FLE

Chief of staff of US attorney general quits The chief of staff to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned amid intense scrutiny of the Justice Department accused of excessive use of tough anti-terror laws and being overtly political. Gonzales' chief of staff Kyle Sampson has resigned his position as chief of staff to the attorney general from Monday, March 12, the department said. "Kyle Sampson has served as a key member of my team beginning at the White House and continuing here at the Department of Justice first as my Deputy Chief of Staff and then as my Chief of Staff," Gonzales said in a statement. The United States has been rocked by a series of revelations that officials overstepped their authority in applying tough anti-terror laws brought in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks....
Key Democrat calls for Gonzales to resign US Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has so politicized the Justice Department that he should step down for the good of the nation, the Senate's third-ranking Democrat said yesterday. Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York called for the resignation in light of recent disclosures about the FBI's improper use of administrative subpoenas to obtain private records and the controversy over the firing of eight US attorneys in December. Schumer, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, charged that under Gonzales, the Justice Department has become even more politicized than it was under President Bush's first attorney general, John D. Ashcroft. Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, stopped short of suggesting that Gonzales step down. But he said that a report released Friday by the Justice Department's inspector general raised questions about the investigatory powers given to federal agents under the USA Patriot Act, which Congress reauthorized last year....
Gonzales, Mueller admit FBI broke law The nation's top two law enforcement officials acknowledged Friday the FBI broke the law to secretly pry out personal information about Americans. They apologized and vowed to prevent further illegal intrusions. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales left open the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against FBI agents or lawyers who improperly used the USA Patriot Act in pursuit of suspected terrorists and spies. The FBI's transgressions were spelled out in a damning 126-page audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. He found that agents sometimes demanded personal data on people without official authorization, and in other cases improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances. The audit also concluded that the FBI for three years underreported to Congress how often it used national security letters to ask businesses to turn over customer data. The letters are administrative subpoenas that do not require a judge's approval. "People have to believe in what we say," Gonzales said. "And so I think this was very upsetting to me. And it's frustrating."....
Bush Pledges to End FBI Privacy Lapses President Bush on Saturday pledged an end to FBI lapses that led to illegal prying into people's lives. "Those problems will be addressed as quickly as possible," Bush said during a news conference in Uruguay, the second stop on his Latin America trip. A new audit by the Justice Department's internal watchdog found that the FBI improperly used a tool called national security letters. The letters are administrative subpoenas that don't require judicial approval. Agents sometimes demanded personal data on people without official authorization, and in other cases improperly obtained telephone records. Shoddy record-keeping and human error were to blame in most cases, the audit found. "My question is, `What are you going to do solve the problem and how fast can you get it solved?'" said Bush, who was briefed on the report last week....
Top Secret: We're Wiretapping You It could be a scene from Kafka or Brazil. Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked "top secret." And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls. You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means. Then, two months later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and orders you to forget you ever saw it. By all accounts, that's what happened to Washington D.C. attorney Wendell Belew in August 2004. And it happened at a time when no one outside a small group of high-ranking officials and workaday spooks knew the National Security Agency was listening in on Americans' phone calls without warrants. Belew didn't know what to make of the episode. But now, thanks to that government gaffe, he and a colleague have the distinction of being the only Americans who can prove they were specifically eavesdropped upon by the NSA's surveillance program. The pair are seeking $1 million each in a closely watched lawsuit against the government, which experts say represents the greatest chance, among over 50 different lawsuits, of convincing a key judge to declare the program illegal. The lawsuit is poised to blow a hole through a bizarre catch-22 that has dogged other legal efforts to challenge the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance. Since the 2005 Times story, and subsequent acknowledgment of the surveillance by the Bush administration, some 50-odd lawsuits have sprung up around the NSA program, taking on the government and various telecom companies who are allegedly cooperating in spying on their customers, including BellSouth, Verizon and Sprint. Justice Department and phone company lawyers have asserted that the plaintiffs in those cases don't have legal standing to sue, because they have no proof that they were direct victims of the eavesdropping. At the same time, the government claims it doesn't have to reveal if any individual was or was not wiretapped because the "state secrets privilege" permits it to withhold information that would endanger national security. The tangible document makes Belew's case uniquely positioned to cut through that thicket, says Shayana Kadidal, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights....
Feds, AT&T urge against wiretap trial The federal government is urging an appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging President Bush's domestic eavesdropping program, warning that disclosure of such activities could compromise national security. "The suit's very subject matter — including the relationship, if any, between AT&T and the government in connection with the secret intelligence activities alleged by plaintiffs — is a state secret," the Justice Department argued in court papers. The documents were filed late Friday and released Monday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which brought the suit. It accuses AT&T Inc. of illegally making communications on its networks available to the National Security Agency without warrants, and challenges Bush's assertion that he could use his wartime powers to eavesdrop on Americans without a warrant. The NSA had conducted the surveillance without a court warrant until January, when the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court began overseeing the program. The court filings on Friday are part of the government's appeal of U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's decision last year to keep the foundation's lawsuit alive. Walker ruled that warrantless eavesdropping has been so widely reported that there appears to be no danger of spilling secrets....
D.C. gun ban goes down In a blockbuster opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Senior Judge Laurence H. Silberman, joined by Judge Thomas B. Griffith, ruled that “the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms.” That puts the D.C. Circuit in rather exclusive company. Only the Fifth Circuit, which includes Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, has adopted the “individual rights” position; all the other circuits have held that private citizens have no Second Amendment recourse when they challenge state and local gun-control ordinances. Moreover, only the D.C. Circuit has actually invoked the Second Amendment to overturn a government gun regulation. Not even the Fifth Circuit went that far. The case is Parker v. District of Columbia, and the regulation challenged is a 1976 law banning all handgun registrations, barring pistols already registered from being carried from room to room in the home without a license (which is never granted), and requiring all firearms in the home, including rifles and shotguns, to be unloaded and either disassembled or bound by a trigger lock. According to the appellate court, activities protected by the Amendment “are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual’s enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued or intermittent enrollment in the militia.” In other words, the Constitution forecloses an outright ban on handguns. Ergo, if we Americans decide that a ban is required for public safety, we must change the Constitution....
Gun Owners Irked By Newspaper Database Ploy Virginia handgun owners are fired up over the publication of their names and addresses in a database posted online by a state newspaper. The database of every Virginia resident who holds a state-issued permit to carry a concealed handgun was posted on the Roanoke Times' website Sunday to accompany a column in the paper by Times editorial writer Christian Trejbal. "There are good reasons the records are open to public scrutiny," Trejbal wrote. "People might like to know if their neighbors carry. Parents might like to know if a member of the car pool has a pistol in the glove box. Employees might like to know if employers are bringing weapons to the office." However, gun owners contend such public scrutiny could pose a risk to gun owners and non-gun owners across the state. "I've talked to federal agents who have testified against criminals, and police who have permits, that now have their home address posted on the Internet," Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, told Cybercast News Service. "What if a stalker wants to cross check if his victim has a permit?" Van Cleave said the VCDL is organizing a boycott of the newspaper and businesses that advertise in the paper....
Americans Selling ID Papers to Illegal Immigrants Asked by a federal judge why she sold her birth certificate, Rosie Medellin said she needed a few bucks and did not really think it through. Bobby Joe Flores said he sold his ID documents to buy drugs. Margarita Moya and her son did it to raise money for medicine for a loved one. Their documents were destined for illegal immigrants. In all, seven defendants pleaded guilty in Corpus Christi this past week to charges of selling their birth certificates and Social Security cards for $100 each. Seven other defendants pleaded guilty to buying or reselling those documents as part of a ring that sold documents to illegal immigrants seeking jobs in Dodge City, Kan. The federal government's attention has been on stolen or fabricated identity documents, and officials say they know little about people who sell their own legitimate documents. Defense attorneys said prosecution for selling an ID may be something new. "I've been practicing criminal law for years and this is the first I've seen in our Southern District," said Grant Jones, who represents a roofer with sporadic employment. "If they've [the government] been aware in the past, they've now decided to enforce the law." However, Jones said his client told him that document selling was a well-known way to earn a quick buck....
Bush in a quandary over border agents' case For weeks, defenders of the two former Border Patrol agents imprisoned for shooting a Mexican drug trafficker have bombarded the White House with calls, e-mails and petitions. Their demand is straightforward: A presidential pardon for a pair of Texans they view as heroes persecuted for doing their jobs. "This is a terrible injustice, and I urge you to use your considerable authority and power to pardon these two agents and right this obvious wrong!" reads a petition from Grassfire.org, a conservative Web site that claims more than 337,000 people have signed the online form. But the issue is far from simple for President Bush, who is being asked to wade into a highly controversial case where even the most basic facts are in dispute. The quandary for the president: Whether to side with former Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos or with the prosecutors who contend they were rogue officers who wounded a fleeing, unarmed man and then concealed evidence....
House May Proceed With Hearings on Border Agent Case Lawmakers may hold hearings on the controversial prosecution of two former Border Patrol agents who shot a Mexican suspected of smuggling drugs into the United States. They want to determine whether the Mexican government played a role in the affair. Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), chairman of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee, granted a request to hold hearings "to explore possible foreign influence in the ruthless prosecution of ... Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean," according to ranking member Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who made the request. Rohrabacher, who has criticized President Bush harshly over the Ramos-Compean case, praised Delahunt for being willing to pursue the matter. "This hearing will permit us to conduct an official investigation into aspects of the Ramos and Compean prosecution and others cases where a pattern of questionable foreign influence seems to exist," he said in a statement Tuesday. "I hope this Administration will more forthright and cooperative than they have been thus far considering all of our requests for information will now be a part of an official subcommittee investigation, culminating with hearings," Rohrabacher added....
"It's Our Job to Stop That Dream" Border Patrol Agent Elizier Vasquez gets out of his car on Elephants Head Road, a smear of dirt and gravel wedged between two slices of desert. His eyes comb the rust-colored Arizona dirt that stretches for miles to the north, south, and west, its stark beauty marred by scattered piles of trash. A few miles to the east of us is Highway I-19, which shoots straight from Nogales to Tucson, and past that there's more desert. We came here from the U.S.-Mexico border, about 25 miles to the south. The drive took less than 30 minutes. Walking, Vasquez tells me, would have taken about three days. "Look at all the trash left by illegal aliens," he says, navigating through a knee-high pile of old clothes. I trip on a dusty sweatshirt; it catches in the branch of a mesquite tree and rips, brittle and weathered. Empty water jugs lie beneath the desert shrubs, the plastic brittle and broken from the heat. We navigate through backpacks, clothes, empty tuna cans. Shoes, some with soles worn out, lie in piles among the tangles of cactus and mesquite. "We call these lay-up spots," Vasquez says in a low voice. "Illegal aliens rest here while they wait for their rides. Most are known spots. Probably we'll find the illegals sleeping under a tree. If not, they've probably already been picked up by their smugglers."....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Rancher Preps for High Court Does Uncle Sam have an unqualified right to bully you through his agents into surrendering your property without just compensation after you have refused to grant him access to your land? Hot Springs County rancher Harvey Frank Robbins, his Cheyenne attorney, Karen Budd-Falen, and others held a teleconference this week with reporters from national media outlets to discuss that very question at the heart of their U.S. Supreme Court case next week. Robbins has been involved with litigation against the federal government for years stemming from conflict with Bureau of Land Management officials over his ranching operation abutting Indian and federal lands. These purported actions and others by federal agents, Robbins claims, are why he is seeking relief under the “takings” clause of the Fifth Amendment and suing BLM agents under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, for their alleged coercion to illegally extort his land....
