Tuesday, October 07, 2008


A move to secede on California-Oregon border Some folks around here think the economic sky is falling and state lawmakers in Sacramento and Salem are ignoring their constituents in the hinterlands. Guess the time is ripe to create a whole new state. That's the thinking up here along the border between California and Oregon, where 12 sparsely populated, thickly forested counties in both states want to break away and generate the 51st star on the nation's flag - the state of Jefferson. You can see the signs of discontent from Klamath Falls to Dunsmuir, where green double-X "Jefferson State" flags hang in scores of businesses. You can hear the talk of revolution at lunch counters and grocery lines, where people grumble that politicians to the north and south don't care. You can even hear the dissent on the radio, where 21 area FM stations broadcast from Oregon into California under the banner of "Jefferson Public Radio." Talking about secession has been a quasi-joking conversational saw since 1941, when five counties in the area started things by actually declaring themselves - briefly - to be the state of Jefferson. But now, with the economy in trouble and unemployment soaring, the idea of greater independence is getting its most serious consideration since World War II. Locals complain that federal and state regulators have hampered the fishing and timber industries to protect forestlands and endangered species such as sucker fish and the spotted owl. Jobs are so scarce that the median income in the area is only two-thirds that of the rest of the state. Most water from the rainy Shasta region is shipped south, with little economic benefit to the area. Even the California sales tax draws sneers. If they ran their own state, the reasoning goes, folks in Siskiyou, Modoc and the other potential Jefferson counties could whack the red tape from both federal and state officials and get rid of the sales tax....
The Ethanol Election Issue One place they most notice a major problem, however, is at the gas pump where prices continue to remain over $3.50 a gallon. It is doubtful anyone really thinks about the part of that cost that can be attributed to the government mandate that each gallon include ethanol. Other costs include the government mandated different blends of gasoline required in different regions or sections of the nation. The refinery costs of that are built into the price as well. Then, of course, there are the federal and state gasoline taxes that add considerably to the cost. Dennis T. Avery, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute and Director of Global Food Issues, recently took note of the disparities between the candidate’s positions on ethanol. “Obama wants more ethanol, while McCain thinks we should probably have less,” noting that “both say man-made global warming is a serious threat, and both say they want the best for the nation’s farmers.” Both candidates are wrong on many counts, not the least is their belief that global warming is either man-made or actually happening. It is not. Ironically, the wailing about man-made greenhouse gas emissions completely ignores the fact that ethanol actually contributes more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere while, at the same time, decreasing the mileage per gallon of gasoline. Obama’s national campaign co-chair is Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader and longtime ethanol booster. Daschle serves on the boards of three key ethanol companies. Obama represents Illinois, a state that trails only Iowa and Nebraska in ethanol production capacity. If you have any hope of seeing the price of gasoline reduced or the cost of food decrease, that will not happen if Obama is elected....

Deadlines set for designating polar bear habitat The federal government will designate "critical habitat" for polar bears off Alaska's coast, a decision that could add restrictions to future offshore petroleum exploration or drilling. Federal law prohibits agencies from taking actions that may adversely modify critical habitat and interfere with polar bear recovery. That likely will affect oil and gas activity, said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of three groups that sued to force the critical habitat designation. "Other than global warming, the worst thing that's going on in polar bear habitat right now is oil development and the potential for oil spills," Siegel said. Bruce Woods, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage, said it's not known what area in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast might be designated for polar bears, especially given that sea ice conditions are changing and areas now covered by ice might in the future be open water. The agreement to designate critical habitat was filed Monday as part of a partial settlement of a lawsuit brought by Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Siegel's group....
Federal judge's decision makes delisting wolves much harder The path to delisting the Rocky Mountain Gray Wolf just got steeper with a decision by a Washington, D.C., federal judge Sept. 29. The delisting of Yellowstone grizzly bears also may be in doubt. Judge Paul L. Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the Bush administration Monday to take back protection for gray wolves in the Great Lakes area under the Endangered Species Act. His decision, while technical, cuts to the heart of managing endangered species, especially large predators that have so many conflicts with people. Gray wolves were removed from the endangered species list in 2007 in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The population is booming and spreading out across the Midwest into the suburbs, farmland and south as far as Iowa. Wolves are spreading far beyond where all but the most doctrinaire environmentalists want them to be. For Minnesota, especially, which had wolves protected since 1975, delisting was a big relief and an opportunity to manage the species easier around farmers and others who suffered from wolf attacks on their pets and livestock. Friedman said in his opinion that the central issue was whether the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may delist a "distinct population segment" of a species that is thriving even though the broader species remains endangered elsewhere. Friedman said the Fish and Wildlife Service must give him and other judges a better explanation why they believe they can delist a species across part of its range even if it wasn't first listed that way. That presents a new issue for the Bush administration if it intends to try to relist Rocky Mountain gray wolves before the end of his term. Its delisting package also limited where wolves would come off the list. It is an even bigger issue for the delisting of the Yellowstone grizzly bear since it was listed across the lower 48 states and delisted only in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana....

Idaho bear hound owner blames wolves for kill An Idaho couple blames wolves for killing a dog they used to hunt bears, though state Department of Fish and Game officials haven't confirmed the claim. Brent and Connie Ottosen, who live 20 miles south of Coeur d'Alene, believe a pack mauled and ate their 4-year-old hound, Blackjack, along the Coeur d'Alene River last week. The Ottosens say they were hunting near U.S. Interstate 90 with seven of their dogs when six began trailing a bear. Blackjack ran after another scent. When they found the dog a day later, about two-thirds of its body had been eaten. Brent Ottosen now says his family may move elsewhere, claiming hunting bears has become too difficult and dangerous with wolves moving in. Ottosen said he suspects wolves were behind the attack because of the way Blackjack was eaten. "What canines do is eat through the rib bones. A lion or bear would go for a heart or liver," he said. "A typical wolf would eat about 20 pounds. There was never enough time for a mountain lion to eat that much." While wolves have killed dogs around nearby northern Idaho communities including Calder, Mullan and Avery, state Fish and Game officials declined to confirm they were behind Blackjack's death, saying it was only a possibility....
1 in 4 Mammals Threatened, Study Says An “extinction crisis” is under way, with one in four mammals in danger of disappearing because of habitat loss, hunting and climate change, a leading global conservation body warned Monday. “Within our lifetime, hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions,” said Julia Marton-Lefèvre, the director general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or I.U.C.N., a network of campaign groups, governments, scientists and other experts. Among 188 mammals in the group’s highest threat category — critically endangered — was the Iberian lynx, which has an estimated population of 84 adults and has continued to decline as its primary prey, the European rabbit, has fallen victim to disease and overhunting. The report, presented at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, formed part of a Red List of Threatened Species issued annually by the group. Jan Schipper, the director of the global mammal assessment for the I.U.C.N. and for Conservation International, an environmental group, said it was hard to draw a direct comparison with the last detailed survey on mammals, in 1996. New species have been identified, others discovered, and the criteria used to assess species have been made more broadly applicable across all animals and plants....
BLM to Acquire Meadow Valley Mountains Parcels The Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has approved the first acquisition of sensitive land under the Lincoln County Lands Act (LCLA). Three parcels, totaling 720 acres, that contain critical habitat for desert tortoise, will be consolidated in public ownership with other publicly-owned land in the area. The three parcels are adjacent to the Coyote Springs development and the Mormon Mountain Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), about 60 miles north of Las Vegas. The owner of the property, The Conservation Fund, is asking for a purchase price of not more than $3.68 million. An appraisal to determine the fair market value will need to be completed before the property comes into federal ownership....
BLM wants Nine Mile Canyon on Historic Places list Federal officials want parts of Utah’s Nine Mile Canyon put on the National Register of Historic Places. The canyon northeast of Price — sometimes called the world’s longest art gallery — is home to more than 10,000 ancient rock carvings and drawings. Bureau of Land Management officials plan to nominate the area for the national designation. The paperwork will probably be submitted in the next four to six months, said Byron Loosle, BLM’s state archaeologist. The nomination will include about 800 sites in the canyon, including parts of public and private land. Some private landowners in the area have asked not to be included and won’t be in the proposal, Loosle said. The BLM hopes to group the sites together under a single nomination. The decision comes as the BLM considers a proposal to allow more than 800 new wells on a plateau above the canyon. The plan has come under fire over concerns that increased natural gas activity will dramatically increase the number of trucks driving through the canyon. Some worry extra dust kicked up by the trucks will jeopardize the rock art....
It makes no sense that animal lovers support predation The so-called animal lovers seem to have a special affinity for predators. A mountain lion's understanding of "love" falls in the category of "a great liking or fondness" for warm flesh, from house cat and dog to human children. Coyotes are carnivores that are virtually nondiscriminating. I heard the cries of a deer one winter night and discovered these "precious carnivores" ripping the intestines out of a still-living doe deer. Coyotes are great killers, but wolves are better. I guess you could call the way wolves and coyotes operate to control elk and deer populations as teamwork. Can you imagine the outrage if slaughterhouses killed livestock by running them down, hamstringing them and gutting the still-living animals?....
NM approves cougar hunt changes Mountain lion management in New Mexico is changing and wildlife advocates say it's for the better, with new protections for female cats and their kittens and the end of a cougar-snaring program. But the changes aren't sitting well with ranchers and others in southeastern New Mexico. The state Game Commission, at its meeting last week, approved a voluntary hunter education course to teach hunters the difference between male and female cats to ensure that more breeding females are left in the wild. Commissioners also voted in favor of setting a limit on how many cougars can be harvested around the state and how many of those can be female cats. If the number of female kills comes within 10 percent of the limit in a given hunting unit, conservation officers can shut down hunting in that particular area. "New Mexicans and the Game Commission understand that cougars are icons of majesty and wildness. These hunting reforms not only enhance conservation of the species, but reduce the ethical dilemma associated with orphaned cougar kittens," said Wendy Keefover-Ring of WildEarth Guardians....
AT THE SUPREME COURT

