Panel urges federal gas-tax hike The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission is urging that federal gasoline taxes be increased by up to 40 cents a gallon over five years to fix the nation's aging infrastructure. The cost, the commission estimates, would be 41 to 66 cents a day - less than the price of a candy bar, one commissioner said - for the average motorist. The two-year study by the 12-member commission is the first to propose broad changes after a devastating bridge collapse in Minneapolis last August shone a spotlight on the deteriorating state of the nation's infrastructure. Undersized plates used in the bridge were "the critical factor" in the collapse, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday. In a 10-page dissent to the report, the commission's chairwoman, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, and two other members sharply criticized the proposal for higher gasoline taxes. She and the two commissioners are calling instead for sole reliance on tolls and private investment. Under the proposal, the current tax of 18.4 cents per gallon would be increased by 5 cents to 8 cents annually for five years and then indexed to inflation afterward to help fix the infrastructure, expand public transit and highways as well as broaden railway and rural access. The increase is designed to take effect in 2009, after President Bush leaves office....
Navy Wins Exemption From Bush to Continue Sonar Exercises in Calif. The White House has exempted the Navy from two major environmental laws in an effort to free the service from a federal court's decision limiting the Navy's use of sonar in training exercises. Environmentalists who had sued successfully to limit the Navy's use of loud, mid-frequency sonar -- which can be harmful to whales and other marine mammals -- said yesterday that the exemptions were unprecedented and could lead to a larger legal battle over the extent to which the military has to obey environmental laws. In a court filing Tuesday, government lawyers said President Bush had determined that allowing the use of mid-frequency sonar in ongoing exercises off Southern California was "essential to national security" and of "paramount interest to the United States." Based on that, the documents said, Bush issued the order exempting the Navy from provisions of the Coastal Zone Management Act, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality granted the Navy a waiver from the National Environmental Protection Act....
Ex-ferret-recovery head blames political pressure for prairie dog decisions The Bush administration has pressured federal resource managers to make decisions that could hurt the black-footed ferret recovery effort in South Dakota's Conata Basin, according to the recently retired head of the federal ferret recovery program. Mike Lockhart, who retired Jan. 3 after 32 years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, sent an internal memo charging that his former regional director and U.S. Forest Service officials bowed to political pressure in decisions involving ferrets and prairie dogs in South Dakota and elsewhere. Conata Basin, just south of Badlands National Park, is home to the most successful black-footed ferret reintroduction in the country, he said. The project has been a cooperative effort among federal and state agencies and private groups. Lockhart said the ferret population in Conata Basin is still doing well. But he said his former boss with the Fish and Wildlife Service, retired Region 6 Director Mitch King, undercut efforts of the ferret-recovery team....
Montana's Black Gold Underneath eastern Montana and western North Dakota lies a thin (in some places, just five feet thick) stratum called the Bakken Formation, which holds a mother lode of Jurassic goo. Pick a statistic or a superlative: The Bakken is the biggest inland oil find in the United States in 50 years or so; it might contain 200 billion barrels of oil, far more than the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge reserve politicians fight about; last year, Montana pumped about 3 million barrels a month out of its side of the Bakken—about 45 times more than the field produced in 2002. Montana’s role in the global scramble for oil is modest, so far. Bakken production covers only a small percentage of U.S. oil consumption. It’s not big enough to make us bosom pals with Saudi sheiks (though there are some wild, as-yet-unsubstantiated geological estimates that it could well be). It has yet to equal the tar-sands jackpot that would make the Province of Alberta the world’s second-richest nation per capita (after Luxembourg) if it seceded from Canada. But it is of unquestionable national importance: In the last few years, Montana and North Dakota are the only states to increase oil-production....
Biologists study the shy wolverine in the North Cascades An animal so ferocious that it is said to chase bears and kill elk by hopping on their backs and severing their throats lives in Snohomish County. But don't believe everything you hear about wolverines, experts say. "Wolverines have a longstanding reputation of being particularly fierce and dangerous," said Keith Aubry, a research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station. "They're sort of a mythological creature because they are so often not seen." But in reality, they may be more shy than tough, Aubry said. Petitions to have them listed as a federally endangered species in the late 1990s and early this decade were turned down for a lack of information. Those denials spurred research on the whereabouts of the wolverine in Washington, as well as the northern Rocky Mountain areas of Idaho and Montana. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- acting under the order of a federal judge -- is finishing a year-long assessment of the animal that could lead it to be proposed for listing. A decision likely will be made at the end of February, said Diane Katzenberger, a spokeswoman for the agency....
Experts uncover clues to slide Avalanche experts digging into last Sunday's deadly slide north of Whitefish Mountain Resort are turning over not just snowpack and clues, but also many weeks of winter weather history. Turns out, the snowpack conditions that made the weekend avalanche possible were laid down back before Christmas, when winter was warmer and snowstorms still were tangled with rainstorms. All that was needed, then, was a human to pull the trigger these many weeks later. That's according to Stan Bones, a U.S. Forest Service avalanche analyst who also works with the Glacier Country Avalanche Center. At the center's Web site, www.glacieravalanche.org, Bones has posted his official review of the incident in which two skiers were killed - 19-year-old Anthony Kollmann of Kalispell and 36-year-old David Gogolak of Whitefish. On Wednesday, Bones talked about that report, detailing a story that begins not with Sunday's slide, but rather back in December, when the top layers of early season snow melted and later re-froze into an icy sheet....
NEPA jobs threatened A proposed “reengineering” by U.S. Forest Service officials could move thousands of agency employees involved in drafting environmental assessments out of the national forests where they work. According to a feasibility report by Management Analysis, Inc., a Virginia-based consulting firm, the “Business Process Reengineering” plan would consolidate all work performed under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to six “eco-based Service Centers” instead of individual field offices. At least one group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), sees the plan as a step backwards for the Forest Service that could have far reaching impacts beyond removing employees from their jobs. According to PEER, over 3,000 Forest Service employees have NEPA-related responsibilities to assess the potential consequences of projects in the national forests. For now, the agency hasn’t specified any time frame to implement the plan, and Ruch worries the changes will occur without adequate public notice or close scrutiny....
Lynx Pinched by Recreation Finding room for lynx to roam in the wide-open spaces of Montana and Wyoming may not be a huge issue. But in crowded Colorado, researchers are finding that intensive recreational use—especially snowmobiling—is crowding the rare cats out of some critical areas. At issue is the management of the Vail Pass Winter Recreation Area (VPWRA), a 50,000-acre pocket of rolling, forested terrain along Interstate 70, between Copper Mountain and Vail. Several commercial snowmobile tour and rental operators have asked the U.S. Forest Service for permission to increase trips in the area. Before issuing any new permits, the agency decided to take a hard look at the overall capacity of the area. As part of that study, White River National Forest biologist Liz Roberts wrote a formal biological assessment, trying to measure and quantify the impacts of recreation to the wildlife habitat in the area. Long story short, Roberts concluded that human activity in the area is “adversely affecting” the cats....
Ecological genius played huge role in shaping New Mexico's landscape, environment Fresh out of Yale, where his strong attraction to the outdoors had led him to study forestry, Aldo Leopold arrived in Albuquerque early in July 1909 and began working in the forests of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona. His headquarters was in Springerville, Ariz. — a two-day, 85-mile stagecoach ride from where the train would leave him off in Holbrook, Ariz. In these and other forests he later supervised in New Mexico, Leopold observed overgrazing, overstocking, erosion, successions of plants, prey-and-predators relations and the role of fire in a natural setting. These provided the facts, clues and impressions that led him to his final conclusions about the relation between humans, their cultures and the land. An indication of Leopold's awakening understanding occurred during a 1919 horseback inspection trip he made deep into the Gila National Forest, when he resolved to do what he could to keep those forests free of "civilizing" influences, such as roads. His efforts, with some like-minded supporters, resulted in 755,000 acres being set aside by the Forest Service on June 3, 1924, as the Gila Wilderness — the first wilderness area in the country. In 1980, the National Wilderness Preservation System formalized this wilderness and added the contiguous Aldo Leopold Wilderness and Blue Range Primitive Area....
County faces drop in federal PILT funding An announced 30 percent reduction in payment in lieu of taxes funds comes as Uintah County faces an additional two percent cut in mineral lease funding. In an interview on Monday, county commissioner Mike McKee explained the loss of PILT funds blindsided county officials completely. “Thirty percent reduction in funding will occur in PILT monies,” stated McKee. “The irony is that we just met with Senator Bennett’s office looking to raise our share of PILT funding. We went from seeking full-funding to accepting a significant reduction.” McKee spoke of his disappointment over the Washington meeting where he and Duchesne County commissioner Rod Harrison received assurances that the potential for full-funding was close. “PILT is a static appropriation of $230 million for Pacific Northwest rural schools,” said Bob Widner, Uintah County’s Washington, D.C., lobbyist “A deduction from those monies comes to us as PILT funds.” The reduction in PILT funding came from “a congressional review that determined the Pacific Northwest rural school’s should receive their total entitlement,” Widner said. “That came as the senate failed to pass reauthorization of PILT funding by one vote last month. For us, it translates into a 30 percent reduction in funding.”....
Mount St. Helens growls mysteriously As John Pallister circled above Mount St. Helens on Sunday afternoon, a sharply defined line of steam caught his attention. "It was interesting enough to take some pictures," said Pallister, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist and private pilot. He didn't know it, but his USGS colleagues back in Vancouver had already noticed a 2.9-magnitude earthquake followed by a small but unusually long tremor at the steadily erupting volcano. The tremor, in fact, continued for almost an hour and a half, punctuated by a 2.7-magnitude quake. Such tremors typically signal that magma or gases are flowing underground like water in a pipe. The last tremor of note - a 55-minute stemwinder big enough to register on seismometers from Bend, Ore., to Bellingham on Oct. 2, 2004 - prompted the Forest Service to hastily evacuate the Johnston Ridge Observatory five miles north of the crater's mouth....
Park Service airs complaint against proposed coal plant The National Park Service says the $3.8 billion, coal-fired power plant that Nevada utilities propose to build near Ely is "unacceptable" because it would damage air and water quality and would interfere with scenic views in the Great Basin National Park. "Like a clean white page, the relatively clear air in the Great Basin can be marred easily," wrote Paul DePrey, park superintendent. DePrey made the comment in a Jan. 9 letter to the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection in response to the draft air permit the division has issued for the 1,500-megawatt Ely Energy Center. The center is a project of Sierra Pacific Power Co. and Nevada Power Co. The division can issue a final permit without substantial changes in the draft document, amend the permit or deny it after reviewing comments about the power plant....
