NM County Opposes Flyover Plan Official Criticizes 'NIMBY' Attitude

The Santa Fe County Commission on Tuesday approved a resolution opposing a plan to make northern New Mexico part of a new training area for low-flying military aircraft. The resolution, co-sponsored by commissioners Harry Montoya and Liz Stefanics, passed by a 3-1 vote. Commissioner Mike Anaya provided the dissenting vote. "It's hard for me to oppose the United States Air Force low-altitude navigation training when we depend on them to protect our country. We're saying, 'Yeah, we need you to protect our country, but not in my backyard,'" Anaya said. The Las Vegas City Council and Taos County Commission have passed similar resolutions since the Air Force announced its proposal to establish a "low altitude tactical navigation" training area in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. The plan calls for approximately 700 flights per year — or roughly three per day — originating from Cannon Air Force Base near Clovis. Some would go as low as 200 feet above the ground. The flights "would avoid airfields, towns, noise sensitive areas and wilderness areas by prescribed vertical and/or horizontal distances," according to information provided on the Cannon AFB website. Santa Fe County's resolution cites concerns about the flights' impact on public safety, noise levels, air quality, physical and biological sciences, and cultural and historic resources...more

Farmers & Ranchers Authorize New Alliance

More than 60 representatives from more than 20 national food and agricultural organizations today agreed to incorporate a U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) to focus on working together to enhance U.S. consumer trust in modern food production that ensures the abundance of affordable, safe food. “Today represents a start toward a unified voice for U.S. agriculture,” said Rick Tolman, CEO of the National Corn Growers Association and chair of the USFRA Steering Committee. “While the results of today’s organizational meeting represent the culmination of six months of planning, it is only the beginning of a process designed to create a coordinated effort by and on behalf of U.S. farmers and ranchers. Several participants have stepped forward to officially join the Alliance. Others need to return to their boards to determine whether they will join.” USFRA plans to incorporate this week. Organizations have been asked to respond about affiliation no later than November 1. After that date, a board of directors will be established and will elect an executive committee. Members of the USFRA Board, its executive committee and its affiliated organizations will be announced formally in mid-November. press release

Mexican investigator in Falcon Lake case beheaded, officials say

The lead Mexican investigator in the Falcon Lake case, Rolando Armando Flores Villegas, has been killed, his severed head delivered Tuesday in a suitcase to the Mexican military, officials told CNN. "His head was delivered to the army garrison this morning in a suitcase after he failed to report back home last night," Zapata County, Texas, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. said. A spokesman for the attorney general of Tamaulipas state in Mexico, Ruben Dario-Rios, confirmed the killing Tuesday afternoon in a telephone interview. The report came a day after authorities in the Tamaulipas state attorney general's office gave conflicting information on whether authorities were pursuing a pair of suspects in the case of David Michael Hartley's disappearance...more

Monterrey, Mexico Now Off Limits to Children of U.S.-Government Employees

The U.S. Department of State has declared that Monterrey, Mexico is now off limits to the minor children of U.S. government workers because of a recent shooting near an American school in that city and the “high incidence of kidnapping” there. Monterrey is Mexico’s second largest city and is located about 150 miles south of the Texas-Mexico border in the state of Nuevo Leon. This is the first time the State Department has ever prohibited U.S. government workers from having their dependent children with them when they serve in an official capacity in a Mexican city, Brian Quigley, a spokesman for the U.S. Consulate General in Monterrey, Mexico, told CNSNews.com...more

School district will pay $610,000 to settle lawsuits over tracking of students' laptop computers

The Lower Merion School District will pay $610,000 to settle lawsuits over its tracking of student laptop computers, ending an eight-month saga that thrust the elite district into a global spotlight and stirred questions about technology and privacy in schools. The announcement brought an abrupt end to a case that divided Lower Merion parents, fueled an acrimonious court battle, and was on pace to cost the district several million dollars. It also followed weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations between Haltzman and district lawyer Henry E. Hockeimer, including two days of mediation ordered by the federal judges overseeing the cases and pressing for a resolution. Beginning in 2008, the district rolled out a plan to give the nearly 2,300 students at its two high schools their own laptop computers to use in class and take home each day. Administrators never told students that missing computers could be remotely tracked using software that let technicians turn on webcams and see what was on a user's screen. That capability burst into public view when Robbins and his parents filed their lawsuit in February. In it, they claimed that the district secretly snapped hundreds of images from the teen's laptop, including one when he was sleeping. Robbins learned of the technology, they said, when an assistant principal at his school confronted him with a webcam photo. Robbins had never reported his laptop missing, and school officials gave conflicting reasons for tracking his computer...more

The Scientist Vote

`"Vote Democrat," says a meteorologist and noted global warming proponent. But Democrats won't be getting the vote of the esteemed physicist who just resigned from a scientific body for silencing debate. Michael Mann, director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center, took to the pages of the Washington Post Friday to say that while "as a scientist, I shouldn't have a stake in the upcoming midterm elections," he regretted to announce that "unfortunately, it seems that I — and indeed all my fellow climate scientists — do." Mann warns that Republicans would launch "a hostile investigation of climate science." But investigation is, in fact, warranted. Harold Lewis, physics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has been a member of the American Physical Society, the second-largest association of physicists in the world, for 67 years — most of the organization's existence. A couple of days before Mann's piece appeared, Lewis tendered his resignation. Meteorologist Anthony Watts called it "an important moment in science history ... on the scale of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door."...more

'Global Warming Scam'

Below is the text of the Oct. 6 letter that Harold Lewis, emeritus professor of of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, sent to Princeton's Curtis G. Callan Jr., tendering his resignation from the American Physical Society, of which Callan is president....As recently as 35 years ago, when I chaired the first APS study of a contentious social/scientific issue, The Reactor Safety Study, though there were zealots aplenty on the outside, there was no hint of inordinate pressure on us as physicists. We were therefore able to produce what I believe was and is an honest appraisal of the situation at that time. We were further enabled by the presence of an oversight committee consisting of Pief Panofsky, Vicki Weisskopf and Hans Bethe, all towering physicists beyond reproach. I was proud of what we did in a charged atmosphere. In the end the oversight committee, in its report to the APS President, noted the complete independence in which we did the job, and predicted that the report would be attacked from both sides. What greater tribute could there be? How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d'être of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society. It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist...more

Cost concerns weakened Forest Service's assault on Station fire, study says

A desire to control costs slowed the arrival of "critical resources" in the attack on last year's disastrous Station fire as the U.S. Forest Service delayed ordering reinforcements from other agencies that had crews and equipment at the ready, according to an internal federal review. The finding contradicts statements made for more than a year by Forest Service officials, who have insisted repeatedly that cost concerns never impeded the Station battle. It is likely to sharpen questions about the firefighting decisionmaking as a local congressional panel prepares to examine the Forest Service's actions. The review by the Agriculture Department, which runs the Forest Service, echoes a Times report last fall that a Forest Service directive to reduce spending might have dissuaded fire managers from using more state and local strike teams and aircraft on the fateful second day of the blaze. The new study also determined that the Forest Service, in opting to concentrate on protecting hillside neighborhoods and the communications towers and observatory on Mt. Wilson, did not stage a sustained direct assault on the back-country front of the fire as it spread into Angeles National Forest. The fire would become the largest in Los Angeles County history, blackening 250 square miles and destroying more than 200 homes, commercial buildings and other structures. Two county firefighters were killed when the blaze roared nearly unchecked into the forest and overran their mountaintop camp...more