Summers v. Earth Island Institute (07-463)

Earth Island Institute and other conservation groups sued the United States Forest Service after it authorized application of regulations 36 C.F.R. 215.4(a) and 36 C.F.R. 215.12(f) to a planned salvage logging project in the Sequoia National Forest. The conservation groups claimed that the regulations, which limit public notice, comment and administrative appeals, were invalid under the Administrative Procedure Act, which protects the ability of the public to appeal administrative actions. The parties settled the dispute over the regulations as they were applied to the salvage logging project, but the conservation groups continued the suit as a direct facial challenge to the regulations themselves. At issue before the Supreme Court in this case is whether judicial review of the regulations was proper, whether the conservation groups established standing and ripeness to challenge the regulations after settling the controversy over the regulations’ application to the specific project, and whether issuing a nationwide injunction was a proper remedy. The outcome of the case will influence federal agencies’ requirements to provide administrative appeals, the ability of the public to challenge administrative actions, and the scope of equitable remedies against improper applications of agency regulations....

Conclusion

This case rests on whether individuals may appeal agency regulations only as they are applied to specific agency actions, or whether individuals may challenge the validity of regulations without linking the challenge to a specific agency project. The Forest Service argues that under the APA, only as-applied regulations may be challenged. The conservation groups, on the other hand, argue that the APA supports direct, facial challenges to agency regulations. The Supreme Court’s decision will affect the rights of individuals to contest unlawful agency regulations and the scope of federal agencies’ responsibilities to provide administrative appeals. The decision will likely clarify the balance between agencies’ autonomy and their transparency toward the public, which will have ramifications for advocacy groups, industry members, and federal agencies.
AT THE SUPREME COURT

Winter v. Natural Res. Def. Council (NRDC) (07-1239)

On March 22, 2007, the Natural Resources Defense Council ("NRDC") sued the United States Navy in the District Court for the Central District of California to enjoin the Navy from conducting training exercises off the coast of southern California. Specifically, the NRDC sought to prevent the Navy from using mid-frequency active ("MFA") sonar during these exercises because such use harmed whales and other marine mammals, in violation of several environmental laws. The District Court concluded in January 2008 that NRDC had proven that allowing the exercises to continue would cause near certain harm to the environment and issued a preliminary injunction. In response to the injunction, both the President and the Council for Environmental Quality ("CEQ") exempted the Navy from two environmental statutes, finding that emergency circumstances existed which allowed the training to continue. The District Court, however, found the exemptions were improper and upheld its preliminary injunction, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed. The Navy challenges this decision by arguing that courts below used too lax of a standard when deciding that a preliminary injunction was justified and that the judiciary improperly interfered with the executive branch’s authority to control the military. How the Supreme Court decides this case will not only reflect its view on balancing environmental protection and national security, but also clarify the roles each Federal branch has in these matters....

Conclusion

This case addresses an important question about the significance of environmental protection. The answer may hinge on the Supreme Court’s view of the balance among the three branches of government, and the extent of the executive branch’s authority over the military. Overall, the Supreme Court’s decision on the separation of powers will have implications beyond the immediate issue of environmental protection.

