New Mexico Surface Owner Bill Headed To House Floor!
From: NMCGA [mailto:nmcga@nmagriculture.org]
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 4:04 PM
Subject: Surface Owner Bill Headed To House Floor!
After literally years of work New Mexico's Surface Owner Protection Act, HB 827, is headed to House Floor. It could be on the floor as early as Wednesday, February 28, 2007.
The measure passed out of House Energy & Natural Resources Committee this morning with no objection after over an hour of discussion and debate.
The original bill is attached as well as the amendments that have been negotiated, agreed upon and adopted as the measure went through its' two (2) House committees. Because 827 is the result of negotiation, it clearly is not the bill that was initiated over two years ago. However, just as clearly it is the strongest surface owner protection law in the country.
There have been two issues, in particular, that have drawn a great deal of concern. Please rest assured that there have been no less than a half dozen lawyers participating in the negotiations every step of the way. We have also sought the advice of other attorneys. We are told that these areas are clearly and carefully addressed.
The first is potential erosion of the Sims vs.. Amoco case which prevents an oil and gas operator from jumping across private property from lease to lease. That private property right is protected in the second set of amendments [2} attached with the following language:
1. On page 2, lines 11 and 12, strike "oil and gas operations are to take place" and insert in lieu thereof "the operator has the legal right to conduct oil and gas operations".
The second area of concern is that this bill will impact the McNeill vs.. Burlington case, which was remanded back to district court by the New Mexico Court of Appeals last fall and has apparently recently been accepted by the New Mexico Supreme Court. The McNeill case, at least thus far, provides the ability for consideration of diminished land value. That issue is addressed by language in the amendment [2] which says:
On page 2, line 23, after "for" strike the remainder of the line and strike line 24 and insert in lieu thereof the following: "damages sustained by the surface owner, as applicable, for loss of agricultural production and income, lost land value, lost use of and lost access to the surface owner's land and lost value of improvements caused by oil and gas operations. The payments contemplated by this section only cover land affected by oil and gas operations.".
We are told that there will be an attempt at floor amendments initiated by a representative employed by the oil and gas industry that will attempt to weaken the Surface Owners Protection Act.
To get this bill passed and moved on to the Senate, we need calls to every member of the New Mexico House of Representatives. Every member can be reached by calling 505.986.4600 and asking for the individual representative by name. You can locate a list of all the representatives and their direct phone numbers at: http://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/ Go to the "find you legislator" on the upper left side of the page, then to 2007 Office Assignments & Numbers.
You might also want to call and thank Representative Andy Nunez for his support and perseverance in introducing this bill and staying in behind it for three years!
If you have comments or questions, please let us know.
Caren Cowan
Executive Director
New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association
505.247.0584 phone
505.842.1766 fax
www.nmagriculture.org website
nmcga@nmagriculture.org email
Monday, February 26, 2007
Al Gore’s Personal Energy Use Is His Own “Inconvenient Truth”
Gore’s home uses more than 20 times the national average
Last night, Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy.
Gore’s mansion, located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).
In his documentary, the former Vice President calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home.
The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.
Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.
Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.
Gore’s extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore’s mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.
“As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk to walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use,” said Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson.
In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006.
###
The Tennessee Center for Policy Research is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization committed to achieving a freer, more prosperous Tennessee through free market policy solutions.
Gore’s home uses more than 20 times the national average
Last night, Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy.
Gore’s mansion, located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).
In his documentary, the former Vice President calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home.
The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.
Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.
Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.
Gore’s extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore’s mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.
“As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk to walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use,” said Tennessee Center for Policy Research President Drew Johnson.
In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006.
###
The Tennessee Center for Policy Research is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization committed to achieving a freer, more prosperous Tennessee through free market policy solutions.
NEWS ROUNDUP
Gore Wins Hollywood in a Landslide For those of you tuning in the to Academy Awards tonight to see if Al Gore would, 1) win an Oscar for his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” and 2) use the platform of the awards ceremony to announce he was running for president -– well yes, the documentary won an Oscar. And no, of course Mr. Gore did not use this platform to announce his candidacy for the White House. Which is not to say his Hollywood audience wouldn’t have been delighted if he had. Mr. Gore received a tumultuous ovation both times he walked onto the stage, once with Leonardo DiCaprio to talk about global warming and later with the producers of the film to accept the award. “You are a true champion of the cause, Mr. Gore,” said Mr. DiCaprio. After Jerry Seinfeld opened the envelope and announced that “An Inconvenient Truth” had won, the director, Davis Guggenheim, handed the statue to Mr. Gore and said: ““All of us were inspired by his fight for 30 years to tell this truth for all of us.”....
Lawmakers Want To Stop Pinon Canyon Expansion Two state lawmakers want to try to stop the Army's proposed expansion of its Pinon Canyon training site by changing the state's eminent domain law. Sen. Ken Kester on Friday said the move is also an attempt to increase pressure on Colorado's U.S. senators to oppose the expansion while in Washington. Colorado law gives the federal government the right to condemn land for certain purposes, like building post offices or court houses. Sponsor Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, said their proposal (House Bill 1069) would bar federal authorities from taking land for use by the military. He said the Army could still buy land but wouldn't be able to use the power of eminent domain to buy from unwilling sellers. "It would just about force them to make an honest deal," said McKinley, a rancher. Kester acknowledged the Army may not have to follow a state law, and said he hopes Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar "turn up the heat" on the Army now that it's moving ahead with a study of the expansion. "It will impress on them how the people of that area feel," said Kester, who represents the five counties included in the possible expansion area....
House endorses livestock compensation board Montana moved one step closer Saturday to establishing a long-awaited board to compensate ranchers who lose livestock to wolves. In a 79-21 vote, the House gave preliminary approval to a bill that would create such a board, although its funding was slashed from $1 million to $50,000 by the House Appropriations Committee last week. "We'll take what we got, and we'll see what we can do with it," said bill sponsor Rep. Bruce Malcolm, R-Emigrant. Montana is required to establish a livestock compensation board under its wolf management plan, which was approved in 2004 by the federal government. Under the state program, ranchers would file claims with the seven-member Livestock Loss Reduction and Mitigation Board, appointed by the governor. Board members would decide whether to pay them the value of animals lost to confirmed or probable wolf kills, and ranchers could appeal board decisions....
American Trails Offers 10 Steps to Help Save Our Outdoors Have you ever thought about the future of trails and greenways in America? 10 steps have been compiled that envision a better quality of life, more livable cities, healthier and fitter adults and children and better stewardship of our land and resources. These 10 Steps to Help Save our Outdoors were brought forth at the opening plenary session of over 550 trail and greenway professionals and advocates at American Trails' 18th National Trails Symposium in the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois, October 20, 2006. The leading national Presidential hopefuls were also sent letters prior to the event and were asked to submit their ideas and several of them did. After a long and very eventful discussion, these 10 steps were compiled and have been forwarded to the Members of the 110th Congress, the White House, key agency heads and leaders of the trails community, and the national news media. American Trails is the only national nonprofit association of trail and greenway advocates and professionals who work on behalf of all trail interests. For over two decades, American Trails has served as a forum and a catalyst to improve the quality of life for all Americans by pursuing a national infrastructure of trails and greenways and in this effort has compiled the following 10 Steps to Help Save Our Outdoors....
Ex-Forest Service chief backs most of Clinton-era `roadless rule' Former U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth says he largely supports the amount of acreage targeted by a Clinton-era ban on road construction in national forests. Bosworth, who retired Feb. 2 after a six-year stint as the agency's head, said he thinks about 50 million acres should remain roadless. The 2001 "roadless rule" prohibits logging, mining and other development on 58.5 million acres of wilderness in 38 states and Puerto Rico. "I do believe most roadless areas should remain roadless," Bosworth told The Associated Press before being recognized Saturday night at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation's annual convention in Reno. "I believe that most wildlife would benefit from leaving most of those roadless areas roadless." In September, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte reinstated the 2001 rule, and sided with 20 environmental groups and four states - California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington - that had sued the Forest Service. Bosworth said he favored the approach of the Bush administration because it addressed the concerns of many rural residents who thought they were ignored before the 2001 rule was imposed....
Book Chronicles the Federal Government’s GIS Success Stories Standards for Success: GIS for Federal Progress and Accountability recounts how geographic information system (GIS) technology helps United States federal agencies streamline work and save money while tackling diverse projects such as monitoring volcanoes and managing forests. This latest book from ESRI Press presents more than a dozen case studies showing how GIS sped up the analysis process, made sharing information easier, and presented a clearer picture of problems and options to solve them. Standards for Success details how agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) successfully use GIS in aspects of their work that require geospatial analysis. For example, the Geological Survey's Volcano Hazards Program adopted GIS, in part, to produce maps that show and analyze potentially dangerous volcanoes and hazardous areas such as Mount St. Helen's in Washington. The Forest Service employs GIS to help manage forests on private land. The EPA uses a Web-based GIS tool to map contaminant risks in water supplies. ESRI Government Solutions manager Christopher Thomas edited the book, which is filled with examples of how government organizations turn to GIS for creative solutions to often pressing concerns....
Deaths happened in off-limits area The three snowmobilers caught in an avalanche in the Helena National Forest over the weekend were sledding in an area that is off-limits to motorized travel, forest officials said. Saturday's avalanche killed Brett Toney, 27 and Kris Rains, 26, both of Townsend, and injured Jason Crawford, 27, of Helena. Forest spokeswoman Amy Teegarden said the men were snowmobiling in Birch Creek Basin northwest of Townsend, an area with steep slopes that is closed to motorized travel. The men were driving across a slope and triggered the slab avalanche that roared down on top of them about 12:45 p.m. Saturday. "It's a proposed wilderness area, which is why it's nonmotorized," Teegarden said. She said she was unsure if there would be any citations issued....
Lease sales could exceed 4 billion tons The Bureau of Land Management expects to sell almost 4.4 billion tons of coal under more than 35,000 acres in northeast Wyoming to mining companies over the next five years, an agency official said. In order to meet that level of transactions in the time period, the agency plans to bundle the new land tracts into groups to be analyzed for their environmental impacts on surrounding areas. Mike Karbs, of the BLM's Casper Field Office, said he hopes combining clusters of coal leases into "South Gillette" and "Wright Area" study groups will expedite the process. He was unsure when the environmental studies would be finished but expected preliminary work to be under way by the fall....
Initiative aims to protect wildlife and heritage of energy areas All too often, project proposals to enhance wildlife habitat are slow to fruition because of bureaucratic red-tape and other paper impediments. A new, ambitious initiative to restore and protect wildlife habitat in southwest Wyoming aims to get those projects on the ground a lot faster. The recently-unveiled Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative will rely on the expertise of a host of participating state and federal agencies to ensure the most-needed habitat conservation and enhancement projects achieve tangible, on-the-ground results, officials involved in the effort said. The initiative partners envision those projects could include riparian work, prescribed fire treatments, wildlife friendly fencing, weed control, mechanical treatments such as chaining, raptor nest construction, and the purchase of conservation easements, among others. Wyoming is the main focus of the Bush administration's proposed $22 million Healthy Lands Initiative which aims to conserve wildlife resources and to facilitate responsible energy development across eight Western states....
Bureau proposes phased plan for coal-bed methane Coal-bed methane development on federal holdings in Montana would proceed with closer scrutiny of environmental effects and stepped-up monitoring under a proposal by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The proposal calls for a phased approach to development but does not set hard limits on the number of wells that could be drilled over an estimated 23 years. The BLM has scheduled a series of public hearings on the proposal during the last week of March. The deadline for submitting comments is May 2. The report is a draft supplement to the 2003 Montana statewide oil and gas environmental impact statement prepared jointly by the BLM and the state of Montana. Matt Janowiak, the BLM’s assistant field manager for minerals in the Miles City Field Office, said the supplement updates the 2003 study and includes new material on phased development. A federal magistrate ordered the BLM in April 2005 to study phased development, after finding the statewide study was invalid because it failed to include such an alternative. Drilling on federal minerals has been on hold while the BLM complies with the court order. The preferred alternative, Janowiak said, “makes some very extensive commitments” for monitoring and observing development effects in the region. “We’re going to be watching every step of the way and make adjustments,” he said....
BLM may hear Utah, Wyo.’s views on oil shale regulations A Bureau of Land Management document and regulations that will govern the commercial production of oil shale and tar sands in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming are nearing completion, but the draft regulations may not be released without Utah and Wyoming officials first having a say about what they think the new regulations should cover. Following the mandate of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the BLM is in the midst of creating an environmental impact statement on its oil shale and tar sands leasing program and writing regulations for how the program will be administered. The environmental impact statement will evaluate the impacts of the BLM’s fledgling tar sands and oil shale program throughout the three states and amend the BLM’s management plans for each area to allow for commercial oil shale and tar sands leasing. The agency’s proposed regulations, which will likely be released in draft form sometime after the draft environmental impact statement later this year, will address a variety of issues, including mineral royalties, said BLM Colorado Solid Minerals Chief Jim Edwards....
Feds deny increased protection for embattled Utah prairie dog The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week ruled that the embattled Utah prairie dog does not currently qualify for maximum protection under the Endangered Species Act. The federal agency on Wednesday published a negative finding on a petition to upgrade the species from "threatened" to "endangered" under the ESA. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say the Utah prairie dog's numbers remain stable and "within range of historic fluctuations," and that factors identified by the petitioners amounted to "small, localized impacts" on specific Utah prairie dog populations. “Since the Utah prairie dog is currently listed as a threatened species, it is protected under the Endangered Species Act and benefits from conservation measures and recovery actions afforded by federal protection,” said Mitch King, the Service's Acting Director of the Mountain-Prairie Region. “The Service will continue to monitor the population status, trends and management actions important to the conservation of the Utah prairie dog and we encourage interested parties to continue to gather data that will assist in these conservation efforts,” he added....
Interior secretary views area projects Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said the accomplishments by the Bureau of Land Management's Field office in Carlsbad will be held up as a role model for other agencies within his department and communities around the country. Kempthorne arrived in Carlsbad Wednesday night and on Friday visited sites south of Carlsbad to view the local BLM office's restoration and reclamation projects. He said although his department is rolling out the Health Lands Initiative that will allow the BLM in New Mexico to increase the acreage and accelerate the pace of restoration and conservation projects, BLM in Carlsbad is ahead of the game, not only in terms of its landscape level approach, but also in fostering partnerships with the oil and gas industry and agriculture industry, which once were bitter enemies of the BLM....
Melting snow lairs put seal pups in peril Polar bears get fat eating ringed seals, and to avoid that fate, Alaska's smallest pinnipeds dig out snow caves on the sea ice, where they surface to breathe and give birth. Global warming is making that more difficult. Snow is melting sooner on Arctic sea ice, moving up the time when snow lairs dug by ringed seals collapse. For nursing mothers, that means their helpless pups can be left vulnerable to polar bears and foxes, their usual enemies. A collapsed lair leaves pups susceptible to freezing. It even makes them vulnerable to avian predators such as ravens and gulls, which kill by pecking out the pups' eyes and brains. "We're seeing snow melts happening when many of the pups are still dependent on those caves," said Brendan Kelly, a seal and walrus researcher for more than 30 years....
