The changing fabric of cowboy fashion
Cowgirl Sass And Savvy

By Julie

Cowboy fashion. There was a time those words wouldn't go together. Today, it's all about "cowboy fashion."

If there is any place to see it all, it is the Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium.

Retro, geographical, theatrical or just in from the cattle pens, if you sit still long enough, you will see it all go by.

Like a slide-show of cowboy combinations - the denim, cotton duck, suspenders, high top boots, jingling spurs, ten-gallon hats, Wyatt Earp mustaches, and buckaroo wear - make an appearance.

Many are in "performer" style as they hit the music stage or stand before a chuck wagon fire and an array of cast iron pots. An equal number come dressed similarly because they think it is expected for the event.

We that are born to the simple country life, raised in the rural and have at one time or another tried to make our living off the land, are often critical of those who strive emulate us. When, I suppose, we should actually be flattered by the parody.

In the past five years, I've seen a trend in many a working cowboy, ranch or rodeo, to jump into the vogue mode previously seen most often at trade shows and Western events.

Boots come in as many different models as cars and trucks and like those vehicles, the owners find a favorite and hang onto it for the lifetime of the leather. Therein comes the variety seen during a short period of observance wherever they gather.

Pointed toes, high tops and tall heels, roper toe and low heels, spur ledge or none, squared-off toe, wing tip, fat-baby style (roper-look with a thick neoprene sole) in bright colors made of faux exotic leathers and lace-ups all find a place in America's closets.

I'd go so far as to wager 95 percent of them have never been baptized at the corral by horse or cow manure.

According to the Wrangler(r) Western Index, a study on Western culture commissioned by the Western apparel giant, three out of five men and nearly half of women would like to be cowboys for at least a day.

Dressing the Western way is a phenomenon all its own. There doesn't seem to be a dress code for what is "in fashion" or not and that allows for the colorful, entertaining visual array.

However, Wrangler offers a few basic guidelines for dressing cowboy with authenticity:

· Real cowboys want clothes that work as hard as they do - rugged jeans, durable shirts, and tough boots.

· Most cowboys wear round or square-toed boots (or a combination of both) as opposed to those with very pointy toes. Low-heeled ropers and lacers are as popular as the tall topped, tall-heeled variety - both for their comfort and functionality.

· Few things define cowboy-correctness like a properly placed hat. It should never be worn on the backside of the head with the brim facing up. Instead, cowboys slant their hats forward and wear them snug on the forehead. A good felt hat is a must for fall and winter and a straw hat should be worn for spring and summer.

· Starch is optional in today's world especially in hot climates, but many still wear heavily starched creased denim jeans and starched pressed-to-perfection cotton shirts. A rainbow of color and design has become part of the norm.

· Jeans should be long enough to "stack" on your boot. Nothing screams "tourist" louder than too-short jeans over cowboy boots.

· Jewelry is optional but for men, understated is the rule. A trend among the younger cowboys today is the vast assortment of chokers made of assorted hechi, small stones, leather, metal or a combination of it all.

And me?

Well, I still have to brush off my cowboy "shoes" before I head to civilization. Recently I was embarrassed to look down and see some "corral" evidence on the floor under my feet while I sat in the beauty shop for a hair upgrade.

At least it was genuine.

Visit Julie’s Web site and blog at www.julie-carter.com


THE ELBOW..

An Italian grandmother is giving directions to her grown
grandson Anthony who is coming to visit with his wife Maria.

"You comma to de front door of the apartmenta. I am inna
apartmenta 301 . There issa bigga panel at the front door. With
you elbow pusha button 301. I will Buzza you in. Come inside,
the elevator is on the right. Get in, and with you elbow pusha
3. When you get out, I'mma on the left. With you elbow, hit
my doorbell."

"Grandma, that sounds easy, but, why am I hitting all these
buttons with my elbow?"

"What . . . . . .. You coming empty handed?"

Landowners seek answers from Dairyland Dairyland has proposed the construction of the landfill because of the increased amount of waste that is projected to be generated when it installs new "scrubber" equipment on the smokestack at its Genoa coal-fired power plant. The cooperative made the announcement initially by contacting some of the landowners at the two potential sites and asking them for permission to come onto their land to do soil testing. "When John Kennedy was killed I remember exactly where I was when that happened," said Carl Volden. "When the Challenger exploded I remember where I was then, and I know most of us in this area will never forget Sept. 19th. It was a real shock to us all." Carl Volden said many of the landowners were "disgusted" that Dairyland chose the tactics that they did to develop the landfill plan in secret and informing landowners the way that they did. Volden pointed to the Touchstone Energy logo that depicts people holding hands and said "that handshake was broken." Volden said many had gotten past the anger of that tactic and are now looking for ways to solve the problem without displacing landowners....Go here for more information on this situation.

Senate committee approves bill tightening court oversight over gov't surveillance The Senate Intelligence Committee has voted to strengthen court oversight of government surveillance while protecting telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits for tapping Americans' phones and computers without court approval. The panel's approval of the bill, by a 13-2 vote Thursday, does not guarantee smooth sailing for the legislation. It still must get the blessing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose top Republican and Democratic members have expressed skepticism about the immunity provision. And the bill remains stalled in the House of Representatives, where it ran aground Wednesday in a partisan dispute over the immunity issue and the broader question of how much oversight power the courts should have over surveillance. The Senate bill would direct civil courts to dismiss lawsuits against telecommunications companies if the attorney general certifies that the company rendered assistance between Sept. 11, 2001, and Jan. 17, 2007, in response to a written request authorized by the president, to help detect or prevent an attack on the United States. Suits also would be dismissed if the attorney general certifies that a company named in the case provided no assistance to the government. The public record would not reflect which certification was given to the court....
Dodd to block vote on eavesdropping bill Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said Thursday that he will block a Senate vote on a White House-backed surveillance bill because it would include legal immunity for telecommunications companies that helped intelligence agencies carry out warrantless surveillance of Americans. Dodd, a presidential candidate, said he will use his senatorial "hold" power to prevent the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act legislation from being considered by the full Senate. The move would effectively stall a measure that President Bush and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell have said is essential to protect national security. Allowing lawsuits to go forward, McConnell has said, could impoverish the companies and make them less able to aid intelligence surveillance efforts. The bill, which would replace a temporary measure that Congress passed in August, was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee, 13-2, late Thursday. "The president has no right to secretly eavesdrop on the conversations and activities of law-abiding American citizens," Dodd said. "Anyone who has aided and abetted him in these illegal activities should be held accountable."....
ACLU Sues NM Sheriffs for Targeting Immigrants The ACLU and three other organizations have filed lawsuits against the sheriff's department in Otero County, N.M., for violating the civil rights of Latinos during immigration sweeps in September. They claim the officers raided homes without search warrants and interrogated families without evidence of criminal activity. "Otero County sheriffs broke a basic bond of trust with the community" in the town of Chaparral, ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson told Cybercast News Service on Thursday. "We need to restore policing to its proper mission so citizens and immigrants alike can trust that someone is watching out for their safety." "The enforcement of immigration laws is strictly a responsibility of the federal government," stated David Urias, staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF). Sheriff's deputies "do not have the authority or the training to investigate or arrest people because they suspect them of being undocumented." Legal documents filed by the two groups on Wednesday on behalf of five adults and four children charge that an operation executed by the sheriff's department on Sept. 10 violated the plaintiffs' Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process and equal treatment under the law....
Congress orders probe of TB case Capitol Hill lawmakers yesterday called for an investigation into why federal officials knowingly allowed a Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis to repeatedly board planes and cross U.S. borders. Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chairman, says he is "disturbed by the apparent poor coordination between [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and the Department of Homeland Security that allowed a Mexican citizen known to be infected with a highly drug-resistant form of TB to cross the Southern border 76 times and board an airplane without detection." The Washington Times reported yesterday that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials were warned on April 16 that Amado Isidro Armendariz Amaya was infected, but it took Homeland Security several weeks to warn the inspectors on the border and the Transportation Security Administration....

Press Release
Contact: Laura Schneberger
575-772-5753
www.wolfcrossing.org
admin@wolfcrossing.org

Date: 10-19-2007

Groups Seek Remedy for Wolves Impacted by Cows

Coordinating with New Mexico’s announcement of Wolf Awareness Week, Santa Fe based Forest Guardians and Colorado based Sinapu, filed suit in federal district court Wednesday, to overturn all U.S. Forest Service decisions that allow livestock grazing permit renewal through Categorical Exclusion. The suit only targets ranches in the Gila National Forest of southwest New Mexico. The move was made in order to protect Mexican wolves from livestock.

Background: Due to a congressional mandate, the USFS has been instructed by Congress to issue ten year grazing permits through Categorical Exclusion rather than a full NEPA process. NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) allows public input into the planning and issuance of a ten year term grazing permit. This input is necessary if changes to management are made through the planning process. A Categorical Exclusion has no provision for public comment or appeal, due to a lack of significant management change or the existence of improved allotment condition or habitat development on an allotment.

The congressional intervention was crucial due to massive backlogs on individual grazing allotment NEPA analysis caused by another environmental lawsuit. Obviously the intent of congress in passing NEPA, was to allow access by the public to significant management changes on National Forests but not necessarily every individual planning process.

