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.
Friday, December 02, 2016
Trump Backs Pipeline, Memo Says
President-elect Donald Trump supports completion of the disputed Dakota Access oil pipeline in the Midwest, based on policy and not the billionaire businessman's investments in a partnership building the $3.8 billion pipeline, according to an aide's memo.
Spokesman Bryan Lanza said in a memo this week to supporters that Trump's backing for the pipeline near a North Dakota Indian reservation "has nothing to do with his personal investments and everything to do with promoting policies that benefit all Americans."
Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in response to an AP story last week that it is her understanding Trump recently sold his Energy Transfer stock, but she provided no details. Neither Hicks nor other Trump aides have responded to repeated requests for information since then.
In a 17-page memo to campaign supporters and congressional staff, Trump's transition team says Trump "intends to cut the bureaucratic red tape put in place by the Obama administration that has prevented our country from diversifying our energy portfolio."
The four-state Dakota Access pipeline is part of that strategy, the memo says. Then, in an apparent reference to criticism by congressional Democrats and environmental groups, the memo says those claiming that Trump's support for the project is related to his investments "are only attempting to distract from the fact that President-elect Trump has put forth serious policy proposals he plans to set in motion on Day One."
While Trump's stake in the pipeline company is modest compared with his other assets, ethics experts say it's among dozens of potential conflicts that could be resolved by placing his investments in a blind trust. Trump said this week that he will soon announce plans to step back from his company while he is president...more
Meat products from 3D printer could be the new food for aged care homes and restaurants
Meat could be used in 3D printing to produce a soft food with specific nutrients and suitable for people who have problems with chewing or swallowing.
By using a meat extract as ink, layer-by-layer, a food could be created that is as soft as butter and like meat, packed with nutrients.
Meat and Livestock Australia was alerted to the possibility of red meat three-dimensional printing after seeing it done with chicken meat in Germany.
The research, development and marketing body has investigated a way to turn every last bit of meat from the bone into a high value product and believes it is feasible.
Sean Starling the general manager of Research, Development and Innovation at MLA said a high protein ink or powder could be used in a 3D printer. Red meat is valued as a source high in protein, iron and zinc, but also for its taste and texture. But for people who have trouble chewing and swallowing and suffer dysphagia, those nutrients are hard to get.
MLA found Germany has 3D printed food in 1,000 nursing homes, and 3D printed food would be more appetising than pureed food...more
Rancher Cliven Bundy opposes 3 separate trials in Bunkerville standoff case
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is opposing a proposal from federal prosecutors to split the 17 remaining defendants charged in the Bunkerville standoff case into three separate trials. In a court document filed Wednesday, Bundy asked for all the defendants to be tried in February in one joint trial.
Bundy’s attorney, Bret Whipple, argued in the document that three separate trials would deprive the defendants of their right to a speedy trial. Whipple also argued that three trials would result in due process concerns because co-defendants will not want to testify in other trials before going to trial themselves.
If the court does not allow one joint trial, Bundy, 70, is asking that he go to trial after all the other defendants are tried in February “so as not to keep them in jail any longer than necessary.”
Bundy wants his co-defendants to be able to return to their families and jobs as soon as possible, and he is willing to wait longer if necessary, Whipple said in an interview. Federal prosecutors filed paperwork earlier this month suggesting a
tier of three trials, with the first one starting on Feb. 6 for Bundy
and others alleged to be leaders: Bundy’s sons Ammon and Ryan, Peter Santilli, and Ryan Payne. A second trial would start in May, and a third would begin in August...more
Rep. Mike Noel to go for BLM director job in Trump administration
I'm going out on a limb and predicting the Center for Biological Diversity would oppose his nomination:
...Noel is an outspoken critic of federal land management and has joined an effort to seize, and ultimately privatize, 31 million acres of federal public land in Utah. “It’s a bitter irony that Mike Noel wants to run the BLM. He and the Bundy clan share the same desire to snatch public lands out of the hands of all Americans in order to benefit a few,” said Randi Spivak with the Center for Biological Diversity. “These lands are owned by all of us, and any attempt to take them away and give them to states or companies who see them only as profit sources will be met with fierce resistance from everyday Americans.” Noel sits on the Utah Commission for the Stewardship of Public Lands, which was created following the passage of the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act that demands the federal government turn over 31 million acres of federal lands to the state of Utah. A new legal analysis by the Conference of Western Attorneys General found that the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the “property clause” of the Constitution gives the U.S. government the right to own public lands and keep them public and the exclusive power to decide whether to dispose of them or sell them off. Noel was a supporter of an 2014 illegal off-road vehicle ride in Utah’s Recapture Canyon that roared through an area the BLM had closed to protect American Indian archeological sites following looting incidents. He famously blamed badgers for being responsible for vandalizing tribal burial grounds and archeological sites in Utah despite evidence of damage caused by bullet holes and chains saws. Noel’s political contributors include real-estate developers, Chevron, Arch Coal, Exxon and Rio Tinto...
Conservation Groups Praise Wildlife Protection in Overhaul of Federal Land-Use Planning
U.S. government officials on Thursday finalized an overhaul of how they plan for oil and gas drilling, mining, grazing and other activities across public lands in the West. Members of Congress, industry groups and local officials have raised concerns about the overhaul's practical effects. They've said it will elevate wildlife and environmental preservation above other uses such as energy development and shift decision-making from agency field offices to Washington, D.C.
The timing of the new rule in the Obama administration's last days drew a rebuke from U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, who predicted it would take authority away from local land managers. The Wyoming Republican pledged to work to reverse the action once President-elect Donald Trump takes office. "We need better coordination among state, local and federal land management agencies. Massive landscape-scale plans directed from Washington, D.C., are not the answer," said Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests and Mining.
The changes were backed by conservation and sporting groups including Trout Unlimited and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. Joel Webster, the partnership's Western lands director, said the rule would ensure decisions affecting wildlife such as mule deer weren't hobbled by artificial boundaries that separate bureau field offices. Opponents were "seeing ghosts" with concerns that public involvement would be hurt, he added...more
BLM planning 2.0 proposed rule causes concerns
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a final version of BLM planning 2.0. BLM said it developed the rule through years of work with state and local governments, cooperators, communities, stakeholders and the public at large.
The rule updates regulations that are more than 30 years old, provides additional and more robust opportunities for input into the agency’s planning process and ensures that science is a cornerstone of BLM’s planning work. BLM launched this effort after hearing from stakeholders that the current planning process is too slow and cumbersome. However, stakeholders are not pleased.
Ethan Lane, executive director of the Public Lands Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn. federal lands, said this process radically alters federal land management planning and moves the agency away from its mandate to manage for multiple use on federal lands.
“We are continuing to review how much, if any, our input has been incorporated into the final plan, but regardless, we object to the Administration moving forward in the final days of the President’s term with this hastily released regulation -- particularly with one that will have such dramatic economic impact on western states,” Lane said.
Of the final rule, Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R., Ariz.), chairman-elect of the Congressional Western Caucus, said, “BLM 2.0 is a bureaucratic nightmare that will kill jobs and create unnecessary permitting delays.”...more
San Francisco city officials to ask Kate Steinle’s family to dismiss lawsuit
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The U.S. government and the City of San Francisco are asking Kate Steinle’s family to dismiss the wrongful death lawsuit in a hearing on Friday.
Kate Steinle was shot and killed in July of 2015 on Pier 14 along San Francisco’s waterfront. Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant, has been charged in the murder.
Lopez-Sanchez was released from the San Francisco City Jail in Apil.
The family of Kate Steinle filed the federal lawsuit in May of 2016 against former San Francisco sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement, and the Bureau of Land Management.
