Environmental Agency Tightens Smog Standards The Environmental Protection Agency announced a modest tightening of the smog standard on Wednesday evening, overruling the unanimous advice of its scientific advisory council for a more protective standard. The administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, said that by law he was forbidden to consider costs in setting the standard, but urged Congress to change the law so future administrators could do just that. The standard, stated in terms of average concentrations of ozone at ground level over an eight-hour period, is now 84 parts per billion. Mr. Johnson’s decision, if it survives court review, would lower that to 75, although implementation could be decades away. Late last year a scientific advisory panel recommended 60 to 70 parts per billion. “I’ve made the most health-protective eight-hour ozone decision in the nation’s history,” said Mr. Johnson. The Clean Air Act requires periodic review, and the announcement Wednesday updates a standard from 1997.....
Group petitions state to ban prairie dog shootings A petition to ban the shooting of live animals as targets, specifically prairie dogs, goes beyond its intent, Moffat County Commissioner Tom Gray said. The 19-page petition — which is a legal argument, not a list of signatures — holds that common practices of killing prairie dogs does not meet the legal or moral definition of hunting. It was con­­tracted by Wild Earth Guardians, a national conservation group, and submitted to the Colorado Wildlife Commission, which oversees the Division of Wildlife. The Wildlife Commission will hear public testimony on the issue at its meeting at 10 a.m. today, at its Denver offices at 6060 Broadway. “To define prairie dog shooting as hunting degrades all other types of hunting and hunters,” the petition reads....
Fees to benefit easement regulation Fees proposed under a bill targeting Colorado's conservation-easement program would generate nearly $500,000 to support state regulation of appraisers and easement holders. House Bill 1353 would create additional oversight of the program. The House finance committee heard testimony about the bill Tuesday. The bill is expected to be amended and reheard next week. Under the current plan, qualified easement holders would be required to pay a $5,810 fee to become certified with the Colorado Division of Real Estate. If the 39 members of the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts are certified, that would generate $226,590 for the first three years of the program. Appraisers would be required to pay a $600 filing fee for each conservation-easement appraisal filed with the Division of Real Estate. About 400 conservation easements are completed each year....
Technicality may cut California desert areas from federally protected status Congress is considering permanent protection for 26 million acres of beautiful and historic landscapes in the American West, but has quietly excluded millions of acres of California desert. In a system that would rival the national parks and forests, the National Landscape Conservation Act would unify the management and funding for areas such as the original Pony Express National Historic Trail, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, a million acres of Alaskan caribou calving grounds, 38 wild rivers, Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and a tiny ghost town near the Mexican border. But more than half of the 10.6 million-acre California Desert Conservation Area, which stretches from the Mexican border to Mono Lake, has been dropped on technical grounds. Because the word "national" isn't in its title, the conservation area doesn't qualify, according to U.S. Bureau of Land Management attorneys. Environmental watchdogs and some land bureau employees say the California area, created by Congress in 1976, is the cornerstone of the fledgling national system. They say the semantics hide political motives: Utility companies have proposed hundreds of miles of electrical transmission corridors through California's deserts, and off-road vehicle enthusiasts oppose further regulation of the area....
Baptists: No change on climate change The Southern Baptist Convention wants you to know there has been no policy change on the issue of global warming. That official statement from the denomination is meant to clarify confusion generated about the efforts of Jonathan Merritt, a 25-year-old Southern Baptist Theological Seminary student who launched a campaign from within Baptist ranks for stronger action against climate change, which he believes poses an imminent threat to mankind. The statement titled "A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change," written by Merritt received massive media coverage – from the New York Times to the Associated Press to Reuters. It was widely portrayed as a major deviation from a more cautious stance on the controversies surrounding the seriousness of man-made catastrophic global warming. "For the record, there has been no change in convention policy and despite the media blitz that suggests otherwise, there does not appear to be a groundswell of support for change," explained Will Hall, vice president for news services for the SBC, a member of the executive committee and executive editor of the Baptist Press. "Jonathan Merritt does not speak for the Southern Baptist Convention. Unfortunately, his use of 'Southern Baptist' in the title of his declaration misinforms the public and misrepresents the Southern Baptist Convention."....
Federal agency not fighting Nevada developer's water plan The federal government has dropped its opposition to a bid by wealthy Reno businessman and powerbroker Harvey Whittemore to get rural Nevada water for a huge development he's building about 50 miles north of Las Vegas. The Bureau of Land Management dropped its challenge after working out a detailed agreement with Whittemore's Tuffy Ranch Properties LLC to ensure that BLM resources won't be harmed by piping Lake Valley water more than 100 miles south to Whittemore's Coyote Springs project. The agreement filed this week with the state water engineer's office, which scheduled a 2-day hearing on the plan starting March 31, calls for elaborate monitoring to detect any declines in groundwater levels in Lake Valley as a result of the water transfers to Coyote Springs. Whittemore's company would cover costs of improving a BLM well in Lake Valley if it dries up due to the water transfers. Also, the company agreed to "environmentally sound" pumping that won't be excessive or "unduly limit growth and development" in the Lake Valley area....
Senate closer to program for old mines Senators moved a step closer to creating a cleanup program for abandoned hard-rock mines on Wednesday as part of a major rewriting of mining law that has not been updated since 1872. Fees charged to coal companies have long been used for a program to clean up old coal mines, and Congress may move this year to establish a similar program for hard-rock mines. It would be paid for by charging royalties for the first time on minerals such as gold, silver, copper and uranium mined on federal lands. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said such a program is overdue and that there appears to be a broad consensus to get one going. Abandoned hard-rock mines around the country pose public health safety risks, degrade the environment and contaminate water, he said. About $300 million a year is dedicated to the coal program, Bingaman said, and a hard-rock program should be similar in scope....
Lawsuit Filed to Protect Oregon Spotted Frog From Livestock Grazing The Center for Biological Diversity, Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, and Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center filed suit Tuesday against the Fremont-Winema National Forest for driving a rare population of the Oregon spotted frog to the brink of extinction, failing to conduct proper environmental analyses, and violating its own Forest Plan and the Clean Water Act. The suit challenges the Forest Service’s decision to allow continued grazing on the federal “Antelope’” grazing allotment, where a population of the spotted frog, which is a candidate for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act, lives in Jack Creek and has declined precipitously in recent years. “Continued livestock grazing on the Antelope Allotment is damaging water quality and stream banks and in the process decimating a population of the highly endangered Oregon spotted frog,” said Noah Greenwald, science director at the Center. In 2005, the Forest Service sent letters to the public and the allotment permittees stating it was considering fencing Jack Creek to protect Oregon spotted frogs, but has never constructed the fence. The agency subsequently issued a new permit in 2006 that increased grazing from 345 to 945 animal-unit-months, or AUMs, without any environmental analyses or action to ensure spotted frog habitat was not further degraded....
'Green' storage in forests may be going up in smoke A new study has found that California wildfires emit more greenhouse gases than previously believed largely through the post-fire decay of dead wood, a finding that is raising questions about how effective the state's forests are at storing carbon and slowing global warming. The study by Thomas Bonnicksen, a retired forestry professor at Texas A&M University, found that four major wildfires – from the Fountain fire near Redding in 1992 to the Angora blaze at Lake Tahoe last year – are responsible for the release of 38 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, far more than the 2 million tons the state estimates that fires produce on average each year. "Up until now, we have not fully appreciated the magnitude of the impact of wildfires on climate change," Bonnicksen said. "This is a very important part of the problem." His study, which is not peer-reviewed and has been found lacking by some, is one of a flurry of reports that have begun to explore the critical role that forests play in regulating carbon dioxide, the principal atmospheric gas responsible for global warming. Traditionally, forests have been viewed as green reservoirs of landlocked carbon, soaking up and storing CO 2 from the atmosphere in their leaves, needles, roots and soil. Bonnicksen's study casts that view into question. Forests today are so overcrowded with spindly, unhealthy trees – partly the result of decades of fire suppression – that as they burn and decay they are turning into an actual source of greenhouse gas pollution....
Greens: Mine claims crowd towns Mining activity is encroaching on cities and towns in Utah because of an outdated 19th-century law, potentially posing serious problems for residential areas, an environmental group said Tuesday. The number of mining claims within five miles of cities and towns in the state shot up almost 150 percent in the last five years, the Environmental Working Group says, from 2,786 to 6,793. Overall, there are now 34,516 mining claims in the state as of January 2008 compared with just 8,723 in 2003, the group says in a new study conducted in part with the Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining. That's a dramatic increase likely pushed by a boost in prices for gold, silver, copper, uranium and other metals, the group says....
Logging dispute: When is a tree dead? When is a green tree dead? That's essentially the question a federal appeals court is deciding in a lawsuit pitting conservationists against the U.S. Forest Service. A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel heard arguments Tuesday in Portland in a case that could decide how the government is allowed to log old-growth conifers burned by fire on the eastern slopes of the Cascades. The three-judge panel took the case under advisement after a brief hearing. The dispute began in 2004, when environmental groups accused the Forest Service of violating its own rules prohibiting the harvest of large, living trees in a burnt area of Oregon's Malheur National Forest. The latest case is over a similar logging plan in Umatilla National Forest in Washington. The practice is known as salvage logging. After years of often severe wildfires across the West, the Bush administration has aggressively sought to harvest scorched timber before insects or disease make the lumber worthless. To do that, federal foresters have been using a set of mortality guidelines to determine whether a partially burned tree would die, either immediately or by succumbing to insects or disease. Critics of the practice say that the agency often tagged healthy trees for harvest and that trees marked for cutting continued to thrive years after a fire....
Seasonal slowdown hits coal-bed methane rigs again Coal-bed methane gas drillers in the Powder River Basin were down to 11 rigs last week compared to 28 rigs the week before. The industry averaged 43 active rigs during the month of January, according to the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Rig numbers typically dwindle this time of the year as raptor and grouse stipulations, or "stips," come into play. The stips blot the map with large orange and purple circles representing surface occupancy restrictions around nests and strutting grounds where drilling and other activities are temporarily restricted. More than 100 workers protested at the BLM Buffalo field office a year ago when the stipulations went in effect. Later, operators admitted they'd erred on the side of caution and sent more crews home, temporarily idling about 1,000 workers. This year, BLM officials held meetings with operators to make clear what activities were still allowable during the seasonal restrictions. All of the concern centered on surface occupancy restrictions to protect raptors and sage grouse that re-activated in February and March....
Judge says UW arsonist will stay in jail Convicted arsonist Briana Waters will remain behind bars pending her formal sentencing for the 2001 firebombing at the University of Washington despite her defense attorney's allegations of government vindictiveness and prosecutor misconduct. Defense attorney Robert Bloom on Wednesday attacked the U.S. attorney's pursuit of the 32-year-old California woman as personal and unprofessional, an outburst that even Magistrate Judge Kelley Arnold said was unprecedented in his long tenure on the Tacoma bench. "These accusations are legion and very serious and there is ... absolutely no reason for the court to believe them," Arnold said during a detention hearing for Waters in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. "Never once in my 14 years on the bench have I heard such allegations," which included evidence-tampering and suborning perjury from government witnesses. "It is not in the culture of this district," Arnold said. Meantime, federal prosecutors said for the first time they can link Waters to another Earth Liberation Front-related arson, this one in October 2001 at a horse ranch in Northern California....
Report Criticizes FDA Over Spinach Packers Since 2001, nearly half of all federal inspections of facilities that package fresh spinach revealed serious sanitary problems, but the Food and Drug Administration did not take "meaningful" enforcement action, a House committee report released yesterday found. The most common problems uncovered by FDA inspections of 67 facilities included inadequate restroom sanitation, litter piles and indoor condensation posing a risk of food contamination by microorganisms. Inspectors also found buildings vulnerable to rodent infestation and workers with uncovered hair and poor hygiene. Twenty serious outbreaks of E. coli have been traced to fresh lettuce or spinach since 1995. One of the most troublesome was a 2006 outbreak in bagged spinach processed by California-based Natural Selection Foods that sickened more than 200 people and was linked to three deaths. The FDA acknowledged gaps in its food safety efforts after that episode. But the report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says the problems were worse: It showed that spinach facilities were inspected about once every 2.4 years despite federal guidelines that say most should have been visited at least annually....
Western senators object to increased imports from Argentina Senators from Western ranching states are objecting to a Department of Agriculture plan they say would loosen restrictions on beef and lamb imports from Argentina. Argentina has seen outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease, a highly contagious viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals like cattle and pigs. The senators asked the department to analyze the cost of the proposal -- including the cost of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak -- before implementing the policy. Questions remain about the effectiveness of animal disease controls and tracking in Argentina, the senators said. A bipartisan group of senators from Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico and Missouri signed the letter.
European Union to Require Microchipping of Foals Member states of the European Union have reached an agreement on a new regulation that will revise existing equine identification legislation. The main new requirement is the compulsory microchipping of foals born after July 1, 2009. The requirement will not be retroactive for older horses and the regulation does allow for member states to approve alternative methods to the microchip. Microchips provide a link between a horse and its passport and strengthen existing horse identification requirements. Such unique identification of equidae could also prove useful for disease control and surveillance purposes and for the recovery of lost or stolen horses. In the U.K., the Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs will be consulting with the horse industry over the implementation of the new requirements.
Worker at third pork plant has mystery illness Only three U.S. packinghouses have used compressed air to extract brains from pig heads — and now all three have workers who have suffered the same mysterious neurological illness. Plants in Austin, Minn., and in Indiana had already reported cases, and now a Hormel pork plant in Fremont, Neb., has found a worker with telltale symptoms of this disease. All of the sickened people worked in or around the unique compressed-air process and suffered a variety of disabling symptoms including fatigue and numbness and tingling in their arms. A nationwide investigation started last fall when the Minnesota Department of Health learned of 11 sickened employees at Quality Pork Processers who all worked near the "head table" where the compressed-air process took place. Experts speculated that the workers inhaled pig brain particles that were blown into the air. The three plants no longer use this process for extracting pig brains, which are ordered periodically for sale in Asian markets as food. The state later confirmed illnesses to a 12th Quality Pork worker and to a Hormel employee who worked in a rendering plant immediately below the head table....
Rancher Toilet Trains Pet Bobcat Tiger Mountain Ranch is perched in the hills south of Henryetta, Okalahoma. The place offers a lake, lodge, lots of animals like horses, longhorn cattle, dogs and even a bobcat named Ginger. Sharon Glidden moved here a few years ago from Florida with her husband. She's had Ginger since the cat was three weeks old, training her as lovingly and carefully as she could considering her wild nature. Glidden said "Bobcats are not possessions. They are their own. We're really hers. She's not ours." Tiger Mountain's guests have seen Ginger lots of times from a respectful distance under supervision of course. But Sharon happened to be alone one day when this bobcat did something surprising. Ginger the bobcat started using the toilet. "Well when she was 6 or 7 months old, she saw me go and I got up to brush my teeth and she decided she needed to go," said Glidden. It was a little indelicate, but Sharon had to prove to her husband and prove she wasn't crazy, so she grabbed her video camera. A couple of weeks later Ginger was using her bathroom three times a day and it wasn't a big deal anymore. But she posted the video on her MySpace account and YouTube and forgot all about it....

