Friday, July 15, 2016

CITE plans explained for proposed NM mock city

DEMING - It’s hard to imagine a new 33-square-mile city popping up in the desert out of nowhere, when no inhabitants will be able to live in the city. The Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation, located south of I-10 between Las Cruces and Deming, will be the future of testing and innovation for a better planet and will include resource production through some of the activities, according to CITE officials. Once built, the city will serve as a functioning real-time test site for projects and technologies that would improve life in cities around the world without compromising any of the amenities in existing areas. CITE will bring in a variety of companies of technology to eastern Luna County including university teams as well as federal research groups to develop technologies and ideas for the future. Various testing of city-based technologies will be the primary focus of the large scale project. While bringing these teams and tests, CITE also has the potential to create nearly 4,000 jobs – both contracted and permanent at the location, according to Paul Feiler, principal executive of CITE Development. “Our role as a county right now is to present everything that we have and to help them just as we would any other business or any other citizen that wanted to come in,” said Luna County Manager Ira Pearson. The project was first brought up by Pegasus Global Holdings, a technological development company, and has since taken up its own reins in the development phase of the project. Though the city will require a high cost to be operational, no public money has been spent on CITE or their allocated land since the county first drafted proposals to the company in 2012. Feiler said that CITE will also host educational facilities for students in the area to venture in and learn about the various projects being tested or created, therefore helping the educational system in the area with real-time experience with new technologies. CITE is in the preliminary and planning phases of construction and the plans for the city will be completed in four to seven years. It will include elements of a normal city including; roads, houses and other forms of infrastructure, as well as the test facilities inside the area. “CITE will be a channel for international research and business coming into the United States and it will be a channel for innovators from around the country to get their innovations certified and to set up businesses in Luna County,” Feiler said...more


Luna County was chosen as the location for CITE after several other locations in the state failed to be able to accommodate the plan.  

No kidding.  Luna wanted economic development, Dona Ana wanted Wilderness.  Luna welcomed a clean, high-tech project while the progressive/enviros in Dona Ana wanted a place where their counterparts could tiptoe through the cacti.  Luna's vision is forward-looking, while Dona Ana's is blinded by the enviro/left.  What a contrast.

As Interior secretary tours sacred tribal site, Utah Republicans push to protect it

Utah Republican lawmakers introduced legislation Thursday that would protect 1.4 million acres of a sacred Native American site in the state’s southeast, as Interior Secretary Sally Jewell toured the area to solicit ideas on how to address the threats it faces. Bears Ears — an expanse of land in San Juan County that boasts both archeological treasures and critical environmental habitats — has come under pressure from looters and vandalism over the years. Utah’s congressional delegation has spent three years working to craft a compromise bill that would encompass not only that area but six other counties, providing opportunities for energy development, grazing and motorized recreation while designating some parts for conservation. The new flurry of activity, including the bill introduction and Jewell’s four-day visit to meet with tribal leaders, local officials and environmentalists, underscores that time is running out to forge a legislative deal. President Obama is weighing whether to designate Bears Ears as a national monument under the 1906 Antiquities Act at the request of the Hopi, Navajo, Uintah and Ouray Ute, Ute Mountain Ute and Pueblo of Zuni, who argue that state lawmakers have not given them sufficient input into their lands plan. While many of these nations no longer live in Utah, they date their connections to the land back more than 3,000 years, when ancestral Pueblo communities lived there...more


 Look at the leverage the Antiquities Act gives the environmental community.

You would think that under a Republican congress the legislative debate would concern redrawing the boundaries and revising the management language of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument proclamation, but thanks to the Antiquities Act - and the threat it contains - Republican lawmakers are rushing to create more Wilderness and other restrictive designations.

On previous occasions where the Republicans have controlled both Houses of Congress and the White House, they have failed to amend the Antiquities Act.  Will they make that mistake again?

Bears Ears debate at center of proposed ac

U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, introduced a measure today that, if passed, will determine how a large portion of public land in southeast Utah will be managed. The bill, known as the Utah Public Lands Initiative Act, is the result of three years of work, including multiple meetings with stakeholder organizations. Utah officials created a locally driven effort known as Public Lands Initiative to gather comments and review proposals for land management. The bill would designate more than 4.5 million acres of federal land in Utah for conservation. Andrew Reynolds, who represented the Pew Charitable Trusts — which works to conserve public lands — in the discussions with the Public Lands Initiative, said the bill would give "permanent gold standard protection" in the form of wilderness and conservation areas "for some really amazing landscapes." At the same time, the bill also paves the way for Utah to exchange state-owned land in eastern Utah that has environmentally and archaeologically sensitive sites for federal land that could be developed as state trust land. State trust land is used for extraction of oil, gas and minerals, as well as agriculture, timber, recreation and commercial development. Some of the land included in the proposal is also located within a region that several groups have petitioned President Barack Obama to designate as the Bears Ears National Monument. A coalition of five tribes known as the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition has been spearheading the national monument movement for the area. Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, the co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, said she thinks the bill was introduced too late in the session for something to be passed that provides adequate protection for the region. She said the coalition will continue to ask the president to create the national monument. Reynolds said if the bill does not move through Congress in a timely fashion, the Pew Charitable Trusts hopes Obama will use the Antiquities Act to declare the area a national monument. Part of the trust's support of the bill comes from the fact that it protects land in seven Utah counties and not just the Bears Ears region...more

Key Wildlife Refuge Occupier Scheduled To Plead Guilty

A key figure of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation is scheduled to plead guilty on July 19 to federal charges related to the occupation. Ryan Payne, a military veteran and electrician from Montana, also faces federal charges in Nevada related to the April 2014 standoff at Cliven Bundy’s ranch with the Bureau of Land Management. Federal public defender Lisa Hay confirmed Payne's intent to plead guilty. She said details of his plea agreement would be released after his July 19 hearing. He's charged with conspiring to impede federal officials from doing their jobs at the refuge and weapons possession at a federal facility. In January, Payne told OPB that ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond needed to be defended from the federal government. “The Hammonds are being brutally oppressed,” he said. The Hammonds were sentenced to prison in accordance with federal anti-terrorism laws for arson on federal land. But Payne's role in taking over the refuge was not his first visit to Harney County.  In December 2015, Payne traveled to the rural Oregon county with Ammon Bundy to try and establish a so-called "committee of safety." Speaking to a gathering of Harney County residents, Payne pointed to Colonial Era committees of safety as an extrajudicial model for dealing with “corrupt” governments...more

