Global warming debate heats up While one NASA scientist says man-made catastrophic climate change will cause an apocalypse, another says hysterical pronouncements about carbon dioxide emissions are unwarranted and overblown. James Hansen, a political ally of former Vice President Al Gore, who has popularized the notion the planet is on the verge of calamitous changes as a result of higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, says: "We do have a planetary emergency, but it is difficult because you don't see that much happening. … If we don't bring this under control, we're going to destroy creation." Hansen told a Kansas wind and renewable energy conference last month global warming inevitably will bring about droughts, melting ice caps, rising sea levels and mass extinctions. But Roy Spencer, U.S. science team leader for NASA's collection of satellite temperature data and principal research scientist at the University of Alabama at Huntsville's Earth System Science Center, says the climate system is not as sensitive to increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide as computer models suggest. This would mean "that we have little to worry about in the way of man-made global warming and associated climate change," Spencer said in testimony to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee this summer. "And, as we will see, it would also mean that the warming we have experienced in the last 100 years is mostly natural. Of course, if climate change is natural then it is largely out of our control, and is likely to end – if it has not ended already, since satellite-measured global temperatures have not warmed for at least seven years now."....

Alaska glaciers grew this year Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then came the winter and summer of 2007-2008. Unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by unusually chill temperatures in June, July and August. "In mid-June, I was surprised to see snow still at sea level in Prince William Sound," said U.S. Geological Survey glaciologist Bruce Molnia. "On the Juneau Icefield, there was still 20 feet of new snow on the surface of the Taku Glacier in late July. At Bering Glacier, a landslide I am studying, located at about 1,500 feet elevation, did not become snow free until early August. "In general, the weather this summer was the worst I have seen in at least 20 years." Never before in the history of a research project dating back to 1946 had the Juneau Icefield witnessed the kind of snow buildup that came this year. It was similar on a lot of other glaciers too....

Wolves back on endangered list Federal wildlife officials said Tuesday they want to remove wolves in the Northern Rockies from the endangered species list -- again -- by early 2009. That declaration came on the same day a judge restored the predator's endangered status, as part of a lawsuit filed by environmentalists. It's been less than seven months since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stripped wolves of federal protection for the first time since 1974. The decision transferred control over the animals to state game agencies in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. But after wolves were allowed to be shot on sight across most of Wyoming -- and all three states began planning public hunts -- U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in July issued an injunction to block the killings. On Tuesday, Molloy went a step further, restoring the animal's endangered status. That means the public dispute over wolves in the Rockies will drag on. Ranchers and state wildlife agencies want hunting allowed to curb the wolves' tendency to prey on livestock. Meanwhile, environmentalists insist the wolf population remains in peril and could crash if the states get their way. Molloy's Tuesday order came at the request of federal biologists who acknowledged they had failed to prove the animal had fully recovered from near-decimation last century....

Memos tell wildlife officials to ignore global-warming impact New legal memos by top Bush administration officials say that the Endangered Species Act can't be used to protect animals and their habitats from climate change by regulating specific sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the cause of global warming. The assessment, outlined in memos sent earlier this month and leaked Tuesday, provides the official legal justification for limiting protections under the Endangered Species Act. One of the memos, from the Interior Department's top lawyer, concluded that emissions of greenhouse gases from any proposed project can't be proved to have an impact on species or habitat, so it isn't necessary for federal agencies to consult with government wildlife experts about the impact of such gases on species as stipulated under the Endangered Species Act. The Oct. 3 memo from Interior Solicitor David Bernhardt to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, which was released Tuesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, concluded that indirect effects on wildlife can't be traced to emissions from any specific source and that cumulative effects "are of no relevance" under the Endangered Species Act. Another document released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an Oct. 10 letter from James Lecky, the director of the National Marine Fisheries Service's Office of Protected Species, agreed with a recent EPA finding that the harm from the greenhouse-gas emissions of a single coal-fired power plant would be so remote that it shouldn't provoke government action. The letter also agreed with the Fish and Wildlife Service, which argued in May, when the Interior Department listed the polar bear as a threatened species, that it wasn't possible to establish a link between a single source of carbon dioxide and specific harmful climate impacts....Go here to read the Solicitor Memo and here to read the NOAA letter.

Forest Service has OSHA violations OSHA found serious safety violations at 10 locations in the Salmon-Challis National Forest and cited the U.S. Forest Service for 51 violations and 77 repeat violations of safety regulations. The violations involved fall hazards, emergency egress design and maintenance, machine guarding, storage of compressed gas cylinders, liquefied petroleum gas, and flammable liquids and electrical hazards. “Federal agencies are required by executive order to comply with OSHA standards and must promptly abate unsafe working conditions,” said Richard S. Terrill, regional administrator for OSHA in Seattle. “These citations put the U.S. Forest Service on notice that improvements need to be made.”....The USFS has 77 repeat violations? Someone needs to cancel their permit.

Shadow looms over solar plan A relative of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and one of his former cabinet secretaries are part of an investment group that could score a lucrative payoff if regulators approve a solar energy complex near the Mojave Desert Preserve. The personal connections have raised questions about possible favorable treatment for a project being touted as a breakthrough in the development of solar power. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is the cousin of first lady Maria Shriver, and former state Environmental Protection Secretary Terry Tamminen were named senior advisers at VantagePoint Venture Partners last year. VantagePoint has a multimillion-dollar stake in BrightSource Energy, which plans to spend up to $2billion to construct solar power plants on nearly six square miles of land along the Nevada border. The project would be the first solar generating station on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property. Companies from Wall Street to Europe are snapping up once-ignored wilderness for energy projects....

Gov calls for revision of federal law Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal is once again calling on federal lawmakers to rework a rule that lets agencies bypass painstaking environmental studies in order to fast-track oil and gas drilling. Freudenthal doesn't want the rule eliminated; he simply wants it revised, said Ryan Lance, the governor's deputy chief of staff. "We're going to be active in making sure this is remedied," Lance said. "We've offered specific language to Congress and the energy companies to change this several times over the last few years." The Government Accountability Office, which is the investigative arm of Congress, sent auditors to Utah last week -- and tentatively plans to have personnel in Wyoming by the end of this month -- to examine the way the BLM has implemented a legal, but relatively new tool to exempt some oil and gas drilling from environmental review. At issue is a version of what's called a "categorical exclusion," which, in this case, allows land managers to skip in-depth environmental reviews for individual oil and gas drilling projects in areas where three wells have already been drilled, and where a previous environmental analysis was conducted within the past five years....

