Texas secretly sends newborns' blood to feds for DNA database

When state health officials were sued last year for storing infant blood samples without parental consent, they said it was for medical research into birth defects, childhood cancer and environmental toxins. They never said they were turning over hundreds of dried blood samples to the federal government to help build a vast DNA database — a forensics tool designed to identify missing persons and crack cold cases. A Texas Tribune review of nine years' worth of e-mails and internal documents on the Department of State Health Services’ newborn blood screening program reveals the transfer of hundreds of infant blood spots to an Armed Forces lab to build a national and, someday, international mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) registry. The records, released after the state agreed in December to destroy more than 5 million infant blood spots, also show an effort to limit the public’s knowledge of aspects of the newborn blood program, and to manage the debate around it. But the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit never saw them, because the state settled the case so quickly that it never reached the discovery phase. Eventually, research proposals indicate, federal officials hoped to be able to share this data worldwide, “for international law enforcement and investigation in the context of homeland security and anti-terrorism efforts.”...read more

Homeland Security loses over 1,000 computers

New documents reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues to lose hundreds of computers per year. At least one DHS component agency maintains that the losses fall within accepted accounting standards. In fiscal year 2008, inventories of lost, stolen, and damaged equipment show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) combined to lose no fewer than 985 computers. Meanwhile, the lost, stolen and damaged report for ICE shows 13 vehicles classified as "lost" or "not found during physical inventory." CBP's total inventory (immediately below) of lost stolen and damaged equipment tallies 1,975 pieces at a total valuation of $7.5 million. "When I look at these inventories with my own eyes, page after page, I still think there's a good chance that we're dealing with some significant security breaches, and possibly insider theft," said Jon Caldara, President of the Independence Institute which obtained the documents...read more

Anthrax Attacks Show Government Officials Made of (Flawed!) Human Material

“The federal government is supposed to protect us from terrorism.” This may have been a plausible theory at one time, but now, after a decade of goofs and lapses, it sounds more like the opening line of a late-night comedy routine. The latest revelation about government’s anti-terrorism programs makes for rather dark comedy indeed. The Department of Justice has just released a comprehensive, final report on the anthrax attacks that occurred in the United States in the fall of 2001. As the reader may recall, envelopes containing weapons-grade anthrax spores were mailed to media organizations and U. S. senators, resulting in the deaths of five people, and leading to the hospitalization of 17 others, and causing expensive cleanup efforts. Since the poisoned letters contained notes scrawled with “Allah is Great” and “Death to Israel,” these slogans suggested the perpetrator was a radical Muslim. Well, he wasn’t. After an exhaustive FBI investigation, the Justice department has concluded that the spores came from a U. S. Army medical research facility, and that the person responsible was a scientist, Bruce Ivins, who worked there. So “the worst act of bioterrorism in U. S. history,” (as the Washington Post described it), proved to be the work of a U. S. government employee: a nightmare version of “I’m from government and I’m here to help you.”...read more

4.5 SWAT Raids Per Day

Over the last six months of 2009, SWAT teams were deployed 804 times in the state of Maryland, or about 4.5 times per day. In Prince George's County alone, with its 850,000 residents, a SWAT team was deployed about once per day. According to a Baltimore Sun analysis, 94 percent of the state's SWAT deployments were used to serve search or arrest warrants, leaving just 6 percent in response to the kinds of barricades, bank robberies, hostage takings, and emergency situations for which SWAT teams were originally intended. Worse even than those dreary numbers is the fact that more than half of the county’s SWAT deployments were for misdemeanors and nonserious felonies. That means more than 100 times last year Prince George’s County brought state-sanctioned violence to confront people suspected of nonviolent crimes. And that's just one county in Maryland. The use of these paramilitary police units has increased dramatically over the last 30 years, by 1,000 percent or more, resulting in the drastic militarization of police. It's a trend that seems to have escaped much media and public notice, let alone informed debate about policies and oversight procedures...read more

