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NSA Builds Security Access Into Windows A careless mistake by Microsoft programmers has shown that special access codes for use by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) have been secretly built into all versions of the Windows operating system. Computer-security specialists have been aware for two years that unusual features are contained inside a standard Windows driver used for security and encryption functions. The driver, called ADVAPI.DLL, enables and controls a range of security functions including the Microsoft Cryptographic API (MS-CAPI). In particular, it authenticates modules signed by Microsoft, letting them run without user intervention. At last year's Crypto 98 conference, British cryptography specialist Nicko van Someren said he had disassembled the driver and found it contained two different keys. One was used by Microsoft to control the cryptographic functions enabled in Windows, in compliance with U.S. export regulations. But the reason for building in a second key, or who owned it, remained a mystery. Now, a North Carolina security company has come up with conclusive evidence the second key belongs to the NSA. Like van Someren, Andrew Fernandes, chief scientist with Cryptonym of Morrisville, North Carolina, had been probing the presence and significance of the two keys. Then he checked the latest Service Pack release for Windows NT4, Service Pack 5. He found Microsoft's developers had failed to remove or "strip" the debugging symbols used to test this software before they released it. Inside the code were the labels for the two keys. One was called "KEY." The other was called "NSAKEY." Fernandes reported his re-discovery of the two CAPI keys, and their secret meaning, to the "Advances in Cryptology, Crypto'99" conference held in Santa Barbara. According to those present at the conference, Windows developers attending the conference did not deny the "NSA" key was built into their software. But they refused to talk about what the key did, or why it had been put there without users' knowledge. According to Fernandes of Cryptonym, the result of having the secret key inside your Windows operating system "is that it is tremendously easier for the NSA to load unauthorized security services on all copies of Microsoft Windows, and once these security services are loaded, they can effectively compromise your entire operating system". The NSA key is contained inside all versions of Windows from Windows 95 OSR2 onward....This article is from 1999, but of interest due to recent headlines....
Gagged librarians break silence on Patriot Act The Librarians, members of Library Connection, a not-for profit cooperative organization for resource sharing across 26 Connecticut library branches sharing a centralized computer, were served with a National Security Letter (NSL) in August of last year as part of the FBI's attempt to attain access to patron's records. The NSL is a little known statute in the Patriot Act that permits law enforcement to obtain records of people not suspected of any wrongdoing and without a court order. As part of the NSL, those served with the document are gagged and prohibited from disclosing that they have even been served. The foursome of Barbara Bailey, Peter Chase, George Christian, and Jan Nocek were automatically gagged from disclosing that they had received the letter, the contents of the letter, and even from discussions surrounding the Patriot Act. The librarians, via the national and Connecticut branches of the ACLU, filed suit challenging the Patriot Act on first amendment grounds. On September 9 of last year, a federal judge lifted the gag order and rejected the government's argument that identifying the plaintiff would pose a threat to national security. Yet the government continued to appeal the case throughout the reauthorization debate, passionately arguing that not a single incident of civil liberties violations by the Patriot Act had occurred. By continuing the appeal, the government effectively silenced any evidence to counter their claims. "This all happened during the reauthorization debate and the government was saying no one's rights were being violated," said George Christian, staff liaison for Library Connection and one of the plaintiffs in the case. As the debate over the reauthorization of the Patriot Act heated up, the librarians and others gagged by the NSL had to watch in silence, intimately aware of dangers they believed were not being exposed. "We could not speak to Congress until after the renewal of the Patriot Act," Said Barbara Bailey, President of Library Connection and one of four plaintiffs in the case....
Invoking Secrets Privilege Becomes a More Popular Legal Tactic by U.S. Facing a wave of litigation challenging its eavesdropping at home and its handling of terror suspects abroad, the Bush administration is increasingly turning to a legal tactic that swiftly torpedoes most lawsuits: the state secrets privilege. In recent weeks alone, officials have used the privilege to win the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a German man who was abducted and held in Afghanistan for five months and to ask the courts to throw out three legal challenges to the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program. But civil liberties groups and some scholars say the privilege claim, in which the government says any discussion of a lawsuit's accusations would endanger national security, has short-circuited judicial scrutiny and public debate of some central controversies of the post-9/11 era. The privilege has been asserted by the Justice Department more frequently under President Bush than under any of his predecessors — in 19 cases, the same number as during the entire eight-year presidency of Ronald Reagan, the previous record holder, according to a count by William G. Weaver, a political scientist at the University of Texas at El Paso. While the privilege, defined by a 1953 Supreme Court ruling, was once used to shield sensitive documents or witnesses from disclosure, it is now often used to try to snuff out lawsuits at their inception, Mr. Weaver and other legal specialists say. "This is a very powerful weapon for the executive branch," said Mr. Weaver, who has a law degree and is a co-author of one of the few scholarly articles examining the privilege. "Once it's asserted, in almost every instance it stops the case cold." Robert M. Chesney, a law professor at Wake Forest University who is studying the recent use of the privilege, said the administration's legal strategy "raises profound legal and policy questions that will be the subject of intense debate for the foreseeable future."....
Big Brother Bush Is Watching, Listening and Buying Info About You So the government spies on innocent Americans, claims it is legal (I guess we're just supposed to take their word for it and trust Uncle George, privacy laws and the Constitution notwithstanding), threatens the press not to report just what it is doing, and blocks any external investigation of its activities. Does this sound like the work of a government in a free society? From a purely practical standpoint, all this collection of personal data (almost all of which is collected on innocent citizens) would not appear to be an effective means of preserving "national security." One of the strongest indictments of the government's intelligence efforts during the run up to the 9/11 attacks was that it was unable to process information that might have tipped off agents to an imminent attack or even led to the capture of some of the would-be hijackers. If the government could not effectively process the information it collected then, how in the world is it supposed to process an immensely greater pool of data? The answer is that collecting information on citizens is not so much a matter of preventing future terrorist attacks as it is about power and control. Just as "power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely," such an expansive database is inherently prone to abuse and, as we have just witnessed with the theft of 26.5 million veterans' personal data, negligence. The truly sad thing is that Americans do not really seem to care that their privacy and liberties are being rapidly eroded. Nearly two-thirds of those polled did not have a problem with the NSA's domestic surveillance program. Perhaps they should ask themselves: Would it be okay for government agents to follow you around all day, taking notes on who you talk to, who you do business with, what you buy, who you socialize with, what you do for fun, what you read? Would it be alright if the government mandated that every American have a microchip with a GPS device implanted under his or her skin so citizens' movements may be tracked at all times? After all, the difference between these scenarios and present government surveillance of citizens is just a matter of degree. Once upon a time, it seemed virtually all encroachments of our wealth and our liberties were done in the name of "the children." Now the state's transgressions are done in the name of "the terrorists." Perhaps 9/11 did change everything after all! Of course, nothing has really changed, only the rhetoric....
U.S. to keep getting data on Europeans U.S. authorities will be able to keep trawling through personal data on passengers flying from Europe, even though the European Union's highest court found problems Tuesday with the accord that made airlines share the information. The court ruling requires EU and U.S. officials to change the legal foundation of the deal before the end of September, but it has no immediate effect on a program that lets U.S. officials see dozens of pieces of information about each passenger - including name, address and credit card details. The judges' ruling did not address whether the 2004 data agreement violated privacy laws, a complaint that spurred strong opposition from many European lawmakers and citizens' rights groups. EU, U.S. and airline officials said they were all but certain the deal could be reworked by the court-imposed Sept. 30 deadline. "I am confident that we will find a solution that will keep the data flowing and the planes flying," said Stewart Baker, an assistant secretary of state at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The agreement gives U.S. authorities the right to 34 pieces of information about each passenger, data sent 15 minutes before departure for the United States. In its ruling on a complaint filed by the European Parliament, the European Court of Justice considered only the legal basis of the pact, and concluded the agreement was illegally adopted....
My husband is on the government's terrorist watch list My husband is not a terrorist. He's not an ex-convict, a felon or on the lam, and if you don't count the occasional Post-it notes or paper clips that come home with him from the office, he's not even a petty thief. But so far, he's had trouble convincing the government of this. Every time he flies, regardless of the airline, he gets flagged when he checks in because he's on our government's terrorist watch list. As it was explained to us the first time it happened, something about his name, Michael Patrick O'Brien, creates the need for an airline manager to clear him. This involves the manager taking a look at my husband and his driver's license and disappearing into the bowels of the airport. We assume this is where the manager accesses a secret computer that somehow confirms my husband is actually just a boringly normal person harboring no nefarious plans. He's tried in vain to fix the problem. As instructed by a voice at the other end of an 800 number provided to him by an airline agent, he downloaded and filled out a government-issued form and attached three notarized forms of identification: his passport, license and voter registration card. Although he was irritated that he had to prove his non-terrorist status instead of the government being required to fix its mistake, he faithfully mailed his application for innocence and waited for notice of freedom to arrive. Surprisingly, a response came within a couple of weeks. The Transportation Security Administration sent him a letter that could only have been written by a government lawyer. A sentence reads, "Where it has been determined that a correction to records is warranted, these records have been modified to address any delay or denial of boarding that you may have experienced as a result of the watch list screening process." My husband read the sentence eight times and arrived at the following conclusion: Thanks to the "is warranted" part of that sentence, the problem wasn't necessarily fixed. He was right....
