NEWS ROUNDUP

Perry signs property rights bill In a move designed to strengthen private property rights, Gov. Rick Perry signed into law Wednesday a bill that limits state and local governments from seizing land for economic development. "Today we are protecting Texans' dreams and upholding the strong tradition of private property rights," Perry said before a small gathering of reporters and employees at Columbia Industries in San Antonio. Texas is one of at least 31 states to review eminent domain laws this summer since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that backed governments' power to take private land for economic development as a way to increase tax revenue. It's the second state to enact a law seeking to limit government power of eminent domain, according to the Institute for Justice in Washington, D.C....
Man takes his love of bears bit too far A raid by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens on a home off Rogers Pass Tuesday resulted in the arrest of a Lincoln man and the destruction of five black bears. Wayne August Maclean, 48, pleaded guilty in Justice Court Wednesday to misdemeanor charges of feeding the bears at his Elk Meadows home, and in so doing, creating a public nuisance. "Apparently he just viewed them as pets," said Mike Martin, game warden captain for Region 4. According to court documents, wardens began their investigation of Maclean in July after receiving information from area residents that he was feeding wild bears on his property....
Feds to study Yellowstone cutthroat The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday said it will take a sweeping look at the Yellowstone cutthroat trout to decide whether the species needs federal protection. The agency is undertaking the effort at the order of a federal judge who said last year that the fish may need to those protections in order to survive. Environmental groups for years have been pushing to have the Yellowstone cutthroat protected under the Endangered Species Act. Named for the reddish slash on its lower jaw, the Yellowstone cutthroat is food for at least 42 other animals including grizzly bears and eagles, and helps support a multimillion-dollar fishing industry in the Northern Rocky Mountains. The Fish and Wildlife Service in 2001 rejected a petition to designate the fish as threatened, saying the agency didn't have enough information and that some of the information was outdated....
RAND study says oil shale promise might come true Oil shale’s time seems fast approaching, according to a RAND Corp. report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy. The report suggests caution by the federal government in committing resources to developing the oil shale of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, but it also says federal agencies need to look more creatively at leasing public lands overlaying the shale. Technical advancements in extracting oil from shale, including work at Shell’s Mahogany Research Project in northwest Colorado, have shown that oil shale could play a significant role, but not an immediate one, Bartis said. The Shell process, which involves no mining and minimal disturbance, “might be the kind of breakthrough that oil shale deserves and needs to get,” he said. Recommendations include development of a federal oil shale leasing strategy for the Green River Formation, which contains as much as 1.3 trillion barrels of oil, making it the most energy-intensive resource in the world. Some parts of the formation contain concentrations equal to 2.5 million barrels of oil underneath a single acre of surface land, he said....
The US must find extra oil refining capacity . . . fast America is in a frantic search for supplies of gasoline (petrol) after the great storm. One million extra barrels must be imported every day to keep the economic wheels spinning and the cost will be borne, not just by Americans, but Europeans and ultimately by the fuel poor of Africa and Asia. In several states there is panic buying, a human reaction to rumours of shortages. In Rotterdam, the cost of unleaded gasoline is scaling new peaks as Europe is sucked into America’s energy distress. There is no escape from this vast web of oil, a complex chain of command that links oil well to petrol pump and that is under enormous strain. The United States is short of gasoline. In a normal year it imports about 400,000 barrels per day, about half of it from Europe, a trade that reflects America’s preference for gasoline over diesel....
Missing hiker found alive in Rocky Mountain National Park A hiker missing since Sunday in the rugged Mummy Range was found alive Wednesday, but his condition wasn't immediately known. Rocky Mountain National Park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said Hillel Ben-Avi of Austin, Texas, was getting medical care at a helicopter landing area. She said Ben-Avi was tired and hungry, but had no other details. Ben-Avi, 45, a radiologist, was last seen near the summit of 13,502-foot Fairchild Mountain about 60 miles northwest of Denver in the northern part of the park. He was hiking ahead of his brother, who last saw him near the summit. When his brother reached the top, Ben-Avi was not there, Patterson said....
Column: Rear-view policy They say the Pentagon’s generals always fight current wars using the strategies and tactics from the war prior—and there are certainly plenty of examples to back up the truism. But the “living in the past” syndrome doesn’t apply just to the military. In many ways, on both the state and federal level, bureaucracies and the political appointees who manage them are woefully behind the times. Take the recent shocking news released by the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR) concerning the Bush administration’s secret rewrite for national park management. Given that the rewrite was conducted under the direction of a Bush political appointee—a former head of the Cody, Wyo., Chamber of Commerce—it should come as no surprise that national parks and seashores are envisioned as marketable motorized playgrounds, where pollution and noise are welcome and environmental damages are expected. Like so much in the Bush administration, the nefarious document was created in secrecy, without a single Congressional hearing or input from park superintendents or the public. For a full explanation of what such a radical redrawing of park management might mean to future generations of Americans, feel free to access the document at www.npsretirees.org....
Local male mountain lion kills female mate Malibu's mountain lions are downsizing in the Santa Monica Mountains. The National Park Service reported that a local male mountain lion, called P1 by rangers, fatally wounded his female mountain lion partner, P2, on Aug. 12. Park Service rangers say that apparently the female lion was with deer kill and her four young offspring when P1 came into the area. "In part because carnivores are very defensive of their prey and, in part, because P2 was still with the four yearling lions, she may have acted quite aggressively toward P1's advances," said Ray Sauvajot, chief of planning, science and resource management for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. "Consequently, a fight broke out and P1, the larger of the two lions, was able to subdue and subsequently kill P2."....