U.S.-Canada ‘salmon war’ treaty to expire Not since the Pig War of 1859 had tensions run as high along the U.S.-Canada border. In 1994, the Canadian government announced a $1,500 fee on U.S. fishing boats headed to Alaska through British Columbia’s “inside passage.” In the United States, there was talk of assessing an oil pollution levy on Canadian tankers transiting the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Three years later, some 200 Canadian fishing vessels blockaded the Alaskan ferry Malaspina as it tried to leave the harbor at Prince Rupert. Some Canadians were also threatening to cancel the U.S. Navy’s lease of a torpedo test range off Vancouver Island. The fight a decade ago was over fish – Pacific salmon – and in the end a treaty was negotiated that defused the hostilities and ended talk of a salmon war. But that treaty expires at the end of next year. The situation is not as volatile as it was in the 1990s – or in 1859, when the United States and Canada almost came to blows over who owned the San Juan Islands and the only casualty was a pig. But a new treaty could be key to the effort to revive endangered wild salmon stocks on both sides of the border, particularly Puget Sound and Columbia River chinook runs....
Wolf management bill clears committee Attorney General Pat Crank says the latest incarnation of a wolf management bill would send a message to the federal government: "Put up or shut up." Unlike a similar bill that died in a House committee on Wednesday, House Bill 213 cleared the Senate on its first reading on Friday, opening a way for the plan to be considered on the Senate floor in detail on Monday. The bill would provide a way for Wyoming to kill more wolves before they are removed from endangered species protection. But first, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would have to accept the state's terms....
Costly storms THIS WINTER’S twin blizzards are visiting serious economic damages on Southeastern Colorado’s cattle industry. Cattle sales are dwindling because ranchers are having difficulty getting to area sale barns and the cattle are stressed by the snow and subfreezing temperatures. The storms, which made the region a disaster area, hit over the Christmas and New Year’s weekends. John Campbell, an auctioneer at La Junta’s Winter Livestock, paints a bleak picture for cattlemen. “Last year we sold about 24,000 cattle, and this year in January we have sold only 9,000,” he said. Some ranchers haven’t even been able to get to market. “At first,” Mr. Campbell said, “ranchers just couldn’t get out of deep snow, and now that it’s melting they are having trouble getting out of the mud. It has really prohibited people from marketing cattle on a timely basis.” He added, “The cattle are still out there but it has just been a rough go through the normal channels as far as marketing goes.” In addition to the travel woes facing area ranchers, there are fewer head of cattle to sell. While the bovine death toll may take months to total, officials are estimating the loss of about 10,000....
Chapter officials hopeful for local sheep processing plant Cecelia Whitetail Eagle remembers when the Ramah Navajo used to raise over 5,000 head of sheep a year. But after years of drought, the Navajo Nation's forced herd reductions, and a market for lamb that's driven prices as low as 75 cents a pound, the local sheep population has fallen dramatically. When local ranchers take their sheep to auction this October, Eagle, the Ramah Chapter's executive director, figures they'll have fewer than 200 head to sell off. "The numbers have just fallen tremendously," she said. But with some help from the City of Gallup, the State of New Mexico, and a meat processing company out of Moriarty, the chapter hopes to bring the herds of yore back. Western Way Custom Meats wants to open a second plant in Gallup. City officials say it could be up and running within six months....
Ranchers hoping to preserve purity of Texas longhorns Hondo rancher Debbie Davis has no beef with those who want to see their Texas longhorns, well, beefier. Her passion, though, lies with preserving the traditional longhorn breed that survived on little grass and water as it roamed Texas and other parts of the West in the mid-19th century. Davis is president of the Cattlemen's Texas Longhorn Registry. In her view, "a true Texas longhorn is endangered right now." So she's striving to keep the bloodline of the traditional longhorn as pure as possible. The longhorn isn't on any endangered lists. But visit any livestock show and all the competition is between longhorns that have far more heft and girth than the traditional gaunt, rangy animal....
Ostriches give riders unpredictable ride at Date Fest The audience would be hard pressed to find an ostriches with their heads in the sand at the Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival. What they do see are a flock of long, strong-legged lovelies with their beaks held high, strutting, no, preening as they shake their plumes before heading to the stage. Actually, it's a mud track in the grandstand arena at the fairgrounds. When a distinguished looking rancher in a vest and white hat, serving as the emcee, announced their names over the loudspeaker, the tall, stately birds came forward with their handlers to rousing applause. These big birds aren't just for show, however. They're here to compete in a decades-old Riverside County Fair tradition - ostrich racing. After their intros, the ostriches took their positions at the starting gate, where awaiting jockeys in striped shirts, jeans and red berets, hauled themselves aboard for a wild ride....
On The Edge of Common Sense - Jack and his dog bed As Phoenix rose from the ashes, so Jack, the bull terrier, was the symbol of hope that rose from the cook shack conflagration. Jack was past his prime, though hard of hearing and losing his sight, he still continued to make the winter trip to Walker's camp in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. In spite of the cold he slept outside near the cooking fire in his own dog bed. The night the camp caught on fire it was harrowing. Most of the supplies were lost, plus rifles, saddles, tack and years worth of personal treasures. The next morning the fire had burned itself out. In the deep ashes lay the metal skeletons of tools, utensils, firearms and hardware. Jack had survived. Walker spent most of the morning gathering salvageables and sifting memories. He loaded the horses in the trailer, Jack in the bed of the pickup and slid and slipped down the muddy track to Highway 50. He got out to check his load and saw that Jack had abandoned ship!....
Gore Wins Hollywood in a Landslide For those of you tuning in the to Academy Awards tonight to see if Al Gore would, 1) win an Oscar for his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” and 2) use the platform of the awards ceremony to announce he was running for president -– well yes, the documentary won an Oscar. And no, of course Mr. Gore did not use this platform to announce his candidacy for the White House. Which is not to say his Hollywood audience wouldn’t have been delighted if he had. Mr. Gore received a tumultuous ovation both times he walked onto the stage, once with Leonardo DiCaprio to talk about global warming and later with the producers of the film to accept the award. “You are a true champion of the cause, Mr. Gore,” said Mr. DiCaprio. After Jerry Seinfeld opened the envelope and announced that “An Inconvenient Truth” had won, the director, Davis Guggenheim, handed the statue to Mr. Gore and said: ““All of us were inspired by his fight for 30 years to tell this truth for all of us.”....
Lawmakers Want To Stop Pinon Canyon Expansion Two state lawmakers want to try to stop the Army's proposed expansion of its Pinon Canyon training site by changing the state's eminent domain law. Sen. Ken Kester on Friday said the move is also an attempt to increase pressure on Colorado's U.S. senators to oppose the expansion while in Washington. Colorado law gives the federal government the right to condemn land for certain purposes, like building post offices or court houses. Sponsor Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, said their proposal (House Bill 1069) would bar federal authorities from taking land for use by the military. He said the Army could still buy land but wouldn't be able to use the power of eminent domain to buy from unwilling sellers. "It would just about force them to make an honest deal," said McKinley, a rancher. Kester acknowledged the Army may not have to follow a state law, and said he hopes Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar "turn up the heat" on the Army now that it's moving ahead with a study of the expansion. "It will impress on them how the people of that area feel," said Kester, who represents the five counties included in the possible expansion area....
House endorses livestock compensation board Montana moved one step closer Saturday to establishing a long-awaited board to compensate ranchers who lose livestock to wolves. In a 79-21 vote, the House gave preliminary approval to a bill that would create such a board, although its funding was slashed from $1 million to $50,000 by the House Appropriations Committee last week. "We'll take what we got, and we'll see what we can do with it," said bill sponsor Rep. Bruce Malcolm, R-Emigrant. Montana is required to establish a livestock compensation board under its wolf management plan, which was approved in 2004 by the federal government. Under the state program, ranchers would file claims with the seven-member Livestock Loss Reduction and Mitigation Board, appointed by the governor. Board members would decide whether to pay them the value of animals lost to confirmed or probable wolf kills, and ranchers could appeal board decisions....
American Trails Offers 10 Steps to Help Save Our Outdoors Have you ever thought about the future of trails and greenways in America? 10 steps have been compiled that envision a better quality of life, more livable cities, healthier and fitter adults and children and better stewardship of our land and resources. These 10 Steps to Help Save our Outdoors were brought forth at the opening plenary session of over 550 trail and greenway professionals and advocates at American Trails' 18th National Trails Symposium in the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois, October 20, 2006. The leading national Presidential hopefuls were also sent letters prior to the event and were asked to submit their ideas and several of them did. After a long and very eventful discussion, these 10 steps were compiled and have been forwarded to the Members of the 110th Congress, the White House, key agency heads and leaders of the trails community, and the national news media. American Trails is the only national nonprofit association of trail and greenway advocates and professionals who work on behalf of all trail interests. For over two decades, American Trails has served as a forum and a catalyst to improve the quality of life for all Americans by pursuing a national infrastructure of trails and greenways and in this effort has compiled the following 10 Steps to Help Save Our Outdoors....
Ex-Forest Service chief backs most of Clinton-era `roadless rule' Former U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth says he largely supports the amount of acreage targeted by a Clinton-era ban on road construction in national forests. Bosworth, who retired Feb. 2 after a six-year stint as the agency's head, said he thinks about 50 million acres should remain roadless. The 2001 "roadless rule" prohibits logging, mining and other development on 58.5 million acres of wilderness in 38 states and Puerto Rico. "I do believe most roadless areas should remain roadless," Bosworth told The Associated Press before being recognized Saturday night at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation's annual convention in Reno. "I believe that most wildlife would benefit from leaving most of those roadless areas roadless." In September, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte reinstated the 2001 rule, and sided with 20 environmental groups and four states - California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington - that had sued the Forest Service. Bosworth said he favored the approach of the Bush administration because it addressed the concerns of many rural residents who thought they were ignored before the 2001 rule was imposed....
Book Chronicles the Federal Government’s GIS Success Stories Standards for Success: GIS for Federal Progress and Accountability recounts how geographic information system (GIS) technology helps United States federal agencies streamline work and save money while tackling diverse projects such as monitoring volcanoes and managing forests. This latest book from ESRI Press presents more than a dozen case studies showing how GIS sped up the analysis process, made sharing information easier, and presented a clearer picture of problems and options to solve them. Standards for Success details how agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) successfully use GIS in aspects of their work that require geospatial analysis. For example, the Geological Survey's Volcano Hazards Program adopted GIS, in part, to produce maps that show and analyze potentially dangerous volcanoes and hazardous areas such as Mount St. Helen's in Washington. The Forest Service employs GIS to help manage forests on private land. The EPA uses a Web-based GIS tool to map contaminant risks in water supplies. ESRI Government Solutions manager Christopher Thomas edited the book, which is filled with examples of how government organizations turn to GIS for creative solutions to often pressing concerns....
Deaths happened in off-limits area The three snowmobilers caught in an avalanche in the Helena National Forest over the weekend were sledding in an area that is off-limits to motorized travel, forest officials said. Saturday's avalanche killed Brett Toney, 27 and Kris Rains, 26, both of Townsend, and injured Jason Crawford, 27, of Helena. Forest spokeswoman Amy Teegarden said the men were snowmobiling in Birch Creek Basin northwest of Townsend, an area with steep slopes that is closed to motorized travel. The men were driving across a slope and triggered the slab avalanche that roared down on top of them about 12:45 p.m. Saturday. "It's a proposed wilderness area, which is why it's nonmotorized," Teegarden said. She said she was unsure if there would be any citations issued....
Lease sales could exceed 4 billion tons The Bureau of Land Management expects to sell almost 4.4 billion tons of coal under more than 35,000 acres in northeast Wyoming to mining companies over the next five years, an agency official said. In order to meet that level of transactions in the time period, the agency plans to bundle the new land tracts into groups to be analyzed for their environmental impacts on surrounding areas. Mike Karbs, of the BLM's Casper Field Office, said he hopes combining clusters of coal leases into "South Gillette" and "Wright Area" study groups will expedite the process. He was unsure when the environmental studies would be finished but expected preliminary work to be under way by the fall....
Initiative aims to protect wildlife and heritage of energy areas All too often, project proposals to enhance wildlife habitat are slow to fruition because of bureaucratic red-tape and other paper impediments. A new, ambitious initiative to restore and protect wildlife habitat in southwest Wyoming aims to get those projects on the ground a lot faster. The recently-unveiled Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative will rely on the expertise of a host of participating state and federal agencies to ensure the most-needed habitat conservation and enhancement projects achieve tangible, on-the-ground results, officials involved in the effort said. The initiative partners envision those projects could include riparian work, prescribed fire treatments, wildlife friendly fencing, weed control, mechanical treatments such as chaining, raptor nest construction, and the purchase of conservation easements, among others. Wyoming is the main focus of the Bush administration's proposed $22 million Healthy Lands Initiative which aims to conserve wildlife resources and to facilitate responsible energy development across eight Western states....
Bureau proposes phased plan for coal-bed methane Coal-bed methane development on federal holdings in Montana would proceed with closer scrutiny of environmental effects and stepped-up monitoring under a proposal by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The proposal calls for a phased approach to development but does not set hard limits on the number of wells that could be drilled over an estimated 23 years. The BLM has scheduled a series of public hearings on the proposal during the last week of March. The deadline for submitting comments is May 2. The report is a draft supplement to the 2003 Montana statewide oil and gas environmental impact statement prepared jointly by the BLM and the state of Montana. Matt Janowiak, the BLM’s assistant field manager for minerals in the Miles City Field Office, said the supplement updates the 2003 study and includes new material on phased development. A federal magistrate ordered the BLM in April 2005 to study phased development, after finding the statewide study was invalid because it failed to include such an alternative. Drilling on federal minerals has been on hold while the BLM complies with the court order. The preferred alternative, Janowiak said, “makes some very extensive commitments” for monitoring and observing development effects in the region. “We’re going to be watching every step of the way and make adjustments,” he said....
BLM may hear Utah, Wyo.’s views on oil shale regulations A Bureau of Land Management document and regulations that will govern the commercial production of oil shale and tar sands in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming are nearing completion, but the draft regulations may not be released without Utah and Wyoming officials first having a say about what they think the new regulations should cover. Following the mandate of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the BLM is in the midst of creating an environmental impact statement on its oil shale and tar sands leasing program and writing regulations for how the program will be administered. The environmental impact statement will evaluate the impacts of the BLM’s fledgling tar sands and oil shale program throughout the three states and amend the BLM’s management plans for each area to allow for commercial oil shale and tar sands leasing. The agency’s proposed regulations, which will likely be released in draft form sometime after the draft environmental impact statement later this year, will address a variety of issues, including mineral royalties, said BLM Colorado Solid Minerals Chief Jim Edwards....
