Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Saturday, February 20, 2016
Bundy & Crew Charged in 2014 Showdown
Cliven Bundy and his crew will return to Nevada to face charges of leading an armed assault at Cliven Bundy's Bunkerville ranch in 2014 that endangered the lives of 50 federal officers.
Brothers Ammon Bundy and Ryan Bundy, conservative radio host Pete Santilli and Montana electrician and militia member Ryan Payne were also named in the indictment. It's not yet clear whether those four defendants will travel back and forth between Nevada and Oregon, where they face federal conspiracy charges for their roles in the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Cliven Bundy has not yet been scheduled for arraignment, although earlier this week a federal judge in Oregon judge ordered him held until trial. But Payne, Santilli and Bundy's two sons will have arraignment hearings on March 17 in Las Vegas. The four men also have arraignment hearings in Portland, on the Malheur charges, on Feb. 24.
The Nevada indictment lays out the incident at Cliven Bundy's Bunkerville, Nevada ranch - where the government says he and the other defendants organized more than 400 supporters into a violent, gun-toting mob that trapped about 50 federal officers in a low streambed and kept them from seizing the cattle that Bundy had illegally grazed on public land for 20 years.
Cliven Bundy rallied the group on the morning of the April 12, 2014 standoff, telling them, "God is going to be with us, it's time to take our land back," before commanding them to get his cattle back from the feds, according to the indictment.
Ammon and Ryan Bundy acted as generals during the assault, organizing followers on horseback, directing others who carried assault rifles and wore tactical gear to camouflage themselves among unarmed members of the crowd and negotiating the surrender of the federal officers, the indictment states. The indictment charges the five defendants with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, use of a gun in a crime of violence, assault of a federal officer, threatening a federal officer, obstruction of justice, interference with interstate commerce by extortion and interstate travel in the aid of extortion.
Each of the 16 charges carries a minimum sentence of between five and 20 years and a $250,000 fine...more
Oregon DOJ asked to investigate Grant County sheriff
The dispatcher at the John Day 911 center hesitated when Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer radioed in for information about a roadblock after state police shot and killed Robert “LaVoy” Finicum.
Palmer was on his way south from John Day on Jan. 26 after hearing reports of the traffic stop and shooting, triggered when authorities moved in to arrest leaders of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge takeover.
The veteran sheriff had been left out of the planning for the stop on U.S. 395 about 20 miles north of Burns in Harney County and now he wanted his dispatchers to fill him in. “I felt uncomfortable knowing that I had to relay vital and confidential information to someone who may not be trustworthy,” the dispatcher later told her supervisor.
The extraordinary scene of a police dispatcher distrusting the top law enforcement officer in the jurisdiction is part of a litany of allegations against Palmer that may now subject him to a state investigation.
The Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training on Thursday released eight separate complaints, including ones from a 911 manager and the John Day police chief, alleging misconduct by Palmer. The complaints, filed the past two weeks, all raise alarm about Palmer’s association with leaders of the refuge occupation.
The state agency, which licenses police officers, has asked the state Department of Justice to investigate. The licensing agency notified Palmer by letter dated Feb. 11 about its intentions, warning that if violations of police standards are found, he could face revocation of his police certification. The licensing agency can take a range of actions against Palmer’s police certification, up to revocation. The agency, however, has no authority to remove Palmer from office since he is an elected official. A recall election could remove him. State law also requires sheriffs to have police officer certification...more
Refuge holdout Sandy Anderson wasn't aware of federal orders to leave, lawyer says
Sandra Anderson, one of the last four people to surrender at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on the 41st day of the armed occupation, will be released from jail but can't have any contact with her co-defendant husband.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice M. Stewart agreed Friday with the government that Anderson engaged in a "very public defiance'' of federal law enforcement orders.
But the judge allowed Anderson's release, noting she has a steady place to live in Riggins, Idaho, has held a steady job and has no criminal history.
Anderson, 48, and her husband, Sean Anderson, 47, both of Riggins, were among the final holdhouts who remained at the Harney County refuge for another two weeks after the takeover leaders were arrested Jan. 26. Anderson's court-appointed lawyer, Tyl Bakker, said his client didn't know the Bundys, who led the refuge occupation. She also hadn't engaged in political protest in the past and had visited the refuge with her husband on four separate occasions before the final visit – no longer than two nights each time – to bring donations and other supplies to Ammon Bundy, his brother, Ryan, and other protesters, Bakker said...more
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Conference aims to counsel ranchers on how to cope with feds’ ‘‘overreach.’’
Ranchers who disavow their contracts with federal land management agencies risk losing their grazing allotments and are handing a "Christmas gift" to environmentalists seeking severe limits on public lands grazing, according to Tony Rampton, the Utah attorney general office's public-lands point man.
Rampton will deliver that message Thursday when ranchers converge in Richfield for an all-day "grazing rights" conference hosted by the Utah Farm Bureau Federation.
The bureau is hosting the conference, titled "Addressing Utah Livestock Uncertainty," in partnership with the Utah Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office. These organizations contend the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management are engaged in "a systematic dismantling of livestock grazing." "In a state where the federal government owns and controls 67 percent of the land, economically viable family ranches have been established by combining private land and water with public grazing rights," the bureau said in its newsletter. "Federal government claims to water rights, grazing cuts and restricted access have led to a 60 percent drop in family ranching businesses statewide since 1950."
According to Farm Bureau CEO Randy Parker, the agencies have sliced Utah grazing levels from 5.4 million AUMs, or animal unit months, to 1.6 million. An AUM equals the amount of forage consumed in one month by a cow-calf pair or by five sheep.
Thursday's conference is geared toward "proactive" solutions, rather than the "reactive" gestures gaining traction in some circles.
"We want people to look at a way to address these problems that won't involve confrontation and lead to more bloodshed," Parker said...more
Feds Find Explosives, Trenches, Guns at Oregon Preserve
Investigators combing through an Oregon wildlife preserve occupied by an armed group for nearly six weeks have so far discovered firearms, explosives and trenches dug near an area containing tribal artifacts, according to federal prosecutors.
The FBI also was concerned that numerous vehicles found at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge might be booby-trapped, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ethan Knight and Geoffrey Barrow said in a court filing Tuesday. They did not describe the type of firearms or explosives or say what led investigators to think the vehicles might be booby-trapped.
"Occupiers appear to have excavated two large trenches and an improvised road on or adjacent to grounds containing sensitive artifacts," prosecutors wrote. The refuge contains artifacts and burial grounds sacred to the Burns Paiute Tribe.
Investigators also found human feces in one of the trenches and spoiled food in the living quarters.
The FBI expects to take three weeks to process the nature preserve seized Jan. 2 by occupiers demanding the government relinquish control of public lands...more
To save their homeland, 25 tribes unite in the Southwest
Stephen Trimble
Native peoples in the Southwest take the long view. They have lived in the redrock canyons of the Colorado Plateau for 12,000 years and have shown astonishing resilience in the face of devastating change in the last 500 years. Now, they bring this ancestral perspective to the management of public lands in the canyons and mesas of southern Utah.
For the first time in conservation history, the primary advocates for a new national monument are the tribes themselves. This historic Native coalition is trying to protect the wildlands that sweep southward from Canyonlands National Park toward the
Navajo Nation.
The tribes’ allies include travelers, hikers, and river-runners who don’t want to see oil rigs and endless networks of off-road vehicle tracks here. But the visitors who gaze awestruck across the buttes of Greater Canyonlands, who boat through the canyons of the San Juan River, and who stand enthralled by rock art and cliff dwellings on Cedar Mesa, may not realize how deeply all of these lands matter in the daily lives of Native people.
The tribes worked for six years with Utah congressmen to find common ground. Native people sought joint stewardship of this landscape. In January, however, when Rep. Rob Bishop, Republican of Utah, revealed the details of a Public Lands Initiative he touted as a grand compromise, the tribes found his draft “woefully inadequate in addressing our needs in the areas of collaborative management and land preservation.”
For the Bears Ears Coalition, the unacceptable language in Bishop’s proposal confirmed the “inequitable treatment of tribes over the past three years and our need to seek other means of protecting the living cultural landscape we call Bears Ears.” The development proposals in Bishop’s Initiative have led coalition members to focus on President Obama, who could use the Antiquities Act to proclaim a Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah.
Native peoples in the Southwest take the long view. They have lived in the redrock canyons of the Colorado Plateau for 12,000 years and have shown astonishing resilience in the face of devastating change in the last 500 years. Now, they bring this ancestral perspective to the management of public lands in the canyons and mesas of southern Utah.
