Possibility of pardon for Billy the Kid upsets Garrett descendants

Almost 130 years after one of the more significant historical events in New Mexico, and almost 100 years after the death of one of the two key figures, the rhetoric continues in the fateful shooting of Billy The Kid by legendary lawman Pat Garrett. Garrett gunned down Billy The Kid - also known as Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, and William H. Bonney, on July 14,1881 in Fort Sumner, about 200 miles northeast of Las Cruces. There are claims that New Mexico territorial governor Lew Wallace - the same person who wrote "Ben Hur" - offered Billy The Kid a pardon if he testified against the principles involved in the "Lincoln County War," a bloody uprising between rival merchants and ranchers in 1877. Billy The Kid agreed to testify in return for a pardon from Wallace, but the governor reportedly reneged on that promise. An inquiry into the claims was started by Gov. Bill Richardson in 2003, and he said then if there was enough information to warrant it, he would pardon Billy The Kid. But Susan Floyd Garrett, the granddaughter of Pat Garrett, said Wednesday that she and other relatives are opposed to the governor issuing a pardon. "From the beginning, we feel that, as many other historians have, that the governor has created his own version of the facts, and those have nothing to do with the real history of New Mexico."...more

Song Of The Day #369

Ranch Radio continues with Hank Week.

Today's selection is Standing 'Neath The Old Pine Tree by Hank Penny.

You'll find the tune on his 28 track CD Flamin' Mamie 1938-1941 on Krazy Kat Records.

Criminal probe of oil spill to focus on 3 firms and their ties to regulators

A team of federal investigators known as the "BP squad" is assembling in New Orleans to conduct a wide-ranging criminal probe that will focus on at least three companies and examine whether their cozy relations with federal regulators contributed to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to law enforcement and other sources. The squad at the FBI offices includes investigators from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and other federal agencies, the sources said. In addition to BP, the firms at the center of the inquiry are Transocean, which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig to BP, and engineering giant Halliburton, which had finished cementing the well only 20 hours before the rig exploded April 20, sources said. While it was known that investigators are examining potential violations of environmental laws, it is now clear that they are also looking into whether company officials made false statements to regulators, obstructed justice or falsified test results for devices such as the rig's failed blowout preventer. It is unclear whether any such evidence has surfaced...more

Clean-Up Crews Can't Find Crude in the Gulf

For 86 days, oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's damaged well, dumping some 200 million gallons of crude into sensitive ecosystems. BP and the federal government have amassed an army to clean the oil up, but there's one problem -- they're having trouble finding it. At its peak last month, the oil slick was the size of Kansas, but it has been rapidly shrinking, now down to the size of New Hampshire. Today, ABC News surveyed a marsh area and found none, and even on a flight out to the rig site Sunday with the Coast Guard, there was no oil to be seen. The numbers don't lie: two weeks ago, skimmers picked up about 25,000 barrels of oily water. Last Thursday, they gathered just 200 barrels. Still, it doesn't mean that all the oil that gushed for weeks is gone. Thousands of small oil patches remain below the surface, but experts say an astonishing amount has disappeared, reabsorbed into the environment...more

Forest Service to cut sheep grazing by 70%

The Payette National Forest aims to protect wild bighorn sheep by reducing rangeland suited for domestic sheep and goat grazing by 70% by 2013. This plan, in the works for years, protects 94% of bighorn sheep summer habitat. Scientists and forest officials have concluded bighorns can contract deadly lung diseases when they encounter domestic sheep; ranchers fear closures will put them out of business. The Forest Service estimates the plan will result in 28 livestock jobs lost, while recreation could increase. Stan Boyd, who heads the Idaho Wool Growers Association, said Tuesday, "The industry is in the biggest fight of its life, and it's fighting its own government." But Payette Forest officials contend this move will balance uses, protect bighorns, honor tribal rights and live up to federal law. AP

Federally controlled resource trumps privately owned resource. It's happening everywhere.

Ranchers oppose gas pipeline deal which includes grazing buyout

Nevada ranchers concerned about the potential impact on livestock grazing are upset about a deal between the builder of a 680-mile natural gas pipeline and two environmental groups that agreed to drop their opposition to the project stretching from Oregon to Wyoming. El Paso Corp. agreed earlier this month to contribute $20 million over the next 10 years toward conservation efforts in the pipeline corridor to be overseen by the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project and Oregon Natural Desert Foundation. Both groups have indicated they intend to use some of the money to buy out grazing permits from willing sellers on federal land, with the intention of permanently retiring the permits issued by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service. "The livestock industry is about as upset about this issue as it has been for a long time. We're going to fight it tooth and nail," said Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, an Elko County rancher who chairs the Nevada Legislative Committee on Public Lands...more

Western Watersheds Project is becoming the Jesse Jackson of the enviro worls.

BLM needs to use 'copters to round up horses

The Bureau of Land Management's plan to gather nearly 2,000 wild horses in southwest Wyoming this fall using helicopters is still the best course of action, despite criticism from some animal advocates. There's no doubt that this major roundup is needed. BLM officials said two herd management areas located in southeastern Sweetwater County, south of Wamsutter and Interstate 80, are substantially over the appropriate management levels for survival. An agency survey conducted in July 2009 indicated there are about 1,950 horses living within the two herd units. But the appropriate number of wild horses for the Adobe Town area is between 610 to 800, while the range for the Salt Wells Creek area is from 251 to 365. The environmental assessment for the planned roundup, released last Thursday, noted the estimated wild horse population in the complex at 2,438, or more than 1,500 above the low management range for the two herd units. By rounding up an estimated 1,950 wild horses between Oct. 1 and Nov. 8 and treating and releasing another 100 mares with fertility-control vaccines, the BLM said it should successfully remove a total of 1,580 excess horses from the two areas that will then be put up for adoption. All of the animals gathered will be examined and, if needed, treated by a veterinarian. With no natural predators and an annual reproduction rate of between 15 and 20 percent, the excess wild horses need to be periodically removed from public rangelands to meet scientifically established population objectives...more

Udall ski-area alternative activity bill clears committee vote

Sen. Mark Udall’s bill to promote year-round recreation at ski areas cleared a critical committee vote late last week and is headed to a vote of the full U.S. Senate. First introduced in 2008 and then revived last summer, the bill is not without controversy. It seeks to revamp a 1986 law governing ski-area permits on U.S. Forest Service so that the federal agency has more latitude to allow recreation other than skiing. “Ski areas are a critical part of our state’s recreational and tourist economy – but many struggle to provide jobs during the summer months,” Udall said in a release after the bill was approved by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “My bill would help provide some stability by making it clear that biking, concerts, and other recreational activities are welcome where the Forest Service finds them appropriate. I’m very pleased we were able to get committee approval, and I urge my colleagues in the full Senate to approve it quickly.”...more

Shasta County will sue Forest Service over OHV restrictions

The Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday in closed session to sue the Shasta-Trinity National Forest over its controversial roads plan. Supervisor Les Baugh said the board also appointed County Counsel Rubin E. Cruse Jr. as the board’s spokesman on the pending litigation. Cruse said it’s still too early to determine what the suit might look like when it’s filed in federal court in Sacramento. Siskiyou County supervisors Tuesday morning also had discussed suing the Shasta-Trinity over the plan, but they decided to hold off on a decision, waiting to see what Shasta County did, Siskiyou County Supervisor Michael Kobseff said. The two counties’ leaders will likely file a joint complaint, Kobseff said. Siskiyou’s supervisors will bring up the matter again at next week’s meeting. “The bottom line is the public forest is trying to kick the public out,” Kobseff said...more