Feds deny increased protection for embattled Utah prairie dog The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week ruled that the embattled Utah prairie dog does not currently qualify for maximum protection under the Endangered Species Act. The federal agency on Wednesday published a negative finding on a petition to upgrade the species from "threatened" to "endangered" under the ESA. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say the Utah prairie dog's numbers remain stable and "within range of historic fluctuations," and that factors identified by the petitioners amounted to "small, localized impacts" on specific Utah prairie dog populations. “Since the Utah prairie dog is currently listed as a threatened species, it is protected under the Endangered Species Act and benefits from conservation measures and recovery actions afforded by federal protection,” said Mitch King, the Service's Acting Director of the Mountain-Prairie Region. “The Service will continue to monitor the population status, trends and management actions important to the conservation of the Utah prairie dog and we encourage interested parties to continue to gather data that will assist in these conservation efforts,” he added....
Interior secretary views area projects Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said the accomplishments by the Bureau of Land Management's Field office in Carlsbad will be held up as a role model for other agencies within his department and communities around the country. Kempthorne arrived in Carlsbad Wednesday night and on Friday visited sites south of Carlsbad to view the local BLM office's restoration and reclamation projects. He said although his department is rolling out the Health Lands Initiative that will allow the BLM in New Mexico to increase the acreage and accelerate the pace of restoration and conservation projects, BLM in Carlsbad is ahead of the game, not only in terms of its landscape level approach, but also in fostering partnerships with the oil and gas industry and agriculture industry, which once were bitter enemies of the BLM....
Melting snow lairs put seal pups in peril Polar bears get fat eating ringed seals, and to avoid that fate, Alaska's smallest pinnipeds dig out snow caves on the sea ice, where they surface to breathe and give birth. Global warming is making that more difficult. Snow is melting sooner on Arctic sea ice, moving up the time when snow lairs dug by ringed seals collapse. For nursing mothers, that means their helpless pups can be left vulnerable to polar bears and foxes, their usual enemies. A collapsed lair leaves pups susceptible to freezing. It even makes them vulnerable to avian predators such as ravens and gulls, which kill by pecking out the pups' eyes and brains. "We're seeing snow melts happening when many of the pups are still dependent on those caves," said Brendan Kelly, a seal and walrus researcher for more than 30 years....
U.S.-Canada ‘salmon war’ treaty to expire Not since the Pig War of 1859 had tensions run as high along the U.S.-Canada border. In 1994, the Canadian government announced a $1,500 fee on U.S. fishing boats headed to Alaska through British Columbia’s “inside passage.” In the United States, there was talk of assessing an oil pollution levy on Canadian tankers transiting the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Three years later, some 200 Canadian fishing vessels blockaded the Alaskan ferry Malaspina as it tried to leave the harbor at Prince Rupert. Some Canadians were also threatening to cancel the U.S. Navy’s lease of a torpedo test range off Vancouver Island. The fight a decade ago was over fish – Pacific salmon – and in the end a treaty was negotiated that defused the hostilities and ended talk of a salmon war. But that treaty expires at the end of next year. The situation is not as volatile as it was in the 1990s – or in 1859, when the United States and Canada almost came to blows over who owned the San Juan Islands and the only casualty was a pig. But a new treaty could be key to the effort to revive endangered wild salmon stocks on both sides of the border, particularly Puget Sound and Columbia River chinook runs....
Wolf management bill clears committee Attorney General Pat Crank says the latest incarnation of a wolf management bill would send a message to the federal government: "Put up or shut up." Unlike a similar bill that died in a House committee on Wednesday, House Bill 213 cleared the Senate on its first reading on Friday, opening a way for the plan to be considered on the Senate floor in detail on Monday. The bill would provide a way for Wyoming to kill more wolves before they are removed from endangered species protection. But first, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would have to accept the state's terms....
Costly storms THIS WINTER’S twin blizzards are visiting serious economic damages on Southeastern Colorado’s cattle industry. Cattle sales are dwindling because ranchers are having difficulty getting to area sale barns and the cattle are stressed by the snow and subfreezing temperatures. The storms, which made the region a disaster area, hit over the Christmas and New Year’s weekends. John Campbell, an auctioneer at La Junta’s Winter Livestock, paints a bleak picture for cattlemen. “Last year we sold about 24,000 cattle, and this year in January we have sold only 9,000,” he said. Some ranchers haven’t even been able to get to market. “At first,” Mr. Campbell said, “ranchers just couldn’t get out of deep snow, and now that it’s melting they are having trouble getting out of the mud. It has really prohibited people from marketing cattle on a timely basis.” He added, “The cattle are still out there but it has just been a rough go through the normal channels as far as marketing goes.” In addition to the travel woes facing area ranchers, there are fewer head of cattle to sell. While the bovine death toll may take months to total, officials are estimating the loss of about 10,000....
Chapter officials hopeful for local sheep processing plant Cecelia Whitetail Eagle remembers when the Ramah Navajo used to raise over 5,000 head of sheep a year. But after years of drought, the Navajo Nation's forced herd reductions, and a market for lamb that's driven prices as low as 75 cents a pound, the local sheep population has fallen dramatically. When local ranchers take their sheep to auction this October, Eagle, the Ramah Chapter's executive director, figures they'll have fewer than 200 head to sell off. "The numbers have just fallen tremendously," she said. But with some help from the City of Gallup, the State of New Mexico, and a meat processing company out of Moriarty, the chapter hopes to bring the herds of yore back. Western Way Custom Meats wants to open a second plant in Gallup. City officials say it could be up and running within six months....
Ranchers hoping to preserve purity of Texas longhorns Hondo rancher Debbie Davis has no beef with those who want to see their Texas longhorns, well, beefier. Her passion, though, lies with preserving the traditional longhorn breed that survived on little grass and water as it roamed Texas and other parts of the West in the mid-19th century. Davis is president of the Cattlemen's Texas Longhorn Registry. In her view, "a true Texas longhorn is endangered right now." So she's striving to keep the bloodline of the traditional longhorn as pure as possible. The longhorn isn't on any endangered lists. But visit any livestock show and all the competition is between longhorns that have far more heft and girth than the traditional gaunt, rangy animal....
Ostriches give riders unpredictable ride at Date Fest The audience would be hard pressed to find an ostriches with their heads in the sand at the Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival. What they do see are a flock of long, strong-legged lovelies with their beaks held high, strutting, no, preening as they shake their plumes before heading to the stage. Actually, it's a mud track in the grandstand arena at the fairgrounds. When a distinguished looking rancher in a vest and white hat, serving as the emcee, announced their names over the loudspeaker, the tall, stately birds came forward with their handlers to rousing applause. These big birds aren't just for show, however. They're here to compete in a decades-old Riverside County Fair tradition - ostrich racing. After their intros, the ostriches took their positions at the starting gate, where awaiting jockeys in striped shirts, jeans and red berets, hauled themselves aboard for a wild ride....
On The Edge of Common Sense - Jack and his dog bed As Phoenix rose from the ashes, so Jack, the bull terrier, was the symbol of hope that rose from the cook shack conflagration. Jack was past his prime, though hard of hearing and losing his sight, he still continued to make the winter trip to Walker's camp in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. In spite of the cold he slept outside near the cooking fire in his own dog bed. The night the camp caught on fire it was harrowing. Most of the supplies were lost, plus rifles, saddles, tack and years worth of personal treasures. The next morning the fire had burned itself out. In the deep ashes lay the metal skeletons of tools, utensils, firearms and hardware. Jack had survived. Walker spent most of the morning gathering salvageables and sifting memories. He loaded the horses in the trailer, Jack in the bed of the pickup and slid and slipped down the muddy track to Highway 50. He got out to check his load and saw that Jack had abandoned ship!....
Sunday, February 25, 2007
The Wall Street cowboy
By Julie Carter
Cowboys are philosophers. Even Gus and Woodrow of Lonesome Dove fame were known to "talk a little philosophy" from time to time.
Maybe it's the solitary work days and time they have to think things over. The more serious ones are planners. NASA can get a space shuttle launched with less planning than many ranchers put forth before a big spring branding.
When Rocky's dad called him home from the feedlot, the news was bad and good. The bad news floored Rocky. Dad had sold the ranch. The good news had the same effect - Rocky now had a pile of money.
Rocky understood almost all aspects of the cattle business, but that association didn't often leave him with many dollars to tend. He decided to talk with his good friend, Tex, who was also sometimes his roping partner, a top hand, good cattle manager, good money manager and an ace horse trader.
Tex took a deep seat on the porch and prepared to share his philosophy on money.
"You want to know what an asset manager is?" Tex began. "Remember when we were rodeoing and Wes always held our entry fees and gas money so we didn't spend it foolishly? Wes was our asset manager."
"What's a mutual fund?" continued Tex. "You remember when you, Wes, and I partnered on that bunch of colts? We each had a set to break then we were going to sell them all together. We knew that if one colt turned out to be an outlaw and we lost money on him, likely one of the others would be a little extra special and would sell for more than average and it would balance out the loss. That's a mutual fund."
Tex recalled that Wes again handled the money - dealing with the bank and brokering the sale of the colts. "That made him the fund manager," he said. "He got a little extra off the top for handling the paperwork."
"And a bond," explained Tex, "ain't nothing more than a loan. I could loan you some money, you would give me an I.O.U. that said you would pay me back at some certain time, plus interest. You would pay me a little bit along the way so I could keep up with my bills and then pay it all at the end of our deal."
Tex gave Rocky a run down of annuities, equities and a number of other financial terms and related it all back to horse trading. He and Rocky decided that Wall Street people must have, at some point, been horse traders, too, and just fancied up their vocabulary for the city folks.
After Rocky felt a little more comfortable about handling his newfound wealth, he and Tex settled back to ponder thoughts about why his dad had sold the ranch.
Although the ranch has always supplied a steady income, some years better than others, it more dependably supplied a steady supply of work.
With his newfound money-planning knowledge, Rocky could already see that the profit margins on some investments were going to far out-distance his former ranch income.
That realization somewhat soothed the sadness for the ever-changing landscape in the world of family ranching.
Besides, Rocky was pretty sure Wall Street could always use another horse trader - one with a direct look and the firm handshake of a cowboy.
© Julie Carter 2007
Is Environmentalism Hazardous To Your Health?
By Frank DuBois
Yes says John Berlau in his new book Eco-Freaks: Environmentalism Is Hazardous To Your Health.
I’m pleased Mr. Berlau’s publisher sent me this book to review. I thought I was pretty well up on the environmental issues we face, but Mr. Berlau has shown me there were many gaps in my self-proclaimed knowledge.
Take DDT for instance. I had no idea this stuff had been around since the 1870’s. Nor was I aware of the important role it had played in protecting our American troops in WWII from malaria and typhus.
In 1943 our troops had a established a beachhead at Salerno in Mussolini’s Italy, but our generals were warned of an outbreak of typhus in Naples. As Mr. Berlau writes:
The lowly typhus-spreading louse had stopped or delayed military advances in previous wars. And the generals know that a typhus epidemic had never been stopped in the dead of winter. Medical professionals had to wait until March or April for the lice to die out.
But the siege of Italy couldn’t wait, so Brig. Gen. Leon Fox set up an ambitious program to put to work America’s new secret agent of life: DDT. As the soldiers entered Naples, the army also brought gallons and gallons of DDT powder. They spray-dusted the streets, buildings, and even the people. Over one million citizens of Naples were dusted in January of 1944. In places like train stations, US troops sprayed DDT on the people of Naples from their shirt collars down to their shoes. Troops would also spray DDT on themselves in Naples and many other places. By mid-February the typhus epidemic was completely licked, saving not only our troops, but millions of Italian citizens as well. Gladwell writes that the Naples dusting ‘sav[ed] countless lives,’…
Mr. Berlau goes on to show how DDT rescued many holocaust survivors, saved habitat for the northern spotted owl and on balance increased the population of many birds.
Similar myth-busting facts and studies are presented in chapters on asbestos, the automobile, forest management, hurricane Katrina and our future under environmentalism.
Mr. Berlau has been a media fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and in 2002 was awarded the Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism by the National Press Club. This book is well-written and well-documented and should be read by all interested in environmental issues.
Now we just need someone with Mr. Berlau’s talent to educate the public on livestock grazing, wilderness, endangered species and clean air and water.
By Julie Carter
Cowboys are philosophers. Even Gus and Woodrow of Lonesome Dove fame were known to "talk a little philosophy" from time to time.
Maybe it's the solitary work days and time they have to think things over. The more serious ones are planners. NASA can get a space shuttle launched with less planning than many ranchers put forth before a big spring branding.
When Rocky's dad called him home from the feedlot, the news was bad and good. The bad news floored Rocky. Dad had sold the ranch. The good news had the same effect - Rocky now had a pile of money.
Rocky understood almost all aspects of the cattle business, but that association didn't often leave him with many dollars to tend. He decided to talk with his good friend, Tex, who was also sometimes his roping partner, a top hand, good cattle manager, good money manager and an ace horse trader.
Tex took a deep seat on the porch and prepared to share his philosophy on money.
"You want to know what an asset manager is?" Tex began. "Remember when we were rodeoing and Wes always held our entry fees and gas money so we didn't spend it foolishly? Wes was our asset manager."
"What's a mutual fund?" continued Tex. "You remember when you, Wes, and I partnered on that bunch of colts? We each had a set to break then we were going to sell them all together. We knew that if one colt turned out to be an outlaw and we lost money on him, likely one of the others would be a little extra special and would sell for more than average and it would balance out the loss. That's a mutual fund."
Tex recalled that Wes again handled the money - dealing with the bank and brokering the sale of the colts. "That made him the fund manager," he said. "He got a little extra off the top for handling the paperwork."
"And a bond," explained Tex, "ain't nothing more than a loan. I could loan you some money, you would give me an I.O.U. that said you would pay me back at some certain time, plus interest. You would pay me a little bit along the way so I could keep up with my bills and then pay it all at the end of our deal."
Tex gave Rocky a run down of annuities, equities and a number of other financial terms and related it all back to horse trading. He and Rocky decided that Wall Street people must have, at some point, been horse traders, too, and just fancied up their vocabulary for the city folks.
After Rocky felt a little more comfortable about handling his newfound wealth, he and Tex settled back to ponder thoughts about why his dad had sold the ranch.
Although the ranch has always supplied a steady income, some years better than others, it more dependably supplied a steady supply of work.
With his newfound money-planning knowledge, Rocky could already see that the profit margins on some investments were going to far out-distance his former ranch income.
That realization somewhat soothed the sadness for the ever-changing landscape in the world of family ranching.
Besides, Rocky was pretty sure Wall Street could always use another horse trader - one with a direct look and the firm handshake of a cowboy.
© Julie Carter 2007
Is Environmentalism Hazardous To Your Health?
By Frank DuBois
Yes says John Berlau in his new book Eco-Freaks: Environmentalism Is Hazardous To Your Health.
I’m pleased Mr. Berlau’s publisher sent me this book to review. I thought I was pretty well up on the environmental issues we face, but Mr. Berlau has shown me there were many gaps in my self-proclaimed knowledge.
