Disabled Vet Charged With First-Degree Murder for Shooting Masked Holdup Man--Six Times--at Drugstore

Confronted by two holdup men, pharmacist Jerome Ersland pulled a gun, shot one of them in the head and chased the other away. Then, in a scene recorded by the drugstore's security camera, he went behind the counter, got another gun, and pumped five more bullets into the wounded teenager as he lay on the floor. Now Ersland has been charged with first-degree murder in a case that has stirred a furious debate over vigilante justice and self-defense and turned the pharmacist into something of a folk hero. Ersland, 57, is free on $100,000 bail, courtesy of an anonymous donor. He has won praise from the pharmacy's owner, received an outpouring of cards, letters and checks from supporters, and become the darling of conservative talk radio...CNSNews

Charity Poker Game Raided By Police

Buxton police raided a building where people were trying to raise money to give free food to the needy. It happened at the Narragansett Pythian Sisters Temple on Route 22 where people were playing the card game Texas Hold'em to benefit the Buxton Community Food Co-op. But state police said the game was illegal. That's because whenever a gambling tournament is held to raise money for a group and takes place at its headquarters, a permit is needed and the co-op didn't have one. So, state police seized cards, poker chips and $500 in cash -- money the food co-op desperately needed...WMTW-TV

Simplot plans to lay off 114 mine, plant workers

J.R. Simplot Co. plans to issue layoff notices to 114 employees at a phosphate mine and a fertilizer plant, blaming legal challenges from environmental groups trying to halt the agricultural conglomerate's proposed expansion of the mine near the Idaho-Wyoming border. The 36 layoffs at the Smoky Canyon mine are set to take place Saturday, with 78 job reductions at the Don fertilizer plant near Pocatello slated for July 11. In late May, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stopped the company from preparing for the expansion, with the judges saying they needed more time to review all the issues. Garrett Lofto, president of Simplot's AgriBusiness Group, said Monday the company could shutter Smoky Canyon and the fertilizer plant completely in 18 months if the situation isn't resolved. The mine is the only supplier of the Don plant, shipping phosphate beneath three counties in an underground pipeline. "The delays caused by special interest groups over the past nine months have placed us in a no-win situation," said Lofto in a news release, adding Simplot has released 199 contracting company workers, and has not filled 22 vacant positions...Olympian

Lawmaker joins push to up cost of drilling

A powerful congressional chairman has joined a growing number of Democrats who want to sharply increase the cost of drilling leases that the government provides on federal lands, a move vigorously opposed by Big Oil and Republicans. Rep. Nick J. Rahall II, West Virginia Democrat and chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, has proposed a plan to boost royalty rates by 50 percent and to cut the lease periods to five years from the current 10 years or more. His recommendation would be part of a sweeping overhaul of the $22 billion, scandal-tarred oil and gas drilling program that the Interior Department oversees. The plan also appears in line with the broader energy goals of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who is conducting a review of the Interior Department's handling of oil and gas leases and royalties as the House prepares to push through a bill to address climate change and the Senate works on its own energy legislation. Mr. Rahall's plan fits neatly into the broader efforts of the Obama administration and congressional Democrats to make a "dramatic shift" in energy production toward green sources, said Sharon Buccino, director of land and wildlife programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council...WTimes

Forest Service stonewalling is shameful

During last summer's wildfire season, the worst in recent memory, crews struggling to contain blazes resorted to extraordinary steps, including the widespread use of backburns to keep flames in check. We're not second-guessing firefighters who took what looked like the best available steps in the middle of a dire emergency. Once the fires are out, though, it's not too much to ask for the government to help clean up the messes it made, and especially to compensate private property owners who suffered severe losses when their land was abused to protect the general public. It's not too much to ask - unless you're asking the U.S. Forest Service, which has denied claims for compensation related to burnouts including that of William Heinrici, a Junction City-area resident who's had to haul water to his home since a burnout destroyed his water lines...Instead, nearly a year after the fire and a full six months after Rep. Wally Herger's office intervened with the Forest Service, the Heinrici family is still trucking water in drums. In Herger's correspondence with the Forest Service, the agency said it was waiting until all fire-related claims were received or the two-year statute of limitations passed before processing any of them. This might make sense in the Magical Kingdom of Bureaucratia, but it is simply insane when we're discussing human lives. Two years to process the claim? The central-office functionaries who made that call should spend two weeks living without running water and then see how important prompt action is. It's easy to imagine disputes over whether damage was caused by the wildfire or by the fire crews themselves - but there is no question in this case. Even the district ranger agrees Forest Service crews started the backburn and has verified the damage, according to Herger. Yet the Forest Service is still stonewalling Heinrici. It's shameful.RecordSearchlight

