There went my dignity
Cowboy Sass And Savvy
By Julie Carter
It was bound to happen. That moment in time that keeps you humble and, well, humble.
Things have gone so well with my book sales since it came out in July.
I have been accepted to Western Writers of America - qualified through feature stories about the West and the people in it and, of course, the book, Cowgirl Sass & Savvy.
The book is now on sale at two prestigious museums - the Hubbard Museum of the American West in Ruidoso Downs and the Oklahoma City National Cowboy Hall of Fame.
While my ego was not inflated, it was, let's say, encouraged. It seemed I was on my way to being an internationally known author.
I did sell books in Australia, En-gland, Belgium and Canada. That's international, right?
Nothing like a goat to take that "inflation" right out of a girl's best intentions.
First, there were four goats. After the Eastern New Mexico State Fair last week, they did their thing in the show ring and three of them were sent packing, literally, to wherever it is goats go to become whatever it is they make out of goat meat.
But the pretty little girl (nanny, to be more correct) came home to become the momma of future show goats.
Catching a ride home with the Ag teacher, she arrived late Saturday night, sometime after my son, the goat herder, and I arrived home from the fair.
Knowing that the Ag instructor had other critters aboard his trailer, I knew that they likely were all deposited at the FFA Ag Farm on the outskirts of town.
However, I had no way, close at hand, to haul her home. She would later be transported to the ranch where her "goat family" and future mate awaited.
She was happy to see a familiar face and bleated and jumped and hopped like only a goat can.
She jumped right up in the back of the pickup, nibbled on some hay stems she found in the corner by the tool box and obligingly let me tie her lead strap to the tie-down loop in the corner.
Off we went - with no way to get home but right smack through the middle of town. She quickly realized this trip was a little different from the prior ones and there were no friends of like-goatness to console her.
She began bleating continuously in somewhat of a panic, and she traveled looking out around the cab as the pickup traveled down the road.
Ears flying like a Snoopy dog, the little darling's bleating called considerable attention to us as we motored through town. Any dignity I thought I had earned as a writer, author and book promoter fell quickly to the floor of the cab.
This type of livestock relocation isn't as uncommon as one might think. Many seemingly dignified parents resort to baser means when it comes to the critters their children own during these formative livestock years.
One man I know left the fairgrounds with a lamb in the back seat of his pickup.
Exhibitor checkout time was yet four hours away, and he had to get the lamb home and catch a plane before that time. He kidnapped Bo Peep and headed for the hills.
Out of orneriness, a friend later called him on the cell phone and told him the State Police had come by looking for a green Ford pickup with a sheep in the back seat.
As I worked my way home with my little treasure, I tried to pretend my pickup was a stealth vehicle - with a loudly bleating goat tied in the back.
I was as common as any other goat herder in the world. We caught enough attention to give ample entertainment to several as they pointed and laughed.
I'm humble again. Never will I get too big in the biz, too good at anything I do, to not find the humor in the sight of such as this.
Julie would rather write cowboy stories, but every now and then she has to laugh at other things in life, like kids and goats. See Julie's Web site at julie-carter.com
It’s The Pitts: Sunday Cures
I try to respect a person's Sundays. After all, Sunday is supposed to be a day off, when a person can catch up on their laundry or a good book. It is a time for a drive in the country, a dig in the garden, a football game or a family dinner. But it's not my fault that cows don’t know that Sunday is supposed to be a day of leisure.
You expect bad things to happen on manic Monday but why do they always happen instead on sleepy Sunday when the veterinarian is teaching Sunday School? At least that's what his answering service says! It’s a well known fact that hard calving cows always calve on Sundays. Horses wait for Sunday to get colic and 99% of all prolapses occur on Sunday when your regular vet is out of town. But he always leaves the phone number of another vet who is "ON CALL." This means that your vet has arranged for a rookie, fresh out of vet school to handle all his calls for him. "On Call" also means that the rookie vet just spent a ton of money paying for vet school and he is going to try to get half of it back coming out to your place. But not me, I respect the age old tradition that money is not supposed to change hands on the sabbath.
The other problem with Sundays is that all the stores are closed including the Farm Supply. Invariably when a calf gets the scours on Sunday I go to the medicine chest, retrieve the jar of scour pills only to find it empty. If I need penicillin I will surely find three bottles of it in the door of our refrigerator but the nearest expiration date was four years ago. I would use it anyway but it has caked up harder than a brick.
So this has caused me to develop my own set of Sunday cures, many of them based on scant medical research. You may find them useful.
The first thing you need is a bicycle pump. The pump is good for treating milk fever and prolapses. When a cow has just calved and gets a case of Sunday Milk Fever and you find that you forgot to restock the calcium solution ust grab the bicycle pump and inflate her udder. (It’s like milking in reverse.) If a cow prolapses on a Sunday all you need is the bicycle pump and a balloon which you can buy at a drug store. (They still remain open on Sundays in some towns.) You shove the prolapse back into the cow, insert the balloon and then pump it up while inside the cow. This may keep the prolapse in place or the balloon might pop, scaring the cow to empty out all the rest of her guts. If the balloon trick doesn't work insert a mason jar filled with water. The bicycle pump can also be useful for a cow that doesn’t want to take an orphan graft calf. Just blow air into the reproductive tract of a fresh cow and she’ll take the calf.
Other tricks I have used as Sunday cures were given to me by a nice old lady with long hair, a pointed hat and a broom. They include placing the skull of an old ram at the entrance of the ranch to ward off diseases and sticking a pair if scissors in the woodwork. For cuts and abrasions I use a mixture of cobwebs and the blood of a bat.
There is one disease I haven't found a Sunday cure for. One Sunday I found a slobbering cow with a cough that sounded like a funeral and I knew right away it was anaplasmosis. The only cure is to transfuse some blood from a healthy animal, but I have never fully mastered the technique of hitting the vein every time so I either had to disturb the vet on his day off or lose the cow for sure. Then my wife reminded me of the real reason I am reluctant to call the vet out on Sunday. "You remember the last time you had him come all the way over here on a Sunday and it was a false alarm? You thought the horse had eaten a whole bag of grain and was acting "funny”.
I felt bad that I disturbed the vet just because I’d forgotten there wasn't any grain in the sack to begin with and my horse Gentleman always acted "funny". So now on Sundays I do all I can by myself in an effort to delay the sick animal’s death until Monday when my regular vet returns in time for the autopsy.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
FLE
Former CEO Says U.S. Punished Phone Firm A former Qwest Communications International executive, appealing a conviction for insider trading, has alleged that the government withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars after Qwest refused to participate in an unidentified National Security Agency program that the company thought might be illegal. Former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading, said the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to court documents unsealed in Denver this week. Details about the alleged NSA program have been redacted from the documents, but Nacchio's lawyer said last year that the NSA had approached the company about participating in a warrantless surveillance program to gather information about Americans' phone records. In the court filings disclosed this week, Nacchio suggests that Qwest's refusal to take part in that program led the government to cancel a separate, lucrative contract with the NSA in retribution. He is using the allegation to try to show why his stock sale should not have been considered improper. Nacchio's account, which places the NSA proposal at a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, suggests that the Bush administration was seeking to enlist telecommunications firms in programs without court oversight before the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The Sept. 11 attacks have been cited by the government as the main impetus for its warrantless surveillance efforts. The allegations could affect the debate on Capitol Hill over whether telecoms sued for disclosing customers' phone records and other data to the government after the Sept. 11 attacks should be given legal immunity, even if they did not have court authorization to do so....
New scanner may replace metal detectors The federal government will begin testing a body-scanning machine that could eventually be used instead of the metal detectors passengers walk through at airports. Tests were scheduled to begin Thursday at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport with passengers pulled out of the security line for secondary screening. Passengers may request the full-body scan - which blurs faces so the person being screened cannot be recognized - instead of the traditional pat-down used across the country. The new machine uses radio waves to detect foreign objects. Since February, the Phoenix airport has been testing a similar machine that uses so-called backscatter radiation to scan the entire body. The backscatter uses a narrow, low-intensity x-ray beam that's scans the entire body at a high speed. The amount of radiation used during this scan is equal to 15 minutes of exposure to natural background radiation such as the sun's rays. Officials are trying to determine if the body-scan machines are a more effective search tool than a pat-down. Both types of machines check for explosives, metal, plastic and liquids - anything hidden on the body, said Mike Golden, the Transportation Security Administration's chief technology officer. The new type of device being tested, called a "millimeter wave" machine, doesn't use radiation, Golden said Wednesday during a demonstration for reporters at the agency's headquarters in Arlington, Va. Instead, it uses electromagnetic waves to create an image based on energy reflected from the body....
Fear of Flying? I do a tremendous amount of flying commercially, most of it internationally, and there is almost nothing about air travel that promises the convenience and relaxation it had many years ago. But, beyond all of this unpleasantness it is today painfully obvious that an air passenger--once inside the confines of an airport in any part of the world--has no rights whatsoever. This includes not even the right to be protected from security and law enforcement personnel who do not seem to understand any force other than deadly force. Security, police, and passenger screening personnel in any airport have near-dictatorial powers and almost limitless discretion to decide who needs to be put into a chokehold and thrown into a windowless room until someone can decided what set of ridiculously overblown charges need to be leveled against them. A case in point being the 42-year-old female Secret Service agent, Monica Emmerson, who this past June was threatened with arrest and surrounded by a phalanx of Transportation Security Agency (TSA) officers for the heinous crime of having spilled on the floor at Reagan National Airport ordinary drinking water from her 19-month-old toddler's sippy cup....
Grad student suspended after pro-gun-rights e-mail A Minnesota university has suspended one of its graduate students who sent two e-mail messages to school officials supporting gun rights. Hamline University also said that master's student Troy Scheffler, who owns a firearm, would be barred from campus and must receive a mandatory "mental health evaluation" after he sent an e-mail message arguing that law-abiding students should be able to carry firearms on campus for self-defense. Hamline spokesman Jacqueline Getty declined on Wednesday to answer questions about the suspension, saying that federal privacy laws prohibited the school from commenting. Scheffler had previously waived his privacy rights in a letter to Hamline University President Linda Hanson. The nonpartisan civil liberties group FIRE, which stands for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, has taken up Scheffler's case, but with no luck so far. In a letter to FIRE on September 28, Hamline's attorneys said the school would not reconsider Scheffler's punishment. Scheffler had sent the pair of e-mail messages after Hamline offered students counseling after the Virginia Tech shooting in April, which took place half a continent away. His response was that, if administrators were truly concerned about safety on campus, they should "lift a ridiculous conceal carry campus ban and let the students worry about their own 'security.'" Scheffler is licensed under Minnesota law to carry a concealed sidearm, which requires a background check and specific training.... Florida cop, hurt during drowning call, sues toddler's family A police officer who slipped and injured a knee responding to a toddler's near-drowning has sued the family of the 1-year-old boy, who suffered brain damage and can no longer walk, talk or swallow. Casselberry Sgt. Andrea Eichhorn alleges Joey Cosmillo's family left a puddle of water on the floor, causing her fall during the rescue efforts. She broke her knee and missed two months of work. The boy fell into the pool outside the family's home in suburban Orlando in January and now lives in a nursing home and eats and breathes through tubes. "The loss we've suffered, and she's seeking money?" said Richard Cosmillo, 69, the boy's grandfather, who lived in the home with his wife and the boy's mother. "Of course there's going to be water in the house. He was sopping wet when we brought him in." Eichhorn's attorney, David Heil, said she has persistent knee pain and will likely develop arthritis. He said city benefits paid by workers' compensation and some disability checks helped with medical bills, but it wasn't enough. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages....UPDATE - Due to the huge public outcry the lawsuit has been withdrawn.
Former CEO Says U.S. Punished Phone Firm A former Qwest Communications International executive, appealing a conviction for insider trading, has alleged that the government withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars after Qwest refused to participate in an unidentified National Security Agency program that the company thought might be illegal. Former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading, said the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to court documents unsealed in Denver this week. Details about the alleged NSA program have been redacted from the documents, but Nacchio's lawyer said last year that the NSA had approached the company about participating in a warrantless surveillance program to gather information about Americans' phone records. In the court filings disclosed this week, Nacchio suggests that Qwest's refusal to take part in that program led the government to cancel a separate, lucrative contract with the NSA in retribution. He is using the allegation to try to show why his stock sale should not have been considered improper. Nacchio's account, which places the NSA proposal at a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, suggests that the Bush administration was seeking to enlist telecommunications firms in programs without court oversight before the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The Sept. 11 attacks have been cited by the government as the main impetus for its warrantless surveillance efforts. The allegations could affect the debate on Capitol Hill over whether telecoms sued for disclosing customers' phone records and other data to the government after the Sept. 11 attacks should be given legal immunity, even if they did not have court authorization to do so....
New scanner may replace metal detectors The federal government will begin testing a body-scanning machine that could eventually be used instead of the metal detectors passengers walk through at airports. Tests were scheduled to begin Thursday at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport with passengers pulled out of the security line for secondary screening. Passengers may request the full-body scan - which blurs faces so the person being screened cannot be recognized - instead of the traditional pat-down used across the country. The new machine uses radio waves to detect foreign objects. Since February, the Phoenix airport has been testing a similar machine that uses so-called backscatter radiation to scan the entire body. The backscatter uses a narrow, low-intensity x-ray beam that's scans the entire body at a high speed. The amount of radiation used during this scan is equal to 15 minutes of exposure to natural background radiation such as the sun's rays. Officials are trying to determine if the body-scan machines are a more effective search tool than a pat-down. Both types of machines check for explosives, metal, plastic and liquids - anything hidden on the body, said Mike Golden, the Transportation Security Administration's chief technology officer. The new type of device being tested, called a "millimeter wave" machine, doesn't use radiation, Golden said Wednesday during a demonstration for reporters at the agency's headquarters in Arlington, Va. Instead, it uses electromagnetic waves to create an image based on energy reflected from the body....
Fear of Flying? I do a tremendous amount of flying commercially, most of it internationally, and there is almost nothing about air travel that promises the convenience and relaxation it had many years ago. But, beyond all of this unpleasantness it is today painfully obvious that an air passenger--once inside the confines of an airport in any part of the world--has no rights whatsoever. This includes not even the right to be protected from security and law enforcement personnel who do not seem to understand any force other than deadly force. Security, police, and passenger screening personnel in any airport have near-dictatorial powers and almost limitless discretion to decide who needs to be put into a chokehold and thrown into a windowless room until someone can decided what set of ridiculously overblown charges need to be leveled against them. A case in point being the 42-year-old female Secret Service agent, Monica Emmerson, who this past June was threatened with arrest and surrounded by a phalanx of Transportation Security Agency (TSA) officers for the heinous crime of having spilled on the floor at Reagan National Airport ordinary drinking water from her 19-month-old toddler's sippy cup....
Grad student suspended after pro-gun-rights e-mail A Minnesota university has suspended one of its graduate students who sent two e-mail messages to school officials supporting gun rights. Hamline University also said that master's student Troy Scheffler, who owns a firearm, would be barred from campus and must receive a mandatory "mental health evaluation" after he sent an e-mail message arguing that law-abiding students should be able to carry firearms on campus for self-defense. Hamline spokesman Jacqueline Getty declined on Wednesday to answer questions about the suspension, saying that federal privacy laws prohibited the school from commenting. Scheffler had previously waived his privacy rights in a letter to Hamline University President Linda Hanson. The nonpartisan civil liberties group FIRE, which stands for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, has taken up Scheffler's case, but with no luck so far. In a letter to FIRE on September 28, Hamline's attorneys said the school would not reconsider Scheffler's punishment. Scheffler had sent the pair of e-mail messages after Hamline offered students counseling after the Virginia Tech shooting in April, which took place half a continent away. His response was that, if administrators were truly concerned about safety on campus, they should "lift a ridiculous conceal carry campus ban and let the students worry about their own 'security.'" Scheffler is licensed under Minnesota law to carry a concealed sidearm, which requires a background check and specific training.... Florida cop, hurt during drowning call, sues toddler's family A police officer who slipped and injured a knee responding to a toddler's near-drowning has sued the family of the 1-year-old boy, who suffered brain damage and can no longer walk, talk or swallow. Casselberry Sgt. Andrea Eichhorn alleges Joey Cosmillo's family left a puddle of water on the floor, causing her fall during the rescue efforts. She broke her knee and missed two months of work. The boy fell into the pool outside the family's home in suburban Orlando in January and now lives in a nursing home and eats and breathes through tubes. "The loss we've suffered, and she's seeking money?" said Richard Cosmillo, 69, the boy's grandfather, who lived in the home with his wife and the boy's mother. "Of course there's going to be water in the house. He was sopping wet when we brought him in." Eichhorn's attorney, David Heil, said she has persistent knee pain and will likely develop arthritis. He said city benefits paid by workers' compensation and some disability checks helped with medical bills, but it wasn't enough. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages....UPDATE - Due to the huge public outcry the lawsuit has been withdrawn.
