Wednesday, September 07, 2016

An Army of Advocates Descending on Washington in Support of The Upcoming SAFE Food SAFE Horses Rally

Food safety and equine advocates are joining together in the nation's capital to protest American horse slaughter, and show support for the SAFE Food SAFE Horses Coalition's march on Washington, DC. The rally will be held on September 22nd beginning at 10 AM in front of the USDA Whitten Building at 12th Street and Jefferson Drive, SW and proceed down Independence Avenue to the Capitol, http://www.yes2safe.org/news/safe-food-safe-horses-march-on-dc-2016. From the Center for Food Safety to wild horse advocates, the mission is to warn the public about the health risks associated with US-sourced horsemeat which enters the global food chain, as well as the indecent treatment the horses receive in route to slaughter outside our regulated borders. These issues go hand-in-hand with the current plight of America's wild mustangs who are also ending up in the slaughter plants in Mexico as the brutal war of extinction is being waged against them. Over 80% of America is in the dark that our horses are still being slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands every year, and over 70% of the medications our horses receive are not FDA approved or are BANNED for food animals. This represents a grave threat to the food supply in light of escalating trends of global food adulteration & food fraud. A variety of speakers from the coalition, which represents over 1.5 million people, will give voice to this movement along with other equine supporters who are assembling, wearing purple shirts to demonstrate their support of the SAFE ACT S1214/HR1942 and a Ban on Horse Slaughter, asking Congress to cease the unregulated export & slaughter of American horses, which would prevent contaminated, non-FDA approved meat from entering the global food supply. Currently 226 members of Congress support HR1942/S1214 the Safeguard American Food Export Act. An estimated 150,000 American horses are shipped long distances across US borders to slaughter...more

EPA conducted toxicity experiments on humans

by Paul Driessen

 So EPA needed additional studies, to back up its expansive, bogus epidemiological assertions. The new studies, JunkScience.com director Steve Milloy discovered, involved human test subjects. They raised numerous new legal, ethical and scientific problems.
Not only do US laws, the Nuremberg Code, the Helsinki Accords and EPA Rule 1000.17 make it unethical or illegal to conduct toxicity experiments on humans. When California, Washington, Rutgers and other University researchers explained the experiments to their volunteers, they generally failed to advise them that EPA says the pollution they were going to breathe was toxic, carcinogenic and deadly.

Instead, volunteers were told they would face only “minimal risks,” the kind they would ordinarily encounter in daily life, in performing routine physical activities. Others were told they might experience claustrophobia in the small study chambers, or some minor degree of airway irritation, shortness of breath, coughing or wheezing. There is no way such advisories can lead to “informed consent.”

Moreover, the people who EPA claims are most at risk, most susceptible to getting horribly sick and even dying, from exposure to these particulates were precisely the same people recruited by EPA and its EPA-funded research teams: the elderly, asthmatics, diabetics, people with heart disease, children. And to top it off, the test subjects were exposed to eight, thirty or even sixty times more particulates per volume – for up to two hours – than they would breathe outdoors, and what EPA claims are dangerous or lethal.

How can it be that PM2.5 particulates are dangerous or lethal for Americans in general, every time they step outside – but harmless to human guinea pigs who were intentionally administered pollution dozens of times worse than what they would encounter outdoors? How can it be, as EPA-funded researchers now assert, that “acute, transient responses seen in clinical studies cannot necessarily be used to predict health effects of chronic or repeated exposure” – when that is precisely what EPA claims they can and do show?

If PM2.5 is lethal and there is no safe threshold, shouldn’t EPA officials, its researchers and their institutions be prosecuted for deliberately misleading volunteers and conning them into breathing the poisons? Shouldn’t they be prosecuted for experimenting on children, in direct violation of EPA’s own rules banning such experiments – and for deleting evidence describing those tests?

Thankfully, none of the test subjects died, or the charges would be much more serious.

But if no one died, doesn’t that mean EPA is lying when it says there is no safe level, that all PM2.5 particulates are toxic, that its regulations are saving countless lives, and that the direct and ancillary benefits vastly outweigh their multi-billion-dollar annual costs? And if that is the case, shouldn’t EPA officials be prosecuted for lying to Congress and public, and imposing all those costs for no real benefits?

And now, during the past few months, EPA has been trying to use the prestigious National Academy of Sciences to cover-up and whitewash the agency’s illegal experiments on humans. In secret, and with no public notice or opportunity to comment, the agencies held meetings and issued a draft report.
Milloy got wind of what was going on. He and four other experts sought and received an unprecedented opportunity to testify before the NAS on August 24. Their presentations and other information used in this article can be found herehere and here. Will their efforts bring change?
Up to now, EPA has said and done whatever it deems necessary or convenient to advance its regulatory agenda. The health, environmental and societal costs are unjustified and can no longer be tolerated.



Ranchers, environmental group settle trespass lawsuit

A group of Wyoming ranchers and the environmental group they were suing for trespassing have reached a settlement, with both sides claiming victory. Fifteen landowners from Fremont, Sublette and Uinta counties alleged in a 2014 lawsuit that a Western Watersheds Project researcher had illegally crossed their property to collect water samples. The settlement prohibits the group’s employees from going onto the landowners’ property in the future and makes it easier for the ranchers to seek punitive damages if future trespassing occurs, plaintiff’s attorney Karen Budd-Falen said. “We are very happy,” Budd-Falen said. “The settlement gives the landowners even more than they could have gotten if Western Watersheds Project had allowed the case to go forward.” But watersheds project interim director Greta Anderson said the settlement represented a positive outcome for the organization under the circumstances. “Her claims didn’t actually win anything that didn’t already exist,” Anderson said, noting that while the settlement explicitly bars watersheds representatives from trespassing on private land, those same restrictions apply to all members of the public...more

Ethanol is the Wrong Solution

By Marita K. Noon

University of Michigan’s Energy Institute research professor John DeCicco, Ph.D., believes that rising carbon dioxide emissions are causing global warming and, therefore, humans must find a way to reduce its levels in the atmosphere—but ethanol is the wrong solution. According to his just-released study, political support for biofuels, particularly ethanol, has exacerbated the problem instead of being the cure it was advertised to be.

DeCicco and his co-authors assert: “Contrary to popular belief, the heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas emitted when biofuels are burned is not fully balanced by the CO2 uptake that occurs as the plants grow.” The presumption that biofuels emit significantly fewer greenhouse gases (GHG) than gasoline does is, according to DeCicco: “misguided.”

