Southern Nevada lands off limits to new mining for another 20 years

The Bureau of Land Management will publish a notice today in the Federal Register which immediately withdraws 1,500 square miles of federal land in southern Nevada for 20 years from mining to protect endangered species. The order does not affect existing mining operations, but blocks new mining claims. The area has hosted historical gold mining, and the U.S. Geological Survey says more mineral deposits remain in the region, which encompasses 945,343 acres of Clark and Nye Counties. The BLM identified 24 separate sites as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern in 1998 for the protection of the Mojave Desert Tortoise, the southwestern willow flycatcher, the Woundfin Minnow and the Virgin River Chub, and other species. The lands have been temporarily set side since the Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act of 2002 was enacted by the U.S. Congress. The BLM extended that act in 2007. The Center for Biological Diversity, which has already successfully sued to ban uranium mining and exploration on one million acres near the Grand Canyon in Arizona, has advocated the permanent withdrawal of the southern Nevada land to mining...read more

BLM plans to remove 2,500 wild horses in Nevada

Federal land managers are seeking public comment on their plan to remove about 2,500 wild horses in northern Nevada. Bureau of Land Management officials say the proposed gather north of Gerlach in Washoe and Humboldt counties is needed to achieve the "appropriate management level" for mustangs in the area. They maintain it also is needed to prevent further range deterioration stemming from the current horse overpopulation in the areas. Plans call for the gather to begin about Dec. 1 and continue through the end of February 2010...read more

Colorado county copes with methane in water

Bernice and Jerry Angely like to show visitors the singed T-shirt a friend was wearing when their water well exploded and shot flames 30 feet high. The friend wasn't hurt. But that and an explosion at another home weeks earlier forced Colorado to suspend natural gas drilling around this southern plains town until someone could find out why dangerous levels of methane were getting into the groundwater. Two years later, Walsenburg and surrounding Huerfano County are still waiting, its residents caught in a collision between two of the West's vital resources: Water and natural gas. "The water is so saturated with methane and other chemicals it is not to be used for human consumption," said Bernice Angely, who's had water trucked to her home 10 miles west of town since her well blew up in July 2007. Petroglyph Energy Inc., a Boise, Idaho-based firm that has worked the rolling plains of the Raton Basin since 1999, suspended drilling until it can stem the methane. Colorado also is rewriting rules that had allowed Petroglyph to discharge water runoff from its drilling into streams and creeks...read more

Old West echoes in battle between Fountain Creek ranchers, mining firm

There’s a stretch of land along Fountain Creek where the Old West lives on. Cattle move across the brown hills and the cottonwood trees are black against the sky. To motorists speeding on Interstate 25 between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, the land seems peaceful. In actuality, it’s a battleground. For six decades, the Frosts and Hannas, two of the ranching families who own land next to Fountain Creek, have been fending off efforts by people who want what’s above, below, or runs through their property. They’ve fought land speculators, developers, oil companies, utilities and toll-road firms. In the process, they’ve lost some ground to the guys in tassel loafers who wheel documents into court in luggage carriers. They’ve also lost ground to the flash floods that have periodically rampaged down Fountain Creek. Now they’re battling Lafarge, a multinational company headquartered in Paris that wants to erect a 745-acre operation adjacent to their ranchlands that will include an asphalt plant, a concrete plant and the extraction of 30 million tons of sand and gravel over 15 years...read more

Toxic waste trickles toward New Mexico's water sources

More than 60 years after scientists assembled the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, lethal waste is seeping from mountain burial sites and moving toward aquifers, springs and streams that provide water to 250,000 residents of northern New Mexico. Isolated on a high plateau, the Los Alamos National Laboratory seemed an ideal place to store a bomb factory's deadly debris. But the heavily fractured mountains haven't contained the waste, some of which has trickled down hundreds of feet to the edge of the Rio Grande, one of the most important water sources in the Southwest. So far, the level of contamination in the Rio Grande has not been high enough to raise health concerns. But the monitoring of runoff in canyons that drain into the river has found unsafe concentrations of organic compounds such as perchlorate, an ingredient in rocket propellent, and various radioactive byproducts of nuclear fission. Much surface contamination, however, becomes embedded in sediment or moves down into groundwater. That subterranean migration poses the greatest long-term danger to drinking-water wells and ultimately the Rio Grande...read more

China to supply turbines and funding for $1.5bn Texas wind farm

A Sino-US consortium yesterday announced plans for a US$1.5bn, 600MW wind farm in Texas, with China supplying all the turbines and most of the funding. The 36,000-acre wind farm, set to be one of the largest in America, is a joint venture between state-backed Chinese firm Shenyang Power Group, US wind farm developer Cielo Wind Power and private equity firm US Renewable Energy Group. Most of the funding for the project will come from Chinese banks, with loan guarantees and grants provided by the US federal government’s economic stimulus package, the consortium said. The wind farm will comprise 240 2.5MW wind turbines that will be manufactured in the Chinese city of Shenyang by Nasdaq-listed turbine maker A-Power Energy. The company, which uses licensed foreign technology, including a turbine patented by Germany's Fuhrländer and General Electric-designed gear box, said that shipments to the US were expected to begin in March next year...read more

Beijing's first snow of season 'artificially induced'

Chinese meteorologists covered Beijing in snow Sunday after seeding clouds to bring winter weather to the capital in an effort to combat a lingering drought, state media reported. The unusually early snow blanketed the capital from Sunday morning and kept falling for half the day, helped by temperatures as low as minus 2 Celsius (29 Fahrenheit) and strong winds from the north, Xinhua news agency reported. Besides falling in the northeastern provinces of Liaoning and Jilin and the northern province of Hebei, the eastern port city of Tianjin also got its first snow of the autumn, the report said. "We wont miss any opportunity of artificial precipitation since Beijing is suffering from the lingering drought," the report quoted Zhang Qiang, head of the Beijing Weather Modification Office, as saying. Chinese meteorologists have for years sought to make rain by injecting special chemicals into clouds...read more

Second Clawless Grizzly Found

Federal wildlife officials say a second dead grizzly bear that had its claws removed has been found along the Rocky Mountain Front. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent Brian Lakes said the body of a female grizzly was found Oct. 18 on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Lakes said the bear was shot and its claws had been removed, prompting concerns that it was connected to the Oct. 1 discovery of another dead grizzly, also found with claws missing, in the Lewis and Clark National Forest. Lewis says there's a black market for grizzly claws...read more

Opponents ask lawmakers to stop Pa. deer hunts

Opponents of a plan to kill hundreds of deer at Valley Forge National Historical Park are asking members of Congress to halt the effort before the shooting starts. Officials at the park, the site of the Continental Army's 1777-78 encampment, want to reduce a deer population now estimated at 1,277 to between 165 and 185 over four years. They say the herd is eating so many plants, shrubs and saplings that the forest cannot regenerate. Under the plan, the animals would be lured to areas baited with apples and grain, and federal employees or contractors would hunt them with high-powered rifles equipped with silencers. Officials have said that the first hunt will take place between November and March but have refused to say exactly when. Opponents, who say the park is ignoring more humane and less costly options such as contraception, have petitioned members of Congress representing the area...read more

Range Wars Over the Lands of the American West

For those of us who had the privilege of growing up and living most of our formative years west of the hundredth meridian, a realization forms pretty early in life that a lot of folks out East fundamentally will never understand the West — and we’re fine with that. Oh, on occasion the West will win a ‘convert’ from the East (Paleoconservative author Chilton Williamson comes to mind, for example), but such individuals really are the exception that proves the rule. Ignoring, for the moment, the further divisions within the broader region (differences with the West are also very real, and rooted in the same realities as the larger divisions), you understand that Easterners will view your land as something in between a theme park and game preserve, which has somehow become infested by undesirables. The federal obsession with locking up so much land out West arises from this sort of mentality; they view the West as essentially a really big Central Park — a nice place to visit, perhaps, but someplace that needs to be protected from the folks who would have the audacity to live there. An experience I’ve enjoyed on several occasions is showing an Easterner the ‘pristine’ forests of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington — you can really get them going with pictures of ‘virgin forests’: “Surely this land must never be despoiled by man!” And then you show them the picture of the sign which identifies when that land was last clearcut. It is a case in point of the theme: “Yes, we know it’s beautiful; we live here. We’re even more interested in taking care of it than you are.”...read more