Friday, October 12, 2007
52 Places: A Sierra Club Report All across America, communities are working to protect our public lands from threats like oil and gas drilling, unchecked development, irresponsible recreation, logging, and global warming. In order to save what remains of our nation's wild legacy, the Sierra Club has launched a campaign to protect fifty-two of our most exceptional places--one in every state, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia--over the next ten years. Our new report, America's Wild Legacy, highlights these fifty-two special lands and our efforts to protect them. From the fragile caribou habitat of Alaska's Teshekpuk Lake to the wild forests surrounding Oregon's Mt. Hood, the Sierra Club is working with local communities to protect our last remaining wild lands for future generations....
Energy bill could take route that avoids committee Democrats on Capitol Hill are poised to sidestep the formal legislative process to try to push out an energy bill. The Senate and House each passed their own versions of energy legislation this summer, but the bills have languished for months waiting for Democratic leaders to appoint a conference committee, where negotiators from both chambers would try to craft a compromise. "Unfortunately ... it doesn't appear that we will be able to get a conference," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday. "But ... that doesn't mean we won't be going forward." Instead, Democratic leaders plan to hold closed-door talks to write a new energy bill they hope can win approval in both houses of Congress. Pelosi said earlier this week she hopes to pass an energy bill by year's end. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, decried the process Democrats are adopting, calling it the "OPEC approach to energy policy: meet in secret, restrict supplies and jack up prices." And Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, warned "the only way to pass an energy bill that will have a chance at final passage is through a bipartisan conference committee."....
Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize Just as the buzz predicted, the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize is former Vice President of the United States Al Gore for spreading the word on global warming. The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on Friday that Gore would share the prize with the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which also blames human activity for warming the planet. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said in awarding this year's peace prize, it wanted to highlight the importance of battling climate change. It praised the IPCC for its many reports over the years, which have "created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming." The committee also praised Gore for being an early booster of human-caused global warming: "His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change," the Nobel committee said. "He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted." Nobel Prize contenders aren't supposed to campaign for the award, but Al Gore didn't need to do that -- "because he had the media doing it for him for at least a year-and-a-half," said the Business & Media Institute....
Gore Deserves Nobel Prize for Propaganda, Warming Skeptics Say Critics of Al Gore believe that the former vice president should not receive a Nobel Prize for his efforts regarding global warming - including his film "An Inconvenient Truth" - but should perhaps get an award for his efforts as a climate change propagandist. "The real 'inconvenient truth' is that Gore seems to have intentionally omitted it from his movie," Steve Milloy, publisher of JunkScience.com, charged in a news release on Thursday. Instead, the film presented "false facts" and major inaccuracies that fit the Democrat's personal agenda, he said. Milloy pointed to a ruling last week in a British court that "An Inconvenient Truth" contains at least nine material falsehoods and can be shown to students only if it is identified as containing "partisan political views" that promote only one side of the global warming argument. "It is plainly, as witnessed by the fact that it received an Oscar this year for best documentary film, a powerful, dramatically presented and highly professionally produced film," Judge Michael Burton said in his ruling. However, "it is now common ground that it is not simply a science film - although it is clear that it is based substantially on scientific research and opinion - but that it is a political film," the judge added. Then on Thursday, the BBC aired a report claiming that Gore knew his "alarmist" movie presented "false facts," because he feared any uncertainty in his film would only fuel opponents of global warming regulation. "If this is true," said Milloy, "then Al Gore should win the Nobel prize for propaganda." "The BBC report and the judge's ruling came as no surprise," he said....
UK Gov't Helps Teachers Deal With Gore's Climate Errors Teachers in Britain who show their students Al Gore's Oscar-winning climate change documentary must draw attention to inaccuracies in the movie -- or run afoul of a law that bans the promotion of partisan politics at school. A parent's legal effort to have "An Inconvenient Truth" banned from schools in England failed this week, but the High Court in London did say that in order not to breach legislation, screenings would have to be accompanied by appropriate guidance that points out the flaws in Gore's argument. Judge Michael Burton identified nine significant errors in the film. Copies of the documentary have been sent to all secondary schools in England, where it is shown to children aged 11-14. The Department for Children, Schools and Families' guidance now available to schools is a 60-page document that goes through the film segment by segment, pointing out where Gore's assertions "do not accord with mainstream scientific opinion," and where further input from teachers will be needed. Teachers are told to bear in mind that the documentary "promotes partisan political views," and to be careful that they themselves do not promote those views....
Think tank: Withdraw Gore film's Oscar On the eve of Al Gore's award of the Nobel Peace Prize, a think tank wrote the president of the Academy Awards asking that the Oscar given to his film "An Inconvenient Truth" be taken back in response to a British High Court ruling that found 11 serious inaccuracies in the documentary. Muriel Newman, director of the New Zealand Centre for Political Research, told Academy President Sid Ganis and Executive Director Bruce Davis "the situation is not unlike that confronting sports bodies when their sports stars are found to be drug cheats." "In such cases, the sportsmen and women are stripped of their medals and titles, with the next place-getter elevated," she said, according the Australian Associated Press. "While this is an extremely unpleasant duty, it is necessary if the integrity of competitive sport is to be protected. "The truth, as inconvenient as it is to Al Gore, is that his so-called documentary contained critical distortions that are quite contrary to the principles of good documentary journalism," Newman said. "Good documentaries should be factually correct. Clearly this documentary is not."....
Gore's Nobel boosts talk of White House run Former Vice President Al Gore was named joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his environmental activism, likely increasing pressure from his supporters for him to enter the Democratic race for the White House. Sources say Gore will resist entreaties but will continue to tease by not ruling it out. Just this week, an unofficial "draft Gore" movement bought a full-page ad in The New York Times — a move that succeeded in amping up the buzz among pundits and operatives. The announcement boosts Gore's leverage with his party's presidential candidates and the next White House, if a Democrat wins. Now he and his agenda will command more attention....
White House "happy" for Gore's Nobel Peace Prize The White House praised former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the U.N. climate panel on Friday for winning the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to raise awareness of the threat of global warming. "The president learned about it this morning," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto, who is traveling with Bush in Florida. "Of course he's happy for Vice President Gore and happy for the international panel on climate change scientists who also shared the peace prize." "Obviously, it's an important recognition and we're sure the vice president is thrilled," added Fratto, who said he did not know of plans for Bush to make a congratulatory call to Gore. Gore, a Democrat, has been a vocal critic of the environmental policies of President George W. Bush, a Republican who beat him narrowly in a disputed presidential election result in 2000....
Gore Deserves Nobel Prize for Propaganda, Warming Skeptics Say Critics of Al Gore believe that the former vice president should not receive a Nobel Prize for his efforts regarding global warming - including his film "An Inconvenient Truth" - but should perhaps get an award for his efforts as a climate change propagandist. "The real 'inconvenient truth' is that Gore seems to have intentionally omitted it from his movie," Steve Milloy, publisher of JunkScience.com, charged in a news release on Thursday. Instead, the film presented "false facts" and major inaccuracies that fit the Democrat's personal agenda, he said. Milloy pointed to a ruling last week in a British court that "An Inconvenient Truth" contains at least nine material falsehoods and can be shown to students only if it is identified as containing "partisan political views" that promote only one side of the global warming argument. "It is plainly, as witnessed by the fact that it received an Oscar this year for best documentary film, a powerful, dramatically presented and highly professionally produced film," Judge Michael Burton said in his ruling. However, "it is now common ground that it is not simply a science film - although it is clear that it is based substantially on scientific research and opinion - but that it is a political film," the judge added. Then on Thursday, the BBC aired a report claiming that Gore knew his "alarmist" movie presented "false facts," because he feared any uncertainty in his film would only fuel opponents of global warming regulation. "If this is true," said Milloy, "then Al Gore should win the Nobel prize for propaganda." "The BBC report and the judge's ruling came as no surprise," he said....
UK Gov't Helps Teachers Deal With Gore's Climate Errors Teachers in Britain who show their students Al Gore's Oscar-winning climate change documentary must draw attention to inaccuracies in the movie -- or run afoul of a law that bans the promotion of partisan politics at school. A parent's legal effort to have "An Inconvenient Truth" banned from schools in England failed this week, but the High Court in London did say that in order not to breach legislation, screenings would have to be accompanied by appropriate guidance that points out the flaws in Gore's argument. Judge Michael Burton identified nine significant errors in the film. Copies of the documentary have been sent to all secondary schools in England, where it is shown to children aged 11-14. The Department for Children, Schools and Families' guidance now available to schools is a 60-page document that goes through the film segment by segment, pointing out where Gore's assertions "do not accord with mainstream scientific opinion," and where further input from teachers will be needed. Teachers are told to bear in mind that the documentary "promotes partisan political views," and to be careful that they themselves do not promote those views....
Think tank: Withdraw Gore film's Oscar On the eve of Al Gore's award of the Nobel Peace Prize, a think tank wrote the president of the Academy Awards asking that the Oscar given to his film "An Inconvenient Truth" be taken back in response to a British High Court ruling that found 11 serious inaccuracies in the documentary. Muriel Newman, director of the New Zealand Centre for Political Research, told Academy President Sid Ganis and Executive Director Bruce Davis "the situation is not unlike that confronting sports bodies when their sports stars are found to be drug cheats." "In such cases, the sportsmen and women are stripped of their medals and titles, with the next place-getter elevated," she said, according the Australian Associated Press. "While this is an extremely unpleasant duty, it is necessary if the integrity of competitive sport is to be protected. "The truth, as inconvenient as it is to Al Gore, is that his so-called documentary contained critical distortions that are quite contrary to the principles of good documentary journalism," Newman said. "Good documentaries should be factually correct. Clearly this documentary is not."....
Gore's Nobel boosts talk of White House run Former Vice President Al Gore was named joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his environmental activism, likely increasing pressure from his supporters for him to enter the Democratic race for the White House. Sources say Gore will resist entreaties but will continue to tease by not ruling it out. Just this week, an unofficial "draft Gore" movement bought a full-page ad in The New York Times — a move that succeeded in amping up the buzz among pundits and operatives. The announcement boosts Gore's leverage with his party's presidential candidates and the next White House, if a Democrat wins. Now he and his agenda will command more attention....
White House "happy" for Gore's Nobel Peace Prize The White House praised former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the U.N. climate panel on Friday for winning the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to raise awareness of the threat of global warming. "The president learned about it this morning," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto, who is traveling with Bush in Florida. "Of course he's happy for Vice President Gore and happy for the international panel on climate change scientists who also shared the peace prize." "Obviously, it's an important recognition and we're sure the vice president is thrilled," added Fratto, who said he did not know of plans for Bush to make a congratulatory call to Gore. Gore, a Democrat, has been a vocal critic of the environmental policies of President George W. Bush, a Republican who beat him narrowly in a disputed presidential election result in 2000....
Yellowstone Wolves: Embattled Again It was near Soda Butte in 1924 that the last Yellowstone wolves — two pups — were killed by rangers. Wolves remained starkly absent from the landscape until 1995, when the first experimental packs of gray wolves (Canis lupus) were brought from western Canada to the Lamar Valley to repopulate Yellowstone and restore a natural balance to the Park's wildlife. For 71 years, with no year-round predator to control them, the Park's elk herds had grown bloated and complacent, threatening to overgraze the land's willow and aspen shoots. But since the reintroduction of wolves, their grazing patterns have changed and the elk have become wary and more dispersed — as they ought to be. The reintroduction of the wolf — what ecologists call a "keystone species" — to Yellowstone has been a resounding success. The wolves thrived on the Park's abundant elk and moose along with weakened or winter-killed bison. They reproduced quickly, formed new packs and fiercely defended their territories. So, it did not take long before the wolves got into trouble. They wandered, inevitably, past the protective boundaries of the Park and out onto ranchland in the surrounding states of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, where they were shot for preying on sheep and cattle. But these were isolated cases — the wolf retained most of the legal status of endangered species, protected from all but official "management" killing — and they did not go unpunished. In 1995, a trigger-happy gunman who killed a wandering Yellowstone wolf wearing a radio-tracking collar was convicted in federal court and sentenced to six months in jail, $10,000 and year of probation. Still, the wolf's triumphant return to Yellowstone may be its undoing....
NOAA chief urges study of climate The administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has no doubt that humans are causing part of the climate changes that are occurring. "It's a scientific consensus that's out here, and it's supported by everybody I know," added retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr. in an exclusive Deseret Morning News interview. Lautenbacher spoke with the newspaper shortly after his keynote address at a three-day convention in the Sheraton City Centre in Salt Lake City. The meeting, "Water Policies and Planning in the West: Ensuring a Sustainable Future," is sponsored by the Western Governors' Association and the Western States Water Council....
Cong Miller Asks Inspector General To Investigate U.S. Reps. George Miller (D-CA) and Nick Rahall (D-WV) today asked the Inspectors General at the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Agriculture to launch investigations into private residential treatment programs for children that operate on federal land. The request comes one day after the release of a government report that documented cases of fatal child abuse and neglect in such programs, including deaths that occurred on federal property. In testimony before the House Education and Labor Committee yesterday, investigators for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which prepared the report, testified that an unknown number of private residential treatment programs – often called boot camps, wilderness camps, or behavior modification facilities – actually operate on federal land....
Group seeks contempt finding against Bush forestry official A watchdog group has asked a federal judge in Montana to send the Bush administration's top forest official to jail for contempt of court. The group says the U.S. Forest Service missed the deadline for a complete environmental analysis of dropping fire retardant on wildfires. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey responded yesterday that the environmental assessment the Forest Service submitted was as complete as it could be. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy has yet to rule on whether the filing meets the terms of his order. If he finds the deadline has not been met, a hearing is scheduled Monday in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Montana for Rey to show why he should not be found in contempt....
Headwaters Economics: Real Solutions for a Changing West Created in 2005, the developers of Headwaters Economics were frustrated by the lack of reliable information on vital Western land use topics, particularly growth and development, and the changing economic role of our public lands. As an independent research organization, their mission is to improve community development and land management decisions in the West. Most recently, they have conducted research delving into the potential for future development on fire prone lands and the implications this growth will have on future firefighting costs. With 20 combined years of experience, the staff of six and board of five, blend research and field experience working with communities, businesses, landowners, public land managers and elected officials. This high-tech non-profit conducts research to understand demographic and socioeconomic trends in the West, and works to see how those trends impact land use patterns....
NOAA chief urges study of climate The administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has no doubt that humans are causing part of the climate changes that are occurring. "It's a scientific consensus that's out here, and it's supported by everybody I know," added retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr. in an exclusive Deseret Morning News interview. Lautenbacher spoke with the newspaper shortly after his keynote address at a three-day convention in the Sheraton City Centre in Salt Lake City. The meeting, "Water Policies and Planning in the West: Ensuring a Sustainable Future," is sponsored by the Western Governors' Association and the Western States Water Council....
Cong Miller Asks Inspector General To Investigate U.S. Reps. George Miller (D-CA) and Nick Rahall (D-WV) today asked the Inspectors General at the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Agriculture to launch investigations into private residential treatment programs for children that operate on federal land. The request comes one day after the release of a government report that documented cases of fatal child abuse and neglect in such programs, including deaths that occurred on federal property. In testimony before the House Education and Labor Committee yesterday, investigators for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which prepared the report, testified that an unknown number of private residential treatment programs – often called boot camps, wilderness camps, or behavior modification facilities – actually operate on federal land....
Group seeks contempt finding against Bush forestry official A watchdog group has asked a federal judge in Montana to send the Bush administration's top forest official to jail for contempt of court. The group says the U.S. Forest Service missed the deadline for a complete environmental analysis of dropping fire retardant on wildfires. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey responded yesterday that the environmental assessment the Forest Service submitted was as complete as it could be. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy has yet to rule on whether the filing meets the terms of his order. If he finds the deadline has not been met, a hearing is scheduled Monday in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Montana for Rey to show why he should not be found in contempt....
Headwaters Economics: Real Solutions for a Changing West Created in 2005, the developers of Headwaters Economics were frustrated by the lack of reliable information on vital Western land use topics, particularly growth and development, and the changing economic role of our public lands. As an independent research organization, their mission is to improve community development and land management decisions in the West. Most recently, they have conducted research delving into the potential for future development on fire prone lands and the implications this growth will have on future firefighting costs. With 20 combined years of experience, the staff of six and board of five, blend research and field experience working with communities, businesses, landowners, public land managers and elected officials. This high-tech non-profit conducts research to understand demographic and socioeconomic trends in the West, and works to see how those trends impact land use patterns....
