Schwarzenegger blasts White House over environment It was purely coincidence but the release of a report on how businesses are using technology to reduce their carbon footprint came just as the price of a barrel of crude on the NYMEX topped $129 for the first time. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, flanked by a coterie of CEOs featured in the report, also used the occasion on Tuesday to shine the spotlight on private sector green initiatives. At the same time, he hammered the Bush administration's attentiveness to environmental issues. "Washington is asleep at the wheel," he said in a brief appearance at the San Francisco offices of the Environmental Defense Fund. Schwarzenegger, whose position on environmental questions is far to the left of his colleagues in the Republican Party, also blasted the administration for meddling in a long-running dispute over controlling tailpipe emissions in California....
Google Earth app shows effects of climate change The Met Office Hadely Center, British Antarctic Survey, and the U.K. government on Monday introduced a Google Earth application that visualizes the anticipated temperatures changes from climate change over the next 100 years. The animation uses a color scheme to show the differences in temperatures layed over a Google Earth image. People can also click on icons on the image to get more on how the data was compiled, stories from people affected by climate change, and information on the projected regional impact of climate change. The initiative was launched by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the Google Zeitgeist conference on Monday. vnunet quoted British Environment Secretary Hilary Benn saying that the collaboration was done to help people understand climate change better. "This project shows the reality of climate change using estimates of the change in the average temperature where they live, and the impact it will have on people's lives all over the world, including here in Britain," she said, according to the vnunet report....
Cap McCain's hot air John McCain's proposed "cap-and-trade" program is a disease far worse than the alleged global warming his proposal seeks to cure. His proposed program would not reduce carbon emissions; it would increase the price of energy; it would expand the reach, power and cost of government; and it would push the U.S. another step closer to government control of the sources of production. Simply put, his program would empower government to set an arbitrary limit on the amount of energy every industry could use by setting an arbitrary "cap" on the amount of carbon every industry could emit. Emissions beyond this arbitrary limit, or "cap," would be taxed. The subject industry could avoid the tax only by reducing emission – by reducing the input of fossil fuel – or by purchasing so-called "carbon credits" from other industries that have not used their arbitrary limit. Either way, the additional cost to the industry will be passed on to the consumer as a part of the cost of production. In theory, the industry will not reduce its overall energy input, but will replace a portion of the fossil fuel with non-fossil fuel energy sources such as solar, wind, or whatever. These energy sources, if available, are more expensive than fossil fuels, and the additional costs will be passed on to consumers. These costs pale in comparison to the increase in the cost of government required to implement the program. Government will have to establish a carbon limit for every business within every target industry. Government will design and require a method of reporting carbon use. Government will necessarily expand the bureaucracy needed to review and input this data into another government computer. Government will create a new bureaucracy to monitor the industries to insure that they are not cheating on their reports. And, of course, there will need to be a new enforcement agency....
Critics: Polar bear plan must fight global warming Conservation groups returned to court to challenge Bush administration efforts to help save the polar bear, saying federal officials' refusal to include steps against global warming violates the Endangered Species Act. In court documents filed late Friday, the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups asked a federal judge to reject Interior Department actions that were announced last week. Polar bears are threatened with extinction in many areas because of the melting of their sea ice habitat. The groups say greenhouse gas emissions have led to rapid melting in the Arctic. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, facing a court deadline because of the groups' earlier lawsuit, had announced Wednesday that polar bears would be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Among the steps he proposed to help them were increasing research and working with Canada to help the bears survive in the wild. But he rejected the addition of broad steps to reduce greenhouse gases, saying he would not allow the Endangered Species Act to be "misused" to regulate global climate change. Kassie Siegel, climate director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the administration's proposal "violates both logic and the law" because it did not address the primary threat to polar bears. The listing of polar bears under the law is significant, she acknowledged, but the groups want them classified as endangered, a more serious category than threatened....
BLM mulls grazing, drilling limits in northeast Wyoming The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has warned energy companies and ranchers that it's considering restrictions on new grazing and energy development in the Powder River Basin to try to reduce damage to critical sage grouse areas. The BLM's field office in Buffalo sent notice on Monday to the land users warning them that new grazing and energy activities could be halted for a few years while the agency plans how to accommodate sage grouse. Scientific studies have found the grouse population in the Powder River Basin has dropped in recent years. The federal government is studying whether to protect the birds under the Endangered Species Act. Chris Hanson, manager of the BLM's Buffalo Field Office, said the restrictions could affect drilling plans not yet approved as well as grazing lease transfers and renewals. He said coal projects could also be delayed while the agency considers the sage grouse issue. Paul Beels, assistant manager of the BLM's Buffalo Field Office, said the restrictions could limit grazing and drilling on grouse breeding areas, migration corridors and other critical habitat. He said the areas are estimated to cover 19 percent of the BLM lands in the area....
Staffing for fires worries senator Sen. Dianne Feinstein is concerned the U.S. Forest Service has too many firefighter vacancies heading into the fire season. A letter to Feinstein from Mark Rey, the U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary who oversees the Forest Service, shows that there are 363 vacancies in Southern California out of 4,432 positions. Feinstein, D-Calif., said she is concerned that many of the vacancies are among midlevel firefighters. "These are key fire leadership positions. Without them, some fire engines might sit idle just when they're needed most. This is unacceptable. We simply cannot afford anything less than a fully staffed firefighting corps in California," she said in a statement. Casey Judd, business manager for the Federal Wildland Fire Service Association, said that Rey, in his letter, backed off from an April 1 commitment to Feinstein that all positions would be staffed in time for the start of the state's fire season. "I want to reiterate that we feel ... we have the resources to meet our firefighting mission this year," said Jason Kirchner, a spokesman for the Forest Service's California region....
Mining law reform stalls The General Mining Act of 1872 turned 136 this month, despite a hard push by environmental groups and congressional Democrats to replace the measure. Reform supporters had high hopes the Old West-era law would be updated and royalties would be placed on mining operations for the first time. One bill passed by the House would generate about $40 million annually to clean up abandoned mines that pose environmental hazards in the West. “We’re in a period now with exceptionally high metal prices; companies are making billionaire dollars,” said Dusty Horwitt, public lands senior analyst for the Environmental Working Group. “Now is the time for change,” he said. A dispute over how much the royalty should be and who should pay, however, continues to bedevil reform efforts in the Senate. Although a number of Senate Democrats back broad reform, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has opposed efforts to impose royalties on existing mine operations, as the House bill would do. Few issues are as personal for Reid: His father was a gold miner and his state’s economy depends heavily on the industry....
NM judge to consider legality of endangered falcon decision A decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate the northern aplomado falcon as a nonessential, experimental population in two Western states stemmed from "political, top-down pressure," a lawyer for an environmental group argued Tuesday in federal court. WildEarth Guardians, along with a handful of other groups, is suing the Fish and Wildlife Service and The Peregrine Fund, saying the designation violated federal policy and stripped the bird of needed protections under the Endangered Species Act. The environmentalists are asking U.S. District Judge William Johnson to declare the designation illegal and make the agency reconsider the bird's status in New Mexico and Arizona. They also want Johnson to force the agency to respond to a petition seeking critical habitat in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. The falcon was listed as endangered in 1986. It's range once covered much of the Southwest and northern Mexico but experts have said its numbers dwindled due to pesticides, human activities and habitat change. The Fish and Wildlife Service designated the falcons as an experimental population in New Mexico and Arizona in 2006, clearing the way for The Peregrine Fund to begin eleasing captive-bred falcons in the Chihuahuan grasslands of southern New Mexico as part of a reintroduction effort....
Kane County should remove signs as fed court orders What part of "no" doesn't Kane County understand? Last year, U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins told the county: No, you cannot lay claim to any trail or roadway through federal land simply by telling the Bureau of Land Management you have a right of way. Still, Kane County refused to remove its road signs encouraging off-highway vehicle use on trails in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and other public land where the BLM had prohibited OHVs in order to protect fragile areas. The county claimed to own the "roads," some of which are little more than cowpaths, but had failed to prove those claims. Last week, U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell said "no" again to Kane County's illegal signs. She ruled that the 39 signs violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution which states that federal law supercedes local law. The signs must come down in 20 days. It's time for Kane County Commission Chairman Mark Habbeshaw and his fellow commissioners to comply. After years of quixotic legal challenges, funded by all Utah taxpayers, enough is enough. The county disputed the authority of the BLM and said it owned the roads by virtue of a 2005 federal judge's ruling that made state law the standard for deciding ownership of roads on federal land. But state law dictates that each and every road claim under RS2477, the Civil War-era mining law that gave local governments the right to build roads over federal lands, must be proven in court....
Panic in the Parks: Why the Public Lands Will Change Memorial Weekend is a time for remembrance and a time when American families gather for picnics in many of America’s public parks. But what many Americans do not know is that our public parks and other protected areas are in trouble – and the trouble goes far deeper than the usual business of too many cars and careless campers. It’s a problem compounded by climate change and a curious policy straitjacket that hampers efforts to respond to it. So far the climate-change impacts are fairly modest – the bears haven’t started migrating north in search of cooler neighborhoods and the redwoods haven’t perished from drought – but they are serious enough. One of the most endangered parks is Glacier in northern Montana, where the glaciers have been disappearing at an alarming rate. In 1850 the park contained 150 glaciers; now it has 27, and there is talk about finding another name for it. Glacier and its neighboring Canadian park, Waterton, are also losing trees to a beetle that is rapidly munching its way northward. The mountain pine beetle loves warmer winters and lodgepole pines, and its advance threatens millions of acres; the Canadian Ministry of Forests has projected that if the infestation continues the hungry beetles will have destroyed more than one billion cubic meters of pine by 2015. That’s the equivalent in volume to about 400 Great Pyramids....
