Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
'Redneck Stonehenge': Utah Farmer Builds Fence From Wrecked Autos to Send Message to Neighbors A farmer has erected a fence in his backyard made of three old cars sticking up in the air to send a message to new neighbors that he can do whatever he wants on his farm. "This is just a fun way for me to say, 'Hey boys, I'm still here,'" said Rhett Davis. "This is my redneck Stonehenge." Davis came up with the idea after neighbors who recently moved into homes next to his hayfield complained about his farm. "The people who bought the homes say, 'Well, we love looking into your yard and seeing the horses and the cattle, but we don't like the flies, and we don't like the mosquitoes,' and when I cut my field to bale it, they say, 'We don't like the dust in the air,'" Davis said. Davis said he offered to pay half the cost of a fence between his property and the others and to build it. He said his neighbors declined the offer, saying it would block their view....
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Wildlife, energy advocates reach accord about sage grouse Landowners and wildlife conservationists gave up large swaths of habitat they considered important to sage grouse, particularly in the Powder River Basin. Energy developers, some reluctantly, agreed to a stipulation that they must demonstrate activity will result in no loss of sage grouse or sage grouse habitat in "core areas." Most all stakeholders agree that the state's plan to protect sage grouse is a true, workable compromise. "We wanted to come up with a solution that protected an adequate number of sage grouse without shutting down the state development-wise. There was a lot of good give and take, and overall we came up with a core area strategy. It's a solid concept," said Mark Winland of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, who served on the governor's Sage Grouse Implementation Team. Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Friday issued an executive order outlining the state's plan to protect sage grouse and sage grouse habitat in Wyoming. It's the culmination of a multi-stakeholder effort that began in June 2007 when the governor held a summit in Casper regarding sage grouse, which some groups want to be listed under the Endangered Species Act. The governor's order consists of 12 stipulations and a map of "core" areas where the stipulations could be implemented, including a mandate for developers to demonstrate their proposed activity will result in no loss of sage grouse or sage grouse habitat....
FLE
Border patrol agent held at gunpoint A U.S. Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint Sunday night by members of the Mexican military who had crossed the border into Arizona, but the soldiers returned to Mexico without incident when backup agents responded to assist. Agents assigned to the Border Patrol station at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the international border in an isolated area about 100 miles southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who was not identified. It was unclear what the soldiers were doing in the United States, but U.S. law enforcement authorities have long said that current and former Mexican military personnel have been hired to protect drug and migrant smugglers. "Unfortunately, this sort of behavior by Mexican military personnel has been going on for years," union Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) said on its Web page. "They are never held accountable, and the United States government will undoubtedly brush this off as another case of 'Oh well, they didn't know they were in the United States.' Since 1996, there have been more than 200 confirmed incursions by the Mexican military into the United States. Local 2544, the largest in the NBPC, is headed by veteran Border Patrol agent Edward "Bud" Tuffly II. He noted on the Web page that the local's leadership would "withhold further comment on this incident until we see how our leaders handle it."....
Report: FBI Harassed Ivins Bruce E. Ivins, the FBI's prime suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people, spent last fall drinking heavily, taking large numbers of pills and typing ranting e-mails late at night, a fellow scientist says. But the FBI also offered Ivins' own son and daughter millions of dollars and a new sports car to testify against their father, and even confronted the entire family in public at a shopping mall, The Washington Post reports. vins, a career government infectious-disease researcher, killed himself last week as the FBI was preparing to arrest him in connection with the anthrax attacks. The anonymous fellow scientist tells the Post that Ivins "was e-mailing me late at night with gobbledygook, ranting and raving" regarding the FBI's "persecution" of his family. That scrutiny involved showing Ivins' daughter photos of the victims and telling her "your father did this," the scientist says. The bureau also coaxed her twin brother with the $2.5 million reward offered in what it called the "Amerithrax" case plus any sports car he wanted, the source says. In March FBI agents confronted Ivins, his wife and son at a Frederick, Md., shopping mall, the source tells the Post. "You killed a bunch of people," the agents told Ivins. They asked his wife, "Do you know he killed people?"....
Documents Unsealed in Anthrax Case A federal judge on Wednesday unsealed documents related to the 2001 anthrax attacks, as the Justice Department prepared to declare, over lingering skepticism, that the case had been solved. Federal law enforcement officials planned to address the growing questions about the strength of its evidence against a military scientist who killed himself after investigators linked him to the attacks. Officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation are particularly eager to close the case and publicly rebut accusations from defenders of the scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, that the bureau may have hounded an innocent man into committing suicide. Robert M. Blitzer, who formerly directed the F.B.I.’s section on domestic terrorism, bristled at criticism of the bureau’s methods in the anthrax case and called them a necessary part of tracking down the killer. “You do the best you can, and it’s not always pretty,” he said....
Long, Crooked Road of the Anthrax Probe The bioweapons lab at Fort Detrick north of Washington, where anthrax suspect Bruce Ivins had worked since 1990, became a focus of federal investigators soon after anthrax-laced letters [pictures of the letters here] arrived at media organizations and Senate offices following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Five people died from the anthrax mailings. Many feared that the anthrax letters were the work of al Qaeda or other foreign terrorists. But investigators decided early on that few people in the world had the high degree of technical and scientific sophistication to handle anthrax strains, and that most of those people worked in the United States. In mid 2002, FBI officials said the agency was scrutinizing 20 to 30 scientists who might have had the knowledge and opportunity to send the anthrax letters. That year, Steven J. Hatfill, a bioweapons expert and a former Fort Detrick scientist, was the only scientist called a "person of interest" in the investigation by then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft. Investigators searched Hatfill's apartment, car, a storage unit in Florida and his girlfriend's home. They seized his computer and bags of personal items he had thrown away in preparation for moving. Hatfill vehemently denied any connection with the letters. (Hatfill later sued the government -- and some reporters, seeking their confidential sources -- saying he has struggled to find employment as a scientist after reporters and federal agents tailed him for years. Little more than a month ago, he reached a settlement with the Justice Department valued at $5.85 million.)....
Vital unresolved anthrax questions The FBI's lead suspect in the September, 2001 anthrax attacks -- Bruce E. Ivins -- died Tuesday night, apparently by suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to charge him with responsibility for the attacks. For the last 18 years, Ivins was a top anthrax researcher at the U.S. Government's biological weapons research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Maryland, where he was one of the most elite government anthrax scientists on the research team at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID)...If the now-deceased Ivins really was the culprit behind the attacks, then that means that the anthrax came from a U.S. Government lab, sent by a top U.S. Army scientist at Ft. Detrick. Without resort to any speculation or inferences at all, it is hard to overstate the significance of that fact. From the beginning, there was a clear intent on the part of the anthrax attacker to create a link between the anthrax attacks and both Islamic radicals and the 9/11 attacks...One other fact to note here is how bizarrely inept the effort by the Bush DOJ to find the real attacker has been. Extremely suspicious behavior from Ivins -- including his having found and completely cleaned anthrax traces on a co-worker's desk at the Ft. Detrick lab without telling anyone that he did so and then offering extremely strange explanations for why -- was publicly reported as early as 2004 by The LA Times (Ivins "detected an apparent anthrax leak in December 2001, at the height of the anthrax mailings investigation, but did not report it. Ivins considered the problem solved when he cleaned the affected office with bleach"). In October 2004, USA Today reported that Ivins was involved in another similar incident, in April of 2002, when Ivins performed unauthorized tests to detect the origins of more anthrax residue found at Ft. Detrick....
Was Bruce Ivins the anthrax killer? The media narrative now being woven around the apparent suicide of U.S. government scientist Bruce E. Ivins – a prominent anthrax researcher who worked at Ft. Detrick's U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases bio-weapons research lab (USAMRIID) – is that he was a lone nut, a "homicidal maniac" who poisoned the five people killed in the 2001 anthrax attacks and was determined to go on another killing spree at his workplace as the Feds closed in on him. The Times of London headline says it all: "Mad Anthrax Scientist in Threat to Kill Co-Workers." However, as we sift through the reams of media coverage occasioned by this startling development in a 7-year-old case, we get quite a different story from the alleged objects of his rage: his colleagues on the job at Ft. Detrick. As the Washington Post reported: "Colleagues and friends of the vaccine specialist remained convinced that Ivins was innocent: They contended that he had neither the motive nor the means to create the fine, lethal powder that was sent by mail to news outlets and congressional offices in the late summer and fall of 2001. Mindful of previous FBI mistakes in fingering others in the case, many are deeply skeptical that the bureau has gotten it right this time. "'I really don't think he's the guy. I say to the FBI, "Show me your evidence,"' said Jeffrey J. Adamovicz, former director of the bacteriology division at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, on the grounds of the sprawling Army fort in Frederick. 'A lot of the tactics they used were designed to isolate him from his support. The FBI just continued to push his buttons.'" Another one of his co-workers, Richard O. Spertzel, pointed out that "USAMRIID doesn't deal with powdered anthrax. I don't think there's anyone there who would have the foggiest idea how to do it. You would need to have the opportunity, the capability, and the motivation, and he didn't possess any of those."....
Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. DHS officials said the newly disclosed policies -- which apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens -- are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such procedures have long been in place but were disclosed last month because of public interest in the matter. Civil liberties and business travel groups have pressed the government to disclose its procedures as an increasing number of international travelers have reported that their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices had been taken -- for months, in at least one case -- and their contents examined. The policies state that officers may "detain" laptops "for a reasonable period of time" to "review and analyze information." This may take place "absent individualized suspicion." The policies cover "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form," including hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover "all papers and other written documentation," including books, pamphlets and "written materials commonly referred to as 'pocket trash' or 'pocket litter.' "....
State: Just in case, we'll take your gun A new report to the Connecticut state legislature shows police have used the state's unique gun seizure law to confiscate more than 1,700 firearms from citizens based on suspicion that the gun owners might harm themselves or others. The state's law permits police to seek a warrant for seizing a citizen's guns based on suspicion of the gun owner's intentions, before any act of violence or lawbreaking is actually committed. The law has remained hotly debated since its passage, as some point to possible murders and suicides it may have prevented and others worry that police would abuse the law. "It certainly has not been abused. It may be underutilized," Ron Pinciaro, co-executive director of Connecticut Against Gun Violence, told the Waterbury Republican American. "The bottom line from our perspective is, it may very well have saved lives." Attorney Ralph D. Sherman, who has represented several of the gun owners whose firearms were confiscated under the law, disagrees. "In every case I was involved in I thought it was an abuse," he told the newspaper. "The overriding concern is anybody can report anybody with or without substantiation, and I don't think that is the American way." Joe Graborz, executive director of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union, an affiliate of the ACLU, told WND the law "continues to invest unusual and far-reaching powers in police authority that does not belong there" by requiring "police to act as psychologists in trying to predict and interpret behavior."....
Pentagon shuts down controversial counter-intelligence outfit The Pentagon said Monday it has shut down a secretive counter-intelligence outfit that aroused controversy over tracking the activities of anti-war groups. The so-called Counter-Intelligence Field Activity (CIFA) is being absorbed into a new Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) center that will be in charge of both espionage and counter-intelligence activities, the Pentagon said in a statement. "The Department of Defense activated the Defense Counterintelligence (CI) and Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Center today, and simultaneously disestablished the Department's Counterintelligence Field Activity," the Pentagon said. CIFA was created under former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2002 as a separate entity to conduct counter-intelligence efforts against suspected terrorists in the United States. It came under fire in December 2005 following disclosures that it had kept unverified surveillance reports of anti-war activists in a database. CIFA was empowered to conduct counter-intelligence investigations, but most of its operations remain classified. It reportedly grew to employ about 1,000 people. "CIFA's designation as a law enforcement activity did not transfer to DIA. The new center will have no law enforcement function," the Pentagon said....
Bush Proposes Regulatory Change to Ease Spying With these Bush guys, you’ve got to read the fine print. On July 31, they published in the Federal Register a proposed change to Title 28, Section 23, of the Code of Federal Regulations. This is the section that governs domestic spying. The existing language said that information gathered in an intelligence case could be disseminated only “where there is a need to know and a right to know the information in the performance of a law enforcement activity.” This limitation was designed to protect “the privacy and constitutional rights of individuals,” the statute behind this section states. Well, that limitation would be null and void. The new regulations would allow dissemination “when the information falls within the law enforcement, counterterrorism, or national security responsibility of the receiving agency or may assist in preventing crime or the use of violence or any conduct dangerous to human life or property.” Boy, you can’t get much broader than that. Wait, you can. Because the existing language said you could share this intelligence info with “a government official or any other individual, when necessary to avoid imminent danger to life or liberty.” Now, the Bushies have deleted the word “imminent.”....