Gonzales Said He Would Quit in Raid Dispute Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, and senior officials and career prosecutors at the Justice Department told associates this week that they were prepared to quit if the White House directed them to relinquish evidence seized in a bitterly disputed search of a House member's office, government officials said Friday. Mr. Gonzales was joined in raising the possibility of resignation by the deputy attorney general, Paul J. McNulty, the officials said. Mr. Gonzales and Mr. McNulty told associates that they had an obligation to protect evidence in a criminal case and would be unwilling to carry out any White House order to return the material to Congress. The evidence was seized by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents last Saturday night in a search of the office of Representative William J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana. The search set off an uproar of protest by House leaders in both parties, who said the intrusion by an executive branch agency into a Congressional office violated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine. They demanded that the Justice Department return the evidence....
Hastert slammed for raid reaction Conservatives yesterday expressed confusion and outrage over House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's defense of a Democratic congressman whose Capitol Hill office was raided last weekend by the FBI. "Only thing I can figure is that Denny got up one morning and said, 'Our approval with the public is at 27 percent -- how can I drive that down further?' " said former Rep. Bob Barr, Georgia Republican. House Republicans, meanwhile, refused to criticize their leader, who joined Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in accusing the Justice Department of violating "protocols and procedures" because of the FBI's Saturday night seizure of records from the offices Rep. William J. Jefferson, Louisiana Democrat. Radio host Rush Limbaugh yesterday told his millions of listeners that the Hastert-Pelosi alliance shows the GOP has become "politically tone-deaf," while a Louisiana senator was the only elected Republican in Washington to criticize the defense of congressional privilege by Mr. Hastert, Illinois Republican. "For congressional leaders to react by trying to ban or limit searches of congressional offices will only destroy what little faith and confidence in the institution is left," said Sen. David Vitter, Louisiana Republican. "Make no mistake, the American people will come to one conclusion, that congressional leaders are trying to protect their own from valid investigation." Veteran conservative activist Richard Viguerie said Mr. Hastert "is clueless -- he just doesn't get it, doesn't understand he has to make changes, the same in the Senate."....
To Ease Standoff, Bush Seals Seized Files President Bush intervened directly Thursday in an increasingly tense constitutional fight between Congress and the Justice Department by ordering that records seized from a Congressional office over the weekend be sealed for 45 days. "Our government has not faced such a dilemma in more than two centuries," Mr. Bush said in his first statement on the swirl of events surrounding the Federal Bureau of Investigation's search of the office of Representative William J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana, who has been accused of accepting bribes. "Yet after days of discussions, it is clear these differences will require more time to be worked out." The president said that the material in question would be turned over for 45 days to the solicitor general, the Justice Department official who represents the government before the Supreme Court. That step would allow the Justice Department to say that it had not given up material regarded by prosecutors as lawfully obtained evidence needed for a criminal case. The presidential intervention came as Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, normally the administration's champion on Capitol Hill, suggested that the Justice Department had tried to intimidate him through a news leak because of his challenge of the agency's authority to conduct the search. In one interview, the normally reticent speaker, an Illinois Republican, portrayed a report broadcast by ABC News on Wednesday evening as calculated retaliation and said that he had demanded a retraction. The Justice Department issued firm denials of the ABC report, which was attributed to anonymous federal sources and said Mr. Hastert was part of the inquiry into the activities of the convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff....
House Plans to Call Gonzales to Justify Search of Office The House intends to summon Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, before the Judiciary Committee to justify its search of a Congressional office, the panel chairman said Tuesday. The chairman, Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Republican of Wisconsin, called the search "profoundly disturbing." Mr. Sensenbrenner also said he planned a legislative response to the search on May 20 of the office of Representative William J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana. The bill would be patterned on a law limiting searches of news media offices. "I think this law will help the Justice Department get it right next time because they didn't get it right this time," Mr. Sensenbrenner said as his committee heard from legal experts and a former lawmaker. All four witnesses, appearing Tuesday at an unusual hearing held in a Congressional recess, described the search as a damaging breach of the constitutional separation of powers. They said it warranted an aggressive reaction from Congress, including subpoenaing material from Mr. Gonzales if necessary. "This latest use of a search warrant by the executive branch to rummage through the files of a member's office is simply an additional instrument of the Bush administration to cow Congress," Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer, said at the hearing. The comments by Mr. Sensenbrenner and other panel members indicate that leading House members are not pulling back from confronting the Justice Department. They came despite President Bush's decision to seal materials seized from Mr. Jefferson's office for 45 days so the two sides can work out their differences and despite criticism from some quarters that lawmakers are impeding a criminal case....
States Setting Up Homeland Security Panel Seeking a bigger say in homeland security decisions, the nation's governors are creating a new, 50-state panel to give the states a single voice on national plans to prepare for threats from terrorists and natural disasters. The Homeland Security Advisors Council will aim to resolve problems between the federal and state governments that predate the 2002 creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, from intelligence to funding to sharing National Guard resources. "If we speak with one unified voice, it'll help," said Michael Campion, Minnesota's public safety commissioner and the top aide to Gov. Tim Pawlenty on homeland security. "Absent that, we're not going to do anything. We're a voice in the wilderness." The council will work through the National Governors Association, with each governor appointing a top security official, the governors' group expected to announce Thursday. The council plans to meet at least twice a year to share best practices and improve interstate communications. The formation of the council comes a month after a survey of state homeland security directors found widespread dissatisfaction with the way the federal government works with states....
Border Patrol Draws Scrutiny as Its Role Grows With a proposed major expansion, the Border Patrol may soon overtake the F.B.I. as the largest federal law enforcement agency. But the stepped-up mission comes as the Border Patrol wrestles with recruitment and training difficulties, and several agents face accusations of misconduct. In response to concerns, the inspector general's office of the Homeland Security Department, which oversees the Border Patrol, said it would audit the agency's recruitment, hiring and training practices to determine if it can handle the rapid expansion. A spokeswoman, Tamara Faulkner, said the review could begin this month. David V. Aguilar, the chief of the Border Patrol, told Congress last week that the extraordinary growth was vital to national security, particularly as the authorities seek to clamp down on illegal crossings along the Mexican border. The agency has swelled to more than 11,000 agents from 4,000 15 years ago, with 6,000 more proposed by President Bush by 2008 as a cornerstone of his immigration overhaul. "The nexus between our post-Sept. 11 mission and our traditional role is clear," Chief Aguilar said. "Terrorists and violent criminals may exploit smuggling routes used by migrants to enter the United States illegally and do us harm." But as the Border Patrol seeks more agents, its training academy in Artesia, N.M., needs expansion, and some watchdog groups question its ability to prepare so many new agents in so little time. As a temporary measure, thousands of National Guard troops will soon be dispatched here in Arizona and elsewhere along the 2,000-mile border to assist with logistics and support work....
U.S. Will Help New York City Pursue Cases Against Gun Dealers Casework supporting the city's federal lawsuit against 15 gun dealers in five states will be funneled to federal law enforcement agents around the country for possible criminal investigations and prosecutions, officials said yesterday. The New York office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will collect and evaluate the evidence on illegal purchases of guns that has been gathered by the Bloomberg administration and send it to offices with jurisdiction over those dealers, officials said. In all, five federal judicial districts could wind up pursuing criminal cases, since the city conducted its two-month sting in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia. The city used federal trace data to pinpoint shops that sold guns used in city crimes and then videotaped undercover operatives making what are known as straw purchases, in which a person buys a gun meant for someone else. The city's stepping into an arena traditionally dominated by federal law enforcement sent ripples through criminal justice circles, but hewed closely to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's pledge to reduce gun trafficking and focus national attention on the issue. He has invited other mayors to Gracie Mansion and lobbied Congress against federal restrictions on trace data. The mayor has also directly criticized the A.T.F., saying that the agency has been "asleep at the switch" in policing gun sales. The new arrangement with the A.T.F. was struck after William G. McMahon, the special agent in charge of the agency's New York field division, met Tuesday with John Feinblatt, the city's criminal justice coordinator. "An agreement was reached where the city would work closely with A.T.F.," Mr. McMahon said, "and provide us with the information gathered."....
'Deadly force' defense gains support A campaign by gun rights advocates to make it easier to use deadly force in self-defense is rapidly winning support across the country, as state after state makes it legal for people who think their lives are in danger to shoot down an attacker, whether in a carjacking or on the street. The law has spurred debate about whether allowing deadly force protects against lawlessness or spurs more crime. Supporters say it is an unambiguous answer to random violence, while critics -- including police chiefs and prosecutors -- warn that criminals are more likely to benefit than innocent victims. Ten states this year have passed versions of the law. Florida last year became the first state to do so. Supporters have dubbed the measures "stand your ground" laws, while critics have offered nicknames such as "shoot first," "shoot the Avon lady" or "right to commit murder" laws. The laws broaden self-defense by removing the requirement in most states that a person who is attacked has a "duty to retreat" before turning to deadly force. Many of the laws specify that people can use deadly force if they think they are in danger in any place they have a legal right to be -- a parking lot, a street, a bar, a church. They also give immunity from criminal charges and civil liability. The campaign is simply about self-defense, said Oklahoma state Rep. Kevin Calvey, a Republican and author of the law in his state. "Law-abiding citizens aren't going to take it anymore," he said....

