Labor Secretary Proposes Suspending Farm Rules

Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis announced Friday that she would suspend regulations that the Bush administration introduced in December to make it easier and cheaper for agricultural employers to use foreign workers in temporary jobs. Just hours after being officially sworn on Friday morning, Ms. Solis said she would suspend the regulations for nine months. The move could create turmoil for growers who had already applied to bring in temporary farm workers under the new rules. Last year, tens of thousands of foreign workers were brought in under the temporary agricultural program, known as H-2A, harvesting lettuce, sweet potatoes, tobacco, cucumbers, sugar cane and other crops. The new rules cut the wages that many of these workers will receive and reduced the amount that growers had to reimburse these workers for their travel. They also eased administrative burdens by letting employers simply attest that they had met various program requirements. Ms. Solis, who criticized the rules when she was in Congress, said suspending them was “the prudent and responsible action” to take “because many stakeholders have raised concerns about the H-2A regulations.” Many farm worker and labor groups had attacked the Bush regulations, saying they would push down wages for H-2A workers and take away jobs from workers in the United States. Growers generally applauded the rules, saying they would reduce red tape in employing foreign seasonal workers who they said did arduous farm jobs that few Americans wanted to do. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao announced the rules on Dec. 18, and they took effect on Jan. 17. Ms. Solis said the proposed suspension would be open for public comment for 10 days...NY Times

No matter your opinion on the rules, they are just another example of Bush incompetency. Eight years in office and they just couldn't get it done.

Farmers Lead a Bid to Create 2 Californias

After nearly 90 years on the farm, Virgil Rogers has suffered through all manner of agricultural agita, from colicky cows to oscillating milk prices to drought, both past and present. But Mr. Rogers’s newest source of consternation, he says, is some fellow Californians. “Those Hollywood types don’t have any idea what’s going on out here on the farms,” said Mr. Rogers, a retired dairyman from Visalia, the county seat in a Central Valley region where cows far outnumber people. So it is that in recent weeks Mr. Rogers, whose previous political involvement amounted to little more than writing a check to a favored candidate — has suddenly become a leader in a secessionist movement bent on cleaving California in two. But while the plan is not new — the idea of two Californias has been floated dozens of times — the motivations and geographical scissor-work are. Frustrated by what they call uninformed urban voters dictating faulty farm policy, Mr. Rogers and the other members of the movement have proposed splitting off 13 counties on the state’s coast, leaving the remaining 45, mostly inland, counties as the “real” California. The reason, they say, is that people in those coastal counties, which include San Francisco and Los Angeles, simply do not understand what life is like in areas where the sea breezes do not reach. “They think fish are more important than people, that pigs are treated mean and chickens should run loose,” said Mr. Rogers, who said he hitched a ride in 1940 to Visalia from Oklahoma to escape the Dust Bowl, with his wife and baby son in tow. “City people just don’t know what it takes to get food on their table.” The final straw for folks like Mr. Rogers was Proposition 2, a ballot measure in November that banned the tight confinement of egg-laying hens, veal calves and sows. While many food activists and politicians in the state hailed the vote as proof of consumers’ increasing interest in where their food comes from, the proposition’s passage has angry farmers and their allies wanting to put the issue of secession to a vote, perhaps as soon as 2012...NY Times

Colo reps: Army ignoring Congress on training site

U.S. Reps. John Salazar and Betsy Markey accused the Army on Friday of ignoring the wishes of Congress by pushing ahead with plans to expand a southeast Colorado training site. The Colorado Democrats asked a House oversight committee to investigate why the Army was still trying to buy or lease more land for the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site despite a moratorium imposed by Congress on spending for the project. Markey accused the Army of showing a "blatant disregard" for Congress and an "apparent willingness to violate the trust of the people of southern Colorado." Army Assistant Secretary Keith Eastin said earlier Friday that the military wants to sign long-term leases to expand the site, rather than buying more land. Leasing might keep the land on the tax rolls because the land would remain in private hands. "We are talking to a number of landowners about their concerns and how we might work together to meet those concerns," Eastin said during a visit to Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, where he was inspecting construction projects. He said he thinks some ranchers are ready to make a deal. "If my read is correct, there is a general interest in lowering the volume and making this a win-win," he said. Eastin said the military would expect to lease the land for decades rather than months. "Not 99 years, but long term," he said. "Long enough to amortize our investment." Salazar said Army officials asked him to endorse a lease agreement for the land, but he declined. Rancher Lon Robertson, president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, said leasing is just as bad as buying....Denver Post