Take DDT for instance. I had no idea this stuff had been around since the 1870’s. Nor was I aware of the important role it had played in protecting our American troops in WWII from malaria and typhus.
In 1943 our troops had a established a beachhead at Salerno in Mussolini’s Italy, but our generals were warned of an outbreak of typhus in Naples. As Mr. Berlau writes:
The lowly typhus-spreading louse had stopped or delayed military advances in previous wars. And the generals know that a typhus epidemic had never been stopped in the dead of winter. Medical professionals had to wait until March or April for the lice to die out.
But the siege of Italy couldn’t wait, so Brig. Gen. Leon Fox set up an ambitious program to put to work America’s new secret agent of life: DDT. As the soldiers entered Naples, the army also brought gallons and gallons of DDT powder. They spray-dusted the streets, buildings, and even the people. Over one million citizens of Naples were dusted in January of 1944. In places like train stations, US troops sprayed DDT on the people of Naples from their shirt collars down to their shoes. Troops would also spray DDT on themselves in Naples and many other places. By mid-February the typhus epidemic was completely licked, saving not only our troops, but millions of Italian citizens as well. Gladwell writes that the Naples dusting ‘sav[ed] countless lives,’…
Mr. Berlau goes on to show how DDT rescued many holocaust survivors, saved habitat for the northern spotted owl and on balance increased the population of many birds.
Similar myth-busting facts and studies are presented in chapters on asbestos, the automobile, forest management, hurricane Katrina and our future under environmentalism.
Mr. Berlau has been a media fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and in 2002 was awarded the Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism by the National Press Club. This book is well-written and well-documented and should be read by all interested in environmental issues.
Now we just need someone with Mr. Berlau’s talent to educate the public on livestock grazing, wilderness, endangered species and clean air and water.
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Private Property Rights Under Fire in Missouri
It's hard to top the Supreme Court's decision in Kelo v. New London, which enabled government officials to seize homes and businesses and transfer the land to private developers who stood to profit by them. But Missouri has managed to make things worse. A state law allows nonprofit organizations to take private land for their own private uses — without paying the owners a dime. And on Feb. 7 the Missouri Court of Appeals refused even to consider whether the law is constitutional. Passed in the 1990s, the little-known statute allows nonprofit organizations to ask judges to condemn property if it has been unoccupied for six months, if the taxes are delinquent and if the property is a "nuisance" that the nonprofit organization intends to "rehabilitate." The law also defines "nuisance" as including property that is "blighted" — a term so vague that Missouri officials can take aim at virtually any property they want. When Charles Lasby of Kansas City died in 2002, he owed back taxes on his home. Two years later, the House Rescue Corp., a nonprofit group that claims to fix up abandoned houses, petitioned the government to take the land. Since House Rescue didn't notify Lasby's heirs, they sold the property in May 2005. But that was five months after a court had allowed House Rescue to take the property — for free. When the mix-up was discovered, the court ordered Karl Thomas, who had bought the home and paid the back taxes, to stop fixing it. Thomas argued that the law allowing nonprofits to take land violated the state and federal constitutions, but the court ruled against him. He filed an appeal, but only 48 hours later the Court of Appeals rejected his plea without explanation....
Here Come the Mandatory Carbon Limits!
Living in a carbon constrained world looks inevitable. Congress will be voting on a number of proposals to set limits on the emission of greenhouse gases later this year. So industrialists see the policy handwriting on the wall and are now rushing to help shape the emerging greenhouse gas (GHG)emissions regulatory scheme. In January the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, consisting of 10 big companies including DuPont, Alcoa, General Electric and Duke Energy, issued a "blueprint for a mandatory economy-wide, market-driven approach to climate protection." Also in January, the Electric Power Supply Association, the lobby group that represents the competitive power suppliers that account for 40 percent of the generating capacity of the U.S., acknowledged that "regulatory and legislative processes are moving forward seriously and with speed." The EPSA declared it "supports enactment of comprehensive, mandatory federal legislation to require steps to minimize the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment." And last week, the broader electricity lobby group, the Edison Electric Institute, came out in favor of "federal action or legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that ...involves all sectors of the economy, and all sources of GHG." Even the environmental lobbyists' favorite climate change whipping boy, Exxon Mobil, seems to be coming around to the idea that the Feds should act to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Industry wants the Feds to establish a nation-wide and industry-wide cap-and-trade market in greenhouse gas emissions, especially a market for carbon dioxide emissions. The proposals all also call for substantial federal subsidies for research and development of new low- and no-carbon energy technologies. All acknowledge that there are no currently available "silver bullet" energy technologies to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Any reductions in GHG emissions will have to be accomplished with a mix of increased energy efficiency in buildings and appliances, expanded nuclear power generation, a switch to hybrid vehicles, more energy from renewable sources, and, here's the big one, some kind of cost-effective technology to bury carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels....
US Doing Better Than its Kyoto Critics on CO2, Expert Says
Contrary to the widely held view, the United States is not "going it alone" in resisting the Kyoto Protocol's "energy rationing scheme," according to an expert on global warming treaties. Washington's reticence is shared by policymakers in 150 other nations, representing a majority of the world's population, Christopher Horner, a senior fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) said Thursday. Moreover, the same European critics who accuse the U.S. of unilateralism have failed to meet their own Kyoto targets, Horner told a meeting at the Heritage Foundation. The 1997 Kyoto treaty requires signatory nations to set limits on the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other "greenhouse gases" blamed for climate change, by an average of five percent by 2012. The 15 European nations participating at the time - the so-called E.U.-15 - made a commitment to collectively reduce their emissions to the point where they would be eight percent lower than 1990 levels. Since the treaty went into effect, however, Europe's CO2 emissions have increased quite substantially - and at a rate three times faster than America's - Horner said. At the same time, Kyoto-related regulations have led to higher energy costs for E.U.-15 citizens....
Tilting at Wind Energy
Whenever anybody starts talking about how we can solve our energy problems and end oil imports, they always end up talking about windmills. Wind is indeed the fastest growing form of energy generation in the U.S., expanding at a brisk 25 percent a year. Installed capacity now stands at 11,500 megawatts (MW) -- the equivalent of ten or twelve standard nuclear or coal plants. Huge projects are popping up everywhere -- driven by tax incentives and state demands for "renewable energy portfolio." What's interesting is that these projects are now beginning to run into their own environmental opposition. It's not hard to see why. The standard 1.5 MW structure is now 40 stories, taller than the statue of liberty. The 3 MW towers waiting in the wings are as tall as New York's Citicorp Center, the third tallest building in Manhattan. In the Midwest these giant structures are being located on farms, where landowners can collect a few thousand dollars rent a year. On the East and West Coasts, however, the best place is on mountaintops since -- according to Bernoulli's Principle -- the wind always accelerates as it as it is funneled through a narrower space. That means mountaintops all along the Alleghenies, in upper New York State, and in Washington and Oregon are being decorated with little distant pinwheels that make the landscape look like a carnival...But the real question about windmills is whether they are producing any useful electricity at all. A modern electrical grid is a very delicately balanced high-wire act. Supply and demand must be kept in balance at all times. The National Electrical Reliability Council estimates that voltage levels can vary about 5 percent before trouble begins. Computer geeks talk about the "high 9's," meaning current must remain consistent within a range of 99.9999 percent to avoid erasing data. In Digital Power, Peter Huber and Mark Mills report, "Some years ago, a Stanford computer center found its power fatally polluted by an arc furnace over one hundred miles away." As the Industry Standard once put it: "Blips as brief as 1/60th of a second can zap computers and other electronic gear, and blackouts can be catastrophic." The problem with wind energy is that it is always fluctuating. The physics of windmills make it worse because output varies with the cube of the velocity. A 20 percent increase in wind speed will double output in a few minutes. Under these circumstances, large numbers of windmills are viewed by grid operators more as a liability than an asset....
Global Warming? Journalism? Don't Make Me Laugh!
At the heart of what is wrong with journalism today is that legions of journalists will stand shoulder to shoulder for the sole purpose of deriding any "global warming skeptic" rather than wonder for a second how the "news" of a coming Ice Age in the 1970s became the "news" of Global Warming in the 1980s. I am reminded of this daily as I read newspapers and news magazines in which various reporters blithely and deliberately inform the reader that all questions regarding the existence of global warming have been answered, that the science is beyond doubt, and that the cause is the production of greenhouse gases, largely from industry, transportation, and other human activities. This is not merely an error. It is a complete deception the journalists have joined. They have ceased to be skeptical. They want you to stop being skeptical despite all evidence to the contrary. "Global Warming, as we think we know it, doesn't exist," says Dr. Timothy Ball. He has Ph.D. in climatology, having earned his degree from the University of London, England, and taught for many years at the University of Winnipeg. A Google search of his name turns up a plethora of posts attacking him, always a sure sign that the Greens feel threatened by an outspoken scientist. The quote below explains why: "Believe it or not, Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This in fact is the greatest deception in the history of science." Dr. Ball is hardly alone in his views. Dr. Richard Lindzen, an atmospheric physicist and a professor of meteorology at MIT, as well as a member of the National Academy of Science, has said of Global Warming that, "the consensus was reached before the research had even begun."....
The REAL ID Act: Ill-Considered
When Congress passed the REAL ID Act, it had not had a hearing on that bill in either the House or the Senate. Bad process leads to bad results, and that is what you see in the REAL ID Act. In May 2005, Congress passed REAL ID by stripping out and replacing identification provisions in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act that had been passed just the December before, in response to the report of the 9/11 Commission. The law that the REAL ID Act replaced had established a negotiated rulemaking committee in which state motor vehicle administrators, privacy experts, and federal representatives were to negotiate about how to do drivers license security. The ill-considered REAL ID Act has created many problems:
* According to the National Conference of State Legislators, states across the country will have to spend 11 billion dollars in the first five years if they implement REAL ID. The costs to Utah alone apparently reach into the hundreds of millions.
* It may be very difficult, if not impossible, for many of your residents to get these federally standardized driver's licenses Utah complies with REAL ID. Everyone will have to return to the DMV and wait in long lines, perhaps to learn that they don't qualify for the new license.
* Then there are the costs to your citizens' privacy. Compliance with the REAL ID Act would require Utah to capture digital images of drivers and keep digital copies of documents like their birth certificates. It would require you to put our drivers' information in a database that is accessible nationwide. A corrupt official anywhere in the country might be able to access this personal information about Utah drivers and residents. This threatens your citizens with identity fraud because it will contain all the information criminals need to open bank accounts and credit card accounts in their names, and maybe worse.
This national ID system will not provide the protections against terrorism that the law's backers claim. Identity systems are subject to both physical and logical avoidance. Wrongdoers can either avoid controlled borders and checkpoints, or they can enter the country or obtain documents legally, as the 9/11 attackers, for the most part, did. Of course, terrorists do not only come from foreign countries, as we know well from the Oklahoma City bombing ten years ago. This national ID system might make it harder for illegal immigrants to access our society, but it will also drive many of them deeper into criminality. Identity fraud would increase as people in this country illegally obtained more extensive documentation in order to work. I don't think you solve the illegal immigration problem by putting a national ID in the hands of the law abiding, native-born citizen. Congress needs to fix immigration law, not compound the problem by turning its enforcement efforts toward surveillance of the law-abiding citizen worker....
Private Property Rights Under Fire in Missouri
It's hard to top the Supreme Court's decision in Kelo v. New London, which enabled government officials to seize homes and businesses and transfer the land to private developers who stood to profit by them. But Missouri has managed to make things worse. A state law allows nonprofit organizations to take private land for their own private uses — without paying the owners a dime. And on Feb. 7 the Missouri Court of Appeals refused even to consider whether the law is constitutional. Passed in the 1990s, the little-known statute allows nonprofit organizations to ask judges to condemn property if it has been unoccupied for six months, if the taxes are delinquent and if the property is a "nuisance" that the nonprofit organization intends to "rehabilitate." The law also defines "nuisance" as including property that is "blighted" — a term so vague that Missouri officials can take aim at virtually any property they want. When Charles Lasby of Kansas City died in 2002, he owed back taxes on his home. Two years later, the House Rescue Corp., a nonprofit group that claims to fix up abandoned houses, petitioned the government to take the land. Since House Rescue didn't notify Lasby's heirs, they sold the property in May 2005. But that was five months after a court had allowed House Rescue to take the property — for free. When the mix-up was discovered, the court ordered Karl Thomas, who had bought the home and paid the back taxes, to stop fixing it. Thomas argued that the law allowing nonprofits to take land violated the state and federal constitutions, but the court ruled against him. He filed an appeal, but only 48 hours later the Court of Appeals rejected his plea without explanation....
Here Come the Mandatory Carbon Limits!
Living in a carbon constrained world looks inevitable. Congress will be voting on a number of proposals to set limits on the emission of greenhouse gases later this year. So industrialists see the policy handwriting on the wall and are now rushing to help shape the emerging greenhouse gas (GHG)emissions regulatory scheme. In January the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, consisting of 10 big companies including DuPont, Alcoa, General Electric and Duke Energy, issued a "blueprint for a mandatory economy-wide, market-driven approach to climate protection." Also in January, the Electric Power Supply Association, the lobby group that represents the competitive power suppliers that account for 40 percent of the generating capacity of the U.S., acknowledged that "regulatory and legislative processes are moving forward seriously and with speed." The EPSA declared it "supports enactment of comprehensive, mandatory federal legislation to require steps to minimize the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment." And last week, the broader electricity lobby group, the Edison Electric Institute, came out in favor of "federal action or legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that ...involves all sectors of the economy, and all sources of GHG." Even the environmental lobbyists' favorite climate change whipping boy, Exxon Mobil, seems to be coming around to the idea that the Feds should act to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Industry wants the Feds to establish a nation-wide and industry-wide cap-and-trade market in greenhouse gas emissions, especially a market for carbon dioxide emissions. The proposals all also call for substantial federal subsidies for research and development of new low- and no-carbon energy technologies. All acknowledge that there are no currently available "silver bullet" energy technologies to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Any reductions in GHG emissions will have to be accomplished with a mix of increased energy efficiency in buildings and appliances, expanded nuclear power generation, a switch to hybrid vehicles, more energy from renewable sources, and, here's the big one, some kind of cost-effective technology to bury carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels....
US Doing Better Than its Kyoto Critics on CO2, Expert Says
Contrary to the widely held view, the United States is not "going it alone" in resisting the Kyoto Protocol's "energy rationing scheme," according to an expert on global warming treaties. Washington's reticence is shared by policymakers in 150 other nations, representing a majority of the world's population, Christopher Horner, a senior fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) said Thursday. Moreover, the same European critics who accuse the U.S. of unilateralism have failed to meet their own Kyoto targets, Horner told a meeting at the Heritage Foundation. The 1997 Kyoto treaty requires signatory nations to set limits on the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other "greenhouse gases" blamed for climate change, by an average of five percent by 2012. The 15 European nations participating at the time - the so-called E.U.-15 - made a commitment to collectively reduce their emissions to the point where they would be eight percent lower than 1990 levels. Since the treaty went into effect, however, Europe's CO2 emissions have increased quite substantially - and at a rate three times faster than America's - Horner said. At the same time, Kyoto-related regulations have led to higher energy costs for E.U.-15 citizens....