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER

Cats and rats a country-style crisis

By Julie Carter

County folks have different crises than city folk. We don't fret much over ballet recitals, front row seats at the symphony, or trying to keep track of opera glasses.

Fine wine in crystal glasses rarely breaches the barriers of the beer and burp set.

With fair regularity, one of the crises dealt with in rural America is the lazy cat/fat rat problem.

There is something wrong when the weekly trip to the grocery store includes another round of cat food and additional rat bait for the barn.

Two recent stories from two different states tell me this is not a problem unique to any one region.

Her morning started quite peaceful. Just as she was about to pour her first cup of coffee, the pound cat -- called such because of his origin -- came through the open patio door with a prize for her.

Completely indoctrinated to the plan that food comes in a can, but country cat enough to be self-sufficient, he seemed to be supplementing his breakfast with a rat.

The pound cat also seemed to think he needed to eat this rat in the kitchen where everyone else eats. The mega-rat was in the walking-wounded category having survived the play-torture phase common to cats who catch rats.

When the cat put the rat down, the little woman grabbed a dish towel and made a mad dash for the rat, surprising even herself with her circumstantial speed.

About the time she had the rat captured in the towel, her resident cowboy appeared and said he needed to talk to her. She was already in rapid motion toward the door and didn't slow down at the sound of his voice.

This caused a loud "STOP!" command from the cowboy and she froze instantly in place while the dog ran to hide under the bed.

Calmly the cowboy told her his earthshaking can't-wait-another-second message, "Don't put the roping cattle out today. I want to look at them."

She showed him her rat which was actively objecting to being wrapped in a dish towel. He was unimpressed and left to start his day. Shrugging she thought, "This day has nowhere to go but up."

Throwing the rat out, she gave the dish towel a decent burial, washed her hands a dozen times, mopped the floor and hoped the coffee Juan Valdez was promising would make things look a little brighter. Maybe the dog would even come out from under the bed soon.

The other story involves five fat lazy cats living on the porch, two more with babies in the store room and four "even stupider dogs."

Much to this gal's surprise, she sees a fat healthy rat on the outside window sill. Looking around, she sees all the resident cats are asleep on the porch. She gathers up an armload of them and takes them to the rat. They look, stretch and purr. She even holds one up to the rat with the only response a swish of the cat's tail and a purr.

So with broom in hand, she swats the rat off the sill and he runs behind a big flower pot. The cats seem amused but never move. The rat runs up the wall and under the eaves. One more broom bat and it's down again. The cats don't move.

However, the "ranch security" dogs arrive to save the day. They run the cats back to their perches and a huge cat and dog fight ensues. This makes the broom again a handy item to swat cats and beat the dogs off the cats.

The rat is still on the eaves. Another broom swish brings it down and it makes yet another dash to the flower pot. The dogs chase after it and the flower pot goes flying sending potting soil everywhere.

The dogs chase, toss and play with the rat until someone takes pity on it. The dogs have had a grand time while the cats continued to sun themselves, lick their fur and give an occasional glance at the dogs.

And then there is the serial killer ranch cat. He kills not for food but for attention as he stacks his kill at the door for his mistress's approval.

Both heroines agree their cat food bill is about to take a serious drop.

© Julie Carter 2006

Received via email:

After having dug to a depth of 1,000 meters last year, French scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 1,000 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors had a telephone network all those centuries ago.

Not to be outdone by the French, English scientists dug to a depth of 2,000 meters and shortly after headlines in the U. K. Newspapers read: "English archaeologists have found traces of 2,000-year-old fiber-optic Cable and have concluded that their ancestors had an advanced high-tech digital communications network a thousand years earlier than the French."

One week later, Israeli Newspapers reported the following:

"After digging as deep as 5,000 meters in a Jerusalem marketplace, scientists had found absolutely nothing. They, therefore, concluded that, 5,000 years ago, Jews were already using wireless technology."

Finally, go here for a funny video critique of the Al Gore global warming movie.

OPINION/COMMENTARY

Does Manure Make a Farm a Superfund Site?

Environmental activists are teaming up with state attorneys general and trial lawyers to bankrupt the nation’s livestock farmers – in the name of saving the environment. If the situation wasn’t so serious, it would be hilarious. The activists – including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Union of Concerned Scientists – are trying to convince Congress that the nation’s farms should be treated as industrial waste sites and therefore subject to severe penalties under the federal Superfund law. Some state attorneys general, supported by trial lawyers, have filed lawsuits toward the same end. Why? Because, they argue, animal manure is a hazardous substance. They are now demanding that Congress refuse to clarify that the Superfund law was never intended to apply to natural animal waste. They are claiming – falsely – that without Superfund, animal waste would be unregulated. The fact is that manure already is heavily regulated under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and other federal and state regulations. They are claiming – falsely – that small family farms won’t be affected. The reality is that under Superfund, huge penalties can be levied against small operations and even individuals. Tens of thousands of small family farmers could be affected....

State Global Warming Laws - How Foundation Grants Affect Climate Policy

Summary: “If the feds won’t act, make the states do it!” That’s the environmental movement’s latest demand. During the last decade green groups have repeatedly failed to win support from Congress and the White House for national and international controls on greenhouse gas emissions. But the activists won’t give up and they are now playing politics in state capitals. Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute puts it succinctly: Global warming alarmists want to pass “50 mini-Kyotos.” What is less well-understood is the role private philanthropy plays in promoting state government climate change regulation. When states pass emissions laws mandating compliance from individuals and industry, who would suspect that private foundations are behind the effort?....go here(pdf) for the full report.

Judge Keeps PETA Animal Killers On A Tight Leash

On Wednesday afternoon in a North Carolina courtroom, defense lawyers for two animal-cruelty defendants asked a judge to dismiss dozens of criminal charges. The judge was unimpressed. The defendants, former -- or perhaps still -- employees of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), stand accused of killing adoptable dogs and cats in the back of a van in 2005 and discarding their bodies in a trash dumpster. While the saga continues to drag on without a firm trial date, it's now settled that defendants Adria Hinkle and Andrew Cook will indeed face felony charges that carry lengthy jail sentences. In Greenville, WNCT-TV's Laila Muhammad reported that the detective who arrested Hinkle and Cook testified that in addition to dead animals, a search of the PETA van turned up "a digital camera with pictures of living and dead animals and vials of substances later determined to be drugs used to euthanize animals." In addition to felony-level cruelty to animals charges, these two "people for the ethical treatment of animals" are charged with obtaining property by false pretenses. According to an employee of a North Carolina veterinarian, Hinkle and Cook promised to find suitable homes for three kittens, but killed them just hours later without even bringing them back to PETA's Virginia headquarters....

Nature Magazine Provides Latest "Inconvenient Truth" for Globetrotter Al Gore

Al Gore continues to be the comedic gift that keeps on giving. First, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) revealed on May 24, 2006, that Gore has used enough hydrocarbons to circle the globe to present over 1,000 Power Point presentations on climate change. CEI also revealed that he recently used five large SUVs to haul his movie entourage a mere 500 yards at the Cannes Film Festival in France, all the while admonishing others to curtail their own energy use. Gore's "Saturday Night Live" appearance can't top that kind of comedy. On the heels of these embarrassing revelations, Nature magazine now obliterates the core assertion of Gore's new movie and globetrotting global warming crusade -- that climate change is an unnatural and irrevocable phenomenon. In Nature magazine's June 1, 2006, issue, scientists demonstrate in three new studies that the area near the North Pole was a balmy 74 degrees Fahrenheit 55 million years ago. That was obviously long before the invention of the wheel, let alone the advent of hydrocarbon scares or the internal-combustion engine (which Gore has called to completely eliminate). So much for Gore's assertion that climate change is "irrevocable." Using cutting-edge technology, the scientists removed core samples from beneath the Arctic Ocean to examine the physical evidence and establish their findings. According to Mark Pagani, a Yale University geology professor and co-author of one of the three studies discussed by Nature, the area surrounding the North Pole was once similar to Florida's present-day topography: "[i]magine a world where there are dense sequoia trees and cypress trees like in Florida that ring the Arctic Ocean." These studies reconfirm the fact that the earth experienced an extended period of natural global warming millions of years ago, caused by an unexplained increase in carbon dioxide levels....

Better Fuel Economy Can Be Hazardous To Health

The drive to raise the federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard is among the most foolish policies proposed in the name of national security. Raising CAFE standards would be unlikely to reduce American's dependence on foreign oil, but it would likely cause public harm. Since 1974, domestic new car fuel economy has increased 114 percent, and light truck fuel economy has increased 56 percent. At the same time, the share of imported oil has risen from 35 percent of the oil consumed in the United States to nearly 60 percent. Improved fuel economy makes it less expensive to drive. When driving becomes cheaper, almost everyone does more of it. Indeed, people drive more than twice as many miles today than in 1974. Worse, the steps needed to improve fuel economy have historically had tragic consequences. Improving fuel economy is primarily achieved by reducing the size and power of vehicles. Downsizing comes at a cost to safety. As consumer advocate Ralph Nader stated in 1989, "larger cars are safer." Researchers at Harvard University and the Brookings Institution found that, on average, for every 100 pounds shaved off new cars to meet CAFE standards, between 440 and 780 additional people were killed in auto accidents - or a total of 2,200 to 3,900 lives lost per model year. And using data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Traffic Safety, USA Today calculated that size and weight reductions undertaken to meet current CAFE standards had resulted in more than 46,000 deaths....