Guidelines Expand FBI's Surveillance Powers Justice Department officials released new guidelines yesterday that empower FBI agents to use intrusive techniques to gather intelligence within the United States, alarming civil liberties groups and Democratic lawmakers who worry that they invite privacy violations and other abuses. The new road map allows investigators to recruit informants, employ physical surveillance and conduct interviews in which agents disguise their identities in an effort to assess national security threats. FBI agents could pursue each of those steps without any single fact indicating a person has ties to a terrorist organization. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said the guidelines are necessary to fulfill the FBI's core mission to predict threats and respond even before an attack takes place. Civil liberties activists yesterday raised anew questions about the expanded role of the FBI in collecting an array of foreign intelligence within U.S. borders, absent evidence of a crime. For instance, the guidelines allow FBI agents to conduct interviews and monitor the movement of people who may possess useful information on subjects of general interest to American policymakers, such as a foreign government's oil exports....
FBI Prevents Agents from Telling 'Truth' About 9/11 on PBS The FBI has blocked two of its veteran counterterrorism agents from going public with accusations that the CIA deliberately withheld crucial intelligence before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. FBI Special Agents Mark Rossini and Douglas Miller have asked for permission to appear in an upcoming public television documentary, scheduled to air in January, on pre-9/11 rivalries between the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency. The program is a spin-off from The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America, by acclaimed investigative reporter James Bamford, due out in a matter of days. The FBI denied Rossini and Miller permission to participate in the book or the PBS "NOVA" documentary, which is also being written and produced by Bamford, on grounds that the FBI "doesn't want to stir up old conflicts with the CIA," according to multiple reliable sources....
Feds Tout New Domestic Intelligence Centers Federal, state and local cops are huddling together in domestic intelligence dens around the nation to fuse anti-terror information and tips in ways they never have before, and they want the American people to know about it -- sort of. Homeland Security Under Secretary Charlie Allen, formerly of the CIA, described how sharing threat assessments, and even the occasional raw intel, with the new fusion centers marks a cultural shift from the Cold War era. Back then, spies treated everyone, other departments and agencies included, as suspicious. The fifty or so U.S. fusion centers are where the federal, state and local cops share intelligence, sift data for clues, run down reports of suspicious packages and connect dots in an effort to detect and thwart terrorism attacks, drug smuggling and gang fighting. The dominant catchphrase from the officials was that the centers need to focus on "all threats, all hazards." That means that the fusion centers would be working on immigration, radicalization, demographic changes, hurricanes, biological and chemical threats, as well as common criminal activity. Officials say the centers must look at even the most mundane crimes, since they can be used to fund terrorism. But critics say that "all hazards, all threats" approach sounds suspiciously like the government is building a distributed domestic intelligence service that could easily begin keeping tabs on Americans exercising their First Amendment rights. The scope also seems at odds with the federal government's Information Sharing Environment guidelines, which say these centers are supposed to focus on terrorism. California's Anti-Terrorism Information Center admitted to spying on anti-war groups in 2003. And Denver's police department built their own secret spy files on Quakers and 200 other organizations. Earlier this year, the ACLU issued a warning report about Fusion Centers, complete with an interactive fusion center map, earlier this year. The report, entitled What's Wrong With Fusion Centers, cited concerns about military units operating in the centers, as well as the potential for scope creep and data mining. How, the group asked, can citizens contest information about themselves, given the patchwork of state, local and federal sunshine laws that may or may not apply....
Supremes Mull Whether Bad Databases Make for Illegal Searches If a false entry in a database leads to a unconstitutional police search that reveals illegal drugs, does the government get to hold it against you? That's the question the Supreme Court will tackle on Tuesday in a case civil liberties groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center argue will have broad implications in a world where we are constantly being evaluated against databases and watch lists that are riddled with frustratingly persistent errors. "In these interlinked databases, one error can spread like a disease, infecting every system it touches and condemning the individual to whom this error refers to suffer substantial delay, harassment, and improper arrest," EPIC director Marc Rotenberg argued in a friend of the court brief (.pdf). Not surprisingly, the government disagrees. "Police officers in the field must be allowed to rely on information they receive from others when it is reasonable to do so," the Justice Department wrote in its brief (.pdf), arguing that throwing out the evidence won't make errors less likely....
Who Killed Real ID? Americans probably would never have suffered through a debate over national ID cards—much less a bill mandating them—but for the attacks of September 11, 2001. Biometric identification cards have been rejected by panel after panel, pol after pol, pitchfork-wielding mob after pitchforkwielding mob, ever since the technology came online. In 1973, the year that the 12-digit Universal Product Code made its debut, the House of Representatives' Health, Education, and Welfare Advisory Committee rejected a national ID system on the grounds that it "would enhance the likelihood of arbitrary or uncontrolled linkage of records about people." As the years passed, the consensus held. In 1977 the congressionally mandated Privacy Protection Study Commission, confronting the problem of identity theft, warned that a national ID and database of personal information would create more problems than they solved. It recommended that bureaucrats "halt the incremental drift toward creation of a standard universal label and central population register" until legislators found a way to keep the information secure. In part, the commission's reluctance reflected the post-Watergate cynicism and paranoia of the 1970s. But its decision was also rooted in a historical and uniquely American aversion to having the central government issue—and demand on request—uniform ID cards. That cantankerous tradition flared up again in the early 1990s, when the Clinton administration's health care plan was attached to a system of biometric cards. Add to that the objections by affected interests such as state governments and "sin" industries, and opposition to a national ID scheme seemed etched in concrete. Then came 9/11....
Snubbing Constitutionally-Protected Speech Some candidates will go to great lengths to win a campaign. Some may even snub the Constitution in the process. That’s precisely what the Obama campaign has been doing in an attempt to keep the National Rifle Association (NRA) from airing political ads accusing presidential candidate Barack Obama of hiding a long-standing anti-Second Amendment record. In what appears to be a direct assault on Constitutionally-protected speech, the Obama camp is bullying media outlets with threats of lawsuits in an attempt to censor the ads. According to news reports, Robert Bauer, general counsel to the Obama campaign wrote a letter dated September 23, 2008 to various TV stations in Pennsylvania and Ohio, stating that “[f]or the sake of both FCC licensing requirements and the public interest, your station should refuse to continue to air this advertisement.” The controversy continues with reports that Obama and the Democratic National Committee are calling on followers to contact the stations and demand that they pull the ads....

New York Defends Handgun Database New York's seven-year-old database of handgun "fingerprints" has yet to lead to a criminal prosecution, and questions linger about its effectiveness. Still, state police remain committed to the tool, saying that more time and a long-awaited link to a federal ballistics database could bring success. Since March 2001, identifying information about more than 200,000 new revolvers and semiautomatic pistols sold in New York have been entered into the Combined Ballistic Identification System database maintained by state police. New York and Maryland are the only states that maintain statewide databases. New guns are test-fired, and the minute markings the weapons make on the shell casings are recorded and entered into the digital database. Proponents say the markings are as unique as fingerprints and can be compared against shell casings found at crime scenes. Gun advocates, who have opposed the database from the get-go as unworkable, claim the lack of results is evidence of the system's failure. They contend that a firearm's "fingerprints" can be changed easily by taking a file to the breech face....
British Government will spy on every call and e-mail Ministers are considering spending up to £12 billion on a database to monitor and store the internet browsing habits, e-mail and telephone records of everyone in Britain. GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, has already been given up to £1 billion to finance the first stage of the project. Hundreds of clandestine probes will be installed to monitor customers live on two of the country’s biggest internet and mobile phone providers - thought to be BT and Vodafone. BT has nearly 5m internet customers. Ministers are braced for a backlash similar to the one caused by their ID cards programme. MI5 currently conducts limited e-mail and website intercepts which are approved under specific warrants by the home secretary. Further details of the new plan will be unveiled next month in the Queen’s speech....

Monday, October 06, 2008

Cheney touts administration record on conservation Vice President Dick Cheney told attendees of the White House Conference on North American Wildlife Policy meeting Friday the Bush Administration has been a strong partner for conservation groups and is moving to expand three successful initiatives. The Health Forest Initiative, Cheney told an audience of more than 600 at the Reno Ballroom, has helped clean up dangerous kindling and underbrush, restoring more than 26 million acres of forest land. He said there has been significant improvement for America’s wetlands and the Conservation Reserve program has enrolled more than a million acres of private grassland, helping ranchers and farmers restore that habitat. He said even as he prepares to leave office, President George W. Bush is expanding those programs. He said more incentives for landowners to join would add 7 million acres to the Conservation Reserve program over the next five years. Bush has committed the federal government to restoring another 4 million acres of wetlands in that same time period. The conference was convened by an executive order issued by Bush in 2007 to draft an action plan to guide future wildlife conservation efforts nationwide and protect “the nation’s hunting heritage.”....Go here to read the Executive Order.

Federal judge finds oil firm guilty in bird deaths A federal magistrate judge has found a Kansas oil man and an oil firm guilty of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act for not properly screening equipment to protect birds. U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Humpreys found that Apollo Energies Inc. and Dale Walker, doing business as Red Cedar Oil, did not comply with a federal law that requires them to secure oil field equipment to keep birds from getting trapped in exhaust stacks and openings. The case stems from two search warrants the agency executed at sites in Barber County. Apollo Energies and Walker were found guilty of one misdemeanor count for the deaths of two Northern flickers and an Eastern bluebird. In addition, Walker was found guilty of a second count for the death of a common grackle at another site. "The spooky part of it is that this can happen everywhere," defense attorney Stephen Robison said Monday. "It really could happen as a bird flies into your front window, it could happen in your chimney, it could happen in the roof vent of any building in Wichita, Kan., it could happen in grain bins all over the state, and we are at the mercy of the Fish and Wildlife Service," he said. "That is the upsetting part."....Thank you Mr. Cheney.

