NEWS ROUNDUP
Udall, DeGette sign on to push solar, wind Several Western lawmakers are leading an effort in the House to set a national requirement that utilities produce 20 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2020. Democratic Reps. Diana DeGette and Mark Udall of Colorado and Tom Udall of New Mexico are among a group of lawmakers pushing to add the renewable electricity standard to a House bill promoting clean energy. The renewable electricity proposal is a key - but controversial - measure that environmentalists say must pass if the nation is going to take meaningful steps to combat global warming and reduce dependence on foreign fossil fuel. A similar effort failed in the Senate earlier this summer. The Western House members hope their effort will make it through Congress. By pushing the bill, the lawmakers are likely setting up a fight that will pit the West and Midwest against the Southeast. It's unclear whether the proposal has enough support to pass. Western states were among the first to start requiring the use of renewable energy, in part because of the ample supply of wind and sunshine. More than 20 states mandate that a percentage of their electricity be produced from renewable energy sources....
Environmentalism's Legal Legacy Environmental activists, policy scholars, and others claim that the environmental movement is in decline, suffering from attacks on the right on Capitol Hill and from the White House in recent years. Yet given some distinctive attributes associated with this issue, the progressive environmental cause is uniquely situated to ensure that it receives considerable attention in Washington. The result has been an uncommon expansion of government activity in a single issue area. And despite claims to contrary, progressive environmental policy making has continued to gain ground even in recent times—even under Republican leadership. This paper highlights legislative expansion of environmental law. It uses several datasets to document the growth of the environmental legal legacy. First, an analysis of congressional vote scoring by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) reveals that environmental pressure groups do relatively well even in a subset of close votes scored—winning a majority of the time in eight out of 17 congresses and winning 43 percent of these votes overall. It does indicate that environmental groups faced some real challenges in recent years, but it does not reveal how that affected public policy. The LCV scoring also shows that environmental groups are involved in policy making at a very detailed level. Two additional analyses reveal the importance of environmental issues vis-à-vis other issues on Capitol Hill. The fi rst focuses on congressional committee actions that produced public laws during 12 congresses. This analysis showed that environmental committees remained a center of legislative activity throughout the timeline studied, and that activity reached high points during the 1990s after the Republicans gained a majority in Congress....
Utility blasts its Oregon dam to make way for fish The largest dam removal in the Pacific Northwest in 40 years began on Tuesday with blasts of 4,000 pounds of explosives, the dam's owner, Portland General Electric, said. Eight feet of the 47-foot-tall Marmot Dam was removed by Tuesday afternoon and over the next two months there will be five more blasts, along with jackhammers working daily, company spokesman Mark Fryburg said. "Today, this partnership took a great step toward restoring a breathtaking river for fish, wildlife and people," Portland General Electric CEO and President Peggy Fowler said in a statement. The Marmot Dam on the Sandy River about 40 miles east of Portland was built almost 100 years ago along with the nearby 16-foot-high Little Sandy Dam, which will be destroyed next summer, the utility said. Portland General Electric, the biggest utility in Oregon, is spending $17 million to remove the two dams in coordination with 23 environmental, governmental and civic organizations....
ID lawmaker blames grazing restrictions for wildfire's size An Idaho state lawmaker-rancher is blaming federal grazing restrictions for the size and ferocity of a giant wildfire on the Idaho-Nevada border, a contention dismissed as baseless by the leader of a conservation group. The Murphy Complex fire has burned across nearly 975 square miles, burning up grassland and killing at least one cow that couldn't escape the flames. Two small communities were briefly under evacuation orders. The Murphy Complex fire killed at least one cow owned by Rep. Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, although officials say more dead cattle will likely be found. "This didn't have to happen," he told The Times-News as he stood over the charred body of a cow. Had more cattle been allowed to graze, there would have been less available fuel, he said. "I think we need to take a hard look at basic (grazing) policy issues because what we're doing just isn't working," Brackett said....
Feds Propose Habitat for Bighorn Sheep More than 400,000 acres of wildlands in the Eastern Sierra Nevada should serve as a protected habitat for an endangered mountain sheep rebounding from the threat of extinction, the federal government said Wednesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposed critical habitat designation is a response to a 2005 lawsuit by environmentalists, who claimed the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep couldn't recover because their habitat wasn't protected as required under the Endangered Species Act. In their lawsuit, environmentalists singled out as a particular problem: the U.S. Forest Service's decision to allow ranchers to graze domesticated sheep on public lands thought to be crucial to the wild sheep's survival. Domestic sheep not only compete for the sedges and grasses that grow in the rugged, mountain landscape, but can spread diseases like pneumonia and scabies when bighorn rams try to mate with their domesticated cousins, government scientists said. Sheepherders dismissed assertions that their herd's proximity to the wild sheep played a role in their decline, and said the new designation could cause millions of dollars in losses to the $1 billion wool textiles and lamb industry. "The bighorn have been a very good surrogate tool to clear out areas of livestock grazing," said Tom McDonnell, a consultant for the American Sheep Industry Association, whose members graze their lambs and ewes in the Mono Lake area. "We will probably lose substantial amounts of grazing on private, state and federal ground."....
Governors sign agreement to form Blue Ribbon commission As a sign of unity in the wake of the Angora fire, the Lake Tahoe Basin's two state governors signed an agreement Wednesday to form a fire commission intended to review forest management practices in the Basin. California and Nevada Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Gibbons used the Lake Valley Fire station in Meyers as a backdrop to define the mission of the Blue Ribbon Fire Commission. The fact-finding panel will consist of 17 voting members, each governor appointing eight and the U.S. Forest Service appointing one. Up to six additional non-voting members can be appointed by the governors. The commission will disband two months after delivering its report. Gibbons called the fire a learning experience on several fronts. Questions and tempers have been raised regarding forest fuel reduction practices and whether agencies tasked with sustaining the environment have created gridlock at removing the dead and dying trees and the undercover of flammable material....
Prosecutors mull charges in Zaca blaze Investigators have completed a report on the cause of a three-week-old Santa Barbara County wildfire and will forward it to local prosecutors for a decision on whether to file criminal charges, officials said Wednesday. The 31,000-acre blaze was started July 4 by workers grinding metal to repair a water pipeline on a private ranch in Bell Canyon, just west of the Los Padres National Forest boundary and Zaca Lake. Prosecutors were expected to decide by next week if any charges are warranted against the landowner. California Department of Forestry investigator Andy Andersen wouldn't disclose the recommendation in the investigators' report that was scheduled to be sent to the district attorney's office on Friday. The cost of suppression efforts has already exceed $33 million....
USFS venture aims to offset carbon emissions The U.S. Forest Service is teaming with a nonprofit foundation to allow consumers to participate in a voluntary program to "offset" their carbon dioxide emissions. Under the agreement announced Wednesday, the Forest Service and the National Forest Foundation will allow individuals or groups to make charitable contributions that will be used to plant trees and do other work to improve national forests. The Forest Service has identified several reforestation projects to kick off the new program, including one in the Custer National Forest in Montana and South Dakota and another in the Payette National Forest in Idaho. The Forest Service estimates that the nation's 155 national forests offset about 10 percent of carbon emissions in the United States. Forest Service scientists believe that figure can be raised to as much as 25 percent by doing such things as planting more trees in urban areas or reforesting old crop land....
Hood wilderness bill clears Senate panel, moves to floor A long-awaited and oft-troubled attempt to expand wilderness protection to nearly 125,000 acres in the Mount Hood National Forest gained new life Wednesday when a bill moved to the floor of the U.S. Senate. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed the "Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act of 2007" unanimously on a voice vote. A troubled land exchange between a ski area and the federal government had held the bill up for a year, among other difficulties. Oregon senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith co-sponsored the bill. "It's a new day for wilderness, and we are now poised to pass the protection that Mount Hood deserves," said Wyden. The bill would add to existing wilderness protections on the forest and grant Wild and Scenic River status to an additional 80 miles of rivers. Further, the bill would create more than 34,000 acres of a Mount Hood National Recreation Area with access for mountain biking and other recreation. Wilderness areas do not allow mountain biking and severely restrict most activities to retain the wild features of the land....
GE Launches 'Green' Credit Card General Electric Co., a longtime target of environmentalists that is working to bolster its "green" image, launched a credit card Wednesday that gives users a chance to offset their greenhouse-gas emissions. The new card, the GE Money Earth Rewards Platinum MasterCard, is being marketed as the nation's first to offer customers "rewards" that can go toward carbon emissions credits rather than more common perks such as cash-back payouts or airline miles. A joint venture between GE and electric power company AES Corp. will use the credits to pay for projects that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Both the card and the joint venture are part of GE's "Ecomagination" initiative, which the Fairfield, Conn.-based conglomerate launched two years ago to boost sales of environmentally friendly technology and cut carbon emissions. Card users will be able to automatically contribute up to 1 percent of their purchases toward emissions offsets. Customers will have the choice to donate all of their rewards or receive half in cash. Rewards will accrue over the course of the year and can be redeemed for emissions credits each Earth Day, April 22. There will be no limit on the amount of credits customers can earn....
Salazar blocks BLM nominee U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar has officially blocked the confirmation of President Bush's nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management. He vowed Wednesday to relent only when Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne pledges that the department's conflict with the state over energy development won't end in a "train wreck." Salazar, a Colorado Democrat, said he outlined his concerns in a meeting with Kempthorne and asked for assurance that the federal government "would not be running roughshod over the Roan Plateau and Colorado's public lands." Specifically, Salazar wants the state to have "meaningful input" about the development of oil shale and for Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter to have time to review a plan to drill for natural gas on the scenic Roan Plateau. Salazar said that until then, he will prevent the Senate from voting on James Caswell's nomination to head the BLM....
Groups sue to block drilling People who think energy development is moving too quickly in the Pinedale area got a boost this week from two little-known environmental groups and several people in Wyoming. The Environmental Preservation Foundation and Habitat for Wildlife, both based in Utah, along with two Cokeville and two Kemmerer residents, filed suit against Bureau of Land Management officials, saying the agency has not conducted adequate environmental reviews to allow a boom in energy activity. The lawsuit calls for a cessation of new oil and gas drilling pending further environmental review that takes into account the cumulative impacts of drilling. It also called for the BLM to stop issuing waivers to companies to drill. And, the complaint calls for the Pinedale Anticline supplemental environmental impact statement to be stopped pending the outcome of the case. The BLM is currently finishing a supplemental analysis allowing for 4,399 new wells on the Anticline in a concentrated area, and a resource management plan for the broader Pinedale area. The groups say there should be "a regionwide EIS that contemplates all of the current and proposed oil and gas activities in the Pinedale Resource Area and connected areas." That includes the Jonah and Anticline fields....
Lightning hits 1,700 times in 7 hours The National Weather Service recorded approximately 1,700 lightning strikes in southeastern Montana in just seven hours Tuesday evening. Joe Lester, meteorologist with the Billings National Weather Service station, said that between 5 p.m. Tuesday and midnight Wednesday, 1,700 strikes were counted in Rosebud, Powder River, Fallon, Custer and Carter counties. There were about 500 strikes between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. alone in that area Tuesday. The NWS receives lightning strike numbers for the previous 24 to 48 hours from a national lightning detection system, Lester said. The system uses ground sensors to detect and map ground strikes. Tuesday evening's storm brought a reprieve from 100-degree heat in the southeastern part of the state - Billings dropped from a high temperature of 102 degrees to 83 degrees around 6 p.m. - but may have ignited several fires. The Miles City Bureau of Land Management field office reported four lightning-caused fires Tuesday and another nine lightning-caused fires Wednesday....
Governor takes heat for stand on drilling When Gov. Bill Ritter asked the helicopter pilot to make an impromptu landing on a mountain in northwest Colorado, little did he know he would anger Moffat County commissioners and stir up his choppy relationship with the oil and gas industry. Last week, the county's three commissioners, all Republicans, fired off a scathing letter to the Democratic governor, criticizing his unannounced July 3 visit during a tour of oil and gas drilling sites in the region. He subsequently requested that the federal government exempt the scenic 77,000-acre Vermillion Basin from natural gas drilling. Ritter's request, the commissioners say, ignores years of hard work by local, federal and state agencies and activist groups to cobble together a drilling plan for the environmentally sensitive basin, which contains billions of dollars of natural gas reserves....
Erosion on Alaska coast eats into old oil wells Old Alaskan oil wells could be swallowed by the ocean as rising temperatures speed up erosion of the state's Arctic coastline. The disappearance of sea ice that shields against storm waves, and of permafrost that holds shorelines together, is eating away at the coast of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study. Erosion rates have risen steeply along the coastline of the reserve — where the Bush administration wants to increase oil drilling — possibly due to warmer weather, the study showed. "Coastal erosion has more than doubled along a segment of the Arctic Alaska coast during the past half century," it said, adding the land loss was being magnified by the conversion of freshwater "thermokarst" lakes into saltwater bays as they become inundated with waters from the Arctic Ocean. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the reserve, has identified about 30 old oil exploration wells that need to be cleaned and plugged before the sea claims them....
Wild horses found dead on Nevada range Wild horses managed by the Bureau of Land Management were found dead late last week and additional horses have died since the discovery. The cause of death for 40 wild horses is under investigation. The horses died near a water source in the extreme northwest portion of the herd management area, about 210 miles northwest of Las Vegas, which is within the U.S. Air Force Nevada Test and Training Range. The military alerted BLM late Friday that they had seen some dead horses. The area is restricted to public access and the Air Force is providing access to the BLM. On Saturday, BLM went to the site and found 25 dead wild horses and an antelope. A water pond on a dry lake bed is suspected to be the source of the problem....
Bills Calls for Meat to be Labeled by Origin An ordinary trip to the supermarket meat department could turn into an experience in international comparison-shopping under House legislation scheduled to be debated today that for the first time would require meat products to be labeled by their country of origin. The farm bill House members will consider includes a provision mandating that meat -- including beef, pork and lamb -- include a label stating where it came from. Only meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the United States would be eligible for a domestic label. The measure aims to enforce a five-year-old law that has already been implemented for seafood but was delayed after meat packers, pork producers and grocery chains claimed it would create a costly bureaucratic and record-keeping nightmare. The issue reemerged this year after reports of safety problems with food and products from China spurred American consumers to seek more information about what they eat....
Commercial feed named as cause of Canada's 10th case of mad cow The mature dairy cow that became Canada's 10th case of mad cow disease was probably infected by commercial feed that it received after weaning, says a report by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency released Wednesday. The Holstein, which was destroyed earlier this year, had spent its entire life on the same dairy farm in the Fraser Valley. The most likely cause was commercial feed, which the cow would have eaten only during its first year, that got cross-contaminated with prohibited materials -- rendered products from other ruminant animals. The most likely source was cross-contamination of the heifer feed either at the feed mill or during transportation. The CFIA investigated 155 of the 66-month-old cow's herdmates, and their feed. "Only cattle in the feed cohort were implicated in the investigation," said Dr. Connie Argue, an epidemiologist and scientific adviser to the CFIA. Of those cattle, five have since been slaughtered for unrelated reasons. Another 87 had already been slaughtered -- and of those, five had tested negative for BSE. There were 23 animals that could not be traced, and the remaining 41 live animals have been quarantined and will be killed in the next few months....
Mule's foal fools genetics When it reportedly happened in Morocco five years ago, locals feared it signaled the end of the world. In Albania in 1994, it was thought to have unleashed the spawn of the devil on a small village. But on a Grand Mesa ranch, the once-in-a-million, genetically "impossible" occurrence of a mule giving birth has only drawn keen interest from the scientific world. That, and a stream of the locally curious driving up from the small town of Colbran to check out and snap pictures of a frisky, huge-eared, gangly-legged foal. "No one has run away in fear yet," laughed Laura Amos, the owner of the foal, along with her husband, Larry. The foal is being called a miracle because mules aren't supposed to give birth. Mules are a hybrid of two species - a female horse and a male donkey - so they end up with an odd number of chromosomes. A horse has 64 chromosomes and a donkey has 62. A mule inherits 63. An even number of chromosomes is needed to divide into pairs and reproduce. But those numbers added up to implausibility in late April when the Amoses awoke to a braying and whinnying ruckus in the corral behind their house....
Cowgirl is not horsing around You could say the 28-year-old Mussell was born in the wrong time period. She would have been right at home with the great cowgirl bronc riders of the 1920s and '30s: Tad Lucas, Ruth Roach and Alice Greenough, a.k.a. the Women of the West. The women were talented bronc riders and trick riders who drew headlines all over the world not only for their style but also for their daring. They competed before ranchers and kings in places ranging from Cheyenne, Wyo., to Wembley Stadium in London. Eventually, women roughstock riders were phased out of rodeo. That is, until 2000, when Mussell discovered there were no rules preventing women from competing in roughstock events in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Now, she is the only professional female saddle bronc rider in both the PRCA and the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association. She filled her permit in 2003, which meant she won over a $1,000 in a year. In 2005, she moved from her native Canada to Stephenville, Texas, and now is competing on near equal footing with many of the men in the Texas Circuit, primarily at the weekly Mesquite Championship Rodeo....
Thursday, July 26, 2007
FLE
U.S. airports warned of possible attack "dry runs" Terrorists may be conducting "dry runs" at U.S. airports to test security before a possible attack, according to a Transportation Security Administration warning to airport screeners. In at least four incidents over the past year, security screeners have found items in carry-on luggage -- blocks of cheese taped to electrical components, for example -- that resembled homemade bombs, according to the TSA's July 20 memo. "Past terrorist attacks and plots show that such testing generally indicates attacks will soon follow," said the internal memo, which was posted on the Internet by NBC News on Tuesday. None of the passengers in question has been linked with criminal or terrorist organizations so far, the memo said....
Judge: Spying Lawsuits Can Proceed A federal judge on Tuesday declined to dismiss lawsuits filed by five states seeking information on a federal government warrantless wiretap program, keeping the cases alive pending an appeals court decision. U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker declined to address the federal government's main argument that the cases should be tossed out because sensitive homeland security secrets could be exposed. Instead, Walker said he would wait until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on the issue. That court is scheduled to hear arguments on the matter on Aug. 15 in San Francisco. Cindy Cohn, chief lawyer at Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil rights group that will argue the case against the government in the appeals court, said Tuesday's ruling was "significant because the government wanted to kill these cases and the judge refused." The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, has already ruled that the federal government can invoke security arguments to toss out a wiretap lawsuit filed in Detroit....
