NEWS ROUNDUP
UN issues desertification warning Tens of millions of people could be driven from their homes by encroaching deserts, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia, a report says. The study by the United Nations University suggests climate change is making desertification "the greatest environmental challenge of our times". If action is not taken, the report warns that some 50 million people could be displaced within the next 10 years. The study was produced by more than 200 experts from 25 countries. This report does not pull any punches, says BBC environment reporter Matt McGrath. One third of the Earth's population - home to about two billion people - are potential victims of its creeping effect, it says....
House Democrats at Odds Over Energy Bill Provisions Just before the July 4 deadline she set for coming up with an "energy independence" package of legislation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is trying to pull together the pieces of an energy bill from 10 committees and warring Democratic leaders. As committees raced to wrap up bills yesterday before Monday's recess, the Democratic strategy remained unclear. The energy bill under consideration by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, for example, omitted any mention of vehicle fuel efficiency standards or mandates for massive biofuels production, major elements of the Senate bill adopted last week. That will make negotiating a final bill with the Senate tricky. Furthermore, Democratic leaders said yesterday that they would push for a climate change bill later this year, raising further uncertainty about what items would be added to an energy bill now and which ones might be left for the climate change bill....
Corn Ethanol Mandates Don't Make Sense No better example of nonsensical energy policy is the federal indulgence with corn ethanol fuel, a heavily subsidized product that is a net loser for the economy, the environment, and for our energy security. In 2005, in the name of “energy independence,” Congress and President Bush mandated a doubling of the national use of ethanol as an additive in gasoline, specifically requiring the consumption of 8 billion gallons of ethanol in the U.S. by 2012. Ethanol production also receives a federal tax credit of 51 cents per gallon, which will expand with the new mandate, costing U.S. taxpayers over $4 billion a year by 2012. Several Midwestern states offer similar state subsidies for ethanol production. Thanks to protectionist barriers and other restrictions, the U.S. will meet the expanded mandate through the inefficient milling of domestic corn into ethanol. The result is a massive new subsidy for corn growers—who already receive generous cash subsidies and other benefits from the traditional USDA corn commodity program, which paid corn growers $51.3 billion in the period from 1995-2005. Yet, in spite of this extraordinary federal support, the planting, harvesting, milling, refining, and transporting of corn-based ethanol consumes more energy inputs than the final energy value of a gallon of ethanol. Cornell professor David Pimentel and his colleagues found that converting corn to ethanol consumes 29 percent more fossil energy than is produced. Put another way, because corn ethanol is a net energy loser, America is probably using more traditional fossil fuels because of the ethanol mandate than we would without any mandate at all....
Regulating to Infinity and Beyond Gridlock over climate-change policy has dominated the headlines for the last few years, but workaday environmental regulation has continued steamrolling along, mostly under the radar. That changed last week when the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new federal standard for ozone air pollution — one that will turn most of the nation into a Clean Air Act “non-attainment” area, in many cases permanently. The Clean Air Act already pervades Americans’ work and personal lives in ways both obvious and subtle. But the current system will seem a libertarian paradise compared to the brave new world we’re about to enter. The EPA’s new standard will greatly increase regulatory burdens in areas that already violate the ozone standard, and will expand the Byzantine Clean Air Act planning system into large areas of the country that have never been subject to them. Due to relatively low ozone levels during the last few years, only 19 percent of the nation’s metropolitan areas violate EPA’s current eight-hour ozone standard of 85 parts per billion, down from 40 percent just a few years ago. Non-metropolitan counties — those that include only rural areas or smaller cities — are in even better shape, with only a four-percent violation rate. Absent a tougher standard, this would have meant that many areas would shortly be getting out from under some of the Clean Air Act’s most odious requirements. With the new standard, however, non-attainment will become the norm, rather than the exception. EPA is proposing a standard somewhere in the range of 70–75 ppb. Based on current ozone levels, this would put 67–87 percent of metropolitan areas in violation, and 39–72 percent of non-metropolitan counties. In a press conference this morning, EPA administrator Stephen Johnson stressed repeatedly that the science demonstrates the need for a tougher ozone standard to protect public health. But if anything, what has become clear over the last several years is that ozone at current levels is having, at worst, a miniscule effect on Americans’ health and that the current standard provides safe air with plenty of room to spare. Estimates by EPA’s own scientists indicate that going from current ozone levels to full national attainment of the proposed 70 ppb standard would reduce hospital visits for asthma and other respiratory diseases by only a few tenths of a percent. You won’t find this tiny benefit explicitly mentioned or calculated in any government reports, but you can calculate it from the data they do provide....
Violent crime rare on public land National parks and forests in Colorado are generally safe, with few violent crimes occurring there, according to local sheriff offices. "We have a lot of trespass, illegal campfires, transients, illegal camping, minor vandalism," said Lt. Phil West of the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, referring to crimes committed on public lands. "The most significant events we are involved in are rescues of lost skiers, fallen climbers, and so forth. It (violent crime) is not a major issue." The slaying of a Colorado Geological Survey intern in a remote part of San Isabel National Forest on Tuesday was considered unusual....
Reckless off-roaders called scourge A new group of retired land managers and forest rangers said Thursday that reckless off-road vehicle recreation was the No. 1 threat to public lands in the West. The 13-member Rangers for Responsible Recreation said it was voicing the concerns of many federal land management employees in the West, including in California, who report that an increasing number of riders and the growing power of the vehicles are endangering natural resources and public safety. Spokesmen for the group were participating in a teleconference from Tucson that was arranged by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. PEER, which describes itself as an "alliance of local, state and federal resource professionals," helped found the new organization. Damage from off-road vehicles is worst when riders leave designated routes and head into sensitive areas such as fragile desert and riparian zones, members of the new group said. Jim Baca, who headed the Bureau of Land Management under President Clinton, said the cumulative effect was serious for watersheds....
Groups urge Lincoln not be sprayed Two groups are seeking to block a proposal to spray sections of the Lincoln National Forest. In a news release issued Thursday, the Forest Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity said they have requested that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant emergency federal protection to the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly on Thursday. The Forest Service announced earlier this week that it will go ahead with plans to spray the forest in an effort to eliminate the threat posed by two insects that are destroying and damaging trees. Forest Service officials said Monday that a bacterial agent will be used, but won't be sprayed until the checkerspot butterfly begins hibernating. This is expected to occur some time in October or November. The insects have affected several thousand acres in the Lincoln. Cloudcroft residents have already begun to spray, and the Forest Service intends to remove dead trees from areas around Cloudcroft. According to the news release, "ongoing insecticide spraying in the village of Cloudcroft and proposed spraying on adjacent Lincoln National Forest land prompted the request" from the two groups....
Flat country complicated fire response Sometimes, in flat country, a fire can be a hard thing to find. That's the story that emerged regarding the early hours of the Madison Arm fire two miles north of here, a blaze now charted at more than 3,000 acres. The flames were first reported to West Yellowstone police and U.S. Forest Service dispatch centers about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, police and forest service officials said Thursday in a public meeting and in interviews. It wasn't until about 4 p.m. that a tanker plane dumped its first load of retardant on the blaze, and that frustrated some local residents here. “Man, did it have to get to 3,000 acres in less than 24 hours?” one man asked at the public meeting here. The fire got its start - probably from human activity, according to fire management officer Fred Jones - in a broad expanse of flat ground south of the Madison Arm of Hebgen Lake and west of this town's airport. Firefighters responded immediately, District Ranger Fred Queen said, but they had a hard time pinpointing the flames in the flat terrain, which is covered with lodgepole pines and regenerating clearcuts and is crisscrossed with abandoned logging roads....
No Permit for Rainbow Family Event The U.S. Forest Service said it won't require members of the Rainbow Family to get a permit for their annual gathering in a national forest, and have worked with members to come up with a plan to protect the forest. The mix of eccentrics, young people and hippie types from around the country has been meeting for decades each year in a national forest somewhere in the U.S. to pray for peace and to celebrate love. About 3,000 people had arrived in the Ozark National Forest in northwest Arkansas for the July 1-7 gathering as of Thursday, Newton County Sheriff Keith Slape said. Instead of requiring a permit for the group to use the land, a team drafted a plan that includes requirements on distances between campsites and water sources, as well as sensitive areas to avoid. Rainbow Family members say they have a constitutional right to assemble where they choose without a permit, but the Forest Service requires a federal permit for any gathering of more than 74 people. "The Rainbow Family is making an effort to comply with our Forest Service regulations and trying not to make an impact on the land," said Denise Ottaviano, an information officer with the agency team. "For the most part, they are complying and there's not too much confrontation."....Got to wonder if 3,000 ranchers were to gather and pray that commonsense would overtake the Federal land managers, do you think they would require a permit?
Tree thinning policy criticized in wake of fire Less than 48 hours after he soaked himself with a garden hose and ran around the neighborhood stomping out "raining, flaming golf balls," Ricky Kirkhuff sounded the angry chorus that is echoing in the Tahoe Basin. Kirkuff and others say a powerful, first-of-its-kind regulatory agency made the Angora fire's devastation worse by discouraging property owners for years from thinning the forest around their homes. The ire directed at Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is palpable and at least partly the result of decades of pent-up frustration over all sorts of regulations here. "It's legislation without representation. This is what the Boston Tea Party was all about," said Kirkuff. With estimates so far that more than 200 homes and 75 businesses worth $141 million were destroyed in the fire, the criticism has stung the TRPA badly. The agency, which was formed in 1969 to slow or halt growth in a rapidly developing but environmentally sensitive basin, says its policies have been misunderstood....
Governor won't discuss tree removal restrictions Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured the Angora fire destruction just south of Lake Tahoe on Wednesday, lauding fire crews while dodging a fuming controversy over how tough regional clamps on tree removal and forest thinning may have worsened the blaze. Schwarzenegger, just back from a three-day trip to Europe, was briefed by fire officials at the base of Heavenly Mountain Resort before touring some of the 2,229 destroyed homes in the Tahoe Mountain area. He was joined by Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons and other elected officials from both sides of the state line to hear about the fire, which so far has burned 3,100 acres and brought more than $140 million in estimated loss to structures alone. He encouraged visits to Lake Tahoe during the heart of the summer season, saying fire officials assured him it was safe. But he ducked questions about whether the fire showed that changes were needed to tough homeowner restrictions on tree cutting, as well as an environmental collar on forest thinning -- policies designed to protect the clarity of Lake Tahoe....
ERC partners with Forest Service to help reduce dog waste on trails Ketchum will start the “Poop, Scoop, Bag and Boogie” outreach campaign. Dog poop on all trails in the Wood River Valley has gotten to the point where hiking the trails is a hazard for people, other pets and the quality of the environment. The Ketchum Ranger District and Environmental Resource Center (ERC) are hoping to build awareness of this situation through ‘Poop, Scoop, Bag, and Boogie’ public outreach notices, media and one on one with trail users. ‘Poop, Scoop, Bag and Boogie’ aims to turn over a new leaf in regards to dog waste in the valley. This new leaf will be one in which dog owners are asked to deposit one full poop bag at the trailhead as they and their dog’s ‘trail pass’. The Forest Service warns that this is a trial period and if improvement is not seen in the amount of poop on the ground, they may have to look at removing dogs from trails as National Forests in California and Utah have already had to do....I'm surprised they didn't blame the increase in dog poop on global warming.
Farm Bill’s Funding Squeeze Could Mean Long-Term Trouble for Democrats The farm bill’s funding squeeze has divided the typically bipartisan House Agriculture Committee and is threatening to drive a wedge through the Democratic Caucus. Party leaders are concerned the money crunch will incite an intraparty squabble on the House floor because the bill is not likely to satisfy many Democrats outside of the Agriculture panel, aides say. Many of those lawmakers say their top priorities are land conservation, nutrition, energy and rural development — accounts for which there is little extra money in the current version of the bill. The legislation, as approved by all six Agriculture subcommittees, would simply extend current farm subsidies instead of trimming those programs — as many Democrats had hoped — to pay for new priorities. “It will all depend on whether people on the Agriculture Committee can listen to and accommodate the call for reform,” said Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., on whether there will be a floor fight. “If they don’t, there’s a strong likelihood they will lose control of their bill.” Funding challenges have been the theme of this year’s farm bill debate. Crop prices have remained high since the last farm bill was written in 2002 (PL 107-171), so the Congressional Budget Office gave lawmakers a tight funding baseline to work with this year — about $226 billion total. Democratic leaders will allow the panel to spend $20 billion more than that as long as offsets are found....
Elida, a small town in eastern New Mexico, celebrates 100 years Leaning against a pickup truck in front of the Old Methodist Church building, the man in the wide-brimmed cowboy hat watched a kid spinning a lariat. When a stranger drove past, Cowboy Hat waved and grinned as if he were greeting a lifelong pal. Over on North Church Street, near the schools complex, two pickups idled as the drivers visited. It was near supper time in Elida, a Roosevelt County ranching and farming town that celebrates the 100th anniversary of its incorporation on July 1. Back in the early 1900s, Elida was a thumping town with two banks, a couple of hotels, several bars, two newspapers and a doctor's office. Homesteaders started settling the Elida area several years before the town was incorporated. Lela Jo "Red" Halliday's father's family came from Texas in a covered wagon in 1904 when her dad, J. Embry Wall, was 2. Her mother's family traveled by train from Oklahoma in 1905, the year before her mom, Doris Blanch Tuscha, was born. Halliday, 68, and her late husband, Bill, once operated a rodeo stock business. She now owns and operates the family ranch northwest of Elida and has served the last couple of years as chairwoman of Elida's centennial celebration. On july 1, Elida marks 100 years of being here with tours, art and car exhibits, a vintage fashion show, games for kids, and barbecue brisket on the town square....
Oklahoma Kid hits Hulbert Since the late 1800s, wild west shows have captivated audiences across the U.S. and Europe, and trick roping has been a part of the action since the beginning. In years past, being handy with a rope was a necessary skill for many American cowboys and ranchers to have. It is likely that, at some point, a few of these cowboys wanted to show off their mastery of the lasso to their buddies. Eventually, what began as a simple pastime developed into a source of entertainment, and even competition, for turn-of-the-century Americans across the country. On a wet Wednesday in Hulbert, many kids and adults were able to catch a glimpse of this increasingly rare art form when Marty Tipton, aka the Oklahoma Kid, rode into town....
Friday, June 29, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
FLE
National ID plan may have killed immigration bill The U.S. Senate definitively rejected President George Bush's immigration bill on Thursday, just hours after senators expressed deep misgivings with portions that would have expanded the use of a national ID card. Privacy advocates were quick to claim that a vote against Real ID cards the previous evening doomed the bill. Wednesday's vote showed that senators were willing to delete the portion of the labyrinthine immigration bill that would require employers to demand the Real ID cards from new hires. Because some of the bill's backers had insisted that the ID requirement remain in place--as a way to identify illegal immigrants--they were no longer as willing to support the overall bill. "The proponents of national ID in the Senate weren't getting what they wanted, so they backed away," said Jim Harper, a policy analyst at the free-market Cato Institute who opposes Real ID. "It was a landmine that blew up in their faces." In a press release, the two Montana Democrats, Max Baucus and Jon Tester, said they were happy that a pro-privacy approach killed the bill. "If Jon and I just brought down the entire bill, that's good for Montana and the country," said Baucus, who cosponsored the amendment deleting the employer verification rule. Another section of the immigration bill would have given $1.5 billion to state officials to pay for Real ID compliance. Even if the immigration bill is goes nowhere, however, the Real ID Act is still in effect. It says that, starting on May 11, 2008, Americans will need a federally approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments or take advantage of nearly any government service....
Forgery suspect seen exploiting 'amnesty' The head of a Mexican forgery ring was convinced he could make phony documents that illegal aliens could use to indicate fraudulently that they were eligible for a new amnesty, says a government affidavit recounting wiretapped phone calls the man made. Julio Leija-Sanchez, who ran a $3 million-a-year forgery operation before he was arrested in April, was expecting Congress to pass a legalization program, which he called "amnesty," and said he could forge documents to fool the U.S. government into thinking illegal aliens were in the country in time to qualify for amnesty, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent said in the affidavit. In recounting a wiretapped telephone conversation, ICE agent Jason E. Medica said he heard Mr. Leija-Sanchez tell an associate the forgery ring could "fix his papers" to meet the requirements of a legalization program such as the bill the Senate is debating this week. "When Leija-Sanchez said 'if there's an amnesty, he can fix his papers,' Leija-Sanchez was referring to the possibility of pending legislation which would allow a certain class of illegal aliens to remain in the United States, as long as they can prove a term of residency in the United States with no convictions," Mr. Medica wrote....
