Sunday, September 07, 2014

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

by Julie Carter

The yellow busses are rolling again and school yards are alive with color, movement and sounds of laughing children.

It is a decades old routine that brings with it a wave of nostalgia for many, me included. There are generations of America’s students that can recall how much different things were “back then.”

I started school in a one-room country school house along with less than a dozen others in grades one through eight. I began in the first grade with three other children because they either hadn’t invented kindergarten yet or it at least it hadn’t reached the rural mountain regions of Southern Colorado.

All the grades shared one teacher, a huge wood stove in the middle of the room and a chalk board that was filled with everything from primer words to eighth grade math problems. And yes, Dick, Jane, Spot and Puff were part of my formative years.

We all brought sack lunches as there was no lunch program—free or otherwise. We had a “Boys” and a “Girls” bathroom option in the form of wood outhouses at the back of the school yard. I don’t recall if they were one- or two-holers.

Recess offered baseball, a set of swings with board seats complete with splinters and the usual playground games that required no equipment, only imagination. The apple tree at the back of the school yard carried the legend that it had begun when students from earlier years had thrown their lunch apple cores in a pile in that spot. I thought that was a magical story.

We had a Christmas play on a small stage that became available by removing part of a wall between the classroom and the backroom of the school house. I can remember being terrified to stand alone and sing my part of Jolly Old St. Nicholas. Now that I am aware of my lack of musical ability, I know there were many reasons to be afraid.

Gasoline was right at 25-cents a gallon and the drive to ferry me from the ranch to the school was across a country dirt road that included three creek crossings each way. I spent many weeks in the winter bunking with my teacher and her family on a ranch closer to the school.

While that saved on long walks if we were stuck in the snow, fuel costs and wear and tear on vehicles, it often made a little girl very homesick. But I loved my teacher dearly and she found a place in my heart like I suppose many first grade teachers do.

She did what teachers are supposed to do. She sparked in me a desire to learn and the belief I could do anything I set my mind to do. Even if she did put my hair in rag curls to spiff me up for school photos.

The rural education system was in transition. That unique one-room school experience lasted only a year for me when it was “consolidated” and the students bussed to a more central school location.

I thought I’d hit the big time. There were at least eight kids in my class.  Better yet, there was a filling station across the road that sold penny candy at lunch time. Things were looking up.

The first school building was built of rock—a foundation that formed walls up to large windows and a peaked roof that held a bell tower pointing to the blue Colorado sky above. 

I’d like to believe that one important year there began to form my life in the same way --rock solid underneath and always reaching to the sky.


Julie can be reached for comment at jcarternm@gmail.com.


"...rock solid underneath and always reaching to the sky."  Yup, I'd say that was a pretty accurate description of Julie Carter.  Hope she doesn't mind me using these pictures from her facebook page.

 

No respect in submission (Enough of this nice crap)

Enough of this nice crap
No respect in submission
Thoughts from open blisters
By Stephen L. Wilmeth


            Leonard and I found where the fence was down.
            We were in his mechanical mule bouncing over the rocks when we spotted where the cattle were going through a mangled water gap. No, it wasn’t washed out. That would have been a good problem. The problem had occurred when, in our whole herd movement to a new pasture, a yearling steer, cut out to haul to the house to wean, had jumped into the steel rim tank (thinking it was a perimeter fence in the corral). He proceeded to try to drown himself before he gathered himself enough to jump out of the five and a half foot deep steel storage tank only to jump the perimeter corral fence and run. He will now be harder yet to gather.
            What cannot be scripted was the fact he stirred the water up and moss and debris clogged the outlet to a major trough where the cattle had been moved. The next morning Leonard found the drinker dry, and, as a consequence, at least 175 pairs went back through the fence to the pasture from which they had been driven.
The breached water gap was their exit.
            On the Hook
            Both of us were about half mad.
            Finding cattle back where they had come from started it. The weather pattern had also moved out and most of the ranch remained short of rain. It had been 100º for another four straight days and the grass, already stressed, was hanging limp like a hound dog’s tongue. Yet another dry summer was sickeningly disheartening, and our mood reflected it.
            What we faced, though, eliminated any discourse of “what if” or “whose fault”. We had to buckle down and get something done. The fence had to be fixed, the cattle regathered, the drought contingencies refined, and … there was to be no deferral or shirking of duties. The two of us standing there were the entire crew. We were the safety committee, the secretary, the pipe fitters, the electricians, the administration, the cowboys, the payroll clerk, the HR personnel, the mail carriers, and the labor gang. If the mood was to be improved by a joke, it had to come from one of us. If something had to be retrieved or purchased in the process, it had to be done by us.
            Real life got more serious yet when we figured out we were woefully unprepared to deal with the situation with the tools being carried in the mule.
            Our lives and that of our government counterparts are described in different pages in separate books. What we proceeded to do wasn’t even in their play book. If it had been a federal agency matter, there would have been a whole different complex. Chances are the end result would have resulted in a contract being let, and, rather than a water gap being fixed, three miles of fence would have been rebuilt.
            The actions of those agencies, however, would ultimately bring the full force of regulatory burden back squarely upon us, the two American ranchers standing in the cut rebuilding the water gap. It will impact our counterparts in each and every similar circumstance. A perfect example is the EPA maneuvering to expand their regulatory jurisdiction by changing the definition of the “navigable waters of the United States”.
            When that phrase is adjusted by simply dropping the word “navigable”, the dynamic of the change is more than immense. There is no equating navigable water to storm runoff that would affect the water gap Leonard and I were rebuilding if and when it rained hard enough to run some water, and, yet, that is exactly what dropping “navigable” implies. The agency knows that and yet they will stand defiantly and offer false witness as if it should be believed. From its extensive watershed mapping discovered by a House committee, the EPA denies any ties to the expansion of its jurisdiction from that work created by a coordinating contractor.
            “Let us be very clear- these maps have nothing to do with EPA’s proposed rule or any other regulatory purpose,” the official spokesperson offered in testimony to a House committee.
            As I drove the eight feet long steel T-posts selected for the water gap in the bottom of the cut while standing on piled rocks and reaching as high above my head as I could, the basic honesty demanded in our daily lives cannot be explained away with words offered in meaningless testimony. We are the ultimate cupboard constantly being robbed for government largesse.
            Reality is demonstrating this administration’s agency actions are delineated from a partisan mission that has nothing to do with grassroots needs or inputs. Their words are simply filler used to confound any measure of meaningful debate. Changes are occurring only when or if litigation, funded by the meager means of the public being trampled, throws an occasional roadblock against the juggernaut. Even then, the mission will be repackaged to renew the effort and defend the agenda.
By the time I had finished driving those posts without gloves, my hands were screaming for relief. Blisters were already formed and broken, but we had to finish what we started. We had no choice.
            The climate debate is another fairy tale that has become an intrusion on our sensibility. China, India, and Germany are not even going to attend the next big climate summit to be held soon in New York. Two issues are highlighted as a result. The first is the embarrassment we, the host country, should feel as we proceed blindly down the ever rockier path chasing this phantom topic. The second is the corruption of science. What a terrible thing it is when knowledge becomes the subject of controversy. Everything we have ever been taught is counter to that, but our leadership will be there promoting their cause.
            The last task in building the water gap was to hang a ballast on the bottom of the span to float it and allow water and debris to flow under the device. When it was done, our mood had changed. We were smiling.
            Unfortunately, we have no choice other than to recognize the multiple fronts being waged against us.  Congressional authority is being usurped to further enshrine a model that our Framers and Founders not only warned about, but staked their lives on confronting and defeating. Nothing in this current administration is about defending our lives and our rights.
            The blister lesson, though, emerges as a very basic tenant. If I can drive eight foot T posts without gloves … we all can.
            Collect your Cajones
            This nonsense about the fact conservatives have no game plan is tedious. What the conservatives suffer from is the incapacity to be brutally honest. It is a basic inability to define and present the truth with resolve. As a result, the message can be dismantled and is made to appear insincere. The best example is the lie about Americans being greedy capitalists. That is a crock. Half the population is now subsidized. How can that logic be defended?
            Furthermore, the half of the population being subsidized believes they have embedded and differentiated rights stemming from their victimization. They are taught that. They are being supported and encouraged by their elected representatives that run the government.
            It is past time to curtail this nonsense. Federal spending originates in the House of Representatives. If you check your representative’s voting record, you will find there is a 95% chance he or she has never stood on his or her hind feet and said, “NO!” to the obligatory and stepwise progression to ever increasing spending.
Those legislative actions not only fuel the agency assaults on the heartland, they have promulgated and encouraged their empire expansion. There must be consequences for such defilement by legislative appeasement.
            The agencies are self preservationists. In the void of practicing self regulatory stability offered through natural law set forth in the Constitution, the void has been filled by the agencies. They will not change until the funding mechanisms disallow the savagery of their actions.
            By legislative record, there is not a single effective fiscal conservative in my home state of New Mexico. There are no voices of substantive authority that display the single-mindedness to demand and lead a purposeful return to originality. The glow of being reelected takes full precedence over openly defying the gaiety of spending our money and growing the victimization class. As such, the über liberals among the elected cadre are true to form and mission. They intend to grow the state with their unwritten agenda of obliterating the founding cornerstone … those of us who have blistered hands.


                Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “The night this was written it rained. Blessed, God given rain … nothing is more fundamental. Perhaps that is the single, concrete reminder that resisting this growing federal menace is worth the fight.” 


There are many things I could say about this column.  First up would be the juxtaposition of the private working individual with gov't agencies - that is powerful.  His penning the term "legislative appeasement" is beautiful, and so appropriate.  In fact, that leads me to the only thing I would add.  Wilmeth says "Congressional authority is being usurped."  That is true.  However, in many instances the authority has been delegated by Congress to the Executive Branch, and has been done under the leadership of both political parties. When in power, neither party has sought to retrieve that authority.  A recent example would be when the Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress and had Bush II in the White House, they did nothing to lessen or limit the President's authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906.  We recently "experienced" this authority in Dona Ana County and I can assure you there are more National Monuments to come.

In defense of Wilmeth I almost didn't publish this column.  How's that?  Because the steer jumping out of the tank would be proof to EPA that indeed the water was "navigable"!  -:)  But then I figured the term was being so corrupted by EPA anyway that it really didn't matter. 



Montana sawmill owner links lay-offs to grizzly bear decision

F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber on Thursday announced it will curtail production at its sawmill here by the end of September, and lay off nine to 10 of its 120 employees. In a written statement, company officials appeared to lay much of the blame on a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy last week that blocked a plan to build new logging roads into 36,700 acres of grizzly bear habitat in the Stillwater State Forest near Olney. But Stoltze resource manager Paul McKenzie said the Stillwater Forest case was just a small part of a larger picture in which he says 200 million board feet of timber in western Montana is tied up in litigation. “What (Molloy’s) decision did to us was make it critical we do it (lay off the 9 to 10 employees) right away,” McKenzie said. Molloy concluded the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act by approving a state plan to issue a permit to the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to “take” grizzly bears (i.e., harm their habitat) in the state forest. “It is with extreme frustration that we announce this curtailment,” Stoltze Vice President Chuck Roady said in the news release. “At a time when lumber markets are rebounding, we are faced with having to reduce production due to lack of access to the raw material.”...more

Wildfires threaten Yosemite National Park, other western communities

Autumn may be in the air, but the summer fire season continues to threaten communities and natural resources across the West. A 300-acre wildfire just outside Yosemite National Park in California, discovered on Friday, prompted authorities to order the evacuation of about 700 homes and the closure of some roads in the area. By midday Saturday, the fire was 25 percent contained. Farther north in bone-dry California, the Happy Camp complex of fires west of Yreka, which began nearly four weeks ago with a lightning strike, is reaching “megafire” status, or 100,000 acres. As of Saturday morning, the fire had burned 88,546 acres, or about 138 square miles, according to the Forest Service. Containment cost has been estimated at $51.5 million, and the blaze is 25 percent contained. A fairground is providing shelter for residents and large animals. Eighty-four fire crews totaling nearly 3,000 people, plus 16 helicopters, 22 bulldozers and other equipment are battling the blaze. In the Klamath National Forest, the July complex of fires has burned more than 40,000 acres. Farther north, a brush fire on Friday night in Corvallis, Ore., forced the evacuation of more than 200 homes. For the second straight year, Oregon has tapped into its insurance coverage to help cover the growing cost of firefighting, the Bulletin newspaper in Bend reported. This year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, 38,451 wildfires have torched 2,772,014 acres.  Source