Since 1939, Park has recorded 101 bear bite incidents Glacier National Park officials have not determined whether they will try to take any action against the grizzly sow that mauled two people on the Grinnell Glacier Trail last week. For one, it was a surprise encounter and it was a sow with two cubs. It was not a predatory situation, park officials note. Secondly, the Park could have a hard time determining what bear family actually caused the attack, said Park spokeswoman Amy Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt noted the Park has yet to interview either one of the victims, which could play a role in the Park's management actions. In general, however, the Park doesn't kill grizzly sows with cubs if its determined to be a defensive action. Sows with cubs can be very aggressive if they feel threatened by humans or other predators. In total, the Park has recorded 101 bear bite incidents since 1939, Vanderbilt said. That includes people illegally feeding them, she noted....
The Sierra Club at a Crossroads The Sierra Club is not just another green group -- it's the green group. Its 750,000 members are the faces of mainstream environmentalism: In every part of the country, they personify the movement to their communities. But American society today is very different from the days when the club started out. And as the Baby Boomer generation of activists grows older, the club is having a hard time developing the leaders it will need in the future. This month, the Sierra Club will hold its first-ever Sierra Summit in San Francisco, a gathering of members from around the country to chart its future course and address this issue -- one that seriously threatens the flagship of American environmentalism. "It's going to be the largest gathering of our members, activists and leaders ever," says Greg Casini, the club's vice president for organizational effectiveness and a member of its national board of directors....
California Senate rejects Schwarzenegger's air board chair The California Senate on Thursday rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's choice to head the state Air Resources Board, saying her close ties to the energy industry made her a bad fit for an agency that has wielded wide influence on the nation's clean-air laws. The party-line 24-14 vote in the Democrat-dominated Senate means Cindy Tuck must step down as chairwoman of the board within 60 days. The Republican governor named her to the post six weeks ago over opposition from environmental groups. "Regrettably, the Senate today has denied California the service of a valuable public servant," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "With more than 20 years dedicated to developing our state's air and water quality laws and regulations, Cindy Tuck was the right person to lead California's efforts to improve our air quality."....
Debate linking global warming and hurricane intensity resumes Hurricane Katrina's fury has reignited the scientific debate about whether global warming might be making hurricanes more ferocious. At least one prominent study suggests that hurricanes have become significantly stronger in the past few decades during the same period that global average temperatures have increased. Katrina blew up in the Gulf of Mexico to a Category 5 hurricane with winds of 175 mph before slackening a bit Monday when it hit, swamping New Orleans and the Mississippi coast. Other leading scientists agree the Atlantic Basin and Gulf Coast regions are being battered by a severe hurricane phase that could persist for another 20 years or more. But they think that a natural environmental cycle is responsible rather than any human-induced change, and they point to what they consider to be large gaps in the global warming analysis conducted by a climatologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology....
West not so wild in Phoenix People on the front lines of the tourism industry - guides, airport greeters and tour operators - say they still encounter first-time visitors who expect to see an Old West town. "Occasionally, you run across people who thought we still had dirt roads and covered wagons," said Kyle Adams, a Copper Square Ambassador who bikes around downtown Phoenix offering people directions and information. "They seem taken aback that it doesn't look like Tombstone." Matt Obele, a Scottsdale mortgage broker who moonlights as a driver for Wild West Jeep Tours, has encountered some even wilder misconceptions. "I've had passengers ask if we have to worry about Indian attacks," he said. One guy who obviously hadn't checked into his hotel yet had another outrageous question for Obele: "Do you have running water in Arizona?"....
Cowgirl 101: Saddle up, learn ropes Yes, ma'am. In these parts, there are plenty of people -- and you know who you are -- who wear boots and a cowboy hat every weekend but wouldn't be able to ride a horse if somebody put them in a saddle and gave 'em a push. Time to fix that. The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame can help. Later this month, the museum will offer Cowgirl 101, a full-day crash course in horse-riding, hat-shaping, trail riding and other aspects of ranch life. It's the first of what the museum folks hope will be a series of programs to help us all learn more about the cowgirl -- and cowboy -- way. Cowgirl 101 is open to women and men. Out at Riley Ranches in Aledo, the day will start with basic horse care -- grooming, that sort of thing -- and end with glasses of sangria and a game of washer-pitching. In between, you'll learn how to rope, how to ride and how to saddle your own horse....
Doing time takes on new meaning in prison rodeo in Oklahoma James Barcus has been in and out of prison for years, but the hardest time he'll ever do is expected to come this weekend, atop a wild bucking bronco in a rodeo show held behind prison walls. "I ain't never rode anything in my life," said the minimum security inmate who lives next door to the maximum security Oklahoma State Penitentiary, where the public has paid to watch criminals test their toughness against angry bulls and horses for 64 years. The Outlaw Rodeo, billed as the "World's Largest Behind the Walls," is a big draw in these eastern Oklahoma hills, with 12,000 people expected Friday and Saturday nights. Professionals also compete in the sanctioned event, but boosters say it's the thrill of being inside a prison arena with convicted felons that brings the crowd. Inmate teams made up of 10 or so members come from 10 state prisons....

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