Slain officer call lured police to site, mayor says

Terrorism, similar to that found in the Middle East, has taken root in North America's most violent city. Drug cartels orchestrated a Thursday car bombing that lured police to a fabricated homicide call at a busy downtown intersection. A car exploded, killing three people and injuring seven others. Rigged in the car was Composition 4, or C-4, a plastic explosive often used by the military, Juárez Mayor José Reyes Ferriz said. He said federal officials found a detonation device with batteries inside another car. Initial reports said a city police officer was killed, too, but Reyes Ferriz said the man was not an agent and was there to serve as a trap for law enforcement. They did not release his name. Officers were lured into the deadly trap Thursday night when they thought they were responding to a homicide, Ferriz said. Officers were dispatched thinking a city police officer was slain on the busy 16 de Septiembre Avenue. Reporters also traveled to the scene thinking it was an attack on an officer. Police and paramedics arrived at the scene and noticed that the man posing as a police officer was still alive. Other officers became suspicious when they noticed that the man was not wearing a badge and that his belt was different than the official police uniform. They proceeded to treat the area as a crime scene. Three rescue workers began to treat the decoy. "They were working on him ... about four meters from the car. Then, additional federal police officers came and the car then exploded," Reyes Ferriz said...more

A Food Czar? Really?

You may laugh about the White House assistant chef being appointed "Senior Policy Adviser." You'll stop laughing when you realize that those in power really do want to tell you what to eat. You just can't cook these things up. The 29-year-old Chicago chef that the Obama family for years paid to be their private cook, Sam Kass, was quietly promoted last month from his job as assistant chef at the White House residence and "food initiative coordinator" to the position of "senior policy adviser for healthy food initiatives." The long-suffering American people don't get to know if an increase in salary is involved, because Kass is on the residence staff rather than the West Wing's. But we should know how much the taxpayers are paying this "bald, intense young man" who, according to the New York Times, is "part chef and part policy wonk" and is "reinventing the role of official gastronome in the Executive Mansion." He plays golf with the president at Martha's Vineyard, attends the administration's child-health briefings, and quizzes senior White House staff about policy. Of course, it all begs the question: Why on earth do the American people need a government-paid "food initiative coordinator"? This administration has been attempting to elevate nutrition to the level of a civil rights issue...more

Well, I have my own Culinary Queen, otherwise known as my Burrito Babe, right here and she never tells me what to eat. I either eat what she fixes, or I don't eat.

However, I do agree food should be a "civil rights issue".

Starting today, I'm forming the National Association for the Advancement of Fatty Foods (NAAFF).

First, we need an anthem.

The highly-successful civil rights movement had We Shall Overcome, which went:

We shall overcome, we shall overcome,
We shall overcome someday;
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,
We shall overcome someday.

The anthem for NAAFF will be We Shall Overeat, which goes:

We shall overeat, we shall overeat,
We shall overeat each day;
O, deep in my gut, I do believe,
We shall overeat each day.

Of course we'll need to raise money, so I'm establishing the Fatty Foods Foundation.

Our first event will be a National March Against D.C. Salad Bars. Finally, a green movement I can support.

This is in it's infancy, so if you have comments or suggestions on the name of the org., the anthem, the foundation or future events, use the comments section or email me (flankcinch@hotmail.com).

Eat Free or Die.

The Feds' $95 million Breastfeeding Boondoggle

The USDA's Food and Nutrition Service has set up a network of "lactation consultants" and "breastfeeding peer counselors," which is a strange use of the word "peer," since the counselors are paid $50-60,000 a year, plus benefits, to be your peer. A job notice for a lactation consultant in Washington State notes: This position is covered by an "Agency Shop" provision. Therefore as a condition of employment, the incumbent of this position must either join the union and pay union dues, or pay the union a representational or other fee within 30 days of the date you are placed into pay status. Hmm... funny how the union label seems to pop up on every idea endorsed by the Obamas. President Obama's 2010 budget allocates $14.85 million for unionized peer support, which funds the Loving Support© Peer Counseling Program, the latest in a line of initiatives which all have the words "Loving Support©" in their titles: Loving Support Makes Breastfeeding Work; Using Loving Support to Build a Breastfeeding-Friendly Community; Using Loving Support to Implement Best Practices in Peer Counseling. In addition to Loving Support funding, we read at the USDA website: The Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 (Public Law 111-80), provided $80 million for WIC State agencies to build upon and expand breastfeeding peer counseling efforts...more

There is also a description of a $350,000 USDA contract for a "train-the-trainer" curriculum.

The author, Peter Wilson, says "This contract will pay advisors to advise trainers who train trainers -- three bureaucratic levels removed from the actual act being targeted. Breastfeeding requires the assembly of two working parts, a mouth and a nipple."

Talk about milking the taxpayers...Obama is applying a breast pump to your paycheck.

Woolly mammoth hunters helped change climate

Ancient hunters who stalked the world's last woolly mammoths likely helped warm the Earth's far northern latitudes thousands of years before humans began burning fossil fuels, according to a study of prehistoric climate change. The demise of the leaf-chomping woolly mammoths contributed to a proliferation of dwarf birch trees in and around the Arctic, darkening a largely barren, reflective landscape and accelerating a rise in temperatures across the polar north, researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science concluded. The northward march of vegetation affected the climate because of the "albedo effect," in which replacement of white snow and ice with darker land surfaces absorbs more sunlight and creates a self-repeating warming cycle, the study found. If mammoth hunters helped hasten Arctic warming, that would potentially be the first such human impact on climate, preceding that caused by ancient farmers, Chris Field, director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology and a co-author of the study, said on Tuesday. With the advent of agriculture about 7,000 years ago at more southern latitudes, humans are believed to have modified the climate through deforestation and cultivation of new plants, he said...more

Wouldn't you know it...even thousands of years ago, hunters and ag producers were the bad guys. Oh well, at least they were breastfed.

Beyond Politics? BP & Obama

Oil firms have been lumped into one big, bad group by the U.S. drilling moratorium. But they're not all alike. BP's green politics played a big role in the Gulf spill. That's what should be repudiated, not drilling. No. 1, BP's been a big-foot lobbyist on Capitol Hill, spending $15.9 million to influence legislation — and not in the interest of producing oil. According to the American Thinker, BP played a key role in writing the economy-killing Kerry-Lieberman cap-and-trade bill that President Obama wants to ram through Congress. "BP is a strong White House and Democratic ally on the cap-and-tax issue," wrote Brad O'Leary. It also went green in the campaign sense, doling out cash to leftist candidates who opposed oil drilling. Obama took more than any other candidate BP financed, $77,051, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. BP and its employees gave more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years. Few were champions of producing oil. The politics gets even seedier. Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel took a rent-free apartment from a BP consultant who helped create BP's sanctimonious "Beyond Petroleum" campaign. Worse, news is out that the $20 billion BP fund to compensate residents of the Gulf ruined by the spill could mean tax savings for BP. BP's $5 billion yearly outlay over four years can be written off as a business expense, according to tax law cited by O'Leary. None of the other oil companies shut down by the moratorium will get that. So in the wake of its disaster, BP gains...more

Ethanol Industry Scrambles to Keep Incentives

The once-popular ethanol industry is scrambling to hold onto billions of dollars in government subsidies, fighting an increasing public skepticism of the corn-based fuel and wariness from lawmakers who may divert the money to other priorities. The industry itself can't agree on how to persuade Congress to keep the subsidies, which now come in the form of tax credits worth about $6 billion annually. One industry group, Growth Energy, made the bold move Thursday of calling for the tax credits to be phased out completely in favor of spending the money on more flex-fuel cars and gasoline pumps that support ethanol. A rival group, the Renewable Fuels Association, said it's too late in the year to make such proposals -- the tax credits expire at the end of the year, and legislative days are numbered. As the industry bickers over what to do, Congress is signaling it's growing tired of paying for ethanol. The House Ways and Means Committee is considering slashing the tax credit by 9 cents a gallon, from 45 cents to 36 cents, when it looks at a wide range of energy tax credits as early as next week. That would be the second cut in the credit in as many years. A key senator also expressed skepticism this week. Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Democratic chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a longtime supporter of renewable fuels, said Congress should "weigh all factors, including the credit's very high cost to taxpayers," when looking to extend the credit. Bingaman noted that the ethanol industry is protected by congressional mandates for its use...more

Go Jeff, you are right on this one.