Forest Service Proposes to Close Over Half of Santa Fe National Forest Roads

The Santa Fe National Forest finally released its draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for Travel Management to the public today. The Forest Service is proposing to close over 2900 miles (53%) of the existing roads on the Forest. Even the most 'vehicle-friendly' alternative considered closes nearly half of the roads currently available. This will affect all motorized vehicles: cars, trucks, Jeeps, motorcycles, and ATVs. It will also have a profound impact on all members of the public who use the Forest including hunters. According to the proposal, there are currently 5458 miles of roads and trails that people are using. The Forest Service's drastic proposal reduces this to around 2500 miles. The public has 45 days to comment on these issues by submitting letters or emails...more

Forest Service Bans Humans From Caves

The U.S. Forest Service said Tuesday it was barring entry to caves on service-owned land in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota because of white-nose syndrome, which has killed nearly a million bats in the eastern and southern U.S. and is spreading west. The agency said it took the action to help prevent humans from inadvertently spreading the disease. But thousands of people — professional and amateur — enjoy exploring the multitude of dark, damp underground crevices and caverns in the West. Many are chafing at the federal restrictions. "It's just like Prohibition," said Richard Rhinehart of Denver, who has a caving blog and has been spelunking since he was in high school in 1974. Deputy Regional Forester Tony Dixon said it was impractical for the agency to widely enforce the ban, given the vast number of caves in the Rocky Mountain region. He appealed to cave explorers to voluntarily adhere to the restriction and help the agency determine which caves and mines don't harbor bats...more

Song Of The Day #368

Hank Week on Ranch Radio will continue with Hank Thompson's 1952 recording of Waiting In The Lobby of Heart.

That's a sad song from Hank. But if you think that's sad, just listen to poor ol' Johnny Cash who sings I've Been Flushed From The Bathroom of Your Heart.

Now that's sad.

Border Violence Spills 80 miles into the U.S.

Here is the Fox News video report:

CBD files lawsuit against Salazar for BP Oil's affect on wildlife

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit today against Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for failing to provide an adequate risk assessment upon which to base a decision to allow the oil industry’s deep sea off-shore drilling program with respect to its impact on wildlife. “While Salazar’s conclusion that exploration drilling in the Gulf posed little risk of a large oil spill was dubious at the time it was made, in light of BP’s calamity that position is completely untenable,” said Miyoko Sakashita, the Center’s oceans director. “The public deserves disclosure and a full analysis of the true impacts of oil drilling off our coasts." Salazar made no changes environmentalists had been asking for regarding deep sea off-shore drilling when he was appointed to his current position. The Center for Biodiversity says Salazar should be held liable for not honoring the Endangered Species Act. This act requires all federal agencies, including the former Minerals Management Service, to ensure that any action they carry out does not “jeopardize” a threatened or endangered species...more

Are wolves on the prowl in Utah?

Are a growing number of wolves on the prowl in Utah? There's no exact figure for the number of wolves in the state, but recent sightings have some state officials on alert. "We're very concerned about the wolves coming to Utah," says Leonard Blackham, Utah Commissioner for Agriculture and Food. "Of course the last couple of months we've seen several come into the state of Utah and some damage done, and we're starting to have some serious challenges that way." Blackham says wolves are making their way into Utah, the animals seem to be slowly penetrating through our northern border. Idaho and Wyoming are known to hold a heavy wolf population. "It could become a safety concern for ranchers and recreation people if the numbers increase, but i think today its not," says Blackham, "but it's surely a challenge for livestock and livestock producers. they are very aggressive animals." Blackham says it doesn't look like there's a pack, yet, in Utah, just single animals. But, in the last few weeks there have been at least three incidents with wolves here in Utah. One of those incidents happened just last friday where a wolf was taken out in summit county after killing thousands of dollars worth of livestock...more

Range war pits paddlers against property owners on North Country rivers

It turns out this kind of feud between paddlers and landowners is common across the US. “They’ve told me to get out, given me dirty looks and threatened and I haven’t quite had a gun pointed at me whereas other people I know have had guns pointed at them. Eric Leaper is director of the National Organization for Rivers, a paddler advocacy group based in Colorado. Earlier this year, landowners in his state lobbied aggressively to defeat a bill that would’ve clarified the rights of paddlers to run most of that state’s navigable rivers, even if they pass through private property. “And rancher after rancher got up and said ‘this ranch has been in my family for 3 or 4 generations and now you’re going to come take my property,’ and I do have sympathy because they have this long-standing misunderstanding that the river flowing through their ranch is private. Now they know the county road going through their ranch isn’t private, but they think the river is,” Leaper said. This is the pivot-point of the debate: a tangled legal argument going on state-by-state over what rivers are. Are they part and parcel of the land that surrounds them, or are they travel corridors open to everyone for commerce and recreation? Phil Brown is editor of the Adirondack Explorer magazine and an avid paddler who’s written extensively about this topic. He says here in the state of New York there’s actually a lot of legal precedence supporting the idea that rivers are a kind of traditional public highway. “This common law right dates back to old England so in a way this represents our heritage. Their was a time when rivers were used as travel, a sense that you know, a private a landowner may doesn’t the rivers, or they may own the rivers but the public has the right to travel on them,” Brown said...more

Deep Underground, Miles of Hidden Wildfires Rage

Three blistering fires are blazing through Wyoming's scenic Powder River Basin, but firefighters aren't paying any attention. Other than a faint hint of acrid odors and a single ribbon of smoke rising from a tiny crack beyond the nearby Tongue River, a long look across the region's serene grassland shows no sign of trouble. That's what makes the three infernos, and the toxins they spew, so sinister. Their flames are concealed deep underground, in coal seams and oxygen-rich fissures, which makes containment near impossible. Shielded from fire hoses and aerial assaults, the flames are chewing through coal seams 20 feet thick, spanning 22 acres. They're also belching greenhouse gases and contaminants, contributing to an out-of-sight, out-of-mind environmental hazard that extends far beyond Wyoming's borders. A surprising number of us live close to them. According to a review by the Department of Interior's Office of Surface Mining Enforcement and Reclamation, more than 100 fires are burning beneath nine states, most of them in Colorado, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Utah and West Virginia. But geologists say many fires go unreported, driving the actual number of them closer to 200 across 21 states...more

Raw-food raid highlights a hunger

With no warning one weekday morning, investigators entered an organic grocery with a search warrant and ordered the hemp-clad workers to put down their buckets of mashed coconut cream and to step away from the nuts. Then, guns drawn, four officers fanned out across Rawesome Foods in Venice. Skirting past the arugula and peering under crates of zucchini, they found the raid's target inside a walk-in refrigerator: unmarked jugs of raw milk. "I still can't believe they took our yogurt," said Rawesome volunteer Sea J. Jones, a few days after the raid. "There's a medical marijuana shop a couple miles away, and they're raiding us because we're selling raw dairy products?" Cartons of raw goat and cow milk and blocks of unpasteurized goat cheese were among the groceries seized in the June 30 raid by federal, state and local authorities — the latest salvo in the heated food fight over what people can put in their mouths. On one side are government regulators, who say they are enforcing rules designed to protect consumers from unsafe foods and to provide a level playing field for producers. On the other side are " healthy food" consumers — a faction of foodies who challenge government science and seek food in its most pure form. They want almonds cracked fresh from the shell, not those run through a federally mandated pasteurization process that uses either heat or a chemical to kill off salmonella and other possible contaminants. They hunger for meat slaughtered on the farm. And they're willing to pay a premium — $6, $8 or more — for a gallon of milk straight from the cow. So despite research outlining the dangers of consuming raw milk and other unprocessed foods, they're finding ways to circumnavigate federal, state and local laws that seek to control what they can serve at the dinner table...more

