Sheriff Unger Abdicates Law Enforcement Duties to BLM; Armed BLM Bureaucrats Bulldoze Wilson’s Ranch

(Austin, NV) Tuesday, a private inspection of Dalton Wilson’s Grass Valley ranch with a sheriff’s escort revealed RS 2477 roads which were blocked by BLM employees, and that the BLM had bulldozed Wilson’s 100 year-old ranch and home.

Wilson has been in a David and Goliath battle with the BLM and Lander County to quiet title on 80 of 160 acres of what is known as the Brackney Ranch. The BLM sought Wilson’s forcible removal by charging him several years ago with criminal trespass. Wilson said, “I would be in jail right now”, if he hadn’t been acquitted by then Federal District Judge Sandoval, now running for Governor.

The BLM, not satisfied with Sandoval’s acquittal, charged Wilson again, this time with civil trespass raising the issue of double jeopardy. The new federal Judge, Edward C. Reed, rather than hearing the facts of the case, without allowing a single appearance by Wilson, issued what is tantamount to an edict from the bench ordering the removal of Wilson from his property. Wilson appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which granted a stay until the issues were resolved by the lower court and a final order issued. This stay was ignored by Judge Reed, the BLM, District Attorney Hy Forgeron, and Unger.

“In order to deprive anybody of life, liberty or property in this country, there has to be due process of law and that is what is lacking in this situation. There has been no final judgment, no mandatory abstract of judgment filed in the state, and there has been no writ of execution issued. Nobody is above the law, especially public officials,” remarked Ramona Morrison, Director, Nevada Live Stock Association.”

Morrison, who spoke with Unger Tuesday remarked, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse, especially when one has been entrusted to enforce it. The sheriff claims he was unaware of the stay. However, it is hard to believe he was unaware of Chapter 31 of the Nevada Revised Statutes which mentions the word “sheriff” 145 times, and specifically outlines his duties as sheriff to be present to enforce a writ of execution when property is confiscated.”

Unger was not present during the BLM raid to ensure there was a proper writ, to prevent the unlawful closure of the roads in Grass Valley, or to ensure the peace. “The same Federal Land Management and Policy Act of 1976 under which Wilson was charged with trespass not only protects preexisting rights owned by Wilson but specifically reserves civil and criminal jurisdiction and police power to the states. As a Nevada rancher who is runs cattle on BLM managed lands, I am concerned that Unger believes he is not responsible for keeping the peace on those lands, which is virtually all of Lander County, as state and federal law requires. We’ve had similar experiences with the Battle Mountain BLM office pertaining to preexisting rights. The sheriff’s job is to protect our Constitutional rights, they’ve sworn an oath to do so and they need to be held accountable,” remarked Mike Stremler, NLSA Director.

Wilson, an NLSA Director, who was denied access to his home during the raid, was deprived of his heart medication. He is now in an Ely hospital recovering from congestive heart failure.

“If Unger can ambivalently stand by, in a clear dereliction of duty, while Wilson’s property, livelihood and health are destroyed maybe it’s time for the citizens of Lander County to rethink Unger’s livelihood on the public taxpayer,” commented Don Alt, NLSA Chairman.
# # # # #

9732 State Route 445, #305 ž Sparks, Nevada 89436 ž 775.577.9048
Order and Mandate available upon request.
Contact: Dalton Wilson, 775.934.2281
Don Alt, 775.577.9048
Mike Stremler, 775.635.5445
Ramona Morrison 775.722.2517

Press Release from the NLSA

Judge says seizure of ND rancher's cattle improper

A judge has ruled that law officers improperly seized the cattle of a McLean County rancher, saying the officers failed to prove their allegations that the livestock hadn't been properly fed or watered. The sheriff's department seized 258 cows, calves and bulls from Layton Reynolds of Douglas on Friday. State's Attorney Ladd Erickson said in an affidavit that the cattle kept getting into neighbors' fields because there wasn't enough feed in the pasture where they were held. Authorities testified during a hearing Monday that the pasture was overloaded with cattle, there was no grass for the animals to eat and the cattle had been jumping or squeezing out of the pasture all summer to feed on neighbors' fields and yards. Reynolds testified that the pasture from which the cattle were seized was a holding pasture, and he intended to move the animals to another grassy pasture after he completed fence repairs. His attorney, Jason Vendsel, argued that the state had failed to show the animals had not been properly fed or watered. Judge David Reich agreed with Vendsel in a ruling late Tuesday, according to the Bismarck Tribune. "Based upon testimony and evidence ... the state failed to prove that the cattle seized were not properly fed," Reich wrote. The cattle were removed from the auction block at a Mandan sales barn Wednesday. Erickson said their future was unclear because a bank has a lien on them. Reynolds still faces eight misdemeanor charges in three cases filed last year related to allegations that he allowed cattle to run loose and that he neglected animals. The first two cases are slated for trial in November. AP

'Fire them all,' Says R-CALF Chief

Max Thornsberry, the veterinarian who is president of the Billings, MT-based Rancher-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF, USA) Tuesday called upon BEEF magazine, Drovers, and Beef Today to fire editors and a writer for being "disparaging and immensely disrespectful" to those who want "marketplace enforcement by USDA." The three editors coming in for Thornsberry's wrath are BEEF magazine's Joe Roybal, Beef Today's Steve Cornett, and Drovers' Greg Henderson. Cornett and Henderson should be fired for what they wrote, the R-CALF chief opined. Roybal should be fired for publishing what Troy Marshall wrote. None of them is going to be fired or fall on their swords anytime soon. Roybal told Food Safety News "Troy Marshall's thoughts and those of the BEEF editorial staff are in harmony with what the vast majority of BEEF readership thinks." An online poll at www.beefmagazine.com shows 80 percent of 750 respondents thus far believe the proposed USDA Grain Inspection, Packers, and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) rule is negative for the U.S. beef industry. Roybal said Marshall has provided BEEF readers with "great insight" in reporting on GIPSA Administrator J. Dudley Butler's prediction that the new rules will "open the floodgates" to litigation in the U.S. beef industry, and on R-CALF founder Pat Goggins' opinion that the rules would be "a devastating blow" to the freedom of U.S. cattlemen...more

Rodeo entertainer aims to motivate kids

Duane Reichert is an unassuming guy. Always has been, according to him. But that changes once he puts his makeup on. For more than 40 years, Reichert has been a rodeo clown, a bullfighter and a barrelman, which comes as quite a surprise to people who ask him what he does. “I’m used to it,” he said about people’s reactions to his profession. A lot of times, he simply says he is a rodeo entertainer. Reichert started clowning when he was a senior in high school and fell in love with it. “I loved both the cowboy protection and the crowds and went from there,” he said. He has worked in 42 states, four Canadian provinces and at nine circuit-finals rodeos in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. He has been a barrelman at the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo and has worked in three National Finals Rodeo openings. Reichert is on the Contract Personnel Executive Council of the PRCA, the National Finals Rodeo Committee and the National PRCA Convention Committee. This will be the fifth year he has returned to the Denver National Western Stock Show, where he is the lead entertainer for the school tours. He speaks to thousands of children and adults each day of the stock show. For the past 20 years, school kids have gotten to know Reichert through his Backstage with a Rodeo Clown program, where he talks to kids about making the right choices in life. He developed that program after his sister-in-law, Sandy Deering, invited him to speak to children in the Douglas School System, where she taught...more

Song Of The Day #396

Ranch Radio continues with our country/bluegrass mix as they used to be played on country radio stations. Today's artists are Hank Snow and Mac Wiseman performing The Engineer's Child, Remembering, Golden Rocket and Crazy Blues.