The lawsuit seeks to hold the Bureau of Land Management, ICE, and former Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi accountable for providing “the means and opportunity for a repeat drug felon to secure a gun and kill Kate,” according to the complaint.
Mirkarimi refused to hold Lopez-Sanchez for ICE, citing San Francisco’s sanctuary city law.
Kate Steinle’s parents argue the gunman would have been kept in custody and deported if the city and federal officials had done their jobs.
Recall that Kate Steinle was killed with a gun stolen from a BLM agent's vehicle in San Francisco and that the weapon had been altered to have no safety.
Recall that Kate Steinle was killed with a gun stolen from a BLM agent's vehicle in San Francisco and that the weapon had been altered to have no safety.
Multi-state lawsuit takes aim at Endangered Species Act
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange has taken point in a multi-state lawsuit challenging new federal rules he says would broadly expand the definition of “critical habitats” for endangered or threatened species in the United States. The ESA was intended to protect a number of plant and animal species that were faced with extinction at the time it was passed, and a critical component of the legislation dealt with the protection of areas deemed “critical habitat” for those species...However, in the late 1970s, amendments to the ESA were added after the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the law resulted in the suspension of a federally funded Tennessee dam project Congress had already put more than $100 million into.
According to the complaint, those amendments were “intended to reform the statute and provide limits to its reach” by adding specific definitions for critical habitat and any “adverse modifications” that could negatively impact those areas.
As a result, critical habitat under the ESA was defined as a specific area “occupied by a species at the time [it’s] listed” as endangered. Such habitat must contain “physical or biological features essential to the conservation of the species” that require special “considerations or protections.”
It’s even more difficult to classify an area as “critical habitat” if it’s unoccupied by an endangered species, as it requires the federal services to prove those unoccupied areas are “essential for the conservation of the species.”
However, in February, the services announced plans to amend those regulations, which among other things, would expand the definition “critical habitat” to include areas that might not even be used by a threatened species until some point in the “foreseeable future.” According to Strange, the rules would give the federal government
“virtually unlimited power” to declare an area critical habitat for an
endangered species regardless of whether the species occupies the area —
even if that area is unable to sustain the species to begin with...more
Unbounded Lawlessness: Obama’s War on Energy from Federal Lands
by William Perry Pendley
On energy, the Obama administration ends the way it began, with lawless placating of environmental extremists by warring against energy from federal lands. Obama’s officials’ first efforts in 2009 in northwestern Pennsylvania failed; nonetheless, in their waning days, their mischief spreads to Colorado and Montana. Whether they get away with it depends, not just on the incoming Trump administration, but on a federal district court in Washington, D.C.
Days ago, President Obama’s Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell skittered excitedly across America doing what made his administration infamous: unilaterally plundering the rule of law. In Denver she voided twenty-five contracts—all issued by the federal government to permit private lessees to search for, discover, and develop oil and gas from Colorado’s economically depressed western slope—that had incurred the wrath of “leave it [American energy] in the ground” radical groups. The region is not a pristine wilderness, but the site of decades of drilling; it sits astride the geologically significant, energy-rich “Overthrust Belt.” Alongside the cancelled leases are twenty-four producing leases Secretary Jewell affirmed and thirteen she subjected to confiscatory rules; all are atop trillion of cubic feet of natural gas. “Imprudent,” “illogical,” and “arbitrary and capricious” spring to mind to describe Secretary Jewell’s decree, but most on point is “lawless.”
The fate that awaits the lessees, the energy they plan to produce, and the men and women of the region who yearn for high paying oil patch jobs is uncertain. Their future may turn largely on what happens to an elderly Louisiana man who, like them, fell victim to one of Secretary Jewell’s edicts. Sidney Longwell won an energy lease on federal land in Montana in 1982, and after ten years, four National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) studies, and four National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) reviews, obtained the right to drill on the lease (an application for permit to drill—APD). Unfortunately, the Clinton administration suspended the lease and there it sat until 2013 when he sued demanding that federal officials allow him to exercise his property rights, pursuant to his government-issued contract. On hearing of his forlorn plight, a federal judge called it “Kafkaesque” and ordered a prompt decision. At long last, on March 17, 2016, the Obama administration ruled but instead of allowing him to do what he contracted for and was permitted to do, it cancelled his lease and voided his APD.
At the end of this year, after months of legal filings and briefings, including numerous exhibits and lengthy appendices, the matter will be ready for a ruling by the judge following as yet unscheduled arguments in Washington, D.C. To call Secretary Jewell’s decision—like so many other actions by President Obama—unprecedented is an understatement. At no time in the history of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920—through which Congress authorized Secretaries to issue and oversee oil and gas leases, including the one held by Mr. Longwell, and which has been amended and updated over the decades—has an energy lease been cancelled, unilaterally, let alone one issued more than three decades earlier and subjected to a decade of intense, thorough, and painstaking review. Stunningly, however, Secretary Jewell concedes that her cancellation of the 33-year-old lease is not based upon any express delegation of authority from Congress. Instead, she argues she has an amorphous “inherent authority” under the Constitution’s Property Clause. The argument takes one’s breath away.
The Property Clause reads: “The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States….” It may be arguable, chiefly by westerners, whether that power is “without limitation,” however, one thing is clear: the power over all federal lands belongs solely to Congress. The Property Clause grants no authority, express or implied, to the Secretary.
Restoration of the rule of law, preferably by a court of law, cannot come soon enough.
William Perry Pendley is president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, has argued cases before the Supreme Court and worked in the Department of the Interior during the Reagan administration. He is the author of "Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan's Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today."
MSLF
Alaskan for Interior?
The United States Department of Interior manages roughly 198 million acres of federally owned lands in Alaska, a block that is 10 percent larger than the entire state of Texas. So, it is only fitting that two Alaskans – Robert Gillam and former governor Sarah Palin – are being floated as contenders for secretary of Interior as President-elect Donald Trump builds his cabinet.
“Over 50 percent of our nation’s federally protected lands are located in Alaska. This is why it makes so much sense for an Alaskan to lead the Department of the Interior and champion our great state while guiding our nation,” Gillam explained in a written statement explaining his interest in the job.
While both of these candidates would likely be more open to access and development of federal lands in Alaska than current Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell, Alaska’s mining community would much rather see Palin take the job, or someone from outside of the state, than to have Gillam hold such a high post in the Trump Administration. While Gillam may not be a household name, as founder and CEO of McKinley Capital Management, an Anchorage-based advisory firm that manages roughly US$6.7 billion in investments, he is well known in Alaska business and political circles.
Though Gillam has little in the way of political experience, he believes President-elect Trump’s endeavor to fill his cabinet with savvy American’s outside the typical Washington D.C. political circles provides him with an opportunity to cap his successful business career with a high-level political post...more
Rancher Might Try to Relocate Rather Than Kill Mountain Lion Blamed in Alpaca Deaths
The mountain lion believed to have killed more than 50 farm animals this summer and fall in the mountains above Malibu may be captured and sent to the Wildlife Way Station, instead of being shot, a lawyer for a rancher said Wednesday night.
However, animal rights activists said putting P-45 into a cage for the rest of his life is a fate worse than being shot.
An attorney for the ranch owner, Reid Breitman, said the animal would not be shot immediately, and his client Victoria von Turling wants P-45's life saved.
"Victoria wants it relocated, and we've arranged for the Wildlife Way Station to accept the animal," Breitman said at a meeting called by the National Park Service...more
How the Trump administration can champion food and agriculture
The food and agriculture system underpins the wellbeing of our families and our nation, so it’s crucial for our president-elect to make American agriculture a priority.
AGree stands ready to work with President-elect Trump and his administration. We are proud of our history of transcending political parties and offer the recommendations below based on years of listening, building trust, and developing innovative approaches to address the challenges facing American agriculture.