Giving up grazing For more than half a century, the Krouse family has been running its cattle each spring into the mountains ringing the Applegate Valley to graze on open range. Shortly after June 1, the Krouses would begin the cattle drive to the alpine meadows on the southeast side of Grayback Mountain, which rises to 7,000 feet elevation south of their ranch. Krouse has agreed to a proposed $265,500 buyout of his family's historic Big Grayback grazing allotment of 19,703 acres in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. That agreement, pending the approval of Uncle Sam, also would include the family's Billy Mountain grazing allotment of 4,758 acres on U.S. Bureau of Land Management forestland immediately north of the ranch. Reached after a lengthy negotiation with the Ashland-based Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and Andy Kerr, an adviser for the group, the proposal also calls for the 480-acre Oregon Caves National Monument to be expanded by 3,410 acres to protect its water source and increase tourism in the area. Under the terms of the family's historic grazing lease, Krouse can run 70 head of cattle on the Big Grayback allotment from June 1 through the fall. The lower elevation Billy Mountain allotment allows him to graze 70 head of cattle from April 16 to June 30....
Former E. Idaho elk rancher acquitted of obstruction charge Former elk rancher Rex Rammell has been found not guilty of obstructing a police officer by refusing to get off a dead elk. The verdict is a victory for property rights and will help his $1.3 million lawsuit against Idaho state officials, Rammell said. "I'm sure it won't hurt," he told the Post Register. The six-person Fremont County jury returned the verdict in 30 minutes Friday after listening to closing arguments of the two-day trial in 7th District Court. An estimated 160 domesticated elk escaped in August from the Chief Joseph private hunting reserve operated by Rammell near Ashton in eastern Idaho. On Sept. 7, then-Idaho Gov. Jim Risch, now lieutenant governor, signed an executive order for the elk to be killed, saying they could spread disease and pollute the gene pool of wild elk. Rammell was charged in October with obstructing a police officer after he refused law enforcement orders to get off an elk that had been shot....
Elk rancher files claim against Idaho A former elk rancher who had more than 100 domesticated elk escape from his hunting preserve near the Wyoming border last fall has filed a $1.3 million tort claim against the state of Idaho, alleging it was negligent and capricious in its handling of the incident. Named in the claim are the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the state Department of Agriculture, and the governor's office, whose actions the claim says were "negligent, unreasonable, arbitrary, capricious and malicious." Tort claims are generally a precursor to a lawsuit, unless a settlement is reached. The state has 90 days to respond to the claim, which was filed Tuesday with Idaho officials by Rex Rammell of Rexburg. Jon Hanian, a spokesman for Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, said Wednesday the state would not comment because of the potential pending litigation....
Panel approves wild horse sale ban Legislation to reinstate a ban on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild horses and burros was approved by the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee this week. The bill, which has received bipartisan support, would restore the prohibition on the sale and slaughter of wild horses and burros that was eliminated by a provision inserted into the fiscal year 2005 appropriations bill by then-Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. Enacted in 1971, the original law directed the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service to enforce the protection of wild horses on public lands. To the delight of Western stockmen and the consternation of wild horse advocates, Burns' amendment allowed the sale of any wild horse that has been rounded up and is more than 10 years old or has been unsuccessful in the adoption program three times....
Editorial - Evolving cooperation The program that brought the endangered Mexican gray wolf back to the Southwest is evolving to ensure its survival. That's good news for wolves and for the public, which has long understood the importance of restoring this top predator to an ecosystem that was poorer without it. Wolves were slaughtered to near extinction at public expense for the sake of cattle ranching, and ranchers remain the staunchest opponents of the recovery program. They need to find a little humility. Ranchers who graze their cattle on the public lands do not own those lands; they are tenants. The owners of that land - the public - passed laws that establish the value of preserving and restoring endangered species. Like wolves. Ranchers have long complained about the economic damage to their operations because wolves sometimes take cattle. OK. But they also complain about a compensation program established by Defenders of Wildlife to reimburse them for losses. To put it tactfully, ranchers lack a satisfactory comfort level with this environmental group. Making ranchers feel that their livelihood is not threatened by wolves is important to the long-term success of the reintroduction program. Benjamin Tuggle, Southwest regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, understands that. He's working to establish a fund to which ranchers and environmentalists could contribute and from which ranchers could get compensation. Local groups that included ranchers would decide the payout. There would be oversight....
Salazar gives Army conditions on Pinon Canyon If the Army wants support for expanding the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, it must discard the use of eminent domain, create an economic development fund to help the region, and allow ranchers to graze the land through leasing agreements - according to Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. In a letter to Assistant Army Secretary Keith Eastin this week, Salazar spelled out a list of requirements that will affect whether he ultimately supports expanding PCMS, the 238,000-acre training ground southwest of La Junta. The Army wants to add another 418,000 acres to PCMS - a goal that has prompted a broad front of opposition from ranchers and communities that border the training area. Earlier this week, a House committee of the General Assembly approved legislation that would withdraw the state's consent for the federal government to expand PCMS through property condemnation or eminent domain....
Once threatened Aleutian geese crowd Northern California pastures Once on the verge of extinction, Aleutian geese have made a healthy comeback—but some ranchers say the grass-eating birds have become so prolific they're destroying Northern California's valuable cow pastures. The Aleutian goose looks like a petit Canada goose, mostly brown with a black neck and white patch under its beak. They spend the summer nesting season in Alaska's Aleutian Islands, then head down the Pacific Flyway to California's northern coast and the San Joaquin Valley. Escaped foxes from Alaskan fur farms hunted them throughout the early 20th century. By the 1970s fewer than 1,000 Aleutian geese were left. They became protected under the 1971 U.S. Endangered Species Act. Ecologists' efforts to reduce the fox population and rebuild the goose population were successful. The birds were removed from the endangered list in 2001. The population is now thought to exceed 100,000, growing as much as 20 percent a year. Farmers and ranchers say hordes of Aleutian geese are stripping pastures of grass, leaving cows hungry. Aleutians love sweet, high-protein grass seedlings—new shoots on recently grazed land....
Tumbleweeds tamed by fence cleaner Stelter is a New Leipzig native and an owner of Stelter Repair, a three-generation welding shop with a reputation for good work far and wide. Stelter's been thinking about those problem tumbleweeds and how they get stuck to fences since 2002. It was a year like this one. Tumbleweeds filled ditches and barbed wire all around the countryside. He put his thoughts and his ability together and invented a fence cleaner. He and his son, Preston, built two of them and are working on a third. They've been tinkering and experimenting in their shop not far from the now-closed Leipziger Hoff German restaurant and out in the field. What they came up with is a pull-along piece, attached to tractor hydraulics, that has two basic functions. Stelter is applying for a patent on the first function of the cleaner. So, without giving away his trade secret, the first part sweeps weeds out of the fence. The second part grabs and grinds the weeds, leaving a windrow of chopped vegetation in its wake for baling or decomposition. It leaves fences clean enough to eat lunch off....
Subsidy tensions high Ross Hirschfeld says folks have been talking behind his back ever since the local paper reported that he has been getting millions of dollars in farm subsidies from Washington. Exactly how much Hirschfeld and other farmers get from Uncle Sam has become common knowledge around here because an environmental group has been posting names and figures on its Web site as part of its campaign against the nation’s multibillion-dollar farm-subsidy program. At small-town coffee shops across the countryside, talk about the weather and Nebraska football now competes with gossip about who is getting big bucks from Washington. The Hirschfeld family – Hirschfeld, his brothers and his son – received $2.64 million from 1995 to 2005. The Hirschfelds farm mostly corn on a 5,000-acre spread near York and are among the top subsidy recipients in Nebraska’s 3rd Congressional District. It surpassed all districts in the nation in 2005 with $992 million in subsidies....
Feral hogs pose potential problems Invading feral hogs are wreaking havoc on some farm and ranch lands in Quay County. And if left unchecked, the problems spread, state wildlife experts said. “We had them uproot and damage one of our fields so bad that it looked like the Army had been out there shelling,” said Quay County farmer and rancher Ted Rush. “We farm on top of the cap and they have destroyed our crops before. When we have wheat, they uproot the roots and when the Milo heads bloom, they knock down the stalks and eat the heads.” Rush, who farms and ranches 12,000 acres on the caprock, said he knows first hand that getting rid of the intruders can be a handful but is aware of the destructive implications if the animal is left unchecked. “They have been in this area for about four years,” said Rush. “I have seen some herds with as many as 30 hogs. They are nocturnal animals and can travel great distances. In the four years, I have killed over 100 of the animals. The older boars do have tusk. But, I have not killed any of them or even seen one. I bought some dogs to help me run them off my land and aid in hunting them in an effort to control the population.” Rush also said the older members of groups are savvy and difficult to hunt and kill....
Trainer: Gentleness pays Joe Wolter has a national reputation as an expert in working with difficult horses. The soft-spoken Texas rancher is known for his quiet demeanor. Just don’t call him a horse whisperer. “It’s all Hollywood,” he said during a clinic Sunday at the Louisiana Horse Expo. After finishing an afternoon clinic for experienced horsemen who listened intently to his every word, Wolter climbed off an unfamiliar horse and dug his boots into the dirt floor of the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center’s main arena. He walked toward an exit gate, hoping to get a quick lunch before he had to judge a competition, but was stopped every so often by horse enthusiasts seeking to shake his hand and to get advice. Some people consider Wolter a natural because of his knack of calming skittish horses. Wolter said his technique of horsemanship, by feel and teamwork with the horse, can be taught — and he does so, working clinics and producing videos....
"Devil's rope" meets its match Ever since Joseph Glidden patented barbed wire in 1874, the "devil's rope" has been the object of contention: beloved by cattle ranchers but decried by open-range proponents, rustlers, fence-builders (who have to handle the bloody stuff), wildlife lovers and even religious groups. It was this invention - perhaps more than any other - that helped to settle the West. But now it's rapidly fading from the landscape. Just last week, the Minturn town council gave unanimous preliminary approval to a law forbidding barbed-wire fences in the municipality. "We had a citizen who thought it was a good idea to put up a barbed-wire fence in the middle of town," Mayor Hawkeye Flaherty explained. "I'm not one for doing away with it totally. I still think there are places where you can use it." But not in Minturn, nestled between Vail and the rural remnants of Eagle County, once a ranching stronghold. Police Chief Lorenzo Martinez said there are safety concerns with the wire, noting that the fence is about neck-high to a snowmobiler unwittingly encountering it from adjacent public lands....
Sweet cowboy types: 'City Girls' want you There's New York. There's Los Angeles. And then there's all that stuff in the middle. Wichita is part of all that stuff in the middle, as I was reminded this week after getting a call from an L.A.-based television casting agent. She's looking for singles to appear on a new reality dating show on the Women's Entertainment Network, tentatively titled "City Girls." The show will be in the vein of "The Bachelor," only it will focus on big-city girls who are having trouble meeting quality big-city guys. Apparently, those men are all commitment-phobes. Who knew? "City Girls" will introduce these frustrated female sophisticates to some down-home, well-mannered farmers and ranchers who are just hanging around the Midwest waiting for their chance to gallantly open doors and bashfully compliment smiles. The casting agent called The Eagle because she was hoping we could get the word out to all the polite and gorgeous farmer/rancher types in our area. She wants them to call her immediately if they think they'd be good for the show....