Park rangers’ last flight may have been illegal

The two park rangers who died in a weekend airplane crash may have been violating Utah wildlife law. There was no comment from federal officials Sunday about what caused Laurie Axelsen’s small plane to crash, killing her and fellow National Park Service Ranger Brent McGinn. Both were rangers at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and lived in Page, Ariz. The National Park Service has said in a news release that Axelsen and McGinn were “on a scouting trip for an upcoming elk hunt.” Utah’s bull elk hunt began Saturday. State laws and regulations prohibit using an aircraft to “locate, or attempt to observe or locate any protected wildlife” from 48 hours prior to a big game hunt to 48 hours after a big game hunt concludes, according to state regulations. The guide also warns flying low and circling or repeatedly flying over an area where protected wildlife is likely to be found can be evidence of violating the ban...more

Chinese to boost South Texas boom to new high

Parts of South Texas already in the midst of a historic drilling boom soon will get a boost from an unlikely source: China. China's national oil company, CNOOC, will spend $2.2 billion to drill in partnership with Chesapeake Energy Corp. in the Eagle Ford shale, a rich oil and gas formation that lies under 11 counties. Exploration in the Eagle Ford already has brought newfound prosperity to South Texas' hardscrabble farming and cattle country, and Chesapeake said the ramped-up drilling could bring 20,000 jobs to the region. If the Eagle Ford shale's production levels reach forecasted levels, "it could definitely be a fairly strong contributor to the economy and to the investor, particularly in South Texas," said Bob Fryklund, research director at I.H.S. Herold, an energy research firm. I.H.S. has forecast that production from the Eagle Ford shale could reach 1 billion cubic feet a day in 2011, which is pretty robust, Fryklund said. That's the same level as what's currently the largest offshore natural gas gathering spot, the Gulf of Mexico's Independence Hub...more

BLM plan draws fire

Ranchers, a company drilling for carbon dioxide, recreational users and private landowners are up in arms over the resource-management plan adopted in June for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. What they're seeing is not what they understood they would get when the resource-protection plan was being crafted, disappointed stakeholders say. Cattlemen are receiving fewer grazing permits and less time on federal land; a large mineral-extraction company is seeing its ability to operate curtailed and, as a direct result, county governments may receive less tax revenue. Heather Musclow, acting manager of the monument, thinks their dissatisfaction is normal reaction to change. Protests to BLM headquarters in Washington after the preferred plan was selected were rejected, she said. "There's nothing new since the decision so there shouldn't be any surprises," Musclow said. "We're doing business in a new way, so now they would have to take us to court." Canyons of the Ancients, administered by the Bureau of Land Management, encompasses 171,000 acres in Montezuma and Dolores counties. The monument, located 10 miles west of Cortez, has 12,000 acres of private inholdings and 400 acres managed by the National Park Service within its boundaries...more

Utah counties asking for gov's help in protecting grazing from pipeline

Officials in several Utah counties are asking Gov. Gary Herbert for his help in protecting the grazing of livestock on public lands. Leaders in those counties - including Cache, Box Elder, Rich, Uintah and Tooele - are concerned about agreements that El Paso Corporation, parent company of the Ruby Pipeline, entered into with two environmental groups earlier this year. Those contracts call for the establishment of two "conservation funds," with one major goal being the retirement of federal grazing permits. "Whether it is to remove this part from the agreement or the agreement completely dissolved, we ask for your support in helping us to see that this does not become the catalyst that would end the cattle industry in the West through the elimination of grazing right permits," reads the letter to Herbert signed by officials in the five counties. The Utah counties are members of a multi-county coalition with representatives from the four western states that Ruby Pipeline will pass through, including Utah, Wyoming, Nevada and Oregon. Work on the 42-inch natural gas pipeline is currently progressing in those states. Angie Welling, spokeswoman for Gov. Herbert, told The Herald Journal on Monday that the governor is sensitive to the counties' concerns...more

DNA Tests Indicate Yellowstone National Park Elk, Not Bison, Most Likely To Spread Brucellosis

While bison in Yellowstone National Park draw the most attention for the potential to spread brucellosis to livestock in the surrounding states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, genetic studies indicate that elk are most likely behind the disease's spread in the region. A small story in the fall issue of Yellowstone Science discusses that conclusion. A DNA genotyping study conducted in 2009, and which was just recently published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases, examined samples from 10 bison, 25 elk, and 23 cattle collected in the greater Yellowstone area between 1992 and 2003 and found that DNA markers for Brucella abortus were nearly identical in elk and cattle but "highly divergent" from those in bison. "The data, which suggest that elk rather than bison are most likely the origin of recent outbreaks of brucellosis in Greater Yellowstone cattle, are consistent with the fact that elk comingle with cattle more often than do the wild bison, which have been managed to prevent dispersal outside established conservation areas," notes the Yellowstone Science article...more

Sheep link to bighorn illness adds to grazing controversy

Pneumonia is like the bird flu of the bighorn sheep world, and domestic sheep are prominent disease carriers. A recent study published by a Washington State University team confirmed what many already believed: domestic sheep, which aren’t as susceptible to M. haemolytica bacteria, transfer the bacteria when they come in contact with bighorn sheep, which then often die from it. The team modified bacteria to make them florescent, planted them in domestic sheep and then found the florescent bacteria in bighorns after they were allowed contact with domestic sheep. Wildlife managers knew bighorns tended to die from pneumonia after contacting domestic sheep, but some ranchers denied sheep were the cause. The study’s results provide more fuel for critics who argue that domestic sheep should not be allowed to graze on public lands where they could come into contact with bighorns. Pneumonia has surged recently. Bighorn sheep in neighboring states — Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Washington — experienced severe losses last winter due to pneumonia. Francis Cassiser, a wildlife biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said Idaho didn’t see the same sort of die-offs but didn’t know why...more

Uneasy Neighbors on the Open Range - NY Times

They have startled the residents of Ahwatukee, a bedroom community in southern Phoenix. They have tramped on lawns and damaged vehicles in Rio Rancho, a neighborhood of tract homes outside Albuquerque. A Border Patrol agent lost his life crashing into one of them near the Mexican border in Texas. Free-range cattle roam widely across the West, protected by centuries-old laws that give them the right of way while grazing and force landowners to fence them out. But as urban sprawl has extended into what used to be seemingly endless pasture land, cow-friendly open range laws are under fresh scrutiny, criticized as anachronistic throwbacks to the Wild West days before Interstate highways and tract homes. “People have been killed in collisions with large cows,” said Daniel Patterson, an Arizona state representative from Tucson who is pushing to scale back the rights given cows and their owners in his state. “We need to get rid of this antiquated law from the 19th century. It’s important for ranchers and other livestock owners to keep their cattle where they belong.” Laws throughout the West are already less cow-friendly than they were generations ago. Some states, like California, have open-range policies in only some rural areas. In Arizona, cows are restricted in incorporated areas, which reduces conflicts in cities but not necessarily in outer suburbs that bump up with ranch land...more

Bankrupt Yellowstone Club founder faces criminal probe

Two years after the bankruptcy of Montana's Yellowstone Club laid bare a massive real estate scheme fueled by greed, fraud and hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-advised loans, criminal investigators are probing the activities of one of the founders of the ultra-exclusive resort. Authorities would not comment on the case. But sworn depositions and interviews with key parties indicate former club owner Edra Blixseth centers in the federal investigation. Blixseth's former bookkeeper has been questioned by the FBI, and her former office manager has hired a prominent Montana criminal defense attorney. Criminal charges in the case would be another stain on the swank Yellowstone Club, a millionaires-only private ski and golf resort near Yellowstone National Park. The club counts Bill Gates and Dan Quayle among its 300 members, yet spiraled into bankruptcy when the collapse of the real estate market exposed its massive debts. It has since emerged from bankruptcy under new ownership...more