These bipartisan recommendations are carefully crafted as an outgrowth of engaging more than 2,000 of the best minds in food and agriculture to identify key issues and opportunities.
We invite the new administration to take advantage of our experience collaborating with both parties and facilitating respectful dialogue, which led to the following seven initiatives to improve the health of American families, the economy, farms, and our environment...more
If you want to see Inside the Beltway, politically correct bunk, then by all means read this. It is all there: "landscape-level actions", "Immigration reform", "Local food", "transformative change", "collaborating", etc., etc.
If you want to see Inside the Beltway, politically correct bunk, then by all means read this. It is all there: "landscape-level actions", "Immigration reform", "Local food", "transformative change", "collaborating", etc., etc.
Proposed tax regulation threatens multigenerational cattle operations
The Internal Revenue Service hosted a
public hearing today on a Department of Treasury proposed rule that
would eliminate or greatly reduce available valuation discounts for
family-related entities. Kevin Kester, National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association vice president, said the regulation would effectively
discourage families from continuing to operate or grow their businesses
and passing them on to future generations. Many cattle operations are family-owned
small businesses, facing the same concerns as other small-businesses –
making payroll, complying with numerous federal and state regulations,
and paying bills, loans, and taxes. However, cattle producers face a
number of unique challenges specific to agriculture. “Ranching is a debt-intensive business,
making the U.S. livestock industry especially vulnerable to the estate
tax,” said Kester. “Beef producers largely operate an asset-rich,
cash-poor business model: a cattleman’s biggest asset is his land. In
the event of the death of a principal family member, illiquid assets are
often sold in order to meet the costs associated with the estate tax.
As a result, many families are unable to keep their estates intact.” For more than two decades, livestock
producers have utilized legitimate valuation discounts as a means of
maintaining family ownership. These discounts, which accurately reflect
the actual market value of minority ownerships in closely-held
businesses, reduce the tax burden at death allowing agricultural
operations to maintain family ownership from one generation of producers
to the next. “Should the discounts be eliminated, a
significant number of farmers and ranchers will face an even greater tax
burden during the difficult task of transferring minority interests to
the next generation,” said Kester. “Having dealt with the death tax on
multiple occasions, I can assure you that it’s not easy to settle the
estate of a loved one while coping with the loss of that loved one. To
add insult to injury, the proposed rule will upend succession plans,
halt planned expansion and growth, and require a majority of livestock
operations to liquidate assets in order to simply survive from one
generation to the next.” The proposed regulations under Section
2704 will have a profoundly negative impact on the business climate for
farmers and ranchers, ultimately dis-incentivizing a new generation of
cattle producers from carrying on the family business. For that reason,
NCBA calls for the IRS to formally withdraw the proposed rule. NCBA
Mad Dog, as in ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis: The colorful history of a great American nickname
By Ben Guarino
On Thursday, at a post-election victory rally in Cincinnati, President-elect Donald Trump announced his pick for secretary of defense.
“We are going to appoint Mad Dog Mattis as our secretary of defense,” Trump said, as The Washington Post reported.
The Mad Dog in question was retired Marine Gen. James N. Mattis, who for more than 40 years served in the Marine Corps. The 66-year-old general, called a “warrior monk” by his peers for his depth of knowledge and lack of family — he never married — is also known to turn a memorable phrase, including: “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”
And if the nickname Mad Dog gives you pause, well, the retired general does not like it much either, according to NBC. (For his part, Trump seems fond of it, also using the name in his sole tweet about Mattis.)
The nickname stuck to Mattis following the second battle of Fallujah, the hardest fight of the Iraq War. Here’s the Los Angeles Times, in a profile about the “confident, jaunty” general in April 2004, a few months before the battle: “Behind his back, troops call him ‘Mad Dog Mattis,’ high praise in Marine culture.”
A 1990 study of nicknames among 175 teenagers concluded that references to “strength, largeness, hardness, and maturity are typical of male nicknames,” listing “Mad-dog” as a masculine name along with “Bear Chaser, Billy Boy, Dave Atlas, Deerlegs, Dick …. Druggy Dougie, The Fox, GL Jim, Harpo” and “Lips.”
Though Mad Dog has a cachet among Marines, a quick run-down of historic and fictional characters who also bore the name indicates why some would be reluctant to embrace it. (In late 16th century pubs, a strong brew was a “mad dog.” As a verb, it is slang for glaring. And, of course, a four-legged mad dog is a rabid one.)
As far as the Library of Congress database is concerned, the first and most famous Mad Dog was Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll. Coll, a mafia enforcer in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s, was so named by New York Mayor Jimmy Walker after the hitman fatally shot a five-year-old, struck by a wayward bullet in a mob fight.
That’s not to say celebrated Mad Dogs never lived. Sports players given the nickname Mad Dog may earn it through their athletic intensity but also because their surnames include “mad,” such as the Los Angeles Lakers’ Mark Madsen, Canadian hockey player John Madden, MLB pitcher Gregory Maddux and New Zealand rugby winger Joe Maddock.
Mad Dogs have appeared many times in fiction, in narratives as diverse as “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the Indonesian martial arts film “The Raid: Redemption“; there have been multiple in comics, including a New York police sharpshooter in the Marvel universe and a DC Comics serial killer committed to Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum.
And then there were the real-life Mad Dogs who fell somewhere in the middle.
Edgar “Mad Dog” Ross, a professional boxer with a 50-fight undefeated streak in the late 1970s, was remembered as a complicated character. “Edgar was as tough a human being as I’ve ever seen, and fearless,” his friend Jimmy Montgomery told the Tuscaloosa News, after Ross’s death in 2012. But Ross was described by others as “too mean for football,” using boxing as an outlet for violence.
While incarcerated, Canadian bank thief Roger “Mad Dog” Caron wrote a memoir, “Go-Boy!”, which sold 600,000 copies and earned Canada’s distinguished literature award, the Governor General’s prize, in 1977. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau would go on to call Caron a “great Canadian,” according to the Telegraph, after the thief’s parole.
On Thursday, at a post-election victory rally in Cincinnati, President-elect Donald Trump announced his pick for secretary of defense.
“We are going to appoint Mad Dog Mattis as our secretary of defense,” Trump said, as The Washington Post reported.
The Mad Dog in question was retired Marine Gen. James N. Mattis, who for more than 40 years served in the Marine Corps. The 66-year-old general, called a “warrior monk” by his peers for his depth of knowledge and lack of family — he never married — is also known to turn a memorable phrase, including: “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”
And if the nickname Mad Dog gives you pause, well, the retired general does not like it much either, according to NBC. (For his part, Trump seems fond of it, also using the name in his sole tweet about Mattis.)
The nickname stuck to Mattis following the second battle of Fallujah, the hardest fight of the Iraq War. Here’s the Los Angeles Times, in a profile about the “confident, jaunty” general in April 2004, a few months before the battle: “Behind his back, troops call him ‘Mad Dog Mattis,’ high praise in Marine culture.”
A 1990 study of nicknames among 175 teenagers concluded that references to “strength, largeness, hardness, and maturity are typical of male nicknames,” listing “Mad-dog” as a masculine name along with “Bear Chaser, Billy Boy, Dave Atlas, Deerlegs, Dick …. Druggy Dougie, The Fox, GL Jim, Harpo” and “Lips.”
Though Mad Dog has a cachet among Marines, a quick run-down of historic and fictional characters who also bore the name indicates why some would be reluctant to embrace it. (In late 16th century pubs, a strong brew was a “mad dog.” As a verb, it is slang for glaring. And, of course, a four-legged mad dog is a rabid one.)
