USMEF, NCBA Applaud Mexico's Elimination Of Anti-dumping Duties

In a decision announced today, Mexico’s Ministry of the Economy has eliminated anti-dumping duties that have been imposed on imports of U.S. beef for the past ten years. The Ministry's resolution goes into effect tomorrow (Aug. 11, 2010) and eliminates the duties effective April 29, 2010. U.S. beef arriving at Mexico's border starting tomorrow should enter the market duty-free. Companies that have paid duties since April 29 are entitled to a refund of all duties paid. The U.S. beef industry has been seeking resolution of this issue for many years. With full support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) have led a coalition of U.S. beef industry interests seeking elimination of the duties, which ranged from 3 cents to 29 cents per pound. The duties applied to about half of U.S. beef production, which steared some U.S. companies away from Mexico's market...more

Judge dismisses lawsuit over Geronimo's remains

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by descendants of Apache warrior Geronimo that claimed his remains were stolen in 1918 by a student secret society at Yale University. The lawsuit was filed last year in Washington, D.C., by 20 descendants who want to rebury Geronimo near his New Mexico birthplace. It claimed Skull and Bones members took remains from a burial plot at Fort Sill, Okla., where Geronimo died in 1909. Judge Richard Roberts last month granted a Justice Department motion to dismiss, saying the plaintiffs failed to establish that the government waived its right not to be sued. He also dismissed the lawsuit against Yale and the society, saying the plaintiffs cited a law that only applies to Native American cultural items excavated or discovered after 1990. Skull and Bones is not affiliated with Yale. AP

Baxter Black: The horse gets the last laugh

The owner told Warren that Della had a reputation of being hard to show. She was an 18-year-old mare whose foals were sought after for the cutting genes she passed down. He had been offered $50,000 for her but declined. He wanted her shod. Since Warren did the shoeing, he was chosen to confront her. Horses have individual eccentricities. Some are cinchy, some don't like their ears touched, their bean cleaned, mane combed or feet messed with. Della did not abide any touching of her legs above the hocks. An odd quirk, probably the result of some past experience, but it was no odder than people who refuse to wear orange, politicians who can't give a straight answer or cowboys who insist on going outside to tinkle. To do the job meant Warren had to put himself in harm's way to hammer new iron on her feet. To aid in restraint, the owner administered a healthy dose of Acepromazine tranquilizer, and they confined her in a 12-by-12-foot stall. Even then, with the owner on the head and Warren pushing the hip against the wall, she fought it all the way. But our boys are stubborn. They hung on as Della made three circles backward around the stall dragging them like two lion cubs trying to take down an injured gnu. They finally got her cranked into a corner so Warren could delicately reach down and handle the hoof. The tranquilizer finally took the wind out of her sails and one side was done. The procedure was repeated in the other direction including the backward whirlpooling and the job was finished. Hallelujah. But eventually the next time came around...more

Song Of The Day #377

Ranch Radio will take a look at 1959 for the rest of this week.

We'll start with the #1 and #2 songs in 1959 - Battle of New Orleans by Johnny Horton and Three Bells by The Browns.

Ranchers report smuggler scouts on the border area hilltops

One of the more interesting aspects of the battle to secure our borders is the tactics of the drug and people smugglers operating across the line. I have talked to many ranchers who run cattle near the border and on the cartel smuggling corridors on US public lands north of the border to the outskirts of Tucson. I hear the same story over and over….the smugglers have scouts all over the place on tops of hills and mountains watching what is going on and communicating with the coyotes down in the canyons when to move and when to hide from the Border Patrol. The smugglers are avoiding roads and staying in canyons and washes where the Border Patrol can only go on foot or on horseback. The BP is mostly concentrated in vehicles on the road system. Aid workers looking to assist undocumented entrants in trouble confirm the road avoidance strategy of illegal entrants and smugglers. The cowboys are seeing the scouts constantly. According to the ranchers, the scouts are camping on this high points for days at a time. The cowboys are trying to avoid getting in the crossfire between the smugglers, bandits and others running around the back country with guns. They see the scouts, they go the other way. One rancher, whose family has been down here since the 1850’s, described the situation is being similar to the Apache War…with the smuggler scouts using the exact same observation sites the Apaches did 150 years ago...more

ICE expands its jail print program all along border

Immigration officials announced Tuesday that all 24 counties along the Southwest border are now part of a federal program designed to run fingerprint-based immigration history checks on suspects booked into local jails. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement program, dubbed Secure Communities, debuted in Harris County's jails in October 2008. Since then, the program has expanded to 544 jurisdictions and is scheduled to be used across the country by 2013. Since its launch, the program has helped remove more than 34,600 illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, including more than 9,800 classified as "aggravated felons," ICE officials said...more