Local mill to close Boise Cascade said Tuesday it will permanently close its sawmill and planer operations at its lumber manufacturing plant near Antelope Road and Agate Road. The operations will be phased out during the next two months and put 32 of the plant's 59 employees out of work. "It's something we've been evaluating for a long time," said Boise spokesman Bob Smith. "The issue with log supply goes back to the 1990s and it is why we curtailed a shift early last year. We are to the point where pine supplies are not affordable. Essentially, we have to go into central California to buy pine logs and when you add transportation costs, that's what drives this decision." In March 2007, the mill eliminated its second shift and the third shift was discontinued in 2000. Even as Dave Schott of Southern Oregon Timber Industry Association was telling Jackson County's natural resources advisory committee that Boise Cascade's sawmill days were numbered Tuesday, word was going out from the company headquarters about the closure. "It's the end of an era," Schott said. "It's the last regular sawmill in Jackson County. In 1947, when my father came out to join the lumber industry, there were close to 40 mills in Jackson and Josephine counties, including three or four in Ashland."....
Child Artists Help Save Endangered Species Poloppo is the first company to empower child artists by paying royalties directly on products sold displaying their work. The ingenuity of the children combined with the unique business model of Poloppo provides a fertile ground for creative brilliance. Poloppo is excited to announce the latest opportunity that gives kids a chance to express their creativity and have a voice that will make a difference in helping to save endangered species throughout the world. Poloppo's Fall/Winter 2008 collection from its line of apparel for kids and babies proudly displays art from child artists who have drawn their favorite endangered animal and get to have it featured on high-quality, eco-friendly sweatshirts, t-shirts, dresses, aprons and bibs. According to EndangeredSpecie.com the number one way for kids to step in and help protect endangered species and their habitats is to draw pictures of their favorite endangered creatures and send them to their political representatives. Because of Poloppo's reach and distribution, senators and members of congress are not the only ones who will benefit from the youthful perspective....
Sea lions eat endangered river sturgeon The survival of sturgeon in the Columbia River Gorge along the Washington-Oregon state line is threatened by feasting Steller sea lions. Fish and wildlife officials in the two Pacific Northwest states reportedly have tried to frighten away the almost extinct Steller sea lions, which weigh as much 2,400 pounds, with rubber bullets and underwater noise bombs, The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., reported Wednesday. The gorge is 40 miles east of Portland, Ore. Officials said one of the main facets of the problem is that the sea lions have targeted egg-bearing sturgeon. "These fish are essentially the anchor for the entire species on the West Coast of North America," sturgeon biologist Blaine Parker said. Wildlife experts say stronger measures need to be taken against the sea lions for the sturgeon to survive. "I'm not going to dispute the fact that Stellers need protection, also," Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association Executive Director Liz Hamilton said. The predatory Steller sea lions are protected by the Federal Endangered Species Act....
No bears for oil By 2050, two-thirds of the world's polar bears will have vanished, as a result of global warming melting their icy habitat, according to scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey. There may no longer be any polar bears at all living in Alaska, their only home in the United States. Still, this stark prediction, revealed in September 2007, after a yearlong review of the impact of melting sea ice on the Alaskan bears, hasn't inspired the Bush administration to list the bear as even a threatened species, much less an endangered one, under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, responsible for listing mammals as threatened or endangered, has been one of the most politically compromised scientific divisions in the Bush administration. It didn't consider extending federal protections to polar bears until it was petitioned, and subsequently sued, to do so by a coalition of environmental groups back in 2005. Now it admits that polar bears are "likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future," and explained recent delays by citing the complexity of the decision: It has never before had to designate a species as threatened because of global warming. But critics say that Fish and Wildlife hasn't made a ruling yet because another agency within the Department of Interior, the Minerals Management Service, is on the verge of handing out oil and gas leases in vast swaths of the polar bears' remaining habitat....
Of wolves and willows Don Despain and Roy Renkin aren’t the first scientists to notice how the climate is changing in Yellowstone National Park. But they are among the first to examine the link between climate change and the growth of certain plants, such as the willow bush. For the last couple of years, Despain and Renkin have been studying the remarkable growth of willow bushes along places such as Blacktail Deer Creek in the northwest section of the park. During most of the 1900s, willows here averaged around 2 to 3 feet tall, significantly under their usual height. Today, these willows are back to normal height, up to 8 feet tall. Despain, a retired U.S. Geological Survey scientist in Bozeman, and Renkin, a management biologist with the National Park Service in Yellowstone, aren’t the only ones to ponder the willows’ dramatic recovery. But many scientists connect it to the return of wolves in the mid-1990s rather than to changes in climate. These researchers note the changes in elk behavior since the wolves’ return: Wolf-wary elk spend less time in open riparian areas, choosing safer borders near forests. With fewer elk browsing on streamside willows, the plants have an opportunity to recover. Or so the theory goes. Whatever is causing the willow to recover is also affecting the whole ecology of the region....
Obama Pledges Support for Animal Rights Democrat Barack Obama says he won't just be a president for the American people, but the animals too. "What about animal rights?" a woman shouted out during the candidate's town hall meeting outside Las Vegas Wednesday after he discussed issues that relate more to humans, like war, health care and the economy. Obama responded that he cares about animal rights very much, "not only because I have a 9-year-old and 6-year-old who want a dog." He said he sponsored a bill to prevent horse slaughter in the Illinois state Senate and has been repeatedly endorsed by the Humane Society. "I think how we treat our animals reflects how we treat each other," he said. "And it's very important that we have a president who is mindful of the cruelty that is perpetrated on animals."
Ranchers and Environmentalists to Host Third Annual Summit in Sacramento The California Rangeland Conservation Coalition, a group comprised of 78 diverse ranching and conservation organizations and government agencies in California, are gathering for their third annual summit to be held Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008, at the Holiday Inn at 300 J. St., in Sacramento. The eclectic grouping of agencies and individuals formed the Coalition three years ago, driven by their common goal of protecting both wildlife and the rangelands that shelter them. "Gradually all groups have come to realize that to be successful we need to work together, despite any differences we may have, we are interdependent in protecting what each of us values most," says Kim Delfino, California program director, Defenders of Wildlife. Topics to be discussed range from the scientific to sociological, reflecting the many types of issues encountered in conserving wildlife and rangeland. Scientists from the University of California and the PRBO Conservation Science will address topics such as: Using Birds as Indicators of Conservation Effectiveness; Regenerating Oaks on Grazed Rangelands; and Building Bridges between Public and Private Rangelands. The event will also feature a panel of ranchers for a question and answer session on issues such as the perceptions ranchers have of conservation easements, what drives ranchers to voluntarily enhance wildlife habitat on their property, and the effects of current and future regulations on ranching....
Where's the beef? Trailer of meat stolen from San Angelo plant A man claiming to be a driver for Pratte Trucking pulled up at Lone Star Beef in San Angelo last night in a cab marked with PDP logos, spoke to Lone Star personnel and then hooked up to a trailer full of meat and drove off, police said. An hour and a half later, the real driver showed up. Authorities are now hunting for the tractor and trailer, which contained about $100,000 worth of meat. The trailer, a Wabash refrigerator unit marked PDP No. 9 on its rear doors and bearing Oklahoma licence plate 135-4CZ, alone was valued at $40,000, authorities said....
Ranch Sells Beef for Dinner, Bones for Surgery Prather Ranch's dry-aged, organic New York steaks will set you back $20 per pound at its upscale stall in San Francisco's Ferry Building farmers market. But even at that price, foodies aren't the company's best market. The most valuable parts of its cows are the inedible parts: pituitary glands, bones, heart muscles and hides. Medical companies covet them for making surgical glue, bone screws, collagen and artificial skin. "In most years, these things are more valuable than the meat," said Jim Rickert, a fifth-generation farmer. "We also think out of an ethical-moral thing. The animal deserves us using it completely." The impetus for producing medical-grade cattle, however, was economic. California is an expensive state for anyone, and it's a particularly challenging place for cattle ranchers. But Rickert and his wife have deep local roots. So rather than move to a cheaper state, the Rickerts built a diversified business that would remain sustainable through fluctuations in the price of meat. And it turns out that the rules for raising cows appropriate for medical use dovetail nicely with organics and a sustainable farming model....
Charlie Matteri reaped rewards of hard work Charlie Matteri laughs out loud and punctuates his colorful stories with lots of smiles as he describes his childhood and recalls what it was like growing up on a dairy ranch in Petaluma’s Lakeville district, working under inhospitable conditions in Alaska, and returning to Petaluma where he’s lived for 57 years on his own Lakeville spread. The Lakeville area, south of town and east of the Petaluma River, was a bastion for Italian-born ranchers and dairymen who located there in the early 1900s. Charlie’s parents, Giovanni and Maria, got their start there in 1914 on a 75-acre parcel on Brown’s Lane. The fourth of their five kids, after Katie (Allen), Ann (Broxmeyer), and Elsie (Marsh), and before John, Charlie was born in 1920. Tragedy struck the family when Giovanni Matteri died in 1922, but with everybody pitching in, the family became self-sufficient, allowing Maria to keep the ranch until she married Elvezio Rosselli five years later. “We didn’t have any toys, we didn’t even have an extra nickel to buy a ball, but we were happy,” Charlie explained. The kids attended rural Lakeville School, but Charlie, like many others, spoke only Italian, and didn’t enjoy school much. “How could I learn English? It was like Little Italy around here,” Charlie said, pointing in different directions and reciting the names of neighboring ranches. “There was Vivenzi, Patocchi, Cincera, Tarca, Giannini and many more.”....
Ranch History Display at Wings Over Willcox In 1877 the White brothers, Theodore, Jarrett and Thomas, established El Dorado Ranch on Turkey Creek near the base of the Chiricahua Mountains; others followed and within a few years many small ranches existed in the Sulphur Springs Valley. In 1883 John V. and Sumner Vickers began running cattle on the open range in the valley. John, a wealthy Pennsylvanian residing in Tombstone, was involved in the brokerage of cattle range, real estate and mining. Later that year he bought the interests of Thomas and Jarrett White in the El Dorado Ranch. Vickers loaned money for the purchase of cattle and acted as sales agent for the El Dorado and other area ranches. El Dorado prospered and by 1885 had over 6,000 head of cattle. Theodore White and John Vickers were not only cattlemen, they were speculators with a vision of creating a cattle empire. To make their dream a reality, they needed a large number of cattle and a lot of land. In the spring of 1885, White, Vickers, and several small ranchers combined land, cattle and water rights and formed the Chiricahua Cattle Company. The CCC brand was registered and a cattle empire of 1,685,880 acres of public domain with about 15,000 head of cattle and 300 horses was created. The CCC, run by daring men, prospered and by 1889 the herd had increased to 19,520 head of cattle and 375 horses. The CCC dominated the valley from Willcox to Elfrida and soon extended its range into Graham County and other areas of southeastern Arizona. The CCC seemed to be everywhere; it had become one of the largest and best run cattle companies in Arizona Territory.

