Montana, North Dakota Horse Slaughter Bills Advance

Legislation to establish privately owned horse processing plants in the United States advanced this week in two Western states. On March 24, the North Dakota State Senate approved HB 1496, authorizing a $50,000 study to evaluate potential legal challenges to slaughter plant development in that state. The bill will return to the North Dakota House for final consensus before moving on to Gov. John Hoeven's desk. "The bill is pretty veto proof, so I don't see the Governor not signing it," said State Sen. Joe Miller, a co-sponsor. Meanwhile, a Montana bill arrived on Gov. Brian Schweitzer's desk March 24 after its passage by the state's Senate. HB 418 prohibits Montana courts from granting injunctions to stop or delay horse processing plant construction based on permit or licensing challenges, or on environmental grounds. It also requires that anyone challenging permits submit a surety bond representing 20% of the facility's estimated building cost, and awards attorney and court fees to plaintiffs in cases District Courts deem harassing or without merit...The Horse

Death tax could mean end for fifth-generation rancher

I am the owner of a ranch that has been in my family for five generations. If current trends continue, I'll be the last in that line. My family's way of life is threatened by the death tax. My great-great-grandfather was a rags-to-riches pioneer. In the late 1860s, James Clayton Stribling Sr., son of an immigrant from England, moved from his birthplace in Tennessee to Texas. Arriving with little more than the shirt on his back, he began leasing land to graze cattle. Stribling gradually increased his ranch land by buying small tracts from neighbors. Over the course of his lifetime, he bought several thousand acres. When he died, the land then went to his children. His children continued the ranching tradition and passed it on to their five children, including my grandmother. It is with my grandmother that my family first discovered the death tax. When she died in 1997, the Internal Revenue Service handed my father an invoice of 38.5 percent minus a small deduction, on the appraised value of the land — the land that her grandfather had worked so hard to purchase, protect and work. As is the case with so many ranchers, her estate didn't have many liquid assets or a large amount of cash with which he could pay the debt. His only choice was to sell or take a loan. He took the largest loan available and, even then, was forced to sell several thousand acres. Fast forward to the summer of 2006. My father began to get ill and so we began planning his estate. We put together an army of attorneys, CPAs and tax planners in hopes of avoiding the tax burden my grandmother's estate left. Alas, our hope in tax-shelter magic was not to be realized...Austin American-Statesman

Song Of The Day #004

Dorsey Murdock Dixon (Oct 14, 1897-Apr 1968)was born in the mill town of Darlington, SC, quit school in the fourth grade, went to work in the mill at age 12, and started playing the guitar when he was 14. His younger brother, Howard (Jun 19, 1903-Mar 24, 1951), followed him to the mill and to music. In 1932 they formed a fiddle-guitar duo and played in local venues. They joined the WBT Jamboree in 1934, which led to a 1936 recording contract with Victor where they cut 60 sides. Their musical career was over by the start of WWII. During all this time they continued to work at the mill. Dorsey retired in 1951 and Howard died at the work-site in 1960. It should be noted that Dorsey was also a songwriter, having penned Weave Room Blues and Wreck On The Highway among others.

Today's selection is their 1936 recording of Sales Tax On The Women. It is available on the cd Dixon Brothers, Vol. 1: 1936.

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House Votes to Protect 2 Million Acres of Wilderness

The U.S. House passed a conservation plan that will protect 2 million acres of natural wilderness and preserve monuments, trails and rivers across the country. The Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, approved today 285-140, goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. The measure combines more than 160 environmental bills in 1,294 pages to conserve water and protect 1,000 miles of scenic rivers. It would block mining and drilling on millions of acres of land. The measure authorizes up to $10 billion in spending for wildlife and land protection. It would add 2 million acres, or about 800,000 hectares, in nine states to the National Wilderness Preservation System. That system currently consists of 10 million acres, or about 4 million hectares, in 44 states. Opponents of the plan said it had not been properly vetted for wasteful spending and that it would block access to tens of millions of acres of natural gas and oil reserves. Representative Tom McClintock, a California Republican, called the bill a “massive land grab.” On the House floor, he said the public good is not served by “mindless and endless acquisition of property” that blocks access to natural gas and other resources. The House rejected an amendment from Representative Doc Hastings, a Washington Republican, to allow people to carry concealed weapons into national parks. The provision would have reversed an Interior Department firearms policy...Bloomberg