Wine-fed cows a hit with chefs

The B.C. wine industry just got a big boost from a new market segment: Cows. Unfortunately, these cows meet a sad end -- but they do spend 90 of their last days living it up, drinking red Okanagan wine, and they do seem to like it. At least, they moo more and seem to "talk to each other." Could they be comparing vintages and talking about leathery notes in the wine of the day? The idea of feeding wine to cows was hatched by Janice Ravndahl of Sezmu Meats in Kelowna. (Sezmu is the Egyptian god of wine.) She introduced it to local high-end chefs who, in turn, became drunk with glee. It began one day when she was sitting around, having a glass of wine, watching The F Word, a Gordon Ramsay TV cooking show. She saw him giving a taste of beer to some pigs he was raising. Coming from five generations of cattle ranchers, she thought, "why not cows?" She phoned her brother, who told her exactly why not. "Because the carbonation would bloat them," he said. Ravndahl then thought: "Why not wine?" The Angus cows are each fed a litre of Okanagan red wine (granted, nothing our wine writer Anthony Gismondi would drink) every day. It's mixed into the feed but some like to drink the wine straight up. She says the beef is priced about 15-per-cent higher than regular free-range, hormone and antibiotic-free beef...more

Event marks National Cowboy Day

Cowboys, gunslingers, and outlaws came together Saturday at the Rusk County Youth Expo Center in Henderson to celebrate the National Day of the Cowboy. The Circle C Cowboy Church led by Pastor Pat Alphin sponsored the event in hopes to show how important cowboys have been to the United States. The event started Saturday morning with several venders setting up to sell handmade trinkets and live music, but a small group of surly looking hombres were camped across the parking lot. Several cowboys and badmen were all toting iron and dressed to the nines in old-fashioned western attire. They laid back in the shade listening to tunes from a truck nearby and swapped stories, mostly made up...more

Baxter Black: The Udder Side

A recent acquisition for my audio parody library is a CD entitled” The Udder Side,” composed, recorded and available by Judy Williams at judyntom@ixi.net. It contains such titles as the dystocia calf's lament, “Take These Chains From My Parts and Set Me Free!,” the grafted calf's favorite “She Can't Kick Me Now ‘Cause Mama's Tied!” and the spring-drive theme song, “Don't You Ever Get Tired of Herding Me!” Ms. Williams surely must be a cow psychologist, the way she can see inside their thinking. Since we all have global warming on our minds because the press and the Algorites keep pointing to cows as a major producer of greenhouse gasses, her song about “Vegan F ... Flatulations” was spot on. It seems to me that most of the urban animal rights activists, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club zealots and politically correct Luddites proclaim themselves vegetarians. It is a trade-off to maintain credibility. I mean, if you want to remove all trace of humans in the wilderness, release endangered wolves in downtown Beverly Hills or Detroit, and think eating ice cream, cheese, hamburgers, spare ribs and chicken wings is tantamount to murder, then it is a sacrifice they should make. However, there is a corner they have backed themselves into, that must give them consternation. I would assume that omnivores (the human race) who restrict their diet to only plants might experience a change in their visceral bacterial population. Now, I don't know that as a fact. But if you've ever heard a faithful vegetarian claim that he got sick from eating broth that had been stirred with a spoon they'd used to serve the chile con carne, it might be proof that enteric conversion could happen in people...more

Song Of The Day #367

It's time for another Hank Week at Ranch Radio.

Here is Hank Snow's 1954 recording of I Don't Hurt Anymore.

The tune is on his 20 track CD The Essential Hank Snow.

Armed escorts join border ag inspectors

State agricultural inspectors are now accompanied by armed sheriff’s deputies while working in far southern New Mexico because of escalating violence along the U.S. border with Mexico. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere here,” livestock scale inspector David Turning of the New Mexico Department of Agriculture told KRQE News 13. Turning was one of two scale inspectors escorted by deputies Monday from the Luna and Hidalgo county sheriff’s departments in a program funded by the Homeland Security Department’s “Operation Stone Garden”. “We did a perimeter check making sure there’s nobody out hiding in the brush close by us,” Luna County Sgt. Steve Gallegos said. The inspectors’ job takes them to some of the most remote and dangerous sections of New Mexico.Law enforcement officers said the escorts are a good idea because certain sections of southern New Mexico are especially dangerous. “It’s pretty crazy out there,” Hidalgo County Cpl. Gary Lassiter said. “We have Mexican nationals that we have on our side with guns in the mountains.”..more

Here is the KRQE-TV video report:

Patrolling the route of smugglers

It's been called everything from a drug smuggling super highway to a pipeline for illegal immigration that leads straight to the Valley. News/Talk 92.3 KTAR's Jim Cross rode along recently with Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy Scott Abernathy on patrol. Pinal County is the size of Connecticut. Most of the county is ranches and wide-open desert. "They'll come out here and then there's hundreds of thousands of ways they can come up through here," said Abernathy, looking out over the barren land. Smugglers fear very little and that includes law enforcement, Abernathy said. "Ten or 15 years ago, a lot of coyotes and smugglers, they would go the other way and sneak around. Now, they don't care. They don't care if you see them." A rancher agreed to talk to Cross, but only on the conditions that he not be taped and that his name not be used because he fears retaliation from smugglers. On many occasions, the rancher said illegal immigrants have kicked in the windows of his home, cut his barbed wire fences, and held him in the gunsights of an AK-47. The brutality of smugglers knows no bounds, Abernathy said. "If they think they're going to get caught or whatever, the coyotes (human smugglers) will just leave them. Most of the females who come across will usually get raped, several times."...more

Prison chief allegedly sent inmates to conduct Mexico birthday party massacre

When gunmen burst into a private birthday party on July 18 and opened fired on guests, killing 17, the attackers were initially suspected to be members of one of Mexico's drug gangs, which have killed thousands of people in escalating violence over the past several years. Nobody could have guessed they were jail inmates on assignment from their prison director. It turns out that the gunmen behind the July 18 Mexico birthday party massacre had already been incarcerated for crimes in Mexico's drug wars. Prison guards reportedly lent vehicles and weapons to the inmates to carry out a 'revenge attack' in the northern city of Torreon. Afterward, the inmates drove back to their cells in the nearby city of Gomez Palacio. "According to witnesses, the inmates were allowed to leave with authorization of the prison director ... to carry out instructions for revenge attacks using official vehicles and using guards' weapons for executions," Ricardo Najera, a spokesman from the attorney general's office, revealed Sunday. The attack may have been motivated by rival drug trafficking gangs, Mr. Najera said, though innocent people were among the victims. The prison director and security guard, among others, have been put under house arrest...more

17 Slain in Mexico

Nine people were slain in the western state of Sinaloa, a spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office told Efe Monday. Four bodies were discovered inside a burned-out SUV in Culiacan, the state capital, the spokesman said, adding that 22 shell casings from an AK-47 assault rifle were collected at the scene. In the town of Navolato, four people who had been kidnapped elsewhere were found shot to death near a technical training school. Another person turned up dead in the community of El Quemadito. News of the slayings in Guerrero and Sinaloa followed word that a dozen people were killed over the weekend in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s murder capital. Police found the bodies of five people who had been gunned down inside a hair salon in the northern border city, the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office said. Police homicide unit officers also found three bodies and a wounded man at a house in Juarez, located just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. The wounded man was taken to a hospital, where he died a short time later. Three other people were killed in separate incidents, the Chihuahua AG’s office said. Ciudad Juarez has witnessed more than 5,000 murders since 2008 and this year’s death toll stands at more than 1,600...more

