Tuesday, July 07, 2015

BLM official sentenced in workplace fraud case

A federal judge sentenced a senior official in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to six months in prison on Tuesday after he was convicted of covering up for a subordinate who kept drawing government pay after leaving the agency for a job in Montana.  John Grimson Lyon, the director for the BLM's 31-state Eastern States Region, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian Morris after a hearing in Great Falls, Montana.  Lyon was also ordered to serve six months' home confinement and pay $74,000 in restitution. The 61-year-old Clifton, Virginia, man was convicted by a jury in March of wire fraud, false claims and theft of government property...more

Center for American Progress helped craft EPA talking points, emails show


A prominent left-wing group helped formulate Environmental Protection Agency talking points designed to sell a controversial regulatory scheme to skeptical journalists, internal emails show. The emails show Joseph Goffman, the senior counsel of EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, circulating talking points from Center for American Progress climate strategy director Daniel Weiss among EPA colleagues attempting to sell the agency's controversial power plant regulations to a New York Times reporter. Weiss emailed Goffman in September 2013 with a series of suggestions for convincing the Times' Matt Wald of the commercial viability of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology, a vital component of the agency's stringent power plant emissions regulations. Five minutes later, Goffman sent an email to five colleagues in his office and the agency's public affairs division. Unredacted language in the email is identical to language in Weiss' list of talking points.  The Environment & Energy (E&E) Legal Institute obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request. Chris Horner, a senior legal fellow at E&E, said they show extensive behind-the-scenes collaboration between EPA and third-party groups that support the regulations. ..more

The Pope’s Encyclical Exposes Real Agenda Behind Global Warming

by Dr. Tim Ball

 Many times quotations are truncated to change the original meaning. When the larger quote is examined, a very different meaning often emerges. For example, most say, “Money is the root of all evil” when the full quote of Timothy 6:10 is “The love of money is the root of all evil”. This addition creates a very different emphasis and perspective...A frequently used quote in the climate debate quotes in “Science Under Siege” by Michael Fumento is Senator Timothy Wirth’s,

“We’ve got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing,

When you add the latter part of the sentence that says, “in terms of economic policy and environmental policy ” a different understanding emerges. What is the “economic policy”? The answer is the economic redistribution of wealth by the government, or socialism. Now the quote parallels what Pope Francis is identifying in his Encyclical “Laudato Si”. 

Global warming was always that, the problem is most people still don’t know, although there are signs they are learning. The recent Pew Center poll indicates more people recognize global warming as a political issue. Publication of an article on WUWT discussing the ongoing debate about humans and their role in nature is another indicator. I commend Anthony Watts for recognizing the need for airing a wider context for the debate. The problem is most don’t know or understand the political issues involved. Few are aware of the link between global warming, climate change, and overpopulation. Most don’t know that the objectives of the United Nations Environment Program, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were to demand population reduction because too many people were using too many resources and destroying the Earth.

The person who believed this vehemently was Hans Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) so he became a senior advisor to the Vatican. He is a member of the IPCC, which might explain his appointment...

 The latest Encyclical by Pope Francis is a revolutionary document in which it appears Pope Francis decided that overpopulation is a bigger problem than Church doctrine, especially when the increased population is industrialized, developed and prosperous. These are exactly the positions underlying the goals of the UN Agenda 21, the White House, and most other nations. Like them, the Encyclical uses global warming as a front for a political agenda...

 Overpopulation is the central concern of environmentalism and environmentalists. The concern obtained global and political attention in the 1960s through the Club of Rome and, in particular, the publication of Paul Ehrlich’s book The Population Bomb. Overpopulation remained a central issue through the 1970s and 1980s but moved to the background after 1988 when James Hansen appeared before the US Senate subcommittee and began the shift in the public arena to global warming. Publication of the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report in 1990 shifted the focus to global warming in the scientific and political arena.

Man shoots off firework from top of his head, dies instantly

A 22-year-old man who was drinking and celebrating the Fourth of July tried to launch a firework off the top of his head, killing him instantly, authorities said Sunday. Devon Staples and his friends had been drinking and setting off fireworks Saturday night in the backyard of a friend's home in eastern Maine, said Stephen McCausland, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety. Staples, 22, of Calais, a small city on the Canadian border, placed a reloadable fireworks mortar tube on his head and told his friends he was going to light it, McCausland said. But his friends urged him to stop...more

Battle over cattle: Controversy at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

A longtime battle rages between ranchers and conservationists over cattle grazing at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument – a national monument signed into being by President Bill Clinton in 1996 that covers land in Garfield and Kane counties. At the heart of the matter, both ranchers and environmentalists say they want wise stewardship at the monument, as well as preservation and restoration of the land’s health. They also desire collaborative decision making when it comes to changes at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. But the similarities end when it comes to assigning blame for degraded conditions at the monument and what should be done to fix problems there. Hal Hamblin, of Kanab, is a fifth-generation rancher. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is one of the locations where he grazes his cattle. Hamblin said restrictions associated with a national monument designation have made it very difficult for ranchers to do business effectively and have tied ranchers’ hands when it comes to taking care of their grazing allotments. “The rules and regulations that they’ve put in are destroying the land,” he said. Because of monument restrictions, Hamblin said, ranchers can’t extend or move water lines within their allotments to bring water to the traveling cattle; they can’t fence riparian areas; they can’t bring in foreign material, such as rock or gravel, to slow down erosion in washes and they can’t take other erosion controlling measures; they can’t cut cedar posts to repair fencing; they can’t maintain roads; they can’t bring in mechanical equipment in many areas; and they can’t implement brush control measures...more

You know what I'm going to highlight:

Because of monument restrictions, Hamblin said, ranchers can’t extend or move water lines within their allotments to bring water to the traveling cattle; they can’t fence riparian areas; they can’t bring in foreign material, such as rock or gravel, to slow down erosion in washes and they can’t take other erosion controlling measures; they can’t cut cedar posts to repair fencing; they can’t maintain roads; they can’t bring in mechanical equipment in many areas; and they can’t implement brush control measures

 But how can this be?  Senators Udall & Heinrich have assured everyone that a monument designation would not harm grazing. 

In a 2013 joint statement Udall and Heinrich said their legislative proposal for a monument "preserves existing grazing rights" and "Maintains existing grazing allotments under the current rangeland management guidelines."

Shortly after the monument was designated, Udall and Heinrich penned a piece for the Sun-News where they wrote,  "The monument lands will continue to be managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), as they are now. That means that grazing will operate under the same rules as it does today."