Cattle tales connect with consumers

Cattlemen tell stories in a lot of ways--across a fence gate, over coffee at the feed store, through the pickup window or atop a good horse in the back of the ropin' pen. Now, producers focused on quality can also tell their stories on the internet's World Wide Web. Ranchers from nearly every state grace the Certified Angus Beef brand's consumer site (www.certifiedangusbeef.com/producers) right next to the product they work to create. "It comes down to consumers making that connection to the stories behind the brand," says Christy Johnson, CAB special projects manager. "This is one way we can help." The site features a diverse set of ranches, from sprawling hundred-thousand-acre Southwestern spreads to quaint New England farmsteads. Despite differences, each producer shares a desire to grow something consumers enjoy and understand...read more

Border Patrol agents thwart cattle theft

U.S. Border Patrol agents, using a mobile surveillance system, recently spotted cattle rustlers trying to steal livestock in a remote location near Ajo, according to a Wednesday report. Agents assigned to the Papago Camp, quickly responded and were able to prevent the theft. The suspected thieves, who were on horseback, reportedly escaped to Mexico. Border Patrol officials say use of Forward Operating Bases, like Papago Camp, allows agents to swiftly disrupt illegal activity in remote areas along the U.S./Mexico Border. ABC

November is National American Indian & Alaska Native Heritage Month

The accomplishments and traditions of American Indian and Alaska natives are celebrated during November, recognized as National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. American Indian Heritage Month was officially recognized in 1990 when Pres. George Herbert Walker Bush signed it into Public Law. Though, its roots can be traced much further. An early proponent for an American Indian Day was Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian and director of the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, N.Y. He persuaded the Boy Scouts of America to set aside a day for the "First Americans.” In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association directed its president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, to call for an official day of recognition. Coolidge issued a proclamation which declared the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens. The year before, Red Fox James, a Blackfoot Indian, rode horseback from state to state seeking approval for a day to honor Indians. On December 14, 1915, he presented endorsements from 24 state governments at the White House...read more

Texas Ranger series by Kelton continues

Elmer Kelton, the masterful Western author from San Angelo who passed away in August, completed two more novels in his Texas Ranger series before he died. The first one, “Other Men’s Horses” (Forge, $24.99 hardcover), has just hit the bookstores. It is the eighth novel in the Ranger series. One more is due next year, which should in turn lead to a third repackaged trilogy the following year. Andy Pickard is back as the lead character, still serving as a Texas Ranger in the 1880s but wishing he could retire from the force and spend more time with his young wife, Bethel, on their farm. But rangering provides a more stable income than farming, and at this stage in their marriage they need the money. He is assigned to track down a man who killed a horse thief, which he does in short order only to find the man’s associates ready to kill him. The wanted man saves Pickard’s life and then hightails it, but Pickard warns him that he will still have to hunt him down and bring him to justice...read more

Vaquero Show to ride Nov. 13 to 15

The 25th annual Vaquero Show, planned for Nov. 13 to 15, kicked off earlier this month with an exhibit at the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum, featuring photos and memorabilia of its past and present Honored Vaqueros. The popular Vaquero Show, which has been held at the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum for 15 years, had its roots at the historic El Roblar Ranch in Los Alamos, where in 1984 a group of ranchers and collectors gathered to swap tall tales and show off their collections of antique hand-made bits, spurs and gear. After several years, the annual gathering outgrew the barn at the El Roblar and moved for a short time south to Santa Paula. Then, in 1994, the Vaquero Show found its home at the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum in downtown Santa Ynez. Today, the Vaquero Show attracts artisans and collectors of Western gear, memorabilia, apparel and art in the spirit of honoring the heritage and tradition of the California vaquero...read more

On the edge of common sense: When it comes to teeth, stories abound

I lost a tooth today. It was the molar on the northwest side, next to the only wisdom tooth of mine that ever came in. Which explains why sometimes I go over the edge of common sense. I mean, how many wise men would pass a policeman on a double yellow line, pass up an opportunity to invest in USTRC at its beginning, and put big-as-boxcars brown Swiss bulls in with a pen of replacement heifers? I was born with no teeth ... really. And four of the permanents never came in. It's genetic, because my father and uncles were missing lateral incisors. We were born to take a bit. I asked my dentist if I was evolving up or down the food chain - he said people's jaws were getting smaller and we don't need as many teeth as Adam and Eve, therefore I was in the fast lane! Which reminds me, I also got a ticket for going too slow in the fast lane in California...read more

Bear Vegan Diet

Song Of The Day #170

Ranch Radio will get your heart pumpin' and your feet tappin' this Monday am with Chicken Don't Roost Too High by Grandpa Jones

It's available on the Grandpa Jones - 28 Greatest Hits CD.

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

The ghost stallion of Llano Estacado

Julie Carter

The white stallion was sky-lighted on the ridge top, his proud head held high. Poised, his beautiful body stood still for a fleeting moment before he took one mighty jump and landed fully 25 feet away in an alkali bog that would become his grave.

It is an old story told around campfires for 100 years. Its origins came about in 1879 when some cowpunchers rode into the camp of a buffalo hunter who was known to be quite the spinner of tales.

That night around the campfire the grizzled hunter pointed a roughened finger in the direction of a heavily loaded wagon of buffalo hides he was preparing to freight to market and said, "I would gladly give every hide for the 3-year-old white stallion I have seen upon these plains. He's as fleet as the wind and is a purebred, not a native mustang."

"I've been trying to catch him for two years without any luck. He ranges from here to the Black Water Draw, south, and as far as the Tierra Blanco on the north.
I first saw him when he was a yearling running with his mother. Both were pure white."

The hunter went on to say he didn't see the mare and colt for a year and when he caught sight of them, the mare had a filly by her side and the young stallion, now a yearling , was still running with her, wilder than ever and fast as an antelope.

After a failed attempt to capture the mare and colts, the stallion disappeared, "as if a mirage."

The hunter never saw him again.

The tale of this ghost-white stallion held the cowboys spellbound and they knew they'd never be satisfied until they could ride the plains and hunt the white mirage.
After the fall works were done, they traveled to Fort Sumner to meet with the Trujillo brothers, Pedro and Soledad.

The brothers said they had often seen the white stallion on the plains "He is too fast to catch; we have all tried and failed," they said. When we get close to him, he vanishes, so we have named him "The Ghost."

Agreeing to help hunt the stallion, the brothers told the cowboys to meet them at Gato Montes Spring on the Blackwater Draw in March. "We'll find him if he's still alive."

True to their word, when the cowboys got to the spring, the brothers were not only there, but they had learned where the white stallion was watering with his band of heavy-bred mares.

The next morning they saw the horses out ahead of them feeding on lush grass but quickly scattering as the men approached.

Pedro took in after them while Soledad marked the grazing spot with a long pole with a red flag on the end.

In the distance, "The Ghost" dashed over the plains, his white mane and tail blowing in the breeze.

Pedro was away all day and said he must have chased the horses 70 miles. They made a huge circle, eventually returning to their home range. The following day, one of the cowboys chased them all day, returning late to say the band was now near Spring Lake.

The cowboys, Trujillo brothers, two other vaqueros and a half-blood Apache with a reputation for his ability to rope, headed out the next day.

When they spotted the horses, they didn't crowd them, but struck a long lope and followed behind.

They ran by the old buffalo hunter's camp near Running Water and headed north. By noon, they had reached Tule Draw, the south prong of the Red River, and headed west. Sometimes they'd slacken down to a trot and then return to a lope or a run. The mares began to fall out as they tired, but The Ghost never weakened.

By sundown, all but 10 mares had dropped out, soon to be only three and then none. The Ghost was headed south to Yellow House Lake and just when they thought they had him headed off, he turned south.

Yellow House Lake is a big alkali sink on the Llano Estacado. Its water, not fit for man or beast, covered a bottomless bog by a bare few inches. A large animal could never conquer the horror that loomed below the deceivingly tranquil surface.

For four days, The Ghost had been running in the lead, but when he headed down the backbone of the ridge that lead to the lake, cold chills ran up the spines of his pursuers.

They turned back from the chase, hoping that perhaps then the stallion would turn as well.

The animal's free, intelligent, noble spirit preferred death to capture, and the stallion knew as well as his men, that death lay in Yellow House Lake.

He floundered briefly as the bog sucked him under. The bitter water filled his nostrils and oozed into his mouth. A few bubbles was all that was left on the surface and The Ghost of Llano Estacado was no more.

A tragic end to a free spirit, but even ghosts should have their freedom.

This story in it's original telling appears in Frank Collinson's "Life in the Saddle."

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net

It's The Pitts: A Can Of Worms

Lee Pitts

If one goose is a geese shouldn't a gang of geese be geeses? Definitely, but somewhere in the corruption of the King's English a group of geese on the ground became a gaggle and a skein in the air. Besides devotees of crossword puzzles and the game Trivial Pursuit who knows that? If I had my way a muster of mongeese would be mongooses and a family of fish would be trouts or salmons.

