Deficit Hawks Threaten Ethanol's Future

Jim Sensenbrenner pays extra to cruise his pontoon boat across Pine Lake in southern Wisconsin. He's willing to hand over 30¢ more per gallon for gasoline free of ethanol, which he calls "a lousy fuel" that corrodes his two-stroke outboard engine. One boater's opinion might not matter, except that Sensenbrenner happens to be the top Republican on the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. His ethanol aversion is a sign that the darling of alternative fuels is hitting a political wall. "People are worried about deficits, debt, and special-interest handouts," Sensenbrenner says. "Ethanol is all three." That sentiment is endangering the $27 billion industry that has grown up since federal support began under President Jimmy Carter amid the 1970s energy crisis. Today the U.S. offers a 45¢ per gallon tax credit to refiners that blend ethanol with gasoline. The government also requires gasoline makers to use a steadily increasing amount of the additive, and it imposes an import tariff to deter foreign competition...more

NY Times supports ban on antibiotics for livestock

Most of the antibiotics sold in the United States — 70 percent — go to the animals we eat, especially pigs and chickens. To speed up growth and to prevent the spread of disease in crowded conditions, growers put small amounts of antibiotics into animals’ daily feed. The result is nearly the same as if we were eating the antibiotics ourselves: an increase in antibiotic resistance in humans and the emergence of drug-resistant microbes. In a July letter to Congress, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that there is “a clear link between antibiotic use in animals and antibiotic resistance in humans.” Despite that warning, the regulatory agencies have been too slow and timid in their response. After more than a year of review, the Food and Drug Administration is preparing to issue an extremely modest set of guidelines, which merely recommend that agricultural producers use antibiotics only under veterinary supervision and only in cases of illness and emergency. We far prefer the approach taken by Representative Louise Slaughter, a Democrat of New York, who submitted a bill last year that would make those recommendations mandatory, while gradually phasing out the agricultural use of medically important antibiotics...more

Where's the Beef? Not in Argentina as Drought Drives Away Brazil's JBS

Argentines have lost their title as the world’s biggest beef eaters after the worst drought in 70 years and government export limits led ranchers to reduce the number of cattle on the Pampas. Consumption is slumping to 57.3 kilos (126 pounds) a year, the lowest since 1958 and below neighboring Uruguay, where each person consumes as much as 60 kilos annually, according to beef industry associations in the two countries. The decline in cattle numbers will “be even worse next year” because fewer calves were born during the two-year drought that ended in 2009, said Ricardo Buryaile, a rancher and congressman who heads the Agriculture and Livestock Committee in the Lower House. The reduced herd caused shipments from what was once the world’s biggest beef exporter to plunge about 50 percent this year, allowing Uruguay to pass it as a global supplier. The contraction is hurting meatpacker profits, leading Brazil’s JBS SA, the world’s biggest producer of the red meat, to consider selling plants in Argentina...more

Glacier National Park ranger refines poaching skills and eludes capture

Glacier National Park's Belly River is colorful country, so it is fitting that it was home to Joe Cosley, who made his fame not only as the park's first Belly River ranger but also as one of its most sought-after outlaws for poaching. Cosley, a Metis born of a French father and Algonquin mother in Canada, was in Montana by the age of 18. He built the first ranger station in the Belly in 1908 or 1909, and when the area was included in the new Glacier Park in 1910, he became its first park ranger. As a Forest Service ranger, he had been allowed to supplement his meager salary by hunting and trapping. But as a park ranger, he was strictly prohibited from doing so. Cosley openly defied the new rules, hauling his furs into Canada for sale. In 1911, he was fired for trapping at Upper Lake McDonald, but he returned to the Belly country and kept at it. But when, in 1914, Cosley was told he would be killed if caught again, he left and joined the Canadian army, where he distinguished himself in World War I. In 1919, Cosley returned to the Belly, resumed his poaching career and became famous for eluding park rangers. When Cosley was finally caught, convicted and sentenced, friends bailed him out. Cosley set off from West Glacier on snowshoes for a record return to the Belly River and his cache of furs. He beat the pursuit and returned to Canada to sell the furs. Cosley continued to trap and explore in Canada until he died in 1943...more

