NEWS ROUNDUP
U.S. Supreme Court rebukes Bush administration on greenhouse gas emissions The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the federal government on Monday to take a fresh look at regulating carbon dioxide emissions from cars, a rebuke to Bush administration policy on global warming. In a 5-4 decision, the court said the Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from cars. Greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the landmark environmental law, Justice John Paul Stevens said in his majority opinion. The court's four conservative justices - Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas - dissented. The court had three questions before it. -Do states have the right to sue the EPA to challenge its decision? -Does the Clean Air Act give EPA the authority to regulate tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases? -Does EPA have the discretion not to regulate those emissions? The court said yes to the first two questions. On the third, it ordered EPA to re-evaluate its contention it has the discretion not to regulate tailpipe emissions. The court said the agency has so far provided a "laundry list" of reasons that include foreign policy considerations....Go here to read the opinion.
Ruling Undermines Lawsuits Opposing Emissions Controls Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling on carbon dioxide emissions largely shredded the underpinning of other lawsuits trying to block regulation of the emissions and gave new momentum to Congressional efforts to control heat-trapping gases linked to climate change. The arguments rejected by the court have been invoked in other legal challenges, including a case pending in California in which auto industry trade groups argue against that state’s law controlling carbon-dioxide emissions from cars, and one in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where electric utilities are fighting the E.P.A.’s authority to regulate their emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide. Both cases had been stayed awaiting yesterday’s ruling. “This flips the debate from an environment in which Congress must act if there is to be federal action,” said Tim Profeta, the director of the Nicholas Institute for the Environment at Duke University, “to one in which the E.P.A. can act as soon as an administration friendly to the concept is in power.” “If there is a President Clinton or President McCain,” Mr. Profeta added, “he or she doesn’t have to go to Congress to get action.”....
Editorial - Jolly Green Justices(subscription) The current Supreme Court is a talented group of jurists, but until yesterday we didn't think their expertise ran to climatology. The Justices would have done better in their big global warming decision if they'd stuck more closely to the law. They showed no such modesty. In Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, a narrow majority managed to diminish the rules of judicial standing, rewrite the definition of "pollutant" under the Clean Air Act, and dramatically curtail the decision-making authority of the executive branch. And judging from Justice John Paul Stevens's 5-4 majority decision, they did so because the five Justices are personally anxious about rising temperatures. As Justice Antonin Scalia noted in dissent, the "Court's alarm over global warming" has led it to substitute "its own desired outcome" for the EPA's judgment. The five Supreme climatologists granted Al Gore's fondest wish by declaring that "the harms associated with climate change are serious and well recognized." The majority warned about a "precipitous rise in sea levels," "severe and irreversible changes to natural ecosystems" and "increases in the spread of disease." The Court used all of this not-so-inadvertent opining to justify its conclusion that CO2 is indeed a "pollutant." The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to regulate "any air pollutant" from cars that might "endanger public health or welfare," though the majority took the widest view that the definition includes any "physical, chemical" substance that goes in the air. (Next up: oxygen.) Justice Scalia poked fun at this reasoning, noting Webster's definition of "pollute" is "to make or render impure or unclean" -- which might apply to sulfur dioxide or other dirty gases but not a product of human respiration that resides in the upper atmosphere. In any case, isn't this something for Congress to decide?....
Ethanol-blend auto emissions no greener than gasoline: study An unpublished federal report appears to undermine the belief that commercially available ethanol-blended fuel produces cleaner emissions than regular gasoline. Many Canadians believe filling up with ethanol-blended gasoline reduces the emission of greenhouse gases that damage the environment. Advertising sponsored by the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association encourages the idea, telling Canadians renewable fuels are "good for the environment," and even some provincial governments, including Manitoba and Saskatchewan, say the fuel "burns cleaner" than gasoline. Scientists at Environment Canada studied four vehicles of recent makes, testing their emissions in a range for driving conditions and temperatures. "Looking at tailpipe emissions, from a greenhouse gas perspective, there really isn't much difference between ethanol and gasoline," said Greg Rideout, head of Environment Canada's toxic emissions research. "Our results seemed to indicate that with today's vehicles, there's not a lot of difference at the tailpipe with greenhouse gas emissions." The study found no statistical difference between the greenhouse gas emissions of regular unleaded fuel and 10 per cent ethanol blended fuel. Although the study found a reduction in carbon monoxide, a pollutant that forms smog, emissions of some other gases, such as hydrocarbons, actually increased under certain conditions....
Flame-plagued summers in forecast Fiery summers will likely become common in Colorado as the planet warms, according to researchers preparing the latest chapter of an international climate change assessment. The chapter - detailing the observed and forecast effects of climate change worldwide - is scheduled to be released by the United Nations on Friday. Blazing Western wildfires, a consequence of warming drying the region, could be one of the costliest impacts here, climate experts said in a telephone press conference Monday. "The U.S. Forest Service last year spent $1 billion on fire, on fire response," said Anthony Janetos, director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute, at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Maryland. Fire seasons today are two months longer than they were in the 1970s, according to 2006 research, and wildfires destroy 6.5 times as much land....Looks like we are being set up. A bad fire season will be because of global warming, and not because of Forest Service management, or non-management of the resource.
Forest plan's critics suppressed, judge rules The Bush administration illegally suppressed and misrepresented the views of dissenting scientists when it eased logging restrictions under the Northwest Forest Plan, a federal judge in Seattle has ruled. In his ruling late Friday, U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez struck down the administration's change to the forest plan, which governs logging on 24 million acres of federal lands in Washington, Oregon and Northern California. "Here, the dissenting views of responsible scientists were neither set forth in substance, nor their import discussed," as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, Martinez wrote. Under the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan's Aquatic Conservation Strategy, before federal agencies could approve logging, road building or other projects, they had to determine that the projects would not harm watersheds. That wording, designed to protect salmon, had held up timber activities on 4 million acres designated for logging. In March 2004, the Bush administration dropped the wording at the request of the timber industry....
Editorial - Value of a forest: Federal ruling is a victory for conservation Trees are renewable by human cultivation in a relatively short time. But forests, especially old-growth forests, are not. Once a forest is degraded or destroyed by logging, drilling, mining or grazing, it could take many decades, even centuries, for nature to restore its beauty, its ecosystems and its value as a watershed. That is if nature were ever again allowed to take its own course. Worse, the extinction of plant and animal species is irreversible. That's why any American who has stood quietly in a forest and felt the power of its sensuous and spiritual pull should be delighted at a ruling by a federal district court. The ruling overturns the Bush administration's misbegotten forest rules that cut back on environmental reviews and protection of wildlife. The Bush rules, issued two years ago, also would wrongly limit public participation in forest management plans. The pro-business Bush environmental rules are an attempt to dismantle a policy for national forests and grasslands dating to the Reagan administration. Those long-standing rules require government agencies to maintain viable numbers of plants and wildlife, particularly endangered species. They also demand careful analysis of the impact of any commercial use of public forests and grassland....
How fast on the Anticline? Scientists and environmental groups' consultants say a proposal to dramatically increase natural gas drilling on the Pinedale Anticline is rushed and lacks assurances the environment will be protected. Industry representatives, meanwhile, say the intense, year-round development would allow extraction of gas to be over more quickly, meaning areas could be reclaimed faster. They also say their plans call for use of technologies and practices intended to reduce impact to the environment. The nearly 200,000-acre Pinedale Anticline is one of the biggest natural gas resources in the country, holding about 25 trillion cubic feet of gas -- enough to heat 10 million homes for 30 years. The area also contains prime habitat for wildlife....
Professor Emeritus: Have We ‘Nuked’ Pinedale’s Big Game Herds? Here we are, 30-plus years later, still trying to extort energy from the gas-bearing formation known as the Pinedale Anticline, or locally the Mesa, an area of approximately 200,000 acres. I recently analyzed the Bureau of Land Management’s plans for energy development on the Mesa. The Mesa is home to a number of sagebrush-dependent wildlife species and provides crucial winter range for mule deer and pronghorn. During the last five years, several hundred wells have been developed on the Anticline causing direct loss of more than two percent of these winter ranges. Although two percent seems like a relatively small number, scientifically credible studies have documented major shifts in mule deer distributions and a 46 percent reduction in deer numbers. Researchers attribute much of this decline to wellfield activities, direct impacts to the very best habitat and indirect effects from animals avoiding areas near development. We have less data for pronghorn but studies do indicate that survival rates are lower for pronghorn exposed to energy development activities compared to those not exposed. Based on my own research, I believe impacts to pronghorn are probably as great if not greater than those reported for mule deer. Yet, even in the face of this evidence, the BLM is proposing to expand drilling activities on crucial winter ranges with an additional 4,000 wells....
Ariz. Cactus to Remain on Species List A cactus that has been a thorn in the side of southern Arizona developers for more than a decade will remain under federal protection after a review of the plant's status. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's recent decision to keep the Pima pineapple cactus on the federal endangered species list means that new developments will have to save open space for it in fast-growing Tucson suburbs. Some private biologists had argued that the Pima pineapple cactus is far more common than previously estimated and should be lumped with other, more common pineapple cacti varieties. But wildlife service officials said two studies from a private consulting firm questioning the listing were faulted by the federal agency's scientists and all but one of 14 outside scientists. For one, the service said, the consultants used cactus survey methods that would tend to "bias" the survey data toward making the population seem more abundant than it is. The species lives only in southern and southeastern Arizona and in part of Mexico....
Alaska Senate opposes polar bear listing The state Senate is on record opposing the federal listing of polar bears as a threatened species. The Senate Friday voted 12 to 5 in favor of the resolution, which was introduced the same day. A similar resolution is pending in the House. Fairbanks Republican Gary Wilken says he is concerned that the listing does not have the proper scientific backing. And he says it could be used to halt subsistence activities and resource development in the state. The Palin and Murkowski administrations are also on record opposing the listing. The Fish and Wildlife Service's review comes amid concerns that global warming is melting away the sea ice where the animals live. In December, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne proposed listing polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. A final decision on the listing is due by January 2008....
Rare bearpoppy gains protection in patch at Nellis Air Force Base Nellis Air Force Base is setting aside more than 230 acres as protected habitat for the rare Las Vegas bearpoppy, a fuzzy-leafed plant with yellow flowers that grows only in gypsum soils primarily in Clark County. The bearpoppy, which depends on a ground-dwelling bee for pollination, is considered a critically endangered species in Nevada and is on the state's list of protected species, said Jim Morefield, a botanist with the Nevada Natural Heritage Program. The plant is not on federal threatened or endangered species lists because Nevada has taken steps to protect habitat where it grows at Nellis, North Las Vegas Airport and Springs Preserve. Morefield told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The base set-aside is under a permit from the Nevada Division of Forestry that allows Nellis to develop other property on the base for military housing and flood detention basins....
Support Eroding for Rep. Frank Wolf's Journey Through Hallowed Ground Heritage Area Support for Congressman Frank Wolf's controversial Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area Act (H.R. 319) continues to erode, reports The National Center for Public Policy Research. Two Congressmen are cosponsoring an alternative measure that, unlike Wolf's bill, would protect property owners. Congressman Virgil Goode (R-VA), who had cosponsored the Wolf initiative in the previous Congress, has chosen not to do so in the current Congress. Both Rep. Goode and Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA) recently decided to cosponsor an alternative Heritage Area proposal put forth by Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD). Bartlett's bill (H.R. 1270) promises to protect property rights and limited local government where the Wolf bill would endanger both. Specifically, Rep. Wolf's legislation would create a 175-mile long preservation zone, stretching from central Virginia (Rep. Goode's district) through Maryland (Rep. Bartlett's district) to southern Pennsylvania (Rep. Bill Shuster's district), where land use and property rights could be restricted. The bill would give the National Park Service and preservation interest groups, many with a history of hostility towards property rights, substantial influence over land use planning in the region. The interest groups and the Park Service would create a land use "management plan" for the area, and then disburse federal moneys to local governments to promote the plan. Congressman Bartlett's measure would also create a National Heritage Area. However, it would focus more on bestowing special recognition upon the area and promoting historic education and tourism within the region. Unlike the Wolf bill, the Bartlett plan would not earmark millions of dollars for wealthy special interests, nor give those interests undue influence over local land use decisions....
GIS technology maps people and planet Aerial mapping is not new, but it wasn't until we acquired the vertical distance of orbital satellites that we could get a true overview of the terrain. Over here, for example, the entire length of the Missouri River, tributaries like roots of a tree; there, the whole meandering line of knuckled humps that is the Blue Ridge Mountains. GIS combines these overhead views with digitized data sets based on what's happening in a place. Think of taking a high-altitude photograph of the ground, then laying on it a series of transparent sheets, each scattered with differently-colored dots or shadings that signify a certain amount or quality of something. As the layers add up, a mosaic emerges, with patterns that reveal a great deal. If you're modeling a river system, you might sample various aspects of the waterway at many points and assemble a multi-dimensional portrait of river depth, fish populations, human activities along the banks, and pollutant presence. Adding the first data overlay, you might discover that where there are lots of red dots signifying pollution, there aren't many green dots signifying fish. Another layer, with black dots for industrial plants and yellow dots for apple orchards, reveals a surprise: The red pollution dots concentrate near the apple orchards. Deduction: The pollutants aren't of industrial origin but are, say, pesticide runoff from agriculture. Solution: Determine how to help fish and apples coexist. GIS can also go into the air to build spatial models that include weather patterns, air pollution, and bird migration routes. And with information from borings and ground-penetrating radar, it can depict what's beneath the surface, mapping water table contours, soil depth, mineral content, or the "plumes" of contaminants spreading from a pollution source....
Montana Legislature Faces End Game for Groundwater Solutions House Bill 844 by Rep. Debby Barrett, R-Dillon, failed a House vote Monday, 47 to 53, with 4 Republicans and all Democrats opposed. In the Montana Legislature’s waning weeks, the fight for the state’s most precious resource – water – is just ramping up. The question of who gets the rights to the groundwater in Montana’s fastest-growing valleys has the potential to profoundly affect the economic, agricultural and recreational future of the state. Without the ability to dig new wells to service growing towns and subdivisions, Montana’s economic growth will stagnate, developers say. But farmers and ranchers argue that their seniority must be protected from municipal development while still allowing them the flexibility to dig new wells for irrigation....
Goat rancher legally kills mountain lion A Ventura goat rancher shot and killed a mountain lion last week after getting a special state permit to do so because it had slaughtered eight of his animals. The rancher, whom California Department of Fish and Game officials declined to identify, reported Wednesday that a mountain lion had killed eight of his young goats on the two previous nights, said Chris Long, Ventura County patrol lieutenant for the state department. After visiting the ranch on Camp Chaffee Road near Foster Park, Long said, he determined a mountain lion was responsible and issued the rancher a depredation permit. Though mountain lions are defined under California law as a protected species, depredation permits allow people to kill lions that have destroyed livestock or domestic animals in certain circumstances. That night, an approximately 130-pound male mountain lion came to the ranch and the rancher shot and killed it, Long said....
Underpass aims to help wildlife Government, environmental groups and private landowners are working together on an experimental project to reduce road kill as animals travel between the Greater Yellowstone area and protected lands to the north. When the Montana Department of Transportation needed to replace two bridges on Interstate 90 east of Bozeman because they did not meet earthquake standards, they also decided to try to reduce the amount of roadkill in the area. The new bridge project includes 8-foot-high, woven-wire fences, which will stretch for about a mile on either side of the road, meant to funnel wildlife toward the underpasses and away from the busy highway. Animals using the underpass will still have to cross railroad tracks that carry 20 to 24 trains per day, traveling at 35 mph, but that's easier than trying to avoid 20,000 cars and trucks traveling 70 mph, said DOT biologist Deb Wambach....
Judge allows private testing for mad cow The federal government must allow meatpackers to test their animals for mad cow disease, a federal judge ruled Thursday. Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, a meatpacker based in Arkansas City, Kan., wants to test all of its cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. Larger meat companies feared that move because if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they could be forced to do the expensive test, too. The Agriculture Department currently regulates the test and administers it to less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows. The department threatened Creekstone with prosecution if it tested all its animals. U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled that the government does not have the authority to regulate the test. Robertson put his order on hold until the government can appeal. If the government does not appeal by June 1, he said the ruling would take effect....
