NEWS ROUNDUP

Utah may relax eminent domain laws Utah was one of the first states to rein in the use of eminent domain to make sure private development couldn't capitalize on laws intended to serve the public good. Now, the state could be one of the first to relax those rules. A bill before Gov. Jon Huntsman would allow a community to take property deemed blighted from reluctant owners if enough neighboring land owners want the area redeveloped. Eminent domain technically refers to the right of government to take private property for public use. The big question often is, what constitutes public use? House Bill 365 could allow Ogden to push forward with plans to condemn land so a Wal-Mart could be built in an effort to generate more tax revenue. It was the city's efforts to attract Wal-Mart by using eminent domain that drew the wrath of lawmakers in 2005, when a moratorium on the use of eminent domain for redevelopment purposes was put into effect. While the bill would allow a redevelopment authority to condemn land, it makes it difficult to do so. It requires 80 percent of those who live in a proposed redevelopment project area to sign a petition saying they want the land condemned. It would also require a two-thirds vote of a city's redevelopment authority board to approve the condemnation....
World Population to Reach 9.2B in 2050 The world's population will likely reach 9.2 billion in 2050, with virtually all new growth occurring in the developing world, a U.N. report said Tuesday. According to the U.N. Population Division's 2006 estimate, the world's population will likely increase by 2.5 billion people over the next 43 years from the current 6.7 billion - a rise equivalent to the number of people in the world in 1950. The new report estimates 32 million fewer deaths from AIDS during the 2005-2020 period in the 62 most affected countries, compared with the previous U.N. estimate in 2004. This change contributed to the slightly higher world population estimate of 9.2 billion in 2050 than the 9.1 billion figure in the 2004 estimate, the report said. The report also said most population growth will take place in less developed countries, whose numbers are projected to rise from 5.4 billion in 2007 to 7.9 billion in 2050. The populations of poor countries like Afghanistan, Burundi, Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger, East Timor and Uganda are projected to at least triple by mid-century. By contrast, the total population of richer countries is expected to remain largely unchanged at 1.2 billion. The report said the figure would be lower without expected migration of people from poorer countries, averaging 2.3 million annually. According to the report, 46 countries are expected to lose population by mid-century, including Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea and most of the former Soviet republics....
Carbon confusion Sara Demetry thought she had found a way to atone for her personal contribution to global warming. The psychotherapist clicked on a website that helped her calculate how much heat-trapping carbon dioxide she and her fiance emitted each year, mostly by driving and heating their home. Then she paid $150 to e-BlueHorizons.com, a company that promises to offset emissions. But Demetry's money did not make as much difference as she thought it would. While half of it went to plant trees to absorb carbon dioxide, the other half went to a Bethlehem, N.H., facility that destroys methane -- a gas that contributes to global warming. The facility has been operating since 2001 -- years before the company began selling offsets -- and Demetry's money did not lead the company to destroy any more methane than it would have anyway. Moreover, the project received a "dirty dozen" award from a New England environmental group in 2004 because it burns the methane as fuel to incinerate contaminated water from the landfill, emitting tons of pollution each year in the process....
Sage grouse survival focus of conservationists You'd be hard pressed to call it a fan club. But a pair of embattled Sage-grouse species in Utah has generated a pretty crowded bandwagon. Federal and state government agencies, ranchers and farmers, and conservation groups have teamed up in recent years in a quest to keep the greater sage-grouse and Gunnison sage-grouse off the federal endangered species list. They all gathered Tuesday in downtown Salt Lake City to compare notes, and not surprisingly, concluded that there is still much work left to be done - even if there is unanimity about the bottom line. "Caring is critical to the conservation of the species, but in addition we're going to have to be smart if we still want to have sage grouse in Utah in 100 years," said Joan Degiorgio, a regional director for the Nature Conservancy of Utah. Tuesday marked the beginning of a two-day sage-grouse "summit" sponsored by Utah State University's Extension Services and the state Department of Natural Resources, among others. And what emerged during a morning discussion is that it's going to take more than just good intentions to return the two species to healthy population numbers in the state....
Idahoans eager to thin resurgent gray wolf packs Margaret Soulen measures the success of endangered gray wolves by an annual body count. The first few years after wolves were returned to Idaho in 1995, her sheep losses were small — as recently as 2002, just one head. With the wolf population's remarkable growth, her losses soared: 330 sheep in 2004, 175 in 2005, 200 last year. Soulen and her husband, Joe Hinson, who graze 9,000 sheep over nearly a half-million acres of backcountry, have hired more herders and bought more guard dogs. Herders have taken to sleeping among sheep bands to keep wolves away. When wolves are near, sheep get nervous and don't eat and gain weight as they should, Soulen says. As one of the state's largest ranchers, Soulen has felt the wolves' impact as much as anyone. Yet her attitude about this top-rung predator is at odds with Idaho's anti-wolf image. "I've always said we could live with some wolves, and we can," Soulen says. "But I would like to see the numbers reduced some."....