Texas defies Hague and executes José Medellín A Mexican man at the centre of an international legal dispute has been executed in Texas for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1993. While protestors both for and against the death penalty demonstrated outside the Huntsville Unit near Houston last night, José Medellín, 33, died after being given a lethal injection. The execution came just before 10pm shortly after the US supreme court denied a last request for a reprieve. Pleas for a stay came from Washington, Mexico and the international court of justice (ICJ). They had all urged Texas not to execute Medellín until a hearing had been held to determine whether or not his original trial was sound. The state's Republican governor, Rick Perry, rebutted attempts to delay off the execution arguing that the state's courts were not bound by the rulings of the ICJ. The ICJ in the Hague had ordered Medellín's case and those of 50 other Mexicans on death row be reviewed because none had been informed of their right to consular assistance. The US state department said it was powerless to delay the execution, noting that the country's supreme court had ruled in March that president Bush did not have the authority to intervene in the case....
Border patrol agent held at gunpoint A U.S. Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint Sunday night by members of the Mexican military who had crossed the border into Arizona, but the soldiers returned to Mexico without incident when backup agents responded to assist. Agents assigned to the Border Patrol station at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the international border in an isolated area about 100 miles southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who was not identified. It was unclear what the soldiers were doing in the United States, but U.S. law enforcement authorities have long said that current and former Mexican military personnel have been hired to protect drug and migrant smugglers. "Unfortunately, this sort of behavior by Mexican military personnel has been going on for years," union Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) said on its Web page. "They are never held accountable, and the United States government will undoubtedly brush this off as another case of 'Oh well, they didn't know they were in the United States.' Since 1996, there have been more than 200 confirmed incursions by the Mexican military into the United States. Local 2544, the largest in the NBPC, is headed by veteran Border Patrol agent Edward "Bud" Tuffly II. He noted on the Web page that the local's leadership would "withhold further comment on this incident until we see how our leaders handle it."....
Report: FBI Harassed Ivins Bruce E. Ivins, the FBI's prime suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people, spent last fall drinking heavily, taking large numbers of pills and typing ranting e-mails late at night, a fellow scientist says. But the FBI also offered Ivins' own son and daughter millions of dollars and a new sports car to testify against their father, and even confronted the entire family in public at a shopping mall, The Washington Post reports. vins, a career government infectious-disease researcher, killed himself last week as the FBI was preparing to arrest him in connection with the anthrax attacks. The anonymous fellow scientist tells the Post that Ivins "was e-mailing me late at night with gobbledygook, ranting and raving" regarding the FBI's "persecution" of his family. That scrutiny involved showing Ivins' daughter photos of the victims and telling her "your father did this," the scientist says. The bureau also coaxed her twin brother with the $2.5 million reward offered in what it called the "Amerithrax" case plus any sports car he wanted, the source says. In March FBI agents confronted Ivins, his wife and son at a Frederick, Md., shopping mall, the source tells the Post. "You killed a bunch of people," the agents told Ivins. They asked his wife, "Do you know he killed people?"....
Documents Unsealed in Anthrax Case A federal judge on Wednesday unsealed documents related to the 2001 anthrax attacks, as the Justice Department prepared to declare, over lingering skepticism, that the case had been solved. Federal law enforcement officials planned to address the growing questions about the strength of its evidence against a military scientist who killed himself after investigators linked him to the attacks. Officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation are particularly eager to close the case and publicly rebut accusations from defenders of the scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, that the bureau may have hounded an innocent man into committing suicide. Robert M. Blitzer, who formerly directed the F.B.I.’s section on domestic terrorism, bristled at criticism of the bureau’s methods in the anthrax case and called them a necessary part of tracking down the killer. “You do the best you can, and it’s not always pretty,” he said....
Long, Crooked Road of the Anthrax Probe The bioweapons lab at Fort Detrick north of Washington, where anthrax suspect Bruce Ivins had worked since 1990, became a focus of federal investigators soon after anthrax-laced letters [pictures of the letters here] arrived at media organizations and Senate offices following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Five people died from the anthrax mailings. Many feared that the anthrax letters were the work of al Qaeda or other foreign terrorists. But investigators decided early on that few people in the world had the high degree of technical and scientific sophistication to handle anthrax strains, and that most of those people worked in the United States. In mid 2002, FBI officials said the agency was scrutinizing 20 to 30 scientists who might have had the knowledge and opportunity to send the anthrax letters. That year, Steven J. Hatfill, a bioweapons expert and a former Fort Detrick scientist, was the only scientist called a "person of interest" in the investigation by then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft. Investigators searched Hatfill's apartment, car, a storage unit in Florida and his girlfriend's home. They seized his computer and bags of personal items he had thrown away in preparation for moving. Hatfill vehemently denied any connection with the letters. (Hatfill later sued the government -- and some reporters, seeking their confidential sources -- saying he has struggled to find employment as a scientist after reporters and federal agents tailed him for years. Little more than a month ago, he reached a settlement with the Justice Department valued at $5.85 million.)....
Vital unresolved anthrax questions The FBI's lead suspect in the September, 2001 anthrax attacks -- Bruce E. Ivins -- died Tuesday night, apparently by suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to charge him with responsibility for the attacks. For the last 18 years, Ivins was a top anthrax researcher at the U.S. Government's biological weapons research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Maryland, where he was one of the most elite government anthrax scientists on the research team at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID)...If the now-deceased Ivins really was the culprit behind the attacks, then that means that the anthrax came from a U.S. Government lab, sent by a top U.S. Army scientist at Ft. Detrick. Without resort to any speculation or inferences at all, it is hard to overstate the significance of that fact. From the beginning, there was a clear intent on the part of the anthrax attacker to create a link between the anthrax attacks and both Islamic radicals and the 9/11 attacks...One other fact to note here is how bizarrely inept the effort by the Bush DOJ to find the real attacker has been. Extremely suspicious behavior from Ivins -- including his having found and completely cleaned anthrax traces on a co-worker's desk at the Ft. Detrick lab without telling anyone that he did so and then offering extremely strange explanations for why -- was publicly reported as early as 2004 by The LA Times (Ivins "detected an apparent anthrax leak in December 2001, at the height of the anthrax mailings investigation, but did not report it. Ivins considered the problem solved when he cleaned the affected office with bleach"). In October 2004, USA Today reported that Ivins was involved in another similar incident, in April of 2002, when Ivins performed unauthorized tests to detect the origins of more anthrax residue found at Ft. Detrick....
Was Bruce Ivins the anthrax killer? The media narrative now being woven around the apparent suicide of U.S. government scientist Bruce E. Ivins – a prominent anthrax researcher who worked at Ft. Detrick's U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases bio-weapons research lab (USAMRIID) – is that he was a lone nut, a "homicidal maniac" who poisoned the five people killed in the 2001 anthrax attacks and was determined to go on another killing spree at his workplace as the Feds closed in on him. The Times of London headline says it all: "Mad Anthrax Scientist in Threat to Kill Co-Workers." However, as we sift through the reams of media coverage occasioned by this startling development in a 7-year-old case, we get quite a different story from the alleged objects of his rage: his colleagues on the job at Ft. Detrick. As the Washington Post reported: "Colleagues and friends of the vaccine specialist remained convinced that Ivins was innocent: They contended that he had neither the motive nor the means to create the fine, lethal powder that was sent by mail to news outlets and congressional offices in the late summer and fall of 2001. Mindful of previous FBI mistakes in fingering others in the case, many are deeply skeptical that the bureau has gotten it right this time. "'I really don't think he's the guy. I say to the FBI, "Show me your evidence,"' said Jeffrey J. Adamovicz, former director of the bacteriology division at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, on the grounds of the sprawling Army fort in Frederick. 'A lot of the tactics they used were designed to isolate him from his support. The FBI just continued to push his buttons.'" Another one of his co-workers, Richard O. Spertzel, pointed out that "USAMRIID doesn't deal with powdered anthrax. I don't think there's anyone there who would have the foggiest idea how to do it. You would need to have the opportunity, the capability, and the motivation, and he didn't possess any of those."....
Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. DHS officials said the newly disclosed policies -- which apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens -- are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such procedures have long been in place but were disclosed last month because of public interest in the matter. Civil liberties and business travel groups have pressed the government to disclose its procedures as an increasing number of international travelers have reported that their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices had been taken -- for months, in at least one case -- and their contents examined. The policies state that officers may "detain" laptops "for a reasonable period of time" to "review and analyze information." This may take place "absent individualized suspicion." The policies cover "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form," including hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover "all papers and other written documentation," including books, pamphlets and "written materials commonly referred to as 'pocket trash' or 'pocket litter.' "....
State: Just in case, we'll take your gun A new report to the Connecticut state legislature shows police have used the state's unique gun seizure law to confiscate more than 1,700 firearms from citizens based on suspicion that the gun owners might harm themselves or others. The state's law permits police to seek a warrant for seizing a citizen's guns based on suspicion of the gun owner's intentions, before any act of violence or lawbreaking is actually committed. The law has remained hotly debated since its passage, as some point to possible murders and suicides it may have prevented and others worry that police would abuse the law. "It certainly has not been abused. It may be underutilized," Ron Pinciaro, co-executive director of Connecticut Against Gun Violence, told the Waterbury Republican American. "The bottom line from our perspective is, it may very well have saved lives." Attorney Ralph D. Sherman, who has represented several of the gun owners whose firearms were confiscated under the law, disagrees. "In every case I was involved in I thought it was an abuse," he told the newspaper. "The overriding concern is anybody can report anybody with or without substantiation, and I don't think that is the American way." Joe Graborz, executive director of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union, an affiliate of the ACLU, told WND the law "continues to invest unusual and far-reaching powers in police authority that does not belong there" by requiring "police to act as psychologists in trying to predict and interpret behavior."....
Pentagon shuts down controversial counter-intelligence outfit The Pentagon said Monday it has shut down a secretive counter-intelligence outfit that aroused controversy over tracking the activities of anti-war groups. The so-called Counter-Intelligence Field Activity (CIFA) is being absorbed into a new Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) center that will be in charge of both espionage and counter-intelligence activities, the Pentagon said in a statement. "The Department of Defense activated the Defense Counterintelligence (CI) and Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Center today, and simultaneously disestablished the Department's Counterintelligence Field Activity," the Pentagon said. CIFA was created under former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2002 as a separate entity to conduct counter-intelligence efforts against suspected terrorists in the United States. It came under fire in December 2005 following disclosures that it had kept unverified surveillance reports of anti-war activists in a database. CIFA was empowered to conduct counter-intelligence investigations, but most of its operations remain classified. It reportedly grew to employ about 1,000 people. "CIFA's designation as a law enforcement activity did not transfer to DIA. The new center will have no law enforcement function," the Pentagon said....
Bush Proposes Regulatory Change to Ease Spying With these Bush guys, you’ve got to read the fine print. On July 31, they published in the Federal Register a proposed change to Title 28, Section 23, of the Code of Federal Regulations. This is the section that governs domestic spying. The existing language said that information gathered in an intelligence case could be disseminated only “where there is a need to know and a right to know the information in the performance of a law enforcement activity.” This limitation was designed to protect “the privacy and constitutional rights of individuals,” the statute behind this section states. Well, that limitation would be null and void. The new regulations would allow dissemination “when the information falls within the law enforcement, counterterrorism, or national security responsibility of the receiving agency or may assist in preventing crime or the use of violence or any conduct dangerous to human life or property.” Boy, you can’t get much broader than that. Wait, you can. Because the existing language said you could share this intelligence info with “a government official or any other individual, when necessary to avoid imminent danger to life or liberty.” Now, the Bushies have deleted the word “imminent.”....
Texas defies Hague and executes José Medellín A Mexican man at the centre of an international legal dispute has been executed in Texas for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1993. While protestors both for and against the death penalty demonstrated outside the Huntsville Unit near Houston last night, José Medellín, 33, died after being given a lethal injection. The execution came just before 10pm shortly after the US supreme court denied a last request for a reprieve. Pleas for a stay came from Washington, Mexico and the international court of justice (ICJ). They had all urged Texas not to execute Medellín until a hearing had been held to determine whether or not his original trial was sound. The state's Republican governor, Rick Perry, rebutted attempts to delay off the execution arguing that the state's courts were not bound by the rulings of the ICJ. The ICJ in the Hague had ordered Medellín's case and those of 50 other Mexicans on death row be reviewed because none had been informed of their right to consular assistance. The US state department said it was powerless to delay the execution, noting that the country's supreme court had ruled in March that president Bush did not have the authority to intervene in the case....
