FLE
Alien smuggling suspect shoots at Ariz. Border Patrol officers
U.S. Border Patrol agents were fired on by a suspected immigrant smuggler west of Yuma Tuesday night, officials said. The gunfire came at the end of a 20-mile chase of a motorhome packed with illegal immigrants, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Michael Gramley said. The incident began about 10 p.m. Tuesday when a citizen called in a tip about a large group of apparent immigrants who were seen getting in the motor home several miles west of Yuma. Agents tried to stop the motor home as it drove west on Interstate 8 near Andrade, Calif., but the driver wouldn't stop until the tires were flattened by a spike strip after about 20 miles. As the vehicle stopped, the driver reportedly fired one shot from a pistol at the agents, striking the rear tail light of a Border Patrol vehicle. The driver and 22 illegal immigrants got out of the motor home and began running. All were captured....
Mexican incursions inflame border situation
Armed men in Mexican military uniforms have illegally crossed into the United States to provide cover for drug smugglers, and have fired upon U.S. Border Patrol agents on several occasions, a congressional panel was told Tuesday. Border Patrol Union President T.J. Bonner detailed three incidents since 2000 in which U.S. agents were chased and fired upon by what he characterized as Mexican soldiers operating inside U.S. borders. Bonner testified before the House Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee on Tuesday. The Department of Homeland Security said there have been 231 documented incursions by Mexican military and law enforcement personnel into the U.S. since 1996. “There is little doubt that the majority of these incidences are accidental,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas., chairman of the Security Investigations Subcommittee. “However, there are several reports of intentional violations of U.S. sovereignty by groups, often smuggling hundreds of pounds of drugs, which appear to be associated with members of the Mexican military or police forces,” McCaul said....
Border Patrol and sheriffs take differing views on border incursion
The chief of the Border Patrol urged U.S. House members Tuesday not to lose sight of the daily dangers faced by federal agents as the lawmakers respond to a recent confrontation between law enforcement and military-uniformed drug smugglers along the Rio Grande. He urged the lawmakers to "not allow the high media profile" of the recent confrontation to cause them to "lose sight of the everyday threats" agents face. But his characterizations of the border were not shared by Texas sheriffs who followed Aguilar as witnesses in a hearing before the House Homeland Security subcommittee on investigations. Hudspeth County Deputy Sheriff Esequiel Legarreta, who was one of the first on the scene at the river Jan. 23, showed a video in which a Humvee can be seen amid desert brush and bales are being tossed from a vehicle before heavy smoke and flames appear. The Humvee was parked on the American side of the river. Their skepticism was shared by McCaul, R-Austin, and New Mexico Republican Rep. Steve Pearce, a Homeland Security member who sat in on the hearing. Holding up a photo showing individuals firing on border agents from Mexico, McCaul said: "It just seems to me it's getting worse, not better and cartels are getting more dangerous." Pearce disagreed that the border is not under siege as Aguilar said. "My constituents believe it to be and seeing that video makes me believe it to be," Pearce said....
Border guards seek military's help
The U.S. military should be called out to protect the border against military-style incursions from Mexico, the head of the Border Patrol union told a congressional homeland-security committee Tuesday. T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents 10,500 agents, recommended active or reserve military units be put "on standby" at strategic locations along the border. "If the Mexican military is coming into the United States, our law-enforcement agents do not have the training to deal with that," Bonner told the House Homeland Security subcommittee on Investigations. The Mexican Embassy maintains the suspected smugglers, who were not arrested, were members of a drug cartel posing as soldiers, not members of the Mexican military. But Texas officials testifying Tuesday said they think the suspects might be both. "It's everything,' said El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego. "It's the military, it's cartels buying off military, buying off civilians and dressing as the military." Bonner, who said he also believes the incursions are the work of military officials, added, "It's immaterial. If Mexico is allowing this to happen, they bear a large part of the responsibility."....
US Marines Convicted of Alien Smuggling to Be Sentenced
A US Marine Corps recruiter stationed in Laredo, TX who was convicted of transporting three illegal Mexican alien women on July 22, 2005 will be sentenced on February 13, 2006. Victor Domingo Ramirez, 27, faces up to 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000.00 fine for his crime. During the re-arraignment hearing, the United States presented evidence proving that on July 22, while in uniform and driving a US Government van, Ramirez knowingly transported three illegal aliens. At the time, Sergeant Ramirez was an active-duty member of the US Marine Corps stationed in Laredo, Texas, as a recruiter. The minivan was an official government vehicle assigned to the Marine Corps recruiting station in Laredo, and Ramirez was wearing his Marine uniform. The second US Marine recruiter charged in this case, Sergeant Vic Martin Martinez, 31, also of Laredo, has also been convicted after pleading guilty to knowingly making a materially false statement to federal agents. Martinez, who rode as a passenger in the government vehicle driven by Ramirez, lied to federal agents about his reasons for traveling to San Antonio in the government minivan with Ramirez. Martinez pleaded guilty Oct. 11, and faces a maximum punishment of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine....
Activists on Right, GOP Lawmakers Divided on Spying
Despite President Bush's warnings that public challenges to his domestic surveillance program could help terrorists, congressional Republicans and conservative activists are split on the issue and are showing no signs of reconciling soon. GOP lawmakers and political activists were nearly unanimous in backing Bush on his Supreme Court nominations and Iraq war policy, but they are divided on how to resolve the tension between two principles they hold dear: avoiding government intrusion into private lives, and combating terrorism. The rift became evident at yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing into the surveillance program, and it may reemerge at Thursday's intelligence committee hearing. "There are a lot of people who think you're wrong," the committee chairman, Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), told Gonzales. Specter asked why surveillance requests were not taken to the FISA court "as matter of public confidence." "The overriding issue that's at stake in these hearings is the stance of the administration that they're going to decide in secrecy which laws they're going to follow and which laws they can bypass," said Timothy Lynch, director of Cato's project on criminal justice. Conservative Web sites and blogs appear to be "fairly evenly divided" on the NSA program, he said. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) joined Specter in challenging Gonzales's assertion that Congress implicitly approved the surveillance tactics when it voted to authorize military force in combating terrorism shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks....
Republican Who Oversees N.S.A. Calls for Wiretap Inquiry
A House Republican whose subcommittee oversees the National Security Agency broke ranks with the White House on Tuesday and called for a full Congressional inquiry into the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program. The lawmaker, Representative Heather A. Wilson of New Mexico, chairwoman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, said in an interview that she had "serious concerns" about the surveillance program. By withholding information about its operations from many lawmakers, she said, the administration has deepened her apprehension about whom the agency is monitoring and why. Ms. Wilson, who was a National Security Council aide in the administration of President Bush's father, is the first Republican on either the House's Intelligence Committee or the Senate's to call for a full Congressional investigation into the program, in which the N.S.A. has been eavesdropping without warrants on the international communications of people inside the United States believed to have links with terrorists. The congresswoman's discomfort with the operation appears to reflect deepening fissures among Republicans over the program's legal basis and political liabilities....
Senior House Republican wants answers on wiretap program
The Republican Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) has issued 51 questions to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on President Bush's warrantless wiretap program. The letter, issued to Gonzales today and acquired by RAW STORY, demands answers to myriad legal questions on the program, which involved eavesdropping on Americans' calls overseas. Sensenbrenner has given Gonzales a Mar. 2 deadline to respond. Combined with a move by the chairman of a House subcommittee on intelligence, and hearings in the Senate, the move is likely to signal that Republicans are not going to swallow the President's justification for the surveillance, and may be a precursor to hearings in the House. Still, Sensenbrenner seems to leave room for accepting the taps, at one point referring to them as "terrorist surveillance," the Administration phrase for the program....you can view the letter here.
Bush faces Congress revolt over spying
Congressional Republicans are threatening to force a legal showdown with President George W. Bush over his claim that he has the constitutional power to order domestic surveillance of Americans in the name of national security. Arlen Specter, Republican chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, said on Wednesday he was drafting legislation that would require the administration to seek a ruling from a special US intelligence court on whether the spying programme was legal. The move could put the Republican-controlled Congress on a collision course with the administration, which has insisted that it is acting legally in monitoring calls and e-mails that might help disrupt future terrorist plots. Mr Specter said his proposed legislation would require the administration to take that issue to the Fisa court. He said the administration's claim "may be right, but on the other hand they may be wrong". He said the Fisa court should determine whether the programme is legal, and if it is not what changes would be required. Mr Specter's threat is only the latest sign that the NSA spying revelations have divided Republicans, with some in the party fearing that Mr Bush's expansive claims may pose a danger to civil liberties....
Secret Court's Judges Were Warned About NSA Spy Data
Twice in the past four years, a top Justice Department lawyer warned the presiding judge of a secret surveillance court that information overheard in President Bush's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to obtain wiretap warrants in the court, according to two sources with knowledge of those events. The revelations infuriated U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly -- who, like her predecessor, Royce C. Lamberth, had expressed serious doubts about whether the warrantless monitoring of phone calls and e-mails ordered by Bush was legal. Both judges had insisted that no information obtained this way be used to gain warrants from their court, according to government sources, and both had been assured by administration officials it would never happen. The two heads of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court were the only judges in the country briefed by the administration on Bush's program. The president's secret order, issued sometime after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, allows the National Security Agency to monitor telephone calls and e-mails between people in the United States and contacts overseas. James A. Baker, the counsel for intelligence policy in the Justice Department's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, discovered in 2004 that the government's failure to share information about its spying program had rendered useless a federal screening system that the judges had insisted upon to shield the court from tainted information. He alerted Kollar-Kotelly, who complained to Justice, prompting a temporary suspension of the NSA spying program, the sources said. Yet another problem in a 2005 warrant application prompted Kollar-Kotelly to issue a stern order to government lawyers to create a better firewall or face more difficulty obtaining warrants. The two judges' discomfort with the NSA spying program was previously known. But this new account reveals the depth of their doubts about its legality and their behind-the-scenes efforts to protect the court from what they considered potentially tainted evidence. The new accounts also show the degree to which Baker, a top intelligence expert at Justice, shared their reservations and aided the judges....
Homeland security keeping our country safe from kindergarteners
WHILE ATTORNEY GENERAL Alberto Gonzalez assures the U.S. Senate that the Bush Administration’s domestic eavesdropping program is a vital “early warning system” for terrorists, another homeland security measure strikes at a local elementary school. The kindergarten class at Lakewood’s Taft Elementary was planning a field trip to NASA Glenn Research Center. It’s a popular trip because it’s free, because the NASA staff already has age-appropriate tours that fit well with school curriculum, and, well, it’s outer space, for pete’s sake. They’ve got rocket ships. And NASA works the education angle hard. According to the agency, “A major part of the NASA mission is ‘To inspire the next generation of explorers . . . as only NASA can.’” And of course they talk about math and science. NASA says about 400 school groups took tours last year. But school principal Margaret Seibel says this year’s trip for Taft kindergarteners — we’re talking 6-year-olds here — had to be canceled due to homeland security concerns. Since new security regulations went into effect in May 1, 2005, access to the Visitor Center is restricted to United State citizens. All others might be terrorists. No tourists from France, no exchange students from Tokyo and, no foreign national kindergarteners on field trips. “I was told they would not make any exceptions,” Seibel says. Because two kids in the kindergarten class are not U.S. citizens, the teacher had to cancel the trip....
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
NEWS ROUNDUP
Bush calls for sell-off of Western public land President Bush wants to sell more public land across the West to raise money for schools, conservation and deficit reduction. Bush's proposed 2007 federal budget, sent to Congress on Monday, calls for granting the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management new authority to sell off land. Those agencies together control hundreds of millions of acres in Western states. "We have 350,000 acres of small, isolated tracts that are difficult to manage and no longer serve National Forest System needs," said Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service. He also said the agency adds more than 100,000 acres a year. The Forest Service proposes selling 150,000 to 200,000 acres to raise $800 million over five years. The agency is trying to maintain a program that supported rural schools with timber proceeds but ran into financial trouble when logging declined. The BLM doesn't have an estimate of how many acres it might sell under the plan, but it expects to sell land worth $40 million to $50 million per year. Some of the money would go to BLM conservation programs, but at least 70 percent would go to the Treasury. Neither agency has said what lands it expects to sell, but the Forest Service is expected to post a list of potential sites on its website by Friday....
Coyote controversy The coyote’s mischief and persistence have sometimes been played for laughs, as in the American Indian trickster tales or, more recently, “Road Runner” cartoons. Local farmers aren’t laughing. Especially not now. There are more coyotes than ever before in Benton County, said sheep ranchers, who added that they’re facing more problems from the wild canines. “Twenty years ago, we didn’t hardly have any at all,” said Dennis Gray, who farms near Adair Village. “It was really rare to see a coyote. I see two to three coyotes per day out here now,” he said. In the last three weeks, he’s shot a dozen of the varmints, who were snacking on voles flushed out or drowned by recent flooding. Rancher David Horning, who has about 800 ewes near Bellfountain, said he expects to lose about 100 lambs per birthing season to coyotes, or nearly $15,000 worth. “They’ve just hammered me,” he said. He added that it was most depressing when coyotes killed several sheep but ate only one. “They do it for fun for the most part.”....
Inquiry of OSU study flap urged A Washington Democrat wants an inspector general's investigation into whether the federal government suspended funding for an Oregon State University study because it undermined the Bush administration's position on logging. U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., said in a Tuesday letter to the Interior Department's inspector general that he is concerned the funding was frozen "to punish researchers for reporting findings that are unpopular with the administration." Aides to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he has also inquired about the cutoff of funding. The Oregon office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, an Interior agency, suspended the funding after a team of scientists from OSU and the U.S. Forest Service published a report last month in Science, a top research journal. They concluded that logging after the 2002 Biscuit fire in southwest Oregon set back the natural recovery of forests and littered the ground with tinder. The lead author of the research was Daniel Donato, a graduate student in OSU's College of Forestry. His professor, Beverly Law, was the senior author....
Montana methane wells target private, state holdings Pete Schoonmaker, president and CEO of Pinnacle Gas Resources Inc., believes in getting in, getting the job done and getting out. That's why things are little hectic in southeastern Montana this winter. Taking advantage of dry conditions, Pinnacle is in the midst of drilling 204 new coal-bed methane wells, building roads and digging trenches for gas and water pipelines all at once in its project area east of the Tongue River Reservoir. By spring, Pinnacle plans to begin producing natural gas found in the coal seams. The new wells are a major expansion to its initial 16-well pilot project near the reservoir. Pinnacle and two other companies, Fidelity Exploration and Production Co. and Powder River Gas LLC, are in various stages of developing their state and private leases in Montana. Activity on federal minerals is at a standstill because of legal challenges. The lawsuits have slowed another firm, Billings-based Nance Petroleum Corp., which has a federal lease, from expanding its Wyoming project into Montana....
Cleanup of salt water spill continues Crews in northwestern North Dakota are still working to clean up a salt water leak estimated at more than 900,000 gallons, a month after it was discovered, a state health official says. "We're seeing improvement. We're hoping by the end of this week, we should pretty much have it wrapped up," Dennis Fewless, the state Health Department's director of water quality, said Monday. State officials said the leak was discovered Jan. 4, from a Zenergy Inc. pipeline about six miles west of Alexander, near Charbonneau Creek. Salt water is a waste product of oil production that can kill vegetation and hurt livestock. Oil companies pipe it underground to dispose of it. Ranchers in the area were advised to move their livestock after the leak. The creek flows into the Yellowstone River....
Grand Mesa gas drilling will proceed Drilling for natural gas can go forward on the north edge of Grand Mesa, the Bureau of Land Management decided Tuesday. BLM officials will go ahead with the sale, scheduled for Thursday, because of relationships with local officials already in place, said BLM spokeswoman Theresa Sauer. The Grand Junction and Palisade governing boards opposed the leases because of fears they could harm their watersheds on the mesa. “We’re not going to allow a drill rig that’s obviously going to damage the watershed, and we’re not going to allow drilling where it might damage the watershed,” Sauer said. If adequate arrangements can’t be worked out with industry, leases will be withdrawn, she said....
Eco-Activists Fight the 'Terrorist' Label In an attempt to shield private property and development from saboteurs, business lobbyists are pushing new laws that would further criminalize the actions of radical ecological activists. Government officials and corporations are applying the rubric of anti-terrorism to penalize those who destroy company or government property when protesting mistreatment of animals and the ecosystem. Last month, federal grand juries in Oregon and California indicted 11 people on various conspiracy charges for their alleged involvement in the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) or the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) -- underground groups responsible for dozens of acts of property destruction as a strategy for protecting vulnerable species. While some federal officials and media reports liken the defendants to domestic terrorists, others, including some legal experts and free-speech groups, say the label is an intentional misnomer without legal basis....
Calif. wildfire sparked by controlled burn A 6,500-acre fire that triggered evacuations of more than 2,000 Southern California homes apparently was ignited by remnants of a controlled forest burn that escaped, a U.S. Forest Service official said Tuesday. Despite gusty Santa Ana winds, no homes had been lost in the blaze in northeastern Orange County. Evacuation orders were lifted Tuesday afternoon, and Chief Rich Hawkins of the Cleveland National Forest apologized to those displaced from neighborhoods in the cities of Orange and Anaheim about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles. "I am very regretful of the situation I find myself in tonight," Hawkins told reporters. "The fact that nobody's home has burned down and no one's been killed, that's a godsend." The wildfire was 10 percent contained, but the dry winds were forecast to continue through Wednesday. Hawkins said fire crews ignited a prescribed burn last Thursday in a 10-acre forest area near Sierra Peak, and at the time no Santa Ana winds were predicted for at least five days....
Prairie dog won't find shelter on endangered list Efforts to have the Gunnison's prairie dog listed as an endangered species have been rebuffed, at least for now. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday that information presented by groups advocating protection was insufficient to warrant more detailed consideration of protections for the animal. The Gunnison's prairie dog scampers about the Four Corners region, including southwestern Colorado, and is distinct from the black-tailed prairie dog found along the Front Range. The announcement by federal wildlife officials comes just more than a year after the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Forest Guardians and other green groups sued the Fish and Wildlife Service, arguing that the agency had dragged its feet on determining whether the Gunnison's prairie dog needed protection under the Endangered Species Act....
Feds Move to Protect Polar Bears Amid concerns that global warming is melting away the icy habitats where polar bears live, the federal government is reviewing whether they should be considered a threatened species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday that protection may be warranted under the Endangered Species Act, and began a review process to consider if the bears should be listed. The agency will seek information about population distribution, habitat, effects of climate change on the bears and their prey, potential threats from development, contaminants and poaching during the next 60 days....