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Study: Moose move toward humans for safety U.S. researchers said moose in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem move instinctively toward humans to gain safety while giving birth. The Wildlife Conservation Society study suggested moose move toward highways and other areas in which humans are present to avoid predators and protect their young. Researchers tracked both moose and bears and found pregnant moose in Greater Yellowstone have shifted their movements each year for the past decade about 400 feet closer to roads during calving season, apparently to avoid road-shy brown bears, which prey on moose calves. "Given that brown bears avoid areas within approximately 1,600 feet of roads in Yellowstone and elsewhere, moose mothers have apparently buffered against predation on offspring using roadside corridors," said WSC biologist Joel Berger, the study's author. "The study's results indicate moose and other prey species find humans more benign and hence move to humans for safety, whereas predators do not because we humans tend to be less kind to predators," Berger added....
Judge delays some border fence construction on Arizona-Mexico border A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily delayed construction of a 1.5-mile section of a border fence in a wildlife conservation area on the Arizona-Mexico line. The Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club had requested a 10-day delay in a motion alleging that the Bureau of Land Management and other agencies had failed to conduct a thorough study of the fence’s effect on the environment. U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said she granted the delay in part because the federal government did not explain why it hurried through an environmental assessment and began building the fence in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. Huvelle repeatedly asked the government’s attorney, Gregory Page, to explain why the agencies took only three weeks to do the environmental assessment. She said that amount of time was unprecedented and that the government was trying to ‘‘ram’’ the environmental study through and start construction ‘‘before anyone would wake up.’’ Huvelle also questioned why equal urgency was not applied to building border fences in Texas and California....
Test Case A new lawsuit Wednesday challenging a Flagstaff ordinance ultimately could determine the future of new zoning regulations across the state. The Pacific Legal Foundation is asking a Coconino County Superior Court judge to force the city to compensate three landowners for what it says is the reduced value of their properties. A previous claim filed with the city sought $368,000 in damages. The organization, which represents property owners in legal fights across the nation, contends the restrictions for building construction in the city's new historic preservation district west of city hall in downtown Flagstaff effectively prevent the homeowners from building second units, which would generate rental income they say is needed to make their mortgages affordable. What gives the landowners the right to sue is Proposition 207, approved by voters last November. That measure was designed to prevent government from using its right of "eminent domain'' to take private property from one person and give it to another, often a developer. But the measure, which passed on a 65-35 percent margin, also requires "just compensation'' if any new law governing property use is enacted that "reduces the fair market value of the property."....
Road to Riches: Pipeline Through Paradise It's estimated that one quarter of the world's untapped oil and gas reserves lie in the Arctic. And while politicians bicker loud and long over Iraqi oil, and oil executives lay plans for bringing natural gas and oil from West Africa, most know that the Arctic is the real prize in the ongoing international struggle to control dwindling energy resources. That's especially true now, as global warming causes Arctic ice to melt, exposing virgin territory and even, perhaps, opening for shipping the fabled Northwest Passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The region has become the center of an international skirmish, with Russian interests going so far as to plant an underwater flag in order to at least symbolically claim reserves presumed to exist beneath the North Pole's Lomonosov Ridge (which, they say, is connected to Russian territory by a submerged shelf). Even the U.S. government, which for decades has resisted signing an international treaty called the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea—which establishes rules for national sovereignty over portions of the earth's oceans and seas, along with the resources beneath them—suddenly supports ratifying the treaty....
Our Drinkable Water Supply Is Vanishing Demand for water is doubling every 20 years, outpacing population growth twice as fast. Currently 1.3 billion people don't have access to clean water and 2.5 billion lack proper sewage and sanitation. In less than 20 years, it is estimated that demand for fresh water will exceed the world's supply by over 50 percent. The biggest drain on our water sources is agriculture, which accounts for 70 percent of the water used worldwide -- much of which is subsidized in the industrial world, providing little incentive for agribusiness to use conservation measures or less water-intensive crops. This number is also likely to increase as we struggle to feed a growing world. Population is expected to rise from 6 billion to 8 billion by 2050. Water scarcity is not just an issue of the developing world. "Twenty-one percent of irrigation in the United States is achieved by pumping groundwater at rates that exceed the water's ability to recharge," wrote water experts Tony Clarke of the Polaris Institute and Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians in their landmark water book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water....
Judge delays some border fence construction on Arizona-Mexico border A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily delayed construction of a 1.5-mile section of a border fence in a wildlife conservation area on the Arizona-Mexico line. The Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club had requested a 10-day delay in a motion alleging that the Bureau of Land Management and other agencies had failed to conduct a thorough study of the fence’s effect on the environment. U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said she granted the delay in part because the federal government did not explain why it hurried through an environmental assessment and began building the fence in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. Huvelle repeatedly asked the government’s attorney, Gregory Page, to explain why the agencies took only three weeks to do the environmental assessment. She said that amount of time was unprecedented and that the government was trying to ‘‘ram’’ the environmental study through and start construction ‘‘before anyone would wake up.’’ Huvelle also questioned why equal urgency was not applied to building border fences in Texas and California....
Test Case A new lawsuit Wednesday challenging a Flagstaff ordinance ultimately could determine the future of new zoning regulations across the state. The Pacific Legal Foundation is asking a Coconino County Superior Court judge to force the city to compensate three landowners for what it says is the reduced value of their properties. A previous claim filed with the city sought $368,000 in damages. The organization, which represents property owners in legal fights across the nation, contends the restrictions for building construction in the city's new historic preservation district west of city hall in downtown Flagstaff effectively prevent the homeowners from building second units, which would generate rental income they say is needed to make their mortgages affordable. What gives the landowners the right to sue is Proposition 207, approved by voters last November. That measure was designed to prevent government from using its right of "eminent domain'' to take private property from one person and give it to another, often a developer. But the measure, which passed on a 65-35 percent margin, also requires "just compensation'' if any new law governing property use is enacted that "reduces the fair market value of the property."....
Road to Riches: Pipeline Through Paradise It's estimated that one quarter of the world's untapped oil and gas reserves lie in the Arctic. And while politicians bicker loud and long over Iraqi oil, and oil executives lay plans for bringing natural gas and oil from West Africa, most know that the Arctic is the real prize in the ongoing international struggle to control dwindling energy resources. That's especially true now, as global warming causes Arctic ice to melt, exposing virgin territory and even, perhaps, opening for shipping the fabled Northwest Passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The region has become the center of an international skirmish, with Russian interests going so far as to plant an underwater flag in order to at least symbolically claim reserves presumed to exist beneath the North Pole's Lomonosov Ridge (which, they say, is connected to Russian territory by a submerged shelf). Even the U.S. government, which for decades has resisted signing an international treaty called the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea—which establishes rules for national sovereignty over portions of the earth's oceans and seas, along with the resources beneath them—suddenly supports ratifying the treaty....
Our Drinkable Water Supply Is Vanishing Demand for water is doubling every 20 years, outpacing population growth twice as fast. Currently 1.3 billion people don't have access to clean water and 2.5 billion lack proper sewage and sanitation. In less than 20 years, it is estimated that demand for fresh water will exceed the world's supply by over 50 percent. The biggest drain on our water sources is agriculture, which accounts for 70 percent of the water used worldwide -- much of which is subsidized in the industrial world, providing little incentive for agribusiness to use conservation measures or less water-intensive crops. This number is also likely to increase as we struggle to feed a growing world. Population is expected to rise from 6 billion to 8 billion by 2050. Water scarcity is not just an issue of the developing world. "Twenty-one percent of irrigation in the United States is achieved by pumping groundwater at rates that exceed the water's ability to recharge," wrote water experts Tony Clarke of the Polaris Institute and Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians in their landmark water book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water....
SoCal Farmers to Face Water Woes in 2009 Officials of Southern California's major water wholesaler say deliveries to the region's agricultural customers will be cut by nearly a third next year and residents are likely to face rate hikes in 2009 because of a statewide shortage. Utilities that serve residential customers and are supplied by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California can expect price hikes between 5 percent and 10 percent in 2009, district spokesman Bob Muir said Monday. The rate increases would be needed to pay for additional water supplies from other sellers in the state and further investment in the water grid, he said. The district provides water to nearly 18 million people in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. The district sells water at wholesale rates to local utilities, providing Southern California with half its supply. The rest comes from underground sources and other local supplies. The district is also reducing by 30 percent deliveries to 12 agencies that buy water at discount pricing for agricultural customers, Muir said. Those cuts will take effect Jan. 1, he said. The actions follow an August court decision limiting outflow from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect an endangered fish species....
Stop your sobbing Rachel Carson opened "Silent Spring," her 1962 polemic against chemical pesticides in general and DDT in particular, with a terrible prophecy: "Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth." "Silent Spring" set the template for nearly a half century of environment writing: wrap the latest scientific research about an ecological calamity in a tragic narrative that conjures nostalgia for Nature while prophesying ever worse disasters to come unless human societies repent for their sins against Nature and work for a return to a harmonious relationship with the natural world. Eco-tragedies are premised on the notion that humankind's survival depends on understanding that ecological crises are a consequence of human intrusions on Nature, and that humans must let go of their consumer, religious, and ideological fantasies and recognize where their true self-interest lies. Grounded in a tradition of eco-tragedy begun by Carson and motivated by the lack of progress on the ecological crisis, environmental writers have produced a flood of high-profile books that take the tragic narrative of humankind's fall from Nature to new heights....
Behind the Bovine Curtain Just like the old Iron Curtain that squelched any critical discussion of Communism's failures, we in the West live behind a "Bovine Curtain." The Bovine Curtain is-like the Iron Curtain-operated by the state, using taxpayer dollars to continuously broadcast propaganda about the virtues of ranching in the West and suppressing any negative or critical information. The mantra "cows are good" is repeated so often that it has attained cult status, even among many conservation groups-who should know better. Eating meat (domestic livestock), particularly beef, has one of the biggest environmental impacts on the planet. In many ways making a change from a livestock based diet to plants (or wild game) is one of the easiest things that most of us can modify in our personal behavior to lessen our collective burden upon the planet. Producing one calorie of animal protein requires more than 10 times as much fossil fuel input-releasing more than 10 times as much carbon dioxide-than does a calorie of plant protein. In the summer 2007 report, Livestock's Long Shadow, UN researchers concluded that livestock production is one of the most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." According to the UN, livestock contributes to "problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity." But few environmental groups mention this report or its findings, particularly if they are located in the cowboy West behind the Bovine Curtain. They would have to admit that the findings conclusions apply equally as well to the western U.S....
Governor Ritter tours ranch land near Pinon On Wednesday, Governor Bill Ritter saddled up and went for a horseback tour of privately-owned ranch land near the Pinon Canyon Maneuver site. The ranch was located near the town of Thatcher in Las Animas County. With the governor were ranchers, many from families who have spent generations on living in that area, who strongly oppose the Army's proposed expansion. "There's no reason for us to sell it or want to sell it," said Kenny Gyurman, a local rancher. Gyurman's family and a few others were forced to give up some their land in the early 1980s to the army. "My dad was 85, my uncle was 78. It wasn't in them to go somewhere else and buy more land and start over, that was their pride and joy," said Gyurman. They fear the army could now force them to sell again. The army wants their land to expand its Pinon Canyon Maneuver site in preparation for the thousands of additional troops headed to Ft. Carson over the next two years. Specifically the army wants to take over some of the land to expand the training site from 235-thousand acres to 400-thousand acres. "If this was absolutely the only place they had and it would save a life or two of one of our soldiers, you wouldn't get much of a kick from anybody here, but we don't see it as a necessity. They have too many other alternatives," said Gyurman. It's an opinion Governor Ritter seems to agree with. "I want a well trained U.S. Army, but the question is really one of justification, and I think what the ranchers would say, I think what our legislators would say is they have not met that burden," said Gov. Ritter. Ranchers are hoping the Governor's support will be a major help in their efforts to protect their land, but they know this issue isn't over.
Tulare Co officials vote against new protections for park Tulare County Supervisors voted against placing a temporary moratorium on development around Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, saying further protections for the park weren't needed. The board struck down Supervisor Connie Conway's proposal to place a 45-day moratorium on special-use permits in a 2.5-mile zone bordering the park, which pays tribute to a black community founded by a freed slave. The use of land around the park became controversial late last year, when a Visalia rancher proposed building two mega-dairies near the park. Many local residents objected, saying the stench and pollution created by 12,000 cows would mar a spot historians and black leaders consider sacred ground. Established in 1908, Allensworth became the only California town founded and operated by blacks. After months of legal wrangling, the state and the farmer reached a compromise in September: The Department of Parks and Recreation will pay Sam Etchegaray $3.5 million to guarantee that he won't build dairies near the park, but Etchegaray will still own the land and can continue farming it....
Ranchers' livelihood threatened by wolves It’s been nearly 80 years since a wolf killed a calf on a Washington State ranch, but it happened last month. The McIrvin’s lose up to 75 calves a year on their 5000 acre Diamond M Ranch, due to cougar, bear and coyote kills. At $600 a head, that’s a substantial loss the ranchers have to bear. The calf carcass Bill McIrvin found in a pasture wasn’t anything like kills he’d seen before, though. It hadn’t been pulled into the brush, so it wasn’t a cougar. It hadn’t been mauled and all the bones crushed, so it wasn’t a bear. The calf was too large for a coyote to attack. There seemed to be no explanation, until the next morning when wolf tracks were found all over the area. Two days later, a second carcass was found within 100 feet of an occupied cabin on the ranch. The McIrvin’s called state Fish & Wildlife officials, who contacted Federal Animal Damage Control officers. They came out o the ranch just south of the Canadian border near Laurier and skinned the remains of the calf. Fang marks were visible in the animal’s flesh once the hide was removed. Canine-like tracks that were 5 ½ inches long by 4 inches wide were seen around the carcass. Photos were taken and sent to experts. The evidence was conclusive – a wolf had killed the calf. Len McIrvin asked a Federal official, “If I see a wolf killing a calf, can I shoot it?” The answer came back, “Absolutely not, unless you want to go to prison and pay a big fine.” Since wolves remain on the Federal endangered species list, none can be killed at any time or for any reason. Federal agents remained on the McIrvin’s ranch for a week, trying to trap the wolf and move it elsewhere. After they left, the family heard wolves howling in the area, but they have yet to find another wolf kill among their calves. They expect to find some as they complete their fall roundup by the end of this month....
Texas criticized for removing biofuel incentives As Congress embraces alternative fuels, some in Texas are complaining the oil and gas state has gone in the opposite direction. Texas lawmakers, who authorized hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years to subsidize defense contractors, dairy businesses and oil companies, eliminated funding over the summer for a program that encouraged the production of biofuels. The decision, part of a last-minute budget-balancing act, drew the ire of biodiesel producers, lobbyists and state officials who argue that Texas was being shortsighted about the nation's energy future. The U.S. Senate's pending energy bill would raise the national mandate for biofuel use by tens of billions of gallons, presenting an opportunity for states beyond the Midwest to get into the alternative-fuel gold rush. But without a state policy to encourage production, some producers said, Texas is missing its chance....
Wildlife department working overtime to deal with bears Nevada Department of Wildlife game wardens and biologists are working overtime to deal with an unprecedented number of bear calls in Yerington and surrounding areas. People who encounter bears or see bears in their neighborhood are urged to contact the department for guidance and support. "The fact is that people are not accustomed to seeing bears in these areas and they are concerned, and rightfully so," said Steve Tomac, a game warden stationed in Yerington. "We take every call seriously, and many department employees are working extra hours to respond to these calls." Tomac said urban interface bear sightings and encounters are higher than the department has seen before because of several factors, including drought, fires and a diminished natural food source for bears....
Lawmakers call for probe of alleged logging of protected pines Three Congressmen, including Rep. John Olver of Massachusetts, called for a federal probe Wednesday into whether forest managers illegally cut down more than 200 protected trees in the Giant Sequoia National Monument and sold some of the wood for timber. The legislators asked U.S. Department of Agriculture Inspector General Phyllis K. Fong to investigate the alleged illegal logging of 300-year-old sugar pines and other trees in the monument. The 328,000-acre preserve is part of the Sequoia National Forest in central California, and is home to two-thirds of the world's largest trees. No sequoias or redwoods are believed to have been illegally logged. Conservation groups say the U.S. Forest Service cut the trees between 2004 and 2005, when the protected area was cordoned off from public view. The Forest Service claimed it would only log 138 trees that were at risk of toppling, but conservation groups allege more than 200 trees were chopped down during that time....
Man suspected of shooting wildlife from plane A federal shooting investigation is underway in Bannock County. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents have taken custody of an ultralight plane after reports the pilot was shooting at livestock and wild animals. The small lightweight aircraft was spotted by dozens of people flying north of McCammon. The suspect was pulled over later in the day. Inside a trailer, federal agents found the ultralight and a rifle that could be mounted on the aircraft with brackets already installed. "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and Fish and Game are up on the mountain right now looking for any evidence or indication that domestic livestock or wildlife were shot," said Fish and Game officer Chris Bocek....
