Calif. may drink from ocean by 2011 The California Coastal Commission approved a plan Wednesday to build the Western Hemisphere's largest desalination plant - a move aimed at relieving water shortages in the nation's most populated state. The decision came after a daylong debate over the merits of the $300 million Carlsbad project, which is expected to eventually produce 10 percent of San Diego County's water supply from ocean water. Construction on the plant could begin next year and begin delivering drinking water in 2011, according to Connecticut-based Poseidon Resources Corp., which is heading the project. Commissioners gave the plant conditional approval in November. However, final approval hinged on the commission endorsing the company's plans to make the plant carbon-neutral and to restore wetlands to make up for the marine life that would get drawn in and killed through the plant's intake system....

More Nebraska Beef recalled despite assurances Federal authorities last month assured consumers that a meat plant linked to nearly 50 illnesses caused by tainted ground beef had made enough changes after a recall to ensure that its products were safe. Less than a month later, the same processor has recalled 1.2 million pounds of other beef products that might have sickened more than 30 people. The changes made after the first recall of meat processed by Nebraska Beef Ltd. affected only ground beef, Laura Reiser, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Saturday. Nebraska Beef on Friday recalled 1.2 million pounds of primal cuts, subprimal cuts and boxed beef that were made on June 17, June 24 and July 8. The products have been linked to illnesses in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illlinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. As in the earlier recall, all the beef being recalled now was sold to retailers and other companies that planned to further process the meat. So product labels probably will not include the "EST 19336" code that identified Nebraska Beef....

NM holds off on lesser prairie chicken hunt The heads of the state Game and Fish Department and the Game Commission have decided to hold off on issuing hunting permits for the lesser prairie chicken, a longtime candidate for possible protection under the Endangered Species Act. Game and Fish director Bruce Thompson and Game Commission chairman Tom Arvas said they will not issue permits while a decision to list the bird as a protected species is pending before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Given the strong public interest in protecting this species, it's prudent for us to take more time to work with our partners to assure that we continue to take the best approach for conserving this species and its habitat," Arvas said in a statement Thursday. The Game Commission on July 21 approved a structure for lesser prairie chicken hunting in New Mexico that could have started as early as this fall. The plan included a strict permitting process, but conservationists, sportsmen's groups and others argued that such an activity could derail long-term efforts to conserve the bird's population....

US study finds mountain's snowpack not affected by climate change Maybe the snow in the Washington state's Cascade mountains isn't in such immediate peril from global warming after all. Despite previous studies suggesting a warmer climate is already taking a bite out of Washington's snowpack, there's no clear evidence that human-induced climate change has caused a drop in 20th century snow levels, according to a new study by University of Washington scientists. In fact, the newest study also predicts the Cascade snows - vital to water supplies, crop irrigation and salmon - could enjoy a delay in the effects of global warming. But the findings have already become part of a scientific debate with an unusually political tone. It's an ongoing disagreement that has UW researchers taking sides against each other and has attracted the attention of political groups....

Uncle Sam’s Land Grab: Does the Clean Water Restoration Act Only Return What the Supreme Court Took? n title and in summary, the Clean Water Restoration Act sounds benign enough. But Dan Parmeter, executive director of the Minnesota-based American Property Coalition, calls it "the biggest federal power grab probably in the history of the country." Its summary by the Congressional Research Service notes that it "replace[s] the term ‘navigable waters' ... with the term ‘waters of the United States' ... ." The ostensible aim is to restore to the federal government authority under the Clean Water Act that the Supreme Court took away with narrow readings of the legislation in 2001 and 2006. Yet land-rights advocates believe the bill is much more insidious. "It's really a wolf in sheep's clothing," Parmeter said last month. "It's a national land-use-control bill. And if Mr. [James] Oberstar [the House sponsor] and other members of the committee want a national land-use-control bill, then explain it as a national land-use-control bill and let's have a debate ... . Don't try to mask it under the guise of the Clean Water Act." And Chuck Cushman, executive director and co-founder of the American Land Rights Association (based in Washington state), said: "It's really a watershed-control bill. It will control watersheds, and if you control watersheds, then you control the land."...The key phrase says that the Clean Water Restoration Act gives federal agencies control over waters of the United States and "activities affecting these waters." "That pretty much includes any kind of significant human activity," Parmeter said. "I think the Clean Water Restoration Act as-is goes way beyond - way beyond - what was ever intended by the Clean Water Act of 1972. It basically gets at controlling nonpoint source pollution."....

Ugly fish with humanoid teeth and a nasty personality pulled from El Paso's Ascarate Lake The fish, caught Tuesday, had humanlike teeth, growled, was 15 inches long, bit a hook in half and stunned a man who weighs about 200 pounds. "I believe it's a piranha," Rodriguez said. "When I caught it, it scared me. ... It was very aggressive; it snapped his jaw and snorted at me when I tried to get it. It cut the hook in half leaving part of it in its mouth." Rodriquez, 33, said he has caught different types of fish at Ascarate Lake since he was a child, but "I've never caught a fish like that in my life." Dustin Barrett with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department identified the exotic fish as a red-bellied pacu, a fish closely related to dreaded piranha....

EPA Keeps Biofuels Levels in Place after Considering Texas’ Request Following extensive analysis, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen L. Johnson today announced his decision to deny a request submitted by the State of Texas to reduce the nationwide Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). As a result, the required total volume of renewable fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, mandated by law to be blended into the fuel supply will remain at 9 billion gallons in 2008 and 11.1 billion gallons in 2009. “After reviewing the facts, it was clear this request did not meet the criteria in the law,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. “The RFS remains an important tool in our ongoing efforts to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions and lessen our dependence on foreign oil, in aggressive yet practical ways.” Current law authorizes EPA to waive the national RFS if the agency determines that the mandated biofuel volumes would cause “severe harm” to the economy or the environment. The agency recognizes that high commodity prices are having economic impacts, but EPA’s extensive analysis of Texas’ request found no compelling evidence that the RFS mandate is causing severe economic harm during the time period specified by Texas....

Statement by Gov. Rick Perry on EPA Denial of Texas' RFS Waiver Request "I am greatly disappointed with the EPA’s inability to look past the good intentions of this policy to see the significant harm it is doing to farmers, ranchers and American households. For the EPA to assert that this federal mandate is not affecting food prices not only goes against common sense, but every American’s grocery bill. "Denying Texas’ request is a mistake that will only increase the already-heavy financial burden on families while doing even more harm to the livestock industry. Good intentions and laudable goals are small compensation to the families, farmers and ranchers who are being hurt by the federal government’s efforts to trade food for fuel. Any government mandate that artificially props-up a single industry to the detriment of millions of Americans is bad public policy. "Congress specifically created an emergency waiver provision for situations like these and EPA refuses to implement it."

Judge Rules Indians Owed $455 Million A federal judge ruled yesterday that Native Americans suing the U.S. government over mismanaged royalties collected from gas and oil companies that drilled on their lands are entitled to $455 million -- far less than the $47 billion they were seeking. The ruling is the latest -- and probably not the last -- chapter in a 12-year legal dispute that U.S. District Judge James Robertson compared to Charles Dickens's legal tome, "Bleak House," in a January opinion. Robertson's ruling yesterday focused on how much royalty money was withheld from trust accounts managed by the Department of Interior on behalf of half a million Native Americans and their heirs over the past 121 years. The Native Americans' attorneys said that the government had badly mismanaged the trusts and that there was a shortfall of nearly $4 billion. At a June bench trial, the lawyers said the Native Americans were owed $47 billion, a figure that represented the "benefit" the government received from improperly using the missing money. That figure was lower than the $58 billion estimate given before the trial started. However, Robertson found their arguments unconvincing. The Native Americans' calculations suffer "from numerous methodological flaws that were illuminated by the government's presentation and, in many instances, are obvious to anyone having basic familiarity with the case," the judge wrote....