Investigators dig for bodies at Manson refuge Investigators delicately dug with shovels in the desert heat Tuesday in a painstaking hunt for possible victims of Charles Manson and his followers at a ranch where they hid after a 1969 killing spree. The scientists and crime scene investigators working at Barker Ranch started by slicing thin layers of dirt off the top of a 3-by-6-foot area — trying not to disturb any evidence of human remains. The spot was chosen for the exploratory excavation after forensic technology and a cadaver-seeking police dog indicated disturbed soil and evidence of decomposition, said Sgt. Jeff Hollowell of the Inyo County Sheriff's Department, which was overseeing the investigation. The nearly 20 scientists, law enforcement officials and National Park rangers are camping in the high desert mountains bordering Death Valley for the duration of the dig. The National Park Service has closed the ranch to the public for the duration of the dig....
COLORADO STATE RESEARCHER STUDIES IMPACTS OF HIKING AND MOUNTAINEERING ON LONGS PEAK The history of hiking, mountaineering and technical climbing on Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park and the impact of these recreational activities on the mountain's natural and cultural resources are part of a new study by a Colorado State University researcher. Beginning this summer, Ruth M. Alexander, a CSU history professor, will work with graduate research assistants and staff at Rocky Mountain National Park to determine how hiking, mountaineering and climbing have changed since 1925 and how they have impacted cultural and natural resources on 14,259-foot Longs Peak. This includes studying the damage caused to geological resources from technical climbing, litter and soil erosion. "We will be looking at how and why people have engaged in recreation on the peak and affected its cultural and natural resources since 1925. Our goal is to offer information that will help park staff develop management plans that protect Longs Peak and simultaneously allow people to enjoy the beauty and recreational challenges it offers," Alexander said. The modern history of recreation and its impact on Longs Peak have never been systematically explored....
The life and death of a wolf A wolf died the other day in Wyoming. Along with three others, it was shot and killed on the first day that wolves in most of the state lost the protection of the Endangered Species Act. These were legal kills made by people simply because they could. Nothing more was required of them but to report the kills to state officials -- no license, no fees, no restrictions. For sportsmen, one of the proudly held rules is: "Know Your Target." What did these hunters know about their targets? One of the four dead wolves was a female that may have been pregnant. Two of the males were unknown and will be remembered simply as body count numbers in the West's war on wolves. But one wolf has a history known to many throughout the region. To some he was "Limpy," to others he was "The Wanderer." Officially, he was 253M, the 253rd wolf to be radio-collared in the Greater Yellowstone area since wolves were reintroduced in the mid-90s. 253M was born in April 2000 into the Druid Peak Pack, whose territory encompasses Yellowstone National Park's Lamar Valley. His father was likely 21M, a leader of renown and a story unto himself. 21M was one of the first generation of wolves born in Yellowstone in more than 60 years....
Congressional Committee to Hear About Mexican Wolf Mismanagement Retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator David Parsons will testify tomorrow in an oversight hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee on the mismanagement of the Mexican wolf recovery program. The hearing will begin Wednesday, May 21, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, and will take place in Room 1324 of the Longworth House Office Building. It will also be webcast live on the House Natural Resource Committee's Web site at: http://resourcescommittee.house.gov. The hearing, titled The Danger of Deception: Do Endangered Species Have a Chance? will include, in addition to Parsons, other witnesses speaking on the plight of endangered right whales, spotted owls, and imperiled invertebrates. It will also include new findings from an ongoing investigation by the Government Accountability Office into political interference in endangered species recovery programs. According to Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, the Mexican gray wolf has been subject to shameless political mismanagement, and that has resulted in the suppression of the sole wild population. “The federal government shoots and traps wolves despite scientists’ urgent recommendations to let the wolves alone,” said Robinson. “The wolves need to be able to raise their pups in peace and contribute to the balance of nature.”....
Recovery plan needed for endangered jaguar In an effort to dampen controversy over construction of a wall along the United States border with Mexico, the Bush administration has officially decided not to develop a recovery plan for an endangered species that crosses the border — the American jaguar. Recovery plans, written by teams of scientists and interested citizens, enumerate how many animals or plants and in what distribution would constitute recovery — the point at which a creature has moved away from the brink of extinction and is secure enough to be taken off the endangered species list. Recovery plans also specify actions to achieve recovery. When jaguars were placed on the endangered species list in the United States in 1997, the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to develop a recovery plan or designate critical habitat for them, both required by the Endangered Species Act. Its rationale for not protecting habitat? "Identification of this species' habitat preferences will be addressed through the recovery process," the service promised. Yet there has been no recovery process. Instead, the interagency Jaguar Conservation Team, which in 1997 pledged to "coordinate protection of jaguar habitat," has not opposed construction of the border wall, much less addressed the accelerating loss of jaguar habitat due to urban sprawl, livestock grazing, strip mining and other developments....
Judge nixes part of water law allowing property taxes As Nebraska tries to avoid paying millions of dollars in damages to Kansas and curbing irrigation along the Republican River, a judge on Tuesday struck down part of a state law designed to help Nebraska comply with a three-state water compact. Lancaster County District Judge Paul Merritt ruled that the Legislature was wrong last year when it gave natural resources districts in the heavily irrigated river basin the authority to set property taxes. The money was to be spent on measures to help the state comply with the water agreement, including buying water from farmers to send to Kansas via the Republican River. Merritt ruled that the property taxes authorized by lawmakers violate a portion of the state constitution that bars the Legislature from passing laws that give certain people or groups special privileges. One of the arguments posed by the property owners was that the law created a "closed class" of natural resources districts in the basin that were the only ones entitled to use the taxing authority granted by the Legislature. Merritt said it's not "reasonably probable" that the state would enter into other, multistate water compacts that would qualify for the type of taxing authority that was granted by the Legislature in 2007. He used remarks by an assistant attorney general and a state senator as evidence, quoting them near the time the law was considered that it was unlikely Nebraska would ever enter into another compact of that nature....
Farm Bill's Subsidy Costs May Rise A major new program in the recently enacted farm bill could increase taxpayer-financed payments to farmers by billions of dollars if high commodity prices decline to more typical levels, administration and congressional budget officials said yesterday. Since the amount of the subsidy for 2009 is tied to recent record prices, farmers could reap a windfall if prices drop suddenly. "I don't think many people on the House side who voted for the farm bill realized there were $16 billion in potential higher costs in there," said Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Conner. "The budget exposure is tremendous." A blog item posted Monday by the agricultural magazine Pro Farmer described the new program, known as Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE), as "lucrative beyond expectations," and said it is a "no brainer" for farmers to sign up for it. The Agriculture Department estimates that subsidy payments to corn farmers alone could reach $10 billion a year if prices -- which have been $5 to $6 a bushel -- were to drop to $3.25 a bushel, a level seen as recently as last year. The $10 billion figure assumes most farmers would participate in the program, a view disputed by key lawmakers....
Flying the coop? From inside the trailer-size office at Sunrise Farms, one can hear the incessant squawking of 160,000 chickens housed nearby. The Petaluma-based egg producer generates the vast majority of eggs sold in the Bay Area with its seven properties and 1 million hens, one of two large egg operations in a region that used to have thousands of smaller chicken farms. On one wall of the office a framed aerial black-and-white photograph shows the same property as it appeared more than 70 years ago. The layout of buildings hasn't changed much over time, still retaining the long, thin structures aligned side-by-side. But in the photograph, little white specks populate the space between buildings — they're chickens, and all 10,000 were free to wander. Today the birds are kept indoors and, to save space and increase production, are typically confined in small cages. These "battery" cages are stacked in rows four cages high, allowing each bird 67 square inches of room — about the size of a large shoebox. Although the egg industry says the cage systems are science-based and humane, animal welfare activists say they are cruel and restrict natural behaviors. In November, voters will decide whether to ban the cages in California, thanks to a six-month signature-gathering effort sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States along with other animal welfare groups. If voters approve the law, California's egg farmers would be required to move the state's 19 million caged birds into cage-free facilities by 2015....
Bingaman sponsors 'Cowboy' bill; passes in Senate A resolution co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman designating July 26 to recognize the "American Cowboy" passed the Senate Tuesday. The Senate resolution acknowledges the role of ranchers in the development of the West, stating that ranchers embody the nation's strong work ethic, are good stewards of the environment and play a major role in the nation's economy. This is the third year the Senate has designated a special day for commemorative purposes. According to Bingaman, approximately 800,000 ranchers are in business across the country, with New Mexico ranchers having generated about $900 million in sales in 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available. In terms of production, only dairies are a larger industry than ranching. "Ranching plays an important role in New Mexico's economy and is an important part of the state's history," Bingaman said Tuesday. "This resolution pays tribute to the hard working men and women of the American West." The resolution encourages communities across the nation to observe July 26 as the National Day of the American Cowboy....
Cow dogs: Rancher’s best friends Well-trained cow dogs are probably the most valuable “hands” on a ranch. When I was young, our family had a black English Shepherd called Oso (bear in Spanish). If a cantankerous cow decided to quit the herd, my dad would say, “Get her, Oso,” and he’d chase her down. Before long she’d decide the herd looked like a really nice place to be after all. Oso was a wonderful cow dog, but he had one personality quirk we had to admire even though it caused us trouble. Always, it seems, when you get to the gate between pastures with a bunch of cows and calves, after everybody has gone through the gate, at least one calf will manage to crawl through the fence and head back where he came from. The baby can’t figure out how he did it, so he runs up and down the fence bawling. Mama, of course, runs up and down the fence on her side, also bawling. When this happened with Oso along, if Dad told him to get the calf, the dog would run up to the baby, bump him with his nose, then look back at Dad. The message was, “He’s too little. I might hurt him.” A cowboy can’t argue with that logic....