Signs on Arizona interstate hwy. warn of smuggler dangers

The federal government has posted signs along a major interstate highway in Arizona, more than 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and a local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state. The signs were posted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) along a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend, a major east-west corridor linking Tucson and Phoenix with San Diego. They warn travelers that they are entering an "active drug and human smuggling area" and they may encounter "armed criminals and smuggling vehicles traveling at high rates of speed." Beginning less than 50 miles south of Phoenix, the signs encourage travelers to "use public lands north of Interstate 8" and to call 911 if they "see suspicious activity." Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county lies at the center of major drug and alien smuggling routes to Phoenix and cities east and west, attests to the violence. He said his deputies are outmanned and outgunned by drug traffickers in the rough-hewn desert stretches of his own county. "Mexican drug cartels literally do control parts of Arizona," he said. "They literally have scouts on the high points in the mountains and in the hills and they literally control movement. They have radios, they have optics, they have night-vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has. "This is going on here in Arizona," he said. "This is 70 to 80 miles from the border - 30 miles from the fifth-largest city in the United States."...more

Kane County Wins First RS 2477 Road

Kane County has achieved what is believed to be the first concession in Utah of the federal government agreeing to grant rights-of-way to a disputed road that crosses federal land. The court stipulated change allows the county to assert control and access over 27 miles of the 33-mile Skutumpah road, a road leading to Cannonville within boundaries of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The victory comes as a result of a stipulation made by Department of Justice attorneys that could pave the way to resolve such disputes through negotiation, rather than litigation. State Representative Mike Noel (R-Kanab) said this shows that the process can b simple and easy if the federal government cooperates in cases like these where you have roads that are easily determined to be the roads used and maintained within the county. RS 2477 public highway rights-of-way were granted to states and counties from 1866 to 1976 to facilitate the settlement of the West. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 repealed the statute but established "RS 2477" roads were grandfathered as valid existing rights-of-way...more

Defenders of Wildlife ends wolf predation payments

A conservation group is ending its program to compensate ranchers for livestock killed by wolves, prompting criticism from Idaho officials including Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter. The program by The Defenders of Wildlife has paid out more than $1.4 million for losses from wolves and grizzly bears since it began in 1987. In a letter this month to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, group president Roger Schlickeisen said the group originally planned to compensate ranchers for livestock losses to wolves until state, federal or tribal programs took its place. "We've honored that commitment and have continued to pay compensation across the Northern Rockies and Southwest," he said. Now that the federal government has created a wolf predation compensation program, Defenders of Wildlife is phasing out its predation payments in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, Arizona and New Mexico. The Idaho Statesman reports that the group hopes to spend the money on its programs aimed at helping ranchers better prevent wolf predation in the first place. Idaho Department of Fish and Game Director Cal Groen said Monday he remembers a different promise - to pay ranchers until wolves were no longer protected at all - and that the group was backing out of a commitment it made when wolves were reintroduced to Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in 1995. "I think we have a major credibility problem," Groen said. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter accused the group of being disingenuous. "Not only did the Defenders of Wildlife sue to overturn delisting and oppose state management, the group now has announced it will break one of its original promises devised to increase public acceptance of this species that was forced upon us by the federal government," Otter wrote in a statement distributed Tuesday. "The Endangered Species Act does not work and won't work as long as promises are broken."...more

Delays plague solar energy on fed lands

Not a light bulb's worth of solar electricity has been produced on the millions of acres of public desert set aside for it. Not one project to build glimmering solar farms has even broken ground. Instead, five years after federal land managers opened up stretches of the Southwest to developers, vast tracts still sit idle. An Associated Press examination of U.S. Bureau of Land Management records and interviews with agency officials shows that the BLM operated a first-come, first-served leasing system that quickly overwhelmed its small staff and enabled companies, regardless of solar industry experience, to squat on land without any real plans to develop it. At a time when the nation drills ever deeper for oil off its shores even as it tries to diversify its energy supply, the federal government has, so far, failed to use the land it already has — some of the world's best for solar — to produce renewable electricity. Congress in 2005 gave the Interior Department a deadline: approve 10,000 megawatts, or about five million homes' worth during peak hours, of renewable energy on public lands by 2015. Reaching that goal was left to the BLM, which oversees federal land and knows oil, gas and mining leases but is new to solar...more

Burning Man fans say cops too heavy-handed

David Levin represents entrepreneurs, investors and developers in his legal practice. As an aside, he's a Burning Man barrister — offering free legal advice to those who run afoul of the law at the annual counterculture festival on the Nevada desert. The Palo Alto, Calif., attorney maintains law enforcement has become so heavy-handed at the eclectic art and music gathering that he was compelled to form a legal defense team known as Lawyers for Burners to help participants who were cited or arrested. He and other Burning Man fans accuse overzealous officers of destroying the quality of an otherwise peaceful celebration of radical self-expression to be held Monday through Sept. 6. Some 50,000 people are expected to gawk at offbeat artwork, wear bizarre costumes or nothing at all and torch the event's 40-foot signature effigy on the Black Rock Desert, about 110 miles north of Reno. Among other issues, Levin said, female undercover agents in costume have asked male Burners for drugs, drug-sniffing dogs and their handlers have roamed camps, and armed officers have "snooped" on revelers at dances. Last year, almost 300 Burners were cited or arrested by federal officers "It's a police state out there," Levin said. "There's very little criminal activity at the event, but they cite and arrest people in order to justify their existence." Officials from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Pershing County Sheriff's Department cite a new study by U.S. Park Police that concludes an even larger police presence is needed. The two agencies plan to have 80 officers at this year's event — far below the 144 recommended in the Park Police report...more

Environmental groups face their future in climate-change debate

On Thursday, some of the country's most respected environmental groups - in the midst of their biggest political fight in two decades - sent a group of activists to Milwaukee with a message. We're losing. They put on what they called a "CarnivOil" - a fake carnival with a stilt-wearing barker, free "tar balls" (chocolate doughnuts), and a suit-wearing "oil executive" punching somebody dressed like a crab. It was supposed to be satire, but there was a bitter message underneath: When we fight the oil and gas industry, they win. A year ago, these groups seemed to be at the peak of their influence, needing only the Senate's approval for a landmark climate-change bill. But they lost that fight, done in by the sluggish economy and opposition from business and fossil-fuel interests. Now the groups are wondering how they can keep this loss from becoming a rout as their opponents press their advantage and try to undo the Obama administration's climate efforts. At two events last week in Wisconsin, environmental groups seemed to be trying two strategies: defiance and pleading for sympathy. Neither one drew enough people to fill a high school gym...more

Cool-Down Phase

America's media are largely uninterested in what a scientific association is saying about the United Nations' climate change panel. Which tells you that the findings are, indeed, worth knowing. The InterAcademy Council, an Amsterdam-based association of the world's top national science academies, reported Monday the results of its review of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Its criticism of the IPCC, held up as the divine and inerrant voice on climate change, irrevocably tarnishes the panel's credibility and weakens the case for man-made global warming. While the Inter-Academy Council did not "redo the science," as its chairman said, it did scrutinize IPCC practices and methodologies and recommended a "fundamental reform" of its management structure. IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri, whose resignation we've called for, dismissed the council's findings, saying "the scientific community agrees that climate change is real." We dismiss his comments as those from someone struggling to hang on to a cushy position from which he can continue to enrich himself through, as reported by Britain's Telegraph, his interests in "banks, universities and other institutions that benefit from the vast worldwide industry now based on measures to halt climate change." Rather than react arrogantly, Pachauri should be fully focused on the "two kinds of errors" the council found in the IPCC's work...more