Stimson puts Bonner mill up for sale Just a few weeks after closing the operation, Stimson Lumber is officially putting its Bonner sawmill up for sale, setting the price tag at $16 million. The announcement of the sale plan came Thursday afternoon, as Stimson officials met with Missoula County Commissioners, Congressional representatives, the Forest Service and local economic development leaders. The company is putting the Bonner mill on the market, with plans for the auction block if there are no suitable offers in the next few weeks. Stimson closed the mill for good late last spring, saying market conditions would no longer support continued operation of the mill, which had been running continuously since the 1880s. Stimson spokesman Jeff Webber says market conditions are no better now, telling Montana's News Station the "short and long term timber supply is not good enough to operate the mill"....
Fight heats up for water along Utah/Nevada border Along with a lawsuit filed this week over water on the Utah/Nevada border, Great Basin Water Network expects to file a petition today appealing Nevada State Engineer Tracy Taylor's ruling last month that granted almost 19,000 acre-feet of water rights to the Southern Nevada Water Authority to supply Las Vegas with water. The water rights named in the petition impact the Cave, Dry Lake and Delamar valleys located inland from the border, where Taylor said there is "unappropriated" water for export. Great Basin Water Network board member and Utahn Steve Erickson said Thursday that the timing of the suit in Nevada state court is meant to coincide with developments on another battle over water in the Snake Valley region, which more importantly to Utah is located along the Utah/Nevada border. Erickson's group is alleging Taylor "grossly" overestimated at least the Dry Lake Valley's perennial yield of water, and that for all of the valleys Taylor arbitrarily cut off the time period for which he will consider "potential impacts to downstream water rights holders and the environment."....
BLM has a decision to make regarding wild horse population The Bureau of Land Management says it has some tough decisions to make in September regarding increases in wild horse population and the rising cost of maintaining the "symbol" of Nevada. The BLM says Nevada's wild horse population is at a turning point. They are caught between dwindling food supplies and a government agency facing an economic squeeze. There is a national advisory board meeting scheduled for September where one way or another a decision will be made on what to do with 30,000 wild horses in Nevada. The BLM says the best solution would be to find people to adopt the horses and provide for them but there are more than 1,100 horses at the Palomino Valley BLM facility. Scott Kandel, a horse trainer with a former wild horse of his own, says adoptions are down dramatically because of the price of hay, fuel and the economy. According to the BLM, it cost them $37 million to care for the horses, an estimated cost of $58 million is expected in 2009 and an incredible $72 million estimated for 2012....
Geothermal lease sales strong Federal land managers sold a record $28.2 million in geothermal leases in eight Northern Nevada counties this week, including one parcel where the rights to produce energy from hot water and steam beneath the earth sold for $1,000 per acre. The Reno-based ENEL Geothermal paid the U.S. Bureau of Land Management more than $2.7 million for the 2,707-acre parcel in Churchill County -- one of 35 parcels totaling 105,312 acres of public lands made available under the 10-year leases. Last August, when the BLM sold $11.7 million worth of geothermal leases in Nevada, the highest bid was $520 per acre. As of early this year, Nevada had 40 geothermal projects in development -- more than any other state....

LOS PAYASOS - YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK

Builder sent to jail for flood mitigation An Idaho man is being sent to prison for meeting his local government's demands during a subdivision development to fix a drainage problem that periodically had left the town of Driggs flooded, after federal officials then said their regulations banned such work. The dire situation for developer Lynn Moses is being publicized by Bryan Fischer, the chief of Idaho Values Alliance, who said the "crime" for which Moses has been sentenced to 18 months in prison was, "Protecting the city of Driggs from flooding." Moses' lawyer, Blake Atkin of Salt Lake City, confirmed the circumstances of the case, explaining that although the federal government repeatedly has denied having jurisdiction over the work involved, an opinion shared by the U.S. Supreme Court, Moses nevertheless was convicted on charges relating to his work on the streambed of Teton Creek, an intermittent runoff channel that has water in it for probably eight weeks out of the year. "Worse, Mr. Moses has been convicted of 'pollut(ing) a spawning area for Yellowstone cutthroat trout,' despite the fact that there have been no fish in this stream bed for more than 150 years," Fischer wrote. "[A resident] who has lived near the flood channel for 18 years, says he has never seen fish in this stream bed. And it's not even possible for the stream bed to serve as a spawning ground since it only has water two months out of every year in the first place."....
A 'Hidden Tax' Of Rules Hits Economy President Bush's fiscal 2009 U.S. budget is the first to top $3 trillion. Federal spending has risen from 18% of GDP in 2000 to 21% today. What is less well documented are regulatory compliance costs — such as environmental, labor and energy efficiency mandates. As a result, too many remain unaware of the size and scope of regulation. Regulations are a "hidden tax" now estimated to cost business and consumers hundreds of billions, above and beyond federal spending itself. While the Dow collapses, we have a bull market in government regulations. The 50-plus departments, agencies and commissions are now at work on 3,882 rules; 757 will affect small businesses. More than 51,000 final rules were issued from 1995 to 2007. Those regulations are not free. Enforcing and overseeing them costs $42 billion per year. A far bigger cost — one that is not counted in the budget — is compliance. Regulatory compliance costs of $1.16 trillion are now higher than Canada's entire 2004 GDP ($1.017 trillion). At a time of lackluster 1% economic growth, the regulatory state costs 8.5% of U.S. GDP. Combined with the 21% of GDP consumed by federal spending, we have a federal government that absorbs nearly 30% of economic output. None of this includes state and local government, which push the burden of government up to 53.9% of GDP. The Federal Register, which lists all new rules, ran to 72,090 pages in 2007. This was down 3.8% from 2006. The record year was 2004, which saw 75,676 pages....
The GDP Illusion Government spending is one third of GDP, and it rose by a whopping 3.4 percent in the second quarter, following a 1.9 percent rise in the first quarter. There was a rise of 1.6 percent in state and local government spending, and a steep 6.7 percent rise in federal spending. “National defense” or military spending rose by a walloping 7.3 percent, as it did also in the first quarter. Civilian federal government spending rose by 5.3 percent. So what we have is a huge increase in government spending plus government giving people money to spend, all borrowed. The government can keep GDP rising by borrowing ever more money from abroad and spending it directly or giving it to residents to spend, while keeping interest rates pushed down via money expansion....
Government may be the worst threat to privacy In a recent post on airport security over at the Civil Liberties Examiner site, I mentioned that the Transportation Security Administration recently announced the loss of an unencrypted laptop computer containing pre-enrollment records for approximately 33,000 people, intended for use in the Clear registered traveler program. I wish I could say that was an isolated incident, or the sort of bumbling confined to a single government program, but it's not. In fact, a report in the latest issue of Consumer Reports finds that "government is among the biggest sources of ID leaks and that penalties are rarely imposed on those who are negligent." The magazine reports that, just from 2005 to mid-June of this year, 44 million consumer records containing sensitive personal information were lost or exposed by government missteps. Government ineptitude with data security may become an increasing problem, now that Homeland Security, with the courts' blessing, has ruled that border agents may seize and search electronic devices without cause. Jeff Vining, writing for Gartner Group, warns that a seized storage device may pass through the hands of any number of agents, working for a variety of agencies. "The only legal limitations to this scenario are to avoid causing exceptional damage to the laptop's hard drive and to conduct the search and investigation in an inoffensive manner. This means that digital information can be downloaded by government agents, never returned or destroyed." We already know what the government does with its own data; anybody care to bet that it will take better care of information stored on privately owned laptops and flash drives?....

