CATRON COUNTY SUED BY ENVIRO GROUPS
Forest Guardians claim injury due to County’s Ordinance
CATRON COUNTY COMMISSION
PO BOX 507
RESERVE NM 87830
Ed Wehrheim, Chairman
Contact: Ron Shortes, Catron County Attorney
Phone 505.533.6265
Email: shortes2@gilanet.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RESERVE, N.M. On July 25, 2007, a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief was filed against Catron County in federal district court by the environmental groups Forest Guardians and Sinapu, who are claiming injury to themselves for violation of the Endangered Species Act by the County, and for the Countys enactment of a Mexican wolf related Ordinance.
This suit is a gross misrepresentation made in bad faith which distorts the facts and law, Ron Shortes, Catron County Attorney said. It is a cheap theatrical trick used to lie to the public about what is actually going on in Catron County, about the failure of the wolf program and the great danger it poses to human beings.
Catron County, as of the opening of business offices on Friday morning, July 27, had not yet been served with the lawsuit.
When Catron County is properly served with the suit, which Forest Guardians has not bothered to do - another indication of bad faith - we will have the chance to address the issues, Shortes said. When we answer this within the time required by law, we will tell the judge and the public the truth about the facts and the law.
We are the county where they’ve released most of the wolves, so we’re the ones whose children are endangered the most, Shortes said. The Forest Guardians and Sinapu are composed of people who don’t even live here - Sinapu is a carnivore protection group focused on the Southern Rocky Mountains. These organizations aren’t suffering from the problems with the wolf program - we here in Catron County are. Even the wolves here are suffering more from this poorly managed program than the Forest Guardians and Sinapu are.
# # #
hat tip to wolfcrossing
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Senate Committee Passes a Parade of Pork - Threatens Property Rights
A cynic might view today's action in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee as a rare example of congressional efficiency. The committee managed to pass a bevy of pork-barrel legislation that simultaneously expands the ever-growing federal estate and threatens the rights of private property owners. The Committee's timing is curious. Since the Supreme Court's dreadful ruling in "Kelo v. New London," Americans nationwide have clamored for stronger private property rights protections. Americans are also increasingly angry about wasteful spending and pork-barrel earmarks like the infamous "bridge to nowhere." So it makes perfect nonsense that the Senate Resources Committee would respond with a slew of pork barrel programs that threaten private property rights. Is it any wonder congressional approval ratings are so low? Among the bills passed today...
A cynic might view today's action in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee as a rare example of congressional efficiency. The committee managed to pass a bevy of pork-barrel legislation that simultaneously expands the ever-growing federal estate and threatens the rights of private property owners. The Committee's timing is curious. Since the Supreme Court's dreadful ruling in "Kelo v. New London," Americans nationwide have clamored for stronger private property rights protections. Americans are also increasingly angry about wasteful spending and pork-barrel earmarks like the infamous "bridge to nowhere." So it makes perfect nonsense that the Senate Resources Committee would respond with a slew of pork barrel programs that threaten private property rights. Is it any wonder congressional approval ratings are so low? Among the bills passed today...
Friday, July 27, 2007
GAO
Federal Timber Sales: Forest Service Could Improve Efficiency of Field-Level Timber Sales Management by Maintaining More Detailed Data. GAO-07-764, June 27.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-764
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07764high.pdf
Federal Timber Sales: Forest Service Could Improve Efficiency of Field-Level Timber Sales Management by Maintaining More Detailed Data. GAO-07-764, June 27.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-764
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07764high.pdf
FLE
Border agent says China ordered his prosecution A Border Patrol agent who was acquitted of a charge of using excessive force during a 2004 arrest of a Chinese national on suspicion of drug smuggling is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for $25 million. And in a companion lawsuit, Robert Rhodes is seeking another $25 million from three Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with the Office of Professional Responsibility. He says the agents disregarded their oaths by pursuing a politically motivated prosecution against him to appease their superiors, who allegedly were seeking to do what communist China wanted. "I was involved in a political prosecution that our government began at the demand of the government of communist China," Rhodes told WND. "The prosecution was promised to China by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tom Ridge." His lawyer, Steven Cohen, concurs. "My client's prosecution was ordered by the Bush administration to appease the Chinese government," Cohen told WND....
Chinese spying a 'substantial' concern: FBI chief China's espionage operations are of "substantial concern," and the United States is taking new steps to address the threat, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday. Mueller was asked about Beijing's spying programs in the United States during a hearing of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, but said he could give few details in an unclassified setting. "I can say that it is a substantial concern," Mueller said. "China is stealing our secrets in an effort to leap ahead in terms of its military technology but also the economic capability of China. "It is a substantial threat that we are addressing in the sense of putting -- building our program to address this threat."....
House votes for plan to free Ramos, Compean The House of Representatives has attached two amendments to spending bills intended to free Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean from prison and prohibit the Department of Transportation from spending any funds on the development of NAFTA Superhighways. Representative Ted Poe, R-Texas, sponsored an amendment that was co-sponsored by Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., aimed at prohibiting the federal government from spending any federal funds to keep Ramos and Compean imprisoned. The amendment, which passed the House by an overwhelming bipartisan voice vote, is designed to be a "get-out-of-jail now" maneuver forcing the Bureau of Prisons to release the two agents. "This amendment represents a novel concept," Poe told WND. "But the House had a lively, emotional, and intense debate on the floor and the more the debate proceeded the more I'm convinced we are winning a lot of people over."....
The Pardon Pander The House of Representatives is perched to equal or better the instruction of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney in sneering at the Constitution's separation of powers. In an amendment to the pending defense appropriations bill that passed last night on a voice vote, the House usurped the president's pardon authority by commuting the sentences of the two former Border Patrol agents convicted in 2005 of federal firearms violations and obstructing justice in connection with shooting an illegal-alien smuggler. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 years, respectively. Their case has become a cause célèbre on the right. And now, Congress has responded to the outcry by subordinating the Constitution in defiance of the congressional oath of office. The amendment that passed last night, sponsored by Reps. Ted Poe, R-Texas, and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., provides: "None of the funds made available under this Act shall be used by the Bureau of Prisons to incarcerate Ignacio Ramos or Jose Alonso Compean." But the Constitution entrusts the power to pardon offenses against the United States or to commute sentences exclusively to the president. The enumerated legislative powers do not hint at a concurrent authority in Congress. Pardons or commutations, moreover, have invariably been associated with law enforcement as opposed to law-making. In the 1872 case United States v. Klein, the Supreme Court held unconstitutional an attempt by Congress to subtract from the legal effect of a pardon. Contrary to a common assumption, the power of the purse does not give this amendment any greater claim to constitutionality....
Legal Brief Says Border Agents Were Charged With 'Non-Existent Crime' Two Border Patrol agents whose prosecution and sentences to lengthy prison terms triggered a political storm this year may have been charged with a "non-existent crime," according to a legal brief submitted to a federal appeals court in May, and obtained by Cybercast News Service. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are serving 11- and 12-year sentences respectively for shooting and wounding a Mexican national who was trying to escape after attempting to smuggle 743 pounds of marijuana across the Mexico-Texas border in February 2005. Although they were convicted on 11 counts, the crime carrying the lengthiest penalty was for the "discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence," a violation of section 924(c)(1)(a) of the U.S. Code. It carries a minimum 10-year prison sentence. Cybercast News Service obtained a copy of an amicus curiae ("friend of the court") legal brief filed by Reps. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Virgil Goode (R-Va.), and Ted Poe (R-Texas) in the former agents' appeal before the Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans. They accuse the prosecution of "creating a purported criminal offense never enacted into law by Congress," and of charging Ramos and Compean with a "non-existent crime." Simply discharging a firearm near a violent crime is not illegal, the brief argued, saying the law they were convicted under is not a law at all, but a sentencing factor used to help a jury determine jail time after a conviction....
Senators agree to additional $3 billion in border security funds Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed Thursday to add $3 billion in technology and resources to the fiscal 2008 Homeland Security spending bill for border security and to crack down on illegal immigrants. The extra $3 billion would cover completion of 700 miles of border fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers. It also would pay for an additional 23,000 Border Patrol officers and increase the number of beds available to detain illegal immigrants to 45,000. It would also pay for 105 ground-based radars and surveillance towers along the border, along with four new unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the agreement reached with Cornyn, the funds can also be used to detain and remove foreigners who have overstayed their visas, criminal aliens and aliens who have illegally re-entered the United States after being deported. It can also reimburse state and local governments for costs associated with border security. Cornyn said 45 percent of all illegal immigrants in the country are foreigners who came in legally and overstayed....
Judge Blocks City's Ordinances Against Illegal Immigration A federal judge issued a permanent injunction yesterday against restrictive anti-illegal-immigration ordinances in Hazleton, Pa., a city described by its mayor as "the toughest place on illegal immigrants in America." In a strongly worded opinion handed down at the U.S. District Court in Scranton, Pa., Judge James M. Munley ruled that federal law "prohibits Hazleton from enforcing any of the provisions of its ordinances," which impose a $1,000-per-day fine on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, revoke the business license of any employer who hires them, declare English as the official language and bar city employees from translating documents to another language without approval. Civil liberties organizations sued on behalf of illegal and legal immigrant plaintiffs, including the Hazleton Hispanic Business Association, saying that the city infringed on the federal government's sole authority to regulate immigration. But the opponents vowed to appeal the decision and to continue the fight to the Supreme Court, if necessary. "Attorneys have already drafted appeal briefs," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Seeking to severely restrict immigration, the group strongly supported Hazleton's ordinances. In a statement, Hazleton Mayor Louis J. Barletta said: "This fight is far from over. I have said it many times before: Hazleton is not going to back down. We are discouraged to see a federal judge has decided -- wrongly, we believe -- that Hazleton and cities like it around the nation cannot enact legislation to protect their citizens, their services, and their budgets."....
FBI ordered to pay $101.7m in false murder convictions A federal judge held the FBI "responsible for the framing of four innocent men" in a 1965 gangland murder in a landmark ruling yesterday and ordered the government to pay the men $101.7 million for the decades they spent in prison. The award is believed to be the largest of its kind nationally. In a decision that was as dramatic as it was stern, US District Judge Nancy Gertner said from the bench that the FBI had deliberately withheld evidence that Peter J. Limone, Joseph Salvati, Louis Greco, and Henry Tameleo were innocent, and that the bureau helped cover up the injustice for decades as the men grew old behind bars and Tameleo and Greco died. "FBI officials up the line allowed their employees to break laws, violate rules, and ruin lives, interrupted only with the occasional burst of applause," said Gertner, berating the FBI for giving commendations and bonuses to the agents who helped send the men to prison for the killing in Chelsea of Edward "Teddy" Deegan, a small-time hoodlum. "Sadly when law enforcement perverts its mission, the criminal justice system does not easily self-correct," Gertner said. "We understand that our system makes mistakes; we have appeals to address them. But this case goes beyond mistakes, beyond unavoidable errors of a fallible system." She added, "This case is about intentional misconduct, subornation of perjury, conspiracy, the framing of innocent men." Later in the day, Gertner released a 223-page decision detailing her findings. She found that the government, which was sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act, was liable for the malicious prosecution of the four men, civil conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence....
Border agent says China ordered his prosecution A Border Patrol agent who was acquitted of a charge of using excessive force during a 2004 arrest of a Chinese national on suspicion of drug smuggling is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for $25 million. And in a companion lawsuit, Robert Rhodes is seeking another $25 million from three Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with the Office of Professional Responsibility. He says the agents disregarded their oaths by pursuing a politically motivated prosecution against him to appease their superiors, who allegedly were seeking to do what communist China wanted. "I was involved in a political prosecution that our government began at the demand of the government of communist China," Rhodes told WND. "The prosecution was promised to China by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tom Ridge." His lawyer, Steven Cohen, concurs. "My client's prosecution was ordered by the Bush administration to appease the Chinese government," Cohen told WND....
Chinese spying a 'substantial' concern: FBI chief China's espionage operations are of "substantial concern," and the United States is taking new steps to address the threat, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday. Mueller was asked about Beijing's spying programs in the United States during a hearing of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, but said he could give few details in an unclassified setting. "I can say that it is a substantial concern," Mueller said. "China is stealing our secrets in an effort to leap ahead in terms of its military technology but also the economic capability of China. "It is a substantial threat that we are addressing in the sense of putting -- building our program to address this threat."....
House votes for plan to free Ramos, Compean The House of Representatives has attached two amendments to spending bills intended to free Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean from prison and prohibit the Department of Transportation from spending any funds on the development of NAFTA Superhighways. Representative Ted Poe, R-Texas, sponsored an amendment that was co-sponsored by Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., aimed at prohibiting the federal government from spending any federal funds to keep Ramos and Compean imprisoned. The amendment, which passed the House by an overwhelming bipartisan voice vote, is designed to be a "get-out-of-jail now" maneuver forcing the Bureau of Prisons to release the two agents. "This amendment represents a novel concept," Poe told WND. "But the House had a lively, emotional, and intense debate on the floor and the more the debate proceeded the more I'm convinced we are winning a lot of people over."....
The Pardon Pander The House of Representatives is perched to equal or better the instruction of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney in sneering at the Constitution's separation of powers. In an amendment to the pending defense appropriations bill that passed last night on a voice vote, the House usurped the president's pardon authority by commuting the sentences of the two former Border Patrol agents convicted in 2005 of federal firearms violations and obstructing justice in connection with shooting an illegal-alien smuggler. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 years, respectively. Their case has become a cause célèbre on the right. And now, Congress has responded to the outcry by subordinating the Constitution in defiance of the congressional oath of office. The amendment that passed last night, sponsored by Reps. Ted Poe, R-Texas, and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., provides: "None of the funds made available under this Act shall be used by the Bureau of Prisons to incarcerate Ignacio Ramos or Jose Alonso Compean." But the Constitution entrusts the power to pardon offenses against the United States or to commute sentences exclusively to the president. The enumerated legislative powers do not hint at a concurrent authority in Congress. Pardons or commutations, moreover, have invariably been associated with law enforcement as opposed to law-making. In the 1872 case United States v. Klein, the Supreme Court held unconstitutional an attempt by Congress to subtract from the legal effect of a pardon. Contrary to a common assumption, the power of the purse does not give this amendment any greater claim to constitutionality....
Legal Brief Says Border Agents Were Charged With 'Non-Existent Crime' Two Border Patrol agents whose prosecution and sentences to lengthy prison terms triggered a political storm this year may have been charged with a "non-existent crime," according to a legal brief submitted to a federal appeals court in May, and obtained by Cybercast News Service. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are serving 11- and 12-year sentences respectively for shooting and wounding a Mexican national who was trying to escape after attempting to smuggle 743 pounds of marijuana across the Mexico-Texas border in February 2005. Although they were convicted on 11 counts, the crime carrying the lengthiest penalty was for the "discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence," a violation of section 924(c)(1)(a) of the U.S. Code. It carries a minimum 10-year prison sentence. Cybercast News Service obtained a copy of an amicus curiae ("friend of the court") legal brief filed by Reps. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Virgil Goode (R-Va.), and Ted Poe (R-Texas) in the former agents' appeal before the Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans. They accuse the prosecution of "creating a purported criminal offense never enacted into law by Congress," and of charging Ramos and Compean with a "non-existent crime." Simply discharging a firearm near a violent crime is not illegal, the brief argued, saying the law they were convicted under is not a law at all, but a sentencing factor used to help a jury determine jail time after a conviction....
Senators agree to additional $3 billion in border security funds Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed Thursday to add $3 billion in technology and resources to the fiscal 2008 Homeland Security spending bill for border security and to crack down on illegal immigrants. The extra $3 billion would cover completion of 700 miles of border fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers. It also would pay for an additional 23,000 Border Patrol officers and increase the number of beds available to detain illegal immigrants to 45,000. It would also pay for 105 ground-based radars and surveillance towers along the border, along with four new unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the agreement reached with Cornyn, the funds can also be used to detain and remove foreigners who have overstayed their visas, criminal aliens and aliens who have illegally re-entered the United States after being deported. It can also reimburse state and local governments for costs associated with border security. Cornyn said 45 percent of all illegal immigrants in the country are foreigners who came in legally and overstayed....