Forest Service Chief Visits Harlem The head of the U.S. Forest Service visited a Harlem elementary school to talk about trees and to promote a program that will give $1.5 million to 24 schools nationwide to send kids into nature. Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell later joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Bette Midler and Big Bird at a tree planting Tuesday in the Bronx. At the Harlem Link Charter School, third-graders asked Kimbell questions such as "Do they rake the leaves in the forest?" and "Does a bell ring when there's a forest fire?" Kimbell said the Forest Service learns about fires from radio calls from lookout towers, not from bells. And leaves aren't usually raked in the wild. "When you're out in the forest, move some of those leaves aside and look real closely at what's crawling around underneath," she said. "You'll find out there are lots of bugs and worms and really cool things." Kimbell, a 30-year veteran of the Forest Service who took over as its chief in February, visited the school to kick off the "More Kids in the Woods" program, which will pay for field trips at Harlem Link and 23 other schools....
Logging company backs out of sale A Southern Oregon logging company that was the high bidder on a controversial U.S. Bureau of Land Management timber sale is throwing in the towel on the project. The Glendale-based Swanson Group Inc. has chosen to withdraw from the Scattered Apples sale near Williams that it purchased in a BLM auction in 2002. Federal court-ordered mediation by the agency and plaintiffs resulted in changes that made it no longer economically viable, said Steve Swanson, president of the family-owned firm. "As a result of this, the counties lose valuable timber receipts, the acres that were part of the forest health project remain unhealthy and we don't have wood to run our mills," a frustrated Swanson concluded. "And what you end up with is a small group of people running our forests," he added of the plaintiffs....
No '8-second cowboys' allowed Dayworkers, cowboys, ranch hands welcome -- "8-second cowboys" need not apply. The Arcadia Rodeo Association has rounded up cowboys from across Florida for the inaugural "Best of the Ranches Invitational Rodeo." Action starts at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Arcadia Rodeo Arena, off U.S. 17 in South Arcadia; where teams of real working cowboys from Florida's biggest cattle ranches will go head-to-head for the title of "Best Ranch" -- and all the bragging rights that go along with it. Ranch rodeos, like Florida cowboys, are a breed apart. "They're holding their own right now, but the Florida cowboy is definitely a dying breed," said Windy Walker, cattle manager at Bluehead Ranch -- a 66,000-acre working ranch in Highlands county boasting 6,000 head of cattle, sod, groves, turf, timber and hunting. "There is so much development and growth going on that the cowboy way of life is dwindling out -- I don't know what it will be 25 years from now," Walker said. Florida cowboy heritage is also the focus of the feature-length film "Cracker," by award-winning filmmaker Victor Milt. His first film, "The Cowboys of Florida," won national critical acclaim for its haunting portrayal of the trademark determination of Florida Cowboys....
Stop your sobbing Rachel Carson opened "Silent Spring," her 1962 polemic against chemical pesticides in general and DDT in particular, with a terrible prophecy: "Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth." "Silent Spring" set the template for nearly a half century of environment writing: wrap the latest scientific research about an ecological calamity in a tragic narrative that conjures nostalgia for Nature while prophesying ever worse disasters to come unless human societies repent for their sins against Nature and work for a return to a harmonious relationship with the natural world. Eco-tragedies are premised on the notion that humankind's survival depends on understanding that ecological crises are a consequence of human intrusions on Nature, and that humans must let go of their consumer, religious, and ideological fantasies and recognize where their true self-interest lies. Grounded in a tradition of eco-tragedy begun by Carson and motivated by the lack of progress on the ecological crisis, environmental writers have produced a flood of high-profile books that take the tragic narrative of humankind's fall from Nature to new heights....
Behind the Bovine Curtain Just like the old Iron Curtain that squelched any critical discussion of Communism's failures, we in the West live behind a "Bovine Curtain." The Bovine Curtain is-like the Iron Curtain-operated by the state, using taxpayer dollars to continuously broadcast propaganda about the virtues of ranching in the West and suppressing any negative or critical information. The mantra "cows are good" is repeated so often that it has attained cult status, even among many conservation groups-who should know better. Eating meat (domestic livestock), particularly beef, has one of the biggest environmental impacts on the planet. In many ways making a change from a livestock based diet to plants (or wild game) is one of the easiest things that most of us can modify in our personal behavior to lessen our collective burden upon the planet. Producing one calorie of animal protein requires more than 10 times as much fossil fuel input-releasing more than 10 times as much carbon dioxide-than does a calorie of plant protein. In the summer 2007 report, Livestock's Long Shadow, UN researchers concluded that livestock production is one of the most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." According to the UN, livestock contributes to "problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity." But few environmental groups mention this report or its findings, particularly if they are located in the cowboy West behind the Bovine Curtain. They would have to admit that the findings conclusions apply equally as well to the western U.S....
Governor Ritter tours ranch land near Pinon On Wednesday, Governor Bill Ritter saddled up and went for a horseback tour of privately-owned ranch land near the Pinon Canyon Maneuver site. The ranch was located near the town of Thatcher in Las Animas County. With the governor were ranchers, many from families who have spent generations on living in that area, who strongly oppose the Army's proposed expansion. "There's no reason for us to sell it or want to sell it," said Kenny Gyurman, a local rancher. Gyurman's family and a few others were forced to give up some their land in the early 1980s to the army. "My dad was 85, my uncle was 78. It wasn't in them to go somewhere else and buy more land and start over, that was their pride and joy," said Gyurman. They fear the army could now force them to sell again. The army wants their land to expand its Pinon Canyon Maneuver site in preparation for the thousands of additional troops headed to Ft. Carson over the next two years. Specifically the army wants to take over some of the land to expand the training site from 235-thousand acres to 400-thousand acres. "If this was absolutely the only place they had and it would save a life or two of one of our soldiers, you wouldn't get much of a kick from anybody here, but we don't see it as a necessity. They have too many other alternatives," said Gyurman. It's an opinion Governor Ritter seems to agree with. "I want a well trained U.S. Army, but the question is really one of justification, and I think what the ranchers would say, I think what our legislators would say is they have not met that burden," said Gov. Ritter. Ranchers are hoping the Governor's support will be a major help in their efforts to protect their land, but they know this issue isn't over.
Tulare Co officials vote against new protections for park Tulare County Supervisors voted against placing a temporary moratorium on development around Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, saying further protections for the park weren't needed. The board struck down Supervisor Connie Conway's proposal to place a 45-day moratorium on special-use permits in a 2.5-mile zone bordering the park, which pays tribute to a black community founded by a freed slave. The use of land around the park became controversial late last year, when a Visalia rancher proposed building two mega-dairies near the park. Many local residents objected, saying the stench and pollution created by 12,000 cows would mar a spot historians and black leaders consider sacred ground. Established in 1908, Allensworth became the only California town founded and operated by blacks. After months of legal wrangling, the state and the farmer reached a compromise in September: The Department of Parks and Recreation will pay Sam Etchegaray $3.5 million to guarantee that he won't build dairies near the park, but Etchegaray will still own the land and can continue farming it....
Ranchers' livelihood threatened by wolves It’s been nearly 80 years since a wolf killed a calf on a Washington State ranch, but it happened last month. The McIrvin’s lose up to 75 calves a year on their 5000 acre Diamond M Ranch, due to cougar, bear and coyote kills. At $600 a head, that’s a substantial loss the ranchers have to bear. The calf carcass Bill McIrvin found in a pasture wasn’t anything like kills he’d seen before, though. It hadn’t been pulled into the brush, so it wasn’t a cougar. It hadn’t been mauled and all the bones crushed, so it wasn’t a bear. The calf was too large for a coyote to attack. There seemed to be no explanation, until the next morning when wolf tracks were found all over the area. Two days later, a second carcass was found within 100 feet of an occupied cabin on the ranch. The McIrvin’s called state Fish & Wildlife officials, who contacted Federal Animal Damage Control officers. They came out o the ranch just south of the Canadian border near Laurier and skinned the remains of the calf. Fang marks were visible in the animal’s flesh once the hide was removed. Canine-like tracks that were 5 ½ inches long by 4 inches wide were seen around the carcass. Photos were taken and sent to experts. The evidence was conclusive – a wolf had killed the calf. Len McIrvin asked a Federal official, “If I see a wolf killing a calf, can I shoot it?” The answer came back, “Absolutely not, unless you want to go to prison and pay a big fine.” Since wolves remain on the Federal endangered species list, none can be killed at any time or for any reason. Federal agents remained on the McIrvin’s ranch for a week, trying to trap the wolf and move it elsewhere. After they left, the family heard wolves howling in the area, but they have yet to find another wolf kill among their calves. They expect to find some as they complete their fall roundup by the end of this month....
Texas criticized for removing biofuel incentives As Congress embraces alternative fuels, some in Texas are complaining the oil and gas state has gone in the opposite direction. Texas lawmakers, who authorized hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years to subsidize defense contractors, dairy businesses and oil companies, eliminated funding over the summer for a program that encouraged the production of biofuels. The decision, part of a last-minute budget-balancing act, drew the ire of biodiesel producers, lobbyists and state officials who argue that Texas was being shortsighted about the nation's energy future. The U.S. Senate's pending energy bill would raise the national mandate for biofuel use by tens of billions of gallons, presenting an opportunity for states beyond the Midwest to get into the alternative-fuel gold rush. But without a state policy to encourage production, some producers said, Texas is missing its chance....
Wildlife department working overtime to deal with bears Nevada Department of Wildlife game wardens and biologists are working overtime to deal with an unprecedented number of bear calls in Yerington and surrounding areas. People who encounter bears or see bears in their neighborhood are urged to contact the department for guidance and support. "The fact is that people are not accustomed to seeing bears in these areas and they are concerned, and rightfully so," said Steve Tomac, a game warden stationed in Yerington. "We take every call seriously, and many department employees are working extra hours to respond to these calls." Tomac said urban interface bear sightings and encounters are higher than the department has seen before because of several factors, including drought, fires and a diminished natural food source for bears....
Lawmakers call for probe of alleged logging of protected pines Three Congressmen, including Rep. John Olver of Massachusetts, called for a federal probe Wednesday into whether forest managers illegally cut down more than 200 protected trees in the Giant Sequoia National Monument and sold some of the wood for timber. The legislators asked U.S. Department of Agriculture Inspector General Phyllis K. Fong to investigate the alleged illegal logging of 300-year-old sugar pines and other trees in the monument. The 328,000-acre preserve is part of the Sequoia National Forest in central California, and is home to two-thirds of the world's largest trees. No sequoias or redwoods are believed to have been illegally logged. Conservation groups say the U.S. Forest Service cut the trees between 2004 and 2005, when the protected area was cordoned off from public view. The Forest Service claimed it would only log 138 trees that were at risk of toppling, but conservation groups allege more than 200 trees were chopped down during that time....
Man suspected of shooting wildlife from plane A federal shooting investigation is underway in Bannock County. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents have taken custody of an ultralight plane after reports the pilot was shooting at livestock and wild animals. The small lightweight aircraft was spotted by dozens of people flying north of McCammon. The suspect was pulled over later in the day. Inside a trailer, federal agents found the ultralight and a rifle that could be mounted on the aircraft with brackets already installed. "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and Fish and Game are up on the mountain right now looking for any evidence or indication that domestic livestock or wildlife were shot," said Fish and Game officer Chris Bocek....
Forest Service Chief Visits Harlem The head of the U.S. Forest Service visited a Harlem elementary school to talk about trees and to promote a program that will give $1.5 million to 24 schools nationwide to send kids into nature. Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell later joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Bette Midler and Big Bird at a tree planting Tuesday in the Bronx. At the Harlem Link Charter School, third-graders asked Kimbell questions such as "Do they rake the leaves in the forest?" and "Does a bell ring when there's a forest fire?" Kimbell said the Forest Service learns about fires from radio calls from lookout towers, not from bells. And leaves aren't usually raked in the wild. "When you're out in the forest, move some of those leaves aside and look real closely at what's crawling around underneath," she said. "You'll find out there are lots of bugs and worms and really cool things." Kimbell, a 30-year veteran of the Forest Service who took over as its chief in February, visited the school to kick off the "More Kids in the Woods" program, which will pay for field trips at Harlem Link and 23 other schools....
Logging company backs out of sale A Southern Oregon logging company that was the high bidder on a controversial U.S. Bureau of Land Management timber sale is throwing in the towel on the project. The Glendale-based Swanson Group Inc. has chosen to withdraw from the Scattered Apples sale near Williams that it purchased in a BLM auction in 2002. Federal court-ordered mediation by the agency and plaintiffs resulted in changes that made it no longer economically viable, said Steve Swanson, president of the family-owned firm. "As a result of this, the counties lose valuable timber receipts, the acres that were part of the forest health project remain unhealthy and we don't have wood to run our mills," a frustrated Swanson concluded. "And what you end up with is a small group of people running our forests," he added of the plaintiffs....
No '8-second cowboys' allowed Dayworkers, cowboys, ranch hands welcome -- "8-second cowboys" need not apply. The Arcadia Rodeo Association has rounded up cowboys from across Florida for the inaugural "Best of the Ranches Invitational Rodeo." Action starts at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Arcadia Rodeo Arena, off U.S. 17 in South Arcadia; where teams of real working cowboys from Florida's biggest cattle ranches will go head-to-head for the title of "Best Ranch" -- and all the bragging rights that go along with it. Ranch rodeos, like Florida cowboys, are a breed apart. "They're holding their own right now, but the Florida cowboy is definitely a dying breed," said Windy Walker, cattle manager at Bluehead Ranch -- a 66,000-acre working ranch in Highlands county boasting 6,000 head of cattle, sod, groves, turf, timber and hunting. "There is so much development and growth going on that the cowboy way of life is dwindling out -- I don't know what it will be 25 years from now," Walker said. Florida cowboy heritage is also the focus of the feature-length film "Cracker," by award-winning filmmaker Victor Milt. His first film, "The Cowboys of Florida," won national critical acclaim for its haunting portrayal of the trademark determination of Florida Cowboys....
FLE
House Panels Reject Appeal on Eavesdropping Two Congressional panels today rejected President Bush’s request to renew without added restrictions his administration’s broad eavesdropping authority, and instead adopted a measure that gives federal judges greater oversight authority over foreign electronic surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency. The bill approved by the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees was along straight party lines, just as they split to defeat the administration’s proposal. The legislation, sponsored by Representative John Conyers of Michigan and Representative Silvestre Reyes of Texas, the chairmen of the Judiciary and Intelligence committees, respectively, conspicuously did not contain two provisions demanded by the White House. One would have provided retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies that had helped the N.SA. to conduct eavesdropping without warrants. A second would have made the surveillance program permanent — instead, the legislation expires in two years. As the administration has sought, the legislation provides authority for the government to obtain “basket” or “umbrella” warrants for bundles of overseas communications. But White House and Justice Department officials nonetheless criticized the legislation because of the greater authority it gives to a special foreign intelligence surveillance court. The House legislation sets up various categories of court intervention and oversight of electronic surveillance. It continues the policy of not requiring a warrant for intercepting communications between foreigners outside of the United States. It also continues the policy of requiring a warrant from a special foreign intelligence surveillance court when the officials are targeting people in the United States. For a third category of intercepts—bundles of communications by groups of people—the legislation permits the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence to authorize surveillance for up to a year but only with tight supervision by the foreign intelligence court. The court is required to review procedures to assure that they are reasonably designed to monitor only people outside the United States. The legislation also requires quarterly audits of the program by the Justice Department’s inspector general that would be shared with the foreign intelligence court and Congress....
Investigation looks at airport-screener testing A federal investigator has launched a probe into whether security screeners at six airports have cheated on covert tests run by undercover agents trying to sneak weapons through checkpoints. Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner said he is investigating whether screeners were tipped off to tests that determine how well airport workers find guns, bombs and knives. The broad investigation follows Skinner's findings that screeners at airports in San Francisco and Jackson, Miss., had been told in advance of undercover tests in 2003 and 2004. Skinner is investigating "whether (screeners) at other airports received advance notice of any covert testing," spokeswoman Tamara Faulkner said Thursday. The probe was welcomed by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. Last year, he called for an investigation into Jackson-Evers International Airport in his home state after media reports of wrongdoing. Cheating "weakens our security systems at airports," Thompson said....
Death row dispute puts Bush at odds with Texas Supreme Court justices engaged in robust arguments Wednesday over a Texas gang rape and murder. The case has grown into a dispute of international magnitude that goes to the core of the president's powers. A Texas official told the justices states do not need to follow an international court order to hear the appeal of a Mexican citizen on its death row. Lawyers for the prisoner and the Bush administration countered that Texas must help meet U.S. treaty obligations by granting the appeal. The case places Bush, a death penalty supporter, at odds with the state he used to govern. Jose Medellin was convicted of murder and sentenced to die for the rape and strangling of two teenage girls who stumbled into a gang initiation as they walked home from a friend's house in 1993. After he exhausted his regular appeals, Medellin, a Mexican who lived most of his life in Texas, sought a new hearing because he was not told of his right to contact a local Mexican representative when he was arrested. The right to contact a representative, called a consul, is spelled out in the Vienna Convention, a 1969 international treaty signed by the United States....