For local cattle grazers, bill may bring painful transition

Wednesday was bittersweet for rancher Bob Miller, whose family has been running cattle for more than a century on what is now the 53,837-acre Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument southeast of Ashland. He is one of five major lessees whose cattle grazing will end on the monument after the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 becomes law. Passed by the U.S. Senate last week, it was overwhelmingly approved by the House on Wednesday and is expected to be signed soon by President Obama. He and other ranchers have been working with conservationists to come up with an agreement that would allow conservationists to pay the ranchers to retire their grazing leases. The act includes language that makes the grazing retirement possible. The buyout will include no funding from Uncle Sam. "This is not what we wanted, but it's better than nothing," said Miller, who added he would have preferred to continue the lifestyle his family has long followed. The amount being paid to the lessees has not been disclosed. "Nobody is getting enough to start over again," he said. "It's like selling your house for 20 cents on the dollar. You can't replace it." But health reasons, coupled with poor market conditions and growing opposition to grazing on public lands, persuaded him to make the difficult decision, he said. "It's hard," he said. "I'm the fourth generation — for over 100 years my family has been running cattle up there." The language in the act provides for permanent and voluntary retirement of public lands cattle grazing leases by private buyout on up to 106,672 acres of federal land in and around the monument...Mail Tribune

Obama nominates Gov. Richardson's former chief counsel for solicitor at interior dept.

The White House says it plans to nominate Gov. Bill Richardson's former chief counsel to the post of solicitor in the U.S. Department of Interior. Hilary Tompkins served as chief counsel and deputy counsel in the governor's office from 2003 to 2008. She advised the governor on legislation, political appointments, executive orders and litigation as well as provided expertise in American Indian affairs. Tompkins managed the legal staff in the governor's office as well as the general counsels in over 20 state agencies. Before working for the state, she was an associate at a national law firm where her practice focused on water and environmental law. Tompkins, a Navajo, also has served as general counsel to several Indian tribes nationwide...AP

This is from a March 5th article at Indianz.com:

President Barack Obama plans to name a Native woman to serve as the top legal official for the Interior Department, Secretary Ken Salazar said on Wednesday. Speaking to tribal leaders in Washington, D.C., Salazar said the expected nominee is a member of the Navajo Nation. He didn't mention her name but sources identified her as Hilary Tompkins, a prominent attorney from New Mexico. "We are just now in the process of getting her vetted," Salazar said at a summit held by the Council of Energy Resource Tribes. Salazar described Tompkins, who was adopted at birth, as someone Indian Country "can be very proud of." If nominated and confirmed as Solicitor General of the Interior, Tompkins would be making history as the first woman and the first Native American to serve in the post. Tompkins currently serves as an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law, where she is sharing her experience in tribal-state relations. It's an area she knows well, having served as chief counsel to Gov. Bill Richardson (D) from 2005 to 2008 and as his deputy counsel from 2003 to 2005. As the first Native American chief counsel, Tompkins helped Richardson hire and appoint a record number of Native Americans, both in his cabinet and in agencies, boards and commissions. She oversaw the elevation of the state's Indian agency to a secretarial position, the first in the nation, as the governor supported a record number of Indian bills in the New Mexico Legislature. Tompkins and the legal team also sought to extend their influence to other states by taking a pro-Indian stance in a controversial U.S. Supreme Court case. Shortly after taking office, Richardson filed a brief in Inyo County v. Bishop Paiute Tribe in defense of tribal rights. "It's something we're really proud of," Tompkins, whose name appeared on the brief, told High Country News in an April 2003 article. The move prompted other states to sign onto tribal-friendly briefs, a big shift since states have historically sided against tribal interests in Supreme Court cases...