Concerns in Juárez climb as bombing threat grows

The threat of more deadly car bombings like the one earlier this month has forced Juárez authorities to take measures to protect police stations, and authorities reported finding more explosives in Chihuahua on Wednesday. The bomb, made from about 22 pounds of Tovex, a water gel explosive commonly used as a replacement for dynamite in mining, was detonated by remote control. Authorities on Wed nesday found 55 pounds of the explosive in the mountains between Chihuahua and Sonora states following a shootout with gunmen. Officials did not say if the explosives were bound for Juárez. In response to the bombing, Juárez officials last week increased security at police stations and prohibited parking next to the buildings. A police spokesman said the identifications of people are checked and vehicles are inspected when entering the parking lots of stations, some of which have sandbags piled outside like bunkers...more

Sen. Kerry Predicts ‘Ice-Free Arctic' In '5 or 10 Years’

Speaking at a town hall-style meeting promoting climate change legislation on Thursday, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) predicted there will be “an ice-free Arctic” in "five or 10 years." “The arctic ice is disappearing faster than was predicted,” Kerry said. “And instead of waiting until 2030 or whenever it was to have an ice-free Arctic, we’re going to have one in five or 10 years.” However, the Web site of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says: “Using the observed 2007/2008 summer sea ice extents as a starting point, computer models predict that the Arctic could be nearly sea ice free in summertime within 30 years.” NOAA cites as its source on Arctic sea ice a study published in the April 3, 2009 edition of Geophysical Research Letters by J.E. Overland and Muyin Wang. Kerry’s remarks came during the second of three panels at an event sponsored by Clean Energy Works, an environmentalist coalition that brought supporters of to Washington, D.C., to show what it called “broad support” for a “clean energy and climate bill.” Along with Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Kerry is the sponsor of the American Power Act, a bill that would cap carbon emissions in the United States in the interest of preventing climate change...more

Fight brews over drilling watchdog

Formerly the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the Obama administration has renamed it the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. Plans are to further split the agency up into three separate divisions, all under the Department of Interior. The idea is to remove an apparent conflict of interest - charging one agency with both ensuring safety and maximizing oil revenues for the federal government. But the plan is drawing fire from nearly everyone involved. Environmentalists say the reforms don't go far enough. Offshore drillers say they are not being consulted. Government watchdogs say they lack transparency. And Congress says information has been slow in coming...more

Federal records show steady stream of oil spills in gulf since 1964

The oil and gas industry's offshore safety and environmental record in the Gulf of Mexico has become a key point of debate over future drilling, but that record has been far worse than is commonly portrayed by many industry leaders and lawmakers. Many policymakers think that the record before the BP oil spill was exemplary. In a House hearing Thursday, Rep. John J. "Jimmy" Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.) said, "It's almost an astonishingly safe, clean history that we have there in the gulf." Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the industry's "history of safety over all of those times" had provided the "empirical foundation" for U.S. policy. But federal records tell a different story. They show a steady stream of oil spills dumping 517,847 barrels of petroleum -- which would fill an equivalent number of standard American bathtubs -- into the Gulf of Mexico between 1964 and 2009. The spills killed thousands of birds and soiled beaches as far away as Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Altogether, they poured twice as much as oil into U.S. waters as the Exxon Valdez tanker did when it ran aground in 1989. The industry's record had been improving before the BP spill. In 2009, the largest one was about 1,500 barrels, about what BP's damaged well was leaking every hour before it was capped last week...more

Gulf Coast lawmakers press to lift offshore drilling ban

Democratic and Republican lawmakers from the Gulf Coast are working together to lobby the administration to speed up permits for offshore drilling in shallow water and to lift the moratorium on drilling in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico. "This ban hurts everybody," Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., said on the House floor Thursday. "We stand united on the Gulf Coast to support good-paying jobs." Boustany and other Gulf Coast lawmakers, including Alabama's representatives, said the administration's policies could cost the region's already fragile economy thousands of jobs. "Deepwater drilling supports thousands of jobs along the coast, and I urge the administration to keep the families these jobs support in mind when conducting safety tests," said Rep. Bobby Bright, D-Montgomery. "It is, without a doubt, in everyone's best interest to get deepwater oil workers back to work as quickly as possible." Environmentalists applaud the drilling ban in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill...more

On timber, thanks for nothing

After a year of study, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's crackerjack task force on western Oregon timber management has concluded that, gee, lots of people are frustrated and things are pretty tough out there. We can't wait for next year's sequel in which the Obama task force is invited back to take another yearlong look and rediscovers that, believe it or not, lots of people remain frustrated and things are pretty tough out there. This could go on forever. It would be laughable if the unemployment rate across much of rural Oregon wasn't running at 12 to 15 percent, if timber towns weren't trying desperately to hold together their basic public services such as police and libraries, if huge swaths of public forests weren't overstocked with small trees one lightning strike or tossed cigarette away from going up in flames late this summer. We made the mistake of taking the interior secretary at his word last year when the Obama administration abandoned the Western Oregon Plan Revision, or WOPR, which sought to increase logging on more than 2 million acres of public forests. Salazar promised that the task force would come up with a plan that would increase logging and thinning while complying with the Endangered Species Act. Instead, the task force issued a report Thursday that calls for a three- to five-year planning process and concludes what everybody already knows: Major obstacles such as distrust among competing interest groups and conflicting federal policies stand in the way of increasing logging on western Oregon's public forests and creating more economic activity in rural communities. Given all that rural Oregon is struggling with, this "plan to have a plan," as Oregon's Rep. Peter DeFazio described it Thursday, is inexcusable. There's no urgency in the task force report, no acknowledgement of the economic emergency, no commitment to provide any leadership to help resolve the conflicts over management of the public forests. As Rep. Greg Walden said, "It's doubly frustrating that while this report was being put together, timber sales dropped to historic lows. The sick forests and the economy in southern Oregon can't wait any longer." If the Obama administration doesn't have the time or attention to give to Northwest forest issues, it ought to just say so rather than carry on any more charades like this one. Other leaders, notably DeFazio and Sen. Ron Wyden, have offered serious proposals to break the stalemate on public lands by protecting old-growth trees and allowing speedier access to smaller logs. Wyden promised Thursday to press for a legislative alternative, and we urge the senator and the rest of the Oregon delegation to step up their efforts in Congress. Let's not waste any more time waiting for the Obama administration to lead the way toward a better, saner forest policy on western Oregon lands. If there's anything valuable about the task force report, it's the takeaway message that it's folly to wait for the administration to solve our forest issues. Oregonian

Cap and Trade is Dead. Who's to Blame?

So what happened? How did a Democratic President who came to office talking up climate change and promising a strong carbon cap, plus a Democratic Senate and House of Representatives, plus the late impetus of the oil spill, somehow come away with barely more than nothing? As a stunned environmental community sifts through the wreckage, they'll find no shortage of perpetrators. -The filibuster and the Republicans: It should go without saying at this point, but the increasing reliance on the filibuster has made the U.S. Senate a deeply, deeply dysfunctional body—and the Republicans, who were nearly lockstep against any climate legislation with a cap, were only to happy to abuse it. It was always going to be difficult to get any kind of carbon cap passed in the Senate... The Democrats: While it's true that the filibuster present a high barrier for any climate and energy action, the reality is that Reid may have struggled to get even 51 votes for a stronger bill, because a number of Democrats were almost as obstructionist as their Republican colleagues. Coal state Democrats like Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and George Voinovic Evan Bayh of Indiana were almost certainly never going to vote for a bill with a carbon cap, knowing what it might do to the coal industry. Farm state Democrats like Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska weren't any better. The truth is there weren't enough Democrats willing to support a carbon cap, let along Republicans... The White House: It's all Obama's fault—that's the message that many more liberal greens are coalescing around. For all his talk in the campaign about climate change and the need to get a price on carbon (during the campaign he called to reduce carbon emissions 80% by 2050), Obama seemed generally detached from the Congressional fight over climate legislation. Andrew Revkin at Dot Earth noted that Obama never gave a substantial speech focused on the need for the U.S. to face up to the long-terms of climate change and truly take energy innovation seriously; never brought climate researchers to speak to his White House staff...-Environmentalists: Over the past few years, most environmental groups have made climate change their number one priority. And within that—led by wonky organizations like the Natural Resources Defense Council and especially the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)—shooting for an economy-wide carbon cap was the number one tool. A price on carbon was the only way, the market-oriented way, to reduce emissions and fight climate change. Put a cap on carbon and businesses would respond, changing the way they used energy, funding innovative new cleantech startups and ushering in an era of green jobs. That was the great green pitch—trust me, I've been getting it almost every day, in various ways, for the past two years. That pitch failed...more

Business & Medical System Sí; President & Congress, No

Gallup has released their Confidence In Institutions poll.