Global Warming, Global Myth The public has been led to believe that increased carbon dioxide from human activities is causing a greenhouse effect that is heating the planet. But carbon dioxide comprises only 0.035% of our atmosphere and is a very weak greenhouse gas. Although it is widely blamed for greenhouse warming, it is not the only greenhouse gas, or even the most important. Water vapor is a strong greenhouse gas and accounts for at least 95% of any greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide accounts for only about 3%, with the remainder due to methane and several other gases. Not only is carbon dioxide's total greenhouse effect puny, mankind's contribution to it is minuscule. The overwhelming majority (97%) of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere comes from nature, not from man. Volcanoes, swamps, rice paddies, fallen leaves, and even insects and bacteria produce carbon dioxide, as well as methane. According to the journal Science (Nov. 5, 1982), termites alone emit ten times more carbon dioxide than all the factories and automobiles in the world. Natural wetlands emit more greenhouse gases than all human activities combined. (If greenhouse warming is such a problem, why are we trying to save all the wetlands?) Geothermal activity in Yellowstone National Park emits ten times the carbon dioxide of a midsized coal-burning power plant, and volcanoes emit hundreds of times more. In fact, our atmosphere's composition is primarily the result of volcanic activity....
Teddy Roosevelt vs. the Environmentalists Teddy was a conservationist, not a preservationist. Not surprisingly, this meant that he wanted to conserve natural resources, not preserve them. To conserve is to save in order to use later. Cash reserves are money set aside for the future. Fuel reserves are there in case you need them later. Preserves are not supposed to change. Like a museum or an archeological site, they are to be frozen in time. TR and his Director of Forestry Services, Gifford Pinchot created a system of 'wildlife Reserves'. They argued that it would not be fair for one generation to do all the logging and all the digging and to leave nothing behind for future generations. They didn't think of these reserves as something pristine, which would be rendered somehow ceremonially unclean by the signs of human development. They just wanted to share natural resources and beauty with future generations, like ours. In fact the shift in language from 'resources' to 'the environment' signals the shift in world-view from conservation to preservation. A resource, by its very nature, is to be used, sparingly, perhaps, but nonetheless, used. This is why the Roosevelt-Pinchot philosophy is known to historians as the 'wise-use' movement. It's why the administration's forestry handbook contained explicit instructions for how to extract lumber and minerals from the protected lands. That's why the memorial lauds 'development', which contemporary environmentalists forbid in places like ANWR. The preservationists of the time, like Sierra Club founder, John Muir, fought against them. While Roosevelt/Pinchot sought to make nature useful to humanity, by opening it to efficient use, and protecting it from destruction, Muir claimed that nature was to be useful to nature itself, not to man. For Roosevelt earth is for us, for people. For Muir man and land were equals. It wasn't the conservationist Roosevelt who put ANWR's oil out of our reach, but the environmentalist Carter....
Alaska Sues Over Listing Polar Bear As Threatened The state of Alaska sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Monday, seeking to reverse his decision to list polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Gov. Sarah Palin and other state officials fear a listing will cripple offshore oil and gas development in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in Alaska's northern waters, which provide prime habitat for the only polar bears under U.S. jurisdiction. "We believe that the Service's decision to list the polar bear was not based on the best scientific and commercial data available," Palin said in announcing the lawsuit. Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity, the lead author of the petition that led to the listing, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists addressed skeptics' objections during the listing process. She called the lawsuit "completely ridiculous and a waste of the court's time."....
Mt. Soledad Cross Safe for Now Most residents of San Diego, Calif., like the cross at the center of the city’s Mt. Soledad War Memorial – so much so that a local leader says if a court order ever forced the cross off the now-federally owned property it would seriously divide the city. “It would certainly result in a great deal of polarization in the community,” Bill Kellogg, president of the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association, told CNSNews.com. “I think the community cares very, very much about it – and I’ve heard reports about radio broadcasters and others wanting to chain themselves to the cross, that people want to lay in front of the bulldozers.” That is a little less likely to happen, however, given that a federal court ruled last week that the cross is constitutional and can stay on federal property. “The Court finds the memorial at Mt. Soledad, including its Latin cross, communicates the primarily non-religious messages of military service, death and sacrifice,” wrote U.S District Judge Larry A. Burns in an opinion delivered last week. “The primary effect of the Mount Soledad memorial is patriotic and nationalistic,” Burns wrote. The decision, which is expected to work its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, is the latest decision in response to a series of lawsuits that have been filed against the nearly 30-foot-high cross (43 feet with base) over the last 20 years, beginning in 1988, when atheist Philip Paulson first sued the city of San Diego....
Rancher fearful after bison killings A longtime South Park rancher who had 32 of his bison killed last winter — including six bulls and 26 cows, some of which were pregnant — said the open-range shooting has left him and his family with "a lot of fear." Monte Downare said in his witness-impact statement filed Monday in the criminal case against Texas businessman Jeff Scott Hawn that his whole family has been traumatized. "This is very hard on not only me, but because this is a working ranch, my entire family is involved — wife, sons and daughters, son-in-law, daughter-in-law," said Downare. "We all make a living off of this ranch. Not only was it disturbing for him to kill all those buffalo, but we sell the offsprings to make a living." Hawn, 44, has been charged with 32 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals in connection with the slaughter of Downare's bison. The animal-cruelty charges allege that between Feb. 26 and March 14, Hawn unlawfully and knowingly "tortured, needlessly mutilated, or needlessly killed" the animals....
Range tenants: Cattle and wildlife could benefit from program State Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Parowan, wants to take a number of trophy game tags away from the public and give them to groups of ranchers who have had grazing permits partially suspended, reducing the number of cattle they can run on public lands. The grazing associations would then auction the hunting permits to wealthy hunters and use the proceeds to grow forage and develop water sources with a goal of improving the carrying capacity so their grazing permits can be restored in full. At first glance, Stowell's proposed legislation sounds like a terrible idea. It seems like the little guy, the wildlife and Utah's arid, fragile public lands would be the losers. It sounds like the ranchers and the rich hunters would win again. But what if Stowell's plan would benefit wildlife as well as cattle; Joe Hunter as well as Joe Rancher? What if it resulted in better habitat, more game animals and more permits to hunt them? A similar program conducted by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources in cooperation with public land management agencies already exists. Permits are given to sportsmen and conservation organizations for auction, and the groups use the money for habitat improvement projects under the watchful eye of DWR. But could projects be developed that would benefit both livestock and wildlife? State wildlife officials and federal land managers say yes. And would the public accept more cattle on public lands? That's the great unknown....
A New Path for Wolf Management As the dust settles on a federal court’s reinstatement of Endangered Species protections for gray wolves, one thing is clear: we need to find a new path to achieve balanced, science-based wolf management by the states. At the moment we seem mired in endless conflict that is serving no one’s interests particularly well — not wolves, conservationists, state wildlife managers, landowners or anyone else with a concern for wolves. So, where do we, as a region, go from here? Though the Greater Yellowstone Coalition was not a party to this litigation, the federal court’s ruling points out some significant problems in the delisting decision. In a clearly worded opinion, the court expressed its concern that Greater Yellowstone’s wolves are genetically isolated from wolf populations in central Idaho and around Glacier National Park, which could result in a long-term decline in the health of wolves. The decision also identified Wyoming’s laws and plans directing wolf management — especially the Predator Zone, where roaming wolves can be killed at any time for any reason — as an impediment to delisting. The three states and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service face an important choice: fight this injunction decision and prolong the court battle or begin fixing the flaws in the state-management plans....
Eco-plore with ranch rider in the wild west In the old days, cowboys explored and exploited the vast open ranges of the country, embodying the frontier spirit of the Wild West. Our attitude towards the environment has since changed, and now, a new generation of ranches offered by Ranch Rider seeks to co-exist harmoniously with nature. Tony Daly, Managing Director of Ranch Rider, comments: "These “green ranches” practice a more sustainable style of ranching through energy-saving techniques and conservation initiatives. The Siwash Lake and the Rocking Z are examples of how ranchers can be great stewards of the earth, ensuring that future generations can still enjoy the scenic beauty of the Wild West." Many wilderness ranches claim to be off grid, but there's no greenwash at the Siwash Lake in British Columbia, as the ranch has recently been awarded with a 5 Green Key eco-rating by the Hotel Association of Canada: the highest accolade for environmental and social responsibility. While guests are out eco-ploring on unspoiled wilderness trails, the luxury ranch is working behind the scenes to ensure a seamless green stay for its guests. Siwash Lake runs on solar power and a combined diesel generator. Biodegradable chemicals, energy saving light bulbs and emission controlled wood stoves are just a few of the ranch's initiatives – the 2-acre organic garden rounding off the eco theme....
Bison death toll climbs to 80 in Flying D anthrax outbreak Nearly 80 bison have succumbed in a rapidly spreading anthrax outbreak on Ted Turner’s Flying D Ranch in the Spanish Peaks, and officials are scrambling to contain the disease, a state livestock agent said Monday. “We’re in the process of cleaning up,” Steve Merritt, a Montana Department of Livestock public information officer, told the Belgrade News. “The number of dead the last time I heard was approximately 80 animals.” Gallatin County commissioners on Sunday closed Spanish Creek Road to make it easier for livestock officials to implement a quarantine of bison in the affected area, Commissioner Joe Skinner said. About nine miles of the road traverses the Turner ranch and parts of the affected area. “The closure is in effect until further notice, until we get a handle on” the infection, Skinner said. In addition to the quarantine of several thousand acres of Turner’s ranch, livestock officials are working to “clean up” the infected site, which entails gathering up the carcasses of fallen bison, burning and burying them, Merritt said....
Mt. Soledad Cross Safe for Now Most residents of San Diego, Calif., like the cross at the center of the city’s Mt. Soledad War Memorial – so much so that a local leader says if a court order ever forced the cross off the now-federally owned property it would seriously divide the city. “It would certainly result in a great deal of polarization in the community,” Bill Kellogg, president of the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association, told CNSNews.com. “I think the community cares very, very much about it – and I’ve heard reports about radio broadcasters and others wanting to chain themselves to the cross, that people want to lay in front of the bulldozers.” That is a little less likely to happen, however, given that a federal court ruled last week that the cross is constitutional and can stay on federal property. “The Court finds the memorial at Mt. Soledad, including its Latin cross, communicates the primarily non-religious messages of military service, death and sacrifice,” wrote U.S District Judge Larry A. Burns in an opinion delivered last week. “The primary effect of the Mount Soledad memorial is patriotic and nationalistic,” Burns wrote. The decision, which is expected to work its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, is the latest decision in response to a series of lawsuits that have been filed against the nearly 30-foot-high cross (43 feet with base) over the last 20 years, beginning in 1988, when atheist Philip Paulson first sued the city of San Diego....
Rancher fearful after bison killings A longtime South Park rancher who had 32 of his bison killed last winter — including six bulls and 26 cows, some of which were pregnant — said the open-range shooting has left him and his family with "a lot of fear." Monte Downare said in his witness-impact statement filed Monday in the criminal case against Texas businessman Jeff Scott Hawn that his whole family has been traumatized. "This is very hard on not only me, but because this is a working ranch, my entire family is involved — wife, sons and daughters, son-in-law, daughter-in-law," said Downare. "We all make a living off of this ranch. Not only was it disturbing for him to kill all those buffalo, but we sell the offsprings to make a living." Hawn, 44, has been charged with 32 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals in connection with the slaughter of Downare's bison. The animal-cruelty charges allege that between Feb. 26 and March 14, Hawn unlawfully and knowingly "tortured, needlessly mutilated, or needlessly killed" the animals....
