Brandings all about friendship, fun, support

At this time of year you’re bound to see photos of ranchers branding cattle, along with all those newspaper pictures of graduations and proms. And why not? A photographer can find a picture waiting everywhere, of neighbors helping neighbors, handsome cowboy types with spurs and coiled lariats, little kids wearing Wranglers and big hats. There’s smoke and dust rising above corral fences and cattle, and gorgeous girls sporting tighter-than-tight jeans. It’s that movie-magic West. That’s the way it was at our place on a recent Saturday. One more time, our friends and family rallied to help with the one ranch job we can’t do by ourselves - gathering, sorting, roping and branding several hundred calves in a single day. In Wyoming and the other Western states where ranching still hangs on, there’s a reason for livestock branding. A registered brand is a calf’s passport and its legal proof of ownership. It allows cattle to be identified wherever they roam. “Put ‘er on right,” I was taught. “She’ll wear it all her life.” A good “one-iron” livestock brand is highly sought after; it’s a simple mark that requires only one tool and a single quick touch of the hot iron to the hide...CodyEnterprise

Orlando-area Cowboy Church is at home on the range

Yippee-ki-yay, praise the Lord, and pass the feed bucket. The Cowboy Church — bringing Jesus to rodeo riders, barrel racers, ranchers, farmers and Western wannabes — is spreading across Florida and the Southeast in a growing effort to bring religion to those who don't much care for church. "We are seeing a lot of people come into the cowboy-church movement who don't normally go to church," said Jay Avant, pastor of Milltown Cowboy Church near Davenport. Meeting in barns, horse arenas and pastures, the Cowboy Church appeals to the unpretentious, the plain-spoken and the keepers of the culture of saddles, Stetsons and pointy-toed boots. There are baptisms in horse troughs, a Cowboy Bible and the Ten Commandments translated into the language of John Wayne: No foolin' around with another fellow's gal; don't be hankerin' for yer buddy's stuff; honor yer Ma and Pa. "They don't want it sugarcoated," Avant said. "They want the plain truth, and they want it to where they can understand it." Avant's two churches — one that meets on a ranch near Davenport and another that congregates in a St. Cloud open-air barn — belong to the Cowboy Church Network of North America, which has grown to more than 60 churches in the Southeast and Canada since its founding in 2004...OrlandoSentinel

Horse and buggy chase ends in suspect’s arrest

The driver of a horse and buggy led Cattaraugus County sheriff’s deputies on a three-mile pursuit through fields and woods early Monday morning, eventually abandoning the buggy and fleeing on foot. It happened on Frank Road in Napoli, where deputies were investigating underage drinking. Deputies reported they tried to stop the driver of the horse and buggy, but he drove the rig through fields and into the woods before jumping down and taking off on foot. After searching without success for the driver, deputies took the horse and buggy back to a nearby home, and a young man was taken into custody. Jonas J. Hershberger, 20, of Frank Road, was charged with overdriving of animals, reckless endangerment and obstructing governmental administration. Following arraignment in Little Valley Town Court, he was sent to the county jail in lieu of $250 bail. BuffaloNews

Song Of The Day #052

I think I'm in the mood for some Homer & Jethro this morning. Let's listen while they tell the truth about women in their 1957 tune The West Virginny Hills.

7 myths about green jobs

The basis for the green jobs program is simple: Carbon emissions are causing global warming, so emissions need to be reduced. A way to do this is to encourage non-carbon sources of energy, such as wind turbines and solar power. The result of government action will be many new jobs and a healthier environment. A two-for-one deal! This policy series, by two PERC senior fellows and two of their colleagues, is a summary of a larger study analyzing green jobs claims made by various special interest groups. The authors find that the claims are based on myths. Fundamental questions about what is at stake in this massive program need to be addressed before billions in additional deficit spending can be justified. The authors discuss the economic defects in the green jobs proposals and show that not only is the price tag of the programs unjustified, but that the costly implications to society could be even greater...PERC

The 7 myths are:

Myth 1: Everyone knows what a “green job” is.

Myth 2: Creating green jobs will boost productive
employment

Myth 3: Green jobs forecasts are reliable.