Fables of Federal Regulation

You've heard the story. Industrialization and economic growth laid waste to the American environment through much of the twentieth century. Common law-based environmental protections were ineffective, and state and local governments were unable or unwilling to address environmental concerns. As a result, environmental quality was in continuous decline until comprehensive federal legislation was adopted in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The infamous 1969 Cuyahoga River fire and the massive oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara focused public attention on the nation's environmental plight and helped spur the passage of needed federal environmental laws. This is the conventional account of the origins of federal environmental law. It is a story often told to explain how the nation moved from a mix of property-based, common law rules and state and local regulations to a sprawling federal regulatory apparatus. But it is wrong. The conventional narrative of the origins of federal regulation is a fable. Contrary to common perceptions, many measures of environmental quality were already improving prior to the advent of federal environmental laws. The Environmental Protection Agency's first national water quality inventory, conducted in 1973, found that there had been substantial improvement in water quality in major waterways during the decade before adoption of the federal Clean Water Act, at least for the pollutants of greatest concern at the time, organic waste and bacteria (Freeman 1990, 114). Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, state and local governments began to recognize the importance of environmental quality and adopted first-generation environmental controls. Some states' efforts were more comprehensive and more successful than others, and different states had different priorities. Environmental protection did not always trump health care, education, or other local concerns. Nonetheless, by 1966, every state had adopted water pollution legislation of some sort. A similar pattern of state and local action preceded federal regulation in other areas as well....

