Teamsters May Withdraw Support for ANWR Oil Exploration One of the nation’s most powerful labor unions is “reexamining” its support for drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a policy it has supported for several years. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents 1.4 million workers nationally, has supported expanded drilling in Alaska in the past. But that could change, said Leslie Miller, spokeswoman for the Teamsters, because, as she said, there needs to be a solution in the short term for reducing oil prices and boosting the economy. “We have (supported ANWR drilling) in the past, but I believe we are reexamining that position,” Miller told Cybercast News Service. “There may be an announcement coming up on that.” In May 2006, the Teamsters signed a letter along with six other unions calling on Congress to allow drilling in ANWR....
Senate Democratic Leaders May Allow Drilling Vote The Senate Democratic leadership said on Thursday that if Republicans cooperate with a bill that targets oil speculators, they will allow the Republicans to bring an “energy alternative” of their own to the Senate floor. Such an alternative would certainly include lifting the ban on offshore drilling, which would probably pass the Senate with bipartisan support, two Republican Senators told Cybercast News Service on Thursday. “We have proposed to the Republicans that we will bring this speculation measure to the floor and they can offer an alternative,” Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), the minority whip, told reporters at a press conference. “You can’t be any fairer than that.” “We would offer a package and allow the Republicans to offer the same,” said Durbin. (The Washington Times on Wednesday listed Durbin as one of several Democrats who are “wavering on offshore drilling.) Republicans told Cybercast News Service on Thursday that such an alternative would include lifting the congressional moratorium on offshore drilling. “I can’t imagine us having a debate about energy and not having, as a proposal, lifting the moratorium,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told Cybercast News Service on Thursday. “I think there is actually very strong bipartisan support for lifting the ban.”....
Tax Credit Bill: Help from High Gas Prices An Ohio congressman has introduced legislation that he said would relieve consumers at the gasoline pump by providing a tax credit for the purchase of fuel this year. Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) said his Gasoline Price Relief Act (H.R. 1659), would allow couples who file joint tax returns to reduce their 2008 tax bills by up to $2,000 ($1,000 for individuals), as long as they own validly registered vehicles (including motorcycles and hybrids) fueled by gasoline or diesel. “Prices at the pump are hurting an awful lot of people in this country, and this is a way of getting some of that money back in their pockets so that we can keep the economy moving,” Chabot told Cybercast News Service. Chabot’s bill, meanwhile, would also mandate that the president withhold foreign assistance and arms exports to any oil-exporting countries that are engaged in international price-fixing arrangements....
Warming Is Major Threat To Humans, EPA Warns Climate change will pose "substantial" threats to human health in the coming decades, the Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday -- issuing its warnings about heat waves, hurricanes and pathogens just days after the agency declined to regulate the pollutants blamed for warming. In a new report, the EPA said "it is very likely" that more people will die during extremely hot periods in future years -- and that the elderly, the poor and those in inner cities will be most at risk. Other possible dangers include more powerful hurricanes, shrinking supplies of fresh water in the West, and the increased spread of diseases contracted through food and water, the agency said. The strong warnings highlighted the contorted position that the EPA has staked out on climate change. Last week, the agency decided not to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, at least not until after President Bush's term ends....
Gore Sets 'Moon Shot' Goal on Climate Change Just as John F. Kennedy set his sights on the moon, Al Gore is challenging the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other Earth-friendly energy sources within 10 years, an audacious goal he hopes the next president will embrace. The Nobel Prize-winning former vice president said fellow Democrat Barack Obama and Republican rival John McCain are "way ahead" of most politicians in the fight against global climate change. Rising fuel costs, climate change and the national security threats posed by U.S. dependence on foreign oil are conspiring to create "a new political environment" that Gore said will sustain bold and expensive steps to wean the nation off fossil fuels. Gore said he fully understands the magnitude of the challenge. The Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan group that he chairs, estimates the cost of transforming the nation to so-called clean electricity sources at $1.5 trillion to $3 trillion over 30 years in public and private money. But he says it would cost about as much to build ozone-killing coal plants to satisfy current demand....
Cosmic Markdown: EPA Says Life Is Worth Less Someplace else, people might tell you that human life is priceless. In Washington, the federal government has appraised it like a '96 Camaro with bad brakes. Last week, it was revealed that an Environmental Protection Agency office had lowered its official estimate of life's value, from about $8.04 million to about $7.22 million. That decision has put a spotlight on the concept of the "Value of a Statistical Life," in which the Washington bureaucracy takes on a question usually left to preachers and poets. This value is routinely calculated by several agencies, each putting its own dollar figure on the worth of life -- not any particular person's life, just that of a generic American. The figure is then used to judge whether potentially lifesaving policy measures are really worth the cost. A human life, based on an economic analysis grounded in observations of everyday Americans, typically turns out to be worth $5 million to $8 million -- about as much as a mega-mansion or a middle infielder. Now, for the first time, the EPA has used this little-known process to devalue life, something that environmentalists say could set a scary precedent, making it seem that lifesaving pollution reductions are not worth the cost....
Green Becomes Official Color of Baseball When baseball's legendary greats came rolling up Sixth Avenue this month for the annual Hall of Fame parade, the familiar red carpet was distinctly green. That's not talking about the hue. The carpet, stretching for 20 blocks through Midtown, was made entirely of recycled fiber and manufactured using solar and wind power. "We did the Oscars. We advised the Grammies. But this is our first green red carpet!" said a clearly excited Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist with the nonprofit environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The red carpet was just the most visible manifestation of the greening of America's pastime. Across the country, baseball parks now have recycling bins for plastic cups, and solar panels are providing at least some of the energy. Men's rooms are being fitted with no-flush urinals to save water. Grounds crews are switching to chemically benign cleaners, and vending machines are being made more energy-efficient. Teams are even taking the environmental impact into consideration when they decide how to travel for road games....
'Storn Over Rangeland' still rages 17 years later It took 17 years for the late rancher Wayne Hage to win a groundbreaking lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service in a long-running dispute over property rights, water rights and grazing on federal land. A federal judge finally ruled last month that the government had engaged in an unconstitutional “taking” of Hage’s water rights and awarded more than $4 million to Hage’s estate. But his family and supporters - while relishing the victory - fear the fight is far from won. “What happened to us in the 1980s and 1990s is now happening across the West, so it is going to be vitally important for Western ranchers to understand what they own and how to defend it, “said Ramona Morrison, one of Hage’s daughters and a member of the Nevada State Agriculture Board who was a freshman in high school when the dispute began. “It doesn’t do you a lot of good to own that water if you really, effectively can’t use it,” said Lyman “Ladd” Bedford, a San Francisco-based lawyer who has argued the case since Hage first filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service in 1991. Morrison said the federal agency continually harassed her father, who once was a leader of the Western movement for more local control of public land called the “Sagebrush Rebellion” and who wrote the 1989 book “Storm Over Rangelands: Private Rights in Federal Lands.”....
Judge: Water delivery system harms Calif. salmon A federal judge ruled Friday that California's water systems threaten to push native, wild salmon into extinction but stopped short of ordering any immediate water cutbacks farmers said would have cost them millions in lost crops. The ruling in a Fresno federal court Friday ultimately could force regulators to change the way they move and use water to help endangered salmon spawn in the state's rivers and swim downstream into the Pacific Ocean. Environmentalists and fishermen had asked the judge to order immediate protections for the fishes' habitat, arguing that the collapse of one of the West Coast's biggest wild salmon runs earlier this spring foretold the extinction of related species. U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger denied the groups' request to release more water from a federal reservoir to help young endangered winter-run Chinook salmon reach the ocean. That could have left hundreds of acres of almonds, walnuts and tomatoes without irrigation supplies next month, at the height of California's drought. "I'm on cloud nine here," said Jeff Sutton, who manages a canal system that delivers water to farms from near Redding to just north of Sacramento. "We're obviously ecstatic that the service area is going to continue to finish the irrigation season and be able to harvest the crops." Still, the battle is far from over. The judge's ruling established that the canals and pumps that deliver water to 23 million Californians are causing "irreparable harm" to two salmon species, as well as the threatened Central Valley steelhead. The second salmon population, the Central Valley spring-run Chinook, is on the federal list of threatened species. On Wednesday, attorneys for federal and state regulators, farmers, environmentalists and fishermen are scheduled to meet in Wanger's courtroom to discuss how to protect the fish for the next nine months, while federal biologists rewrite their plan to operate water projects tied to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta....
Home, home on the holistic range Last week's sage-scented verdict from a federal appeals court sent us two sharp reminders: Judicial decisions are awfully blunt tools with which to craft environmental policy. The most endangered species in Oregon may be the cowboy. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals just ordered the federal Bureau of Land Management to take a look -- again -- at how it's managing more than 4 million acres in eastern Oregon. The court's message was clear: The BLM better bear in mind the rising wilderness values of our state's shrub-steppe range. The decision marked one more victory for high-desert environmentalists in their battle to make Uncle Sam a better steward of Oregon's dry side. It sent, too, a clear signal to Oregon cattlemen: Get smarter, or get ready to get off the public range. Last week's decision came hard on the hoofs of a 2000 ruling in which the Supreme Court voted 9-0 to uphold much tighter regulation of grazing on public lands -- a decision that sent shivers through nearly 1,500 ranchers who hold grazing leases on 13 million acres of BLM land in Oregon....
