NFI - An Open Letter to Journalists

Some good examples on how special interest groups and the compliant media distort science. Also a good example on how one organization combats the distortions.

An Open Letter to Journalists from the Seafood Community on
Errors and Distortions in News Coverage

Over the last several years, the public has been hearing false messages about mercury levels in fish communicated through the mass media. These messages largely come from environmental groups pressing for stronger mercury emission standards and falsely claim women of childbearing age may have unsafe levels of mercury in their blood, putting their unborn babies and young children are at risk for neurological impairment. At the National Fisheries Institute (NFI), we agree discussions about eating fish should be central to our national discourse on nutrition. However, the way this subject is being covered raises troubling issues about the objectivity, accuracy, balance and sourcing of this specialized nutrition issue.

What's worse, it's not just journalism standards that have suffered - there is disturbing evidence that readers and viewers are acting on the distorted information in ways that are harmful to their health. Here are just a few examples of how the news media has played into the hands of agenda-driven environmental activists and presented distorted reporting as fact:

* In November 2007, USA Today's Larry Wheeler wrote: "As many as 600,000 babies may be born in the USA each year with irreversible brain damage because pregnant mothers ate mercury-contaminated fish, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says." What Wheeler failed to mention was that EPA never made that claim, but that it was simply an extrapolation made by an agency employee whose questionable methodology and conclusions have been challenged by other scientists. A correction soon followed. Further, Wheeler made the above assertion despite the fact that science shows mothers who eat the most fish have babies with the highest cognitive outcomes.

* In January 2008, New York Times reporter Marian Burros conducted her own analysis of mercury in sushi that included remarkably similar methodology and conclusions to a report from environmental activist group Oceana that was released on the very same day her story was printed. Burros' story contained multiple errors, distortions and omissions; most critically, misinterpretations of the EPA "reference dose" and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) "action level" for mercury, ignoring the fact that both standards contain a ten-fold cushion of safety. The paper's public editor was forced to admit that the story "required careful judgment ... and missed." He added: "I thought the package was less balanced than it should have been, given the state of existing research. James Gorman, an editor in the science department who reviewed the article before publication, said he had raised several specific questions but that in retrospect, ‘I should have raised more questions about the general presentation.'"

* In many cases, reporters will uncritically pass along charges from activists, yet at the same time apply great skepticism to experts, including independent scientists, who take a pro-seafood stance. In July 2008, the Winston-Salem Journal reported on a study that questioned the health benefits of tilapia. Reporter Richard Craver claimed NFI officials took issue with the research "because of its potential for affecting sales." However, no official with or employee of NFI ever made such a statement and the assertion itself is false. Craver went on to write that NFI issued a public letter criticizing the tilapia related research, when in fact the letter was from 16 independent, international scientists. In response, the paper was forced to issue a correction on both points.

* The wild stocks of Alaska pollock are generally acknowledged to be some of the best managed in the world. Despite this, in October 2008, Reuters reporter Jasmin Melvin passed along a report from Greenpeace that Alaska pollock was on the verge of collapse. The Greenpeace report was based on its own incomplete analysis of the National Marine Fisheries Service's stock survey. What Greenpeace didn't say in its press release was that due to lower water temperatures, much of the Pollock had been driven to a lower ocean depth. The complete analysis found the bulk of the stock closer to the bottom of the ocean, a phenomenon that has been common in recent years. When confronted with the error by NFI, Reuters initially refused to acknowledge the additional information, but eventually relented, moving an updated story on its wires.

* In January 2009, an Associated Press article on tuna and mercury included the erroneous claim that the EPA and FDA advise women who are pregnant or may become pregnant, nursing mothers and young children to avoid eating tuna because of its "high levels of mercury that can cause brain damage in babies," - a demonstrable falsehood. In the very first paragraph of the federal seafood consumption advice it is clearly stated, "women and young children in particular should include fish or shellfish in their diets due to the many nutritional benefits." The advice then urges this sensitive subpopulation to avoid just four fish during pregnancy: shark, tilefish, swordfish, and king mackerel. Tuna is not included on the list of 4 species to avoid. The advice clearly states that it is safe and healthful for women and children to eat 12 ounces of light tuna per week or 6 ounces of white albacore per week. When confronted with the error, the AP was forced to issue a correction.

* At times, it can be hard to tell the difference between a press release from an environmental activist and what passes as mainstream reporting. One such example is the work of Michael Hawthorne, a reporter at the Chicago Tribune who has regularly conflated industrial emissions of mercury with traces of mercury in commercial seafood. Most recently, Hawthorne's reporting has mischaracterized the latest science used by FDA to illustrate the overwhelming benefits of eating more seafood for optimal brain and heart health as a last-minute attempt by the Bush Administration to foil the efforts of EPA and environmental activists, rather than what it was - the culmination of years of scientific study and research.

* Another example of a reporter repeating activist charges about tuna and mercury came in February 2009, when an AP report concerning international efforts to stem mercury emissions from industrial sources contained claims that tuna is regularly contaminated with industrial mercury. Peer-reviewed science shows the vast majority of the mercury that accumulates in commercial seafood is produced by underwater volcanic activity - a critical piece of science that was recently the centerpiece of a court case rejecting an appeal by the State of California that would have required tuna to carry warning labels under the state's Prop. 65 statute. The California courts ruled against the State Attorney General for the second time on the grounds that traces of "methylmercury in tuna is naturally occurring." In a subsequent communication with NFI, AP refused to issue a correction, even as they agreed that activists may be "targeting" canned tuna as part of their larger efforts.

* Most recently, America's top fashion magazine, Vogue, showed why it shouldn't stray too far from its primary area of expertise when it ran a feature on fish consumption and mercury. Entitled, "Mercury Rising," the story was written by sometime Hollywood screenwriter Bronwyn Garrity, who admits a "Google-fueled freakout" spurred fears that generated the story rather than discussions with her own doctor or other health experts. Besides relying almost exclusively on activist sources like Oceana and the Environmental Defense Fund, Garrity, while interviewing an official of the EPA, neglected to consult an official of the FDA, the government agency responsible for dispensing nutritional advice to Americans. She also failed to mention the new, landmark FDA draft report on fish consumption that reported cognitive benefits for 99.9% of babies and young children, as well as its role in preventing 50,000 deaths a year from heart disease and stroke. Also ignored: years of positive studies and reports on the benefits of increased fish consumption by The Lancet, the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Institute of Medicine.

Readers and viewers deserve the truth. When activists are cherry picking science or not using science at all to meet their rhetorical needs, they should be exposed, not showcased.

Contrary to some reports in the activist press, NFI wants an open dialogue with journalists. We believe such a dialogue will support the balanced and objective reporting that journalists seek generally and is particularly important when informing the public about their diet and health. Despite these past errors, allow us to offer some specifics and a few suggestions when approaching coverage about the seafood industry:

* Reporters should seek out opposing views when an issue is in dispute. Failing to contact independent scientists and/or subject experts from the seafood community to respond to unproven claims of the activist community should be seen as what it is, a basic violation of American journalism standards;

* Despite being advised on multiple occasions, reporters continue to make the same mistakes about fish consumption and mercury. Below, find a table that contains the most common mistakes journalists make when reporting about fish consumption and mercury:


Distortion


Straight Fact

Representing the EPA's "reference dose" as a per piece of fish limit or a per meal maximum. And characterizing the FDA's "action level" as a number above which harm to consumers will occur.


The "reference dose" refers to mercury consumption determined to have no negative effects over the course of a lifetime. Exceeding these safety measures does not indicate harm; both safety measures offer protection at levels 10 times or 1000% higher than the federal limits.

Conflating industrial emissions of mercury with mercury that naturally occurs in the ocean.


The vast majority of mercury found in the ocean and ocean fish are the result of underwater volcanic activity and thermal vent releases.

Misrepresenting FDA guidance on seafood consumption as being applied to the general population.


The current advice is exclusively for pregnant or nursing women, women who want to become pregnant and young children only. Pregnant women are eating less than 2 ounces of seafood weekly versus the 12 ounces recommended for optimum fetal brain and eye development.

Suggesting that the type and amount of mercury found in commercial seafood introduces a neurotoxin that is casing harm.


The amount of mercury equated with overt brain damage has only been seen in industrial accidents and poisonings and not in normal fish consumption. The levels present in those instances are on a scale dramatically different than the levels seen in commercial seafood. Research shows missing out on the omega-3 and other nutrients in fish is a bigger risk to brain development than trace amounts of mercury.

Citing tuna as a fish to avoid during pregnancy.


The FDA guidance recommends pregnant women avoid only four species during pregnancy: shark, swordfish, tilefish and king mackerel.

Sourcing the EPA in stories about eating seafood almost exclusive of comment from the FDA.


FDA has the statutory responsibility for commercial fish and the expertise to give nutritional advice.

Consumers need to choose their fish carefully and avoid high mercury fish.