Phrases for farm animals are okay to a point. A collection of cattle or horses is a herd and a group of sheep is a flock. Everyone knows that. But who knew that a group of pigs is a passel or a sounder of swine? Poetic sure, but hard to remember.

This naming of animal plurality is confusing. Besides cattle, the term herd can refer to deer, elephants, seals and whales, despite the fact they have little in common. When we speak of a colony we could be referring to ants, penguins, gulls, rabbits, bats or a group of nudists. And why should we attribute warlike tendencies to "armies" of herons, caterpillars, frogs, and herring? Sure, caterpillars have declared war on farmers in the past, but what country have frogs ever invaded?

I must admit that some of the words we use to describe groups of animals are perfect. A group of giraffes is known as a tower, two porcupines are a prickle, a faction of hippopotamuses are a bloat, and multiple rhinoceroses are a crash. All excellent names. Cockroaches are an intrusion, lions a pride, sharks a shiver, apes a shrewdness, hyenas a cackle, jays a scold, otters are a romp, gnats a cloud, and a contingent of moles are a labor. You'll agree, if you ever try getting rid of them.

Then there are the terrible terms we've adopted. I'm sure that groups of foxes don't appreciate being called a skulk, we slander crows by calling them a murder, and I'm sure that a sloth of bears would change their name in a heartbeat if they could.

A society of parrots, flies or widgeons is known as a company. I don't even know what a widgeon is, nor do I know what business these companies are in. And speaking of company, a group of ferrets is known as one. Some of the worst terms are a smack of jellyfish, a troop of monkeys, a knot of toads, a barren of mules, a building of rooks and a bale of turtles. A bale of turtles? That's gonna make PETA mad.

For some reason birds have incited excessively flowery speech. We have an unkindness of ravens, an exaltation of larks, a murmuration of starlings, a richness of martens, congregation of plovers, convocation of eagles, watch of nightingales, charm of finches and a mustering of storks or peacocks. One wonders why these birds have wonderful sounding names while a group of lapwings is a deceit and a throng of hawks is known as a kettle, cast or boil. And I think calling a group of owls a parliament is not very complimentary at all. To the owls, that is.

If I were in charge of the English language I'd change some of the terminology we use when referring to groups of animals. A herd of elephants would be a trunk, a wake of buzzards would become a stench, a descent of woodpeckers would be a headache, a sord or brace of mallards would be a quack, a dray or scurry of squirrels would henceforth be a plague, and a pack of wolves would be a disaster. A warren of rabbits would be a multiplication, a troop of kangaroos would be a jump, a school or hover of fish would be a limit, a grist of bees would be a stinger, a clowder of cats would become a nuisance, a gang of buffalo would be a Ted (as in Turner), a chain of bobolinks would be a Bobby or a Robert, a kindle of kittens would be a burden, a brood of chickens would be a bucket (as in KFC), a tribe of goats would become a kindergarten (for the kids), and a rafter of turkeys would be a stupid. All these new names would be much easier to remember.

The term I hate most of all is a "pace" of asses. What does that mean? From now on I think a group of asses should be known as a congress. Perfect, don't you think?

Song Of The Day #169

Our Gospel tune today is The River of Jordan, recorded by the Louvin Brothers in 1958.

Obama administration: Toss wiretap lawsuit

Attorney General Eric Holder says a lawsuit in San Francisco over warrantless wiretapping threatens to expose ongoing intelligence work and must be thrown out. In making the argument, the Obama administration agreed with the Bush administration's position on the case but insists it came to the decision differently. A civil liberties group criticized the move Friday as a retreat from promises President Barack Obama made as a candidate. Holder's effort to stop the lawsuit marks the first time the administration has tried to invoke the state secrets privilege under a new policy it launched last month designed to make such a legal argument more difficult. Under the state secrets privilege, the government can have a lawsuit dismissed if hearing the case would jeopardize national security. The lawsuit was filed by a group of individuals who claimed the government illegally monitored their communications. To proceed with the case, Holder said, would expose intelligence sources and methods. Holder said U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who is handling the case, was given a classified description of why the case must be dismissed so that the court can "conduct its own independent assessment of our claim."...read more

Loosening of F.B.I. Rules Stirs Privacy Concerns

The operation unfolded as the Bush administration was relaxing some domestic intelligence-gathering rules. The F.B.I.’s interpretation of those rules was recently made public when it released, in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit, its “Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide.” The disclosure of the manual has opened the widest window yet onto how agents have been given greater power in the post-Sept. 11 era. In seeking the revised rules, the bureau said it needed greater flexibility to hunt for would-be terrorists inside the United States. But the manual’s details have alarmed privacy advocates. One section lays out a low threshold to start investigating a person or group as a potential security threat. Another allows agents to use ethnicity or religion as a factor — as long as it is not the only one — when selecting subjects for scrutiny. “It raises fundamental questions about whether a domestic intelligence agency can protect civil liberties if they feel they have a right to collect broad personal information about people they don’t even suspect of wrongdoing,” said Mike German, a former F.B.I. agent who now works for the American Civil Liberties Union. Agents may begin such assessments against a target without a particular factual justification. The basis for such an inquiry “cannot be arbitrary or groundless speculation,” the manual says, but the standard is “difficult to define.” Assessments permit agents to use potentially intrusive techniques, like sending confidential informants to infiltrate organizations and following and photographing targets in public...read more

Report: FBI not reviewing all of its evidence

The FBI is still not reviewing reams of evidence collected in counterterrorism cases, and has fewer translators than it did a few years ago, an internal government watchdog said Monday. Glenn Fine, the Justice Department's inspector general, issued a report Monday finding flaws in the FBI's translation and evidence review efforts. FBI officials responded by saying the inspector general overstated the problem by double-counting wiretap recordings that are shared with more than one bureau office. The 131-page report says that since 2003, the FBI has not reviewed about 47,000 hours of audio files in counterterrorism cases — the equivalent of a single recording running for five and a half years straight. The bureau says the real backlog is only about a tenth of that, or 4,770 hours — 200 days worth. In the most recent budget year, some 740 hours of recordings were not reviewed in the most important counterterrorism cases, the report said. FBI officials said the actual number is about 223 hours...read more

Probe of Homeland Security privacy office sought

Privacy advocates have asked lawmakers to investigate the Department of Homeland Security office in charge of protecting Americans' privacy, saying it has shown "an extraordinary disregard" for its duty. In a letter sent Friday to the House Homeland Security Committee, 21 organizations and seven people belonging to the Privacy Coalition say the department's chief privacy officer has seen its role as enabling, rather than curbing, government surveillance and intelligence programs. "The job of Chief Privacy Officer is not to provide public relations for the Department of Homeland Security," stated the coalition letter, whose signers included the American Civil Liberties Union, Gun Owners of America, former congressman Robert L. Barr Jr. (R-Ga.) and libertarians inspired by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), a former presidential candidate. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public interest group in Washington, organized the coalition...read more

NSA Supercenters to Store Americans' Private Data Permanently

The National Security Agency is building huge new storage facilities to store the unconstitutionally gained data on the American people's telephone calls and Internet traffic permanently, including new buildings in suburban Salt Lake City, Utah, and San Antonio, Texas. The NSA has been keeping permanent records of all American's telephone call habits and Internet traffic since shortly after September 11, 2001, according to major news reports, without the constitutionally required warrants from a court. No longer able to store all the intercepted phone calls and e-mail in its Ft. Meade, Maryland, headquarters, the NSA is engaging in its own housing boom. How much data will these giant, multibillion dollar new facilities hold? According to James Bamford of the New York Review of Books, the facility in Utah alone could hold data that will be measured in Yottabytes. Never heard of Yottabytes? You're not alone. Most computers sold at stores still measure their storage at gigabytes, or billions of bits of data. A few store a terrabyte of information, or one trillion bits of information. That's 1,000,000,000,000 pieces of information. Yottabytes is the highest number that has yet been named in computer information. The number is septillions of billions of bits of data, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bits of data...read more

Obama Signs Hate-Crimes Bill Into Law; Critics Say It Circumvents Constitutional Safeguards Against Double Jeopardy