FLE

FAA urged to open domestic skies to unmanned aerial vehicles The U.S. Forest Service's law enforcement branch recently bought two four-foot long unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol federal land in California in search of marijuana growers with links to Mexican drug cartels, agency officials say. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department wants to use a three-pound aerial drone to watch criminal suspects. Police departments in Florida and North Carolina have similar plans for small drones. Although the term unmanned aerial vehicle often refers to the U.S. military's Predator drone, with its 49-foot wingspan and complement of Hellfire missiles, technological advances have led to small, low-flying UAVs more closely resembling model airplanes. Federal agencies and local police department are increasingly considering such drones as affordable tools for various law enforcement tasks. Even as interest soars, though, Federal Aviation Administration safety concerns and its refusal to rush through new rules for drones in domestic airspace is largely blocking civilian use, frustrating industry groups and some in Congress. The House-passed FAA reauthorization bill mandates that the agency is allowed to skip a long rule-making process and decide within six months if some UAVs can fly safely in U.S. civilian airspace....
Secret Data in FBI Wiretapping Audit Revealed With Ctrl+C Once again, supposedly sensitive information blacked out from a government report turns out to be visible by computer experts armed with the Ctrl+C keys -- and that information turns out to be not very sensitive after all. This time around, University of Pennsylvania professor Matt Blaze discovered that the Justice Department's Inspector General's office had failed to adequately obfuscate data in a March report (.pdf) about FBI payments to telecoms to make their legacy phone switches comply with 1995 wiretapping rules. That report detailed how the FBI had finished spending its allotted $500 million to help telephone companies retrofit their old switches to make them compliant with the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act or Calea-- even as federal wiretaps target cellphones more than 90 percent of the time. This isn't the first time the Justice Department has made such an error. In 2007, a U.S. attorney referred to Threat Level's own David Kravets (then at the AP) as a hacker for discovering similar hidden information in a Balco steriod case filing. As far back as 2003, a report on minorities in the Justice Department was also vulnerable. The gaffes may seem humorous, but tell that to confidential informants, for whom such a slip-up could be fatal. In fact, all one needs to do is open the Calea report with Adobe Reader or Foxit reader, and highlight the tables and cut and paste them into a text editor, something Blaze discovered accidentally when trying to copy a portion of the report into an e-mail to a student. Some of the tidbits considered too sensitive to be aired publicly? The FBI paid Verizon $2500 a piece to upgrade 1,140 old telephone switches. Oddly the report didn't redact the total amount paid to the telecom -- slightly more than $2.9 million dollars -- but somehow the bad guys will win if they knew the number of switches and the cost paid....
Real ID deadline comes and goes with zero states on board The original May 11 deadline for Real ID compliance has come and gone, but not a single state has implemented the program, which calls for uniform standards for state-issued ID cards and a system that would provide the federal government with broad access to state identification records. The Real ID Act, which was squeezed into a 2005 military spending bill and passed with virtually no discussion or debate in Congress, has met with heavy resistance from civil liberties advocates and state governments. The implementation costs have far exceeded the original meager estimates and the federal government is providing virtually no cash to support the initiative. A growing number of states are determined to defy Congress and have passed bills rejecting Real ID implementation. All 50 states have been granted extensions from the Department of Homeland Security, ensuring that their citizens will still be permitted to board planes and enter government buildings. Given the nature of the extended deadlines, some speculate that the Bush administration wants to avoid a direct confrontation with the states and that the next president could pressure Congress to institute some changes to the Real ID program....
Drug Cartels to Mexican Police: 'Join Us or Die' Drug cartels are sending a brutal message to police and soldiers in cities across Mexico: Join us or die. The threat appears in recruiting banners hung across roadsides and in publicly posted death lists. Cops get warnings over their two-way radios. At least four high-ranking police officials were gunned down this month, including Mexico's acting federal police chief. Mexico has battled for years to clean up its security forces and win them the public's respect. But Mexicans generally assume police and even soldiers are corrupt until proven otherwise, and the honest ones lack resources, training and the assurance that their colleagues are watching their backs. Here, the taboo on cop-killing familiar to Americans seems hardly to apply. Police who take on the cartels feel isolated and vulnerable when they become targets, as did 22 commanders in the border city of Ciudad Juarez when drug traffickers named them on a handwritten death list left at a monument to fallen police this year. It was addressed to "those who still don't believe" in the power of the cartels....
City cameras to catch every car Almost every car travelling into Manchester is being snapped by a new network of police surveillance cameras, it has emerged. Each day, 600,000 motorists' journeys are being captured, and police will store the data for five years to help combat terrorism, crime and car theft. But civil rights campaigners said they believed it was another step closer to a "Big Brother" state. Police said the new system would bring "enormous benefits". Manchester is the first city outside London to use Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras in this way. Police will store details of the licence plate, colour of car and a time stamp on a central computer. The cameras have been installed on the 12 major routes into the city....
Phila. judge likely to grant NRA request A Philadelphia judge appeared poised yesterday to grant the National Rifle Association's request to block enforcement of recently enacted city gun laws, with a final decision almost certainly headed for the state's high court. Previous rulings by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court established "that the state regulates firearms, not the city," Common Pleas Court Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan told city attorneys during a hearing yesterday. Mayor Nutter and City Council staked their positions in April by drafting five new laws that limit handgun purchases to one a month; ban certain assault weapons; require the reporting of lost or stolen firearms; prohibit gun possession for people subject to protection-from-abuse orders; and allow removal of guns from "persons posing a risk of imminent personal injury" to themselves or others. The NRA, two city gun shops, and others obtained a temporary restraining order a week after Nutter signed the laws, and yesterday's hearing was to determine whether Greenspan would grant a permanent injunction....