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1287

Our gospel tune today is by Jim Reeves and is his 1958 recording of A Beautiful Life

http://youtu.be/yqL9cTs26EA

Saturday, September 06, 2014

Obama punts on immigration action until after midterm election

President Obama is pushing back any executive action on immigration until after the November. After numerous conversations with his cabinet, members of Congress, and stakeholders, the official said, Obama decided that postponing any executive action was the best route. The decision goes against the pledge Obama made less than 24 hours earlier on Friday that he would act "soon." The president does plan to act before the end of the year, the official added. The White House cited what they called Republican exploitation of the humanitarian situation near the Rio Grande Valley for further justification to delay any executive action by the president. The White House official touted the decrease in the number of unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. along the southwest border in recent month on Saturday, stating the "border is more secure than ever before -- without any help from Republicans in Congress." While the move by Obama may help vulnerable Democrats in tight reelection races as control of the Senate hangs in the balance, immigration advocates were quick to slam the president's decision on Saturday. “The president’s latest broken promise is another slap to the face of the Latino and immigrant community," said Cristina Jimenez, director of the larger youth-led group United we Dream...more

Friday, September 05, 2014

NM pronghorn shot last year is new world record

A pronghorn buck shot last year in New Mexico has been certified by the Boone and Crockett Club as a new world record. The huge buck, hunted in Socorro County, N.M., by Mike Gallo, scored 96-4/8 B&C points. Outstanding features of Gallo's trophy are: lengths of horns: 18-3/8 right, 18-4/8 left; total mass: 23-3/8 right, 23-2/8 left; lengths of prongs: 7 right, 6-5/8 left. The new record breaks a tie between two specimens from Arizona. One was taken in Coconino County in 2000, the other in Mohave County in 2002. Both scored 95 B&C points. Club officials say the difference between these old records and the new — a full inch-and-a-half — is an extraordinary jump. In fact, the margin between the now No. 1- and No. 2-ranked trophies is the largest in Boone and Crockett pronghorn records, which contain more than 3,400 entries. Overall, New Mexico is second in pronghorn entries in Boone and Crockett records, with 627. Wyoming is first with 1,154. Rounding out the top five are Arizona (339), Nevada (288) and Montana (183).  AP

BLM takes steps to separate hikers and sheep protection dogs

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is taking some novel steps in southwest Colorado to lessen potentially dangerous encounters between backcountry recreationalists and livestock-protection dogs. The BLM is posting a map of grazing allotments to let hikers and mountain bikers know where sheep herds and the dogs protecting them might be encountered. The map is centered on the Silverton area and the Colorado Trail, where many of the confrontations between recreationalists and the dogs have been reported. The BLM also is working with sheep ranchers to develop a pilot program for next year that will give herders global positioning system devices. The herders will download flocks' locations so the public can check that information online and learn where protection dogs are. That project will go into effect at the beginning of the grazing season next summer. This year's grazing season ends this month...more


Thumbs up to the BLM for this reasonable and balanced approach, and for using the latest technology to help resolve a resource issue.  Note the cooperative attitude displayed by the District Manager:


"We recognize the use of livestock-protection dogs as an important nonlethal method for predator control, and we are working to improve our outreach efforts to ensure the public is aware of potential interactions between various users on the trails as we manage for all the important multiple uses in and around the Silverton area," said Connie Clements, manager of the BLM's eight-county Tres Rios Field area.

Congress deadlocks on solutions to wildfire funding

Every year, the same story plays out somewhere in the West. The Forest Service allocates about 40 percent of its budget to firefighting, but in extreme years, that funding burns up by July or August, a month or more before fire season officially ends. Then the borrowing begins. Staffers call it "fire stealing"taking money to fight fires from research, forest stewardship and recreation. Congress is supposed to return that borrowed money, but even when it does, the work has already been disrupted. Ironically, funding is often yanked from projects that could help reduce the risk and intensity of wildfires. During 2012 and 2013, roughly $1 billion was pilfered, leaving the agency too broke to thin trees in the Verde watershed wildland-urban interface in Arizona or reduce hazardous fuels in California's Tahoe National Forest. Federal and state officials and policymakers agree that the current budgeting model, also used by the Department of Interior, is broken. And firefighting costs keep climbing: Wildfire season is two months longer than it used to be, and since the 1970s, the average acreage burned has increased five-fold. Plus, development keeps encroaching on forests, forcing firefighters to defend homes, an expensive—and dangerous—task. The most promising remedy has stalled out in the House. The bipartisan Wildfire Disaster Funding Act would treat the biggest wildfires like any other natural disaster (the same approach proposed by President Obama's 2015 budget). When firefighting costs exceed 70 percent of the 10-year average, land-management agencies could tap a $2.7 billion federal disaster relief account. That would enable agencies to fully fund existing programs, including those that reduce fire danger. Yet the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act has gone nowhere, apparently due mostly to opposition from two powerful House members: Budget Chair Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Natural Resources Chair Doc Hastings, R-Wash. In July, Ryan sent his colleagues a letter stating that the bill would break the federal budget by increasing spending and deficits. Simpson and Schrader countered that their proposal doesn't change total spending. (The Congressional Budget Office concurs, but notes that the bill could lead to greater spending in future years.) Ryan and Hastings are pushing instead for Senate action on Hastings' Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act, which the House passed last fall. It doesn't address the fire-borrowing problem, but would purportedly reduce fire danger, and hence suppression costs, by expediting projects that remove fuel from forests, including grazing and logging. The Forest Service would have to designate "revenue" areas in national forests, and log at least half of each area. The bill would reduce environmental review and limit public comment on many projects, and make it much harder to file lawsuits. President Obama has said he would veto it...more

Hawaii Is a State. Can It Be a Country, Too?

For years, native Hawaiians, whose islands were once a kingdom, have fought for recognition of that distinctive history from the U.S. government. They’ve won an array of federally funded benefits for those who can claim they’re descended from the state’s aboriginal people, including housing, education, and health-care programs. Yet they’ve been repeatedly stymied in their efforts to win sovereign recognition like that of American Indian tribes on the mainland. Now the Obama administration is considering a plan to establish “government-to-government” relations with native Hawaiians. Announced by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in June, the plan could lead to greater legal protection for programs favoring native Hawaiians and add momentum to an effort by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a state agency, to build a self-governing entity. While Republican senators have called the proposal divisive and say it goes too far, hundreds of Hawaiians turned out at public hearings to protest because they say it doesn’t go far enough. “If the United States is truly intent on reestablishing a government-to-government relationship, it needs to be with the reformed independent Hawaiian nation-state,” Ethan Onipa’a Porter, a teacher, said at a forum in Honolulu. “I think the Department of the Interior completely misread the pulse out here before they decided to go down this road,” says former Hawaii Attorney General Michael Lilly, a Republican. The roots of the dispute date back to the 1890s, when Hawaii’s Queen Lili‘uokalani was overthrown by sugar planters. The islands were annexed by the U.S. in 1895 and became the 50th state in 1955. Congress passed a resolution in 1993 apologizing to Hawaiians for the government’s role in ousting the monarchy. Now the administration is moving ahead without Congress. In an Aug. 1 letter to Jewell, Republican Senators Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Mike Lee of Utah, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, and Jeff Flake of Arizona called the proposed move “at worst unconstitutional, and at best offensive to the character of a country devoted to the advancement of all its citizens regardless of race.” The senators accused the administration of moving to usurp congressional authority and to enshrine “the type of arbitrary race-based classification that the Supreme Court has found anathema to the Constitution.” They cited a 2000 Supreme Court ruling that found the state of Hawaii couldn’t limit eligibility to vote in elections for the OHA’s board to people who could prove Hawaiian ancestry without violating the 15th Amendment ban on race-based voting restrictions. That raised concerns that social programs run by the OHA that favor native Hawaiians—some financed by trusts that precede the islands’ annexation—could also come under constitutional scrutiny. Yet some Hawaiian independence activists want the federal government to open a discussion with them about full sovereignty. “It should be the Department of State addressing the question of any relationship between the U.S. government and the Hawaiian nation,” Wesleyan University anthropology professor J. Kehaulani Kauanui wrote in an e-mail. “This proposal is a trapdoor.”...more

