Song Of The Day #134

Time for a little Skeets McDonald this morning. Today's selection is his 1954 recording Smoke Comes Out My Chimney Just The Same.

It's available on his 5 disc box set Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes and on the 33 track CD Heart Breakin' Mama, both from Bear Family Records.

White House Is Prepared to Set First National Limits on Greenhouse Gases

The Obama administration on Tuesday formally proposed new fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, a move that signals the first federal limits on greenhouse-gas pollution. Tuesday's announcement marks progress on one piece of the Obama administration's agenda for fighting climate change. While the administration is simultaneously pressing for a bill to cap U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions and for a global climate pact, it is encountering resistance to those efforts both at home and abroad. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said the Senate may not act on climate legislation until next year. The move could bolster the U.S. negotiating position at the upcoming international climate talks in Copenhagen, said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), because "the Obama administration is taking steps to reduce our emissions. It sends a message, 'We're going to do this across our economy in a way that makes sense.' "...

Grizzly mauls sheepherder; kills dogs, sheep

After what could be the first grizzly bear attack on a human in the Upper Green, a 46-year-old sheepherder was life-flighted to Idaho Falls early Monday morning after being seriously mauled. The grizzly began its rampage in the early hours in a sheep herd grazing near Forest Road 617, at the eastern edge of the Gros Ventre Wilderness near Tosi Creek. The herd is tended by Marcello Tejeda, of Rock Springs, and Jorge Mesa, both of whom were awakened by what they thought was a black bear in the sheep, according to their employer, rancher Mary Thoman of Fontenelle. “We have had a nightmare,” she said of the W&M Thoman Ranches’ forest allotments on the Upper Green. “Nothing but grizzlies and wolves all summer long.” “Once they found out a bear was in the sheep the sheepherder (Tejeda) sent his (guard) dog in and the bear killed that one,” Bardin related . Tejeda then sent in another guard dog and apparently was attacked by the bear when he tried to save the second dog, which was killed, he said. The sheepherder received a seven-inch gash on top of his head, two punctures to the left side of his chest, three claw wounds to the right side of his abdomen and a puncture wound to his right wrist, early reports stated...SubletteExaminer

Rancher fined for killing grizzly

A Cut Bank rancher has agreed to pay a $2,000 fine for illegally shooting a protected grizzly bear on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation last year, while authorities continue to investigate three additional grizzly deaths in northwest Montana. Special Agent Brian Lakes of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who investigated the Blackfeet Indian Reservation case, said the agreement was reached between U.S. Attorney's Office in Missoula and rancher Jim Seewald. Seewald, 34, said he came upon the bear feeding on a cow carcass as he reached a hilltop on his all-terrain vehicle May 28, 2008, east of the Port of Del Bonita near the Canadian border. He was checking on his cattle at the time. He was frightened and surprised because he had never seen a grizzly that far east, he said. Seewald, who said he came within 10 yards of the bear, called the shooting "straight up self- defense." "I'm not ecstatic about getting a fine, because I didn't think I did anything wrong," he said. "But I can see why I got a fine ... returning with a larger rifle to finish the bear off." Seewald first shot the bear with a .22, injuring it, then returned later with his rifle and killed it, Lakes said. He reported the shooting to fish and game authorities on the reservation the next morning...GreatFallsTribune

Ranchers and Opposition Speak Out About Wolf Hunt

For many ranchers, the start of wolf hunting season means some protection for their herds. But others say it's a sad day in Montana. Rancher Ed Jonas says, "if they had a business and somebody came in and devoured most of their inventory, their assets. I would like to see their reaction." Ed Jonas has lost two of his cattle to confirmed wolf killings... Rancher John Herman has lost another 7. The ranchers get reinbursement because of the Gray Wolves Livestock Loss Mitigation Act. But, they tell me that doesn't cover their costs. Jonas says, "we still spend hours and hours replacing our animals and trying to find the animals that will compare with what we lost." Herman says, "all of the unconfirmed kills which is probably 80% of the kills on all the ranches, i would guess... They don't get paid for." That is why Ed Jonas and John Herman say they are happy wolf hunting season has started, but not everyone feels the same. Ben Griffin says, "I think it is killing just to kill." Some people protesting the wolf hunt say there are alternatives to killing the animals. Lizzie Sinclair tells the News Channel, "I think its really sad. I think we should try to relocate them maybe to a different place. Its really not a good idea." The wolf hunt began Tuesday in some areas, but for both sides, the fight to protect what they care for will continue...KECI-TV

Video: Coyote Gets Jessica Simpson's Pooch

Doesn't she know what coyotes do to little dogs? She better hope she DOESN'T find Daisy.

US planning to weaken Copenhagen climate deal, Europe warns

Europe has clashed with the US Obama administration over climate change in a potentially damaging split that comes ahead of crucial political negotiations on a new global deal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The Guardian understands that key differences have emerged between the US and Europe over the structure of a new worldwide treaty on global warming. Sources on the European side say the US approach could undermine the new treaty and weaken the world's ability to cut carbon emissions. The treaty will be negotiated in December at a UN meeting in Copenhagen and is widely billed as the last chance to save the planet from a temperature rise of 2C or higher, which the EU considers dangerous. "If we end up with a weaker framework with less stringent compliance, then that is not so good for the chances of hitting 2C," a source close to the EU negotiating team said. News of the split comes amid mounting concern that the Copenhagen talks will not make the necessary progress. Ban Ki-moon, the UN general secretary, told the Guardian last night that negotiations had stalled and need to "get moving"...Guardian

Red Snow Warning: The End of Welfare Water and the Drying of the West

Pink snow is turning red in Colorado. Here on the Great American Desert -- specifically Utah's slickrock portion of it where I live -- hot 'n' dry means dust. When frequent high winds sweep across our increasingly arid landscape, redrock powder is lifted up and carried hundreds of miles eastward until it settles on the broad shoulders of Colorado's majestic mountains, giving the snowpack there a pink hue. Some call it watermelon snow. Friends who ski into the backcountry of the San Juan and La Plata mountain ranges in western Colorado tell me that the pink-snow phenomenon has lately been giving way to redder hues, so thick and frequent are the dust storms that roll in these days. A cross-section of a typical Colorado snowbank last winter revealed alternating dirt and snow layers that looked like a weird wilderness version of our flag, red and white stripes alternating against the sky's blue field. Here in the lowlands, we, too, are experiencing the drying of the West in new dusty ways. Our landscapes are often covered with what we jokingly refer to as "adobe rain" -- when rain falls through dust, spattering windows or laundry hung out to dry with brown stains. All of this is more than a mere smudge on our postcard-pretty scenery: Colorado's red snow is a warning that the climatological dynamic in the arid West is changing dramatically. Think of it as a harbinger -- and of more than simply a continuing version of the epic drought we've been experiencing these past several years...CommonDreams

Unique partnership promotes conservation

A group of respected ranching and conservation organizations have come together to form a unique broad based coalition to enhance ranching practices that consider important conservation issues throughout the West. The Coalition for Conservation through Ranching is a new multi-stakeholder partnership between national conservation-minded groups that share an interest in promoting open space for ranching and healthy landscapes. The recently signed agreement marks the beginning of the unique relationship. Steering committee members of the coalition include the Public Lands Council (PLC), the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD), Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Family Farm Alliance (FFA) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Other organizations that have joined the coalition at this time are the American Farmland Trust, the American Forage and Grassland Council, the California Farm Bureau Federation, the Society for Rangeland Management, the Wild Sheep Foundation, and the Wilderness Society. The Bureau of Land Management serves as an advisor to the group. The coalition formed by six leading ranching and conservation organizations will support ranching on public and private lands in the West that is conducted in an ecologically sustainable way...DroversJournal

Scientific Integrity Lost on America's Parks

During the Bush era, allegations of scientific misconduct rocked the Interior Department. Though Secretary Ken Salazar has vowed to clean up the mess, his selection for director of the National Park Service only compounds it. Jon Jarvis--whose nomination is poised for Senate approval today--has demonstrated contempt for truth, transparency and scientific integrity in his current role as head of the Pacific West regional office. In an effort to expand wilderness in Point Reyes National Seashore, Jarvis's subordinates misrepresented science to portray an oyster farm as an ecological menace. When locals challenged the accusation, Senator Dianne Feinstein stepped in, along with Jarvis's boss, Mary Bomar. Jarvis was instructed to settle the dispute through an independent review; instead, he inflamed it. Since 2007 he has misled federal investigators, deceived the public and undermined scientific process to defend his subordinates' wrongdoing. Jarvis's actions are punishable under federal laws governing scientific misconduct. In July an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences filed an official charge against him, yet Salazar turned a blind eye and the Interior Department's inspector general refused to investigate (shunting a federal mandate to do so). If Congress approves Jarvis's nomination without unraveling the regional director's record, it will defeat the hope that in the Obama era science would be driven by facts--not by politics...TheNation

