FBI highlights similarities between al Qaeda, cartels

An FBI webpage quoted an agent calling Mexico's drug cartels more violent than al Qaeda -- a comment sure to grab attention, but which doesn't tell the whole story, the agency said. On its website, the FBI was highlighting a special series of stories on law enforcement challenges along the Southwest border. The report includes a quote from an unidentified senior agent based in El Paso, Texas, who says, "We think al Qaeda is bad, but they've got nothing on the cartels." The controversial-sounding comment was just one of point of view that exists on the ground, the FBI said, explaining the remark. "The quote is the opinion of one FBI agent who lives and works on border violence every day," said Special Agent Jason Pack, an FBI spokesman in Washington. "The FBI does not believe the cartels are any more dangerous than al Qaeda." According to the FBI report, "Some areas on the Mexican side of the border are so violent they are reminiscent of the gangster era of Chicago in the 1930s or the heyday of the Mafia's Five Families in New York." It cites the violent and ruthless tactics of the cartels, using as an example the case of a man known as El Pozolero -- the stew maker -- who is said to have dissolved hundreds of murder victims in acid. Mexico has seen other violent acts that are reminscent of al Qaeda tactics, including the severing of heads and videotaping of kidnap victims...more

NEWSCHANNEL 5 Investigation: The Valley's War Zone

TV video report shows ranchers in Texas having to hire "gate guards".
Secret surveillance cameras show excellent footage.

Timing of National Guard's Deployment to Southwest Border Stirs Confusion, Anger

The 1,200 National Guard troops expected to arrive Sunday on the southwest border for reinforcement won't finish deploying until late September, federal officials say, stirring confusion and anger among Arizona lawmakers who thought the deadline was Aug. 1. President Obama announced in May he would send National Guard troops amid growing concerns about border violence stemming from illegal immigration and drug smuggling. Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security said the troops would be sent Aug. 1. But now both the National Guard Bureau and the Customs Border Protection says that date was when they were directed to start ramping up their numbers. Arizona lawmakers shook their heads in disgust. "This administration seems to promise a lot and then when you get into the fine print, it just doesn't happen," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has called for 6,000 National Guard troops...more

Affluent Sonorans pack for AZ amid drug war

An increasing number of upper-middle class Sonorans are investing in Arizona real estate as they seek a safe haven from the violence of Mexico’s drug war. Gabriel Gastelum, owner of Nogales’ Century 21 franchise, said he’s seen more Sonoran customers of late, some of whom cite violence as the prime motivator for their move. And Century 21’s Aracely Stout said she’s sold homes to a number of wealthy and well-known Sonoran families who said they were fearful their kids would be harmed in Sonora. Stout recalled one client who made the move to Nogales, Ariz., after witnessing a gun battle just outside his Sonora home. “Can you imagine if your kids are asleep inside and there’s a gun battle just outside the window?” she asked. “He decided he had to do something.” According to local media tallies, Nogales, Sonora, has recorded 135 murders in 2010 as of July 13 – five more than the total from all of last year. And while the vast majority of the murders are believed to be a result of score-settling between rival gangs, bystanders have occasionally been caught in the crossfire. In addition, innocent civilians have been targeted by kidnappers and extortionists – and even phony crooks who try to take advantage of the climate of fear...more

Salazar continues deepwater oil drilling ban for now

After a tour of three offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico this week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar tells The Associated Press that while he's considering revising or even lifting the government's drilling freeze: "We're not there yet." It's scheduled to last until November 30. Business groups and Gulf Coast political leaders say the shutdown is crippling the oil and gas industry and costing thousands of jobs. Salazar says the industry-wide moratorium imposed after BP's oil spill was the correct call. He says the ultimate goal is to allow deepwater operations to resume safely, but he still has a lot of questions about drilling safety after his tour. He calls the issues complex, with different kinds of rigs, different depth limitations and "different zones of risk." Salazar acknowledges the hardship the freeze is causing, but says his job also involves protecting the public and the environment...more

BLM and Utah officials vow to settle fight over dirt roads

For decades, state and federal officials across the West have locked horns over who rightfully controls countless dirt roads that cross federal lands. Now, the federal Bureau of Land Management is inviting Utah officials to sit down and negotiate the dispute. On Friday, BLM director Bob Abbey laid out a roadmap for talks, suggesting officials start first in Iron County and take the easiest roads to resolve in open, transparent negotiations. Abbey said he was acting at the direction of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and taking up a challenge originally proposed by the Utah Association of Counties. "Do we have a deal yet?" said the association's No. 2 official, Mark Ward. "No, but the groundwork is laid." The association's executive director, Brent Gardner, said, "We're happy and certainly want to work with them." No timetable for talks has been set. The dispute is over historic passageways across lands owned by BLM, the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service. Utah officials say a one-sentence 1866 law assured open passage across the federal lands. The law -- repealed in 1976 with protection for existing roads -- set off protracted fights about which routes crisscrossing the West qualify for local control...more

Why hunters, anglers support Tester’s clean-energy bill

Outside of the hullabaloo of the BP fiasco, Sen. Jon Tester has found a bipartisan path forward for a clean-energy economy. The Clean Energy, Community Investment and Wildlife Conservation Act co-sponsored by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Tester and in the House by Dean Heller, R-Nev., provides a road map for developing clean energy from the public lands that comprise nearly 30 percent of Montana. The bill would help to generate revenues for states and counties in areas where the leasing of public lands for wind and solar development occurs while also setting aside funds so that the federal government can more quickly permit wind and solar development. It would also require that water resources, special areas and critical fish and wildlife habitat are protected. The bill would allocate 35 percent of revenues from leasing of solar and wind power to secure public access for hunting and fishing, mitigate the effects of development on fish and wildlife habitat, and allow for the protection of the most important fish and wildlife habitats...more

Bill's wolf-trap ban needs federal follow-up

Give Gov. Bill Richardson a hand for lending one to the still-struggling Mexican gray wolf: This week he ordered a temporary ban on animal trapping in our state's part of the Blue Mountain wolf-recovery area. It's to last six months, while state biologists figure out what risks traps and snares pose to wolves. For doing so, his critics are likely to issue word-play lines about him looking after himself — but this was just the latest of many seven-league strides Richardson has made on the environmental front during 71/2 years in the Governor's Office, and in Congress before that. The Mexican gray, an endangered subspecies, was reintroduced to the New Mexico-Arizona borderlands in the late 1990s. By now, figured the federal wildlife officials who trucked a few animals into the Gila River basin, their population should have grown to about 100. They reckoned without the region's taxpayer-subsidized ranchers or other two-legged enemies of canis lupus: As this year began, there were only 42 of the wolves. Since June, three have been found dead — two of them shot. In recent years, 14 have been trapped or snared — 12 in New Mexico. Five were injured, two of those so badly they required amputation. If ranchers had anything to do with the trap injuries, there was irony in the infliction: Injured wolves might have a harder time bringing down a deer or an elk — so those grazing-lease livestock become more appealing...more

The only federal follow-up needed on Bill's activities is by the U.S. Attorney, not the Fish & Wildlife Service.

EPA Puts ‘Environmental Justice’ Front and Center in Its Rulemaking Process

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a 55-page “guidance” to help its employees “advance environmental justice” for low-income and minority communities. “Achieving environmental justice is an Agency priority and should be factored into every decision,” the document says. The move comes 16 years after President William Clinton signed an executive order directing every federal agency to "make achieving environmental justice part of its mission." And Barack Obama campaigned on a promise to make "environmental justice policies a priority within the EPA." The EPA says its new guidelines will help its rule-writers identify potential environmental justice concerns, and it instructs them to analyze the impact of their rules on low-income and minority populations...more

EPA to Crack Down on Farm Dust

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering a crackdown on farm dust, so senators have signed a letter addressing their concerns on the possible regulations. The letter dated July 23 to the EPA states, "If approved, would establish the most stringent and unparalleled regulation of dust in our nation's history." It further states, "We respect efforts for a clean and healthy environment, but not at the expense of common sense. These identified levels will be extremely burdensome for farmers and livestock producers to attain. Whether its livestock kicking up dust, soybeans being combined on a dry day in the fall, or driving a car down the gravel road, dust is a naturally occurring event."...more

The letter was signed by 21 senators and you can read it by going here. Neither of NM's senators signed the letter.