H.R. 2016 - NATIONAL LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION SYSTEM ACT

The Natural Resources Committee held a markup session on this bill today.

Congressman Steve Pearce, R-NM, offered three amendments during the session.

The grazing amendment was as follows:

At the end of section 4, add the following new sentence: “Specifically, inclusion in the National Landscape Conservation System shall not affect current grazing rights or operations.”

The PILT amendment was as follows

At the end of section 4, add the following new sentence:

“No funds may be expended in any fiscal year for the National Landscape Conservation System until the Bureau of Land Management Payment in Lieu of Taxes program is fully funded at authorized levels for that fiscal year.”


The Wind and Solar Amendment was as follows:

At the end of section 4, add the following new sentence:

“Specifically, inclusion in the National Landscape Conservation System shall not affect eligibility for wind and solar energy development.”

All three amendments failed and the bill was favorably reported out of committee by a roll call vote of 23 yeas and 13 nays.

This legislation was proposed and supported by the Bush Administration. For years the BLM has been jealous of the Forest Service and other land management agencies. This is BLM's attempt to dump the "Bureau of Livestock and Mining" nickname and get on an equal footing with the other land management agencies when it comes to appropriations. This is about BLM's ego and spending more tax dollars. One has to wonder why the Bush Administration would take something that was done administratively under President Clinton and ask Congress to make it permanent by legislative designation. The environmental community endorsed this legislation and you don't have to wonder why.

Below is the press statement released by Congressman Pearce's campaign.

Pearce Fights Against Law Threatening Private Property Rights

MARCH 12, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: BRIAN PHILLIPS
202.577.1303
brian@peopleforpearce.com

WASHINGTON, D.C - Today, Congressman Steve Pearce fought to protect New Mexico's private property rights by attempting to amend the National Landscape Conservation System Act - a poor piece of legislation that significanly damages the New Mexico economy. The Pearce amendments would protect traditional uses of federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, such as grazing. Ranching, an important part of the New mexico economy, is put at great risk under this bill. Two additional amendments sponsored by Pearce would protect the ability to develop renewable sources of energy and ensure that local governments received proper PILT payments.

Earlier this week, Pearce called on his New Mexico House colleagues to explain why they support the National Landscape Conservation System Act which will punish New mexico's economy. Both Rep. Tom Udall and Rep. Heather Wilson are cosponsors of the bill.

After the hearings, Pearce released the following comments:

"This bill causes significant damage to the economies of western states. It threatens private property rights and puts at risk the ranching community in New Mexico. In addition, it threatens traditional uses of public lands such as camping, hunting and fishing.

"Rep. Udall and Rep. Wilson have cosponsored this harmful legislation and they should explain that decision to the people of New Mexico. My amendments sought to head off the damage it will ultimately do to our state. Though we were unsuccessful today, I will continue to press for the interests of New Mexico even if I am the only one willing to stand up for them."

Ethanol Lobby Is Perpetrating A Cruel Hoax Ethanol contains water that distillation cannot remove. As such, it can cause major damage to automobile engines not specifically designed to burn ethanol. The water content of ethanol also risks pipeline corrosion and thus must be shipped by truck, rail car or barge. These shipping methods are far more expensive than pipelines. Ethanol is 20% to 30% less efficient than gasoline, making it more expensive per highway mile. It takes 450 pounds of corn to produce the ethanol to fill one SUV tank. That's enough corn to feed one person for a year. Plus, it takes more than one gallon of fossil fuel — oil and natural gas — to produce one gallon of ethanol. After all, corn must be grown, fertilized, harvested and trucked to ethanol producers — all of which are fuel-using activities. And, it takes 1,700 gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol. On top of all this, if our total annual corn output were put to ethanol production, it would reduce gasoline consumption by 10% or 12%. Ethanol is so costly that it wouldn't make it in a free market. That's why Congress has enacted major ethanol subsidies, about $1.05 to $1.38 a gallon, which is no less than a tax on consumers. There's something else wrong with this picture. If Congress and President Bush say we need less reliance on oil and greater use of renewable fuels, then why would Congress impose a stiff tariff, 54 cents a gallon, on ethanol from Brazil? Brazilian ethanol, by the way, is produced from sugar beet and is far more energy-efficient, cleaner and cheaper to produce....
One Cooler Head When new facts emerge, the open-minded tend to alter their views. This is what has happened to a Hungarian environmental scholar whose position on global warming has been transformed. Until his Damascus moment, Miklos Zagoni, a physicist and environmental researcher, had been touted as his nation's "most outspoken supporter of the Kyoto Protocol." But then this activist saw the work of a fellow Hungarian scientist. His world was rocked. "I fell in love" with the theory, he told DailyTech.com. Ferenc Miskolczi, an atmospheric physicist at NASA's Langley Research Center with three decades of experience, had found that researchers have been repeating a mistake when calculating the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on temperatures. We're not scientists, but it looks to us like Miskolczi found that the Earth does a good job of adapting and self-regulating. As has been noted elsewhere, Miskolczi's theory could explain why the warming that models have been predicting for decades has never materialized. NASA's response to the new results? It refused to publish them, reports DailyTech.com. Miskolczi quit, citing in his resignation letter a clash between his "idea of the freedom of science" and NASA's "practice of handling new climate change related scientific results." The space agency isn't inclined to fund research that refutes the Al Gore view that has eaten away reasoned thinking and been adopted uncritically by much of the public....
Verbatim: Vaclav Klaus On Climate Alarmism Following is the speech delivered by the president of the Czech Republic at the Heartland Institute's International Conference on Climate Change in New York, March 4, 2008. ...A week ago, I gave a speech at an official gathering at the Prague Castle commemorating the 60th anniversary of the 1948 communist putsch in the former Czechoslovakia. One of the arguments of my speech there, quoted in all the leading newspapers in the country the next morning, went as follows: "Future dangers will not come from the same source. The ideology will be different. Its essence will, nevertheless, be identical — the attractive, pathetic, at first sight noble idea that transcends the individual in the name of the common good, and the enormous self-confidence on the side of its proponents about their right to sacrifice the man and his freedom in order to make this idea reality." What I had in mind was, of course, environmentalism and its currently strongest version, climate alarmism. This fear of mine is the driving force behind my active involvement in the Climate Change Debate and behind my being the only head of state who in September 2007 at the U.N. Climate Change Conference, only a few blocks away from here, openly and explicitly challenged the current global warming hysteria. My central argument was — in a condensed form — formulated in the subtitle of my recently published book devoted to this topic which asks: "What is Endangered: Climate or Freedom?" My answer is clear and resolute: "It is our freedom." I may also add: "and our prosperity."....