Y’stone drone pilot charged after crash

Federal authorities filed charges this week against a German man who Yellowstone National Park rangers believe crashed a drone into Grant Village Marina in July. Andreas Meissner, of Koenigswinter, Germany, faces four federal charges after a Yellowstone investigation uncovered proof that Meissner flew a drone in the park, filmed without a permit, left his property unattended in the park and gave a false report to park authorities. Meissner was filming as part of a documentary about a charity cycling tour when his drone’s battery died flying over the marina area of Yellowstone Lake. Rangers recovered the drone July 30 and filed charges against Meissner in federal magistrate court Aug. 27. Rangers say video files found on a GoPro camera mounted to the Phantom 2 show Meissner flew it within park boundaries at least three times, once in the Midway Geyser Basin area and twice along Grant Village Road...more

USDA to buy up to $13M in canned pink salmon

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has agreed to buy up to $13 million in canned pink salmon to ease a glut that has weighed down prices for Alaska fishermen. In July, Gov. Sean Parnell asked the USDA to buy $37 million worth of canned fish under a federal law that allows the government to purchase surplus food from farmers and donate it to food banks or other programs. Earlier this year, the agency purchased $20 million worth of canned salmon. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced USDA’s plans Wednesday. She says she isn’t focused on a specific dollar amount but on the government considering using existing funds to take excess salmon off warehouse shelves and provide a nutritious food to Americans in need.  AP

The feds protect one or more species if they are threatened or endangered and buys up the surplus of another species.  Gov't fish all the way.  And look who supports this - two Republicans.

Military Experts: With ISIS in El Paso, Ft. Bliss in Danger of Terrorist Attack

The recent increase in security at a key Army base near a Mexican border city where Islamic terrorists are confirmed to be operating and planning an attack on the United States indicates that the facility is a target, according to senior military experts contacted by Judicial Watch. Last week JW reported that the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is working in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED). High-level federal law enforcement, intelligence and other sources confirmed to JW that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued. Agents across a number of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense agencies have all been placed on alert and instructed to aggressively work all possible leads and sources concerning this imminent terrorist threat. Juarez is a famously crime-infested narcotics hotbed situated across from El Paso, Texas. Ft. Bliss is the Army’s second-largest installation, spanning more than 1 million acres with an active duty force of 34,411 and headquartered in El Paso. Two days after JW broke the story on ISIS operating in Juarez, Ft. Bliss announced it was increasing security measures. A statement that went out to the media was rather vague, attributing the move to several recent security assessments and the constant concern for the safety of military members, families, employees and civilians. But senior military officials contacted by JW this week reveal that military installations in the U.S. only make changes to security measures when there are clear and present threats. “It’s a significant issue when this is done,” says retired Army Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, former commander of the Army’s elite Delta Force who also served four years as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. “That means they’re getting a threat stream. Ft. Bliss had to have a clear and present threat.” The inaccuracies to the public appear to be part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to downplay the bloodshed that has long plagued the southern border and now the imminent threat of Islamic jihadists planning a strike as the 13th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil approaches. Remember that Obama’s first Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, famously proclaimed that the border is as secure as it’s ever been even as organized syndicates took over portions of the region, smuggling drugs, humans, weapons and money into the U.S.Back in 2010 a veteran federal agent disclosed that the government was covering up the growing threat by Middle Eastern terrorists entering the country through Mexico. The U.S. Border Patrol classifies them as OTM (Other Than Mexican) and many come from terrorist nations like Yemen, Iran, Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan. The feds call them SIAs (Special Interest Aliens) and the government doesn’t want Americans to know about them or that ISIS is operating adjacent to a major American city. “ISIS is working with the drug cartels,” confirms retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely, who’s regularly briefed by high-level contacts in the region....more

Are ISIS militants coming across the Texas-Mexico border?

In recent public settings, Gov. Rick Perry has mentioned ISIS terrorists could be using the Texas-Mexico border to gain access to the U.S. On Tuesday, KXAN spoke with one of the foremost authorities on terrorism and security about the threat. “We have not seen any evidence of ISIS amassed at the border ready to come into the United States,” said Fred Burton, vice president of intelligence at Austin-based Stratfor, a firm that analyzes security threats around the world. Two gates at Fort Bliss in El Paso were shut down over the Labor Day weekend because of security precautions. The closures came amid recent Defense Department guidance and internal security assessments, a U.S. Army spokesperson said...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1286

Here's another uptempo, rockin' type country tune: Elmer Bryant - Gertie's Garter Broke


