Klamath Settlement Group Releases Proposed Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement Representatives of diverse communities in the Klamath Basin, working with federal, state, and county governments, have developed a Proposed Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement to rebuild fisheries, sustain agricultural communities, and resolve other longstanding disputes related to the allocation of water resources. The non-Federal parties released the Proposed Agreement today to inform the public and to provide public review and comment before taking final action. This is an important first step in a collaborative effort to seek solutions with the key stakeholders in the Klamath Basin on an environmental restoration strategy. The Klamath Settlement Group is presently negotiating with PacifiCorp in an effort to reach agreement on the removal of the utility’s four lower dams in the Klamath Basin, referenced as the "Hydropower Agreement." Dam removal is a necessary part of the overall restoration effort, and the Hydropower Agreement along with the Proposed Agreement released today has the potential to provide a comprehensive solution for the Basin. The group is working to finalize both agreements in February....
Judge says road ownership must be settled before further action A judge has ruled that the ownership of a road at the center of a dispute between a ranching family and two northern Utah counties must be resolved before the ranchers' accusations are addressed. Fred and Laura Selman and their son, Bret Selman, all of Tremonton, sued Box Elder and Cache counties separately last spring, challenging the counties' declarations that the Rocky Dugway road through their 7,000-acre ranch southeast of Mantua is a Class B road. The lawsuits were the culmination of years of argument between the Selmans and the counties. The Selmans claim the dirt path is a private "livestock driveway" and want to block motorized vehicles that they say disrupt wildlife, their cattle and sheep. The counties contend the road is public. They want it open for recreationists to reach the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. The path is also an important link in the James Hansen Shoshone National ATV trail system proposed for northern Utah....
Farmers Told to Prepare for Climate Policies According to the director of the Agriculture Department’s Global Change Program Office, farmers and ranchers must recognize that “at the policy level the question is not whether climate change is occurring. The debate is over what to do about it.” During a session at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 89th annual convention, Bill Hohenstein said in the future all sectors of U.S. economic life, including agriculture, will be affected by policies intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Current federal policy does not impose a mandatory cap on such emissions. But Hohenstein noted that at least nine separate proposals that address the issue are now before Congress, some of which contain caps. National lawmakers give every indication they are moving toward adopting a policy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He explained that U.S. farmers and ranchers will surely be called on to reduce emissions on their properties. In response to policy discussions, USDA staff members have developed a method for voluntary calculation of a given farm’s “footprint for greenhouse gas emissions.” Once refined for use by the individual citizen, the system will facilitate a calculation. In a second step, the user may submit the information to the USDA or another federal agency. “Having consistent rules is quite important,” Hohenstein said. “The same rules must apply in Iowa and in any other state.” Voluntary pursuit of reductions is the goal. “USDA will encourage practices that will either reduce greenhouse gas emissions or implement carbon sequestration,” he added....
Diverse Groups Protest Federal 'Water Grab' Bill A diverse group of grassroots organizations and business and civic groups has come together to oppose the proposed Federal Clean Water Restoration Act, which many call the Federal Water Grab Bill. The bill would strip state oversight of minor waterways and for the first time give federal bureaucrats control over millions of acres of drainage ditches, seasonal ponds, and small waterways that have no significant impact on larger bodies of water. Opposition to the federal proposal was expressed on December 5 when members of Congress, state legislators, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Property Rights Alliance, Partnership for America, and Americans for American Energy joined the National Farm Bureau Federation, American Property Coalition, and Western Business Roundtable on the steps of the Longworth House Office Building in Washington, DC. "[B]y eliminating one word--navigable--and replacing it with the term 'waters of the United States,' the legislation would give the federal government authority over anything that is wet, as well as any activity on land that could affect water," explained the North Carolina Coalition for Clean Water....
Colo. Supreme Court could mean early release for Hayman fire starter A woman who admitted starting the worst wildfire in Colorado’s recorded history could be released within a year after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled prosecutors cannot withdraw their plea agreement. The ruling Monday raises the possiblity that Terry Lynn Barton could be released after serving a 6-year federal prison term for setting the June 2002 Hayman fire, though 4th Judicial District Attorney John Newsome plans to argue Barton should face some state prison time. A judge handed down a 12-year sentence, which is double the maximum 6 year sentence, citing aggravating factors. Barton’s attorneys appealed, arguing the judge shouldn’t have handed down the sentence because he lived near the fire and had to voluntarily evacuate his house. The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that only a jury could find aggravating factors and voided the sentence in 2004. Prosecutors then argued that Barton’s appeal of her sentence violated the terms of the plea agreement, which allowed them to withdraw it. The ruling Monday rejected that argument....
Court upholds ruling, backs heli-skiing company A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a lower court's decision that allowed a helicopter skiing company to continue operations in the mountains of the Wasatch-Cache and Uinta national forests. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart's 2006 ruling that said the Forest Service had complied with all federal environmental protection laws when it renewed a permit issued to Wasatch Powderbirds in 2005 to fly skiers into the backcountry. Two citizen groups, Save Our Canyons and Utah Environmental Congress, had argued that the heli-ski outfit's activities harmed non-motorized recreation in the high country. The plaintiffs argued the Forest Service had acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner in renewing the Powderbirds permit, which the company has held and renewed since 1973. Stewart rejected virtually all the claims against the government....
Ruling allows roadless area trails to stay open A federal government decision that will allow back-country trails for Jeeps and other off-highway vehicles to remain open in a national forest in northern California is being seen as a precedent that could have implications for other such disputes now developing, a trail advocate says. The recent decision came from Smith River National Recreation Area Road Management and Route Designation Project on the Six Rivers National Forest, according to Don Amador, the western representative for the Blue Ribbon Coalition. The BRC had joined with Del Norte County in an appeal of the decision that would have closed more than 14 miles of historic off-highway vehicle motorized trails in the Six Rivers National Forest. The appeal deciding officer now has reversed the proposed closure, Amador said. "This decision clearly supports BRC's continuing legal viewpoint that the 2001 Clinton Roadless Rule allows for motorized trails to be designated in roadless areas," he said. "As the route designation process continues on other forests it will be important for local user groups to highlight important OHV routes that already exist in roadless areas so they may be included as meaningful options in the travel management plan."....
Beetles May Wipe Out Colo. Lodgepoles Strands of distressed, red pine trees across northern Colorado and the Front Range are a visible testament to the bark beetle infestation that officials said will kill most of the state's lodgepole pine trees within 5 years. The infestation that was first detected in 1996 grew by half-million acres last year, bringing the total number of acres attacked by bark beetles to 1.5 million, state and federal forestry officials said Monday. "This is an unprecedented event," said Rick Cables, Rocky Mountain regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service. The fire potential will increase as trees retain their needles for a couple of years after beetles attack, said Bob Kane, regional entomologist with the Rocky Mountain Region of the U.S. Forest Service. When the needles fall, the danger will decrease, and spike again when the trees fall in about 10 years, Kane said. Officials said the infestation has been concentrated in five northern Colorado counties straddling the Continental Divide and has since spread to the Front Range and southern Wyoming....
Scientists Address a Burning Question Climate change is affecting the natural processes on the Earth. It is possible to observe these changes when glaciers shrink in size, trees bloom earlier, growing seasons extend, ice on rivers and lakes freeze later and thaw earlier and permafrost disappears. Researchers, supported by USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) have added one more item to this list, suggesting that increased wildfire activity in the northern Rocky Mountains may be a result of climate change. The western United States has been plagued by wildfires for more than 30 years. In the northern Rocky Mountain region alone, the incidence of wildfires increased by as much as 60 percent. In recent years, expenditures to combat wildfires by governmental agencies have skyrocketed to $1.7 billion. Paul Knapp and Peter Soulé at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Appalachian State University wondered whether shifts in the timing and frequency of major midlatitude storms during the summer influenced the recent fire trends. The scientists studied weather data collected since 1900 from eight climate stations in the northern Rockies. They compared these data with wildfire records from 1940 through 2004. The data revealed that the first major midlatitude storm occurred progressively later each year, and the frequency of the storms diminished over the past century. In addition, the storm frequency exhibited a pronounced decrease beginning in the mid-1980s. This trend of later and fewer midlatitude storms correlated to the increase in wildfires throughout the northern Rockies....This is amazing research folks. I mean, who would have thought that when you have lower humidity and less precipitation the fire risk would actually increase? Thank goodness we have this Federally funded research to tell us what happens when it gets...dry.
Bill would stiffen fines for driving on prohibited lands Drive your ATV into a wilderness area or onto other restricted federal land and you could face a stiff fine not only from the federal government but also from the state if a proposed bill clears the Colorado Legislature this year. Get caught hunting while operating an unauthorized motor vehicle on state or federal public land, and your hunting license could be at risk, too, under the bill sponsored in the House by Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, and in the Senate by Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton. House Bill 1069 would strictly prohibit operating any motor vehicle on state or federal public lands, trails or roads unless there are signs saying vehicles are allowed there or the agency managing the land otherwise authorizes vehicle use there. A violation would be a misdemeanor with a fine of $100. If you’re caught with a vehicle in a federal wilderness area, the state would double the fine to $200. If hunting was involved with the violation, a hunting license would be docked 10 suspension points, or 15 points in a wilderness area. Local law enforcement would have the right to enforce the proposed law, even on federal land. That’s perfectly fine by the federal Bureau of Land Management, which was consulted on the wording of the bill, BLM spokesman James Sample said. A 1976 federal law governing how public land is managed gives states the authority to impose fines on people who violate regulations on federal land, he said....
BLM reviewing comments on Otero Mesa permit The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has received more than 300 e-mails and an unknown number of letters commenting on an environmental assessment for an application for a permit to drill on Otero Mesa. That word today from BLM spokesman Hans Stuart. Today is the last day for comments on the environmental assessment on an application by Harvey E. Yates Company of Roswell to drill a natural gas well on land it leases in the area. Stuart says an environmental impact statement was done between 1998 and 2004. He says it looked at the large picture of the impacts of oil and gas development on the mesa in Otero and Sierra counties. The BLM proposes opening 1,589 acres on the 2 million-acre mesa to drilling. The environmental assessment looks at the Roswell company's specific site.
New Mexico wants study of Otero Mesa drilling State officials say an environmental assessment done by the Bureau of Land Management on an application for a permit to drill for natural gas on Otero Mesa is insufficient. Gov. Bill Richardson and Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Secretary Joanna Prukop are calling on the BLM to do a full environmental impact statement on the application of Harvey E. Yates Co. to drill a natural gas well on leased land. Prukop sent a letter Monday to the BLM, saying the state was concerned that the agency's review of Heyco's application was incomplete and based on outdated information....
Scientists Take Complaints About Interference to Hill Two dozen scientists swarmed over Capitol Hill this week mad as vespinae (hornets) at what they say is Bush administration meddling in environmental science. Organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Endangered Species Coalition, the rumpled researchers won time in the offices of more than 20 lawmakers. They are protesting what Francesca Grifo, director of the Scientific Integrity Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, calls "the systematic dismantling of the Endangered Species Act through the manipulation and suppression of science." On a dash from the House to the Senate, Grifo said the group wants hearings and better congressional oversight of the Interior Department, where Bush appointees control the fate of threatened and endangered species. The scientists say political appointees at Interior, or those who report to them, have been altering their reports recommending "critical habitat" preservation to favor industries whose interests conflict with the findings....
Inuits reject US environmentalists' bid to protect polar bear Leaders of Canada's Inuit community opposed efforts by US environmentalists to put polar bears on the endangered species list, warning that hunting restrictions would hurt their livelihood. Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit of Canada, said a petition by environmentalists to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) seeking to protect the Arctic bears is driven more by politics than ecological imperative. "They're doing this in a very public way by using the polar bear for political reasons against the (George W.) Bush administration over greenhouse gas emissions, and as Inuit, we fundamentally disagree with such tactics," said Simon, whose group represents native Canadians living in northern Quebec and the northwest territories of Yukon, and Nunavut in northern Canada. Duane Smith, president of the Canadian branch of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, which represents about 150,000 Inuit of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia, said the polar bears in Canada are hunted humanely and responsibly. "Our hunters and guides benefit economically, and we are able to continue with our culture, enjoy the benefits of what we use, and ensure that this is done in a responsible and sustainable manner," he said, adding that in his view the environmentalists' petition was "meant for publicity."....
Ranchers, rodeo stars gather to honor special Texans Fort Worth is the big city that acts like a small town. It's not like Dallas or Houston--or even San Antonio. It's a place built on the bedrock of tradition, a place where yesterday is as important as tomorrow. So maybe it's no surprise that the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, which works to preserve Western heritage and honors ranching and rodeo heroes, found a home in Cowtown's historic Stockyards District. Now its annual induction ceremony opening just before the Stock Show and the ranch rodeo is becoming one of the city's traditions. Inductees were rodeo star Trevor Brazile of Decatur, who won three world titles in a single year; horse trainer and cutting horse champ Tom Lyons of Grandview; rodeo clown George Doak of Katy and bull rider turned horse trainer; author Carl Nafzger, a Plainview native who trained two Kentucky Derby winners; and cowboy balladeer, historian and author Don Edwards....