Obama’s hidden bailout of General Electric

GE — a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which advocates cap and trade — leads the push for greenhouse gas restrictions. In the fourth quarter of 2008 as the company’s stock fell 30 percent, GE spent $4.26 million on lobbying — that’s $46,304 each day, including weekends, Thanksgiving and Christmas. In 2008, the company spent a grand total of $18.66 million on lobbying. Reviewing their lobbying filings, you might think you were looking at Al Gore’s agenda. GE’s specific lobbying issues included the “Climate Stewardship Act,” “Electric Utility Cap and Trade Act,” “Global Warming Reduction Act,” “Federal Government Greenhouse Gas Registry Act,” “Low Carbon Economy Act,” and “Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.” This isn’t altruism or public relations. GE has started a joint venture called Greenhouse Gas Services, which invests in — and hopes to manage the trade in — greenhouse gas credits. But these investments and this trading floor are of basically no use and nearly no value without government restrictions on greenhouse gases. Hence the lobbying, buttressed by generous campaign contributions: Employees and executives gave $1.35 million to politicians in the past election while GE’s political action committee shelled out $1.55 million. About 64 percent of this $2.9 million went to Democrats, with Obama easily the top recipient of GE money. Obama’s budget includes the payoff, promising to start a multibillion-dollar greenhouse gas industry by 2012. In a letter this week, GE’S Immelt told shareholders that current events present an “opportunity of a lifetime,” because “capitalism will be ‘reset.’ ” Immelt wrote: “The interaction between government and business will change forever. In a reset economy, the government will be a regulator; and also an industry policy champion, a financier, and a key partner.”...Washington Examiner

Grouse decision, take-two

A question that has loomed over the Gunnison Valley for more than a decade has come to another tipping point. The federal government has announced its intention to consider the Gunnison Sage-grouse for listing under the controversial Endangered Species Act (ESA), once again. On Monday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) alerted the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that it would like to take back its decision not to list the Gunnison Sage-grouse -- made in April of 2006. The decision comes on the heels of a second report released by the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior. It found that former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Julie MacDonald and other Bush Administration officials interfered with biologists' decision-making for multiple endangered species, including the Gunnison Sage-grouse. The agency will conduct another biological status review of the bird, referred to as a 12-month fact-finding process, she said. Such a review usually takes 12 months to complete, but she said the FWS will negotiate with the plaintiffs of the lawsuit to determine a deadline for the new listing decision. Tomichi Creek rancher Greg Peterson said he was disappointed in the recent news. He opined that plaintiffs in the lawsuit are using the ESA as "a tool to get cattle off federal lands." If the bird is listed, the impacts to ranchers could be detrimental, he said. Such a decision could lead the federal government to reduce allowances for grazing on public lands. This, in turn, would increase pressure on private lands -- degrading those landscapes and, ultimately, pressuring ranchers to consider selling their land for development, due to financial difficulties, he said. He also believes that a loss of local control could break-down the collaborative relationships that have been built locally in the last 15 years -- as area stakeholders have tried to preclude the need for an ESA listing of the bird by taking measures to protect it.
"I'm not as likely to be as cooperative under a federal listing," he said...Gunnison Country Times