NEWS ROUNDUP

The bureau of "nature conservancy" One of TNC's most recent actions as a bureau has been the signing of an agreement with the Southwestern Region of the USDA Forest Service by their Arizona and New Mexico Chapters. TNC will also be working with the Bureau of Land Management. It is reported that TNC was hired through a "no bid" contract to do GIS mapping. The question was raised as to why the Forest Service and BLM did not contact the United States Geological Survey to do this work, but no one has given an answer. TNC will compile a vegetation database for Region 3 National Forests. Opponents to TNC doing this work say this agreement will: "... determine the desired future conditions, develop its own new standards for data interpretation, interpret old and new data by these new self-created standards, establish hypotheses, and evaluate them under the adaptive management and monitoring system." This will mean that TNC intends to make up their own rules as they go along, and they will be training Forest Service employees. Opponents are speaking out loud and clear that they believe: "... the next 20 or more years of Forest policy will be founded on the work of an immensely wealthy private corporation (the world's largest private landowner) with its own selfish agendas, minimal, if any, financial transparency, a checkered reputation, and minimal, if any, public accountability." Legislators tried to get the contract pulled by the appropriations committee, but couldn't get the job done. There are concerns that access to this information could be readily available, and could be used against farmers and ranchers....
Treasury Nominee Is Ideologically, Ethically Challenged The Senate should reject President Bush’s nomination of Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson for Treasury secretary. Under Paulson’s leadership, Goldman Sachs participated in ethically, and perhaps legally, questionable business practices. Paulson also supports the economy-killing Kyoto Protocol and has demonstrated little respect for private property rights. On the ethical front, Paulson has refused to answer questions about his apparent use of Goldman Sachs’ corporate assets to advance his personal interests. In 2002, Paulson used at least $35 million of shareholder money to help environmental groups stop a “sustainable forestry” project in Tierra del Fuego, Chile. Environmental groups had delayed the project for years—to the point where financial stress on the project developer became acute and forced the sale of the land. Goldman swept in and bought the land, promptly turning it over to Paulson’s environmental allies. The environmental groups involved in the transaction included The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the actual recipient of the land donation from Goldman Sachs. At the time of the transaction, Paulson was a member of the board of directors of TNC—after the transaction he was elevated to chairman. Paulson’s son is now listed on tax returns as a “trustee” of WCS’....
Bush's pick to head Treasury Department is conservationist as well as financier Much vaunted as chair of the investment firm Goldman Sachs since 1999, Paulson is less known for his role at The Nature Conservancy, the world's largest conservation organization. He joined the group's board of directors in 2001 and now serves as board chair. TNC President and CEO Steve McCormick hails Paulson as "a voice for environmental issues at the highest levels of business and government. His mark on the conservancy is indelible. He has helped us think big -- very big -- about our conservation ambitions." He's put this view into action at Goldman Sachs. In 2004, under Paulson's watch, Goldman donated 680,000 acres of wilderness in southern Chile to the Wildlife Conservation Society, to the consternation of a few shareholders. Paulson also worked with environmental groups including the World Resources Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council to develop a comprehensive environmental policy framework [PDF] for Goldman Sachs, unveiled last November. "It's certainly one of the most far-reaching that has been developed among leading companies," said WRI Senior Associate Jon Sohn. He said the policy statement broke ground by essentially calling for mandatory government limits on greenhouse-gas emissions and by saying the company would encourage its clients to adhere to high environmental standards. Paulson also gives big to green causes. He and his wife Wendy, a former TNC board member who leads bird walks in New York City's Central Park, this spring donated $100 million of their Goldman stock to an environmentally focused family foundation. In the 2002 and 2004 election cycles, they donated $608,000 to the League of Conservation Voters, which works to elect candidates with strong environmental records, according to the Center for Public Integrity. Paulson's remaining net worth is estimated at more than $700 million, and according to The New York Times, he's privately expressed plans to give that wealth away. Though reportedly a Republican -- he raised at least $100,000 for Bush's 2004 reelection campaign -- Paulson is at odds with many in the GOP over climate change. He sees it as a serious problem that can't be adequately addressed with voluntary measures, and he's committed Goldman Sachs to making a 7 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions from its offices by 2012....
Bush's Treasury nominee brings new views on environment to U.S.administration Henry Paulson probably will find the tightrope he will walk as President George W. Bush's Treasury secretary will span a wider gulf than the one between his current twin jobs as chairman of Goldman Sachs and The Nature Conservancy. Both Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street powerhouse, and the world's richest environmental group consider global warming a dire threat that requires government-mandated reductions in carbon dioxide and other gases that trap heat in the atmosphere like a greenhouse. Bush does not. Steve McCormick, president of The Nature Conservancy, said Paulson will not shy from sharing his views on global warming in Bush's Cabinet. "He is unhesitant in expressing his opinion when he thinks it's the right thing to do,'' McCormick said. ''I'm sure that if there's an opportunity for Hank to provide his point of view on this issue, he will take advantage of it.'' Environmentalists normally critical of Bush believe they may have an advocate with access to the president's ear. ''It isn't every day that the Sierra Club finds itself welcoming a nomination to George W. Bush's Cabinet while ultraconservatives decry the move,'' said Carl Pope, the Sierra Club's executive director....
Army Builders Accept Blame Over Flooding In a sweeping new study of the causes of the disaster in New Orleans last year, the Army Corps of Engineers concludes that the levees it built in the city were an incomplete patchwork of protection, containing flaws in design and construction and not built to handle a storm anywhere near the strength of Hurricane Katrina. "The hurricane protection system in New Orleans and southeast Louisiana was a system in name only," said the draft of the nine-volume report, released yesterday in New Orleans. Several outside engineering panels that have been critical of the corps have come to similar conclusions, and have found a more extensive chain of flaws in the design, construction and maintenance of the 350-mile levee system. But the 6,113-page report is remarkable for being a product of the corps' own official investigation, which brought together 150 experts from government, academia and business to study what went wrong and how to build better systems for the future. The region's network of levees, floodwalls, pumps and gates lacked any built-in resilience that would have allowed the system to remain standing and provide protection even if water flowed over the tops of levees and floodwalls, the report's investigators found. Flaws in the levee design that allowed breaches in the city's drainage canals were not foreseen, and those floodwalls failed even though the storm waters did not rise above the level that the walls were designed to hold....
Column: Investigation into Wolf Creek project warranted I fully support Sen. Ken Salazar and Congressman John Salazar in their call for an investigation into whether insider politics unduly influenced the recent U.S. Forest Service approval of the controversial proposed Village at Wolf Creek in Mineral County. As a result of the serious allegations that political influence may have been "improperly or illegally exerted" in the approval process, I concur with Ken Salazar that further action on the application should be suspended until the internal investigation has been completed. Just in the past few days, Sen. Salazar's concerns have gained traction with the announcement by the inspector general of the federal agency overseeing the approvals that she was evaluating the allegations. No one is pre-judging the outcome; it simply seems prudent to investigate the facts that first came to light when a former high-ranking Forest Service employee, Ed Ryberg, alleged that political influence may have tainted the process and may have improperly benefited the project's owners, which include Texas developer "Red" McCombs....
A fine-feathered fest In 1824, when Jim Bridger made his way down the Bear River to the mouth of the Great Salt Lake in a buffalo-hide canoe, he reported that he had seen "millions of ducks and geese." When John C. Fremont visited the Bear River delta in 1843, he, too, was awestruck by the numbers of birds he found. "The waterfowl made this morning a noise like thunder," he wrote in his report. "The whole morass was animated with multitudes of waterfowl." In 1849, Capt. Howard Stansbury also commented upon the "the immense flocks of wild geese and ducks" and added that "I had seen large flocks of these birds before, in various parts of our country, and especially upon the Potomac, but never did I behold anything like the immense numbers here congregated together. Thousands of acres, as far as the eye could reach, seemed literally covered with them, presenting a scene of busy, animated cheerfulness, in most graceful contrast with the dreary, silent solitude by which we were immediately surrounded." But as settlers began moving into the area, they began diverting water from the Bear River for use in settlements upstream. By the turn of the 20th century the marshy lands of the river's delta had begun to dry up, and the flocks of birds began to diminish. Some visionary local citizens were not alone in worrying about this trend. Concern about lost habitat and endangered species was also reaching the highest levels of government. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt, afraid that a national fad for feathers in hats would wipe out native birds such as the great egret, set aside Florida's 3-acre Pelican Island as a protected place where birds could live undisturbed by humans. The National Wildlife Refuge System was born, and quickly added to with the establishment of other refuges. Meanwhile, back on the Bear River, outbreaks of avian botulism were decimating already reduced populations of waterfowl, and the public outcry for action was growing....
Judge weighs hold on delisting of owl A federal judge is considering a request from environmentalists to put a hold on removing the endangered pygmy owl from the endangered species list. The bird's Sonoran Desert habitat is in imminent danger from several developments, attorney Michael Senatore said Thursday, citing a declaration outlining a half-dozen projects totaling at least 1,200 homes on 4,300 acres. The projects had been undergoing federal environmental reviews until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided in mid-April to take the bird off the endangered list. Then the reviews were terminated, leaving the developers free to build once they get federal and local building permits. The Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity used these same projects in mid-May in an unsuccessful effort to get a brief, temporary restraining order halting the delisting that would have lasted a few weeks. On Thursday, however, the groups were seeking a longer-term injunction blocking the delisting until a federal judge can make a final ruling on the entire case — which could take six months. .S. District Judge Susan Bolton took the case under advisement after attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department and home-builder groups took turns finding fault with the environmentalists' arguments. They said these and other threats alleged by environmentalists were speculative and that the vast majority of pygmy-owl habitat is already protected because it lies in national monuments, national wildlife refuges or Indian reservations — not private land....
Editorial: Government isn’t nature’s best friend Endangered species watchers wanting a glimpse of the wily and rare Devil’s Hole pupfish can now find a few of them in an unlikely place — the Shark Reef aquarium at The Mandalay Bay Casino on the Las Vegas strip. The diminutive pupfish probably can’t hold a candle to the strip’s other attractions; the lions at the MGM Grand, the pirate ship at Treasure Island or the dancing fountains at Bellagio. But that’s not the reason for the change of habitat. Two male and two female pupfish, which normally inhabit a pool in remote Death Valley, have been moved to the casino as an insurance policy against their possible disappearance in the wild. Five fingerling pupfish also have been moved to an aquarium in Arizona with the hope of preserving the species. That leaves only 37 adult pupfish living in Death Valley. Isn’t it a little risky putting pupfish in Shark Reef? Not much more risky than entrusting them to the care of bumbling federal wildlife bureaucrats, who pushed the species closer to the brink in 2004 when improperly stored fish traps, being used by researchers to count the pupfish, were washed into Devil’s Hole by a flash flood. A third of the pupfish died in the traps. No mention of the debacle was made in news accounts of the pupfish’s relocation we read last week. But now you know the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say....
Aquifer level not only gauge for water limits Even though recent rains have raised the Edwards Aquifer level in a key San Antonio index well, watering restrictions still hang over the city's head. The index well level is just one of three key measurements that can trigger drought restrictions. Aquifer managers also look at how much water is flowing from the aquifer into San Marcos and Comal Springs, where an endangered species of fish lives. And despite the recent rains, one of those yardsticks, the average daily water flow into the San Marcos Springs, is not doing so well. Wednesday, the average daily flows at San Marcos fell to 108 cubic feet per second. The rules of the Edwards Aquifer Authority, which regulates pumping from the huge natural underground reservoir, call for water use cutbacks to begin when the running five-day average flow at San Marcos falls below 110 cfs. The five-day average through Wednesday was 111 cfs, putting it very close to triggering the restrictions....
11-foot crocodile captured in Miami-Dade Veteran trapper Todd Hardwick said it was the biggest crocodile he had seen in urban Miami-Dade County in his 20-year crocodile-catching career. The 11-foot crocodile was captured Wednesday night in a south Miami-Dade neighborhood. Hardwick, of Pesky Critters, a wildlife nuisance control company, roped the 360-pound creature along a canal bank in Cutler Bay and wildlife officials relocated it Thursday. Alligator attacks have gotten all the attention lately, but now crocodiles might be rearing their heads, he said. Hardwick first heard about the crocodile on Mother's Day, when he was called to an alligator sighting in a canal in a residential neighborhood. When Hardwick saw it was a crocodile, he reported it to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. On Wednesday night, Hardwick got an emergency call from wildlife authorities that the crocodile was in someone's backyard. Hardwick said he approached the crocodile with a rope, expecting it to leap back in the canal. "He stood his ground, opened his mouth, stared at me and gave me a hiss and a growl," he said....