FDA Says Cloned Animals Safe As Food Meat and milk from cloned animals are as safe as that from their counterparts bred the old-fashioned way, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday — but sales still won't begin right away. The decision removes the last big U.S. regulatory hurdle to marketing products from cloned livestock, and puts the FDA in concert with recent safety assessments from European food regulators and several other nations. "Meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones are as safe as food we eat every day," said Dr. Stephen Sundloff, FDA's food safety chief. But the government has asked animal cloning companies to continue a voluntary moratorium on sales for a little longer — not for safety reasons, but marketing ones. USDA Undersecretary Bruce Knight called it a transition period for "allowing the marketplace to adjust." He wouldn't say how long the moratorium should continue. "This is about market acceptance," Knight added, who said he would be calling a meeting of industry leaders to determine next steps. Regardless, it still will be years before many foods from cloned animals reach store shelves, for economic reasons: At $10,000 to $20,000 per animal, they're a lot more expensive than ordinary cows, meaning producers likely will use clones' offspring for meat, not the clone itself....
Long study led to US cloned food safety decision Cloned animals may often be born deformed and die young but scientists, who have looked at every aspect of their biology to try to explain why, can find no evidence that it would be dangerous to eat them. None of the more than 700 studies reviewed in detail showed any evidence to suggest that milk or organ or muscle tissue from cloned animals could harm someone who ate it, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in its final report on the subject on Tuesday. "We have actually done a more in-depth analysis of the meat from cloned animals than has been done ever," said Mark Walton, president of Texas-based farm animal cloning firm ViaGen. In 2002, a National Academy of Sciences panel said there was no reason to believe that meat or milk from cloned animals may be unsafe. But it said the FDA should do a review, and because of the outpouring of opinions and fears about the subject, the agency extended its review for more than a year. Cloned calves have died from respiratory, digestive, circulatory, nervous, muscular and skeletal abnormalities, as well as because they had abnormal placentas, the FDA noted. And researchers have looked at all the possible causes of these abnormalities -- changes in the genes, in other parts of DNA that affect what genes do and the process of cloning itself....
Cloned meat may be safe, but will consumers eat it? While cloning of meat-producing animals was deemed safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, it may be consumers who determine how widely it is used. "The big issue is consumer acceptance. Even if USDA and FDA issue a statement, the final arbiter, whether it will be allowed in the market, is consumer acceptance," said Jacinto Fabiosa, co-director and livestock analyst at the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Center in Ames, Iowa. Cloning has been around for years -- Dolly the cloned sheep was born in 1996 -- but the FDA's latest action now brings the technology close to the food supply. "The consumer reaction and the effect on exports markets - is the primary concern," said Mark Boggess, director of animal science for the National Pork Board. Consumers in the United States may be more accepting than those overseas. One example used was the opposition in Europe to crops that have been genetically modified (GMO) to protect against weeds or insects. "I don't think is as likely to be as significant as the GMO stuff has been, but it is real hard to figure out where consumers' reactions are going," said John Urbanchuk, a food economist with the global consulting firm LECG....
Don't expect that cloned burger right away Restaurants and supermarkets are girding for their own "Attack of the Clones," and it's no Star Wars episode. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration now says meat and milk from cloned cattle, pigs and other animals are safe for human consumption. For now, food items are not supposed to come directly from cloned animals - but only their offspring. And the food that comes from the offspring can be used for everything from the milkshakes served by restaurants to the steaks sold in supermarkets without any special labeling. But don't expect to find much food derived from clones any time soon at your neighborhood Ralphs supermarket -- or at many other stores and restaurants. It is going to take years to get into the food chain, and many retailers are already dead-set against it. "Our intention is not to accept cloned products from our suppliers," says Meghan Glynn, spokeswoman for Kroger Co., the Cincinnati-based owner of Ralphs, Food4Less and several other chains. Pleasanton-based Safeway Inc., the owner of Vons, said it supports continuing what has been a voluntary ban on the use of cloned animals for food. "We are not looking to offer any cloned products in our stores," said spokesman Brian Dowling. And California Pizza Kitchen, the 229-restaurant chain based in Los Angeles, says it "has no plans to provide our guests with cloned products."....
Cloned Meat and Milk Await an Official 'OK' Would you eat meat or drink milk derived from cloned animals? The question—long the stuff of science fiction—is now one that consumers need to consider seriously. The European Food Safety Authority announced Friday that it considers food from clones safe to eat. In the United States, meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to lift a voluntary moratorium issued in 2001 on food products that come from livestock that originated in a petri dish. Companies selling the clones promote the animals' ability to provide superior offspring to livestock breeders, for example. U.S. News tracked down answers to some frequently asked questions about the issue. Is it safe to eat meat or milk from cloned animals? Food from cloned animals is safe for human consumption, the FDA declared last year. According to a supporting paper by scientists in the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, none of the research reviewed had identified "any remarkable nutritionally or toxicologically important differences in the composition of the meat or milk." At the same time, however, the FDA did not give the stamp of approval for the sale of such products to the public. And groups such as the Center for Food Safety and the Union of Concerned Scientists are apprehensive about letting the goods into the food supply; they've called for long-term studies on the health effects in humans who consume the products. New Zealand and Australia, though, have already deemed such products safe, and other countries are expected to do the same....