That's certainly not the experience we're seeing in other national monuments.  Both Senators and their staff persons were briefed on this issue.  I  and others personally briefed Senator Heinrich in his Las Cruces office on this very issue.
                                              
I've covered the issue many times, most recently with Livestock Grazing in National Monuments - What A Mess.  There you will see the ranchers on the Grand Staircase-Escalante have language more protective of grazing than what Obama-Udall-Heinrich have saddled us with in the two new NM national monuments.

That leaves us with two unwelcome alternatives, either: 1) the Senators don't have the mental capacity to understand the issue, or  2) they have deliberately misled the public about grazing in national monuments.

Industry and environmentalists share dislike for federal sage grouse plan

Environmentalists, ranchers and oil companies have found a rare point of consensus. All strongly dislike a new Department of Interior plan to save the sage grouse, a chicken-sized bird that could be on its way to the endangered species list unless a plan can first be devised to save it.  But that's where the similarities end. Environmentalists, in a recently filed protest, said the government strategy ignored its own scientists by keeping vital habitat open to drilling.  Cowboys and rig hands see measures to protect the grouse as a restrictive burden that could greatly shackle their respective industries.  Caught in the middle is Gov. Matt Mead, who has applauded the federal government for following Wyoming's lead in trying to balance conservation with economic development. Mead nonetheless filed his own protest to the federal plan, criticizing the bureau's proposal to recommend 252,000 acres be made unavailable to mining, along with changes to leasing policies for oil and gas development and grazing. Jeremiah Rieman, the governor's top policy adviser on natural resource issues, said Washington's plan deviates from Wyoming's strategy in lots of little ways. Add them all up, he said, and it could do great harm to the state...more

Twenty of the West's Leading Water Managers Raft Colorado's Yampa River

n the morning, there was a bathtub ring around the river, a wet slice of canyon wall just above the waterline. Flows on the Yampa River, the last major undammed tributary of the Colorado, were starting to drop. We had come to the canyon that the Yampa carved through ancient Weber sandstone on a raft trip, to talk about the future of wild rivers, and rivers in general. Advocacy groups Friends of the Yampa and American Rivers decided that the best way to talk about water issues was on the water. So they pulled together 20 people who have been making decisions about water in Colorado, and in the West, for the past 30 years—the head of Denver Water, former Deputy Secretaries of the Interior, ranchers, power plant managers and environmentalists—and a few journalists like myself. They tempted them with the idea of running an untapped river, and then stuck everyone in boats for five days so they had to talk to each other. The Yampa flows from the high country near Routt National Forest, past power plants and ranchlands, into Dinosaur National Monument where it joins the Green River at Echo Park. It hits the main stem of the Colorado just over the border in Utah. Even though it’s not dammed anywhere, it’s used by almost all the major groups who depend on river flows: farms, fish, cities, industry, recreation and power. The coal-fired Craig Power Plant is its major consumptive user. Endangered fish like the Colorado pikeminnow depend on its flow. Along the way it irrigates pasture lands and provides flows for kayakers. And, if it continues to run free—hence the flow-dependent bathtub ring—it can be a model for fish habitat and smart agricultural use...more

BLM offers new grazing area in Elk Horn Mountains

The Bureau of Land Management is offering a unique forage allotment program for qualifying ranchers near the Elk Horn Mountains. Ranchers holding a grazing allotment in the Elk Horn Mountains can move their cattle into an alternate grazing area. This will allow BLM to treat public land ranchers normally use for grazing in the Elk Horn Mountains, Scott Haight, Butte field manager for Bureau of Land Management, said. With the vegetation treatment, the health of the range will improve, said David Abrams, public affairs specialist for the BLM Western Montana District. This new program is part of the Bureau of Land Management's environmental assessment for the Iron Mask area...more

‘Farm Hats’ Facebook group highlights headgear

As a testament to exactly how many hats Kent Blunier owns, he offers, “I haven’t had the same hat on twice since I started it.” “It” is “Farm Hats,” a public Facebook group that has grown in just a month to nearly 1,000 members. “Well over 100” is the number of actual farm hats Blunier, who farms with his father Stan on the family’s grain and pig farm in rural Livingston County, claims. “If you ask my wife, it’s much more than that,” he conceded. Blunier started the group after being inspired by a story about a farmer’s many hats. “It talked about the hats that farmers wear, literally and figuratively. In the morning you could be a welder, and in the afternoon, we’ve got pigs, so I could be a veterinarian,” he said. A combination of new farm technology and inspiration from fellow farmers resulted in “Farm Hats.”...more 

HT: in BEEF Daily 

Stampede critics are attacking rural values

By Graeme Menzies

When Gordon Lightfoot wrote the Railway Trilogy in 1967, Canada was celebrating 100 years since Confederation. The song acknowledged the magnitude of our country, and the heroic effort required to bind it into a nation.

“There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run. When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun,” Lightfoot wrote.

The song was both a lament for a disappearing frontier and a celebration of the industrious ambition that transformed the landscape and built a country.

It is no coincidence that the first rodeos and Wild West shows began around the same time the railroad companies were busy, as Lightfoot would say, “laying down tracks and tearing up the trails.” Buffalo Bill Cody’s first Wild West Show was held in 1883 — just two years before the Last Spike was hammered home.

Like Lightfoot’s song, the early rodeos and Wild West shows acknowledged that times were changing.

The predicted demise of frontier life, and the urbanization of Canada, has come true. With 80 per cent of Canadians living in urban areas, rodeo events and agricultural exhibitions like those hosted by the Calgary Stampede are just as relevant today as they were a century ago. Rodeos provide an opportunity for urban Canadians to reconnect with agriculture and livestock, and to meet other citizens — like farmers and ranchers — that they aren’t likely to meet at any other time or place of the year.

Unfortunately, some urbanites rally against rodeo events. Egged on by activist organizations like the Vancouver Humane Society, they position themselves as champions of animal rights and animal welfare, but the facts don’t support the claim. Compared to other equine sports, rodeo events have some of the highest standards in animal welfare and lowest injury rates and fatalities.

Independent animal science experts, like the University of Calgary’s Dr. Ed Pajor and the University of Colorado’s Dr. Temple Grandin, can attest to the work that has been done to measure and manage animal welfare at rodeo events.

The Calgary Humane Society randomly monitors the Calgary Stampede grounds and ensures the Alberta Animal Protection Act is upheld.

But even though the Vancouver Humane Society knows all this — they know the rodeo events are statistically safer than the thoroughbred races that take place at Vancouver’s Hastings Park racetrack; they know the Calgary event is monitored by the Calgary Humane Society; they know the Animal Protection Act is enforced; they know Calgary Stampede is a leader in animal welfare research — they still protest.