Tilting at Wind Energy
Whenever anybody starts talking about how we can solve our energy problems and end oil imports, they always end up talking about windmills. Wind is indeed the fastest growing form of energy generation in the U.S., expanding at a brisk 25 percent a year. Installed capacity now stands at 11,500 megawatts (MW) -- the equivalent of ten or twelve standard nuclear or coal plants. Huge projects are popping up everywhere -- driven by tax incentives and state demands for "renewable energy portfolio." What's interesting is that these projects are now beginning to run into their own environmental opposition. It's not hard to see why. The standard 1.5 MW structure is now 40 stories, taller than the statue of liberty. The 3 MW towers waiting in the wings are as tall as New York's Citicorp Center, the third tallest building in Manhattan. In the Midwest these giant structures are being located on farms, where landowners can collect a few thousand dollars rent a year. On the East and West Coasts, however, the best place is on mountaintops since -- according to Bernoulli's Principle -- the wind always accelerates as it as it is funneled through a narrower space. That means mountaintops all along the Alleghenies, in upper New York State, and in Washington and Oregon are being decorated with little distant pinwheels that make the landscape look like a carnival...But the real question about windmills is whether they are producing any useful electricity at all. A modern electrical grid is a very delicately balanced high-wire act. Supply and demand must be kept in balance at all times. The National Electrical Reliability Council estimates that voltage levels can vary about 5 percent before trouble begins. Computer geeks talk about the "high 9's," meaning current must remain consistent within a range of 99.9999 percent to avoid erasing data. In Digital Power, Peter Huber and Mark Mills report, "Some years ago, a Stanford computer center found its power fatally polluted by an arc furnace over one hundred miles away." As the Industry Standard once put it: "Blips as brief as 1/60th of a second can zap computers and other electronic gear, and blackouts can be catastrophic." The problem with wind energy is that it is always fluctuating. The physics of windmills make it worse because output varies with the cube of the velocity. A 20 percent increase in wind speed will double output in a few minutes. Under these circumstances, large numbers of windmills are viewed by grid operators more as a liability than an asset....
Global Warming? Journalism? Don't Make Me Laugh!
At the heart of what is wrong with journalism today is that legions of journalists will stand shoulder to shoulder for the sole purpose of deriding any "global warming skeptic" rather than wonder for a second how the "news" of a coming Ice Age in the 1970s became the "news" of Global Warming in the 1980s. I am reminded of this daily as I read newspapers and news magazines in which various reporters blithely and deliberately inform the reader that all questions regarding the existence of global warming have been answered, that the science is beyond doubt, and that the cause is the production of greenhouse gases, largely from industry, transportation, and other human activities. This is not merely an error. It is a complete deception the journalists have joined. They have ceased to be skeptical. They want you to stop being skeptical despite all evidence to the contrary. "Global Warming, as we think we know it, doesn't exist," says Dr. Timothy Ball. He has Ph.D. in climatology, having earned his degree from the University of London, England, and taught for many years at the University of Winnipeg. A Google search of his name turns up a plethora of posts attacking him, always a sure sign that the Greens feel threatened by an outspoken scientist. The quote below explains why: "Believe it or not, Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This in fact is the greatest deception in the history of science." Dr. Ball is hardly alone in his views. Dr. Richard Lindzen, an atmospheric physicist and a professor of meteorology at MIT, as well as a member of the National Academy of Science, has said of Global Warming that, "the consensus was reached before the research had even begun."....
The REAL ID Act: Ill-Considered
When Congress passed the REAL ID Act, it had not had a hearing on that bill in either the House or the Senate. Bad process leads to bad results, and that is what you see in the REAL ID Act. In May 2005, Congress passed REAL ID by stripping out and replacing identification provisions in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act that had been passed just the December before, in response to the report of the 9/11 Commission. The law that the REAL ID Act replaced had established a negotiated rulemaking committee in which state motor vehicle administrators, privacy experts, and federal representatives were to negotiate about how to do drivers license security. The ill-considered REAL ID Act has created many problems:
* According to the National Conference of State Legislators, states across the country will have to spend 11 billion dollars in the first five years if they implement REAL ID. The costs to Utah alone apparently reach into the hundreds of millions.
* It may be very difficult, if not impossible, for many of your residents to get these federally standardized driver's licenses Utah complies with REAL ID. Everyone will have to return to the DMV and wait in long lines, perhaps to learn that they don't qualify for the new license.
* Then there are the costs to your citizens' privacy. Compliance with the REAL ID Act would require Utah to capture digital images of drivers and keep digital copies of documents like their birth certificates. It would require you to put our drivers' information in a database that is accessible nationwide. A corrupt official anywhere in the country might be able to access this personal information about Utah drivers and residents. This threatens your citizens with identity fraud because it will contain all the information criminals need to open bank accounts and credit card accounts in their names, and maybe worse.
This national ID system will not provide the protections against terrorism that the law's backers claim. Identity systems are subject to both physical and logical avoidance. Wrongdoers can either avoid controlled borders and checkpoints, or they can enter the country or obtain documents legally, as the 9/11 attackers, for the most part, did. Of course, terrorists do not only come from foreign countries, as we know well from the Oklahoma City bombing ten years ago. This national ID system might make it harder for illegal immigrants to access our society, but it will also drive many of them deeper into criminality. Identity fraud would increase as people in this country illegally obtained more extensive documentation in order to work. I don't think you solve the illegal immigration problem by putting a national ID in the hands of the law abiding, native-born citizen. Congress needs to fix immigration law, not compound the problem by turning its enforcement efforts toward surveillance of the law-abiding citizen worker....
Saturday, February 24, 2007
SURFACE OWNERS PROTECTION ACT - NEW MEXICO
From: NMCGA [mailto:nmcga@nmagriculture.org]
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 5:04 PM
Subject: Surface Owner Protection / House Energy Committee 2.26.07
HB 827, Representative Andy Nunez' Surface Owner Protection Act, is on the schedule for the House Energy & Natural Resources Committee Monday, February 26, 2007 at 8:30 a.m. in room 315. The bill was amended some in its' first committee. Negotiations have continued and there will be a final set of agreed upon additional amendments offered on Monday. After three (3) years of work, it appears that there is agreement between surface owners (homeowners and ranchers) AND that New Mexico will have the strongest landowner bill in the nation. Regarding bonding-on (when there is no agreement between the landowner and oil company), the bill requires a company to post either a $10,000 damages bond or a $25,000 statewide “blanket” bond for all its wells. If the damages from one well exceeds the $25,000 amount in the blanket bond, the company must re-up its bond. Currently, a company can come on a person’s property without posting any bond amount at all. Companies are currently only required to post a reclamation bond with the state for final plugging and abandonment. If you go to court today to get damages from an oil company, under common law, the burden of proof is on you to demonstrate that a company caused unreasonable damages. With SOPA, it will be much easier to get compensation for damages because you will not have to prove whether or not a company was reasonable in its operations on your land. Companies will be required to pay compensation for damages and use under SOPA. Currently, landowners in New Mexico are afforded no protection when companies want to conduct oil and gas operations on their property. Certainly there are reasonable agreements between surface owners and oil and gas operators. However a voluntary system has not served all surface owners equally. There has been concern that this bill would give operators more descression than they already have. Every effort has been made to ensure that private property rights are protected. One of the amendments on Monday will further clarify that. Please let me know if you have any questions and if we can provide further clarification on the bill language....
From: NMCGA [mailto:nmcga@nmagriculture.org]
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 5:04 PM
Subject: Surface Owner Protection / House Energy Committee 2.26.07
HB 827, Representative Andy Nunez' Surface Owner Protection Act, is on the schedule for the House Energy & Natural Resources Committee Monday, February 26, 2007 at 8:30 a.m. in room 315. The bill was amended some in its' first committee. Negotiations have continued and there will be a final set of agreed upon additional amendments offered on Monday. After three (3) years of work, it appears that there is agreement between surface owners (homeowners and ranchers) AND that New Mexico will have the strongest landowner bill in the nation. Regarding bonding-on (when there is no agreement between the landowner and oil company), the bill requires a company to post either a $10,000 damages bond or a $25,000 statewide “blanket” bond for all its wells. If the damages from one well exceeds the $25,000 amount in the blanket bond, the company must re-up its bond. Currently, a company can come on a person’s property without posting any bond amount at all. Companies are currently only required to post a reclamation bond with the state for final plugging and abandonment. If you go to court today to get damages from an oil company, under common law, the burden of proof is on you to demonstrate that a company caused unreasonable damages. With SOPA, it will be much easier to get compensation for damages because you will not have to prove whether or not a company was reasonable in its operations on your land. Companies will be required to pay compensation for damages and use under SOPA. Currently, landowners in New Mexico are afforded no protection when companies want to conduct oil and gas operations on their property. Certainly there are reasonable agreements between surface owners and oil and gas operators. However a voluntary system has not served all surface owners equally. There has been concern that this bill would give operators more descression than they already have. Every effort has been made to ensure that private property rights are protected. One of the amendments on Monday will further clarify that. Please let me know if you have any questions and if we can provide further clarification on the bill language....
EMINENT DOMAIN - WYO.
From: Ldgoodman
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 4:20 PM
Subject: House concurs w/ Senate w/o a conference!! HB 124 headed for Gov's signature!!!
Yahoo!!! Yesterday, instead of going to a conference, the House concurred with the Senate language in HB 124. It's now on its way to the Governor's desk for his signature --- which he has said he will gladly deliver!!! (I'll let you know when the signing ceremony will be!) Take a moment and congratulate yourselves and this team of property owners you are a part of!! The odds were against any meaningful reform to Eminent Domain, and yet in spite of the tremendous effort by the Industry Coalition to minimize the impact of this bill, the Legislature showed thoughtful leadership and support for substantive reform to our eminent domain laws. While we didn't address the very constitutional ability for a private entity to take another private property, we did come a long ways to improving the process for property owners when a taking occurs. Thank you for consistently sending your emails to legislators, working in your communities over the last year to educate your colleagues and fellow citizens, educating me about what's happening on your lands and in your towns; traveling to share your testimony with the legislators over the last year, and making sure your legislators consistently heard from you!! Job well done! Upon the Governor's signature, we will now have the following new provisions to protect our private property rights:
1. Notice by public entities when private land is seriously considered for a project and no less that 2 years before construction is completed (language offered by Wyoming Assoc. of Municipalities).
2. Good faith negotiations that include a 3 part process (initial offer, counter-offer, AND response by condemnor to the counter-offer)
3. The ability to negotiate for termed rights-of-way, similar to those allowed on federal and state lands;
4. Just compensation that can include information gathered from comparable sales for other like partial takings; (what your neighbor was paid, or what was paid for comparable easements on on similar lands, etc); and some increased ability to broaden compensation for urban condemned property owners;
5. Reimbursement of our legal fees if we have to bring a suit and it is found that the condemnor failed to negotiate in good faith, failed to plan a project in the greatest public good at the least private injury, or failed to show that the condemned property was necessary for the project we had asked instead for jury trials, but believe attorney fees are a good compromise).
Many folks have asked me about the "Coalition" and how their efforts impacted reform. They provided the new statutory language for reclamation, they supported improving good faith negotiations, they provided the language to limit the transfer between public and private entities of property condemned "for public purposes", but opposed applying the same limitations for the stricter "public use"; and they supported lifting a cap on reimbursable expenses for condemned urban property owners. Also because of their efforts, we lost:
* Rep. Brown's language that allowed property owners to charge condemnors for access for activities prior to condemnation (we had that going into the session);
* Rep. Shepperson, Wallis and Hallinan's amendment to limit the priority of condemning and using private land over public land for projects that provide a public benefit;
* The ability to hold onto and continue to lobby for provisions that were originally proposed by the Legislative Services Office to the Joint Agriculture Committee. Once deleted by the Coalition in October, we never were able to get back to the following issues, given the effort it took to get and hold the other provisions!!:
* specific language allowing negotiation of annual fees, (now you will just have to negotiate for that under the "good faith negotiation provisions" and force the condemnor to explain, in writing which you can take to court, why an annual fee is inappropriate);
* a prohibition against takings by private entities to minimize their cost, streamline their permitting and ease their convenience; and
* language to ensure NO property owner is financially harmed by a condemnation for public use projects (instead, they supported lifting a cap to increase the flexibility of public agencies to reimburse more of the expenses caused a property owner by condemnation.)
* jury trials
Please take a moment and thank all the legislators one last time for their efforts to strengthen private property rights in Wyoming. President John Schiffer and Senate Majority Leader John Hines deserve an extra thanks for their guidance and support throughout this past year and during this session. While there were differing levels of support by members throughout the process, as indicated by their votes on the amendments, all Legislators except two [Senators Geis and Jennings] eventually voted for final passage of HB 124. (Recall some members switched their Aye votes at the end to position themselves to be on the Conference Committee, but they are really some of our staunchest supporters of private property rights.) Let's just thank them all for their leadership and support for our private property rights....
From: Ldgoodman
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 4:20 PM
Subject: House concurs w/ Senate w/o a conference!! HB 124 headed for Gov's signature!!!
Yahoo!!! Yesterday, instead of going to a conference, the House concurred with the Senate language in HB 124. It's now on its way to the Governor's desk for his signature --- which he has said he will gladly deliver!!! (I'll let you know when the signing ceremony will be!) Take a moment and congratulate yourselves and this team of property owners you are a part of!! The odds were against any meaningful reform to Eminent Domain, and yet in spite of the tremendous effort by the Industry Coalition to minimize the impact of this bill, the Legislature showed thoughtful leadership and support for substantive reform to our eminent domain laws. While we didn't address the very constitutional ability for a private entity to take another private property, we did come a long ways to improving the process for property owners when a taking occurs. Thank you for consistently sending your emails to legislators, working in your communities over the last year to educate your colleagues and fellow citizens, educating me about what's happening on your lands and in your towns; traveling to share your testimony with the legislators over the last year, and making sure your legislators consistently heard from you!! Job well done! Upon the Governor's signature, we will now have the following new provisions to protect our private property rights:
1. Notice by public entities when private land is seriously considered for a project and no less that 2 years before construction is completed (language offered by Wyoming Assoc. of Municipalities).
2. Good faith negotiations that include a 3 part process (initial offer, counter-offer, AND response by condemnor to the counter-offer)
3. The ability to negotiate for termed rights-of-way, similar to those allowed on federal and state lands;
4. Just compensation that can include information gathered from comparable sales for other like partial takings; (what your neighbor was paid, or what was paid for comparable easements on on similar lands, etc); and some increased ability to broaden compensation for urban condemned property owners;
5. Reimbursement of our legal fees if we have to bring a suit and it is found that the condemnor failed to negotiate in good faith, failed to plan a project in the greatest public good at the least private injury, or failed to show that the condemned property was necessary for the project we had asked instead for jury trials, but believe attorney fees are a good compromise).