Range tenants: Cattle and wildlife could benefit from program State Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Parowan, wants to take a number of trophy game tags away from the public and give them to groups of ranchers who have had grazing permits partially suspended, reducing the number of cattle they can run on public lands. The grazing associations would then auction the hunting permits to wealthy hunters and use the proceeds to grow forage and develop water sources with a goal of improving the carrying capacity so their grazing permits can be restored in full. At first glance, Stowell's proposed legislation sounds like a terrible idea. It seems like the little guy, the wildlife and Utah's arid, fragile public lands would be the losers. It sounds like the ranchers and the rich hunters would win again. But what if Stowell's plan would benefit wildlife as well as cattle; Joe Hunter as well as Joe Rancher? What if it resulted in better habitat, more game animals and more permits to hunt them? A similar program conducted by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources in cooperation with public land management agencies already exists. Permits are given to sportsmen and conservation organizations for auction, and the groups use the money for habitat improvement projects under the watchful eye of DWR. But could projects be developed that would benefit both livestock and wildlife? State wildlife officials and federal land managers say yes. And would the public accept more cattle on public lands? That's the great unknown....
A New Path for Wolf Management As the dust settles on a federal court’s reinstatement of Endangered Species protections for gray wolves, one thing is clear: we need to find a new path to achieve balanced, science-based wolf management by the states. At the moment we seem mired in endless conflict that is serving no one’s interests particularly well — not wolves, conservationists, state wildlife managers, landowners or anyone else with a concern for wolves. So, where do we, as a region, go from here? Though the Greater Yellowstone Coalition was not a party to this litigation, the federal court’s ruling points out some significant problems in the delisting decision. In a clearly worded opinion, the court expressed its concern that Greater Yellowstone’s wolves are genetically isolated from wolf populations in central Idaho and around Glacier National Park, which could result in a long-term decline in the health of wolves. The decision also identified Wyoming’s laws and plans directing wolf management — especially the Predator Zone, where roaming wolves can be killed at any time for any reason — as an impediment to delisting. The three states and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service face an important choice: fight this injunction decision and prolong the court battle or begin fixing the flaws in the state-management plans....
Eco-plore with ranch rider in the wild west In the old days, cowboys explored and exploited the vast open ranges of the country, embodying the frontier spirit of the Wild West. Our attitude towards the environment has since changed, and now, a new generation of ranches offered by Ranch Rider seeks to co-exist harmoniously with nature. Tony Daly, Managing Director of Ranch Rider, comments: "These “green ranches” practice a more sustainable style of ranching through energy-saving techniques and conservation initiatives. The Siwash Lake and the Rocking Z are examples of how ranchers can be great stewards of the earth, ensuring that future generations can still enjoy the scenic beauty of the Wild West." Many wilderness ranches claim to be off grid, but there's no greenwash at the Siwash Lake in British Columbia, as the ranch has recently been awarded with a 5 Green Key eco-rating by the Hotel Association of Canada: the highest accolade for environmental and social responsibility. While guests are out eco-ploring on unspoiled wilderness trails, the luxury ranch is working behind the scenes to ensure a seamless green stay for its guests. Siwash Lake runs on solar power and a combined diesel generator. Biodegradable chemicals, energy saving light bulbs and emission controlled wood stoves are just a few of the ranch's initiatives – the 2-acre organic garden rounding off the eco theme....
Bison death toll climbs to 80 in Flying D anthrax outbreak Nearly 80 bison have succumbed in a rapidly spreading anthrax outbreak on Ted Turner’s Flying D Ranch in the Spanish Peaks, and officials are scrambling to contain the disease, a state livestock agent said Monday. “We’re in the process of cleaning up,” Steve Merritt, a Montana Department of Livestock public information officer, told the Belgrade News. “The number of dead the last time I heard was approximately 80 animals.” Gallatin County commissioners on Sunday closed Spanish Creek Road to make it easier for livestock officials to implement a quarantine of bison in the affected area, Commissioner Joe Skinner said. About nine miles of the road traverses the Turner ranch and parts of the affected area. “The closure is in effect until further notice, until we get a handle on” the infection, Skinner said. In addition to the quarantine of several thousand acres of Turner’s ranch, livestock officials are working to “clean up” the infected site, which entails gathering up the carcasses of fallen bison, burning and burying them, Merritt said....
Boone Doggle Boone Pickens may be a fine man, and has played a colorful and useful role on the American stage for decades. But his "energy plan," which he's spending a fortune to promote on cable TV, is not a plan. Asserting that something would be good to do is not "a plan." Saying how to do it is "a plan." By this standard, what the legendary oil man is devoting $58 million to pitch hardly amounts to a decent slogan. He would replace natural gas in electricity production with wind, and use the natural gas to power cars. He fails to mention any practical theory of how to get there -- that would really be "a plan." Instead, he relies on the deus ex machina of Congress, waving a legislative wand to make people do things they would choose not to do, given the extravagant and unjustified costs involved. Having reasons is not "a plan" either, but Mr. Pickens has his reasons. He says we spend $700 billion a year on foreign oil, which he calls a "transfer of wealth." But exchanging money for oil at the market price is an exchange of things of equal value. If we didn't value their oil more than our dollars, we wouldn't participate in such a bargain. In fact, Mr. Pickens's "plan" bears a family resemblance to John Kerry's 2004 "energy independence plan," which on closer inspection was merely a scheme to reduce oil consumption by a couple million barrels a day, an amount equal to our imports from the Persian Gulf. Whatever its utility as an upraised middle digit to the Middle East, it's a strategy that does not even succeed on its own silly terms....
Inquiry Finds Under-Age Workers at Meat Plant State labor investigators have identified 57 under-age workers who were employed at a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, and have asked the attorney general to bring criminal charges against the company for child labor violations, Dave Neil, the Iowa Labor Commissioner, said on Tuesday. “The investigation brings to light egregious violations of virtually every aspect of Iowa’s child labor laws,” Mr. Neil said in a statement announcing the results of a seven-month investigation at Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meat plant. In a raid in May, 389 illegal immigrant workers were detained there in the largest immigration enforcement operation ever at a single workplace. Mr. Neil said that investigators had found multiple child labor law violations for each under-age worker at the plant. They included employing minors in prohibited occupations, exposing them to hazardous chemicals, and making them work with prohibited tools like knives and saws, he said....
GOP escalates revolt Republican leaders called for reinforcements Tuesday to ramp up pressure on Democrats with an extended battle over gas prices. House GOP bosses put out a call for their entire conference to participate in the energy protest on the chamber floor. The GOP public relations blitz, which has attracted national headlines, could go on through much of the August recess as Republicans strategize on how to keep political pressure on Democratic leaders who oppose expanding offshore drilling. Leadership officials said they see no foreseeable end to the protest that began as an impromptu series of floor speeches after the House officially adjourned last week. And after three days of a handful of rank-and-file members holding down the fort, Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) are expected back in town Wednesday, when they will meet with former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) to discuss strategy before taking to the floor to resume the protest....
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Gene Autry "I'm Back In The Computer Again" The tradition dates back to the Old West: A cowboy gently soothes his cattle with a simple song. "Come on girls, let's go," the cowboy croons as he gathers his bovine gals from across the lonesome desert range. But one day, possibly soon, this cowboy may not have to ride the range to corral his herd. In this case, the "cowboy" is U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher Dean M. Anderson, who's working on technology to corral cattle remotely through a high-tech device that funnels sounds directly to the animals. It's Old West cattle herding, with a 21st century twist — part of a project involving the USDA and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the government's Jornada Experimental Range in southern New Mexico. The wireless headset, called the "Ear-A-Round," has stereo earphones that funnel sounds directly into the cow's ears to guide its movement. Powered by a small solar energy panel, the unit contains a Global Positioning System device and equipment to monitor a cow's movement and geographical location. Researchers hope the device will give ranchers and farmers the ability to herd cattle from afar, said Daniela Rus, an MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science who teamed with Anderson. The device works by using sound to keep an animal within a "virtual paddock" through GPS technology, Anderson said....Also a nice way for the government to count and track your cattle. Premisis registration and NAIS won't be necessary. Rustlers will love this. Just hack into the computer and walk them right into the trailer -:)
Pelosi: GOP’s Oil Drilling Plan Is A ‘Hoax’ A Republican plan to open more public land to oil exploration and drilling is “unworthy of serious debate,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Monday. Under pressure from Republicans to call Congress back into session, Pelosi on Monday issued a statement saying that Democrats have already offered a “real solution” to the nation’s high energy prices. Democrats want to force President Bush to “free our oil” from the nation’s emergency stockpile. Diverting oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve “would bring immediate relief within 10 days,” Pelosi insisted. She said a Republican plan to “give away public lands to Big Oil” will not immediately reduce prices at the pump -- and it would save Americans “only 2 cents ten years from now.”....
GOP Calls on Dems to Return from ‘Recess’ for Vote on Offshore Drilling Congress recessed for the summer on Friday, but that didn’t keep Republicans from returning to the House floor on Monday to demand that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reconvene lawmakers to pass energy legislation, including lifting the ban on offshore drilling. “It was simply wrong for Congress to take a five-week paid vacation without ever taking a vote on giving the American people more access to American oil,” Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said of the unprecedented gathering. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) called for the action on the floor, which saw representatives shouting comments from the floor because microphones had been turned off by the Democrats....
GOP Calls on Dems to Return from ‘Recess’ for Vote on Offshore Drilling Congress recessed for the summer on Friday, but that didn’t keep Republicans from returning to the House floor on Monday to demand that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reconvene lawmakers to pass energy legislation, including lifting the ban on offshore drilling. “It was simply wrong for Congress to take a five-week paid vacation without ever taking a vote on giving the American people more access to American oil,” Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said of the unprecedented gathering. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) called for the action on the floor, which saw representatives shouting comments from the floor because microphones had been turned off by the Democrats....
Bear roughs up Yellowstone firefighter A grizzly bear fleeing a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park pounced on a firefighter, but a spokeswoman said the man wasn't seriously hurt. Firefighter Tony Allabastro was treated and released from a Yellowstone clinic hours after the Sunday incident, said Sandra Hare, spokeswoman for the team managing the LeHardy Fire. “It kind of roughed him up a little bit, so he has some scratching and stuff to his back,” Hare said. “He got pounced on.” Hare said officials believe the bear wasn't being particularly aggressive. “We really feel like it was the bear trying to get out of the area,” she said. Firefighters on the Yellowstone fire are carrying pepper spray for bears, Hare said, but she said Allabastro didn't have time to grab his. “It is one of the hazards of fighting backcountry fires,” she said....
Scientists say spotted owl plan not good enough The Bush administration's latest plan for saving the northern spotted owl from extinction while allowing a boost in old growth logging was better, but still not good enough, according to three leading professional organizations of wildlife scientists. The Wildlife Society, the Society for Conservation Biology and the American Ornithologists Union said in independent peer reviews released Monday that the final plan adopted in May was better than the draft they flunked a year ago, but there was still no scientific basis for allowing more logging of the old growth forests where the threatened bird lives. "Given that the northern spotted owl has been experiencing about a 4 percent annual rate of population decline for the last 15 years, any reductions from current levels of habitat protection cannot be justified," the joint review by the Society for Conservation Biology and American Ornithologists Union said. The reviews estimated the recovery plan still allows for destruction of 20 percent to 56 percent of the spotted owl habitat currently protected....
County’s FOIA Request Yields Easement Documents Missoula County has obtained some documents related to private negotiations that occurred between the U.S. Forest Service and Plum Creek Timber Co., which holds easements for use of Forest Service roads. "There's definitely more (information) here than we've had before," Missoula County Deputy Attorney D. James McCubbin said Monday after federal officials provided documents the county sought under the Freedom of Information Act. The county has posted the documents on its Web site. The first batch was received late last week, and federal officials have indicated the entire request could yield thousands of pages, said McCubbin, who filed the request on June 25. Plum Creek CEO Rick Holley told The Associated Press in July that over a span of about 18 months, representatives of the Seattle-based company and the U.S. Department of Agriculture privately negotiated changes to an agreement on company use of Forest Service roads....
BLM revises land-for-water trade proposal The Bureau of Land Management is seeking comment on a revised proposal to exchange up to 10 parcels of BLM land for up to 189.8 acre feet of water annually from the Anderson Ditch in Monte Vista. Four parcels located in Rio Grande County that were in the original proposal have been replaced by four parcels located in Saguache County. The purpose of the proposed exchange is to acquire a permanent source of augmentation water for the Blanca Wetlands. The acquired water would be used to offset depletions to the Rio Grande caused by the operation of confined aquifer wells that supply water to the wetlands. Securing a permanent source of augmentation water is critical as Blanca Wetlands provides habitat for more than a dozen threatened, endangered, or sensitive species. The wetlands also provide nesting and migratory habitat for thousands of waterfowl and shorebirds....
