Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Pinon Canyon: US Rep. Lamborn's Letter To The WSJ

The article "Ranchers Attempt to Hold Off Army's Expansion in Colorado" (Currents, June 24) about the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site states that the U.S. Army is considering acquiring land through eminent domain. However, in a response letter I received from Keith Eastin, assistant secretary of the Army (Installations and Environment), dated April 27, 2009, he wrote, "I have testified that condemnation/eminent domain will not be used to acquire or lease land at PCMS. The Army will only deal with willing sellers." While the article notes that "willing sellers are in short supply," there are definitely some out there, and they should have the right to sell their land to whomever they want...WSJ

Just how foolish does Rep. Lamborn think we really are?

Congressional "testimony" is simply a statement of policy - a policy that can be revised at any time.

Give the Pentagon the acquisition money and watch the hammer come out if they can't get what they want from willing sellers. Sometimes just the threat of the hammer gets the job done. Of course, Rep. Lamborn could sponsor legislation to revoke the Pentagon's eminent domain authority. Reckon he'll be doing that soon?

Lamborn remains a prime example of why the Republicans are in the minority. He thinks having larger federal landholdings and smaller acreages of private property is good public policy. He also appears to be operating under the delusion that bringing political dollars and a larger bureaucracy to his district, while at the same time destroying private sector jobs and family owned businesses, constitutes sound economic development.

The poor fellow.

I just hope the condemnation of Lamborn is eminent.

Tester mum, advocates hopeful on wilderness legislation

Wilderness advocates and key officials say Sen. Jon Tester's office has plans to bring Montana its first new wilderness designation since the 1980s. But Tester's office is keeping details quiet - just saying that anyone interested in how forests are managed should contact the senator. Plans for the designation of a new wilderness area draw on separate proposals that have been in the works for years, say advocates who hope legislation will fast-track hundreds of thousands of acres into wilderness status. Beaverhead County commissioners say they have been in earnest talks with Tester's office over designation of perhaps 500,000 acres of new wilderness in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. Those commissioners say they have been pressing to make sure the Montana Wilderness Association and its allies do not hold sway over the final plan. Commissioner Mike McGinley said the first proposed wilderness map presented to him by Tester's office came straight from the MWA-backed Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership. But he said Tester's folks switched the base map to a hybrid of a U.S. Forest Service plan, developed earlier this decade, for the area...Missoulian

Montana considers cashing in on 1.2B tons of coal

Montana officials are on track to seek bids this fall to mine a massive reserve of state-owned coal near the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation -- a deposit with enough fuel to feed the United States' coal appetite for a year. Experts describe the state's Otter Creek reserve as world class: more than 1.2 billion tons of coal massed beneath the rolling hills of the Powder River Basin. The Montana Land Board is to decide in September whether to seek a company to mine the reserve, following recent public hearings that revealed a local community divided over the proposal. The board is chaired by Gov. Brian Schweitzer, an outspoken coal advocate who has said the tracts will be put up for auction. Lining up behind development is a powerful alliance of coal industry supporters. That includes many of the area's elected officials and proponents of the Tongue River Railroad, a long-stalled $341 million line proposed from Miles City south through Otter Creek to the Wyoming border. The railroad would cut through dozens of ranches. Opposition to the line has long been a rallying cry for those landowners nervous about the change coal development would bring. The fight has attracted the Sierra Club, which along with the Billings-based Northern Plains Resource Council has organized ranchers and tribal members against the project. Aiding them behind the scenes has been candy company billionaire Forrest Mars Jr. He owns the 140-square-mile Diamond Cross Ranch along the Tongue River south of Ashland and doesn't want the railroad to cross his property...BusinessWeek

FWP to reconsider sheep’s place on public land

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks plans to take another look at whether it should allow sheep ranchers to trail their livestock across a 28,000-acres swath of land in Southwestern Montana. Earlier this month, three conservation groups challenged the agency for allowing domestic sheep to cross the Robb-Ledford Wildlife Management Area, a practice the groups say makes the habitat inhospitable to bighorn sheep due to diseases the domestic sheep can give to bighorns. “The most immediate issue regarding bighorns in Montana is the domestic sheep trailing FWP allows on the Robb-Ledford Wildlife Management Area,” wrote Summer Nelson, Montana legal counsel for the Western Watersheds Project in Missoula on behalf of her group, the Gallatin Wildlife Association and hunting group Safari Club International. “WWP, GWA and SCI contend this use is incompatible with WMA purposes, public trust responsibilities over native wildlife and restoring and maintaining healthy bighorn herds.” Pat Flowers, director of FWP Region 3 based in Bozeman, said his agency has never done an environmental analysis of allowing domestic sheep onto the Robb-Ledford, since sheep don’t graze there. Rather, the sheep spend about two days on the Robb-Ledford en route to and from grazing allotments in the Gravelly Mountains south of Ennis...BozemanDailyChronicle

Ohio Sets Forth Livestock Standards Board

The Ohio Senate has unanimously approved a resolution that would allow voters to create the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, which would provide oversight of how farm animals are raised. The House approved its version of the resolution yesterday by a vote of 84-13. According to the Ohio Farm Bureau, the final version of the resolution, once approved, will put the measure on the November ballot. The board will comprise a broad base of experts in livestock and poultry care, including family farmers, veterinarians, a food safety expert, a representative of a local humane society, members from statewide farm organizations, the dean of an Ohio agriculture college and members representing Ohio consumers. Over the past several months, the Ohio Farm Bureau and other agricultural groups had engaged in extensive discussions on how to best achieve farm animal well-being while protecting the state’s farmers and consumers from restrictive, short-sighted and emotionally driven regulations. Such regulations had been pushed by activists in other states and Ohio was expected to be the next target. Pork

Michigan Legislators Pushing for Livestock Standards

Lawmakers in Ohio aren't the only ones taking a proactive approach to livestock care standards. Michigan State Representatives Mike Simpson and Jeff Mayes introduced a group of bills last month to standardize livestock care requirements by establishing the Department of Agriculture and Agriculture Commission as the sole authority in regulation of livestock health; implementing science-based standards farmers must use by 2020 and more. Two State Senators have introduced identical bills. They were referred to the Senate Ag and Bioeconomy Committee. Representative Mayes said these new standards will ensure people think of quality products when they think of Michigan agriculture - but certain animal rights organizations - like Farm Sanctuary - feel they would be harmful to livestock for many reasons. Farm Sanctuary Director of Legal Campaigns Delcianna Winders says the legislation would create a council dominated by the agricultural industry and codify the procedures that Farm Sanctuary believes are inhumane. Winders says Farm Sanctuary will probably work with the Humane Society of the United States to reach out to people to oppose it...HoosierAgToday

ID INFO EXPO 2009 To Explore Viable Alternatives For Functional Animal Identification