Supreme Court Won't Take Up Farm Ban Nebraska's 25-year-old corporate farming ban, considered one of the most restrictive of its kind in the country, was dealt a fatal blow Monday. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review an appellate court's decision last year that ruled the ban violated the U.S. Constitution's commerce clause, which prevents states from enacting laws that disrupt interstate commerce. "This is very much the final nail in the coffin," said David Bracht, an attorney who represents opponents of the ban. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said, "We are mourning the end of an era today." Voters passed the ban in 1982. It generally prohibited corporations and certain other business entities from owning farmland or engaging in agricultural activity in the state....
Fighting for subsidies Spinach might not seem to have anything to do with military operations. But there it is, in an emergency supplemental bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: $25 million for California spinach growers, whose vigorous, martiallike spinach-growing had heretofore not been seen as part of the war effort. The war bill illustrates the axiom that guides the nation's agricultural policy: namely, that any principles of good government, common sense and fiscal sanity must always be abandoned in the cause of shoveling federal dollars at American farmers. Its $4 billion for disaster relief, together with millions for peanut storage, sugar-beet production and the Milk Income Loss Contract Program, isn't unusual, except for the fact that it was used to buy votes for a pullout from Iraq. For House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, apparently, all geopolitics is local, and some of her members are happy to lose a war if they can win a subsidy. Otherwise, the ag spending is unremarkable, part of the perpetual bi-partisan, farm-spending gross-out....
Baker County ballet features saddles rather than skirts A garracho is a 13-foot-long pole that Spanish bullfighters have used for centuries to trip bulls in order to make their four-legged opponents snorting mad. But in the hands of Alice Trindle, a garracho is one of two implements used in an elegant dance. The other is her horse, Tilly. Trindle, who calls herself an "aspiring horseman" in the same way Tiger Woods aspires to be a really great golfer, showed a large crowd at Saturday's "Celebrate the Horse" event just what a ballet on horseback might look like. With mood-setting Spanish guitar music filling the arena at the T&T Ranch she shares with event organizer Susan Triplett, Trindle maneuvered the long pole and her horse through an elegant human/equine pas de deux — with her horse cantering the circumference of a 6-foot circle....
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
FLE
Smuggled aliens to sue Texas deputy Two illegal aliens plan a multimillion-dollar civil rights lawsuit against a Texas deputy who was sentenced to prison over an April 2005 incident in which the lawman shot at an alien-smuggling vehicle that he said had just tried to run him down. Edwards County Deputy Sheriff Guillermo F. Hernandez, along with his boss, Sheriff Donald G. Letsinger, have been targeted in a pending lawsuit by Maricela Rodriguez-Garcia and Candido Garcia-Perez, two Mexicans who were being smuggled into the U.S. when they were injured by fragments of the lawman's bullets. Mrs. Rodriguez-Garcia, struck by bullet fragments in the cheek and mouth, and Mr. Garcia-Perez, injured when fragments hit him in the arm, will seek damages from the two lawmen when the lawsuit is filed in U.S. District Court in Del Rio, Texas. Court records show Mrs. Rodriguez-Garcia and Mr. Garcia-Perez told investigators that they paid $2,000 each to be taken across the Rio Grande from Acuna, Mexico. They said they later met the vehicle's driver and a guide, who were to take them to Austin and Dallas. Both Mexican nationals are thought to be in the U.S. and have filed notice that they intend to sue. A legally required mediation hearing, where disputing parties meet with a neutral third party to try to resolve a dispute without going to court, is scheduled for today in Austin....
Undercover agents slip bombs past DIA screeners Checkpoint security screeners at Denver International Airport last month failed to find liquid explosives packed in carry-on luggage and also improvised explosive devices, or IED's, worn by undercover agents sources told 9NEWS. "It really is concerning considering that we're paying millions of dollars out of our budget to be secure in the airline industry," said passenger Mark Butler who has had two Army Swiss knives confiscated by screeners in the past. "Yet, we're not any safer than we were before 9/11, in my opinion." The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners failed most of the covert tests because of human error, sources told 9NEWS. Alarms went off on the machines, but sources said screeners violated TSA standard operating procedures and did not hand-search suspicious luggage, wand, or pat down the undercover agents....
Chertoff to meet with border sheriffs Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will meet next month with members of the Southwestern Border Sheriff's Coalition, who have vigorously called on the federal government to include state and local law-enforcement authorities in efforts to secure the border. Representing 28 counties along the 1,951-mile border from Texas to California, the coalition has asked for federal help in combating rising illegal entry and drug smuggling, saying the federal government's failure to control the border has put the lives of border residents and law-enforcement officials at risk. Sheriff Ogden, whose 5,520-square-mile county has become a popular alien-smuggling corridor with more than a 50 percent jump in apprehensions last year, has argued that law-enforcement agencies along the border face not only immigration issues but border-security concerns. The coalition has urged the federal government to work with state and local law-enforcement authorities to address the issue of border security, saying that while federal officials have been "doing a lot of talking" about securing the nation's borders, the Southwest continues to be overrun by illegal aliens, illicit drugs and rising violence....
Papers show Census role in WWII camps The Census Bureau turned over confidential information including names and addresses to help the Justice Department, Secret Service and other agencies identify Japanese-Americans during World War II, according to government documents released today. Documents found by two historians in Commerce Department archives and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library confirm for the first time that the bureau shared details about individual Japanese-Americans after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The Census Bureau played a role in the confinement of more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese descent who were rounded up and held in internment camps, many until the war ended in 1945. In 1942, the Census turned over general statistics about where Japanese-Americans lived to the War Department. It was acting legally under the Second War Powers Act, which allowed the sharing of information for national security. The newly released documents show that in 1943, the Census complied with a request by the Treasury Department to turn over names of individuals of Japanese ancestry in the Washington, D.C., area because of an unspecified threat against President Franklin Roosevelt. The list contained names, addresses and data on the age, sex, citizenship status and occupation of Japanese-Americans in the area....
Bill Passes, Tennesseans Can Keep Guns In Emergencies Tennesseans will get to keep their weapons to defend themselves in future disasters and emergencies. Tennessee lawmakers shot down a standing law allowing the governor to confiscate guns. Republican Senator Mark Norris proposed the bill that bans local officials from taking weapons He said, “You can't complain about a vote of 32 to nothing, I’d say the state supports our Second Amendment rights, our right to bear arms, and that's important at all times, especially in times of a state emergency."....
You may already be a terrorist If your name -- or any monicker close to your name -- appears on a lengthy list of "specially designated nationals" maintained by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, you may be unable to get a mortgage, buy insurance or purchase a car. That's because the federal government makes it illegal for businesses, under threat of both civil and criminal penalties, to have anything to do with individuals and organizations whose names appear on the list. Not surprisingly, many businesses choose to err on the side of caution rather than risk fines and jail time -- with civil penalties accruing for even inadvertent transgressions. The result is that innocent people have found themselves turned away for loans, purchases and insurance with little recourse except a drawn-out and potentially expensive effort to prove that they are not the same person as a sometimes vaguely identified terrorist on the watch list. It's not a theoretical problem. The report, compiled by Shirin Sinnar, contains chilling anecdotes about normal people with common names turned away by mortgage brokers, car dealers and name-brand businesses like Western Union and PayPal. In fact, the problem might be even worse except that many businesses aren't obeying the requirement that every potential customer be screened for terrorist connections. Many don't know about the law; others find the cost of compliance daunting, even in light of the penalties involved....
Smuggled aliens to sue Texas deputy Two illegal aliens plan a multimillion-dollar civil rights lawsuit against a Texas deputy who was sentenced to prison over an April 2005 incident in which the lawman shot at an alien-smuggling vehicle that he said had just tried to run him down. Edwards County Deputy Sheriff Guillermo F. Hernandez, along with his boss, Sheriff Donald G. Letsinger, have been targeted in a pending lawsuit by Maricela Rodriguez-Garcia and Candido Garcia-Perez, two Mexicans who were being smuggled into the U.S. when they were injured by fragments of the lawman's bullets. Mrs. Rodriguez-Garcia, struck by bullet fragments in the cheek and mouth, and Mr. Garcia-Perez, injured when fragments hit him in the arm, will seek damages from the two lawmen when the lawsuit is filed in U.S. District Court in Del Rio, Texas. Court records show Mrs. Rodriguez-Garcia and Mr. Garcia-Perez told investigators that they paid $2,000 each to be taken across the Rio Grande from Acuna, Mexico. They said they later met the vehicle's driver and a guide, who were to take them to Austin and Dallas. Both Mexican nationals are thought to be in the U.S. and have filed notice that they intend to sue. A legally required mediation hearing, where disputing parties meet with a neutral third party to try to resolve a dispute without going to court, is scheduled for today in Austin....
Undercover agents slip bombs past DIA screeners Checkpoint security screeners at Denver International Airport last month failed to find liquid explosives packed in carry-on luggage and also improvised explosive devices, or IED's, worn by undercover agents sources told 9NEWS. "It really is concerning considering that we're paying millions of dollars out of our budget to be secure in the airline industry," said passenger Mark Butler who has had two Army Swiss knives confiscated by screeners in the past. "Yet, we're not any safer than we were before 9/11, in my opinion." The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners failed most of the covert tests because of human error, sources told 9NEWS. Alarms went off on the machines, but sources said screeners violated TSA standard operating procedures and did not hand-search suspicious luggage, wand, or pat down the undercover agents....
Chertoff to meet with border sheriffs Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will meet next month with members of the Southwestern Border Sheriff's Coalition, who have vigorously called on the federal government to include state and local law-enforcement authorities in efforts to secure the border. Representing 28 counties along the 1,951-mile border from Texas to California, the coalition has asked for federal help in combating rising illegal entry and drug smuggling, saying the federal government's failure to control the border has put the lives of border residents and law-enforcement officials at risk. Sheriff Ogden, whose 5,520-square-mile county has become a popular alien-smuggling corridor with more than a 50 percent jump in apprehensions last year, has argued that law-enforcement agencies along the border face not only immigration issues but border-security concerns. The coalition has urged the federal government to work with state and local law-enforcement authorities to address the issue of border security, saying that while federal officials have been "doing a lot of talking" about securing the nation's borders, the Southwest continues to be overrun by illegal aliens, illicit drugs and rising violence....
Papers show Census role in WWII camps The Census Bureau turned over confidential information including names and addresses to help the Justice Department, Secret Service and other agencies identify Japanese-Americans during World War II, according to government documents released today. Documents found by two historians in Commerce Department archives and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library confirm for the first time that the bureau shared details about individual Japanese-Americans after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The Census Bureau played a role in the confinement of more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese descent who were rounded up and held in internment camps, many until the war ended in 1945. In 1942, the Census turned over general statistics about where Japanese-Americans lived to the War Department. It was acting legally under the Second War Powers Act, which allowed the sharing of information for national security. The newly released documents show that in 1943, the Census complied with a request by the Treasury Department to turn over names of individuals of Japanese ancestry in the Washington, D.C., area because of an unspecified threat against President Franklin Roosevelt. The list contained names, addresses and data on the age, sex, citizenship status and occupation of Japanese-Americans in the area....
Bill Passes, Tennesseans Can Keep Guns In Emergencies Tennesseans will get to keep their weapons to defend themselves in future disasters and emergencies. Tennessee lawmakers shot down a standing law allowing the governor to confiscate guns. Republican Senator Mark Norris proposed the bill that bans local officials from taking weapons He said, “You can't complain about a vote of 32 to nothing, I’d say the state supports our Second Amendment rights, our right to bear arms, and that's important at all times, especially in times of a state emergency."....
You may already be a terrorist If your name -- or any monicker close to your name -- appears on a lengthy list of "specially designated nationals" maintained by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, you may be unable to get a mortgage, buy insurance or purchase a car. That's because the federal government makes it illegal for businesses, under threat of both civil and criminal penalties, to have anything to do with individuals and organizations whose names appear on the list. Not surprisingly, many businesses choose to err on the side of caution rather than risk fines and jail time -- with civil penalties accruing for even inadvertent transgressions. The result is that innocent people have found themselves turned away for loans, purchases and insurance with little recourse except a drawn-out and potentially expensive effort to prove that they are not the same person as a sometimes vaguely identified terrorist on the watch list. It's not a theoretical problem. The report, compiled by Shirin Sinnar, contains chilling anecdotes about normal people with common names turned away by mortgage brokers, car dealers and name-brand businesses like Western Union and PayPal. In fact, the problem might be even worse except that many businesses aren't obeying the requirement that every potential customer be screened for terrorist connections. Many don't know about the law; others find the cost of compliance daunting, even in light of the penalties involved....
Monday, April 02, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Scientists Gather for Climate Conference Climate change could threaten the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the decades to come, according to a draft of a major report being released this week. Changing weather patterns have already reshaped the world, but they will accelerate in the decades to come, says the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations network of 2,000 scientists. Severe drought and devastating floods are among some of the threats to mankind unless action is taken to curb global warming. "We are going into a realm the Earth has not seen for a very long time ... over the past 800,000 years," said Camille Parmesan, a University of Texas biologist who reviewed the upcoming report. About 285 delegates from 124 countries are meeting in Brussels with more than 50 of the scientists who compiled the report. As governments will use the report to set policy, the final wording must be adopted by consensus among the diplomats, with the approval of the scientists. The report will be the second volume of a four-volume authoritative assessment of Earth's climate released this year. The first in February updated the science of climate change, concluding with near certainty that global warming is caused by human behavior....
Panel identifies species impacted by climate change From the micro to the macro, from plankton in the oceans to polar bears in the far north and seals in the far south, global warming has begun changing life on Earth, international scientists will report next Friday. "Changes in climate are now affecting physical and biological systems on every continent," says a draft obtained by The Associated Press of a report on warming's impacts, to be issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the authoritative U.N. network of 2,000 scientists and more than 100 governments. In February the panel declared it "very likely" most global warming has been caused by manmade emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Animal and plant life in the Arctic and Antarctic is undergoing substantial change, scientists say. Rising sea levels elsewhere are damaging coastal wetlands. Warmer waters are bleaching and killing coral reefs, pushing marine species toward the poles, reducing fish populations in African lakes, research finds. "Hundreds of species have already changed their ranges, and ecosystems are being disrupted," said University of Michigan ecologist Rosina Bierbaum, former head of the U.S. IPCC delegation. "It is clear that a number of species are going to be lost."....
It Was A Snow Job Either Way If there's any agreement in Arizona about the ruling of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals prohibiting Flagstaff's Arizona Snowbowl from making artificial snow, it's that it was a snow job. It just depends on which side of the snow gun you are on. Today, there is no snowmaking on these enticing slopes, which makes for very iffy skiing and lousy economics in good or bad years. The Circuit Court sided with Native American tribes who claimed the use of reclaimed water (er, effluent) to manufacture snow on Snow Bowl's San Francisco Peaks violates the tribes' (Navajo and Hopi) rights under the 1933 Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed by Congress. The new Circuit Court ruling overturned a District Court decision last year that reaffirmed the public use doctrine on public (read: Forest Service) land. The District Court said that the tribes failed to present any "objective evidence that their exercises of religion will be impacted by Snowbowl upgrades, nor would snowmaking "substantially burden the tribes' exercise of religion." The whole thing has sparked debate among skiers, media, tribe members, and anyone else with an opinion. The Arizona media has squared off with two sharply differing points of view:....
Sawmills could fuel vehicles, experts say Once upon a time, logs were used for making houses and paper. Now, they're being looked at as one of the most promising tools for helping the United States grow its way to energy independence. Bioenergy from forest products was the buzz at a convention last week of foresters and logging operators in Coeur d'Alene. Sawmills and loggers have access to a seemingly endless mountain of sawdust, mill shavings and bark that can be fairly easily transformed into a sustainable form of energy, said Phil Latos, who oversees research and development for softwood lumber technology for Weyerhaeuser. "We can also think of ourselves as oil companies," Latos told the audience of the Small Log Conference....
Protesters want Lost Ox Trail to be a lost cause If you build it, they will come -- to protest. Ranchers and private landowners turned out in full force at Wednesday's White Pine County Commission meeting to protest the Bureau of Land Management's plans for an Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) trail system near Ely. Opponents of the Lost Ox OHV Trail System worry that the 186-mile network of roads and trails would fragment wildlife habitat and degrade watersheds in the South Egan Range. In addition, they question whether the trail system would effect local landowners and ranchers whose livestock graze in the immediate area. “I don't think that we want to become an ATV destination area,” said Wade Robison, a member of the White Pine Coordinated Resource Management Steering Committee....