Experts Debate Merits of REAL ID Proponents of the REAL ID Act say identification security measures included in the law are essential to improving homeland security, but critics insist that it will be costly, ineffective and lead to privacy abuse. The National Governor's Association on Monday asked Congress to fully fund the law, which was passed in response to the 9/11 terrorists attacks. Several states, including South Carolina, Oklahoma and New Hampshire, have rejected the federal act. The REAL ID Act of 2005 mandates that by December 2009 states comply with a set of federal standards for driver's licenses and maintain a database that can be accessed by other states. Among those promoting the measure is the Coalition for a Secure Driver's License, whose spokesman, Neil Berro, called it "a simple matter of common sense." But Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, told a Capitol Hill briefing last week that identity-based security systems "don't work well against committed threats." "You can do all sorts of things to try to secure your country, but the real question is how motivated your attacker is," he said, adding that illegal immigrants and terrorists alike will get around identity-based security. "Who knows who else would come in once the system is broken," Harper said. Harper argued that although the law will cost more than $17 billion to implement, it will provide little improvement in security, while at the same time increasing the risk of identity theft and privacy violations. "Throwing more money at REAL ID at this point is just throwing good money after bad," he said....
Border reform not a priority for Democrats Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, an architect of the Democratic campaign that regained control of the House last year, says his party will not attempt comprehensive immigration reform until at least the second term of a prospective Democratic president. The congressman's statement was reported by a Hispanic activist and confirmed by Mr. Emanuel. "Congressman Rahm Emanuel said to me two weeks ago, there is no way this legislation is happening in the Democratic House, in the Democratic Senate, in the Democratic presidency, in the first term," Juan Salgado, board chairman of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) at its annual convention last weekend....
Report for local police explains immigration issues The nation's largest association of police chiefs is distributing an unusual primer on immigration enforcement to thousands of law enforcement agencies, saying the absence of a national immigration policy has left local communities with an "overwhelming" burden. The publication by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) discusses immigration laws and issues, including day-laborer hiring sites and local collaboration with federal immigration officials. It stops short of urging local authorities to enforce federal immigration laws but says agencies can no longer ignore the local troubles posed by the explosive growth of undocumented immigrants. "Because there has been very little federal assistance on this issue, it's been pushed down to us," IACP President Joseph Carter said. "Our frustration is that this has now become an issue for our membership." Immigration enforcement, primarily the domain of the federal government, has been a particularly sensitive issue for local communities....
Virginia eyes plan to deport illegals Virginia lawmakers yesterday proposed a mandate for state sheriffs and jail wardens to initiate deportation proceedings for illegal aliens. The proposal was one of several made by a State Crime Commission task force trying to crack down on illegal immigration. Right now, police and jail officials must wait for federal immigration agents to decide whether to take custody of a suspect. Task force members also recommended that Virginia adopt a uniform, statewide policy on dealing with illegal aliens but said they need a better understanding of federal law, costs and immigration statistics before making a final decision....
U.S. airports warned of possible attack "dry runs" Terrorists may be conducting "dry runs" at U.S. airports to test security before a possible attack, according to a Transportation Security Administration warning to airport screeners. In at least four incidents over the past year, security screeners have found items in carry-on luggage -- blocks of cheese taped to electrical components, for example -- that resembled homemade bombs, according to the TSA's July 20 memo. "Past terrorist attacks and plots show that such testing generally indicates attacks will soon follow," said the internal memo, which was posted on the Internet by NBC News on Tuesday. None of the passengers in question has been linked with criminal or terrorist organizations so far, the memo said....
Judge: Spying Lawsuits Can Proceed A federal judge on Tuesday declined to dismiss lawsuits filed by five states seeking information on a federal government warrantless wiretap program, keeping the cases alive pending an appeals court decision. U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker declined to address the federal government's main argument that the cases should be tossed out because sensitive homeland security secrets could be exposed. Instead, Walker said he would wait until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on the issue. That court is scheduled to hear arguments on the matter on Aug. 15 in San Francisco. Cindy Cohn, chief lawyer at Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil rights group that will argue the case against the government in the appeals court, said Tuesday's ruling was "significant because the government wanted to kill these cases and the judge refused." The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, has already ruled that the federal government can invoke security arguments to toss out a wiretap lawsuit filed in Detroit....
Experts Debate Merits of REAL ID Proponents of the REAL ID Act say identification security measures included in the law are essential to improving homeland security, but critics insist that it will be costly, ineffective and lead to privacy abuse. The National Governor's Association on Monday asked Congress to fully fund the law, which was passed in response to the 9/11 terrorists attacks. Several states, including South Carolina, Oklahoma and New Hampshire, have rejected the federal act. The REAL ID Act of 2005 mandates that by December 2009 states comply with a set of federal standards for driver's licenses and maintain a database that can be accessed by other states. Among those promoting the measure is the Coalition for a Secure Driver's License, whose spokesman, Neil Berro, called it "a simple matter of common sense." But Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, told a Capitol Hill briefing last week that identity-based security systems "don't work well against committed threats." "You can do all sorts of things to try to secure your country, but the real question is how motivated your attacker is," he said, adding that illegal immigrants and terrorists alike will get around identity-based security. "Who knows who else would come in once the system is broken," Harper said. Harper argued that although the law will cost more than $17 billion to implement, it will provide little improvement in security, while at the same time increasing the risk of identity theft and privacy violations. "Throwing more money at REAL ID at this point is just throwing good money after bad," he said....
Border reform not a priority for Democrats Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, an architect of the Democratic campaign that regained control of the House last year, says his party will not attempt comprehensive immigration reform until at least the second term of a prospective Democratic president. The congressman's statement was reported by a Hispanic activist and confirmed by Mr. Emanuel. "Congressman Rahm Emanuel said to me two weeks ago, there is no way this legislation is happening in the Democratic House, in the Democratic Senate, in the Democratic presidency, in the first term," Juan Salgado, board chairman of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) at its annual convention last weekend....
Report for local police explains immigration issues The nation's largest association of police chiefs is distributing an unusual primer on immigration enforcement to thousands of law enforcement agencies, saying the absence of a national immigration policy has left local communities with an "overwhelming" burden. The publication by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) discusses immigration laws and issues, including day-laborer hiring sites and local collaboration with federal immigration officials. It stops short of urging local authorities to enforce federal immigration laws but says agencies can no longer ignore the local troubles posed by the explosive growth of undocumented immigrants. "Because there has been very little federal assistance on this issue, it's been pushed down to us," IACP President Joseph Carter said. "Our frustration is that this has now become an issue for our membership." Immigration enforcement, primarily the domain of the federal government, has been a particularly sensitive issue for local communities....
Virginia eyes plan to deport illegals Virginia lawmakers yesterday proposed a mandate for state sheriffs and jail wardens to initiate deportation proceedings for illegal aliens. The proposal was one of several made by a State Crime Commission task force trying to crack down on illegal immigration. Right now, police and jail officials must wait for federal immigration agents to decide whether to take custody of a suspect. Task force members also recommended that Virginia adopt a uniform, statewide policy on dealing with illegal aliens but said they need a better understanding of federal law, costs and immigration statistics before making a final decision....
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
White House Delays Whale Protection Rule The White House is currently delaying the completion of a final rule intended to protect a critically endangered whale species. Critics are concerned the Bush administration is giving special access to business interests and overemphasizing economic considerations in its review of the rule. The delay of the whale protection rule is indicative of a larger problem in the White House regulatory review process. The North Atlantic right whale is a large species native to the waters off the coast of America's eastern seaboard. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), "The population is believed to be at or less than 300 individuals, making it one of the most critically endangered large whale species in the world." The species is protected under both the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Although the species has benefited from federal protections for years, it is still having difficulty recovering. Human activity is the primary impediment to species recovery. Collisions between whales and shipping vessels are a particularly serious problem. According to NOAA, "One of the greatest known causes of deaths of North Atlantic right whales from human activities is ship strikes." In response, NOAA began working in 1999 on a federal rule to limit the speed of large shipping vessels traveling along the eastern seaboard. The speed limits would vary based on geographic location and season....
Humans clearly linked to rising rainfall, study says A landmark Canadian-led study has drawn a clear link between human activity since the early 20th century and increased rainfall across much of the Northern Hemisphere -- a finding that comes in the midst of flooding crises in Britain and China, and which appears to confirm a key argument about human-induced global climate change. "For the first time, climate scientists have clearly detected the human fingerprint on changing global precipitation patterns over the past century," the researchers said Monday in a statement, adding that their team has "determined that human-induced climate change has caused most of the observed increase in precipitation north of 50 degrees latitude, a region that includes Canada, Russia and Europe." In an article to be published later this week in the journal Nature, the four-nation team headed by two Toronto-based climate scientists with Environment Canada compared 75 years of rainfall records from around the world with the precipitation predictions in nearly 100 computer simulations based on 14 separate global climate models. The researchers concluded that at least 50 per cent, and as much as 85 per cent, of average rainfall increases at northern latitudes between 1925 and 1999 could be attributed to human activity....
U.S., Canada, Mexico vow energy tech co-operation Canada, the United States and Mexico pledged to co-operate on developing energy technology on Monday in an agreement that could reduce trade barriers to alternative energy development. The countries' top energy officials, who signed the five-year deal following a meeting on Canada's Pacific Coast, said it should also promote joint research in areas such as nuclear energy and renewable fuels. Promoting renewable and more energy-efficient technology will increase North America's energy security and help the environment, the officials said. The countries agreed in 2001 to promote energy security in the region, but a new pact was needed to provide a "formal framework" to resolving issues such as ownership of intellectual property rights, the officials said....
Crazy For Yellowcake In Paradox Valley, Colorado After a hiatus of more than 20 years, nuclear energy is resurgent. Worldwide, more than 130 new nuclear plants are under construction, and momentum is building toward new plants in the United States, where no reactors have come online since 1996. The result is a uranium boom in the Southwest: Since 2000, 175 U.S. firms have jumped into the market, and exploration expenditures have more than tripled to $185 million a year. In Colorado's San Miguel County, south of Nucla, some 1,731 new claims were staked last year; in all of 2002, there were 3. At the vanguard of the rush are the dilapidated towns whose residents reaped the rewards—and paid the price—of the last boom.....
Al Gore's Whine: What Really Happened on the Mall Now it's official. Global warming alarmism has indeed "jumped the shark", as revealed by the dismal failure of the Live Earth concerts to galvanize the general public. In particular, the puny turnout in Washington, DC, where Gore himself personally showed up, has proved an acute embarrassment. But although Al Gore's Live Earth concerts have failed in the ratings, he appears to have partially succeeded at doing what does best: shifting blame for his woes to his political opponents and getting the media to go along. Since last weekend, the Net has been abuzz with stories of how Gore overcame Republicans who allegedly did everything they could to stop the concert from being performed on Washington's National Mall. The next day, Gore again took a shot at the opponents who he said denied him the use of Washington's famous Mall - the area surrounding the Smithsonian Institution museums between the Capitol and the Washington Monument - and the press again largely parroted his claim. In his speech at National Museum of the American Indian last Saturday, which the Paris-based wire service AFP called "a thinly veiled hit on members of President George W. Bush's Republican party," Gore declared, "Some who don't understand what is now at stake tried to stop this event on the Mall." To start with, the Washington "show" consisted of country stars Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood added to preexisting events with Indian artists. As Carter Wood observed at the National Association of Manufacturers' blog ShopFloor.org: "The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian had already scheduled a day of events -- including the Indian Summer Showcase 2007, which appeared to be absorbed into ‘Mother Earth - In the Spirit of the Live Earth Concerts.' There were already going to be performances, drum circles and spiritual/environmental speeches by tribal leaders. Al Gore and the Smithsonian's organizers just figured a way to add Gore's overtly political address and the Garth Brooks/Trisha Yearwood performance to an existing event." But Gore's most blatant falsehood - as phony as a three-dollar carbon credit - is his claim that Republican lawmakers or global warming "deniers" prevented him from holding the concert on the Mall. This spread through the left-wing blogosphere like the proverbial wild fire, with entries on ThinkProgress claiming that Republicans "had tried to block the event from happening in DC" and on Daily Kos declaring that "[d]espite Republican efforts ...to deny this, Friday Al Gore announced LiveEarthDC." In truth, the only thing some GOP lawmakers objected to was an unusual last-minute effort to hold the concert on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, after its organizers discovered that Mall had already been booked for other events. Use of the Mall had been denied to Gore and his colleagues for one reason: they failed to apply for the proper permits before other parties had. And one of the groups "blocking" Live Earth's use of the Mall happened to be the Smithsonian Institution itself....
Controversy erupts over Endangered Species Act From the day it became law 34 years ago, the federal Endangered Species Act has been politically hot – a flash point of contention between defenders of nature and advocates of economic progress. Now, the ESA is embroiled in new controversy. Two different government entities are investigating decisions by Bush administration officials related to species recovery. In one, the US Interior Department is reviewing the scientific integrity of decisions under the law made by a political appointee, who recently resigned under fire. At the same time, Congress is investigating evidence that Vice President Dick Cheney interfered with decisions involving water in California and Oregon that resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of Klamath River salmon, some of which were listed as "threatened" species. Both episodes illustrate what critics say is the Bush administration's resistance to the law. During President Bush's time in the White House, the listing of endangered and threatened species has slowed down considerably. It's a fraction of the number his father made in four years (58 new listings compared with 231 by the senior Bush), and most of those were court-ordered. New funding for protection of such species has been cut as well. As a result, 278 "candidate species" are waiting to join the list of 1,352 plant and animal species now listed as "endangered" or "threatened."....
Farm Bureau sets up carbon-trading unit Iowa Farm Bureau Federation hopes to expand the market for carbon credits, saying it will help reduce greenhouse gases and boost farmers' bottom lines. The Farm Bureau announced Tuesday that it has launched a wholly owned subsidiary called AgraGate Climate Credits Corp. The company will buy credits from farmers in Iowa and other states who use no-till practices or other methods that absorb carbon dioxide from the air. AgraGate will sell the credits at the Chicago Climate Exchange to companies that emit the gases believed to cause climate change. Interest in trading carbon credits has gained popularity, especially as Congress considers limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Factories and power plants could buy carbon credits more cheaply than investing in cleaner facilities. The Farm Bureau has had a carbon offset aggregation program since 2003 and now has about 1 million acres enrolled in a carbon credits program with farmers and others in 16 states....
River act heading to murky waters Some of Utah's most beautiful rivers and tributaries have a chance to earn the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers designation, which could protect them from dams and impacts from oil and gas drilling while preserving the scenery and outdoor recreation. Whether they will, though, is another question entirely. It has taken many years for the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management to take the steps mandated by the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The Forest Service has completed a statewide assessment of more than 85 rivers and the BLM is working to finish a district-by-district evaluation of its waterways. Both agencies hope to finish their work within the next year and a half. At the same time those efforts are moving forward, however, the state's rural counties are fighting hard to avoid the federal protections they say are unnecessary and would only interfere with grazing, livestock operations, water rights and energy development. The resistance could scuttle the entire effort, because county support is considered critical to necessary congressional approval. In fact, one county's objections, voiced by a powerful anti-wilderness official, have been so strenuous that they prompted the feds to add significant limitations to the 40-year-old law that will affect any state's future attempts to name more wild and scenic rivers....
Water Authority Plays Hardball With Rural Nevadans The Southern Nevada Water Authority is playing hardball with rural Nevadans who are opposed to a multi-billion dollar pipeline project. Residents in White Pine County and elsewhere remain opposed to any plan that would take groundwater from under their feet and send it to Las Vegas. One way SNWA is eliminating the opposition is by buying them out, and for huge sums. Three years ago this week, Rancher Brandon Humphries told the I-Team he vigorously opposed any plan that would siphon groundwater from White Pine County and pipe it hundreds of miles to Las Vegas. Humphries said, "I don't like the idea of my place drying up for another condo or casino in Las Vegas." He urged his neighbors to fight to the end against SNWA. That was then. Today, Rancher Humprhies is an employee of the SNWA. He sold his 880-acre spread for more than $6 million and stayed on as manager....
Forest Service says dam must be removed An unstable dam and its contaminated mine waste near the Blackfoot River headwaters must be removed and corporate money should pay the bill, the U.S. Forest Service said Tuesday in a victory for environmental groups. The Mike Horse Dam built in 1941 at the headwaters of the Blackfoot, the river celebrated in the Norman MacLean novel "A River Runs Through It," failed during a 1975 flood that washed the waste downstream, killing fish and other aquatic life in the upper 10 miles of the river. The dam is "a ticking time bomb," Bruce Farling of the conservation group Trout Unlimited said Tuesday. The group began pressing for dam removal in 1987, Farling said. Last year, the Forest Service released six Mike Horse options, ranging from no action to full removal. This week, the agency opted for full removal....
Disease threatens bighorn sheep Bighorn sheep in the Hells Canyon area of northeast Oregon are undergoing a die-off that researchers believe could be a result of bacterial pneumonia passed from domestic sheep. "I don't have a figure on how many sheep have died at the present time, but I know that the lamb survival is just terrible," said Ron Anglin, the chief of the Wildlife Division at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "And some of the lambs that we've collected as part of this study are showing positive for the Pasteurella complex. And if they've got it, they won't make it." The Hells Canyon sheep are part of an introduction effort that has been ongoing for more than a decade, said Craig Ely, the department's Northwest Region manager. Because of the domestic-bighorn disease transmission possibility, Fish and Wildlife officials along with those from the national and Oregon chapter of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep are arguing against sheep grazing agreements on federal lands where the two would intersect....
Court upholds salvage logging ruling The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling halting salvage logging on about 960 acres burned by the 2002 Timbered Rock fire in the Elk Creek drainage near Trail. In a 2-1 ruling released Tuesday, the judges in San Francisco agreed with U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken that the Medford District of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management violated its own rules and federal law when it decided to cut some 23.4 million board feet of timber in the burned area. "This is a pretty resounding rebuke for the BLM and the Bush administration," said George Sexton, conservation director for the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, one of five environmental groups that sued the federal government to halt the logging. Aiken issued a permanent injunction late in 2004 to halt the salvage logging on BLM land from the nearly 27,000-acre lightning-caused fire. She agreed with environmental groups that had asserted the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan requires late-successional reserves be set aside to preserve habitat for old-growth species, such as salmon and spotted owls. She also concluded the agency did not factor into its plan the impact of new roads and salvage logging on adjacent 6,000 acres of private land....
Continental Divide trail plan troubles users A U.S. Forest Service move to amend the 1985 Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDNST) plan has sent waves of concern rippling through some user groups. Under the proposed directive, the Forest Service could bar mountain bikes on sections of the 3,100-mile trail where they are currently allowed in nonwilderness areas, according to an action alert sent out by the International Mountain Bicycling Association. According to the association's website — www.imba.com — the Forest Service directive should not discriminate against bicycling on the Continental Divide Trail. The mountain bike group sees the comment period as a chance to ask the Forest Service to include bicycling as a central focus and purpose for the trail. “It is unfair to discriminate against bicycling when scientific research has shown its impacts to be similar to hiking and less than equestrian use,” the IMBA website states....