Burning Man disputes $2.8M bill for federal land use permit

Burning Man organizers are disputing their $2.8 million bill from the federal government — the cost last year of hosting its popular outdoor festival in the Black Rock Desert, a national conservation area in Nevada. The festival takes issue with the Bureau of Land Management’s discretion over the weeklong counterculture celebration, claiming that the authority has been overstaffing and overcharging without fully explaining the tab, as first reported by the Reno Gazette-Journal. “If they can’t explain all of it, than we’re asking for all of it back,” said Ray Allen, the San Francisco-based Burning Man organization’s lawyer. But the case also pulls back the curtain on the logistical hurdles and an evolving backstage power struggle behind an event once considered an extreme camping experience that has now achieved widespread popularity with millions in revenue.
Held in Nevada since 1990 and known for art displays, dust storms and communal living, this year’s sold-out, 9-day festival in August and September is expected to draw tens of thousands of people to the scorching hot dry lake bed about 100 miles north of Reno. Burning Man — named for the large effigy burned during the festival — estimates more than $30 million in revenues from the 2015 event. The festival’s special recreation permit from BLM is the largest of its kind in the country. Burning Man agrees to and pays for a cost estimate before the event and the final accounting is provided months after, following a post-event inspection of the site. A BLM spokesman declined to comment on the 2015 cost appeal, but its formal response submitted noted that Burning Man officials were provided with a detailed summary of costs with receipts and that “(f)ederal government agencies are obligated to recover the full cost of providing a special benefit...” The festival is taking the issue to the Interior Department’s internal appeals court, where an administrative law judge will decide on the case. This arbitration process, which could last more than a year, is commonly used for challenges related to grazing or mining uses and fees. BLM contends that Burning Man demands year-round planning and an unparalleled response to protect the public lands given its scope and nature. The 2015 event required 84 law enforcement officers, as decided by the BLM. The festival argues that that many officers aren’t necessary given that more than a thousand Burning Man volunteers also patrol the event and that it has a clean record of taking care of the land. Burning Man said in its appeal that more than half the BLM bill was to pay for labor costs, but that the paperwork lacked specific information about the duties they actually performed. In recent years, a more openly adversarial partnership has surfaced between the festival and the increasing number of local authorities assigned to oversee it. Allen said Burning Man has been stomaching dramatically increasing costs since 2011, when its permit was $730,000...more

Hunters want to continue their hunting ways at new Sand to Snow National Monument

Hunters are hoping the newly created Sand to Snow National Monument will be the first national monument in the state to allow hunting. Organizing through social media, about 40 hunters from around the region attended Wednesday the first of a series of workshops designed to seek public input about the monument, created by President Barack Obama in a Feb. 12 proclamation. The 154,000-acre monument includes 71,000 acres of San Bernardino National Forest land and 83,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land — on which hunters have been able to pursue deer, bear and smaller prey, such as coyotes, rabbits and squirrels. They want to keep it that way. “I checked on the internet and found not a single national monument in California allows hunting,” said Eric Welsh, 34, a Yucaipa resident who played a major role in connecting with other hunters. He said national monuments in states adjacent to California do allow hunting...more

Watch your wallet: Federal civil penalties are going up

House Republicans have passed a spending bill that could block a new national monument in southeastern Utah. But the effort faces a White House veto threat. Republican Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah added a provision to an Interior Department spending bill that blocks money for any new monuments in portions of eight states, including 17 Utah counties. The House passed the bill Thursday, but the measure is expected to run into a filibuster from Senate Democrats and the White House veto threat. The vote comes as U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is visiting Utah to meet with supporters and opponents of the Bears Ears monument...more

NM victim of bear attack pleads for policy change

The New Mexico state epidemiologist says he has no plans to change a state regulation requiring that wild animals be killed after attacking humans, despite an impassioned plea for leniency by a woman who survived being mauled by a bear. Still wearing a bandage on her arm and stitches over her eye, Karen Williams told the Legislature’s Water and Natural Resources Committee that she wants the state to allow for a case-by-case review on whether wild animals involved in an attack should be euthanized and that patients should decide for themselves whether to take rabies vaccine. “I don’t think any medical doctor has the right to take over a patient’s rights and not tell a patient what is going on, and I’m in the medical field,” said Williams, a critical care nurse. “I was in the bear’s house. I need to take responsibility for myself, and we need to hold people responsible for themselves.” Rather than immediately euthanize an animal to test for rabies, “We should offer the bitten person the choice whether to take the rabies vaccine or not.” But State Epidemiologist Dr. Michael Landen told legislators that the state’s policy is a cautionary one to protect the public from rabies and that the vaccine should be administered only when the offending animal cannot be captured. An animal must be euthanized to test the brain for the virus. “Any wild animal that bites a human should be considered potentially rabid until proven otherwise,” he said. “How do we prove otherwise? You test the animal. How do you test the animal? You euthanize the animal and test the brain.”...more

Dozens of curanderos in NM for healing conference

Traditional healers and students of alternative medicine are at the University of New Mexico this week for an annual conference on curanderismo. The healers from the United States and Latin America are meeting on campus for two-weeks for demonstrations and hands-on activities about traditions, rituals, herbs, and remedies. Curanderismo is the art of using traditional healing methods like herbs and plants to treat various ailments. Long practiced in indigenous villages of Mexico and other parts of Latin America, curanderos also could be found in parts of New Mexico, south Texas, Arizona and California. Anthropologists believe curanderismo remains popular among poor Latinos who didn't have access to health care.  AP

House bill blocking monuments faces veto threat

House Republicans have passed a spending bill that could block a new national monument in southeastern Utah. But the effort faces a White House veto threat. Republican Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah added a provision to an Interior Department spending bill that blocks money for any new monuments in portions of eight states, including 17 Utah counties. The House passed the bill Thursday, but the measure is expected to run into a filibuster from Senate Democrats and the White House veto threat. The vote comes as U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is visiting Utah to meet with supporters and opponents of the Bears Ears monument...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1659

Now we'll fast forward to 1962 and the #9 song that year - That's My Pa - by Sheb Wooley.

https://youtu.be/9ebWLw2xZSQ

Thursday, July 14, 2016

GOP energy negotiator accuses Senate chair of 'bizarre' promise

A House chairman assigned to an energy bill conference committee said it was “a little bit bizarre” to hear a Senate Republican promise to cut provisions from the bill that could earn a presidential veto. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said it defeats the purpose of going to a joint House and Senate conference committee if Republicans are going to preemptively agree to remove controversial, conservative provisions from the bill. “As far as I understood, I was not privy to any conversations in which somebody made a deal that said this stuff will not be in or will be in,” Bishop told reporters Thursday. ”A conference is a conference. You handle it as a conference.” Senate negotiators — primarily the ranking members on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) — have said the energy bill conference committee should produce a bill that can get to President Obama for his signature this year. The statements mean, implicitly, that certain provisions are going to have to come out of the House-passed energy bill. Among the controversial provisions are GOP-backed measures to help relieve the California drought and prevent wildfires, for example...more

Another Solyndra? Lawmakers Worry This Obama-Backed Solar Project Could Fail

by Michael Bastasch

House lawmakers grilled a Interior Department official over the green energy projects on federal lands, in particular taking aim at the troubled Ivanpah solar energy plant.

Georgia Republican Rep. Jody Hice even suggested Ivanpah, which has trouble living up to its contracts, could fail and potentially leave taxpayers on the hook for $1.6 billion in unpaid loan guarantees.

“So we have Ivanpah, for example, one of those companies — $1.6 billion dollars, three times that of Solyndra in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy,” Hice said during a hearing Wednesday before questioning Mike Nedd, who oversees energy projects for the Bureau of Land Management.

Hice was responding to news that California regulators were on the verge of shutting down Ivanpah  for not producing the amount of promised electricity. The plant only generated 45 percent of expected power in 2014 and only 68 percent in 2015, according to government data.


Pearce Statement on Interior Appropriations Bill (wolves & mice)

Washington, DC (July 14, 2016) - Congressman Pearce issued the following statement after the House passed H.R. 5538, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2017: 

This Administration’s consistent overreach has does nothing but hurt New Mexico’s economy.  Passing this bill is clear evidence that the people’s Congress is pushing back against the Obama Administration’s excessive and unnecessary regulations that threaten New Mexican jobs. This bill balances the need to preserve our natural resources, such as providing funding to fight and prevent forest fires, while simultaneously allowing for the responsible development of American energy resources.  