As far as the Library of Congress database is concerned, the first and most famous Mad Dog was Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll. Coll, a mafia enforcer in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s, was so named by New York Mayor Jimmy Walker after the hitman fatally shot a five-year-old, struck by a wayward bullet in a mob fight.
That’s not to say celebrated Mad Dogs never lived. Sports players given the nickname Mad Dog may earn it through their athletic intensity but also because their surnames include “mad,” such as the Los Angeles Lakers’ Mark Madsen, Canadian hockey player John Madden, MLB pitcher Gregory Maddux and New Zealand rugby winger Joe Maddock.
Mad Dogs have appeared many times in fiction, in narratives as diverse as “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the Indonesian martial arts film “The Raid: Redemption“; there have been multiple in comics, including a New York police sharpshooter in the Marvel universe and a DC Comics serial killer committed to Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum.
And then there were the real-life Mad Dogs who fell somewhere in the middle.
Edgar “Mad Dog” Ross, a professional boxer with a 50-fight undefeated streak in the late 1970s, was remembered as a complicated character. “Edgar was as tough a human being as I’ve ever seen, and fearless,” his friend Jimmy Montgomery told the Tuscaloosa News, after Ross’s death in 2012. But Ross was described by others as “too mean for football,” using boxing as an outlet for violence.
While incarcerated, Canadian bank thief Roger “Mad Dog” Caron wrote a memoir, “Go-Boy!”, which sold 600,000 copies and earned Canada’s distinguished literature award, the Governor General’s prize, in 1977. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau would go on to call Caron a “great Canadian,” according to the Telegraph, after the thief’s parole.
[Link]
Ranch Radio Song of the Day #1742
It's time for a Country Roots feature on Ranch Radio and our selection today is Travelin' Blues by the legendary Jimmie Rodgers. The tune was recorded in San Antonio on January 31, 1931.
https://youtu.be/qDS4W7sGGWc
https://youtu.be/qDS4W7sGGWc
Thursday, December 01, 2016
Trump’s First 100 Days: Environmental Policy and Public Lands
By Cally Carswell
...Donald Trump’s dark-horse finish in the presidential race last month is raising similar concerns: Is Barack Obama’s environmental legacy doomed? Trump hasn’t articulated a detailed environmental agenda, but what he has said has the fossil fuel industry celebrating and environmentalists girding for battle. And it’s given the Roadless Rule saga new resonance. When Bush took office, he delayed implementation of the rule and lengthy court battles ensued. But after more than a decade of litigation, the rule largely held up. It’s not always easy for a new administration to undo the work of the last. Nevertheless, Trump has said he will approve the Keystone XL pipeline, rescind the Clean Power Plan, scrap a stream and wetland protection rule, and end a temporary moratorium on leasing of federal coal reserves. He’s also made broad promises to “lift restrictions” on energy development on public lands. Overall though, his ambitions are murky at best. “The current administration is more unpredictable than any administration that has ever come into office, at least within my lifetime,” says Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center. “We are in uncharted waters.” Whether Trump can deliver on his pledges depends in part on how the Obama administration advanced its own agenda. The coal-leasing moratorium, for instance, can be reversed immediately, says Matt Lee-Ashley, a public lands expert with the Center for American Progress. Where coal seams underlie federal land, agencies within the Department of the Interior offer leases to mining companies, which then pay royalties on the coal they dig. Last January, current Interior Secretary Sally Jewell instituted a moratorium on new leases via a “secretarial order”—the cabinet members’ version of the president’s executive order. Trump’s Interior Secretary could perform the same move in reverse, with the stroke of a pen. Likewise, Obama’s State Department had authority to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which would deliver crude oil from the Canadian tar sands to refineries and ports on the U.S. Gulf Coast. His administration rejected TransCanada’s application for a permit to allow construction across an international border. If the company resubmits its application, Trump could green-light it. The new Republican Congress can also ask Trump to overturn regulations finalized late in Obama’s term. The Congressional Review Act gives the House and Senate 60 days in session to scrutinize rules developed and finalized by executive branch agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In that time, Congress can pass a “joint resolution of disapproval” for a new rule. If the President signs the resolution, the rule is vacated. Because Congress takes so many breaks, rules finalized after May 30 of this year will likely be subject to congressional review, according to the Congressional Research Service. Trump’s options for erasing Obama’s earlier environmental achievements are more complicated. Take the stream and wetland protections known as the Clean Water Rule, issued by the EPA and the Army Corp of Engineers...more
U.S. marshals explain why they grabbed Ammon Bundy's lawyer
According to an account written by Colin M. Fawcett of the U.S. Marshals Service, Mumford grew "increasingly agitated'' after learning that Bundy wouldn't be released from custody.
"As Marshals moved forward to escort Bundy out of the courtroom, Mumford positioned his body so as to block the Marshals from taking Bundy into custody and began yelling in protest,'' Fawcett wrote. Deputy U.S. Marshal Erik Helsing instructed Mumford to "lower his voice and stand down,'' which Mumford didn't do, Fawcett wrote. Mumford became even more agitated, "flailing his arms and raising his voice even louder,'' so two other deputy marshals moved in to escort Mumford out of the courtroom, the statement said.
Then, according to Fawcett, Mumford took a particular stance that in Fawcett's "experience as a police officer and a combat veteran'' signaled that the attorney was "preparing for a combative and physical altercation.''
Fawcett wrote that Mumford lowered his body, widened his stance and "brought his shoulders up toward his head.''
"These physical responses are pre-assault indicators, consistent with an individual preparing for a combative and physical altercation,'' he wrote. Deputy U.S. Marshal Erik Helsing instructed Mumford to "lower his voice and stand down,'' which Mumford didn't do, Fawcett wrote. Mumford became even more agitated, "flailing his arms and raising his voice even louder,'' so two other deputy marshals moved in to escort Mumford out of the courtroom, the statement said.
Then, according to Fawcett, Mumford took a particular stance that in Fawcett's "experience as a police officer and a combat veteran'' signaled that the attorney was "preparing for a combative and physical altercation.''
Fawcett wrote that Mumford lowered his body, widened his stance and "brought his shoulders up toward his head.''
"These physical responses are pre-assault indicators, consistent with an individual preparing for a combative and physical altercation,'' he wrote. Two other deputies moved to grab Mumford's upper arm using a standard law enforcement grasp, but Mumford jerked his arm free.
Mumford "then squared his body off'' with a deputy and "raised his clenched fists in what appeared to be a boxer's stance,'' Fawcett wrote.
There's also no mention of the deputy marshals tackling Mumford, who is 5 feet six inches tall, according to his citation.
Instead, the summary simply states that "a brief struggle ensued'' and that Mumford was taken into custody...more
Hey, all you buckaroos and buckarettes better be careful of what "stance" you assume around any federale.
Hey, all you buckaroos and buckarettes better be careful of what "stance" you assume around any federale.
More than 2,000 veterans expected to form human shield at ND pipeline protest
More than 2,000 U.S. military veterans plan to form a human shield to protect protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline project near a Native American reservation in North Dakota, organizers said, just ahead of a federal deadline for activists to leave the camp they have been occupying.
It comes as North Dakota law enforcement backed away from a previous plan to cut off supplies to the camp -- an idea quickly abandoned after an outcry and with law enforcement's treatment of Dakota Access Pipeline protesters increasingly under the microscope.
Veterans Stand for Standing Rock, a contingent of more than 2,000 U.S. military veterans, intends to go to North Dakota by this weekend and form a human wall in front of police, protest organizers said on a Facebook page. Organizers could not immediately be reached for comment. Former U.S. Marine Michael A. Wood Jr. is leading the effort along with Wesley Clark Jr., a writer whose father is retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark.
