NEWS

New Jersey boy foils coyote attack on baby nephew Wildlife officials are investigating what could be the first coyote attack on a human in New Jersey following a backyard attack on a toddler that was foiled by an 11-year-old. Playing in the back yard of his Middletown Township home with his 22-month-old nephew over the weekend, 11-year-old Ryan Palludan first thought the animal that bolted into the yard just before dark was a deer. But when it grabbed little Liam Sadler in its jaws, Palludan instinctively sprang into action, yelling and kicking at the attacker which was later determined to be a coyote. ”It ran real fast, and in 10 seconds it was on Liam’s back, biting the back of his head and his neck,” Palludan said. ”My dad and I chased it into the woods, and my sister got Liam inside. ”My dad turned to walk away and it came running back at him. I yelled, ’Dad, it’s coming for you!’ and he chased it away again. But it didn’t go all the way into the woods,” Palludan explained. ”It was kind of staying on the edge. It wanted its food.”....
Lawmakers consider payments for wolf kills Though they have to fight to find customers in a competitive global market, most ranchers in Montana have one steady client they’d rather not do business with. “I’m not in the business of livestock to feed the wolves,” said John Helle, a third-generation Montana sheep rancher from Dillon. For the past 20 years, a private environmental organization – Defenders of Wildlife – has paid ranchers for losses they can prove are wolf-related. But that compensation may not be available after Interior Department removes wolves from the endangered species list – perhaps by the end of 2007 - and ranchers haven’t always been happy with the way Defenders distributes the awards. That’s why the Montana Legislature is considering House Bill 364, a measure that would set up a permanent state-run board to pay ranchers for the wolves’ dinners, and help them keep wolves away from livestock. The bill passed the Senate on third reading on Tuesday, 75-22. There’s only one problem: Money to run the board is scarce, and it’s hard to tell just how much it would need....
Committee urged to support lawsuit for wolf delisting Montana's Legislature should send $150,000 to a Wyoming law firm to have a say in a possible future lawsuit over delisting wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, a Republican legislator said Tuesday. Rep. Diane Rice, R-Harrison, told the Senate Finance and Claims Committee that the animals were decimating the state's ranching and hunting industries. "This is the most serious issue before all of us," Rice said. A bill sponsored by Rice would send the money to help the Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd challenge the federal government over its failure to delist wolves. A law firm based in Cheyenne, Wyo., represents the group. Rice and supporters of the measure said Montana needs to be involved in the lawsuit, which has not yet been filed, because the delisting issue likely will be resolved in court and Montana should have a say in any decision. Ranchers, hunters and outfitters told the committee that wolves have not only killed vast amounts of game and livestock, but have also spread disease and pose a threat to humans....
Ruling blocks company's bid to ship methane water to Wyoming A Montana official issued a ruling that would block a natural gas company's bid to transport water produced during coal-bed methane development across the state line into Wyoming. In a decision, state hearing examiner David Vogler denied a permit sought by Fidelity Exploration and Production to transport out of Montana 3,000 acre feet of water annually from the company's operations in the Tongue River basin. The decision is not final, and Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Director Mary Sexton said a second hearing in the case is likely. If Vogler's ruling holds, Tom Richmond with the state Oil and Gas Conservation Board said it could put a damper on coal-bed methane activity along the Wyoming-Montana border. Vogler approved a second Fidelity permit allowing Fidelity to use about 3,800 acre feet of water on irrigation projects within Montana. An acre-foot of water, roughly 325,000 gallons, is enough to cover one acre of land with water one foot deep. Disposing of the vast amounts of poor-quality water that are a byproduct of coal-bed methane production has become a nagging problem for the industry....