For the first time in conservation history, the primary advocates for a new national monument are the tribes themselves. This historic Native coalition is trying to protect the wildlands that sweep southward from Canyonlands National Park toward the
The tribes’ allies include travelers, hikers, and river-runners who don’t want to see oil rigs and endless networks of off-road vehicle tracks here. But the visitors who gaze awestruck across the buttes of Greater Canyonlands, who boat through the canyons of the San Juan River, and who stand enthralled by rock art and cliff dwellings on Cedar Mesa, may not realize how deeply all of these lands matter in the daily lives of Native people.
The tribes worked for six years with Utah congressmen to find common ground. Native people sought joint stewardship of this landscape. In January, however, when Rep. Rob Bishop, Republican of Utah, revealed the details of a Public Lands Initiative he touted as a grand compromise, the tribes found his draft “woefully inadequate in addressing our needs in the areas of collaborative management and land preservation.”
For the Bears Ears Coalition, the unacceptable language in Bishop’s proposal confirmed the “inequitable treatment of tribes over the past three years and our need to seek other means of protecting the living cultural landscape we call Bears Ears.” The development proposals in Bishop’s Initiative have led coalition members to focus on President Obama, who could use the Antiquities Act to proclaim a Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah.
La Bajada Mesa could be next for national monument status
by Thomas Ragan
With only 11 months left to go in President Barack Obama’s presidency, a host of preservationists and at least a pair of Santa Fe County Commissioners are hoping La Bajada Mesa, with its beautiful vistas and vast open space, will become a national monument—joining other greats in the state like the Aztec Ruins outside of Aztec, the Cliff Dwellings near Silver City, and Bandelier, just outside Los Alamos.
With only 11 months left to go in President Barack Obama’s presidency, a host of preservationists and at least a pair of Santa Fe County Commissioners are hoping La Bajada Mesa, with its beautiful vistas and vast open space, will become a national monument—joining other greats in the state like the Aztec Ruins outside of Aztec, the Cliff Dwellings near Silver City, and Bandelier, just outside Los Alamos.
But among all the hurdles that might
be ahead, the idea first has to get through more than a few angry ranchers and
residents who live in La Cienega and La Cieneguilla.
Not only have they seen their
private properties shrink in size over the years by an ever encroaching federal
government, but their rights to graze and harvest and hunt have been
drastically limited in their government-owned backyard.
Since the days of Theodore
Roosevelt, a Republican president who created the Antiquities Act, the
designation of national monuments have all but petrified the legacies of more
than a few presidents. Not to be undone or considered any sort of exception, Obama
has already signed off on more than a dozen, with three just last week in
California’s desert area, and he’s closing in on Bill Clinton’s record-setting
19.
The mesa would be New Mexico’s 15th
national monument, but first it has to beat out other notable contenders, like
Otero Mesa, which has been waiting for a designation since 2012. The region
sits in the southeastern part of the state, in an area surrounding by gas and
oil drilling.
Three weeks ago, he and at least a dozen
cattlemen, a few dressed in cowboy boots and leather vests, showed up at a
Santa Fe County Commission public hearing to voice their disapproval, and they ultimately
convinced the commission to postpone a vote on a resolution that would have
endorsed the designation before sending it off to Obama.
…While Santa Fe County’s ranchers
aren’t nearly as radical and are certainly more sensible, that’s not to say
there is a certain amount of resentment and anxiety when it comes to the
federal government, in this particular instance with the Bureau of Land
Management and the US Forest Service, which together own 120,000 acres under
consideration.
“We’re in a doughnut hole here,”
Jose Varela Lopez, a 55-year-old cattle rancher, tells SFR, referring to La
Cienega and La Cieneguilla, which butt up against the proposed boundaries, tiny
islands in a sea of government property.
“I don’t know what’s going on here
or whether this is just one big kumbaya,” adds Varela Lopez, who’s taken his
own personal plight as far as the US Congress, where he testified before a
House of Representatives public lands use subcommittee a few years ago. “But
whenever I hear the word ‘preservation,’ I start to worry. In order to preserve
something, don’t you have to be destroying it first?
“Well, we’re not destroying anything
out here.”
House GOP subpoenas feds over EPA mine spill
House Republicans subpoenaed federal agencies Wednesday for withholding documents in a congressional investigation into last year's Gold King Mine blowout caused by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The blowout released 3 million gallons of toxic sludge into the waterways of three states.
The subpoenas were sent by members of the House Natural Resources Committee, requesting documents from the Department of Interior and the Army Corps of Engineers that had been withheld from the committee becaused they posed concerns for the Obama administration.
"Prior to providing the documents to the committee, the Department of Interior counsel expressed the view that some of the documents should be withheld entirely or partially (redacted) as they may 'represent important executive branch confidentiality interest,'" according to a memo sent by the Army Corps to the Interior Department, obtained alongside the subpoena by the Washington Examiner. The documents withheld from the last batch sent to the committee in response to its investigation were from the Army Corps. The subpoena was sent Wednesday in response to the missing documents.
The subpoena asks for dozens of emails between the Army Corps, Interior and other officials. It directs Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to produce complete, unredacted copies of all records by Feb. 26...more
The Right of Private Property Ownership, Southwest Gulf Railroad, and the State of Texas
Farmers, ranchers, and all land owners in the state of Texas
should be concerned when they learn about the action taken in Medina
County Texas, on Tuesday, February 2, 2016, by Southwest Gulf Railroad, a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Vulcan Materials Company (“Vulcan”). Vulcan,
a Fortune 500 multinational materials company, is based in Birmingham, Alabama.
Attorneys for Southwest Gulf Railroad filed a Petition in Condemnation in the Medina County Court on 43 properties belonging to farmers, ranchers and other landowners in northeast Medina County, for a nine-mile long rail line easement. This is the first step in the process of forced taking of land by eminent domain.
What separates this case is that eminent domain is being abused by a private corporation, solely for its own benefit. For over 16 years, since 1999, Vulcan has been trying to build a rail spur from a 1700 acre site Vulcan Materials leased. Vulcan plans to develop the 1700 acres as a quarry, to connect with the Union Pacific rail line 7 miles south at US Hwy 90.
In 2000, area landowners organized and formed the Medina County Environmental Action Association, Inc., (MCEAA) to study all the impacts of the proposed quarry and rail line. In the 16 years since, there have been between 93 to 150 member households. MCEAA has been successful in getting federal and state agencies to move the rail line to avoid sensitive historic areas and floodways and mitigate some impacts, but permits for construction have still been granted.
A restrictive covenant barring rail construction binds 9,622 acres, on 56 separate properties with 108 signatories, along Vulcan’s proposed rail line. Only condemnation using the power of eminent domain would extinguish these restrictive covenants and remove them. But such power can only be validly exercised by a common carrier, which Vulcan’s paper railroad, Southwest Gulf Railroad, plainly is not.
A true common carrier transports goods for other companies as well as for themselves. There are no other companies that will have goods on this proposed 9 mile rail spur to transport at this time, or likely ever, due to the restrictive covenant. Yet now Vulcan, not the landowners, seeks the power to control future land use in northeast Medina County, Texas.
...If Texans allow this outrage of confiscation of private property by a private company for their own use to happen in Medina County Texas, no landowner in the entire state of Texas is safe from seizure of their property. Any company, even an out-of-state company, can come in and seize property for private gain, if this case is ruled in favor of Vulcan and its paper railroad.
Attorneys for Southwest Gulf Railroad filed a Petition in Condemnation in the Medina County Court on 43 properties belonging to farmers, ranchers and other landowners in northeast Medina County, for a nine-mile long rail line easement. This is the first step in the process of forced taking of land by eminent domain.
What separates this case is that eminent domain is being abused by a private corporation, solely for its own benefit. For over 16 years, since 1999, Vulcan has been trying to build a rail spur from a 1700 acre site Vulcan Materials leased. Vulcan plans to develop the 1700 acres as a quarry, to connect with the Union Pacific rail line 7 miles south at US Hwy 90.
In 2000, area landowners organized and formed the Medina County Environmental Action Association, Inc., (MCEAA) to study all the impacts of the proposed quarry and rail line. In the 16 years since, there have been between 93 to 150 member households. MCEAA has been successful in getting federal and state agencies to move the rail line to avoid sensitive historic areas and floodways and mitigate some impacts, but permits for construction have still been granted.
A restrictive covenant barring rail construction binds 9,622 acres, on 56 separate properties with 108 signatories, along Vulcan’s proposed rail line. Only condemnation using the power of eminent domain would extinguish these restrictive covenants and remove them. But such power can only be validly exercised by a common carrier, which Vulcan’s paper railroad, Southwest Gulf Railroad, plainly is not.