TV SHOW "24" GOES GREEN

The Jan. 30 issue of The New Republic has an article entitled Eco-Terror(subscription required). Here are some excerpts:

Fans of the show "24," or anyone who has followed the recent controversy surrounding its portrayal of torture, may have been understandably surprised by a mid-summer announcement by Fox network executives: The series--whose co-creator and executive producer, Joel Surnow, is a Rick Santorum- supporting, friend-of-Ann-Coulter sort of conservative, and whose hero, Jack Bauer, knows his way around a waterboard--was going green. In fact, it would be the first TV series ever to do so. Henceforth, every electroshock session would require the purchase of carbon offsets. Led by executive producer Howard Gordon, whose wife coauthored The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming with Laurie David, high priestess of Hollywood environmentalism, execs promised to reduce the show's carbon footprint during the upcoming seventh season, with a "carbon neutral" finale as the ultimate goal. Surnow, for his part, has remained mum about the venture. "He is tolerating it rather than embracing it," Gordon tells me by phone.[...]For one, the show shoots roughly half of its scenes on location--unlike, say, a medical drama, which mainly adheres to a single interior. This makes "24" something of an energy glutton: Each new venue requires the transportation of crew and equipment, the building (and dismantling) of sets, the rigging of generators to power the voracious lights that illuminate those sets. And, of course, the series' numerous special effects (car chases, explosions, shootouts) are not exactly low-emission--the show's carbon footprint for 2006 was 1,684 metric tons, the annual equivalent of approximately 364 cars or 89 households.[...]Through fuel reductions and the purchase of green power, Posey says, the series has reduced its emissions by 125 metric tons, "the equivalent of taking twenty-seven cars off the road, and like fourteen thousand gallons of oil."....

The artwork accompanying the article shows Jack Bauer in action with the caption being "Jack Bauer saves the environment."

I've been to some team ropings where Kiefer Sutherland competed and he didn't strike me as the green type. Don't tell Twentieth Century Fox Television I said that. They may require some "cowboy offsets".

Farmers fear a barnyard Big Brother After days of parading around her beefy black steer in the dung-scented August heat at the Colorado State Fair, Brandi Calderwood made the final competition. For months, the 16-year-old worked from dawn well past dusk, fitting in the work around school, to feed, train and clean her steer. But just before the last round, when the animals are sold, fair officials disqualified her. They alleged that Brandi had not properly followed a new and controversial rule that required children to register their farms with a federal animal tracking system. After heated words, the Calderwoods were told to leave. A security guard trailed Brandi and her mother, even to the restroom. "Emotionally she went through the wringer and didn't get the honor of showing in the sale. For a 16-year-old, that's a big deal," said Cathy Calderwood, Brandi's mother. A Bush administration initiative, the National Animal Identification System is meant to provide a modern tool for tracking disease outbreaks within 48 hours, whether natural or the work of a bioterrorist. Most farm animals, even exotic ones such as llamas, will eventually be registered. Information will be kept on every farm, ranch or stable. And databases will record every animal movement from birth to slaughterhouse, including trips to the vet and county fairs. But the system is spawning a grass-roots revolt. Family farmers see it as an assault on their way of life by a federal bureaucracy with close ties to industrial agriculture. They point out that they will have to track every animal while vast commercial operations will be allowed to track whole herds. Privacy advocates say the database would create an invasive, detailed electronic record of farmers' activities. Religious farming communities, such as the Amish and Mennonites, fear the system is a manifestation of the Mark of the Beast foretold in the Book of Revelation. And despite the administration's insistence that the program is voluntary, farmers and families, such as the Calderwoods, chafe at the heavy-handed and often mandatory way states have implemented it, sometimes with the help of sheriff's deputies....