Hybrid skiing on Vail Pass gains popularity There are no ski lifts on the Vail Pass Recreation Area. But there is a quick and easy way to access acres of untracked snow. Welcome to the world of hybrid skiing. At the White River National Forest Area, the ski lifts come in the form of snowmobiles towing skiers. Among the 55,000 acres of land at Vail Pass (which stretches from Copper Mountain to Vail, across Interstate 70 to Highway 24), 3,300 acres are motorized-assisted ski terrain. And with some fresh figure eight tracks as proof last Thursday, the hybrid zone is getting plenty of use. "That's the area we've seen the most growth over the past 10 years," said Don Dressler, a Snow Ranger with the Forest Service....
Judge halts "bounty" on wolves A judge on Friday halted Alaska's $150 payments for each wolf killed under its predator-control program. Conservation groups lauded the decision by state Superior Court Judge William Morse granting their request for a temporary stop to what they called an illegal bounty. Plaintiffs are suing the state to terminate the predator-control program altogether but said Friday's ruling was significant. "If our goal is to offer as much resistance as possible, we have done that with abundance," said Priscilla Feral, president of Darien, Conn.-based Friends of Animals. "As for torpedoing the entire Draconian wolf-control program, that's the litigation that continues." Her group and other plaintiffs, including Defenders of Wildlife and the Alaska chapter of the Sierra Club, asked the court Tuesday to stop the payments. They cited a decision by the Alaska Legislature more than two decades ago that revoked any authority the state Department of Fish and Game had to pay bounties to hunters....
Bush's rules for forests tossed A federal judge tossed out Bush administration rules Friday that gave national forest managers more discretion to approve logging and other commercial projects without lengthy environmental reviews. U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled that the administration failed to adequately consider the environmental effects the new rules would have and neglected to properly gather public comment on the issue. Hamilton said in her written ruling that the government “appears to have charted a new path and adopted a new policy approach regarding programmatic changes to environmental regulations.” Hamilton ruled that the government couldn't institute the new rules until proper environmental reviews were conducted, but she declined to specify how the nation's 155 national forests should be managed until then....Go here to read the opinion.
Forest management gets mixed grades The first independent report card on Uncle Sam's use of prescribed burns and forest thinning to reduce the threat of wildfire in the urban interface gives the federal government mixed grades. Overall, the federal government needs to improve its record keeping and increase public participation in planning fuel reduction treatments, according to the analysis by the Forest Guild, a nonprofit national organization of natural resource professionals. The 31-page study focused on the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Medford District and the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest but also paired the in-depth regional study with a national overview of the legal and administrative hurdles facing fuel reduction projects. The initiative came two years after Congress had approved the National Fire Plan, a document detailing the needs and the budget to improve firefighting capabilities and forest health nationwide through thinning and removal of debris....Go here to view the report.
Firefighting sheep to start arriving Sunday Sheep will be brought into Carson City's western hills starting this weekend to help make the area less prone to wildfire. Two flocks of sheep, approximately 1,600 total, will eliminate cheatgrass, perennial grasses and forbs - a herbaceous plant that's not a grass. The first flock is expected to arrive Sunday morning by truck, and be released behind Greenhouse Garden Center on South Curry Street to eat along C Hill. The second will be walked in from Washoe County early Wednesday, and focus on the Timberline-Lakeview area. "Sheep are nomadic, they have to move," said Ann Bollinger, the city's open space assistant. The sheep are expected to graze up to 2,500 acres on the west side during the next 30 to 45 days, she said. Cheatgrass grows and dries out faster than other vegetation in the area, but it has been a dry year so growth in wild areas across the state is flammable. "The sheep are fantastic, said Pete Anderson, state forester. "They're an excellent tool to take that fine fuel and crop it off. It makes a huge difference."....
Should they stay or should they go? After the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service granted permits for the Cedar Ridge Golf Course and Paiute Tribe of Utah to move Utah prairie dogs from their property, biologists are searching for a place to put them. Elise Boeke, USFWS ecologist, said the service was working with the Bureau of Land Management to prepare two sites for dog relocation, but their efforts to establish proper vegetation failed. "It doesn't look like the seeding took very well due to the drought," Boeke said. Division of Wildlife Resources Wildlife Biologist Neil Perry, who will oversee relocation efforts this year, is excited about the Berry Springs site located in the Paunsaugunt Plateau of Garfield County, just north of Bryce Canyon National Park. However, he doesn't have the funding to relocate the dogs to that property, which is more than an hour's drive from Cedar City....
Editorial - Don't take the delta for granted WATER SHOULDN'T be taken for granted in California, a state where billions of gallons are conveyed over thousands of miles to millions of customers. And yet it is. Turn a faucet and, abracadabra, the stuff flows. Most of us don't know where it comes from, how it gets here or where it's stored. Politicians often ignore it too, preferring to focus on (what seem like) more pressing crises. But a recent ruling by the Alameda County Superior Court is a reminder that this shouldn't be the case. The decision says that California's State Water Project, which moves water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state, is in violation of the Endangered Species Act because its enormous pumps kill endangered fish. The judge gave the state 60 days to get a waiver or he will shut the pumps down. That probably won't happen. But make no mistake: The state's water system is in trouble. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta provides water for 25 million Californians — including 60% of Southern California's supply — and supports $400 billion of economic activity, including fishing and farming. And demands on it will only grow. California's population is expected to jump 30% in the next 20 years, while global warming could reduce the state's snowpack (and the water flows it creates) by the end of the century. Even without these challenges, the delta faces problems....
Los Angeles suffers longest dry spell in 130 years Los Angeles is going through its longest dry spell in at least 130 years, the National Weather Service said Sunday, fueling fears of rampant wildfires which have plagued the US west coast in recent years. "The rain season is currently the driest to date in downtown Los Angeles since records began in 1877," the weather service said in a statement. It said the southern California city had received just 2.47 inches (6.27 centimeters) of rain since July 1, 2006, far from the normal precipitation of 13.94 inches (35.4 centimeters) in the same period. "If downtown Los Angeles receives less than 1.95 inches of rain from now through June 30th this will become the driest rain season ever," it said. The record-holder is the 2001-2002 season which saw just 4.42 inches (11.22 centimeters) of rain. Southern California is repeatedly the victim of wildfires, some of them of criminal origin like the arson-caused inferno that blazed Friday near the famed Hollywood sign in the hills overlooking Los Angeles, destroying some 150 acres (60 hectares) of brush....
South Korea, U.S. Reach Free Trade Deal The United States and South Korea concluded a landmark free trade agreement Monday, a U.S. official said, culminating 10 months of negotiations in a final week of intense haggling that just beat a key U.S. legislative deadline. The deal, which requires approval by lawmakers in both countries, is the biggest for the United States since the North American Free Trade Agreement signed in 1992 and ratified in 1993. It is the biggest ever for South Korea. Another key issue was U.S. beef, which has remained absent from South Korean markets for over three years after mad cow disease was discovered in the United States in 2003. The U.S. said a deal could never be approved by Congress unless that issues was resolved. It was not immediately known what compromises were made to reach the agreement....
Bush tells Congress he will sign Panama trade pact President Bush notified Congress on Friday his administration plans to sign a free trade agreement with Panama before the White House's fast-track trade authority expires at the end of June. The pact tears down tariffs and other trade barriers between the two countries in manufacturing, services and other sectors. Over 88 percent of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial goods to Panama will become duty-free immediately, with remaining tariffs to be phased out over 10 years....
Internal strife leaves cattle group vulnerable to opposition Cattle producers have always been an independent lot, including when they're trying to get together on public policy. Still, the spectacle surrounding one of the industry's biggest interest groups, R-CALF USA, has been something to behold. Consider what's happened since the beginning of the year at the organization, formally known as the Ranchers-Cattlemen Legal Action Fund, United Stockgrowers of America. The group's then-president, Chuck Kiker, wrote a letter to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns in early January, disavowing a more strongly worded letter sent to Johanns only the day before by the group's chief executive, Bill Bullard. Later in the month, two Washington-based consultants, including a former undersecretary of agriculture, quit working for R-CALF. Shortly thereafter, Kiker was ousted as president by a majority of the board that wanted to take a harder line with the U.S. Department of Agriculture than he did. Three more board members who were allies of Kiker, including founder Leo McDonnell, subsequently left, as did the organization's Washington staff....
Holly Tornado Forces Rancher To Sell While most tornado victims in Holly are dealing with the loss of their homes, one family is dealing with the loss of livelihood. In the 30 years Bill Lowe has been a cattle rancher in Holly, his feed lot has never suffered a blow quite like this one. “There was dead calves, wounded cows with two by fours in their side,” said Lowe. “The whole west end of the feed lot was completely gone,” said Lowe’s son-in-law Benny Kennedy. And it was the only feed lot in Prowers County to be damaged by the tornado, 52 cows were killed bringing the total number to around 300 this year alone. “It’s because of the loss we suffered from the tornado and the blizzard,” said Lowe. A tremendous loss of life for a small feed lot that could end up costing the Lowe family nearly 700-thousand dollars....
Utahn keeps store going — for 74 years If records were kept on the longevity of country storekeepers, Lillie Thomas, 92, would probably hold the Utah title. Except for three years during World War II, she's been waiting on customers in Sterling, a town of 300 located six miles south of Manti, continuously for 74 years. She keeps "a goin'," she says, because she needs the income and loves the work. Thomas Grocery, a white frame building with a single gas pump out front, is on the west side of U.S. 89 about a half mile into town. She lives in a white cottage next door. The store is open six days per week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the winter, and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. during summer when the farmers are working late. Thomas covers most of those hours. The country store of the 1940s and 1950s was stocked with 50-gallon kegs of vinegar, 50-pound sacks of flour and 40-pound boxes of bananas from the Pacific Fruit and Produce Co. Thomas Grocery got its eggs from local farmers in trade for groceries. "On the counter, we had a big, round cheese cutter," she says. "We'd get a big round block of cheese and put it on (the plate), and then we'd go for so many little notches, and we'd pull it (the cutter) down and cut it off, and that's the way we sold cheese." They sold baloney and bacon the same way....
It's All Trew: The barbed-wire revolution Many historians think one of the defining moments in the history of the West came when a small bunch of wild longhorn steers stopped and backed away from eight slender strands of twisted wire equipped with sharp barbs. This event happened in 1876 when John W. "Bet-a-Million" Gates erected an enclosure on the Plaza in San Antonio to demonstrate to gathered ranchers that newly invented barbed wire could securely contain wild livestock. From that moment, the West would never be the same. Post-war demands for beef here and abroad, new railroads available for livestock transportation and the invention of refrigeration spawned the greatest cattle boom in the new nation's history. The cattleman was king and his domain seemingly unending. However, the moment those longhorns stopped at the wire, the age of the pioneer, free-range cattleman was doomed. No one knew how drastically barbed wire eventually would transform western life at that time and into the future....
Scientists Gather for Climate Conference Climate change could threaten the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the decades to come, according to a draft of a major report being released this week. Changing weather patterns have already reshaped the world, but they will accelerate in the decades to come, says the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations network of 2,000 scientists. Severe drought and devastating floods are among some of the threats to mankind unless action is taken to curb global warming. "We are going into a realm the Earth has not seen for a very long time ... over the past 800,000 years," said Camille Parmesan, a University of Texas biologist who reviewed the upcoming report. About 285 delegates from 124 countries are meeting in Brussels with more than 50 of the scientists who compiled the report. As governments will use the report to set policy, the final wording must be adopted by consensus among the diplomats, with the approval of the scientists. The report will be the second volume of a four-volume authoritative assessment of Earth's climate released this year. The first in February updated the science of climate change, concluding with near certainty that global warming is caused by human behavior....
Panel identifies species impacted by climate change From the micro to the macro, from plankton in the oceans to polar bears in the far north and seals in the far south, global warming has begun changing life on Earth, international scientists will report next Friday. "Changes in climate are now affecting physical and biological systems on every continent," says a draft obtained by The Associated Press of a report on warming's impacts, to be issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the authoritative U.N. network of 2,000 scientists and more than 100 governments. In February the panel declared it "very likely" most global warming has been caused by manmade emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Animal and plant life in the Arctic and Antarctic is undergoing substantial change, scientists say. Rising sea levels elsewhere are damaging coastal wetlands. Warmer waters are bleaching and killing coral reefs, pushing marine species toward the poles, reducing fish populations in African lakes, research finds. "Hundreds of species have already changed their ranges, and ecosystems are being disrupted," said University of Michigan ecologist Rosina Bierbaum, former head of the U.S. IPCC delegation. "It is clear that a number of species are going to be lost."....
It Was A Snow Job Either Way If there's any agreement in Arizona about the ruling of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals prohibiting Flagstaff's Arizona Snowbowl from making artificial snow, it's that it was a snow job. It just depends on which side of the snow gun you are on. Today, there is no snowmaking on these enticing slopes, which makes for very iffy skiing and lousy economics in good or bad years. The Circuit Court sided with Native American tribes who claimed the use of reclaimed water (er, effluent) to manufacture snow on Snow Bowl's San Francisco Peaks violates the tribes' (Navajo and Hopi) rights under the 1933 Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed by Congress. The new Circuit Court ruling overturned a District Court decision last year that reaffirmed the public use doctrine on public (read: Forest Service) land. The District Court said that the tribes failed to present any "objective evidence that their exercises of religion will be impacted by Snowbowl upgrades, nor would snowmaking "substantially burden the tribes' exercise of religion." The whole thing has sparked debate among skiers, media, tribe members, and anyone else with an opinion. The Arizona media has squared off with two sharply differing points of view:....
Sawmills could fuel vehicles, experts say Once upon a time, logs were used for making houses and paper. Now, they're being looked at as one of the most promising tools for helping the United States grow its way to energy independence. Bioenergy from forest products was the buzz at a convention last week of foresters and logging operators in Coeur d'Alene. Sawmills and loggers have access to a seemingly endless mountain of sawdust, mill shavings and bark that can be fairly easily transformed into a sustainable form of energy, said Phil Latos, who oversees research and development for softwood lumber technology for Weyerhaeuser. "We can also think of ourselves as oil companies," Latos told the audience of the Small Log Conference....
Protesters want Lost Ox Trail to be a lost cause If you build it, they will come -- to protest. Ranchers and private landowners turned out in full force at Wednesday's White Pine County Commission meeting to protest the Bureau of Land Management's plans for an Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) trail system near Ely. Opponents of the Lost Ox OHV Trail System worry that the 186-mile network of roads and trails would fragment wildlife habitat and degrade watersheds in the South Egan Range. In addition, they question whether the trail system would effect local landowners and ranchers whose livestock graze in the immediate area. “I don't think that we want to become an ATV destination area,” said Wade Robison, a member of the White Pine Coordinated Resource Management Steering Committee....
Hybrid skiing on Vail Pass gains popularity There are no ski lifts on the Vail Pass Recreation Area. But there is a quick and easy way to access acres of untracked snow. Welcome to the world of hybrid skiing. At the White River National Forest Area, the ski lifts come in the form of snowmobiles towing skiers. Among the 55,000 acres of land at Vail Pass (which stretches from Copper Mountain to Vail, across Interstate 70 to Highway 24), 3,300 acres are motorized-assisted ski terrain. And with some fresh figure eight tracks as proof last Thursday, the hybrid zone is getting plenty of use. "That's the area we've seen the most growth over the past 10 years," said Don Dressler, a Snow Ranger with the Forest Service....
Judge halts "bounty" on wolves A judge on Friday halted Alaska's $150 payments for each wolf killed under its predator-control program. Conservation groups lauded the decision by state Superior Court Judge William Morse granting their request for a temporary stop to what they called an illegal bounty. Plaintiffs are suing the state to terminate the predator-control program altogether but said Friday's ruling was significant. "If our goal is to offer as much resistance as possible, we have done that with abundance," said Priscilla Feral, president of Darien, Conn.-based Friends of Animals. "As for torpedoing the entire Draconian wolf-control program, that's the litigation that continues." Her group and other plaintiffs, including Defenders of Wildlife and the Alaska chapter of the Sierra Club, asked the court Tuesday to stop the payments. They cited a decision by the Alaska Legislature more than two decades ago that revoked any authority the state Department of Fish and Game had to pay bounties to hunters....
Bush's rules for forests tossed A federal judge tossed out Bush administration rules Friday that gave national forest managers more discretion to approve logging and other commercial projects without lengthy environmental reviews. U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled that the administration failed to adequately consider the environmental effects the new rules would have and neglected to properly gather public comment on the issue. Hamilton said in her written ruling that the government “appears to have charted a new path and adopted a new policy approach regarding programmatic changes to environmental regulations.” Hamilton ruled that the government couldn't institute the new rules until proper environmental reviews were conducted, but she declined to specify how the nation's 155 national forests should be managed until then....Go here to read the opinion.