Helicopters to remove $1M worth of pot plants from Forest Service land Wednesday

Officials are planning to use a helicopter Wednesday to remove thousands of marijuana plants -- worth more than $1 million -- found over the past two days on public land in the mountains west of Lyons. SWAT officers with Boulder County and Longmont police returned Tuesday to the remote national forest area near the towns of Raymond and Riverside, where they had found 3,500 marijuana plants worth $500,000 on Monday. They discovered an even larger stretch of 4,000 marijuana plants, said Boulder County Sheriff's Cmdr. Rick Brough. Officers spent much of Tuesday pulling up plants at the second site, which covered about five acres, he said. Authorities left the scene just before dark Tuesday and planned to return early Wednesday to fly out the uprooted plants using cargo nets and two helicopters supplied by the Colorado National Guard, Brough said. Officers found the first set of plants Monday and launched a massive search for a man "known to be heavily armed" who was suspected of being involved in the illegal growing operation. SWAT teams didn't find the suspect -- described as a 5-foot-6 Hispanic man weighing about 150 pounds -- on Monday or Tuesday, but officers discovered evidence that multiple people are involved in the operation, according to Brough...more

Cloned cattle crowned Iowa State Fair champs

In a way one Siouxland Steer took a top prize at the Iowa State Fair, not once but twice. Their names? Wade... and Doc. You can bet these cloned cattle have many seeing double. This is Wade, the 2008 Iowa State Fair Champion Steer. This is Doc, the 2010 Iowa Champion Steer. Look familiar? Well they should, that's because Doc is a Wade's Clone. "It may sound like science fiction to outside parties but to those in the cattle barn it's really a common occurrence," says Dr. Faber. Dr. David Faber a veterinarian by education, bought Wade for his son at a farm like this a few years ago. Faber liked the steer so much he wanted another, so he just made one. "We decided he was a high quality animal that we wanted a genetic copy of," says Dr. Faber. "Now none of these animals are clones but if a farmer wanted they could be all they'd need to do is take a cell sample from their ear," says Forrest. From there the cattle DNA is extracted from the cell, placed in a embryo, and fertilized. It can be a bit costly at about 17 grand a piece, but you'll still have the genetic reserves if you decide to clone again. "We produce a cell line that has cells that are genetically identical to the elite animal and they can use that cell line repeatedly in the years to come," says Broek...more

Rancher rides herd on effort to name border collie the Oregon state dog

Passing through Oregon cattle country, you see a lot of four-legged companions working with the ranchers. No, not horses -- cattle dogs, many of them border collies. Prized for their intelligence, agility and herding instincts, border collies are a big part of everyday life here and have been for a long time. The connection between rural Oregon and these dogs is so profound, one man has embarked on a campaign to have the border collie declared Oregon's state dog, which means the border collie could join the American beaver, the chinook salmon, the Western meadowlark and the Oregon swallowtail as an official state animal by early next year...more

Colorado ranch horse mutilation investigated (video)

Two horses found mutilated August 11, 2010, by their ranch owners in Rush, Colorado, were investigated by Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Field Investigator Chuck Zukowski. Two other ranch animals who apparently survived the attacks - a dog and another horse - were found with "unknown marks." A high "electro-magnetic field reading" was measured on the dog. The rancher's wife reports unusual sounds two days prior to the discovered mutilations. Zukowski produced a video about the events and his investigation there - including an interview with the rancher's wife...more

Here is the video:

It's All Trew: 'The Farmers' Almanac' a good guide for life

Among my early memories as a boy was watching my parents and grandparents consult "The Farmers' Almanac" before commencing any serious work. Whether planting crops, working livestock, planning farm work, going fishing or even going to the doctor, out came the almanac for study. Why was this effort important? Because its predictions and advice were almost always right, and if you did not adhere, you probably paid the price. Another publication that was consulted without fail was the feed store calendar that hung on the wall by the crank telephone. This displayed the signs of the moon, any notations of things in the past, such as the date the milk cow was bred, financial obligations to be paid and bills already paid. Research shows that Robert B. Thomas designed the first edition of "The Farmers' Almanac" in 1792, for publishing in the early spring of 1793, during the term of George Washington, our first president. This is the longest publishing tenure in American history. As a reminder of the respect awarded to the originator, Robert B. Thomas, none of the 11 editors since that time have added their names to the book. It is still under his name...more

Song Of The Day #395

Today Ranch Radio features Cowboy Copas doing the country and Jimmy Martin & The Sunny Mtn. Boys doing the bluegrass.

Alaska Sen. Murkowski concedes primary

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) conceded her primary race Tuesday night after she failed to close the gap on attorney Joe Miller in the ongoing vote-counting process. Murkowski gained just 38 votes on Tuesday, coming up well shy of what she needed to win her party's nomination. With new votes tallied across the state, Murkowski cut her deficit early on, but by the end of the day she still trailed Miller by 1,630 votes with approximately 15,000 more ballots counted. Another 10,000 or so are to be counted later. By conceding, Murkowski becomes the third incumbent senator to lose re-nomination this year and the second to lose a primary. Miller enters the general election as a strong favorite to succeed Murkowski. He faces underfunded Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams (D). A GOP poll this week showed Miller leading McAdams 52 percent to 36 percent...more

PRV Positive Feral Hogs in Eddy County

Our Wildlife Disease Biologist, Justin Stevenson, reported this today.

We have a positive feral hog PRV (pseudorabies) sample from Eddy County. This disease is not a human health concern but is the one that will kill cattle, sheep, canines and other carnivores if they are exposed to it. It can live in water on feed and in the air for a certain length of time making it a bad one. It doesn't usually kill feral hogs that are infected with it but will kill domestic swine exposed to it.

This is the second county with PRV we've found. Seven feral hogs, all from the same area in Quay county, tested positive for PRV last fall.

Questions should be directed to Justin at 505-346-2640.

Alan May
State Director
USDA/APHIS/WS
8441 Washington St. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87113
505-346-2640

Independent Audit Panel Slams U.N.'s Climate Group

Acknowledging flaws in its reports and growing public skepticism toward the theory of manmade global warming, the United Nations hired an independent review panel in March to audit its climate-science arm. The group found plenty of problems. The InterAcademy Council, an independent group of scientists representing agencies from around the world, presented the findings of its five-month investigation Monday morning at the United Nations. The group took issue with the structure, methods and leadership of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- the group responsible for a 2007 report that erroneously forecast the imminent melting of Himalayan glaciers, the rate of melt of polar ice caps and dwindling Amazon rainforests. "The IPCC has raised public awareness of climate change, and driven policymakers," said Harold Shapiro, chair of the IAC Committee to Review IPCC and former president of Princeton University. But the controversies that have erupted, and revelations of errors, have put the group under the microscope. "We recommend some significant reforms," he told the U.N..."We found in the summary for policymakers that there were two kinds of errors that came up -- one is the kind where they place high confidence in something where there is very little evidence. The other is the kind where you make a statement … with no substantive value, in our judgment."...more