Here are some of the results for 2010, as compared to last year:

Big Business +3
Medical System +4

The Presidency -15
Congress -6

Fran Smith writes:

What I think is more interesting, however, is that the main institutional targets of President Obama’s and the Democratic Congress’ recents attacks and draconian laws gained in confidence in this year’s poll. The Administration’s demonization of the health care system didn’t seem to resonate with the public. In this year’s poll, the medical system ranked as number five in overall confidence, up 4 points from last year. Banks and big business - also the targets of the Administration’s ire, were up one and three points, respectively, in the 2010 poll. With these kinds of polling results, the Dems are right to be running scared.

And oh yes, Congress continues to rank last in public confidence at 11%.

Broncoball: 'Horseback hockey' without sticks

Witnessing the birth of a sport is pretty rare. So when I was invited to the debut of something called Broncoball, I was all for it. To watch, that is. Nobody said anything about taking part. I was lured in by Donnie Nelson, the James Naismith of Broncoball. It's a fitting connection seeing as Nelson has made a career out of basketball, the sport Naismith invented. Nelson has done so well as president of the Dallas Mavericks that he's become a part-owner of the Mesquite Rodeo. He loves watching the animals and riders, but his kids don't. That's what spurred him to come up with a new, hopefully dynamic game on the dirt of a rodeo arena...One observer described Broncoball as "horseback hockey." That's a good start, just minus the sticks. There are two teams, each with four riders on quarterhorses, plus a fifth guy who isn't. Riders go from offense to defense like in hockey or basketball. The ball gets tossed from rider to rider, with at least three teammates required to touch it before taking a shot. The shot actually is a throw to the fifth guy, who stands atop a barrel inside the goal, a chalk-lined circle that's off-limits to riders. Catches made atop the barrel score two points; it's only one point if he comes off the barrel to make the catch. The ball is a practice softball. It's the same size as a regular softball only much softer, so it's easy to catch barehanded and doesn't hurt if it hits anyone — or the horses. Luckily for me, there are only a few more rules: • Any ball hitting the ground is a turnover; • Riders have eight seconds to shoot or pass; • Defenders can jerk, jostle, shove and push opposing riders, but only with one hand. The biggest duty for those of us in zebra shirts is keeping a ball in play. Whenever one falls, or a goal is scored, an official flips another to the nearest player on offense. While everyone is on the other end, we collect stray balls in our area. This becomes more treacherous as the game goes on, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who has ever been around horses...more

I guess that's why they call him Jimmy "Broncoball" Bason.

Song Of The Day #366

It's Swingin' Monday on Ranch Radio and we're bringing you the rip snortin'est version of Sally Gooden I'll bet you've ever heard. It's by Boone Creek, the bluegrass group started by Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas in 1977.

You'll find the tune on their One Way Track CD by Sugarhill Records.

And then, there were 10, but still no Champion

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

Last week the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee met to conclude work on S.1689, the Organ Mountain and Desert Peaks Wilderness Act. The bill, cosponsored by Senators Bingaman and Udall of New Mexico, has generated a contentious and divisive debate in Dona Ana County, New Mexico where the federal land designations would occur.

In work done Wednesday and finished Thursday, July 22, the markup of the bill was approved and cleared for action on the floor of the Senate. That approval came with the vote and the decision of that committee’s membership. The vote was 23-0 in favor of allowing the bill to go to the Senate floor. Thirteen Democrats and 10 Republicans voted to allow the bill to proceed.

The Organ Mountain and Desert Peaks Wilderness Act is an attempt to designate higher protection status to five mountain ranges. If successful, this action would expand federal control and diminished access to all mountain ranges within that County.

Only seven percent of the county is held privately. Slightly more of the county is controlled by the state of New Mexico and the remainder is all federal land. The backdrop of federal and or state lands with restricted access includes more than 4.5 million acres of Ft. Bliss, White Sands Missile Range, McGregor Range, White Sands National Monument, Holloman Air Force Base, the Jornada Range, the San Andres National Wildlife Refuge, and the New Mexico State University college ranch.

The local debate has created a wide divide. The environmental supporters of the bill have built a coalition of local businesses and organizations that number about 220 while the opposition has a coalition of more than 800 that do not support the bill in its current form. The Las Cruces Hispano Chamber of Commerce has recently conducted an externally funded media blitz in favor of the bill and appears to be the environmental spearhead of the action, while the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce (GLCCC) has become the symbolic antagonist to the bill in its current form.

“It became very clear to us that Senator Bingaman was not interested in our concerns about the whole process of how this thing happened,” says Sara Cox Hopkins, a descendent of ranching pioneer W.W. Cox and rancher within the Organ Mountain portion of the proposal. “When we were finally allowed to talk to the Senator, we had to travel to his office in Albuquerque and he granted us 30 minutes. That’s it. That’s all we have seen him other than in public forums.”

The opposition of S.1689 has evolved from attempts to voice concerns by those who have duties, responsibilities, and investments on the lands involved to what has become the center of the storm, border security. “The matter of border security really got our attention,” relates current GLCCC board chair, Kiehl Hoffman. “When we started understanding the conditions of human and drug trafficking issues, our perspective changed dramatically. We didn’t want that duplicated here.”

That argument against the bill has focused on the Potrillo Mountain Complex portion of the proposal. That component lies near the Mexican border and the argument has centered on matters of national security. From work done in conjunction with the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO), a profile of the characteristics of the “Arizona Class” human and drug smuggling corridors was compiled. Every one of those corridors that emanate from the 388 miles of the Arizona border with Mexico have similar characteristics.

The characteristics they share are as follows:

1. The corridors have wilderness/de facto wilderness safe havens.
2. They have east /west highway access north and south of the corridors.
3. They have rugged and complex north/south mountain and drainage orientation which provides channels of movement.
4. They are almost entirely or heavily dominated by federal land agency management.
5. The concentration of American private property rights at risk is limited as is the presence of resident American habitation.
6. All corridors have high, strategically located points of observation.

“If anything, the Potrillo Mountain complex portion of S.1689 has the potential to exceed the dangers of the Arizona corridors,” retired Border Patrol agent and current head of the National Border Patrol Museum Board of Governors, David Ham says. “Along with the classic characteristics of the Arizona corridors, the presence of the major interstate railroad, the interstate pipeline, the Las Cruces airport, and the Robledo-Las Uvas corridor extension north from the Potrillos is a major national security risk waiting to happen if this bill passes.”

With the problems occurring in Arizona and the firestorm that has been created with Arizona’s attempt to protect itself from illegal immigration, one would think that Arizona leadership in the House and Senate would be acutely aware of the border dangers. American citizens would think that sitting, senior senators would be especially alert to matters of national security risk and yet John McCain (R-AZ) was one of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee members who voted for the bill to be heard on the Senate floor. Neither Mr. McCain nor any of his colleagues even suggested amendments to the bill that would serve to blunt the danger that the Potrillo Mountain complex portion of the bill will pose to American security.