Judge Blocks City's Ordinances Against Illegal Immigration A federal judge issued a permanent injunction yesterday against restrictive anti-illegal-immigration ordinances in Hazleton, Pa., a city described by its mayor as "the toughest place on illegal immigrants in America." In a strongly worded opinion handed down at the U.S. District Court in Scranton, Pa., Judge James M. Munley ruled that federal law "prohibits Hazleton from enforcing any of the provisions of its ordinances," which impose a $1,000-per-day fine on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, revoke the business license of any employer who hires them, declare English as the official language and bar city employees from translating documents to another language without approval. Civil liberties organizations sued on behalf of illegal and legal immigrant plaintiffs, including the Hazleton Hispanic Business Association, saying that the city infringed on the federal government's sole authority to regulate immigration. But the opponents vowed to appeal the decision and to continue the fight to the Supreme Court, if necessary. "Attorneys have already drafted appeal briefs," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Seeking to severely restrict immigration, the group strongly supported Hazleton's ordinances. In a statement, Hazleton Mayor Louis J. Barletta said: "This fight is far from over. I have said it many times before: Hazleton is not going to back down. We are discouraged to see a federal judge has decided -- wrongly, we believe -- that Hazleton and cities like it around the nation cannot enact legislation to protect their citizens, their services, and their budgets."....
FBI ordered to pay $101.7m in false murder convictions A federal judge held the FBI "responsible for the framing of four innocent men" in a 1965 gangland murder in a landmark ruling yesterday and ordered the government to pay the men $101.7 million for the decades they spent in prison. The award is believed to be the largest of its kind nationally. In a decision that was as dramatic as it was stern, US District Judge Nancy Gertner said from the bench that the FBI had deliberately withheld evidence that Peter J. Limone, Joseph Salvati, Louis Greco, and Henry Tameleo were innocent, and that the bureau helped cover up the injustice for decades as the men grew old behind bars and Tameleo and Greco died. "FBI officials up the line allowed their employees to break laws, violate rules, and ruin lives, interrupted only with the occasional burst of applause," said Gertner, berating the FBI for giving commendations and bonuses to the agents who helped send the men to prison for the killing in Chelsea of Edward "Teddy" Deegan, a small-time hoodlum. "Sadly when law enforcement perverts its mission, the criminal justice system does not easily self-correct," Gertner said. "We understand that our system makes mistakes; we have appeals to address them. But this case goes beyond mistakes, beyond unavoidable errors of a fallible system." She added, "This case is about intentional misconduct, subornation of perjury, conspiracy, the framing of innocent men." Later in the day, Gertner released a 223-page decision detailing her findings. She found that the government, which was sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act, was liable for the malicious prosecution of the four men, civil conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Cattlemen respond to BLM impound notice After being served with a Bureau of Land Management notice of intent to impound their livestock last Friday, Bruce Bedke and his son Jared Bedke filed a complaint Tuesday in Cassia County Magistrate Court to stop the impoundment. Included in the Bedkes' suit is a request to withdraw from a 1963 agreement between BLM and ranchers on the Goose Creek range. The agreement separated the range into individual and group allotments and establishing a fund for improvements to the range. The Bedkes' grazing permit expired Feb. 28. The Bedkes said that in 2004 BLM changed the original terms of the 1963 agreement by dividing the Goose Creek Group allotment, which allowed the Bedkes and three other ranchers to collectively graze their animals on land east of Goose Creek, into private allotments where each rancher has exclusive grazing rights. Permit forms offered to the Bedkes require them to abide by terms and conditions established in that 2004 division. The Bedkes also say the Goose Creek range is not public land and is therefore not rightfully managed by BLM. They say their family has grazed cattle on the range since 1878. In 1955, final allotment of grazing rights was awarded to ranchers in the Goose Creek range according to their prior, established use of the land. Because the Bedkes' right was among those allotted at that time, they say they believe those rights exclude the property from being considered public land. The agreement in 1963 between ranchers and BLM, the family says, was designed to arbitrate the division of grazing allotments between groups and individuals, but did not surrender management of the range itself....Wanna bet the Feds first move will be to move this to Federal Court?
Mexican Wolf Program -- Tried and Failed For the last 10 years, New Mexico has been home to the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program. This program, which purports to restore Mexican Wolves to the communities surrounding the Blue Range Recovery Area, has not only failed, but it has become a detriment to the surrounding communities. I believe, the time has come to stop squandering taxpayer dollars on this wasted effort. Recently, I offered an amendment that would remove funding for the program entirely. Given the overwhelming evidence, I have concluded that we cannot successfully reintroduce wolves in New Mexico. Beginning in 1998 captive bred habituated Mexican grey wolves were released into areas of Catron and Grant counties. In almost a decade, 58 wolves have been reintroduced at a cost of $14 million – over $241,000 per wolf. Of those, we are currently on pace to remove 12 in 2007 for being “problem wolves.” That means for every five wolves released into the wild, the Fish and Wildlife Service will have to spend additional resources removing one for multiple attacks on pets and livestock and threatening people. This is not the kind of track record that deserves further investment. More importantly, the problem has expanded beyond the control of the Fish and Wildlife Service. I continue to receive complaints from constituents who have witnessed wolves just yards from their front door. I have pictures of horses eaten to the bone by a pack of wolves in corrals. I have received a letter from a father who insists that his 13-year-old daughter carry a pistol while doing her chores....
Getting hotter The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says he will investigate a threatening letter sent by the leader of an EPA-member group, vowing to "destroy" the career of a climate skeptic. During a Capitol Hill hearing yesterday, Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican and ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, confronted EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson about the strongly-worded letter written July 13 by Michael T. Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) that was sent to Marlo Lewis, senior fellow of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). "It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar," Mr. Eckhart wrote. "If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity. I will call you a liar and charlatan to the Harvard community of which you and I are members. I will call you out as a man who has been bought by Corporate America. Go ahead, guy. Take me on." CEI does not dispute climate change, however it differs with certain environmental groups, including ACORE, on the causes. After Mr. Inhofe read Mr. Eckhart's comments, which were first reported by Inside the Beltway two weeks ago, the EPA chief promised to probe the matter. "Statements like this are of concern to me. I am a believer in cooperation and collaboration across all sectors," Mr. Johnson assured. "This is an area I will look into for the record." When Mr. Johnson confirmed that EPA is a member of ACORE, Mr. Inhofe asked if "it is appropriate to be a part of an organization that is headed up by a person who makes this statement."....
Ranchers Unite to Save Land Near Zion National Park The Nature Conservancy has signed option agreements with five ranchers to purchase conservation easements on 2,423 acres of agricultural land and critical wildlife habitat in southwestern Utah, adjacent to Zion National Park. The agreements are a key first step in the Virgin River Headwaters Project, which may eventually involve as many as 17 landowners and protect as much as 11,000 acres. The Nature Conservancy is now seeking public and private funds to purchase the conservation easements, which will protect the wildlife habitat and productive ranch land by preventing habitat fragmentation and development. Through the use of conservation easements, private lands will remain on the tax rolls and traditional land uses will continue. Once in place, the agreements are binding on all future landowners....
TPL bargains for Wilson access The Trust for Public Land (TPL) is negotiating with Silver Pick Basin landowner Rusty Nichols to buy his property and renew access to Wilson Peak. A recent Special Initiative Grant from the Telluride Foundation contributed $150,000 to the effort, which could speed up a deal. “It’s a key gift in allowing us to move forward,” said Jason Corzine, TPL’s project manager, who expects to close on the property in late October. A private conservation group, TPL will put the grant money toward the purchase of Nichols’ 220-acre parcel by Wilson Peak, including land near the summit. The purchase will also ensure an end to any potential mining on the land....
Bush opposes rewrite of mining law The Bush administration on Thursday came out against a proposed revision of a 135-year-old hard-rock mining law that would impose the first-ever royalty fees and environmental restrictions for mining on public land. Congressional plans to revise the mining law would let the government assess royalty fees for the first time on the extracted minerals. And it would give more power to environmentalists who think the mining industry has despoiled the environment for too long. The U.S, Bureau of Land Management says the proposed new regulations could hurt the mining industry, the economy and U.S. security....
Firefighting costs out of control, says panel Economists, foresters and federal officials debated Thursday how to lower the skyrocketing cost of fighting wildfires, mulling solutions that ranged from staying the course to abolishing the U.S. Forest Service. The agency's fire spending is “out of control,” said Randal O'Toole, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank. A forest economist, O'Toole released a policy paper suggesting a range of six alternatives to fix the problem. O'Toole said the Forest Service has had a virtual blank check to fight wildfires. After bad fire seasons or loss of life or homes in wildfires, Congress rewards the agency with more money, he said. “Fire has given the Forest Service money and power more than almost anything else,” O'Toole said. O'Toole proposes to stop funding the Forest Service with tax dollars. Instead, each forest's budget would come from its own user fees, including timber, grazing, mining and recreation. Individual forests' board of directors could choose whether to use the fees on fire suppression or to let more fires burn, he said. James Hubbard, deputy chief for state and private forestry with the Forest Service, said he wouldn't comment for or against specific alternatives. But he said staying the course isn't the answer. “I would just say that this suppression cost problem does need some type of a solution,” Hubbard said. “Whether we pursue that through different alternatives, through pilot (projects) that we test or through political solutions, one way or another, the Forest Service needs some help solving this problem.”
Fate of Clinton roadless rule back before Wyoming judge Wyoming's attempt to overturn a Clinton-era ban on logging and other development on millions of acres of federal forests nationwide is attracting opposition from other states who say the ban should stay. California, Montana, New Mexico and Oregon have filed papers in federal court in Cheyenne, Wyoming, arguing that the Clinton roadless rule should remain in effect, at least outside the boundaries of Wyoming. Environmental groups are also opposing Wyoming's position. US District Judge Clarence Brimmer is handling the case in which Wyoming is charging that the Clinton rule is improper and should be overturned. Brimmer sided with the state in a similar case in 2003. However, the federal appeals court in Denver never ruled on an appeal of Brimmer's ruling by environmentalist groups because the Bush administration issued a new roadless rule. Another federal judge in California recently tossed out the Bush rule, so Wyoming is again fighting the Clinton rule in Brimmer's court....
Groups seek 25 percent cut in Delta pumping Environmentalists have asked a judge to order enough water to supply 6 million people be used instead to protect an imperiled fish. The court papers filed late Monday are the latest attempt to dictate how the state's major water systems will continue to operate even though they lack legal permits required by state and federal endangered species laws. Lawyers for environmental groups said water cutbacks of 1.5 million acre-feet — or about 25percent — are needed to prevent Delta smelt from going extinct. And, they argued, a proposal made earlier this month by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was not restrictive enough. A hearing on the competing proposals is scheduled Aug. 21, and U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger could rule any time after that. "They can't simply ask him (Wanger) to trust them. That's sort of how we got here in the first place," said Andrea Treece, a lawyer for Earthjustice, which is representing environmental groups....
Biologists: Klamath Fish Still Need Help A panel has recommended continued federal protection for two kinds of fish in the Klamath Basin amid pressures to find solutions to regional water woes that led to a cutoff of irrigation water in 2001. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday the review by a panel of biologists found that one species in the upper basin, the short nosed sucker, is still at risk of extinction and should remain protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Lost River sucker is not at risk of extinction in the foreseeable future, so it should be reclassified as a threatened species, the agency said. A panel of 12 scientists representing government agencies and interest groups reviewed various sources of information about the fish and made the recommendations to the fish and wildlife service. The review was prompted by a petition from a group called Interactive Citizens United to take the fish off the endangered species list. There is no specific timetable for when the agency might act on the recommendations, spokeswoman Alex Pitts said from Sacramento, Calif....
Zoo researchers use electronic eggs to help save threatened species This is an important summer for kori bustards at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Four chicks of this threatened African bird have hatched in June and July. Along with the bumper crop of baby birds is a bumper crop of new information for scientists working to preserve the species, thanks to an electronic egg that transmits real-time incubation data from the nest. The telemetric egg, placed in the nest after the mother has laid her eggs, contains sensors that record temperatures on four quadrants of the egg’s surface as well as in the egg’s interior. Motion detectors record how frequently the mother turns the egg during incubation. The data are recorded 24 hours a day and downloaded to a computer every 48 hours. National Zoo staff use the information to mimic natural incubation in a controlled setting in the lab....
N.M. Working on Rodent Recovery Plan Some might think fewer rodents would be a good thing, but scientists are concerned about the dwindling populations of two small furry creatures on New Mexico's list of endangered mammals. The state Department of Game and Fish says recent surveys show the number of New Mexican meadow jumping mice, known for their striking yellowish fur and well-developed hind feet, has dropped by at least two-thirds statewide - and possibly as much as 90 percent. Surveys show the Arizona montane vole also is found only in a very small region of western New Mexico and eastern Arizona. "The thing in common between both is the loss of riparian habitat along streams and rivers in the Southwest," said Jim Stuart, an endangered species mammalogist with the Game and Fish Department. "Grazing is often jumped on as a reason, but there have also been climate factors involved like the dewatering of streams and rivers and the lowering of groundwater."....
Pipeline completed south of Fort Sumner A newly completed pipeline near Fort Sumner will allow more water to flow into the Pecos River, helping a threatened fish species and farmers and others along the river. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will lease groundwater pumped from the Vaughan family ranch where the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission owns some water rights. The water will be sent through the pipeline, which was built by the Interstate Stream Commission to supplement flows in the Pecos and benefit the Pecos bluntnose shiner, a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act. "This is our first partnership project with the state undertaken as part of New Mexico's strategic water initiative," said Connie Rupp, Albuquerque area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation. The project and water lease agreement are examples of the state and the bureau working together to improve conditions along the Pecos without harming water users who rely on the river, Rupp said....
3-day stretch of heat, humidity kills 1,200 cattle in South Dakota More than 1,200 cattle died during a three-day blast of heat and humidity in northeast South Dakota, ranchers, feedlot owners and authorities reported, though the weather was expected to ease Thursday. The high Wednesday in Aberdeen was 96, at least the third straight day the city's temperature was in the 90s. The heat index, which is related to humidity, hit 109. Thursday's forecast called for a high in the low 80s and a 50 percent chance of rain, but agriculture authorities worried the heat wave might have caused long-term disabilities to some livestock. “I've never seen anything like it,” said feedlot operator Ivan Sjovall, 67, of Langford....
U.S. ranchers lobby asks Washington to rule if Canada violating BSE rules An American ranchers group that has been trying to restrict the import of Canadian cattle into the United States tried a new approach Thursday. The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund - or R-CALF - wrote a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns asking him to determine if Canada is in violation of the department's minimal-risk region rule. R-CALF said in a news release that Canada immediately needs to begin testing all known herd mates and feed mates of BSE-positive cattle in order to maintain its status as a "minimal risk" region under U.S. regulations. The lobby group suggested a report released Wednesday by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency implies such testing is not being done....
Cattlemen respond to BLM impound notice After being served with a Bureau of Land Management notice of intent to impound their livestock last Friday, Bruce Bedke and his son Jared Bedke filed a complaint Tuesday in Cassia County Magistrate Court to stop the impoundment. Included in the Bedkes' suit is a request to withdraw from a 1963 agreement between BLM and ranchers on the Goose Creek range. The agreement separated the range into individual and group allotments and establishing a fund for improvements to the range. The Bedkes' grazing permit expired Feb. 28. The Bedkes said that in 2004 BLM changed the original terms of the 1963 agreement by dividing the Goose Creek Group allotment, which allowed the Bedkes and three other ranchers to collectively graze their animals on land east of Goose Creek, into private allotments where each rancher has exclusive grazing rights. Permit forms offered to the Bedkes require them to abide by terms and conditions established in that 2004 division. The Bedkes also say the Goose Creek range is not public land and is therefore not rightfully managed by BLM. They say their family has grazed cattle on the range since 1878. In 1955, final allotment of grazing rights was awarded to ranchers in the Goose Creek range according to their prior, established use of the land. Because the Bedkes' right was among those allotted at that time, they say they believe those rights exclude the property from being considered public land. The agreement in 1963 between ranchers and BLM, the family says, was designed to arbitrate the division of grazing allotments between groups and individuals, but did not surrender management of the range itself....Wanna bet the Feds first move will be to move this to Federal Court?