Using food for fuel not solution As Americans continue to look for alternative fuels to power our homes, schools, businesses, and automobiles, we must rethink one such “alternative” that is taking a big bite out of major food crops — ethanol. Far more corn grown in this country is going toward fuel production, not food consumption, causing food prices to escalate around the world. The World Bank’s World Economic Outlook 2008 reports that, “although biofuels still account for only 1.5 percent of the global liquid fuels supply, they accounted for almost half of the increase in consumption of major food crops, mostly because of corn-based ethanol produced in the United States.” Midwest farmers are the benefactors of government subsidies, tax credits, mandates, and production requirements, which are in fact working against policy goals relating to energy security, environmental protection, and rural prosperity. The government, not the market place, is dictating crop selection and prices. The consequences are being felt around the world and right here at home in New Mexico....
Piñon takings "unlikely" A top Army civilian said Friday that the Army will purchase land to expand Piñon Canyon only from "willing sellers" and that it is "very, very unlikely" that condemnation will be used for those purchases. Keith Eastin, assistant secretary of the Army for installations and environment, said that if the Army can acquire 100,000 acres on the south end of the existing maneuver site, it probably would not return to ask for any more land in the near future. "I think it highly unlikely that we would be back in any foreseeable future," Eastin said Friday at Fort Carson. "One hundred thousand acres makes sense; anything added right now is outside of our budget." The Army, in an attempt to "turn down the volume" on objections to expansion of the 235,000- acre site, said it believes it has made a forthright effort at compromise. But farmers and ranchers in the area, led by Lon Robertson from the Piñon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, said: "This is them just trying to twist things. Just because they say they're doing the right thing, it must be the right thing. It isn't." Robertson said the Army still has not answered the question of whether expansion of the current site is needed at all. The Army announced Wednesday that it has scaled back plans to acquire 418,000 acres at Piñon Canyon and will settle for 100,000 acres. The Army said it still needs more land and is looking outside other existing installations. One of those is Fort Polk, La....
More realistic plan for base may avoid condemnation nightmare The showdown between the Army and several members of Colorado's congressional delegation over expanding the training grounds at Pinon Canyon may not be resolved any time soon, notwithstanding a compromise offered by the Army last week. We're glad to see the Army formally back down from its plan to add 418,000 acres of what is primarily private property to the 235,000-acre maneuver site near Fort Carson. Instead, it's now looking for an extra 100,000 acres, and says it expects to find willing sellers to provide the land. This latest plan does have a far more realistic chance of acquiring the desired property without resorting to condemnation. The chance of that happening under the earlier schemes was effectively zero, despite the Army's assurances that it preferred voluntary transactions. But 100,000 is still a lot of territory. Can the Army indeed find enough willing sellers? Assistant Secretary Keith Eastin believes it can. One landowner who controls much of the sought-after property, Denver businessman Craig Walker, has indicated he would now listen to a pitch from the Army....
Federal agency gets 13,000 comments on wolf plans Many of the more than 13,000 people commenting on how to improve U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to reintroduce the Mexican wolf into the wild either strongly support or object to the program. Problem is, that's not the question. The federal agency took public comments from Aug. 7 to Dec. 31 on how best to pursue the wolf reintroduction program, not whether or not the program should exist. The agency received comments from 13,598 people after its call for public input and divided the responses into 26 topics. The topics included: cost of the program; protecting livestock and humans from the wolves; using professional mediation to help ranchers and environmentalists resolve their differences; the boundaries of the area the wolves are being introduced into; disease and wolves; the interaction between wolves and house pets; and the importance of having top predators in an ecosystem. John Slown, a biologist overseeing the process to modify the rules for the Wolf Reintroduction Project, said the issues raised by the public will be used to frame a range of alternatives....
War over how to thin herds rages in mustang country Five mustangs pounded across the high desert recently, their dark manes and tails giving shape to the wind. Pursued by a helicopter, they ran into a corral - unwilling recruits in an emotional debate over whether euthanasia should be used to thin a captive herd that already numbers 30,000. The champions of wild mustangs have long portrayed them as the victims of ranchers who preferred cattle on the range, middlemen who wanted to make a buck selling them for horsemeat, and misfits who shot them for sport. But some environmentalists and scientists have come to see the mustangs, which run wild from Montana to California, as top-of-the-food-chain bullies, invaders whose hooves and teeth disturb the habitats of endangered tortoises and desert birds. Even the language has shifted. In a 2006 article in Audubon magazine, wild horses lost their poetry and were reduced to "feral equids." "There's not just horses out there, there's other critters, from the desert turtle in the south to the bighorn sheep in the north," said Paula Morin, author of the book "Honest Horses." "We've come a long way in our awareness of the web of life and maintaining the whole ecology. We do the horses a disservice when we set them apart." Environmentalists' attitudes toward the horses have evolved so far that some are willing to say what was heresy a few years ago: that euthanasia is acceptable if the alternatives are boarding the mustangs for life at taxpayers' expense or leaving them to overpopulate, damage the range and die of hunger or thirst....
Mountain Megas Rapid change is enveloping the American West. States in the southern Intermountain West—Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah—are experiencing some of the fastest population growth and economic and demographic transition anywhere in the country. The region is growing up, flexing its muscles, and distancing itself from California, which historically has had an outsized impact on the West’s development. In fact, thanks to such maturation, the southern Intermountain West is well on its way to earning itself the title of the New American Heartland as its economy, people, and politics become more central to the nation. Politically, the Intermountain West could be home to several swing states in the 2008 election and in time play the storied “kingmaking” role the Midwest does now. Which is where this document begins: Prepared as part of the Brookings Institution’s Blueprint for American Prosperity initiative, “Mountain Megas: America’s Newest Metropolitan Places and a Federal Partnership to Help Them Prosper” describes and assesses the new supersized reality of the Intermountain West and proposes a more helpful role for the federal government in empowering regional leaders’ efforts to build a uniquely Western brand of prosperity that is at once more sustainable, productive, and inclusive than past eras of boom and bust....
Utah Court Says Rivers And Streams Are Public, Regardless Of Location Utah's highest court has ruled that streams and rivers are public even where the land under them is privately owned. Friday's decision means landowners can't stop people from walking on and along riverbeds while fishing or floating. The case turned on a Roy couple's trespassing citation in 2000 for leaving their raft to go fishing and take down some fencing that was strung across Weber River. The ticket was dropped when Kevin and Jodi Conatser appealed a justice-court conviction, but they filed a civil suit to improve on state law that said they could touch a riverbed only to free a stuck raft or assist in floating. ``I'd call it a landmark decision,'' said Robert H. Hughes, the couple's lawyer, who argued the case in April. The Utah Supreme Court said people have to behave reasonably and cause no property damage when they wade or walk immediately along stream and river beds....
Cape Cod patient tested for mad cow disease Public health officials in Massachusetts are investigating whether a patient in a Cape Cod hospital has the human form of mad cow disease. Dr. Alfred DeMaria, the state's director of communicable disease control, confirmed Sunday to The Associated Press that tests are being done to see if the patient has Creutzfeldt-Jakob (KROYTS'-felt JAY'-kuhb) disease, and whether it's the variant attributed to mad cow. There have only been three cases of the human form of mad cow disease reported in the United States in the last several years, and officials say it's extremely unlikely the patient in Cape Cod Hospital has the disease. DeMaria says it will take a few more days before the test results are available. He said there are about a half-dozen cases reported every year in Massachusetts and about 300 nationwide....
PETA Expands Ad Campaign That Uses Teen Pregnancy to Push Pet Message Animal rights group PETA is rolling out its controversial "Sex Talk" ad — in which two parents urge their daughter to have a lot of sex and "pop out all the kids you want" — in the top 10 teen pregnancy states to promote spaying and neutering of pets. The 30-second commercial was launched in January in Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears' hometown of Kentwood, La., after news emerged of then 16-year-old Jamie Lynn's pregnancy. The "Zoey 101" star, who turned 17 in April, has since given birth to a baby girl. "People often point their fingers at parents of pregnant teens, and we want to let the people who let their animals breed feel the heat too," People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals spokeswoman Melissa Karpel told FOXNews.com. "It's a fun, edgy way to get the message out about a very serious issue." Karpel said 8 million companion animals are currently languishing in shelters across the United States. Not everyone is happy about the ad, however. Karpel said the commercial is only airing in big cities in part because their markets are more likely to accept it, and some stations that were approached won't run it....
Home on the Range My father's 1960 Ford tractor is dependable, and he keeps his baler and other equipment together with duct tape, wire and prayers. If only his health was as dependable as that tractor. Time has taken its toll. My father, Eugene, is a proud, 75-year-old rancher from Chama. He takes pride in his humble profession that pays little but continues a long tradition. And in the ranching tradition, he rarely complains. He is a man who can bolt heavy machinery together, despite being nearly blind as a result from heart complications suffered in 2004. He has the courage to rescue solitary animals from coyote packs, and the tenderness to gently bottle-feed calves at 2 a.m. in below-zero snowstorms. Small ranchers like my father are more common in the state than one might imagine. According to Travis Hoffman of the Colorado Beef Council, 64 percent of the state's 13,100 ranches consist of herds fewer than 50 head. (The national average is 77 percent.) The numbers suggest Colorado's ranching families are "dedicated to their operations . . . the backbone of agriculture," Hoffman said....
George Causey: High plains pioneer No story of the High Plains would be complete without mentioning T.L. “George” Causey, for whom Causey was named. Causey was a rancher, freighter, and most famously, a buffalo hunter. It was his heavy wagons and ox teams hauling the hides to market that made the Portales Road more easily followed by travelers on the Llano Estacado. In the 1860s George Causey had worked for the U.S. Government in Kansas hauling supplies to the Army outposts with a mule team. He soon formed a buffalo hunting outfit and began following the herds as they moved southward into Texas on their annual migration. As the land along the Rio Grande was occupied, the Hispanic settlers from Las Vegas, N.M. and Fort Sumner made annual hunting trips to the plains to hunt the buffalo and antelope for their winter meat. After the meat was “jerked,” that is sliced and dried, it would keep indefinitely....