FBI - Public Corruption: A Few Bad Apples

In the surveillance footage taken hours before his arrest, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Michael Gilliland can be seen nonchalantly waving a car through his lane at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego. He was knowingly allowing illegal aliens across the border, and he would do this several more times throughout the evening. His actions that night would earn him nearly the equivalent of his annual salary—and eventually a five-year prison term. Gilliland, a former U.S. Marine and veteran Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer with 16 years of experience, has been in jail since 2007. But his case continues to illustrate the pervasive problem of corruption along the Southwest border and the damage that can occur when officials betray the public's trust. Of our 700 agents assigned to public corruption investigations nationwide, approximately 120 of them are located in the Southwest region. We work closely with many federal agencies, including CBP and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The result has been more than 400 public corruption cases originating from the Southwest region—and in the past fiscal year more than 100 arrests and about 130 state and federal cases prosecuted. We have 12 border corruption task forces in the Southwest, which consist of many state and local law enforcement agencies as well as our federal partners. Recently, we established a National Border Corruption Task Force at FBI Headquarters to coordinate the activities of all regional operations...more

Montana Landowners brace for eminent domain fight over MATL power line

Tonbridge Power Inc. of Toronto, Canada, values the land, too, which is owned by Salois' 83-year-old mother, Shirley. The company plans to erect 90-foot-tall poles on the property as part of a 215-mile transmission line for electricity it is building from Lethbridge, Alberta, to Great Falls. The company has filed a condemnation complaint on the Salois land to gain access it says is needed for the greater good, but Larry Salois is digging in his heels. He disputes the claim that the project is in the public interest, and he isn't sure whether Tonbridge, which is a for-profit private company based in a foreign country, even has the right to condemn the land. "I'm going to do my best to keep 'em outside of the fence for as long as I can," Salois said. MATL is one of several large transmission lines being built statewide to meet growing demand from developers that want to tap Montana's renowned winds. They then want to send the green energy to larger markets across the West, fueled by federal stimulus funds and state tax breaks for renewable-energy projects. But producing wind energy, as opposed to using fossil fuels, also has big impacts, including the need for towering poles and power lines across private property to get the electricity from where it's produced to where it's used, Opper said...more

The article also says:

The DOE announced in January that it was providing up to $30 billion in loan guarantees nationwide for renewable-energy projects, including $2 billion in loans for transmission projects. Tonbridge received a $161 million loan from that funding to help construct MATL...

The feds are subsidizing the condemnation of private property all in the name of renewable energy. Market forces aren't producing this outcome, government policy is.

Another property-grabbing virus set loose by the DC Deep Thinkers.

Montana, Idaho consider wolf-control options with hunts shut down

Montana's Fish, Wildlife and Parks commissioners had just finished their meeting Thursday afternoon when the wolf returned to their door. The commissioners ordered FWP director Joe Maurier to appeal the ruling and look for other ways to reduce the state's wolf population - since the ruling canceled Montana's wolf hunting season. But fast decisions at the top may not translate into action in the woods this fall. "We're not going to sit on the sidelines," Sime said. "It looks like Idaho is pursuing their most readily available course, and we're pursuing options that are a better fit for Montana. Clearly the spotlight's on Wyoming right now. Wyoming has put a speed bump there in terms of Montana managing its own wildlife." Idaho plans to manage wolves under what's called the 10/J rule of the Endangered Species Act. That allows the state and private individuals to shoot wolves that threaten livestock or contribute to declines in big-game herds. "We have good estimates of the wolf population," Unsworth said. "We will make an estimation of the number of wolves we would like to reduce and move forward. We're put in a position of more active management, although we would have preferred to use hunters." That includes a near-term effort to reduce wolf numbers in Idaho's Lolo area from the current 75 to 100 animals down to 20 or 30 this year. Idaho's Lolo hunting districts cover 1.5 million acres roughly between the St. Joe River and the Lochsa River west of Montana's Lolo Pass. Idaho Fish and Game spokesman Neils Nokkentved said the state wanted to hold wolves in that area to the lower number for at least five years. The original plan was to use public hunters to do the killing. Now the state will apply for federal 10/J permission using government hunters...more