As the debate rages about animal identification in the United States, ID INFO EXPO 2009 will explore the challenges facing a national animal identification program and ways to move animal identification forward. ID INFO EXPO 2009, presented by the National Institute for Animal Agriculture, is set for Aug. 25-27 at the Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Mo. “ID INFO EXPO will provide a collaborative atmosphere in which concerns and solutions can be addressed in order to enhance animal identification,” states Glenn Fischer, chairman of the ID INFO EXPO Planning Committee. “Based on comments received at USDA Secretary Vilsack’s listening sessions regarding animal ID, we know what won’t work; this conference will focus on what can work.” Victor Velez, vice chairman of the Planning Committee, emphasizes that the conference will zero in on four key areas: 1) the current state of, and need for, animal identification in the United States; 2) the obstacles to gaining ID participation; 3) the ID opportunities that exist; and 4) the next crucial steps to developing a functional animal identification program in the United States. The EXPO’s opening general session will start with an up-to-the-minute report on the status of animal identification programs in the United States and outline what full participation in animal ID could mean to animal agriculture. Other opening general session topics include global implications of identification and models of traceability within other commodities and industries...cattlenetwork

Its all Trew: Doing more work has helped us overcome

My grandfather, who survived the Great Depression and Dust Bowl plus another recession or two before that, often said, "I blame most of the average person's problems on a family named Jones. Trying to keep up with the Joneses is always a losing proposition." During a recent Barbed Wire Collectors show in Shamrock, a few old-timers sat together and talked about their memories of coping with hard times. Here is a sample. One man said just after he started school in the second grade, morning and evening on his way to and from school he fetched the milk bucket off a neighbor widow's porch and milked her cow, returning the fresh milk to her back porch. He received a dime per day for this chore. He also said he was the only kid in his school with a steady job. Another man down in Collingsworth County earned 10 cents per day as a first-grader by arriving at his country school early enough to carry out yesterday's wood stove ashes and build a fire to warm the building for the students arriving later. A 15-year-old girl played piano for my father's dance band in the 1930s, earning 50 cents per night. Not much pay for four hours of dance music, however, she was the only girl in the school with a paying job and therefore the richest young lady in her class. I have written before about the mail carrier at Dime Box, Texas, who would leave you a can of snuff if you left him a dime clamped in a wooden clothes pin. The reason for the clothes pin? His hands were so crippled from arthritis he couldn't pick up a loose coin...AmarilloGlobeNews

Song Of The Day #079

Here's Carl Smith and his recording of Mr. Moon.

It's available on his Don't Just Stand There: 20 Greatest Hits CD and on the wonderful 5 disc box set Satisfaction Guaranteed.


Monday, July 06, 2009

Designation of Mount Taylor results in beatings and arrest

The fight over Mount Taylor's designation as a Traditional Cultural Property has led to bloodshed and an arrest. Five Native American men reported severe beatings between June 9 and June 18, according to Grants Police Department reports. Another known beating was not reported by the victim and details are unknown, except that it follows a similar pattern to the other racial violence. “We made a report to the FBI for hate crimes,” said GPD Detective Kevin Dobbs, “and they'll get back to us.” According to reports, an anonymous caller told officers that Longoria was boasting of “beating up the men because the Native Americans had got Mount Taylor and now they owned him.” Seven known victims were barraged by rocks, struck with bats and gashed with knives and brass knuckles. The following are multiple accounts of the incidents from the victims to officers...CibolaBeacon

Protection sought again for giant, spitting worms

Fans of the giant Palouse earthworm are once again seeking federal protection for the rare, sweet-smelling species that spits at predators. They filed a petition Tuesday with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requesting the worm be protected as an endangered species. "The giant Palouse earthworm is critically endangered and needs the protection of the Endangered Species Act to have any chance of survival," said Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity. The center filed the lawsuit along with Friends of the Clearwater, Palouse Prairie Foundation, Palouse Audubon and Palouse Group of Sierra Club. The worm has been seen only four reported times in the past 110 years, but supporters contend it is still present in the Palouse, a region of about 2 million acres of rolling wheat fields near the Idaho-Washington border south of Spokane. Only about 2 percent of the Palouse prairie remains in a native state, he said. The worm can reach 3 feet in length, is white in color and reportedly possesses a unique lily smell, said Greenwald, who is based in Portland, Ore. It is the largest and longest-lived earthworm in North America...AP

The EPA Silences a Climate Skeptic

Wherever Jim Hansen is right now -- whatever speech the "censored" NASA scientist is giving -- perhaps he'll find time to mention the plight of Alan Carlin. Though don't count on it...So much so that one of President Barack Obama's first acts was a memo to agencies demanding new transparency in government, and science. The nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lisa Jackson, joined in, exclaiming, "As administrator, I will ensure EPA's efforts to address the environmental crises of today are rooted in three fundamental values: science-based policies and program, adherence to the rule of law, and overwhelming transparency." In case anyone missed the point, Mr. Obama took another shot at his predecessors in April, vowing that "the days of science taking a backseat to ideology are over." Except, that is, when it comes to Mr. Carlin, a senior analyst in the EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics and a 35-year veteran of the agency. In March, the Obama EPA prepared to engage the global-warming debate in an astounding new way, by issuing an "endangerment" finding on carbon. It establishes that carbon is a pollutant, and thereby gives the EPA the authority to regulate it -- even if Congress doesn't act. Around this time, Mr. Carlin and a colleague presented a 98-page analysis arguing the agency should take another look, as the science behind man-made global warming is inconclusive at best. The analysis noted that global temperatures were on a downward trend. It pointed out problems with climate models. It highlighted new research that contradicts apocalyptic scenarios. "We believe our concerns and reservations are sufficiently important to warrant a serious review of the science by EPA," the report read. The response to Mr. Carlin was an email from his boss, Al McGartland, forbidding him from "any direct communication" with anyone outside of his office with regard to his analysis. When Mr. Carlin tried again to disseminate his analysis, Mr. McGartland decreed: "The administrator and the administration have decided to move forward on endangerment, and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision. . . . I can only see one impact of your comments given where we are in the process, and that would be a very negative impact on our office." Mr. McGartland blasted yet another email: "With the endangerment finding nearly final, you need to move on to other issues and subjects. I don't want you to spend any additional EPA time on climate change. No papers, no research etc, at least until we see what EPA is going to do with Climate." Ideology? Nope, not here. Just us science folk. Honest...WSJ

For a thorough backgrounder, including links to the emails and the Carlin report, see E-mails indicate EPA suppressed report skeptical of global warming.

Congress's Travel Tab Swells

Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years, a Wall Street Journal analysis of travel records shows, involving everything from war-zone visits to trips to exotic spots such as the Galápagos Islands. The spending on overseas travel is up almost tenfold since 1995, and has nearly tripled since 2001, according to the Journal analysis of 60,000 travel records. Hundreds of lawmakers traveled overseas in 2008 at a cost of about $13 million. That's a 50% jump since Democrats took control of Congress two years ago. Although complete travel records aren't yet available for 2009, it appears that such costs continue to rise. The Journal analysis shows that the government has picked up the tab for travel to destinations such as Jamaica, the Virgin Islands and Australia's Great Barrier Reef. In mid-June, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D., Hawaii) led a group of a half-dozen senators and their spouses on a four-day trip to France for the biennial Paris Air Show. An itinerary for the event shows that lawmakers flew on the Air Force's version of the Boeing 737, which costs $5,700 an hour to operate. They stayed at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand Hotel, which advertises rooms from $460 a night...WSJ

I wonder what the carbon footprint is of all this travel.

