Feds May Regulate Drug Residue in Drinking Water

Federal regulators under President Barack Obama have sharply shifted course on long-standing policy toward pharmaceutical residues in the nation's drinking water, taking a critical first step toward regulating some of the contaminants while acknowledging they could threaten human health. A burst of significant announcements in recent weeks reflects an expanded government effort to deal with pharmaceuticals as environmental pollutants: -- For the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency has listed some pharmaceuticals as candidates for regulation in drinking water. The agency also has launched a survey to check for scores of drugs at water treatment plants across the nation. -- The Food and Drug Administration has updated its list of waste drugs that should be flushed down the toilet, but the agency has also declared a goal of working toward the return of all unused medicines. -- The National Toxicology Program is conducting research to clarify how human health may be harmed by drugs at low environmental levels...read more

Ranchers, activists at odds over mustang roundup

Bob Depauli, whose family has been ranching in Nevada for four generations, remembers a wild horse he saw in the Nevada desert one drought-parched year in the late 1970s. "The herds were really poor that year, starved," he said. "I saw (a dead mustang) whose two hind legs had quit working and it had use of only its forelegs. It had walked in circles and dug a hole in the ground with its hindquarters." It dug its own grave. Depauli runs cattle on federal allotments, including one about 30 miles north of Gerlach in the area where the federal government plans Monday to start rounding up 2,500 wild horses of the more than 3,000 in the area. The government said the roundup is necessary to check overpopulation. Opponents said the land mangers exaggerate the number of mustangs and the damage they do to the range, and that gathering horses using helicopters traumatizes, injures or kills the animals. About 32,000 wild horses are in government holding pens waiting for adoptions that, for most, will never come. Range managers plan to remove another 10,000 from ranges in Nevada and elsewhere in the West next year. The government, Depauli and others see the wild horse gathers as necessary to ensure the health of the rangeland, water supplies and native species. Opponents say the horses are a symbol of America and are being swept aside for the benefit of cattlemen like Depauli...read more

Rancher knowledge: An untapped resource

Land management and conservation agencies have traditionally performed rangeland management activities based predominately on technical information resulting from scientific research. However, rancher experience and knowledge is an untapped resource that could help broaden the scope of these activities and lead to more sustainable land management. The number of ranchers in the United States is steadily decreasing. Therefore, it is more important than ever to document rancher knowledge and share it with other ranchers and with those involved in rangeland management. Researchers gathered and codified the knowledge of ranchers in northwest Colorado; their results appear in the journal Rangeland Ecology and Management. Numerous studies document the local knowledge of pastoral communities in developing countries. However, only a few studies have focused on rancher knowledge, and until now, none has systematically studied rancher knowledge in a developed country...read more

When the land's worth more than the trees

For 100 years, Ponderosa pines nourished this logging town of 500 nestled along Mount Adams' southeastern flank. But in the past few years, a change has taken over the woods, unsettling residents and their relationship with the land. Here and throughout the Pacific Northwest, investors have been buying millions of acres of forestland, betting on big payouts for their clients -- pension funds, university endowments and foundations. Today, timber investment management organizations and real estate investment trusts represent the largest private landowners in Oregon and across the country. Over the past decade, investor-owners have used one big advantage as they've quietly replaced traditional forest products companies: They don't pay corporate taxes. This month, Weyerhaeuser, the nation's last major publicly-traded integrated forest products company, announced it will become a real estate investment trust next year. With timber prices flatlining and real estate values rising, many private forestland owners are shifting their gaze to building homes rather than growing trees. Landowners elsewhere in the country, under pressure to maximize returns, have looked to convert forests into subdivisions and resorts as trees become less valuable than the land they occupy. The unprecedented change in land ownership raises concerns about the impact on wildlife and natural resources, as well as the increased costs of protecting residents from forest fires. Nationwide, about 1 million acres of forestland are lost to development every year. In the Pacific Northwest, it begs the question: What does the future for forestry look like in a region defined by it?...read more

Hunting the hunters

Livestock predators are an unwelcome fact of life for many ranchers, particularly where coyotes are active. Unlike wolves, these year-around hunters can work in packs, in pairs or singly, making wholesale killing raids on poultry flocks and on herds of sheep, goats and young cattle. Their numbers and the number of costly attacks they make on livestock in eastern North Dakota’s Red River Valley appear to be increasing. John Paulson, supervisor at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services in Bismarck, N.D., says coyote predation is at least partly to blame for the reduced number of deer fawns sighted by hunters this year. Also known as the American jackal or prairie wolf, the coyote is a canine predator found throughout North America and Central America. It evolved in North America, unlike its cousin, the gray wolf, which migrated from Europe and Asia. Coyotes are found all over the Lower 48 states, Alaska and about a half of Canada. Nineteen different species of coyote are recognized, 16 of which live in the U.S. and Canada. Typical coyote packs are made up of six closely related adults, yearlings and young. They generally are smaller than wolf packs. Coyotes are thought to be mostly nocturnal, but often can be seen during daylight hours. They once were diurnal or daytime hunters, according to research, but have developed more nocturnal hunting behavior since faced with human competition...read more