Sheep producer is angry 'the wolves win' A northern Wisconsin farmer who has watched a growing pack of wolves harass his sheep and kill one can't believe the animals are back on the federal endangered species list. "All it means is the wolves win," said Merrill Rosenwinkel of Herbster, in far northern Bayfield County. "It is discouraging is what it is. It would be nice if we could go back to when there weren't any wolves here." The ruling means the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources now can no longer manage wolves like it wants — basically allowing the killing of the problem ones that go after livestock, pets and even bear hunting dogs. "I am very much disappointed," said Adrian Wydeven, the agency's wolf expert. "This really reduces our flexibility. It creates a lot more problems trying to manage our population. I think we lose public support to some extent because people were more willing to accept wolves when we could rapidly go out and have the problem animals removed."....Thank you Mr. Cheney.
Wolves sought after killings Wildlife officials are tracking wolves in the Reed Point area after a verified kill of a sheep and goat at a ranch north of the town this week. If found, one wolf will be shot and the other collared and released to gather information on its travels. A kill permit also was issued to the landowner. Because wolves have not been seen frequently in the area, trapped wolves may be fitted with radio collars and released so biologists can follow them, learn where they came from and whether they are part of a larger pack. This is the fifth incident in which wolves have attacked the rancher's sheep - a total of 15 sheep and a goat have been confirmed killed. Herders and guard dogs have not prevented the depredations....Thank you Mr. Cheney.
Owyhees gets chance to pass the Senate, Congress this year Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he expects a vote on a lands bill after the election that includes protections for the Owyhee Canyonlands and ranching in Owyhee County. The Senate will come back for a lame duck session Nov. 17. "One thing we are going to move to is a land package," Reid said on the floor Wednesday soon after the passage of the financial rescue bill. "We have talked to everybody about this." The bill includes Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo's Owyhee legislation which was sent to the floor by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Crapo has worked hard for six years to hold together the coalition of ranchers and environmentalists who back his Owyhees bill. The bill would protect 517,000 acres as wilderness, another 315 miles of rivers as wild and scenic and help ranchers with a series of land transfers, buyouts and the establishment of a science center. The bill also includes a bill to protect 387 miles of the Snake River and its tributaries in Wyoming under the Wild and Scenic Rivers bill. Crapo worked out problems in the Wyoming provision of the bill raised by Sen. Larry Craig and the Idaho Water Users Association. Overall the bill contains more than 90 titles, including more than a half dozen wilderness measures to protect more than 900,000 acres of wild land in Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Virginia and West Virginia.
Calif. Court Says Mobile Billboard Law Doesn't Muzzle Animal Rights Group's Speech An animal rights group had every right to protest singer/actress Hilary Duff's performances at rodeos and bullfight arenas, but not on moving billboards in West Hollywood, Calif. In a 2-1 decision Tuesday, California's 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles upheld the small city's ban on mobile billboard advertising after finding it doesn't violate the animal group's free-speech rights. "The ordinance is content neutral," Justice Frances Rothschild wrote. "It draws no distinctions based on the content of the speech or the viewpoints expressed. Nor is there any evidence that 'the ordinance was designed to suppress certain ideas that the city finds distasteful or that it has been applied to [plaintiffs] because of the views that they express.'" Steve Hindi, president of Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, or SHARK, an Illinois-based nonprofit that seeks to expose cruelty to animals, was pulled over in West Hollywood one night and fined more than $1,000 for violating the city's ban on mobile billboards. Hindi was driving the so-called "Tiger Truck," a vehicle that has four 100-inch video screens on all sides, showing animal abuse and blaring the sounds of creatures in distress....
The Rational Environmentalist Where in the world can we do the most good? That is the basic question addressed by the Copenhagen Consensus Center, a think tank founded six years ago by the Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg. To answer the question, the center periodically convenes panels of leading economists, who weigh and prioritize the solutions experts have proposed to the world's biggest problems. Lomborg, a boyish 43-year-old, first burst onto the intellectual scene in 2001 with his best-selling book The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World. There the former Greenpeace member argued persuasively that most of the planetary doom scenarios imagined by ideological environmentalists were contradicted by the available ecological and economic data. The book provoked a furious green backlash, the low point of which was a 2003 ruling by the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty that "the publication of the work under consideration is deemed to fall within the concept of scientific dishonesty." Lomborg was vindicated later that year when the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation overturned the ruling, calling it "completely void of argumentation." Ronald Bailey, reason's science correspondent, interviewed Lomborg in a gilt-edged room at the Moltkes Palace in Copenhagen during a lunch break at the 2008 Copenhagen Consensus Conference....