Forest management gets mixed grades The first independent report card on Uncle Sam's use of prescribed burns and forest thinning to reduce the threat of wildfire in the urban interface gives the federal government mixed grades. Overall, the federal government needs to improve its record keeping and increase public participation in planning fuel reduction treatments, according to the analysis by the Forest Guild, a nonprofit national organization of natural resource professionals. The 31-page study focused on the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Medford District and the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest but also paired the in-depth regional study with a national overview of the legal and administrative hurdles facing fuel reduction projects. The initiative came two years after Congress had approved the National Fire Plan, a document detailing the needs and the budget to improve firefighting capabilities and forest health nationwide through thinning and removal of debris....Go here to view the report.
Firefighting sheep to start arriving Sunday Sheep will be brought into Carson City's western hills starting this weekend to help make the area less prone to wildfire. Two flocks of sheep, approximately 1,600 total, will eliminate cheatgrass, perennial grasses and forbs - a herbaceous plant that's not a grass. The first flock is expected to arrive Sunday morning by truck, and be released behind Greenhouse Garden Center on South Curry Street to eat along C Hill. The second will be walked in from Washoe County early Wednesday, and focus on the Timberline-Lakeview area. "Sheep are nomadic, they have to move," said Ann Bollinger, the city's open space assistant. The sheep are expected to graze up to 2,500 acres on the west side during the next 30 to 45 days, she said. Cheatgrass grows and dries out faster than other vegetation in the area, but it has been a dry year so growth in wild areas across the state is flammable. "The sheep are fantastic, said Pete Anderson, state forester. "They're an excellent tool to take that fine fuel and crop it off. It makes a huge difference."....
Should they stay or should they go? After the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service granted permits for the Cedar Ridge Golf Course and Paiute Tribe of Utah to move Utah prairie dogs from their property, biologists are searching for a place to put them. Elise Boeke, USFWS ecologist, said the service was working with the Bureau of Land Management to prepare two sites for dog relocation, but their efforts to establish proper vegetation failed. "It doesn't look like the seeding took very well due to the drought," Boeke said. Division of Wildlife Resources Wildlife Biologist Neil Perry, who will oversee relocation efforts this year, is excited about the Berry Springs site located in the Paunsaugunt Plateau of Garfield County, just north of Bryce Canyon National Park. However, he doesn't have the funding to relocate the dogs to that property, which is more than an hour's drive from Cedar City....
Editorial - Don't take the delta for granted WATER SHOULDN'T be taken for granted in California, a state where billions of gallons are conveyed over thousands of miles to millions of customers. And yet it is. Turn a faucet and, abracadabra, the stuff flows. Most of us don't know where it comes from, how it gets here or where it's stored. Politicians often ignore it too, preferring to focus on (what seem like) more pressing crises. But a recent ruling by the Alameda County Superior Court is a reminder that this shouldn't be the case. The decision says that California's State Water Project, which moves water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state, is in violation of the Endangered Species Act because its enormous pumps kill endangered fish. The judge gave the state 60 days to get a waiver or he will shut the pumps down. That probably won't happen. But make no mistake: The state's water system is in trouble. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta provides water for 25 million Californians — including 60% of Southern California's supply — and supports $400 billion of economic activity, including fishing and farming. And demands on it will only grow. California's population is expected to jump 30% in the next 20 years, while global warming could reduce the state's snowpack (and the water flows it creates) by the end of the century. Even without these challenges, the delta faces problems....
Los Angeles suffers longest dry spell in 130 years Los Angeles is going through its longest dry spell in at least 130 years, the National Weather Service said Sunday, fueling fears of rampant wildfires which have plagued the US west coast in recent years. "The rain season is currently the driest to date in downtown Los Angeles since records began in 1877," the weather service said in a statement. It said the southern California city had received just 2.47 inches (6.27 centimeters) of rain since July 1, 2006, far from the normal precipitation of 13.94 inches (35.4 centimeters) in the same period. "If downtown Los Angeles receives less than 1.95 inches of rain from now through June 30th this will become the driest rain season ever," it said. The record-holder is the 2001-2002 season which saw just 4.42 inches (11.22 centimeters) of rain. Southern California is repeatedly the victim of wildfires, some of them of criminal origin like the arson-caused inferno that blazed Friday near the famed Hollywood sign in the hills overlooking Los Angeles, destroying some 150 acres (60 hectares) of brush....
South Korea, U.S. Reach Free Trade Deal The United States and South Korea concluded a landmark free trade agreement Monday, a U.S. official said, culminating 10 months of negotiations in a final week of intense haggling that just beat a key U.S. legislative deadline. The deal, which requires approval by lawmakers in both countries, is the biggest for the United States since the North American Free Trade Agreement signed in 1992 and ratified in 1993. It is the biggest ever for South Korea. Another key issue was U.S. beef, which has remained absent from South Korean markets for over three years after mad cow disease was discovered in the United States in 2003. The U.S. said a deal could never be approved by Congress unless that issues was resolved. It was not immediately known what compromises were made to reach the agreement....
Bush tells Congress he will sign Panama trade pact President Bush notified Congress on Friday his administration plans to sign a free trade agreement with Panama before the White House's fast-track trade authority expires at the end of June. The pact tears down tariffs and other trade barriers between the two countries in manufacturing, services and other sectors. Over 88 percent of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial goods to Panama will become duty-free immediately, with remaining tariffs to be phased out over 10 years....
Internal strife leaves cattle group vulnerable to opposition Cattle producers have always been an independent lot, including when they're trying to get together on public policy. Still, the spectacle surrounding one of the industry's biggest interest groups, R-CALF USA, has been something to behold. Consider what's happened since the beginning of the year at the organization, formally known as the Ranchers-Cattlemen Legal Action Fund, United Stockgrowers of America. The group's then-president, Chuck Kiker, wrote a letter to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns in early January, disavowing a more strongly worded letter sent to Johanns only the day before by the group's chief executive, Bill Bullard. Later in the month, two Washington-based consultants, including a former undersecretary of agriculture, quit working for R-CALF. Shortly thereafter, Kiker was ousted as president by a majority of the board that wanted to take a harder line with the U.S. Department of Agriculture than he did. Three more board members who were allies of Kiker, including founder Leo McDonnell, subsequently left, as did the organization's Washington staff....
Holly Tornado Forces Rancher To Sell While most tornado victims in Holly are dealing with the loss of their homes, one family is dealing with the loss of livelihood. In the 30 years Bill Lowe has been a cattle rancher in Holly, his feed lot has never suffered a blow quite like this one. “There was dead calves, wounded cows with two by fours in their side,” said Lowe. “The whole west end of the feed lot was completely gone,” said Lowe’s son-in-law Benny Kennedy. And it was the only feed lot in Prowers County to be damaged by the tornado, 52 cows were killed bringing the total number to around 300 this year alone. “It’s because of the loss we suffered from the tornado and the blizzard,” said Lowe. A tremendous loss of life for a small feed lot that could end up costing the Lowe family nearly 700-thousand dollars....
Utahn keeps store going — for 74 years If records were kept on the longevity of country storekeepers, Lillie Thomas, 92, would probably hold the Utah title. Except for three years during World War II, she's been waiting on customers in Sterling, a town of 300 located six miles south of Manti, continuously for 74 years. She keeps "a goin'," she says, because she needs the income and loves the work. Thomas Grocery, a white frame building with a single gas pump out front, is on the west side of U.S. 89 about a half mile into town. She lives in a white cottage next door. The store is open six days per week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the winter, and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. during summer when the farmers are working late. Thomas covers most of those hours. The country store of the 1940s and 1950s was stocked with 50-gallon kegs of vinegar, 50-pound sacks of flour and 40-pound boxes of bananas from the Pacific Fruit and Produce Co. Thomas Grocery got its eggs from local farmers in trade for groceries. "On the counter, we had a big, round cheese cutter," she says. "We'd get a big round block of cheese and put it on (the plate), and then we'd go for so many little notches, and we'd pull it (the cutter) down and cut it off, and that's the way we sold cheese." They sold baloney and bacon the same way....
It's All Trew: The barbed-wire revolution Many historians think one of the defining moments in the history of the West came when a small bunch of wild longhorn steers stopped and backed away from eight slender strands of twisted wire equipped with sharp barbs. This event happened in 1876 when John W. "Bet-a-Million" Gates erected an enclosure on the Plaza in San Antonio to demonstrate to gathered ranchers that newly invented barbed wire could securely contain wild livestock. From that moment, the West would never be the same. Post-war demands for beef here and abroad, new railroads available for livestock transportation and the invention of refrigeration spawned the greatest cattle boom in the new nation's history. The cattleman was king and his domain seemingly unending. However, the moment those longhorns stopped at the wire, the age of the pioneer, free-range cattleman was doomed. No one knew how drastically barbed wire eventually would transform western life at that time and into the future....
Sunday, April 01, 2007
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CASES
Note - You know have to register at Findlaw to be able to read the opinions.
U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, March 21, 2007
Utah Envtl. Congress v. Troyer, No. 05-4183
In an action alleging that representatives of the U.S. Forest Service violated federal law by authorizing six projects in four national forests in Utah, authorization is reversed in part as to three projects where the Forest Service acted arbitrarily and capriciously by failing to apply the applicable regulations when it did not use the best available science standard in approving those projects. Read more...
U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, March 21, 2007
Action Marine, Inc. v. Continental Carbon Inc., No. 06-11311
In case involving alleged emission of pollutants into the air from defendants' plant that darkened plaintiffs' property, denial of post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law is affirmed as evidence and relevant law supported the jury's verdict and damage award, the final judgment, and the district court's decision to deny defendants' post-trial motion. Read more...
Note - You know have to register at Findlaw to be able to read the opinions.
U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, March 21, 2007
Utah Envtl. Congress v. Troyer, No. 05-4183
In an action alleging that representatives of the U.S. Forest Service violated federal law by authorizing six projects in four national forests in Utah, authorization is reversed in part as to three projects where the Forest Service acted arbitrarily and capriciously by failing to apply the applicable regulations when it did not use the best available science standard in approving those projects. Read more...
U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, March 21, 2007
Action Marine, Inc. v. Continental Carbon Inc., No. 06-11311
In case involving alleged emission of pollutants into the air from defendants' plant that darkened plaintiffs' property, denial of post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law is affirmed as evidence and relevant law supported the jury's verdict and damage award, the final judgment, and the district court's decision to deny defendants' post-trial motion. Read more...
Dirt roads, rough hands and sweat-soaked Stetsons
Cowgirl Sass and Savvy - Julie Carter
Something wholesome radiates from a person who lives in the realm of cowboy.
Show a photo of a young rodeo hand or a seasoned veteran of the cow wars to a city-folk type and one of their first comments will be to point that out.
There are a number of things that promote the wholesome image of ranch and rural living. Some of them come with their own deeper meanings of life and have infinite depth beyond face value.
A few of those things are dirt roads, rough hands and sweat-soaked Stetsons.
Dirt roads lead to good things. They slow down life and often end at the open door of a welcoming neighbor.
They signify a way of life that has not yet fallen to the asphalt and concrete of a white-collar world.
I have lived down a dirt road most of my life. It is a world unto itself no matter what decade it is. Weeks are without weekends as everyday is the same.
Childhood memories are of endless summers with homemade ice cream, digging for fishing worms and camping along the creek.
When I turn down a dirt road headed to anywhere, I get a "right at home" kind of feeling knowing when I get to where I'm going, it'll be good. A dirt road drive is often a step back in time.
Rough hands of the men and women who work on the land command a deep respect. Those people come with a firm handshake and wisdom born in the sweat equity of life.
The calluses are badges of determination that tell a story matched by the lines around the eyes.
Years of physical work and suppressed worry leave their mark.
There are truly fine people attached to those hands that could sand a board smooth without sandpaper. Like their hands, they are hard as steel at first glance but found to have a gentle nature within. The burdens of life have been worked out through their hands.
And those sweat-soaked Stetsons - that band of dark dirty grime that builds up at the bottom of the crown and spreads out onto the brim - is a cowboy's emblem of never-ending toil.
My dad wore what was my first memory of that icon of the West. Some years after he passed away I wrote a poem about him and included mention of his hat that was so much part of who he was.
He lived in the days when a contract was a man's handshake.
Too far to town, so you made do with what you could make.
Denim shirts, bags of Bull Durham, and rollin' your own,
A sweat-soaked Stetson, shotgun chaps, and a saddle were home.
Those toil-marked hats come in many shapes, colors and sizes. When they have reached the sweat-soaked stage, they take on a common out-of-shape look. They have creases and curls where there should be none and they droop in places not intended for "style."
Often they have a hole or two rotted completely through the brim or the crown.
They wear a little windmill grease, manure and a few blood spatters from a long ago cow-in-the-chute incident.
As time goes by, the hat uncannily takes on an appearance that very much matches the personality of its owner.
Dirt roads, rough hands and sweat-soaked Stetsons - all things so very much more than just what they are.
© Julie Carter 2007
Cowgirl Sass and Savvy - Julie Carter
Something wholesome radiates from a person who lives in the realm of cowboy.
Show a photo of a young rodeo hand or a seasoned veteran of the cow wars to a city-folk type and one of their first comments will be to point that out.
There are a number of things that promote the wholesome image of ranch and rural living. Some of them come with their own deeper meanings of life and have infinite depth beyond face value.
A few of those things are dirt roads, rough hands and sweat-soaked Stetsons.
Dirt roads lead to good things. They slow down life and often end at the open door of a welcoming neighbor.
They signify a way of life that has not yet fallen to the asphalt and concrete of a white-collar world.
I have lived down a dirt road most of my life. It is a world unto itself no matter what decade it is. Weeks are without weekends as everyday is the same.
Childhood memories are of endless summers with homemade ice cream, digging for fishing worms and camping along the creek.
When I turn down a dirt road headed to anywhere, I get a "right at home" kind of feeling knowing when I get to where I'm going, it'll be good. A dirt road drive is often a step back in time.
Rough hands of the men and women who work on the land command a deep respect. Those people come with a firm handshake and wisdom born in the sweat equity of life.
The calluses are badges of determination that tell a story matched by the lines around the eyes.
Years of physical work and suppressed worry leave their mark.
There are truly fine people attached to those hands that could sand a board smooth without sandpaper. Like their hands, they are hard as steel at first glance but found to have a gentle nature within. The burdens of life have been worked out through their hands.
And those sweat-soaked Stetsons - that band of dark dirty grime that builds up at the bottom of the crown and spreads out onto the brim - is a cowboy's emblem of never-ending toil.
My dad wore what was my first memory of that icon of the West. Some years after he passed away I wrote a poem about him and included mention of his hat that was so much part of who he was.
He lived in the days when a contract was a man's handshake.
Too far to town, so you made do with what you could make.
Denim shirts, bags of Bull Durham, and rollin' your own,
A sweat-soaked Stetson, shotgun chaps, and a saddle were home.
Those toil-marked hats come in many shapes, colors and sizes. When they have reached the sweat-soaked stage, they take on a common out-of-shape look. They have creases and curls where there should be none and they droop in places not intended for "style."
Often they have a hole or two rotted completely through the brim or the crown.
They wear a little windmill grease, manure and a few blood spatters from a long ago cow-in-the-chute incident.
As time goes by, the hat uncannily takes on an appearance that very much matches the personality of its owner.
Dirt roads, rough hands and sweat-soaked Stetsons - all things so very much more than just what they are.
© Julie Carter 2007
OPINION/COMMENTARY
JUDGING THE FEDS: EVERY BENEFIT OF EVERY DOUBT
In May 1945, the United States asked Jesse Fox Cannon of Toole County, Utah, to sign a “Construction, Survey & Exploration Permit” to allow the Army upon 1,425 acres of mining claims Jesse Fox Cannon owned near the Army Dugway Proving Grounds in west-central Utah. Jesse Fox Cannon agreed; after all, a war was on; plus, the Army promised that, within 60 days of finishing, it would “leave the property in as good condition as it is on the date of the government’s entry.” In September 1945, Jesse Fox Cannon reentered his property and discovered that, instead of surveying and exploring the property, the Army had used it for “Project Sphinx,” under which it dropped tons of high explosives and bombs, and incendiary and chemical weapons on Cannon’s property. Notwithstanding the demands by Jesse Fox Cannon and later his son, Dr. J. Floyd Cannon, that the United States fulfill its legal obligation to clean up their property, the federal government refused. In 1980, Dr. Cannon died, leaving the property to his children, who took up the crusade to have their land reclaimed and restored. In 1993, nearly 50 years after the Army left the property, the United States began a paper shuffling exercise purportedly to determine something the Cannon family already knew: whether the Cannon land was a “formerly used defense site” that presented safety concerns for federal and state government agencies. In 1996, the federal government concluded that the Cannon property was one of the most contaminated sites in the country and would cost $12.7 million to reclaim. Then, the United States did nothing....