A true common carrier transports goods for other companies as well as for themselves. There are no other companies that will have goods on this proposed 9 mile rail spur to transport at this time, or likely ever, due to the restrictive covenant. Yet now Vulcan, not the landowners, seeks the power to control future land use in northeast Medina County, Texas.
...If Texans allow this outrage of confiscation of private property by a private company for their own use to happen in Medina County Texas, no landowner in the entire state of Texas is safe from seizure of their property. Any company, even an out-of-state company, can come in and seize property for private gain, if this case is ruled in favor of Vulcan and its paper railroad.
ND sees 14 percent increase in sheep
Brad Gilbertson is optimistic and knowledgeable about North Dakota's sheep industry. But even he was surprised to hear the number of sheep in the state soared 14 percent in 2015, the largest percentage increase in the nation.
"Really? It was that much? That's a big increase," the Sherwood, N.D., sheep producer and state Lamb and Wool Producers Association spokesman says of the increase.
His best explanation is that a "combination of things," including more young producers, pushed up sheep numbers in the state.
The sheep industry nationwide -- which had been in long-term decline -- continued to rally in 2015, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The U.S. had 5.32 million sheep and lambs on Jan. 1 -- up 1 percent from a year earlier. It was the second straight year that sheep numbers rose nationally...more
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
'Violent' Cliven Bundy, who turned cattle 'mean,' kept in jail
Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
Cliven Bundy was a lawless sham of a rancher who would be a threat to police and the public if released from custody, federal prosecutors successfully argued yesterday to a district judge who ordered the prisoner to remain behind bars.
The U.S. attorneys in Oregon and Nevada accused Bundy, 69, of mustering more than 60 firearms to intimidate federal law enforcement officers during the Bureau of Land Management's April 2014 roundup of his cattle, "nearly causing catastrophic loss of life or injury to others."
"Bundy is lawless and violent," the prosecutors wrote in a memo. "He does not recognize federal courts -- claiming they are illegitimate -- does not recognize federal law, refuses to obey federal court orders [and] has already used force and violence against federal law enforcement officers while they were enforcing federal court orders."
In addition to detailing a long list of threats and illegal actions, the memo challenges Bundy's "claims he is a cattle rancher."
"His ranching operation -- to the extent it can be called that -- is unconventional if not bizarre," it says. "Bereft of human interaction, his cattle that manage to survive are wild, mean and ornery."
U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice Stewart ordered that the Nevadan be kept behind bars until his trial. No conditions of release would ensure the public's safety or that Bundy would reappear in court, given that he had already ignored four previous court orders, ruled Stewart of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.
...The prosecutors' 34-page memo says Bundy has "declared a personal war" against the federal government. It contains a long list of alleged threats Bundy, his family and his followers made to federal agents and members of the public.
Namely, "Bundy organized and led over 400 followers to assault the BLM officers as they guarded the Impoundment Site, all for the purpose of getting his cattle back."
Officers guarding the site that day feared for their lives, the memo says. Some were combat veterans who remain "profoundly affected emotionally."
Bundy's armed posse was organized and trained, the memo alleges.
He recruited gunmen from more than 10 states to thwart the cattle roundup. Once they arrived, Bundy's "conspirators" grouped them into camps, armed patrols and security checkpoints, the memo says...
...The memo calls into question Cliven Bundy's qualifications as a cattle grazer.
Unlike most ranchers, Bundy lets his cows run wild, does not vaccinate or treat them for disease, does not manage breeding or take them off the lands to feed them in the off-season, and generally has "no knowledge" of where they're roaming at any given time, the memo says.
He also has to "bait them into traps in order to gather them," it says.
Cliven Bundy was a lawless sham of a rancher who would be a threat to police and the public if released from custody, federal prosecutors successfully argued yesterday to a district judge who ordered the prisoner to remain behind bars.
The U.S. attorneys in Oregon and Nevada accused Bundy, 69, of mustering more than 60 firearms to intimidate federal law enforcement officers during the Bureau of Land Management's April 2014 roundup of his cattle, "nearly causing catastrophic loss of life or injury to others."
"Bundy is lawless and violent," the prosecutors wrote in a memo. "He does not recognize federal courts -- claiming they are illegitimate -- does not recognize federal law, refuses to obey federal court orders [and] has already used force and violence against federal law enforcement officers while they were enforcing federal court orders."
In addition to detailing a long list of threats and illegal actions, the memo challenges Bundy's "claims he is a cattle rancher."
"His ranching operation -- to the extent it can be called that -- is unconventional if not bizarre," it says. "Bereft of human interaction, his cattle that manage to survive are wild, mean and ornery."
U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice Stewart ordered that the Nevadan be kept behind bars until his trial. No conditions of release would ensure the public's safety or that Bundy would reappear in court, given that he had already ignored four previous court orders, ruled Stewart of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.
...The prosecutors' 34-page memo says Bundy has "declared a personal war" against the federal government. It contains a long list of alleged threats Bundy, his family and his followers made to federal agents and members of the public.
Namely, "Bundy organized and led over 400 followers to assault the BLM officers as they guarded the Impoundment Site, all for the purpose of getting his cattle back."
Officers guarding the site that day feared for their lives, the memo says. Some were combat veterans who remain "profoundly affected emotionally."
Bundy's armed posse was organized and trained, the memo alleges.
He recruited gunmen from more than 10 states to thwart the cattle roundup. Once they arrived, Bundy's "conspirators" grouped them into camps, armed patrols and security checkpoints, the memo says...
...The memo calls into question Cliven Bundy's qualifications as a cattle grazer.
Unlike most ranchers, Bundy lets his cows run wild, does not vaccinate or treat them for disease, does not manage breeding or take them off the lands to feed them in the off-season, and generally has "no knowledge" of where they're roaming at any given time, the memo says.
He also has to "bait them into traps in order to gather them," it says.
Mountain bike dog attack case ends with $1 million settlement
Renee Legro topped the final hill of a Camp Hale mountain-bike race and found herself riding in the middle of a herd of sheep.
If you’re a Great Pyrenees guard dog, a human on a bike looks like a predator among your sheep, and you kill predators.
Legro was attacked and mauled by two massive Great Pyrenees, a violent collision of the new West and the old. One dog grabbed her right hip and yanked her off her bike, as the other dog pounced. The wounds were massive and deep, but the stitches only touch the surface. Legro’s wounds still reach her very being.
That was July 9, 2008. Legro and the dogs’ owner, Rio Blanco County rancher Sam Robinson, slogged through criminal and civil court for seven years — two misdemeanor criminal trials and civil cases appealed all the way to the Colorado State Supreme Court.
Travelers, Robinson’s insurance company, lost its final appeal and was facing an August civil trial. Travelers finally settled for $1 million.
The case is over, but Legro’s healing is not, said her attorney Joe Bloch.
“Justice is an elusive concept, especially in a case like this,” Bloch said.
The settlement could have been more, Bloch said, but the Robinsons are not rich. Sam Robinson has been a Sunday school teacher. His family has been on their land for five generations.
“They’re salt of the earth people,” Bloch said. “As upset as Renee and Steve Legro were, they did not want to go after the Robinsons’ personal assets.”... As the new and old West are forced to co-exist, ranchers and recreationists have clashed for years. This case found itself on the top of that sword, with the Robinsons supported by the ranching and wool industries and the recreation industry rallying behind Legro.
Robinson was convicted of a misdemeanor, owning a dangerous dog. That conviction was overturned on appeal, and a different six-person jury convicted him again.
The courtroom could have been a metaphor for the chasm between the two sides.
During both trials, Robinson’s family, friends and supporters sat on the left side of the courtroom, while Legro’s friends sat on the right. No one from either side crossed over. That paved the way for the Legros’ civil lawsuit.
Sam Robinson spoke eloquently and proudly about his family’s ranching heritage and the life they love. Legros tearfully told of hospitalization, depression and emotional problems, and losing her new speech pathology business...more
NCBA, PLC critical of land grabs, expect 10 million more acres
In a press release touting the designation of Sand to Snow National Monument, Mojave Trails National Monument, and Castle Mountains National Monument – a total of 1.8 million acres – USDA celebrated this Administration’s prowess for these types of designations that have locked off 265 million acres in the last seven years without any formal review, economic analysis, or public comment.
“This president has misused and abused his executive power more than any of his predecessors in an attempt to distract from his true environmental legacy which will be one of mismanagement and undue economic hardship in rural communities,” said Brenda Richards, Public Lands Council President.
As President Obama closes out his final term, a rash of last-minute designations totaling nearly 10 million acres in states like Oregon, Arizona and Utah is expected. Congress must rein this abuse of the Antiquities Act and ensure the American public is engaged whenever the federal government makes sweeping decisions that impact such large areas of land.