Waste watchers? UK group fears trash bin spies

It's the new front in the nanny state: Microchips placed in garbage bins to monitor how much people throw away. A pro-privacy group warns in a new report that more than 2.6 million of the chips have been surreptitiously installed in what is seen as a first step toward charging those who toss too much. Proponents say it's a bid to push recycling. Opponents say it stinks. "They should mind their own business," said Terry Williams, an unemployed Londoner who thinks the government is meddling. "I believe they have gone too far. It's not like we are throwing away anything that is illegal." The advocacy group Big Brother Watch found through a series of Freedom of Information requests that many local governments, called councils in Britain, are installing the microchips in trash cans distributed to households, but in most cases have not yet activated them — in part because officials know the move would be unpopular. "They are waiting for the political climate to change before they start using them," said campaign director Dylan Sharpe, who predicted that families that produce large amounts of garbage would be fined...read more

Timed Event Championship - Video Ad

Timed Event Championship Round 4

Staying within striking distance. That's exactly what K.C. Jones of Burlington, Wyo. has done this weekend at the Wrangler Timed Event Championship of the World. The four-time WTEC champion was third after the opening round, fifth after two rounds and third after three go-rounds.

On Saturday night he struck. As others fell Jones continued to move up in the fourth round, all the way to the top. Now Jones leads the average with 253.9 seconds on 20 runs going into Sunday's fifth and final round of the 26th Wrangler Timed Event Championship of the World at the Lazy E Arena.

The WTEC takes 20 of the world's toughest cowboys to ever battle the clock and tests their talents in a marathon of team roping - heading and heeling, tie-down roping, steer wrestling and steer roping each round for five rounds. Waiting at the end is a total purse of $150,000, including a staggering $50,000 to the winner of the average after 25 runs.

Josh Peek of Pueblo, Colo.led the average after Saturday afternoon's third round. In fact, he still led after three runs Saturday night with 218.7 on 18 runs. However, his steer sprinted out of the chute in steer wrestling. Peek didn't give up though and tossed him in 27.5 seconds. He would drop to third behind six-time WTEC champion and 11-time PRCA World Champion Trevor Brazile of Decatur and Jones, respectively, after 19 head. Brazile had been 17th after two runs in the first round but also stayed within striking distance for the lead at 230.3 on 19 runs.

Still the scoreboard was anything but settled. Brazile's steer roping draw took off to the back end of the arena. But Brazile stayed with him and tied the steer in 35.3 seconds in the fourth round Saturday night.

Jones tied his steer in 18.8 and Peek in 16.6 in the steer roping.

So, after the dust settled on 20 head, Jones has the lead in the average, Peek is second in the average with 262.8 seconds on 20 runs and Brazile is third with 265.6 seconds on 20 runs. Chance Kelton of Mayer, Ariz. is fourth in the average with 268.3 on 20 runs and three-time WTEC Champion Jimmie Cooper of Monument, N.M. is fifth at 294.2 on 20 runs.

WRANGLER TIMED EVENT CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WORLD Leaders after the 4th Go-Round, Saturday night at the LAZY E ARENA, Guthrie, Okla.

Average on 20 runs: 1. K.C. Jones, Burlington, Wyo., 253.9 seconds on 20 runs; 2. Josh Peek, Pueblo, Colo., 262.8 on 20; 3. Trevor Brazile, Decatur, Texas, 265.6 on 20; 4. Chance Kelton, Mayer, Ariz., 268.3 on 20; 5. Jimmie Cooper, Monument, N.M., 294.2 on 20.

Fast rounds after four rounds: 1. Chance Kelton, Mayer, Ariz., 48.0 on five (2nd go); 2. Josh Peek, Pueblo, Colo., 49.6 on five (3rd go); 3. Trevor Brazile, Decatur, Texas, 50.8 on five (3rd go); 4. Kyle Lockett, Visalia, Calif., 51.3 on five (2nd go); 5. Jo Jo Lemond, Andrews, Texas, 52.2 on five (4th go); 6. Beau Franzen, Sidney, Mont., 52.5 on five (4th go).

TEC Third Round Results

In December, Josh Peek of Pueblo, Colo. won the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo all-around title in Las Vegas, thanks in part to finishing fifth in the average in the tie-down roping and the steer wrestling.