S. Utah county considers Cedar Breaks changes

A southern Utah county is trying to decide whether to try to get Cedar Breaks National Monument designated as a national park. The Iron County Commission on Monday held a public hearing about the possibility of seeking national park status for the monument — sometimes referred to as a miniature Grand Canyon — to boost tourism. "It will help us get on the map as a major Utah destination," said Maria Twitchell, director of the Cedar City/Brian Head Bureau of Tourism. But some at the hearing argued giving it the national park designation would close it off to anyone who wants to do anything there but "backpack in." "The use that people can get out of this is entirely different if it is park status," said Allen Nielsen. "Where now, people can get some use out of it as a wilderness area. If you put that under the park designation, you're just closing it up to all of us that want to use it." One Parowan rancher, David Burton, said the change could eliminate grazing and ruin his livelihood. "You can maybe grandfather it in, but by regulations it will make it so prohibitive it won't be feasible," Burton said. Other issues that came up included public access, private property rights and Cedar City's watershed...AP

Ranchers criticize plans for bison herds at BLM meeting

Ranching interests sharply criticized a private grassland preserve in northeastern Montana as well as a new federal initiative in which new free-roaming bison herds could be established in the West. The criticism came Tuesday at a meeting of the Bureau of Land Management's Central Montana Resource Advisory Committee. The 60,000-acre American Prairie Reserve in Phillips County, launched by the not-for-profit American Prairie Foundation in 2006, includes about 100 bison. The reserve consists of private land and property leased from the BLM for grazing. In a separate bison project, last year the U.S. Department of the Interior, under the Bush administration, called for federal agencies to coordinate management of existing bison herds on federal land, research bison genetics and disease, and study partnerships to increase existing herds or establish new ones. Both bison efforts were discussed for 90 minutes Tuesday in Havre, with ranchers and some RAC members raising concerns over the spread of disease, loss of public lands for cattle grazing and lack of local input. "People shouldn't have to drive five hours to testify for three minutes," Malta rancher Dale Veseth said, adding he believed the meeting should have been conducted in Malta, where most of the people affected by bison live. Veseth, citing the economic importance of cattle ranching, alleged that the American Prairie Foundation was in violation of the Taylor Grazing Act, which provides for the "sustainability of western livestock industry," and urged the BLM to reallocate its grazing allotment...GreatFallsTribune

Mexican Nationals fleeing into the United States

Mexican Nationals are fleeing into the United States in record numbers many fearing for their lives. Most because of the Mexican civil war that is raging between the Mexican Government, the Mexican Drug Cartels (MDC’s) and the cartels fighting among themselves over lucrative drug and human smuggling routes in both Mexico and the U.S. Many believe they are safer here than in Mexico. Many of these refugees are Mexican business people, ranchers, police, politicians and even cartel members who fear for their lives. Still others were victims being shaken down for protection money by the cartels similar to the American mafia tactics of the twenty’s and thirty’s. Many of them fear retaliation for not paying the cash or are just not welling to pay anymore. Shopkeepers along the U.S. Mexican border recite the list of "protection" fees they pay to the MDC’s to just stay in business: 100 pesos a month for a stall in a street market, 30,000 pesos for an auto dealership or construction-supply firm. First offense for nonpayment: a severe beating. Those who keep ignoring the fees - or try to charge their own - may pay with their lives...Examiner

Reopened Deming stockyards to benefit local ranchers

The trail ends, again, in Deming for the region's cattle and dairy ranchers. Southwestern Regional Stockyards opens today, off Tapia Road SE, at 10 a.m., today. Bill Matney is auctioneer. "The last year and a half," said Kevin Wilbeck, who operates the stockyard, ranchers here have "faced going to Roswell, Belen or Wilcox (Ariz.)." Moving a herd that far cuts profits. Deming Cattle Sales/Stockyard closed about 18 months ago, says Wilbeck, and ranchers had to move herds to other yards for sales. Crossing the state line to Wilcox with livestock presented other issues. "There's good quality here," Wilbeck says of available stock. "The numbers are down, because of the drought, but there is still adequate numbers to run a business here. I've visited with Gary Shiflett, in Nutt Valley. He indicated he's going to give it a try." Other dairy farmers and cattle ranchers are also on the trailhead to Deming...TMCNews

What’s Your Definition of Cowboy?

Everyone has a different idea of who or what a cowboy is. While most definitions vary widely, there is one thing that they all have in common: pride in American agriculture and dedication to get the job done right. Recently, I ran across an article titled, “Who Cares About Cowboys Anymore?” and it discussed how the average American consumer doesn’t care or understand where their food comes from. Today, I’m asking each and every single AgWired reader out there to share their definition of the American cowboy. Leave it in the comments section here, as well as on the article. It’s time we connect with our urban customers once again. It’s time they understand the people behind the products in the grocery stores. It’s time we stand up and speak out before our story gets told by someone else. Remember to share the facts and your personal story to deliver the most effective message...AgWired

The article linked to then links to this article by Elmer Kelton where he sets the record strait. There are 55 comments here, better get yours in too.

It's all Trew: From gunslingers to skunks, varmints took toll on Dodge City

Of all the wild Western towns established on the early American frontier, Dodge City, Kan., was probably the wildest and the woolliest. Almost any description imagined or written about the town might well be true. The fact the town has survived and thrived could be the most astonishing story of all. An old myth states Dodge City got its name because so many of the early residents were "on the dodge" from the law. Actually, the site was named for Col. Richard I. Dodge, a military commander of nearby Fort Dodge and one of the few respectful facts of the town's early history. Dodge City did not just happen. Odd circumstances made it an "end-of-track" town where the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway track ended coming from the east. When Texas cattlemen learned they could sell their overstocked herds by driving them to Dodge, the site also became an "end-of-trail" town. Locals laughed stating, "the end-of-track" was where the locomotives let off steam. When the Texas cowboys reached the "end-of-trail," they let off steam also. The pair of ends made for a steamy wild place where anything could and usually did happen. A third anomaly contributing to the growth of the area was the fact Dodge was located in the center of the domain of the Republican herd of Plains buffalo. With millions of the critters free for the taking, the Civil War leftovers spilled into the city to join in the hide and meat harvest. It seems the locals didn't like cowboys, the railroads didn't like the soldiers, the buffalo hunters didn't like anybody, and no one liked to be told what to do. This resulted in the filling of two cemeteries, one for the respectable deceased with coffins and flowers and the other for the less respectable who were buried in Boot Hill, wrapped in horse blankets and with their boots on...Amarillo.com

Song Of The Day #133

Today's selection is Blue Ridge Mountain Blues by Bill Clifton & His Dixie Pals.

This tune was on one of the first bluegrass LPs I owned. I got into bluegrass because bluegrass LPs were only 99 cents, whereas regular country LPs were $2.99. So it was bluegrass for me. I'm thankful that those albums were so cheap, or that I was so broke, because I became a real fan of the music.

This particular song was cut in March of 1958 in Nashville at the RCA studio. It's available on the 18 track CD Bill Clifton - The Early Years (1957-1958). And look who was backing him up: In addition to Clifton on guitar and lead vocals, there was Ralph Stanley [banjo], Benny Martin [fiddle], Tommy Jackson [fiddle], Curley Lambert [mandolin, tenor vocals], John Duffey [dobro, mandolin, high baritone vocals], and Junior Huskey [bass]. Bluegrass and country fans will have no problem recognizing those names.

Give it a listen and turn that volume up so all your neighbors can enjoy it too.