“Here we are again discussing the President’s abuse of a law intended to protect objects or artifacts, not large landscapes,” said Tracy Brunner, NCBA President and Kansas cattleman. “When designations like these take place, multiple use and valid existing rights like grazing always lose. If this Administration believes this land is in need of protection, they should do so through the proper democratic channels, not a stroke of the pen that bypasses the American people.”
Richards added, “It’s outrageous that the Administration would openly boast of sidestepping the American public under the guise of protecting these lands when in fact they are eroding the multiple-use doctrine of the federal land management agencies.”
Press Release
Obama to sign Paris climate pact despite SCOTUS stay
The Obama administration will officially sign last year’s international climate change pact despite its central policy being put on ice by the Supreme Court.
Todd Stern, the State Department’s top climate diplomat and negotiator for last year’s agreement in Paris, said Tuesday that the Supreme Court’s order to delay the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan — called a “stay” in legal terminology— doesn’t change the administration’s plans.
“It is entirely premature, really premature to assume the Clean Power Plan will be struck down but, even if it were, come what may, we are sticking to our plan to sign, to join,” Stern told reporters in Brussels after he met with the European Union’s top climate official, according to Reuters.
“We’re going to go ahead and sign the agreement this year,” he said.
The Supreme Court voted 5-4 last week to put the climate change rule for power plants on hold while 26 states and various energy interests fight it in federal court.
It was the first time the high court has issued a judicial stay when a lower court refused, and the first judicial stay when the merits of the case haven’t not been heard by another court.
The move caused officials around the world to wonder whether the United States could still meet its pledge to cut greenhouse gas levels by 26 percent to 28 percent by 2025...more
Campaign 2016: Nobody Cares about Climate Change (Except Tom Steyer)
by Marita Noon
...On February 11, Politico released survey results from “a bipartisan panel of respondents” who are “Republican and Democratic insiders” and “activists, strategists and operatives in the four early nominating states” who answered the questions anonymously. The results? As one Republican respondent from South Carolina (SC) put it: “Climate change is simply not a front burner issue to most people.” A Nevada Democrat agreed: “I don’t believe this is a critical issue for many voters when compared to the economy and national security.”
One SC Republican said that no “blue-collar swing voter” ever said: “I really like their jobs plan, but, boy, I don’t know about their position on climate change.” Over all, the Republicans don’t think that opposing public policy to address the perceived threats of climate change will hurt their candidates. The topic never came up in the recent SC Republican debate.
Steyer sees that on the issue of climate change, “the two parties could not be further apart.” However, the “insider” survey found that Democrats were split on the issue. When asked if “disputing the notion of manmade climate change would be damaging in the general election,” some thought it would, but others “thought climate change isn’t a major issue for voters.”
While we are far from the days, of “drill, baby drill,” when asked about increasing production, Republicans see that their pro-development policies are unaffected by “price fluctuations.” A SC Republican stated: “Most Republicans view this issue through a national security lens. Low prices might diminish the intensity, but GOP voters will still want America to be energy independent regardless of oil prices.”
On February 12, Politico held a gathering called “Caucus Energy South Carolina” that featured several of the SC “insiders” among whom the host said are “influential voices,” who offer “keen insight into what’s going on on the ground.”
There, Mike McKenna, who has consulted a wide variety of political clients and who has served as an external relations specialist at the U.S. Department of Energy, declared: “Energy is a second tier issue. Climate change is fifth tier. Nobody cares about it. It is always at the bottom.”
Even Democrat Jane Kleeb, an outspoken opponent of the Keystone pipeline, acknowledged that climate change, as an issue, doesn’t move people to act.
David Wilkins, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada, said that voters are “not going to let the environment trump the economy.” He believes there will be a reapplication for the Keystone pipeline and that eventually it will be built. Another insider, Democrat Inez Tenenbaum, disagreed, saying: “people don’t want to be energy dependent.” To which Wilkins quipped: “All the more reason to get oil from our friends.”
When it comes to energy, there are clearly differences between the parties, but strangely both agree that climate change isn’t “a major issue for voters.”
...On February 11, Politico released survey results from “a bipartisan panel of respondents” who are “Republican and Democratic insiders” and “activists, strategists and operatives in the four early nominating states” who answered the questions anonymously. The results? As one Republican respondent from South Carolina (SC) put it: “Climate change is simply not a front burner issue to most people.” A Nevada Democrat agreed: “I don’t believe this is a critical issue for many voters when compared to the economy and national security.”
One SC Republican said that no “blue-collar swing voter” ever said: “I really like their jobs plan, but, boy, I don’t know about their position on climate change.” Over all, the Republicans don’t think that opposing public policy to address the perceived threats of climate change will hurt their candidates. The topic never came up in the recent SC Republican debate.
Steyer sees that on the issue of climate change, “the two parties could not be further apart.” However, the “insider” survey found that Democrats were split on the issue. When asked if “disputing the notion of manmade climate change would be damaging in the general election,” some thought it would, but others “thought climate change isn’t a major issue for voters.”
While we are far from the days, of “drill, baby drill,” when asked about increasing production, Republicans see that their pro-development policies are unaffected by “price fluctuations.” A SC Republican stated: “Most Republicans view this issue through a national security lens. Low prices might diminish the intensity, but GOP voters will still want America to be energy independent regardless of oil prices.”
On February 12, Politico held a gathering called “Caucus Energy South Carolina” that featured several of the SC “insiders” among whom the host said are “influential voices,” who offer “keen insight into what’s going on on the ground.”
There, Mike McKenna, who has consulted a wide variety of political clients and who has served as an external relations specialist at the U.S. Department of Energy, declared: “Energy is a second tier issue. Climate change is fifth tier. Nobody cares about it. It is always at the bottom.”
Even Democrat Jane Kleeb, an outspoken opponent of the Keystone pipeline, acknowledged that climate change, as an issue, doesn’t move people to act.
David Wilkins, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada, said that voters are “not going to let the environment trump the economy.” He believes there will be a reapplication for the Keystone pipeline and that eventually it will be built. Another insider, Democrat Inez Tenenbaum, disagreed, saying: “people don’t want to be energy dependent.” To which Wilkins quipped: “All the more reason to get oil from our friends.”
When it comes to energy, there are clearly differences between the parties, but strangely both agree that climate change isn’t “a major issue for voters.”
Legislature wrangles with feds over Teton park land
Wyoming legislators preliminarily agreed Tuesday night to adjust a bill that would facilitate a sale of state lands in Grand Teton National Park to the federal government.
Both sides have been haggling about the price of the lands and the terms of the deal.
The federal government wants to pay a lower price based on a recent appraisal. The appraisal took into account an easement and knocked down the value of the land. The goal is for the federal government to obtain the state-owned School Trust Land parcels, which total 2 square miles and are broken up into two lots within the national park. Theoretically the land could be developed. The state is obligated to maximize the value of the land to fund education.
Orchestrating a land deal has been a goal of officials from Teton County at past legislative sessions.
The bill sets the minimum price Wyoming would accept at $92 million. But that’s more than the land has ever been valued and is contrary to a recent appraisal that put that value at $85 million. The downgraded price results from an easement on a parcel located northeast of Kelly.
In recent years the state has discussed trading Bureau of Land Management property for the parcels in Grand Teton. The legislation leaves the land swap option open.
The federal government has nailed down some money for the transaction. A budget recently released for the Land and Water Conservation Fund includes $22.5 million to purchase the parcel located about a mile west of Shadow Mountain. The federal government also has agreed to commit another $7 million toward the deal, state officials said Tuesday evening...more
Absurdly trivial conflicts escalate to tragedy
by Thomas Mitchell
The absurdity of it all would be comical if the consequences were not so extraordinarily dire.
One man is dead, shot to death by officers at a roadblock. Father and son ranchers are in prison serving mandatory five-year terms under an antiterrorism law. Nearly two dozen others are in jail facing charges of conspiracy, impeding officers, intimidation, assault, obstruction of justice, extortion, aiding and abetting — all of which could lead to lengthy prison terms.
The root cause of all this?
Two minor grass fires that burned 140 acres of federal public land and some bureaucrat’s silly assumption that cattle might be harmful to desert tortoises. All occurring years ago, but simmering and stewing until they have reached the point of boiling over.
Somehow the situation has escalated from the trivial to the tragic because of base bullheadedness and naked intransigence on both sides.
In Oregon it ensnared the Hammond family ranchers. In Nevada it involves the Bundy family ranchers.