Report: EPA head reversed stand on greenhouse gas The head of the Environmental Protection Agency initially supported giving California and other states full or partial permission to limit tailpipe emissions — but reversed himself after hearing from the White House, a report said Monday. The report by the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee cites interviews and depositions with high-level EPA officials. It amounts to the first solid evidence of the political interference alleged by Democrats and environmentalists since Administrator Stephen Johnson denied California's waiver request in December. Johnson's decision also blocked more than a dozen other states that wanted to follow California's lead and regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. It was applauded by the auto industry and supported by the White House, which has opposed mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Johnson, a 27-year career veteran of the EPA, frequently has denied that his decisions are being directed by the White House. "I am the decision maker," Johnson said Monday, meeting with reporters at Platt's Energy Podium newsmaker session, before the California waiver report surfaced. A White House spokeswoman denied interference. "No," said Kristen Hellmer, spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, when asked whether the White House sought to influence Johnson on the California waiver. "He made an independent decision."....
Global Warming to Decrease Hurricanes, Study Says Global warming may reduce the number of hurricanes forming in the Atlantic Basin by 2060, a new study says. But it adds that the storms that do form may be slightly stronger and wetter. The study, conducted by scientists at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is the latest development in a contentious debate about whether global warming is influencing hurricanes. The new research suggests that the number of hurricanes each summer could decrease by about 18 percent. Major hurricanes—those with winds in excess of 110 miles (177 kilometers) an hour—could decline by about 8 percent. Currently about ten Atlantic hurricanes form—two to three of them major—during an average season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. One of the ways that global warming could reduce hurricanes is by increasing upper-level winds—known as wind shear—that can inhibit hurricane formation, said lead author Thomas Knutson....
Cooler Heads Nearly 32,000 scientists sign a petition that says they reject the claim that humanity is causing global warming. The media, who are heavily invested in the Gore Consensus, yawn. But a British royal, no scientist he, says we have 18 months to save the rain forests or we will face a climate disaster, and the media are fascinated. That same royal, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, has also said that the fight against global warming is much like the war his predecessors fought against the Nazis. He noted in a cleverly timed May 1 speech at a climate summit that when he served "in the Royal Navy . . . 'mayday, mayday, mayday' was the distress call used in cases of emergencies. "And this (human-caused global warming) is an emergency that we face." Meanwhile, Arthur Robinson of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine released Monday at the Press Club in Washington a petition signed by 31,072 Americans with university degrees in science, including 9,021 with doctorates, who reject the notion that greenhouse gas emissions will cause catastrophic heating of the planet. Didn't hear about it? Oh, that's right — the media can't be bothered to report on something that challenges their narrative....
Rey: Better management lowers costs of firefighting In a broad-ranging address Saturday to the Montana Logging Association stretching from the farm bill to the next president, U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey said better forestry management is helping slow the escalating costs of suppressing wildfires. He said firefighting accounted for about 14 percent of the U.S. Forest Service budget in the 1970s, and accelerated to about 50 percent today. “We're not going to stop fighting fires,” he said. “But the rate of the increase is slowing because we're fighting fires that were treated with forest-reduction measures.” He said the fuels reduction, thinning and other actions will continue to help as Congress also seeks alternatives for funding the costs of fighting fires in the nation and ways to alleviate the pressure on the U.S. Forest Service. Rey addressed a group of about 120 people, representing an industry particularly hard hit in recent years. Ken Swanstrom, president of the 580-member Montana Logging Association, said these have been “desperate times” for loggers and sawmills, given the sluggish housing market and low timber prices. “Three months without work is a long time. This is pretty severe economically,” he said....
Controversy continues over use of slurry drops It's a scene repeated time and again during fire season: As flames crackle and smoke billows into the sky, an airplane dips low and releases a plume of bright orange. Chemical fire retardant, or slurry, is one of the more important tools for fighting fire from the air. It's also the focus of an ongoing legal tussle between the U.S. Forest Service and a watchdog group that describes the substance as an unnecessary poison. "It's toxic," said Andy Stahl, executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. "Don't drop it into your neighborhood stream or on top of your threatened plant or animal species." Last month, the group alleged in a federal lawsuit that the use of slurry violates the Endangered Species Act and other laws. It's the second lawsuit over retardant filed by the Eugene, Ore.-based group. In the first case, a federal judge came close to finding Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey in contempt regarding delays on an environmental review of fire retardant. Stahl's group contends Forest Service policy runs counter to research from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal scientists that retardant poses serious risk to threatened and endangered species, particularly fish....
ABC 4 Investigation: When bears attack They're among the most powerful creatures on earth and among the most feared. Powerful predators with amazing strength and ferocity, they are as magnificent as they are maligned. Hunted to the verge of extinction for the better part of a century grizzlies and black bears now roam in growing numbers across North America's outback and as their numbers grow so too do their run-ins with people. In the course of the last decade, incidents involving bears have spiked dramatically, a trend reflected in here in Utah and all across the West. In the summer of 2003, campers are attacked along the Green River. An 18 year old Oregon man is pulled from his sleeping bag with bite marks to his head and neck. A few days later a St. George man is mauled at a river campsite; scratched and bitten he travels by raft for hours in order to get medical help. The next day rangers move in and the bear, driven mad by drought, is captured and killed. In the summer of 2005, two Utah County brothers spend a terrifying night in the Utah wilderness when a black bear makes short work of their tent. While the brothers escaped serious injury, not every Utahn has been so lucky. Then in the spring of 2007, Sam Ives, an 11-year-old Utah County boy was dragged from his tent in the middle of the night and mauled to death by a black bear as his family searched for him in the darkness at an American fork Canyon camp site. Utah DWR officials say that perhaps the same bear attacked another camper just hours before, and that they posted bear warnings at the site. Ives’ death has prompted state and federal wildlife officials to re-examine the areas where humans come in contact with bears in order to prevent any more killings. A lawsuit has been filed by Sam's family against the U.S. Forrest Service and the Utah DWR. That case is still pending....
Firefighting aircraft won't be ready in '08 Cal Fire officials may lift their ban on night flying this year, but powerful firefighting aircraft promised by the federal government won't be available. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein recently learned that two California Air National Guard C-130 aircraft won't be ready this year because of lingering equipment issues. U.S. Forest Service officials had promised the planes would be outfitted with the new equipment in July. “This is unacceptable,” Feinstein, D-Calif., wrote in a letter sent Thursday to President Bush. Other steps have been taken to strengthen air operations in San Diego County. A new helicopter was ordered, leases are being negotiated for three planes and more firefighters are learning how to battle fires from the sky. Yet without more changes, some aerial assaults won't be as effective as they could be, leaving the region open to the type of firestorms that blew through the county in October 2003 and October 2007, politicians and fire officials said. Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, said he has been told that Cal Fire plans to allow nighttime aerial firefighting “in the very near future.”....
$1.4 million embezzled, Feds say A former accountant for the U.S. Forest Service was arrested and charged with embezzling more than $1.4 million from the agency, prosecutors said Friday. Agents from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General arrested Kathy Stamps, 36, of Rancho Cucamonga, on three charges of mail fraud. A federal grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday that alleges Stamps used her job as an accountant at the Angeles National Forest offices in Arcadia to steal $1,421,390, which was later deposited into her personal bank accounts. When Stamps left her job in September 2004, her colleagues noticed that she had redirected the same amount from Forest Service accounts to the DKLD Corporation, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. Investigators later discovered that Stamps and her husband owned DKLD....
Treehuggers against trees With wildfires burning, it is useful to turn to the wisdom of the ancients. When the pioneers first entered the great forests of America, they found that the Native Americans had managed the forests for centuries. Their woodlands contained very few big trees—maybe fifty such trees per acre. Apparently the Indians had set regular, low intensity fires which burned away accumulations of undergrowth, deadwood, dying trees and particularly small trees growing between the big trees. The larger trees were unharmed, because of their thick fire-resistant bark. These fires kept the forest healthy by providing a barrier to disease. The pioneers, however, used much more wood in their civilization than the Native Americans. They needed it for housing, for boats and river ships, for railroad sleepers, for carriages, and for town infrastructure. To them, fire was an enemy. Quick growth of new trees was important. Policies were put in place that suppressed all fire. This culminated in the creation of Smokey Bear in 1945. Three years later, his catchphrase was born: "Remember — only you can prevent forest fires." The price was a degradation of the health of American forests. Private logging firms continued to keep forests healthy where they operated, by clearing out the underbrush and deadwood and harvesting trees to clear spaces between other trees. Where loggers did not operate, undergrowth and deadwood began to accumulate....