Two more cows found mutilated

Two more Southern Colorado ranchers say they have discovered cows mutilated under strange circumstances. A cow on a ranch near Walsenburg was found with its udders cut off and a calf on a ranch near Trinidad was found missing the entire center of its body as well as its ears. A similar mutilation was discovered March 8 on a pasture near the Purgatoire River, just west of the small town of Weston. That cow was found dead by rancher Mike Duran with its udders and reproductive organs surgically removed from its body. The most recent case happened on Jim Garren's ranch. Garren said Tuesday that he last saw his cow alive on Friday afternoon at his spread 12 miles southeast of Walsenburg in Las Animas County. Garren said the next day at around 2:30 p.m. his ranch manager was feeding the herd and noticed his cattle count was off by one. After looking around in areas where cows had grazed previously, Garren said his ranch hand spotted the animal dead under a cedar tree. "The only thing that we could tell about her was that her udder had been surgically removed. There were no other injuries to that cow," Garren said. He said the ground around the cow was never disturbed and there was no trauma to the cow's head or body. "We searched and searched and we could not find blood on the ground or on the cow. I just can't understand how anyone could surgically remove a part from an animal and not spill some blood," he said...Pueblo Chieftain

Beef Industry Fights for Room at the Table

The U.S. beef industry is trying to fight recession-related woes by promoting new, cheaper cuts from less popular parts of the steer and pushing beef harder overseas. The industry's moves mirror those of restaurants, supermarkets and packaged-food companies seeking ways to entice budget-conscious consumers who are dining out less and looking for ways to economize at home. Making the situation even tougher, a new study this week by the National Cancer Institute concluded that eating too much red meat can shorten life spans. So far, though, beef sales in the U.S. are suffering largely because consumers aren't eating as much at restaurants. Beef sales to food-service establishments were down nearly 5% last year, according to figures from food-consulting firm Technomic Inc. Sales to supermarkets and other retail outlets rose 2% as consumers started cooking more at home. Historically, half of all beef sales in the U.S. go to the food-service industry, Mr. Doud says. But dining at casual chains is down, thanks in part to the recession, according to Knapp-Track, which follows sales at about 10,000 dining outlets. Generally, sales at fast-food chains like McDonald's Corp. haven't suffered as much. Shrinking demand is having ripple effects on the farm, too, where ranchers are confronting lower cattle prices. Feedlot operators have lost $4 billion since January 2008, mostly because of feed prices, which soared last year amid burgeoning global demand for grain, says Mr. Doud of the Cattleman's Beef Association...WSJ

Mississippi House Protects Property Owners, Overrides Veto

Earlier this week, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour vetoed a bill, overwhelmingly passed by the legislature, that would have enacted sweeping property rights reform that would limit the state and local government's abuse of eminent domain. Gov. Barbour opposed the legislation because the bill would prohibit taking private property for private development as a means to increase tax revenue. The Governor believes it would cripple Mississippi's ability to attract companies and manufacturers to the state. The justification of “economic development” for the public force of eminent domain is misguiding. Economic development can and has occurred regularly without the forced taking of a private citizens home or business. Legislation like HB 803 promotes further investment as investors are assured that their property will not be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Yesterday, the state house overrode Barbour's veto by a wide margin, 101-19, and tomorrow the senate is expected to attempt an override...ATR

Click here to read Property Rights Alliance's letter to MS state senate.

Republicans don't like IRS sharing info with USDA

Nine Republican members of the House Ag Committee do not like the Administration’s plan to require farmers allow the IRS to verify their income eligibility for farm program payments. The plan is in response to a GAO report which found more than 2,700 farmers who received program payments in the past had exceeded off-farm income limits. The error occurred because the IRS is not allowed to share tax information with USDA. Recently, the two agencies announced a cooperative effort under which the IRS would simply tell the ag department if a producer was not eligible. No actual income numbers would be given. The plan would require producers to sign a waiver allowing the IRS to verify eligibility, if they do not sign, they cannot participate in the program. Ranking member John Lucas and his colleagues sent a letter to Ag Secretary Vilsack objecting to the move saying it is an invasion of privacy and clearly against Congressional intent. Their letter states if the members of the Ag Committee wanted the IRS to disclose farmer tax information they would have put that in the Farm Bill. The Republicans say Congress allowed for a verification of income statement, prepared by a certified public accountant or another third party to be submitted every three years that confirms the producer’s adjusted gross income which makes he or she eligible to receive payment...Brownfield Network