Mexican Wolf Program -- Tried and Failed For the last 10 years, New Mexico has been home to the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program. This program, which purports to restore Mexican Wolves to the communities surrounding the Blue Range Recovery Area, has not only failed, but it has become a detriment to the surrounding communities. I believe, the time has come to stop squandering taxpayer dollars on this wasted effort. Recently, I offered an amendment that would remove funding for the program entirely. Given the overwhelming evidence, I have concluded that we cannot successfully reintroduce wolves in New Mexico. Beginning in 1998 captive bred habituated Mexican grey wolves were released into areas of Catron and Grant counties. In almost a decade, 58 wolves have been reintroduced at a cost of $14 million – over $241,000 per wolf. Of those, we are currently on pace to remove 12 in 2007 for being “problem wolves.” That means for every five wolves released into the wild, the Fish and Wildlife Service will have to spend additional resources removing one for multiple attacks on pets and livestock and threatening people. This is not the kind of track record that deserves further investment. More importantly, the problem has expanded beyond the control of the Fish and Wildlife Service. I continue to receive complaints from constituents who have witnessed wolves just yards from their front door. I have pictures of horses eaten to the bone by a pack of wolves in corrals. I have received a letter from a father who insists that his 13-year-old daughter carry a pistol while doing her chores....
Getting hotter The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says he will investigate a threatening letter sent by the leader of an EPA-member group, vowing to "destroy" the career of a climate skeptic. During a Capitol Hill hearing yesterday, Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican and ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, confronted EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson about the strongly-worded letter written July 13 by Michael T. Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) that was sent to Marlo Lewis, senior fellow of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). "It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar," Mr. Eckhart wrote. "If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity. I will call you a liar and charlatan to the Harvard community of which you and I are members. I will call you out as a man who has been bought by Corporate America. Go ahead, guy. Take me on." CEI does not dispute climate change, however it differs with certain environmental groups, including ACORE, on the causes. After Mr. Inhofe read Mr. Eckhart's comments, which were first reported by Inside the Beltway two weeks ago, the EPA chief promised to probe the matter. "Statements like this are of concern to me. I am a believer in cooperation and collaboration across all sectors," Mr. Johnson assured. "This is an area I will look into for the record." When Mr. Johnson confirmed that EPA is a member of ACORE, Mr. Inhofe asked if "it is appropriate to be a part of an organization that is headed up by a person who makes this statement."....
Ranchers Unite to Save Land Near Zion National Park The Nature Conservancy has signed option agreements with five ranchers to purchase conservation easements on 2,423 acres of agricultural land and critical wildlife habitat in southwestern Utah, adjacent to Zion National Park. The agreements are a key first step in the Virgin River Headwaters Project, which may eventually involve as many as 17 landowners and protect as much as 11,000 acres. The Nature Conservancy is now seeking public and private funds to purchase the conservation easements, which will protect the wildlife habitat and productive ranch land by preventing habitat fragmentation and development. Through the use of conservation easements, private lands will remain on the tax rolls and traditional land uses will continue. Once in place, the agreements are binding on all future landowners....
TPL bargains for Wilson access The Trust for Public Land (TPL) is negotiating with Silver Pick Basin landowner Rusty Nichols to buy his property and renew access to Wilson Peak. A recent Special Initiative Grant from the Telluride Foundation contributed $150,000 to the effort, which could speed up a deal. “It’s a key gift in allowing us to move forward,” said Jason Corzine, TPL’s project manager, who expects to close on the property in late October. A private conservation group, TPL will put the grant money toward the purchase of Nichols’ 220-acre parcel by Wilson Peak, including land near the summit. The purchase will also ensure an end to any potential mining on the land....
Bush opposes rewrite of mining law The Bush administration on Thursday came out against a proposed revision of a 135-year-old hard-rock mining law that would impose the first-ever royalty fees and environmental restrictions for mining on public land. Congressional plans to revise the mining law would let the government assess royalty fees for the first time on the extracted minerals. And it would give more power to environmentalists who think the mining industry has despoiled the environment for too long. The U.S, Bureau of Land Management says the proposed new regulations could hurt the mining industry, the economy and U.S. security....
Firefighting costs out of control, says panel Economists, foresters and federal officials debated Thursday how to lower the skyrocketing cost of fighting wildfires, mulling solutions that ranged from staying the course to abolishing the U.S. Forest Service. The agency's fire spending is “out of control,” said Randal O'Toole, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank. A forest economist, O'Toole released a policy paper suggesting a range of six alternatives to fix the problem. O'Toole said the Forest Service has had a virtual blank check to fight wildfires. After bad fire seasons or loss of life or homes in wildfires, Congress rewards the agency with more money, he said. “Fire has given the Forest Service money and power more than almost anything else,” O'Toole said. O'Toole proposes to stop funding the Forest Service with tax dollars. Instead, each forest's budget would come from its own user fees, including timber, grazing, mining and recreation. Individual forests' board of directors could choose whether to use the fees on fire suppression or to let more fires burn, he said. James Hubbard, deputy chief for state and private forestry with the Forest Service, said he wouldn't comment for or against specific alternatives. But he said staying the course isn't the answer. “I would just say that this suppression cost problem does need some type of a solution,” Hubbard said. “Whether we pursue that through different alternatives, through pilot (projects) that we test or through political solutions, one way or another, the Forest Service needs some help solving this problem.”
Fate of Clinton roadless rule back before Wyoming judge Wyoming's attempt to overturn a Clinton-era ban on logging and other development on millions of acres of federal forests nationwide is attracting opposition from other states who say the ban should stay. California, Montana, New Mexico and Oregon have filed papers in federal court in Cheyenne, Wyoming, arguing that the Clinton roadless rule should remain in effect, at least outside the boundaries of Wyoming. Environmental groups are also opposing Wyoming's position. US District Judge Clarence Brimmer is handling the case in which Wyoming is charging that the Clinton rule is improper and should be overturned. Brimmer sided with the state in a similar case in 2003. However, the federal appeals court in Denver never ruled on an appeal of Brimmer's ruling by environmentalist groups because the Bush administration issued a new roadless rule. Another federal judge in California recently tossed out the Bush rule, so Wyoming is again fighting the Clinton rule in Brimmer's court....
Groups seek 25 percent cut in Delta pumping Environmentalists have asked a judge to order enough water to supply 6 million people be used instead to protect an imperiled fish. The court papers filed late Monday are the latest attempt to dictate how the state's major water systems will continue to operate even though they lack legal permits required by state and federal endangered species laws. Lawyers for environmental groups said water cutbacks of 1.5 million acre-feet — or about 25percent — are needed to prevent Delta smelt from going extinct. And, they argued, a proposal made earlier this month by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was not restrictive enough. A hearing on the competing proposals is scheduled Aug. 21, and U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger could rule any time after that. "They can't simply ask him (Wanger) to trust them. That's sort of how we got here in the first place," said Andrea Treece, a lawyer for Earthjustice, which is representing environmental groups....
Biologists: Klamath Fish Still Need Help A panel has recommended continued federal protection for two kinds of fish in the Klamath Basin amid pressures to find solutions to regional water woes that led to a cutoff of irrigation water in 2001. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday the review by a panel of biologists found that one species in the upper basin, the short nosed sucker, is still at risk of extinction and should remain protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Lost River sucker is not at risk of extinction in the foreseeable future, so it should be reclassified as a threatened species, the agency said. A panel of 12 scientists representing government agencies and interest groups reviewed various sources of information about the fish and made the recommendations to the fish and wildlife service. The review was prompted by a petition from a group called Interactive Citizens United to take the fish off the endangered species list. There is no specific timetable for when the agency might act on the recommendations, spokeswoman Alex Pitts said from Sacramento, Calif....
Zoo researchers use electronic eggs to help save threatened species This is an important summer for kori bustards at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Four chicks of this threatened African bird have hatched in June and July. Along with the bumper crop of baby birds is a bumper crop of new information for scientists working to preserve the species, thanks to an electronic egg that transmits real-time incubation data from the nest. The telemetric egg, placed in the nest after the mother has laid her eggs, contains sensors that record temperatures on four quadrants of the egg’s surface as well as in the egg’s interior. Motion detectors record how frequently the mother turns the egg during incubation. The data are recorded 24 hours a day and downloaded to a computer every 48 hours. National Zoo staff use the information to mimic natural incubation in a controlled setting in the lab....
N.M. Working on Rodent Recovery Plan Some might think fewer rodents would be a good thing, but scientists are concerned about the dwindling populations of two small furry creatures on New Mexico's list of endangered mammals. The state Department of Game and Fish says recent surveys show the number of New Mexican meadow jumping mice, known for their striking yellowish fur and well-developed hind feet, has dropped by at least two-thirds statewide - and possibly as much as 90 percent. Surveys show the Arizona montane vole also is found only in a very small region of western New Mexico and eastern Arizona. "The thing in common between both is the loss of riparian habitat along streams and rivers in the Southwest," said Jim Stuart, an endangered species mammalogist with the Game and Fish Department. "Grazing is often jumped on as a reason, but there have also been climate factors involved like the dewatering of streams and rivers and the lowering of groundwater."....
Pipeline completed south of Fort Sumner A newly completed pipeline near Fort Sumner will allow more water to flow into the Pecos River, helping a threatened fish species and farmers and others along the river. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will lease groundwater pumped from the Vaughan family ranch where the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission owns some water rights. The water will be sent through the pipeline, which was built by the Interstate Stream Commission to supplement flows in the Pecos and benefit the Pecos bluntnose shiner, a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act. "This is our first partnership project with the state undertaken as part of New Mexico's strategic water initiative," said Connie Rupp, Albuquerque area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation. The project and water lease agreement are examples of the state and the bureau working together to improve conditions along the Pecos without harming water users who rely on the river, Rupp said....
3-day stretch of heat, humidity kills 1,200 cattle in South Dakota More than 1,200 cattle died during a three-day blast of heat and humidity in northeast South Dakota, ranchers, feedlot owners and authorities reported, though the weather was expected to ease Thursday. The high Wednesday in Aberdeen was 96, at least the third straight day the city's temperature was in the 90s. The heat index, which is related to humidity, hit 109. Thursday's forecast called for a high in the low 80s and a 50 percent chance of rain, but agriculture authorities worried the heat wave might have caused long-term disabilities to some livestock. “I've never seen anything like it,” said feedlot operator Ivan Sjovall, 67, of Langford....
U.S. ranchers lobby asks Washington to rule if Canada violating BSE rules An American ranchers group that has been trying to restrict the import of Canadian cattle into the United States tried a new approach Thursday. The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund - or R-CALF - wrote a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns asking him to determine if Canada is in violation of the department's minimal-risk region rule. R-CALF said in a news release that Canada immediately needs to begin testing all known herd mates and feed mates of BSE-positive cattle in order to maintain its status as a "minimal risk" region under U.S. regulations. The lobby group suggested a report released Wednesday by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency implies such testing is not being done....
Thursday, July 26, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Udall, DeGette sign on to push solar, wind Several Western lawmakers are leading an effort in the House to set a national requirement that utilities produce 20 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2020. Democratic Reps. Diana DeGette and Mark Udall of Colorado and Tom Udall of New Mexico are among a group of lawmakers pushing to add the renewable electricity standard to a House bill promoting clean energy. The renewable electricity proposal is a key - but controversial - measure that environmentalists say must pass if the nation is going to take meaningful steps to combat global warming and reduce dependence on foreign fossil fuel. A similar effort failed in the Senate earlier this summer. The Western House members hope their effort will make it through Congress. By pushing the bill, the lawmakers are likely setting up a fight that will pit the West and Midwest against the Southeast. It's unclear whether the proposal has enough support to pass. Western states were among the first to start requiring the use of renewable energy, in part because of the ample supply of wind and sunshine. More than 20 states mandate that a percentage of their electricity be produced from renewable energy sources....
Environmentalism's Legal Legacy Environmental activists, policy scholars, and others claim that the environmental movement is in decline, suffering from attacks on the right on Capitol Hill and from the White House in recent years. Yet given some distinctive attributes associated with this issue, the progressive environmental cause is uniquely situated to ensure that it receives considerable attention in Washington. The result has been an uncommon expansion of government activity in a single issue area. And despite claims to contrary, progressive environmental policy making has continued to gain ground even in recent times—even under Republican leadership. This paper highlights legislative expansion of environmental law. It uses several datasets to document the growth of the environmental legal legacy. First, an analysis of congressional vote scoring by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) reveals that environmental pressure groups do relatively well even in a subset of close votes scored—winning a majority of the time in eight out of 17 congresses and winning 43 percent of these votes overall. It does indicate that environmental groups faced some real challenges in recent years, but it does not reveal how that affected public policy. The LCV scoring also shows that environmental groups are involved in policy making at a very detailed level. Two additional analyses reveal the importance of environmental issues vis-à-vis other issues on Capitol Hill. The fi rst focuses on congressional committee actions that produced public laws during 12 congresses. This analysis showed that environmental committees remained a center of legislative activity throughout the timeline studied, and that activity reached high points during the 1990s after the Republicans gained a majority in Congress....
Utility blasts its Oregon dam to make way for fish The largest dam removal in the Pacific Northwest in 40 years began on Tuesday with blasts of 4,000 pounds of explosives, the dam's owner, Portland General Electric, said. Eight feet of the 47-foot-tall Marmot Dam was removed by Tuesday afternoon and over the next two months there will be five more blasts, along with jackhammers working daily, company spokesman Mark Fryburg said. "Today, this partnership took a great step toward restoring a breathtaking river for fish, wildlife and people," Portland General Electric CEO and President Peggy Fowler said in a statement. The Marmot Dam on the Sandy River about 40 miles east of Portland was built almost 100 years ago along with the nearby 16-foot-high Little Sandy Dam, which will be destroyed next summer, the utility said. Portland General Electric, the biggest utility in Oregon, is spending $17 million to remove the two dams in coordination with 23 environmental, governmental and civic organizations....
ID lawmaker blames grazing restrictions for wildfire's size An Idaho state lawmaker-rancher is blaming federal grazing restrictions for the size and ferocity of a giant wildfire on the Idaho-Nevada border, a contention dismissed as baseless by the leader of a conservation group. The Murphy Complex fire has burned across nearly 975 square miles, burning up grassland and killing at least one cow that couldn't escape the flames. Two small communities were briefly under evacuation orders. The Murphy Complex fire killed at least one cow owned by Rep. Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, although officials say more dead cattle will likely be found. "This didn't have to happen," he told The Times-News as he stood over the charred body of a cow. Had more cattle been allowed to graze, there would have been less available fuel, he said. "I think we need to take a hard look at basic (grazing) policy issues because what we're doing just isn't working," Brackett said....
Feds Propose Habitat for Bighorn Sheep More than 400,000 acres of wildlands in the Eastern Sierra Nevada should serve as a protected habitat for an endangered mountain sheep rebounding from the threat of extinction, the federal government said Wednesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposed critical habitat designation is a response to a 2005 lawsuit by environmentalists, who claimed the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep couldn't recover because their habitat wasn't protected as required under the Endangered Species Act. In their lawsuit, environmentalists singled out as a particular problem: the U.S. Forest Service's decision to allow ranchers to graze domesticated sheep on public lands thought to be crucial to the wild sheep's survival. Domestic sheep not only compete for the sedges and grasses that grow in the rugged, mountain landscape, but can spread diseases like pneumonia and scabies when bighorn rams try to mate with their domesticated cousins, government scientists said. Sheepherders dismissed assertions that their herd's proximity to the wild sheep played a role in their decline, and said the new designation could cause millions of dollars in losses to the $1 billion wool textiles and lamb industry. "The bighorn have been a very good surrogate tool to clear out areas of livestock grazing," said Tom McDonnell, a consultant for the American Sheep Industry Association, whose members graze their lambs and ewes in the Mono Lake area. "We will probably lose substantial amounts of grazing on private, state and federal ground."....
Governors sign agreement to form Blue Ribbon commission As a sign of unity in the wake of the Angora fire, the Lake Tahoe Basin's two state governors signed an agreement Wednesday to form a fire commission intended to review forest management practices in the Basin. California and Nevada Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Gibbons used the Lake Valley Fire station in Meyers as a backdrop to define the mission of the Blue Ribbon Fire Commission. The fact-finding panel will consist of 17 voting members, each governor appointing eight and the U.S. Forest Service appointing one. Up to six additional non-voting members can be appointed by the governors. The commission will disband two months after delivering its report. Gibbons called the fire a learning experience on several fronts. Questions and tempers have been raised regarding forest fuel reduction practices and whether agencies tasked with sustaining the environment have created gridlock at removing the dead and dying trees and the undercover of flammable material....