Schweitzer takes first snowmobile trip through park Gov. Brian Schweitzer took his first snowmobile ride through Yellowstone National Park Tuesday, and immediately promised to do all he can to promote snowmobiling in the park. "I'll use the bully pulpit I've got," he said. "I'll talk about the great experience I've had." Schweitzer, a Democrat, rode from here to Old Faithful and back on a trip organized by Bill Howell, a partner in one of the large snowmobile rental shops. He said the park was uncrowded, the bison, elk and swans he passed seemed unconcerned and "I didn't see any clouds of exhaust." He rode one of the new "cleaner, quieter" machines that are allowed into the park under a temporary plan, then met with a group of West Yellowstone civic and business leaders....
Justice Alito's Green Day The first time he takes the bench later this month, new Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr. will face a baptism -- not by fire but by water. Three cases challenging the scope of the Clean Water Act will be argued Feb. 21, testing themes of federalism and commerce clause power that were much at issue during Alito's confirmation hearings. The cases have environmentalists worried about how Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. will ultimately come down. "These are probably the most important environmental cases in a decade and will be an enormous test of the two new justices," says Douglas Kendall of the Community Rights Counsel, which filed a brief in two of the cases. The environmental cases, more than any other coming soon, will spotlight issues that got Democrats upset during Alito's contentious hearings last month. In two of the cases, Rapanos v. United States and Carabell v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, the issue is whether, under the commerce clause, the Clean Water Act protects certain wetlands that are adjacent to tributaries of navigable waters covered by the law. In the third case, S.D. Warren Co. v. Maine Board of Environmental Protection, the justices will decide whether the mere fact that a river flows through a dam produces a "discharge" that triggers federal jurisdiction under the act. In all three cases, the Bush administration is arguing for a broad view that would preserve a "landmark" law that is "a permissible exercise of Congress' power," in the words of Solicitor General Paul Clement, who will argue the cases himself....
County supervisors plan to abandon conservation program In the mid-1990s, San Bernardino County set out to satisfy local developers and federal officials with a countywide plan to save endangered species from extinction. A decade later, the plan itself is pushing up daisies, and neither environmentalists nor developers are happy. This morning, the county Board of Supervisors was expected to formally abandon its bid to create a Multi Species Habitat Conservation Plan, a regional agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that would have earmarked some county land as habitats for endangered species, including the San Bernardino kangaroo rat and the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly. In exchange, developers in other areas would have been able to build with fewer environmental restrictions. The county¹s new move is not unexpected. County officials frequently tangled with Fish and Wildlife over the reach of the habitat-conservation program as well as its cost, and supervisors put the program on hold in 2002....
86 Evangelical Leaders Join to Fight Global Warming Despite opposition from some of their colleagues, 86 evangelical Christian leaders have decided to back a major initiative to fight global warming, saying "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors." Among signers of the statement, which will be released in Washington on Wednesday, are the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges, leaders of aid groups and churches, like the Salvation Army, and pastors of megachurches, including Rick Warren, author of the best seller "The Purpose-Driven Life." The statement calls for federal legislation that would require reductions in carbon dioxide emissions through "cost-effective, market-based mechanisms" — a phrase lifted from a Senate resolution last year and one that could appeal to evangelicals, who tend to be pro-business. The statement, to be announced in Washington, is only the first stage of an "Evangelical Climate Initiative" including television and radio spots in states with influential legislators, informational campaigns in churches, and educational events at Christian colleges. Some of the nation's most high-profile evangelical leaders, however, have tried to derail such action. Twenty-two of them signed a letter in January declaring, "Global warming is not a consensus issue." Among the signers were Charles W. Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries; James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; and Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention....
World has 7 years for key climate decisions: Blair The world has seven years to take vital decisions and implement measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions or it could be too late, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday. Blair said the battle against global warming would only be won if the United States, India and China were part of a framework that included targets and that succeeded the 1992 Kyoto Protocol climate pact. "If we don't get the right agreement internationally for the period after which the Kyoto protocol will expire -- that's in 2012 -- if we don't do that then I think we are in serious trouble," he told a parliamentary committee. Asked if the world had seven years to implement measures on climate change before the problem reached "tipping point," Blair answered: "Yes."
40 states re-examining eminent domain The city wants Anna DeFaria's home, and if she doesn't sell willingly, officials are going to take it from the 80-year-old retired pre-school teacher. In place of her "tiny slip of a bungalow" - and two dozen other weathered, working-class beachfront homes - city officials want private developers to build upscale townhouses. Is this the work of a cruel government? Or the best hope for resurrecting an ocean resort town that is finally showing signs of reviving after decades of hard times? After the court ruling, four states passed laws reining in eminent domain. Roughly another 40 are considering legislation. In Congress, the House voted to deny federal funds to any project that used eminent domain to benefit a private development, and a federal study aims to examine how widely it is used. The Washington-based Institute for Justice, a libertarian advocacy group that worked for homeowners in the New London case and in Long Branch, argues that state laws should be changed so property can only be seized for public uses like a park or a school - not urban redevelopment that benefits private developers....Go here for an interactive map of the states
Snakes for catching and for eating at round-up It may not be pretty or clean or even completely safe, but it’s a time-honored tradition that looks like it’s gaining momentum with time. For the 48th year, the Sweetwater Jaycees of Sweetwater will host the World’s Largest Rattlesnake Round-Up from March 9 to March 12. The weekend will start with a parade, queen contest and dance, then move to snake hunting sessions, snake milking demonstrations and a cook-off featuring rattlesnake meat. According to information from the Sweetwater Jaycees, the roundup began in 1958 when a group of area ranchers and farmers conceived of the idea to rid themselves and their livestock of rattlesnakes. To date, there have been more than 125 tons of Western diamondback Rattlesnakes turned in. Scott Fortin, Jaycee president, said that normally 20,000 to 30,000 people come to the event. Many vendors, demonstrations, a cook-off and several dances help draw people, he said. About 120 cooks participate in the cook-off, Fortin said. Many people akin rattlesnake to greasy chicken, Fortin said. “It tastes more like frog legs to me,” Fortin said....
Bush calls for sell-off of Western public land President Bush wants to sell more public land across the West to raise money for schools, conservation and deficit reduction. Bush's proposed 2007 federal budget, sent to Congress on Monday, calls for granting the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management new authority to sell off land. Those agencies together control hundreds of millions of acres in Western states. "We have 350,000 acres of small, isolated tracts that are difficult to manage and no longer serve National Forest System needs," said Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service. He also said the agency adds more than 100,000 acres a year. The Forest Service proposes selling 150,000 to 200,000 acres to raise $800 million over five years. The agency is trying to maintain a program that supported rural schools with timber proceeds but ran into financial trouble when logging declined. The BLM doesn't have an estimate of how many acres it might sell under the plan, but it expects to sell land worth $40 million to $50 million per year. Some of the money would go to BLM conservation programs, but at least 70 percent would go to the Treasury. Neither agency has said what lands it expects to sell, but the Forest Service is expected to post a list of potential sites on its website by Friday....
Coyote controversy The coyote’s mischief and persistence have sometimes been played for laughs, as in the American Indian trickster tales or, more recently, “Road Runner” cartoons. Local farmers aren’t laughing. Especially not now. There are more coyotes than ever before in Benton County, said sheep ranchers, who added that they’re facing more problems from the wild canines. “Twenty years ago, we didn’t hardly have any at all,” said Dennis Gray, who farms near Adair Village. “It was really rare to see a coyote. I see two to three coyotes per day out here now,” he said. In the last three weeks, he’s shot a dozen of the varmints, who were snacking on voles flushed out or drowned by recent flooding. Rancher David Horning, who has about 800 ewes near Bellfountain, said he expects to lose about 100 lambs per birthing season to coyotes, or nearly $15,000 worth. “They’ve just hammered me,” he said. He added that it was most depressing when coyotes killed several sheep but ate only one. “They do it for fun for the most part.”....
Inquiry of OSU study flap urged A Washington Democrat wants an inspector general's investigation into whether the federal government suspended funding for an Oregon State University study because it undermined the Bush administration's position on logging. U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., said in a Tuesday letter to the Interior Department's inspector general that he is concerned the funding was frozen "to punish researchers for reporting findings that are unpopular with the administration." Aides to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he has also inquired about the cutoff of funding. The Oregon office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, an Interior agency, suspended the funding after a team of scientists from OSU and the U.S. Forest Service published a report last month in Science, a top research journal. They concluded that logging after the 2002 Biscuit fire in southwest Oregon set back the natural recovery of forests and littered the ground with tinder. The lead author of the research was Daniel Donato, a graduate student in OSU's College of Forestry. His professor, Beverly Law, was the senior author....
Montana methane wells target private, state holdings Pete Schoonmaker, president and CEO of Pinnacle Gas Resources Inc., believes in getting in, getting the job done and getting out. That's why things are little hectic in southeastern Montana this winter. Taking advantage of dry conditions, Pinnacle is in the midst of drilling 204 new coal-bed methane wells, building roads and digging trenches for gas and water pipelines all at once in its project area east of the Tongue River Reservoir. By spring, Pinnacle plans to begin producing natural gas found in the coal seams. The new wells are a major expansion to its initial 16-well pilot project near the reservoir. Pinnacle and two other companies, Fidelity Exploration and Production Co. and Powder River Gas LLC, are in various stages of developing their state and private leases in Montana. Activity on federal minerals is at a standstill because of legal challenges. The lawsuits have slowed another firm, Billings-based Nance Petroleum Corp., which has a federal lease, from expanding its Wyoming project into Montana....
Cleanup of salt water spill continues Crews in northwestern North Dakota are still working to clean up a salt water leak estimated at more than 900,000 gallons, a month after it was discovered, a state health official says. "We're seeing improvement. We're hoping by the end of this week, we should pretty much have it wrapped up," Dennis Fewless, the state Health Department's director of water quality, said Monday. State officials said the leak was discovered Jan. 4, from a Zenergy Inc. pipeline about six miles west of Alexander, near Charbonneau Creek. Salt water is a waste product of oil production that can kill vegetation and hurt livestock. Oil companies pipe it underground to dispose of it. Ranchers in the area were advised to move their livestock after the leak. The creek flows into the Yellowstone River....
Grand Mesa gas drilling will proceed Drilling for natural gas can go forward on the north edge of Grand Mesa, the Bureau of Land Management decided Tuesday. BLM officials will go ahead with the sale, scheduled for Thursday, because of relationships with local officials already in place, said BLM spokeswoman Theresa Sauer. The Grand Junction and Palisade governing boards opposed the leases because of fears they could harm their watersheds on the mesa. “We’re not going to allow a drill rig that’s obviously going to damage the watershed, and we’re not going to allow drilling where it might damage the watershed,” Sauer said. If adequate arrangements can’t be worked out with industry, leases will be withdrawn, she said....
Eco-Activists Fight the 'Terrorist' Label In an attempt to shield private property and development from saboteurs, business lobbyists are pushing new laws that would further criminalize the actions of radical ecological activists. Government officials and corporations are applying the rubric of anti-terrorism to penalize those who destroy company or government property when protesting mistreatment of animals and the ecosystem. Last month, federal grand juries in Oregon and California indicted 11 people on various conspiracy charges for their alleged involvement in the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) or the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) -- underground groups responsible for dozens of acts of property destruction as a strategy for protecting vulnerable species. While some federal officials and media reports liken the defendants to domestic terrorists, others, including some legal experts and free-speech groups, say the label is an intentional misnomer without legal basis....
Calif. wildfire sparked by controlled burn A 6,500-acre fire that triggered evacuations of more than 2,000 Southern California homes apparently was ignited by remnants of a controlled forest burn that escaped, a U.S. Forest Service official said Tuesday. Despite gusty Santa Ana winds, no homes had been lost in the blaze in northeastern Orange County. Evacuation orders were lifted Tuesday afternoon, and Chief Rich Hawkins of the Cleveland National Forest apologized to those displaced from neighborhoods in the cities of Orange and Anaheim about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles. "I am very regretful of the situation I find myself in tonight," Hawkins told reporters. "The fact that nobody's home has burned down and no one's been killed, that's a godsend." The wildfire was 10 percent contained, but the dry winds were forecast to continue through Wednesday. Hawkins said fire crews ignited a prescribed burn last Thursday in a 10-acre forest area near Sierra Peak, and at the time no Santa Ana winds were predicted for at least five days....
Prairie dog won't find shelter on endangered list Efforts to have the Gunnison's prairie dog listed as an endangered species have been rebuffed, at least for now. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday that information presented by groups advocating protection was insufficient to warrant more detailed consideration of protections for the animal. The Gunnison's prairie dog scampers about the Four Corners region, including southwestern Colorado, and is distinct from the black-tailed prairie dog found along the Front Range. The announcement by federal wildlife officials comes just more than a year after the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Forest Guardians and other green groups sued the Fish and Wildlife Service, arguing that the agency had dragged its feet on determining whether the Gunnison's prairie dog needed protection under the Endangered Species Act....
Feds Move to Protect Polar Bears Amid concerns that global warming is melting away the icy habitats where polar bears live, the federal government is reviewing whether they should be considered a threatened species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday that protection may be warranted under the Endangered Species Act, and began a review process to consider if the bears should be listed. The agency will seek information about population distribution, habitat, effects of climate change on the bears and their prey, potential threats from development, contaminants and poaching during the next 60 days....
Schweitzer takes first snowmobile trip through park Gov. Brian Schweitzer took his first snowmobile ride through Yellowstone National Park Tuesday, and immediately promised to do all he can to promote snowmobiling in the park. "I'll use the bully pulpit I've got," he said. "I'll talk about the great experience I've had." Schweitzer, a Democrat, rode from here to Old Faithful and back on a trip organized by Bill Howell, a partner in one of the large snowmobile rental shops. He said the park was uncrowded, the bison, elk and swans he passed seemed unconcerned and "I didn't see any clouds of exhaust." He rode one of the new "cleaner, quieter" machines that are allowed into the park under a temporary plan, then met with a group of West Yellowstone civic and business leaders....
Justice Alito's Green Day The first time he takes the bench later this month, new Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr. will face a baptism -- not by fire but by water. Three cases challenging the scope of the Clean Water Act will be argued Feb. 21, testing themes of federalism and commerce clause power that were much at issue during Alito's confirmation hearings. The cases have environmentalists worried about how Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. will ultimately come down. "These are probably the most important environmental cases in a decade and will be an enormous test of the two new justices," says Douglas Kendall of the Community Rights Counsel, which filed a brief in two of the cases. The environmental cases, more than any other coming soon, will spotlight issues that got Democrats upset during Alito's contentious hearings last month. In two of the cases, Rapanos v. United States and Carabell v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, the issue is whether, under the commerce clause, the Clean Water Act protects certain wetlands that are adjacent to tributaries of navigable waters covered by the law. In the third case, S.D. Warren Co. v. Maine Board of Environmental Protection, the justices will decide whether the mere fact that a river flows through a dam produces a "discharge" that triggers federal jurisdiction under the act. In all three cases, the Bush administration is arguing for a broad view that would preserve a "landmark" law that is "a permissible exercise of Congress' power," in the words of Solicitor General Paul Clement, who will argue the cases himself....
County supervisors plan to abandon conservation program In the mid-1990s, San Bernardino County set out to satisfy local developers and federal officials with a countywide plan to save endangered species from extinction. A decade later, the plan itself is pushing up daisies, and neither environmentalists nor developers are happy. This morning, the county Board of Supervisors was expected to formally abandon its bid to create a Multi Species Habitat Conservation Plan, a regional agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that would have earmarked some county land as habitats for endangered species, including the San Bernardino kangaroo rat and the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly. In exchange, developers in other areas would have been able to build with fewer environmental restrictions. The county¹s new move is not unexpected. County officials frequently tangled with Fish and Wildlife over the reach of the habitat-conservation program as well as its cost, and supervisors put the program on hold in 2002....
86 Evangelical Leaders Join to Fight Global Warming Despite opposition from some of their colleagues, 86 evangelical Christian leaders have decided to back a major initiative to fight global warming, saying "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors." Among signers of the statement, which will be released in Washington on Wednesday, are the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges, leaders of aid groups and churches, like the Salvation Army, and pastors of megachurches, including Rick Warren, author of the best seller "The Purpose-Driven Life." The statement calls for federal legislation that would require reductions in carbon dioxide emissions through "cost-effective, market-based mechanisms" — a phrase lifted from a Senate resolution last year and one that could appeal to evangelicals, who tend to be pro-business. The statement, to be announced in Washington, is only the first stage of an "Evangelical Climate Initiative" including television and radio spots in states with influential legislators, informational campaigns in churches, and educational events at Christian colleges. Some of the nation's most high-profile evangelical leaders, however, have tried to derail such action. Twenty-two of them signed a letter in January declaring, "Global warming is not a consensus issue." Among the signers were Charles W. Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries; James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; and Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention....
World has 7 years for key climate decisions: Blair The world has seven years to take vital decisions and implement measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions or it could be too late, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday. Blair said the battle against global warming would only be won if the United States, India and China were part of a framework that included targets and that succeeded the 1992 Kyoto Protocol climate pact. "If we don't get the right agreement internationally for the period after which the Kyoto protocol will expire -- that's in 2012 -- if we don't do that then I think we are in serious trouble," he told a parliamentary committee. Asked if the world had seven years to implement measures on climate change before the problem reached "tipping point," Blair answered: "Yes."
40 states re-examining eminent domain The city wants Anna DeFaria's home, and if she doesn't sell willingly, officials are going to take it from the 80-year-old retired pre-school teacher. In place of her "tiny slip of a bungalow" - and two dozen other weathered, working-class beachfront homes - city officials want private developers to build upscale townhouses. Is this the work of a cruel government? Or the best hope for resurrecting an ocean resort town that is finally showing signs of reviving after decades of hard times? After the court ruling, four states passed laws reining in eminent domain. Roughly another 40 are considering legislation. In Congress, the House voted to deny federal funds to any project that used eminent domain to benefit a private development, and a federal study aims to examine how widely it is used. The Washington-based Institute for Justice, a libertarian advocacy group that worked for homeowners in the New London case and in Long Branch, argues that state laws should be changed so property can only be seized for public uses like a park or a school - not urban redevelopment that benefits private developers....Go here for an interactive map of the states
Snakes for catching and for eating at round-up It may not be pretty or clean or even completely safe, but it’s a time-honored tradition that looks like it’s gaining momentum with time. For the 48th year, the Sweetwater Jaycees of Sweetwater will host the World’s Largest Rattlesnake Round-Up from March 9 to March 12. The weekend will start with a parade, queen contest and dance, then move to snake hunting sessions, snake milking demonstrations and a cook-off featuring rattlesnake meat. According to information from the Sweetwater Jaycees, the roundup began in 1958 when a group of area ranchers and farmers conceived of the idea to rid themselves and their livestock of rattlesnakes. To date, there have been more than 125 tons of Western diamondback Rattlesnakes turned in. Scott Fortin, Jaycee president, said that normally 20,000 to 30,000 people come to the event. Many vendors, demonstrations, a cook-off and several dances help draw people, he said. About 120 cooks participate in the cook-off, Fortin said. Many people akin rattlesnake to greasy chicken, Fortin said. “It tastes more like frog legs to me,” Fortin said....