WALL STREET JOURNAL - THE EVENING WRAP

Prodding

By ROBIN MORONEY

The age of YouTube had another defining moment when an amateur video was enough to dramatically reverse the congressional testimony of Westland/Hallmark Meat President Steve Mendell.

In remarks submitted to lawmakers, Mr. Mendell had denied that beef from a Southern California slaughterhouse, the source of the largest beef recall in U.S. history, was unsafe. The written testimony followed the usual public-relations script of emphasizing the good news about a company and providing alternative explanations for the bad news. He declared that a video -- shot by Humane Society members working undercover at the plant -- showed ill cows that were headed for euthanasia, not eventual human consumption, albeit with the prodding of a forklift. He was then shown the video and its images of cows being shocked and dragged by chains to a slaughter site. Mr. Mendell had his head in his hands with his written testimony apparently in ruins. Prompted by the panel's chairman, Rep. Bart Stupak (D., Mich.), Mr. Mendell acknowledged that the video did indeed show so-called downer cows entering the U.S. food suppply. "Has your company ever illegally slaughtered, processed, or sold a downer cow?" Mr. Stupak asked. "I didn't think we had sir," Mr. Mendell said.

When asked why he hadn't, Mr. Mendell showed on what side of the generation gap he stood. He blamed the Agriculture Department for not allowing him to see some of the footage. That might have been a valid excuse only a few years ago. Demands from wounded parties that the full video be released have been mainstays of similar controversies. In the 1990s, supermarket Food Lion and ABC fought for a long time over showing what footage ABC had cut out of a report that accused Food Lion of serving unfresh meat. But times have changed. Had Mr. Mendell the Web savvy of a 10-year-old, he would have known that the entire video was available on the Humane Society's Web site a long time ago and widely viewed via YouTube. The latest tools of the digital age haven't just given corporations interesting opportunities to spread marketing messages. It has also given the general public the surveillance tools that used to be the sole property of the government and television journalists, along with the ability to broadcast the results. Food safety is one issue facing the meat industry, as evidenced by Mr. Mendell's excruciating time on Capitol Hill today and other meat recalls. But the cost of food is certainly another. Reflecting industrywide problems, Pilgrim's Pride, the world's largest chicken processor, today said it will cut 1,100 jobs, blaming corn-based ethanol production for an intolerable leap in the price of feed.

* * *

Brother, Can You Spare 18 Cents? Imagine this scene: The U.S. Congress is about to pass a bill that will offer cheap loans to American oil companies. The government will loan them $150 for every barrel of oil they produce, with the oil itself serving as collateral. This guarantees that oil will always sell for at least $150 per barrel, because the companies can surrender their oil to Uncle Sam at that price instead of selling it for less. Meanwhile, a system of tariffs will prevent foreign companies from selling oil at prices that can compete with $150 per barrel. Sounds like a bad idea, doesn’t it? This would force taxpayers to put billions at risk for a program that makes their gasoline more expensive. It would also drive up prices for other goods and services that contain or require the use of oil or gasoline. Oil companies would be the only beneficiaries — at our expense, they would be rolling in dough. So if this is a bad idea for oil, why is it a good idea for sugar? This is precisely the program currently in place, and Congress is poised to reauthorize it before it expires March 15. Why? A November report in the Washington Post gives a clue: In less than a year, “nine sugar farm or refinery groups have made more than 900 separate contributions totaling nearly $1.5 million to candidates, parties and political funds.” Under the rival House and Senate versions of the farm bill, the sugar loans will either remain the same or increase by half a penny per pound. (Current loans: 18 cents per pound for processed sugar cane and 23 cents for sugar beets, double the average world-market price over the last seven years.)....

FLE

NSA's Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to search for suspicious patterns. Opponents called it too broad an intrusion on Americans' privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But the data-sifting effort didn't disappear. The National Security Agency, once confined to foreign surveillance, has been building essentially the same system. The central role the NSA has come to occupy in domestic intelligence gathering has never been publicly disclosed. But an inquiry reveals that its efforts have evolved to reach more broadly into data about people's communications, travel and finances in the U.S. than the domestic surveillance programs brought to light since the 2001 terrorist attacks. According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records. The NSA receives this so-called "transactional" data from other agencies or private companies, and its sophisticated software programs analyze the various transactions for suspicious patterns. Then they spit out leads to be explored by counterterrorism programs across the U.S. government, such as the NSA's own Terrorist Surveillance Program, formed to intercept phone calls and emails between the U.S. and overseas without a judge's approval when a link to al Qaeda is suspected. The NSA's enterprise involves a cluster of powerful intelligence-gathering programs, all of which sparked civil-liberties complaints when they came to light. They include a Federal Bureau of Investigation program to track telecommunications data once known as Carnivore, now called the Digital Collection System, and a U.S. arrangement with the world's main international banking clearinghouse to track money movements. The effort also ties into data from an ad-hoc collection of so-called "black programs" whose existence is undisclosed, the current and former officials say. Many of the programs in various agencies began years before the 9/11 attacks but have since been given greater reach. Among them, current and former intelligence officials say, is a longstanding Treasury Department program to collect individual financial data including wire transfers and credit-card transactions....
Relief for Phone Firms Proposed House Democratic leaders announced yesterday their support for providing some relief to phone companies that have been sued for assisting the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program but reaffirmed their opposition to the legal immunity sought by the administration. The proposal would allow the companies, which face nearly 40 civil lawsuits in a federal court in San Francisco, to defend themselves in secret, in front of a judge but without the plaintiffs. Leaders intend to organize a floor vote on it tomorrow. Allowing such "ex parte" review of classified evidence is meant to defuse the administration's argument that the companies cannot respond to the lawsuits now without disclosing classified information that would harm national security, and that the companies should, therefore, be immunized. The measure is part of a revised House bill that would update the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The administration contends that the act has been overtaken by technological advances and, especially in the case of e-mails, requires new provisions to allow intelligence agents to eavesdrop on communications involving foreign targets. White House press secretary Dana Perino said the House Democrats' bill is "dead on arrival" for several reasons, including its failure to provide the liability protection that is in the Senate bill....
Girls, guys and Glocks? On Valentine's Day a man walked into a Northern Illinois University lecture hall and began shooting students, one at a time, while some ran and others cowered under seats. By the time he was done, he'd killed five people and wounded 18 more. Last April, a man went from classroom to classroom at Virginia Tech, shooting people as they barricaded doors, hid under desks and ran toward open windows. In the nearly 10-minute stretch before police reached him, the shooter had fired over 174 rounds, killed 32 people and injured 17 more. Those horrifying and graphic details - not just the death but the utter helplessness of those who were killed - have galvanized more than 19,000 students and professors across the nation to fight for the right to carry concealed weapons on campus. They say the victims in nearly every school shooting in the past decade have been unarmed and completely helpless in the 2 to 10 minutes before armed police or security guards arrived...Utah is the only major exception, at the moment. Its state legislature passed a law in 2004 that prevents public universities from banning weapons on campus, which, in a roundabout way, makes it legal for students with concealed weapons permits to bring guns to class. Another 12 states are considering similar legislation, according to Bryce Eastlick, director of business operations for the group Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. Six more states are writing up bills this spring. Among the 12, said Eastlick, are Virginia, Washington and Arizona, which have all seen massacre-style school shootings in the past decade....
Pandemic flu plan would put Chicago on lockdown Containing an influenza pandemic in a large U.S. city like Chicago would require widespread school closings, quarantines of infected households and bans on public gatherings, U.S. researchers said on Monday. But, if done quickly and well, such steps could reduce infections by as much as 80 percent, said researcher Stephen Eubank of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, based on a computer simulation of just such an event. Health experts almost universally agree that a global epidemic -- a pandemic -- of influenza is inevitable. Flu is always circulating but, every few decades, a completely new strain emerges and makes millions sicker than usual. Government estimates suggest vaccines and drugs will not be enough to slow or prevent a flu pandemic, and the U.S. pandemic plan includes ways to limit the spread by closing schools and implementing strategies to reduce contact with infected people. Schools and day-care centers would close. Theaters, bars, restaurants and ball parks would be shuttered. Offices and factories would be open but hobbled as workers stay home to care for children. Infected people and their friends and families would be confined to their homes. "We are not talking about simply shutting things down for a day or two like a snow day. It's a sustained period for weeks or months," he said....

Eminent domain measures on ballot On June 3, California voters will decide two ballot measures that would restrict government's use of eminent domain for private purposes - and one of them goes much further, eliminating rent controls in cities including San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and San Jose. Prop. 98 would not only prohibit state and local governments from taking private land and transferring it to another private party - but it would also phase out rent control ordinances and, some critics said, would undermine general land-use zoning and environmental protections. Saying the Jarvis measure had a hidden agenda, a coalition led by the California League of Cities has qualified Proposition 99 for the June election. The competing measure would simply prohibit government from using eminent domain to take a single-family home to help a private landowner. Prop. 99 is written so that if it receives more votes than its rival, it would become law - even if a majority of voters also supports Prop. 98. Supporters of Prop. 99 said the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision raised an issue that needs to be addressed - but not the way Prop. 98 would solve the problem....

Food crisis will take hold before climate change, warns chief scientist Food security and the rapid rise in food prices make up the "elephant in the room" that politicians must face up to quickly, according to the government's new chief scientific adviser. In his first major speech since taking over, Professor John Beddington said the global rush to grow biofuels was compounding the problem, and cutting down rainforest to produce biofuel crops was "profoundly stupid". He told the Govnet Sustainable Development UK Conference in Westminster: "There is progress on climate change. But out there is another major problem. It is very hard to imagine how we can see a world growing enough crops to produce renewable energy and at the same time meet the enormous increase in the demand for food which is quite properly going to happen as we alleviate poverty." He predicted that price rises in staples such as rice, maize and wheat would continue because of increased demand caused by population growth and increasing wealth in developing nations. But he reserved some of his most scathing comments for the biofuel industry, which he said had delivered a "major shock" to world food prices. "In terms of biofuels there has been, quite properly, a reaction against it," he said. "There are real problems with unsustainability."....