U.S. Senators back mining project through bill U.S. Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain reintroduced legislation Tuesday to allow Resolution Copper Co. to develop an underground mine near Superior that could tap one of the largest deposits of copper ore ever discovered in North America. However, some residents of Superior and the San Carlos Apache Tribe object to the land exchange, believing the project in Pinal County would damage a scenic area that has strong connections with Apache history. Similar bills were introduced in each of the past two years but failed. Officials of Resolution Copper, a unit of London-based Rio Tinto Group, have said that the land deal must be approved this year or the project cannot proceed. The bill introduced Tuesday by the two Arizona Republicans would give Resolution Copper about 3,025 federally-owned acres in the “Oak Flat” area three miles east of Superior. In return, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management would get from Resolution seven parcels totaling 4,583 acres of environmentally-sensitive land throughout Arizona....
Spotted fever cases increase in Campbell County Five cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever have been documented in Campbell County since April, more than half the statewide total. State Public Health Veterinarian Karl Musgrave said most of the Campbell County cases are people who work in Wyoming's oil and gas fields. "We'd seen a few cases every once in a while, but nothing like what has been seen more recently," Musgrave said. Tick season usually begins in April and peaks in May when there's still sufficient moisture for the common species out West, the Rocky Mountain wood tick. But University of Wyoming entomologist Jack Lloyd suspects that an eastern species - the American dog tick - might be to be blame for the midsummer spotted fever cases. "We have collected both species in Wyoming, and with the American dog tick you might have Rocky Mountain spotted fever a little longer into the summer than with the Rocky Mountain wood tick," he said....
Voracious Jumbo Squid Invade California Jumbo squid that can grow up to 7 feet long and weigh more than 110 pounds is invading central California waters and preying on local anchovy, hake and other commercial fish populations, according to a study published Tuesday. An aggressive predator, the Humboldt squid—or Dosidicus gigas—can change its eating habits to consume the food supply favored by tuna and sharks, its closest competitors, according to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. "Having a new, voracious predator set up shop here in California may be yet another thing for fishermen to compete with," said the study's co-author, Stanford University researcher Louis Zeidberg. "That said, if a squid saw a human they would jet the other way." The jumbo squid used to be found only in the Pacific Ocean's warmest stretches near the equator. In the last 16 years, it has expanded its territory throughout California waters, and squid have even been found in the icy waters off Alaska, Zeidberg said....
Ted Turner at home where the buffalo roam Ted Turner commiserated with his fellow bison ranchers over the tough times they've endured, explained how his restaurant chain is helping to build demand for buffalo meat and then led his audience at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in singing "Home on the Range." About 20 minutes later, Turner, wearing a western shirt, blue jeans, boots and a bolo tie, was inducted into the National Buffalo Foundation Hall of Fame. Turner spoke at the opening event of the third International Bison Conference, which runs through Saturday, July 28. Turner owns 42,000 head of buffalo on 13 ranches in Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and South Dakota. His South Dakota ranch lies west of Fort Pierre. Easily the largest buffalo rancher in the world, Turner admitted that he didn't eat buffalo meat for the first 15 years he owned buffalo as he built a fledgling herd in South Carolina....
Report: USDA sent $1.1B to dead farmers The Agriculture Department sent $1.1 billion in farm payments to more than 170,000 dead people over seven years, congressional investigators said in a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office. The findings come as the House of Representatives prepares to debate and pass farm legislation this week that would govern subsidies and the department's programs for the next five years. GAO auditors reviewed payments from 1999 through 2005 in the report, which was requested by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. "It's unconscionable that the Department of Agriculture would think that a dead person was actively engaged in the business of farming," Grassley said. "(The) USDA has made farm payments to estates more than two years after recipients died, without determining, as its regulations require, whether the estates were kept open to receive these payments," the report said. John Johnson, a deputy administrator for the Farm Service Agency, said there is no indication that the payments were improper, since some rules allow estates to continue receiving money after a two-year grace period. The department is working with the Social Security Administration to improve its record-keeping, he said.
Bringing Moos and Oinks Into the Food Debate THE first farm animal Gene Baur ever snatched from a stockyard was a lamb he named Hilda. That was 1986. She’s now buried under a little tombstone near the center of Farm Sanctuary, 180 acres of vegan nirvana here in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Back then, Mr. Baur was living in a school bus near a tofu factory in Pennsylvania and selling vegetarian hot dogs at Grateful Dead concerts to support his animal rescue operation. Now, more than a thousand animals once destined for the slaughterhouse live here and on another Farm Sanctuary property in California. Farm Sanctuary has a $5.7 million budget, fed in part by a donor club named after his beloved Hilda. Supporters can sign up for a Farm Sanctuary MasterCard. A $200-a-seat gala dinner in Los Angeles this fall will feature seitan Wellington and stars like Emily Deschanel and Forest Whitaker. As Farm Sanctuary has grown, so too has its influence....
All-digital hospital for horses opens A new state-of-the-art medical and surgical center for horses in the Rocky Mountains has opened at a prominent equine training and breeding center west of here. CSR Equine specializes in lameness and reproductive care but also provides emergency and general health services for horses, as well as alternative medicine like acupuncture, said veterinarian John Smart, who leads the center. "We're building a world-class team with advanced capabilities to serve the greater Rocky Mountain West," he said. Area ranchers, breeders and horse owners would normally haul their animals to Denver or Washington state for similar care, spokeswoman Bridget Cavanaugh said. The 10,000-square-foot hospital is an affiliate of Copper Spring Ranch, a leading producer of rodeo and performance horses near Four Corners. It opened last week, with veterinarians performing the first surgery - an ovariectomy - on a mare July 18 using high-definition laparoscopy equipment normally reserved for human medicine, Cavanaugh said....
White House Delays Whale Protection Rule The White House is currently delaying the completion of a final rule intended to protect a critically endangered whale species. Critics are concerned the Bush administration is giving special access to business interests and overemphasizing economic considerations in its review of the rule. The delay of the whale protection rule is indicative of a larger problem in the White House regulatory review process. The North Atlantic right whale is a large species native to the waters off the coast of America's eastern seaboard. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), "The population is believed to be at or less than 300 individuals, making it one of the most critically endangered large whale species in the world." The species is protected under both the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Although the species has benefited from federal protections for years, it is still having difficulty recovering. Human activity is the primary impediment to species recovery. Collisions between whales and shipping vessels are a particularly serious problem. According to NOAA, "One of the greatest known causes of deaths of North Atlantic right whales from human activities is ship strikes." In response, NOAA began working in 1999 on a federal rule to limit the speed of large shipping vessels traveling along the eastern seaboard. The speed limits would vary based on geographic location and season....
Humans clearly linked to rising rainfall, study says A landmark Canadian-led study has drawn a clear link between human activity since the early 20th century and increased rainfall across much of the Northern Hemisphere -- a finding that comes in the midst of flooding crises in Britain and China, and which appears to confirm a key argument about human-induced global climate change. "For the first time, climate scientists have clearly detected the human fingerprint on changing global precipitation patterns over the past century," the researchers said Monday in a statement, adding that their team has "determined that human-induced climate change has caused most of the observed increase in precipitation north of 50 degrees latitude, a region that includes Canada, Russia and Europe." In an article to be published later this week in the journal Nature, the four-nation team headed by two Toronto-based climate scientists with Environment Canada compared 75 years of rainfall records from around the world with the precipitation predictions in nearly 100 computer simulations based on 14 separate global climate models. The researchers concluded that at least 50 per cent, and as much as 85 per cent, of average rainfall increases at northern latitudes between 1925 and 1999 could be attributed to human activity....
U.S., Canada, Mexico vow energy tech co-operation Canada, the United States and Mexico pledged to co-operate on developing energy technology on Monday in an agreement that could reduce trade barriers to alternative energy development. The countries' top energy officials, who signed the five-year deal following a meeting on Canada's Pacific Coast, said it should also promote joint research in areas such as nuclear energy and renewable fuels. Promoting renewable and more energy-efficient technology will increase North America's energy security and help the environment, the officials said. The countries agreed in 2001 to promote energy security in the region, but a new pact was needed to provide a "formal framework" to resolving issues such as ownership of intellectual property rights, the officials said....
Crazy For Yellowcake In Paradox Valley, Colorado After a hiatus of more than 20 years, nuclear energy is resurgent. Worldwide, more than 130 new nuclear plants are under construction, and momentum is building toward new plants in the United States, where no reactors have come online since 1996. The result is a uranium boom in the Southwest: Since 2000, 175 U.S. firms have jumped into the market, and exploration expenditures have more than tripled to $185 million a year. In Colorado's San Miguel County, south of Nucla, some 1,731 new claims were staked last year; in all of 2002, there were 3. At the vanguard of the rush are the dilapidated towns whose residents reaped the rewards—and paid the price—of the last boom.....
Al Gore's Whine: What Really Happened on the Mall Now it's official. Global warming alarmism has indeed "jumped the shark", as revealed by the dismal failure of the Live Earth concerts to galvanize the general public. In particular, the puny turnout in Washington, DC, where Gore himself personally showed up, has proved an acute embarrassment. But although Al Gore's Live Earth concerts have failed in the ratings, he appears to have partially succeeded at doing what does best: shifting blame for his woes to his political opponents and getting the media to go along. Since last weekend, the Net has been abuzz with stories of how Gore overcame Republicans who allegedly did everything they could to stop the concert from being performed on Washington's National Mall. The next day, Gore again took a shot at the opponents who he said denied him the use of Washington's famous Mall - the area surrounding the Smithsonian Institution museums between the Capitol and the Washington Monument - and the press again largely parroted his claim. In his speech at National Museum of the American Indian last Saturday, which the Paris-based wire service AFP called "a thinly veiled hit on members of President George W. Bush's Republican party," Gore declared, "Some who don't understand what is now at stake tried to stop this event on the Mall." To start with, the Washington "show" consisted of country stars Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood added to preexisting events with Indian artists. As Carter Wood observed at the National Association of Manufacturers' blog ShopFloor.org: "The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian had already scheduled a day of events -- including the Indian Summer Showcase 2007, which appeared to be absorbed into ‘Mother Earth - In the Spirit of the Live Earth Concerts.' There were already going to be performances, drum circles and spiritual/environmental speeches by tribal leaders. Al Gore and the Smithsonian's organizers just figured a way to add Gore's overtly political address and the Garth Brooks/Trisha Yearwood performance to an existing event." But Gore's most blatant falsehood - as phony as a three-dollar carbon credit - is his claim that Republican lawmakers or global warming "deniers" prevented him from holding the concert on the Mall. This spread through the left-wing blogosphere like the proverbial wild fire, with entries on ThinkProgress claiming that Republicans "had tried to block the event from happening in DC" and on Daily Kos declaring that "[d]espite Republican efforts ...to deny this, Friday Al Gore announced LiveEarthDC." In truth, the only thing some GOP lawmakers objected to was an unusual last-minute effort to hold the concert on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, after its organizers discovered that Mall had already been booked for other events. Use of the Mall had been denied to Gore and his colleagues for one reason: they failed to apply for the proper permits before other parties had. And one of the groups "blocking" Live Earth's use of the Mall happened to be the Smithsonian Institution itself....
Controversy erupts over Endangered Species Act From the day it became law 34 years ago, the federal Endangered Species Act has been politically hot – a flash point of contention between defenders of nature and advocates of economic progress. Now, the ESA is embroiled in new controversy. Two different government entities are investigating decisions by Bush administration officials related to species recovery. In one, the US Interior Department is reviewing the scientific integrity of decisions under the law made by a political appointee, who recently resigned under fire. At the same time, Congress is investigating evidence that Vice President Dick Cheney interfered with decisions involving water in California and Oregon that resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of Klamath River salmon, some of which were listed as "threatened" species. Both episodes illustrate what critics say is the Bush administration's resistance to the law. During President Bush's time in the White House, the listing of endangered and threatened species has slowed down considerably. It's a fraction of the number his father made in four years (58 new listings compared with 231 by the senior Bush), and most of those were court-ordered. New funding for protection of such species has been cut as well. As a result, 278 "candidate species" are waiting to join the list of 1,352 plant and animal species now listed as "endangered" or "threatened."....
Farm Bureau sets up carbon-trading unit Iowa Farm Bureau Federation hopes to expand the market for carbon credits, saying it will help reduce greenhouse gases and boost farmers' bottom lines. The Farm Bureau announced Tuesday that it has launched a wholly owned subsidiary called AgraGate Climate Credits Corp. The company will buy credits from farmers in Iowa and other states who use no-till practices or other methods that absorb carbon dioxide from the air. AgraGate will sell the credits at the Chicago Climate Exchange to companies that emit the gases believed to cause climate change. Interest in trading carbon credits has gained popularity, especially as Congress considers limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Factories and power plants could buy carbon credits more cheaply than investing in cleaner facilities. The Farm Bureau has had a carbon offset aggregation program since 2003 and now has about 1 million acres enrolled in a carbon credits program with farmers and others in 16 states....
River act heading to murky waters Some of Utah's most beautiful rivers and tributaries have a chance to earn the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers designation, which could protect them from dams and impacts from oil and gas drilling while preserving the scenery and outdoor recreation. Whether they will, though, is another question entirely. It has taken many years for the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management to take the steps mandated by the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The Forest Service has completed a statewide assessment of more than 85 rivers and the BLM is working to finish a district-by-district evaluation of its waterways. Both agencies hope to finish their work within the next year and a half. At the same time those efforts are moving forward, however, the state's rural counties are fighting hard to avoid the federal protections they say are unnecessary and would only interfere with grazing, livestock operations, water rights and energy development. The resistance could scuttle the entire effort, because county support is considered critical to necessary congressional approval. In fact, one county's objections, voiced by a powerful anti-wilderness official, have been so strenuous that they prompted the feds to add significant limitations to the 40-year-old law that will affect any state's future attempts to name more wild and scenic rivers....
Water Authority Plays Hardball With Rural Nevadans The Southern Nevada Water Authority is playing hardball with rural Nevadans who are opposed to a multi-billion dollar pipeline project. Residents in White Pine County and elsewhere remain opposed to any plan that would take groundwater from under their feet and send it to Las Vegas. One way SNWA is eliminating the opposition is by buying them out, and for huge sums. Three years ago this week, Rancher Brandon Humphries told the I-Team he vigorously opposed any plan that would siphon groundwater from White Pine County and pipe it hundreds of miles to Las Vegas. Humphries said, "I don't like the idea of my place drying up for another condo or casino in Las Vegas." He urged his neighbors to fight to the end against SNWA. That was then. Today, Rancher Humprhies is an employee of the SNWA. He sold his 880-acre spread for more than $6 million and stayed on as manager....
Forest Service says dam must be removed An unstable dam and its contaminated mine waste near the Blackfoot River headwaters must be removed and corporate money should pay the bill, the U.S. Forest Service said Tuesday in a victory for environmental groups. The Mike Horse Dam built in 1941 at the headwaters of the Blackfoot, the river celebrated in the Norman MacLean novel "A River Runs Through It," failed during a 1975 flood that washed the waste downstream, killing fish and other aquatic life in the upper 10 miles of the river. The dam is "a ticking time bomb," Bruce Farling of the conservation group Trout Unlimited said Tuesday. The group began pressing for dam removal in 1987, Farling said. Last year, the Forest Service released six Mike Horse options, ranging from no action to full removal. This week, the agency opted for full removal....
Disease threatens bighorn sheep Bighorn sheep in the Hells Canyon area of northeast Oregon are undergoing a die-off that researchers believe could be a result of bacterial pneumonia passed from domestic sheep. "I don't have a figure on how many sheep have died at the present time, but I know that the lamb survival is just terrible," said Ron Anglin, the chief of the Wildlife Division at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "And some of the lambs that we've collected as part of this study are showing positive for the Pasteurella complex. And if they've got it, they won't make it." The Hells Canyon sheep are part of an introduction effort that has been ongoing for more than a decade, said Craig Ely, the department's Northwest Region manager. Because of the domestic-bighorn disease transmission possibility, Fish and Wildlife officials along with those from the national and Oregon chapter of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep are arguing against sheep grazing agreements on federal lands where the two would intersect....
Court upholds salvage logging ruling The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling halting salvage logging on about 960 acres burned by the 2002 Timbered Rock fire in the Elk Creek drainage near Trail. In a 2-1 ruling released Tuesday, the judges in San Francisco agreed with U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken that the Medford District of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management violated its own rules and federal law when it decided to cut some 23.4 million board feet of timber in the burned area. "This is a pretty resounding rebuke for the BLM and the Bush administration," said George Sexton, conservation director for the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, one of five environmental groups that sued the federal government to halt the logging. Aiken issued a permanent injunction late in 2004 to halt the salvage logging on BLM land from the nearly 27,000-acre lightning-caused fire. She agreed with environmental groups that had asserted the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan requires late-successional reserves be set aside to preserve habitat for old-growth species, such as salmon and spotted owls. She also concluded the agency did not factor into its plan the impact of new roads and salvage logging on adjacent 6,000 acres of private land....
Continental Divide trail plan troubles users A U.S. Forest Service move to amend the 1985 Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDNST) plan has sent waves of concern rippling through some user groups. Under the proposed directive, the Forest Service could bar mountain bikes on sections of the 3,100-mile trail where they are currently allowed in nonwilderness areas, according to an action alert sent out by the International Mountain Bicycling Association. According to the association's website — www.imba.com — the Forest Service directive should not discriminate against bicycling on the Continental Divide Trail. The mountain bike group sees the comment period as a chance to ask the Forest Service to include bicycling as a central focus and purpose for the trail. “It is unfair to discriminate against bicycling when scientific research has shown its impacts to be similar to hiking and less than equestrian use,” the IMBA website states....
U.S. Senators back mining project through bill U.S. Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain reintroduced legislation Tuesday to allow Resolution Copper Co. to develop an underground mine near Superior that could tap one of the largest deposits of copper ore ever discovered in North America. However, some residents of Superior and the San Carlos Apache Tribe object to the land exchange, believing the project in Pinal County would damage a scenic area that has strong connections with Apache history. Similar bills were introduced in each of the past two years but failed. Officials of Resolution Copper, a unit of London-based Rio Tinto Group, have said that the land deal must be approved this year or the project cannot proceed. The bill introduced Tuesday by the two Arizona Republicans would give Resolution Copper about 3,025 federally-owned acres in the “Oak Flat” area three miles east of Superior. In return, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management would get from Resolution seven parcels totaling 4,583 acres of environmentally-sensitive land throughout Arizona....
Spotted fever cases increase in Campbell County Five cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever have been documented in Campbell County since April, more than half the statewide total. State Public Health Veterinarian Karl Musgrave said most of the Campbell County cases are people who work in Wyoming's oil and gas fields. "We'd seen a few cases every once in a while, but nothing like what has been seen more recently," Musgrave said. Tick season usually begins in April and peaks in May when there's still sufficient moisture for the common species out West, the Rocky Mountain wood tick. But University of Wyoming entomologist Jack Lloyd suspects that an eastern species - the American dog tick - might be to be blame for the midsummer spotted fever cases. "We have collected both species in Wyoming, and with the American dog tick you might have Rocky Mountain spotted fever a little longer into the summer than with the Rocky Mountain wood tick," he said....