Wrangler Timed Event Championship

March 8-11, 2007 Lazy E Arena-Guthrie, OK
Aggregated on 25 head of cattle

1. Trevor Brazile - Decatur, TX 281.7 seconds $50,000 + $3,000 for new arena record previous record was 287.6 set in 2002 by Daniel Green.

2. K.C. Jones - Hawk Springs, Wy 330.2 seconds $25,000

3. Kyle Lockett - Ivanhoe, CA 332.2 seconds $15,000

4. J.R. Olson - Sheridan, WY 408.9 seconds $10,000

5. Daniel Green - Oakdale, CA 414.1 seconds $7,500

6. Jess Tierney - LaVerne, OK 415.3 seconds $5,000

7. Scott Snedecor - Uvalde, TX 420.3 seconds $4,500

8. Paul Teirney - Oral, SD 423.3 seconds $3,000

Fastest go-round times - on five head of cattle

1. Trevor Brazile 45.2 seconds $10,000

2. Trevor Brazile 49.0 seconds $6,000

3. Kyle Lockett 49.8 seconds $5,000

4. Paul Tierney 55.0 seconds $4,000

5. Kyle Lockett 56.4 seconds $2,500

Cash Myers 56.4 seconds $2,500


Trevor becomes the first man to win five championships during the event's 23 year history.

Trevor's 12 year careet earnings now stand at $467,500 for the Timed Event Championship.

NOTE TO READERS

I leave today for Guthrie, Oklahoma to attend the Timed Event Championship. Blogging will be intermittent until I return home Monday.

House committee opposes Army plans to expand A House committee voted 7-4 Tuesday to side with southeast Colorado ranchers who oppose Fort Carson's planned Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site expansion, even though the representatives acknowledged the state cannot halt the federal government's taking of the vast acreage through eminent domain. "We got in there the part we wanted," said State Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, the bill's sponsor, taking a half-a-loaf-is-better-than-no-loaf approach to the vote after almost four hours of testimony. He said language to guarantee that ranchers are paid fair prices for the land, which in some cases has been in families for generations, will be added to his bill as it advances. Lon Robertson, a Branson rancher who is president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, said the hearing "got attention for the issue." He said the vote "makes a statement." An unusual coalition of patriotic ranching families, who cited the veterans in their families, and anti-war activists, who bashed the Army, joined ranks to support the bill....
Wyoming ranchers forming independent group A new, independent cattle producers' organization has scheduled an organizational meeting. The Independent Cattlemen of Wyoming plans to meet at 2 p.m. March 20 at the Goose Egg Inn southwest of Casper, organizers of the group said. "Ranchers and landowners in Wyoming feel they don't have a voice that's adequately representing them," said one organizer, Judy McCullough, a Moorcroft rancher. She said the group would be made up of Wyoming ranchers solely for the purpose of representing Wyoming's beef producers. "Cattlemen in Nebraska, Montana and North Dakota have all formed independent producers' groups over the past few years," she said. "We think the time is right for Wyoming ranchers to do it, too."....
Fireworks at Nev Ag Board A meeting of a state board launching a search for a new director of the Nevada Department of Agriculture erupted Tuesday with newly aired allegations of discrimination, obstruction of justice and radically motivated politics. It began when a state lab supervisor, whose May 2006 complaint about alleged gender discrimination prompted a probe of the director who resigned last month, urged state Agriculture Board chairman Benny Romero to step down as well. Rink's comments, which she read from a letter she delivered to the board Tuesday, were applauded by about a dozen members of the Nevada Live Stock Association crowded into a small conference room at the USDA Farm Service Agency in Reno. The association - a private property rights' advocacy group - long has been at odds with Henderson and other leaders of the state agency over enforcement of U.S. livestock grazing regulations on federal land in Nevada. It's allies included the late U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth of Idaho and her late husband, Wayne Hage, a leader of Nevada's Sagebrush Rebellion whose daughter, Ramona Morrison, is still active with the group. Romero told The Associated Press after the meeting he believed Henderson's resignation stemmed primarily from political pressure from the "radical" association as opposed to fallout from an audit of the department last year or the findings of a personnel investigation initiated after Rink's complaint last spring....
Jones shows his appreciation for Texas Rangers Tommy Lee Jones didn't write a speech for his appearance as guest speaker at the Loan Some Dough fund raiser for the Texas Ranger Association Foundation. His reasoning was logical and received an appreciative response from those there: He didn't think he could tell the Texas Rangers anything about their organization that they didn't already know. He had decided to talk about his experiences with the Texas Rangers and began his informal speech with the words: "As an 8th generation Texan and owner of a horse and cattle ranch and father of two children and husband of a precious wife, I'm so glad you are here." Jones then told a modern horror story. Not the kind that has supernatural elements, but one that was all too real and far scarier than any fictional tale seen on the silver screen. It did contain what this writer calls 21st century vampires, those bottom feeders who have no respect for an individual's right to privacy. The perpetrators were scattered across the United States and in several foreign countries. They posted on the Internet pictures of Jones's ranch, including directions on how to trespass, as well as pictures of his children and his wife. They maligned his wife's character "even to the point she ought to be killed," Jones said....
Green Sex You've heard of green cars, green tourism and green weddings. Now Canadians should ready themselves for green sex. For those who like to make love to the soundtrack of the global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth, Greenpeace has released a list of strategies for "getting it on for the good of the planet," suggesting "you can be a bomb in bed without nuking the planet." TreeHugger, an online magazine edited by Ontario's Michael Graham Richard, has just published a guide on "how to green your sex life." And throughout Canada and the U.S., people who want to pleasure the planet can now buy everything from bamboo bed sheets to organic lubricant and "eco-undies." "Green living is getting sexy," says Jacob Gordon, author of TreeHugger.com's recent green guide for the bedroom....

Jimbo, while you are hobnobbin' with all the politicians and lobbyists in D.C., I'll be in Oklahoma with the best timed event cowboys in the world riding some of the top horseflesh around. I wouldn't trade places with you for the world. Will be lookin' at you real close the next time I see you, to make sure you haven't turned....green.