Pregnant and nursing women, women who want to become pregnant, and young children are the only group guidance exists. For them, there are only four species they are asked to avoid. No restrictions exist for anyone else. The ten most commonly eaten fish in the U.S. represent 90% of the fish Americans eat and all are naturally low in mercury.

Stores should post mercury warning signs.


Studies suggest signs have a negative impact on pregnant women and consumers broadly because consumers may react by reducing or eliminating fish from their diet. FDA believes that seafood advice should be discussed with the targeted population for whom it is intended via physicians.



* Reporters need to know that the independent scientific community has reached a consensus on the clear and significant net benefits of eating fish for prevention of stroke, sudden cardiac death (heart attack) and brain development during and after pregnancy. For years there has been tremendous independent data that refutes the basic claims made by environmental activists who attempt to hijack a public health issue for use in environmental health propaganda;

* Reporters need to be aware of the effect that reporting has on readers - negatively impacting public health - in this case by encouraging readers to limit fish consumption and deny them the proven health benefits of increasing the amount of seafood in their diet.

We encourage any and all responsible feedback on this issue, but we also want to let reporters know that we will be vigilant about confronting distortions and errors - and will do so publicly.

Mary Anne Hansan
Vice President
National Fisheries Institute

Song Of The Day #081

Our gospel tune today is Let's Go To Church Next Sunday Morning, recorded in 1950 by Jimmy Wakely & Margaret Whiting.

It's available on their 32 track CD Till We Meet Again.

Report: Bush-era surveillance went beyond wiretaps

The Bush administration's post-Sept. 11 surveillance efforts went beyond the widely publicized warrantless wiretapping program, a government report disclosed Friday, encompassing additional secretive activities that created "unprecedented" spying powers. The report also raised new questions about how the Bush White House kept key Justice Department officials in the dark as it launched the surveillance program. In a move that it described as "extraordinary and inappropriate," the report said the White House relied on a single, lower-level attorney in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel for assessments about the programs' legality. The report was compiled at the request of Congress by five government agency watchdogs: the inspectors general of the Justice Department, Pentagon, CIA, Directorate of National Intelligence and National Security Agency. It represents the most detailed public disclosure of the existence of secret surveillance efforts beyond the warrantless wiretapping program, saying the overall package of efforts came to be known in the Bush administration as the "President's Surveillance Program." However, the report did not describe the other programs or explain how they worked...LATimes

'Inappropriate' Secrecy Hurt Surveillance Effort, Report Says

"Extraordinary and inappropriate" secrecy about a warrantless eavesdropping program undermined its effectiveness as a terrorism-fighting tool, government watchdogs have concluded in the first examination of one of the most contentious episodes of the Bush administration. A report by inspectors general from five intelligence agencies said the administration's tight control over who learned of the program also contributed to flawed legal arguments that nearly prompted mass resignations in the Justice Department five years ago. The program "may have" contributed to successful counterterrorism efforts, some intelligence officials told the investigators. But too few CIA personnel knew of the highly classified program to use it for intelligence work, the report stated, while at the FBI, the program "played a limited role," with "most . . . leads . . . determined not to have any connection to terrorism."...WPost

"most . . . leads . . . determined not to have any connection to terrorism."

This confirms what I and others have been saying all along. It has more to do with federal law enforcement gaining additional powers than with combating terrorism (see this post). Even those additional powers granted by Congress were not limited to terrorists.

The federal law enforcement agencies utilize whatever crisis is at hand, be it drugs, the OKC bombing, terrorism, etc. to grab more power and lessen our civil liberties.

And they are well on their way, via the purse, to "federalizing" local and state law enforcement.

Bush’s Secret NSA Spying May Have Tainted Prosecutions, Report Warns

The Justice Department needs to investigate whether the secretiveness of Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program tainted terrorism prosecutions by hiding exculpatory evidence from defendants, an oversight report from five inspectors general warned Friday. The report (.pdf), mandated by Congress, also warned that President’ Bush’s post-9/11 extrajudicial intelligence programs involved unprecedented collection of communications, and that the government needs to be careful about storing and using that data. The government has only admitted to eavesdropping on calls and e-mails where one end was overseas and one person was suspected to be a terrorist. It has never officially confirmed that it sucked in the telephone records of millions of Americans or eavesdropped wholesale on the internet, despite repeated media reports and confirmations from Congress members. But the report makes clear that there were more intelligence programs that the so-called “Terrorist Surveillance Program” that the administration acknowledged after the New York Times revealed in December 2005...Wired

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The new Report on illegal spying is not a real investigation

We had a law in place for 30 years that made it a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each offense to do exactly that which Bush got caught doing: eavesdropping on the communications of American citizens without warrants from the FISA court. The Inspectors General report (.pdf) on Bush's NSA activities released on Friday afternoon -- one that was mandated by the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 in lieu of a real investigation -- highlights how rampant and blatant was the lawlessness that pervaded the Bush administration. Nonetheless, because the Obama administration is actively blocking any real investigation -- Obama opposes all Congressional investigations into Bush-era crimes and, worse, is engaged in extraordinary efforts to block courts from adjudicating the legality of Bush's surveillance activities by claiming that even long-obsolete and clearly criminal programs are "state secrets" -- it is quite likely, despite how blatant is the lawbreaking, that there will be no consequences for any of it. In a Look-to-the-Future-Not-the-Past political culture, it's irrelevant how severe is the lawbreaking by high government officials. They know they will face no consequences even when, as here, they deliberately commit felonies -- which is precisely why criminality is so rampant in our political class...GlennGreenwald

Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday. The report that Mr. Cheney was behind the decision to conceal the still-unidentified program from Congress deepened the mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush administration had put a high priority on the program and its secrecy. Mr. Panetta, who ended the program when he first learned of its existence from subordinates on June 23, briefed the two intelligence committees about it in separate closed sessions the next day. The law requires the president to make sure the intelligence committees “are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States, including any significant anticipated intelligence activity.” But the language of the statute, the amended National Security Act of 1947, leaves some leeway for judgment, saying such briefings should be done “to the extent consistent with due regard for the protection from unauthorized disclosure of classified information relating to sensitive intelligence sources and methods or other exceptionally sensitive matters.” In addition, for covert action programs, a particularly secret category in which the role of the United States is hidden, the law says that briefings can be limited to the so-called Gang of Eight, consisting of the Republican and Democratic leaders of both houses of Congress and of their intelligence committees...NYTimes

Hayden Says He Informed Congress of Surveillance Program

Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden angrily struck back Saturday at assertions the Bush administration's post-9/11 surveillance program was more far-reaching than imagined and was largely concealed from congressional overseers. In an interview with The Associated Press, Hayden maintained that top members of Congress were kept well-informed all along the way, notwithstanding protests from some that they were kept in the dark. "At the political level this had support," said the one-time CIA chief, jumping foursquare into an escalating controversy that has caused deep political divisions and lingering debate on the counterterrorism policies of an administration now out of power. Hayden, who in 2001 designed and carried out the secret program, told The AP he is distressed by suggestions that Congress was not fully informed. He said that he personally briefed top lawmakers on the entire surveillance operation and said he felt that they supported it...AP

Congress Blasts 'Outrageous' Security Breaches at Nation's Federal Buildings

Members of Congress on Wednesday blasted "disturbing" and "outrageous" security failures in the nation's federal buildings after government investigators smuggled bomb-making materials past the police agency charged with protecting those buildings. The Government Accountability Office released a report detailing how investigators carried liquid bomb-making materials past security at 10 federal buildings in 10 cities -- a shocking exposure lawmakers said shows the country's vulnerability eight years after the attacks on the World Trade Center and 14 years after the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City. The undisclosed buildings at the center of the probe were all labeled "Security Level IV," or high-risk. The GAO found other problems with guard training and reported that in one check of security, investigators found a guard asleep on the job after taking the painkiller Percocet. In another, they found that a guard failed to recognize or did not properly X-ray a box carrying handguns at the loading dock of a facility. Gary Schenkel, director of the Federal Protective Service, said in prepared testimony that when he arrived at the agency in April 2007 "it was apparent FPS was experiencing some serious challenges." Earlier government investigations have raised similar concerns about the quality of security provided to federal buildings. FPS currently has a budget of about $1 billion, 1,200 full-time employees and about 13,000 contract security guards...FoxNews

FPS - Federal Protective Service, former local and private sector employees "federalized" compliments of George W. Bush.

Federal Court Hearing Update - NEPA & CEs

From: Caren
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 4:22 PM
Subject: Federal Court Hearing Update

Yesterday (7.9.09) the lawsuit filed by the WildEarth Guardians against the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) challenging the use of categorical exclusions (CEs) to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for permit renewal was heard in Federal District Court in Albuquerque. The case included a request for an injunction to remove grazing if the WildEarth Guardians prevail in their claim that the USFS abused the NEPA process in the use of the CEs.

While it appeared that the Judge has a good grasp of the fact that Congress has repeated provided safety for allotment owners whose allotments have not received NEPA analysis in a timely fashion, there is no ruling expected on the case until August or September.