Property Owners Get 'Consolation Prize' on Eminent Domain Reform

The passage of House Joint Resolution 14 by State Rep. Frank Corte, Jr. (R- San Antonio) in the closing hours of the 81st Texas Legislature accomplished some of the eminent domain reform sought by Texas Farm Bureau, but does not go nearly far enough, the organization's president said today. "The constitutional amendment authorized by HJR 14 is very welcome and if passed by voters will provide protections from the abuses opened up by the Kelo case," said TFB President Kenneth Dierschke. "But the job of reforming Texas' terrible eminent domain law is not even half done." Senate Bill 18 was one of dozens of bills that did not come up for a vote due to the controversy over the Voter ID bill. Dierschke said SB 18 was the ultimate fix for unfair eminent domain treatment of property owners that is rampant across the state. Among the issues addressed in SB 18 was a provision requiring all condemning entities to provide property owners with improved notice and disclosure before proceedings begin. It also provided for relocation assistance for displaced property owners. It would have enacted a previously approved constitutional amendment that allows owners to buy back their property in 10 years if not used for a public purpose. SB 18 called for an accounting of all entities in Texas which have eminent domain authority. This is a number that no one seems to know. Dierschke said that Texas property owners are "deeply disappointed" by the Legislature's failure to get eminent domain reform enacted...PressRelease

Thievery

GM's bankruptcy pushes bondholders aside in favor of the U.S. government and the UAW. Though bondholders hold $27 billion in debt, they'll get just 10% of stock. How's that compare with the other "stakeholders?" For spending $50 billion to bail out GM, the government will get 60% of the equity in the new GM; the UAW, which along with other unions gave millions to Democrats, will be repaid for its loyalty with 17.5% of the stock for $10 billion of unsecured debts. So the government, with roughly two times what private bondholders have on the table, gets a stake five times bigger. And the union, with about a third as much "invested," gets a 70% bigger stake. Even the Canadian government, with its $9.5 billion "invested," ends up with 12%. They call it "restructuring." We call it theft...IBD

Jim Risch, Mark Rey leave Idaho roadless legacy

Rey came up with the idea of letting states write their own plan for managing the roadless national forest lands. The idea bombed everywhere but Idaho and Colorado, in part because most states were happy with Clinton's 2001 roadless rule. Gov. Dirk Kempthorne jumped at the chance to write his own plan and put former Clearwater National Forest Supervisor Jim Caswell to work on one before he left to become Interior Secretary. County officials loved the process and it appeared it was going to provide predictable results, a plan that would have allowed logging in the few areas it could be done economically but without any environmental groups buying in. Then Jim Risch became governor and he had a different vision and arguably a changed reality. The day he announced his initial plan without environmental support a federal judge re-instituted Clinton's rule. Rey and Caswell quickly shifted to make Idaho's plan a separate rule. But for it to really work, they needed the support of the national panel of environmentalists, off-road recreationists, local officials and the timber industry...IdahoStatesman

Montana governor fights Oregon's request for more water

Gov. Brian Schweitzer is pressing the Obama administration to back hydroelectric dam operations that favor Montana rivers and reservoirs but face continuous challenges from downstream interests. Specifically, Oregon and the National Wildlife Federation continue to press for more Montana water in the summer than what is provided in the 2008 Biological Opinion for the Columbia River Power System. The "BiOp" was developed through a collaboration of states, federal agencies and tribes, after years of disagreement and litigation. A federal judge has backed it so far, but Schweitzer is seeking additional support from the Obama administration's Council on Environmental Quality. "You may hear that the current BiOp is a product of the Bush administration and that it should be rejected as legally and technically flawed," Schweitzer wrote. "While the court will make judgments on the legal merits of the BiOp, this hearsay does not provide an accurate portrayal of the current BiOp." Schweitzer asserts that the 2008 BiOp is far superior to previous opinions...DailyInterLake

A Colorado Watershed

Constituents had been complaining, state senator Jim Isgar says. Water shortages are chronic throughout most of Colorado, so that municipal delivery systems have trouble satisfying demand. Yet collecting the storm water running off your roof to irrigate a garden or supplement the household supply made you a criminal. Enforcement personnel weren't seeking out offenders, Isgar insists, but if you were cited, a rain barrel set beneath your downspout could earn you a $500 fine. Two barrels, two fines. As chair of the Agriculture, Natural Resources & Energy Committee and a rancher, Isgar has experienced both the public and private aspects of this issue. He concluded that such a blanket ban on storm water harvesting didn't make sense. Legislation he sponsored and helped to pass this spring, Senate Bill #80, will make collecting storm water legal, at least in some situations. With carefully defined limitations, residential users who do not have access to a public water supply may now supplement or substitute such harvested water for the amount that state regulations would allow them to draw from a private well. This may seem like a minor victory, but it is one environmental activists have been demanding for some time. They've ridiculed the ban as evidence of entrenched greed and bureaucratic backwardness...HuffingtonPost