Fla. sheriff targets illegals The sheriff's department has developed a remarkably effective — and controversial — way of catching illegal immigrants: Deputies in patrol cars pull up to a construction site in force, and watch and see who runs. Those who take off are chased down and arrested on charges such as trespassing, for cutting through someone else's property, or loitering, for hiding out in someone's yard, or reckless driving, for speeding off in a car. U.S. immigration authorities are then given the names of those believed to be in this country illegally. "It's not wrong for them to run, but it's not wrong for us to chase them either," said Sheriff Frank McKeithen, who created his Illegal Alien Task Force in April to target construction sites in this Florida Panhandle county. The sheriff said the raids are justified under a long-standing Florida law prohibiting employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. His department has conducted dozens of these raids over the past three months, sometimes using five or six patrol cars, and has reported more than 500 people to immigration officials since November.
FEMA hijacks Midwest broadcast signals with mistaken presidential alert The federal government hijacked radio and TV transmissions in the Midwest yesterday with test signals that triggered the sort of high-level emergency alert that is reserved for use by the president. The Quincy Herald says alerts were sent at 7:33 a.m., 7:49 a.m., 7:55 a.m. and 8:07 a.m. Radio listeners heard nothing but dead air. TV viewers saw a scrolling message that said: "The Emergency Action Notification Network has issued an emergency action notification for the United States, beginning at ..." FEMA tells the Associated Press that the mistake affected Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin and Michigan. "While the interrupted morning drive-time broadcasts proved the Illinois system worked, the fact that what's known as an Emergency Action Notification, or EAN -- the highest level of EAS alert, indicating an emergency message is coming from the White House -- could be relayed mistakenly to override stations was a bit of a jolt, sending engineers scrambling at the affected outlets throughout Illinois and in adjacent media markets such as St. Louis," the Chicago Tribune reports. "Compounding the error, an actual presidential code, minus any audio explanation, was sent rather than a lesser alert or a notification of a systems test of some kind."....
U.S. Govt Appeals Enemy-Combatant Ruling National security will be jeopardized if the Bush administration is not allowed to indefinitely hold suspected terrorists as enemy combatants inside the U.S., the Justice Department said Wednesday in appealing a court's ruling against the tactic. The administration asked the full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a three-judge panel's ruling that the government should charge Ali al-Marri, a legal U.S. resident and the only suspected enemy combatant on American soil, or release him from military custody. "The scope of the President's authority to combat al Qaeda fighters who come to America to commit terrorist acts is exceptionally important, and the panel majority's ruling that the President lacks the authority to detain such al Qaeda agents militarily poses an immediate and potentially grave threat to national security," the government said in its petition. The Justice Department had said after the June 11 ruling that it would seek a rehearing before the full appeals court. The court could ask al-Marri's attorney for a written response before deciding whether to review the ruling....
Panel urges Lockerbie appeal Nineteen years after a bomb blew up Pan Am Flight 103 in the skies above Lockerbie, Scotland, and six years after a former Libyan intelligence agent was convicted of planning the attack, a judicial review has resurrected lingering doubts about the case. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, an independent panel that oversees matters brought before Scottish courts, recommended Thursday that Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the case, be granted permission to file a fresh appeal. "The commission is of the view, based on our lengthy investigations, the new evidence we have found and other evidence which was not before the trial court, that the applicant may have suffered a miscarriage of justice," the SCCRC said in a statement. The commission's 800-page report has not been made public, but in a brief statement, the commission said that it had concerns about a key witness' identification of al-Megrahi and that other exculpatory evidence had not been made available to the defense. The commission went out of its way to knock down some of the more far-fetched claims by al-Megrahi's supporters and lawyers. This included allegations that the CIA "spirited away" evidence from the crash site and that a "CIA badge" was found at the crash site but not recorded as evidence....
Court: Feds Can Seize Half of House A woman who claimed she was unaware that her husband was growing pot in the basement will get to keep her half of their house, while the government can seize her husband's share, a federal appeals court has ruled. The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in a ruling Wednesday that Harold Von Hofe must forfeit his interest in the home to the federal government. However, his wife, Kathleen, does not have to because she wasn't actively involved in her husband's marijuana cultivation. "The record is devoid of any evidence indicating her use of drugs or her involvement in any criminal activity whatsoever," the appeals court wrote. The Von Hofes' attorney, Jonathan J. Einhorn, said Kathleen Von Hofe could get a mortgage for the government's half-interest in her home. As of Wednesday, the couple remained in the house, valued at $248,000....
National ID plan may have killed immigration bill The U.S. Senate definitively rejected President George Bush's immigration bill on Thursday, just hours after senators expressed deep misgivings with portions that would have expanded the use of a national ID card. Privacy advocates were quick to claim that a vote against Real ID cards the previous evening doomed the bill. Wednesday's vote showed that senators were willing to delete the portion of the labyrinthine immigration bill that would require employers to demand the Real ID cards from new hires. Because some of the bill's backers had insisted that the ID requirement remain in place--as a way to identify illegal immigrants--they were no longer as willing to support the overall bill. "The proponents of national ID in the Senate weren't getting what they wanted, so they backed away," said Jim Harper, a policy analyst at the free-market Cato Institute who opposes Real ID. "It was a landmine that blew up in their faces." In a press release, the two Montana Democrats, Max Baucus and Jon Tester, said they were happy that a pro-privacy approach killed the bill. "If Jon and I just brought down the entire bill, that's good for Montana and the country," said Baucus, who cosponsored the amendment deleting the employer verification rule. Another section of the immigration bill would have given $1.5 billion to state officials to pay for Real ID compliance. Even if the immigration bill is goes nowhere, however, the Real ID Act is still in effect. It says that, starting on May 11, 2008, Americans will need a federally approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments or take advantage of nearly any government service....
Forgery suspect seen exploiting 'amnesty' The head of a Mexican forgery ring was convinced he could make phony documents that illegal aliens could use to indicate fraudulently that they were eligible for a new amnesty, says a government affidavit recounting wiretapped phone calls the man made. Julio Leija-Sanchez, who ran a $3 million-a-year forgery operation before he was arrested in April, was expecting Congress to pass a legalization program, which he called "amnesty," and said he could forge documents to fool the U.S. government into thinking illegal aliens were in the country in time to qualify for amnesty, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent said in the affidavit. In recounting a wiretapped telephone conversation, ICE agent Jason E. Medica said he heard Mr. Leija-Sanchez tell an associate the forgery ring could "fix his papers" to meet the requirements of a legalization program such as the bill the Senate is debating this week. "When Leija-Sanchez said 'if there's an amnesty, he can fix his papers,' Leija-Sanchez was referring to the possibility of pending legislation which would allow a certain class of illegal aliens to remain in the United States, as long as they can prove a term of residency in the United States with no convictions," Mr. Medica wrote....
Fla. sheriff targets illegals The sheriff's department has developed a remarkably effective — and controversial — way of catching illegal immigrants: Deputies in patrol cars pull up to a construction site in force, and watch and see who runs. Those who take off are chased down and arrested on charges such as trespassing, for cutting through someone else's property, or loitering, for hiding out in someone's yard, or reckless driving, for speeding off in a car. U.S. immigration authorities are then given the names of those believed to be in this country illegally. "It's not wrong for them to run, but it's not wrong for us to chase them either," said Sheriff Frank McKeithen, who created his Illegal Alien Task Force in April to target construction sites in this Florida Panhandle county. The sheriff said the raids are justified under a long-standing Florida law prohibiting employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. His department has conducted dozens of these raids over the past three months, sometimes using five or six patrol cars, and has reported more than 500 people to immigration officials since November.
FEMA hijacks Midwest broadcast signals with mistaken presidential alert The federal government hijacked radio and TV transmissions in the Midwest yesterday with test signals that triggered the sort of high-level emergency alert that is reserved for use by the president. The Quincy Herald says alerts were sent at 7:33 a.m., 7:49 a.m., 7:55 a.m. and 8:07 a.m. Radio listeners heard nothing but dead air. TV viewers saw a scrolling message that said: "The Emergency Action Notification Network has issued an emergency action notification for the United States, beginning at ..." FEMA tells the Associated Press that the mistake affected Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin and Michigan. "While the interrupted morning drive-time broadcasts proved the Illinois system worked, the fact that what's known as an Emergency Action Notification, or EAN -- the highest level of EAS alert, indicating an emergency message is coming from the White House -- could be relayed mistakenly to override stations was a bit of a jolt, sending engineers scrambling at the affected outlets throughout Illinois and in adjacent media markets such as St. Louis," the Chicago Tribune reports. "Compounding the error, an actual presidential code, minus any audio explanation, was sent rather than a lesser alert or a notification of a systems test of some kind."....
U.S. Govt Appeals Enemy-Combatant Ruling National security will be jeopardized if the Bush administration is not allowed to indefinitely hold suspected terrorists as enemy combatants inside the U.S., the Justice Department said Wednesday in appealing a court's ruling against the tactic. The administration asked the full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a three-judge panel's ruling that the government should charge Ali al-Marri, a legal U.S. resident and the only suspected enemy combatant on American soil, or release him from military custody. "The scope of the President's authority to combat al Qaeda fighters who come to America to commit terrorist acts is exceptionally important, and the panel majority's ruling that the President lacks the authority to detain such al Qaeda agents militarily poses an immediate and potentially grave threat to national security," the government said in its petition. The Justice Department had said after the June 11 ruling that it would seek a rehearing before the full appeals court. The court could ask al-Marri's attorney for a written response before deciding whether to review the ruling....
Panel urges Lockerbie appeal Nineteen years after a bomb blew up Pan Am Flight 103 in the skies above Lockerbie, Scotland, and six years after a former Libyan intelligence agent was convicted of planning the attack, a judicial review has resurrected lingering doubts about the case. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, an independent panel that oversees matters brought before Scottish courts, recommended Thursday that Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the case, be granted permission to file a fresh appeal. "The commission is of the view, based on our lengthy investigations, the new evidence we have found and other evidence which was not before the trial court, that the applicant may have suffered a miscarriage of justice," the SCCRC said in a statement. The commission's 800-page report has not been made public, but in a brief statement, the commission said that it had concerns about a key witness' identification of al-Megrahi and that other exculpatory evidence had not been made available to the defense. The commission went out of its way to knock down some of the more far-fetched claims by al-Megrahi's supporters and lawyers. This included allegations that the CIA "spirited away" evidence from the crash site and that a "CIA badge" was found at the crash site but not recorded as evidence....
Court: Feds Can Seize Half of House A woman who claimed she was unaware that her husband was growing pot in the basement will get to keep her half of their house, while the government can seize her husband's share, a federal appeals court has ruled. The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in a ruling Wednesday that Harold Von Hofe must forfeit his interest in the home to the federal government. However, his wife, Kathleen, does not have to because she wasn't actively involved in her husband's marijuana cultivation. "The record is devoid of any evidence indicating her use of drugs or her involvement in any criminal activity whatsoever," the appeals court wrote. The Von Hofes' attorney, Jonathan J. Einhorn, said Kathleen Von Hofe could get a mortgage for the government's half-interest in her home. As of Wednesday, the couple remained in the house, valued at $248,000....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Conservative group prepared to challenge new rules on bald eagles A California legal group said Tuesday it may challenge new rules the federal government has adopted to protect the bald eagle once it is taken off the endangered species list, if those rules stop landowners from developing their property. The Pacific Legal Foundation sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of a Minnesota landowner to speed the delisting of the bald eagle, a move that has been in the offing for years as eagle populations have rebounded. But before they could delist the eagle, federal officials said they needed to better define a 1940 law that makes it illegal to disturb the bald and golden eagles. To use the 1940 law, federal officials said they needed to clarify what it meant to disturb the birds. The definition they settled on includes anything likely to cause injury to the birds or interfere with their ability to breed. It's not yet clear whether that will stop the Minnesota landowner, Edmund Contoski, from developing the land he owns on Lake Sullivan....
Bald eagle recovery falls short In coming weeks, politicians and environmental activists will pat each other on the back to celebrate the recovery of the bald eagle and its removal from the Endangered Species List. But those people at the same time are pulling a sleight of hand on American citizens — and essentially declaring the Endangered Species Act irrelevant in the process. The bald eagle deserves to be delisted. Forty years ago, there were fewer than 500 nesting pairs in the Lower 48 states. Today, there are an estimated 9,750 nesting pairs. President Clinton trumpeted the bald eagle's recovery on July Fourth 1999 and said it would come off the Endangered Species List. Then the waiting — and excuses — began. Finally, after a lawsuit by a retired Minnesota man and nearly eight years, the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to delist the bald eagle. But the eagle will not fly free. The Fish and Wildlife Service, under pressure from environmental groups, is bowing to their demands by extending ESA-like protections to the bald eagle. To accomplish this sleight of hand, Fish and Wildlife had to dust off a 1940 law that prohibited the killing or injury of eagles. In June, Fish and Wildlife adopted regulations on the 1940 law to extend new protections. This could be a record — 67 years to adopt regulations for a law and a stunning 10 pages to come up with a convoluted definition of the word "disturb." For 67 years, Fish and Wildlife was content to not have a definition of disturb. But now, with the prospect that property owners might be able to use their land, the Service became creative....
Bald eagle removed from imperiled list The American bald eagle, revered and reviled over more than two centuries, today will be officially declared safe from extinction in the lower 48 states. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which led a four-decade effort to resuscitate the national bird, is taking it off the Endangered Species list. The majestic raptor had declined from half a million nesting pairs at the time of European settlement to 417 in 1963. By last year, it had rebounded to 9,789 pairs, and an estimated 11,040 today. In California, where bald eagles have been reintroduced to the Channel Islands and elsewhere, more than 200 pairs are breeding. "It is an astounding recovery," said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based advocacy group. "It attests to a dramatic change in the American environmental ethic." The comeback began with a 1972 ban on DDT and stringent protections under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Since then, tens of millions of dollars have been spent on eagle recovery efforts by federal, state, and nonprofit groups. In 1995, the bald eagle was reclassified from "endangered" to the less-severe "threatened" status. Alaska's bald eagles, which number 25,000, are not endangered. Hawaii has none....
East Antarctic Ice Sheet Stable An ice sheet in Antarctica that is the world's largest — with enough water to raise global sea levels by 200 feet — is relatively stable and poses no immediate threat, according to new research. While studies of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets show they are both at risk from global warming, the East Antarctic ice sheet will "need quite a bit of warming" to be affected, Andrew Mackintosh, a senior lecturer at Victoria University, said Wednesday. The air over the East Antarctic ice sheet, an ice mass more than 1,875 miles across and up to 2.5 miles thick centered on the South Pole, will remain cold enough to prevent significant melting in the near future, the New Zealand-led research shows. "The East Antarctic ice sheet is the largest and the coldest and is going to be the last to respond in any great way" to global warming, he said. "Our research suggests changes in sea levels due to global warming will not be caused by changes in the East Antarctic Ice Sheet yet."....
USGS develops ‘budgets’ for NV aquifer Scientists from the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the Desert Research Institute (DRI) have developed “budgets” — groundwater movement and storage assessments — in a new study of 13 groundwater basins in White Pine County, NV, and adjacent areas in east-central Nevada and western Utah. The study is designed to provide hydrogeology, recharge and discharge, groundwater flow, and geochemistry information on the Basin and Range carbonate-rock aquifer system (BARCAS) in White Pine County and adjacent areas in Nevada and Utah, according to a USGS press release. The study, on which scientists from Utah’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) also collaborated, was mandated by federal legislation in December 2004 after municipal, land management and regulatory agencies expressed concern about potential impacts from increased groundwater pumping on local and regional water quantity and quality. Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), the utility that serves Las Vegas, was awarded in April the rights to pump 40,000 acre-feet of groundwater per year from rural White Pine County’s Spring Valley to Las Vegas for 10 years. As WaterTech Online™ reported, the water utility had sought permission to pump more than 91,000 acre-feet of water from Spring Valley. The recently issued order said that if the first 10 years of pumping shows no adverse impacts, the SNWA may then begin pumping an additional 20,000 acre-feet of water from the valley....