'Redneck Stonehenge': Utah Farmer Builds Fence From Wrecked Autos to Send Message to Neighbors A farmer has erected a fence in his backyard made of three old cars sticking up in the air to send a message to new neighbors that he can do whatever he wants on his farm. "This is just a fun way for me to say, 'Hey boys, I'm still here,'" said Rhett Davis. "This is my redneck Stonehenge." Davis came up with the idea after neighbors who recently moved into homes next to his hayfield complained about his farm. "The people who bought the homes say, 'Well, we love looking into your yard and seeing the horses and the cattle, but we don't like the flies, and we don't like the mosquitoes,' and when I cut my field to bale it, they say, 'We don't like the dust in the air,'" Davis said. Davis said he offered to pay half the cost of a fence between his property and the others and to build it. He said his neighbors declined the offer, saying it would block their view....

Wildlife, energy advocates reach accord about sage grouse Landowners and wildlife conservationists gave up large swaths of habitat they considered important to sage grouse, particularly in the Powder River Basin. Energy developers, some reluctantly, agreed to a stipulation that they must demonstrate activity will result in no loss of sage grouse or sage grouse habitat in "core areas." Most all stakeholders agree that the state's plan to protect sage grouse is a true, workable compromise. "We wanted to come up with a solution that protected an adequate number of sage grouse without shutting down the state development-wise. There was a lot of good give and take, and overall we came up with a core area strategy. It's a solid concept," said Mark Winland of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, who served on the governor's Sage Grouse Implementation Team. Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Friday issued an executive order outlining the state's plan to protect sage grouse and sage grouse habitat in Wyoming. It's the culmination of a multi-stakeholder effort that began in June 2007 when the governor held a summit in Casper regarding sage grouse, which some groups want to be listed under the Endangered Species Act. The governor's order consists of 12 stipulations and a map of "core" areas where the stipulations could be implemented, including a mandate for developers to demonstrate their proposed activity will result in no loss of sage grouse or sage grouse habitat....