U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii and a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard, has said on Twitter she will join the protesters on Sunday...more
The wrong colored apple can put you in jail
What do cottage cheese, “extra fancy” apples, and chicken noodle soup all have in common? It’s a crime to sell any of them without meeting arcane federal regulatory standards.
Heritage Foundation scholars James Gattuso and Diane Katz write in their 2016 report, “Red Tape Rising,” that the costs of federal regulations “have not been fully quantified,” but “many of the worst effects – the loss of freedom and opportunity, for example – are incalculable.”
“The need for reform,” Gattuso and Katz write, “is urgent.”
The potential risk of lost freedom and opportunity is greatest where federal agencies have attached criminal penalties to what previously had been considered innocent conduct.
‘Extra Fancy’ Apples
The administrative state also regulates the produce aisle, right down to the coloration of individual apples (7 C.F.R. § 51.305). Different varieties of apples must meet different color tests: McIntosh apples must be at least 50 percent red to be categorized as Extra Fancy; Red Delicious apples must be at least 66 percent red to receive the same Extra Fancy status. The Department of Agriculture provides an Index of Official Visual Aids with official color standards for everything from apple butter to olives. If an apple seller labels a McIntosh apple that is 49 percent red as Extra Fancy, that may run afoul of multiple federal statutes. First, if read literally, a federal statute on the secretary of agriculture’s regulatory duties (7 U.S.C. § 1622(h)(4)) could make a knowing violation of the color codes and other food regulations a criminal offense subject to a fine of up to $1,000 and imprisonment for up to one year. Another layer of potential criminal liability is added by federal false statements law, which criminalizes telling a lie in connection with any matter that falls under the jurisdiction of an ever-expanding U.S. government. It imposes a penalty of up to five years’ imprisonment for each lie. Former Justice Department official Stephen Saltzburg says the false statements law “is so vague that harmless misstatements,” not unlike the precise redness of an apple, “can be turned into federal felonies.”...more
‘Extra Fancy’ Apples
The administrative state also regulates the produce aisle, right down to the coloration of individual apples (7 C.F.R. § 51.305). Different varieties of apples must meet different color tests: McIntosh apples must be at least 50 percent red to be categorized as Extra Fancy; Red Delicious apples must be at least 66 percent red to receive the same Extra Fancy status. The Department of Agriculture provides an Index of Official Visual Aids with official color standards for everything from apple butter to olives. If an apple seller labels a McIntosh apple that is 49 percent red as Extra Fancy, that may run afoul of multiple federal statutes. First, if read literally, a federal statute on the secretary of agriculture’s regulatory duties (7 U.S.C. § 1622(h)(4)) could make a knowing violation of the color codes and other food regulations a criminal offense subject to a fine of up to $1,000 and imprisonment for up to one year. Another layer of potential criminal liability is added by federal false statements law, which criminalizes telling a lie in connection with any matter that falls under the jurisdiction of an ever-expanding U.S. government. It imposes a penalty of up to five years’ imprisonment for each lie. Former Justice Department official Stephen Saltzburg says the false statements law “is so vague that harmless misstatements,” not unlike the precise redness of an apple, “can be turned into federal felonies.”...more
Urban and rural America are becoming increasingly polarized
In what is likely the most divisive election in recent history, deep-rooted patterns in how the country votes have become more pronounced. The majority of counties with populations greater than 500,000 — where roughly half of Americans live — swung further to the left. In Los Angeles County, for example, about 71 percent of votes went for Hillary Clinton this year, compared with about 69 percent for Obama in 2008 and 2012, and 63 percent for John F. Kerry in 2004. That effect even spilled into neighboring Orange County, which before this election had not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. Even in ruby-red Texas, the largest urban counties swung left. Take Harris County, home to Houston, as an example. Obama won this county by less than one-tenth of 1 percent in 2012, but Clinton beat Donald Trump there by more than 12 percentage points — a margin greater than George W. Bush’s in either of his presidential campaigns. Even Tarrant County — home to Fort Worth — swung to the left but was still carried by Trump. Outside these urban counties, the opposite is true. In counties with fewer than 100,000 people — which make up 80 percent of counties in the country but contain only about 20 percent of the population — 9 out of 10 voted more Republican than they did in 2004. Aside from the very urban and the very rural, the election was won and lost in America’s medium-size counties. Midwestern states, suburban counties and medium-size cities that voted for Obama in 2012 went for Trump, effectively handing him the presidency...more
Vilsack says Democrats need better message for rural America
No one listened to Tom Vilsack.
As agriculture secretary during the entire Obama administration, the former Iowa governor has for years been telling anyone who will pay attention — farmers, members of Congress, even Hillary Clinton — that Democrats need a better message for rural America. And he's spent most of his tenure focusing on rural development, trying to revitalize areas that ultimately voted for Republican Donald Trump in this year's presidential election.
"The Democratic Party, in my opinion, has not made as much of an effort as it ought to, to speak to rural voters," Vilsack said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press. "What's frustrating to me is that we actually have something we can say to them, and we have chosen, for whatever reason, not to say it."
Vilsack is a longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton and was close to becoming Hillary Clinton's vice presidential running mate. She chose Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine instead. Clinton ultimately won Virginia but lost, deeply, in many rural areas of the country.
Vilsack says he understands why party leaders chose a different path to try for electoral victory, focusing on expanding populations like Hispanics and African-Americans who had come out in large numbers to vote for Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, in 2008 and 2012.
The problem, he said, is those groups represent around the same percentage of the population as rural voters. And he says Democrats didn't have enough of a counter argument to powerful Republican themes of less regulation and lower taxes.
"There wasn't an overarching theme that a person in a small town could go, 'Oh, they're talking about me,' " Vilsack said.
According to exit polls conducted for AP and television networks by Edison Research, about 17 percent of voters in this year's election were from small cities or rural areas, and 62 percent of them said they voted for Trump...more
Hey Vilsack. It's not the message - it's what you actually did. Violating property rights, attempting to steal water, running ranch families off federal lands, etc., etc. is your problem. And the message was received.
Hey Vilsack. It's not the message - it's what you actually did. Violating property rights, attempting to steal water, running ranch families off federal lands, etc., etc. is your problem. And the message was received.
Beef Production - McDonald's, Walmart and Subway Are Right at the Top of the List in Wrecking the World's Forests
I'm sure this will go to the top of your holiday reading list.
Overwhelmed Border Patrol Agents Stuck Serving Burritos to Illegal Immigrants
Border Patrol agents are reporting that they are overwhelmed by a massive uptick in illegal immigration of unaccompanied foreign children, leaving some members of the force stuck serving food to kids and ordering various supplies such as baby wipes, according to Mark Morgan, chief of the Border Patrol, which operates within the Department of Homeland Security.
Border agents have expressed shock at the menial tasks they’ve been required to perform following a massive flow of illegal immigrant children across the U.S. southern border, according to Morgan, who warned that the force is being strained as a result of this influx.
During one recent trip to a border patrol outpost, “the supervisor in charge said, ‘Chief, we’re going to do whatever this country asks us to do, but I never thought in my 20 years that I would be, as part of procurement, ordering baby powder and baby wipes,'” Morgan recalled during Wednesday testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
“I just got from one sector,” Morgan continued, “where agents, one of their jobs during the day, is to actually make sure the food, the burritos we’re providing are being warmed properly. It takes a tremendous amount of resources to do this.”
The number of unaccompanied children and families traveling from Central America to the United States has increased significantly during the past few years.
The number crossing the U.S. border from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador has jumped to 46,893 in fiscal 2016, up from 28,387 in 2015, according to statistics provided by Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), the committee’s chair. Morgan warned the committee that nearly all of the children and families apprehended on the border are released into the United States.