The World According to Gore
During a global warming hearing, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, presented Gore with a “Personal Energy Ethics Pledge.” That’s the type of pledge you would think that Gore would be eager to sign onto. However, the former Vice-President refused to take the pledge. In other words, he simply could not commit to consuming no more energy than the average American household. Senator Inhofe tried to appeal to Gore’s sense of environmental chivalry, telling him, “There are hundreds of thousands of people who adore you and would follow your example by reducing their energy usage if you did. Don’t give us the run-around on carbon offsets or the gimmicks the wealthy do.” The energy ethics pledge that Inhofe presented to Gore is quite straightforward. It states, “As a believer that human-caused global warming is a moral, ethical, and spiritual issue facing our survival; that home energy use is a key component of overall energy use; that reducing my fossil fuel-based home energy usage will lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions; and that leaders on moral issues should lead by example; I pledge to consume no more energy for use in my residence than the average American household by March 21, 2008.” Inhofe did not ask Gore to be some kind of super-saver, besting the energy savings rate of typical Americans. He simply requested that Gore be average in his energy usage. Just average. And Gore declined the opportunity....
Problem of Evil Solved: Just Offset It
Some wealthy environmentalists who urge the world to reduce global-warming pollution are themselves using huge amounts of pollution-producing energy. They own houses which consume much more energy for heating and lighting than the average dwelling, have several large vehicles that spew out emissions, and ride on jets that pour out noxious fumes. Yet these rich greenies urge everybody else to change their lifestyles to reduce energy use and cut down on harmful emissions. How do they justify their energy binging? They say the are not doing any evil, because they have offset their bads with goods. They have bought “carbon offsets” that cancel out their own pollution. For example, they pay to plant trees in Africa. These trees take in carbon dioxide, which makes up for the greenies’ carbon emissions. In fact, several carbon-offset Internet sites show you how to offset your pollution using “carbon calculators.” You tell the calculator what kind of house you live in, how many residents there are, what kind of car you have and how much your drive, how much air travel you do, and what you eat, and presto! They tell you how much to donate to their organization. You can also buy a decal for your car’s bumper proudly telling the world that your car’s carbon emission have been balanced by sponsoring a clean-energy project. Now you are absolved of your environmental sins. You are now an environmental virgin. Go, and sin again, because all you need to do is donate again. During the Middle Ages in Europe, a rich guy could buy indulgences from the Catholic Church, which offset their sins. Repenting and sinning no more was for peasants. Now we have environmental indulgences, so that we don’t need pollution levies to reduce emissions. We can just buy absolution with an environmental indulgence. It’s even better than the religious indulgence, because the Catholic indulgence presumed that the sin was already forgiven, while the environmental indulgence itself forgives the sin of polluting. If carbon offsets are such a good idea, why not apply it to other areas of life? Are you gambling too much? Donate money to an organization opposed to gambling. Now you can gamble as much as you like, because you have offset it by reducing somebody else’s gambling. Did you embezzle money from the company you work for? No problem: just offset this with donations to a worthy cause. This nets out your theft. Are you cheating on your spouse? You can cleanse your guilt and offset this sin by donating money to an organization that promotes family values. The greater fidelity of others will offset your cheating....
Five Biggest Myths about Global Warming
With Al Gore getting so much mileage from his fame as both a former vice president and now Oscar winner to advance his ideological (if not personal) agenda of getting people to use less energy, it’s worth reviewing the global warming debate to clarify a few misconceptions. First, we are not in imminent danger of massive sea-level rises. In his movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” Gore warns of seas rising by 20 feet, and shows a dramatic image of lower Manhattan flooded by the swollen Hudson River. But this will only happen if the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets disappear overnight—a highly unlikely event. The collected scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose word climate alarmists preach as gospel when convenient, estimates only 17 inches of sea-level rise this century. Melting sufficient to flood New York would take millennia, never mind centuries. We should have plenty of time to build flood defenses. Second, if global warming is as big a threat as claimed, it will not be averted by minor steps like changing a few light bulbs, buying carbon offsets or driving hybrid cars. Gore himself has talked of a “wrenching transformation” in our lifestyles (I won’t mention his heated pool). That’s because everyone acknowledges that the Kyoto Protocol, even when fully and successfully implemented by all its parties, will avert a barely measurable 0.07°C of warming by 2050....
Global Warming Heresy
Most climatologists agree that the earth's temperature has increased about a degree over the last century. The debate is how much of it is due to mankind's activity. Britain's Channel 4 television has just produced "The Great Global Warming Swindle," a documentary that devastates most of the claims made by the environmentalist movement. The scientists interviewed include top climatologists from MIT and other prestigious universities around the world. The documentary hasn't aired in the U.S., but it's available on the Internet. Among the many findings that dispute environmentalists' claims are: Manmade carbon dioxide emissions are roughly 5 percent of the total; the rest are from natural sources such as volcanoes, dying vegetation and animals. Annually, volcanoes alone produce more carbon dioxide than all of mankind's activities. Oceans are responsible for most greenhouse gases. Contrary to environmentalists' claims, the higher the Earth's temperature, the higher the carbon dioxide levels. In other words, carbon dioxide levels are a product of climate change. Some of the documentary's scientists argue that the greatest influence on the Earth's temperature is our sun's sunspot activity. The bottom line is, the bulk of scientific evidence shows that what we've been told by environmentalists is pure bunk....
CAFE clash: Kiss your money and your safety goodbye
For a program that's more than 30 years old, the federal government's fuel economy standards for cars have become one hot topic. Global warming is now a 24/7 issue, and whenever politicians warn of global warming you can bet that tougher fuel standards are near the top of their to-do list. This is too bad, because when all is said and done, this program, known as CAFE (for corporate average fuel economy) has accomplished very little of benefit. CAFE, it is claimed, was responsible for doubling the miles per gallon of new vehicles during the 1980s, but it has allegedly stagnated in recent years. Fuel-hungry SUVs have boomed in popularity, and consumers have reverted to their supposedly bad habit of ignoring fuel economy in favor of larger size and more horsepower. The reins on automakers, we're told, need to be tightened. This might sound inspiring, until you realize that these reins really go around our own necks. Consumers have demonstrated, time and again, that when necessary they themselves do a far better job of saving fuel than government does. The increase in gas prices in the 1970s drove consumers to demand vehicles with greater fuel economy, and the auto industry responded far more quickly than anything required under CAFE....
Now for the Good News
Environmentalists and globalization foes are united in their fear that greater population and consumption of energy, materials, and chemicals accompanying economic growth, technological change and free trade—the mainstays of globalization—degrade human and environmental well-being. Indeed, the 20th century saw the United States’ population multiply by four, income by seven, carbon dioxide emissions by nine, use of materials by 27, and use of chemicals by more than 100. Yet life expectancy increased from 47 years to 77 years. Onset of major disease such as cancer, heart, and respiratory disease has been postponed between eight and eleven years in the past century. Heart disease and cancer rates have been in rapid decline over the last two decades, and total cancer deaths have actually declined the last two years, despite increases in population. Among the very young, infant mortality has declined from 100 deaths per 1,000 births in 1913 to just seven per 1,000 today. These improvements haven’t been restricted to the United States. Equally important, the world is more literate and better educated than ever. People are freer politically, economically, and socially to pursue their well-being as they see fit. More people choose their own rulers, and have freedom of expression. They are more likely to live under rule of law, and less likely to be arbitrarily deprived of life, limb, and property....
'Smoke-easys' ignore the tobacco ban
I'M SIPPING A Blue Moon ale in a Philadelphia bar, Janis Joplin is wailing about Bobby McGee and I'm thinking a smoke would go great about now. I take out one of Baby Cakes' Parliament Lights and fire it up. I'm smoking in a bar in Philadelphia and nobody says, "Boo!" There are 20 other people, smokers and nonsmokers, hanging out, enjoying themselves, not doing any harm to anyone (except maybe themselves). The bar is spacious, the NCAA is on the TV screens, beer pennants hang from the ceiling, and through the large windows I see rain falling. The owner is sitting at the bar chewing nicotine gum. He's a former smoker. Also a former cop. "I'm an irresponsible bar-owner," he says with a smile. Despite the smoking ban - because of it, actually - Philadelphia now has "smoke-easies," a play on "speakeasies" that came to us with the Prohibition of alcohol. Prohibition was enacted in 1920, repealed in 1933 and largely ignored in between. I'm surprised at how many Americans meekly obey smoking bans. This is about Philadelphians who don't....
JUDGING THE FEDS: EVERY BENEFIT OF EVERY DOUBT
In May 1945, the United States asked Jesse Fox Cannon of Toole County, Utah, to sign a “Construction, Survey & Exploration Permit” to allow the Army upon 1,425 acres of mining claims Jesse Fox Cannon owned near the Army Dugway Proving Grounds in west-central Utah. Jesse Fox Cannon agreed; after all, a war was on; plus, the Army promised that, within 60 days of finishing, it would “leave the property in as good condition as it is on the date of the government’s entry.” In September 1945, Jesse Fox Cannon reentered his property and discovered that, instead of surveying and exploring the property, the Army had used it for “Project Sphinx,” under which it dropped tons of high explosives and bombs, and incendiary and chemical weapons on Cannon’s property. Notwithstanding the demands by Jesse Fox Cannon and later his son, Dr. J. Floyd Cannon, that the United States fulfill its legal obligation to clean up their property, the federal government refused. In 1980, Dr. Cannon died, leaving the property to his children, who took up the crusade to have their land reclaimed and restored. In 1993, nearly 50 years after the Army left the property, the United States began a paper shuffling exercise purportedly to determine something the Cannon family already knew: whether the Cannon land was a “formerly used defense site” that presented safety concerns for federal and state government agencies. In 1996, the federal government concluded that the Cannon property was one of the most contaminated sites in the country and would cost $12.7 million to reclaim. Then, the United States did nothing....
The World According to Gore
During a global warming hearing, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, presented Gore with a “Personal Energy Ethics Pledge.” That’s the type of pledge you would think that Gore would be eager to sign onto. However, the former Vice-President refused to take the pledge. In other words, he simply could not commit to consuming no more energy than the average American household. Senator Inhofe tried to appeal to Gore’s sense of environmental chivalry, telling him, “There are hundreds of thousands of people who adore you and would follow your example by reducing their energy usage if you did. Don’t give us the run-around on carbon offsets or the gimmicks the wealthy do.” The energy ethics pledge that Inhofe presented to Gore is quite straightforward. It states, “As a believer that human-caused global warming is a moral, ethical, and spiritual issue facing our survival; that home energy use is a key component of overall energy use; that reducing my fossil fuel-based home energy usage will lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions; and that leaders on moral issues should lead by example; I pledge to consume no more energy for use in my residence than the average American household by March 21, 2008.” Inhofe did not ask Gore to be some kind of super-saver, besting the energy savings rate of typical Americans. He simply requested that Gore be average in his energy usage. Just average. And Gore declined the opportunity....
Problem of Evil Solved: Just Offset It
Some wealthy environmentalists who urge the world to reduce global-warming pollution are themselves using huge amounts of pollution-producing energy. They own houses which consume much more energy for heating and lighting than the average dwelling, have several large vehicles that spew out emissions, and ride on jets that pour out noxious fumes. Yet these rich greenies urge everybody else to change their lifestyles to reduce energy use and cut down on harmful emissions. How do they justify their energy binging? They say the are not doing any evil, because they have offset their bads with goods. They have bought “carbon offsets” that cancel out their own pollution. For example, they pay to plant trees in Africa. These trees take in carbon dioxide, which makes up for the greenies’ carbon emissions. In fact, several carbon-offset Internet sites show you how to offset your pollution using “carbon calculators.” You tell the calculator what kind of house you live in, how many residents there are, what kind of car you have and how much your drive, how much air travel you do, and what you eat, and presto! They tell you how much to donate to their organization. You can also buy a decal for your car’s bumper proudly telling the world that your car’s carbon emission have been balanced by sponsoring a clean-energy project. Now you are absolved of your environmental sins. You are now an environmental virgin. Go, and sin again, because all you need to do is donate again. During the Middle Ages in Europe, a rich guy could buy indulgences from the Catholic Church, which offset their sins. Repenting and sinning no more was for peasants. Now we have environmental indulgences, so that we don’t need pollution levies to reduce emissions. We can just buy absolution with an environmental indulgence. It’s even better than the religious indulgence, because the Catholic indulgence presumed that the sin was already forgiven, while the environmental indulgence itself forgives the sin of polluting. If carbon offsets are such a good idea, why not apply it to other areas of life? Are you gambling too much? Donate money to an organization opposed to gambling. Now you can gamble as much as you like, because you have offset it by reducing somebody else’s gambling. Did you embezzle money from the company you work for? No problem: just offset this with donations to a worthy cause. This nets out your theft. Are you cheating on your spouse? You can cleanse your guilt and offset this sin by donating money to an organization that promotes family values. The greater fidelity of others will offset your cheating....
Five Biggest Myths about Global Warming
With Al Gore getting so much mileage from his fame as both a former vice president and now Oscar winner to advance his ideological (if not personal) agenda of getting people to use less energy, it’s worth reviewing the global warming debate to clarify a few misconceptions. First, we are not in imminent danger of massive sea-level rises. In his movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” Gore warns of seas rising by 20 feet, and shows a dramatic image of lower Manhattan flooded by the swollen Hudson River. But this will only happen if the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets disappear overnight—a highly unlikely event. The collected scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose word climate alarmists preach as gospel when convenient, estimates only 17 inches of sea-level rise this century. Melting sufficient to flood New York would take millennia, never mind centuries. We should have plenty of time to build flood defenses. Second, if global warming is as big a threat as claimed, it will not be averted by minor steps like changing a few light bulbs, buying carbon offsets or driving hybrid cars. Gore himself has talked of a “wrenching transformation” in our lifestyles (I won’t mention his heated pool). That’s because everyone acknowledges that the Kyoto Protocol, even when fully and successfully implemented by all its parties, will avert a barely measurable 0.07°C of warming by 2050....
Global Warming Heresy
Most climatologists agree that the earth's temperature has increased about a degree over the last century. The debate is how much of it is due to mankind's activity. Britain's Channel 4 television has just produced "The Great Global Warming Swindle," a documentary that devastates most of the claims made by the environmentalist movement. The scientists interviewed include top climatologists from MIT and other prestigious universities around the world. The documentary hasn't aired in the U.S., but it's available on the Internet. Among the many findings that dispute environmentalists' claims are: Manmade carbon dioxide emissions are roughly 5 percent of the total; the rest are from natural sources such as volcanoes, dying vegetation and animals. Annually, volcanoes alone produce more carbon dioxide than all of mankind's activities. Oceans are responsible for most greenhouse gases. Contrary to environmentalists' claims, the higher the Earth's temperature, the higher the carbon dioxide levels. In other words, carbon dioxide levels are a product of climate change. Some of the documentary's scientists argue that the greatest influence on the Earth's temperature is our sun's sunspot activity. The bottom line is, the bulk of scientific evidence shows that what we've been told by environmentalists is pure bunk....
CAFE clash: Kiss your money and your safety goodbye
For a program that's more than 30 years old, the federal government's fuel economy standards for cars have become one hot topic. Global warming is now a 24/7 issue, and whenever politicians warn of global warming you can bet that tougher fuel standards are near the top of their to-do list. This is too bad, because when all is said and done, this program, known as CAFE (for corporate average fuel economy) has accomplished very little of benefit. CAFE, it is claimed, was responsible for doubling the miles per gallon of new vehicles during the 1980s, but it has allegedly stagnated in recent years. Fuel-hungry SUVs have boomed in popularity, and consumers have reverted to their supposedly bad habit of ignoring fuel economy in favor of larger size and more horsepower. The reins on automakers, we're told, need to be tightened. This might sound inspiring, until you realize that these reins really go around our own necks. Consumers have demonstrated, time and again, that when necessary they themselves do a far better job of saving fuel than government does. The increase in gas prices in the 1970s drove consumers to demand vehicles with greater fuel economy, and the auto industry responded far more quickly than anything required under CAFE....