California group pushes for Endangered Species God Squad

Less than 24 hours after a top Obama administration official rejected the idea of convening Endangered Species Committee to resolve California’s water woes, Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation launched a campaign to force the committee’s activation. The foundation sent letters to President Barack Obama and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger requesting they act to convene the committee, also known as the God Squad, said Rob Rivett, the foundation’s president. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar rejected the idea at a news conference in Fresno June 28. “That would be admitting failure. I am not about failure,” Salazar said. Under the Endangered Species Act, the special committee may be formed and empowered to override the law when it causes excessive destruction of jobs and the economy. “There’s a reason to have it in the statute,” Rivett said, “and there isn’t a better reason or circumstance than right now when we have an economy that is being devastated by the implementation of the Endangered Species Act." Salazar should take a step back to see what can be done that would modify “the Draconian measures that are being taken to try to save some of our farmworkers’ jobs and our farms,” he said. The foundation launched an online petition June 29, to be presented to the president, Salazar and Schwarzenegger. The petition is at www.pacificlegal.org, Rivett said...Packer

Ethanol-free gas rare but popular

Gasoline without ethanol has become a hot commodity for the only two vendors who sell it in Brevard County. "We just recently started bringing it in because there's been such a hue and cry for it from the marinas," Ken Marshall, vice president of Glover Oil in Melbourne, said Thursday. Favored by boaters and motorcyclists, the fuel -- known as recreational gasoline -- was put on sale to the public last month by Glover Oil. Ethanol absorbs water and can degrade rubber seals and gaskets. Boat engines, weed trimmers, lawn blowers, generators, motorcycles and older auto engines are most affected. Ethanol contains one-third less energy than gasoline. And many makers of lawn care machinery, marine engines, motorcycles and high-performance autos recommend avoiding gasoline with ethanol...FloridaToday

Idaho judge turns down committee report on bighorn sheep

A federal judge says the US Forest Service can't use an advisory committee's report on whether domestic sheep pose a disease risk to bighorn sheep because the committee was improperly formed. The decision from U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill could complicate the Forest Service's decision on whether to close 61 percent of the domestic sheep grazing allotments in the Payette National Forest. The Idaho Wool Growers Association filed the lawsuit in 2008, arguing that the Forest Service hand-picked scientists, who then met behind closed doors, to come up with opinions supporting a decision to close grazing allotments to domestic sheep. In his ruling, Winmill declined to comment on the conclusions of the committee, noting only that the process itself was flawed. AP

Work begins to remove dam in Washington's Wind River Watershed

Preparations began this week to remove Hemlock Dam on Trout Creek in Washington's Wind River Watershed, a project that conservationists say will help restore native fish runs and educate the public about rivers and the wildlife they support. The project, directed by American Rivers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will eliminate a 26-foot-high dam that was classified as High Hazard -- one that could threaten lives if it failed. The project covers roughly a 1/2 mile stretch of the creek near the Wind River Nursery north of Carson, Wash. The Mount Adams Ranger District of the U.S. Forest Service began rescuing and removing fish from the site this week, the first step to the $2 million project that will continue through the summer. The entire stream flow will be re-routed with pumps and pipes. A thick layer of sediment will be excavated from the shallow reservoir and the dam will be deconstructed. Crews will reconstruct the stream bed, using rocks and logs before returning the stream to its natural channel. Native plants that were salvaged from the site will be replanted...Oregonian

Mountain lion wipes out petting zoo

At first Stewart Loew was excited by the sight: a mountain lion on the family's farm near Amado. In 40 years on the Agua Linda Farm, Loew said this was first large cat he had seen when it appeared in the donkey pen about a month ago. But soon, his animals started to turn up mauled or dead. First there were four sheep. Then, on June 15, an awful sight: 16 pygmy and nubian goats — all the mammals in the farm's petting zoo — were killed. Only the geese were spared. Loew and his wife, Laurel, who run the all-natural, community-supported farm, faced a tough choice: Try to kill the wild cat or put their animals and possibly their farm's visitors — including many children — at some risk. "We were really conflicted," Stewart Loew said. But when they thought about it, there was no choice...ArizonaDailyStar

HT: Outdoor Pressroom

Feds could seize Calif. parks if closed by budget

California officials said Wednesday they are trying to avert the federal government's threat to seize six parks that could be closed to help reduce the state's ballooning budget deficit. National Park Service Regional Director Jonathan Jarvis warned in a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that all six occupy former federal land that could revert to the U.S. government if the state fails to keep the parks open. The sites are Angel Island, a former federal military and immigration facility in San Francisco Bay; the top of Mount Diablo east of San Francisco, where the Navy once operated a microwave relay station; Point Sur State Historic Park in coastal Big Sur; and three beaches — Fort Ord Dunes near Monterey, Point Mugu State Park near Malibu, and Border Fields along the Mexican border. The properties are among the 220 state parks Schwarzenegger has proposed closing to save $143 million. Legislators are considering the move as part of efforts to close a $26 billion budget deficit...AP

Purity of Federal 'Organic' Label Is Questioned

Three years ago, U.S. Department of Agriculture employees determined that synthetic additives in organic baby formula violated federal standards and should be banned from a product carrying the federal organic label. Today the same additives, purported to boost brainpower and vision, can be found in 90 percent of organic baby formula. The government's turnaround, from prohibition to permission, came after a USDA program manager was lobbied by the formula makers and overruled her staff. That decision and others by a handful of USDA employees, along with an advisory board's approval of a growing list of non-organic ingredients, have helped numerous companies win a coveted green-and-white "USDA Organic" seal on an array of products. Grated organic cheese, for example, contains wood starch to prevent clumping. Organic beer can be made from non-organic hops. Organic mock duck contains a synthetic ingredient that gives it an authentic, stringy texture...WPost

Song Of The Day #078

Let's get things rolling this week with Leon McAuliffe playing Panhandle Rag.

This version is from his Columbia Historic Edition LP.


Sunday, July 05, 2009

In a First, Navajos to Vote on Their Power Structure

Navajo voters have never had much of a say in how their modern government was shaped. But that may soon change, after a tribal judge cleared the way for a special election on a restructuring that could alter the balance of power on the sprawling reservation. The government structure was forced upon Navajo voters 86 years ago and was reorganized under three branches without their consent. Maybe Navajos “will have a greater sense of ownership in the government than they now have,” said Dale Mason, who teaches Navajo government at the University of New Mexico, Gallup. Voting on the measures, which would cut the Tribal Council membership by more than half and give the president line-item veto authority, “would come close to that,” Mr. Wilkins said. A tribal hearing officer ruled that the initiatives could go forward after a legal fight between the Navajo president, Joe Shirley Jr., and the Tribal Council speaker, Lawrence Morgan. An election was ordered held within six months, but an appeal is planned...AP

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Red, white and cowboy

Julie Carter

Old Glory will wave majestically in rodeo arenas across America this holiday. It's the Fourth of July and cowboys, if they are anything, they are patriotic and optimistically greedy.

This particular holiday is his "Cowboy Christmas," the most lucrative run of rodeos of the year.

Don't misunderstand. It doesn't take a holiday for the cowboy to bring out the flag. It's there at every rodeo. Honor to the stars and stripes happens first, before anything else.