The groups have asked the federal district court to invalidate thirteen categorical exclusions issued on the Gila since 2005, the suit claims that the CE’s are contributing to the harm of the spotted owl, leopard frog and Mexican wolf. The groups are claiming the CE’s are damaging themselves and their members. If successful, the suit may result in the destruction of historic ranches in the Gila region of southwest New Mexico.

“The suit is absurd” said Laura Schneberger, President of the Gila Livestock Growers Association, who’s membership are listed in the case. “How is it legitimate that livestock are a threat to wolves? How can a non-essential experimental population of wolves be harmed by cows when courts have repeatedly ruled an adequate supply of essential animals to maintain the species exists in captivity and is available to supplement the population? For that matter, how is improved and expanded habitat a danger to species?”

As a remedy for their perceived harm, the groups have asked the courts to remove livestock from the allotments in question while a full blown NEPA analysis is conducted. Due to a tremendous backlog on NEPA analysis, that could take years.

Schneberger points out at least three of the allotments the groups have targeted for livestock removal have already been de-stocked due to unchecked uncompensated livestock depredation by wolves. “This is a backdoor attempt to permanently force out of business people who have created endangered species habitat. These are the very allotments where habitat has been created by the rancher’s excellent livestock grazing management. The irony is wolves would not be on those ranches harming people, if the habitat were not spectacular they would still be in the wilderness where habitat is obviously lacking.”

“If the Forest Service caves in to this frivolous lawsuit or a judge sides with it and orders those allotments to remove their livestock they will never be able to recover and the impact will be tremendous. I am sure that Forest Guardians and Sinapu are aware of that.”

Carton county manager Bill Aymar agrees. ”Even a blind pig could see removal of these cattle would have a terrible impact on the counties and communities in this region.”

Livestock organizations and rural communities contend that awareness needs to be raised over the lack of adequate management and mitigation of impacts by wolves in wolf country. Far more than the 30 head of cattle, claimed by the suit, have been killed by Mexican wolves to date.

According to Jess Carey, Catron county Wolf Interaction Investigator, a minimum of 57 confirmed livestock and 9 pets have been attacked or killed in Catron County between April 2006 and February 2007. That does not include possible or probable wolf attacks or those found to late to examine. Numbers from Arizona and other counties in New Mexico have not been officially compiled but clearly, public information on wolf impacts on rural inhabitants is lacking.

The 1998 Environmental Impact Statement on the Mexican wolf recovery issued a Finding of no Significant Impact on livestock, businesses or wolves. Currently, the Mexican wolf program administrators, including the USFS and US Fish and Wildlife Service and both Arizona and New Mexico Game departments, are working on a new EIS to change the current management rule. This process is being done under full NEPA analysis and allows for full public input.

Conservation Groups Sue to Protect Lobos and Other Species In the midst of New Mexico’s Wolf Awareness Week, Forest Guardians and Sinapu filed suit in federal district court today in order to overturn all decisions in which the Forest Service allowed livestock grazing on the Gila National Forest in New Mexico without public participation or consideration of impacts to endangered species. The Gila, a rich, biodiverse area measuring 3.3 million acres, supports a host of wildlife and protected species, and is ground zero for the Mexican gray wolf. In their lawsuit, the groups say that by overlooking conflicts between wolf recovery and livestock ranching on public lands, the Forest Service has not only broken federal law, but continues to contribute to the lobo’s demise. Over the past thirteen months, the Forest Service has used categorical exclusions (”CEs”) to authorize grazing on more than a quarter million acres of the Gila National Forest until at least 2016- defacto classifying a vital portion of the Mexican wolf recovery area as “un-extraordinary.” To add insult to injury, the agency has denied the public’s right to appeal any of these CE decisions. Calling the Forest Service’s actions “irresponsible and undemocratic,” Melissa Hailey, Forest Guardians’ Grazing Reform Program Director and lead attorney on the case, says the groups aim to stop all grazing on the Gila until the Forest Service complies with federal law, and to have the Gila National Forest declared a no CE zone. The entire Forest falls within the Mexican wolf recovery zone, where the groups say CEs must not be allowed....Go to Wolf Crossing for more on Wolf Awareness Week from a rancher's perspective.

USDA Approves Two Additional Animal Identification Devices For Use In NAIS The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service today announced the approval of two new animal identification devices: a visual tag with radio frequency identification (RFID) from Leader Products and the first approved injectable transponder from Digital Angel. The devices carry an official animal identification number (AIN), which is used to identify individual animals as part of USDA’s National Animal Identification System (NAIS). USDA is technology neutral and supports a range of NAIS-compliant identification methods. All NAIS-compliant RFID devices are ISO-compliant and therefore, an ISO-compliant reader would read any of them. “The ability to successfully trace an animal disease to its source is critical to the health and viability of the livestock and poultry industry in the United States,” said Bruce Knight, undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs....
Ag Groups Urge Congress To Oppose Increase Of RFS For Grain-Based Ethanol A broad coalition of organizations representing many segments of the animal agriculture community sent a letter to House and Senate leaders voicing their opposition to the expansion of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for grain-based ethanol contained in the Senate-based version of the energy bill. The organizations noted that the existing RFS, enacted in 2005, has already spurred rapid development in the renewable fuel industry and suggested that this policy, which expires in 2012, should be given a chance to work before any additional mandates are added to it. “Our producer-members will benefit from certainty and predictability in government energy policies. On the other hand, they will be adversely affected if the government induces a series of supply shocks through sudden and dramatic increases in the RFS,” the letter states. “We strongly support efforts to encourage the commercialization of ethanol from cellulosic biomass and similar sources. Nevertheless, we note that by all accounts, this commercialization is still some years away. If Congress chooses to increase the RFS for cellulosic ethanol, the law should be clear that this portion of the mandate is to be met only with non-grain-based fuels,” the letter adds. In respect to the existing RFS, the signatories, which included the American Meat Institute, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Chicken Council, National Meat Association, National Turkey Federation, United Egg Association and United Egg Producers, urged congressional leaders to create a safety valve in the event of a short corn crop....