In Saturday afternoon's third go-round of the Wrangler Timed Event Championship of the World, Peek posted the fast run of the round in the tie-down with a 10.7-second effort and the fastest run in the go in steer wreslting with a 4.8-second toss at the Lazy E Arena near Guthrie. Those runs highlighted a round in which he not only worked five head in 49.6 seconds but moved to the lead in the average with 190.8 seconds on 15 runs.

The third go steer wrestling Saturday afternoon had a major impact on the leaderboard. Kyle Lockett of Visalia, Calif., the 2005 WTEC Champion, and Daniel Green of Oakdale, Calif., the 2002 and 2008 WTEC Champion, were the top two respectively not only after the first two rounds but also after 13 head. However on the 14th run, which is the third go steer wrestling, Lockett took a 60-second time. A 60 is used instead of a no-time at the WTEC. And, Green was 44.9 seconds in the steer wrestling.

So, not only did Peek go from sixth after two rounds to the lead after three rounds, but Trevor Brazile of Decatur, Texas, the six-time WTEC Champion, vaulted from seventh to second in the average. Brazile, an 11-time PRCA World Champion, worked five head in 50.8 seconds in the third go for 195.0 on 15 head.

Brazile, who won the All-Around and the Tie-Down World Champion titles in 2009, currently leads both those races in the PRCA world standings while Peek is currently second in the PRCA All-Around race.

While Peek and Brazile are the top two after three rounds, K.C. Jones of Burlington, Wyo., a four-time WTEC champion, is third with 199.2 on 15 runs, Chance Kelton of Mayer, Ariz., is fourth with 203.0 on 15 runs and Paul Tierney of Oral, S.D., a four-time WTEC Champion, is fifth with 214.1 seconds on 15.

WRANGLER TIMED EVENT CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WORLD Leaders after the 3rd Go-Round, Saturday afternoon at the LAZY E ARENA, Guthrie, Okla.

Average: 1. Josh Peek, Pueblo, Colo., 190.8 on 15 runs; 2. Trevor Brazile, Decatur, Texas, 195.0 on 15; 3. K.C. Jones, Burlington, wyo., 199.2 on 15; 4. Chance Kelton, Mayer, Ariz., 203.0 on 15; 5. Paul Tierney, Oral, S.D., 214.1 on 15.

Fast rounds: 1. Chance Kelton, Mayer, Ariz., 48.0 on five (2nd go); 2. Josh Peek, Pueblo, Colo., 49.6 on five (3rd go); 3. Trevor Brazile, Decatur, Texas, 50.8 on five (3rd go); 4. Kyle Lockett, Visalia, Calif., 51.3 on five (2nd go); 3. Kyle Lockett, 52.8 on 5 (1st go).

20 top cowboys to compete at Timed Event Championship

The "Iron Man” contest of rodeo begins today at the Lazy E Arena near Guthrie. Perhaps the most unique event in professional rodeo, the annual Timed Event Championship features 20 of the world’s best cowboys who get into the field by invitation only. The Lazy E Arena started the event in 1985 as a way to determine the best timed event cowboy. Most cowboys in professional rodeo specialize in just one event. A few will compete in two or more timed events, but no one competes in all five. Except at the Timed Event Championship. Each cowboy will compete in all five timed events in rodeo: tie down roping, steer roping, heading, heeling and steer wrestling. By the time it has ended Sunday, each cowboy will have roped and bulldoggeda a total of 25 head of cattle. The one with the top overall time wins $50,000...read more

TEC Second Round

Two of the four Californians in this year's field of the 26th Annual Wrangler Timed Event Championship of the World are former champions of the event. After two rounds, those two title holders are in the top two spots in the average.

Kyle Lockett of Visalia, Calif., the 2005 WTEC Champion, leads the average with 104.1 on 10 head while Daniel Green of Oakdale, Calif, the 2002 and 2008 WTEC Champion, is second at 118.5 on 10 following Friday's two rounds at the Lazy E Arena.