Mere citizens must learn that the action by the Republicans on the committee was an exercise in tradition and protocol. Committee members are expected to honor the wishes of senators when those elected officials jointly sponsor a bill that affects their state. At least Republican senators are expected to follow that protocol, but the border community of Arizona and New Mexico is getting weary of tradition and protocol.

Following the Krentz murder, border district representatives and state senators rushed to the press with demands for more security. Harry Teague (D-NM) hurled a letter out into space pledging millions of dollars to be spent on enhanced border security measures. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) motored to Apache, Arizona and told the locals that she was going to find solutions. Senator McCain himself declared he would like to be at that meeting if he could find a ride that night from his campaign stop at Sierra Vista, but the fact is there is no true border champion.

If Americans were polled to name the most visible and vocal border champion in Congress, there would not be a name that would surface from a border state. Jan Brewer, no doubt, would be a clear favorite among state leaders, but Congress would have a hard time fielding a border state leader who has demonstrated that he or she would stake a career on his or her border security principles. There isn’t such a leader.

The adherence to the powerful environmental agenda on the American border has put us all in jeopardy. Senator Bingaman’s actions prove that point. He was intent from the jump to elevate his name into the history of wilderness champions, no matter the negative impact on his constituents in Southern New Mexico. After all, it is easier to slap a name on a piece of land than it is to engineer legislation that encourages and stimulates community independence and resourcefulness.

Arrests shed light on border kidnappings

The bedraggled immigrants were picking their way through the boulders and scrub when a group of heavily armed men descended on them just short of the California- Mexico border. They corralled them in a cave and pointed their guns on the 10 men and one woman. These lawless badlands in the hills east of Tijuana have long teemed with bandits and rapists, but these criminals demanded only phone numbers. They started calling the immigrants' loved ones in Pomona, San Diego and Bakersfield: Send us money or we'll shoot, they said. The days-long kidnapping ordeal in May illustrates a growing trend as roaming gangs of well-organized, heavily armed gunmen turn their sights on illegal immigrants, making a treacherous journey ever more dangerous for people trekking north. In the spree of kidnappings, which began about two years ago, gunmen hold people captive until family members in the U.S. send wire transfers of up to $5,000 to accounts in Mexico. Some immigrants are beaten; several have been killed, including a pair of brothers from Mexico City. Many straggle across the border and turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents. Others end up in migrant shelters in Tijuana, too frightened to report the cases to Mexican police...more

Ranchers looking for more help on border

It's been four months since the murder of Cochise County rancher Robert Krentz and his neighbors are speaking out about the response made along the border. The murder put the ranching community and the nations border problems in the spot light and ranchers were hoping the tragedy might mean changes; changes some of them are still waiting to see. Cochise County rancher Gary Thrasher said, "I'm frustrated. I thought they could get something done a whole lot quicker than what they are. I thought they could move more people to the border with a simple stroke of a pen." Steve Brophy, the President of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association said, "Enough hasn't been done and it needs to be." And some of them said because the response hasn't changed neither has the foot traffic coming through. Patrick Bray the Executive Vice President of the Arizona Cattleman's Assoc. said, "The sad thing is that we're over a hundred days out from the murder of Robert Krentz and these guys say its status quos. Nothing has changed." But not all ranchers agree. Kelly Glenn-Kimbro was lucky enough to have the border patrol become her new neighbors...more

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

The young guns have arrived

by Julie Carter

He was only about 3 feet tall - boots, hat and all. He stood looking through the rails of the arena fence as his daddy and three other cowboys rode into the arena, pulling their hats down tight and shaking out their ropes.

His little brother played in the dirt on the ground behind him, driving a toy truck and trailer through freshly built "roads" headed toward a tiny stick corral. His interest in the arena was intense, but only for short periods of time. He had "work" to do.

It was ranch rodeo time, in the infancy of the sport as a competition. That was 20 years ago.

Today, both those little cowboys are grown up.

The older one rides into that same arena with his britches tucked in the tops of his boots, a trendy shape to his straw hat and a cocky grin on face.

The other, sitting solid in the saddle on a horse that isn't as calm as he is, wears a look of serious competitive intent.

A cousin rides in next to him, followed by a friend that rounds out the team of four.

The game is on. The young guns have arrived and before the day is over, they will have proved themselves a force to be reckoned with.

Ranch rodeo is a family sport as much as any has ever been. As it evolved through the years, the youngsters of the early days fell eagerly into the footsteps of their fathers, holding out for the day they too could participate.

Father and son, father and daughter, husband and wife, cousins, brother-in-laws, father-in-laws and any other assorted family connection possible, team up, enter up and in the spirit of competition, spend a day roping, riding and hoping to claim a little of the prizes at the end of the day.

Youth ranch rodeo hit the scene some years back, serving to fine tune the young buckaroos into competition-ready young adults.

A cowboy with a baby on the saddle in front of him during the warm-up or after the rodeo is a common sight. Before long, that same baby is the toddler at the arena fence shouting "Go Dad," with all his might.

The family dynamics at any event make it a kinfolk reunion as much as a rodeo competition. There will be several family patriarchs and matriarchs watching the events and being greatly entertained as they observe different branches of the family compete against each other, young and old.

There isn't much left out here in the West that keeps families connected like they were 50 years ago.

The few remaining big family ranches maintain a connection through the work they do, but this venue for ranch family playtime has added a new dimension.

Whether the "kids", taking in all ages from 9-60, arrive from the ranch, from a titled job, a college campus or anywhere in between, it all comes together in the competition.

Watching brothers rope and load a steer into a trailer with the same banter and sibling "encouragement" going on as would happen in the middle of a four-section pasture, takes "reality" entertainment to a new level.

And that little cowboy I saw last week standing on the fence rail hollering encouragement to his dad?

He'll be a third generation ranch rodeo cowboy and with any luck, his old dad might be given a spot on the team.

Julie has been watching and photographing ranch rodeo for two decades and still loves the next one just as much as the first one. Reach her for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net

He taught yours truly about media bias - Daniel Schorr, Journalist, Dies at 93

Daniel Schorr, whose aggressive reporting over 70 years as a respected broadcast and print journalist brought him into conflict with censors, the Nixon administration and network superiors, died on Friday in Washington. He was 93...more

In July of 1974 I went to work as a Legislative Assistant to Senator Pete Domenici.

On August 9, 1974 Richard Nixon resigned his Presidency.

Several of us staffers sat with Domenici in his office and watched Nixon's resignation speech. Just as the speech ended, CBS called Domenici and wanted him to come to their studio for an interview. There were several senior staffers there, but for some reason Domenici asked me to drive him to CBS (I later figured out that since I was the last person to go on his staff from NM, Domenici figured I had been least influenced by the system and most accurately reflected the views of New Mexicans, especially rural New Mexicans, on Nixon).

When we arrived at CBS they put us in a waiting room which was surrounded by tv monitors. After a short period of time a CBS employee came and took Domenici away to get his nose powdered for the tv appearance.

That left me in the room alone. Keep in mind that at this point I had not quite bought into the media bias thing.

I was watching the monitors as they interviewed Ronald Reagan who at that time was the Governor of California. In walked Daniel Schorr, chief White House correspondent for CBS. Schorr looked up at the monitors, saw Reagan being interviewed, and with a hateful scowl on his face said,"Burn, Ronnie baby, Burn."

I remember thinking, "You know, there might be something to this media bias after all."

That thought has been mightily reinforced over the last thirty-six years.