Christo river art faces delay Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s dream of draping the Arkansas River with seven miles of fabric is so problematic that federal officials already know they probably won’t give the artists the quick go-ahead they seek. The Bureau of Land Management — the first in a series of agencies that must approve the contentious “Over the River” — has warned the artists their proposal is in trouble. “We were telling them it wasn’t looking good,” said BLM planning and environmental coordinator Pete Zwaneveld. “We know we have problems with the bighorn sheep, bald eagles, with congestion on the highway.” The husband-and-wife team has asked to halt the environmental assessment now under way and instead pursue approval through a more rigorous, complicated review known as an environmental impact statement that could delay the project for at least a year — longer if there are appeals. “Christo and Jeanne-Claude are very patient people,” said Jonita Davenport, project director for “Over the River.”....
Shale oil — now? A company says it can produce oil from shale mined from Utah within two or three years, at a cost of about $40 per barrel, and that notion has leaders in Washington, D.C., interested in ways to make it happen. "It is potentially part of our future, and it could be a big part," Domenici said. "Enterprise, initiative and innovation are going to drive the investment of money into shale oil, and it's going to produce crude oil." Romit Bhattacharya, chief executive officer of Oil Tech, gave Domenici an education in shale processing at a remote site that the company currently uses for research. "There's too many people who say it can't be done. It will be done," Bhattacharya told Domenici. The company owns land leases for mineral rights on more than 38,000 acres throughout the Green River Formation in Utah. The small research site has already produced oil that can be sold to a refinery. That site could be modified to produce 1,000 barrels a day. Each additional processing site could be built in six to eight months. Bhattacharya told Domenici that how much shale Oil Tech processes depends on access to available resources. The processing involves heating the shale to extract the oil. It's estimated that Utah has more oil in shale deposits than there is oil in Saudi Arabia, according to John Baardson, chief executive officer of Oil Tech partner BAARD Energy....
New fire forecast expects busy season for Western ranges Wildfire potential is rising on the rangelands across the West due to an unusually thick blanket of grasses that are drying out quickly, according to a new forecast issued by federal land managers Thursday. "Anything in the rangelands, we are looking at above-normal fire danger because of all that fine fuel," said Tom Wordell, head of the Predictive Services Unit at the National Interagency Fire Center here. "The long-lead forecasts show the entire West to be warmer than normal with portions drier than normal in June and July, so if that pans out, we could get accelerated snowmelt and rapid drying in the mountains as well." The national wildland fire outlook calls for normal fire danger across much of the West. in early June, but the potential will increase to above normal later in the month if temperatures climb as forecasters anticipate. In low-elevation areas of the Southwest, normally bare ranges are flush with grasses due to a wet winter and carry-over vegetation from last year's similarly high precipitation....
Editorial: No need to loosen salvage logging rules Salvage logging has this image problem _ it sounds like roadside litter pickup, and that works to the great benefit of timber companies and their pals in Congress. As long as they keep people thinking salvage amounts to cleaning up a few trashed trees after a forest fire, they can keep rewriting federal law to the loggers' liking. The reality is that salvage timber now accounts for more than one-third of the wood coming out of our national forests. So it is a valuable commodity to timber companies. But it's also a critical contributor to forest regrowth after fires, as well as floods and windstorms. Arguably, industrial-scale logging on these damaged landscapes should be governed more carefully, not less, than harvests in healthy forests. But a bill that cleared the U.S. House this month moves in the other direction. It provides a fast-track alternative to normal environmental reviews, requiring forest managers to research their logging options within 30 days after a fire (or other damaging event), and prepare a plan within 90. The public can comment on the planning during that same 90 days _ before any plan is available for review _ and can't appeal the result except in federal court, where judges, too, are directed to expedite review. This so-called Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act has nothing to do with research, recovery or emergency response, but with increasing salvage-timber production _ by some 40 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office....
How Delicate Was Dean? What did Dean Potter do on Delicate Arch, and how did he do it? Those questions have percolated in the climbing world since May 7, when Potter—a 34-year-old professional climber who splits his time between Moab, Utah, and Yosemite National Park—scampered to the top of Delicate Arch, a fragile landmark in southern Utah's Arches National Park. Potter's climb touched off a storm that has led to condemnation from close friends and mentors, virulent criticism from many climbers, and strict new climbing regulations in the park itself. What has remained a mystery, though, is exactly how Potter conducted the climb, and whether it was quite as delicate as many believe. As Outside has learned, it wasn't, and there's even a chance Potter did permanent damage to Delicate Arch's famously soft sandstone....
EPA Won't Regulate Water Transfers The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will not regulate transfers of water from one place to another _ no matter how polluted the water is at the start. The EPA proposal would let water transfer authorities, corporate farmers and other businesses skip having to obtain a Clean Water Act permit in certain cases. The exemption would apply to water, even if it contains pollution, that is moved in tunnels, channels or natural streams and isn't put to industrial, municipal or commercial uses. A permit would still be required if the process of the water transfer itself might introduce pollutants. The idea is to allow "needed flexibility to protect water quality, prevent costly litigation and promote the public good," said Benjamin Grumbles, EPA's assistant administrator for water....
Editorial: Heads in the sand - and proud of it At a press conference Wednesday at the state Capitol, the group Environmental Action marked Dependence Day, "the day when the United States effectively runs out of domestic oil and must rely completely on foreign imports for the remainder of the year." The idea is that the United States produces 41 percent of its oil, enough to supply Americans for only five months a year. We import the rest. Our economic vitality could indeed be held hostage by unfriendly or unstable foreign suppliers of this crucial energy source. But there is good news. Untapped, domestic offshore reserves of crude oil and natural gas could help fuel the nation for decades. There may be enough new natural gas offshore to satisfy demand (at today's level) for 18 years. Unfortunately, Environmental Action wants no new fossil fuels. Instead, the group demands higher fuel-economy standards, more alternative energy and, of course, expanded mass transit. In this view, oil and coal are bad. So is natural gas, which until recently environmentalists lauded because it burns cleanly. And nuclear power. These folks seem to have problems with any energy source that sustains contemporary civilization....
If only McCain and Kennedy lived on ranches in southern Arizona I know how to kill the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill and the illusions that inspire it. We need every citizen to spend a day at John and Pat King's Anvil Ranch in southern Arizona. The experience would create an overnight revolution in America's view of this domestic crisis. The Kings live every day with barking dogs, vandalism, guns at their bedside, trash on their land, and most tragically, human remains. The bodies of seven illegals were found on the 50,000-acre Anvil last year. “Can you imagine dying of heat prostration out there?” says Pat King, a 62-year-old former nurse. “It has got to be the most awful thing. I wish the two countries would get together and stop this. In this whole 50-mile area, there is no law. It's a frontier.” I visited the Anvil a week ago Sunday. The night before, the Minutemen had wrapped up a month-long watch at the ranch, and the nationwide demonstrations to demand rights for illegal immigrants would begin the next morning. I've visited many Arizona ranches, and it always surprises me how quickly I can travel from Tucson to a combat zone. It takes 50 minutes to reach Anvil's headquarters in heavily-crossed Altar Valley, located to the southwest of the city. Even with that proximity, most people in Tucson—to say nothing of Maine or Washington, D.C.—live in blissful ignorance of the worsening situation here. When Pat discusses the problem with friends, they say, “Don't you think you're exaggerating?” No one would ask that if they saw the 40 bicycles stacked against one of the Anvil's out-buildings. They're the favored means of transportation for drug smugglers, who pack their cargo onto saddlebags and pedal across our border, then abandon the bikes. As for vandalism, Pat describes what they experience today as “wanton,”—water troughs filled with garbage, pipes cut, valves hammered to pieces. She jokes that they're thinking of putting a tetherball by the troughs to occupy the illegals so they aren't so destructive. “You have to understand, we're under siege here,” she says. “Every day my son and husband check water and fences and redo the damage they've done. Not to get on with our work, but to undo the damage. Every. Day.” Micaela McGibbon, Pat's daughter, took me on a ranch tour, and in one mile we crossed 30 smuggling trails. In a wash, we inspected sophisticated brush huts in which illegals rest during trips north. But this nightmare comes right to the Kings' doorstep. Imagine living under permanent stakeout. The Kings do. They removed mesquite trees from around their house because illegals would hide underneath them and wait for the house to empty. For nine years, the family has been unable to leave home unless someone stays to guard against burglars. They celebrate Christmas in shifts. On Christmas Eve, Pat's son and daughter-in-law go to Tucson to visit family, and when they return John and Pat go on Christmas morning....
Deep roots: The power of the farm lobby If anyone has an insider's view of the cozy and enduring alliances that maintain America's generous farm subsidy program, it's Larry Combest. He spent 18 years representing west Texas cotton country in Congress, fighting for subsidies on Capitol Hill while reaping political benefits back home. He chaired the House Agriculture Committee the last time Congress rewrote the farm bill, legislation that provided farmers a windfall of federal largess. Now, after leaving Congress, he's on the farm lobby's payroll with the job of persuading his former colleagues to keep the good times rolling. Combest's success in protecting subsidies means consumers pay twice, once at the grocery store and again on their tax bills. Regular as the harvest for 73 years, the renewal of farm subsidies is being challenged by a coalition that includes the Bush administration, environmentalists and fiscal conservatives. Congress is expected to rewrite the farm bill next year. But Combest is hardly trembling. The "real environment," personified by Combest, is a self-perpetuating cycle of money, votes and political power that has made agriculture one of Washington's most entrenched special interests, even as the number of farmers has dwindled to about 1 percent of the population....
Plowed by bad harvest This year's poor wheat harvest will likely thresh local economies that usually profit from custom combine crews passing through and from farmers' trade, merchants and agricultural experts said. Businesses ranging from campgrounds to cafes are feeling the hurt from a puny harvest that ended almost before it began. Ag experts have forecast wheat production for Texas at 35.1 million bushels - down 63 percent compared to last year, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. "Drought has devastated the wheat crop," Bob Garino, NASS acting Texas director, stated in a media release. "Acres harvested for grain are at the lowest level since 1925, and grain production hasn't been this low since 1971." The forecast for Oklahoma is 68.2 million bushels - a 47 percent decrease from last year, according to the NASS. In North Texas and southern Oklahoma, elevators are logging a harvest that's 4 percent to 10 percent of last year's, according to previous Times Record News reports. Locally, the yield has dropped from 30 bushels per acre or so of past years to a measly 15 bushels or less. Farmers aim to produce 40 bushels an acre....
Kaycee cancels Sheepherders Rodeo The annual Kaycee Sheepherders Rodeo has been cancelled, officials say. “It was a hard vote -- probably one of the hardest things we've ever done,” Joni Harlan, a member of the Sheepherders Rodeo committee, said of the decision to end the 19-year-old event. “It was like being at one of our best friends' funerals. ... But the writing was on the wall.” The Sheepherders Rodeo celebrated the work of the sheep industry and included a dog trial for working sheepdogs. It featured such events as men's and women's sheep-hooking and children's sheep-riding, and there was a street dance in town during the evenings. The committee cited hot July weather, declines in crowds and trouble staying profitable as the major reasons for the rodeo's demise. Not to mention the work involved by the dozen or so organizers who endured days of sometimes blazing temperatures to produce the rodeo, according to local rancher Betty Furnival, who helped found the event with her husband, Bob. “When we first started, we had the crowds. We were feeding 500 to 600 people at those free barbecues,” she said. “But really, 100-degree weather, people just won't sit in it -- it's just too hot. You look up in the stands and you might have 100 people or less -- it just got discouraging.” Furnival said the event organizers had considered changing the dates, or even having it in the evenings. In the end, they decided there was no way to keep the rodeo going....
For equine entertainment, Mr. Ed has nothing on cloned-mule races Move over Butch Cassidy — Winnemucca, Nev., soon will have a new most exciting moment. Cloned mule racing. That's right, the tiny Nevada town, in which Cassidy may or may not have held up a bank in 1900, will host the first-ever professional event to include cloned animals. Idaho Gem and Idaho Star were cloned at the University of Idaho — take that Boise State — and trained in different environments. They will race against natural mules Saturday in separate heats. And, in case you're thinking road trip, there will be a final and a consolation final Sunday. "We know there's going to be a huge turnout to see how they compete," said Don Jacklin, an innovator in the cloning project and president of the American Mule Racing Association. It will be a weekend of firsts, Jacklin said. • It will be the first time that a clone has been in a professional competitive event. • It will be the first time clones have competed against non-clones. • And, if Idaho Gem and Idaho Star qualify for the same race Sunday, it will be the first time two clones have competed against each other....