Report shows Pinon Canyon hosts about one big exercise each year Military reports show the Army has conducted large-scale training exercises at its Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site an average of about once a year, prompting opponents to again question the need to nearly triple the size of the 368-square-mile site. The documents show Pinon Canyon has been used for about 30 big exercises since 1985, the Pueblo Chieftain reported in its Wednesday editions. The after-action reports, compiled after the exercises were over, were obtained by the Pinon Canyon Expansion Oppod sition Coalition through the Freedom of Information Act. The Army wants to expand the site to about 1,000 square miles, citing an influx of 8,000 additional soldiers at Fort Carson by 2011. The reports show the site has been used only once since 2003. Rice said that's because Fort Carson soldiers have been fighting in Iraq. "Since 2001, we really haven't used Pinon Canyon because all of our units based at Fort Carson have been in the fight," he said. "All wars eventually will end and we aren't looking at expanding Pinon Canyon for this war, but for the future training needs of the Army." Lon Robertson, a rancher from Kim who leads an opposition group, said the Army hasn't used the current site enough. "So now we're supposed to give up our land because they say they will use it more often in the future? My answer is, our families need the land right now, absolutely, positively," he said....
ID water director sending early warning about next summer The state's top water official is sending an early message to thousands of southern Idaho groundwater users that their pumps may be shut down next summer if the state logs another winter of low mountain snowpack. David Tuthill, director of Idaho's Department of Water Resources, said letters will be mailed later this week to more than 2,700 farmers, ranchers, cities, schools and other businesses spread across a broad swath of southern Idaho that draws water from the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer. The letters provide advance warning that, barring a wet spring and an above-average snowpack in Idaho's mountain ranges, cutting off water supplies to some of those users may be the only option heading into the 2008 growing season. "If the projected runoff is inadequate, then curtailments likely will be necessary," Tuthill wrote in an op-ed piece sent to newspapers across the state this week. The warning comes just months after the state nearly enforced a shutdown of hundreds of groundwater pumps in south-central Idaho. The prospect having their water turned off irked growers, municipalities, dairymen and other businesses reliant on the resource....
EPA Announces First-Ever Agricultural Advisory Committee Continuing efforts to strengthen relations with the agriculture community, EPA today announced the establishment of the first-ever Farm, Ranch and Rural Communities Federal Advisory Committee. The committee is being formed under the guidelines of the National Strategy for Agriculture, and it will advise the administrator on environmental policy issues impacting farms, ranches and rural communities and operate under the rules of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). "We at EPA appreciate that agriculture isn't just the producer of the food, agriculture is the producer of environmental and economic solutions," said Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. "This committee provides an opportunity to improve dialogue between EPA and the farming community. By sitting down at the same table, together we can do what's good for agriculture and good for our environment." The committee will meet approximately twice yearly and is intended to consist of approximately 25 members representing: (1) large and small farmers, ranchers and rural communities; (2) rural suppliers, marketers and processors; (3) academics and researchers who study environmental issues impacting agriculture; (4) tribal agricultural groups; and (5) environmental and conservation groups....
Bedke issue becomes a federal case A lawsuit filed by Oakley ranchers Bruce and Jared Bedke against Bureau of Land Management officials has been removed from Idaho's Fifth District Court and will be heard in federal court by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mikel H. Williams. The Bedkes filed the lawsuit in July after receiving a BLM notice of impoundment for grazing their livestock on BLM-managed rangeland south of Oakley. Since then, 31 head of their cattle have been impounded and sold in a private auction. The suit listed as defendants BLM officials Bill Baker, Ken Miller and Mike Courtney in their individual capacities. At the time, Jared Bedke said he and his father Bruce Bedke listed Baker, Miller and Courtney as individual defendants because district courts cannot hear cases involving federal entities. Notice for removal to federal court, filed Oct. 4 by the office of Assistant U.S. Attorney Warren Derbidge, states removal is appropriate because the defendants "are persons sued individually for actions taken under color of their office as employees of the Bureau of Land Management, Department of Interior." The suit filed by the Bedkes claims BLM has unfairly managed the Goose Creek Group Allotment, a range where the Bedkes and several other ranchers grazed livestock. The Bedkes claim BLM acted outside its authority when it divided the range into private allotments in 2004....
Wildlife at border may lose sanctuary The federal government's plan to fence off more than 300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border is fostering strange political bedfellows here in South Texas. Few dispute that the same reedy riverbanks beloved by critters are also prime habitat for drug runners and human smugglers. Now an unusual assortment of interest groups -- not just the usual tree-huggers, but also civic and business leaders worried about eco-tourism dollars -- have begun voicing alarm over the environmental costs of a boundary that many South Texans consider a hopeless boondoggle. So it was a sign of the times when Perez and Odgers happily floated down the river together, eager to show off a nature lover's paradise they fear will be forever lost beyond 16-foot-high walls....
Nebraska sees dramatic increase in carbon credit program enrollments The number of acres in a carbon sequestration program in Nebraska tentatively grew this year by nearly 300,000 acres, according to John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union. The carbon sequestration program is sponsored by Nebraska Farmers Union and the Chicago Climate Exchange. A big reason for the growth of the program, Hansen said, was that this year it was opened to all 93 Nebraska counties. In 2005, only 51 counties were accepted into the program. Also, Hansen said, the rate farmers were paid for program participation and the addition of pasture and range land into the program were big factors for the increase. Hansen said 105,500 acres of cropland was enrolled this year, along with 185,581 acres of range and pasture that's pending. Also, there's a carryover of more than 58,000 acres from the previous year....
Spikes damage logging vehicle Three long metal spikes buried in a U.S. Forest Service road did $400 in damage to a logging contractor's vehicle near Sundance, Wyo., earlier this week. The Forest Service is investigating. "It's too soon to say whether it was intentional," Bear Lodge District Ranger Steve Kozel said Wednesday. The Bear Lodge District is part of the Black Hills National Forest. The spikes were in an established Forest Service road southeast of Warren Peak, about 5 miles north of Sundance. Kozel said two of the metal spikes or stakes were similar to stakes used in masonry construction. The third appeared to be wrought iron....
Conservation group wins battle for Forest Service records A conservation group won its two-year battle to get information without charge on the damage caused by off-road vehicles and unmaintained roads on national forests around the West. The U.S. Forest Service had refused to waive fees for providing the information, so Wildlands CPR sued under the Freedom of Information Act. The Forest Service relented in a consent decree filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Mont. The information to be provided includes timber sale records, policies for off-road vehicles, watershed analyses, geographic information system records and other material from 84 national forests, said David Bahr, attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center in Eugene, Ore. Wildlands CPR expects the information to show that the numbers and damage caused by unauthorized roads are growing, which will help to inform the public as the Forest Service develops new off-road vehicle policies on each national forest, Bahr said....
Still no resolution on roadless rule The next shot will soon be fired in the battle over a rule that would restrict new roads on National Forests. While the issue is national, Wyoming residents should note that the state will play a featured role in the next court battle. On Friday morning, the State of Wyoming will appear before U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Brimmer, in Cheyenne and argue that the federal government unlawfully promulgated the so-called “Clinton roadless rule.” Brimmer already has ruled against the federal government regarding the rule. Another judge, in a different jurisdiction, has since re-instated the rule. Oddly enough, the federal government under the Bush administration will be in Cheyenne to defend how the rule was created, despite the fact that administration officials don’t want to apply the rule. So it goes with a hot-button issue that has been extensively litigated in a variety of courts and jurisdictions, participants in a panel discussion said, Tuesday evening at the University of Wyoming College of Law....
New Battle of Logging vs. Spotted Owls Looms in West A 1990s’ truce that quieted the bitter wars between loggers and environmentalists in the Pacific Northwest is in danger of collapse. With that truce, made final in 1994 by the Clinton administration, the northern spotted owl, a threatened species, seemed to be getting the breathing space it needed to regroup. While some land was opened to loggers, nearly twice as much was set aside for owls’ hunting grounds. But more than a decade later, their numbers continue to decline faster than expected. Now the truce, the Northwest Forest Plan, is in jeopardy as one of the parties to it, the Bureau of Land Management, is rethinking its participation. It is proposing a threefold increase in logging on its 2.2 million acres in western Oregon, with greater increases in the old-growth stands that are the owls’ preferred territory. The land agency’s action would reduce by 10 percent the territory covered by the Northwest Forest Plan. With the agency’s proposal, it seems that the timber industry, which never stopped pressing for access to more trees than the Northwest Forest Plan allowed, is getting what it had long sought in court. The industry and local county governments, which get a share of the proceeds, say the plan restores the rightful primacy of logging on these tracts. The timber industry also believes that the villain in the spotted owls’ continued decline is not loss of forest habitat, but the arrival of the barred owl, an eastern bird that now out-competes the spotted owl....
Officials, activists battle expanded energy drilling A plan to issue gas-exploration leases in untouched areas of Colorado has drawn fire from local officials and highlights a growing backlash against the industry's expansion in the West. A federal Bureau of Land Management lease auction scheduled for Nov. 8 includes 23 parcels in a fast-growing tourism-and-ranching region in northern Colorado where practically no exploration has occurred in the past. Among the available leases are 12,802 acres of BLM land and 18,276 acres of "split estate" property - in which the owner of the land does not control the mineral rights beneath the ground. "I'm not sure that it's a good fit," said Ted Wang, the mayor of Granby, who was drafting a protest letter authorized by the Town Council. "To have something like that potentially plopped right here is not in conjunction with what we're trying to do." As the Bush administration continues its push to develop domestic-energy supplies by encouraging oil-and-gas exploration on public lands throughout the West, communities and activists wary of the social and environmental impacts increasingly are resisting intrusions into new areas....
Rancher finds fame on snowboard Mark Carter, 27, is a third-generation rancher in Ten Sleep, but that isn't unusual in Wyoming. What is unusual is that Carter has a career in snowboarding that has taken him all over the world and landed him parts in five movies. During the summer, Mark and his brother R.C. work on their father's ranch. And in the fall, Carter helps his brother guide hunting and fishing trips. "Every day is different when you're ranching. You could be fixing fence, chasing cows around or branding calves," Carter said. But by the end of October, when the temperatures begin to drop and snowcapped mountains begin to appear, Carter is whisked away to such enchanting places as Switzerland and Japan where he makes snowboarding films and in general "rips it," as he put it. Carter used to ski at Big Horn Ski Area when he was a small child, but when he saw his first snowboard he was captivated....