FLE

Border patrol agent held at gunpoint A U.S. Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint Sunday night by members of the Mexican military who had crossed the border into Arizona, but the soldiers returned to Mexico without incident when backup agents responded to assist. Agents assigned to the Border Patrol station at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the international border in an isolated area about 100 miles southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who was not identified. It was unclear what the soldiers were doing in the United States, but U.S. law enforcement authorities have long said that current and former Mexican military personnel have been hired to protect drug and migrant smugglers. "Unfortunately, this sort of behavior by Mexican military personnel has been going on for years," union Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) said on its Web page. "They are never held accountable, and the United States government will undoubtedly brush this off as another case of 'Oh well, they didn't know they were in the United States.' Since 1996, there have been more than 200 confirmed incursions by the Mexican military into the United States. Local 2544, the largest in the NBPC, is headed by veteran Border Patrol agent Edward "Bud" Tuffly II. He noted on the Web page that the local's leadership would "withhold further comment on this incident until we see how our leaders handle it."....
Report: FBI Harassed Ivins Bruce E. Ivins, the FBI's prime suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people, spent last fall drinking heavily, taking large numbers of pills and typing ranting e-mails late at night, a fellow scientist says. But the FBI also offered Ivins' own son and daughter millions of dollars and a new sports car to testify against their father, and even confronted the entire family in public at a shopping mall, The Washington Post reports. vins, a career government infectious-disease researcher, killed himself last week as the FBI was preparing to arrest him in connection with the anthrax attacks. The anonymous fellow scientist tells the Post that Ivins "was e-mailing me late at night with gobbledygook, ranting and raving" regarding the FBI's "persecution" of his family. That scrutiny involved showing Ivins' daughter photos of the victims and telling her "your father did this," the scientist says. The bureau also coaxed her twin brother with the $2.5 million reward offered in what it called the "Amerithrax" case plus any sports car he wanted, the source says. In March FBI agents confronted Ivins, his wife and son at a Frederick, Md., shopping mall, the source tells the Post. "You killed a bunch of people," the agents told Ivins. They asked his wife, "Do you know he killed people?"....
Documents Unsealed in Anthrax Case A federal judge on Wednesday unsealed documents related to the 2001 anthrax attacks, as the Justice Department prepared to declare, over lingering skepticism, that the case had been solved. Federal law enforcement officials planned to address the growing questions about the strength of its evidence against a military scientist who killed himself after investigators linked him to the attacks. Officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation are particularly eager to close the case and publicly rebut accusations from defenders of the scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, that the bureau may have hounded an innocent man into committing suicide. Robert M. Blitzer, who formerly directed the F.B.I.’s section on domestic terrorism, bristled at criticism of the bureau’s methods in the anthrax case and called them a necessary part of tracking down the killer. “You do the best you can, and it’s not always pretty,” he said....
Long, Crooked Road of the Anthrax Probe The bioweapons lab at Fort Detrick north of Washington, where anthrax suspect Bruce Ivins had worked since 1990, became a focus of federal investigators soon after anthrax-laced letters [pictures of the letters here] arrived at media organizations and Senate offices following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Five people died from the anthrax mailings. Many feared that the anthrax letters were the work of al Qaeda or other foreign terrorists. But investigators decided early on that few people in the world had the high degree of technical and scientific sophistication to handle anthrax strains, and that most of those people worked in the United States. In mid 2002, FBI officials said the agency was scrutinizing 20 to 30 scientists who might have had the knowledge and opportunity to send the anthrax letters. That year, Steven J. Hatfill, a bioweapons expert and a former Fort Detrick scientist, was the only scientist called a "person of interest" in the investigation by then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft. Investigators searched Hatfill's apartment, car, a storage unit in Florida and his girlfriend's home. They seized his computer and bags of personal items he had thrown away in preparation for moving. Hatfill vehemently denied any connection with the letters. (Hatfill later sued the government -- and some reporters, seeking their confidential sources -- saying he has struggled to find employment as a scientist after reporters and federal agents tailed him for years. Little more than a month ago, he reached a settlement with the Justice Department valued at $5.85 million.)....
Vital unresolved anthrax questions The FBI's lead suspect in the September, 2001 anthrax attacks -- Bruce E. Ivins -- died Tuesday night, apparently by suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to charge him with responsibility for the attacks. For the last 18 years, Ivins was a top anthrax researcher at the U.S. Government's biological weapons research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Maryland, where he was one of the most elite government anthrax scientists on the research team at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID)...If the now-deceased Ivins really was the culprit behind the attacks, then that means that the anthrax came from a U.S. Government lab, sent by a top U.S. Army scientist at Ft. Detrick. Without resort to any speculation or inferences at all, it is hard to overstate the significance of that fact. From the beginning, there was a clear intent on the part of the anthrax attacker to create a link between the anthrax attacks and both Islamic radicals and the 9/11 attacks...One other fact to note here is how bizarrely inept the effort by the Bush DOJ to find the real attacker has been. Extremely suspicious behavior from Ivins -- including his having found and completely cleaned anthrax traces on a co-worker's desk at the Ft. Detrick lab without telling anyone that he did so and then offering extremely strange explanations for why -- was publicly reported as early as 2004 by The LA Times (Ivins "detected an apparent anthrax leak in December 2001, at the height of the anthrax mailings investigation, but did not report it. Ivins considered the problem solved when he cleaned the affected office with bleach"). In October 2004, USA Today reported that Ivins was involved in another similar incident, in April of 2002, when Ivins performed unauthorized tests to detect the origins of more anthrax residue found at Ft. Detrick....
Was Bruce Ivins the anthrax killer? The media narrative now being woven around the apparent suicide of U.S. government scientist Bruce E. Ivins – a prominent anthrax researcher who worked at Ft. Detrick's U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases bio-weapons research lab (USAMRIID) – is that he was a lone nut, a "homicidal maniac" who poisoned the five people killed in the 2001 anthrax attacks and was determined to go on another killing spree at his workplace as the Feds closed in on him. The Times of London headline says it all: "Mad Anthrax Scientist in Threat to Kill Co-Workers." However, as we sift through the reams of media coverage occasioned by this startling development in a 7-year-old case, we get quite a different story from the alleged objects of his rage: his colleagues on the job at Ft. Detrick. As the Washington Post reported: "Colleagues and friends of the vaccine specialist remained convinced that Ivins was innocent: They contended that he had neither the motive nor the means to create the fine, lethal powder that was sent by mail to news outlets and congressional offices in the late summer and fall of 2001. Mindful of previous FBI mistakes in fingering others in the case, many are deeply skeptical that the bureau has gotten it right this time. "'I really don't think he's the guy. I say to the FBI, "Show me your evidence,"' said Jeffrey J. Adamovicz, former director of the bacteriology division at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, on the grounds of the sprawling Army fort in Frederick. 'A lot of the tactics they used were designed to isolate him from his support. The FBI just continued to push his buttons.'" Another one of his co-workers, Richard O. Spertzel, pointed out that "USAMRIID doesn't deal with powdered anthrax. I don't think there's anyone there who would have the foggiest idea how to do it. You would need to have the opportunity, the capability, and the motivation, and he didn't possess any of those."....
Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. DHS officials said the newly disclosed policies -- which apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens -- are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such procedures have long been in place but were disclosed last month because of public interest in the matter. Civil liberties and business travel groups have pressed the government to disclose its procedures as an increasing number of international travelers have reported that their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices had been taken -- for months, in at least one case -- and their contents examined. The policies state that officers may "detain" laptops "for a reasonable period of time" to "review and analyze information." This may take place "absent individualized suspicion." The policies cover "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form," including hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover "all papers and other written documentation," including books, pamphlets and "written materials commonly referred to as 'pocket trash' or 'pocket litter.' "....
State: Just in case, we'll take your gun A new report to the Connecticut state legislature shows police have used the state's unique gun seizure law to confiscate more than 1,700 firearms from citizens based on suspicion that the gun owners might harm themselves or others. The state's law permits police to seek a warrant for seizing a citizen's guns based on suspicion of the gun owner's intentions, before any act of violence or lawbreaking is actually committed. The law has remained hotly debated since its passage, as some point to possible murders and suicides it may have prevented and others worry that police would abuse the law. "It certainly has not been abused. It may be underutilized," Ron Pinciaro, co-executive director of Connecticut Against Gun Violence, told the Waterbury Republican American. "The bottom line from our perspective is, it may very well have saved lives." Attorney Ralph D. Sherman, who has represented several of the gun owners whose firearms were confiscated under the law, disagrees. "In every case I was involved in I thought it was an abuse," he told the newspaper. "The overriding concern is anybody can report anybody with or without substantiation, and I don't think that is the American way." Joe Graborz, executive director of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union, an affiliate of the ACLU, told WND the law "continues to invest unusual and far-reaching powers in police authority that does not belong there" by requiring "police to act as psychologists in trying to predict and interpret behavior."....
Pentagon shuts down controversial counter-intelligence outfit The Pentagon said Monday it has shut down a secretive counter-intelligence outfit that aroused controversy over tracking the activities of anti-war groups. The so-called Counter-Intelligence Field Activity (CIFA) is being absorbed into a new Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) center that will be in charge of both espionage and counter-intelligence activities, the Pentagon said in a statement. "The Department of Defense activated the Defense Counterintelligence (CI) and Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Center today, and simultaneously disestablished the Department's Counterintelligence Field Activity," the Pentagon said. CIFA was created under former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2002 as a separate entity to conduct counter-intelligence efforts against suspected terrorists in the United States. It came under fire in December 2005 following disclosures that it had kept unverified surveillance reports of anti-war activists in a database. CIFA was empowered to conduct counter-intelligence investigations, but most of its operations remain classified. It reportedly grew to employ about 1,000 people. "CIFA's designation as a law enforcement activity did not transfer to DIA. The new center will have no law enforcement function," the Pentagon said....
Bush Proposes Regulatory Change to Ease Spying With these Bush guys, you’ve got to read the fine print. On July 31, they published in the Federal Register a proposed change to Title 28, Section 23, of the Code of Federal Regulations. This is the section that governs domestic spying. The existing language said that information gathered in an intelligence case could be disseminated only “where there is a need to know and a right to know the information in the performance of a law enforcement activity.” This limitation was designed to protect “the privacy and constitutional rights of individuals,” the statute behind this section states. Well, that limitation would be null and void. The new regulations would allow dissemination “when the information falls within the law enforcement, counterterrorism, or national security responsibility of the receiving agency or may assist in preventing crime or the use of violence or any conduct dangerous to human life or property.” Boy, you can’t get much broader than that. Wait, you can. Because the existing language said you could share this intelligence info with “a government official or any other individual, when necessary to avoid imminent danger to life or liberty.” Now, the Bushies have deleted the word “imminent.”....
Texas defies Hague and executes José Medellín A Mexican man at the centre of an international legal dispute has been executed in Texas for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1993. While protestors both for and against the death penalty demonstrated outside the Huntsville Unit near Houston last night, José Medellín, 33, died after being given a lethal injection. The execution came just before 10pm shortly after the US supreme court denied a last request for a reprieve. Pleas for a stay came from Washington, Mexico and the international court of justice (ICJ). They had all urged Texas not to execute Medellín until a hearing had been held to determine whether or not his original trial was sound. The state's Republican governor, Rick Perry, rebutted attempts to delay off the execution arguing that the state's courts were not bound by the rulings of the ICJ. The ICJ in the Hague had ordered Medellín's case and those of 50 other Mexicans on death row be reviewed because none had been informed of their right to consular assistance. The US state department said it was powerless to delay the execution, noting that the country's supreme court had ruled in March that president Bush did not have the authority to intervene in the case....

Global Warming, Global Myth The public has been led to believe that increased carbon dioxide from human activities is causing a greenhouse effect that is heating the planet. But carbon dioxide comprises only 0.035% of our atmosphere and is a very weak greenhouse gas. Although it is widely blamed for greenhouse warming, it is not the only greenhouse gas, or even the most important. Water vapor is a strong greenhouse gas and accounts for at least 95% of any greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide accounts for only about 3%, with the remainder due to methane and several other gases. Not only is carbon dioxide's total greenhouse effect puny, mankind's contribution to it is minuscule. The overwhelming majority (97%) of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere comes from nature, not from man. Volcanoes, swamps, rice paddies, fallen leaves, and even insects and bacteria produce carbon dioxide, as well as methane. According to the journal Science (Nov. 5, 1982), termites alone emit ten times more carbon dioxide than all the factories and automobiles in the world. Natural wetlands emit more greenhouse gases than all human activities combined. (If greenhouse warming is such a problem, why are we trying to save all the wetlands?) Geothermal activity in Yellowstone National Park emits ten times the carbon dioxide of a midsized coal-burning power plant, and volcanoes emit hundreds of times more. In fact, our atmosphere's composition is primarily the result of volcanic activity....