Agents raid farm...again

When the approximately twenty agents arrived at her farmhouse door at 7 a.m. last Wednesday--from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, Los Angeles County Sheriff, Ventura County sheriff, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture--Sharon Palmer didn't know what to say. She had just the previous day pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges of mislabeling goat's milk cheese that took more than a year to materialize from two previous raids in late 2008 and 2009, pushed by CDFA. She thought that at the least the authorities would leave her alone until that case was resolved, since she had made no attempt to get back into her original business of selling raw goat's milk and cheese. But her 12-year-old daughter, Jasmine, wasn't the least bit tongue-tied. "She started back-talking to them," recalls Palmer. "She said, 'If you take my computer again, I can't do my homework.' This would be the third computer we will have lost. I still haven't gotten the computers back that they took in the previous two raids." Alas, the agents took nearly six hours to conduct their "search," and took the replacement computer, along with goat's milk Palmer feeds her chickens and pigs, since she can't sell it--"The chickens get the curd and the pigs get the whey," she told me. The raid last Wednesday on Sharon Palmer's farm was carried out on the same day as a raid on Rawesome Foods, the Venice, CA, buying club run by nutritionist and raw-food advocate Aajonus Vonderplanitz. The main difference seems to be that her raiding party didn't include agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and Canada, as did the Rawesome raid. Because the CDFA had previously suspended her dairy license, in late 2008, Palmer says she had worked hard to survive without selling dairy products, instead selling beef, pork, chickens, and eggs she raises on the farm. "They nearly forced me out of business with the previous raids," she says. She and her three children "are barely surviving."...more

Why Did the National Road Fail?

“Let’s build a national road across the I country!” many Americans cried in I the early 1800s. The idea of a national road was appealing because it would encourage settlement by connecting the east coast with the interior of the recent Louisiana Purchase. So popular was the idea that in 1806, Congress voted to fund such a road, and Thomas Jefferson signed the bill. Constitutional arguments were important in this debate. Those who favored the road argued that it was a “post road” for mail delivery, and thus was consistent with Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution. But would the national road — which would eventually stretch from Cumberland, Maryland, to Vandalia, Illinois — be economically sound? Put another way, even if the road was a good idea, was government funding the best means to achieve it? After more than 700 miles and $7 million in construction costs, we can answer that question. No, the national road was not sound. Nor was it particularly helpful to westward settlement. By 1850 it was little used, and soon after that it was almost abandoned. What went wrong and why? Three problems inherent in government funding help explain why the national road largely failed...more

The West: Locked in a spell of deep wonder, poetry and awe

Writing in 1973, Andy Russell, the Lethbridgeborn trapper, grizzly bear hunter, photographer, trail guide, rancher and writer, exulted in the classic Western vista. And the love was obvious. He gloried in the "sprawling peaks of the Great Lewis Overthrust," and of how "mountains, meadows, lakes and ageless stone couple into solid magnificence." In a description of the sunrise at the foothills of the Rockies, he characterized the moment as "sudden-bursting life, a marriage of light and life," and wrote of how "the mountains light up at first sun in deep rose, swiftly changing to gold, and all shot through with deep purple's shadow." It was, he wrote, as if "the whole universe pauses for a long, heart-stretching moment, locked in a spell of deep wonder." Such awe at the natural world is at the heart of the Western experience and explains much about the West and the optimistic, open spirit that lies at its core...more

Song Of The Day #361

It's Swingin' Monday on Ranch Radio.

So here is a nice little swing tune by the Asylum Street Spankers titled Move Up To The Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue.

The tune is on their 14 track CD Mercurial.

Top Secret In America: A hidden world, growing beyond control

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work. These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine. The investigation's other findings include: * Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States. * An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 11/2 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances. * In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space. * Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks.* Analysts who make sense of documents and conversations obtained by foreign and domestic spying share their judgment by publishing 50,000 intelligence reports each year - a volume so large that many are routinely ignored...more

NSA Executive Leaked After Official Reporting Process Failed Him

A former NSA executive who is fighting government charges of leaking classified information was part of a group that pursued several sanctioned paths to report concerns about an agency spy program, but was repeatedly frustrated by the government’s inaction, according to a report Wednesday. Thomas Drake, now reduced to working at a Washington, D.C.-area Apple store while awaiting his trial, first notified his superiors at the National Security Agency, then looked to Congress to address his concerns, and finally worked with a group that went to the Defense Department’s inspector general, according to The Washington Post. When all of these avenues failed to net results, he took his information to a reporter at The Baltimore Sun. Drake now faces a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison if convicted of mishandling classified information and obstructing justice. Drake’s information involved a data-mining program called ThinThread that, after the Sept. 11 attacks, was going to be replaced by a more expensive, less efficient and less privacy-friendly program called Trailblazer. When he expressed concerns that the new program would ignore constitutional safeguards around wiretapping, he was reportedly rebuffed by his superiors. “He tried to have his concerns heard and nobody really wanted to listen,” attorney Nina Ginsberg, who is representing a former Capitol Hill staffer but is not representing Drake, told the Post...more

And from the Washington Post

Drake, 53, may pay a high price for going nuclear. In April he was indicted, accused of mishandling classified information and obstructing justice. His supporters consider him a patriotic whistleblower targeted by an Obama administration bent on sealing leaks and on having something to show for an investigation that spans two presidencies. Many in the intelligence community, by contrast, view Drake as the overzealous one, an official who disregarded his oath to protect classified information so he could punish the agency for scrapping a program he favored...

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

The pocket watch

by Julie Carter

I lay deep in the dust, unseen and missing to the world. As the winds of time put layer upon layer of corral dirt over me, I slipped into history without notice.

Quietly, I remained in my unintended grave, enduring the seasons that came and then left - the long deep winters of driving frost permeating the soils, the warming sun of spring that brought soft living-giving rains and the gentle warmth of summer that delivered the sustaining harvests.

I saw both ends of a family generation make their living off the land near where I rested. As the older ones faded from the horizon, they made way for the young as they too changed, grew, and moved on in one fashion or another.

The circle of life, fueled by a never-ending source of time, continued.

This silent, stationary journey began when I fell from the pocket of a young cowboy easing into his teen years.

The buck deer engraved on my gold cover was the reason his grandmother selected me as a gift for him. He was so proud, feeling rich and elevated in status to own such a fine item - a pocket watch.

He braided a leather fob for me and would often sit and just stare at this treasure of his, flipping the cover open, closing it again. There he scratched his name, laying an eternal claim to me with the "brand" given to him by his parents. It simply read, "Blayke".

For the first couple years, we were inseparable. Then one day in the course of some of the usual cattle work that happened regularly in the family's old pole corrals, fate parted us.

The punchy young cowboy was riding a newly acquired bronc his dad had brought home from the sale barn.

While a little on the spooky side, the short-coupled sorrel, sporting one white sock on a hind leg, a snip of white on his nose and pig eyes that indicated some stubbornness, was the perfect horse for sorting in a corral.

Afternoon rain showers made the ground slick, and in the instant of a quick move by the sorrel to turn back a calf, all four hooves were simultaneously in the air. In a blur of motion, the horse fell hard to the ground, landing with thud on the corral floor.