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
NEWS ROUNDUP
Bison hunt nears close, officials calling it a success Hunters have killed 39 bison to date in Montana's first bison hunt in 15 years, and some lawmakers already are talking about expanding the hunt for next season. Mel Frost, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said 39 bison were killed as of Saturday in the hunt that began Nov. 15 and is set to end Feb. 15. The number included six bison killed under licenses issued to American Indian tribes in Montana, she said. An additional five bison were killed over the weekend by members of the Nez Perce Indian tribe of Idaho, she said. Those animals were killed under an 1855 treaty between the United States and the tribe, and the hunters were not subject to the rules of the state-run hunt of bison that leave Yellowstone National Park. Frost said only one of the general public tags has yet to be filled, but she expects the hunter who has the tag will kill a bison before the season ends....
BLM suspends funding for logging study A federal agency has suspended funding for the final year of a study originating at Oregon State University that raised questions about whether logging is the best way to restore national forests burned by wildfires, further inflaming a debate over how to treat the millions of acres of national forest that burn each year. The Bureau of Land Management acknowledged Monday that it asked OSU whether the three-year study, led by graduate student Daniel Donato and published last month in the journal Science, violated provisions of a $300,000 federal fire research grant that prohibits using any of the money to lobby Congress and requires that a BLM scientist be consulted before the research is published. "We are not questioning the data or the science," but rather whether researchers strictly followed provisions of the grant, BLM Oregon spokesman Chris Strebig said. The study, which found that salvage logging killed naturally regenerated seedlings and increased, in the short term, the amount of fuel on the ground to feed future fires, was embraced by environmentalists fighting a House bill to speed salvage logging on national forests....
Bush budget would phase out funding for timber counties in 41 states The Bush administration proposed Monday phasing out a program that has pumped more than $2 billion into rural states hurt by logging cutbacks on federal land. The plan would cut in half payments made to rural counties in 41 states and Puerto Rico for schools, roads and other infrastructure needs. The six-year-old "county payments" law has helped offset sharp declines in timber sales in western states in the wake of federal forest policy that restricts logging to protect endangered species such as the spotted owl. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who directs U.S. forest policy, called the proposal painful but necessary in a tight budget year. Rey said the 2000 law was designed to help rural counties make the transition from dependence on timber receipts to a more broad-based economy. Western lawmakers said the proposal amounted to a death knell for a law that many described as the most successful federal forestry initiative in decades....
Judge hears arguments in lawsuit over ivory-billed woodpecker Environmentalists asked a federal judge Monday to stop a $319 million eastern Arkansas public works project to protect the habitat of the newly discovered ivory-billed woodpecker. Attorneys for the National Wildlife Federation contend that continued construction of the Grand Prairie irrigation project would irreversibly damage the habitat of the bird thought extinct until sighted last spring. The federal government says otherwise. Attorneys for the Department of Justice argued before U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson that the project would affect only a few of the thousands of acres that make up the bird's habitat in the woods of eastern Arkansas. Proponents say without the project, the region's underground water source could dry up in a decade. The contrasting arguments prompted Wilson to ponder his role in the case. "Do I have to weigh the value of the aquifer against the value of the ivory-billed woodpecker?" The judge asked at a hearing in the federation's lawsuit to halt the water project. Lawyers for the organization asked Wilson to stop construction, at least until the government could complete a comprehensive environmental impact study....
Nonprofit buys key watershed parcels The Western River Conservancy has quietly bought more than 400 mountainous and forested acres for conservation in the Sandy, Little Sandy and Bull Run watersheds in the past two months. The purchases are part of a six-year effort by the Portland-based nonprofit and Portland General Electric to preserve 4,500 acres along the river and near the Mount Hood National Forest. The push comes as PGE prepares to demolish the Marmot and Little Sandy dams, said conservancy vice president and cofounder Sue Doroff. The conservancy frequently sells the land it acquires to the Bureau of Land Management or other federal agencies for conservation, recreation and wildlife uses....
Phelps Dodge to open new mine near Safford Phelps Dodge Corp.'s board of directors last week gave the go-ahead for the company to open the first new major copper mine in the United States in more than 30 years. And with that, gave a shot in the arm to the economy of Graham County. "It will kick off a new wave of development for the valley," said Ron Green, mayor of the 9,500-resident community of Safford. The $550 million mine near Safford is expected to create 1,000 construction jobs and 400 permanent positions when it commences operations in the second half of 2008. The development consists of two open-pit copper mines, a mile apart, known as the Dos Pobres and San Juan. It is expected to more than double the tax base in Graham County, which has a population of about 25,000 people and one of the lowest assessed valuations of Arizona's 15 counties....
Science, energy spending increased The emphasis would be on research that is most likely to boost economic competitiveness, including alternative fuels, faster computers and energy-efficient lighting. For 2007, NSF funding would increase by 7.9 percent to $5.8 billion, the Office of Science would receive $505 million more than last year, and the NIST would gain $75 million more for research. The president's energy initiative aims to reduce dependence on oil from the Middle East, replacing 75 percent of oil imports from that region by 2025. Part of this would come through the investment in scientific research for alternative fuels. The budget also includes a $42 million package aimed at enhancing the availability of affordable gas, oil and other energy resources. The Bureau of Land Management would receive an increase of $9 million, under Mr. Bush's request, to process an anticipated record number of permit applications to drill for oil on federal land....
Budget Glance Interior Agency: Department of Interior Spending: $9.1 billion Percentage change from 2005: -2.4 percent Highlights: _Cuts $312 million from the Office of Surface Mining program to reclaim abandoned mines, because of the expiration of coal mining fees next June. The department says the more than $3 billion in health and safety work under the program remains undone. _Cuts the National Park Service budget by $89 million, to $2.484 billion, in what department officials call a return to "sustainable levels" after a five-year initiative to address a maintenance backlog. Much of the backlog remains. _Cuts $35 million from the budget for the Bureau of Land Management, which handles permits for oil and gas drilling. That would decrease the agency's budget to $2.834 billion. _Adds $250 million for coastal impact assistance, in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. _Spends $322 million on "cooperative conservation" - the theme of a White House conference last summer. The Bush administration hopes the money will promote local conservation efforts and reduce federal regulatory red tape....
Appeal begins for BLM whistleblower at polluted Nevada mine A former federal employee who was helping to lead the cleanup of a contaminated Nevada mine is expected to testify at an administrative hearing this week that he was fired because he spoke out about dangers at the toxic waste site. Earle Dixon's appeal of his firing from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management opens Tuesday before an administrative law judge for the U.S. Labor Department. The hearing is expected to run through Thursday at the federal courthouse in Reno. Christopher Lee, deputy regional administrator for the Labor Department's Office of Safety and Health Administration, rejected Dixon's initial whistleblower complaint in October and concluded BLM "met its burden of showing legitimate business reasons" for firing him. BLM officials will be among those testifying on Dixon's complaint, which seeks up to $1 million in damages and is required under federal law before he can file a lawsuit....
Salazar pressures BLM over gas In four days, part of San Miguel County will be on the auction block in Denver, as about 40,000 acres worth of mineral rights will be up for sale in the first of two mineral rights auctions. But Congressman John Salazar wants to stop - or at least slow - some of the sales. A week ago Salazar wrote to officials at the Bureau of Land Management asking them to allow San Miguel County officials for more time to consider mining's impacts on the San Miguel River Corridor, water quality and surface owner's rights. But last Thursday, Salazar was able to speak with the BLM's State Director, Sally Wisely. In their conversation, Salazar "explained our concerns that development activities on certain parcels could contaminate drinking water for thousands of my constituents," he wrote in a press release....
Evicting David Souter LOGAN DARROW CLEMENTS doesn't seem like the sort of fellow who'd go around stealing the houses of Supreme Court justices. He's mild mannered and laughs easily, often at his own jokes. Physically he resembles a less creepy Ralph Reed: He looks like a 36-year-old altar boy whose mom made him scrub up and dress for dinner. An Ayn Rand devotee, he heads an objectivist discussion group back home in Los Angeles. A zippy evening for the group might entail a field trip to the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center or sitting through a presentation on The Force Minimization Theory of Ethical Taxation. Clements decided to use the Supreme Court's own ruling, effectively permitting cities to seize homes for private economic gain, to go after the home of one of the Supreme Court's own, David Souter. If he succeeds in getting the town of Weare, New Hampshire, where Souter's house is located, to marshal eminent domain against Souter, Clements will raise funds to build his Lost Liberty Hotel on Souter's land. The hotel will also house a small museum that commemorates our trampled freedoms. His current plans call for the original house to be left standing as the site for the Just Deserts Café. Instead of a Gideon Bible in each room, Clements plans to stock a copy of the book that a Library of Congress poll said is the second most influential of all time, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. As one might have guessed, it's the most influential to Clements. In Atlas Shrugged, the creative class ceases to create, withholding the benefits of what it most values, in order to protest statist interference. Similarly, Clements aims to abuse eminent domain in order to stop the abuse of eminent domain. If David Souter's 200-year-old home, inherited from his late mother who inherited it from her parents, can be seized for cockamamie reasons under the guise of economic development, so can anybody's....
N.H. Town Rejects Plan to Evict Souter Residents on Saturday rejected a proposal to evict U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter from his farmhouse to make way for the "Lost Liberty Hotel." A group angered by last year's court decision that gave local governments more power to seize people's homes for economic development had petitioned to use the ruling against the justice. But voters deciding which issues should go on the town's March ballot replaced the group's proposal with a call to strengthen New Hampshire's law on eminent domain. "This is a game," said Walter Bohlin. "Why would we take something from one of ours? This is not the appropriate way." Souter, who grew up in Weare, a central New Hampshire town of 8,500, has not commented on the matter and was not at the meeting. Joshua Solomon, a member of the Committee for the Protection of Natural Rights, was disappointed with the vote....
Public Agency Faulted in Eminent Domain Case A city agency violated the separation of church and state when it seized a woman's home to help a religious group build a private school in a blighted Philadelphia neighborhood, a state appeals court ruled Monday. In a 4 to 3 ruling, the Commonwealth Court said the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority should not have taken the property in 2003 so the Hope Partnership for Education could build a middle school. The court said the seizure by eminent domain ran afoul of a clause in the Constitution that keeps Congress from establishing religion or preventing its free exercise. The Hope Partnership is a venture of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus and the Sisters of Mercy, two Roman Catholic religious orders. "The evidence shows that the Hope Partnership designated the land that it wanted and requested the authority to acquire it, and the authority proceeded to do so," Judge Doris A. Smith-Ribner wrote for the majority. "This joint effort demonstrates the entanglement between church and state."....
Bull Riding Fastest Growing Sport Will the next big American sports superstar weigh over 2,000 pounds and come with two horns on his head and a name like “Little Yellow Jacket” or “Reindeer Dippin’”? Yes, he will, according to the guys who want to make professional bull riding the next big American pastime. So far, the numbers seem to bear out Bernard’s and McBride's optimism. In 1998, PBR events had 33,912,988 television viewers. In 2004, that number grew to a whopping 104,277,264. Its growth from 2002 to 2004 alone was 51.93 percent, qualifying bull riding as the fastest-growing sport in America. The latest stats about the in-person audience are just as impressive. In 2004, the PBR had 16,355,000 fans who attended events. In 2005, that number was 18,569,000 — a single-year growth of 14 percent. From 2002, that figure's risen a jaw-dropping 72 percent — an increase big enough to make even a bull like Moss Oak Mudslinger stop in its tracks....
Cowboys paying homage to Tyson He now refers to himself as an "old man," but give Ian Tyson credit. The battered and bruised 71-year-old Alberta rancher and singer-songwriter, sometimes cranky, sometimes mellow — "I'm king of the mood swings," he sings in "Gravel Road" — has never given up. He's in there pitching. Nowhere is the meaning of his work more evident and more cherished than at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nev., a festival drawing about 8,000 spectators. Of the 50 or so performers at the gathering last week — cowboy poets and cowboy musicians alike — no one is cheered like Tyson. For the seven days of the event, he owns Elko. "He's a legend and an icon," says Charlie Seemann, executive director of the Western Folklife Center in Elko, which hosts the gathering. "He has a huge cult following in the ranching world." Curly Musgrave, a California singer-songwriter who enjoys a huge eminence in cowboy music, is equally emphatic. "If there's a cowboy singer who is appreciated in the United States, it's Ian Tyson. He set the stage for the rest of us to come on. He certainly has been an influence for me, particularly in songwriting, in capturing the style and essence of what a cowboy is, and really speaking to the heart of the cowboy."....
It's All Trew: Neighbors quick to help those in need I can remember at least a dozen times when sudden injury, disease or catastrophe laid a good man low in spite of his best efforts. Depending on the season or occupation, neighbors planned and provided the help needed by the helpless victim to survive and continue on. Several times, like in the Conrad story, they brought combines and trucks to harvest ripened crops and haul them to the elevators, usually free of any cost to the owner. At other times I have helped plow or plant crops as needed to keep the farm going. Time and again I remember the victim’s church providing meals and snacks or the wives nearby bringing food to the harvest crews. Numerous recollections down through the years bring pictures to mind of cowboys and ranchers coming together to round up, brand or ship the cattle of an injured or deceased neighbor....
Bison hunt nears close, officials calling it a success Hunters have killed 39 bison to date in Montana's first bison hunt in 15 years, and some lawmakers already are talking about expanding the hunt for next season. Mel Frost, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said 39 bison were killed as of Saturday in the hunt that began Nov. 15 and is set to end Feb. 15. The number included six bison killed under licenses issued to American Indian tribes in Montana, she said. An additional five bison were killed over the weekend by members of the Nez Perce Indian tribe of Idaho, she said. Those animals were killed under an 1855 treaty between the United States and the tribe, and the hunters were not subject to the rules of the state-run hunt of bison that leave Yellowstone National Park. Frost said only one of the general public tags has yet to be filled, but she expects the hunter who has the tag will kill a bison before the season ends....
BLM suspends funding for logging study A federal agency has suspended funding for the final year of a study originating at Oregon State University that raised questions about whether logging is the best way to restore national forests burned by wildfires, further inflaming a debate over how to treat the millions of acres of national forest that burn each year. The Bureau of Land Management acknowledged Monday that it asked OSU whether the three-year study, led by graduate student Daniel Donato and published last month in the journal Science, violated provisions of a $300,000 federal fire research grant that prohibits using any of the money to lobby Congress and requires that a BLM scientist be consulted before the research is published. "We are not questioning the data or the science," but rather whether researchers strictly followed provisions of the grant, BLM Oregon spokesman Chris Strebig said. The study, which found that salvage logging killed naturally regenerated seedlings and increased, in the short term, the amount of fuel on the ground to feed future fires, was embraced by environmentalists fighting a House bill to speed salvage logging on national forests....
Bush budget would phase out funding for timber counties in 41 states The Bush administration proposed Monday phasing out a program that has pumped more than $2 billion into rural states hurt by logging cutbacks on federal land. The plan would cut in half payments made to rural counties in 41 states and Puerto Rico for schools, roads and other infrastructure needs. The six-year-old "county payments" law has helped offset sharp declines in timber sales in western states in the wake of federal forest policy that restricts logging to protect endangered species such as the spotted owl. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who directs U.S. forest policy, called the proposal painful but necessary in a tight budget year. Rey said the 2000 law was designed to help rural counties make the transition from dependence on timber receipts to a more broad-based economy. Western lawmakers said the proposal amounted to a death knell for a law that many described as the most successful federal forestry initiative in decades....
Judge hears arguments in lawsuit over ivory-billed woodpecker Environmentalists asked a federal judge Monday to stop a $319 million eastern Arkansas public works project to protect the habitat of the newly discovered ivory-billed woodpecker. Attorneys for the National Wildlife Federation contend that continued construction of the Grand Prairie irrigation project would irreversibly damage the habitat of the bird thought extinct until sighted last spring. The federal government says otherwise. Attorneys for the Department of Justice argued before U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson that the project would affect only a few of the thousands of acres that make up the bird's habitat in the woods of eastern Arkansas. Proponents say without the project, the region's underground water source could dry up in a decade. The contrasting arguments prompted Wilson to ponder his role in the case. "Do I have to weigh the value of the aquifer against the value of the ivory-billed woodpecker?" The judge asked at a hearing in the federation's lawsuit to halt the water project. Lawyers for the organization asked Wilson to stop construction, at least until the government could complete a comprehensive environmental impact study....
Nonprofit buys key watershed parcels The Western River Conservancy has quietly bought more than 400 mountainous and forested acres for conservation in the Sandy, Little Sandy and Bull Run watersheds in the past two months. The purchases are part of a six-year effort by the Portland-based nonprofit and Portland General Electric to preserve 4,500 acres along the river and near the Mount Hood National Forest. The push comes as PGE prepares to demolish the Marmot and Little Sandy dams, said conservancy vice president and cofounder Sue Doroff. The conservancy frequently sells the land it acquires to the Bureau of Land Management or other federal agencies for conservation, recreation and wildlife uses....
Phelps Dodge to open new mine near Safford Phelps Dodge Corp.'s board of directors last week gave the go-ahead for the company to open the first new major copper mine in the United States in more than 30 years. And with that, gave a shot in the arm to the economy of Graham County. "It will kick off a new wave of development for the valley," said Ron Green, mayor of the 9,500-resident community of Safford. The $550 million mine near Safford is expected to create 1,000 construction jobs and 400 permanent positions when it commences operations in the second half of 2008. The development consists of two open-pit copper mines, a mile apart, known as the Dos Pobres and San Juan. It is expected to more than double the tax base in Graham County, which has a population of about 25,000 people and one of the lowest assessed valuations of Arizona's 15 counties....