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Coalition urges BLM to revise regulations In the face of mounting natural gas drilling in the West, a coalition of ranchers, farmers and conservationists Wednesday petitioned the Bureau of Land Management to revise its regulations to lessen the impacts to landowners. The Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) petitioned the BLM to change its regulations to improve reclamation standards, increase financial assurance bonds, and provide oversight of oil and gas development. Currently, the BLM requires a $10,000 bond for individual oil and gas wells, a blanket statewide bond of $25,000 and a $150,000 nationwide bond. The two organizations contend those bond amounts are not sufficient to cover reclamation of well pads, pipelines and roads and associated installations. "Current regulations do not ensure that oil and gas operators pay the full costs of minimizing environmental damage, or remediating the land, during and following development," said David Newman, NRDC attorney. "This leaves local landowners, itself to bear the costs, rather than the developers responsible for such impacts. This is both irresponsible and unfair." For the "hundreds of thousands of (new) wells" projected to be drilled in the future, "the cost of reclamation will be astronomical and likely beyond the means of the federal government," said Bob Elderkin, spokesman for Western Colorado Congress. Specifically, the petition calls for the BLM to require Geographic Area Development Plans for all oil and gas activity with site-specific reclamation plans and full-cost estimates of reclamation. The new regulations would also specify performance standards for reclamation. In addition, bond amounts would increase to $20,000 for individual wells with an option for a site-specific reclamation bond in lieu of the bond. The new regulations would also improve inspection, monitoring, and enforcement....
Tests won't hurt Utah, Army says After five years of deliberation, the Army has decided that continuing chemical and biological defense tests at Dugway Proving Ground will not hurt the Utah environment. The Army gave public notice Wednesday that it has adopted a "programmatic environmental impact statement" that it began in 2001 to look at cumulative effects of such testing at numerous sites nationally, including Dugway. It finds no dire impacts. The Army said in a record of decision that environmental impacts of continued biological and chemical defense testing at Dugway and other sites nationally "will be negligible to minor and mitigable." In reaction, Erickson said sarcastically, "Gee, they've never had problems at Dugway before, so why should they in the future?" Several problems have occurred there, ranging from a 1969 nerve gas accident that killed 6,000 sheep in nearby Skull Valley (which some ranchers say also led to health problems for their families) to disclosures that the base secretly aimed some biological arms at human volunteers to test effects....
Column: Gale Norton in Slacks - Dirk's Dirty Money After serving for five years as Interior Secretary in the Bush Cabinet, Gale Norton, protégé of James Watt, quietly stepped down from her post overseeing the ruination of the American West. Norton's sudden exit was almost certainly hastened by the widening fallout from the corruption probes into Jack Abramoff and his retinue of clients and the politicians and bureaucrats he held on retainer. Abramoff, it will be recalled, performed some of his most extravagant shakedowns of clients, many of them destitute Indian tribes, seeking indulgences from the Interior Department. To replace Norton, Bush called upon his old pal Dirk Kempthorne, the Idaho governor and former US Senator, who once cherished notions, fantastical though they may have been, of the occupying the White House. In picking Kempthorne, Bush has once again demonstrated that mindless consistency which will be one of his hallmarks as president. Far from moving to clean up an office sullied by corruption and inside-dealing, Bush tapped a man, who has over the course of his 20 years in politics, taken more money from timber, big ag, mining and oil companies than any governor in the history of American politics. Unlike many other western conservatives, Kempthorne doesn't hit up the religious right for money. He goes to straight to the corporations who want something done in Boise: JR Simplot, the potato king; Boise-Cascade, the timber giant; mining companies, such as ASARCO, Hecla, and FMC Gold; and the power companies. And Kempthorne gives them what they want. Kempthorne is Jack Abramoff without the middleman, decision-maker and lobbyist rolled into one....
The Interior Department's 'Relief Pitcher' Even in a big bureaucracy, some things can happen fast. On his first day on the job this week as secretary of the interior, Dirk Kempthorne found out he is already a defendant in thousands of lawsuits, give or take a few. Interior's deputy solicitor, David L. Bernhardt, tried to break the news gently, noting that Kempthorne's name was simply replacing that of his predecessor, Gale A. Norton. And in some cases he's not formally named, or the Justice Department is taking the lead. "Don't take it personally," Bernhardt said. Resolving the long list of lawsuits -- including one accusing the government of cheating American Indians out of as much as $137.2 billion over the past 118 years -- is one of many tasks the former Idaho governor and senator faces as the nation's 49th interior secretary. With 30 months before the administration ends, he must confront everything from a huge maintenance backlog at the national parks to a contentious debate over how to best protect endangered species. "I'm coming in in the seventh inning. I'm the relief pitcher," Kempthorne, 54, said in an interview in the midst of his first official day, which began at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, when he left his apartment for a Fox News interview, and ended at 9 p.m., after he polished off Costco sandwiches his staff had brought in and did some paperwork. "I'm going to come in there, and I want to make sure it's a winning series."...
Editorial: Changing nation's fire plane plan This year's battles against the biggest wildfires will be waged a little differently. The federal government is contracting nationally for large air tankers and, after a safety review, is allowing fewer of these aging former military aircraft to fight fires. Is this summer's fleet of firefighting air tankers up to the task? The fleet of 16 aircraft expected to be available this year is half the size it was in 2004 and former National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall told the Associated Press that the federal government still hasn't addressed serious safety concerns that grounded the aircraft two years ago. The duty to safeguard firefighters while protecting life and property on the ground demands that the federal government require high standards for safety and performance in these aircraft. Tragic loss of firefighters' lives in air tanker crashes prompted the NTSB to take a closer look at safety. Safety concerns have been recognized in these aircraft that were first in military use 50 years ago. However, there hasn't been progress in getting new aircraft into the nation's air tanker service. As a result, there are no new planes and fewer old P-3 and P-2V air tankers available for firefighting nationwide. What this means for Montana is that no large air tankers will be based in the state....
Governor asks feds to protect 1.6 million acres Gov. Bill Richardson is asking the federal government to protect all 1.6 million acres of roadless national forest in New Mexico -- and to throw in 100,000 acres of the Valle Vidal as well. Adding the Valle Vidal to the protected acreage would create "another stumbling block" to proposed drilling on the renowned elk and trout habitat, he said. New Mexico becomes the fourth state -- and the first Western state -- to petition the Bush administration for roadless-area protection under a new rule established last year. "I call on other Western states to follow New Mexico's lead," Richardson said Wednesday at a news conference at the Randall Davey Audubon Center, at the edge of the Santa Fe National Forest. The petition was applauded by hunters, anglers and conservation groups including The Wilderness Society, which said Richardson was trying "to make the best of a bad federal policy."....
Radical turn to terror Reared in Westchester's culture of plenty, Lauren Weiner shunned the perks of wealth for the life of a left-wing radical - calling herself "Fireflie" and hitchhiking and train-hopping around the country in search of a "beautiful romantic culture." Her journey into one of radical culture's darkest corners led her to plead guilty to charges of conspiring to blow up federal government buildings in California in an eco-terror plot. In detailed writings posted on the Internet, Weiner, 20, stated she's "anti-society" and spent her time rubbing elbows with fellow "radicals, runners and romantics," and clashing with police at anti-corporate protests. That journey led her to join a plan formulated by a hardened environmental extremist, Eric Taylor McDavid, 28, to turn the anarchic protests more violent, California prosecutors said. McDavid, Weiner, and a third radical, Zachary Jenson, 20, planned to meet in California after Christmas to bomb a U.S. Forest Service genetics lab, a fish hatchery, the Nimbus Dam and other sites near Sacramento, according to testimony from a confidential federal informant and wire-tapped conversations from a house the three rented. The tipster said they were going to act in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, a shadowy group of left-wing extremists wanted by the FBI for setting fires to developments and causing damage to millions of dollars worth of property. The informant told authorities that the three said that human casualties in the bombings "would be acceptable," according to a criminal complaint....
Appeals filed over access to Village at Wolf Creek Two foes in a dispute over the proposed Village at Wolf Creek resort are appealing a U.S. Forest Service decision on access to the site. Two environmental groups and a citizens organization on Tuesday filed an appeal of an April 3 decision by Peter Clark, Rio Grande National Forest supervisor, approving two access roads to the site across Forest Service land. Colorado Wild, the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council and San Juan Citizens Alliance allege that the Forest Service made major errors in its analysis of the project and failed to live up to its responsibilities to the public. “The Forest Service continues to ignore major problems raised by the public as well as other state and federal agencies,” said Ryan Demmy Bidwell, Colorado Wild executive director. Bob Honts, who is developing the village along with Texas billionaire B.J. “Red” McCombs, said the appeal came as no surprise and that the developers filed an appeal of their own Friday maintaining that Clark’s requirement for a second access road could risk the feasibility of the project....
California Company Develops New Way To Fight Fires They are a common sight if you are flying to Europe or some other long-distance destination. But what if you took a 747 airliner and converted it into an aerial firefighting machine? One company did just that. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Well, it is a plane, but if the designers have their way it will be the world’s first air super tanker. The idea is the brainchild of Evergreen International, a company well versed in producing firefighting aircraft. The passenger seats were replaced with a number of interconnected tanks. The super tanker is capable of carrying more than 20,000 pounds of water or retardant, but it is designed not to drop it all at once. The makers do not want Noah’s Ark coming out from the belly of the beast. So the liquid inside is pressurized to come out like rain. “That is the whole idea behind it, to make it rain,” said Evergreen Vice President Sam White. Retardant is also released in the same manner, in very large amounts. The company claims it can release seven times the amount that current air tankers can drop....
Gov. Agencies Contending with Carp Government agencies are trying to fix what they call an "ecological disaster" in Utah Lake, but they have a huge job ahead of them. They have to contend with an estimated 100 million carp! A small fleet of fishing boats is trolling the waters of Utah Lake with a net 400 feet long. They're commanded by commercial fisherman Bill Loy. His family has been pulling carp out of the lake for generations. Bill Loy, Commercial Fisherman: "I mean, this is nothing but a big carp pond basically." The lake has about 7.5 million big ones, 100 million if you count the little ones. Fish experts hope to make a dent in the population. Reed Harris, June Sucker Recovery Program: "It's going to be a tough job, but we can do it." The goal is to restore a natural ecosystem, in particular, a native endangered species called the June Sucker. The federal government threw nature out of balance in the first place. In the 1800's carp were planted all across America as a food source....
