Cool And The Gang Knut the polar bear isn't so cute and cuddly anymore. He's grown up a tad and is now a killing machine capable of surviving in perhaps the Earth's most hostile environment — the Arctic. Nor is the poster animal for warming warnings that drive children to tears and his kind in danger of perishing anytime soon. Funny thing about ice: It melts in summer and thickens in winter. And according to Gilles Kangis, a senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice service in Ottawa, this Arctic winter has been so severe that the continent's allegedly vanishing ice is 10 to 20 centimeters thicker than it was at this time a year ago. Recent satellite images, moreover, show the polar ice cap is at near-normal coverage levels, according to Josefino Comiso, a senior research scientist with the Cryospheric Sciences Branch of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. This is a consequence of what we recently commented on: The sun, the greatest influence on earth's climate, seems to be entering an unusually quiet cycle of limited sunspot activity. As Kenneth Tapping of Canada's National Research Council warns, we may be in for severely cold weather if sunspot activity doesn't pick up. Tapping oversees the operation of a 60-year-old radio telescope that he calls a "stethoscope for the sun." The last time the sun was this quiet, Earth suffered the Little Ice Age, which lasted five centuries and ended in 1850. The winter at Valley Forge, a famous part of history, occurred during this period. It's a good time, therefore, for some of the best climate scientists in the world to be gathering in New York City — setting for the Al Gore-promoted doomsday flick "The Day After Tomorrow" — for the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change hosted by the Heartland Institute. More than 550 climate scientists, economists and public policy experts are at March 2-4 event, their very presence shattering Gore's myth of a warming "consensus" and a debate that is over. Yet because of the media's embrace of Gore's crusade, this may be one of the few places you read about the conference....
Luxury Homes Burn in Apparent Eco-Attack Three seven-figure dream homes went up in flames early Monday in a Seattle suburb, apparently set by eco-terrorists who left a sign mocking the builders' claims that the 4,000-plus-square-foot houses were environmentally friendly. The sign — a sheet marked with spray paint — bore the initials ELF, for Earth Liberation Front, a loose collection of radical environmentalists that has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks since the 1990s. The sheriff's office estimated that Monday's pre-dawn fires did $7 million in damage to the "Street of Dreams," a row of unoccupied, furnished luxury model homes where tens of thousands of visitors last summer eyed the latest in high-end housing, interior design and landscaping. Three homes were destroyed and two suffered smoke damage. The FBI was investigating the fires as a potential domestic terrorism act, said FBI spokesman Rich Kolko in Washington, D.C....
On the Earth Liberation Front Arson is a strange way to defend the Earth. The hardcore environmental activists behind the Earth Liberation Front disagree. According to the Associated Press, the group has previously taken credit (if it can be called that) for several arsons in the northwest of the United States. They've attacked U.S. Forest Service buildings and a Colorado ski resort, the latter assault doing US$12-million in damage. In one case, the ELF burned down a horticulture building at the University of Washington because they were angry that researchers therein were genetically engineering trees. Actually, researchers weren't doing anything of the sort in the building. They were too busy preserving endangered plants and restoring wetlands. But by the time someone told the ELF that, it had already done about US$7-million of damage. The genetically-engineered poplars that the ELF was so exercised about were actually housed in a separate building that was untouched by the attack. Now, separate fires in 4 luxury show homes in a Seattle suburb look like the ELF's latest handiwork. (A sign bearing the initials "ELF" and complaining "Built Green? Nope black!" was left on the scene.)....
New houses becoming popular targets The Earth Liberation Front has its roots in the militant opposition to logging of old-growth forests. Beginning in 1996, an underground group launched more than a dozen arsons against targets that included the U.S. Forest Service, timber companies, a horse slaughterhouse, a car dealership and a University of Washington researcher believed to be genetically engineering poplar trees. But in recent years, new housing developments popping up on the urban fringes have become the most high-profile targets claimed by the ELF. Those attacks include a 2002 arson that destroyed a San Diego apartment complex and caused $50 million in damage, and a 2000 torching of a luxury housing development in Mount Sinai, N.Y. "If you build it, we will burn it," was the graffiti left at the scene of the New York fire, according to The New York Times....
NYT Term for Eco-Terrorists: 'Anti-Sprawl Activists' Opening paragraph from the New York Times article on the eco-terrorists who burned three new homes north of Seattle today [emphasis added]: For people who are anti-sprawl activists — or have baser motives — a new-built house sitting empty in a previously rural area evidently makes a ripe target for an attack by fire. Consider also the article's headline "House Fires With a Message in the Northwest." Yes, think of it as a bonus. Not just a housefire . . . a housefire with a message!
Environmental activist pleads not guilty Three days after his extradition from Canada, environmental activist and ex-fugitive Tre Arrow pleaded not guilty to arson and conspiracy charges in federal court Monday and was ordered held as a flight risk and public danger pending trial. Arrow, 34, who has legally changed his name from Michael Scarpitti, is charged in a 14-count federal indictment with helping to destroy concrete-mixing trucks at Ross Island Sand and Gravel Company in Portland in April 2001 and of firebombing logging trucks at Schoppert Logging Co. in Eagle Creek near Mount Hood in June 2001. He was returned to Portland Friday after fighting extradition for four years from a prison in British Columbia. Before his arrest in Canada, he was a fugitive from the FBI for 19 months. Dressed in a blue prison uniform, Arrow clasped his hands together, smiled and bowed in the courtroom as he was led to the defense table. He did not speak during the brief arraignment. U.S. District Judge Paul Hubel ordered him held pending a possible detention hearing. Through his attorney Paul Loney, Arrow requested that he be given a raw vegan diet in accordance with his religious beliefs, and a court official said that probably could be accommodated. Hubel asked that it be done as quickly as possible....
Are Wolves The Pronghorn's Best Friend? As western states debate removing the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act, a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society cautions that doing so may result in an unintended decline in another species: the pronghorn, a uniquely North American animal that resembles an African antelope. The study, appearing in the latest issue of the journal Ecology, says that fewer wolves mean more coyotes, which can prey heavily on pronghorn fawns if the delicate balance between predators and their prey is altered. According to the study, healthy wolf packs keep coyote numbers in check, while rarely feeding on pronghorn fawns themselves. As a result, fawns have higher survival rates when wolves are present in an ecosystem. Over a three-year period, researchers radio-collared more than 100 fawns in wolf-free and wolf-abundant areas of Grand Teton National Park and monitored their survival throughout the summer. The results showed that only 10 percent of fawns survived in areas lacking wolves, but where coyote densities were higher. In areas where wolves were abundant, 34 percent of pronghorn fawns survived. Wolves reduce coyote numbers by killing them outright or by causing them to shift to safer areas of the Park not utilized by wolves....
Annual drilling restrictions take effect in Wyoming Annual restrictions that ban most energy-related activities within two miles of active sage grouse breeding areas on federal land are now in effect for the next three and a half months in Wyoming. Last Saturday marked the first day of the restrictions. The federal regulations hit Campbell County especially hard last year and are expected to have a significant impact this year. State and private lands where the regulations do not apply are increasingly drilled out, forcing coal-bed methane companies onto more federal land. In addition, last week, a federal judge decided to hold the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to a May 2009 deadline to decide whether to list the sage grouse as an endangered species, ignoring the service's request for an extension of the deadline. The decision will also require the service to do a new report on the bird, and give the public 60 days to comment on that report. The report is due in November....
BLM report says drilling would boost gas leakage A court challenge to increased coal-bed methane development on the Atlantic Rim has yielded a document that contradicts the Bureau of Land Management's public position on whether new drilling will cause more gas seepage from the ground. Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, said court records resulting from a lawsuit filed by his organization and four other groups contains a document from the BLM about how drilling has boosted the number of methane gas seeps on the Atlantic Rim. The lawsuit was filed after the BLM approved a 2,000-well project on Atlantic Rim, on the eastern edge of the Red Desert in southern Wyoming. The BLM document, prepared by a petroleum engineer, states that when BLM officials toured the area, they found the level of activity at known methane gas seep sites had "increased dramatically since the commencement of coal-bed methane" development "in the immediate vicinity." BLM officials and others who have looked at the methane seeps agree that some seeps have been in the area for years. Dispute centers on the recent increased activity witnessed at those seeps....
Conflict seen in smelt rules Water users who benefit most from tapping the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have been given an unprecedented role in drafting new rules to manage water diversions. Critics call it a "fox in the henhouse" situation that may further imperil the Delta, where experts believe water diversions have already contributed to a broad ecosystem collapse. The new draft rules, called a biological assessment, are being prepared in response to a court order last year. Federal Judge Oliver Wanger in Fresno declared existing rules inadequate to protect the threatened Delta smelt. He set a Sept. 12 deadline to rewrite the rules. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates one of two Delta water systems, is a defendant in the case. The bureau allowed water contractors to help write new diversion rules. Wanger, in his ruling, didn't specify who should rewrite the rules. The decision also applies to its co-defendant, the state Department of Water Resources, which operates the other diversion system, and its contractors....
Eminent domain hovers over Monument woman's property For 30 years, Georgia Ward has lived on 40 picturesque acres south of town, the perfect place for horses to roam and graze and drink from Monument Creek. But a Monument road could one day run through Ward’s land, dividing it in two and leaving the eastern two-thirds of it cut off and useless, Ward said. “Who would ever want it then?” Ward said last week. The town wants to connect Mitchell Road, which dead-ends at the south end of town, to Forest Lakes Boulevard, which curves north from Baptist Road west of Interstate 25. To make way for the road, the town plans to use eminent domain to seize an 80-foot-wide strip of land crossing Ward’s property. Eminent domain is a touchy subject among northern El Paso County landowners after the Lewis-Palmer School District in 2006 raised the specter of condemnation to obtain land for a new high school. The school district backed down in the face of fierce protests that included a threatened recall when the descendants of the pioneer family who still lived on the Wissler Ranch went public that they were being pressured to sell....
No Global Warming Crisis To see if all this makes any sense there are really four questions that all have to be answered "yes." 1) Are global temperatures rising? Surely, they were rising from the late 1970s to 1998, but "there has been no net global warming since 1998." Indeed, the more recent numbers show that there is now evidence of significant cooling. 2) But supposing that the answer to the first question is "yes," is mankind responsible for a significant and noticeable portion of an increase in temperatures? Mankind is responsible for just a few percent of greenhouse gases, and greenhouse gases are not responsible for most of what causes warming (e.g., the Sun). Over 100 leading climate scientists from around the world signed a letter in December stating: "significant new peer-reviewed research has cast even more doubt on the hypothesis of dangerous human-caused global warming." In December a list was also released of another 400 scientists who questioned the general notion of significant manmade global warming. 3) If the answer to both preceding questions is "yes," is an increase temperature changes "bad"? That answer is hardly obvious. Higher temperatures could increase ocean levels by between seven inches and two feet over the next 100 years. Although some blame global warming for seemingly everything, according to others higher temperatures will increase the amount of land that we can use to grow food, it will improve people's health, and increase biological diversity. Even the UN says that a mild increase in temperature would be good for many regions of the globe. 4) Finally, let's assume that the answer to all three previous questions is "yes." Does that mean we need more regulations and taxes? No, that is still not clear....
Judge denies government bid to back out of sage grouse agreement A federal judge is holding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to an agreement reached with environmentalists that sets a timeline for deciding whether to give the sage grouse special protection. The wildlife agency sought to back out of a stipulation that would have required it to determine by May 2009 whether to declare the species threatened or endangered. Government attorneys asked a federal judge in Boise to void the deal because it had not been approved by top agency officials. U.S. District Judge B. Linn Winmill denied the request yesterday, ruling the agreement is legally binding. A decision to grant Endangered Species Act protections to the sage grouse could affect energy development and urban growth across the West. Sage grouse habitat stretches across 11 Western states from California to North Dakota....
EPA approves Montana water standards The federal government has approved strict new water quality standards sought by Montana over fears that coal-bed methane drilling in neighboring Wyoming could pollute interstate rivers. Montana officials said Monday that the new rules would protect farmers from poor-quality water produced during exploration for coal-bed methane. Over the last decade, that industry has boomed just over the state line in Wyoming. "It's a good thing to protect the water for our state," Montana Department of Environmental Quality Director Richard Opper said of the new rules. They were approved by the Environmental Protection Agency in a letter dated Friday. But with a federal lawsuit over the issue still pending before District Judge Clarence Brimmer in Cheyenne, it was not immediately clear how far Montana could go in enforcing the standards. The energy industry and state of Wyoming joined forces to oppose the rules in court after they were adopted by Montana's Board of Environmental Quality in 2006. They argued Montana's actions threaten to dampen energy development in the Powder River Basin, which straddles the border of the two states....
Utah's national parks may soon allow firearms Visitors to Utah's national parks may soon be able to carry loaded firearms, despite the concerns of conservation groups that armed tourists could lead to more poaching. Under pressure from gun rights groups and about half of the U.S. Senate, the Interior Department has agreed to rewrite its regulations to comply with state laws. Utah, like much of the West, allows guns in state parks. So the change would make it legal for those traveling through Arches or Zions to take along a loaded gun. The current regulations require visitors to keep their guns unloaded and stowed. Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett joined 45 other colleagues, most of whom are Republicans, in asking Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to make the change. The Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service rules allow loaded guns, while the National Parks and U.S. Fish and Wildlife do not....
Don’t starve the Forest Service A whole lot of Rocky Mountain Westerners are concerned about President Bush’s recent proposal to cut the U.S. Forest Service budget. Out our way, the land is not an abstraction. The numbers in the Forest Service budget aren’t abstractions, either. They mean something real to our land and to our lives, and a cut of up to 2,700 people in an already beleaguered and understaffed agency is genuine cause for alarm. Now, the president’s proposed budget for 2009 asks this overworked agency to do even more with far less. It would allocate $4.1 billion to the agency -- $373 million less than this year’s budget and an 8 percent cut. This is senseless. Bush’s notion of slashing 17 percent from trail maintenance and $13 million from fuels reduction is both foolish and dangerous. By birthright, each of us has a stake in the Western lands, whether it’s 87 percent of Nevada or 28 percent of Montana. All told, an average of more than 50 percent of the land in these eight Western states is commonly owned, with Forest Service employees acting as our caretakers....
Charges filed in Quad accident The fact that no one was hurt in the accident is still on the minds of the locals. But some other issues are now being discovered. Craig Trinkle of the U.S. Forest Service is now being accused of driving under the influence when the accident occurred at the 25th running of the Mount Taylor Winter Quadrathlon. According to a criminal complaint filed in Cibola County Magistrate Court on Feb. 25, Trinkle is charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs. Trinkle was found to have alcohol, marijuana and several prescribed medications in his system at the time of the accident, according to a report filed by the New Mexico State Police. “We will just have to wait and see how that all ends up in court,” said District Ranger Chuck Hagerdon of the USFS. He added that Trinkle remains on medical leave. Hagerdon added that his office would be conducting its own review of the incident. Twenty three bicycles owned by competitors at the annual event were damaged in the accident when the vehicle plowed into them. The chaos ended when a large tree stopped the green truck that narrowly missed volunteers and crashed through bleachers....
Western Watersheds sues BLM over grazing, fence building Hailey-based environmental group Western Watersheds Project has sued the Bureau of Land Management, alleging the agency violated a 2005 settlement by authorizing reconstruction on 500,000 acres of federal land burned in last year's Murphy Complex Fire. The group wants a judge to block the agency from building fences and allowing livestock to graze on the habitat of sage grouse and pygmy rabbit - species under consideration for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. District Court documents, filed Monday in Boise, ask a judge to halt fence construction in an area managed by the agency's Jarbidge Field Office near Three Creek. The group also wants the court to prohibit livestock grazing on 20 allotments covered in the 2005 court-stipulated settlement and to block grazing on an additional 36 allotments until the agency prepares an environmental impact statement. Since the July fire, which burned 650,000 acres and destroyed more than 70 prime sage grouse breeding grounds, the agency has worked to rebuild 99 miles of burned fence, remove 12 miles of hazardous trees and plant more than 1,600 shrubs at a cost of about $25 million. The agency has authorized additional grazing in unburned areas and an additional 400 miles of fence repair while ignoring impacts to wildlife, Western Watersheds alleges....
The 'Pig Czar' Maj. Bobby Toon is known as the Pig Czar at the huge army post on Georgia's western edge. He has been assigned to help rid Fort Benning of its unwanted guests: an estimated 6,000 feral pigs that roam the 184,000-acre installation. The animals, common throughout Georgia, are known for tearing up woodlands and farms. They are aggressive foragers, gobbling up native vegetation and endangered species. "These pigs feed and breed," Toon said. "That's all they care about. I've been here off and on for 17 years, and I can never remember a pig population as big as it is now." Since July, more than 900 pigs have been killed. "These animals can smell a turkey egg three miles away," Toon said. "They're also a danger to tortoises and woodpeckers." About 2,000 people who are authorized to hunt on the post have been encouraged to go after the feral pigs. They must be active-duty, retired military or civilian workers at Benning and must have a license from the base. The post is offering a $40 bounty for every pig tail that's brought in....