The Old Cowboy

A tough old cowboy from Texas counseled his grandson that if he wanted to live a long life, the secret was to sprinkle a pinch of gun powder on his oatmeal every morning.

The grandson did this religiously to the day he died at the age of 103.

He left behind 14 children, 30 grand children, 45 great grand children, 25 great great-grand children and a 15 foot hole where the crematorium used to be.

I just want to rope
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Julie Carter

Cowboys love good horses, cold beer and pretty women, and not necessarily in that order.

Let's tune in to our token team roper Dan's love life for an example of the possible entertainment value.

A couple of years ago, Dan hooked up with Prissy, and his life changed quickly and drastically.

The first thing she did was make Dan upgrade his trailer house with a hot water heater. Until then, a tank heater in the tub before he left for work warmed the water enough for a bath when he got home. He even missed roping on a Saturday to get the water heater installed, indicative of true love.

It took about a year, but the flush of new romance wore off. His bright orange leatherette couch with the tufted bird dog in the center had disappeared. So did his recliner that was worn in only a few places.

Moving from bachelorhood to significant other-hood was expensive. The heart-stopping bills for the new furniture arrived in the mail just before the letter from the lawyer. Prissy was moving out.

A ton of her friends swooped in to help pack and move, none of which seemed to be around during the arrival phase. It took two days for them to pack up all the new dishes.

According to Dan, who grabbed the dog and slipped out the back door, the women on the crew looked mean and unhappy, much like a roommate he recalled that complained of constipation.

They left Dan with a five-gallon bucket and a piece of plywood for a chair and the telephone. He spent a little time scouting around to see which of his friends ended up with the orange couch. Of course, he had to ask if they had a new girlfriend yet, knowing that would determine their willingness to part with it.

Better days were ahead. A free man, Dan was able to do a lot of ropin' without a lot of explainin'.

Then it happened. A few weeks ago, he was sitting horseback at a big roping minding his own business, visiting with his friend and roping partner, the pretty, blonde Sally. Up rides this pushy gal, forces her horse between him and Sally. She then strikes up an overly friendly conversation with Dan using all her feminine wiles.

Dan knew who she was from his work. He also knew who her husband was and none of this was looking very healthy for him. He quickly deducted she was making a move for him and at all costs, he needed to keep from getting shot.

Her calls rolled into his phone. He never returned them. She confronted him at work and informed him that "that blonde" he was with at the roping was married. "So are you," he reminded her while not explaining about Sally.

In the meantime, she announced to her husband she was leaving him and marrying Dan. The news hadn't yet reached Dan, so when the husband asked him to help move a couch over to his estranged wife's apartment, he agreed.

Imagine his surprise when they shoved the couch through the door only to see, on the opposite wall, a gigantic framed photograph of Dan and his paint horse Pittsburgh heeling a steer at a recent roping.

Apparently, the gal had paid a call to the event photographer and parted with a sizeable amount of money to make a point.

Shortly after, the husband told Dan that he had come into some money, the bills were paid off and the wife had moved home to enjoy the make-up phase of their 50 millionth honeymoon.

The best part of this latest development was that Dan got the picture. It was delivered by the husband and now hangs in Dan's office. Ain't love grand.

This should be the end of the story, but isn't. The improper aggressor is back stalking Dan.

With a sigh he says, "I just want to rope."

Stay tuned. With a little help from his friends, the action heats up.

FLE

Prosecutor flagged by US terror watch list The Justice Department's former top criminal prosecutor says the government's terror watch list likely has caused thousands of innocent Americans to be questioned, searched or otherwise hassled. Former Assistant Attorney General Jim Robinson would know: he's one of them. Robinson joined another mistaken-identity American and the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday to urge fixing the list that's supposed to identify suspected terrorists. "It's a pain in the neck, and significantly interferes with my travel arrangements," said Robinson, the head of the Justice Department's criminal division during the Clinton administration. He believes his name matches that of someone who was put on the list in early 2005, and is routinely delayed while flying — despite having his own government top-secret security clearances renewed last year. "I suppose if I were convinced that America is a safer place because I get hassled at the airport, I might put up with it," Robinson said. "But I doubt it." He added: "I expect my story is similar to hundreds of thousands of people who are on this list who find themselves inconvenienced."....
Terrorism Funds May Let Brass Fly in Style The Air Force's top leadership sought for three years to spend counterterrorism funds on "comfort capsules" to be installed on military planes that ferry senior officers and civilian leaders around the world, with at least four top generals involved in design details such as the color of the capsules' carpet and leather chairs, according to internal e-mails and budget documents. Production of the first capsule -- consisting of two sealed rooms that can fit into the fuselage of a large military aircraft -- has already begun. Air Force officials say the government needs the new capsules to ensure that leaders can talk, work and rest comfortably in the air. But the top brass's preoccupation with creating new luxury in wartime has alienated lower-ranking Air Force officers familiar with the effort, as well as congressional staff members and a nonprofit group that calls the program a waste of money. Air Force documents spell out how each of the capsules is to be "aesthetically pleasing and furnished to reflect the rank of the senior leaders using the capsule," with beds, a couch, a table, a 37-inch flat-screen monitor with stereo speakers, and a full-length mirror....
Gun Debate Is Hardly Over The Supreme Court may have confirmed that Americans have the right to own guns for protection, but the gun debate is hardly over. The District of Columbia, whose handgun ban was struck down by the Supreme Court, is still planning on banning most handguns. And the court decision has spurred the media into overdrive to paint guns as dangerous to their owners. No one who has taken even a quick glance at the crime data can seriously argue that the D.C. gun ban lowered murder or violent crime rates. The concerns being raised are not the threat from criminals, but that guns pose a risk to their owners. In particular, buying a gun and having it in your home is said to increase the likelihood of suicide. Mike Stobbe for the Associated Press emphasized the problem by pointing out that the majority of gun deaths are suicides. He also noticed that Supreme Court Justice Breyer mentioned his concerns about gun suicides 14 times in his dissent. By contrast, he mentioned accidental gun deaths only three times. That is not surprising, given that the accidental death rate from guns is so low not only absolutely but in comparison to other common household items. A nationally syndicated article by Shankar Vedantam, a Washington Post columnist, has a similar concern. Vedantam points to a 1991 study in the New England Journal of Medicine that claims that after examining data from 1968 to 1987, “the gun ban correlated with an abrupt 25 percent decline in suicides in the city” and that the “decline was entirely driven by a decline in firearm-related suicide.” Yes, suicides did indeed decline after the ban. However, it is unlikely to have much to do with banning guns as non-gun suicides fell even slightly faster than gun suicides (see the graph) (pdf). If the gun ban caused the drop in suicides, why would the non-gun suicide rate fall at least as much as the gun suicide rate? A far more likely explanation is that something else was changing and causing people to not want to commit suicide, no matter what method they might consider. Yet, the D.C. experience isn’t unique. The National Academy of Sciences released a 2004 report that comprehensively reviewed academic research studying guns and suicide. The panel set up under the Clinton administration surveyed the extensive literature from public health, economics and criminology. The Academy concluded that "Some gun control policies may reduce the number of gun suicides, but they have not yet been shown to reduce the overall risk of suicide in any population.”....
DC Rejects Heller's Handgun Application District residents can start registering their guns today. But at least one very high profile application was already rejected. Dick Heller is the man who brought the lawsuit against the District's 32-year-old ban on handguns. He was among the first in line Thursday morning to apply for a handgun permit. But when he tried to register his semi-automatic weapon, he says he was rejected. He says his gun has seven bullet clip. Heller says the City Council legislation allows weapons with fewer than eleven bullets in the clip. A spokesman for the DC Police says the gun was a bottom-loading weapon, and according to their interpretation, all bottom-loading guns are outlawed because they are grouped with machine guns....
Opponents promise challenge of new D.C. gun law The doors opened Thursday to post-handgun ban era here, with gun rights advocates vowing another legal challenge to the city's newly approved gun control law. Less than a month after the Supreme Court overturned the city's 32-year-old handgun ban — the most restrictive in the nation — the same litigant in the landmark case appeared at police headquarters and said he likely would wage a new fight. Dick Heller, whose legal challenge prompted the Supreme Court ruling, said he would challenge new city regulations that continue to ban District residents from owning semi-automatic weapons. "The city still does not yet understand the decision of the Supreme Court," Heller said from the steps of police headquarters. "We have been denied again." Dane von Breichenruchardt, president of the Bill of Rights Foundation, said the city was attempting to make gun ownership as "difficult and restrictive as possible." "We're going to be back in court. There is no doubt about that," he said. The permits require every gun owner to pass a written test and vision exam, submit the weapons for ballistic testing and offer proof of residency. The provisions still rank as some of the toughest in the nation. But perhaps the most controversial aspect of the law, gun rights advocates say, mandates that gun owners keep their weapons unloaded, disassembled or secured with trigger locks, unless they face a "threat of immediate harm." The National Rifle Association has signaled it also will challenge the new D.C. regulation, describing the law as extreme and in "complete defiance of the Supreme Court's decision."....
Take Your Paws off the Presidency! Suppose the worst happens, and the next terrorist attack hits Washington hard, taking out the president and the vice president. What happens next? New Yorker writer Jane Mayer's new book, The Dark Side, opens with a shocker. Apparently sometime in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan issued a "secret executive order" that in the event of the death of the president and the vice president "established a means of re-creating the executive branch." Reagan's order violated the express terms of the Constitution and governing statutes. Does a similar order exist today? We aren't told. But we do know that Dick Cheney participated in the secret "doomsday" exercises under the Reagan order, and given his central role at present, it is imperative for Congress to find out. Congress last considered the problem of a dual vacancy in the presidency and the vice presidency when Harry Truman was in the White House. In the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, lawmakers stipulated that if both positions are empty, power passes first to the Speaker of the House or, if she, too, does not survive, to the president pro tem of the Senate. But relying on James Mann's earlier book Rise of the Vulcans, Mayer reports that Reagan "amended the process for speed and clarity … without informing Congress that it had been sidestepped." We don't know how. But if the order bypasses the speaker and the Senate president pro tempore in favor of an official in the executive branch, we have a recipe for a constitutional crisis....
Congress, Bush clash on control of spy secrets The House on Wednesday passed legislation governing next year's intelligence budget that demands lawmakers be given greater access to the nation's most closely held secrets. The bill is the latest attempt by Democrats, struggling to challenge President Bush on major national security issues, to step up their role in overseeing an intelligence program they say has gone astray. Lawmakers complain that the Bush administration left most of them out of the loop on highly classified — and controversial — matters, including creation and destruction of CIA interrogation tapes and Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. The bill, which passed on a voice vote, would block two-thirds of the federal covert operations budget until each member of the congressional intelligence committees is briefed on all secret operations underway. Panel members also would be granted access to any other details necessary to assess the value of intelligence operations. The White House has threatened to veto the bill because it says it would go too far and infringe upon the president's right to protect intelligence....
More border states plan to ease travel with enhanced licenses A growing number of states on the borders with Canada and Mexico are establishing or considering enhanced driver's licenses designed to give residents a more convenient identification option for border crossings. In February, Washington became the first state to establish the new licenses. To receive a license labeled "enhanced," applicants are required to show proof of U.S. citizenship in addition to the other identification documents required for obtaining traditional licenses. Since then, 21,000 Washington residents have received the licenses, which allow them to get back into the USA through any border crossing or seaport without a passport, according to Department of Licensing spokeswoman Gigi Zenk. New York and Vermont will follow in coming months. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has proposed the idea for residents there, and Michigan is working toward a plan. The move toward enhanced driver's licenses in states bordering Canada and Mexico is being driven by the federal Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. In June 2009, the initiative will begin requiring U.S. citizens to have a proof-of-citizenship document, passport or some other federally approved identification for getting into the country through land or sea ports, said Kathy Kraninger, the Department of Homeland Security's deputy assistant secretary for policy.
TSA launches leak investigation Federal officers charged with keeping terrorists off planes are now searching their own ranks for staff who told CNN that few flights were protected by air marshals. The Transportation Security Administration rejected as a "myth" CNN's report that less than 1 percent of the nation's daily flights carry armed federal air marshals. Now the agency is conducting an investigation into who talked to CNN and who encouraged other agents to do the same. A spokesman for the TSA confirmed the investigation. Spokesman Christopher White said a TSA investigator is looking into the "possible unauthorized release of sensitive and classified information to the news media by covered parties." "As part of this ongoing investigation, several individuals, both current and former employees, have been contacted as is typical in any investigation," he said in an e-mail to CNN. CNN spoke to more than a dozen current and former air marshals, pilots and federal law enforcement officials for the report, which aired in March on "Anderson Cooper 360º." Repeatedly, the sources told CNN that as few as 280 of an estimated 28,000 daily flights had armed federal air marshals aboard. That amounts to less than 1 percent....
Mexico drug traffickers make car bombs Mexican drug traffickers have built makeshift car bombs to attack police, troops and rival smugglers as the country's drugs war turns increasingly violent, police said. Soldiers found two car bombs in a safe house in the city of Culiacan in western Mexico on Monday. One car was packed with cans of gasoline and another stuffed with canisters of gas, police said. Both devices were wired to be detonated by cell phones, said a police official in Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa state, which is home to one of Mexico's biggest trafficking cartels. "We believe these two car bombs were being designed to harm the military, the police and rivals," the official said on Wednesday. He declined to be named. Any use of car bombs would be an escalation of Mexico's brutal drug war that has killed more than 4,200 people since late 2006, when President Felipe Calderon launched a military-backed assault on drug cartels....
Court seeks to stay US executions The US has been advised not to execute five Mexican nationals on death row by the International Court of Justice. The ICJ - the UN's highest court - had previously ruled that the men had been denied the right to help from their consulate after their arrests. A 2005 ruling by President George W Bush that the cases should be reviewed was overturned by the US Supreme Court. But the Hague-based court told the US it should not execute the men before it made its final judgement. In a majority ruling, the ICJ said the US should "take all measures necessary to ensure (they) are not executed pending judgment... unless and until these five Mexican nationals receive review and reconsideration (of their sentences)". Mexico welcomed the ruling. Jorge Lomonaco Tonda, representing Mexico at the court, said: "The Mexican government is satisfied with the ruling of the court... we have full confidence that the ruling will be applied."....
New Camera Issues Tire Tread Tickets Now that speed cameras use is established in Europe and parts of the US, the concept of automated ticketing is beginning to expand far beyond moving violations. Already, automated ticketing machines are deployed in the US to hit vehicles that overstay in a parking spot by a minute or that have excessive tailpipe emissions. The newest addition to this growing list is camera that scans the tires of passing cars and mails tickets if the depth of the tire tread is deficient by a fraction of an inch. Although not currently deployed, the German company ProContour hopes to sell this system to state and local governments looking for a way out of tight budget situations with a positive, pro-safety message. "Car tires are technically, the number one cause of car accidents in Germany," ProContour states on its website. "An average of four car accidents occur daily with personal injuries as the result of smooth or defective tires."....