FLE

House Border Agents Bill Lacks Support in Senate The incarceration to two ex-Border Patrol agents for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in the rear sparked bipartisan outrage, but a congressional initiative to free the two men may not achieve bicameral results. The House approved last week a Justice Department appropriations bill with a provision to prohibit the use of federal funds to enforce the prison sentences imposed on Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. The Senate version of the Justice Department funding bill doesn't have the de-funding measure for the Bureau of Prisons relating to Ramos and Compean. Even the Senate's two leading advocates for the jailed ex-border agents are opposed to adding such a provision.Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) "I do have a problem with de-funding incarceration for these two agents," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters and bloggers in a teleconference Monday. "I just think that's not an appropriate thing for Congress to do, and I worry that it could be a precedent for future instances that may tend to undermine the criminal justice process."....
Border Agents Treated Worse Than Terror Suspects, Congressmen Say Calling the treatment of two imprisoned border agents worse than the treatment of suspected terrorists, several House Republicans demanded that Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey pledge to review the case when he takes office. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday will begin the confirmation hearing for Mukasey, nominated last month by President George W. Bush to be the next attorney general. His nomination follows the departure of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales after months of turmoil in the Justice Department. "If this new attorney general is unwilling to look into this, he doesn't deserve to be attorney general," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said. Rohrabacher was joined by four other House Republicans who have been vocal advocates of ex-Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, sentenced to 11 and 12 years, respectively, for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in the buttocks as he fled back to Mexico....
Report: Mexico drug violence could spill into U.S. Drug-gang violence that plagues Mexico is worsening and could spill over into the United States, according to a new report by a consultant on Gov. Rick Perry's Texas Border Security Council. While Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed as many as 20,000 troops and federal police to battle the country's powerful drug cartels, gangsters are fighting among themselves for dominance as the flow of drugs continues into America. The 17-page document to be released Wednesday said that more than 2,100 people were killed in drug-related violence since Jan. 1, making 2007 the deadliest year yet. The U.S. side of the border is vulnerable because, the report asserted, law enforcement is poorly coordinated, undersupplied and sometimes corrupt. But drug violence, which has become a part of daily life in many Mexican border communities, has not materialized to a significant extent in American sister cities....
U.S., Mexico working on counter-drug plan The Bush administration will propose providing Mexico with about $1.5 billion to help Mexico combat rampant drug trafficking over several years, with Mexico expected to contribute another $7 billion to the plan, a top Pentagon official said Tuesday. The U.S. aid will include helicopters and other equipment plus training for Mexican security forces, but no U.S. troops will be deployed to Mexico said Stephen Johnson, deputy assistant secretary for the Western Hemisphere at the Department of Defense. This is the first time U.S. officials have shed some light on one of the Bush administration's signature initiatives for Latin America, a program somewhat similar to the multibillion-dollar effort known as Plan Colombia in that South American nation. The Miami Herald first reported the proposal on July 28. Johnson said the program, which he called a ''historic'' effort to bring the United States closer to its neighbor, includes Washington supplying helicopters and other equipment. ''With some 2,000 execution-style murders this year on the part of drug mafias, Mexico is under siege,'' Johnson told the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think-tank. ``This is an historic opportunity for the United States to cement closer ties with its closest Latin American neighbor and encourage a sea change in law enforcement capabilities.''....
Immigrant's family detained after daughter speaks out Three days after a 24-year-old college graduate spoke out on her immigration plight in USA TODAY, U.S. agents arrested her family — including her father, a Vietnamese man who once was confined to a "re-education" camp in his home country for anti-communist activities. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who chairs the House immigration subcommittee, on Tuesday accused federal officials of "witness intimidation" for staging a pre-dawn raid on the home of Tuan Ngoc Tran. The agents arrested Tran, his wife and son, charging them with being fugitives from justice even though the family's attorneys said the Trans have been reporting to immigration officials annually to obtain work permits. Lofgren said she believes the family was targeted because Tran's eldest child, Tam Tran, testified before Lofgren's panel earlier this spring in support of legislation that would help the children of illegal immigrants. On Oct. 8, Tam Tran was quoted in USA TODAY. Her parents and brother were taken into custody Thursday. The family was released to house arrest after Lofgren intervened....
On Trial, Ex-F.B.I. Agent Faces Years of Scrutiny Over Mob Killings The rumor was explosive, hard to believe: Gregory Scarpa Sr., a ruthless Colombo crime family capo known as the Grim Reaper, was receiving tips from a mysterious source inside law enforcement, a man he called “the girlfriend.” The confirmation was devastating: Prosecutors working to cripple the family in the mid-1990s said that the source was their own Roy Lindley DeVecchio, a Federal Bureau of Investigation supervisor, the man assigned to lead the Colombo investigation. More than a decade later, Mr. DeVecchio arrived in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn yesterday for a trial on murder charges. By the account of state prosecutors, he traded information with Mr. Scarpa from 1980 through 1993, directly causing four Mafia killings and failing to stop several others. Mr. DeVecchio tried several legal maneuvers — including claiming immunity from prosecution as a federal agent — but each failed, and he appeared in court yesterday in a drab gray suit, ragged crew cut and crinkled features, watched from the gallery by rows of agents dressed nearly identically. Prosecutors say Mr. DeVecchio accepted cash, wine, the services of a prostitute and jewelry stolen from bank safe deposit boxes. They say he billed the federal government for more than $66,000 in payments to Mr. Scarpa, then kept the money himself. But his greatest rewards were the least tangible, prosecutors say: Through years of handling his prized mole, Mr. DeVecchio grew his legend in the annals of law enforcement. After helping supervise the famed Commission Case in the 1980s, when top leaders of the city’s five crime families were jailed, Mr. DeVecchio was honored by the Police Department and called to lecture at training academies....
FISA Failed Soldiers, Former Intel Chairman Says With Congress reviewing changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which sets rules for how electronic surveillance may be conducted, a lead Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said the proposed changes will put American soldiers in harm's way and may have already contributed to the death of three U.S. soldiers. FISA was created in 1978 along with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to grant warrants for wiretapping Americans for intelligence purposes. The law has been changed several times since it was enacted and since 9/11 to address current security threats. Most recently, FISA was changed in August with the Protect America Act, which expanded the White House's ability to conduct surveillance. Democrats are now trying to change the law to roll back some portions of the August act. They're calling their new bill the RESTORE Act. "Yet again, the Bush administration and its allies are making allegations that have no basis in fact," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). He said the Democrats' RESTORE Act would solve the problems involving the missing soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division in Iraq. "Specifically, the bill would clarify that individualized warrants are not required to spy on foreign terrorists and foreign terrorist organizations outside the United States in places like Iraq," Nadler said. "Judicial approval is only required when Americans, and people in the United States, are targeted."....
U.N. to debate worldwide halt to executions The United States will find itself in the minority in the U.N. General Assembly when the European Union introduces a nonbinding resolution next week calling for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty. Italy and Portugal, acting on behalf of the EU, will introduce the resolution, arguing that capital punishment violates human rights regardless of how carefully it is carried out. "A United Nations resolution against the death penalty will prove that human beings today are better than they were yesterday ... in moral terms," Italian President Romano Prodi said during a U.N. debate last month. He said a death-penalty moratorium would herald "a more just future, and a society that has at last freed itself from the spiral of revenge." U.S. officials have already said they would vote against the resolution, criticizing it as an unwarranted intrusion on national sovereignty....
Schwarzenegger Sides With Gun Control Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Crime Gun Identification Act over the weekend, and that means gun sellers by 2010 - if there are any left in the state by that time -- will have to use "microstamping" technology on every semiautomatic pistol they sell. The new law, AB 1471, requires information about a gun's make, model and identification number to be laser engraved onto the gun's firing pin. Theoretically, the information would transfer itself onto the bullet cartridge when the pistol is fired, allowing police to match bullet casings found at crime scenes with the gun that fired the bullet. Gun control groups say the new law will help police solve crimes. But critics say the bill is back-door gun control. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association of the firearms industry, accused Gov. Schwarzenegger of betraying law-abiding gun owners, retailers and hunters by signing the bill. First of all the "microstamping" technology is "flawed," as indicated by multiple studies, the NSSF said in a news release. Criminals will be able to remove the laser engraving in moments, using common household tools, the group said. And it would be easy for criminals to scatter microstamped cartridges from other guns at crime scenes to confuse police, critics say. Some say the new law will dry up gun sales in California - and that may be the point....
Verizon Says It Turned Over Data Without Court Orders Verizon Communications, the nation's second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers' telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005. The company said it does not determine the requests' legality or necessity because to do so would slow efforts to save lives in criminal investigations. In an Oct. 12 letter replying to Democratic lawmakers, Verizon offered a rare glimpse into the way telecommunications companies cooperate with government requests for information on U.S. citizens. Verizon also disclosed that the FBI, using administrative subpoenas, sought information identifying not just a person making a call, but all the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called. Verizon does not keep data on this "two-generation community of interest" for customers, but the request highlights the broad reach of the government's quest for data. The disclosures, in a letter from Verizon to three Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee investigating the carriers' participation in government surveillance programs, demonstrated the willingness of telecom companies to comply with government requests for data, even, at times, without traditional legal supporting documents. From January 2005 to September 2007, Verizon provided data to federal authorities on an emergency basis 720 times, it said in the letter. The records included Internet protocol addresses as well as phone data. In that period, Verizon turned over information a total of 94,000 times to federal authorities armed with a subpoena or court order, the letter said....
For one company, FISA wiretaps carry a $1K pricetag Although the scope of surveillance conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act remains shrouded in secrecy, newly disclosed documents show the costs one company charges the government to eavesdrop on customers. Comcast, which is among the nation's largest telecommunication companies, charges $1,000 to install a FISA wiretap and $750 for each additional month authorities want to keep an eye on suspects, according to the company's Handbook for Law Enforcement. Secrecy News obtained the document and published it Monday. "I was actually surprised that this was such a routine transaction that it would have a set fee," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. The Comcast handbook says the company will comply with legal requests from federal, state and local authorities to monitor the communications of criminal suspects, and the company notes legal ambiguity surrounding some of the more controversial tools that have emerged since Sept. 11, 2001....