GOP Greens See Red Over Sierra Club 'Smearing' McCain A group of Republicans who promote stewardship of the environment turned up the heat on one of its allies in the climate change debate Thursday when it accused the Sierra Club of "stooping to a partisan smear campaign" against the "record and good name" of likely GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP), which describes itself as "a national grassroots conservation organization," accused the Sierra Club of deliberately using "misleading, over-the-top attacks" to distort the senator's record on the environment. "The Sierra Club appears to have let blind partisanship trump honest advocacy," he added. "I find it particularly telling that the Sierra Club's attacks started at the same time that Sen. McCain wrapped up the Republican nomination. Jenkins also checked the Sierra Club's press releases over the past year and found no similar attacks on Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for sponsoring an industry-backed bill providing incentives for liquefied coal or his vote opposing independent screening of Army Corps of Engineers water projects....
Pols Drunk On Corn-Based Ethanol Have Left Millions With Hangover "There is a right way and a wrong way to produce (ethanol)," the New York Times editorialized on Feb. 24. "Done right, ethanol could help wean the country from its dependence on foreign oil while reducing the emissions that contribute to climate change. Done wrong, ethanol could wreak havoc on the environment while increasing greenhouse gases." There is not, in fact, a right way to produce ethanol. But several wrong ones — spawned by congressional and presidential edicts — are already wreaking havoc on food prices and the natural environment. What we need to do is free up the ingenuity of innovators to devise a variety of approaches to biofuel production, and then permit the marketplace to decide the winners and losers. The reality is that with current technology, almost all of this biofuel would have to come from corn because there is no other feasible, proven alternative. But because of the inefficiencies inherent in producing ethanol from corn and the relatively meager amount of energy yielded by burning ethanol, the demands on farmland would be staggering. An analysis by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development suggested that replacing even 10% of America's motor fuel with biofuels would require that about a third of all the nation's cropland be devoted to oilseeds, cereals and sugar crops. Achieving the 15% goal would require the entire current U.S. corn crop, which represents a whopping 40% of the world's corn supply....
U.S. appeals court rejects sonar waiver for Navy A federal appeals court has rejected White House efforts to exempt the U.S. Navy from laws intended to protect endangered whales and other marine mammals by curbing the use of sonar off the California coast. A three-judge panel late Friday upheld a lower court order requiring the Navy to take precautions during the sonar training to minimize harm to marine life. The Navy has 30 days to file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, during which time it must comply with the bulk of the precautions. A U.S. District Court in January barred the Navy's use of powerful submarine-hunting mid-frequency active radar within 12 miles of the coast, protecting a strip of water that is habitat for whales, dolphins and other marine mammals. But President Bush intervened, citing the national security necessity of Navy training off the California coast, and exempted the Navy from the environmental laws at the heart of the legal challenge. A federal judge rejected that argument on Feb. 4, and the panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling Friday....
Famed geneticist creating life form that turns CO2 to fuel A scientist who mapped his genome and the genetic diversity of the oceans said Thursday he is creating a life form that feeds on climate-ruining carbon dioxide to produce fuel. Geneticist Craig Venter disclosed his potentially world-changing "fourth-generation fuel" project at an elite Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, California. "We have modest goals of replacing the whole petrochemical industry and becoming a major source of energy," Venter told an audience that included global warming fighter Al Gore and Google co-founder Larry Page. "We think we will have fourth-generation fuels in about 18 months, with CO2 as the fuel stock." Biofuel alternatives to oil are third-generation. The next step is life forms that feed on CO2 and give off fuel such as methane gas as waste, according to Venter. "We have 20 million genes which I call the design components of the future," Venter said. "We are limited here only by our imagination."....
In Tennessee, 2 Endangered Groups Meet by Chance Two unexpected guests showed up over the winter at George West’s farm here, rare whooping cranes that landed in Mr. West’s rich, boggy turnip field five miles from Nashville and were spotted by local birders during the annual Audubon count. “They couldn’t believe their eyes,” said the president of the Tennessee Ornithological Society, Richard Connors. The cranes had been bred as part of an $11 million effort by an international partnership that includes the United States Geological Survey to re-establish a flock along the Eastern Flyway between Wisconsin and Central Florida. The birds’ touchdown in Middle Tennessee was all the more surprising because the area is the 11th fastest-growing region in the United States, according to a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, with subdivisions sprouting like weeds in every direction. Much of the building has come at the expense of farmland. Today, Tennessee has 84,000 farms, down from 127,000 in 1970, according to the United States Department of Agriculture....
Unease over easements A loophole in state and county laws could make it tough for Division of Real Estate director Erin Toll to take action against people she has been investigating for alleged abuses to the state's conservation easement program. At issue is the number and size of parcels into which large ranches have been divided. The conservation-easement program allows landowners to get tax deductions and earn tax credits they can sell for cash in exchange for restricting development on their land. Abuse of the program can occur when landowners get excessively high appraisals for property they put in easements, allowing them to take higher tax deductions and obtain more tax credits than they otherwise would get. Among the red flags is when land is divided into multiple ownerships before it is put into conservation easements, allowing multiple parties to get the tax benefits. In one instance, a 640-acre ranch was on the market for $1.2 million. Using limited-liability companies, the ranch was transferred and subdivided into 16 40-acre parcels. Multiple owners of one of the limited-liability companies each purchased at least one 40-acre parcel through the company. A conservation easement was then placed on each 40-acre parcel. An appraiser valued each parcel at $650,000, a value that allows for the maximum state tax credit of $375,000. "At the end of the day, property that was on the market for $1.2 million all of a sudden had easements on it valued at $10.4 million for a total property value of around $15.4 million," Toll said....
More drilling, more rules In Silt, it was a seep from a gas well leaking benzene into a creek, and in Hobbs, N.M., it was a subdivision built on an old oil waste pit. In Gillette, Wyo., it was an oil-field high-voltage line buried just 6 inches underground, and in Miles City, Mont., it was the prospect of heavily salted well water coming down the Tongue River. Across the West, states are moving to add new regulations and laws as oil and gas drilling intensifies and potential problems — small and large — emerge. "Rule-making is going to go on for a while until there is a little more balance," said Joanna Prukop, head of the New Mexico Department of Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources. Colorado has, at the legislature's direction, embarked on a broad rule-making scheme aimed at bringing wildlife and health department officials into the drilling-permit evaluation process. The rule-making is also trying to add regional planning for energy development. "Everyone is watching Colorado because Colorado is trying to take a comprehensive approach," said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center in Taos....
Judge angrily scolds court, and it responds It was unusual enough when a high-level federal judge -- who is the brother of Sen. Gordon Smith -- blasted his own court for decimating the Northwest logging industry with "blunderbuss" rulings that went way too far. But the extraordinary scolding by Milan D. Smith Jr. last year apparently got the attention of his fellow judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the top federal court in the West. They recently took the unusual step of voting to have a full panel of judges reconsider the case that set Smith off. That could rein in the federal courts that Smith -- along with timber industry leaders -- blame for needlessly idling sawmills while they meddle in logging decisions beyond their expertise. Just as the Supreme Court considers only a few important cases each year, the 9th Circuit -- the largest appeals court in the country -- picks only a handful for full reviews. So the decision to do so on an otherwise routine timber sale case suggests that Smith's wrath hit a nerve with his colleagues. "It's very rare and unusual," said Scott Horngren, a Portland attorney involved in the case. "It's basically unheard of that they take a timber sale case." It offers a rare glimpse at the inside politics of the court that has issued momentous decisions, involving protection of species from spotted owls and salmon, with cascading effects on the Northwest economy....
Firefighting air tankers vulnerable to accidents U.S. Forest Service air tankers used in California and other Western states are potentially vulnerable to accidents, investigators warn in a new report. Despite making strides to improve air safety, the Forest Service could still use more money, better long-range planning and stricter aircraft inspections, among other improvements, federal investigators said. "The Forest Service has suffered numerous, potentially preventable aviation accidents over the years, and continues to be at risk for more," the investigators with the Agriculture Department's Office of Inspector General noted this week. In June 2002, for instance, three crewmen died when their 45-year-old air tanker broke apart over the mountains north of Yosemite National Park. National Transportation Safety Board investigators subsequently cited "inadequate maintenance" that overlooked cracks in a wing of the Lockheed C-130. More recently, two Forest Service contractors died in August 2006 when their heavy-duty Sikorsky helicopter crashed into the Klamath River. Part of the 40-year-old helicopter's tail rotor fell off shortly before the crash, investigators found....
Cost of fighting fires eating away at Forest Service's budget Although the land is still blanketed in snow with temperatures below freezing, Westerners are conditioned to expect fire. And by July, their expectations will be met as forest fires roar through their states. Some hoped President Bush's new budget would provide answers to this growing problem, but as usual, little has changed for the Forest Service. Once again, the majority of the funding will go to wildland fire management and emergency fire suppression. Until budgets effectively address the causes of the fire problem - fuels accumulations and the ever-expanding wildland-urban interface - catastrophic wildfires will continue to ravage both forestlands and nearby communities. In recent years, the Forest Service's budget for wildland fire management has averaged $1.5 billion a year. But each year, the Forest Service spends all of that budgeted money and then borrows from other programs, like research and restoration, to cover additional firefighting expenses. After fire season, Congress relies on "emergency supplements" to reimburse the agency about $500 million annually. In effect, there is no budget for fire management; the more money the Forest Service spends, the larger the reimbursement....