Today, President Obama signed into law a bill that will dramatically expand the federal hate crimes law, enabling prosecutors to bring federal charges against people who were previously found innocent of hate crimes in state court. The hate-crimes provisions were added to a defense appropriations bill, which the President signed in a White House signing ceremony this afternoon at around 2:30 p.m. The new law dramatically expands the reach of the existing federal hate-crimes law that was already on the books, by getting rid of the requirement that a hate crime affect federally-protected activities to be prosecuted in federal court. It also adds sexual orientation, gender, disability, and transgender characteristics to a law that was originally designed to protect racial minorities. The hate-crimes bill was opposed by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for allowing the reprosecution in federal court of people found innocent in state court. The Commission called the new law a “menace to civil liberties” because it is an end-run around constitutional guarantees against double jeopardy. As explained earlier, the bill’s sponsors seek to use it to reprosecute people in federal court who have already been found innocent of hate crimes in state court, taking advantage of the “dual sovereignty” loophole in constitutional protections against double jeopardy...read more

More public surveillance means less liberty

The use of public surveillance cameras to fight crime has been a heated topic for quite some time. The issue was reignited last August when the city of Denver used federal funds to purchase an additional fifty High Activity Location Observation (HALO) cameras from the original thirteen cameras at $25,000 a pop to fight crime. Increasing the number of surveillance cameras may create a marginally safer environment, but at a significant cost to civil liberty. The activities recorded by the cameras are used exclusively by public safety and law enforcement officials. Hard working Coloradans contributed their time and money in the form of tax dollars to make the camera installations possible. Therefore, it would only be fair for contributors to have the option of seeing what they paid for. But, that’s the not the view held by many government officials. The Revolutionary War was fought because Americans wanted to break away from a government that trampled civil liberties, not create one. Adding more HALO cameras will undoubtedly transform our nation into a much more regulated one. If we want to preserve what limited civil liberties we have left, the government should seriously consider thinking twice about installing additional cameras. Ensuring that HALO recordings are more readily available to the general public would also be a considerable step toward ensuring that public surveillance is being used only for legitimate public safety reasons, and the preservation of individual freedoms...read more

Prime Directives Versus Just Desserts

When government employees are accused of crimes, their first line of defense is secrecy. At the federal level, this often means using a “classified” stamp on potentially incriminating, or even embarrassing information. While lower levels of government can’t fall back on “national security — classified!” they often simply arrogate themselves the same power without naming it. For example, in the normal course of things, a police department will simply decline to divulge the name of a police officer accused of illegally shooting a suspect or bystander. And usually they’ll get away with it. The second line of defense is the doctrine of “sovereign immunity.” This is the notion that if someone is “just doing his job” for the government, he can’t be held accountable for the consequences. A related dodge — used to exempt FBI assassin Lon Horiuchi from prosecution for the murder of Vicki Weaver at Ruby Ridge — is the assertion that the Constitution’s “supremacy clause” (article Six, paragraph 2) exempts federal employees from state or local laws. It’s generally understood in the ranks of government that if stonewalling and falsifying the evidence doesn’t work, and that if “sovereign immunity” isn’t enough to get a government employee off the hook, he or she can expect executive clemency. This comes in two varieties: Commutations of sentence and full pardons. The gold standard is the full pardon — not only is the criminal’s sentence lifted, but his or her reputation is theoretically rehabilitated and his or her rights — including the “right” to head back to the taxpayer trough — are fully restored...read more

'Mammoth Takedown' of Violent Mexican Drug Gang

Just before dawn Wednesday, Drug Enforcement Administration agents launched a raid on suspected Mexican drug traffickers hiding out in a Los Angeles suburb. Moments later, the suspects were brought out in handcuffs, caught in what authorities say is the largest national dragnet against Mexican cartels, which have been expanding their reach across the United States. The California raid was one of dozens that took place over the past two days, targeting Mexico's La Familia cartel, an organization notorious for beheadings and its brazen attacks on authorities south of the border. La Familia also ships huge amounts of methamphetamines, marijuana and cocaine into the United States each year, the DEA says. The latest spree of arrests mainly occurred in California and along the southern U.S. border, but operations extended to nearly a dozen major U.S. cities. According to the DEA, La Familia has distribution cells in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and North Carolina...read more

School suspends girl over empty gun shells

An 11-year-old Des Moines girl was at home on suspension Tuesday for bringing a handful of empty shotgun shells to school last week. Jazmine Martin, a sixth-grader at Brody Middle School, picked up the shells as souvenirs during a family trip to a ranch in South Dakota, where the rounds were fired as part of a show. They were blanks. "I didn't think they were going to hurt anyone," Jazmine said. "I wanted to show them to my science teacher because he's into stuff like this." Principal Randy Gordon said the shells were considered ammunition even though they were empty, and were therefore against school policy. A copy of the school policy shows that it specifically bans "live ammunition or bullets" but makes no reference to empty shells or casings...read more

Pa. Supreme Court Throws Out Thousands of Juvenile Delinquency Cases

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled late Thursday that almost all juvenile delinquency cases heard by an indicted former judge must be thrown out. The ruling means cases heard by former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella from Jan. 1, 2003 to May 31, 2008 are in question for fairness and impartiality. Ciavarella faces criminal charges that accuse him of taking millions of dollars in kickbacks from owners of private detention centers in exchange for placing juvenile defendants at their facilities, often for minor crimes. The ruling is the latest stunning development in a story of corruption that first shocked Luzerne County residents in January 2009. Federal prosecutors announced that respected county judges Ciavarella and Michael Conahan had pleaded guilty to tax evasion and honest services fraud. However, their plea deal and relatively light sentence were later rejected by a federal judge who ruled that Ciavarella and Conahan had failed to accept responsibility for their crimes. In fact, Ciavarella had previously told "20/20" that "we would never agree that [the kids' sentencing] was improper." Now, the two former judges face much more serious federal racketeering, bribery, and extortion charges. All of this is the result of a lengthy investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI. Ciavarella and Conahan have pleaded not guilty...read more

In immigration war, environment is a neglected casualty

Keep in mind as you read this that Senator Bingaman (D-NM)has introduced S.1689 which would create 560 square miles of wilderness along our southern border. That's 560 square miles where the Border Patrol cannot enter with their vehicles or low flying aircraft. Use the link to read the entire article.

...Mr. Hawkes says dealing with those groups now takes up most of his time, and it only builds on top of the pile of other pressures — an army of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers, some of them armed, facing off against the U.S. Border Patrol — that have transformed his wildlife sanctuary into ground zero for the nation's immigration wars. Situated in the middle of southern Arizona, Buenos Aires is among the hardest-hit. But the same story is repeated across the U.S.-Mexico border on refuges, Indian reservations, national forests and the rest of the federal lands that make up 40 percent of the boundary between the two countries. The clear losers in the clash are the land, and the plants and animals that live on the edge in this beautiful but precarious environment — innocent bystanders caught up in an escalating, seemingly endless war between the immigrants, smugglers and the drug cartels and the authorities charged with catching them. An estimated 300,000 illegal immigrants traversed Buenos Aires' 118,000 acres in 2007, leaving tons of trash, rusting abandoned cars, biologically hazardous waste and vehicle tracks that reduced parts of the landscape to a dusty wasteland...The cartels' ability to adapt to the changing circumstances north of the border is remarkable. One innovation was to post spotters inside the U.S., oftentimes on federal lands, to keep track of Border Patrol and other law enforcement movements. The one-man rock nest on a ridgeline overlooking Interstate 8 at Milemarker 141 is typical. The spot is well-camouflaged and if it weren't for the pile of empty Bud Light cans and water bottles with Spanish labels, almost impossible to spot unless you knew exactly where to look. The smuggling cartels have thousands of these lookouts stations across southern Arizona, manned by low-level employees or people who owe a debt to the cartel. "They're everywhere. On the smuggling corridors, most of the high points that give a good perspective of the smuggling routes or trails, there are lookouts in those areas," said Patrick Brasington, the chief law enforcement officer for the Bureau of Land Management's Phoenix office, which oversees the land near Milemarker 141...In Ironwood Forest National Monument, haulers used to collect 40,000 to 50,000 pounds of trash a year. But in the fiscal year that just ended that dropped to 30,000 pounds — parts of the monument are just too dangerous for contractors to pick up the trash...Mr. Hawkes said two state game wardens were shot at on his wildlife refuge last year, and law enforcement reports over the years detail other dangerous run-ins, including the death of Park Service Ranger Kris Eggle, gunned down on Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in 2002 by a drug cartel hit man fleeing Mexico. It has gotten so bad that agencies require employees here to take special training, and have issued special rules on how to operate. The U.S. Forest Service warns managers not to send employees out on nighttime assignments, while the Fish and Wildlife Service said a law enforcement escort is required for employees working at night. Despite those rules, hunters, campers, hikers and tourists enjoying the public lands don't see those same warnings. Instead, the most common alert they see is a road sign such as the one near Ironwood Forest National Monument that reads: "Travel caution: smuggling and illegal immigration may be encountered in this area."...But a department employee did collect partial data up until he retired in late 2008. According to his figures, more than 99 percent of all marijuana seized on or near department lands over the last three years was seized along the border. The borderlands also accounted for more than 90 percent of the cocaine and more than 90 percent of vehicles seized and stolen vehicles recovered on Interior Department lands. The border region accounted for about a quarter of the threats or violent incidents recorded in all the country's national parks, wildlife refuges, BLM land and Indian reservations, even though the borderlands account for a minuscule fraction of total department lands...read more