Antibiotic ban on livestock may hurt U.S. food safety

A bill that would ban the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in animals would hurt the health of livestock and poultry while compromising efforts to protect the safety of the country's food supply, the leader of the largest U.S. farm group said on Tuesday. Bob Stallman, president of the 6 million-member American Farm Bureau Federation, said in a letter to Congress that its members "carefully, judiciously and according to label instructions" use antibiotics to treat, prevent and control disease in animals. "Antibiotic use in animals does not pose a serious public health threat," said Stallman, who urged lawmakers to oppose the bill. "Restricting access to these important tools will jeopardize animal health and compromise our ability to contribute to public health through food safety" he added. Industry groups that oppose the ban contend animal deaths would go up, producer costs would rise, meat output would drop and consumers would see prices climb. They contend there is no evidence that a public health threat has occurred because of the use of antibiotics in animals...Reuters

Farmin' & Fiddlin' in Yoncalla

I met Rudi Booher at the Oregon Old Time Fiddlers Association competition today in Salem, Oregon. He is the 1990 Weiser Idaho National Grand Champion Fiddler Contest Winner. His eight year old son Miles competed this week in the PeeWee division and played four songs for his stage performance. Rural farm folk often it seems have more than their fair share of home schooled children. Rural property owners save time time and resources from having to bus or commute their children to school. Rudi mentioned that one of the cool added values to home schooling is "there is more time for extra curricular activities, including music lessons."...Blogriculture

Reopened Gilman Ranch gives a glimpse of Inland life in the 1800s

Visitors can once again tour the Gilman Historic Ranch, including a reproduction of the original 1879 ranch house on the grounds. The original ranch house, rebuilt in 2005, was lost in a fire in 1977, three days after the property became part of the Riverside County Regional Park and Open Space District, said Steve Lech, assistant Riverside County park planner. The Wagon Museum at the ranch, which displays a collection of vintage stage coaches and wagons, remains closed for an upgrade. The replica of the ranch house was built with county funds and money raised by some former ranch hands, Lech said. Some furniture and other artifacts in it belonged to the Gilman family, which lived in the house until the 1950s. Virginia Sisk, of Hemet, a great-granddaughter of the Gilmans, often comes to the ranch on Saturdays to greet visitors, Bowden said. The Gilman Ranch site originally was occupied by Cahuilla Indians, and then became part of the San Gorgonio Rancho, the farthest outlying cattle ranch of Mission San Gabriel. An adobe house was built on the site in 1854 by foreman Jose Pope, a sheep rancher. In 1863, entrepreneur Newton Noble bought the adobe, converted it to a stage stop and opened the first post office in the San Gorgonio Pass in 1868. The adobe was next bought by James Marshall Gilman, who had come to California from New Hampshire. Gilman married Martha Benoist Smith in 1871 and they lived in the adobe until 1879, when they built a two-story ranch house...The Press-Enterprise

Song Of The Day #003

James Clarence Wakely was born in Howard County, Arkansas in 1914, and went on to become one of the "crooning cowpokes." In 1937, he formed The Bell Boys (named after their clothing company sponsor) in OKC. They made radio appearances, did local shows and made some recordings. They later performed under different names, primarily The Jimmy Wakely Trio and Jimmy Wakely & His Saddle Pals. Johnny Bond was a member of all the groups. In 1940, at the invitation of Gene Autry, they moved to California and became part of Autry's Melody Ranch Show. Wakely left after two years, as he signed a recording contract with Decca and started appearing in movies. He passed in 1982.

The selection today is his 1947 recording of Song Of The Sierras. It is available on his Vintage Collections.