Judge delays decision on jury visit to Thirtymile site A federal judge on Friday delayed deciding whether to let a jury in the trial of a Forest Service crew boss visit the site of the Thirtymile Fire where four firefighters died in 2001. The judge also pushed back the trial date of Ellreese Daniels from April 14 to May 5. Daniels is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter for failing to order his firefighters to a safe area as flames advanced toward him and his crew on July 10, 2001, north of Winthrop. He is also charged with seven counts of making false statements to investigators. Daniels' lawyer wants the jury to see the site because, they say, pictures and videos do not provide enough detail for the jury to judge if Daniels was negligent in not getting his crew to a safe spot. "To deny the jurors the ability to view the scene will significantly impair Mr. Daniels' right to present the defense of his case," Daniels' lawyer wrote in a recent motion....
Fugitive activist extradited to United States Fugitive environmental activist Tre Arrow is back in the United States to stand trial on conspiracy and arson charges after nearly four years in a Canadian prison. Arrow, 34, formerly Michael James Scarpitti, was indicted by a federal grand jury in April 2004 following his arrest in Victoria, B.C., on local charges of shoplifting, assault and obstructing a police officer after a security guard caught him trying to steal a pair of bolt cutters. Arrow pleaded guilty to the Canadian charges but fought extradition by seeking asylum, claiming he faced political persecution in the United States. The 14-count indictment charges Scarpitti with taking part in the destruction of several concrete-mixing trucks at Ross Island Sand and Gravel Co. in Portland in April 2001. He's also accused of destroying logging trucks at Schoppert Logging Co. in Eagle Creek near Mount Hood in June 2001. Arrow, who legally changed his name from Scarpitti, has said trees told him to make the change. He earned fame among activists when he scaled the offices of the U.S. Forest Service in Portland in the summer of 2000 to protest logging on Mount Hood, perching on a ledge for 11 days....
Climbing banned at Tahoe landmark The U.S. Forest Service has issued a final order banning rock climbing at Lake Tahoe's Cave Rock, ending more than a decade of legal battles. The action affecting the prominent rock formation on the lake's east shore ends a dispute between rock climbers and the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California. The order, signed by Lake Tahoe Forest Supervisor Terri Marceron, follows an August decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding a climbing ban ordered in 2003. The Washoe tribe praised the order. According to Washoe lore, Cave Rock was a sacred place where tribal elders communed with powerful spirits....
Drug sweep in Orofino area nets 10, more arrests expected Ten people were arrested Friday morning in Clearwater County on various drug charges. The Clearwater County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that they were assisted by several other agencies in serving seven search warrants in the Orofino area. The action was the culmination of a four-month investigation into the distribution of illegal drugs including methamphetamine and marijuana as well as prescription narcotics. Assisting agencies included the Orofino Police Department, the Lewis County Sheriff's Office, Idaho Fish and Game, Idaho Health and Welfare Child Protective Services and Fraud Investigation, Nez Perce Tribal Police and U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement....So, the Forest Service is involved in law enforcement efforts against meth labs on private property. Keep that in mind the next time the Forest Service LEOs are crying out for larger budgets to "protect our federal lands."
Groups, feds join to push law aimed at saving lands in West Elena Daley, an administrator with the federal Bureau of Land Management, climbs atop a volcanic formation in the hills of southern Arizona and studies ancient petroglyphs scratched into stone by Hohokams. There is a stick man, a pregnant sheep, a spiral. In the valley below, springtime in the Sonoran Desert has created a verdant carpet dappled with poppies and lupines. This place 30 miles from Tucson, with its dramatic vistas, archaeological heritage and unique ecology, is just one of more than 800 properties in the BLM's National Landscape Conservation System being touted for a new American preservation network. Daley, the conservation-system director, is here to join forces with environmental groups in support of a congressional act that would permanently designate 26 million acres of Western lands for conservation. "This is like being part of a birthing," she says. "I think we are all about to witness the next major conservation system in the United States."....There's nothing new here. The wilderness areas, wilderness study areas, national monuments and national conservation areas have existed for years. How can you "birth" something that already exists? The only thing being "birthed" here is the upgrading in BLM's eyes of their status as a land management agency and their ability to lobby for a larger budget. BLM's ego and your tax dollars is what this is about.
Oil exploration may shake up carrizo Just as managers of the Carrizo Plain National Monument in eastern San Luis Obispo County are moving toward agreement on the future of cattle grazing there, oil and gas exploration is emerging as a new battleground on the 250,000-acre grasslands preserve. Vintage Production, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, owns 30,000 acres of mineral rights in the heart of the monument’s valley floor and, with oil now topping $100 a barrel, it has notified the Bureau of Land Management that it wants to find out what’s there. John Dearing, a BLM spokesman, said the agency can do nothing to stop the testing because the mineral rights pre-exist the monument’s creation by President Bill Clinton as he left office in 2001....
Mustang makeovers Have you got what it takes to transform a wild horse into a well-trained equine partner? The Bureau of Land Management hopes to find 25 trainers willing to give it a go for $10,000 in prize money at the new Wyoming Mustang Challenge Aug. 15 at the Wyoming State Fair. The trainers will be selected from applications received by April 1. Each trainer will pick up a wild horse in May at the Mantle Ranch wild horse facility in Wheatland. They’ll have 100 days to work with the animals before vying for cash prizes in three categories -- conditioning, ground work and riding a course with a series of obstacles. Alan Shepherd, state leader for the BLM’s wild horse program, said he hopes trainers from all experience levels apply. “I would like to see the whole variety,” he said. “I’d like to see the guys that make this a profession, but I would also like that guy who is the weekend horse guy to step up.”....
Alternatives gain attention amid Chino abuse case Every Tuesday in the slaughterhouse at the center of the sprawling Prather Ranch in Northern California, butchers on the kill floor stand silent for a moment before making meat of two dozen steers that eventually will be served on dinner tables across the West. The inspiration for the quiet pause is a quotation from humane animal treatment expert Temple Grandin. It is framed and hanging on a wall of the "knock box," where cows are stunned before their throats are slit. Grandin's quote: "I believe that the place where an animal dies is a sacred one." Bringing ritual into slaughter plants might prevent people from becoming numb or callous. "The ritual could be something very simple, such as a moment of silence. ... No words. Just one pure moment of silence." The 15,000-acre ranch in the shadow of Mount Shasta is not only an organic operation, but is also one of a growing number of beef producers certified by Humane Farm Animal Care, which outlines conditions for the raising, processing and transportation of animals used for food. Inquiries from the public about Prather Ranch meat pick up after incidents like the recent record-setting beef recall out of Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., where undercover video revealed abuse of cattle with forklifts and electric prods, ranch owner Mary Rickert said.
Rural lawmen fight crime on the range Frank and Jesse James aren’t galloping over the Carrisa Plains as they did in days of yore. But their venal spiritual descendants still skulk around the county’s rural areas, and they’re still rustling. Now, though, the outlaws — while still pilfering cattle—are more interested in rustling agricultural products, farm equipment and construction materials. True, it’s not as glamorous as snatching steers. But it’s plenty lucrative. So are the methamphetamine labs that pop up like jimson weed in the county’s outlands, and there’s money to be had in another common county crime, cockfighting. With all this illegal activity out in the boondocks, the county needs some latter-day Wyatt Earps to mosey out and ferret out the bad guys. It has them, in the San Luis Obispo Rural Crime Task Force....
These boots are made for wearing It's just that Beck wants his boots to go to a good home, just like his dad Earl and twin brother Bearl did when they sold their first pair of boots to a Dalhart ranch hand back in 1916. They are intended to go to a proper home, a place not for show but for practical use. That was the way the Becks did things when they moved to Amarillo and opened the first store in 1921. A cowboy would come in, tell them what he wanted, and they'd craft some working boots to his specifications. Beck's Cowboy Boots, with 11 employees, makes 1,500 custom-ordered boots a year. It takes 15 working days to craft a boot from start to finish. Before they ever begin, each new customer is mailed a "fit kit." It includes pieces of special foam for feet impressions, instructions on how to measure the feet and calves, selection of heel height and shape, toe shape, types of foot leathers and top leathers, selection of colors and a questionnaire of how often and what way the customer wears a boot. Beck's Cowboy Boots has made 120 different sizes of boots. He said Tony Lama, for example, has 12 sizes....
Rim Country loses pioneer rancher, horseman E.C. Conway, 90, was practically born on a horse. He was born Nov. 1, 1917 in Globe to Ed and Jane Conway, and as a 10-day-old infant, traveled on horseback to the family's Greenback Valley Ranch. "I was born one day, and 10 days later I was a rancher," he liked to say. Edward Charles (E.C.) Conway died Feb. 25. E.C. was part of the Payson Rodeo since the early 1930s. He took part in about 20 of them, including the ones in which he boxed. Mr. Conway lived on and operated the Greenback Valley Ranch for his entire life. As a young, wiry cowboy from a pioneer ranching family, Conway made his mark in more than a few events at the Payson Rodeo during the 1930s and 1940s. He roped calves, team roped and even boxed and milked wild cows. His partner -- and sometimes competition -- in the contests was his brother, Clarence. Over the years, he had many team roping partners, in addition to his brother Clarence, some he still recalls are Buck Nichols, with whom he won the Payson Rodeo, Frank Cline and John Cline. "We just used ranch horses," he said of the mounts they rode in team roping. Modesty and an aging memory prevented Conway from saying how many contests he won over the years, except to say, "I won a few." Conway was among the rodeo contestants who also took part in the boxing that was introduced to the list of events in the 1930s. It was one of the things unique to Payson -- none of the other rodeos in which Conway participated had boxing....