Federal Court Denies County's Right to Build Roads Through National Monument U.S. District Court Judge Tena Campbell has ruled against claims by Kane County, Utah for county ownership of 39 roads in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. This monumental decision is critical for the protection of federal public lands from excessive use by off-road vehicle recreationists, cattle operators, and miners. The decision set the stage for the protection of environmentally sensitive lands, imperiled species, and vulnerable archaeological resources. “The Center for Biological Diversity applauds this ruling and the positive precedent it establishes,” said Rob Mrowka, conservation advocate for the Center. “It sets the stage to end abuses of our heritage lands and provides the federal land-management agencies with a firm basis for formulating wise stewardship decisions.” Kane County had based its claims for ownership of the roads on an archaic provision of the Mining Act of 1866, know as Revised Statute 2477, which provided for “…the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses....” In 1976 Congress repealed the old law, while providing for the continued use of legitimate highways. Unfortunately, dozens of western counties with a “sagebrush rebellion” state of mind abused the door left open by Congress, bulldozing countless trails and foot paths and then claiming them as legitimate RS 2477 roads. Significant damage to public natural resources occurred as a result. Judge Campbell’s decision found that Kane County’s assertion for jurisdiction over the contested roads violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution; she ordered the county to remove its signs from the roads within 20 days. “By placing signs within the monument, the county has encouraged, sanctioned and facilitated public motor vehicle use of federal lands that the Bureau of Land Management officially closed to protect the Monument’s values,” Campbell wrote in her decision.
Oil shale debate becomes a 'chicken-or-the-egg' question The question of "which comes first?" was dominant as oil shale development proponents told a US Senate committee May 15 that regulations need to be developed, and opponents said impacts need to be quantified. "It seems to me that there should be a way forward that does not involve premature commercial leasing, that protects the interests of the American people and gives them a fair return on their resources, and that addresses concerns of local citizens but still provides industry with the certainty it needs," Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) said in his opening statement. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM), the committee's ranking minority member, noted that the 2005 Energy Policy Act (EPACT) contained a provision to facilitate oil shale development. "Unfortunately, last year, without the benefit of full debate and conference as we had in the 2005 energy bill, Congress placed a 1-year moratorium on preparing and publishing the final regulations for a commercial leasing program," he said. Committee member Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) said he sought the delay because important provisions dealing with oil shale development, which were part of the 2005 energy bill that the Senate initially approved, were stripped out when the measure went to conference with the House. "I believe it was someone named Pombo," he said, referring to then-House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.)....
Clean-Air Rules Protecting Parks Set to Be Eased The Bush administration is on the verge of implementing new air quality rules that will make it easier to build power plants near national parks and wilderness areas, according to rank-and-file agency scientists and park managers who oppose the plan. The new regulations, which are likely to be finalized this summer, rewrite a provision of the Clean Air Act that applies to "Class 1 areas," federal lands that currently have the highest level of protection under the law. Opponents predict the changes will worsen visibility at many of the nation's most prized tourist destinations, including Virginia's Shenandoah, Colorado's Mesa Verde and North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt national parks. Nearly a year ago, with little fanfare, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed changing the way the government measures air pollution near Class 1 areas on the grounds that the nation needed a more uniform way of regulating emissions near protected areas. The agency closed the comment period in April and has indicated it is not making significant changes to the draft rule, despite objections by EPA staff members....
Spotted owl plan released In its final northern spotted owl recovery plan released Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the $489 million effort could recover the threatened bird's population in 30 years. The plan cites habitat loss because of logging and catastrophic wildfires along with competition from the barred owl as the primary threats. It identifies 34 actions to counter the threats, including establishing nearly 6.5 million acres of owl conservation areas. "This plan aggressively addresses each of the key threats with sound and, in some cases, pioneering recommendations," Ren Lohoefener, head of the service's Pacific region, said in a prepared statement. "There are always uncertainties involved with such a wide-ranging species facing complex threats," he added. "Given the species' continued decline, in some areas at a faster rate than was predicted, we need to ensure we are truly on a path to recovery as we implement the plan." Talent resident Dominick DellaSala, a forest ecologist who was a member of the Spotted Owl Recovery Team and a vocal critic of the agency's earlier draft plan, isn't impressed with the final outcome. "They definitely made changes from the draft but the final plan still doesn't protect the old-growth forests the owl, salmon and hundreds of other species rely on," said DellaSala, executive director of the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy in Ashland....
Bush administration defends food-based biofuels The Bush administration is defending its decision to push food-based biofuels as food costs rise at home and abroad, saying the renewable fuels are only a small part of the problem. Some have blamed the food crisis in part on policies backed by the White House and Congress that divert corn, soybeans and other crops to fuel. The governor of Texas and a quarter of the Senate, including the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee John McCain, asked the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month to cut this year's requirement for 9 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol in half to ease food costs. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said Monday that the increased use of biofuels may have some small, short-term costs, but those do not outweigh the ultimate benefits of reducing the country's dependence on oil. "It's clear that while bioenergy generation does have some effect on prices, it's not a major effect, it's not even a big effect," Schafer said....
Author Zane Grey's cabin to remain open to all One of the most popular sites on the Rogue River is a rude one-room cabin of peeled logs and hand-split shingles. The cabin was once owned by Zane Grey, best known for his Western novels including "Riders of the Purple Sage." But now the 32 acres and the buildings on it belong to everyone. This month, the cabin was bought by the Trust for Public Lands and sold to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is nominating it for the National Register of Historic places. The purchase means that the site will remain open to visitors. "I think it's fantastic that they are preserving it," Eric Grey, the late author's great-grandson, told The Associated Press from his home in New Jersey. Nelson Mathews, Northwest program director for The Trust for Public Land, said the property was assessed at $840,000. The actual sale price was not disclosed. It includes the original cabin, two modern cabins, a compound of outbuildings, one of the original boats Zane Grey used to descend the Rogue, a grass air strip, and a garden....
‘Water witch’ finds more work during drought Brenda Beeson sideline work has been busier than usual lately, but for a reason that she can’t be happy about. Beeson, who ranches with her husband Jock in the Crawford area, said last week that she has seen increased need for her services as a ‘water witch’ because shallow wells have dried up and stock watering dams are empty due to the area’s prolonged drought. “I’ve stayed kind of busy because of the drought,” said Beeson. “More so than I’d like to...People are having to drill wells in their pastures because of the drought. Dams are going dry.” ‘Dowsing’ is the more formal term for what Beeson calls ‘witching;’ the process of using a forked branch of chokecherry or willow (some practicioners use other woods, or metal rods) to locate underground water veins which can be tapped by wells. A traditional practice with a long history, witching for water is viewed with skepticism by many people. Beeson said she was skeptical herself, until she “kind of figured out I could do it,” after watching a neighbor of her father’s who had the skill. The neighbor, Ed Ostemeier, was witching a well for her father when she “happened to pick up the stick,” and was able to feel the force that indicates the presence of water. “He said “Let’s try it and see,’” she said. “I was pretty skeptical, but that makes you a believer when it happens.”....
Paradox: Stories of the Wild West Stories of the Wild West are plentiful in the history of the Paradox Valley, which is situated in the extreme west end of Montrose County. The valley was named in the 1870s by A.C. Peale, who worked with the Hayden Survey. The Dolores River runs across the valley, rather than parallel like most rivers do, creating what Peale felt was a true paradox. Few settled in the eastern two-thirds of the valley because it is desert, but the western one-third is fed by numerous springs from Paradox Creek, which flows into the valley from Utah’s La Sal Mountains. Although the valley was part of the Ute Indian Reservation, white squatters were there as early as the 1870s. Due to its rugged terrain, being so remote and close to the Utah border, it became a haven for outlaws in addition to ranchers who were struggling to make a living. The lack of plentiful water and good land prompted violence that continued for several decades, causing some to call it the “Slaughterhouse of the West.” Thomas Goshorn and Riley Watson were the first known settlers to arrive in the valley in the fall of 1877, coming from the Blue Mountains of Utah. Goshorn left after two years, but Watson and his family remained. Watson’s wife was appointed the first postmistress of the little settlement of Paradox in 1879. Mail arrived by pack mules from Ouray until the settlement of Montrose in 1881....