Judge Suspends Key Bush Effort in Immigration A federal judge in San Francisco ordered an indefinite delay yesterday of a central measure of the Bush administration’s new strategy to curb illegal immigration. The judge, Charles R. Breyer of the Northern District of California, said the government had failed to follow proper procedures for issuing a new rule that would have forced employers to fire workers if their Social Security numbers could not be verified within three months. Judge Breyer chastised the Department of Homeland Security for making a policy change with “massive ramifications” for employers, without giving any legal explanation or conducting a required survey of the costs and impact for small businesses. Under the rule issued by the department, which had been scheduled to take effect last month, employers would have to fire workers within 90 days after receiving a notice from the Social Security Administration that an employee’s identity information did not match the agency’s records. Illegal immigrants often present false Social Security information when applying for jobs. The rule, announced with fanfare in August by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, was the linchpin of the administration’s effort to crack down on illegal immigration by denying jobs to the immigrants. It is part of a campaign of stepped-up enforcement since broader immigration legislation favored by President Bush was rejected by Congress in June....
House Panels Reject Appeal on Eavesdropping Two Congressional panels today rejected President Bush’s request to renew without added restrictions his administration’s broad eavesdropping authority, and instead adopted a measure that gives federal judges greater oversight authority over foreign electronic surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency. The bill approved by the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees was along straight party lines, just as they split to defeat the administration’s proposal. The legislation, sponsored by Representative John Conyers of Michigan and Representative Silvestre Reyes of Texas, the chairmen of the Judiciary and Intelligence committees, respectively, conspicuously did not contain two provisions demanded by the White House. One would have provided retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies that had helped the N.SA. to conduct eavesdropping without warrants. A second would have made the surveillance program permanent — instead, the legislation expires in two years. As the administration has sought, the legislation provides authority for the government to obtain “basket” or “umbrella” warrants for bundles of overseas communications. But White House and Justice Department officials nonetheless criticized the legislation because of the greater authority it gives to a special foreign intelligence surveillance court. The House legislation sets up various categories of court intervention and oversight of electronic surveillance. It continues the policy of not requiring a warrant for intercepting communications between foreigners outside of the United States. It also continues the policy of requiring a warrant from a special foreign intelligence surveillance court when the officials are targeting people in the United States. For a third category of intercepts—bundles of communications by groups of people—the legislation permits the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence to authorize surveillance for up to a year but only with tight supervision by the foreign intelligence court. The court is required to review procedures to assure that they are reasonably designed to monitor only people outside the United States. The legislation also requires quarterly audits of the program by the Justice Department’s inspector general that would be shared with the foreign intelligence court and Congress....
Investigation looks at airport-screener testing A federal investigator has launched a probe into whether security screeners at six airports have cheated on covert tests run by undercover agents trying to sneak weapons through checkpoints. Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner said he is investigating whether screeners were tipped off to tests that determine how well airport workers find guns, bombs and knives. The broad investigation follows Skinner's findings that screeners at airports in San Francisco and Jackson, Miss., had been told in advance of undercover tests in 2003 and 2004. Skinner is investigating "whether (screeners) at other airports received advance notice of any covert testing," spokeswoman Tamara Faulkner said Thursday. The probe was welcomed by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. Last year, he called for an investigation into Jackson-Evers International Airport in his home state after media reports of wrongdoing. Cheating "weakens our security systems at airports," Thompson said....
Death row dispute puts Bush at odds with Texas Supreme Court justices engaged in robust arguments Wednesday over a Texas gang rape and murder. The case has grown into a dispute of international magnitude that goes to the core of the president's powers. A Texas official told the justices states do not need to follow an international court order to hear the appeal of a Mexican citizen on its death row. Lawyers for the prisoner and the Bush administration countered that Texas must help meet U.S. treaty obligations by granting the appeal. The case places Bush, a death penalty supporter, at odds with the state he used to govern. Jose Medellin was convicted of murder and sentenced to die for the rape and strangling of two teenage girls who stumbled into a gang initiation as they walked home from a friend's house in 1993. After he exhausted his regular appeals, Medellin, a Mexican who lived most of his life in Texas, sought a new hearing because he was not told of his right to contact a local Mexican representative when he was arrested. The right to contact a representative, called a consul, is spelled out in the Vienna Convention, a 1969 international treaty signed by the United States....
Judge Suspends Key Bush Effort in Immigration A federal judge in San Francisco ordered an indefinite delay yesterday of a central measure of the Bush administration’s new strategy to curb illegal immigration. The judge, Charles R. Breyer of the Northern District of California, said the government had failed to follow proper procedures for issuing a new rule that would have forced employers to fire workers if their Social Security numbers could not be verified within three months. Judge Breyer chastised the Department of Homeland Security for making a policy change with “massive ramifications” for employers, without giving any legal explanation or conducting a required survey of the costs and impact for small businesses. Under the rule issued by the department, which had been scheduled to take effect last month, employers would have to fire workers within 90 days after receiving a notice from the Social Security Administration that an employee’s identity information did not match the agency’s records. Illegal immigrants often present false Social Security information when applying for jobs. The rule, announced with fanfare in August by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, was the linchpin of the administration’s effort to crack down on illegal immigration by denying jobs to the immigrants. It is part of a campaign of stepped-up enforcement since broader immigration legislation favored by President Bush was rejected by Congress in June....
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Effort in U.S. Congress to Block Canadian Rule 2 Expected to Fail Several senators have recently introduced resolutions to block older Canadian cattle and beef products from crossing the border again on Nov. 19. However, even if the resolutions were to be approved by Congress – by no means a certainty – President George Bush would veto them and there would not be the votes to override that action, congressional sources said. USDA said last month it wants to resume imports of Canadian cattle and products from cattle over thirty months of age. Younger Canadian cattle have been allowed into the U.S. since July 2005. U.S. officials say the threat from Canadian products is "negligible," despite the country's 10 BSE cases. The American risk assessment assumes Canada will have more in the future. There have been three cases in the U.S.. Officials said they expect only about 75,000 Canadian cows will actually cross the border in the first year, down from an early estimate of 650,000, partly because of the challenges of proving their age. The U.S. considers March 1999 to be the date when a feed ban in Canada to halt the spread of the disease became effective, so cows born after that are welcome....
U.S. officials study Japan for lessons on imports Increasing concerns about the safety of Chinese products have the U.S. government looking at the tough approaches taken by another Asian country, Japan. Japan engages in far more rigorous testing of Chinese imports, particularly food, than the United States, but the innovation getting the most attention is its system for screening Chinese producers even before they ship to Japan. The program is the product of Japan's longer experience with Chinese safety problems, going back to the discovery five years ago of high levels of pesticides on frozen spinach from China. "Japan is five years ahead of the rest of the world in dealing with quality problems from China," said Tatsuya Kakita, the author of several books here on food safety. "The world can learn from Japan." The country, which imports about 15 percent of its food from China, has focused its efforts so far on food safety. But some Japanese and U.S. officials and safety experts say that similar methods may also work for many Chinese exports, not only seafood and processed vegetables but also nonfood items like medicines, toys and paint....
Senate Finance Cmte. Approves Package To Boost Farm Bill Funding The Senate Finance Committee approved the "Heartland, Habitat, Harvest, and Horticulture Act of 2007," a package aimed at bolstering the funding available to the Senate Ag Committee to write its version of the next farm bill. The package was approved 17-4, and will create a trust fund to help ranchers and farmers hurt by crop and livestock losses, convert several conservation payment programs into fully-offset tax credit programs, and offer additional incentives for rural economic development and energy-related tax relief to aid agricultural producers. The $5.1 billion ag disaster aid trust fund was pushed by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.)....Go here to view the Committee summary.
MCA backs brucellosis split Most ranchers in this part of the state have spoken harshly of Gov. Brian Schweitzer's plans to create a “split state” category for brucellosis control. However, one statewide ranching group approved a measure last week saying the idea deserves formal consideration. “Not all ranchers are at risk of their cattle contracting the disease and they should not shoulder the burden of brucellosis testing if there is an alternative plan available,” said Kim Baker, vice president of the Montana Cattlemens Association, which has about 2,000 members statewide. Schweitzer has favored working with the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which regulates brucellosis issues, to lay the groundwork for establishing what he calls a “hot zone” around Yellowstone National Park, where bison and elk harbor the disease. The Cattlemens' measure is an interim policy that calls for the Montana Department of Livestock to start moving on that complicated process. If the paperwork is done before another case of brucellosis is detected in cattle, that could mean the entire state would not lose its brucellosis-free status because it could be divided into two zones....
Stakes High In Fight Against The Cattle Fever Tick Livestock health officials say it could cost upwards of $13 million and take as long as two years to stop an incursion of fever ticks into the formerly fever tick free areas of five counties along the Texas-Mexico border. The fever tick, less than a 1/8-inch long, is capable of carrying and transmitting ‘babesia,’ a blood parasite deadly to cattle. “For most of the country, the fever tick has been pushed out of sight, out of mind, since the 1940s. This tick, however, is capable of transmitting a foreign animal disease and it’s sitting in our backyard,” said Dr. Bob Hillman, Texas’ state veterinarian and executive director of the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), the state’s livestock and poultry health regulatory agency. “If we can’t stop it, the fever tick could spread from coast to coast, except the arid lands of New Mexico and Arizona, and as far north as Washington D.C.,” stressed Dr. Hillman. “As the tick spreads, so will the need for personnel and resources. Win the battle along the Rio Grande in Texas, and other states won’t have to fight the war.” The TAHC has placed temporary fever tick quarantines on 1116.3 square miles in five Texas border counties, including parts of Starr and Zapata counties, and a contiguous area encompassing parts of Maverick, Dimmit and Webb Counties. In addition, an 852-square mile permanent quarantine zone butts up against the Rio Grande from Del Rio to Brownsville and is under the management of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 60-person Fever Tick Force....
ConAgra Closes Pot Pie Plant Due To Salmonella Concerns ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG) voluntarily stopped production at the Missouri plant that makes its Banquet pot pies after health officials said the pies may be linked to 139 cases of salmonella in 30 states, including Wisconsin. ConAgra officials believe the company's pies are safe if they're cooked properly, but the Omaha-based company told consumers Tuesday not to eat its chicken or turkey pot pies until the government and company investigations are complete. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also issued a health alert Tuesday afternoon to warn consumers about the link between the company's product and the salmonella cases. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been tracking reports of the salmonella cases since Wednesday. A CDC spokeswoman said the largest numbers of salmonella cases had been reported in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Missouri....
U.S. Beef Is Safe, Says South Korean Ag Minister South Korea's agriculture minister told local media Wednesday that U.S. beef poses no significant health risk, a statement sure to please Washington officials seeking to revise Seoul's import rules. USDA Press Secretary Keith Williams has confirmed that the two countries will hold technical talks for two days beginning Thursday at the National Veterinary Research & Quarantine Service located in Anyang, just south of Seoul. "They will discuss measures for revising the import health protocol for U.S. beef," he told Meatingplace.com. South Korea Agriculture Minister Im Sang-gyu told a local radio station that the government plans to renegotiate its rules because U.S. beef poses no health threat, reflecting the World Organization for Animal Health's designation of the United States as a "controlled risk" region for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Yonhap News reported. "While concerns are being raised about whether American beef is safe, most experts agree that risks do not warrant trade restrictions," he reportedly said. Im also said that although the recent discovery of a box of backbones in a Seoul-bound shipment of U.S. beef halted imports, it doesn't affect efforts to change South Korea's sanitary and phytosanitary standards....
AFBF: Retail Food Prices Up 2 Percent In Third Quarter Retail food prices at the supermarket increased slightly in the third quarter of 2007, according to the latest American Farm Bureau Federation Marketbasket Survey. The informal survey shows the total cost of 16 basic grocery items in the third quarter of 2007 was $44.03, up about 2 percent or $1.08 from the second quarter of 2007. Of the 16 items surveyed, eight increased, seven decreased and one stayed the same in average price compared to the 2007 second-quarter survey. Compared to one year ago, the overall cost for the marketbasket items showed an increase of about 7 percent. For the second quarter in a row, regular whole milk showed the largest quarter-to-quarter price increase, up 48 cents to $3.94 per gallon, followed by cheddar cheese, which rose 35 cents per pound to $4.07....
U.S. officials study Japan for lessons on imports Increasing concerns about the safety of Chinese products have the U.S. government looking at the tough approaches taken by another Asian country, Japan. Japan engages in far more rigorous testing of Chinese imports, particularly food, than the United States, but the innovation getting the most attention is its system for screening Chinese producers even before they ship to Japan. The program is the product of Japan's longer experience with Chinese safety problems, going back to the discovery five years ago of high levels of pesticides on frozen spinach from China. "Japan is five years ahead of the rest of the world in dealing with quality problems from China," said Tatsuya Kakita, the author of several books here on food safety. "The world can learn from Japan." The country, which imports about 15 percent of its food from China, has focused its efforts so far on food safety. But some Japanese and U.S. officials and safety experts say that similar methods may also work for many Chinese exports, not only seafood and processed vegetables but also nonfood items like medicines, toys and paint....
Senate Finance Cmte. Approves Package To Boost Farm Bill Funding The Senate Finance Committee approved the "Heartland, Habitat, Harvest, and Horticulture Act of 2007," a package aimed at bolstering the funding available to the Senate Ag Committee to write its version of the next farm bill. The package was approved 17-4, and will create a trust fund to help ranchers and farmers hurt by crop and livestock losses, convert several conservation payment programs into fully-offset tax credit programs, and offer additional incentives for rural economic development and energy-related tax relief to aid agricultural producers. The $5.1 billion ag disaster aid trust fund was pushed by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.)....Go here to view the Committee summary.
MCA backs brucellosis split Most ranchers in this part of the state have spoken harshly of Gov. Brian Schweitzer's plans to create a “split state” category for brucellosis control. However, one statewide ranching group approved a measure last week saying the idea deserves formal consideration. “Not all ranchers are at risk of their cattle contracting the disease and they should not shoulder the burden of brucellosis testing if there is an alternative plan available,” said Kim Baker, vice president of the Montana Cattlemens Association, which has about 2,000 members statewide. Schweitzer has favored working with the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which regulates brucellosis issues, to lay the groundwork for establishing what he calls a “hot zone” around Yellowstone National Park, where bison and elk harbor the disease. The Cattlemens' measure is an interim policy that calls for the Montana Department of Livestock to start moving on that complicated process. If the paperwork is done before another case of brucellosis is detected in cattle, that could mean the entire state would not lose its brucellosis-free status because it could be divided into two zones....
Stakes High In Fight Against The Cattle Fever Tick Livestock health officials say it could cost upwards of $13 million and take as long as two years to stop an incursion of fever ticks into the formerly fever tick free areas of five counties along the Texas-Mexico border. The fever tick, less than a 1/8-inch long, is capable of carrying and transmitting ‘babesia,’ a blood parasite deadly to cattle. “For most of the country, the fever tick has been pushed out of sight, out of mind, since the 1940s. This tick, however, is capable of transmitting a foreign animal disease and it’s sitting in our backyard,” said Dr. Bob Hillman, Texas’ state veterinarian and executive director of the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), the state’s livestock and poultry health regulatory agency. “If we can’t stop it, the fever tick could spread from coast to coast, except the arid lands of New Mexico and Arizona, and as far north as Washington D.C.,” stressed Dr. Hillman. “As the tick spreads, so will the need for personnel and resources. Win the battle along the Rio Grande in Texas, and other states won’t have to fight the war.” The TAHC has placed temporary fever tick quarantines on 1116.3 square miles in five Texas border counties, including parts of Starr and Zapata counties, and a contiguous area encompassing parts of Maverick, Dimmit and Webb Counties. In addition, an 852-square mile permanent quarantine zone butts up against the Rio Grande from Del Rio to Brownsville and is under the management of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 60-person Fever Tick Force....
ConAgra Closes Pot Pie Plant Due To Salmonella Concerns ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG) voluntarily stopped production at the Missouri plant that makes its Banquet pot pies after health officials said the pies may be linked to 139 cases of salmonella in 30 states, including Wisconsin. ConAgra officials believe the company's pies are safe if they're cooked properly, but the Omaha-based company told consumers Tuesday not to eat its chicken or turkey pot pies until the government and company investigations are complete. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also issued a health alert Tuesday afternoon to warn consumers about the link between the company's product and the salmonella cases. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been tracking reports of the salmonella cases since Wednesday. A CDC spokeswoman said the largest numbers of salmonella cases had been reported in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Missouri....