NEWS ROUNDUP

Environmentally minded ingenuity drives the latest business wave to plant its roots in the Bay Area The algae beneath Harrison Dillon's microscope could one day fuel your car. Dillon's Menlo Park company, Solazyme, has tweaked the algae's genes, turning the microscopic plant into an oil-producing machine. If everything works the way Dillon wants, vats of algae could create substitutes for diesel and crude oil. It's no accident he and his college friend Jonathan Wolfson founded their startup in Silicon Valley. In the last few years, the region has become the world's premier locale for "green tech," an industry where engineers and entrepreneurs literally want to save the world. Green tech is not about the digital ones and zeroes on which Silicon Valley was built. It's a major departure into the world of energy, largely foreign to the valley until now. Green tech companies develop new energy sources, devise ways to use existing resources more efficiently, or design products that help the environment. High oil prices and concern over global warming have fueled their rise. Many green technologies so far exist only in the lab. But investors are betting that green companies will one day make serious money. Venture capitalists pumped an estimated $3 billion into the industry nationwide last year....
Ethanol: Feed a Person for a Year or Fill Up an SUV? The ethanol scam just keeps getting more and more absurd. In January, three U.S. senators -- two Democrats, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Barack Obama of Illinois, along with Indiana Republican Richard Lugar -- introduced a bill that would promote the use of ethanol. It also mandates the use of more biodiesel and creates tax credits for the production of cellulosic ethanol. They called their bill the "American Fuels Act of 2007." The most amazing part of the press release trumpeting the legislation is its fourth paragraph, in which Lugar declares that "U.S. policies should be targeted to replace hydrocarbons with carbohydrates." Thus while Lugar and his ilk promote ethanol, they are ignoring a pivotal question: should our farms produce food or fuel? Last September, Lester Brown, the president of the Earth Policy Institute (a group that promotes "an environmentally sustainable economy") wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece that the amount of grain needed to make enough ethanol to fill a 25-gallon SUV tank "would feed one person for a full year. If the United States converted its entire grain harvest into ethanol, it would satisfy less than 16 percent of its automotive needs."....
Idaho lawmakers forge ahead on wilderness bills Two Idaho wilderness bills that failed to make it through the last Congress are back on track, but will they have a better chance of passage now that Democrats control both chambers? Not necessarily, say the Republican sponsors from Idaho. The bills would create four new wilderness areas in central and southwest Idaho, increasing the number of wilderness areas in the state to 10. If passed, they would also increase the amount of designated wilderness in the state by about 20 percent, adding 1,295 square miles to the 6,250 square miles that already exist. Idaho's total land area is about 83,000 square miles. House leaders killed one bill in the final hours of the session last year. The other received a hearing but the session ended before it advanced any further....
Forest won't appeal dam decision U.S. Department of Justice attorneys representing the Forest Service have decided not to appeal a federal judge's decision calling for the removal of 18 small dams in the Emigrant Wilderness. The court ruling issued in June says the check dams must decay naturally over time and that the Stanislaus National Forest can't rebuild, repair or maintain any of them. It had been unclear for many months whether or not the Forest Service would appeal the decision, but forest spokesman Jerry Snyder said the Stanislaus received official word last month that the case has been dropped. "The case is over and the dams cannot be maintained — they must deteriorate naturally. In other words, nothing happens from this point on," he said, adding that attorneys didn't say why they chose not to appeal. The fate of the check dams appears to be final, bringing a close to a nearly two-decade-old debate over how the forest should manage the dams — man-made structures in a federally-designated wilderness area....
High-altitude helicopter training restricted The Colorado Army National Guard will maintain its annual high-altitude helicopter training on Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands in Eagle and Garfield counties at 3,000 hours. The Guard also has agreed to additional stipulations in order to protect wilderness areas, wildlife and livestock, the White River National Forest and BLM announced today. The military believes high-altitude combat training is vital for the protection of pilots and aircrews. In combat, aircrews trained in high-altitude aviation have a higher mission success rate as well as fewer accidents. As such, the Army had asked for 6,000 hours that could spend training in the High-Altitude Army Aviation Training Site area around Gypsum. "We all understand and respect the need for this training, and the three agencies sat down to work through potential issues while keeping in mind the important goals of the Colorado National Guard," said White River National Forest Planner Wendy Haskins. "What we found is that the current 3,000 training hours meets the needs of the pilots without providing an undue burden on public lands resources."....
Pushing the boundaries Disguised by an antiquated exterior, Herbert Lumber’s high-tech mills produce wood products for the home-building and commercial-construction trades, including “clear lumber,” a wood product absent of knots that is used in the door- and window-building trades. Between the cutting mill — where logs are categorically cut into boards — and the planer mill — where boards are shaped and refined — Herbert Lumber produces up to 800 different wood products on any given day. “You can pick a country or a state and we’ve got a customer there,” said Paul Beck, timber manager for Herbert Lumber. One of the few family-owned mills that survived the timber-industry collapse of the 1990s, Herbert Lumber evolved into a high-tech mill that now produces nearly four times its capacity level of the 1970s....
Tiny shrimp blocking builder Fairy shrimp, the tiny critters that derailed UC Merced's original building plans, are now forcing developers to rethink the future of Bellevue Ranch, the largest development planned within Merced city limits. Crosswinds Communities, Bellevue Ranch's master developer, announced publicly last week that 260 acres of the 1,365-acre master-planned community could be home to the shrimp and other endangered species protected by federal law. If the vernal pool-dwelling animals are found on the land, their presence will likely mean a costly and lengthy struggle for Crosswinds as it negotiates with federal regulators about how, when and where it can build north of Bellevue Road....
Governor - Idaho is Ready for Wolf Delisting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials are gathering public comments on delisting wolves under the Endangered Species Act. Jim Caswell, director of the state Office of Species Conservation, is delivering Idaho’s official position to the agency, but I want to share it with all of you as well. Whether the standard is biological, social or political, it is time to remove the gray wolf from federal protection in the Northern Rocky Mountains. The federal government has stated repeatedly over the past decade that 300 wolves in the region would be a recovered, viable population. Today we have a wolf population more than four times that size. There is no reason to delay delisting. The government should declare victory and move on. Idahoans are proud stewards of the land and species of our state. Idaho is going to manage wolves as we do black bears and mountain lions. With estimated black bear and cougar populations of 20,000 and 3,000 respectively, Idaho has a proven record of responsible large carnivore management. We will continue this great record with wolves....
Global warming threatens polar bears, congressman says Calling the polar bear a victim of global warming, a Democratic congressman called on the U.S. government to protect "the beloved American icon" from the effects of the melting Arctic. "We cannot talk about this species without talking about global warming and its effect on the Arctic," Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., said in remarks prepared for a public hearing Monday night. "Today, polar bears, a beloved American icon, are at risk," said Inslee, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee and a leading advocate of aggressive action on global warming. A marine mammal, the polar bear is dependent on sea ice for survival. Yet as a result of climate change, "these magnificent creatures - which can swim at least 50 miles - have drowned and starved to death," Inslee said....
Rulings may force biotech impact studies A series of court decisions is calling into question the U.S. Agriculture Department's regulation of genetically engineered crops. Three rulings challenge the USDA's handling of field trials and its process to approve the widespread cultivation of biotech crops. Depending on the government's response, the cases could lead to a slowdown in commercialization of new transgenic varieties, experts say. One possible outcome: USDA could be required to conduct environmental-impact studies before approving some crops. Studies can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take years to complete. Biotech companies such as Pioneer Hi-Bred International and Monsanto Co. are using genetic engineering to make crops such as corn, soybeans and cotton resistant to insects and herbicides and better able to survive droughts. Companies also alter the genes of crops such as switchgrass that someday may be used to make ethanol....
Wild Boars Going Hog Wild In Oklahoma A Sallisaw man is in serious condition after his motorcycle collided with a wild boar on the Muskogee Turnpike Sunday night. Sixty-six year-old Curtis McGlothlin has head, arm and internal injuries. The News on 6’s Chris Wright reports those who trap wild boars say the hogs are running wild in Green Country. Only a decade ago, there were no wild hogs in our part of the state. But boar trappers say the animals have migrated from Southern Oklahoma, and they continue to multiply. Mark Palmatary arrived back at his ranch Monday afternoon with another trailer full of wild boars. He spent his day picking them up from ranchers and farmers who trapped them, and wanted to get rid of the animals. Palmatary runs the PH Farm Boar Hunting ranch in Pawnee. He releases the boars onto his property, and hunters pay $75 a day to hunt them. He says it is an effort to control the ever-growing wild hog population in the area. "Wild hogs have become a problem throughout all Oklahoma,” Palmatary said. “One of the things we try to do, this is one sufficient way to control the population."....
Cloned beef: It's what's for dinner Inside the unusually hushed atrium of Campanile, the guests lifted slices of beef onto their plates. Executive chef Mark Peel had prepared the porterhouse with fleur de sel and cracked black pepper before pan-searing it with a little canola oil — a simple preparation to highlight the meat's natural flavor. It was the centerpiece of a dinner party convened to taste the future of food. After years of research, meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring are moving toward supermarkets, restaurants and backyard barbecues. The Food and Drug Administration recently declared the fare safe to eat, although it took scientists 678 pages to make their case. They said the meat was so much like regular beef that special labeling would be unnecessary. The cloned meat, provided by the Collins Cattle ranch in Frederick, Okla., was accompanied by corresponding cuts of conventional beef. All were prepared in identical fashion. Peel's idea was to conduct a double-blind taste test — a 21st century version of the Pepsi Challenge....
Giltedge rancher tells story of unusual hide marking on heifer calf Becky, my wife, came in from night calving at 6:30 a.m. to have me go outside to see what was going on with a calf that had just been born. Becky wasn't sure about what she was seeing and wanted to be sure there wasn't a problem with the new calf. So, out the door we went to see the calf, camera in hand. When I first saw it, I thought it was frosted and so I went out of the truck with a towel to wipe the calf down, but on closer inspection I noticed the white spot in fact was just white hair. Becky and I then tagged the new little heifer with the name Comet, and I took a picture. At that time, Comet looked like her hide had been hit by a comet, so the name stuck. Two years later, I was out feeding cows and have my camera with me, as I do most of the time....
It’s The Pitts: United States Of Canada Somebody messed up. When the politicians and the mapmakers divided up North America longitudinally it was one of the worst mistakes of all time. Instead of a border running from East to West it should run from the North to the South. The Western United States would then be joined with British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Yukon and the Northwest Territory forming a new country which would then be called The United States of Canada. The eastern provinces and states would be united as a new country too... French North America. I am not suggesting this because I just want Canada's wealth... we already have quite a few of their best hockey players. It’s just that we westerners have much more in common. And I realize that this would create hardships for those good folks in the deep South who’d have to be forever linked to those damn Yankees. I’m terribly sorry that all my friends in the South would have to learn the metric system and how to speak French but, darn it, someone has to be willing to make such a sacrifice. The dividing line would be the Mississippi River and the Manitoba line. Iowa, Missouri, Louisiana and Arkansas would be sort of a demilitarized zone between the two new countries. Such a division would make it possible for Alaska to feel like it was more connected to the rest of us. And it would also mean that Canadian honkers could fly South for the winter without flying over foreign air space....

