The New New Thing Every year, there is a new green technology that triggers eager predictions that the days of gasoline-powered engines are numbered. Last year, it was lithium-ion batteries. The year before that, it was hydrogen fuel cells. This year's buzz generator—a new biofuel developed by a small Illinois company called Coskata—holds genuine promise to become a cleaner and cheaper alternative to gasoline. But the fuel's efforts to achieve commercial viability will be hurt, not helped, if its well connected investors succeed in convincing the federal government to mandate a distribution infrastructure for it. Coskata's backers include General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner and Sun Microsystem co-founder and venture capitalist extraordinaire Vinod Khosla. They want every gas station in the country to replace half of their gas pumps with special units known as E-85 pumps. E-85 is a blend that contains 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Like diesel, it must be pumped through a different system than conventional gasoline. Most ethanol in the United States is produced from corn, but Coskata says that it has found a way to generate ethanol from woodchips and other biomass at potentially half the cost of gas and a third the cost of corn-based ethanol. What's more, it has done so without any research subsidies that many other alternative fuel ventures get. This is especially impressive since such "cellulosic ethanol" has to date been more expensive than corn-derived ethanol....
Mountain lion shot in Kansas A mountain lion has been shot in Kansas. A Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks official obtained the pelt Monday. A Barber County landowner shot the adult male mountain lion on his property west of Medicine Lodge in November. Tracy Galvin, a Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks game warden, began an investigation about three weeks ago after several tips from local residents, including a rancher who'd seen a photo of the dead animal. Galvin learned the cat's pelt was at a taxidermy studio in Texas and had it brought to Kansas. Officials believe it's probably the first documented wild mountain lion in Kansas in more than 100 years.
Wolf actions elsewhere won't affect Oregon rules Taking wolves off the federal Endangered Species Act could allow for the predators to be killed in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, but it will not lift protections for the small number of the animals that are in Oregon, state officials said. "They're still on the state ESA (Endangered Species Act), and they're going to stay there for quite some time," said Michelle Dennehy, the Wildlife Programs communications coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Gray wolves will be fair game for hunters and ranchers in most of Wyoming when that state, along with Montana and Idaho, takes over management of the animals with the delisting. But despite the fact that the northeastern corner of Oregon is in the area under the delisting decision, both state ESA protections and the provisions of the state's 2005 Wolf Management Plan preclude killing any wolves. Under the guidelines, at least four breeding pairs of wolves must be established in a delisted area for three consecutive years before lifting of protections can be discussed....
Major tomato producer quits, blames Congress Keith Eckel, the largest producer of fresh market tomatoes in Pennsylvania, is getting out of the business. Fearing that the labor needed to harvest his tomatoes won't be there when he needs it, Eckel announced yesterday that after decades of growing tomatoes, he was calling it quits. He placed the blame squarely at the feet of Congress and its failure to enact what he called a meaningful immigration reform measure. "The system is broken," Eckel said before a crowd of neighbors, employees and news media gathered in the packing house at his farm near Scranton. "It's a sad day," he said. "We're closing a part of our business that we really love." Eckel's problems are echoed coast to coast by farmers who are reliant on foreign farm workers allowed into the country each year to plant, pick and package crops. Eckel said the impact of the government's increased vigilance on illegal immigration and the lack of action on an immigration reform bill has sown doubt among farmers that they will be able to count on a predictable and sufficient work force....
Shepherds prove their worth is not a relic of pastoral times Tucked away in a snowy crease of the Casino Creek drainage south of Lewistown, Moe's ranch is one of a few farm operations these days using dogs to drive stock. Working canines, known for their herding instinct, were once a staple of Western ranching. But the animals require training, which some ranchers say they don't have time for and others have simply forgotten how to do. However, stock driving's popularity is surging among townies, who own dogs from herding bloodlines. The American Kennel Club, which offers herding tests and competition, has seen enrollment in those events increase 60 percent in the past five years, said Doug Ljungren, the AKC's director of performance events. Last year alone, participation increased 9 percent. Ranchers like Moe have been known, for $500, to take on a city dog for a month to see of the urban pup can cut it. The ones that have the right stuff work with her pack of Australian shepherds, sleeping outside like real ranch dogs and herding everything from ducks to cows. Those that don't measure up are on their way home after a couple of weeks. The AKC starts out by giving dogs an instinct test, which basically involves putting a dog in an arena with livestock and seeing if it is at all interested in fetching or driving livestock. A puppy that learns when to chase and when to stop on command is taking its first steps toward herding, according to the AKC. That's much less than what's expected from a ranch dog. Ranchers who make the investment in training a good stock dog expect more. They're looking for cheap labor that never balks at working weekends or holidays and never asks for an advance on Wednesday after drinking its paychecks away the previous Friday. They want hands that don't borrow the ranch truck and return it with an empty tank just as diesel hits $3.94 a gallon....
Laxalt was Mother of the State of Nevada Therese Alpetche was born in 1891 in the Basque province of Basse Navarre in France. Her family operated a hotel and travel agency in France. She graduated from the cooking school Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. After World War I, she came to Reno and in 1921 married Dominique Laxalt, a sheep and cattle rancher. A failing economy and heavy winter storms caused Dominique to lose his holdings, so he became a sheepherder. Therese traveled with him, sometimes cooking three meals a day for 30 ranch hands, a far cry from the Cordon Bleu. The Laxalts moved to Carson City in 1926, operated the French Hotel and owned the original Ormsby House. When Dominique returned to the sheep business, Therese tended to their business interests and assumed much of the task of raising their family. The Laxalts had six children, and Therese's dream was that they would all go to college and earn their livings with their minds rather than their hands....