Cattle industry conflict threatens checkoff and leadership

USDA has also given closer examination to the expenditures of the beef checkoff and the relationship between NCBA, Cattlemen's Beef Board and state beef councils. The audit just released by CBB has identified infractions that may have been overlooked by friendlier administrations but are now getting public recognition through the Office of the Secretary; this is threatening the keepers of the checkoff funds. Now we fray another strand of this rope. I quote from Ron Hays' Oklahoma Farm Report from July 26: "The Cattlemen's Beef Board has just released a Compliance Review of their major contractor for beef checkoff programs--the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. The audit comes just ahead of the Summer Conference of the Cattle Industry that will be held in Denver this week--and the CPA firm that conducted the audit for CBB, Clifton Gunderson, appeared to detect a pattern of problems with adequate documentation to prove many expenses were properly allocated to the checkoff overhead that NCBA is allowed to claim as a contractor." The allegations include lack of documentation of expenses and unallowable spouse travel to New Zealand for a cattle conference. NCBA has surely figured out that it has lost its clout with USDA and has always had to endure R-CALF USA, but now the source of the thirst-quenching waters of the checkoff fund is questioning consumption by NCBA, the largest contractor. NCBA executives have to know that when people are out to get you, they head for the money. Following the money by auditing expenses tells a story of the actions and attitudes of the players and undermines confidence within the industry...more

Catalonia bullfighting ban: Cornered by the cape crusaders?

Last week, Catalonia became the first Spanish region on the mainland to ban bullfighting. Cue much jubilation among celebrities such as Ricky The Office Gervais and Pamela Baywatch Anderson, who, along with assorted animal rights groups, want it prohibited everywhere. Yet on closer examination, the ban looks more like a spot of fancy capework, performed by the troublesome Catalan legislature in pursuit of its separatist agenda. “What we are really saying,” explained a commentator in Barcelona’s largest newspaper, El Periodica, “is that Spain is the home of bullfighting, and if we don’t have bullfights, it stands to reason that we can’t be Spanish.” Ole! Elsewhere in the country, the reaction to the ban was restrained. Catalonia’s allegiance to the corrida has long been considered suspect. During the Spanish Civil War, the Catalan republican forces made a particular point of attacking the ranchers who raised fighting bulls. “One less torero, one less fascist,” went the cry. In bullfighting’s southern heartlands, last week’s ban was seen less as a vote of conscience than as a sucking-up to the Leftist euro-establishment, which the legislature hopes will back its campaign for independence. In this sense, bullfighting is an intensely political issue. In another sense, it always has been. The first serious attempt to ban it was made in the 16th century by Pope Pius V, who issued – appropriately – a papal bull, stating that the practice imperilled the souls of all who participated in it. Two hundred years later, King Philip V of Spain, a passionate opponent of the corrida, prohibited the aristocracy from fighting bulls, a measure that paved the way for the professional matador class that emerged from Andalucia in the late 18th century. In 2007, more than 200 MEPs voted to withdraw European Union subsidies for the breeders of fighting bulls...more

Cattle dogs round 'em up during trial circuit finals at fair

Dogs have been working cattle for hundreds of years while, out in the field, their handlers have praised their efforts. Now entire audiences can applaud some of the best cattle dogs and their handlers from the grandstands at the Wyoming State Fair, Sunday, Aug. 15. The Wyoming Cattle Dog Trial Circuit will start its sixth season in August. During the month, four trials will be held across the state during a tight two-week period. Those trials will be followed the finals at the Wyoming State Fair. “Jim Chant of Baggs, Wyo., had a vision several years ago of starting a cattle dog competition,” said Juan Reyes, who has worked with Chant to get the series up and running. Many people are familiar with sheep dog trials. Cattle dog trials have a similar purpose, to display a working dog's ability to effectively gather, move and hold cattle. “That is really important to the producer who is out there working his cattle,” said Reyes. “We want to show how dogs can work in real situations. We are mimicking what we do with cattle and these dogs out on the ranch,” he said. The competition consists of four parts: the outrun and lift, a fetch, a drive, and the finish. To start, the handler and dog begin at the base of the course with the cattle at the opposite end. The handler sends the dog out and around the cattle. This is called the outrun and the lift. Then the dog brings the cattle down the coarse back to the handler, trying to keep them in a straight line. Next comes the fetch...more

Pat Garrett's family plan showdown over plans to finally pardon Billy The Kid

Billy The Kid was famously gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett in a Wild West showdown nearly 130 years ago. But it appears the notorious gunslinger still can’t escape the clutches of his nemesis. Garrett’s descendants are enraged over a plan by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to grant a posthumous pardon to the outlaw - who was said to have killed 21 men, one for each year of his life. The feud has opened up a lingering resentment at McCarty’s status as an Old West folklore hero, fuelled by countless books, films and songs. By contrast, Garrett has been accused of glorifying his part in the story. The dogged sheriff claimed he tracked down McCarty after he escaped from Lincoln County jail and shot him down on July 14, 1881, in a famous gun battle that left two deputies dead. Ironically, McCarty was virtually unknown during his lifetime, only catapulted into legend the year after his death when Garrett and co-author M.A. 'Ash' Upson published a sensational biography called The Authentic Life Of Billy, The Kid. The issue resurfaced earlier this year because Mr Richardson asked state historians whether there was sufficient support to grant a pardon. The governor now plans to meet the Garrett family next week to hear their objections. The pardon dispute is the latest in a long-running fight over whether Garrett shot the real McCarty or someone else and then lied about it...

It's all Trew: Branding is an old tradition

One thing cannot be argued, a healed brand is still the most visible, positive identifying process yet found. As examples of marking livestock, both legal and illegal, here are a few true stories with a bit of Trew flavor. Just how old are livestock brands? No one is sure but murals have been found in Egyptian tombs showing the branding of livestock. Early settlements dating from Moorish times required that in order to plant, raise and harvest crops, a practice called "transhumance" had to be carried out. This called for periodic removal of all livestock and large poultry from the cropping areas during the growing and harvesting seasons. The laws of the time, in order to prevent theft or mysterious loss of livestock, dictated all animals must be branded before being moved. Brands or painted markings were the only options available at the time to identify domestic stock or flocks. John Chisum, the famous rancher of the Pecos River Country, once caught and convicted a group of cattle rustlers who were changing one of the many brands he adopted when he bought and sold vast herds of cattle across Texas and New Mexico. The group had been acquitted by court once for theft because of "reasonable doubt." Evidently they were extremely clever in the alterations. Mr. Chisum set a trap by roping a number of odd marked steers and having his cowboys cut a small slit in the lower folds of the brisket and insert a silver coin into the slot which quickly healed over. Later, they caught the gang of thieves with some of the identifiable steers. With the law present as witnesses, the cowboys roped the steers and removed the coins as evidence. The thieves were sent to prison for long terms. Interestingly, I give a program about brands and have learned I can take the bare letter J without the top bar on the letter, and make every letter in the alphabet and numbers from 0 to 9. With patience, holding the iron at different angles, slants and touch-up, it can be done. Try it if you don't believe me...more

Song Of The Day #371

It's Swingin' Monday on Ranch Radio, where we bring you uptempo tunes to get your heart pumpin' for the rest of the week.