http://youtu.be/epFvnE7mEg0

Thursday, September 04, 2014

Lack of charges in Cliven Bundy standoff poses risk, group says

Federal land managers want criminal charges filed in 35 cases related to the armed standoff between officers and militia members supporting Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy — and delay by prosecutors may be putting other federal officials at risk, an advocacy group charged Tuesday. More than four months ago, the federal Bureau of Land Management referred the cases to Nevada’s U.S. attorney’s office, according to data released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).  The group contends the feds’ failure to promptly charge those who pointed high-powered weapons at officers will encourage more defiance of federal authority over public lands, and may even endanger BLM employees in Utah and other Western states, where anti-federal sentiment has run high. "A criminal referral is the toughest option available to a land management agency like BLM, but that action is toothless if the U.S. attorney ignores it," said PEER’s executive director, Jeff Ruch. "BLM cannot do its job without legal support from the Justice Department." Similar concerns have been raised about the absence of citations issued in connection with an illegal ATV ride in Utah’s Recapture Canyon on May 10 led by San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman to protest federal "overreach." During the week prior, BLM Utah director Juan Palma had warned that those who violated the law would face legal consequences. Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said in a prepared statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Tuesday that his office does not "sit on criminal referrals from BLM." Adding to PEER’s frustration is the feds’ refusal to release the names of those recommended for prosecution and the specific charges requested. "Cloaking these cases only adds to the impression that this is a stall, not a deliberative pause," Ruch said. "Tolerating flagrant lawbreaking for years is how the present situation festered to fruition." PEER’s assertions are anchored in a database compiled by Syracuse University to track the criminal workloads of various U.S. attorneys offices. PEER intends to follow the outcome of the Recapture Canyon ride, but the database is current only through April 30, according to Ruch. It is not clear whether the BLM has requested that charges be filed against any of the 50 people who rode into the Utah canyon May 10. BLM’s Utah office recently handed the results of its investigation to the U.S. attorney’s office in Salt Lake City, according to BLM spokeswoman Megan Crandall. But her Justice Department counterpart, Melodie Rydalch, declined to comment...more

Could be there's some things they don't want to come out at trial.  Most likely, they don't want what would surely be a messy arrest of Bundy, plus the arrest of a County Commissioner, prior to election day.  December could be an exciting month.


Officials celebrate 50 years of conservation, wilderness laws

Obama administration officials and lawmakers celebrated Wednesday the 50th anniversary of a pair of laws that set aside wilderness areas and provide conservation funding. Officials took the opportunity of the anniversary to pressure Congress to renew the Land and Water Conservation Fund, whose authorization will soon run out. Wednesday was also the birthday of the Wilderness Act, which provides the means for designating wilderness areas and protecting them from development. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell celebrated the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson signing the laws with a speech at the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey. “It was one of the most amazing days for conservation in the history of this country. Probably the most amazing day,” Jewell said. Great Swamp was the first wilderness area designated under the act, and more than 100 million acres followed. Jewell said the United States has learned a great deal about the importance of preserving old-growth forests, especially for the species that live there. The Land and Water Conservation Fund takes money from fees on offshore oil and gas drilling and gives it to various conservation and recreation efforts. New Jersey Reps. Rush Holt (D), Leonard Lance (R) and Rodney Frelinghuysen (R) have all endorsed renewing it. “It’s going to need reauthorization and I’m sure our three members of Congress who are up here are going to make sure that this Congress takes a step in the right direction with full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund,” Jewell said...more

Dang, I wasn't invited to the celebration.  I see it was held in New Jersey, where the feds only own 176,00 acres, or  3.7% of the state.  Here's my suggestion to Congress and especially to those R's in NJ:  Spend the entire $900 million each and every year from the LWCF to acquire land in New Jersey, then pass laws to designate all acquired lands as Wilderness.  Then 50 years from now, let's see what kind of a celebration they host.



Green Markets

John Stosselby John Stossel

Last week I said the Environmental Protection Agency has become a monster that does more harm than good. But logical people say, "What else we got?" It's natural to assume greedy capitalists will run amok and destroy the Earth unless stopped by regulation.

These critics don't understand the real power of private ownership, says Terry Anderson of the Property and Environment Research Center.

"Long before the EPA was a glint in anyone's eye," said Anderson on my TV show, "property rights were dealing with pollution issues."

The worst pollution often happens on land owned by "the people" -- by government. Since no one person derives direct benefit from this property, it's often treated carelessly. Some of the worst environmental damage happens on military bases and government research facilities, such as the nuclear research site in Hanford, Washington.

Worse things may happen when government indifference combines with the greed of unrestrained businesspeople, like when the U.S. Forest Service lets logging companies cut trees on public land. Private forest owners are careful to replant and take steps to prevent forest fires. Government-owned forests are not as well managed. They are much more likely to burn.

When it's government land -- or any commonly held resource -- the incentive is to get in and take what you can, while you can. It's called the "tragedy of the commons."

"No one washes a rental car," says Anderson, but "when people own things, they take care of them. And when they have private property rights that they can enforce, other people can't dump gunk onto the property."

That's why, contrary to what environmentalists often assume, it's really property rights that encourage good stewardship. If you pollute, it's your neighbors who are most likely to complain, not lazy bureaucrats at the EPA.

"Here in Montana, for example, the Anaconda Mining Company, a copper and mining company, ruled the state," says Anderson.

"And yet when it was discovered that their tailings piles (the heaps left over after removing the valuable material by mining) had caused pollution on ranches that neighbored them, local property owners took them to court. (Anaconda Mining) had to cease and desist and pay for damages. ... They quickly took care of that problem." They also restored some of the land they had mined.

Property rights and a simple, honest court system -- institutions that can exist without big government -- solve problems that would be fought about for years by politicians, environmental bureaucrats and the corporations who lobby them.

In fact, it's harder to assess the benefits and damages in environmental disputes when these decisions are taken out of the marketplace and made by bureaucracies that have few objective ways to measure costs.

Yellowstone ‘Super Eruption’ Could Blanket U.S. in Ash, Study Finds

If Yellowstone erupted into a massive, ash-spewing volcano, how far might the plume travel across the continental United States? From coast to coast, blanketing every city in ash, according to an unsettling new study. Geophysicists developed a computer model of a Yellowstone “super eruption” that would spew 330 cubic kilometers of volcanic ash into the sky. The resulting ash cloud, depending on wind conditions, would blanket the continental United States in ash deposits of varying thickness, according to the study, published late August in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. New York and Washington D.C., would get a light dusting of ash measuring roughly one-tenth of an inch, while San Francisco and Seattle would get a heaping 2 inches. Billings, Montana, meanwhile, would have to dig out from a 70-inch pile up...more