Now for the Good News
Environmentalists and globalization foes are united in their fear that greater population and consumption of energy, materials, and chemicals accompanying economic growth, technological change and free trade—the mainstays of globalization—degrade human and environmental well-being. Indeed, the 20th century saw the United States’ population multiply by four, income by seven, carbon dioxide emissions by nine, use of materials by 27, and use of chemicals by more than 100. Yet life expectancy increased from 47 years to 77 years. Onset of major disease such as cancer, heart, and respiratory disease has been postponed between eight and eleven years in the past century. Heart disease and cancer rates have been in rapid decline over the last two decades, and total cancer deaths have actually declined the last two years, despite increases in population. Among the very young, infant mortality has declined from 100 deaths per 1,000 births in 1913 to just seven per 1,000 today. These improvements haven’t been restricted to the United States. Equally important, the world is more literate and better educated than ever. People are freer politically, economically, and socially to pursue their well-being as they see fit. More people choose their own rulers, and have freedom of expression. They are more likely to live under rule of law, and less likely to be arbitrarily deprived of life, limb, and property....
'Smoke-easys' ignore the tobacco ban
I'M SIPPING A Blue Moon ale in a Philadelphia bar, Janis Joplin is wailing about Bobby McGee and I'm thinking a smoke would go great about now. I take out one of Baby Cakes' Parliament Lights and fire it up. I'm smoking in a bar in Philadelphia and nobody says, "Boo!" There are 20 other people, smokers and nonsmokers, hanging out, enjoying themselves, not doing any harm to anyone (except maybe themselves). The bar is spacious, the NCAA is on the TV screens, beer pennants hang from the ceiling, and through the large windows I see rain falling. The owner is sitting at the bar chewing nicotine gum. He's a former smoker. Also a former cop. "I'm an irresponsible bar-owner," he says with a smile. Despite the smoking ban - because of it, actually - Philadelphia now has "smoke-easies," a play on "speakeasies" that came to us with the Prohibition of alcohol. Prohibition was enacted in 1920, repealed in 1933 and largely ignored in between. I'm surprised at how many Americans meekly obey smoking bans. This is about Philadelphians who don't....
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Judge Suspends Administration Rules For Managing Forests
A federal district judge ruled yesterday that the Bush administration illegally rewrote the rules for managing 192 million acres of federally owned forests and grasslands in 2005 and must consider the environmental impact of its plan before offering another policy blueprint. The ruling by Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California suspends the forest rules the administration adopted on Jan. 5, 2005. Hamilton said the government did not adequately assess the policy's impact on wildlife and the environment and did not give sufficient public notice of the "paradigm shift" that the rule put in place. The judge ordered the Forest Service to suspend its 2005 rule and subject it to a new round of analysis, taking into account the environmental protections and public participation requirements in the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedures Act. The battle between environmental groups and the administration over the forest rules has raged for several years. It centers on changes to environmental protections that had been in place since the Reagan administration. Under the old policy, the government had to maintain viable populations of native wildlife in forests and monitor some populations regularly, while limiting logging and drilling for oil and gas. The new rule -- which gave economic activities as high a priority as maintaining the forest's ecological health -- made it easier to conduct drilling and logging in national forests while weakening protections for native fish and wildlife. It also accelerated the process for approving forest management plans, which can drag on for as long as seven years, thereby cutting planning costs....
A federal district judge ruled yesterday that the Bush administration illegally rewrote the rules for managing 192 million acres of federally owned forests and grasslands in 2005 and must consider the environmental impact of its plan before offering another policy blueprint. The ruling by Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California suspends the forest rules the administration adopted on Jan. 5, 2005. Hamilton said the government did not adequately assess the policy's impact on wildlife and the environment and did not give sufficient public notice of the "paradigm shift" that the rule put in place. The judge ordered the Forest Service to suspend its 2005 rule and subject it to a new round of analysis, taking into account the environmental protections and public participation requirements in the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedures Act. The battle between environmental groups and the administration over the forest rules has raged for several years. It centers on changes to environmental protections that had been in place since the Reagan administration. Under the old policy, the government had to maintain viable populations of native wildlife in forests and monitor some populations regularly, while limiting logging and drilling for oil and gas. The new rule -- which gave economic activities as high a priority as maintaining the forest's ecological health -- made it easier to conduct drilling and logging in national forests while weakening protections for native fish and wildlife. It also accelerated the process for approving forest management plans, which can drag on for as long as seven years, thereby cutting planning costs....
Friday, March 30, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Snowed under About 600 homes in north-central Wyoming remained without power Thursday evening as high winds and heavy snow persisted for a second day. In much of the state, the storm closed roads and schools and stranded travelers, leaving folks to dig out as the wintry weather was expected to give way to warmer, drier conditions today. The National Weather Service expected up to a foot of snow in many areas of the state before the storm let up, with up to a whopping 5 feet of the white stuff in the mountains. Especially hard hit are the eastern Wind River and Big Horn ranges....
4 Killed As Tornadoes Ravage 3 States A massive spring storm spawned dozens of tornadoes from the Rockies to the Plains, killing at least four people in three states, including a woman who was flung into a tree by a twister as wide as two football fields. Sixty-five tornadoes were reported late Wednesday in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska, the National Weather Service said. The storms continued Thursday afternoon, with a tornado injuring at least five people in Oklahoma City. In Colorado, Rosemary Rosales, 28, died after being found critically injured in the tree after the huge tornado destroyed several homes and damaged dozens of others in Holly, a town of 1,000 people about 235 miles southeast of Denver near the Kansas line. The Colorado tornado killed dozens of cattle and injured others so severely they have to be shot. "It's better than letting them suffer," said rancher Bill Lowe, who had about 800 cattle in his feedlot when the tornado hit. He lost at least 35 animals in the storm....
Website checks your climate change risk A computerized service that assesses global warming risks and other environmental threats is now available for any address in the contiguous USA. Three University of Arizona scientists won approval from the Board of Regents this month to create Climate Appraisal Services with an East Coast entrepreneur. They call it the first online, address-based tool for gauging climate-change hazards in the next 50-100 years. It also lists natural and man-made dangers, from hurricanes and earthquakes to pollution and disease. The service taps the scientists' own climate research, numerous public databases and studies, and data from about a dozen government agencies. For $30 and a few computer clicks, users of climateappraisal.com get assessments of 50 factors, including sea-level rise, temperature, drought, flood, wildfire and other risks expected to worsen with warming temperatures. Environmental risks include weather, disease, pollution and industrial factors — such as Lyme disease, West Nile virus, acid rain and county radon levels....
Market Approach Best for Overfishing Dilemma, Say Enviros “Cap-and-trade” programs are the best way to combat the nation’s depleting fish stocks, an environmental group argued on Wednesday. Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, released a new report on the benefits of a “catch share system” (also called a Limited Access Privilege Program). The report comes two months after President Bush signed the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006. The new law establishes annual catch limits and accountability measures to end overfishing. It also supports limited access programs. The current state of America's fisheries is clearly unacceptable," the Environmental Defense report said. It cites some scientists' warning that "the seas could be extinct by 2048."....
'We're getting ripped off' Poor auditing, mismanagement and retaliation at the Minerals Management Service have grown worse in the past several years, costing taxpayers billions of dollars, critics and whistleblowers testified Wednesday. Two former employees, a watchdog group, an independent government office and a Wyoming Department of Audit official detailed concerns about MMS problems during a congressional hearing. "It does appear we're getting ripped off, plain and simple," said House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va. Rahall said drilling has increased dramatically but that the agency has "stalled" at collecting payments from companies. "At best, its performance might be described as slipshod, but some argue it is something more sinister," Rahall said....
Report: Wolves hit elk calves Wolves are reducing cow-calf ratios in elk herds in parts of northwest Wyoming, according to a report by the state Game and Fish Department. The report finds wolves are affecting cow-calf ratios in four of the eight elk herds where they are present. "We have seen a downward trend (in cow-calf ratios) in many of Wyoming's elk herds over this 26-year period," Jay Lawson of the Game and Fish Department's wildlife division said in a news release. "That trend is likely due to long-term drought and other habitat-related factors. But in half of the herds occupied by wolves, we saw a significantly greater rate of decline after wolves were established compared to herds without wolves. We can't attribute that increased rate of decline to any factor other than wolves." Game and Fish biologists have set a minimum ratio of 25 calves per 100 cows in order to maintain hunting opportunities and have said there is "little opportunity for hunting" when the ratio falls below 20 calves per 100 cows. The four elk herds in Wyoming that have wolves present and are experiencing declines have dropped below 25 calves per 100 cows, and two of those herds have fewer than 20 calves per 100 cows....
Water group argues to halt Joseph Creek grazing Attorneys for the Center for Water Advocacy argued in U.S. District Court Monday in Portland in pursuit of a restraining order to halt the grazing of cows along 95,000 acres in the Joseph Creek Rangeland Analysis Area in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. U.S. Dist. Judge Anna Brown heard the case Monday and took the matter under advisement. She had not issued a ruling as of Tuesday, according to Courtroom Deputy Eric Oss. Harold Shepherd, attorney for the water advocacy group, said that he took photos of the Joseph Creek area that he believes demonstrated the need to halt grazing in the area. The photos were entered into the record in the hearing Monday: "It looked pretty bad from our perspective and we think we showed that," Shepherd said. As the cows were scheduled to be returned to the rangeland by April 1, the water group was seeking an injunction to prevent that from happening. Therefore, Shepherd expected the judge to issue a ruling before then, he said....
Powerlink report didn't consider forest official's comments Comments from forest officials criticizing possible routes for the proposed Sunrise Powerlink through large parts of the Cleveland National Forest were not considered by a state agency before it decided to keep those options open. In a report issued two weeks ago, the California Public Utilities Commission decided to keep three southern routes for the 500-kilovolt power line as possible alternatives to one preferred by San Diego Gas & Electric Co., which would build the project. The report was issued after months of review, during which comments from affected agencies and individuals were solicited. But officials for the Cleveland National Forest were late gathering their comments and asked for a three-week extension to respond. U.S. Forest Service officials mailed the comments to the commission March 16, the last day of the extension and the same day the commission issued its report. “They didn't get any input from us before reaching their conclusions,” one forest official said. “I feel there was something morally wrong. This is supposed to be a public process.” This is just too funny. The Forest Service has been ignoring public comment for years, and now, finally, someone has ignored their comments. That, of course, is "morally wrong". I'll be back as soon as I quite laughing and can type again.
Feds bar ashes on public lands Last wishes notwithstanding, federal officials and Indian tribes are opposed to a Montana woman's plan for a business that would spread the cremated remains of her clients over western Montana's publicly owned wild mountain peaks and flower-studded meadows. To Fran Coover, her new business, Ladies in White, seemed a perfect way to blend her interest in the environment and alternatives to the American way of dying. "It's much less expensive," Coover said. "And it is far more environmentally benign." But after Coover scattered the cremated remains of her first client, she applied to the federal Forest Service, one of Montana's largest owners of wild land, for a special-use permit to continue her business. Though some officials told her it was fine to scatter the ashes on public land, she says, officials from Region I of the Forest Service, which covers Montana and Idaho, said it was against national policy and denied a permit....
Civilian uses foreseen for unmanned aircraft The unmanned Global Hawk and Predator B aircraft would be used for civilian science and technology endeavors under a test program the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center has proposed. Dryden will take delivery this spring of a civilian version of the Predator B, which will be used to measure the Earth's atmosphere and possibly to map wildfires, a valuable tool for firefighters. The aircraft has been named Ikhana. The Choctaw American Indian word - pronounced "ee-KAH-nah" - means intelligent, conscious or aware, Dryden officials said. "The name perfectly matches the goals we have for the aircraft," said Brent Cobleigh, NASA Dryden's project manager for Ikhana. "They include collecting data that allow scientists to better understand and model our environmental conditions and climate, increasing the intelligence of unmanned aircraft to perform advanced missions, and demonstrating technologies that enable new manned and unmanned aircraft capabilities." Dryden and the U.S. Forest Service are working with the Federal Aviation Administration for approvals needed to operate Ikhana over the western United States to collect data on wildfires. Ikhana will be controlled by a pilot with a joystick in a ground station....
Groups renew cause to protect lynx in New Mexico Six environmental organizations have renewed a five-year fight to have the lynx protected in New Mexico. The Forest Guardians and five other conservation groups filed a request to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Thursday to reexamine a decision it made last month. The court ruled in February the U.S. Forest Service need not consider impacts on lynx in its forest management plan. Four lynx have died in New Mexico since the reintroduction program began, according to the Forest Guardians, which suspects even more inhabit the northern forests. "It makes perfect sense, since the forests don't end at the Colorado line," said Bird. "We want the habitat protected until the lynx rehabits naturally from Colorado." Joe Lewandowski, a spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, said lynx have crossed into New Mexico and researchers have brought them back. Similarly, at least one died, but it has not been determined whether the lynx were shot, starved to death or met their end another way. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which lists endangered species, says it conducted extensive research and found no reports of lynx in New Mexico....
Rare Salamanders Will Finally Be Considered For Endangered Species Act Protection In response to a 2004 petition and two lawsuits brought by conservation groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined today that the Siskiyou Mountains and Scott Bar salamanders may warrant protection as threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The agency initiated a 12-month review of their status. “The Siskiyou Mountains and Scott Bar salamanders have two of the smallest ranges of any western salamander and are severely threatened by logging,” said Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “These salamanders need the effective protection of the Endangered Species Act to survive.” Both species live in mature and old-growth forests such as those that once covered much of the Northwest. Today only fragments of these forests remain, facing increasing pressure from logging and development. A recently completed study by the Forest Service, for example, concluded that “mature to late-seral-forest attributes provide optimal habitat for the Siskiyou Mountains salamander. Stands of mature and older forests evenly distributed and interconnected across the geographical range of this species would likely best insure its long-term viability.”....
Mountain lion, cub killed outside Nevada City The killing of a pet goat by a mountain lion has left a neighborhood divided as to whether it was fair for a state trapper to kill the lion and a cub, leaving a second cub an orphan. The incident, one mile outside Nevada City, has sparked outrage among neighboring residents who say they have come to co-exist with wildlife for a number of years. Jen Lee was the owner of Madonna, the pet goat that was killed a few weeks ago. She said she had no choice but to call the trapper after the lions killed her cat and caused her dog to give chase onto the highway where it was hit by a car. She said she feared the lions would hurt a child next. "The animal had to be killed," Lee said. "We live in a populated area. The mountain lion could have killed children." She has lived on the property, adjacent to Bureau of Land Management land, for 10 years and began having trouble with the large cat six months ago....
Digging in Texas sand — for that black gold Been to the beach lately? Some people bring those big umbrellas you stick in the sand. But some Houston companies are stinking a lot more than that into the beach: They’re drilling for oil and gas. Is that what our beaches should be used for? No place but in Texas is there a stretch of beach like this: Padre Island just south of Corpus Christi. More than 100 miles of undeveloped barrier island beachfront, the longest of its kind in the world, most all of it now a National Park — a park with strict rules to protect the seagulls, turtles and wetlands. “You cannot hunt in most of the park,” park ranger Darrell Echols said. “You cannot drive off-road.” But you can drill for oil....
An American icon in the crosshairs? Few animals stir up as much emotion and heated debate as gray wolves. In many ways these majestic predators are the symbol of American wilderness, of wild places that have not yet been clear-cut or paved over. They were once common throughout Western America, including Oregon, but a misguided policy of using tax dollars to fund extermination programs drove them to the brink of extinction. Today gray wolves represent the beginning of a great American conservation success story. Because of the safety net provided by the Endangered Species Act, and the hard work of countless biologists, landowners and concerned citizens, wolves are making a strong comeback. But in February, the Bush administration announced plans to remove western gray wolves from the endangered species list and hand over management to state governments. The proposal comes as a mixed blessing. On one hand, it means wolf populations are rebounding, at least in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming — there are still no confirmed wolf packs here in Oregon. But it also means the feds will hand the keys over to states like Idaho, which could spell disaster for Idaho’s wolves and wolf recovery in Oregon....
Washington congressmen aim bill at salmon-munching sea lions Two Washington congressmen introduced a bill Thursday to allow killing of the more aggressive sea lions who prey on Columbia River salmon, which just now are heading upriver to spawn. "Unfortunately, the news this year isn't any better than last; California sea lions are already setting their sights on this year's salmon run," said Democratic Rep. Brian Baird. The sea lions, protected by the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, gather at the base of Bonneville Dam to wait for and feed on the migrating salmon. Wildlife officials have tried harassing the sea lions with large firecrackers and rubber bullets, but with little effect. "After trying every trick in the book, this is the only option left to stop the sea lions," said Republican Rep. Doc Hastings. The districts of both Baird and Hastings border the Columbia. Democratic Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington and Republican Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon are co-sponsors. Hastings said taxpayers pay millions of dollars a year to protect salmon while the sea lions gorge themselves on the fish. The bill would create a temporary fast-track process for Oregon, Washington and the four Columbia River treaty tribes to get permits to kill a limited number of the sea lions when nonlethal harassment has failed....