Corny Capitalism

Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency issued another one of those announcements read exclusively by government bureaucrats and green policy wonks. The EPA decided to delay a decision to increase the concentration of ethanol legal in gasoline from 10% to 15%. So-called E15 fuel would have to wait for approval until November. It was a little-read regulatory decision that barely made a splash in the media. But it was also a rock thrown at Washington's hornets' nest of food and agricultural lobbyists. "We are disappointed," warned food giant Archer Daniels Midland. "We find this further delay unacceptable" and a "dereliction of duty," harrumphed ethanol lobbying group Growth Energy. By delaying the decision, the EPA punted on a crucial decision. The pressure brought to bear against the agency by the agriculture industry has been incredible. It's also been applied well; the EPA will most likely still approve E15 fuel in the fall. That's bad news for any American who likes to drive. In a country powered by the automobile, E15 is an enormous question mark. Since the 1970s when ethanol was first regulated by the feds, concentrations of alcohol in fuel above 10% have been illegal. But the government, lost in a dream world where cars can run on corn, has tied itself in regulatory knots trying to force ethanol into the fuel supply. The history of ethanol is a sad torrid affair of crony capitalism and green fantasies. By jumping in bed with the agriculture industry and blindly slapping on new regulations, the government artificially propped up an industry and put itself in a bind from which there may be no return...more

Obama administration sides with utilities in Supreme Court case about climate change

The Obama administration sided with major utility companies in a Supreme Court case about climate change on Thursday, angering environmentalists who say that the administration's broad argument could hurt their ability to force reductions in greenhouse gas emissions or even to bring other lawsuits. Administration officials said the Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory moves to restrain carbon dioxide emissions made the lawsuit unnecessary, and the acting solicitor general asked the Supreme Court to return the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. But environmentalists said that the administration had talked about - but not imposed - limits on emissions from existing power plants. Moreover, environmental groups said, the government's brief went beyond that, employing arguments that threatened to undercut a basis for legal action that have been used for a century, since Georgia sued over damage a Tennessee copper smelter was inflicting on Georgia's forests. "We're very angry and very disappointed that they would take this tack," said David Doniger, policy director of the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council...more

Wyoming officials not inclined to act on wolves

Wyoming remains committed to classifying gray wolves as predators that can be shot on sight across most of the state despite complaints that its position will stop hunting seasons in neighboring Idaho and Montana. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula, Mont., early this month rejected the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s move to turn over wolf management to Idaho and Montana while leaving them listed as an endangered species in Wyoming. Molloy’s decision blocks wolf hunts that Idaho and Montana had planned for this fall. And ironically, Molloy’s decision also effectively leaves Wyoming — whose wolf management plan the judge excoriated two years ago — in the position of controlling wolf management in the entire Northern Rockies, at least for now. Wyoming has stubbornly opposed the federal wolf reintroduction effort since it began at Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s. Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a popular Democrat now in the final months of his second and final term, said this week that Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter haven’t bothered to ask him whether Wyoming intends to reconsider. “It may be that they’ve known me long enough that I’m not going to change my position,” Freudenthal said of the other governors...more

Public can access documents detailing chemicals used in Wyoming drilling operations

Despite vigorous opposition from industry, it appears state regulators and the general public will have broad access to documents detailing chemicals used in oil and gas drilling, hydraulic fracturing and other drilling operations. Wyoming is set to implement new rules forcing the oil and gas industry to reveal such information beginning Sept. 15. While the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission doesn't plan to make special efforts to compile and present the information to the public, agency officials say the information will be readily available. Operators must disclose the information within regular permitting, sundry and other documentation they submit to the agency. The documentation is listed on a well-by-well basis on the commission's website (wogcc.state.wy.us). Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process used to crack open rock and shale deep underground to stimulate the flow of hydrocarbons. The process is credited for vastly increasing America's potential natural gas reserve -- by as much as 35 percent in recent years. But fracking has also come under scrutiny in the Rockies and particularly in the eastern United States, for fear the process could contaminate drinking water supplies. Many different chemicals can be used in fracking, and the industry insisted it didn't have to disclose individual recipes because companies considered those proprietary...more

BLM proposes National Academy of Sciences Study on Wild Horse & Burro Program

Following a request by dozens of members of Congress, the Bureau of Land Management has asked the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council (NAS/NRC) to make an independent technical review of the Wild Horse & Burro Program to ensure that the BLM is using the best science available in managing wild horses and burros on Western rangelands. The request comes in the wake of criticism from animal rights groups who also have filed federal injunctions to try to stop horse and burro roundups in California and Nevada, as Lake County News has reported. Earlier this month, the Animal Welfare Institute also called on Congress to take swift and decisive action “to prevent the BLM from 'managing' our nation's wild horses into extinction.” That call followed a bipartisan letter, signed by 52 members of Congress in late July to Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, calling for a National Academy of Sciences study...more

A nice dodge - gets the politicians past this election cycle.

Inspectors: Egg farms in recall unsanitary

Federal investigators found piles of manure up to eight feet tall, live mice, pigeons and other birds inside the hen houses at two egg farms suspected of causing a nationwide outbreak of salmonella illness, officials said Monday. Investigators made public their observations of Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, two massive egg producers who have recalled nearly 500 million eggs since Aug. 13. During their inspection of the two Iowa farms in the past two weeks, FDA investigators have documented multiple unsanitary conditions that may have caused eggs to be contaminated. They found dead maggots and live flies that crunched under foot at Wright County Egg, where the FDA also documented a hen house bulging from manure. Investigators made numerous observations about holes in buildings or gaps in structures, which can allow rodents, pigeons and other animals to enter hen houses. On several occasions, investigators saw live rodents running through hen houses at both farms...more

Song Of The Day #394

In the 40s, 50s and some cases into the 60s country music stations played bluegrass music right alongside country. Ranch Radio will try to re-create that sound for the rest of the week.

We'll begin with Hank Williams and Flatt & Scruggs from the year 1949. The tunes are You're Gonna Change or I'm Gonna Leave (March), Down The Road (May), My Bucket's Got A Hole In It (August) and Foggy Mountain Breakdown (December).

Mayor killed in Mexican border state

The mayor of a city in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas was killed and his 10-year-old daughter was injured Sunday, officials said. Marco Antonio Leal Garcia, mayor of the city of Hidalgo, was driving a truck on his property around 4:30 p.m. when he was killed, state prosecutors said in a statement. State prosecutor Hernan de la Garza Tamez said police recovered 18 casings and three shotgun shells at the scene. According to the results of an autopsy, Leal suffered 27 bullet wounds in the head, thorax, abdomen and back regions. Leal's daughter, who was riding with him, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, prosecutors said. She was injured by two gunshots to the leg, which fractured her tibia, officials said...more

Border Patrol to Sheriff's Office: Agent was shot at from Mexico

The U.S. Border Patrol told the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office that one of its agents working in the Nogales area was shot at from the Mexican side of the international boundary early Monday morning. Dispatch received the call at 4:23 a.m., said Lupita Perez of the Sheriff’s Office. She said the Border Patrol contacted her office “out of courtesy,” and that the actual incident occurred around 2 a.m. on the Buena Vista Ranch near Kino Springs. “It was approximately five gun shots coming from Mexico towards his direction,” said Perez, who added that the agent said he could hear the bullets whizzing past him. She said the shots came from a vehicle. “Nobody was hurt and no property was damaged.” Perez said a Blackhawk helicopter was called out and Border Patrol Special Response Teams responded as well. “They searched the area but didn’t find anything,” Perez said...more

Car Bomb Explodes Outside Northern Mexican TV Station

A car exploded early Friday in front of the offices of a major Mexican television station in a northern state where officials are investigating the massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants. The Televisa network reported that the explosion damaged its building and knocked out its signal for several hours in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the drug gang-plagued state of Tamaulipas. It said none of its employees was hurt in the explosion, which was felt for several blocks. Soldiers were blocking access to the building, Televisa said. The network described the explosion as a car bomb, but city, state and federal officials could not immediately be reached to confirm that. The press office at the Defense Department said it had no information.
If confirmed, it would be the third car bomb in Mexico this year -- a new and frightening tactic in the country's escalating drug war...more