Parks to ban lead bullets, tackle

The National Park Service has set a goal of eliminating lead from fishing and hunting gear by 2010. Acting Park Service director Dan Wenk announced the goal Wednesday in Washington. Fragments of lead bullets are suspected to contaminate scavenger birds, like ravens and eagles, and lead used as fishing weights could poison waterfowl and other species. Lead is a toxin and studies — some from Jackson Hole — have associated bullet fragments with increased lead in the blood of predatory and scavenging birds. California and Arizona have recently implemented mandatory and voluntary bans, respectively, on lead ammunition to help California condor recovery, Wenk said. A firearms group was quick to condemn the action. “The National Park Service’s decision is arbitrary, over-reactive and not based on science,” Steve Sanetti, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said in a statement. His group is a trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry. “Studies show that traditional ammunition does not pose a health risk to humans, or wildlife populations as a whole,” he said. The Park Service is grappling with another firearms issue — whether to allow parks visitors to carry concealed weapons as allowed by permit elsewhere. While the Bush administration implemented new rules allowing concealed weapons, the Obama team is reviewing those in a growing skirmish pitting Second Amendment advocates against conservationists...Jackson Hole Daily Guide

Texas health agencies ban travel to Mexico

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has banned workers in five state agencies from traveling to Mexico to conduct research or work on binational health programs because of fears of kidnappings and other drug cartel-fueled violence. New Mexico health officials also have reduced travel to Mexico because of safety and budget concerns, a spokeswoman said. The Texas commission informed employees of the state’s health and human services system in late February after the U.S. Department of State issued a travel alert that advised federal employees not to travel to Mexico without a supervisor’s approval. The state agencies oversee a variety of binational health programs, including tuberculosis treatment, health education and disease data sharing. The travel restriction could be a hurdle, at least initially, for some health professionals. Much of the communication between the two countries is already done electronically, but testing and treatment of tuberculosis patients among other tasks could become more challenging...Houston Chronicle

Lawmakers offer bill to block state land sale to Army

State Reps. Sal Pace and Wes McKinley plan to offer a bill next week to prevent the State Land Board from selling any of its lands to the Army for expanding the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site northeast of Trinidad. The two Democrats are opposed to the proposed expansion and said the 238,000-acre training site has many parcels of state land around it, including land inside the 70,000-acre ranch owned by Denver businessman Craig Walker directly south of Pinon Canyon. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., confirmed this week that Army officials want to acquire or lease that property, although Walker has insisted he is not negotiating with the Army and does not want to sell. When Colorado was established as a state, the land was plotted into 36-square mile "townships." In each township, two sections of a square-mile each, were set aside as state land for supporting public schools. The State Land Board oversees those lands, among others. According to the most recent state maps, there are roughly 20,000 acres of State Board Land in the region south of Pinon Canyon that the Army has targeted for expansion. Pace, elected in November to Pueblo's House District 46, said that if the Army acquires the Walker property or other land around Pinon Canyon, the State Land Board would have to consider selling its holdings. That's what the state did in the 1980s when the Army created Pinon Canyon. "We want to make sure they don't sell that land to the Army for Pinon Canyon," Pace said Wednesday. He noted that a second part of the legislation would require the Colorado attorney general's office to contest any attempt by the Army to condemn those sections of state land...Pueblo Chieftain

And for those who may have missed it, here is a comment from "Anonymous" that was posted yesterday:

Sounds like the RangeMan been sippin’ a little too much of that there left over DEE-CAM koolaid!

Seriously, at the end of the day, in this new era of transparency perhaps the American taxpaying public will finally learn the truth as to who actually masterminded the proposal to expand this under-utilized training facility. In 1983, Army agreed they wouldn’t come back for more after the first eminent domain condemnation a “Treaty” of sorts and this rogue Warren has always known that was the agreement.

In 2003, less than 20 years later, he sets this expansion plan in motion behind closed doors and sells his conceptual plan through the bubba-network to the Army powers that be without involving or considering all of the affected adjacent landowners.

If the Army can justify its needs for more space to conduct multi-force “real world” training, I hear tell Navy has a 45 square mile piece of real estate off the coast of Florida with an ocean view they won’t be needing anymore. Comes complete with a Treaty in place, buildings, a “potable” water supply and a wider variety of terrain to simulate real world multi-force training applications! According to the new administration, it should be available within a year! Plenty of room for expansion there!