Why?

Money is certainly a factor...



Graeme Menzies is the author of The Rodeo Guide for City Slickers.

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1450

We'll stick with some modern balladeers of the west for the rest of this week.  First up will be Ian Tyson performing Claude Dallas.  The tune is on his 1986 CD Cowboyography.  

https://youtu.be/6DqxWiX0fnE

Monday, July 06, 2015

Pearce: Gila diversion would protect region's future

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-NM, said Saturday that the proposed diversion of the Gila River was an important step to make sure water would be available for Grant County residents in the future. "For eight years under (former Gov. Bill) Richardson nothing was done," Pearce said. The Central Arizona Project had received the water rights and by the time Pearce became involved in the issue, the water belonged to Arizona and not New Mexico, he said. "When I went to Arizona to see about getting our water rights back, they had the water rights, it belonged to them," Pearce said. "I went to Congress and got the money so we bought those rights back, But there won't be money in the future to buy those rights back again." The Grant County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously on June 25 in favor of a resolution approving the Joint Powers Agreement to create the New Mexico Unit of the Central Arizona Project as required by the Arizona Water Settlements Act. Luna County's Board of County Commissioners also agreed to support the JPA and join the CAP Entity on June 24. However, Silver City Town Council voted on June 23 not to support the JPA. The Arizona Water Settlements Act allocates to New Mexico an annual average of 14,000 acre-feet of water from the Gila Basin and up to $128 million in non-reimbursable federal funding, according to the website, nmawsa.org. The water is in addition to that allocated to New Mexico in the 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decree in Arizona v. California. The funds may be used only in the southwest water planning region of New Mexico, which includes Catron, Grant, Hidalgo, and Luna counties. The draft of the agreement was finalized on May 15 and the next step is the adoption of the agreement, which will clear the way for the proposed water projects to move forward...more

Obama Cabinet Member Hates Redskins, Likes Dead Eskimos

by Daniel Greenfield


Obama's Interior Secretary Sally Jewell really cares about Native Americans. That's why she'll oppose a Redskins stadium.
The Obama administration will likely block Washington, D.C., authorities from building a new stadium for the NFL's Washington Redskins because of objections to the team’s name.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, whose department includes the NPS, told D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in April that, unless the Redskins change their name, the Obama administration would not work to accommodate construction of a new venue, according to The Washington Post.
In a letter a month later, a local NPS official told Bowser the agency opposed the idea of building a new stadium.
I'll skip over the general state of political corruption and political correctness encapsulated in that little story. Let's just move on to Sally Jewell's boundless affection for the native peoples. You might even say that she loves them to death.
King Cove has a clinic, but no hospital or doctor. Residents must fly 600 miles to Anchorage, via Cold Bay's World War II airstrip, for most medical procedures including serious trauma cases and childbirth. Frequent gale-force winds and thick fog often delay or jeopardize medevac flights.
According to local Aleutian elders, 19 people have died since 1980 as a result of the impossible-to-navigate weather conditions during emergency evacuations.
U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on Monday rejected a proposal for a one-lane gravel road linking the isolated community of King Cove with the all-weather airport in Cold Bay some 22 miles away.
During an August visit to Alaska, Jewell was told that building a road that connects King Cove and Cold Bay was vital. But in December, Jewell rejected the road saying it would jeopardize waterfowl in the refuge.
“She stood up in the gymnasium and told those kids, ‘I’ve listened to your stories, now I have to listen to the animals,” Democratic state Rep. Bob Herron told a local television station.
So the good news is that if the Redskins just add a big pond for the waterfowl in their stadium, Sally Jewell will kill as many Indians as it takes to make it happen.

Did Rand Paul Meet With Cliven Bundy? Bundy Says Yes; Paul Camp: No

Good thing for Rand Paul (shown) that he hasn’t hired the Washington Post to manage his campaign. Taking that paper’s recent advice could alienate a lot of constitutionalists who otherwise might support the senator. On July 1, the paper published an article by Amber Phillips criticizing the Republican presidential hopeful’s alleged meeting with Cliven Bundy, the embattled Nevada rancher whose face-off with federal agents drew worldwide attention last year. I say alleged meeting because according to the Associated Press, Paul’s campaign denies his having spent 45 minutes meeting with the constitutionally minded cattle rancher. Bundy, however, told a Nevada-based AP reporter that he spent about 45 minutes with Paul during the latter’s visit to Mesquite. “In general, I think we’re in tune with each other,” Bundy purportedly told the AP’s Riley Snyder. Paul’s trip to Mesquite was part of a tour of the Silver State. While in Mesquite, Paul fielded questions from the public, including one about attempts by the federal government to assert ownership of the state’s rural land. "I think almost all land use issues and animal issues, endangered species issues, ought to be handled at the state level," Paul told the AP. "I think that the government shouldn't interfere with state decisions, so if a state decides to have medical marijuana or something like that, it should be respected as a state decision."...more

Rand Paul’s Cliven Bundy conundrum

Nevada could be a slam dunk for Kentucky Senator Rand Paul in the upcoming GOP caucus. In 2012, libertarian supporters propelled a strong challenge by his father, former Texas congressman Ron Paul, against the eventual nominee Mitt Romney. The younger Paul hopes to capitalize on that base, but also to attract a wider range of voters.  But his controversial rendezvous with Cliven Bundy this week exemplifies the difficulty the candidate will have in rallying his father’s core of supporters while also wooing the moderates necessary to win the state’s Republican presidential caucus. If he leans too far to the center, he risks alienating the libertarians. But if he leans too far the other way, he risks losing mainstream support. Bundy, the Bunkerville rancher who’s currently under a Justice Department investigation for refusing to pay more than $1 million in back taxes said he was “in tune” with Paul after the two met at a town-hall style meeting on Monday. Bundy also said he had a private, 45-minute meeting with the candidate. Paul's staff denied the encounter lasted that long or was planned. “I don’t think those are the headlines his campaign wanted coming out of this visit,” David Damore, associate professor of political science at UNLV, said of the controversy. While Bundy’s standoff with the Bureau of Land Management officials last year launched him into political fame, he quickly alienated moderate Republicans.  In Mesquite, Paul embraced a tenet of Bundy’s politics, saying that federal lands should be handed over to states...more

EDITORIAL: BLM’s Burning Man requests outrageous

Strip VIP hosts are breathing sighs of relief from Wynn Las Vegas to Mandalay Bay. They might have their hands full satisfying all kinds of requests from their guests this holiday weekend, but they know they could be stuck with far more outrageous demands. They could be dealing with the BLM.