Lawmakers: Wolves still endangered Five congressmen from the House Natural Resources Committee want to delay a plan to remove gray wolves in the Northern Rockies from the federal endangered-species list. In a recent letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, the congressmen wrote that states "hostile to wolf conservation" could reduce today's 1,500 wolves to "as few as 300" if the predators lose protected status. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which Kempthorne oversees, plans to announce the delisting of wolves in the Northern Rockies next month. That would allow Idaho, Wyoming and Montana to host public hunts for the animals. The states already are setting hunting seasons and quotas. Last year, more than 140 wolves were killed in the Northern Rockies by federal and state officials and ranchers in response to wolves' preying on livestock....
Horn-tootin' event For 12 years, Lin Cummins of Rochester listened to her husband try to talk an automaker into introducing a truck as cowboys herded cattle down the streets of Detroit. "He thinks he's a cowboy," Cummins said of her husband, Andrew, 62, who runs his own communications company but on Sunday morning helped lead a herd of longhorns to Cobo Center for the launch of the 2009 Dodge Ram pickup. Jason Vines, former communications chief at Chrysler LLC, surprised Andrew Cummins about three months ago with the news that the idea would finally be used. The cattle loped uneventfully down Congress, turning south on Washington to the front of Cobo. There, wearing a brown corduroy Carhartt jacket over his dress shirt and tie, Chrysler Copresident Jim Press introduced the Ram. Some of the 120 longhorns stole a bit of the show from Press, mounting each other as he began to talk. Rancher Wes Sander, 54, of Woodward, Okla., brought the steers from his 3,000-acre ranch in Oklahoma's panhandle. He said they travel to an event or two a month -- even have been movie extras -- and are not easily rattled. Even Air Force flyovers don't faze the animals, Sander said....
Cross-Country Ride Ends for Ore. Rancher An Oregon rancher who set off on a cross-country horseback ride seven months ago in search of what's good in America dismounted, feeling encouraged by the spirit and stories of the people he met. Bill Inman's journey ended Sunday. He began his journey June 2 because he felt distress over how the country was being portrayed in news coverage and on TV shows. He rode his 16-year-old thoroughbred-quarter horse Blackie. Among the people he met was a Wyoming deputy sheriff who drove 25 miles through a thunderstorm to bring dinner to him and his wife, and all 17 people of a Colorado town who came out to see him ride off. "Sometimes, I was more intrigued by the stories they were telling than the stories I was telling," Inman said....
It's All Trew: Horse had to run its course The early-day printing presses at Harper's Magazine were powered by a vertical shaft running from the basement upward through two floors of the printing rooms above. The shaft turned slowly from 7 a.m. till noon, and from 1 to 6 p.m. each working day. The power came from a sturdy white horse named "The Harper Press Horse" who trudged in a circle on the basement floor turning the shaft. A factory whistle blew at the beginning and end of each shift. Progress arrived and The Harper Press Horse was finally retired to a nice pasture on one of the owner's farms nearby. For a few days retirement and freedom was enjoyed to the fullest. However, the pasture was within hearing distance of the old factory whistle. One morning when the whistle blew the old horse trotted to a large tree in the pasture and began walking a circle just as he had done in the basement of the press. He continued working his shift around the tree each time the whistle blew as long as he could wearing out a path in the grass. This old workhorse had a job to do and was not happy unless allowed to continue.[...]Today's pit-bull tragedies are a far cry from the stories of Old Yeller and Lassie. Texas can be proud of Fred Gipson, born 1908 in Mason, Texas. His book "Old Yeller," published in 1956, was based on a true story about a real dog who saved Fred's grandfather from a rabid wolf. Walt Disney paid $50,000 for the right to make the movie and a sequel called "Savage Sam."....

FLE

U.S. to Speed Deportation of Criminals in Jail Federal authorities expect to identify and deport more than 200,000 immigrants this year who are convicted criminals serving time in prisons and jails across the country, the country’s top federal immigration enforcement official said Monday. The effort to speed the deportation of foreign-born criminals is part of a campaign by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to help federal and state prisons reduce the costs of housing immigrants, the official, Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of homeland security and head of the agency, said in an interview. In 2007, Ms. Myers said, the agency, known as ICE, brought formal immigration charges against 164,000 immigrants who are behind bars nationwide for crimes committed in this country. Many of those immigrants are still in the United States and are also slated for deportation this year, she said. By comparison, in 2006, the agency identified 64,000 immigrants behind bars, most of whom were deported. The big increase in deportations will place “a significant burden,” on ICE’s detention centers, she said, and on the airplanes, mostly from the Justice Department, used by the agency to fly immigrants back to their home countries. Last year, Congress authorized $200 million for programs to deport immigrant criminals....
The Bush Administration Wants To Ban Guns A lot of Americans who believe in the right to own guns were very disappointed this weekend. On Friday, the Bush administration’s Justice Department entered into the fray over the District of Columbia’s 1976 handgun ban by filing a brief to the Supreme Court that effectively supports the ban. The administration pays lip service to the notion that the Second Amendment protects gun ownership as an “individual right,” but their brief leaves the term essentially meaningless. Quotes by the two sides’ lawyers say it all. The District’s acting attorney general, Peter Nickles, happily noted that the Justice Department’s brief was a “somewhat surprising and very favorable development.” Alan Gura, the attorney who will be representing those challenging the ban before the Supreme Court, accused the Bush administration of “basically siding with the District of Columbia” and said that “This is definitely hostile to our position.” As the lead to an article in the Los Angeles Times said Sunday, “gun-control advocates never expected to get a boost from the Bush administration.” As probably the most prominent Second Amendment law professor in the country privately confided in me, “If the Supreme Court accepts the solicitor general’s interpretation, the chances of getting the D.C. gun ban struck down are bleak.” The Department of Justice argument can be boiled down pretty easily. Its lawyers claim that since the government bans machine guns, it should also be able to ban handguns. After all, they reason, people can still own rifles and shotguns for protection, even if they have to be stored locked up. The Justice Department even seems to accept that trigger locks are not really that much of a burden, and that the locks “can properly be interpreted” as not interfering with using guns for self-protection. Yet, even if gun locks do interfere with self-defense, DOJ believes the regulations should be allowed, as long as the District of Columbia government thinks it has a good reason[...]The biggest problem is the standard used for evaluating the constitutionality of regulations. The DOJ is asking that a different, much weaker standard be used for the Second Amendment than the courts demands for other “individual rights” such as speech, unreasonable searches and seizures, imprisonment without trial, and drawing and quartering people.[...]The question is what constitutes “reasonable” regulation. The DOJ brief argues that if the DC government says gun control is important for public safety, it should be allowed by the courts. What the appeals court argued is that gun regulations not only need to be reasonable, they need to withstand “strict scrutiny” – a test that ensures the regulations are narrowly tailored to achieve the desired goal. Perhaps the Justice Department’s position isn’t too surprising. Like any other government agency, it has a hard time giving up its authority. The Justice Department’s bias can been seen in that it finds it necessary to raise the specter of machine guns 10 times when evaluating a law that bans handguns....
US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a "walk in the park," according to an interview published in the New Yorker's print edition today. Debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “will be a walk in the park compared to this,” McConnell said. “this is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.” The article, which profiles the 65-year-old former admiral appointed by President George W. Bush in January 2007 to oversee all of America's intelligence agencies, was not published on the New Yorker's Web site. McConnell is developing a Cyber-Security Policy, still in the draft stage, which will closely police Internet activity. "Ed Giorgio, who is working with McConnell on the plan, said that would mean giving the government the autority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer or Web search," author Lawrence Wright pens. “Google has records that could help in a cyber-investigation, he said," Wright adds. The infrastructure to tap into Americans' email and web search history may already be in place. In November, a former technician at AT&T alleged that the telecom forwarded virtually all of its Internet traffic into a "secret room" to facilitate government spying....
Spychief Wants to Tap Into Cyberspace Spychief Mike McConnell is drafting a plan to protect America’s cyberspace that will raise privacy issues and make the current debate over surveillance law look like “a walk in the park,” McConnell tells The New Yorker in the issue set to hit newsstands Monday. “This is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.” At issue, McConnell acknowledges, is that in order to accomplish his plan, the government must have the ability to read all the information crossing the Internet in the United States in order to protect it from abuse. Congressional aides tell The Journal that they, too, are also anticipating a fight over civil liberties that will rival the battles over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Part of the lawmakers’ ire, they have said, is the paltry information the administration has provided. The cyberspace security initiative was first reported in September by The Baltimore Sun, and some congressional aides say that lawmakers have still learned more from the media than they did from the few Top Secret briefings they have received hours before the administration requested money in November to jump start the program.
Men in Mexican Military Uniforms Seen Crossing Border The Mexican military is crossing the border into the U.S. That's according to records NEWSCHANNEL 5 obtained using the Freedom of Information Act. The 29-page document shows the Department of Homeland Security is tracking the occurrences. It includes sightings of men dressed in Mexican military uniforms. The document states Mexican government personnel crossed the border more than 250 times since 1996. Some of that activity happened in the Rio Grande Valley. We spoke to farmer and rancher Joe Aguilar. He tells us the threat is too close....