Even the rodeo livestock seems to know the routine. Watch as the cowboys stand at the chutes, hats held over their hearts while colors are posted and the national anthem is played.

The bucking horses in the chute will snort and kick the gate behind them adding to the music's percussion.

For the rodeo contestants, it's a sound that echoes in the recesses of their rodeo memories long after they no longer compete. Like the ringing of Pavlov's bell, it invokes a hunger for the competition about to begin.

Add that to the smell of the fresh-worked arena dirt, the banging of the gates as bucking horses and bulls are moved around, the rattle of arriving trailers as they ease across the parking lot and the sound of hoof beats as a horse lopes across the hard surface to the arena.

I want to believe that almost all of us honor America, our freedoms and the price paid for both. This weekend, I also honor the cowboy for keeping tradition year after year and in economic times that boggle the mind.

Rodeo rigs are progressively bigger, fancier, and technology has kicked rodeoing up a notch from the days of standing at a pay phone along the highway to enter a rodeo or find out when you drew up.

As much as there is that is different, there is still so much the same.

It still requires the basics. First, the cowboy has to get there, and second, he has to have brought his cowboy skills with him.

Fourth of July rodeoing is defined by road-weary cowboys, tired horses, pickups filled with dirty clothes, fast-food wrappers and muddy boots.

The pickup dashboard is full of rumpled programs, Copenhagen cans, empty coffee cups, dust-covered sunglasses, gas receipts, a ball cap or two and a road map. But in every rig, there rides great hope, unlimited optimism and a belief that this time, this rodeo, things will get better.

For me, it wouldn't be the Fourth of July if I wasn't standing in the hot sun, beating rain or dusty wind waiting for the next event to move the entertainment along.

Years past paying entry fees and waiting for them to call my name, now I carry a camera and put what I know of rodeo into print.

I don't suppose I'll ever be anywhere else but at a rodeo grounds somewhere on the Fourth of July. In a mental check of the past 40 years, there have been no more times than I can count on one hand that I haven't been at a rodeo somewhere, in some capacity. Not likely it'll change anytime soon.

Join me at a rodeo for a look into the heart of the rodeo cowboy at his best. Today would be a good day to start.

Julie can be reached for comment at www.julie-carter.com, or wandering with a camera at the rodeo grounds all weekend.

Why I Love America

By Gen LaGreca

I love America for being the place where an upstart group of colonists, against all odds, battled the most powerful empire in the world---and won---all in the cause of liberty.

I love America for establishing a revolutionary new country in which a person’s life is his and his alone to live for his own sake, and government’s sole purpose is to protect that sacred right.

I love America for recognizing that not only is it illegal for a criminal to steal your property, force you to do things against your will, or hijack your life, but the government cannot do these things, either. I love America for declaring for the first time in history that government cannot act like a common criminal but must be accountable to moral law.

I love America for igniting a firestorm of liberty that in a brief page on the calendar of history led to the abolition of slavery, the suffrage of women, and the spread of freedom around the globe.

I love America for triggering an explosion of scientific and industrial advancement and a standard of living unmatched---and unimaginable---in history.

I love America for fostering the climate of freedom in which genius can flourish, making possible the Henry Fords, the Thomas Edisons, the Wright Brothers, and the many other innovators who formed entire new industries that moved mankind forward.

I love America for being the place where wealth was created and earned, rather than looted and plundered.

I love America for spawning the American Dream, the worldwide symbol of the boundless opportunity and achievement that freedom brings.

I love America for making possible a truly civilized society, one of self-sufficient, resourceful, confident, hard-working, wealth-creating, and life-loving people, who lived in a spirit of peace and good will toward their fellow man because no one staked a claim to anyone else’s wallet.

I love America for offering freedom and opportunity to so many of our ancestors who arrived as immigrants, who knew that in America nothing was owed to them and everything had to be earned, and who rose to the challenge, creating a spectacular new life for themselves and for us, their descendants.

I love America for being the country where people could work hard, rise, and be proud of their success, because production, profit, wealth, and achievement were the stuff that American heroes were made of.

No matter how much our country has swayed from its ideals today, I will never forget that I am an American. I will never forget that our ancestors forged a continent not with public aid and bailouts but with the shining vision of a better life and the self-reliance to attain it. Our forebears created wealth, progress, and achievement on an unprecedented scale. No government fed our pioneers, inspected their wagons for safety, certified their chickens, meddled in their businesses, looted their wealth, or subjected their lives to endless controls, permissions, and regulations. No government built the breathtaking skylines of our majestic cities, the proud monuments to free minds and free commerce. The government’s fingerprints can be found only on the shattered shells of public housing that wound our cities, a grim reminder of the failed welfare state.

The time has come to reclaim our legacy from the meddlers, moochers, expropriators, and budding tyrants who are hammering away at Lady Liberty, knocking her down bit by bit, and ready to topple her completely.

We the people must pick up the pieces, make our Lady whole again, and return her to her golden pedestal as the country we love and honor, the country of liberty.

Let us ponder these thoughts on Independence Day.

© 2009 by Genevieve LaGreca

Chicago writer Gen LaGreca is the author of Noble Vision, a ForeWord Magazine Book-of-the-Year award-winning novel about liberty. Her commentaries have appeared in the Orange County Register, Rocky Mountain News, Front Page Magazine, Free Market News Network, Gainesville Sun, Real Clear Politics, and other publications. She holds a master’s degree in philosophy from Columbia University. For more information, see http://wingedvictorypress.com/medical_thriller.htm.

Published with permission of the author.

I would encourage everyone to read her essay Why We MUST Invoke Our Individual Rights—Now.

Song Of The Day #077

On this Fourth Of July I will make an exception and offer a song from the modern era of country music.

The song is In My Land by Royal Wade Kimes, and is the hidden track on his A Dyin' Breed CD.

This song has special meaning on this day as we celebrate our liberty.

Give it a listen and have a great 4th of July!


Thursday, July 02, 2009

Los Ojos Hatchery Puts $2 Million into Reopening Long-Closed Stocking Facility

The Los Ojos Fish Hatchery is undergoing a $2 million renovation in order to reopen after a four-year layoff. Production had been halted in March 2005 after whirling disease was discovered in the hatchery. The construction work is being performed by El Prado Construction Inc., of Taos., and is being funded by the federal Fish and Wildlife Service, Hatchery Manager Greg Friday said. The infestation was discovered in March 2005 and the state Game and Fish Department-run hatchery has been shut down ever since. One previous attempt was made to clean and disinfect the hatchery but whirling disease was again found in the fish. Los Ojos was the third hatchery in New Mexico where whirling disease had been discovered. Hatcheries near Questa and Pecos were also temporarily closed due to the disease but have since at least partially reopened. None of the diseased fish were released into New Mexico waters, according to the Department...RioGrandeSun

Obama Silences Science: Is This the Change We Were Promised?