Exaggerated claims undermine drive to cut emissions, scientists warn

Exaggerated and inaccurate claims about the threat from global warming risk undermining efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and contain climate change, senior scientists have told The Times. Environmental lobbyists, politicians, researchers and journalists who distort climate science to support an agenda erode public understanding and play into the hands of sceptics, according to experts including a former government chief scientist. Excessive statements about the decline of Arctic sea ice, severe weather events and the probability of extreme warming in the next century detract from the credibility of robust findings about climate change, they said. Such claims can easily be rebutted by critics of global warming science to cast doubt on the whole field. They also confuse the public about what has been established as fact, and what is conjecture...read more

Democrats have a cow over testimony on global warming topic‏

The Democratic majority objected to my appearing at a House hearing on Thursday morning addressing AstroTurfing in the global-warming-advocacy industry. The majority were not amused by the prospect of a discordant note being struck. As such, the Republicans will have no witnesses. They have agreed to this after being challenged. In Washington, times such as these are called "weekdays." The hearing actually has devolved into something of an effort to rehabilitate certain Members who are now imperiled by their vote for the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, particularly Tom Periello of Central Virginia (my Congressman, who has been hoodwinked by someone into stating, in defense of his vote, that the reason we are losing jobs to India and China is because they’ve already passed Waxman-Markey-type laws. Really. I agree we need to find out who is spreading such scurrilous tales to our lawmakers). Anyhow, it seems that pointing out how, where, and by whom this practice of deceitful industry lobbying in the “global warming” context was invented and is now used, and employing inconvenient words like “Axelrod” and “Enron” was deemed non-germane. The hearing will go on with no need to sully things by allowing you to hear the following. I believe that the Republicans will seek to introduce my written statement into the record. In the event that lightning strikes twice and the grave offense of introducing contrary thought in the form of my written, substantiated testimony is also objected to by the majority, here’s my slightly shorter oral testimony that would have been delivered...read more

EPA Crafting Multiple Air Pollutant Strategy

U.S. EPA is working on a new strategy aimed at providing a clearer road map for industrial investment in air pollution controls, the agency's top air official said yesterday. EPA's air chief, Gina McCarthy, said she wants to implement a more industry-friendly approach to rulemaking that will allow companies to invest in controls that curb multiple pollutants at once rather than using a more expensive piecemeal strategy. The agency is poised to issue a slew of new air pollution rules -- some are Bush-era rules that were tossed out in courts; others are new climate initiatives that the Obama administration has taken on. And McCarthy wants to coordinate those rules under what she calls a "multipollutant" or "sector-based" strategy...read more

$2.2 Billion Allotted for Clean Energy Bonds

The Treasury Department announced on Tuesday the allocation of $2.2 billion in clean renewable energy bonds to 805 public power companies and cooperatives nationwide. The program will help energy developers access lower cost credit and encourage clean renewable energy production, Neal Wolin, a Treasury deputy secretary said in a news release. The department sorted through more than 1,000 applications from companies and cooperatives clamoring to get what is essentially a highly subsidized loan. Because the bonds are tax credit bonds, the companies do not pay full interest on them. Instead, the federal government provides the bondholder with a tax credit that covers 70 percent of the interest earned...read more

Subsidy after subsidy after subsidy.

Report: U.S. water use down

The nation is using less water now than it did in 1975 and 1980, when water use peaked. That figure is based on the U.S. Geological Survey's estimate for U.S. water use in 2005, and the drop comes despite a 30 percent increase in population in the past 25 years. "The declines are attributed to the increased use of more efficient irrigation systems and alternative technologies at power plants," the U.S. Department of Interior said today. In 2005, Americans used 410 billion gallons of water a day, less than in 2000, the report says. And almost half of that water was used for energy production at coal and other power plants...read more

Left high and dry in the Klamath Basin?

The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement has been much celebrated as the solution to decades of conflict over Klamath Basin water. Surely no one can object when competing interests, stakeholders we now call them, reach agreement. Well, at least a few people do object, and for good reason. Roger Nicholson and his neighbors have vested water rights the agreement will likely obliterate, yet they were excluded from the negotiations. Even if he had been allowed to participate, Nicholson would have been a mere stakeholder with rights no better than the guy from Portland who just doesn't like alfalfa where native grasses once grew. Nicholson's family settled in the Klamath Basin in 1891 and acquired water rights under Oregon law. If water rights were cards in a deck, he'd be holding kings, if not aces. Under Oregon law, when water is short, senior rights owners have priority over juniors. But notwithstanding his high cards, Nicholson is at risk of losing everything. He estimates that he and his neighbors have wagered more than a million dollars on litigation, yet now they could be put out of business. Without water, they are doomed. In poker parlance, they are "all in." They had no other choice...read more

PETA protests Oregon wildlife park's car-washing elephants - video

The car-washing elephants at an Oregon wildlife park don't really get your car very clean -- but that's not the reason PETA wants the park to stop using them. Wildlife Safari's website jokes that the spring and summer attraction, at which the park's African elephants "wash" the cars of visitors under the supervision of trainers, is "guaranteed not to get your car clean!" The animal rights group wrote a letter Oct. 22 that called the elephant carwash "a gimmick that does nothing to foster respect for endangered species," according to the Associated Press. The group is particularly concerned with the elephant training tool known as a bullhook, or ankus, which is a metal rod with a hook at one end. In an interview with Roseburg's News-Review newspaper, the park's general curator, Dan Brands, said the trainers use the bullhooks only as guides. And the car washing, he says, is a modification of a behavior the elephants do naturally and have been trained to do using positive reinforcement with carrots or yams. "These are 2-ton animals," Brands said. "You can't force them to do anything they wouldn't want to do."...read more

Saskatchewan farmers who trace livestock to get rebate from government

Saskatchewan farmers who voluntarily trace their livestock will get money from the government to help cover their costs. Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud says the province has set aside $5 million so it can provide a rebate of up to 70 per cent. The rebate is intended to help pay for the purchase or lease of identification devices and computer software. Cattle, bison, sheep, goat, hog and cervid producers will be eligible, as will feedlot operators, auction marts, veterinary clinics and meat processors. There will be a cap of between $50,000 and $100,000, depending on the facility. The rebate is retroactive to April 1 and the deadline for applications is Jan. 31, 2013. [link]

Freestyle Bullfight Headlines the Electrifying Thunder EquiGames

World Series of Team Roping Finale paying $3 Million

The “X-Games for cowboys,” better known as the Thunder EquiGames, storms into Las Vegas, NV this December at the South Point Equestrian and Events Center. Featuring daily events throughout the NFR (December 2nd-4th; December 8th-12th) the Thunder Equigames is sure to light up the day as a great compliment to the NFR evening activities.

The Thunder EquiGames (TEG) is the perfect combination of cowboy recreation plus exhilarating entertainment. The TEG was born in 2008 with one event but has already multiplied to feature two edge-of-your-seat performances: Friday, December 4th and Saturday, December 12th, both show times at 1pm.

Highlighted by the Freestyle Bullfight, the TEG also showcases the World Series of Team Roping Finale, The World Series Mounted Shoot-Out, The Open Barrel Race and introducing the Professional Team Bronc Riding Finals.

Freestyle Bullfight- The best bullfight event in the business boasts 12 of the top fighters in the sport, in a head-to-head tournament style bracket format. Says promoter and legendary bull fighter Rob Smets, “This is as good as a bullfight as you can hope to see. Any time you can get this many former world champions in the same building, (Mike Matt 4x, Lance Britton, Wacey Munsell & Andy Burrel) you know it’s going to be a fight. We’ve attracted the best to compete because of the big money involved (highest paying Freestyle ever) and the overall magnitude of this event.”
Team Roping- The World Series of Team Roping Finale, is the heartbeat of the EquiGames bringing over Three Million in Winnings and who’s who in the cowboy world to the Casino. Each of its three divisions (Lo-Amateur, Amateur and Pro-Am) will pay $1,000,000. The World Series has become the year end Grand Finale for the team roping industry each year.
Mounted Shooting- The World Series Mounted Shoot-Out, presented by Outlaw Annie, features Hall of Famer Annie Elliot breaking ground with a tournament style event and a second year target purse of $100,000.
Barrel Racing- The Open Barrel Race, presented by PRCA Hall of Famer Charmayne James, has accelerated the payout in its second year from a $15,000 winners check to an astonishing $50,000 guaranteed. In addition, Charmayne James has added a $10,000 bonus payout for racers riding two horses on four total runs. This will not only showcase the excellent horses, but will also reward consistent riding.
Team Bronc Riding- The Professional Team Bronc Riding Association Finals will be showcased at the TEG, giving this relatively new sport a world-wide audience through a partnership with the EquiGames. You’ve watched this event at all of the major Rodeos during the year, now witness the Association finals in Las Vegas.

