on a Monday], so there's no way to get ready unless you come in at 5 A.M." Instead, "they come in at seven on Sunday." New Mexico is one of five U.S. District Courts -- the others are Arizona, Southern California, Western Texas, and Southern Texas -- on the front line of the illegal immigration debate. An investigation into those courts reveals a system stretched to the breaking point. Cybercast News Service looked at each of the more than 90 U.S. District and Territorial Courts' criminal case filings since 2002. The five border districts saw an average of 3,730 criminal cases a year, compared to just 425 criminal cases in the other federal courts (see spreadsheet). The difference, say law enforcement and prosecutors on the border, is illegal immigration. More than half the criminal cases in each of the five border districts deal with federal immigration charges (an average of 2,264 cases a year). In New Mexico, 71 percent of all criminal cases in 2006 were immigration-related, while 70 percent of all cases in Southern Texas that year were linked to immigration....
US agencies disobey 6 laws that president challenged Federal officials have disobeyed at least six new laws that President Bush challenged in his signing statements, a government study disclosed yesterday. The report provides the first evidence that the government may have acted on claims by Bush that he can set aside laws under his executive powers. In a report to Congress, the non partisan Government Accountability Office studied a small sample of the bill provisions that Bush has signed into law but also challenged with signing statements. The GAO found that agencies disobeyed six such laws, while enforcing 10 others as written even though Bush had challenged them. Bush's signing statements have drawn fire because he has used them to challenge more than 1,100 sections of bills -- more than all previous presidents combined. The sample the GAO studied represents a small portion of the laws Bush has targeted, but its report concluded that sometimes the government has gone on to disobey those laws. None of the laws the GAO investigated included the president's most controversial claims involving national security, such as his assertion that he can set aside a torture ban and new oversight provisions in the USA Patriot Act because he is the commander in chief. Such material is classified. Virginia Sloan , president of the Constitution Project -- a bipartisan think-tank that has condemned signing statements as a threat to the checks and balances that limit presidential power -- said yesterday that the GAO report shows that signing statements matter. "The findings of this report should come as no great surprise: When the president tells federal agencies they don't have to follow the law, they often don't," Sloan said. "This report should put to rest any doubts as to the real impact of signing statements. The Constitution does not bestow upon the president the power to simply ignore portions of laws he doesn't like."....
6 states defy law requiring ID cards Six state legislatures are defying a federal law requiring new driver's licenses that aim to prevent identity theft, fraud and terrorism. The states have passed laws in the past two months, saying the federal law has a steep cost and invades privacy by requiring 240 million Americans to get highly secure licenses by 2013. The 9/11 Commission urged the first standards for licenses to stop fraud and terrorists such as the Sept. 11 hijackers, who lied on residency statements to get licenses and state IDs. Lawmakers in Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Washington say new standards would be expensive to implement and result in a national ID card that compromises privacy. The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that it will cost states more than $11 billion. State resistance has drawn criticism from the Homeland Security Department. "I cannot imagine a state official anywhere that would want to have to testify before Congress about … how their non-compliant licenses contributed to a terrorist attack," department spokesman Russ Knocke said. Knocke said the federal government can't force states to comply. But he said each state's residents are likely to bring pressure on their local governments when they learn they'll be barred from boarding airplanes because their state's licenses don't meet federal standards. Airline passengers can use other government photo identification, such as passports and military IDs. Some lawmakers say any inconvenience is outweighed by the cost and potential privacy invasion for each state to create a photo database of license holders. "The people of New Hampshire are adamantly opposed to any kind of 'papers-please' society reminiscent of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia," said Neal Kurk, a Republican state representative from New Hampshire. "This is another effort of the federal government to keep track of all its citizens."....
Airport boss snared by no-fly list in U.S. Steve Baker, head of the London International Airport, knows first-hand the pain Canadian flyers may now face. On the day a new no-fly security list threatened to ground an unknown number of Canadian air travellers, Baker yesterday revealed he was on the U.S. version of that list -- which bars people from flying -- about a year ago. "There was someone with the exact name, Steven James Baker," he said. In fact, the first time his name popped up on the no-fly list was as he tried to fly out of his own airport to the U.S. "I was able to travel that day. But every time I flew I had to go through the same process," said Baker, president of the London airport. It took Baker four months of paperwork to convince U.S. authorities he wasn't the Steven James Baker on the U.S. Homeland Security list....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Utah boy killed by bear while camping An 11-year-old boy was dragged screaming from his family's tent and killed by a black bear during a Father's Day outing in the Utah wilderness. The boy, his mother, stepfather and a 6-year-old brother were sleeping in a large tent Sunday night in American Fork Canyon, about 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, when the stepfather heard the boy scream "something's dragging me." The boy and his sleeping bag were gone. The cut in the nylon tent was so clean, his family, who was not identified, first believed the boy had been abducted, U.S Forest Service officers said. Wearing flip-flops and without a flashlight, the stepfather searched frantically for the boy and then drove a mile down a dirt road to a developed campground. The boy's body was found about 400 yards away from the campsite, said Lt. Dennis Harris of the Utah County sheriff's office. Wildlife officers led by hound dogs killed the bear Monday. After the bear was shot, an examination of the remains confirmed that it was the killer, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said. He declined to say how the confirmation was made "out of respect for the family."....