In 2001 the Hammonds started a fire on their own property to burn off juniper and sagebrush. The fire escaped their property and burned 139 acres of Bureau of Land Management land. The fire probably improved the land.
In 2006, lightning started several fires and the Hammonds set a back-burn fire to try to prevent the fire from spreading to their crops and buildings. That fire burned an acre of public land.
Dwight Hammond and his son Steven were charged and convicted under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison, but a federal judge declared that was ludicrous and sentenced them to lesser terms, which they served.
But bullheaded BLM managers appealed and got a federal court to send the pair to prison for the full five years for accidentally burning 140 acres.
The absurdity of it all would be comical if the consequences were not so extraordinarily dire.
One man is dead, shot to death by officers at a roadblock. Father and son ranchers are in prison serving mandatory five-year terms under an antiterrorism law. Nearly two dozen others are in jail facing charges of conspiracy, impeding officers, intimidation, assault, obstruction of justice, extortion, aiding and abetting — all of which could lead to lengthy prison terms.
The root cause of all this?
Two minor grass fires that burned 140 acres of federal public land and some bureaucrat’s silly assumption that cattle might be harmful to desert tortoises. All occurring years ago, but simmering and stewing until they have reached the point of boiling over.
Somehow the situation has escalated from the trivial to the tragic because of base bullheadedness and naked intransigence on both sides.
In Oregon it ensnared the Hammond family ranchers. In Nevada it involves the Bundy family ranchers.
In 2001 the Hammonds started a fire on their own property to burn off juniper and sagebrush. The fire escaped their property and burned 139 acres of Bureau of Land Management land. The fire probably improved the land.
In 2006, lightning started several fires and the Hammonds set a back-burn fire to try to prevent the fire from spreading to their crops and buildings. That fire burned an acre of public land.
Dwight Hammond and his son Steven were charged and convicted under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison, but a federal judge declared that was ludicrous and sentenced them to lesser terms, which they served.
But bullheaded BLM managers appealed and got a federal court to send the pair to prison for the full five years for accidentally burning 140 acres.
Judge orders Cliven Bundy held, citing 'ongoing defiance of federal court orders'
A federal judge Tuesday ordered Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy to remain in custody pending trial on a complaint stemming from his 2014 standoff with federal agents trying to round up his cattle grazing on public land.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice M. Stewart found Bundy, 69, remains a danger to the community and a risk to flee, citing his "ongoing defiance of federal court orders.''
If Bundy is allowed to return to his Nevada ranch, Stewart said she agreed with the government that it likely will be "the last we see of him.''
Bundy is expected to return to Nevada for his next court appearance, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nevada. That suggests an indictment may be issued soon, canceling a scheduled preliminary hearing on Friday in Portland...more
BLM not in rush to return to Gold Butte area following Bundys' arrests
The federal government will tread slowly before returning to the expansive Gold Butte area following the arrest in Oregon of a Bunkerville rancher and two of his sons, a Bureau of Land Management officials said Tuesday. Gayle
Marrs-Smith, Southern Nevada BLM field manager, told the Legislative
Public Lands Committee the situation remains "fluid" and there is no
timeline for federal officials to resume a presence on those public
lands where a tense standoff occurred in 2014 between armed supporters of Cliven Bundy and law enforcement who tried to confiscate his cattle for failure to pay $1 million in grazing fees. Gold Butte is about 110 miles east of Las Vegas, via Interstate 15 and state Routes 170 and 113. Cliven Bundy remains jailed in Oregon on multiple charges,
including assault on a federal law enforcement officer, obstruction of
justice, conspiracy, extortion and carrying a firearm in a crime of
violence. Marrs-Smith spoke cautiously when questioned by
Assemblywoman Heidi Swank, D-Las Vegas, about Gold Butte, telling
committee members the agency's priority is the safety of employees and
the public. "We're going to be very measured and we're going to kind of wait and see," she said. "Things are very fluid." She added, "We are looking forward to managing out there, getting back out there." The federal government withdrew from the Gold Butte area after the 2014 standoff. While some federal workers and contractors were sent back to work in the
months afterward, the BLM ordered all staff and contract employees to
stay out of the area after a survey crew was forced from their campsite
by gunfire in the middle of the night...more
San Jose State Poly-Sci Professor left death wish on Bundy Ranch Facebook page
By Marjorie Haun
...Whether or not you agree with the actions of the Bundy family and their supporters in taking over a vacant, federally-owned building on the Malheur Wildlife Reserve near Burns, most Americans would wish for a peaceful resolution to the “standoff.” But from the beginning of the standoff, the Bundy Ranch Facebook page has been spattered with posts calling for the Oregon protesters and their families to be slaughtered. Since the killing by law enforcement officers of LaVoy Finicum, a rancher from Arizona who acted as spokesman for the “occupiers,” the vicious rhetoric has only intensified. Prior to deleting violent and obscene posts, administrators of the page have been capturing disturbing screen shots of calls for violence against the Bundys, their supporters, and ranchers in the West. Although some of the posts can be attributed to Internet trolls and others looking to incite online warfare, the following post by the ordinary-looking James Brent, made it clear he wanted all the protesters dead.
What would cause an ordinary-looking guy to pray for the deaths of an entire group of Americans who were peacefully protesting government overreach? James Brent’s Facebook page reveals his profession: San Jose State University Professor -- he studied Political Science at Ohio State. The San Jose State directory confirms that James Brent, the man “praying” for the Bundys to be shot and killed, teaches Political Science at a California university.
Renee Wheeler and Sherry Hartin apparently think the ranchers are worse than the ISIS terrorists currently ravaging Syria and Iraq, calling for their elimination post-haste.
Following the killing of LaVoy Finicum by law enforcement officers, numerous gleeful and sadistic posts celebrating his death were posted on the Bundy Ranch Facebook page, like this one by Marcella Moine.
Derek Jimenez, Jerry Lee Jackson, and Matthew John, not only showed great pleasure in the death of LaVoy, but also the thought that the remaining protesters would be shot to death.
...Whether or not you agree with the actions of the Bundy family and their supporters in taking over a vacant, federally-owned building on the Malheur Wildlife Reserve near Burns, most Americans would wish for a peaceful resolution to the “standoff.” But from the beginning of the standoff, the Bundy Ranch Facebook page has been spattered with posts calling for the Oregon protesters and their families to be slaughtered. Since the killing by law enforcement officers of LaVoy Finicum, a rancher from Arizona who acted as spokesman for the “occupiers,” the vicious rhetoric has only intensified. Prior to deleting violent and obscene posts, administrators of the page have been capturing disturbing screen shots of calls for violence against the Bundys, their supporters, and ranchers in the West. Although some of the posts can be attributed to Internet trolls and others looking to incite online warfare, the following post by the ordinary-looking James Brent, made it clear he wanted all the protesters dead.
What would cause an ordinary-looking guy to pray for the deaths of an entire group of Americans who were peacefully protesting government overreach? James Brent’s Facebook page reveals his profession: San Jose State University Professor -- he studied Political Science at Ohio State. The San Jose State directory confirms that James Brent, the man “praying” for the Bundys to be shot and killed, teaches Political Science at a California university.
Renee Wheeler and Sherry Hartin apparently think the ranchers are worse than the ISIS terrorists currently ravaging Syria and Iraq, calling for their elimination post-haste.
Following the killing of LaVoy Finicum by law enforcement officers, numerous gleeful and sadistic posts celebrating his death were posted on the Bundy Ranch Facebook page, like this one by Marcella Moine.
Derek Jimenez, Jerry Lee Jackson, and Matthew John, not only showed great pleasure in the death of LaVoy, but also the thought that the remaining protesters would be shot to death.
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Secretary Jewell on national monuments: 'Everybody is coming to me with their wish list'
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell came home this weekend, ready to take a victory lap after President Obama’s designation on Friday of three new national monuments in the California desert totaling 1.8 million acres. After all, Air Force one had just taken a detour en route to Palm Springs, so Obama could see the blooming desert he had just preserved, and monuments that almost doubled the land he has protected in his presidency. But the home folk wouldn't give the former CEO at Recreational Equipment, Inc., any rest.
Jewell has honored Saturday night by the Alaska Wilderness League, which pitched designation of a new national monument on land in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that is coveted by Big Oil.
"Everybody is coming to me with their wish list," Jewell joked. She is being urged to back a national monument for spectacular canyon county of the Owyhee River in Eastern Oregon. It's not far from where armed property rights extremists occupied a wildlife refuge headquarters...more
This is a heck of a way to run a railroad. You take your wish list to one person, who then takes it to one other person, who can grant you your wish. Under this model, three people can determine how 640 million acres are managed. No public hearings, no debate, no involvement of Congress. And this model is being used heavily by the current administration. You know, the same folks who promised "sound science" and transparency in the management of these lands.