The “Ill Wind” of Government Policy The federal government encourages development in hazard-prone coastal areas by lowering the risks to residents with policies such as subsidized flood insurance. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) charges premiums that are not sufficient to provide a catastrophe reserve for heavier loss years and thus encourages development in hazard-prone areas. When the NFIP was began in 1968, it was intended to guide development away from flood-prone areas, thus reducing federal disaster relief payments arising from loss of life and property. Unfortunately, the program, which has become an “ill wind that blows nobody any good,” promotes the outcome it was meant to prevent by shifting part of the cost of building in hazard-prone areas to citizens at large. Ordinarily, individuals respond to the rising costs associated with storm damage by moving out of harm’s way, if ever so reluctantly. Governmental policy thus increases damage costs from storms by neutralizing the market incentives that encourage a retreat from the sea and discourage excessive building in high risk coastal zones. In addition, state government policies subvert the message of insurance premiums. Wind damage caused by hurricanes (which is not covered by the NFIP) has imposed heavy costs on insurance companies, thus causing insurance premiums to increase. As coastal residents have seen their wind and hail insurance premiums soar, state governments have been pressured to intervene. All Southeastern state governments have created state-run Windstorm Underwriters Associations, called “wind pools,” that offer coverage where private insurance is not available and generally at lower rates than provided by individual insurers. In addition, there are other government policies, such as beach nourishment and the replacement of public infrastructure, that subsidize coastal development. A better approach is to allow market signals such as insurance premiums to encourage property owners to undertake activities to adapt to living in a hazardous area or to avoid building in such areas altogether. As insurance companies increase property insurance premiums in order to pay for increasing damage costs, homeowners will increasingly build more storm resistant homes and look for less risky locations....

Otters return to upper Rio Grande A native has returned home after nearly 60 years. Five river otters – a species once found in streams and rivers throughout New Mexico – were released Tuesday on Taos Pueblo in the water of the Rio Pueblo de Taos. The otters were trapped in Washington state under a reintroduction program that involves the pueblo, the state Department of Game and Fish, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the New Mexico Friends of River Otters, a coalition of citizens, agencies and conservation groups dedicated to bringing otters back to New Mexico. River otters – highly social, playful, semi-aquatic members of the weasel family – are believed to have once inhabited the Gila, upper and middle Rio Grande, Mora, San Juan and Canadian river systems. They were occasionally mentioned in the journals of early settlers, but there have been no confirmed sightings of river otters in the state since 1953. Their disappearance was blamed largely on decades of trapping and habitat loss. A larger release of otters is scheduled on the Upper Rio Grande in November....

Developers and Conservationists Battle Over National Parks In a long-running saga that underscores a broader battle over commercial construction in and around national parks, voters in this tiny community just south of the Grand Canyon have thwarted the latest proposal by hotel developers. Tusayan, with just 500 residents and 174 registered voters, last month narrowly defeated a motion to incorporate as a city, a move that would have given it property-zoning power. The outcome deals a setback to Gruppo Percassi, an Italian developer that long has coveted building permits for ranchland and other property it owns in the area. In 2000, a countywide referendum doomed Percassi's previous project: a $300 million hotel and shopping complex in Tusayan. The tussle near one of the world's natural wonders is likely to continue, and it isn't an isolated conflict. In suburban Philadelphia, conservationists are trying to stop a $250 million museum, conference center and hotel from being built on private land inside Valley Forge National Historical Park, site of George Washington's 1777-78 winter military encampment. Backers of the plan say the complex would be a premier Revolutionary War educational center, while opponents say the location would desecrate the site and result in harmful traffic and pollution. The National Parks Conservation Association, an independent nonprofit group that is leading the opposition at Valley Forge, says a growing number of the 391 U.S. national parks face commercial development threats. Some 4.3 million acres of land inside national parks are privately owned tracts that existed when park boundaries were drawn or expanded....

“Worm Grunters” Collect Bait Worms by Inadvertently Imitating Mole Sounds Worm grunting involves going into the forest, driving a wooden stake into the ground and then rubbing the top of the stake with a long piece of steel called a rooping iron. This makes a peculiar grunting sound that drives nearby earthworms to the surface where they can be easily collected for fish bait. Despite a lot of speculation, worm grunters don’t really know why the technique works. But Catania, an associate professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt who studies moles, thought that the explanation might lie in Darwin’s remark: “It is often said that if the ground is beaten or otherwise made to tremble worms will believe that they are pursued by a mole and leave their burrows.” So this spring he traveled down to Florida and performed a number of experiments to test this hypothesis with the cooperation of veteran worm grunters Gary and Audrey Revell. His conclusion, that the humans are driving the worms to the surface by unknowingly mimicking the sound of digging moles, is reported in the Oct. 14 issue of the Public Library of Science....

Crockett 's grandson no chip off the old block The Oct. 15, 1876, edition of a New Mexico weekly carried a report from Cimarron detailing the death of a Texas outlaw named Davy Crockett. Just a coincidence? That was what everyone thought until Robert Crockett, son of the famous frontiersman and Alamo martyr, came to visit the grave. David Crockett was born in Tennessee 17 years after his legendary grandfather gave his life for the independence of Mexico's northernmost province. He was still just a boy in the 1850s, when his family moved to Texas and settled on a homestead in present-day Hood County that the state set aside for his widowed grandmother. Davy, as the youth was known, struck out on his own in the early 1870s. He wound up in northern New Mexico, where he bought a small cattle ranch east of Cimarron. Bored with the day-to-day drudgery of punching cows, Davy sold the spread, took a room in town and lived off the proceeds. For companionship he chose his former foreman, a no-count sponge named Gus Heffron, who was happy to help his old boss spend his money. Except for the occasional night in the local drunk tank, Davy managed to stay out of serious trouble. Handsome and generous to a fault, he was well-liked by the residents of Cimarron, who were willing to overlook his growing attachment to the bottle. All that changed on the night of Mar. 24, 1876. Davy, in his usual state of intoxication, reached for the door handle to exit a bar at the same exact moment an army cavalryman tried to enter the watering hole. Enraged by the short but spirited tug-of-war, the inebriated Texan pulled his pistol the instant the door flew open and shot the soldier dead. Remembering three other troopers seated at a table behind him, Davy spun around and emptied his six-gun into the trio. He hit all three cavalrymen, fatally wounding two. When the case came to trial six months later, the defendant blamed the triple murder on booze and his bad temper. Had the victims been white, Davy probably would have hanged. But the fact that they were freed slaves made all the difference in the world to the community and the judge, who let the killer off with a $50 fine and court costs. Davy should have thanked his lucky stars and taken the opportunity to turn over a new - and sober - leaf. Instead, he and his drinking buddy Heffron went on a two-week tear....