Lawmakers propose lifting species protections in drought Georgia's entire congressional delegation introduced legislation Tuesday intended to relieve drought conditions in the Atlanta area. Gov. Sonny Perdue and other state officials have been arguing with the Army Corps of Engineers over how much of the water in Lake Lanier should be pumped downriver to Florida and Alabama. But the Corps insists it's only following federal law and continues to pump billions of gallons of water downriver to help preserve federally protected sturgeon and mussels. The legislation the Georgia lawmakers introduced would amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 so that federal protection for such species would be lifted in times of severe drought. "It's rare that the Georgia delegation is of one mind on major legislation," said Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, a Grantville Republican. "But we're united in this crisis to put our people before sturgeon and mussels." Georgia lawmakers said it defies common sense to pump water to fish when people are in such dire need....Let'see, put a coupla ranchers over here out of business, and some farmers over there are ruined and that's ok. But let the city folk feel the full brunt of the act? No, no, we can't let that happen.
Grazing for change on Steel Swamp Ranch is a team effort Dan Byrne, who helps operate a family cattle and feed business in Modoc and Siskiyou counties, says he has a great commute--30 miles of unpaved U.S. Forest Service road. In summer the red dust flies. In winter the snow and ice make driving dicey when hauling cattle and supplies. But, Byrne says there's no place he'd rather be than Steel Swamp Ranch, which was acquired by his grandfather in the early 1900s. With headquarters in Tulelake, Dan and his brother, Mike, operate both their private land and about 100,000 acres of public land for cattle grazing. Over time the family has seen many environmental changes in the high desert that cause them concern. But rather than merely watch negative environmental changes, the Byrne brothers have taken action. They're currently involved in a half dozen partnerships with government agencies and research groups to return the delicate high desert land they ranch to full vibrancy....
"Wolf Awareness Week" declared in New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has declared this week as "Wolf Awareness Week" in New Mexico, and both conservationists and ranchers see the move as an opportunity to address a controversial program aimed at reintroducing the endangered Mexican gray wolf in New Mexico and Arizona. Richardson, in a declaration issued Monday as part of National Wolf Awareness Week, said the predator plays a critical role in maintaining balanced ecosystems. "We must redouble our efforts to promote healthy wolf populations coexisting with our communities and land stewards — both in New Mexico and across the country," he said. Federal biologists began releasing wolves on the Arizona-New Mexico border in 1998 to re-establish the species in part of its historic range after it had been hunted to the brink of extinction in the early 1900s. Conservationists have criticized the program's management, specifically a policy calling for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to remove or kill any wolf linked to three livestock killings within a year. On the other hand, some residents have been worried about the safety of their children and pets while ranchers have consistently voiced concerns about depredation of their livestock. Caren Cowan, executive director of New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, said Monday that she welcomed the governor's declaration. "What I hope it does is bring about some awareness," she said. "Wolves are here to stay. They're obviously not going away, but there are some real issues that need to be worked through."...
Wildlife officials say coyote bounty wouldn't work The best way to protect livestock from coyotes is to target specific animals that are causing problems, South Dakota wildlife officials said Monday. Members of a legislative committee asked whether it would be more effective and less expensive to revive a bounty system that used to pay hunters a small amount for each coyote they killed. But state Game, Fish and Parks officials said the bounty system just paid hunters for coyotes they would have shot anyway. The current system of aerial hunting, trapping and other control works better by killing specific coyotes that are causing problems for farmers and ranchers during the spring season when calves and lambs are born, said Emmett Keyser, assistant director of the Wildlife Division. "We're targeting specific coyotes on specific ranches," Keyser told the Legislature's Government Operations and Audit Committee, an investigative panel....
White House, Congress may find rare agreement on energy bill At odds on Iraq, children’s health insurance and eight of 12 spending measures, the Bush administration and Democratic Congress may find common ground on an unlikely topic: energy legislation. For a president raised in the Oil Patch, the victory may come with an ironic twist. One of the signature measures the bill could include is a new federal mandate on production of renewable fuels, despite opposition from oil interests. President Bush already moved away from the industry in his last State of the Union address, when he called for the production of 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels in the next 15 years. In the pending Senate version, the renewable fuel standard would not include a process by which coal is converted to gasoline, a technology the administration supported. But the White House is viewed on K Street as generally supportive of a new renewable fuel mandate, although it may press Congress to make more allowances for technological advances necessary to meet the 36 billion gallon target set in the Senate bill. Other groups are aligned against the bill as well. Farmers and ranchers who rely on grain to raise livestock also worry about rising corn prices. Environmentalists fear that the new mandate would lead to a loss of habitat as more corn is planted to meet the new mandate....
Pikes Peak won't get federal designation, committee says Pikes Peak is fine just how it is. That’s the conclusion reached by a committee formed last month by U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn to examine making the mountain a national monument or some other federal designation. It took the committee just two meetings to decide to leave the status of the peak alone. It then disbanded. While being a national monument -- a status held by 70 other landmarks, including Devils Tower and Mount St. Helens -- could bring in extra visitors and offer additional protection for the peak, the committee determined it would come with too many strings attached. Colorado Springs Vice Mayor Larry Small, a committee member, said the designation would jeopardize popular events such as the Pikes Peak Hill Climb and the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon, and the operation of the Pikes Peak Highway....
Global Warming Delusions Global warming doesn't matter except to the extent that it will affect life -- ours and that of all living things on Earth. And contrary to the latest news, the evidence that global warming will have serious effects on life is thin. Most evidence suggests the contrary. Case in point: This year's United Nations report on climate change and other documents say that 20%-30% of plant and animal species will be threatened with extinction in this century due to global warming -- a truly terrifying thought. Yet, during the past 2.5 million years, a period that scientists now know experienced climatic changes as rapid and as warm as modern climatological models suggest will happen to us, almost none of the millions of species on Earth went extinct. The exceptions were about 20 species of large mammals (the famous megafauna of the last ice age -- saber-tooth tigers, hairy mammoths and the like), which went extinct about 10,000 to 5,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age, and many dominant trees and shrubs of northwestern Europe. But elsewhere, including North America, few plant species went extinct, and few mammals. We're also warned that tropical diseases are going to spread, and that we can expect malaria and encephalitis epidemics. But scientific papers by Prof. Sarah Randolph of Oxford University show that temperature changes do not correlate well with changes in the distribution or frequency of these diseases; warming has not broadened their distribution and is highly unlikely to do so in the future, global warming or not....
Hunters kill at least four grizzlies so far Hunters have killed at least four grizzly bears in Wyoming since the start of this year's elk hunting season. That's according to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. No one was hurt in the incidents, which happened south of Yellowstone and outside Cody, Jackson, and Lander. Game and fish officials wouldn't release more information about the grizzly deaths, saying the cases were all still under investigation. Grizzlies were removed from federal Endangered Species Act protection in April, so killings of grizzlies now are prosecuted under state and not federal law. Under state law, a person who kills a grizzly not in self-defense faces up to six months in jail and a fine up to $10,000 dollars.

Pearce to run for Domenici's Senate seat Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., will run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Pete Domenici, The Associated Press has learned. Pearce, who represents the state's 2nd Congressional District in southern New Mexico, plans to send letters to friends and supporters Wednesday notifying them of his intent, a source close to Pearce told the AP on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to detract from Pearce's formal announcement. Pearce will publicly announce his candidacy in ''the coming weeks,'' the source said. Pearce is the third well-known candidate to seek the Senate seat that Domenici has held since 1973. Domenici is retiring at the end of his term next year because he has an incurable brain disease. Republican Congresswoman Heather Wilson and Democratic Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez have declared their candidacies....

McCain, Edwards get support from enviro groups Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a supporter of efforts to limit greenhouse gases, has received the endorsement of Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP). “Senator McCain is the only Republican candidate in 2008 who understands the deep connection between true conservative values and good environmental stewardship,” the group’s president, Martha Marks, said. “He is the candidate best suited, by knowledge, experience and conviction, to provide the strong environmental leadership that our country needs.” The group lauded McCain’s understanding of environmental and energy issues and how they are related. On the Democratic side, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards received the endorsement of Friends of the Earth Action. “John Edwards understands that we must accept responsibility for conserving natural resources and act with urgency to stop the crisis of global warming,” the group’s president, Brent Blackwelder, said. “He has led on this issue, with the best plan to halt global warming and protect the environment. He has the strength and courage to stand up to the big corporations that are abusing our planet. And he is the only top-tier candidate in this race who opposes new nuclear plants in the U.S.”....
Hutchison may leave U.S. Senate in 2009 U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, in a magazine interview, said she won't seek re-election in 2012 and may resign from the Senate as early as 2009. But she still won't say whether she will run for governor in 2010, when many political observers expect her fellow Republican, Gov. Rick Perry, not to seek another term. Hutchison, first elected to the Senate in a special election in 1993 and re-elected to a third full term last year, had previously hinted that she may not seek another term in 2012. In an interview with Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith, she seemed to more clearly rule out another re-election race. Excerpts from the interview were posted on Smith's blog. Noting that her term would be up in 2012, Hutchison said, "I would not run for re-election."....

Experiencing internet problems. Will try to catch up tomorrow.

Drought-Stricken South Facing Tough Choices For the first time in more than 100 years, much of the Southeast has reached the most severe category of drought, climatologists said Monday, creating an emergency so serious that some cities are just months away from running out of water. In North Carolina, Gov. Michael F. Easley asked residents Monday to stop using water for any purpose “not essential to public health and safety.” He warned that he would soon have to declare a state of emergency if voluntary efforts fell short. “Now I don’t want to have to use these powers,” Mr. Easley told a meeting of mayors and other city officials. “As leaders of your communities, you know what works best at the local level. I am asking for your help.” Officials in the central North Carolina town of Siler City estimate that without rain, they are 80 days from draining the Lower Rocky River Reservoir, which supplies water for the town’s 8,200 people. In the Atlanta metropolitan area, which has more than four million people, worst-case analyses show that the city’s main source of water, Lake Lanier, could be drained dry in 90 to 121 days. The hard numbers have shocked the Southeast into action, even as many people wonder why things seem to have gotten so bad so quickly....