Court rejects SUWA appeal on wilderness deal For the second time, a federal appeals court has rejected a conservation organization's attempts to challenge a 2003 backroom deal limiting wilderness in Utah. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance must wait until it can cite U.S. Bureau of Land Management actions that show the agency is behaving illegally. At issue is the "no more wilderness" deal signed by former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and former Interior Secretary Gale Norton that froze the state's wilderness study areas at 3.2 million acres. The Leavitt-Norton settlement sought to end a lawsuit the state filed in 1996 challenging wilderness areas inventoried after 1991, the final year of the Wilderness Study Area survey ordered by Congress. The agreement, concluded without public knowledge or participation, removed from consideration nearly 6 million acres of potential wilderness inventoried during the Clinton administration....
Cemex bill stuck in committee As Congress takes a five-week summer vacation, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon's bill aimed at banning the Cemex Inc. mine in Soledad Canyon still awaits a hearing before a key House committee. "We're hoping for a hearing in September. That's what we're working on," said Bob Haueter, deputy chief of staff for McKeon, R-Santa Clarita. McKeon introduced the Soledad Canyon Mining Act in April following extended behind-closed-doors negotiations with the Mexican cement corporation. It was hailed locally as a means of blocking a proposed giant sand and gravel mine that had long been opposed by the city of Santa Clarita and Canyon Country-area residents....
U.S. Farmland Values Reach Record on High Crop Prices U.S. farmland values are at a record high even as the rest of the country suffers the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression, with the highest crop prices ever pushing up agricultural real estate. The value of all land and buildings on farms averaged $2,350 an acre at the start of this year, up 8.8 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in an annual report. Surging corn, wheat and soybean prices boosted values in the Northern Plains, which includes Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, by 15.5 percent, the biggest increase in the country, according to the report. The boom reflects high commodity prices that may push net farm income to $92.3 billion this year from $88.7 billion last year, according to the USDA. The gains make farmers more likely to buy fertilizer and seeds from Monsanto Co. and Agrium Inc. and make new investments in tractors and trucks, said Bruce Babcock, director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University in Ames. ``It creates a better balance sheet, that's for sure,'' he said. The most expensive farmland in the U.S. was in Massachusetts at $12,200 an acre, followed by Rhode Island and Connecticut. The least expensive was in New Mexico, where land prices averaged $630 an acre....
Horse demolishes public toilet Bavarian police on Monday said a man who tried to take his horse with him into a public toilet over the weekend caused over €1,000 in damages after the animal balked. According to witnesses, the man apparently didn’t want to leave his horse outside the facility in the city of Kaufbeuren on Saturday night. But the animal – a white Paint with brown spots – decided his rider could take care of his business alone and demolished the lavatory’s entryway. “The guy wanted to go in with his horse, but the horse had other ideas,” Kaufbeuren police officer Oliver Klinke told The Local on Monday. Klinke said the authorities were now attempting to ascertain the identity of the man, who was apparently less capable of judging the size of the public toilet than his four-legged friend....As Sara Hopkins always says, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't lead him into a toilet."
Scientists say spotted owl plan not good enough The Bush administration's latest plan for saving the northern spotted owl from extinction while allowing a boost in old growth logging was better, but still not good enough, according to three leading professional organizations of wildlife scientists. The Wildlife Society, the Society for Conservation Biology and the American Ornithologists Union said in independent peer reviews released Monday that the final plan adopted in May was better than the draft they flunked a year ago, but there was still no scientific basis for allowing more logging of the old growth forests where the threatened bird lives. "Given that the northern spotted owl has been experiencing about a 4 percent annual rate of population decline for the last 15 years, any reductions from current levels of habitat protection cannot be justified," the joint review by the Society for Conservation Biology and American Ornithologists Union said. The reviews estimated the recovery plan still allows for destruction of 20 percent to 56 percent of the spotted owl habitat currently protected....
County’s FOIA Request Yields Easement Documents Missoula County has obtained some documents related to private negotiations that occurred between the U.S. Forest Service and Plum Creek Timber Co., which holds easements for use of Forest Service roads. "There's definitely more (information) here than we've had before," Missoula County Deputy Attorney D. James McCubbin said Monday after federal officials provided documents the county sought under the Freedom of Information Act. The county has posted the documents on its Web site. The first batch was received late last week, and federal officials have indicated the entire request could yield thousands of pages, said McCubbin, who filed the request on June 25. Plum Creek CEO Rick Holley told The Associated Press in July that over a span of about 18 months, representatives of the Seattle-based company and the U.S. Department of Agriculture privately negotiated changes to an agreement on company use of Forest Service roads....
BLM revises land-for-water trade proposal The Bureau of Land Management is seeking comment on a revised proposal to exchange up to 10 parcels of BLM land for up to 189.8 acre feet of water annually from the Anderson Ditch in Monte Vista. Four parcels located in Rio Grande County that were in the original proposal have been replaced by four parcels located in Saguache County. The purpose of the proposed exchange is to acquire a permanent source of augmentation water for the Blanca Wetlands. The acquired water would be used to offset depletions to the Rio Grande caused by the operation of confined aquifer wells that supply water to the wetlands. Securing a permanent source of augmentation water is critical as Blanca Wetlands provides habitat for more than a dozen threatened, endangered, or sensitive species. The wetlands also provide nesting and migratory habitat for thousands of waterfowl and shorebirds....
Court rejects SUWA appeal on wilderness deal For the second time, a federal appeals court has rejected a conservation organization's attempts to challenge a 2003 backroom deal limiting wilderness in Utah. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance must wait until it can cite U.S. Bureau of Land Management actions that show the agency is behaving illegally. At issue is the "no more wilderness" deal signed by former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and former Interior Secretary Gale Norton that froze the state's wilderness study areas at 3.2 million acres. The Leavitt-Norton settlement sought to end a lawsuit the state filed in 1996 challenging wilderness areas inventoried after 1991, the final year of the Wilderness Study Area survey ordered by Congress. The agreement, concluded without public knowledge or participation, removed from consideration nearly 6 million acres of potential wilderness inventoried during the Clinton administration....
Cemex bill stuck in committee As Congress takes a five-week summer vacation, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon's bill aimed at banning the Cemex Inc. mine in Soledad Canyon still awaits a hearing before a key House committee. "We're hoping for a hearing in September. That's what we're working on," said Bob Haueter, deputy chief of staff for McKeon, R-Santa Clarita. McKeon introduced the Soledad Canyon Mining Act in April following extended behind-closed-doors negotiations with the Mexican cement corporation. It was hailed locally as a means of blocking a proposed giant sand and gravel mine that had long been opposed by the city of Santa Clarita and Canyon Country-area residents....
U.S. Farmland Values Reach Record on High Crop Prices U.S. farmland values are at a record high even as the rest of the country suffers the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression, with the highest crop prices ever pushing up agricultural real estate. The value of all land and buildings on farms averaged $2,350 an acre at the start of this year, up 8.8 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in an annual report. Surging corn, wheat and soybean prices boosted values in the Northern Plains, which includes Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, by 15.5 percent, the biggest increase in the country, according to the report. The boom reflects high commodity prices that may push net farm income to $92.3 billion this year from $88.7 billion last year, according to the USDA. The gains make farmers more likely to buy fertilizer and seeds from Monsanto Co. and Agrium Inc. and make new investments in tractors and trucks, said Bruce Babcock, director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University in Ames. ``It creates a better balance sheet, that's for sure,'' he said. The most expensive farmland in the U.S. was in Massachusetts at $12,200 an acre, followed by Rhode Island and Connecticut. The least expensive was in New Mexico, where land prices averaged $630 an acre....
Horse demolishes public toilet Bavarian police on Monday said a man who tried to take his horse with him into a public toilet over the weekend caused over €1,000 in damages after the animal balked. According to witnesses, the man apparently didn’t want to leave his horse outside the facility in the city of Kaufbeuren on Saturday night. But the animal – a white Paint with brown spots – decided his rider could take care of his business alone and demolished the lavatory’s entryway. “The guy wanted to go in with his horse, but the horse had other ideas,” Kaufbeuren police officer Oliver Klinke told The Local on Monday. Klinke said the authorities were now attempting to ascertain the identity of the man, who was apparently less capable of judging the size of the public toilet than his four-legged friend....As Sara Hopkins always says, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't lead him into a toilet."
Branson’s bogus eco-drive The Virgin boss’s much trumpeted pledge of €1.9bn to tackle global warming is nothing but smoke and mirrors. In September 2006, Virgin boss Richard Branson pledged €1.9 billion towards tackling global warming. For the next ten years, he announced, the profits from his aviation and rail businesses would go towards combating the biggest, most complex problem that mankind has ever faced. The promise earned Branson headlines around the world. Media outlets carried photos of him, Bill Clinton and Al Gore at a Clinton Global Initiative press conference in New York. Adults, Branson solemnly told the assembled media, had a duty to pass a ‘‘pristine’’ planet on to the next generation. Politicians and campaigners were effusive in their praise for his imagination and generosity. However, a look at the not-very-small print revealed that this amazing gesture would not be a matter of taking the profits from Branson’s polluting industries and using them to protect vast tracts of the Amazon. In fact, the money would go to a new division of the Virgin conglomerate, called Virgin Fuel. Branson was simply gearing himself up to make more money. But as always, the PR spin was that he’d be doing the rest of us a favour in the process....
The Air Apparent As he flip-flops on drilling, Barack Obama contends we can save as much oil by inflating our tires as may be found offshore. What's phase two of his energy plan? Borrowing Jimmy Carter's sweater? If Obama ran a gas station, it would probably have no gas pumps, just air hoses. Speaking in Missouri last week, the one we have been waiting for said: "There are things you can do individually, though, to save energy. Making sure your tires are properly inflated — simple things. But we could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling — if everybody was just inflating their tires. And getting regular tuneups. You'd actually save just as much!" The Saudis must be laughing their heads off. Can we expect Jimmy Carter to be Obama's secretary of energy? Keeping your tires properly inflated can improve your gas mileage by about 3%. Most new cars don't need tuneups for the first 100,000 miles. And even all the hot air from Obama's speeches would not make a dent in the 20 million barrels of crude we consume daily....
Monday, August 04, 2008
Groups seek to preserve wilderness A conservation coalition is proposing that 62,300 acres of national grasslands in North Dakota’s badlands be protected as federal wilderness areas to keep them off-limits from oil and gas development. The plan, which also seeks to protect a 5,410-acre area of the Sheyenne National Grasslands, is backed by a group called the North Dakota Wilderness Coalition. The areas proposed for permanent protection, most of which now are managed as “suitable for wilderness” by the U.S. Forest Service, comprise just a small portion of federal grasslands in the state, said Jan Swenson, executive director of the Badlands Conservation Alliance, one of the supporters of the Prairie Wilderness proposal. “Ninety-six percent is open to oil and gas development,” she said. “This is 4 percent.” Also, even if designated as wilderness, the areas would remain open to cattle grazing by ranchers who have federal permits, she said. “This is something we need to hold on to for ourselves, these areas,” Swenson said. Protection would require an approval by Congress under the 1964 Wilderness Act....
UC bombings linked to animal rights activists Investigators sifting the evidence of two firebombings targeting UC Santa Cruz biologists believe the potentially lethal devices are similar to ones used in the past by animal rights activists, authorities said today. The bombs were so powerful they were like "Molotov cocktails on steroids," said Santa Cruz police Capt. Steve Clark. One struck the home of assistant biology Professor David Feldheim on Saturday morning, forcing him to flee with his family. The other exploded just a few minutes earlier, gutting a car parked outside the campus home of a second researcher. Later, Santa Cruz County sheriff's deputies went to the home of a third researcher who received a threatening telephone message, but officers found no explosives. More than 50 investigators, including some from the FBI's regional terrorism task force, are looking into the attacks....
In the Hills of Nebraska, Change Is on the Horizon Driving south out of the agricultural town of Ainsworth, you can’t miss its newest crop: wind turbines, three dozen of them, with steel stalks 230 feet high and petal-like blades 131 feet long, sprouting improbably from the sand hills of north-central Nebraska, beside ruminating cattle. Though painted gray, the turbines stand out against the evening backdrop of battleship-colored thunderclouds and bear an almost celestial whiteness when day’s light is right. Airplane pilots can spot them from far away, and rarely does a bird make their unfortunate acquaintance. The sound of 8.5-ton blades, three to a turbine, turning and turning, only enhances their almost supernatural presence. Standing at the base of a turbine’s stalk, you hear a whistling whoosh — whuh ... whuh ... whuh — as steady summer winds come like the breath of gods to toy with pinwheel amusements. One of the blessings of being in the middle of this nowhere is its wind. Years ago, after setting up wind monitors at nine spots around the state, energy officials discovered that Ainsworth and its surrounding areas had wonderful prevailing winds flowing down from Canada and up from Mexico: winds that carried the Goldilocks charm of being neither too hard nor too soft, but just right....