Prosecutors mull charges in Zaca blaze Investigators have completed a report on the cause of a three-week-old Santa Barbara County wildfire and will forward it to local prosecutors for a decision on whether to file criminal charges, officials said Wednesday. The 31,000-acre blaze was started July 4 by workers grinding metal to repair a water pipeline on a private ranch in Bell Canyon, just west of the Los Padres National Forest boundary and Zaca Lake. Prosecutors were expected to decide by next week if any charges are warranted against the landowner. California Department of Forestry investigator Andy Andersen wouldn't disclose the recommendation in the investigators' report that was scheduled to be sent to the district attorney's office on Friday. The cost of suppression efforts has already exceed $33 million....
USFS venture aims to offset carbon emissions The U.S. Forest Service is teaming with a nonprofit foundation to allow consumers to participate in a voluntary program to "offset" their carbon dioxide emissions. Under the agreement announced Wednesday, the Forest Service and the National Forest Foundation will allow individuals or groups to make charitable contributions that will be used to plant trees and do other work to improve national forests. The Forest Service has identified several reforestation projects to kick off the new program, including one in the Custer National Forest in Montana and South Dakota and another in the Payette National Forest in Idaho. The Forest Service estimates that the nation's 155 national forests offset about 10 percent of carbon emissions in the United States. Forest Service scientists believe that figure can be raised to as much as 25 percent by doing such things as planting more trees in urban areas or reforesting old crop land....
Hood wilderness bill clears Senate panel, moves to floor A long-awaited and oft-troubled attempt to expand wilderness protection to nearly 125,000 acres in the Mount Hood National Forest gained new life Wednesday when a bill moved to the floor of the U.S. Senate. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed the "Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act of 2007" unanimously on a voice vote. A troubled land exchange between a ski area and the federal government had held the bill up for a year, among other difficulties. Oregon senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith co-sponsored the bill. "It's a new day for wilderness, and we are now poised to pass the protection that Mount Hood deserves," said Wyden. The bill would add to existing wilderness protections on the forest and grant Wild and Scenic River status to an additional 80 miles of rivers. Further, the bill would create more than 34,000 acres of a Mount Hood National Recreation Area with access for mountain biking and other recreation. Wilderness areas do not allow mountain biking and severely restrict most activities to retain the wild features of the land....
GE Launches 'Green' Credit Card General Electric Co., a longtime target of environmentalists that is working to bolster its "green" image, launched a credit card Wednesday that gives users a chance to offset their greenhouse-gas emissions. The new card, the GE Money Earth Rewards Platinum MasterCard, is being marketed as the nation's first to offer customers "rewards" that can go toward carbon emissions credits rather than more common perks such as cash-back payouts or airline miles. A joint venture between GE and electric power company AES Corp. will use the credits to pay for projects that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Both the card and the joint venture are part of GE's "Ecomagination" initiative, which the Fairfield, Conn.-based conglomerate launched two years ago to boost sales of environmentally friendly technology and cut carbon emissions. Card users will be able to automatically contribute up to 1 percent of their purchases toward emissions offsets. Customers will have the choice to donate all of their rewards or receive half in cash. Rewards will accrue over the course of the year and can be redeemed for emissions credits each Earth Day, April 22. There will be no limit on the amount of credits customers can earn....
Salazar blocks BLM nominee U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar has officially blocked the confirmation of President Bush's nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management. He vowed Wednesday to relent only when Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne pledges that the department's conflict with the state over energy development won't end in a "train wreck." Salazar, a Colorado Democrat, said he outlined his concerns in a meeting with Kempthorne and asked for assurance that the federal government "would not be running roughshod over the Roan Plateau and Colorado's public lands." Specifically, Salazar wants the state to have "meaningful input" about the development of oil shale and for Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter to have time to review a plan to drill for natural gas on the scenic Roan Plateau. Salazar said that until then, he will prevent the Senate from voting on James Caswell's nomination to head the BLM....
Groups sue to block drilling People who think energy development is moving too quickly in the Pinedale area got a boost this week from two little-known environmental groups and several people in Wyoming. The Environmental Preservation Foundation and Habitat for Wildlife, both based in Utah, along with two Cokeville and two Kemmerer residents, filed suit against Bureau of Land Management officials, saying the agency has not conducted adequate environmental reviews to allow a boom in energy activity. The lawsuit calls for a cessation of new oil and gas drilling pending further environmental review that takes into account the cumulative impacts of drilling. It also called for the BLM to stop issuing waivers to companies to drill. And, the complaint calls for the Pinedale Anticline supplemental environmental impact statement to be stopped pending the outcome of the case. The BLM is currently finishing a supplemental analysis allowing for 4,399 new wells on the Anticline in a concentrated area, and a resource management plan for the broader Pinedale area. The groups say there should be "a regionwide EIS that contemplates all of the current and proposed oil and gas activities in the Pinedale Resource Area and connected areas." That includes the Jonah and Anticline fields....
Lightning hits 1,700 times in 7 hours The National Weather Service recorded approximately 1,700 lightning strikes in southeastern Montana in just seven hours Tuesday evening. Joe Lester, meteorologist with the Billings National Weather Service station, said that between 5 p.m. Tuesday and midnight Wednesday, 1,700 strikes were counted in Rosebud, Powder River, Fallon, Custer and Carter counties. There were about 500 strikes between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. alone in that area Tuesday. The NWS receives lightning strike numbers for the previous 24 to 48 hours from a national lightning detection system, Lester said. The system uses ground sensors to detect and map ground strikes. Tuesday evening's storm brought a reprieve from 100-degree heat in the southeastern part of the state - Billings dropped from a high temperature of 102 degrees to 83 degrees around 6 p.m. - but may have ignited several fires. The Miles City Bureau of Land Management field office reported four lightning-caused fires Tuesday and another nine lightning-caused fires Wednesday....
Governor takes heat for stand on drilling When Gov. Bill Ritter asked the helicopter pilot to make an impromptu landing on a mountain in northwest Colorado, little did he know he would anger Moffat County commissioners and stir up his choppy relationship with the oil and gas industry. Last week, the county's three commissioners, all Republicans, fired off a scathing letter to the Democratic governor, criticizing his unannounced July 3 visit during a tour of oil and gas drilling sites in the region. He subsequently requested that the federal government exempt the scenic 77,000-acre Vermillion Basin from natural gas drilling. Ritter's request, the commissioners say, ignores years of hard work by local, federal and state agencies and activist groups to cobble together a drilling plan for the environmentally sensitive basin, which contains billions of dollars of natural gas reserves....
Erosion on Alaska coast eats into old oil wells Old Alaskan oil wells could be swallowed by the ocean as rising temperatures speed up erosion of the state's Arctic coastline. The disappearance of sea ice that shields against storm waves, and of permafrost that holds shorelines together, is eating away at the coast of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study. Erosion rates have risen steeply along the coastline of the reserve — where the Bush administration wants to increase oil drilling — possibly due to warmer weather, the study showed. "Coastal erosion has more than doubled along a segment of the Arctic Alaska coast during the past half century," it said, adding the land loss was being magnified by the conversion of freshwater "thermokarst" lakes into saltwater bays as they become inundated with waters from the Arctic Ocean. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the reserve, has identified about 30 old oil exploration wells that need to be cleaned and plugged before the sea claims them....
Wild horses found dead on Nevada range Wild horses managed by the Bureau of Land Management were found dead late last week and additional horses have died since the discovery. The cause of death for 40 wild horses is under investigation. The horses died near a water source in the extreme northwest portion of the herd management area, about 210 miles northwest of Las Vegas, which is within the U.S. Air Force Nevada Test and Training Range. The military alerted BLM late Friday that they had seen some dead horses. The area is restricted to public access and the Air Force is providing access to the BLM. On Saturday, BLM went to the site and found 25 dead wild horses and an antelope. A water pond on a dry lake bed is suspected to be the source of the problem....
Bills Calls for Meat to be Labeled by Origin An ordinary trip to the supermarket meat department could turn into an experience in international comparison-shopping under House legislation scheduled to be debated today that for the first time would require meat products to be labeled by their country of origin. The farm bill House members will consider includes a provision mandating that meat -- including beef, pork and lamb -- include a label stating where it came from. Only meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the United States would be eligible for a domestic label. The measure aims to enforce a five-year-old law that has already been implemented for seafood but was delayed after meat packers, pork producers and grocery chains claimed it would create a costly bureaucratic and record-keeping nightmare. The issue reemerged this year after reports of safety problems with food and products from China spurred American consumers to seek more information about what they eat....
Commercial feed named as cause of Canada's 10th case of mad cow The mature dairy cow that became Canada's 10th case of mad cow disease was probably infected by commercial feed that it received after weaning, says a report by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency released Wednesday. The Holstein, which was destroyed earlier this year, had spent its entire life on the same dairy farm in the Fraser Valley. The most likely cause was commercial feed, which the cow would have eaten only during its first year, that got cross-contaminated with prohibited materials -- rendered products from other ruminant animals. The most likely source was cross-contamination of the heifer feed either at the feed mill or during transportation. The CFIA investigated 155 of the 66-month-old cow's herdmates, and their feed. "Only cattle in the feed cohort were implicated in the investigation," said Dr. Connie Argue, an epidemiologist and scientific adviser to the CFIA. Of those cattle, five have since been slaughtered for unrelated reasons. Another 87 had already been slaughtered -- and of those, five had tested negative for BSE. There were 23 animals that could not be traced, and the remaining 41 live animals have been quarantined and will be killed in the next few months....
Mule's foal fools genetics When it reportedly happened in Morocco five years ago, locals feared it signaled the end of the world. In Albania in 1994, it was thought to have unleashed the spawn of the devil on a small village. But on a Grand Mesa ranch, the once-in-a-million, genetically "impossible" occurrence of a mule giving birth has only drawn keen interest from the scientific world. That, and a stream of the locally curious driving up from the small town of Colbran to check out and snap pictures of a frisky, huge-eared, gangly-legged foal. "No one has run away in fear yet," laughed Laura Amos, the owner of the foal, along with her husband, Larry. The foal is being called a miracle because mules aren't supposed to give birth. Mules are a hybrid of two species - a female horse and a male donkey - so they end up with an odd number of chromosomes. A horse has 64 chromosomes and a donkey has 62. A mule inherits 63. An even number of chromosomes is needed to divide into pairs and reproduce. But those numbers added up to implausibility in late April when the Amoses awoke to a braying and whinnying ruckus in the corral behind their house....
Cowgirl is not horsing around You could say the 28-year-old Mussell was born in the wrong time period. She would have been right at home with the great cowgirl bronc riders of the 1920s and '30s: Tad Lucas, Ruth Roach and Alice Greenough, a.k.a. the Women of the West. The women were talented bronc riders and trick riders who drew headlines all over the world not only for their style but also for their daring. They competed before ranchers and kings in places ranging from Cheyenne, Wyo., to Wembley Stadium in London. Eventually, women roughstock riders were phased out of rodeo. That is, until 2000, when Mussell discovered there were no rules preventing women from competing in roughstock events in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Now, she is the only professional female saddle bronc rider in both the PRCA and the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association. She filled her permit in 2003, which meant she won over a $1,000 in a year. In 2005, she moved from her native Canada to Stephenville, Texas, and now is competing on near equal footing with many of the men in the Texas Circuit, primarily at the weekly Mesquite Championship Rodeo....
Udall, DeGette sign on to push solar, wind Several Western lawmakers are leading an effort in the House to set a national requirement that utilities produce 20 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2020. Democratic Reps. Diana DeGette and Mark Udall of Colorado and Tom Udall of New Mexico are among a group of lawmakers pushing to add the renewable electricity standard to a House bill promoting clean energy. The renewable electricity proposal is a key - but controversial - measure that environmentalists say must pass if the nation is going to take meaningful steps to combat global warming and reduce dependence on foreign fossil fuel. A similar effort failed in the Senate earlier this summer. The Western House members hope their effort will make it through Congress. By pushing the bill, the lawmakers are likely setting up a fight that will pit the West and Midwest against the Southeast. It's unclear whether the proposal has enough support to pass. Western states were among the first to start requiring the use of renewable energy, in part because of the ample supply of wind and sunshine. More than 20 states mandate that a percentage of their electricity be produced from renewable energy sources....
Environmentalism's Legal Legacy Environmental activists, policy scholars, and others claim that the environmental movement is in decline, suffering from attacks on the right on Capitol Hill and from the White House in recent years. Yet given some distinctive attributes associated with this issue, the progressive environmental cause is uniquely situated to ensure that it receives considerable attention in Washington. The result has been an uncommon expansion of government activity in a single issue area. And despite claims to contrary, progressive environmental policy making has continued to gain ground even in recent times—even under Republican leadership. This paper highlights legislative expansion of environmental law. It uses several datasets to document the growth of the environmental legal legacy. First, an analysis of congressional vote scoring by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) reveals that environmental pressure groups do relatively well even in a subset of close votes scored—winning a majority of the time in eight out of 17 congresses and winning 43 percent of these votes overall. It does indicate that environmental groups faced some real challenges in recent years, but it does not reveal how that affected public policy. The LCV scoring also shows that environmental groups are involved in policy making at a very detailed level. Two additional analyses reveal the importance of environmental issues vis-à-vis other issues on Capitol Hill. The fi rst focuses on congressional committee actions that produced public laws during 12 congresses. This analysis showed that environmental committees remained a center of legislative activity throughout the timeline studied, and that activity reached high points during the 1990s after the Republicans gained a majority in Congress....
Utility blasts its Oregon dam to make way for fish The largest dam removal in the Pacific Northwest in 40 years began on Tuesday with blasts of 4,000 pounds of explosives, the dam's owner, Portland General Electric, said. Eight feet of the 47-foot-tall Marmot Dam was removed by Tuesday afternoon and over the next two months there will be five more blasts, along with jackhammers working daily, company spokesman Mark Fryburg said. "Today, this partnership took a great step toward restoring a breathtaking river for fish, wildlife and people," Portland General Electric CEO and President Peggy Fowler said in a statement. The Marmot Dam on the Sandy River about 40 miles east of Portland was built almost 100 years ago along with the nearby 16-foot-high Little Sandy Dam, which will be destroyed next summer, the utility said. Portland General Electric, the biggest utility in Oregon, is spending $17 million to remove the two dams in coordination with 23 environmental, governmental and civic organizations....
ID lawmaker blames grazing restrictions for wildfire's size An Idaho state lawmaker-rancher is blaming federal grazing restrictions for the size and ferocity of a giant wildfire on the Idaho-Nevada border, a contention dismissed as baseless by the leader of a conservation group. The Murphy Complex fire has burned across nearly 975 square miles, burning up grassland and killing at least one cow that couldn't escape the flames. Two small communities were briefly under evacuation orders. The Murphy Complex fire killed at least one cow owned by Rep. Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, although officials say more dead cattle will likely be found. "This didn't have to happen," he told The Times-News as he stood over the charred body of a cow. Had more cattle been allowed to graze, there would have been less available fuel, he said. "I think we need to take a hard look at basic (grazing) policy issues because what we're doing just isn't working," Brackett said....
Feds Propose Habitat for Bighorn Sheep More than 400,000 acres of wildlands in the Eastern Sierra Nevada should serve as a protected habitat for an endangered mountain sheep rebounding from the threat of extinction, the federal government said Wednesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposed critical habitat designation is a response to a 2005 lawsuit by environmentalists, who claimed the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep couldn't recover because their habitat wasn't protected as required under the Endangered Species Act. In their lawsuit, environmentalists singled out as a particular problem: the U.S. Forest Service's decision to allow ranchers to graze domesticated sheep on public lands thought to be crucial to the wild sheep's survival. Domestic sheep not only compete for the sedges and grasses that grow in the rugged, mountain landscape, but can spread diseases like pneumonia and scabies when bighorn rams try to mate with their domesticated cousins, government scientists said. Sheepherders dismissed assertions that their herd's proximity to the wild sheep played a role in their decline, and said the new designation could cause millions of dollars in losses to the $1 billion wool textiles and lamb industry. "The bighorn have been a very good surrogate tool to clear out areas of livestock grazing," said Tom McDonnell, a consultant for the American Sheep Industry Association, whose members graze their lambs and ewes in the Mono Lake area. "We will probably lose substantial amounts of grazing on private, state and federal ground."....