In a departure from the original suit and its’ opening briefs, the WildEarth Guardians focused their argument on potential harm of grazing on the reintroduced Mexican wolves. The USFS attorney did a good job of pointing this out, as well as defending the process used by the agency to renew term grazing permits with CEs.

Interveners in the case were the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association and the Arizona/New Mexico Coalition of Counties. Their attorney Karen Budd-Falen did an excellent job of pointing out the harm that could come to the allotment owners, many of them in the court room, if the WildEarth Guardians prevailed on the suit and its’ requested injunction.

Special thanks to all the folks who attended the hearing from Catron, Sierra, Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, Lincoln, and Valencia counties!

Ann Mills appointed as USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Natural Resources & Environment

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the appointment of Ann Mills as USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment (NRE). In this position, Mills will have responsibility for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the federal agency with primary responsibility for working with private landowners in conserving, maintaining and improving their natural resources. The NRE mission area includes NRCS and the U.S. Forest Service, which manages 193 million acres of National Forest System lands and provides assistance to the more than 10 million family-forest landowners in this country. Most recently, as a senior executive at American Rivers - the nation's leading river conservation organization - Mills directed day-to-day operations, led the expansion of regional offices and directed a team of senior policy staff. She led the implementation of programs to develop sustainable solutions for flood and drought mitigation and water quality improvement across the country including urban and rural watersheds in Northern California's Sierras and Bay Delta; the Columbia, Missouri and Mississippi river basins; the Great Lakes; and the Chesapeake Bay...Press Release

G-8 leaders set broad goals to reduce global warming

President Obama and leaders of seven other world economic powers agreed Wednesday to broad goals for reducing global warming, but they stopped well short of measures that environmentalists call critical to stopping the problem and also failed to get developing nations such as China and India to go along. The Group of Eight industrial democracies agreed to a statement setting the goal of holding global warming to an increase of 2 degrees Celsius — 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit — by 2020, as measured since the dawn of the industrial age in 1900. They also set a long-range target of cutting emissions of greenhouse gases that cause warming by 50 percent worldwide and by 80 percent among industrialized nations by 2050. Obama and the other leaders, however, didn't discuss prominent proposals urging a timetable for quicker emission cuts by 2020...McClatchy

Senate Ag Panel's Members Look to Stake Major Claim in Climate Bill

Powerful members of the Senate Agriculture Committee are angling to include even more farm and ethanol-friendly provisions to their chamber's energy and climate legislation than the House added to its bill last month. Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and other members of his panel say they want to ensure any effort at wide-ranging climate legislation in the Senate will include all of the provisions that House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) brokered for the House cap-and-trade bill, H.R. 2454 (pdf). With the hard-fought Peterson deal as their starting point, the farm state lawmakers could have leverage to capture additional benefits for farmers and ranchers. As Senate leadership aims to advance the bill this fall, agricultural interests could form a formidable coalition. Several key fence-sitters on the bill sit on the Agriculture Committee, and farm interests have wide appeal in the Senate. Each senator has some farm interests in his or her state -- unlike the House, which has more representatives from urban and suburban areas...NYTimes

Official supports rights to wind

Coloradans used to owning their homes, but not necessarily the water and mineral rights associated with them, may have another commodity to call their own in the future. State Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, has asked the nonpartisan staff at the Capitol to help research a measure that would create a "wind right." The bill would be introduced when lawmakers return to work in January. "By creating a new wind right in Colorado, we'll give people a new private property; . . . an economically viable opportunity to sell some of their property and promote the environment by developing that wind right into wind energy," Gardner said. Gardner said some lawyers on the Eastern Plains are drawing up contracts between developers and some ranchers and farm owners to lease land for wind energy, but they have concerns over whether state courts would recognize the deals. Some environmentalists are hesitant to embrace the idea, which is being discussed in Texas, California, Montana and South Dakota. They ask whether the state wants to add wind to historically contentious legal fights over such things as water and mineral rights...DenverPost

Livestock groups denounce "cash-for-grass" offer

State and national livestock groups are denouncing an effort by wildlife groups to pay ranchers not to graze cattle on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. The World Wildlife Fund and National Wildlife Federation have set aside between $300,000 and $600,000 to buy out grazing rights. The groups say they want to end conflict between nesting birds and elk and foraging cattle. The Montana Stockgrowers Association, the Montana Association of Grazing Districts and both the Montana and National Public Lands Council on Thursday call the grazing buyout effort "a giant step backward in finding ways for agriculture and wildlife groups to work together." The livestock groups argue that sage grouse and elk can live in harmony with grazing cattle. Errol Rice, executive vice president of the MSGA, says a better solution would be to seek balance between conservation and producer needs. AP

States ready for first open wolf hunts

Montana and Idaho are moving to host the first open gray wolf hunts in the lower 48 states after the animal's removal from the endangered list across much of the Northern Rockies. Montana wildlife commissioners voted Wednesday to let hunters throughout the state shoot 75 wolves, or 15 percent of Montana's population, beginning in mid-September. In Idaho, commissioners meet later this month to set their quota. A prior plan called for hunting almost 250 wolves. Legal challenges to the hunts are certain as environmentalists argue wolves could again be driven toward extinction. Experts, however, said wiping out wolves would be difficult. And state wildlife managers said the quotas are crucial to keep the fast-breeding predators in check and limit attacks on domestic sheep and calves. Government wildlife agents and ranchers protecting livestock killed 264 wolves in the Northern Rockies in 2008, including 21 entire packs, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service...AP

Hunters, ranchers, farmers fed up with mountain lion laws

A revolt is brewing on the rangelands of San Benito and Monterey counties over state game laws that protect mountain lions. Hunters, ranchers and farmers appear to be fed up with what they see as depredations on deer and livestock by an out-of-control mountain lion population. They are resentful of regulations they say were imposed on them by big-city voters who never saw one of the big cats outside of a television program or a zoo, and distrustful of state Department of Fish and Game enforcement. And they seem to be waging their own guerrilla warfare against the specially protected predators in the Gabilan range. Wednesday, the San Benito County Fish and Game Advisory Commission held a public forum in Hollister on mountain lions. Officials from neighboring counties, state legislators' aides and mountain lion supporters attended to talk about the issue. San Benito County has asked the state to survey the area's mountain lion population to determine what farmers and ranchers are dealing with, said Supervisor Anthony Botelho. He said his constituents are seeing evidence of a greatly increased lion presence and worry about being prosecuted if they can't justify shooting a mountain lion on their property to an investigating game warden...TheHerald

Leaders Seek to Finish Trade Deal by 2010

Leaders of rich and developing nations want to finish a long-delayed world trade deal in 2010 and head off trade wars that could hit world economies as they struggle to emerge from the recession, according to a draft of a joint declaration obtained by the Associated Press. Completing the so-called Doha round of talks has risen up the agenda due to fears that the economic crisis will lead to an upsurge in protectionist policies like the ones that helped cause the Great Depression of the 1930s. The global trade talks, which were initially to conclude in 2004, have been beset by difficulties and at a standstill for months. A deal would cut goods tariffs and subsidies around the world. The leaders asked trade ministers to meet prior to the Group of 20 meeting of developing and rich countries in September in Pittsburgh, according to the draft. The final document is to be released later in the day...WSJ

First big fencing job was on the Laureles

Before barbed wire — what cowboys called Texas silk — Mifflin Kenedy built a 36-mile fence of pine boards and cypress posts. Kenedy’s fence stretched across a peninsula, from the Oso to Laureles Creek, which closed the Laureles Ranch in 1868. Capt. Andrew Anderson recalled that when the fence was being built, he hauled “a million feet of lumber” to the Laureles aboard the schooner Flour Bluff. Isom H. Thomas, caporal of Laureles, said Kenedy took a lively interest as the fence went up. “He would look down a long line and if he saw the slightest deviation from a straight line, the kink had to be straightened out before he would pass it.” A year later, Kenedy’s friend and former partner Richard King began to fence King Ranch. Like Kenedy, he used planks and cypress posts treated with creosote. Within three years, by 1874, King had 70,000 acres fenced. The Coleman, Mathis and Fulton Pasture Co. began fencing in 1871. One fence was north of Fulton and one stretched from Puerto Bay to Corpus Christi Bay. After a bad drought and severe winter in 1873, ranchers in South Texas lost thousands of head of cattle. They starved and froze to death, helped along by their weakened condition. Mifflin Kenedy, with his grass protected on the fenced-in Laureles, didn’t lose a single head. Other cattlemen took notice. The following year, patents for barbed wire and a machine for making it were granted to Joseph Farwell Glidden of De Kalb, Ill. Barbed-wire fences soon stretched across the land. But not in South Texas. Ranchers distrusted anything from the North; barbed wire had another strike against it, being invented by an Illinois farmer. They also feared the “thorny wire” would wound cattle and give entry to the deadly screw worm. So barbed wire was slow to catch on in South Texas...Caller-Times