Rancher remembered as 'courageous'

Memorial services will be 2 p.m. Sunday at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum for Rob Cox, who died Friday, at Mesilla Valley Hospice, after a lengthy illness.

Cremation has taken place. In lieu of flowers, Cox's family requests that memorial donations be made to the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.

For many years, Cox, 86, has been considered the patriarch of White Sands Missile Range. Prior to 1945, his family owned 150,000 acres on the east side of the Organ Mountains. About 90 percent of it was sold the U.S. government and became White Sands Proving Grounds and eventually White Sands Missile Range.

But the family retained the San Augustine ranchhouse it has owned since 1893 and Rob and his wife of 51 years, Murnie Cox, continued to live there.

"He's a man who had everything," said former WSMR spokesman Larry Furrow, who retired earlier this year. "He's the most courageous man I've known, the most honest man I've ever known, and quite simply the finest man I've ever known."

With the Cox ranch house within a quarter-mile of WSMR's main post, Cox frequently attended WSMR events and ceremonies the past 32 years. The most important building at WSMR, it's range control center, is named after Cox's father, W.W. Cox.

"He was quite patriotic," said Mark Cox, son of Rob Cox. "... He always said that selling the land to the government was the right thing to do. He often said that if we hadn't, we could have all ended up speaking German instead."

But Cox, a humble man, was more inclined to let his actions doing his talking. On a cold day in January 1945, 1st. Lt. Cox, as a member of Company A, 18th Tank Battalion, 8th Armored Division, led his platoon of M-4 Sherman Tanks, which he called "the Indians" in honor of his New Mexico heritage, into serious action on the Mosell River near Sinz, France.

Gunfire set the area ablaze and disabled several tanks, including Cox's. Although crew members were injured, Cox took action to protect his infantry coming up from the rear as well as maintain communications with other pined-down tanks.

In knee-deep snow and under fire, Cox ran from one tank to another to ensure communications were maintained. He also pulled an injured tank man to safety.

For gallantry in action during the Battle of the Bulge, Cox was awarded two Silver Stars and a Purple Heart.

But Cox rarely spoke about the military awards and downplayed his heroism.

"He didn't like talking about it," Mark Cox said. "He said medals didn't mean anything to him."

Cox was born in Las Cruces on Feb. 12, 1922 to Jim and Fannie Cox. He grew up at San Augustine Ranch and attended Las Cruces High School, where he was a star athlete, and a member of Las Cruces High's national champion stock judging team.

Steve Ramirez can be reached at sramirez@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5452.

WSMR patriarch

• Name: Robert C. Cox

• Age: 86

• Hometown: Las Cruces

• Family: Wife Marilyn "Murnie," sons Robert, James and Mark. Six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

• Occupation: Cattleman, rancher, cowboy

• Public service: Former Sierra County commissioner, served on the New Mexico Constitutional Convention of 1970.

• Military service: Served with the Army's 8th Armored Division in World War II. Fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded two Silver Star medals for gallantry in action.

• Education: Graduated from Las Cruces High School, where he played sports and was a member of the school's national champion stock judging team. Also graduated from Texas A&M University.

Game and Fish panel reaffirms commitment to wild wolves in Arizona The Arizona Game and Fish Commission voted to continue supporting the state's role in managing the Mexican wolf-recovery program, which has cost some $18 million since its inception 26 years ago. "We absolutely appreciate how expensive this program is," Terry Johnson, the Game and Fish Department's endangered species coordinator, told the commission in a presentation covering the history of the wolf reintroduction and recovery program. Arizona has borne some $4.6 million of that cost - about half of the state's share coming from federal funds. New Mexico, a partner in the wolf-recovery effort, has paid a tenth of that toward wolf recovery - some $540,000. Reintroducing a predator that was wiped out in Arizona has long been a matter of working with people as much as wolves. Environmental groups and ranchers have often clashed over the program's management. The wolf's recovery area is largely in public lands open to grazing. The program is run under the umbrella of the Active Management Oversight Committee, which includes Arizona, New Mexico, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service, the U.S. Wildlife Services and the White Mountain Apache Tribe....

Let wolf leave endangered list The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should appeal last month's court decision placing the gray wolf back on the endangered species list in Wisconsin. The decision, which also affected Minnesota and Michigan, flies in the face of data showing the Wisconsin wolf population is greater than wildlife experts would prefer. The effect is to nullify the states' policies designed to manage the wolf population. In Wisconsin officials were forced to revoke eight permits allowing farmers to shoot wolves attacking livestock. A wolf population that is too large raises the risk of wolf attacks on farmers' valuable livestock. Last year, 30 farms in Wisconsin suffered livestock kills by wolves, according to the Wisconsin Farm Bureau. Wolf attacks, in turn, risk a decline in public support for wolves in Wisconsin. Furthermore, an overpopulation risks disease and starvation for the wolves as well as negative effects on other wildlife....

Washington can’t manage wolves For years humans punished wolves for existing and hunted them to the brink of extinction. Now it is the humans who may be punished because several advocacy groups are insisting that the Great Lakes states be forbidden from reducing their wolf populations. This is an unfortunate idea, and while one can understand the advocacy groups’ goal of making sure wolves have a chance to rebuild their numbers, their procedure is mistaken and will lead to more bitterness about and perhaps harm to the animals they seek to protect. These groups sued to stop a decision by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to remove about 4,000 gray wolves in western Great Lakes states from the federal Endangered Species List. The wolves have reached management goals, and states such as Wisconsin wanted tools to hold their populations in check. Tools means mainly hunting, of course. That’s the same management tool used to stop deer herds from becoming so large that they decimate forests and crops in their quest for food. While we wait for a legal ruling, Wisconsin residents bear the burden of larger wolf packs. Since 1990, 671 animals — cows, horses, dogs, and others — have been killed or injured by wolves in Wisconsin, and since 1985 the state has paid slightly less than half a million dollars in wolf damage claims.....

Every Bug Is Sacred, Every Bug Is Great There used to be a lot more sage grouse in Nevada and our neighboring states to the north and east, 70 years ago. (But not necessarily 170 years ago, interestingly enough.) Then, in the 1960s, those who seek to drive sheep and cattle ranchers off the land got busy, eliminating both ranchers and state predator-control hunters. Populations of coyote, wildcats, crows and ravens skyrocketed. Those animals are predators of the sage grouse – particularly their young and their eggs. Surprise: Sage grouse numbers declined. In 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to recommend the sage grouse for listing as “threatened or endangered,” given that there are still close to 100,000 of them, widely scattered out there. But the Idaho-based radical group known as the Western Watersheds Project sued, arguing that decision was politically motivated. They’re making good headway with U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise, Idaho, who has ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to review its decision. Should the green extremists succeed, public land administrators as well as private developers would have to seek permission from federal biologists, guaranteeing “enough grouse remain and habitat is protected” before they could do … well, anything....