“Basically 100 percent of those family units and [unaccompanied children] are released into the U.S.” Morgan said, expressing distress at the amount of border patrol resources now being “dedicated to being professional child care providers at this point.”
Johnson offered statistics showing that just under 4 percent of illegal immigrants apprehended are sent back to their country of origin...more
Heinrich, Udall appeal to Obama on Dakota pipeline protest
New Mexico’s U.S. senators today wrote separate letters to President Barack Obama asking him intervene in a potential confrontation between Dakota Access Pipeline protesters and the U.S. Corps of Engineers, which has given protesters an early December deadline for dispersing from the protest site.
Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall, both Democrats, urged caution in dealing with the protesters today. Udall is set to become the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in January.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has set a Dec. 5 deadline for American Indians and others to leave an encampment in North Dakota where they’ve been entrenched for months protesting the Dakota Access pipeline. In his letter, Heinrich asked Obama to “overturn” the date.
“I question the decision to close the area to demonstrators on December 5, 2016,” Heinrich wrote. “This arbitrary date is certain to escalate an already volatile situation and I would urge you to overturn this decision by the Corps of Engineers. I ask that you seek a peaceful resolution to this conflict that respects the desire of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe to protect their water and historic sacred sites.” “I am gravely concerned about the recent escalation of violence in North Dakota against members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and those standing in solidarity with them,” Heinrich’s letter said.
Heinrich also decried “the brutality we’ve seen in recent days involving rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannons” used against protesters by law enforcement. Udall also voiced worry about the Dec. 5 deadline...more
Compare that to:
Compare that to:
Heinrich: Armed Extremists At Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Must Be Prosecuted
"I am concerned that the absence of federal prosecution after similar events in the past, such as the 2014 standoff near Bunkerville, Nevada, may have emboldened these individuals to seize federal property in the Malheur standoff. There must be consequences for this sort of dangerous action. When the federal government does not fulfill its duty in prosecuting violations of the law, individuals are emboldened to further defy the law."
More Southwest border fencing needed, but it is not sole answer, chief says
License To Kill Mountain Lion Has Animal-Rights Advocates In An Uproar
Animal-rights advocates didn’t hold back Wednesday night after
learning the Department of Fish and Wildlife recently issued a 10-day
permit to allow ranchers in the Santa Monica Mountains to shoot and kill
the lion known as P-45. The permit was issued because authorities
believe P-45 killed 10 alpacas on one property then a goat and alpaca on
another property Thanksgiving weekend. It was a packed house at the meeting in Agoura Hills for livestock
owners to find a solution to protecting their animals from hungry
mountain lions. The only long-term solution to keeping the big cats in the wild
around Los Angeles at bay is to erect mountain lion-proof enclosures for
pets and livestock, according to the National Park Service. Relocating P-45 will not work since it will eventually come back to its home range, officials say. “They bring alpacas from South America to the middle of mountain lion
country and mountain lion country goes for the alpacas, and now they
want to kill the mountain lion?” activist Judy Mancuso of Social
Compassion in Legislation asked. “No one wants anyone to shoot P-45.”...more
Friendly otter jumps onto kayak, joins birthday celebration
A friendly otter joined a couple celebrating a birthday in Northern California by jumping into one of their kayaks and making itself at home, rolling around and even nibbling on some shoes.
Heather VanNes said Wednesday she and her husband, John Koester, were celebrating his birthday Monday in a slough near Moss Landing and had just gotten in the water when they spotted a raft of otters.
They went by to watch them from a distance of at least 50 feet when one of the otters began swimming toward her husband’s kayak and jumped right onto it.
Koester says the otter plopped into the front of the boat, rolled around, scratched his belly and ears and nibbled on rope and his shoes.
He says it appeared the otter “was having a good time.”
Koester says the otter was at least 80 pounds and stayed on the kayak for at least 10 minutes until. After he started paddling, the otter jumped back into the water. AP
Teen kills deer, finds a parachute in its antlers
Brady Hempen, 15, has killed nearly 50 deer since he started hunting when he was just 5 years old, but never one like the buck he shot recently at Fort Campbell, Ky. Hempen noticed the big deer earlier in the day with something he could not identify wrapped up in its antlers.
Part of what was in the rack shined. It helped Hempen to track the deer.
“At first I thought he had a dead deer in his antlers when I saw all that stuff in his rack,” said Hempen, who first spotted the buck from 50 yards. “It was pretty neat. I finally realized there was a shiny canister in there too.”
The deer had a parachute and canister from a military flare, which had been launched at the army base, tangled in his antlers.
Hempen, who is from Paducah, Ky., shot the deer from 25 yards using a muzzleloader during the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency youth hunt.
Hempen was only able to score 11 points in the rack. The parachute was covering some of the points. Hempen decided not to remove the parachute and is having the head and rack mounted with it still in place...more
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Santa Claus banned from Oregon classrooms
HILLSBORO, Ore. (WTVD) --A school district
in Oregon is joining many others around the country in a controversial
decision to ban holiday symbols and decorations from the classroom. KATU reports Santa Claus is no longer welcome in Hillsboro Schools, outside Portland. The
district told staff who wished to decorate offices or doors to refrain
from religious-themed decorations or images, including Santa. The students are not allowed to wear anything Santa-themed, either. "It
really went out as a notification to staff, not even parents, just to
make sure they are being sensitive and thoughtful as they enter the
holiday season," said Beth Graser, communications director for Hillsboro
School District. Some parents, though, think this new rule is unnecessary. "I'm
from that generation where we believe in Santa, and my kids believe in
Santa, and they should be able to celebrate it," said one parent. School officials said they just want to make sure all cultures and backgrounds are comfortable at school.
Bears Ears: Correcting an off-base argument
by Charles Wilkinson
Nathan Nielson’s opinion piece, “A National Monument is a Heavy-handed Solution for Bears Ears” (HCN 10/31/16) is made from whole cloth. The yarns Neilson spins are of “federal absorption,” of vandalism run amok; of neglect and economic crisis; of future limitations placed on the gathering of wood, herbs and piñon nuts; of a lack of support for a Bears Ears National Monument; and of a coming massive restriction of livestock grazing as at the nearby Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument...The author laments a 31 percent reduction in grazing at Grand Staircase – a non-existent “fact.” The Bureau of Land Management says that permitted Animal Unit Months (AUMs – a cow and a calf pair) were 77,200 when the Staircase was designated. Today, 76,900 are available, even after thousands of AUMs were willingly sold by ranchers. This means livestock grazing has actually increased in other parts of the monument, despite a decade of crippling drought...more
The truth is neither Nielson or Wilkinson know what will happen to livestock grazing if a Bears Ears National Monument is created. Why? Because it all depends on what language Obama puts in the proclamation. Livestock grazing language has run the gamut in Presidential proclamations, from livestock grazing being totally banned, to banned in certain areas, to being allowed but subservient to the objects in the monument, to language saying the monument would have no affect on livestock grazing. That is what is so scary about the Presidential power granted in the Antiquities Act. Nobody knows until the proclamation is issued.