Pollution pouring into nation's waters far beyond legal limits More than half of all industrial and municipal facilities across the country dumped more sewage and other pollutants into the nation's waterways than allowed under the Clean Water Act, according to a report released Thursday by an environmental group. California was among the 10 states with the highest percentage of facilities leaking more pollutants into waterways than their Clean Water Act permits allow, according to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency obtained by the environmental group, U.S. PIRG. The report was based on EPA data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act for 2005, the most recent year available. Among the major findings: -- 3,600 major facilities nationwide - 57 percent of all facilities that must report to EPA - exceeded their Clean Water Act permits at least once in 2005. -- The average violation was almost four times the legal limit of what can be dumped into waterways. -- 628 facilities violated their Clean Water Act permits for at least half of the monthly reporting periods, and 85 sites exceeded their permits during every reporting period. The report's authors said the survey probably underestimates the problem because it looked only at data from major facilities, not smaller sites that also pollute....Go here to view the report. Hat Tip Grist

Pentagon Report: Let's Put Solar Power Collectors in Orbit A Pentagon-chartered report urges the United States to take the lead in developing space platforms capable of capturing sunlight and beaming electrical power to Earth. Space-based solar power, according to the report, has the potential to help the United States stave off climate change and avoid future conflicts over oil by harnessing the Sun's power to provide an essentially inexhaustible supply of clean energy. The report, "Space-Based Solar Power as an Opportunity for Strategic Security," was undertaken by the Pentagon's National Security Space Office this spring as a collaborative effort that relied heavily on Internet discussions by more than 170 scientific, legal, and business experts around the world. Specifically, the report calls for the U.S. government to underwrite the development of space-based solar power by funding a progressively bigger and more expensive technology demonstrations that would culminate with building a platform in geosynchronous orbit bigger than the international space station and capable of beaming 5-10 megawatts of power to a receiving station on the ground. Nearer term, the U.S. government should fund in depth studies and some initial proof-of-concept demonstrations to show that space-based solar power is a technically and economically viable to solution to the world's growing energy needs. Aside from its potential to defuse future energy wars and mitigate global warming, Damphousse said beaming power down from space could also enable the U.S. military to operate forward bases in far-flung, hostile regions such as Iraq without relying on vulnerable convoys to truck in fossil fuels to run the electrical generators needed to keep the lights on....

Today’s Harvest of Shame AS Congress heads into final negotiations over the farm bill, let’s hope our elected officials are paying attention to the headlines: Brazil has scored yet another huge victory at the World Trade Organization over America’s cotton subsidies; Mexico is likely to file a complaint with the global body over how we subsidize rice farmers; Canada may do the same over corn payments. This is a troubling pattern, and there’s a good chance America will lose more and more cases unless Congress makes changes in the farm bill, which expired last month. Washington simply must stop subsidizing farmers the way it does or risk reversing course on a half-century of steadily expanding trade opportunities. I know all about subsidies. For years, I took them myself for my corn and soybean farm. I didn’t really enjoy it, but they were available and I rationalized my participation: Other industries received payments and tax breaks — why shouldn’t I? In addition, I spent 14 years as the head of the American Farm Bureau, the leading farmers’ lobby and a prime player in the creation of the subsidy system. In the 1990s, however, a trip to New Zealand made me realize that eliminating subsidies was not just a free-market fantasy, but rather a policy that could work in an advanced industrial nation. New Zealanders had stopped subsidizing their farmers, cold turkey, in 1984. The transition was controversial and not without its rough spots, yet it succeeded. On that visit and several later ones, I never met a farmer who wanted to go back to subsidies. Today, it’s obvious that we need to transform our public support for farmers. Many of our current subsidies inhibit trade because of their link to commodity prices. By promising to cover losses, the government insulates farmers from market signals that normally would encourage sensible, long-term decisions about what to grow and where to grow it. There’s something fundamentally perverse about a system that has farmers hoping for low prices at harvest time — it’s like praying for bad weather. But that’s precisely what happens, because those low prices mean bigger checks from Washington....