Colorado amendments would affect bingo, cattle-grazing and governing in a disaster

They're probably not exciting to most voters, but three measures on the November ballot will ask Coloradans about bingo, cattle-grazing and how to govern the state in a disaster. These are the lettered ballot measures — Amendments P, Q and R — that lawmakers referred to the ballot. Typically, referred measures make small, noncontroversial changes to the constitution, and this year's batch is not much different. Amendment R would eliminate property taxes for people or businesses that use government-owned land for a private benefit worth $6,000 or less. Essentially, this amendment would eliminate taxes paid by many ranchers who graze cattle on government land. Why give them a tax break? Counties say the amount of tax owed is often so small that the cost of collecting it is greater than the amount owed. The amendment would cost the state an estimated $46,000 a year in lost funding for schools. It would also eliminate an estimated $160,000 per year in property-tax revenue for local governments, of which $46,000 would come from local school funding...more

Ian Tyson Launches New Autobiography

Iconic Canadian songwriter Ian Tyson has written his autobiography - a frank look at his early years as half of the duo Ian & Sylvia, his success as a songwriter, his move to western Canada and his life as a rancher. Now 77, he runs a spread south of Calgary, trains quarter horses, and still plays at least 50 concerts and festivals a year in Canada and the U.S. The Long Trail: My Life in the West is published by Random House Canada, and a launch for the book is set for a free event at Toronto's Gladstone Hotel on Tuesday October 19, presented by TINARS (This is Not a Reading Series). Ian Tyson's career now spans five decades; emerging in the early '60s, his impressive catalogue includes more than 20 albums, including the platinum-selling Cowboyography. His last 13 albums have been released internationally by Edmonton-based Stony Plain Records. Tyson's songs - including "Four Strong Winds", "Someday Soon," "Summer Wages" and "Navajo Rug"- have been recorded by Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Johnny Cash, Suzy Bogguss and dozens of other artists...more

Trew: 'The times, they are a'changing'

My grandfather Charley Trew used to shake his head and say, "the changes, they just keep a'coming." As we modernized our farming equipment and methods after the Great Depression and Dust Bowl ended, it seems we were making big changes almost every week. The same holds true today. The ideas and advertisements in farm and ranch magazines make my head swim trying to figure out how they work and how to pay for them. A visit recently with a long-time used farm equipment dealer told of a change I had not heard. Seems the high price of scrap metal for the last few years has finally about cleaned out the old horse-drawn and early tractor machinery. He said those type of auctions held on old farms are a thing of the past. Sure makes me proud of my collection of 60-plus horse-drawn implements and other old farm tools. At least I can show them to my descendants and explain how they work. Although wind power seems to be all the rage today, solar power is slowly becoming the biggest change in ranching. The long-time faithful windmill, dependable if the wind blows, has become so expensive to purchase and maintain, solar-powered water pumps are becoming more numerous. For a while the new pumps had troubles; but the latest models seem to have that solved, and our solar pumps are working in great fashion, providing water whether the wind blows or not. If Ace Reed were still alive and drawing cartoons, he would have old Jake the cowboy up on a rickety ladder by a solar panel, rag and soap bottle in hand, cleaning the hoot owl poop off the screen and wishing for days past when he was checking the oil in a windmill...more

Flying dune buggy approved for production

One of the more unusual approaches to the flying car combines a dune buggy with a propeller and a big parachute. It’s odd, but that hasn’t kept the FAA in the US from approving it for production by issuing a Special Light Sport Aircraft airworthiness certificate. The flying buggy is called Maverick and Itec, the Florida company building it, calls it transportation for “frontier areas of the world”. It’s said to be a capable off-roader that is Department of Transportation-approved for road use and classified as a powered parachute for flight. With a few hours of training, anyone can learn to fly Maverick in the relatively simple powered parachute configuration using the steering wheel and gas pedal during flight. Floats can be attached to the car for river crossings. In addition to the missionary use it was designed for, several government agencies including law enforcement have expressed interest in the Maverick, Itec claims. Other potential users include ranchers, pipeline patrols and forest fire spotters...more

You just know that someday this will end up in cow country.

Want to see it in action? Watch this video:

Forget Radar, Now The Government Is X-Raying You As You Drive

If you have been feeling uneasy about having to be X-rayed by a Transportation Security Administration goon who can look under your clothes every time you fly, consider this: at least you can say no, and agree to be subjected to an old-fashioned full-body search. No opt-out for the latest in anti-terror technology though, with reports published in Forbes magazine and the Christian Science Monitor that the Homeland Security Department has purchased 500 mobil X-ray vans called ZBVs that can scan cars, trucks and homes without the drivers or residents even knowing that they’re being zapped. These vans, made by a Massachusetts company called American Science & Engineering, are fitted out with what are called Z Backscatter X-ray devices, which aim a powerful X-ray beam that reportedly has the capability of penetrating 14 inches of steel.

Energy, environment rules may roll back with new governor

Neither of New Mexico's gubernatorial candidates — Democrat Diane Denish and Republican Susana Martinez — are likely to put environmental issues quite as high on their agenda as Gov. Bill Richardson. They've already indicated they might overturn or weaken some environmental rules Richardson's administration has put in place, such as the pit rule for wastes from oil and gas production and the greenhouse gas emissions cap. A governor can do a lot to upend or change environmental rules and orders approved under a predecessor. She can appoint her own people to commissions, direct those commissions to revisit rules and direct staff to ignore existing rules. "There could be rollbacks of environmental regulations after the elections happen," said Jim Norton, director of the environmental protection division at the New Mexico Environment Department. On some environmental issues, such as a proposed cap on greenhouse gas emissions, Martinez and Denish appear to have a similar stance at first glance. But while both oppose a state greenhouse gas cap and trade rule — they do so for different reasons. Denish believes climate change is occurring, but that any effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions must be global and national, not state-by-state. Martinez adheres to the climate change naysayer line, saying an emissions cap is anti-business, would increase taxes and isn't based on sound science...more

Feds delay Ariz. release of wolves

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is delaying the release of Mexican gray wolves in the Apache National Forest of Arizona until sometime next year. The federal agency and the Arizona Game and Fish Department had expected to release eight wolves in the next few weeks under a program that began reintroducing the animals into the wild along the Arizona-New Mexico border in 1998. But when it became clear there wasn't unanimous agreement on the release site, "we stepped back to re-evaluate where we were, what we knew, what had been accomplished, what hadn't been accomplished," Tom Buckley, a spokesman for the agency in Albuquerque, said Friday. "It just wasn't the right time for a successful release." Fish and Wildlife Southwest Regional Director Benjamin Tuggle decided this week to postpone the release, Buckley said. The agency has not set a new date except to say it will be in 2011...more

Wolves, Greater Yellowstone 'tribes' and property rights

From the Civil War until Earth Day, the states surrounding Yellowstone had a coherent culture, politics and economy. The glue holding this together was the use of natural resources. Water was to be dammed for mines and irrigation, trees cut for lumber and grass grazed by livestock. Big game exists to be enjoyed and hunted. Many hunters and the outfitting industry organize their lives around fall hunting, mainly for big game. Roughly half of this land is in federal and state ownership. The public lands not in parks were traditionally available for livestock grazing and big game hunting. For every person holding grazing permits on these public lands there were thousands holding a big game license. Together the ranching and hunting interests make a powerful and vocal constituency. The U.S. Biological Survey killed the last wolf in Yellowstone Park in 1927. A few years after Earth Day in 1970, a few individuals began studying, and others advocating, reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone Park. In 1994, the environmental impact statement (EIS) on wolf reintroduction generated over 150,000 comments. The Wyoming Farm Bureau protested with a lawsuit and the Idaho state government opposed wolves' return. Demonstrating a shift in control, in 1995, 66 Canadian wolves were released in Yellowstone Park. While wolves account for only a low percent of total livestock losses, it is culturally huge, a bright marker of the transfer of control from the cowboy "tribe" to the Greens. In terms of population, wolf reintroduction has been a great success. It represents a shift of control from one "tribe" to another...more

This "shift in control" also affects hunters. Dr. Baden writes:

In Yellowstone Park, elk comprise up to nine-tenths of the winter diet of wolves, some 22 ungulates per wolf annually, twice that predicted by the EIS. During the 2004 hunting season, the elk permits issued by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks for the hunting districts contiguous to Yellowstone Park dropped by 50 percent. The next year it went down to 100, less than one-twentieth the number issued in 1995. Wolves have expanded their range far beyond the park boundaries. Our place is 78 miles north of West Yellowstone, a park entrance, and wolves kill elk in the Cottonwood herd that winters on our and nearby ranches. Some big game outfitters claim that their business, often marginal at best, has been devastated by wolves.