River Revival Most people probably don't think about lush, green ecosystems dependent upon flowing water when conjuring images of the Sonoran Desert. Yet in the early 1900s, many regional rivers--now mostly quiet and desiccated, such as the Santa Cruz--always had flowing water, supporting dense forests of willow, cottonwood and mesquite. However, decades of floodplain development, the introduction of invasive species and, in particular, groundwater pumping powered by gasoline turbines destroyed these habitats. "That has not only sparked endangered-species issues and made Tucson an uglier place. It also struck at the heart of the agriculturally based river community that we had here with the Tohono O'odham Nation," said Julia Fonseca, environmental planning manager for the Pima County Flood Control District. "At San Xavier, there was a community of people who lived there and farmed for thousands of years. When they couldn't divert the Santa Cruz River anymore, they lost their way of life." Pima County's Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan is the blueprint for preserving what's left of riparian areas and reconstructing some of what has been lost. The plan uses a variety of measures, including government acquisition of sensitive lands and the introduction of effluent (treated sewage) to riverbeds in order to recharge aquifers....
Companies eye elk habitat Federal regulators are considering stipulations to protect crucial winter range and calving areas for a rare high plains elk herd in preparation for impending industrial coal-bed methane development. Initial development plans for the 100,000-acre Fortification Creek area located 25 miles northwest of Gillette call for 158 wells to tap the prolific Big George coal seam. "There will be more development in there," said Paul Beels, project manager for the Bureau of Land Management's Buffalo Field Office. In recognition of the area's special resource values, the coal-bed methane companies have offered to coordinate their plans and consolidate roads, pipelines and power lines into corridors, according to the BLM. Fortification Creek has several special resource values, according to the BLM, including the isolated elk herd and its habitat, high visual quality, steep slopes with erosive soils, and cultural, historic and paleontological features....
Senators kick off tours of oil shale sites Two senators praised the promise of oil shale on Wednesday as Shell Exploration & Production Co. led a federal delegation on a tour of experimental works meant to bake oil from the ground. Shell is providing the reality check that will determine if any oil company can profitably extract shale oil from layers of hard rock, said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "They are not here to throw their money away," Domenici said at a test site 60 miles from Meeker, the nearest town, in the middle of desolate Rio Blanco County. Shell is poised to snap up leases on federal lands in western Colorado rich in kerogen, a fossilized material in rock that yields oil when heated. Shell has been working in Meeker for 10 years, and has invested tens of millions of dollars, trying to perfect a method of baking shale oil from the ground using heating rods drilled into layers of rock -- an alternative to mining. Shell is still four years from proving the technology or deciding whether to build a commercial-scale operation, said Terry O'Connor, a company vice president for external and regulatory affairs....
Park nitrogen levels twice 'critical load' Nitrogen compounds from cars, farms and power plants along the Front Range are saturating the soil, plants and water of Rocky Mountain National Park at levels at least twice the "critical load" the ecosystem can tolerate, according to documents made public Wednesday. So potentially damaging is the nitrogen overload on Colorado's signature national park that its superintendent, for the first time, has proposed emission limits on the chemical - a limit that could require dramatic changes for regional agriculture and industry. In a letter to state health officials, Rocky Mountain National Park Superintendent Vaughn Baker called for a new standard that would slash allowable nitrogen deposition rates in half, or even more, to halt the acidification of streams, lakes and plant life in the park. Baker called on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, along with the Environmental Protection Agency, to work with the National Park Service to confront the problem and reduce the impacts on the park. The proposed limit on nitrogen - 1.5 kilograms per hectare (100 acres)per year - is half, or less, of current fallout levels, which range from 3 to 4 kilograms per hectare. The limit would establish the nation's first critical load of a pollutant to protect a national park environment. A similar approach has been used to protect parks in Canada and in Europe. While Baker said the limit wouldn't represent a "regulatory standard" enforceable by the National Park Service, regulators say it is a goal that would carry weight in developing plans to reduce pollution. It also would give environmentalists a figure to build political and, possibly, legal arguments around....
Park Service Rejects Redskins Owner's Bid To Fix Retaining Wall The National Park Service, which according to a federal investigation improperly helped Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder cut down more than 130 trees behind his Potomac estate, has denied his request to rebuild a crumbling retaining wall on his property. Like the cleared trees, the wall is within a federally protected scenic easement, which buffers the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park and does not allow any structures to be built or rebuilt within 200 feet of the canal. Because the wall is within the easement, it may not be repaired, Park Superintendent Kevin D. Brandt wrote in denying Snyder's request last week. In an earlier letter to Brandt, an attorney for Snyder said the wall needs to be repaired immediately. "Further collapse of the wall and the slope above it threatens damage to the reforested area below the wall in the easement area and to the Canal itself, as well as to the foundation of the Snyders' home," David P. Donovan wrote....
Parks get new rules about donations Yosemite benefits from private contributions more than almost any other park. Most dramatically, with big contributions from the likes of Chevron, the Yosemite Fund raised more than $11 million for restoration of the park's Lower Yosemite Falls area. One of the few organizations of its kind larger than the Yosemite Fund is the San Francisco-based Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, which has contributed more than $80 million since 1981. The much more modest Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park Foundation has contributed about $500,000 to the two parks in the past two decades. Depending on how contributions are counted, between $75 million and $100 million in private funds and donations annually supplement the National Park Service's budget. Following intense scrutiny by Yosemite aficionados and members of the public, the Bush administration earlier this month issued new rules governing this private fundraising. Cue the nightmare visions of tacky ads dotting park landscapes and Ronald MacDonald embracing the Statue of Liberty. But after fielding some 1,000 public comments over the past year, park service officials retained most of the conservative rules protecting parks from overt commercial exploitation....
Governor Murkowski Defends National Park Inholders Right to Access Under ANILCA Provisions Governor Frank H. Murkowski on Tuesday submitted comments to the National Park Service, defending the rights of park inholders to access their properties across park lands as guaranteed by section 1110(b) of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980. Murkowski has a long history of fighting for inholder rights, both as governor and during his 22 years in the U.S. Senate. The Park Service is currently in the process of adopting a "User's Guide to Accessing Inholdings in a National Park Service Area in Alaska." The governor's 5-page letter to Marcia Blaszak, Alaska Regional Director of the National Park Service, covers numerous issues of concern to Alaskans who own parcels of land and/or homes within the boundaries of NPS-managed parks, preserves and other conservation system units. Murkowski asserted to Blaszak that the present draft, although improved over the first, "falls short of appropriately recognizing the inholder access guarantee provided in section 1110(b) of ANILCA. In addition, the process to define and document the access appears to lack sufficient long-term stability to assure individual landowners and other valid occupants they indeed have the access promised to them by ANILCA."....
Arctic "Noah's Ark" Vault to Protect World's Seeds A frozen "Noah's Ark" to safeguard the world's crop seeds from cataclysms will be built on a remote Arctic island off Norway, the Norwegian government said on Tuesday. Construction of the Global Seed Vault, in a mountainside on the island of Svalbard 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, would start in June with completion due in September 2007. "Norway will by this contribute to the global system for ensuring the diversity of food plants. A Noah's Ark on Svalbard if you will," Norwegian Agriculture and Food Minister Terje Riis-Johansen said in a statement. The doomsday vault would be built near Longyaerbyen, Svalbard's main village, with space for three million seed varieties. It would store seeds including rice, wheat, and barley as well as fruits and vegetables. It would be a remote Arctic back-up for scores of other seed banks around the world, which may be more vulnerable to risks ranging from nuclear war to mundane power failures....
Producer group questions Canadian cattle imports in light of OIE changes The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) last week voted unanimously to revise the three definitions of risk categories for countries affected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Those categories are negligible, controlled, and undetermined. Before the definition change, a country with a case of BSE had to wait seven years from the date of the last discovery of the disease to be eligible for the "negligible risk" classification given to countries with the least amount of risk. Now, the date of birth of the diseased animal, rather than the date of discovery, is the determining factor. Countries with adequate testing programs with no cases in cattle born in the past 11 years are eligible for negligible risk status, provided there is no evidence the disease has been recycling in the feed supplies in those countries. With the old guidelines in place, the U.S. would have had to wait until 2013 to be classified as negligible risk, following the March 2006 discovery of a BSE-infected cow in Alabama. But since that cow was born an estimated 10 years prior to the discovery of the disease, that waiting period is cut significantly."Scientists have determined that BSE is caused by feeding contaminated animal-based feed to cattle, and that cattle are most likely to become infected with BSE during the first year of their lives, so using the infected animal's birth date as a reference point allows countries to determine how recently contaminated feed may have been circulating within their feed system," Bill Bullard, CEO of Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA), in a statement. "OIE's decision also allows countries to determine how effective their feed bans have been in arresting the spread of BSE within their borders."....
No go on the buffalo: Deadwood decides against Main Street bison run There won't be any buffalo running down Deadwood's Main Street any time soon - at least that's what the Deadwood City Commission decided on Monday evening. Around 40 people showed up for the hearing Monday, when city commissioners allowed the public to voice their opinions on the buffalo run proposed for July of 2007. Commissioners listened to strong sentiments from both camps dividing the issue, before they voted 4-1 to deny the application. "In my heart I felt I couldn't put the people of Deadwood at risk," Mayor Francis Toscana told the Pioneer after the hearing. The views expressed during the hearing covered the whole spectrum of considerations. There were volunteers from Twin City Animal Center in Lead who were concerned about the welfare of the buffalo; business owners who welcomed the increased publicity and visitors; buffalo ranchers who wanted to preserve the integrity of the bison industry; citizens who saw a need for more tourism revenue; and others who worried about public safety, liability and negative publicity...
Ranch Rodeo returns to fairgrounds this weekend It's rodeo time. The Coors Ranch Rodeo, now in its 19th year, will take place this weekend at the Tri-State Fairgrounds. The rodeo, slated from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Amarillo National Center, will include riders from 14 ranches in Texas and neighboring states. "The rodeo is just good, clean fun for the whole family," said Michelle Reed, Coors Cowboy Club communications director. Individuals who attend the rodeo can expect to see a variety of events, Reed said. Both nights, ranchers will participate in wild bronc riding, cattle doctoring, cattle sorting, cattle branding, a cow milking competition and other stock events. Rodeo awards will be presented at noon Sunday. Awards will be presented to the ranch with the highest score from both nights. An award is also given the All-Around Cowboy....