"Rambo" author has new novel based on Marfa lights

The author whose first book sparked the "Rambo" phenomenon is releasing his 30th novel today. David Morrell, a former University of Iowa English professor, says his new work of fiction, "The Shimmer," is based on the real-life mystery of bright colorful lights that are seen near the tiny town of Marfa, Texas. Morrell says there are reports of the unexplained lights dating back to 1889 when a rancher first spotted them darting in the darkness. "He saw the lights and he thought they were campfires from marauders from Mexico," Morrell says. "The problem is, campfires don't move around and don't go up and down, go sideways and change colors. He was terrified enough that he and the ranch hands got out their rifles and guarded the cattle and then the next morning, they went out to look but they found nothing." The basis for the original Rambo movie was Morrell's first book, "First Blood," which was published in 1972, when Morrell was in his second of 18 years of teaching English at the U-of-I. Morrell is now 66 and lives in New Mexico. He has more than 18-million copies of his books in print in 26 languages...RadioIowaNews

Horse logger/poet Dufour launches new book

Most folks know Lorne Dufour best as a horse logger, or maybe as a poet. He’s spent a lifetime in the woods, raising his family there and using his big teams of Clydesdale horses to harvest trees gently and carefully from the land, working with the forces of nature to make a living in a slowed down manner. Lorne is a great storyteller. He has written about his experiences over the last 35 years in both prose and verse, publishing two books of poetry describing his big beautiful horses and backwoods lifestyle. Spit On Wishes came out first in 1983, then Starting From Promise in 2001. He has also published a number of other poems and articles in anthologies like Lived Experience - A Journal From the Mountains of BC, and regularly posts his work on the bulletin board in the Gecko Tree Restaurant for all to see. This month Lorne is set to launch his latest book, Jacob’s Prayer, published by Caitlin Press of Halfmoon Bay. Here Lorne combines his story telling prowess with his poetry to recount a poignant moment in the rich literary history of the Cariboo Chilcotin. His story recounts a tragic incident that occurred on Halloween night in 1975 when Lorne was a school teacher in the village of Esket. That night two prominent men, school principal John Rathjen, and rancher Martin Reidemann, lost their lives in Alkali Lake. A third man, author, Lorne Dufour, was saved by a friend, Jacob Roper...WilliamsLakeTribune

Song Of The Day #080

Today we'll feature Roy Acuff and his 1940 recording Lonesome Old River Blues.

It's available, along with thirteen others on The Essential Roy Acuff.

NM drivers asked to test alternative to fuel tax

Researchers are looking for 1,500 drivers in six cities, including Albuquerque, to test an on-board computer system that taxes motorists based on miles driven rather than fuel taxes paid at the pump. That mileage-based tax is being considered by the University of Iowa Public Policy Center in a $16.5 million study for the U.S. Department of Transportation to determine whether it's a viable option for paying for surface transportation, including roads and railroads, in the future. Researchers are looking for participants to install the computers on their vehicles and tell researchers what they think of the new system. The other cities are Billings, Mont.; Chicago; Miami; Portland, Maine; and Wichita, Kan. Last year, motorists in San Diego, Calif.; Austin, Texas; Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, N.C.; Boise, Idaho; and eastern Iowa gave their opinions on the system. Kuhl said the data has not been analyzed so it's too early to reach conclusions from that phase of the study. Currently, motorists pay 18 cents per gallon of fuel to the federal Highway Trust Fund to pay for surface transportation, Kuhl said. All states except Alaska also charge a state gas tax. But the tax - the primary source of federal highway program funds - has become less effective in recent years. "As vehicles become more fuel efficient, the money raised by the gas tax goes down," Kuhl said. And drivers of the increasingly popular electric, hydrogen and hybrid vehicles aren't paying their fair share for road use...AP

Video: From Grass to Glass - Dairy Milks 32,000 Cows

Produces enough milk for 8 million people (2 and a half million pounds per day), 80 calves born per day, uses fertilizer to generate own power, and the public is invited in.

Al Gore invokes spirit of Churchill in battle against climate change

Al Gore invoked the spirit of Winston Churchill yesterday when he urged political leaders to follow the example of Britain’s wartime leader in the battle against climate change. The former US Vice-President accused governments around the world of exploiting ignorance about the dangers of global warming to avoid taking difficult decisions. Speaking in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by The Times, Mr Gore said: “Winston Churchill aroused this nation in heroic fashion to save civilisation in World War Two. We have everything we need except political will, but political will is a renewable resource.” Mr Gore admitted that it was difficult to persuade the public that the threat from climate change was as urgent as that from Hitler. He said future generations would put one of two questions to today’s adults. “It will either be ‘What were you thinking, didn’t you see the North Pole melting before your eyes, didn’t you hear what the scientists were saying?’. Or they will ask ‘How is it you were able to find the moral courage to solve the crisis which so many said couldn’t be solved?’”...LondonTimes

Green Jackets, Brown Shirts

Gore didn't come right out and call global warming skeptics Nazis while addressing an audience at Oxford University in England. But then, he didn't have to. By simply violating Godwin's Law — which essentially says that an argument dies the moment someone makes a comparison to Nazis — in the way he did, Gore labeled anyone who opposes his agenda a fascist. While the former vice president was delivering his sermon, the British were busy creating a para-police squad that will enforce government-imposed carbon dioxide emissions limits. Take a good look, because the formation of this team could well be a preview of what we'll get if the Democrats' climate change bill becomes law. So far, the cap-and-trade global warming legislation — known as the Waxman-Markey bill — has been passed only in the House. The Senate still has to take it up, and then a conference committee would write a version that both chambers would agree to vote on should the Senate approve legislation that has differences. What comes next is the legalized extortion of the American people. Some analysts estimate that this scheme to save us from ourselves could by 2030 cost each American family as much $4,300 a year and destroy 2.5 million jobs. That's even counting the "green" jobs the bill's supporters claim it will create. In return for that sacrifice, people living in our world a century from now will experience a global temperature that is projected to be one-tenth to two-tenths of one degree Celsius cooler than it would have been without the legislation. While the loss of economic liberty is chilling enough, how much more freedom will be lost if Washington follows London's lead and establishes a cap-and-trade police force?...IBD

NMSU women’s rodeo team places in top 10 nationally

The New Mexico State University rodeo team proved to be nationally competitive during the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) June 14-20 in Casper, Wyo.

“I am pleased with our performance at the CNFR. We had some individual triumphs and heartbreaks, but all in all NMSU showed that we are tough and we will be back stronger next year,” said Jim Dewey Brown, NMSU rodeo coach.

To qualify for the CNFR, a student must place in the top three in their event in the region, or place in the top two in the all-around standings. NMSU sent 11 athletes to the rodeo, with several team members placing in the top 20 in the overall standings, and others placing in the top 20 in different rounds.

“To have the women’s team win reserve champion last year and place in the top 10 this year is a great performance by the team. Also, to have Johnny Salvo place in the tie-down roping again this year speaks loads about his roping ability,” said Frank DuBois, founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

In the final standings, the women’s team placed sixth overall and the men’s team placed 13th.

Johnny Salvo, of Horse Springs, N.M., placed third in the tie-down roping.

Jordan Bassett, of Dewey, Ariz., placed sixth in barrel racing and 13th in goat tying, giving her enough points to receive fourth place in the women’s rookie standings.

Megan Wilkerson placed 15th in the breakaway roping. She tied for second in the first round and tied for third in the second round of the event.

Aztec, N.M., native Kelsi Elkins placed second in the second round of the barrel racing, and teammate Dean Daly, of Belen, N.M., placed second in round three of the saddle bronc event.

Date: 2009-07-08
Writer: Margaret Kovar
NMSU

Pinon Canyon: US Rep. Lamborn's Letter To The WSJ

The article "Ranchers Attempt to Hold Off Army's Expansion in Colorado" (Currents, June 24) about the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site states that the U.S. Army is considering acquiring land through eminent domain. However, in a response letter I received from Keith Eastin, assistant secretary of the Army (Installations and Environment), dated April 27, 2009, he wrote, "I have testified that condemnation/eminent domain will not be used to acquire or lease land at PCMS. The Army will only deal with willing sellers." While the article notes that "willing sellers are in short supply," there are definitely some out there, and they should have the right to sell their land to whomever they want...WSJ

Just how foolish does Rep. Lamborn think we really are?

Congressional "testimony" is simply a statement of policy - a policy that can be revised at any time.

Give the Pentagon the acquisition money and watch the hammer come out if they can't get what they want from willing sellers. Sometimes just the threat of the hammer gets the job done. Of course, Rep. Lamborn could sponsor legislation to revoke the Pentagon's eminent domain authority. Reckon he'll be doing that soon?

Lamborn remains a prime example of why the Republicans are in the minority. He thinks having larger federal landholdings and smaller acreages of private property is good public policy. He also appears to be operating under the delusion that bringing political dollars and a larger bureaucracy to his district, while at the same time destroying private sector jobs and family owned businesses, constitutes sound economic development.

The poor fellow.

I just hope the condemnation of Lamborn is eminent.