I invite "Anonymous" to email me with more info and details that I could publish. If he's not comfortable with that, post more in the comments section. We would love to hear from you. Educate me and the readers of this blog.

Has Obama Killed Carbon Cap and Trade?

President Obama has driven a stake in the heart of his carbon cap-and-trade program. By transforming it from a relatively cost-effective environmental program into a cash cow to finance his ambitious health and social welfare agenda, he has encumbered it with very expensive baggage. Blue Dog Democrats and conservation-minded Republicans will gag on its cost to an economy now racked by recession. In broadening the goal of cap-and-trade legislation from the paramount goal of reducing Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), primarily carbon, and mitigating climate change, to that of raising, conservatively, well over $600 billion in revenue for his social programs, the President has raised the ante on this ambitious proposal. He has guaranteed a contentious fight in Congress, strong Democratic majorities notwithstanding. A clear sign of what is to come was a February 3rd statement by Senator Bob Corker (R-TN): "I believe there is a growing bipartisan agreement that all of the revenues generated from a cap-and-trade tax should be returned to the American people." Evidently, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, both of which supported the President's stimulus package, are drawing a line in the sand over the proposed cap-and-trade program...American Spectator

The author discusses several options which are available and then closes with the following:

The Obama administration has decided not to pursue this more cost-effective response to carbon reduction. It intends to sell carbon allowances and pocket the proceeds to carry out its ambitious social agenda. It views the proposed carbon cap-and-trade program as a means to generate more federal tax revenues rather than simply an environmental program to be implemented in the most cost-effective manner possible.

Fish Tales: How Sustainable is That Tuna in the Window?

Enviro sushi lovers in the U.S should be celebrating—a Japanese company is now selling farm-raised bluefin tuna offering all the “buttery texture” without savaging threatened wild tuna stocks. So why are so many environmentalists still so upset? Fifty years ago, fish farming wasn’t an issue for anybody. Today, fish farming accounts for about half of all the fish consumed in the world. That’s only going to grow, because global fish stocks, for Pacific tuna, Atlantic hake, or Patagonian toothfish, are in terrible shape. The UN estimates 70% of global fish stocks are at or beyond their limits already and urges even more fish farming as a way out of the mess. That drives a lot of environmental groups crazy. Greenpeace, for instance, rails against all sorts of nasty side effects from intensive fish farming, like nutrient run-off that fouls local water supplies. But the biggest problem, Greenpeace says, is bad math...WSJ

Bad math? Greenpeace says it takes more fish to feed the farmed fish than you get back in fish weight. I'd call this an "Ethanol of The Sea" situation.

Interior speeds efforts on renewable energy

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday said he has created a special task force to boost the development of solar, wind, biomass and geothermal energy projects on federal lands. The task force will identify specific zones on public lands where the agency can speed up the permit process for renewable-energy projects. "More so than ever, with job losses continuing to mount, we need to steer the country onto a new energy path," Salazar said. "We will assign a high priority to identifying renewable-energy zones and completing the permitting and appropriate environmental review of transmission rights-of-way applications that are necessary to deliver renewable-energy generation to consumers. "We have to connect the sun of the deserts and the wind of the plains with the places where people live." Salazar said the department has a backlog of 20 wind- and 200 solar- project permits pending from the previous administration. "It's clear with no permits, there can be no job," he said...Denver Post

Salazar's energy policy is becoming clear: slow down oil & gas and speed up wind & solar.

Gallup Pole - Increased Number Think Global Warming Is “Exaggerated”

Although a majority of Americans believe the seriousness of global warming is either correctly portrayed in the news or underestimated, a record-high 41% now say it is exaggerated. This represents the highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting on global warming seen in more than a decade of Gallup polling on the subject...Gallup

30% felt it was exaggerated in 2006, so that's quite an increase.

Hat Tip: Blogriculture

Bingaman spokesman: Land bill is "certainly alive"

An omnibus lands bill that included a controversial land exchange in Cañoncito east of Santa Fe failed to pass the U.S. House of Representatives by two votes Wednesday. The massive bill also included a measure approving a critical Navajo water rights settlement, a measure to establish the new, 17,000-acre Sabinoso wilderness in San Miguel County, and money for a water pipeline to serve eastern New Mexico communities. The House voted 282 to 141 in favor of the omnibus bill, but it failed because it didn't receive the required two-thirds majority to pass. The bill passed the Senate by a 73-21 vote in January. Jude McCartin, spokeswoman for Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., the bill's sponsor, said the House could revote on the measure, but could also send it back to committees for further hearings. "This bill is certainly alive," she said...Santa Fe New Mexican