Nathan Nielson’s opinion piece, “A National Monument is a Heavy-handed Solution for Bears Ears” (HCN 10/31/16) is made from whole cloth. The yarns Neilson spins are of “federal absorption,” of vandalism run amok; of neglect and economic crisis; of future limitations placed on the gathering of wood, herbs and piñon nuts; of a lack of support for a Bears Ears National Monument; and of a coming massive restriction of livestock grazing as at the nearby Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument...The author laments a 31 percent reduction in grazing at Grand Staircase – a non-existent “fact.” The Bureau of Land Management says that permitted Animal Unit Months (AUMs – a cow and a calf pair) were 77,200 when the Staircase was designated. Today, 76,900 are available, even after thousands of AUMs were willingly sold by ranchers. This means livestock grazing has actually increased in other parts of the monument, despite a decade of crippling drought...more
The truth is neither Nielson or Wilkinson know what will happen to livestock grazing if a Bears Ears National Monument is created. Why? Because it all depends on what language Obama puts in the proclamation. Livestock grazing language has run the gamut in Presidential proclamations, from livestock grazing being totally banned, to banned in certain areas, to being allowed but subservient to the objects in the monument, to language saying the monument would have no affect on livestock grazing. That is what is so scary about the Presidential power granted in the Antiquities Act. Nobody knows until the proclamation is issued.
Grassroots efforts may have delayed monument
With an historic election in the rear view mirror and the arrival of winter weather, time is ticking on the presidency of Barack Obama.
In less than two months, Obama will be replaced in Washington, DC by Donald Trump. What he does between now and January 21, 2017 could have a significant impact on San Juan County.
It has been four months since Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell led a delegation of federal officials to the area to investigate the proposed Bears Ears National Monument.
A coalition of environmental groups and Native American tribes joined together to seek the designation of a 1.9 million acre national monument.
The massive monument proposal includes approximately 38 percent of the total landmass of San Juan County, with large sections of private, state, BLM and Forest Service land included.
The proposal was met with a mixed response at a public meeting hosted by Jewell in Bluff. Large groups of environmental and tribal supporters attended the meeting, including a large number of people from outside of San Juan County.
Local residents spoke in favor of and opposed to the designation, leaving the impression to many observers that local residents were split on the proposal.
In response, a group of local residents banded together in a grassroots effort to fight the proposal.
Efforts in the community, in the media, with elected officials and on the bumpers of local cars have combined to build awareness of the significant local opposition to the monument.
While there are still voices in favor of the proposal, including local residents who serve on the Navajo Nation Tribal Council, the voices opposed to the monument seem to have drowned out the voices of supporters in local circles...more
I'll believe it when I see it. For the two NM monuments there was a period of four months between Jewell's "listening sessions" and Obama bringing the hammer down. The folks at Owyhee and Bears Ears can't breathe easily until Obama walks out the door.
I'll believe it when I see it. For the two NM monuments there was a period of four months between Jewell's "listening sessions" and Obama bringing the hammer down. The folks at Owyhee and Bears Ears can't breathe easily until Obama walks out the door.
Forest Service trying to seize private land from Montana ranchers
by Charles Sauer
Chris Hunter and his co-owners of Wonder Ranch in southwestern Montana have decided it’s their time to be brave. They’re taking on the government and fighting for land that is rightfully theirs. “It is daunting and depressing, we felt afraid and cornered,” Hunter told me about the government’s actions. “You feel double crossed by your own government. You either have to sue them or it’s a done deal. It doesn’t feel like America, it feels like we are living in one of the horrible dictatorships that we read about in history books.” The issue is that the U.S. Forest Service likes a quarter-mile-long trail that happens to cut across Wonder Ranch’s private land. For decades, the ranch’s owners have happily granted access to both the public and government employees anytime they’ve wanted to use the trail, which happens to cross through their front yard. It’s been an amicable relationship, but an uncertain one. “[You] have been very cooperative in allowing us to cross your land to get to the National Forest,” Madison District Ranger Blaine Tennis wrote in a letter to Wonder Ranch, all the way back in 1960. “However, a new owner may not be so inclined and the federal government would possibly have to resort to condemnation proceedings [sic] which are lengthy and costly to both parties involved.” Mere access wasn’t enough – a bully always wants more, you see. At Wonder Ranch, access alone wasn’t enough for the Forest Service: It wants to steal the land now. There was an alternate proposed route that didn’t cut through the ranch’s front yard. The Forest Service could have reached an amicable conclusion with the landowners. But that wasn’t enough for the Forest Service. Nope, the bully never stops. The Forest Service, by fiat, claimed an easement through the ranch. The owners of the ranch shouldn’t have to wage this war, but they are, and we should all get behind them. Fortunately, their supporters are starting to line up. House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Tex., is behind them and their right to their property. “The government shouldn’t bully anyone,” Sessions told me. “The government’s job is to defend our rights, our freedom, and our property. What the Forest Service is doing in Montana is a gross abuse of power.”...more
I decided to take a look at this. There is more to this case than columnist Sauer shares. It turns out an easement was granted under Montana law. Here is more from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:
There are some lessons to be learned here. For those interested the decision is embedded below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Yd5M8kgeNtazR6ZHZubGM5c1k/view?usp=sharing
Chris Hunter and his co-owners of Wonder Ranch in southwestern Montana have decided it’s their time to be brave. They’re taking on the government and fighting for land that is rightfully theirs. “It is daunting and depressing, we felt afraid and cornered,” Hunter told me about the government’s actions. “You feel double crossed by your own government. You either have to sue them or it’s a done deal. It doesn’t feel like America, it feels like we are living in one of the horrible dictatorships that we read about in history books.” The issue is that the U.S. Forest Service likes a quarter-mile-long trail that happens to cut across Wonder Ranch’s private land. For decades, the ranch’s owners have happily granted access to both the public and government employees anytime they’ve wanted to use the trail, which happens to cross through their front yard. It’s been an amicable relationship, but an uncertain one. “[You] have been very cooperative in allowing us to cross your land to get to the National Forest,” Madison District Ranger Blaine Tennis wrote in a letter to Wonder Ranch, all the way back in 1960. “However, a new owner may not be so inclined and the federal government would possibly have to resort to condemnation proceedings [sic] which are lengthy and costly to both parties involved.” Mere access wasn’t enough – a bully always wants more, you see. At Wonder Ranch, access alone wasn’t enough for the Forest Service: It wants to steal the land now. There was an alternate proposed route that didn’t cut through the ranch’s front yard. The Forest Service could have reached an amicable conclusion with the landowners. But that wasn’t enough for the Forest Service. Nope, the bully never stops. The Forest Service, by fiat, claimed an easement through the ranch. The owners of the ranch shouldn’t have to wage this war, but they are, and we should all get behind them. Fortunately, their supporters are starting to line up. House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Tex., is behind them and their right to their property. “The government shouldn’t bully anyone,” Sessions told me. “The government’s job is to defend our rights, our freedom, and our property. What the Forest Service is doing in Montana is a gross abuse of power.”...more
I decided to take a look at this. There is more to this case than columnist Sauer shares. It turns out an easement was granted under Montana law. Here is more from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:
U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon ruled that there was a public prescriptive easement — meaning an easement that isn’t in writing — on a trail that crosses the Wonder Ranch, a property south of Cameron near the Indian Creek Canyon. The decision upholds the U.S. Forest Service’s claim that the trail is entirely public and rejects the landowners’ claim that access — however ample — was granted by their permission. John Bloomquist, an attorney for the plaintiff Wonder Ranch LLC, said they are reviewing the decision and will decide whether to appeal, but that their position remains that public and administrative use of the trail “has been a product of the landowner’s cooperation and permission.” Court documents say the landowners’ spat with the Forest Service began when the owners of the Wonder Ranch put up gates and signs that asked people to dismount horses and leash their dogs while passing through the property. Court documents say they put up another sign sometime between 2007 and 2009, saying access was given “by gratuitous permission of the landowner.” The Forest Service asked the owners to take down the signs and leave the gates open. The dismount and leash signs were removed, but not the one claiming access was given by permission of the landowner. Forest officials in 2011 filed a document with Madison County asserting that the trail was public. In response, the owners of the Wonder Ranch filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service in 2014. The suit argued that the agency’s claim of a public prescriptive easement had “no validity whatsoever,” citing a 2004 letter from the then district ranger saying that there wasn’t an easement on the property. But after two years of dueling motions, a trial and a judge’s tour of the property, the court sided with the Forest Service. Haddon’s opinion says records of the trail go as far back as 1888, and that it was included in a 1940 Forest Service map as trail No. 328. He went on to write about the cavalcade of users the trail has seen, from ranchers moving livestock along the trail as it crosses the property in the ’30s and ’40s to the hunters and hikers that have been using the trail in increasing number since the 1980s. Haddon wrote that during the warm seasons in the 1990s, the trail saw between 10 and 20 users a day. That established that the trail saw ample and varied use, but part of the case hinged on whether the trail users asked for permission. If trail users were consistently asking the landowner for permission, it would show that the landowner was actually granting access by “gratuitous permission,” as claimed by the sign they put up. But Haddon wrote that the majority of trail users didn’t ask for permission. Ranchers trailing livestock in the last century did so without asking permission and a number of outfitters, hunters and hikers using the public lands accessed by the trail did so without asking permission, supporting the argument that the trail was public.