Officers seek removal of NM game director The head of the New Mexico Game and Fish Department has had his hunting license revoked for illegally killing a deer on private land. Now, conservation officers who work for him want him to step down or be replaced. Thompson has taken responsibility, but members of the New Mexico Conservation Officers Association claim the director's handling of the incident has given the department a bad name. ''It's frustrating for us,'' Colin Duff, president of the association, told The Associated Press on Friday. ''For a guy to be in that position, he's been convicted and is still signing laws that pertain to everybody else's hunting privileges, we don't really see how he can keep doing that.'' A letter from the association was read at Thursday's commission meeting, outlining the group's feelings about Thompson's leadership. The letter states Thompson ''should step aside and let a qualified and trustworthy person take the reins.'' Despite the convictions, the association claims the director fought the revocation process, forcing his own employees to testify against him. Duff said similar violations involving wildlife officials in other states have resulted in resignations or terminations long before court action. ''Why has New Mexico's leadership acted so differently? Why has this leader been afforded the ability to disrespect his agency for an entire year?'' Duff said in the letter. ''These are truly sad times for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.''....
Federal Worker Pleads Guilty in Overtime Scheme A federal Forest Service analyst has pleaded guilty to claiming more than $280,000 in fraudulent overtime in the last five years, federal prosecutors said today. Forty-six-year-old Karen Burroughs agreed to resign as a management analyst after her plea today in U.S. District Court in Washington. The Washington woman told authorities she fraudulent claimed overtime on weekends and holidays she didn't work. Prosecutors say the fraud started in 2003 and ended in July, allowing Burroughs to receive more than $280,000....Almost $60,000 a year in overtime and no one noticed?
Report Says Forest Service Has Harassed Gatherings A report by the Wyoming chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union contends that the federal Forest Service has engaged in systematic harassment of people who attend Rainbow Family gatherings on public lands. The A.C.L.U. opened an investigation this summer after a clash on July 3 between members of the Rainbow Family, an informal group of professed hippies and peace activists, and Forest Service law enforcement officers. About 7,000 members of the group attended its annual gathering this summer, held in the Bridger-Teton National Forest near Big Sandy in western Wyoming. Forest Service law enforcement officers fired pepper balls — like paint balls but containing a pepper substance — at Rainbow Family members during the incident. Scores of witnesses told the A.C.L.U. that the officers had lacked justification. The A.C.L.U. did not talk to Forest Service officials for its report. The report also said that officers had taken the smallest violation as an excuse to search participants’ cars and campsites for drugs....
Sheriffs worry as federal law enforcement funding dries up A change in federal funding has reduced law enforcement at Belle Fourche Reservoir as annual visitor counts continue to grow. A $60,000 federal contract that enabled Butte County Sheriff Fred Lamphere to look after activities there was not renewed as of Oct. 1, and Orman Dam’s managers at the Bureau of Reclamation have instead pitched in with the Bureau of Land Management to hire a ranger to patrol federal properties in Butte and Meade counties. The sheriff says the federal agencies are not yet ready to take over patrolling, and even when it happens, his department will still provide dispatching services and investigate certain incidents on the federal land, and the county’s taxpayers will fund those activities as well as court and jail expenses for handling lawbreakers....The Bushies would rather increase federal personnel than contract with local government. From nationalizing the airport inspectors to creating the homeland security dept. to policing public lands and facilities, their mantra has been federalize, centralize and supersize.
Ranger ready for anything in desert scape High noon and the desert is hot as a wok, yet Tim Duncan is wearing body armor under his uniform. A handgun and a Taser hang from his belt. Next to him in the truck are a shotgun and an M-16 assault rifle with extra magazines. "Out here, you have to be prepared," he said. Duncan is a National Park Service ranger at the Mojave National Preserve, a Mordor-like sweep of serrated mountains, feral deserts, Joshua tree forests, dry lakes and lava beds - a park five times the size of Los Angeles that's patrolled by eight law officers. Here the wilds of nature meet the wilds of man, an incongruous environment that has hidden meth labs and illegal waste dumps, plant and wildlife poachers, archaeological thieves, the occasional dumped body and train robbers. Yes, train robbers. Union Pacific trains laden with goods from the coast rumble into the Mojave National Preserve at the aptly named Devil's Playground, 40 miles of hellish sand dunes and salt flats at the base of the Kelso Mountains. Mile-long caravans of double-stacked cars wheeze to a crawl as they labor up the steep Cima Grade through the heart of the preserve. Sometimes they stop on side tracks to let other trains pass. Thieves typically strike at night - busting into boxcars and tossing down the booty to waiting accomplices with trucks....
Texas Rancher's Bridge to the Past Runs Afoul of the Border Patrol In a swampy corner of his desolate ranch, Bill Addington proudly flouts the law. The Department of Homeland Security has demanded that he tear down a rickety footbridge from his land across the Rio Grande into Mexico. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, authorities have shut down nearly a dozen of these informal river crossings along the Texas border. This is the last they know to be operating. They want it gone. Mr. Addington refuses. The Department of Homeland Security demanded that Bill Addington tear down this rickety footbridge, which links his farm to a Mexican village. He crossed that bridge countless times as a boy, darting into Mexico to buy candy or watermelon juice or to flirt with the girls at church-hall dances. Mexicans crossed over, too, every day, to work the cotton fields for Mr. Addington's father -- a U.S. Border Patrol agent. After a hard season's labor, they would all celebrate together with a night of bilingual poker, fueled by whiskey and calf-brain stew. Mr. Addington, who is 52, clings to those memories. So when the Department of Homeland Security sent his family a letter this past summer warning that his bridge could allow "the illegal entry of terrorists, aliens, and/or drug traffickers," he scoffed. That's not his border. Not the bridge he knows. And he will not accept that it could be....
Rancher protects watershed Three Springs Ranch is home to 150 head of cattle, but owner Ray Thompson dedicates most of his property to protecting the quality of Tulsa's drinking water. Land Legacy, a nonprofit land conservation organization, has launched the Spavinaw Watershed Protection Initiative, which encourages land owners to preserve a portion of their properties. Spavinaw Creek feeds into Spavinaw Lake and Eucha Lake, which is Tulsa's water source. Tulsa and its suburban water customers represent about a fourth of the state's population. Thompson's ranch is the first easement purchased through a partnership with Land Legacy, the city of Tulsa and the Environmental Protection Agency....
Current affairs on state water On Labor Day in 2006, Wes Palmer, foreman at Skylark Ranch outside of Kremmling, single-handedly dried up the Colorado River. Palmer opened the head gate to the ranch's irrigation ditch and cut the already low flow by about 40 percent. When he was done collecting some of the fall allotment for the Skylark, there was barely enough water to wet the rocks in the riverbed. "It was a holiday weekend and the fishing lodges were full, and I dried up the Colorado," Palmer said, shaking his head. The episode underscores the delicate balance in the upper Colorado and Fraser rivers, which supply both Grand County and Front Range cities and suburbs. It is a balance Grand County officials and managers for Denver Water and the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District are trying better to strike. The two sides of the Continental Divide are engaged in a first-of-its-kind negotiation over moving more water to the Front Range — the two water companies are planning $410 million in new projects to provide an extra 16 billion gallons — while protecting the mountain streams and rivers....
Fossil hunter digs up more controversy This summer, fossil hunter Nate Murphy and his crew carefully unearthed three stegosaurus skeletons discovered on a ranch near Grass Range. Unlike his past dinosaur digs — including the one that unearthed Malta's famed mummy duckbill, Leonardo — Murphy's finds aren't destined for a Montana museum. The nonprofit Judith River Dinosaur Foundation, which is affiliated with Malta's new Great Plains Dinosaur Museum, cut ties with Murphy in July 2007, after state and federal agents began investigating him for allegedly stealing dinosaurs. Last month, he was charged in Phillips County District Court with stealing a turkey-sized raptor. Grass Range rancher David Hein, whose family owns the land where the stegosaurus skeletons were found, wouldn't detail his arrangement with Murphy, but said he is confident the dinosaurs will stay in the state. "We have found Nate to be very honest and honorable in all his dealings with us," Hein said. "We consider him a friend."....
Public Access to CRP Could Lead to Incentive Payments On Friday at the White House Conference on North American Wildlife Policy in Reno, Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer announced that USDA would offer farmers and ranchers incentives to open land in the Conservation Reserve Program to public hunting, fishing, bird watching and other recreational activities. The decision came on a directive from President Bush. "The President is committed to enhancing support of habitat conservation by offering public access to Conservation Reserve Program land," Schafer said. "The Conservation Reserve Program is the largest public-private partnership for conservation and wildlife habitat in the nation and we expect robust participation in this initiative. It will provide better access and allow more efficient management of game populations while allowing CRP participants to continue to provide vital environmental benefits such as improving air and water quality, enhancing wildlife habitat and reducing erosion." USDA will be providing a $3 an acre incentive payment to CRP contract holders who enroll their land in a state public access program. The goal is to double public access by providing 7 million acres of CRP land in the next five years....And just how long do you think this will be voluntary?
Super pumkin A massive pumpkin weighing in at 1,536.5 pounds broke the California state record for largest pumpkin at the Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin and Harvest Festival Saturday at the Elk Grove Regional Park. The super-squash, grown by Jake van Kooten of Port Alberni, Vancouver Island in Canada, almost literally crushed a field of worthy competition, including more than a half-dozen pumpkins that weighed in at over 1,000 pounds, festival organizer Zach Jones said. The formidable fruit, which had to be transported off its Canadian island home by ferry, broke the California record of 1,535.5 pounds set at last year's festival. For his efforts, van Kooten picked up a check for $9,219, $6 for every pound of the pumpkin powerhouse. Jones said genetics and new seed treatment processes have helped the competitive pumpkin-growing game grow by leaps and bounds since the first Harvest Festival 14 years ago. "The largest one (in 1994) was 389 pounds," Jones said....