Climate bill politics are heating up

After months of promoting President Obama's climate plan as a vehicle to create millions of clean-energy jobs, supporters of the legislation are increasingly pushing another strategy -- its benefits for national security. It's a deliberate, anxiety-themed effort to press a handful of fence-sitting moderates to support a bill that will probably be the administration's next great legislative push after healthcare. A coalition backing the energy and climate bill pending before the Senate has enlisted war veterans to pressure senators in person. In television advertisements, the coalition calls dependence on foreign oil a threat to national security and fuel for terrorists. Other new ads feature pictures of angry Middle Eastern crowds and impoverished "climate refugees," many apparently African...LATimes

National Security Not a Good Argument for Global Warming Legislation

The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill has engendered tremendous controversy. Concerns abound about the legislation's adverse economic consequences as well as skepticism of its affects on world climate trends. Faced with mounting opposition, the bill's supporters are increasingly making the case that creating a new law is a national security imperative. They are wrong. Indeed, passing the bill would create far more severe, dangerous, and imminent global crises. The problem is that the catastrophic predictions--such as massive sea-level increases and declining food production that would lead to global unrest--are poorly supported by the evidence. To make the national security arguments, global warming legislation advocates must embrace the most alarmist scenarios. Nonetheless, connecting the dots between human-caused global warming and global conflict has become a popular theme as proponents prepare to take up the bill in the Senate. Arguing that the law will make the world safer is deeply flawed. First, there are significant doubts that the cap-and-trade system described in the 1,500-plus-page bill will even have a significant and positive impact on global climate trends. According to climatologist Chip Knappenberger, Waxman-Markey would moderate temperatures by only hundredths of a degree after being in effect for the next 40 years and no more than two-tenths of a degree at the end of the century.[2] EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson concurred, recently saying, "U.S. action alone will not impact world CO2 levels."[3]...Heritage

World celebrities sing to stop global warming

British rock group Duran Duran and heavy metal band Scorpions are among 55 world celebrities who have joined in recording a song to draw attention to the global warming crisis, organisers said on Monday. The song is part of a mass media campaign on the threats of climate change organised by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum, headed by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan. The song entitled "Beds'r Burning", which was originally recorded by the Australian group Midnight Oil in the 1980s, can be downloaded from the Internet for free and will be presented to the public at a launch in Paris on October 1. "If we do not stop the (greenhouse gas) emissions today, global warming will be still be with us in 40 to 50 years," warned Walter Fust, director of the Forum, at a press conference in Geneva. The media campaign featuring the song is aimed at putting pressure on world leaders to reach an agreement on tackling climate change at a UN-sponsored conference in Copenhagen in December...AFP

Carbon-trading market hit as UN suspends clean-energy auditor

The legitimacy of the $100 billion (£60 billion) carbon-trading market has been called into question after the world’s largest auditor of clean-energy projects was suspended by United Nations inspectors. SGS UK had its accreditation suspended last week after it was unable to prove its staff had properly vetted projects that were then approved for the carbon-trading scheme, or even that they were qualified to do so. The episode will be embarrassing for European lawmakers in the run-up to the global climate summit in Copenhagen, where they will attempt to lure big polluters such as America and China into a binding agreement to replace the Kyoto protocol. SGS is the second such company to be suspended – Norway’s DNV was penalised last November for similar infractions. The EU’s carbon-trading system, which puts a price on pollution through carbon permits that can be bought and sold, is the key element in Europe’s fight against climate change...SundayTimes

"Scientific consensus" should be put on the stand

Just this year came a series of inconvenient developments for the promoters of man-made global warming fears. A small sampling of developments include: New peer-reviewed studies, real world data, a growing chorus of scientists dissenting (including more UN IPCC scientists), open revolts in scientific societies, more evidence that rising CO2 is a boon for the atmosphere, and the Earth's failure to warm. Those are just the broad strokes. What about the specifics? As the climate fear activists point fingers and regress into amusing rants, the global warming fear movement is collapsing. There has been no significant global warming since 1995, no warming since 1998 and global cooling for the past few years. This follows a peer-reviewed analysis showing that the 20th century was not unusually warm. In addition, a global temperature analysis on April 24, 2009 found that "no continents have set a record high temperature since 1974." On May 1, 2009, the American Physical Society (APS) Council decided to review its current climate statement via a high-level subcommittee of respected senior scientists. The decision was prompted after a group of over 80 prominent physicists petitioned the APS revise its global warming position. The physicists wrote to APS governing board: "Measured or reconstructed temperature records indicate that 20th-21st century changes are neither exceptional nor persistent, and the historical and geological records show many periods warmer than today."...Examiner

California renewables push could drive up prices in Oregon

California's push to supersize its renewable energy standards could drive electricity rates higher for Northwest consumers, strain the West's transmission and hydroelectric systems, and create a host of thorny policy issues. The California Assembly passed a pair of bills Friday to create the nation's most aggressive renewable energy mandate. It would require utilities to meet one-third of customers' needs with green energy such as wind, solar and geothermal by 2020. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has threatened to veto the bills because they limit how much renewable power utilities can import from neighboring states, a limit he believes will restrict electricity supplies and drive up prices. Schwarzenegger hopes to issue an executive order this week establishing the 33 percent standard without any import limits. Either way, California's outsized energy demand, coupled with any enlarged renewables standard, would drive major new demand in the Northwest. "This is an important and sensitive issue for the entire West," said Elliot Mainzer, head of strategic planning at the Bonneville Power Administration...Oregonian

EPA to scrutinize dozens of mining permits

Dozens of coal-mining permits proposed across Appalachia need much more scrutiny because of concerns they will illegally damage water quality, the Obama administration said Friday. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials announced that they would conduct more detailed reviews of 79 permit applications that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had proposed to approve in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio. The move won strong praise from environmental groups, who have hoped President Obama would end a more than decade-long battle by banning mountaintop removal altogether. In all, the EPA put the brakes on nearly 60 square miles of permits that would bury more than 170 miles of streams to get at about 290 million tons of coal, the rough equivalent of two years' worth of West Virginia's annual production. Forty-nine of the permits are in Kentucky, 23 in West Virginia, six in Ohio and one in Tennessee...CharlestonGazette

Wind Power: An Expensive and Inefficient Way to Reduce CO2

In a speech in May, President Obama pushed for our nation to transition to renewable energy and pointed to Denmark as an example of proof it can be done. But according to a new study from the Danish Centre for Political Studies (CEPOS), the road to increased wind power is less traveled for a reason. The study refutes the claim that Denmark generates 20 percent of its power from wind stating that its high intermittency not only leads to new challenges to balance the supply and demand of electricity, but also provides less electricity consumption than assumed. The new study says, “wind power has recently (2006) met as little as 5% of Denmark’s annual electricity consumption with an average over the last five years of 9.7%.” Furthermore, the wind energy Denmark exports to its northern neighbors, Sweden and Norway, does little to reduce carbon dioxide emissions because the energy it replaces is carbon neutral. The study goes on to say that the only reason wind power exists in Denmark is “through substantial subsidies supporting the wind turbine owners. Exactly how the subsidies have been shared between land, wind turbine owners, labor, capital and its shareholders is opaque, but it is fair to assess that no Danish wind industry to speak of would exist if it had to compete on market terms.” But there’s a cost involved. When government spends more money, it necessarily diverts labor, capital and materials from the private sector. Just like promises are made in the United States about green jobs creation, the heavily subsidized Danish program created 28,400 jobs. But “this does not, however, constitute the net employment effect of the wind mill subsidy. In the long run, creating additional employment in one sector through subsidies will detract labor from other sectors, resulting in no increase in net employment but only in a shift from the non-subsidized sectors to the subsidized sector.”...TheFoundry

Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering

Almost four decades ago, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to force polluters to disclose the toxins they dump into waterways and to give regulators the power to fine or jail offenders. States have passed pollution statutes of their own. But in recent years, violations of the Clean Water Act have risen steadily across the nation, an extensive review of water pollution records by The New York Times found. In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times. The violations range from failing to report emissions to dumping toxins at concentrations regulators say might contribute to cancer, birth defects and other illnesses. However, the vast majority of those polluters have escaped punishment. State officials have repeatedly ignored obvious illegal dumping, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which can prosecute polluters when states fail to act, has often declined to intervene...NYTimes

Collaborative timber harvest crafted on Pinchot

A Vancouver-based environmental group, long accustomed to blocking timber sales in national forests, recently embarked on a novel concept: Designing a logging project of its own. If it's accepted by Gifford Pinchot National Forest managers, Platt and other members of the so-called Pinchot Partnership expect the restoration project on the north end of the forest will generate 11 million board feet of timber, two to three years of local employment and the decommissioning of 22 miles of crumbling logging roads. The environmental group collaborated with conservation, union, tribal and local residents to design the plan and draft a formal environmental assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. The collaborative group, which formed in 2002, is the oldest among three relatively new organizations thinking about new ways to break through long-simmering disputes between loggers and environmentalists. The forest thinning project near Packwood represents the first time one of the collaborative groups has delivered a full environmental analysis on a suggestion. The group did marshal several federal and foundation grants to underwrite much of the specialized research and writing required to produce a NEPA-quality assessment. Platt estimated the total cost of creating the 110-page document at $140,000...Columbian

Report: Gov't agency waives rules for shippers

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration — which regulates more than 1 million daily shipments of potentially dangerous cargo by land, sea and air — has routinely granted or renewed waivers of rules without attempting to find out whether shippers had been involved in accidents or were cited for violations, according to investigations by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Transportation Department's inspector general. Calvin Scovel, the inspector general, told the committee he warned Obama administration officials in late July that an investigation by his office had uncovered significant concerns regarding the handling of waivers. He cited a company that was granted a waiver in 2004 despite having 321 prior safety incidents and five prior enforcement violations. He said the waiver was renewed two years later despite the fact that the firm had an additional 26 incidents and five more enforcement violations. The public has "little assurance that hazmat materials will be safely transported," Scovel said. PHMSA is part of the Transportation Department...AP