Endangered species ruling could slow development in floodplains A ruling that development along dozens of rivers flowing from the Cascade Mountains to Washington state's Puget Sound jeopardizes endangered salmon, steelhead and killer whales could shape future construction in floodplains nationwide. At the heart of the issue is the National Flood Insurance Program, which for 40 years has regulated river corridor development but paid scant attention to endangered species. That could change. The "jeopardy opinion" from the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle , coupled with an injunction blocking development in Florida that threatens the habitat of the endangered Key Deer, may force major changes in the federal flood insurance program. The fisheries service has suggested a temporary moratorium on building in floodplains surrounding Puget Sound . The timeout would allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency , which administers the flood insurance program, along with state and local jurisdictions, to sort out what, if any, new building restrictions may be required....

Utah governor says state is "open for business' for oil shale development A U.S. Interior Department official Monday defended, and Utah’s governor supported, the federal government’s push to remove regulatory hurdles to commercial oil shale development on public land. Foster Wade, deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals for the Interior Department, and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, spoke at a Colorado School of Mines oil shale symposium attended by some 350 people from around the world. Wade said the Bureau of Land Management’s efforts on oil shale come in response to the gap between the nation’s energy needs and supplies. “We have an energy demand that we are unable to meet at this point in time. We need to be working on all fuel energy in order to try to make up that deficit,” he said. Huntsman said his state holds an estimated 77 billion barrels of recoverable oil shale. A Republican, he urged the Interior Department to move forward with issuing commercial leasing regulations before a new presidential administration takes over in January. “My bottom line to you is, we in our state are open for business” for oil shale development, Huntsman told the symposium audience, which included numerous industry representatives....

Advocates say government should save wild horses Federal agencies should change the way they manage wild horses on public lands to prevent the animals from going extinct in five years, advocates said Monday. Karen Sussman, president of the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros, said the group plans to approach Congress within 30 days to plead for the lives of horses that federal officials are considering euthanizing. Wild horse enthusiasts met in Las Vegas over the weekend to discuss solutions to protect the horses and keep them on public lands. Sussman said the groups will suggest lawmakers redistribute federal money to wild horse programs, return wild horses from federal pens to open land and consolidate federal agencies to free up money for wild horses. The Bureau of Land Management has said it can't afford to keep growing numbers of horses in federal facilities and that budget drain is keeping the agency from other responsibilities. The agency has set a target number of wild horses at 27,000. Last year, about $22 million of the agency's entire wild horse $39 million budget was spent on holding animals in agency pens. Next year, the costs are projected to grow to $26 million with an overall budget that is being trimmed to $37 million....

3 pesticides singled out in report as threat to salmon From Los Angeles to the Canadian border, three pesticides synthesized in the 1950s and '60s are increasing the chance of extinction for more than two dozen imperiled salmon stocks, says a draft study by federal fisheries experts. "Overwhelming evidence" suggests the pesticides are interfering with the ability of salmon to swim, find food, reproduce and escape bigger fish trying to eat them, says the evaluation issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The report came in response to a suit filed by environmentalists in federal court in Seattle, where U.S. District Judge John Coughenour ordered the Fisheries Service to conduct the study. It is intended as advice to the Environmental Protection Agency, which governs use of pesticides. EPA has long allowed use of the pesticides in what the fisheries service now says are applications dangerous to fish. The fish scientists will soon review 34 other, newer pesticides to see how they affect salmon as part of a settlement with environmental groups....

Agriculture, Local Food and Open Space at the New West Conference Preserving agricultural lands and open space in the face of rapid growth is something most people in the Northern Rockies consider vitally important. It’s not always clear how to make that happen - but innovative farmers, ranchers and community planners are finding a variety of new approaches. At the New West conference next week, the session on this topic will feature Bob Quinn, an organic farmer from Big Sandy, who will discuss how he’s built a business based on agricultural strategies and product development that are nothing less than revolutionary; Jim Hagenbarth, whose ranching operations span the Montana - Idaho border near Dillon, who will talk about how he’s making it work in an era when many ranchers feel they have no choice but to sell out; Paul Hubbard, who will show how the Community Food and Agriculture Coalition is supporting local food and farming in Missoula; and Jennifer Zung, a planner from Driggs, Idaho, who will talk about how development and open space can in fact be compatible. The conference, Real Estate and Development in the Northern Rockies, takes place next week, Oct. 23-24 in Missoula....

Food Alliance Issues New, National Standard for Sustainable Sheep and Goat Production Food Alliance, a national non-profit organization offering the most comprehensive third-party certification for sustainable agriculture and food handling practices, today announced new standards for sustainable sheep and goat products. The new national standard creates an opportunity for sheep and goat producers across North America to assure customers of social and environmental responsibility while adding value to their products. The new standard covers a wide variety of animal welfare issues, including: animal health and nutrition; handling practices and facilities; pasture management; nutrient management; pest and weed management; and hazard reduction and sanitation. The standards do not permit the use of hormone treatments, non-therapeutic antibiotics, genetic modification, embryo transfer or cloning. In addition, feeds may not contain animal by-products of any kind, with the exception of milk or milk products such as whey....

Two Texas Horses Test Positive For EEE Texas has joined at least five other states this year in reporting cases of Eastern Equine Encephalitis infection in horses. In Houston County, in the southeast corner of the state, a horse with clinical illness has tested positive for the disease, and in the north central Texas, in Denton County, a vaccinated horse also tested positive and exhibited clinical signs of disease. EEE, which can be transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes, also has been reported this year in horses in Georgia, Florida, Maine, Tennessee, and New Hampshire­ and in Ontario, Canada. "Infected horses are a ‘sentinel’ or warning that infected mosquitoes are in the area, and measures should be taken to protect humans against exposure to the dangerous pests,” said Dr. Andy Schwartz, state epidemiologist for the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), the state’s livestock and poultry health regulatory agency. “Protect yourself and your horses with a mosquito spray containing DEET, get rid of stagnant water, and avoid being outside at night, when mosquitoes are more active.” “Vaccines are readily available to protect equine animals against mosquito-borne encephalitic diseases, but they must be given according to the manufacturer’s" directions, and it takes at least a week to 10 days after vaccination for protective antibodies to develop. Booster shots also must be given as needed....