Save the jaguar Consider nature, science and politics. The beauty of nature is enhanced only by its gee-whiz factor. For example, in addition to being drop-dead gorgeous, each jaguar has a unique pattern of spots. Scientists turn that uniqueness into valuable data. For example, biologists who use remote-sensor cameras to document jaguar visits to southern Arizona can identify individual animals by the pattern of their spots. They know jaguars still prowl a small part of their historic range in Arizona. Politics should provide a way to protect and enhance those jaguar populations. After all, the Endangered Species Act exists because Americans care about conservation. But politics can block wildlife-management goals for unscientific reasons. For example, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's announcement that it will not pursue a recovery plan for the jaguar looks more like an easy way out than a sound scientific decision....
How government makes things worse WHAT DO ethanol and the subprime mortgage meltdown have in common? Each is a good reminder of that most powerful of unwritten decrees, the Law of Unintended Consequences - and of the all-too-frequent tendency of solutions imposed by the state to exacerbate the harms they were meant to solve. Take ethanol, the much-hyped biofuel made (primarily) from corn. Ethanol has been touted as a weapon in the fashionable crusade against climate change, because when mixed with gasoline, it modestly reduces emissions of carbon dioxide. Reasoning that if a little ethanol is good, a lot must be better, Congress and the Bush administration recently mandated a sextupling of ethanol production, from the 6 billion gallons produced last year to 36 billion by 2022. But now comes word that expanding ethanol use is likely to mean not less CO2 in the atmosphere, but more. Instead of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from gasoline by 20 percent - the estimate Congress relied on in requiring the huge increase in production - ethanol use will cause such emissions to nearly double over the next 30 years. The problem, laid out in two new studies in the journal Science, is that it takes a lot of land to grow biofuel feedstocks such as corn, and as forests or grasslands are cleared for crops, large amounts of CO2 are released. Diverting land in this fashion also eliminates "carbon sinks," which absorb atmospheric CO2. Bottom line: The government's ethanol mandate will generate a "carbon debt" that will take decades, maybe centuries, to pay off. Actually, that's not quite the bottom line. Jacking up ethanol production causes other problems, too. Deforestation. Loss of biodiversity. Depletion of aquifers. More ethanol even means more hunger: As more of the US corn crop goes for ethanol, the price of corn has been soaring, a calamity for Third World countries in which corn is a major dietary staple....
Southern Baptist leaders shift position on climate change Several prominent leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention said Monday that Baptists have a moral responsibility to combat climate change -- a major shift within a denomination that just last year cast doubt on human responsibility for global warming. Forty-six influential members of the Southern Baptist Convention, including three of its past four presidents, criticized their denomination in a statement Monday for being "too timid" in confronting global warming. "Our cautious response to these issues in the face of mounting evidence may be seen by the world as uncaring, reckless and ill-informed," the statement says. "We can do better." The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, adopted a resolution last year urging Baptists to "proceed cautiously in the human-induced global warming debate in light of conflicting scientific research." The resolution said "many scientists reject the idea of catastrophic human-induced global warming." On Monday, however, dozens of Southern Baptist leaders expressed a different view....
Forest Service stock found dead Six U.S. Forest Service stock animals that went missing in January were found dead earlier this week, according to an agency news release. Forest Service employees have searched for 10 horses and mules owned by the Forest Service and four privately owned stock animals since mid-January, when their absence was noticed during a routine inspection. The missing horses and mules were part of a herd of about 135 animals wintering on pasture land near Choteau. Employees of the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Ranger District found the 14 animals Wednesday on Chute Mountain. Ten of the animals were dead, including four privately owned stock animals. The causes of death are unknown, but appear to be starvation, dehydration, exposure or some combination of those factors, the news release states. Forest Service employees, ranch hands and other volunteers worked throughout the night Wednesday to clear a 1.5-mile trail through deep snow so the four surviving animals could get to a lower elevation....
Ninth Circuit: Still crazy after all these years Once again, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal has gone off the deep end. They ruled the United States Forest Service should not have allowed expedited logging in the National Forests, although Congress approved the process. (This process calls for "thinning" certain areas by taking only a few trees at a time from a given region). The three judge panel said the Forest Service failed to, " properly analyze the rule, causing 'irreparable injury' by allowing more than 1.2 million acres of national forest land to be logged and burned each year without studying the ecological impacts." The Forest Service told the court they took the actions to provide a secure "fire safe" environment, using a program approved by Congress that allowed selective logging (a process where a small number of trees in a given area are cut to thin the forest land so fire will not spread rapidly). The Forest Service told the court their actions saved thousands of homes in Southern California during last year's San Diego fires, a statement that fell on deaf ears. Judges on the "Ninth Circus" have shown a callous disregard for the welfare for the people and critters who reside in forested areas of the west including those of us who live in Paradise. The Ninth Circuit Court is the most overturned one in the nation, and hopefully this decision will be quickly reversed....
Politics of powder in Aspen's backcountry It’s an average day on an Aspen Skiing Co. powder tour when Bob Perlmutter points out a pair of snowmobilers cruising into a closed area. The two powder poachers on sleds are oblivious to the dozen customers in the snowcat sneering through the windows, and Perlmutter, the tour’s manager, is not about to turn around to verbally berate a few law-breaking snowmobilers. “There you can see snowmobiles go right by a bunch of signs that say, ‘No snowmobiles beyond this point,’” Perlmutter said. “That’s part of the issue.” Only the skiing company is allowed to use motorized vehicles to bring skiers to the powder on Richmond Ridge, a mix of public and private land roughly twice the size of Aspen Mountain. In the Wild West of Richmond Ridge — Aspen’s closest and most accessible backcountry skiing — the rules don’t always make a difference. Furthermore, enforcing and managing those rules seems to be less and less of a reality....
Government denies protected status for wolverines in mainland U.S. Wolverines in the contiguous United States were denied federal protection Monday at a time when new studies suggest they could become extinct within 45 years if climate change eliminates the snow zone they depend upon. Scientists say they are still puzzling out new revelations and investigating unanswered questions about wolverines' year-round dependence on remote mountains that have a deep spring snowpack, from denning, foraging and mortality to traveling “superhighways” in search of mates. But just as salmon, polar bears and other species are tied to the landscape in ways that are both obvious and mysterious - and increasingly affected by humans - the wolverine has found its niche threatened as snow coverage diminishes. Environmental groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1995 and 2000 and filed a lawsuit in 2006 in an effort to list wolverines in the Lower 48 states under the Endangered Species Act. The agency said Monday that wolverines do not warrant federal protection because they aren't geographically or genetically separated from wolverine populations in Canada and Alaska and thus aren't significant to the species' survival....
Mountain biking gets pinched If you’re a mountain biker, the Telluride Trail offers a grueling climb to the gondola, followed by a ripping, brain-boiling descent back to town. The Ridge Trail is a tooth-chattering ride down to Mountain Village. And Telluride’s annual Full Tilt race is the area’s premiere mountain-biking event. But get ready to say goodbye to all that. Citing safety concerns, the U.S. Forest Service wants to bar mountain bikers from the Telluride and Ridge trails this summer. And the Telluride Ski Resort pulled its support from the Full Tilt race, a three-day contest that draws about 1,000 people to town. “It’s just really discouraging,” said Dan Goss, who’s part of the San Miguel Bike Alliance, a local mountain bikers’ group. Mountain biking is a thorny issue on the south side of Telluride, where helixes of legal and illegal trails crisscross Telski property and federal land....
Forest Service driver’s blood had pot, alcohol Investigations into the exact cause and repercussions of an accident at the 25th annual Mount Taylor Quadrathlon are still in progress. New Mexico State Police Trooper Craig Vandiver, on the scene when a U.S. Forest Service truck went out of control and damaged 23 high-end bicycles, nearly striking numerous participants, volunteers and spectators, said in a state police report that Craig Trinkle, the driver, appeared to be still in the throes of a seizure when officers reached the truck. When Vandiver opened the truck to turn off the engine, Trinkle was disoriented and abnormally stiff, the report said. Medical reports obtained by court order revealed the Trinkle had some level of alcohol and marijuana in his system in addition to prescription drugs. The level of intoxicating substances has not been released. Based on the medical evidence, Trinkle was arrested and ordered to appear in magistrate court in Grants on March 13. Chuck Hagerdon, district ranger for the forest service, said the information given him indicated that Trinkle tested negative in a “breath-alyzer” test at the scene and his office is waiting to hear more specific results....
Bush Administration Refuses to Protect Endangered Species Habitat in Michigan and Missouri National Forests Environmental groups challenged the federal government’s decision to exclude all national forest land from a recent endangered species ruling in federal court today. The suit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Center for Biological Diversity, Northwoods Wilderness Recovery, Michigan Nature Association, Door County Environmental Council (DCEC) and the Habitat Education Center, charges that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s designation of critical habitat for the Hine’s emerald dragonfly violates the federal Endangered Species Act by excluding all 13,000 acres in Michigan’s Hiawatha National Forest and the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. While much of the dragonfly’s most important habitat lies on these national forest lands, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service chose not to extend them full legal protections, arguing that the Forest Service would be more cooperative if the National Forest land were excluded. “These striking insects are named for their amazing green eyes. But those good looks will not be enough to protect them as they cling to habitats in Michigan and Missouri, thanks to one governmental agency that does not want to hold another to its legal obligations,” said John Buse, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity....I like green eyes, but on a dragonfly?
Lynx prefer dense forests over sparse landscape, study finds In the largest study of Canada lynx in the Lower 48 states, researchers in western Montana have found that the rare cat prefers to make its dens under downed logs deep within mature, dense forests. Earlier research in Canada focused on the structure of lynx dens, but the new study explored the landscape surrounding dens in the contiguous United States, where scientists are in the early stages of understanding the elusive feline. The study's results suggest that mechanically thinning old forests and clearing away deadfall - rather than maintaining a mosaic of natural conditions - creates poor habitat for lynx, a threatened species, and their primary prey, snowshoe hares. The results come at a time when federal wildlife managers have proposed to dramatically expand the amount of critical habitat for lynx, which were listed under the Endangered Species Act in 2000 in the Lower 48 states. The proposed critical habitat is in Montana, Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Washington state and Wyoming....
State believes disease responsible for big horn die-off The Nevada Department of Wildlife has been investigating an apparent bighorn sheep die off in the Hay’s Canyon Range, a chain of mountains in northwestern Nevada. The news of a possible disease event in this area came from a 2007 bighorn sheep tag-holder after the hunter observed what appeared to be a sick ewe that was found dead a few hours later. Game wardens retrieved the carcass, which was submitted for veterinary diagnostic work-up and a thorough necropsy examination. The results of the examination, backed up by various laboratory results, confirmed that the ewe died from severe bacterial pneumonia. With funding from Nevada Bighorns Unlimited, the state performed a follow-up aerial survey of the Hay’s Canyon area immediately following the discovery of the first dead ewe and only seven live sheep were observed....
Land Exchange Could Bring Jobs To Santa Teresa Union Pacific railroad's freight volume has increased up to 300 percent in the last 12 years. That is causing the company to target land between El Paso and Los Angeles to create a new fueling and transfer station. New Mexico has made some land in Santa Teresa more attractive. The Union Pacific Railroad hopes to open a rail yard near the Santa Teresa airport to become more efficient in the west. The land is currently owned by the Bureau of Land Management or BLM, and it's working out a deal with the state. The BLM will give up land just west of the airport. In exchange, the BLM will get land in other parts of New Mexico. "When we pick up these lands from BLM we're giving them choice lands in Northern Dona Ana County," said Pat Lyons, NM Commissioner of public lands. Lyons said when that happens, Union Pacific will open its rail yard on 780 acres, bringing up to 350 jobs and a $300 million investment in the economy....If BLM owns the land and Union Pacific needs it, why doesn't BLM just sell it to them? Why go through the huge cost of this land exchange, which even includes lands in Chavez County? This may have as much to do with the lesser prairie chicken as Union Pacific.
Full stream ahead for Lower Owens As blizzards whipped across nearby High Sierra peaks, ecologist William Platts lifted off in a helicopter here and headed north, about 1,000 feet above a river that looked as if it were throwing a tantrum. Beneath him, the squiggle of green was overflowing its banks, inundating a patchwork of oxbows, marshlands, forests and sagebrush. Culverts were nearly filled to capacity, and mats of dislodged tules and muck hurtled down the river. "I really like what I see down there," the 80-year-old Platts told the chopper pilot through the headphone radio. "But we'll need three or four more seasonal pulses to kick-start this ecosystem into gear." The Lower Owens River has flooded for millenniums, but this flood was man-made, part of the most ambitious river restoration project in the West. The river mostly disappeared when the Los Angeles Aqueduct opened in 1913, but 15 months ago engineers began redirecting some aqueduct water into the channel....
Wolf blamed for Two Dot sheep killings Wildlife officials confirmed Friday that a wolf killed five sheep and injured five more near Two Dot. On March 5, a landowner reported seeing a black wolf near his flock. After investigating, USDA Wildlife Services officials concluded that a wolf had attacked the sheep. It is not known if the wolf was alone, and other evidence of wolves in the area was not found. No known wolf packs have been documented in the Two Dot area. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials plan to catch the animal, fit it with a radio collar and release it for further observation. Fish, Wildlife and Parks could not be reached Monday night for more details.
Grouse hunt recommended Biologists with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department recommend that the state continue with an 11-day hunting season for sage grouse this year. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering whether sage grouse should be protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. A federal judge in Idaho recently condemned the agency for failing to use the best available science when it decided not to list the bird two years ago. In January 2005, the federal agency determined the chicken-sized bird was not in danger of extinction. The bird's traditional habitat stretches across the West, from eastern California and Washington to Colorado, North Dakota and southern Canada. Biologists with the Wyoming game department, as well as some conservationists, say degradation of the birds' habitat, not hunting, poses the most serious threat to the species' long-term survival. The biologists are recommending the state stick to hunting regulations nearly identical to last year's....
Music that everyone can dance to Country music in a rural honky-tonk inspires writer Rebecca Solnit to ponder the class and cultural underpinnings of the “crisis of environmentalism,” which has caused so much green soul-searching in recent years. “One Nation Under Elvis: An environmentalism for us all,” in the latest issue of Orion Magazine, explores the divide between urban and rural, left and right, environmentalist and rancher in musical tastes. Solnit recalls enviros she’s known who seemed more offended by rural culture and lifestyle (and music) than by any actual damage that culture was doing to the land, or liberals who scorn backward rednecks for their religion and politics. There’s the other side, of course, like people wearing t-shirts that say WRANGLERS (Western Ranchers Against No-Good Leftist Environmental Radical Shitheads). It begins to sound cliché, but of course there’s common ground. Not always, but often, these are artificial divides that we have missed important opportunities to bridge....
The scandal in Boulder that won’t go away The scandal that people are still talking about in Boulder, Colo., isn’t the murder of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey; it’s about a rich couple “stealing” land from their neighbors -- and getting away with it in court. The latest tidbit involving Dick McLean, a former Boulder Mayor and district court judge, and his wife, an attorney, was revealed recently by local police. It seems that in December, someone sent the couple a package enclosing bullets and a threatening letter (“Back in the old West we had a way to deal with your kind…”). Police said they’ve gotten nowhere on finding the perpetrator, but as a sign of how contentious the issue remains, several online commentators in the Boulder Daily Camera insisted that the couple had sent the package to themselves to garner sympathy. You might wonder why this story about a pricey lot on the ironically named Hardscrabble Drive could rouse such passion. But the land, surrounded by publicly owned open space and spectacular mountain views, is one of the few remaining undeveloped parcels in the neighborhood, where homes sell upwards of $1.2 million. Don and Susie Kirlin have owned the lot since the mid-1980s as part of their retirement plan. In the meantime, they live less than a half-mile away. Like lots of property owners, the Kirlins had never heard of the legal doctrine known as adverse possession before it struck home....
California Regents Sue Animal Activists It was late into the night when 25 people in ski masks descended on professor Dario Ringach's family home. Pounding on the door, frightening his small children, they screamed into megaphones, "Animal killer! We know where you live! We will never give up!" And they apparently meant it. That year, 2006, according to court documents, animal rights activists launched a summer-long campaign of harassment against Ringach, an assistant professor of psychology and neurobiology at the University of California at Los Angeles and other scientists who conduct research with laboratory animals. They hurled firecrackers at his house in the middle of the night and planted Molotov-cocktail-like explosives at other faculty houses, threatening to burn them to the ground. UCLA hired private security, but Ringach feared for his family. "Effectively immediately, I am no longer doing animal research," he finally wrote in an e-mail to his persecutors, pleading to be left alone. "Please don't bother my family anymore." The University of California regents have responded by suing UCLA Primate Freedom, the Animal Liberation Brigade, the Animal Liberation Front and five people allegedly affiliated with them. It is a tactic that the regents successfully employed nine years ago. The regents hope to win a permanent injunction similar to one granted against Last Chance for Animals in 1989. But some experts note that the regents now are battling more violent, Internet-savvy foes who thrive in online communities, post faculty "targets" on Web sites and upload how-to guides for their attacks....
Beef industry reeling from rising feed costs With 11,000 hungry mouths to feed, breakfast at the Weschenfelder Feedlot in Shepherd is measured in tons. Serving time's at 7 a.m. The cattle head to the trough where Dan Weschenfelder doles out the grub for three hours straight. Lately, the dinner bill's been getting bigger. Corn prices, which have more than doubled largely because of ethanol production, have the beef industry staggering. The price per pound for beef isn't rising nearly as quickly as feed costs, and nationally some ranchers are reducing the size of their herds. That reduction of cows to slaughter was the main reason cited by the world's largest meat producer, Tyson Foods, for shuttering a Kansas packing plant in January, leaving 1,500 middle-class workers jobless. Corn costs even drew the attention last week of President Bush, who told ethanol producers that they needed to tap other biofuel sources. The country now produces four times as much ethanol, roughly 6.4 billion gallons in 2007, as it made eight years ago. Much of that fuel is corn-based. Weschenfelder and others in the cattle industry contend they'd be better off if biofuel subsidies weren't driving up corn costs. "Corn is up and it's staying up and, of course, everybody knows that it happened when they started this ethanol stuff," Weschenfelder said. "Yes, it's my preferred feed. I feed up to 400 tons a day, depending on what we're doing. Right now we're feeding 75 tons a day, and corn's $225 a ton. Three years ago, I fed corn for $80 a ton."....