Will be interesting to see if the Republican Congress will seek to amend this model under a new President. If not, then the three person model will have been endorsed by the Republicans. Let's call it the Tres Hombres Treehugger Triangle and hang it around the neck of every Republican sitting in Congress.
This is a heck of a way to run a railroad. You take your wish list to one person, who then takes it to one other person, who can grant you your wish. Under this model, three people can determine how 640 million acres are managed. No public hearings, no debate, no involvement of Congress. And this model is being used heavily by the current administration. You know, the same folks who promised "sound science" and transparency in the management of these lands.
Will be interesting to see if the Republican Congress will seek to amend this model under a new President. If not, then the three person model will have been endorsed by the Republicans. Let's call it the Tres Hombres Treehugger Triangle and hang it around the neck of every Republican sitting in Congress.
Philanthropist Gives $18.5 Million For Restoration Of Lincoln Memorial
A philanthropist who already has given more than $25 million to cover needed repairs and restoration of National Park Service properties in Washington, D.C., has given another $18.5 million for needed work on the Lincoln Memorial.
During a ceremony Monday businessman and philanthropist David M. Rubenstein presented the National Park Foundation with a check to cover repairs and restoration of the Lincoln Memorial and provide future visitors a view of the foundation pillars and historical mementos from workers who built the monument. Presented on Presidents Day and during the National Park Service’s Centennial year, the donation is intended to help people better understand the significance of the nation’s 16th president, and preserve his ideals and values, an Interior Department release said...more
New Mexico ranchers’ state grazing fees are increased by 25 percent
State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn said the fee for grazing on state trust lands will increase by nearly 25 percent beginning Oct. 1 — from $4.80 to $5.99 per “animal unit month” — making the cost of state grazing leases more than double that of federal leases. The fee increase affects 3,500 leaseholders in all but one of New Mexico’s 33 counties who graze livestock on about 8.8 million acres of state trust lands.
An animal unit month, or AUM, usually refers to one steer or a cow and her calf, five sheep or one horse grazing for a month.
Caren Cowan, executive director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, said the group’s 1,500 dues-paying members aren’t happy about the fee increase, but they don’t blame Dunn. “While it is a tough deal, it is not his fault,” Cowan said.
Dunn said he follows a grazing fee formula established in 1988 by then State Land Commissioner Bill Humphries. The State Land Office established the fee formula following a court case in which a lessee had challenged arbitrary increases. The grazing fee formula takes into account private grazing land leases, beef cattle prices and the costs of raising livestock.
In a statement, Dunn, who comes from a ranching background, said the estimated $19.5 million raised through the increased grazing fee will help the state’s public schools, hospitals and universities that benefit from revenues raised by trust land leases...more
Cliven Bundy’s In Jail: Now Arrest Republicans Who Incited Sedition Against America
Little reported on Thursday was a bit of justice for America against the
openly seditious Bundy clan. Now, instead of sitting around the family
table plotting to steal land from the federal government and install
their own “constitutional council” run by a local sheriff,
three male members of the clan are where they belong; sitting in Oregon
jails facing federal charges. That’s right, not only are brothers Ammon
and Ryan Bundy incarcerated, their anti-government daddy Cliven Bundy is
in the same predicament; only in a different Oregon county jail.
...Although the main seditious instigators are safely behind bars, the federal government needs to exercise its authority and impose some justice on Republicans who incited the sedition from the start. In fact, according to 18 U.S. Code § 2383:
“Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
Michele Fiore is a loud-mouthed, gun-toting tea-bagger Republican who has incited, assisted, given aid and comfort to the Bundys and their armed militias and deserves to be fined, imprisoned, or both, and banned from ever holding any elected office. That is the law and now that the traitors she allied with and defended, including patriarch Cliven Bundy, are sitting in jail where they belong, Fiore needs to join them courtesy of the United States federal government she publicly summoned other Republicans to stand against.
Mercy. I guess this last episode was just too close for their comfort. To make sure nothing akin to this occurs again, not only should the perpetrators be jailed, but so should those who supported or defended their efforts, the First Amendment be damned.
...Although the main seditious instigators are safely behind bars, the federal government needs to exercise its authority and impose some justice on Republicans who incited the sedition from the start. In fact, according to 18 U.S. Code § 2383:
“Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
Michele Fiore is a loud-mouthed, gun-toting tea-bagger Republican who has incited, assisted, given aid and comfort to the Bundys and their armed militias and deserves to be fined, imprisoned, or both, and banned from ever holding any elected office. That is the law and now that the traitors she allied with and defended, including patriarch Cliven Bundy, are sitting in jail where they belong, Fiore needs to join them courtesy of the United States federal government she publicly summoned other Republicans to stand against.
Mercy. I guess this last episode was just too close for their comfort. To make sure nothing akin to this occurs again, not only should the perpetrators be jailed, but so should those who supported or defended their efforts, the First Amendment be damned.
Cliven Bundy family has faith that he will be cleared of all charges
Briana Bundy says it's business as usual on the family's Bunkerville ranch, despite the arrest of her father-in-law, Cliven. The Bundy patriarch has been sitting in an Oregon jail since his arrest on federal charges Wednesday night.
"He has the best attorney you need and that's the constitution. So he has nothing to worry about," said Briana Bundy.
Cliven Bundy is accused of leading an armed assault against federal agents in 2014. At issue according to the government, Bundy owed roughly one million dollars in grazing fees. But fearing a gun battle, the government backed down. Until now. The federal government slapped the rancher with a 6-count complaint. Charges ranging from conspiracy to assault on a federal officer. "Nothing really surprises us anymore. We've been waiting for it 2 years. We're surprised it took so long for them to decide to do something," said Briana. "If them being in jail will make the American people wake up and realize their rights, and what they need to do to secure their rights, then we're willing to make that sacrifice," said Briana. "We have all the faith in the world that he'll be freed of all charges."...more
Meet the 23 men and two women facing felony charges for the Oregon standoff
Federal prosecutors filed conspiracy charges against 25 people, including
Ammon Bundy and his brother Ryan, who come from 10 states...more
The article gives background info on each of the defendants plus some who "got away."
The article gives background info on each of the defendants plus some who "got away."
Monday, February 15, 2016
Nevada Assemblyman Accuses FBI, Oregon State Police of Murder in Shooting Death of LaVoy Finicum
In Portland on Friday, after the last four Malheur wildlife refuge occupiers made their first court appearance, Nevada Assemblyman John Moore spoke to reporters outside the Federal Courthouse. “In my opinion, Mr. Finicum was murdered,” he said, referring to LaVoy Finicum’s shooting death by Oregon state police. “This man was trying to surrender,” Moore said, “but they chose violence and murder rather than to apprehend him.” A member of the Libertarian Party of Nevada and a former Army Ranger who was elected after having raised essentially no money at all, Moore described the action taken in the video that the FBI released of Finicum’s death as an “ambush.”
“That man died at the hands of the Oregon state police, and federal agents, and he did not need to. That’s why I’m here today, that’s why I came up here—to try to prevent the further loss of life,” he said...more
Lawmakers Rush Bill To Shield Name Of Officer Who Shot LaVoy Finicum
Oregon legislators are rushing through a bill aimed at protecting the identity of the Oregon State Police officer who shot and killed Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation leader Robert LaVoy Finicum after hearing that the officer faces potential death threats.
House Bill 2087, which would allow the police to ask a judge to bar release of the shooter’s name for 90 days at a time, is now headed to the House floor after State Police Superintendent Richard Evans Jr. described how police and other government officials in Burns faced a series of threats and intimidating behavior before and during the 41-day occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Evans said at a House Judiciary Committee meeting last week that law enforcement officials received a series of threats, including threats related to the death of Finicum...more
NASA Study Concludes Global Warming Is Actually Slowing Sea Level Rise
A new NASA study concludes global warming increases the amount of water stored underground which, in turn, slows the rate of sea level rise.
At a time when scientists are worried about accelerating sea level rise, NASA scientist John Reager and his colleagues found an extra 3,200 gigatons of water was being stored by parched landscapes from 2002 to 2014, slowing sea level rise by 15 percent.
“We always assumed that people’s increased reliance on groundwater for irrigation and consumption was resulting in a net transfer of water from the land to the ocean,” Reager said, according to AFP.
“What we didn’t realize until now is that over the past decade, changes in the global water cycle more than offset the losses that occurred from groundwater pumping, causing the land to act like a sponge — at least temporarily,” Reager said...more
House passes changes to calorie labeling on menus
The House approved a bill Friday modifying new menu labeling requirements under Obamacare, making at least 73 times the chamber has voted to repeal or change President Obama's healthcare law.