Today's selection is Nothin' by Moot Davis, from his Moot Davis CD.

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Reasons for old age happiness

by Julie Carter

Someone found it necessary to make and share a list of the advantages of living past the age of 50, or 60 and climbing to 70.

I tend to believe that every day above ground is a good day, but there are other perks to hanging on to life in the second half of your century of living. I'm also an optimist.

1. Kidnappers are not very interested in you. I find that to be absolutely true. I have never been kidnapped nor even threatened with abduction. In fact, the only reference to it that was ever made in my lifetime was by my dad. His comment was something about having pity for the kidnappers. Age doesn't seem to be the real factor in this one.

2. In a hostage situation, you are likely to be released first. See No.1 for references.

3. No one expects you to run, anywhere. Speed takes on a more relative definition with each passing decade.

4. People call at 9 p.m. and ask, "Did I wake you?" I have yet to be able to answer, "yes" to this query because I have a teenager in the house.

5. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac. Instead, one has to learn the polite art of not monopolizing the conversation with long, detailed renditions of aches, pains and remedies.

6. There is nothing left to learn the hard way. However, I keep testing that theory daily.

7. Things you buy now won't wear out. The Maytag man never considered that he might never see you again when he promised that the new washing machine he just delivered would last you 25 years.

8. You can eat supper at 4 p.m. or breakfast at noon. This holds true if you are unemployed, single and living alone.

9. You can live without sex but not without your glasses. Enough said, except to note, well ... never mind.

10. You get into heated arguments about pension plans. That may have changed with the recent political black cloud that came over people's plans for retirement. There is no edgy humor here.

11. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge. In fact, you no longer think of them at all. That may indicate more habit than age.

12. You quit trying to hold your stomach in no matter who walks into the room. Bulkier sweaters, "big" shirts, and jackets allow breathing. Oxygen is so much better for your health than holding your breath.

13. You sing along with elevator music and the designated "oldies" radio station is your "home station" while driving anywhere. There is comfort in knowing the words to the songs if you don't dwell on the fact that they were on 45s when they were first popular.

14. Your eyes won't get much worse. Refer to No. 9 and buy reader glasses in bulk at Sam's or Costco.

15. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off. The medical industry keeps inventing more tests to run on us to make sure that happens.

16. Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service. While that's not actually saying much, it's true. The "weather knee" is a valuable indicator and every old timer has a good story to go with it.

17. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either. It takes several friends to keep a good rumor going.

18. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to manageable size, if I could just remember what to do with what I have.

19. You notice that you are drawn more and more to things written in big print and you have learned the keystrokes on the computer keyboard to make the font on websites bigger.

20. You can't remember where you saw this list before and why you thought it was funny at the time.

Enjoy today, whatever the age. Tomorrow is not promised. Now, where are my glasses?

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

The Reid Energy Bill: Another Government Land Grab

by Robert Gordon

The all-too-familiar idea “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste” has reared its head in Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D–NV) Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act of 2010. In addition to proposing hurdles high enough to trip efforts to develop energy resources in the Gulf of Mexico, the proposal would gift to the greens one of their long sought desires: a full pot of money in the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LCWF). It would be a big pot of cash that can be spent “without further appropriation” to, among other things, gobble up more private property.

Similar provisions are contained in the House’s Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources Act of 2009 (CLEAR Act). Structuring such a perpetual funding machine is one of the many recommendations the green community made to the Obama Administration in “Transition to Green: Leading the Way to a Healthy Environment, a Green Economy and a Sustainable Future.”

The LCWF was created decades ago and authorized for $900 million annually to come predominately from receipts from the government’s offshore oil and gas leases. As it is, Congress has had to authorize expenditures from the fund, and the greens have been frustrated by a history of it not being fully funded. Still, according to CRS, between 1965 and 2002, $8.7 billon in LCWF funds enabled the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management to acquire about 4.5 million acres, an area slightly smaller than New Jersey. In the same period, CRS found that the LCWF also funded 37,000 state and local projects totaling approximately $3.5 billion to conserve another 2.3 million acres.

Reid’s bill would fill the fund with a minimum of just under $5 billion through fiscal year 2016. Spending these funds would no longer require congressional approval. Between fiscal year (FY) 2017 and FY 2020, all LWCF funding—without fiscal year limitation—would be subject to appropriations. For FY 2021 and beyond, the LWCF pot would be filled with a minimum of a half billon annually and, again, evade congressional approval.

When this concept was floated during the 107th Congress as the Conservation and Reinvestment Act Fund (CARA), CRS noted that “support for the CARA legislation seems less intense in this Congress, possibly because of growing concern about a likely federal budget deficit in future years.”

Well, it’s the future, and the budget deficits are beyond what anyone could have imagined during the 107th. However, even if we were not saddled with enormous budget deficits, at some point one has to ask just how much more government ownership and control over land we need. Currently the federal government owns in the neighborhood of 653,299,090 acres. That’s an area larger than Mexico and Afghanistan combined, and it does not include lands owned by state, county, or municipal governments.

Beyond the simple fact that the federal government does not need to be spending even more money it does not have, there are numerous other reasons this is a bad idea. For one, the federal government can’t manage what it already has. In 2003 the Government Accounting Office (GAO) reported, “Over the years, the [National Park Service’s] estimates of the cost of its deferred maintenance have varied widely—sometimes by billions of dollars. Currently, the agency estimates that its deferred maintenance backlog will cost over $5 billion.” By 2007, GAO reported, “Last year, the [Interior] department spent $1.6 billion on annual maintenance and construction but had a $9.6 billion backlog of deferred maintenance projects.”

Along the same lines, the Government Services Administration reported in 2004 that the federal government owned some 5,104,608 acres classified as “vacant.” That’s an area larger than Massachusetts. Do we really need to increase the maintenance burden for federal agencies when they can’t handle what they already have?

But also gobbling up more private property is a bad idea for the economy in general and for communities across the country. Federal policy already recognizes that federal land ownership can erode local tax bases by having provisions for payments in lieu of taxes (PILT). According to the Department of the Interior, the amount authorized for PILT in FY 2010 under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was $358.5 million. Do we really need to take more land off local tax roles?

Further, once part of the federal estate, land is more subject to the whims of government regulators and of Congress. Using the regulatory machine, plans are floating around the Obama Administration to lock up millions of acres of the federal estate, which would likely thwart job-creating activities like ranching, mining, and forestry.

For its part, Congress already crushed any hope of significant economic use of millions of acres of federal land by jamming through the 1,248-page Omnibus Lands Act of 2008. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that monstrosity at more than $6.4 billion, and that does not include royalties and resulting tax revenues that might have been generated from forgone economic uses. Do we really need to constrict economic use of more land?

The greens shill for an ever larger federal estate, peddling the idea of an ecotourism economic boom. Senator Reid’s home state is already 84.48 percent owned by the federal government, and that does include any foreclosed housing (FNE, FME, FHA) now in government hands. While there are quite a few unemployed in Nevada with enough time on their hands to go backpacking, more government land is not what they need, nor does the nation need a special entitlement nestled within the federal government to please the insatiable greens.

Song Of The Day #370

Ranch Radio's Gospel tune this morning is Show Me The Light by the Bladerunners.