In the Southwest, recovery of the lobo is going slower As gray wolves thrive and multiply in the northern Rockies, their cousins are having a tougher time in the Southwest. The Mexican gray wolf or lobo, a smaller and rarer subspecies, was hunted nearly to extinction in the early 1900s. After it was put on the endangered species list in 1976, five survivors were caught in Mexico and bred with others in captivity. In 1998, the federal government released 11 wolves in Arizona and New Mexico in an effort to restore them to the wild. Under the official recovery plan, their numbers should have grown by now to 102 animals in 15 packs. An official count in January found 59 wolves and seven breeding pairs. "The plight of the lobo is dire," says Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group suing over management of the Mexican wolf. A bigger challenge may be getting the species off the federal endangered list. The 6,800-square-mile recovery zone can't accommodate the numbers of wolves and packs that would be needed to end federal protection. "It's going to take either expanding the boundaries or finding other suitable areas" for more releases, Morgart says. "Where does that habitat come from?"....
Ads Recognize Environmentally Conscious Farmers Eight farmers, ranchers and landowners will be recognized in a series of ads starting Sunday for their actions to protect farmland from sprawl, conserve wildlife habitats, and maintain clean air and water. The ads are sponsored by Environmental Defense. "The farmers, ranchers and forest landowners featured in these advertisements represent tens of thousands of farmers taking steps to meet our nation's environmental challenges," says Scott Faber, Farm Policy Campaign Director for Environmental Defense. "These farmers, ranchers and forest landowners are 'everyday environmental heroes' who deserve our thanks for their stewardship." The farmers, ranchers and forest landowners from the ads will join other producers from and Environmental Defense staff on Capitol Hill Thursday, to urge Congress to reform farm policies to provide new incentives for land stewardship when Congress renews the Farm Bill....
Miners move step closer to volcano To the chagrin of environmentalists, a Spokane mining company is one step closer to hardrock mining 12 miles from Mount St. Helens' crater. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday released its environmental assessment on Idaho General Mine's proposal to lease 900 acres of Gifford Pinchot National Forest land north of the volcano in the upper Green River Valley. The BLM found issuing a 20-year renewable lease poses no environmental impact for a 217-acre section, in part because leasing the parcel is a procedural step that doesn't allow any actual mining on the land in question. More information is needed for a determination on the remaining 683 acres, said Michael Campbell, a BLM spokesman, though the agency did not specify what other information it requires....
Mount Baker slalom draws a crowd — of cops In the foothills of the North Cascades, it's become an annual tradition: The Legendary Banked Slalom, a famed snowboard race at Mount Baker Ski Area, draws the world's top talent for a February get-together. When it's over, everyone drives back down the mountain and right into the teeth of the Legendary Cop Shakedown. A push-pull between board riders and badge-wearers has been going on in these parts for most of three decades. But it reached a crescendo last month, when police descended in such force on the Mount Baker Highway that slalom-watchers and hapless bystanders began cursing about harassment. As many as 14 patrol cars from various police agencies were counted at a single time around Glacier, a tiny burg halfway between Bellingham and the mountain, where, on an average day, you might not see 14 cars, period. The cars came from the Whatcom County sheriff's department, the Washington State Patrol, the U.S. Forest Service and the Washington State Liquor Control Board. Everyone short of Homeland Security and the Minutemen, in other words, was patrolling a lonely stretch of highway that rarely sees a blue light. And all those cops were busy beavers. On the slalom weekend, Feb. 9-11, 127 people were issued warnings, many for walking alongside the highway, or crossing it improperly, police records show. And 108 other citations, ranging from speeding to impeding traffic to failing to possess proof of insurance, were issued....The Forest Service has made several claims to the media that it is too shorthanded to police the Federal lands. Yet, they have plenty of time and personnel to hand out traffic tickets on a state highway.
Otters Out Of Exile Sea otters must be celebrating what amounts to a relaxed immigration policy in the works, which will officially allow them to expand their range to southern California—something biologists say is critical to the threatened species’ survival. In 1987 the US Fish and Wildlife Service, responsible for the sea otter’s recovery since its 1977 listing under the Endangered Species Act, created an experimental otter colony on San Nicolas Island, about 60 miles west of Los Angeles. Congress approved the program on the condition that the agency also designate a “no-otter” zone from Point Conception to the Mexican border, including the Channel Islands (with the exception of San Nic). Technically the purpose was to isolate the experimental colony, but USFWS’s Lilian Carswell explains that the no-otter zone was also a compromise to placate shell fishermen, who didn’t like the competition with otters, and oil companies, which didn’t want to be held liable if an oil spill harmed the protected species....