Klamath Settlement Group Releases Proposed Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement Representatives of diverse communities in the Klamath Basin, working with federal, state, and county governments, have developed a Proposed Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement to rebuild fisheries, sustain agricultural communities, and resolve other longstanding disputes related to the allocation of water resources. The non-Federal parties released the Proposed Agreement today to inform the public and to provide public review and comment before taking final action. This is an important first step in a collaborative effort to seek solutions with the key stakeholders in the Klamath Basin on an environmental restoration strategy. The Klamath Settlement Group is presently negotiating with PacifiCorp in an effort to reach agreement on the removal of the utility’s four lower dams in the Klamath Basin, referenced as the "Hydropower Agreement." Dam removal is a necessary part of the overall restoration effort, and the Hydropower Agreement along with the Proposed Agreement released today has the potential to provide a comprehensive solution for the Basin. The group is working to finalize both agreements in February....
Judge says road ownership must be settled before further action A judge has ruled that the ownership of a road at the center of a dispute between a ranching family and two northern Utah counties must be resolved before the ranchers' accusations are addressed. Fred and Laura Selman and their son, Bret Selman, all of Tremonton, sued Box Elder and Cache counties separately last spring, challenging the counties' declarations that the Rocky Dugway road through their 7,000-acre ranch southeast of Mantua is a Class B road. The lawsuits were the culmination of years of argument between the Selmans and the counties. The Selmans claim the dirt path is a private "livestock driveway" and want to block motorized vehicles that they say disrupt wildlife, their cattle and sheep. The counties contend the road is public. They want it open for recreationists to reach the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. The path is also an important link in the James Hansen Shoshone National ATV trail system proposed for northern Utah....
Farmers Told to Prepare for Climate Policies According to the director of the Agriculture Department’s Global Change Program Office, farmers and ranchers must recognize that “at the policy level the question is not whether climate change is occurring. The debate is over what to do about it.” During a session at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 89th annual convention, Bill Hohenstein said in the future all sectors of U.S. economic life, including agriculture, will be affected by policies intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Current federal policy does not impose a mandatory cap on such emissions. But Hohenstein noted that at least nine separate proposals that address the issue are now before Congress, some of which contain caps. National lawmakers give every indication they are moving toward adopting a policy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He explained that U.S. farmers and ranchers will surely be called on to reduce emissions on their properties. In response to policy discussions, USDA staff members have developed a method for voluntary calculation of a given farm’s “footprint for greenhouse gas emissions.” Once refined for use by the individual citizen, the system will facilitate a calculation. In a second step, the user may submit the information to the USDA or another federal agency. “Having consistent rules is quite important,” Hohenstein said. “The same rules must apply in Iowa and in any other state.” Voluntary pursuit of reductions is the goal. “USDA will encourage practices that will either reduce greenhouse gas emissions or implement carbon sequestration,” he added....
Diverse Groups Protest Federal 'Water Grab' Bill A diverse group of grassroots organizations and business and civic groups has come together to oppose the proposed Federal Clean Water Restoration Act, which many call the Federal Water Grab Bill. The bill would strip state oversight of minor waterways and for the first time give federal bureaucrats control over millions of acres of drainage ditches, seasonal ponds, and small waterways that have no significant impact on larger bodies of water. Opposition to the federal proposal was expressed on December 5 when members of Congress, state legislators, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Property Rights Alliance, Partnership for America, and Americans for American Energy joined the National Farm Bureau Federation, American Property Coalition, and Western Business Roundtable on the steps of the Longworth House Office Building in Washington, DC. "[B]y eliminating one word--navigable--and replacing it with the term 'waters of the United States,' the legislation would give the federal government authority over anything that is wet, as well as any activity on land that could affect water," explained the North Carolina Coalition for Clean Water....
Colo. Supreme Court could mean early release for Hayman fire starter A woman who admitted starting the worst wildfire in Colorado’s recorded history could be released within a year after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled prosecutors cannot withdraw their plea agreement. The ruling Monday raises the possiblity that Terry Lynn Barton could be released after serving a 6-year federal prison term for setting the June 2002 Hayman fire, though 4th Judicial District Attorney John Newsome plans to argue Barton should face some state prison time. A judge handed down a 12-year sentence, which is double the maximum 6 year sentence, citing aggravating factors. Barton’s attorneys appealed, arguing the judge shouldn’t have handed down the sentence because he lived near the fire and had to voluntarily evacuate his house. The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that only a jury could find aggravating factors and voided the sentence in 2004. Prosecutors then argued that Barton’s appeal of her sentence violated the terms of the plea agreement, which allowed them to withdraw it. The ruling Monday rejected that argument....
Court upholds ruling, backs heli-skiing company A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a lower court's decision that allowed a helicopter skiing company to continue operations in the mountains of the Wasatch-Cache and Uinta national forests. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart's 2006 ruling that said the Forest Service had complied with all federal environmental protection laws when it renewed a permit issued to Wasatch Powderbirds in 2005 to fly skiers into the backcountry. Two citizen groups, Save Our Canyons and Utah Environmental Congress, had argued that the heli-ski outfit's activities harmed non-motorized recreation in the high country. The plaintiffs argued the Forest Service had acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner in renewing the Powderbirds permit, which the company has held and renewed since 1973. Stewart rejected virtually all the claims against the government....
Ruling allows roadless area trails to stay open A federal government decision that will allow back-country trails for Jeeps and other off-highway vehicles to remain open in a national forest in northern California is being seen as a precedent that could have implications for other such disputes now developing, a trail advocate says. The recent decision came from Smith River National Recreation Area Road Management and Route Designation Project on the Six Rivers National Forest, according to Don Amador, the western representative for the Blue Ribbon Coalition. The BRC had joined with Del Norte County in an appeal of the decision that would have closed more than 14 miles of historic off-highway vehicle motorized trails in the Six Rivers National Forest. The appeal deciding officer now has reversed the proposed closure, Amador said. "This decision clearly supports BRC's continuing legal viewpoint that the 2001 Clinton Roadless Rule allows for motorized trails to be designated in roadless areas," he said. "As the route designation process continues on other forests it will be important for local user groups to highlight important OHV routes that already exist in roadless areas so they may be included as meaningful options in the travel management plan."....
Beetles May Wipe Out Colo. Lodgepoles Strands of distressed, red pine trees across northern Colorado and the Front Range are a visible testament to the bark beetle infestation that officials said will kill most of the state's lodgepole pine trees within 5 years. The infestation that was first detected in 1996 grew by half-million acres last year, bringing the total number of acres attacked by bark beetles to 1.5 million, state and federal forestry officials said Monday. "This is an unprecedented event," said Rick Cables, Rocky Mountain regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service. The fire potential will increase as trees retain their needles for a couple of years after beetles attack, said Bob Kane, regional entomologist with the Rocky Mountain Region of the U.S. Forest Service. When the needles fall, the danger will decrease, and spike again when the trees fall in about 10 years, Kane said. Officials said the infestation has been concentrated in five northern Colorado counties straddling the Continental Divide and has since spread to the Front Range and southern Wyoming....
Scientists Address a Burning Question Climate change is affecting the natural processes on the Earth. It is possible to observe these changes when glaciers shrink in size, trees bloom earlier, growing seasons extend, ice on rivers and lakes freeze later and thaw earlier and permafrost disappears. Researchers, supported by USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) have added one more item to this list, suggesting that increased wildfire activity in the northern Rocky Mountains may be a result of climate change. The western United States has been plagued by wildfires for more than 30 years. In the northern Rocky Mountain region alone, the incidence of wildfires increased by as much as 60 percent. In recent years, expenditures to combat wildfires by governmental agencies have skyrocketed to $1.7 billion. Paul Knapp and Peter Soulé at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Appalachian State University wondered whether shifts in the timing and frequency of major midlatitude storms during the summer influenced the recent fire trends. The scientists studied weather data collected since 1900 from eight climate stations in the northern Rockies. They compared these data with wildfire records from 1940 through 2004. The data revealed that the first major midlatitude storm occurred progressively later each year, and the frequency of the storms diminished over the past century. In addition, the storm frequency exhibited a pronounced decrease beginning in the mid-1980s. This trend of later and fewer midlatitude storms correlated to the increase in wildfires throughout the northern Rockies....This is amazing research folks. I mean, who would have thought that when you have lower humidity and less precipitation the fire risk would actually increase? Thank goodness we have this Federally funded research to tell us what happens when it gets...dry.
Bill would stiffen fines for driving on prohibited lands Drive your ATV into a wilderness area or onto other restricted federal land and you could face a stiff fine not only from the federal government but also from the state if a proposed bill clears the Colorado Legislature this year. Get caught hunting while operating an unauthorized motor vehicle on state or federal public land, and your hunting license could be at risk, too, under the bill sponsored in the House by Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, and in the Senate by Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton. House Bill 1069 would strictly prohibit operating any motor vehicle on state or federal public lands, trails or roads unless there are signs saying vehicles are allowed there or the agency managing the land otherwise authorizes vehicle use there. A violation would be a misdemeanor with a fine of $100. If you’re caught with a vehicle in a federal wilderness area, the state would double the fine to $200. If hunting was involved with the violation, a hunting license would be docked 10 suspension points, or 15 points in a wilderness area. Local law enforcement would have the right to enforce the proposed law, even on federal land. That’s perfectly fine by the federal Bureau of Land Management, which was consulted on the wording of the bill, BLM spokesman James Sample said. A 1976 federal law governing how public land is managed gives states the authority to impose fines on people who violate regulations on federal land, he said....
BLM reviewing comments on Otero Mesa permit The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has received more than 300 e-mails and an unknown number of letters commenting on an environmental assessment for an application for a permit to drill on Otero Mesa. That word today from BLM spokesman Hans Stuart. Today is the last day for comments on the environmental assessment on an application by Harvey E. Yates Company of Roswell to drill a natural gas well on land it leases in the area. Stuart says an environmental impact statement was done between 1998 and 2004. He says it looked at the large picture of the impacts of oil and gas development on the mesa in Otero and Sierra counties. The BLM proposes opening 1,589 acres on the 2 million-acre mesa to drilling. The environmental assessment looks at the Roswell company's specific site.
New Mexico wants study of Otero Mesa drilling State officials say an environmental assessment done by the Bureau of Land Management on an application for a permit to drill for natural gas on Otero Mesa is insufficient. Gov. Bill Richardson and Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Secretary Joanna Prukop are calling on the BLM to do a full environmental impact statement on the application of Harvey E. Yates Co. to drill a natural gas well on leased land. Prukop sent a letter Monday to the BLM, saying the state was concerned that the agency's review of Heyco's application was incomplete and based on outdated information....
Scientists Take Complaints About Interference to Hill Two dozen scientists swarmed over Capitol Hill this week mad as vespinae (hornets) at what they say is Bush administration meddling in environmental science. Organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Endangered Species Coalition, the rumpled researchers won time in the offices of more than 20 lawmakers. They are protesting what Francesca Grifo, director of the Scientific Integrity Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, calls "the systematic dismantling of the Endangered Species Act through the manipulation and suppression of science." On a dash from the House to the Senate, Grifo said the group wants hearings and better congressional oversight of the Interior Department, where Bush appointees control the fate of threatened and endangered species. The scientists say political appointees at Interior, or those who report to them, have been altering their reports recommending "critical habitat" preservation to favor industries whose interests conflict with the findings....
Inuits reject US environmentalists' bid to protect polar bear Leaders of Canada's Inuit community opposed efforts by US environmentalists to put polar bears on the endangered species list, warning that hunting restrictions would hurt their livelihood. Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit of Canada, said a petition by environmentalists to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) seeking to protect the Arctic bears is driven more by politics than ecological imperative. "They're doing this in a very public way by using the polar bear for political reasons against the (George W.) Bush administration over greenhouse gas emissions, and as Inuit, we fundamentally disagree with such tactics," said Simon, whose group represents native Canadians living in northern Quebec and the northwest territories of Yukon, and Nunavut in northern Canada. Duane Smith, president of the Canadian branch of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, which represents about 150,000 Inuit of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia, said the polar bears in Canada are hunted humanely and responsibly. "Our hunters and guides benefit economically, and we are able to continue with our culture, enjoy the benefits of what we use, and ensure that this is done in a responsible and sustainable manner," he said, adding that in his view the environmentalists' petition was "meant for publicity."....
Ranchers, rodeo stars gather to honor special Texans Fort Worth is the big city that acts like a small town. It's not like Dallas or Houston--or even San Antonio. It's a place built on the bedrock of tradition, a place where yesterday is as important as tomorrow. So maybe it's no surprise that the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, which works to preserve Western heritage and honors ranching and rodeo heroes, found a home in Cowtown's historic Stockyards District. Now its annual induction ceremony opening just before the Stock Show and the ranch rodeo is becoming one of the city's traditions. Inductees were rodeo star Trevor Brazile of Decatur, who won three world titles in a single year; horse trainer and cutting horse champ Tom Lyons of Grandview; rodeo clown George Doak of Katy and bull rider turned horse trainer; author Carl Nafzger, a Plainview native who trained two Kentucky Derby winners; and cowboy balladeer, historian and author Don Edwards....