White House proposal would ease FBI access to records of Internet activity

The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation. The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication. But what officials portray as a technical clarification designed to remedy a legal ambiguity strikes industry lawyers and privacy advocates as an expansion of the power the government wields through so-called national security letters. These missives, which can be issued by an FBI field office on its own authority, require the recipient to provide the requested information and to keep the request secret. They are the mechanism the government would use to obtain the electronic records...more

FBI director: Agents may have cheated on test

The Justice Department is investigating whether hundreds of FBI agents violated rules in taking a 2009 exam meant to ensure that they could follow aggressive new guidelines for terrorism investigations without intruding on Americans' privacy, FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged Wednesday. Glenn Fine, the department's inspector general, is looking into whether agents across the country improperly took the training test in groups, shared answers or completed it in unusually short periods. Investigations into the alleged cheating surfaced publicly in the bureau's Washington Field Office, where it was linked to the retirement of one of the FBI's most-senior managers. Joseph Persichini stepped down as head of the Washington office in December after he came under scrutiny for allegedly completing the open-book exam in less than 20 minutes; some test-takers required more than two hours. Disclosure of the review swiftly revived questions about the FBI's ability to apply guidelines, adopted in 2008, that for the first time allowed agents to conduct surveillance and counterterrorism and espionage investigations within the U.S. without evidence that a target has ties to a terrorist group...more

Wal-Mart plan to use smart tags raises privacy concerns

Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) is putting electronic identification tags on men's clothing like jeans starting Aug. 1 as the world's largest retailer tries to gain more control of its inventory. But the move is raising eyebrows among privacy experts. The individual garments, which also includes underwear and socks, will have removable smart tags that can be read from a distance by Wal-Mart workers with scanners. In seconds, the worker will be able to know what sizes are missing and will also be able tell what it has on hand in the stock room. Such instant knowledge will allow store clerks to have the right sizes on hand when shoppers need them. Wal-Mart's goal is to eventually expand the tags to other types of merchandise but company officials say it's too early to give estimates on how long that will take. "This is a first piece of a very large and very frightening tracking system," said Katherine Albrecht, director of a group called Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering. Albrecht worries that Wal-Mart and others would be able to track movements of customers who in some border states like Michigan and Washington are carrying new driver's licenses that contain RFID tags to make it easier for them to cross borders. Albrecht fears that retailers could scan data from such licenses and their purchases and combine that data with other personal information. She also says that even though the smart tags can be removed from clothing, they can't be turned off and can be tracked even after you throw them in the garbage, for example...more

Packing heat in AZ to become easier soon

The Wild West is about to get wilder - on Thursday, Arizona will join Alaska and Vermont as one of the states with the country's most liberal gun laws. Senate Bill 1108 removes the requirement that gun owners must be trained and licensed to carry a concealed weapon. Arizona already allows for "open carry" - anyone not legally prohibited from possessing a firearm, such as convicted felons or those adjudicated mentally incompetent, can carry firearms in public as long as they are clearly visible. After Thursday, the requirement that weapons be displayed openly will be dropped, and anyone who is not a "prohibited possessor" will be able to carry concealed weapons...more

As Many as 6,600 Arlington Graves Mixed Up

Estimates of the number of graves that might be affected by mix-ups at Arlington National Cemetery grew from hundreds to as many as 6,600 on Thursday, as the cemetery's former superintendent blamed his staff and a lack of resources for the scandal that forced his ouster...more

But please don't worry, they'll run our health care system just fine.

You see killin' us they can do, it's just the buryin' where they have problems.

Grizzly bear who killed Grand Rapids man euthanized, will be study for ailments

The 300-pound female grizzly bear that fatally mauled a Grand Rapids man this week and bit two other campers at Soda Butte Campground was euthanized Friday after DNA tests showed the sow was responsible for the attacks, said Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks spokesman Andrea Jones. Jones said tests on bear hair, saliva and tissue samples linked the bear to the fatal attack on Kevin Kammer, 48, of the Northeast Side, and two other people Wednesday in the Gallatin National Forest, near Yellowstone National Park. Kammer, a father of four, was on a fly-fishing vacation when he was killed. Authorities say the bear dragged him 25 feet from his tent in the nighttime attack. Officials will perform an autopsy on the mother bear to determine if any physical ailments or conditions caused her to attack the campers, Servheen said. Grizzly bears that display unprovoked aggressive behavior toward humans, or cause death or substantial human injury, should be removed from the population under an agreement among eight state and federal agencies, state wildlife officials said...more

Woman recounts bear attack

One of the survivors of a deadly grizzly bear attack said Thursday she realized her only hope was to play dead after feeling the bear's jaw clamp onto her arm in the middle of the night. "Something woke me up, and a split second later, I felt teeth grinding into my arm," Deb Freele of London, Ontario, said from a Wyoming hospital. "I realized, at that split second, I was being attacked by a bear, but I couldn't see it. "It was behind me and I screamed. I couldn't help it — it's kind of like somebody else was screaming," she told The Associated Press. "And then it bit me harder, and more. It got very aggressive and started to shake me." She kept screaming but then realized that if she didn't do something, she was going to die. "I decided at that point, the only other thing I knew to do was to play dead, and I just went totally limp, got very quiet, didn't make a sound. And a few seconds later, the bear dropped me and walked away," she said. Freele said she couldn't understand why the bear attacked her, because she posed no threat. "If it was something that I had done — if I had walked into a female with cubs, and startled her, and she attacked me — I can understand that," she said. "She was hunting us, with the intention of killing us and eating us." Officials have said the bear will be killed if DNA evidence confirms it was the same one that attacked the victims. Aasheim said the test results were expected by Friday...more

Grizzly captured at site of fatal attack

A mother grizzly and two of her three cubs have been captured after killing a Michigan man and injuring two other people during an overnight rampage through a campground near Yellowstone National Park. The sow, estimated to weigh 300 to 400 pounds, was lured into a trap fashioned from culvert pipe covered by the dead victim's tent Wednesday evening. The bear tore down the tent again and was caught in the trap, said Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim. Thursday morning, two of the year-old bears had been caught and the third could be heard nearby, calling out to its mother. Montana wildlife officials on Thursday identified the man killed in the mauling as Kevin Kammer, 48, of Grand Rapids, Mich. The bear pulled Kammer out of his tent and dragged him 25 feet, Aasheim said. The other victims, Deb Freele of London, Ontario, and an unidentified male, have been hospitalized in Cody, Wyo...more

NM governor suspends trapping in wolf area

Gov. Bill Richardson on Wednesday ordered a temporary ban on trapping on the New Mexico side of an area where Mexican gray wolves have been reintroduced into the wild along the New Mexico-Arizona border. Richardson ordered the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish to prohibit trapping for six months while it studies what risk traps and snares pose to wolves...more

















EXECUTIVE ORDER 2010-029

TEMPORARY BAN OF TRAPPING IN THE
BLUE RANGE WOLF RECOVERY AREA

WHEREAS, the Mexican Gray Wolf is the smallest, rarest, and most genetically distinct subspecies of the Gray Wolf;

WHEREAS, the Mexican Gray Wolves that once widely roamed New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and the Republic of Mexico are now nearly extinct, suffering from the results of human development, reduction in habitat, and hunting;

WHEREAS, the Mexican Gray Wolf was listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1976, and all known wild Mexican Gray Wolves were caught and put into a captive breeding program;

WHEREAS, the Gray Wolf species, of which the Mexican Gray Wolf is a subspecies, was listed as endangered under the New Mexico Wildlife Conservation Act in 1976;

WHEREAS, in 1998, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced the Mexican Gray Wolf to a portion of its historic range in New Mexico and Arizona within the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area (“Recovery Area”), which is comprised of the Gila and Apache National Forests;

WHEREAS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s goal was to restore at least 100 free-roaming Mexican Gray Wolves in the Recovery Area by 2005, but as of 2010, only 39 individual Mexican Gray Wolves are surviving in the wild;

WHEREAS, pursuant to the New Mexico Wildlife Conservation Act, the State Game Commission has enacted rules which make it unlawful for any person to take (defined as harass, hunt, capture, kill, or attempt to do so) any threatened or endangered species or subspecies in the State of New Mexico;