The 26th Annual Wrangler Timed Event Championship of the World takes 20 of the world's toughest cowboys to ever battle the clock and tests their talents in a marathon of team roping - heading and heeling, tie-down roping, steer wrestling and steer roping each round for five rounds.

Waiting at the end is a total purse of $150,000, including a staggering $50,000 to the winner of the average after 25 runs.

Action continues through Sunday at the Lazy E Arena.

Lockett never stubbed his toe Friday. After posting 52.8 seconds on five in the first go, he handled the next five in 51.3 seconds. Friday night he not only opened strong but finished that way with the third fastest steer wrestling run of the second go, a 5.9, and the fifth fastest steer roping effort, 13.9 seconds.

Green went into the second go in second after a 56.7 in the opening round. He had the third fastest heeling run of the second go, stopping the clock in 8.1 seconds, and posted the fastest steer wrestling run of the day, tossing his draw in 5.7 seconds. Green was 26.7 in the steer roping, but held to second in the average after two.

Chance Kelton of Mayer, Ariz. was 11th after the first go, but worked his second five head in 48.0 seconds for 127.6 on 10 and third in the average after two rounds.

Jimmie Cooper of Monument, N.M. who won his first of three WTEC Titles in 1988, is fourth at 132.7 seconds on 10 head while K.C. Jones of Burlington, Wyo., a four-time WTEC Champion, is fifth at 135.5 seconds on 10 runs.

WRANGLER TIMED EVENT CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WORLD Leaders after the 2nd Go-Round, Friday night at the LAZY E ARENA, Guthrie, Okla.

Average: 1. Kyle Lockett, Visalia, Calif,, 104.1 on 10 runs; 2. Daniel Green, Oakdale, Calif., 118.5 on 10; 3. Chance Kelton, Mayer, Ariz., 127.6 on 10; 4. Jimmie Cooper, Monument, N.M. 132.7 on 10; 5. K.C. Jones, Burlington, Wyo., 135.5 on 10.

Fast rounds: 1. Chance Kelton, Mayer, Ariz., 48.0 on five (2nd go); 2. Kyle Lockett, Visalia, Calif., 51.3 on five (2nd go); 3. Kyle Lockett, 52.8 on 5 (1st go); 4. Daniel Green, Oakdale, Calif., 56.7 on five (1st go); 5. K.C. Jones, Burlington, Wyo., 59.2 on 5 (1st go).

TEC First Round

For the second year in a row, Kyle Lockett of Visalia, Calif. leads the Wrangler Timed Event Championship of the World after the first round at the Lazy E Arena.

Friday afternoon, Lockett, who went on to finish fifth in the average in 2009, set the pace with 52.8 seconds on five runs.

Lockett, the 2005 WTEC Champion, is being closely followed in the average by fellow Californian and two-time WTEC Champion Daniel Green of Oakdale, who worked five head Friday in 56.7 seconds. Sitting third in the average after the opening round is four-time WTEC champion K.C Jones of Burlington, Wyo. with 59.2 seconds on five. Rounding out the top five are Brett Fleming of Worden, Montana, 61.9 seconds on five, and Josh Peek of Pueblo, Colo., 66.0 seconds on five.

The 26th Annual Wrangler Timed Event Championship of the World takes 20 of the world's toughest cowboys to ever battle the clock and tests their talents in a marathon of team roping - heading and heeling, tie-down roping, steer wrestling and steer roping each round for five rounds. Waiting at the end is a total purse of $150,000, including a staggering $50,000 to the winner of the average after 25 runs.

Action continues through Sunday at the Lazy E Arena.

Lockett, who statistician Curt Robinson said also led after the first go when he won the WTEC title in 2005, was fifth after two runs Friday. But then it was time for Lockett's specialty, heeling. Stopping the clock in 8.3 seconds for 30.8 seconds on three head, he moved to the front. With a 6.7-second toss in the steer wrestling and a steady 15.3-second run in steer roping he stayed atop the pack.

Green used the best steer roping run of the afternoon, a 14.7, to vault to second in the average. Jones of Wyoming, was steady throughout the first go never falling below third.