Judge reverses cowboy boot ban

A Lakeway municipal judge said he's reversed a ban on cowboy boots in the courtroom after an American-Statesman report on Saturday said an Austin lawyer was considering challenging the ban. "Since there has never been a problem with boots (or spurs) in my courtroom, I have reversed the cowboy boot ban, effective Saturday, September 18," Judge Kevin Madison wrote in an e-mail. "Attorneys, witnesses, and court litigants in the Great State of Texas can now breathe a sigh of relief. "I guess the adage 'Don't Mess with Texas' should be changed to 'Don't Mess with Texans' Cowboy Boots!' " Madison was referring to an outcry over the ban from lawyers across the state and from dozens of people who submitted online comments to the story as well as to a American-Statesman column Sunday on the matter. "Oh my goodness, you would have thought I was renaming the state ... New Jersey or something," Madison said Sunday in an interview. "You should have seen the stuff: 'Tar and feather him. Run him out on the rails.' " Lawyer George Lobb, who said he often wears dress cowboy boots — a common sartorial choice among Texas lawyers — and is scheduled to appear in a Lakeway court this week, had called the ban "absurd" and was considering challenging it...more

They need to give this judge the boot.

Song Of The Day #413

Ranch Radio brings you two more tunes from the 1964 charts: B.J. The DJ by Stonewall Jackson and The Cowboy In The Continental Suit by Marty Robbins.

Krentz Widow Speaks Out

"Well it's just been, "Groundhog Day." Every morning you've got to get up and relive it," said Sue Krentz. She clutched a tissue as she talked about her husband, rancher Rob Krentz. Sue could hardly say his name without breaking down. "Rob and I, we grew up together. We've just kind of always been together," she explained. But now Sue is facing life apart -- life without her rock, her husband, life without her best friend. "The emptiness, because Rob and I were such, maybe call us soul mates," she said. The soul mates were separated by a single act Sue said she'll never understand. "So, you know, I just don't know what happened," she said. She was in Phoenix helping her parents when she got the call from Rob's brother. "He said he couldn't find Rob and he'd been missing since about ten o'clock that morning," Sue said. By the time she got back to the home they'd shared for more than three decades, it was too late. Rob Krentz was killed on his own property, gunned down by suspected illegal immigrants. Sue has kept to herself for the past six months. "We still had to ship cattle. We had to get up and still pay the bills. You have to get up and just try to muddle through it," she said. She chose to grieve with her family and find a way to move forward before inviting cameras to see what life is like now. CBS 5 News was invited to walk the Krentz property. Our crew couldn't help but feel the void, the hole Rob's death carved here...more

I've written about human and drug traffickers, wilderness and wildlife areas, Border Patrol deployments and so on. But when you stop to consider the human suffering and loss involved here, all that is diminished and fades away.

God bless Sue Krentz and her family and all their future endeavors.

Environmentalists back on defense

Environmentalists are bracing for a fight that would have seemed preposterous after the 2008 elections: a move to limit the government’s ability to curb greenhouses gases and global warming. Even the proposal’s sponsor — a Democrat — cuts against the story line that predicted the Democratic takeover of Washington would finally lead to action on climate change. But the push by West Virginia Sen. John Rockefeller to restrict the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to force reductions in carbon dioxide emissions illustrates how dramatically the environmental community’s fortunes have fallen despite the rise of allies in the White House and Congress. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has promised Rockefeller a fall floor vote on his plan to block EPA’s climate rules for two years. Green groups are monitoring that effort — and similar ones by Senate Republicans like Kit Bond of Missouri — in a constant struggle to stay one step ahead of agency opponents. Just last week, environmentalists and the Obama administration dodged a bullet when the Senate Appropriations Committee canceled a markup of EPA’s spending bill, in which agency foes could have the votes to cut off climate funds for at least one year...more

Unfreezing Arctic Assets

Imagine the Arctic in 2050 as a frigid version of Nevada—an empty landscape dotted with gleaming boom towns. Gas pipelines fan across the tundra, fueling fast-growing cities to the south like Calgary and Moscow, the coveted destinations for millions of global immigrants. It's a busy web for global commerce, as the world's ships advance each summer as the seasonal sea ice retreats, or even briefly disappears. Much of the planet's northern quarter of latitude, including the Arctic, is poised to undergo tremendous transformation over the next century. As a booming population increases the demand for the Earth's natural resources, and as lands closer to the equator face the prospect of rising water demand, droughts and other likely changes, the prominence of northern countries will rise along with their projected milder winters. Today, scientists studying oil and gas potential—and how shrinking summer sea ice might make it easier to access offshore deposits—are convincing governments and investors that the region has rising strategic value. Private companies have snapped up Canada's northernmost railroad and port of Churchill, bought $2.8 billion in Arctic offshore energy leases, and begun developing specialized tanker ships and platforms for offshore drilling in icy environments. This year, Russia and Norway resolved a four-decade-long boundary dispute in the Arctic Ocean, which could pave the way to more offshore development. Canada, Norway and Russia are bolstering their militaries with ice-strengthened patrol ships, frigates, attack submarines and fighter jets...more