WHEREAS, under the New Mexico Wildlife Conservation Act endangered species may only be removed, captured, or destroyed with prior authorization by permit given by the Director of the Department of Game and Fish (“Department”) where necessary to alleviate or prevent damage to property or to protect human health;

WHEREAS, trapping and snaring activities occur in New Mexico within the Recovery Area even though such activities are negatively impacting the Mexican Gray Wolf, as traps and snares do not discriminate between Mexican Gray Wolves and the game animals intended to be taken;

WHEREAS, Mexican Gray Wolves may suffer injury or death while caught in a trap or snare due to dehydration, exposure to weather, or predation by other animals;

WHEREAS, in the last eight years, in the Recovery Area located in New Mexico, there have been six confirmed and three probable Mexican Gray Wolves that have been trapped, five of which have sustained injuries from traps or snares, including two Mexican Gray Wolves that had injuries severe enough to result in leg amputations;

WHEREAS, missing toes, claws, or other injuries can inhibit the Mexican Gray Wolves’ ability to catch prey and may actually increase the risk of livestock predation, as domestic livestock are easier to capture than native prey such as elk or mule deer;

WHEREAS, Mexican Gray Wolves require adequate prey and freedom from indiscriminate traps and snares to thrive in the Recovery Area; and

WHEREAS, tourism for watching the Mexican Gray Wolf has had almost no chance to develop in New Mexico, because the Mexican Gray Wolf population has not grown as planned.

NOW THEREFORE, I Bill Richardson, Governor of the State of New Mexico, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the State of New Mexico, do hereby order the Department of Game and Fish to carry out the purpose of the New Mexico Wildlife Conservation Act, which requires endangered species, including the Mexican Gray Wolf, be protected and direct the Department of Game and Fish to temporarily ban trapping in the portion of the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area located in New Mexico. The ban shall:

1. Prohibit trapping by persons licensed to trap pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 17-5-5 and youth under the age of twelve years. This prohibition should not affect the right of a resident to trap animals in order to protect livestock, domesticated animals, or fowl. The ban shall be in effect for six months starting on November 1, 2010, while the two studies described below are completed.

2. Prohibit all methods of capturing a furbearer on land or in water, including leg-hold traps, neck and leg snares, Conibear kill traps, body-crushing traps, natural and man-made cubby sets, and other methods of trapping specified in 19.32.2.10 NMAC. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and the government of the United States and its agencies are exempted from this closure if the Mexican Gray Wolves require capture for medical treatment, monitoring, or relocation.

I further direct the Department to undertake a study of the various types of traps and snares allowed in New Mexico and to determine the level of risk to the Mexican Gray Wolf associated with the various traps and snares. The Department shall then pursue appropriate regulations to allow trapping within the Recovery Area only by use of traps and snares that pose minimal risk of harm or injury to the Mexican Gray Wolf.

I further direct the Department of Tourism to undertake a study on the potential economic benefits of ecotourism related to recovery of the Mexican Gray Wolf in the Recovery Area.

THIS ORDER supersedes any other previous orders, proclamations, or directives in conflict. This Executive Order shall take effect immediately and shall remain in effect until such time as it is rescinded by the Governor.

Enviros applaud trapping ban

"The Governor rightly recognizes that wild wolves can bring benefits to local communities," said Kevin Bixby, Executive Director of the Southwest Environmental Center. It's simple supply and demand: although once widespread, the supply of wild wolves in the wild in the U.S. is now limited to a few localities, while the demand to see them grows as more people come to appreciate their importance. Fortunately, New Mexico is one of the few places in the country that has wild wolves." "The Mexican wolf has a friend in Governor Bill Richardson," stated John Horning, Executive Director of WildEarth Guardians. "We are grateful for the Governor's action today, as the lobos face mounting threats to their very survival," continued Horning. "Governor Richardson understands the vital role wolves play as part of a healthy ecosystem," stated Sandy Buffett, Executive Director of Conservation Voters New Mexico and Vice-Chair of the NM State Game Commission. "This important policy change ensures that the Department of Game and Fish and the Game Commission will have the additional data necessary to assess the long-term biological impacts of trapping on wolf recovery."...more

Jess Carey comments on trap ban

It is obvious Gov. Richardson has enacted this trap ban on his way out and at the direction of the radical wolf recovery organizations and it was probably written by them also.

What a crock, almost all the trapping injuries to wolves have been done by the federal agencies involved in wolf recovery, not the trapping public...why..because they use #7 McBride wolf traps that have larger jaws than traps allowed by state law. These agencies are exempt of state law and do what they want.

The enviro's are punishing the trapping public for what federal agencies are doing, why? Because these same enviro's are against trapping, hunting, ranching, farmings, off road vehicles and or anything else that uses our natural re-newable resources.

We can only pray for a decent Governor, not one that walks and talks like Richardson with the same ol tune, fiddle and guitar...but one that will see through all the enviro hype and will protect the folks living on and using the land.

"KNOW" who you are voting for..everyone should be a one man army and campaign every person you meet.

Folks, the customs of life of the people's of the Southwest are on the line and we need a change....or it will be lost forever!

Many people's lives depend on your vote...Let us all band together and put decent people in office that will work and protect our way of life.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired living at the direction of the environmental radical organizations...WE out number the enviro's, all we have to do is focus and band together and vote as one.

The only way to beat them is by electing like minded candidates.

Best wishes

Jess Carey

These comments were originally submitted to the Mesilla Valley Sportsmen's Alliance.

Elk numbers dip; are wolves culprits?

Researchers at Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks have proposed a study of elk survival and recruitment in the Bitterroot Valley that could go a long way toward settling the debate over the impact that wolves have on elk. "It sure has applicability toward that," said Craig Jourdonnais, an FWP wildlife biologist in the Bitterroot, who proposed the study after two years of serious declines in the number of elk calves recruited into herds in the East and West Forks of the Bitterroot River. "Elk cow/calf ratios have declined throughout the Bitterroot Valley since 2004," Jourdonnais said. "MFWP recorded a valley-wide historic low in elk calf recruitment in 2009. Steady declines in the West Fork — Hunting District 250 — have left that population 63 percent below objective and recruitment rates of only 11 calves per 100 cows." Jourdonnais said two consecutive years of low calf recruitment — those calves that made it through their first winter and their early vulnerability to predators — prompted a grassroots call for the research. Valley-wide, those late calves have numbered 12 to 15 calves per hundred cows. Ideally they would be at about 35 calves per hundred cows. "There are a lot of opinions about the relationship between elk and wolves and that is all they are," Jourdonnais said. "We want to put some data behind it, but from gut level and our experience in the Gallatin and the Madison, it would not surprise me at all to see wolves are large part of what is going on."...more

Barrett, BLM reach landmark compromise on Utah drilling

Colorado-based energy developer Bill Barrett Corp. is earning praise for a landmark natural-gas-development proposal approved Thursday by the Bureau of Land Management. The company agreed to reduce its development plan for the West Tavaputs Plateau, 30 miles east/northeast of Price, Utah, a compromise that the BLM approved with only minor modifications. Barrett also agreed not to drill within the Desolation Canyon and Jack Canyon wilderness study areas, and to minimize surface disturbance in other areas with wilderness characteristics through more use of directional drilling, rather than straight down from the top. Citing technological advances and increased geological knowledge, Barrett agreed to limit pads to one per 160 acres overall, and one per 320 acres in areas with wilderness characteristics. The drilling plan is the result of a compromise reached between Denver-based Barrett and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Under the compromise, Barrett and other operators plan to drill 626 wells from 120 pads, a reduction of 181 wells and 418 pads from previous plans. Environmental groups say the agreement will result in fewer than six surface locations in proposed wilderness areas, down from an initial proposal of 225 locations...more