Surviving Geronimo's Raiders Long a sanctuary for people and animals seeking to escape scrutiny, the VO Slash Ranch near Nogales in southeastern Arizona is home to a third-generation ranch family that works to preserve its heritage, the environment and rare species. Located just north of the U.S. border with Mexico, the ranch has a cross-border history and managing it today still comes with many challenges. Just after Geronimo and his men surrendered to Gen. George Crook and the U.S. Cavalry in March 1886, Geronimo had a change of heart. He and his raiders roamed across this portion of the Southwest, attacking and killing Petra Peck and her baby, before taking a young relative, Trini Verdin, as a captive on April 27. They murdered a neighbor and wounded Arthur Peck. But Arthur, who then owned the VO Slash Ranch (now part of the ZZ Cattle Corporation operated by the Bells), escaped the attack and made it home. He found his wife and child dead, and Trini missing; she was later rescued by Mexican military. In spite of his personal losses, Peck held on to the land until it was eventually absorbed by the holdings of Thomas Graham Bell, who bought an adjoining place in 1938. Soon after obtaining the property, Thomas and June Bell hired Louis Hall, a new architect trained at the University of Arizona, to build a mission-style headquarters with a unique bell tower. The doors and gates around the house feature handcrafted metalwork forged by a railroad blacksmith who earned his pay in bottles of whiskey. The bell tower, above the cedar-lined office at headquarters, was most likely inspired by June, who liked to collect bells....

Army: Facilities can handle 6,700 more soldiers The Army issued a report Friday that Fort Carson and its Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site can handle an extra 6,700 soldiers, but just barely. Ranchers say the report bolsters opposition to the Pinon expansion. On Friday, the Army released its environmental impact statement on how Fort Carson and Pinon Canyon will accommodate the extra 6,700 troops. A similar plan for the 11,400 troops was approved last year. ‘‘The Army’s position is that the present facilities . . . marginally provide sufficient land to train assigned soldiers and units adequately,’’ according to the environmental impact statement. Lon Robertson, a Kim-area rancher and president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, said Friday that the Army's statement is what area ranchers have been saying all along. "We have been saying that the Army is not using what it has. Hopefully the current economic crisis has got somebody thinking a little bit about what they are doing with our dollars," Robertson said. "This (expansion) is something the government does not need to spend money on. It's obviously not needed if they are saying they have room now. It goes to show that we have to keep our guard up and keep after them. We are not going to slow down at all." Robertson said the latest news from the Army doesn't mean ranchers are out of the woods just yet. "We are not breathing a sigh of relief. I think this is just one more example we can use to put out in front of people saying that there doesn't need to be an expansion," Robertson said....

Anti-grazing activists take on BLM The Bureau of Land Management's proposal for long-term management of its land in southwest Wyoming has prompted plenty of debate over how much oil and gas drilling should be allowed. But one group protesting the plan isn't concerned about energy development. The Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project says the BLM plans for both the Pinedale and Kemmerer areas lack sufficient study about the negative affects of livestock grazing on the ecosystem. "Our angle is to speak up for the soil, the plants, the watershed function, the sage grouse, the mule deer, the kinds of things that can't speak up for themselves basically," Jonathon Ratner, director of the Wyoming office of the Western Watersheds Project, said in a telephone interview from Pinedale. In response, ranching representatives say modern grazing practices actually enhance the ecosystem. Ratner said the organization will be contesting about two dozen similar BLM plans in Utah, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Oregon on the livestock issue....

Nevada sues over radiation limit It was back to court for Nevada on Friday when Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto filed a federal lawsuit asking judges to throw out new radiation limits for the Yucca Mountain Project. The radiation exposure standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency will fail to protect Nevadans "from cancer-causing radioactive contamination" if nuclear waste is buried at the site, Cortez Masto said. Nevada's official position has been to fight the politically unpopular Yucca project at every turn. It was widely expected that state officials would return to court to challenge the latest EPA regulation that was issued on Sept. 30. Over time Nevada has filed nine lawsuits against the proposed repository. Most elected officials say they believe it will put residents at risk of transportation accidents and harm the public perception of the state, and also create health and safety uncertainties affecting future generations....

Two decades later, how we got here During the 1950s, Congress enticed private utilities to build nuclear reactors in part by agreeing to take on the liability for large accidents at power plant sites, a guarantee no private insurance company would provide. The federal government also signed agreements with utilities to store their radioactive waste permanently, in part because of concerns it would fall into the wrong hands and be used to make nuclear weapons. The Energy Department was to take possession of the waste by 1998. The nuclear power industry took off in the 1960s and 1970s. New power plants across the country churned out waste that they stored on site, waiting for the government to take possession. Toward that end, Congress approved The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, ordering the Energy Department to select at least five storage sites for analysis. By 1983, the department had nine sites in six states on its short list. Then the landscape changed. By 1987, the department was considering just three sites, one in Texas, another in Washington, the third at Yucca Mountain....

US House panel's minority report disputes majority's findings The US House Natural Resources Committee's minority staff released its own report on Oct. 9 challenging one which the majority staff issued 6 months ago that has been the basis of many 2008 Democratic candidates' energy stands. The new report, "Drilling for Truth and Coming Up Empty," highlights major flaws and inaccuracies in the committee majority staff's document which Democrats from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) to presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) have cited, according to Rep. Don Young (R-Alas.), the NRC's ranking minority member. Young said the report shows that more domestic drilling yields more domestic resources, that the federal government profits from high oil and gas prices, that drilling for more domestic oil and gas will help lower prices and reduce US dependence on imports, and that only 4% of the total 2.46 billion-acre federal mineral estate is leased for oil and gas exploration and development....

BLM rejects House Resources Committee Grand Canyon hardrock mining ban The Bureau of Land Management has published a proposed rule which rejects the House Natural Resources Emergency House Resolution enacted in June that bans uranium mining and exploration near the Grand Canyon National Park. The agency argues that the BLM "continues to believe the emergency procedure to be unnecessary. Like a withdrawal, segregation removes the lands from the operation of the public land laws, including the mining laws." "Contrary to its implication, the procedures for issuing an emergency withdrawal order do not result in the protection of public lands more rapidly than the completion of a more conventional withdrawal process. Conventional withdrawals of public lands, as necessary and appropriate, will continue." The proposed BLM rule published Friday in the Federal Register would remove regulations that provide for emergency land withdrawals, such as the one utilized by the House Natural Resources Committee ordering the Secretary of the Interior to withdraw as much as 1,068,908 acres of federal land near the Grand Canyon National Park from any new uranium mining for up to the next three years....