His research, three years in the making, including extensive peer-review, has upended the conventional wisdom and angered the alternative fuel lobbyists. The headline-grabbing claim is that biofuels are worse for the climate than gasoline.

Past bipartisan support for ethanol was based on two, now false, assumptions.

First, based on fears of waning oil supplies, alternative fuels were promoted to increase energy security. DeCicco points out: “Every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan has backed programs to develop alternative transportation fuels.” Now, in the midst of a global oil glut, we know that hydraulic fracturing has been the biggest factor in America’s new era of energy abundance—not biofuels. Additionally, ethanol has been championed for its perceived reduction in GHG. Using a new approach, DeCicco and his researchers, conclude: “rising U.S. biofuel use has been associated with a net increase rather than a net decrease in CO2 emissions.”

How to feed the masses in small-town America

by Leah Todd

Ten years ago, plagued by equipment failures and increasingly sluggish sales, the only grocery store in tiny Walsh, Colorado, closed its doors. But the town’s 600 residents, suddenly facing a 40-mile round trip for food, didn’t despair. Instead, they pooled their money and reopened the historic Walsh Community Grocery Store, a fixture in their town since 1928, as a community-owned store.

Today, the store is turning a profit, and has just one payment left on a $160,000 loan it used to restock and remodel. The shop’s strategy of combining smart community organizing and traditional business acumen is a model for other tiny towns struggling to maintain local grocery stores, even as dollar stores and their frozen wares take over main streets throughout rural America. Roughly 6,000 dollar stores have opened in the U.S. since 2010, according to the retail research firm Conlumino. For at least one chain, Dollar General, the large majority are in towns of 20,000 people or less — places too small for big box stores, like Wal-Mart, but perfect for a dollar store’s slightly smaller shop.

In rural communities, grocery stores — part economic driver, part community builder, and part food supplier — are key institutions, according to an analysis by the Center for Rural Affairs. But keeping them alive isn’t easy. Profit margins are low in the grocery business, and most chain stores accumulate earnings through volume. At small-scale stores like the one in Walsh, the limited clientele means limited sales and, perhaps, bankruptcy...

Ammon Bundy's lawyer argues for his client's right to wear cowboy boots at trial

Before prospective jurors file into Courtroom 9A in the federal courthouse in downtown Portland Wednesday morning, the judge is expected to rule on whether the defendants in the Oregon standoff case who are in custody can wear neckties, belts and boots at trial as requested. Ammon Bundy's lawyer J. Morgan Philpot, argued that his client is innocent until proven guilty, and should be allowed to wear the civilian clothes that he chooses. "We would prefer our clients not look like disheveled slackers in front of the jury,'' Philpot told the judge during Tuesday's last pretrial conference hearing. Philpot added later in the day in a written motion, "These men are cowboys, and given that the jury will be assessing their authenticity and credibility, they should be able to present themselves to the jury in that manner.'' Ammon Bundy remarked in court that he's never even worn slip-on shoes or loafers before court on Tuesday. On August 27, the U.S. Marshal's Service sent an email to defendants, alerting them that certain clothing items won't be permitted at trial: "Ties, Bows, Belts, Handkerchiefs, Cuff Links, Steel toe boots/shoes, Shoe laces, Shirt tie down straps, Safety pins, Shirt pocket pen protectors." As a result, Ammon Bundy arranged to wear non-steel toe boots but was informed those aren't allowed either. U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown Tuesday afternoon asked Barbara Alfono, the deputy U.S marshal in charge of the Bundy trial, about the dress code. Alfono said the defendants who are in custody cannot wear ties, boots or belts as safety precautions. Those accessories could be used as weapons against deputy marshals or the defendants themselves, she said. Further, the defendants will be wearing shackles around their ankles when they're taken to and from the courthouse, and boots would interfere with them. Those shackles, however, will be removed once the defendants are in the courtroom. Philpot pressed further in court Tuesday, asking if he could provide boots for his client to change into once he's led into the courtroom, and before the jury is brought in...more

Trial for Ammon Bundy, 6 others in Oregon standoff set to begin

Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the federal conspiracy case against Ammon Bundy and six others will spend the next three days picking 12 Oregon residents to sit on a jury and eight alternates for a trial that could last two months or more. The sheer number of defendants, the volume of evidence and the turbulent politics of public land ownership make the trial one of the highest-profile proceedings to land in a Portland courtroom in years. The federal judge, in an acknowledgement of the complexities of trying so many people at once, has taken remarkable measures to try to manage a case that has riveted the West this winter and for much of this year: the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon. The court initially sent juror questionnaires to 1,500 people across Oregon. Of those, 350 responded. Lawyers whittled the jury pool last month to 263 based on prospective jurors' answers to everything from what they know about the case to their personal beliefs about the Second Amendment. About 60 people were eliminated for either bias or hardship...more

Feds drop charges against Pete Santilli in Malheur case

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Just one day before he was set to stand trial for his role in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge takeover and occupation, prosecutors dropped all Oregon charges against Pete Santilli. The Internet radio host from Cincinnati, who was with the occupiers throughout the takeover, still faces charges in Nevada for his alleged role in the Cliven Bundy case. In a filing on Tuesday, US Attorney Billy J. Williams said prosecutors decided not to pursue charges against Santilli because of “this Court’s pretrial evidentiary rulings excluding evidence against” him. The charges were dismissed without prejudice, which means it is as though the action had never been filed. “It’s been our position since the beginning that Pete had innocent intentions here,” Santilli’s lawyer Tom Coan told KOIN 6 News. “He never encouraged anyone to go out and stay at the refuge.”...more

Federal judge denies Oregon standoff defendant Ryan Bundy's motion to ditch his standby counsel

U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown on Tuesday denied Oregon standoff defendant Ryan Bundy's last-minute attempt to ditch his standby counsel. "I do not want her to represent me. I do not want her assistance,'' Bundy said, standing before the court during its last pretrial conference hearing, a day before jury selection is set to begin. Bundy, who chose to represent himself in the federal conspiracy case stemming from the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, said he does not trust standby counsel Lisa Ludwig in front of a jury. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Wednesday, and Bundy is one of eight defendants set for trial. The judge reminded Bundy that he chose to serve as his own lawyer, and the court appointed Ludwig to assist him should he change his mind, or in the event that the court must exclude Bundy from the courtroom. "You don't have any right to choose who that is,'' Brown reminded Bundy. Only defendants who retain counsel, "as your brother did,'' can choose who will represent them, the judge said, referring to Bundy's younger brother Ammon Bundy, who has retained two attorneys. "You're insinuating,'' Bundy continued, that because a defendant may have fewer funds, "I have less rights than another?'' Brown told Bundy the U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that defendants seeking court-appointed attorneys don't get their pick of who will represent them. "You can't have it both ways. You gave up that right,'' the judge continued. In other action, the judge heard further argument about the government's error in sharing raw data from 11 Facebook accounts belonging to 10 defendants with all 26 alleged conspirators after the information was deemed irrelevant to the case and should have been kept under seal. Brown said she was still dissatisfied with the government's explanation of how the error occurred, after receiving written declarations from those involved and additional explanations Tuesday from Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Bradford...more