Teddy Roosevelt vs. the Environmentalists Teddy was a conservationist, not a preservationist. Not surprisingly, this meant that he wanted to conserve natural resources, not preserve them. To conserve is to save in order to use later. Cash reserves are money set aside for the future. Fuel reserves are there in case you need them later. Preserves are not supposed to change. Like a museum or an archeological site, they are to be frozen in time. TR and his Director of Forestry Services, Gifford Pinchot created a system of 'wildlife Reserves'. They argued that it would not be fair for one generation to do all the logging and all the digging and to leave nothing behind for future generations. They didn't think of these reserves as something pristine, which would be rendered somehow ceremonially unclean by the signs of human development. They just wanted to share natural resources and beauty with future generations, like ours. In fact the shift in language from 'resources' to 'the environment' signals the shift in world-view from conservation to preservation. A resource, by its very nature, is to be used, sparingly, perhaps, but nonetheless, used. This is why the Roosevelt-Pinchot philosophy is known to historians as the 'wise-use' movement. It's why the administration's forestry handbook contained explicit instructions for how to extract lumber and minerals from the protected lands. That's why the memorial lauds 'development', which contemporary environmentalists forbid in places like ANWR. The preservationists of the time, like Sierra Club founder, John Muir, fought against them. While Roosevelt/Pinchot sought to make nature useful to humanity, by opening it to efficient use, and protecting it from destruction, Muir claimed that nature was to be useful to nature itself, not to man. For Roosevelt earth is for us, for people. For Muir man and land were equals. It wasn't the conservationist Roosevelt who put ANWR's oil out of our reach, but the environmentalist Carter....

Alaska Sues Over Listing Polar Bear As Threatened The state of Alaska sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Monday, seeking to reverse his decision to list polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Gov. Sarah Palin and other state officials fear a listing will cripple offshore oil and gas development in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in Alaska's northern waters, which provide prime habitat for the only polar bears under U.S. jurisdiction. "We believe that the Service's decision to list the polar bear was not based on the best scientific and commercial data available," Palin said in announcing the lawsuit. Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity, the lead author of the petition that led to the listing, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists addressed skeptics' objections during the listing process. She called the lawsuit "completely ridiculous and a waste of the court's time."....
Mt. Soledad Cross Safe for Now Most residents of San Diego, Calif., like the cross at the center of the city’s Mt. Soledad War Memorial – so much so that a local leader says if a court order ever forced the cross off the now-federally owned property it would seriously divide the city. “It would certainly result in a great deal of polarization in the community,” Bill Kellogg, president of the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association, told CNSNews.com. “I think the community cares very, very much about it – and I’ve heard reports about radio broadcasters and others wanting to chain themselves to the cross, that people want to lay in front of the bulldozers.” That is a little less likely to happen, however, given that a federal court ruled last week that the cross is constitutional and can stay on federal property. “The Court finds the memorial at Mt. Soledad, including its Latin cross, communicates the primarily non-religious messages of military service, death and sacrifice,” wrote U.S District Judge Larry A. Burns in an opinion delivered last week. “The primary effect of the Mount Soledad memorial is patriotic and nationalistic,” Burns wrote. The decision, which is expected to work its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, is the latest decision in response to a series of lawsuits that have been filed against the nearly 30-foot-high cross (43 feet with base) over the last 20 years, beginning in 1988, when atheist Philip Paulson first sued the city of San Diego....
Rancher fearful after bison killings A longtime South Park rancher who had 32 of his bison killed last winter — including six bulls and 26 cows, some of which were pregnant — said the open-range shooting has left him and his family with "a lot of fear." Monte Downare said in his witness-impact statement filed Monday in the criminal case against Texas businessman Jeff Scott Hawn that his whole family has been traumatized. "This is very hard on not only me, but because this is a working ranch, my entire family is involved — wife, sons and daughters, son-in-law, daughter-in-law," said Downare. "We all make a living off of this ranch. Not only was it disturbing for him to kill all those buffalo, but we sell the offsprings to make a living." Hawn, 44, has been charged with 32 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals in connection with the slaughter of Downare's bison. The animal-cruelty charges allege that between Feb. 26 and March 14, Hawn unlawfully and knowingly "tortured, needlessly mutilated, or needlessly killed" the animals....
Range tenants: Cattle and wildlife could benefit from program State Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Parowan, wants to take a number of trophy game tags away from the public and give them to groups of ranchers who have had grazing permits partially suspended, reducing the number of cattle they can run on public lands. The grazing associations would then auction the hunting permits to wealthy hunters and use the proceeds to grow forage and develop water sources with a goal of improving the carrying capacity so their grazing permits can be restored in full. At first glance, Stowell's proposed legislation sounds like a terrible idea. It seems like the little guy, the wildlife and Utah's arid, fragile public lands would be the losers. It sounds like the ranchers and the rich hunters would win again. But what if Stowell's plan would benefit wildlife as well as cattle; Joe Hunter as well as Joe Rancher? What if it resulted in better habitat, more game animals and more permits to hunt them? A similar program conducted by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources in cooperation with public land management agencies already exists. Permits are given to sportsmen and conservation organizations for auction, and the groups use the money for habitat improvement projects under the watchful eye of DWR. But could projects be developed that would benefit both livestock and wildlife? State wildlife officials and federal land managers say yes. And would the public accept more cattle on public lands? That's the great unknown....
A New Path for Wolf Management As the dust settles on a federal court’s reinstatement of Endangered Species protections for gray wolves, one thing is clear: we need to find a new path to achieve balanced, science-based wolf management by the states. At the moment we seem mired in endless conflict that is serving no one’s interests particularly well — not wolves, conservationists, state wildlife managers, landowners or anyone else with a concern for wolves. So, where do we, as a region, go from here? Though the Greater Yellowstone Coalition was not a party to this litigation, the federal court’s ruling points out some significant problems in the delisting decision. In a clearly worded opinion, the court expressed its concern that Greater Yellowstone’s wolves are genetically isolated from wolf populations in central Idaho and around Glacier National Park, which could result in a long-term decline in the health of wolves. The decision also identified Wyoming’s laws and plans directing wolf management — especially the Predator Zone, where roaming wolves can be killed at any time for any reason — as an impediment to delisting. The three states and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service face an important choice: fight this injunction decision and prolong the court battle or begin fixing the flaws in the state-management plans....
Eco-plore with ranch rider in the wild west In the old days, cowboys explored and exploited the vast open ranges of the country, embodying the frontier spirit of the Wild West. Our attitude towards the environment has since changed, and now, a new generation of ranches offered by Ranch Rider seeks to co-exist harmoniously with nature. Tony Daly, Managing Director of Ranch Rider, comments: "These “green ranches” practice a more sustainable style of ranching through energy-saving techniques and conservation initiatives. The Siwash Lake and the Rocking Z are examples of how ranchers can be great stewards of the earth, ensuring that future generations can still enjoy the scenic beauty of the Wild West." Many wilderness ranches claim to be off grid, but there's no greenwash at the Siwash Lake in British Columbia, as the ranch has recently been awarded with a 5 Green Key eco-rating by the Hotel Association of Canada: the highest accolade for environmental and social responsibility. While guests are out eco-ploring on unspoiled wilderness trails, the luxury ranch is working behind the scenes to ensure a seamless green stay for its guests. Siwash Lake runs on solar power and a combined diesel generator. Biodegradable chemicals, energy saving light bulbs and emission controlled wood stoves are just a few of the ranch's initiatives – the 2-acre organic garden rounding off the eco theme....
Bison death toll climbs to 80 in Flying D anthrax outbreak Nearly 80 bison have succumbed in a rapidly spreading anthrax outbreak on Ted Turner’s Flying D Ranch in the Spanish Peaks, and officials are scrambling to contain the disease, a state livestock agent said Monday. “We’re in the process of cleaning up,” Steve Merritt, a Montana Department of Livestock public information officer, told the Belgrade News. “The number of dead the last time I heard was approximately 80 animals.” Gallatin County commissioners on Sunday closed Spanish Creek Road to make it easier for livestock officials to implement a quarantine of bison in the affected area, Commissioner Joe Skinner said. About nine miles of the road traverses the Turner ranch and parts of the affected area. “The closure is in effect until further notice, until we get a handle on” the infection, Skinner said. In addition to the quarantine of several thousand acres of Turner’s ranch, livestock officials are working to “clean up” the infected site, which entails gathering up the carcasses of fallen bison, burning and burying them, Merritt said....