Bison buffs aim to seed West with new herds More than a century after Buffalo Bill and others hunted America’s wild bison to near-extinction, researchers at a compound near Yellowstone National Park have launched an ambitious restoration effort. Inside the Corwin Springs compound, government veterinarians draw blood from the necks of young bison for disease screening and clip off pieces of ears for genetic testing. Those that pass muster become eligible for relocation outside Yellowstone, which could occur as soon as this winter on American Indian reservations in Montana. ‘‘Our goal is to put them back on the landscape across the country, wherever state agencies and tribes can manage them appropriately,’’ said Jack Rhyan, a veterinarian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates the Corwin Springs compound with the state of Montana. For bison advocates, the project is the first step toward their dream of thousands of wild bison again thundering across broad areas of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountain West. Ranchers, however, consider it a potential nightmare driven by nostalgia and filled with risks....
Congress Introduces Bill For Haying and Grazing of CRP On Friday identical bills were introduced in both the House and Senate that would require the Agriculture Department to carry out the Conservation Reserve Program's Critical Feed Use Program as initially intended when the program rules were released in May. S. 3337 introduced by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kans., and H.R. 6533 introduced by Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kans., are identical bills that would allow all farmers and ranchers to participate in the Critical Feed Use program, not just those farmers and ranchers who have met the $4,500 proof of investment. The Agriculture Department originally authorized acreage in the CRP to be available for haying or grazing after primary nesting season ends for grass-nesting birds. Meanwhile, AFBF has requested that Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer seek a motion for reconsideration before the Western District Court of Washington that would enable farmers and ranchers who sought, but were refused application, to apply for the Critical Feed Use program. In a letter to Schafer, Stallman also asked USDA to seek to reduce the $4,500 investment to a more reasonable amount. The $4,500 investment requirement was a part of a July 24 ruling by a federal judge in Seattle....
Food labeling rules taking shape Hoping to steer American consumers away from imports, the country's food industry soon will begin putting USA labels on home country meat, produce and other groceries. The labeling begins Sept. 30. A 233-page draft of U.S. Department of Agriculture labeling rules, including an estimate of its multibillion-dollar costs, appears in the recently published Federal Register. The labeling is the product of a six-year push by producers and consumer groups arguing that shoppers should know the origins of their food, as they do for shoes or car parts. Beef, lamb, chicken and pork are slated for country labeling. Fruits and vegetables, fresh and frozen are due for labeling, as well as peanuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and ginseng. The USDA hasn't warmed to COOL over the six years taken to create the labeling, which is why Lovera said the government is exempting so many products from the labeling. COOL advocates also say that USDA has overestimated the cost of labeling, paid out by grocers, ranches, farms and the middlemen who bring the products to market. The USDA estimates that the cost of the program for the beef industry alone to be $1.2 billion, unevenly split among ranchers, processors and retail stores. Ag officials estimate that ranchers alone will pay $9 per animal. For Montana ranchers, the cost is likely to be closer to $3 a head, said John Paterson, extension beef specialist for Montana Beef Network....
Real cowboys aren’t ‘all hat, no cattle’ What is a cowboy, exactly? I reckon nobody really knows for certain, although the definition might be similar to that of pornography — you know a cowboy when you see one. A girlfriend of mine refers to cowboys as people with expensive trucks and trailers, and no visible means of support. Another friend says she never met a cowboy who wasn’t hurt, broke or both. Still another says she gets a special thrill in finding a pair of dusty cowboy boots parked under her bed in the morning. When I was a kid, there wasn’t much difference between a cowboy, a rancher or any of the folks who ranched for a living or worked for those who did. Guys like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were “cowboys,” made to order for the imaginations of kids, but because they sang and dressed really nice, we always considered them to be “city cowboys.” Then, of course, there were the real cowboys — the ranchers — like those folks out in Woody Creek who were our neighbors. You can buy a hat uptown that’ll brand you a cowboy to most folks, one with sweat and dirt painted on its crunched-up facade, and a pair of boots to match, with artificial scuffs in the leather. But being a cowboy isn’t about how you look — pretty is not the gist of it — it’s about whether a guy or gal will pick you up from the mud after your horse has dumped your sorry ass in it. Looks take up space at the bar and provide a backdrop for wishful stories, but they can’t rope a wild cow or doctor a sick calf....
Where prayers come with a twang Wearing a white cowboy hat and preaching atop his horse, Coby, Rev. Steve Hamson gives a modern-day meaning to "sermon on the mount." With a Bible in one hand and the reins of the horse in the other, Hamson strikes the fear of God in his parishioners—more than a dozen of them listening on horseback in a humid riding arena. The cowboys put their hats over their hearts when Hamson prays for those who are missing because they "had to do hay." Some men had wads of chewing tobacco in their cheeks, digesting Hamson's words while their horses made "brrrr" sounds and kicked their hooves. No one minds the equestrian outbursts or the chewing. This, after all, is cowboy church. Across rural America, thousands of evangelical Protestant worshipers gather in barns, buildings and beneath the stars to worship Western-style. As the beach is to born-again surfers, and the road is to Holy Ghost bikers, the range is the mission field to Christian cowboys and ranchers. At least 600 cowboy churches are scattered across the U.S., according to leaders in the movement and published accounts....
UC bombings linked to animal rights activists Investigators sifting the evidence of two firebombings targeting UC Santa Cruz biologists believe the potentially lethal devices are similar to ones used in the past by animal rights activists, authorities said today. The bombs were so powerful they were like "Molotov cocktails on steroids," said Santa Cruz police Capt. Steve Clark. One struck the home of assistant biology Professor David Feldheim on Saturday morning, forcing him to flee with his family. The other exploded just a few minutes earlier, gutting a car parked outside the campus home of a second researcher. Later, Santa Cruz County sheriff's deputies went to the home of a third researcher who received a threatening telephone message, but officers found no explosives. More than 50 investigators, including some from the FBI's regional terrorism task force, are looking into the attacks....
In the Hills of Nebraska, Change Is on the Horizon Driving south out of the agricultural town of Ainsworth, you can’t miss its newest crop: wind turbines, three dozen of them, with steel stalks 230 feet high and petal-like blades 131 feet long, sprouting improbably from the sand hills of north-central Nebraska, beside ruminating cattle. Though painted gray, the turbines stand out against the evening backdrop of battleship-colored thunderclouds and bear an almost celestial whiteness when day’s light is right. Airplane pilots can spot them from far away, and rarely does a bird make their unfortunate acquaintance. The sound of 8.5-ton blades, three to a turbine, turning and turning, only enhances their almost supernatural presence. Standing at the base of a turbine’s stalk, you hear a whistling whoosh — whuh ... whuh ... whuh — as steady summer winds come like the breath of gods to toy with pinwheel amusements. One of the blessings of being in the middle of this nowhere is its wind. Years ago, after setting up wind monitors at nine spots around the state, energy officials discovered that Ainsworth and its surrounding areas had wonderful prevailing winds flowing down from Canada and up from Mexico: winds that carried the Goldilocks charm of being neither too hard nor too soft, but just right....
Bison buffs aim to seed West with new herds More than a century after Buffalo Bill and others hunted America’s wild bison to near-extinction, researchers at a compound near Yellowstone National Park have launched an ambitious restoration effort. Inside the Corwin Springs compound, government veterinarians draw blood from the necks of young bison for disease screening and clip off pieces of ears for genetic testing. Those that pass muster become eligible for relocation outside Yellowstone, which could occur as soon as this winter on American Indian reservations in Montana. ‘‘Our goal is to put them back on the landscape across the country, wherever state agencies and tribes can manage them appropriately,’’ said Jack Rhyan, a veterinarian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates the Corwin Springs compound with the state of Montana. For bison advocates, the project is the first step toward their dream of thousands of wild bison again thundering across broad areas of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountain West. Ranchers, however, consider it a potential nightmare driven by nostalgia and filled with risks....
Congress Introduces Bill For Haying and Grazing of CRP On Friday identical bills were introduced in both the House and Senate that would require the Agriculture Department to carry out the Conservation Reserve Program's Critical Feed Use Program as initially intended when the program rules were released in May. S. 3337 introduced by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kans., and H.R. 6533 introduced by Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kans., are identical bills that would allow all farmers and ranchers to participate in the Critical Feed Use program, not just those farmers and ranchers who have met the $4,500 proof of investment. The Agriculture Department originally authorized acreage in the CRP to be available for haying or grazing after primary nesting season ends for grass-nesting birds. Meanwhile, AFBF has requested that Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer seek a motion for reconsideration before the Western District Court of Washington that would enable farmers and ranchers who sought, but were refused application, to apply for the Critical Feed Use program. In a letter to Schafer, Stallman also asked USDA to seek to reduce the $4,500 investment to a more reasonable amount. The $4,500 investment requirement was a part of a July 24 ruling by a federal judge in Seattle....
Food labeling rules taking shape Hoping to steer American consumers away from imports, the country's food industry soon will begin putting USA labels on home country meat, produce and other groceries. The labeling begins Sept. 30. A 233-page draft of U.S. Department of Agriculture labeling rules, including an estimate of its multibillion-dollar costs, appears in the recently published Federal Register. The labeling is the product of a six-year push by producers and consumer groups arguing that shoppers should know the origins of their food, as they do for shoes or car parts. Beef, lamb, chicken and pork are slated for country labeling. Fruits and vegetables, fresh and frozen are due for labeling, as well as peanuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and ginseng. The USDA hasn't warmed to COOL over the six years taken to create the labeling, which is why Lovera said the government is exempting so many products from the labeling. COOL advocates also say that USDA has overestimated the cost of labeling, paid out by grocers, ranches, farms and the middlemen who bring the products to market. The USDA estimates that the cost of the program for the beef industry alone to be $1.2 billion, unevenly split among ranchers, processors and retail stores. Ag officials estimate that ranchers alone will pay $9 per animal. For Montana ranchers, the cost is likely to be closer to $3 a head, said John Paterson, extension beef specialist for Montana Beef Network....
Real cowboys aren’t ‘all hat, no cattle’ What is a cowboy, exactly? I reckon nobody really knows for certain, although the definition might be similar to that of pornography — you know a cowboy when you see one. A girlfriend of mine refers to cowboys as people with expensive trucks and trailers, and no visible means of support. Another friend says she never met a cowboy who wasn’t hurt, broke or both. Still another says she gets a special thrill in finding a pair of dusty cowboy boots parked under her bed in the morning. When I was a kid, there wasn’t much difference between a cowboy, a rancher or any of the folks who ranched for a living or worked for those who did. Guys like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were “cowboys,” made to order for the imaginations of kids, but because they sang and dressed really nice, we always considered them to be “city cowboys.” Then, of course, there were the real cowboys — the ranchers — like those folks out in Woody Creek who were our neighbors. You can buy a hat uptown that’ll brand you a cowboy to most folks, one with sweat and dirt painted on its crunched-up facade, and a pair of boots to match, with artificial scuffs in the leather. But being a cowboy isn’t about how you look — pretty is not the gist of it — it’s about whether a guy or gal will pick you up from the mud after your horse has dumped your sorry ass in it. Looks take up space at the bar and provide a backdrop for wishful stories, but they can’t rope a wild cow or doctor a sick calf....
Where prayers come with a twang Wearing a white cowboy hat and preaching atop his horse, Coby, Rev. Steve Hamson gives a modern-day meaning to "sermon on the mount." With a Bible in one hand and the reins of the horse in the other, Hamson strikes the fear of God in his parishioners—more than a dozen of them listening on horseback in a humid riding arena. The cowboys put their hats over their hearts when Hamson prays for those who are missing because they "had to do hay." Some men had wads of chewing tobacco in their cheeks, digesting Hamson's words while their horses made "brrrr" sounds and kicked their hooves. No one minds the equestrian outbursts or the chewing. This, after all, is cowboy church. Across rural America, thousands of evangelical Protestant worshipers gather in barns, buildings and beneath the stars to worship Western-style. As the beach is to born-again surfers, and the road is to Holy Ghost bikers, the range is the mission field to Christian cowboys and ranchers. At least 600 cowboy churches are scattered across the U.S., according to leaders in the movement and published accounts....