Kissing Off Canada What country has the world's largest oil reserves? Saudi Arabia? Iran? Nigeria? Venezuela? Wrong on all counts. The answer is Canada. And our neighbor to the north is worried we don't want it. Canada has an estimated 1.6 trillion barrels of oil on its territory, much of it locked in tough-to-excavate tar sands in the province of Alberta. By comparison, oil-rich Saudi Arabia has an estimated 270 billion barrels left. It isn't even close. Yet, according to the Financial Times of London, Canada's government recently sent U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates a letter of warning that it might not be able to sell the U.S. any of its oil, which the Pentagon desperately needs for national defense. For that, you can thank the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, passed with great gusto and self-righteousness by the Democratic Congress. Under Section 526 of that law, tar sands are considered to be an alternative fuel. But the law requires oil sold to the U.S. government and produced from alternative sources to emit fewer greenhouse gases than oil produced from conventional crude sources. That's a big problem. Estimates show that removing the highly sticky, coagulated oil found in tar sands produces as much as five times the amount of greenhouse gas as pumping from a conventional well. "Classifying the oil sands as a nonconventional fuel," said Tristan Landry, a spokesman for Canada's Embassy in Washington, "would unnecessarily complicate the integrated Canada-U.S. energy relationship." "Unnecessarily complicate" is putting it politely. Really, it's like someone dying of thirst but refusing to drink from a burbling spring just feet away. It makes absolutely no sense....