Wife of Pickens buys NV ranch for horse sanctuary

Madeleine Pickens, the wife of Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, says she has bought a Nevada ranch to serve as a wild horse sanctuary. Pickens says she and U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials are discussing a pilot program calling for 1,000 mustangs now in short-term government-funded facilities to be sent to her Mustang Monument preserve. BLM officials say they're reviewing the plan and are encouraged after meeting with Pickens about the sanctuary in Elko County near the Utah border. If approved, the plan would mark the first time the government has released such a large number of mustangs to such a sanctuary. Pickens purchased the massive 14,000-acre Spruce Ranch about 70 miles east of Elko for an undisclosed price. AP

West Nile Virus Discovered in Texas Quail Population

Researchers with a conservation alliance based at Texas Tech have found a quail loaded with high levels of the antibody that fights West Nile virus. The small bird, known as a scaled or blue quail, was captured in Potter County by a team from Quail-Tech Alliance, a partnership between Texas Tech’s natural resources management department and Quail First, a Dallas-based non-profit quail conservation organization. “The high level of detectable antibody is indicative not only of a possible current infection, but to past viral exposure,” said Kristyn Urban, a doctoral research assistant from the university’s Institute of Environmental and Human Health. “The presence of antibodies to West Nile virus suggests that quail might show resistance to this virus or perhaps be another host to the life cycle of the virus.”...more

Sue Krentz

It's been two weeks since the wife of murdered rancher Rob Krentz was hit by a drunk driver, and for the first time her family spoke out. They told CBS 5 News Sue Krentz is making progress, but that its an uphill battle. Krentz was helping a friend cross the street after church on September 25, when police said a drunk driver came barreling down the road and hit her. Krentz was airlifted to a Tucson hospital where she had emergency pelvis surgery. Her family said she's been slowly recovering in the hospital ever since. Reporter Elizabeth Erwin talked with one of Krentz's sons Saturday. "She's doing pretty good. She's able to eat solid foods and she's breathing on her own. She's in a lot of pain, but she's going to be all right," he said. Krentz's family has really come together to help out. They said this time of year is very busy for the cattle industry, but relatives have stepped up to get the job done during this tough time. KPHO

How Toxic Grass Puts Animals to Sleep

Legend has it that five railroad surveyors killed by Indians in 1854 in New Mexico lost their lives because they unwittingly allowed their horses to graze on "sleepy grass" the night before. The next morning, under attack, they jumped on their horses to escape — but the animals were frozen in place. Without the means for a quick getaway, they were doomed. Whether true or apocryphal — the story is unverified — it could have happened, considering the toxic effects of sleepy grass, also known as robust needle grass, which commonly grows in many western states and causes animals who eat it to turn into living statues — or, if they consume too much of it, even die. "Native Americans are said to have fed a single seed to colicky babies to quiet them, and they — and ranchers — have fed small amounts to cattle to make them more sedate and easily managed when moving them from summer to winter ranges in the mountains," said Stan Faeth, professor of biology and head of the biology department at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Moreover, in a book called "Horse Tradin," by Ben K. Green, the author recounts "how he bought a horse from the Mescalero Apaches in the 1920's which seemed tame and broken, but later found it was unbroken and wild — but had been fed a small amount of sleepy grass," Faeth added...more

Stock show's reins will pass to Kroenke exec

The top executive at Stan Kroenke's Denver sports empire is resigning to take the reins of the National Western Stock Show, an annual showcase event for Colorado's agricultural industry. Paul Andrews will succeed Pat Grant as president and chief executive of the National Western effective Nov. 1, the organization announced Friday. Andrews will leave his post as executive vice president of Kroenke Sports Enterprises — owner of the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Pepsi Center and other assets — on Oct 27. At National Western, Andrews will handle day-to-day operations and lead long-term planning for the 104-year-old event. In recent years, stock show officials have sought to move the event from its aging complex amid struggles with rising maintenance costs. They've said the existing site at Interstate 70 and Brighton Boulevard in northeast Denver is too constrictive. Andrews declined Friday to address whether there are still plans to move the event, which features rodeos, exhibits and vendors. In 2007, a year after attracting a record 730,000 visitors for its 100th anniversary, the National Western suffered its first financial loss in nearly two decades, losing $559,000. Since then, the event has posted gains of $184,000 in 2008, $63,000 in 2009 and $285,000 this year, according to a spokeswoman...more

The dirty business of shipping untagged cattle (Canada)

I had a long and sometimes emotional conversation yesterday with Saskatchewan rancher Ken Habermehl. He recently was cleared of any wrong doing in a hearing regarding the shipment of cattle to a community pasture in May 2009, where it was found upon arrival that seven animals did not have CFIA approved RFID ear tags. Habermehl maintains he checked all 200-plus head at his farm south of Outlook before about 10 trailer loads of animals were hauled 67 kms to pasture. And when the CFIA inspector – the Button Cop - found seven animals with no tags Habermehl did everything possible to re-tag those animals. He still ended up with a charge of failing to tag cattle and a potential $500 fine. It took nearly a year and a half of legwork that culminated in a one-day hearing in June, and then three more months of waiting for a ruling by the tribunal in late September that quashed the charge and fine. Habermehl and his witnesses, and apparently many other beef producers, maintain the approved RFID tags don’t stay in – they have a poor retention rate -- and livestock owners who do their best to make sure these permanent tags are properly installed in the ear, shouldn’t be penalized if they fall out either through normal animal activity, or in the congestion of transit...more

The Death Tax is killing family businesses

Whitman “Whit” Leverett was born just a few weeks ago, on September 26 — all of 20 inches and 8.2 lbs — and already his father Clayton is concerned about whether Whit will be able to keep the family’s fifth-generation, 150-year-old ranch. The Leverett family has twice felt the cut of the death tax. The family was forced to sell thousands of acres to pay the dreaded federal estate tax when Clayton’s grandmother died. When his father passed away even more land had to be put up for sale, employees were let go and Clayton was forced to take on a second job in construction to keep up the tax payments. Every death shrinks the business and makes it more difficult to keep it going. One more strike from the grim reaper and the IRS and the ranch likely will be sold. Whit’s future — and the future of ranchers and farmers across the country — stands in the balance...more