Tester mum, advocates hopeful on wilderness legislation

Wilderness advocates and key officials say Sen. Jon Tester's office has plans to bring Montana its first new wilderness designation since the 1980s. But Tester's office is keeping details quiet - just saying that anyone interested in how forests are managed should contact the senator. Plans for the designation of a new wilderness area draw on separate proposals that have been in the works for years, say advocates who hope legislation will fast-track hundreds of thousands of acres into wilderness status. Beaverhead County commissioners say they have been in earnest talks with Tester's office over designation of perhaps 500,000 acres of new wilderness in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. Those commissioners say they have been pressing to make sure the Montana Wilderness Association and its allies do not hold sway over the final plan. Commissioner Mike McGinley said the first proposed wilderness map presented to him by Tester's office came straight from the MWA-backed Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership. But he said Tester's folks switched the base map to a hybrid of a U.S. Forest Service plan, developed earlier this decade, for the area...Missoulian

Montana considers cashing in on 1.2B tons of coal

Montana officials are on track to seek bids this fall to mine a massive reserve of state-owned coal near the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation -- a deposit with enough fuel to feed the United States' coal appetite for a year. Experts describe the state's Otter Creek reserve as world class: more than 1.2 billion tons of coal massed beneath the rolling hills of the Powder River Basin. The Montana Land Board is to decide in September whether to seek a company to mine the reserve, following recent public hearings that revealed a local community divided over the proposal. The board is chaired by Gov. Brian Schweitzer, an outspoken coal advocate who has said the tracts will be put up for auction. Lining up behind development is a powerful alliance of coal industry supporters. That includes many of the area's elected officials and proponents of the Tongue River Railroad, a long-stalled $341 million line proposed from Miles City south through Otter Creek to the Wyoming border. The railroad would cut through dozens of ranches. Opposition to the line has long been a rallying cry for those landowners nervous about the change coal development would bring. The fight has attracted the Sierra Club, which along with the Billings-based Northern Plains Resource Council has organized ranchers and tribal members against the project. Aiding them behind the scenes has been candy company billionaire Forrest Mars Jr. He owns the 140-square-mile Diamond Cross Ranch along the Tongue River south of Ashland and doesn't want the railroad to cross his property...BusinessWeek

FWP to reconsider sheep’s place on public land

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks plans to take another look at whether it should allow sheep ranchers to trail their livestock across a 28,000-acres swath of land in Southwestern Montana. Earlier this month, three conservation groups challenged the agency for allowing domestic sheep to cross the Robb-Ledford Wildlife Management Area, a practice the groups say makes the habitat inhospitable to bighorn sheep due to diseases the domestic sheep can give to bighorns. “The most immediate issue regarding bighorns in Montana is the domestic sheep trailing FWP allows on the Robb-Ledford Wildlife Management Area,” wrote Summer Nelson, Montana legal counsel for the Western Watersheds Project in Missoula on behalf of her group, the Gallatin Wildlife Association and hunting group Safari Club International. “WWP, GWA and SCI contend this use is incompatible with WMA purposes, public trust responsibilities over native wildlife and restoring and maintaining healthy bighorn herds.” Pat Flowers, director of FWP Region 3 based in Bozeman, said his agency has never done an environmental analysis of allowing domestic sheep onto the Robb-Ledford, since sheep don’t graze there. Rather, the sheep spend about two days on the Robb-Ledford en route to and from grazing allotments in the Gravelly Mountains south of Ennis...BozemanDailyChronicle

Ohio Sets Forth Livestock Standards Board

The Ohio Senate has unanimously approved a resolution that would allow voters to create the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, which would provide oversight of how farm animals are raised. The House approved its version of the resolution yesterday by a vote of 84-13. According to the Ohio Farm Bureau, the final version of the resolution, once approved, will put the measure on the November ballot. The board will comprise a broad base of experts in livestock and poultry care, including family farmers, veterinarians, a food safety expert, a representative of a local humane society, members from statewide farm organizations, the dean of an Ohio agriculture college and members representing Ohio consumers. Over the past several months, the Ohio Farm Bureau and other agricultural groups had engaged in extensive discussions on how to best achieve farm animal well-being while protecting the state’s farmers and consumers from restrictive, short-sighted and emotionally driven regulations. Such regulations had been pushed by activists in other states and Ohio was expected to be the next target. Pork

Michigan Legislators Pushing for Livestock Standards

Lawmakers in Ohio aren't the only ones taking a proactive approach to livestock care standards. Michigan State Representatives Mike Simpson and Jeff Mayes introduced a group of bills last month to standardize livestock care requirements by establishing the Department of Agriculture and Agriculture Commission as the sole authority in regulation of livestock health; implementing science-based standards farmers must use by 2020 and more. Two State Senators have introduced identical bills. They were referred to the Senate Ag and Bioeconomy Committee. Representative Mayes said these new standards will ensure people think of quality products when they think of Michigan agriculture - but certain animal rights organizations - like Farm Sanctuary - feel they would be harmful to livestock for many reasons. Farm Sanctuary Director of Legal Campaigns Delcianna Winders says the legislation would create a council dominated by the agricultural industry and codify the procedures that Farm Sanctuary believes are inhumane. Winders says Farm Sanctuary will probably work with the Humane Society of the United States to reach out to people to oppose it...HoosierAgToday

ID INFO EXPO 2009 To Explore Viable Alternatives For Functional Animal Identification

As the debate rages about animal identification in the United States, ID INFO EXPO 2009 will explore the challenges facing a national animal identification program and ways to move animal identification forward. ID INFO EXPO 2009, presented by the National Institute for Animal Agriculture, is set for Aug. 25-27 at the Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, Mo. “ID INFO EXPO will provide a collaborative atmosphere in which concerns and solutions can be addressed in order to enhance animal identification,” states Glenn Fischer, chairman of the ID INFO EXPO Planning Committee. “Based on comments received at USDA Secretary Vilsack’s listening sessions regarding animal ID, we know what won’t work; this conference will focus on what can work.” Victor Velez, vice chairman of the Planning Committee, emphasizes that the conference will zero in on four key areas: 1) the current state of, and need for, animal identification in the United States; 2) the obstacles to gaining ID participation; 3) the ID opportunities that exist; and 4) the next crucial steps to developing a functional animal identification program in the United States. The EXPO’s opening general session will start with an up-to-the-minute report on the status of animal identification programs in the United States and outline what full participation in animal ID could mean to animal agriculture. Other opening general session topics include global implications of identification and models of traceability within other commodities and industries...cattlenetwork

Its all Trew: Doing more work has helped us overcome

My grandfather, who survived the Great Depression and Dust Bowl plus another recession or two before that, often said, "I blame most of the average person's problems on a family named Jones. Trying to keep up with the Joneses is always a losing proposition." During a recent Barbed Wire Collectors show in Shamrock, a few old-timers sat together and talked about their memories of coping with hard times. Here is a sample. One man said just after he started school in the second grade, morning and evening on his way to and from school he fetched the milk bucket off a neighbor widow's porch and milked her cow, returning the fresh milk to her back porch. He received a dime per day for this chore. He also said he was the only kid in his school with a steady job. Another man down in Collingsworth County earned 10 cents per day as a first-grader by arriving at his country school early enough to carry out yesterday's wood stove ashes and build a fire to warm the building for the students arriving later. A 15-year-old girl played piano for my father's dance band in the 1930s, earning 50 cents per night. Not much pay for four hours of dance music, however, she was the only girl in the school with a paying job and therefore the richest young lady in her class. I have written before about the mail carrier at Dime Box, Texas, who would leave you a can of snuff if you left him a dime clamped in a wooden clothes pin. The reason for the clothes pin? His hands were so crippled from arthritis he couldn't pick up a loose coin...AmarilloGlobeNews

Song Of The Day #079

Here's Carl Smith and his recording of Mr. Moon.

It's available on his Don't Just Stand There: 20 Greatest Hits CD and on the wonderful 5 disc box set Satisfaction Guaranteed.