Texas ranchers, Army work together Cattle and cannon fire are a poor mix, but ranch families and the Army have been mixing them together on 200,000 acres at Fort Hood, Texas, for more than 50 years. Home of the III Corps and the 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood is the Army's largest armor training post, covering 217,000 acres just north of Killeen, Texas. The post was established in the early days of World War II when the Army was racing to prepare for war overseas and needed training bases quickly. So the War Department condemned the ranches and farms of some 300 families to create then-Camp Hood in the cedar-covered hill country between Austin and Waco. The Army expanded the post again during the Korean War (1950-53). "My family lost land both times," said Steve Manning, a rancher and member of the Central Texas Cattlemen's Association, an exclusive group of ranchers whose families were evicted to make Fort Hood. "When the Army expanded the post during the Korean War, it reached out to the landowners and agreed to let them continue to graze cattle on the land. It was sort of a package deal and we've been doing that since 1954." In Southeastern Colorado, the Army and area ranchers have been at odds for two years now over a plan to expand the 238,000-acre Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site northeast of Trinidad....
Indian River County Ranchers might get $9.5 million to settle land dispute Veteran cattle rancher Pat Corrigan says he and his family would rather accept millions of dollars from regional water managers to settle a flooding dispute than fight public sentiment against a proposed land trade. "We just got to where we said to heck with it, we've got to get this over with some time," Corrigan said Friday. Last summer, the Corrigans were ready to add almost 1,300 public-owned acres, known as Sand Lake, to their 9,000-acre ranch near Fellsmere and get a check for $657,000 in tax dollars from the St. Johns River Water Management District. The district was going to get 460 flooded acres from Corrigan's ranch in the trade — but also avoid lawsuits the family was considering after years of district operations flooding parts of the ranch. Indian River County officials filed a legal challenge in October with Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet, arguing the 1,300 acres of conservation land should not be classified as surplus and allowed to be traded away. Corrigan said the family decided to take a different approach last fall after tiring of public criticism and the slow progress of the deal....
Compensation sought by families over easements Does a property owner have rights to just compensation and clear title when railroad easements on one’s land are abandoned? Such is the question posed to the Federal Court of Claims in Washington, D.C., by several Cochise County families as they fight a federal law that took railroad easements across their lands and placed them in a state of limbo as the railroad and interested parties negotiated over the strips of land that could become public trails. The Rails-to-Trails Act was an amendment to earlier federal legislation that was initiated to put a hold on abandoned railroad line beds so the tracks could be replaced and service could resume if the railroad industry recovered. Railbanking, as it is called, allowed organizations and local governments to snap the rail beds up for use in the interim as public trails, said attorney Thor Hearne, from the firm Lathrop & Gage, L.C., in St. Louis, Mo., who is representing the families involved. Unfortunately, the law did not include compensation to the property owners for the public’s use of their lands. Over the past 20 years, the government has been the defendant in a number of civil suits filed by property owners who wanted just compensation for the loss of their lands. In many instances, they won their suits. Hearne cites a case known as Presault II that went before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in which the justices concluded that “the taking that resulted from the establishment of a recreational trail is properly laid at the doorstep of the federal government … That it was a valued public use is not the issue. We have a straightforward taking of private property for public use for which compensation must be paid.”....
Biologist withdraws rabbit claim A Montana biologist has withdrawn his claim in a recent study that a rabbit species has disappeared from the Yellowstone area. Joel Berger, a senior scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, said Thursday that he has been contacted by at least six biologists and naturalists refuting his conclusions about the white-tailed jack rabbit. He said they provided photos and anecdotal evidence the rabbit still lives in the area. "Yes, there were some left," Berger said. "I've got egg on the face, absolutely." Berger's study, published in January in the science journal Oryx, claimed the once-common rabbit had disappeared from the Yellowstone region sometime last century, for unknown reasons. His findings were written about by news organizations, including The Associated Press. On Thursday, Berger said he now believes the rabbits survive in small numbers within Yellowstone National Park and nearby Gardiner. He provided a copy of a letter he said will correct the record in Oryx's April issue....
Elk dying from eating lichen Scientists say elk are dying again in the Red Rim area of southern Wyoming, apparently from eating lichen. A biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department said three elk have died in the Red Rim southwest of Rawlins in the last week. The three were possibly poisoned from eating a rare form of lichen that causes them to lose the use of their legs. Scientists say they have not seen any hint that a catastrophic die-off is looming similar to one that killed hundreds of elk in the area in 2004. Three hundred animals from an 800-elk herd died after eating lichen in the same area four years ago. Scientists later determined that the lichen can kill elk, even though antelope can eat it with no ill effects.
Prairie Chicken Festival set for April 11-13 Once a year, the small eastern New Mexico community of Milnesand hosts the annual High Plains Prairie Chicken Festival, drawing spectators from near and far, to watch the mating dance of the lesser prairie chicken. Registration is now being taken for the seventh annual High Plains Prairie Chicken Festival which is slated for April 11-13. The three-day event centers around the lesser prairie chicken, an icon of the Southern Great Plains, as it congregates on traditional breeding grounds called “leks.,” according to a New Mexico Department of Game and Fish news release. Events will include birdwatching, talks with ranchers and biologists working to conserve prairie chickens, and education about the Southern Great Plains ecosystem through tours of prairie dog ecology, archeology, plant identification and playa lakes. In addition, field tours will be conducted on plants, soils and land use and there will be guided bird tours. Information will also be offered on photo tips, reptiles and amphibians and grassland habitat and restoration....Now ain't that something. A three day festival to watch birds screw.
Rosebud tribe tells feds to remove ferrets Several years ago, the federal government placed some endangered black-footed ferrets on Rosebud Sioux tribal land. Now, the tribe wants the feds to take them back. The tribal council has passed a resolution that tells two federal agencies to remove the animals and reimburse the tribe for its expenses. The council's action apparently involves its objection to a federal investigation of the tribe's prairie dog poisoning program. Prairie dogs are the ferrets' main food source but ranchers dislike prairie dogs for the damage they do to rangeland. The tribe's resolution says the federal government is threatening to prosecute tribal employees or agents carrying out the tribe's prairie dog management plan despite a lack of evidence that prairie dog poisoning killed any ferrets. Federal officials generally refuse comment.
Yellowstone bison killings may set record The number of Yellowstone National Park bison killed through disease management and hunting is on track to hit an all-time high this winter, after another 87 animals were captured Friday. The planned slaughter of those animals would bring to 1,090 the number of bison killed by government agencies and hunters this winter. The previous high was 1,084, in 1997. Wandering bison worry ranchers because many of the park's bison have brucellosis. If the disease spreads to cattle, it can cause cows to abort their calves. The mounting death toll in Yellowstone this winter underscores the difficulty government agencies have had in finding a lasting solution to the disease. A state-federal agreement signed in 2000 was intended to give bison more room to roam outside the park over time, but that has largely not happened....
Bringing in the Harvest Throughout the year, America’s farmers work hard to produce the staples of life – food, fiber, renewable forest products and crops for homegrown biofuels. While National Agriculture Day, observed on March 20, celebrates farmers’ and ranchers’ contributions to American society, many farmers will tell you the true celebration can’t really start till their job is done. The job? Making sure as many Americans as possible have the opportunity to enjoy the bounty produced on our nation’s farms and ranches. That’s why Farm Bureau and America’s Second Harvest – our nation’s premier network of food banks – team up on a program called Harvest for All. Through Harvest for All, spearheaded by Farm Bureau’s Young Farmer and Rancher participants, farmers across the United States work together to donate food, funds and people power to move us closer to reaching the goal of a hunger-free America....
Cattle Rustlers Still Thriving Out West Two guys and a four-door sedan. That's all it took for cattle rustlers to relieve dairy owner Pete Wiersma of three valuable calves. Once the province of outlaws and the bane of hardscrabble ranchers who grazed their cattle on the open range, cattle rustling has never gone away. Like the livestock industry, it's only gotten more efficient. In general, cattle rustling tends to increase whenever beef prices are high, said Larry Hayhurst, head of the Idaho State Patrol Division of brands. Because the price of cattle feed has been relatively high this year — making the cattle more expensive to raise and lowering the potential profit — the theft reports should be on a downswing. But in rural dairy regions — where milk cows can nearly always fetch a high price and methamphetamine use is becoming as much a part of the landscape as grain silos and milking barns — the rustling reports seem to stay fairly constant. The Idaho State Police gets between 300 and 500 reports of lost or missing cattle a year, Hayhurst said. The numbers have been consistent for about a decade. "Most of the rustlers are stealing for the money, the profit — whether it be to put food on the table or to trade for drugs," said Idaho State Police brand inspector Sean McCarthy....
Rural veterinarians scarce in New Mexico On a freezing morning last week, Michael Callahan was driving in the ice-packed Pecos Canyon when his truck started sliding backward down a steep hill. The longtime veterinarian put the truck in park, "but it just kept sliding," he said. Callahan finally had to chain the truck to a tree and call his client for help. Eventually, he got around to the reason he was out in the cold to begin with: castrating a horse. It's all in a day for Callahan and other rural veterinarians in New Mexico. Their patients run the gamut from hamsters to cows. They never know what to expect from day to day. "I enjoy what I do. I like the rural practice where it's always different," said Callahan, who owns the Pecos Valley Veterinary Hospital. But there are fewer rural veterinarians like him in the state and around the West. Eight New Mexico counties have no veterinarians, according to the American Veterinary Medicine Association. Six of the counties, with at least 25,000 or more cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens, have no veterinarians who work on food animals....
Longhorns in Luverne Saturday marked the fifth annual Prairie Rock Longhorn Sale in Luverne, and buyers and sellers came from as far as Montana and Wyoming for the opportunity to sell some stock and acquire new additions for their herds. Conducted at the Luverne Livestock Auction Barn, the special Texas Longhorn sale drew roughly 300 head of cattle. John Siebenahler, owner of Prairie Rock Ranch in rural Luverne, organizes the sale. Siebenahler raises longhorn cattle in both southwest Minnesota and South Dakota and said he probably has the largest longhorn herd in the Upper Midwest with close to 500 head. On the auction block were an assortment of bulls, cows, breeding heifers and feeder steers — including some older trophy steers with horn lengths of 90 to 110 inches from tip to tip, Siebenahler said. “We get consignors and buyers in the Upper Midwest, from Wyoming and Montana to Wisconsin, southern Iowa and Nebraska,” he added. “The biggest call is for ropers — people use them for roping or penning.”....
10-day ride boosts Cracker horse's chance for Florida honor Bless the Florida Cracker horse. Last week, a pair of horsemen finished up a 10-day ride to raise awareness about the breed -- and boosted a campaign to designate them the state's official Heritage Horse. Billy Ray Hunter and Carlton Dudley followed the path of Hernando de Soto, leaving from the Tampa area. The Cracker horse is genetically linked to the Spanish horses that made landfall with de Soto. While Hunter and Dudley were joined by riders and the media along the way, it would have been neat if the trail could have passed through Osceola and Polk counties. The Cracker horse owes a bunch to Osceola's ranchers -- including members of the Bronson, Whaley and Partin families. The small, agile horses hark back to days when the range was open. The horse was first introduced to Florida by Spanish explorers and were among the first horses to reach the continental United States. They are known for their unusual strength and endurance, herding instinct, quickness and fast walking gait....
Marlins take heat over hog-hunting hurler Could be a long season for the Florida Marlins, and not just because of the expected losses. The environmental group that saw 27 of its members arrested last month in a protest against FPL is telling the Marlins they need to rein in pitcher Logan Kensing, or else. What did the reliever do? The off-season rancher finds it rewarding to track wild hogs and coyotes with a helicopter hovering over his native Texas, then gun them down from above. "We want the Marlins to make him agree to stop," said the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition's co-chair, attorney Barry Silver. On Saturday, he sent a strongly worded letter to Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria. "They have 10 days from Monday to reprimand the player for behavior that isn't one of a role model. If they don't, we will be persistent. We'll infiltrate the fans and pull out signs. We'll picket. If we're willing to have 27 people arrested, it's obvious we're committed." In a Feb. 21 interview with The Palm Beach Post, Kensing talked about his hobby in these terms: "The pilot's pretty good. He gets right next to them. We spot them, he flies in sideways, glides and we shoot them." As a matter of fact, Kensing thinks it's so much fun that he now wants his own chopper....Congrats to the headline writer, I just love that "hog-hunting hurler." He could also be called "coyote-killing Kensing." Let's just hope he can pitch as good as he can shoot.
History in the soles of your shoes When you're trying to impress your socially prominent out-of-town guests, the last thing you want to do is let them fly into a public airport. So, if you've got the moolah and own the top of Lower Table Rock, you carve out a ¾-mile-long runway through the solidified lava, vernal pools and fairy shrimp, and charter an airplane or two to give everyone a chance at the most impressive landing of a lifetime. You let your visitors admire the view for a few minutes, then take them down on a drive by the river, where you keep them entertained and offer them a chance to purchase some quality real estate. The brain behind this operation in 1948 was John Day. For those who don't remember, Day was a popular local rancher, owner of a land development company and an enthusiastic outdoorsman. Day and two partners had partitioned some land near the Gold Ray Dam, called it the Table Rock Estates, constructed some luxury houses, and then invited a few Hollywood celebrities and executives to a three-day party. Only an adventurous few actually landed on the newly built airstrip on that first weekend in November. The rest felt much safer flying into the well-established 17-year-old Jackson County Airport. Ginger Rogers, who had bought a ranch near Shady Cove in 1941, served as hostess to the group, which, according to a Mail Tribune reporter, had left "most of the trappings and artificiality of Hollywood behind."....
Collectors wired for the barbs that won the West As a collectible, barbed wire has everything it needs - a wire guru, annual conventions and a special kind of wire that is the crown jewel of every collection, the coveted Dodge Star. But recent wildfires in Texas have threatened the supply of collectible antique wire. There are six state associations in the United States for people who find beauty in the sharp-edged spools of wire that were once strung across millions of acres of land, and each hosts its own yearly barbed wire show. There are more than 2,000 varieties of the stuff, and the rarest can fetch nearly $1,000 for an 18-inch strand. The Devil’s Rope Barbed Wire Museum, one of two barbed wire museums, has roughly 1,300 different types of barbed wire on display, according to estimates by Gipson, manager and curator of the museum for the last 14 years. The Barbed Wire Identification Encyclopedia is the primary resource for collectors, and Harold L. Hagemeier, an author and former chairman of the Antique Barbed Wire Society, updates it whenever a new wire is discovered. A hero in barbed wire lore, John Warne Gates, better known as “Bet-A-Million” Gates, was one of barbed wire’s luminaries. In 1876, Gates bet a group in San Antonio that he could build a wire pen on the grounds of the Alamo that could contain a group of longhorn cattle. Fencing materials were scarce in Texas and cattle usually roamed freely - the ability to fence them in pens would provide a great benefit to ranchers seeking to keep track of their longhorns. Gates’ product, a type of barbed wire he brought with him from Illinois, the birthplace of barbed wire, met the challenge, and he became a millionaire overnight, according to the legend....