If Nevadans needed any more proof that U.S. Bureau of Land Management leaders are arrogant, entitled and disconnected, they need only read a tremendous series of stories recently published by the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Rugged outdoorsmen need not apply to the Interior Department. As reported by the newspaper’s Jenny Kane, the BLM asked the organizers of the upcoming Burning Man counterculture festival to build a million-dollar luxury compound — supplied with a ridiculous list of snacks, food and amenities at the festival’s expense — to accommodate the federal employees charged with staffing Black Rock City later this summer. The request, which would raise the festival’s land use costs to roughly $5 million, has become a stumbling block for organizers, who need a permit from the BLM to stage their event in northwestern Nevada.

Burning Man is famous for extreme conditions and the self-reliance of its attendees — two things BLM employees want no part of. The implication of the request was clear: The permit for the already sold-out festival, which will attract up to 80,000 people to the desert the week leading up to Labor Day, could be denied if the BLM’s VIPs aren’t provided with flushing toilets, showers, hot water, refrigerators, couches, washers, dryers, Choco Tacos, M&Ms, licorice, Chobani Greek Yogurt, steaks and 24-hour access to ice cream.

What, no bottle service or spa treatments?

 ...That’s almost $67,000 per employee for a week in the sticks. Those are some awfully expensive manicures. (“Ethel, I said the clear nail polish!”)

...The demands, while ridiculous, make perfect sense. The BLM can’t manage the land. It can’t manage wild horse herds. It can’t prevent wildfires. Its sheltered staffers know nothing about the land, so they couldn’t possibly be expected to rough it while monitoring a counterculture celebration that’s all about leaving civilization behind. They think the public’s land is their land, and they resent leaving the comforts of their offices and homes to protect it from the unwashed masses.

Here’s an idea for the BLM: provide some basic camping courses to your staff — in the outdoors, not at a five-star hotel — and hire fewer wimps.

Imperious BLM agents still behaving like they are better than us

by

Who says the United States does not have a royal class?

The bureaucrats at the Bureau of Land Management just don’t think like the rest of us. They are downright imperious — in more ways than one.

A year ago they sent an invading army of heavily armed agents — with snipers on hilltops and attack dogs on the roads — to intimidate Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy while hired wranglers rounded up his cattle from BLM land and agents destroyed water tanks and pipelines and shot his bulls.

Now, the BLM bureaucrats are demanding that they be treated like pampered royalty at the annual Burning Man festivities in the Black Rock Desert.

The Reno newspaper reports that the BLM is demanding that the festival organizers build a $1 million luxury facility replete with trailers, flush toilets, washers and dryers and vanity mirrors for the comfort of BLM executives and agents and unspecified VIPs. Festival organizers say the cost of permits and complying with BLM demands have risen from $1 million in 2011 to nearly $5 million this year.

In addition, the Reno paper says emails it has received spell out a demand that the facility be stocked with hot-and-cold running desserts and a 24-hour full-service kitchen providing a potentate’s menu of gourmet meals and snacks that include (we kid you not) 10-ounce steaks, 18-ounce pork ribs, poultry, ham, fish, vegetables, potatoes, bread, salad bar with five toppings and three dressings and desserts.
Specifically the desserts to be served in the desert must include Drumsticks, Choco Taco, assorted ice cream flavors, Popsicles and ice cream sandwiches, as well as cakes, cookies, pies, cobblers, puddings and pastries.

An army travels on its stomach.

The Gazette-Journal said the emails cited BLM Special Agent Dan Love of Salt Lake City as the person behind many of the BLM requests. Love led the BLM standoff with Bundy and his armed supporters. He did not return the paper’s requests for comment.

how this Burning Man shakedown will end. Just don’t stand between a bureaucrat and the buffet and be sure to bow and curtsey when they pass by.



San Antonio Missions Receive World Heritage Designation

The San Antonio Mission Trail has been recognized as a World Heritage Site. The vote was tallied just after 6:00 a.m. CST on Sunday morning, which is roughly 1:00 p.m at the site of the meeting in Bonn, Germany. After The Committee on Monuments and Sites, or ICOMOS, recommended the inscription, countries had the opportunity to ask questions about the recommendation or share their support. Only one country, Portugal, had a concern about Hemisfair Park and its construction. Representatives from the U.S. clarified plans for Hemisfair and noted it is in the trail's buffer zone and Portugal was satisfied. monday.3  Other countries who took their turn at the mic were overwhelmingly in support. Among those with U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO Crystal Nix-HInes in Bonn were Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and Mayor Ivy Taylor. Both the judge and the mayor thanked the committee and other countries for their support on behalf of the city and expressed excitement to share the treasure with the world. The decision comes two years after county leaders first asked UNESCO to consider the Alamo and the Mission Trail for the honor. It sparked online buzz about a "New World Order" in which the Alamo would be "handed over" to the United Nations...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1449

It's Swingin' Monday and here's Jean & Gary Prescott with Too Many Irons In The Fire.  The tune is on their 2012 2CD collection Cowboy Forever

https://youtu.be/025F0bMeCW0

Sunday, July 05, 2015

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy



Calculating luck

by Julie Carter

Every cowboy has a "secret weapon" that gives them a competing edge. Their arsenal for the illusion, or delusion, of luck runs the gamut of superstitions.

With rodeo and roping season moving into the heat of the year, both by thermometer and by calendar, cowboys are plotting, planning, driving and surviving while taking their best shots at making the finals. 

A cowboy's belief in what brings him success, while often falling short on factual verification, will never lack in creativity.

Jim was a calf roper who carried a gallon jug of water in his camper in which to wash his lucky rodeo shirt, never pouring the water out all summer. 

"Don't want to wash out the luck so you have to keep it in the water," he'd say. 

By the end of a long rodeo season he was noticeably a loner. Apparently, the smell of luck was not as socially rewarding as the possession of it.

As a team roper, Walker always believed that hard work paid off and he endorsed the theory that "perfect practice makes perfect." But lately, he'd begun to wonder if he wasn't standing in the wrong line.

A similar "wrong line" feeling had occurred to him when he was in college. Walker recalled that incident landed him erroneously in the military corps. Repeating that lesson, even hypothetically, was not a good plan. Walker had spent his entire adult life pasture roping in all kinds of weather, most often riding a green colt with no one around to help. Every loop had to count.


When he reached a point in life where he could rope for fun, he built a good arena, kept a supply of fresh Corriente steers, bought exceptional horses and ropes by the boxcar full. And, he practiced non-stop. 