Survey paints bleak picture of public trust in government Taxpayers overwhelmingly believe the federal government has failed to explain how it collects and spends money, creating a growing expectations gap that is eroding the public's trust in its leaders, according to a survey released Wednesday. The survey, Public Attitudes to Government Accountability and Transparency 2008, measured how 1,652 adults felt about federal, state and local governments' financial management and accountability to taxpayers. The results paint a grim picture of the public's unhappiness with both the availability of financial information and the way it is delivered to citizens, said Relmond Van Daniker, executive director of the Association of Government Accountants, which commissioned the study. The poll was conducted by Harris Interactive, a market research firm based in Rochester, N.Y. "The results of this poll are not surprising," Van Daniker said Wednesday at a Washington press conference. "They show a wide level of distrust and dissatisfaction across the board." Among the more significant findings: --While 72 percent of respondents believe it is extremely or very important to receive financial management information from the federal government, only 5 percent are equally satisfied with the information they receive. --Although 73 percent of those surveyed said it is extremely or very important for the government to be open and honest with its spending, just 5 percent said the government is meeting those expectations. --71 percent of respondents who receive financial management information from the government, or believe that it is important to receive such data, said this information would influence how they vote....

Sadie Hawkins cowboy-style
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

By Julie Carter

Bachelorhood among cowboys is a confirmed asset to this free-livin' species of man.

I know one who is sure he's going to be a bachelor for his allotted three score and ten years.

He says, "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment, usually with bulls and women."

Not many things truly scare this cowboy. The cattle market strikes realistic caution and a genuine nervous moment comes with those dainty glasses on a stem - the kind that don't come with jelly in them originally.