Suspects still at large after forest service worker shot at near Foresthill

Three suspects were still at large today after a U.S. Forest Service employee was shot at while installing signs in the Tahoe National Forest northeast of Auburn. The forest worker was inside a vehicle when the shooting occurred Wednesday afternoon and was not injured, Forest Service spokeswoman Ann Westling said today. Three people were involved in Wednesday’s shooting, according to information released by the Forest Service. The employee was putting up signs related to the current fire danger in the forest, she said. No similar shooting incidents have taken place in the Tahoe National Forest in the recent past but they have occurred in other national forests, Westling said. There was no information available on a motive, including whether the three were attempting to keep the employee away from an possible illicit marijuana grow, she said...more

Monuments could be blocked in Senate bill

Presidential authority to declare new federal monuments on public land will be restricted under legislation introduced by Idaho Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch. The National Monument Designation Transparency and Accountability Act calls for Congressional approval within two years of any executive order by a President seeking a monument designation. If the two-year deadline passes without congressional approval, the land would return to its original status. The legislation also requires that the President provide Congress with information about the actions 30 days prior to any Executive Order designation. It calls for public hearings and sets land restrictions for the monument designation. Crapo and Risch previously sent Interior Secretary Ken Salazar a letter warning against sweeping decisions about national monuments. Original Senate sponsors include Crapo, Risch, and Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), John Ensign (R-Nevada), Michael Enzi (R-Wyoming), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Pat Roberts (R-Kansas)...more

Where were these guys during the six years the Republicans controlled both houses of congress and the White House? They were nowhere to be seen.

Signing of tribal law act welcomed

With violence on Indian reservations more than two times the national average, the Tribal Law and Order Act signed Thursday by President Barack Obama is expected to combat the problem. The bill passed the U.S. Senate on June 23 and the House on July 21. Its backers believe it will help in a number of ways. Among the law’s provisions: • Authorizes appointment of special assistant U.S. attorneys to prosecute crimes in tribal communities in federal court. • Provides tribal courts with tougher sentencing powers. • Allows some tribal police officers to enforce federal laws on Indian lands, as well as increases recruitment and retention efforts of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal law officers. • Requires tribal and federal officers serving Indian Country to be trained in interviewing victims of sexual assault and collecting evidence at crime scenes. • Requires federal investigators and prosecutors to maintain information on cases that occur on Indian lands that are closed or declined for prosecution in federal court and share that information with tribal justice officials. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, who attended Thursday afternoon’s bill signing, said the legislation will combat a serious problem on reservations. “We’ve got some issues of violence in Indian Country,” said Tester, a Montana Democrat and one of the bill’s co-sponsors. “This will address those issues and will reduce violence, making communities safe, allowing business to grow and families to thrive. “The bottom line is you don’t have economic growth with unsafe communities.”...more

“The bottom line is you don’t have economic growth with unsafe communities.”

Senator Tester should tell that to the Senators who represent folks who live in the vicinity of the Mexican border.

ALLIANCE FOR WILD ROCKIES v. COTTRELL

ALLIANCE FOR THE WILD ROCKIES; NATIVE ECOSYSTEMS COUNCIL, Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v. JANE L. COTTRELL, in her official capacity as acting Regional Forester; UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE, an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 09-35756.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
Argued and Submitted February 2, 2010—Seattle, Washington.
Filed July 28, 2010.

Alliance for the Wild Rockies ("AWR") appeals the district court's denial of its motion for a preliminary injunction. AWR seeks to enjoin a timber salvage sale proposed by the United States Forest Service. Citing Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 129 S. Ct. 365 (2008), the district court held that AWR had not shown the requisite likelihood of irreparable injury and success on the merits. After hearing oral argument, we issued an order reversing the district court and directing it to issue the preliminary injunction. Alliance for Wild Rockies v. Cottrell, No. 09-35756, 2010 WL 2640287 (9th Cir. June 24, 2010). In this opinion, we now set forth the reasons for our reversal, and we take this opportunity to clarify an aspect of the post-Winter standard for a preliminary injunction...

Conclusion

We conclude that the district court erred in denying AWR's request for a preliminary injunction. AWR has established a likelihood of irreparable injury if the Project continues. AWR has also established serious questions, at the very least, on the merits of its claim under the ARA. Because AWR has done so with respect to its claim under the ARA, we do not reach its claims under NFMA and NEPA. The balance of hardships between the parties tips sharply in favor of AWR. Finally, the public interest favors a preliminary injunction. We therefore REVERSE and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Go here to view the entire opinion.

Song Of The Day #370

Ranch Radio will close out Hank Week with the 1951 recording of Baby We're Really In Love by Hank Williams.

William's recordings are widely available, as you can see by going here.

Illegal immigrants leave tons of trash in Arizona desert, devastating environment

In 1971, the environmental organization Keep America Beautiful launched a Public Service Announcement featuring a crying Indian lamenting the litter that supposedly coated America’s landscape. If in the 1970s the crying Indian was tearing up over some Coke cans on the bank of a river, today he would be sobbing at the environmental devastation occurring on the U.S.-Mexico border due to illegal immigration. The Arizona Bureau of Land Management (BML) reports that in 2009 alone environmental groups collected over 234 tons of trash, 800 tires, 404 bicycles, and 62 vehicles left behind by illegals crossing the border. Special assistant for the Arizona BLM, Kathy Pedrick, told The Daily Caller that last year the agency spent over one million dollars of federal money just clearing the mess along the border. Pedrick’s colleague, deputy state director for communications, Deborah E. Stevens, told TheDC that the clean up crews are outnumbered. “The impact of the environmental pollution far exceeds the amount of clean up,” she said. “We cannot keep up with it. We distribute the work, but there is too much.” On Capitol Hill, Republican Congressmen are beginning to take notice. “Arizona is getting the brunt of the traffic now because it is so lax on the border security….The trash is a natural byproduct of the number of illegals who are coming in specifically with the purpose of human trafficking and drug smuggling,” Utah Republican Rep. Rob Bishop said in an interview with TheDC. “They [illegal immigrants] come with provisions that they will just drop along the way. So they will purposely leave everything behind and change clothing to go either up into Phoenix or further on north.” According to Bishop, “wilderness areas,” or land set aside for protection — which limits border patrol access to surveillance on foot or on horseback, and limits vehicle access to emergencies on approved roads — have actually compounded the environmental problem as less supervision allows for more border crossings and polluting residue...more

Some Mexican Drug Traffickers ‘Specialize’ in Smuggling Aliens From Countries With Ties to Terrorism Into the U.S.

Some Mexican drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs) are involved in smuggling potential terrorists across the southwestern border, according to the Government Accountability Office. “Aliens from countries of special interest to the United States such as Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan (known as special-interest aliens) also illegally enter the United States through the [southwest border] region,” Richard Stana, the GAO homeland security and justice issues director, said in a report on alien smuggling issued July 22. “These [drug trafficking] organizations collect fees from alien smuggling organizations for the use of specific smuggling routes, and available reporting indicates that some Mexican drug trafficking organizations specialize in smuggling special-interest aliens into the United States,” he added. Stana told CNSNews.com that the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center’s (NDIC) 2008 National Drug Threat Assessment and “other reports” corroborate his comments, although he did not elaborate on what other reports he was referring to. According to the 2008 NDIC: “Hundreds of undocumented aliens from special-interest countries illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border annually.” The drug-threat assessment echoed Stana, saying, “Mexican DTOs specialize in smuggling special-interest aliens into the United States.”...more

Decapitated Heads Found on Ice in Juarez

Authorities in Juarez made a horrific discovery.Mexican police found two human heads on top of buckets of ice. Their bodies were found nearby with a message claiming that the men were connected to a criminal gang. The heads were found at the same location of a double murder earlier this week...more