Judge says hatchery and wild fish differ Native fish conservation groups won the latest round in dueling opinions about the status of wild vs. hatchery salmon and steelhead. U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour, sitting in Seattle, on Wednesday struck down a Bush administration decision to consider hatchery salmon with their wild counterparts in determining whether certain runs need Endangered Species Act Protection. The immediate effect of the rulings in two related cases was to change the listing for upper Columbia River steelhead from threatened to endangered. "We are ecstatic," said Kaitlin Lovell, the salmon policy coordinator for Trout Unlimited in Portland. The group is the lead plaintiff in both suits, the first challenging allowing hatchery fish to count with wild for the purpose of listings, and the second the federal downlisting of upper Columbia steelhead. If the rulings stand, it could affect other salmon in which hatchery fish are part of the listing decisions....
Piñon expansion voted down The US House voted overwhelmingly to block expansion of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site on Friday, with 383 lawmakers saying the Army cannot spend money to even study adding 450 square miles to the training area. The rebuke for Fort Carson planners came after two Colorado Congress members offered the expansion-stopping measure as an amendment to a military construction spending bill. Reps. Marilyn Musgrave and John Salazar made impassioned speeches accusing the Army of plotting to seize large tracts of southeast Colorado, which they said could destroy the ranching economy. “You might as well cross southeast Colorado off the map if this expansion goes forward,” Musgrave, a Republican from Fort Morgan, warned during a speech that played live on C-SPAN....
Families Seek Payment in Land Dispute In 1941, hundreds of families in Western Kentucky were told to leave their farmland to make room for a World War II training camp. Over the years, they say, they have been cheated out of an agreement to buy back their land after the war and denied a stake in a government windfall: the discovery of enormous deposits of gas and oil. Now, the families and their heirs are battling the government for what they say is their fair share of more than $30 million in profit. Interviews with residents, historical documents and court records tell the story behind what lawyers say may be the nation’s last remaining land dispute from World War II. “They don’t get around to paying you quickly when they owe you money,” said 83-year-old William Griggs, who had just graduated from high school in May 1942, when his grandfather and other small farmers were told to move off their land. “Everybody was disappointed,” Mr. Griggs said. “But we were patriotic.” Camp Breckinridge, spanning 36,000 acres across Union, Henderson and Webster Counties, was one of a handful of inland camps built to train soldiers far from the threat of coastal attacks. More than 1,000 people were forced off the land, either through negotiated sales or through condemnation proceedings. Their 522 properties ranged in size from 50 acres to 250 acres. Beginning in 1941, families were told to sell or move all their livestock, furniture and crops....
Ovando woman rides her horses to glory Imagine a few hours in the saddle, riding a horse nonstop at a steady trot up and down mountain trails. Think of the pounding and jarring over uneven, sometimes unforgiving and rocky ground. or most of us, it's not too hard to imagine the soreness and aches that would follow. Over two days recently, Ovando rancher Suzanne Hayes racked up two national championship endurance titles - logging 15 hours in the saddle and 150 miles - at the Arabian Horse Association's National Endurance Ride Championships in Montana's Custer National Forest near Ashland. On June 9, Hayes rode her 7-year-old Arabian-thoroughbred cross named Chevy in the 50-mile competition, finishing the ride in about five hours and earning the national championship title in the half-Arabian division. The following day, Hayes climbed aboard her World Endurance contender, a 12-year-old Arabian-quarter horse cross named Quincy for the 100-mile competition, finishing the ride in 10 hours and earning the reserve championship title. Hayes didn't need any aspirin to recover from her whirlwind 150-mile weekend in the saddle. The achievement of finishing and the giant silver trophies she received at trail's end fully numbed any soreness and stiffness. Adding to the sweetness of it all, both horses received “best conditioned” honors by the competition's team of veterinarians, and out of 180 competitors, Quincy was chosen to receive the veterinarian's highest score for fitness and soundness....