The cowboy's quick instincts flashed a signal to his brain and he was able to kick loose from his saddle at the onset of the wreck. He hit the ground with a rush of air leaving his lungs, only to return in short gasps as he pulled himself to his feet.

It wasn't until a day later that he realized his gold pocket watch was missing. He returned to the corrals, kicked around in the area of the fall but he never saw me lying in the dirt where momentum had flung me.

A sadness for the loss registered in his heart and as years continued to tick away in the life of the cowboy, that day was moved to share the memories that recorded a sweeter time in his life.

Recently and some 25 years later, I was unearthed by another generation of that family who was cleaning the corrals. My face is still intact and my cover still has the name of the boy that scratched his mark there.

When he was told that I'd resurfaced, basically unscathed by the experience and the years, the cowboy retrieved the memories of that day and period in his life.

In recall, they erupted in Technicolor and were accompanied by emotions now felt deeper by a wiser adult that had seen a lot of country, done a lot of living.

I'll be glad when he has me back in his pocket. We have a lot of catching up to do. Time doesn't stand still, but timepieces can.

Real-life details provided by Blayke Cardenas. Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net.

13th Annual Corona Days

Song Of The Day #360

Ranch Radio's Gospel tune this Sunday morning is Shine Your Light sung by Ginger Boatwright. You'll find the tune on her 12 track CD Fertile Ground.

Drug violence kills 19 in Mexico

The latest spate of drug-related violence in Mexico left 19 people dead, including five factory workers near the US border and four police officers in Acapulco, officials said. The Chihuahua state prosecutor said the workers were gunned down when armed men burst into a party at a house in Ciudad Juarez late Friday. Ciudad Juarez, which borders El Paso, Texas, is a key battleground for drug traffickers seeking routes to the United States. It is also home to many factories, called maquiladoras, for US firms that can use Mexican workers. Six other violent deaths were recorded in Ciudad Juarez, including a man and his daughter, who were shot by gunmen who entered his home early Saturday, authorities said. In other municipalities of Chihuahua, which shares a long border with Texas, there were four killings late Friday, prosecutors said. Separately in Acapulco, four policemen were shot dead Saturday by unknown assailants on a rural road near the port in the Mexican resort, state officials said...more

Gun Battles in Mexican Border City Leave at Least 12 Dead

At least 12 people were killed in three gun battles involving Mexican army soldiers and suspected drug cartel hit men in the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo, officials said. “Nine criminals, two civilians and a soldier were killed in the three clashes between elements of the National Defense Secretariat and members of organized crime, and 21 people were wounded,” the Government Secretariat said in a statement. The secretariat added that seven of the wounded – including three minors – are in serious condition and are being treated at a Social Security clinic in Nuevo Laredo, while the other 14 are in “delicate but stable” condition and receiving treatment in that city’s general hospital. For its part, Sedena said in a statement that it repelled four attacks Friday by armed gangs in different parts of Nuevo Laredo. It confirmed the deaths of the suspected cartel members, the soldier and the civilians, as well as the seizure of several weapons and vehicles...more

Border Patrol Catches Convicted Sex Offender in California Desert

U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to Calexico Station arrested a convicted sex offender who was illegally present in the United States early Thursday morning in the desert east of Calexico, Calif. On July 8, at approximately 5:45 a.m., agents encountered a 41-year-old male approximately 16 miles east of the downtown Calexico port of entry. It was determined he was a citizen of Mexico without any legal immigration documents. He was subsequently arrested and transported to the Calexico Border Patrol Station for further processing. At the station record checks revealed the man had previously been convicted of Lewd and Lascivious acts with a minor in Santa Paula, Calif. The individual is being prosecuted for 8 USC 1326 re-entry after deportation. [link]

Convicted sex offender is arrested crossing border near Deming

U.S. Border Patrol agents near Deming arrested a convicted sex offender who attempted to enter the U.S. illegally. Agents arrested Jose Suarez-Ramirez, 29, on Wednesday after they spotted him and another person crossing the border. Suarez-Ramirez admitted to agents that he had no immigration documentation, agents said. Agents eventually discovered that Suarez-Ramirez had an "extensive" criminal history, including convictions for criminal sexual penetration of a child younger than 13, burglary, conspiracy, larceny and possession of a controlled substance. Suarez-Ramirez remained in custody Wednesday pending prosecution for the illegal entry, agents said. [link]

Drug cartels smuggling illegals create security risk, officials say

Smuggling of potential terrorists across the border is evolving into a billion dollar industry for Mexican drug cartels while posing a significant threat to the United States, according to federal law enforcement officials. That was echoed in a recent assessment by the U.S. military's Southern Command that found drug cartels are taking advantage of a "largely unregulated" border to create security risk for the United States. "Of particular concern is the smuggling of criminal aliens and gang members who pose public safety threats to communities throughout the border region and the country," said the Southern Command report obtained by The Washington Examiner. "These individuals include hundreds of undocumented aliens from special interest countries, primarily China, but also Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan." Department of Homeland Security policy requires that many illegal immigrants from countries that have been breeding grounds for anti-American sentiment, known as "special interest aliens," be released unless there is specific evidence of threat. Most fail to appear for hearings. "We don't always know who we have in custody," said a DHS official who asked not to be named. "We still have a catch and release program, and we don't always know if those are good or bad guys. It's difficult to coordinate with our Mexican counterparts, and many times we have no idea who made it across with the aid of the cartels."...more

Drug cartels escalate war using car bomb

The first successful car bombing by a drug cartel brings a new dimension of terror to a Mexican border region already shocked by random street battles, bodies dangling from bridges and highway checkpoints mounted by heavily armed criminals. The attack, seemingly lifted from an al-Qaida playbook, demonstrated once again that the cartels are a step ahead of both an already guarded public and federal police, who have recently taken over command from the military of the battle against traffickers in Ciudad Juarez, a city across the border from El Paso, Texas. "It's a lot like Iraq," said Claudio Arjon, who owns a restaurant near the scene of the attack and was surveying the damage from behind police lines Saturday morning. "Now, things are very different. It's very different. It's very ugly." People in Ciudad Juarez already live under siege. Like many restaurant owners, Arjon closes his business long before dark every day to avoid criminal gangs that threaten him and his clientele. Parents take separate cars to the same place so one can warn the other of dangers up ahead. Ambulance drivers and emergency room doctors come under fire from gang members trying to finish off wounded rivals. A car bomb was the one thing nobody was expecting. It was a carefully planned attack designed to catch the extremely wary population and security forces off guard. A street gang tied to the Juarez cartel lured federal officers and paramedics to the site of the bomb by dressing a bound, wounded man in a police uniform and calling in a false report of an officer shot, said Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes...more

Mexican drug cartels' newest weapon: Cold War-era grenades made in U.S.