Received from American Land Rights Association

House Vote on 26,000,000 NLCS BLM Acres Wed. 3-12

...Congress seeks to codify new NLCS Land Grab -- (From Federal Parks and Recreation Newsletter); Seventeen House members from both parties teamed up in April, 2007 to introduce legislation (HR 2016) that would give the National Landscape Conservation System official Congressional certification.

The system, administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), was created administratively by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt during the Clinton years.

In June 2000 the Interior Department under the guidance of former Secretary Babbitt established the 26 million acre NLCS in BLM to protect what they called special areas.

The NLCS consists of major conservation areas in 12 western states, including 15 national monuments, 13 national conservation areas, Steens Mountain area in Oregon, Headwaters Forest Reserve in northern California, 36 wild and scenic rivers, 148 wilderness areas, 4,264 miles of national trails, and more than 600 wilderness study areas.

Making the NLCS permanent threatens recreation, access, grazing, mining, oil and gas and many other uses. Gradually these areas will be turned into parks with traditional uses strangled and roads cut off. Private property owners and inholders in the areas can say so long to their property rights. You will see new areas nominated for NLCS status gradually eroding BLM multiple-use.

Four Democratic senators introduced counterpart legislation (S 1139) in April, 2007. Said chief sponsor of the Senate bill, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), "Given the broad public support for these areas, I expect this bill to be non-controversial and it is my hope that it will be able to move quickly through the Congress and enactment into law." Bingaman chairs the Senate Energy Committee. Non-Controversial?

The four lead House sponsors of HR 2016, all co-chairs of an NLCS caucus, are Reps. Mary Bono (R-CA), Rick Renzi (R-AZ), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Jim Moran (D-VA). Reps. Bono and Renzi need to receive lots of contacts. The others are not likely to change their position but should receive as many calls as possible.

Creating this massive new conservation area program (read land grab) will take money especially from the National Park Service that is way behind in deferred maintenance and other uses. It will also take money from vast areas of BLM lands. The NLCS will eventually become a huge new agency with thousands of additional bureaucrats added over time.

Any promises made when these areas like Steens Mountain and the Missouri Breaks National Monument and all the other affected monuments as well as the Grand Staircase National Monument and many others will be conveniently forgotten as more and more regulations are added.

The NLCS will convert millions of acres of now accessible BLM land into park-like areas with park-like regulations and will be gradually managed like a park. Gradually existing uses will be strangled out of existence.

Supporters of the NLCS insist they are not competing with other conservation programs for fiscal 2008 appropriations. One said, "We do want to see a shift in the funding priorities of the BLM itself. Specifically, the oil and gas program of the BLM has become the dominant program of the BLM at the expense of some the best lands and waters of the American West."

It is the nature of the Congressional appropriations beast that money for all programs in the Interior appropriations bill comes out of the same pot and the programs compete with each other.

One of the sponsors of the bill to codify the NLCS, Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO), said the measure would not affect management of lands or existing rights or public access. Added Salazar, "The bill does, however, recognize that these landscapes are of great interest to the American people and should be managed to protect their values."

Does anyone believe setting up the NLCS would not change the management of these areas? If that were true, why would Congress want to do it?

American Land Rights will be sending out thousands of faxes, letters and e-mails to alert landowners, rural communities and allies about the danger and work to build more allies in Congress to stop the NLCS from passing. ALRA needs your support to defeat the massive new National Landscape Conservation System.

It is critical that private property owners and Federal land users make a big push now to head off this attack on private property and access to Federal lands. It is so much cheaper to fight it early than to wait. Hit it hard now. Call, write and fax your Congressman. You must overwhelm his or her office with calls between now and 5:00 pm Wednesday, March 12th. You may call any Congressman at (202) 225-3121....

WRANGLER TIMED EVENT CHAMPIONSHIP

Been going to this event since 1992, taking my family and joining my uncle Curley McCarey and his family. Curley will be 92 this May and was still ridin' and ropin' at 90.

Curley is the one who encouraged me to return to college after I got hurt steer wrestling. He's also the one who made sure I had a construction job with Fluor Corp. each time I went broke going to school. No Curley, no degree, no legislative assistant, no Secretary of Agriculture and no The Westerner.

Curley recently had a minor stroke and was unable to attend the WTEC. I can't travel alone and my son couldn't get off work, so I wasn't able to attend either.

I didn't get to see Curley this weekend, but I do want to publicly thank him for all he has meant to me and my family.

Hang in there Curley, and I hope to see you soon.

DANIEL GREEN IS A TWO-TIME WORLD CHAMPION

GUTHRIE, Okla., Sunday, March 9th, 2008 – Daniel Green of Oakdale, California came into the fifth performance on Sunday with a 31-second lead on the “King of Rodeo” Trevor Brazile and a field of World Champions. Not only did Green win his second title and hold off the world’s best cowboys, but shattered the arena record in the average set one-year ago by Brazile. Green posted a 276.1 over 25 head of livestock worth $57,000.00 and joined the elite fraternity of multiple-time world champions at the 24th Annual Wrangler Timed Event Championship this weekend at the Lazy E Arena.

Green had a stellar weekend and used consistent runs, great horses, and world class helpers to rise above his fellow nineteen competitors that made up one of the greatest fields of contestants ever assembled to compete for the prestigious “Iron-Man” title. Brazile, after winning his record fifth title last year, finished the event as the runner-up, recorded the fastest over-all go-round time, and placed again in the 5th round for an event total of $41,000.00 bringing Brazile’s career WTEC earnings to $508,500.00. Keeping on the west coast, Los Alamos, California cowboy Casey Branquinho took home third place honors and earned $15,000.00.

Each round of competition featured excitement with the leaders changing after every run, with only seconds separating them. The champion wasn’t determined until the last rope was thrown, the flag was dropped and the clock stopped. The Wrangler Timed Event Championship was developed by the Lazy E in 1985 to determine the best all-around timed event cowboy in the world — the man who could stand out in more than his specialty event, the man who could be consistent in all five timed events. The majority of today’s professional rodeo cowboys no longer compete in multiple events, but specialize in one, possibly two. This event attracted the biggest names in the rodeo industry that correlated into 38 World Championship titles, in addition to over 23,000 fans representing 48 states from across the country! Some of the cowboys that competed for the $150,000.00 purse include: eight-time NFR qualifier, Cash Myers; 2005 PRCA All Around World Champion, Ryan Jarrett; World Champion Steer Wrestler Luke Branquinho; veterans’ Jimmie Cooper and Paul Tierney; and new stars such as the 2007 PRCA Runner-Up World Champion All-Around, Josh Peek.

The Wrangler Timed Event Championship is sponsored by Wrangler in conjunction with, Ariat Boots, Coors, Priefert Ranch & Rodeo Equipment, Cross Bar Gallery, Boyd Gaming, Environmental Management, Dodge, John Vance Motors, Gist Silversmiths, the AQHA, Cactus Saddlery, the USTRC, Hot Heels, Clear Channel Radio, The Oklahoman, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco, News 9, the Best Western Edmond, the Whitten Inn – OKC, and the Fairfield Inn & Suites – Edmond.

The 2008 Wrangler Timed Event Championship is a Lazy E Production. For more information on the Wrangler Timed Event Championship or other Lazy E events, contact the Lazy E Arena, 9600 Lazy E Drive, Guthrie, OK 73044, (405) 282-RIDE, (800) 595-RIDE or visit www.lazye.com.