Company eyes 700 million-barrel potential in oil shale tract

A subsidiary of a Boston-based company plans to test oil shale development technology on private land in western Colorado’s Piceance Basin. General Synfuels International said in a recent news release it has obtained access to about 500 acres with the near-term potential to recover about 700 million barrels of oil or oil equivalents. GSI said it plans to pursue what it considers to be a breakthrough technology that has low environmental impacts and is “energy-self-sustainable.” The technology is a gasification process that would be applied to oil shale still underground. GSI officials could not be reached for comment Friday for specifics on the acreage location or the company’s gasification process. GSI also said it has reached an exploration agreement with a subsidiary of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in Wyoming. The agreement covers about 160 acres on a Union Pacific Railroad section near Rock Springs. Together, the two agreements will let the company test and develop its technology to recover fuels from oil shale, oil sands and heavy oil...GJ Sentinel

Ten sea lions killed near Bonneville Dam this season

Government officials killed 10 California sea lions captured near Bonneville dam, released six and relocated four this spring, the first season the government was allowed to euthanize sea lions with a record of eating Columbia River salmon. Early indications are that the program reduced the numbers of California sea lions congregating below the dam's fish ladders, according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers status report. The sea lions have now left to return to their southern breeding grounds. But the number of protected Steller sea lions visiting the dam increased, the report said. And the amount of fish consumed by sea lions at the dam, including an estimated 2,633 spring chinook, is still likely to be the second or third highest in the past eight years when final numbers are tallied...Oregonian

Nez Perce Tribe pulling out of bighorn work group

The Nez Perce Tribe is pulling out of Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s collaborative bighorn sheep panel because legislation passed by Idaho lawmakers undermines the process, the tribe’s chairman says. Samuel N. Penney said the legislation ends any collaborative effort and the tribe will no longer take part in the Idaho Bighorn/Domestic Sheep Working Group. The goal of the group – made up of state officials, sheep ranchers, sportsmen and environmental organizations – had been to protect the sheep ranching industry while seeking a way for bighorn sheep to avoid contacting domestic sheep, which have been blamed for spreading deadly diseases to bighorns. But Republican state Sen. Jeff Siddoway, a sheep rancher from Terreton, introduced a series of bills during the last legislative session aimed at protecting sheep producers. Otter signed into law a bill to require the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to work with producers to develop a plan to keep bighorns away from domestic sheep while preserving domestic sheep grazing on federal land. The law requires the plan and methods to be completed by Aug. 6. It also calls for Fish and Game to certify as acceptable any risk of disease transfer to bighorns remaining after the plan is put in place...NativeAmericanTimes

Groups ask EPA to ban lead tire weights

The federal government should ban the use of lead weights, those fingertip-size chunks of metal that balance the tires of cars and trucks, says a petition filed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week. While the federal government has banned lead in paint, gasoline and plumbing, among other products, the EPA has ignored an estimated 3.5 million pounds of lead weights that drop off tire rims and onto U.S. roads every year, according to a coalition of environmental groups that filed the petition. Once the lead weights hit the road, they can be picked up by children or eaten by wildlife. They are run over by other vehicles and broken down into dust, which can be inhaled or end up in runoff that taints water and wetlands, the groups say...SFChronicle

Groups Challenge Snowmobile Trails

Environmentalists say the U.S. Forest Service illegally approved the "grooming" of 158 miles of snowmobile trails in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, without public notice or comment or environmental analysis. Plaintiffs claim, among other things, that the snowmobiles will devastate wolverines. Wildlands CPR and Friends of the Bitterroot are represented in Federal Court by Sarah McMillan with the Western Environmental Law Center. CourthouseNewsServive

Ranchers driving wind revolution + Video

Texan cattle rancher Mike Baca seems an unlikely evangelist for the American green revolution. When he voices a visceral dislike of the "Washington liberals" there seems to be little hint of the environmentalist beneath the cowboy hat and saucer-sized belt-buckle. But Mike is proof that renewable energy now unites the partisan debate on climate change. Many Republicans sceptical of climate science support a major expansion of renewables to ease their nation's dependence on foreign oil. In Mike's case, the tantalising prospect of pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars from wind turbines on his ranch proves an extra incentive. The sprawling ranch lies in the Texas panhandle on the high plains near Amarillo. Mike will not say how much land he owns but it stretches way beyond the horizon in all directions...BBC

Here's the video of the Baca interview. There is a 30 second commercial at the beginning.