Feds to relax wolf regulation The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will make it easier for states to kill wolves that harm wildlife numbers in an attempt to reach a compromise with Wyoming on the state’s wolf management plan, officials announced Thursday. Fish and Wildlife regional director Mitch King said the agency plans to alter the “10(j) rule,” which gives states the authority to kill wolves that attack livestock, herding and guarding animals, and dogs under certain circumstances. The rule applies only to states with approved management plans, namely Idaho and Montana, and applies only while the wolf is protected under the Endangered Species Act. The rule also allows states to kill wolves that cause unacceptable losses to wildlife if those wildlife populations drop below state objectives. The states must complete a stringent review process and losses to wildlife must be directly linked to wolf depredation. The new rule would loosen the requirements for when states can kill wolves when they are harming wildlife numbers. It would allow states to kill wolves based not just on state objectives but also on indicators such as cow-calf ratios and cow survivability....
The Endangered Species Act Should Be Revoked Bush administration officials said Tuesday that they were reviewing proposed changes to the way the 34-year-old Endangered Species Act is enforced. Environmentalists have already protested the suggested changes on the grounds that they would reduce protection for "endangered" species and their habitats. But according to Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, "this immoral law should be revoked. "For decades the Endangered Species Act has been used to victimize property owners, to take away their land, their assets and their livelihoods. In the name of preserving animal life, the Endangered Species Act has enabled the violation of individual rights in every corner of the country, rights that our government was instituted to protect, not trample upon....
ESA: Too Broke to Fix? The Endangered Species Act was written in 1973 with the idea of protecting plants and animals that seemed to be in danger of totally disappearing. It sounded good, but like many things government, it was way too broad in scope and way too loose in controls and limits. It was obviously something written by lawyers to allow other lawyers to make their own interpretation. The following are what I see as the ESA’s core problems: Problem 1: No real guidelines for listing or delisting Problem 2: No way of tracking costs, needs transparency Problem 3: No way to mitigate negative impact to other species Problem 4: Inadequate planning and follow up Problem 5: Costs of restorations being imposed on individuals and states targeted for listing a species....
Another World War II-era plane found in Nevada lake For the second time in less than five years, the wreckage of a World War II military aircraft has been found at the bottom of Lake Mead southeast of Las Vegas. I inadvertently learned of the startling discovery from Gary Warshefski, deputy superintendent of the National Park Service's Lake Mead National Recreation Area, while speaking with him on an unrelated matter (the continued lowering of the lake's water level due to the lack of significant rainfall). Warshefski and Roxanne Dey, the recreation area's spokesperson, told me the recently-discovered plane is a Navy PBY-SA Catalina flying boat that crashed into the lake on Oct. 24, 1949. Four of the five on board were killed on impact. The PBY accident occurred 15 months following the crash into the lake of an Air Force B-29 Superfortress bomber. The B-29's crew of four and a civilian scientist aboard that flight escaped with minor injuries and were rescued by nearby fishermen. The B-29, which was conducting classified atmospheric research over Lake Mead, crashed into the water during a low-level pass over the lake. The pilot apparently underestimated the plane's height. The plane is standing upright and is reportedly in excellent condition. According to Dey, the B-29, which rests in about 170 feet of water, is in one piece. The PBY flying boat lies at a depth of 190 feet and is in two large pieces....
Groups splinter over strategy A group founded to give disgruntled cattlemen a voice and an alternative to the century-old National Cattlemen's Beef Association has now further splintered. A third grassroots entity has emerged, while some of the members of the original alternative organization say maintaining "a unified voice" would have been a better solution. Seven years ago, several energetic, concerned leaders formed the Ranchers-Cattlemen's Action Legal Fund, known as R-CALF, to tackle rising beef and cattle imports into the U.S. Adding United Stockgrowers of America to its name, the group evolved into a compelling alternative association and a relative powerhouse with nearly 20,000 active members, a satellite office in Washington D.C. and a clearly articulated position on a number of key issues, including international trade policy and Country-of-Origin labeling. A year ago last January, the founders stepped aside and the association changed its top leadership for the first time....
Proposed Animal ID Program Alarms Livestock Owners Livestock and horse owners are confused and concerned about the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) voluntary participation program, the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Karla Welsh owns Turtle Mound Farm, a once prosperous goat dairy farm near Sparks. Welsh has sold her goats due to economics and the threat of NAIS. “I have been passing out flyers and notifying everyone I can think of about this (NAIS) program. It's ridiculous to expect livestock owners to comply, especially the smaller, independent farmers and ranchers. How can we be expected to report even the smallest of movements of our livestock? A chicken goes onto someone's property and we have to contact the government? We don't have the time or the money,” Welsh said. “People need to stand up and scream ‘no' to their representatives before ‘voluntary' becomes mandatory.” Welsh believes NAIS muddies the line between religion and state, too. “I can't imagine the impact of something like this would have on the Amish. Their independence from government is their religious belief,” Welsh said....
Down Sonora Way The rain from the night before has cooled the temperature and brought out all the scents of the Sonoran grasslands. "This rain is quite unusual for the season," Ricardo Platt says as we saddle our horses in front of la Chimenea. "It rarely rains in October." The 450-acre rancho, which raises registered Quarter Horses and Paints, straddles the Rio Sonora and lies halfway between Ures, a quaint colonial town, and Hermosillo, Sonora's state capital. Two other ranches owned by Platt's family are home to trophy big game and Charbray cattle operations, but la Chimenea is the center of the horse breeding operation and home to the majority of the broodmares. "My real passion is ranching and horses," says Platt, a civil engineer whose consulting company provides personalized cross-border assistance to American investors in the state of Sonora, Mexico. Platt shares an affinity for ranching with his grandfather, a retired rancher and civil engineer who designed and installed thousands of miles of PVC, as well as earthen dams, concrete storage tanks and troughs on many Sonoran ranches during the 1980s and 1990s....
Snowed under About 600 homes in north-central Wyoming remained without power Thursday evening as high winds and heavy snow persisted for a second day. In much of the state, the storm closed roads and schools and stranded travelers, leaving folks to dig out as the wintry weather was expected to give way to warmer, drier conditions today. The National Weather Service expected up to a foot of snow in many areas of the state before the storm let up, with up to a whopping 5 feet of the white stuff in the mountains. Especially hard hit are the eastern Wind River and Big Horn ranges....
4 Killed As Tornadoes Ravage 3 States A massive spring storm spawned dozens of tornadoes from the Rockies to the Plains, killing at least four people in three states, including a woman who was flung into a tree by a twister as wide as two football fields. Sixty-five tornadoes were reported late Wednesday in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska, the National Weather Service said. The storms continued Thursday afternoon, with a tornado injuring at least five people in Oklahoma City. In Colorado, Rosemary Rosales, 28, died after being found critically injured in the tree after the huge tornado destroyed several homes and damaged dozens of others in Holly, a town of 1,000 people about 235 miles southeast of Denver near the Kansas line. The Colorado tornado killed dozens of cattle and injured others so severely they have to be shot. "It's better than letting them suffer," said rancher Bill Lowe, who had about 800 cattle in his feedlot when the tornado hit. He lost at least 35 animals in the storm....
Website checks your climate change risk A computerized service that assesses global warming risks and other environmental threats is now available for any address in the contiguous USA. Three University of Arizona scientists won approval from the Board of Regents this month to create Climate Appraisal Services with an East Coast entrepreneur. They call it the first online, address-based tool for gauging climate-change hazards in the next 50-100 years. It also lists natural and man-made dangers, from hurricanes and earthquakes to pollution and disease. The service taps the scientists' own climate research, numerous public databases and studies, and data from about a dozen government agencies. For $30 and a few computer clicks, users of climateappraisal.com get assessments of 50 factors, including sea-level rise, temperature, drought, flood, wildfire and other risks expected to worsen with warming temperatures. Environmental risks include weather, disease, pollution and industrial factors — such as Lyme disease, West Nile virus, acid rain and county radon levels....
Market Approach Best for Overfishing Dilemma, Say Enviros “Cap-and-trade” programs are the best way to combat the nation’s depleting fish stocks, an environmental group argued on Wednesday. Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, released a new report on the benefits of a “catch share system” (also called a Limited Access Privilege Program). The report comes two months after President Bush signed the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006. The new law establishes annual catch limits and accountability measures to end overfishing. It also supports limited access programs. The current state of America's fisheries is clearly unacceptable," the Environmental Defense report said. It cites some scientists' warning that "the seas could be extinct by 2048."....
'We're getting ripped off' Poor auditing, mismanagement and retaliation at the Minerals Management Service have grown worse in the past several years, costing taxpayers billions of dollars, critics and whistleblowers testified Wednesday. Two former employees, a watchdog group, an independent government office and a Wyoming Department of Audit official detailed concerns about MMS problems during a congressional hearing. "It does appear we're getting ripped off, plain and simple," said House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va. Rahall said drilling has increased dramatically but that the agency has "stalled" at collecting payments from companies. "At best, its performance might be described as slipshod, but some argue it is something more sinister," Rahall said....
Report: Wolves hit elk calves Wolves are reducing cow-calf ratios in elk herds in parts of northwest Wyoming, according to a report by the state Game and Fish Department. The report finds wolves are affecting cow-calf ratios in four of the eight elk herds where they are present. "We have seen a downward trend (in cow-calf ratios) in many of Wyoming's elk herds over this 26-year period," Jay Lawson of the Game and Fish Department's wildlife division said in a news release. "That trend is likely due to long-term drought and other habitat-related factors. But in half of the herds occupied by wolves, we saw a significantly greater rate of decline after wolves were established compared to herds without wolves. We can't attribute that increased rate of decline to any factor other than wolves." Game and Fish biologists have set a minimum ratio of 25 calves per 100 cows in order to maintain hunting opportunities and have said there is "little opportunity for hunting" when the ratio falls below 20 calves per 100 cows. The four elk herds in Wyoming that have wolves present and are experiencing declines have dropped below 25 calves per 100 cows, and two of those herds have fewer than 20 calves per 100 cows....
Water group argues to halt Joseph Creek grazing Attorneys for the Center for Water Advocacy argued in U.S. District Court Monday in Portland in pursuit of a restraining order to halt the grazing of cows along 95,000 acres in the Joseph Creek Rangeland Analysis Area in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. U.S. Dist. Judge Anna Brown heard the case Monday and took the matter under advisement. She had not issued a ruling as of Tuesday, according to Courtroom Deputy Eric Oss. Harold Shepherd, attorney for the water advocacy group, said that he took photos of the Joseph Creek area that he believes demonstrated the need to halt grazing in the area. The photos were entered into the record in the hearing Monday: "It looked pretty bad from our perspective and we think we showed that," Shepherd said. As the cows were scheduled to be returned to the rangeland by April 1, the water group was seeking an injunction to prevent that from happening. Therefore, Shepherd expected the judge to issue a ruling before then, he said....
Powerlink report didn't consider forest official's comments Comments from forest officials criticizing possible routes for the proposed Sunrise Powerlink through large parts of the Cleveland National Forest were not considered by a state agency before it decided to keep those options open. In a report issued two weeks ago, the California Public Utilities Commission decided to keep three southern routes for the 500-kilovolt power line as possible alternatives to one preferred by San Diego Gas & Electric Co., which would build the project. The report was issued after months of review, during which comments from affected agencies and individuals were solicited. But officials for the Cleveland National Forest were late gathering their comments and asked for a three-week extension to respond. U.S. Forest Service officials mailed the comments to the commission March 16, the last day of the extension and the same day the commission issued its report. “They didn't get any input from us before reaching their conclusions,” one forest official said. “I feel there was something morally wrong. This is supposed to be a public process.” This is just too funny. The Forest Service has been ignoring public comment for years, and now, finally, someone has ignored their comments. That, of course, is "morally wrong". I'll be back as soon as I quite laughing and can type again.
Feds bar ashes on public lands Last wishes notwithstanding, federal officials and Indian tribes are opposed to a Montana woman's plan for a business that would spread the cremated remains of her clients over western Montana's publicly owned wild mountain peaks and flower-studded meadows. To Fran Coover, her new business, Ladies in White, seemed a perfect way to blend her interest in the environment and alternatives to the American way of dying. "It's much less expensive," Coover said. "And it is far more environmentally benign." But after Coover scattered the cremated remains of her first client, she applied to the federal Forest Service, one of Montana's largest owners of wild land, for a special-use permit to continue her business. Though some officials told her it was fine to scatter the ashes on public land, she says, officials from Region I of the Forest Service, which covers Montana and Idaho, said it was against national policy and denied a permit....
Civilian uses foreseen for unmanned aircraft The unmanned Global Hawk and Predator B aircraft would be used for civilian science and technology endeavors under a test program the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center has proposed. Dryden will take delivery this spring of a civilian version of the Predator B, which will be used to measure the Earth's atmosphere and possibly to map wildfires, a valuable tool for firefighters. The aircraft has been named Ikhana. The Choctaw American Indian word - pronounced "ee-KAH-nah" - means intelligent, conscious or aware, Dryden officials said. "The name perfectly matches the goals we have for the aircraft," said Brent Cobleigh, NASA Dryden's project manager for Ikhana. "They include collecting data that allow scientists to better understand and model our environmental conditions and climate, increasing the intelligence of unmanned aircraft to perform advanced missions, and demonstrating technologies that enable new manned and unmanned aircraft capabilities." Dryden and the U.S. Forest Service are working with the Federal Aviation Administration for approvals needed to operate Ikhana over the western United States to collect data on wildfires. Ikhana will be controlled by a pilot with a joystick in a ground station....
Groups renew cause to protect lynx in New Mexico Six environmental organizations have renewed a five-year fight to have the lynx protected in New Mexico. The Forest Guardians and five other conservation groups filed a request to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Thursday to reexamine a decision it made last month. The court ruled in February the U.S. Forest Service need not consider impacts on lynx in its forest management plan. Four lynx have died in New Mexico since the reintroduction program began, according to the Forest Guardians, which suspects even more inhabit the northern forests. "It makes perfect sense, since the forests don't end at the Colorado line," said Bird. "We want the habitat protected until the lynx rehabits naturally from Colorado." Joe Lewandowski, a spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, said lynx have crossed into New Mexico and researchers have brought them back. Similarly, at least one died, but it has not been determined whether the lynx were shot, starved to death or met their end another way. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which lists endangered species, says it conducted extensive research and found no reports of lynx in New Mexico....
Rare Salamanders Will Finally Be Considered For Endangered Species Act Protection In response to a 2004 petition and two lawsuits brought by conservation groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined today that the Siskiyou Mountains and Scott Bar salamanders may warrant protection as threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The agency initiated a 12-month review of their status. “The Siskiyou Mountains and Scott Bar salamanders have two of the smallest ranges of any western salamander and are severely threatened by logging,” said Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “These salamanders need the effective protection of the Endangered Species Act to survive.” Both species live in mature and old-growth forests such as those that once covered much of the Northwest. Today only fragments of these forests remain, facing increasing pressure from logging and development. A recently completed study by the Forest Service, for example, concluded that “mature to late-seral-forest attributes provide optimal habitat for the Siskiyou Mountains salamander. Stands of mature and older forests evenly distributed and interconnected across the geographical range of this species would likely best insure its long-term viability.”....
Mountain lion, cub killed outside Nevada City The killing of a pet goat by a mountain lion has left a neighborhood divided as to whether it was fair for a state trapper to kill the lion and a cub, leaving a second cub an orphan. The incident, one mile outside Nevada City, has sparked outrage among neighboring residents who say they have come to co-exist with wildlife for a number of years. Jen Lee was the owner of Madonna, the pet goat that was killed a few weeks ago. She said she had no choice but to call the trapper after the lions killed her cat and caused her dog to give chase onto the highway where it was hit by a car. She said she feared the lions would hurt a child next. "The animal had to be killed," Lee said. "We live in a populated area. The mountain lion could have killed children." She has lived on the property, adjacent to Bureau of Land Management land, for 10 years and began having trouble with the large cat six months ago....