Myth 4: Green jobs promote employment growth.

Myth 5: The world economy can be remade
by reducing trade, relying on local
production, and lowering consumption
without decreasing our standard of living.

Myth 6: Government mandates are a substitute for
free markets.

Myth 7: Wishing for technological progress is
sufficient.

The entire report is here. (pdf)

Wyoming, environmentalists sue over wolf delisting

The state of Wyoming on Tuesday sued the federal government over its recent decision to leave gray wolves in the state on the endangered species list while delisting them elsewhere in the Northern Rockies. The state's lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne, marks only the latest chapter in a long-running battle between state and federal officials over how to manage wolves since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced the animals in Yellowstone in the mid-1990s. Many ranchers and sportsmen in Wyoming complain that the wolf population is taking an unacceptable toll on livestock and other wildlife. Rep. Colin Simpson, R-Cody and speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives, said Wyoming has no choice but to sue over wolf management. "We have to attempt to protect our wildlife and our livestock in the face of really no help from the federal government," Simpson said. "If the only way to do that is through litigation, then that's how we'll have to proceed." The Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups announced Tuesday that they were filing a separate federal lawsuit in Missoula, Mont. The groups are challenging the Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to delist wolves in Montana and Idaho, saying they're opposed to plans in those states to allow wolf hunting and have other concerns about wolf management...AP

Apocalypse Sun?

It's the sort of news that makes one's eyes glaze over. "If our prediction is correct, Solar Cycle 24 will have a peak sunspot number of 90, the lowest of any cycle since 1928 when Solar Cycle 16 peaked at 78," said Doug Biesecker of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center. Yes, space has weather, in the form of solar radiation that varies with solar activity in the form of sunspots and solar flares. Biesecker heads an NOAA panel that keeps an eye on such things and released this latest report. But this dry statistic has more significance for the earth and its climate than all of Al Gore's gloom and doom about tailpipe emissions and rising sea levels. Whether the warm-mongers like it or not, the sun rules earth's climate — always has and always will...IBD

NASA Research Could Help Policymakers Restrict Carbon Emissions

A senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Mass., says new data retrieved from a NASA satellite could help scientists advise world governments on how to regulate carbon emissions. And one day, he says, it might even lead to a method of seeding iron into the oceans in order to suck carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere. “We can develop better models to tell policymakers how much carbon can be admitted into the atmosphere, because that amount will be removed by the oceans; or say, ‘You need to emit less carbon into the atmosphere, because the ocean won’t continue to remove carbon as it has been,’” geophysicist Scott Doney said...CNSNews

National Parks Plan 3 Free Summer Weekends

The National Park Service is looking to stimulate summer vacations at national parks. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Tuesday that entrance fees at 147 national parks and monuments - including the Grand Canyon and Yosemite - will be waived on three weekends this summer. The weekends are June 20-21, July 18-19 and August 15-16. "During these tough economic times, our national parks provide opportunities for affordable vacations for families," Salazar said at a news conference at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. "I encourage everyone to visit one of our nation's crown jewels this summer and especially to take advantage of the three free-admission weekends." Most Americans live less than a day's drive from a national park, Salazar said. For the Park Service, the free weekends will mean a loss of an estimated half-million dollars a day from entrance fees that range from $3 to $25. A total of 147 parks and monuments charge entrance fees; the nation's other 244 parks are already free...AP

Reckon any other fees will be waived? I doubt it.

Either visitation to the Parks are down, like they are for the Forest Service, or some Politically Superior Ones wanted this done.

Forest Service to get $228 million to fix roads, bridges

National forest roads and bridges in 31 states, including Oregon, will get long-needed repairs under an economic stimulus spending plan announced by the Obama administration. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today that $228 million in economic stimulus money will be used for road maintenance and decommissioning and watershed restoration in dozens of national forests. A total of 106 projects in 31 states will be paid for as part of the $1.15 billion in economic stimulus funding awarded to the Forest Service, Vilsack said, adding that the projects should improve access to forest lands, boost public health and safety and preserve natural resources throughout the nation. "The rehabilitation of roads will improve water quality by reducing sediments in nearby streams and help to restore natural resources and habitats for fish in areas impacted by deterioration and erosion of road surfaces," he said. The projects announced today make up a small fraction of the estimated $10 billion road maintenance backlog the agency faces...AP

Where are the funds for "new" roads? ha! If the Forest Circus can't maintain these lands they should sell them to someone who can.