Grenades made in the United States and sent to Central America during the Cold War have resurfaced as terrifying new weapons in almost weekly attacks by Mexican drug cartels. Sent a generation ago to battle communist revolutionaries in the jungles of Central America, U.S. grenades are being diverted from dusty old armories and sold to criminal mafias, who are using them to destabilize the Mexican government and terrorize civilians, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials. Grenades have killed a relatively small number of the 25,000 people who have died since Calderón launched his U.S.-backed offensive against the cartels. But the grenades pack a far greater psychological punch than the ubiquitous AK-47s and AR-15 rifles -- they can overwhelm and intimidate outgunned soldiers and police while reminding ordinary Mexicans that the country is literally at war. There have been more than 72 grenade attacks in Mexico in the last year, including spectacular assaults on police convoys and public officials. Mexican forces have seized more than 5,800 live grenades since 2007, a small fraction of a vast armory maintained by the drug cartels, officials said...more

Increased use of UAVs in border protection hobbled by shortage of UAV pilots

As hopes that SBInet, the ambitious virtual fence project along the U.S.-Mexico border, will ever live up to its promise recede, DHS has increased the role of UAVs in border monitoring; UAVs require pilots to fly them remotely, though, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has had trouble finding trained pilots remotely to fly the aircraft; Maj. Gen. Michael Kostelnik, assistant commissioner of CBP's Air and Marine Office: "The greatest near-term challenge faced is a shortage of pilots and sensor operators, specifically pilots certified to launch and land the aircraft". Indeed, Nextgov’s Jill R. Aitoro writes that the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has increasingly been relying more on unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the U.S. borders, but the bureau has had trouble finding trained pilots remotely to fly the aircraft, a DHS official told Congress yesterday. The use of UAVs has expanded from primarily the military to homeland security, with CBP using the vehicles to scan the border for illegal immigrants and to support disaster relief operations...more

Immigrant deaths in Arizona desert soaring in July

A county medical examiner says deaths among illegal immigrants crossing the southern Arizona desert from Mexico are soaring so much this month the office is using a refrigerated truck to store some of the bodies. Pima County medical examiner Dr. Bruce Parks said Friday that the bodies of 40 illegal immigrants have been brought to his Tucson office since July 1. At that rate, he says deaths could top the single-month record of 68 in July 2005. Authorities believe the high number of deaths are likely due to above-average heat and tighter border security that pushes immigrants to more remote terrain. The deaths occur despite the efforts of the Border Patrol and humanitarian groups to help those in distress...more

Armed Escorts to Accompany New Mexico Livestock Inspectors

When inspectors in New Mexico begin surveying 32 livestock scales along the increasingly dangerous Mexican border later this month, they'll have armed escorts at their sides. It will mark the first time armed deputies will travel with New Mexico Department of Agriculture inspectors, who certify the scales used to weigh livestock, Luna County Sheriff Raymond Cobos said. "These scales that the ranchers use to ship their cattle are in isolated areas," Cobos told FoxNews.com. "And the administration decided since those inspectors and personnel are not armed, they wanted to be able to concentrate on their work without worrying about their security." Cobos said that beginning on July 26, deputies will accompany inspectors to the scales in a corridor that stretches southwest from Interstate 10 at Las Cruces to the New Mexico-Arizona border, along Luna, Hidalgo and Grant counties. "It also helps the deputies become more familiar with the ranches and their particular layouts," Cobos said. "It's a benefit to all of us."...more

3 Different Camera Views of Trinity Explosion, July 16, 1945

Watch this short video and see the Atomic Age begin in NM.

Third Mexican gray wolf found dead

Federal authorities confirmed Friday they are investigating the death of another endangered Mexican gray wolf that was found shot along the New Mexico-Arizona border. The male wolf is the third to be found dead within the past month. It was a member of the Hawks Nest Pack. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Tom Buckley called the latest death "very troubling." He says that leaves the Hawks Nest Pack with an alpha female and a yearling female to hunt for seven pups. The pack's alpha male was found shot to death last month on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. Another alpha male, a member of the San Mateo Pack, was found dead of unknown causes a week later. Buckley says there was a cow found shot to death near where the latest wolf shooting death occurred. AP

Judge allows Nevada wild horse roundup to resume

A government roundup of wild horses can resume in Nevada, a judge ruled Friday, dealing a setback to animal rights activists who had hoped to halt it after 13 mustangs died. Federal land managers hailed U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks' order, warning that more than 500 horses in northern Elko County could die of dehydration in the next week if the roundup didn't continue. On Wednesday, Hicks issued an emergency order stopping the gather. U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Doran Sanchez said the condition of the horses is "deteriorating rapidly," and the roundup will resume Saturday morning. BLM officials blame the deaths on the drought and not the roundup. "We have a major crisis here, and given the critical condition the animals are in, we could lose a lot of animals," Sanchez said. "Our main goal is to save as many animals as possible given the extreme emergency conditions." But activists have expressed outrage over the roundup, saying the deaths were predictable, given the hot summer temperatures and the weakened state of colts and mares that recently gave or were about to give birth. In her lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order halting the roundup, horse advocate and author Laura Leigh of Minden argues the BLM violated its own policy not to conduct helicopter roundups until at least six weeks after peak foaling season ends. She said she has doubts about the BLM's explanation of the situation...more

Do We Need “Alternative Energy” Because of the Oil Spill?

As crude oil continues to pour into the Gulf of Mexico, the politicians are waving the “green energy” shirt again. The logical chain goes as such: (1) crude oil is messy and dirty, especially when it is spilled into water; (2) “green” fuels and energy methods are clean and don’t result in oil spills; (3) therefore, the government should force us to use “green energy.” Throw global warming into the pot, and you have yet another round of government intervention into the energy business, as though there was not “enough” intervention already. To make matters worse, the new plan from President Obama would make gasoline prohibitively expensive, and gasoline price increases no doubt would trigger yet more condemnation of oil and lead to more demands that the government “nationalize” the industry. In reality, government intervention played an important role in the spill’s happening in the first place. As Judge Andrew Napolitano points out, BP originally sought to drill in 500 feet of water, a plan approved by the state of Louisiana but then nixed by the federal government, which demanded the company drill in 5,000 feet depths instead. Judge Napolitano writes: Never mind that no oil company had ever cleaned up a broken well at that depth and never mind that the feds had never monitored a broken well at that depth and never mind that BP only needed to set aside $75 million in case something went wrong. The feds trumped BP’s engineers and the feds trumped the wishes of the folks who live along the Gulf Coast and the feds decided where this oil well would be drilled....more

Injunction on roaming bison takes effect

An injunction to stop roaming bison in their tracks went into effect Thursday in King County. The injunction was issued in a lawsuit involving the January shooting of 51 bison on a ranch in the county northwest of Abilene. The bison are supposed to be at home on the QB Pasture Reserve, better known as the QB Ranch. The 20,000-acre outfit bills itself as a place to hunt not only bison but also Watusi cattle and trophy whitetail deer. In January, several head of bison roamed onto the neighboring Niblo Ranch, where ranch employee Jackie Doyle Hill allegedly shot 51 head of the QB herd. Hill has been charged with felony criminal mischief in the incident. His trial date has yet to be set. Meanwhile, the farming and ranching partnership that leases the Niblo Ranch filed suit against the QB, and the QB has countered with a suit for damages to recover the value of the slaughtered bison. Don Ross Malone, an attorney who practices in Vernon, is representing the 3-S Texas General Partnership in civil proceedings against the QB. “We went to court,” Malone said. “We asked them for an injunction to abate a private nuisance.” Houston attorney Andrew Sher is representing the interests of the QB. A side note in the case is the classification of the bison as wild animals. “The classification of these animals as livestock, that’s how the QB wants to classify them,” Malone said. “Our position is that they’re wild animals. It’s stated in the Texas Agricultural Code. That’s a determinative factor that’s going to decide who has to build the fence.”...more

Luna County wind energy project stokes debate

A proposed wind project in Northeastern Luna County has the Board of Commissioners on the fence. During a Tuesday work session, representatives of the Macho Springs Wind Project, Element Power and locals with deep agricultural roots in Luna County joined the Board of Commissioners to hear details on a proposed industrial revenue bond and potential impacts on the surrounding area, the Nutt Grasslands. A local rancher, Joe Bill Nunn, whose family owns ranches in the area, voiced concerns that wind turbine development could not only hurt the aesthetic value of the grasslands, but the property value as well. "We don't want to sell our property," Nunn told commissioners. "We plan on dying on this land, but we want to preserve the value of these lands, not only for the generations of our family that come after us and the generations of our neighbors' families, but also for the public and the people that enjoy the beautiful views that this area of Northeast Luna County has." On Wednesday, when reached for comment, local resident Jack Harmon expressed concern that some regulations might not be followed, as he has personally experienced when dealing with other large projects...more

"For me, I think they give a really good sales pitch, but it doesn't leave me with a comfortable feeling," he said. "My instincts tell me they are looking at us like other large contractors in the past, like we're a bunch of hicks and they can do what they want."