President Barack Obama rode into the White House promising open and honest government. So why did his administration bully a career official at the Environmental Protection Agency into silence? Last week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute released a 98 page report written by Alan Carlin, a 38 year veteran of the EPA, on the shaky science employed by global warming alarmists. Mr. Carlin had submitted the report to his superiors for the EPA to consider as it deliberated whether or not carbon dioxide “endangers” human health and welfare. As noted by my colleague Marlo Lewis, an “endangerment” finding isn’t mere bureaucratese. Instead, it’s a legal tripwire that would spark an economically ruinous regulatory chain reaction under the Clean Air Act. But the EPA would not consider Carlin’s report. In a series of incriminating emails, Carlin’s boss bluntly informed him that his report would remain secret for political reasons. Late Thursday night, CEI went ahead and posted a draft version of the document, which you can read here. In a not-so-subtle dig at the supposed scientific backwardness of his predecessor four months ago, President Obama said that science is “about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology.” Now we learn that his administration has done just that by silencing Mr. Carlin’s voice at the EPA. Is this the change we were promised?...CEI

Green Buildings Get Boost in Cap-and-Trade Bill

Most of the attention in the lead-up to last week’s vote on the Waxman-Markey climate bill was heaped on the cap-and-trade program. There was also a lot of vitriol over how much the bill would cost. Lost in the shuffle are a number of provisions that seem pretty banal but could have a more direct impact on the way we use energy at home and work. Take building codes. The bill mandates that upon passage, all states move to adopt standards for residential and commercial structures that are at least 30 percent better than two widely accepted energy codes. [See update below.] The requirements get more strict over time, and states would get lots of money from the federal government to enforce them. States that fail to comply could have the federal standard thrust upon them...WSJ

State and local governments will no longer be able to set bldg. codes of their choice. The senators from New York will have as much to say about bldg. codes in NM as the NM senators.

There must be a new definition of federalism out there that I'm not familiar with.

Fuel tax could be replaced with by-the-mile road tax

The year is 2020 and the gasoline tax is history. In its place you get a monthly tax bill based on each mile you drove — tracked by a Global Positioning System device in your car and uploaded to a billing center. What once was science fiction is being field-tested by the University of Iowa to iron out the wrinkles should a by-the-mile road tax ever be enacted. Besides the technological advances making such a tax possible, the idea is getting a hard push from a growing number of transportation experts and officials. That is because the traditional by-the-gallon fuel tax, struggling to keep up with road building and maintenance demands, could fall even farther behind as vehicles' gas mileage rises and more alternative-fuel vehicles come on line. The idea of shifting to a by-the-mile tax has been discussed for years, but it now appears to be getting more serious attention...KansasCityStar

Just think what that would do to us in the west, especially those living in rural areas, because of the distances we travel.

I'm confident the data from the GPS system would never be "studied" or shared with law enforcement or other government snoops.

We can trust them, right?

Should Obama Try to Reset the Planet's Thermostat?

On Monday, the Waxman-Markey climate bill moved to the Senate floor after narrowly passing the House. It's a step, yes—but as everyone knows, cooling the planet will require a lot more than closing an emissions deal. That's why earlier this month the august National Academy of Sciences (NAS) brought together in Washington, DC, leading scientists, economists, policy experts, philosophers, and a menagerie of other experts for a two-day workshop to discuss a crazy-sounding idea: Should the US consider geoengineering the planet's atmosphere to combat global warming? Once a fringe theory, in recent years the idea that humans can change the Earth's climate through direct intervention has begun to gain credibility in climate change discussions. The ways by which scientists propose to directly engineer the Earth's environment to slow the Earth's warming are myriad. Ideas range from injecting aerosols into the atmosphere via fighter jets to reduce solar radiation, to fertilizing the oceans with iron to grow algae blooms that absorb more carbon dioxide, to sending millions of small mirrors or "sun shades" into the Earth's orbit to scatter the sun's light away from the planet and back out into space. And these are but a few of the suggestions now surfacing in scientific circles...MotherJones

Controversies over Redefining Fill Material Under the Clean Water Act

On May 3, 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) announced a regulation redefining two key terms, fill material and discharge of fill material, in rules that implement Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. This report discusses the 2002 rule, focusing on how it changes which material and types of activities are regulated under Section 404 and the significance of these issues, especially for the mining industry. The Clean Water Act contains two different permitting regimes: (1) Section 402 permits (called the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit program) address the discharge of most pollutants, and (2) Section 404 permits address the discharge of dredged or fill material into navigable waters of the United States at specified sites. These permit programs differ in nature and approach. The NPDES program focuses on the effects of pollutant discharges on water quality. The 404 program considers effects on the aquatic ecosystem and other national and resource interests. The Corps and EPA have complementary roles under Section 404. Landowners seeking to discharge dredged or fill material must obtain a permit from the Corps under Section 404. EPA provides environmental guidance on 404 permitting. The determination of what is fill material is important, since fill material is subject to 404 permit requirements, while discharge of non-fill material is regulated by EPA under the Section 402 NPDES permit program. The revised rule was intended to clarify the regulatory definition of fill material by replacing two separate and inconsistent definitions with a single, common definition...OpenCRS

Should renewable energy include nuclear?

A new global effort that aims to make renewable energy more accessible to every country in the world will launch on July 1st. Governments are lining up to join the first agency that will advise them on how to make a renewable energy transition. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has attracted 108 countries, including the United States and China, which are both expected to announce their membership this week, in a move that experts say could boost the agency's credibility, since both countries are leaders in renewable energy. But supporters worry that IRENA could be undermined by countries that are trying to promote nuclear power as a solution to climate change and dwindling oil reserves. Today, members will meet in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt to vote on a director general for the group and decide which country will host the agency's headquarters. France generates nearly 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power. It's also one of the world's largest providers of nuclear technology and expertise. Since 2008, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has signed multibillion-dollar nuclear deals with the UAE, Qatar, Algeria, Libya, and Morocco. At the same time, France is promoting nuclear as a form of renewable power because it emits low levels of carbon dioxide. When the European Union defined its long-term target for renewable energy production last year, it tried to include nuclear power in the definition of renewable energy, a move that was rejected by EU members...CSMonitor

Of Hydraulic Fracturing and Drinking Water

A bill introduced earlier this month would bring federal oversight of hydraulic fracturing fluids – chemical mixtures pumped at high pressure into oil and gas wells in order to unlock deposits trapped deep underground. Environmentalists welcomed the bill, but representatives of the natural gas industry say the legislation could lead to increased costs, job losses and increased competition for water — particularly in the West. The bill, known as the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, (FRAC) was introduced in both the House and Senate by representatives from Colorado, Pennsylvania and New York. It essentially seeks to overturn a 2005 legislative tweak that placed fracturing fluids outside the regulatory purview of the Safe Drinking Water Act...NYTimes

Owyhee Initiative Funding Begins

Duck Valley Indian Reservation - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo will join members of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation tomorrow to discuss the first phase of funding that will implement provisions of the Owyhee Initiative land management legislation he passed earlier this year. The Owyhee Initiative, an eight-year collaborative written by Idahoans and led by Crapo in Congress, was authorized in the Omnibus Land Management Act of 2009. The process of allocating funding to implement the Owyhee Initiative is now underway through the appropriations process in Congress. Crapo said that other pieces of the Owyhee funding efforts to compensate ranchers for land exchanges, improvements and for giving up grazing rights, will come from a combination of public and private dollars. He said he has contacted Interior Secretary Ken Salazar about funding for the ranchers' needs. Some of the rancher payments, such as retiring grazing rights, must be paid for with private dollars and Crapo noted private groups are leading fundraising efforts in that regard...ABCTV-6

Dubois Destroyed

From our comment section:

There is a town in Wyoming that is also called Dubois.It is about an hour and half from Jackson Hole and just about broke. Every Environmental Policy that has been implemented has systematically destroyed this town.