Designation of Mount Taylor results in beatings and arrest

The fight over Mount Taylor's designation as a Traditional Cultural Property has led to bloodshed and an arrest. Five Native American men reported severe beatings between June 9 and June 18, according to Grants Police Department reports. Another known beating was not reported by the victim and details are unknown, except that it follows a similar pattern to the other racial violence. “We made a report to the FBI for hate crimes,” said GPD Detective Kevin Dobbs, “and they'll get back to us.” According to reports, an anonymous caller told officers that Longoria was boasting of “beating up the men because the Native Americans had got Mount Taylor and now they owned him.” Seven known victims were barraged by rocks, struck with bats and gashed with knives and brass knuckles. The following are multiple accounts of the incidents from the victims to officers...CibolaBeacon

Protection sought again for giant, spitting worms

Fans of the giant Palouse earthworm are once again seeking federal protection for the rare, sweet-smelling species that spits at predators. They filed a petition Tuesday with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requesting the worm be protected as an endangered species. "The giant Palouse earthworm is critically endangered and needs the protection of the Endangered Species Act to have any chance of survival," said Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity. The center filed the lawsuit along with Friends of the Clearwater, Palouse Prairie Foundation, Palouse Audubon and Palouse Group of Sierra Club. The worm has been seen only four reported times in the past 110 years, but supporters contend it is still present in the Palouse, a region of about 2 million acres of rolling wheat fields near the Idaho-Washington border south of Spokane. Only about 2 percent of the Palouse prairie remains in a native state, he said. The worm can reach 3 feet in length, is white in color and reportedly possesses a unique lily smell, said Greenwald, who is based in Portland, Ore. It is the largest and longest-lived earthworm in North America...AP

The EPA Silences a Climate Skeptic

Wherever Jim Hansen is right now -- whatever speech the "censored" NASA scientist is giving -- perhaps he'll find time to mention the plight of Alan Carlin. Though don't count on it...So much so that one of President Barack Obama's first acts was a memo to agencies demanding new transparency in government, and science. The nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lisa Jackson, joined in, exclaiming, "As administrator, I will ensure EPA's efforts to address the environmental crises of today are rooted in three fundamental values: science-based policies and program, adherence to the rule of law, and overwhelming transparency." In case anyone missed the point, Mr. Obama took another shot at his predecessors in April, vowing that "the days of science taking a backseat to ideology are over." Except, that is, when it comes to Mr. Carlin, a senior analyst in the EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics and a 35-year veteran of the agency. In March, the Obama EPA prepared to engage the global-warming debate in an astounding new way, by issuing an "endangerment" finding on carbon. It establishes that carbon is a pollutant, and thereby gives the EPA the authority to regulate it -- even if Congress doesn't act. Around this time, Mr. Carlin and a colleague presented a 98-page analysis arguing the agency should take another look, as the science behind man-made global warming is inconclusive at best. The analysis noted that global temperatures were on a downward trend. It pointed out problems with climate models. It highlighted new research that contradicts apocalyptic scenarios. "We believe our concerns and reservations are sufficiently important to warrant a serious review of the science by EPA," the report read. The response to Mr. Carlin was an email from his boss, Al McGartland, forbidding him from "any direct communication" with anyone outside of his office with regard to his analysis. When Mr. Carlin tried again to disseminate his analysis, Mr. McGartland decreed: "The administrator and the administration have decided to move forward on endangerment, and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision. . . . I can only see one impact of your comments given where we are in the process, and that would be a very negative impact on our office." Mr. McGartland blasted yet another email: "With the endangerment finding nearly final, you need to move on to other issues and subjects. I don't want you to spend any additional EPA time on climate change. No papers, no research etc, at least until we see what EPA is going to do with Climate." Ideology? Nope, not here. Just us science folk. Honest...WSJ

For a thorough backgrounder, including links to the emails and the Carlin report, see E-mails indicate EPA suppressed report skeptical of global warming.

Congress's Travel Tab Swells

Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years, a Wall Street Journal analysis of travel records shows, involving everything from war-zone visits to trips to exotic spots such as the Galápagos Islands. The spending on overseas travel is up almost tenfold since 1995, and has nearly tripled since 2001, according to the Journal analysis of 60,000 travel records. Hundreds of lawmakers traveled overseas in 2008 at a cost of about $13 million. That's a 50% jump since Democrats took control of Congress two years ago. Although complete travel records aren't yet available for 2009, it appears that such costs continue to rise. The Journal analysis shows that the government has picked up the tab for travel to destinations such as Jamaica, the Virgin Islands and Australia's Great Barrier Reef. In mid-June, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D., Hawaii) led a group of a half-dozen senators and their spouses on a four-day trip to France for the biennial Paris Air Show. An itinerary for the event shows that lawmakers flew on the Air Force's version of the Boeing 737, which costs $5,700 an hour to operate. They stayed at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand Hotel, which advertises rooms from $460 a night...WSJ

I wonder what the carbon footprint is of all this travel.

California group pushes for Endangered Species God Squad

Less than 24 hours after a top Obama administration official rejected the idea of convening Endangered Species Committee to resolve California’s water woes, Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation launched a campaign to force the committee’s activation. The foundation sent letters to President Barack Obama and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger requesting they act to convene the committee, also known as the God Squad, said Rob Rivett, the foundation’s president. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar rejected the idea at a news conference in Fresno June 28. “That would be admitting failure. I am not about failure,” Salazar said. Under the Endangered Species Act, the special committee may be formed and empowered to override the law when it causes excessive destruction of jobs and the economy. “There’s a reason to have it in the statute,” Rivett said, “and there isn’t a better reason or circumstance than right now when we have an economy that is being devastated by the implementation of the Endangered Species Act." Salazar should take a step back to see what can be done that would modify “the Draconian measures that are being taken to try to save some of our farmworkers’ jobs and our farms,” he said. The foundation launched an online petition June 29, to be presented to the president, Salazar and Schwarzenegger. The petition is at www.pacificlegal.org, Rivett said...Packer

Ethanol-free gas rare but popular

Gasoline without ethanol has become a hot commodity for the only two vendors who sell it in Brevard County. "We just recently started bringing it in because there's been such a hue and cry for it from the marinas," Ken Marshall, vice president of Glover Oil in Melbourne, said Thursday. Favored by boaters and motorcyclists, the fuel -- known as recreational gasoline -- was put on sale to the public last month by Glover Oil. Ethanol absorbs water and can degrade rubber seals and gaskets. Boat engines, weed trimmers, lawn blowers, generators, motorcycles and older auto engines are most affected. Ethanol contains one-third less energy than gasoline. And many makers of lawn care machinery, marine engines, motorcycles and high-performance autos recommend avoiding gasoline with ethanol...FloridaToday

Idaho judge turns down committee report on bighorn sheep

A federal judge says the US Forest Service can't use an advisory committee's report on whether domestic sheep pose a disease risk to bighorn sheep because the committee was improperly formed. The decision from U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill could complicate the Forest Service's decision on whether to close 61 percent of the domestic sheep grazing allotments in the Payette National Forest. The Idaho Wool Growers Association filed the lawsuit in 2008, arguing that the Forest Service hand-picked scientists, who then met behind closed doors, to come up with opinions supporting a decision to close grazing allotments to domestic sheep. In his ruling, Winmill declined to comment on the conclusions of the committee, noting only that the process itself was flawed. AP

Work begins to remove dam in Washington's Wind River Watershed

Preparations began this week to remove Hemlock Dam on Trout Creek in Washington's Wind River Watershed, a project that conservationists say will help restore native fish runs and educate the public about rivers and the wildlife they support. The project, directed by American Rivers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will eliminate a 26-foot-high dam that was classified as High Hazard -- one that could threaten lives if it failed. The project covers roughly a 1/2 mile stretch of the creek near the Wind River Nursery north of Carson, Wash. The Mount Adams Ranger District of the U.S. Forest Service began rescuing and removing fish from the site this week, the first step to the $2 million project that will continue through the summer. The entire stream flow will be re-routed with pumps and pipes. A thick layer of sediment will be excavated from the shallow reservoir and the dam will be deconstructed. Crews will reconstruct the stream bed, using rocks and logs before returning the stream to its natural channel. Native plants that were salvaged from the site will be replanted...Oregonian

Mountain lion wipes out petting zoo

At first Stewart Loew was excited by the sight: a mountain lion on the family's farm near Amado. In 40 years on the Agua Linda Farm, Loew said this was first large cat he had seen when it appeared in the donkey pen about a month ago. But soon, his animals started to turn up mauled or dead. First there were four sheep. Then, on June 15, an awful sight: 16 pygmy and nubian goats — all the mammals in the farm's petting zoo — were killed. Only the geese were spared. Loew and his wife, Laurel, who run the all-natural, community-supported farm, faced a tough choice: Try to kill the wild cat or put their animals and possibly their farm's visitors — including many children — at some risk. "We were really conflicted," Stewart Loew said. But when they thought about it, there was no choice...ArizonaDailyStar

HT: Outdoor Pressroom

Feds could seize Calif. parks if closed by budget

California officials said Wednesday they are trying to avert the federal government's threat to seize six parks that could be closed to help reduce the state's ballooning budget deficit. National Park Service Regional Director Jonathan Jarvis warned in a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that all six occupy former federal land that could revert to the U.S. government if the state fails to keep the parks open. The sites are Angel Island, a former federal military and immigration facility in San Francisco Bay; the top of Mount Diablo east of San Francisco, where the Navy once operated a microwave relay station; Point Sur State Historic Park in coastal Big Sur; and three beaches — Fort Ord Dunes near Monterey, Point Mugu State Park near Malibu, and Border Fields along the Mexican border. The properties are among the 220 state parks Schwarzenegger has proposed closing to save $143 million. Legislators are considering the move as part of efforts to close a $26 billion budget deficit...AP

Purity of Federal 'Organic' Label Is Questioned

Three years ago, U.S. Department of Agriculture employees determined that synthetic additives in organic baby formula violated federal standards and should be banned from a product carrying the federal organic label. Today the same additives, purported to boost brainpower and vision, can be found in 90 percent of organic baby formula. The government's turnaround, from prohibition to permission, came after a USDA program manager was lobbied by the formula makers and overruled her staff. That decision and others by a handful of USDA employees, along with an advisory board's approval of a growing list of non-organic ingredients, have helped numerous companies win a coveted green-and-white "USDA Organic" seal on an array of products. Grated organic cheese, for example, contains wood starch to prevent clumping. Organic beer can be made from non-organic hops. Organic mock duck contains a synthetic ingredient that gives it an authentic, stringy texture...WPost

Song Of The Day #078

Let's get things rolling this week with Leon McAuliffe playing Panhandle Rag.