I am pleased to see key provisions vital to New Mexico were included in this bill.  For example, President Obama is trying to take control of ditches and farm ponds through the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule.  This bill stops him. The legislation also includes amendments that would block the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) venting and flaring rule and the BLM’s Hydraulic Fracturing rule, which would both be devastating to New Mexico energy production and jobs.  These provisions will help lower energy prices, meaning New Mexicans will not have to pay more for their electricity and at the gas pump.  They also will ensure that schools, local law enforcement, and hospitals have the funding they need to provide essential services for local communities.

“Overall, this bill will support local economies and start to make government agencies work for the American people not against them,” said Congressman Pearce.

Included in the final House passed version of the bill are both of Congressman Pearce’s amendments that are significant for New Mexico’s economy. 

The first would protect ranchers’ water rights in New Mexico by prohibiting funds from being used to treat the New Mexico Meadow Jumping Mouse as endangered pursuant to the Endangered Species Act.  Essentially, this means the government would no longer be able to construct fences around the mouse’s habitat, ultimately opening up water access for cattle. 

Access to these water rights is essential for the survival of ranching in New Mexico.  Despite the lack of scientific evidence that the New Mexico Meadow Jumping Mouse still lives in these designated areas, the Forest Service began fencing off and restricting access to these privately held water rights, threatening these ranchers’ livelihoods,” continued Pearce.  

The second amendment effectively de-lists the Mexican Wolf from the Endangered Species Act and will allow the states to manage the wolf recovery independently. 

“FWS has consistently proven its inability to manage the Mexican Wolf program in New Mexico. This is clear in the recent Inspector General (IG) Report substantiating claims from Catron County that those at the top levels of the program at FWS tolerated a culture of lies, falsification, mismanagement, and manipulation of scientific data, ultimately at the cost of public trust and species recovery.  I am pleased that the House passed this amendment, it is time to give this program back to the States,”  added Pearce.   
 

Pearce Statement on Interior Appropriations Bill (wolves & mice)

Washington, DC (July 14, 2016) - Congressman Pearce issued the following statement after the House passed H.R. 5538, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2017: 

This Administration’s consistent overreach has does nothing but hurt New Mexico’s economy.  Passing this bill is clear evidence that the people’s Congress is pushing back against the Obama Administration’s excessive and unnecessary regulations that threaten New Mexican jobs. This bill balances the need to preserve our natural resources, such as providing funding to fight and prevent forest fires, while simultaneously allowing for the responsible development of American energy resources.  

I am pleased to see key provisions vital to New Mexico were included in this bill.  For example, President Obama is trying to take control of ditches and farm ponds through the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule.  This bill stops him. The legislation also includes amendments that would block the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) venting and flaring rule and the BLM’s Hydraulic Fracturing rule, which would both be devastating to New Mexico energy production and jobs.  These provisions will help lower energy prices, meaning New Mexicans will not have to pay more for their electricity and at the gas pump.  They also will ensure that schools, local law enforcement, and hospitals have the funding they need to provide essential services for local communities.

“Overall, this bill will support local economies and start to make government agencies work for the American people not against them,” said Congressman Pearce.

Included in the final House passed version of the bill are both of Congressman Pearce’s amendments that are significant for New Mexico’s economy. 

The first would protect ranchers’ water rights in New Mexico by prohibiting funds from being used to treat the New Mexico Meadow Jumping Mouse as endangered pursuant to the Endangered Species Act.  Essentially, this means the government would no longer be able to construct fences around the mouse’s habitat, ultimately opening up water access for cattle. 

Access to these water rights is essential for the survival of ranching in New Mexico.  Despite the lack of scientific evidence that the New Mexico Meadow Jumping Mouse still lives in these designated areas, the Forest Service began fencing off and restricting access to these privately held water rights, threatening these ranchers’ livelihoods,” continued Pearce.  

The second amendment effectively de-lists the Mexican Wolf from the Endangered Species Act and will allow the states to manage the wolf recovery independently. 

“FWS has consistently proven its inability to manage the Mexican Wolf program in New Mexico. This is clear in the recent Inspector General (IG) Report substantiating claims from Catron County that those at the top levels of the program at FWS tolerated a culture of lies, falsification, mismanagement, and manipulation of scientific data, ultimately at the cost of public trust and species recovery.  I am pleased that the House passed this amendment, it is time to give this program back to the States,”  added Pearce.   
 

New House coalition fights rise in government surveillance

An unusual coalition of 13 Republicans and 12 Democrats on Wednesday announced the creation of the House Fourth Amendment Caucus to protect Americans' privacy rights against calls for increased government surveillance in the wake of terrorist attacks. The group named itself after the Fourth Amendment because the lawmakers fear that the government is increasingly seeking the power to search Americans' electronic data without a warrant. They see that as a threat to the Constitutional amendment's protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. "In the face of difficult circumstances, some are quick to pursue extreme, unconstitutional measures; the Fourth Amendment Caucus will be a moderating influence that gives voice to countless Americans whose rights are violated by these ill-conceived policies," said Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., who joined the group led by Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Ted Poe, R-Texas. Privacy rights are one of the rare issues that liberals and libertarian-leaning conservatives in Congress have agreed on. Members of the new coalition oppose legislation that would force U.S. tech companies to build "backdoors" into encrypted smartphones or allow federal agents to view someone's Internet browsing history without a warrant...more

Stemming grizzly bloodshed

Range rider Phil McGinnis was trotting around on horseback in an open sagebrush-steppe pasture pushing a spread-out group of cow, calf and yearling cattle into something more resembling a clump. The maneuver, to the untrained eye, didn’t look like much. The livestock were scattered over a couple hillsides, and then, after McGinnis rode by with his cattle dog, scattered a little less. A lot of hope, however, hangs on the herding technique, which is being tested out as a trial at the Mosquito Lake pasture in the Bridger-Teton National Forest’s massive Upper Green River rangeland allotment. The desire of McGinnis, cattleman Albert Sommers and a number of conservationists is that the more bunched-up bovids will be somewhat less prone to ending up as dinner for a grizzly bear. “After last year, I would have tried anything,” said Sommers, who presides over the Upper Green River Cattle Association and is also Sublette County’s representative in the Wyoming House. The death toll the third-generation rancher amassed last year in the four-month grazing season: 80 cattle killed by bears and another 10 lost to wolves. “That’s confirmed,” Sommers said. “We were short 290 head of calves.” The stockman, whose ball cap touts the “grizzly-tested, wolf-approved” taste of his cattle, let out an unexpected laugh. “That’s a lot,” Sommers said, regaining himself. “It was 14 percent of all our calves.” Going by the numbers, the scope of depredation that now befalls the Upper Green cattle herds annually is unparalleled in the Lower 48....more

AGs subpoenaed over prosecuting climate change skeptics

The chairman of the House Science Committee issued subpoenas Wednesday to two Democratic attorneys general over their pursuit of climate change dissenters after the prosecutors had refused to respond to the panel’s previous requests for information. Chairman Lamar Smith, Texas Republican, announced that subpoenas have been sent to New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, as well as eight environmental groups, related to their “coordinated efforts to deprive companies, nonprofit organizations, scientists and scholars of their First Amendment rights.” “The attorneys general have appointed themselves to decide what is valid and what is invalid regarding climate change,” Mr. Smith said at a press conference with other committee Republicans. “The attorneys general are pursuing a political agenda at the expense of scientists’ right to free speech.” He was referring to a Democrat-led coalition of 17 attorneys general working with environmental groups to pursue fossil fuel companies, starting with ExxonMobil, as well as academics and free market think tanks, for possible fraud for challenging the catastrophic climate change narrative. Those on the receiving end of the subpoenas disputed the committee’s jurisdiction over the state prosecutorial investigations. Both New York and Massachusetts have issued subpoenas as part of their probes. “This committee has no authority to interfere with these state law enforcement investigations, and whether they issue a subpoena or not, this attorney general will not be intimidated or deterred from ensuring that every New Yorker receives the full protection of state laws,” said Schneiderman spokesman Eric Soufer...more