USDA crop report a shock to livestock industries

A drastic downgrade in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's expectations for this year's corn yield is "a complete game changer" for livestock producers, a beef industry economist said. The government on Oct. 8 projected a national corn yield of 12.7 billion bushels, down 4 percent from the September forecast and down 3 percent from last year's record production of 13.1 billion bushels. Soybean production is forecast at a record high 3.41 billion bushels, down 2 percent from September's prediction but up 1 percent from last year. Tighter grain supplies invariably mean skyrocketing input costs for livestock producers. That can turn a profit into a loss for many a rancher, lamented Gregg Doud, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association's chief economist. "We've gone probably eight of the last nine months in this industry where everyone from the rancher to the retailer was making a little bit of money," Doud told the Capital Press. "Now that's probably not going to be the case any longer. The report pushed input costs up immediately. On Oct. 8, corn prices rose 30 cents to settle at $5.2825 a bushel; soybeans for November delivery rose 70 cents to $11.35 a bushel, and wheat for December delivery rose 60 cents to settle at $7.1925 a bushel...more

Animals and the Lone Star State

Normally when we think of the contributions animals have made in the development and settlement of Texas, ideas of their roles as beasts of burden come to mind. Of course, they were important in hauling, pulling, and plowing. In addition, animals were also important means of transportation in moving people and goods, and they were primary sources of food as well. However, some four-footed creatures played unique roles in political arenas in some parts of the state. West Texas was especially late in developing. Because of the absence of trees and minimal rainfall, that part of the state had difficulty in attracting residents. Consequently, the organization of county governments in that region was difficult to say the least. One of the prerequisites for organizing county governments was to present a petition to the state legislature with 150 signatures to support the request. Because many of those areas had nowhere near that many residents, they resorted to some rather creative methods to meet the requirements. In 1895 promoters for the establishment of Haskell County signed the names of their horses and dogs, and they invited travelers passing through the area to sign the petition as well. When the judge raised questions about the validity of some of the names on the petition, one supporter argued that the stipulation required 150 signatures, not necessarily names of residents. Technically he was correct, and the judge approved the petition. A local rancher involved in organizing Lubbock County signed up all the ranch hands he could find, as well as the names of several of their horses. Among the names appearing on a petition from Castro County were Billy, Jug, and Blue — all horses on the 7-Up Ranch. The name “Bill Burp” appeared on the Fisher County petition. Bill Burp was rancher Bob Simpson’s dog...more

No doubt they were still more accurate than our census.

Two Dead, 20 Wounded in Fights at Prisons in

Two simultaneous fights between members of the Los Aztecas and Los Mexicles gangs at two different prisons in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s murder capital, left at least two inmates dead and 17 others wounded, officials said, adding that three guards were also hurt. The fights broke out Saturday at the municipal jail in Ciudad Juarez and at the state prison in the northern border city. Two inmates were stabbed to death and 17 others were wounded in the fight at the state prison, officials said. Several of the inmates involved in the fight at the state prison were shot and three guards were hurt, officials said. Shots were fired at the municipal jail in Ciudad Juarez, located across the border from El Paso, Texas, but there were no reports of any injuries. Visiting family members, including small children, were initially caught in the crossfire but guards managed to evacuate them, officials said. The Los Aztecas gang, which is linked to the Juarez drug cartel, controls the prisons and 80 percent of the drug dealing in the border city, U.S. intelligence reports say...more

'Green' red tape said to hinder Border Patrol

The investigators found a mixed situation - in some places cooperation seems the rule, while in others both sides seem determined to butt heads. In one stark instance, the investigators said the Border Patrol has tried to get an east-west road built in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a sprawling desert park that spans 32 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. But the road request has been denied by the park superintendent, leaving the patrol agent-in-charge to struggle without the additional resource. "He told us that some of his area of operation could potentially reach operational-control status if there was an additional east-west road for patrolling certain areas within the monument," the investigators said. "Border Patrol requested an additional east-west road, but the land manager denied the request because the area is designated wilderness."...more

I really don't know why this is so shocking to folks.

Section 4(c)(PROHIBITION OF CERTAIN USES)of the Wilderness Act states:

...there shall be no commercial enterprise and no permanent road within any wilderness area designated by this Act...

and

...there shall be no temporary road, no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment or motorboats, no landing of aircraft, no other form of mechanical transport, and no structure or installation within any such area.

Now I'm no legal wizard, but if the law says "no permanent road" and "no temporary road", I don't believe it's rash to conclude there ain't gonna be any road in a Wilderness area.

The Economics of Drug Violence

Powerful monopoly suppliers need to control key zones so they can guarantee an army of contract employees. These "ants" carry the drugs over the U.S. border at a limited number of strategic points in small shipments. Without mafia-style terror, the cartel's domination along the route cannot be maintained. Mexican law enforcement has been courageous in trying to confront these monopolies, but firepower has not done the job. That's because this is an economic problem. Lower levels of violence in the U.S., despite widespread availability of drugs, and an improved picture in Colombia, where cocaine still flows, are best explained by competition and the smaller scale of the operators. It wasn't always that way in Colombia. In Mexico it could also change. To help Mexico deal with this "antitrust" problem, the U.S. has to recognize that competition in the narcotics sector is preferable to the monopolistic syndicates that threaten the state and could move north. But this would require greater flexibility from U.S. drug warriors. Some progress may be in the making on marijuana, and Mexicans will be watching the California ballot initiative that asks the electorate to approve the legalization of the ubiquitous weed. For sure, the U.S. market is robust, and "medical marijuana" looks like a way of legalizing without admitting to it. There is also the fact that the stuff seems to move around the country quite easily, demonstrating some tolerance on the part of U.S. law enforcement for the retail sector that distributes it. More competition in marijuana production and distribution in the U.S. would help beleaguered Mexico. As it stands now, the gangsters have good reason to pull out all the stops to get their marijuana across the border where the market is large, barriers to distribution are low and prohibition adds value. Profit margins are not huge but the sales volume is there. Mexican officials estimate that the marijuana business makes up more than half of the Mexican cartels' income. Legalizing grass in the U.S. would mean increased competition for Mexican exporters and lower profit margins, thereby depriving the monopolies of important income...more

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Bits and pieces from the boot box

by Julie Carter

As short, funny stories fly through my life, I latch on to them and save them in a boot box to be shared with the world at some point. Boot boxes are the perfect place to store about everything.

Destination weddings

Missy and Randy planned to get married just as soon as she finished her Finance final at college. They had a "destination wedding" planned. Their destination was the local courthouse.

As they were leaving the courthouse, the deed done, signed and sealed, Randy told Missy she needed to drive, he was tired. New-wife dutiful, she obliged.

About a block away from the courthouse he said to her, "You know, I don't have a big old money tree like your daddy."

Missy slammed on the brakes bringing the pickup to an abrupt halt. "My God Randy, couldn't we have had this conversation about 10 minutes ago? I'm already married to you now."

Women get the last word in every argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument. Missy has proved that to Randy for 38 years now.

Happily ever after

Not long ago a Southern Belle barrel racer was given her Senior Association Gold Card for being 75-plus years old and still competing.

She thanked the committee for their recognition and told them how much she appreciated the gesture.

The association president assured her it was their pleasure. He mentioned how much they enjoyed seeing her and wished they could catch up with her a little more often.

She replied, "Hopefully I'm going to be able to go to more rodeos now, because last week I put my husband in a rest home."

The president nodded and thought, "This lady makes team ropers look human."

Turning blue

Cleverness abounds when it comes to cowboys. Team ropers, contrary to common misconception, are no exception.

Tim had "had it." Every time he went to a roping, someone stole his roping gloves out of the back of his pickup.

Standing before his washing machine, he dumped an entire bundle of new white cotton gloves into the tub along with a box of blue Rit dye.

Quite pleased with himself and this grand idea, he said, "Now I'll know immediately who's stealing my gloves."

Soon after, he called his girlfriend up and asked if she'd like to come along to a roping. He suggested she could sit in the grandstands where she could easily spot those who were wearing blue roping gloves. He'd appreciate her help and the information.