All events will be hosted at the South Point Equestrian and Events Center in Las Vegas, NV, show times at 1pm WST. $20 Thunder EquiGames tickets are now on sale at www.southpointeventscenter.com for the 12/4 & 12/12 performances. All other daily qualifying events are free to the public.

For more information and detailed events schedule, please visit www.equigames.com .


Press Contact: Drew Stuart
Communications Director
505.898.1755
drew@equigames.com

Once again, New Mexico's Denny Gentry is proving he's the best there is at putting on these kind of events. He founded the USTRC on a shoestring, built it into a huge success and sold it. He waited until his non-compete clause expired and now he's kicking their butts all over again. Got to admire that kind of guts and talent all rolled into one package.

Song Of The Day #168

Ranch Radio brings you Gene Autry this morning, singing Way Out West In Texas.

You'll find this song on his 25 track CD Goin' Back to Texas

Coyotes Kill Musician In Canadian National Park

Two coyotes attacked a promising young musician as she was hiking alone in a national park in eastern Canada, and authorities said she died Wednesday of her injuries. The victim was identified as Taylor Mitchell, 19, a singer-songwriter from Toronto who was touring to promote her new album on the East Coast. She was hiking solo on a trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia on Tuesday when the attack occurred. She was airlifted to a Halifax hospital in critical condition and died Wednesday morning, authorities said. Coyotes, which also are known as prairie wolves, are found from Central America to the United States and Canada. Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman Brigdit Leger said other hikers heard Mitchell's screams for help on Tuesday and called emergency police dispatchers. Police who were in the area reached the scene quickly and shot one of the animals, apparently wounding it. But the wounded animal and a companion coyote managed to get away...Read more

Obama administration inches away from 'time out' for roadless forest logging

Environmental groups in May hailed the Obama administration's decision to effectively pause development in about 58 million acres of road-free federal forests. Any logging in those forests, about 2 million acres of which are in Oregon, would have to be approved by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the administration said. Now it appears the administration is backing away from that directive, if only a little. This month, the Agriculture Department returned to the Forest Service the authority to undertake certain projects in roadless forests without the secretary's approval. Specifically, local land managers are now free to approve the "cutting, sale, or removal of generally small diameter timber when needed for one of the following purposes: * To improve threatened, endangered, proposed, or sensitive species habitat; or * To maintain or restore the characteristics of ecosystem composition and structure, such as to reduce the risk of uncharacteristic wildfire effects within the range of variability that would be expected to occur under natural disturbance regimes of the current climatic period; or * For administrative and personal use, as provided for in Title 36, Code of Federal Regulations 223, where personal use includes activities such as Christmas trees and firewood cutting and where administrative use includes providing materials for activities such as construction of trails, footbridges, and fences."...read more

The memo referred to can be seen here.

New ad promotes wolves to Times Square audience

Defenders of Wildlife says people in New York City are in the dark about the wolf hunts taking place in Montana and Idaho and has launched a Times Square ad campaign to raise their awareness. From now through New Year’s Day, the conservation group, which opposes the wolf hunt, is buying time on the 520-square-foot CBS superscreen on 42nd Street for a 15-second video spot showing - among other things - a wolf pup howling in tall grass. “They are being killed,” is written at the bottom of the screen, along with a number people can text to donate $5 to the group. Defenders of Wildlife is one of more than a dozen groups suing the Obama administration over its decision to take the gray wolf off the Endangered Species List. Revenue from the ad will go toward the legal battle, along with compensating and working with ranchers who raise livestock near wolf populations...read more

Feds to release endangered minnows in Big Bend

Thousands of endangered Rio Grande silvery minnows reared at a national hatchery in New Mexico were being prepared Wednesday to be trucked to Texas, where the tiny fish will be released into the Rio Grande near Big Bend National Park. The release is part of a five-year experiment by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to establish a population of minnows in the river's southern reaches. More than 400,000 silvery minnows were released at Big Bend last year and surveys have shown that there are still minnows in the area. "It's a little early to really say that this is a successful program, but we're definitely learning and we're hopeful," Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Aimee Roberson said. Hatchery staff members on Wednesday were loading 500,000 minnows into several trucks for the overnight drive from southeastern New Mexico to Big Bend. About 60,000 minnows bound for Texas came from the city of Albuquerque's breeding facility...read more

Wind Power Generates Green Economy In West Texas

The dust has barely settled here after the completion of the world's largest wind farm, but the sprouts of a "green" economy are already emerging among the cotton fields that have long been the staple of this West Texas rural community. Wind energy-service companies now sit on the same street as the old grocery store, and so do the headquarters of German-based E.ON Climate and Renewables, a subsidiary of the world's largest utility, E.ON AG (EOAN.XE), which owns the Roscoe wind farm. The project has 627 turbines--one for every two inhabitants of Roscoe--and employs about 70 technicians, including contractors and staffers. "It's helped the city kind of reinvent itself," said city manager Cody Thompson, who was helping put the finishing touches to the West Texas Wind Harvest Festival, featuring live music and helicopter tours of the 100,0000-acre project. Roscoe is situated in Nolan County, which has a population of about 17,000 and contains nearly 10% of all U.S. wind power-generating capacity--built at breakneck speed over the last decade. The financial crisis and bottlenecks in transmission capacity have slowed down the proliferation of wind turbines for now, but the area has established itself as a powerhouse for an emerging technology that could help reduce U.S. emissions of the heat-trapping gases blamed for climate change. This development occurs as critics of the Obama administration--including top Texas leaders--say that the number of "green" jobs won't replace the number of oil and gas jobs destroyed by U.S. policies to stem global warming...read more

Ailing planet seen as bad for human health

Climate change will make Americans more vulnerable to diseases, disasters and heat waves, but governments have done little to plan for the added burden on the health system, according to a new study by a nonprofit group. The study, released Monday by the Trust for America's Health, an advocacy group focused on disease prevention, examines the public-health implications of climate change. In addition to pushing up sea levels and shrinking Arctic ice, the report says, a warming planet is likely to leave more people sick, short of breath or underfed. Experts involved with the study said that these threats might be reduced if the federal government adopts a cap on greenhouse-gas emissions. But no legislation could stop them altogether, they said. Emissions already in the atmosphere are expected to increase warming -- and the problems that come with it -- for years to come...read more

Land trust groups urge tax incentive renewal

Once Congress wraps up the health care reform debate, representatives of two land trust groups said Wednesday they want the Senate and House to turn to extending federal conservation tax incentives by Dec. 31. The current incentives expire this year and must be extended by year's end. The bill has 252 cosponsors in the 435-member House, while 34 of the 100 senators are cosponsors, he said. What's more, President Barack Obama supports reauthorization of the tax incentives, and President George W. Bush supported the initial legislation. Marx said the incentives enhance the opportunities for "land rich, cash poor" farmers and ranchers to obtain federal income tax benefits for placing land in conservation easements. These voluntary easements are agreements between a landowner and a land trust that generally limit residential development, protect open lands, manage forests and continue farm and ranch operations. Participants can deduct up to 100 percent of their adjusted gross income from their federal income taxes, and it extends the carry-forward period for the deductions to 16 years. Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is the sponsor of the bill as he was in 2006. Marx said the rate of private land conservation increased by 36 percent nationally during the first two years the tax incentives were in place...read more

Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative Bets on Western Venue to Link Ranchers and Conservationists

Ranchers and conservationists share an interest in managing grazing lands for optimum ecologic health. They, and others interested in the environmental and economic implications of range management are invited to a national conference of the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI) being held in Reno, Nevada, December 13-16, 2009. In bringing its national conference west for the first time, GLCI will in 2009 will give increased focus to western grazing issues. However, the conference will continue its past format of providing information along four "tracks" that will also include Eastern, Midwestern and dairy grazing issues. Some of the issues to be highlighted include the value of rotational grazing and of riparian habitat, carbon sequestration, and the flexibility within grazing systems. One thing that sets GLCI apart from other conferences is its focus on ranchers as presenters. "We know experts come from academia, government, and the non-profit world and we welcome them all, but we also look for the 'cowboy expert' who has gained his--or her--expertise through long hours with livestock and first-hand exposure to all sorts of elements--natural, economic and political," says Drake...read more