A confirmed cowboy bachelor will avoid, at all costs, a woman with any kind of advantage. Those gals are bad enough straight up, but then someone declared a special day when they could legitimately propose marriage and, according the rules, the male has to oblige. Sadie Hawkins Day is here.

For review, Sadie Hawkins Day was a daylong event in Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner, named after Sadie Hawkins, "the homeliest gal in all them hills."

Each year on Sadie Hawkins Day, the unmarried women of Dogpatch pursued the single men.

If a woman caught a man and dragged him back to the starting line by sundown, he had to marry her.

Now it is celebrated only every four years on Feb. 29.

The closest to Sadie Hawkins Day the cowboy world has come is with the invention of line dancing. It gave even the "homeliest gals" a dancing partner.

Our cowboy and his steady gal had been rocking along for a couple years going to local ropings, barbecues and calf fries. Occasionally, they would go dancing and he would sometimes humor her along with a movie in town if she seemed a little antsy.

She was a good hand, knew cattle and good horses. He was quite happy with the current arrangement.

This cowboy had his life in order. The singlewide was paid for, there were roping horses in the pen, a friend he liked to rope with, a close Quik-Stop for menu selections and the girlfriend if he got lonesome or needed some errands run.

She, on the other hand, had another take on this deal.

Our cowgirl had been looking over the cowboy's life and could clearly see a few improvements that would help him out immeasurably.

He had been known to go for days eating only the gut-grenades available at the corner gas-and-go where you turn to go the roping arena.

He had told her these were not unlike gyp water - a feller could get used to them if he just had enough intestinal fortitude.

He discovered that if you washed everything together, eventually your entire wardrobe matched with a light blue-jean hue, which was his favorite color.

With Sadie Hawkins Day on approach, she thought out a plan of action.

Her plot included dinner in town, her treat, at that classy joint that charges too much. Maybe a little wine and some soft Willie Nelson to set the mood. She would then explain the Sadie Hawkins Day rules and, gently, ask him to marry her.

They had been good friends, worked together without any serious injury, laughed a lot and were comfortable. She would spring this surprise and have him caught!

Our cowboy was not quite as slow as one might think.

Advised of the Sadie Hawkins Day mandate, he had been thinking about the situation and decided he had two options.

He didn't want to leave the country. So, true to the nature of a cowboy, he stepped up and took charge of the situation.

When they got to the high-class joint, he ate the biggest steak on the menu and for dessert he asked his girl to marry him - eventually, sometime.

With Sadie Hawkins Day safely handled, he let her pay the tab.

Visit Julie’s Web site at www.julie-carter.com

FLE

Isn't Self-Defense Common Sense? Under the Second Amendment, Barack Obama says, "There is an individual right to bear arms, but it is subject to common-sense regulation, just like most of our rights are subject to common-sense regulation." The leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination thus seems to be on the same wavelength as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which in a decision last March said "the protections of the Second Amendment are subject to the same sort of reasonable restrictions that have been recognized as limiting, for instance, the First Amendment." But there is a crucial difference between these superficially similar formulations: The appeals court meant what it said, and Obama doesn't. Although the Illinois senator has learned to pay lip service to the Second Amendment, the details of his past and present positions on gun control suggest he neither understands nor respects the right to keep and bear arms. Obama evidently considers that de facto prohibition a "common-sense regulation," since he recently cited Washington's law as an example of constitutionally permissible gun control. "The notion that somehow local jurisdictions can't initiate gun safety laws to deal with gangbangers and random shootings on the street isn't borne out by our Constitution," he said. The D.C. gun law, passed in 1975, isn't really about gangbangers, which it has not exactly disarmed, or random shootings on the street, which it has not noticeably curbed. In effect if not intent, it is about disarming law-abiding residents who might want to protect themselves from gangbangers and other violent criminals....
New Ariz. Law Pressures Migrants to Move Parents are pulling students out of school. Construction workers are abandoning their jobs. Families are hastily moving out of apartments. Two months after Arizona enacted a law punishing employers who hire illegal immigrants, the law is already achieving one of its goals: Scores of immigrants are fleeing to other states or back to their Latin American homelands. Gaby Espinoza, who has been unemployed since November, is among those affected. She gave up looking for a job because of the law and may have to return to Mexico. Espinoza's husband works here legally, but the law means that employers must ask her for papers, and she faces the daily fear of being deported. The law suspends or revokes the business licenses of violators and was intended to reduce the economic incentive for immigrants to sneak across the border. Illegal immigrants account for an estimated one in 10 workers in Arizona, which is the nation's busiest gateway for illegal immigration. Business groups have challenged the law. While awaiting a ruling, prosecutors agreed to hold off bringing cases to court until at least March 1....
Fence to nowhere The sophisticated mix of radar, satellites, sensors and computers is supposed to help the U.S. Border Patrol nab illegal immigrants and smugglers. But it's way over budget, way behind schedule - and doesn't work. The first segment of the virtual fence was a 28-mile stretch along the Arizona-Mexico border near Sasabe. In tests last year, radar systems were triggered by rain, images were fuzzy and the software couldn't process the large amounts of sensor data. The $20 million project was such a shambles that the government gave Boeing another $65 million in December to fix the glitches. Throwing good money after bad is rarely a stumbling block in government contracting. Last week, Richard M. Stana of the U.S. Government Accountability Office told Congress that much of the equipment will have to be replaced at taxpayers' additional expense. The first phase of the virtual fence, a 100-mile section ending in El Paso, was supposed to be deployed at the end of 2008 but is now expected to take another three years. More than a year ago the GAO warned that the border-fence project was at high risk for trouble for a host of reasons, including fuzzy planning, questionable accountability and an extremely ambitious schedule that related projects occurring simultaneously. So is Boeing in the doghouse? Hardly. In January, the company was awarded $733 million to "execute tactical infrastructure projects" related to border security, according to the GAO....
Prosecution rests in trial of agent charged in migrant's death Prosecutors trying to prove that a U.S. Border Patrol agent wasn't justified when he fatally shot an illegal immigrant early last year have rested their case. Filling out the case Friday were two of Agent Nicholas Corbett's co-workers and the supervisor of the firearms training unit for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, who testified that it would be unreasonable and negligent for an officer to come up behind a suspect and shoot him while he was surrendering. That's the scenario outlined in earlier testimony by two brothers of the dead man, 22-year-old Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, who were with him the day Corbett tried to detain them and the fatal shot was fired. Special prosecutor Grant Woods wants jurors hearing the charges against Corbett to convict him of either second-degree murder, negligent homicide or manslaughter for the shooting. Corbett's lawyers say he was acting in self-defense and that Dominguez was getting ready to hurl a rock at the agent's head when he fired. They'll begin calling witnesses to support their case Monday....
Life goes on in Palomas despite cartel violence Palomas has been the recent subject of unwanted attention due to increasingly brazen drug-related violence in the small town that borders the village of Columbus. In the latest incident Wednesday, two men were shot to death by masked men at a Palomas gas station, a few steps from the port of entry into the United States. It was at least the third straight week in which shootings have been reported in Palomas, possibly part of a turf war between rival drug gangs. The attacks have residents on both sides of the border questioning their safety and wondering if the violence will spill over into the United States, something that U.S. officials are moving to prevent. Wednesday's shooting — which could be heard by U.S. border officials at the port of entry — prompted Luna County Sheriff Raymond Cobos to close the road to the port of entry. The U.S. Border Patrol has responded by stepping up patrols along the border. "The arrogance that we're seeing in the cartels, the changing of the guard is what we're seeing in Palomas," said Chris Mangusing, special operation supervisor for the Deming area. "Yes, we've increased our presence around the (port of entry)."....
FBI joins investigation into attack on home of UC Santa Cruz researcher The FBI is investigating whether there is any connection between militant animal rights activists in Southern California and the weekend attack on the home of a University of California - Santa Cruz researcher, a spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday. "The reason we said we'd look into it is to see if there's a possible link to domestic terrorism," said Patti Hanson, an FBI public affairs specialist in San Francisco. A demonstration by six masked protesters in front of a UCSC scientist's Westside home Sunday afternoon turned violent when the group pounded on the door and were confronted by the researcher's husband, police reported. The incident bears a striking resemblance to recent attacks on University of California - Los Angeles researchers that were linked to three animal rights groups. Los Angeles County court documents filed last week state that 'masked persons ... trespass onto the property of an employee... They attempt to terrorize the employee and family members by banging on the front door and shouting threats and obscenities through bullhorns ..."....
Surveillance system raises privacy concerns The Homeland Security Department is testing technology that would allow its agents to use cellphones or e-mail devices to covertly share live video of possible terrorists over a law enforcement network. The idea is prompting concern from privacy advocates. Department officials call the security surveillance system RealEyes because it instantly broadcasts images to anyone connected to the system. It can stream the video across the country to computers and give the law enforcement agencies a front-row view of what's going on in real time. If it passes a privacy test, the technology could allow air marshals, border officers or Secret Service agents to videotape surreptitiously in airports, at border crossings and anywhere else where there's a possible threat. The technology is raising privacy worries. Melissa Ngo of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an electronic-privacy watchdog, says the department should proceed cautiously because the government has a post-9/11 record of "expansions into surveillance when there's no credible threat." Brian Geoghegan of Reality Mobile, which is developing the technology, says FBI agents tested the system at the Super Bowl in Detroit in 2006. Concerned that protesters might try to disrupt the event, agents filmed people in the lobby of a hotel where some of the football players were staying....
Bush Moves to Shield Telecommunications Firms President Bush said last week that telecommunications companies that helped government wiretapping efforts need protection from "class-action plaintiff attorneys" who see a "financial gravy train" ahead. Democrats and privacy groups responded by accusing the Bush administration of trying to shut down the lawsuits to hide evidence of illegal acts. But in the bitter Washington dispute over whether to give the companies legal immunity, there is one thing on which both sides agree: If the lawsuits go forward, sensitive details about the scope and methods of the Bush administration's surveillance efforts could be divulged for the first time. Nearly 40 lawsuits, consolidated into five groups, are pending before a San Francisco judge. The various plaintiffs, a mix of nonprofit civil liberties advocates and private attorneys, are seeking to prove that the Bush administration engaged in illegal massive surveillance of Americans' e-mails and phone calls after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and to show that major phone companies illegally aided the surveillance, including the disclosure of customers' call records....