NEWS ROUNDUP

We own the Eberts/Elkhorn Ranch; now, what shall we do with it? Now that the Eberts Ranch has been acquired by the U.S. Forest Service, it might seem that the long struggle to protect Theodore Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch is over. Not quite. The 5,200-acre Blacktail Creek Ranch (aka the Eberts Ranch) now belongs to the people of the United States, to be supervised by the U.S. Forest Service. That's the province of Dave Pieper and Dakota Prairie Grasslands. Pieper has pledged to keep the Eberts acreage open to traditional uses, which include grazing, oil development and recreation. The ranch includes the 5,200 acres recently acquired, and the 18,000-plus acres already owned by the U.S. Forest Service that were leased by the Eberts family. The Medora Grazing Association would like the Eberts acreage, one parcel of the 290,000 acres of National Grasslands in Billings County, simply to be divvied out to area ranchers for traditional grazing purposes. This makes a kind of sense. The two traditional economic "uses" of the Badlands have been grazing and mineral extraction. In other words, it's cattle and oil country. If Dakota Prairie Grasslands is serious about continuing to support traditional uses of the land, why not fill the vacuum left by the departure of the Eberts family by letting other ranchers lease the grass? Such an outcome would not be the worst thing that ever happened. But there is a much better use for the land in question, and it would be a terrible mistake not to take advantage of this historic moment on this historic property to take public grazing in North Dakota to the next level of thoughtful conservation and wise management. Instead of simply parceling the acreage out and letting it slip below the public radar, Pieper would like to turn the Eberts-Elkhorn acreage into a grassbank. The grassbank idea is relatively new (1990s), which is the main reason some people find it threatening....
As Logging Fades, Rich Carve Up Open Land in West William P. Foley II pointed to the mountain. Owns it, mostly. A timber company began logging in view of his front yard a few years back. He thought they were cutting too much, so he bought the land. Mr. Foley belongs to a new wave of investors and landowners across the West who are snapping up open spaces as private playgrounds on the borders of national parks and national forests. In style and temperament, this new money differs greatly from the Western land barons of old — the timber magnates, copper kings and cattlemen who created the extraction-based economy that dominated the region for a century. With the timber industry in steep decline, recreation is pushing aside logging as the biggest undertaking in the national forests and grasslands, making nearby private tracts more desirable — and valuable, in a sort of ratchet effect — to people who enjoy outdoor activities and ample elbow room and who have the means to take title to what they want. Some old-line logging companies, including Plum Creek Timber, the country’s largest private landowner, are cashing in, putting tens of thousands of wooded acres on the market from Montana to Oregon. Plum Creek, which owns about 1.2 million acres here in Montana alone, is getting up to $29,000 an acre for land that was worth perhaps $500 an acre for timber cutting....
Lead From Carrion Killing Off Calif. Condors When the dairy farmers around Bakersfield, Calif., see the white Dodge pickup truck with the brown logo of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the door, they know it's time to bring out their dead. The biologists come by every couple of weeks to collect the bodies of stillborn calves and haul them to walk-in freezers strategically positioned around the state. Then, in the dark of night, they drag the bovine corpses into clearings visible at dawn from the heights flown by California condors, a species that has battled back from the brink of extinction but is not yet trusted to feed itself. The massive birds now fly, nest and reproduce reliably outside zoos. But left to plan their own meals, they will swoop down on the carcasses of animals killed by hunters and, in gobbling the carrion feast, ingest chunks of the bullets that scientists now call the most persistent threat to the reestablishment of California condors in the wild: secondhand lead. In the belly of a 25-pound bird, a .308-caliber round leaches lead into the bloodstream far more efficiently than any toy coated with lead paint. Scientists have seen a condor drop out of the sky dead from lead poisoning, and they have recorded blood lead concentrations in sick birds 40 times the level considered toxic in humans. The evidence, including striking increases in those lead readings during deer-hunting season, stirred the California legislature this summer to pass a bill that would ban lead ammunition in condor habitat....
Climate Change Likely to Increase Fires Climate change is likely to increase the number of wildfires fueled by invasive weeds that are spreading throughout the Great Basin, researchers told a U.S. Senate subcommittee Thursday. Researchers described a potential increase in the amount of cheatgrass and other invasive weeds that populate the region and have fueled wildfires that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres in the West. Ecologist Jayne Belnap told a meeting of the public lands and forests committee that some climate change models predict average temperature increases of up to 11 degrees by the end of the century, as well as increases in precipitation and carbon dioxide levels. The combination means more cheatgrass and potentially more wildfires. "There's a lot of reason to expect (wildfires) will increase," Belnap told the subcommittee meeting in Las Vegas. "The biggest reason is we'll have drier soil, we'll have drier fuels. ... most climate models would project that they will increase." The Great Basin covers 73 million acres and touches five Western states. Just more than half of the region is public lands....
Big Sea Treaty Would Crush Entrepreneurs The Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST, is the most important treaty you've never heard of. It would turn over all of the world's unclaimed natural resources to a second United Nations and is moving ever so steadily toward Senate ratification. Back in the 1970s, some Third World governments loudly campaigned for a global socialist economic order of more foreign aid, U.N. regulation of business and collectivist resource development. LOST is a result. It declared all seabed resources to be the "common heritage of mankind," levied fees and royalties on Western mining and oil companies, created a monopoly company to mine the seabed, and established a new international body to divvy up the spoils. President Ronald Reagan refused to sign the treaty in 1982, leaving it to sink beneath the waves. But President Bill Clinton decided to "fix" LOST. After winning a few small concessions, the U.S. signed. For years, opposition in the GOP-controlled Senate prevented American ratification, but more than enough other countries assented to bring LOST into effect. President Bush now supports the accord. In broad sweep, LOST covers three subject areas. The first includes exclusive economic zones, fishing, marine research, ocean pollution and oil exploration. The second covers navigational freedom. The third covers seabed mining — and it is here where the treaty's worst parts lie....
A manifesto for a new environmentalism Rachel Carson opened Silent Spring, her 1962 polemic against chemical pesticides, with a terrible prophecy: "Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth." She proceeded to narrate a "Fable for Tomorrow," describing a bucolic American town "where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings." The nearby farms flourished, the foxes barked, and the birds sang in a kind of pastoral Eden. "Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. Some evil spell had settled on the community." Cattle died. Children died. And the birds stopped singing. It was a silent spring. The moral of the story was obvious: Apocalypse was imminent unless humankind stopped violating nature. And so it came to pass that the environmental movement's highest priority would be to limit our contamination of the world around us. This "pollution paradigm" worked well enough--for a time. Regulatory legislation of the 1960s and '70s cleaned up our lakes and rivers and greatly reduced smog in our cities. In the 1990s, it dealt with acid rain and phased out ozone-depleting chemicals. Given these successes, it's not surprising that environmental leaders have seen global warming, which is caused by human greenhouse gas emissions, as, essentially, a very big pollution problem. In the summer of 2006, Carson was resurrected in the form of Al Gore, whose documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, began with images of power plants belching pollution and ended with scenes from the apocalypse: hurricanes, floods, and droughts. In case viewers missed the point, Gore observed, "It was almost like a nature hike through the Book of Revelation." And he warned, "It's human nature to take time. But there will also be a day of reckoning."....
The Greatest Dying Two hundred fifty million years ago, a monumental catastrophe devastated life on Earth. We don't know the cause--perhaps glaciers, volcanoes, or even the impact of a giant meteorite--but whatever happened drove more than 90 percent of the planet's species to extinction. After the Great Dying, as the end-Permian extinction is called, Earth's biodiversity--its panoply of species--didn't bounce back for more than ten million years. Aside from the Great Dying, there have been four other mass extinctions, all of which severely pruned life's diversity. Scientists agree that we're now in the midst of a sixth such episode. This new one, however, is different--and, in many ways, much worse. For, unlike earlier extinctions, this one results from the work of a single species, Homo sapiens. We are relentlessly taking over the planet, laying it to waste and eliminating most of our fellow species. Moreover, we're doing it much faster than the mass extinctions that came before. Every year, up to 30,000 species disappear due to human activity alone. At this rate, we could lose half of Earth's species in this century. And, unlike with previous extinctions, there's no hope that biodiversity will ever recover, since the cause of the decimation--us--is here to stay. To scientists, this is an unparalleled calamity, far more severe than global warming, which is, after all, only one of many threats to biodiversity....
Eight elk’s ancestors are part of a herd that numbers as many as 800 He is a descendent of a herd started nearly 40 years ago in the Rochelle Hills south of Gillette. His lineage can be traced back to the efforts of one landowner — a rancher who introduced elk to the surprising variety of geography in the Rochelle Hills. The landscape ranges from rugged canyons to gentle, red-orange scoria-carved hills. It slopes from tall, steep ridges to gentle steppes that flatten into the golden grass-covered plains. Small creeks flow throughout — some for just part of the year. Squares of private land and surface coal mines dot the landscape as well. But the elder bull knows little of those boundaries. This isn’t where you’d expect to find elk, especially those bearing huge racks of antlers. And yet, the herd in this isolated, southeast Campbell County area rivals the more infamous herds found in the northwestern mountains of Wyoming. It’s the only big-game herd started by a private landowner in Wyoming, long before the state introduced game-farming laws and made such practice illegal. Burton “Burt” Keith Reno was the third generation of his family to operate the Heartspear Ranch south of Wright. His great-grandfather, Burton Jones Reno, worked on ranches in the area as far back as the 1890s. His grandfather, Burton Everette Reno, bought up homesteads to form the ranch that is now along the Edwards-Reno Road near School Creek. Then it was Burt’s turn....
Superior Lumber Arsonists: Burned by their own fire In the cold, early morning hours of Jan. 2, 2001, five strangers with sinister plans based on misguided ideals drove toward this small town at the south end of Douglas County. As Glendale families slept, a different kind of “family” was about to unleash havoc, lighting the dark sky not with fireworks like some might have used to welcome the New Year, but with flames of protest. Shortly before 2 a.m., the Earth Liberation Front members pulled up to the Superior Lumber office at 2695 Glendale Valley Road. Within the hour, the building would be burnt in half. As the arsonists slipped away up Interstate 5 toward Eugene, they listened to scanners as reports came in of the fire that would cause more than $1 million in damage and scar a community. Nearly seven years later these five individuals, known to a loyal few as environmentalists but prosecuted as terrorists, have been brought to justice....
Judge holds jail threat over administration's top forest official A federal judge warned the Bush administration's top forestry official Friday that he could go to jail for contempt of court in a case challenging U.S. Forest Service use of fire retardant. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula, Montana, issued the warning in a written order canceling a contempt hearing for Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey that had been scheduled for Monday. The judge said he needed time to read 200 pages of material filed at the last minute by the Forest Service. Judge Molloy wrote that, if the government does not comply, he'll reschedule the contempt hearing and Rey will be required to appear and show cause why he should not be held in contempt, and jailed. The judge also gave the Forest Service 10 days to produce the environmental analysis the agency did on fire retardant six years ago, in order to evaluate the "legitimacy" of the analysis.