19 Bald Eagles Die After Eating Fish Waste in Alaska At least 19 bald eagles died Friday after gorging themselves on a truck full of fish waste outside a processing plant. Fifty or more eagles swarmed into the truck, whose retractable fabric cover was open, after the truck was moved outside the plant, said Brandon Saito, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who coordinated the recovery operation. The birds became too soiled to fly or clean themselves, and with temperatures in the mid-teens, began to succumb to the cold. Some birds became so weak they sank into the fish slime and were crushed. The truck's contents had to be dumped onto the floor of the Ocean Beauty Seafoods plant so the birds could be retrieved. Some tried to scatter, but since they couldn't fly, wildlife officers soon retrieved them. The eagles were then cleaned with dish soap in tubs of warm water to remove the oily slime and warm them....
General Motors finances ethanol maker Coskata General Motors (GM) says it is investing in a fledgling company that claims its secret process could be able to make ethanol from waste in large quantity as soon as 2010 for $1 a gallon or less, half the cost of making gasoline. Bill Roe, CEO of 18-month-old ethanol maker Coskata, says the company's process uses bacteria developed at the University of Oklahoma and existing gasification technology to generate 99.7% pure ethanol, plus water. He says the method should leapfrog cellulosic production, which has been seen as the next step from today's ethanol production using corn. Coskata's process can use garbage, old tires and other waste, but Roe says wood waste probably will be used at first because it's available, cheap and easy to handle. Roe pledges to be operating a 40,000-gallon-per-year pilot plant this year and to line up partnerships with other companies to build $400 million facilities that each could produce 100 million gallons a year as soon as late 2010. The USA uses 140 billion gallons of gasoline a year....
Rancher donates easement on Front Nearly 3,000 acres have been protected from development under a conservation easement on Montana's Rocky Mountain Front. A rancher, Colin Phipps, donated an easement on 2,900 acres along Dupuyer Creek to the Missoula-based Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The creek corridor, which is home to elk, grizzly bears, moose, wolverines, deer and other wildlife, abuts national forest land and has been identified by state wildlife biologists as some of the most vital and threatened habitat in the state. “Dupuyer Creek is deep in the crosshairs of development,” Mike Mueller, lands manager for the foundation, said Thursday. Phipps said he donated the easement to protect the land from being divided into 10- and 20-acre ranchettes and to preserve it as a traditional working ranch. Across the West, a growing number of family ranchers and farmers are signing conservation easements, giving up some development rights in exchange for tax benefits. Phipps' easement allows him to continue traditional ranching activities, including grazing, farming and logging, and to build a few homes on the property....
$1 million deal means ranchland will be preserved More than 3,000 acres of environmentally rich Monterey ranchland will be saved for future generations under a deal announced by two conservation groups this past week. The Big Sur Land Trust and the Nature Conservancy announced the acquisition of a conservation easement on most of the Violini Ranch west of Gonzales, which the groups said will preserve 3,200 acres of oak- and grass-covered hills that straddle the Carmel and Salinas valleys. "It's a stunning, stunning example of what people think of as 'Steinbeck Country,' with rolling hills, canyons, wildflower-filled meadows in the springtime," said Rachel Saunders, spokeswoman for the Big Sur Land Trust. The conservation easement covering four-fifths of the 4,000-acre Violini Ranch was appraised at $1.86 million, the groups said. The Violini family agreed to sell the easement, which prevents future development, for $1 million while taking the balance as a charitable donation. A 2006 federal law gave farmers and ranchers increased tax incentives to donate conservation easements, the groups said....
Losers in Boulder land dispute file appeal A Boulder couple who watched a judge give nearly one-third of their building lot in a pricy residential development to a neighbor who claimed using it has filed an appeal of the decision. The Denver Post said Don and Susie Kirlin are attempting to reclaim the nearly one-third of their residential property in Boulder that a neighbor won in October in a court ruling in an "adverse possession" lawsuit. The neighbors, former District Judge Richard McLean, and wife Edith Stevens, a lawyer, were awarded ownership of the chunk of property after arguing they had maintained the property for more than 25 years. Colorado's adverse possession law allows those who "openly and notoriously" maintain property that is not their own for many years eventually to claim title to it. The appeal focuses on arguments by the Kirlins that McLean and Stevens failed to meet the burden of proof needed to be awarded ownership, and that Judge James Klein, who issued the controversial ruling, erred in his decision....
Mtn. bikers dislike wilderness closure Mountain bikers are disturbed by a recommendation from the U.S. Forest Service to create a new wilderness area between Durango and Silverton that would close 20 miles of the Colorado Trail to wheels. The recommendation, if adopted by Congress, would also make at least six other trails off-limits to biking, reports the Durango Telegraph. “It’s definitely a conundrum for mountain bikers,” said Mark Richey, a mountain biking advocate. “We all love wilderness areas, but we feel like we're excluded by their (recommendation) designation. It’s not a comfortable place to be in.” While the Forest Service cites comparatively little use by mountain bikers in the area in question, mountain bikers disagree. Bill Manning, director of the Colorado Trail Foundation, also noted that the wilderness designated would eliminate the ride from Molas Divide to Durango, a 75-mile grunt considered one of the nation’s epic rides.
Rescuers Search for Survivors After Montana Avalanches Kill at Least 5 An avalanche on the back side of Whitefish Mountain Resort killed two backcountry skiers Sunday and searchers combed the slide area for other possible victims, Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan said. Meehan said the avalanche occurred on Fiberglass Hill in the Canyon Creek drainage. Emergency responders were alerted to the avalanche around noon, and more than 100 search and rescue people were quickly called to the scene. Meehan released a statement indicating the body of a victim was recovered at about 1:18 p.m. and a second body at 4:16 p.m. No names were released. The number of people missing in the slide is unknown, Meehan said early Sunday evening. "At this time, there are conflicting statements to responders about how many more victims might have been buried in the avalanche," he said. "If the scene of the avalanche is safe for rescue workers, rescue efforts will continue throughout the night." In addition, three men caught in an avalanche while snowmobiling in the Star Valley south of Jackson have been found dead. The Star Valley Search and Rescue team found the three men in the Cottonwood Lake area Saturday....
Scientists, Congress worry about move to restrict access to satellite data Ten years ago, a Canadian ice breaker was deliberately parked in an ice pack 300 miles north of Barrow and allowed to drift as scientists studied the environment and the effects of global warming. Among those tracking the ice breaker were top-secret U.S. spy satellites. With the OK of a little-noticed but influential government committee known as the Civil Applications Committee, those reconnaissance photos were released to scientists. The committee, under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Geological Survey, reviews civilian requests for classified reconnaissance information and makes a recommendation to the intelligence community, which has the final say on what is declassified. The spy data can be helpful to scientists studying everything from volcanoes, forest fires, earthquakes and landslides to climate change, hurricanes, flooding and pollution. The Bush administration plans to abolish the committee and create an office within the Department of Homeland Security to review such requests, along with those from law enforcement agencies. Scientists are concerned their requests could be sidetracked or delayed as security and law enforcement needs take precedent....
Judge ready to hold Forest Service in contempt A federal judge in Montana said Friday he's prepared to hold the U.S. Forest Service in contempt of court for a "duplicitous" strategy of skirting the law so it can keep fighting wildfires with retardant that kills fish. Judge Donald Molloy set a Feb. 26 hearing in U.S. District Court in Missoula to give the Forest Service a chance to convince him that Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey should not be put in jail and that fire retardant drops from aircraft should not be stopped until the agency properly considers the danger to the environment. "The Forest Service, throughout these proceedings, evidenced a strategy of circumventing, rather than complying with," the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, he wrote. "The apparent pattern suggests a strategy of looking for ways to avoid the law's mandate as opposed to looking for a means of complying with the law." Potential sanctions include sending Rey to jail, putting him under house arrest and banning the Forest Service from using any fire retardants but water in air tankers, Molloy wrote. In an earlier order, Molloy wrote that Rey, who oversees the Forest Service, should appear in person. "We take very seriously our obligations to perform the environmental analysis required by law, and have made every effort to comply with the court's rulings in this case," Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh said. "We expect to demonstrate the government's good faith in further proceedings before the court."....
Site yields bounty of dino tracks More than 100 members of the public made tracks to a site in southern Utah on Saturday to marvel at fossilized footprints pressed into the area's red sandstone by dinosaurs drinking from a pond 185 million years ago. "The site is outstanding for the quality of the tracks, diversity of animals represented and continuum of time they were created," said Alan Titus, paleontologist for the Bureau of Land Management who led two tours of interested people to the location under clear blue skies. Located in Kane County about 3 miles west of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, the site was documented last October in a popular riding area for all-terrain vehicles. The area has since been closed to riders to preserve the site, named the Northern Moccasin Mountain Track Site. The area, about the size of a football field, is covered with perhaps thousands of prehistoric footprints from the Jurassic period, when the region was covered with the largest sand desert the world has known, Titus said....
Mountain critters' disappearance may be a global warning The "canary in the coal mine" on global warming when it comes to the mountains may very well be a hamster-like rodent that squeaks from among the talus above tree line. Pushed by warmer weather to ever-higher elevations, the tiny pika is losing real estate at an alarming rate, according to scientists, and is disappearing rapidly from much of its historic territory in the West. "They've been driven upslope a half mile since the end of the last ice age," said Donald Grayson, an archaeologist and paleontologist with the University of Washington who has documented the presence of pika over the past 40,000 years. "Pikas in general are now found at such high elevations that there's not a lot of places left for them," Grayson said. The plight of the pika has grown so dire, conservationists are seeking endangered- species protection for the critters and demanding that federal officials target global warming as a threat to their existence....
Sage grouse designation up for debate The U.S. Department of the Interior will reconsider its 2006 decision to not classify several species as endangered, including the Gunnison sage grouse. Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson, Ariz., said the department agreed to reconsider its stance after a request from U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, a few weeks ago. Wyden’s request expands an earlier investigation into wrongly overturned decisions by Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant secretary of the Interior for fish, wildlife and parks. Devaney’s response to Wyden said his office will “… initiate an investigation to determine whether improper political influence affected a number of species and critical habitat decisions…” It’s unclear whether the new investigation will affect a lawsuit filed last year by the Center for Biological Diversity against the Interior Department for its failure to classify the Gunnison sage grouse as endangered....
McCain, Democrats good for environment President Bush showed such antagonism toward the environment that the next resident of the White House can't help but be seen as an improvement. Bush scorned science, mocked climate change, shortchanged national parks and public land, undermined integrity at the Interior Department and made a joke of our most revered laws on clean air and water, and endangered species. Even former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, by admitting that human activity has contributed to global warming but stopping short of a remedy, sounds reasonable. Voters deserve more, however, particularly on the greatest environmental challenge of our time - responding to the threat of climate change. So they should press the presidential candidates more closely on environmental issues and demand more detailed answers. Here is a starting point: The only Republican candidate to spell out a progressive agenda on combating climate change is Sen. John McCain....
Park Service using choppers to trap sheep in Canyonlands The National Park Service may be using helicopters to capture and collar 19 desert bighorn sheep in Arches and Canyonlands national parks in eastern Utah. The Park Service is seeking public comment until Jan. 21 on an environmental review of the proposed Arches and Canyonlands sheep capture, which will help the agency learn about how diseases can be transmitted from livestock to sheep, and other health problems. Tracking the sheep in Canyonlands National Park has been difficult because of the park’s ruggedness and remoteness, according to the review. Helicopters would be used to chase the sheep in the parks during late January or early February, when park visitation is sparse....
U.S., Mexico trumpet NAFTA changes but farmers balk U.S. officials trumpeted an end to farm trade restrictions under NAFTA, the controversial North American trade deal, on Friday, while Mexican farmers vowed to take to the streets to protest liberalization they fear will run them into the ground. On January 1, Mexico and the United States dropped the few trade restrictions on farm goods that remained fourteen years after NAFTA brought a new era of commerce to the regional economy. Overnight, quotas and tariffs were eliminated on U.S. exports of corn and beans going to Mexico, and to two-way trade in sweeteners like sugar. Corn tariffs have gradually been phased out since the trade deal was implemented, and imports of U.S. yellow corn to Mexico, mostly used in animal feed, have skyrocketed. They now account for close to 35 percent of Mexican consumption....
Animal owners treated like sex offenders Sex offenders are required to register their premises and report to the government when they move. Similarly, the USDA is implementing a so-called "voluntary" program that requires owners of livestock animals to register their premises and report to the government when any animal is moved off the premises. The program is called the National Animal Identification System, or NAIS; it is rolling toward implementation, despite the fact that it has not yet been authorized by Congress. When first introduced, it was scheduled to be mandatory, with every premises or property in the nation where livestock animals are housed, registered in a federal database by 2007. Every animal was to be identified by a 15-digit, internationally unique number and tag, by 2008. And by 2009, the movement of any animal off the registered premises was to be reported to the federal government. Animal owners rebelled and forced the USDA to rethink its plan. Now, they say the program is "voluntary," but it is far from voluntary. By heaping taxpayer-funded grants to state departments of agriculture, and ag-related organizations, the USDA is "partnering" with other organizations that are effectively mandating participation in the program. For example, in Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina and elsewhere, students enrolled in 4-H and Future Farmers of America are required to have the premises where their animals are housed registered in the NAIS before they can participate in state fairs. At least two states have convinced their legislatures to make NAIS participation mandatory at the state level, and other state departments of agriculture are working to do the same....
Stock show benefits from resolved border battle Canadian cattle are back at the National Western Stock Show for the first time since 2003, when concerns about Mad Cow Disease caused a border shutdown. "We welcome our Canadian friends down here," said Stock Show Livestock Manager Bill Angell. "It was kinda tough that they couldn't come down here for five years." Darrell Gotaas owns Big Island Lowlines, a ranch that breeds lowline angus cattle, in Edmonton, Alberta. "We've been sort of holed up waiting for things to turn around so that we can get down here and show our animals," said Gotaas. The U.S. government closed the border to Canadian beef after a 2003 case of the condition commonly called Mad Cow Disease. The shutdown cost the Canadian cattle industry nearly $2 billion and kept their animals from participating in Denver's annual stock show. "We're happy this is behind us now," said Gotaas. Colorado requires imported Canadian cattle to carry a brand. All of Gotaas' show cattle now bear the brand "CAN."....
Jean Barton: Even cowboys take easy way sometimes Lee Pitts wrote "Tabled" in the January issue of Tehama County Farm Bureau News. To quote Lee " ... let me educate you. Calf tables are a device with which you can tip a calf on its side to brand and vaccinate. To own a calf table, or ever having made the acquaintance of one, indicates that you are wuss, a wimp and a terrible roper." He went on to tell, "Real men, and real women, rope their calves and stretch them on the ground. They never table them!" Then he confessed to owning and using a calf table. Well, this year we used Dad's Teco Calf Squeeze, serial number 600, instead of having a roping. It must be 60 years old, but still worked after Kevin put on a new rope, oiled the hinges and put new boards on the chute. Not sure when it was purchased but in Dad's tally book, June 13, 1943, cattle were put in Worley Ranch at Susanville. Before that he just had sheep. In the late 1800s my great-grandfather and his sons had cattle on the open range east of Red Bluff. But the calves on the Willard cows had the neighbor's brand instead of the HW. Sheep were the major livestock in Tehama County a hundred years ago, and Willards gave up trying to raise cattle for at least 60 years. What was interesting to learn, after quietly saying we used the calf table instead of roping this year, was before the 1960s everyone in Tehama County used a calf table....