Water Symposium


Tuesday, September 06, 2016

Imperial Eagle wins the All American Futurity

RUIDOSO, N.M. - Trainer Tony Sedillo has been involved in the sport of horse racing since he was a teenager growing up in Albuquerque, N.M. On Monday afternoon, he realized one of his dreams when Imperial Eagle rallied to win the Grade 1, 440-yard, $3 million All American Futurity for two-year-old quarter horses at Ruidoso Downs Race Track and Casino in front of 24,515 fans. "I started crying the final 100 yards of the race, it's an emotional time for me," the 58-year-old Sedillo said. "My two biggest supporters, my mom (Christine) and my dad (Leddie) always encouraged me, always told me I'd win this race one day. I've had a couple of horses in this race before but it didn't go as well as we'd hoped with them, they had problems. There were no problems for Imperial Eagle. He came back from the trials for this race and he was in good shape. He was fantastic. Everyone involved in quarter horse racing wants to win this race. It feels good." Imperial Eagle won the race in a time of 21.478 seconds, edging The Marfa Lights by a neck. Fifty-eight-year-old jockey Larry Payne was looking for his first-ever All American Futurity win with The Marfa Lights. Coronas First Diva also ran a good race and ran third. Imperial Eagle, who has now won four of six starts, earned $1,500,000 for owner Charles Robinson of Southern Pines, N.C. Imperial Eagle was the post time favorite and returned $8 to win, $4.40 to place and $3.60 to show...more

Ec Jet One wins the All American Derby

RUIDOSO, N.M. - Trainer Judd Kearl has had quite a meet this summer at Ruidoso Downs Race Track and Casino with a strong winning percentage and several other horses hitting the board. On Sunday afternoon, the 41-year-old trainer earned arguably his biggest win of his career when Ec Jet One rallied for a half-length win in the Grade 1, 440-yard All American Derby, which was worth $2,414,691. The All American Derby is for three-year-old quarter horses. The 10-horse field was full of talent and many said any of the 10 could win it. It was a close race throughout, but Ec Jet One finished strong and won in a time of 21.490 seconds. "It's a great win and Ec Jet One gave such a great effort," said Kearl, who has been training for 15 years. "We give some time off earlier this year and he came back and ran a great trial for this race. He finished strong to earn the win. He's a big, strong horse. "Ec Jet One earned $1,014,336 for owner Enrique Carrion of Veracruz, Mexico. The Texas-bred son of the Louisiana Cartel has now won eight of 10 starts. He was the second fastest qualifier for the All American Derby and also owns wins in the South Florida Derby and Hialeah Derby at Hialeah Park in Florida. ...more

Alaska’s emergency wildfire crews are burning out

Wildfire is part of life in Alaska’s rural interior. During summer, it’s not uncommon for more than 2,000 lightning strikes to touch down in a single day, igniting the dry, hot lowlands. Emergency Firefighter Type 2 crews, consisting primarily of local Alaskan Natives, typically serve as the first line of defense against conflagrations. “Most people here have fought wildfire in some form throughout their lives,” says Alexander, who served eight years with the Denali Hotshots and is now the Yukon Flats Center coordinator at the University of Alaska. Yet more and more would-be-firefighters are seeking economic opportunities elsewhere, leaving remote villages vulnerable to wildfires made more intense by climate change. Many wonder how much longer Native villagers can be protected from flames and smoke before they’re forced to flee for good — a new wave of climate refugees. Alexander is based out of Fort Yukon, an Alaska Native village, population 600, at the junction of the Yukon and Porcupine rivers, about 145 miles northeast of Fairbanks. It epitomizes the challenges facing local communities...more

Group pushes to expand Southern Oregon monument lands

A group of scientists, local leaders and Oregon's two U.S. senators are calling for an expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, saying the borders drawn during its creation 16 years ago fail to protect its unique biological diversity — particularly in the face of climate change. The current borders around the monument don't take into account full watersheds, fail to protect the headwaters of Jenny Creek and other streams and don't include high-elevation public lands needed for the monument's unique flora and fauna as they react to climate change, the group says. Supporters claim that not doing so threatens the so-called "spectacular biological diversity" and the rare plants, animals and other "objects of interest" cited in the presidential proclamation that created the now-66,000-acre monument in 2000. "The borders now don't do the job that the proclamation intends," says Dave Willis, chairman of the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council and one of the original leaders of the effort to establish the monument. "It's to protect the biological diversity and connectivity and make it more resilient to climate change," Willis says...more

US judge: Government can keep killing salmon-eating bird

A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Army Corps Engineers can continue killing double-crested cormorants that prey on Columbia River salmon and steelhead in a move that shows just how complex the debate has become over how to best sustain imperiled fish species emblematic of the Pacific Northwest. Following the ruling made public Thursday, the Audubon Society of Portland on Friday called the decision “deeply disappointing.” Along with other groups, it contends that hydroelectric dams pose the greatest threat to the fish and says it is unnecessary to reduce the number of fish predators by shooting thousands of cormorants and spreading oil on thousands of nests to prevent cormorant eggs from hatching. Bird conservationists have said repeatedly that attempts to reduce the number of salmon killed as they pass through a complex system of hydroelectric dams and reservoirs on the Columbia and Snake rivers would help the fish more than shooting their predators. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife in 2015 authorized the Corps to kill about 11,000 cormorants — or 5,600 breeding pairs — and put oil in 26,000 nests on the island. In 2015 and 2016, the Corps culled 7,086 adults birds and applied oil on 6,181 nests, according to Corps documents. The Corps stopped in May because large numbers of birds left the colony. Sallinger believes the 16,000 cormorants left because of the killings, but Fredlund said no one knows the reason or reasons...more