Many folks have asked me about the "Coalition" and how their efforts impacted reform. They provided the new statutory language for reclamation, they supported improving good faith negotiations, they provided the language to limit the transfer between public and private entities of property condemned "for public purposes", but opposed applying the same limitations for the stricter "public use"; and they supported lifting a cap on reimbursable expenses for condemned urban property owners. Also because of their efforts, we lost:
* Rep. Brown's language that allowed property owners to charge condemnors for access for activities prior to condemnation (we had that going into the session);
* Rep. Shepperson, Wallis and Hallinan's amendment to limit the priority of condemning and using private land over public land for projects that provide a public benefit;
* The ability to hold onto and continue to lobby for provisions that were originally proposed by the Legislative Services Office to the Joint Agriculture Committee. Once deleted by the Coalition in October, we never were able to get back to the following issues, given the effort it took to get and hold the other provisions!!:
* specific language allowing negotiation of annual fees, (now you will just have to negotiate for that under the "good faith negotiation provisions" and force the condemnor to explain, in writing which you can take to court, why an annual fee is inappropriate);
* a prohibition against takings by private entities to minimize their cost, streamline their permitting and ease their convenience; and
* language to ensure NO property owner is financially harmed by a condemnation for public use projects (instead, they supported lifting a cap to increase the flexibility of public agencies to reimburse more of the expenses caused a property owner by condemnation.)
* jury trials
Please take a moment and thank all the legislators one last time for their efforts to strengthen private property rights in Wyoming. President John Schiffer and Senate Majority Leader John Hines deserve an extra thanks for their guidance and support throughout this past year and during this session. While there were differing levels of support by members throughout the process, as indicated by their votes on the amendments, all Legislators except two [Senators Geis and Jennings] eventually voted for final passage of HB 124. (Recall some members switched their Aye votes at the end to position themselves to be on the Conference Committee, but they are really some of our staunchest supporters of private property rights.) Let's just thank them all for their leadership and support for our private property rights....
Friday, February 23, 2007
PRCA
Reversal of fortune Troy Ellerman, who resigned as commissioner of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association after pleading guilty to leaking secret grand jury documents in the BALCO steroids case, is leaving the PRCA without a parting gift of $200,000. A day after the PRCA board voted to give Ellerman a year’s salary, the board reversed its decision, board member Buster Record said Thursday. Members of the PRCA responded with outrage when they learned about the $200,000 payout, and the furor helped spur the board’s decision, Record said. Yahoo! Sports first reported the vote Tuesday. On Wednesday night, the board voted 7-1 to reverse its decision a day after it had voted 6-2 in favor of giving Ellerman a year’s salary, which board member Steve Gilbert said was at least $208,000 and as much as $300,000. He said his efforts to verify Ellerman’s current salary have been unsuccessful. “Troy did a lot for the association, but it was just causing too much havoc amongst the members,’’ Record said of the severance package. “Personally, I just realized that I made a hasty decision and that I should have thought it through more.’’ In a related move, Tom Feller – the former chairman of the PRCA board and one of Ellerman’s staunchest supporters – was voted off the board, Record confirmed....
Will commissioner's exit spur changes? The search is on. Now that Troy Ellerman has resigned as commissioner of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, who will be the next person to head up the organization? What kind of person would some of the sport's icons want to see as the new leader? There are varying answers. But one thing Ellerman's resignation has left all to agree on is that the top requirement in a new commissioner would be honesty. Ellerman's departure came on the heels of his guilty plea last week to obstructing justice by leaking secret grand jury documents to reporters covering the government's investigation of steroids in sports. Larry Mahan, a rodeo legend and six-time world all-around champion, would like to see a bright businessman in charge. "Someone who is honest, in all capital letters," he said.... One development Mahan would like to see come from Ellerman's resignation is a movement for establishing a rodeo players union. "You need representatives from that players association that can make a difference," he said. "What they have done is stripped the players of their voice. They have a few voices squeaking out there, but that's not going to help grease the squeaking wheel." Rodeo is run by the commissioner and a nine-man board of directors who answer to him. Mahan would like to see the competitors have representation in helping to shape rodeo's future. "It seems to work for all other sports – why not rodeo?" he said. "If they want to consider themselves the athletes they are, then they need to look at these other sports and say, 'Why is it working for them, and why are they growing?".... Don Gay, an eight-time world bull riding champion, said he would like to see rodeo go without a commissioner. "I don't think it's the right position for our organization," he said. "I feel like we ought to have a general manager who runs the office and answers to the board of directors. I think if he didn't have the title of commissioner, then he would work a lot closer with the board." Gay said he would like to see the organization hire a person with a background in rodeo....
----- Original Message -----
From: KC Andersen
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 9:24 AM
Subject: Urgent PRCA Business
Howdy Fellow PRCA Members:
I received a telephone call from my representative today, Barb Duggan, (Sec/Timer) with a status regarding the severance package for Troy Ellerman ($208,000.00) being rescinded and the removal of Tom Feller on the board.
I really appreciated the open and honest communication that Barb offered, especially with all the rumor mills working overtime and those whose only intent it seems, is to bring the whole entire PRCA to the ground.
Regarding the rescinding of Troy's severance pay, it is my understanding that BoD voted to rescind the offer that was given earlier this week and open it up to discussion at the March 20, 2007 BoD's meeting. Barb has asked that you forward to her or your event reps, your opinion regarding a severance package and what amount should be given, if any.........
You can either call her, write her or e-mail her with your opinion. Here is our chance as due paying members to let "our" feelings be known and I believe heard.
As for Tom Feller, he was removed / voted off the board by the Contract Personnel Counsel. This step was taken by the other board members due to his failure to act or vote as his other council peers had recommended or by majority of the vote. Mark Swingler. Executive Council Contract Personnel - Clowns/Bullfighter, is replacing Tom on the Executive Board. It is my understanding that this is only temporary. Since there is an election coming up and 3 out of the 5 members' seat are open for election, the counsel believe it would not be "fair" to Mark to take the position on a permanent status at this time.
Finally, as for us Secretaries / Timers, Barb would also like your opinions regarding possibly having a liaison in the PRCA office who "knows" the workings of rodeos and the paperwork / computer stuff. The girls in the office do a great job on the computer problems but really don't have a clue as to why or what PROCOM is and what problems can and are occurring out at the rodeo grounds.
Ok, enough of my rambling. Please take the time to contact Barb or your event representative before March 10th regarding the above or any other concerns that you may have. Also, please take the time and effort to complete your PRCA ballots and return them before the deadline. I am a strong and firm believer in..... if you don't vote then you can't gripe, aka bitch.......
K.C. Andersen
Here is Barb Duggan's contact information:
E-Mail: bduggan@att.net
Address: P.O. Box 183; Canyon, TX 79015-0183
Reversal of fortune Troy Ellerman, who resigned as commissioner of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association after pleading guilty to leaking secret grand jury documents in the BALCO steroids case, is leaving the PRCA without a parting gift of $200,000. A day after the PRCA board voted to give Ellerman a year’s salary, the board reversed its decision, board member Buster Record said Thursday. Members of the PRCA responded with outrage when they learned about the $200,000 payout, and the furor helped spur the board’s decision, Record said. Yahoo! Sports first reported the vote Tuesday. On Wednesday night, the board voted 7-1 to reverse its decision a day after it had voted 6-2 in favor of giving Ellerman a year’s salary, which board member Steve Gilbert said was at least $208,000 and as much as $300,000. He said his efforts to verify Ellerman’s current salary have been unsuccessful. “Troy did a lot for the association, but it was just causing too much havoc amongst the members,’’ Record said of the severance package. “Personally, I just realized that I made a hasty decision and that I should have thought it through more.’’ In a related move, Tom Feller – the former chairman of the PRCA board and one of Ellerman’s staunchest supporters – was voted off the board, Record confirmed....
Will commissioner's exit spur changes? The search is on. Now that Troy Ellerman has resigned as commissioner of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, who will be the next person to head up the organization? What kind of person would some of the sport's icons want to see as the new leader? There are varying answers. But one thing Ellerman's resignation has left all to agree on is that the top requirement in a new commissioner would be honesty. Ellerman's departure came on the heels of his guilty plea last week to obstructing justice by leaking secret grand jury documents to reporters covering the government's investigation of steroids in sports. Larry Mahan, a rodeo legend and six-time world all-around champion, would like to see a bright businessman in charge. "Someone who is honest, in all capital letters," he said.... One development Mahan would like to see come from Ellerman's resignation is a movement for establishing a rodeo players union. "You need representatives from that players association that can make a difference," he said. "What they have done is stripped the players of their voice. They have a few voices squeaking out there, but that's not going to help grease the squeaking wheel." Rodeo is run by the commissioner and a nine-man board of directors who answer to him. Mahan would like to see the competitors have representation in helping to shape rodeo's future. "It seems to work for all other sports – why not rodeo?" he said. "If they want to consider themselves the athletes they are, then they need to look at these other sports and say, 'Why is it working for them, and why are they growing?".... Don Gay, an eight-time world bull riding champion, said he would like to see rodeo go without a commissioner. "I don't think it's the right position for our organization," he said. "I feel like we ought to have a general manager who runs the office and answers to the board of directors. I think if he didn't have the title of commissioner, then he would work a lot closer with the board." Gay said he would like to see the organization hire a person with a background in rodeo....
----- Original Message -----
From: KC Andersen
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 9:24 AM
Subject: Urgent PRCA Business
Howdy Fellow PRCA Members:
I received a telephone call from my representative today, Barb Duggan, (Sec/Timer) with a status regarding the severance package for Troy Ellerman ($208,000.00) being rescinded and the removal of Tom Feller on the board.
I really appreciated the open and honest communication that Barb offered, especially with all the rumor mills working overtime and those whose only intent it seems, is to bring the whole entire PRCA to the ground.
Regarding the rescinding of Troy's severance pay, it is my understanding that BoD voted to rescind the offer that was given earlier this week and open it up to discussion at the March 20, 2007 BoD's meeting. Barb has asked that you forward to her or your event reps, your opinion regarding a severance package and what amount should be given, if any.........
You can either call her, write her or e-mail her with your opinion. Here is our chance as due paying members to let "our" feelings be known and I believe heard.
As for Tom Feller, he was removed / voted off the board by the Contract Personnel Counsel. This step was taken by the other board members due to his failure to act or vote as his other council peers had recommended or by majority of the vote. Mark Swingler. Executive Council Contract Personnel - Clowns/Bullfighter, is replacing Tom on the Executive Board. It is my understanding that this is only temporary. Since there is an election coming up and 3 out of the 5 members' seat are open for election, the counsel believe it would not be "fair" to Mark to take the position on a permanent status at this time.
Finally, as for us Secretaries / Timers, Barb would also like your opinions regarding possibly having a liaison in the PRCA office who "knows" the workings of rodeos and the paperwork / computer stuff. The girls in the office do a great job on the computer problems but really don't have a clue as to why or what PROCOM is and what problems can and are occurring out at the rodeo grounds.
Ok, enough of my rambling. Please take the time to contact Barb or your event representative before March 10th regarding the above or any other concerns that you may have. Also, please take the time and effort to complete your PRCA ballots and return them before the deadline. I am a strong and firm believer in..... if you don't vote then you can't gripe, aka bitch.......
K.C. Andersen
Here is Barb Duggan's contact information:
E-Mail: bduggan@att.net
Address: P.O. Box 183; Canyon, TX 79015-0183
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 23, 2007
Nevada Ag Department Director Resigns After Audit and Investigation are Made Public
(RENO, NV) Don Henderson, Director of the Nevada Department of Agriculture, resigned earlier this week after public disclosure of $720,000 of Department accounting adjustments, on-the-job drinking, and personal misconduct. “This may be a positive step towards restructuring the Department to work for, instead of against Nevada agriculture,” stated Wayne Hage, NLSA Director. In a recent letter to Governor Gibbons the Nevada Live Stock Association (NLSA) wrote that, “The current Board [of Agriculture] has failed repeatedly to meaningfully address the gross mismanagement problems within the Department, as revealed in both the Legislative Audit and Department of Personnel investigation involving the complaints of 20 percent of the Department’s personnel.” “We are very hopeful with this news. Unfortunately, before this matter became public, the Board’s solution in its December meeting was to tell Don to quit drinking on the job and vote to give him a “Vote of Confidence”. I question whether the current Board, which has full oversight responsibilities for the Department, is capable of taking seriously matters that have possible criminal implications,” said Cliven Bundy, NLSA Director. In his letter of resignation, Henderson designated his deputy Rick Gimlin, the Department’s bookkeeper, to serve as acting Director until the Board and Governor appoint a new Director. “That’s a little bit like asking the fox to watch the hen house,” remarked Ramona Morrison of the NLSA. “Mr. Gimlin has been in charge of the Department’s finances during Henderson’s entire tenure. There are several very competent administrators in the Department who could take over temporarily without all the baggage Mr. Gimlin has. I hope the Board addresses this matter.”
# # #
9732 State Route 445, #305 Sparks, Nevada 89436 775.424.0570 Fax 775.424.0571 www.nevadalivestock.org
“The object of this association is to advance the interests of stock growers of all kinds, protection of the same against frauds and swindlers, and to prevent the stealing, taking and driving away of any live stock from the rightful owners thereof, and to enforce the stock laws of Nevada (1884).”
David Holmgren, NLSA Chairman, 775.312.0019
Wayne Hage, NLSA Director, 775.482.4637
Cliven Bundy, NLSA Director, 702.346.5564
Ramona Morrison, NLSA Direct, 775.722.2517
Email copies of Letter to Governor, previous related NLSA press releases, Grand Jury Report, and Second Judicial District Court ruling involving Department’s brand inspection practices are available upon request.
Nevada Ag Department Director Resigns After Audit and Investigation are Made Public
(RENO, NV) Don Henderson, Director of the Nevada Department of Agriculture, resigned earlier this week after public disclosure of $720,000 of Department accounting adjustments, on-the-job drinking, and personal misconduct. “This may be a positive step towards restructuring the Department to work for, instead of against Nevada agriculture,” stated Wayne Hage, NLSA Director. In a recent letter to Governor Gibbons the Nevada Live Stock Association (NLSA) wrote that, “The current Board [of Agriculture] has failed repeatedly to meaningfully address the gross mismanagement problems within the Department, as revealed in both the Legislative Audit and Department of Personnel investigation involving the complaints of 20 percent of the Department’s personnel.” “We are very hopeful with this news. Unfortunately, before this matter became public, the Board’s solution in its December meeting was to tell Don to quit drinking on the job and vote to give him a “Vote of Confidence”. I question whether the current Board, which has full oversight responsibilities for the Department, is capable of taking seriously matters that have possible criminal implications,” said Cliven Bundy, NLSA Director. In his letter of resignation, Henderson designated his deputy Rick Gimlin, the Department’s bookkeeper, to serve as acting Director until the Board and Governor appoint a new Director. “That’s a little bit like asking the fox to watch the hen house,” remarked Ramona Morrison of the NLSA. “Mr. Gimlin has been in charge of the Department’s finances during Henderson’s entire tenure. There are several very competent administrators in the Department who could take over temporarily without all the baggage Mr. Gimlin has. I hope the Board addresses this matter.”