Wheat Tops $12 a Bushel for First Time on Rising Food Demand Wheat climbed above $12 a bushel for the first time in Chicago, as investors poured money into agricultural commodities on signs that crop production isn't keeping pace with demand. Global wheat stockpiles probably will fall to a 30-year low this year, while corn inventories are headed for the lowest since 1984, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Feb. 8. Almost $1.5 billion flowed into farm commodities in the week to Feb. 19, investment bank UBS AG said yesterday. The UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index of 26 raw materials has jumped 15 percent this year. Wheat, soybeans, corn and palm oil are among commodities that have touched records this month, stoking prices of bread, noodles and crackers worldwide. The gains have driven up costs for food companies from Kellogg Co. to Premier Foods Plc and complicated efforts to curb prices in China, India and Malaysia....

Harkin: Meat safety requires ID program Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., says this month’s massive beef recall shows that it’s time to have a national animal identification system. Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said today that a lot of meat could have been saved if inspectors had been able to trace some suspect cows slaughtered by a California packing plant. Instead, the processor was forced to recall 143 million pounds of beef, a full two years’ worth of production. Harkin said his panel would pursue the ID issue once work on the farm bill is finished, but he stopped short of saying that Congress should make the program mandatory. Many cattle producers strongly oppose being required to participate in an ID system. “This is a matter of public safety, and we’ve got to get to it very soon,” Harkin said....

California sues U.S. Forest Service California sued the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday over plans that would open more than 500,000 acres to roads and oil drilling in the state's largest national forests. The four Southern California forests -- Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland -- comprise more than 3.5 million acres that stretch from Big Sur to the Mexican border. The suit alleges that the Forest Service violated the federal National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act by not informing the state of potential environmental impacts of its plan, and by not working with the state's laws and policies. Since 2006, California has had a moratorium on road construction in pristine areas of its national forests. State officials also took issue with the roughly 500,000 acres the Forest Service has set aside as wilderness land, an amount that environmentalists and scientists said is half of what would be necessary to protect habitat....

Canada Lynx May Win Back Critical Habitat Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released revised plans to establish critical habitat for Canada lynx in Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Washington and Wyoming. The new habitat protection plan is in response to an investigation that found that a Bush administration political appointees interfered with the scientific process in the original decision. "The possibility of stronger protection for the Canada lynx is welcome news," said Tara Thornton, Northeast representative for the Endangered Species Coalition, a national network of hundreds of conservation, scientific, religious, sporting, outdoor recreation, business and community organizations. Today’s proposal would add 40,913 square miles to the 1,841 square miles of critical habitat for the lynx proposed previously, bringing the total to 42,753 square miles. The new rule may have an impact on land use decisions and development in the affected states....
Canada lynx "critical habitat" leaves Colorado out of it again Colorado has again been left out of the "critical habitat" area for the Canada lynx, despite the state's effort to bring back the threatened species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday proposed an expanded territory for the reclusive cat across the northern Rockies. Colorado's reintroduced population of an estimated 125 lynx was not yet "biologically sustainable," the agency said. Conservationists said not having a critical habitat designation, which requires federal and private landowners to take into consideration the impact of land-use activities on species recovery, was a setback. "The whole point of critical habitat is recovery, and we're not going to recover the lynx if we don't have adequate protection," said Josh Pollock, conservation director for the Center for Native Ecosystems. The state Division of Wildlife said a critical habitat designation would have little effect on the reintroduction effort, which suffered a setback last spring when no new kittens were believed to have been born....

Cowboy Hats & The First Amendment Tony Seno walked away not much richer in dollars, but with the satisfaction of a judgment upholding his right and that of other citizens to speak to elected boards, hat-on or hat-off. After a four-hour federal court arbitration hearing, Seno accepted a settlement of $10,500 from Lincoln County for an incident connected to two commission meetings in May 2005, when Seno refused to remove his cowboy hat while speaking at the podium. Former commission chairman Rick Simpson ordered Seno to be removed at the second meeting. A federal judge in January ruled Simpson violated Seno's First Amendment rights and ordered the two sides to a settlement hearing. Seno said the important concept established was that the average citizen has the protection of the Constitution, no matter how much money he has or the position he holds....

Animal practices are under attack Fallout from the Westland/Hallmark debacle continues. But it might already be considered a defining moment in the history of U.S. animal agriculture, for the sector is under attack as never before. Today, the issue is inhumane handling of spent dairy cows. Tomorrow, it will be hogs lying prone in a truck because of mild heat stress. After that, it might be the branding of calves. Under these circumstances, the livestock industry must urgently work together to get out front of the next "exposé." It must ask itself: What will the next video show? For there will be more. I am told that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), which exposed the inhumane handling of cows at the Hallmark plant, already has a video of the "mishandling" of spent sows at another southern California plant. Make no mistake. There are animal activists who are dedicated to exposing any hint of cruelty to animals. What’s to stop PETA and other groups sneaking onto ranches, dairy farms and other open spaces to film scenes of distressed cattle and putting them on the Web? Producers beware—the big bad non-profit with a vegetarian agenda is after you. I was in Virginia recently to address cattlemen there. I congratulated them on keeping their beef cow herds largely intact after their terrible drought last year. I also suggested they keep their leanest cows that aren’t in the best of shape at the back of the farm, well away from anyone who might film them. A few days later, I joined a media teleconference hosted by HSUS during which Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut said the Westland/Hallmark episode clearly showed that the U.S. food safety system is collapsing. Rep. George Miller of California and HSUS President Wayne Pacelle made similarly emotive comments. That was all to be expected. What disappointed me was the absence of any kind of response or rebuttal statements by USDA or the industry. So all the media stories I read the next morning were totally unbalanced. Ordinary Americans might therefore reasonably believe that the food they eat has become less safe, when, as we know, the opposite is true. The U.S. meat and livestock industry urgently needs an industry-wide public relations body or mechanism to monitor and respond to every challenge and claim about industry practices and other issues as they arise. If the secretary of agriculture is unwilling to immediately rebut such outrageous accusations from members of Congress, then someone representing this vital sector of the U.S. economy must. There is a war going on for the hearts and minds, and I would add the stomachs, of all Americans. We can all sit back and say: "Well, Americans will always eat meat and poultry products." That’s true, but it is missing the point. If the industry continues to allow HSUS and others to make all the plays, the industry will have forced on it more and more legislative and regulatory restrictions that will make it even harder for people to stay in business. A shrinking of the industry will mean consumers will simply eat more imported products. The beef industry is already downsizing at the packing plant and cattle feedlot levels because of declining cattle numbers in North America. Current estimates suggest the feeding sector has 30 percent over-capacity and the packing sector 20 percent over-capacity even after Tyson Foods ceased slaughtering at its Emporia, KS, plant. I would be horrified if further downsizing occurs because the industry did not come together and act very rapidly to tell its story, be it on animal welfare or food safety, in a forceful, factual way. To do that, the industry must speak with one voice. It needs to have one or more highly credible spokesmen or women who can articulate to the American public that much of what HSUS and other industry critics are saying today, and will say tomorrow, is simply not true. The industry should also consider an extensive campaign to educate members of Congress with the facts as to food safety, animal welfare, and other management practices in the industry. The industry must take steps to anticipate what targets might be next and work to get ahead of any future attacks, be they on confined animal feeding operations, the use of growth promotants and other pharmaceutical tools cattle and hog producers use, branding, the castrating of male cattle and hogs, and other animal husbandry practices. The enemies of the beef industry, and U.S. animal agriculture, have identified themselves and have revealed their tactics. It is time for the meat and livestock industry to draw up its battle plan and counter-attack. — Steve Kay
(Steve Kay is editor/publisher of Cattle Buyers Weekly, an industry newsletter published at P.O. Box 2533, Petaluma, CA 94953; 707/765-1725. His monthly column appears exclusively in WLJ.)