3,200 Mexican Police Officers Fired In Anti-Corruption Drive

Mexico fired some 3,200 police officers this year as part of an ongoing crackdown on incompetence, corruption and links to organized crime, said officials on Monday. Police Commissioner Facundo Rosas said at a press conference on Monday that the fired officers accounted to almost 10% of the country's federal police force, which has about 34,500 officials. Pointing out that some 465 of the fired police officers are now facing criminal charges, Rosas added that another 1,020 officers are facing disciplinary proceedings for failing in "confidence tests." Rosas also stressed that none of the officers removed from the federal police force as part of the crackdown would be allowed to work in police forces at local, state or federal levels. He insisted that the clean up operations were part of an effort to clean up the country's notoriously corrupt police...more

Border deaths in Arizona may break record

This year, Arizona became known as the state with the toughest policies against illegal immigration. That's why Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Eric Peters didn't think the Pima County coroner would see a surge in migrants killed while trying to cross Arizona's southern deserts. But despite beefed-up efforts to stem illegal immigration and an economy that makes work harder to come by, migrants are still trying to get into the country. And many are dying. In 2007, a record 218 bodies were found in Pima County. This year, the death toll could be worse. Already, authorities have recovered the remains of 170 migrants. "We're kind of looking at a record-breaking year this year," Peters said. July was the worst month of this year so far, with 59 people found dead. More than half of them died from heat-related causes. On July 15, the deadliest day of the month, seven bodies were found, among them the remains of Omar Luna Velasquez, 25. The high temperature that day was 108 degrees. To accommodate the bodies in the summer heat, a 50-foot refrigerated trailer truck has been parked in the coroner's receiving area...more

Ranchers Disappointed With Troop Deployment

As National Guard troops trickled into southern Arizona, rancher Don Kimble was busy trying to plug the problem that he says consistently over runs his property; smugglers and the drugs they carry, "Three days ago we found a couple of bales of marijuana on the ranch. And, then this morning (a worker) found another abandoned (bale) in my pasture. So, it's obvious that smugglers still going through (our ranch)," said Kimble. One big reason why Kimble is not too pleased to hear only 30 troops arrived Monday. And, even those ones are not yet on the border, where the ranchers want them." "It's a good show but when are we going to get some action. And, when is Mexico going to get in gear and stop this drug war from spilling over into the U.S.?" asked Kimble. This administration doesn't take it (border issues) seriously and that's a sign for the cartels to continue to operate the way they do. I'll bet we'll probably see violence increase," added Patrick Bray with the Arizona Cattle Growers' Association...more

Sheriff Babeu: It’s ‘An Outrage’ Obama Stopped Building Border Fence

Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County, Ariz., says it is “an outrage” the Obama administration has stopped building the double-fencing needed to assist the Border Patrol in securing the U.S.-Mexico border and says it is time for the United States to begin fighting illegal immigration and drug smuggling directly at the border instead of within the country where it harms American citizens and communities. By the time Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, according to the Justice Department, only 108 miles of the 262-mile-long Arizona portion of the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border had been fenced. “We shouldn’t be fighting this battle in the interior. We should be fighting it directly on our international border,” Babeu said in an "Online With Terry Jeffrey" interview. “And it’s an outrage that our own federal government stopped building the fence.”...more

Drug cartels run wild in Mexico

The big Mexican city on the border -- in fact that country's entire northern region -- has become an anarchic site of murder, mayhem and viciousness. It is a huge mortuary of a city where no one is safe and the silence is broken only by the sound of gunfire. Northern Mexico is the Somalia of the Western Hemisphere with killing fields cultivated and sustained by an enormous flow of cash and weapons from the United States, a steady revenue produced from this nation's huge appetite for drugs. In Monterey recently, U.S. State Department officials there were told to evacuate their children after a private school came in harm's way amid signs the drug cartels now have control of the city. The unstable situation now is threatening to spill over into resort areas, adversely impacting Mexico's vital tourist industry already suffering from fears generated by the constant news of slaughter. Next to the economy, the escalating death and destruction toll in Mexico linked as it is to escalating alarm over immigration is increasingly becoming America 's leading domestic issue. It has serious political ramifications for the Obama administration, which is faced with mounting questions about how to keep the violence from spilling into U. S. border cities and to curtail the mass of money headed south every day...more

Juarez cancels Independence Day celebrations over drug violence

How bad is it in Ciudad Juarez, the murder capital of the world on the northern border with Texas? Bad enough that they are canceling the Sept. 16 Independence Day celebrations. Juarez residents will have to celebrate in the safety of their own homes. "Because of threats, because of criminal activities that exist in Juarez, we don't want to take any risks," Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz told the El Paso Times. “Right now Ciudad Juarez should not be celebrating,” adds Dr. Arturo Valenzuela Zorrilla, head of the volunteer committee of public safety. This isn't any ordinary Independence Day coming up next month either. It’s the bicentennial of Mexico’s 1810 declaration of freedom from the Spanish crown. In the capital and Mexico's other major cities, large celebrations are planned...more

Juárez drug war: El Paso does feel effects

We continue to be a safe U.S. city, but we're fooling ourselves if we think the narco violence in Juárez has not negatively affected our way of life. "Spillover" is the correct word, a bulls-eye definition of what's going on. But it should be looked at in more ways than stray bullets hitting El Paso buildings in the immediate border vicinity. More to the point, the ongoing war to control this sector's drug route is affecting us economically and socially -- and that's "spillover." We rely on trade with Mexico to fuel our economy. It's second only to the money generated here by Fort Bliss. We have family and friends who live in Juárez. Economically: There are two main negative affects the narco war has on trade and business. # Cargo moves slower due to tighter security measures -- drugs and contraband coming this way, and weapons and cash from drug sales going into Mexico. Our international bridges are clogged. Wait times can last hours. # Fewer Juarenses are walking into El Paso to shop at our stores. Data bear that out at both Downtown pedestrian bridges. That means a loss in profits to business owners, fewer dollars in sales tax revenue, and fewer dollars in bridge tolls. Socially: Until 9/11, El Paso/Juárez had essentially an open border. From the 1800s to Sept. 11, 2001, it took little more than a nod to cross into either country. El Pasoans have always had family and friends living in Juárez and the Juárez Valley. Now U.S. citizens are afraid to travel into Juárez, even to visit family and friends. Those traveling to Juárez for the restaurant or night life have found scores of restaurants and nightclubs shuttered and out of business. We have effectively been cut off from our family and friends, and the social amenities once provided in Juárez...more

El Paso declares independence from México

The word is out. People know. El Paso is the city across the border from very dangerous Juárez, México. There was a time when El Paso embraced its proximity to México, but that time has passed. “We used to call ourselves The Gateway to México, says El Paso Mayor John Cook. “Now we are calling ourselves The International City.” The Convention and Visitors Bureau has just launched a new advertising campaign with the tag line “Real Adventure is Still Alive.” It emphasizes the Mexican flavor of El Paso and the scenic beauty of the mountains and desert. The campaign, says Bill Blaziek, CVB general manager, “is meant to be our declaration. El Paso can stand alone and tall.” Of course, after the Aug. 21 shooting in which a stray bullet broke through a glass door at the University of Texas at El Paso, “adventure” may not be quite the right note...more