Soybeans - The House That Soy Built

The researcher and his wife, Vaishali, are building a new home in Brookings, and they want their contractors to use as many soy-based products as possible. The couple's house will be lined with energy-efficient soy-based spray foam insulation. Underneath their carpeting will be padding made from Urethane Soy System's products. Patel is even working with a countertop manufacturer to make a product based on — you guessed it — soy materials. "The countertops are a fairly new project. I'm going to work with our customer on that and see if we can have something in time for our home." Patel, a five-year employee of Urethane Soy Systems, says the company converts soybean oil into a polyol, which is a chemical used in the polyurethane industry to make polyurethane plastic. Polyol has traditionally been made from petroleum-based oil. "With our technology, we can convert soybean oil into a polyol that could be used for any of those applications," he said. Patel said USS researchers are working on a wide range of products because polyurethane is a versatile polymer. "It's a really good plastic, and you can make various applications from that," he said. "If you consider polyurethane itself, you can make coatings, paints, and a major use is foam, like the cushioning you sit on every day...USNews

An Auction of ‘Nature’s Sculpture’: Rare Dinosaur Skulls

Just in time for the new “Night at the Museum” film, two rare dinosaur skulls, one belonging to a 65 million-year-old Triceratops and the other to a smaller relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex, were auctioned on Monday afternoon at Bonhams & Butterfields in Manhattan. The Triceratops’s skull, which is more than 80 percent intact, sold for $242,000, and the other skull, from a dinosaur known as a Tyrannosaurid, sold for $206,000 — both sums far greater than what the auction house had expected. Bonhams is helping a private collector liquidate his collection of “dinosauria” — the umbrella term for dinosaur eggs, teeth, bone fragments and fossils. The auction house would not identify the buyers. Known collectors of dinosauria include Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicolas Cage, Ron Howard and Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft’s former chief technology officer. Competition can get quite frantic. In 2007, Mr. Cage and Mr. DiCaprio got into a bidding war over of a Tyrannosaurus bataar. Before the 1970s, the dinosauria market had been rather moribund, as few realized that dinosaur specimens could be owned by anything other than a museum. Then the private collecting heated up (not just because of “Jurassic Park”). American private-property laws allow ranchers to buy and sell bones excavated from their properties. Ranch owners call up private companies like the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research to help remove them, a practice that has drawn criticism from paleontologists and other scholars who say the companies are more interested in profit than science...NYTimes

Paleontologist's sentence includes jail time

Amateur paleontologist Nate Murphy has been sentenced to 60 days in jail and fined $2,500 for stealing a raptor fossil from a ranch near Malta. Phillips County District Judge John McKeon imposed the sentence last week in Malta, even though a plea agreement recommended no jail time. The jail term is one of the conditions of a five-year deferred sentence ordered by McKeon, during which time Murphy is to be on probation. That means that if he fails to live up to the terms and conditions imposed by the judge, his probation could be revoked and he could go to prison for five years. Murphy, 51, pleaded guilty to the felony theft charge in March, and he is to be sentenced July 9 on a separate charge of stealing fossils from federal land, to which he also pleaded guilty. Billings Gazette

Heading to Texas, Hudson’s Toxic Mud Stirs Town (Eunice, NM)

There are not many towns in America that would welcome the 2.5 million cubic yards of toxic sludge being dredged from the bottom of the Hudson River in New York, but to hear Mayor Matt White tell it, Eunice is one of them. Storing waste nobody else wants means more jobs, Mr. White said, and the oil workers here are used to living with hazards. After all, there are several oil wells in the town itself. One of them is a block from City Hall. “We have deadly gases in the oil fields,” he said. “It’s more deadly than any of the stuff they are going to put in the ground out here.” From the edge of town, one can see huge berms at the landfill where General Electric plans to bury the dried sludge that is tainted with 1.3 million pounds of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls. They flowed into the upper Hudson from two G. E. factories for three decades before they were banned, in 1977. In high doses, the chemicals have been shown to cause cancer in animals and are considered a probable carcinogen in people. The landfill lies five miles away in Texas, right across the state line, and belongs to Harold C. Simmons, a Dallas billionaire who was a large campaign contributor to former President George W. Bush and Gov. Rick Perry. Some environmentalists warn that the landfill is too near the giant Ogallala aquifer to store such hazardous materials, an assertion the company says is a lie. The federal Environmental Protection Agency’s office in Dallas and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality have sided with the company in the debate over the aquifer. But some confusion remains, and three state environmental officials have resigned in protest over granting the company permits for the radioactive waste. A little closer to Eunice, just inside New Mexico, an international consortium is building a uranium enrichment plant, with the blessing of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission...NYTimes