Judge restores protection for Rockies wolves A federal judge has restored endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, derailing plans by three states to hold public wolf hunts this fall. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula granted a preliminary injunction late Friday restoring the protections for the wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Molloy will eventually decide whether the injunction should be permanent. The region has an estimated 2,000 gray wolves. They were removed from the endangered species list in March, following a decade-long restoration effort. Environmentalists sued to overturn the decision, arguing wolf numbers would plummet if hunting were allowed. They sought the injunction in the hopes of stopping the hunts and allowing the wolf population to continue expanding. "There were fall hunts scheduled that would call for perhaps as many as 500 wolves to be killed. We're delighted those wolves will be saved," said attorney Doug Honnold with Earthjustice, who had argued the case before Molloy on behalf of 12 environmental groups. In his ruling, Molloy said the federal government had not met its standard for wolf recovery, including interbreeding of wolves between the three states to ensure healthy genetics. "Genetic exchange has not taken place," Molloy wrote in the 40-page decision. Molloy said hunting and state laws allowing the killing of wolves for livestock attacks would likely "eliminate any chance for genetic exchange to occur." The federal biologist who led the wolf restoration program, Ed Bangs, defended the decision to delist wolves as "a very biologically sound package." "The kind of hunting proposed by the states wouldn't threaten the wolf population," Bangs said Friday. "We felt the science was rock solid and that the delisting was warranted."....

Cost of Govt. Day in 2008: July 16 July 16 was Cost of Government Day – that day of the year when average Americans finish paying off their share of federal, state, and local taxes and the cost of complying with regulations. “Finally, starting today, you are working for yourself and no longer for Uncle Sam,” said Brian Riedl, senior policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. This year, Cost of Government Day occurred four days later than last year because of increasing tax burdens, but also higher regulatory costs, according to Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), which released its annual Cost of Government Day report at a Washington news conference on Wednesday. “All the regulations the government imposes ... none of them are free. They cost resources. And sometimes you don’t have to send a dollar to Washington ... in order to lose it – you just have to pay a higher price for a car, or a house, or a consumer product because of a regulatory cost,” said ATR President Grover Norquist. The report, calculated by ATR’s Center for Fiscal Accountability, takes into account the total spending burden as a percentage of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), coupled with the cost of complying with government regulations. Norquist said the average American worked:
-- 84 days to fund federal spending
-- 50 days to pay for state and local spending
-- 42 days to cover federal regulation
-- 21 days to pay for state/local regulation
Combined, on average, Americans worked 197 days -- 54 percent of the year -- to pay their share of the cost of government, he said. According to Riedl, in 2008, Washington will spend $25,117 per household, the highest inflation-adjusted total since World War II. That represents $5,000 more per household than in 2001. Riedl said that any plan that would raise taxes to climb out of the economic crisis is “budgetary fantasyland.” He concluded, “Not surprisingly, Cost of Government Day continues to move away from Independence Day and closer to Halloween.”....