New beginnings coming up!
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

By Julie Carter

January is now two weeks old. It is traditionally a time when many of us re-evaluate our lives, make resolutions and look with great hope to the months ahead.

We may not keep those promises to ourselves, and, as my experience has proven, usually don’t. I try to lessen the failure possibility by not making any resolutions in an effort to bypass the disappointment.

However, I will admit to at least taking the time to think about what I should do for my health, wealth, happiness and the greater good of mankind. For me, itt is an exhausting process.

January is also a time when nature starts to spring forth with new life.

With cold weather, snow and gloomy skies surrounding many of us, we eagerly anticipate the first buds of flowering trees and shrubs, the peeping forth of those early spring bulbs and the arrival of migrating birds that herald warmer temperatures.

Pretty words that mean, “I am tired of the cold already.” Firewood splinters, ash dust everywhere on everything and a number of articles of clothing that smell like cedar smoke are all marks of the season.

I realize winter is what it is and I get through what it is by looking forward to what it isn’t. To that aforementioned pretty-word description of spring, add a few baby calves bucking through the pasture and life is about as good as any spring can offer. Then the horses shed off, get shiny and hope is renewed.

Across the country, there is much discussion and notice given to the fact this year is 2008. In the Bible, the number eight means “new beginnings,”giving the year a numerical stamp of prophecy.

So not only is it a new year like we get every year, it is a special new year with God’s hand on it offering great promise. There is never a shortage of people who need a renewed hope for what tomorrow will bring.

This past year was a really wonderful year for me, but the promise of even a better year is exciting.

I’m right at the front of that line.

New beginnings may be a million different things to a million different people.

From elections to promotions, destitution to diamonds, failure to success and sad to happy, the hope in a better tomorrow, a better next month and a better ending than the beginning, lightens the load of each day.

In arriving at a place of anticipation for new beginnings, first we had to come through some valleys. The proverbial wilderness wandering is a part of life for those with human tendencies.

I believe we can decide to be tired of wandering, stand up and be counted when new beginnings are passed around.

Therefore, I’ll break my own rule and make a resolution. My promise to myself for this year of new beginnings is to be happy, laugh even more and try to infect every person I meet with the same. Let that be a warning.

Remember your past wildernesses, but don’t let them predict your future.

The Westerner is sure Julie will have a great 2008 and wants to thank her for sharing her wonderful weekly column with us. You can visit her website here, see some beautiful photos, read her weblog, and even order her book, Cowgirl Sass & Savvy.