Science, energy spending increased The emphasis would be on research that is most likely to boost economic competitiveness, including alternative fuels, faster computers and energy-efficient lighting. For 2007, NSF funding would increase by 7.9 percent to $5.8 billion, the Office of Science would receive $505 million more than last year, and the NIST would gain $75 million more for research. The president's energy initiative aims to reduce dependence on oil from the Middle East, replacing 75 percent of oil imports from that region by 2025. Part of this would come through the investment in scientific research for alternative fuels. The budget also includes a $42 million package aimed at enhancing the availability of affordable gas, oil and other energy resources. The Bureau of Land Management would receive an increase of $9 million, under Mr. Bush's request, to process an anticipated record number of permit applications to drill for oil on federal land....
Budget Glance Interior Agency: Department of Interior Spending: $9.1 billion Percentage change from 2005: -2.4 percent Highlights: _Cuts $312 million from the Office of Surface Mining program to reclaim abandoned mines, because of the expiration of coal mining fees next June. The department says the more than $3 billion in health and safety work under the program remains undone. _Cuts the National Park Service budget by $89 million, to $2.484 billion, in what department officials call a return to "sustainable levels" after a five-year initiative to address a maintenance backlog. Much of the backlog remains. _Cuts $35 million from the budget for the Bureau of Land Management, which handles permits for oil and gas drilling. That would decrease the agency's budget to $2.834 billion. _Adds $250 million for coastal impact assistance, in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. _Spends $322 million on "cooperative conservation" - the theme of a White House conference last summer. The Bush administration hopes the money will promote local conservation efforts and reduce federal regulatory red tape....
Appeal begins for BLM whistleblower at polluted Nevada mine A former federal employee who was helping to lead the cleanup of a contaminated Nevada mine is expected to testify at an administrative hearing this week that he was fired because he spoke out about dangers at the toxic waste site. Earle Dixon's appeal of his firing from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management opens Tuesday before an administrative law judge for the U.S. Labor Department. The hearing is expected to run through Thursday at the federal courthouse in Reno. Christopher Lee, deputy regional administrator for the Labor Department's Office of Safety and Health Administration, rejected Dixon's initial whistleblower complaint in October and concluded BLM "met its burden of showing legitimate business reasons" for firing him. BLM officials will be among those testifying on Dixon's complaint, which seeks up to $1 million in damages and is required under federal law before he can file a lawsuit....
Salazar pressures BLM over gas In four days, part of San Miguel County will be on the auction block in Denver, as about 40,000 acres worth of mineral rights will be up for sale in the first of two mineral rights auctions. But Congressman John Salazar wants to stop - or at least slow - some of the sales. A week ago Salazar wrote to officials at the Bureau of Land Management asking them to allow San Miguel County officials for more time to consider mining's impacts on the San Miguel River Corridor, water quality and surface owner's rights. But last Thursday, Salazar was able to speak with the BLM's State Director, Sally Wisely. In their conversation, Salazar "explained our concerns that development activities on certain parcels could contaminate drinking water for thousands of my constituents," he wrote in a press release....
Evicting David Souter LOGAN DARROW CLEMENTS doesn't seem like the sort of fellow who'd go around stealing the houses of Supreme Court justices. He's mild mannered and laughs easily, often at his own jokes. Physically he resembles a less creepy Ralph Reed: He looks like a 36-year-old altar boy whose mom made him scrub up and dress for dinner. An Ayn Rand devotee, he heads an objectivist discussion group back home in Los Angeles. A zippy evening for the group might entail a field trip to the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center or sitting through a presentation on The Force Minimization Theory of Ethical Taxation. Clements decided to use the Supreme Court's own ruling, effectively permitting cities to seize homes for private economic gain, to go after the home of one of the Supreme Court's own, David Souter. If he succeeds in getting the town of Weare, New Hampshire, where Souter's house is located, to marshal eminent domain against Souter, Clements will raise funds to build his Lost Liberty Hotel on Souter's land. The hotel will also house a small museum that commemorates our trampled freedoms. His current plans call for the original house to be left standing as the site for the Just Deserts Café. Instead of a Gideon Bible in each room, Clements plans to stock a copy of the book that a Library of Congress poll said is the second most influential of all time, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. As one might have guessed, it's the most influential to Clements. In Atlas Shrugged, the creative class ceases to create, withholding the benefits of what it most values, in order to protest statist interference. Similarly, Clements aims to abuse eminent domain in order to stop the abuse of eminent domain. If David Souter's 200-year-old home, inherited from his late mother who inherited it from her parents, can be seized for cockamamie reasons under the guise of economic development, so can anybody's....
N.H. Town Rejects Plan to Evict Souter Residents on Saturday rejected a proposal to evict U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter from his farmhouse to make way for the "Lost Liberty Hotel." A group angered by last year's court decision that gave local governments more power to seize people's homes for economic development had petitioned to use the ruling against the justice. But voters deciding which issues should go on the town's March ballot replaced the group's proposal with a call to strengthen New Hampshire's law on eminent domain. "This is a game," said Walter Bohlin. "Why would we take something from one of ours? This is not the appropriate way." Souter, who grew up in Weare, a central New Hampshire town of 8,500, has not commented on the matter and was not at the meeting. Joshua Solomon, a member of the Committee for the Protection of Natural Rights, was disappointed with the vote....
Public Agency Faulted in Eminent Domain Case A city agency violated the separation of church and state when it seized a woman's home to help a religious group build a private school in a blighted Philadelphia neighborhood, a state appeals court ruled Monday. In a 4 to 3 ruling, the Commonwealth Court said the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority should not have taken the property in 2003 so the Hope Partnership for Education could build a middle school. The court said the seizure by eminent domain ran afoul of a clause in the Constitution that keeps Congress from establishing religion or preventing its free exercise. The Hope Partnership is a venture of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus and the Sisters of Mercy, two Roman Catholic religious orders. "The evidence shows that the Hope Partnership designated the land that it wanted and requested the authority to acquire it, and the authority proceeded to do so," Judge Doris A. Smith-Ribner wrote for the majority. "This joint effort demonstrates the entanglement between church and state."....
Bull Riding Fastest Growing Sport Will the next big American sports superstar weigh over 2,000 pounds and come with two horns on his head and a name like “Little Yellow Jacket” or “Reindeer Dippin’”? Yes, he will, according to the guys who want to make professional bull riding the next big American pastime. So far, the numbers seem to bear out Bernard’s and McBride's optimism. In 1998, PBR events had 33,912,988 television viewers. In 2004, that number grew to a whopping 104,277,264. Its growth from 2002 to 2004 alone was 51.93 percent, qualifying bull riding as the fastest-growing sport in America. The latest stats about the in-person audience are just as impressive. In 2004, the PBR had 16,355,000 fans who attended events. In 2005, that number was 18,569,000 — a single-year growth of 14 percent. From 2002, that figure's risen a jaw-dropping 72 percent — an increase big enough to make even a bull like Moss Oak Mudslinger stop in its tracks....
Cowboys paying homage to Tyson He now refers to himself as an "old man," but give Ian Tyson credit. The battered and bruised 71-year-old Alberta rancher and singer-songwriter, sometimes cranky, sometimes mellow — "I'm king of the mood swings," he sings in "Gravel Road" — has never given up. He's in there pitching. Nowhere is the meaning of his work more evident and more cherished than at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nev., a festival drawing about 8,000 spectators. Of the 50 or so performers at the gathering last week — cowboy poets and cowboy musicians alike — no one is cheered like Tyson. For the seven days of the event, he owns Elko. "He's a legend and an icon," says Charlie Seemann, executive director of the Western Folklife Center in Elko, which hosts the gathering. "He has a huge cult following in the ranching world." Curly Musgrave, a California singer-songwriter who enjoys a huge eminence in cowboy music, is equally emphatic. "If there's a cowboy singer who is appreciated in the United States, it's Ian Tyson. He set the stage for the rest of us to come on. He certainly has been an influence for me, particularly in songwriting, in capturing the style and essence of what a cowboy is, and really speaking to the heart of the cowboy."....
It's All Trew: Neighbors quick to help those in need I can remember at least a dozen times when sudden injury, disease or catastrophe laid a good man low in spite of his best efforts. Depending on the season or occupation, neighbors planned and provided the help needed by the helpless victim to survive and continue on. Several times, like in the Conrad story, they brought combines and trucks to harvest ripened crops and haul them to the elevators, usually free of any cost to the owner. At other times I have helped plow or plant crops as needed to keep the farm going. Time and again I remember the victim’s church providing meals and snacks or the wives nearby bringing food to the harvest crews. Numerous recollections down through the years bring pictures to mind of cowboys and ranchers coming together to round up, brand or ship the cattle of an injured or deceased neighbor....
Monday, February 06, 2006
FLE
Border Law Enforcement Certain Of Incursions
"There's no way on God's country I would have sent them reporters down if I'd have known they were gonna be there, " said Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West in response to the Mexican consulate's claim that his department was informed by the Mexican military would be patrolling along the Rio Grande. The incident involves a KFOX crew who witnessed an incursion taking place in Sierra Blanca on January 31st, as they were being escorted by a Hudspeth Sheriff's deputy. The camera crew got most of the incident on tape, where you can see Mexican military right along the Rio Grande, fully armed. Out of the camera's view, other men dressed in military uniforms crossed into the United States - the second incursion in the same area in nine days. Sheriff West says he is certain the men were Mexican soldiers because his Deputies deal with the threat on a daily basis. He insists they were never notified as the Consulate claims. "As we've said all along we're out-manned and out-gunned. Not only the Sheriff's offices along the border, but as well as Border Patrol," says Sheriff West....
Probe of Mexican military incursions at U.S. border set to begin
A closed-door meeting at El Paso International Airport between congressional leaders, government agencies, along with federal and local law enforcement officers promised answers to reports of Mexican military incursions into the United States and set the stage for congressional hearings next week. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations for the Committee on Homeland Security, said at a press conference Friday that the incursion investigations will be the first time his committee has conducted hearings since its formation four years ago. "I want to thank these brave men and women for what they do every day and the threat that they face on the border," McCaul said, referring to the law enforcement officials standing behind him. "It's important that members of Congress understand that and do something about it. "We are going to get to the bottom of what happened here, and we are going to have the facts come out," he said. "It's my duty as chairman of this subcommittee to investigate this fully and follow every lead so that the American people can better be protected at the border." Next week's congressional hearings came on the heels of a Daily Bulletin disclosure in early January that there have been more than 200 incursions by Mexican military personnel into the United States since 1996. The incursions were documented in private files by the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which were kept from public access....
W. Texas border plan stems illegal crossings
A U.S. Border Patrol initiative to press charges against all illegal border crossers caught in a section of West Texas curtailed the number of crossings, officials said. Under Operation Streamline II, the Border Patrol is working with other agencies to enforce a "zero-tolerance" policy for illegal immigrants apprehended in the highly trafficked area of Eagle Pass. "The message is to deter entry in the West Texas corridor," said Hilario Leal, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's Del Rio sector. Officials said the zero-tolerance approach could be extended to other sectors of the border. In the first six weeks of the operation, 917 immigrants were prosecuted and sentenced to an average of 90 days in prison, he said. Last month, border agents in the area saw a drop in the daily number of non-Mexican illegal crossers – from 40 in January 2005 to 20. Authorities usually prosecute only a small fraction of the more than 1 million illegal crossers apprehended each year along the Mexican border. Usually undocumented Mexicans who are not repeat offenders are allowed to voluntarily return to Mexico, and non-Mexicans are typically released until their hearings. Most don't return for the hearings, officials said.
Mexico's Lawless Border Presents Washington With Its Biggest Test
Two events last month on the Mexican border, one in Texas and one in California, highlight the challenge the U.S. faces on our Southern border. They illustrate how not only vulnerable our border is but also why it is difficult to fix the problem. Mexico won’t or can’t control its side of the border, and the U.S. doesn’t want to embarrass Mexico by admitting that fact publicly. On the afternoon of January 23, three SUVs crossed from Mexico into Texas 50 miles southeast of El Paso at a shallow place in the Rio Grande called Neely’s Crossing by the locals. The three SUVs were spotted two miles from the river near Interstate 10 by Hudspeth County sheriff deputies. When the deputies gave chase, the SUVs turned around and headed back to the river. This happened in broad daylight, not under the cloak of darkness. At the river crossing, the sheriff deputies observed a military-style Humvee with a mounted 50-caliber machine gun waiting for the caravan on the U.S. side of the river. One SUV blew a tire short of the river and was abandoned by the smugglers. It was later found to contain 1477 pounds of marijuana. A second vehicle made it across the river, but the third got stuck. A dozen men in battle dress uniforms and automatic rifles appeared on the Mexican side and proceeded to help unload a dozen or more bales of contraband from the marooned SUV. The Texas sheriff deputies and state highway patrol were helpless to stop the recovery of the contraband because they were outgunned and outmanned. After unloading their cargo, the Mexicans set fire to the SUV and left it burning in the riverbed. All of this was photographed by Hudspeth County sheriff deputies....
State cops should stem flow of migrants, lawmakers say
Lawmakers are considering an aggressive approach for trying to lessen Arizona's role as the busiest gateway for sneaking into the country: devoting squads of the state police to catch illegal immigrants who slip past federal border agents. Over the years, many officials have resisted suggestions for local and state police agencies to confront illegal immigration, long considered the sole province of the federal government. But the notion is gaining political traction as the public's frustration with the state's porous border with Mexico grows. A state lawmaker has proposed a plan that includes $20 million for the Arizona Department of Public Safety to run a 100-member squad to operate surveillance equipment, construct border barriers, target drug and immigrant smugglers and perhaps patrol the border....
Can the President Order a Killing on U.S. Soil?
In the latest twist in the debate over presidential powers, a Justice Department official suggested that in certain circumstances, the president might have the power to order the killing of terrorist suspects inside the United States. Steven Bradbury, acting head of the department's Office of Legal Counsel, went to a closed-door Senate intelligence committee meeting last week to defend President George W. Bush's surveillance program. During the briefing, said administration and Capitol Hill officials (who declined to be identified because the session was private), California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Bradbury questions about the extent of presidential powers to fight Al Qaeda; could Bush, for instance, order the killing of a Qaeda suspect known to be on U.S. soil? Bradbury replied that he believed Bush could indeed do this, at least in certain circumstances. Current and former government officials said they could think of several scenarios in which a president might consider ordering the killing of a terror suspect inside the United States. One former official noted that before Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania, top administration officials weighed shooting down the aircraft if it got too close to Washington, D.C. What if the president had strong evidence that a Qaeda suspect was holed up with a dirty bomb and was about to attack? University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein says the post-9/11 congressional resolution authorizing the use of military force against Al Qaeda empowered the president to kill 9/11 perpetrators, or people who assisted their plot, whether they were overseas or inside the United States. On the other hand, Sunstein says, the president would be on less solid legal ground were he to order the killing of a terror suspect in the United States who was not actively preparing an attack. A Justice Department official, who asked not to be ID'd because of the sensitive subject, said Bradbury's remarks were made during an "academic discussion" of theoretical contingencies....
Surveillance Net Yields Few Suspects
Intelligence officers who eavesdropped on thousands of Americans in overseas calls under authority from President Bush have dismissed nearly all of them as potential suspects after hearing nothing pertinent to a terrorist threat, according to accounts from current and former government officials and private-sector sources with knowledge of the technologies in use. Bush has recently described the warrantless operation as "terrorist surveillance" and summed it up by declaring that "if you're talking to a member of al Qaeda, we want to know why." But officials conversant with the program said a far more common question for eavesdroppers is whether, not why, a terrorist plotter is on either end of the call. The answer, they said, is usually no. Fewer than 10 U.S. citizens or residents a year, according to an authoritative account, have aroused enough suspicion during warrantless eavesdropping to justify interception of their domestic calls, as well. That step still requires a warrant from a federal judge, for which the government must supply evidence of probable cause. The Bush administration refuses to say -- in public or in closed session of Congress -- how many Americans in the past four years have had their conversations recorded or their e-mails read by intelligence analysts without court authority. Two knowledgeable sources placed that number in the thousands; one of them, more specific, said about 5,000. The program has touched many more Americans than that. Surveillance takes place in several stages, officials said, the earliest by machine....
Telecoms let NSA spy on calls
The National Security Agency has secured the cooperation of large telecommunications companies, including AT&T, MCI and Sprint, in its efforts to eavesdrop without warrants on international calls by suspected terrorists, according to seven telecommunications executives. The executives asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the program. AT&T, MCI and Sprint had no official comment. The Senate Judiciary Committee begins hearings today on the government's program of monitoring international calls and e-mails of a domestic target without first obtaining court orders. At issue: whether the surveillance is legal, as President Bush insists, or an illegal intrusion into the lives of Americans, as lawsuits by civil libertarians contend. In domestic investigations, phone companies routinely require court orders before cooperating. A majority of international calls are handled by long-distance carriers AT&T, MCI and Sprint. All three own "gateway" switches capable of routing calls to points around the globe. AT&T was recently acquired by SBC Communications, which has since adopted the AT&T name as its corporate moniker. MCI, formerly known as WorldCom, was recently acquired by Verizon. Sprint recently merged with Nextel. Decisions about monitoring calls are made in four steps, according to two U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the program who insisted on anonymity because it remains classified....
Model airplane designed to help police shows promise
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on Friday unveiled what could become its latest weapon for fighting crime - a high-tech model plane equipped with a video camera - and said a SWAT team will begin testing the new surveillance technology within two months. The four-pound plane has a tiny camera in its belly that can be used for everything from surveilling buildings and tracking fleeing burglars to searching for lost hikers and missing children, sheriff's officials said. The "SkySeer" will be donated to the department by Chang Industry for field testing. The company - whose president, Yu-Wen Chang, is a resident of Rancho Palos Verdes - worked with the Sheriff's Department for about three years to produce the unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV. It has to in order to meet the department's rigorous demands. Sheriff's deputies need something small and light that is also slow enough to take good video, easy to control, inexpensive, self-piloting and quiet, said Sheriff's Cmdr. Sid Heal, head of the department's technology exploration unit. Other groups showing an interest in the plane include the U.S. Border Patrol, the U.S. Forest Service and a law enforcement agency on the East Coast, Chang said. Although the company has yet to put a price tag on the plane, company officials guessed it could be $30,000....
Those of you interested in border issues may want to visit this blog by a retired Border Patrol agent.