Formal charges filed in South Park bison deaths Texas businessman Jeffrey Scott Hawn has been charged with 32 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals in connection with the killing this past winter of 32 bison belonging to South Park rancher Monte Downare. The animal cruelty charges allege that between Feb. 26 and March 14, the 44-year-old Hawn unlawfully and knowingly "tortured, needlessly mutilated, or needlessly killed" the animals. Hawn is also charged with one count of theft of more than $20,000, alleging that Hawn intended to permanently deprive Downare of the bison and a single count of criminal mischief. Cruelty to animals is a Class 6 felony; and the theft and criminal mischief charges are both Class 3 felonies. Hawn is to appear in court on Aug. 4 to be advised of the charges. Pamela Mackey, Hawn's criminal defense lawyer, didn't return a call for comment. The shootings of the bison came shortly after Hawn and his Denver civil attorney, Stephen E. Csajaghy, complained about Downare's bison damaging Hawn's property....
Robert Redford Fights Global Warming With Poetry Robert Redford has been fighting on behalf of the environment for more than 30 years. From producing documentary films about solar power to lobbying Congress, his work has been both in the field and inside the Beltway. These days, he has a new venue for environmental activism: slam poetry. Sponsored by Redford's Sundance Preserve, in collaboration with Youth Speaks, a nonprofit that presents spoken-word performances, the Academy Award-winning actor is getting his message out in rhyme....
Grizzlies kill 71 sheep south of Choteau At least one and possibly two subadult grizzly bears have killed an estimated 71 sheep on two ranches southeast of Choteau since June 13, state and federal wildlife officials said on Monday. Snares have been set on both ranches but as of Monday nothing had been caught and wildlife officials were putting out the word that anyone recreating along the Teton River should be aware of the bears’ presence. Also, homeowners along the river corridor should take care to remove potential bear attractants — such as bird feeders, garbage and dog and cat food — from their yards and to put vulnerable small livestock — sheep, goats, chickens and ducks, for example — in safe, enclosed pens or buildings at night. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks grizzly management specialist Mike Madel of Choteau on Monday said that the depredations occurred over at least five different nights on June 11 and 12 and then again on July 8, 9 and 10. The bear or bears killed 65 head of ewes and lambs owned by Zane Drishinski and six head owned by Bill and Betty Jo Miller in pastures along the Teton River about a mile south of Choteau on the east side of U.S. Highway 89, Madel said....
Governor names 5 to oversee easements Gov. Bill Ritter on Tuesday named five people to a new panel established to prevent abuses of the state's land-preservation tax- credit program. Four more commissioners will be appointed by the board of Great Outdoors Colorado, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and the Colorado agricultural commissioner. The commission, created by House Bill 1353, will meet at least once a quarter to review applications for conservation-easement holder certification. The bill calls for several other measures to thwart abuses to the conservation-easement program, including increased accountability for conservation-easement appraisals and creating a one-year holding requirement mirroring the IRS limitation on the value of a conservation contribution for property held less than a year....
Idaho rules on 3 recent wolf killings Idaho Fish and Game officials say 2 of 3 recent cases of wolf killings have been declared legal under state rules. But a third case remains under investigation. That case involves a wolf taken near Casner Creek near Lowman. Agency investigators say the wolf was shot with a small caliber rifle. The two cases deemed legal involve wolves attacking sheep dogs or livestock. A wolf killed by a sheepherder on June 21 in Boise County was deemed legal after investigators concluded the wolf was attacking two border collies. State and federal agents recently wrapped up an investigation into a wolf killed by an Arco rancher after finding the wolf mingling with his cattle....
Preble's mouse still threatened in Colo., not Wyo. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday that it will remove the Preble's meadow jumping mouse from the threatened species list in Wyoming, but keep the mouse on the list in Colorado. The government said the mouse can be delisted in Wyoming because new populations have been confirmed in habitat not at risk for development. But in Colorado, home construction and other types of development continue to threaten Preble's mouse habitat, Fish and Wildlife officials said. “Much of Preble's riparian habitat in Colorado has been severely altered or destroyed by human activities,” said Steve Guertin, director of Fish and Wildlife's Mountain-Prairie Region. “Continued rapid development is expected along Colorado's Front Range as the population continues to grow. Without the protection of the federal Endangered Species Act, much of Preble's habitat would be lost.” The Preble's mouse, a largely nocturnal mammal with a tail twice the length of its 3-inch body, lives mostly in streamside habitats thick with vegetation and adjacent foothills of southeastern Wyoming and along part of Colorado's Front Range, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. It can jump as far as three feet to escape predators....
Unlocking the Water Held by U.S. Forests Not So Easy Can forests, which process nearly two-thirds of the nation’s water supply, be managed to help slake our growing demand for water and avert the worst consequences of climate change? A new report from the National Research Council suggests a need for caution in trying to tap greater water output from forests, and recommends more research and citizen involvement to help protect water quality and quantity as forests come under increased pressure from many directions. The National Research Council report, written by a panel of 14 experts, was requested by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the nation’s largest water wholesaler, and the U.S. Forest Service, which manages 193 million acres of land. The report, "Hydrologic Effects of a Changing Forest Landscape," explores how better management of forest resources could increase water supplies and quality and identifies future research needs. The report examines how removing the forest canopy, wildfires, insects, climate change, road networks, and applications of chemicals like fertilizers and fire retardants can affect the water output of a forest....
Rural lawmakers, cattle groups work to block beef imports from Argentina Farm-state lawmakers have introduced legislation to prevent the Bush administration from allowing imports of meat from Argentina into the United States. Fresh and frozen beef, mutton and other meat imports from Argentina, one of the world’s largest cattle producers, have been banned since 2001 because of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. But a pending rule at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) would allow imports from certain areas of Argentina deemed clear. Reps. Barbara Cubin (R-Wyo.) and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) introduced legislation on Wednesday that would prohibit fresh and frozen Argentine meat from entering the U.S. market until the USDA the South American country can categorically prove is free of foot-and-mouth disease. The bill mirrors a similar effort proposed in the Senate by Sens. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) last week. The moves follow an intense lobbying effort by U.S. cattle producers....
Brucellosis probe spurs one Wyo. rancher to spay herd A western Wyoming rancher opted to have 750 cattle spayed rather than tested for brucellosis as part of an investigation into an outbreak of the livestock disease, a state livestock official said Wednesday. State and federal investigators are testing 13 herds for brucellosis, a disease mainly passed among animals, that can cause weight loss, infertility, lameness and abortions. The 13 herds had contact with a herd near Daniel that tested positive last month for brucellosis. Two of the 13 herds tested negative last week for the bacterial infection. Assistant state veterinarian Jim Logan said the rancher who chose to spay his herd had the choice of testing for brucellosis, slaughtering the herd or spaying the herd. By having the animals spayed, he eliminated the possibility that the cows could transmit brucellosis. The herd of 750 "feeder heifers" was not intended for breeding and will likely be sent from pasture to a feedlot and then the slaughterhouse, Logan said. Investigators still need to test 10 more herds in Wyoming. Logan said he expects that testing to take place in August, September and October, when the cattle are brought in from their summer ranges....
Equestrian community still saddled with slaughter debate Beginning in the late 1990s, animal activism organizations, including the National Horse Protection League and the Humane Association, and celebrities as varied as Bo Derek, Willie Nelson and Paul Sorvino, threw considerable weight against slaughterhouses, ultimately succeeding in convincing legislators, state by state, to ban killing horses for human consumption. The last horse slaughter facility in the United States, the Cavel plant in DeKalb, Ill., owned by a Belgian company that shipped horse meat to Europe, closed after an Illinois law made horse slaughter illegal. Cavel International appealed the ban in federal appeals court and lost; the Supreme Court refused to hear the case last month, thus rendering it judicially dead. But what sounds like a triumph for horses, owners and equine aficionados everywhere is actually a far more complex issue, because the question of how to deal with unwanted horses, including debilitated, dangerous and abandoned animals, remains unanswered. In the equestrian community, the subject is so sticky that while everyone is talking about it, no one's using names. One area veterinarian who wishes to remain anonymous believes the emotional arguments against killing "pet" horses fail to confront the realities of starvation, neglect and death from untreated ailments....