This version is from his Columbia Historic Edition LP.

In a First, Navajos to Vote on Their Power Structure

Navajo voters have never had much of a say in how their modern government was shaped. But that may soon change, after a tribal judge cleared the way for a special election on a restructuring that could alter the balance of power on the sprawling reservation. The government structure was forced upon Navajo voters 86 years ago and was reorganized under three branches without their consent. Maybe Navajos “will have a greater sense of ownership in the government than they now have,” said Dale Mason, who teaches Navajo government at the University of New Mexico, Gallup. Voting on the measures, which would cut the Tribal Council membership by more than half and give the president line-item veto authority, “would come close to that,” Mr. Wilkins said. A tribal hearing officer ruled that the initiatives could go forward after a legal fight between the Navajo president, Joe Shirley Jr., and the Tribal Council speaker, Lawrence Morgan. An election was ordered held within six months, but an appeal is planned...AP

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Red, white and cowboy

Julie Carter

Old Glory will wave majestically in rodeo arenas across America this holiday. It's the Fourth of July and cowboys, if they are anything, they are patriotic and optimistically greedy.

This particular holiday is his "Cowboy Christmas," the most lucrative run of rodeos of the year.

Don't misunderstand. It doesn't take a holiday for the cowboy to bring out the flag. It's there at every rodeo. Honor to the stars and stripes happens first, before anything else.

Even the rodeo livestock seems to know the routine. Watch as the cowboys stand at the chutes, hats held over their hearts while colors are posted and the national anthem is played.

The bucking horses in the chute will snort and kick the gate behind them adding to the music's percussion.

For the rodeo contestants, it's a sound that echoes in the recesses of their rodeo memories long after they no longer compete. Like the ringing of Pavlov's bell, it invokes a hunger for the competition about to begin.

Add that to the smell of the fresh-worked arena dirt, the banging of the gates as bucking horses and bulls are moved around, the rattle of arriving trailers as they ease across the parking lot and the sound of hoof beats as a horse lopes across the hard surface to the arena.

I want to believe that almost all of us honor America, our freedoms and the price paid for both. This weekend, I also honor the cowboy for keeping tradition year after year and in economic times that boggle the mind.

Rodeo rigs are progressively bigger, fancier, and technology has kicked rodeoing up a notch from the days of standing at a pay phone along the highway to enter a rodeo or find out when you drew up.

As much as there is that is different, there is still so much the same.

It still requires the basics. First, the cowboy has to get there, and second, he has to have brought his cowboy skills with him.

Fourth of July rodeoing is defined by road-weary cowboys, tired horses, pickups filled with dirty clothes, fast-food wrappers and muddy boots.

The pickup dashboard is full of rumpled programs, Copenhagen cans, empty coffee cups, dust-covered sunglasses, gas receipts, a ball cap or two and a road map. But in every rig, there rides great hope, unlimited optimism and a belief that this time, this rodeo, things will get better.

For me, it wouldn't be the Fourth of July if I wasn't standing in the hot sun, beating rain or dusty wind waiting for the next event to move the entertainment along.

Years past paying entry fees and waiting for them to call my name, now I carry a camera and put what I know of rodeo into print.

I don't suppose I'll ever be anywhere else but at a rodeo grounds somewhere on the Fourth of July. In a mental check of the past 40 years, there have been no more times than I can count on one hand that I haven't been at a rodeo somewhere, in some capacity. Not likely it'll change anytime soon.

Join me at a rodeo for a look into the heart of the rodeo cowboy at his best. Today would be a good day to start.

Julie can be reached for comment at www.julie-carter.com, or wandering with a camera at the rodeo grounds all weekend.

Why I Love America

By Gen LaGreca

I love America for being the place where an upstart group of colonists, against all odds, battled the most powerful empire in the world---and won---all in the cause of liberty.

I love America for establishing a revolutionary new country in which a person’s life is his and his alone to live for his own sake, and government’s sole purpose is to protect that sacred right.

I love America for recognizing that not only is it illegal for a criminal to steal your property, force you to do things against your will, or hijack your life, but the government cannot do these things, either. I love America for declaring for the first time in history that government cannot act like a common criminal but must be accountable to moral law.

I love America for igniting a firestorm of liberty that in a brief page on the calendar of history led to the abolition of slavery, the suffrage of women, and the spread of freedom around the globe.

I love America for triggering an explosion of scientific and industrial advancement and a standard of living unmatched---and unimaginable---in history.

I love America for fostering the climate of freedom in which genius can flourish, making possible the Henry Fords, the Thomas Edisons, the Wright Brothers, and the many other innovators who formed entire new industries that moved mankind forward.

I love America for being the place where wealth was created and earned, rather than looted and plundered.

I love America for spawning the American Dream, the worldwide symbol of the boundless opportunity and achievement that freedom brings.

I love America for making possible a truly civilized society, one of self-sufficient, resourceful, confident, hard-working, wealth-creating, and life-loving people, who lived in a spirit of peace and good will toward their fellow man because no one staked a claim to anyone else’s wallet.

I love America for offering freedom and opportunity to so many of our ancestors who arrived as immigrants, who knew that in America nothing was owed to them and everything had to be earned, and who rose to the challenge, creating a spectacular new life for themselves and for us, their descendants.

I love America for being the country where people could work hard, rise, and be proud of their success, because production, profit, wealth, and achievement were the stuff that American heroes were made of.

No matter how much our country has swayed from its ideals today, I will never forget that I am an American. I will never forget that our ancestors forged a continent not with public aid and bailouts but with the shining vision of a better life and the self-reliance to attain it. Our forebears created wealth, progress, and achievement on an unprecedented scale. No government fed our pioneers, inspected their wagons for safety, certified their chickens, meddled in their businesses, looted their wealth, or subjected their lives to endless controls, permissions, and regulations. No government built the breathtaking skylines of our majestic cities, the proud monuments to free minds and free commerce. The government’s fingerprints can be found only on the shattered shells of public housing that wound our cities, a grim reminder of the failed welfare state.

The time has come to reclaim our legacy from the meddlers, moochers, expropriators, and budding tyrants who are hammering away at Lady Liberty, knocking her down bit by bit, and ready to topple her completely.

We the people must pick up the pieces, make our Lady whole again, and return her to her golden pedestal as the country we love and honor, the country of liberty.

Let us ponder these thoughts on Independence Day.

© 2009 by Genevieve LaGreca

Chicago writer Gen LaGreca is the author of Noble Vision, a ForeWord Magazine Book-of-the-Year award-winning novel about liberty. Her commentaries have appeared in the Orange County Register, Rocky Mountain News, Front Page Magazine, Free Market News Network, Gainesville Sun, Real Clear Politics, and other publications. She holds a master’s degree in philosophy from Columbia University. For more information, see http://wingedvictorypress.com/medical_thriller.htm.

Published with permission of the author.

I would encourage everyone to read her essay Why We MUST Invoke Our Individual Rights—Now.

Song Of The Day #077

On this Fourth Of July I will make an exception and offer a song from the modern era of country music.

The song is In My Land by Royal Wade Kimes, and is the hidden track on his A Dyin' Breed CD.

This song has special meaning on this day as we celebrate our liberty.

Give it a listen and have a great 4th of July!

Palin to Resign as Alaska Governor on July 26

Says the Washington Post.

Los Ojos Hatchery Puts $2 Million into Reopening Long-Closed Stocking Facility

The Los Ojos Fish Hatchery is undergoing a $2 million renovation in order to reopen after a four-year layoff. Production had been halted in March 2005 after whirling disease was discovered in the hatchery. The construction work is being performed by El Prado Construction Inc., of Taos., and is being funded by the federal Fish and Wildlife Service, Hatchery Manager Greg Friday said. The infestation was discovered in March 2005 and the state Game and Fish Department-run hatchery has been shut down ever since. One previous attempt was made to clean and disinfect the hatchery but whirling disease was again found in the fish. Los Ojos was the third hatchery in New Mexico where whirling disease had been discovered. Hatcheries near Questa and Pecos were also temporarily closed due to the disease but have since at least partially reopened. None of the diseased fish were released into New Mexico waters, according to the Department...RioGrandeSun

Obama Silences Science: Is This the Change We Were Promised?