Prince Charles: Eighteen months to stop climate change disaster The Prince of Wales has warned that the world faces a series of natural disasters within 18 months unless urgent action is taken to save the rainforests. In one of his most out-spoken interventions in the climate change debate, he said a £15 billion annual programme was required to halt deforestation or the world would have to live with the dire consequences. "We will end up seeing more drought and starvation on a grand scale. Weather patterns will become even more terrifying and there will be less and less rainfall," he said. "We are asking for something pretty dreadful unless we really understand the issues now and [the] urgency of them." The Prince said the rainforests, which provide the "air conditioning system for the entire planet", releasing water vapour and absorbing carbon, were being lost to poor farmers desperate to make a living. He said that every year, 20 million hectares of forest – equivalent to the area of England, Wales and Scotland – were destroyed and called for a "gigantic partnership" of governments, businesses and consumers to slow it down. "What we have got to do is try to ensure that these forests are more valuable alive than dead. At the moment, there is more value in them being dead," he said....
Hurricane study puts less blame on global warming Cyclone Nargis recently made international headlines for dealing death and destruction to Myanmar. Yet unlike the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, global warming received little blame for the intensification of Nargis. That's possibly because, in the nearly three years since New Orleans flooded, the science of hurricanes and climate has matured. A new scientific paper authored by prominent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists, published this weekend, reinforces the changing landscape. The paper, which simulated Atlantic hurricane activity during warming 21st century conditions, found 27 percent fewer tropical storms, and 18 percent fewer hurricanes. The strongest hurricanes, researchers found, had slightly higher wind speeds than before. "This does not support the idea that we've already seen a large positive trend in hurricane activity emerging from greenhouse gases," said lead author Tom Knutson, a Princeton, N.J.-based research meteorologist for NOAA. "In fact, it points in the other direction."....
A Cooling World Global warming has ceased. In 2005, it was .45 degrees centigrade above the 1961-1990 global average temperature. In 2006, it dropped to .42 centigrade, and in 2007, to .41 centigrade. That's one of many facts to be gleaned from an intelligent and calm book, An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming, by Lord Nigel Lawson, a British politician and former journalist. It is not a book to be read on a warm afternoon after a heavy lunch. It will put you to sleep. That is to say it is not written in the style of melodramatic yellow journalism or TV sensationalism. It is written with an emphasis on facts and on logic. Richard S. Lindzen, Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says of the book: "This brief and elegant book treats the science of global warming seriously, but convincingly shows that whatever view one has of the science, almost all proposed approaches to the putative problem are intellectually deficient, economically absurd and harmful, and morally misdirected at best. Lawson's An Appeal to Reason is an appeal that must be heeded if one is to truly avoid great harm to man and the planet." Lawson sums up his book with this warning: "So the new religion of global warming, however appealing it may be to the politicians, is not as harmless as it may appear at first sight. Indeed the more one examines it the more it resembles a 'Da Vinci Code' of environmentalism. It is a great story and phenomenal best-seller. It contains a grain of truth – and a mountain of nonsense. And that nonsense could be very damaging indeed....
Boy attacked by large animal on Sandias A 5-year-old boy hiking with his family near Sandia Peak has survived an attack from an unidentified species of large animal, a spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish said Sunday. Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said the family was hiking near the popular Balsam Glade area on the east side of the Sandia Mountains on Saturday evening when the boy ran ahead of his parents. A sheriff's department report identified the boy as Jose Salazar Jr. of Albuqureque. The boy's parents saw the animal emerge from the brush and start dragging away their child, White said. The father then chased the animal, which let go of his son. White said the animal was a mountain lion, but Ross Morgan, a spokesman for Game and Fish, said dogs trained to track mountain lions picked up no scent in the area Saturday night or Sunday. "The dad described it as a short, stocky, dark brown animal," Morgan said. Neither White nor Morgan released the victim's name. The boy suffered puncture wounds to his head, neck and back. He was in serious condition at University of New Mexico Hospital on Saturday, White said....
'Everything you do has trade-offs' The Green Mountain Common Allotment is one of the largest unfenced ranges in the nation, and the Bureau of Land Management has been struggling for more than a decade to come up with a plan to manage the half-million-acre spread. The most recent plan, completed in 1999, almost immediately proved to be ineffective -- once the drought began in 2000 and never let up, according to Bruce Collins, regional spokesman for the BLM. In 2002, the agency conducted an assessment of the health of the rangeland on the allotment and found that several federal standards were not being met, particularly requirements for riparian areas -- the lush, green ribbons of vegetation that run alongside streams and waterways. Many of these riparian areas are ailing, and have been for years, BLM officials say. In an attempt to rejuvenate them, the agency is proposing to divide the allotment up into six smaller ones, and install nearly 100 miles, and about $1 million worth, of barbed-wire and electrical fences. In 2005, the BLM renewed two grazing permits, even though the health of the rangeland was failing. A coalition of four conservation groups -- the Western Watersheds Project, the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, the National Wildlife Federation and the Wyoming Outdoor Council -- sued the agency. They argued that because the land was not meeting federal standards for health, the BLM couldn't renew permits without first completing a federally required environmental study. As part of a settlement, the BLM agreed to complete a new environmental analysis by the end of 2007, and issue a wholly new management plan by 2008, in order to ensure the land would meet rangeland health standards in the future....
Divide the range? Not far southeast of here is a vestige of the old American West -- one of the largest unfenced ranges in the United States. It's a place where 16 stockgrowers, mostly cattle ranchers, graze their animals -- and where thousands of local and nonlocal hunters, fishermen, hikers, backcountry horse riders and wildlife enthusiasts explore annually, but rarely run into one another, except by design. It's also a place where tens of thousands of people visit every year, from all over the world, to experience a few of the last remaining unspoiled sections of the Oregon, Mormon and California trails. But the health of the Green Mountain Common Allotment's rangeland is failing, and has been for years, officials say. The Green Mountain Common Allotment is over 522,000 acres of open range, 60 miles by 20 miles. If every man, woman and child in Wyoming gathered there, each would have more than an acre of his own to stand upon. Sections of the allotment have taken a beating from seven-plus years of drought, and more than a century of often harmful livestock grazing. Even though the BLM developed and finalized a management plan less than a decade ago, it has been forced to scrap it, and start over. But Jon Marvel, a representative of the Western Watersheds Project, said to break the allotment up into six sections would be a huge blow to Western and American heritage, as well as an enormous cost to taxpayers -- and it all would be done for the sole benefit of a few cattle ranchers. Fremont County Commissioner Doug Thompson, however, said the proposed action could actually restrict cattle ranchers on the allotment too much, and make it difficult for them to make a living there....
'There Goes the Neighborhood' -- again The prairie dog rises above its burrow on the high plains of southern Wyoming and takes a casual look around. Seconds later, the animal disappears in an explosion of blood and dirt. The self-described "shortgrass sniper" dressed in camouflage and orange chuckles for the camera and gets ready to fire again. With thousands of hits on YouTube, this popular prairie dog video by Colorado hunter Jim Bowman advises hunters to get ready for the upcoming prairie dog killing contest in southern Wyoming's Carbon County. The controversial, fifth annual, three-day "There Goes the Neighborhood" prairie dog killing contest is scheduled to begin May 31 on private lands around Medicine Bow, organizer Bowman said. Bowman, a machinist who lives in Kersey, Colo., said the event drew 38 participants last year, mostly from Colorado and Wyoming. He said this year's event will include the first-ever "world championship, long-range prairie dog sniper event" scheduled for June 1. "I think we're going to have a really good hunt this year," Bowman said in a phone interview. "And if we get some controversy out there, we're ready to handle that, too. We'll see what happens." Bowman said he formed an organization after last year's hunt, Prairie Dog Posse, to promote the event and to provide a "voice" for prairie dog shooters....
Mont. ranchers question water quality Tongue River rancher Mark Fix got his barley planted early this year and hooked up his circle pivot for irrigation. The barley needs moisture to get started, he said. But Fix was reluctant to irrigate with Tongue River water. "The way the water quality was, I was a little afraid to put it on," he said. Fix, who is past chairman of the Northern Plains Resource Council and chairman of its coal-bed methane task force, said there were significant increases in measures of salts in the river during March and April as recorded by a monitor in the Tongue at the Wyoming border near Decker. Fix believes that the water was exceeding Montana's federally approved nondegradation rules for indicators of salinity. And he suspects that discharges to tributaries of the Tongue in Wyoming could be the cause....
Farm Bill Seeds On-the-ground Conservation Benefits for Wildlife and Wildlife Habitat A four billion dollar increase in funding for programs that maintain and advance conservation of vital fish and wildlife habitat passed today as part of the 2007 Farm Bill Conference Report by an 81-15 vote in the Senate and a 318-106 vote in the House yesterday. Pay-as-you-go rules, a declining Congressional baseline budget and a promised Presidential veto have threatened the report’s passage before both chambers came to an agreement this week. The votes are sufficient to override a veto. Provisions in the bill renew the Wetland Reserve Program, an easement process for landowners to retire and restore drained wetlands; the Grassland Reserve Program to protect native grasslands; and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program to address priority fish and wildlife concerns within states such as early successional dependent species like the woodcock in Northeast states or critical salmon habitat in the Pacific Northwest.The bill significantly ramps up the funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the new Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). The EQIP provision has specific language mentioning wildlife, while both programs contain language directing the Secretary of Agriculture to consider national, regional and state conservation priorities. The 2007 Farm Bill also introduces the new “Open Fields” Programs. Open Fields expands upon USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program to assist states with voluntary programs providing public access to private lands for fishing, hunting and other wildlife-related recreation. The Farm Bill further provides new federal tax deductions for landowners who make efforts to protect endangered species, as well as extending federal tax deductions to individuals who donate easements on their land for conservation purposes....
Discovery Of Disease ‘Wakeup Call’ For National Animal Identification System The discovery of malignant catarrhal fever in cattle shouldn’t be a reason for panic but is a “wakeup call” for better animal identification, according to LSU AgCenter veterinarian Dr. Christine Navarre. The National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, recently reported that three cases of the wildebeest strain of the disease were confirmed in cattle originating from Texas. “The cattle in Texas were exposed to captive wildebeests at the same ranch,” Navarre said, explaining that’s how they are believed to have contracted the disease – from the wildebeest carriers. “Then the 134 animals subsequently were sold and later traced to ranches in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi,” she added. “One heifer exposed to the wildebeests that was shipped to Louisiana has since died of the disease.” Navarre said the cases of malignant catarrhal fever are much less significant than other diseases, but she said they do serve as warnings about what needs to be done. “Although the outbreak of malignant catarrhal fever in this country has only minor repercussions for the cattle industry in the United States, it should serve as a wakeup call for the need for a national animal identification system,” she said. “Had this been a very contagious disease, like foot-and-mouth disease, it would have spread across the United States. “Without a fast, efficient animal tracking system, there would be no way to stop it,” she added....And how much federal money is LSU getting?
Cattle Brands: Rocking Chair The Rocking Chair Ranche Company, Limited, as it was designated by its British owners, encompassed northeastern Collingsworth County and extended into Wheeler County. The brand that gave it its name, however, was probably first used by Noah Ellis in South Texas during the early 1860s. It came to Collingsworth County in the fall of 1879, when John and Wiley Dickerson drove 2,000 cattle from the Llano River country to Dogwood Springs, on the South Fork of Elm Creek. By 1880 the Dickersons had established their headquarters at a site located south of a range of mesas subsequently named the Rocking Chair Mountains. In 1881 A. Conkle of Kansas City and John T. Lytleqv of Medina County acquired the brand; they registered it at Mobeetie on September 30. By November 1882 Conkle and Lytle had a herd of 14,745 head. The Rocking Chair Ranch was, however, without a legal home until February 17, 1883, when the partners bought 235 sections of former Houston and Great Northern Railroad land from the New York and Texas Land Company.qv On April 3 Conkle and Lytle sold their land, brand, cattle, and horses for $365,000 to Early W. Spencer and J. John Drew, who were seeking a suitable American cattle scheme for British investors....
An encounter with Butch Cassidy and his gang I once had a little brush with the famous outlaw, Butch Cassidy, and while I have no desire whatever to relive that scene again, I would change a thing or two about it if I could do so in safety and comfort. In the fall of 1877, I was in Castle Valley, Utah, in charge of my father's cattle interests. [He would have turned 17 the preceding June.] We had moved our stock there two years before from the more central valleys of the state which were now fast filling up with our fellow converts to the Mormon faith. Our family, however, remained at the home farm in Salt Lake Valley, 250 miles away. My sole hired help in the handling of our 2,000-odd cattle was a youth of about my own age named Tom Simpers. Alone we branded about 700 calves every spring, and moved the herd twice a year between the high summer range on the eastern slopes of the Wasatch mountains and the winter range in the depths of the desert bordering the Colorado River. It was a wild country into which few legitimate livestock outfits had yet penetrated, its stupendous gorges and colorful sandstone badlands being known only as the hiding place of outlaws -- the famed "Robbers Roost" of eastern Utah. I well remember Father's advice when handing over the weapons we thereafter carried constantly: "In case of trouble, be sure you shoot first." What an example of pioneer faith, this telling of 15-year-old boys to shoot first in contest with veteran badmen. Tom and I had just returned to our summer camp from Panguitch where we had gone for a horse, only to find that the animal had recently been stolen, along with a string of fine horses, by Butch Cassidy and his gang. We were now, on this particular frosty November morning, leaving camp again on a hurried two-weeks' trip to push what few straggling cows might still be hanging in the high country, down toward the winter range. As we rode along, we saw something that brought us to instant caution -- eyes open, mouths shut. There ahead of us were fresh tracks in the trail. Two horses, one smooth-shod in front, the other making a slim, dainty track, shod all around with "corked" shoes, had very recently crossed the trail into the timber and rocks above the trail....
It's All Trew: Canadian River was watery trap Almost every early day description, narrative and historical note written about the Canadian River uses the words "dangerous," "treacherous," "quicksand" and "death." Whether man, beast or wagon was involved, the river often took its toll. Old Tascosa was established because of the easy river crossing marked by centuries-old buffalo trails. Another well-known crossing was at Indian Creek, where gravel washed down from the creek during floods provided a firm bottom across the river. At various times and at certain locations along the river, men made a living guiding both wagons and early automobiles across the channel. In some areas, lead steers and river horses could be rented to help guide trail herds across the flooded waterway. Noted Panhandle historian Cleo Tom Terry wrote of Canadian River casualties. Iva Stovall, the Matador Ranch wagon boss, rode off into the river at flood stage and neither he nor his horse were ever seen again. Jay Taylor, a well-known Panhandle cattleman, once had an employee ride into the river and dropped from sight instantly. Mr. Taylor flew his airplane up and down the river for days afterward but never found any sign of the cowboy and mount. A pet phrase used by cowboys in describing the river was, "That old river will bog a saddle blanket at times." All riverside ranches kept a few river horses experienced in crossing quicksand....