Management and a forest of poor incentives

Bozeman is clearly the epicenter of the people who have long studied how institutional arrangements affect the quality of natural resource and environmental management. In these arenas, as in all others where chance does not determine the outcome, decisions depend on two things, information and incentives. There are many types of incentives including cultural, financial, religious, reputational and status. Management that produces good outcomes, however they are measured, is dependent on the quality of information readily available and the incentives to act responsibly upon it. To deny this reality and assume that somehow bureaucrats armed or imbued with an ideology based on good intentions and pious pronouncements is worse than naïve, it's morally, economically and environmentally irresponsible. This is one lesson from the great forest fires of 1910 whose centennial we observed last weekend. The Big Burn hit 10 national forests in Idaho, Montana and Western Washington. It covered three million acres, one and a half times the area of Yellowstone Park, and killed 78 firefighters. After the devastation of the Big Blowup, the U.S. Forest Service decided to battle against every wildfire. And, of course, now firefighting drives its budget. The lesson is clear, incentives matter. There is no better illustration of the ecological problems associated with bureaucratic land management than the century-long saga of the United States Forest Service, an agency that was once revered as the world's premiere conservation agency...more

Wolf, grizzly bear cases set back progress, biologists, managers say

Wolves and bears don't behave well in courtrooms. But the two big predators are likely to spend the next 18 months there as their advocates and enemies try to untangle them from the federal Endangered Species Act. Last week, Montana wildlife managers decided to appeal U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy's Aug. 5 decision placing the gray wolf back under federal protection. Meanwhile, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials in Missoula appealed another Molloy ruling that prevented state management of Yellowstone ecosystem grizzly bears. No one knows how the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will settle the two lawsuits. But wildlife managers for both wolves and bears fear that years of cooperation and compromise in the woods may wither while the animals' fate is debated - and ultimately decided - on paper. "If people look in and realize how difficult it is for agencies to work together on anything, they would realize incredible steps were made," said Gregg Losinski, an Idaho Department of Fish and Game official who is part of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Committee. "All the mechanisms were there for bear recovery - that was the frustrating thing. This relisting put things back 20 years." Molloy's 2009 decision blocked a FWS plan to let states manage about 600 grizzlies living around Yellowstone National Park. His wolf ruling earlier this summer canceled public wolf hunts in Montana and Idaho for the 2010 season. Montana officials hoped hunters would kill 186 wolves and bring the state's population down to about 450 animals. Wolves are blamed for both falling elk and deer numbers and growing domestic livestock attacks...more

Joe Miller wants Alaska to control and develop federal lands

Tea Party-backed Joe Miller, who is threatening to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, has a bold vision for Alaska, one that would entail the state taking over federal lands, including Denali National Park and Preserve. In an interview with Alaska Dispatch, Miller said if elected to the Senate, he will fight for state control of vast swaths of Alaska currently under federal ownership. Promoting resource development on those lands would help Alaska pay its own way and break its dependence on federal money, he said. Miller -- a Gulf War veteran and Yale Law School graduate backed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- has fought his way to a 1,668-vote lead over Murkowski in the GOP Alaska primary, with some 20,000 absentee and questioned ballots to be counted starting Tuesday. Miller's idea that the state should own most of the land -- not the federal government -- is far from new in Alaska. Business leaders and Republicans have long complained the feds have "locked up" Alaska, including places like the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and parts of the Tongass National Forest. Miller adheres to the philosophy that the federal government should oversee national defense and border control, and very little else. Miller, who also holds a master's in economics from the University of Alaska, believes Alaska must end federal paternalism and move toward state control of all lands and encourage aggressive resource development...more

Legislators, others oppose NM cap and trade petition

Legislators representing Eddy County, local government officials and industry and business leaders have come out in opposition to a cap and trade petition proposed by the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board. The Eddy County Commission in recent months passed two resolutions opposing the petition and, along with a letter, submitted them to the NMED Board. In addition, a representative for the county testified at a recent hearing on the impact it would have in Eddy County if the petition were to be implemented. On Tuesday, the Carlsbad City Council also came out in opposition, voting to submit a letter to the NMED. Russell Hardy, representing the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, in his letter to the editor published Friday in the Current-Argus, explained the petition. "The petition, as currently written, would apply only to rural businesses and industries that produce more than 250,000 tons of CO2 annually and would exempt businesses operating in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and on sovereign Indian Nations," he explained. "Businesses and industries in our area that would be impacted would include potash mines, Navajo refineries in Artesia and Lovington, Excel Energy generating stations in Lea County, not to mention large-scale manufacturing, mining and utility businesses throughout the rural regions of the state." Eddy County Commissioner Lewis Derrick, a rancher in north Eddy County, said the Environment Department's petition will hurt the local economy and will have a far-reaching effect if it passes. "I'm looking at this from the possibility of this petition wrecking our tax base and running off businesses," Derrick said. "It's going to impact not only the oil and gas industry. It will impact farmers, ranchers and the trucking industry. The state should stay out of our business. They need to back off this. It's mind boggling that they would do this to the people of New Mexico."...more

Cap and trade hearing set for Clovis

Clovis is one of five stops on the state Environmental Improvement Board’s schedule to discuss a greenhouse gas emissions program. The hearing is 2 p.m. Thursday at the Clovis Civic Center, and is scheduled to last six hours. “This is a formal public hearing on two proposals to address climate change in New Mexico,” said Jim Norton, a spokesman for the New Mexico Environment Department. “The first proposal is by the New Energy Economy. The second is by the state environment department.” Both proposals are cap and trade programs. Such a program imposes a cap on emissions, and each company is given a number of tons of emissions allowed. A company that releases less than its emission allowance is permitted to sell the allowance on the open market. Curry County rancher Hoyt Pattison attended an Aug. 26 open house the agency held in Clovis and thought it was a propaganda session paid for with money the state doesn’t have. Pattison doesn’t think cap and trade will work in execution, reasoning that power companies will choose to buy up allowances, and simply pass the cost on to consumers. “The danger of it,” Pattison said, “is it’s going to end up costing everybody in higher electricity prices.”...more

Ranchers differ on proposed meat industry regulations

Meat industry professionals clashed Friday about a federal plan designed to preserve competition in an industry increasingly dominated by a few large corporations. The meeting, which drew about 2,000 people to Colorado State University's Lory Student Center ballroom and overflow rooms, is one of five the Obama administration has scheduled for this year to hear about competition in the agriculture industry. Cattlemen, though, heatedly disagree about whether the rule would help or hurt them. Mike Harper of Harper Livestock of Eaton, which markets more than 200,000 head of lambs a year, said government regulation is the cause of the problems he faces, not the solution to it. He said his operation, which he runs with his father, Harold, is fortunate because there are two packers, JBS and Superior in Denver, to sell lambs. Harper told officials the biggest problem he faces is finding lambs to put in the feedlot as there are fewer and fewer producers running flocks. At least part of that is because of government regulations, he said, noting a longtime supplier of lambs in Montana is being forced out of business because the government claims their sheep are spreading disease to Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep. Dr. Taylor Haynes is a rancher and urologist from Cheyenne who specializes in grass-fed beef. He said he has seen a “tremendous loss in buyers” because all the small family feeding operations have gone by the wayside, because of consolidation and a takeover of the majority of beef slaughter by three companies, JBS, Tyson Foods and Cargill. “Bring the small and mid-size packers back and you will bring back the small family feeders,” Haynes said. Robbie LeValley, a cow-calf producer from Hotchkiss, said the proposed rules would hurt her. She and her family, along with five other ranching families, own Homestead Meats, which sells meat directly to consumers, retailers, and restaurants. She said under the proposal, she wouldn't be allowed to own the cattle she processes. Those rules, she said, need to take those kind of situations into consideration before they are implemented. “We don't need more government regulation,” she said. “We don't need external people who tell us we are bad.” Bill Bullard, CEO of Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, called for the immediate implementation of the new rules and got a round of applause from several supporters in the crowd, most from his home state of Montana, the Dakotas and Nebraska...more