Boone Doggle Boone Pickens may be a fine man, and has played a colorful and useful role on the American stage for decades. But his "energy plan," which he's spending a fortune to promote on cable TV, is not a plan. Asserting that something would be good to do is not "a plan." Saying how to do it is "a plan." By this standard, what the legendary oil man is devoting $58 million to pitch hardly amounts to a decent slogan. He would replace natural gas in electricity production with wind, and use the natural gas to power cars. He fails to mention any practical theory of how to get there -- that would really be "a plan." Instead, he relies on the deus ex machina of Congress, waving a legislative wand to make people do things they would choose not to do, given the extravagant and unjustified costs involved. Having reasons is not "a plan" either, but Mr. Pickens has his reasons. He says we spend $700 billion a year on foreign oil, which he calls a "transfer of wealth." But exchanging money for oil at the market price is an exchange of things of equal value. If we didn't value their oil more than our dollars, we wouldn't participate in such a bargain. In fact, Mr. Pickens's "plan" bears a family resemblance to John Kerry's 2004 "energy independence plan," which on closer inspection was merely a scheme to reduce oil consumption by a couple million barrels a day, an amount equal to our imports from the Persian Gulf. Whatever its utility as an upraised middle digit to the Middle East, it's a strategy that does not even succeed on its own silly terms....

Inquiry Finds Under-Age Workers at Meat Plant State labor investigators have identified 57 under-age workers who were employed at a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, and have asked the attorney general to bring criminal charges against the company for child labor violations, Dave Neil, the Iowa Labor Commissioner, said on Tuesday. “The investigation brings to light egregious violations of virtually every aspect of Iowa’s child labor laws,” Mr. Neil said in a statement announcing the results of a seven-month investigation at Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meat plant. In a raid in May, 389 illegal immigrant workers were detained there in the largest immigration enforcement operation ever at a single workplace. Mr. Neil said that investigators had found multiple child labor law violations for each under-age worker at the plant. They included employing minors in prohibited occupations, exposing them to hazardous chemicals, and making them work with prohibited tools like knives and saws, he said....

GOP escalates revolt Republican leaders called for reinforcements Tuesday to ramp up pressure on Democrats with an extended battle over gas prices. House GOP bosses put out a call for their entire conference to participate in the energy protest on the chamber floor. The GOP public relations blitz, which has attracted national headlines, could go on through much of the August recess as Republicans strategize on how to keep political pressure on Democratic leaders who oppose expanding offshore drilling. Leadership officials said they see no foreseeable end to the protest that began as an impromptu series of floor speeches after the House officially adjourned last week. And after three days of a handful of rank-and-file members holding down the fort, Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) are expected back in town Wednesday, when they will meet with former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) to discuss strategy before taking to the floor to resume the protest....

Gene Autry "I'm Back In The Computer Again" The tradition dates back to the Old West: A cowboy gently soothes his cattle with a simple song. "Come on girls, let's go," the cowboy croons as he gathers his bovine gals from across the lonesome desert range. But one day, possibly soon, this cowboy may not have to ride the range to corral his herd. In this case, the "cowboy" is U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher Dean M. Anderson, who's working on technology to corral cattle remotely through a high-tech device that funnels sounds directly to the animals. It's Old West cattle herding, with a 21st century twist — part of a project involving the USDA and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the government's Jornada Experimental Range in southern New Mexico. The wireless headset, called the "Ear-A-Round," has stereo earphones that funnel sounds directly into the cow's ears to guide its movement. Powered by a small solar energy panel, the unit contains a Global Positioning System device and equipment to monitor a cow's movement and geographical location. Researchers hope the device will give ranchers and farmers the ability to herd cattle from afar, said Daniela Rus, an MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science who teamed with Anderson. The device works by using sound to keep an animal within a "virtual paddock" through GPS technology, Anderson said....Also a nice way for the government to count and track your cattle. Premisis registration and NAIS won't be necessary. Rustlers will love this. Just hack into the computer and walk them right into the trailer -:)

Pelosi: GOP’s Oil Drilling Plan Is A ‘Hoax’ A Republican plan to open more public land to oil exploration and drilling is “unworthy of serious debate,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Monday. Under pressure from Republicans to call Congress back into session, Pelosi on Monday issued a statement saying that Democrats have already offered a “real solution” to the nation’s high energy prices. Democrats want to force President Bush to “free our oil” from the nation’s emergency stockpile. Diverting oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve “would bring immediate relief within 10 days,” Pelosi insisted. She said a Republican plan to “give away public lands to Big Oil” will not immediately reduce prices at the pump -- and it would save Americans “only 2 cents ten years from now.”....
GOP Calls on Dems to Return from ‘Recess’ for Vote on Offshore Drilling Congress recessed for the summer on Friday, but that didn’t keep Republicans from returning to the House floor on Monday to demand that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reconvene lawmakers to pass energy legislation, including lifting the ban on offshore drilling. “It was simply wrong for Congress to take a five-week paid vacation without ever taking a vote on giving the American people more access to American oil,” Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said of the unprecedented gathering. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) called for the action on the floor, which saw representatives shouting comments from the floor because microphones had been turned off by the Democrats....