How Gillette landed the rodeo

Diane Shober hadn’t been on the job long as Cam-plex marketing director when the chairman of the Campbell County Public Land Board began to push the group to think beyond the run-of-the-mill events that so far had defined Cam-plex. “We were getting nowhere and the public didn’t think Cam-plex was worth a damn,” said Jim Anderson, who was chairman of the land board, which governs Cam-plex. “At one board meeting I said, ‘Look, let’s get this straight. You’ve got to get a national event that is going to get this place on the map.’” Some different ideas were tossed around, from RV rallies, to the National College Finals Rodeo. And somehow — neither Anderson nor Shober remember whose idea it was — the idea of the National High School Finals Rodeo came up. t wasn’t long before Shober and Rex Brown, then assistant marketing director at Cam-plex, were in Denver, dropping by the NHSFR office and asking for the specifications to be a host site. They headed back to Gillette with five long pages of criteria. Brown drove home and Shober read the specifications to her, noting those things that already existed at Cam-plex — like the rodeo arena and grandstands at Morningside Park — and circling those things they did not — like stalls for 1,400 horses. Despite the number of circles, the two began to have a glimmer of hope. This was possible. This could be done...more

Remington Museum to unveil bronze of Seabiscuit and jockey

On Saturday, July 17th, Canada’s contribution to America’s ‘Race of the Century’ will be honoured with the unveiling of a spectacular life-size bronze statue of the racehorse Seabiscuit mounted by The Iceman, George Woolf — the Cardston native who rode the horse in the 1938 win over War Admiral. The event was noted as the most famous horse race of the 20th Century. The frenzy was such that one out of every three Americans or 40 million tuned in to the broadcast that pitted Seabiscuit against the aristocratic Triple Crown winner. The immortal story will be commemorated in a life-size bronze capturing a moment from that fabled race. The statue will take pride of place near the stables of the Remington Carriage Museum in Cardston. “I always felt that George needed recognition for what he did. To go from a kid raised in a sod shack with nothing to becoming one of the best jockeys who ever lived; well, that’s quite the achievement,” said Jack Lowe, an area rancher who commissioned the bronze and grew up hearing about Woolf’s exploits. Seabiscuit and his two Canadian jockeys were the perfect story during the hard times of the Great Depression. Stocky and low-slung, the horse looked nothing like a winner despite being descended from the great Man O War. In the beginning of his racing career, Seabiscuit lost an outrageous 35 races as a two-year-old. It took a special trainer and two jockeys from Alberta to turn Seabiscuit into a superstar...more

Wyoming tribe's beef deal with Whole Foods ends

A deal for the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming to sell organic, grass-fed beef to Whole Foods Market Inc. has fallen through, a beef distributor said Wednesday. Panorama Meats Inc., which bought the beef from the tribe and sold it to Whole Foods, said the agreement ended in March when tribal officials asked for a 29 percent price increase. "That's a heck of a jump in one fell swoop," said Mack Graves, CEO of Vina, Calif.-based Panorama. Graves said the increase was more than Whole Foods wanted to pay. Panorama was buying about 40 head per week from the tribe, Graves said. Whole foods, based in Austin, Texas, was selling the beef at its stores in Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas and Utah. The deal, struck in April 2009, called for the tribe to get $1,400 per head. Panorama said at the time it was about 25 percent more than conventional beef fetches. Graves said Panorama temporarily bought beef from California ranches to make up for the loss of the Northern Arapaho supply, with Whole Foods' consent. Graves said he found other ranches in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming to supply organic, grass-fed beef and is now selling their products to Whole Foods. Graves said he is also talking with a New Mexico rancher about also supplying beef...more

Rumor has it they've been in contact with NM's most famous producer and advocate for organic beef...Jimmy Bason. Bason markets his cattle as Healthy Hillsboro Herefords and has changed his brand to CO...for Certified Organic.

I tried to reach Bason to confirm the contact. I was told he couldn't be reached, that he was travelling with Ted Turner to some secret meeting about organic chupacabras.

'Ugly Beast' Found in Texas: Another Chupacabra?

A rancher in Fort Hood, Texas, southwest of Fort Worth, found a strange-looking animal in his barn. The hairless (or nearly hairless) beast was shot by an animal control officer who described it as "ugly, real ugly." From there, things just get stranger. Samples of the body were taken for DNA analysis, though many people believe it is the blood-sucking beast "el chupacabra," the world's best known monster after Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster. The chupacabra first appeared in Puerto Rico in 1995 and sightings soon spread to other Spanish-speaking countries and areas. No hard evidence of its existence has been found — though about a half-dozen alleged chupacabra carcasses have been found in Texas. In May 2004, a rancher near the Texas town of Elmendorf noticed a strange animal eating mulberries under a tree on his property. The thin creature had large ears and a bluish cast, and was nearly hairless. The rancher shot the beast, which because of its odd look was thought by many to be the chupacabra. Genetic testing later revealed it to be a domestic dog. The most famous Texas chupacabra was found in 2007 when a strange, nearly hairless creature was discovered near a ranch outside the town of Cuero. News spread worldwide, though DNA sequencing revealed it was a Texas coyote that may have been part wolf. In July 2009 a man living near Blanco, Texas, found a strange dead animal. It weighed about 80 pounds, had four legs and a tail, and resembled a coyote except for its dark chocolate color and the fact that it was mostly hairless. It, too, was thought to be a chupacabra, and even exhibited as one in a creationist museum...more

Westwater cattlewoman rode with the Wild Bunch

The country in eastern Utah around Westwater is rugged and not for the faint of heart. But it was not too rugged for Florence Harris Fuller, who became a legend as one of the best-known and highly respected cattlewomen in the West. She owned land in the Westwater area and on the west end of Pinon Mesa. Around 1885 or 1886 she showed up in Utah, which was still a territory. She had acquired several hundred head of cattle and was accompanied by her future husband, trail boss Bob Fuller. It is possible that she had won the cattle in a poker game. Apparently, cattle weren’t the only items of interest that Florence brought with her on her return. In the Journal article, Sylvia told how she enjoyed going through her Aunt Florence’s trunk “full of beautifully beaded dresses, the kind entertainers wore in those days.” “My family was always hush-hush when it came to talking about ‘Aunt Bote,’ Sylvia told Stanton. “This simply added intrigue and made Aunt Bote an even more exciting character.” Indeed, Florence was an interesting character. Dude Larsen remembered a story about the Wild Bunch (which included Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) that Florence told him at the 1921 Cattleman’s Ball in Fruita...more

Song Of The Day #359

Yesterday Ranch Radio played a 1957 tune by George Jones. So for today we picked another song from 1957, Country Boy, by Johnny Cash.

Rep. Bishop Speaks At National Press Club

In this speech he covers:

° The amount of federal lands on the border
° The amount of wilderness on the border
° Why the Border Patrol is effective on private lands
° Why the Border Patrol is not effective on federal lands, esp. wilderness areas
° Why the drug cartels and human traffickers prefer federal lands



You can also view the speech on YouTube by going here.