2008 Wrangler Timed Event Championship Standings

Average
1.) Daniel Green, Oakdale, CA............... 276.1.... $50,000.00
2.) Trevor Brazile, Decatur, TX............. 298.4.... $25,000.00
3.) Casey Branquinho, Los Alamos, CA.. 349.2.... $15,000.00
4.) Cade Swor, Chico, TX...................... 374.9.... $10,000.00
5.) Josh Peek, Pueblo, CO..................... 390.2.... $7,500.00
6.) K.C. Jones, Burlington, WY............. 390.5.... $5,000.00
7.) Chance Kelton, Mayer, AZ............... 398.4.... $4,500.00
8.) Kyle Lockett, Visalia, CA................. 429.6.... $3,000.00

Fastest Rounds
1.) Trevor Brazile, Decatur, TX.......... 44.6 (Round 3) $10,000.00
2.) Trevor Brazile, Decatur, TX.......... 48.1 (Round 5) $7,000.00
3.) K.C. Jones, Burlington, WY........... 49.2 (Round 5) $5,000.00
4.) Daniel Green, Oakdale, CA ........... 50.9 (Round 3) $4,000.00
5.) Luke Branquinho, Los Alamos, CA. 51.1 (Round 1) $3,000.00
6.) Steve Duhon, Sonora, TX.............. 51.7 (Round 1) $2,000.00

Arena Record Bonuses
Daniel Green, Oakdale, CA 276.1 – Fastest Average Record $3,000.00
Scott Snedecor, Uvalde, TX 9.4 – Steer Roping Record $3,000.00

Total Payout: $156,000.00

2008 Contestants
TREVOR BRAZILE Decatur, TX
K.C. JONES Burlington, WY
KYLE LOCKETT Visalia, CA
DANIEL GREEN Oakdale, CA
JESS TIERNEY Hermosa, SD
SCOTT SNEDECOR Uvalde, TX
PAUL TIERNEY Oral, SD
KYLE HUGHES Olney Springs, CO
LUKE BRANQUINHO Los Alamos, CA
CHANCE KELTON Mayer, AZ
JIMMIE COOPER Monument, NM
CASEY BRANQUINHO Los Alamos, CA
STEVE DUHON Sonora, TX
CASH MYERS Athens, TX
CADE SWOR Chico, TX
RYAN JARRETT Summerville, GA
JOSH PEEK Pueblo, CO
JAKE HANNUM Ogden, UT
BRET FLEMING Worden, MT
BEAU FRANZEN Sidney, MT

Rejected by eHarmony dot com
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

By Julie Carter

Never did I think I'd know anybody personally that would sign up for a "perfect match" on eHarmony, let alone have the outfit tell them, "Sorry, no can do."

However, the news of the rejection was made public this week.

After much sport at the expense of the rejected lad, I pondered the situation further.

I'm not sure what kind of questions an online dating service asks, but if truth is forthcoming, I suppose there are a number of folks with traits that make them unmatchable.

Cowboys, as a rule, most definitely have some traits that make them charming characters but not always desirable as "a keeper."

While having skills that mark them "cowboy," they often don't have much finesse in other trades.

For example, there is Billy.

Billy had gone to the Texas Panhandle to work in one of the feedlots.

As it does in that part of country, the winter got much too cold for him (and anybody else in their right mind to be horseback riding cattle pens.)

He recalled his grandmother's fondness for warmth and that she liked it in the old folk's home where they keep it about 85 degrees all day.

So he went to the local old folks home and got a job as the maintenance man. He didn't know anything about maintenance beyond how to fix floats on cattle waters, but that didn't slow him down.

There were a few incidents, but the old folk's home didn't actually fire him until somebody flushed a toilet and the lights went out.

Billy is now back home in south Texas.

A prospective date might scowl at the fact that Billy's rope horse, Hombre, is his drinking buddy. Hombre is about 30 years old, but Billy figures he only has to run about five seconds at a time, so he continues to use him in the roping arena.

Hombre can hold his liquor a little better than Billy, but it might simply be that relative to his size, he doesn't get quite the load.

The recent eHarmony reject received a follow-up letter from eHarmony explaining some of their issues for dismissal.

In part, it read:

"A guy in a skirt is not attractive, even if you call it a kilt in reference to whatever it is you wanna-be Scottish boys wear when you want a breeze around parts usually covered by jean-wearing men.

"The picture of you with the potato in your pants was a new wrinkle for us. We weren't sure what you intended by the location of said spud, but we advise that putting it in the front instead of the back would provide a more suggestive appearance.

"The pickup line, 'Hey Baby! Want some of this?' went out years ago. In fact, it was never in.

"In reference to your last date, there is the reminder that if you holler 'put out or walk,' you should be in your own vehicle.

"We do think there is someone out there for you. Our suggestion is a mail-order bride from Russia with a moustache who has never met you prior to the nuptials.

"Thank you so much for the application. We will frame it and keep it as a reminder that we were wrong. We can't help everyone."

I'm thinking that most eHarmony rejects will resort to the old-fashioned way of picking up girls - buying them a beer at last call just before closing time.

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

OPINION

McCain, Republicans, and "Global Warming" Think you can sidestep the issue of “global warming,” simply by voting Republican? Think again. Now that Senator John McCain is officially the Republican nominee for President, global warming is, whether anyone likes it or not, an “issue” for both of our nation’s dominant political parties. McCain has been gravitating towards this issue for several years, and made his mark with it during his chairing of the U.S. Senate hearings on global warming back in 2004. Today, Mr. McCain articulates a position on the matter that is far more moderate and reasonable, and far more hospitable to our free market economy, than those of his two Democratic competitors. The question remains whether or not American voters, Republican voters in particular, will embrace McCain’s vision...Obama and McCain have both essentially abandoned the term “global warming” in favor of “climate change” (Clinton has not made this shift), and all three of the candidates have connected their “climate agendas” to the pursuit of alternative energy sources. But from there, the candidates diverge. Not surprisingly, Mrs. Clinton is proposing a dramatic, if not radical level of government intervention with America’s automobile manufacturers, and both she and Obama seem ready to bow to the United Nations’ environmental policy dictates. But fortunately, McCain casts a very different vision. ....
Protectionism in the Name of Environmentalism Amidst the flurry of economic topics and data being discussed at the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change in New York City on March 2-4, a point leaped out twice to grab my attention. It had to with international trade, and environmental taxes and/or regulation. Specifically, it was noted that there's more talk coming out of Europe about using trade sanctions to punish nations that are deemed high emitters of carbon-dioxide, including developing nations and the United States. One speaker was concerned that this could simply become an excuse for protectionism. Of course, this development should not surprise anyone. After all, anti-free traders in the U.S. have been pushing for some time now to have labor and environmental standards included in trade accords. That is, that the U.S. should impose its own regulatory requirements regarding labor and environmental issues on other nations. For some, such demands come from an honest belief that this would be a good thing, while others simply use it to disguise bad old trade protectionism. Either way, the economic realities do not change. First, developing nations simply do not possess the wealth and productivity to impose these costly regulations on their economies. It would be economic suicide. Second, this would serve to constrain international trade, and thereby constrain global economic growth. Third, the worst case scenario is that such environmental regulations serve to spark a trade war, which, as history shows, would mean outright economic decline....
Capping Emissions, Capping Growth What's often forgotten in the debate over climate change is economics. That is, reality gets largely ignored when it comes to energy consumption and economic growth. The fundamental issue is that greater economic growth and development is tightly correlated with greater energy consumption and more carbon-dioxide emissions. Quite simply, capping or slashing global CO2 emissions, as many favor, means having to cap or slash economic growth. This core point was addressed by various economists speaking at the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change in New York City on March 2-4 hosted by the Heartland Institute. For example, Vaclav Klaus is an economist, who also happens to be the president of the Czech Republic. He was just re-elected in February. Klaus spoke on the morning of March 3, and highlighted the link between economic growth and emissions (direct quotes from text of prepared speech): "As an economist, I have to start with the obvious. Carbon dioxide emissions do not fall from heaven. Their volume is a function of GDP per capita, of the number of people and of the emissions intensity, which is the amount of CO2 emissions per dollar of GDP... What this relationship tells is simple: If we really want to decrease emissions ... we have to either stop the economic growth and thus block further rise in the standard of living, or stop the population growth, or make miracles with the emissions intensity."....
Oil Reserve Can Wait ...Barring domestic drilling, Bush said his energy policy was focused on "renewables," such as ethanol, and "conservation." This thin-beer policy is spelled out in detail on the Energy Department's home page, which looks more like the Sierra Club's Web site. There, you'll find a campaign called "Change a light, change the world," which encourages Americans to switch out their incandescent bulbs to energy-saving compact fluorescents. Somehow we doubt this will change the world. Oil apparently is a dirty word at DOE; you won't find it mentioned anywhere on its home page. Focusing policy on biofuels such as corn-based ethanol isn't going to solve the problem. In fact, it's making it worse. Food prices are skyrocketing alongside gas, thanks to the ethanol boom. The price of corn has doubled in the past year, which has driven up feed costs for poultry, beef and pork. What's so maddening is that while DOE is obsessed with the long-term prospects of renewables and conservation, it could be easing energy prices right now by just changing its Strategic Petroleum Reserve policy. The administration refuses to stop withdrawing oil from a tight market to fill the reserve, even though doing so is driving prices higher. Goldman estimates that filling the reserve has raised oil prices by as much as $6 a barrel and 25 cents a gallon at the pump....

NUCLEAR NEW MEXICO

Cannon considered for nuclear reactor The secretary of the Air Force says Cannon Air Force Base could be the future home of a nuclear reactor, but other Air Force officials cautioned Friday that it’s too early to speculate on location, even if a reactor is built. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne was quoted in a copyrighted story by InsideDefense saying, “The thoughts are, right now, we’re talking about Cannon out in New Mexico and Mountain Home up in Idaho.” InsideDefense is an Internet news service covering defense and the aerospace industry. The story also reported Air Force officials plan to sign a letter of intent with members of the nuclear power industry by November in the hopes of ensuring “at least one small, next-generation nuclear-power plant on an Air Force base in the coming decades,” will be maintained by the next presidential administration. The Air Force said U.S. Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Pete Domenici, R-N.M., suggested nuclear energy to the military branch about a year ago and they began exploring the possibility....
N.M. among sites considered for uranium enrichment factory A company is considering building a $2 billion uranium enrichment factory in southern New Mexico, the same general area where another company already is building one. The proposed factory would enrich uranium provided by utilities to fuel their commercial nuclear reactors, said Nancy Lang, external communications manager of Areva Inc., based in Bethesda, Md. Areva Inc., a subsidiary of Paris-based Areva, also is mulling possible sites in Idaho, Ohio, Texas and Washington state, she said Friday. The company hopes to select a site "in the coming weeks," said Lang, who declined to pinpoint the New Mexico site under consideration. Areva Inc. would employ about 1,000 people during the factory's construction and about 250 people when the facility is in regular operation, she said. The market for nuclear fuel is expected to increase as global warming concerns make nuclear energy more popular. Mining companies have been showing renewed interest in uranium in the Grants area of northwestern New Mexico as the price has hovered around $90 to $100 a pound. Louisiana Energy Services is building its $1.5 billion National Enrichment Facility on one square mile of desert in southeastern New Mexico five miles east of the small community of Eunice. The factory will make fuel for commercial nuclear power plants....