Border Law Enforcement Certain Of Incursions
"There's no way on God's country I would have sent them reporters down if I'd have known they were gonna be there, " said Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West in response to the Mexican consulate's claim that his department was informed by the Mexican military would be patrolling along the Rio Grande. The incident involves a KFOX crew who witnessed an incursion taking place in Sierra Blanca on January 31st, as they were being escorted by a Hudspeth Sheriff's deputy. The camera crew got most of the incident on tape, where you can see Mexican military right along the Rio Grande, fully armed. Out of the camera's view, other men dressed in military uniforms crossed into the United States - the second incursion in the same area in nine days. Sheriff West says he is certain the men were Mexican soldiers because his Deputies deal with the threat on a daily basis. He insists they were never notified as the Consulate claims. "As we've said all along we're out-manned and out-gunned. Not only the Sheriff's offices along the border, but as well as Border Patrol," says Sheriff West....
Probe of Mexican military incursions at U.S. border set to begin
A closed-door meeting at El Paso International Airport between congressional leaders, government agencies, along with federal and local law enforcement officers promised answers to reports of Mexican military incursions into the United States and set the stage for congressional hearings next week. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations for the Committee on Homeland Security, said at a press conference Friday that the incursion investigations will be the first time his committee has conducted hearings since its formation four years ago. "I want to thank these brave men and women for what they do every day and the threat that they face on the border," McCaul said, referring to the law enforcement officials standing behind him. "It's important that members of Congress understand that and do something about it. "We are going to get to the bottom of what happened here, and we are going to have the facts come out," he said. "It's my duty as chairman of this subcommittee to investigate this fully and follow every lead so that the American people can better be protected at the border." Next week's congressional hearings came on the heels of a Daily Bulletin disclosure in early January that there have been more than 200 incursions by Mexican military personnel into the United States since 1996. The incursions were documented in private files by the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which were kept from public access....
W. Texas border plan stems illegal crossings
A U.S. Border Patrol initiative to press charges against all illegal border crossers caught in a section of West Texas curtailed the number of crossings, officials said. Under Operation Streamline II, the Border Patrol is working with other agencies to enforce a "zero-tolerance" policy for illegal immigrants apprehended in the highly trafficked area of Eagle Pass. "The message is to deter entry in the West Texas corridor," said Hilario Leal, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's Del Rio sector. Officials said the zero-tolerance approach could be extended to other sectors of the border. In the first six weeks of the operation, 917 immigrants were prosecuted and sentenced to an average of 90 days in prison, he said. Last month, border agents in the area saw a drop in the daily number of non-Mexican illegal crossers – from 40 in January 2005 to 20. Authorities usually prosecute only a small fraction of the more than 1 million illegal crossers apprehended each year along the Mexican border. Usually undocumented Mexicans who are not repeat offenders are allowed to voluntarily return to Mexico, and non-Mexicans are typically released until their hearings. Most don't return for the hearings, officials said.
Mexico's Lawless Border Presents Washington With Its Biggest Test
Two events last month on the Mexican border, one in Texas and one in California, highlight the challenge the U.S. faces on our Southern border. They illustrate how not only vulnerable our border is but also why it is difficult to fix the problem. Mexico won’t or can’t control its side of the border, and the U.S. doesn’t want to embarrass Mexico by admitting that fact publicly. On the afternoon of January 23, three SUVs crossed from Mexico into Texas 50 miles southeast of El Paso at a shallow place in the Rio Grande called Neely’s Crossing by the locals. The three SUVs were spotted two miles from the river near Interstate 10 by Hudspeth County sheriff deputies. When the deputies gave chase, the SUVs turned around and headed back to the river. This happened in broad daylight, not under the cloak of darkness. At the river crossing, the sheriff deputies observed a military-style Humvee with a mounted 50-caliber machine gun waiting for the caravan on the U.S. side of the river. One SUV blew a tire short of the river and was abandoned by the smugglers. It was later found to contain 1477 pounds of marijuana. A second vehicle made it across the river, but the third got stuck. A dozen men in battle dress uniforms and automatic rifles appeared on the Mexican side and proceeded to help unload a dozen or more bales of contraband from the marooned SUV. The Texas sheriff deputies and state highway patrol were helpless to stop the recovery of the contraband because they were outgunned and outmanned. After unloading their cargo, the Mexicans set fire to the SUV and left it burning in the riverbed. All of this was photographed by Hudspeth County sheriff deputies....
State cops should stem flow of migrants, lawmakers say
Lawmakers are considering an aggressive approach for trying to lessen Arizona's role as the busiest gateway for sneaking into the country: devoting squads of the state police to catch illegal immigrants who slip past federal border agents. Over the years, many officials have resisted suggestions for local and state police agencies to confront illegal immigration, long considered the sole province of the federal government. But the notion is gaining political traction as the public's frustration with the state's porous border with Mexico grows. A state lawmaker has proposed a plan that includes $20 million for the Arizona Department of Public Safety to run a 100-member squad to operate surveillance equipment, construct border barriers, target drug and immigrant smugglers and perhaps patrol the border....
Can the President Order a Killing on U.S. Soil?
In the latest twist in the debate over presidential powers, a Justice Department official suggested that in certain circumstances, the president might have the power to order the killing of terrorist suspects inside the United States. Steven Bradbury, acting head of the department's Office of Legal Counsel, went to a closed-door Senate intelligence committee meeting last week to defend President George W. Bush's surveillance program. During the briefing, said administration and Capitol Hill officials (who declined to be identified because the session was private), California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Bradbury questions about the extent of presidential powers to fight Al Qaeda; could Bush, for instance, order the killing of a Qaeda suspect known to be on U.S. soil? Bradbury replied that he believed Bush could indeed do this, at least in certain circumstances. Current and former government officials said they could think of several scenarios in which a president might consider ordering the killing of a terror suspect inside the United States. One former official noted that before Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania, top administration officials weighed shooting down the aircraft if it got too close to Washington, D.C. What if the president had strong evidence that a Qaeda suspect was holed up with a dirty bomb and was about to attack? University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein says the post-9/11 congressional resolution authorizing the use of military force against Al Qaeda empowered the president to kill 9/11 perpetrators, or people who assisted their plot, whether they were overseas or inside the United States. On the other hand, Sunstein says, the president would be on less solid legal ground were he to order the killing of a terror suspect in the United States who was not actively preparing an attack. A Justice Department official, who asked not to be ID'd because of the sensitive subject, said Bradbury's remarks were made during an "academic discussion" of theoretical contingencies....
Surveillance Net Yields Few Suspects
Intelligence officers who eavesdropped on thousands of Americans in overseas calls under authority from President Bush have dismissed nearly all of them as potential suspects after hearing nothing pertinent to a terrorist threat, according to accounts from current and former government officials and private-sector sources with knowledge of the technologies in use. Bush has recently described the warrantless operation as "terrorist surveillance" and summed it up by declaring that "if you're talking to a member of al Qaeda, we want to know why." But officials conversant with the program said a far more common question for eavesdroppers is whether, not why, a terrorist plotter is on either end of the call. The answer, they said, is usually no. Fewer than 10 U.S. citizens or residents a year, according to an authoritative account, have aroused enough suspicion during warrantless eavesdropping to justify interception of their domestic calls, as well. That step still requires a warrant from a federal judge, for which the government must supply evidence of probable cause. The Bush administration refuses to say -- in public or in closed session of Congress -- how many Americans in the past four years have had their conversations recorded or their e-mails read by intelligence analysts without court authority. Two knowledgeable sources placed that number in the thousands; one of them, more specific, said about 5,000. The program has touched many more Americans than that. Surveillance takes place in several stages, officials said, the earliest by machine....
Telecoms let NSA spy on calls
The National Security Agency has secured the cooperation of large telecommunications companies, including AT&T, MCI and Sprint, in its efforts to eavesdrop without warrants on international calls by suspected terrorists, according to seven telecommunications executives. The executives asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the program. AT&T, MCI and Sprint had no official comment. The Senate Judiciary Committee begins hearings today on the government's program of monitoring international calls and e-mails of a domestic target without first obtaining court orders. At issue: whether the surveillance is legal, as President Bush insists, or an illegal intrusion into the lives of Americans, as lawsuits by civil libertarians contend. In domestic investigations, phone companies routinely require court orders before cooperating. A majority of international calls are handled by long-distance carriers AT&T, MCI and Sprint. All three own "gateway" switches capable of routing calls to points around the globe. AT&T was recently acquired by SBC Communications, which has since adopted the AT&T name as its corporate moniker. MCI, formerly known as WorldCom, was recently acquired by Verizon. Sprint recently merged with Nextel. Decisions about monitoring calls are made in four steps, according to two U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the program who insisted on anonymity because it remains classified....
Model airplane designed to help police shows promise
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on Friday unveiled what could become its latest weapon for fighting crime - a high-tech model plane equipped with a video camera - and said a SWAT team will begin testing the new surveillance technology within two months. The four-pound plane has a tiny camera in its belly that can be used for everything from surveilling buildings and tracking fleeing burglars to searching for lost hikers and missing children, sheriff's officials said. The "SkySeer" will be donated to the department by Chang Industry for field testing. The company - whose president, Yu-Wen Chang, is a resident of Rancho Palos Verdes - worked with the Sheriff's Department for about three years to produce the unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV. It has to in order to meet the department's rigorous demands. Sheriff's deputies need something small and light that is also slow enough to take good video, easy to control, inexpensive, self-piloting and quiet, said Sheriff's Cmdr. Sid Heal, head of the department's technology exploration unit. Other groups showing an interest in the plane include the U.S. Border Patrol, the U.S. Forest Service and a law enforcement agency on the East Coast, Chang said. Although the company has yet to put a price tag on the plane, company officials guessed it could be $30,000....
Those of you interested in border issues may want to visit this blog by a retired Border Patrol agent.
NEWS ROUNDUP
Moving In for the Kill With Montana's Buffalo Hunters Boots crunching on iced-over snow, Jeff Vader creeps toward two animals from the world's last wild herd of pure buffalo. The normally chatty 50-year-old crouches behind a cluster of juniper trees and puts a finger to his lips. The four men behind him fall mute. Vader lies on his belly, points his rifle at the biggest bull and becomes part of a contentious experiment in controlling an icon of the American West. Vader has one of 50 permits from Montana to kill a buffalo during the state's first legal hunt of the animal in 15 years. The quarry belong to a herd of 4,000 that roams freely in Yellowstone National Park, where hunting is banned. But winter snows chase them across the park boundaries into southern Montana, where they are not welcome. The buffalo can carry brucellosis, a disease that causes cows to miscarry and that Montana views as a threat to its $1-billion cattle industry. The state confines the buffalo to a narrow slice of land, and chases them back to the park by helicopter and snowmobile should they venture too close to the few nearby ranches with cattle....
Big birds at it again In 2004, Ken Andersen noticed that Jay Russ' pasture in Loleta was grazed as short as a golf course. ”If I was a golfer I could have putted a ball,” Andersen said, “except for all the goose poop.” By all accounts, the Aleutian cackling geese that can seen by the thousands in dairy and beef pastures in winter and spring are eating a lot of grass. So much, that it has a surprisingly serious effect on ranchers' bottom lines. Anderson is Humboldt County's University of California Cooperative Extension dairy advisor, and he recently crunched numbers from experiments he launched in 2005. Andersen presented the figures to a group of ranchers at the Humboldt County Agriculture Center. He fenced off areas in strip-grazed fields geese feed in, then calculated the loss of feed and how much beef or milk that food would have produced. According to Andersen's figures, on one 500-acre plot in Arcata, a beef rancher lost $69,400 gross revenue. If it were a dairy pasture, that loss would have reached $181,000 in Andersen's analysis; if it were an organic milk pasture, it would have climbed to $181,000....
Modern techniques help deal with coyotes The coyote - adaptive, secretive, resilient - continues to challenge wildlife management specialists in Wyoming who seek an effective response to "one of the most amazing animals on the face of the planet." That's the opinion of biologist Rod Merrell, a USDA Wildlife Services employee who also has studied mountain lion, wolf and grizzly bear predation on livestock and wildlife in the state. In 2004, coyotes took almost 20,000 of the 30,000 Wyoming sheep and lambs lost to predators and were responsible for 58 percent of total predation on calves and 25 percent of predation on cattle in Wyoming. "Coyotes have saturated all of the landscape. It's not that it's a bad species, but when it causes problems, it needs to be managed," said Merrell, who has been a trapper all his life. The best time to kill coyotes for population reduction in areas where there is historical damage to livestock or wildlife is mid-January through mid-June, when coyotes are breeding and establishing territories, according to Merrell. During this time, there is no major dispersion of movement....
Feds reduce grazing fees Ranchers in Wyoming and elsewhere will pay less to graze livestock on public lands this year. Federal agencies this week announced a decrease in grazing fees, citing a rise in ranchers' production costs as the reason. The Bureau of Land Management, which administers grazing permits on federal lands in Wyoming, dropped the price to $1.56 per animal unit month from $1.79 a year ago. Prices go into effect March 1. An animal unit month, or AUM, is the amount of forage needed to sustain one cow and her calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month. The price is calculated using a formula developed in 1978 with the Public Rangelands Improvement Act and approved by Congress, and has continued under a presidential executive order issued in 1986. Under that order, the grazing fee cannot fall below $1.35 per AUM, and any increase or decrease cannot exceed 25 percent of the previous year's level....
Groups clash over preserving Arizona lands When Arizona became a state almost 100 years ago, managing and preserving millions of acres of pristine desert wasn't a priority. Developers weren't buying up land faster than they could build houses, and conservationists weren't clamoring for the preservation of open spaces. Today, with development extending the Valley's edges a little more every day, managing Arizona's most valuable asset is a top priority. But the agency tasked with that job is still operating under many of the same rules that established the State Land Department in 1912, leaving it struggling to compete in today's fast-paced real estate market, let alone stay ahead of the state's soaring growth. In the past, voters and the Legislature have turned down proposals to reform the Land Department or set aside more state land for open space because of confusion over the proposals or fighting between ranchers and conservationists, both of whom have big plans for the land....
Group seeks anti-wolf initiative An anti-wolf group wants to put an initiative on the ballot to remove wolves from the state "by any means possible." Wolves have been controversial in Idaho since the federal government reintroduced 15 of the animals in 1995, decades after they had been killed off in the state. Some hunters say the wolves diminish deer and elk populations, while some ranchers say wolves put their livestock at risk. The group launching the initiative, the Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition, is tired of seeing wolves treated better than humans, Ron Gillett, head of the coalition, told The Spokesman-Review. "This is a mechanism for the people of the state of Idaho to show their voice and flex their muscle and get these wolves out of here," said Gillett. The initiative would also shut down the state's Office of Species Conservation....
Key agreement in water wars After 84 years of bickering, the seven states that share the waters of the Colorado River have agreed on ways to share the pain of future droughts. If embraced in Washington, the deal would help Western states avoid costly court battles and economic uncertainties. Colorado would be allowed to continue using its share of the river's waters. The delicately negotiated deal contains important water protections for both the upper basin states - Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah - and the lower basin states of Arizona, Nevada and California. The agreement still faces a long bureaucratic process before it can be implemented, but it represents a giant stride in settling what had been, until last Wednesday, a seemingly unresolvable interstate feud. The deal wouldn't replace the all-important 1922 interstate compact that governs how much Colorado River water each state can use. Instead, it would improve how the river's limited supplies are managed in drought conditions....
Another attempt to delist wolves With an eye toward recent court rulings and Wyoming politics, the federal government is moving once again to delist wolves in the northern Rocky Mountain region. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday an “advance notice” for delisting wolves in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, the eastern third of Washington and Oregon and a small part of north-central Utah. The announcement launches a 60-day public comment period, and a formal delisting proposal could come within weeks or months after that, said Ed Bangs, Fish and Wildlife Service wolf recovery coordinator. Bangs explained that the service’s plan is designed to address issues raised in recent court rulings in Vermont and Oregon. The Oregon ruling determined that the protected status of wolves in the Northern Rockies could not be changed, largely because a reclassification proposal for those wolves applied to a “distinct population segment” stretching across nine western states. “Court rulings from this past year determined that we didn’t do enough analysis and the DPS was too large,” Bangs said. The plan announced Thursday would apply to a much smaller area, with more detailed analysis of suitable habitat and potential threats to wolves, Bangs said....
McCombs' ski development has been focus of lobbying San Antonio billionaire Red McCombs, who wants the U.S. Forest Service to let him build a huge ski village atop a southwestern Colorado mountain pass, lobbied to get the official who oversees the agency appointed. Since then, McCombs and his allies have met repeatedly with the official to discuss the controversial project, records and interviews show. McCombs, a major donor to the University of Texas, and his partner pushed to have Mark Rey, a longtime timber industry lobbyist, appointed undersecretary of agriculture, overseeing the Forest Service. Rey said through a spokeswoman that decisions regarding McCombs' proposed $1 billion development at Colorado's Wolf Creek ski area are being handled by regional Forest Service officials in the state. But documents obtained by The Denver Post show that Rey has met repeatedly with key proponents of McCombs' project, and that Rey's deputy, David Tenny, has kept tabs on it....
Army trains with pack animals in Wyoming Thirty-one soldiers from the Army's 10th Mountain Division spent much of last week in a barn near here, learning the finer points of donkey management. The soldiers plan to pass on their newly acquired skills to soldiers headed to Afghanistan, where pack animals come in handy moving supplies to remote, mountainous areas. The instructors were a group of outdoors and livestock specialists led by Ron Ostrom, a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer in the Shoshone National Forest. Ostrom said the requirements of donkeys and mules in Wyoming aren't much different than in Afghanistan. "You package it up and load it pretty much same way," he said. "In the Forest Service, we use different tools and saws and camping gear, and these guys have got their MREs, water, guns, explosives and their stuff that they need." Friday was the last of five days of training for the soldiers, with Ostrom guiding them into the 7,900-foot McCullough Peaks south of Powell....
Helicopter conflict swirls above Rogue A helicopter company wants permission to fly forest fire training runs inside the federally protected Rogue River canyon near Grants Pass, but river advocates and some recreational groups are lining up against the proposal. Carson Helicopters Inc. of Grants Pass had been training without a permit inside the federally designated Wild and Scenic River corridor for five years without the knowledge of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said Chris Dent, BLM's river manager for the Rogue. "It came to our attention last May, and we asked them to stop and they did," Dent said. "They pleaded ignorance." The BLM oversees the popular recreation area, which hosts more than 100,000 rafters, floaters and fishermen each year, agency statistics show....