# # #
9732 State Route 445, #305 Sparks, Nevada 89436 775.424.0570 Fax 775.424.0571 www.nevadalivestock.org
“The object of this association is to advance the interests of stock growers of all kinds, protection of the same against frauds and swindlers, and to prevent the stealing, taking and driving away of any live stock from the rightful owners thereof, and to enforce the stock laws of Nevada (1884).”
David Holmgren, NLSA Chairman, 775.312.0019
Wayne Hage, NLSA Director, 775.482.4637
Cliven Bundy, NLSA Director, 702.346.5564
Ramona Morrison, NLSA Direct, 775.722.2517
Email copies of Letter to Governor, previous related NLSA press releases, Grand Jury Report, and Second Judicial District Court ruling involving Department’s brand inspection practices are available upon request.
NEWS ROUNDUP
Domain bill clears Wyo. Senate The Senate passed an eminent domain reform bill Thursday after removing a sticking point for landowners. House Bill 124 easily passed the Senate on a 25-4 vote. It now goes back to the House for a vote on Senate changes. On Wednesday, the Senate adopted an amendment from Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, to restrict comparisons of easement prices to the landowners' own property in determining fair market value. On Thursday, the Senate adopted a two-word amendment that essentially negates Scott's amendment. Offered by Sen. Phil Nicholas, R-Laramie, and others, the new amendment allows an appraiser to consider the price paid for other comparable easements on the same “or similar” property in calculating fair market value. Scott cautioned that the amendment was too broad and could invite lawsuits. But Senate President John Schiffer, R-Kaycee, said appraisals for easements are traditionally based on the price paid for similar land. The Senate adopted Nicholas' amendment on a 15-14 standing vote....
Lawmakers seek to revive wolf legislation Trying to bounce back from a stinging rejection in a House committee on Wednesday, lawmakers now are pushing to revive a wolf bill in the Senate. The Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee planned to meet to consider a House bill on wolf management on Friday, a day after the usual deadline for committee action. Top legislative leaders have said repeatedly in recent weeks that they believed wolf management legislation was dead. Yet the wolf bills keep pawing their way back into play. "It's the nature of the wolf," said Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan, when asked why the wolf legislation continues to surface. Burns is chairman of the Senate committee scheduled to hear the House bill and was sponsor of wolf legislation that died in a House committee on Wednesday. "I think we've got to keep channels open with Fish and Wildlife Service," Burns said. "This bill passing tomorrow or not makes the difference whether we negotiate with the feds or not."...
Minnesota requires renewable fuels Minnesota put its faith in a future fueled by renewable energy yesterday as the governor signed a new law requiring utilities to generate a quarter of their power from renewable sources such as wind, water and solar energy by 2025. Considering where Minnesota stands now — about half the power produced in the state is from coal, and only 8 percent from renewable sources — the move is the most aggressive in the country, analysts say. "We have to break our addiction to fossil fuels," Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, said in signing the legislation. The new law, which sailed through the Legislature, encourages the use of wind farms, hydroelectric power and solar energy, as well as cleaner-burning fuels....
Another skier dies in avalanche Rescuers Thursday recovered the body of a 37-year-old Norwegian man who died in an avalanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon the day before. It is the fourth avalanche death in six days, and weather forecasters are warning skiers of an elevated avalanche danger through the weekend. Vegard Lund, a former University of Utah graduate student who lived in Stavanger, Norway, was close to the top of the 10,200-foot peak of Gobblers Knob when he triggered an avalanche that swept him 400 feet into a grove of trees, said Sgt. Todd Griffiths, search and rescue coordinator for the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office. The impact with trees likely killed Lund, Griffiths said. During the 2004-2005 season, eight snowboarders, skiers, snowshoers and snowmobilers died, making it the deadliest ski season in Utah history since the U.S. Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center began keeping records in 1951. The number of avalanche deaths this week easily could have been higher, said Brett Kobernik a forecaster with the Utah Avalanche Center....
Santa Ritas mining plan raises bigger concerns A proposed copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains pits tradition versus change in what could be the first skirmish in a bigger war to change the West. U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva on Saturday will hold in Tucson his first hearing as the new chairman of the House Subcommittee on Public Lands. The agenda contains a single item: Augusta Resource Corp.'s proposed Rosemont copper mine on the eastern flank of the Santa Rita Mountains. Augusta said the Rosemont mine would meet 5 percent of the nation's copper needs and create 1,050 jobs locally during its 20-year life. Though all sides will get to speak to the committee, the larger issue Grijalva will discuss with environmentalists is how he can inject more environmental concerns into the approval process for mines. At issue is the 1872 General Mining Act, which Grijalva calls "a sacred cow" because it encourages the development of mines and doesn't allow the government to deny a "legitimate" mining claim. "We're not that West of 1872," said Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat. "We are a different West. Back then, the ethic was the water and land are there to use. Now there's another ethic that says we have to balance uses with conservation."....
Pima County again tries to block Rosemont Mine For the second time in little more than a month the Pima County supervisors approved a resolution aimed at blocking development of a copper mine east of Green Valley. At Tuesday’s board meeting the supervisors unanimously approved the resolution calling on the Arizona congressional delegation to take three steps to block the mine at Rosemont east of the Santa Rita Mountains. The resolution asked congressional delegates to bar mining on National Forest Land in the Santa Rita Mountains, to withdraw from mining from all National Forest Lands in Pima County and to stop mining on all “county natural reserves where the federal government” owns the mining rights. On Jan. 16 the supervisors approved a resolution by Supervisor Ray Carroll to oppose creation of a mine by Augusta Resource Corp....
Forbidden ground Two incidents in the last week are casting doubt on whether designated non-motorized backcountry areas are remaining the bastions of quiet solitude they’re intended to be. If nothing else, the increasing disregard for such designations by motorized recreationists—and the lack of enforcement by the federal agencies charged with their management—flies in the face of so-called “collaborative” agreements being pushed by the Bush administration, which are supposed to protect certain areas while maintaining others for motorized use. The first report was the result of a fly-over of the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Mission Mountains Wilderness and the Jewel Basin Hiking Area by personnel from the Flathead National Forest. What they found was not encouraging. Despite the fact that these areas are permanently closed to snowmobiling and all other motorized use, the overflight spotted snowmobile tracks in all three areas. Sadly, this is not an isolated case where someone accidentally wandered into an area, unaware they had crossed the wilderness boundary. The same thing has been prevalent for years in the Beartooth Wilderness, where the deep snowpack and high mountains seem irresistible to snowmobile scofflaws who live to charge their howling machines up steep mountain faces as high as they can get before turning them back downhill....
Congressmen urged to protect Roan Plateau Local government officials, environmentalists and wildlife advocates urged Colorado's two Western Slope congressmen Thursday to protect the Roan Plateau from oil and gas leasing. A rugged mesa towering over the landscape from Rifle to Parachute, the Roan Plateau is home to thousands of acres of wilderness and wildlife habitat. It also is a potential bonanza of natural gas largely untapped by the wave of oil and gas drilling sweeping western Colorado. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management proposed a plan last year to limit drilling so some of the gas can be drawn out while preserving most of the plateau. But the congressmen were asked to bring pressure on federal land managers to withdraw the Roan from leasing until more protections are in place....
Shell’s oil shale project requires more test time Royal Dutch Shell needs a little more time to decide if it will proceed with a commercial oil shale project in western Colorado, a company official said Thursday during a Rifle open house. Shell Mahogany Project spokeswoman Jill Davis said earlier plans to make that decision by the end of this decade have been pushed back to shortly after 2010. “We just need a little more time to get our test projects going on the federal leases,” she said. “Those leases took a little more time than we thought.” It also will take Shell at least a year to get all the permits needed to start work on three, 160-acre leases in Rio Blanco County, received from the Bureau of Land Management last year. Shell plans to further test its in-ground mining process that uses rows of electric heaters to cook the shale oil out of the rock and pump it to the surface. Those tests will require a peak construction workforce of 560 workers, many of them to be housed in temporary quarters nearby....
Wild Stallion Shot in Tooele, $8,000 Reward The Bureau of Land Management is offering a reward for information about the shooting of a wild stallion. The shooting occurred on BLM land in Tooele County, and the horse suffered for several weeks before authorities put it out of its misery. An $8,000 reward has been put up by the BLM, the National Mustang Association and the Intermountain Horse and Burro Advisors group. The groups are very upset that someone would shoot the animal and then leave it to suffer. Gus Warr, Bureau of Land Management: "It's very disturbing. It really tears at me emotionally that someone would go out there and take it upon themselves and injure an animal, walk away and let it suffer." Sometime between late December and mid-January, someone shot a nine-year-old black stallion that had been roaming in Utah's west desert since 2001....
State distances itself from climatologist Gov. Ruth Ann Minner has directed Delaware's state climatologist to stop using his title in public statements on climate change, citing a clash of views on global warming and confusion over the position's ties to the administration. Minner, who made the directive in a letter, described the move as a way to "clarify" the role of David R. Legates, a prominent skeptic of views that human activities are warming the planet and triggering climate shifts. Minner said she has long viewed human-caused carbon emissions as a contributor to climate change. The state also joined a multistate effort in 2005 aimed at reducing power plant greenhouse gas emissions. In the letter, sent last week, Minner said Legates had provided valuable advice to the state on weather issues. She also acknowledged that the scientist had not claimed to represent the state government's position on the need to control pollutants linked to global warming. But Minner said that reports of Legates' work with private groups and privately backed publications disputing climate change had "generated some confusion." "Your views on climate change, as I understand them, are not aligned with those of my administration," Minner wrote....
U.S. says will use risk-based meat inspection plan In a move derided by meat packers and consumers, federal meat inspectors will start conducting "risk-based" inspections at 254 processing plants in April, under a plan detailed by the Agriculture Department on Thursday. The plan calls for devoting more attention to plants where the government has higher concerns over meat safety, U.S. officials said. But the USDA's Food Safety and Inspections Service will still continue daily inspection of all processing plants, said Richard Raymond, agriculture undersecretary for food safety. Raymond touted the changes as a way to boost protection against meat contamination. Under the new system, the level of inspections at a plant would be pegged to its safety record, including prior inspection and microbiological tests. The consumer group Food and Water Watch said USDA's existing data is incomplete and not precise enough to know how plants are performing. The American Meat Institute, a trade group for packers, criticized USDA for the "hasty roll-out" of the plan without testing the idea or being sure of industry and consumer support....
Domain bill clears Wyo. Senate The Senate passed an eminent domain reform bill Thursday after removing a sticking point for landowners. House Bill 124 easily passed the Senate on a 25-4 vote. It now goes back to the House for a vote on Senate changes. On Wednesday, the Senate adopted an amendment from Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, to restrict comparisons of easement prices to the landowners' own property in determining fair market value. On Thursday, the Senate adopted a two-word amendment that essentially negates Scott's amendment. Offered by Sen. Phil Nicholas, R-Laramie, and others, the new amendment allows an appraiser to consider the price paid for other comparable easements on the same “or similar” property in calculating fair market value. Scott cautioned that the amendment was too broad and could invite lawsuits. But Senate President John Schiffer, R-Kaycee, said appraisals for easements are traditionally based on the price paid for similar land. The Senate adopted Nicholas' amendment on a 15-14 standing vote....
Lawmakers seek to revive wolf legislation Trying to bounce back from a stinging rejection in a House committee on Wednesday, lawmakers now are pushing to revive a wolf bill in the Senate. The Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee planned to meet to consider a House bill on wolf management on Friday, a day after the usual deadline for committee action. Top legislative leaders have said repeatedly in recent weeks that they believed wolf management legislation was dead. Yet the wolf bills keep pawing their way back into play. "It's the nature of the wolf," said Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan, when asked why the wolf legislation continues to surface. Burns is chairman of the Senate committee scheduled to hear the House bill and was sponsor of wolf legislation that died in a House committee on Wednesday. "I think we've got to keep channels open with Fish and Wildlife Service," Burns said. "This bill passing tomorrow or not makes the difference whether we negotiate with the feds or not."...
Minnesota requires renewable fuels Minnesota put its faith in a future fueled by renewable energy yesterday as the governor signed a new law requiring utilities to generate a quarter of their power from renewable sources such as wind, water and solar energy by 2025. Considering where Minnesota stands now — about half the power produced in the state is from coal, and only 8 percent from renewable sources — the move is the most aggressive in the country, analysts say. "We have to break our addiction to fossil fuels," Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, said in signing the legislation. The new law, which sailed through the Legislature, encourages the use of wind farms, hydroelectric power and solar energy, as well as cleaner-burning fuels....
Another skier dies in avalanche Rescuers Thursday recovered the body of a 37-year-old Norwegian man who died in an avalanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon the day before. It is the fourth avalanche death in six days, and weather forecasters are warning skiers of an elevated avalanche danger through the weekend. Vegard Lund, a former University of Utah graduate student who lived in Stavanger, Norway, was close to the top of the 10,200-foot peak of Gobblers Knob when he triggered an avalanche that swept him 400 feet into a grove of trees, said Sgt. Todd Griffiths, search and rescue coordinator for the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office. The impact with trees likely killed Lund, Griffiths said. During the 2004-2005 season, eight snowboarders, skiers, snowshoers and snowmobilers died, making it the deadliest ski season in Utah history since the U.S. Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center began keeping records in 1951. The number of avalanche deaths this week easily could have been higher, said Brett Kobernik a forecaster with the Utah Avalanche Center....
Santa Ritas mining plan raises bigger concerns A proposed copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains pits tradition versus change in what could be the first skirmish in a bigger war to change the West. U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva on Saturday will hold in Tucson his first hearing as the new chairman of the House Subcommittee on Public Lands. The agenda contains a single item: Augusta Resource Corp.'s proposed Rosemont copper mine on the eastern flank of the Santa Rita Mountains. Augusta said the Rosemont mine would meet 5 percent of the nation's copper needs and create 1,050 jobs locally during its 20-year life. Though all sides will get to speak to the committee, the larger issue Grijalva will discuss with environmentalists is how he can inject more environmental concerns into the approval process for mines. At issue is the 1872 General Mining Act, which Grijalva calls "a sacred cow" because it encourages the development of mines and doesn't allow the government to deny a "legitimate" mining claim. "We're not that West of 1872," said Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat. "We are a different West. Back then, the ethic was the water and land are there to use. Now there's another ethic that says we have to balance uses with conservation."....