Investigators raise flags over road deal A controversial deal between the federal government and the nation's largest private landowner could increase residential development of forests around the country, according to Congressional investigators. The proposed agreement between the Forest Service and Plum Creek Timber Co. would allow the company to use roads on national forests in Montana to develop its adjacent private property for subdivisions. Such easements often only allow the company to use public roads for logging or forest management. The General Accountability Office, in a letter sent Friday to the two Democratic Senators who requested an investigation, said the deal could set a precedent and allow other private landowners to use forest roads to build subdivisions. The private negotiations deprived the public of any chance to weigh in, investigators said. "This report sounds all sorts of alarms about the way the Forest Service is doing business," said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who asked for the probe along with Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M....

Wild horse advocates to meet with BLM Instead of gathering free-roaming wild horses in Southern Nevada this weekend, Bureau of Land Management officials will attend a gathering of wild horse advocates to discuss what can be done to keep horses and burros crowding Western ranges from being killed by lethal injections. That's what will probably happen, a BLM spokesman said, if the herds can't be kept in balance with the environment where they live while costly facilities to hold those captured are at capacity and adoption outlets are saturated. "Because we have the legal authority to euthanize excess horses and burros, we're saying we have to consider these alternatives because there is no indication our budget is going to go up in any substantial degree," said Tom Gorey, the BLM's spokesman in Washington, D.C., on wild horse issues. He said nearly 74,000 horses were taken off ranges in 10 Western states between 2001 and 2007. Some 44,000 have been adopted out, leaving about 30,000 in short-term and long-term holding facilities. Government cowboys have left 29,500 free-roaming wild horses on the ranges along with 3,500 wild burros. About half those animals, roughly 16,000, are in Nevada....

3 BLM workers held at gunpoint at Nev. pot patch Three federal biologists were held at gunpoint for several minutes by suspected members of a Mexican drug cartel after happening upon a large marijuana patch in a remote stretch of public land in northern Nevada, authorities said Friday. The men, conducting research for the Bureau of Land Management, were released unharmed after being held by three men Tuesday afternoon in the high desert about 200 miles northeast of Reno, near Winnemucca, said JoLynn Worley, an agency spokeswoman. Law enforcers returned to the scene Wednesday and found that the suspects had fled, leaving behind a makeshift camp indicating that as many as six people were involved. Authorities confiscated nearly 800 mature marijuana plants with an estimated wholesale value of $5 million, as well as about 150 pounds of processed buds, BLM officials said....Do you reckon the growers had complied with NEPA?

Second annual Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival planned When you think of environmentalism, do you envision granola bars, tree huggers and, more recently, owners of hybrid or electric vehicles? If so, you might be surprised to see the changing face of sustainability enthusiasts: ranchers protecting rare fish species, city dwellers participating in local sustainable agriculture, and even kids speaking out on the issues that are important to them. The Wild and Scenic Film Festival on tour will share these groundbreaking stories and encourage our community’s participation in other regional and global conservation movements. The second Annual Wild and Scenic Film Festival, presented on Saturday, Oct. 18, by Patagonia and hosted by Tuleyome and the Sierra Club Yolano Group, brings together award-winning environmental short films in a spirit of inspiration and education....

Legend hangs a sale sign After 40 years of working his Woody Creek ranch, George Stranahan is hanging up the shovel to tell stories. The 76-year-old heir to the Champ ion spark plug fortune has listed the 245-acre Flying Dog Ranch for $56 million. The Flying Dog Ranch, adjacent to the 2.3 million-acre White River National Forest, is among the last remaining undeveloped ranches in the Aspen area, said Ed Zasacky, managing broker of Aspen Sotheby's International Realty who is listing the property. While the ranch has been subdivided into four parcels, Zasacky said the property will be sold in its entirety. "We want to give the eventual buyer all the options possible," he said. "We don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot." Two of the parcels have conservation easements, but allow barns to be built. The other two parcels allow homes to be built on them. Zasacky is marketing the property internationally through the Sotheby's website, the company's Reside Magazine and local real estate agents....

Will Animal Biotech Bring Home the Bacon? An F.D.A. policy published for public comment on September 18 threatens the health of a promising new field: the production of animals with novel and valuable traits. After more than 20 years of deliberation, the F.D.A.'s Center for Veterinary Medicine has proposed that every "transgenic" animal crafted with gene-splicing technology will be subject to the procedures and regulations for drugs used to treat animal diseases, such as pain relievers or anti-flea medicines. But the introduction of a gene is not the same as the administration of a drug. Moreover, the F.D.A.'s approach represents a major shift in the regulation of biotechnology that will be hugely expensive to animal breeders and detrimental to consumers. What kinds of animals are we talking about? One that has been awaiting an F.D.A. policy for almost a decade is an Atlantic salmon that contains a newly introduced Chinook salmon growth hormone gene that remains turned on all year round (instead of during only the warmer months, as in nature). This cuts the time to marketable adult weight from 30 months to 18. The extra gene confers no detectable differences in the salmon's appearance, taste, or nutritional value; it just grows faster. There are numerous other applications in various stages of R&D, including livestock with leaner muscle mass, enhanced resistance to disease, or improved use of dietary phosphorous to lessen the environmental impacts of animal manure. Up till now, the F.D.A. has not regulated new lines of farm animals or, for that matter, animals used for what might be termed "medical purposes."....

Rabbi Alleges PETA Threat Over Chicken Ritual New York City police are investigating a rabbi's complaint that threatening e-mails were sent in connection with the slaughter of chickens to atone for sins before Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Rabbi Shea Hecht of the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education says the e-mails were sent by supporters of a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals campaign opposing the ritual, known as kapparot. He says some people added threatening and anti-Semitic comments to an online PETA form letter. The Brooklyn-based Jewish organization slaughters about 4,000 chickens. A PETA spokesman says the ritual is abusive and unnecessary.

Many going to the country for 'haycation' The setting sun gilds the blond grasses covering the rolling hills of western Marin County, Calif. I am sitting on the front porch of the bunkhouse at Cow Track Ranch, rocking in a rickety yet comfortable chair and looking out at a herd of 160 Black Angus beef cattle. They are milling and mooing outside their barn, anticipating the evening feed. A horse watches me from an adjacent pasture. The earthy scents of grass and animal blend with the smells of ripening tomatoes, lavender, garlic and parsley growing in a garden just a few feet from my feet. I'm only 20 minutes from downtown San Rafael, yet I'm in the heart of the country, reveling in a pastoral scene so timeless it's like being inside a Grant Wood painting. Call them haycations: It's a chance to spend a night or two on a working farm or ranch and enjoy the comforts of an inn or guest home while you learn about your hosts' approach to agriculture. Traditionally, they're known as farm stays. "People are looking for authenticity in their vacations today," says Sonoma County rancher Alexa Wood, who runs Beltane Ranch in Glen Ellen with her mother and her daughter. The ranch also has a bed-and-breakfast inn....