Clean Trumps Coal for Jobs, Advocates Say

Campaign groups said Monday that global leaders could raise the total number of jobs in the power sector by 2.7 million over the next 20 years if their nations switched to renewable forms of electricity generation and phased out coal. The groups, Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council, released the report, “Working for the Climate,” ahead of the coming Group of 20 meeting of major industrialized and developing economies in Pittsburgh next week. The aim, the groups said, was to show that stimulating the growth of green power industries is an effective way of raising employment. The report is likely to add to debate about whether the transition to a low-carbon economy will create more jobs than it would destroy at a time when countries are slowly showing signs of recovery from the worst economic slowdown in decades...NYTimes

Environmental Groups Spar Over Certifications of Wood and Paper Products

For more than a decade, the nonprofit Forest Stewardship Council generally has been viewed as the premier judge of whether a wood or paper product should be labeled as environmentally friendly. But to the dismay of major environmental groups, that label, known as F.S.C., is facing a stiff challenge from a rival certification system supported by the paper and timber industry. At stake is the trust of consumers in the ever-expanding market for “green” products. This week lawyers for ForestEthics, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting forests, filed administrative complaints with the Federal Trade Commission and the Internal Revenue Service challenging the credibility of the rival label, known as the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, or S.F.I. The complaints, which challenge S.F.I.’s nonprofit status, accuse the certification program of lax standards and deceptive marketing intended to obscure the standards and the S.F.I.’s financial ties to the forest industry...NYTimes

NASA Rocket to Create Clouds Tuesday

A rocket experiment set to launch Tuesday aims to create artificial clouds at the outermost layers of Earth's atmosphere. The project, called the Charged Aerosol Release Experiment (CARE), plans to trigger cloud formation around the rocket's exhaust particles. The clouds are intended to simulate naturally-occurring phenomena called noctilucent clouds, which are the highest clouds in the atmosphere. "This is really essentially at the boundary of space," said Wayne Scales, a scientist at Virginia Tech who will use computer models to study the physics of the artificial dust cloud as it's released. "Nothing like this has been done before and that's why everybody's really excited about it." The experiment is the first attempt to create artificial noctilucent clouds. A previous spacecraft, called Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM), launched in 2007 to observe the natural clouds from space...LiveScience

HT: OzoneSky

EPA Puts Limits on 3 Pesticides to Protect Salmon

The Environmental Protection Agency is placing new limits on three pesticides common on farms and orchards to protect endangered and threatened Pacific salmon. The limits announced Friday apply to the use of three chemicals - chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion - in Washington, California, Oregon and Idaho. Federal biologists say the chemicals interfere with salmon's sense of smell, making it harder for them to find food and avoid predators. The EPA is requiring buffer zones and limits on the pesticide use in certain wind, soil and weather conditions. The new EPA restrictions stem from recommendations made by federal biologists, under a lawsuit brought by anti-pesticide groups. AP

To save his pets, man brawls with bobcat

Gary Lucia of Hermantown suffered minor injuries after what he described as an attack by a bobcat in his garage late Friday night. Lucia was working on his laptop computer and hanging out with his pet ducks and goose when a bobcat entered his garage at about 11 p.m. Friday. The ducks and goose “started quacking really loud and getting really nervous,” Lucia, 52, said of his 11 ducks and one goose. “I looked down and saw it. The bobcat was really long and on a prowl. “He started to go after the ducks, and they scattered,” said Lucia, who described the cat as about 80 pounds, muscular, gray and brown in coat and with a short tail. “He pinned a few [ducks] in a corner, and that is when I went after the cat. I came in from the side, and that is when he came after me. Then we chased each other and he climbed on the walls and onto the overhead door. I don’t know if he bit me in the head or clawed me, but I was bleeding pretty good.”...DuluthNewsTribune

In the foreground of the flames

To the outside world, the Indian Trail wildfire hung this week like an amorphous smokescreen in the background of their daily lives. But to those inside the fire lines, it was an all-too-familiar high-stakes game of chicken. It was Mother Nature challenging man, each testing boundaries the other set. Those involved - the firefighters and the flames - continually chose whether to make a stand or run. Greg Archie initially handled the strategy, overseeing more than 100 paid and volunteer firefighters. He's the fire program manager for the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. He and his crews had a single-minded mission: To snuff out the 4,300-acre fire of unknown origin that started Wednesday near the trailers at Indian Trails Marina. That was good news to Scott Blackman, who owns the ranch that's burning. He was surprisingly calm watching the flames consume grass he needs for grazing his cattle and trees he could sell for lumber. One reason for the fifth-generation rancher's stoicism might be that he's been through this before, with major blazes in 1990 and 2007, and a few smaller ones in between. Another reason is that Archie and others include him in the decision-making process, asking him where the best spots are to cut in dozer lines as fire breaks, and where they might best make a stand. "This crew is good. They want to work with you, get to know the lay of the land," Blackman said...HelenaIndependentRecord

'Last great roundup' in Alberta

English chef Arthur Harwood enjoyed his adventures on the wild Canadian frontier. Cowboys in leather, Indians in buckskin, remittance men in fading Saville Row finery, gamblers and drummers: this was frontier Pincher Creek on a Saturday night in 1905 as cattlemen drank, gambled and danced away a week's dust and sweat. For all of their wild dress and language, few could compete with Arthur Harwood's new employer, old Fred Kanouse, for colour. The young English cook was spellbound by tales of his employer's adventures as a fur trader, whisky peddler, cattleman, gambler and guide, and soon learned the reason for his Kanouse's maimed left arm -- the result of an Indian's musket ball. Even Kanouse's pretentiously named Waldorf Hotel added to the heady atmosphere of wild frontier with its swinging doors, spittoons and rustic bar. Another throwback from history was Kanouse's best friend, Kootenai Brown. With his long, flowing hair, bushy white moustache, buckskins and spurs, the leathery old plainsman could have passed for Buffalo Bill. And the resemblance went deeper, Mr. Harwood soon learned, for Kootenai had known almost every kind of adventure in a lifetime on the plains...canada.com

Song Of The Day #132

Today's tune is Laurie's Waltz by mandolin picker Buddy Merriam and his bluegrass group Back Roads. The song is available on Buddy Merriam & Back Roads - It's Blue Grass Time.

Ranch Radio sends this song out to Laura Schneberger for all she does to assist the livestock industry on many issues and for her informative blog Wolf Crossing.

Forest fire funds aid D.C. festivals

Even with forest fires raging out West, the U.S. Forest Service this week announced it will spend nearly $2.8 million in forest-fire-fighting money in Washington — a city with no national forests and where the last major fire was probably lit by British troops in 1814. The D.C. aid is going to two programs: $90,000 is slated for a green summer job corps, but the vast majority of the money — $2.7 million — is going to Washington Parks & People, which sponsors park festivals and refurbishes urban parks in the Washington area. Forest Service officials didn't return messages left seeking comment on why they spent money from their "wildland fire mitigation" stimulus fund in Washington, but members of Congress said city parks don't deserve the money while fires are scorching millions of acres of land and owners are losing homes. "As catastrophic wildfires continue to burn throughout the West, destroying people's homes and businesses in the process, funds that should be used to thin our overgrown forests and protect the public are being frivolously spent on park restoration," said Rep. Wally Herger, a California Republican whose district has seen some of the worst fires. "While the administration is spending millions of taxpayer dollars on improving picnic grounds, communities and citizens' lives tragically remain at risk."...WashingtonTimes

Water Measured From the Sky

Water management is serious business in the American West, where precipitation is scarce, irrigated agriculture is a major industry, new housing subdivisions spread across arid landscapes and water rights are allocated in a complicated seniority system. "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it," water officials are fond of saying. But measurement -- trying to determine how much water is diverted from rivers and how much is pumped from hundreds of thousands of wells -- has been an inexact and expensive science. Now a tool developed by the Idaho Department of Water Resources and the University of Idaho is changing the face of water management and conservation by efficiently offering specific measurements of the water consumed across a large region or single field. Using surface temperature readings from government satellites, air temperature and a system of algorithms, the new method lets officials measure how much water is "consumed" on a certain piece of land through evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiration is a combination of the evaporation of water into the atmosphere and the water vapor released by plants through respiration -- basically, a measurement of the water that leaves the land for the atmosphere, not water that is diverted or pumped onto land but then returned quickly to the water table or river for other users. Water resource management agencies in Idaho and other states see this as the best way to measure water consumption, since it is a more exact definition of how much water is being removed from the system by a given individual or entity...WPost