Congress Ponders National Climate Service

A significant shakeup may soon take place within the federal government's weather and climate programs, as the House Science and Technology Committee is scheduled to consider legislation on June 3 that would establish a "National Climate Service" within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Climate Service would head up the government's efforts to provide policy-relevant information about climate and climate change to decision makers and the public, something which outside reviews have found to be lacking in the country's multibillion dollar climate research programs to date. As the deliberations on the proposal have made clear, the issue isn't so much whether to create a new climate entity of some kind, but rather how to go about doing so...WPost

Senate Advances Bill to Regulate Tobacco

The Senate took a step Tuesday toward giving the government some controls over the tobacco industry, bolstering the chances that a long-sought goal of anti-smoking advocates will finally be realized. The 84-11 Senate vote to consider the bill came a month after the House overwhelmingly passed a similar measure giving the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products. Sixty votes were needed to advance the legislation, and the success in reaching that threshold increase the likelihood that the Senate will move to a final vote by the end of the week. If the House concurs with the Senate measure, it would go to President Barack Obama, who is ready to sign it into law...AP

Damn. The FDA is already keeping off the market drugs that would be beneficial to me and now they are gonna regulate my snuff? Will tobacco grow in southern NM?

Boulder man shoots, kills mountain lion in backyard

A resident shot and killed a mountain lion in the back yard of his home in the foothills northwest of Boulder on Sunday afternoon after the cougar attacked his dog, according to the Boulder County Sheriff's Office. State wildlife officials said they won’t take action against the man, who declined to be identified, because “he felt very threatened” by the proximity of the mountain lion. "We believe he acted appropriately," said Jennifer Churchill, spokeswoman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. "It's really a wrong place, wrong time kind of situation." Boulder sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Dimond said the female mountain lion bit the man’s beagle in the shoulder in the back yard of a home in the 100 block of Valley View Way. The lion ran when the resident came outside, but returned within an hour, which is when the man shot the animal...Boulder Daily Camera

Give agriculture a shot at carbon credits

U.S. agriculture should be allowed, as part of a climate-change bill being drafted in the U.S. House, to earn money for carbon offsets, a spokeswoman for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Monday. At present, the bill is silent on a role for farms and forests in controlling emissions of greenhouse gases. Under House rules, the Agriculture Committee and seven other committees now have a chance to modify the bill. Vilsack believes agriculture and forestry should be included in an offsets program and the Agriculture Department should play a role in overseeing any such program, spokeswoman Chris Mather said in an email...Reuters

Mexican Truckers File $6 Billion Claim Against U.S. in Nafta Spat

A Mexican trade association representing more than 4,500 trucking companies is seeking $6 billion in damages from the U.S. government because of Washington's refusal to allow Mexican trucks to carry cargo over U.S. roads. The group, Canacar, filed a demand for arbitration under the North American Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. State Department in April, but didn't publicize the move until Monday. "We want reciprocity," said Pedro Ojeda, a lawyer for Canacar. "The U.S. has notoriously not kept its commitments." Mr. Ojeda said the complaint is the largest such demand made under Nafta, as the 1993 pact is known. Deborah Mesloh, a spokeswoman for U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, said Monday that, "We take our trade obligations very seriously and this is an issue we've been working on for a couple months." A State Department spokesman said the claim is "being studied."...WSJ