Bear roughs up Yellowstone firefighter A grizzly bear fleeing a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park pounced on a firefighter, but a spokeswoman said the man wasn't seriously hurt. Firefighter Tony Allabastro was treated and released from a Yellowstone clinic hours after the Sunday incident, said Sandra Hare, spokeswoman for the team managing the LeHardy Fire. “It kind of roughed him up a little bit, so he has some scratching and stuff to his back,” Hare said. “He got pounced on.” Hare said officials believe the bear wasn't being particularly aggressive. “We really feel like it was the bear trying to get out of the area,” she said. Firefighters on the Yellowstone fire are carrying pepper spray for bears, Hare said, but she said Allabastro didn't have time to grab his. “It is one of the hazards of fighting backcountry fires,” she said....
Scientists say spotted owl plan not good enough The Bush administration's latest plan for saving the northern spotted owl from extinction while allowing a boost in old growth logging was better, but still not good enough, according to three leading professional organizations of wildlife scientists. The Wildlife Society, the Society for Conservation Biology and the American Ornithologists Union said in independent peer reviews released Monday that the final plan adopted in May was better than the draft they flunked a year ago, but there was still no scientific basis for allowing more logging of the old growth forests where the threatened bird lives. "Given that the northern spotted owl has been experiencing about a 4 percent annual rate of population decline for the last 15 years, any reductions from current levels of habitat protection cannot be justified," the joint review by the Society for Conservation Biology and American Ornithologists Union said. The reviews estimated the recovery plan still allows for destruction of 20 percent to 56 percent of the spotted owl habitat currently protected....
County’s FOIA Request Yields Easement Documents Missoula County has obtained some documents related to private negotiations that occurred between the U.S. Forest Service and Plum Creek Timber Co., which holds easements for use of Forest Service roads. "There's definitely more (information) here than we've had before," Missoula County Deputy Attorney D. James McCubbin said Monday after federal officials provided documents the county sought under the Freedom of Information Act. The county has posted the documents on its Web site. The first batch was received late last week, and federal officials have indicated the entire request could yield thousands of pages, said McCubbin, who filed the request on June 25. Plum Creek CEO Rick Holley told The Associated Press in July that over a span of about 18 months, representatives of the Seattle-based company and the U.S. Department of Agriculture privately negotiated changes to an agreement on company use of Forest Service roads....
BLM revises land-for-water trade proposal The Bureau of Land Management is seeking comment on a revised proposal to exchange up to 10 parcels of BLM land for up to 189.8 acre feet of water annually from the Anderson Ditch in Monte Vista. Four parcels located in Rio Grande County that were in the original proposal have been replaced by four parcels located in Saguache County. The purpose of the proposed exchange is to acquire a permanent source of augmentation water for the Blanca Wetlands. The acquired water would be used to offset depletions to the Rio Grande caused by the operation of confined aquifer wells that supply water to the wetlands. Securing a permanent source of augmentation water is critical as Blanca Wetlands provides habitat for more than a dozen threatened, endangered, or sensitive species. The wetlands also provide nesting and migratory habitat for thousands of waterfowl and shorebirds....
Court rejects SUWA appeal on wilderness deal For the second time, a federal appeals court has rejected a conservation organization's attempts to challenge a 2003 backroom deal limiting wilderness in Utah. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance must wait until it can cite U.S. Bureau of Land Management actions that show the agency is behaving illegally. At issue is the "no more wilderness" deal signed by former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and former Interior Secretary Gale Norton that froze the state's wilderness study areas at 3.2 million acres. The Leavitt-Norton settlement sought to end a lawsuit the state filed in 1996 challenging wilderness areas inventoried after 1991, the final year of the Wilderness Study Area survey ordered by Congress. The agreement, concluded without public knowledge or participation, removed from consideration nearly 6 million acres of potential wilderness inventoried during the Clinton administration....
Cemex bill stuck in committee As Congress takes a five-week summer vacation, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon's bill aimed at banning the Cemex Inc. mine in Soledad Canyon still awaits a hearing before a key House committee. "We're hoping for a hearing in September. That's what we're working on," said Bob Haueter, deputy chief of staff for McKeon, R-Santa Clarita. McKeon introduced the Soledad Canyon Mining Act in April following extended behind-closed-doors negotiations with the Mexican cement corporation. It was hailed locally as a means of blocking a proposed giant sand and gravel mine that had long been opposed by the city of Santa Clarita and Canyon Country-area residents....
U.S. Farmland Values Reach Record on High Crop Prices U.S. farmland values are at a record high even as the rest of the country suffers the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression, with the highest crop prices ever pushing up agricultural real estate. The value of all land and buildings on farms averaged $2,350 an acre at the start of this year, up 8.8 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in an annual report. Surging corn, wheat and soybean prices boosted values in the Northern Plains, which includes Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, by 15.5 percent, the biggest increase in the country, according to the report. The boom reflects high commodity prices that may push net farm income to $92.3 billion this year from $88.7 billion last year, according to the USDA. The gains make farmers more likely to buy fertilizer and seeds from Monsanto Co. and Agrium Inc. and make new investments in tractors and trucks, said Bruce Babcock, director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University in Ames. ``It creates a better balance sheet, that's for sure,'' he said. The most expensive farmland in the U.S. was in Massachusetts at $12,200 an acre, followed by Rhode Island and Connecticut. The least expensive was in New Mexico, where land prices averaged $630 an acre....
Horse demolishes public toilet Bavarian police on Monday said a man who tried to take his horse with him into a public toilet over the weekend caused over €1,000 in damages after the animal balked. According to witnesses, the man apparently didn’t want to leave his horse outside the facility in the city of Kaufbeuren on Saturday night. But the animal – a white Paint with brown spots – decided his rider could take care of his business alone and demolished the lavatory’s entryway. “The guy wanted to go in with his horse, but the horse had other ideas,” Kaufbeuren police officer Oliver Klinke told The Local on Monday. Klinke said the authorities were now attempting to ascertain the identity of the man, who was apparently less capable of judging the size of the public toilet than his four-legged friend....As Sara Hopkins always says, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't lead him into a toilet."

Branson’s bogus eco-drive The Virgin boss’s much trumpeted pledge of €1.9bn to tackle global warming is nothing but smoke and mirrors. In September 2006, Virgin boss Richard Branson pledged €1.9 billion towards tackling global warming. For the next ten years, he announced, the profits from his aviation and rail businesses would go towards combating the biggest, most complex problem that mankind has ever faced. The promise earned Branson headlines around the world. Media outlets carried photos of him, Bill Clinton and Al Gore at a Clinton Global Initiative press conference in New York. Adults, Branson solemnly told the assembled media, had a duty to pass a ‘‘pristine’’ planet on to the next generation. Politicians and campaigners were effusive in their praise for his imagination and generosity. However, a look at the not-very-small print revealed that this amazing gesture would not be a matter of taking the profits from Branson’s polluting industries and using them to protect vast tracts of the Amazon. In fact, the money would go to a new division of the Virgin conglomerate, called Virgin Fuel. Branson was simply gearing himself up to make more money. But as always, the PR spin was that he’d be doing the rest of us a favour in the process....

The Air Apparent As he flip-flops on drilling, Barack Obama contends we can save as much oil by inflating our tires as may be found offshore. What's phase two of his energy plan? Borrowing Jimmy Carter's sweater? If Obama ran a gas station, it would probably have no gas pumps, just air hoses. Speaking in Missouri last week, the one we have been waiting for said: "There are things you can do individually, though, to save energy. Making sure your tires are properly inflated — simple things. But we could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling — if everybody was just inflating their tires. And getting regular tuneups. You'd actually save just as much!" The Saudis must be laughing their heads off. Can we expect Jimmy Carter to be Obama's secretary of energy? Keeping your tires properly inflated can improve your gas mileage by about 3%. Most new cars don't need tuneups for the first 100,000 miles. And even all the hot air from Obama's speeches would not make a dent in the 20 million barrels of crude we consume daily....