Power lines planned from the plains to the Pacific, but not without resistance

Idaho Power Co. and Rocky Mountain Power, who want to snake a $7 billion network of 190-foot transmission towers across the West, face a tangled matrix of state and local barriers as challenging as the hardships faced by the pioneers who traveled much the same route on the Oregon Trail a century and a half ago. The 1,500-mile route between Boardman, Ore., and Windstar station in Wyoming would connect power plants to energy users for decades to come. "These are projects everybody needs and nobody wants," said Lisa Grow, Idaho Power's vice president for transmission. The opposition - which rose to a fever pitch in places like Parma and Kuna and sparked a regional response along Idaho's southern border - has been a wake-up call for Idaho Power, which has not built a major transmission line in more than 20 years...IdahoStatesman

Preservationist: More must be done to save lands

Public lands protected by legal designations such as "national monument" aren't necessarily fully protected, a recognized conservation expert said Thursday in Great Falls. "Satan never sleeps," said Edward M. Norton, a senior environmental adviser to TPG Capital, L.P., a private equity firm in San Francisco. "Somebody always has a bad idea and wants to do something." Norton was the keynote speaker Thursday at the 7th Annual Statewide Preservation Workshop sponsored by the Montana Preservation Alliance, the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation and the Great Falls-Cascade County Historic Preservation Commission. Norton, 67, spent three decades working to protect areas from development for groups such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation and The Wilderness Society. He currently is chairman of the National Conservation System Foundation. The foundation is designed to protect, restore and expand National Landscape Conservation System Lands, a class of 27 million acres managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management...GreatFallsTribune

Oil firm plans to halt water delivery to Pavillion-area rancher

A Pavillion-area resident says he's been put on notice by EnCana Oil & Gas USA that it will cease delivering drinking water to his home on Monday. Louis Meeks, and several of his neighbors, for years have suspected that their drinking water wells might be contaminated from deep natural-gas wells interspersed throughout the rural ranching and farming community in Fremont County. EnCana contends that after multiple rounds of testing and several years of analysis, there's been no evidence that the residential water wells pose a health risk or that its oil and gas activities are to blame for any contamination. In fact, after bringing a lawsuit against EnCana, Meeks entered into a mediation agreement in which EnCana would deliver drinking water to his home. EnCana spokesman Randy Teeuwen said the agreement also stipulated that EnCana could stop providing drinking water on Sept. 15, 2009. Meanwhile, the drinking water concern in Pavillion has attracted national attention in a movement to restrict the oil and gas industry's practice of hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing is the process of pumping fluids - sometimes oil and diesel - under extremely high pressure in order to crack gas-bearing rock deep below the surface. "Fracking" and other advanced drilling and well-stimulation technologies are credited for boosting the nation's technically recoverable natural gas reserve by more than 35 percent in just two years. But others see it as a threat to water resources, and particularly a threat to human health in areas where there are drinking water wells. In fact, legislation has been introduced in Congress to bring hydraulic fracturing under the federal authority of the Clean Drinking Water Act...BillingsGazette

Wyo official: Ferret listing attempt frivolous

A petition to list black-footed ferret populations in three states as endangered is frivolous and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should ignore it, a Wyoming Game and Fish Department official said Friday. Ferret numbers have rebounded in southeastern Wyoming's Shirley Basin thanks in no small measure to cooperation from private landowners who have allowed the critters on their property. Now, those ranchers worry that an endangered species listing could restrict how they may use their land, said Bob Oakleaf, nongame species coordinator for the department. He called on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reject the environmentalists' request. "They've done the damage," Oakleaf said. "They've created a doubt with the landowners and created a worry and a concern, and it's a legitimate concern." The groups WildEarth Guardians, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and Center for Native Ecosystems filed the petition Tuesday to list black-footed ferret populations in Arizona, South Dakota and Wyoming as endangered. The three ferret populations are at risk because of widespread shooting and poisoning of prairie dogs, which are the ferrets' only prey, the petition says...AP

Trial Over What Constitutes a "Road" In Canyonlands National

There long have been pockets of disgust over federal land ownership in the West, and perhaps nowhere is that stronger than in Utah, where roughly two-thirds of the landscape is federally managed. While the "Sagebrush Rebellion" mightily reared its head some three decades ago, its waning vestiges are on trial this week over whether a creek bed constitutes a road in Canyonlands National Park. The poster child of the rebellion rose up on July 4, 1980, when several hundred people gathered in Moab, Utah, on the doorstep of both Canyonlands and Arches national parks, to celebrate the nation's birthday...and decry federal land-management policies. From atop a Caterpillar bulldozer, one carrying a few "Sagebrush Rebel" stickers and spouting a U.S. flag from its smokestack, county officials complained about federal land managers. After firing up the crowd, the politicians fired up the bulldozer and, while following the scant traces of an abandoned mining road, worked to scrape a path into a nearby Wilderness Study Area on U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands. Litigation, not bulldozers, has littered the landscape in Canyonlands these past 11 years over whether Salt Creek should be open to off-road vehicles. The case returns to a U.S. District Courthouse in Salt Lake City on Monday, September 14, when the government squares off against the state of Utah and one of its counties over the question of whether Salt Creek is a road...ParksTraveler

Battle to save America’s mustangs as government rounds up wild horses

For the first two hours of the bone-jarring drive into the Pryor Mountains you do not see much but rocks, scrubland and tree stumps charred by a recent forest fire. It is only when you reach the subalpine meadows at 8,000ft (2,400m) looking over the vast, red rock deserts of Wyoming below that the creatures begin to emerge slowly. They are a magnificent sight: wild horses, their lineage unbroken from the horses that arrived with Spanish conquistadors about 500 years earlier. This particular herd has even greater historical significance: its ancestors were tamed by the pioneering Lewis and Clark Expedition across the West but were stolen by the Crow tribe, who set them free. They have been living in almost complete isolation ever since, protected by a 1971 Act of Congress which declared that wild horses, or mustangs, be “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West”. Last week, however, the US federal government’s Bureau of Land Management began to round up the horses using a helicopter in an effort to reduce their numbers. It is part of a scheme that has resulted in 33,000 mustangs being caught, with only about 26,000 left to roam. Some of the horses will be put up for adoption. Others will be released, but only after the mares have been given contraceptives...LondonTimes

I'll let others comment on the historical accuracy and the objectivity of this article.

In Texas, Seeing the West as It Was

A VISIT to Guadalupe Mountains National Park is a vivid reminder that not all of the West was won and an illustration of why that’s a very good thing. The untamed West in all its cranky, craggy, dusty, arid majesty seems to have been frozen in amber in this park, a windswept wedge of 86,000 acres of West Texas mountain desert on the border with New Mexico. For the latter-day pioneer willing to find and make peace with this remote and inhospitable place, the rewards stimulate the senses and challenge the imagination. The park is a repository of Texas superlatives that even most Texans are not aware of: the state’s highest point, Guadalupe Peak, at a challenging but climbable 8,749 feet; what is commonly referred to as its most beautiful single spot, postcard-picturesque McKittrick Canyon; and one of the most striking geological formations anywhere, an imposing slab of limestone known (like its more famous granite cousin at Yosemite National Park) as El Capitan. The one amenity that Guadalupe does have is a variety of hiking experiences. On our first day, we took the tame trek through McKittrick Canyon, a two-and-a-half-mile loop. The turning point was at a modest stone lodge built by the oilman Wallace Pratt, who bought 16,000 acres of this land in the early 20th century. Pratt’s holdings, along with those of a rancher named J. C. Hunter, eventually formed the basis of the national park...NYTimes

Perry: Ranger teams to go to Texas-Mexico border

Special teams of Texas Rangers will be deployed to the Texas-Mexico border to deal with increasing violence because the federal government has failed to address growing problems there, Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday. "It is an expansive effort with the Rangers playing a more high-profile role than they've ever played before," Perry said of the Department of Public Safety's elite investigative unit. The forces, dubbed "Ranger recon" teams, are the latest effort "to fill the gap that's been left by the federal government's ongoing failure to adequately secure our international border with Mexico," he said. The governor early this year asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for 1,000 National Guard troops and renewed his call last month in a letter to President Barack Obama. The request is bogged down over who will pay for the troops and how they will be deployed. Perry's announcement Thursday comes amid increasing border violence, particularly in El Paso, mostly involving people with ties to Mexican drug gangs. "They'll be deployed to high-traffic, high-crime areas along the border," he said. "They'll give us boots on the ground, put people in these hot spots no matter what or where they may exist." Perry said the effort also would focus on remote areas where farmers and ranchers have complained of being overrun by smugglers and gangs from Mexico in numbers that also overwhelm local law enforcement and border patrol officers...AP