SwagBot all-terrain robot is meant for rural life

Uncle Owen in Star Wars had a bunch of robots that helped him mind the moisture farm and it looks like the future here on Earth might have robots to help farmers as well. That is if Professor Salah Sukkarieh from Sydney University has anything to say about it. Sukkarieh is the project lead for agriculture robotics at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) currently studying how automated technology could assist farmers and ranchers. The latest robot that the ACFR is testing is called the SwagBot and it is able to do things like herd animals and monitor them for ranchers. SwagBot is meant to be cheap but powerful and able to work in large and rugged areas. Sukkarieh said, "Because of the type of terrain ... it needed to have enough power and articulation capability to clamber over logs and ditches." SwagBot is battery operated and is able to reach a top speed of about 12mph on smooth terrain and uses all-wheel drive for traction. Cows are dubious of anything not offering food by nature, so Sukkarieh says that they ran away from the robot as expected, something useful when herding animals. "They (cows) were obviously scared and ran away. It's what we expected," Sukkarieh said. "We use it to our advantage in herding animals, or we figure out how to monitor from a distance." The goal is to create a robot that is similar in price to an all-terrain buggy commonly used on farms and ranches. That would indicate a price of somewhere in the $20,000 range...more

House considers bill limiting president’s ability to name new national monuments

The U.S. House is poised to pass legislation Thursday that essentially would bar the president from naming a new national monument in the Bears Ears region and other parts of Utah. Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, pushed the language to prohibit the president from using the power of the Antiquities Act to preserve areas in parts of eight states, mainly in the West. The bill would not take away the authority to name monuments, but it would prohibit any funding for doing so in those areas, essentially removing the ability to add a monument. "I am committed to continuing to use the power of the purse and my position on the Appropriations Committee to rein in regulatory overreach at the Interior Department," Stewart said. The bill's language forbids money being spent on a new monument in 17 of Utah's 29 counties, including San Juan County, where conservationists and tribal leaders are pushing President Barack Obama to designate a Bears Ears National Monument covering nearly 2 million acres. The Obama administration issued a veto threat on the legislation, specifically calling out the language associated with the Antiquities Act. "This would debilitate a successful program that has been used to protect areas critical to the nation's natural and cultural heritage, such as Bandelier National Monument and the Statue of Liberty," the White House said. Obama may not have to veto the legislation, because its chances in the Senate remain unclear. While Republicans control the chamber, Democrats have enough votes to block measures and have in the past refused to support any limits on the Antiquities Act...more

Bishop to release sweeping Utah bill

A bill to designate millions of acres of wilderness, create vast motorized recreation areas and expedite the development of oil, gas and minerals in eastern Utah will be formally introduced in the House tomorrow, according to its sponsor. Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said his Public Lands Initiative legislation has undergone "so many" changes -- many at the insistence of conservation groups -- since it was introduced in draft form in January. Bishop urged conservationists at the negotiating table to back the bill. Otherwise it will revert to its earlier form, which was a "good bill," he said. Bishop said his bill will get a vote this fall. And he warned the Obama administration against designating a major chunk of lands in his bill as a national monument, a move he said would pull the rug out from his four-year-old, collaborative effort. "If they do a monument this bill is dead," Bishop said...more

How a Utah designation transformed politics in the West

by Phil Taylor, E&E reporter

    The ceremony marked a pivotal moment for the Bureau of Land Management, for the conservation of the American West and possibly for President Clinton's re-election.
    Sitting at a desk on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the president unilaterally protected 1.7 million acres of southern Utah desert, lands so rugged, remote and forbidding that they were the last to be mapped in the Lower 48.
    Clinton's proclamation on Sept. 18, 1996, described the newly established Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, with its multihued cliffs, zebra-striped slot canyons and soaring sandstone arches, in striking prose:
    "It is a place where one can see how nature shapes human endeavors in the American West, where distance and aridity have been pitted against our dreams and courage."
    Nearly 20 years later, Clinton's surprise proclamation continues to shape the politics of public lands from county commissions to the halls of Congress, infuriating many critics. And it's made an indelible mark on BLM, the agency that manages it.
    In the history of the 1906 Antiquities Act -- the law that gives presidents unfettered power to create monuments banning drilling, mining and road building -- Clinton's designation was an exhibit in extremes.
    Grand Staircase-Escalante remains the largest land-based national monument to be designated. It is 53 times larger than neighboring Bryce Canyon National Park and is bigger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.
    It was also the first to be managed by BLM, a multiple-use agency whose oversight of roughly 250 million acres of the West had been largely dominated by extractive uses like oil and gas, mining, and grazing.
    Until then, the National Park Service, with its singular mission of preservation, and the Forest Service, with its lofty pines, jagged peaks and alpine lakes, had been the favored stewards of the nation's wilderness, parks, monuments and other scenic lands.
    Grand Staircase-Escalante forced the 50-year-old BLM -- long known as the "neglected stepchild" of the wilderness movement -- to reinvent itself.
    "It was functionally one of the very seminal moments in BLM's conservation evolution," said Ken Rait, director of U.S. public lands for the Pew Charitable Trusts, who was with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance in 1996. "I think we're still living that evolution today."
    Before leaving office, Clinton would designate 13 more BLM monuments covering 3.5 million acres in Arizona, New Mexico, California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Montana. They laid the foundation for then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to establish within BLM a National Landscape Conservation System, a new division "to conserve, protect and restore special areas and unique resources."
    BLM's NLCS -- now known as the National Conservation Lands -- today contains 32 million acres of national monuments, conservation areas, wilderness, wilderness study areas, wild and scenic rivers, and other protected sites, and has its own assistant director and budget.
    Yet for many in the West, and particularly the Beehive State, Grand Staircase-Escalante remains a symbol of federal power run amok. Carried out in near-total secrecy, Clinton's designation sowed distrust and resentment among state officials. Critics blasted Clinton for locking up a massive coal deposit and turning the region into a vast playground for Easterners.
    "Our founding fathers feared special interests taking away freedom, but today we have another problem," House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) wrote in an op-ed last month in the Boston Herald. "One man in the Oval Office can lock up land and water from the entire nation with the stroke of a pen. This isn't the original intent of the Antiquities Act."
    Clinton's designation -- the first by a president in roughly two decades -- rekindled Republican efforts to reform the Antiquities Act, a push that continues to this day.
     With the political wounds still fresh, Grand Staircase-Escalante is also shaping today's debate in southeast Utah over a proposal by American Indians and conservationists for President Obama to designate a 1.9-million-acre Bears Ears National Monument. Administration officials will converge on Utah this Saturday to discuss future management of the Bears Ears area.


Unhealthy Fixation - Fearmongering, Errors and Fraud

By

...Hundreds of organizations, including Consumers Union, Friends of the Earth, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Center for Food Safety, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, are demanding “mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods.” Since 2013, Vermont, Maine, and Connecticut have passed laws to require GMO labels. Massachusetts could be next.