Ranchers look to lawmakers to save their way of life Her family’s ranch could be swallowed up by the Army as it looks to expand its Pinon Canyon training site but each night Lisa Doherty said she and her two sons offer prayers for the nation’s soldiers and its leaders. Doherty said she and her family live a “blessed life” on the wide open plains of southeastern Colorado even though it means working from dawn to dusk with no vacations. She’d like to give her boys the chance to become the fifth generation to work that land but fears the Army’s plans could stop that. “I love my country but I also love my home,” Doherty told a Senate committee Monday before they voted to back a bill aimed at telling the Army that ranchers can’t be forced to sell their land to make way for the project. The full Senate will debate the measure (House Bill 1069) next even though lawmakers acknowledge they’re not sure if a state law can stop the Army from using eminent domain. Despite that, ranchers and others who oppose the expansion think it would still send a strong message to Washington that Colorado is concerned about the expansion. They think that could make it harder for the Army to win congressional should it move ahead with the plans to acquire 418,000 acres — or 653 square miles — nearly tripling the site it now has in southeastern Colorado....
We Ought Not Grow Cows In Dry West he West is a powerful place. Soaring mountains. Vast plains. Boisterous rivers. Huge spaces. But one attribute defines the West more than any other—aridity. Aridity imposes limitations and costs on human enterprises. Nowhere are the limitations and costs of aridity less apparent, yet reaping more degradation and destruction than the failed attempt to create a viable livestock industry in this dry region. Livestock production--which includes not only the grazing of plants, but everything it takes to raise a cow in the arid West including the dewatering of rivers for irrigation, the killing of predators to make the land safe for cattle, the fragmentation of landscapes with hay fields and other crops grown to feed livestock, combined with the pulverization of riparian areas under cattle hooves, and the displacement of native wildlife--is by far the worse environmental catastrophe to befall the West....
Gov. Ritter plans roadless petition Gov. Bill Ritter will send a petition to Washington on protecting Colorado's roadless forests. People familiar with Ritter's petition say it will be largely the same as one sent by his predecessor, Bill Owens, to the dismay of some environmentalists and sportsmen. "I'm expecting there's not going to be many changes," said Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, who sponsored a bill in 2005 that set up a roadless task force to advise Owens. Environmentalists had hoped Ritter would drop the petition entirely, because a federal court has reinstated a stronger, Clinton administration rule, and Colorado's petition would weaken the Clinton standard. "We don't see any need to go through a whole new public process to get where we are now," said Brian O'Donnell of Durango, director of Trout Unlimited's Public Lands Initiative. The federal government could take up to two years to get the Colorado rule in place. In the meantime, Ritter wants full protection for all of Colorado's roadless areas....
Lawmakers Try To Rein In Conservation Easements Lawmakers tried to rein in a multimillion-dollar program that grants tax breaks for land conservation Tuesday after state officials ran down a litany of abuses, including people getting tax credits for agreeing to preserve their back yards. State revenue officials said the program got so far out of control they had to ask the Internal Revenue Service to step in and audit people who claimed tax credits for which they didn't qualify. Under the program, property owners get federal and state tax breaks by granting conservation easements that guarantee the land will not be developed. They can write off the easement as a charitable contribution and they also get to keep the land. John Vecchiarelli, director of the taxation business group at the state Department of Revenue, said the state now gives up $85 million a year in revenue to the program, up sharply from the $2.3 million when the program started in 2000....
Dire predictions in climate report Rising global temperatures could melt Latin America's glaciers within 15 years, cause food shortages affecting 130 million people across Asia by 2050 and wipe out Africa's wheat crop, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday. The report, written and reviewed by hundreds of scientists, outlined dramatic effects of climate change including rising sea levels, the disappearance of species and intensifying natural disasters. It said 30 percent of the world's coastlines could be lost by 2080. Scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change outlined details of the report in news conferences around the world Tuesday, four days after they released a written summary of their findings. he report is the second of three being issued this year; the first dealt with the physical science of climate change, and the third will deal with responses to it....