TSCRA Disappointed In Sunstein Confirmation

The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) today expressed disappointment after the Senate confirmed animal rights advocate Cass Sunstein as the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for the Obama Administration. As the Administration's "Regulatory Czar," Sunstein will be responsible for approving all the rules and regulations proposed by federal agencies. "TSCRA is very concerned that Sunstein, a vocal animal rights activist, will allow his personal feelings against animal agriculture to shape federal regulations that will ultimately harm the cattle industry," said TSCRA President and rancher Dave Scott. "We want to thank Senators Hutchison and Cornyn for voting against his confirmation."...cattlenetwork

NMSU Research - SW drought-tolerant landscaping

Commercial nurseries are turning a curious eye toward a plant that New Mexico agricultural researchers hope will take off as an ornamental and fruit-bearing addition for small-scale growers. The sea berry shrub, also known as sea buckthorn, has striking gray-green, almost silver foliage with clusters of small, oblong-shaped yellow or orange edible berries. The shrub was recently showcased during a field-day demonstration at the New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center in Los Lunas as part of the research by Ron Walser, NMSU extension fruit specialist. The drought-tolerant plant has the potential to be used as an ornamental plant for water-wise landscaping and for the food value packed into its nutritious, antioxidant-rich berries, Walser said...AP

Baggs, Wyo., hosts 1st football game in 56 years

Junior center Alaska Burnell soaked up the moment as he and his teammates on the Little Snake River Valley School varsity football team made use of a sliver of shade behind a set of bleachers. It was not lost on him, he said, that roughly the entire 348-person population of Baggs, Wyo., was on the other side of the stands, anticipating the town’s first home football game in 56 years. Little Snake is in Wyoming’s new six-man football league, started this year with eight teams from across the state. It’s the first state sanctioned six-man football league in Wyoming since 1953, referee Lane Buchanan said, and even he needed some education about how the game works. It took everyone to make it happen, too, Little Snake athletic director Ann Wille said. The school bought one bleacher, students repaired a few broken ones and a local rancher donated another, Wille added. Devon Energy, one of Baggs’ major employers, donated hundreds of dollars worth of electrical equipment, she said, and sent two of its electricians over to the field to rewire the press box. “All you have to do is ask this community, and they’ll do anything,” Wille said...CraigDailyPress

Local beef: From hoof to home

It’s free of hormones, antibiotics and animal byproducts – and it’s raised in New Mexico, for New Mexicans. In fact, Kate and Jim Maynard, owners of Maynard Cattle Co., said their cattle never leave the state. “From conception to kitchen, our operation is all about New Mexico,” Kate Maynard said, holding up a large frozen steak and pointing to the label. “People love the beef – its age, flavor, texture and smell. There’s nothing artificial about it – it’s beautiful.” The Maynards began ranching in New Mexico more than 10 years ago, out of love for the land and the desire to become self-sustainable. They raise their herd on native rangelands nested between Mountainair, N.M., and the Pueblo of Grand Quivira. “We are very strong advocates of agriculture, conserving soils and maintaining genetics that are suitable for our environment,” Kate Maynard said. The family distributes its New Mexico ranch-raised beef in several stores from Ruidoso, N.M., to Silver City, N.M., in addition to providing homedelivery and accepting custom orders in the southern part of the state. “Albuquerque and anything above I-40 is not our market,” Jim Maynard said. They lease the services of other ranchers in southern and central New Mexico, who raise a red and black Angus Hereford mix to the Maynards’ specifications. The family sells steers in quarters, sides and wholes. “Our cows are smaller, but meaty,” Jim Maynard said. “They work better in this type of landscape. Less is more, anyway. Our beef is simple – raised the way your grandparents’ probably raised beef. Its healthier and better for the land.” Rather than being shipped off to an out-of-state slaughterhouse as many commercial beef producers do, the Maynards keep it local by sending off their harvest to a butcher north of Roswell, N.M...LasCrucesBulletin

Texas rancher fights to save longtime family business

As Hurricane Ike bore down on his ranch, Bill White made one last move to save his cattle. He flung open the gates of his ranch to let his 3,000 cows fend for themselves. White saved all but 200 of his herd that night one year ago. Today, he's not sure he can save his ranch, which has been in his family since 1819. Ike was only one of several calamities to hit this part of southeast Texas in the past year. The sixth-generation rancher is a hands-on cattle man. His dirt-flecked straw hat, worn Wranglers and scuffed boots make him hard to distinguish from his ranch hands. But the 55-year-old follows in the footsteps of his great-great-great grandfather, James Taylor White, known as the first Anglo-American rancher in Texas. After a year of setbacks, White is in an epic battle for survival. He's trying to refinance his entire operation – literally betting the ranch – to preserve a business that's been passed down for nearly two centuries. The odds aren't in his favor...DallasMorningNews

Tinnin receives award for husband

Jacksboro resident Bennie Tinnin was recently honored to receive a post-humous award for her husband, Rusty. Rusty Tinnin was the recipient of the Ranch Trailblazers Award at the annual Texas Ranch Roundup Aug. 14-15 in Wichita Falls. Each year, the Roundup recognizes outstanding ranchers who, over a lifetime, have shown in word and deed that they have earned the respect and admiration of the livestock industry. These ranchers never sought limelight or public acclaim. Their successes, in a lifetime pursuit of the cattle business, makes them worthy of consideration as role models for generations to come. Tinnin dedicated his life to ranching in the West Texas/eastern New Mexico area. He chaired the National Cutting Horse Association finals in Amarillo as well as the AgriBusiness Committee of Amarillo Chamber of Commerce. He was recognized with the Salt of the Earth Award of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association and was the 1999 Cattleman of the Year in New Mexico...GazetteNews

“The Dark Horse: A Walt Longmire Mystery” by Craig Johnson

Having won the 2009 Spur Award from the Western Writers of America for the preceding novel in the series, “Another Man’s Moccasins,” Craig Johnson makes the latest Sheriff Walt Longmire mystery another interesting and good read. Wade Basard, a wealthy rancher in Campbell County, Wyoming was killed approximately ten days ago as the novel opens. Mid October finds Mary Basard being brought to Sheriff Longmire for holding until her murder trial back in Gillette in Campbell County in three weeks. Holding prisoners for overcrowd jails is a way for Sheriff Longmire to help his budget in Absaroka County and to use the often vacant jail space. Accused of shooting her husband six times in the head as he lay on their bed and then setting the house on fire, she has confessed and refuses to say much or eat. But, Walt Longmire thinks she is covering for the real killer and before long goes undercover in Campbell County to find out what actually happened...BNN

Did He Go To Hell Or Texas?

According to most historical accounts, John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, perished shortly after being shot inside a burning barn in Virginia nearly 150 years ago. But tales of a man resembling Booth pop up in Glen Rose, Texas, and later in Granbury, starting five years after the April 14, 1865, assassination of the president. Stories of Booth’s alleged miraculous escape are exhumed every few years to play again in the media. Booth, a Shakespearean actor, probably would have loved the attention. Most historians don’t have a problem with the government’s identification of Booth’s body in 1865. A soldier reportedly shot him silhouetted inside a burning barn at Garrett’s tobacco farm in Virginia on April 26, and he died several hours laters. But here’s where the details of the accounts begin to diverge. Two lieutenants at the scene said the body was Booth’s, but a sergeant and a trooper stated that the man who died had freckles and red hair and was not Booth. Booth had a clear complexion and jet-black hair and, as is described in some historical accounts, broke his left leg when his spur caught in a decorative flag as he leapt from the president’s box to the stage at Ford’s Theatre the night he shot Lincoln. In some versions of the story, the man shot to death at Garrett’s farm had a broken right leg. A high degree of secrecy surrounded the hurried autopsy and initial burial in 1865, contributing to the mystery. Ultimately, over the next four years, what most historians say was Booth’s body was twice exhumed and twice reburied. Meanwhile, in 1870, a handsome, black-haired stranger took a job as a storekeeper in Glen Rose. He also performed in amateur theatrical productions and astounded the residents with his acting skill and knowledge of Shakespeare...TexasCo-opPower

From fort to ranch: An interesting tale

Garland Richards grew up on the Chadbourne Ranch established north of here by his great-great-great grandfather in 1876. The ranch was originally called the O-D Ranch when Thomas L. Odom and his son, Garland G. Odom, purchased the land and moved 36,000 head of Longhorn cattle to the area. Fort Chadbourne, abandoned by the military in 1873, became the O-D headquarters. The fort buildings and parade grounds were under the ownership of Samuel and Mary Maverick, but the Odoms leased the buildings for barns. The fort was established Oct. 28, 1852, and named in honor of 2nd Lt. Theodore Lincoln Chadbourne, who was killed in the Mexican War Battle at Resaca de la Palma on May 9, 1846, at age 24. The Odoms finally purchased Fort Chadbourne from the Mavericks in 1877 for $500 in gold. The buildings were used by the ranch for milking sheds, feed and saddle storage until the 1970s. Thomas Odom was one of the first ranchers to introduce fences to West Texas. He built a 40-mile fence on the north of the ranch that stretched westward to Silver to keep cattle on the O-D Ranch for grazing. As cattle grazed from north to south during the seasons, another fence was built on the south end of the ranch...SanAngeloStandardTimes