Snowmobilers file motion Led by a national recreational advocacy group based out of Pocatello, Idaho, several local snowmobile organizations announced Friday afternoon the filing of a motion to intervene in a lawsuit challenging motorized access to the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. The Top of Utah Snowmobile Association, American Council of Snowmobile Associations and Beaver Creek Lodge, in conjunction with Pocatello-based BlueRibbon Coalition, said through a statement that the motion is intended to defend a Forest Service management direction that divided the Franklin Basin and Tony Grove area among motorized and non-motorized recreationalists last July. A lawsuit against the Forest Service decision, which was made following a “mediation-arbitration” process to settle the winter recreation dispute, was filed by a group of organizations in December. The December lawsuit — filed in U.S. District Court and backed by Nordic United, Bear River Watershed Council, Bridgerland Audubon Society and Winter Wildlands Alliance — accused the Forest Service of, among several things, not completing required environmental studies before the July decision, a stance the group led by BlueRibbon contests. “Extensive environmental analysis was conducted during the Revised Forest Service Plan process,” said Brian Hawthorne, public lands director for the BlueRibbon Coalition. “I’ve got a foot-high stack of environmental documentation sitting on my desk for this process alone. My goodness, how much analysis do we need?”....
Environmental plan hopes to end battles over development It's been about 25 years since a tiny lizard living along sand dunes nearly brought the Coachella Valley economy to a crawl. Now an alliance of planners, builders and local leaders wants to make sure history doesn't repeat itself. Backers of the plan say it will add 34 percent more land to a conservation area that already consists of 534,000 acres. Though it would restrict some development, mostly in the hills surrounding the valley, the plan would still enable the desert's population to nearly triple to 1.1million at build-out in 2066. The $1.8 billion plan would link 75 years of home-building, road construction and business development to habitat preservation for 27 species of Coachella Valley wildlife....
Preservation tied to valley development in sweeping habitat plan To create the proposed plan, scientists identified the 11 protected species in the valley and 16 others that could become threatened in the next 75 years. Planners then mapped out habitat for the 27 species and divided it into 21 conservation areas over 747,400 acres of the 1.1 million-acre planning area. About 534,200 acres are already protected because they are public land or owned by conservation groups. Another 180,000 acres designated for conservation - much of it privately owned, including specific habitat - are home to ecological processes like moving sand or are important for preventing genetic isolation of wildlife. To complete the reserve system, the plan ties preservation to development. It would raise about $1.8 billion over 75 years to purchase land from willing sellers and pay for management and administration. About a quarter of the money would come from a fee on new development. The fee is now set at $5,270 per acre for commercial and industrial projects. The residential fee is based on a sliding scale related to density. It works out to about $1,180 for a new, single-family home....
100 landowners say they’ll back program that protects grouse More than 100 landowners from Glade Park to the northern San Luis Valley have expressed an interest in signing a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances in the last year. The program, which is approaching approval by the Fish and Wildlife Service, would encourage landowners to preserve Gunnison sage grouse habitat to keep the chicken-sized bird from being listed. Under the voluntary program, landowners would sign a 20-year contract with the Colorado Division of Wildlife to protect the grouse. The Division of Wildlife would then write a plan and make recommendations on what parts of the property would remain the same and what improvements should be made. According to Gary Skiba, southwest region conservation biologist with the Division of Wildlife, the 100 interested landowners have offered to put about 100,000 acres into the program....
Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) Named "Wildlife Villain" After a year that saw both the first vote ever to effectively dismantle the Endangered Species Act, and a tremendous conservation victory on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund today named eight members of the House of Representatives and four members of the Senate as 2006 "Wildlife Heroes." The selection of these heroes and the naming of Rep. Richard Pombo as the 2006 "Wildlife Villain" were based largely on the leadership the congressional members played on those two paramount issues. In conjunction with the awards, the Defenders Action Fund released its 2005 Conservation Report Card, which evaluates how well members of Congress protected wildlife and wild lands for future generations. This year's report card includes votes on two of the most important conservation and wildlife issues in decades: a vote to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and a vote for a substitute bill to counter Rep. Pombo's bill to gut the Endangered Species Act. The eight House members receiving the 2006 "Wildlife Hero" awards are: Representatives Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), John Dingell (D-MI), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Ed Markey (D-MA), George Miller (D-CA), Nick Rahall (D-WV), Jim Saxton (R-NJ) and Tom Udall (D-NM). Senate awardees are Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Jim Jeffords (I-VT) and Harry Reid (D-NV)....
Ensign: Deal will keep federal land sale profits in Nevada For the first time in three years, President Bush's budget will not include a plan to funnel millions of dollars in profits from federal land sales around Las Vegas into the federal treasury, Sen. John Ensign said. Ensign, R-Nev., said he has secured a verbal commitment from the Bush administration to keep the proposal out of the 2007 budget as part of a compromise. Nevada's congressional delegation instead wants the money to continue going to recreation and conservation projects across Nevada. "When the president's budget comes out (Monday), it will have no provision in there to go after that money," Ensign told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Under the Southern Nevada Public Management Land Act, profits from the sale of excess Bureau of Land Management property in Clark County are set aside for the public acquisition of sensitive land around Nevada and other specific purposes....
Company: BLM drilling plan 'unfeasible' A Bureau of Land Management plan to allow one well for every 160 acres in the Atlantic Rim area would make development of the natural gas field impractical, the company proposing the project says. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. wants to drill wells every 80 acres, and people who work in the energy industry have joined the company in speaking against the BLM plan. “We believe that is going to render the project technically unfeasible,” Tom Clayson of Anadarko said during a public hearing here Thursday night. Anadarko officials have met with Rawlins business leaders expressing their concern about the 160-acre well spacing and BLM's phased development plans....
Too much too fast? Landowners, environmentalists and western Colorado communities are asking federal land managers to slow the pace of oil and gas lease sales as nearly 168,000 acres of public land are ready to go on the auction block. Some of them are formally protesting leases to be offered Feb. 9 during the Bureau of Land Management's quarterly auction, one of the largest in the past three years. The disputed parcels include 8,500 acres the public has proposed as federal wilderness and more than 16,000 acres in community watersheds. Dave Kearsley, a Grand Junction investment adviser whose land is up for lease, said he doesn't understand why the BLM won't postpone the auction as he and other area residents requested. "We're not going to solve the energy problem overnight, so there's no need to rush," said Kearsley, who owns 50 acres on the Grand Mesa, along Colorado 65 and near the Powderhorn ski area. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., made the same argument last week when he and his brother, Democratic Congressman John Salazar, asked the BLM to delay the sale....
Towns move to protect water from drilling Communities in western Colorado, where energy development is booming, have gained support from the state’s congressional delegation as they try to keep drilling out of areas that supply their drinking water. Palisade and Grand Junction are protesting plans to sell federal oil and gas leases in their watersheds at a Bureau of Land Management auction Thursday. Democrats Sen. Ken Salazar and Rep. John Salazar have asked the bureau to postpone any action so the potential effects on the springs and other water sources can be studied. “We need to take the time to do this the right way,” said John Salazar, whose district includes the two communities. The 10 parcels totaling 16,500 acres on the Grand Mesa include about 70 percent of Palisade’s watershed and are among 167,345 acres the bureau will offer for lease. Most of the land is in western Colorado, where much of the state’s record natural gas production is taking place....
Location, impact of energy corridor remain in question Comments on an effort to designate energy transmission corridors on federal lands throughout Montana and 10 other western states range almost as widely as the terrain they’ll traverse. Not surprisingly, almost half of the 220 written or oral suggestions on what should be looked at in an upcoming study — known as a “Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement” (PEIS) — came from energy producers and distributors. The corridors would be used for oil, gas, and hydrogen pipelines and electricity transmission and distribution facilities. Designating energy corridors is a little-known requirement of the 2005 energy bill signed last August by President Bush. The point of the PEIS is to have the investigation of the impacts of an energy corridor completed so that when a project is proposed in the future, it can be implemented quickly. Four alternatives are being considered, although the actual locations and numbers of the corridors remain in question....
Owens Valley residents battle Los Angeles over water rights The strange daily ritual started after Los Angeles water authorities slapped a chain and a lock on a wheel controlling a diversion gate on Pine Creek -- the lifeblood of a mountain enclave known as 40 Acres. Locals cut the chain and added a lock of their own to keep the gate open. The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power closed the gate once more and installed a heavier chain. Locals used a cutting torch to sever the new chain. Now there are two locks on the chain. Every morning, a group from 40 Acres opens their lock, removes the chain, and turns the wheel to steer water their way. Every afternoon, a Water & Power crew opens its lock to send the water cascading into the Los Angeles Aqueduct system. This has been going on for two years....
Steer garners record stock show bid When bidding at the annual Sale of Champions auction ended Saturday at the Fort Worth stock show, Whitney Holcomb was planning for college, and Cool, her 18-month-old Grand Champion Steer, was headed to the Fort Worth Zoo. Whitney, 16, of Tyler, received a record bid of $160,000 for the steer, money that she said she will use to attend Texas A&M University in two years. The bittersweet backstage farewells, in which teenagers say goodbye to animals destined for the slaughterhouse, were largely absent from this year's auction. The winning bidders, XTO Energy and the Gunsmoke Grill and Saloon, will donate Cool to the Fort Worth Zoo. "I can't wait to come and visit him," Whitney said, "and I know a lot of little kids are going to enjoy seeing him."....
The gun heard 'round the West All gone, all gone, all gone. The gun as family totem, the implied trust between generations, the implicit idea that marksmanship followed by hunting were a way of life to be pursued through the decades, the sense of tradition, respect, self-discipline and bright confidence that Winchester and the American kinship group would march forward to a happy tomorrow -- gone ... if not with the wind, then with the tide of inner-city and nut-case killings that have led America's once-proud and heavily bourgeois gun culture into the wilderness of marginalization. And now Winchester is gone, too, or at least the most interesting parts of it. The traditional company whose symbol was a fringed rider flying across the plains on a pinto, gripping his trusty Model '73, is finally biting the dust. The entity -- now tecBig birds at it againhnically U.S. Repeating Arms, which produces the rifles and shotguns as a licensee of the Olin Corp., which still owns Winchester ammunition -- announced last month that it was closing the plant in New Haven, Conn., where the rifles and shotguns have been fabricated for a century and a half. Some Winchesters will continue to be built overseas, but three guns -- the classic lever-action rifle of western fame, the bolt-action hunting rifle (called the Model 70) and the Model 1300 pump-action shotgun -- will no longer be manufactured....
His spurs are well-earned on the ranch Which is how I ended up at Arizona Cowboy College in Scottsdale one sweltering Sunday in October to begin a six-day course on a working ranch in the Sonoran Desert. The property backs up to the high country of the Tonto National Forest. The McDowell Mountains run jagged across the horizon to the south and all around you are the harsh but beautiful desert flats where the ground is as dry as powder and the landscape dominated by all things prickly, including stately 100-year-old saguaro cactuses and nasty chollas, which are sometimes called jumping chollas because they're said to throw their spiny branches at unsuspecting passersby. When I called Lori Bridwell, whose late husband, Lloyd, founded the cowboy school in 1989, she made sure I knew what I was getting myself into. "This isn't a dude ranch," she said. "There's no luxury involved." No cutesy hay wagons or line-dancing lessons; no morning rides to some pastoral location to eat blueberry pancakes and apple wood-smoked bacon. I'd be sleeping in a dusty bunkhouse with half a dozen other greenhorns, an eclectic group that included a heavy-set sporting goods salesman from Calgary, Canada, and a young fashion reporter from Germany. All of us would be getting up at dawn to spend long days learning to handle, groom, saddle, mount and ride a horse. The only thing Lori would guarantee: We would be sore for days afterward. Rocco Wachman, the head instructor at Cowboy College, was just as blunt: "I'm not the least bit interested in teaching anyone how to play cowboy for a week," he said at 6 o'clock on our first morning. "I'm here to teach you to be a cowboy. Which is demanding, dirty, hard, physical labor. It's also a dying art."....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Pleased to walk in his own boots These are the boots of a salesman, specifically an ag sales rep. And they've taken me a million miles sellin' to people who feed the world. Which makes me part of somethin' good, somethin' bigger than myself. Everybody's good at somethin'; farmers, vets, cowboys, dairymen ... and me? I can sell. I can sell rubber boots to a Bedouin, sunglasses to a mole. I can talk my way up from a C+ to a B-. People buy from people, especially in our business. Which places the obligation on me to deliver what I promise and be there after the sale. My company has to be there for me, too, and it's my duty to ride for the brand....
Moving In for the Kill With Montana's Buffalo Hunters Boots crunching on iced-over snow, Jeff Vader creeps toward two animals from the world's last wild herd of pure buffalo. The normally chatty 50-year-old crouches behind a cluster of juniper trees and puts a finger to his lips. The four men behind him fall mute. Vader lies on his belly, points his rifle at the biggest bull and becomes part of a contentious experiment in controlling an icon of the American West. Vader has one of 50 permits from Montana to kill a buffalo during the state's first legal hunt of the animal in 15 years. The quarry belong to a herd of 4,000 that roams freely in Yellowstone National Park, where hunting is banned. But winter snows chase them across the park boundaries into southern Montana, where they are not welcome. The buffalo can carry brucellosis, a disease that causes cows to miscarry and that Montana views as a threat to its $1-billion cattle industry. The state confines the buffalo to a narrow slice of land, and chases them back to the park by helicopter and snowmobile should they venture too close to the few nearby ranches with cattle....
Big birds at it again In 2004, Ken Andersen noticed that Jay Russ' pasture in Loleta was grazed as short as a golf course. ”If I was a golfer I could have putted a ball,” Andersen said, “except for all the goose poop.” By all accounts, the Aleutian cackling geese that can seen by the thousands in dairy and beef pastures in winter and spring are eating a lot of grass. So much, that it has a surprisingly serious effect on ranchers' bottom lines. Anderson is Humboldt County's University of California Cooperative Extension dairy advisor, and he recently crunched numbers from experiments he launched in 2005. Andersen presented the figures to a group of ranchers at the Humboldt County Agriculture Center. He fenced off areas in strip-grazed fields geese feed in, then calculated the loss of feed and how much beef or milk that food would have produced. According to Andersen's figures, on one 500-acre plot in Arcata, a beef rancher lost $69,400 gross revenue. If it were a dairy pasture, that loss would have reached $181,000 in Andersen's analysis; if it were an organic milk pasture, it would have climbed to $181,000....
Modern techniques help deal with coyotes The coyote - adaptive, secretive, resilient - continues to challenge wildlife management specialists in Wyoming who seek an effective response to "one of the most amazing animals on the face of the planet." That's the opinion of biologist Rod Merrell, a USDA Wildlife Services employee who also has studied mountain lion, wolf and grizzly bear predation on livestock and wildlife in the state. In 2004, coyotes took almost 20,000 of the 30,000 Wyoming sheep and lambs lost to predators and were responsible for 58 percent of total predation on calves and 25 percent of predation on cattle in Wyoming. "Coyotes have saturated all of the landscape. It's not that it's a bad species, but when it causes problems, it needs to be managed," said Merrell, who has been a trapper all his life. The best time to kill coyotes for population reduction in areas where there is historical damage to livestock or wildlife is mid-January through mid-June, when coyotes are breeding and establishing territories, according to Merrell. During this time, there is no major dispersion of movement....
Feds reduce grazing fees Ranchers in Wyoming and elsewhere will pay less to graze livestock on public lands this year. Federal agencies this week announced a decrease in grazing fees, citing a rise in ranchers' production costs as the reason. The Bureau of Land Management, which administers grazing permits on federal lands in Wyoming, dropped the price to $1.56 per animal unit month from $1.79 a year ago. Prices go into effect March 1. An animal unit month, or AUM, is the amount of forage needed to sustain one cow and her calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month. The price is calculated using a formula developed in 1978 with the Public Rangelands Improvement Act and approved by Congress, and has continued under a presidential executive order issued in 1986. Under that order, the grazing fee cannot fall below $1.35 per AUM, and any increase or decrease cannot exceed 25 percent of the previous year's level....
Groups clash over preserving Arizona lands When Arizona became a state almost 100 years ago, managing and preserving millions of acres of pristine desert wasn't a priority. Developers weren't buying up land faster than they could build houses, and conservationists weren't clamoring for the preservation of open spaces. Today, with development extending the Valley's edges a little more every day, managing Arizona's most valuable asset is a top priority. But the agency tasked with that job is still operating under many of the same rules that established the State Land Department in 1912, leaving it struggling to compete in today's fast-paced real estate market, let alone stay ahead of the state's soaring growth. In the past, voters and the Legislature have turned down proposals to reform the Land Department or set aside more state land for open space because of confusion over the proposals or fighting between ranchers and conservationists, both of whom have big plans for the land....
Group seeks anti-wolf initiative An anti-wolf group wants to put an initiative on the ballot to remove wolves from the state "by any means possible." Wolves have been controversial in Idaho since the federal government reintroduced 15 of the animals in 1995, decades after they had been killed off in the state. Some hunters say the wolves diminish deer and elk populations, while some ranchers say wolves put their livestock at risk. The group launching the initiative, the Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition, is tired of seeing wolves treated better than humans, Ron Gillett, head of the coalition, told The Spokesman-Review. "This is a mechanism for the people of the state of Idaho to show their voice and flex their muscle and get these wolves out of here," said Gillett. The initiative would also shut down the state's Office of Species Conservation....
Key agreement in water wars After 84 years of bickering, the seven states that share the waters of the Colorado River have agreed on ways to share the pain of future droughts. If embraced in Washington, the deal would help Western states avoid costly court battles and economic uncertainties. Colorado would be allowed to continue using its share of the river's waters. The delicately negotiated deal contains important water protections for both the upper basin states - Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah - and the lower basin states of Arizona, Nevada and California. The agreement still faces a long bureaucratic process before it can be implemented, but it represents a giant stride in settling what had been, until last Wednesday, a seemingly unresolvable interstate feud. The deal wouldn't replace the all-important 1922 interstate compact that governs how much Colorado River water each state can use. Instead, it would improve how the river's limited supplies are managed in drought conditions....
Another attempt to delist wolves With an eye toward recent court rulings and Wyoming politics, the federal government is moving once again to delist wolves in the northern Rocky Mountain region. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday an “advance notice” for delisting wolves in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, the eastern third of Washington and Oregon and a small part of north-central Utah. The announcement launches a 60-day public comment period, and a formal delisting proposal could come within weeks or months after that, said Ed Bangs, Fish and Wildlife Service wolf recovery coordinator. Bangs explained that the service’s plan is designed to address issues raised in recent court rulings in Vermont and Oregon. The Oregon ruling determined that the protected status of wolves in the Northern Rockies could not be changed, largely because a reclassification proposal for those wolves applied to a “distinct population segment” stretching across nine western states. “Court rulings from this past year determined that we didn’t do enough analysis and the DPS was too large,” Bangs said. The plan announced Thursday would apply to a much smaller area, with more detailed analysis of suitable habitat and potential threats to wolves, Bangs said....