Voracious Jumbo Squid Invade California Jumbo squid that can grow up to 7 feet long and weigh more than 110 pounds is invading central California waters and preying on local anchovy, hake and other commercial fish populations, according to a study published Tuesday. An aggressive predator, the Humboldt squid—or Dosidicus gigas—can change its eating habits to consume the food supply favored by tuna and sharks, its closest competitors, according to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. "Having a new, voracious predator set up shop here in California may be yet another thing for fishermen to compete with," said the study's co-author, Stanford University researcher Louis Zeidberg. "That said, if a squid saw a human they would jet the other way." The jumbo squid used to be found only in the Pacific Ocean's warmest stretches near the equator. In the last 16 years, it has expanded its territory throughout California waters, and squid have even been found in the icy waters off Alaska, Zeidberg said....
Ted Turner at home where the buffalo roam Ted Turner commiserated with his fellow bison ranchers over the tough times they've endured, explained how his restaurant chain is helping to build demand for buffalo meat and then led his audience at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in singing "Home on the Range." About 20 minutes later, Turner, wearing a western shirt, blue jeans, boots and a bolo tie, was inducted into the National Buffalo Foundation Hall of Fame. Turner spoke at the opening event of the third International Bison Conference, which runs through Saturday, July 28. Turner owns 42,000 head of buffalo on 13 ranches in Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and South Dakota. His South Dakota ranch lies west of Fort Pierre. Easily the largest buffalo rancher in the world, Turner admitted that he didn't eat buffalo meat for the first 15 years he owned buffalo as he built a fledgling herd in South Carolina....
Report: USDA sent $1.1B to dead farmers The Agriculture Department sent $1.1 billion in farm payments to more than 170,000 dead people over seven years, congressional investigators said in a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office. The findings come as the House of Representatives prepares to debate and pass farm legislation this week that would govern subsidies and the department's programs for the next five years. GAO auditors reviewed payments from 1999 through 2005 in the report, which was requested by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. "It's unconscionable that the Department of Agriculture would think that a dead person was actively engaged in the business of farming," Grassley said. "(The) USDA has made farm payments to estates more than two years after recipients died, without determining, as its regulations require, whether the estates were kept open to receive these payments," the report said. John Johnson, a deputy administrator for the Farm Service Agency, said there is no indication that the payments were improper, since some rules allow estates to continue receiving money after a two-year grace period. The department is working with the Social Security Administration to improve its record-keeping, he said.
Bringing Moos and Oinks Into the Food Debate THE first farm animal Gene Baur ever snatched from a stockyard was a lamb he named Hilda. That was 1986. She’s now buried under a little tombstone near the center of Farm Sanctuary, 180 acres of vegan nirvana here in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Back then, Mr. Baur was living in a school bus near a tofu factory in Pennsylvania and selling vegetarian hot dogs at Grateful Dead concerts to support his animal rescue operation. Now, more than a thousand animals once destined for the slaughterhouse live here and on another Farm Sanctuary property in California. Farm Sanctuary has a $5.7 million budget, fed in part by a donor club named after his beloved Hilda. Supporters can sign up for a Farm Sanctuary MasterCard. A $200-a-seat gala dinner in Los Angeles this fall will feature seitan Wellington and stars like Emily Deschanel and Forest Whitaker. As Farm Sanctuary has grown, so too has its influence....
All-digital hospital for horses opens A new state-of-the-art medical and surgical center for horses in the Rocky Mountains has opened at a prominent equine training and breeding center west of here. CSR Equine specializes in lameness and reproductive care but also provides emergency and general health services for horses, as well as alternative medicine like acupuncture, said veterinarian John Smart, who leads the center. "We're building a world-class team with advanced capabilities to serve the greater Rocky Mountain West," he said. Area ranchers, breeders and horse owners would normally haul their animals to Denver or Washington state for similar care, spokeswoman Bridget Cavanaugh said. The 10,000-square-foot hospital is an affiliate of Copper Spring Ranch, a leading producer of rodeo and performance horses near Four Corners. It opened last week, with veterinarians performing the first surgery - an ovariectomy - on a mare July 18 using high-definition laparoscopy equipment normally reserved for human medicine, Cavanaugh said....
FLE
Official Takes Blame for Passport Mess "Over the past several months, many travelers who applied for a passport did not receive their document in time for their planned travel. I deeply regret that," says Assistant Secretary of State Maura Harty, who is in charge of U.S. passports. "I accept complete responsibility for this." The government started requiring more Americans to have passports on Jan. 23 in an effort to thwart terrorism. By summer, more than 2 million people were waiting for passports; half a million had waited more than three months since applying for a document that typically was ready in six weeks. The massive backlog destroyed summer vacations, ruined wedding and honeymoon plans and disrupted business meetings and education plans. People lost work days waiting in lines or thousands of dollars in nonrefundable travel deposits....
Attorney General Recalls Attempt to Bypass Justice Department Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee he paid a visit to his predecessor in a hospital intensive care room in 2004 at the behest of lawmakers who were urging the administration to find a way to continue conducting “vitally important intelligence activities” without Justice Department approval or new legislation. Lawmakers have assumed that the episode involved the National Security Agency warrantless surveillance program that the New York Times first disclosed in December 2005 and Bush subsequently confirmed. But Gonzales said Tuesday the hospital encounter was not about that program. The attorney general testified before the committee in February 2006 that there had been no serious disagreement among Justice Department officials about the legality of the presidentially confirmed NSA program, which the administration dubbed the “Terrorist Surveillance Program.” “The disagreement that occurred, and the reason for the visit to the hospital, senator, was about other intelligence activities,” Gonzales said Tuesday under questioning by committee chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt. “It was not about the terrorist surveillance program that the president announced to the American people.”....
U.S. anti-terrorism bill stalled over immunity for tipsters Major legislation to implement more of the Sept. 11 Commission's anti-terrorism recommendations now hinges on a relatively minor provision: whether U.S. citizens who report suspicious activity should be immune to lawsuits. Passage of the bill would be a sizable victory for Democrats who laid out an ambitious legislative agenda when they took control of Congress. The bill currently in House-Senate negotiations would bring the United States closer to scanning all cargo-containing ships before they leave foreign ports - a measure aimed at preventing a nuclear device from reaching U.S. shores. But it is a smaller issue that has proven to be the biggest headache as lawmakers hammer out the final version. Republicans are demanding that language be added to provide immunity to citizens who report suspicious activity. They referred to an incident last fall where six Muslim scholars were removed from a flight in Minneapolis after other passengers said they were acting suspiciously. The imams have since filed a lawsuit, saying their civil rights were violated....
State-run sites not effective vs. terror More than 40 state-run operations set up after 9/11 to help uncover terrorist plots are proving to be a costly but largely ineffective weapon against terrorism, according to congressional investigators. Homeland Security has given states $380 million to set up the high-tech intelligence centers to help law enforcement officials do what they were not able to do before Sept. 11, 2001: recognize suspicious activity, patterns and people and use the information to prevent terrorist attacks. However, the centers "have increasingly gravitated toward an all-crimes and even broader all-hazards approach," focusing on traditional criminals and local emergencies, according to a report this month by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Built with state and federal money, the "fusion centers" are designed to encourage local, state and federal law enforcement and homeland security officers to share information....
Congressman Denied Access To Post-Attack Continuity Plans Constituents called Rep. Peter DeFazio's office, worried there was a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack. As a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure "bubbleroom'' in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents. On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED. "I just can't believe they're going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack,'' DeFazio said. Bush administration spokesman Trey Bohn declined to say why DeFazio was denied access: "We do not comment through the press on the process that this access entails. It is important to keep in mind that much of the information related to the continuity of government is highly sensitive.'' Norm Ornstein, a legal scholar who studies government continuity at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he ``cannot think of one good reason'' to deny access to a member of Congress who serves on the Homeland Security Committee....
FEMA keeps selling toxic trailers despite report The Federal Emergency Management Agency will keep selling and donating surplus disaster-relief trailers despite concerns that they may have unhealthy levels of formaldehyde, the agency said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Health Affairs plan to test the air quality in the trailers. “Potential buyers/recipients will be fully advised of the concerns regarding formaldehyde levels in travel trailers,” FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said Friday in an e-mail message to The Associated Press. FEMA drew the ire of Congress last week after documents revealed that the agency’s lawyers discouraged investigating reports that the trailers had high formaldehyde levels....
Foster parent gun rules shot down Oregon's child welfare agency did not anticipate the firestorm it would create when it issued new rules regulating guns in state-certified foster homes. Now the agency is backtracking. The National Rifle Association is on alert. And the Oregon Legislature is likely to get involved in the politically volatile matter of balancing an individual's right to have a gun vs. the state's need to protect its most vulnerable children. For years, the state Department of Human Services has required foster parents to store firearms unloaded and ammunition locked away in a separate place. It also prohibited having a loaded gun while transporting a foster child in a car. This year, the agency decided to do away with an exception for people with concealed-weapons permits. And that's when the trouble started....
Official Takes Blame for Passport Mess "Over the past several months, many travelers who applied for a passport did not receive their document in time for their planned travel. I deeply regret that," says Assistant Secretary of State Maura Harty, who is in charge of U.S. passports. "I accept complete responsibility for this." The government started requiring more Americans to have passports on Jan. 23 in an effort to thwart terrorism. By summer, more than 2 million people were waiting for passports; half a million had waited more than three months since applying for a document that typically was ready in six weeks. The massive backlog destroyed summer vacations, ruined wedding and honeymoon plans and disrupted business meetings and education plans. People lost work days waiting in lines or thousands of dollars in nonrefundable travel deposits....
Attorney General Recalls Attempt to Bypass Justice Department Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee he paid a visit to his predecessor in a hospital intensive care room in 2004 at the behest of lawmakers who were urging the administration to find a way to continue conducting “vitally important intelligence activities” without Justice Department approval or new legislation. Lawmakers have assumed that the episode involved the National Security Agency warrantless surveillance program that the New York Times first disclosed in December 2005 and Bush subsequently confirmed. But Gonzales said Tuesday the hospital encounter was not about that program. The attorney general testified before the committee in February 2006 that there had been no serious disagreement among Justice Department officials about the legality of the presidentially confirmed NSA program, which the administration dubbed the “Terrorist Surveillance Program.” “The disagreement that occurred, and the reason for the visit to the hospital, senator, was about other intelligence activities,” Gonzales said Tuesday under questioning by committee chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt. “It was not about the terrorist surveillance program that the president announced to the American people.”....
U.S. anti-terrorism bill stalled over immunity for tipsters Major legislation to implement more of the Sept. 11 Commission's anti-terrorism recommendations now hinges on a relatively minor provision: whether U.S. citizens who report suspicious activity should be immune to lawsuits. Passage of the bill would be a sizable victory for Democrats who laid out an ambitious legislative agenda when they took control of Congress. The bill currently in House-Senate negotiations would bring the United States closer to scanning all cargo-containing ships before they leave foreign ports - a measure aimed at preventing a nuclear device from reaching U.S. shores. But it is a smaller issue that has proven to be the biggest headache as lawmakers hammer out the final version. Republicans are demanding that language be added to provide immunity to citizens who report suspicious activity. They referred to an incident last fall where six Muslim scholars were removed from a flight in Minneapolis after other passengers said they were acting suspiciously. The imams have since filed a lawsuit, saying their civil rights were violated....
State-run sites not effective vs. terror More than 40 state-run operations set up after 9/11 to help uncover terrorist plots are proving to be a costly but largely ineffective weapon against terrorism, according to congressional investigators. Homeland Security has given states $380 million to set up the high-tech intelligence centers to help law enforcement officials do what they were not able to do before Sept. 11, 2001: recognize suspicious activity, patterns and people and use the information to prevent terrorist attacks. However, the centers "have increasingly gravitated toward an all-crimes and even broader all-hazards approach," focusing on traditional criminals and local emergencies, according to a report this month by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Built with state and federal money, the "fusion centers" are designed to encourage local, state and federal law enforcement and homeland security officers to share information....
Congressman Denied Access To Post-Attack Continuity Plans Constituents called Rep. Peter DeFazio's office, worried there was a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack. As a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure "bubbleroom'' in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents. On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED. "I just can't believe they're going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack,'' DeFazio said. Bush administration spokesman Trey Bohn declined to say why DeFazio was denied access: "We do not comment through the press on the process that this access entails. It is important to keep in mind that much of the information related to the continuity of government is highly sensitive.'' Norm Ornstein, a legal scholar who studies government continuity at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he ``cannot think of one good reason'' to deny access to a member of Congress who serves on the Homeland Security Committee....
FEMA keeps selling toxic trailers despite report The Federal Emergency Management Agency will keep selling and donating surplus disaster-relief trailers despite concerns that they may have unhealthy levels of formaldehyde, the agency said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Health Affairs plan to test the air quality in the trailers. “Potential buyers/recipients will be fully advised of the concerns regarding formaldehyde levels in travel trailers,” FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said Friday in an e-mail message to The Associated Press. FEMA drew the ire of Congress last week after documents revealed that the agency’s lawyers discouraged investigating reports that the trailers had high formaldehyde levels....
Foster parent gun rules shot down Oregon's child welfare agency did not anticipate the firestorm it would create when it issued new rules regulating guns in state-certified foster homes. Now the agency is backtracking. The National Rifle Association is on alert. And the Oregon Legislature is likely to get involved in the politically volatile matter of balancing an individual's right to have a gun vs. the state's need to protect its most vulnerable children. For years, the state Department of Human Services has required foster parents to store firearms unloaded and ammunition locked away in a separate place. It also prohibited having a loaded gun while transporting a foster child in a car. This year, the agency decided to do away with an exception for people with concealed-weapons permits. And that's when the trouble started....
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Eminent domain used for farm's water Can a city use eminent domain to nab a farm's water rights because it needs the water for an industrial park that will provide jobs and opportunities for its young people and therefore benefit the entire community? To add a twist to this question: What if the owners of the farm requested that their land be rezoned "light industrial" so that it could be developed - a request that was granted by a state growth management hearings board. In a situation like that, how does the definition of "public good," which is a requirement for condemnation through eminent domain, fit into the picture? Would an industrial park designed to benefit the city trump the farmers' plans to have their land developed if "public good" is the deciding factor? These are the questions before the court as it weighs a request to reconsider an earlier decision that came out in the farmers' favor in the City of Winlock's case against Mickelsen Dairy. In a May 21, 2007, letter to the city's attorneys explaining his decision in favor of the Mickelsens, Cowlitz Superior Court Judge James Stonier said that while "the declaration of public necessity by the City of Winlock is valid, Mickelsen's agricultural use is superior." The issue at hand, said the judge, was whether the state's prior appropriation water-rights policy - "first in time; first in right" - holds enough weight to withstand the city's attempt to condemn the water rights. In his opinion, it does. But he also said that the court does not find that any future proposed use by the Mickelsens, other than the current agricultural use, to be superior to the city's intended use of the water rights....
Elk feedground study starts The Bridger-Teton National Forest has started the ball rolling on whether the Wyoming Game and Fish Department should receive a long-term permit to continue elk winter feeding and related management programs on forest lands. A 45-day public comment period started Monday on the proposed special-use permit study document. Conservationists worry, however, that the planned environmental impact statement might be so narrowly drawn as to have a foregone conclusion: to approve the land-use permit without looking at what Game and Fish is actually doing on national forest lands....
Helicopter pilot dies while fighting wildfire A helicopter pilot was killed Monday when the aircraft crashed while delivering water to firefighters battling a blaze in the Klamath National Forest, authorities said. The pilot, whose name was not immediately released, was in "extremely rugged" mountain territory about 12 miles southeast of Happy Camp in Siskiyou County when the crash occurred shortly after 10 a.m. Monday, said Duane Lyon, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman. Investigators were trying to determine the cause of the crash. The pilot was under contract with the Forest Service but was not a government employee, Lyon said. The pilot was the only person on board. The helicopter was carrying a large water container to refill hand-pump backpacks for firefighters on the ground. Some firefighters saw the helicopter crash and reported it to emergency dispatchers....
Agencies draw criticism at Tahoe fire forum Officials who promised to help victims of a major Tahoe Basin fire got polite applause at a Monday forum - but the loudest cheering was for victims of the Angora fire who questioned whether bureaucratic red tape hindered advance efforts to prevent such disasters. California Assemblyman Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, joined by Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons and officials from various agencies and groups with a stake in protecting Tahoe, promised the fire victims that he'd work to curtail the bureaucracy. He said people are frustrated and "need some answers." Dozens of local residents spoke at the forum, including Chris Horton, who lost his home in the fire. Horton said he believed the fire that caused more than $140 million in property damage was fueled in part by hundreds of piles of slash left on the ground by crews clearing out the woods in the past. Lane Sykes, whose home was damaged, said the bistate Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, which oversees the area, gave him an inspection report that prevented him from removing pine needles around his property. He said those pine needles contributed to the damage to his home. The TRPA has emerged as a favorite target for those seeking to assign blame for the fire. Many Tahoe residents say the agency has overstepped its original mission by adopting strict policies that limit tree-cutting on private property....
Blaze ignites criticism Would the Murphy Complex have burned almost 900 square miles if the Bureau of Land Management, as state Rep. Bert Brackett argued, "took their gloves off" when fighting the blaze? That question led the discussion Monday night at the Castleford School. BLM state director Tom Dyer stood and smiled calmly before a crowd of about 120 ranchers and residents affected by the almost 600,000-acre wildfire. Many in the audience questioned why the agency didn't pull out all the stops when the fire was in its first stages. The fire escalated to extremes that required Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter to declare five counties - Cassia, Idaho, Nez Perce, Owyhee and Twin Falls - disaster emergency areas to allow state assistance to the counties. The Twin Falls County commissioners also passed an emergency ordinance banning open burning Monday. Chris Simonson, fire management officer for the BLM's Twin Falls district, said the agency has been bound by rest and training regulations. Rancher John Faulkner, who lives northwest of the fire, near Mountain Home Air Force Base, criticized the BLM for not wanting ranchers to help fight the fires, and enforcing year-long grazing regulations that allow grasses to become like "gasoline." No one present criticized the firefighters on the front lines....
Rainbow Gathering ends; 100 remain Rainbow Family members, for the most part, have all returned to their homes from the annual Rainbow Gathering held in Fallsville, near Clarksville, earlier this month. Some members remain in the area and are helping clean up trash and other items left in the forest. The nonorganized, nonmember, Rainbow Family of the Living Light began to gather in the Ozark National Forest last month with the culmination of the gathering July 4, during a prayer ceremony and morning of silence. The group is prominately referred to as hippies, gypsies and hobos, according to its unofficial Web site, welcomehere.org. The first gathering was in 1972, a four-day event in Colorado, where 20,000 people gathered. The group has met every year since, according to the Web site. In the past, Rainbow Gatherings have left the forest in less than ideal condition, despite their attempt to be “light on the land,” said Denise Ottaviano, information officer for the U.S. Forest Service National Incident Management Team....