The central premise of these laws—and the main source of consumer anxiety, which has sparked corporate interest in GMO-free food—is concern about health. Last year, in a survey by the Pew Research Center, 57 percent of Americans said it’s generally “unsafe to eat genetically modified foods.” Vermont says the primary purpose of its labeling law is to help people “avoid potential health risks of food produced from genetic engineering.” Chipotle notes that 300 scientists have “signed a statement rejecting the claim that there is a scientific consensus on the safety of GMOs for human consumption.” Until more studies are conducted, Chipotle says, “We believe it is prudent to take a cautious approach toward GMOs.”

The World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have all declared that there’s no good evidence GMOs are unsafe. Hundreds of studies back up that conclusion. But many of us don’t trust these assurances. We’re drawn to skeptics who say that there’s more to the story, that some studies have found risks associated with GMOs, and that Monsanto is covering it up.

I’ve spent much of the past year digging into the evidence. Here’s what I’ve learned. First, it’s true that the issue is complicated. But the deeper you dig, the more fraud you find in the case against GMOs. It’s full of errors, fallacies, misconceptions, misrepresentations, and lies. The people who tell you that Monsanto is hiding the truth are themselves hiding evidence that their own allegations about GMOs are false. They’re counting on you to feel overwhelmed by the science and to accept, as a gut presumption, their message of distrust.

In a first, U.S. judge throws out cell phone 'stingray' evidence

For the first time, a federal judge has suppressed evidence obtained without a warrant by U.S. law enforcement using a stingray, a surveillance device that can trick suspects' cell phones into revealing their locations. U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan on Tuesday ruled that defendant Raymond Lambis' rights were violated when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration used such a device without a warrant to find his Washington Heights apartment. The DEA had used a stingray to identify Lambis' apartment as the most likely location of a cell phone identified during a drug-trafficking probe. Pauley said doing so constituted an unreasonable search. "Absent a search warrant, the government may not turn a citizen's cell phone into a tracking device," Pauley wrote. The ruling marked the first time a federal judge had suppressed evidence obtained using a stingray, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which like other privacy advocacy groups has criticized law enforcement's use of such devices. Stingrays, also known as "cell site simulators," mimic cell phone towers in order to force cell phones in the area to transmit "pings" back to the devices, enabling law enforcement to track a suspect's phone and pinpoint its location. Critics of the technology call it invasive and say it has been regularly used in secret to catch suspect in violation of their rights under the U.S. Constitution. The ACLU has counted 66 agencies in 24 states and the District of Columbia that own stingrays but said that figure underrepresents the actual number of devices in use given what it called secrecy surrounding their purchases...more

House OKs Walden bill to take wolves off endangered species list

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said Wednesday that his plan to remove gray wolves from the federal endangered species list has been approved by the U.S. House by a vote of 223-201. The lawmaker noted that management of wolves in Oregon is currently divided by an arbitrary line that leaves wolves in the eastern third of the state under state management, while the remainder are still managed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Meanwhile, wolves continue to kill livestock in the area under federal management, with little recourse for area ranchers and even creating challenges for the five year review of the Oregon Wolf Plan, the congressman said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recognized the recovery of this species and proposed delisting it three years ago, but litigation by outside groups has brought the process to a crawl. This proposal allows the agency to implement their proposal while ensuring that a delisting occurs by next summer...more

Pearce amendment to prevent spending on Mexican wolf passes House

Media Alert - Pearce Amendment on Mexican Wolf to be Included in Interior Appropriations Bill 

Washington, D.C. (January 13, 2016) Tonight, the House passed Congressman Steve Pearce’s amendment to effectively de-list the Mexican Wolf from the Endangered Species Act and allow the states to manage the wolf recovery program independently.  The Interior Appropriations Bill will be considered in entirety tomorrow Click here to view the amendment

Earlier this week, the Congressman issued a statement regarding a recent Inspector General (IG) Report substantiating claims from Catron County in New Mexico regarding the alleged mismanagement of the Mexican Wolf Program.  Click to view the release in its entirety.   

The Pearce amendment is embedded below:

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1658

Here's some early Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs who perform Pain In My Heart.  The tune was recorded for the Mercury label in Tampa on October 20, 1950.  In addition to Flatt & Scruggs,  the Foggy Mtn. Boys were Curley Seckler v-md, Jody Rainwater b, and Benny Sims f.  The Westerner http://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

https://youtu.be/9LJHz3i3dng

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Congressman Says Fed Lab Closure For Data Manipulation Is ‘Suspicious’

by Ethan Barton

Mis-conduct by two U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) officials led to the “suspicious” shutdown of a federal scientific lab in Lakewood, Colorado, without informing Congress, a skeptical lawmaker and career engineer told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

“The way they closed the facility without notifying Congress of it until after the fact, that seems a little suspicious,” said Rep. Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican and member of the House Natural Resources Committee, in an interview Monday.

“If it was just some tweaking of the equipment, then something’s wrong. They didn’t close the facility over a piece of equipment being mis-calibrated,” Westerman told TheDCNF. To date, no federal official has publicly explained why the two analysts manipulated the data over such a long period of time.

The unusual closure occurred eight years after a USGS analyst resigned in 2008 while under investigation for manipulating energy-related data from 1996 to 2008. He had worked in the inorganic section of the Energy Geochemistry Laboratory. Despite the resignation, however, a second analyst almost immediately continued distorting research data until 2014.

...Because the data is so important, Westerman worries that “this stuff has a domino effect. If that data is flawed coming out of that research lab, then all that research downstream is flawed. I would hate to think that any kind of project or any big policy decisions were made by some flawed data.”

Westerman also wonders what happened to the backup data for the research done by the two former USGS employees and he’s not happy with what he’s been told to date by Department of Interior officials.

“Why were all of the notes and calculations and backup data either never produced or destroyed? Why did it go on for so long? Why can’t they just give us a straight answer,” Westerman asked. “It sure smells fishy. There’s just too many things that raise a red flag and I just don’t have a good feeling about it.”

Obama's top scientist says keeping fossil fuels in the ground is 'unrealistic' in the U.S.

White House science adviser John Holdren's comment Monday that it was "unrealistic" to halt fossil fuel extraction altogether in the U.S. may have seemed like stating the obvious. But it has further highlighted the tensions that exist even among top American policy makers and environmental advocates concerned about curbing the rate of climate change. Bernie Sanders and his followers, influential green movement leaders such as Bill McKibben and powerful organizations such as the Sierra Club, have been pushing a "keep it in the ground" approach. For these advocates, a future strongly dependent on wind, solar and batteries can't come fast enough. And they have led campaigns not only to oppose fracking for natural gas but also to block - successfully - the Keystone XL pipeline. Most recently, Sanders' supporters have been deeply engaged in a push to make the Democratic Party's official platform more strongly reflective of this point of view, although they were unsuccessful in trying to incorporate a fracking ban into the platform. Yet Obama administration officials and many energy policy wonks continue to suggest that we will need to rely on burning natural gas, nuclear energy and even outfitting coal plants with carbon capturing technologies for some time. In contrast to "keep it in the ground," their approach has sometimes been labeled "all of the above." Meanwhile, Clinton has called natural gas, in particular, a "bridge" to a cleaner energy future. The tension was reawakened yesterday at this week's annual conference held by the Energy Information Administration. According to a Tweet by Brian Scheid, a reporter for Platts, Holdren yesterday called the "keep it in the ground" movement "unrealistic" in his keynote speech at the conference. Morning Consult also reported that Holdren stated, "The notion that we're going to keep it all in the ground is unrealistic. We are still a very heavily fossil-fuel dependent world."...more

Historic Petition Calls on Obama Admin to Halt All New Fossil Fuel Leases on Federal Land