The measure passed 266-144, with 33 Democrats joining all but one Republican in voting to approve it. It's not clear whether the Senate will take up the bill, as President Obama has said he opposes the legislation, which grants greater flexibility in how establishments selling food may display caloric information. "The government should not be placing more harmful barriers in the way of hardworking small businesses," said House Speaker Paul Ryan. "This important legislation would roll back the FDA's burdensome menu labeling rule, giving American restaurants, grocery and convenience stores the flexbility they need to be successful."
While the calorie labeling requirement stems from the Affordable Care Act, the Food and Drug Administration has laid out rules for complying with it that some say are too burdensome, especially for establishments such as movie theaters and convenience stores that sell more than just food. In its current form, the bill allows food sellers to list caloric information online or on a single menu board or flier, instead of displaying the information next to each individual item. The bipartisan legislation was co-sponsored by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the fourth-ranking House Republican, and Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif...more
This chart shows a major change in the way Americans eat
Americans like to eat out. A lot.
In fact, according to chart shared by Stifel's Taylor G. LaBarr, the portion of total food spending outside the home is now nearly half of Americans' total food spending.
Notably, "spending on food not at home," as LaBarr calls it, has been rising consistently for decades.
The only slight blips on the chart happened during recessions in 1974, 2001, and 2008, which makes sense as it's generally more expensive to eat out and people are less likely to spend extra cash in tougher economic environments...more
Chef Drops Foie Gras From Menu After Vegan Death Threats
Death threats from anonymous callers claiming to be vegan activists have forced a Norfolk chef to drop foie gras from his Valentine’s Day menu.
Mark Dixon, the award-winning head chef at the Kings Arms at Fleggburgh, near Great Yarmouth, said he had received hundreds of threatening phone calls.
The intimidation included direct threats to any staff members who answered the phones and warnings that diners arriving for his £50-a-head special menu on Saturday and Sunday night would face pickets and demonstrations.
Can foie gras ever be ethical?
Read more
The pub was also targeted on Twitter and Facebook, and bombarded with fake reservations...more
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy
Defining moments in redneck living
by Julie
Carter
Occasionally and at least once a week a moment of panic will pass my way with the thought
“what will I write about?” Have I run out of things to say about cowboys,
rednecks, life at the ranch and the good ole days?
Then some well-meaning fellow in a cowboy hat will reaffirm
my belief that there is a never ending supply of stories about who they are,
what they do and what in the world were they thinking?
In fact, just this week a friend of mine, a seasoned ranch
wife who is still waiting for her cowboy to grow up, phoned me and the topic of
Valentine’s Day came up. I ventured to ask if she had received yet another
remarkable gift from her husband of 35+ years.
“Well, he did ask if I wanted something,” she said. “But
after that time about my Christmas gift, I was afraid to let him think it was
time for another gift.”
I asked the obvious, “What happened about the Christmas gift?”
“He brought me a cat from the pound.”
“Did you ask for a cat or even want a cat?”
“No to both. This gift just fit his budget. It was free.”
Of course it took time for him to go pick the cat out and
take it home. But more than anything, that job cut into the time he was
spending building his new roping arena and making room for the new roping
steers due in any day.
Let it be noted that on their 35th anniversary he
gave her the buckle he’d won that day and told her he was glad she had been
there to watch him win it. Love at a premium.
Keep in mind this is a now over-60 years old version of the
college cowboy who lived ready to ride with his spurs never off his boots and a
Coors beer can as a permanent fixture in his hand.
While his wife sat on the washing machine when it was in the
spin cycle to keep it from walking across the floor of the tiny trailer house,
he cheered her on. He claimed he really wanted to help her but his spurs might
scratch the enamel and worse yet, that washer sitting made his beer foam up.
One night some years ago, I was watching the Blue Collar
Comedy Tour and laughing enough for it to be an honor to the comedians. It is
very funny when you hear what is so true told in stories in which you recognize
your relatives.
My son, who was 11 at time, asked after a number of Jeff
Foxworthy’s “you might be a redneck” jokes, “Mom what is a redneck?”
I looked directly at him and said, “You are.”
He immediately laid his hand on his neck and started to ask
the logical question. I quickly explained that it didn’t mean the color of his
neck exactly. It was more about his full closet of camouflage clothing, the
hunting stories he already had stored in his memory and dreams of owning bigger
guns, more ATVs and better hunting hounds.
Like the at least two generations before him, he wears a tag
that is supposed to explain how we think and what we like. It just seems normal
to us and before they came up with the name, it had no name.
For academic failure, that same boy spent some time grounded
from the television except for educational TV. When I set that parameter I had
no idea how difficult it would be for this genetically disposed redneck child
to decipher what was “educational.”
In passing through the room I had to point out that County
Music Television was not considered educational programming.
“Well okay then. Mom, is “Gunsmoke” educational?”
Julie can be reached
for comment at Redneck Headquarters or jcarternm@gmail.com.
The burning of Western bridges
The burning of Western bridges
OCCUPY
Good manners
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
Services
for LaVoy Finicum weren’t confined to Utah
and Oregon
last week.
Widespread
sympathy for him and his family was witnessed across the West. In places like
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
folks gathered to offer prayers for his soul and the well being of his family.
There were no behind the scenes political organizations orchestrating the
demonstrations nor were there alerted and strategically positioned TV cameras
or photographers to chronicle the scenes for the night’s news reader scripts or
tomorrow’s front page progressive headlines. Several scores of people came
because they are concerned. In fact, thousands of Americans across the West actually
understand the turmoil of agency related condescension that ended in Finicum’s
death. They have a deep seated concern for what transpired on the road to John Day, Oregon.
They know LaVoy
Finicum was not killed on the basis of any real threat. Finicum was killed for … political expediency.
Senatorial visitation
The
military and the Border Patrol have a simple policy.
When an
agent arrives at a new duty station, he reports to a duty officer. That
official doesn’t own the facility, but he is a respected representative, and,
as such, he carries a degree of authority. The agent introduces himself and
makes his presence known. His action isn’t just a courtesy. It is broadly
practical. He discloses his reason for arrival and he is placed into a
situation to be brought up to speed on matters that affect his wellbeing. Those
things can be various, but they could impact informational updates as well as
points of safety. It just makes sense and it offers a structured base for
communication. It is a simplistic method to set the stage for a better
understanding. It creates goodwill among the ranks. It eliminates unknowns.
As western
ranchers, most of us long ago assumed no such protocol was ever intended or
envisioned by land management agencies. If there isn’t a matter of specific
discussion regarding a project, rarely are we aware when a federal land
official is going to arrive much less know about his presence on our
operations. Our first inkling is a dust trail of single or multiple vehicles. Certainly,
we don’t expect any special consideration, but it is seldom if ever that we
would visit a neighboring operation and not announce our presence. Usually, any
visit to neighboring ranches is signaled even before it takes place. We will
seek the neighbor and then detail the issue. We simply don’t take action
without asking permission.
It is a
simple courtesy that creates goodwill. It just makes sense and it offers a base
for the entire communication structure. It promotes workable neighbor
relationships and it is just good manners.
When my neighbor
learned his ranch had been the destination of a group of quail hunters several
weeks ago, he figured it was just another group of urbanites who didn’t
understand that most basic courtesy. Their actions precluded them from touching
base with the steward on the ground and learning what he might know that would
enhance their visit. They did not gain his respect for their decision not to
talk to him, and they didn’t put themselves in a position to receive his help
if a situation arose that required it. After all, they were in a border area
where some government officials are instructed not to enter without armed escorts.
The area is an active drug corridor controlled by the Juarez Cartel.
When my
neighbor learned that one of the hunters was none other than New Mexico Senator
Martin Heinrich, he was not surprised, but he was disappointed the senator
chose not to stop. He had been one of several ranchers asked to be present in a
discussion with the senator over matters that affected his ranch by the senator’s
orchestrated convincing of this president to create the national monument that
impacts 100% of this ranching operation. It would have been appropriate and
appreciated by the rancher if the senator had sought his constituent and greeted
him on the basis of the profound impact on this man’s life and well being.
After all, he is the rancher’s senator.
He chose
not to. He added insult to absence of goodwill by having a staff member email
the BLM for what he described as overgrazing.
The BLM immediately investigated
and determined that the area described by the senator was subject to various
overlapping issues that started with wintertime conditions. It is also a
corridor for accessing water, and most importantly, it is adjacent to a large
brush control treatment that requires removal of cattle in certain periods. It
has become a primary corridor for stocking and destocking cattle related to
intermittent grazing on the treatment footprint.