After the boom, a new gold mine For generations, the Robin Redbreast Lode has kept its secrets. Gold miners explored the site since the 1890s, and in 1938, a prospector and fruit-farmer named Elmer Eipper staked out his claim. But he never extracted its hidden worth. Storms and avalanches flooded the mining tunnels, buried them under boulders. And recently, bureaucratic tangles and lawsuits have sealed the claim better than any fallen rock. Eipper has been dead for 30 years, and some $20 million in gold still sits buried on his 10-acre claim, high in the San Juan mountains east of Ouray. But now, Eipper’s elderly daughter and her husband are poised to reopen the mine and find a fortune that has lain untouched for six decades. “I didn’t know whether either one of us would last this long,” said Bob Miller, who holds the claim with his wife, Marjorie. “But we have. Patience is a virtue.” If the Millers finally secure state and federal permissions, they’ll open up that rarest of things — a new gold mine nestled in the heart of Rocky Mountain wilderness. They would start mining next year. Mule trains will thread the narrow singletrack to haul out ore, and helicopters will transport the heavier rocks and machinery. Six miners will spend the summers digging for gold veins. They’ll sort the ore by hand, sleep in an old cabin and drink from the crystalline Porphyry Creek that runs through the land....
White Pass expansion plan gets OK from Forest Service A long-awaited and much-discussed expansion of the White Pass Ski Area has taken another step forward. The U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday issued a formal decision allowing the ski area to nearly double in size and add lifts and other amenities at the expense of roadless areas long defended by conservationists. If the government's selected alternative is ultimately adopted after an appeal period that should begin next week, the popular Highway 12 ski area west of Yakima would expand into the Hogback Basin, a pristine roadless area favored by backcountry skiers and snowshoe enthusiasts. Only those who commented earlier in the process are eligible to file an appeal....
House votes to raise environment funding The House approved a bill yesterday to increase spending for the environment, national parks and global warming research. The measure, approved 272-155, would allocate $27.6 billion for the Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Forest Service and other agencies, a 4.3 percent increase over current spending. The president's budget office and some GOP lawmakers criticized the bill as overly generous, but Democrats said spending for national parks and other environmental priorities has been shortchanged for years. "I do not know of one increase in this package which can't be fully justified based on need or on the ability to spend the money wisely," said Rep. Norm Dicks, a Washington Democrat who led floor debate on the measure. Between 2001 and 2007, funding for the Interior Department fell by 16 percent, for the EPA by 29 percent and for the Forest Service non-fire budget by 35 percent, when adjusted for inflation, Dicks said. The White House threatened a veto if the measure clears the Senate and reaches President Bush's desk....
Worker admits stealing $642,000 from U.S. Forest Service A U.S. Forest Service employee who wrote government checks to her boyfriend under the guise of firefighting payments pleaded guilty today to stealing more than $642,000. Debra Kay Durfey, 49, of Echo began working for the Forest Service in eastern Oregon in 1986, overseeing payments with federal charge cards and government checks. She wrote checks to her boyfriend, Donald Hollinger, who occasionally contracts with the Forest Service, and deposited them in the couple's joint bank account. She used the money to gamble and pay for her car, mortgage and other expenses. Durfey also pleaded guilty to tax fraud. She agreed to pay restitution of $642,000....
Elk don’t make good neighbors Thousands of visitors drive deep into the Buffalo River National Park every year to catch a glimpse of immense Rocky Mountain elk feeding on rich bottomland pasture. They thrill at the sight. Native Ozark farmers cringe. For almost two decades, some complain, elk have broken into their fields and ravaged their crops. The state Game and Fish Commission, which introduced the herd, is wearing out its welcome. The Rocky Mountain elk is not native to Arkansas. But the Eastern elk is — or was up until 1840 when it was hunted into extinction. A hundred years later, the U.S. Forest Service sought to bring elk back to Arkansas. They released 11 Rocky Mountain elk along the Black Mountain Ridge of Franklin County. Poachers took them out, too. In the early 1980s, Game and Fish, working with private citizens, released 112 elk onto public land in Newton County. Nearly a third died, but slowly the herd gained a footing. Rangers in a helicopter flyover last winter counted 321 in the 315,000-acre Buffalo River watershed. The elk now range over 315,000 acres, only 27 percent of which is publicly owned. Magness’ family, Ozark farmers since the 1800s, owns another 500 acres and together they run a hundred head of cattle. Chances are their ancestors hunted plenty of Eastern elk off their homesteads. But this generation can only stand by as the Rocky Mountain elk range from their protected habitat to plunder their private property....
Tree-cutting rules led to fire's spread, basin residents say The hungry Lake Tahoe fire that has destroyed 178 homes has fanned some residents' long-smoldering anger with the agency that regulates development -- and tree removal -- throughout the Tahoe basin. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) has long been criticized as too restrictive when it comes to deciding what residents can do on their property, whether it's building a new deck or chopping trees that might imperil their homes. Created in 1969, the agency is charged with balancing development and protecting Tahoe's natural beauty. As a result, the 15-member body -- made up of voters and politicians from California and Nevada -- has created strict environmental rules that govern construction and habitat preservation. That includes a process, called cumbersome by some residents, that property owners must follow to remove trees. Many residents also complain that the U.S. Forest Service has allowed about 165,000 acres of its land to become overgrown, further endangering adjacent homes -- and fueling the property loss caused by the Angora Fire. "The house survived because we broke the law," said Brent Abrams, 20. He and his mother cut down trees on Forest Service land near their house and replaced them with a grassy lawn, something the authorities likely would have never allowed. Many of their neighbors' homes were destroyed, and only chimneys remain. "The federal government and TRPA didn't create the fire, but it was because of their actions it was so extensive," he said....
House passes amendment to restrict federal oil shale A measure intended to force the government to move slowly on efforts toward commercial production of oil shale on federal land won approval Wednesday in the U.S. House. The proposal by Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., to amend the 2008 Interior Department's appropriations bill, would prohibit the use of federal funds to prepare final regulations for a commercial leasing program or to conduct commercial lease sales. The Interior bill, passed by the House, now goes to the Senate. A proposal by Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, designed to exempt Utah and Wyoming from the funding restrictions failed. Udall and Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., withdrew a separate amendment to prevent new oil and gas leases on top of the Roan Plateau in western Colorado after the Congressional Budget Office said it would have cost the government money and needed to be offset....
Federal land claims amendment a no-go Environmentalists said they were pleased Wednesday with an agreement by congressional appropriators for more oversight of rights-of-way claims on federal lands. The deal came after Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., withdrew an amendment that would prohibit the Bureau of Land Management from using taxpayer money to decide if counties or states had rights to backcountry pathways. Previously, courts made such determinations but a rule change last year allowed the agency to do it unilaterally. Under the agreement, hammered out on the House floor between Udall and House Appropriations Interior subcommittee chairman Norman Dicks, R-Wash., the Interior Department will submit quarterly reports to the committee and there will be more congressional oversight of administrative decisions regarding R.S. 2477 claims. "It's not business as usual anymore," said Heidi McIntosh, conservation director for Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "The R.S. 2477 abuses are going to be curtailed, we believe." Utah GOP Reps. Chris Cannon and Rob Bishop fought against the amendment, with Cannon calling it a "serious threat" to Western counties. "The net effect of the Udall amendment is a federally mandated power grab from rural Western counties," Cannon said. "This amendment will result in restricted access to public lands, restricted energy development and restricted states rights."....
U.S. has big thirst for geothermal The federal government has embarked on an ambitious plan to tap a massive source of energy lying deep beneath public land in the West, including Colorado. And it's not oil and gas. This time it's geothermal energy, the heat under the surface. The energy in the form of hot water or steam can be used in geothermal power plants to produce round-the-clock electricity. The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service are looking at areas in 11 Western states and Alaska best suited for geothermal energy development, and the likely social and environmental impact. Their final report will be completed in September 2008, and commercial leasing of areas will begin soon after. "The BLM is sitting on the largest supply of geothermal energy in this country, and it is time to launch an aggressive program to develop those resources," said BLM acting Director Jim Hughes. "This proceeding will help us determine which areas to concentrate our geothermal leasing efforts on." The potential of geothermal energy worldwide is estimated at 50,000 times the world's oil and natural gas reserves, according to the Department of Energy....
GOP plan pumps Roan lease funds into higher ed Statehouse Republicans called for using lease payments for drilling on the Roan Plateau in western Colorado as a way to raise millions for public colleges and universities. Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, said Wednesday the proposal - offered with Rep. Al White of Winter Park - would provide substantial funding for higher education without raising taxes. They want to set aside half of the revenue the state would collect from mineral leases on the Roan. The money - the exact amount is unknown - would be put in a trust fund for higher education. The estimates range from $500 million to $1 billion. Hank Brown, president of the University of Colorado system, endorsed the idea. "It's not dramatically different from what our neighbor to the north, Wyoming, did, where they put together a trust fund from mineral revenues," he said. Higher-education officials cite a study that says Colorado needs $832 million more each year to meet the average funding of national peers....
Army range wants more Arizona desert A plan to expand an Army artillery range could annex as much as 500,000 acres of federally managed desert in southwestern Arizona that is home to a variety of wildlife, including desert bighorn sheep, Sonoran desert tortoise and endangered lesser long-nosed bats. The plan being considered by the Army's Yuma Proving Ground, near the border with California, would expand the facility beyond its 840,000 acres to accommodate the increasing distance that artillery shells can be fired. Chuck Wullenjohn, public affairs officer for the proving ground, said that the 50-mile-long artillery range would soon be too short and that the facility was "looking into the future to maintain viability." Though it may take several years to approve, environmental groups and government officials have already expressed concern. The proving ground is used by the United States and other countries to test ammunition, Wullenjohn said. The testing must be done on a large piece of open land because shells must be retrieved and rounds can potentially go off course. Wullenjohn said the expansion could take land now administered by the federal Bureau of Land Management in Yuma, La Paz and Maricopa counties between Interstate 8 and Interstate 10....
N.M.: St. Cloud to Clean Up Old Mines A Truth or Consequences company has been awarded a $662,263 contract to improve safety around 56 abandoned mine openings in Sierra County. St. Cloud Mining Co. was awarded the competitive bid contract by the Mining and Minerals Division for the project in the Lake Valley area, about 17 miles south of Hillsboro. A silver mining boom hit Lake Valley during the 1880s and 1890s, then a second period of mining, this time of flux materials and manganese, began about 1900 and lasted through 1955. Since then, the mines have been unused except by bats. The safety project will include 14 structures that will allow the bats to continue to use the underground mines and be protected from human disturbance. St. Cloud Mining Co. also will plug some large mine openings using old tires from earth-moving equipment....
Federal Farm Subsidy Programs: How to Discourage Congressional Conflicts of Interest Sometime during 2007, Congress will attempt to reauthorize the nation's farm legislation and will likely continue to bestow substantial financial benefits upon a relatively small number of the largest and wealthiest farmers. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data reveal that this group of direct financial beneficiaries includes many Members of Congress who receive USDA subsidies and who will be voting on the farm bill reauthorization. Under current law, many Members and their families who engage in farming receive direct cash payments from the U.S. Treasury courtesy of the taxpayer, whose standard of living has been reduced by the higher taxes needed to fund the farm program and by the higher food prices caused by agriculture subsidies, restrictions, and regulations. While the best solution to these conflicts of interest would be to abolish the farm subsidy program, a backup plan would be to apply strict conflict-of-interest principles to the program by requiring that Members of Congress who benefit from it financially either recuse themselves from voting on any farm legislation or forgo any farm subsidies for which they and their families and relatives would be eligible. Of the three branches of the federal government, Congress has the fewest prohibitions on conflicts of interest and acts of self-dealing. Officials in the executive branch and judiciary are required to divest themselves of any investment in or ownership of for-profit entities that may be within the purview of their agency or court. They are also under strict limits on the extent to which members of their immediate families may benefit directly from their position....
How Farm Odors Contribute to Global Warming You can definitely smell it, but you can't see it. The United States Department of Agriculture has released reports stating that when you smell cow manure, you're also smelling greenhouse gas emissions. That will be the focus of new research happening right here in the Southern Tier. Agriculture Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, Mark Rey, was in Corning Wednesday morning at the Big Flats Plant Materials Center to annouce the award of nearly $20 million in Conservation Innovation Grants to fund 51 research projects across the country designed to refine new technologies helping dairy and other agricultural producers cut back on their greenhouse emissions and cash in on governmental incentives for the research....
Historical landmark on market Three Rivers Trading Post, a landmark built in 1939 on U.S. Highway 54 when it was still a dirt road between Carrizozo and Tularosa, is up for sale. Along with it will be sold the old schoolhouse, built around 1885 for the Three Rivers community. Some 1,200 tourists each month turn here to view Three Rivers Petroglyph Park, one of the largest petroglyph sites in the Southwest, according to Manny Herrera of the Bureau of Land Management. Some go on to camp at the base of Sierra Blanca, the highest mountain in southern New Mexico. For the last 10 years, tourists stopped at the Indigo Lizard to pick up soft drinks and snacks while browsing through the collection of books, mugs, dried soups, photography and Native American art work. The outside entrance was a garden of native flowers and petroglyphs painted on the walls and petroglyph sculptures by prominent sculptor Lay Powell. Now invasive Russian tumbleweed flourishes and dried weeds from last year's abundant monsoons crowd the door, and the landscaped cottonwoods are dry and brown. Photographers stop to record what they can find around the Route 66-style, quasi-pueblo revival building. These include the building's wild days as a motorcycle bar and huge cottonwood tree well-fitted inside the old red school house. "Yep, I have been in there. I hear that back in the '40s, Thomas Fortune Ryan (who owned the entire Three Rivers region at the time) and a bunch of cowboys got drunk and took one wall out and put that tree in there. Why? Because he could," drawls Bohannon....
Tongie ‘fainting goats' go down at the drop of a hat Wayne and Kathy Gillett have to be careful around their kids, they never know when one might faint. The one-month old "fainting goats" the Mclouth couple keep on part of their 20 acres are especially prone to the muscle seizures this rare breed is known for. The least likely of actions could startle Blake, Andy and Anabella, an umbrella opening, fear of heights or footsteps from behind. And then there are the obvious triggers, like when Wayne, retired plumber, drove his tractor near their fence. In a matter of seconds, it's as if a drunken stupor sets in. First, they flee. Then one will stumble and drop over on its side, with legs and head erect, fully conscious. The other will freeze mid sprint when it's hind and front legs have met under her stomach and be stuck in this position for 10 to 15 seconds. The origin of the goats is unknown and there is speculation whether they carry a recessive gene that causes myotonia congenita, a condition that causes muscle stiffness. Despite the mystery, it seems to be the novelty of the trait itself that has kept this breed popular worldwide in recent decades, which reversed their threat of extinction in the early 1900s. In the United States, thousands of fainting goats are kept as pets, to breed or for meat....
Conservative group prepared to challenge new rules on bald eagles A California legal group said Tuesday it may challenge new rules the federal government has adopted to protect the bald eagle once it is taken off the endangered species list, if those rules stop landowners from developing their property. The Pacific Legal Foundation sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of a Minnesota landowner to speed the delisting of the bald eagle, a move that has been in the offing for years as eagle populations have rebounded. But before they could delist the eagle, federal officials said they needed to better define a 1940 law that makes it illegal to disturb the bald and golden eagles. To use the 1940 law, federal officials said they needed to clarify what it meant to disturb the birds. The definition they settled on includes anything likely to cause injury to the birds or interfere with their ability to breed. It's not yet clear whether that will stop the Minnesota landowner, Edmund Contoski, from developing the land he owns on Lake Sullivan....
Bald eagle recovery falls short In coming weeks, politicians and environmental activists will pat each other on the back to celebrate the recovery of the bald eagle and its removal from the Endangered Species List. But those people at the same time are pulling a sleight of hand on American citizens — and essentially declaring the Endangered Species Act irrelevant in the process. The bald eagle deserves to be delisted. Forty years ago, there were fewer than 500 nesting pairs in the Lower 48 states. Today, there are an estimated 9,750 nesting pairs. President Clinton trumpeted the bald eagle's recovery on July Fourth 1999 and said it would come off the Endangered Species List. Then the waiting — and excuses — began. Finally, after a lawsuit by a retired Minnesota man and nearly eight years, the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to delist the bald eagle. But the eagle will not fly free. The Fish and Wildlife Service, under pressure from environmental groups, is bowing to their demands by extending ESA-like protections to the bald eagle. To accomplish this sleight of hand, Fish and Wildlife had to dust off a 1940 law that prohibited the killing or injury of eagles. In June, Fish and Wildlife adopted regulations on the 1940 law to extend new protections. This could be a record — 67 years to adopt regulations for a law and a stunning 10 pages to come up with a convoluted definition of the word "disturb." For 67 years, Fish and Wildlife was content to not have a definition of disturb. But now, with the prospect that property owners might be able to use their land, the Service became creative....