First, they cried
Cowgirl Sass and Savvy

Julie Carter

When they shared with me that they had cried, I told them, "I cried, too."

Most were moms but some were dads. Some were parents of kids ready to wear a cap and gown this week or next. Many were still stinging from that memory last year, the year before or even many years ago.

The many responses to my column a couple of weeks ago about "Another generation at the door," discussing the weeks, days and hours leading to graduation, led me to understand how truly anticipated, yet dreaded the month of May is every year. And every year, I come to understand that even more.

First, it was my personal experiences that fed my emotions. Then it became what friends and family experienced. And now, it's vicarious annual pain through the lives of dozens.

Annually, I've been caught up in it because my job has me up close and personal to a number of teens ready to set the world on fire just as soon as they could get their moms to untie the apron strings. That's a trite old saying. Who has apron strings these days?

Then, those young darlings would move away and act as if they were charging to college classes with great anticipation while, in fact, they were challenging a world they had only heard about and often it didn't include a textbook.

Oh, come on, no matter what digit prefaces a numeral on your age, you know. You remember how dumb your parents were, how irritating your mother was when she made you wear clean underwear, iron your shirt and polish your shoes. Your age is irrelevant, although it might be a clue if the iron was plugged in or set on a wood stove to heat.

You remember wondering how your parents managed to get to that age and still be so clueless, so archaic and so totally not tuned-in to how things really are. They didn't understand you and you sure didn't understand them. However, come hell or high water, you weren't ever, ever going to be like them.

You recall how absolutely stupid the whole system was that held you captive for 12 years and now that you had escaped, you'd show them just how good you were at life without them regulating it.

Recently, for a number of causes, I've been sorting through acres of photos of all kinds. Concurrently, the fair book is about to go to press and there are hundreds of my photos there that will soon represent history for happy memories - last year. Each photo brings a flash of recall to a moment in time that won't happen again.

While the tendency is to look back on who and what was, the goal should be to look to the future and give those up-and-coming kids the same dedication that, at this time of year, feels slightly depleted.

Assuredly, there are some rising stars out there that will start high school next fall. They are waiting to be discovered, to be encouraged and to be recognized.

Undoubtedly a few mighty sophomores and juniors will start to shine and, Lord help us, another set of seniors who just can't wait to get out of here and away from all the stupid people. They all need us. So again, I will plug in the camera, charge up the flash batteries and buy a new set of note tablets.

OK kids, make me proud. I'm ready. It's a long time until next May.

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

FLE

Domestic spying far outpaces terrorism prosecutions The number of Americans being secretly wiretapped or having their financial and other records reviewed by the government has continued to increase as officials aggressively use powers approved after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the number of terrorism prosecutions ending up in court -- one measure of the effectiveness of such sleuthing -- has continued to decline, in some cases precipitously. The trends, visible in new government data and a private analysis of Justice Department records, are worrisome to civil liberties groups and some legal scholars. They say it is further evidence that the government has compromised the privacy rights of ordinary citizens without much to show for it. A recent study showed that the number of terrorism and national security cases initiated by the Justice Department in 2007 was more than 50% below 2002 levels. The nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which obtained the data under the Freedom of Information Act, found that the number of cases brought declined 19% in the last year alone, dropping to 505 in 2007 from 624 in 2006. By contrast, the Justice Department reported last month that the nation's spy court had granted 2,370 warrant requests by the department to search or eavesdrop on suspected terrorists and spies in the U.S. last year -- 9% more than in 2006. The number of such warrants approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has more than doubled since the 2001 terrorist attacks. The department also reported a sharp rise in the use of national security letters by the FBI -- from 9,254 in 2005 to 12,583 in 2006, the latest data available. The letters seek customer information from banks, Internet providers and phone companies. They have caused a stir because consumers do not have a right to know that their information is being disclosed and the letters are issued without court oversight....
DHS Wants to Spy on Americans, Dems Charge The Department of Homeland Security wants to set up a new program to illegally spy on Americans, two senior Democratic lawmakers charged Thursday in a letter urging colleagues to deny funds for the program. In a letter to three colleagues obtained by ABC News, House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, Miss., and Rep. Jane Harman, Calif., voiced objections to a new office DHS wants to create that would share the detailed surveillance capabilities of military intelligence satellites and other monitoring technology with state and local law enforcement. The size of the National Applications Office, as DHS has named it, and its proposed budget, remain classified. The department has said the office would not traffic in eavesdropped conversations. It would primarily be used to share data from military assets for disaster response, monitoring climate change and other purposes, according to DHS. Noting that the Pentagon is already cleared and capable of sharing satellite imagery on a legal and limited basis to aid authorities protecting major events or responding to natural disasters, Thompson and Harman said the purpose of expanding the program and placing it in a classified office could only be to surveil U.S. residents illegally. "We are left to conclude that the only reason to stand up a new office would be to gather domestic intelligence outside the rigorous protections of the law -- and, ultimately, to share this intelligence with local law enforcement outside of constitutional parameters," Thompson and Harman wrote. The two urged their colleagues to bar funding for the program, which they said would likely violate long-standing laws prohibiting military involvement in peacetime law enforcement....
Gag on 2nd Amendment Is City's Aim in Guns Suit Lawyers for Mayor Bloomberg are asking a judge to ban any reference to the Second Amendment during the upcoming trial of a gun shop owner who was sued by the city. While trials are often tightly choreographed, with lawyers routinely instructed to not tell certain facts to a jury, a gag order on a section of the Constitution would be an oddity. "Apparently Mayor Bloomberg has a problem with both the First and the Second amendments," Lawrence Keane, the general counsel of a firearms industry association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said. The trial, set to begin May 27, involves a Georgia gun shop, Adventure Outdoors, which the city alleges is responsible for a disproportionate number of the firearms recovered from criminals in New York City. The gun store's owner, Jay Wallace, says his store abides by Georgia and federal regulations and takes steps to avoid selling firearms to gun traffickers. Mr. Wallace's store is one of 27 out-of-state gun shops sued by New York City, and the first to go to trial....
Who's the real criminal - Gun owner or BATFE? David Olofson, a Wisconsin gun owner, was convicted for transferring a machine gun. In actuality, Mr. Olofson owns a perfectly legal, AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. He loaned it to a friend to use at a local shooting range. The gun had fired over 800 rounds of ammunition before misfiring. Upon misfire, it fired two shots in a row and jammed on the third. This is commonly known as a "hammer follow." The misfire happened twice. Another party at the range heard the multiple round burst and notified police. The S.W.A.T. team, local police, Sheriff's Department, and BATFE subsequently conducted a no-knock raid of Mr. Olofson's house. The S.W.A.T. team kicked down Mr. Olofson's front door, entered wearing full body armor, then seized all of his guns, gun manuals, and his computer. Mr. Olofson, family man and Army veteran, was arrested. The BATFE conducted a field test on the alleged machine gun, but was unable to recreate the multiple round burst. Not liking the negative results of the test, the field agent ordered the gun retested using a cheaper form of ammunition which is easier to cause multiple firings if you have a malfunction. Upon retesting, the gun did malfunction which was enough to get Mr. Olofson convicted of transferring a machine gun. Mr. Olofson is now facing somewhere between 18 months and just over six years in prison along with a possible fine of $250,000....Also see How You Can Become A “Gun Felon”
Real ID Defeated In Minnesota The House and Senate have approved a bill that would bar state driver's license authorities from implementing the federal Real ID regulations. Governor Pawlenty vetoed an earlier attempt to require that conditions be met before the state could change licenses to meet federal rules. But both chambers passed the bill by veto-proof margins: 50-16 in the Senate and 103-30 in the House. The Real ID mandate would require every citizen to carry a U.S. government-approved card to board a plane or enter a federal facility. Critics say it will be costly to implement and that too much of people's personal information will be added to a national database. Supporters argue that a more secure identification card will help in homeland security and immigration control efforts.
Homeland Security to train police to counter roadside bombs The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is holding a workshop in Fayetteville to teach local law enforcement agencies how to handle roadside bombs. The department's Office of Bombing Prevention will host Tuesday's workshop. Police, sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement agents will learn how to identify the bombs and how to protect against them. Roadside bombs are the leading killer of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although no roadside bomb attacks have been reported in the U.S., experts say they could be a future threat. The workshop is part of the IED 2008 Symposium and Expo, an annual meeting held near Fort Bragg to discuss ways to counter the bombs.
Violence in Mexico spills across US border Three Mexican police chiefs have requested political asylum in the U.S. as violence escalates in the Mexican drug wars and spills across the U.S. border, a top Homeland Security official told The Associated Press. In the past few months, the police officials have shown up at the U.S. border, fearing for their lives, according to Jayson Ahern, the deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. "They're basically abandoned by their police officers or police departments in many cases," Ahern told AP. Ahern said the Mexican officials — whom he didn't name — are being interviewed and their cases are under review for possible asylum. In the most recent high-level assassination, a top-ranking official on a local Mexican police force was shot more than 50 times and killed. Drug-related violence killed more than 2,500 people last year alone in Mexico. "It's almost like a military fight," Ahern said Tuesday. "I don't think that generally the American public has any sense of the level of violence that occurs on the border." As the cartels fight for territory, this carnage spills over to the U.S., Ahern said — from bullet-ridden people stumbling into U.S. territory, to rounds of ammunition coming across U.S. entry ports. U.S. humvees retrofitted with steel mesh over the glass windows patrol parts of the border to protect agents against guns shots and large rocks regularly thrown at them. At times agents are pinned down by sniper fire as people try to illegally cross into the U.S....
Border agent indicted An El Paso U.S. Border Patrol agent was indicted on charges that he laundered money and conspired with two people from Mexico to smuggle undocumented immigrants into the United States, officials announced Wednesday. The agent, Jesus M. Huizar, 28, was arrested Tuesday, along with Chihuahua residents Emeterio Sigala-Favela, 37, and Luis Carlos Chacon-Rubio, 32, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio. The federal indictment alleges the three suspects had conspired since January 2005 to smuggle more than 100 undocumented immigrants into the United States from Mexico. The indictment further seeks the forfeiture of a safe house Huizar reportedly owns in the 9000 block of Geranium in the Lower Valley, and a monetary judgment of $500,000, allegedly the proceeds from criminal activity....
Senators Ask FBI to Explain Flawed 'National Security Letter' to Internet Archive A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is asking FBI head Robert Mueller to explain why the feds sought records from the Internet Archive, a digital library, using a controversial administrative subpoena known as a National Security Letter, which is intended for a communications service providers. The Internet Archive, a digital library of the web and media, beat the November 26 NSL with the help of attorneys at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union. In April, the FBI agreed to withdraw the request for records on a Internet Archive user and lift the gag order that typically attaches to such requests. The six senators sent Mueller a letter Thursday, asking him to explain what happened and to find out if the FBI reported the incident to an oversight board as a possible violation of federal law....
Report: Government's Cyber Security Plan Is Riddled With New Spying Programs Major elements of the Bush administration's proposed $17 billion "cyber security" initiative have little to do with protecting government networks, and a lot to do with spying, according to a budget report released by the Senate Armed Services Committee this week. The so-called National Cyber Security Initiative is also wrapped in unnecessary secrecy, and would spend billions on unproven, embryonic technology, and possibly illegal or ill-advised projects, according to the analysis -- which is part of a broad look at the proposed 2009 defense budget. While many of the specifics of the plan are classified, U.S. intelligence chief Michael McConnell told the New Yorker in January that he wants the National Security Agency to begin eavesdropping on the internet, and a McConnell aide said the spy agency was prepared to examine the content of e-mails, file transfers and Google searches without a warrant. The move includes putting the NSA in charge of monitoring and protecting civilian sites such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration. But according to the Armed Services Committee's analysis, there's a lot of spying being proposed under the guise of e-security. That confirms THREAT LEVEL's suspicions that the highly classified proposal could have far-ranging implications for the internet generally, especially as the government contemplates becoming the firewall for all Americans on the net....
End FBI-ATF Rift, Senators Urge Battles between the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives threaten national security and are reminiscent of the poor information-sharing that failed to detect the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, two U.S. senators said in a letter urging Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey to fix the problems. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the lead Republican on the committee, said they are "greatly disturbed" by FBI and ATF squabbling that has continued since the agencies were merged under the Justice Department five years ago to coordinate the fight against terrorism. The agencies have fought each other for control, wasting time and money and causing duplication of effort, according to law enforcement sources and internal documents. According to law enforcement sources and documents, the FBI and ATF have been battling for control of explosives, arson and tobacco investigations, a dispute that has contributed to a delay in a White House-ordered strategy to protect the nation from terrorist bombs. The problems have extended to some crime scenes, where agents have threatened to arrest one another and fought over jurisdiction and key evidence....
Homeland Security toy for children Product Description: Scan It Operation Checkpoint Airport Security Scanner Education Resource For Children. Scan It® is an educational and creative play toy that helps children become acclimated with airport and public spaces security. The device is both a fun toy and an educational tool. It detects metal objects and simulates an X-ray scan via a functioning conveyor belt that glides articles over its metal detector path. When metallic items are present the unit beeps and lights up. This unique toy/teaching aid provides ample amounts of healthy fun along with education and awareness of the security measures that people face in real life. A fun and educational booklet is also available upon request along with other online resources. Additional projects and education on airport and public spaces security is also available now.