The senator would have done a big
service if he had talked to the rancher. It would have been a helpful method to
set the stage for better understanding of the matters on the ground. He would have learned that the
rancher had earned high accolades for serving as the contracted steward that
was necessary to fund the project. It would have created good will, and … it
would have been good manners.
Occupy
Oregon has been in the
news in abundance.
The intent
to remove the tribute to Martin Luther King on the campus of the University of Oregon for not being inclusive enough
for all minorities is but one social event that is catching press attention.
Another has been observed variously but it is a comprehensive effort for
dramatic social change. It even has a professional website replete with events
and ongoing festivities. Various press coverage defines its underlying goal as
“Land Liberation and Space Reclamation!” It is promoted as a movement about
people making substantive change in the way the system works. It calls for
people to join in the effort in order to provide and important “psychological
presence”.
Not a
single participant has been labeled as a radical. In fact, over the years of
its existent, not a single participant has been killed by any swat team member
nor have their mode of transportation been forced by structural tactics to
avoid collision by veering off any city street.
Occupy Portland, the major
Occupy Wall Street scion of the Northwest, is a politically correct exercise
that seemingly doesn’t rankle the attention of the new governor of the state.
There is simply no public comment since the start of the movement October 6,
2011 that can be found that suggests Kate Brown has any problem with mobs that
are committed to engineering a “psychological presence” of all the groovy
albeit tedious demands to reduce police brutality, increase minimum wages,
eliminate college tuition, celebrate May Day, advocate student strikes, uphold
worker solidarity, and laying claim to urban property that stands vacant.
She is
silent and has not announced any official action toward the Occupy Portland
protesters into her 2016 policy priorities.
Occupy Malheur
On the
other hand, the nation’s first openly bisexual governor excoriated the
occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. She demonstrated zero tolerance for
the advocated issues made by the rural version of her state’s Occupy movement.
She even elevated the issue into her highest priorities for the year. It was
inserted near the top of a list that included fighting for higher minimum wage,
pushing affordable housing, outlining education enhancements, and funding
growing threats by wildfires.
“The
situation is absolutely intolerable,” she said prior to the incident that
resulted in the death of Finicum. “The very fabric of this community (Burns) is
being ripped apart.”
She demanded
conclusive action by the federal government. Two letters were sent to this
president demanding he order immediate resolution to the problem. That, of course,
ended in the execution of Finicum, the arrest of the Malheur leadership
hierarchy during the course of the shooting, and last Thursday’s surrender of
the final four Malheur Occupy holdouts.
She
apologized to the Indian Tribe whose ancestral lands underlay the now infamous
wildlife refuge for the actions of the ranchers No similar empathy was offered to the family
of Finicum.
The
condescension demonstrated by Brown rings eerily similar to the snubbing by Senator
Heinrich toward his constituent rancher. All discernible appearances of concern
for an entire rural community by both liberal leaders are clearly absent. Posturing
is important and it hearkens back to the simple courtesy shown by rural
communities to their own. Both officials, Heinrich being elected and Brown
being appointed, would be more respected if they attempted to serve all constituencies
rather than pick agenda preferences. It would be a simplistic method to set the
stage for better understanding for conditions on the ground. It might just
create a semblance of goodwill, and … it would just be good manners.
Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico, “There are
terrible and tragic implications relating to the bridges that are burning
across the West. Hearts are broken and …trust is increasingly absent.”
DuBois column
We
are occupied by the occupiers and Trump tramples on lands transfer
The
Bundy Bunch
Is this a Bundy bungle or Bundy bravery? I’ve been going back and forward on this for
two weeks.
I wrote in November of last year about the injustice
of the trials and sentencing of the Hammonds for burning 140 acres of federal
land. Steve Hammond and his son were
tried, convicted and had served their prison terms. However, the feds appealed, saying the
ranchers had been prosecuted under an anti-terrorism law that mandated minimum
sentences of five years. The feds won
and the Hammonds have headed back to prison, as terrorists.
We all know this is not really about fire. After all, the feds offered to drop all 22
charges if the Hammonds would just sign over two thirds of their ranch to the
government. Think of the abuse here.
Oregon Farm Bureau President Barry
Bushue said this “is an example of gross government overreach, and the public
should be outraged. He said the “verdict
is also hypocritical given BLM’s own harm to public and private grazing lands,
which goes without consequence.” Bushue
continued, “This prosecution will have a chilling effect across the West among
ranchers, foresters, and others who rely on federal allotments and permits.”
To the extent the actions of the
Bundys and the locals brought attention to this grave miscarriage of justice,
so much the better.
Then came the occupation of the
Malheur Wildlife Refuge. Still there
were some positive, educational articles about the history of federal lands,
the benefits of livestock grazing and so on.
Reporters were actually using terms like allotments, permits, etc.
When it became evident the occupiers
were there to stay, the dam broke. The
Environmental Kingdom ruled by the envirocrats and the environmental groups
felt threatened. Stories started
appearing about welfare ranchers, artificially low grazing fees, and even how
ISIS supported the militia members who were occupying the refuge. Individual members of the occupying group
didn’t help themselves with some very stupid statements, and some were
disclosed as convicted felons, and others lied about their personal history.
The media coverage had turned from
favorable, to neutral to decidedly negative.
No longer are there discussions of why the feds own so much land in the
West, the pros and cons of federal management and what alternatives there are
to the current system. Groups and their
media buddies are using the militia occupation to tar other attempts, such as
that promoted by the American Lands Council, to have an orderly transfer of
many of these lands to state control.
Some of the GOP candidates for
President have weighed in on the issue.
Ted Cruz has urged the militia members to “stand down peacefully.” "Everyone has a Constitutional right
to protest, to speak our minds, but we don’t have a constitutional right to use
force and violence and threaten force and violence on others," Cruz said. Marco Rubio says “you can’t be lawless.” "We live in a republic. There are ways
to change the laws of this country and the policies. If we get frustrated with
it, that’s why we have elections,” Rubio says.
And Ben Carson says, "I think right now the government's handling
it in the right way by not being confrontational."
New
Mexico U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich has thrown in with the “law and order”
enviros by calling for federal action.
In a letter to the Dept. of Justice he states he wants the rule of law restored
by bringing “those responsible to justice.”
He further urges the Dept. to “use
all of the resources at your disposal to fully prosecute anyone who has broken
the law.” On his Facebook page Heinrich
says this whole episode by “armed radicals” is “only the latest example in a well-organized and well-funded
campaign to seize and sell off public lands.”
As I write this, Ammon Bundy is
talking to the FBI and is demanding the negotiations be in public view, while
the feds want everything kept in secret.
Without knowing the final outcome, it’s hard to know how this will play
out for the ranching community as a whole.
Will this be just another blip on feds growing control of the people and
resources of the West, or will this be a turning point towards a more
reasonable, responsible and balanced solution?
Stay tuned for Act III.
UPDATE: Not long after this column was submitted the
news broke of the tragic slaying of LaVoy Finicum and the capture of the Bundy
Brothers. Ammon Bundy has been arraigned
and has issued a statement asking the remainder of the occupiers to stand down
and go home. I believe the question I
asked above is more valid than ever and is a long way from being answered. Act III, indeed, has begun.
Trump
No, Cruz & Carson Yes on lands transfer
Donald Trump recently said he was
totally against transferring federal lands to the states. In an interview with the editor of Outdoor
Life Trump had the following to say:
“I
don’t like the idea because I want to keep the lands great, and you don’t know
what the state is going to do. I mean, are they going to sell if they get into
a little bit of trouble? And I don’t think it’s something that should be sold.
We have to be great stewards of this land.… And the hunters do such a great job—I
mean, the hunters and the fishermen and all of the different people that use
that land.”
The idea the only way something can
be “great” is for it to be owned by the feds is scary to me. And besides, wouldn’t that also apply to
Hotels & Casinos?
Ben Carson says, "I think it's
ridiculous that the government owns so much land and that we should enact a
program whereby we gradually begin to restore that land to the states,"
while acknowledging, "we can't do it all in one fell swoop because they
wouldn't be able to afford it."
Ted Cruz says, "I think it
is completely indefensible that the federal government is America's largest
landlord." “I believe we should
transfer as much federal land as possible back to the states and ideally back
to the people," said Cruz, making exceptions for national parks and
military bases. "If I am elected
president, we have never had a president who is as vigorously committed to
transferring as much federal land as humanely possible back to the states and
back to the people," said Cruz.
Till
next time, be a nuisance to the devil, and now more than ever, don’t forget to
check that cinch.
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