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Return of the hillbilly family reunion
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy
Julie Carter
Anyone who has ever had a family has had to endure the occasional family reunion.
Generally, family reunions are where a whole bunch of kinfolk, who never did much like each other, get together for a few days and act like they are happy to be in the family. Sometimes they actually are, and this bunch was.
Last weekend, I bravely ventured out to somebody else's family reunion. I wrote about this family when they gathered last summer, but I had never personally met any of them, except the one that invited me.
I met the 85-year-old uncle, who last year was in the company of a young Latin tango dancer.
This year he was traveling solo, but had lost none of his will to tell tales of his sex-at-85 adventures should one be unwise enough to inquire about his love life. Most of the time, he could be found hovering over the platter of bacon-wrapped shrimp pondering their possible aphrodisiac properties.
The cousin who is a district judge counts family among his friends and voters. Campaign donations are always the topic when deciding if favors of any kind are to be granted, including refreshing your glass of ice tea.
Last year's event to this mountain resort landed them in some rustic cabins where they charged one cousin with providing 80 eggs and 10 pounds of breakfast meat. A cook-your-own sort of place.
This year, the group landed in a high-class hotel with what I heard referenced as "whorehouse prices," but it included a complimentary hot breakfast.
The judge and his family, along with his brother and family, were housed in a top floor executive suite.
These men are rough-country ranchers from the Palo Duro area, raised up poor and hard-working.
The one brother stayed on to run the ranch after college, while the other became a progressive embarrassment to the family by first becoming a lawyer, then a politician on his way to the judgeship.
When the rains came, the roof of this posh hotel began to leak in the executive suite.
This would have been a tremendous problem for most who were paying through the nose for the privilege, but not these hillbillies.
They just moved the beer cooler over to the spot, flipped the lid open and let it catch the rain.
Hoping to class up a few of the kinfolk, the planners of the soirée booked Asian cooking lessons from a local culinary chef.
Any previous knowledge of this particular ethnic food included the little known fact that the Chinese restaurant in Hereford, Texas, next door to the laundry, utilized the discarded starch water to thicken their gravy.
The story goes that even the calf-fry-off-the-branding-pot eaters needed several Mimosas to survive the chicken deboning demonstration.
One gal that married into this bunch finds great relief in their "normalcy," as compared to her family.
She recalls some of her own kinfolk. Just for starters, there is the one with the long hair and tattoos who makes a living playing acid rock, or when that isn't good, is an operator for underwater seismograph oil exploration.
Another, with the same hairstyle and a law degree, makes his money picking a banjo. Yet another raises doves and when the eggs don't hatch , he works at Wal-Mart to make ends meet.
Thankfully, she has seen nary a one of them in years, except the cousin that showed up with a couple of horses and a pig when everyone was making a mass exodus from the coast to escape Hurricane Katrina.
Writing about other people's kinfolk sometimes makes me miss my own, but not enough to wish for a family reunion.
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy
Julie Carter
Anyone who has ever had a family has had to endure the occasional family reunion.
Generally, family reunions are where a whole bunch of kinfolk, who never did much like each other, get together for a few days and act like they are happy to be in the family. Sometimes they actually are, and this bunch was.
Last weekend, I bravely ventured out to somebody else's family reunion. I wrote about this family when they gathered last summer, but I had never personally met any of them, except the one that invited me.
I met the 85-year-old uncle, who last year was in the company of a young Latin tango dancer.
This year he was traveling solo, but had lost none of his will to tell tales of his sex-at-85 adventures should one be unwise enough to inquire about his love life. Most of the time, he could be found hovering over the platter of bacon-wrapped shrimp pondering their possible aphrodisiac properties.
The cousin who is a district judge counts family among his friends and voters. Campaign donations are always the topic when deciding if favors of any kind are to be granted, including refreshing your glass of ice tea.
Last year's event to this mountain resort landed them in some rustic cabins where they charged one cousin with providing 80 eggs and 10 pounds of breakfast meat. A cook-your-own sort of place.
This year, the group landed in a high-class hotel with what I heard referenced as "whorehouse prices," but it included a complimentary hot breakfast.
The judge and his family, along with his brother and family, were housed in a top floor executive suite.
These men are rough-country ranchers from the Palo Duro area, raised up poor and hard-working.
The one brother stayed on to run the ranch after college, while the other became a progressive embarrassment to the family by first becoming a lawyer, then a politician on his way to the judgeship.
When the rains came, the roof of this posh hotel began to leak in the executive suite.
This would have been a tremendous problem for most who were paying through the nose for the privilege, but not these hillbillies.
They just moved the beer cooler over to the spot, flipped the lid open and let it catch the rain.
Hoping to class up a few of the kinfolk, the planners of the soirée booked Asian cooking lessons from a local culinary chef.
Any previous knowledge of this particular ethnic food included the little known fact that the Chinese restaurant in Hereford, Texas, next door to the laundry, utilized the discarded starch water to thicken their gravy.
The story goes that even the calf-fry-off-the-branding-pot eaters needed several Mimosas to survive the chicken deboning demonstration.
One gal that married into this bunch finds great relief in their "normalcy," as compared to her family.
She recalls some of her own kinfolk. Just for starters, there is the one with the long hair and tattoos who makes a living playing acid rock, or when that isn't good, is an operator for underwater seismograph oil exploration.
Another, with the same hairstyle and a law degree, makes his money picking a banjo. Yet another raises doves and when the eggs don't hatch , he works at Wal-Mart to make ends meet.
Thankfully, she has seen nary a one of them in years, except the cousin that showed up with a couple of horses and a pig when everyone was making a mass exodus from the coast to escape Hurricane Katrina.
Writing about other people's kinfolk sometimes makes me miss my own, but not enough to wish for a family reunion.
LOS PAYASOS - YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK
Govt loves its cars, all 642,233 of 'em Americans love their cars, and so apparently does Uncle Sam. He's got 642,233 of them. Operating those vehicles — maintenance, leases and fuel — cost taxpayers a whopping $3.4 billion last year, according to General Services Administration data obtained and analyzed by The Associated Press. While Cabinet and other officials say they need the vehicles to do their jobs, watchdogs say mismanagement of the government fleet is costing millions of dollars a year in wasteful spending. For example: _ At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, fuel consumption and inventory are down, yet overall costs have increased significantly. Officials there can't figure out why. _ The Interior Department was told by its own watchdog that it should cut its inventory, but it's added hundreds of vehicles. _ The VA has some cars that are barely driven. One just disappeared. Add to that the cost of drivers, a perk given to high-level government officials. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters has two drivers. Their salaries totaled more than $128,000 last year. The driver for Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt earns about $90,000 a year. That's more than double the average salary of an office manager or accountant, and about $35,000 more than a registered nurse earns, according to a salary calculator provided by CareerBuilder.com....
S.F. mayor proposes fines for unsorted trash Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom. And if residents or businesses don't separate the coffee grounds from the newspapers, they would face fines of up to $1,000 and eventually could have their garbage service stopped. The plan to require proper sorting of refuse would be the nation's first mandatory recycling and composting law. It would direct garbage collectors to inspect the trash to make sure it is put into the right blue, black or green bin, according to a draft of the legislation prepared by the city's Department of the Environment....
America's $53 trillion jumbo loan Americans are now tasting the sour fruits of unaffordable mortgages: foreclosure, bankruptcy, falling markets. The nation, too, is staring at overwhelming debt, made worse by this week's forecast of a whopper federal deficit. Washington mustn't let this burden rise, for the sake of global financial markets and future US generations. It's true that the $482 billion deficit chasm estimated for fiscal year 2009 doesn't look so deep when taken as a percentage of the overall economy – 3.3 percent of gross domestic product compared to the 1983 nadir of about 6 percent. But this is just one "mortgage" that the federal government (i.e., taxpayers) must meet. It owes on all the deficits it has accumulated over the years (the national debt), and it has jumbo liabilities to come in the form of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Adding all those liabilities together, the government has dug itself into a $53 trillion fiscal hole – the equivalent of $175,000 per person living in the United States. If the White House and Congress continue to follow the do-nothing plan, in another 30 years or so the federal government will spend more than twice as much as it raises in taxes....
Higher Math One-thousand-one-hundred-fifty-eight is a pretty big number, especially if you're talking about pages you've got to read. To get your bearings, "War and Peace," long the standard for overwhelming verbiage, weighs in at about 1,500 pages, while on the other side your average Harlequin romance novel is around 200 soapy pages. None of these figures, though, are close to this whopper -- 452 billion. So what's any of this got to do with the price of tomatoes, as they say? Well, nothing, but it's got a lot to do with the price of college and your taxes. On Tuesday night, a congressional conference committee passed legislation to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA) that if enacted - and it seems it will be - will drive up both the price of college and your tax bill. But don't bother trying to nitpick it; the legislation is 1,158 pages long and is expected to be voted on by the full House and Senate today. It is doubtful many members of Congress will read even a little of the bill before it's given a final yea or nay. And what's the significance of 452 billion, you ask? In dollars, it's the newly projected size of the federal deficit, a huge shortfall to which the new HEA will only be adding digits....
SMOKE AND (BROKEN) MIRRORS In recent years, state and local governments across the United States have passed measures to outlaw smoking in bars, says the American. The public health rationale is simple: to protect bar patrons and employees from exposure to secondhand smoke. But according to economists Scott Adams of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Chad Cotti of the University of South Carolina, smoking bans have had some unintended and deadly consequences. Specifically, they have led to an increase in drunk-driving fatalities. The economists studied a variety of municipalities that passed smoking bans. According to their research: * The passage of the bans led to a significant increase in the danger posed by drunk drivers. * Fatal accidents involving a drunk driver increase by about 13 percent; this is approximately 2.5 fatal accidents a year for a typical county. The evidence is consistent with two mechanisms -- smokers searching for alternative locations to drink and smokers driving to nearby jurisdictions that allow smoking in bars, say Adams and Cotti....
Govt loves its cars, all 642,233 of 'em Americans love their cars, and so apparently does Uncle Sam. He's got 642,233 of them. Operating those vehicles — maintenance, leases and fuel — cost taxpayers a whopping $3.4 billion last year, according to General Services Administration data obtained and analyzed by The Associated Press. While Cabinet and other officials say they need the vehicles to do their jobs, watchdogs say mismanagement of the government fleet is costing millions of dollars a year in wasteful spending. For example: _ At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, fuel consumption and inventory are down, yet overall costs have increased significantly. Officials there can't figure out why. _ The Interior Department was told by its own watchdog that it should cut its inventory, but it's added hundreds of vehicles. _ The VA has some cars that are barely driven. One just disappeared. Add to that the cost of drivers, a perk given to high-level government officials. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters has two drivers. Their salaries totaled more than $128,000 last year. The driver for Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt earns about $90,000 a year. That's more than double the average salary of an office manager or accountant, and about $35,000 more than a registered nurse earns, according to a salary calculator provided by CareerBuilder.com....
S.F. mayor proposes fines for unsorted trash Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom. And if residents or businesses don't separate the coffee grounds from the newspapers, they would face fines of up to $1,000 and eventually could have their garbage service stopped. The plan to require proper sorting of refuse would be the nation's first mandatory recycling and composting law. It would direct garbage collectors to inspect the trash to make sure it is put into the right blue, black or green bin, according to a draft of the legislation prepared by the city's Department of the Environment....
America's $53 trillion jumbo loan Americans are now tasting the sour fruits of unaffordable mortgages: foreclosure, bankruptcy, falling markets. The nation, too, is staring at overwhelming debt, made worse by this week's forecast of a whopper federal deficit. Washington mustn't let this burden rise, for the sake of global financial markets and future US generations. It's true that the $482 billion deficit chasm estimated for fiscal year 2009 doesn't look so deep when taken as a percentage of the overall economy – 3.3 percent of gross domestic product compared to the 1983 nadir of about 6 percent. But this is just one "mortgage" that the federal government (i.e., taxpayers) must meet. It owes on all the deficits it has accumulated over the years (the national debt), and it has jumbo liabilities to come in the form of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Adding all those liabilities together, the government has dug itself into a $53 trillion fiscal hole – the equivalent of $175,000 per person living in the United States. If the White House and Congress continue to follow the do-nothing plan, in another 30 years or so the federal government will spend more than twice as much as it raises in taxes....