Global Warming Led to ‘Black Hawk Down,’ Congressman Says A top Democrat told high school students gathered at the U.S. Capitol Thursday that climate change caused Hurricane Katrina and the conflict in Darfur, which led to the “black hawk down” battle between U.S. troops and Somali rebels. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House (Select) Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee, also equated the drive for global warming legislation with the drive for women’s suffrage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Markey was speaking to 25 students from the World Wildlife Fund's Allianz Southeast Climate Witness Program. The students had come to the Capitol to brief members of Congress on the risks of global warming. The students were from the Gulf States. But Myron Ebell, director of Energy and Global Warming Policy at CEI, told Cybercast News Service that Markey’s remarks reveal his ignorance about the science of global warming. “Yes, that part of the world is subject to drought at times, but it has very little to do with global warming,” said Ebell. “It is subject to drought whether the global average temperature is going up, down, or staying the same. To say you know the conflict was caused by global warming is to show how really ignorant you are of the scientific issues involved.” The students who testified at the event, most of whom had lived in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, described the difficulties they faced after the storm and blamed global warming for the disaster....
U.S. researchers predict global warming may increase kidney stone incidence Among the many diseases predicted to come with climate change, a team of U.S. researchers say kidney stones may become more common as the temperature rises across North America, media reports said Monday. Researchers from University of Texas examined how the incidence of kidney stones would change with increasing temperatures and suggest kidney stones may increase across the United States by as much as 30 percent in the most affected areas. In addition, they calculate the direct and indirect costs of treating approximately 2 million new kidney stone cases annually could increase by 1 billion U.S. dollars by 2050, which is 25 percent more than the current expenditures. Previous research has found the risk of kidney stone formation is increased by low urine volume, which reflects the state of body hydration....This is enough to piss you off.
Environmental Bills Called Pretext to Loosen Border Security Open-border advocates operating under the guise of environmentalism are prepared to push for legislation that could result in an accelerated flow of illegal immigration, drug smuggling, and human trafficking from Mexico into Arizona, according to law enforcement experts familiar with the terrain. The two bills, sponsored by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), would restrict federal and state law enforcement officials from patrolling an already porous border area that extends from Sonora, Mexico into Santa Cruz County, Ariz., critics charge. However, some members of Congress and environmental activists maintain the legislation would provide for greater flexibility in enforcing the border while safeguarding natural treasures. Grijalva has proposed extending federal wilderness protection to approximately 84,000 acres of the Tumacacori Highlands within the Coronado National Forest, which is located adjacent to the Pajarita Wilderness that runs along the Mexican border. This wilderness designation would effectively push the Mexican border 30 miles to the north of its present location, according to Zack Taylor, a retired U.S. Border Patrol officer. Kent Lundgren, chairman of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO), said the impetus behind the legislation does not come from any public outcry on the part of citizens in Arizona or in other border states, but is instead the handiwork of environmental activists connected with the Sky Island Alliance (SKI), a self-described grassroots organization formed in 1991. The alliance has long opposed motorized activity in the Coronado National Forest and supports the creation of an “interconnected” conservation area across southeastern Arizona. Matt Skroch, SKI executive director, expressed strong support for Grijalva’s Wilderness Act in testimony last year before the House Natural Resources Committee’s national parks, forests and public lands subcommittee....
Bush Acts on Drilling, Challenging Democrats President Bush lifted nearly two decades of executive orders banning drilling for oil and natural gas off the country’s shoreline on Monday while challenging Congress to open up more areas for exploration to address soaring energy prices. Democrats in Congress, joined by environmentalists, criticized the step and ridiculed it as ineffectual, while most Republicans and industry representatives applauded it as long overdue. The lifting of the moratorium — first announced by Mr. Bush’s father, President George Bush, in 1990 and extended by President Bill Clinton — will have no real impact because a Congressional moratorium on drilling enacted in 1981 and renewed annually remains in force. And there appeared to be no consensus for lifting it in tandem with Mr. Bush’s action. Rather than signaling a change in the country’s policy, the president’s decision appeared only to harden well-established positions, intensifying an already contentious issue in the middle of an election year....
Efforts on 2 Fronts to Save a Population of Ferrets A colony that contains nearly half of the black-footed ferrets in the country and which biologists say is critical to the long-term health of the species has been struck by plague, which may have killed a third of the 300 animals. A much-publicized endangered species in the 1970s that had dwindled to 18 animals, the black-footed ferret had struggled to make a comeback and had been doing relatively well for decades. But plague, always a threat to the ferrets and their main prey, prairie dogs, has struck with a vengeance this year, partly because of the wet spring. The ferrets are an easy target for the bacteria. “They are exquisitely sensitive to the plague,” said Travis Livieri, a wildlife biologist here who is trying to save the colony. “They don’t just get sick, they die. No ifs, ands or buts.” Humans can catch plague, but it is easily treated with antibiotics. Mr. Livieri is working with the federal Fish and Wildlife Service’s black-footed ferret recovery team, the Forest Service and some volunteers to try to save the colony at Conata Basin by dusting prairie dog burrows with flea powder that kills the plague-carrying insects. Mr. Livieri is also working on a vaccination program, prowling the prairie all night to capture ferrets for injections....
Plan reworks ski-area law A proposal to expand the federal Ski Area Permit Act to recognize winter sports beyond alpine and nordic skiing and promote summer recreation is drawing concern from environmental groups. The draft bill by U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, is aimed at updating the 1986 law to reflect the changing nature of ski resorts operating on U.S. Forest Service land. "My bill would make it clear that activities like mountain biking, concerts and other appropriate uses can be allowed at these ski areas," Udall said in a statement. Environmental groups say they are worried that the language in the draft is too broad. "The concern is that this will open the door for things like water parks or roller coasters," said Ryan Bidwell, executive director of Colorado Wild. Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said ski resorts shouldn't get preferential treatment. "The bill needs to be explicit that when it comes to summer activities, ski resorts have to meet the same rules and standards as an outfitter or any other permit applicant," Mall said....
Court: Ore. land plan should consider wilderness Federal appeals judges have told the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to take another look at its plans for about 4.5 million acres in Eastern Oregon — and to consider wilderness values when it does. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday the bureau's plans for the area are too narrow. The judges say the bureau should include in its management plans areas where grass, sagebrush and juniper are reclaiming unused roads. And it said the bureau should manage lands with an eye toward preserving their wilderness characteristics — even if they haven't been designated as wilderness areas. The suit was brought in 2003 by the Oregon Natural Desert Association. It involves land in three counties, Malheur, Grant and Harney, where the bureau leases extensive tracts of grazing land to ranchers....And they are closing roads all across the West. Will these areas "recover" thus creating more wilderness in a never ending process?
Hundreds of wild horses corralled The state Bureau of Land Management said it corralled hundreds of horses roaming free in Nevada in an effort to decrease the number of wild horses. The agency has corralled 161 horses in Nevada's Fox and Lake mountain ranges since Friday, the Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal reported. At least 300 horses were corralled last week outside Lovelock, Nev., BLM Assistant Field Manager Arlan Hiner said. The agency said it plans to corral 114 additional horses in coming days. Approximately half of the country's 30,000 wild horses are in Nevada, with others in California, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. Government officials say they want to decrease the wild horse population to about 27,000. Susie Stokke, manager of the Nevada BLM roundup plan, said the animals are put into captivity because water and food in the wild is scant.
A Battle Over Wild Horses If you drew up a list of things that divide the country, horses probably wouldn't appear near the top. But they should, if the response to NEWSWEEK's interview last week with wild horse advocate Deanne Stillman is anything to go by. She blasted the Bureau of Land Management's proposed policy of euthanasia to curb the wild horse population, claiming that American mustangs deserve better than "a trip to the gallows." But for every defender of the horse's right to roam free, there is an equally hard-core realist who says that management is an inescapable reality. When people from those two camps met on Newsweek.com, it got as wild as the Old West, stretching more than 100 printed pages, including letters from the BLM and the governor of Wyoming. Here were the major dustups, and a taste of the reader comments....
Bush-appointed sportsmen offer conservation ideas An advisory group appointed by the Bush administration says hunters and fishermen - touted as the nation's first conservationists - ought to continue to play an important role as advocates for conserving wildlife and habitat. But the Sporting Conservation Council says conflicting government policies, dwindling interest in hunting, and growing threats to big game, fish and fowl populations have made that role a more challenging one. The council recently released a package of draft reports outlining those concerns and possible long-term policy solutions. Drawn from expert testimony at a conference in Denver in April, the reports will be the starting point for a planned presidential conference on wildlife policy in Washington, D.C., this fall. The goal is a 10-year, national wildlife management policy. Council members said such long-term planning will require bipartisanship - and they've even reached out to both the John McCain and Barack Obama campaigns with the assumption that one of the two will soon be in a position to enact their recommendations....

FLE

EDITORIAL: Border agent murder outrage

The Justice Department and the White House have some explaining to do with regard to the investigation of the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent Luis Aguilar, 35, in January - in particular, whether Washington bothered to request Navarro's extradition.

Mr. Aguilar was attempting to stop two suspected drug smugglers Jan. 19 about 20 miles west of Yuma, Ariz., as they fled back into Mexico. The six-year Border Patrol veteran was trying to lay spike strips to stop the pair when he was struck and killed by a Hummer, allegedly driven by Navarro. The suspect was arrested three days later by Mexican authorities after an international manhunt. The Mexican Embassy in Washington, which announced Navarro's arrest, said he had been driving a Hummer, "presumably carrying drugs," when Border Patrol agents attempted to stop the vehicle, and that "Agent Aguilar was run down, and Mr. Navarro fled the scene back to Mexican territory." The statement said that Navarro (who had served time for transporting illegal aliens to the United States) would be prosecuted in Mexico, but that the Mexican government was awaiting an extradition request from the United States.

Fast forward to last month: Navarro applied for and was granted bail after being "cleared" of an unrelated migrant-smuggling charge. The Mexican government says it knew nothing about Navarro's release until after it occurred, and that it is now trying to put him behind bars. But that begs the question of how Navarro could be released given that the Mexican government itself had issued a statement implicating him in drug smuggling and running down Mr. Aguilar with his Hummer.

But the U.S. government (and in particular, the White House and the Justice Department) also has questions to answer. Mexico said late last month that Washington had not issued an arrest warrant, provided evidence or contacted it regarding Navarro's extradition. Then, on Thursday, Mexico said that U.S. officials did in fact make "a provisional arrest request for extradition purposes" - but did so more than a week after Navarro's release. So, we've heard Mexico's versions of what happened in the Navarro case (both of them.) It's past time for the White House and the Justice Department to come forward with their own explanation of how things were fouled up, and why Jesus Navarro Montes is a free man.