They lost the Louisianna-Pacific mill in the Eighties, then when the Wolves came in 1995 the big ranches began to disappear.The Grizzly and Wolves have virtually stopped all tourist that used to hike in that Area.

The Wolves and Griz have destroyed the Hunting and Hunting is all that Dubois had left. The Big Game meat processing plant in Dubois processed 10 cow elk in 2008,they processed 25 in 2007.

In the year 2000 Wyo. issued 1500 late cow permits for the Dubois area ,today they issue 150. The reduction in permits began in 2003, that year the were reduced to 500, 2004 they went to 250 and have been at 150 since.

Our moose are gone.

If you would like to call and talk to a fellow who lives in a town that is dying because it has been sanitized by the Sierra Club. Call Darrel at Wind River Meat 307-332-8208.

What has happened to Dubois is a blue print for what is intended for the rest of us,who call the West our home. The Wolves are soldiers nothing more nothing less, and this is a war.

What they want and need is our Land and Water. The other issue that is fueling this insanity is the Hage Decision. Once the Hage Decision is put in place the Wildlife Managers will be liable for damages from Big Game. So the varied Fish&Game Dept have an interest in seeing as many ranchers put out of business as possible.

That is why Wyoming Game & Fish has been so quiet, and wouldn't say Wolf if they had a mouthful.

So watch your backs.

Todd Fross
nothpass@hughes.net

The Legalities of Rainwater Harvesting

Just as people use the sun to generate power for their homes, many homeowners capture rainfall for a variety of uses — from washing dishes to watering gardens during dry spells. But rainwater harvesting, as it is known, can be quite controversial — and in some Western states it is akin to theft. Opponents of the practice argue that if rain or snowfall is captured, less water will flow to streams and aquifers where it is needed for wells and springs. If enough people hijack precipitation, the thinking goes, it would be cheating downstream users who are legally entitled to the water. Proponents, meanwhile, see rainwater harvesting as a common sense solution to water shortages and storm water runoff – and find humor in the notion that collecting even small amounts of water is outlawed...NYTimes

Riding Land Conservation Efforts Get Boost from AQHA

Land conservation projects will get a helping hand from the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), after that group signed a memorandum of understanding to work together with the USDA Forest Service. By partnering together, AQHA and the Forest Service will actively promote public-private partnerships that encourage responsible use of federal lands by visitors participating in equestrian activities. Both organizations seek to disseminate information to the public regarding conservation, recreation, and natural resource activities relating to equestrian and recreational stock use. AQHA will work with the Forest Service at the national, regional, and local levels to identify appropriate cooperative opportunities (trail projects, recreational use studies, and educational programs) and pursue these projects with the recreational community in general and the equestrian community in particular. AQHA also will develop and maintain a communication network for equestrian users through its STEP (Stewards for Trails, Education and Partnerships) program...TheHorse

Ranchers dealing with wolf attacks

Pete Carricaburu feels victimized. A life-long rancher, Carricaburu has brought his sheep to graze on the same privately owned land near Dull Knife Battlefield in Johnson County since 1988. He’s learned to deal with mountain lions, coyotes and the occasional black bear. But last Saturday, a savage new element was added to his summer grazing operation when 10 of his sheep fell victim to wolf attacks within hours of being moved to the Big Horn Mountains. ”These are our babies and we take immaculate, good care of these sheep,” Carricaburu said. “Seeing them brutalized was just heartbreaking. We felt we were terrorized and we were. We found a couple of lambs trying to follow the herd with their guts hanging out. It was kind of like a drive-by-shooting.” Carricaburu’s case isn’t an isolated incident. Wyoming Game and Fish Department wolf program coordinator Mike Jimenez confirmed that four different ranchers have lost 52 sheep to wolves in Johnson County since May 4. That number has skyrocketed from the two confirmed wolf kills reported in all of 2008...BuffaloBulletin

Young bear kills four pigs on ranch

A young grizzly bear has been relocated after killing four pigs on a ranch northwest of Cody. “He will be given another chance, but if he gets into further trouble he’ll be considered for removal,” Game and Fish bear management supervisor Mark Bruscino said. Bear No. 434 is a “young inexperienced fellow,” Bruscino said. The first night the bear killed one pig. The second night, he killed three. Two of the 100-pound pigs were partially consumed. The bear was captured June 28 and moved to the Targhee National Forest into an area free of livestock...CodyEnterprise

National Disease Strategy Not NAIS Requested by R-CALF

R-CALF USA recently sent a letter to the Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., expressing its appreciation for her decision to hold back further funding for the National Animal Identification System until USDA finishes its listening sessions. R-CALF USA states in its letter that the U.S. needs to create a national strategy to improve livestock disease prevention, control and eradication instead of implementing NAIS. According to the letter, the NAIS proposal tramples over the rights and privileges of U.S. family farmers and ranchers, and the program isn't an effective vehicle to achieve animal health and livestock market benefits. Along with saying 'no' to NAIS, R-CALF says farmers and ranchers across the country have said at listening sessions that USDA is inviting the introduction of diseases into the U.S. R-CALF President Max Thornsberry says it's unconscionable that USDA is knowingly introducing dangerous diseases, citing BSE from Canada and TB from Mexico, while blaming livestock producers for not cooperating with its failed NAIS program. R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard says DeLauro has been informed of an eight-point plan that should be the starting point for the creation of a national disease strategy that will better protect the health of the nation's livestock and the safety of meat produced from the livestock. Bullard says R-CALF is hopeful USDA will redirect its resources to begin development of a national disease prevention strategy. FarmFutures

Norwood novelist wins Colorado Book Award

Norwood writer Amy Irvine McHarg is going to have to build a bigger shelf. Her novel “Trespass: Living at the Edge of the Promised Land,” has won yet another award, the Colorado Book Award for creative nonfiction. McHarg won the 2008 Orion Book Award and the Ellen Meloy Fund’s 2009 Desert Writer’s Award earlier this year. “Trespass” is McHarg’s memoir, following her as she scurries to the outskirts of her Utah homeland. She grew up an insider, a sixth generation Mormon rancher, but finds herself at odds with the predominant culture as she becomes an environmental advocate. As McHarg processes her father’s suicide, she finds herself pushed both figuratively outside the church’s reach and physically outside the Deseret boundaries, in Norwood. It was here, away from the onus of her Utah roots that she was able to finish the book. Throughout the book, McHarg sketches the metaphor of the coyote. Like people outside the church, banished to the edges of Deseret, or the conservationists run out of southern Utah’s wilderness by the storm of motorized recreation, the coyote is scorned and hunted and driven from its homeland. Despite all this, the coyote thrives. McHarg, who resolves “Trespass” in a somber key, reassures her fans that like the coyote she has flourished in her new digs...Telluride