Hillary Clinton: $50 Million - Wants Global Standards For Cookstoves

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves Tuesday at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. The goals of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves are multi-tiered. “First, a major applied research and development effort to improve design, lower costs and develop global industry standards for cookstoves”, Clinton said. “Second, a broad-based campaign to create a commercial market for clean stoves, including reducing trade barriers, promoting consumer awareness and boosting access to large scale carbon financing.” The U.S. is to fund $50 million over five years to provide clean cooking stoves to developing countries. Clinton says it’s in order to reduce deaths from smoke inhalation and fight climate change...more

Feds visit Lathrop to see eco-friendly farming

Two high-ranking officials in the Obama administration climbed aboard a tractor Tuesday to hear about gentle treatment of the land. Vegetable grower Dino Del Carlo played host to Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and Bob Perciasepe, deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Del Carlo told them about conservation tillage, which involves sowing seeds through the previous crop's stubble and reducing the number of times a tractor runs through a field each season. They talked in a tomato field that had been harvested Sunday and was being prepared for another crop. It was a breezy afternoon in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. "Even though there is dust that you can see, it is much less than it used to be," said Perciasepe, who is second in command to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. He and Merrigan, who works for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, had a lofty view from the cab of a John Deere 9530T, which did not move while they were on board...more

So why didn't the tractor move?

Was the weight too much?

Did the farmer not want to waste one drop of diesel on these dolts from DC?

Was the farmer told not to start or move the tractor while these two reps of the Obama Fedzilla were aboard?

Why go out in a field, climb aboard a tractor...and just sit there?

A Perk of Our Evolution: Pleasure in Pain of Chilies

Late summer is chili harvest time, when the entire state of New Mexico savors the perfume of roasting chilies, and across the country the delightful, painful fruit of plants of the genus Capsicum are being turned into salsa, hot sauce and grizzly bear repellent. Festivals abound, often featuring chili pepper-eating contests. “It’s fun,” as one chili pepper expert wrote, “sorta like a night out to watch someone being burned at the stake.” Some experts argue that we like chilies because they are good for us. They can help lower blood pressure, may have some antimicrobial effects, and they increase salivation, which is good if you eat a boring diet based on one bland staple crop like corn or rice. The pain of chilies can even kill other pain, a concept supported by recent research. How did this happen? The story of how chilies got their heat is pretty straightforward. A recent study suggested that capsaicin is an effective defense against a fungus that attacks chili seeds. In fact, experiments have shown that the same species of wild chili plant produces a lot of capsaicin in an environment where the fungus is likely to grow, and very little in drier areas where the fungus is not a danger...more

Desert town's dire puzzle

On a cool, crisp morning, Scott Kemp's battered white pickup truck was the only vehicle in sight along a long, narrow lane lined with desert daisies and curious cows on the eastern flanks of jagged, gray Mt. Whitney. The road streaked across the historic Lubken Ranch, a spread that Kemp and his three sisters inherited from their father, Sandy Kemp, after he died in 2004. Against a backdrop of rippling meadows and sagebrush rising up to the Sierra Nevada, the tall, lean cowboy shook his head and said, "It won't be easy leaving this ranch." The 759-acre spread, which has been in operation for more than a century, is for sale for $6.5 million, down from the original asking price of $20 million. The property has entertained inquiries from Google and the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, according to Beverly Hills real estate broker Crosby Doe, who likes to say "it would be like owning your own national park." ocals are wondering how development of the largest chunk of private property to be offered for sale in Inyo County in 50 years might affect this Eastern Sierra community of 2,200 people straddling California 395. Though Lone Pine is surrounded by open range, almost none is privately owned...more

Song Of The Day #412

Ranch Radio will continue it's look at 1964 with the #5 and #6 tunes of that year: Johnny Cash performing Understand Your Man and Roger Miller singing Dang Me.