The Fiery Touch

Wildfire arson has become an increasingly serious problem as the wildland-urban interface expands. In California, fire authorities have traced 7 to 12 percent of wildfires in recent years to arsonists. The picture varies depending on the locale, but extrapolating from California, arson likely accounts for 10,000 to 12,000 wildfires a year nationwide. In California alone in the past 10 years, 13 people have died in wildfires that were either confirmed or suspected arson. But wildfire arson convictions don't come easily. Typically the crime scene is empty country; witnesses are few or nonexistent. The arsonist may be long gone by the time the flames spring to life, and the simple ignition devices are often destroyed; a single match is enough to start a blaze in light grass. Evidence is also often obliterated by firefighters hosing water, digging fireline and driving fire engines. And the wildland arsonist's motives are harder to fathom than those of his urban counterparts, who often ignite buildings simply to collect insurance or to kill a particular person. As wildfires occur more often in the wildland-urban interface, the penalties for arson have ratcheted upward. Until Oyler, the most notorious wildfire arsonist was probably Terry Lynn Barton, a seasonal Forest Service employee whose duties ironically included spotting smoke. Barton touched off Colorado's 2002 Hayman Fire, which burned a state record of 138,000 acres, destroying 133 homes and 466 other structures, and causing the evacuation of 8,000 people...more

Sierra Club files pipeline appeal

The Sierra Club announced Friday it has filed an appeal with the Interior Land Board of Appeals over El Paso Corp.’s Ruby Pipeline. The appeal is against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s approval of rights of way for the 680-mile pipeline that extends from Wyoming to Oregon. The Sierra Club is proposing an alternate route along existing roads, railroads and utility corridors that David Hornbeck, chairman of the Toiyabe Chapter of the Sierra Club, said would add 55 miles to the route. “The Sierra Club doesn’t oppose the pipeline as such and is proposing a better route,” he said Friday. “We think our alternative is better.”...more

I guess they didn't get any money.

Pinnacles National Monument might become national park

Pinnacles National Monument, a landscape of massive spires and sheer-walled canyons east of Salinas Valley, would become California's newest national park under legislation introduced in Congress recently. Pinnacles now gets about 165,000 visitors a year who are drawn by the condors, caves, challenging rock climbs and spectacular wildflowers. Elevating it to a national park "will draw even more visitors to this spectacular piece of California's natural and cultural heritage," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), author of the bill. Boxer's bill would also boost the area of officially designated wilderness in the monument from 16,000 acres to 19,000. The National Wilderness Preservation System is the nation's strongest form of public land protection...more

Massive Iceberg in Greenland

An ice island four times the size of Manhattan has broken off from the Petermann Glacier in Greenland, the largest calving of an iceberg in the Arctic since 1962. The iceberg covers at least 100 square miles and is roughly 700 feet thick — about half the height of the Empire State Building. University of Delaware ocean scientist Andreas Muenchow said that so much freshwater is stored in the massive iceberg that it could keep all U.S. public tap water flowing for four months and could sustain the flow of the Hudson and Delaware rivers for two years. Muenchow said it is unclear whether this massive calving event is related to rising air temperatures in Greenland and the Arctic, but another researcher said that the calving was probably hastened by rising sea and air temperatures in northern Greenland...more

Supersized power hub in southeastern N.M. to link 3 major U.S. grids

Phil Harris is masterminding an electricity superhighway — a facility near Clovis that will connect the nation's three main power grids for the first time. The Tres Amigas Superstation will link the Western Interconnection, Eastern Interconnection and Texas Interconnection at a point in southeastern New Mexico. It also will provide the transmission capacity that power managers say is needed to handle the renewable energy expected from new solar and wind sources. The hub will allow energy to flow between the grids via superconductor cables in underground pipelines and AC/DC converters. The multifacility project will be built on 22.5 square miles of land leased from the New Mexico State Land Office. The superstation will be built in 500-megawatt units. Harris hopes to commence construction on the first one next year. The projected cost for the first phase is about $600 million. Eventually, Tres Amigas will have the capacity to move as much as 30 gigawatts of power between the three grids...more

Scientists find new evidence of genetically modified plants in the wild

Scientists currently performing field research in North Dakota have discovered the first evidence of established populations of genetically modified plants in the wild. Meredith G. Schafer from the University of Arkansas and colleagues from North Dakota State University, California State University, Fresno and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established transects of land along 5,400 km of interstate, state and county roads in North Dakota from which they collected, photographed and tested 406 canola plants. The results—which were recorded in early July and are set to be presented at ESA's Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh—provide strong evidence that transgenic plants have established populations outside of agricultural fields in the U.S. Of the 406 plants collected, 347 (86%) tested positive for CP4 EPSPS protein (confers tolerance to glyphosate herbicide) or PAT protein (confers tolerance to glufosinate herbicide). "There were also two instances of multiple transgenes in single individuals," said one of the study's coauthors Cynthia Sagers, University of Arkansas. "Varieties with multiple transgenic traits have not yet been released commercially, so this finding suggests that feral populations are reproducing and have become established outside of cultivation. These observations have important implications for the ecology and management of native and weedy species, as well as for the management of biotech products in the U.S."...more