Governors sign agreement to form Blue Ribbon commission As a sign of unity in the wake of the Angora fire, the Lake Tahoe Basin's two state governors signed an agreement Wednesday to form a fire commission intended to review forest management practices in the Basin. California and Nevada Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Gibbons used the Lake Valley Fire station in Meyers as a backdrop to define the mission of the Blue Ribbon Fire Commission. The fact-finding panel will consist of 17 voting members, each governor appointing eight and the U.S. Forest Service appointing one. Up to six additional non-voting members can be appointed by the governors. The commission will disband two months after delivering its report. Gibbons called the fire a learning experience on several fronts. Questions and tempers have been raised regarding forest fuel reduction practices and whether agencies tasked with sustaining the environment have created gridlock at removing the dead and dying trees and the undercover of flammable material....
Prosecutors mull charges in Zaca blaze Investigators have completed a report on the cause of a three-week-old Santa Barbara County wildfire and will forward it to local prosecutors for a decision on whether to file criminal charges, officials said Wednesday. The 31,000-acre blaze was started July 4 by workers grinding metal to repair a water pipeline on a private ranch in Bell Canyon, just west of the Los Padres National Forest boundary and Zaca Lake. Prosecutors were expected to decide by next week if any charges are warranted against the landowner. California Department of Forestry investigator Andy Andersen wouldn't disclose the recommendation in the investigators' report that was scheduled to be sent to the district attorney's office on Friday. The cost of suppression efforts has already exceed $33 million....
USFS venture aims to offset carbon emissions The U.S. Forest Service is teaming with a nonprofit foundation to allow consumers to participate in a voluntary program to "offset" their carbon dioxide emissions. Under the agreement announced Wednesday, the Forest Service and the National Forest Foundation will allow individuals or groups to make charitable contributions that will be used to plant trees and do other work to improve national forests. The Forest Service has identified several reforestation projects to kick off the new program, including one in the Custer National Forest in Montana and South Dakota and another in the Payette National Forest in Idaho. The Forest Service estimates that the nation's 155 national forests offset about 10 percent of carbon emissions in the United States. Forest Service scientists believe that figure can be raised to as much as 25 percent by doing such things as planting more trees in urban areas or reforesting old crop land....
Hood wilderness bill clears Senate panel, moves to floor A long-awaited and oft-troubled attempt to expand wilderness protection to nearly 125,000 acres in the Mount Hood National Forest gained new life Wednesday when a bill moved to the floor of the U.S. Senate. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed the "Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act of 2007" unanimously on a voice vote. A troubled land exchange between a ski area and the federal government had held the bill up for a year, among other difficulties. Oregon senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith co-sponsored the bill. "It's a new day for wilderness, and we are now poised to pass the protection that Mount Hood deserves," said Wyden. The bill would add to existing wilderness protections on the forest and grant Wild and Scenic River status to an additional 80 miles of rivers. Further, the bill would create more than 34,000 acres of a Mount Hood National Recreation Area with access for mountain biking and other recreation. Wilderness areas do not allow mountain biking and severely restrict most activities to retain the wild features of the land....
GE Launches 'Green' Credit Card General Electric Co., a longtime target of environmentalists that is working to bolster its "green" image, launched a credit card Wednesday that gives users a chance to offset their greenhouse-gas emissions. The new card, the GE Money Earth Rewards Platinum MasterCard, is being marketed as the nation's first to offer customers "rewards" that can go toward carbon emissions credits rather than more common perks such as cash-back payouts or airline miles. A joint venture between GE and electric power company AES Corp. will use the credits to pay for projects that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Both the card and the joint venture are part of GE's "Ecomagination" initiative, which the Fairfield, Conn.-based conglomerate launched two years ago to boost sales of environmentally friendly technology and cut carbon emissions. Card users will be able to automatically contribute up to 1 percent of their purchases toward emissions offsets. Customers will have the choice to donate all of their rewards or receive half in cash. Rewards will accrue over the course of the year and can be redeemed for emissions credits each Earth Day, April 22. There will be no limit on the amount of credits customers can earn....
Salazar blocks BLM nominee U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar has officially blocked the confirmation of President Bush's nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management. He vowed Wednesday to relent only when Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne pledges that the department's conflict with the state over energy development won't end in a "train wreck." Salazar, a Colorado Democrat, said he outlined his concerns in a meeting with Kempthorne and asked for assurance that the federal government "would not be running roughshod over the Roan Plateau and Colorado's public lands." Specifically, Salazar wants the state to have "meaningful input" about the development of oil shale and for Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter to have time to review a plan to drill for natural gas on the scenic Roan Plateau. Salazar said that until then, he will prevent the Senate from voting on James Caswell's nomination to head the BLM....
Groups sue to block drilling People who think energy development is moving too quickly in the Pinedale area got a boost this week from two little-known environmental groups and several people in Wyoming. The Environmental Preservation Foundation and Habitat for Wildlife, both based in Utah, along with two Cokeville and two Kemmerer residents, filed suit against Bureau of Land Management officials, saying the agency has not conducted adequate environmental reviews to allow a boom in energy activity. The lawsuit calls for a cessation of new oil and gas drilling pending further environmental review that takes into account the cumulative impacts of drilling. It also called for the BLM to stop issuing waivers to companies to drill. And, the complaint calls for the Pinedale Anticline supplemental environmental impact statement to be stopped pending the outcome of the case. The BLM is currently finishing a supplemental analysis allowing for 4,399 new wells on the Anticline in a concentrated area, and a resource management plan for the broader Pinedale area. The groups say there should be "a regionwide EIS that contemplates all of the current and proposed oil and gas activities in the Pinedale Resource Area and connected areas." That includes the Jonah and Anticline fields....
Lightning hits 1,700 times in 7 hours The National Weather Service recorded approximately 1,700 lightning strikes in southeastern Montana in just seven hours Tuesday evening. Joe Lester, meteorologist with the Billings National Weather Service station, said that between 5 p.m. Tuesday and midnight Wednesday, 1,700 strikes were counted in Rosebud, Powder River, Fallon, Custer and Carter counties. There were about 500 strikes between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. alone in that area Tuesday. The NWS receives lightning strike numbers for the previous 24 to 48 hours from a national lightning detection system, Lester said. The system uses ground sensors to detect and map ground strikes. Tuesday evening's storm brought a reprieve from 100-degree heat in the southeastern part of the state - Billings dropped from a high temperature of 102 degrees to 83 degrees around 6 p.m. - but may have ignited several fires. The Miles City Bureau of Land Management field office reported four lightning-caused fires Tuesday and another nine lightning-caused fires Wednesday....
Governor takes heat for stand on drilling When Gov. Bill Ritter asked the helicopter pilot to make an impromptu landing on a mountain in northwest Colorado, little did he know he would anger Moffat County commissioners and stir up his choppy relationship with the oil and gas industry. Last week, the county's three commissioners, all Republicans, fired off a scathing letter to the Democratic governor, criticizing his unannounced July 3 visit during a tour of oil and gas drilling sites in the region. He subsequently requested that the federal government exempt the scenic 77,000-acre Vermillion Basin from natural gas drilling. Ritter's request, the commissioners say, ignores years of hard work by local, federal and state agencies and activist groups to cobble together a drilling plan for the environmentally sensitive basin, which contains billions of dollars of natural gas reserves....
Erosion on Alaska coast eats into old oil wells Old Alaskan oil wells could be swallowed by the ocean as rising temperatures speed up erosion of the state's Arctic coastline. The disappearance of sea ice that shields against storm waves, and of permafrost that holds shorelines together, is eating away at the coast of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study. Erosion rates have risen steeply along the coastline of the reserve — where the Bush administration wants to increase oil drilling — possibly due to warmer weather, the study showed. "Coastal erosion has more than doubled along a segment of the Arctic Alaska coast during the past half century," it said, adding the land loss was being magnified by the conversion of freshwater "thermokarst" lakes into saltwater bays as they become inundated with waters from the Arctic Ocean. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the reserve, has identified about 30 old oil exploration wells that need to be cleaned and plugged before the sea claims them....
Wild horses found dead on Nevada range Wild horses managed by the Bureau of Land Management were found dead late last week and additional horses have died since the discovery. The cause of death for 40 wild horses is under investigation. The horses died near a water source in the extreme northwest portion of the herd management area, about 210 miles northwest of Las Vegas, which is within the U.S. Air Force Nevada Test and Training Range. The military alerted BLM late Friday that they had seen some dead horses. The area is restricted to public access and the Air Force is providing access to the BLM. On Saturday, BLM went to the site and found 25 dead wild horses and an antelope. A water pond on a dry lake bed is suspected to be the source of the problem....
Bills Calls for Meat to be Labeled by Origin An ordinary trip to the supermarket meat department could turn into an experience in international comparison-shopping under House legislation scheduled to be debated today that for the first time would require meat products to be labeled by their country of origin. The farm bill House members will consider includes a provision mandating that meat -- including beef, pork and lamb -- include a label stating where it came from. Only meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the United States would be eligible for a domestic label. The measure aims to enforce a five-year-old law that has already been implemented for seafood but was delayed after meat packers, pork producers and grocery chains claimed it would create a costly bureaucratic and record-keeping nightmare. The issue reemerged this year after reports of safety problems with food and products from China spurred American consumers to seek more information about what they eat....
Commercial feed named as cause of Canada's 10th case of mad cow The mature dairy cow that became Canada's 10th case of mad cow disease was probably infected by commercial feed that it received after weaning, says a report by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency released Wednesday. The Holstein, which was destroyed earlier this year, had spent its entire life on the same dairy farm in the Fraser Valley. The most likely cause was commercial feed, which the cow would have eaten only during its first year, that got cross-contaminated with prohibited materials -- rendered products from other ruminant animals. The most likely source was cross-contamination of the heifer feed either at the feed mill or during transportation. The CFIA investigated 155 of the 66-month-old cow's herdmates, and their feed. "Only cattle in the feed cohort were implicated in the investigation," said Dr. Connie Argue, an epidemiologist and scientific adviser to the CFIA. Of those cattle, five have since been slaughtered for unrelated reasons. Another 87 had already been slaughtered -- and of those, five had tested negative for BSE. There were 23 animals that could not be traced, and the remaining 41 live animals have been quarantined and will be killed in the next few months....
Mule's foal fools genetics When it reportedly happened in Morocco five years ago, locals feared it signaled the end of the world. In Albania in 1994, it was thought to have unleashed the spawn of the devil on a small village. But on a Grand Mesa ranch, the once-in-a-million, genetically "impossible" occurrence of a mule giving birth has only drawn keen interest from the scientific world. That, and a stream of the locally curious driving up from the small town of Colbran to check out and snap pictures of a frisky, huge-eared, gangly-legged foal. "No one has run away in fear yet," laughed Laura Amos, the owner of the foal, along with her husband, Larry. The foal is being called a miracle because mules aren't supposed to give birth. Mules are a hybrid of two species - a female horse and a male donkey - so they end up with an odd number of chromosomes. A horse has 64 chromosomes and a donkey has 62. A mule inherits 63. An even number of chromosomes is needed to divide into pairs and reproduce. But those numbers added up to implausibility in late April when the Amoses awoke to a braying and whinnying ruckus in the corral behind their house....
Cowgirl is not horsing around You could say the 28-year-old Mussell was born in the wrong time period. She would have been right at home with the great cowgirl bronc riders of the 1920s and '30s: Tad Lucas, Ruth Roach and Alice Greenough, a.k.a. the Women of the West. The women were talented bronc riders and trick riders who drew headlines all over the world not only for their style but also for their daring. They competed before ranchers and kings in places ranging from Cheyenne, Wyo., to Wembley Stadium in London. Eventually, women roughstock riders were phased out of rodeo. That is, until 2000, when Mussell discovered there were no rules preventing women from competing in roughstock events in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Now, she is the only professional female saddle bronc rider in both the PRCA and the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association. She filled her permit in 2003, which meant she won over a $1,000 in a year. In 2005, she moved from her native Canada to Stephenville, Texas, and now is competing on near equal footing with many of the men in the Texas Circuit, primarily at the weekly Mesquite Championship Rodeo....
FLE
U.S. airports warned of possible attack "dry runs" Terrorists may be conducting "dry runs" at U.S. airports to test security before a possible attack, according to a Transportation Security Administration warning to airport screeners. In at least four incidents over the past year, security screeners have found items in carry-on luggage -- blocks of cheese taped to electrical components, for example -- that resembled homemade bombs, according to the TSA's July 20 memo. "Past terrorist attacks and plots show that such testing generally indicates attacks will soon follow," said the internal memo, which was posted on the Internet by NBC News on Tuesday. None of the passengers in question has been linked with criminal or terrorist organizations so far, the memo said....
Judge: Spying Lawsuits Can Proceed A federal judge on Tuesday declined to dismiss lawsuits filed by five states seeking information on a federal government warrantless wiretap program, keeping the cases alive pending an appeals court decision. U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker declined to address the federal government's main argument that the cases should be tossed out because sensitive homeland security secrets could be exposed. Instead, Walker said he would wait until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on the issue. That court is scheduled to hear arguments on the matter on Aug. 15 in San Francisco. Cindy Cohn, chief lawyer at Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil rights group that will argue the case against the government in the appeals court, said Tuesday's ruling was "significant because the government wanted to kill these cases and the judge refused." The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, has already ruled that the federal government can invoke security arguments to toss out a wiretap lawsuit filed in Detroit....
Experts Debate Merits of REAL ID Proponents of the REAL ID Act say identification security measures included in the law are essential to improving homeland security, but critics insist that it will be costly, ineffective and lead to privacy abuse. The National Governor's Association on Monday asked Congress to fully fund the law, which was passed in response to the 9/11 terrorists attacks. Several states, including South Carolina, Oklahoma and New Hampshire, have rejected the federal act. The REAL ID Act of 2005 mandates that by December 2009 states comply with a set of federal standards for driver's licenses and maintain a database that can be accessed by other states. Among those promoting the measure is the Coalition for a Secure Driver's License, whose spokesman, Neil Berro, called it "a simple matter of common sense." But Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, told a Capitol Hill briefing last week that identity-based security systems "don't work well against committed threats." "You can do all sorts of things to try to secure your country, but the real question is how motivated your attacker is," he said, adding that illegal immigrants and terrorists alike will get around identity-based security. "Who knows who else would come in once the system is broken," Harper said. Harper argued that although the law will cost more than $17 billion to implement, it will provide little improvement in security, while at the same time increasing the risk of identity theft and privacy violations. "Throwing more money at REAL ID at this point is just throwing good money after bad," he said....
Border reform not a priority for Democrats Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, an architect of the Democratic campaign that regained control of the House last year, says his party will not attempt comprehensive immigration reform until at least the second term of a prospective Democratic president. The congressman's statement was reported by a Hispanic activist and confirmed by Mr. Emanuel. "Congressman Rahm Emanuel said to me two weeks ago, there is no way this legislation is happening in the Democratic House, in the Democratic Senate, in the Democratic presidency, in the first term," Juan Salgado, board chairman of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) at its annual convention last weekend....
Report for local police explains immigration issues The nation's largest association of police chiefs is distributing an unusual primer on immigration enforcement to thousands of law enforcement agencies, saying the absence of a national immigration policy has left local communities with an "overwhelming" burden. The publication by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) discusses immigration laws and issues, including day-laborer hiring sites and local collaboration with federal immigration officials. It stops short of urging local authorities to enforce federal immigration laws but says agencies can no longer ignore the local troubles posed by the explosive growth of undocumented immigrants. "Because there has been very little federal assistance on this issue, it's been pushed down to us," IACP President Joseph Carter said. "Our frustration is that this has now become an issue for our membership." Immigration enforcement, primarily the domain of the federal government, has been a particularly sensitive issue for local communities....
Virginia eyes plan to deport illegals Virginia lawmakers yesterday proposed a mandate for state sheriffs and jail wardens to initiate deportation proceedings for illegal aliens. The proposal was one of several made by a State Crime Commission task force trying to crack down on illegal immigration. Right now, police and jail officials must wait for federal immigration agents to decide whether to take custody of a suspect. Task force members also recommended that Virginia adopt a uniform, statewide policy on dealing with illegal aliens but said they need a better understanding of federal law, costs and immigration statistics before making a final decision....