U.S. Closes Consulate in Juarez

The U.S. closed its consulate in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez on Thursday pending a security review, an unexpected decision that comes months after drug gangs killed three people tied to the consulate. The U.S. Embassy announced the consulate will "remain closed until the security review is completed" and said it would reschedule appointments for visa applications. The embassy did not say what prompted the review, and a spokesman said there would be no comment beyond the statement. A U.S. employee of the consulate, her husband and a Mexican tied to the consulate were killed March 13 when drug gang fired on their cars as they left a children's party in the city across from El Paso, Texas. The U.S. State Department has taken several measures over the past months to protect consulate employees and their families from surging violence along Mexico's border with the United States...more

Chilling effect: Violence silences Mexican media

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — Heavily armed troops patrol the city, combat erupts in the streets and mutilated bodies are dumped in parking lots, ditches and curbs. After years of relative calm, the gangland nightmare is back — and yet, barely a single mention of the clashes here has been made by local radio and television stations or newspapers. The city's journalists, having lost some of their own and seen their colleagues across the country killed or kidnapped, have been silenced for fear for their lives. "Nowhere is the media controlled more than it is here," said one reporter, who stressed he would face serious danger if identified. "There is total control." The extreme criminal violence flailing much of Mexico has returned to this rattled city on the Rio Grande where it started six years ago. Several journalists and residents say the media here have been cowed into silence by attacks and a barrage of death threats from the Zetas, the gangsters many consider the real lords of Nuevo Laredo...more

Joshua Rhett Miller, Fox News, Makes Huge Mistake On Border Security

Mr. Miller recently reported on S.1689, Senator Bingaman's bill which would designate over a quarter million acres of wilderness on or near our border with Mexico. In that report he stated:

"To address the border region's unique security challenges, they say, the legislation creates nearly three miles of non-wilderness buffer and an additional 2-mile "restricted use area" that would prohibit motor vehicle access by the public. But CBP agents will have access to conduct routine patrols and build surveillance infrastructure, as they would on regular multiple-use land. (Currently, the existing area provides CBP agents with one-third of a mile in which to perform their activities.)" Emphasis mine.

Miller seems to think the Border Patrol will have more access if the Bingaman bill passes. However, what he has written is not factual.

The lands under discussion are currently designated as Wilderness Study Areas (WSA). These areas are managed according to BLM's Interim Management Policy for Lands under Wilderness Review. That policy states, “existing facilities/uses which did not disqualify the area from wilderness inventory may remain.” The Border Patrol was regularly patrolling these areas before they were designated as WSAs and under the quoted policy continue to do so today.

So the Border Patrol currently has vehicular access to all of the lands, not to just "one-third of a mile" as Miller states.

If Bingaman's bill becomes law, the Border Patrol will have vehicular access to only 5 miles of territory, and will be denied vehicular access to 259,000 acres or 400 square miles.

The Border Patrol's ability to carry out it's mission will be drasticly reduced, not increased under the Bingaman proposal and Miller should correct his error.

Fox News has done an excellent job in reporting on how protected federal lands restrict the Border Patrol and threaten border security, so I was surprised to see this story by Miller which gives over twice the coverage to the proponents of wilderness as he does to those who seek a less restrictive designation (344 words to 160 words). I would have expected a more accurate and balanced report from Fox.

To really see what S. 1689 will do to border security and public safety, watch the short video The Perfect Drug Smuggling Corridor. There you will see the criteria for the perfect corridor (according to the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers) and how Bingaman's bill provides the final leg, much to New Mexico and our nation's detriment.

As Deaths Soar in the Desert, a Morgue Grows Crowded

The Pima County morgue is running out of space as the number of Latin American immigrants found dead in the deserts around Tucson has soared this year during a heat wave. The rise in deaths comes as Arizona is embroiled in a bitter legal battle over a new law intended to discourage illegal immigrants from settling here by making it a state crime for them to live or seek work. But the law has not kept the immigrants from trying to cross hundreds of miles of desert on foot in record-breaking heat. The bodies of 57 border crossers have been brought in during July so far, putting it on track to be the worst month for such deaths in the last five years. Since the first of the year, more than 150 people suspected of being illegal immigrants have been found dead, well above the 107 discovered during the same period in each of the last two years. The sudden spike in deaths has overwhelmed investigators and pathologists at the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office. Two weeks ago, Dr. Parks was forced to bring in a refrigerated truck to store the remains of two dozen people because the building’s two units were full. “We can store about 200 full-sized individuals, but we have over 300 people here now, and most of those are border crossers,” Dr. Parks said...more

And this is what they want to bring to NM?

Border Security Concerns Have Deputies Escorting Livestock Inspectors

David Martin and David Turning are livestock inspectors for the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, and every year for about three weeks, they travel around the state checking equipment on ranches. “The ranchers buy and sell across these scales so they need someone to certify them and that's what our department does,” said Turning. However checking scales is not all that's being inspected this year. “We're basically looking for anything that's out of the ordinary, make sure there's nobody out here,” said Deputy Trini Garcia of the Luna County Sheriff’s Office. Trini and Deputy David Justice of the Hildago County Sheriff’s Office were assigned to escort the inspectors Wednesday for security purposes. Turning said they've been denied law enforcement escorts in the past, but since violence along the border has risen, their wish has finally come true. “It allows us to do what we need to do and just check the scale and we're on to the next one,” said Turning. Law enforcement officials said since it's too difficult smuggling humans or drugs at major ports of entries, that's why there's an increase of traffic along the rural areas of the border. “This would be a perfect pickup point to leave your drugs and have someone drive through it and continue on,” said Justice...more

“This would be a perfect pickup point to leave your drugs and have someone drive through it and continue on,” said Justice.

Is our Congressional Delegation listening?

Bear attack in Montana leaves 1 dead, 2 injured

When he heard the first scream in a campground outside Yellowstone National Park, Don Wilhelm thought it was just teenagers, maybe a domestic dispute in the middlle of the night. The wildlife biologist from Texas tried to go back to sleep, stifling thoughts that a beast might be lurking outside his family's tent. Minutes later, another scream — this one coming from the next campsite over, where a bear had torn through a tent and sunk its teeth into the arm of the middle-aged Canadian woman inside. "First she said, "No!' Then we heard her say, 'It's a bear! I've been attacked by a bear!" said Wilhelm's wife, Paige. By that point, the bear already had ripped into another tent a few campsites away, chomping into the leg of a teenager who had been sleeping with his family. Wilhelm later would find out that a solo camper at the other end of the heavily occupied Soda Butte Campground had been killed in a rampage Wednesday that one wildlife officials described as the most brazen bear attack in the Yellowstone area since the 1980s. "It was like a nightmare, couldn't possibly happen," Paige Wilhelm said later. Added Don Wilhelm: "Words cannot describe what it's like to hear someone attacked by a bear." Wildlife officials still were attempting to capture the bear — or bears — late Wednesday evening, with five baited traps set up at the scene of the maulings...more

Judge Rejects Forest Service’s Plan on Fire Retardant

A federal judge has ruled that the federal Forest Service’s plan for using fire retardant to fight wildfires violates the law because it does not ensure protections for threatened and endangered species of fish and other animals. Dropped from airplanes and helicopters, reddish clouds of retardant are often the most visible tool used to fight wildfires, particularly in rugged areas of the West. Yet chemicals in the most common retardants can hurt wildlife, particularly when they miss their mark. In some cases, large numbers of fish have been killed when retardant has been dropped into lakes and streams. The plan encourages pilots not to drop retardant within 300 feet of a body of water, but it allows for exceptions if flying conditions require it or if lives or property are in danger. Late Tuesday, the judge, Donald W. Molloy of Federal District Court in Montana, ordered the Forest Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to conduct more rigorous environmental reviews of the ways retardant affects wildlife and to place more specific restrictions on how it is used. Judge Molloy did not halt the use of retardant but said he would consider doing so if new procedures were not in place by the end of 2011. “The issue requires immediate attention,” the judge wrote...more