Situating herself with a good viewpoint, it wasn't long before she was nearly rolling off the bleacher seats with uncontrollable laughter. Everybody that rode in the arena was wearing blue roping gloves.

No one would admit to stealing his gloves, even when Tim waved around the empty box and pointed out everyone had on blue gloves.

Nope, no siree, didn't steal them, they told him with conviction. Bought them at the feed store right there locally. Didn't he know? Blue was the new fashion color.
Tim rode away muttering something about "I swear to Jesus, next time I'm dying them pink!"

The blue story wasn't over. Soon after the blue-glove roping, Tim called up his girlfriend in some distress. He didn't know that the blue dye would stay in his washer and he now had all blue shirts, all blue socks and all blue underwear.

In complete sympathy, sort of, she laughed and asked if there was any chance he thought someone was stealing his underwear? She suggested a Saturday night at the local honky tonk, checking to see who else might have blue underwear.

He was not as amused at the idea as she thought he should be.

Priorities

Reminiscing about his rodeo career, a handsome 40ish cowboy stated, "I started riding bareback horses and bulls when I was 15. I rode both until I turned 22. Quit the bulls because I was a little better at the horses. And besides, I didn't like waiting around after the bareback riding to ride a bull at 10 p.m. I had to get to the dance!"

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@ruidosonews.com.

ICE & Border Patrol officers vote "no-confidence" in current leadership

In recent months, labor organizations representing federal immigration agents have been among the most outspoken challengers of Obama's enforcement campaign. In June, the American Federation of Government Employees' National Council 118, which represents Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, issued a no-confidence vote for ICE Director John Morton, claiming he is promoting amnesty instead of enforcement because most ICE officers are unable to make immigration-related arrests on the streets, leading to "amnesty by policy." The National Border Patrol Council adopted a similar no-confidence resolution targeting Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar. Brandon Judd, union vice president and president of Local 2544 in Tucson, said this week that the Obama administration has purposefully understaffed remote areas and attempted to limit the number of undocumented immigrants captured in Arizona so that it can assert that illegal immigration is dropping because of improved enforcement. "The border is just as wide open in some areas as it's ever been," Judd said. "Yes, I do believe the administration wants as few arrests as they possibly can. If they can have fewer arrests, then they can say fewer people are crossing the border. This administration is desperate to say the border is secure." In a joint phone interview Friday, Morton and Aguilar bristled at claims that their enforcement campaigns are ineffective or designed to fail...more

Mexico: 48 Americans slain in first 6 months of 2010

Forty-eight Americans were killed in Mexico during the first six months of 2010 — a deadly pace that appears likely to exceed any previous year of homicides on record, according to the Houston Chronicle's analysis of the U.S. State Department's death registry. The tally doesn't include two Texans reported killed Sept. 30 in separate incidents in isolated areas of Tamaulipas. American killings in Mexico have risen steadily since 2007, when drug violence first began to rage out-of-control in border cities like Nuevo Laredo and Tijuana and later spread to Ciudad Juarez, currently ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Most homicides this year occurred in border states, like Chihuahua and Baja California, the analysis of State Department data from mid-2002 to mid-2010 shows. Last year, 80 homicides of U.S. citizens were reported in Mexico, compared with 57 in 2008 and 35 in 2007. At least 13 Americans have been slain in Ciudad Juarez in 2010, including an employee of the U.S. Consulate, Lesley Enriquez, 35, and her husband, Arthur Redelfs, 34. Jorge Salcido, the Mexican husband of another consulate employee, was killed minutes before the others in a coordinated attack on their two cars. Three U.S. citizens — a bridegroom, his brother and his uncle, all from New Mexico — were reported by Mexican authorities to have been abducted during a May wedding at the El Señor de la Misericordia Catholic Church in Juarez. Their bodies were later found dumped in a pickup truck, but those three homicides do not appear to be included in the registry...more

Mayor-elect shot as hits on Mexico politicos climb

The mayor-elect of a small town near Oaxaca state's Pacific coast has been shot to death, the latest in a string of politicial figures who have been slain in Mexico this year. Antonio Jimenez Banos, 47, who would have taken office in January in Martires de Tacubaya, was killed Friday afternoon by an assailant as he was returning to his farm. He was hit in the head and chest apparently with a shotgun, prosecutors said. Eleven sitting mayors have been killed so far this year in Mexico. Two of them were also in Oaxaca, but most of the killings have been in northern states plagued by drug gang violence. Candidates and representatives-elect have also been assassinated. The most brazen was a deadly ambush of a gubernatorial candidate earlier this year in the border state of Tamaulipas, where two drug cartels are fighting a bloody battle for territory and transit routes to the United States. Mexican drug cartels have increasingly targeted local elected officials as they fight the government and each other. They use isolated, lightly patrolled towns to hide and to stash kidnap victims, weapons and drugs and seek to co-opt or eliminate authorities to assert their control...more

Juárez violence leaves thousands of children orphaned, traumatized

As an epidemic of violence spreads through this border city of 1.3 million, more and more children are left without one or both parents. Therapists estimate that about 10,000 children have been orphaned because of drug-cartel violence that exploded in 2008. Since then more than 6,600 people have been killed in Juárez, giving the city the unwelcome designation as the world's homicide capital. Juan González, director of a nonprofit organization that offers psychotherapy for low-income families, said the majority of murder victims were parents of at least two children. Most of those killed were between the ages of 20 and 39. Juárez, a place where murders routinely go unsolved, generally is not equipped to provide psychological treatment for children who become orphans. This means that more violence could be simmering just below the surface, González said...more

Fear grips Americans on lake at Mexican border

For decades, Falcon Lake was known primarily as an anglers' paradise, a tranquil reservoir straddling the border with Mexico where a clever fisherman could catch enormous largemouth bass. These days, however, the lake is developing a reputation for something else: piracy. As a prolonged conflict between drug dealers and the government has eroded civil order in Mexico, gangs of armed thugs in speedboats have begun robbing fishermen and tourists on the lake. Last week, gunmen in three boats reportedly shot and killed an American as he and his wife toured the lake on Jet Skis. The Texas Rangers have warned Americans to keep to the U.S. side of the 60-mile-long reservoir, which was formed in 1953 when the Rio Grande was dammed. The Border Patrol and the Coast Guard have increased patrols on the lake, officials said. The shooting was the latest in a string of attacks on the lake that began April 30. The gangs carry AK-47s and sometimes claim to be Mexican federal police or U.S. game wardens. State police say the robbers are believed to be members of a drug gang, although it is unclear if the attacks are the work of one group or several...more

Feds feud while land is overrun

A draft Government Accountability Office (GAO) report has confirmed what The Examiner has been reporting since February: federal land managers are actively preventing the Border Patrol from sealing the southern border with Mexico. Worse, this nearly decade-old feud between Homeland Security and Interior Department officials is undermining the core mission of both departments. “The severity of the crisis along the border cannot be underestimated,” says Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, who joined other members of Congress to commission the GAO report. “This report reveals shocking details that illustrate how so-called environmental policies are contributing to the ongoing crime and violence along the southern U.S.-Mexico border.” Although the report is highly critical of Interior officials, it also points the finger at BP officials who refuse to press the issue. “Positive projects are being stymied at a local level by both the Border Patrol bureaucracy and land managers,” GAO found...more

Sue Krentz Update 10-8-10

From: Patrick Bray [mailto:pbray@arizonabeef.org]
Sent: Friday, October 08, 2010 1:53 PM

Sue has made some incredible strides in the last few days towards recovery. She is still in the ICU and on pain medication. She is alert and talking with family members at the hospital. Today the doctors have approved her to eat regular food. She is aware of what has happened and the Kimble in her is pushing her to get out of the hospital as soon as possible.