More than 250 climate, community and tribal organizations filed a landmark legal petition today (see PDF) calling on the Obama administration to halt all new fossil fuel leasing on federal lands — a step that would align U.S. energy policies with its climate goals and keep up to 450 billion tons of greenhouse gas pollution from entering the atmosphere. The petition, filed under the federal Administrative Procedures Act, calls on Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to place an immediate moratorium on new leases for federally managed, publicly owned oil, gas, tar sands and oil shale. The moratorium would remain until and unless it can be demonstrated that resumption of fossil fuel mining on public lands is consistent with meeting the U.S. goal of holding global warming “well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels” and pursuing efforts to “limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels,” as agreed to by the United States and 194 other countries in the 2015 Paris Agreement. “The clock is ticking on the climate crisis, and one of the most powerful steps the Obama administration can take right now is turn off the carbon pollution spigot on America’s public lands,” said Michael Saul, a Center for Biological Diversity attorney and primary author of the petition. “A moratorium on federal leasing is critical to ensure the United States does its part to meet the global climate commitments we made last year in Paris.”...more

Bears Ears controversy ramps up with Jewell's visit, Bishop's planned legislation

The proposed 1.4 million acres of the Bears Ears region contained in a massive public lands bill being unveiled this week would actually be split in two, with the southern portion set aside for traditional Native American uses. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and chief architect of the measure, said the region on federal lands in southeastern Utah will come with a new management structure that includes a tribal committee to ensure traditional access for wood gathering, ceremonies and gathering of plants. "We spell out what the management practices will be and the purpose of those," Bishop said. "The lower half is strictly for conservation. … They will be able to continue those traditional activities in a way that would not be guaranteed under a monument designation." The final version of Bishop's bill is due to be released late this week, coinciding with a three-day, packed tour of San Juan and Grand counties by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. Jewell will meet with tribal leaders of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, visit with San Juan County commissioners and hear from congressional staffers from Bishop's and Rep. Jason Chaffetz's offices. Cody Stewart, Gov. Gary Herbert's policy adviser, will also be at the talks, with Herbert already committed to attend a meeting of the National Governors' Association. As the tempo accelerates around the Bears Ears controversy — the coalition is pushing President Barack Obama to declare 1.9 million acres a national monument — all sides in the issue are scrambling for the ear of Jewell, who has promised no designation will be made without local input. To that end, beyond the intense slate of meetings, tours and hikes, Jewell will host a three-hour community meeting in Bluff to hear from residents on the issue...more

Op-ed: Bears Ears monument would bring unintended consequences

By Nathan Nielson

This week Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will visit San Juan County to hear local opinions on the various proposals for Bears Ears. I hope she considers the unintended consequences of a national monument. Instead of hallowing sacred space, a designation routinizes and domesticates it. Instead of protecting the environment, a national monument increases the human footprint. Instead of aiding native ceremonial rites, regulations limit access to wood and herbs. Instead of returning nature to a pristine state, the park service monetizes the land to expand its operations. Instead of opening up the scenery, the government cordons and partitions it. Crowds come, mystery leaves.

To capture beauty, you have to tame it. And in taming it, you lose it.
What was once wild and scarce now becomes part of the mass machinery of modern bureaucratic and commercial life. Tourists, T-shirts, toll booths and air-conditioned visitor centers tarnish the landscape. Advertising firms are hired to exploit its images. This is the practical cost of protecting beauty. Places transform into copies of their original selves...
Nevertheless, the appetite of large, impersonal power rarely checks or trims itself. The safer route is the flexibility of broad local management adapting to local realities. Tribes, ranchers, environmentalists, the business community and government representatives are in the best position to hammer out solutions. Hopefully the Public Lands Initiative of Congressman Rob Bishop will enable such cooperation. In a society with so many competing interests, not everyone can expect to get what they want all the time.

Jewell feels a drop of rain and declares sky is falling

by THOMAS MITCHELL

Earlier this year Interior Secretary Sally Jewell delivered what could best be described as a doom and gloom speech about the state of disappearing “natural” lands in this country, primarily the West.


She claimed there is an “emergence of an extreme movement to seize public lands — from Oregon to Puerto Rico — putting lands that belong to all Americans at risk of being sold off for a short-term gain to the highest bidder. This movement has propped up dangerous voices that reject the rule of law, put communities and hard-working public servants at risk, and fail to appreciate how deeply democratic and American our national parks and public lands are.”


Communal ownership of vacant land is democratic? I thought there was another word for that.
That extreme movement must include the Nevada Legislature and a majority of Nevada’s Washington delegation, who have put forth modest efforts to transfer to the state control a little more than 10 percent of the federal public lands in the state — which currently amounts to about 85 percent of the state, the highest percentage of any state.


That extreme movement must include the voters of Nevada, who in 1996 voted to remove from the state Constitution the so-called Disclaimer Clause, in which the residents of the Nevada Territory in 1864 agreed that the residents of the state of Nevada would forgo forever all claim to unappropriated land inside its borders.


Jewell claimed that an analysis by a non-profit group found that natural areas in the West are disappearing at the rate of a football field every two and a half minutes.


“If you add that all up, you’re looking at a pretty bleak picture,” she warned. “If we stay on this trajectory, 100 years from now, national parks and wildlife refuges will be like postage stamps of nature on a map. Isolated islands of conservation with run-down facilities that crowds of Americans visit like zoos to catch a glimpse of our nation’s remaining wildlife and undeveloped patches of land.”


In a mere century we will have paved paradise and put up a parking lot!


According to the Congressional Research Service, there are 623 million acres of land in this country controlled by various federal agencies — Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife, Park Service and Department of Defense. If one bulldozed a football field-sized tract every two and half minutes, why there would be no federal land left in a mere 2,700 years.

Riverside County objects to desert conservation plan

Riverside County officials officially objected Tuesday, July 12, to conservation rules in a sweeping federal and state land-use plan for California’s deserts, arguing they would stifle continued development of large-scale solar projects in the region. “The plan will chill, if not thwart, altogether, additional renewable energy development on federally managed lands in Riverside County,” said a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell approved by a 4-0 vote of county supervisors. The letter criticizes the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, which is a federal and state planning initiative aimed at helping conserve pristine natural areas while also streamlining development of solar, wind and other clean energy in the places where such projects would do little harm...more

Editorial: BLM needs planning 3.0


When the Bureau of Land Management makes plans, it’s a big deal. 

The BLM manages 10 percent of the land in the U.S. and 30 percent of the minerals. In Oregon, the BLM manages 25 percent of the total land in the state. 

The BLM’s plans direct how that land can be used. And it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the BLM’s proposed “Planning 2.0” rule will mean less local control of decisions. 

There should be more local control, not less. The BLM says Planning 2.0 will fix many things that are wrong with its planning process. That may be. It also insists there will not be less local control.
“There are no changes to the status or role of cooperating agencies being considered as part of this draft rule,” Jim Lyons, a deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, said in congressional testimony. 

That is what the BLM says. But consider a couple of changes under Planning 2.0. For one, the BLM seeks to manage at what it calls a landscape-planning level. In other words, it could make plans that cross traditional administrative boundaries, such as across states. 

There are undeniably good reasons for doing that. The borders between states don’t neatly line up with habitats or natural geographic regions. It could very well mean, though, that the BLM would be less focused on coordinating its plans with individual states. 

There also would seem to be a loss of local control under Planning 2.0 in the dilution of the role of state directors of the BLM by placing planning in control of a “deciding official.” Local field managers are replaced by a “responsible official.”