He was dedicated to eating right, exercising, regular strength training and of course, took his vitamins. He was selective about the ropings he entered and even more discriminating in choosing his roping partners.

Most of the time, the results were as favorable as the game of team roping ever allows. Win some, lose some.

In his good-natured way, Walker made a lot of friends and was gradually making his way into that elite club of the ropers labeled as "wolves."

Wolves are just ropers too, but ones with impressive, inarguable winning records. Walker's new partner, Les, drives down the highway in the proof of his skill with a rope. 

Les' trophy truck has advertising on all four corners that declares him to be a champion. He proves his dedication to the sport by practicing late into the night and would stay at it until it was time to go to work if needed.

Les consistently catches two feet on his end of the steer, keeping his success percentage impressively high. On the rare occasion that he misses, you hear none of the usual litany of excuses --bad cattle, bad flagger, bad barrier, the header's fault, it rained in Brazil, the neighbor's mother's cousin's dog died - you've heard them before.

After watching the duo stop the clock time after time in the practice pen in 100 degree heat with humidity to match, Walker's wife thought she'd ask Les what his secret to success was.

Too late to take it back, Les' answer made her wish she hadn't been so inquisitive. 

Proudly Les told her, "Absolutely every bit of ability and success I have, I attribute to my lucky polka dot under drawers."

With that tidbit of information out to the general population, there is likely to be a run on polka dotted BVDs down at the mercantile. A particular color wasn't detailed as necessary.

Although, I do wonder if a trendy zebra stripe or leopard print would be as effective.

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


Fourth of Julie

Cornering the Bulls
Fourth of Julie
A return to the 19th Century
By Stephen L. Wilmeth



             I’m tired.
            I don’t know if I feel elation or despair. The matter of elation relates to the cornering of the bulls. For over a year, we have whittled away at some rough country bulls that long ago should have been offered as Big Macs. They would have gone well with Idaho spuds, mustard, and ketchup.
            As it is, they have wreaked havoc on our breeding program as well as our health and wellbeing. We are nearly done with the lot of them and the relief has been immense even though the horses are tired, we are sunburned and dragging, and July arrives with still no rain relief. Progress, though, is the byline.
Yesterday morning at precisely 7:11 we loaded three of the worst of the worst along with six wild cows and sent them packing. We were able to pen them with other cows as we finished branding the Alamo calves. With some finesse, we got them sorted and locked behind gates to await the one way trip to their great reward.
We rehearsed the loading procedure. No horses were going in with them and nobody was going to be in the tub with them behind the loading chute. When we were all set, we opened the first gate to trap them in the alley. That all went according to plan except a single old cow that gummed up the works fighting us. She has shown symptoms of loco weed poisoning. She staggered after me putting me on the fence twice before we were able to get her in the alley with the other cattle.
Starting them out of the alley was mired by the same old cow. She wouldn’t leave and blocked the gate. We got her in by pushing the whole bunch at her.
They all made the corner just like we had hoped and were trying to load themselves when the same locoed cow refused to step into the trailer. Things got worse when another cow tried to get by her only to wedge the two of them squarely in the trailer gate. The bulls then got panicked and the fight was on. The next four or five minutes was a testament to cowboy logic. The long and the short was we got them loaded with the final act once again centered on the same old crazy cow that upset the balance of thought and action each step of the way. She was finally trapped in the back compartment of the trailer.
With our hats in hands, we watched the whole sordid bunch as they left the shipping pens in a gooseneck trailer. With the tips of horns turning and flashing in the morning light, they looked like mule deer bucks topping a rise.
Was elation the right word in witnessing their departure, or …was it something else?
            Incredulity
            These past two weeks have been much like the cornering of the bulls. Our nation, at least for those of us who count on some degree of consistency, has been battered.
            Perhaps the better description would be it has been much like dealing with the locoed cow. At least dealing with the bulls was a known. They would run over you given any chance, but they would also attempt to stay clear if given an option. The old cow wouldn’t. She didn’t really know what she wanted. Her physical and mental conditions were ragged, and all rationale behavior was diminished. She was going to do something other than what you wanted, but, when she got there, there was no satisfaction either.
            Those Americans who cheered the unconstitutional antics of the Supreme Court will encounter the same predicament. When it all shakes out, there will be let down. The expectation of some new and profound plane of exhilaration will be mundane and anticlimactic. Those characters won’t be professing the bad news, but we will know. We lost freedoms and standards that will likely never return. They were foundations for God centered individuals who don’t want or need legislated equalities beyond natural rights.
            As we celebrate this Fourth of July weekend, the only degree of hope won’t be coming from this Congress or any of the many bastions of unelected prime movers. It will have to come from you and your closest ring of family and friends.
It will have to come from within.
            History
            The American model came nearest to perfection in the 19th Century.
            The voluntary contract between the citizenry and their unique Constitution peaked during the 1830s. It was never again as strong or as enthusiastically captured by the hearts and minds of the American leadership. It set the stage for the immensity of the industrial revolution when common men did uncommon things.
            That phenomenon was matched with two grand partnerships. The first was the immensity of the American resource base. It was and remains the greatest assembly of resources known to man.
            The second was an effective educational system that blossomed in the last quarter of that century. It might have been primordial in terms of basic research conclusions, but it brought to bear what was known with intense practical applications. Of course, the American work ethic was implicit in the union.
            The modern American version of communism has wrecked those partnerships.
            That point can be highlighted in a glimpse into a Kansas final exam from 1895. It was a required hurdle for passage. Let’s start with one question from the arithmetic portion of the exam.
            Find a bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
            When you calculate that answer follow by composing a legible example of a sight draft, a promissory note, and a receipt. You will have an hour and 15 minutes to answer those questions and eight others.
            Let’s bring in any English teachers that might be amongst the readership. To those souls, what is meant by alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, and syllabication? Follow that with defining and giving examples of trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, and linguals. Then, mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following and name the sign that indicates the sound card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, and bilast. You will have an hour to answer these and seven more equally engaging interrogatives.
            For climate deniers and advocates, you are next. Start this one hour section by naming all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each. Move immediately into a description of the movements of the earth including the relative inclination of its rotation. When you finish, and, before you move to the final seven questions, go ahead and define climate and note the physical forces it depends upon. Remember, any greenhouses gases will not be excepted because they were not considered factors of climate at that time.
            We might as well bring in the forked tongue oath of office fornicators, Congress (as described by West’s Legal Thesaurus and Dictionary), to be the primary respondents to the history section spanning just eight questions over 45 minutes. Start this by naming the events connected with the dates of 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, and 1865.
            Next, give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided, and who were Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
            We will dispense with the final hour of examination, Grammar, and leave that to the rest of the Kansas students who had to take this grueling five hour exam in order to graduate from … eighth grade.
             Fourth of Julie
            Since words no longer form any basis for standards, and, in recognition of the age of gaiety we must now live, July will henceforth be known as Julie. We will follow that next month with the interchangeable choice of Augustus or Augusta. We can also wave any number of days assigned to either. Use 30 days or 31 whichever suits your fancy. Chief Justice, John Roberts, will find a legal pathway to justify that new standard and his progressive black robed mob will adhere to any altered interpretation as long as it abrogates any suggestion of constitutional purity … such is our state of affairs.
            For my part, I will continue to ship culls with abandon and hold that up for public scrutiny of how to deal with Congress. I will also hold my great grandparents in much higher esteem. Those who passed 8th grade knew a whole lot more than the coddled, indoctrinated neophytes of today.
            The one that had a college degree will be elevated into realms of highest respect. She would have joined me in loading those bulls, and … she would be appalled at the antics of this existential world gone mad.


Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “We are accused of placing too much emphasis on Heaven. If it is a place we can unleash the gifts of our possession … we have not even begun to fathom its importance.”

Baxter Black: No respect for Baxter

A good friend from the Texas panhandle sent me a printed poster of a new program enacted by the Amarillo Humane Society. It is designed to encourage dog and cat owners to spay or castrate their pets. On the front is a picture of a frightened, bug-eyed brachygnathic Pug. The accompanying headline says, NO BALLS FOR BAXTER – MATCHING SPAY/NEUTER INITIATIVE!

I admit I didn’t know how to take it… was it a compliment? Was it a signal to the pitcher to only throw strikes when I was at bat? Were they revoking my invitation to attend the dance in Cow Town? Did they make specific restrictions on what certain people would bring to the beach? Would I no longer be allowed to answer, “I’m havin’ a b?” 

There’s an old celebrity saying that says, “Any publicity is good publicity!” I have to say that in my case, it’s not always been true. It’s hard to deny Tom Foolery when there are witnesses!

The picture of the dog was not even flattering. I never considered myself handsome but coupling me with that pore misshapen, unloved, pitiful, smashed-face critter… was it intentional? You know how they say dogs and their owners look alike… I admit there is a certain resemblance, I do have floppy ears and cut my own hair.

 Which does bring up the issue, if they claim to have picked the name out of clean air and it is just coincidental, it sounds fishy to me. In my research, Baxter as a first or middle name ranks 1,590th in popularity, between Kimball and Serge. I actually know or have met maybe 15 to 20 people with that first name Baxter. However, I have been told and/or received hundreds of photos of animals ranging from rodents to reptiles and porpoise to parakeets named Baxter.

PILT or cows?


Last Friday I posted the editorial Nevada should control its land and not settle for paltry alms and received the following comment from Floyd Rathbun:

The editorial on Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) is right on the money.  It may be worse than the author indicates because the cost of having federal agencies write these checks has been the near destruction of our livestock industry.  Livestock grazing (ranching) represents an entire sector of local economies in Nevada and has been nearly destroyed by federal regulation.  Many Nevada county officials are indifferent to the loss of the economic benefits of agricultural production and the livestock industry in particular.  Our elected officials complain that they don’t receive enough money as local and state tax revenues but they have never seen a PILT check they didn’t like.  Their budgets even include PILT as a source of income forgetting that Congress could just say no more.

Loss of entire herds of cattle and sheep from Nevada’s range livestock industry means that the appraised values of ranches have been reduced by hundreds of millions of dollars over the past 40 years.  Our county officials don’t seem to mind that the taxable value of what little real property we have has evaporated.  I don’t know what it will take to convince our leaders that locally owned industry (cattle and sheep ranches) would result in much greater cash income to the county coffers.

One illustration was provided by Dr. A. L. Lesperance of Paradise Valley, NV in “Economic Importance of Livestock In Nevada’s Cow Counties” (1996) revised in 2010.  Lesperance explains that each “mother cow” or Animal Unit (AU) requires about $350 per year as operating expenses of a ranch. Other authors report annual cash expenditures from $374 to over $400 per head per year.  Mr. Fred Fulstone of Smith NV calculates that about 3.5 sheep require a similar operating cost. 

Ranch operating costs include everything from labor to veterinary supplies and other retail purchases providing cash that circulates within the local economy.  The Lesperance figure for the cost of cattle production indicates that the Nevada ranches that are left spend as much as $150,000.000 per year for cattle production and about $8,500,000 per year for sheep production.

Federal agencies have enthusiastically cut the numbers of livestock that they permit to graze on BLM and Forest Service controlled lands putting many ranches out of business.  But those lands still produce the grass and browse every year that could be consumed by livestock just as in the past.  There is a potential to restore 250,000 cattle to Nevada rangelands which would result in an additional $87,500,000 being spent by ranchers within various Nevada communities each year and restoring sheep to 1,000,000 animals would result in an additional $91,500,000 of cash circulating within the Nevada economy every year.  Our leaders can’t figure out how $337,500,000 of cash spent annually within Nevada communities can possibly be as valuable as the pittance check from the federal government that is less than 1/10 of that amount.  

Floyd Rathbun is a Certified Range Consultant and can be reached at rathbun@phonewave.net

Now, take that concept and apply it west-wide.  Then throw in timber and mining and you'll start to see how much the envirocrats are costing us each year.  This also shows the argument that states can't "afford" the cost of managing these lands is a bunch of outhouse soup. 

These folks should, in the short run,  be working with the federal agencies to bring about reasonable production on these lands.  In the long run they should be pushing to have these lands transferred to the states.  Grovelling before Congress every year for PILT funding has got us nowhere.
 