U.S. airports warned of possible attack "dry runs" Terrorists may be conducting "dry runs" at U.S. airports to test security before a possible attack, according to a Transportation Security Administration warning to airport screeners. In at least four incidents over the past year, security screeners have found items in carry-on luggage -- blocks of cheese taped to electrical components, for example -- that resembled homemade bombs, according to the TSA's July 20 memo. "Past terrorist attacks and plots show that such testing generally indicates attacks will soon follow," said the internal memo, which was posted on the Internet by NBC News on Tuesday. None of the passengers in question has been linked with criminal or terrorist organizations so far, the memo said....
Judge: Spying Lawsuits Can Proceed A federal judge on Tuesday declined to dismiss lawsuits filed by five states seeking information on a federal government warrantless wiretap program, keeping the cases alive pending an appeals court decision. U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker declined to address the federal government's main argument that the cases should be tossed out because sensitive homeland security secrets could be exposed. Instead, Walker said he would wait until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on the issue. That court is scheduled to hear arguments on the matter on Aug. 15 in San Francisco. Cindy Cohn, chief lawyer at Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil rights group that will argue the case against the government in the appeals court, said Tuesday's ruling was "significant because the government wanted to kill these cases and the judge refused." The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, has already ruled that the federal government can invoke security arguments to toss out a wiretap lawsuit filed in Detroit....
Experts Debate Merits of REAL ID Proponents of the REAL ID Act say identification security measures included in the law are essential to improving homeland security, but critics insist that it will be costly, ineffective and lead to privacy abuse. The National Governor's Association on Monday asked Congress to fully fund the law, which was passed in response to the 9/11 terrorists attacks. Several states, including South Carolina, Oklahoma and New Hampshire, have rejected the federal act. The REAL ID Act of 2005 mandates that by December 2009 states comply with a set of federal standards for driver's licenses and maintain a database that can be accessed by other states. Among those promoting the measure is the Coalition for a Secure Driver's License, whose spokesman, Neil Berro, called it "a simple matter of common sense." But Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, told a Capitol Hill briefing last week that identity-based security systems "don't work well against committed threats." "You can do all sorts of things to try to secure your country, but the real question is how motivated your attacker is," he said, adding that illegal immigrants and terrorists alike will get around identity-based security. "Who knows who else would come in once the system is broken," Harper said. Harper argued that although the law will cost more than $17 billion to implement, it will provide little improvement in security, while at the same time increasing the risk of identity theft and privacy violations. "Throwing more money at REAL ID at this point is just throwing good money after bad," he said....
Border reform not a priority for Democrats Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, an architect of the Democratic campaign that regained control of the House last year, says his party will not attempt comprehensive immigration reform until at least the second term of a prospective Democratic president. The congressman's statement was reported by a Hispanic activist and confirmed by Mr. Emanuel. "Congressman Rahm Emanuel said to me two weeks ago, there is no way this legislation is happening in the Democratic House, in the Democratic Senate, in the Democratic presidency, in the first term," Juan Salgado, board chairman of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) at its annual convention last weekend....
Report for local police explains immigration issues The nation's largest association of police chiefs is distributing an unusual primer on immigration enforcement to thousands of law enforcement agencies, saying the absence of a national immigration policy has left local communities with an "overwhelming" burden. The publication by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) discusses immigration laws and issues, including day-laborer hiring sites and local collaboration with federal immigration officials. It stops short of urging local authorities to enforce federal immigration laws but says agencies can no longer ignore the local troubles posed by the explosive growth of undocumented immigrants. "Because there has been very little federal assistance on this issue, it's been pushed down to us," IACP President Joseph Carter said. "Our frustration is that this has now become an issue for our membership." Immigration enforcement, primarily the domain of the federal government, has been a particularly sensitive issue for local communities....
Virginia eyes plan to deport illegals Virginia lawmakers yesterday proposed a mandate for state sheriffs and jail wardens to initiate deportation proceedings for illegal aliens. The proposal was one of several made by a State Crime Commission task force trying to crack down on illegal immigration. Right now, police and jail officials must wait for federal immigration agents to decide whether to take custody of a suspect. Task force members also recommended that Virginia adopt a uniform, statewide policy on dealing with illegal aliens but said they need a better understanding of federal law, costs and immigration statistics before making a final decision....
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
White House Delays Whale Protection Rule The White House is currently delaying the completion of a final rule intended to protect a critically endangered whale species. Critics are concerned the Bush administration is giving special access to business interests and overemphasizing economic considerations in its review of the rule. The delay of the whale protection rule is indicative of a larger problem in the White House regulatory review process. The North Atlantic right whale is a large species native to the waters off the coast of America's eastern seaboard. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), "The population is believed to be at or less than 300 individuals, making it one of the most critically endangered large whale species in the world." The species is protected under both the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Although the species has benefited from federal protections for years, it is still having difficulty recovering. Human activity is the primary impediment to species recovery. Collisions between whales and shipping vessels are a particularly serious problem. According to NOAA, "One of the greatest known causes of deaths of North Atlantic right whales from human activities is ship strikes." In response, NOAA began working in 1999 on a federal rule to limit the speed of large shipping vessels traveling along the eastern seaboard. The speed limits would vary based on geographic location and season....
Humans clearly linked to rising rainfall, study says A landmark Canadian-led study has drawn a clear link between human activity since the early 20th century and increased rainfall across much of the Northern Hemisphere -- a finding that comes in the midst of flooding crises in Britain and China, and which appears to confirm a key argument about human-induced global climate change. "For the first time, climate scientists have clearly detected the human fingerprint on changing global precipitation patterns over the past century," the researchers said Monday in a statement, adding that their team has "determined that human-induced climate change has caused most of the observed increase in precipitation north of 50 degrees latitude, a region that includes Canada, Russia and Europe." In an article to be published later this week in the journal Nature, the four-nation team headed by two Toronto-based climate scientists with Environment Canada compared 75 years of rainfall records from around the world with the precipitation predictions in nearly 100 computer simulations based on 14 separate global climate models. The researchers concluded that at least 50 per cent, and as much as 85 per cent, of average rainfall increases at northern latitudes between 1925 and 1999 could be attributed to human activity....
U.S., Canada, Mexico vow energy tech co-operation Canada, the United States and Mexico pledged to co-operate on developing energy technology on Monday in an agreement that could reduce trade barriers to alternative energy development. The countries' top energy officials, who signed the five-year deal following a meeting on Canada's Pacific Coast, said it should also promote joint research in areas such as nuclear energy and renewable fuels. Promoting renewable and more energy-efficient technology will increase North America's energy security and help the environment, the officials said. The countries agreed in 2001 to promote energy security in the region, but a new pact was needed to provide a "formal framework" to resolving issues such as ownership of intellectual property rights, the officials said....
Crazy For Yellowcake In Paradox Valley, Colorado After a hiatus of more than 20 years, nuclear energy is resurgent. Worldwide, more than 130 new nuclear plants are under construction, and momentum is building toward new plants in the United States, where no reactors have come online since 1996. The result is a uranium boom in the Southwest: Since 2000, 175 U.S. firms have jumped into the market, and exploration expenditures have more than tripled to $185 million a year. In Colorado's San Miguel County, south of Nucla, some 1,731 new claims were staked last year; in all of 2002, there were 3. At the vanguard of the rush are the dilapidated towns whose residents reaped the rewards—and paid the price—of the last boom.....
Al Gore's Whine: What Really Happened on the Mall Now it's official. Global warming alarmism has indeed "jumped the shark", as revealed by the dismal failure of the Live Earth concerts to galvanize the general public. In particular, the puny turnout in Washington, DC, where Gore himself personally showed up, has proved an acute embarrassment. But although Al Gore's Live Earth concerts have failed in the ratings, he appears to have partially succeeded at doing what does best: shifting blame for his woes to his political opponents and getting the media to go along. Since last weekend, the Net has been abuzz with stories of how Gore overcame Republicans who allegedly did everything they could to stop the concert from being performed on Washington's National Mall. The next day, Gore again took a shot at the opponents who he said denied him the use of Washington's famous Mall - the area surrounding the Smithsonian Institution museums between the Capitol and the Washington Monument - and the press again largely parroted his claim. In his speech at National Museum of the American Indian last Saturday, which the Paris-based wire service AFP called "a thinly veiled hit on members of President George W. Bush's Republican party," Gore declared, "Some who don't understand what is now at stake tried to stop this event on the Mall." To start with, the Washington "show" consisted of country stars Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood added to preexisting events with Indian artists. As Carter Wood observed at the National Association of Manufacturers' blog ShopFloor.org: "The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian had already scheduled a day of events -- including the Indian Summer Showcase 2007, which appeared to be absorbed into ‘Mother Earth - In the Spirit of the Live Earth Concerts.' There were already going to be performances, drum circles and spiritual/environmental speeches by tribal leaders. Al Gore and the Smithsonian's organizers just figured a way to add Gore's overtly political address and the Garth Brooks/Trisha Yearwood performance to an existing event." But Gore's most blatant falsehood - as phony as a three-dollar carbon credit - is his claim that Republican lawmakers or global warming "deniers" prevented him from holding the concert on the Mall. This spread through the left-wing blogosphere like the proverbial wild fire, with entries on ThinkProgress claiming that Republicans "had tried to block the event from happening in DC" and on Daily Kos declaring that "[d]espite Republican efforts ...to deny this, Friday Al Gore announced LiveEarthDC." In truth, the only thing some GOP lawmakers objected to was an unusual last-minute effort to hold the concert on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, after its organizers discovered that Mall had already been booked for other events. Use of the Mall had been denied to Gore and his colleagues for one reason: they failed to apply for the proper permits before other parties had. And one of the groups "blocking" Live Earth's use of the Mall happened to be the Smithsonian Institution itself....
Controversy erupts over Endangered Species Act From the day it became law 34 years ago, the federal Endangered Species Act has been politically hot – a flash point of contention between defenders of nature and advocates of economic progress. Now, the ESA is embroiled in new controversy. Two different government entities are investigating decisions by Bush administration officials related to species recovery. In one, the US Interior Department is reviewing the scientific integrity of decisions under the law made by a political appointee, who recently resigned under fire. At the same time, Congress is investigating evidence that Vice President Dick Cheney interfered with decisions involving water in California and Oregon that resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of Klamath River salmon, some of which were listed as "threatened" species. Both episodes illustrate what critics say is the Bush administration's resistance to the law. During President Bush's time in the White House, the listing of endangered and threatened species has slowed down considerably. It's a fraction of the number his father made in four years (58 new listings compared with 231 by the senior Bush), and most of those were court-ordered. New funding for protection of such species has been cut as well. As a result, 278 "candidate species" are waiting to join the list of 1,352 plant and animal species now listed as "endangered" or "threatened."....
Farm Bureau sets up carbon-trading unit Iowa Farm Bureau Federation hopes to expand the market for carbon credits, saying it will help reduce greenhouse gases and boost farmers' bottom lines. The Farm Bureau announced Tuesday that it has launched a wholly owned subsidiary called AgraGate Climate Credits Corp. The company will buy credits from farmers in Iowa and other states who use no-till practices or other methods that absorb carbon dioxide from the air. AgraGate will sell the credits at the Chicago Climate Exchange to companies that emit the gases believed to cause climate change. Interest in trading carbon credits has gained popularity, especially as Congress considers limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Factories and power plants could buy carbon credits more cheaply than investing in cleaner facilities. The Farm Bureau has had a carbon offset aggregation program since 2003 and now has about 1 million acres enrolled in a carbon credits program with farmers and others in 16 states....
River act heading to murky waters Some of Utah's most beautiful rivers and tributaries have a chance to earn the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers designation, which could protect them from dams and impacts from oil and gas drilling while preserving the scenery and outdoor recreation. Whether they will, though, is another question entirely. It has taken many years for the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management to take the steps mandated by the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The Forest Service has completed a statewide assessment of more than 85 rivers and the BLM is working to finish a district-by-district evaluation of its waterways. Both agencies hope to finish their work within the next year and a half. At the same time those efforts are moving forward, however, the state's rural counties are fighting hard to avoid the federal protections they say are unnecessary and would only interfere with grazing, livestock operations, water rights and energy development. The resistance could scuttle the entire effort, because county support is considered critical to necessary congressional approval. In fact, one county's objections, voiced by a powerful anti-wilderness official, have been so strenuous that they prompted the feds to add significant limitations to the 40-year-old law that will affect any state's future attempts to name more wild and scenic rivers....
Water Authority Plays Hardball With Rural Nevadans The Southern Nevada Water Authority is playing hardball with rural Nevadans who are opposed to a multi-billion dollar pipeline project. Residents in White Pine County and elsewhere remain opposed to any plan that would take groundwater from under their feet and send it to Las Vegas. One way SNWA is eliminating the opposition is by buying them out, and for huge sums. Three years ago this week, Rancher Brandon Humphries told the I-Team he vigorously opposed any plan that would siphon groundwater from White Pine County and pipe it hundreds of miles to Las Vegas. Humphries said, "I don't like the idea of my place drying up for another condo or casino in Las Vegas." He urged his neighbors to fight to the end against SNWA. That was then. Today, Rancher Humprhies is an employee of the SNWA. He sold his 880-acre spread for more than $6 million and stayed on as manager....
Forest Service says dam must be removed An unstable dam and its contaminated mine waste near the Blackfoot River headwaters must be removed and corporate money should pay the bill, the U.S. Forest Service said Tuesday in a victory for environmental groups. The Mike Horse Dam built in 1941 at the headwaters of the Blackfoot, the river celebrated in the Norman MacLean novel "A River Runs Through It," failed during a 1975 flood that washed the waste downstream, killing fish and other aquatic life in the upper 10 miles of the river. The dam is "a ticking time bomb," Bruce Farling of the conservation group Trout Unlimited said Tuesday. The group began pressing for dam removal in 1987, Farling said. Last year, the Forest Service released six Mike Horse options, ranging from no action to full removal. This week, the agency opted for full removal....
Disease threatens bighorn sheep Bighorn sheep in the Hells Canyon area of northeast Oregon are undergoing a die-off that researchers believe could be a result of bacterial pneumonia passed from domestic sheep. "I don't have a figure on how many sheep have died at the present time, but I know that the lamb survival is just terrible," said Ron Anglin, the chief of the Wildlife Division at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "And some of the lambs that we've collected as part of this study are showing positive for the Pasteurella complex. And if they've got it, they won't make it." The Hells Canyon sheep are part of an introduction effort that has been ongoing for more than a decade, said Craig Ely, the department's Northwest Region manager. Because of the domestic-bighorn disease transmission possibility, Fish and Wildlife officials along with those from the national and Oregon chapter of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep are arguing against sheep grazing agreements on federal lands where the two would intersect....
Court upholds salvage logging ruling The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling halting salvage logging on about 960 acres burned by the 2002 Timbered Rock fire in the Elk Creek drainage near Trail. In a 2-1 ruling released Tuesday, the judges in San Francisco agreed with U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken that the Medford District of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management violated its own rules and federal law when it decided to cut some 23.4 million board feet of timber in the burned area. "This is a pretty resounding rebuke for the BLM and the Bush administration," said George Sexton, conservation director for the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, one of five environmental groups that sued the federal government to halt the logging. Aiken issued a permanent injunction late in 2004 to halt the salvage logging on BLM land from the nearly 27,000-acre lightning-caused fire. She agreed with environmental groups that had asserted the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan requires late-successional reserves be set aside to preserve habitat for old-growth species, such as salmon and spotted owls. She also concluded the agency did not factor into its plan the impact of new roads and salvage logging on adjacent 6,000 acres of private land....
Continental Divide trail plan troubles users A U.S. Forest Service move to amend the 1985 Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDNST) plan has sent waves of concern rippling through some user groups. Under the proposed directive, the Forest Service could bar mountain bikes on sections of the 3,100-mile trail where they are currently allowed in nonwilderness areas, according to an action alert sent out by the International Mountain Bicycling Association. According to the association's website — www.imba.com — the Forest Service directive should not discriminate against bicycling on the Continental Divide Trail. The mountain bike group sees the comment period as a chance to ask the Forest Service to include bicycling as a central focus and purpose for the trail. “It is unfair to discriminate against bicycling when scientific research has shown its impacts to be similar to hiking and less than equestrian use,” the IMBA website states....