More than 57,000 gun-friendly bars, eateries crop up across America

The owners of TBonz Steakhouse in Augusta, Georgia, decided to be proactive when Republican Gov. Nathan Deal signed into law one of the most comprehensive pro-gun bills in the country this April, which allowed firearms into the state’s bars and restaurants. The eatery hung up a “No Guns” sign on its front door. Its customer backlash was so harsh and quick that the steakhouse immediately took down the sign and then posted a mea culpa on its Facebook page. “The sign that was put up regarding firearms has been removed,” TBonz said in its Facebook posting this May. “It was our intention to get the attention of IRRESPONSIBLE gun owners. But then we realized that irresponsible gun owners do not pay attention to signs.” Carrying rights are now a reality in every state, while only three states — Maine, North Dakota and Illinois — claim a complete ban on guns in restaurants or any establishment that derives more than half of its profits from alcohol. In many states, including Ohio, it’s up to the customer to refrain from drinking alcohol while carrying a firearm — which can be an operational headache. Some remain silent on the issue, essentially giving a free pass to carry. While each state’s bill is written differently and has varied licensing requirements, most give restaurant and bar owners the right to “post” their establishment — that is, to tack a sign onto their door either prohibiting or allowing guns. After the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting, many national chain eateries, including Starbucks, Sonic and Chipotle, told their customers to leave behind their weapons — homing in on what they believed to be a rising national antigun sentiment. However, many smaller restaurants and bars are embracing guns, telling patrons to come in and eat armed for a variety of reasons, including not angering their own customer base, to attract Second Amendment rights activists and to not leave themselves vulnerable to crimes by blatantly stating everyone in the joint is unarmed. The Cajun Experience in Leesburg, Virginia, has Second Amendment Wednesdays, where patrons are encouraged to either go concealed carry or open carry. “This is a Virginia restaurant, and we abide by Virginia state laws, which allow for open carry or concealed carry in a restaurant — so why should I hinder it? It’s our constitutional right to bear arms,” said Bryan Crosswhite, owner of the Cajun Experience. “We definitely see more traffic since we started this. It’s been an overwhelming response.” In addition to owning a gun-friendly eatery, Mr. Crosswhite has started an organization that lists other pro-Second Amendment companies nationally, called www.2amendment.org. He started the venture this winter and already has 57,000 businesses signed on. Gunburger.com is another registry where Second Amendment activists keep a log of both gun-friendly shops and the anti-Second Amendment stores in Arizona and Kansas. They meet monthly to both update the list, converse and eat and drink with their weapons in a firearm-friendly establishment. Local shops who show the love to gun-toting customers are getting it in return...more

Wednesday, September 03, 2014

Judge Sets Hearings for Illegal Alien Minors--4 Years From Now

Seventeen-year-old Cristian stepped through the swinging wooden door separating the crowded waiting area from the judge’s bench, straightening his slightly-too-big dress shirt as he slid behind the defendant's desk. As his lawyer took the seat beside him, Cristian slipped on the court-provided headphones so he could hear the Spanish-speaking translator as his lawyer began to speak. After a few pleasantries, Cristian’s lawyer told Immigration Judge John M. Bryant that his client conceded to the charge of being an undocumented alien in the United States and was subject to potential removal. Cristian wanted to plead for asylum for “protection from torture,” and “declined to state his country of removal at this time,” the lawyer added. Within a minute, Bryant had accepted the plea and scheduled a hearing in which the court will determine if Cristian is eligible to receive asylum. The date was set for June 11, 2018. “Are you available that day?” Bryant jokingly asked the lawyer. “I don’t have my 2018 calendar in front of me, but yes, I believe so,” the lawyer responded. “Okay, good. Have a good school year,” Bryant told Cristian. “I’ll see you in a few years, okay?” The entire ordeal was over in less than five minutes. The revolving door of the U.S. immigration system was in constant motion Tuesday morning in Courtroom 6 of the Arlington Immigration Court, as a steady stream of undocumented alien children piled in to the small space in hopes of being granted permission to stay in the United States. Three cases were ready to plead for asylum, and all received hearing dates set for June, 2018. By that time, all three children -- currently teenagers -- will be well into adulthood. Most of the children had shown up for a “master hearing,” or a first appearance in court, and were not yet required to make an official plea. To help put them at ease, Bryant began the long line of hearings by telling the assembled children that they were “special.” “This is all about you,” he told the children. “You’re so special we have a docket just for you.”...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1285

Our "Rockabilly Week" tune today is The Train's Done Gone by Ray Scott

http://youtu.be/glGefPclDos

Ranchers concerned about grazing fees if state takes over from feds

Should Montana Republican lawmakers saddle up to take control of federal lands, they might be without one important, generally conservative group – cowboys. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management manages 7.8 million acres of land in Montana and all but a few hundred thousand acres are leased for grazing at the incredibly low rate of $1.34 for enough forage to feed an animal for a month. The U.S. Forest Service also leases grazing land for the same low price. Montana also leases grazing land using the same forage formula, but the state charges no less than $11.41, with the possibility of the price being driven higher by competitive bidding. The price difference between the state and federal government, as well as the difference in leasing terms, has ranchers pulling back on the reins as Republicans, who have made a state takeover of federal lands part of their party platform, ride ahead. “I think it’s a pretty big decision,” said Jay Bodner of the Montana Stockgrowers Association. “The topic has been discussed, but I don’t know if we’ve ever gotten down to the finer details.” The ranch groups that tend to align themselves with Republican lawmakers are being cautious in what they say about a state takeover of federal land. As one industry representative said, there’s a real “with us or against us” attitude among Republicans supporting a takeover. No one wants to be alienated for pointing out the potential negatives for the livestock industry. The Montana Farm Bureau Federation, the state’s largest agriculture group, recognizes a need to at least discuss the state taking over federal lands, but stops short of endorsing the move. “I think it’s a discussion that should be held because of the mismanagement of our federal lands,” said John Youngberg, Montana Farm Bureau Federation CEO. “Do I think we should just take over 30 million acres of federal land in Montana tomorrow? I don’t think that’s reasonable.”...more

Nobody is saying this will happen "tomorrow", so I don't understand Youngberg's comment.  After all, that's why the states are setting up these study committees.

There are fees and there are costs.  At the federal level there are the "costs" of scoping, EAs, EISs, Land Use Plans, AMPs and myriad appeals and lawsuits by outside interests, plus dictates on type of livestock, where and when you can place salt or feed, and on and on.

The total cost of doing business on state land will be, in many instances, less than the total cost of dealing with the feds.

Let's hope its not the livestock industry who kills the deal in Montana.  Better read the tea leaves ladies and gentlemen.  Look back at what's happened over the last thirty years and surely you can see what's going to happen in the future.