Jean Barton: Using ranches as movie, TV sets

Each year on the Western Livestock Journal ranch tours we learn something new. When we were in Minnesota we learned about ethanol, in Washington it was apple farming and packing for market. This year it was another way to have extra income by using the ranch for movie and television sets. The CL Ranch was established on banks of Jumping Pound Creek in 1887 by the great-grandfather with Shorthorn cattle, and in the 1930s they changed to Herefords. Now the cattle are a composite of Hereford, Simmental/Brown Swiss and they are adding an English breed, Suffolk, a wine red beef animal known as Red Poll in the states. They calve from April 25th in 45 day calving. There were moveable wind breaks in the calving field on the cousin’s land. At birth the calves get a RFI identification tag and a herd tag. A RFI tag is required for all beef cattle in Canada. They ranch on deeded land, Indian land and Crown Land owned by Queen Elizabeth. All the wild life is owned by the Queen; the elk, white tail and mule deer, moose, coyotes, cougars, wolves, grizzly bears,geese, etc. The rancher can supply a guide for hunting, but cannot charge for hunting. The ranchers don’t own the mineral rights to the ground they own. 100 years ago this was open land, since 10,000 head of buffalo kept the poplars, spruce and aspen from taking over. Now the government won’t let you cut the trees, or burn them, or sell them...We couldn’t go on the set, but we saw lots of trailers and the horses that were part of the wranglers group. “Hell on Wheels” was being filmed about the railroad going across the US, set in 1880s. Was told it was a crew of 100, and some days 250 people. From 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. the crew is present on the ranch. The gravel road had calcium chloride for dust control. Any time a movie came in and built something, they leave it, and we walked into a ‘50s café, and there was an old house. In the warehouse CL Ranch had an accumulation of 25 years collection of props. A niece was doing an inventory of the 45,000 items and setting the price to rent the item. The costumes were made, not original, but there were old lamps, furniture, old books, ledgers, china, shovels, axes, matches, silver, table clothes, trunk with wool blankets. You name it, and I am sure it was in the warehouse. The filming crews are here from February to October, and pay rental based on location. This is the 5th season they have been filming on the ranch. Calgary is the 4th largest production center in Canada...more

Ranchers maintain lifestyle as Summit County grows, changes

Colby Pace has the rare privilege of spending his days doing what he loves. A typical day for Pace starts around 4:30 a.m. and doesn't end until 10 p.m. Pace rises with the sun for nearly two months each year and he has maintained the same schedule since he was 17. The 40-year-old, third-generation rancher inherited his grandfather's ranch in Coalville as a junior in high school. "I started with 10 cows and we have built to 600," Pace said. "It took me 20 years to build this, but it has paid off." Pace owns and operates Half Circle Cross Ranch in Chalk Creek. He owns approximately 5,000 acres and operates nearly 18,000 more. He employs two full-time employees year-round and three part-time employees in the summer. Pace, like other cattle ranchers in Summit County, faces a host of challenges and outside pressures in the ever-evolving industry in a climate that tends to favor cattle ranching over dairy farming. From governmental encroachment and economic pressure from developers to rapidly developing technology, ranchers are constantly searching for ways to adapt and maintain the lifestyle that they love. Every day during the summer months, Pace makes the rounds with his two boys, 13 and 8, grooming them for a new age of ranching...more

Horses Healing Veterans

Horses are a great teacher and a great tool for people that have anxiety disorders. Using wild horses we can help Veterans overcome some or all of their anxieties. Horses will help the Veterans grow emotionally through metaphoric experiences.

This GoFundMe will help put a facility together that Veterans from all walks of life can come to without fear and learn about horses, training horses and most importantly the Veteran can learn about themselves. By donating you will literally be saving at least 2 lives - the life of a Veteran and the life of a horse - placing together 2 of our Nation’s greatest, the American Veteran and the American Wild Horse.

Veterans returning from war bring back anxieties and stresses (PTSD) that affect them forever.  22 Veterans commit suicide every day. That is 22 too many! Horses Healing Veterans is a way to reduce those numbers. The goal is reduce the number to 0 but if we can even reduce that number by just 1 we are making an improvement.

Certainly a worthy cause and Carrie Hernandez vouches for this guy.

http://www.gofundme.com/xvarec

John Pete Etcheverry's winning run at Show Low.

And the amazing thing is he won it riding that sorry old horse owned by Chris Allison.

https://youtu.be/KsGHxH9Jia8

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1448

Our gospel tune today is I'm going To Glory by the Knoxville Grass.  The tune is on their 1981 album Painted Lady

https://youtu.be/YWXSZaIE2Fk

Saturday, July 04, 2015

Happy Birthday America!



Meet 7 of the Most Interesting Founding Fathers You’ve Never Heard Of

by Michael Sabo

When reading the Declaration of Independence over the holiday weekend, it’s easy to skip over the names of the signers and focus instead on the sweeping language of the second paragraph.

This overlooks the fact that the signers pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor in order to found a country upon self-evident truths rooted in the nature of man.

A look at the historical record shows that the signers’ pledge was more than mere hyperbole.

Of the 56 men who signed the declaration, twelve fought in battles as members of state militias, five were captured and imprisoned during the Revolutionary War, 17 lost property as a result of British raids and five lost their fortunes in helping fund the Continental Army and state militias battle the British redcoats.

Though Americans are familiar with the famous signers such as Jefferson, Franklin and the Adams’, some of the lesser known have perhaps the most interesting stories to tell.

Thomas Heyward Jr. 

Thomas Heyward Jr. of the South Carolina delegation served in the state militia as a captain of artillery.

After signing the declaration and the Articles of Confederation in 1778, Heyward drew the further ire of the British when as a circuit court judge he presided over the trial of several loyalists who were all found guilty of treason.

They were then executed in full view of British troops.

Edward Rutledge

Heyward’s compatriot in the South Carolina delegation, Edward Rutledge, was the youngest signer at age 26.

After returning home from attending the Second Continental Congress in 1777, Rutledge joined the militia as captain of an artillery battalion.

Arthur Middleton

Arthur Middleton, the last of the South Carolina delegation who served in the militia, took up arms against the British alongside Heyward and Rutledge in the siege of Charleston in 1780.

Upon the surrender of Charleston, all three men were captured by the British and were sent to a prison in St. Augustine, Fla., that was reserved for persons the British thought were particularly dangerous.

They were held there for almost a year before being released in Philadelphia in July 1781.

On the way to the prisoner exchange, Heyward fell overboard and only survived by clinging to the ship’s rudder until he could be rescued.

While Heyward was imprisoned, his wife died at home, and his estate and property were heavily damaged at the hands of the British.

Though Arthur Middleton’s family and estate was left relatively untouched, his collection of rare paintings was destroyed during the British occupation of his home.

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Thomas Nelson, Jr., of the Commonwealth of Virginia was appointed to the position of brigadier general and commander-in-chief of the Virginia militia by Governor Patrick Henry in August 1777.
At that time it was thought that the British would be making a full-scale invasion of the commonwealth.

Nelson was able to muster only a few hundred men to defend Virginia, but the British instead decided to attack Philadelphia.

Nelson inherited a vast family fortune and used it liberally for the American cause.

He personally paid for the return journey home of 70 troops he had led to meet the British in Philadelphia during the summer of 1778.

