NEWS ROUNDUP

Eco-arsonist was in rush to 'save the world' The federal law enforcement agents were stymied. For weeks they had been trying to break into computers and Palm Pilots confiscated from members of a radical environmental group known as The Family, a cell of the Earth Liberation Front. The computers were believed to hold GPS coordinates for caches of weapons and other information vital to the criminal prosecutions of 11 associates of the shadowy organization. But try as they might, the feds couldn't crack the sophisticated encryption code. So they arranged a "field trip" for an inmate named Chelsea Gerlach. Once one of the most senior members of The Family, highly respected by the others, Gerlach had been arrested for her role in 20 arsons across five states, including the 1998 torchings atop Vail Mountain. At the time of her arrest, she was selling drugs in Portland with her boyfriend, another member of the radical environmental movement, prosecutors said. After a few weeks in solitary confinement, and hours more of meditation, Gerlach had agreed to meet with prosecutors and federal agents. The agents asked her for her help. She had long been angry and distrustful of the government, but on this day she was prepared to react differently. She was ready for a change. Sitting down in a Portland computer forensics office, a series of computers and PDAs in front of her, Gerlach went to work. ...
Getting Lost in the Great Indoors "Kids don't think about going outside like they used to, and unless there is some scheduled activity, I don't think they know what to do outdoors anymore," Pelzman said. Pelzman's view is shared by a growing number of children's advocates, environmentalists, business executives and political leaders who fear that this might be the first generation of "indoor children," largely disconnected from nature. Concerns about long-term consequences -- affecting emotional well-being, physical health, learning abilities, environmental consciousness -- have spawned a national movement to "leave no child inside." In recent months, it has been the focus of Capitol Hill hearings, state legislative action, grass-roots projects, a U.S. Forest Service initiative to get more children into the woods and a national effort to promote a "green hour" in each day. Tomorrow 40 civic leaders -- representing several governors, three big-city mayors, Walt Disney Co., Sesame Workshop, DuPont, the gaming industry and others -- will launch a campaign to raise $20 million that will ultimately fund 20 initiatives across the country to encourage children to do what once seemed second nature: go outdoors....
Bear Attacks Destroyed Family Sheepherding Business Years of bear attacks were enough to drive one Utah sheepherder out of business. One rancher tells Eyewitness News he lost hundreds of sheep to what he calls a constant string of hungry bears. Sheepherder Kevin Beckstrom holds one of the few lambs left in his herd. He used to have 2,500 sheep, now he has about 100. The rest have been sold because Beckstrom gave up sheepherding. He says he was losing too many to bear attacks. Beckstrom says, "We can see paw tracks, they're in the dirt around. You can tell by the way they maul them." Beckstrom says bear attacks on sheep herds is a dirty little secret in the Wasatch Mountains. Those bears are hungry, aggressive and plentiful, he says. Each one of his ewes is worth about $150, the small lambs about $120. Over the years, Kevin Beckstrom says his family has lost about $150,000, just to bear attacks. "The last five years it's been devastating. You can only borrow so much and pay back so much," he says. Beckstrom says his losses are tied to an increase in the black bear population. He and his staff have killed 17 bears in the last three years....
Army site expansion falls in laps of senators Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar always have cast a big shadow on the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site expansion debate by virtue of being in the U.S. Senate, where a single senator has the power to bring legislation to a halt on matters that affect only their state. Allard, a Republican, and Salazar, a Democrat, are now feeling that pressure after the House last week gave overwhelming support to an amendment to block the Army from spending any money next year on expanding the 238,000-acre training area northeast of Trinidad by an additional 414,000 acres. The amendment, co-sponsored by Reps. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., and John Salazar, D-Colo., was added to the 2008 Defense military construction appropriations bill by a stunning vote of 383-34. The Senate's version of that bill - without any Pinon Canyon amendment - came out of committee last week and is now awaiting a full Senate vote, which is expected soon. The big question for Allard and Ken Salazar is whether they will support keeping the Musgrave-Salazar amendment when the House and Senate bills are merged into a compromise bill in a conference committee....