Bald eagle removed from imperiled list The American bald eagle, revered and reviled over more than two centuries, today will be officially declared safe from extinction in the lower 48 states. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which led a four-decade effort to resuscitate the national bird, is taking it off the Endangered Species list. The majestic raptor had declined from half a million nesting pairs at the time of European settlement to 417 in 1963. By last year, it had rebounded to 9,789 pairs, and an estimated 11,040 today. In California, where bald eagles have been reintroduced to the Channel Islands and elsewhere, more than 200 pairs are breeding. "It is an astounding recovery," said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based advocacy group. "It attests to a dramatic change in the American environmental ethic." The comeback began with a 1972 ban on DDT and stringent protections under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Since then, tens of millions of dollars have been spent on eagle recovery efforts by federal, state, and nonprofit groups. In 1995, the bald eagle was reclassified from "endangered" to the less-severe "threatened" status. Alaska's bald eagles, which number 25,000, are not endangered. Hawaii has none....
East Antarctic Ice Sheet Stable An ice sheet in Antarctica that is the world's largest — with enough water to raise global sea levels by 200 feet — is relatively stable and poses no immediate threat, according to new research. While studies of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets show they are both at risk from global warming, the East Antarctic ice sheet will "need quite a bit of warming" to be affected, Andrew Mackintosh, a senior lecturer at Victoria University, said Wednesday. The air over the East Antarctic ice sheet, an ice mass more than 1,875 miles across and up to 2.5 miles thick centered on the South Pole, will remain cold enough to prevent significant melting in the near future, the New Zealand-led research shows. "The East Antarctic ice sheet is the largest and the coldest and is going to be the last to respond in any great way" to global warming, he said. "Our research suggests changes in sea levels due to global warming will not be caused by changes in the East Antarctic Ice Sheet yet."....
USGS develops ‘budgets’ for NV aquifer Scientists from the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the Desert Research Institute (DRI) have developed “budgets” — groundwater movement and storage assessments — in a new study of 13 groundwater basins in White Pine County, NV, and adjacent areas in east-central Nevada and western Utah. The study is designed to provide hydrogeology, recharge and discharge, groundwater flow, and geochemistry information on the Basin and Range carbonate-rock aquifer system (BARCAS) in White Pine County and adjacent areas in Nevada and Utah, according to a USGS press release. The study, on which scientists from Utah’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) also collaborated, was mandated by federal legislation in December 2004 after municipal, land management and regulatory agencies expressed concern about potential impacts from increased groundwater pumping on local and regional water quantity and quality. Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), the utility that serves Las Vegas, was awarded in April the rights to pump 40,000 acre-feet of groundwater per year from rural White Pine County’s Spring Valley to Las Vegas for 10 years. As WaterTech Online™ reported, the water utility had sought permission to pump more than 91,000 acre-feet of water from Spring Valley. The recently issued order said that if the first 10 years of pumping shows no adverse impacts, the SNWA may then begin pumping an additional 20,000 acre-feet of water from the valley....
After the boom, a new gold mine For generations, the Robin Redbreast Lode has kept its secrets. Gold miners explored the site since the 1890s, and in 1938, a prospector and fruit-farmer named Elmer Eipper staked out his claim. But he never extracted its hidden worth. Storms and avalanches flooded the mining tunnels, buried them under boulders. And recently, bureaucratic tangles and lawsuits have sealed the claim better than any fallen rock. Eipper has been dead for 30 years, and some $20 million in gold still sits buried on his 10-acre claim, high in the San Juan mountains east of Ouray. But now, Eipper’s elderly daughter and her husband are poised to reopen the mine and find a fortune that has lain untouched for six decades. “I didn’t know whether either one of us would last this long,” said Bob Miller, who holds the claim with his wife, Marjorie. “But we have. Patience is a virtue.” If the Millers finally secure state and federal permissions, they’ll open up that rarest of things — a new gold mine nestled in the heart of Rocky Mountain wilderness. They would start mining next year. Mule trains will thread the narrow singletrack to haul out ore, and helicopters will transport the heavier rocks and machinery. Six miners will spend the summers digging for gold veins. They’ll sort the ore by hand, sleep in an old cabin and drink from the crystalline Porphyry Creek that runs through the land....
White Pass expansion plan gets OK from Forest Service A long-awaited and much-discussed expansion of the White Pass Ski Area has taken another step forward. The U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday issued a formal decision allowing the ski area to nearly double in size and add lifts and other amenities at the expense of roadless areas long defended by conservationists. If the government's selected alternative is ultimately adopted after an appeal period that should begin next week, the popular Highway 12 ski area west of Yakima would expand into the Hogback Basin, a pristine roadless area favored by backcountry skiers and snowshoe enthusiasts. Only those who commented earlier in the process are eligible to file an appeal....
House votes to raise environment funding The House approved a bill yesterday to increase spending for the environment, national parks and global warming research. The measure, approved 272-155, would allocate $27.6 billion for the Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Forest Service and other agencies, a 4.3 percent increase over current spending. The president's budget office and some GOP lawmakers criticized the bill as overly generous, but Democrats said spending for national parks and other environmental priorities has been shortchanged for years. "I do not know of one increase in this package which can't be fully justified based on need or on the ability to spend the money wisely," said Rep. Norm Dicks, a Washington Democrat who led floor debate on the measure. Between 2001 and 2007, funding for the Interior Department fell by 16 percent, for the EPA by 29 percent and for the Forest Service non-fire budget by 35 percent, when adjusted for inflation, Dicks said. The White House threatened a veto if the measure clears the Senate and reaches President Bush's desk....
Worker admits stealing $642,000 from U.S. Forest Service A U.S. Forest Service employee who wrote government checks to her boyfriend under the guise of firefighting payments pleaded guilty today to stealing more than $642,000. Debra Kay Durfey, 49, of Echo began working for the Forest Service in eastern Oregon in 1986, overseeing payments with federal charge cards and government checks. She wrote checks to her boyfriend, Donald Hollinger, who occasionally contracts with the Forest Service, and deposited them in the couple's joint bank account. She used the money to gamble and pay for her car, mortgage and other expenses. Durfey also pleaded guilty to tax fraud. She agreed to pay restitution of $642,000....
Elk don’t make good neighbors Thousands of visitors drive deep into the Buffalo River National Park every year to catch a glimpse of immense Rocky Mountain elk feeding on rich bottomland pasture. They thrill at the sight. Native Ozark farmers cringe. For almost two decades, some complain, elk have broken into their fields and ravaged their crops. The state Game and Fish Commission, which introduced the herd, is wearing out its welcome. The Rocky Mountain elk is not native to Arkansas. But the Eastern elk is — or was up until 1840 when it was hunted into extinction. A hundred years later, the U.S. Forest Service sought to bring elk back to Arkansas. They released 11 Rocky Mountain elk along the Black Mountain Ridge of Franklin County. Poachers took them out, too. In the early 1980s, Game and Fish, working with private citizens, released 112 elk onto public land in Newton County. Nearly a third died, but slowly the herd gained a footing. Rangers in a helicopter flyover last winter counted 321 in the 315,000-acre Buffalo River watershed. The elk now range over 315,000 acres, only 27 percent of which is publicly owned. Magness’ family, Ozark farmers since the 1800s, owns another 500 acres and together they run a hundred head of cattle. Chances are their ancestors hunted plenty of Eastern elk off their homesteads. But this generation can only stand by as the Rocky Mountain elk range from their protected habitat to plunder their private property....
Tree-cutting rules led to fire's spread, basin residents say The hungry Lake Tahoe fire that has destroyed 178 homes has fanned some residents' long-smoldering anger with the agency that regulates development -- and tree removal -- throughout the Tahoe basin. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) has long been criticized as too restrictive when it comes to deciding what residents can do on their property, whether it's building a new deck or chopping trees that might imperil their homes. Created in 1969, the agency is charged with balancing development and protecting Tahoe's natural beauty. As a result, the 15-member body -- made up of voters and politicians from California and Nevada -- has created strict environmental rules that govern construction and habitat preservation. That includes a process, called cumbersome by some residents, that property owners must follow to remove trees. Many residents also complain that the U.S. Forest Service has allowed about 165,000 acres of its land to become overgrown, further endangering adjacent homes -- and fueling the property loss caused by the Angora Fire. "The house survived because we broke the law," said Brent Abrams, 20. He and his mother cut down trees on Forest Service land near their house and replaced them with a grassy lawn, something the authorities likely would have never allowed. Many of their neighbors' homes were destroyed, and only chimneys remain. "The federal government and TRPA didn't create the fire, but it was because of their actions it was so extensive," he said....
House passes amendment to restrict federal oil shale A measure intended to force the government to move slowly on efforts toward commercial production of oil shale on federal land won approval Wednesday in the U.S. House. The proposal by Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., to amend the 2008 Interior Department's appropriations bill, would prohibit the use of federal funds to prepare final regulations for a commercial leasing program or to conduct commercial lease sales. The Interior bill, passed by the House, now goes to the Senate. A proposal by Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, designed to exempt Utah and Wyoming from the funding restrictions failed. Udall and Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., withdrew a separate amendment to prevent new oil and gas leases on top of the Roan Plateau in western Colorado after the Congressional Budget Office said it would have cost the government money and needed to be offset....
Federal land claims amendment a no-go Environmentalists said they were pleased Wednesday with an agreement by congressional appropriators for more oversight of rights-of-way claims on federal lands. The deal came after Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., withdrew an amendment that would prohibit the Bureau of Land Management from using taxpayer money to decide if counties or states had rights to backcountry pathways. Previously, courts made such determinations but a rule change last year allowed the agency to do it unilaterally. Under the agreement, hammered out on the House floor between Udall and House Appropriations Interior subcommittee chairman Norman Dicks, R-Wash., the Interior Department will submit quarterly reports to the committee and there will be more congressional oversight of administrative decisions regarding R.S. 2477 claims. "It's not business as usual anymore," said Heidi McIntosh, conservation director for Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "The R.S. 2477 abuses are going to be curtailed, we believe." Utah GOP Reps. Chris Cannon and Rob Bishop fought against the amendment, with Cannon calling it a "serious threat" to Western counties. "The net effect of the Udall amendment is a federally mandated power grab from rural Western counties," Cannon said. "This amendment will result in restricted access to public lands, restricted energy development and restricted states rights."....
U.S. has big thirst for geothermal The federal government has embarked on an ambitious plan to tap a massive source of energy lying deep beneath public land in the West, including Colorado. And it's not oil and gas. This time it's geothermal energy, the heat under the surface. The energy in the form of hot water or steam can be used in geothermal power plants to produce round-the-clock electricity. The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service are looking at areas in 11 Western states and Alaska best suited for geothermal energy development, and the likely social and environmental impact. Their final report will be completed in September 2008, and commercial leasing of areas will begin soon after. "The BLM is sitting on the largest supply of geothermal energy in this country, and it is time to launch an aggressive program to develop those resources," said BLM acting Director Jim Hughes. "This proceeding will help us determine which areas to concentrate our geothermal leasing efforts on." The potential of geothermal energy worldwide is estimated at 50,000 times the world's oil and natural gas reserves, according to the Department of Energy....
GOP plan pumps Roan lease funds into higher ed Statehouse Republicans called for using lease payments for drilling on the Roan Plateau in western Colorado as a way to raise millions for public colleges and universities. Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, said Wednesday the proposal - offered with Rep. Al White of Winter Park - would provide substantial funding for higher education without raising taxes. They want to set aside half of the revenue the state would collect from mineral leases on the Roan. The money - the exact amount is unknown - would be put in a trust fund for higher education. The estimates range from $500 million to $1 billion. Hank Brown, president of the University of Colorado system, endorsed the idea. "It's not dramatically different from what our neighbor to the north, Wyoming, did, where they put together a trust fund from mineral revenues," he said. Higher-education officials cite a study that says Colorado needs $832 million more each year to meet the average funding of national peers....
Army range wants more Arizona desert A plan to expand an Army artillery range could annex as much as 500,000 acres of federally managed desert in southwestern Arizona that is home to a variety of wildlife, including desert bighorn sheep, Sonoran desert tortoise and endangered lesser long-nosed bats. The plan being considered by the Army's Yuma Proving Ground, near the border with California, would expand the facility beyond its 840,000 acres to accommodate the increasing distance that artillery shells can be fired. Chuck Wullenjohn, public affairs officer for the proving ground, said that the 50-mile-long artillery range would soon be too short and that the facility was "looking into the future to maintain viability." Though it may take several years to approve, environmental groups and government officials have already expressed concern. The proving ground is used by the United States and other countries to test ammunition, Wullenjohn said. The testing must be done on a large piece of open land because shells must be retrieved and rounds can potentially go off course. Wullenjohn said the expansion could take land now administered by the federal Bureau of Land Management in Yuma, La Paz and Maricopa counties between Interstate 8 and Interstate 10....
N.M.: St. Cloud to Clean Up Old Mines A Truth or Consequences company has been awarded a $662,263 contract to improve safety around 56 abandoned mine openings in Sierra County. St. Cloud Mining Co. was awarded the competitive bid contract by the Mining and Minerals Division for the project in the Lake Valley area, about 17 miles south of Hillsboro. A silver mining boom hit Lake Valley during the 1880s and 1890s, then a second period of mining, this time of flux materials and manganese, began about 1900 and lasted through 1955. Since then, the mines have been unused except by bats. The safety project will include 14 structures that will allow the bats to continue to use the underground mines and be protected from human disturbance. St. Cloud Mining Co. also will plug some large mine openings using old tires from earth-moving equipment....
Federal Farm Subsidy Programs: How to Discourage Congressional Conflicts of Interest Sometime during 2007, Congress will attempt to reauthorize the nation's farm legislation and will likely continue to bestow substantial financial benefits upon a relatively small number of the largest and wealthiest farmers. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data reveal that this group of direct financial beneficiaries includes many Members of Congress who receive USDA subsidies and who will be voting on the farm bill reauthorization. Under current law, many Members and their families who engage in farming receive direct cash payments from the U.S. Treasury courtesy of the taxpayer, whose standard of living has been reduced by the higher taxes needed to fund the farm program and by the higher food prices caused by agriculture subsidies, restrictions, and regulations. While the best solution to these conflicts of interest would be to abolish the farm subsidy program, a backup plan would be to apply strict conflict-of-interest principles to the program by requiring that Members of Congress who benefit from it financially either recuse themselves from voting on any farm legislation or forgo any farm subsidies for which they and their families and relatives would be eligible. Of the three branches of the federal government, Congress has the fewest prohibitions on conflicts of interest and acts of self-dealing. Officials in the executive branch and judiciary are required to divest themselves of any investment in or ownership of for-profit entities that may be within the purview of their agency or court. They are also under strict limits on the extent to which members of their immediate families may benefit directly from their position....
How Farm Odors Contribute to Global Warming You can definitely smell it, but you can't see it. The United States Department of Agriculture has released reports stating that when you smell cow manure, you're also smelling greenhouse gas emissions. That will be the focus of new research happening right here in the Southern Tier. Agriculture Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, Mark Rey, was in Corning Wednesday morning at the Big Flats Plant Materials Center to annouce the award of nearly $20 million in Conservation Innovation Grants to fund 51 research projects across the country designed to refine new technologies helping dairy and other agricultural producers cut back on their greenhouse emissions and cash in on governmental incentives for the research....
Historical landmark on market Three Rivers Trading Post, a landmark built in 1939 on U.S. Highway 54 when it was still a dirt road between Carrizozo and Tularosa, is up for sale. Along with it will be sold the old schoolhouse, built around 1885 for the Three Rivers community. Some 1,200 tourists each month turn here to view Three Rivers Petroglyph Park, one of the largest petroglyph sites in the Southwest, according to Manny Herrera of the Bureau of Land Management. Some go on to camp at the base of Sierra Blanca, the highest mountain in southern New Mexico. For the last 10 years, tourists stopped at the Indigo Lizard to pick up soft drinks and snacks while browsing through the collection of books, mugs, dried soups, photography and Native American art work. The outside entrance was a garden of native flowers and petroglyphs painted on the walls and petroglyph sculptures by prominent sculptor Lay Powell. Now invasive Russian tumbleweed flourishes and dried weeds from last year's abundant monsoons crowd the door, and the landscaped cottonwoods are dry and brown. Photographers stop to record what they can find around the Route 66-style, quasi-pueblo revival building. These include the building's wild days as a motorcycle bar and huge cottonwood tree well-fitted inside the old red school house. "Yep, I have been in there. I hear that back in the '40s, Thomas Fortune Ryan (who owned the entire Three Rivers region at the time) and a bunch of cowboys got drunk and took one wall out and put that tree in there. Why? Because he could," drawls Bohannon....