Killing one fish to save another in Yellowstone

White-breasted gulls are following a slow-moving boat in Yellowstone Lake. The crew on board is up to something fishy. It’s four fishermen letting out an awful lot of net. The net sinks into the lake’s deep depths in a large S-curve created by the swerve of the captain’s turns. The crew manages up to 40 miles of netting. That netting collects 300,000 lake trout every summer. “We are aggressively netting non-native lake trout in Yellowstone Lake to reduce their predation on our native cutthroat,” says Todd Koel, Yellowstone National Park native fish conservation leader. An angler turned in an unusual catch in 1994. It was a fish that wasn’t supposed to be in Yellowstone Lake — a lake trout. The surprise catch hooked biologists with an unexpected problem. They had an invader in a fishery carefully monitored for the persistence of the park’s coveted native fish, Yellowstone cutthroat trout. “We’re not going to allow that in Yellowstone National Park,” Koel says. “This place is much more than that. We’re way better than that.” Lake trout have aggressive appetites. They made quick work of eating native swimmers. By mid 2000s, 90 to 95 percent of the native Yellowstone cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake were gone. “The problem is lake trout are like large wolves on the landscape, only in the lake,” Koel says. “Large, highly predatory, fish-eating machines essentially.” The park’s fisheries biologists are fighting those fish-eating machines with intensity. The goal is a lake trout population crash. That’s what the commercial fishing boat from the Great Lakes region is for. The crew, with gulls in their wake, put out gillnets as fast as they bring fish in. They work the waters from May to October. They fill stacks of black bins with dead lake trout. Cut open any of the dead fish and there’s up to eight cutthroat trout inside...more

Federal Rule Set to Speed Renewables on Public Lands

More wind turbines and solar power plants could be coming to vast tracts of public lands in the West if the Obama administration finalizes a new rule this fall aiming to streamline how federal lands can be developed for renewable energy. But the rule, hailed by environmental groups and the Obama administration as way to fast-track zero-carbon wind and solar projects on federal lands, is being criticized by the renewables industry, which says it won’t do enough to reduce the cost of developing renewables on public lands...more

Cow Fart Regulations Approved By California’s Legislature

California’s Legislature has approved regulations on cow flatulence and manure – both blamed for releasing greenhouse gases. The measure was approved shortly before the end of the legislative session Wednesday after its author, Democratic Senator Ricardo Lara of Bell Gardens, agreed to give dairy farms more time to comply. The legislation seeks to reduce methane emissions associated with manure to 40 percent below their 2013 levels by 2030. Methane is one of several gases known as short-lived climate pollutants that don’t persist for long in the atmosphere but have a huge influence on the climate...more

Actually, Raising Beef Is Good for the Planet

This Driverless Tractor Might Be the Future of Farming

It takes a very special tractor to turn heads in Iowa, but this one drew crowds. This week at Iowa’s Farm Progress Show, Case IH debuted their remote controlled tractor prototype, the Case IH Autonomous Concept Vehicle. The futuristic tractor, which sort of looks like an ATV on steroids, is designed to make modern farming as efficient as possible. Instead of driving the tractor in a cockpit, farmers control the machine’s routes via an app on a tablet computer. The tractor can plant crops, collect real-time crop data, monitor harvests and take pictures — all via remote control. The vehicle can also work with existing non-remote tractors, or together with other driverless tractors as a fleet. You can see more of the tractor in action in the video below. Like driverless cars, driverless tractors aren’t quite ready to hit the market. According to Bloomberg, the biggest legal hurdle is whether or not Cash IH and similar corporations can collect and own the harvest data from the tractors. And if they do, what regulations be in place to control how they use it? Another concern has to do with how it would fit under current automobile laws. If you’ve ever lived in or driven through a small farm town, you know that tractors have to drive on the roads with other motorists from time to time. How would a driverless tractor, or car for that matter, be regulated? The legality remains foggy.  link

 The video:

https://youtu.be/MwC_Hzm5Z9s

Tom Ford’s style applauded in sale of his $75 million ranch

If you go by coverage in publications around the country (and Great Britain), the biggest news out of Santa Fe over the past several weeks is the potential sale of designer and film director Tom Ford’s 20,000-acre “ranch” south of Santa Fe. The “Manhattan-sized” estate and its reported $75 million price tag have provided fodder for publications ranging from Maxim to the U.K.’s Daily Mail to World Architecture. The big attraction, in addition to Ford’s celebrity and the high asking price, are the sensational (if you consider architecture sensational) pictures released to promote the sale. Variety’s site posted a gallery of 22 pics. Ford’s Cerro Pelon Ranch is a high-desert, ultra-modern Xanadu, designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando in nothing approaching Santa Fe Style. It also features an Old West movie set. Headlines around the world proclaim the place “insane,” “mind-blowing,” “stunning,” “humongous” and “bonkers.”...more

The Storied Hashknife

by


With the arrival of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in 1881 Holbrook, located at the junction of the Rio Puerco and Little Colorado River in northern Arizona would soon become one of the wildest cow towns in the West.

By 1887, the town had about two hundred and fifty residents. Businesses included five or six rowdy saloons. Contrary to popular myth, Holbrook never boasted a “Bucket of Blood” saloon. That was a woeful sobriquet given by the cowboys to any rough and tumble drinking establishment.  

The socially elite of the town included the wide gamut of colorful frontier types: filles de joie, gamblers, sheepherders, cowboys and railroaders. 

Holbrook in those days was, to paraphrase those immortal words of Mark Twain, “no place for a Presbyterian………”so very few remained Presbyterians, or any other religion for that matter.  In fact, the town had the unique distinction of being the only county seat in the United States that had no church until 1913.  And that was only after Mrs. Sidney Sapp cajoled her husband into organizing a building fund to build one.

TV's Wyatt Earp, Hugh O'Brian, has died at 91

Hugh O'Brian, who shot to fame as Sheriff Wyatt Earp in what was hailed as television's first adult Western, has died. He was 91. A representative from HOBY, a philanthropic organization O'Brian founded, says he died at home Monday morning in Beverly Hills. Until "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" debuted in September 1955, most TV Westerns - "The Lone Ranger," ''Hopalong Cassidy," the singing cowboys' series - were aimed at adolescent boys. "Wyatt Earp," on the other hand, was based on a real-life Western hero, and some of its stories were authentic. (The real Earp, who lived from 1848 to 1929, is most famous for his participation in the 1881 "Shootout at the O.K. Corral" in Tombstone, Arizona.) Critics quickly praised it, and it made O'Brian a star. "If we were doing Westerns with the chase and the fights that last endlessly, and the sheriff's daughter in sunbonnet and calico and the Wanted posters ... we wouldn't reach the audience we reach each week," O'Brian once said. "Gunsmoke," which debuted just a few days after "Wyatt Earp," became an even bigger hit, and by 1956-57, both were in the top 20 shows. In the 1958-59 season, Westerns accounted for an incredible seven out of the top 10 U.S. television series, including No. 1 "Gunsmoke" and No. 2 "Wagon Train," with "Wyatt Earp" at No. 10. "Wyatt Earp" remained a Top 20 hit until 1960, but it was canceled the following year after being supplanted by the avalanche of other adult Westerns. O'Brian, meanwhile, continued to work frequently in movies, television and theater through the 1990s, although he never again achieved the prominence he enjoyed as Wyatt Earp...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1693