McCombs' ski development has been focus of lobbying San Antonio billionaire Red McCombs, who wants the U.S. Forest Service to let him build a huge ski village atop a southwestern Colorado mountain pass, lobbied to get the official who oversees the agency appointed. Since then, McCombs and his allies have met repeatedly with the official to discuss the controversial project, records and interviews show. McCombs, a major donor to the University of Texas, and his partner pushed to have Mark Rey, a longtime timber industry lobbyist, appointed undersecretary of agriculture, overseeing the Forest Service. Rey said through a spokeswoman that decisions regarding McCombs' proposed $1 billion development at Colorado's Wolf Creek ski area are being handled by regional Forest Service officials in the state. But documents obtained by The Denver Post show that Rey has met repeatedly with key proponents of McCombs' project, and that Rey's deputy, David Tenny, has kept tabs on it....
Army trains with pack animals in Wyoming Thirty-one soldiers from the Army's 10th Mountain Division spent much of last week in a barn near here, learning the finer points of donkey management. The soldiers plan to pass on their newly acquired skills to soldiers headed to Afghanistan, where pack animals come in handy moving supplies to remote, mountainous areas. The instructors were a group of outdoors and livestock specialists led by Ron Ostrom, a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer in the Shoshone National Forest. Ostrom said the requirements of donkeys and mules in Wyoming aren't much different than in Afghanistan. "You package it up and load it pretty much same way," he said. "In the Forest Service, we use different tools and saws and camping gear, and these guys have got their MREs, water, guns, explosives and their stuff that they need." Friday was the last of five days of training for the soldiers, with Ostrom guiding them into the 7,900-foot McCullough Peaks south of Powell....
Helicopter conflict swirls above Rogue A helicopter company wants permission to fly forest fire training runs inside the federally protected Rogue River canyon near Grants Pass, but river advocates and some recreational groups are lining up against the proposal. Carson Helicopters Inc. of Grants Pass had been training without a permit inside the federally designated Wild and Scenic River corridor for five years without the knowledge of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said Chris Dent, BLM's river manager for the Rogue. "It came to our attention last May, and we asked them to stop and they did," Dent said. "They pleaded ignorance." The BLM oversees the popular recreation area, which hosts more than 100,000 rafters, floaters and fishermen each year, agency statistics show....
Snowmobilers file motion Led by a national recreational advocacy group based out of Pocatello, Idaho, several local snowmobile organizations announced Friday afternoon the filing of a motion to intervene in a lawsuit challenging motorized access to the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. The Top of Utah Snowmobile Association, American Council of Snowmobile Associations and Beaver Creek Lodge, in conjunction with Pocatello-based BlueRibbon Coalition, said through a statement that the motion is intended to defend a Forest Service management direction that divided the Franklin Basin and Tony Grove area among motorized and non-motorized recreationalists last July. A lawsuit against the Forest Service decision, which was made following a “mediation-arbitration” process to settle the winter recreation dispute, was filed by a group of organizations in December. The December lawsuit — filed in U.S. District Court and backed by Nordic United, Bear River Watershed Council, Bridgerland Audubon Society and Winter Wildlands Alliance — accused the Forest Service of, among several things, not completing required environmental studies before the July decision, a stance the group led by BlueRibbon contests. “Extensive environmental analysis was conducted during the Revised Forest Service Plan process,” said Brian Hawthorne, public lands director for the BlueRibbon Coalition. “I’ve got a foot-high stack of environmental documentation sitting on my desk for this process alone. My goodness, how much analysis do we need?”....
Environmental plan hopes to end battles over development It's been about 25 years since a tiny lizard living along sand dunes nearly brought the Coachella Valley economy to a crawl. Now an alliance of planners, builders and local leaders wants to make sure history doesn't repeat itself. Backers of the plan say it will add 34 percent more land to a conservation area that already consists of 534,000 acres. Though it would restrict some development, mostly in the hills surrounding the valley, the plan would still enable the desert's population to nearly triple to 1.1million at build-out in 2066. The $1.8 billion plan would link 75 years of home-building, road construction and business development to habitat preservation for 27 species of Coachella Valley wildlife....
Preservation tied to valley development in sweeping habitat plan To create the proposed plan, scientists identified the 11 protected species in the valley and 16 others that could become threatened in the next 75 years. Planners then mapped out habitat for the 27 species and divided it into 21 conservation areas over 747,400 acres of the 1.1 million-acre planning area. About 534,200 acres are already protected because they are public land or owned by conservation groups. Another 180,000 acres designated for conservation - much of it privately owned, including specific habitat - are home to ecological processes like moving sand or are important for preventing genetic isolation of wildlife. To complete the reserve system, the plan ties preservation to development. It would raise about $1.8 billion over 75 years to purchase land from willing sellers and pay for management and administration. About a quarter of the money would come from a fee on new development. The fee is now set at $5,270 per acre for commercial and industrial projects. The residential fee is based on a sliding scale related to density. It works out to about $1,180 for a new, single-family home....
100 landowners say they’ll back program that protects grouse More than 100 landowners from Glade Park to the northern San Luis Valley have expressed an interest in signing a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances in the last year. The program, which is approaching approval by the Fish and Wildlife Service, would encourage landowners to preserve Gunnison sage grouse habitat to keep the chicken-sized bird from being listed. Under the voluntary program, landowners would sign a 20-year contract with the Colorado Division of Wildlife to protect the grouse. The Division of Wildlife would then write a plan and make recommendations on what parts of the property would remain the same and what improvements should be made. According to Gary Skiba, southwest region conservation biologist with the Division of Wildlife, the 100 interested landowners have offered to put about 100,000 acres into the program....
Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) Named "Wildlife Villain" After a year that saw both the first vote ever to effectively dismantle the Endangered Species Act, and a tremendous conservation victory on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund today named eight members of the House of Representatives and four members of the Senate as 2006 "Wildlife Heroes." The selection of these heroes and the naming of Rep. Richard Pombo as the 2006 "Wildlife Villain" were based largely on the leadership the congressional members played on those two paramount issues. In conjunction with the awards, the Defenders Action Fund released its 2005 Conservation Report Card, which evaluates how well members of Congress protected wildlife and wild lands for future generations. This year's report card includes votes on two of the most important conservation and wildlife issues in decades: a vote to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and a vote for a substitute bill to counter Rep. Pombo's bill to gut the Endangered Species Act. The eight House members receiving the 2006 "Wildlife Hero" awards are: Representatives Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), John Dingell (D-MI), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Ed Markey (D-MA), George Miller (D-CA), Nick Rahall (D-WV), Jim Saxton (R-NJ) and Tom Udall (D-NM). Senate awardees are Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Jim Jeffords (I-VT) and Harry Reid (D-NV)....
Ensign: Deal will keep federal land sale profits in Nevada For the first time in three years, President Bush's budget will not include a plan to funnel millions of dollars in profits from federal land sales around Las Vegas into the federal treasury, Sen. John Ensign said. Ensign, R-Nev., said he has secured a verbal commitment from the Bush administration to keep the proposal out of the 2007 budget as part of a compromise. Nevada's congressional delegation instead wants the money to continue going to recreation and conservation projects across Nevada. "When the president's budget comes out (Monday), it will have no provision in there to go after that money," Ensign told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Under the Southern Nevada Public Management Land Act, profits from the sale of excess Bureau of Land Management property in Clark County are set aside for the public acquisition of sensitive land around Nevada and other specific purposes....
Company: BLM drilling plan 'unfeasible' A Bureau of Land Management plan to allow one well for every 160 acres in the Atlantic Rim area would make development of the natural gas field impractical, the company proposing the project says. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. wants to drill wells every 80 acres, and people who work in the energy industry have joined the company in speaking against the BLM plan. “We believe that is going to render the project technically unfeasible,” Tom Clayson of Anadarko said during a public hearing here Thursday night. Anadarko officials have met with Rawlins business leaders expressing their concern about the 160-acre well spacing and BLM's phased development plans....
Too much too fast? Landowners, environmentalists and western Colorado communities are asking federal land managers to slow the pace of oil and gas lease sales as nearly 168,000 acres of public land are ready to go on the auction block. Some of them are formally protesting leases to be offered Feb. 9 during the Bureau of Land Management's quarterly auction, one of the largest in the past three years. The disputed parcels include 8,500 acres the public has proposed as federal wilderness and more than 16,000 acres in community watersheds. Dave Kearsley, a Grand Junction investment adviser whose land is up for lease, said he doesn't understand why the BLM won't postpone the auction as he and other area residents requested. "We're not going to solve the energy problem overnight, so there's no need to rush," said Kearsley, who owns 50 acres on the Grand Mesa, along Colorado 65 and near the Powderhorn ski area. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., made the same argument last week when he and his brother, Democratic Congressman John Salazar, asked the BLM to delay the sale....
Towns move to protect water from drilling Communities in western Colorado, where energy development is booming, have gained support from the state’s congressional delegation as they try to keep drilling out of areas that supply their drinking water. Palisade and Grand Junction are protesting plans to sell federal oil and gas leases in their watersheds at a Bureau of Land Management auction Thursday. Democrats Sen. Ken Salazar and Rep. John Salazar have asked the bureau to postpone any action so the potential effects on the springs and other water sources can be studied. “We need to take the time to do this the right way,” said John Salazar, whose district includes the two communities. The 10 parcels totaling 16,500 acres on the Grand Mesa include about 70 percent of Palisade’s watershed and are among 167,345 acres the bureau will offer for lease. Most of the land is in western Colorado, where much of the state’s record natural gas production is taking place....
Location, impact of energy corridor remain in question Comments on an effort to designate energy transmission corridors on federal lands throughout Montana and 10 other western states range almost as widely as the terrain they’ll traverse. Not surprisingly, almost half of the 220 written or oral suggestions on what should be looked at in an upcoming study — known as a “Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement” (PEIS) — came from energy producers and distributors. The corridors would be used for oil, gas, and hydrogen pipelines and electricity transmission and distribution facilities. Designating energy corridors is a little-known requirement of the 2005 energy bill signed last August by President Bush. The point of the PEIS is to have the investigation of the impacts of an energy corridor completed so that when a project is proposed in the future, it can be implemented quickly. Four alternatives are being considered, although the actual locations and numbers of the corridors remain in question....
Owens Valley residents battle Los Angeles over water rights The strange daily ritual started after Los Angeles water authorities slapped a chain and a lock on a wheel controlling a diversion gate on Pine Creek -- the lifeblood of a mountain enclave known as 40 Acres. Locals cut the chain and added a lock of their own to keep the gate open. The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power closed the gate once more and installed a heavier chain. Locals used a cutting torch to sever the new chain. Now there are two locks on the chain. Every morning, a group from 40 Acres opens their lock, removes the chain, and turns the wheel to steer water their way. Every afternoon, a Water & Power crew opens its lock to send the water cascading into the Los Angeles Aqueduct system. This has been going on for two years....
Steer garners record stock show bid When bidding at the annual Sale of Champions auction ended Saturday at the Fort Worth stock show, Whitney Holcomb was planning for college, and Cool, her 18-month-old Grand Champion Steer, was headed to the Fort Worth Zoo. Whitney, 16, of Tyler, received a record bid of $160,000 for the steer, money that she said she will use to attend Texas A&M University in two years. The bittersweet backstage farewells, in which teenagers say goodbye to animals destined for the slaughterhouse, were largely absent from this year's auction. The winning bidders, XTO Energy and the Gunsmoke Grill and Saloon, will donate Cool to the Fort Worth Zoo. "I can't wait to come and visit him," Whitney said, "and I know a lot of little kids are going to enjoy seeing him."....
The gun heard 'round the West All gone, all gone, all gone. The gun as family totem, the implied trust between generations, the implicit idea that marksmanship followed by hunting were a way of life to be pursued through the decades, the sense of tradition, respect, self-discipline and bright confidence that Winchester and the American kinship group would march forward to a happy tomorrow -- gone ... if not with the wind, then with the tide of inner-city and nut-case killings that have led America's once-proud and heavily bourgeois gun culture into the wilderness of marginalization. And now Winchester is gone, too, or at least the most interesting parts of it. The traditional company whose symbol was a fringed rider flying across the plains on a pinto, gripping his trusty Model '73, is finally biting the dust. The entity -- now tecBig birds at it againhnically U.S. Repeating Arms, which produces the rifles and shotguns as a licensee of the Olin Corp., which still owns Winchester ammunition -- announced last month that it was closing the plant in New Haven, Conn., where the rifles and shotguns have been fabricated for a century and a half. Some Winchesters will continue to be built overseas, but three guns -- the classic lever-action rifle of western fame, the bolt-action hunting rifle (called the Model 70) and the Model 1300 pump-action shotgun -- will no longer be manufactured....
His spurs are well-earned on the ranch Which is how I ended up at Arizona Cowboy College in Scottsdale one sweltering Sunday in October to begin a six-day course on a working ranch in the Sonoran Desert. The property backs up to the high country of the Tonto National Forest. The McDowell Mountains run jagged across the horizon to the south and all around you are the harsh but beautiful desert flats where the ground is as dry as powder and the landscape dominated by all things prickly, including stately 100-year-old saguaro cactuses and nasty chollas, which are sometimes called jumping chollas because they're said to throw their spiny branches at unsuspecting passersby. When I called Lori Bridwell, whose late husband, Lloyd, founded the cowboy school in 1989, she made sure I knew what I was getting myself into. "This isn't a dude ranch," she said. "There's no luxury involved." No cutesy hay wagons or line-dancing lessons; no morning rides to some pastoral location to eat blueberry pancakes and apple wood-smoked bacon. I'd be sleeping in a dusty bunkhouse with half a dozen other greenhorns, an eclectic group that included a heavy-set sporting goods salesman from Calgary, Canada, and a young fashion reporter from Germany. All of us would be getting up at dawn to spend long days learning to handle, groom, saddle, mount and ride a horse. The only thing Lori would guarantee: We would be sore for days afterward. Rocco Wachman, the head instructor at Cowboy College, was just as blunt: "I'm not the least bit interested in teaching anyone how to play cowboy for a week," he said at 6 o'clock on our first morning. "I'm here to teach you to be a cowboy. Which is demanding, dirty, hard, physical labor. It's also a dying art."....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Pleased to walk in his own boots These are the boots of a salesman, specifically an ag sales rep. And they've taken me a million miles sellin' to people who feed the world. Which makes me part of somethin' good, somethin' bigger than myself. Everybody's good at somethin'; farmers, vets, cowboys, dairymen ... and me? I can sell. I can sell rubber boots to a Bedouin, sunglasses to a mole. I can talk my way up from a C+ to a B-. People buy from people, especially in our business. Which places the obligation on me to deliver what I promise and be there after the sale. My company has to be there for me, too, and it's my duty to ride for the brand....
Sunday, February 05, 2006
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER
The magic of a boy and his horse
by Juliie Carter
With C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the movie, bringing a wonderful old story to a new generation, many of us from prior generations are rediscovering the magical imaginations we formed when we were children.
I know my dad would have found it hard to believe, but there was a time I rode winged horses high over tree tops and brandished a sword to fight off the evil invaders of my kingdom while waiting for a prince to come fight by my side. Although my horses never talked, they did plenty of listening.
Whistle them up
Every morning just after daylight but before the school bus arrives, a boy whistles up the saddle horses and feeds them a token amount of grain.
That simple chore puts a smile on his face and a spring in his step that sets the tone for his day ahead.
Smart old saddle horses know when it's feeding time and who is going to feed them. At the sight of the boy and the sound of his whistle, they'll come in at a high lope, offer up a couple nickers and head tosses, and maybe even an obligatory buck as they dive through the gate to the feed bunk.
Captivating magnetism
There was a time, like in the days that C.S. Lewis carved an entire set of magical stories out of his childhood, when the act of a morning chore tending to horses was the norm, not the exception.
But even Lewis knew the captivating magnetism that is created when a child and horse are put together in a partnership.
His third book in The Chronicles of Narnia series, A Horse and His Boy, has captivated my boy's imagination because he can take the story into his own life and relate to it.
The mythical elements of the story are quickly transposed forward in time and place to a stocking-legged bald-faced sorrel horse with the finely honed ability to beg for grain and look good while doing it.
Most ranch kids get to experience that special relationship with the horses they own while growing up. Long before a horse is simply functional equipment for the business, he is a friend, a confidant, and absolutely the best thing a kid could have.
I don't have the exact equation, but I believe that relationship builds something into the character of the child -- a foundation of love and trust that may just make a difference in his adult world.
No matter where life takes him, those hours, days and years of having that unconditional love from a horse (well okay, unconditional except for the oats) seals something in his heart that no one can take away.
Those evil invaders
And my own personal winged horse? He was one of several very regular ranch horses that I rode during my formative years.
My sword? Read that "willow branch" torn from the nearest tree.
And the evil invaders of my kingdom? Those, of course were my younger brothers. They were so very gullible.
The secret to my kingdom was to always ride faster horses and learn to duck flying objects. Those evil invaders were also not so very forgiving when they found out they had been duped by the princess on the flying horse.
© Julie Carter 2006
Beavers
by Larry Gabriel
"Grandpa, why do beavers build dams?" the grandson wanted to know as they surveyed the handiwork of a family of beavers along the Cheyenne.
"They are just made that way," Grandpa explained. "Some people are like that too. They are just born to build something."
"Do they ever finish?" the boy asked.
"Do you mean the beavers or the people?"
"I mean the people. I know the beavers move when the trees are gone."
"Nope. They never finish. You can move them to a new location or a new profession, but they just keep on building. When they finish one job, they find some new place or thing to build."
"Are there many beavers in South Dakota, Grandpa?"
"Not near as many as there used to be."
"Why is that?"
"People killed them off because they objected to the trees being cut and the creeks being dammed. They thought the beavers were a threat."
"Were the people wrong? What if I don't want my trees cut down or the stream blocked?" the grandson asked.
"That would mean you are not a builder. Not everybody is a builder."
"But, what if the beavers cut down my favorite tree?"
"If you are a builder you will think of a way to protect that tree, or you will remember that trees are a renewable resource, just like corn. We can always plant more of them."