World Champion Bullfighter Pleads Guilty To Cattle Theft

After an eight-month investigation, a cattle theft case in Pittsburg County, Okla., is finally closed after a rodeo bullfighter pled guilty to felony embezzlement of cattle. On June 16, Michael Eugene Matt, 36, of Blanco, Texas, was sentenced to a five-year deferred sentence, including supervised probation and was ordered to pay nearly $15,000 in restitution after assisting in the theft of 300 head of cattle worth approximately $244,000 from a California couple who owned a ranch in Oklahoma. Matt is a four-time world champion Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) and Professional Bull Riders (PBR) bullfighter and rodeo performer. Traven Wayne Clifft, 22, of McAlester, Okla., was hired by the couple in 2005 to manage the Oklahoma ranch. Investigations revealed that Clifft sold the cattle at area cattle auctions and deposited the money into his and Matt's personal checking accounts. Clifft pled guilty in February to three counts of felony embezzlement of cattle and was sentenced to five years deferred sentence with supervised probation and more than $130,000 in restitution...cattlenetwork

Industry Responds To HSUS Interview

“We’re here to help animals, not hurt them,” a Missouri poultry producer asserted this morning on AgriTalk’s call-in radio program. He cited personal experience, and said that there are numerous independent research studies on poultry housing that show that mortality rates double — or even triple — for laying hens raised cage-free versus those housed in cages due to natural animal crowding behavior. “How is that humane?” he asked incredulously. Adams recalled Pacelle’s claim that HSUS is willing to work with agriculture to develop better conditions for animals; however, that conversation seems to be a one-way street. HSUS is willing to sit at the negotiating table as long as agriculture agrees with what HSUS wants. To this end, a New York caller said of the “negotiations” that took place in Colorado, HSUS says it negotiated the timeline on certain practices from 10 years to 20 years. “It really was a negotiation of the terms of surrender,” the caller noted. David Martosko, research director for the Center for Consumer Freedom, joined the conversation, adding that Pacelle performed “masterfully” yesterday in refusing to be pinned down for what he really is, an animal-rights activist leading an animal-rights group. HSUS is just PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) with better wristwatches and better suits, according to Martosko. Martosko adds that the big concern for HSUS with respect to the Ohio situation is that the formation of an Ohio Livestock Animal Care Board means that HSUS will lose the chance to raise money off the issue. For example, with Proposition 2 in California last year, the group spent millions to promote their position, but made millions more in fund-raising efforts...cattlenetwork

Auctioneer named world champion

After competing for the title four times, Billings livestock auctioneer Ty Thompson has been crowned world champion by the Livestock Marketing Association. Thompson beat 32 other auctioneers from across the nation to win. Lewistown auctioneer Kyle Shobe was runner up. Thompson won use of a pickup for a year, $500, a custom saddle and a bronze statue. The 36-year-old will now travel the country, auctioneering at two dozen livestock sales events. Livestock auctioneers are expected to make split-second judgments on the value of livestock to start the bidding process, and balance the interests of ranchers trying not to sell too low with buyers trying not to overpay. AP

Cowboy's mission takes a break in Casper

Ross Welfl hoped he would get the chance to shower Wednesday night. It would be his fourth shower in the past 21 days. "And I'm feeling it, too," the 47-year-old welder, hunting guide and all-around cowboy said Wednesday afternoon. "Do you smell me? Good thing the wind is blowing this way." "My worst day is probably just a scrape on the butt for those kids and what they are going through with their disease," Welfl said. It's a sacrifice the Cody cowboy is willing to make to help the children at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Welfl, who is raising money for the facility while he rides, is not sure how many more showers he will get during the 1,200 miles he has left to ride before reaching his destination of Las Cruces, N.M. Welfl left Cody on June 13 with two horses, two mules, a pad to sleep under the stars and a pack of belongings. He plans to ride until Aug. 28 to raise awareness of cancer and wants to be back in Cody before hunting season begins. He hopes to raise money in each city he visits along the way...CasperStarTribune

Song Of The Day #076

Our selection today is by the western dance band duo of Spade Cooley and Tex Williams. Cooley plays the fiddle and is the band leader and Williams does the vocals.

Cooley was very popular on the west coast, won a battle of the bands contest with Bob Wills, and had six top ten hits. His career ended in 1961 when he was convicted of killing his wife. He served 8 years, was let out to play a charity concert, and died backstage after the performance.

The tune is Troubled Over You and is available on the two disc Swinging the Devil's Dream from Proper Records.


Federal agents hunt for guns, one house at a time

Success on the front lines of a government blitz on gunrunners supplying Mexican drug cartels with Houston weaponry hinges on logging heavy miles and knocking on countless doors. Dozens of agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — sent here from around the country — are needed to follow what ATF acting director Kenneth Melson described as a “massive number of investigative leads.” All told, Mexican officials in 2008 asked federal agents to trace the origins of more than 7,500 firearms recovered at crime scenes in Mexico. Most of them were traced back to Texas, California and Arizona. Among other things, the agents are combing neighborhoods and asking people about suspicious purchases as well as seeking explanations as to how their guns ended up used in murders, kidnappings and other crimes in Mexico. The ATF recently dispatched 100 veteran agents to its Houston division, which reaches to the border. The mission is especially challenging because, officials say, that while Houston is the number one point of origin for weapons traced back to the United States from Mexico, the government can’t compile databases on gun owners under federal law. Agents instead review firearms dealers’ records in person. “An angry ex-girlfriend or wife is the best person in the world, the greatest source of information,” Sloan said. ..HoustonChronicle

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Scientist Tries to Connect Migration Dots of Ancient Southwest

From the sky, the Mound of the Cross at Paquimé, a 14th-century ruin in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, looks like a compass rose — the roundish emblem indicating the cardinal directions on a map. About 30 feet in diameter and molded from compacted earth and rock taken near the banks of the Casas Grandes River, the crisscross arms point to four circular platforms. They might as well be labeled N, S, E and W. “It’s a hell of a long way from here to Chaco,” says Steve Lekson, an archaeologist from the University of Colorado, as he sights along the north-south spoke of the cross. Follow his gaze 400 miles north and you reach Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico, a major cultural center occupied from about A.D. 900 to A.D. 1150 by the pueblo people known as Anasazi. Despite the distance, Dr. Lekson believes the two sites were linked by an ancient pattern of migration and a common set of religious beliefs. But don’t stop at Chaco. Continue about 60 miles northward along the same straight line and you come to another Anasazi center called Aztec Ruins. For Dr. Lekson the alignment must be more than a coincidence...NYTimes

Forest Service must reinstate tougher guidelines

A federal judge in San Francisco Tuesday struck down national forest management rules devised by the Bush administration that environmentalists had denounced as a thinly veiled sop for timber companies. U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilkin ruled in favor of a group of 14 environmental organizations that sued the U.S. Forest Service for essentially relaxing regulations in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act. The decision means the Forest Service will have to reinstate rules protecting fish and wildlife and limiting logging in 150 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering 192 million acres, including more than a dozen national forests in California. "It is a great victory for national forests," said Marc Fink, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, which was one of the plaintiffs. "We're hoping today's ruling is the final nail in the coffin for the Bush forest policies and that we can move forward and do what is right for the forests."...SFChronicle

EPA to Let Calif. Set Own Auto Emissions Limits

The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday granted California's request to set its own limits on greenhouse gases from autos -- a long-sought victory with limited impact now that the federal government has pledged to impose national limits. That decision grants California a waiver to impose a limit on the emissions from new cars, when no such rules now exist in federal law. The EPA reversed a decision by the Bush administration, which rejected California's waiver request in March 2008. The District and 13 states, including Maryland, have pledged to adopt California's new rules as their own. Automakers selling in these states will be required to reduce new cars' average emissions by 5 percent in 2010, by 14 percent by 2011, and by 20 percent by 2012, said Tom Cackette, a deputy director of the California Air Resources Board. But a White House announcement in May drained this decision of much of its meaning. President Obama pledged that, beginning in 2012, the federal government would impose its own limits on tailpipe emissions. California officials agreed to accept the federal standards, which Obama said will require cars and light trucks to average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. That means that the practical impact of yesterday's decision will mostly come between now and 2012, when the federal regulations kick in...WPost

Can Farm Groups Kill the Climate Bill?