U.S. Senators back mining project through bill U.S. Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain reintroduced legislation Tuesday to allow Resolution Copper Co. to develop an underground mine near Superior that could tap one of the largest deposits of copper ore ever discovered in North America. However, some residents of Superior and the San Carlos Apache Tribe object to the land exchange, believing the project in Pinal County would damage a scenic area that has strong connections with Apache history. Similar bills were introduced in each of the past two years but failed. Officials of Resolution Copper, a unit of London-based Rio Tinto Group, have said that the land deal must be approved this year or the project cannot proceed. The bill introduced Tuesday by the two Arizona Republicans would give Resolution Copper about 3,025 federally-owned acres in the “Oak Flat” area three miles east of Superior. In return, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management would get from Resolution seven parcels totaling 4,583 acres of environmentally-sensitive land throughout Arizona....
Spotted fever cases increase in Campbell County Five cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever have been documented in Campbell County since April, more than half the statewide total. State Public Health Veterinarian Karl Musgrave said most of the Campbell County cases are people who work in Wyoming's oil and gas fields. "We'd seen a few cases every once in a while, but nothing like what has been seen more recently," Musgrave said. Tick season usually begins in April and peaks in May when there's still sufficient moisture for the common species out West, the Rocky Mountain wood tick. But University of Wyoming entomologist Jack Lloyd suspects that an eastern species - the American dog tick - might be to be blame for the midsummer spotted fever cases. "We have collected both species in Wyoming, and with the American dog tick you might have Rocky Mountain spotted fever a little longer into the summer than with the Rocky Mountain wood tick," he said....
Voracious Jumbo Squid Invade California Jumbo squid that can grow up to 7 feet long and weigh more than 110 pounds is invading central California waters and preying on local anchovy, hake and other commercial fish populations, according to a study published Tuesday. An aggressive predator, the Humboldt squid—or Dosidicus gigas—can change its eating habits to consume the food supply favored by tuna and sharks, its closest competitors, according to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. "Having a new, voracious predator set up shop here in California may be yet another thing for fishermen to compete with," said the study's co-author, Stanford University researcher Louis Zeidberg. "That said, if a squid saw a human they would jet the other way." The jumbo squid used to be found only in the Pacific Ocean's warmest stretches near the equator. In the last 16 years, it has expanded its territory throughout California waters, and squid have even been found in the icy waters off Alaska, Zeidberg said....
Ted Turner at home where the buffalo roam Ted Turner commiserated with his fellow bison ranchers over the tough times they've endured, explained how his restaurant chain is helping to build demand for buffalo meat and then led his audience at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in singing "Home on the Range." About 20 minutes later, Turner, wearing a western shirt, blue jeans, boots and a bolo tie, was inducted into the National Buffalo Foundation Hall of Fame. Turner spoke at the opening event of the third International Bison Conference, which runs through Saturday, July 28. Turner owns 42,000 head of buffalo on 13 ranches in Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and South Dakota. His South Dakota ranch lies west of Fort Pierre. Easily the largest buffalo rancher in the world, Turner admitted that he didn't eat buffalo meat for the first 15 years he owned buffalo as he built a fledgling herd in South Carolina....
Report: USDA sent $1.1B to dead farmers The Agriculture Department sent $1.1 billion in farm payments to more than 170,000 dead people over seven years, congressional investigators said in a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office. The findings come as the House of Representatives prepares to debate and pass farm legislation this week that would govern subsidies and the department's programs for the next five years. GAO auditors reviewed payments from 1999 through 2005 in the report, which was requested by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. "It's unconscionable that the Department of Agriculture would think that a dead person was actively engaged in the business of farming," Grassley said. "(The) USDA has made farm payments to estates more than two years after recipients died, without determining, as its regulations require, whether the estates were kept open to receive these payments," the report said. John Johnson, a deputy administrator for the Farm Service Agency, said there is no indication that the payments were improper, since some rules allow estates to continue receiving money after a two-year grace period. The department is working with the Social Security Administration to improve its record-keeping, he said.
Bringing Moos and Oinks Into the Food Debate THE first farm animal Gene Baur ever snatched from a stockyard was a lamb he named Hilda. That was 1986. She’s now buried under a little tombstone near the center of Farm Sanctuary, 180 acres of vegan nirvana here in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Back then, Mr. Baur was living in a school bus near a tofu factory in Pennsylvania and selling vegetarian hot dogs at Grateful Dead concerts to support his animal rescue operation. Now, more than a thousand animals once destined for the slaughterhouse live here and on another Farm Sanctuary property in California. Farm Sanctuary has a $5.7 million budget, fed in part by a donor club named after his beloved Hilda. Supporters can sign up for a Farm Sanctuary MasterCard. A $200-a-seat gala dinner in Los Angeles this fall will feature seitan Wellington and stars like Emily Deschanel and Forest Whitaker. As Farm Sanctuary has grown, so too has its influence....
All-digital hospital for horses opens A new state-of-the-art medical and surgical center for horses in the Rocky Mountains has opened at a prominent equine training and breeding center west of here. CSR Equine specializes in lameness and reproductive care but also provides emergency and general health services for horses, as well as alternative medicine like acupuncture, said veterinarian John Smart, who leads the center. "We're building a world-class team with advanced capabilities to serve the greater Rocky Mountain West," he said. Area ranchers, breeders and horse owners would normally haul their animals to Denver or Washington state for similar care, spokeswoman Bridget Cavanaugh said. The 10,000-square-foot hospital is an affiliate of Copper Spring Ranch, a leading producer of rodeo and performance horses near Four Corners. It opened last week, with veterinarians performing the first surgery - an ovariectomy - on a mare July 18 using high-definition laparoscopy equipment normally reserved for human medicine, Cavanaugh said....
White House Delays Whale Protection Rule The White House is currently delaying the completion of a final rule intended to protect a critically endangered whale species. Critics are concerned the Bush administration is giving special access to business interests and overemphasizing economic considerations in its review of the rule. The delay of the whale protection rule is indicative of a larger problem in the White House regulatory review process. The North Atlantic right whale is a large species native to the waters off the coast of America's eastern seaboard. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), "The population is believed to be at or less than 300 individuals, making it one of the most critically endangered large whale species in the world." The species is protected under both the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Although the species has benefited from federal protections for years, it is still having difficulty recovering. Human activity is the primary impediment to species recovery. Collisions between whales and shipping vessels are a particularly serious problem. According to NOAA, "One of the greatest known causes of deaths of North Atlantic right whales from human activities is ship strikes." In response, NOAA began working in 1999 on a federal rule to limit the speed of large shipping vessels traveling along the eastern seaboard. The speed limits would vary based on geographic location and season....
Humans clearly linked to rising rainfall, study says A landmark Canadian-led study has drawn a clear link between human activity since the early 20th century and increased rainfall across much of the Northern Hemisphere -- a finding that comes in the midst of flooding crises in Britain and China, and which appears to confirm a key argument about human-induced global climate change. "For the first time, climate scientists have clearly detected the human fingerprint on changing global precipitation patterns over the past century," the researchers said Monday in a statement, adding that their team has "determined that human-induced climate change has caused most of the observed increase in precipitation north of 50 degrees latitude, a region that includes Canada, Russia and Europe." In an article to be published later this week in the journal Nature, the four-nation team headed by two Toronto-based climate scientists with Environment Canada compared 75 years of rainfall records from around the world with the precipitation predictions in nearly 100 computer simulations based on 14 separate global climate models. The researchers concluded that at least 50 per cent, and as much as 85 per cent, of average rainfall increases at northern latitudes between 1925 and 1999 could be attributed to human activity....
U.S., Canada, Mexico vow energy tech co-operation Canada, the United States and Mexico pledged to co-operate on developing energy technology on Monday in an agreement that could reduce trade barriers to alternative energy development. The countries' top energy officials, who signed the five-year deal following a meeting on Canada's Pacific Coast, said it should also promote joint research in areas such as nuclear energy and renewable fuels. Promoting renewable and more energy-efficient technology will increase North America's energy security and help the environment, the officials said. The countries agreed in 2001 to promote energy security in the region, but a new pact was needed to provide a "formal framework" to resolving issues such as ownership of intellectual property rights, the officials said....
Crazy For Yellowcake In Paradox Valley, Colorado After a hiatus of more than 20 years, nuclear energy is resurgent. Worldwide, more than 130 new nuclear plants are under construction, and momentum is building toward new plants in the United States, where no reactors have come online since 1996. The result is a uranium boom in the Southwest: Since 2000, 175 U.S. firms have jumped into the market, and exploration expenditures have more than tripled to $185 million a year. In Colorado's San Miguel County, south of Nucla, some 1,731 new claims were staked last year; in all of 2002, there were 3. At the vanguard of the rush are the dilapidated towns whose residents reaped the rewards—and paid the price—of the last boom.....
Al Gore's Whine: What Really Happened on the Mall Now it's official. Global warming alarmism has indeed "jumped the shark", as revealed by the dismal failure of the Live Earth concerts to galvanize the general public. In particular, the puny turnout in Washington, DC, where Gore himself personally showed up, has proved an acute embarrassment. But although Al Gore's Live Earth concerts have failed in the ratings, he appears to have partially succeeded at doing what does best: shifting blame for his woes to his political opponents and getting the media to go along. Since last weekend, the Net has been abuzz with stories of how Gore overcame Republicans who allegedly did everything they could to stop the concert from being performed on Washington's National Mall. The next day, Gore again took a shot at the opponents who he said denied him the use of Washington's famous Mall - the area surrounding the Smithsonian Institution museums between the Capitol and the Washington Monument - and the press again largely parroted his claim. In his speech at National Museum of the American Indian last Saturday, which the Paris-based wire service AFP called "a thinly veiled hit on members of President George W. Bush's Republican party," Gore declared, "Some who don't understand what is now at stake tried to stop this event on the Mall." To start with, the Washington "show" consisted of country stars Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood added to preexisting events with Indian artists. As Carter Wood observed at the National Association of Manufacturers' blog ShopFloor.org: "The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian had already scheduled a day of events -- including the Indian Summer Showcase 2007, which appeared to be absorbed into ‘Mother Earth - In the Spirit of the Live Earth Concerts.' There were already going to be performances, drum circles and spiritual/environmental speeches by tribal leaders. Al Gore and the Smithsonian's organizers just figured a way to add Gore's overtly political address and the Garth Brooks/Trisha Yearwood performance to an existing event." But Gore's most blatant falsehood - as phony as a three-dollar carbon credit - is his claim that Republican lawmakers or global warming "deniers" prevented him from holding the concert on the Mall. This spread through the left-wing blogosphere like the proverbial wild fire, with entries on ThinkProgress claiming that Republicans "had tried to block the event from happening in DC" and on Daily Kos declaring that "[d]espite Republican efforts ...to deny this, Friday Al Gore announced LiveEarthDC." In truth, the only thing some GOP lawmakers objected to was an unusual last-minute effort to hold the concert on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, after its organizers discovered that Mall had already been booked for other events. Use of the Mall had been denied to Gore and his colleagues for one reason: they failed to apply for the proper permits before other parties had. And one of the groups "blocking" Live Earth's use of the Mall happened to be the Smithsonian Institution itself....
Controversy erupts over Endangered Species Act From the day it became law 34 years ago, the federal Endangered Species Act has been politically hot – a flash point of contention between defenders of nature and advocates of economic progress. Now, the ESA is embroiled in new controversy. Two different government entities are investigating decisions by Bush administration officials related to species recovery. In one, the US Interior Department is reviewing the scientific integrity of decisions under the law made by a political appointee, who recently resigned under fire. At the same time, Congress is investigating evidence that Vice President Dick Cheney interfered with decisions involving water in California and Oregon that resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of Klamath River salmon, some of which were listed as "threatened" species. Both episodes illustrate what critics say is the Bush administration's resistance to the law. During President Bush's time in the White House, the listing of endangered and threatened species has slowed down considerably. It's a fraction of the number his father made in four years (58 new listings compared with 231 by the senior Bush), and most of those were court-ordered. New funding for protection of such species has been cut as well. As a result, 278 "candidate species" are waiting to join the list of 1,352 plant and animal species now listed as "endangered" or "threatened."....
Farm Bureau sets up carbon-trading unit Iowa Farm Bureau Federation hopes to expand the market for carbon credits, saying it will help reduce greenhouse gases and boost farmers' bottom lines. The Farm Bureau announced Tuesday that it has launched a wholly owned subsidiary called AgraGate Climate Credits Corp. The company will buy credits from farmers in Iowa and other states who use no-till practices or other methods that absorb carbon dioxide from the air. AgraGate will sell the credits at the Chicago Climate Exchange to companies that emit the gases believed to cause climate change. Interest in trading carbon credits has gained popularity, especially as Congress considers limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Factories and power plants could buy carbon credits more cheaply than investing in cleaner facilities. The Farm Bureau has had a carbon offset aggregation program since 2003 and now has about 1 million acres enrolled in a carbon credits program with farmers and others in 16 states....
River act heading to murky waters Some of Utah's most beautiful rivers and tributaries have a chance to earn the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers designation, which could protect them from dams and impacts from oil and gas drilling while preserving the scenery and outdoor recreation. Whether they will, though, is another question entirely. It has taken many years for the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management to take the steps mandated by the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The Forest Service has completed a statewide assessment of more than 85 rivers and the BLM is working to finish a district-by-district evaluation of its waterways. Both agencies hope to finish their work within the next year and a half. At the same time those efforts are moving forward, however, the state's rural counties are fighting hard to avoid the federal protections they say are unnecessary and would only interfere with grazing, livestock operations, water rights and energy development. The resistance could scuttle the entire effort, because county support is considered critical to necessary congressional approval. In fact, one county's objections, voiced by a powerful anti-wilderness official, have been so strenuous that they prompted the feds to add significant limitations to the 40-year-old law that will affect any state's future attempts to name more wild and scenic rivers....
Water Authority Plays Hardball With Rural Nevadans The Southern Nevada Water Authority is playing hardball with rural Nevadans who are opposed to a multi-billion dollar pipeline project. Residents in White Pine County and elsewhere remain opposed to any plan that would take groundwater from under their feet and send it to Las Vegas. One way SNWA is eliminating the opposition is by buying them out, and for huge sums. Three years ago this week, Rancher Brandon Humphries told the I-Team he vigorously opposed any plan that would siphon groundwater from White Pine County and pipe it hundreds of miles to Las Vegas. Humphries said, "I don't like the idea of my place drying up for another condo or casino in Las Vegas." He urged his neighbors to fight to the end against SNWA. That was then. Today, Rancher Humprhies is an employee of the SNWA. He sold his 880-acre spread for more than $6 million and stayed on as manager....
Forest Service says dam must be removed An unstable dam and its contaminated mine waste near the Blackfoot River headwaters must be removed and corporate money should pay the bill, the U.S. Forest Service said Tuesday in a victory for environmental groups. The Mike Horse Dam built in 1941 at the headwaters of the Blackfoot, the river celebrated in the Norman MacLean novel "A River Runs Through It," failed during a 1975 flood that washed the waste downstream, killing fish and other aquatic life in the upper 10 miles of the river. The dam is "a ticking time bomb," Bruce Farling of the conservation group Trout Unlimited said Tuesday. The group began pressing for dam removal in 1987, Farling said. Last year, the Forest Service released six Mike Horse options, ranging from no action to full removal. This week, the agency opted for full removal....
Disease threatens bighorn sheep Bighorn sheep in the Hells Canyon area of northeast Oregon are undergoing a die-off that researchers believe could be a result of bacterial pneumonia passed from domestic sheep. "I don't have a figure on how many sheep have died at the present time, but I know that the lamb survival is just terrible," said Ron Anglin, the chief of the Wildlife Division at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "And some of the lambs that we've collected as part of this study are showing positive for the Pasteurella complex. And if they've got it, they won't make it." The Hells Canyon sheep are part of an introduction effort that has been ongoing for more than a decade, said Craig Ely, the department's Northwest Region manager. Because of the domestic-bighorn disease transmission possibility, Fish and Wildlife officials along with those from the national and Oregon chapter of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep are arguing against sheep grazing agreements on federal lands where the two would intersect....
Court upholds salvage logging ruling The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling halting salvage logging on about 960 acres burned by the 2002 Timbered Rock fire in the Elk Creek drainage near Trail. In a 2-1 ruling released Tuesday, the judges in San Francisco agreed with U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken that the Medford District of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management violated its own rules and federal law when it decided to cut some 23.4 million board feet of timber in the burned area. "This is a pretty resounding rebuke for the BLM and the Bush administration," said George Sexton, conservation director for the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, one of five environmental groups that sued the federal government to halt the logging. Aiken issued a permanent injunction late in 2004 to halt the salvage logging on BLM land from the nearly 27,000-acre lightning-caused fire. She agreed with environmental groups that had asserted the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan requires late-successional reserves be set aside to preserve habitat for old-growth species, such as salmon and spotted owls. She also concluded the agency did not factor into its plan the impact of new roads and salvage logging on adjacent 6,000 acres of private land....