Higher Math One-thousand-one-hundred-fifty-eight is a pretty big number, especially if you're talking about pages you've got to read. To get your bearings, "War and Peace," long the standard for overwhelming verbiage, weighs in at about 1,500 pages, while on the other side your average Harlequin romance novel is around 200 soapy pages. None of these figures, though, are close to this whopper -- 452 billion. So what's any of this got to do with the price of tomatoes, as they say? Well, nothing, but it's got a lot to do with the price of college and your taxes. On Tuesday night, a congressional conference committee passed legislation to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA) that if enacted - and it seems it will be - will drive up both the price of college and your tax bill. But don't bother trying to nitpick it; the legislation is 1,158 pages long and is expected to be voted on by the full House and Senate today. It is doubtful many members of Congress will read even a little of the bill before it's given a final yea or nay. And what's the significance of 452 billion, you ask? In dollars, it's the newly projected size of the federal deficit, a huge shortfall to which the new HEA will only be adding digits....
SMOKE AND (BROKEN) MIRRORS In recent years, state and local governments across the United States have passed measures to outlaw smoking in bars, says the American. The public health rationale is simple: to protect bar patrons and employees from exposure to secondhand smoke. But according to economists Scott Adams of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Chad Cotti of the University of South Carolina, smoking bans have had some unintended and deadly consequences. Specifically, they have led to an increase in drunk-driving fatalities. The economists studied a variety of municipalities that passed smoking bans. According to their research: * The passage of the bans led to a significant increase in the danger posed by drunk drivers. * Fatal accidents involving a drunk driver increase by about 13 percent; this is approximately 2.5 fatal accidents a year for a typical county. The evidence is consistent with two mechanisms -- smokers searching for alternative locations to drink and smokers driving to nearby jurisdictions that allow smoking in bars, say Adams and Cotti....
Friday, August 01, 2008
As wildfires get wilder, the costs of fighting them are untamed It was Day 42 of the Zaca Fire. A tower of white smoke reached miles into the blue sky above the undulating ridges of Santa Barbara's backcountry. Helicopters ferried firefighters across the saw-toothed terrain and bombed fiery ridges with water. Long plumes of red retardant trailed from the belly of a DC-10 air tanker. Bulldozers cut defensive lines through pygmy forests of chaparral. A few miles south, in a camp city of tents and air-conditioned office trailers, commanders pored over computer projections of the fire's likely spread, trying to keep the Zaca bottled up in the wilderness and out of the neighborhoods of Santa Barbara and Montecito. Platoons of private contractors serviced the bustling encampment, dishing out hundreds of hot meals at a time from a mobile kitchen, scrubbing 500 loads of laundry a day, even changing the linens in sleeping trailers. On this single day, Aug. 14, fighting the Zaca cost more than $2.5 million. By the time the blaze was out nearly three months later, the bill had reached at least $140 million, making it one of the most expensive wildfire fights ever waged by the U.S. Forest Service....
Air tanker drops in wildfires are often just for show The deadly 2003 Cedar fire was raging through San Diego County. Rep. Duncan Hunter, whose home in Alpine would burn to the ground, couldn't understand why military aircraft hadn't been called in to fight the blaze. He decided to do something about it. Hunter phoned Ray Quintanar, regional aviation chief for the U.S. Forest Service, and demanded that giant C-130 cargo planes be mobilized to attack the fire with retardant. Quintanar explained that winds were too high and visibility too poor for aircraft to operate. Forest Service air tankers had already been grounded. But, as both men recall the episode, Hunter would not be dissuaded. He told Quintanar to call "Mr. Myers" and rattled off a Washington, D.C., phone number. "Who's he?" Quintanar asked. "He's the one with all the stars on his chest standing next to Don Rumsfeld," Hunter replied, describing Gen. Richard B. Myers, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. When Quintanar resisted, Hunter called Washington and pleaded his case directly with Myers. Over the next two days, six C-130 Hercules transports were dispatched to Southern California from bases in Wyoming, North Carolina and Colorado. The planes saw action once the weather improved, but in Quintanar's view they contributed little to controlling the fire....
A Santa Barbara area canyon's residents are among many Californians living in harm's way in fire-prone areas Sometimes when Ralph Daniel looks out the huge plate-glass windows of his 1959 ranch house, a bobcat stares back at him from the patio. He delights in the quiet, the bird songs, the expansive view of the Santa Ynez Mountains. Like millions of other Californians, Daniel, 63, likes to live on nature's edge. He is a 10-minute drive from both downtown Santa Barbara and Los Padres National Forest. But he has no illusions. One day he expects to see a wildfire bolt through the chaparral and down the slopes toward his house on the fringes of Mission Canyon. "That's where I think it's going to come from," he says, pointing to a ridgeline from a seat on his patio. When it does, getting out could be a nightmare. Like many rustic communities in the West, Mission Canyon is a maze of narrow, twisting roads, dead-end drives and too few exits. From the state's earliest days, California's growth has been one endless push into the combustible wild, whether it was Gold Rush-era log cabins in the Sierra foothills, the canyon retreats of the Hollywood elite or new subdivisions sprouting on brushy Riverside County hillsides. About 40% of the more than 12 million homes in the state are on land with a high to extreme threat of wildfire, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection....
Trappers kill wolf, target grizzly bears Grizzly bears have been frequenting the Mack's Inn area again this summer, and they are confirmed to have killed livestock in the Squirrel Meadows cattle allotment in the Caribou-Targhee Forest. And wolves also have been busy taking cattle in Forest Service allotments. Ashton-Island Park District Ranger Adrienne Keller said there have been two recent reports of wolves taking livestock. When such reports are received, Wildlife Services are called in to investigate and take care of the culprits. Wildlife Services trappers killed a wolf that had taken livestock in the Davis Lakes allotment northeast of Ashton. The action occurred before a Montana judge put Idaho, Montana and Wyoming wolves back on the endangered species list. And Wildlife Services is tracking a wolf that killed livestock in the Gerrit Meadows area near the Warm River Springs Road north of Ashton....
Environmentalists sue over Colo. uranium program Environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit claiming that a program clearing the way for uranium mines in western Colorado is illegal. The lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District in Denver says the Department of Energy's environmental analysis of the leasing program on federal land last year was inadequate. The groups want the court to make DOE do a more comprehensive analysis of the impacts of past uranium mining and potential impacts of new mines. ''Before supporting a whole other boom-and-bust uranium cycle in western Colorado, maybe they should think about it a little bit more,'' said Amy Atwood of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of four groups suing the federal government....
BLM to review policy on drilling exceptions The Bureau of Land Management has decided to review a provision that allows exceptions to seasonal closures and other restrictions designed to protect wildlife from oil and gas drilling in northwestern New Mexico. The agency's Farmington office is preparing an environmental assessment to determine the criteria that will be followed when evaluating whether oil and gas developers will be granted exceptions to the seasonal closures. The deadline for submitting comments is Aug. 20. Tony Herrell, BLM's deputy director for minerals in New Mexico, said Thursday the agency commonly reviews its policies to see if they are working and how they can be improved. He said other agencies, such as the New Mexico Game and Fish Department, and sportsmen and conservation groups are often involved....
Billionaires bank on Wyo wind Wyoming's future role in wind energy became a lot less speculative this week with the announcement that The Anschutz Corp. plans to take over the TransWest Express Transmission Project. The $3 billion, 900-mile-long, high-voltage line would provide for 3,000 megawatts of wind energy generation in Wyoming for delivery to emerging renewable energy markets in the Desert Southwest, according to Anschutz affiliate TransWest Express LLC. The announcement comes just weeks after another affiliate of Anschutz, Power Company of Wyoming LLC, filed notice to the Bureau of Land Management of its intention to install some 2,000 megawatts of wind generation in Carbon County. The permitting process for both projects could exceed two years....
Smaller habitat for threatened bird proposed The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday proposed trimming the amount of coastal forest lands designated critical habitat for the marbled murrelet, a threatened species of sea bird that nests in old-growth timber. Fish and Wildlife said the 254,000 acres that would be removed from the 1996 critical-habitat designation of 3.9 million acres represents a new focus on trying to protect forests most likely to be used by the birds for nesting. Conservation groups complained that the agency was making it easier to log old-growth timber in the central Coast Range of Oregon, where the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has been working on plans to greatly increase timber harvests, and ignoring opportunities to add more critical habitat to improve the bird's chances. The areas to be removed include lands in Northern California and Southern Oregon, where surveys have not turned up any nesting birds, and parts of Lane and Douglas counties that birds still use, but are more than 35 miles inland, said Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Joan Jewett....
No-Drill Policy Of Democrats Harms Planet House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposes lifting the moratorium on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and on the Outer Continental Shelf. She won't even allow it to come to a vote. With $4 gas having massively shifted public opinion in favor of domestic production, she wants to protect her Democratic members from having to cast an anti-drilling election-year vote. Moreover, given the public mood, she might even lose. This cannot be permitted. Why? Because as she explained to Politico: "I'm trying to save the planet; I'm trying to save the planet." A lovely sentiment. But has Pelosi actually thought through the moratorium's actual effects on the planet? Consider: 25 years ago, nearly 60% of U.S. petroleum was produced domestically. Today it's 25%. From its peak in 1970, U.S. production has declined a staggering 47%. The world consumes 86 million barrels a day; the United States, roughly 20 million. We need the stuff to run our cars and planes and economy. Where does it come from? Places like Nigeria, where chronic corruption, environmental neglect and resulting unrest and instability lead to pipeline explosions, oil spills and illegal siphoning by the poverty-stricken population — which leads to more spills and explosions....
51% of Californians back offshore drilling A majority of Californians favor more oil drilling off the coast, according to a statewide survey released Wednesday, for the first time since oil prices spiked nearly three decades ago. The support by 51 percent of residents polled this month by the Public Policy Institute of California represents a shift caused by renewed Republican advocacy for drilling as well as motorists' reaction to soaring pump prices, according to the pollster. With high oil prices and calls from President Bush and Republican presidential aspirant Sen. John McCain to open coastal waters to domestic production, support for drilling has jumped, particularly among Republicans, the poll says. Support increases with age and is slightly higher among men than women. But as the price of oil hovers around $120 per barrel, double the cost a year ago, support for drilling has increased even among Democrats and independents, says the survey of 2,504 adult residents polled across the state July 8-22....
EPA grants air quality permit for Desert Rock The Environmental Protection Agency has issued an air permit for a 1,500-megawatt coal plant that Sithe Global Power LLC and the Navajo nation plan to build south of Farmington in northwest New Mexico. Gov. Bill Richardson's administration said it plans to appeal the EPA decision. Sithe and the Navajo-owned Diné Power Authority have been struggling for four years to get an air permit for the proposed Desert Rock Power Plant -- a $3 billion project that will supply electricity to neighboring states. Sithe and Diné sued the EPA earlier this year to make a decision on the permit, which, according to federal regulations, should have been issued within one year after the companies filed their permit application in 2003. In June, the EPA issued a consent decree to reach a decision by July 31, at the latest. Sithe and Navajo officials praised the EPA decision as a major milestone in moving the project forward....
Forest Service Reveals Cibola Trails Plan Cibola National Forest Supervisor Nancy Rose, who oversees the Sandia Ranger District, has made a decision on where four-wheel- drives, ATVs and motorcycles can be used in the forest. The decision is subject to appeal by those who have standing: the 121 people who submitted comments earlier this year. The appeal period ends 45 days from when it was issued, July 14. None of those individuals with standing contacted by the Telegraph indicated they would appeal, however. "Every process is imperfect, but the Forest Service made a very concerted attempt to satisfy all parties and protect the land," Craig Chapman of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance said. Chapman said the decision is something of a compromise. "No motorized use would be the ultimate decision that we would like to have made," he said. "(The Forest Service) acted like King Solomon and made the best decision for all parties concerned." The U.S. Forest Service decision actually does prohibit motorized travel off a designated system of trails in what is known as the Cedro Area, which is south of I-40 and east of N.M. 337. There are a total of 42.66 miles of motorcycle trails, 1.76 miles for ATVs and motorcycles under 50 inches across, and 10.12 miles open to all vehicles, including offhighway vehicles such as fourwheel-drive trucks, and 7.02 miles designated for highwaylegal vehicles only....
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