Climate scientists to fight back at skeptics

Undaunted by a rash of scandals over the science underpinning climate change, top climate researchers are plotting to respond with what one scientist involved said needs to be "an outlandishly aggressively partisan approach" to gut the credibility of skeptics. In private e-mails obtained by The Washington Times, climate scientists at the National Academy of Sciences say they are tired of "being treated like political pawns" and need to fight back in kind. Their strategy includes forming a nonprofit group to organize researchers and use their donations to challenge critics by running a back-page ad in the New York Times. "Most of our colleagues don't seem to grasp that we're not in a gentlepersons' debate, we're in a street fight against well-funded, merciless enemies who play by entirely different rules," Paul R. Ehrlich, a Stanford University researcher, said in one of the e-mails. Some scientists question the tactic and say they should focus instead on perfecting their science, but the researchers who are organizing the effort say the political battle is eroding confidence in their work...read more

Sage grouse will get limited protection

Federal authorities today embarked on a compromise effort to protect the sage grouse as a "candidate" species under the Endangered Species Act. Short of designating the sage grouse as threatened or endangered, the compromise crafted by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar embraced the latest science indicating that grouse need help to avoid extinction in the face of energy development, grazing and house-building. This approach "gives an open window" of "several years" for public and private land users to take action "making sure the grouse doesn't have to be put on the endangered species list," Salazar said. "We believe we can do that." Hunting grouse in Colorado and other western states will still be allowed. At the same time, energy companies poised to drill in sensitive areas may face new restrictions and are on notice that protections for the grouse in the future could one day force industry relocation. The federal Bureau of Land Management - which manages 8.4 million acres across Colorado and 253 million acres nationwide - plays a key role in determining whether the grouse will survive. BLM managers lease land for grazing, drilling, mining and installation of powerlines and windmills. Designating the grouse as a "candidate" species is expected to force the Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies to work cooperatively with private landowners to conserve grouse. Federal authorities may give financial and technical assistance and help develop conservation agreements that give regulatory assurances to landowners who try to help grouse...read more

Wilderness On The Border? 8 Articles on Border Violence

For background see my previous posts here, here, here and here

A previous post on border violence is here.

All of this violence is to control routes into the U.S. for human and drug trafficking. So as you read these posts ask yourself: Why would anyone deem it in the public interest to designate Wilderness in close proximity to our southern border? Why limit the use of motorized vehicles and mechanical equipment by federal, state and local law enforcement on over 400 square miles of southern NM?

Cartels Finding New Routes To Smuggle Drugs Many drug cartels are feeling the pressure from increased security along the U.S.-Mexico border, hindering their drug smuggling efforts. However, the 10News I-Team learned many of the cartels are finding new routes to smuggling drugs into and out of the U.S. American authorities said Mexicali, just across the U.S.-Mexico border, is a city caught in the middle and is another conduit for the cartels. "The violence in Mexico has definitely gotten worse," said Myers. "The traffickers have proven time and time again that they will do whatever it takes to protect their industry." American police officials told the I-Team smuggling drugs through Mexicali can be as efficient as Tijuana because of the interstate system. Just a few miles from the border, Interstate 8 is now one of the country's most prolific drug smuggling routes, officials said.

COMMENT: Will Interstates 10 & 25 be next? Over 400 square miles of Wilderness would sure help.