Dry start to 2009 sets U.S. record

The first two months of 2009 are the driest start of any year since the USA began keeping records over a century ago, leading to severe drought in Texas, dipping reservoir levels in Florida and a surge in wildfires across the nation. Farmers, cattlemen, firefighters and others worry that the dry start may be a harbinger of a bleak summer that could lead to increasing risk of fire and poor crop conditions. Cattle rancher Jim Selman of Gonzales, Texas, has sold all but 30 of his 300 to 400 breeding cows because his pasture is too dry to feed them. "It might take me 10 years or more to get back where I was," he says. "It's so dry." Richard Heim, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center, said the 2.69-inch average rainfall across the U.S. in January and February is the least amount of moisture in those months since NOAA began keeping records in 1895. So far this year, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise has logged 11,814 wildfires, the most for any two-month period in a decade and almost 3,700 more than the average. The dry spell extends a drought that has hammered Central Texas since 2007 and California and the Southeast since 2006...USA Today

An Overview of Water Scarcity and Water Market Development

Water scarcity is one of the most complex and pressing issues facing the arid western US. Compared with other economic sectors, irrigated agriculture remains the largest user of freshwater accounting for approximately between 70 and 95 percent of total water withdrawals. Demand for water is growing and increasingly represents urban interest whose priorities for water use are divided among recreation, protection of wildlife and habitat, and human consumption. Farmers are named as defendants in a number of lawsuits in the west, including Nevada, where the competition for water is fierce and occasionally volatile. Water shortages and quality issues are likely to worsen over time. Water crisis management is not the answer, nor is the use of collaborative processes with no definable endpoint. The U.S. Department of Interior in their report titled, Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West (1998) outline several options for addressing anticipated water conflict. These include more efficient water uses, cut back and/or eliminate existing water uses, develop alternative water resources (cloud seeding and desalinization) and transfer water between existing and new uses through market-based mechanisms such as water banking...Reno Gazette-Journal

League Of Conservation Voters Petition to GOP Leaders - "With Us Or With Rush"

The LCV has started their "With Us Or With Rush" petition drive. The petition is to GOP leaders McConnel in the Senate and Boehner in the House and concerns global warming and clean energy issues. It asks the leaders to follow the example of Gov's Crist and Schwartzenegger and ends by saying "Stand With Us, Not With Rush!"

You can see the petition and an accompanying video by going here.

Rush is getting whacked by everyone.

Hat Tip: Red Green and Blue

PETA's Star Gimmick : Clooney-Flavored Tofu

Just when we thought we'd seen it all from PETA -- the animal rights organization known for high-profile celebrity ads -- President Ingrid Newkirk has come up with this: George Clooney-flavored tofu. In a letter sent to the actor, Newkirk said that PETA has been offered his gym towel (obtained right here in D.C.!) and wants to use his sweat to create Clooney tofu that will "spare animals from being killed for the table." She went on to explain that the science is pretty simple, like "making artificial chicken flavor for instant gravy." Newkirk, a big fan of Clooney, told us yesterday that the towel was offered by a PETA supporter with the idea of auctioning it off, but she immediately thought of using his perspiration for bean curd: "I thought, 'What would make tofu more attractive to people?' ... I can see people having parties to try CloFu." Clooney's not biting. "As a mammal, I'm offended," he told us yesterday through his rep. Washington Post

Update on State Slaughter Resolutions; Idaho Joins Debate

Idaho has joined the list of states pondering legislation aimed at maintaining control of equine transport and re-establishing the horse processing industry in the United States.

Introduced into Idaho's House State Affairs Committee this week by State Rep. Thomas F. Loertscher, HJM 005 instructs Idaho's congressional delegation to vote against the Conyers-Burton Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act (HR 503). The federal measure would impose a nationwide ban on the transport of horses for slaughter.

Resolutions similar to Idaho's have passed in:

* Kansas (HCR 5004)
* South Dakota (SCR 2)
* Utah (HJR 7)
* Wyoming (HJR 8)

Similar resolutions are pending in:

* Arizona (SCM 1001)
* Minnesota (SF 133)
* North Dakota (HB 1496)
* Arkansas (HCR 1004)
* Missouri (House, HCR 19; Senate, SCR 8)

Meanwhile, legislators in the following states are considering bills that would amend current state laws to promote the development of horse slaughter plants by private investors:

* Illinois (HB 0583)
* Montana (HB 418)
* Tennessee (HB 1361)

From The Horse.