Rider Grabbed Life by the Reins

Edgewood's Kenny McOsker was not one to hide from the dangers of life. And, in the end, it was one of those dangers that killed him. The 34-year-old McOsker was at the Galisteo Rodeo on Sunday when, upon finishing his winning bronc ride, he was kicked in the head by his horse. The horse's hoof caught him in the face, crushing his left cheek and making it difficult for paramedics to give him oxygen. He was rushed to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, where his family made the difficult decision Tuesday to unhook the machines keeping him alive. McOsker died soon afterward. "He certainly always lived life to the fullest," said his father, Martin McOsker. Kenny McOsker was a construction engineer for a firm in Corrales, but his weekends were spent on a horse. He was part of the close-knit fraternity of amateur rodeoers who travel each weekend to events all over the state. He shared his passion with his family: His 14-year-old daughter Bailey and 6-year-old son Kole also compete. His other son, Zeb, is 17 months and a little young for the cowboy life. His wife, Tay, is expecting their fourth child...more

Song Of The Day #365

Ranch Radio's Gospel tune this Sunday morning is Pickin' Time by Johnny Cash.

The tune is on his 12 track CD The Fabulous Johnny Cash.

Will America’s Police Become Federales?

Police unions across America are moving closer to being federalized. The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2009 was reintroduced in the Senate by Majority Leader Harry Reid on April 12, where it currently awaits debate. The act is part of a supplemental appropriations bill meant to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. If passed, the act would place first responders (police, firemen, paramedics) under federal union regulations. Control would be removed from state and local authorities except in places with fewer than 5,000 people or with fewer than 25 full-time first responders. In effect the act seeks to nullify important aspects of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 which in turn reversed much of the pro-union Wagner Act of 1935. Taft-Hartley is currently the cornerstone of U.S. labor law and allows individual states to regulate their own public-sector worker relations. Most of the attention paid to the act has focused on the disastrous budget consequences it would have for local authorities. Public-employee payments (wages, pensions, and health benefits) already consume a huge slice of the expenditures of cities and states; for many the burden is so heavy they are verging on bankruptcy. The San Francisco Chronicle (July 14) reported, “Oakland [Calif.] laid off 80 police officers Tuesday after negotiations between city officials and union leaders failed on one simple matter: job security. The police union demanded that the city guarantee that its officers would not be laid off for three years in exchange for giving up some pension benefits that would have eased the city’s budget problems. City leaders, however, said it would have been irresponsible of them to agree to protect police jobs for more than one year because the city’s budget problems are likely to worsen.” The act would remove such flexibility from local authorities and instead impose the unfunded mandate of applying federal standards that would be determined by the Federal Labor Relations Authority. In disputes a labor relations czar would arbitrate the “hours, wages, and terms and conditions of employment.” Local governments would no longer be able to adjust pay scales and benefits according to their own budgets nor would local voters have any input...more

Life on the border — the ranchers

by Hugh Holub

The ranchers in the border zone have been frustrated for a long time about how much illegal activity goes on through federal lands at the border. It has steadily gotten more and more dangerous out on the range due to the drug cartels. None of the ranchers I’ve talked to are willing to have their names used in a story for fear of retaliation.

Part of the recent secret video showing illegal entry and drug smuggling on the border was shot in the borderlands near Nogales. It should not be any surprise that if you set up a camera in one of the canyons near the border you will see lots of illegal activity. That’s because the Border Patrol is not sitting there to catch the illegal activity. Doubtless given the amount of electronic surveillance at the border, the Border Patrol’s video tapes would be extremely shocking to see how much illegal ativity is actually monitored, but not responded to because agents are not close enough to react. This is a point made over and over again by border ranchers.

Border area ranchers have had to deal with illegal entry and drug smuggling for years. Except where the Border Patrol has set up a Forward Observation Base (one of them is on a ranch west of Nogales), the borderlands are a dangerous place.

One rancher described how his cowboys are aware of drug cartel and human smugglers perched on hilltops near the border, spotting when the Border Patrol is absent, so they can run their loads of drugs or chains of people through the line. The rancher believes the cartel spotters are using satellite phones to report since cell phone service is non-existent on most of the ranch.

“We just go about our business being cowboys hoping the smugglers will leave us alone,” said the rancher.

Up until Douglas rancher Robert Krentz was murdered by a suspected drug smuggler or spotter, the ranchers and their cowboys always offered aid and assistance to illegal entrants who got into trouble on their ranches.

But since the murder of Krentz, the cowboys all over the border region have been instructed not to have any contact with illegal entrants out of fear they will be murdered.

All the ranchers I’ve talked to are armed. But they joke that “a 94 [Winchester rifle] is not match for a 47 [an AK 47 carried by drug smugglers]”.

They fervently hope they will never encounter a convoy of smugglers armed with automatic weapons on their ranches. When they see suspected illegal entrants or drug smugglers, they head off in the opposite direction.

Some ranchers have given up their federal leases on some lands simply because continuing to run cows in those areas was too risky. They also joke about how the cartel and the anti-ranching environmentalists win in that case. “Some of the environmentalists would rather have illegal entrants and drug smugglers out there instead of our cows,” said one rancher. He then joked that maybe the jaguars and wolves should be trained to eat drug smugglers.

There are also stories about how the drug cartel has been buying up ranches on the Mexican side of the border to protect their smuggling zones. Even though the boundary of the US ranches abuts Mexico, there was a long history of cooperation between ranchers on both sides of the border. That is disappearing...

Several of the ranches have installed drinking foundations at their watering tanks in the canyons north of the border, so illegal entrants don’t die of thirst. It is an amazing site to be in one of these remote canyons near the border and see drinking fountains.

Some of the ranchers have installed “side step” gates on their fence lines. The reason for this is they got sick and tired of people cutting their fences.

However, on one of the ranches, the Border Patrol installed sensors at the side step gates, rendering them useless. The illegal immigrants continue cutting the rancher’s fences...

Read the complete article at the Tucson Citizen.

51 Bodies Found in Mass Graves in Mexico

In one of the more macabre discoveries of Mexico’s drug wars, soldiers have found at least 51 bodies dumped in mass graves after what appeared to be a series of executions by drug gangs in northern Mexico. The bodies were buried in several graves scattered over an area the size of three soccer fields in an isolated zone east of the city of Monterrey, Mexican officials said. Since receiving an anonymous tip on Thursday, soldiers have been using backhoes to dig up plots . There were so many bodies that the authorities were using refrigerated trucks to hold them. Alejandro Garza y Garza, the prosecutor for the state of Nuevo León, told local news media on Saturday that investigators were nearing the end of their search. Many of the dead, he said, appeared to have been tortured. “Some were tied up with rope, others taped up with their hands bound with tape,” he said. “There are others with handcuffs. Most of them have tattoos.” Photographs showed charred spots on the ground, suggesting some bodies may have been partially burned. Mexico’s drug cartels sometimes use corrosive liquids, fire and other methods to dispose of victims or make it harder to identify the bodies...more

Battles paralyze Mexican city across from Texas

Late-night gunbattles with gangs who forced citizens from their cars and used the vehicles to block streets paralyzed a border city, sound of gunfire alarmed Texans on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande. The Nuevo Laredo city government posted messages on Facebook warning citizens to stay indoors as the battles erupted at several intersections in the city across from Laredo, Texas. Frightened people on the U.S. side of the border called emergency dispatchers after hearing the gunfire, Laredo police spokesman Joe Baeza said Thursday. "We were getting reports from people who live on the river's edge that they could hear gunfire and explosions from the Mexico side," Baeza said. Gangs used stolen cars and buses to block several main avenues in the city across from Laredo, Texas. Several residents called local newspapers to report thefts. "For your security, stay in your homes until the alert has passed," the city government wrote on Facebook. When the violence subsided, the government urged citizens to come forward and reclaim their stolen vehicles. Nuevo Laredo is among several northern cities under siege from a turf battle between the Gulf cartel and its former enforcers, the Zetas gang of hit men. Violence has surged along the northeastern border with the United States since the two gangs split earlier this year...more

Senate rejects $3B Indian trust settlement

The U.S. Senate has rejected a $3.4 billion government settlement with American Indians that had been added to a much larger war-funding bill. The Senate passed the almost $60 billion bill funding President Barack Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan late Wednesday — but not before stripping out the settlement and $20 billion in other domestic spending approved by the House. The Senate’s approval would have given the Obama administration the authority to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in 1996 by Elouise Cobell of Browning, Mont. Between 300,000 and 500,000 Native Americans claim the Interior Department mismanaged billions of dollars held in trust by the government. The House attached the settlement to the war-funding bill earlier this month. [link]

NM reps Heinrich & Lujan vote against hunters, handicapped community

Yesterday the House Resources Committee marked up Heinrich & Lujan's H.R. 5388, a bill to expand the boundaries of the Cibola National Forest. As part of the expansion the BLM Manzano Wilderness Study Area would be transferred to the Forest Service and designated as wilderness.