In the spring of 1780, Nelson signed his name to a loan for 2 million dollars that was needed to buy provisions for a fleet of ships coming in from France.

As then-governor of Virginia (he succeeded Thomas Jefferson in office) in 1781, during the Battle of Yorktown he ordered American troops to fire upon his mansion, which had been commandeered by Gen. Cornwallis and his men.

Caesar Rodney

Caesar Rodney of the Delaware delegation served in that state’s militia and attained the rank of brigadier general.

He was with his men in the field during the brutal winter of 1776, helped quash an uprising in Delaware and aided George Washington’s defense of Philadelphia against the British.

Joseph Hewes

With his fortunes built on trade, Joseph Hewes of North Carolina was a vigorous proponent of the decision of the First Continental Congress to cut off all imports and exports with the British.

This of course had the effect of drying up his wealth. Interestingly, Hewes also renounced his Quaker religion in order to support the war.

Robert Morris

Lastly, Robert Morris, a delegate from Pennsylvania, personally financed George Washington’s ambush of the Hessians at Trenton the day after Christmas in 1776.

He also helped insure Washington’s victory at Yorktown by using his own credit to obtain the supplies necessary to defeat the British (he spent more than one million dollars of his own money to accomplish this).

In present day, it is easy to read the signers’ pledge with a certain sense of historical inevitability. But the signers were under no supposition that history chooses winners and losers.

They knew instead that human action and choice define history. Principles are not self-enforcing; they require defenders today just as they did in 1776.

Friday, July 03, 2015

3 men pushing car filled with explosives detained at Mexican border city

Police in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez say they have detained three men who were pushing a car laden with explosives. The explosives included two tubes of ANFO, or ammonium nitrate-fuel oil, a potent explosive often used in industry. Officials say the explosives would have caused damage in a 40-yard (meter) radius had they detonated. The Chihuahua state prosecutors' office said Tuesday that police also found three batteries, two bottles of fuel and electrical wire in the car. It said the men who were pushing the car also had marijuana and guns...more

Get Ready to Weather the Price of El Niño

The return of the so-called El Niño weather phenomenon this summer is forcing agricultural commodity players, from wheat farmers in Australia to traders in high rise office blocks in Singapore, to prepare for low crop yields and heightened price volatility. Government forecasters in the U.S., Australia and Japan have each in recent weeks confirmed El Niño is back for the first time since the 2009 -10 farming season, thanks to a 4% temperature rise in sub surface sea temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Prices of wheat, corn and soybeans have spiked in the last two weeks following a long period of relative stability, in part thanks to fears El Niño will cause excessive dryness in important crop-growing regions. Yields for Australian wheat—which comprise 14% of the world’s exports -- could fall by as much as 50% according to analysts at National Australia Bank. El Niño occurs when winds in the equatorial Pacific slow down or reverse direction. That warms water over a vast area, which in turn can upend weather patterns around the world—it typically reduces rainfall in Australia and across parts of south east and southern Asia...more (subscription)

Record-Breaking Solar Flight Lands in Hawaii Demonstrating Potential of Carbon-Free Travel

It’s official. Solar Impulse has landed in Hawaii breaking the world records for the longest distance and duration for solar aviation, and the world record for the longest solo flight ever. “On June 28, Si2 took off at 18:03 UTC from Nagoya, with André Borschberg at the controls, for a historic flight over the Pacific ocean to Hawaii. By remaining airborne for five consecutive days and nights, producing its own power with solar energy, Solar Impulse 2 has proven that Bertrand Piccard’s vision of reaching unlimited endurance without fuel was not a crazy dream,” according to a Solar Impulse press statement...more  Watch live here:

This is great news.  Now Leonard DiCaprio, Barbara Streisand, Al Gore and the rest can fly to all those damn UN meetings without destroying mother earth.  We'll be watching...

Runyon and Shelley headed to rodeo in Oklahoma

Derek Runyon
Silver City's Derek Runyon and Cliff's Holt Shelley are going to participate in the International Youth Finals Rodeo July 5-10 in Shawnee, Okla. This is the 23rd annual event and it's one of the richest youth rodeo's in the world with more than $200,000 in prize money and championship saddles and buckles. Runyon will see action in calf roping and team roping, while Shelley will be Runyon's partner in the team roping competition. "I'm always excited to rodeo," Runyon said. Shelley has been Runyon's partner for quite some time and having the right frame of mind is something that he has been working on. "I've been practicing a lot and roping a lot of steers trying to get ready for this," Shelley said. "Getting mentally prepared is something I have also been doing and trying to get everything in order and be ready." This is Shelley's first trip to Oklahoma, and he's ready to get in the mix with the more than 1,000 cowboys that will be seeing action. Contestants at the IFYR will compete in 10 events that will run simultaneously in three arenas throughout the week. Events include barrel racing, pole bending, breakaway roping, goat tying, team roping, tie-down roping, steer wrestling, bull riding, saddle bronc riding, and bareback riding. There are two long go-rounds and a short go-round. All contestants will compete in the long go rounds, with only the top 15 competing in the short go round. Last year the IYFR had more than 1,000 contestants and represented 32 states as well as Brazil, Canada, and Australia...more

Cliven Bundy says Rand Paul promised to make Nevada a ‘sovereign state’ if he’s elected president

Scofflaw rancher Cliven Bundy said he met with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) for nearly an hour this week and found he sees eye to eye with the GOP presidential candidate. Bundy, whose ongoing dispute over grazing rights on federally owned land sparked an armed militia standoff last year with the Bureau of Land Management, said Paul assured him he would grant the rancher’s demands and make Nevada a sovereign state if elected next year to the White House. “He said, ‘One of your biggest problems is getting Nevada to recognize its sovereignty and to stand up for its sovereignty,” Bundy told KNPR-FM. “He said he would turn over the jurisdiction authority and allow the state of Nevada to act like a sovereign state. He said it would be up to we the people to govern ourselves.” The rancher said Paul’s campaign staff escorted him to an impromptu meeting with the candidate after Bundy attended an event in Mesquite. A spokesman for the Paul campaign said he took part in no scheduled meetings during the appearance, and he said the candidate did not speak to anyone for as long as 45 minutes – as Bundy claimed. Paul said during the campaign event that he believed all land issues – including endangered species protections – should be handled by the states and not the federal government. Bundy said the candidate expressed an appreciation for the American Lands Council – a Koch brothers-funded group that is working to give states control over federally owned land through legislation and litigation. That’s the wrong approach, according to Bundy – who believes that states already own the land and hold sovereignty over its use...more