FDA Says Cloned Animals Safe As Food Meat and milk from cloned animals are as safe as that from their counterparts bred the old-fashioned way, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday — but sales still won't begin right away. The decision removes the last big U.S. regulatory hurdle to marketing products from cloned livestock, and puts the FDA in concert with recent safety assessments from European food regulators and several other nations. "Meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones are as safe as food we eat every day," said Dr. Stephen Sundloff, FDA's food safety chief. But the government has asked animal cloning companies to continue a voluntary moratorium on sales for a little longer — not for safety reasons, but marketing ones. USDA Undersecretary Bruce Knight called it a transition period for "allowing the marketplace to adjust." He wouldn't say how long the moratorium should continue. "This is about market acceptance," Knight added, who said he would be calling a meeting of industry leaders to determine next steps. Regardless, it still will be years before many foods from cloned animals reach store shelves, for economic reasons: At $10,000 to $20,000 per animal, they're a lot more expensive than ordinary cows, meaning producers likely will use clones' offspring for meat, not the clone itself....
Long study led to US cloned food safety decision Cloned animals may often be born deformed and die young but scientists, who have looked at every aspect of their biology to try to explain why, can find no evidence that it would be dangerous to eat them. None of the more than 700 studies reviewed in detail showed any evidence to suggest that milk or organ or muscle tissue from cloned animals could harm someone who ate it, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in its final report on the subject on Tuesday. "We have actually done a more in-depth analysis of the meat from cloned animals than has been done ever," said Mark Walton, president of Texas-based farm animal cloning firm ViaGen. In 2002, a National Academy of Sciences panel said there was no reason to believe that meat or milk from cloned animals may be unsafe. But it said the FDA should do a review, and because of the outpouring of opinions and fears about the subject, the agency extended its review for more than a year. Cloned calves have died from respiratory, digestive, circulatory, nervous, muscular and skeletal abnormalities, as well as because they had abnormal placentas, the FDA noted. And researchers have looked at all the possible causes of these abnormalities -- changes in the genes, in other parts of DNA that affect what genes do and the process of cloning itself....
Cloned meat may be safe, but will consumers eat it? While cloning of meat-producing animals was deemed safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, it may be consumers who determine how widely it is used. "The big issue is consumer acceptance. Even if USDA and FDA issue a statement, the final arbiter, whether it will be allowed in the market, is consumer acceptance," said Jacinto Fabiosa, co-director and livestock analyst at the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Center in Ames, Iowa. Cloning has been around for years -- Dolly the cloned sheep was born in 1996 -- but the FDA's latest action now brings the technology close to the food supply. "The consumer reaction and the effect on exports markets - is the primary concern," said Mark Boggess, director of animal science for the National Pork Board. Consumers in the United States may be more accepting than those overseas. One example used was the opposition in Europe to crops that have been genetically modified (GMO) to protect against weeds or insects. "I don't think is as likely to be as significant as the GMO stuff has been, but it is real hard to figure out where consumers' reactions are going," said John Urbanchuk, a food economist with the global consulting firm LECG....
Don't expect that cloned burger right away Restaurants and supermarkets are girding for their own "Attack of the Clones," and it's no Star Wars episode. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration now says meat and milk from cloned cattle, pigs and other animals are safe for human consumption. For now, food items are not supposed to come directly from cloned animals - but only their offspring. And the food that comes from the offspring can be used for everything from the milkshakes served by restaurants to the steaks sold in supermarkets without any special labeling. But don't expect to find much food derived from clones any time soon at your neighborhood Ralphs supermarket -- or at many other stores and restaurants. It is going to take years to get into the food chain, and many retailers are already dead-set against it. "Our intention is not to accept cloned products from our suppliers," says Meghan Glynn, spokeswoman for Kroger Co., the Cincinnati-based owner of Ralphs, Food4Less and several other chains. Pleasanton-based Safeway Inc., the owner of Vons, said it supports continuing what has been a voluntary ban on the use of cloned animals for food. "We are not looking to offer any cloned products in our stores," said spokesman Brian Dowling. And California Pizza Kitchen, the 229-restaurant chain based in Los Angeles, says it "has no plans to provide our guests with cloned products."....
Cloned Meat and Milk Await an Official 'OK' Would you eat meat or drink milk derived from cloned animals? The question—long the stuff of science fiction—is now one that consumers need to consider seriously. The European Food Safety Authority announced Friday that it considers food from clones safe to eat. In the United States, meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to lift a voluntary moratorium issued in 2001 on food products that come from livestock that originated in a petri dish. Companies selling the clones promote the animals' ability to provide superior offspring to livestock breeders, for example. U.S. News tracked down answers to some frequently asked questions about the issue. Is it safe to eat meat or milk from cloned animals? Food from cloned animals is safe for human consumption, the FDA declared last year. According to a supporting paper by scientists in the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, none of the research reviewed had identified "any remarkable nutritionally or toxicologically important differences in the composition of the meat or milk." At the same time, however, the FDA did not give the stamp of approval for the sale of such products to the public. And groups such as the Center for Food Safety and the Union of Concerned Scientists are apprehensive about letting the goods into the food supply; they've called for long-term studies on the health effects in humans who consume the products. New Zealand and Australia, though, have already deemed such products safe, and other countries are expected to do the same....