The Other War It's a war the so-called mainstream media apparently have decided to ignore. Though its death toll is higher than Iraq's and Afghanistan's combined, it evidently isn't worth covering; and unless you're reading this in the Southwest, you probably haven't even heard about it. The conflict, a full-blown narco-insurgency, has claimed the lives of more than 17,000 combatants and innocents, threatens to undo several democratically elected governments and poses a real and present danger to the United States. It's not the one being fought in Afghanistan. It's the war being waged from the Andean basin all the way north to the Rio Grande. Last week, while our Fox News team was in Texas and New Mexico on a completely unrelated matter, "the war next door" was the principal topic of conversation among the locals we encountered. Just days before we arrived, 16 teenagers celebrating a birthday party were machine-gunned in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, less than a mile from the U.S. border. In the past 12 months, nearly 2,700 people have been murdered in this border city - about 1,000 more than the previous year - making it the deadliest place to live on the planet. The Mexican drug cartels perpetrating the violence next door are competing for "distribution rights" in the lucrative marijuana, hashish and cocaine markets on this side of the porous U.S.-Mexico border. These "distributors" are now exporting their violence, as well. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, cartel "hit teams" have carried out murders and kidnappings in more than 230 American cities. Phoenix seems headed for becoming the kidnapping capital of the U.S. Though overall violent crime has declined in Arizona generally and Phoenix in particular, kidnapping has spiked from fewer than 50 cases in 2005 to more than 350 last year. Local and state law enforcement authorities say nearly all of this increased crime is directly connected to the illicit drug trade coming across the state's 375-mile border with Mexico...

Border Residents Prepare for Possible Spillover Violence The recent spike in border violence has people thinking about safety and how to best protect their families. Some folks are even ready to arm themselves. They're thinking about the possibility of spillover violence, things like home invasions and drug related chases. Their number one priority is to stay safe. Nelda Gonzalez owns Thin Blue Line, where she offers a firearms training program. She says while she mostly caters to law enforcement, she's seeing a spike in civilians who want weapons. Right now there's a two-month waiting list for the course. Gonzalez attributes part of that to increased border violence and the threat of spillover. "I think that's what triggering people to come. They want to purchase weapons." With the shoot outs so close, people are doing everything they can to feel safe. Several Valley law enforcement agencies have confirmed to CHANNEL 5 NEWS they are on alert, ready for the possibility of spillover...

Nine Die in Drug-Related Violence in Northern Mexico At least six people were killed when gunmen attacked a ranch near Ciudad Juarez, a border city in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, while three soldiers were killed and three others wounded in a shootout with gunmen in Nuevo Leon state, officials said. Rancho Nuevo, located at kilometer 76 of the Juarez-El Porvenir highway and less than 30 minutes southeast of Ciudad Juarez, was attacked Wednesday night, the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office said. The gunmen entered the ranch and opened fire on eight unidentified men, killing six and wounding two others, then fled, the AG’s office said. One of the bodies was found next to an SUV and the others were near some stables. Ciudad Juarez, located across the border from El Paso, Texas, and considered the most dangerous city in Mexico, has been plagued by drug-related violence for years. Police in Nuevo Leon state, meanwhile, said a military patrol was attacked Wednesday on the Monterrey-Colombia highway. The soldiers were ambushed by gunmen in several SUVs, the shift commander of the police department in Anahuac, a border city in Nuevo Leon, told Efe. “The incident occurred around noon near the Salinilla highway,” the police spokesman said, adding that the shootout lasted about 20 minutes. Nuevo Leon Public Safety Secretary Carlos Jauregui confirmed that the shootout happened. Mexico has been plagued in recent years by drug-related violence blamed on powerful cartels...

McStay Family of Four Vanishes Near Mexican Border Joseph and Summer McStay, along with their two boys Gianni,4, and Joey, 3, disappeared almost two weeks ago and San Diego investigators still have no solid leads as to what happened to them. The family, who lives in Fallbrook, Calif., half way between San Diego and Los Angeles, was last seen February 4. Four days later their car was found abandoned in San Ysidro, a small California town right outside Tijuana, Mexico. "I don't understand why it was there. I know she didn't like Mexico," Summer McStay's mother Blanche Aranda told CBS affiliate KFMB. "I can't imagine where they are... I have no ideas. Where they would go?"...

Baby Wounded, Mother Killed in Mexican Border City Authorities in the northern Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez say assailants shot a woman to death and seriously wounded her 9-month-old daughter. Prosecutors' spokesman Arturo Sandoval says the mother and child were traveling with the child's father when the gunmen chased and attacked their vehicle. The father was not injured. The 24-year-old mother died at the scene of Thursday's attack. The baby suffered a gunshot wound to her head and is in serious condition at a hospital...