Saddling up in a new niche Van Williams, owner of Envision Film and Video, left KENS-TV confident he could run a successful production company filling orders for corporate video projects and commercials. The plan worked, but in short order Williams' portfolio encompassed much more. Little did Williams know that the company he launched in 2001 would become one of the nation's top equestrian filmmakers. He produces “America's Horse” for Dish Network and DirecTV under a contract with the American Quarter Horse Association. And he recently joined forces with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to promote wild mustang adoptions. The new program, “Extreme Mustang Makeover,” airs this fall on satellite channels. “They are truly wild, wild horses,” Williams said. “To put them in a trailer, or a rope around their neck, is major chaos.” The reality-based program follows 100 adoptions for 100 days. It concludes with a cash prize competition, the objective being to reward those trainers who are the most successful at taming and teaching wild mustangs....
Ride For The Brand Ranch Rodeo 100 working cowboys from 25 historic Western ranches will compete with one another and against-the-clock in action packed Ranch Rodeo events at the 5th annual Ride For The Brand Ranch Rodeo on Saturday, July 7th, 2007, at Norris-Penrose Event Center. Kicking off the Rodeo will be the crowd pleasing Texas Longhorn Cattle Drive at High Noon on Friday, July 6. The prize winning heard of Texas Longhorns will be brought to town by Searle Ranch of Monument, Colorado and will make its way south on Tejon Street from Cache La Poudre to the Pioneers Museum. Driving the cattle will be Stan Searle, President of the Texas Longhorn Heritage Foundation, Waddie Mitchell, well known Cowboy Poet and Rancher from Elko, NV and cowboys from the visiting ranches in town for the Ranch Rodeo. At 6:00 PM, Waddie Mitchell, Host on Horseback, will lead off the festivities in the colorful Grand Entry and the Ranch Rodeo kicks into high gear. Evening events are: Wild Cow Milking, Trailer Loading, Double Mugging and Ranch Bronc Riding. Events are timed and judged, with final scores tallied at the conclusion of the Rodeo. At the Awards Ceremony, the winning teams will be awarded Ride For The Brand Silver Buckles and cash prizes. Awards will also be given to Top Horse and Top Hand. Winning teams participate in the WRCA (Working Ranch Cowboys Association) finals in Amarillo in November 2007....
The Death of Jim Dayton On the west side of Death Valley, about 10 miles south of Furnace Creek Ranch, is the well-known grave of Jim Dayton. He originally arrived in the Death Valley country in the early 1880's and drove a 20-mule team. Later in the decade Dayton found employment at the Furnace Creek Ranch in tending livestock and caring for the grounds. In the 1890's he became the ranch foreman. After about 1890 there was very little travel through the Valley of Death. The borax boom of 1883-1888 had ceased, and the owner of the ranch, F.M. "Borax" Smith, maintained the ranch only to hold the ground and protect his nearby mineral properties. Dayton supplied occasional passers-by with horse feed and limited provisions. Because it was practically impossible to keep workers at the ranch, Jimmie Dayton spent much time alone. To obtain supplies and catch up on the news, Dayton made occasional 140- mile round trips from the ranch to Daggett, located just east of Barstow....
It's All Trew: Lamp chores evolved A boyhood chore, learned at an early age, involved filling lamps with coal oil poured from a gallon can with a blackened potato pushed down over the spout. The potato was used to replace the lost cap for the spout. A small tin funnel made the job easier. We also had a coal oil lantern for outside use. Wind kept the glass so smoky mother always said, "We had to strike a match to see if the lantern was lit." As I recall, we had three or four regular coal oil lamps before buying a Rayo design which had a round wick. It was so bright it hurt your eyes and made your forehead hot if you sat too close. However, it did a much better job of heating mother's hair curling irons than the regular lamps. Coal oil originated in the early 1850s when a Pittsburgh druggist named Samuel Kier began selling a bottled oil skimmed from his father's salt brine well. He called it "Pennsylvania Rock Oil." A whale oil dealer purchased a bottle of Kier's oil, refined it by heating and found it burned well in lamps with very little smoke. When Kier heard of the experiment he began refining Rock Oil in a one-barrel whiskey still converting the crude oil into lamp oil. By 1854, Rock Oil was being refined in quantity and was called coal oil and later kerosene, a major petroleum product today....
Will try to catch up on the rest of the news tomorrow night, including some news about New Mexico athletes at the CNFR.