During markup, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) offered an amendment which would have allowed hunters and the handicapped community to use "wheeled, muscle-powered carts for the removal of shot game" in the wilderness. Both Heinrich & Lujan voted against the amendment and it failed. Note the "muscle-powered" limitation. No motor, just a cart with wheels (which the agencies say is mechanical transport and disallowed by the Wilderness Act).

Interestingly, during the markup several weeks ago of H.R. 3914, the San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act, the full committee approved the language allowing the game carts. Coloradans will be authorized to use the game carts in their new wilderness, but thanks to Heinrich & Lujan, hunters and the handicapped in NM will be prohibited from using game carts.

Rep. Bishop said, “The right to hunt shouldn’t just be limited to those physically fit enough to carry their game out on their backs or who can afford to hire expensive guides and pack animals." Apparently Heinrich & Lujan think hunting should be limited to a select few.

And do Heinrich & Lujan really believe a wheeled cart with no motor will destroy the resource or ruin someone's wilderness experience? Are they so anxious to do the bidding of the enviros that they will oppose any amendment to the Wilderness Act no matter how reasonable? The ability to use the carts would expand the hunting opportunities for many New Mexicans, but apparently environmental lobbyists come first.

Heinrich & Lujan are all for expanding the federal domain, but oppose expanding hunting opportunities. Shame on them.

Let this also serve as a lesson to all those who continue to say the Border Patrol will have adequate access to Bingaman's proposed new wilderness designations in southern NM. They can't even patrol in a motorless wheeled cart!

Judge, attorney hammer away at Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's decision to pull Utah oil leases

A federal judge on Wednesday grilled an attorney defending Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's decision to pull 77 oil and gas leases that were successfully bid on at a Salt Lake City auction in 2008, asking repeatedly how the federal government can get around the language of the law that said the leases should have gone through. "You are fast and loose with the terms 'offer' and 'acceptance,' " Judge Dee Benson said during the questioning of Department of Justice attorney Tyler Welti. "You keep telling me your conclusions, but tell me why … tell me how you get around the plain language?" Benson asked. The federal judge did not issue a decision in the hearing, but he indicated at its conclusion that he would rule quickly on the issue. That "plain language" is the key component of the statute governing such sales and leases. It says that, once parcels are offered at auction, the government shall award the bid to the highest qualified bidder and shall issue the lease. Welti had argued that Salazar continued to have discretion to pull the leases even though money had changed hands, because the leases had yet to be physically issued with an official signature. In a suit brought by the impacted Utah counties of Uintah, Duchesne and Carbon and joined by three oil and gas companies, attorney Robert Thompson said there was nothing in the statute or corresponding regulations that support Salazar's February 2009 decision...more

Oil chiefs urge lifting of deep-water ban; Propose $1 billion response plan

Four major oil companies' new $1 billion plan for a quick-response system to fight oil spills should help soothe concerns about the safety of deep-water drilling and prod regulators to lift a temporary ban, executives with Chevron Corp. and Shell said in interviews Thursday. Marvin Odum, who heads Houston-based Shell Oil Co., the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell, sees the four companies' initiative working in concert with new offshore drilling standards from the Interior Department and a separate ongoing industry effort to develop better oil cleanup technology. "I think the elements combined should solve the problem," Odum said. Chevron Corp., Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips on Wednesday announced plans to spend a combined $1 billion on a system for containing blown-out wells in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico. It would be faster to deploy, more robust and more flexible than tools BP is using on damaged Macondo well. Targeted for completion within 18 months, the system will be capable of mobilizing within 24 hours of a spill, working in up to 10,000 feet of water — twice the depth of Macondo - and collecting 100,000 barrels per day of leaking oil, the companies said...more

Moratorium process investigated

The U.S. Interior Department’s inspector general is conducting an investigation into how the Obama administration came up with its recommendation for a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf. Acting Inspector General Mary Kendall sent a letter to two of the seven congressmen who requested the probe, notifying them of the decision. The congressmen made the request after seven members of a science panel that reviewed safety concerns related to the moratorium complained that their names were used to appear that they supported the ban. U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, among those who sought the review, called the news of the investigation bittersweet. “It’s just bad that we’re losing these jobs,” said Cassidy, who has introduced a bill to repeal the moratorium. “To the degree that we can prevent science from being corrupted to support bad political decisions then we’ve accomplished something.”...more

Range Rider Will Discourage Wolves From Targeting Livestock

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is trying a new approach to decreasing the conflict between wolves and the owners of livestock. The Fish and Wildlife Department is using federal grant money to help a rancher in Wallowa County employ a range rider. The rider will track and document wolf activity, and use non-lethal methods to discourage any wolves that are targeting livestock. ODFW's Rick Hargrave says this pilot program could be a model for other areas. Rick Hargrave: "I think people just want to see, the fact that we have a range rider out there and kind of see how things work. And we're hoping to be positive that this will be a step, a non-lethal deterrent that will keep these conflicts from happening."...more

Wow, a game dept. trying to work with and assist a rancher.

I wonder if that concept will ever be tried in NM?

Lightening strikes 17 in Grand Tetons

Grand Teton National Park rangers rescued 16 climbers injured in a lightning storm on the 13,770-foot Grand Teton on Wednesday but had to call off the search for a 17th at dark. The 17 were caught in the storm, which reached a crescendo between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Jenny Lake climbing rangers used two helicopters to evacuate the 16, all of whom were injured by lightning strikes. All were higher than 13,200 feet. The event was likely the largest search and rescue operation in Grand Teton since the early 1960s. Rangers accomplished the rescue after being dropped on the mountain’s summit pyramid from a rope dangling beneath a helicopter, then plucking nine of the injured off the peak using the same dangling “short haul” technique. Skaggs said a lightning map showed at least six or seven strikes in the area...more

Critics blast oil-gas hire

Former Bureau of Land Management District Manager Steve Henke's hire as president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association has drawn the ire of environmental groups that requested federal investigation into Henke's BLM tenure. A half-dozen environmental advocacy groups on Wednesday submitted a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and U.S. BLM Director Ben Abbey expressing concern that Henke's hire as president of the state's largest oil and gas lobbying group raises questions about his work as district manager of the BLM Farmington Field Office, where he oversaw oil and gas development in northwest New Mexico for nine years. Henke resigned from the BLM in May after applying for the industry job. He begins work as NMOGA president Aug. 1. The coalition has requested an investigation into whether Henke was improperly influenced by the oil and gas industry during his BLM tenure and seeks a two-year restriction from lobbying his former co-workers at BLM offices across New Mexico, according to the letter. The coalition of environmental groups also expressed concern that Henke had access to confidential, proprietary information through his dealings with the BLM, which now can be shared with industry leaders, although it remains unavailable for public release, Nichols said...more