Lawmakers: Wolves still endangered Five congressmen from the House Natural Resources Committee want to delay a plan to remove gray wolves in the Northern Rockies from the federal endangered-species list. In a recent letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, the congressmen wrote that states "hostile to wolf conservation" could reduce today's 1,500 wolves to "as few as 300" if the predators lose protected status. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which Kempthorne oversees, plans to announce the delisting of wolves in the Northern Rockies next month. That would allow Idaho, Wyoming and Montana to host public hunts for the animals. The states already are setting hunting seasons and quotas. Last year, more than 140 wolves were killed in the Northern Rockies by federal and state officials and ranchers in response to wolves' preying on livestock....
Horn-tootin' event For 12 years, Lin Cummins of Rochester listened to her husband try to talk an automaker into introducing a truck as cowboys herded cattle down the streets of Detroit. "He thinks he's a cowboy," Cummins said of her husband, Andrew, 62, who runs his own communications company but on Sunday morning helped lead a herd of longhorns to Cobo Center for the launch of the 2009 Dodge Ram pickup. Jason Vines, former communications chief at Chrysler LLC, surprised Andrew Cummins about three months ago with the news that the idea would finally be used. The cattle loped uneventfully down Congress, turning south on Washington to the front of Cobo. There, wearing a brown corduroy Carhartt jacket over his dress shirt and tie, Chrysler Copresident Jim Press introduced the Ram. Some of the 120 longhorns stole a bit of the show from Press, mounting each other as he began to talk. Rancher Wes Sander, 54, of Woodward, Okla., brought the steers from his 3,000-acre ranch in Oklahoma's panhandle. He said they travel to an event or two a month -- even have been movie extras -- and are not easily rattled. Even Air Force flyovers don't faze the animals, Sander said....
Cross-Country Ride Ends for Ore. Rancher An Oregon rancher who set off on a cross-country horseback ride seven months ago in search of what's good in America dismounted, feeling encouraged by the spirit and stories of the people he met. Bill Inman's journey ended Sunday. He began his journey June 2 because he felt distress over how the country was being portrayed in news coverage and on TV shows. He rode his 16-year-old thoroughbred-quarter horse Blackie. Among the people he met was a Wyoming deputy sheriff who drove 25 miles through a thunderstorm to bring dinner to him and his wife, and all 17 people of a Colorado town who came out to see him ride off. "Sometimes, I was more intrigued by the stories they were telling than the stories I was telling," Inman said....
It's All Trew: Horse had to run its course The early-day printing presses at Harper's Magazine were powered by a vertical shaft running from the basement upward through two floors of the printing rooms above. The shaft turned slowly from 7 a.m. till noon, and from 1 to 6 p.m. each working day. The power came from a sturdy white horse named "The Harper Press Horse" who trudged in a circle on the basement floor turning the shaft. A factory whistle blew at the beginning and end of each shift. Progress arrived and The Harper Press Horse was finally retired to a nice pasture on one of the owner's farms nearby. For a few days retirement and freedom was enjoyed to the fullest. However, the pasture was within hearing distance of the old factory whistle. One morning when the whistle blew the old horse trotted to a large tree in the pasture and began walking a circle just as he had done in the basement of the press. He continued working his shift around the tree each time the whistle blew as long as he could wearing out a path in the grass. This old workhorse had a job to do and was not happy unless allowed to continue.[...]Today's pit-bull tragedies are a far cry from the stories of Old Yeller and Lassie. Texas can be proud of Fred Gipson, born 1908 in Mason, Texas. His book "Old Yeller," published in 1956, was based on a true story about a real dog who saved Fred's grandfather from a rabid wolf. Walt Disney paid $50,000 for the right to make the movie and a sequel called "Savage Sam."....

FLE

U.S. to Speed Deportation of Criminals in Jail Federal authorities expect to identify and deport more than 200,000 immigrants this year who are convicted criminals serving time in prisons and jails across the country, the country’s top federal immigration enforcement official said Monday. The effort to speed the deportation of foreign-born criminals is part of a campaign by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to help federal and state prisons reduce the costs of housing immigrants, the official, Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of homeland security and head of the agency, said in an interview. In 2007, Ms. Myers said, the agency, known as ICE, brought formal immigration charges against 164,000 immigrants who are behind bars nationwide for crimes committed in this country. Many of those immigrants are still in the United States and are also slated for deportation this year, she said. By comparison, in 2006, the agency identified 64,000 immigrants behind bars, most of whom were deported. The big increase in deportations will place “a significant burden,” on ICE’s detention centers, she said, and on the airplanes, mostly from the Justice Department, used by the agency to fly immigrants back to their home countries. Last year, Congress authorized $200 million for programs to deport immigrant criminals....
The Bush Administration Wants To Ban Guns A lot of Americans who believe in the right to own guns were very disappointed this weekend. On Friday, the Bush administration’s Justice Department entered into the fray over the District of Columbia’s 1976 handgun ban by filing a brief to the Supreme Court that effectively supports the ban. The administration pays lip service to the notion that the Second Amendment protects gun ownership as an “individual right,” but their brief leaves the term essentially meaningless. Quotes by the two sides’ lawyers say it all. The District’s acting attorney general, Peter Nickles, happily noted that the Justice Department’s brief was a “somewhat surprising and very favorable development.” Alan Gura, the attorney who will be representing those challenging the ban before the Supreme Court, accused the Bush administration of “basically siding with the District of Columbia” and said that “This is definitely hostile to our position.” As the lead to an article in the Los Angeles Times said Sunday, “gun-control advocates never expected to get a boost from the Bush administration.” As probably the most prominent Second Amendment law professor in the country privately confided in me, “If the Supreme Court accepts the solicitor general’s interpretation, the chances of getting the D.C. gun ban struck down are bleak.” The Department of Justice argument can be boiled down pretty easily. Its lawyers claim that since the government bans machine guns, it should also be able to ban handguns. After all, they reason, people can still own rifles and shotguns for protection, even if they have to be stored locked up. The Justice Department even seems to accept that trigger locks are not really that much of a burden, and that the locks “can properly be interpreted” as not interfering with using guns for self-protection. Yet, even if gun locks do interfere with self-defense, DOJ believes the regulations should be allowed, as long as the District of Columbia government thinks it has a good reason[...]The biggest problem is the standard used for evaluating the constitutionality of regulations. The DOJ is asking that a different, much weaker standard be used for the Second Amendment than the courts demands for other “individual rights” such as speech, unreasonable searches and seizures, imprisonment without trial, and drawing and quartering people.[...]The question is what constitutes “reasonable” regulation. The DOJ brief argues that if the DC government says gun control is important for public safety, it should be allowed by the courts. What the appeals court argued is that gun regulations not only need to be reasonable, they need to withstand “strict scrutiny” – a test that ensures the regulations are narrowly tailored to achieve the desired goal. Perhaps the Justice Department’s position isn’t too surprising. Like any other government agency, it has a hard time giving up its authority. The Justice Department’s bias can been seen in that it finds it necessary to raise the specter of machine guns 10 times when evaluating a law that bans handguns....
US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a "walk in the park," according to an interview published in the New Yorker's print edition today. Debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “will be a walk in the park compared to this,” McConnell said. “this is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.” The article, which profiles the 65-year-old former admiral appointed by President George W. Bush in January 2007 to oversee all of America's intelligence agencies, was not published on the New Yorker's Web site. McConnell is developing a Cyber-Security Policy, still in the draft stage, which will closely police Internet activity. "Ed Giorgio, who is working with McConnell on the plan, said that would mean giving the government the autority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer or Web search," author Lawrence Wright pens. “Google has records that could help in a cyber-investigation, he said," Wright adds. The infrastructure to tap into Americans' email and web search history may already be in place. In November, a former technician at AT&T alleged that the telecom forwarded virtually all of its Internet traffic into a "secret room" to facilitate government spying....
Spychief Wants to Tap Into Cyberspace Spychief Mike McConnell is drafting a plan to protect America’s cyberspace that will raise privacy issues and make the current debate over surveillance law look like “a walk in the park,” McConnell tells The New Yorker in the issue set to hit newsstands Monday. “This is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.” At issue, McConnell acknowledges, is that in order to accomplish his plan, the government must have the ability to read all the information crossing the Internet in the United States in order to protect it from abuse. Congressional aides tell The Journal that they, too, are also anticipating a fight over civil liberties that will rival the battles over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Part of the lawmakers’ ire, they have said, is the paltry information the administration has provided. The cyberspace security initiative was first reported in September by The Baltimore Sun, and some congressional aides say that lawmakers have still learned more from the media than they did from the few Top Secret briefings they have received hours before the administration requested money in November to jump start the program.
Men in Mexican Military Uniforms Seen Crossing Border The Mexican military is crossing the border into the U.S. That's according to records NEWSCHANNEL 5 obtained using the Freedom of Information Act. The 29-page document shows the Department of Homeland Security is tracking the occurrences. It includes sightings of men dressed in Mexican military uniforms. The document states Mexican government personnel crossed the border more than 250 times since 1996. Some of that activity happened in the Rio Grande Valley. We spoke to farmer and rancher Joe Aguilar. He tells us the threat is too close....