Survey: Dig was on federal land A survey has determined that a private dinosaur dig in Garfield County was on federal land. Bureau of Land Management spokesperson Greg Albright said Monday the dig remains shut down while an investigation continues. No decision has been made on whether charges may be filed, he said. The BLM is working with the U.S. Attorney's Office. Illegal digging could result in charges ranging from a simple trespass to felony theft of government property if the property is valued at more than $1,000. Earlier this month, BLM asked representatives of PaleoWorld Research Foundation, a Florida-based group leading a dinosaur-digging expedition in Garfield County, to stop digging at a site so it could determine whether the work was occurring illegally on federal land. A permit is required to dig on federal lands. The group's base camp is 21 miles northwest of Jordan, on a ranch owned by Judy Lervick, the field facilities manager for PaleoWorld. Lervick said earlier the disputed quarry was one of many dig sites operated by the foundation and that work was continuing at other sites....
Group files suit to block coal plant An environmental group filed a federal lawsuit Monday seeking to block public financing of a coal-fired power plant near Great Falls because of its potential to exacerbate global warming, pollute surrounding communities and degrade a historic trail. With seven more coal plants nationwide up for similar rural development loans, an attorney for the group Earthjustice said she hoped the challenge to the Montana plant will scuttle the entire U.S. Department of Agriculture program. "The federal government should be the last source of funding for coal plants. These are projects that even Wall Street is turning its back on," said Abigail Dillen, the lead attorney in the suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The other plants are in Wyoming, Missouri, Iowa, Florida, Oklahoma and two in Kentucky. The USDA's Rural Utilities Service in May gave a regulatory green light to Montana's 250-megawatt Highwood Generating Station to be built near the Missouri River along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail by the Southern Montana Electric cooperative. It would deliver electricity to 120,000 residents of Montana and market surplus power to out-of-state customers....
Luthi lands position as minerals director Former Wyoming House Speaker Randall Luthi has been appointed director of the Minerals Management Service, the second Wyomingite in a row to hold the position. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne made the announcement Monday. Luthi replaces former Wyoming official Johnnie Burton, who stepped down from the position at the end of May. Burton had come under criticism for not acting when she first heard of billion-dollar errors with oil and gas drilling leases made before her tenure. Luthi, 52, currently serves as deputy director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Last month he unsuccessfully applied to fill the seat of the late Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo. Luthi will lead the agency that collects and disburses more than $8 billion per year in revenues from federal offshore and onshore mineral leases. The agency has come under scrutiny of late. Its management practices have been the subject of several congressional oversight hearings....
Scientists Say Snowy River Flowing Again A sparkling subterranean crystalline calcite formation known as Snowy River is no longer a dry riverbed. Scientists say Snowy River, discovered in 2001, is now running with between a half-foot to a foot-and-a-half of water. The formation, which is not open to the public, was discovered by a U.S. Bureau of Land Management team led by veteran speleologist John McLean of Colorado. The passage, which looks like a river of snow surrounded by walls of brown clay and black manganese dioxide deposits, stretches more than 2 miles from a passage in Fort Stanton Cave. Water originally carved a channel in the clay and gravel, then eventually filled it with brilliant white calcite. In some places, the ceiling soars up to 40 feet; in others it's down to 16 inches. Scientists believe the last time water flowed in the Snowy River formation may have been 150 years ago....
California outlaws kangaroo boots The Californian Supreme Court has banned the sale of football boots and all other goods made from kangaroo leather, technically outlawing the Adidas Predator boot which is being promoted by new LA Galaxy signing David Beckham. However, the statewide prohibition, which is the only one of its kind in the United States, may not last long. Legislation allowing kangaroo-derived products made by the sporting goods maker Adidas and other companies passed the state Senate earlier this year. The bill is widely expected to clear the Assembly smoothly and land on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk as early as September....
CWA Bill Could Hinder Food Production Current Clean Water Act legislation in Congress has the potential of interfering with private land and impeding producers’ ability to produce food, fiber and fuel, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. In written testimony sent this week to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, AFBF argued that H.R. 2421 would not only expand CWA jurisdiction, but needlessly sweep many agricultural and forestry activities into the scope of CWA. According to AFBF, H.R. 2421 goes much further than simple redefinition of the CWA; it does not limit the type of waters that would be regulated in any way. “Truly navigable waterways, tributaries, streams and wetlands adjacent to such waterways are already subject to CWA regulation under current law,” said the group. “The language being proposed in H.R. 2421 could reach a backyard mosquito fogger if a breeze happens to blow into ‘waters of the United States.’” AFBF went further to say, “H.R. 2421 applies the broadest possible interpretation of the CWA, subject only to constitutional limits and removes any argument that Congress intended any limit on the regulatory reach of the act.”....
From gangs to lambs Henry, an at-risk teen, moved from Los Angeles to Hanna Boys Center two years ago to increase his chances for a successful future. "I wanted to get away from the issues at home...gangs and stuff," he said. Raising a calf and a lamb as part of the center's 4-H program is about as far away from street life as a young man can get. On Tuesday, June 17, Henry showed his Southdown market lamb, Urbina, at the 2007 Sonoma County Fair. "I did it and it has been a great experience," Henry said. George Perry, third-generation Sonoma County rancher and Boys Center agriculture director, picks five different boys each year to participate in this program and there is a waiting list of over 30. "These kids need a lot of structure and this program has that. I can set that bar as high as I want and the boys will meet it. It may take some longer than others but they all get there," said Perry. The 4-H Market Steer and Market Lamb Project teaches the boys how to care for, feed and show their animals. Henry and the others have also learned about pasture management, including how to recycle project waste onto the pasture to replenish expended soil nutrients. Henry has also cultivated, planted and harvested the organic garden....
Collies shine at stock dog show If regular dogs are man’s best friend, then stock dogs must be a rancher’s best friend. Stock dog trainers from the United States and Canada put the skills of their stock dogs on display Monday evening during the Can-Am Stock Dog Invitational at the North Dakota State Fair. Held in the All Seasons Arena, a course consisting of two gates, a barrel and a pen challenged trainers and dogs to herd three sheep through in as little time as possible. There are many different types of stock dogs, but border collies were on display during this show. While many people may think of the Westminster Kennel Club when a dog show is mentioned, the pooches featured at the Can-Am Invitational are hardly pampered. These are working-class dogs who run outside whether it’s hot or cold and help their owners keep herds of sheep and cattle in line. The training that the dogs undergo to herd livestock is intense and takes two to three years to complete. A whistle is used to direct the dogs and Halverson said the various whistles tell the dog which direction to go, to stop, to come back to the trainer, and so on....
American cowboys get their day of recognition Cowboys around the nation are saddling up to celebrate the National Day of the American Cowboy. This year’s celebration will take place on July 28. The date changes and is approved by the U.S. government each year. The first National Day of the American Cowboy was held in 2005 after U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., drafted legislation to have a day reserved for the American cowboy. The idea, Thomas said, came after being contacted by the “American Cowboy” magazine in 2004, who proposed a day to celebrate America’s cowboy. After the introduction of the idea, the National Day of the Cowboy Organization was founded to oversee the proposal and garner support for the day. This year, Thomas sponsored the legislation again (S. Res, 130) and it was approved in the Senate on March 22. Thomas said, on his website, that there is a plan to reserve the fourth Saturday in July to be reserved for the day each year....
Eminent domain used for farm's water Can a city use eminent domain to nab a farm's water rights because it needs the water for an industrial park that will provide jobs and opportunities for its young people and therefore benefit the entire community? To add a twist to this question: What if the owners of the farm requested that their land be rezoned "light industrial" so that it could be developed - a request that was granted by a state growth management hearings board. In a situation like that, how does the definition of "public good," which is a requirement for condemnation through eminent domain, fit into the picture? Would an industrial park designed to benefit the city trump the farmers' plans to have their land developed if "public good" is the deciding factor? These are the questions before the court as it weighs a request to reconsider an earlier decision that came out in the farmers' favor in the City of Winlock's case against Mickelsen Dairy. In a May 21, 2007, letter to the city's attorneys explaining his decision in favor of the Mickelsens, Cowlitz Superior Court Judge James Stonier said that while "the declaration of public necessity by the City of Winlock is valid, Mickelsen's agricultural use is superior." The issue at hand, said the judge, was whether the state's prior appropriation water-rights policy - "first in time; first in right" - holds enough weight to withstand the city's attempt to condemn the water rights. In his opinion, it does. But he also said that the court does not find that any future proposed use by the Mickelsens, other than the current agricultural use, to be superior to the city's intended use of the water rights....
Elk feedground study starts The Bridger-Teton National Forest has started the ball rolling on whether the Wyoming Game and Fish Department should receive a long-term permit to continue elk winter feeding and related management programs on forest lands. A 45-day public comment period started Monday on the proposed special-use permit study document. Conservationists worry, however, that the planned environmental impact statement might be so narrowly drawn as to have a foregone conclusion: to approve the land-use permit without looking at what Game and Fish is actually doing on national forest lands....
Helicopter pilot dies while fighting wildfire A helicopter pilot was killed Monday when the aircraft crashed while delivering water to firefighters battling a blaze in the Klamath National Forest, authorities said. The pilot, whose name was not immediately released, was in "extremely rugged" mountain territory about 12 miles southeast of Happy Camp in Siskiyou County when the crash occurred shortly after 10 a.m. Monday, said Duane Lyon, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman. Investigators were trying to determine the cause of the crash. The pilot was under contract with the Forest Service but was not a government employee, Lyon said. The pilot was the only person on board. The helicopter was carrying a large water container to refill hand-pump backpacks for firefighters on the ground. Some firefighters saw the helicopter crash and reported it to emergency dispatchers....
Agencies draw criticism at Tahoe fire forum Officials who promised to help victims of a major Tahoe Basin fire got polite applause at a Monday forum - but the loudest cheering was for victims of the Angora fire who questioned whether bureaucratic red tape hindered advance efforts to prevent such disasters. California Assemblyman Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, joined by Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons and officials from various agencies and groups with a stake in protecting Tahoe, promised the fire victims that he'd work to curtail the bureaucracy. He said people are frustrated and "need some answers." Dozens of local residents spoke at the forum, including Chris Horton, who lost his home in the fire. Horton said he believed the fire that caused more than $140 million in property damage was fueled in part by hundreds of piles of slash left on the ground by crews clearing out the woods in the past. Lane Sykes, whose home was damaged, said the bistate Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, which oversees the area, gave him an inspection report that prevented him from removing pine needles around his property. He said those pine needles contributed to the damage to his home. The TRPA has emerged as a favorite target for those seeking to assign blame for the fire. Many Tahoe residents say the agency has overstepped its original mission by adopting strict policies that limit tree-cutting on private property....
Blaze ignites criticism Would the Murphy Complex have burned almost 900 square miles if the Bureau of Land Management, as state Rep. Bert Brackett argued, "took their gloves off" when fighting the blaze? That question led the discussion Monday night at the Castleford School. BLM state director Tom Dyer stood and smiled calmly before a crowd of about 120 ranchers and residents affected by the almost 600,000-acre wildfire. Many in the audience questioned why the agency didn't pull out all the stops when the fire was in its first stages. The fire escalated to extremes that required Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter to declare five counties - Cassia, Idaho, Nez Perce, Owyhee and Twin Falls - disaster emergency areas to allow state assistance to the counties. The Twin Falls County commissioners also passed an emergency ordinance banning open burning Monday. Chris Simonson, fire management officer for the BLM's Twin Falls district, said the agency has been bound by rest and training regulations. Rancher John Faulkner, who lives northwest of the fire, near Mountain Home Air Force Base, criticized the BLM for not wanting ranchers to help fight the fires, and enforcing year-long grazing regulations that allow grasses to become like "gasoline." No one present criticized the firefighters on the front lines....
Rainbow Gathering ends; 100 remain Rainbow Family members, for the most part, have all returned to their homes from the annual Rainbow Gathering held in Fallsville, near Clarksville, earlier this month. Some members remain in the area and are helping clean up trash and other items left in the forest. The nonorganized, nonmember, Rainbow Family of the Living Light began to gather in the Ozark National Forest last month with the culmination of the gathering July 4, during a prayer ceremony and morning of silence. The group is prominately referred to as hippies, gypsies and hobos, according to its unofficial Web site, welcomehere.org. The first gathering was in 1972, a four-day event in Colorado, where 20,000 people gathered. The group has met every year since, according to the Web site. In the past, Rainbow Gatherings have left the forest in less than ideal condition, despite their attempt to be “light on the land,” said Denise Ottaviano, information officer for the U.S. Forest Service National Incident Management Team....
Survey: Dig was on federal land A survey has determined that a private dinosaur dig in Garfield County was on federal land. Bureau of Land Management spokesperson Greg Albright said Monday the dig remains shut down while an investigation continues. No decision has been made on whether charges may be filed, he said. The BLM is working with the U.S. Attorney's Office. Illegal digging could result in charges ranging from a simple trespass to felony theft of government property if the property is valued at more than $1,000. Earlier this month, BLM asked representatives of PaleoWorld Research Foundation, a Florida-based group leading a dinosaur-digging expedition in Garfield County, to stop digging at a site so it could determine whether the work was occurring illegally on federal land. A permit is required to dig on federal lands. The group's base camp is 21 miles northwest of Jordan, on a ranch owned by Judy Lervick, the field facilities manager for PaleoWorld. Lervick said earlier the disputed quarry was one of many dig sites operated by the foundation and that work was continuing at other sites....
Group files suit to block coal plant An environmental group filed a federal lawsuit Monday seeking to block public financing of a coal-fired power plant near Great Falls because of its potential to exacerbate global warming, pollute surrounding communities and degrade a historic trail. With seven more coal plants nationwide up for similar rural development loans, an attorney for the group Earthjustice said she hoped the challenge to the Montana plant will scuttle the entire U.S. Department of Agriculture program. "The federal government should be the last source of funding for coal plants. These are projects that even Wall Street is turning its back on," said Abigail Dillen, the lead attorney in the suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The other plants are in Wyoming, Missouri, Iowa, Florida, Oklahoma and two in Kentucky. The USDA's Rural Utilities Service in May gave a regulatory green light to Montana's 250-megawatt Highwood Generating Station to be built near the Missouri River along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail by the Southern Montana Electric cooperative. It would deliver electricity to 120,000 residents of Montana and market surplus power to out-of-state customers....
Luthi lands position as minerals director Former Wyoming House Speaker Randall Luthi has been appointed director of the Minerals Management Service, the second Wyomingite in a row to hold the position. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne made the announcement Monday. Luthi replaces former Wyoming official Johnnie Burton, who stepped down from the position at the end of May. Burton had come under criticism for not acting when she first heard of billion-dollar errors with oil and gas drilling leases made before her tenure. Luthi, 52, currently serves as deputy director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Last month he unsuccessfully applied to fill the seat of the late Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo. Luthi will lead the agency that collects and disburses more than $8 billion per year in revenues from federal offshore and onshore mineral leases. The agency has come under scrutiny of late. Its management practices have been the subject of several congressional oversight hearings....
Scientists Say Snowy River Flowing Again A sparkling subterranean crystalline calcite formation known as Snowy River is no longer a dry riverbed. Scientists say Snowy River, discovered in 2001, is now running with between a half-foot to a foot-and-a-half of water. The formation, which is not open to the public, was discovered by a U.S. Bureau of Land Management team led by veteran speleologist John McLean of Colorado. The passage, which looks like a river of snow surrounded by walls of brown clay and black manganese dioxide deposits, stretches more than 2 miles from a passage in Fort Stanton Cave. Water originally carved a channel in the clay and gravel, then eventually filled it with brilliant white calcite. In some places, the ceiling soars up to 40 feet; in others it's down to 16 inches. Scientists believe the last time water flowed in the Snowy River formation may have been 150 years ago....
California outlaws kangaroo boots The Californian Supreme Court has banned the sale of football boots and all other goods made from kangaroo leather, technically outlawing the Adidas Predator boot which is being promoted by new LA Galaxy signing David Beckham. However, the statewide prohibition, which is the only one of its kind in the United States, may not last long. Legislation allowing kangaroo-derived products made by the sporting goods maker Adidas and other companies passed the state Senate earlier this year. The bill is widely expected to clear the Assembly smoothly and land on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk as early as September....
CWA Bill Could Hinder Food Production Current Clean Water Act legislation in Congress has the potential of interfering with private land and impeding producers’ ability to produce food, fiber and fuel, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. In written testimony sent this week to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, AFBF argued that H.R. 2421 would not only expand CWA jurisdiction, but needlessly sweep many agricultural and forestry activities into the scope of CWA. According to AFBF, H.R. 2421 goes much further than simple redefinition of the CWA; it does not limit the type of waters that would be regulated in any way. “Truly navigable waterways, tributaries, streams and wetlands adjacent to such waterways are already subject to CWA regulation under current law,” said the group. “The language being proposed in H.R. 2421 could reach a backyard mosquito fogger if a breeze happens to blow into ‘waters of the United States.’” AFBF went further to say, “H.R. 2421 applies the broadest possible interpretation of the CWA, subject only to constitutional limits and removes any argument that Congress intended any limit on the regulatory reach of the act.”....
From gangs to lambs Henry, an at-risk teen, moved from Los Angeles to Hanna Boys Center two years ago to increase his chances for a successful future. "I wanted to get away from the issues at home...gangs and stuff," he said. Raising a calf and a lamb as part of the center's 4-H program is about as far away from street life as a young man can get. On Tuesday, June 17, Henry showed his Southdown market lamb, Urbina, at the 2007 Sonoma County Fair. "I did it and it has been a great experience," Henry said. George Perry, third-generation Sonoma County rancher and Boys Center agriculture director, picks five different boys each year to participate in this program and there is a waiting list of over 30. "These kids need a lot of structure and this program has that. I can set that bar as high as I want and the boys will meet it. It may take some longer than others but they all get there," said Perry. The 4-H Market Steer and Market Lamb Project teaches the boys how to care for, feed and show their animals. Henry and the others have also learned about pasture management, including how to recycle project waste onto the pasture to replenish expended soil nutrients. Henry has also cultivated, planted and harvested the organic garden....
Collies shine at stock dog show If regular dogs are man’s best friend, then stock dogs must be a rancher’s best friend. Stock dog trainers from the United States and Canada put the skills of their stock dogs on display Monday evening during the Can-Am Stock Dog Invitational at the North Dakota State Fair. Held in the All Seasons Arena, a course consisting of two gates, a barrel and a pen challenged trainers and dogs to herd three sheep through in as little time as possible. There are many different types of stock dogs, but border collies were on display during this show. While many people may think of the Westminster Kennel Club when a dog show is mentioned, the pooches featured at the Can-Am Invitational are hardly pampered. These are working-class dogs who run outside whether it’s hot or cold and help their owners keep herds of sheep and cattle in line. The training that the dogs undergo to herd livestock is intense and takes two to three years to complete. A whistle is used to direct the dogs and Halverson said the various whistles tell the dog which direction to go, to stop, to come back to the trainer, and so on....