Despite a much-publicized deal struck for agriculture in the House energy and climate bill, many farm groups are lining up against the legislation emerging from Congress. The reluctance of groups like the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Pork Producers Council to get behind the measure threatens to kill it in the Senate, according to some political analysts. On Friday, the House passed legislation, 219-212, setting up a mandatory nationwide cap on greenhouse gases. "Agriculture can in effect hold this bill hostage," said Barry Rabe, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan. "This suggests we're only at the beginning of the negotiating process."...NYTimes

Klamath restoration negotiations delayed

Dam removal negotiators were unable to come to an agreement Tuesday, missing the deadline set for finalizing a plan to remove four aging dams on the Klamath River. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said Tuesday that an agreement is “within reach” and should be completed by the end of summer, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of the Interior. Negotiators from Oregon, California, the U.S. Department of Interior, and the utility company PacifiCor, had tentatively agreed to a dam removal deal in November 2008, with a deadline for a finalized agreement set for Tuesday. The efforts aim to rebuild the Klamath fishery and sustain agricultural communities who rely on the Klamath River. All parties have agreed to extend the deadline for a final agreement on the future of the Klamath Hydroelectric Project to September 2009. The tentative agreement from last year has since been joined by 22 other stakeholders...TimesStandard

Wireless Sensor Technology Predicts Fires in Forests

Voltree Power said it has completed a successful trial demonstration of its innovative climate sensor network, one that can be powered by energy harvested from living trees, according to a June 25 press release. The three-day test and system installation demonstrated the successful integration with the existing “Remote Automated Weather Stations” network, transmitting air temperature, humidity, and diagnostic data. Using low-power radio transceivers, sensors, and its patented bioenergy-harvesting technology, Voltree has provided a new means for fire prediction and detection. Developed under the oversight and guidance of the U.S. Forest Service as well as the Bureau of Land Management, the system employs sensors for air temperature, relative humidity, and voltage and can generate alerts in the event of a fire. In such cases, the wireless mesh network transmits data signals from one unit to another until they reach a Vaisala-built central monitoring station. These stations subsequently provide a satellite microwave uplink connection that allows the collected information to be shared with numerous government agencies and many other users worldwide...EP

Happy 65th Birthday, Smokey Bear!


Did you know Smokey Bear has profile pages on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube?

Did you know the FS has a new ad campaign celebrating it's 65th anniversary, with the campaign slogan "Get Your Smokey On" and displaying a new modern version of Smokey Bear?

Sorry FS and Ad Council, but he's still Smokey THE Bear to me.



Obama Cabinet Plans a Listening Tour of Rural America

The White House announced this afternoon that President Obama has directed many members of his Cabinet to begin what it describes as a “listening tour” of rural America this summer, beginning on Wednesday just outside Erie, Pa., in Wattsburg. With little notice, the first session begins tomorrow, as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack head there to talk about rural broadband service. The event, which is supposed to occur at noon at Seneca High School there, is expected to highlight a piece of the $787 billion stimulus package devoted to that issue. Many of the areas listed for visits by other Cabinet secretaries are situated in swing states — Zanesville, Ohio, for example, or parts of North Carolina — which turned out favorably for Mr. Obama in the 2008 election...The calendar is empty then for about six weeks, until Mr. Vilsack again ventures into swing territory in Scottsbluff, Neb., and an end-of-September event in Las Cruces, N.M., on rural infrastructure...NYTimes

Guard to seek volunteers for border

The Obama administration is developing plans to seek up to 1,500 National Guard volunteers to step up the military's counter-drug efforts along the Mexican border, senior administration officials said Monday. The plan is a stopgap measure being worked out between the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department, and comes despite Pentagon concerns about committing more troops to the border — a move some officials worry will be seen as militarizing the region. Senior administration officials said the Guard program will last no longer than a year and would build on an existing counter-drug operation. They said the program, which would largely be federally funded, would draw on National Guard volunteers from the four border states. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the details have not been finalized. Officials said the program would mainly seek out guard members for surveillance, intelligence analysis and aviation support. Guard units would also supply ground troops who could assist at border crossings and with land and air transportation...AP

Fox Attack - Woman Remains In Hospital

“I hear this terrible screaming; I look over and there’s this fox hanging off her arm,” Mr. Dupont said. He has worked as a wildlife specialist for 27 years. “The fox bit her arms, her legs, blood is dripping everywhere.” “He was rabid for sure,” Mr. Ford, 44, of Worcester, said in a telephone interview from his hospital bed in the emergency room at UMass Memorial Medical Center — University Campus, shortly after the attack. “This animal was tearing her up. I just ran up and punted it off of her.” The fox walked a short distance from the woman after releasing her from his jaw, and Mr. Ford said he started yelling at her to run into the house. The woman made it safely into the house, but the fox immediately started coming after him. The attack victim, who was not identified by authorities, remained hospitalized today. “She was a complete mess; she came out of the house on a stretcher. There was blood on her hands, face, back, legs, arms; all her clothes were bloody. Bobby Ford was a hero for stepping in,” Mr. Dupont said...Telegram

HT: Outdoor Pressroom

Animal ID plan scorched at Nebraska listening session

As a long procession of critics pounded away at the federal government’s floundering animal identification initiative Tuesday, federal veterinarian Dave Morris sat in the back of the room, mostly expressionless and sometimes occupied with his cell phone. “I think this one was consistent with many of the others,” he said later of the 14th and final listening session held across the country. It happens that the Nebraska session comes at a time state and federal officials are testing thousands of cattle and trying to contain the first two cases of bovine tuberculosis in Nebraska in 17 years. But that chilling Rock County development did not seem to affect the attitudes of many of the cow-calf producers who stepped to the microphone on the outskirts of Omaha on Tuesday. To them, the livestock identification plan is a government invasion that’s likely to become mandatory, add to their cost of production and infringe on their ability to run their operations as they see fit...JournalStar

Song Of The Day #075

This morning we will feature Charlie and Ira Louvin, the Louvin Brothers, and their 1956 recording of What Is Home Without Love.

It can be found on their 8 disc box set Close Harmony and on their CD Tragic Songs of Life.

Enjoy that harmony.