19 Bald Eagles Die After Eating Fish Waste in Alaska At least 19 bald eagles died Friday after gorging themselves on a truck full of fish waste outside a processing plant. Fifty or more eagles swarmed into the truck, whose retractable fabric cover was open, after the truck was moved outside the plant, said Brandon Saito, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who coordinated the recovery operation. The birds became too soiled to fly or clean themselves, and with temperatures in the mid-teens, began to succumb to the cold. Some birds became so weak they sank into the fish slime and were crushed. The truck's contents had to be dumped onto the floor of the Ocean Beauty Seafoods plant so the birds could be retrieved. Some tried to scatter, but since they couldn't fly, wildlife officers soon retrieved them. The eagles were then cleaned with dish soap in tubs of warm water to remove the oily slime and warm them....
General Motors finances ethanol maker Coskata General Motors (GM) says it is investing in a fledgling company that claims its secret process could be able to make ethanol from waste in large quantity as soon as 2010 for $1 a gallon or less, half the cost of making gasoline. Bill Roe, CEO of 18-month-old ethanol maker Coskata, says the company's process uses bacteria developed at the University of Oklahoma and existing gasification technology to generate 99.7% pure ethanol, plus water. He says the method should leapfrog cellulosic production, which has been seen as the next step from today's ethanol production using corn. Coskata's process can use garbage, old tires and other waste, but Roe says wood waste probably will be used at first because it's available, cheap and easy to handle. Roe pledges to be operating a 40,000-gallon-per-year pilot plant this year and to line up partnerships with other companies to build $400 million facilities that each could produce 100 million gallons a year as soon as late 2010. The USA uses 140 billion gallons of gasoline a year....
Rancher donates easement on Front Nearly 3,000 acres have been protected from development under a conservation easement on Montana's Rocky Mountain Front. A rancher, Colin Phipps, donated an easement on 2,900 acres along Dupuyer Creek to the Missoula-based Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The creek corridor, which is home to elk, grizzly bears, moose, wolverines, deer and other wildlife, abuts national forest land and has been identified by state wildlife biologists as some of the most vital and threatened habitat in the state. “Dupuyer Creek is deep in the crosshairs of development,” Mike Mueller, lands manager for the foundation, said Thursday. Phipps said he donated the easement to protect the land from being divided into 10- and 20-acre ranchettes and to preserve it as a traditional working ranch. Across the West, a growing number of family ranchers and farmers are signing conservation easements, giving up some development rights in exchange for tax benefits. Phipps' easement allows him to continue traditional ranching activities, including grazing, farming and logging, and to build a few homes on the property....
$1 million deal means ranchland will be preserved More than 3,000 acres of environmentally rich Monterey ranchland will be saved for future generations under a deal announced by two conservation groups this past week. The Big Sur Land Trust and the Nature Conservancy announced the acquisition of a conservation easement on most of the Violini Ranch west of Gonzales, which the groups said will preserve 3,200 acres of oak- and grass-covered hills that straddle the Carmel and Salinas valleys. "It's a stunning, stunning example of what people think of as 'Steinbeck Country,' with rolling hills, canyons, wildflower-filled meadows in the springtime," said Rachel Saunders, spokeswoman for the Big Sur Land Trust. The conservation easement covering four-fifths of the 4,000-acre Violini Ranch was appraised at $1.86 million, the groups said. The Violini family agreed to sell the easement, which prevents future development, for $1 million while taking the balance as a charitable donation. A 2006 federal law gave farmers and ranchers increased tax incentives to donate conservation easements, the groups said....
Losers in Boulder land dispute file appeal A Boulder couple who watched a judge give nearly one-third of their building lot in a pricy residential development to a neighbor who claimed using it has filed an appeal of the decision. The Denver Post said Don and Susie Kirlin are attempting to reclaim the nearly one-third of their residential property in Boulder that a neighbor won in October in a court ruling in an "adverse possession" lawsuit. The neighbors, former District Judge Richard McLean, and wife Edith Stevens, a lawyer, were awarded ownership of the chunk of property after arguing they had maintained the property for more than 25 years. Colorado's adverse possession law allows those who "openly and notoriously" maintain property that is not their own for many years eventually to claim title to it. The appeal focuses on arguments by the Kirlins that McLean and Stevens failed to meet the burden of proof needed to be awarded ownership, and that Judge James Klein, who issued the controversial ruling, erred in his decision....
Mtn. bikers dislike wilderness closure Mountain bikers are disturbed by a recommendation from the U.S. Forest Service to create a new wilderness area between Durango and Silverton that would close 20 miles of the Colorado Trail to wheels. The recommendation, if adopted by Congress, would also make at least six other trails off-limits to biking, reports the Durango Telegraph. “It’s definitely a conundrum for mountain bikers,” said Mark Richey, a mountain biking advocate. “We all love wilderness areas, but we feel like we're excluded by their (recommendation) designation. It’s not a comfortable place to be in.” While the Forest Service cites comparatively little use by mountain bikers in the area in question, mountain bikers disagree. Bill Manning, director of the Colorado Trail Foundation, also noted that the wilderness designated would eliminate the ride from Molas Divide to Durango, a 75-mile grunt considered one of the nation’s epic rides.
Rescuers Search for Survivors After Montana Avalanches Kill at Least 5 An avalanche on the back side of Whitefish Mountain Resort killed two backcountry skiers Sunday and searchers combed the slide area for other possible victims, Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan said. Meehan said the avalanche occurred on Fiberglass Hill in the Canyon Creek drainage. Emergency responders were alerted to the avalanche around noon, and more than 100 search and rescue people were quickly called to the scene. Meehan released a statement indicating the body of a victim was recovered at about 1:18 p.m. and a second body at 4:16 p.m. No names were released. The number of people missing in the slide is unknown, Meehan said early Sunday evening. "At this time, there are conflicting statements to responders about how many more victims might have been buried in the avalanche," he said. "If the scene of the avalanche is safe for rescue workers, rescue efforts will continue throughout the night." In addition, three men caught in an avalanche while snowmobiling in the Star Valley south of Jackson have been found dead. The Star Valley Search and Rescue team found the three men in the Cottonwood Lake area Saturday....
Scientists, Congress worry about move to restrict access to satellite data Ten years ago, a Canadian ice breaker was deliberately parked in an ice pack 300 miles north of Barrow and allowed to drift as scientists studied the environment and the effects of global warming. Among those tracking the ice breaker were top-secret U.S. spy satellites. With the OK of a little-noticed but influential government committee known as the Civil Applications Committee, those reconnaissance photos were released to scientists. The committee, under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Geological Survey, reviews civilian requests for classified reconnaissance information and makes a recommendation to the intelligence community, which has the final say on what is declassified. The spy data can be helpful to scientists studying everything from volcanoes, forest fires, earthquakes and landslides to climate change, hurricanes, flooding and pollution. The Bush administration plans to abolish the committee and create an office within the Department of Homeland Security to review such requests, along with those from law enforcement agencies. Scientists are concerned their requests could be sidetracked or delayed as security and law enforcement needs take precedent....
Judge ready to hold Forest Service in contempt A federal judge in Montana said Friday he's prepared to hold the U.S. Forest Service in contempt of court for a "duplicitous" strategy of skirting the law so it can keep fighting wildfires with retardant that kills fish. Judge Donald Molloy set a Feb. 26 hearing in U.S. District Court in Missoula to give the Forest Service a chance to convince him that Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey should not be put in jail and that fire retardant drops from aircraft should not be stopped until the agency properly considers the danger to the environment. "The Forest Service, throughout these proceedings, evidenced a strategy of circumventing, rather than complying with," the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, he wrote. "The apparent pattern suggests a strategy of looking for ways to avoid the law's mandate as opposed to looking for a means of complying with the law." Potential sanctions include sending Rey to jail, putting him under house arrest and banning the Forest Service from using any fire retardants but water in air tankers, Molloy wrote. In an earlier order, Molloy wrote that Rey, who oversees the Forest Service, should appear in person. "We take very seriously our obligations to perform the environmental analysis required by law, and have made every effort to comply with the court's rulings in this case," Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh said. "We expect to demonstrate the government's good faith in further proceedings before the court."....
Site yields bounty of dino tracks More than 100 members of the public made tracks to a site in southern Utah on Saturday to marvel at fossilized footprints pressed into the area's red sandstone by dinosaurs drinking from a pond 185 million years ago. "The site is outstanding for the quality of the tracks, diversity of animals represented and continuum of time they were created," said Alan Titus, paleontologist for the Bureau of Land Management who led two tours of interested people to the location under clear blue skies. Located in Kane County about 3 miles west of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, the site was documented last October in a popular riding area for all-terrain vehicles. The area has since been closed to riders to preserve the site, named the Northern Moccasin Mountain Track Site. The area, about the size of a football field, is covered with perhaps thousands of prehistoric footprints from the Jurassic period, when the region was covered with the largest sand desert the world has known, Titus said....
Mountain critters' disappearance may be a global warning The "canary in the coal mine" on global warming when it comes to the mountains may very well be a hamster-like rodent that squeaks from among the talus above tree line. Pushed by warmer weather to ever-higher elevations, the tiny pika is losing real estate at an alarming rate, according to scientists, and is disappearing rapidly from much of its historic territory in the West. "They've been driven upslope a half mile since the end of the last ice age," said Donald Grayson, an archaeologist and paleontologist with the University of Washington who has documented the presence of pika over the past 40,000 years. "Pikas in general are now found at such high elevations that there's not a lot of places left for them," Grayson said. The plight of the pika has grown so dire, conservationists are seeking endangered- species protection for the critters and demanding that federal officials target global warming as a threat to their existence....
Sage grouse designation up for debate The U.S. Department of the Interior will reconsider its 2006 decision to not classify several species as endangered, including the Gunnison sage grouse. Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson, Ariz., said the department agreed to reconsider its stance after a request from U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, a few weeks ago. Wyden’s request expands an earlier investigation into wrongly overturned decisions by Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant secretary of the Interior for fish, wildlife and parks. Devaney’s response to Wyden said his office will “… initiate an investigation to determine whether improper political influence affected a number of species and critical habitat decisions…” It’s unclear whether the new investigation will affect a lawsuit filed last year by the Center for Biological Diversity against the Interior Department for its failure to classify the Gunnison sage grouse as endangered....
McCain, Democrats good for environment President Bush showed such antagonism toward the environment that the next resident of the White House can't help but be seen as an improvement. Bush scorned science, mocked climate change, shortchanged national parks and public land, undermined integrity at the Interior Department and made a joke of our most revered laws on clean air and water, and endangered species. Even former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, by admitting that human activity has contributed to global warming but stopping short of a remedy, sounds reasonable. Voters deserve more, however, particularly on the greatest environmental challenge of our time - responding to the threat of climate change. So they should press the presidential candidates more closely on environmental issues and demand more detailed answers. Here is a starting point: The only Republican candidate to spell out a progressive agenda on combating climate change is Sen. John McCain....
Park Service using choppers to trap sheep in Canyonlands The National Park Service may be using helicopters to capture and collar 19 desert bighorn sheep in Arches and Canyonlands national parks in eastern Utah. The Park Service is seeking public comment until Jan. 21 on an environmental review of the proposed Arches and Canyonlands sheep capture, which will help the agency learn about how diseases can be transmitted from livestock to sheep, and other health problems. Tracking the sheep in Canyonlands National Park has been difficult because of the park’s ruggedness and remoteness, according to the review. Helicopters would be used to chase the sheep in the parks during late January or early February, when park visitation is sparse....
U.S., Mexico trumpet NAFTA changes but farmers balk U.S. officials trumpeted an end to farm trade restrictions under NAFTA, the controversial North American trade deal, on Friday, while Mexican farmers vowed to take to the streets to protest liberalization they fear will run them into the ground. On January 1, Mexico and the United States dropped the few trade restrictions on farm goods that remained fourteen years after NAFTA brought a new era of commerce to the regional economy. Overnight, quotas and tariffs were eliminated on U.S. exports of corn and beans going to Mexico, and to two-way trade in sweeteners like sugar. Corn tariffs have gradually been phased out since the trade deal was implemented, and imports of U.S. yellow corn to Mexico, mostly used in animal feed, have skyrocketed. They now account for close to 35 percent of Mexican consumption....
Animal owners treated like sex offenders Sex offenders are required to register their premises and report to the government when they move. Similarly, the USDA is implementing a so-called "voluntary" program that requires owners of livestock animals to register their premises and report to the government when any animal is moved off the premises. The program is called the National Animal Identification System, or NAIS; it is rolling toward implementation, despite the fact that it has not yet been authorized by Congress. When first introduced, it was scheduled to be mandatory, with every premises or property in the nation where livestock animals are housed, registered in a federal database by 2007. Every animal was to be identified by a 15-digit, internationally unique number and tag, by 2008. And by 2009, the movement of any animal off the registered premises was to be reported to the federal government. Animal owners rebelled and forced the USDA to rethink its plan. Now, they say the program is "voluntary," but it is far from voluntary. By heaping taxpayer-funded grants to state departments of agriculture, and ag-related organizations, the USDA is "partnering" with other organizations that are effectively mandating participation in the program. For example, in Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina and elsewhere, students enrolled in 4-H and Future Farmers of America are required to have the premises where their animals are housed registered in the NAIS before they can participate in state fairs. At least two states have convinced their legislatures to make NAIS participation mandatory at the state level, and other state departments of agriculture are working to do the same....
Stock show benefits from resolved border battle Canadian cattle are back at the National Western Stock Show for the first time since 2003, when concerns about Mad Cow Disease caused a border shutdown. "We welcome our Canadian friends down here," said Stock Show Livestock Manager Bill Angell. "It was kinda tough that they couldn't come down here for five years." Darrell Gotaas owns Big Island Lowlines, a ranch that breeds lowline angus cattle, in Edmonton, Alberta. "We've been sort of holed up waiting for things to turn around so that we can get down here and show our animals," said Gotaas. The U.S. government closed the border to Canadian beef after a 2003 case of the condition commonly called Mad Cow Disease. The shutdown cost the Canadian cattle industry nearly $2 billion and kept their animals from participating in Denver's annual stock show. "We're happy this is behind us now," said Gotaas. Colorado requires imported Canadian cattle to carry a brand. All of Gotaas' show cattle now bear the brand "CAN."....
Jean Barton: Even cowboys take easy way sometimes Lee Pitts wrote "Tabled" in the January issue of Tehama County Farm Bureau News. To quote Lee " ... let me educate you. Calf tables are a device with which you can tip a calf on its side to brand and vaccinate. To own a calf table, or ever having made the acquaintance of one, indicates that you are wuss, a wimp and a terrible roper." He went on to tell, "Real men, and real women, rope their calves and stretch them on the ground. They never table them!" Then he confessed to owning and using a calf table. Well, this year we used Dad's Teco Calf Squeeze, serial number 600, instead of having a roping. It must be 60 years old, but still worked after Kevin put on a new rope, oiled the hinges and put new boards on the chute. Not sure when it was purchased but in Dad's tally book, June 13, 1943, cattle were put in Worley Ranch at Susanville. Before that he just had sheep. In the late 1800s my great-grandfather and his sons had cattle on the open range east of Red Bluff. But the calves on the Willard cows had the neighbor's brand instead of the HW. Sheep were the major livestock in Tehama County a hundred years ago, and Willards gave up trying to raise cattle for at least 60 years. What was interesting to learn, after quietly saying we used the calf table instead of roping this year, was before the 1960s everyone in Tehama County used a calf table....