Contest pairs horse trainers with wild mustangs As a Johnny Cash tune played over the loudspeakers, horse trainer Gary Main Jr. coaxed Victory through a display of discipline and skill inside the Wyoming State Fair arena. Hundreds of potential horse buyers looked on as Victory stopped on a dime, backed up on command and trotted along the perimeter. On this day, the horses were not from breeders but rather the Western range — separated from their wild origins by only a few months of training. Faced with a surplus of wild horses, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and its nonprofit partner, the Mustang Heritage Foundation, have been holding a series of training contests and subsequent adoptions like the Mustang Challenge held in Wyoming this summer. Adoption is likely the best outcome for the horses. The BLM, citing budget constraints and the ever-multiplying herds of mustangs that roam free on federal land in the West, said this summer it was studying ways to get rid of excess horses, including euthanasia. To try to boost the number of adoptions, Patti Colbert, executive director of the mustang foundation, came up with the idea of the horse-training competitions while watching reality TV shows....

New Mexico's Peppers Pride reaches the record books The debate may now begin, but the results are the only thing that matter. Peppers Pride remained unbeaten and became the all-time record holder for consecutive wins in thoroughbred racing history Saturday at Zia Park, where she posted a convincing win over a field of five allowance runners to pick up her 17th win from as many starts. Saturday's victory, a six-furlong sprint restricted to New Mexico-bred fillies and mares, puts Peppers Pride in a class all her own as she passes champion thoroughbreds Citation and Cigar, as well as Mister Frisky and Hallowed Dreams, for most consecutive wins. The record-breaking dash was more than four months in the making. Peppers Pride was last seen winning the Foutz Distaff Handicap at SunRay Park last April. She was entered in the Lincoln Handicap at Ruidoso Downs in late July, but that race was postponed because of flood damage. The debate as to the legitimacy of Peppers Pride's record will be furious among purists and horseplayers across the sport. The comparisons between the quality of competition will not favor Peppers Pride in the long run. Citation and Cigar were both national champions. Citation won the Triple Crown and was named Horse of the Year in 1948. Cigar, a two-time Horse of the Year (1995, 1996) and winner of the Breeders' Cup Classic and Dubai World Cup, retired as the all-time leader in earnings among thoroughbreds, a record broken only last month by Curlin, who became the first thoroughbred to top the $10 million mark in lifetime winnings....

Pack mule string keeps traditional work alive for Forest Service The Pack mule string team is part of Forest Service history and this history is being kept alive today. The Rocky Mountain Specialty Pack String, based out of Shawnee, Colo., has been working in the Black Elk Wilderness area for the last two weeks. “The primary purpose of the team is to haul equipment to backcountry areas, to make the jobs more doable and easier for the National Forest,” said Dave Pickford, recreational specialist for the Hell Canyon Ranger District. The team travels throughout the Rocky Mountain Region and provides a wide variety of support including packing, teaching low impact techniques for backcountry use, and is also an educational outreach. “I think it’s really unique that in this area where originally a lot of the work was done with traditional methods, these methods have come back and are still effective to get the job done,” Pickford said. The wilderness area where they are working is closed to motorized vehicles. The pack string has been hauling gravel onto this trail system to help repair a portion of eroded trail that was caused by excessive water. Each mule is capable of hauling 160 pounds of gravel per trip....

Sheep, goat industry honored When the Ranch Museum and Gift Shop ribbon is snipped for the grand opening Oct. 25, Rosie Whitehead Jones will join other ranchers in this region, known as the Stockmen's Paradise, to celebrate the long-awaited reality. Establishing a museum to spotlight the sheep and goat industry and rural lifestyles that formed the ranching heritage of the Edwards Plateau has long been a dream of 83-year-old Rosie Whitehead Jones. Sheep and goat thievery became a big problem for ranchers on the Edwards Plateau in the early 1900s. Rosie's maternal grandfather, Basil Halbert, helped form a Sutton County protective group in 1912. It would be the forerunner of the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers' Association, which was organized in 1916 in Del Rio. Halbert served as the first president and secretary of the organization, now based in San Angelo. Halbert's great-grandson, Lee C. Bloodworth of Sonora, is currently TS&GRA president. Rosie's mother, Della Rose Halbert Whitehead, was the organizer and first president of the TS&GRA's Women's Auxiliary and founder of the Miss Wool of America competition in 1952. The contest was featured on national television in the 1960s with celebrity hosts who included Art Linkletter and actor Roddy McDowell....

Outhouse salesman has a good singing voice In an economic recession such as the one Florida is experiencing, it helps to be good at a lot of things, just in case. Vince Denimarck's job skills include drafting, design, carpentry, wiring, plumbing, laying tile, hanging paper and roofing. He knows how to build stone fences and is proud of his Italian cooking. A while back, when Denimarck and his girlfriend attended a horse show in Ocala, he noticed an outhouse next to a barn. It was a nice outhouse, but not a great one. It looked historic, which was good, but smelled historic, which wasn't. Seeing this gave him an idea. And when he gets an idea he is going to pursue it, even if it involves toilets. He started building outhouses. Now he offers a basic, single-hole model, with super ventilation, for $1,195 and he throws in the crescent moon for free. His deluxe outhouses feature running water, a sink, a flush toilet, an electrical outlet, a place to hang your hat. He designs, he builds, he sells, he delivers, he installs, he connects the whole kit and caboodle to your septic tank or pipes. His most expensive model, the Imperial Potty Shed, which comes with a shower, carries a $3,295 price tag. "It may sound expensive," he says, "but it's cheaper than adding a bathroom to your house. My motto is put a potty shed where you need it."....

Sunday, October 05, 2008


Did I forget to mention that?
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Julie Carter

Men, in general, have a built-in gene making them masters at forgetting to mention important details that often dictate the outcome of a situation, up to and including the moment they could lose their lives or an important part of their anatomy.

The obvious incidents include forgetting to mention the existence of a wife, or some wild tale about why they didn't arrive home until the day after they were expected.

Cowboys, however, have different types of "Did I forget to mention that?" stories.

Ranch stories of this nature will sometimes involve a simple request to the wife along the lines of "Could you go get our black bull out of the neighbors' pasture today?"

What the head cowboy may have forgotten to mention is that once she finds the black bull in the four-section brush pasture, she will likely have to break up a fight between him and the neighbor's resident bull.

Then she will have to persuade the black bull that he would prefer to leave the neighbor's young heifers so she can drive him back to his ranch home. On the way out, she'll have to repair the fence that he tore up running away from home.

Being a sensible wife, she will know that the black bull, which is usually cooperative, will need to come to the pens at the headquarters, to discourage the same scenario from happening all over again.

These kinds of projects are common to the status of "ranch wife" who is not usually surprised by the omission of finer details of the request.

Instead, a fair amount of get-even plotting will occupy the span of time it takes for the ride over to the neighbors, as well as the return trip.

When calves are shipped from the ranch, a permit from a state brand inspector is part of the process. The inspector in this case was about 5 feet tall and wore a pistol that came down almost to his knees. His demeanor indicated that he failed to recognize he was not God.

The ranch boss asked his wife to go help the brand inspector count and sort the calves, penning the heifers and steers separately.

The calves, at one end of a long corral alley, began to file by the little woman so she could determine their male or female status before directing their destination.

As the calves peeled away from the bunch, their speed of departure picked up, making the "viewing" considerably more difficult. The brand inspector suspected he would have to come to her rescue.

The cowgirl wasn't the least bit nervous about this assignment, and expeditiously called to the inspector, "In," for the heifers and "By," for the steers.

A couple of hundred calves were sorted very quickly this way, with no slowing of the steady stream of cattle down the alley.

When it was all done, the inspector told the cowgirl he'd never seen anybody, male or female, sort cattle that quickly.

What he had failed notice was that all the heifer calves were specifically earmarked. To make her call, all she had to do was glance at their heads as they came toward her.