Trail Dust: Before horses, dogs toted burdens

When the earliest Spanish explorers ventured upon New Mexico's eastern plains, they discovered Indians there, mostly Apachean-speaking, who were true "dog nomads." Most people I suspect, have never heard of them. But their way of life makes a beguiling story. It is generally known that the Spaniards brought the first horses to the Southwest. In the pre-horse era, Indians dwelling on the open plains had only the dog as a beast of burden. About them, Coronado in 1541 wrote: "They have dogs that they load, which carry their tents and poles and belongings." And he made reference to Moorish-style packsaddles with girths. Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, who entered New Mexico in 1590 by ascending the Pecos River, bumped into migrating Apaches whose dogs were bearing all their worldly goods. "That was a thing new to us," he wrote in astonishment, "never before seen." One of the dogs, he observed, had two heavy hides tied to his back, and a breast collar and rump strap under his tail. They prevented the load from slipping...SFNM

Song Of The Day #131

This morning Ranch Radio will try to get your feet movin', your heart pumpin' and maybe bring back some fond memories. Our tune is the traditional Paul Jones done by Adolph Hofner & His San Antonians (his earlier recordings were with "His Texans" and his later recordings were with "The Pearl Wranglers").

The song was recorded on February 28, 1941 in the WBAO Studio at the Blackstone Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas. In addition to Adolph Hofner on vocals & guitar, the musicians on this cut were: Emil Hofner [steel], J.R. Chatwell [fiddle], Buck Wheeler [bass], Johnny Rives [fiddle/drums], and Bert Ferguson [piano]. I don't know who blew the whistle. It was originally released as OKeh 06184, and is available on his 26 track CD South Texas Swing.

The last time I danced to a Paul Jones was a long time ago at the old Corona gym. As I recall the ladies formed an inner circle and the males an outer circle, with the two circles going in opposite directions. When a band member blew a whistle and hollered "Paul Jones" you grabbed whoever was in front of you and they became your partner until the whistle blew again and then you formed the circles once more. All ages, sizes and shapes took part. If you were lucky you drew a good looking gal and if you weren't...well you got to dance with some folks you probably never would have asked. The worst was drawing someone who couldn't dance, but everyone had a good time.

How about you? When, where and how did you do the Paul Jones?

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

The legend of 20 Tricks

Julie Carter

The story has been told around campfires, roping arenas, beer coolers and white tablecloth restaurants with an ongoing hilarity that is enhanced only by knowing the players personally.

It was the early '90s, California and a cowboy and his bride had been to a high-fallutin' paint horse sale. Conversation, a barbeque and alcohol energized the crowd and encouraged hand raising and check writing.

Paul had been drinking some, but not a lot, and his wife Ineta had only a beer before they left the party and headed home. Paul was driving when they were pulled over by the flashing blue and red lights, with a second patrol car behind the first.

The police officer told Paul he was speeding and also noted the open container of beer between his legs. He told him to get out of the pickup and proceeded to take him around to the squad car to begin the field sobriety test.

From her side of the pickup, Ineta could see Paul performing the clap, clap, clap, followed by a ballerina pose, a walk the line and touch his nose performance.

Passing the field test, Paul stayed with the officer while Ineta remained in their vehicle on the orders of the two patrolmen "guarding her," one a "buffed-up blonde cop" as she described him.

She watched as they put Paul in the other patrol car and then she saw one of the officers hit him with his flashlight. It lit a fire in the cowgirl.

As Ineta attempted to leave the pickup, a cop slammed her back and told her to keep her backside (expletive down played) in the vehicle.

Ineta's cowgirl-tough instincts came to life. With her knee, she rammed the cop and took him to the ground. This tiny 5'4" cowgirl, was on the fight and had lost any of her good sense in the fray.

The other cop, standing by, jumped in and even with two, they couldn't take the kicking wildcat down.

They called for back up and the other two cops attending Paul joined in. It took all four of them, but they finally had her in cuffs on her legs and her hands and then threw her in the back seat of the squad car.

Her only question was, "What are you doing?"

The officers ignored her, talking on the radio and the words "assault on an officer" were heard.

She and Paul were separated and she wouldn't see him again until the next day.
Ineta was put in an isolation cell for booking and fingerprinting. Later she was taken to the cell where she'd spend the night.

With the slamming of the cell door, Ineta looked around, now smarter than she'd been a few hours before.

She could see she was in a cell full of prostitutes that had been in the night's roundup. There was a bench on the wall and a toilet in the middle of the room.

The urge to pee that had seemed an emergency earlier, left her as fear moved in.
Giving her an appraising eye, the tattooed, dressed-up "ladies of the night" resumed their conversation about the events of the evening and the tricks they'd turned.

This was business as usual for them.

Ineta's hair, clothes and general appearance looked like, well, like she'd been wrestling with cops. At some point, one of the girls turned to her and asked, "What about you, what did you bring in tonight?"

Ineta, once again in possession of her full mental faculties that had escaped her earlier, stuttered briefly, recognizing that for her safety, she needed to fit in. This was a very intimidating, mean-looking bunch of women.

"Hmmmm," she thought, "what's a good number, one they'll believe."

"Twenty," she said. "I did 20."

It seemed to satisfy the group of chippies and they accepted her as one of them for the night.

As the story was told and retold in cowboy gatherings across four states, both to the entertainment and embarrassment of the couple who did best in laughing at themselves, Ineta was forever tagged with the nickname, "20 Tricks."

Almost two decades later, her debut as 20 Tricks remains legendary.

Julie can be reached through her website at www.julie-carter.com.

It's The Pitts: Speed Bumps

Lee Pitts

If you asked most auctioneers I think they'd agree that momentum is what makes auctions the best way to sell darn near anything.

There are a lot of things that can break the momentum and freeze an auction as if someone had fired off a stink bomb. A long-winded color commentator, rookie ring man or mechanical difficulty can all stop the flow of commerce faster than an expired credit card. I once saw the in-gate at a bull sale get so stuck that by the time they cut it loose with a cutting torch a once successful sale had been reduced to a begging affair. Bad weather will stop any auction before it gets started, as will auctioneers who forgot the sale date, and cold-hearted bankers. You'd be surprised how bank lien notices encourage prospective buyers to keep their hands in their pockets.

When the early-adopters first started trying to incorporate Internet bids into live auctions there were many disgruntled auctioneers as a result of the slow bidding. No matter how long an auctioneer waited to sell out, the person watching the computer for Internet bids would always yip that he'd got a bid about a microsecond after the auctioneer had said, "Sold." The nerds and geeks invariably said this was because of a "slow server," which most auctioneers thought was a lazy waitress.

Other times the computer glitches that slowed down sales were not the fault of IBM or Apple. I recall one incident when an auctioneer on the block got so frustrated with the computer that he picked it up and threw it into the sale ring. Which might have speeded up the sale if they didn't have to resell every animal because the computer contained the only reliable evidence of who bought what earlier in the day.

Then there was the time a big mouthed blowhard had bragged to everyone that he was going to give $100,000 for a herd bull prospect at an upcoming sale. He couldn't be at the sale so the sale manager got him on the phone on sale day and he bid right along to about $3,500, but suddenly the line went dead. They spent half an hour trying to get him on the phone again but for some reason his line was always busy. Like maybe it had been taken off the hook! Later the blowhard said that he'd been prepared to give a quarter million for the bull that eventually brought $15,000. Yeah, right.

I've already written a column about the time that 90% of the people at a certain big time Brangus sale in Arizona got food poisoning from eating the beans and spent the sale in the porta potties. Talk about a speed bump! Those bad beans slowed that sale down to the pace of a three legged turtle. It may sound funny now but believe this bean eater... it wasn't very funny at the time.

Of course, nothing will stop a sale before it gets going like a bad market or an inferior product. Combine the two and you have what we in the business call a "wreck." We were trying to sell a breed that was colder than Anchorage in January, when one of the bulls broke out of the sale ring. People on the front rows got so scared they ran to the top of the bleachers, which caused them to fall over backwards. It didn't help when half the crowd left the sale pavilion to go watch a couple idiots, who didn't have the brains of a dead battery, try to rope the escaped bull from the back of a pickup, first on the fairgrounds and later on the Interstate. Then the fella whose cattle we were trying to sell had a mild heart attack and had to be hauled away in an ambulance. Evidently he needed the proceeds from the sale because as he was being loaded into the meat wagon he loudly encouraged everyone to, "Bid em up high, boys."