Beleaguered Navajo leader assails critics

Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr., in the throes of a fierce power struggle with the Dine' nation's Tribal Council, repeated Wednesday night that the effort against him is politically motivated because he's trying to crack down on council spending. Speaking at Arizona State University's College of Law, Shirley said he was placed on administrative leave earlier this week because the Tribal Council disagrees with his efforts to shrink the number of council delegates. "It's turned personal. . . . I don't know why I'm on administrative leave," he said. "I've asked for the allegations. I've ask for the investigative report. Nothing has been given to me. It's atrocious." Shirley was stripped of his authority one week after the council received investigative reports that implicate him and key members of his staff in possible ethical, criminal or civil violations, according to Joshua Lavar Butler, a spokesman in the Navajo Nation Speaker's Office...read more

TV: 'Chupacabra' caught on tape in The Woodlands

Paul Stuart drives down Gosling Road near Woodlands Parkway almost every day, but it’s not every day that he encounters a legendary beast. But Stuart says it happened, and it was so unbelievable that immediately pulled out his video camera and began to record. “When I rolled down the window and looked at it, it was very unusual,” he said. “Boys, that’s a chupacabra right there.” That was, at least, his first reaction. Stuart said he had no idea what the nearly hairless, four- legged creature could have been. In fact, he’d never seen anything like it. Biologists and wildlife experts dismiss the chupacabra as nothing more than an urban legend. But what makes Stuart’s story unique is that chupacabra sightings usually happen in Mexico or other parts of Texas—not here in the Houston area...read more

The TV report can be seen at the link provided.

Cow Burps OK: House, Senate Block EPA From Regulating Livestock Emissions

Farmers can breath a little easier now — cows can burp and fart without fear of the Environmental Protection Agency regulating their methane emissions. You may remember the “cow tax” rumors that floated around late last year and caused an uproar among farmers and ranchers worried the EPA planned to regulate methane gas emitted from livestock. The EPA has said — repeatedly — it has no plans to impose a cow tax. But the idea was still worrisome for ranchers and farmers. House and Senate conferees made it official Tuesday and approved an amendment to block agency efforts to require Clean Air Act permits for greenhouse gases emitted by livestock, according to reports from Greenwire and Scientific American. Under the amendment, the EPA can not use funds to implement rules requiring livestock producers to obtain Clean Air Act operating permits for the biological emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases, according to the Scientific American report...read more

Eating Animals

You can agree wholeheartedly with huge chunks of novelist Jonathan Safran Foer's sprawling and stirring new pro-vegetarian polemic, Eating Animals, and at the same time find it pompous and annoying. A few years ago, humbled by the birth of his first child (this alone causes a twinge of readerly alarm), Foer began an exhaustive investigation into the morality of eating meat. He interviewed cattle ranchers and PETA activists, visited an industrial poultry plant, and then poured the results of his research into this compelling, earnest, overly cerebral, and endlessly debatable opus. First, the compelling: Foer is outraged by industrial farming practices that produce 99 percent of the meat in the United States...read more

Can USDA's NIFA be ag's NIH?

Historically short-shrifted by federal funding bodies, academic agricultural research was recently promised redemption: a federal funding agency of its very own that will award competitive grants in a fashion similar to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). But will the new agency, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), be able to put public-sector agricultural science on an equal footing with biomedical research? NIFA, to be administrated by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), was modeled after the government's other large science funding agencies -- the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy, and especially the NIH. Its mission is to fund research addressing several pressing issues ranging from increasing sustainable food production to bioenergy, food safety, and global climate change while encouraging a renaissance in agricultural research at universities across the country. Unlike university-based biomedical research, however, which in general has enjoyed robust funding in the recent past, academic agricultural research has withered under a USDA that has traditionally meted out small, non-competitive grants to land grant universities, often at the behest of US legislators trying to direct funds to their home districts or states. The result is an intellectual landscape where much of the knowledge surrounding plant science and agriculture resides not in universities but in industry, locked behind the walls of large agribusinesses...read more

Family blog puts a face on animal ag

Anyone who has ever wanted to learn about the everyday life of a farm and ranch family can go to the Kansas Beef Council Web site, www.Kansasbeef.org, where a new blog is posted by Kim Harms of Harms Plainview Ranch, Lincolnville. A link to “Ranch Family Blog” is provided on the home page. In words and pictures, Harms portrays normal day-to-day family activities as well as those related to production of beef cattle. The ranching enterprise, operated by Kim and her husband, Mark, is headquartered at 2528 250th St. It maintains a cowherd that produces purebred Angus, Red Angus, and Charolais bulls and heifers for sale to other farmers and ranchers. Harms said she was approached by the council to create the blog after it was advised that one of the fastest ways to reach people and promote a product is through personal stories. “We were asked to put a face on animal agriculture in Kansas,” she said...read more

A Gift For Our Leader

Song Of The Day #167

Ranch Radio's selection today is by Wilf Carter, aka Montana Slim. The tune is Pete Knight The King Of The Cowboys and was recorded in 1935. Pete Knight was the 4-time world champion saddle bronc rider, 1932, '33, '35 and '36. He was also the 3-time Calgary Stampede champion. He was killed in 1937 at the Hayward, California rodeo. So note the song was recorded two years prior to his death.


The song is available on his 8 disc box set Wilf Carter - Cowboy Songs.

Judge kills water ruling

For the moment at least, the Southern Nevada Water Authority has lost the water it hoped to pump to Las Vegas in the first phase of its proposed pipeline across eastern Nevada. In a strongly worded order issued last week, a district judge overturned a 2008 state ruling that granted the authority permission to tap groundwater from three valleys in central Lincoln County. Judge Norman Robison ruled that State Engineer Tracy Taylor "abused his discretion" and "acted arbitrarily, capriciously and oppressively" when he cleared the authority to pump more than 6 billion gallons of groundwater a year from Cave, Delamar and Dry Lake valleys. The senior judge from Gardnerville wrote that the state's chief water regulator traditionally requires "specific empirical data" before allowing groundwater to be transferred out of a basin. This time, though, the state engineer is "simply hoping for the best while committing to undo his decision if the worst occurs," Robison wrote. New Mexico-based attorney Simeon Herskovits represents many of those pipeline opponents. In a statement Tuesday, he applauded Robison for reversing "an obviously unsound decision by the state engineer."...read more

White House Steps Up Climate Efforts

The Obama administration and some Senate Democrats expressed fresh urgency on Tuesday about the need to address climate change and refashion the nation’s energy economy. But they faced determined opposition from Republicans, new concerns from some Democrats and reminders of the financial, technological and political hurdles in remaking the way the nation produces and consumes power. In a Senate hearing on a new climate change and energy bill and in coordinated appearances by President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the administration promoted measures to cap greenhouse gas emissions and support new means of fueling homes and vehicles with far less carbon dioxide intensity. Mr. Obama appeared at a solar energy installation in Florida and Mr. Biden at an auto plant in Delaware that will produce electric vehicles, talking about the potential of alternative energy to create jobs...read more

Dems seek home-state exemptions from environmental law

Taking a page from the Republican playbook, House Democrats are using an annual spending bill to exempt home state interests from new environmental rules that the party typically supports. At issue is the treatment of Great Lakes freight vessels affected by proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulations designed to reduce harmful emissions. The rules are scheduled to take effect in December, but House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) appeared Monday night to have won an exemption for at least 13 older U.S. vessels threatened by the regulations. Another 13 ships would be eligible for waivers from EPA, but in the case of the first 13, Congress would be taking the decision out of the hands of the regulator...read more

Association Marks 20 Years of Greening Hollywood

With local, organic food, minimal electricity use and on-site composting, the Environmental Media Association's 20th anniversary party might be the green standard for future Hollywood awards shows. The awards-show dinner, held Sunday on the Paramount lot, modeled its message - recognizing the industry's efforts to go green with an organic, low-waste, environmentally friendly event. Founded by Norman and Lyn Lear and Alan and Cindy Horn, the Environmental Media Association encourages Hollywood to spread the word about going green. Twenty years later, the group counts the Endangered Species Coalition, the Alaska Rainforest Campaign, the Sierra Club and the World Wildlife Fund among its partners. It has been honored by the White House and praised by Al Gore - years before "An Inconvenient Truth." The group has met with hundreds of Hollywood writers, directors and producers, helping them incorporate green themes into their films and TV shows and encouraging them to make those productions more environmentally friendly...read more

So that's where the propaganda comes from...