GOVERNMENT THINK

Postal Service fixes long waits by removing clocks

The missing clock didn't stop postal customer Al Cunningham from noticing the amount of time spent waiting for service. "It's always long here," said Cunningham, 49, an insurance adjuster and former postal employee who was standing in line at the Watson Post Office in Fort Worth. The Watson Post Office is one of the nation's 37,000 post offices in which clocks have been removed from retail areas as part of a "retail standardization program" launched last year. The effort is designed to give the public-service areas a more uniform appearance, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported in Thursday editions. "We want people to focus on postal service and not the clock," said Stephen Seewoester, Dallas spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service. At the Fort Worth post office, the hook that once held up the small battery-powered clock now protrudes from a plaster wall. The clock was taken down months ago....

NEWS ROUNDUP

Surface protection bill headed to governor's desk Lawmakers on Saturday sent the governor a bill containing protections for landowners who don't own the mineral rights below their property. The compromise legislation is the product of three years of negotiations involving cattle ranchers and the oil and gas industry. It had passed the House overwhelmingly three days earlier. The legislation requires oil and gas producers to reclaim the surface affected by their operations. Companies must notify landowners 30 days prior to operations, describe what will go on, and propose an agreement covering compensation for the use of, and any damages to, the land. Landowners would have 20 days to accept or reject those offers. If no agreement were reached, companies would have to post a bond before beginning operations. The bill also allows landowners to collect triple damages in court under some circumstances if operators enter land to drill wells without giving notice or having agreements or posting bonds....
Lawmakers taking aim at proposal for Pinon Southern Colorado ranchers and the Army are headed for their first legislative collision Tuesday over a bill that would withdraw state consent for the Army to use eminent domain to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site southwest of La Junta. HB1069 is sponsored by Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, and Sen. Ken Kester, R-Las Animas, and it would refuse the state's permission for the Defense Department to condemn land in order to expand the maneuver site. The legal impact of the bill, if approved by the Legislature, is less certain and may only be resolved in the courts. McKinley said Colorado law grants the federal government permission to use eminent domain, or condemnation, to acquire property for certain federal purposes. HB1069 would simply add a clause saying it could not be used to expand military training areas - meaning Pinon Canyon. "We can't take the power of eminent domain away from the federal government, but we have a state statute that governs what eminent domain can be used for," McKinley said. "State law also requires that any use of eminent domain be approved by the General Assembly as well."....
Piñon expansion a dust bowl threat If the Army succeeds in this land grab, it will control a staggering 1,000 square miles of fragile grasslands in this semi-arid region. So far, the response of state officials to this possible environmental disaster has been tepid at best, with Gov. Bill Ritter and Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar mostly urging the Army to expand only by buying land from willing sellers, not by federal eminent domain powers. Such quibbles miss the point. Much of the land the Army covets is in the Comanche National Grassland, which is administered by the U.S. Forest Service. Local ranchers do own some land within or adjacent to the federal holdings - but the majority of the ranching is done by leased grazing rights on federal land. The government doesn't need to use eminent domain; it can merely decide it won't let ranchers continue leasing federal land because it needs it to train armored brigades. But no matter how the land is acquired, there is a vast difference in the environmental consequences of a few cows roaming across these fields and hundreds of 60-ton Abrams tanks swerving wildly at 45 miles per hour, accompanied other heavy equipment. Southeastern Colorado doesn't have much rain, but it does have a lot of wind. If the tanks tear up the grasslands, the wind will blow the soil to Oklahoma - and leave a desert behind. This fragile area also includes irreplaceable parts of our national patrimony. The Picket Wire Canyon area, which contains 1,300 known dinosaur tracks, is estimated to harbor 20,000 more tracks as yet undiscovered. There are prehistoric Indian pictographs, other artifacts and portions of the Santa Fe Trail....
Battle rages over predator control In a recent 53-page petition to the Environmental Protection Agency, authored by the Boulder-based wildlife advocacy group Sinapu, the groups argue that animals with no interest in sheep, even family dogs, are killed by M-44s. Most troubling to activists are deaths involving rare species, such as California condors, wolves and, in one case, a grizzly bear. Petitioners argue that predators can be managed by non-lethal means, including better fencing and deploying more guard dogs - a method that Etchart conceded has cut lamb losses substantially. Opponents also suggest the poisons create terrorism risks, citing recent audits by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Inspector General that criticized the USDA for a poor job securing and tracking the toxins. "The larger question is why is the federal government scattering highly dangerous toxicants all across the country as a wildlife control strategy," said Wendy Keefover-Ring, of Sinapu. To ranchers, the activists' petition is another threat to their way of life. Long gone, they know, are the days when they called all the shots: running livestock unhindered and shooting, trapping and killing predators at will. But farmers and ranchers complain it's gone too far the other way....
Mange in the mountains The war on wolves took a strange twist in the winter of 1905. After two decades of paying bounties for hundreds of thousands of dead wolves in Montana, the Legislature approved a new law -- "to provide for the extermination of wolves and coyotes" -- dabbling in the emerging practice of biological warfare. The idea was simple and cheap: capture wolves and coyotes, infect them with mange and send them back into the wild. Eventually, the theory went, the animals would return to their packs and spread the highly contagious and sometimes fatal disease, which causes animals to itch so feverishly they lose hair. The disease, caused by a tiny skin-burrowing mite, can leave wolves emaciated, staggering and susceptible to hypothermia, infections and other health problems. Eastern Montana saw "unqualifiedly splendid results" and reports of hundreds of dead and diseased wolves, said Morton E. Knowles, state veterinarian at the time of the program. Now, 102 years after the Montana law was passed, the same disease is threatening wolves in the country's signature population in Yellowstone National Park. Earlier this winter, wolf biologists found the aging alpha male of Mollie's pack stricken with mange. About 40 percent of his body hair was gone. The 9-year-old wolf hasn't been seen for weeks and may already have died, park officials said. It's unclear exactly how he got it but, now that it has arrived in Yellowstone, there's a concern that it could take hold in the park population where wolves intermix regularly, said Doug Smith, leader of the Yellowstone wolf project....
Companies cash in on slash piles It used to be the stuff that went up in smoke after logging companies finished a job in the woods. Those tree tops, saplings, branches and needles loggers call slash were little more than a nuisance to be piled up and burned. With the advent of a growing interest in alternative energy, that's all changed. Companies are cashing in on slash. Pulling grinding machines deep into the woods, these ever-more-numerous entrepreneurs are chipping their way into the emerging market of biomass that's fueling boilers used to heat schools, generate electricity and dry lumber. “This is a market that's definitely growing,” said Bryan Vole, a forester with Tricon Timber in St. Regis. “My advice to loggers is don't burn those piles of slash. They're worth some money.” A few years back, Tricon Timber spent more than $500,000 on a grinding machine the size of a D-8 Caterpillar that can grind upward of 50 tons of slash every hour....
Forest Service Selling Four Houses at Auction in The Black Hills he Forest Service is hosting open houses to show 4 homes being sold in Deadwood, Spearfish, and Newcastle. The houses, which are no longer needed for management of the forest, will be sold at competitive auction hosted by the General Services Administration (GSA). The internet based auction will start Thursday, April 5, 2007. Proceeds from the auction will be used to design and construct new office space for the Hell Canyon Ranger District in Custer. Two very interesting 3 bedroom houses located at 33 Jackson Street in Deadwood will be sold as one property. These multi-level homes were constructed in 1935 in the historic district near Mt. Moriah Cemetery, and were used at one time as homes for the Forest Supervisor and the District Ranger. The houses are located on adjacent lots, with sandstone retaining walls, walkways, porches and patios. They share a two car stone garage at street level with underground tunnels into the basements of both houses. The Spearfish house at 1420 Canyon Street is in a residential neighborhood near the High School and Black Hills State University. It’s a three bedroom, 1 bath house with a partially finished basement. The total area is approximately 1800 square feet including the basement. In Newcastle, Wyoming, the home is located on 1516 Gray Blvd in a quiet residential neighborhood. The 1960 vintage house is frame construction over a full unfinished basement. It has three bedrooms and one bath on the ground floor, a large back yard, and has a detached two car garage with access to an alley behind the house....
Man survives eight hours under snow A Montana man was buried by an avalanche while he was in the hills on a snowmobile, but he survived eight hours under the snow and was rescued. Ryan Roberts of Creston said he thought he was going to die. 'I pretty much considered myself dead,' he told the Kalispell Inter Lake. 'I just said a quick prayer and got myself to be really calm, because that stuff`s like concrete.' Roberts was saved by his family, including his father and uncles, who spent Thursday night probing the snow looking for him. U.S. Forest Service rangers had told them that any official search would have to wait until morning. 'We looked at him and said, `Sorry. He`s my nephew. We`ve got to go,' his uncle, Dave Roberts said. Roberts was found by Dan Root, a longtime friend and distant cousin. Once he was dug out, his family used gasoline from their snowmobiles to fuel a bonfire to warm him up....The article Tardy searcher finds snowmobiler alive at first probe has a lot more info on the event and contains the following helpful info from the same Forest Service who's employee's wouldn't help in the search, "Ranger Jimmy DeHerrera of the U.S. Forest Service said the agency plans to cite Roberts and his companions for snowmobiling in the prohibited area. The maximum penalty is six months in jail, a $5,000 fine and snowmobile confiscation."
Shut out of Yellowstone? As the March deadline approaches for Yellowstone’s draft winter-use plan, comments and criticism regarding the proposal are heating up outside the park’s east gate. A diverse group of park winter users and others has banded together to raise awareness and their voices in opposition to park officials’ proposal to close Sylvan Pass to over-snow traffic due to safety and financial concerns. Shut Out of Yellowstone, chaired by Carol Armstrong, is a coalition of snowmobilers, ice climbers, Nordic skiers, business owners, dude ranchers, sportsmen and local officials concerned about economic harm from National Park Service decisions. “This is a multiple-use access issue for everyone,” Armstrong said. “This is the people’s park, and no one should be shut out.”....
Drought as the norm? The years leading up to the 1922 Colorado River Compact were exceptionally wet, according to tree-ring analysis that goes back almost 1,000 years. That meant that the politicians, water lawyers and engineers of the day thought the water supply “pie” was considerably bigger than the then-unknown historical norm. It was assumed that the annual average river flow was closer to 16.4 million-acre feet, rather than the average 15 million acre-feet that has been measured since then. Water use and the dynamic growth that drove 20th century water consumption in the basin was based on an erroneous assumption that the Colorado River Basin had plenty of water for a thirsty and rapidly growing West. A new study of the basin by the National Research Council indicates that the seven states in the basin -- Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming -- should plan for a much smaller “pie” because there’s a strong potential for extended and even more severe droughts in the future....