Tongie ‘fainting goats' go down at the drop of a hat Wayne and Kathy Gillett have to be careful around their kids, they never know when one might faint. The one-month old "fainting goats" the Mclouth couple keep on part of their 20 acres are especially prone to the muscle seizures this rare breed is known for. The least likely of actions could startle Blake, Andy and Anabella, an umbrella opening, fear of heights or footsteps from behind. And then there are the obvious triggers, like when Wayne, retired plumber, drove his tractor near their fence. In a matter of seconds, it's as if a drunken stupor sets in. First, they flee. Then one will stumble and drop over on its side, with legs and head erect, fully conscious. The other will freeze mid sprint when it's hind and front legs have met under her stomach and be stuck in this position for 10 to 15 seconds. The origin of the goats is unknown and there is speculation whether they carry a recessive gene that causes myotonia congenita, a condition that causes muscle stiffness. Despite the mystery, it seems to be the novelty of the trait itself that has kept this breed popular worldwide in recent decades, which reversed their threat of extinction in the early 1900s. In the United States, thousands of fainting goats are kept as pets, to breed or for meat....
FLE
Migrant perishes in canal, Border Patrol agent injured A Border Patrol agent trying to rescue a drowning migrant was wounded by the migrant's smuggler and shot back at his attacker this afternoon by the American Canal west of Fonseca Drive, Border Patrol officials said. Border Patrol, El Paso police and FBI officials were investigating the case. Preliminary information released by the Border Patrol indicate that the agent spotted a group of undocumented immigrants crossing into the United States when one migrant went into the water and was swept by currents. Officials said the suspected smuggler, who was on the U.S. side of the canal started hurling rocks, hitting the agent on the back of the head, cutting a three-inch-long gash. The agent was later taken to the hospital and his condition is not known. After being hit, the agent shot at the smuggler and missed and the smuggler ran back to Mexico, possibly with another migrant, officials said. Officials have located the drowned migrant and were pulling his body out of the water this afternoon....
Mexico purges top police in battle against corruption Mexico has launched an unprecedented purge of its top police officers as the latest step in its increasingly high-stakes campaign to combat the drugs cartels and end a gruesome wave of narcotics-related violence. Summarily removed from their posts, at least for the time being, are 284 federal police chiefs spread across every state of the country. Each of them will be extensively vetted for corruption and possible ties to the cartels and their ruthless gangs of enforcers. Since taking office in December, Felipe Calderon, Mexico's President, has taken increasingly bold measures to tackle one of his country's most intractable problems - the unabated activities of the drug lords and the corruption within law enforcement that protects them from arrest. It is a crusade that has drawn wide applause from most Mexicans, who are tired of the bloodshed spawned by the drugs trade, as well as from the United States government. However, there is so far no evidence that the assault is slowing the distribution of drugs. Nor has it quieted the violence. Replaced for now by agents who have been extensively screened for their integrity, the suspended officers will be required to take drugs tests and undergo lie-detector tests. Their relatives and friends will be interrogated and their financial assets examined....
Illegal crossings down in New Mexico Illegal crossings on New Mexico's southern border appear to be down since National Guard troops started building barriers and conducting surveillance last year as part of Operation Jump Start. The mission is an effort by President Bush to slow illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border while the U.S. Border Patrol hires and trains more agents. As of the end of May, federal officials said apprehensions of illegal immigrants in the Border Patrol's El Paso sector - which covers part of Texas and all of New Mexico - dropped 43 percent compared to the same time the previous fiscal year. In the Deming area alone, the number of illegal immigrants apprehended by agents plummeted 61 percent compared to the same period last year. The soldiers have completed about nine miles of vehicle barriers along the border since October. Most of it is in the Columbus area. Units are also watching for illegal crossers from the Las Cruces area to the Bootheel in Hidalgo County, which some describe as a remote and desolate area....
Senate takes step away from Real ID The U.S. Senate took a preliminary step on Wednesday toward reining in the controversial Real ID Act, which is scheduled to become America's first federal identification card in a few years. During Wednesday's floor debate over a massive immigration bill, Real ID foes managed to preserve an amendment to prohibit the forthcoming identification card from being used for mandatory employment verification, signaling that the political winds have shifted from when the law was overwhelmingly enacted two years ago. The anti-Real ID amendment is backed by two Montana Democrats, Max Baucus and Jon Tester, who say the digital ID cards represent an unreasonable government intrusion into Americans' private lives. In April, Montana became one of the states that has voted to reject Real ID. "This was a real victory for Montana and the American people," Tester said, after the Senate vote to kill their amendment failed to muster a majority. The unsuccessful vote to table it was 45-52. The Real ID Act says that, starting on May 11, 2008, Americans will need a federally-approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments or take advantage of nearly any government service. States must conduct checks of their citizens' identification papers, and driver's licenses may have to be reissued to comply with Homeland Security requirements. (States that agree in advance to abide by the rules have until 2013 to comply.) The immigration bill (Word document), which is backed by the Bush administration and has drawn the ire of many conservatives, requires employers to demand Real ID cards of new hires starting in 2013. It says that "no driver's license or state identity card may be accepted if it does not comply with the Real ID Act."....
N.H. Governor Signs Law Banning Real ID New Hampshire on Wednesday rejected the federal Real ID Act as tantamount to requiring a national ID card, joining five other states in opposing it. South Carolina, Montana, Washington, Oklahoma and Maine also have rejected the federal act. "Here in New Hampshire, we pride ourselves on being frugal, and here in New Hampshire, we pride ourselves on respecting the privacy of our neighbors," Gov. John Lynch said at the bill signing. The law's supporters say it is needed to prevent terrorists and illegal immigrants from getting fake identification cards. Critics say it is too intrusive, too costly and likely to be abused by identity thieves. The Real ID Act was passed in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It requires all states to bring their driver's licenses under a national standard and to link their record-keeping systems. States must verify identification used to obtain a driver's license, such as birth certificates, Social Security numbers and passports. Driver's licenses not meeting the standard won't be accepted as identification to board an airplane or enter a federal building. New Hampshire's law calls the act "repugnant" to the state and federal constitutions. The law prohibits the state from complying with the act, which sets standards for state-issued driver's licenses....
White House, Cheney's office subpoenaed The Senate subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office Wednesday, demanding documents and elevating the confrontation with President Bush over the administration's warrant-free eavesdropping on Americans. The escalation is part of the Democrats' effort to hold the administration to account for the way it has conducted the war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The subpoenas extend the probe into the private sector, demanding among other things documents on any agreements that telecommunications companies made to cooperate with the surveillance program. The White House contends that its search for would-be terrorists is legal, necessary and effective — pointing out frequently that there have been no further attacks on American soil. Administration officials say they have given classified information — such as details about the eavesdropping program, which is now under court supervision — to the intelligence committees of both houses of Congress....
Agency's Strangeloves altered mind of a girl aged 4 EASILY lost, on page 425, in the mass of the CIA's notorious "Family Jewels" files is a short paragraph outlining "potentially embarrassing Agency activities". "Experiments in influencing human behaviour through the administration of mind- or personality-altering drugs to unwitting subjects." Of all the heinous acts committed by the CIA in the name of national security, these experiments, done on the agency's behalf by prominent psychiatrists on innocent victims - including children as young as four - may be the darkest. "We have no answer to the moral issue," former director Richard Helms infamously said when asked about the nature of the projects. The release of the Family Jewels documents revealed the CIA handsomely funded these real-life Dr Strangeloves and engaged pharmaceutical companies to help its experiments. The nature of the experiments, gathered from government documents and testimony in numerous lawsuits brought against the CIA, is shocking, from testing LSD on children to implanting electrodes in victims' brains to deliberately poisoning people with uranium....
Migrant perishes in canal, Border Patrol agent injured A Border Patrol agent trying to rescue a drowning migrant was wounded by the migrant's smuggler and shot back at his attacker this afternoon by the American Canal west of Fonseca Drive, Border Patrol officials said. Border Patrol, El Paso police and FBI officials were investigating the case. Preliminary information released by the Border Patrol indicate that the agent spotted a group of undocumented immigrants crossing into the United States when one migrant went into the water and was swept by currents. Officials said the suspected smuggler, who was on the U.S. side of the canal started hurling rocks, hitting the agent on the back of the head, cutting a three-inch-long gash. The agent was later taken to the hospital and his condition is not known. After being hit, the agent shot at the smuggler and missed and the smuggler ran back to Mexico, possibly with another migrant, officials said. Officials have located the drowned migrant and were pulling his body out of the water this afternoon....
Mexico purges top police in battle against corruption Mexico has launched an unprecedented purge of its top police officers as the latest step in its increasingly high-stakes campaign to combat the drugs cartels and end a gruesome wave of narcotics-related violence. Summarily removed from their posts, at least for the time being, are 284 federal police chiefs spread across every state of the country. Each of them will be extensively vetted for corruption and possible ties to the cartels and their ruthless gangs of enforcers. Since taking office in December, Felipe Calderon, Mexico's President, has taken increasingly bold measures to tackle one of his country's most intractable problems - the unabated activities of the drug lords and the corruption within law enforcement that protects them from arrest. It is a crusade that has drawn wide applause from most Mexicans, who are tired of the bloodshed spawned by the drugs trade, as well as from the United States government. However, there is so far no evidence that the assault is slowing the distribution of drugs. Nor has it quieted the violence. Replaced for now by agents who have been extensively screened for their integrity, the suspended officers will be required to take drugs tests and undergo lie-detector tests. Their relatives and friends will be interrogated and their financial assets examined....
Illegal crossings down in New Mexico Illegal crossings on New Mexico's southern border appear to be down since National Guard troops started building barriers and conducting surveillance last year as part of Operation Jump Start. The mission is an effort by President Bush to slow illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border while the U.S. Border Patrol hires and trains more agents. As of the end of May, federal officials said apprehensions of illegal immigrants in the Border Patrol's El Paso sector - which covers part of Texas and all of New Mexico - dropped 43 percent compared to the same time the previous fiscal year. In the Deming area alone, the number of illegal immigrants apprehended by agents plummeted 61 percent compared to the same period last year. The soldiers have completed about nine miles of vehicle barriers along the border since October. Most of it is in the Columbus area. Units are also watching for illegal crossers from the Las Cruces area to the Bootheel in Hidalgo County, which some describe as a remote and desolate area....
Senate takes step away from Real ID The U.S. Senate took a preliminary step on Wednesday toward reining in the controversial Real ID Act, which is scheduled to become America's first federal identification card in a few years. During Wednesday's floor debate over a massive immigration bill, Real ID foes managed to preserve an amendment to prohibit the forthcoming identification card from being used for mandatory employment verification, signaling that the political winds have shifted from when the law was overwhelmingly enacted two years ago. The anti-Real ID amendment is backed by two Montana Democrats, Max Baucus and Jon Tester, who say the digital ID cards represent an unreasonable government intrusion into Americans' private lives. In April, Montana became one of the states that has voted to reject Real ID. "This was a real victory for Montana and the American people," Tester said, after the Senate vote to kill their amendment failed to muster a majority. The unsuccessful vote to table it was 45-52. The Real ID Act says that, starting on May 11, 2008, Americans will need a federally-approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments or take advantage of nearly any government service. States must conduct checks of their citizens' identification papers, and driver's licenses may have to be reissued to comply with Homeland Security requirements. (States that agree in advance to abide by the rules have until 2013 to comply.) The immigration bill (Word document), which is backed by the Bush administration and has drawn the ire of many conservatives, requires employers to demand Real ID cards of new hires starting in 2013. It says that "no driver's license or state identity card may be accepted if it does not comply with the Real ID Act."....
N.H. Governor Signs Law Banning Real ID New Hampshire on Wednesday rejected the federal Real ID Act as tantamount to requiring a national ID card, joining five other states in opposing it. South Carolina, Montana, Washington, Oklahoma and Maine also have rejected the federal act. "Here in New Hampshire, we pride ourselves on being frugal, and here in New Hampshire, we pride ourselves on respecting the privacy of our neighbors," Gov. John Lynch said at the bill signing. The law's supporters say it is needed to prevent terrorists and illegal immigrants from getting fake identification cards. Critics say it is too intrusive, too costly and likely to be abused by identity thieves. The Real ID Act was passed in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It requires all states to bring their driver's licenses under a national standard and to link their record-keeping systems. States must verify identification used to obtain a driver's license, such as birth certificates, Social Security numbers and passports. Driver's licenses not meeting the standard won't be accepted as identification to board an airplane or enter a federal building. New Hampshire's law calls the act "repugnant" to the state and federal constitutions. The law prohibits the state from complying with the act, which sets standards for state-issued driver's licenses....
White House, Cheney's office subpoenaed The Senate subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office Wednesday, demanding documents and elevating the confrontation with President Bush over the administration's warrant-free eavesdropping on Americans. The escalation is part of the Democrats' effort to hold the administration to account for the way it has conducted the war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The subpoenas extend the probe into the private sector, demanding among other things documents on any agreements that telecommunications companies made to cooperate with the surveillance program. The White House contends that its search for would-be terrorists is legal, necessary and effective — pointing out frequently that there have been no further attacks on American soil. Administration officials say they have given classified information — such as details about the eavesdropping program, which is now under court supervision — to the intelligence committees of both houses of Congress....
Agency's Strangeloves altered mind of a girl aged 4 EASILY lost, on page 425, in the mass of the CIA's notorious "Family Jewels" files is a short paragraph outlining "potentially embarrassing Agency activities". "Experiments in influencing human behaviour through the administration of mind- or personality-altering drugs to unwitting subjects." Of all the heinous acts committed by the CIA in the name of national security, these experiments, done on the agency's behalf by prominent psychiatrists on innocent victims - including children as young as four - may be the darkest. "We have no answer to the moral issue," former director Richard Helms infamously said when asked about the nature of the projects. The release of the Family Jewels documents revealed the CIA handsomely funded these real-life Dr Strangeloves and engaged pharmaceutical companies to help its experiments. The nature of the experiments, gathered from government documents and testimony in numerous lawsuits brought against the CIA, is shocking, from testing LSD on children to implanting electrodes in victims' brains to deliberately poisoning people with uranium....
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
AMENDMENT OFFERED BY MR. PEARCE
Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment offered by Mr. Pearce:
At the end of the bill, before the short title, insert the following:
TITLE VI--ADDITIONAL GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 601. No funds made available in or through this Act may be used for the continued operation of the Mexican Wolf Recovery program.
Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I reserve a point of order against the gentleman's amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The point of order is reserved.
Pursuant to the order of the House of today, the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Pearce) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Mexico.
Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer an amendment to stop a program that has been a failure. Let the record be clear. After more than 10 years of failed attempts to reintroduce Mexican wolves, it is now time to call an end to this program.
I am speaking of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program operated by the Fish and Wildlife Service in New Mexico and Arizona. Since the 1998 release of these captive bred wolves into the Blue Range Wolf Recovery area, this program has attempted to restore a population of wolves into the area, all while providing no compensation to ranchers for their livestock losses and all in the face of nearly unified local public opinion against the program.
Promises were made that the wolves would be restricted to the wilderness area of the Gila Mountains, but instead we have seen wolves as far away as Tularosa, New Mexico, almost 200 miles away.
To date this program has spent nearly $14 million and as of today has only 58 wolves in the wild; $14 million, 10 years, and 58 wolves in the wild.
Of these 58 wolves in the wild, we now are on a pace to remove 12 this year because they're problems.
Chart number 1 that I brought up today highlights the increasing rate of removal of the wolves from the wild because they're killing too much livestock and they're endangering people and pets in the district that I represent.
In 2005, the Service removed four problem wolves. In 2006, it removed eight. In 2007, we're on a pace to remove 12 wolves, 12 out of 58. If the Service has to remove 12 wolves this year, 20 percent of the wolves in the recovery area, how can anyone classify as a success a program where this many of the wolves are being a danger to ranchers and livestock?
I would add that the wolves that are released into New Mexico are the wolves that have killed too many animals over in Arizona. So New Mexico gets the benefit of having the most dangerous wolves released into the Second District.
Secondly, I would like to go to a chart that shows the horse, Six. In this shot, on the left side, Stacy Miller, 8 years old, is riding her horse, Six. This picture was taken 2 weeks before this picture. This picture on the right indicates her horse, Six, after the wolves finished with it. You see the ribs have been stripped completely clean. The hide is laying out here. That's 2 weeks after the picture was made. This is in the Second District of New Mexico.
And for those of you who want the feel-good feeling of releasing the wolves into the wild, let us release them into your daggone area instead of the area of southern New Mexico, where they represent a danger to the people of the Second District. If you aren't willing to take them into your district, then why are you going to spend money to put them in our district and endanger our people?