U.S. Beef Is Safe, Says South Korean Ag Minister South Korea's agriculture minister told local media Wednesday that U.S. beef poses no significant health risk, a statement sure to please Washington officials seeking to revise Seoul's import rules. USDA Press Secretary Keith Williams has confirmed that the two countries will hold technical talks for two days beginning Thursday at the National Veterinary Research & Quarantine Service located in Anyang, just south of Seoul. "They will discuss measures for revising the import health protocol for U.S. beef," he told Meatingplace.com. South Korea Agriculture Minister Im Sang-gyu told a local radio station that the government plans to renegotiate its rules because U.S. beef poses no health threat, reflecting the World Organization for Animal Health's designation of the United States as a "controlled risk" region for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Yonhap News reported. "While concerns are being raised about whether American beef is safe, most experts agree that risks do not warrant trade restrictions," he reportedly said. Im also said that although the recent discovery of a box of backbones in a Seoul-bound shipment of U.S. beef halted imports, it doesn't affect efforts to change South Korea's sanitary and phytosanitary standards....
AFBF: Retail Food Prices Up 2 Percent In Third Quarter Retail food prices at the supermarket increased slightly in the third quarter of 2007, according to the latest American Farm Bureau Federation Marketbasket Survey. The informal survey shows the total cost of 16 basic grocery items in the third quarter of 2007 was $44.03, up about 2 percent or $1.08 from the second quarter of 2007. Of the 16 items surveyed, eight increased, seven decreased and one stayed the same in average price compared to the 2007 second-quarter survey. Compared to one year ago, the overall cost for the marketbasket items showed an increase of about 7 percent. For the second quarter in a row, regular whole milk showed the largest quarter-to-quarter price increase, up 48 cents to $3.94 per gallon, followed by cheddar cheese, which rose 35 cents per pound to $4.07....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Idaho Lieutenant Governor Announces Bid to Succeed Craig GOP Lt. Gov. Jim Risch of Idaho announced his candidacy Tuesday for the U.S. Senate seat now held by fellow Republican Larry E. Craig, who has said he will step down after completing his term next year. Risch was widely viewed as Republican Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s top choice candidate to fill out Craig’s Senate term had the senator kept to his pledge to resign from Congress if he was unable to withdraw his guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge stemming from an airport restroom sex sting. An attorney and rancher, Risch is a member of the Idaho Cattleman’s Association, the American and Idaho Angus Association, and the National Rifle Association. Craig is a rancher and has been an NRA board member. During his seven-month term as governor, Risch won over skeptics and made major inroads in the environmental community as a surprise ally in the fight to keep Idaho’s wild places pristine. Risch “became a new kind of conservative — one who held true to Republican tenets, but with greener, environmentally minded leanings,” the (Twin Falls) Times-News said in an editorial....
Railroad into Montana coal country gets OK from feds Federal officials on Tuesday announced approval of the final stretch of a long-delayed $341 million rail line that could open southeastern Montana's vast but largely untapped coal fields to more intensive development. The Tongue River Railroad, first proposed in 1983, would run 130 miles from Miles City to Decker _ into the heart of the coal-rich Powder River Basin along the Montana-Wyoming border. Area landowners have fiercely fought the proposed line fearing it could industrialize a rural area now dominated by agriculture. Permits from state and federal agencies are still needed, and rights of way through private and public property must be secured before the line could be built. Also, an unresolved 1998 federal lawsuit hangs over the project, meaning the line could get tied up in court before construction begins. But a railroad attorney said Tuesday's federal go-ahead was crucial and will allow the Tongue River Railroad Co. to start lining up a customer base that can deliver a steady supply of coal. The could include the state of Montana, which has a roughly 40 percent stake in a 1.4 billion-ton coal tract located off the proposed line in an area known as Otter Creek....
The Clean Water Act--Misinterpretation and misimplementation Acting on an overly broad interpretation of the Clean Water Act, the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) issued a cease and desist order on our family farm in the spring of 2004. We were planning to transition a parcel of grazing pasture into winegrapes and were accused of deep-ripping the ground and filling and destroying waters of the United States. In reality, we had simply disked the ground once annually as part of our normal and routine farming practices to reduce the fire hazard and regenerate the grasses for winter cattle feed. The ACE claimed that there were wet areas on our property subject to the Clean Water Act (CWA) and our proposed transition from pasture to grapes violated the "prior converted cropland" provision of the CWA. The cease and desist order remained in place for two years, during which time we were not able to graze cattle or begin planting the vineyard as planned. We lost two years' worth of production income, in addition to hours of time and energy spent proving the parcel did not contain "navigable intrastate waters of the U.S." that were subject to the CWA. Unfortunately, this is not the only experience we've had where the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act has been misinterpreted and misimplemented to the detriment of our family farm. Now, that jurisdiction could be broadened even further....
Endangered foxes released on island off Santa Barbara Ten island fox pups have been released into the wild, the last of a group reared in captivity as part of an effort to restore the endangered species. The pups scurried into wooded canyons Monday at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. in the middle of this 96-square-mile island off Santa Barbara, said Tim Coonan, a biologist with the National Park Service. There were once 1,500 foxes, but their numbers dwindled to as few as 80 because of pigs and turkeys brought to the island by ranchers. The turkeys and pigs provided prey for golden eagles, which in turn also began feasting on the foxes. The fox population has since rebounded to more than 300 with the help of the breeding program, Coonan said. About 85 foxes have been raised in captivity and released since 2003....
Coyotes getting ugly, kill pets Coyotes are running amok in an Aurora neighborhood, in some cases jumping fences and killing people's pets, according to one City Council member who wants the problem fixed. "They've been raiding yards and taking small pets," said Councilman Larry Beer, who said he's getting calls from constituents. He said Monday he knows of at least six incidents of "coyote-on- pet predatory activity." But Beer found out recently that getting rid of the coyotes is complicated. The coyotes in question have been seen frolicking behind the 11th and 12th holes of the Aurora Hills Golf Course and along the Highline Canal Trail in the Park East neighborhood. Phyllis Rider, whose house faces the trail, said she knows of three instances in which coyotes have killed small dogs within two blocks of her since January....
Hunter attacked by bear A lower Michigan man was in stable condition Monday in a Marquette hospital after being bitten by a bear in Ontonagon County on Sunday. Steve Remsing, 53, of Sterling Heights, was being treated at Marquette General Hospital after being transferred from Ontonagon Memorial Hospital. Michigan State Police from the L'Anse post responded to the report of Remsing being bitten by the bear near Courtney Lake in Bohemia Township. Police said Remsing was hunting when he shot a large black bear while it was in a tree, where it had been chased by a pack of dogs. The bear fell from the tree and started fighting with a dog that had treed it. When Remsing tried to stop the fight between the bear and the dog, the bear attacked him, police said. Another hunter in the party, Shane Majors of Roscommon, jumped on the bear and stabbed it with a knife until it stopped attacking Remsing, police said. The bear then ran off a short distance and died....
Colorado wildfire frequency tied to ocean temperature patterns For years, skiers have tuned in to long-range weather outlooks to determine whether an El Niño or La Niña might bring a bountiful powder season. Along with shaping winter precipitation patterns, recent research suggests that the shifts in sea surface temperatures can also be tied to the frequency and intensity of forest fires. For forests like Summit County's subalpine lodgepole pines, drought conditions induced by La Niña, and even temperature shifts in the Atlantic Ocean, could be a bigger factor than previously thought. After studying the historic recurrence of fire in Rocky Mountain National Park and comparing that data with climate records, Forest Service scientists concluded in a recent study that fire occurred more frequently than expected during La Niña conditions. Another large-scale pattern that may be equally significant for Colorado is a change in Atlantic Ocean sea surface temperatures. The Atlantic multi-decadal oscillation, as it's known, is not as understood as the Pacific El Niño/La Niña phenomenon. But the shift in temperatures does affect drought conditions in Colorado and other parts of the U.S....
Judge tells federal agency to reconsider Oregon coho protection The federal agency overseeing restoration of declining salmon in the Northwest must take another look at its decision not to protect Oregon coastal coho under the Endangered Species Act. U.S. District Judge Garr M. King in Portland affirmed a magistrate's findings earlier this year that NOAA Fisheries was arbitrary and capricious and did not rely on the best available science when it decided to leave Oregon coastal coho off the threatened species list. The agency has until Dec. 8 to make a decision. It will consider whether to appeal, said spokesman Brian Gorman. Putting Oregon coastal coho back on the threatened species list would add another layer of regulation to logging and other land use decisions on federal, state and private lands in the central Oregon Coast Range. That would include the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's plan to ramp up logging in Western Oregon to boost federal revenues paid to timber-dependent counties. Once a staple of Oregon's commercial salmon fleet, with historic population estimates of 2 million fish, Oregon coastal coho went into steep decline in the 1990s, bottoming out around 14,000, due to a combination of overfishing, loss of habitat to logging and agriculture, misguided hatchery practices and poor ocean conditions. In recent years numbers have rebounded....
Federal government rejects Palouse earthworm petition The federal government said Tuesday that a petition to protect the giant Palouse earthworm as an endangered species does not contain enough scientific data to conclude that such protection is warranted. The petition seeking threatened or endangered status for the rarely seen worm _ which can grow as long as 3 feet and spit at attackers _ was filed on August 30, 2006, by environmental groups. "We share the petitioners' concern for the species," said Susan Martin, supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office in Spokane. "While we will not be initiating an in-depth status review at this time, we will continue to cooperate with others to monitor the species." The decision upset conservationists, who blamed the Bush administration. The giant Palouse earthworm was first discovered in 1897 near Pullman, Wash. Although only a few specimens have been collected, it was thought to be abundant in the Palouse. But the last confirmed sighting of the species was in 2005 by a University of Idaho researcher. Previously, the giant worm had not been seen since 1988. There is little about the worm in the scientific record. Information regarding the range, distribution, population size and status of the worm is limited, preventing the assessment of population trends, the agency said....
Wolf/livestock conflicts ease Although September can mark a busy time for wolf and livestock conflicts, Wyoming had a quiet month, ending a relatively quiet summer in the wolf world. Representatives of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said they took an "aggressive" stance and killed problem wolves immediately. Those wolves were generally in areas where livestock depredations were chronic, and in areas outside where wolves would receive some protection once they're removed from the federal endangered species list. Mike Jimenez, Wyoming's wolf coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said this year there were 29 confirmed cattle kills and 16 sheep depredations by wolves, compared with 123 cattle and 38 sheep last year. And this year officials killed 52 wolves so far, compared with 44 for all of 2006. "I looked at the data over the years, and what happens is we have some packs that chronically, year after year after year, cause problems," Jimenez said. "If we respond more aggressively, we can reduce livestock depredations."....
Idaho Lieutenant Governor Announces Bid to Succeed Craig GOP Lt. Gov. Jim Risch of Idaho announced his candidacy Tuesday for the U.S. Senate seat now held by fellow Republican Larry E. Craig, who has said he will step down after completing his term next year. Risch was widely viewed as Republican Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s top choice candidate to fill out Craig’s Senate term had the senator kept to his pledge to resign from Congress if he was unable to withdraw his guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge stemming from an airport restroom sex sting. An attorney and rancher, Risch is a member of the Idaho Cattleman’s Association, the American and Idaho Angus Association, and the National Rifle Association. Craig is a rancher and has been an NRA board member. During his seven-month term as governor, Risch won over skeptics and made major inroads in the environmental community as a surprise ally in the fight to keep Idaho’s wild places pristine. Risch “became a new kind of conservative — one who held true to Republican tenets, but with greener, environmentally minded leanings,” the (Twin Falls) Times-News said in an editorial....
Railroad into Montana coal country gets OK from feds Federal officials on Tuesday announced approval of the final stretch of a long-delayed $341 million rail line that could open southeastern Montana's vast but largely untapped coal fields to more intensive development. The Tongue River Railroad, first proposed in 1983, would run 130 miles from Miles City to Decker _ into the heart of the coal-rich Powder River Basin along the Montana-Wyoming border. Area landowners have fiercely fought the proposed line fearing it could industrialize a rural area now dominated by agriculture. Permits from state and federal agencies are still needed, and rights of way through private and public property must be secured before the line could be built. Also, an unresolved 1998 federal lawsuit hangs over the project, meaning the line could get tied up in court before construction begins. But a railroad attorney said Tuesday's federal go-ahead was crucial and will allow the Tongue River Railroad Co. to start lining up a customer base that can deliver a steady supply of coal. The could include the state of Montana, which has a roughly 40 percent stake in a 1.4 billion-ton coal tract located off the proposed line in an area known as Otter Creek....
The Clean Water Act--Misinterpretation and misimplementation Acting on an overly broad interpretation of the Clean Water Act, the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) issued a cease and desist order on our family farm in the spring of 2004. We were planning to transition a parcel of grazing pasture into winegrapes and were accused of deep-ripping the ground and filling and destroying waters of the United States. In reality, we had simply disked the ground once annually as part of our normal and routine farming practices to reduce the fire hazard and regenerate the grasses for winter cattle feed. The ACE claimed that there were wet areas on our property subject to the Clean Water Act (CWA) and our proposed transition from pasture to grapes violated the "prior converted cropland" provision of the CWA. The cease and desist order remained in place for two years, during which time we were not able to graze cattle or begin planting the vineyard as planned. We lost two years' worth of production income, in addition to hours of time and energy spent proving the parcel did not contain "navigable intrastate waters of the U.S." that were subject to the CWA. Unfortunately, this is not the only experience we've had where the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act has been misinterpreted and misimplemented to the detriment of our family farm. Now, that jurisdiction could be broadened even further....
Endangered foxes released on island off Santa Barbara Ten island fox pups have been released into the wild, the last of a group reared in captivity as part of an effort to restore the endangered species. The pups scurried into wooded canyons Monday at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. in the middle of this 96-square-mile island off Santa Barbara, said Tim Coonan, a biologist with the National Park Service. There were once 1,500 foxes, but their numbers dwindled to as few as 80 because of pigs and turkeys brought to the island by ranchers. The turkeys and pigs provided prey for golden eagles, which in turn also began feasting on the foxes. The fox population has since rebounded to more than 300 with the help of the breeding program, Coonan said. About 85 foxes have been raised in captivity and released since 2003....
Coyotes getting ugly, kill pets Coyotes are running amok in an Aurora neighborhood, in some cases jumping fences and killing people's pets, according to one City Council member who wants the problem fixed. "They've been raiding yards and taking small pets," said Councilman Larry Beer, who said he's getting calls from constituents. He said Monday he knows of at least six incidents of "coyote-on- pet predatory activity." But Beer found out recently that getting rid of the coyotes is complicated. The coyotes in question have been seen frolicking behind the 11th and 12th holes of the Aurora Hills Golf Course and along the Highline Canal Trail in the Park East neighborhood. Phyllis Rider, whose house faces the trail, said she knows of three instances in which coyotes have killed small dogs within two blocks of her since January....
Hunter attacked by bear A lower Michigan man was in stable condition Monday in a Marquette hospital after being bitten by a bear in Ontonagon County on Sunday. Steve Remsing, 53, of Sterling Heights, was being treated at Marquette General Hospital after being transferred from Ontonagon Memorial Hospital. Michigan State Police from the L'Anse post responded to the report of Remsing being bitten by the bear near Courtney Lake in Bohemia Township. Police said Remsing was hunting when he shot a large black bear while it was in a tree, where it had been chased by a pack of dogs. The bear fell from the tree and started fighting with a dog that had treed it. When Remsing tried to stop the fight between the bear and the dog, the bear attacked him, police said. Another hunter in the party, Shane Majors of Roscommon, jumped on the bear and stabbed it with a knife until it stopped attacking Remsing, police said. The bear then ran off a short distance and died....
Colorado wildfire frequency tied to ocean temperature patterns For years, skiers have tuned in to long-range weather outlooks to determine whether an El Niño or La Niña might bring a bountiful powder season. Along with shaping winter precipitation patterns, recent research suggests that the shifts in sea surface temperatures can also be tied to the frequency and intensity of forest fires. For forests like Summit County's subalpine lodgepole pines, drought conditions induced by La Niña, and even temperature shifts in the Atlantic Ocean, could be a bigger factor than previously thought. After studying the historic recurrence of fire in Rocky Mountain National Park and comparing that data with climate records, Forest Service scientists concluded in a recent study that fire occurred more frequently than expected during La Niña conditions. Another large-scale pattern that may be equally significant for Colorado is a change in Atlantic Ocean sea surface temperatures. The Atlantic multi-decadal oscillation, as it's known, is not as understood as the Pacific El Niño/La Niña phenomenon. But the shift in temperatures does affect drought conditions in Colorado and other parts of the U.S....
Judge tells federal agency to reconsider Oregon coho protection The federal agency overseeing restoration of declining salmon in the Northwest must take another look at its decision not to protect Oregon coastal coho under the Endangered Species Act. U.S. District Judge Garr M. King in Portland affirmed a magistrate's findings earlier this year that NOAA Fisheries was arbitrary and capricious and did not rely on the best available science when it decided to leave Oregon coastal coho off the threatened species list. The agency has until Dec. 8 to make a decision. It will consider whether to appeal, said spokesman Brian Gorman. Putting Oregon coastal coho back on the threatened species list would add another layer of regulation to logging and other land use decisions on federal, state and private lands in the central Oregon Coast Range. That would include the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's plan to ramp up logging in Western Oregon to boost federal revenues paid to timber-dependent counties. Once a staple of Oregon's commercial salmon fleet, with historic population estimates of 2 million fish, Oregon coastal coho went into steep decline in the 1990s, bottoming out around 14,000, due to a combination of overfishing, loss of habitat to logging and agriculture, misguided hatchery practices and poor ocean conditions. In recent years numbers have rebounded....