Not-So-Safe-Deposit Boxes: States Seize Citizens' Property to Balance Their Budgets The 50 U.S. states are holding more than $32 billion worth of unclaimed property that they're supposed to safeguard for their citizens. But a "Good Morning America" investigation found some states aggressively seize property that isn't really unclaimed and then use the money -- your money -- to balance their budgets. Unclaimed property consists of things like forgotten apartment security deposits, uncashed dividend checks and safe-deposit boxes abandoned when an elderly relative dies. Banks and other businesses are required to turn that property over to the state for safekeeping. The problem is that the states return less than a quarter of unclaimed property to the rightful owners. San Francisco resident Carla Ruff's safe-deposit box was drilled, seized, and turned over to the state of California, marked "owner unknown." "I was appalled," Ruff said. "I felt violated." Unknown? Carla's name was right on documents in the box at the Noe Valley Bank of America location. So was her address -- a house about six blocks from the bank. Carla had a checking account at the bank, too -- still does -- and receives regular statements. Plus, she has receipts showing she's the kind of person who paid her box rental fee. And yet, she says nobody ever notified her. "They are zealously uncovering accounts that are not unclaimed," Ruff said. To make matters worse, Ruff discovered the loss when she went to her box to retrieve important paperwork she needed because her husband was dying. Those papers had been shredded. And that's not all. Her great-grandmother's precious natural pearls and other jewelry had been auctioned off. They were sold for just $1,800, even though they were appraised for $82,500. "These things were things that she gave to me," Ruff said. "I valued them because I loved her." California law used to say property was unclaimed if the rightful owner had had no contact with the business for 15 years. But during various state budget crises, the waiting period was reduced to seven years, and then five, and then three. Legislators even tried for one year. Why? Because the state wanted to use that free money. California is not the only state to come under fire for its handling of unclaimed property. In Delaware, unclaimed property is the third largest source of state revenue. Idaho recently passed an unprecedented law that says the state gets to keep unclaimed property permanently if the rightful owners don't claim it within 10 short years. And all 50 states pay private contractors 10 to 12 percent commissions to locate and seize accounts for them. It's an inherent conflict of interest: the more rightful owners are found, the less money the contractors make....

Analysis: Polar bear's impact on people is felt It's not about saving the polar bear as much as the polar bear saving us. The Arctic bear facing extinction because of global warming is bringing home the consequences of cheap energy and — until recently — the need for little sacrifice. It also reminds us that a choice soon may come between accepting higher electricity and transportation costs and reducing the pollution that is raising the earth's temperature. In listing the bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, the Bush administration is taking pains to draw a line between protection of the majestic mammal and the origin of its plight — global warming. "This listing should not open the door ... to regulating greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, power plants and other sources," said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, in line with views expressed by President Bush last month. There is a reason for that. Business fears the bear. But will the administration, in its final eight months in power, be able to maintain that firewall. The odds are it will not. Environmentalists already are working on strategies for lawsuits challenging the limits that Kempthorne put on the polar bear listing. That includes assuming no relationship between greenhouse gas emissions from, for example, a Texas power plant, and melting sea ice, and that the bear should have no more protection from oil drilling than it now has. In fact, those restrictions may not survive a new administration....
Cap-And-Trade Folly Legislation pending in the Senate might warm environmentalists' hearts, but not because of potential cuts in carbon emissions. Their interest is in the heavy economic costs the plans would inflict. Each bill uses the cap-and-trade scheme to control carbon dioxide emissions. Each establishes limits, then prescribes how to distribute or sell to the private sector the rights to emit specific amounts of greenhouse gases under the cap. The bill sponsored by Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., is the least egregious. It would force greenhouse gas emissions to be cut to about 3% below last year's level. The others, one from Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Independent from Connecticut, and Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, another from Lieberman and Sen. John Warner, Republican of Virginia, are more draconian. The former would cut emissions to 16% below the 2007 output, the latter 44%. None would affect climate change. All, however, would carry heavy economic losses. Naturally, the environmentalists, having pushed the environment down their list of concerns, like that. It's no surprise that the most expensive of the three is the Warner-Lieberman bill. The Environmental Protection Agency reckons it could cost as much as $3 trillion a year in lost GDP. In an economy of roughly $14 trillion, that's a significant loss. But even the Bingaman-Specter legislation, the least costly of the three, would hit the economy for about $1 trillion a year. Much of the pain would be caused by increases in gasoline and electricity prices. The Science Applications International Corporation calculates that Lieberman-Warner by 2030 would boost gasoline prices from 60% to 144% while electricity prices would be up 77% to 129%....
Sea lions likely died from the heat The deaths of six sea lions found in traps on the Columbia River earlier this month were likely caused by the heat, and not by gunshots as officials first suspected, the National Marine Fisheries Service said. Oregon and Washington officials had been trapping the animals as part of a federally approved removal process because they feast on salmon at the Bonneville Dam. Federal and state officials initially said the sea lions had been shot, but they did an about-face after necropsies by state and federal experts found no evidence of bullet wounds. The fisheries service said Wednesday the results of necropsies on all six animals were consistent with death from heat stroke. Studies of tissue samples taken after the May 4 deaths are expected in about 10 days and might reveal more....
Ranch owner surrenders in bison deaths Jeffrey Scott Hawn, the Texas businessman facing multiple criminal counts in the killing of 32 bison in South Park, turned himself in at the Park County Jail earlier this week, the Park County Sheriff's Office said today. While there, said the sheriff's department, Hawn, 44, of Austin, posted the $15,000 bail set by District Judge Stephen Groome. Groome has given Hawn, who has a home and ranch in South Park, permission to travel outside Colorado, but the judge is determining whether Hawn can leave the country. According to an arrest warrant issued last week, the bison apparently were killed over a span of a couple of weeks. A group of hunters claimed that Hawn, in a letter sent to one of them Feb. 25, said they could kill the bison, which belonged to South Park rancher Monte Downare....