Western legend won't die Bob King's Cowboy School refuses to let people forget about a simpler way of life. When people type "rancher" into Google, they come up with about 6.4 million hits. When they type "rodeo," they get about 42 million. But when they type in "cowboy," almost 95 million hits return, an ironic fate for a once solitary fellow. For years, Wyoming has profited from perpetuating its image as the "Cowboy State." Yet we rarely consider the mechanics of being a cowboy - we simply latch onto a feeling. King retools that feeling. Based in Arvada for a portion of the year, King and his wife, Betty, teach students the basic of cowboy - the verb. They teach horsemanship in its "natural" form, roping technique and ranch basics. Their students include a wide array of characters: from a high--powered CEO, to the ranch hand who wants to learn to rope, to a humble journalist. Anyone who longs to learn is welcome....

Making the desert bloom, 100 years ago Today, we take the crops rising from the arid Snake River Plain for granted, but it wasn't always so. The antiquated flume, or what's left of it, was part of an ambitious plan to make the desert bloom without using a drop of Snake River water. The first settlers staked their claims to the land it would transform 100 years ago Sunday. They came from states across the country on Oct. 12, 1908 in hopes of having their names drawn from a barrel for a chance to own a piece of the land that would be watered by the new King Hill Irrigation and Power Co. None were famous, and many of their stories are forgotten, but they helped shape what became their part of Idaho. The new life for the 306 settlers had its beginnings a decade earlier, with a plan to bring water from the Malad River to the King Hill, Glenns Ferry and Hammett areas. The Snake was closer, but diverting Snake River water would have been expensive, and pumps that could lift it to where it was needed were yet to be invented. The plan called for building a siphon suspended on a trestle above the Snake River. Water from the Malad River would cross over the Snake through the siphon and flow over 20 miles through a canal-and flume-system. Conceived in the 1890s, the idea evolved over a succession of backers, competitors and modifications before the first water was delivered in 1909....

New Mexico's Ojo Caliente resort is steeped in history The greatest treasure that I found these strange people to possess are some hot springs which burst out at the foot of a mountain . . . so powerful are the chemicals contained in this water that the inhabitants have a belief that they were given to them by their gods. These springs I have named Ojo Caliente." — Cabeza de Vaca, 16th-century Spanish explorer. Situated on a 1,000-acre land grant ceded by Spain to Antonio Joseph, New Mexico’s first territorial representative to Congress, Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs Resort & Spa is surrounded by natural geologic features and history reflecting thousands of years of human presence. Long before the Spaniards discovered these springs, the waters at Ojo Caliente — with their remarkable combination of arsenic, iron, soda and lithium — have been erupting from the earth. A favorite of locals, these springs have special meaning for the descendants of those who inhabited the Ojo Caliente drainage from the late 1300s until the early 1500s....

Cowboy slapstick is alive and well
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Julie Carter

Always a helpful bunch, the friends of cowboys will go to great lengths to "be there for you," especially if it provides them entertainment in the process.

Dan the Team Roper's recent situation made public, the one where he was looking for a fuller-figured gal to keep him warm this winter at his drafty trailer house, spawned, at his expense, a landslide of "fun" in Comanche, Texas.

"Oh my Lord," he said, "The hunt just got started to find me a meaty woman. The search seems to involve many."

That very morning he walked into his job at the farm implement and feed store and found, taped to the coffee pot, one of those photos that circulated the Internet.

It involved a considerably oversized gal who was unable to locate her little Chihuahua dog, that could only be seen if you were standing behind her.

Dan played dumb and acted like he didn't "get it," knowing full well the boys had read the story that very morning.

As the farmers began arriving to drink coffee and harass Dan, they began helping out in a number of ways.

One even offered his "fat wife for the winter." Dan kindly declined.

An email from roping buddy Blonde Sally offered to guide Dan in "broadening his horizons" with this woman search.

She had set him up an appointment for a Brazilian bikini wax. Dan was not quite sure what all that involved, but he was absolutely certain he didn't want any part of it.

Prior to this day, it had been raining for weeks and feed sales had been bottoming out.

Folks, in their eternal rural optimism, knew they didn't need and weren't going to need feed because a growth of new grass was most certainly on the way.

However, before 9:30 that morning, 64 bags of feed had been sold as it gave folks a reason to be at the store.

Stories beget stories. And so, Dan began telling a few more.

He launched into the tale of his honeymoon with his first ex-wife.

He had taken her to a farm auction in the Panhandle so he could buy a grain drill.

He regaled the coffee pot bunch with details of the adventure.

He told them that his blue heeler dog had hidden under the toolbox in the bed of the pickup and ended up going with them on the honeymoon.

Then the pooch proceeded to bite some guy at the motel in Plainview.

To top off the eventful trip, Dan said he ran over a parked Volkswagon in the motel lot in Lubbock.

"It was a very long two days and a large combo supper at Whataburger did nothing to soothe the situation. But I did get the grain drill home safe," he said.

Dan recalled that he didn't even really know she was mad about it all until seven months later when she made him go to counseling with her.

There he found out she had wanted to go to Cancun.

"What? And miss all this fun?" he asked.

The marriage didn't last long after that.

This story came on the heels of another roper celebrating his 30-something wedding anniversary by buying his bride eight new Corriente roping steers.

"Well, I guess it is his anniversary, too," she chuckled.

In the meantime, Dan is extremely happy.

Some guy wandered into the store and asked for his recipe for Tater Tot Casserole.

The recent culinary notoriety has moved Dan to take his cooking quite seriously.

Two days ago, he upgraded his kitchenwares with a crock-pot. Proudly he announced that it even came with a lid.

It's The Pitts: Goin’ Into Town

If I were to make a list of my all-time favorite people NOT to get behind in the grocery check out line that list would include:

#1- The unmarried lady who crowds in front of you with ten kids and then buys cola, candy and chips with food stamps. #2- The lawyer who complains to the checker about the rising cost of foreign cheese, as if the clerk was the one who raised the price. #3- The lonely lady who lives alone and views grocery shopping as a social occasion. While she tells the checker about her arthritis I am standing there holding a freezing carton of ice cream. #4- The shopper who remembers she forgot her checkbook after the checker has rung up $250 worth of groceries. #5-The consumer who asks if she can go ahead of you in the check out line because she only has a few items. And then she pays for them with coins from her piggy bank... one penny at a time. And finally #7- the ranch wife.