Wind Farms May Threaten Whooping Cranes Whooping cranes have waged a valiant fight against extinction, but federal officials warn of a new potential threat to the endangered birds: wind farms. Down to about 15 in 1941, the gargantuan birds that migrate each fall from Canada to Texas now number 266, thanks to conservation efforts. But because wind energy has gained such traction, whooping cranes could again be at risk - either from crashing into the towering wind turbines and transmission lines or because of habitat lost to the wind farms. "Basically you can overlay the strongest, best areas for wind turbine development with the whooping crane migration corridor," said Tom Stehn, whooping crane coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The service estimates as many as 40,000 turbines will be erected in the U.S. section of the whooping cranes' 200-mile wide migration corridor....
Daylight Saving Wastes Energy, Study Says Up until two years ago, only 15 of Indiana's 92 counties set their clocks an hour ahead in the spring and an hour back in the fall. The rest stayed on standard time all year, in part because farmers resisted the prospect of having to work an extra hour in the morning dark. But many residents came to hate falling in and out of sync with businesses and residents in neighboring states and prevailed upon the Indiana Legislature to put the entire state on daylight-saving time beginning in the spring of 2006. Indiana's change of heart gave University of California-Santa Barbara economics professor Matthew Kotchen and Ph.D. student Laura Grant a unique way to see how the time shift affects energy use. Using more than seven million monthly meter readings from Duke Energy Corp., covering nearly all the households in southern Indiana for three years, they were able to compare energy consumption before and after counties began observing daylight-saving time. Readings from counties that had already adopted daylight-saving time provided a control group that helped them to adjust for changes in weather from one year to the next. Their finding: Having the entire state switch to daylight-saving time each year, rather than stay on standard time, costs Indiana households an additional $8.6 million in electricity bills. They conclude that the reduced cost of lighting in afternoons during daylight-saving time is more than offset by the higher air-conditioning costs on hot afternoons and increased heating costs on cool mornings....My, my, my. Daylight Savings Time causes increased energy consumption, wind farms slaughter whooping cranes, ethanol consumes more energy than it produces, ethanol creates increased danger and costs for firefighters, and the pythons are coming! Why don't the deep thinkers in DC just leave us alone.
National commission says tribe can't open casino The federal government told an Oklahoma Indian tribe Thursday that it can't open a gambling casino in southern New Mexico. The National Indian Gaming Commission issued a letter to the leader of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe warning that the agency would take enforcement action to close the casino if the tribe opened it even for a few hours. Gov. Bill Richardson released the letter at a news conference and said he hoped the commission's action would end a dispute over whether the tribe could legally operate a casino in New Mexico. The state contends that no gambling whether high-stakes bingo or Las Vegas-style gambling can take place on the tribe's land along Interstate 10 near Deming. ''The ruling today is crucial,'' Richardson said. ''It means that there will be no illegal gaming in New Mexico.'' But Fort Sill Apache Chairman Jeff Houser saw it differently....
Drought forces grazing cutbacks again For the fourth straight year, drought is prompting Forest Service officials to reduce the amount of livestock grazing they will allow on the Fall River Ranger District of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland. The drought looks likely to continue based on the latest forecasts, and vegetation throughout most of the Fall River district is in tough shape after an eight- or nine-year drought, according to Bob Novotny, rangeland specialist for the district. “Nothing in Fall River County looks good right now,” Novotny said. “It’s just because of the drought.” The Fall River District covers roughly 320,000 acres in Fall River, Custer and Pennington counties. The reductions will affect more than 100 ranching operations, Novotny said. He said the reductions in the number of cattle allowed will vary greatly. In the area around Oelrichs, reductions will begin at 30 percent, but there can be adjustments up or down, depending on the range conditions. Some allotments will be cut back 50 percent or more....
Homes may overtake old ranch Back in the early 1970s, when Arizona rancher Don Martin chose to run cattle in northern Pima County, the chances of being squeezed out of business one day seemed remote. That day now looms. The Arizona State Land Department recently announced plans for a 15,900-home development on land that includes the area where Martin's cows graze around his Rail X Ranch. Martin is the only rancher who would be directly affected by the 9,100-acre proposed Arroyo Grande. But the plan, which also includes commercial development, has prompted strong opposition from residents of neighboring Catalina. Martin is philosophical about the development plan. "I can't do anything about it. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen," he said, sounding resigned. Martin owns some private land in the area, he said. But he leases most of it — nearly 26,000 acres of state trust land — for a ranching operation that straddles the Pima-Pinal county line. Like other ranchers, Martin has a 10-year grazing lease the state can cancel at any time. Such leases also can be converted into special land-use permits that allow grazing on a temporary basis, Hogue said. The rancher's lease, which expires in 2015, also could be amended, she said. Doing so would exclude some of the land closer to North Oracle Road, which is slated for development, and allow Martin to keep some of the land....
BLM backs Soda Mountain Wilderness The U.S. Bureau of Land Management supports creating the proposed 23,000-acre Soda Mountain Wilderness in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Luke Johnson, the agency's deputy director, made the announcement Wednesday while testifying before the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests. "We believe these areas are manageable as wilderness, and we support the designation," Johnson told the subcommittee chaired by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Johnson was testifying in response to the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument Voluntary and Equitable Grazing Conflict Resolution Act (Senate Bill 2379), introduced late last year by Wyden and U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore. In addition to creating the wilderness in the 52,947-acre monument, the bill would provide one-time federal payments to ranchers holding BLM grazing leases on the monument. The BLM opposes this portion of the bill. The proposed buyout is $300 per AUM, making the total buyout slightly more than $800,000....
100 more Yellowstone bison captured; total tops 600 One hundred bison were captured for slaughter Thursday as they left Yellowstone National Park, bringing the total captured this winter to 617 under a program to keep the wild animals away from cattle. The Montana livestock industry and government agencies say the bison could transmit a disease that causes some pregnant livestock to abort their calves. With heavy snowfall in Yellowstone this winter, bison have been moving to lower elevations outside the park in search of food. Almost all the animals captured this winter have come from the park's northern herd, including those rounded up Thursday near the town of Gardiner. The herd is one of two in Yellowstone and had roughly 1,500 animals at the start of winter, said Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash. Another 30 bison have been captured on the west side of the park, with more captures planned in coming days. State Department of Livestock officials have said they will run a more aggressive capture program in that area this year....
USDA sued over 'downer' cow rules The Humane Society sued the federal government Wednesday over what it said is a legal loophole that allows sick or crippled cattle, called "downers," into the food supply. A U.S. Department of Agriculture rule change made in July allows some downer cows into the food supply, the Humane Society of the United States alleges in its lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. In 2004, the USDA tightened regulations to prohibit the slaughter of all "downer" cows - animals that cannot stand - after a case of mad cow disease was discovered in Washington state. The lawsuit alleges that under last year's change, cows that fell down after an initial veterinarian inspection but appeared otherwise healthy were allowed to be slaughtered. The lawsuit asks the USDA to close the loophole to protect consumers and ensure the humane treatment of animals. The lawsuit, citing USDA documents, says that even cows whose inability to walk stems from broken limbs are about 50 times more likely to have mad cow disease. The illness weakens their muscles, making them prone to falls....
Re-enactor shares Leap Year ties with Sheriff Pat Garrett It was late morning on Leap Day in 1908, when cowboy Jessie Wayne Brazel walked into the Dona Ana County sheriff's office, laid his Colt .45 on the desk in front of Deputy Sheriff Felipe Lopez, and declared he had killed Pat Garrett. At first, Lopez thought it was a joke, until Brazel's companion, Carl Adamson, confirmed the story that led to Brazel's arrest. Today, 100 years later, the life and times of Pat Garrett, best known for killing Billy the Kid, is memorialized by Ron Grimes, a former Carlsbad educator and an avid historian of the early west, through his portrayal and reenactment of Garrett's deeds. According to the Web site www.westernoutlaw.com, author Chuck Hornung notes that it was a Saturday, about mid-morning, when 57-year-old Pat Garrett met his fate at a mesquite-covered desert crossroads called Alameda Arroyo on the desolate mail road located a few miles east of Las Cruces. A short time after Brazel turned himself in, a sheriff's posse found Garrett lying on his back, dead. Brazel claimed Garrett was about to shoot him with his shotgun when he, in self defense, was force to shoot the former lawman in the back. Brazel was put on trial, but with powerful allies in his corner who hated Garrett, Brazel was acquitted of Garrett's murder following a jury trial....