It's a Swingin' Tuesday and we have a good one.  It meets the tastes of renowned western cartoonist A-10 Etcheverry, as it is one of those "blue" recordings, full of sexual innuendo.  I like it because we get to hear an unissued recording with some great breaks by fiddler Jimmy Thomason and pianist Moon Mullican. The tune, Fruit Wagon Gal, was recorded in Hollywood on March 3, 1942 and you'll find it on the CD You Oughta See My Fanny Dance:  Previously Unissued Western Swing, 1935-1942.

https://youtu.be/rmYeH35PZhY

Sunday, September 04, 2016

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Cowboy loving ways

by Julie Carter

I’m not going to say it’s just cowboys that do it, but it’s just cowboys that I know that do it. They have an uncanny knack for making a day of celebration that belongs to someone else into a plan to get something done they want or need done or simply to shortcut the effort into something less than first valiantly planned. My narrative will explain.

They weren't newlyweds by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, just days after this birthday event I'm going to tell you about, they celebrated their 35th anniversary.  They are now, amazingly enough on year 41. Keeping that in mind, these tales will give a glimpse of the depth of love and tolerance honed over that period of longevity.

It was his bride's birthday and since her favorite thing was to go somewhere and see something notable, preferably historical, he offered a blank check in the "travel" department. 

"Where would you like to go?" he asked, knowing she understood that didn't include destinations that required travel agents or airports. She wasn't caught off guard with the request but truly didn't have a burning desire to visit anywhere in particular. So he decided for her. Also not a surprise.

"We'll go to East Texas," he announced helpfully. "Pick a town in East Texas." The only town she could think of was Jefferson, selected because it had a rich history and would not require six months of travel time. They loaded up and headed east, getting as far as Fort Worth. After lunch at Joe T. Garcia’s and $7 margarita for the birthday girl, they were back on the road. 

"Any place in Fort Worth you'd like to see?" he asked her. She remembered the Fort Worth Water Gardens downtown and suggested that she would like to see that again. "It is truly beautiful," she recalled. "A waterfall, a river, a stream, a pond, a cascade and anything else you can imagine doing with water.”

Aiming to please, the cowboy headed the pickup that way. He drove around the block a half dozen times looking for a place to park and finding none, he quickly lost interest in this particular destination. His bride heard it coming as much as saw it. Knowing that when he's about to turn to a "silver-tongued devil," the timbre of his voice changes. So she takes a deep seat because what is next is always a "suggestion."

"You know baby, you have this wonderful memory, actually an amazing memory," he said with a glib smoothness to his words. "Since you have already seen this water display once before, how about you just remember it."  

Being married to a cowboy for 35 years will teach a gal how to say with a straight face, "It was a wonderful birthday." However, he did end her day by going to a roping, winning a  dinner-plate- sized buckle and presenting it to her with the endearing words, “It’ll keep you from getting gut shot.”

This year’s celebration involved a mission to a bar in Grapevine but not for the reasons one might seek out a bar on a birthday, anywhere. The cowboy has collected rocks for most his life and finally found someone with a rock saw to cross section them and reveal the formations inside. 

That led to the need to make a table top with these dissected rocks embedded in epoxy and lit from the underside. Said bar in Grapevine had a bar top with rock chips in epoxy and the cowboy deemed that worth viewing. Only a coincidence the trip happened on his bride’s birthday.

They navigated the overpasses and traffic jams through Fort Worth and Dallas to get to Grapevine. The trip was redeemed with a wonderful lunch ending in a chocolate truffle cake, after which they visited a couple of rock-embedded bar tops and headed home.

The topper for the day was the skunk in the feed room that greeted them as they went to do chores. Evicting him involved moving a pallet of feed, locking up the dog who wanted to help, a pistol and of course, none of it happened without everybody and everything getting a good dose of polecat perfume. 

Eventually, the skunk was disposed of, the clothes in the washer, everybody cleaned up and a cocktail on the patio. The cowboy went to refresh his drink and called to his bride to come to the kitchen. She complied; he put his arm around her and pulled her tight to his chest.

She was about mid-sigh of contentment and thinking “what a perfect ending to a beautiful birthday,” when he says, “Do I still smell skunky?”

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

Remission of Regulatory Burden

‘Oh, Yea, Sure’ Archives
Remission of Regulatory Burden
In God we Trust
By Stephen L. Wilmeth