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Obama: Climate-Change Bill Must Deal With Regional Differences

President Barack Obama called for a greenhouse-gas emissions reduction scheme that protects against outsized effects on some regions of the country, his most detailed remarks yet as Congress prepares to issue a major climate-change bill. “We’ve got to move to a new energy era and that means moving away from polluting energy sources towards cleaner energy sources that is a potential engine for economic growth,” Mr. Obama said on Tuesday in a televised public appearance. “I think cap-and-trade is the best way from my perspective to achieve some of those gains because what it does is it starts pricing the pollution that’s being sent into the atmosphere.” “The way it’s structured has to take into account regional differences, it has to protect consumers from huge spikes in electricity prices, so there are a lot of technical issues that are going to have to be sorted through,” Mr. Obama said. The remarks come as House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, (D., Calif.), finalizes a climate-change bill that he wants to vote out of his committee by the end of May...WSJ

Salazar Talks Guns, Parks and Solar Power

In an interview last Friday with The New York Times, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar promised “aggressive” pursuit of renewable energy projects on public lands, but provided no firm date for his department’s highly anticipated decision on the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts. Mr. Salazar said that the department had received “about 200 applications” for solar power plants on lands belonging to the Bureau of Land Management, and about 20 applications for on-shore wind energy projects on B.L.M. lands. But as Mr. Salazar moves forward with his priorities of promoting renewable energy and transmission on public lands, he is already encountering some obstacles. Asked whether there might be challenges to laying transmission lines across sovereign Indian lands, Mr. Salazar said it was “definitely a reality that has to be dealt with, and it can either be seen as a conflict or it can be seen as an opportunity.” Mr. Salazar said that his agency was also looking into the possibility of carbon capture and storage on public lands, and noted that the United States Geological Survey had just published a methodology that would help assess what lands — including public lands — were most appropriate for the technology. On allowing concealed weapons into national parks — a controversial policy that the Bush administration adopted but that a federal judge suspended last week — Mr. Salazar said that he was still reviewing the judge’s decision. From a personal standpoint, “I am a defender of the Second Amendment,” he said. “I grew up with a gun next to my bed because I lived so far away from where there were any cities or any lights.” He added that in making a decision he would balance “protecting the public safety and at the same time honoring the Second Amendment.”...NY Times

Salazar is drilling home renewables' new power

...Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's first appearance before the same Senate committee last week. He laid out maps that showed wind-energy potential across the West; talked about tapping geothermal energy underlying states including Idaho and Colorado; and evoked the vision of a high-tech "super- electron highway" that will connect "renewable-energy zones" on public lands to homes in California or New Jersey. After less than two months in office, Salazar's big-vision effort to refocus the country's massive energy development bureaucracy is taking shape. Having inherited a Bush-era Interior Department that focused laserlike on the extraction of carbon-based fuels, Salazar is forging one that will help turn millions of acres of public lands in the West into the foundation for a green-energy economy. Republican lawmakers and traditional extraction industry officials say they fear that in the rush to embrace a difficult technological feat — "an energy moonshot," as Salazar calls it — tried-and-true sources of energy will get lost in the backwash. "I can't fault (Salazar) for creating excitement around renewable energy, but I don't want him to do it at the expense of the energy resources that have always powered this country," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. "You can't power the country exclusively on renewables."...Denver Post

Colorado, feds to hash out oil, gas regulations

State and federal officials plan to sort out questions about how Colorado's proposed new oil and gas regulations will apply to federal land. Last year, the Colorado office of the Bureau of Land Management said it believed some of the state regulations would be pre-empted by federal laws. Industry officials say they wouldn't know which regulations to follow on federal land. The Legislature is considering the rules, which will take effect April 1 in most places if they're approved. They would take effect May 1 on federal land. State officials will talk to the BLM about the regulations, said Dave Neslin, acting director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates the drilling industry. He said the staff will recommend delaying the start date of rules on federal if the two sides don't settle issues by May. "We expect to be sitting down with the (commission) in the very near future," BLM spokesman Jim Sample said last week. The roughly 100 rules moving through the Legislature would enact two laws requiring more consideration of the environment, wildlife and public health and safety when approving oil and gas development...AP

The outcome of these negotiations will set a precedent across the western states, including New Mexico.