Court says EPA overreached with emissions rule A federal appeals court unanimously struck down a signature component of President Bush's clean air policies Friday, dealing a blow to environmental groups and probably delaying further action until the next administration. The regulation, known as the Clean Air Interstate Rule, required 28 mostly Eastern states to reduce smog-forming and soot-producing emissions that can travel long distances in the wind. The Environmental Protection Agency predicted that it would prevent about 17,000 premature deaths a year. North Carolina and some electric power producers opposed aspects of the regulation, and President Bush found himself with some unusual allies. "This is the rare case where environmental groups went to court alongside the Bush administration," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, a group that has criticized other Bush administration policies. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the EPA had overstepped its authority. It said the Clean Air Act did not give the EPA the authority to change pollution standards the way it had. Citing "more than several fatal flaws," the court scrapped the entire regulation....
White House rejects regulating greenhouse gases The Bush administration, dismissing the recommendations of its top experts, rejected regulating the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming Friday, saying it would cripple the U.S. economy. In a 588-page federal notice, the Environmental Protection Agency made no finding on whether global warming poses a threat to people's health or welfare, reversing an earlier conclusion at the insistence of the White House and officially kicking any decision on a solution to the next president and Congress. The White House on Thursday rejected the EPA's suggestion three weeks earlier that the 1970 Clean Air Act can be both workable and effective for addressing global climate change. The EPA said Friday that law is ``ill-suited'' for dealing with global warming. ``If our nation is truly serious about regulating greenhouse gases, the Clean Air Act is the wrong tool for the job,'' EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson told reporters. ``It is really at the feet of Congress.''....
EPA dropped wetlands cases after high court ruling The Bush administration didn't pursue hundreds of potential water pollution cases after a 2006 Supreme Court decision that restricted the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate seasonal streams and wetlands. From July 2006 through December 2007 there were 304 instances where the EPA found what would have been violations of the Clean Water Act before the court's ruling, according to a memo by the agency's enforcement chief. Officials "chose not to pursue formal enforcement based on the uncertainty about EPA's jurisdiction," according to the memo, which was released Monday by two Democratic House committee chairmen. The EPA also chose to "lower the priority" of 147 other cases because it was unclear whether the intermittent streams, swamps and marshes flowed into navigable waterways. Chief Justice John Roberts predicted the court's decision would be confusing, saying "regulated entities will now have to feel their way on a case-by-case basis." The confusion primarily surrounds temporary streams and wetlands not large enough to be navigable, but which are among the most prevalent types of waters across the country....
Agricultural water pollution on the line The Bush Administration has been trying since 2005 to change Clean Water Act rules so that agricultural interests can dump polluted water into public lakes and streams without obtaining a permit. Each step of the way, Florida environmentalists represented by Earthjustice lawyers have filed lawsuits to block the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) from implementing the new rules. On June 9th, the Bush EPA tried once again and again environmentalists are going to court to block the proposed rules. Click here to read an article about the legal challenge. The rule change proposal is the Administration’s response to three lawsuits – one in South Florida, one in Upstate New York and one in the upper Klamath River Basin. Each lawsuit seeks court action to require those discharging agricultural waste water into a public waterbody through a “discrete conveyance” (i.e. a pipe or a pump) to obtain a pollution discharge permit. Prior to these cases it was assumed that all agricultural discharges were “non point sources” and therefore exempted from the Clean Water Act’s discharge permit requirements. The Florida case went all the way to the Supreme Court which opened the door to permit requirements if agricultural wastewater is moved from one waterbody to another through a discrete conveyance. The Bush Administration countered with the rule change. The implications of extending Clean Water Act permit requirements to agricultural discharges are huge in the West where water has been wheeled freely using subsidized power and giant pumps....
Santa Fe Forest Proposal Would Limit Use of ATVs Santa Fe National Forest officials unveiled a proposal on Thursday that would cut in half the roads available to motorized travel and practically eliminate off-road or off-trail use of motorized vehicles. And then they stepped back to brace themselves for public reaction. "I understand that every time we make a big change, people are really emot i o n a l a b o u t it," said Forest Supervisor Daniel Jiron. "We're trying to leave Santa Fe National Forest for future generations in the best shape possible." The public outcry already has been heard for at least two years, the time that has lapsed since local officials first started work to conform with motorized travel regulations issued for forests nationwide. People who use the forest -- including off-road trails that appeared through usage but never were official routes -- complained that their recreational opportunities were being closed down, while those who oppose the noisy machines, especially in areas where they live, have said not enough was being done to keep them out of the forest. Jiron said he expects to hear more of the same, even though Forest Service officials tried to develop the plans by taking into account input they've gotten so far from the public. On Glorieta Mesa, where there has been controversy over ATV use, no cross-country travel will be allowed, but there will be "minor" camping corridors and one loop trail where motorized vehicles will be allowed, Jiron said....
Wildlife officials kill 2 wolves State wildlife officials killed two wolves belonging to separate packs in different parts of Western Montana on Friday, after two calves and a 600-pound heifer were found dead on private property. "It's kind of the aligning of random events," said Mike Thompson, wildlife manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The USDA Wildlife Services confirmed Monday and Friday that several wolves from the Brooks Creek pack were responsible for the death of two calves on private land near Florence in the Bitterroot Valley. The wolves also chased seven yearling cattle through a fence on the property, but they were unharmed, according to a press release issued by FWP. The Brooks Creek pack has a den near where the Bitterroot landowner is calving, Thompson said. Wildlife Services killed one of the wolves they believe is responsible on private land near the area of the attacks. The pack now has five wolves. North of there, another wolf attack took place. On Thursday, the USDA Wildlife Services confirmed that a wolf from the Superior pack killed a heifer on private land west of Superior....
Booz, Allen & Hamilton, the Army's accomplice in Southeast Colorado Booz, Allen & Hamilton (hereafter Booz Allen), a privately held corporation owned by about 300 senior executives, is the Army's accomplice in their attempted private property seizure in southeast Colorado. Their expertise, they declare, is strategy and public sector mission effectiveness. Booz Allen contracted with the Army for $500,000 to maneuver the ranchers out of their property rights. Skillful facilitators (provocateurs), despite their friendly demeanor, very likely use an advanced version of the deceptive Delphi Method, mind-games developed by the U.S. Air Force's RAND Project, financed by the Ford Foundation. Booz Allen knows the financial/credit history, computer key-strokes, personality traits, political affiliations, friends, associates, medical issues, weaknesses and strengths of every single southeast Colorado rancher and will use that information for the army's objective — the seizure of private land. Their surveys, meetings, polls are a façade — citizen's input is irrelevant. For additional pressure, the Army claims they have a "willing seller" with 100,000 acres, perhaps a newly-arrived non-rancher strategically-placed in order to influence and alter the balance of opinions....
Tribe works to regain lost land During the past 30 years, the Spirit Lake Tribe has repurchased about 50,000 acres of reservation land. Tribal Chairman Myra Pearson knows when acquisition efforts will cease. “When we own it all,” she said. Because about two-thirds of reservation land still is owned by non-Indians, complete ownership won’t happen soon. But the tribe’s rate of buyouts still is brisk enough to alarm local nonreservation taxing authorities. That’s because tribe-purchased land goes into a federal trust, which isn’t subject to property taxes. So, the county, townships and school districts lose those tax dollars. In Benson County, where most of the reacquired acres exist, the annual losses to those taxing entities total about $240,000. The county government’s share of that figure is $89,000....$240,000??
Feds have duty to help pay for wolf kills The U.S. Department of Interior's negative reaction to a livestock compensation bill for animals killed by wolves isn't surprising, but it is disappointing. Keep in mind that the federal government reintroduced gray wolves to the Yellowstone ecosystem in 1995. About 1,500 of the predators now roam Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The feds administered the recovery program until earlier this year, when wolves were removed from federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Now the three states each have their own management plans for the animals. The states are now responsible for compensating ranchers for cattle and sheep killed by wolves. A conservation group, Defenders of Wildlife, had been paying for documented kills before wolves were delisted. Now, Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., have sponsored a bill that would require the federal government to pay a portion of those costs. Barrasso is probably overstating the problem when he says it's time for the feds to pay "to fix Washington's mistake." While wolf reintroduction has always been opposed by the livestock industry, conservation groups have supported it and don't view restoring the wolf to the environment as a mistake. But the senator is correct when he says the federal government should be responsible to contribute matching funds to the state's compensation trust funds. Critics contend that the compensation program amounts to welfare for ranchers. But losses due to the predator's presence are considerable. The National Agricultural Statistics Service estimates that wolves killed 100 adult cattle and 600 calves in Wyoming in 2007. Sheep losses for the year were estimated at 100 ewes and 400 lambs. Ranchers' estimates are considerably higher....
Meat Recalls to Name Retailers The Department of Agriculture will change its policy and begin to identify retailers who have received recalled meat, but only in cases that pose the most serious health threat. The information will be provided only in Class I recalls, those of "most serious concern to public health," Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said. The rule will take effect in August, 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register. "People want to know if they need to be on the lookout for recalled meat and poultry from their local stores," Schafer said. Listing the outlets "will improve public health protection by better informing consumers." The USDA came under criticism earlier this year for refusing to name retail outlets and schools that received ground beef recalled by Westland/Hallmark Meat, citing privacy concerns. That recall, involving 143 million pounds, was the biggest in U.S. history....
Settlers up to no good at Portales Springs Doak Good had settled in comfortably in his rock and adobe house at Portales Springs, but his peaceful existence did not last long. In 1882 Jim Newman began bringing his cattle from Texas to Salt Lake and established the DZ Ranch near Arch, 11 miles east of Good’s place. Newman’s cattle would drift over to the plentiful water at Portales Springs. Bad feelings developed and violence was bound to follow. After the fight with Gabe Henson, which he blamed on Newman, Good was afraid to stay by himself and he picked up a transient boy about 14 years old to work for him. Old-time cowboy Col. Jack Potter had this to say about the new cowhand, “He was a hard-looking kid; had an old Stetson hat with the crown out, thrown away by some cowpuncher. He had long hair and it stuck out through the crown of the hat. He was dubbed by the cowboys as ‘Portales Bill,’ though I learned later his real name was McElmore.” Good gave him a few dogies or mavericks for his work, and it was commonly believed that he added to his herd by rustling other people’s cattle....