FBI gave inaccurate statements on surveillance

The FBI gave inaccurate information to Congress and the public when it claimed a possible terrorism link to justify surveilling an anti-war rally in Pittsburgh, the Justice Department's inspector general said Monday in a report on the bureau's scrutiny of domestic activist groups. Inspector General Glenn Fine said the FBI had no reason to expect that anyone of interest in a terrorism investigation would be present at the 2002 event sponsored by the Thomas Merton Center, a nonviolent anti-war and anti-discrimination group. The surveillance was "an ill-conceived project on a slow work day," the IG stated in a study of several FBI domestic terrorism probes of people affiliated with organizations such as Greenpeace and the Catholic Worker. Earlier, in statements to Congress and in a press release, the FBI had described the Pittsburgh rally surveillance by one agent as related to a terrorism investigation. In a letter to the IG, FBI Deputy Director Timothy Murphy said the FBI regrets that inaccurate information was provided to the FBI director and Congress regarding the basis for the agent's presence at the rally. Speaking generally of the FBI probes it studied, the IG said a domestic terrorism classification has far-reaching impact because people who are subjects of such investigations are normally placed on watchlists and their travels and interactions with law enforcement may be tracked...more

Gun Ownership Rises to All-Time High, Violent Crime Falls to 35-Year Low

Coinciding with a surge in gun purchases that began shortly before the 2008 elections, violent crime decreased six percent between 2008 and 2009, including an eight percent decrease in murder and a nine percent decrease in robbery.1 Since 1991, when violent crime peaked, it has decreased 43 percent to a 35-year low. Murder has fallen 49 percent to a 45-year low.2 At the same time, the number of guns that Americans own has risen by about 90 million. Predictions by gun control supporters, that increasing the number of guns, particularly handguns and so-called “assault weapons,” would cause crime to increase, have been proven profoundly lacking in clairvoyance.4...more

Farmers fear dust rules won't reflect rural life

As they begin the fall harvest, wary farmers are watching a federal debate over whether to clamp down on one of rural life's constant companions — the dust clouds that farm machinery kick up in fields and along unpaved roads. Farming groups have urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to retain its current standards for dust, soot and other microscopic particles, arguing that tighter restrictions would be unworkable and that dust isn't a real pollutant. Grain farmer Charles Schmitt, who farms about 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans near the southwestern Indiana town of Haubstadt, called the possibility of tougher rules on dust "ridiculous." The 59-year-old, who's farmed for more than four decades, said there's little farmers can do to reduce dust, especially after a dry summer like this year's that left his fields parched. "Mother Nature has more to do with it than we do — there's going to be dust and dirt no matter what," Schmitt said. The EPA is reviewing its airborne pollutant standards, as required every five years under the Clean Air Act. It's looking both at its standards for tiny particles of industrial pollution, and slightly larger particles called "coarse particulate matter" that include dust...more

Bill would exempt Idaho wolves from protections

U.S. Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo say they plan to introduce a bill that aims to exempt wolves in Idaho from federal protections that were restored by a court order in August. Crapo spokesman Lindsay Nothern said the Idaho lawmakers, both Republicans, are still working on the legislation and are in communication with Montana's congressional delegation. "We have been looking at a lot of language and trying to figure out what has the best chance of gaining traction in Congress and getting the job done and addressing the situation here in Idaho," Nothern told the Lewiston Tribune. Idaho's senators hope to find a solution that will work for several different parties and a bill could be introduced as early as next week, Risch spokesman Brad Hoaglun said. "We are trying to see where the common ground is and if legislation can be crafted to meet the needs of a lot of different people," he said. "It's too soon to say if that can be done or not."...more

In Utah, conservation easements key to protecting prairie-dog populations

The government is offering private landowners money to protect southern Utah's prairie-dog populations. Five landowners already have applied for a program that buys conservation easements, leaving land undeveloped for the prairie dogs. Developers can buy so-called habitat credits to evict or work around prairie dogs on other lands. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a draft recovery plan for the Utah prairie dog last week. Officials say 80 percent of the colonies reside on private land, so a conservation program is critical to maintaining stable populations. "We believe that recovery of the species will be achieved more rapidly if we increase conservation of the species on these lands in a way that benefits private landowners and Utah prairie dogs simultaneously," said Laura Romin, assistant supervisor for a Fish and Wildlife Service field office in Utah. The recovery plan also seeks to protect prairie dogs on federal land...more

Government panel tackles salmon engineering issues

What if grocery stores could sell salmon that was less expensive, didn't deplete wild stocks of the fish and was cleaner for the environment than the farm-raised variety? Here's the catch: The salmon would be genetically engineered. A government-sponsored panel on Monday wrestled with some of the many questions surrounding genetically modified salmon, examining the still-evolving science before issuing a cautious assessment that moves the idea a small step toward American dinner tables. The panel of outside experts urged the Food and Drug Administration to require more studies to satisfy lingering questions about the safety of genetically engineered salmon, without offering a consensus view about whether or when the fish should come to market...more