Group sues to have protection for rare marbled murrelets lifted Marbled murrelets -- a robin-sized seabird that lays eggs in old growth woods -- is at risk of extinction in the lower 48, but is it special enough to protect? The American Forest Resource Council, an Oregon-based non-profit representing timber companies, filed suit in federal court Wednesday to undo federal protections for the vanishing birds. The murrelet population has shrunk to about 24,400 birds in Washington, Oregon and California, where they were deemed "threatened" by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1992. In the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the timber group is arguing that the birds are not different enough from populations in Canada and Alaska to merit protection under the Endangered Species Act....
NAHB, Affordable Housing Win in Endangered Species Case Years of legal wrangling have resulted in yet another decision that favors housing affordability and rejects interference from interest groups that would make wide swaths of land unavailable for development, cost millions of dollars and offer no environmental benefit, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on March 9 upheld the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to remove the pygmy owl from the list of endangered species, agreeing that the owls living there are not a separate species and rejecting a petition from the Defenders of Wildlife. With that ruling, the Court agreed with NAHB that building new homes will not hurt the population of the owl, which thrives over the border in Mexico. The decision follows a landmark ruling from the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the most environmentally conscious court in the nation, which determined in 2006 that the initial decision to list pygmy owls was “arbitrary and capricious.” “We’ve been mired in this argument for 10 years. It’s time for everyone to concede that there is no environmental benefit to the listing, and I am glad the Court concurred,” said NAHB President Brian Catalde, a home builder in Southern California....
BALCO's Singing Cowboy Larry McCormack figured the FBI owed him a favor. He'd sold out his friend to the agents, and even wore a wire to help them prove that Troy Ellerman was the long-sought leaker in the BALCO steroids case. In return, McCormack asked them not to move in on Ellerman until the big rodeo was over. They obliged, and on Dec. 10, the day after the National Finals Rodeo ended, McCormack and Ellerman sat down in a steakhouse at the far end of the Vegas strip for their last meal together. Ellerman, a former criminal defense lawyer who was then head of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, talked about the future....
Cook-off a taste of cowboy grub Visitors to the Festival of the West at Rawhide this week will be able to chow some real cowboy vittles at the Pace Chuck Wagon Cook-Off. At 1 p.m. today through Saturday, Tom Perini, who works with Pace, will give talks on how chuck wagons began and cook up samples of how cowboys of old ate. He grew up on a Texas ranch and always enjoyed cooking chuck wagon style, which includes making food over an open flame and in Dutch ovens. "I try to keep the heritage and traditions of these old chuck wagons and trail drives alive," he said. The history started in 1865 after the Civil War, when ranchers returned to south Texas to find millions of wild cattle that had reproduced while they were gone, he said. Cowboys would drive the cattle north through Texas and what is now Oklahoma and Kansas to the railways so they could be sold and shipped to cities in the Midwest. These drives started the Texas beef industry. "The problem is, they would have to feed these cowboys for a two-month period," Perini said. They rigged up a chuck box ("chuck" is an old English word for food) in the back of a wagon with staples such as rice and beans, salt pork, coffee and ingredients to make simple breads. There was no refrigeration....
Got a taste for testicle? Oakdale fete for you It's almost impossible to avoid the puns when talking about the annual Testicle Festival. "You'll have a ball," Christie Camarillo said with a laugh. It has taken years, but that statement is kosher now around the folks who courteously used to call it the Calf Fry. "It started as a good ol' boys thing," said Bob Brunker, a Rotarian who has been frying them up for 17 years. This year's festival is Monday, March 26, in downtown Oakdale. Why Monday? Because it takes 75 cooks and volunteers all weekend to prepare the more than 300 pounds of testicles that will be consumed. "It's real labor-intensive," said Camarillo. One year, a cook tried to save time by not removing the skin. "People were still chewing the next year," Brunker said....
It’s The Pitts: Cowboy Courage The job of a ring man isn’t for sissies. I’m not talking about those guys who wear silk ties, eat free barbecue every day and stand outside the ring taking bids at purebred sales. I’m referring to those brave souls who stand INSIDE the ring at your local auction market. To me there’s nothing more entertaining than watching an agile ring man match wits with a killer cow. Although the auctioneer usually gets top billing we all know the real star is the ring man who risks his life so that the show may go on. I’ve never seen the ring man profession listed as one of the most dangerous jobs but I guarantee it’s a widow-makin’ profession. I’ve never been to a bullfight either but I doubt it could be as entertaining as watching a daring ring man take bids while opening a gate as a mad bull tries to gore him. Unlike a bullfight, the ring man stands a greater chance of getting killed than the bull. Attend a commercial cattle auction and you’ll often see a ring man put himself in harm’s way by acting as a decoy merely to get a raging bull or huffy heifer to vacate the premises. I’ve seen ring men wade into a herd of pairs to sort off a cow and calf without the aid of armor or mandatory ID. I once saw a ring man in Texas walk across the backs of a bunch of steers and I’ll never forget the time in South Dakota when a rancher in the crowd asked if the outlaw horse in the ring was broke to ride and darned if the ring man didn’t answer the question by hopping on that stumpsucker and giving the crowd a six second answer....