Forest Service commits $3.5 million for Valles Caldera U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici gained a commitment from the U.S. Forest Service to make $3.5 million available to operate the Valles Caldera Preserve and Trust through 2007. However, the two senators criticized the Bush Administration's FY2008 budget request as inadequate. The president requested only $850,000 for the northern New Mexico Preserve in the budget. Bingaman said if the Preserve were funded at that level, it might have to be closed for lack of resources. He said he remains concerned about the Forest Service's "lack of commitment to supporting the Preserve."....Come on Senator, surely you realize the Forest Service has no interest in seeing this alternative to outright Federal ownership succeeding.
Conservationists issue Western energy agenda Hoping to build on initiatives from the Democratic-controlled Congress and Western governors, several conservation groups have released a clean-energy manifesto that includes tougher environmental regulations and axing parts of the 2005 federal energy bill. Nearly 30 groups from the West are calling on Congress to repeal exemptions for the oil and gas industry from water-quality and environmental reviews and a mandate speeding up approval of permits for drilling on federal land. "As we develop our domestic fossil fuel sources, we need to do it right," said Elise Jones, executive director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition. "Our water supply, wildlife, public health, wild landscapes -- all of those are very important to the Western economy." The "2007 Western Energy Agenda" was released ahead of congressional hearings on energy development....
Alaska governor questions science of polar bear listing Officially, the state of Alaska has not decided whether to back a federal proposal to list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. But speaking at a federal hearing, Gov. Sarah Palin's point person on polar bears stopped just short of saying it was a lousy idea. Tina Cunnings, a biologist and a special assistant to the commissioner of the Department of Fish and Game, questioned whether polar bears really need sea ice to survive. She said polar bears are adaptable to use land for hunting, and though their preferred food, ice seals, may be declining, bears are adapting to alternative food sources. She also testified that a listing in the United States ultimately could harm bears in Canada because Inuit villagers would no longer have an incentive to preserve them for American hunters. An ESA listing would ban importation of polar bear trophy hides. "We are concerned that a listing of polar bears under ESA in the United States may actually be harmful for the conservation of polar bear populations internationally," she said....
Battered border They have become collateral damage along the badlands that define the Mexico-United States border. The Noah's ark of peril includes Mexican gray wolves, jaguars and Sonoran pronghorns, a federally listed endangered species that is the fastest land mammal in North America. But even it can't run away from the stampede of human economic desperation and drug smugglers traipsing through environmentally sensitive territory. Those along the front lines call it an "unintended consequence" of illegal immigration, but that doesn't begin to measure the chaotic ritual of survival that goes on every day: Native water areas drained dry or having become so foul that animals won't drink from it. Animals, with bean cans on their muzzle, suffocating to death. Calves cooked and eaten by trespassers. Piles of clothes, trash and human waste scattered everywhere, requiring clean-up crews to wear hazardous-waste disposal suits....
We Eat Horses, Don’t We? RECENTLY, an official for American Horse Defense Fund, which is a fervent supporter of bills now in the United States Congress that would ban slaughtering horses for meat, declared that “the foreign-owned slaughter industry needs to understand that Americans will never view horses as dinner.” It’s a ringing statement, but it’s not an entirely accurate one. As much public support as the anti-slaughter bills have and as highly as we regard this animal as a companion, co-worker and patriotic symbol, Americans have made periodic forays into horse country, hungry for an alternative red meat. During World War II and the postwar years, when beef and pork were scarce or priced beyond most consumers’ means, horsemeat appeared in the butcher’s cold case. In 1951, Time magazine reported from Portland, Ore.: “Horsemeat, hitherto eaten as a stunt or only as a last resort, was becoming an important item on Portland tables. Now there were three times as many horse butchers, selling three times as much meat.” Noting that “people who used to pretend it was for the dog now came right out and said it was going on the table,” the article provided tips for cooking pot roast of horse and equine fillets. A similar situation unfolded in 1973, when inflation sent the cost of traditional meats soaring. Time reported that “Carlson’s, a butcher shop in Westbrook, Conn., that recently converted to horsemeat exclusively, now sells about 6,000 pounds of the stuff a day.” The shop was evangelical in its promotion of horse as a main course, producing a 28-page guide called “Carlson’s Horsemeat Cook Book,” with recipes for chili con carne, German meatballs, beery horsemeat and more. While no longer in print, the book is catalogued on Amazon....
FDA may clear cattle drug despite warnings The government is on track to approve a new antibiotic to treat a pneumonia-like disease in cattle, despite warnings from health groups and a majority of the agency's own expert advisers that the decision will be dangerous - for people. The drug, called cefquinome, belongs to a class of highly potent antibiotics that are among medicine's last defence against several serious human infections. No drug from that class has ever been approved in the United States for use in animals. The American Medical Association and about a dozen other health groups warned the Food and Drug Administration that giving cefquinome to animals would probably speed the emergence of microbes resistant to that important class of antibiotic, as has happened with other drugs. Those super-microbes could then spread to people....
A fat wallet runs through it Not wanting his Ferrari's paint chipped by gravel, a landowner recently asked when workers from cash-strapped Wallowa County planned to pave the 21/2-mile road to his ranch. A homeowner near Wallowa Lake wanted county commissioners to do something about the manure from horses that people ride on the road outside her house. And just about every year, county officials have to explain to newcomers that the commotion of ranchers baling hay after midnight is sometimes necessary to guarantee enough dew to hold together the alfalfa leaves. The complaints underscore the potential for cultural collisions when well-heeled urbanites move to ranch country. Oregon State University researchers call it "amenity migration": People in search of lifestyle changes are flocking to the West and helping transform it into the fastest-growing region in America. The wealthiest are spending millions on "trophy ranches," where they fly in to fish, hunt and seek privacy, said Hannah Gosnell, an assistant geosciences professor at OSU. "These ranches they are buying are the biggest chunks of privately owned open space and habitat in the country," she said. In a new study, Gosnell and other researchers found that amenity buyers acquired almost 40 percent of ranches that changed hands in a four-state area around Yellowstone National Park. Only 26 percent of the sales went to traditional buyers who planned to earn their livelihoods raising cattle....
Stray cows rustle neighbors Folks say fences make for good neighbors, and in DeSoto County, there are apparently quite a few that need mending. Just ask Steve Phanco, whose family owns a large cattle ranch along the Peace River near County Road 760, and the DeSoto County Sheriff's Office. Phanco recently became embroiled in a dispute with a sheriff's special deputy who was working to impound stray nuisance cattle near the ranch late last month. The dispute rose to the level of accusations of trespassing, and suspicion of cattle rustling. The dispute erupted Feb. 24, as Phanco was driving around the far reaches of the ranch. Suddenly, he encountered several cowboys on horseback in a wooded area near the Peace River. To Phanco, it looked like the cowboys had been rounding up a small herd of what some call "river cows" -- nearly wild cattle that had been left untended for the past couple of years....
Barbed ire: Flap over land turns ranch life prickly The Christmas cards stopped last December, about six months after the first lawsuit was filed. "It's sad when you think people are your friends and neighbors and then something like this comes out of the blue," said Margaret Lamb, 87, of Creede. She is the matriarch of a pioneer family snared in a tangle of lawsuits over land that is the crown jewel of their ranch in the Upper Rio Grande Valley. The Lambs filed suit in May, asking the courts to determine ownership of 8.2 acres of their Soward Ranch. The lawsuit was filed, they said, after their neighbor announced his intention to move a fence to claim the tract, although the fence has been the boundary between the two ranches since 1894. The seeds of the dispute were sewn more than 100 years ago by a government more interested in converting land into cash than in the precision of its surveys. It's a story likely to be replayed again and again, as 19th-century errors are forced to light in 21st-century disputes....
Dinosaur named after Alberta rancher A recently discovered species of dinosaur has been named in honour of an Alberta rancher in recognition of his efforts to help fossil hunters. News of the discovery, Albertaceratops nesmoi, was published in this month's Journal of Paleontology by Michael Ryan, curator of vertebrate paleontology for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Mr. Ryan was a graduate student at the University of Calgary and was camping on Cecil Nesmo's property when he dug up the fossil six years ago. “It's quite an honour for me,” said Mr. Nesmo, 62, who's lived for 58 years on a ranch near Manyberries, a small town about 290 km southeast of Calgary....
Hall of fame horseman Brett Davis has international reputation as trainer of cutting horses In the days when the title of cowboy was a pretty broad job description, Brett Davis of Red Lick, Texas, would have been right at home on the range. His love of horses and people and his respect for Old West tradition would have made him first-rate at driving cattle, working ranches and showcasing his well-trained horses. Davis’ cutting horse riding and training talents were honored in December when he was inducted as a rider into the National Cutting Horse Association Hall of Fame headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. “My mom got remarried when I was 18, and my stepdad was a horse enthusiast who introduced me to the sport of cutting horses,” Davis said. “I decided right then it was what I wanted to do for a living. He introduced me to a few people and I spent the next six years apprenticing with some good trainers before I took off on my own.” Davis trained under respected cutting horse trainers. Horsemen Punk Carter of Salina, Texas, and Pat Earnhart of Hernando, Miss., prepared Davis for what has turned out to be a satisfying, well-paid profession. Carter gave Davis schooling from the ground up, teaching the young man how to break, train and evaluate horseflesh. Earnhart taught him “how to win,” Davis said....
Texas authors are doing it for themselves A big full moon hung over the Panhandle that spring night in 1878. Charlie Newell, returning from Dodge City to his ranch on Palo Duro Creek in what is now Hansford County, had bedded down near his wagon. But someone else was up late, taking advantage of the moonlight to steal his mules. As Newell searched for the missing animals the next morning, someone, presumably the mule thief, shot him from ambush. The bullet mangled Newell's right arm. Six days later, the post surgeon at nearby Fort Elliott removed it to keep Newell from dying of gangrene. When his creditors heard he had been laid up, two of them sued Newell. Then he found out his wife had run off with another man. That might read like the synopsis of a Western, but it's actually a summary of "Charlie Newell Shot!" (Amber Quill Press, $29.95; 828 West Park Ave., Hereford, 79045-4002), a new biography about a Texas pioneer no one had ever heard of before Hereford writer Cleon Roberts started digging. Roberts shows that Newell was the Panhandle's first rancher, a distinction normally attributed to the legendary Charles Goodnight. Newell was no Goodnight, but he led an interesting life and Roberts has done a fine job of drawing on long-forgotten account books, newspapers, legal records and family material in recreating it....