Digging in Texas sand — for that black gold Been to the beach lately? Some people bring those big umbrellas you stick in the sand. But some Houston companies are stinking a lot more than that into the beach: They’re drilling for oil and gas. Is that what our beaches should be used for? No place but in Texas is there a stretch of beach like this: Padre Island just south of Corpus Christi. More than 100 miles of undeveloped barrier island beachfront, the longest of its kind in the world, most all of it now a National Park — a park with strict rules to protect the seagulls, turtles and wetlands. “You cannot hunt in most of the park,” park ranger Darrell Echols said. “You cannot drive off-road.” But you can drill for oil....
An American icon in the crosshairs? Few animals stir up as much emotion and heated debate as gray wolves. In many ways these majestic predators are the symbol of American wilderness, of wild places that have not yet been clear-cut or paved over. They were once common throughout Western America, including Oregon, but a misguided policy of using tax dollars to fund extermination programs drove them to the brink of extinction. Today gray wolves represent the beginning of a great American conservation success story. Because of the safety net provided by the Endangered Species Act, and the hard work of countless biologists, landowners and concerned citizens, wolves are making a strong comeback. But in February, the Bush administration announced plans to remove western gray wolves from the endangered species list and hand over management to state governments. The proposal comes as a mixed blessing. On one hand, it means wolf populations are rebounding, at least in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming — there are still no confirmed wolf packs here in Oregon. But it also means the feds will hand the keys over to states like Idaho, which could spell disaster for Idaho’s wolves and wolf recovery in Oregon....
Washington congressmen aim bill at salmon-munching sea lions Two Washington congressmen introduced a bill Thursday to allow killing of the more aggressive sea lions who prey on Columbia River salmon, which just now are heading upriver to spawn. "Unfortunately, the news this year isn't any better than last; California sea lions are already setting their sights on this year's salmon run," said Democratic Rep. Brian Baird. The sea lions, protected by the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, gather at the base of Bonneville Dam to wait for and feed on the migrating salmon. Wildlife officials have tried harassing the sea lions with large firecrackers and rubber bullets, but with little effect. "After trying every trick in the book, this is the only option left to stop the sea lions," said Republican Rep. Doc Hastings. The districts of both Baird and Hastings border the Columbia. Democratic Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington and Republican Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon are co-sponsors. Hastings said taxpayers pay millions of dollars a year to protect salmon while the sea lions gorge themselves on the fish. The bill would create a temporary fast-track process for Oregon, Washington and the four Columbia River treaty tribes to get permits to kill a limited number of the sea lions when nonlethal harassment has failed....
Feds to relax wolf regulation The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will make it easier for states to kill wolves that harm wildlife numbers in an attempt to reach a compromise with Wyoming on the state’s wolf management plan, officials announced Thursday. Fish and Wildlife regional director Mitch King said the agency plans to alter the “10(j) rule,” which gives states the authority to kill wolves that attack livestock, herding and guarding animals, and dogs under certain circumstances. The rule applies only to states with approved management plans, namely Idaho and Montana, and applies only while the wolf is protected under the Endangered Species Act. The rule also allows states to kill wolves that cause unacceptable losses to wildlife if those wildlife populations drop below state objectives. The states must complete a stringent review process and losses to wildlife must be directly linked to wolf depredation. The new rule would loosen the requirements for when states can kill wolves when they are harming wildlife numbers. It would allow states to kill wolves based not just on state objectives but also on indicators such as cow-calf ratios and cow survivability....
The Endangered Species Act Should Be Revoked Bush administration officials said Tuesday that they were reviewing proposed changes to the way the 34-year-old Endangered Species Act is enforced. Environmentalists have already protested the suggested changes on the grounds that they would reduce protection for "endangered" species and their habitats. But according to Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, "this immoral law should be revoked. "For decades the Endangered Species Act has been used to victimize property owners, to take away their land, their assets and their livelihoods. In the name of preserving animal life, the Endangered Species Act has enabled the violation of individual rights in every corner of the country, rights that our government was instituted to protect, not trample upon....
ESA: Too Broke to Fix? The Endangered Species Act was written in 1973 with the idea of protecting plants and animals that seemed to be in danger of totally disappearing. It sounded good, but like many things government, it was way too broad in scope and way too loose in controls and limits. It was obviously something written by lawyers to allow other lawyers to make their own interpretation. The following are what I see as the ESA’s core problems: Problem 1: No real guidelines for listing or delisting Problem 2: No way of tracking costs, needs transparency Problem 3: No way to mitigate negative impact to other species Problem 4: Inadequate planning and follow up Problem 5: Costs of restorations being imposed on individuals and states targeted for listing a species....
Another World War II-era plane found in Nevada lake For the second time in less than five years, the wreckage of a World War II military aircraft has been found at the bottom of Lake Mead southeast of Las Vegas. I inadvertently learned of the startling discovery from Gary Warshefski, deputy superintendent of the National Park Service's Lake Mead National Recreation Area, while speaking with him on an unrelated matter (the continued lowering of the lake's water level due to the lack of significant rainfall). Warshefski and Roxanne Dey, the recreation area's spokesperson, told me the recently-discovered plane is a Navy PBY-SA Catalina flying boat that crashed into the lake on Oct. 24, 1949. Four of the five on board were killed on impact. The PBY accident occurred 15 months following the crash into the lake of an Air Force B-29 Superfortress bomber. The B-29's crew of four and a civilian scientist aboard that flight escaped with minor injuries and were rescued by nearby fishermen. The B-29, which was conducting classified atmospheric research over Lake Mead, crashed into the water during a low-level pass over the lake. The pilot apparently underestimated the plane's height. The plane is standing upright and is reportedly in excellent condition. According to Dey, the B-29, which rests in about 170 feet of water, is in one piece. The PBY flying boat lies at a depth of 190 feet and is in two large pieces....
Groups splinter over strategy A group founded to give disgruntled cattlemen a voice and an alternative to the century-old National Cattlemen's Beef Association has now further splintered. A third grassroots entity has emerged, while some of the members of the original alternative organization say maintaining "a unified voice" would have been a better solution. Seven years ago, several energetic, concerned leaders formed the Ranchers-Cattlemen's Action Legal Fund, known as R-CALF, to tackle rising beef and cattle imports into the U.S. Adding United Stockgrowers of America to its name, the group evolved into a compelling alternative association and a relative powerhouse with nearly 20,000 active members, a satellite office in Washington D.C. and a clearly articulated position on a number of key issues, including international trade policy and Country-of-Origin labeling. A year ago last January, the founders stepped aside and the association changed its top leadership for the first time....
Proposed Animal ID Program Alarms Livestock Owners Livestock and horse owners are confused and concerned about the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) voluntary participation program, the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Karla Welsh owns Turtle Mound Farm, a once prosperous goat dairy farm near Sparks. Welsh has sold her goats due to economics and the threat of NAIS. “I have been passing out flyers and notifying everyone I can think of about this (NAIS) program. It's ridiculous to expect livestock owners to comply, especially the smaller, independent farmers and ranchers. How can we be expected to report even the smallest of movements of our livestock? A chicken goes onto someone's property and we have to contact the government? We don't have the time or the money,” Welsh said. “People need to stand up and scream ‘no' to their representatives before ‘voluntary' becomes mandatory.” Welsh believes NAIS muddies the line between religion and state, too. “I can't imagine the impact of something like this would have on the Amish. Their independence from government is their religious belief,” Welsh said....
Down Sonora Way The rain from the night before has cooled the temperature and brought out all the scents of the Sonoran grasslands. "This rain is quite unusual for the season," Ricardo Platt says as we saddle our horses in front of la Chimenea. "It rarely rains in October." The 450-acre rancho, which raises registered Quarter Horses and Paints, straddles the Rio Sonora and lies halfway between Ures, a quaint colonial town, and Hermosillo, Sonora's state capital. Two other ranches owned by Platt's family are home to trophy big game and Charbray cattle operations, but la Chimenea is the center of the horse breeding operation and home to the majority of the broodmares. "My real passion is ranching and horses," says Platt, a civil engineer whose consulting company provides personalized cross-border assistance to American investors in the state of Sonora, Mexico. Platt shares an affinity for ranching with his grandfather, a retired rancher and civil engineer who designed and installed thousands of miles of PVC, as well as earthen dams, concrete storage tanks and troughs on many Sonoran ranches during the 1980s and 1990s....
FLE
More Armed Pilots Needed, Aviation Experts Say Box cutters, ice picks, knives, meat cleavers, brass knuckles and explosive devices are among the lethal weapons undercover government agents manage to smuggle past airport security, according to aviation security experts. They say the serious security gaps underline the need to arm more airline pilots - and quickly. Despite extensive security measures put in place since 9/11, the experts note, the agents succeed in getting the dangerous items past airport security staff nine times out of ten. Determined individuals would even been able to sneak firearms onboard, taking them apart and putting them together again once on the plane, according to Larry Johnson, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent. For this reason, he told Cybercast News Service, a multi-layered approach to security that includes arming pilots, offers the best defense against a repetition of 9/11-style attacks. His conviction is shared by a number of pilots who spoke with Cybercast News Service. They say armed crew members must be called upon as "first line of deterrence and a last line of defense."....
Caught on tape: Border patrol agent steals 20 pounds of pot A border patrol agent was supposed to be guarding a truckload of marijuana. Instead watch as he looks around and helps himself to a 20-pound bundle. "You can't deny the embarrassment that comes along with looking at that video tape," Border Patrol spokesman Rob Daniels said. Michael Carlos Gonzalez didn't realize the dash cam was on, back in December of 2005, as he violated the oath of office he swore to uphold. Gonzalez called in sick the following day. Investigators say he flew to California and the bundle was never seen again. When the video tape came to light he resigned....
Video of US-Mexico border shooting appears to back immigrants' story A grainy surveillance video taken as a Border Patrol agent fatally shot an illegal immigrant from Mexico appears to lend credence to the surviving immigrants' accounts of what happened. The Cochise County attorney released the video clips and documents this week after public records requests by The Associated Press and two newspapers. The shooting has drawn condemnation from the Mexican government and spurred an FBI civil rights investigation. Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett encountered a group of four immigrants among a larger group of border crossers whom he and other agents were rounding up on Jan. 12 near Naco. The group included three brothers and one man's wife. Corbett has declined to be interviewed by investigators but told other agents that he came around the front of his SUV, saw a man with a rock in his hand close to the rear of the vehicle and fired when the man moved to throw it. The witnesses said the agent came from behind the victim, and the video appears to support that version....
Border Fence Bosses Sentenced for Hiring Illegal Immigrants The president of an engineering company that helped to build a border fence to prevent Mexicans crossing illegally into the US was hoist with his own petard yesterday when he was sentenced to six months house arrest for hiring illegal immigrants. Mel Kay, the founder and head of Golden State Fence company, was also ordered to carry out 1,040 hours of community service and was put on probation for three years. A second company chief, Ted Moskowitz, was given the same sentence after both men pleaded guilty last December to knowingly employing illegal workers. The sentences neatly illustrated the paradox surrounding the US crackdown on illegal immigration, primarily from Mexico and other Latin American countries. While many Republicans are committed to reducing the flow, many employers, particularly in the southern states, are dependant on the incomers for seasonal harvesting and low-paid manual work. When Golden State Fence was first investigated for its employment practices it was estimated that a third of its 750 workers may have been living in the country below the radar. The firm builds fencing around homes, offices and military bases and also took part in the late 1990s construction of 6,100ft (1,859m) of the 14-mile (22.5km) fence near the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego....
The Rising TIDE: Should We Fear the Anti-Terror Database? A recent article in the Washington Post lifted the veil a bit on the U.S. government's massive, and still growing, anti-terror database. Over 400,000 names are now considered worthy of government suspicion, but citizens that end up on this list are not entitled to know why their names arrived there or what the government does with their files. Yet there has not been a significant terror attack on U.S. soil since 2001. Is the government's database the reason for this apparent success? How long will the government's list of suspicious names become? Is the government's ever-expanding scope of surveillance worth the security it seems to be creating? If not, are there any better alternatives? The civil liberties concerns created by TIDE are both obvious and frightening. When linked to bank account, credit card, airline, rental car, visa, and other databases, it would be simple for a government intelligence analyst to monitor the movements, actions, and purchases of a given person at a near-real time rate. Intelligence analysts could also employ computer analysis of patterns and trends to predict future threatening behavior. Yet it is this very monitoring and forecasting that has most likely prevented another spectacular terrorist attack from occurring inside the United States....
More Armed Pilots Needed, Aviation Experts Say Box cutters, ice picks, knives, meat cleavers, brass knuckles and explosive devices are among the lethal weapons undercover government agents manage to smuggle past airport security, according to aviation security experts. They say the serious security gaps underline the need to arm more airline pilots - and quickly. Despite extensive security measures put in place since 9/11, the experts note, the agents succeed in getting the dangerous items past airport security staff nine times out of ten. Determined individuals would even been able to sneak firearms onboard, taking them apart and putting them together again once on the plane, according to Larry Johnson, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent. For this reason, he told Cybercast News Service, a multi-layered approach to security that includes arming pilots, offers the best defense against a repetition of 9/11-style attacks. His conviction is shared by a number of pilots who spoke with Cybercast News Service. They say armed crew members must be called upon as "first line of deterrence and a last line of defense."....
Caught on tape: Border patrol agent steals 20 pounds of pot A border patrol agent was supposed to be guarding a truckload of marijuana. Instead watch as he looks around and helps himself to a 20-pound bundle. "You can't deny the embarrassment that comes along with looking at that video tape," Border Patrol spokesman Rob Daniels said. Michael Carlos Gonzalez didn't realize the dash cam was on, back in December of 2005, as he violated the oath of office he swore to uphold. Gonzalez called in sick the following day. Investigators say he flew to California and the bundle was never seen again. When the video tape came to light he resigned....
Video of US-Mexico border shooting appears to back immigrants' story A grainy surveillance video taken as a Border Patrol agent fatally shot an illegal immigrant from Mexico appears to lend credence to the surviving immigrants' accounts of what happened. The Cochise County attorney released the video clips and documents this week after public records requests by The Associated Press and two newspapers. The shooting has drawn condemnation from the Mexican government and spurred an FBI civil rights investigation. Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett encountered a group of four immigrants among a larger group of border crossers whom he and other agents were rounding up on Jan. 12 near Naco. The group included three brothers and one man's wife. Corbett has declined to be interviewed by investigators but told other agents that he came around the front of his SUV, saw a man with a rock in his hand close to the rear of the vehicle and fired when the man moved to throw it. The witnesses said the agent came from behind the victim, and the video appears to support that version....
Border Fence Bosses Sentenced for Hiring Illegal Immigrants The president of an engineering company that helped to build a border fence to prevent Mexicans crossing illegally into the US was hoist with his own petard yesterday when he was sentenced to six months house arrest for hiring illegal immigrants. Mel Kay, the founder and head of Golden State Fence company, was also ordered to carry out 1,040 hours of community service and was put on probation for three years. A second company chief, Ted Moskowitz, was given the same sentence after both men pleaded guilty last December to knowingly employing illegal workers. The sentences neatly illustrated the paradox surrounding the US crackdown on illegal immigration, primarily from Mexico and other Latin American countries. While many Republicans are committed to reducing the flow, many employers, particularly in the southern states, are dependant on the incomers for seasonal harvesting and low-paid manual work. When Golden State Fence was first investigated for its employment practices it was estimated that a third of its 750 workers may have been living in the country below the radar. The firm builds fencing around homes, offices and military bases and also took part in the late 1990s construction of 6,100ft (1,859m) of the 14-mile (22.5km) fence near the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego....
The Rising TIDE: Should We Fear the Anti-Terror Database? A recent article in the Washington Post lifted the veil a bit on the U.S. government's massive, and still growing, anti-terror database. Over 400,000 names are now considered worthy of government suspicion, but citizens that end up on this list are not entitled to know why their names arrived there or what the government does with their files. Yet there has not been a significant terror attack on U.S. soil since 2001. Is the government's database the reason for this apparent success? How long will the government's list of suspicious names become? Is the government's ever-expanding scope of surveillance worth the security it seems to be creating? If not, are there any better alternatives? The civil liberties concerns created by TIDE are both obvious and frightening. When linked to bank account, credit card, airline, rental car, visa, and other databases, it would be simple for a government intelligence analyst to monitor the movements, actions, and purchases of a given person at a near-real time rate. Intelligence analysts could also employ computer analysis of patterns and trends to predict future threatening behavior. Yet it is this very monitoring and forecasting that has most likely prevented another spectacular terrorist attack from occurring inside the United States....
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