3 killed in drug gang attack on police in Juarez

Members of a northern Mexico drug gang rammed a car that may have been packed with explosives or inflammable material into two police patrol trucks in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing two officers and a medical technician, and wounding nine people. Federal police said the attack Thursday — which may be one of the first uses of an explosive-packed car in Mexico — was in retaliation for the arrest of a top leader of the La Linea drug gang, Jesus Acosta Guerrero, earlier in the day. Seven officers and two civilians were wounded in the attack, said a state police source who was not authorized to be quoted by name. He said the compact passenger car had apparently been carrying some kind of explosive or inflammable device when it rammed the police pickup trucks. The crash left charred wreckage. Federal police confirmed in a statement that the car rammed the patrol vehicles, but were not immediately available to confirm what, if anything the car was carrying...more

Human Head Found in Arizona Fuels Political Debate

A controversy is brewing in Arizona over assertions by advocates of more stringent immigration laws that drug and human traffickers have beheaded illegal immigrants as a warning to rival cartels operating along the Arizona-Mexico border. A cowboy on the Atascosa Ranch in Santa Cruz County found the skull of an undocumented immigrant on June 27, 2008, and the property's owner, J. David Lowell, recounted the grisly discovery in a letter to Gov. Brewer this month. "On that day one of our ranch hands was working horseback and discovered a human head near a trail believed to be used by drug and alien smugglers," the letter read. "Although the head was missing the lower jaw, it was immediately apparent that much of the mass and flesh of the head was still present. The cowboy searched the area in hopes of finding the remainder of the body to no avail." Lowell notified officials at the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, who went to the ranch and took possession of the head. Dr. Bruce Parks, who serves as the chief medical examiner for Pima and Santa Cruz counties, confirmed to FoxNews.com that the head was identified through DNA testing as that of 43-year-old Francisco Fuentes Dominguez, who was not a U.S. citizen. Parks said a cause of death was not determined, but there was no evidence of decapitation. Other "badly decomposed" parts of Dominguez's body were found nearby earlier in the year, he said. Another skull, which was never identified, was found by U.S. Border Patrol agents on Sopori Ranch in Tubac, Ariz., on June 9, 2008, said Parks, adding that no evidence was found linking that skull to decapitation. Lowell's letter also recounted a total of "five shooting incidents" on his ranch in the past seven months, most recently on July 2...more

Obama sticks with clean-energy goals

President Obama is looking again to convince voters that the billions of dollars he has pumped into embryonic clean-energy firms will build a better economy even if they generate only a modest number of jobs before the middle of the decade. The White House compares the effort to the government's investment in the Internet several decades ago, and Obama will highlight startups that make electric batteries for future fleets of zero-emissions cars and trucks. In a report due Wednesday, the president's economists say the loan guarantees and grants extended under the Recovery Act -- matched by billions of dollars in private investment -- have the potential to "stand up" new industries that could employ thousands of Americans by 2015. They estimate that for each dollar in federal investment translates to $3.50 of total investment. But it is too early to say whether early bets on electric vehicles, solar power and "smart" electric grids will create the booming industries the White House envisions. Politically, it is all but certain that the benefits of those efforts will not be visible in time to make voters feel better about the economy before the fall elections. Cars and trucks powered solely by electric batteries remain unproven in the mass market, and efforts to build a smarter power grid are opposed by 11 Northeastern governors, who say they are leery of subsidizing a $160 billion electric transmission line from their states deep into the population centers of the Midwest...more

The Green-Economy Mirage

If you got an email offering you the chance to invest in a business that would create new profitable industries, employ millions of people, reduce energy consumption without reducing quality of life, and improve environmental quality, would you be skeptical? And if the email went on to claim that the technologies to do all this exist now and could save existing businesses billions of dollars in just a few years by reducing waste and energy use, would you wonder why no one was already implementing all these “common sense” ideas? If the email went on to promise that you could do this all at no risk by investing borrowed money, you’d likely be reaching for the delete key. If we substitute “the federal government” or “the United Nations Environment Programme” or “the European Union” for “you” and change the email to a proposed law, however, we discover that politicians from Washington to Brussels are embracing measures to “green” the economy and create “green jobs” with an almost religious fervor, despite weak empirical support for these proposals. The Obama administration included billions of spending and tax incentives for green initiatives in its budget, and last spring’s “stimulus” bill poured $62 billion in transfers plus $20 billion in tax cuts into “green initiatives.” Unfortunately, the rhetoric about “greening the economy” or creating “green jobs” is just political window-dressing for some of the same central-planning measures proposed by the left for years. Behind that rhetoric are proposals built around government subsidies for favored technologies, measures to limit trade, and a great deal of wishful thinking about alternative energy measures not quite ready for prime time...more

FBI, ATF join probe into big Forest Service blaze

The site of district headquarters of the U.S. Forest Service in Enterprise has been declared a crime scene following a spectacular, fast-growing fire that destroyed the two-story log building. Local firefighters were informed of the crime-scene declaration about 9 p.m. Sunday, July 11, four hours after the blaze was first reported. Yellow "crime scene" tape surrounded the property and a reserve sheriff's deputy was stationed at the bottom of the driveway to restrict access. Investigators from the state fire marshal's office arrived to join a probe that was expected to include agents from the FBI and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives plus Oregon State Police arson investigators, said Rich Hoover, spokesman for the fire marshal...more

12 horses now dead from Nev. roundup; hearing set

Twelve wild horses have now died in a Nevada roundup directed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, half of them colts and mares. The BLM on Wednesday said four more animals died or were put down because of dehydration or water intoxication. The agency also announced emergency measures to truck water to large bands of mustangs still on the range in the roundup area. A federal judge scheduled a hearing for Thursday in Reno on a temporary restraining order sought by animal rights advocates to halt the roundup in northern Elko County. Late Wednesday U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks issued an emergency order that prohibits the BLM from further roundups until after that hearing. The order followed word that the BLM planned a 6 a.m. roundup. The BLM suspended the gather over the weekend when seven horses died of dehydration and water intoxication after being herded by helicopter on the first day of the roundup. Another horse broke a leg and was put down. Two more animals died Monday and two others were euthanized "because of complications related to water starvation and water intoxication," the agency said...more

Forest Service begins opening trails to vehicles

A Lewis and Clark National Forest official said Monday the forest has begun opening gates and modifying travel signs on 140 miles of roads and trails in the Little Belt Mountains that once again are open to travel by motorcycle and four-wheelers. A 2007 forest travel plan had banned motorized travel on the trails, leaving access to only hikers and skiers. The 140 miles is a portion of the roads that were closed by the Forest Service in a 2007 travel plan. The plan remains in force, except for the 140 miles. On July 2, U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon, overseeing a legal battle between motorized users and the U.S. Forest Service over the plan, ordered that the 140 miles be opened again. The Forest Service had closed the areas to protect habitat and wildlife, but Haddon said, in effect, that the agency went too far and also made some legal errors in crafting the plan. "We're encouraged this is going forward," said John Borgreen of the Russell Country Sportsmen. Russell Country Sportsmen is one of the groups that sued over the reduction in motorized access...more

Report: Climate change to have major impacts on Western water

Of all the current and future impacts of climate change, threats to water resources may be the most painful in the American West, according to a new report published Monday. “Protecting the lifeline of the West,” written by Western Resource Advocates, a Boulder-based environmental law and policy organization, brings together dozens of studies by climate and water experts, detailing the ways in which water, energy and climate are deeply entwined in states like Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Arizona. “Of all the implications of a hotter climate, the water implications are the most dramatic or long-term,” said Bart Miller, the organization's water-program director. “There's no way to adjust by making more water.” The report's release coincides with the U.S. Senate's return to Washington to take up energy and climate legislation this week. Scientists have already documented trends in declining snowpack and earlier spring runoff across the West. Even if precipitation levels hold steady in places like Colorado's north-central mountains, snow will continue to melt sooner and faster, winter will be shorter, and less water will be stored in the peaks, according to Miller. And those changes in the water cycle can have negative implications for reservoir storage, aquatic habitat, ski seasons, rafting seasons and water quality...more

You can view the report here.