Interior's'rock star' budget chief has left the building

When word began to spread that the Interior Department's top career budget chief was calling it quits after nearly four decades of government service, congressional aides of both parties began fretting. Pam Haze is one of Interior's most experienced ambassadors to Congress and a vital resource for appropriators who decide how to fund the $12 billion department. "All of us are nervous," said a Senate Appropriations Committee aide, who was distraught enough to call a meeting earlier this month with his counterpart across the aisle to discuss Haze's departure. Haze -- Interior's deputy assistant secretary for budget, finance, performance and acquisition -- retired Friday after nearly a decade shaping the department's fiscal programs. Her departure leaves a gaping hole in Interior's budget and policy shop, say current and former agency officials and congressional staff. "She is one of the best, or maybe the best, public servant I have worked with," said Chris Topik, who worked with Haze as an aide to former Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington. Dicks left Congress in early 2013 as the Appropriations Committee's top Democrat. "Her reliability is legendary." Her knowledge of the agency and its 70,000 employees is unparalleled, according to those who have worked with her. Described as a "rock star" by two Interior colleagues, Haze is credited with helping keep the department afloat during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the federal sequester and the government shutdown of October 2013. Her Interior career began in 1975 as a clerk for the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, an agency that was later folded into Interior's Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service before being abolished by former Interior Secretary James Watt during the Reagan administration...more

Oh yeah, Watt shut that Bureau down.  He came to DC first to work for Wyo. Senator Simpson, then did a stint at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  When Nixon was elected he held several positions at Interior, including heading up the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, so he had more than a little familiarity with the Bureau.

On exactly how this happened we turn to Perry Pendley's Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan's Battle With Environmental Extremists....  Pendley tells us that early on Secretary Watt and Under Secretary Hodel met with career employees and bureau chiefs. At one of those meetings "a career official from the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service (HCRS) - the organization once headed by Watt when it was the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation - asked, 'Mr. Secretary, do you plan to abolish the HCRS?'  Without hesitating, Watt replied, 'Yes.'  Afterward, as Watt and Hodel strode down the hallway, Hodel asked, 'Jim, when did you decide to abolish the HCRS?' 'I decided to do it as soon as he asked the question,' said Watt. 'If an official asks if his agency is going to be abolished, then he knows the answer already.' "

Pendley also advises Interior requested a 15.3 percent cut in funding for the '82 budget.  Congress didn't go along, in fact over the entire Reagan administration Congress appropriated $4 billion more than Interior requested.  However, over that same period employees were reduced by 11 percent. Not exactly how things are done today.

My review of Pendley's book is here.  Better get yourself a copy, before Obama bans it by Executive Order.

Outdoors users doubt state takeover of federal land is right fix

A lot of hunters, hikers and horseback riders have problems with federal land managers in Montana, but few of them are ready to take over the job. “I think there’s an incredibly bureaucratic system when it comes to operating recreational opportunities on federal lands, especially speaking as an outfitter,” said Mac Minard, director of the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association in Helena. “I don’t think anyone in the federal government is blatantly trying to poorly manage the land.” The Montana Republican Party in June passed a platform resolution calling for state takeover of 25 million acres of federally controlled land. Minard said MOGA’s membership hasn’t taken a position on the GOP move. “But I think the Montana model is pretty strong,” Minard said. “I’m not aware of a system that’s better in terms of affording public access to public resources. I think our relationships with the Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service are pretty darn good. I do think it could be done better. There are a lot of logging issues and recreational issues that tend to get wrapped up in federal processes or federal court challenges that prevent full utilization and benefit that could accrue from federal lands. There’s a step where we could help federal land managers do a better job than just transfer the land over.” The Legislature’s Environmental Quality Council last month considered a report on problems with federal land management in Montana that contained numerous “risks and concerns” about federal oversight, and recommendations for speeding up decisions on issues like logging, mining permits and road construction on public lands. Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, chaired the drafting committee and is an advocate for full state management of public property. “It appears in early 1990s, we saw a shift from responsible productive land management to the downward spiral of dysfunction we have today,” Fielder said. “Federal policies like the Federal Land Management Policy Act of 1976 promised us land management would be performed with local planning and sustained yield, multiple use, and that counties would receive payment in lieu of taxes for the federal property within their borders. They’ve broken every promise since that was enacted. They’re giving us pennies in lieu of trillions.” Montana’s recreation economy generates about $5.8 billion a year in consumer spending and supports 64,000 direct jobs, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. The state receives 9.8 million visitors a year from outside its boundaries, and the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department said wildlife viewing is one of the top two reasons for coming. That outside interest can’t be ignored in the federal land management debate, according to Public Land and Water Access director John Gibson...more

new link

Forest Service road closure affecting hunters

Brian Davis and his wife have hunted elk up on public land above Vail Mountain ski resort for years. This season, however, will present new challenges. Mill Creek Road, a dirt U.S. Forest Service road that leads up the ski resort and 10 miles up to Benchmark, is among a number of public roads that are now closed to vehicle traffic. That poses a problem for hunters like the Davises, who are unhappy that their favorite hunting grounds are now much more difficult to access. “It’s going to be really different now,” he said. “Now we’re going to have to hike up there, and I’m a little concerned about parking in the Vail structure and having my wife walk up Bridge Street with a rifle. We’ll probably have to carry our kill down Bridge Street. That’s not a problem, but as a respectable hunter, I try not to do that to other non-hunters.” Mill Creek is one of a few heavily used roads that are now closed to motor vehicles as part of the Forest Service’s 2011 land management plan. Other popular roads that are now restricted include Davos Trail in West Vail and Spraddle Creek north of Vail. District Ranger Dave Neely said the closures went into effect several years ago as part of the White River National Forests’ travel management plan after a public process — but many people are just starting to take notice now as gates go up to block cars, ATVs and dirt bikes. “It’s nothing new. In 2005, regulations directed all national forests to make a travel management plan, and that included designating the roads that people use for travel and recreation,” said Neely. “What people are seeing now is the implementation.” In the case of Mill Creek, the road was closed to motor traffic both to protect wildlife habitat and to keep vehicles from interfering with summer resort work and operations...more

Brandborg recalls effort to pass Wilderness Act 50 years ago

Stewart Brandborg speaks in slow, precise, fully formed paragraphs. “Lots of people never set foot in a wilderness sanctuary, but they like the idea, the concept that somewhere Nature is working her will in the absence of the heavy hand of man,” he explains. “Whether it’s a trip to the zoo, or a heavily used city park, there’s something in the American people, inherited from their grandfathers and grandmothers who were the frontier vanguard that developed this country, for the outdoors. Even if they’ve never had a camping trip, never sampled Nature, they are an alliance of people who speak for unspoiled landscapes, rivers, mountains and deserts.” Brandborg has been shepherding that alliance nearly all his 89 years. He’s one of the last surviving witnesses to the creation of the Wilderness act of 1964, picking up the standard after its drafter, Howard Zahniser, died of a heart attack just weeks before President Lyndon Johnson signed it into law on Sept. 3, 50 years ago. “He was one of the originals who was right there,” said Brock Evans, former top legal representative of the Sierra Club during the Wilderness Act’s birthing and now board member of the Endangered Species Coalition in Washington, D.C. “He was a master of getting grassroots people who actually live in the threatened country together, and bringing them to learn the habitat of Washington. He taught me about the importance of grassroots organizing. From Brandy, I learned how to be a warrior and a fighter.” “Zahniser wrote this bill on an old white tablet with blue lines on his kitchen table,” Brandborg said. “I don’t think the term – I know damned well the term ‘wilderness’ wasn’t in common usage yet. But Zahniser was relentless in keeping attention on the only agency that used the term and that dedicated wilderness lands, because of the insights of a few in the U.S. Forest Service.” Brandborg referred in particular to Bob Marshall, the Forest Service explorer and founder of the Wilderness Society, whom he once met hiking through the West Fork of the Bitterroot River. Marshall died in 1939 at the age of 38. Two years later, The Forest Service set aside 950,000 acres of Montana’s Rocky Mountains in his memory – what’s now the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1284