American cowboys get their day of recognition Cowboys around the nation are saddling up to celebrate the National Day of the American Cowboy. This year’s celebration will take place on July 28. The date changes and is approved by the U.S. government each year. The first National Day of the American Cowboy was held in 2005 after U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., drafted legislation to have a day reserved for the American cowboy. The idea, Thomas said, came after being contacted by the “American Cowboy” magazine in 2004, who proposed a day to celebrate America’s cowboy. After the introduction of the idea, the National Day of the Cowboy Organization was founded to oversee the proposal and garner support for the day. This year, Thomas sponsored the legislation again (S. Res, 130) and it was approved in the Senate on March 22. Thomas said, on his website, that there is a plan to reserve the fourth Saturday in July to be reserved for the day each year....
Monday, July 23, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
BLM takes action against Oakley rancher for grazing cattle on land without a permit The Bureau of Land Management on Thursday hand delivered a notice of intent to Oakley rancher Bruce Bedke to impound Bedke's cattle grazing on public land. Bill Baker, acting BLM Twin Falls district manager, said the action follows numerous attempts to bring Bedke into compliance with federal grazing regulations. A longtime BLM grazing permittee, Bedke is in trespass for grazing his cattle in the Goose Creek Allotment southeast of Burley without a permit and has refused five offers by the BLM Burley field office and Baker to accept and sign renewed permits. Bedke has until July 26 to resolve the matter or BLM will impound his cattle. "This is a serious concern for us, and we sincerely hope that Mr. Bedke will bring his actions into compliance with the federal regulations, thus sparing all of us the painful action of an impoundment," Baker said. Impoundments are rare for BLM. Out of the almost 1,900 Idaho operators BLM permits to graze on public lands, BLM has had to resort to impounding livestock only twice in the last 10 years, said BLM spokeswoman Heather Tiel....
Water war heats up Central Nevada farmers like Roderick McKenzie fear booming Las Vegas is going to suck them dry. They're fighting a plan to pump billions of gallons of water south across the desert, saying it would eat up groundwater supplies and could spell the end for ranchers and farmers in rural valleys. With one ruling in hand for billions of gallons of rural Nevada water, the water supplier for sprawling southern Nevada is pressing for billions of additional gallons a year -- in a move that pits farmers and ranchers against developers eager to keep the gambling mecca booming. The Southern Nevada Water Authority wants to draw more than 11.3 billion gallons of groundwater a year from the Delamar, Dry Lake and Cave valleys, all in central Lincoln County and along the route of a proposed water pipeline that like a giant straw will stretch 250 miles across the state. That amount of water, expanded through reuse and other means, could supply more than 100,000 homes in the fast-growing Las Vegas area. But critics fear the plan would dry up groundwater supplies and could spell the end for ranching and farming in the rural valleys....
Army sees bigger Piñon role Tomorrow's Army will increasingly rely on unmanned aerial vehicles and robots connected by a wireless computer network to detect and destroy the enemy. As technology advances, and computer-driven machines with cameras collect intelligence and record enemy conversations, fewer soldiers will be needed to cover larger battlefields. It's one of the main reasons the Army wants to acquire more than 400,000 acres at Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in southern Colorado - to create a larger, more realistic training environment for troops. For residents of the Piñon Canyon area, the question is, just how large does the Army want that playground to be? The Army is growing. By 2012, the Army will have 74,200 more soldiers than it did before Sept. 11, 2001. By 2011, 45,400 soldiers once stationed overseas will be at U.S. installations. Fort Carson already is poised to receive 10,000 new troops from Fort Hood, Texas, and the Pentagon has dangled the possibility that at least one more brigade - about 3,500 troops - could come to Fort Carson. As the Army transforms from a slow- moving force on industrialized equipment to self-contained "units of action," brigade combat teams will be more mobile and more lethal. And with the new technology comes a need for space. The Army says the training ground needed for one brigade is 138,000 to 161,000 acres - 143 percent of what it was before the Persian Gulf War....
Prison sentences symbolize decline of radical environmentist movement More than a decade after they began setting fires across the West, remnants of the radical Earth Liberation Front stood before a federal judge, one by one, to hear her decide: Had they committed acts of domestic terrorism? And so a violent chapter in the environmental movement ended — with a whimper. Once feared by some and admired by others for their willingness to use any means necessary, these militants are in decline. "Radical environmentalism failed," said James Johnston of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. "Whether radical environmentalists admit it or not, they failed." Although crimes by environmental and animal-rights militants still occur, they have been sporadic. And although authorities cannot declare victory over radical militants, the movement has been significantly weakened....
Rich horsemen get special ticket to ride An elite group of 150 wealthy horsemen got special permission to ride through the Spanish Peaks Wilderness Area in southern Colorado during a weeklong, 100-mile trip that ends today. Wilderness advocates are crying foul, arguing that if a large troop of Boy Scouts tried to pass through the same area, the U.S. Forest Service would turn them down. TinaMarie Ekker, of the Montana-base group Wilderness Watch, said that in this case, money bought special privileges. The Roundup Riders of the Rockies, a secretive fraternity that has been conducting swanky rides through the Rockies for nearly 60 summers, paid about $15,000 to get a permit and pay for any damage they caused to trails or wetlands. Normally, a "25-heartbeat policy" governs groups in Wilderness Areas. That means that no group with more than 25 people or animals will be allowed in Wilderness Areas. The Spanish Peaks were declared wilderness in 2000....
Pair of Mexican wolves to be removed from wild The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to permanently remove two Mexican gray wolves from a pack in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in northeastern Arizona. The wolves are part of the Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program in New Mexico and Arizona. Officials want to remove two wolves because of 4 incidents in which its pack preyed upon sheep. The wild-born pack is made up of 6 adult and yearling wolves and an unknown number of 2-month-old pups. The agency says removing 2 of the older animals should successfully stop the pack from preying on the sheep....
Forest Service to appeal findings The U.S. Forest Service plans to appeal violations outlined in a federal safety investigative report that placed the blame on fire officials in October's fatal Esperanza Fire. Forest Service officials said the findings released by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration - part of the U.S. Department of Labor - won't affect their own plan, released in May. "The Forest Service stands by our action plan," said Allison Stewart, national spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. "OSHA's notice and citation plan won't make us change our process on the action plan." Stewart said the Forest Service intends to request an informal meeting to negotiate the violations with OSHA before the Aug.13 deadline OSHA set to have the violations corrected. OSHA's report, released Thursday, said firefighters weren't briefed on the status of the blaze and weather conditions, didn't obey a commander's orders to relocate to a safer area and didn't wear heavy protective "turn out" equipment, among other violations. The violations occurred before the burnover that killed five firefighters in the blaze....
Endangered falcons released on missile range Eleven endangered aplomado falcons were released in the northern edge of White Sands Missile Range July 11 in a joint effort to build up the falcon's population and remove it from the endangered species list. The falcons, which disappeared from the region between 1930 and 1960, were released in an effort supported by White Sands, the state of New Mexico, the Bureau of Land Management and the Peregrine Fund as well as several other organizations. The falcons were released in the northern edge of the range because the area provides the birds with the proper habitat. The area was also chosen because it borders both state and Bureau of Land Management property allowing the other agencies and governments to take part in the program. The area also provides the birds with an abundant food source. "The aplomado falcon eats small birds such as meadowlarks, lark buntings, mocking birds and insects. They will also catch bats," said Angel Montoya, a field biologist with the Peregrine Fund. The birds were released using a method called hacking. Young birds are placed in boxes on cliff sides, or in the case of the aplomado, on small towers where they can grow and acclimate to the area. According to the Peregrine Fund Web site, the birds are then fed by attendants until they are ready to fly and hunt on their own. "(The falcons) usually arrive when they are 35 days of age and they are released at 40 days of age. "That's the time that they would naturally (leave) a wild nest," Montoya said....
Dispute over desert house could pit nature against art The old adobe building near the oases ringed with shaggy palms welcomed Hollywood, hosted Gen. George Patton and inspired a desert landscape painter. But if a federal agency prevails, the ranch house where John William Hilton created his masterpieces could be demolished. The Bureau of Land Management says surveys show that Rancho Dos Palmas -- with its many additions -- lacks historical significance. A preservationist group disagrees. "To wipe out all that history ... my jaw just dropped," said Jennie Kelly, a spokeswoman for Friends of Dos Palmas. "An awful lot of people want to see the ranch house saved. "It carries a special place in our hearts." The dispute is playing out on a huge nature preserve near the Salton Sea....
Cooling off COOL? It was the last thing the House Agriculture Committee did Thursday night before producing a farm bill. Members approved changes to mandatory Country of Origin Labeling without debating it. The committee staff are still fleshing out the details, but here's what it does. COOL will include three categories of labeling, according to committee staff: * One that indicates product was born, raised and slaughtered in the United States; * One that indicates that product was not exclusively born, raised and slaughtered in the U.S.; * One that includes products entirely from other countries. For ground meat, products can be labeled with a list of countries where product may have originated. It capped off a week of intense behind-the-scenes battles over one of the most controversial parts of the last farm bill, one that Congress has delayed until 2008.
Better stock, better money Ralph Buell walked into the roughstock ready area at Frontier Park on Saturday and stopped to take in the scene. "This is a lot different than when I won here," the 1962 Cheyenne Frontier Days bareback riding champion said. "There was just a couple of small sets of stands." Buell kept up his hot streak that summer and used the $1,500 he won at the "Daddy of 'em All" to win a world title. He proudly sported his world championship belt buckle Saturday. Buell's $1,500 check pales in comparison to the more than $9,000 that 2006 bareback champ Forest Bramwell pocketed. Of course hamburgers and gallons of gas were going for a mere 25 cents in 1962. While the Frontier Park Arena has grown to feature two stadium sides and the money has gotten better, Buell said one the biggest changes he's seen in rodeo since he retired in 1968 is less apparent. "The bucking stock is so much better now," he said. "When I was at the tail end of my riding days, the horses were fading because there weren't as many wild horses around. "Then these horse ranchers got a hold of them, bred them up and now they buck really well."....
Before Vail was ... Vail Out of the aspen trees, Teodoro Salazar Ucharima rode into his camp on horseback, with his sheepdog in tow. The Peruvian shepherd had been tending to his flock for five hours already, though it was not yet noon. With his sheep under the watchful eyes of his guard dogs, he had returned to camp for lunch. His camp - the round-topped, silver wagon that's been his home for the last month - sat in a lush valley high above the town of Avon. June Creek rushed by a few yards away. Before Vail was Vail, it was sheep pastures. Even as 45 years of rapid development have erased those pastures, sheep still graze on the open range in the backcountry near the posh resorts of Vail and Beaver Creek. The flock had shifted slightly since Salazar left. He used heavily accented English-language commands for his dog. "Ty!" he yelled to the dog. "Come on!" The black border collie darted through the grass. "Come by!" he said, which told Ty to round up the sheep clockwise. "Away to me!" Salazar said, which means counterclockwise. The trails of Beaver Creek ski area were in plain view directly across the valley. Vail Mountain's Game Creek Bowl opened toward him upvalley....
Longhorn arm of the law Like all good cowboy stories, this one's been told and retold, passed down and around, shaped and honed until it shimmers with firelight and the red-orange blaze of a thousand Oklahoma suns. It doesn't matter if everyone in the room knows the ending. Tommy Morgan's eyes are bright with merriment, and it's clear he's enjoying every minute of this. "I was at the Tulsa Stockyards when I saw 'em, and my friend said 'Let's go over there and I'll choke the – out of 'em,' " the rancher says, demonstrating what his irate buddy would have done to the two guys they suspected had stolen 12 saddles – $18,000 worth – from Mr. Morgan's barn. "I was yelling, 'I've got 'em, I've got 'em,' flipping through the phone book tryin' to find someone to call." John Cummings – the guy he eventually called – grins broadly. He likes this story as much as Morgan does. As a newly minted special ranger for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, he's part of an elite cadre – a 29-member task force roaming 96.5 million miles across Oklahoma and Texas, investigating agriculture thefts by authority of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and/or the Texas Department of Public Safety. A lot of people think cattle rustling and horse thievery went out with the Conestoga wagon. They didn't. In fact, the problem has been increasing in recent years, especially in Texas and Oklahoma, where, until recently, a three-year drought increased the price of beef and thus thefts. Last year alone, rangers working the region recovered nearly $5 million in stolen property, including 3,716 head of cattle, 144 horses, 10 trailers, and 18 saddles....
Three (count 'em, 3) Texas Ranger bios As adjutant general for the nation's largest state, William Steele received a lot of mail. Appointed by Gov. Richard Coke in 1874, Steele oversaw the Frontier Battalion and Special State Troops — better known as the Texas Rangers — as well as the state's militia. Letters from district attorneys wanting Rangers to stand by to prevent violence at a session of district court, telegraphic requests from county sheriffs for assistance, letters from legislators wanting this or that and other correspondence usually covered his desk in the Capitol. In early September 1877, Steele opened a letter from Thomas J. Goree, superintendent of the state prison in Huntsville. The communication from East Texas must have stopped Steele short. It warned of a plan by Texas outlaws to violently take control of the state. The letter informed Steele that a prison inmate, while locked up in the Travis County Jail pending his transfer to Huntsville, had seen a letter outlining a scheme to distract the Rangers by recruiting Mexicans to stage a series of attacks along the frontier that would be blamed on Indians. While Rangers looked for Comanche war parties that didn't exist, the outlaws behind the plot would start breaking key colleagues from county jails, including the lockup in Austin — right across the street from the Capitol....
Yachting with FDR and riding Wyo's ranges Margie Barker returns from having breakfast in town with her caregiver, Anita Waites. She pulls on a hat and heads outside to mow the lawn. Keeping up the grounds on her Diamond 4 Ranch along French Creek has always been important to the diminutive Barker. Barker spent many of her 88 years on horseback, but no more. “My bones and my family just won’t allow it," she says. The story of Margie Barker is that of a Fifth Avenue socialite to the wife of a young Wyoming cowboy, Tom Barker. When she traded in her cotillion petticoats and socialite gowns for a pair of Western jeans, Margie never looked back. More than 60 years later, she bubbles with joy at ranch life. She met Tommy Barker at the well-known HF guest ranch northwest of Buffalo. Margie is one of five daughters of Thomas Ellis Brown and Helen Montgomery Langdon Brown, whose names were included in the 1920-30s social registers of Manhattan, N.Y. The Brown girls dated young men from affluent families and regularly attended social events at West Point. Betty Brown dated Howard Hughes for a time and one actor who played Tarzan....
El Millonario: A legend in Belen history Don José Felipe Chávez was the richest, shrewdest businessman in Belen and most of New Mexico during much of the 19th century. Rancher, farmer, merchant, retailer, wholesaler, investor, large landowner and mine owner were just some of his many business roles. He was, in fact, known in his day as "El Millonario." Born in Los Padillas in 1835, Don Felipe was a member of one of the oldest, most powerful families in New Mexico history. His father, José Chávez y Castillo, had served as an acting governor of New Mexico in the 1840s. His mother, Manuela Armijo de Chávez, was a member of the eminent Armijo family and a cousin of Manuel Armijo, the controversial frequent governor of New Mexico under Mexican rule. A natural-born businessman, Don Felipe launched his first business venture in Belen, building a mercantile store where Walgreens now stands on North Main Street. The large store was famous for its many goods and for its long counter in which hundreds of Mexican silver coins were embedded. The Chávez family had long been involved in the highly profitable trade on the Santa Fe Trail. The family's wagons shipped raw materials from Old and New Mexico and hauled manufactured goods from Missouri and beyond in the eastern United States....
BLM takes action against Oakley rancher for grazing cattle on land without a permit The Bureau of Land Management on Thursday hand delivered a notice of intent to Oakley rancher Bruce Bedke to impound Bedke's cattle grazing on public land. Bill Baker, acting BLM Twin Falls district manager, said the action follows numerous attempts to bring Bedke into compliance with federal grazing regulations. A longtime BLM grazing permittee, Bedke is in trespass for grazing his cattle in the Goose Creek Allotment southeast of Burley without a permit and has refused five offers by the BLM Burley field office and Baker to accept and sign renewed permits. Bedke has until July 26 to resolve the matter or BLM will impound his cattle. "This is a serious concern for us, and we sincerely hope that Mr. Bedke will bring his actions into compliance with the federal regulations, thus sparing all of us the painful action of an impoundment," Baker said. Impoundments are rare for BLM. Out of the almost 1,900 Idaho operators BLM permits to graze on public lands, BLM has had to resort to impounding livestock only twice in the last 10 years, said BLM spokeswoman Heather Tiel....
Water war heats up Central Nevada farmers like Roderick McKenzie fear booming Las Vegas is going to suck them dry. They're fighting a plan to pump billions of gallons of water south across the desert, saying it would eat up groundwater supplies and could spell the end for ranchers and farmers in rural valleys. With one ruling in hand for billions of gallons of rural Nevada water, the water supplier for sprawling southern Nevada is pressing for billions of additional gallons a year -- in a move that pits farmers and ranchers against developers eager to keep the gambling mecca booming. The Southern Nevada Water Authority wants to draw more than 11.3 billion gallons of groundwater a year from the Delamar, Dry Lake and Cave valleys, all in central Lincoln County and along the route of a proposed water pipeline that like a giant straw will stretch 250 miles across the state. That amount of water, expanded through reuse and other means, could supply more than 100,000 homes in the fast-growing Las Vegas area. But critics fear the plan would dry up groundwater supplies and could spell the end for ranching and farming in the rural valleys....
Army sees bigger Piñon role Tomorrow's Army will increasingly rely on unmanned aerial vehicles and robots connected by a wireless computer network to detect and destroy the enemy. As technology advances, and computer-driven machines with cameras collect intelligence and record enemy conversations, fewer soldiers will be needed to cover larger battlefields. It's one of the main reasons the Army wants to acquire more than 400,000 acres at Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in southern Colorado - to create a larger, more realistic training environment for troops. For residents of the Piñon Canyon area, the question is, just how large does the Army want that playground to be? The Army is growing. By 2012, the Army will have 74,200 more soldiers than it did before Sept. 11, 2001. By 2011, 45,400 soldiers once stationed overseas will be at U.S. installations. Fort Carson already is poised to receive 10,000 new troops from Fort Hood, Texas, and the Pentagon has dangled the possibility that at least one more brigade - about 3,500 troops - could come to Fort Carson. As the Army transforms from a slow- moving force on industrialized equipment to self-contained "units of action," brigade combat teams will be more mobile and more lethal. And with the new technology comes a need for space. The Army says the training ground needed for one brigade is 138,000 to 161,000 acres - 143 percent of what it was before the Persian Gulf War....