She figured it was information he didn't particularly need, so she "forgot" to mention it. Thereafter, she enjoyed a reputation as a very astute and competent cattle woman.

No mention was ever made that she shared the same "forgetfulness" indicative to the male species of her profession.

That quiet fame happens a lot at the ranch.


It’s The Pitts: Way Off Broadway

Ever since I wrote about the auction market in Centralia, Missouri, that was also being used as a church readers have been sending me examples of other ways auction markets are being utilized. Recently I was sent a flyer for a theater company that has been performing plays and melodramas in the old sale barn in Edgemont, South Dakota. At first blush it sounds like an odd arrangement as I simply can’t envision a refined theater crowd showing up at a sale barn to watch Shakespeare. But the more I thought about it the more the idea made sense and it occurred to me that more auction markets could be more fully utilizing their facilities by presenting musicals and dramatic engagements on the days they aren’t selling cull cows and feeder calves.

Think about it: an auction market has plenty of seats with good visibility (if you don’t mind watching Hamlet through the bars of the ring scale); there is usually a high class restaurant at the sale barn where the theater crowd can wine and dine after the show; and, the mess can be cleaned up afterwards by merely hosing down the joint in plenty of time for the next cattle auction. (Although some theatrical performances may leave a lingering smell that some sensitive cattle buyers may find a bit discomforting.)

Now, I myself have never seen a Broadway play but I’d imagine the content of the most popular shows would have to be altered somewhat for the crowds that usually depend on cow sales for their entertainment. I don’t think Phantom Of The Opera is going to pack these folks in when there is a high school football game playing across town on the same night. So I would slightly alter the story line of these popular plays:

Annie Get Your Gun- A ranch family tries to decide whether to attend a play at the auction barn or go hunting on the first day of deer season.

Romeo and Juliet- The clerk on the auction block, Juliet, looks down at her star-crossed lover in the auction ring and asks, “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” To which the ring man replies, “I’m behind the bull board you blind old bat.”

How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying- A know-nothing businessman from the city buys a cow ranch, about which he knows nothing, and thinks there’s nothing to this ranching business when oil is discovered on his property.

Midsummer Night’s Dream- A rancher dreams of a $1.50 calf market, $85 hay, dollar fats and fields of green grass.

The Beggar’s Opera- A musical about auctioneers. It features The Auctioneer’s Song.

Hairspray- A local 4-H advisor holds a clinic on how parents should groom their child’s steer for the upcoming county fair.

Les Miserables- The story of three cow buyers and their lamentable lives.

Hello Dolly- A documentary on the subject of cloning.

Damn Yankees- A surprise visit by an auditor from the Packers and Stockyards administration has the market owner ready to rebel from the Union.

The Seven Year Itch- An uplifting saga in which the lousy villain is killed by our heroes... Ivomec and Dectomax.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes- Special Charolais influenced feeder calf sale.

Ain’t Misbehavin’- A panel of three packers deny collusion, captive supplies and monopolistic tendencies and then take turns buying that day’s cull cow offering.

Nine to Five- A rancher contemplates the odds of a mad cow being found in Canada on the same day he sells his butcher cows.

To Be Or Not to Be- A cattle feeder agonizes over the moral implications of whether or not he should abort the load of preggy heifers his order buyer just bought.

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas- A sale barn owner in the Lone Star state comes up with yet another way to diversify his business and utilize his facility.

YouTube - Mountain Lion Attacks 5 Year Old Boy

I previously posted Cougar attack recounted for game commission , where Charlotte Salazar testified to the NM Game Commission about the mountain lion attack on her five year old son. The presentation was totally ignored by our illustrious commissioners. If anyone has a video of her presentation please let me know.

Go here to view the AP KRQE TV report on the attack.

Shortage of large animal vets taxes farmers This summer, Steve Sanford had to tell 106 dairy farmers in rural northern Vermont he could no longer treat their cows. Battling degenerative arthritis, the 56-year-old large animal veterinarian can't do the physically challenging work any more. Worse, he can't find anyone who will, having already tried to recruit a bovine veterinarian to join his practice. He has advertised for help and trained new graduates - only to have them leave after short stays. Now, three vet trucks sit idle in his parking lot. "Believe me, I've looked under every stone, there is no one out there," he said. The shortage of large animal veterinarians isn't limited to Vermont. In New England, there will be 1,036 vet vacancies in the next six years, according to a June study by the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, at Tufts University. In the same time period, over a quarter of the more than 100 specialized food animal veterinarians will reach retirement age, the study found. Fewer people are interested in large animal veterinary medicine, said David Kirkpatrick, a spokesman for the American Veterinary Medical Association. With a decline in the number of family farms, fewer children are getting exposed to agriculture, he said....

Friday, October 03, 2008

Ad Attacks Palin On Alaska Wolf Culling The new attack ad by Defenders of Wildlife is graphic, visceral and disturbing. It's critical of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin for her support of a controversial predator control policy in Alaska that targets wolves. The ad states: The more voters hear about Sarah Palin, the less there is to like. As Alaska governor, Sarah Palin actively promotes the vicious aerial killing of wolves. With no chance to escape, riddled with gunshots, it's a brutal death. The basic claim is true. Palin continued the policies of her predecessor in the governor's office that allowed aerial shooting of wolves for purposes of predator control. Here's how it works. If the Alaska Department of Fish and Game determines that moose and caribou populations are being overly preyed upon by wolves, in areas where people rely on those herds for food, the state can issue permits for private pilots to go out and shoot wolves from small airplanes. State wildlife officials acknowledge there's no fair chase involved. The wolf typically doesn't have much chance of escape once it's been targeted from the sky. Nevertheless, the state considers aerial culling an important tool for protecting the viability of the game herds for human subsistence....

Tax Earmarks, Pork and Other Bailout Bill Horrors The most egregious, most frightening aspect of this bill is its hidden attack on every aspect of our economy under the cover of anti-carbon measures contained in what is essentially an energy bill tacked on to the bailout -- an energy bill which would not pass Congress were it to come up for a vote. Section 117 of the bailout bill calls for this: “The Secretary of the Treasury shall enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to undertake a comprehensive review of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to identify the types of and specific tax provisions that have the largest effects on carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions and to estimate the magnitude of those effects.” So the radical environmentalists’ path to a ‘carbon trading’ system -- which both Sens. Obama and McCain favor -- would be cleared of underbrush so that our economy could be strangled with the European system as soon as possible. If you own a power plant, a steel factory, a dairy farm, or an airline company, or maybe even just a car, this is a large caliber weapon aimed directly at you. It’s the predicate to taxing carbon emissions...The bill doubles the subsidy for biodiesel production from 50 cents per gallon to $1.00 per gallon. Doesn’t the Senate realize that we can’t save the world by burning our food? Did they not remember the huge increase in food prices over the past two years due in large part to these subsidies diverting food and feed crops into our gas tanks? The energy provisions in the bailout also include darlings of the environmental left: tax credits for “small wind property,” “geothermal heat pump systems,” and “electricity produced from marine renewables.” While tax breaks for alternative energy aren’t necessarily objectionable, the inclusion of them in this bill removes incentive for Democrats to cooperate on a comprehensive energy bill which would include drilling for oil and gas or developing clean coal or nuclear power sources. The effect of this bill, then, will be to keep us from developing efficient large-scale energy sources. Small wind properties will not lower prices at the pump....