FLE

Arrested development In his fiscal 2009 budget, President Bush has proposed eliminating the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which reimburses states for incarcerating illegal aliens who commit crimes. As America hardens its stance against illegal aliens, the program is yet another tool against sanctuary cities, and it promotes tighter border security. The program offers states roughly 15 cents for every dollar spent on holding illegal residents who are found committing non-federal crimes. States receive payments for holding only those criminals who meet a narrow set of criteria; payments overwhelmingly go to states like California, New York, Texas and Florida, which are battling a troubling crush of illegal aliens. White House budget officials say the program is not directly reducing crime and thus is "not demonstrating results." The Office of Management and Budget also states the program is failing because it lacks clear goals. It is true that the program could benefit from reform, such as increased accountability measures to ensure proper disbursement of federal money and coordination with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to deport these criminals. However, as Jessica Vaughan, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Washington Times, the purpose of the program is clear: to help state and local government officials who are apprehending criminals who shouldn't be here in the first place but remain in the United States due to failed federal policies....
U.S. Steps Up Deportation Of Immigrant Criminals Immigration officials are increasingly scouring jails and courts nationwide and reviewing years-old criminal records to identify deportable immigrants, efforts that have contributed to a steep rise in deportations and strained the immigration court system. Long accused of failing to do enough to deport illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, federal authorities have recently strengthened partnerships with local corrections systems and taken other steps to monitor immigrants facing charges, officials said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that in the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, it placed 164,000 criminals in deportation proceedings, a sharp increase from the 64,000 the agency said it identified and placed in proceedings the year before. The agency estimates that the number will rise to 200,000 this year. Two groups of people are now more likely to be placed in deportation proceedings: illegal immigrants who might once have been criminally prosecuted without coming to the attention of immigration authorities, and legal immigrants whose visas and residency permits are being revoked because of criminal convictions. The number of deported immigrants with criminal convictions has increased steadily this decade, from about 73,000 in 2001 to more than 91,000 in 2007, according to ICE....
Officials Split on Viability of Border-Fence Project A top Homeland Security Department official said Thursday that a pilot project to create a virtual fence along parts of the Mexican border had been a success, but he said the technology was never intended to be used — and would not be used — across the entire length of the border. “It is working, and it met the requirements,” Jayson P. Ahern, deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said of the pilot project during a briefing with reporters in Washington. Mr. Ahern’s assessment was in line with an announcement last Friday by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff but contradicted testimony on Wednesday by an official from the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan watchdog arm of Congress. The official, Richard M. Stana, who handles domestic security and justice issues for the accountability office, told a House subcommittee that the pilot project had “resulted in a product that did not fully meet user needs.” He also said “the project’s design will not be used as the basis” for future development of a virtual fence along the border because of the problems. The conflicting accounts about the pilot project and its applicability elsewhere add to the confusion and debate that has surrounded the virtual fence almost since its inception....
Management, technology short-circuit DHS's "virtual fence" A U.S. government plan to build a "virtual fence" along the border of Mexico and Canada, using radar, satellites, sensors and communication links to rapidly dispatch border patrol, has all the earmarks of a technology boondoggle. Congress was told this week that project is being delayed, and for reasons likely familiar to IT managers: the users weren't involved in the project's development, and the technology's complexity was underestimated. Roger Krone, president of The Boeing Co.'s Network and Space Systems, the project vendor, was asked to explain to two U.S. House Homeland Security subcommittees in a joint hearing Wednesday what happened and what's being done to fix it. The first segment of the 28-mile electronic fence was built along part of Arizona's border with Mexico. Congress was told this week that initial plans to extend the fence out to El Paso, Texas, will likely take until the end of 2011....
Plan for Texas Border Fence Laid Out Homeland Security officials on Thursday presented details of plans to build about 57 miles of border fencing and add other border enforcement technology in the El Paso area. Barry Morrisey, a Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman, said federal officials presented the plans at a city ballroom Thursday to get reaction on an environmental assessment drafted in advance of construction. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2008. Officials explained proposed locations for five sections of double-layer steel fencing that will stretch from just east of downtown El Paso to just east of the port of entry at Fort Hancock. All told, 56.7 miles of fencing is expected to be built across largely rural areas in El Paso and Hudspeth counties, Morrisey said. Construction plans also don't call for the use of private land, he said....
Columbine To Va. Tech To NIU: Gun-Free Zones Or Killing Fields? As Northern Illinois University restarts classes this week, one thing is clear: Six minutes proved too long. It took six minutes before the police were able to enter the classroom that horrible Thursday, and in that short time five people were murdered, 16 wounded. Six minutes is actually record-breaking speed for the police arriving at such an attack, but it was simply not fast enough. Still, the police were much faster than at the Virginia Tech attack last year. 12,000 people, including relatives of the Northern Illinois University students killed Feb. 14, attend a memorial Sunday in DeKalb, Ill. 12,000 people, including relatives of the Northern Illinois University students killed Feb. 14, attend a memorial Sunday in DeKalb, Ill. The previous Thursday, five people were killed in the city council chambers in Kirkwood, Mo. There was even a police officer already there when the attack occurred. But, as happens time after time in these attacks when uniformed police are there, the killers either wait for the police to leave the area or they are the first people killed. In Kirkwood, the police officer was killed immediately when the attack started. People cowered or were reduced to futilely throwing chairs at the killer. Just like attacks last year at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Neb., the Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City and the recent attack at the Tinley Park Mall in Illinois, or all the public school attacks, they had one thing in common: They took place in "gun-free zones," where private citizens were not allowed to carry their guns with them....
Oakland’s Gun Buy-Back Misfires On Feb. 9, Oakland police, led by state Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, offered to buy handguns and assault weapons for $250 each, “no questions asked, no ID required.” The “One Less Gun” buy-back program attracted so many eager sellers that the money quickly ran out. But instead of closing up shop, the police handed out IOUs good for a future buy back. The Oakland police are now stuck with a bill for $170,000. The buy back has been criticized as a poorly organized fiasco, but even the critics say it was “the right idea” and “a step in the right direction.” On the contrary, the buy back was a bad idea from the beginning. Gun buy backs have been tried before, in cities from Seattle to Washington, D.C., and they simply don’t work. In an authoritative study, the National Academy of Sciences reported that “the theory underlying gun buy-back programs is badly flawed and the empirical evidence demonstrates the ineffectiveness of these programs.” It doesn’t take much insight to understand why gun buy backs don’t work. Gun buy backs attract low-quality guns from people who aren’t likely to use them to commit crimes. The Oakland police, for example, bought a dozen guns from seniors living in an assisted-living facility. Are you relieved to know that Perata disarmed these dangerous senior citizens? The Oakland buy back was especially absurd because of the high price offered: $250. Why didn’t anyone running the program think to look at the price of a new gun? In fact, the first two people in line at one of the three buy-back locations were gun dealers with 60 firearms packed in the trunk of their cars....
Park Rangers Oppose Bid to Ease Gun Ban Park rangers, retirees and conservation groups are protesting a plan by the Interior Department to reconsider regulations restricting loaded guns in national parks. The groups say current regulations requiring that visitors to national parks render their weapons inaccessible were working and have made national parks among the safest places in America. "Loaded guns are not needed and are not appropriate in our national parks," said Doug Morris, a retired park superintendent and member of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees. The plan to reconsider the gun regulations "could break what is not broken and change the nature of our national parks," Morris said Monday. Morris spoke at a news conference called in response to an announcement Friday that the Interior Department will review gun laws on lands administered by the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service....
Who'da thunk? Guns best crime deterrent after all And that, says a new brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court by police officers and prosecutors in a controversial gun-ban dispute, is why gun ownership is important and should be available to individuals in the United States. The arguments come in an amicus brief submitted by the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, whose spokesman, Ted Deeds, told WND there now are 92 different law enforcement voices speaking together to the Supreme Court in the Heller case. That pending decision will decide whether an appeals court ruling striking down a District of Columbia ban on handguns because it violates the 2nd Amendment will stand or not. The gun ban promoters essentially argue that any gun restriction that is ruled "reasonable" is therefore constitutional, such as the D.C. handgun ban. Deeds said this probably is the largest unified law enforcement statement in support of the 2nd Amendment ever, and includes nearly a dozen organizations that represent tens of thousands of police officers across the country, dozens of state attorneys general, dozens of prosecutors and a long list of federal law enforcement experts up to and including federal judges....
'Thousands of Aliens' in U.S. Flight Schools Illegally Thousands of foreign student pilots have been able to enroll and obtain pilot licenses from U.S. flight schools, despite tough laws passed in the wake of the 9/ll attacks, according to internal government documents obtained by ABC News. "Some of the very same conditions that allowed the 9-11 tragedy to happen in the first place are still very much in existence today," wrote one regional security official to his boss at the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration. "Thousands of aliens, some of whom may very well pose a threat to this country, are taking flight lessons, being granted FAA certifications and are flying planes," wrote the TSA official, Richard A. Horn, in 2005, complaining that the students did not have the proper visas. Under the new laws, American flight schools are only supposed to provide pilot training to foreign students who have been given a background check by the TSA and have a specific type of visa....
InfraGard: An Unhealthy Government Alliance There is an organization that is quietly and secretly becoming very large and powerful. The FBI started this partnership or alliance between the federal government and the private sector in 1996 in Cleveland with a few select people. After September 11, 2001, when the general population replaced their rationality with fear, this organization, called InfraGard, continued growing, and with little notice. By 2005 more than 11,000 members were involved, but as of today, according to the InfraGard website, there are 23,682 members, including FBI personnel. InfraGard’s stated goal “is to promote ongoing dialogue and timely communications between members and the FBI.” Pay attention to this next part: Infragard members gain access to information that enables them to protect their assets and in turn give information to government that facilitates its responsibilities to prevent and address terrorism and other crimes. I take from this statement that there is a distinct tradeoff, a tradeoff not available to the rest of us, whereby InfraGard members are privy to inside information from government to protect themselves and their assets; in return they give the government information it desires. This is done under the auspices of preventing terrorism and other crimes. Of course, as usual, “other crimes” is not defined, leaving us to guess just what information is being transferred....
U.S. Spies Want to Find Terrorists in World of Warcraft Be careful who you frag. Having eliminated all terrorism in the real world, the U.S. intelligence community is working to develop software that will detect violent extremists infiltrating World of Warcraft and other massive multiplayer games, according to a data-mining report from the Director of National Intelligence. The Reynard project will begin by profiling online gaming behavior, then potentially move on to its ultimate goal of "automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world." The publicly available report -- which was mandated by Congress following earlier concerns over data-mining programs -- also mentions several other data-mining initiatives. These include: * Video Analysis and Content Extraction - software to automatically identify faces, events and objects in video * Knowledge Discovery and Dissemination - This tool is reminiscent of the supposedly-defunct Total Information Awareness program. It seeks to access disparate databases to find patterns of known bad behavior. The program plans to work with domestic law enforcement and Homeland Security....
Report: 1 in every 100 Americans behind bars For the first time in history, more than one in every 100 American adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report tracking the surge in inmate population and urging states to rein in corrections costs with alternative sentencing programs. The report, released today by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, the report said. Using updated state-by-state data, the report said 2,319,258 adults were held in U.S. prisons or jails at the start of 2008 — one out of every 99.1 adults, and more than any other country in the world....