You can't say we didn't try. After we finally got restarted the next ten bulls that came into the ring never got a bid. Then the auctioneer said that if anyone in the crowd had a bull they wanted to buy to please raise their hand and we'd bring that scamp into the sale ring and then we'd have an auction. Not a single hand was raised!

That's usually a pretty good momentum stopper right there!

Song Of The Day #130

Our Gospel tune this morning is Look At What The Lord Can Do by the bluegrass group 5 For The Gospel.

The song is on their 12 track CD Look At What The Lord Can Do.

Obama Continues To Assert "State Secrets" Privilege

A federal judge says the CIA is hiding behind dubious national security arguments to shield itself from a potentially embarrassing lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who earlier ruled that CIA officials committed fraud to protect a former covert agent accused in the suit, has rejected an emergency request to put the case on hold while the government appeals. The CIA has argued that allowing the case to proceed would divulge classified information, but, in an opinion made public on Friday, Lamberth said there was no good reason to delay. In the suit, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent claims the CIA illegally wiretapped his home when stationed in Rangoon, Burma in 1993. The agent, Richard Horn, said he became suspicious when he returned from a trip to find his government-issued rectangular coffee table had been replaced with a round one. The case has been a test of the Obama administration's use of the so-called state secrets privilege, when the government seeks to block legal action by saying the details that would be revealed would harm national security. Administration officials have pledged to review all state secrets claims made by the previous Bush administration, but in many cases the government is still asserting the need to prevent disclosures that it says would harm national security. In the DEA case, Lamberth has previously rejected the state secrets claim. Government lawyers are attempting to reassert the privilege but on different grounds, but the judge isn't buying it...AP

Obama taps Los Angeles airport police official for top TSA job

President Obama said Thursday he intends to nominate a top Los Angeles International Airport police department official to head the Transportation Security Administration, the agency charged with protecting airplanes and other forms of transportation from terrorists. Erroll Southers currently is the department's chief of homeland security and intelligence. His name had been floated for the federal job earlier this year and was warmly received by unions and airport screeners, who say Southers will embrace collective bargaining for screeners...CNN

Sonic Weapons Used In Iraq Positioned at Congressional Townhall Meetings In San Diego County

“Long-range acoustic devices [LRADs] for crowd control can be extremely dangerous. These are used in Iraq to control insurgents. They can cause serious and lasting harm to humans…We want to know WHY our Sheriff Dept has this weapon,” Sal Magallanez of San Diego-based Liberty One Radio said in an e-mail sent to East County Magazine, prompting a joint investigation. The device was stationed by San Diego County Sheriff deputies at a recent town hall forum hosted by Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) in Spring Valley and at a subsequent town hall with Congressman Darrell Issa (R-San Diego). The Davis Rally drew an estimated 1,300-1,500 people, including vocal conservative and liberal protest groups. A public records search conducted by East County Magazine has confirmed that the device is an LRAD 500-x manufactured by San Diego-based American Technology Corporation (ATC). Capable of use as an effective loudspeaker, the LRAD also has the ability to emit a deafening tone aimed at incapacitating and dispersing a crowd without use of lethal force...EastCoMag

FBI Informant Says Agents Missed Chance to Stop 9/11 Ringleader Mohammed Atta

On the eve of the eight year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an FBI informant who infiltrated alleged terrorist cells in the U.S. tells ABC News the FBI missed a chance to stop the al Qaeda plot because they focused more on undercover stings than on the man who would later become known as 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta...ABCNews

Ex-Miami DEA chief indicted in Allen Stanford scandal

The former chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Miami office who led the agency's cases against infamous Panama strongman Manuel Noriega and Medellín cartel kingpin Fabio Ochoa was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for ordering the shredding of records belonging to disgraced banker Allen Stanford. Tom Raffanello, who left the DEA five years ago to become Stanford's local security chief, was charged with ordering workers to destroy thousands of documents just days after government agents shut down the banking empire in a massive fraud case. Prosecutors say the records -- including secret background reports on employees and potential investors -- were hauled away from the company's security bunker in Fort Lauderdale after a federal judge ordered that no company paperwork be destroyed. The 61-year-old former DEA chief said he was prepared to turn himself over to federal agents Friday on charges of conspiracy, obstruction and destruction of records in a federal investigation...MiamiHerald

NM: Federal judge rules police cannot detain people for openly carrying guns

On September 8, 2009, United States District Judge Bruce D. Black of the United States District Court for New Mexico entered summary judgment in a civil case for damages against Alamogordo, NM police officers. The Judge's straight shootin' message to police: Leave open carriers alone unless you have "reason to believe that a crime [is] afoot." The facts of the case are pretty simple. Matthew St. John entered an Alamogordo movie theater as a paying customer and sat down to enjoy the movie. He was openly carrying a holstered handgun, conduct which is legal in 42 states, and requires no license in New Mexico and twenty-five other states. Learn more here. In response to a call from theater manager Robert Zigmond, the police entered the movie theater, physically seized Mr. St. John from his seat, took him outside, disarmed him, searched him, obtained personally identifiable information from his wallet, and only allowed him to re-enter the theater after St. John agreed to secure his gun in his vehicle. Mr. St. John was never suspected of any crime nor issued a summons for violating any law. Importantly, no theater employee ever ordered Mr. St. John to leave. The police apparently simply decided to act as agents of the movie theater to enforce a private rule of conduct and not to enforce any rule of law...Examiner

Open carry 101

But even many traditional concealed carriers, though believing that concealed carry is the best for them, are finally comin' around to acknowledging that the right to open carry is a valuable complimentary option to augent their privilege to conceal carry. Other gun owners believe open carry sometimes has the tactical advantage of deterrence, and the political upside of accelerating the "normalization of guns" in the United States, or in plain English, getting' gun carry out o' the closet. In response to the sharp uptick in popular and media interest in the open carry movement since Federal Judge Bruce D. Black ruled earlier this week that the police are automatically liable for damages if they detain people for merely open carrying guns, OpenCarry.org's John Pierce has been working overtime to update that online community's "Open Carry Map" with more clear state by state categories and definitions. See John's general open carry map here...Examiner

New Jersey Town Maintained Marijuana in Flower Baskets on High Street

Marijuana plants were found growing in hanging flower baskets maintained by a New Jersey town, NewJerseyNewsroom.com reported. The two plants were discovered by a person walking through the arts district on High Street in Millville, a town about an hour from Atlantic City. They were sticking up above several other pink and white flowers, the Press of Atlantic City reported. The seasonal baskets are maintained by the Millville's Parks and recreation Department. Police officers removed the plants, while local citizens questioned why they were growing there. "I love flowers, right," Pam Elliott told the Press of Atlantic City. "We watch the guys every day faithfully come out and water and fertilize every basket."...FoxNews

Town seethes after cops taser 76-year-old man in parade

Bud Grose seemed like the last person who should attract the attention of police when the 76-year-old retiree hopped on his antique tractor and rumbled through the annual parade in this small Wyoming town. But what was supposed to be a day of fun at an end-of-summer festival ended abruptly when police shot Grose with a Taser in a dispute about where to end the parade route. The incident nearly incited a riot as outraged neighbors rushed to his defense. Now residents of this tight-knit town of 2,400 are seething over what they see as police brutality, and town officials are scrambling to ease the tension. "To me it doesn't matter if this was a town of Glenrock's size or New York City. This kind of stuff can't go on," said Grose's son, Mike. "It doesn't matter if there's 10 officers or a thousand, this is just totally unacceptable. We're taught to respect the law, not fear it." The fracas at the annual Deer Creek Days arose from confusion over whether members of the tractor club could deviate from the parade route shortly before it ended. Grose wanted to head directly to the town park for a tractor pull like in previous years. But the police department had a different plan, which apparently was not communicated to the tractor drivers...AP

War of technologies in California speeding case

A California speeding ticket case to be decided in coming weeks puts a new twist on the age-old cops versus drivers battle, pitting police radar against personal GPS tracking devices. The case, which is drawing national attention, revolves around 17-year-old Shaun Malone, who in 2007 was clocked by a Petaluma, Calif., police officer going over 62 m.p.h. in a 45 m.p.h. zone. He was found guilty and fined $194. But Shaun's parents contested the ticket, citing data from the satellite tracking device they had installed in their son's car and expert testimony. The tracking device showed that Shaun was traveling at 45 m.p.h. when the officer stopped him. The data were automatically downloaded into the parents' computer...CSM