Proposed GIPSA Changes Force The Cattle Industry To Go To War With Itself. Again

Two truths: (1) The cattle industry operates on razor thin margins. (2) It ain’t over until the fat lady sings. One conclusion - If the cattle industry continues to go to war with itself, every penny of those razor thin margins are going to fall into the pockets of the fat lady, the one who earns her living as a lawyer, not an opera singer. Only then will it be over. For every cattleman. Most of the participants in July’s Battle of Denver, which was fought over the possible misuse of millions of checkoff dollars, moved up the road to Friday's USDA-DOJ listening session in Fort Collins and they’re fighting anew over some serious money this time. Both battles pit rancher against rancher in a state of mind where laws prohibiting concealed carry and automated weaponry don’t exist, so hidden agendas and heavy artillery are the rule of the day. We’re not content to let anti-ag groups kill us off one-by-one when we can do it much more efficiently ourselves. Sounding a sensible and widely ‘Twittered’ warning about the impending assisted suicide mission in Ft. Collins, Colorado Cattle Association President Robbie LeValley said, “We are all cattle producers and we should not be circling the wagons and shooting inward!" The cattle industry is looking at a future filled with legal briefs, not better marketing efforts. With an in depth audit of checkoff dollar expenditures looming, there is a real chance NCBA and CBB will meet in court over their existing relationship and family squabbles over money always get nasty. GIPSA’s bright new idea, the subject of the Ft. Collins clash, could turn out to be an absolute boondoggle for the industry and cash cow for the legal profession. If it’s enacted, the NCBA and NPPC will probably be joined by several other large special interest groups and their legal advisors in the nearest federal court to demand it be rescinded. If it’s not enacted, R-CALF and friends will head into that same court room to demand it be revived...more

Advocates Demand Federal Action to Restore Fair Markets

Last night on the eve of this workshop, more than 500 independent ranchers and farmers, meatpacking workers, consumers, urban farmers, and food justice activists gathered for a public forum. Organization leaders and the public spoke about the need for government action to curb unchecked mergers and other anti-competitive activities that have allowed meatpackers to drive down cattle prices while keeping consumer beef prices high. “We’ve reached a tipping point where everyone along the value chain, from ranchers who can no longer make a living to consumers who worry that their meat may make them sick, have had enough,” said Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch. “We need fair, functioning markets for livestock so that independent producers can stay in the game and consumers can have a real choice of where they buy their meat, not just from one massive company with many brands.” “I’m tired of waiting for the government to do something,” says Gilles Stockton, a rancher from Montana and a member of Western Organization of Resource Councils. “It’s stupid to keep arguing whether there is a problem – it’s obvious there is a problem. We need action from the USDA and DOJ to restore competition in the cattle industry.” Earlier this month, 21 senators led by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) sent Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack a letter in support of the new regulations to clarify and strengthen the protections afforded by the Packers and Stockyard Act for livestock producers, swine production contract growers and poultry growers...more

Unschooling

A homeschooling mom made this t-shirt for her kids.

Song Of The Day #393

Ranch Radio takes a look at the classic sound of traditional bluegrass this week.

We'll start with Bill Monroe and The Blue Grass Boys performing Toy Heart and Will You Be Lovin' Another Man.

The tunes are from 1949 and 1946, and I picked them because Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs were in the band. The sound of Flatt singing lead and Monroe singing harmony was never equaled in traditional bluegrass. If only they could have stayed together, but it was not to be.

Shame on the Sun-News & the Hispano Chamber

In the article Report: Wilderness areas good for economy Sun-News reporter Amanda L. Bradford writes:

A report on the economic benefit of wilderness conservation is being touted by one local business group as proof of their claim that federal wilderness areas help bring in revenue, but the leader of another business organization called that claim "overreaching."...

The 290-member Hispano Chamber of Commerce de Las Cruces, which supports the federal Desert Peaks-Organ Mountains Wilderness Act and has launched a local TV advertising campaign to promote it, said the report shows that investing in wilderness conservation and restoration in southern New Mexico provides increased employment and revenue related to tourism...

Emphasis mine.

I'm curious as to where Bradford got the term "wilderness conservation", as that term never appears in the referenced report. The second quote above attributes the term to the Hispano Chamber. If the term is from the Hispano Chamber, then they are once again distorting the facts.

In fact, the word "wilderness" never appears anywhere in the report.

The Audubon Society put out an 1100 word press release about the report, and the word "wilderness" never appears in their press release.

Read the press release and you will understand the report is aimed at the New Mexico legislature to prevent any cuts in conservation funding:

“In today's economy lawmakers have tough budget decisions to make, and this report clearly demonstrates that investing in conservation and restoration projects pays large dividends now and in the future,” continued Stockdale. “Our state’s leaders have an opportunity to fund vital conservation programs that will enhance our quality of life and create jobs.”

Read the report and you will see most of the types of recreation and restoration projects given as examples would be totally prohibited in Wilderness areas.

Here's a picture from the report:









Try doing that in a Wilderness area.

So we have a news story with a misleading headline that mentions wilderness, with the body of the story using the term "wilderness conservation", all concerning a report that never uses either term and which is promoting projects that cannot occur in a Wilderness area.

The Sun-News needs to do a better job of fact-checking their reporters and the Hispano Chamber should rein in their exec and apologize to the public.

Eminent domain, by any other name . . . still stinks

Imagine you come home from work one day to a notice on your front door that you have 45 days to demolish your house, or the city will do it for you. Oh, and you’re paying for it. This is happening right now in Montgomery, Ala., and here is how it works: The city decides it doesn’t like your property for one reason or another, so it declares it a “public nuisance.” It mails you a notice that you have 45 days to demolish your property, at your expense, or the city will do it for you (and, of course, bill you). Your tab with the city will constitute a lien on your property, and if you don’t pay it within 30 days (or pay your installments on time; if you owe over $10,000, you can work out a deal to pay back the city for destroying your home over a period of time, with interest), the city can sell your now-vacant land to the highest bidder. Alabama law empowers municipalities to do just this. Officials can demolish structures that they determine, “due to poor design, obsolescence, or neglect, have become unsafe to the extent of becoming public nuisances…and [are] causing or may cause a blight or blighting influence on the city and the neighborhoods in which [they are] located.” Keep in mind, so-called standards like “obsolescence” are so vague they can mean anything, so even a well-maintained home that government officials don’t like the look of can be fed to the bulldozers...more

This happening in a predominately black community but it looks like the folks, with the help of the Institute for Justice, are fighting back.

EPA rejects effort to ban lead in bullets

The U.S. EPA on Friday rejected a petition from several environmental groups to bar use of lead in ammunition, a decision that comes amid GOP claims that a ban would be an “assault on rural America.” The American Bird Conservancy, the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups in early August sought the ban on lead shot, bullets and fishing gear under the Toxic Substances Control Act, citing harmful effects on wildlife and people. “EPA today denied a petition submitted by several outside groups for the agency to implement a ban on the production and distribution of lead hunting ammunition. EPA reached this decision because the agency does not have the legal authority to regulate this type of product under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) – nor is the agency seeking such authority,” said Steve Owens, assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, in a statement. “EPA is taking action on many fronts to address major sources of lead in our society, such as eliminating childhood exposures to lead; however, EPA was not and is not considering taking action on whether the lead content in hunting ammunition poses an undue threat to wildlife,” he added. But he said the agency would continue reviewing the portion of the petition seeking to ban lead fishing sinkers...more

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Trapped in the quakies

by Julie Carter

I let my cowpony pick his own path through the deadfall as we worked our way down a steep slope toward the cattle at the bottom of the canyon.