Senator Max Baucus Drunk / Intoxicated on Senate Floor

2009: NHSFR finishes run in Farmington

The 2009 edition of the National High School Finals Rodeo was a success inside the arenas of McGee Park, but not so much in the San Juan County community. Despite back-to-back years of action that filled the bleachers night after night, the Tres Rios High School Rodeo Association voted against bidding for the right to host the 2014 NHSFR, citing significant financial losses and the perceived apathy of the national organization toward the host communities. "In good conscious, I just don't think I see that benefit versus the loss that we incurred," said Farmington Mayor Bill Standley after the November vote. "I think they're thumbing their nose at the communities." According to figures provided by Tres Rios, local communities incurred more than $186,000 in losses while hosting the 2008 NHSFR, and figures for the 2009 edition could reach $325,000. However, the effect of those financial losses wasn't evident during the event itself. Unlike the 2008 rodeo, when riders Corbin Carpenter and Blake Arp each suffered horrific injuries, the 2009 NHSFR finished without a significant incident. In fact, the week began in electric fashion when Carpenter rode into the rough stock arena atop his horse prior to the first performance of the week, eliciting a roar from the crowd...read more

Words often switch order in English

More than 15,000 common English words were borrowed from French during the course of several centuries. Some terms retain their French form and spelling: fait accompli, rendezvous, tête à tête. Thousands of other words have been Anglicized — courage, dignity, easy, forest, fool, fruit, male, sacrifice, secret, sober. Even our lowly biscuit is a French borrowing. It means “twice cooked”— bis (twice) + cuit (cooked). Usually borrowings from French and other languages did not affect the structure of English. Usually borrowings from French and other languages did not affect the structure of English. But there are some exceptions. Under French influence, we say Surgeon General (instead of general surgeon), Postmaster General (not general postmaster. Before English-speaking settlers came into contact with Spanish speakers in the Southwest, terms dealing with cattle and herding were pure English. Thus in the Revolutionary War there was a battle of “Cowpens.” Spanish “Corral” replaced the English term. A cattle owner was a “stockman” in pre-Spanish times; later “rancher,” based on the Spanish word ranchero, became more popular. Rodeo means “roundup” and replaced the old English term in many cases. “Cowboy,” a translation of vaquero, replaced “herder,” but English “drover” survived...read more

45 years later, they still miss ‘old Klamath’

It all happened so quickly. On Monday night, Dec. 21, 1964, Del Norte County Civil Defense Chief William Parker was first alerted that floods were expected from a strong winter storm already onshore. But floods were not uncommon. There had been floods in 1953 and 1955, and the people of Del Norte County had always recovered, and at the time Parker had no indication that the flooding would be anything out of the ordinary. In Klamath, Mark Mellett watched and listened as huge redwood logs rushing down the river rammed into the Highway 101 bridge, making the whole bridge shake — something Mellett had never seen before. By Tuesday morning, the people of Klamath needed no weather forecasts to tell them a flood was on the way. They could see the water line begin to swallow neighborhood roads and then their own property lines. Mellett could no longer watch the bridge because floodwaters kept him away from it. In haste, the residents of the Klam­ath River valleys began to evacuate. Writing for the Crescent City American newspaper, George Mer­riman described the eerie sight of logging trucks pulling mobile homes to higher ground, dragging TV and electrical cables, telephone wires and sewer hoses behind because there was no time to properly disconnect the lines. By afternoon, the river rose to a record height of 55 feet...read more

Santa's helpers reside in Roosevelt County

Every year around Christmas, Santa’s helpers appear around Portales, handing out gifts and making children smile. And it’s Roosevelt County men who are under those red suits, hats and beards. Roosevelt County farmer and rancher Matt Rush and C&S Dairy Supply employee Mark Clark are two of the local men behind St. Nicholas. “I enjoy watching the kids get so excited,” said Rush, now in his sixth year as Santa. The job has taught him Christmas really is about the children, he said. Clark said it’s the season of giving. Playing Santa is his way to do that. He doesn’t request money, but Dairi Concepts offered him payment and a family may give him a few dollars and a plate of cookies for his work. Clark first became Kris Kringle 22 years ago, when he visited Junior Gresham’s family in Dora on the invitation of Gresham and his wife. “And it went on from there,” Clark said...read more