I would like to draw your attention to another tremendous concern, the Durango pack, particularly the female, AF924, which we speak about, is stalking the home of a young woman named Micha. Micha Miller, not the same, is pictured here. Micha Miller is about 100 yards from her front door pointing to a wolf print that is there in the dirt. What is startling about this picture is the gun which Micha is wearing while she goes about her chores. The Durango pack of wolves have been in and around Micha's house for so long that her parents insist that she carry this gun with her while she does her chores, works or plays in the yard.
I am submitting for the Record a letter from Micha asking Congress to end this program that has put wolves in her front yard....
Mr. PEARCE. Madam Speaker, the following material are letters I have received from my constituents and other concerned citizens of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona regarding the reintroduction of the Mexican Wolf.
Since the reintroduction of the Mexican Wolf in 1998, the residents of my Congressional District have been plagued by problems associated with the release. Not only do ranchers suffer economic hardship due to wolves preying on their livestock, but countless family pets have been lost including dogs and horses. As the wolves become less afraid of man every year, I fear they will eventually prey upon humans. To date, the program has yielded 58 wolves, 20 percent of which will be removed as problem animals, at a $14 million cost to the taxpayers. That is $242,000 spent per wolf....
Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment offered by Mr. Pearce:
At the end of the bill, before the short title, insert the following:
TITLE VI--ADDITIONAL GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 601. No funds made available in or through this Act may be used for the continued operation of the Mexican Wolf Recovery program.
Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I reserve a point of order against the gentleman's amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The point of order is reserved.
Pursuant to the order of the House of today, the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Pearce) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Mexico.
Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer an amendment to stop a program that has been a failure. Let the record be clear. After more than 10 years of failed attempts to reintroduce Mexican wolves, it is now time to call an end to this program.
I am speaking of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program operated by the Fish and Wildlife Service in New Mexico and Arizona. Since the 1998 release of these captive bred wolves into the Blue Range Wolf Recovery area, this program has attempted to restore a population of wolves into the area, all while providing no compensation to ranchers for their livestock losses and all in the face of nearly unified local public opinion against the program.
Promises were made that the wolves would be restricted to the wilderness area of the Gila Mountains, but instead we have seen wolves as far away as Tularosa, New Mexico, almost 200 miles away.
To date this program has spent nearly $14 million and as of today has only 58 wolves in the wild; $14 million, 10 years, and 58 wolves in the wild.
Of these 58 wolves in the wild, we now are on a pace to remove 12 this year because they're problems.
Chart number 1 that I brought up today highlights the increasing rate of removal of the wolves from the wild because they're killing too much livestock and they're endangering people and pets in the district that I represent.
In 2005, the Service removed four problem wolves. In 2006, it removed eight. In 2007, we're on a pace to remove 12 wolves, 12 out of 58. If the Service has to remove 12 wolves this year, 20 percent of the wolves in the recovery area, how can anyone classify as a success a program where this many of the wolves are being a danger to ranchers and livestock?
I would add that the wolves that are released into New Mexico are the wolves that have killed too many animals over in Arizona. So New Mexico gets the benefit of having the most dangerous wolves released into the Second District.
Secondly, I would like to go to a chart that shows the horse, Six. In this shot, on the left side, Stacy Miller, 8 years old, is riding her horse, Six. This picture was taken 2 weeks before this picture. This picture on the right indicates her horse, Six, after the wolves finished with it. You see the ribs have been stripped completely clean. The hide is laying out here. That's 2 weeks after the picture was made. This is in the Second District of New Mexico.
And for those of you who want the feel-good feeling of releasing the wolves into the wild, let us release them into your daggone area instead of the area of southern New Mexico, where they represent a danger to the people of the Second District. If you aren't willing to take them into your district, then why are you going to spend money to put them in our district and endanger our people?
I would like to draw your attention to another tremendous concern, the Durango pack, particularly the female, AF924, which we speak about, is stalking the home of a young woman named Micha. Micha Miller, not the same, is pictured here. Micha Miller is about 100 yards from her front door pointing to a wolf print that is there in the dirt. What is startling about this picture is the gun which Micha is wearing while she goes about her chores. The Durango pack of wolves have been in and around Micha's house for so long that her parents insist that she carry this gun with her while she does her chores, works or plays in the yard.
I am submitting for the Record a letter from Micha asking Congress to end this program that has put wolves in her front yard....
Mr. PEARCE. Madam Speaker, the following material are letters I have received from my constituents and other concerned citizens of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona regarding the reintroduction of the Mexican Wolf.
Since the reintroduction of the Mexican Wolf in 1998, the residents of my Congressional District have been plagued by problems associated with the release. Not only do ranchers suffer economic hardship due to wolves preying on their livestock, but countless family pets have been lost including dogs and horses. As the wolves become less afraid of man every year, I fear they will eventually prey upon humans. To date, the program has yielded 58 wolves, 20 percent of which will be removed as problem animals, at a $14 million cost to the taxpayers. That is $242,000 spent per wolf....
PEARCE AMENDMENTS
JUNE 26, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: BRIAN PHILLIPS
202.225.4759, brian.phillips@mail.house.gov
WASHINGTON D.C. - Congressman Steve Pearce released the following statement after the House voted on his amendment to eliminate funding for the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program from the Interior Appropriations Bill.
“I am disappointed more of my colleagues could not see the wisdom in eliminating an unsuccessful, ineffective program that has not only failed to produce results, but also threatens the lives and livelihoods of New Mexicans. We have tried the reintroduction program for 10 years and have seen only growing problems and more wolf - human interactions.
“While I believe that the time has come to concede that we cannot successfully reintroduce wolves into the communities of New Mexico, Congress has not yet reached that view.
“I will continue working to ensure that we are protected from these captive-bred habituated wolves. The Fish and Wildlife Service must take active steps to better manage problem wolves and guarantee that farmers, ranchers, their families and their livestock are not repeatedly stalked and attacked. I will furthermore continue working to educate my colleagues with regards to the problems associated with this program.
“The vote today was a set back, but we will continue to put pressure on those that, to this point, have only wasted tax dollars and created a menace within our communities.”
###
JUNE 26, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: BRIAN PHILLIPS
202.225.4759, brian.phillips@mail.house.gov
WASHINGTON D.C. - Congressman Steve Pearce released the following statement after the House voted on his amendment to eliminate funding for the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program from the Interior Appropriations Bill.
“I am disappointed more of my colleagues could not see the wisdom in eliminating an unsuccessful, ineffective program that has not only failed to produce results, but also threatens the lives and livelihoods of New Mexicans. We have tried the reintroduction program for 10 years and have seen only growing problems and more wolf - human interactions.
“While I believe that the time has come to concede that we cannot successfully reintroduce wolves into the communities of New Mexico, Congress has not yet reached that view.
“I will continue working to ensure that we are protected from these captive-bred habituated wolves. The Fish and Wildlife Service must take active steps to better manage problem wolves and guarantee that farmers, ranchers, their families and their livestock are not repeatedly stalked and attacked. I will furthermore continue working to educate my colleagues with regards to the problems associated with this program.
“The vote today was a set back, but we will continue to put pressure on those that, to this point, have only wasted tax dollars and created a menace within our communities.”
###
NEWS ROUNDUP
Supreme Court - ESA does not trump the CWA On June 25, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 split decision in National Association of Home Builders v. Defenders of Wildlife, 2007 WL 1801745, that is expected to have far-reaching implications. The decision addressed the intersection of two independent statutes--the Clean Water Act (the "CWA") and the Endangered Species Act (the "ESA")--and answered the twin questions of whether the ESA constitutes a "super statute" that effectively overrides or repeals other statutes, and whether the ESA consultation requirement can be read to impose additional substantive obligations on an agency to protect listed species when such obligations are otherwise absent under the agency’s organic authority. The case arose as a result of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (the "EPA") decision to transfer the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program under CWA section 402(b) to the state of Arizona. That section of the CWA provides "that the EPA ‘shall approve’ a transfer application unless it determines that a state lacks adequate authority to perform the nine functions specified in the section." 33 U.S.C. § 1362(b). The Supreme Court’s decision confirms that the list under CWA section 402(b) is both exclusive and mandatory and is not to be enlarged by the ESA. The Court emphasized that because Arizona’s application satisfied all nine criteria, the EPA lacked the discretion to make any decision other than to approve the transfer to Arizona, and the consultation requirement under ESA section 7(a)(2) was simply not triggered in this case. As reasoned by the Court, any other interpretation would have resulted in a partial repeal of the CWA, with the ESA imposing a 10 criterion on the transfer of permitting authority a result that the Court went to great lengths to reject. According to the Court, "nothing in the text of section 402(b) authorizes the EPA to consider the protection of threatened or endangered species as an end in itself when evaluating a transfer application." The majority’s opinion has the effect of scaling back the breadth with which the Ninth Circuit had previously inflated the consultation provision. ESA section 7(a)(2) requires each federal agency to ensure that any action authorized, funded or carried out by such agency is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered or threatened species. 16 U.S.C. §1536 (a)(2). In reversing the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in this case, the majority opinion deferred to the ESA’s implementing regulations and held that the consultation requirement does not override other statutory authorities and is only triggered when a federal agency undertakes a discretionary agency action, as stated in 50 C.F.R. § 402.03. Conversely, an agency is not obligated to engage in the consultation process when it undertakes an action that is mandated by statute. The Court explained that when an agency is required to do something by statute, it simply lacks the power to ensure that such action will not jeopardize endangered species, and thus, in those situations, is not obligated to conduct a consultation under ESA section 7(a)(2)....
Backfire jumps line, forcing evacuations Firefighters suffered a setback while trying to tame a raging wildfire near Lake Tahoe on Tuesday after flames from a backfire they set to keep the blaze from reaching more houses jumped a fireline, trapping two firefighters and prompting a fresh round of evacuations. The two firefighters were part of a group working to protect the Tallac Village development in South Lake Tahoe when the wind picked up and sent the backfire swooping down on them, said Chuck Dickson, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman. The blaze descended so quickly the pair were forced to deploy the emergency shelters firefighters carry to protect themselves during burnovers as a last resort, Dickson said. They were uninjured and managed to walk out of the new burn area, he said. As a fresh plume of black smoke billowed over Lake Tahoe, the new arm of the wildfire prompted the mandatory evacuation of the entire Tallac subdivision. It was unclear how many homes were subject to the order....
Editorial: A legacy of catastrophic fires As if the devastation caused by the Angora fire at Lake Tahoe isn't sickening enough, the political grandstanding that is now taking place on Capitol Hill in its wake is sure to turn your stomach. With the fires that have already caused upwards of $100 million in property damage and left scores of people homeless still raging, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid on Tuesday issued a press release heralding legislation that he and Sen. John Ensign introduced last week to help ranchers prevent rangeland wildfires ... as if the people living around Lake Tahoe are supposed to find some comfort in that revelation. For some equally irrelevant reason, Reid also pointed out that last year - last year - he and Ensign passed legislation providing more than $200 million for hazardous fuels reduction in the Tahoe basin to prevent catastrophic fires like the Angora fire. What does that have to do with the tragedy unfolding at Lake Tahoe this year, except to make some kind of perverted, self-serving claim to foresight and vision on this issue at a time when nobody really cares about Harry Reid's illusions of grandeur, foresight or vision? It gets worse. Reid's propaganda machine also wants you to understand that the Bush administration has been a total failure on fire suppression and prevention, as demonstrated by its opposition to additional funding in the U.S. Forest Service's already bloated fire fighting budget. Anybody who has investigated the Forest Service fire fighting organization understands that thousands of bureaucrats have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo of not cutting trees ... and reducing forest fuel loads. It's called big budgets, big egos, adrenaline, double time and hazard pay. Too bad Reid forgot to mention how his colleagues in the Democratic Party have blocked every reasonable attempt to restore some sense of multiple-use management of National Forest lands, i.e., commercial logging. Working in concert with their friends from the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and other environmental extremists, the Democrats have, through the Endangered Species Act, wilderness areas, roadless areas, and their corollaries, prescribed forest conditions that guarantee more of what is destroying Lake Tahoe this week....
NBC Features Woman Blaming Wildfires on Environmental Regulations On Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, while reporting from Lake Tahoe, correspondent George Lewis relayed one homeowner's complaint that environmental regulations had contributed to the danger of wildfires in the area. She further contended that the only reason her home survived was because she had cleared away brush near her home in violation of the law. Lewis: "She blames environmentalists and bureaucrats for creating rules that, in her opinion, increased the fire hazard. Says she had to break the law to clear brush off adjacent federal land." Below is a complete transcript of the report by George Lewis from the Tuesday June 26 NBC Nightly News: GEORGE LEWIS: As the fire has jumped those lines, additional evacuations of people who live here are under way. This, as people who live in the previously burned areas were trying to get back home. This morning, after she pleaded, argued and reasoned with the authorities, Sue Abrams was granted permission to return to her home, still standing in one of the burned out areas. SUE ABRAMS: The fence is gone, most of my landscaping is gone, but we have our home. My neighbor Jason's over there right now. He doesn't have a home. It's gone. LEWIS: She blames environmentalists and bureaucrats for creating rules that, in her opinion, increased the fire hazard. Says she had to break the law to clear brush off adjacent federal land. ABRAMS: I took the chance and said, "Okay, come arrest me."....
CO2 seen as key to increasing oil production Wyoming oil producers desperately want to divert streams of greenhouse gas currently being vented into the atmosphere and pump them into aging oil fields for permanent storage. The producers' main goal may not be rooted in concerns over climate change. Nonetheless, the capture and storage of carbon dioxide - the main greenhouse gas contributing to climate change - is key to reviving oil production for the next 30 years and beyond in Wyoming. The Wyoming Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute estimates that some 20 trillion cubic feet of CO2 could be sequestered in Wyoming's oil basins. The institute held a forum in Casper Tuesday, bringing together those who produce CO2 and those who want CO2 for enhanced oil recovery. "CO2 is deathly expensive here," said John Dobitz, senior vice president of Rancher Energy Corp. In many oil fields, as much as 60 percent of the original oil reserve remains unproduced after conventional low-pressure recovery methods. In enhanced oil recovery, alternate flows of water and CO2 are pumped into an oil reservoir, sweeping additional volumes of oil to production wells. After several years of "CO2 flooding" at the Salt Creek field in central Wyoming, Anadarko Petroleum helped stop Wyoming's annual 5 percent decline in oil production in 2006. But there are hundreds of old oil fields that don't yet have access to CO2....
Ospreys, swans struggling to keep numbers up in yellowstone Fish-eating ospreys are becoming rarer on Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park, mostly because of a drastic decline in native cutthroat trout. Terry McEneaney, Yellow-stone's ornithologist, said only nine nesting pairs of ospreys were observed on the lake last year and that the population in that area appears to be declining "at a staggering rate." "I go out there and I see very few osprey anymore," McEneaney said. "I used to see 20 or 30 in a day, and now I'm lucky to see a couple." Trumpeter swans, one of Yellowstone's signature birds, also continue to decline, reaching some of their lowest numbers since the 1930s, according to a 2006 report on the park's birds. The number of swans in Yellowstone has dropped steadily since 1961 and now stands at 14, McEneaney said. Although the bird is surviving elsewhere in North America, Yellowstone's small, long-running population continues its struggle....
BLM examining climate change If the West becomes warmer and drier, the Bureau of Land Management hopes to be in a position to respond, Acting Director Jim Hughes said Tuesday in a visit to the agency's office in Billings. "The department has put together a Global Climate Change Task Force to answer some of the questions," he said. "We want to know where we can make a difference and where we can't." Task force members will try to find the best available science, determine what effects global warming will have and what should be done about it, Hughes said in the final day of a swing through Montana that started in Great Falls and included the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument. He will travel to Casper, Wyo., today. BLM will be looking for answers to a myriad of questions. What, for instance, should be done about species that expand their range in response to climate change? Should BLM attempt to clear the invading plants and animals, or accept the change and try to manage it?....
GAO report criticizes federal agencies on firefighting The Government Accountability Office on Tuesday released a report highly critical of federal agencies' efforts to rein in the costs of managing wildfires, while some senators pushed the agencies to more actively manage forests to prevent fires. Federal officials disputed the charges in the GAO report, which was released at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The report was pointedly titled "Lack of Clear Goals or a Strategy Hinders Federal Agencies' Efforts to Contain the Costs of Fighting Fires." Robin Nazzaro of the GAO testified that the Forest Service and Interior Department have begun steps to address problem areas found by previous studies. But the effects of the actions are unknown because many steps have not been completed, she said. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., the top Republican on the committee, said he was in Montana last summer while the Derby fire raged. He displayed a picture of it and said much of the carbon captured by the trees and soil in the forest was released into the atmosphere when they burned. Domenici said many areas of national forests are "embarrassing" because they are so infested with insects and rotten trees. "Nothing is done, or by the time you get around to it, the trees are no good," he said....