FLE

U.S. Issues National ID Standards, Setting Stage for a Showdown The federal government issued national standards on Friday that states would have to meet in order for driver’s licenses they issue to qualify as identification at airports and federal buildings, setting the stage for a confrontation with states that have voted not to cooperate. Under a measure known as Real ID legislation, the states must comply by May 11, the third anniversary of the measure’s enactment, or obtain a waiver from the Department of Homeland Security. Meeting the May 11 deadline is impossible because the regulations have been delayed so long, but Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, said Friday that his department would issue a waiver to states that promised to comply later. He laid out a very long schedule, with the final deadline in December 2017, more than 16 years after the events that prompted the law, the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Several states have voted not to comply. One is Washington, where the chairwoman of the Senate’s transportation committee, when asked what difference the new federal rules would make, said, “None.” In Washington and elsewhere, state lawmakers have complained that the requirements add up to a national identification card, that it is too costly, puts privacy at risk and poses severe technical challenges. The Legislature in Maine overwhelmingly passed a resolution last January vowing not to comply. The Legislature there is in its “short session” and can take up only legislation that all the leadership decides is an emergency, said Peggy Schaffer, chief of staff to the Senate majority leader. Ms. Schaffer predicted that pressure from the airlines might force the federal government to reverse itself. The airlines, in fact, are worried, because travelers with driver’s licenses from states that do not have a waiver would have to use a passport or a military ID, or face additional screening, including a pat-down. “This has the potential to be hugely problematic,” said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a trade association of the major carriers. “It appears as if the Department of Homeland Security is placing the burden on the traveling public for a state’s inability to comply.”....
ID Plan Is Broadly Criticized A new Bush administration plan to create national standards for driver's licenses drew heavy criticism yesterday from civil liberties groups, some Republican and Democratic lawmakers, governors, and the travel industry. The critics said the new licenses anticipated under the plan, which is aimed at screening out potential terrorists and uncovering illegal immigrants, could still be forged. They also complained that the program, known as Real ID, would be costly for states to implement, potentially restrict summer travel, and allow private companies access to the personal data of most U.S. citizens. But they also welcomed yesterday's official announcement that states have until May 2011 before they need to begin issuing licenses that meet the department's new guidelines, and until December 2014 to begin replacing current licenses. Drivers over the age of 50 will not have to obtain new licenses until the end of 2017. The deadline extensions give both Congress and future presidents time to reconsider what opponents have depicted as a national identification system that will infringe on privacy rights and leave room for large-scale identity theft....
Justice Dept. Critical Of Appellate Ruling On D.C. Handgun Ban The Bush administration told the Supreme Court last night that, although the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own firearms, an appeals court used the wrong standards in declaring the D.C. handgun ban unconstitutional. The District's ban may well violate the Second Amendment, U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement said in a brief filed ahead of a court deadline, but the case should be sent back to lower courts for evaluation under a "more flexible standard of review." The federal government, protective of its own gun control measures, took issue with the 2 to 1 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which said because handguns are "arms" under the provisions of the Second Amendment, an outright ban is unconstitutional. "The court's decision could be read to hold that the Second Amendment categorically precludes any ban on a category of 'Arms' that can be traced back to the Founding era," the government argued. "If adopted by this court, such an analysis could cast doubt on the constitutionality of existing federal legislation prohibiting the possession of certain firearms, including machineguns." The administration's call for more judicial review -- a disposition that could continue legal wrangling over the ban until after President Bush leaves office -- was far short of an endorsement of the 1976 gun law. Still, it was more than lawyers for the District had hoped for. Peter Nickles, the District's acting attorney general, called the brief a "somewhat surprising and very favorable development."....Once again the Bushies side with Federal power over individual rights.
District attorneys nationwide ask Supreme Court to keep gun ban Prosecutors from across the country, afraid that an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling could erode state gun laws, on Friday asked the high court to uphold a ban on unlicensed handguns. The district attorneys, from 18 jurisdictions, weighed in on a case in which justices will decide whether the Constitution's Second Amendment can overrule tough Washington, D.C. handgun laws. The prosecutors say a ruling against the ban could impair law enforcement and jeopardize public safety. The prosecutors, led by district attorneys Robert M. Morgenthau of New York County and Kamala D. Harris of San Francisco, say they worry that what applies in Washington might have an impact on their communities. The prosecutors submitted the papers as a friend-of-the-court brief, filed by parties who are not part of the case but who have an interest in its outcome. The district attorneys, who represent a total of more than 25 million people, come from jurisdictions that include New York, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, San Diego, Oakland and Atlanta....
San Francisco Gun Ban Ruled Null and Void The California State Court of Appeals announced today their decision to overturn one of the most restrictive gun bans in the country, following a legal battle by attorneys for the National Rifle Association (NRA) and a previous court order against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In 2005, NRA sought an injunction against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to prevent them from enacting one of the nation's most restrictive gun bans. NRA won the injunction, but the City's mayor and Board of Supervisors ignored the court order and approved a set of penalties, including a $1,000 fine and a jail term of between 90 days and six months, for city residents who own firearms for lawful purposes in their own homes. Today's decision came in the form of a 3-0 opinion in favor of the lower court ruling overturning the gun ban....
Federal Court Dismisses Another Lawsuit Against Gun Industry A federal court has once again invoked a 2005 law in dismissing a lawsuit filed against 25 gun manufacturers on behalf of nine "gun crime" victims. The 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act is intended to protect the gun industry from politically motivated lawsuits. The Second Amendment Foundation applauded the unanimous decision by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. "The courts, and the American public, realize that manufacturers, no matter who they are, cannot be blamed for the actions of individuals who misuse their products, whether they are golf clubs, baseball bats, automobiles or firearms," said Second Amendment Foundation Founder Alan Gottlieb said. The lawsuit was filed in January 2000, but according to the opinion written by Associate Judge Michael William Farrell, the 2005 law required the court to dismiss the case. Judge Farrell wrote that Congress, in passing the law, wanted to "prohibit [lawsuits] against manufacturers ... for the harm solely caused by the criminal or unlawful misuse of firearms products ..." Allowing the lawsuit to proceed "would, in our view, frustrate Congress' clear intention."....
Agency will no longer sedate deportees U.S. immigration agents must not sedate deportees without a judge's permission, according to a policy change issued this week. Immigration officials have acknowledged that 56 deportees were given psychotropic drugs during a seven-month period in 2006 and 2007 even though most had no history of mental problems. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit over the practice in June. An internal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo issued Wednesday and obtained Friday by The Associated Press said that effective immediately, agents must get a court order before administering drugs "to facilitate an alien's removal." "There are no exceptions to this policy," said the memo by John Torres, detention and removal director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. To get a sedation order from court, officials must show deportees have a history of physical resistance to being removed or are a danger to themselves....
Feds plan 102 suits to build fence on border The government is readying 102 court cases against landowners in Arizona, California and Texas for blocking efforts to selected sites for a fence along the Mexican border, a Homeland Security Department official said Wednesday. With the lawsuits expected soon, the legal action would mark an escalation in the clash between the government and the property owners. The Bush administration wants to build 370 miles of fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers by the end of the year. A number of property owners have granted the government access to their land, but others have refused. The agency sent letters to 135 of them last month, warning they had 30 days to comply. Thirty-three did so. The deadline for many passed on Monday or should expire this week for others. Resistance is most intense in Texas, which accounts for 71 cases; there are 20 in California and 11 in Arizona, said Russ Knocke, a Homeland Security spokesman....