Rural Aid Goes to Urban Areas All told, the USDA has handed out more than $70 billion in grants, loans and loan guarantees since 2001 as part of its sprawling but little-known Rural Development program. More than half of that money has gone to metropolitan regions or communities within easy commuting distance of a midsize city, including beach resorts and suburban developments, a Washington Post investigation found. More than three times as much money went to metropolitan areas with populations of 50,000 or more ($30.3 billion) as to poor or shrinking rural counties ($8.6 billion). Recreational or retirement communities alone got $8.8 billion. Among the recipients were electric companies awarded almost $1 billion in low-interest loans to serve the booming suburbs of Atlanta and Tampa. Beach towns from Cape Cod to New Jersey to Florida collected federal money for water and sewer systems, town halls, and boardwalks. An Internet provider in Houston got $23 million in loans to wire affluent subdivisions, including one that boasts million-dollar houses and an equestrian center....
Fire destroys Johnny Cash's longtime lakeside Tennessee home Johnny Cash's longtime lakeside home, a showcase where he wrote much of his famous music and entertained U.S. presidents, music royalty and visiting fans, was destroyed by fire on Tuesday. Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, lived in the 13,880-square-foot (1,289-square-meter) home from the late 1960s until their deaths in 2003. "So many prominent things and prominent people in American history took place in that house - everyone from Billy Graham to Bob Dylan went into that house," said singer Marty Stuart, who lives next door and was married to Cash's daughter, Cindy, in the 1980s. Stuart said the man who designed the house, Nashville builder Braxton Dixon, was "the closest thing this part of the country had to Frank Lloyd Wright."....
Bucking bulls reign over pro rodeo Beefy, all-American males, with a bounce in their stride, don't-mess-with-me attitudes and a challenging glint in their eyes will swagger into the arena for a king-size dose of the physical mayhem they utterly relish. Plenty of cowboys should be on hand, also. However, for many rodeo fans, the grand stars will be those bucking bulls, each more than a half-ton of grunting, snorting, dirt-kicking, drool-flinging, horn-hooking, rolling-eyed rage. These bulls, many with ratings posted on the Professional Bull Rider (PBR) association's Web page, are trailed closely in popularity by the battered men who dare to mount them. Riders speak with awe of potent critters such as Reindeer Dippin', a black bull with a white face last successfully ridden in 2005. Since then, Reindeer Dippin' has bucked all challengers to the dust well before the eight-second whistle. In fact, of 31 career "outs" from the steel-barred starting chute, this 1,550-pound, black and white Brahma cross has allowed only two cowboys to complete a full ride....
Villa Steala Ah, Villa's stolen skull. No macabre Mexican legend is more mired in intrigue, distortion and looniness — and in a country where many believe that the United States stole half of its land, that's saying something. Here are the accepted facts about Pancho's purloined pate: On February 6, 1926, someone raided Villa's tomb in Parral, Chihuahua, and scurried away with the famed general's three-years-dead head. Mexican authorities quickly arrested Emil Holmdahl, a gabacho mercenary who fought for various factions during the Mexican Revolution and had been seen around Villa's tomb. Holmdahl denied any responsibility, and the Mexican authorities released him for lack of evidence. Nevertheless, stories of Holmdahl boasting about his crime (read Haldeen Braddy's "The Head of Pancho Villa" in the January 1960 edition of Western Folklore for more details) soon spread on both sides of la frontera. Flash forward to the mid-1980s. In 1984, Arizona rancher Ben F. Williams declared in his memoir Let the Tail Go With the Hide that Holmdahl not only admitted to stealing Villa's skull but also said he received $25,000 for the deed. Williams shared this information with a friend who belonged to the Order of Skull and Bones, the Yale secret society that counts three generations of the Bush dynasty as members; the friend told Williams that Holmdahl sold he group Villa's skull. Two years after Williams published his book, Skull and Bones members (among them Jonathan Bush, Dubya's uncle) met with some Apaches and offered them a skull. Tribal leaders had recently discovered an official Skull and Bones log claiming that Dubya's granddaddy Prescott Bush and other Bonesmen stole the skull of Geronimo from his burial grounds in 1918....

I'm back and will try to catch up on the news as time allows.

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