FLE

The Unitary Executive Congress On Wednesday July 9, the Senate voted to pass the FISA Amendments Act. This was a new law the Democratic majority in Congress had opposed in principle for the last five months in defiance of President Bush. They had suffered no political harm for taking the stand. Indeed, they defied him with as much success here as in opposing the privatization of social security. The collapse of the Democratic leadership on FISA was thus a sheer political calculation; yet the panic of the reversal ran ahead of any visible threat. It betrayed an embarrassment at the leadership's complicity with the president -- but in a manner that only increases the embarrassment and only tightens the complicity. The collapse also reflected a weakness of collective character. The fourth amendment sets up a law no executive may stand above: a law that forbids the trawling by the government for information against citizens without probable cause. It says every warrant must be supported by an oath or affirmation which particularly describes the place to be searched, and the things to be seized. Under pressure (but a very general not a particular pressure), the Democrats showed that, for them, the fourth amendment is dispensable in a way in which social security is not dispensable. The new law has these important effects: (1) It reaffirms the president's right to order individual taps as well as massive data mining, on foreign targets and on American citizens with foreign contacts whom the president finds suspicious. (2) It extends from three days to a week the period during which he can spy on a person or many people, abroad or in this country, without telling anyone. (3) It contracts the authority of the FISA court from approval of individual warrants to approval of the general procedures used in surveillance. (4) It replaces the FISA court, as the single approver of individual warrants, with the inspectors general at the government agencies and departments; most of all (it would seem) the inspector general of the NSA. (5) It narrows the investigation around the telecom immunity lawsuits from a sifting for possible violations of the law by the president in seeking warrantless wiretaps -- and by the telecoms in supplying those wiretaps -- to the bare question whether the president had attached a note from a legal authority in requesting help with his searches and seizures. Not "Was it illegal and did the president and telecoms know it was illegal?", but rather, "Did he get a lawyer to sign for it?" has become the question for a court to decide. (6) Not the FISA court but a district court will answer that question for all the lawsuits covering the years 2001-2005....
The Bipartisan Surveillance State The Democratic Congress passed and Bush signed the "FISA Amendments Act of 2008," legalizing the president's longstanding illegal wiretapping program. The law allows broad warrantless surveillance of Americans in the United States, so long as the call or e-mail is thought to be international. Eavesdropping on domestic communications is legal for a week before court papers even have to be filed. The telecom companies that cooperated with Bush are immune from civil lawsuits. Most important, the administration's illegal conduct has been retroactively approved and future administrations have wider powers than ever to spy on Americans. The Democratic leadership and virtually all Congressional Republicans approved the law. In a complete reversal of his campaign promise, so did Senator Barack Obama. Last October, his campaign announced, "To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies." Instead, he voted to prevent a filibuster and then he voted for the bill. Democrats and Obama supporters defend the betrayal with hollow claims that the law actually protects civil liberties. Why then was Bush so eager to sign it? Missouri Republican Senator Christopher Bond, a leader in this “compromise,” says “the White House got a better deal than even they had hoped.” Two years ago, the Democrats seemed outraged after we learned Bush had ordered the National Security Agency— a military outfit—to spy on Americans without warrants, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Now they control Congress with good odds at the presidency. Power and the hope for more power corrupt. As Salon.com civil liberties expert Glenn Greenwald notes, “in 2006, when the Congress was controlled by [Republicans], the administration tried to get a bill passed legalizing warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty, but was unable. They had to wait until the Congress was controlled by [Democrats] Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to accomplish that.”....
The New FISA Compromise: It's Worse than You Think Last month, the House of Representatives passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, Congress's latest response to President Bush's demands for expanded eavesdropping authority. The Democratic leadership, seemingly intent on avoiding real debate on the proposal, scheduled the final vote just a day after the bill was introduced in the House. Touted by Democratic leaders as a "compromise," it was supported almost unanimously by House Republicans and opposed by a majority of Democrats. The 114-page bill was pushed through the House so quickly that there was no real time to debate its many complex provisions. This may explain why the telecom immunity provision has received so much attention in the media: it is much easier to explain to readers not familiar with the intricacies of surveillance law than the other provisions. But as important as the immunity issue is, the legislation also makes many prospective changes to surveillance law that will profoundly impact our privacy rights for years to come. Specifically, the new legislation dramatically expands the government's ability to wiretap without meaningful judicial oversight, by redefining "oversight" so that the feds can drag their feet on getting authorization almost indefinitely. It also gives the feds unprecedented new latitude in selecting eavesdropping targets, latitude that could be used to collect information on non-terrorist-related activities like P2P copyright infringement and online gambling. In short, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 opens up loopholes so large that the feds could drive a truck loaded down with purloined civil liberties through it. So the telecom immunity stuff is just the smoke; let's take a look at the fire....
The Worst of All Worlds Why did nearly half the Democrats in the House vote for the "FISA Amendments Act" that's now pending in the Senate, when most of them had opposed warrantless spying and telecom immunity before? The answer is that they were bribed, using your tax dollars. The Washington Post claims a deal was cut: the Democratic Leadership would support the FISA bill if the President would agree to add $95 billion in DOMESTIC spending to the latest Iraq appropriation. In other words, House Democrats voted to continue the war and sold the Fourth Amendment for $95 billion. Republicans say they want less spending. Democrats say they want less war. What's their compromise? More spending and more war....
Domestic spying quietly goes on With Congress on the verge of outlining new parameters for National Security Agency eavesdropping between suspicious foreigners and Americans, lawmakers are leaving largely untouched a host of government programs that critics say involves far more domestic surveillance than the wiretaps they sought to remedy. These programs - most of them highly classified - are run by an alphabet soup of federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies. They sift, store and analyze the communications, spending habits and travel patterns of U.S. citizens, searching for suspicious activity. The surveillance includes data-mining programs that allow the NSA and the FBI to sift through large databanks of e-mails, phone calls and other communications, not for selective information, but in search of suspicious patterns. Other information, like routine bank transactions, is kept in databases similarly monitored by the Central Intelligence Agency. "There's virtually no branch of the U.S. government that isn't in some way involved in monitoring or surveillance," said Matthew Aid, an intelligence historian and fellow at the National Security Archives at The George Washington University. "We're operating in a brave new world."....
Want some torture with your peanuts? A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®. According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers (video also shown below). This bracelet would: • Take the place of an airline boarding pass • Contain personal information about the traveler • Be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage • Shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes The Electronic ID Bracelet, as it’s referred to, would be worn by every traveler “until they disembark the flight at their destination.” Yes, you read that correctly. Every airline passenger would be tracked by a government-funded GPS, containing personal, private and confidential information, and would shock the customer worse than an electronic dog collar if the passenger got out of line....
U.S. defends laptop searches at the border Is a laptop searchable in the same way as a piece of luggage? The Department of Homeland Security believes it is. For the past 18 months, immigration officials at border entries have been searching and seizing some citizens’ laptops, cellphones, and BlackBerry devices when they return from international trips. In some cases, the officers go through the files while the traveler is standing there. In others, they take the device for several hours and download the hard drive’s content. After that, it’s unclear what happens to the data. The Department of Homeland Security contends these searches and seizures of electronic files are vital to detecting terrorists and child pornographers. It also says it has the constitutional authority to do them without a warrant or probable cause. But many people in the business community disagree, saying DHS is overstepping the Fourth Amendment bounds of permissible routine searches. Some are fighting for Congress to put limits on what can be searched and seized and what happens to the information that’s taken. The civil rights community says the laptop seizures are simply unconstitutional. They want DHS to stop the practice unless there’s at least reasonable suspicion....
Gun stolen? Report it Reporting a lost or stolen gun to police seems pretty logical to Mayor Michael Nutter. Not doing it in Philadelphia now comes with a cost — $1,900. Nutter and other city officials yesterday announced that the lost-or-stolen reporting requirement passed by City Council in April and upheld in court early last month will go into full effect Aug. 8. Nutter suggested residents take the next month to take inventory of their firearms in preparation of the new law and report any missing guns to police. “If you lose your piece, call police,” he said at a press conference. “We are serious about aggressively enforcing public safety laws.” The hefty fine will be imposed as a first penalty upon anyone who through the course of a police investigation or any other city investigation has been identified as failing to report their firearm missing within 24 hours, officials said. Second and third offenses by the same person will result in jail time and alleged law breakers will have their cases heard in civil court, Nutter said. The National Rifle Association has already filed an appeal to Commonwealth Court to have the lost-or-stolen law and two other city gun laws, the group’s attorney said yesterday....
While Bloomberg frets about our guns, NYPD can’t keep track of theirs Anti-gun New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg should “mind his own store before telling others how to operate theirs,” said the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, after an audit found that the New York Police Department lost track of dozens of guns in its own storage lockers. “While this guy has been bullying gun dealers around the country about so-called ’slip-shod’ operations,” chuckled CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “his own police department seems to be slipping quite a bit on its own. Bloomberg needs to back off, shut up and get his own house in order before telling others how to operate.” According to the New York Times, “nearly one out of three handguns and rifles that had been turned in to the police could not be immediately accounted for in a Manhattan property clerk’s office.” “We’re waiting for Bloomberg to send a team of undercover vigilante investigators down there to find out what’s wrong,” Gottlieb said. “Can one of his infamous lawsuits be far behind?” Bloomberg dispatched non-police “investigators” to run stings on gun shops in several states more than two years ago, ostensibly to show how easy it is to illegally obtain guns in other states. He then sued gun dealers in five states....
Suing George W. Bush: A bizarre and troubling tale On July 3, Chief Judge Vaughn Walker of the U.S. District Court in California made a ruling particularly worthy of the nation's attention. In Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation Inc. v. Bush, a key case in the epic battle over warrantless spying inside the United States, Judge Walker ruled, effectively, that President George W. Bush is a felon. Judge Walker held that the president lacks the authority to disregard the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA -- which means Bush's warrantless electronic surveillance program was illegal. Whether Bush will ultimately be held accountable for violating federal law with the program remains unclear. Bush administration lawyers have fought vigorously -- at times using brazen, logic-defying tactics -- to prevent that from happening. The court battle will continue to play out as Congress continues to battle over recasting FISA and possibly granting immunity to telecom companies involved in the illegal surveillance. The story of how Al-Haramain's lawyers negotiated the journey thus far to Judge Walker's ruling -- a team of seven lawyers that includes me -- sheds light on how much is at stake for the Bush administration and the country. It is a surreal saga, involving a top-secret document accidentally released by the government, a showdown between Bush lawyers and a federal judge, the violent destruction of a laptop computer by government agents,....You should take the time to watch the ad and then read this article.