It was late summer at the ranch, but in this high mountain pasture signs of fall were already creeping through the aspens. Their heart-shaped leaves were wearing tones of gold as they shimmered and fluttered in the afternoon breeze, true to their “quaking” name.

The incline became arduous, and if I’d been older or wiser, I might have thought I should be fearful. The loose leaves that had fallen on the ground and the slick black soil still wet from a rain the night before complicated the already precarious descent.

The downed timber lay every which way like a game of Pick-up Sticks gone bad. In my youthful oblivion, I whistled a tune while the big bay methodically navigated his way through the quakies.

When the angle of the terrain forced him to slide, he worked athletically to keep his butt up under him in an equine sort of squat. He never wavered in his determination to get where we needed to go.

He knew there were cattle at the bottom, the same as I did. Sometimes the “cow” in cowhorse is an instinct more powerful than self-preservation.

Gathering yearlings for fall shipping was an adventure with my Dad. Especially so in this pasture, as it involved some overnight camping in an old log cabin complete with lanterns, wood-stove cooking and fresh trout from the creek.

Waking early to saddle when the dew was still heavy and the sun was just making it’s first shadows in the long canyon was the stuff of Zane Grey and old Western movies.

On this day, I was to learn a lesson that would serve me all my life. Before I realized what had happened, Bay and I were at the bottom of small crater-like hole near the base of the ridge.

We had literally traversed our way right into a trap. The sharply inclined sides of the crater were littered with fallen trees, an undergrowth of shrubbery and turf that was slick and nothing short of treacherous. Coming down that maze of obstacles was one thing, going back up looked impossible.

Immediately, I realized two things. No one knew exactly where I was, so help may not come anytime soon. And, I could walk out of there, but that meant leaving my horse, an option I wasn’t ready to consider.

For a while, I hollered for help, feeling more than just a little foolish. I sat quietly for another long while, hoping to hear any noise that would indicate that maybe Dad had found me, if he was looking. I wasn’t even sure about that.

It was several hours later before my horse’s head snapped to attention, his ears forward and he rumbled out a low nicker of a greeting.

I could hear timber cracking and brush popping as someone hollered at the cattle I could hear running through the trees. So I hollered a little myself, and in response, my brother and my dad were soon peering at me over the edge of the hole.

My Dad quickly assessed my dilemma while my brother started to offer some smart-alecky comment before my Dad could send him on after the cattle. It was obvious my Dad was trying not to laugh at me and obviously refraining, perhaps knowing I was already feeling pretty stupid.

Looking back, I know there were days we were more trouble to him than we were help, and this was quite possibly one of them.

Not one for explaining much, he told me to get off my horse and tie his reins around his neck. I did, and then he told me to climb on out of the hole. I didn’t want to, but obeyed, thinking I was leaving Bay there to die and it was my fault.

When I got to the top, my dad turned his horse and began to ride away. He told me to follow him afoot. I was mortified that he’d just ride off like that, but knew better than to argue.

My bay gelding decided there was no way he was going to get left behind. He began an Olympian effort to pull himself up the slope, over the logs, and in spite of the mud. There were dreadful noises of grunts, groans and crashes. I turned to see what was happening just as he appeared at the rim of the hole. Apparently, just like my Dad knew he would.

The lesson? What seems hopeless isn’t remedied by trying to holler up a solution. Some well-placed wisdom flavored with a touch of obedience could possibly offer a successful resolution.

Dad’s are pretty smart that way.

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net. Visit her website at www.julie-carter.com

It's The Pitts: To Those We Leave Behind

by Lee Pitts

We buried my mother last week and in pausing to reflect on her life, I was awed by the changes that have occurred in this country during her 80 plus years of living.

It’s hard to imagine but my Mom lived for one third of our country’s lifespan. She went from FDR to Obama, from Adolph Hitler to Osama bin Laden and from the Dionne quintuplets to the Octomom. She began her life just before the Depression and ended it during the worst economic times since then. She was alive when there was no Social Security to catch you when you fell, and unemployment and political corruption ran rampant in this country. Oh well, some things never change, I suppose.

My mother’s generation went from Shuffle Off to Buffalo to rap music. From Sinatra to Snoop Dogg. From Brother Can You Spare a Dime to four dollars for a cup of coffee. When Barbara Harding was born there were 123 million people living in this country of ours. Today there are more than 310 million.

When my Mom was born you could buy a double dipper ice cream cone for five cents, but you had to work two hours to make that nickel! The average yearly income was $600 and there was no such thing as overtime. I suppose my family lived below what government hacks would call the poverty level these days, but we never knew it. My Mom wanted to stay home and raise her three children but knew she had to support the family, so she created her own business, as a seamstress. She literally worked her fingers to the bone and, to the best of my knowledge, we never “went on the dole.”

At my mother’s wonderful funeral service the church was crawling with her beautiful great grandchildren and I’ve thought about those kids a lot since then. We haven’t done right by them. When my mother was born the national debt was 27 billion dollars. Today it’s 13 trillion. Each person’s share of the national debt 80 years ago was about thirty bucks. Today my mom’s great grandchildren, some who can’t even walk or talk yet, are already in hock for $42,700. Even that number will be wrong by the time you read it because our national debt is currently increasing by 4 billion a day. That’s more than the entire national debt was 80 years ago. If rents had gone up by the same percentage as our debt an apartment would cost $12,000 a month to rent and people would make $288,600 per year instead of one tenth of that. If food had risen as fast as our debt, milk would cost $192 per gallon, eggs would be $48 a dozen and lettuce would set you back $25 per head! I’d suggest either farmers and ranchers are making way too little or the bureaucrats way too much!

In my mom’s youth cars had names that sounded like members of a basketball team: Jewetts, Nashes, Whippets, Willy Knights and Rickenbackers. There were no Hondas or Toyotas. In 1934 you could buy a fully loaded Ford V8 for $615. If that car had risen in price as fast as our nation’s budget it would cost $727,000 today. Eighty years ago the yearly federal budget was three billion dollars. Today it is 3.55 trillion. That’s more than a thousand times as much! If houses had gone up by the same percentage the average house would cost nearly $4 million. Bread would cost $118 per loaf, butter would be $348 per pound and a pound of sirloin steak would be $212!

My mom was really good at cleaning up messes; mostly mine, I admit. I know what she’d have done with the mess we face today. Metaphorically and literally she would have rolled up her sleeves and got to work. If no one was hiring she’d have created her own business. She’d have grown her own food and her own kids. She’d have paid her debts and created something of worth out of her own hard work and talents. She’d have turned off the TV, cooked her meals from scratch and spent more time with her grandkids and great grandkids. And she’d have done anything she could to make life better for them. Look at your own progeny and tell me that’s not work worth doing.

After reading the two articles by Carter and Pitts, I hope everyone will reflect on their heritage...and our future.

Song Of The Day #392

Ranch Radio has been remiss in not offering very much in the traditional bluegrass sound, and we are going to right that wrong this week.

We'll start with our Gospel song this week by Carter & Ralph Stanley - the Stanley Brothers - and their rendition of Four Books In The Bible.

Most of their library is available here, although this particular song is not all that easy to find.