CEM Investigation Finds 21 Positive Stallions

The ongoing investigation into venereal disease contagious equine metritis (CEM) has now located 21 stallions--one of which is now a gelding--positive for causative organism Taylorella equigenitalis. According to the USDA, the 21 positive stallions were found in seven states: one in Georgia, three in Illinois, three in Indiana, one in Iowa, four in Kentucky, one in Texas, and eight in Wisconsin. Overall, the investigation now includes 939 exposed or positive horses. The origin of the outbreak remains unknown. The investigation began in mid-December 2008, when a Quarter Horse stallion on a Kentucky farm tested positive during routine screening for international semen shipment. According to the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), as of June 2 the positive horses include 21 stallions and five mares. In addition to these horses, they have confirmed the locations of 913 horses exposed to Taylorella equigenitalis. The 939 horses are located in 48 states (only Hawaii and Rhode Island do not have at least one exposed or positive horse). There are 272 exposed or positive stallions in 29 states and 667 exposed or positive mares in 46 states. An exposed horse is one that was bred to a positive horse, either naturally or via artificial insemination, or one that is otherwise epidemiologically linked to a positive horse, as determined by animal health officials. All positive horses, and all exposed horses that have been located, are currently under quarantine or hold order...TheHorse

Song Of The Day #051

Here we are on song 51 and I haven't played anything by the man with the sharpest name in country music, Webb Pierce. His music is readily available, with the most complete being the Bear Family 4CD The Wondering Boy (1951-1958). A more economical selection would be 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Webb Pierce .

Today's selection is Webb Pierce singing his 1953 release It's Been So Long.

Chicago Law Banning Handguns in City Upheld by Court

A Chicago ordinance banning handguns and automatic weapons within city limits was upheld by a U.S. Court of Appeals panel, which rejected a challenge by the National Rifle Association. The unanimous three-judge panel ruled today that a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year, which recognized an individual right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, didn’t apply to states and municipalities. “The Supreme Court has rebuffed requests to apply the second amendment to the states,” U.S. Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote, upholding lower court decisions last year to throw out suits against Chicago and its suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. The Fairfax, Virginia-based NRA sued the municipalities in June 2008, one day after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller struck down a hand-gun ban in the U.S. capital district encompassing Washington...Bloomberg

Police can forcibly take DNA samples during arrests, judge rules

In the first case of its type, a federal judge in California has ruled that police can forcibly take DNA samples, including drawing blood with a needle, from Americans who have been arrested but not convicted of a crime. U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory Hollows ruled on Thursday that a federal law allowing DNA samples upon arrest for a felony was constitutional and did not violate the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of "unreasonable searches and seizures." Hollows, who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, said the procedure was no more invasive or worrisome than fingerprinting or a photograph. "The court agrees that DNA sampling is analogous to taking fingerprints as part of the routine booking process upon arrest," he wrote, calling it "a law enforcement tool that is a technological progression from photographs and fingerprints." A bill that President Bush signed in January 2006 said any federal police agency could "collect DNA samples from individuals who are arrested." Anyone who fails to cooperate is, under federal law, guilty of an additional crime. In addition, federal law and subsequent regulations from the Department of Justice authorize any means "reasonably necessary to detain, restrain, and collect a DNA sample from an individual who refuses to cooperate in the collection of the sample." The cheek swab or blood tests can be outsourced to "private entities.". The list of possible federal felony charges includes ones you might expect, including counterfeiting and kidnapping. But it also includes some forms of peer-to-peer piracy, circumventing e-book protection, or using innocent words like "Barbie" on a sexually-explicit Web site...cnet news

A cybersecurity quiz: Can you tell Obama from Bush?

The U.S. president has announced a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy for the federal government, saying Internet-based threats have risen "dramatically" and the country "must act to reduce our vulnerabilities." A 76-page White House document calls for a new way of looking at Internet and computer security, saying that private-public partnerships are necessary, collaboration with international organizations will be vital, and privacy and civil liberties must be respected in the process. Sound familiar? The year was 2003, and the president was George W. Bush, who wrote the introduction to what he called a "National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace." On Friday, President Obama announced his 76-page "Cyberspace Policy Review"--with precisely the same number of pages as his predecessor's--at an event at the White House. While the Bush document discusses centralizing cybersecurity responsibilities in the Department of Homeland Security and the Obama document shifts them to the White House, the two reports are remarkably similar. Perhaps this should be no surprise: Obama selected Melissa Hathaway, who worked for the director of national intelligence in the Bush administration and was director of an Bush-era "Cyber Task Force," to conduct the review. To test your political acumen, we've taken excerpts from both and placed them side by side in the following chart. Can you tell which quotations come from which administration? (An answer key is at the end.)...cnet news