CBD petition seeks protection for 2 plants in Cochise County

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition Wednesday under the Endangered Species Act, seeking protection for two Arizona plants. The center says the plants' numbers are withering due to mining, recreation, climate change, and, more predominantly, collection and cattle grazing. The petitioners render the need for federal protection for the Bartram stonecrop and the beardless chinch weed "unquestionable" and go on to explain that the decision to provide assistance for these rare plants should have been made 30 years ago. Though the petition originally started with the proposition to build the Rosemont open-pit mine near the Santa Rita Mountains, it also claims that the Forest Service and cattle ranchers are culpable. Both plants grow in what the biologists refer to as the Sky Islands in the Atascosa, Baboquivari, Chiricahua, Dragoon, Huachuca, Mule, Patagonia, Rincon, Santa Rita and Tumacacori mountains and Canelo Hills in Cochise, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties...more

Audit finds agencies fail to identify, repatriate Native American remains

A yearlong audit released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office said no federal agencies with significant historical collections of Native American remains or associated sacred objects are in full compliance with a law mandating documentation and repatriation of the remains, despite passage of the act nearly 20 years ago. Since the early 1800s, federal agencies have amassed archaeological collections numbering in the millions, with the Department of Interior having an estimated 146 million objects relevant to archaeology and other disciplines such as zoology and art. Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, agencies such as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service are required to identify the items covered under its provisions, establish cultural affiliations whenever possible, publish required notices and repatriate the items to the tribes...more

Whoop it up for the West

Anyone who thinks art galleries are strictly for well-heeled snobs is in for a few surprises Saturday at Go West Day. The western-themed event at the Bakersfield Museum of Art has everything from ropin' and ridin' to telling tall tales, with sack races, a square dance and a whole lot of country music thrown in for everyone's pleasure. Oh, and you might walk away with a new guitar, or a trip for the family -- just two prizes of the many that will be given away. The price of admission? Just $1. Beth Pandol, marketing director, said the community-oriented program is something she and David Gordon, assistant museum director, have wanted to do for some time. The current Best of the West art exhibit presented the ideal opportunity...more

USA - Smallest cattle herd in 37 years

The U.S. beef-cow herd on July 1 was the smallest in at least 37 years as farmers remained wary of beef demand during the economic recovery after losing money in the past two years. The beef-breeding herd totaled 31.7 million head as the month began, down 1.6 percent from 32.2 million a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a semiannual report. That marked the fewest cows for the date since at least 1973, said Ron Plain, a livestock economist at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Six analysts in a Bloomberg News survey expected a 1.4 percent drop, on average. Cattle producers may make about $51.53 per cow this year, after losses in 2009 and 2008 because of high feed costs and declining beef demand, said Erica Rosa, an economist at the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver. Uncertainty about economic recovery may be keeping ranchers from expanding herds, she said. “Overall, cow-calf producers continue to reduce herd numbers, rather than expand by retaining heifers,” Rosa said by e-mail. “Although calf and feeder-cattle prices are higher than 2009, input/production costs still remain high and there is still quite a bit of uncertainty currently and about the future.” The overall U.S. beef and dairy herd totaled 100.8 million head at the start of July, down 1.2 percent from a year earlier, according to today’s USDA report. That also marked the smallest size for July since at least 1973, Missouri’s Plain said. The USDA’s estimate matched analysts’ expectations before the report...more

Rancher trampled by 1,200-pound water buffalo in Carver

Two 1,200-pound water buffaloes trampled a 50-year-old man in Carver July 22. The rancher's name has not been released, but the incident occurred on local businessman Terry Emmert's ranch just after 9 a.m. The unidentified ranch worker had loaded the buffaloes into a truck for transport from the 15000 block of S. Springwater Road in the Carver area, but the animals decided that they wanted out of the truck. Before he could get the door latched, the animals charged out, knocking him to the ground and trampling him. After sustaining injuries to his legs, he remained alert and in good humor throughout the incident, according to Clackamas Fire District #1 personnel. Paramedics on scene decided that due to the extent of his injuries and possible internal injuries that he should be flown by Lifeflight to OHSU, where he will be evaluated...more

Police shoot rampaging pregnant at Ca. State Fair

In the second bizarre incident at the State Fair in a week, Cal Expo police shot an agitated, pregnant dairy cow that twice escaped her confines and knocked over an officer as she bolted through the fairgrounds Tuesday morning. Neither the cow nor her calf survived the shooting, which occurred an hour before gates opened to the public. Ultimately, the roughly 1,200-pound cow became a threat to thousands of employees already abuzz in the fairgrounds, police and veterinary officials said. They agreed she had to be put down after a 1 1/2-hour chase. "Obviously, we're in a caring profession and the last thing we want to do is see an animal euthanized," said W. David Wilson, director of the veterinary medical teaching hospital at the University of California, Davis, which oversaw the care of the cow. However, he added, "A very difficult choice had to be made."...more

Now I'm not opposed to shooting a bovine if necessary to protect the public. Read the article though and you will see this was gunsel city for sure. One good mounted cowboy could have handled it, no shooting needed.

Now That´s Rural Warren Weibert - Decatur County Feedyard

What happens when cattle meet computers? That sounds like one of my kid´s riddles. Actually, it could be a way of describing a scientific process for evaluating and managing cattle that is being used by an innovative beef feedyard in rural northwest Kansas. It´s the subject of today´s Kansas Profile. Warren Weibert is owner and general manager of Decatur County Feed Yard near Oberlin, Kan. He is the innovator who is utilizing this high-tech management system. Oberlin is a town of 1,955 people. That´s rural - but there´s more. Warren actually grew up near Durham, Kansas, population 114 people. Now, that´s rural. After growing up at Durham, Warren went to K-State and then into a business management career. He married Carol who is originally from Oberlin. In 1971, some 45 local investors around Oberlin went together to create a cattle feedlot known as Decatur County Feed Yard. In 1977, Carol Weibert´s father bought the feedyard and invited Warren and Carol to come back to Oberlin to manage it, which they did. Warren and Carol now make their home in Manhattan. The feedyard expanded through the years and now has a capacity of 40,000 head. During the 1980s, Warren set out to work more closely with the ranchers who supplied cattle to be finished at the feedyard. He and the ranchers were seeking to get more data to add value to the cattle...more

Heavy lifting is all in a day's work for Jose Luis Arrieta

Jose Luis Arrieta has a simple explanation for how he got so strong. "Hard work seven days a week," he said. The results made him locally famous. In his prime, he held U.S. records in Basque weightlifting. Weightlifting has been a popular rural sport in the Basque Country of northern Spain and western France for generations. Its roots are in the traditional Basque agrarian culture. Over time, a variety of weightlifting events emerged: anvil lifting, hay-bale lifting, weight carrying and others. An event in which Arrieta especially excelled was stone lifting, in which stones or cement blocks are lifted repeatedly, ending with the stone balanced on the weight lifter's shoulder. Arrieta broke the U.S. record in 1978. He lifted a 308-pound weight 13 times and 11 times during two separate three-minute time slots. "He was really, really, really strong," longtime Idaho Secretary of State and Basque sheep rancher Pete Cenarrusa said. Arrieta was 18 when he came to the United States from the old country and went to work for Jessie Little of the Emmett-based Little family sheep empire. He later oversaw sheep-ranching operations for Brad Little, now Idaho's lieutenant governor, then spent eight years doing the same job for a rancher to whom Little sold his sheep. Now 69, Arrieta retired this year...more