Utah boy killed by bear while camping An 11-year-old boy was dragged screaming from his family's tent and killed by a black bear during a Father's Day outing in the Utah wilderness. The boy, his mother, stepfather and a 6-year-old brother were sleeping in a large tent Sunday night in American Fork Canyon, about 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, when the stepfather heard the boy scream "something's dragging me." The boy and his sleeping bag were gone. The cut in the nylon tent was so clean, his family, who was not identified, first believed the boy had been abducted, U.S Forest Service officers said. Wearing flip-flops and without a flashlight, the stepfather searched frantically for the boy and then drove a mile down a dirt road to a developed campground. The boy's body was found about 400 yards away from the campsite, said Lt. Dennis Harris of the Utah County sheriff's office. Wildlife officers led by hound dogs killed the bear Monday. After the bear was shot, an examination of the remains confirmed that it was the killer, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said. He declined to say how the confirmation was made "out of respect for the family."....
Judge says hatchery and wild fish differ Native fish conservation groups won the latest round in dueling opinions about the status of wild vs. hatchery salmon and steelhead. U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour, sitting in Seattle, on Wednesday struck down a Bush administration decision to consider hatchery salmon with their wild counterparts in determining whether certain runs need Endangered Species Act Protection. The immediate effect of the rulings in two related cases was to change the listing for upper Columbia River steelhead from threatened to endangered. "We are ecstatic," said Kaitlin Lovell, the salmon policy coordinator for Trout Unlimited in Portland. The group is the lead plaintiff in both suits, the first challenging allowing hatchery fish to count with wild for the purpose of listings, and the second the federal downlisting of upper Columbia steelhead. If the rulings stand, it could affect other salmon in which hatchery fish are part of the listing decisions....
Piñon expansion voted down The US House voted overwhelmingly to block expansion of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site on Friday, with 383 lawmakers saying the Army cannot spend money to even study adding 450 square miles to the training area. The rebuke for Fort Carson planners came after two Colorado Congress members offered the expansion-stopping measure as an amendment to a military construction spending bill. Reps. Marilyn Musgrave and John Salazar made impassioned speeches accusing the Army of plotting to seize large tracts of southeast Colorado, which they said could destroy the ranching economy. “You might as well cross southeast Colorado off the map if this expansion goes forward,” Musgrave, a Republican from Fort Morgan, warned during a speech that played live on C-SPAN....
Families Seek Payment in Land Dispute In 1941, hundreds of families in Western Kentucky were told to leave their farmland to make room for a World War II training camp. Over the years, they say, they have been cheated out of an agreement to buy back their land after the war and denied a stake in a government windfall: the discovery of enormous deposits of gas and oil. Now, the families and their heirs are battling the government for what they say is their fair share of more than $30 million in profit. Interviews with residents, historical documents and court records tell the story behind what lawyers say may be the nation’s last remaining land dispute from World War II. “They don’t get around to paying you quickly when they owe you money,” said 83-year-old William Griggs, who had just graduated from high school in May 1942, when his grandfather and other small farmers were told to move off their land. “Everybody was disappointed,” Mr. Griggs said. “But we were patriotic.” Camp Breckinridge, spanning 36,000 acres across Union, Henderson and Webster Counties, was one of a handful of inland camps built to train soldiers far from the threat of coastal attacks. More than 1,000 people were forced off the land, either through negotiated sales or through condemnation proceedings. Their 522 properties ranged in size from 50 acres to 250 acres. Beginning in 1941, families were told to sell or move all their livestock, furniture and crops....
Ovando woman rides her horses to glory Imagine a few hours in the saddle, riding a horse nonstop at a steady trot up and down mountain trails. Think of the pounding and jarring over uneven, sometimes unforgiving and rocky ground. or most of us, it's not too hard to imagine the soreness and aches that would follow. Over two days recently, Ovando rancher Suzanne Hayes racked up two national championship endurance titles - logging 15 hours in the saddle and 150 miles - at the Arabian Horse Association's National Endurance Ride Championships in Montana's Custer National Forest near Ashland. On June 9, Hayes rode her 7-year-old Arabian-thoroughbred cross named Chevy in the 50-mile competition, finishing the ride in about five hours and earning the national championship title in the half-Arabian division. The following day, Hayes climbed aboard her World Endurance contender, a 12-year-old Arabian-quarter horse cross named Quincy for the 100-mile competition, finishing the ride in 10 hours and earning the reserve championship title. Hayes didn't need any aspirin to recover from her whirlwind 150-mile weekend in the saddle. The achievement of finishing and the giant silver trophies she received at trail's end fully numbed any soreness and stiffness. Adding to the sweetness of it all, both horses received “best conditioned” honors by the competition's team of veterinarians, and out of 180 competitors, Quincy was chosen to receive the veterinarian's highest score for fitness and soundness....