Continental Divide trail plan troubles users A U.S. Forest Service move to amend the 1985 Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDNST) plan has sent waves of concern rippling through some user groups. Under the proposed directive, the Forest Service could bar mountain bikes on sections of the 3,100-mile trail where they are currently allowed in nonwilderness areas, according to an action alert sent out by the International Mountain Bicycling Association. According to the association's website — www.imba.com — the Forest Service directive should not discriminate against bicycling on the Continental Divide Trail. The mountain bike group sees the comment period as a chance to ask the Forest Service to include bicycling as a central focus and purpose for the trail. “It is unfair to discriminate against bicycling when scientific research has shown its impacts to be similar to hiking and less than equestrian use,” the IMBA website states....
U.S. Senators back mining project through bill U.S. Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain reintroduced legislation Tuesday to allow Resolution Copper Co. to develop an underground mine near Superior that could tap one of the largest deposits of copper ore ever discovered in North America. However, some residents of Superior and the San Carlos Apache Tribe object to the land exchange, believing the project in Pinal County would damage a scenic area that has strong connections with Apache history. Similar bills were introduced in each of the past two years but failed. Officials of Resolution Copper, a unit of London-based Rio Tinto Group, have said that the land deal must be approved this year or the project cannot proceed. The bill introduced Tuesday by the two Arizona Republicans would give Resolution Copper about 3,025 federally-owned acres in the “Oak Flat” area three miles east of Superior. In return, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management would get from Resolution seven parcels totaling 4,583 acres of environmentally-sensitive land throughout Arizona....
Spotted fever cases increase in Campbell County Five cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever have been documented in Campbell County since April, more than half the statewide total. State Public Health Veterinarian Karl Musgrave said most of the Campbell County cases are people who work in Wyoming's oil and gas fields. "We'd seen a few cases every once in a while, but nothing like what has been seen more recently," Musgrave said. Tick season usually begins in April and peaks in May when there's still sufficient moisture for the common species out West, the Rocky Mountain wood tick. But University of Wyoming entomologist Jack Lloyd suspects that an eastern species - the American dog tick - might be to be blame for the midsummer spotted fever cases. "We have collected both species in Wyoming, and with the American dog tick you might have Rocky Mountain spotted fever a little longer into the summer than with the Rocky Mountain wood tick," he said....
Voracious Jumbo Squid Invade California Jumbo squid that can grow up to 7 feet long and weigh more than 110 pounds is invading central California waters and preying on local anchovy, hake and other commercial fish populations, according to a study published Tuesday. An aggressive predator, the Humboldt squid—or Dosidicus gigas—can change its eating habits to consume the food supply favored by tuna and sharks, its closest competitors, according to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. "Having a new, voracious predator set up shop here in California may be yet another thing for fishermen to compete with," said the study's co-author, Stanford University researcher Louis Zeidberg. "That said, if a squid saw a human they would jet the other way." The jumbo squid used to be found only in the Pacific Ocean's warmest stretches near the equator. In the last 16 years, it has expanded its territory throughout California waters, and squid have even been found in the icy waters off Alaska, Zeidberg said....
Ted Turner at home where the buffalo roam Ted Turner commiserated with his fellow bison ranchers over the tough times they've endured, explained how his restaurant chain is helping to build demand for buffalo meat and then led his audience at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in singing "Home on the Range." About 20 minutes later, Turner, wearing a western shirt, blue jeans, boots and a bolo tie, was inducted into the National Buffalo Foundation Hall of Fame. Turner spoke at the opening event of the third International Bison Conference, which runs through Saturday, July 28. Turner owns 42,000 head of buffalo on 13 ranches in Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and South Dakota. His South Dakota ranch lies west of Fort Pierre. Easily the largest buffalo rancher in the world, Turner admitted that he didn't eat buffalo meat for the first 15 years he owned buffalo as he built a fledgling herd in South Carolina....
Report: USDA sent $1.1B to dead farmers The Agriculture Department sent $1.1 billion in farm payments to more than 170,000 dead people over seven years, congressional investigators said in a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office. The findings come as the House of Representatives prepares to debate and pass farm legislation this week that would govern subsidies and the department's programs for the next five years. GAO auditors reviewed payments from 1999 through 2005 in the report, which was requested by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. "It's unconscionable that the Department of Agriculture would think that a dead person was actively engaged in the business of farming," Grassley said. "(The) USDA has made farm payments to estates more than two years after recipients died, without determining, as its regulations require, whether the estates were kept open to receive these payments," the report said. John Johnson, a deputy administrator for the Farm Service Agency, said there is no indication that the payments were improper, since some rules allow estates to continue receiving money after a two-year grace period. The department is working with the Social Security Administration to improve its record-keeping, he said.
Bringing Moos and Oinks Into the Food Debate THE first farm animal Gene Baur ever snatched from a stockyard was a lamb he named Hilda. That was 1986. She’s now buried under a little tombstone near the center of Farm Sanctuary, 180 acres of vegan nirvana here in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Back then, Mr. Baur was living in a school bus near a tofu factory in Pennsylvania and selling vegetarian hot dogs at Grateful Dead concerts to support his animal rescue operation. Now, more than a thousand animals once destined for the slaughterhouse live here and on another Farm Sanctuary property in California. Farm Sanctuary has a $5.7 million budget, fed in part by a donor club named after his beloved Hilda. Supporters can sign up for a Farm Sanctuary MasterCard. A $200-a-seat gala dinner in Los Angeles this fall will feature seitan Wellington and stars like Emily Deschanel and Forest Whitaker. As Farm Sanctuary has grown, so too has its influence....
All-digital hospital for horses opens A new state-of-the-art medical and surgical center for horses in the Rocky Mountains has opened at a prominent equine training and breeding center west of here. CSR Equine specializes in lameness and reproductive care but also provides emergency and general health services for horses, as well as alternative medicine like acupuncture, said veterinarian John Smart, who leads the center. "We're building a world-class team with advanced capabilities to serve the greater Rocky Mountain West," he said. Area ranchers, breeders and horse owners would normally haul their animals to Denver or Washington state for similar care, spokeswoman Bridget Cavanaugh said. The 10,000-square-foot hospital is an affiliate of Copper Spring Ranch, a leading producer of rodeo and performance horses near Four Corners. It opened last week, with veterinarians performing the first surgery - an ovariectomy - on a mare July 18 using high-definition laparoscopy equipment normally reserved for human medicine, Cavanaugh said....
FLE
Official Takes Blame for Passport Mess "Over the past several months, many travelers who applied for a passport did not receive their document in time for their planned travel. I deeply regret that," says Assistant Secretary of State Maura Harty, who is in charge of U.S. passports. "I accept complete responsibility for this." The government started requiring more Americans to have passports on Jan. 23 in an effort to thwart terrorism. By summer, more than 2 million people were waiting for passports; half a million had waited more than three months since applying for a document that typically was ready in six weeks. The massive backlog destroyed summer vacations, ruined wedding and honeymoon plans and disrupted business meetings and education plans. People lost work days waiting in lines or thousands of dollars in nonrefundable travel deposits....
Attorney General Recalls Attempt to Bypass Justice Department Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee he paid a visit to his predecessor in a hospital intensive care room in 2004 at the behest of lawmakers who were urging the administration to find a way to continue conducting “vitally important intelligence activities” without Justice Department approval or new legislation. Lawmakers have assumed that the episode involved the National Security Agency warrantless surveillance program that the New York Times first disclosed in December 2005 and Bush subsequently confirmed. But Gonzales said Tuesday the hospital encounter was not about that program. The attorney general testified before the committee in February 2006 that there had been no serious disagreement among Justice Department officials about the legality of the presidentially confirmed NSA program, which the administration dubbed the “Terrorist Surveillance Program.” “The disagreement that occurred, and the reason for the visit to the hospital, senator, was about other intelligence activities,” Gonzales said Tuesday under questioning by committee chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt. “It was not about the terrorist surveillance program that the president announced to the American people.”....
U.S. anti-terrorism bill stalled over immunity for tipsters Major legislation to implement more of the Sept. 11 Commission's anti-terrorism recommendations now hinges on a relatively minor provision: whether U.S. citizens who report suspicious activity should be immune to lawsuits. Passage of the bill would be a sizable victory for Democrats who laid out an ambitious legislative agenda when they took control of Congress. The bill currently in House-Senate negotiations would bring the United States closer to scanning all cargo-containing ships before they leave foreign ports - a measure aimed at preventing a nuclear device from reaching U.S. shores. But it is a smaller issue that has proven to be the biggest headache as lawmakers hammer out the final version. Republicans are demanding that language be added to provide immunity to citizens who report suspicious activity. They referred to an incident last fall where six Muslim scholars were removed from a flight in Minneapolis after other passengers said they were acting suspiciously. The imams have since filed a lawsuit, saying their civil rights were violated....
State-run sites not effective vs. terror More than 40 state-run operations set up after 9/11 to help uncover terrorist plots are proving to be a costly but largely ineffective weapon against terrorism, according to congressional investigators. Homeland Security has given states $380 million to set up the high-tech intelligence centers to help law enforcement officials do what they were not able to do before Sept. 11, 2001: recognize suspicious activity, patterns and people and use the information to prevent terrorist attacks. However, the centers "have increasingly gravitated toward an all-crimes and even broader all-hazards approach," focusing on traditional criminals and local emergencies, according to a report this month by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Built with state and federal money, the "fusion centers" are designed to encourage local, state and federal law enforcement and homeland security officers to share information....
Congressman Denied Access To Post-Attack Continuity Plans Constituents called Rep. Peter DeFazio's office, worried there was a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack. As a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure "bubbleroom'' in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents. On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED. "I just can't believe they're going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack,'' DeFazio said. Bush administration spokesman Trey Bohn declined to say why DeFazio was denied access: "We do not comment through the press on the process that this access entails. It is important to keep in mind that much of the information related to the continuity of government is highly sensitive.'' Norm Ornstein, a legal scholar who studies government continuity at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he ``cannot think of one good reason'' to deny access to a member of Congress who serves on the Homeland Security Committee....
FEMA keeps selling toxic trailers despite report The Federal Emergency Management Agency will keep selling and donating surplus disaster-relief trailers despite concerns that they may have unhealthy levels of formaldehyde, the agency said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Health Affairs plan to test the air quality in the trailers. “Potential buyers/recipients will be fully advised of the concerns regarding formaldehyde levels in travel trailers,” FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said Friday in an e-mail message to The Associated Press. FEMA drew the ire of Congress last week after documents revealed that the agency’s lawyers discouraged investigating reports that the trailers had high formaldehyde levels....
Foster parent gun rules shot down Oregon's child welfare agency did not anticipate the firestorm it would create when it issued new rules regulating guns in state-certified foster homes. Now the agency is backtracking. The National Rifle Association is on alert. And the Oregon Legislature is likely to get involved in the politically volatile matter of balancing an individual's right to have a gun vs. the state's need to protect its most vulnerable children. For years, the state Department of Human Services has required foster parents to store firearms unloaded and ammunition locked away in a separate place. It also prohibited having a loaded gun while transporting a foster child in a car. This year, the agency decided to do away with an exception for people with concealed-weapons permits. And that's when the trouble started....
Official Takes Blame for Passport Mess "Over the past several months, many travelers who applied for a passport did not receive their document in time for their planned travel. I deeply regret that," says Assistant Secretary of State Maura Harty, who is in charge of U.S. passports. "I accept complete responsibility for this." The government started requiring more Americans to have passports on Jan. 23 in an effort to thwart terrorism. By summer, more than 2 million people were waiting for passports; half a million had waited more than three months since applying for a document that typically was ready in six weeks. The massive backlog destroyed summer vacations, ruined wedding and honeymoon plans and disrupted business meetings and education plans. People lost work days waiting in lines or thousands of dollars in nonrefundable travel deposits....
Attorney General Recalls Attempt to Bypass Justice Department Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee he paid a visit to his predecessor in a hospital intensive care room in 2004 at the behest of lawmakers who were urging the administration to find a way to continue conducting “vitally important intelligence activities” without Justice Department approval or new legislation. Lawmakers have assumed that the episode involved the National Security Agency warrantless surveillance program that the New York Times first disclosed in December 2005 and Bush subsequently confirmed. But Gonzales said Tuesday the hospital encounter was not about that program. The attorney general testified before the committee in February 2006 that there had been no serious disagreement among Justice Department officials about the legality of the presidentially confirmed NSA program, which the administration dubbed the “Terrorist Surveillance Program.” “The disagreement that occurred, and the reason for the visit to the hospital, senator, was about other intelligence activities,” Gonzales said Tuesday under questioning by committee chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt. “It was not about the terrorist surveillance program that the president announced to the American people.”....
U.S. anti-terrorism bill stalled over immunity for tipsters Major legislation to implement more of the Sept. 11 Commission's anti-terrorism recommendations now hinges on a relatively minor provision: whether U.S. citizens who report suspicious activity should be immune to lawsuits. Passage of the bill would be a sizable victory for Democrats who laid out an ambitious legislative agenda when they took control of Congress. The bill currently in House-Senate negotiations would bring the United States closer to scanning all cargo-containing ships before they leave foreign ports - a measure aimed at preventing a nuclear device from reaching U.S. shores. But it is a smaller issue that has proven to be the biggest headache as lawmakers hammer out the final version. Republicans are demanding that language be added to provide immunity to citizens who report suspicious activity. They referred to an incident last fall where six Muslim scholars were removed from a flight in Minneapolis after other passengers said they were acting suspiciously. The imams have since filed a lawsuit, saying their civil rights were violated....
State-run sites not effective vs. terror More than 40 state-run operations set up after 9/11 to help uncover terrorist plots are proving to be a costly but largely ineffective weapon against terrorism, according to congressional investigators. Homeland Security has given states $380 million to set up the high-tech intelligence centers to help law enforcement officials do what they were not able to do before Sept. 11, 2001: recognize suspicious activity, patterns and people and use the information to prevent terrorist attacks. However, the centers "have increasingly gravitated toward an all-crimes and even broader all-hazards approach," focusing on traditional criminals and local emergencies, according to a report this month by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Built with state and federal money, the "fusion centers" are designed to encourage local, state and federal law enforcement and homeland security officers to share information....
Congressman Denied Access To Post-Attack Continuity Plans Constituents called Rep. Peter DeFazio's office, worried there was a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack. As a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure "bubbleroom'' in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents. On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED. "I just can't believe they're going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack,'' DeFazio said. Bush administration spokesman Trey Bohn declined to say why DeFazio was denied access: "We do not comment through the press on the process that this access entails. It is important to keep in mind that much of the information related to the continuity of government is highly sensitive.'' Norm Ornstein, a legal scholar who studies government continuity at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he ``cannot think of one good reason'' to deny access to a member of Congress who serves on the Homeland Security Committee....
FEMA keeps selling toxic trailers despite report The Federal Emergency Management Agency will keep selling and donating surplus disaster-relief trailers despite concerns that they may have unhealthy levels of formaldehyde, the agency said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Health Affairs plan to test the air quality in the trailers. “Potential buyers/recipients will be fully advised of the concerns regarding formaldehyde levels in travel trailers,” FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said Friday in an e-mail message to The Associated Press. FEMA drew the ire of Congress last week after documents revealed that the agency’s lawyers discouraged investigating reports that the trailers had high formaldehyde levels....
Foster parent gun rules shot down Oregon's child welfare agency did not anticipate the firestorm it would create when it issued new rules regulating guns in state-certified foster homes. Now the agency is backtracking. The National Rifle Association is on alert. And the Oregon Legislature is likely to get involved in the politically volatile matter of balancing an individual's right to have a gun vs. the state's need to protect its most vulnerable children. For years, the state Department of Human Services has required foster parents to store firearms unloaded and ammunition locked away in a separate place. It also prohibited having a loaded gun while transporting a foster child in a car. This year, the agency decided to do away with an exception for people with concealed-weapons permits. And that's when the trouble started....
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