Fear grows as drug war rages on Texas border Border residents fear more violence as rival drug cartels battle for lucrative smuggling routes...The spike in violence spans the border from Reynosa to Nuevo Laredo and several Mexican towns in between. The exact number is hard to confirm. On Tuesday, the U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Laredo warned of an "ongoing gun battle" near the Zoo, and in an e-mail alert advised "all U.S. citizens to shelter in place and to take precautions until the fighting subsides." The suggestion that residents were reacting only to rumors angered a woman in Camargo, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, who used her cell phone camera to document damage from a gun fight Saturday night in the area bordering Starr County. In a video posted on YouTube, the unidentified woman points out shell casings on the ground, bullet-riddled SUVs, and bodies in the streets. It's some of the most graphic evidence of the bloodshed that has border residents on edge. School attendance was down last week as parents kept their children home along the Tamaulipas border, particularly in Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa. Concern for the region is growing on both sides of the border...

U.S. closes consulate in northern Mexico for bomb threat The U.S. consulate in Juarez, a northern Mexican city notorious for drug-related violence, was evacuated Tuesday and closed due to a bomb threat, police said. The emergency service of Mexican police received an anonymous call before 8:00 a.m. local time (1400 GMT) warning that a bomb had been installed in the U.S. consulate, said Fidel Banuelos, spokesman for the Secretariat of Public Security in Chihuahua state, where Juarez is located. Banuelos said the office was closed while explosives specialists from the Central Intelligence went into the building to search for the alleged device. Banuelos told reporters that a female voice made both calls. Juarez city, located near the border with the United States, is believed to be one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico due to rampant organized crime and drug trafficking...

In Utah, a move to seize federal land

Long frustrated by Washington's control over much of their state, Utah legislators are proposing a novel way to deal with federal land -- seize it and develop it. The Utah House of Representatives last week passed a bill allowing the state to use eminent domain to take land the federal government owns and has long protected from development. The state wants to develop three hotly contested areas -- national forest land in the Wasatch Mountains north of Salt Lake City, land in a proposed wilderness area in the red rock southwestern corner of the state, and a stretch of desert outside of Arches National Park that the Obama administration has declared off-limits to oil and gas development. Supporters argue that provisions in the legislation that granted Utah statehood allow it to make such a land grab. They also hope to spark a showdown in the Supreme Court that would rearrange the balance of power between states and the federal government...read more

Utah House mounts new federal lands challenge

Utah lawmakers voted Thursday to condemn federal lands in a message meant to reach the Supreme Court and challenge the U.S. government to open lands to development for school funding. HB143 passed the House 57-13 over Democratic objections that pressing the court case will be costly and likely unsuccessful. Republicans called it a necessary fight to reverse federal oppression and the state's chronically worst-in-the-nation per-student school funding. "Our schoolchildren have been robbed," said Rep. Chris Herrod, R-Provo, the bill's sponsor. Herrod asserts that, despite Supreme Court rulings to the contrary, the state is "sovereign" over lands in its boundaries and has power to reclaim those that the federal government did not acquire with state approval. He concedes that Utah gave up claims to federal lands at statehood, but said the federal government has broken its pledge to put the state on "equal footing" with other states by keeping more than two-thirds of the state in federal ownership. His bill would authorize taking segments of federal land for roads to access state-owned lands for energy production and other development to aid schools. A companion bill proposed by Rep. Ken Sumsion, R-American Fork, would take $1 million in state revenues over three years to cover the legal bills. Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, called the bill "an act of self-preservation for our state."...read more