Forest Service chief upholds rejection of ski resort’s expansion plan

A representative of U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell upheld a local supervisor’s decision rejecting a proposal by Crested Butte Mountain Resort to develop lift-served skiing on Snodgrass Mountain. The decision was delivered Wednesday to the ski resort and the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forests. Gloria Manning, reviewing officer for Tidwell, affirmed the findings of an appeal reviewing officer, clarified some points made in the findings, and agreed Forest Supervisor Charlie Richmond’s determination to reject the proposal was consistent with policy, law and regulation. Manning’s decision is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s final administrative determination on the ski resort’s appeal, the Forest Service said...more

Corrupt BLM official sentenced to three years in federal prison

A former U.S. Bureau of Land Management official has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for schemes that cost the government nearly half a million dollars. U.S. District Judge Owen Panner on Monday ordered Luis Ramirez to repay the BLM the money he swindled while working as a contract administrator in the agency’s Medford office. Ramirez, 57, pleaded guilty last month to wire fraud, personal financial conflict of interest and making a false tax return statement. The government said Ramirez manipulated contracts, funneled subcontractor work to his son Evan and used a series of wire transactions to send money to himself. He used the proceeds for travel abroad, a condo in the Bahamas, the remodeling of his Medford home and a college education for his son. An anonymous tip to the FBI led to the unraveling of the crimes, the government said. As investigators closed in, Ramirez retired in July 2007 after 31 years with the agency...more

Timberline Lodge proposes lift-assisted mountain biking but faces opposition

Lift-assisted mountain biking could be coming to Mount Hood if a proposal by the operators of Timberline Lodge to develop a trail system for it wins approval from the Forest Service – and if environmentalist groups opposed to the plan don’t puncture Timberline’s tire. Lift-assisted mountain biking is what it sounds like: Bikers take ski lifts to the top of a system of trails and then ride down. Other ski resorts – most notably Whistler Blackcomb – have developed lift-assisted mountain biking areas to attract visitors in the skiing off-season. “Mountain biking is a very good complement to our winter and summer skiing,” said Jon Tullis, Timberline’s director of marketing and public affairs. Less positive was the response of a coalition of environmentalist groups led by Bark, a Mount Hood-focused organization. Bark staff attorney Lori Ann Burd said lift-assisted mountain biking is substantively different from what most people think of when they think of mountain biking – the bikes are heavier, the speeds are faster and the activity has more overall impact, she said. Bark and its partner organizations fear that lift-assisted mountain biking will negatively affect Timberline’s quiet summer character...more

So now we have to protect an area's "quiet summer character".

N.M. Oil and Gas Association names new president

Steve Henke, the former manager of the Bureau of Land Management's Farmington field office, will take the helm as president of New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, the industry advocacy group announced Wednesday. Henke, 56, starts work as NMOGA president Aug. 1. Henke replaces longtime association president Bob Gallagher, who was fired by the organization in January for reportedly damaging the group's credibility among state lawmakers. The New Mexico Oil and Gas Association is composed of rotating representatives of its member companies. NMOGA serves as an advocacy group for its members' collective concerns. Henke, a lifelong New Mexican and current Farmington resident, was an ideal choice for the job because his work with the Bureau of Land Management balancing environmental protection with new energy development built positive relationships with many of the companies the association represents, NMOGA Executive Committee Chairman Leland Gould said...more

Outside species threaten Arizona's native wildlife

At night on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge southwest of Tucson, a low, insistent bellow drowns out the chaotic insect symphony under way along the edge of small ponds. At times, it's a solo, at others a raspy chorus. Bullfrogs own this pond. All other aquatic creatures take notice and don't make any long-term plans. But this is not the natural soundtrack for a pond in the southern Arizona desert. Bullfrogs are not native to these waters, and they do not play well with the local fauna. At 8 inches long, or longer, they eat smaller native frogs, fish and snakes, among other things, and have wiped out communities of Chiricahua leopard frogs and northern Mexican garter snakes. Arizona is losing its native wildlife in part because non-native species are thriving on landscapes that have been altered by development, water loss and climate change. Non-native species threaten Arizona's native wildlife in more insidious ways than people do. A road or a structure can be removed and the landscape restored, but most of the invading plants and animals dig in and hang on, damaging habitat and edging out the native species...more

Finance Overhaul Casts Long Shadow on the Plains

Farmer Jim Kreutz uses derivatives to soften the blow should the price of feed corn drop before harvest. His brother-in-law, feedlot owner Jon Reeson, turns to them to hedge the price of his steer. The local farmers' co-op uses derivatives to finance fixed-price diesel for truckers who carry cattle to slaughter. And the packing plant employs derivatives to stabilize costs from natural gas to foreign currencies. Far from Wall Street, President Barack Obama's financial regulatory overhaul, which may pass Congress as early as Thursday, will leave tracks across the wide-open landscape of American industry. Mr. Kreutz's brokerage, AgWest, thinks the new finance law will hurt both firm and farm. If big investors and dealers have to keep more cash on hand, there will be less liquidity in the market and therefore the cost of derivatives will increase, Mr. Hoelscher, the broker said. A few minutes from the Kreutz family farm are the corrals of Jon Reeson's feedlot. Mr. Reeson, 43, is married to Mr. Kreutz's sister Jane. His feedlot holds as many as 1,500 steer, mostly Black Angus, which grow from 600-lb. calves into 1,300 pounders ready for slaughter. Mr. Reeson uses derivatives to hedge both the price he pays for feed and the price he gets for selling his steer. The fattening takes about 7,000 pounds of food for each animal. Mr. Reeson can't count on a favorable price from his brother-in-law's farm, in which he has a stake, so when he sees a feed price he likes, he seals it with a futures contract. In April, he called AgWest and locked in a price with a futures contract for $95 per hundredweight of cattle. Since then the market price has dropped to $90. If the price stays there until October, he'll have made the right call, earning a higher price than if he'd relied on the market alone. If the price spikes higher, though, he'll miss out on potential gains...more

In making food safer, will Congress make farming harder?

For years now, American consumers have been drawn in bigger numbers to local producers like McKinzey and Paskin-Flerlage in hopes of becoming better connected to their food sources. Yet at the same time, there is a growing chorus of health advocates who say the government needs to keep better tabs on the food Americans eat, and are pressing for an act of Congress that could, among other things, regulate how spinach is grown at Solana Farm. And while both movements hope to put healthier foods on the table, many wonder whether the country is big enough for the both of them. The Food Safety Modernization Act aims to shore up what has been long considered a dearth of funding and authority at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It would increase the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's scrutiny of food production and processing and give that department more latitude in ordering recalls. Small-scale farmers like McKinzey and Paskin-Flerlage, however, worry that more government regulations could bring added costs to a business already running on tight margins. Local-food advocates often attribute the "globalized" food system to government fees and regulations that favor large producers with the capital to overcome them. "They are just making it more and more difficult," said Jenny Sabo, a Harrison cattle rancher and outspoken local-food advocate. "They are making higher and higher costs to entry that (big producers) can cover. It is just more regulations, more paperwork and more costly infrastructure."...more

Chupacabra - Video Report and Pictures

Here's a video report on recent Chupacabra kills, from KXAN-TV.



Here's some Chupacabra pictures from TODAY24NEWS

Song Of The Day #358

Ranch Radio presents George Jones' 1957 recording of Nothing Can Stop My Love.

Jones' stuff is widely available, as you can see by going here.

Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce Board Reaffirms its Stance on Wilderness Bill

Las Cruces, NM, July 13, 2010 – The Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors’ voted unanimously to re-confirm its prior position on SB 1689; especially as it pertains to homeland security. A review of the legislation, by the Chamber Board, was conducted following Senator Bingaman’s recent modifications to the legislation. His modifications were made after a field hearing of the United States Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee was held in Las Cruces this past February.

Kiel Hoffman, Chairman, states, “While the Chamber commends the Senator for listening to concerns raised by the public and making modifications, we remain concerned that complete border security and law enforcement access are being denied unencumbered access by this legislation.”

We commend the Las Cruces Sun News Editorial Board, which stated, on June 27th, the following: “We urge Senator Bingaman to go as far as necessary to ensure that the Border Patrol will have complete and unfettered access to all areas along the border before putting the bill (SB 1689) up for final action.” Complete and unfettered access means zero conditions. Unfortunately, SB 1689 still has conditions placed upon border security.

We strongly encourage the Senator to further modify the language that removes any and all barriers to entry, in all protected lands in Doña Ana County, for routine surveillance by our United States Border Patrol, United States Armed Forces and any local, state or federal law enforcement agency. Anything short of removing all conditions and barriers only serves to increase risks to our citizens and further create a negative image for those considering relocation to Doña Ana County to live, work and/or retire.

We further encourage the consideration of designating the Potrillos Mountain Complex as a National Conservation Area, still prohibiting development, versus Wilderness Designation. Attached is copy of stated position on all other aspects of SB 1689.

We know that other organizations in our community have taken an opposite view. We respect all viewpoints; however, we are deeply troubled by one local organization’s apparent acceptance of significant funds from special interests groups to promote their position without full disclosure of doing so to its members. For the record, the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce has not taken any money from any special interest groups to promote our position.

###

Endangered Animal Horning In on Arizona Border Security

If not for an elusive, antelope-like creature in the Arizona desert, the Department of Homeland Security might have a much easier time cracking down on illegal immigration in hotbeds along the border. The Sonoran Pronghorn, which roams in Arizona, is an endangered species on the verge of extinction. As a result, environmentalists and governmental stewards have been repeatedly blocking Customs and Border Protection from expanding border technology in their habitat -- despite complaints that illegal immigrants are taking advantage of the security gap and doing plenty of harm to the environment in the process. Concerns about a host of species for decades have prompted standoffs between border and environmental officials. Border officers have limited access to federal lands in some of the most heavily trafficked areas because of the harm the patrols could do to the environment. But pronghorn preservation is popping up more and more as a barrier to Border Patrol and catching the attention of some on Capitol Hill. A 2008 letter from the Fish and Wildlife Service obtained by FoxNews.com showed that the agency rejected a CBP plan to install seven towers throughout the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge because of concerns it would lead to Sonoran Pronghorn extinction. The towers would have been part of the virtual border fence project that was partially suspended this year but is still underway in the area surrounding Cabeza...more

About those decapitations in the Arizona desert

By Joan Neuhas Schaan
OpEd Contributor
July 13, 2010

With some concern and disbelief, I have been astounded at the lack of understanding of the severity of the situation in Mexico and the possibility that it has crossed the border.

Last week, Dana Milbank of The Washington Post severely ridiculed reports from Arizona of decapitated heads found in the desert. This comment was made within a day or two of the discovery of two decapitated bodies in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, just south of El Paso, Texas.

While I cannot comment on the veracity of specific reports of headless bodies in the Arizona desert, the occurrence of headless bodies in Mexico has been epidemic. It is only a matter of time until the phenomenon is regularly encountered in the U.S.

Let me suggest the general public familiarize themselves with press reports since the first of this year. This is by no means an exhaustive list of the decapitation incidents, as many, if not most, incidents do not go reported.

* July 6, 2010: Two decapitate bodies found in Chihuahua, Chihuahua.

* Junue 30, 2010: A severed head was found on the doorstep of Ciudad Juarez mayoral candidate Hector Murguia. (Wall Street Journal)

* June 16, 2010: A police officer is found decapitated in Apodaca, Nuevo Leon. (Expresion Libre)

* June 2, 2010: Six human heads found in two Durango cities, Lerdo and Gomez Palacio. (EFE)

* May 10, 2010: Two decapitated bodies found in Cancun. (El Universal)

* May 4, 2010: Three decapitated bodies found in Costa Chica region, Guerrero. (Proceso.)

* April 12, 2010: Dismembered body found in Cuernavaca. (El Universal)

* April 11, 2010: Decapitated body found on Morelos highway between Cuernavaca and Acapulco. (El Universal)

* April 9, 2010: Report on December 2009 Reynosa dismemberment. (The Washington Times)

* April 3, 2010: Decapitated body of a female found in Chihuahua, Chihuahua. (El Diario Chihuahua.) Spring 2010: Police Chief of Aguascalientes, Nuevo Leon found decapitated.

* March 25, 2010: Decapitation victim found at shopping center in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. (El Agora de Chihuahua)

* March 22, 2010: Two dismembered bodies found in Acapulco. (Reforma)

* March 10, 2010: Police find five heads in ice coolers in Guadalajara, Jalisco. (BBC News)

* Janaury 28, 2010: A head is found in an ice cooler in Quiroga, Michoacan.

* January 25, 2010: Decapitated head found on grave in Altamira, Tamaulipas. (El Universal)

As an example of those incidents that go unreported, in 2009 an acquaintance shared a story from Juarez. While transiting a major road or highway out of town, there were more than two dozen decapitated heads atop a series of fence posts along the road. Certain such an event would make the news, press reporting was scoured for days. The incident was never reported.

Does this mean the event never occurred? Clearly that is a possibility, though I consider my acquaintance reliable and credible. The Mexican press is under severe pressure to self-censor reporting of violence and drug cartels or suffer the consequences.

On July 6, 2010 the body of Mexican journalist Hugo Alfredo Oliveras Cartas of the "La Voz de Michoacan" was found. He had been reported as missing the day before and is the fourth journalist to be killed this year in Mexico. Since 2000, 61 journalists have been killed in Mexico. Twelve were killed in 2009.

To suggest that those on the front lines who are most aware of the rampant phenomenon of decapitations are delirious or untruthful would indicate the author does not have an understanding of the truth on the ground.

Joan Neuhaus Schaan is a fellow in homeland security at the James A. Baker III Institute on Public Policy at Rice University in Houson, Texas.

From the Washington Examiner

UK won't let Iroquois lacrosse team go to tourney

An American Indian lacrosse team will not be allowed entry into England for the world championship of the sport the Iroquois helped invent unless members accept U.S. or Canadian passports, the British government said Wednesday. The Iroquois Nationals team won't be attending the world championship in Manchester unless the British government reverses its decision and allows them to use passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, said Tonya Gonnella Frichner, a lawyer for the team. "They're telling us: 'Go get U.S. passports or Canadian passports,'" Frichner said Wednesday shortly after getting the news. "It's pretty devastating." The team's 23 players — who are all eligible for passports issued by those nations — say that accepting them would be a strike against their identity. The British government's decision was announced hours after the U.S. cleared the team for travel on a one-time waiver at the behest of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. U.S. authorities initially had refused to accept the passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, which lack new security features now required for border crossings because of post-Sept. 11 crackdowns on document fraud and illegal immigration. Asked why the State Department had dropped its opposition, spokesman P.J. Crowley said: "There was flexibility there to grant this kind of one-time waiver given the unique circumstances of this particular trip."...more

Don't you think Hillary had a pretty good idea, if not advanced information, that the British would reject the Iroquois-issued passports?

Mucho wilderness activity, so this is a shortened version of The Westerner.

If you want to know how we got to where we are today on border issues, be sure and check out the essay by Ham & Wilmeth. A piece of that length is not normally published on a blog, but the importance of the issue and the quality of the information is such that we are publishing it here first.