The following information is from the family:

To everything there is a season, and
a time to every purpose under heaven: a time to heal
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Through your gracious prayers, thoughts and gifts we are all helping Sue progress.

This will be her time to heal.

We appreciate all the support the Cattle growers and extended community have offered. Once again, your love, support and prayers will help to give Sue the strength and courage to improve. Sue has been able to hear the thoughts and prayers from family who has read cards and letters to her.

Thank you all, from Krentz, Kimble, and Pope Families.

Remember she is still in the ICU and cannot receive anything at the hospital.
Hope you all have a great weekend.

NRA’s incumbent-friendly policy may boost 58 House Democrats in November

Not a lot of things have gone the Democrats’ way this year, but dozens of their House candidates are getting a late boost from an unusual source: the National Rifle Association. So far this year, the NRA has endorsed 58 incumbent House Democrats, including more than a dozen in seats both parties view as critical to winning a majority. The endorsements are not because of a sudden love for a party with which the NRA is often at odds. Rather, it is because the powerful group adheres to what it calls “an incumbent-friendly’’ policy, which holds that if two candidates are equally supportive of gun rights, the incumbent gets the nod...more

A reasonble policy most of the time, since over 95% of incumbents are re-elected.

However, this is an unusual year and the majority is at stake in the House. In other words, NRA policy may result in Nancy Pelosi remaining as Speaker. Pelosi is not exactly renowned for her pro-gun, pro-hunting stance on the issues.

This is Pelosi's record on gun control, from On The Issues

* Voted NO on prohibiting product misuse lawsuits on gun manufacturers. (Oct 2005)
* Voted NO on prohibiting suing gunmakers & sellers for gun misuse. (Apr 2003)
* Voted NO on decreasing gun waiting period from 3 days to 1. (Jun 1999)
* Rated F by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun control voting record. (Dec 2003)

NRA policy may result in a person they give an "F" on gun control being Speaker of the House.

What grade would you give the NRA policy?

Was Obama’s Oil Spill Response ‘Not Fully Competent’ or ‘Not Fully Candid’?

On August 4, Carol Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and Fox News morning shows to declare Mission Accomplished on handling the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Specifically, she told the Today show: “I think it’s also important to note that our scientists have done an initial assessment and more than three-quarters of the oil is gone, the vast majority of the oil is gone.” Now it appears that Browner spoke too soon and, even worse, suppressed criticism of the Obama administration’s assessment of the spill. When scientists from the University of South Florida (USF) had the audacity to question the Obama administration’s “science,” the White House pushed back hard. William Hogarth, dean of marine sciences at USF, told the St. Petersburg Times that administration officials pressured him to retract USF’s public announcement, and he compared it to being “beat up” by federal officials. University of Southern Mississippi oceanographer Vernon Asper also drew Obama administration ire: “We expected that NOAA would be very pleased. NOAA instead responded by trying to discredit us.” Yesterday, the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling issued four preliminary working papers on the Obama administration’s response to the oil spill. Their paper titled The Amount and Fate of the Oil reads:

By initially underestimating the amount of oil flow and then, at the end of the summer, appearing to underestimate the amount of oil remaining in the Gulf, the federal government created the impression that it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not fully candid with the American people about the scope of the problem.

The Foundry

The Rules of Salazar

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar enjoys wielding power. Remember, during the Gulf oil spill he firmly stated that he would put “a boot on the throat” of British Petroleum. He has now issued a memorandum for the use of science in decision-making, according to The New York Times Oct. 1 Green blog. Salazar declared: “The American people must have confidence that the Department of Interior is basing its decisions on the best available science…free of improper influence.” But it was Salazar who attached his Gulf drilling moratorium surreptitiously to a National Academy of Engineering report that did NOT recommend stopping drilling. Trying to play the big shot again, Salazar issued his science policy rule because the White House Office of Science and Technology has dilly-dallied since March 2009 when President Obama told it to come up with guidelines to ensure government science was conducted without political influence. Other federal agencies have been willing to wait for White House policy guidance on science—even for18 months. But Salazar, showing his chutzpah, moved ahead on his own, saying his science policy will “ensure that scientists will not be coerced to alter scientific findings. Even though it was okay to reverse their findings, as he did on the drilling moratorium mandate...more

NRC Chairman Killing Yucca Mtn. Without Authority

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Gregory Jaczko has ordered his staff to stop the review of the nuclear materials repository at Yucca Mountain. Aside from the harmful policy implications of this action, the chairman seems to be moving forward without any authority to do so. President Obama has made it clear that he supports terminating the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository. And despite there being no scientific or technical evidence to support the decision and the fact that he has no plan for how the United States should manage its nuclear waste absent Yucca, he has that right. But neither he, his Administration, nor the NRC has the right to ignore existing statute, the legal process, or the will of Congress. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, clearly states that the federal government is responsible for managing America’s commercial nuclear waste, and the Yucca Mountain Development Act of 2002 explicitly identifies Yucca Mountain as the location of the nation’s nuclear materials repository. No Congress has passed any bill to reverse these laws. Thus it becomes very questionable how the Administration or NRC can shut down all Yucca activities without either a plan to replace Yucca or congressional authority to terminate the project...more

Federal officials deny Montana wolf hunt request

Federal officials on Thursday denied Montana's request to hunt gray wolves in response to increasing attacks on livestock and elk, leaving a settlement with environmentalists as the most immediate hope for the state to regain control over the endangered predators. State wildlife officials hoped to exploit a loophole in the Endangered Species Act and hold a "conservation hunt" for up to 186 wolves this fall. In a letter denying the request, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Deputy Director Daniel Ashe wrote that the proposal was unlikely to survive a legal challenge. "We fully support sport hunting as an important and effective management tool for wolves managed under state law," Ashe wrote. "However ... we have concluded that the likelihood of successfully defending such a (hunt) in light of existing case law is remote." Idaho also has proposed a public hunt. The state's Republican governor, C.L. "Butch" Otter, met with federal officials in Boise on Thursday, but it was unclear if Idaho's proposal had been rejected. Otter spokesman John Hanion described the meeting as productive but declined to release details. Montana officials said Thursday that a settlement with the 13 groups involved in the federal lawsuit is possible. That could bring a quicker resolution to the issue than the two alternatives: a pending appeal of the August court ruling or action by Congress...more

Sarah Palin backs Hatch's wolves bill

An effort to control Western wolf populations is getting a little help from above, as it were. Sarah Palin fired of a whole round of tweets earlier today and among them was this one: "Support sportsmen & ranchers who need responsible predator control regulated by states, not federal bureaucrats." That's a reference to Sen. Orrin Hatch's bill to remove the gray wolf from the Endanged Species list. Palin linked to Hatch's press release...more

Otter backs down on wolf ultimatum

The clock reached zero and then kept ticking on the Oct. 7 ultimatum Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter gave the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, insisting on state control of wolf management. But rather than end his state’s cooperation regarding the federally protected predator as he had warned, Otter just pushed his deadline into the unforeseeable future. Otter met Thursday afternoon with Steve Doherty, senior Northwest advisor for the U.S. Interior Department, and representatives from the Governor’s Office of Species Conservation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to push for a new wolf management agreement. Otter spokesman Jon Hanian said everything was on the table and the governor considered the meeting a good exchange of concerns. Idaho was not given control of wolf management, Hanian said, but Otter’s deadline was set just to emphasize the urgency. When asked if Otter pushed back the deadline because he was content with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar joining Idaho and Montana in appealing the court ruling that put wolves back under federal protection, Hanian said it was welcome but Otter expected more...more