Gas infuses, confuses quiet cowboy community In the shadow of the snow-clad Wind River Mountains, Suzy Michnevich runs cattle on the family ranch near Boulder where she grew up. Throw a stone one way and you’d hit the wilderness hills. Throw the other direction and it would land in the Jonah natural gas field. Jonah is where Michnevich used to graze her herd part of the year – until energy development pushed her off her Bureau of Land Management leases several years ago. The royalty check she gets for the gas wells on her own ranch, she jokingly says, goes to support her cattle habit. A self-proclaimed “proponent” of the gas field, she isn’t comfortable with all the changes the boom has brought. Michnevich represents the ambivalent and ambiguous relationship residents of the county have with its golden geese – natural gas and natural wonders. As energy development has swept across Sublette’s steppe, pushing aside wildlife and cowboys, residents embrace and decry the change, seeing both opportunity and upset as thousands of wells are drilled into the earth. As the energy boom spreads across the West it’s perhaps nowhere more evident than Sublette County, where cattle, antelope and retirees used to make up the bulk of the population. Today a whirlwind of change bringing roughnecks, drillers, roustabouts, derrick hands and company men is winding its way throughout the county....
Bear attack: Why no warning at campground? Samuel Evan Ives was excited to go camping with his family on Sunday night, eager to try out the new, two-room tent his stepdad had received for a Father's Day present. But if the 11-year-old's parents had known that less than 48 hours earlier, in the same location, a 300-pound black bear had sliced open a similar tent and swiped at its occupants, the family never would have stayed at the American Fork Canyon campground that later became the site of Sam's gruesome death. Eldon Ives, Sam's grandfather and family spokesman, said at a media gathering Tuesday that U.S. Forest Service officials should have closed the primitive camping area where the bear had previously bothered other campers. If there had been some kind of warning, then maybe Sam would still be alive and the family would not be enduring this "surreal nightmare," Ives said as he held back tears and shook with emotion. "It's hard for us to go around placing blame on people, but we do feel that the campgrounds should have been closed down and that there should have been a warning to campers that there had been problems with a bear in that same area," Ives said. "If there's anything positive that can come out of this, we hope that the Forest Service will do a better job at protecting campers in the future."....
Atheist group sues over Dakota Boys, Girls Ranch The nation’s largest group of atheists and agnostics is suing North Dakota officials, saying public money is being used to religiously “indoctrinate” young people at the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch. The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation filed the lawsuit in federal court in Bismarck on Tuesday against Lisa Bjergaard, director of juvenile services for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and Daniel Richter, director of Ward County Social Services. The lawsuit lists the plaintiffs as Dorothy Manley of Mandan, and Ken and Judy Mischka of Valley City. The ranch’s Web site says it has been affiliated with two Lutheran groups, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in providing services to troubled young people, with facilities in Minot, Fargo and Bismarck. The lawsuit alleges that referrals are funded by taxpayer money, and that the ranch “attempts to modify behavior by directing children to find faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”....
House lawmakers: Cut in fire budget 'irresponsible' House lawmakers on Tuesday criticized the Bush administration's wildfire prevention strategy, which they say has contributed to bigger and costlier fires in recent years. As wildfires blazing in western Colorado forced the evacuation of 60 homes, lawmakers said they fear firefighting costs will continue to rise because the administration has long underfunded forest thinning and state fire assistance. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who directs U.S. forest policy, told a House panel on national parks, forests and public lands that the government is prepared for the 2007 fire season. But lawmakers said they were concerned because President Bush's 2008 budget proposal recommended $96 million less in state fire assistance and other wildfire preparedness programs. Government auditors also said the Interior Department and Forest Service still haven't developed a long-term strategy to clear and thin forests to prevent fires while controlling the cost of fighting fires....
U.S. Group Claims Banned Canadian Cows Moving Across Border A U.S. food safety group is complaining that older Canadian cows are making their way across the border despite the fact that they're still banned. In a letter this week to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Michael Johanns, Food and Water Watch claims cattle older than 30 months, thought to be at higher risk of mad cow disease, are "routinely" entering the U.S. food supply. The watchdog group attached affidavits from five unnamed government inspection workers at slaughterhouses in three states. The workers say there have been direct orders from supervisors not to intervene when an older Canadian animal is being processed, in violation of regulations, reports the Canadian Press. They say policies are inconsistent from one plant to another and complain they can't physically examine the animals to see if the age matches the paperwork. The food safety group is opposed to U.S. plans to resume trade in older cattle, perhaps within months. Meantime, a U.S. appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments next month in the latest bid by a persistent American ranchers group to restrict all Canadian cattle imports....

The power just came back on, after being out for almost two hours. So I'm posting what I have while I can.