Christmas dinners weren’t so easy for pioneers

Preparing an elaborate Christmas dinner for family and friends can be a logistical and technical challenge for even the best cooks. But most modern holiday feasts are a cinch compared to those cooked in the frontier West more than a century ago. “Have you ever tried plucking a goose?” asked John Rumm, curator of the Buffalo Bill Museum at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody. “It’s not an easy process. The feathers don’t come off easily. And you have to singe the skin to get some of the quills out of there. It’s a pretty labor-intensive thing, which is why I suspect nobody eats that much goose anymore for Christmas,” he said. Settlers in remote Western frontier towns lacked most of the modern conveniences taken for granted by today’s cooks, and had limited or no access to fresh foods during the winter, Rumm said. Minnie Williams was a rancher in Red Lodge and later, Meeteetse. Her husband, Frank, was a performer in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. One year, when planning a Christmas visit, Cody sent word ahead of his special dinner request: fried chicken. “So Cody was a man of cosmopolitan tastes. He had dined in the finest restaurants in New York and Europe. But when push came to shove, he wanted his fried chicken,” Rumm said...read more

Of LBJ & Tiger

Once, many years ago, there was a Texan in the White House by the name of Lyndon Baines Johnson, better known as LBJ. And there were many legends about LBJ. A number are recounted in a privately printed best-selling book, "A Texan Looks at Lyndon" by J. Events Haley. Haley, born in 1901, was a rancher, a segregationist, a fierce opponent of FDR and his policies, and a good friend who had ridden the Texas cattle trails to Chicago as a young man. He died at 94 when the horse he was riding fell on him. LBJ was above everything a Texas politician. He worked hard and played every angle as only a Texan politician knows how to. One of the most infamous legends was the tale of how a political rival committed suicide by shooting himself twice in the back of head -- with a shotgun. And how each of three witnesses who could have given evidence against him in the Billy Sol Estes scandal died of carbon monoxide poisoning in their cars. During his White House years, LBJ would, during the fall and winter, host an "off-the-record" dinner for an ill-assorted group, usually about 20 guys, about once a month...read more

It's All Trew: Farmers bend to advances in plows

The transition from horse-drawn to tractor-drawn farm equipment was both welcomed and resented by farmers. Age of the farmer had a lot to do with the resentment, as the older farmers did not want to change longtime familiar practices. But with each passing year, the fields grew larger, forcing the change, whether the farmer liked it or not. Some were not capable or did not want to study and learn how to set and adjust the new-fangled equipment to work properly. As a result, the few who did understand and learned the methods of adjustment were in great demand within the community. An example was the Krause one-way, a disc plow which cut the soil, stalks and weeds loose and tossed the lot to one side a few inches, severing roots and preventing regrowth. It cleaned the ground almost miraculously, but it had to be adjusted properly, especially if the soil was dry and hard. My father, J.T. Trew, was one of the few who understood the workings of the plow, having learned his expertise from years of experience. If the plow was set properly, it would do a better job, pull more easily and stay in its proper space while conserving fuel. After the Dust Bowl ended, with normal annual rainfall resuming, it was a common practice to plow the wheat stubble immediately after harvest. A month or so later, depending on rainfall, the stubble was again plowed to mulch it into the soil. When fall came, the land was again plowed to kill the weeds and volunteer wheat and to plant the next year's crop...read more

Song Of The Day #209

Ranch Radio will get your feet stompin' this Monday am with two tunes from way back in the twenties. The first is Hollywood Rag by Cannon's Jug Stompers followed by James Cole & His Washboard Fourperforming Runnin' Wild.

See Cannon's Jug Stompers: The Complete Works 1927 - 1930 and A Richer Tradition: Country Blues and String Band Music 1923-1942 for the songs.

Jack Bauer Interrogates Santa Claus

Judge allows wild horse roundup in Nevada

The Obama administration said Wednesday it is going forward with a contentious plan to round up about 2,500 wild horses in Nevada. A spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said herds in the Calico Mountains Complex in northwestern Nevada are overpopulated and need to be reduced to protect the horses and the rangelands that support them. "The current population in the five Calico herd management areas is three times what the range can handle, so this gather will ensure high-quality habitat for the wild horse and burros and other wildlife while protecting the public rangeland from overuse," said spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff. She called the dispute over the roundup "yet another clarion call to develop and implement a long-term solution to the challenges we face concerning wild horses and burros on our public lands." The Interior Department announcement came after a federal judge on Wednesday denied a request to block the roundup, saying opponents had failed to demonstrate that removal of the horses would violate federal law...read more

Landmark deal protects artifact-rich Utah canyon

An unusual agreement to protect a Utah canyon decorated by ancient American Indian art is expected to allow energy development to move forward. The pact is scheduled to be signed Jan. 5 by federal and state agencies, conservation and archaeology groups, tribal leaders and a Denver-based natural gas producer. It calls for road work to cut down on abrasive dust that can erode the rock art panels of Nine Mile Canyon. The canyon — actually 78 miles long — has been called the world's longest art gallery, with thousands of prehistoric drawings. Bill Barrett Corp. is awaiting federal environmental approval to add 800 gas wells on high plateaus that are accessible only from Nine Mile Canyon. The company said it was happy to end years of dispute with an agreement that brought an unprecedented level of scrutiny to its project...read more