Groups seek to preserve wilderness A conservation coalition is proposing that 62,300 acres of national grasslands in North Dakota’s badlands be protected as federal wilderness areas to keep them off-limits from oil and gas development. The plan, which also seeks to protect a 5,410-acre area of the Sheyenne National Grasslands, is backed by a group called the North Dakota Wilderness Coalition. The areas proposed for permanent protection, most of which now are managed as “suitable for wilderness” by the U.S. Forest Service, comprise just a small portion of federal grasslands in the state, said Jan Swenson, executive director of the Badlands Conservation Alliance, one of the supporters of the Prairie Wilderness proposal. “Ninety-six percent is open to oil and gas development,” she said. “This is 4 percent.” Also, even if designated as wilderness, the areas would remain open to cattle grazing by ranchers who have federal permits, she said. “This is something we need to hold on to for ourselves, these areas,” Swenson said. Protection would require an approval by Congress under the 1964 Wilderness Act....
UC bombings linked to animal rights activists Investigators sifting the evidence of two firebombings targeting UC Santa Cruz biologists believe the potentially lethal devices are similar to ones used in the past by animal rights activists, authorities said today. The bombs were so powerful they were like "Molotov cocktails on steroids," said Santa Cruz police Capt. Steve Clark. One struck the home of assistant biology Professor David Feldheim on Saturday morning, forcing him to flee with his family. The other exploded just a few minutes earlier, gutting a car parked outside the campus home of a second researcher. Later, Santa Cruz County sheriff's deputies went to the home of a third researcher who received a threatening telephone message, but officers found no explosives. More than 50 investigators, including some from the FBI's regional terrorism task force, are looking into the attacks....
In the Hills of Nebraska, Change Is on the Horizon Driving south out of the agricultural town of Ainsworth, you can’t miss its newest crop: wind turbines, three dozen of them, with steel stalks 230 feet high and petal-like blades 131 feet long, sprouting improbably from the sand hills of north-central Nebraska, beside ruminating cattle. Though painted gray, the turbines stand out against the evening backdrop of battleship-colored thunderclouds and bear an almost celestial whiteness when day’s light is right. Airplane pilots can spot them from far away, and rarely does a bird make their unfortunate acquaintance. The sound of 8.5-ton blades, three to a turbine, turning and turning, only enhances their almost supernatural presence. Standing at the base of a turbine’s stalk, you hear a whistling whoosh — whuh ... whuh ... whuh — as steady summer winds come like the breath of gods to toy with pinwheel amusements. One of the blessings of being in the middle of this nowhere is its wind. Years ago, after setting up wind monitors at nine spots around the state, energy officials discovered that Ainsworth and its surrounding areas had wonderful prevailing winds flowing down from Canada and up from Mexico: winds that carried the Goldilocks charm of being neither too hard nor too soft, but just right....
Bison buffs aim to seed West with new herds More than a century after Buffalo Bill and others hunted America’s wild bison to near-extinction, researchers at a compound near Yellowstone National Park have launched an ambitious restoration effort. Inside the Corwin Springs compound, government veterinarians draw blood from the necks of young bison for disease screening and clip off pieces of ears for genetic testing. Those that pass muster become eligible for relocation outside Yellowstone, which could occur as soon as this winter on American Indian reservations in Montana. ‘‘Our goal is to put them back on the landscape across the country, wherever state agencies and tribes can manage them appropriately,’’ said Jack Rhyan, a veterinarian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates the Corwin Springs compound with the state of Montana. For bison advocates, the project is the first step toward their dream of thousands of wild bison again thundering across broad areas of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountain West. Ranchers, however, consider it a potential nightmare driven by nostalgia and filled with risks....
Congress Introduces Bill For Haying and Grazing of CRP On Friday identical bills were introduced in both the House and Senate that would require the Agriculture Department to carry out the Conservation Reserve Program's Critical Feed Use Program as initially intended when the program rules were released in May. S. 3337 introduced by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kans., and H.R. 6533 introduced by Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kans., are identical bills that would allow all farmers and ranchers to participate in the Critical Feed Use program, not just those farmers and ranchers who have met the $4,500 proof of investment. The Agriculture Department originally authorized acreage in the CRP to be available for haying or grazing after primary nesting season ends for grass-nesting birds. Meanwhile, AFBF has requested that Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer seek a motion for reconsideration before the Western District Court of Washington that would enable farmers and ranchers who sought, but were refused application, to apply for the Critical Feed Use program. In a letter to Schafer, Stallman also asked USDA to seek to reduce the $4,500 investment to a more reasonable amount. The $4,500 investment requirement was a part of a July 24 ruling by a federal judge in Seattle....
Food labeling rules taking shape Hoping to steer American consumers away from imports, the country's food industry soon will begin putting USA labels on home country meat, produce and other groceries. The labeling begins Sept. 30. A 233-page draft of U.S. Department of Agriculture labeling rules, including an estimate of its multibillion-dollar costs, appears in the recently published Federal Register. The labeling is the product of a six-year push by producers and consumer groups arguing that shoppers should know the origins of their food, as they do for shoes or car parts. Beef, lamb, chicken and pork are slated for country labeling. Fruits and vegetables, fresh and frozen are due for labeling, as well as peanuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and ginseng. The USDA hasn't warmed to COOL over the six years taken to create the labeling, which is why Lovera said the government is exempting so many products from the labeling. COOL advocates also say that USDA has overestimated the cost of labeling, paid out by grocers, ranches, farms and the middlemen who bring the products to market. The USDA estimates that the cost of the program for the beef industry alone to be $1.2 billion, unevenly split among ranchers, processors and retail stores. Ag officials estimate that ranchers alone will pay $9 per animal. For Montana ranchers, the cost is likely to be closer to $3 a head, said John Paterson, extension beef specialist for Montana Beef Network....
Real cowboys aren’t ‘all hat, no cattle’ What is a cowboy, exactly? I reckon nobody really knows for certain, although the definition might be similar to that of pornography — you know a cowboy when you see one. A girlfriend of mine refers to cowboys as people with expensive trucks and trailers, and no visible means of support. Another friend says she never met a cowboy who wasn’t hurt, broke or both. Still another says she gets a special thrill in finding a pair of dusty cowboy boots parked under her bed in the morning. When I was a kid, there wasn’t much difference between a cowboy, a rancher or any of the folks who ranched for a living or worked for those who did. Guys like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were “cowboys,” made to order for the imaginations of kids, but because they sang and dressed really nice, we always considered them to be “city cowboys.” Then, of course, there were the real cowboys — the ranchers — like those folks out in Woody Creek who were our neighbors. You can buy a hat uptown that’ll brand you a cowboy to most folks, one with sweat and dirt painted on its crunched-up facade, and a pair of boots to match, with artificial scuffs in the leather. But being a cowboy isn’t about how you look — pretty is not the gist of it — it’s about whether a guy or gal will pick you up from the mud after your horse has dumped your sorry ass in it. Looks take up space at the bar and provide a backdrop for wishful stories, but they can’t rope a wild cow or doctor a sick calf....
Where prayers come with a twang Wearing a white cowboy hat and preaching atop his horse, Coby, Rev. Steve Hamson gives a modern-day meaning to "sermon on the mount." With a Bible in one hand and the reins of the horse in the other, Hamson strikes the fear of God in his parishioners—more than a dozen of them listening on horseback in a humid riding arena. The cowboys put their hats over their hearts when Hamson prays for those who are missing because they "had to do hay." Some men had wads of chewing tobacco in their cheeks, digesting Hamson's words while their horses made "brrrr" sounds and kicked their hooves. No one minds the equestrian outbursts or the chewing. This, after all, is cowboy church. Across rural America, thousands of evangelical Protestant worshipers gather in barns, buildings and beneath the stars to worship Western-style. As the beach is to born-again surfers, and the road is to Holy Ghost bikers, the range is the mission field to Christian cowboys and ranchers. At least 600 cowboy churches are scattered across the U.S., according to leaders in the movement and published accounts....