Richardson urged to support coal waste reform in the state

New Mexico advocacy groups are urging Gov. Bill Richardson to support what they call strong, federal regulations that would govern the disposal of toxic leftovers from burning coal for electricity. Thirteen groups have sent the governor a letter asking him to protect New Mexicans from the millions of tons of coal combustion waste that are produced each year by coal-fired power plants in northwestern New Mexico. Their plea comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency develops the first-ever national rules for the disposal and management of coal ash as a special waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The agency is considering two options, one of which calls for state or federal permit programs and direct federal enforcement. The groups seeking Richardson's support say New Mexico is among the top 10 producers of coal combustion waste. A total of about 3.6 million tons is produced annually by the Four Corners Power Plant, the nearby San Juan Generating Station and the Escalante Generating Station near Prewitt, Lorimier said. Pat Vincent-Collawn, president and chief executive of PNM Resources, the parent company of utility Public Service Co. of New Mexico, told The Associated Press on Monday that the EPA proposals could impact coal ash disposal costs for the Four Corners and San Juan plants, depending on how the waste is ultimately classified. PNM has a stake in each plant. Vincent-Collawn could not immediately provide a dollar figure but said it would be "pretty significant."...more

Group Seeks Stiffer Anti-Soring Rules

A group of equine welfare advocates want the USDA to adopt new regulations designed to beef-up enforcement of the Horse Protection Act (HPA) of 1970 at Tennessee Walking Horse exhibitions. The act forbids soring, the deliberate injury to a horse's legs to achieve an exaggerated "big lick" gait. In a legal petition filed on August 4, The Humane Society of the Untied States, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, American Horse Protection Association, Friends of Sound Horses and former Maryland Sen. Joseph Tidings, original sponsor of the HPA legislation, asked the USDA to permanently ban repeat HPA violators and horses scarred by soring from competing in future shows. The petition also asks the agency to require Horse Industry Organizations (HIOs) to adopt minimum HPA violation penalties, and to decertify HIOs that chronically refuse to comply with USDA rules. USDA Horse Protection Coordinator Rachel Cezar, DVM, said the agency is reviewing the petition...more

Meat-Based Diet Made Us Smarter

Our earliest ancestors ate their food raw — fruit, leaves, maybe some nuts. When they ventured down onto land, they added things like underground tubers, roots and berries. It wasn't a very high-calorie diet, so to get the energy you needed, you had to eat a lot and have a big gut to digest it all. But having a big gut has its drawbacks. "You can't have a large brain and big guts at the same time," explains Leslie Aiello, an anthropologist and director of the Wenner-Gren Foundation in New York City, which funds research on evolution. Digestion, she says, was the energy-hog of our primate ancestor's body. The brain was the poor stepsister who got the leftovers. Until, that is, we discovered meat. "What we think is that this dietary change around 2.3 million years ago was one of the major significant factors in the evolution of our own species," Aiello says. Meat is packed with lots of calories and fat. Our brain — which uses about 20 times as much energy as the equivalent amount of muscle — piped up and said, "Please, sir, I want some more." As we got more, our guts shrank because we didn't need a giant vegetable processor any more. Our bodies could spend more energy on other things like building a bigger brain. Sorry, vegetarians, but eating meat apparently made our ancestors smarter — smart enough to make better tools, which in turn led to other changes, says Aiello...more

Song Of The Day #376

Today is Sweet Sharon's birthday, so Ranch Radio dedicates this song to her. The tune is Right On The Money by Alan Jackson.

Love you Darlin'.

USDA plans to require ID for interstate livestock

Federal officials looking to head off livestock disease outbreaks are drafting regulations that would require farmers to identify animals that move across state lines. The aim is to reduce illness and deaths by making it easier for officials to trace brucellosis, tuberculosis and other diseases to a particular group of animals, location and time. The regulations are being drafted six months after the U.S. Department of Agriculture dropped an unpopular voluntary program meant to trace livestock movement, and they are expected to be implemented in 2013. "A voluntary system has not worked so far, and that's why the USDA has gone back to the drawing board and created a system that relies much more strongly on compulsory or mandatory identification instead of voluntary," said Marty Zaluski, the Montana state veterinarian and a member of the USDA working group drafting the new rule. Last year, more than 19 million of the nation's 30 million beef cows and 9 million dairy cows crossed state lines. Data from 2006 and 2007 show that only 28% of the nation's adult cattle had any form of official identification that would allow them to be tracked, said David Morris of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. States will have authority to decide how to track livestock moving within their own borders, but they will be accountable to the federal government for the system they choose...more

Nothing voluntary ever satisfies a government agency. It takes too much work. They prefer to just point to a rule and say do this or don't do that. Much easier.