Saddling up in a new niche Van Williams, owner of Envision Film and Video, left KENS-TV confident he could run a successful production company filling orders for corporate video projects and commercials. The plan worked, but in short order Williams' portfolio encompassed much more. Little did Williams know that the company he launched in 2001 would become one of the nation's top equestrian filmmakers. He produces “America's Horse” for Dish Network and DirecTV under a contract with the American Quarter Horse Association. And he recently joined forces with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to promote wild mustang adoptions. The new program, “Extreme Mustang Makeover,” airs this fall on satellite channels. “They are truly wild, wild horses,” Williams said. “To put them in a trailer, or a rope around their neck, is major chaos.” The reality-based program follows 100 adoptions for 100 days. It concludes with a cash prize competition, the objective being to reward those trainers who are the most successful at taming and teaching wild mustangs....
Ride For The Brand Ranch Rodeo 100 working cowboys from 25 historic Western ranches will compete with one another and against-the-clock in action packed Ranch Rodeo events at the 5th annual Ride For The Brand Ranch Rodeo on Saturday, July 7th, 2007, at Norris-Penrose Event Center. Kicking off the Rodeo will be the crowd pleasing Texas Longhorn Cattle Drive at High Noon on Friday, July 6. The prize winning heard of Texas Longhorns will be brought to town by Searle Ranch of Monument, Colorado and will make its way south on Tejon Street from Cache La Poudre to the Pioneers Museum. Driving the cattle will be Stan Searle, President of the Texas Longhorn Heritage Foundation, Waddie Mitchell, well known Cowboy Poet and Rancher from Elko, NV and cowboys from the visiting ranches in town for the Ranch Rodeo. At 6:00 PM, Waddie Mitchell, Host on Horseback, will lead off the festivities in the colorful Grand Entry and the Ranch Rodeo kicks into high gear. Evening events are: Wild Cow Milking, Trailer Loading, Double Mugging and Ranch Bronc Riding. Events are timed and judged, with final scores tallied at the conclusion of the Rodeo. At the Awards Ceremony, the winning teams will be awarded Ride For The Brand Silver Buckles and cash prizes. Awards will also be given to Top Horse and Top Hand. Winning teams participate in the WRCA (Working Ranch Cowboys Association) finals in Amarillo in November 2007....
The Death of Jim Dayton On the west side of Death Valley, about 10 miles south of Furnace Creek Ranch, is the well-known grave of Jim Dayton. He originally arrived in the Death Valley country in the early 1880's and drove a 20-mule team. Later in the decade Dayton found employment at the Furnace Creek Ranch in tending livestock and caring for the grounds. In the 1890's he became the ranch foreman. After about 1890 there was very little travel through the Valley of Death. The borax boom of 1883-1888 had ceased, and the owner of the ranch, F.M. "Borax" Smith, maintained the ranch only to hold the ground and protect his nearby mineral properties. Dayton supplied occasional passers-by with horse feed and limited provisions. Because it was practically impossible to keep workers at the ranch, Jimmie Dayton spent much time alone. To obtain supplies and catch up on the news, Dayton made occasional 140- mile round trips from the ranch to Daggett, located just east of Barstow....
It's All Trew: Lamp chores evolved A boyhood chore, learned at an early age, involved filling lamps with coal oil poured from a gallon can with a blackened potato pushed down over the spout. The potato was used to replace the lost cap for the spout. A small tin funnel made the job easier. We also had a coal oil lantern for outside use. Wind kept the glass so smoky mother always said, "We had to strike a match to see if the lantern was lit." As I recall, we had three or four regular coal oil lamps before buying a Rayo design which had a round wick. It was so bright it hurt your eyes and made your forehead hot if you sat too close. However, it did a much better job of heating mother's hair curling irons than the regular lamps. Coal oil originated in the early 1850s when a Pittsburgh druggist named Samuel Kier began selling a bottled oil skimmed from his father's salt brine well. He called it "Pennsylvania Rock Oil." A whale oil dealer purchased a bottle of Kier's oil, refined it by heating and found it burned well in lamps with very little smoke. When Kier heard of the experiment he began refining Rock Oil in a one-barrel whiskey still converting the crude oil into lamp oil. By 1854, Rock Oil was being refined in quantity and was called coal oil and later kerosene, a major petroleum product today....
Will try to catch up on the rest of the news tomorrow night, including some news about New Mexico athletes at the CNFR.
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