Big Brother to control thermostats in homes? Add thermostats to the list of private property the government would like to regulate as the state of California looks to require that residents install remotely monitored temperature controls in their homes next year. The government is seeking to limit rolling blackouts and free up electric and natural gas resources by mandating that every new heating and cooling system include a "non-removable" FM receiver. The thermostat is also capable of controlling other appliances in the house, such as electric water heaters, refrigerators, pool pumps, computers and lights in response to signals from utility companies. The proposal, set to be considered by the commission Jan. 30, requires each thermostat to be equipped with a radio communication device to send "price signals" and automatically adjust temperature up or down 4 degrees for cooling and heating, as California's public and private utility organizations deem necessary. Claudia Chandler, assistant executive director for the California Energy Commission, told WND the new systems would be highly beneficial to residents....
Redford Takes on `Goliath' in Texas to Block Coal-Fired Plants The Sundance Kid is taking on ``Goliath'' to block the building of coal-fired electricity plants in Texas, the most power-hungry state in the U.S. Robert Redford, the actor, movie director and longtime environmentalist, narrates ``Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars,'' a documentary chronicling the efforts of a group of Texas mayors and citizens to block construction of coal-fired plants. The film will have its premiere tonight at a Waco theater hosted by the Redford Center at Sundance Preserve. ``Fighting Goliath,'' which cost $60,000 to make, features the opponents of 11 coal units planned by TXU Corp., now Energy Future Holdings Corp., the largest power producer in Texas. While eight of those generators were scrapped, Energy Future is moving ahead with three, and others including NRG Energy Inc. are planning at least five more. ``We have all our retirement in our land,'' Robert Cervenka, a 77-year-old rancher near Waco who appears in the film, said in an interview. ``I can sell off a piece of it, but I damn sure can't do it with a coal plant next door.''....
The Sonoran Institute: Conserving and Enhancing the Western Landscape With unprecedented population growth throughout the West, both its demographic and economic landscape have witnessed major changes. Committed to promoting community decisions that respect the environment and the people who live here, The Sonoran Institute strives to create a collaborative approach to protecting both the culture and the land of the West. The Sonoran Institute, Northern Rockies Office, founded in 1990, has a staff of 11 people, including land use planners, community organizers, rural development specialists, a landscape ecologist, conservationists, a communications expert and a GIS specialist, all committed to the organization’s mission of inspiring and enabling community decisions and public policies that respect the land and the people of the West. Dennis Glick, director of the Sonoran Institute’s Northern Rockies office, expands on the organization and its efforts. NewWest.Net: Why and how did your organization come into being? SI: The Sonoran Institute was created to fill the niche of a community-based conservation organization working collaboratively with citizens to address the impacts of growth and change in the West. The Institute strives to not only help communities achieve their conservation and development goals, but also to build their capacity to sustain these efforts into the future.....
GF&P preparing plan when wolves return to S.D. The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department is preparing for wolves to venture into South Dakota. Some have already passed through the state in recent years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife reported in 2006 that wolves were in Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains, and local officials are expecting them to wander east, at least in small numbers. "We are going to start thinking about wolves in South Dakota because we are quite certain that they are coming, and we need to be prepared to manage them when they do get here," said John Kanta, a regional wildlife manager with the GF&P. Currently the state operates under an August 1994 U.S. Fish and Wildlife contingency plan. "It's more or less to address depredations with wolves," Kanta said. "What we would like to do is put together a full-blown management plan. In other words, 'Do we want to sustain a population of wolves, and if so how are we going to do that? How are we going to respond to the problems that come with wolves considering that we have a number of ranchers out there who are raising sheep, which can certainly be an issue with wolves.'"....
We face a dilemma: too many bison, too little room Keep an eye on the margins of Yellowstone National Park this winter. Yet again, the bison-management system for the sprawling wonderland and its surroundings is setting up for a wholesale slaughter of the wooly creatures. Depending on weather conditions in the park, potential exists for an exodus well into the four-digit range, which will set off a variety of limitation techniques around Gardiner and West Yellowstone. Underlying that likelihood is the fact that the park's bison population is estimated to be about 4,700, down only slightly from the record 4,900 of just two years ago when more than a thousand bison were killed by hunters and wildlife managers. Considering that earlier estimates of the optimum sustainable bison population for the park ran closer to 2,000, we once again find ourselves faced with a quart of bison stuffed into a pint jar of range. And considering that surrounding ranchers fear the possible spread of brucellosis from bison to their cattle, we're also faced with inevitable conflicts of interest....
Grazing permits to be reconsidered The U.S. Forest Service has agreed to reconsider a new grazing management plan for a large swath of public lands along the Nevada-California line after two environmental groups complained about its impact on certain bird species, officials said Thursday. Western Watersheds Project and Forest Guardians in November appealed the grazing plan for the 641 square-mile area near the eastern Sierra that was contained in an environmental impact statement approved by the Forest Service's district ranger in Bridgeport, Calif. The area includes parts of Mineral and Lyon counties in Nevada and Mono County in California. Ed Monnig, supervisor of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, said he agreed to reconsider the plan to ensure it meets standards set by federal courts in recent rulings concerning grazing lawsuits. Monnig said he believes the plan implemented by the district ranger is sound, and took into consideration the impacts of grazing on a variety of environmental resources, including fish and wildlife. "However, we are committed to doing what we need to do to prove our case." Monnig agreed with the groups' argument that the grazing plan didn't adequately consider effects on the yellow warbler, a migratory bird. But the conservation groups maintain that concerns about the bird are only part of the plan's failure....
Forest Service cancels meeting on Bitterroot The Bitterroot National Forest abruptly canceled a public meeting in Stevensville on updating its travel management plan following a crowded and sometimes unruly meeting on the same topic the night before in Darby. People cursed during the Darby meeting, and the U.S. Forest Service is following up on reports that a man suggested someone “put a bullet in her head” as a woman spoke. The Stevensville meeting was scheduled for Thursday night at the Stevensville United Methodist Church. After more than 200 people packed into a meeting room in Darby the night before, the agency decided the proposed Stevensville venue was too small to host the expected crowd. Stevensville District Ranger Dan Ritter said the church couldn't hold many more than 50 people. Many at the Darby meeting indicated they'd be attending all the scheduled public meetings on the travel management plan update. At one point, as a woman spoke about wilderness, a man in the crowd allegedly said, “Put a bullet in her head.” His words were loud enough for a number of people to hear, including a Forest Service official. The Forest Service was able to get the man's name....Also see Heated Forest Use Meeting Results in Investigation Into Threat
Wild and scenic: Utah should start with the Green River In 1968, Congress created the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to preserve free-flowing waterways that have outstanding scenic, wildlife and cultural values. You might think that in the 40 years since, some of Utah's magnificent rivers, particularly the Green and the Colorado, would have been protected under this special designation. Alas, that is not the case. In fact, no Utah river is protected in this way. However, several federal land management agencies, particularly the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, currently are involved in planning processes that could lead to Congress designating eligible Utah rivers as wild, scenic or recreational under the Act. It is high time, especially for the Green River. Utah counties and the state have looked with some suspicion on Wild and Scenic River designation, worrying that they could lose water rights or other economic values. They have been particularly concerned about intermittent streams. But there should be no arguments about certain sections of the Green. The 30-mile segment below Flaming Gorge Dam in northeast Utah is world-renowned as one of the great scenic trout fisheries in the nation....
Senators Push for Guns in National Parks Nearly half the Senate is pushing the Bush administration to let gun owners carry handguns and other firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges. Forty-seven lawmakers have signed a letter asking Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to lift Reagan-era restrictions that prevent citizens from carrying readily accessible firearms onto lands managed by the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Current regulations, developed in the early 1980s, "infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners who wish to transport and carry firearms on or across these lands," the senators wrote. The policies also differ from those of some other federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service. "These inconsistencies in firearms regulations for public lands are confusing, burdensome and unnecessary," said the letter, drafted by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. Thirty-nine Republicans and eight Democrats signed the letter, including both senators from 17 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming....
Support Senate Bill S. 2283, to Reserve the Right to Ride on Public Land Okay trail advocates—here's your opportunity to show support for the new bill that is going through the Senate and will replace the Right to Ride bill. At this time, it has been referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. This bill aims to preserve the use and access of pack and saddle stock animals on public land administered by the National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, or the Forest Service on which there is a historical tradition of the use of pack and saddle stock animals. Sometimes other groups (hiking and biking enthusiasts for instance) who also use the these public lands want to ban the use of horses. This bill will prevent that from happening....
New Mexico Mining Claims Jump 50 Percent Since 2003 In the face of a dramatic increases in new mining claims in New Mexico, state and county officials called on Senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici, leaders of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, to reform the 135-year-old law that governs the mining of gold, uranium and other hardrock minerals on federal lands in New Mexico and other western states. A comprehensive bipartisan package that would modernize the Civil War era statute was passed by the House of Representatives in November. The Senate will host its first mining reform hearing this month. The need for reform has also been made more urgent by the dramatic increase in new mining claims in western states, including New Mexico. According to Bureau of Land Management data analyzed by the Environmental Working Group, the total number of hardrock mining claims in New Mexico is 50 percent higher in mid-2007 than in 2003. Claims totaled 11,348 in July of 2007....
Conservation Group Files Lawsuit Against Department of Energy Over Southwest Energy Corridor On behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, the Western Environmental Law Center today filed suit in federal court in the central district of California to challenge the Department of Energy's October 2007 designation of the Southwest National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor - a sweeping, 45-million-acre area that includes seven southern California and three Arizona counties - for failing to analyze the environmental impacts of the corridor. "The Energy Department cannot turn southern California and western Arizona into an energy farm for Los Angeles and San Diego without taking a hard look at the environmental impacts of doing so," said Amy Atwood, staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The Southwest Energy Corridor will have far-reaching environmental impacts that must be considered before moving forward." The Department of Energy designated the Southwest Corridor pursuant to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, allowing for "fast-track" approval of utility and power line projects within the corridor, nullifying state and federal environmental laws, and enabling energy companies to condemn private land for new high-voltage transmission lines....
Energy organization to be proposed Japan, the United States and European countries will jointly propose at this year's Group of Eight summit meeting that an international organization be established to study and evaluate the energy-saving measures of countries including China and India. The launch of the organization is part of international efforts to provide emerging large consumers of energy with the advanced energy-saving know-how of developed countries, and to study the effectiveness of such measures. The new organization would be funded by Japan, the United States and European countries, with the International Energy Agency in Paris being considered as a possible location for the new body's headquarters. Discussions on the new confederation will get under way during a preparatory meeting for the energy ministers of the G-8 countries, set to be held on Jan. 22 and 23....
Scientists: Biting Insects May Have Killed Off Dinosaurs Some of the smallest animals on Earth may have been responsible for the extinction of some of the biggest. A new book argues that the demise of the dinosaurs was due not to an asteroid impact, nor massive volcanic eruptions in India, but instead to tiny biting disease-spreading insects and arachnids — mosquitoes, mites, ticks and biting flies. "There are serious problems with the sudden-impact theories of dinosaur extinction, not the least of which is that dinosaurs declined and disappeared over a period of hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years," entomologist George O. Poinar, Jr., said in a press release from Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore., last week. Poinar's new book, "What Bugged the Dinosaurs?: Insects, Disease, and Death in the Cretaceous," co-written with his wife Roberta Poinar, explains how DNA from leishmania, a single-celled organism that causes a debilitating disease in humans and other vertebrates, was found in the gut of a biting insect trapped in amber from the Late Cretaceous. "In another biting insect, we discovered organisms that cause malaria, a type that infects birds and lizards today," Poinar explained, adding that dinosaur feces also showed evidence of infection by parasitic worms and single-celled organisms....
Homeland Security defers new chemical rules for farmers The federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reconsidered and deferred immediate application of new reporting rules for farms storing certain amounts of anhydrous ammonia or propane. “It appears that until further notice, the department is extending the deadline for farms to submit required reports,” said Nancy Erickson, Illinois Farm Bureau natural and environmental resources director. Previously, farmers had until mid-January to comply with new rules if their farms had 60,000 pounds or more of propane and 10,000 pounds or more of anhydrous ammonia stored on the premises. Farmers who had to comply based on the quantity of chemicals at a minimum had to submit an online questionnaire with information about their operation to DHS. However, DHS has not exempted farmers, ranchers, and agricultural end-users from the requirement, according to Rebeckah Adcock, congressional relations director with the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF)....
Strikeout king Ryan now does pitching for beef industry Nolan Ryan has played the role of ambassador many times before. He is baseball's strikeouts and longevity king, a down-home icon of a sport rooted in Americana. But baseball, as Ryan readily will attest, has been one of the two great passions in his amazing life. Cattle ranching and helping the U.S. beef industry thrive have been as much a part of Ryan's life as blazing fastballs and knee-bending curveballs. So when Ryan - who, among his many business interests, has overseen the rise of Nolan Ryan's Guaranteed Tender in the 14 years since his retirement from baseball - has been asked to make a pitch on behalf of the beef industry, he usually takes the ball. Last summer, that role as an ambassador for U.S. cattlemen took Ryan to Japan, where he helped make an appeal for that country to loosen the restrictions it imposed on imported beef after Mad Cow disease made international headlines in 2003. On Tuesday, that role as ambassador will bring Ryan to Denver, where he will serve as the grand marshal for the National Western Stock Show Parade....
Helicopters As Well As Horses Carried Borden County Cowboy In his 67 years, Frank Menix has punched cows across Texas as well as several other states, though he went about it in a different sort of way. He used a horse for many years, but in the late Seventies decided gathering from a helicopter was the way to go. Menix grew up in Gaines County, where his father was a farmer. His mother died when he was 10 years old, and there wasn’t enough work for him and all his brothers, though he says he wasn’t interested in farming anyway. He went to work for wages for his uncle when he was 10 and stayed for two years. He left there and went to work for the Spade Ranch on their leased Indian Canyon Ranch. During his time there, Menix met some of the oldtime Spade hands like Pink Russell and Otto Jones. Russell, though in his mid-eighties, would come to the chuckwagon and tell stories to young Menix and others. Russell told Menix of the time they were trailing pairs from Renderbrook to Colorado City to weigh and ship the calves. W.L. Elwood, the Spade owner, drove up and said to Russell, “Pink, hold these old cows up. A quart of milk doesn’t weigh much, but 500 does.”....