Just last week I arrived at the checkstand at the exact moment as the ranch wife with three overflowing carts. She offered to let me go first but she had three little kids that desperately needed to get out of that store. Those little darlings had already destroyed the Twinkie display and were working on a pyramid of canned goods. By letting her go first I was a big hit with the store management.

While in line I took a quick assessment of the ranch family's provisions and counted 14 cases of beer, 6 cartons of cigarettes, 4 bags of disposable diapers, 150 pounds of dog food and a case of motor oil. And that was just the first cart. The seasoned grocery checker had immediately recognized the shopper and tried to fake a sudden illness before checking her out, but it didn't work. She was the only one on duty as the grocery baggers and management were hiding in the back room. "Doing your monthly shopping I see?" asked the checker, resigned to her task.

"Yes, my husband made me do it," replied the ranch wife. "We live two hours out of town on a ranch so I only get to shop once a month. And for the trip into town my husband makes me take the flat bed truck and our three kids along. Have you ever tried keeping 22 bags of groceries balanced on a flat bed over 50 miles of dirt road with three kids screaming in your ear?"

"Can't say that I have," replied the compassionate checker. "It must be difficult shopping for a month at a time. What do you do for milk and vegetables?"

"My husband forces me to grow a garden and milk a cow twice a day," said the ranch wife. "Everything else we buy in bulk once a month."

As the checker strained to pick up a case of soup and a gallon of whiskey she asked, "I suppose eating out at a nice restaurant is out of the question?"

“What’s a restaurant?” answered the ranch wife, and I don’t know if she was kidding or not.

The checker chuckled and then asked, "What do you do if you forget something on your shopping list?"

"We do without. I'll never forget that month I forgot the Right Guard."

“Who could forget that?" said the checker as she rang up a gallon of ketchup and four dozen eggs. "These sure are good looking grapes you bought."

"Oh yes, my husband just loves grapes and we can't grow them in the garden. He'll probably kill me but I just couldn't resist buying those grapes for him. By the way, do you know if those grapes have been sprayed with any kind of poison?"

"I don't think so dear," said the checker sympathetically. "But I think you can buy some over at the hardware store."

Oil Companies Could Be Funding Mystery Account for Pan Am 103 Victims A senior Bush administration official Thursday left open the possibility that American and other oil companies who want to do business with Muammar el-Qaddafi are secretly paying off his debt to victims of the Pan Am 103 and Labelle discotheque bombings. The Bush administration, pressured by Congress, has made full satisfaction of the $1.5 billion debt a prerequisite for restoring full diplomatic and commercial relations with Libya, which renounced its pursuit of nuclear weapons in 2003. The payments were supposed to be completed in September, but a first installment arrived "just ... overnight," David C. Welch, Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, said during a hastily arranged telephone conference Thursday with reporters. Welch would not say how much was paid, who it came from, where it was deposited, or when the balance would be forthcoming....

Scientists question terrorist-hunting techniques Two methods the federal government wants to use to find terrorists -- "data mining" and "behavior detection" -- are dubious scientifically and have "enormous potential" for infringing on law-abiding Americans' privacy, a consortium of scientists said. Data mining involves searching databases for suspicious and revealing relationships and patterns. But while the technique is useful in commercial settings to detect credit card fraud, it is questionable whether data mining can detect and pre-empt terrorist attacks, the National Research Council said. Behavior detection, used by the Transportation Security Administration and some police departments to isolate possible criminals from crowds, likewise falls short of meeting scientific standards, the group said. "There is not a consensus within the relevant scientific community" that behavior detection is "ready for use ... given the present state of the science," the group said. The group cautioned that "inappropriate ... responses to the terrorist threat ... can do more damage to the fabric of society than terrorists would be likely to do." The 352-page report by the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, does not evaluate the TSA or any other specific government program. Instead, it explores issues related to data mining and behavior detection techniques and attempts to advise lawmakers how to appropriately balance security with privacy....

Judge approves ACLU lawsuit against ATF ACLU Director of Communications Brandon Hensler says the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida received an early victory today when Senior Federal Judge Lacey A. Collier denied the ATF’s motions for summary judgment in Kilpatrick v. U.S. The ACLU filed the case on April 18, 2006, on behalf of Karen J. Kilpatrick, who claimed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) violated her Free Speech rights. Kilpatrick was driving her blue van in Pensacola on April 19, 2004, with the slogans “Remember the Children of Waco” and “Boo ATF” written on some of the windows when she was pulled over by police for questioning by the ATF. The ACLU argues in the lawsuit that her First Amendment Rights to Free Speech and her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure were violated when officers detained her for an hour, searched her car without consent, and ordered her to remove the writing on the side of her van. “The ATF’s actions were unconstitutional and there was no legal justification to stop and question Ms. Kilpatrick. We believe that the ATF was trying to silence Ms. Kilpatrick and the 911 call substantiates this position,” said Bert Oram, ACLU cooperating counsel....

SAF Settles New Orleans Lawsuit The Second Amendment Foundation has reached an agreement with the City of New Orleans in a 2005 federal lawsuit that stopped the city from seizing firearms in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The landmark lawsuit, a joint effort by SAF and the National Rifle Association, was filed in September 2005 after police and National Guardsmen began confiscating firearms without warrant or probable cause from citizens who were not suspected of committing any crimes. Under terms of the settlement, which now awaits a judge's signature, the city must try to return all firearms that were seized. Gun owners will be notified by mail within 30 days of the court's approval that they can retrieve their guns. "While we are delighted that this case is now settled," said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb, "it should never have been necessary. When a disaster strikes, no government entity or official should arbitrarily decide that citizens must be disarmed and left defenseless, and that is what happened in New Orleans....

Md. Police Put Activists' Names On Terror Lists The Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their names and personal information into state and federal databases that track terrorism suspects, the state police chief acknowledged yesterday. Police Superintendent Terrence B. Sheridan revealed at a legislative hearing that the surveillance operation, which targeted opponents of the death penalty and the Iraq war, was far more extensive than was known when its existence was disclosed in July. The department started sending letters of notification Saturday to the activists, inviting them to review their files before they are purged from the databases, Sheridan said. "The names don't belong in there," he told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. "It's as simple as that."....