PIGGY POLS IN HOG HEAVEN WITH PORK-PACKED PACT Here, little piggies! Congressional deal-brookers yesterday slopped a mess of pork into the $700 billion financial rescue bill passed by the Senate last night - including a tax break for makers of kids' wooden arrows - in a bid to lure reluctant lawmakers into voting for the package. Stuffed into the 451- page bill are more than $1.7 billion worth of targeted tax breaks to be doled out for a sty full of eyebrow-raising purposes over the next decade. "This is how Washington works," said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington research group. "A big pot of pork is their recipe for final passage." The special provisions include tax breaks for: * Manufacturers of kids' wooden arrows - $6 million. * Puerto Rican and Virgin Is- lands rum producers - $192 million. * Wool research. * Auto-racing tracks - $128 million. * Corporations operating in American Samoa - $33 million. * Small- to medium-budget film and television productions - $10 million. Another measure inserted into the bill appears to be a bald-faced bid aimed at winning the support of Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who voted against the original version when it went down in flames in the House on Monday. That provision - a $223 million package of tax benefits for fishermen and others whose livelihoods suffered as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill - has been the subject of fervent lobbying by Alaska's congressional delegation....
Senate bailout bill includes timber payments A financial rescue plan approved by the Senate includes a plan to extend a program that pays rural counties hurt by federal logging cutbacks. Senators inserted the timber provision as one of several sweeteners to attract more votes for the bailout bill, which was defeated Monday in the House. The Senate version of the bill also includes billions of dollars in tax breaks, as well as an increase in the limit on federal bank deposit insurance. In the West, the timber provision was a welcome addition. Lawmakers have long been seeking a way to renew the program, which provides hundreds of millions of dollars to Oregon, Idaho and other states, mostly in the West, that once depended on federal timber sales to pay for schools, libraries and other services in rural areas. The law, officially titled the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act but commonly known as "county payments," helps pay for schools and services in 700 counties in 39 states. The program expired Tuesday with the end of the fiscal year. The Senate approved a bill last week that would have renewed it for four years, but the House removed the provision two days later, citing objections from the White House. The Bush administration later issued a statement saying it supports renewal of the timber program, although officials said it should be phased out. The Senate bill would reauthorize the timber program for four years at a cost of $3.3 billion....
Senate adds tax incentives to bailout bill U.S. senators on Wednesday modified a Wall Street bailout plan by adding tax breaks for solar, wind and other renewable energy to appease representatives in the House who had defeated the original plan Monday. The modified plan extends the renewable energy production tax credit and the solar energy and fuel cell investment tax credit for eight years. It also expands the residential energy-efficient property credit to include small wind equipment and geothermal heat pumps. The bill provides tax incentives for carbon capture, energy-efficient buildings and the purchase of plug-in hybrid vehicles. House Republican leaders said the new elements in the plan would appeal to their rank-and- file....

Cougar attack recounted for game commission Bogged down in public comment, the New Mexico State Game Commission listened to opinions about a single issue all afternoon. The item was on the adoption of amendments to a bear and cougar rule. During the comment period Charlotte Salazar stood with her 5-year-old son Jose Salazar Jr. "My son was attacked," Charlotte said. As the Salazar family walked a well-used path on May 17 in the Sandia Mountains above Albuquerque, the boy ran ahead a little bit, she said. "A mountain lion jumped out of a bush, jumped on him and started clawing his body," she said. "He was grabbed by the head and dragged 300 feet down a hillside." The boy's father, Jose Salazar, dove after the child and lion. Damaging his ankle and breaking his thumb, Jose reached the lion and child and was able to grab the boy as the animal ran away. "He had his scalp ripped back and puncture wounds were all over his back and neck," Charlotte said. In response to a board member's earlier comment that it had not been proven the incident was caused by a mountain lion, Charlotte said they pulled fur from the child's clothing and saliva from his shoe. The DNA tests showed a 95 percent chance the animal actually was a mountain lion. Charlotte said the commission should not limit year-round cougar hunting and should focus on reducing the number of animals as there are too many in the state....

Stevens’s trial hangs by a thread Sen. Ted Stevens’s (R-Alaska) criminal case hung by a thread Thursday when an angry federal judge said the government had violated rules on handling critical evidence. In the most dramatic day in the week-old trial, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan erupted at the Justice Department for waiting until just before midnight Wednesday to disclose FBI notes discussing Stevens’s intent to pay for gifts that are at the center of his criminal trial. Sullivan said he had lost confidence in the government’s ability to prosecute the case and ordered all exculpatory evidence, unedited FBI notes and grand jury testimony turned over immediately to the defense team before Monday’s status hearing. “How does the court have any confidence that the Public Integrity Office has any integrity?” Sullivan said, referring to the division at the Justice Department that is prosecuting the case. Sullivan rejected a defense motion to declare a mistrial and to dismiss the case against the Alaska Republican, who faces felony charges. But he instructed the jury that the government erred in its obligations to submit evidence to the defense. He said the new evidence could still be used in the trial, and offered the defense the chance to make a new opening statement. The trial may resume Monday, but that depends on the outcome of the new status hearing scheduled by Sullivan....
Minnows Using Fish Channel A channel built to help fish find their way around the Albuquerque metro area's new water supply dam appears to be working, officials said during a tour of the site Monday. The dam, on the Rio Grande near Albuquerque's northern border, is one piece of a $385 million water system scheduled to be turned on in December to provide a new source of drinking water for the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County metro area. Officials from the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service toured the dam Monday to look at the fish structure and discuss its operation. The dam has been in place and tested for two years, and fish surveys have shown that the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow is using the dam's fish channel, according to John Stomp, the water utility's project manager....
State fights Desert Rock The state of New Mexico filed a brief with the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Appeals Board appealing the air permit granted July 31 to Desert Rock Power Plant. The appeals board can remand the permit if it agrees with the state's arguments. "The EAB can and should send this permit back to the EPA with an order to re-evaluate specific issues that we have outlined in our brief," Attorney General Gary King said. "The EPA has a legal obligation to give New Mexicans the full protections afforded to them under the Clean Air Act." Slated for eventual construction near Burnham on the Navajo Nation, the plant is being paid for by Sithe Global, LLC and will be operated by Diné Power Authority. It is supported by Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. and the Navajo Tribal Council....
Heller tells CPA wilderness should be designated sparingly "In the future, I will only engage in development of lands bills at the invitation and request of local officials." That was part of a response by Nevada Congressman Dean Heller (R) to a questionnaire sent by the Coalition for Public Access (CPA), the public advocacy group formed this year in Lyon and Mineral Counties to successfully battle suggested lands bill and wilderness proposals and thereby keep the state's lands open for multiple use. The CPA mailed separate questionnaires for a variety of elected offices and required a returned receipt in each case to track receipt and participation. This is the first of several stories leading up to the November General Election as the organization presents those responses for voter consideration. The CPA chose not to endorse any candidate but to try to educate the public via this process. The questions actually asked in the CPA election campaign questionnaire were as follows....
Battle over Village at Wolf Creek">Battle over Village at Wolf Creek Here we go again. For nearly a decade, the battle over the Village at Wolf Creek has been waged between the Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture and virtually everyone else. To this point, millions have been spent attempting to have McCombs" "Premier Mountain Recreational Village in the World" approved. After repeated setbacks and losses in court, Red McCombs and Bob Honts have again applied for access permits, the first of the many approvals necessary to build their village. It is crystal clear from their last attempt at this that the vast majority of people in Colorado, and the nation don't want to see a "village" of 10,000 people perched at the top of Wolf Creek Pass. No mitigation measures could ever make up for the permanent destruction to wildlife habitat, high alpine wetlands, and the magnificent natural beauty of the area....