Energy Dept. Aid for Scientists on the Edge

The federal Energy Department will make good on a pledge for a bolder technology strategy on Monday, awarding research grants for ideas like bacteria that will make gasoline, enzymes that will capture carbon dioxide to counter global warming and batteries so cheap that they will allow the use of solar power all night long. A new agency within the department will nurture these and other radical proposals, most of which will probably fail but a few of which could have “a transformative impact,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in an interview on Friday. The money will go for projects at all stages of development, including some that exist simply as a smart idea, Dr. Chu said. The department will announce 37 grants totaling $151 million, mostly going to small businesses and educational institutions but also to a few corporations...read more

Wolf hunt ends in southern Montana

Montana's statewide wolf hunting season on Monday came to an abrupt halt in the southern portion of the state, only one day after it started. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks ordered hunting closed in Wolf Management Unit 3 a half-hour after sunset Monday. The hunting closure in WMU 3 was prompted by four wolves that were reportedly killed from that unit, which pushed the total number taken from the area to 13. A pre-established quota called for taking only 12 wolves from that area. Ron Aasheim, FWP community education administrator, said there is no need to adjust the quotas in the other wolf management units because they went over in WMU 3. However, all wolf hunting will end if the entire 75-wolf harvest level in Montana is reached. If it's not, the wolf season ends with the rest of the general big game season on Nov. 29. It can be extended through December, however, if the quota isn't reached. As of Monday afternoon, 23 of Montana's 500 wolves were reported killed by hunters. Six came from WMU 1, which has a quota of 41, and four came from WM2, which has a quota of 22. Twelve of the wolves were taken in a special backcountry hunt offered prior to the general wolf season...read more

Study finds quake risk at Los Alamos

A big earthquake and resultant fire could trigger potentially deadly releases of radioactive materials from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico due to "major deficiencies" in the nuclear weapons lab's safety planning, federal safety experts warned Tuesday. The warning from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board was sent to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, urging him to "execute both immediate and long-term actions." The lab, atop a mesa west of Santa Fe, is the nation's primary plutonium fabrication facility for nuclear weapons and is believed to house thousands of pounds of plutonium at a complex known as TA-55. In the course of designing a new building near the plutonium facility, engineers discovered that a previously known fault has the potential for causing far greater ground movement than they had calculated...read more

Why the Range War In the West Matters

Almost 30 years ago, with the best of intentions Congress passed the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA). Simply stated the EAJA said that if the government had done wrong against small businesses, including farms and ranches, and they challenged the government in federal court, they would not have to go bankrupt awash in legal fees from protecting their rights. Call it a leveling of the playing field. If they were victorious in court, the government would have to pay their legal fees. Sounds fair right? But as with all good intentions, there are some radical environmentalists who have figured out a way to use EAJA against those same small businesses in order to further their radical environmental goals. And even though they aren't being sued directly the ranchers must hire lawyers to give them a seat at the table. -- That's kind of like paying to watch your own hangin'. In the last 10 years in one Federal District Court in Boise, Idaho, Western Watersheds Project has received $1,150,528.00 of your tax dollars for their jihad against the ranchers and sheep men. They have a found judge in that particular court who has been particularly accommodating to them and who seems to have his thumb on the scales of justice in their favor. And that is just one organization. It is estimated that in that same time frame billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent settling these ridiculous legal claims. Here's how it works. WWP sues the government challenging the rancher's public land use permits on trumped up charges over water use or endangered species that aren't really endangered, in the hope of having the permit rescinded. They tie up the ranchers in court and financially bleed them. They don't have to win the case to be given your taxpayer money. The government which is a font of useless legal mumbo jumbo says they only have to "prevail" in the case. And guess who makes the decision whether they "prevail" or not? The federal government! And it's not just Idaho. This group has offices in Arizona, California, Nevada, Montana, Utah, Washington and Wyoming dedicated to the same goal of no commercial development on the vast public lands of the West. That means no cattle, sheep, solar farms, wind farms, natural gas or oil development or vitally needed new transmission lines to bring electricity to the cities of America. This ain't just about cowboys folks...read more

Low Milk Prices Have Dairy Farmers Killing Cows

After burning through $1 million in savings and seeing no end to their losses, dairy farmers Jake and Lori Slegers figured they didn't have much choice -- they had to kill the cows. So one day last summer their sons tagged all 1,571 cows, loaded them onto trailers at their farm south of Fresno, Calif., and watched them rumble away to a slaughterhouse. Lori Slegers said her husband came into the house and broke down. "He said it was the hardest thing he ever had to do," she said. "Luckily, my boys could do it." Growing demand in developing nations drove up milk prices when times were good, and dairy farmers expanded their herds. But the global recession hurt exports and left farmers with too much milk on their hands. Milk processors cut the price they were willing to pay farmers, in many cases below what it cost to produce milk. In the past year, hundreds of farmers have come to the same conclusion as the Slegers: The only way to raise prices is to reduce the supply, and that means killing cows...read more

From the headline I thought they were shooting them, not sending them to slaughter.

Coyote Goes For A Wild Ride

A coyote struck by a fast-moving car near the Nevada-Utah border apparently got trapped by the vehicle's grill and rode for several hours all the way west to the foothills east of Sacramento. Daniel East and his sister, Tevyn, were travelling at about 75 mph along Interstate 80 when they saw some coyotes running nearby. One of the coyotes ran in front of the car. "Right off the bat, we knew it was bad," Daniel East said. They said they kept driving because they thought they had killed the animal, so there was no point in stopping. After they arrived -- eight to 10 hours later -- they found the trapped animal and called Penn Valley-based Wildlife Rehabilitation and Release. "No broken bones, no internal injuries -- nothing," Daniel East said, adding that the animal only had a few scrapes on one of his paws...read more

HT: Outdoor Press Room

Farm states may copy Ohio vote on livestock rules

Ohio voters will decide next week whether to create a board overseeing livestock care in a move that could give farmers in rural America a blueprint for battling animal rights groups intent on outlawing cramped cages for chickens and hogs. Agriculture industry leaders pushed the issue onto the state ballot, hoping to thwart an attempt by animal rights activists who were threatening to force farmers to change how they house livestock. Voters in California, Florida and Arizona already have approved measures that require more space for confined farm animals. Lawmakers in Colorado, Maine, Michigan and Oregon have adopted similar rules. Supporters of the changes say animals raised for food deserve humane treatment. Opponents argue the regulations will force farmers to make costly changes that could put them out of business and drive up the price of eggs, chicken, pork and beef. That's why Ohio's agriculture leaders decided to take a shot at creating a livestock board that would include farmers and animal care experts. Voters in Ohio — often a crucial swing state in national elections — will decide Tuesday whether to approve Issue 2 in what could be a significant decision for farmers nationwide...read more

Hard years for Corpus Christi

80 years ago tomorrow — the stock market crashed. Shares lost half their value, then dropped to pennies on the dollar. Within days, $30 billion in paper value was lost. Then banks closed, jobs vanished, families lost homes and were put on the road, farms were repossessed. The financial depression became the Great Depression. Farm laborers lucky enough to get work made about 40 cents a day. Bank tellers made $17.50 a week. A fireman in Corpus Christi made $2 a day, and he was on call 24 hours a day. But steak was 15 cents a pound, pork chops 10 cents a pound; you could get a room at the Riggan Hotel for $3 a week; you could buy a new Erskine automobile at Winerich Motors for $895. Prohibition crime — bootlegging, smuggling, making whiskey — was big news. Pint bottles of “Old Hospitality” were sealed in flat tin cans to resemble insect spray and brought in by the shipload. Corpus Christi was the headquarters of cotton country. In cotton-picking time, fields of white stretched to the horizon. But in 1931, cotton prices fell from 18 cents to five cents a pound. Farm workers on Chapman Ranch west of Corpus Christi were let go. The first farmer in the country to get paid for plowing under his cotton crop was a Nueces County farmer, W.E. Morris. He went to Washington and was presented the “plow-up” check by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Ranchers were hit hard when calf prices dropped from 9.3 cents a pound in 1929 to 3.6 cents a pound in 1933. On Armstrong Ranch, Charlie Armstrong cut his salary almost in half and laid off most of the hands. On King Ranch, Robert J. Kleberg Jr. ordered 250 head of cattle rounded up to furnish meat for hungry families. The meat was distributed from the King Ranch warehouse in Kingsville...read more