            The revelation that the Constitution is not taught in the majority of law schools should leave us all incredulous.
            The 10th Amendment alone (The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people) is a study of expansive rights reserved to the people. It should constitute a year of mandatory study. It forms a cornerstone of our system, and, yet, it is relegated to the “oh, yea, sure” archives.
            In its state of dominion, the federal government has largely rendered the 10th Amendment inert with its interpretation of Article 1, Section 8, and Clause 3 which is commonly referred to as the Commerce Clause. In original form, the clause gave Congress the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes”. In its evolution from originality to current form, it, more often than not, is the usurped extralegal tool of authority over the activities of the states and the citizenry. It essentially trumps the 10th Amendment duly ratified under the auspices of the Constitution and bundled with the rest of the first ten amendments (which we should know as the Bill of Rights). A current best example is to try to find the authority of the federal government to pass and enforce Obamacare in an original reading of the Constitution.
            It can’t be done.
            The only way the Commerce Clause can be the guiding authority granting the federal government the right to pass and enforce such legislation is through the maze of case law that now constitutes the basis of the interpretation of the Constitution and the resulting instructional foundation of law taught today. The interpretation of other clauses is similarly corrupted. In reality, this has long been a meandering process of reinvention that has rendered the Constitution mute and exhausted. The genius of the original words is lost.
For all intents and purposes in the manner in which it is now referenced, the Constitution is a relic of the “oh, yea, sure’ archives.
            Moral release
            It is time to apply biblical principles to our state of regulatory exhaustion. The current Congress is the case in point. In their infinite wisdom, this Congress is allowing unelected bureaucrats to install about 59 new regulations for every law that they pass. Notwithstanding the cost of the legislation itself, the cost of these regulations is costing us $1.885 trillion per year.
            There is no end to this nonsense. It is a compounding process whereby regulations are stacked upon us without any mechanism of eliminating past regulations before new ones are invented. We are becoming frantic with regulatory insolvency. Although our God recognized no man can serve forever without relief, our government has no such moral equivalency. God never allows us to obey his law without immediate compensation. Blessings are always attached to obedience to Him, whereas our government only demands more. We are not getting a just return for our investment in this government.
            We aren’t just talking about the cost.
            We are talking about the principle of new chances, the hope for new opportunities, and the promise of fresh beginnings if we are capable of structuring such things in our lives. Such regulatory release can only be accomplished by moral processes and government demonstrates it is incapable of defining those processes. Deuteronomy 15:1-2 offers the gleaming example of how we should deal with compounding regulations.
            At the end of every seven years you shall make a release. This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow man. He shall not require payment from his brother, because the Lord’s time canceling debts has been proclaimed.
            In this case, the cancellation will not be aimed at debt, but, rather, regulatory burden. The text would read:
            At the end of every seven years which is proclaimed the acceptable year by this nation, all regulations created in a manner extralegal to the authority vested by the Constitution, and which, by their nature, lay repressive restraint on the American citizenry shall be cancelled. Any and all regulations deemed finite, necessary, and or prudent on the basis of future legislation shall and can be crafted, but will enjoy a sunset on this day seven years hence.
            In God we Trust
            It should pain every one of us that the blessings of liberty defined in the Constitution have been eroded and redefined to fit political expediency. If change is indeed necessary, the document sets forth the means for change but that change cannot come by the migration of agenda forces through the courts. That course will and has altered the intent and the form of the Law of Our Land to a point unrecognizable to the Framers and to the diligent reader who is given great power in the 10th Amendment, the last of the amendments which constitute our Bill of Rights.
            It is also time to reset the clock and the intent of all law schools. No longer is it acceptable to fund these factories of liberal doctrine without at least a full year of Constitutional study. There was no intent to create our foundational document on the basis of code and innuendo. What is says is what was intended. If there is confusion, then it must be fixed but only through the legal process that is defined in its content not the corrupted maneuvering of radical agendas. That is why we found it intolerable to bow to the east and King George III.
            Indeed, in our Constitution we find words of wisdom amid all the black print of the law of man, but only … In God (do) we Trust.

            Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Doesn’t it offend you the Constitution is relegated to the ‘Oh, yea, sure’ archives?”

Baxter Black: Branded is a discouraging word

Many’s the time I’ve come home with yellow paint on my coveralls. Caterpillar yellow. Spot it a mile away! We used it to mark our cull cows. Two paint brands we’d borrowed from the sheepherders were dipped in the paint can and daubed on the cow’s rump according to their condition. O for old or open. P for old and pregnant. So marked, we could sort ‘em off the good bred keepers if they got mixed. The yellow stayed for quite a while. Well, you’ve seen how long it lasts on a road grader.

I’m wondering if that same idea might be applied beyond the world of cow workin’.  Not to the point that the Middle East folks do, cutting off the hand of a thief, but just a judicious use of yellow paint.
For instance, how ‘bout an H for horse people. It wouldn’t be used on those people who enjoy horses but are capable of a normal conversation. But the H would be reserved for those die-hards who cannot talk for 10 minutes without mentioning a horse.

I’d suggest a G could be used on golf fanatics. Sort of a warning for the unsuspecting stranger who can’t tell a 4 wood from a sand rake.

B for broker. He’d be required to divulge his yellow mark at the beginning of his phone call. “Hi, Baxter, this is Bruce! How’s the family? I saw your name in the paper, wanna get rich? Oh, I’m required by law to tell you that I have a yellow B on the back of my jacket!”

C for candidate. Although they are easy to spot with the outstretched hand and election button proclaiming their political allegiance, a big yellow C would forearm the potential voter.

L for registered livestock breeders.

J for sale barn junkies and gypo cow traders.

A for lawyers. When seen in combination with a C, the public would be able to forgive their insufferable behavior and accept them with the same half-hearted pity one feels for a drunk who has wet his pants.

Past tense: A Texas legend - Sam Bass, part 3

by Drew Gomber

Sam Bass had experienced a good and rather lucky career in crime from 1875 onward. But the summer of 1878 would end all of that. By that year, Sam’s gang consisted of Seaborne Barnes, Frank Jackson, and a rather shady character called Murphy. After the law had made it too difficult to rob trains, which had kind of been a specialty of Sam’s, he turned his attention to banks – specifically, the bank at Round Rock, Texas.

As the day of the robbery approached – July 20th, the day before Sam’s birthday – Sam seemed to grow increasingly paranoid, seeing every cowboy as a possible lawman. He finally convinced himself that he was mistaken, but unfortunately for him, he wasn’t. Gang member Murphy had gone to the law and offered to sell out the rest of the gang, and the men Sam convinced himself weren’t lawmen – actually were lawmen! Murphy, in his act of betrayal, had cemented his own place in the legend of Sam Bass.

Before the gang reached Round Rock that day, Murphy conveniently dropped out, leaving the trio of Bass, Barnes and Jackson to continue on into town. And that town was literally crawling with lawmen, all of whom remained un-noticed as the three outlaws dismounted and began sauntering down the street, their saddlebags slung over their shoulders.

But there was a problem: for all the planning that the Rangers did prior to the outlaws’ arrival, staying undercover for days previous as the outlaws scouted the town, they managed to forget to do one thing… notify the local authorities. Consequently, when the outlaws wandered into a store – probably to buy more ammunition, Deputy Sheriff A.W. Grimes had noticed a suspicious bulge under Bass’ coat, and followed them into the place. Strolling up behind the three men, Grimes placed his hand on Bass’ side and said, “Say mister, are you carrying a gun?” They were his last words.