Rare horse breed up for state title

Arroyo may not have the size of a quarter horse, the speed of a thoroughbred or the elegance of an Arabian. But this colonial Spanish horse can eat nearly any native grass, has hooves so firm they don't require shoes and is renowned for its stamina. In the late 1600s, Arroyo's ancestors carried Father Eusebio Kino from Mexico into present-day Arizona, where he credited the breed for helping him establish missions. As cattle ranchers sought bigger and stronger horses in the 300-plus years since, they cross-bred the colonial Spanish horse into many of today's most popular pedigrees. It's nearly vanished in its native Spain and is a novelty breed kept alive by people such as Marjorie Dixon, Arroyo's owner. "My husband looked at me and said, 'Marjorie, these horses should be the Arizona state horse. You should really get on that,' " Dixon said with a laugh. That could happen this year, as a bill inspired by Dixon and other members of Arizona's Colonial Spanish Horse Project is moving through the state Legislature. House Bill 2634, sponsored by Rep. Patricia Fleming, D-Sierra Vista, is awaiting a vote by the full House that would send it to the Senate...read more

Wyoming governor signs law adopting cowboy ethics

The principles of "cowboy ethics" are now part of Wyoming law. Gov. Dave Freudenthal signed legislation Wednesday adopting an official Wyoming state code. The symbolic measure spells out 10 ethics derived from a "Code of the West" outlined in a book by author and retired Wall Street investor James Owen. The ethics code doesn't carry any criminal penalties and is not meant to replace any civil codes. The state code admonishes residents and lawmakers to live courageously, take pride in their work, finish what they start, do what's necessary, be tough but fair, keep promises, ride for the brand, talk less and say more, remember that some things aren't for sale and know where to draw the line. AP

National Cowboy Museum announces Wrangler Award winners

For the 49th time, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is passing out this spring the Western Heritage Awards. The awards honor and encourage the legacy of those whose works in literature, music, film and television reflect the significant stories of the American West. The Outstanding Western Novel is “The Sundown Chaser” by Dusty Richards and published by Berkley Books Penguin Group. Richards, an award-winning writer, crafts another winner with the story of two men, bond by blood but torn apart by the law. Craig Varjabedian’s fascinating photographs of the red cliffs and sweeping plains of the Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico has earned him the Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Photography Book. Published by the University of New Mexico Press, “Ghost Ranch and the Faraway Nearby” captures the essence of the 21,000-acre ranch in more than 90 new black-and-white photographs. Steve Moulton is the 2009 Outstanding New Artist with his album “Cowboys & Campfires.” This award is given to someone in the first five years of their career, who has never received a Wrangler in an individual category and is striving to continue to produce music of the Western genre. “The Great Western Trail” by LeRoy Jones, composed by Dave Copenhaver, Terry Scarberry and Jones, wins for Outstanding Original Composition. Off the album “Looking Back,” the song tells the tale of a cattle drive from Texas to Kansas and conjures up memories of the old West. In the category for Outstanding Traditional Western Album, the top honors go to “Welcome to the Tribe,” recorded by Andy Wilkinson and Andy Hedges and produced by Lloyd Maines and Andy Wilkinson. “Born to Ride: Cody Wright and the Quest for a World Title” is the Outstanding Documentary, Contemporary. Cody Wright travels the rodeo circuit on his quest to win the 2008 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Saddle Bronc World Championship...read more

Baxter Black: The calf wins in overtime

In an effort to make managing the 20-section ranch more efficient, the boss bought Jake a Ranger, a four-wheel-drive muscle car ATV. The cowboys on this West Texas ranch were equipped with cell phones, of course. What modern cowboy isn't? They have replaced Copenhagen as the habit-forming addiction for the "orally dependent." Jake received a call. It was a neighbor who told him there was a calf out on the road to the highway, a mile from the west gate where Charles Goodnight lost a tooth chasing coyotes in the winter of '86 ... down by the Quanah Wash. Jake sighed and reversed his direction. It was back three miles and over two. But, he thought, only a calf, maybe a week or two old. Probably got under the fence, Mama on the other side. Wouldn't be too tough. Fifteen minutes later he approached Quanah Wash to find a 300-pound beefy bull calf in the ditch. King Richard III whined in his ear, "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" Making do with what he had, Jake tied the tail of his rope to the bumper on the Ranger and started after the calf. Down the ditch they flew. The bull was running along the fence line, and Jake was maneuvering with one hand, trying to keep a wheel on the shoulder. Because he was going west on the wrong side of the road, he was forced to rope left-handed. Not easy with a right-hand-twist rope...read more