There are some lessons to be learned here. For those interested the decision is embedded below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Yd5M8kgeNtazR6ZHZubGM5c1k/view?usp=sharing
Faith Groups Send Letter Praising BLM Methane Limits
Leaders from the faith community in Colorado and across the Southwest are sending a letter today to President Obama and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell thanking them for adopting new rules to limit methane waste on public and tribal lands. The letter said the policy is in sync with church efforts to counter wasteful attitudes and behaviors that Pope Francis has called a "throwaway culture."
Adrian Miller is executive director of the Colorado Council of Churches, one of some 25 groups to sign the letter.
"People of faith do care about God's creation and about being better stewards of the earth," he said. "But we also are mindful that this is an important industry, and we like this rule because we think it strikes a good balance."
He said the oil and gas industry is critical for Colorado's economy, particularly in rural areas, and said limiting waste can increase production. President-elect Donald Trump hasn't taken a position on methane limits but has promised to roll back regulations on fossil-fuel development. Miller said he hopes the faith community's support for the Bureau of Land Management's rules will help convince the incoming administration to keep them in place...more
If you go to the Colorado Council of Churches website, you will find a link to their "partner" Eco-Justice Ministries, where you will find links to their "colleagues" such as the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Programs and Interfaith Power & Light (A religious response to global warming).
If you go to the Colorado Council of Churches website, you will find a link to their "partner" Eco-Justice Ministries, where you will find links to their "colleagues" such as the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Programs and Interfaith Power & Light (A religious response to global warming).
US officials will review status of lesser prairie chicken
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Federal wildlife officials on Tuesday agreed to reconsider the status of a grouse found in pockets across the Great Plains as environmentalists fight to return the bird to the list of protected species.
The lesser prairie chicken was removed from the threatened and endangered species list earlier this year following court rulings in Texas and a decision by government lawyers not to pursue an appeal.
Environmentalists responded by petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take another look at the bird. They argued that emergency protections are needed for isolated populations of the bird along the Texas-New Mexico border, in Colorado and western Kansas...more
Ranchers a big part of watershed management
Ranchers spoke candidly about their beliefs in land conservation in a venue they traditionally have avoided – one in which government officials and forestry people also were present. The All Hands, All Lands conference on Nov. 15 at Chapel Rock Conference Center in Prescott included state forestry officials, ranchers, hydrologists and five companies involved in the biomass industry.
Sponsored by the Upper Verde River Watershed Protection Coalition (UVRWPC), Chino Winds Triangle Natural Resource Conservation Districts, and Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management (AAFFM), the conference centered around efforts to remove and utilize pinyon-juniper vegetation on nearly 1 million acres in Yavapai County. Five companies involved in the biomass industry also gave short presentations.
Rancher Mark Goswick, 57, said his family has ranched in the area since the 1800s. Dawn Salcito is the fifth generation of ranchers in her family. Reuben Verner is fourth generation. Bas Aja’s family has ranched near Ash Fork since 1897. John Hunt ranches some 45 miles out of Prescott. They all took time out from their busy fall season to drive into town and speak to about 100 people involved in watershed management on public and private lands. Some of the ranchers pointed out historical changes caused by encroachment of junipers and pinyons on their ranches, and the resulting decline or absence of streams that used to run seasonally or year round. They also expressed frustration at federal rules and regulations that require environmental studies for almost any kind of land management proposals, such as putting in fence line or stock wells, that can take years to analyze before receiving permission or denial.
“Like my father used to say, ‘You’re making a lot of dust, but you’re not getting anything done,’” Aja said, referring to the lengthy legal process involved with NEPA studies (National Environmental Policy Act)....more
In 1918, California Drafted Children Into a War On Squirrels
by Dave Gilson
In April 1918, as American doughboys faced down the Germans in France, California’s schoolchildren were enlisted to open a new Western Front. “We have enemies here at home more destructive, perhaps, than some of the enemies our boys are fighting in the trenches,” state horticulture commissioner George H. Hecke warned in an impassioned call-up for “School Soldiers.” He exhorted children to do their part for Uncle Sam by organizing “a company of soldiers in your class or in your school” and marching out to destroy their foe: “the squirrel army.” This children’s crusade was part of Squirrel Week, a seven-day frenzy in which California tried to kill off its ground squirrels. The state’s farmers and ranchers had long struggled to decimate the critters (also known as Otospermophilus beecheyi), which were seen as pests and a source of pestilence, particularly the bubonic plague. The burrowing foragers—not to be confused with tree squirrels—devoured an estimated $30 million worth of crops annually, about $480 million in current dollars... By the time Squirrel Week ended on May 4, children across the state had turned in 104,509 tails, though this was thought to represent a fraction of the total casualties. Even after the contest ended, the Commission of Horticulture reported that kids’ enthusiasm for killing squirrels continued for “an indefinite period.” During an anti-squirrel campaign in Lassen County later in the year, one girl brought in 3,780 tails; a boy brought in 3,770...more
Them was the good ol' days. Today, based on current events, some children would need therapy dogs if they even heard about the killing of these critters.
How do you think a program like this would be received today? Can you imagine the reaction?
Anyway, there are some great posters accompanying the article. Here are a few:
In April 1918, as American doughboys faced down the Germans in France, California’s schoolchildren were enlisted to open a new Western Front. “We have enemies here at home more destructive, perhaps, than some of the enemies our boys are fighting in the trenches,” state horticulture commissioner George H. Hecke warned in an impassioned call-up for “School Soldiers.” He exhorted children to do their part for Uncle Sam by organizing “a company of soldiers in your class or in your school” and marching out to destroy their foe: “the squirrel army.” This children’s crusade was part of Squirrel Week, a seven-day frenzy in which California tried to kill off its ground squirrels. The state’s farmers and ranchers had long struggled to decimate the critters (also known as Otospermophilus beecheyi), which were seen as pests and a source of pestilence, particularly the bubonic plague. The burrowing foragers—not to be confused with tree squirrels—devoured an estimated $30 million worth of crops annually, about $480 million in current dollars... By the time Squirrel Week ended on May 4, children across the state had turned in 104,509 tails, though this was thought to represent a fraction of the total casualties. Even after the contest ended, the Commission of Horticulture reported that kids’ enthusiasm for killing squirrels continued for “an indefinite period.” During an anti-squirrel campaign in Lassen County later in the year, one girl brought in 3,780 tails; a boy brought in 3,770...more
Them was the good ol' days. Today, based on current events, some children would need therapy dogs if they even heard about the killing of these critters.
How do you think a program like this would be received today? Can you imagine the reaction?
Anyway, there are some great posters accompanying the article. Here are a few:
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