Prison sentences symbolize decline of radical environmentist movement More than a decade after they began setting fires across the West, remnants of the radical Earth Liberation Front stood before a federal judge, one by one, to hear her decide: Had they committed acts of domestic terrorism? And so a violent chapter in the environmental movement ended — with a whimper. Once feared by some and admired by others for their willingness to use any means necessary, these militants are in decline. "Radical environmentalism failed," said James Johnston of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. "Whether radical environmentalists admit it or not, they failed." Although crimes by environmental and animal-rights militants still occur, they have been sporadic. And although authorities cannot declare victory over radical militants, the movement has been significantly weakened....
Rich horsemen get special ticket to ride An elite group of 150 wealthy horsemen got special permission to ride through the Spanish Peaks Wilderness Area in southern Colorado during a weeklong, 100-mile trip that ends today. Wilderness advocates are crying foul, arguing that if a large troop of Boy Scouts tried to pass through the same area, the U.S. Forest Service would turn them down. TinaMarie Ekker, of the Montana-base group Wilderness Watch, said that in this case, money bought special privileges. The Roundup Riders of the Rockies, a secretive fraternity that has been conducting swanky rides through the Rockies for nearly 60 summers, paid about $15,000 to get a permit and pay for any damage they caused to trails or wetlands. Normally, a "25-heartbeat policy" governs groups in Wilderness Areas. That means that no group with more than 25 people or animals will be allowed in Wilderness Areas. The Spanish Peaks were declared wilderness in 2000....
Pair of Mexican wolves to be removed from wild The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to permanently remove two Mexican gray wolves from a pack in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in northeastern Arizona. The wolves are part of the Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program in New Mexico and Arizona. Officials want to remove two wolves because of 4 incidents in which its pack preyed upon sheep. The wild-born pack is made up of 6 adult and yearling wolves and an unknown number of 2-month-old pups. The agency says removing 2 of the older animals should successfully stop the pack from preying on the sheep....
Forest Service to appeal findings The U.S. Forest Service plans to appeal violations outlined in a federal safety investigative report that placed the blame on fire officials in October's fatal Esperanza Fire. Forest Service officials said the findings released by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration - part of the U.S. Department of Labor - won't affect their own plan, released in May. "The Forest Service stands by our action plan," said Allison Stewart, national spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. "OSHA's notice and citation plan won't make us change our process on the action plan." Stewart said the Forest Service intends to request an informal meeting to negotiate the violations with OSHA before the Aug.13 deadline OSHA set to have the violations corrected. OSHA's report, released Thursday, said firefighters weren't briefed on the status of the blaze and weather conditions, didn't obey a commander's orders to relocate to a safer area and didn't wear heavy protective "turn out" equipment, among other violations. The violations occurred before the burnover that killed five firefighters in the blaze....
Endangered falcons released on missile range Eleven endangered aplomado falcons were released in the northern edge of White Sands Missile Range July 11 in a joint effort to build up the falcon's population and remove it from the endangered species list. The falcons, which disappeared from the region between 1930 and 1960, were released in an effort supported by White Sands, the state of New Mexico, the Bureau of Land Management and the Peregrine Fund as well as several other organizations. The falcons were released in the northern edge of the range because the area provides the birds with the proper habitat. The area was also chosen because it borders both state and Bureau of Land Management property allowing the other agencies and governments to take part in the program. The area also provides the birds with an abundant food source. "The aplomado falcon eats small birds such as meadowlarks, lark buntings, mocking birds and insects. They will also catch bats," said Angel Montoya, a field biologist with the Peregrine Fund. The birds were released using a method called hacking. Young birds are placed in boxes on cliff sides, or in the case of the aplomado, on small towers where they can grow and acclimate to the area. According to the Peregrine Fund Web site, the birds are then fed by attendants until they are ready to fly and hunt on their own. "(The falcons) usually arrive when they are 35 days of age and they are released at 40 days of age. "That's the time that they would naturally (leave) a wild nest," Montoya said....
Dispute over desert house could pit nature against art The old adobe building near the oases ringed with shaggy palms welcomed Hollywood, hosted Gen. George Patton and inspired a desert landscape painter. But if a federal agency prevails, the ranch house where John William Hilton created his masterpieces could be demolished. The Bureau of Land Management says surveys show that Rancho Dos Palmas -- with its many additions -- lacks historical significance. A preservationist group disagrees. "To wipe out all that history ... my jaw just dropped," said Jennie Kelly, a spokeswoman for Friends of Dos Palmas. "An awful lot of people want to see the ranch house saved. "It carries a special place in our hearts." The dispute is playing out on a huge nature preserve near the Salton Sea....
Cooling off COOL? It was the last thing the House Agriculture Committee did Thursday night before producing a farm bill. Members approved changes to mandatory Country of Origin Labeling without debating it. The committee staff are still fleshing out the details, but here's what it does. COOL will include three categories of labeling, according to committee staff: * One that indicates product was born, raised and slaughtered in the United States; * One that indicates that product was not exclusively born, raised and slaughtered in the U.S.; * One that includes products entirely from other countries. For ground meat, products can be labeled with a list of countries where product may have originated. It capped off a week of intense behind-the-scenes battles over one of the most controversial parts of the last farm bill, one that Congress has delayed until 2008.
Better stock, better money Ralph Buell walked into the roughstock ready area at Frontier Park on Saturday and stopped to take in the scene. "This is a lot different than when I won here," the 1962 Cheyenne Frontier Days bareback riding champion said. "There was just a couple of small sets of stands." Buell kept up his hot streak that summer and used the $1,500 he won at the "Daddy of 'em All" to win a world title. He proudly sported his world championship belt buckle Saturday. Buell's $1,500 check pales in comparison to the more than $9,000 that 2006 bareback champ Forest Bramwell pocketed. Of course hamburgers and gallons of gas were going for a mere 25 cents in 1962. While the Frontier Park Arena has grown to feature two stadium sides and the money has gotten better, Buell said one the biggest changes he's seen in rodeo since he retired in 1968 is less apparent. "The bucking stock is so much better now," he said. "When I was at the tail end of my riding days, the horses were fading because there weren't as many wild horses around. "Then these horse ranchers got a hold of them, bred them up and now they buck really well."....
Before Vail was ... Vail Out of the aspen trees, Teodoro Salazar Ucharima rode into his camp on horseback, with his sheepdog in tow. The Peruvian shepherd had been tending to his flock for five hours already, though it was not yet noon. With his sheep under the watchful eyes of his guard dogs, he had returned to camp for lunch. His camp - the round-topped, silver wagon that's been his home for the last month - sat in a lush valley high above the town of Avon. June Creek rushed by a few yards away. Before Vail was Vail, it was sheep pastures. Even as 45 years of rapid development have erased those pastures, sheep still graze on the open range in the backcountry near the posh resorts of Vail and Beaver Creek. The flock had shifted slightly since Salazar left. He used heavily accented English-language commands for his dog. "Ty!" he yelled to the dog. "Come on!" The black border collie darted through the grass. "Come by!" he said, which told Ty to round up the sheep clockwise. "Away to me!" Salazar said, which means counterclockwise. The trails of Beaver Creek ski area were in plain view directly across the valley. Vail Mountain's Game Creek Bowl opened toward him upvalley....
Longhorn arm of the law Like all good cowboy stories, this one's been told and retold, passed down and around, shaped and honed until it shimmers with firelight and the red-orange blaze of a thousand Oklahoma suns. It doesn't matter if everyone in the room knows the ending. Tommy Morgan's eyes are bright with merriment, and it's clear he's enjoying every minute of this. "I was at the Tulsa Stockyards when I saw 'em, and my friend said 'Let's go over there and I'll choke the – out of 'em,' " the rancher says, demonstrating what his irate buddy would have done to the two guys they suspected had stolen 12 saddles – $18,000 worth – from Mr. Morgan's barn. "I was yelling, 'I've got 'em, I've got 'em,' flipping through the phone book tryin' to find someone to call." John Cummings – the guy he eventually called – grins broadly. He likes this story as much as Morgan does. As a newly minted special ranger for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, he's part of an elite cadre – a 29-member task force roaming 96.5 million miles across Oklahoma and Texas, investigating agriculture thefts by authority of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and/or the Texas Department of Public Safety. A lot of people think cattle rustling and horse thievery went out with the Conestoga wagon. They didn't. In fact, the problem has been increasing in recent years, especially in Texas and Oklahoma, where, until recently, a three-year drought increased the price of beef and thus thefts. Last year alone, rangers working the region recovered nearly $5 million in stolen property, including 3,716 head of cattle, 144 horses, 10 trailers, and 18 saddles....
Three (count 'em, 3) Texas Ranger bios As adjutant general for the nation's largest state, William Steele received a lot of mail. Appointed by Gov. Richard Coke in 1874, Steele oversaw the Frontier Battalion and Special State Troops — better known as the Texas Rangers — as well as the state's militia. Letters from district attorneys wanting Rangers to stand by to prevent violence at a session of district court, telegraphic requests from county sheriffs for assistance, letters from legislators wanting this or that and other correspondence usually covered his desk in the Capitol. In early September 1877, Steele opened a letter from Thomas J. Goree, superintendent of the state prison in Huntsville. The communication from East Texas must have stopped Steele short. It warned of a plan by Texas outlaws to violently take control of the state. The letter informed Steele that a prison inmate, while locked up in the Travis County Jail pending his transfer to Huntsville, had seen a letter outlining a scheme to distract the Rangers by recruiting Mexicans to stage a series of attacks along the frontier that would be blamed on Indians. While Rangers looked for Comanche war parties that didn't exist, the outlaws behind the plot would start breaking key colleagues from county jails, including the lockup in Austin — right across the street from the Capitol....
Yachting with FDR and riding Wyo's ranges Margie Barker returns from having breakfast in town with her caregiver, Anita Waites. She pulls on a hat and heads outside to mow the lawn. Keeping up the grounds on her Diamond 4 Ranch along French Creek has always been important to the diminutive Barker. Barker spent many of her 88 years on horseback, but no more. “My bones and my family just won’t allow it," she says. The story of Margie Barker is that of a Fifth Avenue socialite to the wife of a young Wyoming cowboy, Tom Barker. When she traded in her cotillion petticoats and socialite gowns for a pair of Western jeans, Margie never looked back. More than 60 years later, she bubbles with joy at ranch life. She met Tommy Barker at the well-known HF guest ranch northwest of Buffalo. Margie is one of five daughters of Thomas Ellis Brown and Helen Montgomery Langdon Brown, whose names were included in the 1920-30s social registers of Manhattan, N.Y. The Brown girls dated young men from affluent families and regularly attended social events at West Point. Betty Brown dated Howard Hughes for a time and one actor who played Tarzan....
El Millonario: A legend in Belen history Don José Felipe Chávez was the richest, shrewdest businessman in Belen and most of New Mexico during much of the 19th century. Rancher, farmer, merchant, retailer, wholesaler, investor, large landowner and mine owner were just some of his many business roles. He was, in fact, known in his day as "El Millonario." Born in Los Padillas in 1835, Don Felipe was a member of one of the oldest, most powerful families in New Mexico history. His father, José Chávez y Castillo, had served as an acting governor of New Mexico in the 1840s. His mother, Manuela Armijo de Chávez, was a member of the eminent Armijo family and a cousin of Manuel Armijo, the controversial frequent governor of New Mexico under Mexican rule. A natural-born businessman, Don Felipe launched his first business venture in Belen, building a mercantile store where Walgreens now stands on North Main Street. The large store was famous for its many goods and for its long counter in which hundreds of Mexican silver coins were embedded. The Chávez family had long been involved in the highly profitable trade on the Santa Fe Trail. The family's wagons shipped raw materials from Old and New Mexico and hauled manufactured goods from Missouri and beyond in the eastern United States....
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Summer survival includes the annual family reunion
By Julie Carter
Summers mark a myriad of events in people's lives, ranging from Disney-land vacations to weekend boating and fishing at the lake. Family reunions fit in there somewhere and any of the sane ones that attend leave thinking, "What was I thinking?"
Family reunions are where a whole bunch of kinfolk, who never did like each other much, get together for a day or two and try to act like they are happy to be in the family.
Then they spend most of that time avoiding everybody they didn't like in the first place.
Every family has its "special people," and the last reunion I heard about began with the description "Somebody needs to get the net after that entire bunch."
Many reunions are fodder for a sitcom script. Here is just one.
The clan runs the gamut of all kinds of crazy.
The cousin that is the judge mistook the rest of the kinfolk for voters and told stories and jokes nonstop.
His motto was, "Any story worth telling is worth adding a little something to."
The family dictator, aka, the one who organized the event in a resort town one state over from where they all lived, instructed one cousin he was in charge of Sunday morning breakfast.
Her list was for him to get 80 eggs, 5 pounds of sausage and 5 pounds of bacon.
When two of the expected clan didn't arrive, she cut the number to four dozen eggs with the same sausage and bacon.
No one was quite sure who it was that didn't show, but they knew they must be egg-eating dudes.
The fact that the organizer was a schoolteacher made this math somewhat concerning but then someone recalled she was allowed to teach only special-ed students.
Uncle Mike was a big winner at the horse races and told the clan he would treat them all to a drink at the casino.
"You know, when you hit it big at the races, a feller can do a lot of things," he said.
"How much did you win, Mike?"
"Twenty-three dollars," he answered.
The old uncle, who is 84, has a young steady girlfriend of Latin descent, and he spent the weekend giving tango lessons on a spontaneous basis.
A whispered warning passed from cousin to cousin to be sure and not ask the old guy about his love life unless you were prepared to hear more than you wanted about sex at 84.
Touristy events included a trip to a local Western museum that made an impact at some level on most of them.
A good number of them opted for a trip to a Friday night buffet, highlighted by one cowboy landing passed out on a stack of clean glasses in the pantry while a security guard babysat him until his wife was located.
Although classified pretty much as hillbillies through and through, there were a few that made every attempt at being civilized, even just for the weekend.
One woman proudly spent $62 on a pedicure, foot massage, had little daisies painted on her toes and her skin twinkled from the sparkles in the lotion that was applied.
Another lost 11 cents playing the penny slots and whined about it for two days.
The jewelry peddler cousin worked throughout the event and sold a load of stuff to the kinfolk and even to a few local shops.
She hauled all the females down to a trendy boutique where they bought a $150 shirt or two.
Others thought the $5 price to see the museum was good enough and besides, they already had a shirt.
Julie’s new book, Cowgirl Sass and Savvy is shipping now. See her Web site at www.julie-carter.com
By Julie Carter
Summers mark a myriad of events in people's lives, ranging from Disney-land vacations to weekend boating and fishing at the lake. Family reunions fit in there somewhere and any of the sane ones that attend leave thinking, "What was I thinking?"
Family reunions are where a whole bunch of kinfolk, who never did like each other much, get together for a day or two and try to act like they are happy to be in the family.
Then they spend most of that time avoiding everybody they didn't like in the first place.
Every family has its "special people," and the last reunion I heard about began with the description "Somebody needs to get the net after that entire bunch."
Many reunions are fodder for a sitcom script. Here is just one.
The clan runs the gamut of all kinds of crazy.
The cousin that is the judge mistook the rest of the kinfolk for voters and told stories and jokes nonstop.
His motto was, "Any story worth telling is worth adding a little something to."
The family dictator, aka, the one who organized the event in a resort town one state over from where they all lived, instructed one cousin he was in charge of Sunday morning breakfast.
Her list was for him to get 80 eggs, 5 pounds of sausage and 5 pounds of bacon.
When two of the expected clan didn't arrive, she cut the number to four dozen eggs with the same sausage and bacon.
No one was quite sure who it was that didn't show, but they knew they must be egg-eating dudes.
The fact that the organizer was a schoolteacher made this math somewhat concerning but then someone recalled she was allowed to teach only special-ed students.
Uncle Mike was a big winner at the horse races and told the clan he would treat them all to a drink at the casino.
"You know, when you hit it big at the races, a feller can do a lot of things," he said.
"How much did you win, Mike?"
"Twenty-three dollars," he answered.
The old uncle, who is 84, has a young steady girlfriend of Latin descent, and he spent the weekend giving tango lessons on a spontaneous basis.
A whispered warning passed from cousin to cousin to be sure and not ask the old guy about his love life unless you were prepared to hear more than you wanted about sex at 84.
Touristy events included a trip to a local Western museum that made an impact at some level on most of them.
A good number of them opted for a trip to a Friday night buffet, highlighted by one cowboy landing passed out on a stack of clean glasses in the pantry while a security guard babysat him until his wife was located.
Although classified pretty much as hillbillies through and through, there were a few that made every attempt at being civilized, even just for the weekend.
One woman proudly spent $62 on a pedicure, foot massage, had little daisies painted on her toes and her skin twinkled from the sparkles in the lotion that was applied.
Another lost 11 cents playing the penny slots and whined about it for two days.
The jewelry peddler cousin worked throughout the event and sold a load of stuff to the kinfolk and even to a few local shops.
She hauled all the females down to a trendy boutique where they bought a $150 shirt or two.
Others thought the $5 price to see the museum was good enough and besides, they already had a shirt.
Julie’s new book, Cowgirl Sass and Savvy is shipping now. See her Web site at www.julie-carter.com
FLE
TSA To Allow Breast Milk, Cigarette Lighters Aboard Airplanes Airline passengers will no longer have to surrender their cigarette lighters before boarding commercial airplanes beginning next month. In an announcement made Friday, the Transportation Security Administration said it also will allow mothers with or without children to fly with more than three ounces of breast milk. The agency said that by allowing cigarette lighters on planes, airport officials will get more time to search for explosives. "The No. 1 threat for us is someone trying to bring bomb components through the security checkpoint. We don't want anything that distracts concentration from searching for that," TSA chief Kip Hawley told the New York Times adding that it takes millions of dollars to dispose of thousands of lighters confiscated each day. Starting Aug. 4, passengers will be allowed to carry disposable butane lighters, such as Bics, and refillable lighters, including Zippos, however, torch-style lighters, which have hotter flames, will still not be allowed, the TSA said. The lighters were banned from commercial flights in April 2005 following the case of shoe-bomber who unsuccessfully tried to use matchsticks to blow explosives hidden in his shoes while aboard a flight from Paris-to-Miami in 2001. The lawmakers were worried that a lighter might have worked. Another change in policy announced Friday was associated with carrying breast milk through security checkpoints. Under the revised rules, mothers flying with, and without, their child will be permitted to bring breast milk in quantities greater than three ounces as long as it is declared for inspection at the security checkpoint....
Bush won't promise to pardon border agents Questioned by an audience member at a forum, President Bush said he could not promise to pardon former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. "I'm not going to make that kind of promise in a forum like this," Bush said at the Nashville event yesterday, which focused on his budget. Bush referred to the U.S. attorney responsible for the case, Johnny Sutton, as "a dear friend of mine" and called him a "fair guy" and "even-handed," according to a White House transcript. The president elicited laughter when he told the questioner, "You've got a nice smile, but you can't entice me into making a public statement." "I know this is an emotional issue, but people need to look at the facts," Bush said. "These men were convicted by a jury of their peers after listening to the facts as my friend, Johnny Sutton, presented them. But anyway, no, I won't make you that promise."....