Editorial: NM Land Office’s defense of conflict claims offensive

It’s been said that the best defense is a good offense. But the State Land Office response to conflict-of-interest questions directed at its deputy commissioner – that they are political, even sexist – are, quite frankly, offensive.

But when you can’t argue facts, maybe name calling is your best bet.

Journal investigative reporter Thomas J. Cole found that while the State Land Office’s code of conduct explicitly prohibits employees from acting as an agent for the lease of state trust lands, Deputy State Land Commissioner Laura Riley:

1. Wrote a check from her firm, Riley & Knight Appraisal and Consulting Services, to cover the administrative fees for two entities that applied to the State Land Office to have their nearly 9,000 acres in grazing leases transferred to a billionaire’s ranch in western New Mexico, and
2. Signed and approved the lease transfers on behalf of State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn.

So how is it “politically motivated … and possibly even sexist” to raise questions about Riley not only paying the fee for the lease transfers but approving them? Especially considering the code of conduct also says “under no circumstances shall employees give rise to a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest with the SLO”?

NM suffers setback in Texas water case

The nation’s highest court will likely have to settle a dispute between Texas and New Mexico over management of water from the Rio Grande – a case with the potential to dramatically curb groundwater pumping in some of New Mexico’s most fertile valleys and force the state to pay as much as $1 billion in damages. Officials in both states have been waiting nearly a year for a recommendation on how the case should be handled. Now, a special master assigned by the U.S. Supreme Court is recommending the rejection of a motion by New Mexico to dismiss the case, meaning it can move forward as long as the high court agrees. Texas sued in 2013, claiming New Mexico failed to deliver water as required under a decades-old compact involving the river that serves more than 6 million people in several major cities and irrigates more than 3,100 square miles of farmland in the U.S. and Mexico. Sen. Joe Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, whose district includes the border region, said the special master’s recommendation was not a surprise, and that he and a small group of lawmakers have been warning about potentially dire outcomes if Texas gains the upper hand in the legal battle. Cervantes said the recommendation to let the case proceed seems to support demands by Texas for more water from the Rio Grande. “A great deal more water delivered to Texas to make up for historic shortfalls seems to be a clear direction he’s going,” Cervantes said of the special master. “And since water won’t make up for all of the shortfalls, we’re looking at the risk of large financial damages.” The federal government has weighed in on the New Mexico-Texas case, arguing that pumping north of the border is tapping a shallow aquifer that would otherwise drain back into the Rio Grande and flow to Texas and eventually to Mexico. Officials in Texas made similar claims about water shortages under the compact more than a decade ago. Irrigation districts that serve farmers on both sides of the border reached an operating agreement with the federal government in 2008 that shared the burdens of drought while ensuring everyone received water allotments. Local water managers say the agreement worked even during the driest of times, but former New Mexico Attorney General Gary King insisted the deal was more beneficial to Texas and sued over his concerns, setting the stage for Texas to take its complaints to the U.S. Supreme Court...more

The Apache Kid and other outlaws

by Ted Stillwell

Most of the time Indians are shown as either "bloodthirsty savages," or as "noble warriors," rather than for what they really were - just people like you and me. In reality, there were Native Americans in every walk of life from ranchers and farmers to nurses, teachers, and lawyers - there were even some pretty bad and notorious Indian outlaws!
A Ute Indian named Tavasse was a horse thief. He was arrested in 1864, and jailed in Pueblo, Colorado, but escaped after killing both of his guards with an axe.
Joe Bird, a Choctaw who lived in Kansas, killed his mother-in-law, for which he received 100 lashes. A few weeks later, he murdered his wife and for that dastardly deed, he was sentenced to be shot at dawn. Wives were apparently worth more than mother-in-laws.
There was also the well-known Crawford Goldsby, better known as "Cherokee Bill." Goldsby, a member of the Bill Cook Gang, was a much wanted killer in the Indian Territory during the 1890s. As luck would have it though, he finally ended up swinging from the hanging tree.
Now let’s take the "Kid," he was a real killer! He was mean, and seemed to have no compassion for anyone or anything. No one knew for sure just what turned him bad, but some writers believe it was when his poor father was murdered, but whatever the cause, he became one of the most feared and hated men in the Great Southwest. Whites and Indians alike kept themselves and their women out of sight whenever he was reported to be in the area.
So who was this "Kid" so feared by all? It certainly was not "Billy the Kid!" This "Kid" made "Billy the Kid" look like an amateur when it came to being an outlaw. This was the "Apache Kid," and he was the real thing.


Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1657

Ranch Radio always strives to bring you the best of sophisticated country music, along with tunes that explore the mysteries of life or suggest a bedrock philosophy for enjoying the good life.  You get both today, with Rudy Grayzell's 1954 recording of It Ain't My Baby (And I Ain't Gonna Rock It).  The selection is available on the 4 CD collection From Boppin' Hillbilly to Red Hot Rockabilly

https://youtu.be/fz42bBt59uc

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Judge allows Bundy brothers to be reunited at Oregon jail

Ammon and Ryan Bundy will be reunited at a downtown Portland jail as they prepare their defense on charges related to the armed occupation of an Oregon bird sanctuary, a judge ruled Monday. The men were recently separated, with Ammon Bundy shipped to a jail in northeast Portland. On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Jones granted Ryan Bundy's request to have the brothers housed in the same jail ahead of a September trial. Jail officials prefer to have co-defendants separated, but the judge said this is "an exceptional case and an exceptional relationship." He did not elaborate on his decision. Jones also let the brothers and a lawyer meet for a strategy session at the federal courthouse. The rulings came during a hearing in which Ryan Bundy, who serves as his own attorney, asked the judge to forbid jailhouse deputies from opening his mail, monitoring his phone calls and otherwise dampening his ability to defend himself. "The prosecution should have to prepare their offense under the same conditions," Bundy insisted. Carlo Calandriello, a Multnomah County attorney, said the jail followed established protocols meant to keep everyone safe, including the Bundys. Ammon Bundy, meanwhile, complained that jail deputies stand too close to inmates when phone calls are made, and can relay trial strategy or other information to the government. Jones ordered deputies not to listen to what's being said and not to reveal anything they might inadvertently overhear...more

Interior boss, other top federal land officials unveil plans for big meeting Saturday about Bears Ears

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and the undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture, Robert Bonnie, will host a public meeting in Bluff on Saturday to examine various proposals to preserve and manage lands around southeastern Utah's Bears Ears region. The two Obama administration officials will be joined by the directors of the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service as well as top leaders of the Forest Service and Indian Affairs. All are expected to tour the Bears Ears area that tribal leaders and environmentalists want protected from development. The group will also meet with county officials and land managers. The public hearing, set for 1 to 4 p.m. at the Bluff Community Center, is billed as a "Community Meeting on Utah Conservation Priorities." Two members of Utah's all-Republican congressional delegation, Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz, plan to unveil long-awaited legislation this week that would preserve some sensitive and cultural areas in the region while also opening other acreage to mineral development. Several tribal leaders, however, have abandoned that proposal and are urging President Barack Obama to name more than 1.8 million acres of the region as a national monument.  Salt Lake Tribune


It's a done deal.  They're drafting the proclamation in the White House as we speak.  Can you name a place where she conducted a "hearing'' and it wasn't followed by the designation of a National Monument?  The only slim chance Utah has to escape this debacle is the hard work of Rob Bishop.  Will Obama defer to the Utah delegation and the local citizens?  I doubt it.  Bishop will need to add a new section to his legislation that removes the monument.