NAIS - PREMISES REGISTRATION

Go here for the latest statistics on premises registration by state. Conneticut has the lowest percentage of registrations at 0.7%, the national average is 30.6% and New Mexico is 10.4%.

Federal Department of Light Bulbs & Toilets How many congressmen does it take to change a light bulb? 400. That’s how many members of Congress recently voted for a bill to force Americans to change the 50-cent incandescent light bulbs they’re currently using and replace them with expensive new, $3 “energy-efficient” light bulbs. As Shane Cory of the Libertarian Party sarcastically put it, "If you outlaw light bulbs, then only outlaws will have light bulbs.” The ban, which takes effect in 2014, was included in the 2007 energy bill which 314 members of the United States House of Representatives and 86 members of the United States Senate voted for. Nevada Sen. Harry Reid said he thought the light bulb ban was an appropriate exercise of federal power. Interesting company Reid’s keeping. Because when the bill was originally introduced by California Rep. Jane Harman last March, CNS News reported that two other countries had already taken similar steps to eradicate inexpensive incandescent light bulbs from the planet: Fidel Castro’s Cuba and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. Unfortunately, this is nothing new for Congress. The light bulb ban is simply the latest example of an increasingly intrusive federal government butting into the day-to-day affairs of the average citizen. Remember the 1992 energy bill, in which Congress banned the 3.5 gallon toilet? It mandated that that Americans no longer use more than 1.6 gallons per flush. Of course, per the immutable Law of Unintended Consequences, the new 1.6 gallon toilets turned out not to be enough to, er, get the job done. So folks found themselves flushing two and three times per visit, thus using the same amount of water, if not more, than they did before Congress stuck its nose into our bathrooms. And make no mistake. Congress has no intention of stopping here. Still under active consideration is a new federal ban on top-loading washing machines, as well as a federal ban on disposable diapers. Seems some of our elected officials won’t be satisfied until we’re again washing out our cloth diapers on rocks by a stream in the pitch dark....

FLE

Mexican soldiers found invading United States A federal document obtained and released by Judicial Watch reveals that there were dozens of armed incursions by Mexican soldiers and police into the United States during Fiscal Year 2007. The report was obtained by the Washington-based organization that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and it documents 29 confirmed incidents along the U.S.-Mexican border involving Mexican military and/or law enforcement personnel during that time. "These documents not only show the dangerous and chaotic situation at the Mexican border, but also the complicity of some Mexican government agents in violating U.S. law," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "The U.S. government must begin to take these incidents more seriously, publicize them and take measures to bring the crisis at our border under control," he said. The report documents incidents such as the one at the Fort Hancock Station in El Paso. "[Troopers] attempted to apprehend three vehicles believed to be smuggling contraband on I-10 … As the vehicles approached the border, [troopers] stated that a Mexican Military Humvee armed with a .50 caliber weapon and several soldiers were seen assisting smugglers return to Mexico … Officers then noticed several armed subjects dressed in fatigue type clothing unload the contraband into the Humvee. These subjects set fire to the stalled vehicle before leaving the area." Judicial Watch noted that of the 29 documented instances, 17 involved armed Mexican government agents....
FBI Wiretaps Are Cut Over Unpaid Bills Telecommunications companies have repeatedly cut off FBI access to wiretaps of alleged terrorists and criminal suspects because the bureau did not pay its phone bills, according to the results of an audit released yesterday. The report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said that more than half of nearly 1,000 FBI telecommunications bills reviewed by investigators were not paid on time, including one invoice for $66,000 at an unidentified field office. The report cited a case in which an order obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- which covers clandestine wiretaps of terrorism and espionage suspects -- was halted because of "untimely payment." "Late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence," Fine said in a seven-page summary of the audit's findings. The audit is the latest in a string of reports from Fine's office over the past seven years to detail chronic financial and inventory management problems at the bureau, including a persistent failure to account for hundreds of guns and laptop computers....
Ashcroft Deal Brings Scrutiny in Justice Dept. When the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey needed to find an outside lawyer to monitor a large corporation willing to settle criminal charges out of court last fall, he turned to former Attorney General John Ashcroft, his onetime boss. With no public notice and no bidding, the company awarded Mr. Ashcroft an 18-month contract worth $28 million to $52 million. That contract, which Justice Department officials in Washington learned about only several weeks ago, has prompted an internal inquiry into the department’s procedures for selecting outside monitors to police settlements with large companies. The contract between Mr. Ashcroft’s consulting firm, the Ashcroft Group, and Zimmer Holdings, a medical supply company in Indiana, has also drawn the attention of Congressional investigators. The New Jersey prosecutor, United States Attorney Christopher J. Christie, directed similar monitoring contracts last year to two other former Justice Department colleagues from the Bush administration, as well as to a former Republican state attorney general in New Jersey....
Inside the Martial Law Act of 2006 Martial law is perhaps the ultimate stomping of freedom. And yet, on September 30, 2006, Congress passed a provision in a 591-page bill that will make it easy for President Bush to impose martial law in response to a terrorist "incident." It also empowers him to effectively declare martial law in response to what he or other federal officials label a shortfall of "public order" -- whatever that means. It took only a few paragraphs in a $500 billion, 591-page bill to raze one of the most important limits on federal power. Congress passed the Insurrection Act in 1807 to severely restrict the president's ability to deploy the military within the United States. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 tightened those restrictions, imposing a two-year prison sentence on anyone who used the military within the United States without the express permission of Congress. (This act was passed after the depredations of the U.S. military throughout the Southern states during Reconstruction.) But there is a loophole: Posse Comitatus is waived if the president invokes the Insurrection Act. The Insurrection Act and Posse Comitatus Act aim to deter dictatorship while permitting a narrow window for the president to temporarily use the military at home. But the 2006 reforms basically threw any concern about dictatorial abuses out the window. Section 1076 of the Defense Authorization Act of 2006 changed the name of the key provision in the statute book from "Insurrection Act" to "Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order Act." The Insurrection Act of 1807 stated that the president could deploy troops within the United States only "to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy." The new law expands the list of pretexts to include "natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition" -- and such a "condition" is not defined or limited....
Michigan sees fewer gun deaths -- with more permits Six years after new rules made it much easier to get a license to carry concealed weapons, the number of Michiganders legally packing heat has increased more than six-fold. But dire predictions about increased violence and bloodshed have largely gone unfulfilled, according to law enforcement officials and, to the extent they can be measured, crime statistics. The incidence of violent crime in Michigan in the six years since the law went into effect has been, on average, below the rate of the previous six years. The overall incidence of death from firearms, including suicide and accidents, also has declined. More than 155,000 Michiganders -- about one in every 65 -- are now authorized to carry loaded guns as they go about their everyday affairs, according to Michigan State Police records. About 25,000 people had CCW permits in Michigan before the law changed in 2001. John Lott, a visiting professor at the University of Maryland who has done extensive research on the role of firearms in American society, said the results in Michigan since the law changed don't surprise him. Academic studies of concealed weapons laws that generally allow citizens to obtain permits have shown different results, Lott said. About two-thirds of the studies suggest the laws reduce crime; the rest show no net effect, he said. But no peer-reviewed study has ever shown that crime increases when jurisdictions enact changes like those put in place by the Legislature and then-Gov. John Engler in 2000, Lott said....