Our View The defeat for Harvey Robbins, a Wyoming rancher who became a target for BLM harassment after he refused to grant a right of way across his land, might further embolden petty tyrants in federal land agencies, who now know they can abuse their positions, and citizens, with impunity. Robbins fought for the right of average citizens to hold individuals in government accountable for abuses of power. But only two justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens, sided with the individual over the state. “The record is replete with accounts of trespasses to Robbins’ property, vindictive cancelations of his rights to access federal land and unjustified or selective enforcement actions,” Ginsburg wrote in a dissent. This “seven-year campaign of harassment” had “a devastating impact on Robbins’ business.” The majority sympathized with government, however. Such suits “would invite claims in every sphere of legitimate governmental action affecting property interests, from negotiating tax claim settlements to enforcing Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations,” worried Justice David Souter. But what’s wrong with that, if government officials, in the course are all the good deed doing, are found to be trampling the rights of citizens?
Rancher's tactics didn't fly The legal battle between the Bureau of Land Management and Hot Springs County rancher was much more a fight over tort damages than a battle over grazing on public lands, said an attorney for a conservation group. Rather than continue sparring with the BLM over grazing violations, Robbins and his attorney, Karen Budd-Falen, took a new approach: a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act claim and a similarly grounded claim that BLM employees had violated Robbins’ Fifth Amendment rights. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that the federal employees did not have immunity from the Fifth Amendment claim or the allegations under the racketeering law. But the nation's high court found otherwise Monday, rejecting the Fifth Amendment claim on a 7-2 vote and the racketeering case 9-0. Lucas said the lawsuit was a creative legal tactic used by Robbins’ legal team to picture the rancher as “a little guy versus the big, bad government.” It didn’t work, Lucas said, because the majority of the court wasn’t willing to create a new arena of claims against the federal government, based on this case. Budd-Falen said Monday she was disappointed by the Supreme Court ruling. “It looks like the government can use any means to coerce individuals to give up easements,” she said, referring to the large number of harassing tactics allegedly used by the BLM. William Perry Pendley, president and chief legal officer of the conservative law firm Mountain States Legal Foundation, also expressed disappointed in the ruling. “It is consistent with this court’s rollback of remedies available to citizens, in the face of government abuse,” he said. “Yet this case should not have reached the Supreme Court; instead, these bureaucrats should have been reined in. Shame on the BLM; shame on the Department of the Interior; and shame on the Bush administration for turning a blind eye to this abuse.”....You wouldn't know it from these excerpts, but if you are looking for an example of extremely biased news reporting, click on the link above to this article.
Grouse and gas An awkward industrial dance is playing out on the sage flats of the West, a lopsided coupling of billion-dollar energy companies and a skittish ground bird prone to flee at first sight of a drilling rig. If the bird, the greater sage grouse, lands on the endangered species list as some propose, that could put the brakes on the oil and gas activity surging through Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Montana. So during spring breeding, companies working some of the nation's richest gas fields let rigs go idle for months at a time rather than risk interrupting sage grouse mating rituals. Roads to oil and gas wells are rerouted to skirt the bird's territory. Power lines are buried to deny hunting perches to grouse-eating raptors. If those measures don't work, some companies are pledging tens of millions of dollars to recreate sage grouse habitat. But as another breeding season ends this month and rigs again roll through the sage, a chorus of federal and university biologists and state officials says the companies' grouse conservation efforts are failing. With decades of drilling still planned, they say the industry must either redouble conservation or risk pushing sage grouse off the landscape....
Team begins grouse study An independent research group is jumping in to the sage grouse fray, trying to determine the impact of predators, humans and Mother Nature on the birds. Craighead Beringia South, a research and educational institute based in Kelly, has received about $62,000 from the state to begin a three-year project looking at sage grouse in the Jackson area, and in two areas of the Upper Green River Valley. The institute will be the first to put GPS transmitters on sage grouse and ravens to watch the interplay between certain predators and prey. The research comes as the state is developing sage grouse conservation plans. Sage grouse have been declining in the West, and work is ongoing to protect habitat and prevent the bird from being federally protected. Quigley said the research on grouse "should have been started five years ago," but Beringia is working to study lek breeding -- sites that include the Ryegrass area in Pinedale, and the Pinedale Anticline. The Anticline represents an area with sage grouse that is intensely developed; the Ryegrass and Jackson areas are places with little or no development....
Cheney left mark on environment Sue Ellen Wooldridge, the 19th-ranking Interior Department official, arrived at her desk in Room 6140 a few months after Inauguration Day 2001. A phone message awaited her. "This is Dick Cheney," said the man on her voice mail, Wooldridge recalled in an interview. "I understand you are the person handling this Klamath situation. Please call me at — hmm, I guess I don't know my own number. I'm over at the White House." Wooldridge wrote off the message as a prank. It was not. Cheney had reached far down the chain of command, on so unexpected a point of vice presidential concern, because he had spotted a political threat arriving on Wooldridge's desk. In Oregon, a battleground state that the Bush-Cheney ticket had lost by less than half of 1 percent, drought-stricken farmers and ranchers were about to be cut off from the irrigation water that kept their cropland and pastures green. Federal biologists said the Endangered Species Act left the government no choice: The survival of two imperiled species of fish was at stake. Law and science seemed to be on the side of the fish. Then the vice president stepped in....
City officials hoping for hotel property's sale to developer City officials have been working quietly for more than a year on behalf of the developer of the DoubleTree Hotel to encourage the land's current owners to sell it to Harry Wu, the developer and lease holder of the hotel. The city's work assisting Wu began after talks between Wu and the owners about a possible sale broke down, the owners said. The city sent a letter to the owners threatening the use of eminent domain a year ago and have since had several meetings with the owners. The City Council is meeting in closed session tonight to discuss the issue. The city is hoping the owners sell because Wu's lease to operate the hotel expires in about 14 years. Wu completed a $10 million overhaul of the hotel last year, and he wants to ensure that the expense was not wasted, city officials said. Rolland Towne, co-owner of the property, said he believes that before Wu purchased the hotel in 2005, Wu was given assurances by the city that a deal would be worked out for him to gain ownership of the land, with the city invoking its powers of eminent domain if necessary. "(Wu) knew what was going to happen before he went to us," Towne said. "He wouldn't have bought the hotel" unless he had assurances from the city....
Biofuels to blame as beer prices soar 40 per cent in Germany Biofuels may be good for the environment, but they are bad news for German beer drinkers. Prices in the country's pubs look set to rise by 40 per cent this year, because Germany's farmers are growing less barley for beer production and more crops for biodiesel and bioethanol. The head of the German brewers' association, Richard Weber, has caused outrage among friends of the annual Oktoberfest beer jamboree by predicting the hefty price rise. He pointed out that the German barley crop has been halved this year and that prices have soared by 50 per cent within 12 months. Poor-quality harvests, caused by unusually hot weather, have not helped either. As a result, Germany's brewers, which insist on the purity of their beer and offer organic brands to emphasise their green-tinged credentials, have turned over a new leaf. They are now demanding an end to the use of crops to make fuel....
Web site offers a dating service for farmers Bullboy is 24 and looking for company between rodeos. Strawman is a "down-to-earth cowpoke in search of a like-minded individual." "Critters and horse mom" insists you must be an animal lover "to get near my barn." Members of FarmersOnly.com say they want more than the proverbial roll in the hay. They want that special someone who won't be jealous of a field of cattle or expect vacations during harvest. If Harley drivers, Jewish singles, Democrats, Republicans and born-again Christians can have their own online dating services, why not farmers? Founder Jerry Miller, an Ohio ad representative, pondered that question after hearing the same song from his rural clients. Miller, 54, interviewed farmers, ranchers and rural residents across the country before launching the site 18 months ago. Whether they worked with crops, cattle, organic farms, horses or at the town store, the answers were the same. "They already know everybody, so the dating pool is very small. So what do you do?" he said. "Hang out in the next town at the feed store hoping your mate walks through the door?" Despite the site's credo that "City folks just don't get it," FarmersOnly has pulled in a number of urban types, and they aren't stuffy women from the city bars. The city slickers practically apologize and claim a burning desire to ditch the rat race....
Clean Water for Cows They say you can lead a horse to water, but you can`t make it drink. It might be a little happier to drink water that`s clean and fresh. And if your horse is a cow, and you`re a rancher, that clean water could have a big payoff. Dugouts and stock ponds are a fixture in every rancher`s pasture. Usually those water holes get pretty muddy. You might say it`s in the water. But in this case, it`s what`s not in the water. Cows. "Usually when the cows go to water the whole herd goes all at once. The first cow gets fresh water, and the rest get muddy water. By the time the calves get there it`s pretty polluted up," says Jim Hopfauf, a rancher near St. Anthony. But not anymore. This portable pump moves water from these ponds to this tank, where cows can drink at their leisure. "If they drink fresh water, the cows and calves will gain more weight and have better health," Jim says. The surrounding area also has some better health. There are environmental benefits to the pumping system. Two years ago this pond was surrounded by mud. Now it`s surrounded by lush green grass....
Japanese cow herd coddled for 12 years to make Kobe beef Even by the standards of Texas -- where beef is no trivial matter -- rancher Jose Antonio Elias Calles (KAH'-yehs) has coddled his cattle. The livestock imported from Japan are guarded by off-duty Texas Rangers and kept away from American bulls that might contaminate their coveted gene pool. They're meticulously reared for 12 years before a single hamburger could be sold. Japanese cattle -- which come in red and black varieties -- are a closely guarded national treasure. Their beef is often called "Kobe (KOH'-beh) beef" by American restaurants, where it commands staggering prices. But it's cherished by chefs and foodies for its thorough marbling of fat that gives the meat tenderness and rich flavor. On a 0 to 12 quality scale used to rate beef in Japan, where heavy fat marbling is preferred, Kobe rates a minimum nine points and Angus beef 4.5. Calles' beef rate around 7.5 to 8.5....
AJ ghost town celebrates the cowboy way If you sport a clean-shaven chin and have an enormous mustache to boot, organizers of The National Day of the American Cowboy celebration in Apache Junction want you to keep it that way - at least until July 28. That's the day that the country will celebrate the day of the cowboy and the cowgirl. The National Day of the American Cowboy - this year July 28 as proclaimed by the U.S. Senate - recognizes the contributions of cowboys and cowgirls and the Western culture that includes rodeo athletes, musicians, poets, artists and ranchers. On that day, Goldfield Ghost Town will have cowboys parading through the streets, a fast draw contest, a Texas hold 'em poker tournament, skits and gunfights by the Goldfield Gunfighters and performing cowboy poets among many other Wild West themed festivities. Included, too, is the Earp-Holliday Mustache Contest,which seeks to select the West's best-dressed upper lip....
Stories of the ‘Duke’ enliven meeting Three southern Arizona men who knew film superstar John Wayne talked Tuesday about their memories of him, including a cavalry charge that went awry in a Civil War epic. They were Bob Shelton, founder of the Old Tucson movie studio, local TV personality Don Collier who acted in some of Wayne’s westerns and Teddy Wingfield whose family owned a ranch where the movie star often visited. Collier was one of the actors in a scene where rebel cavalry prepared to overrun Union forces, headed by Wayne. After much discussion between the movie makers and Wayne about a dozen rebel riders were placed between each of 15 canons. “We were probably going to lose this battle,” Collier recalled. But when the canons fired, pandemonium reigned. “The horses were bucking and falling down” and running wild said Collier. He added: “Yeah, we won that one.” Wingfield recalled that his father, rancher Ralph Wingfield, was a fast friend of Wayne’s, often coming here to spend time away from Hollywood....
Supreme Court - ESA does not trump the CWA On June 25, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 split decision in National Association of Home Builders v. Defenders of Wildlife, 2007 WL 1801745, that is expected to have far-reaching implications. The decision addressed the intersection of two independent statutes--the Clean Water Act (the "CWA") and the Endangered Species Act (the "ESA")--and answered the twin questions of whether the ESA constitutes a "super statute" that effectively overrides or repeals other statutes, and whether the ESA consultation requirement can be read to impose additional substantive obligations on an agency to protect listed species when such obligations are otherwise absent under the agency’s organic authority. The case arose as a result of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (the "EPA") decision to transfer the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program under CWA section 402(b) to the state of Arizona. That section of the CWA provides "that the EPA ‘shall approve’ a transfer application unless it determines that a state lacks adequate authority to perform the nine functions specified in the section." 33 U.S.C. § 1362(b). The Supreme Court’s decision confirms that the list under CWA section 402(b) is both exclusive and mandatory and is not to be enlarged by the ESA. The Court emphasized that because Arizona’s application satisfied all nine criteria, the EPA lacked the discretion to make any decision other than to approve the transfer to Arizona, and the consultation requirement under ESA section 7(a)(2) was simply not triggered in this case. As reasoned by the Court, any other interpretation would have resulted in a partial repeal of the CWA, with the ESA imposing a 10 criterion on the transfer of permitting authority a result that the Court went to great lengths to reject. According to the Court, "nothing in the text of section 402(b) authorizes the EPA to consider the protection of threatened or endangered species as an end in itself when evaluating a transfer application." The majority’s opinion has the effect of scaling back the breadth with which the Ninth Circuit had previously inflated the consultation provision. ESA section 7(a)(2) requires each federal agency to ensure that any action authorized, funded or carried out by such agency is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered or threatened species. 16 U.S.C. §1536 (a)(2). In reversing the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in this case, the majority opinion deferred to the ESA’s implementing regulations and held that the consultation requirement does not override other statutory authorities and is only triggered when a federal agency undertakes a discretionary agency action, as stated in 50 C.F.R. § 402.03. Conversely, an agency is not obligated to engage in the consultation process when it undertakes an action that is mandated by statute. The Court explained that when an agency is required to do something by statute, it simply lacks the power to ensure that such action will not jeopardize endangered species, and thus, in those situations, is not obligated to conduct a consultation under ESA section 7(a)(2)....
Backfire jumps line, forcing evacuations Firefighters suffered a setback while trying to tame a raging wildfire near Lake Tahoe on Tuesday after flames from a backfire they set to keep the blaze from reaching more houses jumped a fireline, trapping two firefighters and prompting a fresh round of evacuations. The two firefighters were part of a group working to protect the Tallac Village development in South Lake Tahoe when the wind picked up and sent the backfire swooping down on them, said Chuck Dickson, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman. The blaze descended so quickly the pair were forced to deploy the emergency shelters firefighters carry to protect themselves during burnovers as a last resort, Dickson said. They were uninjured and managed to walk out of the new burn area, he said. As a fresh plume of black smoke billowed over Lake Tahoe, the new arm of the wildfire prompted the mandatory evacuation of the entire Tallac subdivision. It was unclear how many homes were subject to the order....
Editorial: A legacy of catastrophic fires As if the devastation caused by the Angora fire at Lake Tahoe isn't sickening enough, the political grandstanding that is now taking place on Capitol Hill in its wake is sure to turn your stomach. With the fires that have already caused upwards of $100 million in property damage and left scores of people homeless still raging, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid on Tuesday issued a press release heralding legislation that he and Sen. John Ensign introduced last week to help ranchers prevent rangeland wildfires ... as if the people living around Lake Tahoe are supposed to find some comfort in that revelation. For some equally irrelevant reason, Reid also pointed out that last year - last year - he and Ensign passed legislation providing more than $200 million for hazardous fuels reduction in the Tahoe basin to prevent catastrophic fires like the Angora fire. What does that have to do with the tragedy unfolding at Lake Tahoe this year, except to make some kind of perverted, self-serving claim to foresight and vision on this issue at a time when nobody really cares about Harry Reid's illusions of grandeur, foresight or vision? It gets worse. Reid's propaganda machine also wants you to understand that the Bush administration has been a total failure on fire suppression and prevention, as demonstrated by its opposition to additional funding in the U.S. Forest Service's already bloated fire fighting budget. Anybody who has investigated the Forest Service fire fighting organization understands that thousands of bureaucrats have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo of not cutting trees ... and reducing forest fuel loads. It's called big budgets, big egos, adrenaline, double time and hazard pay. Too bad Reid forgot to mention how his colleagues in the Democratic Party have blocked every reasonable attempt to restore some sense of multiple-use management of National Forest lands, i.e., commercial logging. Working in concert with their friends from the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and other environmental extremists, the Democrats have, through the Endangered Species Act, wilderness areas, roadless areas, and their corollaries, prescribed forest conditions that guarantee more of what is destroying Lake Tahoe this week....