Federal government rejects Palouse earthworm petition The federal government said Tuesday that a petition to protect the giant Palouse earthworm as an endangered species does not contain enough scientific data to conclude that such protection is warranted. The petition seeking threatened or endangered status for the rarely seen worm _ which can grow as long as 3 feet and spit at attackers _ was filed on August 30, 2006, by environmental groups. "We share the petitioners' concern for the species," said Susan Martin, supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office in Spokane. "While we will not be initiating an in-depth status review at this time, we will continue to cooperate with others to monitor the species." The decision upset conservationists, who blamed the Bush administration. The giant Palouse earthworm was first discovered in 1897 near Pullman, Wash. Although only a few specimens have been collected, it was thought to be abundant in the Palouse. But the last confirmed sighting of the species was in 2005 by a University of Idaho researcher. Previously, the giant worm had not been seen since 1988. There is little about the worm in the scientific record. Information regarding the range, distribution, population size and status of the worm is limited, preventing the assessment of population trends, the agency said....
Wolf/livestock conflicts ease Although September can mark a busy time for wolf and livestock conflicts, Wyoming had a quiet month, ending a relatively quiet summer in the wolf world. Representatives of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said they took an "aggressive" stance and killed problem wolves immediately. Those wolves were generally in areas where livestock depredations were chronic, and in areas outside where wolves would receive some protection once they're removed from the federal endangered species list. Mike Jimenez, Wyoming's wolf coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said this year there were 29 confirmed cattle kills and 16 sheep depredations by wolves, compared with 123 cattle and 38 sheep last year. And this year officials killed 52 wolves so far, compared with 44 for all of 2006. "I looked at the data over the years, and what happens is we have some packs that chronically, year after year after year, cause problems," Jimenez said. "If we respond more aggressively, we can reduce livestock depredations."....
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Investigators discover plot to murder Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a controversial figure known nationwide for his tough stance against illegal immigration. Now, authorities have uncovered a plot to kill him, and a Douglas rancher is one of the investigative leads. The investigation began in Yuma when police were tipped off by a confidential source, whom they trust, that someone was out to get Sheriff Joe. Following that lead, authorities began to unravel a plan that stretched deep into Mexico and to a well-known drug cartel that many fear. According to documents, authorities have three investigative leads: Miguel Escalante, the head of a Mexican drug cartel, Elias Bermudez, host of a radio show and an immigration rights advocate, and Roger Barnett, a Douglas rancher. A confidential source tipped off Yuma police that Mexican hitmen known as Los Zetas were "hired by Mexican drug czar Hector Escalante to cross into the U.S. and kill Sheriff Arpaio."....
Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a controversial figure known nationwide for his tough stance against illegal immigration. Now, authorities have uncovered a plot to kill him, and a Douglas rancher is one of the investigative leads. The investigation began in Yuma when police were tipped off by a confidential source, whom they trust, that someone was out to get Sheriff Joe. Following that lead, authorities began to unravel a plan that stretched deep into Mexico and to a well-known drug cartel that many fear. According to documents, authorities have three investigative leads: Miguel Escalante, the head of a Mexican drug cartel, Elias Bermudez, host of a radio show and an immigration rights advocate, and Roger Barnett, a Douglas rancher. A confidential source tipped off Yuma police that Mexican hitmen known as Los Zetas were "hired by Mexican drug czar Hector Escalante to cross into the U.S. and kill Sheriff Arpaio."....
PHIL HARVEY
Eldon Phillips (Phil) Harvey, 82, of Charlottesville, VA and Upper St. Regis, NY, died on Monday October 8, 2007, in Upper St. Regis, NY, after a lengthy illness. He was born on October 29, 1924 in El Paso, TX to Charles Milton Harvey and Maude Phillips Harvey, and lived there until the past few years.
Phil, as he was known to family and friends, graduated from Austin High School in El Paso, and attended the University of Texas at Austin, until joining the U. S. Army Air Corps in 1943 during World War II. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant, and after a brief time as a flight instructor in AT-6 aircraft, was sent to the South Pacific Theater of the war to fly P-51 Mustangs. He was stationed at several bases, including Tinian, Guam, Saipan, and Iwo Jima, where he served as Squadron Commander of the 549th Night Fighter Squadron. In October 1946, Phil returned to El Paso to complete his education, earning a degree in Economics from Texas Western College, now UTEP.
He met Patricia F. Grambling and they were married at St. Clements’ Church on April 24, 1948, a marriage that would last over 59 years, raising 3 sons. Phil wanted to pursue a career in ranching and agriculture, as the family had ranches at Carrizozo, Claunch, and Corona, NM where they raised commercial Hereford cattle, ranches at Alamogordo and Cloudcroft, NM where the registered Hereford herd was operated, and Harvey Farms at Hill, NM, north of Las Cruces, growing cotton, alfalfa, vegetables, and other crops. In order to efficiently manage the ranches, he bought an AT-6 airplane to fly quickly from El Paso to the ranch at Carrizozo, as well as other places for meetings and an occasional bull sale. The ranching business led to Phil’s strong involvement in several livestock associations, including the American National Cattlemen’s Association, now the NCA, where he served as a committee chairman for many years, and the New Mexico Cattle Grower’s Association, where he served as Secretary-Treasurer for over 25 years, from the late 1950’s until the 1970’s, and as President from 1978-80. He was also a member of the American Hereford Assn., New Mexico Hereford Assn., and was appointed to the Federal Land Law Review Commission by the Secretary of the Interior. It was during this time that Phil was also Chairman of the White Sands Ranchers Committee, spending untold hours writing, testifying, and traveling to Washington, DC, going to Congress and the Pentagon, to get just compensation for the families that had their ranches taken by the Federal Government to establish White Sands Missile Range. Phil was one of the foremost public lands experts in the entire nation, and was a strong advocate for free enterprise and private property rights.
Phil Harvey was a dedicated Christian and family man who was extremely unselfish, not only to his family, but to others, as well. He served on the Salvation Army Board of Directors, the Southwest Children’s Home Board of Directors, and was active at Trinity Methodist Church. In addition, Phil was a member of El Paso Masonic Lodge 130, and was a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason. He spent countless hours with Patricia, his devoted wife, and their 3 boys, Phillip Jr., Allen, and Patrick, riding at the ranches, hunting, working cattle, taking wonderful vacations to all parts of the country, seeing almost every state, and teaching his sons as much as he could from his vast knowledge about almost anything one can think of. In recent years he has been equally dedicated to his 5 grandchildren and loved them all dearly.
He is survived by his wife Patricia Grambling Harvey, his 3 sons, Eldon P. (Phil) Harvey, Jr. and his wife Carlitta of Mesilla, NM; Allen G. Harvey and his wife Julie of Midland, TX; and Patrick L. Harvey and his wife Lisa of Scottsdale, AZ, and 5 grandchildren: Elizabeth Harvey Abrams and her husband Matt of Arlington, VA; E. Phil Harvey III and his wife Charity of Las Cruces NM; Margaret M. Harvey of Mesilla, NM; Jessica H. Harvey of San Francisco, CA; Allen G. Harvey, Jr. of New York, NY; and 2 step-grandchildren: Andrew Carlson of Scottsdale, AZ; and Jeffrey Carlson of Scottsdale, AZ.
The funeral service will be held Friday October 12, 2007 at 1:30 PM at St. Clements’ Church, 810 N. Campbell St., El Paso, TX with burial immediately following at Evergreen Cemetery, 4301 Alameda, El Paso, TX. Pall Bearers are Phil Harvey, Jr., Phil Harvey III, Allen Harvey, Allen Harvey, Jr., Patrick Harvey, and Will Harvey. Honorary Pall Bearers are: John Grambling, Paul Harvey, Jr., Bill Littlefield, Warren Burns, Dick Dobbs, Tom Mason, and Dean Rhoads. Arrangements are made by Sunset Funeral Homes West, 480 N. Resler, El Paso, TX 79912. In lieu of flowers, it is requested that contributions be made to the American Lung Association.
Eldon Phillips (Phil) Harvey, 82, of Charlottesville, VA and Upper St. Regis, NY, died on Monday October 8, 2007, in Upper St. Regis, NY, after a lengthy illness. He was born on October 29, 1924 in El Paso, TX to Charles Milton Harvey and Maude Phillips Harvey, and lived there until the past few years.
Phil, as he was known to family and friends, graduated from Austin High School in El Paso, and attended the University of Texas at Austin, until joining the U. S. Army Air Corps in 1943 during World War II. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant, and after a brief time as a flight instructor in AT-6 aircraft, was sent to the South Pacific Theater of the war to fly P-51 Mustangs. He was stationed at several bases, including Tinian, Guam, Saipan, and Iwo Jima, where he served as Squadron Commander of the 549th Night Fighter Squadron. In October 1946, Phil returned to El Paso to complete his education, earning a degree in Economics from Texas Western College, now UTEP.
He met Patricia F. Grambling and they were married at St. Clements’ Church on April 24, 1948, a marriage that would last over 59 years, raising 3 sons. Phil wanted to pursue a career in ranching and agriculture, as the family had ranches at Carrizozo, Claunch, and Corona, NM where they raised commercial Hereford cattle, ranches at Alamogordo and Cloudcroft, NM where the registered Hereford herd was operated, and Harvey Farms at Hill, NM, north of Las Cruces, growing cotton, alfalfa, vegetables, and other crops. In order to efficiently manage the ranches, he bought an AT-6 airplane to fly quickly from El Paso to the ranch at Carrizozo, as well as other places for meetings and an occasional bull sale. The ranching business led to Phil’s strong involvement in several livestock associations, including the American National Cattlemen’s Association, now the NCA, where he served as a committee chairman for many years, and the New Mexico Cattle Grower’s Association, where he served as Secretary-Treasurer for over 25 years, from the late 1950’s until the 1970’s, and as President from 1978-80. He was also a member of the American Hereford Assn., New Mexico Hereford Assn., and was appointed to the Federal Land Law Review Commission by the Secretary of the Interior. It was during this time that Phil was also Chairman of the White Sands Ranchers Committee, spending untold hours writing, testifying, and traveling to Washington, DC, going to Congress and the Pentagon, to get just compensation for the families that had their ranches taken by the Federal Government to establish White Sands Missile Range. Phil was one of the foremost public lands experts in the entire nation, and was a strong advocate for free enterprise and private property rights.
Phil Harvey was a dedicated Christian and family man who was extremely unselfish, not only to his family, but to others, as well. He served on the Salvation Army Board of Directors, the Southwest Children’s Home Board of Directors, and was active at Trinity Methodist Church. In addition, Phil was a member of El Paso Masonic Lodge 130, and was a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason. He spent countless hours with Patricia, his devoted wife, and their 3 boys, Phillip Jr., Allen, and Patrick, riding at the ranches, hunting, working cattle, taking wonderful vacations to all parts of the country, seeing almost every state, and teaching his sons as much as he could from his vast knowledge about almost anything one can think of. In recent years he has been equally dedicated to his 5 grandchildren and loved them all dearly.
He is survived by his wife Patricia Grambling Harvey, his 3 sons, Eldon P. (Phil) Harvey, Jr. and his wife Carlitta of Mesilla, NM; Allen G. Harvey and his wife Julie of Midland, TX; and Patrick L. Harvey and his wife Lisa of Scottsdale, AZ, and 5 grandchildren: Elizabeth Harvey Abrams and her husband Matt of Arlington, VA; E. Phil Harvey III and his wife Charity of Las Cruces NM; Margaret M. Harvey of Mesilla, NM; Jessica H. Harvey of San Francisco, CA; Allen G. Harvey, Jr. of New York, NY; and 2 step-grandchildren: Andrew Carlson of Scottsdale, AZ; and Jeffrey Carlson of Scottsdale, AZ.
The funeral service will be held Friday October 12, 2007 at 1:30 PM at St. Clements’ Church, 810 N. Campbell St., El Paso, TX with burial immediately following at Evergreen Cemetery, 4301 Alameda, El Paso, TX. Pall Bearers are Phil Harvey, Jr., Phil Harvey III, Allen Harvey, Allen Harvey, Jr., Patrick Harvey, and Will Harvey. Honorary Pall Bearers are: John Grambling, Paul Harvey, Jr., Bill Littlefield, Warren Burns, Dick Dobbs, Tom Mason, and Dean Rhoads. Arrangements are made by Sunset Funeral Homes West, 480 N. Resler, El Paso, TX 79912. In lieu of flowers, it is requested that contributions be made to the American Lung Association.
GAO
Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Program: Management Problems May Increase Vulnerability of U.S. Agriculture to Foreign Pests and Diseases, by Lisa R. Shames, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture, House Committee on Agriculture. GAO-08-96T, October 3.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-96T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d0896thigh.pdf
Environmental Right-to-Know: EPA's Recent Rule Could Reduce Availability of Toxic Chemical Information Used to Assess Environmental Justice, by John B. Stephenson, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials, House Committee on Energy and Commerce. GAO-08-115T, October 4.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-115T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d08115thigh.pdf
Wildland Fire Management: Better Information and a Systematic Process Could Improve Agencies' Approach to Allocating Fuel Reduction Funds and Selecting Projects. GAO-07-1168, September 28.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1168
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071168high.pdf
Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Program: Management Problems May Increase Vulnerability of U.S. Agriculture to Foreign Pests and Diseases, by Lisa R. Shames, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture, House Committee on Agriculture. GAO-08-96T, October 3.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-96T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d0896thigh.pdf
Environmental Right-to-Know: EPA's Recent Rule Could Reduce Availability of Toxic Chemical Information Used to Assess Environmental Justice, by John B. Stephenson, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials, House Committee on Energy and Commerce. GAO-08-115T, October 4.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-115T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d08115thigh.pdf
Wildland Fire Management: Better Information and a Systematic Process Could Improve Agencies' Approach to Allocating Fuel Reduction Funds and Selecting Projects. GAO-07-1168, September 28.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1168
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071168high.pdf
NEWS ROUNDUP
Hunter mauled by bear north of Gardiner A bow hunter was mauled by a grizzly bear north of Gardiner this morning. It prompted the Forest Service to close the Beattie Gulch area for the second time in three weeks. Mel Frost is a spokeswoman with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. She says the man was bow hunting for elk with two friends when a grizzly bear with three cubs "got a whiff of him" and rolled him over. The hunter had some bites on his shoulder and leg, but wasn't injured too badly. The mauling occurred within a mile of where another bow hunter was mauled by a grizzly with three cubs on September 14th. Officials say there's no way to find out of the same bear was involved....
Money allows bear study in western Montana to continue Wildlife biologists can track where grizzly bears roam in Montana using radio and satellite collars for another five years, thanks to some funding from the U.S. Forest Service. The "genetic population study" has been under way since 2004, and is aimed at giving researchers a better idea of bear populations and migration patterns in northwest Montana. However, last spring, officials with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said they wouldn't have enough cash on hand to keep the multiyear study going beyond 2007. Officials say the Forest Service has come to the rescue with a promise to contribute nearly $400,000 to the program.
Wolves in the fold: Ranchers struggle to co-exist with an old Montana predator Gayla Skaw tells of the day last winter when her husband Lee and a neighboring rancher were in the hills cutting wood. Half a mile or more away, gray wolves from the Willow Creek pack were lying in snow in an open meadow. The men watched them through spotting scopes. “Pretty soon they got up and kind of started running along,” Gayla said. “Lee said the sun was shining on them and the snow was blowing up and he said, ‘You know, they were beautiful. It's hard to hate them. “ ‘But at the same time, you don't want them out there in your cows.' ” Cultures, world views and even centuries are colliding in this ranching country now that the wolves have arrived. They're spinoffs of packs reintroduced in central Idaho a decade or more ago, and they're in hot water. Nine wolves from the burgeoning Sapphire pack west of Philipsburg and the Bearmouth pack southwest of Drummond were killed by federal agents in a two-week span in September. The Bearmouth pack was eradicated, while the Sapphire pack was trimmed to 14, 11 of them adults, according to Liz Bradley, a wolf management specialist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The Willow Creek pack is between the other two. “They've denned on private property the last couple of years, and there have been a lot of concerns from those landowners,” Bradley said....