Green groups had late impact on grouse plans

An attorney representing Garfield County says federal records show a notable number of meetings and interactions between the Interior Department and conservation groups at the same time Interior was making significant last-minute changes before finalizing plans to protect greater sage-grouse. Kent Holsinger, an attorney retained by the county in connection with its open-records request of the government, said he wouldn’t say there are any laws against the communications that occurred. “But I think it paints a pretty telling picture that these same advocates are meeting and corresponding with (Interior officials) at the same time they’re making these changes,” he told Garfield commissioners Monday. Holsinger said the county received 138 documents in response to its request. Some reflected meetings and correspondence with groups including WildEarth Guardians, the National Wildlife Federation, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Wilderness Society and Advocates for the West, he said. Deputy Garfield County Manager Fred Jarman told commissioners the changes were made with input from conservation groups after the door had closed on the opportunity for local governments to further coordinate with the BLM under a role provided for under federal environmental law. “These very large changes came out at the end that you would think in a transparent and true process would be vetted with all of us,” he said...more

Obama’s offshore rules a rig too far for oil industry

When Washington announced in October that it was cancelling auctions for drilling rights in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas for at least two years, the argument made by Sally Jewell, the interior secretary, was an economic one. Citing factors like the continued tumble in the price of oil and the announcement by Shell, an Anglo-Dutch firm, the previous month that it was giving up drilling in the Chukchi Sea after spending $7 billion in a seven-year search that turned up dry, she argued that the timing was simply wrong to offer the licences. “It does not make sense to prepare for lease sales in the Arctic,” Ms Jewell said at the time. Now that Washington has again turned its attention towards Arctic drilling, this time by issuing, last week, a set of regulations aimed at making it safer to drill, the industry is replying with economic arguments of its own: that the additional $2 billion it will cost firms to live up the rules over the next decade may mean firms give up the Arctic entirely...more

Board picks two Gila diversion projects

SILVER CITY – The local board in charge of plans to divert water from the Gila River decided Monday to pursue a combination of two projects that may cost less but would also deliver less water than planners originally intended. Facing a Friday deadline to inform the Bureau of Reclamation of its plans, the New Mexico Central Arizona Project entity selected alternatives for further study that would, together over the long term, divert water from a northern point on the river to storage areas underground and in one or two canyons. Contract engineering firm AECOM estimated the initial phases of the projects would cost $84 million and $82.5 million, respectively – although there is expected to be significant overlap in the infrastructure. Total cost for each alternative fully built, but excluding potential savings due to overlap, is $366 million and $336 million, respectively, according to the AECOM analysis. An estimate for the combined project, stripping out duplication, was not discussed but would be significantly less than the totals added together, said NM CAP entity Executive Director Anthony Gutierrez. New Mexico is entitled to an average 14,000 acre-feet of water per year under the Arizona Water Settlement Act, and the act allots the state up to $128 million to pursue a diversion. NM CAP entity board members made it clear at a recent meeting that they wanted a project that was “feasible” with a budget of $80 million to $100 million and a yield of up to 4,000 acre-feet. Together, the projects selected would yield in their initial phases up to 1,800 acre-feet annually and in the longer term up to 3,000 acre-feet, according to AECOM estimates...more

Calgary Stampede: The Beginning — Guy Weadick’s Grand Vision

by Tony Seskus, Calgary Herald

Guy Weadick had just made the pitch of his life and heard the words all entertainers dread: No thanks.
The Yankee cowboy – a loquacious, self-confident trick roper and vaudeville act – had returned to Calgary in 1912 with a grand idea.
His dream was a frontier contest on a colossal scale, one that would include the best riders and ropers from across the continent squaring off for huge prizes in front of thousands of spectators.
It was to include the greatest assemblage of “Plains Indians,” traders and pioneers ever seen. Among the potential names in mind: The Stampede.
But after laying out his plan to managers of the Calgary Industrial Exhibition, one of the young city’s most important institutions, the 27-year-old cowpoke’s offer was turned down flat.
Weadick, who had travelled all the way from Europe to make his ambitious proposal, returned to his hotel. Maybe Winnipeg would like the idea.
What happened next would change everything for Weadick and, in countless ways, for Calgary.
This is the story of the first Stampede and the wild, improbable ride it took from Weadick’s grand vision to a wondrous – even controversial – reality in the dying days of summer in 1912.
...So with plenty of moxie, Weadick presented his idea to H.C. McMullen, general livestock agent for the powerful Canadian Pacific Railway. McMullen was intrigued by the idea, but advised the young man that it should simmer a bit longer. McMullen told Weadick he’d contact him when the time was right.
Nearly four years later, Weadick and his wife were touring the music halls of Great Britain and the circuses of Europe with their roping act when a letter arrived from McMullen.
With the land boom on and settlers pouring into the area, “He thought the time was ripe for me to come to Calgary to place my idea before those who might be interested in financially sponsoring it,” Weadick recalled for the Herald in 1952.
But it was no easy sell. McMullen introduced Weadick to several potential benefactors, but no one was interested.
“They expressed the opinion that the big land boom that was on then, which was attracting thousands of new settlers, was going to develop farming, and that the day of the ranches and the cowboy was all over,” Weadick said.


The welcome wasn’t any better at the Calgary Industrial Exhibition, where Weadick hoped to stage the event if he could scare up the financial support.
The Exhibition had been around for nearly as long as the city itself, the first event held in 1886. From modest origins, it grew into an important annual occurrence.
The event was packed with agricultural, sporting and other activities that celebrated and promoted the region. Merry-go-rounds, ferris wheels and itinerant showmen were gradually brought in. Grand parades added to the pageantry.
In short, it was huge. It must have looked like an ideal arrangement to Weadick, but when he made the proposal to the Exhibition’s general manager, it was rejected.
“The manager of the Exhibition, Ernie Richardson, who was a big name, actually was loath to have the Stampede on the exhibition grounds, ” Foran says.
The board of directors agreed. “They thought that rodeo was incompatible with an urban environment.”
Weadick returned to his hotel with his Stampede dream dashed. “I had about given up the idea,” Weadick told the Herald later.
But then the plucky cow-boy caught a break.
 A.P. Day, a prominent Medicine Hat rancher, heard about the crazy scheme – and liked it.
He volunteered to pony up $10,000 and a string of good bucking horses for the event “if” Weadick could get Calgarians interested.
That was still a pretty big ask, but then something quite remarkable happened.
Some folks say Weadick was sent for, others say McMullen arranged a meeting.
Regardless of how it came about, the young cowboy ended up sitting down with the owner of the Bar U ranch, George Lane, who then set a meeting with Pat Burns and A.E. Cross.
The businessmen had made their fortunes in the cattle industry and become highly respected citizens and philanthropists.
...In a scene akin to a cowboy version of today’s Dragons’ Den TV show, Weadick made his pitch, again.
The rodeo would be the biggest gathering of cowboys, First Nations and prospectors ever seen. More importantly, it would perpetuate the memory of the region’s pioneers.
The late 1800s had been the golden age of the cowboy, but by the time Alberta became a province in 1905, it was coming to an end.
Settlers were setting up farms and farms meant fences, which choked off the routes of the big cattle drives and the ranches that sustained them.
Mother Nature then unleashed the devastating winter of 1906-07, which killed huge numbers of Alberta’s range cattle.
“And so they wanted to have a farewell party for a dying way of life,” Foran says. “The Stampede was supposed to be the last hurrah.”
Tom Three Persons, a Blood Indigenous person, won the bronc riding event at the first Calgary Stampede in 1912.