Virginia fight over climate documents will continue

The University of Virginia said Monday that it would continue to fight state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II's efforts to obtain documents related to a climate scientist's work, just hours after Cuccinelli reissued a civil subpoena for the papers. The new Civil Investigative Demand revives a contentious fight between Cuccinelli (R), a vocal global warming skeptic, and Virginia's flagship university over documents related to the research of Michael Mann, who worked at the university from 1999 to 2005. A judge blocked Cuccinelli's first bid to obtain the documents. Mann, whose research concluded that the earth has experienced a rapid, recent warming, works at Penn State University. Cuccinelli has been trying to force the public university, technically a client of his office, to turn over documents related to Mann's work since April. Cuccinelli has said he wants to see the documents to determine whether Mann committed fraud as he sought public dollars for his work...more

Environmental Skeptic Offers Fresh Perspective on Global Warming Debate

If you take Al Gore and replace his global warming apocalypticism with a careful pragmatism and his insistence for energy taxes with a love for human innovation, research and creativity, you will end up with someone similar to Skeptical Environmentalist author Bjorn Lomborg. At The Heritage Foundation Bloggers Briefing this Tuesday, Lomborg said he considers global warming to be a legitimate threat – one that is exaggerated and can be handled through the power of human ingenuity. Lomborg shows his other way to tackle global warming in his new film Cool It. Forget about onerous cap-and-trade legislation, which Heritage estimates would cost the average family of four $3,000 by 2035. Instead, Lomborg sees solutions in further research and experimentation. One of many possible solutions mentioned in the film is predicated on something Benjamin Franklin discovered when a volcano in Laki, Iceland erupted in 1783. Franklin made a connection between the volcano’s eruption and the change in the climate. His theory was confirmed in 1991 when scientists determined that the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines cooled the earth’s overall temperature by almost one degree Fahrenheit...more

Government Appeals Hage Case

After 18 years in one court, Hage v. United States officially moves to the next level at the U.S. Court of Appeals after the U.S. Department of Justice filed its appeal on October 1, 2010. “The government had too much at stake to let the Court of Claims decision stand,” said Margaret Hage Byfield, daughter of Wayne and Jean Hage and executive director of American Stewards of Liberty. No briefing schedule has been issued, but hopefully, the case will be heard and decided in a much more expedited fashion and no matter the decision, Hage will probably end up at the U.S. Supreme Court. Since this has been appealed to the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., whatever decision is made will have binding precedent throughout the U.S., unless and until it is appealed to the Supreme Court...more

For background on the Hage case, go here.

FTC revises guidelines for products claiming to be eco-friendly

It's an inconvenient truth: Many of the environmental claims in advertisements and packaging are more about raking in the green than being green. Aiming to clear up confusion for consumers about what various terms mean, the Federal Trade Commission has revised its guidelines for businesses that make claims about so-called "eco-friendly" products. The proposed new version of the agency's Green Guides was released Wednesday, with recommendations for when to use words like "degradable" and "carbon offset," in advertisements and packaging, and warnings about using certifications and seals of approval that send misleading messages. It's an inconvenient truth: Many of the environmental claims in advertisements and packaging are more about raking in the green than being green. Aiming to clear up confusion for consumers about what various terms mean, the Federal Trade Commission has revised its guidelines for businesses that make claims about so-called "eco-friendly" products. The proposed new version of the agency's Green Guides was released Wednesday, with recommendations for when to use words like "degradable" and "carbon offset," in advertisements and packaging, and warnings about using certifications and seals of approval that send misleading messages...more

Hitler Learns About the Climate 10:10 Video

Hitler Learns About the Climate 10:10 Video from Steve Hayward on Vimeo.

Maybe you can take it with you

Stimulus Checks Sent to the Dead

Young bullfighter brave beyond years

At the tender age of 12, Michel Lagravere is a sensation in bullfighting circles, the youngest bullfighter in the world. He displays little fear before snorting, charging bulls, some of which weigh around 900 pounds. By his own reckoning, he already has slain hundreds of them. So far this year, he has unsheathed his sword and waved his cape in 46 bullrings around Mexico, among them the famed Plaza Mexico in the capital. He has challenged bulls in Colombia, Peru and France and has his hopes set on Spain. Known simply as ``Michelito,'' the seventh-grader is the latest of a breed of ever-younger extreme athletes. So far this year, records have been broken for the youngest person to scale Mount Everest -- 13-year-old Jordan Romero, an American -- and the youngest person to sail around the world alone, 16-year-old Jessica Watson, an Australian. As adolescents gain attention for athletic achievements at younger ages, the focus now falls on a precocious bullfighter who stands all of 4 feet 10...more

U.S. May Need ‘Strategic Hamburger Reserve’ after Obama EPA Implements New Regulations

According to a representative of the cattle and beef industry, America may need a “strategic hamburger reserve” if the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) implements proposed new reguilations for cattle producers. “From where I sit, (the Obama administration) appears to be aimed at destroying the cattle industry in America as we know it,” Tamara Thies, the chief environmental counsel at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said on Capitol Hill last week. “It is ironic that as we work to become less dependent on foreign oil, Obama policies are likely to make us more dependent on foreign beef. Maybe we’ll need to start a strategic hamburger reserve after the Obama administration is finished with us.” Thies' comments came at a hearing conducted by the House Republicans’ Rural America Solutions Group about the EPA’s proposed regulations on the industry, which include the toughest dust regulations in history – one which would significantly impact the rural economy by imposing steep fines on cattle producers who, Thies said, most likely cannot afford them...more

They Figured Out What Was Killing the Bees

The plight of the honeybee, which saw a 20 to 40 percent "colony collapse" since 2006 in the U.S. alone, has confused scientists for years. Who would want to hurt a sweet, industrious honeybee that only wants to make you delicious honey and maybe insert its stinger, ever so gently, into your skin? Scientists suspected that pesticides or genetically modified food might have caused the troubling phenomenon, best chronicled in Elizabeth Kolbert's 2007 New Yorker article. But there were no real answers until military scientists and entomologists teamed up and made a breakthrough: In every colony collapsed, they found the combined effects of a fungus and a virus, neither of which were deadly on their own. Like any compelling murder mystery, there are still some threads left open. Scientists aren't sure how exactly the virus and fungus interact or what makes the bees fly off alone in seemingly random directions when they're close to dying, a factor that complicates bee autopsies...more

Modified Corn Aids Nearby Farmers, and Vice Versa

A long-term study of corn production in the Midwest has found that the widespread use of varieties engineered with a bacterial gene that kills insect pests has had big benefits in adjacent fields of conventional corn — cutting infestations there and boosting farmers’ income by billions of dollars. The paper, “Areawide Suppression of European Corn Borer with Bt Maize Reaps Savings to Non-Bt Maize Growers,” is being published in the Oct. 8 edition of the journal Science. The genetically modified variety, known as Bt corn, debuted in the Midwest in 1996 as a means of cutting losses from the European corn borer, a pest that spread to the United States in 1917. It now accounts for more than 60 percent of the American corn crop. A press release from the research team, led by scientists at the University of Minnesota and the Department of Agriculture, summarized the financial findings: The researchers estimate that farmers in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin received cumulative economic benefits of nearly $7 billion between 1996-2009, with benefits of more than $4 billion for non-Bt corn farmers alone. The scientists estimated that in Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin, borer populations in adjacent non-Bt fields declined by 28 to 73 percent, with similar reductions recorded in Iowa and Nebraska. According to the paper, maintaining “refuges” of conventional corn varieties helps prevent the corn borer from developing resistance to the engineered variety, and the yields in such areas — because of a combination of reduced insect damage and lower costs of the non-engineered seed — ensure that such plantings are profitable...more