The BLM plays with fire in Oregon Everyone here in Oregon loves our forests. These lands — most in public ownership — are the cornerstone for both the economic and ecological health of the state, and are central to our identity. Indeed, more and more of us are making our homes in the woods every year, in the so-called “wildlands-urban interface.” And so, whether we are loggers, conservationists or vacation-home owners, we all share a common fear: fire. Uncontrolled, stand-replacing wildfire can destroy in a day all the forest values that took centuries to develop. Therefore, it’s hard to believe that the Bureau of Land Management would propose to drastically increase the risk of wildfire on their forestlands in Oregon. Yet that is exactly what the agency is doing. This burning secret is hidden deep within the BLM’s recently-released Draft Environmental Impact statement for its Western Oregon Plan Revisions, or WOPR, pronounced “whopper” by just about everyone. Arising from an out-of-court settlement between the Bush administration and a timber industry group, the plan discards the present management framework governing 2.5 million acres of low-elevation forests throughout western Oregon and the Klamath Basin. Current management includes an extensive network of reserves that were established to assure the survival of the threatened Northern Spotted Owl, and that are off-limits to commercial logging. The draft plan would eliminate those reserves, drastically reduce no-cut buffers along streams, and instead designate commercial logging as the “predominant” use. BLM is promoting this change as a way to dramatically increase timber revenues. That prospect is very tempting to Oregon counties, which have financed public services for decades on their portion of federal-land timber receipts....
Chertoff may void judge's order to halt border fence The nation's top security official may use his power to unilaterally trump a federal court order halting construction of a fence on a stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is weighing whether to invoke a section of federal law that allows him to exempt border construction projects from any law, his press aide, Russ Knocke, told Capitol Media Services. That includes requirements for studies on environmental impacts of federally funded projects. The move would not be unprecedented: Chertoff used the power at least twice since it was granted. In 2005 he decided to build fencing near San Diego without conducting environmental studies. And in January he issued a waiver from all laws for a project along the edge of the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range in Southwestern Arizona. The possibility of Chertoff again exempting his agency from environmental laws comes days after a federal judge in Washington stopped construction of a nearly two-mile stretch of fence at the foot of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area southeast of Tucson....
Public lands precedent? Recently, the Utah Bureau of Land Management cancelled an oil and gas lease sale, citing the need to further study the impact of drilling on wildlife habitat. Conservationists think the cancellation – the first in over 25 years – sets a national precedent for protecting wildlife habitat from energy leasing. But the BLM disagrees and public-lands experts say that isn’t necessarily the case. The BLM says many factors, including a recommendation by the Utah Department of Wildlife to increase the study of wildlife habitat, led to the cancellation of the 141,717-acre Nov. 13 sale. But an agency document cites an Interior Department judicial board ruling as a reason for deferring a majority of the 86 proposed sale parcels. In November 2006, the Interior Board of Land Appeals, which rules on Bureau of Land Management policy, ruled on a lease sale appeal filed in Utah by the Center for Native Ecosystems. The board said that the appropriate time to consider potential impacts of drilling is when public land is first proposed for leasing, before sales are made. This is the first time an IBLA ruling has had a hand in parcels being deferred from leasing, and conservationists were elated....
BLM Horses Improving After Salmonella Outbreak Wild horses at the Nevada Bureau of Land Management's Palomino Valley Center are improving after 156 died or were euthanatized due to a range of illnesses, including an outbreak of salmonella that prompted BLM officials to close the center to the public Sept. 26. "The recovering horses are adapting to their diet of hay," said JoLynn Worley, BLM spokesperson. "They're stabilizing and putting on weight." The recovering horses are among 983 gathered from the Jackson Mountain area and brought to the Palomino Valley Center in late August and early September. However, Worley said, several horses in the herd arrived at the facility showing signs of having weathered a drought-plagued summer in the desert. "There are always some horses in a gather that are in poor condition or that have a hard time transitioning to normal feed, but not this many," she said. "This time all the wrong conditions came together. "The horses were eating brush because no grass was available and they had limited water," Worley explained. "Salmonella is present in all animals' guts, but horses' digestive systems are particularly sensitive. The harsh diet contributed to the Salmonella blooming out of control.'....
Suit over checkerspot threatened Plans by the Lincoln National Forest to spray sections of the forest affected by the looper infestation may have hit a snag. The Forest Guardians announced in a press release Friday that it will file suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne. The suit alleges the federal government is in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The release states the Santa Fe-based organization is petitioning to have the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly listed as an "endangered or threatened species." It also calls on the Interior Department to designate "critical habitat" for the butterfly. The group filed a petition with the Fish and Wildlife Service June 28 this year to list the butterfly. Under the Endangered Species Act, the department must make a finding within 90 days as to whether the species is endangered or not. The group states that finding is now overdue. The organization is giving the Interior Department 60 days within which to make a ruling, after which it says it will file a lawsuit. The Forest Guardians argue that the checkerspot butterfly is found only within a six-mile radius of Cloudcroft and the use of Btk to kill the loopers will also kill the butterfly larvae, which are now actively feeding....
Water fight in Caldwell County splits neighbors, political allies Former Texas Comptroller John Sharp once was a political godfather to state Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs. In 2002, Sharp, then running for lieutenant governor, hosted one of the first fundraisers for the fresh-faced Rose, who was just out of college and challenging a Republican incumbent. Today, Sharp and Rose are not speaking. The relationship had deteriorated to the point that immediately after the legislative session, Sharp said he was "sympathetic" to someone challenging his fellow Democrat for re-election. The source of their falling out? Water. Specifically, Rose refused to give Sharp's friends — water developers — special treatment in a bill trying to bring groundwater regulation to this Caldwell County ranching community for the first time. The eastern extremes of the county are a no-man's land, a rare sliver of water-rich Texas on the outskirts of Austin surrounded by pumping regulations but beyond any regulatory hand on the local spigot. It is a microcosm of the money, politics and tension between rural communities with water and the state's sprawling urban areas. Water (read money) is so emotional it pits neighbor against neighbor and, in this case, split political allies....
Ranchers now see need for water rules The debate in this ranching community used to be whether any government regulation was necessary for the area's water. Today, it's quickly becoming whose rules should apply. "I've changed my mind," said rancher Tony Spears, who four years ago opposed any attempts to regulate the underground water in this area. His embrace of regulation, however limited, is a recognition of economic reality and legal uncertainty. His lawyer, Ed Small Jr., said he's unsure how much longer water developers can depend on the age-old precedent that a landowner can pump water from his land without regard to its effect on his neighbors. "I can't guarantee Tony that if he puts in a big well, he could pump the heck out of it," Small said. Instead, the squabble is whose rules should apply. And those rules vary greatly from county to county over the same aquifer. Regulators use production caps, export fees, spacing between wells and acreage limits to restrict how much water can be pumped....
Fat is beautiful — and profitable — to biodiesel makers Millions of Americans are trying to avoid fat, but Jason Christensen isn't one of them. He seeks it out every day. A trader for Agri-Trading, based near Minneapolis, Christensen looks for as much fat as possible. Fat is sizzling, and biofuels are cooking up the demand. Fats can be used to make biodiesel and can be cheaper than making the fuel with soybean oil. "When you tie food to fuel, it … affects different segments of the economy that people never thought of," Christensen says. At least two biodiesel plants in Iowa have begun to make biodiesel from animal fat, along with at least five plants in other states, according to the National Biodiesel Board and plant operators. The price of animal fat — often called tallow or white or yellow grease — has about doubled in the past year, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department's annual report on beef tallow. When Christensen began trading about eight years ago, he says he sold a 46,000-pound truckload of pork fat for $2,300. Today, he says, it's worth $11,500....
USCA launches initiative to amend beef checkoff The U.S. Cattlemen's Association (USCA) launched an initiative last week, urging Congress to amend the Beef Promotion and Research Act of 1985 to allow checkoff funds to be used to promote U.S. beef. More specifically, the initiative is seeking an amendment to earmark the checkoff dollars collected from U.S. cattle producers to be used in the promotion of products derived specifically from cattle born, raised and slaughtered in the United States, said Leo McDonnell, USCA director emeritus and Columbus, Mont., rancher during a meeting in Lewistown, Mont., on Sept. 25. “Never before have producers had so much opportunity on Capitol Hill,” he said. “There are many positive things happening. We are on the cusp of seeing mandatory country of origin labeling implemented. It only makes sense for U.S. producers to direct their checkoff dollars towards supporting their domestically born and raised product. It is important that we let Congress know the changes we are seeking and this initiative is the method to accomplish that.” As currently written, the Beef Promotion Act does not allow checkoff funds to distinguish beef products by which country the cattle originated. It promotes beef only in a generic sense....
Whether salty spirals or big jolts, Earth is their canvas Meticulously spread out over 1 mile by 1 kilometer of scorched earth near Quemado, N.M., the 400 stainless-steel poles of ''The Lightning Field'' sound like something the aliens dropped off on the way to Roswell. (How could a mere mortal conjure ''lightning''?) As a lover of those groan-inducing '50s sci-fi flicks, the thought of a close encounter with this inorganic construction designed to commune with the heavens was irresistible. And what better place to play it out than in American Indian land, whose mysticism has stayed with me since a family road trip 20 years ago. ''The Lightning Field'' itself is in an intentionally undisclosed location. The closest city to fly into is Albuquerque, a 2 1/2 -hour drive through the beautifully rugged El Malpais National Monument to Quemado, where my husband and I were instructed to check in at the ''white, two-story building on the north side of the town's main street.'' (City slickers: Don't panic. It's the only white, two-story building in ''downtown'' Quemado.) In the sparse, whitewashed office of the Dia Art Foundation, the high-profile New York nonprofit that preserves and manages ''The Lightning Field'' and other important land works, we were greeted with a placard informing us to wait for our escort. Soon after, Robert Weathers, a disarming local rancher who helped De Maria install ''The Lightning Field'' back in the '70s, arrived in a pearl-white SUV to get us and our cabinmates. Only six people are allowed a visit each night; accordingly, only six chairs occupy the otherwise empty foyer. A quick glance at the guestbook was revealing: Japan, Australia, Canada, Germany....
Howard Hopkins Puts Some Bite Back into the Wild West Howard Hopkins aims to bring western and horror readers together with the publication of The Dark Riders. The Dark Riders is a sweeping epic of a young cattle rancher whose life has been stalked by death and grief—the loss of his parents, his sister and a fateful confrontation with an outlaw that altered the course of his entire existence. But he soon discovers all the tragedy that has gone before was only a prelude to the darkness that invades his life just when he thinks things have finally turned his way as a vicious gang of vampire outlaws invades his uncle’s ranch. Howard Hopkins, who writes collectible hardcover westerns under the pseudonym Lance Howard and horror novels under his own name, wrote The Dark Riders to satisfy not only his desire to blend two of his favorite genres but to provide readers of both genres with an exciting change of pace and greater scope of story than either westerns or horror alone would normally encompass....
One wild town: Arland saw murder, mayhem during its brief existence The tiny town of Arland existed only for about 13 years, but it saw enough bloodshed and mayhem in that time to etch a place of distinction in the annals of the lawless Old West. From 1884 until 1897, Arland was home to between 50 and 75 residents, serving as a stagecoach stop and supply station for ranchers. Historian Clay Gibbons hosted a tour last week of the former town site, about eight miles north of present-day Meeteetse. "Where you are standing right now was probably one of the most wild and woolly spots in the Old West," Gibbons told a group of about 40 people who gathered in a clearing along Meeteetse Creek on a cold, overcast day. Together with Cody historian Bob Edgar, Gibbons and others have spent years researching the colorful history of Arland. The town was home, at least for a while, to such characters as Blind Bill Hoolihan, Mexican Joe, the Red River Kid, Broken Nose Jackson and Belle Drewry, a prostitute known as "the Lady in Blue." Though the famous outlaw Butch Cassidy once lived in Arland, Gibbons relishes telling the tales of more obscure residents, including William Gallagher, described by a local rancher at the time as "a mean, vicious and savage man, but the best with a horse and a rope that I've ever seen."....