NBC Features Woman Blaming Wildfires on Environmental Regulations On Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, while reporting from Lake Tahoe, correspondent George Lewis relayed one homeowner's complaint that environmental regulations had contributed to the danger of wildfires in the area. She further contended that the only reason her home survived was because she had cleared away brush near her home in violation of the law. Lewis: "She blames environmentalists and bureaucrats for creating rules that, in her opinion, increased the fire hazard. Says she had to break the law to clear brush off adjacent federal land." Below is a complete transcript of the report by George Lewis from the Tuesday June 26 NBC Nightly News: GEORGE LEWIS: As the fire has jumped those lines, additional evacuations of people who live here are under way. This, as people who live in the previously burned areas were trying to get back home. This morning, after she pleaded, argued and reasoned with the authorities, Sue Abrams was granted permission to return to her home, still standing in one of the burned out areas. SUE ABRAMS: The fence is gone, most of my landscaping is gone, but we have our home. My neighbor Jason's over there right now. He doesn't have a home. It's gone. LEWIS: She blames environmentalists and bureaucrats for creating rules that, in her opinion, increased the fire hazard. Says she had to break the law to clear brush off adjacent federal land. ABRAMS: I took the chance and said, "Okay, come arrest me."....
CO2 seen as key to increasing oil production Wyoming oil producers desperately want to divert streams of greenhouse gas currently being vented into the atmosphere and pump them into aging oil fields for permanent storage. The producers' main goal may not be rooted in concerns over climate change. Nonetheless, the capture and storage of carbon dioxide - the main greenhouse gas contributing to climate change - is key to reviving oil production for the next 30 years and beyond in Wyoming. The Wyoming Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute estimates that some 20 trillion cubic feet of CO2 could be sequestered in Wyoming's oil basins. The institute held a forum in Casper Tuesday, bringing together those who produce CO2 and those who want CO2 for enhanced oil recovery. "CO2 is deathly expensive here," said John Dobitz, senior vice president of Rancher Energy Corp. In many oil fields, as much as 60 percent of the original oil reserve remains unproduced after conventional low-pressure recovery methods. In enhanced oil recovery, alternate flows of water and CO2 are pumped into an oil reservoir, sweeping additional volumes of oil to production wells. After several years of "CO2 flooding" at the Salt Creek field in central Wyoming, Anadarko Petroleum helped stop Wyoming's annual 5 percent decline in oil production in 2006. But there are hundreds of old oil fields that don't yet have access to CO2....
Ospreys, swans struggling to keep numbers up in yellowstone Fish-eating ospreys are becoming rarer on Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park, mostly because of a drastic decline in native cutthroat trout. Terry McEneaney, Yellow-stone's ornithologist, said only nine nesting pairs of ospreys were observed on the lake last year and that the population in that area appears to be declining "at a staggering rate." "I go out there and I see very few osprey anymore," McEneaney said. "I used to see 20 or 30 in a day, and now I'm lucky to see a couple." Trumpeter swans, one of Yellowstone's signature birds, also continue to decline, reaching some of their lowest numbers since the 1930s, according to a 2006 report on the park's birds. The number of swans in Yellowstone has dropped steadily since 1961 and now stands at 14, McEneaney said. Although the bird is surviving elsewhere in North America, Yellowstone's small, long-running population continues its struggle....
BLM examining climate change If the West becomes warmer and drier, the Bureau of Land Management hopes to be in a position to respond, Acting Director Jim Hughes said Tuesday in a visit to the agency's office in Billings. "The department has put together a Global Climate Change Task Force to answer some of the questions," he said. "We want to know where we can make a difference and where we can't." Task force members will try to find the best available science, determine what effects global warming will have and what should be done about it, Hughes said in the final day of a swing through Montana that started in Great Falls and included the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument. He will travel to Casper, Wyo., today. BLM will be looking for answers to a myriad of questions. What, for instance, should be done about species that expand their range in response to climate change? Should BLM attempt to clear the invading plants and animals, or accept the change and try to manage it?....
GAO report criticizes federal agencies on firefighting The Government Accountability Office on Tuesday released a report highly critical of federal agencies' efforts to rein in the costs of managing wildfires, while some senators pushed the agencies to more actively manage forests to prevent fires. Federal officials disputed the charges in the GAO report, which was released at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The report was pointedly titled "Lack of Clear Goals or a Strategy Hinders Federal Agencies' Efforts to Contain the Costs of Fighting Fires." Robin Nazzaro of the GAO testified that the Forest Service and Interior Department have begun steps to address problem areas found by previous studies. But the effects of the actions are unknown because many steps have not been completed, she said. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., the top Republican on the committee, said he was in Montana last summer while the Derby fire raged. He displayed a picture of it and said much of the carbon captured by the trees and soil in the forest was released into the atmosphere when they burned. Domenici said many areas of national forests are "embarrassing" because they are so infested with insects and rotten trees. "Nothing is done, or by the time you get around to it, the trees are no good," he said....
Our View The defeat for Harvey Robbins, a Wyoming rancher who became a target for BLM harassment after he refused to grant a right of way across his land, might further embolden petty tyrants in federal land agencies, who now know they can abuse their positions, and citizens, with impunity. Robbins fought for the right of average citizens to hold individuals in government accountable for abuses of power. But only two justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens, sided with the individual over the state. “The record is replete with accounts of trespasses to Robbins’ property, vindictive cancelations of his rights to access federal land and unjustified or selective enforcement actions,” Ginsburg wrote in a dissent. This “seven-year campaign of harassment” had “a devastating impact on Robbins’ business.” The majority sympathized with government, however. Such suits “would invite claims in every sphere of legitimate governmental action affecting property interests, from negotiating tax claim settlements to enforcing Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations,” worried Justice David Souter. But what’s wrong with that, if government officials, in the course are all the good deed doing, are found to be trampling the rights of citizens?
Rancher's tactics didn't fly The legal battle between the Bureau of Land Management and Hot Springs County rancher was much more a fight over tort damages than a battle over grazing on public lands, said an attorney for a conservation group. Rather than continue sparring with the BLM over grazing violations, Robbins and his attorney, Karen Budd-Falen, took a new approach: a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act claim and a similarly grounded claim that BLM employees had violated Robbins’ Fifth Amendment rights. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that the federal employees did not have immunity from the Fifth Amendment claim or the allegations under the racketeering law. But the nation's high court found otherwise Monday, rejecting the Fifth Amendment claim on a 7-2 vote and the racketeering case 9-0. Lucas said the lawsuit was a creative legal tactic used by Robbins’ legal team to picture the rancher as “a little guy versus the big, bad government.” It didn’t work, Lucas said, because the majority of the court wasn’t willing to create a new arena of claims against the federal government, based on this case. Budd-Falen said Monday she was disappointed by the Supreme Court ruling. “It looks like the government can use any means to coerce individuals to give up easements,” she said, referring to the large number of harassing tactics allegedly used by the BLM. William Perry Pendley, president and chief legal officer of the conservative law firm Mountain States Legal Foundation, also expressed disappointed in the ruling. “It is consistent with this court’s rollback of remedies available to citizens, in the face of government abuse,” he said. “Yet this case should not have reached the Supreme Court; instead, these bureaucrats should have been reined in. Shame on the BLM; shame on the Department of the Interior; and shame on the Bush administration for turning a blind eye to this abuse.”....You wouldn't know it from these excerpts, but if you are looking for an example of extremely biased news reporting, click on the link above to this article.
Grouse and gas An awkward industrial dance is playing out on the sage flats of the West, a lopsided coupling of billion-dollar energy companies and a skittish ground bird prone to flee at first sight of a drilling rig. If the bird, the greater sage grouse, lands on the endangered species list as some propose, that could put the brakes on the oil and gas activity surging through Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Montana. So during spring breeding, companies working some of the nation's richest gas fields let rigs go idle for months at a time rather than risk interrupting sage grouse mating rituals. Roads to oil and gas wells are rerouted to skirt the bird's territory. Power lines are buried to deny hunting perches to grouse-eating raptors. If those measures don't work, some companies are pledging tens of millions of dollars to recreate sage grouse habitat. But as another breeding season ends this month and rigs again roll through the sage, a chorus of federal and university biologists and state officials says the companies' grouse conservation efforts are failing. With decades of drilling still planned, they say the industry must either redouble conservation or risk pushing sage grouse off the landscape....
Team begins grouse study An independent research group is jumping in to the sage grouse fray, trying to determine the impact of predators, humans and Mother Nature on the birds. Craighead Beringia South, a research and educational institute based in Kelly, has received about $62,000 from the state to begin a three-year project looking at sage grouse in the Jackson area, and in two areas of the Upper Green River Valley. The institute will be the first to put GPS transmitters on sage grouse and ravens to watch the interplay between certain predators and prey. The research comes as the state is developing sage grouse conservation plans. Sage grouse have been declining in the West, and work is ongoing to protect habitat and prevent the bird from being federally protected. Quigley said the research on grouse "should have been started five years ago," but Beringia is working to study lek breeding -- sites that include the Ryegrass area in Pinedale, and the Pinedale Anticline. The Anticline represents an area with sage grouse that is intensely developed; the Ryegrass and Jackson areas are places with little or no development....
Cheney left mark on environment Sue Ellen Wooldridge, the 19th-ranking Interior Department official, arrived at her desk in Room 6140 a few months after Inauguration Day 2001. A phone message awaited her. "This is Dick Cheney," said the man on her voice mail, Wooldridge recalled in an interview. "I understand you are the person handling this Klamath situation. Please call me at — hmm, I guess I don't know my own number. I'm over at the White House." Wooldridge wrote off the message as a prank. It was not. Cheney had reached far down the chain of command, on so unexpected a point of vice presidential concern, because he had spotted a political threat arriving on Wooldridge's desk. In Oregon, a battleground state that the Bush-Cheney ticket had lost by less than half of 1 percent, drought-stricken farmers and ranchers were about to be cut off from the irrigation water that kept their cropland and pastures green. Federal biologists said the Endangered Species Act left the government no choice: The survival of two imperiled species of fish was at stake. Law and science seemed to be on the side of the fish. Then the vice president stepped in....
City officials hoping for hotel property's sale to developer City officials have been working quietly for more than a year on behalf of the developer of the DoubleTree Hotel to encourage the land's current owners to sell it to Harry Wu, the developer and lease holder of the hotel. The city's work assisting Wu began after talks between Wu and the owners about a possible sale broke down, the owners said. The city sent a letter to the owners threatening the use of eminent domain a year ago and have since had several meetings with the owners. The City Council is meeting in closed session tonight to discuss the issue. The city is hoping the owners sell because Wu's lease to operate the hotel expires in about 14 years. Wu completed a $10 million overhaul of the hotel last year, and he wants to ensure that the expense was not wasted, city officials said. Rolland Towne, co-owner of the property, said he believes that before Wu purchased the hotel in 2005, Wu was given assurances by the city that a deal would be worked out for him to gain ownership of the land, with the city invoking its powers of eminent domain if necessary. "(Wu) knew what was going to happen before he went to us," Towne said. "He wouldn't have bought the hotel" unless he had assurances from the city....
Biofuels to blame as beer prices soar 40 per cent in Germany Biofuels may be good for the environment, but they are bad news for German beer drinkers. Prices in the country's pubs look set to rise by 40 per cent this year, because Germany's farmers are growing less barley for beer production and more crops for biodiesel and bioethanol. The head of the German brewers' association, Richard Weber, has caused outrage among friends of the annual Oktoberfest beer jamboree by predicting the hefty price rise. He pointed out that the German barley crop has been halved this year and that prices have soared by 50 per cent within 12 months. Poor-quality harvests, caused by unusually hot weather, have not helped either. As a result, Germany's brewers, which insist on the purity of their beer and offer organic brands to emphasise their green-tinged credentials, have turned over a new leaf. They are now demanding an end to the use of crops to make fuel....
Web site offers a dating service for farmers Bullboy is 24 and looking for company between rodeos. Strawman is a "down-to-earth cowpoke in search of a like-minded individual." "Critters and horse mom" insists you must be an animal lover "to get near my barn." Members of FarmersOnly.com say they want more than the proverbial roll in the hay. They want that special someone who won't be jealous of a field of cattle or expect vacations during harvest. If Harley drivers, Jewish singles, Democrats, Republicans and born-again Christians can have their own online dating services, why not farmers? Founder Jerry Miller, an Ohio ad representative, pondered that question after hearing the same song from his rural clients. Miller, 54, interviewed farmers, ranchers and rural residents across the country before launching the site 18 months ago. Whether they worked with crops, cattle, organic farms, horses or at the town store, the answers were the same. "They already know everybody, so the dating pool is very small. So what do you do?" he said. "Hang out in the next town at the feed store hoping your mate walks through the door?" Despite the site's credo that "City folks just don't get it," FarmersOnly has pulled in a number of urban types, and they aren't stuffy women from the city bars. The city slickers practically apologize and claim a burning desire to ditch the rat race....
Clean Water for Cows They say you can lead a horse to water, but you can`t make it drink. It might be a little happier to drink water that`s clean and fresh. And if your horse is a cow, and you`re a rancher, that clean water could have a big payoff. Dugouts and stock ponds are a fixture in every rancher`s pasture. Usually those water holes get pretty muddy. You might say it`s in the water. But in this case, it`s what`s not in the water. Cows. "Usually when the cows go to water the whole herd goes all at once. The first cow gets fresh water, and the rest get muddy water. By the time the calves get there it`s pretty polluted up," says Jim Hopfauf, a rancher near St. Anthony. But not anymore. This portable pump moves water from these ponds to this tank, where cows can drink at their leisure. "If they drink fresh water, the cows and calves will gain more weight and have better health," Jim says. The surrounding area also has some better health. There are environmental benefits to the pumping system. Two years ago this pond was surrounded by mud. Now it`s surrounded by lush green grass....
Japanese cow herd coddled for 12 years to make Kobe beef Even by the standards of Texas -- where beef is no trivial matter -- rancher Jose Antonio Elias Calles (KAH'-yehs) has coddled his cattle. The livestock imported from Japan are guarded by off-duty Texas Rangers and kept away from American bulls that might contaminate their coveted gene pool. They're meticulously reared for 12 years before a single hamburger could be sold. Japanese cattle -- which come in red and black varieties -- are a closely guarded national treasure. Their beef is often called "Kobe (KOH'-beh) beef" by American restaurants, where it commands staggering prices. But it's cherished by chefs and foodies for its thorough marbling of fat that gives the meat tenderness and rich flavor. On a 0 to 12 quality scale used to rate beef in Japan, where heavy fat marbling is preferred, Kobe rates a minimum nine points and Angus beef 4.5. Calles' beef rate around 7.5 to 8.5....
AJ ghost town celebrates the cowboy way If you sport a clean-shaven chin and have an enormous mustache to boot, organizers of The National Day of the American Cowboy celebration in Apache Junction want you to keep it that way - at least until July 28. That's the day that the country will celebrate the day of the cowboy and the cowgirl. The National Day of the American Cowboy - this year July 28 as proclaimed by the U.S. Senate - recognizes the contributions of cowboys and cowgirls and the Western culture that includes rodeo athletes, musicians, poets, artists and ranchers. On that day, Goldfield Ghost Town will have cowboys parading through the streets, a fast draw contest, a Texas hold 'em poker tournament, skits and gunfights by the Goldfield Gunfighters and performing cowboy poets among many other Wild West themed festivities. Included, too, is the Earp-Holliday Mustache Contest,which seeks to select the West's best-dressed upper lip....
Stories of the ‘Duke’ enliven meeting Three southern Arizona men who knew film superstar John Wayne talked Tuesday about their memories of him, including a cavalry charge that went awry in a Civil War epic. They were Bob Shelton, founder of the Old Tucson movie studio, local TV personality Don Collier who acted in some of Wayne’s westerns and Teddy Wingfield whose family owned a ranch where the movie star often visited. Collier was one of the actors in a scene where rebel cavalry prepared to overrun Union forces, headed by Wayne. After much discussion between the movie makers and Wayne about a dozen rebel riders were placed between each of 15 canons. “We were probably going to lose this battle,” Collier recalled. But when the canons fired, pandemonium reigned. “The horses were bucking and falling down” and running wild said Collier. He added: “Yeah, we won that one.” Wingfield recalled that his father, rancher Ralph Wingfield, was a fast friend of Wayne’s, often coming here to spend time away from Hollywood....
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