New beginnings coming up!
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

By Julie Carter

January is now two weeks old. It is traditionally a time when many of us re-evaluate our lives, make resolutions and look with great hope to the months ahead.

We may not keep those promises to ourselves, and, as my experience has proven, usually don’t. I try to lessen the failure possibility by not making any resolutions in an effort to bypass the disappointment.

However, I will admit to at least taking the time to think about what I should do for my health, wealth, happiness and the greater good of mankind. For me, itt is an exhausting process.

January is also a time when nature starts to spring forth with new life.

With cold weather, snow and gloomy skies surrounding many of us, we eagerly anticipate the first buds of flowering trees and shrubs, the peeping forth of those early spring bulbs and the arrival of migrating birds that herald warmer temperatures.

Pretty words that mean, “I am tired of the cold already.” Firewood splinters, ash dust everywhere on everything and a number of articles of clothing that smell like cedar smoke are all marks of the season.

I realize winter is what it is and I get through what it is by looking forward to what it isn’t. To that aforementioned pretty-word description of spring, add a few baby calves bucking through the pasture and life is about as good as any spring can offer. Then the horses shed off, get shiny and hope is renewed.

Across the country, there is much discussion and notice given to the fact this year is 2008. In the Bible, the number eight means “new beginnings,”giving the year a numerical stamp of prophecy.

So not only is it a new year like we get every year, it is a special new year with God’s hand on it offering great promise. There is never a shortage of people who need a renewed hope for what tomorrow will bring.

This past year was a really wonderful year for me, but the promise of even a better year is exciting.

I’m right at the front of that line.

New beginnings may be a million different things to a million different people.

From elections to promotions, destitution to diamonds, failure to success and sad to happy, the hope in a better tomorrow, a better next month and a better ending than the beginning, lightens the load of each day.

In arriving at a place of anticipation for new beginnings, first we had to come through some valleys. The proverbial wilderness wandering is a part of life for those with human tendencies.

I believe we can decide to be tired of wandering, stand up and be counted when new beginnings are passed around.

Therefore, I’ll break my own rule and make a resolution. My promise to myself for this year of new beginnings is to be happy, laugh even more and try to infect every person I meet with the same. Let that be a warning.

Remember your past wildernesses, but don’t let them predict your future.

The Westerner is sure Julie will have a great 2008 and wants to thank her for sharing her wonderful weekly column with us. You can visit her website here, see some beautiful photos, read her weblog, and even order her book, Cowgirl Sass & Savvy.