Who left Murphy in charge?

By Julie Carter

There is a school of thought that God is a cowboy. He certainly gets his share of "calls" during a cowboy's life and likely is the only one that has even a clue of how to get everybody out of the wrecks He gets invited to.

Now Murphy, on the other hand, is a full-time, large and in charge participant in every cowboy working. You all recall the dude called Murphy. He's the guy in charge of "everything that can go wrong will go wrong."

A cowboy won't ever have water problems when the weather is pleasant. The high heat of June seems to bring out the worst in pipelines and pumps while cattle lay shaded up at waterholes living for the next drink.

A January day when it is snowing sideways at 45 mph will almost guarantee a well that quits pumping.

General philosophy is if your water storage tank is full, the submersible pump will last 30 years.

Let the tank get below half and you may as well plan on calling the well man and hauling water until he can fit you into his schedule.

Cowboying is the only profession in the world where being "day help" is considered a career.

One must bear in mind that there is a reason day help does not have a steady job. When employing day help, one needs to remember that "day" does not mean the entire day to said help.

The fact that most "day help" won't work past dinner may account for the majority of the 3 p.m. lunches served at the ranch.

If the importance of the job to be done by the day help is red-flag high priority, you can count on him to show up riding a colt so green he can't turn him around in a four-section pasture and one that is guaranteed to buck through the middle of shipping pen just before you weigh the cattle.

Murphy almost always stands in the gate, in the way.

Except of course if you need someone to block the gate to keep cattle from escaping, then Murphy has gone to the pickup to get another can of chewing tobacco.

At ranch headquarters, Murphy is a regular visitor.

The minute company shows up, the toilet quits flushing properly and the cattle at the corrals will break the float on the drinker, draining the storage tank so everybody, corrals and house, is out of water.

Try to do anything at the corrals in your boots and nightie, thinking you are the only soul within 50 miles, and everybody you haven't seen in six months will decide to drop by just as daylight sneaks over the hill.

Drive anywhere in that same get-up and you've guaranteed yourself mechanical vehicle failure and a long walk home.

Again, a road never traveled will find the neighbor moseying by, and of course, he'll kindly offer you a ride. Looking the neighbor in the eye the next time you meet is nearly impossible.

Headed to a meeting, a funeral or a command performance at the bank?

Murphy will assure you don't get off the ranch without first birthing a problem baby calf in the heifer pen or changing a flat tire.

And that, only after finding a jack that works, a lug wrench that fits and a spare tire that isn't flat, too.

It is at this point when you ask God to send Murphy to town. You're too tired to go.

© Julie Carter 2007

OPINION/COMMENTARY


How much land should the government own?

Government – at every level – is addicted to land acquisition. Local, state and federal governments are buying up land as if the last acre had already been created. In a nation that was founded on the belief that private property is sacred – and which limited its federal government to own only 100 square miles of land and that which could be purchased from the states with the approval of the state legislature, and then only for "needful buildings" – why have governments gone on a land-buying binge in recent years? The answer, invariably, will take some form of the misguided notion, "... to protect it for future generations." Every acre of land acquired by government, beyond that necessary for public buildings, highways, utilities, military bases and the like, is actually stealing from future generations. When government owns the land, future generations cannot own it. Future generations cannot build a home on it. Future generations cannot farm or ranch or log or mine or do anything with it. Future generations can only walk on it, if the government permits it, after paying a fee for the privilege. Government land ownership is not protecting the land for future generations; it is protecting land from future generations.


Bureaucrats: "Don't know much about [the Constitution]"

On March 19, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Wilkie v. Robbins, a case from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Denver, Colorado, regarding whether federal bureaucrats are liable for violating a citizen’s constitutional rights. Among the rather technical, legalistic questions before the Court—such as whether RICO (the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) and a Bivens claim (pertaining to constitutional violations by federal employees) apply in the case—is this stunning question posed by government lawyers: Whether the right to exclude others from property is sufficiently established that federal employees should know, when they retaliate against an owner for excluding them, that they are violating his constitutional rights! How can federal lawyers, who have taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution, claim that federal bureaucrats do not know it is wrong to retaliate against a person for exercising his constitutional rights? Perhaps a little background is in order. Harvey Frank Robbins owns the High Island Ranch, a cattle and guest ranch in Hot Springs County, Wyoming. In 1994, Mr. Robbins’ predecessor granted the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) an easement to use a road that crossed the ranch, which the BLM wanted to access other federal land, in exchange for a limited right-of-way to use that same road where it crossed BLM land. He recorded his right-of-way; however, the BLM failed to record its easement. Unaware of the unrecorded easement, Mr. Robbins later purchased the ranch and, thereby, under Wyoming law, automatically extinguished the BLM’s easement. Upon learning that its easement had been extinguished, the BLM demanded that Mr. Robbins grant it an easement without compensation. When he refused, BLM employees began a campaign of threats, harassment, and intimidation to coerce him into relinquishing his rights to exclude the federal government from his private property....


Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says

Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes have a natural—and not a human- induced—cause, according to one scientist's controversial theory. Mars, too, appears to be enjoying more mild and balmy temperatures. In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row. Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of the St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun. "The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars," he said. Abdussamatov believes that changes in the sun's heat output can account for almost all the climate changes we see on both planets. Mars and Earth, for instance, have experienced periodic ice ages throughout their histories. "Man-made greenhouse warming has made a small contribution to the warming seen on Earth in recent years, but it cannot compete with the increase in solar irradiance," Abdussamatov said....


An Early Environmentalist, Embracing New ‘Heresies’ Stewart Brand has become a heretic to environmentalism, a movement he helped found, but he doesn’t plan to be isolated for long. He expects that environmentalists will soon share his affection for nuclear power. They’ll lose their fear of population growth and start appreciating sprawling megacities. They’ll stop worrying about “frankenfoods” and embrace genetic engineering. In addition to publishing the Whole Earth Catalog, he organized the first Hackers Conference, in 1984, and helped found The WELL, the early electronic community that was a sort of prototype of the Web. In Professor Turner’s history, he was the impresario who knew everyone and brought the counterculture and the cyberculture together, from the Homebrew Computer Club in the 1970s to Wired magazine in the 1990s. He is now promoting environmental heresies, as he called them in Technology Review. He sees genetic engineering as a tool for environmental protection: crops designed to grow on less land with less pesticide; new microbes that protect ecosystems against invasive species, produce new fuels and maybe sequester carbon. He thinks the fears of genetically engineered bugs causing disaster are as overstated as the counterculture’s fears of computers turning into Big Brother. “Starting in the 1960s, hackers turned computers from organizational control machines into individual freedom machines,” he told Conservation magazine last year. “Where are the green biotech hackers?”...,


'Global Warming'

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism, by Christopher C. Horner, Washington, DC: Regnery, Jan 2007, 350pp softback, $20. What a shame that this penetrating, sarcastic yet accurate polemic has to be made available as something "politically incorrect." Since it was written by a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, this by itself might have been enough to make an old "tree-hugger" avoid it. Part I is an exposé of the true motivations of today’s self-proclaimed enviros, who are shown to take seriously the line: "We’re from the government, and we’re here to help you!" Their priorities are shown by Horner to be global government, tight controls over individuals, and, very oddly for Americans, leveling the playing field for business by transferring wealth from developed countries to the rest. This is shown to be the only result so far among the 15 countries participating in the Kyoto Treaty to lower carbon dioxide emissions. Actually the Treaty is said to be aimed at lowering carbon dioxide concentrations, which is a stretch. Emissions among the 15 have not been lowered at all, but wealth has been transferred. Since human-caused warming has little basis in science, as shown below, enviro beliefs must be considered to be a strange religion, according to Horner. Claims of consensus for the enviros’ alarmist views are dismissed by showing how certain literature searches were woefully incomplete and how many climatologists with credentials, as well as other scientists, do not agree with the alarmist view even though they are not "Holocaust deniers." Part II deals with the claims made for the effect of carbon dioxide on "global warming." Changes in near-surface temperatures of the Earth are presented in clear form with adequate graphs....


SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT; KILL A FEDERAL PROGRAM

In an effort to serve as a model of efficiency, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) recently suggested that a first step in reducing greenhouse gases would be to require that federal buildings use more efficient light bulbs and ask federal bureaucrats to turn off their computers at night, says the Wall Street Journal.

Sen. Boxer's proposals finally represent a good idea for environmental efficiency, says the Journal. The U.S. government is currently one of the most inefficient energy users, which comes at a high cost:

* According to a 1999 report by the Alliance to Save Energy, the federal government consumes about 32 percent more energy per square foot than the nation's building stock at large, this inefficiency costs taxpayers an estimated $1 billion a year.
* The U.S. Government Accountability Office reports that from 1980 to 1996 the Department of Energy alone wasted away more than $10 billion on programs that were terminated before completion.
* The Senate Government Reform Committee has identified more than $200 billion of budget savings by eliminating redundant and wasteful federal activities.

Of course, it follows from all this that the best way to make the federal government more energy efficient would be to undertake a government-wide policy of lights out permanently, says the Journal. Save the environment; kill a federal program.

Source: Editorial, "Uncle Sam's Greenhouse Gases," Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2007.

For text:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117280577393624430.html


OSCAR AND THE GROUCH

Although Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth," and its opus -- built around the premise that Greenland's 630,000 cubic miles of ice is melting -- won an Oscar, it's not based in reality, says Investor's Business Daily (IBD).

Consider:

* Satellite data published in the November 2005 issue of Science did show that Greenland was losing about 25 cubic miles of ice per year, meaning Greenland was shedding ice at the rate of only about 0.4 percent per century.
* Earlier this month, Science published another paper showing that the recent acceleration of Greenland's ice loss had suddenly reversed.
* According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, at the 2005 rate, Greenland's ice loss would have contributed less than an inch to sea level rise during the 21st century.

Additionally:

* An earlier study published in Science by Ola Johannessen of the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, found that ice was actually accumulating on Greenland's interior glaciers.
* British environmental analyst Lord Christopher Monckton says the Greenland ice sheet grew an average extra thickness of 2 inches a year from 1993 to 2003.
* A study published by the National Center for Policy Analysis reported that not only had the Greenland ice mass grown, but that average summer temperatures at the summit of the Greenland ice sheet have decreased 4 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since the late 1980s.

Further, Petr Chylek of the department of physics and atmospheric science at Dalhousie University notes that Gore in his movie suggests the Greenland melt area increased considerably between 1992 and 2005. But, as Chylek points out, 1992 was exceptionally cold in Greenland and if Gore had chosen for comparison the year 1991, he would have to conclude that the ice sheet melt area is shrinking and that perhaps a new Ice Age is just around the corner.

Source: Editorial, "Oscar And The Grouch," Investor's Business Daily, February 27, 2007.

For text: http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=257387017974717

FLE

Feds seeking 7 years for another Texas cop The federal government has recommended a seven-year prison term for Gilmer Hernandez, a Texas deputy sheriff who drew grass-roots support after he was convicted for violating the civil rights of a fleeing illegal alien, WND has learned. In a case prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton in El Paso, who also led the high-profile prosecution of former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, Hernandez was charged after stopping a van full of illegals for running a stop sign April 14, 2005, in Rocksprings, Texas. The driver attempted to run over Hernandez, prompting the officer to fire his weapon at the rear tires. A bullet fragment hit a Mexican national, Marciela Rodriguez Garcia, in the mouth, cutting her lip and breaking two teeth. Hernandez's boss, Deputy Don Lettsinger, told WND he considers the sentencing guidelines severe, especially since he believes "Deputy Hernandez should never have been indicted for this incident in the first place."....
Bush in a quandary over border agents' case For weeks, defenders of the two former Border Patrol agents imprisoned for shooting a Mexican drug trafficker have bombarded the White House with calls, e-mails and petitions. Their demand is straightforward: A presidential pardon for a pair of Texans they view as heroes persecuted for doing their jobs. "This is a terrible injustice, and I urge you to use your considerable authority and power to pardon these two agents and right this obvious wrong!" reads a petition from Grassfire.org, a conservative Web site that claims more than 337,000 people have signed the online form. But the issue is far from simple for President Bush, who is being asked to wade into a highly controversial case where even the most basic facts are in dispute. The quandary for the president: Whether to side with former Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos or with the prosecutors who contend they were rogue officers who wounded a fleeing, unarmed man and then concealed evidence....
Bush policy turns Mesa airport into deportation hub One by one the immigration detainees stepped off buses onto the tarmac as dawn broke one recent chilly morning. After deputy U.S. marshals pat searched each one, the detainees climbed single file aboard a large unmarked jetliner waiting nearby. With all 118 aboard, the engines roared to life. Some passengers pressed their faces against the oval windows, snatching a last glimpse of the United States before being deported to Honduras and Guatemala. The scene is repeated almost daily at Williams Gateway Airport, the busiest air deportation hub in the nation, as the federal government ramps up efforts to quickly deport record numbers of non-Mexican undocumented immigrants to their home countries. The taxpayer-funded flights have helped cut deportation times by months, removing about 51,300 non-Mexicans from Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 30, 2006, mostly to countries in Central and South America, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. The flights, part of the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System, have been key to ending the government's long-standing policy of releasing thousands of non-Mexicans into the U.S. pending immigration hearings and serve as a deterrent to illegal immigration, officials say....
Armed smugglers fighting it out An unwelcome set of neighbors is encroaching on this Southern Arizona community known more for its artisans and golf course than its proximity to the border — armed drug smugglers and violent bandits. The presence of more than 500 Border Patrol agents and dozens of National Guard observation posts has congested the Nogales corridor, pinching off routes and forcing drug smugglers into the rugged mountains east and west of Interstate 19 in the greater Tubac area from Tumacacori to Amado. A November decision to station a semi-permanent checkpoint north of Tubac at kilometer 42 on Interstate 19 has created smuggling routes flanking the area as drug runners transport their loads north of the inspection spot. The drug runners, or burreros, or aren't alone on the trails, either. Armed ripoff teams, or bajadores, have become increasingly brazen in the past two years in their attempts to steal loads of drugs and people from smugglers. "They rip off each other; they shoot at each other; the stakes are higher now," said Lt. Raul Rodriguez, commander of criminal investigations for the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office. "With more enforcement, surveillance, you are going to create a lot more activity." Four murders and nine attempted homicides have occurred on the smuggling trails in the area in the past two years, including a recent surge of activity in the Aliso Springs area west of Tubac, Rodriguez said. Since August, Santa Cruz County sheriff's investigators and Border Patrol agents have responded more than 20 times to smuggling and banditry activity near Aliso Springs, including a shootout between smugglers and bandits on Jan. 15 and an exchange of gunfire between a Border Patrol agent and a smuggler last week....
6 Border Soldiers Become U.S. Citizens Six National Guard troops deployed to the Mexican border became U.S. citizens Friday, apparently the first troops to take advantage of expedited citizenship rules while deployed to help keep illegal immigrants out. The six members of the Texas National Guard were deployed to aid the U.S. Border Patrol after President Bush called for 6,000 troops on the southwest border in May. PFC Fabiola Jimenez, who came to the United States legally with her family when she was a teenager, said she had joined the National Guard in part because she knew it would expedite her citizenship application. Jimenez and three others sworn in are believed to be the first to become eligible for expedited citizenship because of their work helping to guard the U.S.-Mexico border, said Master Sgt. Adolfo Gonzales, a Texas National Guard spokesman. Two of the guardsmen previously served in Iraq and were eligible after being activated for those deployments. Nearly 25,000 military service members on active duty since Sept. 11, 2001, have taken advantage of an executive order signed in 2002 allowing active military personnel deployed for anti-terrorism duties to immediately apply for citizenship, skipping the previous one-year service period....
At councilman's urging, police may let in Border Patrol On Wednesday, Escondido Police Chief Jim Maher is scheduled to present a revised police policy to the council – one that, based on his earlier comments, he disagrees with. The policy would include inviting the Border Patrol to work with Escondido police at routine DUI, driver's license and seat belt checkpoints, as well as during other operations, such as prostitution sweeps. Maher was asked to revise the policy by City Councilman Sam Abed, who yesterday said the policy would “aggressively” encourage the deportation of illegal immigrants “who commit crimes in our city – anything from major crimes to domestic violence to driving under the influence to driving without a license and to driving without insurance.” If approved, Escondido police would be the only law enforcement agency in the county with such a policy, a survey by The San Diego Union-Tribune found....
Government red-light runners cost $8,000 in Houston fines Houston's new red-light cameras nabbed more than 100 government and school vehicles since the enforcement program began last fall, resulting in about $8,000 in fines, police records show. Metro and school buses, police cruisers and public works trucks were among the vehicles caught running red lights, according to data released under the Texas Public Information Act. The citations represent a tiny fraction of the 34,000 violators cited since September, but they are unwelcome to the agencies involved and have resulted in disciplinary action against some drivers....