Its a short week but we'll keep things moving with some rockabilly. Here's the Miller Brothers and their 1956 recording for the 4 Star label titled Loco Choo Choo.

http://youtu.be/LcVYGzYn4yY


Bio from hillbilly-music.com   The Miller Brothers started singing in front of audiences as far back as when they were in grade school - at school functions and civic events. On the weekends, they would at dances and with other show groups. The 1955 version of The Miller Brothers group had been together sine 1940 and were continually doing the proverbial one-night stands. During the World War II period of 1943 and 1946, the group got split up a bit by serving in the military. For much of the early part of their career, they were playing mainly in Texas and southern Oklahoma. But in 1950, they decided to branch out a bit and started appearing in places such as New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming and occasionally over to Louisiana and Mississippi. Leon Miller was the leader of the group, and was an instrumentalist and composer, too. In high school, he was a concertmaster of his junior and senior year orchestras. Lee Miller helped Leon organize the group and handled a lot of the business arrangements. The group achieved a fair bit of fame in the mid-1950s. Billboard magazine named them the number 3 band in 1956. Downbeat magazine awarded them the number 4 spot in their new big bands contest. And they also got 29% of the vote as one of the most promising up and coming band in a Cash Box magazine survey. In Texas, they were rated the top Lone Star unit. In addition to their dance music, they also put on a bit of a floor show, trying to give their fans a bit entertainment for their admission price. The band also owned their own place to play when they weren't making appearances elsewhere - the MB Corral in Wichita Falls, Texas. It was able to seat 1,000 folks and had a roomy dance floor. The Miller Brothers did a radio show that aired twice a day over KFDX out of Wichita Falls, Texas. They also recorded for the 4 Star record label and had releases on "Rose of Tiajuana", "That's How Long I'll Love", "Alligator Rag", "Today Tomorrow" and "Nursery Rhyme Blues". Group members included: Leon Miller Lee Miller Sam Miller Bill Jourdan Madge Suttee Dutch Ingram Bill Taylor Dale Wilson

Tuesday, September 02, 2014

Proposal to transfer federal lands to state ownership divisive, and debated

Whether debated over a steaming cup of coffee in a rural café or deliberated in the chambers of the Montana Capitol, the transfer of federal lands to state or private ownership has become a divisive political issue from Eureka to Ekalaka. Proponents and many opponents of a transfer argue that the state outperforms the federal government in management of public lands, and that the wood products industry needs more access to national forests for timber and other natural resource development. Escalating the debate was the Montana Republican Party’s June 2014 resolution making support for the land transfer an official party platform. The language in the resolution calls for a timely and orderly transfer, with government officials working in concert and providing resources to state and local governments to manage the lands, said one of the state’s major supporters of a transfer, Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls. The resolution also eliminates any sale of transferred lands without the consent of Montana’s citizens, she said. “I think the resolution is very thoughtful, filled with fact and the belief that Montanans can do a lot better than the federal government managing our lands,” Fielder said. “What right does the federal government have to control 80 percent of Mineral County? The fundamental question is do we want more federal control of Montana or do we want less?” Fielder chairs the SJ-15 working group under the Environmental Quality Council. The working group studies federal management of public lands, and makes recommendations to the Legislature on solutions to management shortfalls. Similar committees examining federal land issues have convened in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada. SJ-15 studied a variety of management solutions like better coordination between federal and county governments, but extensive discussion and testimony about a land transfer garnered the most statewide attention...more

Estimates: State management of federal lands could cost Montana $500M

Determining the cost to the state of Montana to take over management of roughly 25 million acres of federal land within its borders is no easy task, but a back-of-the-envelope calculation puts such a deal at close to half a billion dollars. “There’s a whole new sector of land management that would be needed to manage public lands,” said John Grassy, information officer for the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. “We’re being asked to project how we would staff and program an additional 25 million acres. It’s something we’ve never done before.” Despite the difficulties, the DNRC is still trying to come up with some figures, possibly by this fall. Gov. Steve Bullock has made it clear that he does not endorse a takeover of federal lands in Montana, calling such public property the birthright of state residents. But the Montana Republican Party in June endorsed such a move, including it as one of the planks of its platform. The GOP resolution states, among other things, that such a takeover would benefit Montana residents by allowing a larger timber harvest and clearing forests of fuels that are now burning in historically large wildland fires – thereby creating jobs and reducing air pollution; increase access to public lands, especially for motorized users; and give local governments a greater say in land management in their counties. The state of Utah, which has been leading the federal land takeover charge in the West, has excluded tribal lands, national parks and wilderness areas from its proposed takeover. Given that Montana has about 3.4 million acres of designated wilderness, then the amount of federal land the state might lay claim to is about 21.6 million acres. The BLM also manages about 37.8 million subsurface acres for mineral, oil and gas extraction. The DNRC oversees management of 5.1 million acres, so in acreage alone if the DNRC were to take on the responsibility of Forest Service and BLM land, its workload would increase fourfold...more

Cost of educating new class of illegal immigrant minors estimated at over $760M

A new report puts the price of educating the thousands of illegal immigrant children who recently crossed into the U.S. at a whopping $761 million this school year -- as some school systems push for the feds to pick up the tab. The estimate comes from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which issued a report on the 37,000 “unaccompanied minors” – who mainly are from Central America – after analyzing data from the Department of Health and Human Services and education funding formulas in all 50 states. The numbers underscore the concerns critics have raised for months about the burden the surge is putting on local school systems and governments. “We’re not doing American students any favors by dumping in tens of thousands of additional illegal alien children,” FAIR’s Bob Dane told Fox News. The report breaks down the costs by state. The biggest impact reportedly will be seen in California, Texas, Florida and New York. The Empire State leads the list with a bill of more than $147 million. Immigrant rights groups, though, say it’s a small price to pay for helping kids in need...more