Twitter Tapping - Feds Monitoring Facebook

The government is increasingly monitoring Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites for tax delinquents, copyright infringers and political protesters. A public interest group has filed a lawsuit to learn more about this monitoring, in the hope of starting a national discussion and modifying privacy laws as necessary for the online era. Law enforcement is not saying a lot about its social surveillance, but examples keep coming to light. The Wall Street Journal reported this summer that state revenue agents have been searching for tax scofflaws by mining information on MySpace and Facebook. In October, the F.B.I. searched the New York home of a man suspected of helping coordinate protests at the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh by sending out messages over Twitter. In some cases, the government appears to be engaged in deception. The Boston Globe recently quoted a Massachusetts district attorney as saying that some police officers were going undercover on Facebook as part of their investigations. Wired magazine reported last month that In-Q-Tel, an investment arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, has put money into Visible Technologies, a software company that crawls across blogs, online forums, and open networks like Twitter and YouTube to monitor what is being said...read more

It's The Pitts: The Check IS In The Mail

Lee Pitts

When I was a little boy my father put me on a chair and said, “Jump and I’ll catch you.” I did and he didn’t. As I gathered myself up off the floor he said in a stern voice, “Let that be a lesson to you. Don’t ever trust anybody.”

While that might be good advice for preparing someone to go into politics, believe me, it’s no way to go through life, and I have spent my life trying to totally disregard that lesson. My experience has taught me that you can trust people. For 25 years I’ve sold books that I’ve written and quite often a person has called up wanting to place an order over the phone. Until recently I never took credit cards and the people were always taken aback when I said, “I’ll just send you the books and when you get them you can just send me a check.” Keep in mind these were complete strangers. You may find the following fact hard to believe but I swear it’s 100% true. In all that time I’ve NEVER, EVER, been stiffed. Not once. Everyone of those people paid me just like they said they would.

People deserve more credit than they receive, at least the folks I tend to hang around with. I think the record is untarnished because of the kind of people who purchase my books; mostly country folks, farmers and ranchers and those who would like to be. People, who by their nature are simply just honest folks.

Like everyone else, I like to be paid money that is owed me. I’m a “cash and carry” kind of guy and my preferred terms for selling anything are 100% down with no payments. While I am a trusting soul by nature I still take precautions when big money is involved. For example, I never sold my calves directly off the ranch, preferring instead to sell them at auction because after watching them sell I could go eat a piece of pie and by the time I was finished the gals in the office would always have a check ready for me. I cannot fathom that some people will sell their year’s worth of work and let them go out the front gate without being paid for them, or at least having a check that they called the bank on to make sure it was good. While I’m sure 99.999% of the time everything will be all right I was always afraid that with my luck I’d be the one getting stiffed. It happened to us once when my wife and I sold a house.

Escrow was supposed to close on a Friday but was delayed so we went ahead and let the buyers move in while we loaded a U-Haul and moved to New Mexico. On Monday morning we learned that the owner of the escrow company had absconded with all the funds. It took us three years and $8,000 in lawyer fees to get our house back! As a result I’m careful when I deal with any big company with the word “Trust” in its name.

An auctioneer friend tried to reteach my father’s lesson to me one time when we worked a sale for an owner who was a tad bit suspect. He was a rich guy from the city who’d left behind a string of unpaid bills, so to make sure he got paid for his day’s work the auctioneer bought a bull during the sale. Sure enough, the auctioneer never got paid but by selling the bull he made up for the loss.

I recalled this lesson when I was asked to take bids at a bankruptcy sale years ago. I too wasn’t sure if I’d get paid the $250 we agreed on as my fee. The whole thing just didn’t feel right on the day of the auction so I looked around for something to buy as insurance in case I didn’t get paid. My eyes settled on the most gaudy, ugly mirror ever made. It was huge and the cherubs and vines adorning it dripped with fake gold. I swear, it would make Martha Stewart have a coronary. I bid $350 for it and after struggling to load the huge, ugly thing in my car I took it home. My wife took one look at the grotesque object and shrieked in disgust, “That thing is not going in my house!”

But it did. And to my surprise the check for my day’s work got home almost before I did. So, I belatedly paid for the mirror and ended up losing a hundred bucks for my labors. And every day when I look into the ugliest mirror ever made I am reminded that you really can trust people most of the time.

Song Of The Day #208

Today's Gospel tune is Your Long Journey by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss from their Raising Sand CD.

This song goes out to a long-time and very special friend.