Judge dismisses rancher's lawsuit A federal judge has dismissed a long-running lawsuit between a Wyoming rancher and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management over federal land grazing permits. U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Brimmer of Cheyenne on Friday granted a judgment against Harvey Frank Robbins Jr., who sued six BLM employees of trying to coerce him into granting an easement on a road leading to the Shoshone National Forest. Brimmer dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. In the case, Robbins had maintained that BLM workers pulled his grazing permits and otherwise persecuted him to try to get him to give the government road access. Robbins, who owns 55,000 acres of private land and leases about 55,000 acres from the BLM, has filed a number of lawsuits against the federal government. In this case, Robbins had appealed a decision from the U.S. District of Wyoming to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, which sided with his contention that federal employees are not immune from lawsuits under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law. Government attorneys appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 7-2 in June that Robbins, of Thermopolis, did not have that right to sue individual federal employees. That decision sent the case back to the 10th Circuit and then to Wyoming for Brimmer to act on the Supreme Court's opinion....
BLM Director Backs Western Drilling The Bush administration foresees no letup in the aggressive pace for Western oil and gas drilling, despite some voter backlash from people tired of seeing more and more rigs in their Rocky Mountain states. "There's absolutely no doubt that the interest in oil and gas is going to continue. I mean, it is where it is," Jim Caswell, the new director of the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press. He took office in August. Public lands managed by BLM produce 18 percent of the nation's natural gas and five percent of its oil. BLM manages 258 million acres, about one-eighth of the land in the United States. Most of that land — grasslands, forests, high mountains, arctic tundra and deserts — is in the West. It also oversees about 700 million acres of minerals below the land's surface. Five basins in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico contain the nation's largest onshore reserves of natural gas. BLM has been approving about one of every four applications it receives for permits to drill. But states also approve leases; in Montana, about 120 of the 750 wells producing coalbed methane are on federal leases....
Salazar Hears From Both Sides On Pinon Canyon Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar is hearing from both sides on the Pinon Canyon issue: those who think his bills on expanding the military training site went too far and those who don't think they went far enough. The Democrat and fellow Sen. Wayne Allard, a Republican, teamed up on a bill requiring the Army to study whether it needs to nearly triple its 368-square-mile training site in southeast Colorado. The two split on a second bill requiring the Army to wait a year to push ahead with the expansion, with Salazar backing it and Allard opposed. Many people at a public meeting Saturday on the Colorado State University-Pueblo campus said they were unhappy with the bill giving the Army six months to justify its plan to enlarge the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. "We think you should take that amendment back that allows the Army another opportunity to expand," said Lon Robertson, president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition. Residents of southeast Colorado fear that nearly 200 ranches and farms could be wiped out by the proposed expansion near La Junta. They and other property owners also worry the Army will force them to sell their land, despite assurances from the military that it hopes to get the acreage from willing sellers....
Permian Basin rancher wants to transform land into wind farm Through his own initiative, J.B. Whatley hopes to transform his ranch into a wind farm. "Nearly two years ago, I erected a big MET tower, put all the equipment on it and started recording wind to see if the potential was here for wind development," Whatley said. A MET is a meteorological tower that measures wind speed. His was 270 feet at its center -- as tall as one of the turbines. Most ranchers sign with a developer and they do the wind study to see if they're interested. Instead, Whatley hired a lawyer to put out bids to companies. He signed with American Shoreline of Corpus Christi to develop the $340 million 2W Whatley Ranch Wind project. "I just took a chance. I've got a little entrepreneurial spirit about it. I thought, 'I'll find out for myself, that way I'll know,'" Whatley said. PSEG of New Jersey is considering participating in project, proposed for 1,650 acres in Andrews and Ector counties. Turbines could be up and running by December 2009, company spokeswoman Jennifer Kramer said. 2W Wind LLC proposes to construct 80 to 106 wind turbines, Andrews County Judge Richard Dolgener said. Andrews County commissioners have approved a resolution to authorize a reinvestment zone in the area....
Sharp price drop puts brakes on ethanol boom A 40 percent drop in the price of ethanol this year is reining in the galloping growth of the industry and adding a twist to the debate over the future of biofuels. The wholesale price of ethanol is about $1.50, down from about $2.50 late last year. Along with high corn prices, that is pinching the profits of ethanol companies and pushing them to scale back their expansion plans. Brookings-based VeraSun announced last week it would suspend construction at a plant in Reynolds, Ind. - one of the five it is building - because of poor market conditions. Some in the industry say the declining price is part of a normal swing, accentuated by the undue influence of oil companies. But transportation issues and an increasingly complex marketplace also factor in, leaving plenty of room to keep arguing the politics of ethanol. Observers widely agree that basic supply and demand is driving the price decline. Production of ethanol grew from 1.6 billion gallons in 2001 to 4.9 billion in 2006 and could reach 6.5 billion this year....
Judge says land goes back to Williamson Co. family A judge ruled Friday in a Williamson County land dispute that the land goes back to the family. The fight was over land rancher Will Wilson gave away ten years ago. In 1991 he deeded an area of less than three acres to a California-based conservancy group. The Archeological Conservancy was supposed to protect Native American artifacts buried there. The judge ruled that the Conservancy did not live up to conditions in the original agreement. The family thought the land would be open to the public, but the Conservancy said they do not publicize such sites in order to protect them. Two years after his father's death, Will Wilson, Jr claimed the land was his, sparking the court battle. According to him, his father was unhappy with the Conservancy's work and had filed court papers backing out of the deal. Will Wilson, Jr. said the family will wait to see if there is an appeal....
Seattle man rides a trail that leads back to 1848 It wasn't about the money back in 1848, when Francis X. Aubry entered cowboy lore by winning $1,000 on a horse race. Then, the 26-year-old rode 800 miles on the Santa Fe Trail across streams, prairies and high country — even encountering a scalped dead man — in a record-setting five days, 15 hours. And it wasn't about the money for Seattle developer Scott Griffin, 47, who recently won the 2007 version of the Great Santa Fe Trail Horse Race. If you haven't heard of the 2007 event, that's because this was the inaugural race, dreamed up by Rob Phillips, of Lawrence, Kan. Phillips, 62, is a onetime hotel owner who describes himself as, "I guess, a little bit of a promoter ... I like horses and I like history." And if it brought in some tourism, that was great, too. Griffin won an engraved cowboy belt buckle. There were no cash prizes. For that belt buckle, Griffin rode 515 miles in a race that went from Sept. 3 to Sept. 15. Griffin is now back home, after trailering his two horses to where they're kept at a ranch in California....
How a Western changed the way Cubans speak For most American fans of classic Western cinema, Delmer Davies' 3:10 to Yuma (1957) is simply a cult favorite, one recently rescued from obscurity by the $55 million remake that is packing multiplexes from coast to coast. In Cuba, however, the original 3:10 to Yuma has had a major impact on everyday conversation. Take a walk down any of Havana's main thoroughfares and you'll hear American visitors hailed as yumas, while the United States itself is affectionately dubbed La Yuma. You won't find those phrases in any state-issued dictionary, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro stubbornly opts for the more derisive yanqui in his own public speeches, but outside of bureaucratic circles it's yuma that holds sway. How on earth did this happen? During the late 1950s, American-owned "United" firms such as the United Fruit Company maintained high-profile holdings in Cuba. Since the word united doesn't exactly roll off the tongue in Spanish, Cubans adopted the moniker La Yunay. Likewise, when referring to their neighbor across the Florida Straits, Cubans sometimes opted for a Spanglish version of United States—Yunay Estey—rather than the formal Estados Unidos. When the original 3:10 to Yuma hit Cuban cinemas, it inspired a spin on the already extant yunay, and the new slang term quickly took off....
Hunter mauled by bear north of Gardiner A bow hunter was mauled by a grizzly bear north of Gardiner this morning. It prompted the Forest Service to close the Beattie Gulch area for the second time in three weeks. Mel Frost is a spokeswoman with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. She says the man was bow hunting for elk with two friends when a grizzly bear with three cubs "got a whiff of him" and rolled him over. The hunter had some bites on his shoulder and leg, but wasn't injured too badly. The mauling occurred within a mile of where another bow hunter was mauled by a grizzly with three cubs on September 14th. Officials say there's no way to find out of the same bear was involved....
Money allows bear study in western Montana to continue Wildlife biologists can track where grizzly bears roam in Montana using radio and satellite collars for another five years, thanks to some funding from the U.S. Forest Service. The "genetic population study" has been under way since 2004, and is aimed at giving researchers a better idea of bear populations and migration patterns in northwest Montana. However, last spring, officials with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said they wouldn't have enough cash on hand to keep the multiyear study going beyond 2007. Officials say the Forest Service has come to the rescue with a promise to contribute nearly $400,000 to the program.
Wolves in the fold: Ranchers struggle to co-exist with an old Montana predator Gayla Skaw tells of the day last winter when her husband Lee and a neighboring rancher were in the hills cutting wood. Half a mile or more away, gray wolves from the Willow Creek pack were lying in snow in an open meadow. The men watched them through spotting scopes. “Pretty soon they got up and kind of started running along,” Gayla said. “Lee said the sun was shining on them and the snow was blowing up and he said, ‘You know, they were beautiful. It's hard to hate them. “ ‘But at the same time, you don't want them out there in your cows.' ” Cultures, world views and even centuries are colliding in this ranching country now that the wolves have arrived. They're spinoffs of packs reintroduced in central Idaho a decade or more ago, and they're in hot water. Nine wolves from the burgeoning Sapphire pack west of Philipsburg and the Bearmouth pack southwest of Drummond were killed by federal agents in a two-week span in September. The Bearmouth pack was eradicated, while the Sapphire pack was trimmed to 14, 11 of them adults, according to Liz Bradley, a wolf management specialist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The Willow Creek pack is between the other two. “They've denned on private property the last couple of years, and there have been a lot of concerns from those landowners,” Bradley said....
Judge dismisses rancher's lawsuit A federal judge has dismissed a long-running lawsuit between a Wyoming rancher and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management over federal land grazing permits. U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Brimmer of Cheyenne on Friday granted a judgment against Harvey Frank Robbins Jr., who sued six BLM employees of trying to coerce him into granting an easement on a road leading to the Shoshone National Forest. Brimmer dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. In the case, Robbins had maintained that BLM workers pulled his grazing permits and otherwise persecuted him to try to get him to give the government road access. Robbins, who owns 55,000 acres of private land and leases about 55,000 acres from the BLM, has filed a number of lawsuits against the federal government. In this case, Robbins had appealed a decision from the U.S. District of Wyoming to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, which sided with his contention that federal employees are not immune from lawsuits under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law. Government attorneys appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 7-2 in June that Robbins, of Thermopolis, did not have that right to sue individual federal employees. That decision sent the case back to the 10th Circuit and then to Wyoming for Brimmer to act on the Supreme Court's opinion....
BLM Director Backs Western Drilling The Bush administration foresees no letup in the aggressive pace for Western oil and gas drilling, despite some voter backlash from people tired of seeing more and more rigs in their Rocky Mountain states. "There's absolutely no doubt that the interest in oil and gas is going to continue. I mean, it is where it is," Jim Caswell, the new director of the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press. He took office in August. Public lands managed by BLM produce 18 percent of the nation's natural gas and five percent of its oil. BLM manages 258 million acres, about one-eighth of the land in the United States. Most of that land — grasslands, forests, high mountains, arctic tundra and deserts — is in the West. It also oversees about 700 million acres of minerals below the land's surface. Five basins in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico contain the nation's largest onshore reserves of natural gas. BLM has been approving about one of every four applications it receives for permits to drill. But states also approve leases; in Montana, about 120 of the 750 wells producing coalbed methane are on federal leases....
Salazar Hears From Both Sides On Pinon Canyon Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar is hearing from both sides on the Pinon Canyon issue: those who think his bills on expanding the military training site went too far and those who don't think they went far enough. The Democrat and fellow Sen. Wayne Allard, a Republican, teamed up on a bill requiring the Army to study whether it needs to nearly triple its 368-square-mile training site in southeast Colorado. The two split on a second bill requiring the Army to wait a year to push ahead with the expansion, with Salazar backing it and Allard opposed. Many people at a public meeting Saturday on the Colorado State University-Pueblo campus said they were unhappy with the bill giving the Army six months to justify its plan to enlarge the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. "We think you should take that amendment back that allows the Army another opportunity to expand," said Lon Robertson, president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition. Residents of southeast Colorado fear that nearly 200 ranches and farms could be wiped out by the proposed expansion near La Junta. They and other property owners also worry the Army will force them to sell their land, despite assurances from the military that it hopes to get the acreage from willing sellers....
Permian Basin rancher wants to transform land into wind farm Through his own initiative, J.B. Whatley hopes to transform his ranch into a wind farm. "Nearly two years ago, I erected a big MET tower, put all the equipment on it and started recording wind to see if the potential was here for wind development," Whatley said. A MET is a meteorological tower that measures wind speed. His was 270 feet at its center -- as tall as one of the turbines. Most ranchers sign with a developer and they do the wind study to see if they're interested. Instead, Whatley hired a lawyer to put out bids to companies. He signed with American Shoreline of Corpus Christi to develop the $340 million 2W Whatley Ranch Wind project. "I just took a chance. I've got a little entrepreneurial spirit about it. I thought, 'I'll find out for myself, that way I'll know,'" Whatley said. PSEG of New Jersey is considering participating in project, proposed for 1,650 acres in Andrews and Ector counties. Turbines could be up and running by December 2009, company spokeswoman Jennifer Kramer said. 2W Wind LLC proposes to construct 80 to 106 wind turbines, Andrews County Judge Richard Dolgener said. Andrews County commissioners have approved a resolution to authorize a reinvestment zone in the area....
Sharp price drop puts brakes on ethanol boom A 40 percent drop in the price of ethanol this year is reining in the galloping growth of the industry and adding a twist to the debate over the future of biofuels. The wholesale price of ethanol is about $1.50, down from about $2.50 late last year. Along with high corn prices, that is pinching the profits of ethanol companies and pushing them to scale back their expansion plans. Brookings-based VeraSun announced last week it would suspend construction at a plant in Reynolds, Ind. - one of the five it is building - because of poor market conditions. Some in the industry say the declining price is part of a normal swing, accentuated by the undue influence of oil companies. But transportation issues and an increasingly complex marketplace also factor in, leaving plenty of room to keep arguing the politics of ethanol. Observers widely agree that basic supply and demand is driving the price decline. Production of ethanol grew from 1.6 billion gallons in 2001 to 4.9 billion in 2006 and could reach 6.5 billion this year....
Judge says land goes back to Williamson Co. family A judge ruled Friday in a Williamson County land dispute that the land goes back to the family. The fight was over land rancher Will Wilson gave away ten years ago. In 1991 he deeded an area of less than three acres to a California-based conservancy group. The Archeological Conservancy was supposed to protect Native American artifacts buried there. The judge ruled that the Conservancy did not live up to conditions in the original agreement. The family thought the land would be open to the public, but the Conservancy said they do not publicize such sites in order to protect them. Two years after his father's death, Will Wilson, Jr claimed the land was his, sparking the court battle. According to him, his father was unhappy with the Conservancy's work and had filed court papers backing out of the deal. Will Wilson, Jr. said the family will wait to see if there is an appeal....
Seattle man rides a trail that leads back to 1848 It wasn't about the money back in 1848, when Francis X. Aubry entered cowboy lore by winning $1,000 on a horse race. Then, the 26-year-old rode 800 miles on the Santa Fe Trail across streams, prairies and high country — even encountering a scalped dead man — in a record-setting five days, 15 hours. And it wasn't about the money for Seattle developer Scott Griffin, 47, who recently won the 2007 version of the Great Santa Fe Trail Horse Race. If you haven't heard of the 2007 event, that's because this was the inaugural race, dreamed up by Rob Phillips, of Lawrence, Kan. Phillips, 62, is a onetime hotel owner who describes himself as, "I guess, a little bit of a promoter ... I like horses and I like history." And if it brought in some tourism, that was great, too. Griffin won an engraved cowboy belt buckle. There were no cash prizes. For that belt buckle, Griffin rode 515 miles in a race that went from Sept. 3 to Sept. 15. Griffin is now back home, after trailering his two horses to where they're kept at a ranch in California....
How a Western changed the way Cubans speak For most American fans of classic Western cinema, Delmer Davies' 3:10 to Yuma (1957) is simply a cult favorite, one recently rescued from obscurity by the $55 million remake that is packing multiplexes from coast to coast. In Cuba, however, the original 3:10 to Yuma has had a major impact on everyday conversation. Take a walk down any of Havana's main thoroughfares and you'll hear American visitors hailed as yumas, while the United States itself is affectionately dubbed La Yuma. You won't find those phrases in any state-issued dictionary, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro stubbornly opts for the more derisive yanqui in his own public speeches, but outside of bureaucratic circles it's yuma that holds sway. How on earth did this happen? During the late 1950s, American-owned "United" firms such as the United Fruit Company maintained high-profile holdings in Cuba. Since the word united doesn't exactly roll off the tongue in Spanish, Cubans adopted the moniker La Yunay. Likewise, when referring to their neighbor across the Florida Straits, Cubans sometimes opted for a Spanglish version of United States—Yunay Estey—rather than the formal Estados Unidos. When the original 3:10 to Yuma hit Cuban cinemas, it inspired a spin on the already extant yunay, and the new slang term quickly took off....
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