Prosecution 'deals' with Mexico investigated A hearing has been scheduled in federal court on a request by Judicial Watch for access to government documents about any deals it cut with Mexico in the prosecution of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. As WND has reported, government documents already have disclosed the fact that Mexican consular officials were the ones who demanded a prosecution of Texas Sheriff's Deputy Guillermo "Gilmer" Hernandez, who was brought to trial after two illegal immigrants were injured when he fired at a van that had tried to run him down. U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, told WND at that point he "long suspected that Mexican government officials ordered the prosecution of our law enforcement agents." "Mexico wants to intimidate our law enforcement into leaving our border unprotected, and we now have confirmation of it in writing," he said. The hearing on Monday, Judicial Watch said, was ordered by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon on the issue of its request for access to government documents about any deals. Judicial Watch, a public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, wants to see records detailing the U.S. governments contacts and "deals" with the Mexican government. The organization had filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and the State Department in January, seeking records of "communications and actions by U.S. government personnel with Mexican officials concerning the prosecutions of U.S. Border Patrol Agents Ignacio 'Nacho' Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean over the shooting of Mexican drug smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila."....
Court Orders U.S. To Turn over Records on Detainees A federal appeals court on Friday ordered the U.S. government to turn over virtually all its information on Guantanamo detainees who are challenging their detention, rejecting an effort by the Justice Department to limit disclosures. The decision set the stage for new legal battles over the government's reasons for holding the men indefinitely. The ruling, which came in one of the main court cases dealing with the fate of the detainees, effectively set the ground rules for scores of cases by detainees challenging the actions of Pentagon tribunals that decide whether terror suspects should be held as enemy combatants. It was the latest of a series of stinging legal challenges to the administration's detention policies that have amplified pressure on the Bush administration to find some alternative to Guantanamo, where about 360 men are now being held. A three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Washington unanimously rejected a government effort to limit the information it must turn over to the court and lawyers for the detainees....
Military Medical Breach Revealed A government contractor handling sensitive health information for 867,000 U.S. service members and their families acknowledged yesterday that some of its employees sent unencrypted data -- such as medical appointments, treatments and diagnoses -- across the Internet. Air Force investigators are probing the security breach at Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) of San Diego, an $8 billion defense contractor that holds sensitive government contracts, including for information security. The breach was discovered in May and involved data being processed by SAIC under nine health-care data contracts for the military. It was detected during routine scanning for questionable network traffic by a special military task force that directs the operation of the military's computer network, said an Air Force spokeswoman, Jean Schaefer. The task force determined that medical data were being sent through a server that was not secure against hacker attacks, she said. It is illegal to transmit unencrypted health information over the Internet. So far, there is no evidence that personal data have been compromised, but "the possibility cannot be ruled out," SAIC said in a press release....
New Fingerprint Method Could Show Diet, Sex, Race A victim might not care if a murderer is a smoker or a vegetarian. But having such knowledge could help police solve a case. Details like this could one day be at their fingertips if a new fingerprinting technique pans out as expected. Standard methods for collecting fingerprints at crime scenes, which involve powders, liquids or vapors, can alter the prints and erase valuable forensic clues, including traces of chemicals that might be in the prints. Now researchers find tape made from gelatin could enable forensics teams to chemically analyze prints gathered at crime scenes, yielding more specific information about miscreants' diets and even possibly their gender and race....
Microchip Implants Raise Privacy Concern CityWatcher.com, a provider of surveillance equipment, attracted little notice itself - until a year ago, when two of its employees had glass-encapsulated microchips with miniature antennas embedded in their forearms. The "chipping" of two workers with RFIDs - radio frequency identification tags as long as two grains of rice, as thick as a toothpick - was merely a way of restricting access to vaults that held sensitive data and images for police departments, a layer of security beyond key cards and clearance codes, the company said. To some, the microchip was a wondrous invention - a high-tech helper that could increase security at nuclear plants and military bases, help authorities identify wandering Alzheimer's patients, allow consumers to buy their groceries, literally, with the wave of a chipped hand. To others, the notion of tagging people was Orwellian, a departure from centuries of history and tradition in which people had the right to go and do as they pleased, without being tracked, unless they were harming someone else. Chipping, these critics said, might start with Alzheimer's patients or Army Rangers, but would eventually be suggested for convicts, then parolees, then sex offenders, then illegal aliens - until one day, a majority of Americans, falling into one category or another, would find themselves electronically tagged....
Researchers have created a robotic fly for covert surveillance A life-size, robotic fly has taken flight at Harvard University. Weighing only 60 milligrams, with a wingspan of three centimeters, the tiny robot's movements are modeled on those of a real fly. While much work remains to be done on the mechanical insect, the researchers say that such small flying machines could one day be used as spies, or for detecting harmful chemicals. "Nature makes the world's best fliers," says Robert Wood, leader of Harvard's robotic-fly project and a professor at the university's school of engineering and applied sciences. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding Wood's research in the hope that it will lead to stealth surveillance robots for the battlefield and urban environments. The robot's small size and fly-like appearance are critical to such missions. "You probably wouldn't notice a fly in the room, but you certainly would notice a hawk," Wood says....
TSA To Allow Breast Milk, Cigarette Lighters Aboard Airplanes Airline passengers will no longer have to surrender their cigarette lighters before boarding commercial airplanes beginning next month. In an announcement made Friday, the Transportation Security Administration said it also will allow mothers with or without children to fly with more than three ounces of breast milk. The agency said that by allowing cigarette lighters on planes, airport officials will get more time to search for explosives. "The No. 1 threat for us is someone trying to bring bomb components through the security checkpoint. We don't want anything that distracts concentration from searching for that," TSA chief Kip Hawley told the New York Times adding that it takes millions of dollars to dispose of thousands of lighters confiscated each day. Starting Aug. 4, passengers will be allowed to carry disposable butane lighters, such as Bics, and refillable lighters, including Zippos, however, torch-style lighters, which have hotter flames, will still not be allowed, the TSA said. The lighters were banned from commercial flights in April 2005 following the case of shoe-bomber who unsuccessfully tried to use matchsticks to blow explosives hidden in his shoes while aboard a flight from Paris-to-Miami in 2001. The lawmakers were worried that a lighter might have worked. Another change in policy announced Friday was associated with carrying breast milk through security checkpoints. Under the revised rules, mothers flying with, and without, their child will be permitted to bring breast milk in quantities greater than three ounces as long as it is declared for inspection at the security checkpoint....
Bush won't promise to pardon border agents Questioned by an audience member at a forum, President Bush said he could not promise to pardon former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. "I'm not going to make that kind of promise in a forum like this," Bush said at the Nashville event yesterday, which focused on his budget. Bush referred to the U.S. attorney responsible for the case, Johnny Sutton, as "a dear friend of mine" and called him a "fair guy" and "even-handed," according to a White House transcript. The president elicited laughter when he told the questioner, "You've got a nice smile, but you can't entice me into making a public statement." "I know this is an emotional issue, but people need to look at the facts," Bush said. "These men were convicted by a jury of their peers after listening to the facts as my friend, Johnny Sutton, presented them. But anyway, no, I won't make you that promise."....
Prosecution 'deals' with Mexico investigated A hearing has been scheduled in federal court on a request by Judicial Watch for access to government documents about any deals it cut with Mexico in the prosecution of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. As WND has reported, government documents already have disclosed the fact that Mexican consular officials were the ones who demanded a prosecution of Texas Sheriff's Deputy Guillermo "Gilmer" Hernandez, who was brought to trial after two illegal immigrants were injured when he fired at a van that had tried to run him down. U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, told WND at that point he "long suspected that Mexican government officials ordered the prosecution of our law enforcement agents." "Mexico wants to intimidate our law enforcement into leaving our border unprotected, and we now have confirmation of it in writing," he said. The hearing on Monday, Judicial Watch said, was ordered by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon on the issue of its request for access to government documents about any deals. Judicial Watch, a public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, wants to see records detailing the U.S. governments contacts and "deals" with the Mexican government. The organization had filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and the State Department in January, seeking records of "communications and actions by U.S. government personnel with Mexican officials concerning the prosecutions of U.S. Border Patrol Agents Ignacio 'Nacho' Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean over the shooting of Mexican drug smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila."....
Court Orders U.S. To Turn over Records on Detainees A federal appeals court on Friday ordered the U.S. government to turn over virtually all its information on Guantanamo detainees who are challenging their detention, rejecting an effort by the Justice Department to limit disclosures. The decision set the stage for new legal battles over the government's reasons for holding the men indefinitely. The ruling, which came in one of the main court cases dealing with the fate of the detainees, effectively set the ground rules for scores of cases by detainees challenging the actions of Pentagon tribunals that decide whether terror suspects should be held as enemy combatants. It was the latest of a series of stinging legal challenges to the administration's detention policies that have amplified pressure on the Bush administration to find some alternative to Guantanamo, where about 360 men are now being held. A three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Washington unanimously rejected a government effort to limit the information it must turn over to the court and lawyers for the detainees....
Military Medical Breach Revealed A government contractor handling sensitive health information for 867,000 U.S. service members and their families acknowledged yesterday that some of its employees sent unencrypted data -- such as medical appointments, treatments and diagnoses -- across the Internet. Air Force investigators are probing the security breach at Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) of San Diego, an $8 billion defense contractor that holds sensitive government contracts, including for information security. The breach was discovered in May and involved data being processed by SAIC under nine health-care data contracts for the military. It was detected during routine scanning for questionable network traffic by a special military task force that directs the operation of the military's computer network, said an Air Force spokeswoman, Jean Schaefer. The task force determined that medical data were being sent through a server that was not secure against hacker attacks, she said. It is illegal to transmit unencrypted health information over the Internet. So far, there is no evidence that personal data have been compromised, but "the possibility cannot be ruled out," SAIC said in a press release....
New Fingerprint Method Could Show Diet, Sex, Race A victim might not care if a murderer is a smoker or a vegetarian. But having such knowledge could help police solve a case. Details like this could one day be at their fingertips if a new fingerprinting technique pans out as expected. Standard methods for collecting fingerprints at crime scenes, which involve powders, liquids or vapors, can alter the prints and erase valuable forensic clues, including traces of chemicals that might be in the prints. Now researchers find tape made from gelatin could enable forensics teams to chemically analyze prints gathered at crime scenes, yielding more specific information about miscreants' diets and even possibly their gender and race....
Microchip Implants Raise Privacy Concern CityWatcher.com, a provider of surveillance equipment, attracted little notice itself - until a year ago, when two of its employees had glass-encapsulated microchips with miniature antennas embedded in their forearms. The "chipping" of two workers with RFIDs - radio frequency identification tags as long as two grains of rice, as thick as a toothpick - was merely a way of restricting access to vaults that held sensitive data and images for police departments, a layer of security beyond key cards and clearance codes, the company said. To some, the microchip was a wondrous invention - a high-tech helper that could increase security at nuclear plants and military bases, help authorities identify wandering Alzheimer's patients, allow consumers to buy their groceries, literally, with the wave of a chipped hand. To others, the notion of tagging people was Orwellian, a departure from centuries of history and tradition in which people had the right to go and do as they pleased, without being tracked, unless they were harming someone else. Chipping, these critics said, might start with Alzheimer's patients or Army Rangers, but would eventually be suggested for convicts, then parolees, then sex offenders, then illegal aliens - until one day, a majority of Americans, falling into one category or another, would find themselves electronically tagged....
Researchers have created a robotic fly for covert surveillance A life-size, robotic fly has taken flight at Harvard University. Weighing only 60 milligrams, with a wingspan of three centimeters, the tiny robot's movements are modeled on those of a real fly. While much work remains to be done on the mechanical insect, the researchers say that such small flying machines could one day be used as spies, or for detecting harmful chemicals. "Nature makes the world's best fliers," says Robert Wood, leader of Harvard's robotic-fly project and a professor at the university's school of engineering and applied sciences. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding Wood's research in the hope that it will lead to stealth surveillance robots for the battlefield and urban environments. The robot's small size and fly-like appearance are critical to such missions. "You probably wouldn't notice a fly in the room, but you certainly would notice a hawk," Wood says....
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Elderly couple's lives in limbo over unpaid $1.63 tax bill
In 1996, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office mailed a paltry $1.63 property tax bill for the Slidell-area home of Kermit and Dolores Atwood that never reached its destination. The seemingly innocuous, misaddressed bill was the start of a bizarre legal ordeal that threatens to leave the elderly couple homeless and now stands at the door of the state Supreme Court. The chain of events that followed the wayward property tax bill, including the eventual sale of the home at a sheriff's tax sale, is described by Dolores Atwood as "seven years of emotional hell." "I don't know how much more I can endure," said Atwood, 69, while sitting in a FEMA trailer in front of her Katrina-ravaged brick home on Dauphine Street, just north of Slidell. "I wake up in the middle of the night, and it's on my mind," she said. "All this should have never happened." But it did, all because of the $1.63 tax bill that Atwood and her husband, Kermit, never received. And they still face the threat of losing their property because of the bill, which was mailed to a defunct address in late 1996 and returned undelivered to the Sheriff's Office. The Atwoods' nightmare began when they learned in 2000 that their four-bedroom, two-bath home had been sold in 1997 through a tax sale for the $1.63 in unpaid taxes, plus 10 cents interest and $125 in costs associated with the sale....
In 1996, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office mailed a paltry $1.63 property tax bill for the Slidell-area home of Kermit and Dolores Atwood that never reached its destination. The seemingly innocuous, misaddressed bill was the start of a bizarre legal ordeal that threatens to leave the elderly couple homeless and now stands at the door of the state Supreme Court. The chain of events that followed the wayward property tax bill, including the eventual sale of the home at a sheriff's tax sale, is described by Dolores Atwood as "seven years of emotional hell." "I don't know how much more I can endure," said Atwood, 69, while sitting in a FEMA trailer in front of her Katrina-ravaged brick home on Dauphine Street, just north of Slidell. "I wake up in the middle of the night, and it's on my mind," she said. "All this should have never happened." But it did, all because of the $1.63 tax bill that Atwood and her husband, Kermit, never received. And they still face the threat of losing their property because of the bill, which was mailed to a defunct address in late 1996 and returned undelivered to the Sheriff's Office. The Atwoods' nightmare began when they learned in 2000 that their four-bedroom, two-bath home had been sold in 1997 through a tax sale for the $1.63 in unpaid taxes, plus 10 cents interest and $125 in costs associated with the sale....
Property-Rights Showdown (subscription)
....But even Oregonians are only so green. The state is now in the midst of high-stakes battle over whether the government should be forced to pay property owners when it imposes regulations that strip land of its value. Among the top concerns: regulations so strict that families who have owned property for decades cannot subdivide and pass separate parcels to their children. This fight has hit the ballot box, twice. The first time was in 2000, when voters approved an amendment to the constitution forcing the state to pay for the loss of value property owners suffer at the hands of land use and environmental regulations. The amendment was bogged down in litigation and was tossed out by the state Supreme Court. Three years ago voters tried again. This time 61% of them voted to enact "Measure 37," a law that does what the constitutional amendment attempted to do -- force the government to pay for the environmental regulations it imposes on landowners. The law, which has withstood court scrutiny, allows the government to waive regulations when it prefers not to compensate a landowner. But in recent weeks, the Democratically controlled legislature, voting along party lines, moved to "reform" Measure 37 -- a euphemism for emptying the law of any real meaning. The legislature has put the bill on the November ballot....Opponents of Measure 37 exploit fears that the law will force local and state officials to approve large scale development projects. The reforms on the ballot would drastically limit the number of new home sites and allow the government to put regulations on commercial and industrial property without having to compensate the owners for loss of value. The reform, drafted by Democrats, has been drafted with some appealing elements. It would expedite claims filed by property owners under Measure 37; and it would explicitly grant property owners the right to transfer their claim for compensation to another person -- something that should be possible under Measure 37, but which is now being fought over in the courts. Nevertheless, while these provisions are good, the Democrats' overall aim is to split the coalition needed to keep Measure 37 intact by driving a wedge between ordinary folks and business, industry and subdivision developers. One persistent argument in favor of Measure 37 "reform" is that it could hurt farmers by spurring development that would place new homeowners near existing farms, whose sounds and smells might be considered a nuisance. As the argument goes, this could lead to the new homeowners filing nuisance lawsuits. But there is already a "right to farm" law to protect against such claims....Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black once noted that the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment takings clause was necessary to "bar Government from forcing some people alone to bear public burdens which, in all fairness and justice, should be borne by the public as a whole." That's just the point: Measure 37 passed because courts haven't provided much protection, and because in Oregon land-use regulators have been overzealous....
....But even Oregonians are only so green. The state is now in the midst of high-stakes battle over whether the government should be forced to pay property owners when it imposes regulations that strip land of its value. Among the top concerns: regulations so strict that families who have owned property for decades cannot subdivide and pass separate parcels to their children. This fight has hit the ballot box, twice. The first time was in 2000, when voters approved an amendment to the constitution forcing the state to pay for the loss of value property owners suffer at the hands of land use and environmental regulations. The amendment was bogged down in litigation and was tossed out by the state Supreme Court. Three years ago voters tried again. This time 61% of them voted to enact "Measure 37," a law that does what the constitutional amendment attempted to do -- force the government to pay for the environmental regulations it imposes on landowners. The law, which has withstood court scrutiny, allows the government to waive regulations when it prefers not to compensate a landowner. But in recent weeks, the Democratically controlled legislature, voting along party lines, moved to "reform" Measure 37 -- a euphemism for emptying the law of any real meaning. The legislature has put the bill on the November ballot....Opponents of Measure 37 exploit fears that the law will force local and state officials to approve large scale development projects. The reforms on the ballot would drastically limit the number of new home sites and allow the government to put regulations on commercial and industrial property without having to compensate the owners for loss of value. The reform, drafted by Democrats, has been drafted with some appealing elements. It would expedite claims filed by property owners under Measure 37; and it would explicitly grant property owners the right to transfer their claim for compensation to another person -- something that should be possible under Measure 37, but which is now being fought over in the courts. Nevertheless, while these provisions are good, the Democrats' overall aim is to split the coalition needed to keep Measure 37 intact by driving a wedge between ordinary folks and business, industry and subdivision developers. One persistent argument in favor of Measure 37 "reform" is that it could hurt farmers by spurring development that would place new homeowners near existing farms, whose sounds and smells might be considered a nuisance. As the argument goes, this could lead to the new homeowners filing nuisance lawsuits. But there is already a "right to farm" law to protect against such claims....Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black once noted that the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment takings clause was necessary to "bar Government from forcing some people alone to bear public burdens which, in all fairness and justice, should be borne by the public as a whole." That's just the point: Measure 37 passed because courts haven't provided much protection, and because in Oregon land-use regulators have been overzealous....
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