Canadian BSE class action suit focused on settlement

If the federal government wants to flow aid to Canada's punch-drunk beef cattle sector, it couldn't do much better than to settle with the ranchers now suing it. That's how Toronto lawyer Cameron Pallett, the lawyer for Niagara Falls-area cattle producer Bill Sauer, plans to press his case with officials in Ottawa to settle Sauer's class-action suit out of court. Sauer is the representative plaintiff for a class that includes all Canadian cattle producers (outside Quebec, that is, where a related and certified class action suit by producer Donald Berneche continues). The two suits claim negligence within the government led directly to the BSE-related closure of the U.S. border and other foreign ports. If successful, Pallett said, the suits stand to benefit about 135,000 producers in all. Justice Joan Lax of the Ontario Superior Court, in certifying Sauer's suit as a class action last fall, said Ridley's settlement "focuses the litigation on the party that is capable of providing meaningful compensation to class members." The lawsuits' allegations against the government and individual federal bureaucrats have not yet been proven in court...Grainews

State law: farmers' rights vs. Monsanto

Rodney Nelson says he’s tried to forget the “living hell” Monsanto unleashed on his family nine years ago. In 2000, Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, sued Nelson and his family for allegedly infringing its seed patents – meaning illegally saving patented seed – on their North Dakota farm. Monsanto’s case was based on samples the company’s hired investigators claimed they took from the Nelson’s fields. The North Dakota Seed Arbitration Board called the evidence against the Nelsons insubstantial, but Monsanto continued its aggressive legal pursuit to take what would have amounted to three times the entire gross value of the Nelson’s crop, plus punitive damages and attorney fees. And the company sent letters to more than 250 seed distributors in a three-state region instructing them not to sell its products to the Nelsons, effectively painting the family as criminals overnight. Eventually Monsanto and the Nelson family dismissed their cases against each other. The Nelsons’ fight with Monsanto left scars, yet it also left legislation that protects farmers from enduring similar intrusive investigations. North Dakota legislators passed a law that established a crop sampling protocol that patent holders must follow to level the playing field for farmers who face patent infringement allegations. It’s dubbed the “Nelson Bill.”...New West

Roundabout cattle drive set to ride its way through Rifle, Colorado roundabouts

Gary Russell is going to drive cattle right down the middle of Rifle’s roundabouts at the Interstate 70 interchange and Airport Road. But it won't be the kind of cattle drive you normally see in this neck of the woods. Russell, owner of The Iron Gallery just west of Rifle on U.S. Highway 6&24, was commissioned by the city to create iron sculptures of a cattle drive to adorn the center of the roundabouts. The city was presented with several choices from architects for a landscape design and chose the cattle drive theme because "cattle are a part of the heritage of our community," as Mayor Keith Lambert explained. Using a hand-held flame cutting torch, Russell has been busy working on the statues of two cowboys and one cowgirl, each on horseback, along with some dogs and cattle. He anticipates that some real cowboys will drive through the roundabouts and scrutinize the work, so he's done his homework and asked for advice from some of the ranchers and cowboys he knows to ensure it's realistic. "I’m also going to use some old brands from this area on the cows and calves," he said. "I think it would be really cool if people could drive by and say, 'hey, that's my grandpa's brand'!"...Citizen Telegram

Bob Welch's Steer Tie-Down Video

Editor's Note: Hey Guys. This was my second attempt at a video blog and I think I owe you as viewers a couple explanations. First, this method of laying a steer down is pretty common, nothing new, but I hadn't seen it much so thought I'd share it. You'll notice a couple edit points in the video, I'm not trying to hide anything, just trying to keep you from having to watch some boring footage. Sometimes it takes a while for a steer to let you ride all the way around him to lay that rope down--especially in a pen where they can get up against a fence and prevent you from riding around them. Still, I think it's a better way than jerking them down. I think it's easier on the steer and the horse. Also in the interest of full disclosure, I had laid him down one other time that day, but didn't have the camera rolling.

Second, just a little about that horse. This is his four-year-old year. I'm pretty proud of how he handles himself. You'll notice I'm riding in a bosal. I normally don't do that, but he's got some warts or something on his lip that we're treating and I don't want a bit in his mouth to aggravate it. Guess that's about it. I hope this video was interesting. I'd love to know what you thought, so drop me a line or make a comment if you have a question or something to say.

Thanks,
Bob

You might want to check out Bob's other posts at MyHorse.com