The boy had to think about that for a while. He was not so sure a corn stalk and a tree were comparable.
"Grandpa, what if I just don't like beavers?"
"That would be different. That is a statement about you, not about the value of beavers. For example, if someone does not like you, that is statement about him, not about you.
“Emotional intolerance is a risky thing. Many unwise choices are based upon it.
“Much of the time what we really need is a thing we dislike. Not all medicine tastes good."
Larry Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture.
The magic of a boy and his horse
by Juliie Carter
With C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the movie, bringing a wonderful old story to a new generation, many of us from prior generations are rediscovering the magical imaginations we formed when we were children.
I know my dad would have found it hard to believe, but there was a time I rode winged horses high over tree tops and brandished a sword to fight off the evil invaders of my kingdom while waiting for a prince to come fight by my side. Although my horses never talked, they did plenty of listening.
Whistle them up
Every morning just after daylight but before the school bus arrives, a boy whistles up the saddle horses and feeds them a token amount of grain.
That simple chore puts a smile on his face and a spring in his step that sets the tone for his day ahead.
Smart old saddle horses know when it's feeding time and who is going to feed them. At the sight of the boy and the sound of his whistle, they'll come in at a high lope, offer up a couple nickers and head tosses, and maybe even an obligatory buck as they dive through the gate to the feed bunk.
Captivating magnetism
There was a time, like in the days that C.S. Lewis carved an entire set of magical stories out of his childhood, when the act of a morning chore tending to horses was the norm, not the exception.
But even Lewis knew the captivating magnetism that is created when a child and horse are put together in a partnership.
His third book in The Chronicles of Narnia series, A Horse and His Boy, has captivated my boy's imagination because he can take the story into his own life and relate to it.
The mythical elements of the story are quickly transposed forward in time and place to a stocking-legged bald-faced sorrel horse with the finely honed ability to beg for grain and look good while doing it.
Most ranch kids get to experience that special relationship with the horses they own while growing up. Long before a horse is simply functional equipment for the business, he is a friend, a confidant, and absolutely the best thing a kid could have.
I don't have the exact equation, but I believe that relationship builds something into the character of the child -- a foundation of love and trust that may just make a difference in his adult world.
No matter where life takes him, those hours, days and years of having that unconditional love from a horse (well okay, unconditional except for the oats) seals something in his heart that no one can take away.
Those evil invaders
And my own personal winged horse? He was one of several very regular ranch horses that I rode during my formative years.
My sword? Read that "willow branch" torn from the nearest tree.
And the evil invaders of my kingdom? Those, of course were my younger brothers. They were so very gullible.
The secret to my kingdom was to always ride faster horses and learn to duck flying objects. Those evil invaders were also not so very forgiving when they found out they had been duped by the princess on the flying horse.
© Julie Carter 2006
Beavers
by Larry Gabriel
"Grandpa, why do beavers build dams?" the grandson wanted to know as they surveyed the handiwork of a family of beavers along the Cheyenne.
"They are just made that way," Grandpa explained. "Some people are like that too. They are just born to build something."
"Do they ever finish?" the boy asked.
"Do you mean the beavers or the people?"
"I mean the people. I know the beavers move when the trees are gone."
"Nope. They never finish. You can move them to a new location or a new profession, but they just keep on building. When they finish one job, they find some new place or thing to build."
"Are there many beavers in South Dakota, Grandpa?"
"Not near as many as there used to be."
"Why is that?"
"People killed them off because they objected to the trees being cut and the creeks being dammed. They thought the beavers were a threat."
"Were the people wrong? What if I don't want my trees cut down or the stream blocked?" the grandson asked.
"That would mean you are not a builder. Not everybody is a builder."
"But, what if the beavers cut down my favorite tree?"
"If you are a builder you will think of a way to protect that tree, or you will remember that trees are a renewable resource, just like corn. We can always plant more of them."
The boy had to think about that for a while. He was not so sure a corn stalk and a tree were comparable.
"Grandpa, what if I just don't like beavers?"
"That would be different. That is a statement about you, not about the value of beavers. For example, if someone does not like you, that is statement about him, not about you.
“Emotional intolerance is a risky thing. Many unwise choices are based upon it.
“Much of the time what we really need is a thing we dislike. Not all medicine tastes good."
Larry Gabriel is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture.
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Woodpecker Racket?
Last year’s reported sighting in eastern Arkansas of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, long thought to be extinct, raised the hopes of bird-watchers everywhere. But now a prominent bird expert has cast serious doubt on the report, characterizing it as “faith-based” ornithology and “a disservice to science.” Writing in the ornithology journal The Auk (January 2006), Florida Gulf Coast University ornithologist Jerome A. Jackson criticized the “evidence” put forth to support the conclusion that the Woodpecker wasn’t extinct after all — including a four-second video of an alleged sighting which garnered widespread media attention; several other anecdotal sightings; and acoustic signals purported to be vocalization and raps from the Woodpecker. “While the world rejoiced, my elation turned to disbelief,” wrote Jackson. “I had seen the ‘confirming’ video in the news releases and recognized its poor quality, but I had believed [anyway],” he continued. “Then I saw [a still image] and seriously doubted that this evidence was confirmation of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Even a cursory comparison of this figure with [photographs and illustrations of real Ivory-billed Woodpeckers] shows that the white on the wing of the bird… is too extensive to be that of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker,” Jackson wrote.
Jackson dismissed the other unverified sightings with, “I do not question the sincerity, integrity or passion of these observers [but] we simply cannot know what they saw.” The researchers who claimed to video the Ivory-billed Woodpecker later admitted that the acoustic information “while interesting, does not reach the level we require for proof.” Jackson went on to conclude that, “My opinion is that the bird in the [video] is a normal Pileated Woodpecker… Others have independently come to the same conclusion, and publication of independent analyses may be forthcoming.”....
Global Warming Science, or Policy?
A nasty little spat has arisen as a result of NASA's leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), speaking out on the Bush Administration's reluctance to begin imposing carbon dioxide restrictions to help slow global warming. The first salvo by Hansen was fired on October 26, 2004 when, speaking to an audience at the University of Iowa*, he said, "In my more than three decades in government, I have never seen anything approaching the degree to which information flow from scientists to the public has been screened and controlled as it is now," referring to pressure he apparently has experienced from the Administration. The issue has now surfaced again after a more recent lecture, and Hansen has said he will ignore NASA's restrictions on him. Those restrictions call for coordinating with NASA's public affairs office, and getting management approval for any of his talks that touch on policy, as opposed to science. I have some familiarity with these restrictions on government employees, as they were a major reason I resigned from NASA over four years ago. But back then, the shoe was on the other foot. NASA knew I was not supportive of the popular gloom-and-doom theory of global warming, and before any congressional testimony of mine on the subject, I was "reminded" that I could speak on the science, but not on policy matters. Well, it turns out that expert witnesses on this contentious subject are almost always asked by a senator or congressman, "What would you do about policy if you were me?" When the question came, I dutifully dodged it. I am not sure, but disobeying my superiors would probably have been grounds for dismissal, if they wanted to press the point....
Dim Prospects for Property Rights
This spring the U.S. Senate is expected to consider the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005, a bill passed by the House in September to overcome the abuses of private property caused by the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA). But Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-Rhode Island), chairman of the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water, says he won’t consider the bill until he receives a report from a “working group” set up by Colorado’s Keystone Center to review the ESA. Will the report seek to water down the bill’s reforms? Go here (pdf) to read the full Capital Research Center report.
Dusting Off the Old Energy Policy
No doubt, President George W. Bush struggled to come up with something new on energy policy for his State of the Union address. After all, the massive 1,725 page Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed only six months ago, and its wide-ranging provisions have just begun to be implemented. This energy bill contained a host of federal outlays, tax breaks, subsidies, and other inducements to encourage the development and use of alternative energy technologies and the upgrade of conventional ones. So rather than add something new, the President’s remarks on energy offered more of the same. Unfortunately, this is not a promising approach. Rather than expand government interference in energy markets and pick winners and losers from among emerging technologies, Washington should get out of the way and let market forces work. Streamlining energy regulations and removing federal restrictions on domestic energy production would have been a good place to start and should have been part of the speech. Much of the energy focus in the speech was on America’s growing dependence on oil -- especially oil from unreliable and unfriendly regimes. This is a legitimate concern, though the President‘s "addiction" rhetoric was excessive. The President’s solution is government-led research and development of petroleum alternatives that might one day meet the nation’s transportation needs. The favored technologies include hydrogen fuel cells and cellulosic ethanol. This type of research is nothing new. The federal government has spent billions on these efforts since the 1970s and made little progress. Invariably, the research reveals that these kinds of alternatives have serious problems of their own, such as costs that are often far higher than those of conventional fuels. Even after decades of research and development, commercial viability of alternative fuels remains elusive....
The Deadly Toll of Federal Fuel Regulations
A new study this week from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reinforces what researchers have long known: larger vehicles are safer than smaller ones in the same vehicle category. For passenger cars, SUVs and pickups, the occupant death rate generally was worse in the smaller vehicles within each category. This study, like others before it, indicates that the government’s fuel economy mandates reduce vehicle safety by restricting the production of larger vehicles. Environmentalist demands for more stringent standards would increase traffic deaths even more. “The federal mandate to increase mileage in new cars over the past thirty years has had deadly results,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute General Counsel Sam Kazman. “In order to comply with the government’s fuel economy rules, carmakers have been forced to produce smaller, lighter vehicles. Those lighter cars have translated into tens of thousands of additional traffic deaths.” In 2002 the National Academy of Sciences found that the federal government’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations contribute to between 1,300 and 2,600 additional traffic deaths per year....
Has Bush Gone 'Green' on Energy?
President Bush seems to have gone “green” in his energy policy. His State of the Union address resonated with themes John Kerry argued against him in the 2004 presidential election campaign. What happened to the defense of drilling in the ANWR? Evidently the solution to America’s dependence upon foreign oil is to use more biofuels, adapt our cars to ethanol and invest more in research. Who knows, maybe we will come up with the non-exploding nuclear battery, so we can all forget about the energy crisis once and for all? Has Bush forgotten his roots in the oil industry? The Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy reports that today there are 1.28 trillion barrels of proven oil reserves, more than ever in human history, despite world consumption of oil doubling since the 1970s. Very possibly “peak oil” is just another energy oil hoax. The first reports that we were running out of oil came in the late-1880s when the U.S. Geological Survey began worrying that no more oil would be found in Texas or California. These days, President Bush talking about oil is sounding a lot like Jimmy Carter. On April 18, 1977, in an address televised to the nation, President Carter said that in the 1980’s the world would begin running out of oil. A quarter century later and the EIA still reports we have more oil worldwide than ever. How could that be if we are truly running out? The 2005 federal energy bill allocated approximately $6 billion in federal funds to assist in the development of ethanol plants around the country. But is ethanol really fuel efficient? A recent analysis conducted by David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agriculture at Cornell University, and Tad Patzek, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, came to the conclusion that the production of ethanol burns up more hydrocarbon fuels than it saves. Taking into account the production of pesticides and fertilizers needed to grow the corn in the first place, the running of farm machinery and irrigation, the grounding and transporting corn to the ethanol plant, and the fermentation and distillation of ethanol from the water mix, the two scientists concluded that corn requires the expenditure of 29 percent more hydrocarbon energy than was saved by the resulting ethanol. Maybe that’s why the ethanol industry would most likely collapse if the federal subsidies went away....
Woodpecker Racket?
Last year’s reported sighting in eastern Arkansas of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, long thought to be extinct, raised the hopes of bird-watchers everywhere. But now a prominent bird expert has cast serious doubt on the report, characterizing it as “faith-based” ornithology and “a disservice to science.” Writing in the ornithology journal The Auk (January 2006), Florida Gulf Coast University ornithologist Jerome A. Jackson criticized the “evidence” put forth to support the conclusion that the Woodpecker wasn’t extinct after all — including a four-second video of an alleged sighting which garnered widespread media attention; several other anecdotal sightings; and acoustic signals purported to be vocalization and raps from the Woodpecker. “While the world rejoiced, my elation turned to disbelief,” wrote Jackson. “I had seen the ‘confirming’ video in the news releases and recognized its poor quality, but I had believed [anyway],” he continued. “Then I saw [a still image] and seriously doubted that this evidence was confirmation of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Even a cursory comparison of this figure with [photographs and illustrations of real Ivory-billed Woodpeckers] shows that the white on the wing of the bird… is too extensive to be that of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker,” Jackson wrote.
Jackson dismissed the other unverified sightings with, “I do not question the sincerity, integrity or passion of these observers [but] we simply cannot know what they saw.” The researchers who claimed to video the Ivory-billed Woodpecker later admitted that the acoustic information “while interesting, does not reach the level we require for proof.” Jackson went on to conclude that, “My opinion is that the bird in the [video] is a normal Pileated Woodpecker… Others have independently come to the same conclusion, and publication of independent analyses may be forthcoming.”....
Global Warming Science, or Policy?
A nasty little spat has arisen as a result of NASA's leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), speaking out on the Bush Administration's reluctance to begin imposing carbon dioxide restrictions to help slow global warming. The first salvo by Hansen was fired on October 26, 2004 when, speaking to an audience at the University of Iowa*, he said, "In my more than three decades in government, I have never seen anything approaching the degree to which information flow from scientists to the public has been screened and controlled as it is now," referring to pressure he apparently has experienced from the Administration. The issue has now surfaced again after a more recent lecture, and Hansen has said he will ignore NASA's restrictions on him. Those restrictions call for coordinating with NASA's public affairs office, and getting management approval for any of his talks that touch on policy, as opposed to science. I have some familiarity with these restrictions on government employees, as they were a major reason I resigned from NASA over four years ago. But back then, the shoe was on the other foot. NASA knew I was not supportive of the popular gloom-and-doom theory of global warming, and before any congressional testimony of mine on the subject, I was "reminded" that I could speak on the science, but not on policy matters. Well, it turns out that expert witnesses on this contentious subject are almost always asked by a senator or congressman, "What would you do about policy if you were me?" When the question came, I dutifully dodged it. I am not sure, but disobeying my superiors would probably have been grounds for dismissal, if they wanted to press the point....
Dim Prospects for Property Rights
This spring the U.S. Senate is expected to consider the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005, a bill passed by the House in September to overcome the abuses of private property caused by the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA). But Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-Rhode Island), chairman of the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water, says he won’t consider the bill until he receives a report from a “working group” set up by Colorado’s Keystone Center to review the ESA. Will the report seek to water down the bill’s reforms? Go here (pdf) to read the full Capital Research Center report.
Dusting Off the Old Energy Policy
No doubt, President George W. Bush struggled to come up with something new on energy policy for his State of the Union address. After all, the massive 1,725 page Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed only six months ago, and its wide-ranging provisions have just begun to be implemented. This energy bill contained a host of federal outlays, tax breaks, subsidies, and other inducements to encourage the development and use of alternative energy technologies and the upgrade of conventional ones. So rather than add something new, the President’s remarks on energy offered more of the same. Unfortunately, this is not a promising approach. Rather than expand government interference in energy markets and pick winners and losers from among emerging technologies, Washington should get out of the way and let market forces work. Streamlining energy regulations and removing federal restrictions on domestic energy production would have been a good place to start and should have been part of the speech. Much of the energy focus in the speech was on America’s growing dependence on oil -- especially oil from unreliable and unfriendly regimes. This is a legitimate concern, though the President‘s "addiction" rhetoric was excessive. The President’s solution is government-led research and development of petroleum alternatives that might one day meet the nation’s transportation needs. The favored technologies include hydrogen fuel cells and cellulosic ethanol. This type of research is nothing new. The federal government has spent billions on these efforts since the 1970s and made little progress. Invariably, the research reveals that these kinds of alternatives have serious problems of their own, such as costs that are often far higher than those of conventional fuels. Even after decades of research and development, commercial viability of alternative fuels remains elusive....
The Deadly Toll of Federal Fuel Regulations
A new study this week from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reinforces what researchers have long known: larger vehicles are safer than smaller ones in the same vehicle category. For passenger cars, SUVs and pickups, the occupant death rate generally was worse in the smaller vehicles within each category. This study, like others before it, indicates that the government’s fuel economy mandates reduce vehicle safety by restricting the production of larger vehicles. Environmentalist demands for more stringent standards would increase traffic deaths even more. “The federal mandate to increase mileage in new cars over the past thirty years has had deadly results,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute General Counsel Sam Kazman. “In order to comply with the government’s fuel economy rules, carmakers have been forced to produce smaller, lighter vehicles. Those lighter cars have translated into tens of thousands of additional traffic deaths.” In 2002 the National Academy of Sciences found that the federal government’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations contribute to between 1,300 and 2,600 additional traffic deaths per year....
Has Bush Gone 'Green' on Energy?
President Bush seems to have gone “green” in his energy policy. His State of the Union address resonated with themes John Kerry argued against him in the 2004 presidential election campaign. What happened to the defense of drilling in the ANWR? Evidently the solution to America’s dependence upon foreign oil is to use more biofuels, adapt our cars to ethanol and invest more in research. Who knows, maybe we will come up with the non-exploding nuclear battery, so we can all forget about the energy crisis once and for all? Has Bush forgotten his roots in the oil industry? The Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy reports that today there are 1.28 trillion barrels of proven oil reserves, more than ever in human history, despite world consumption of oil doubling since the 1970s. Very possibly “peak oil” is just another energy oil hoax. The first reports that we were running out of oil came in the late-1880s when the U.S. Geological Survey began worrying that no more oil would be found in Texas or California. These days, President Bush talking about oil is sounding a lot like Jimmy Carter. On April 18, 1977, in an address televised to the nation, President Carter said that in the 1980’s the world would begin running out of oil. A quarter century later and the EIA still reports we have more oil worldwide than ever. How could that be if we are truly running out? The 2005 federal energy bill allocated approximately $6 billion in federal funds to assist in the development of ethanol plants around the country. But is ethanol really fuel efficient? A recent analysis conducted by David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agriculture at Cornell University, and Tad Patzek, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, came to the conclusion that the production of ethanol burns up more hydrocarbon fuels than it saves. Taking into account the production of pesticides and fertilizers needed to grow the corn in the first place, the running of farm machinery and irrigation, the grounding and transporting corn to the ethanol plant, and the fermentation and distillation of ethanol from the water mix, the two scientists concluded that corn requires the expenditure of 29 percent more hydrocarbon energy than was saved by the resulting ethanol. Maybe that’s why the ethanol industry would most likely collapse if the federal subsidies went away....
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