Carrizozo's Paden’s Drug Store a reminder of a by-gone era

While Carrizozo is experiencing a resurgence, based in part on the popularity of its historical buildings, there is one structure that was once the center of social life, but is now abandoned. Despite its disuse, Roy’s Gift Gallery, formerly Paden’s Drug Store, is on the National Register of Historic Places and remains a reminder of past events, as well as an example of a distinctive type of building. Marty Davenport nominated the building in 2004 and it was accepted in Feb. 2005. Davenport was able to draw on information given by Roy Dow who owned the Gift Gallery and several other old-timers who remembered stories of when the building was a hospital. Originally built in 1909, the two-story brick building served as the focus for Dr. Melvin G. Paden’s medical practice. Paden moved to White Oaks from West Virginia in the 1880s. In 1906 he was appointed division surgeon for the railroad, necessitating his move to Carrizozo. He first built the small one-story wood frame building but, as his practice grew, he found it necessary to expand to include a drug store and more modern hospital facility next door. In 1917 a second story was added with rooms branching off a central hallway and a laboratory and operating room on the west side. Offices are located on the east side. A kitchen and bathroom were also added. The door leading to the operating room is over-sized to allow patients on gurneys access. Large windows on the north and west sides were designed to let natural light in to the operating room, and push-button electric switches and drop cord pendant lights were standard in each room. The building itself is made of pressed Ancho clay tile brick. The window lintels on the second floor are made of cast concrete. A coal chute leads to the basement, the location of the boiler, vented by the exterior brick chimney...more


For historical significance and pageantry, nothing surpasses the DuBois Drug Store in Corona, NM.  As in most things of importance, Corona trumps Carrizozo.

 

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1692

Our gospel tune today is Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper's 1959 recording of a song written by Don Gibson, There's A Big Wheel

https://youtu.be/mxB-KO1UbdU

Friday, September 02, 2016

Contractor mauled by wolf at Cigar Lake mine

A contractor working in northern Saskatchewan is recovering in hospital after he was mauled by a wolf. The 26-year-old victim was on his lunch break at Cameco's Cigar Lake uranium mine Monday morning when the wolf made the unprovoked attack. The incident ended when a security guard scared the animal away. "We were very fortunate the security guard was in the place where she was," said Rob Geraghty, Cameco spokesperson. "She took a number of steps to not only get the animal away, but also to administer first aid." Geraghty did not release details on the worker's injuries, but he said they were serious enough the man had to be airlifted to hospital. The worker remains in a Saskatoon hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. Meanwhile, employees on site have been put on alert. All personnel have been told they must use vehicles to get around the area until further notice...more

Northern Saskatchewan mine worker recovering in hospital after wolf attack

A 26-year-old man is recovering in hospital after he was attacked in northern Saskatchewan by a lone wolf. The man, a shift worker at Cameco's Cigar Lake uranium mine, was walking between buildings shortly after midnight on Monday when the attack occurred, said Cameco spokesman Rob Gereghty. “He is a kitchen worker, on lunch break at that time. He may have been headed back to his room.” That's when the wolf made what Gereghty called an “unprovoked attack.” “A single wolf basically pounced on him. The injured contractor received immediate medical attention from a security guard who interrupted the attack and scared the lone wolf away...more

Wolf expert says human habituation likely reason for Cigar Lake attack

After a mine worker was sent to hospital following a wolf attack in Northern Saskatchewan earlier this week, experts say it's likely the animal had ceased being afraid of humans. The 26-year-old man at the Cigar Lake mine had taken a break just after midnight Monday when he was attacked by the predator less than 100 metres from the permanent camp. He was rescued by a security guard and airlifted to Saskatoon. CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning talked to two wolf experts about what may have caused the attack. Valerius Geist is a zoologist and professor emeritus at the University of Calgary and has written extensively about wolves. Lu Carbyn is an internationally recognized expert on wolf biology and an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta. While both researchers say it's difficult to pinpoint exactly why the wolf attacked, Geist said it was notable that the wolf was alone, apart from any pack. "The wolf was almost certainly hungry," he said. "For instance, when they grow old and are starting to lose teeth, and their efficiency in hunting goes down, that can be an issue." Carbyn said it's very likely the animal was lured to the area by the smell of garbage generated at the mine. "Wolves are attracted to garbage sites, and in the process might actually lose fear of people, because they're constantly in close proximity with people," he said. For its part, Cameco said it hired experts after a 2004 incident where a man was killed by a wolf at Points North Landing. It educates staff on dealing with large predators, and surrounds its garbage dump with two fences, one which is electrified...more

Causes unclear as wolves kill a record number of Wisconsin hunting hounds

The number of hunting hounds killed by wolves hit a record high of 28 so far this year, the Department of Natural Resources confirmed Tuesday. The state’s wolf population has grown while regulation of hunting dogs has been relaxed, but it’s not clear what factored into the increased dog deaths, said DNR large carnivore specialist David MacFarland. “It’s too early to say what’s causing it, or if it’s really a significant difference or not,” MacFarland said. “It could be just one pack being more aggressive than in the past.” The wolf population estimate this year is the highest yet for the endangered species, but little growth has occurred in northern areas where almost all of the dogs were killed, MacFarland said. Eleven of the 28 dogs killed this year, including four since Aug. 21, died in Bayfield County, according to DNR data. After a wolf attacks a dog being trained for hunting, there is a high probability of further attacks involving its pack, MacFarland said. The DNR tells hunters the farther they keep dogs from those packs, the lower the risk to their dogs...more

The Case for Mass Slaughter of Predators Just Got Weaker

Wildlife officials in Washington State recently green-lit a controversial plan to kill a pack of wolves fingered as the culprits behind a spate of attacks on cows there. The way the state sees it, taking out the carnivores could help prevent more livestock losses. The United States used this justification to kill thousands of coyotes, wolves, bears, and other predators last year. Other nations, including Canada and Finland, have also authorized predator hunts for this reason. But these killings might not solve any problems after all. A new study published Thursday in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment found that there's little scientific evidence that killing predators actually accomplishes the goal of protecting livestock. "We know anecdotes and perceptions don’t get us very far when we’re dealing with a problem like livestock predation," says Adrian Treves, a conservation biologist from the University of Wisconsin who co-authored the paper. "The science of predator control has been slow and not very advanced." Treves and his colleagues reviewed previous research attempting to measure the effectiveness of various predator-control methods in North America and Europe. Some studies looked at whether killing predators meant fewer livestock deaths, while others examined the success of nonlethal deterrents, such as the use of guard dogs and flag-lined ropes or wires. The scientists found that most of the research doesn’t hold up scientifically. Only two of the studies were deemed top notch because they took into consideration the possible effects of things like disease, weather and other elements that could influence livestock deaths. But neither study focused on the effectiveness of killing predators...more

Colorado's Anti-Fracking Crackup

by Michelle Malkin

...This week, two anti-fracking initiatives backed by deep-pocketed environmental lobbying heavyweights, such as the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, failed to gather enough signatures. The more draconian of the efforts, Initiative 78, would have imposed a mandatory 2,500-foot setback around all oil and gas operations -- essentially halting drilling in upward of 95 percent of Colorado's energy-rich land area.

These drastic attempts to sabotage the oil and gas industry didn't just miss by inches. They missed by a mile high and wide.

Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams announced that supporters of the two measures surpassed the required signature threshold but not by enough to compensate for the number of signatures that were rejected during a random sampling. One of the initiatives garnered 77,000 signatures out of about 98,000 needed to qualify for the ballot; the other, 79,000. Every other state initiative campaign (on issues ranging from primary election reform to cigarette taxes to assisted suicide) this year hit the mark.

Worse for eco-activists, the secretary of state reported that the petition for the de facto fracking moratorium included "several potentially forged signature lines" and has been referred to the state attorney general for investigation. At least one hired signature gatherer told KUSA-TV that homeless men in Denver filled out forms with "bulls---."

Election fraud? What election fraud? Yep, that election fraud.


BLM issues long-awaited sage grouse implementation plans

Scott Streater

The Obama administration today finalized guidance documents outlining exactly how federal land managers will implement provisions in sweeping greater sage grouse conservation plans covering 67 million acres in 10 Western states.

The seven instruction memorandums (IMs) issued today by the Bureau of Land Management come nearly a year after Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in September 2015 finalized the federal plans, which amended 98 BLM and Forest Service land-use plans to include grouse protection measures.

The IMs will guide BLM as it implements the sage grouse conservation measures that will affect how livestock grazing, oil and natural gas drilling, mining, renewable energy development, and other activities are carried out on federal lands across the West.

The IMs also include procedures to help BLM field offices track man-made disturbance activities in grouse habitat and collect data that will allow land managers to assess habitat conditions "at the local, regional and rangewide scales," the agency says.

One goal of the memos is to "show that there are some concrete actions" that, if applied consistently across the grouse's enormous range, will "provide certainty that conservation will take place," Sarah Greenberger, a key adviser to Jewell on sage grouse, said in an interview.

Greenberger and BLM Deputy Director Steve Ellis outlined details of the IMs yesterday to Greenwire.

The federal plans were instrumental in the Fish and Wildlife Service's decision not to list the greater sage grouse for protection under the Endangered Species Act. But proper implementation of the plans is critical, Greenberger and Ellis said, and federal agencies need to coordinate and have the support of state and local partners.


...The exact language for how BLM will manage livestock grazing in grouse habitat is also likely to stir up controversy.

The Fish and Wildlife Service does not consider livestock grazing one of the top threats facing the bird, though overgrazing can reduce the height of the grasses and broad-leafed plants that sage grouse need to eat and find cover from predators.

Two of the IMs finalized today deal with setting priorities for reviewing grazing permits and allotments in grouse habitat and establishing thresholds that would trigger a set of actions when "habitat objectives" are not met.

The first says that BLM field offices "will prioritize the review and processing of grazing permits" in grouse habitat, as well as monitoring compliance with the terms of the permit.

"The decision to prioritize in this way does not indicate that grazing is more of a management concern than other uses of the public lands, or that grazing is an incompatible use in any given area, but rather reflects a decision to prioritize limited resources to ensure grazing is properly managed in those areas most important to the Greater Sage-Grouse," the IM says.

The IM directs field offices to "develop an [grazing] allotment priority list," with a special focus on so-called sagebrush focal areas that are considered critical to the survival of the grouse.

In addition, grazing allotments in areas with "large, contiguous areas of sagebrush cover" will be a higher priority for BLM review, as well as areas "with declining sage-grouse populations," the IM says.

It's not clear how the livestock and ranching communities will receive BLM's instruction memos...


Wolf advocates rally to move cows off public lands

Wolf advocates rallied Thursday outside the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, calling on the state to immediately stop shooting wolves and for livestock to be removed from public lands. Meanwhile, across the state, ranchers in northeastern Washington were trying to prevent depredations on cattle over a wide swathe of the Colville National Forest. “We do everything we can to protect the cattle. The only other thing we could do is not turn them out,” said Justin Hedrick, co-owner of the Diamond M Ranch, the most high profile of the cattle operations losing cattle to livestock in the forest this summer. “We’re not the only ones affected. We’re the ones getting the media on it,” he said. “Nobody wants the attention, but we feel we have to put ourselves out there for there to be remedies.” As of early Thursday afternoon, WDFW had reported shooting six wolves in the Profanity Peak pack. WDFW was due to break its week-long silence and issue an update in the afternoon on the hunt for the pack’s remaining five wolves. Since WDFW’s last update, emotions have risen. Hedrick said his family, which has grazed cattle in the Colville for 73 years, have been threatened. “We’re getting death threats every day,” he said. “It’s very troubling. They call all day long, all night long.”...more

Madeleine Pickens' losing battle with the BLM

A $25 million eco-sanctuary meant to be a tourist attraction for rural Nevada is closed and may never re-open. The Mustang Monument in Elko County was created as an alternative for the troubled wild horse program, but the Bureau of Land Management has stopped the project from moving forward. The I-Team has obtained internal documents which show that what the BLM said in public is much different from what it thought in private. The wild horse program is through by many to be the worst program in the federal government. Bad for the horses, bad for the range, bad for the taxpayers. Every two or three years, the feds pay for an expensive study, and every study concludes that BLM needs to try something different. BLM always reacts the same. It ignores the recommendations. Mustang Monument was going to be a public private partnership -- a radical change good for the horses, the range and the taxpayers. The public records request shows it never had a chance. An obscure road is an example, Pickens planned to use it to transport tourists from her guest accommodations to deeded property on the other side of her range for cookouts and to see the herd of horses that was living out there, that is, until vandals cut the fences and the horses either died or ran off. BLM won't allow the use of the rarely traveled access road. "BLM has given her four or five pages of questions about what she would do on the road which include, where would people go to the bathroom? The answer is, it's a short enough drive they wouldn't go anywhere but they don't want to know where, they want to know how many times would they stop, how many times would they need to use a facility. Silly questions," Reynoldson said. A road that's been trod for a century by cows, sheep and horses can't be used to transport visitors because someone might have to pee. BLM is making sure they keep putting their foot out and tripping me up every time," said Mustang Monument founder Madeleine Pickens. "I keep getting up, they stop me." Pickens spent $6 million for two sprawling ranches because she was encouraged to do so by BLM. She offered to get other investors to buy another 2 million acres, and take all 30,000 wild horses the BLM had in storage, a plan which BLM admits would save the taxpayers more than $100 million in just five years. In public statements, BLM said it wanted to work with Pickens, but privately, it's another matter. Public records obtained by the I-Team show that BLM staff plotted the demise of Pickens plan from the beginning. A 2008 white paper discusses how the law could be used to prevent the project. BLM blacked out the details as being privileged information...more