President Barack Obama rode into the White House promising open and honest government. So why did his administration bully a career official at the Environmental Protection Agency into silence? Last week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute released a 98 page report written by Alan Carlin, a 38 year veteran of the EPA, on the shaky science employed by global warming alarmists. Mr. Carlin had submitted the report to his superiors for the EPA to consider as it deliberated whether or not carbon dioxide “endangers” human health and welfare. As noted by my colleague Marlo Lewis, an “endangerment” finding isn’t mere bureaucratese. Instead, it’s a legal tripwire that would spark an economically ruinous regulatory chain reaction under the Clean Air Act. But the EPA would not consider Carlin’s report. In a series of incriminating emails, Carlin’s boss bluntly informed him that his report would remain secret for political reasons. Late Thursday night, CEI went ahead and posted a draft version of the document, which you can read here. In a not-so-subtle dig at the supposed scientific backwardness of his predecessor four months ago, President Obama said that science is “about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology.” Now we learn that his administration has done just that by silencing Mr. Carlin’s voice at the EPA. Is this the change we were promised?...CEI

Green Buildings Get Boost in Cap-and-Trade Bill

Most of the attention in the lead-up to last week’s vote on the Waxman-Markey climate bill was heaped on the cap-and-trade program. There was also a lot of vitriol over how much the bill would cost. Lost in the shuffle are a number of provisions that seem pretty banal but could have a more direct impact on the way we use energy at home and work. Take building codes. The bill mandates that upon passage, all states move to adopt standards for residential and commercial structures that are at least 30 percent better than two widely accepted energy codes. [See update below.] The requirements get more strict over time, and states would get lots of money from the federal government to enforce them. States that fail to comply could have the federal standard thrust upon them...WSJ

State and local governments will no longer be able to set bldg. codes of their choice. The senators from New York will have as much to say about bldg. codes in NM as the NM senators.

There must be a new definition of federalism out there that I'm not familiar with.

Fuel tax could be replaced with by-the-mile road tax

The year is 2020 and the gasoline tax is history. In its place you get a monthly tax bill based on each mile you drove — tracked by a Global Positioning System device in your car and uploaded to a billing center. What once was science fiction is being field-tested by the University of Iowa to iron out the wrinkles should a by-the-mile road tax ever be enacted. Besides the technological advances making such a tax possible, the idea is getting a hard push from a growing number of transportation experts and officials. That is because the traditional by-the-gallon fuel tax, struggling to keep up with road building and maintenance demands, could fall even farther behind as vehicles' gas mileage rises and more alternative-fuel vehicles come on line. The idea of shifting to a by-the-mile tax has been discussed for years, but it now appears to be getting more serious attention...KansasCityStar

Just think what that would do to us in the west, especially those living in rural areas, because of the distances we travel.

I'm confident the data from the GPS system would never be "studied" or shared with law enforcement or other government snoops.

We can trust them, right?

Should Obama Try to Reset the Planet's Thermostat?

On Monday, the Waxman-Markey climate bill moved to the Senate floor after narrowly passing the House. It's a step, yes—but as everyone knows, cooling the planet will require a lot more than closing an emissions deal. That's why earlier this month the august National Academy of Sciences (NAS) brought together in Washington, DC, leading scientists, economists, policy experts, philosophers, and a menagerie of other experts for a two-day workshop to discuss a crazy-sounding idea: Should the US consider geoengineering the planet's atmosphere to combat global warming? Once a fringe theory, in recent years the idea that humans can change the Earth's climate through direct intervention has begun to gain credibility in climate change discussions. The ways by which scientists propose to directly engineer the Earth's environment to slow the Earth's warming are myriad. Ideas range from injecting aerosols into the atmosphere via fighter jets to reduce solar radiation, to fertilizing the oceans with iron to grow algae blooms that absorb more carbon dioxide, to sending millions of small mirrors or "sun shades" into the Earth's orbit to scatter the sun's light away from the planet and back out into space. And these are but a few of the suggestions now surfacing in scientific circles...MotherJones

Controversies over Redefining Fill Material Under the Clean Water Act

On May 3, 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) announced a regulation redefining two key terms, fill material and discharge of fill material, in rules that implement Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. This report discusses the 2002 rule, focusing on how it changes which material and types of activities are regulated under Section 404 and the significance of these issues, especially for the mining industry. The Clean Water Act contains two different permitting regimes: (1) Section 402 permits (called the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit program) address the discharge of most pollutants, and (2) Section 404 permits address the discharge of dredged or fill material into navigable waters of the United States at specified sites. These permit programs differ in nature and approach. The NPDES program focuses on the effects of pollutant discharges on water quality. The 404 program considers effects on the aquatic ecosystem and other national and resource interests. The Corps and EPA have complementary roles under Section 404. Landowners seeking to discharge dredged or fill material must obtain a permit from the Corps under Section 404. EPA provides environmental guidance on 404 permitting. The determination of what is fill material is important, since fill material is subject to 404 permit requirements, while discharge of non-fill material is regulated by EPA under the Section 402 NPDES permit program. The revised rule was intended to clarify the regulatory definition of fill material by replacing two separate and inconsistent definitions with a single, common definition...OpenCRS

Should renewable energy include nuclear?

A new global effort that aims to make renewable energy more accessible to every country in the world will launch on July 1st. Governments are lining up to join the first agency that will advise them on how to make a renewable energy transition. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has attracted 108 countries, including the United States and China, which are both expected to announce their membership this week, in a move that experts say could boost the agency's credibility, since both countries are leaders in renewable energy. But supporters worry that IRENA could be undermined by countries that are trying to promote nuclear power as a solution to climate change and dwindling oil reserves. Today, members will meet in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt to vote on a director general for the group and decide which country will host the agency's headquarters. France generates nearly 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power. It's also one of the world's largest providers of nuclear technology and expertise. Since 2008, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has signed multibillion-dollar nuclear deals with the UAE, Qatar, Algeria, Libya, and Morocco. At the same time, France is promoting nuclear as a form of renewable power because it emits low levels of carbon dioxide. When the European Union defined its long-term target for renewable energy production last year, it tried to include nuclear power in the definition of renewable energy, a move that was rejected by EU members...CSMonitor

Of Hydraulic Fracturing and Drinking Water

A bill introduced earlier this month would bring federal oversight of hydraulic fracturing fluids – chemical mixtures pumped at high pressure into oil and gas wells in order to unlock deposits trapped deep underground. Environmentalists welcomed the bill, but representatives of the natural gas industry say the legislation could lead to increased costs, job losses and increased competition for water — particularly in the West. The bill, known as the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, (FRAC) was introduced in both the House and Senate by representatives from Colorado, Pennsylvania and New York. It essentially seeks to overturn a 2005 legislative tweak that placed fracturing fluids outside the regulatory purview of the Safe Drinking Water Act...NYTimes

Owyhee Initiative Funding Begins

Duck Valley Indian Reservation - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo will join members of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation tomorrow to discuss the first phase of funding that will implement provisions of the Owyhee Initiative land management legislation he passed earlier this year. The Owyhee Initiative, an eight-year collaborative written by Idahoans and led by Crapo in Congress, was authorized in the Omnibus Land Management Act of 2009. The process of allocating funding to implement the Owyhee Initiative is now underway through the appropriations process in Congress. Crapo said that other pieces of the Owyhee funding efforts to compensate ranchers for land exchanges, improvements and for giving up grazing rights, will come from a combination of public and private dollars. He said he has contacted Interior Secretary Ken Salazar about funding for the ranchers' needs. Some of the rancher payments, such as retiring grazing rights, must be paid for with private dollars and Crapo noted private groups are leading fundraising efforts in that regard...ABCTV-6

Dubois Destroyed

From our comment section:

There is a town in Wyoming that is also called Dubois.It is about an hour and half from Jackson Hole and just about broke. Every Environmental Policy that has been implemented has systematically destroyed this town.

They lost the Louisianna-Pacific mill in the Eighties, then when the Wolves came in 1995 the big ranches began to disappear.The Grizzly and Wolves have virtually stopped all tourist that used to hike in that Area.

The Wolves and Griz have destroyed the Hunting and Hunting is all that Dubois had left. The Big Game meat processing plant in Dubois processed 10 cow elk in 2008,they processed 25 in 2007.

In the year 2000 Wyo. issued 1500 late cow permits for the Dubois area ,today they issue 150. The reduction in permits began in 2003, that year the were reduced to 500, 2004 they went to 250 and have been at 150 since.

Our moose are gone.

If you would like to call and talk to a fellow who lives in a town that is dying because it has been sanitized by the Sierra Club. Call Darrel at Wind River Meat 307-332-8208.

What has happened to Dubois is a blue print for what is intended for the rest of us,who call the West our home. The Wolves are soldiers nothing more nothing less, and this is a war.

What they want and need is our Land and Water. The other issue that is fueling this insanity is the Hage Decision. Once the Hage Decision is put in place the Wildlife Managers will be liable for damages from Big Game. So the varied Fish&Game Dept have an interest in seeing as many ranchers put out of business as possible.

That is why Wyoming Game & Fish has been so quiet, and wouldn't say Wolf if they had a mouthful.

So watch your backs.

Todd Fross
nothpass@hughes.net