Pima County again tries to block Rosemont Mine For the second time in little more than a month the Pima County supervisors approved a resolution aimed at blocking development of a copper mine east of Green Valley. At Tuesday’s board meeting the supervisors unanimously approved the resolution calling on the Arizona congressional delegation to take three steps to block the mine at Rosemont east of the Santa Rita Mountains. The resolution asked congressional delegates to bar mining on National Forest Land in the Santa Rita Mountains, to withdraw from mining from all National Forest Lands in Pima County and to stop mining on all “county natural reserves where the federal government” owns the mining rights. On Jan. 16 the supervisors approved a resolution by Supervisor Ray Carroll to oppose creation of a mine by Augusta Resource Corp....
Forbidden ground Two incidents in the last week are casting doubt on whether designated non-motorized backcountry areas are remaining the bastions of quiet solitude they’re intended to be. If nothing else, the increasing disregard for such designations by motorized recreationists—and the lack of enforcement by the federal agencies charged with their management—flies in the face of so-called “collaborative” agreements being pushed by the Bush administration, which are supposed to protect certain areas while maintaining others for motorized use. The first report was the result of a fly-over of the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Mission Mountains Wilderness and the Jewel Basin Hiking Area by personnel from the Flathead National Forest. What they found was not encouraging. Despite the fact that these areas are permanently closed to snowmobiling and all other motorized use, the overflight spotted snowmobile tracks in all three areas. Sadly, this is not an isolated case where someone accidentally wandered into an area, unaware they had crossed the wilderness boundary. The same thing has been prevalent for years in the Beartooth Wilderness, where the deep snowpack and high mountains seem irresistible to snowmobile scofflaws who live to charge their howling machines up steep mountain faces as high as they can get before turning them back downhill....
Congressmen urged to protect Roan Plateau Local government officials, environmentalists and wildlife advocates urged Colorado's two Western Slope congressmen Thursday to protect the Roan Plateau from oil and gas leasing. A rugged mesa towering over the landscape from Rifle to Parachute, the Roan Plateau is home to thousands of acres of wilderness and wildlife habitat. It also is a potential bonanza of natural gas largely untapped by the wave of oil and gas drilling sweeping western Colorado. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management proposed a plan last year to limit drilling so some of the gas can be drawn out while preserving most of the plateau. But the congressmen were asked to bring pressure on federal land managers to withdraw the Roan from leasing until more protections are in place....
Shell’s oil shale project requires more test time Royal Dutch Shell needs a little more time to decide if it will proceed with a commercial oil shale project in western Colorado, a company official said Thursday during a Rifle open house. Shell Mahogany Project spokeswoman Jill Davis said earlier plans to make that decision by the end of this decade have been pushed back to shortly after 2010. “We just need a little more time to get our test projects going on the federal leases,” she said. “Those leases took a little more time than we thought.” It also will take Shell at least a year to get all the permits needed to start work on three, 160-acre leases in Rio Blanco County, received from the Bureau of Land Management last year. Shell plans to further test its in-ground mining process that uses rows of electric heaters to cook the shale oil out of the rock and pump it to the surface. Those tests will require a peak construction workforce of 560 workers, many of them to be housed in temporary quarters nearby....
Wild Stallion Shot in Tooele, $8,000 Reward The Bureau of Land Management is offering a reward for information about the shooting of a wild stallion. The shooting occurred on BLM land in Tooele County, and the horse suffered for several weeks before authorities put it out of its misery. An $8,000 reward has been put up by the BLM, the National Mustang Association and the Intermountain Horse and Burro Advisors group. The groups are very upset that someone would shoot the animal and then leave it to suffer. Gus Warr, Bureau of Land Management: "It's very disturbing. It really tears at me emotionally that someone would go out there and take it upon themselves and injure an animal, walk away and let it suffer." Sometime between late December and mid-January, someone shot a nine-year-old black stallion that had been roaming in Utah's west desert since 2001....
State distances itself from climatologist Gov. Ruth Ann Minner has directed Delaware's state climatologist to stop using his title in public statements on climate change, citing a clash of views on global warming and confusion over the position's ties to the administration. Minner, who made the directive in a letter, described the move as a way to "clarify" the role of David R. Legates, a prominent skeptic of views that human activities are warming the planet and triggering climate shifts. Minner said she has long viewed human-caused carbon emissions as a contributor to climate change. The state also joined a multistate effort in 2005 aimed at reducing power plant greenhouse gas emissions. In the letter, sent last week, Minner said Legates had provided valuable advice to the state on weather issues. She also acknowledged that the scientist had not claimed to represent the state government's position on the need to control pollutants linked to global warming. But Minner said that reports of Legates' work with private groups and privately backed publications disputing climate change had "generated some confusion." "Your views on climate change, as I understand them, are not aligned with those of my administration," Minner wrote....
U.S. says will use risk-based meat inspection plan In a move derided by meat packers and consumers, federal meat inspectors will start conducting "risk-based" inspections at 254 processing plants in April, under a plan detailed by the Agriculture Department on Thursday. The plan calls for devoting more attention to plants where the government has higher concerns over meat safety, U.S. officials said. But the USDA's Food Safety and Inspections Service will still continue daily inspection of all processing plants, said Richard Raymond, agriculture undersecretary for food safety. Raymond touted the changes as a way to boost protection against meat contamination. Under the new system, the level of inspections at a plant would be pegged to its safety record, including prior inspection and microbiological tests. The consumer group Food and Water Watch said USDA's existing data is incomplete and not precise enough to know how plants are performing. The American Meat Institute, a trade group for packers, criticized USDA for the "hasty roll-out" of the plan without testing the idea or being sure of industry and consumer support....
FLE
Cop called 'double agent'in Ramos-Compean case The father-in-law of imprisoned Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos is calling for an investigation of Border Patrol Agent Rene Sanchez – a longtime friend of the Mexican drug smuggler granted immunity to testify against Ramos and incarcerated fellow agent Jose Compean – as a possible "double agent." "I believe Rene Sanchez acted as a 'double agent' in the Ramos-Compean case," Joe Loya, father of Ramos's wife Monica, told WND. "He was doing everything he could to protect his life-long friend, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, but at the same time he was working with Johnny Sutton to make sure Ramos and Compean were convicted." Loya further charged that he had reason to believe "Rene Sanchez's actions make it look like he could have been in the drug business with Aldrete-Davila all along. The Department of Homeland Security never investigated, and from the beginning of this case Johnny Sutton was out to prosecute the Border Patrol, not the drug smugglers." As WND has previously reported, Sanchez and Aldrete-Davila grew up together in Mexico, prompting some observers – including Friends of the Border Patrol chairman Andy Ramirez – to question the propriety of a family friend of Aldrete-Davila playing such a major role in reporting the Ramos-Compean incident involving the drug smuggler. Yet later, during the trial, Aldrete-Davila testified that Rene Sanchez suggested he should get immunity to testify against Ramos and Compean, get medical attention in the U.S. for his injury and consider filing a lawsuit against the Border Patrol. The drug smuggler further testified Sanchez was the person who helped him find an attorney in the U.S. to represent him when he testified for the prosecution at the Ramos-Compean trial and to sue the Border Patrol for violating his civil rights....
Judge denies freedom plea by jailed ex-agents A federal appeals court judge yesterday denied a motion by former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean that they be released from prison pending appeals in their convictions for shooting a drug-smuggling suspect. Ramos, 37, and Compean, 28, were sentenced to 11- and 12-year prison terms for shooting Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks as he fled near Fabens, Texas, back into Mexico after abandoning 743 pounds of marijuana. They sought release pending the outcome of their appeals, but the motion was denied by U.S. District Judge Fortunato Pedro "Pete" Benavides of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in Austin, Texas, who said the men "had not shown unique or unusual circumstances that justify their release based on an exceptional reason." Judge Benavides granted a motion by Ramos that his appeal be sealed and ordered the government's response to both men's motions sealed....
Border agents' case inspires song A Southern California musician has written and recorded a song to support imprisoned Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, whose case has stirred a congressional and grass-roots protest against the Bush administration. Michael Britton, who makes a living performing an acoustic one-man-band show, said he was inspired to act when he learned details of the case. Ramos and Compean were convicted and sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison respectively after a drug smuggler they shot fleeing across the border was given immunity to testify against them. "I'm upset that men like Ramos and Compean are sitting in federal prison simply for doing their jobs, while drug smugglers are allowed to go free and sue the Border Patrol for violating their 'civil rights,'" he said....Go to the link to the article and you can listen to the song.
Sheriff: Deputy prosecuted by Mexico's demand Investigators had no plans to bring charges against Texas Sheriff's Deputy Gilmer Hernandez until the Mexican government intervened and demanded it, the officer's supervisor told WND. Sheriff Don Letsinger of Rocksprings, Texas, said the Texas Rangers were not going to recommend prosecution, but federal law enforcement took over the case in response to the Mexican government's intervention. Also, in the high-profile case of border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, the Department of Homeland Security investigation was opened March 4, 2005, the same date the Mexican Consulate demanded prosecution for the shooting of drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, according to numerous agency investigative reports authored by Special Agent Christopher Sanchez. WND can find no documentation of any Border Patrol investigation launched against Ramos or Compean prior to that date. In both trials, WND has uncovered indications the prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, withheld key, possibly exculpatory, information from the defense and the juries. Hernandez stopped a van full of illegals for running a stop sign April 14, 2005, in Rocksprings. The driver attempted to run over Hernandez, prompting the officer to fire his weapon at the rear tires. A bullet fragment hit a Mexican woman in the mouth, cutting her lip and breaking two teeth. Hernandez, convicted of felony civil rights violations, is incarcerated in Del Rio, Texas, awaiting sentencing. "Deputy Hernandez had a right to stop that vehicle," Letsinger told WND. "Can you look at what happened and say that Deputy Hernandez intentionally wanted to injure someone in that vehicle? You cannot. Deputy Hernandez did not want to injure anyone that day. He fired at the tires to stop the vehicle and he was justified in doing so."....
Judicial Watch seeks Ramos-Compean records The government watchdog Judicial Watch has filed several Freedom of Information Act requests in the case of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison in the shooting of a drug smuggler given immunity to testify against them. Judicial Watch Director of Research Chris Farrell told WND his group is seeking relevant records and communications from the State Department, several agencies within the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department, including the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas, which prosecuted the case. Judicial Watch requests information concerning: Drug smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila. * Any U.S. government "deals" with Aldrete-Davila. * U.S. government communications with the Mexican government concerning Aldrete-Davila and/or the prosecution of Ramos and Compean. * The participation of U.S. government personnel in coordinating, facilitating and/or approving the lawful entry or entries of Aldrete-Davila into the U.S.* The terms and conditions permitting Aldrete-Davila to lawfully enter the U.S....
Feinstein still probing Ramos-Compean case The office of Sen. Patrick Leahy confirmed to WND the Vermont Democrat has given Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., permission to investigate the prosecution and sentencing of Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos. As WND reported, Feinstein, who said she believes the sentences were "extreme," postponed the hearings, originally scheduled for Feb. 27. Leahy's office told WND Feinstein has the authority to schedule hearings on the case whenever she chooses. Feinstein is chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security. The California senator's office confirmed to WND an investigation into the border agents' prosecution and sentencing is underway, but no hearing dates have been scheduled....
Ramos attorney calls for mistrial The prosecutor in the high-profile case that sent border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean to prison never showed the defense a potentially exculpatory Department of Homeland Security memo. The document, an April 12, 2005, memo by Special Agent Christopher Sanchez, was first made public by WND in a report published Feb. 6. Mary Stillinger, attorney for Ramos, confirmed she learned of the memo from the WND story. "This is huge," Stillinger told WND, arguing the government's failure to disclose the document to the defense denied her client his right to a fair trial and establishes the basis for declaring a mistrial. "The government has a 'Jencks Act requirement' to give us any written statements by DHS Special Agent Christopher Sanchez before the defense cross-examined him," Stillinger told WND. The Jencks Act requires prior statements of a witness be turned over to the defense before the defense begins cross-examination. "The prosecution could have waited until they questioned Sanchez at trial," Stillinger noted, "but they had an obligation to turn that document over to the defense before we started our cross-examination."....
Man shot in altercation with Border Patrol agents A Border Patrol agent shot a suspected illegal entrant three times early Wednesday morning at a Rio Rico gas station after the man became combative and reportedly started throwing rocks, officials said. The shooting victim, believed to be between 20-30 years old who has not yet identified, was in stable condition Wednesday morning with non-life threatening injuries after being airlifted to a Tucson hospital, said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada. The man suffered a wound to his arm and a grazing wound to his torso, he said. The encounter occurred shortly after 4 a.m. at the Pilot gas station/fast-food store just south of Rio Rico off of Interstate 19. Three Border Patrol agents were at the gas station on break to get coffee when they spotted a man they suspected was an illegal border crosser near the gas pump, Estrada said. When they approached him to ask him questions to determine his immigration status, he refused to answer and became combative. At one point, he pointed his finger at them and threatened to kill them, Estrada said. The agents, including one supervisor, called and asked for assistance from a Santa Cruz County Sheriff's deputy, who arrived within minutes, Estrada said. He was there with the people involved for a few minutes but was walking back to his vehicle when he heard shots fired, Estrada said. The man had reportedly picked up a rock and launched it at the agents, prompting the shooting, Estrada said. The deputy wasn't leaving the scene, but its unclear why he was walking back to his car, he said....
Cop called 'double agent'in Ramos-Compean case The father-in-law of imprisoned Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos is calling for an investigation of Border Patrol Agent Rene Sanchez – a longtime friend of the Mexican drug smuggler granted immunity to testify against Ramos and incarcerated fellow agent Jose Compean – as a possible "double agent." "I believe Rene Sanchez acted as a 'double agent' in the Ramos-Compean case," Joe Loya, father of Ramos's wife Monica, told WND. "He was doing everything he could to protect his life-long friend, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, but at the same time he was working with Johnny Sutton to make sure Ramos and Compean were convicted." Loya further charged that he had reason to believe "Rene Sanchez's actions make it look like he could have been in the drug business with Aldrete-Davila all along. The Department of Homeland Security never investigated, and from the beginning of this case Johnny Sutton was out to prosecute the Border Patrol, not the drug smugglers." As WND has previously reported, Sanchez and Aldrete-Davila grew up together in Mexico, prompting some observers – including Friends of the Border Patrol chairman Andy Ramirez – to question the propriety of a family friend of Aldrete-Davila playing such a major role in reporting the Ramos-Compean incident involving the drug smuggler. Yet later, during the trial, Aldrete-Davila testified that Rene Sanchez suggested he should get immunity to testify against Ramos and Compean, get medical attention in the U.S. for his injury and consider filing a lawsuit against the Border Patrol. The drug smuggler further testified Sanchez was the person who helped him find an attorney in the U.S. to represent him when he testified for the prosecution at the Ramos-Compean trial and to sue the Border Patrol for violating his civil rights....
Judge denies freedom plea by jailed ex-agents A federal appeals court judge yesterday denied a motion by former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean that they be released from prison pending appeals in their convictions for shooting a drug-smuggling suspect. Ramos, 37, and Compean, 28, were sentenced to 11- and 12-year prison terms for shooting Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks as he fled near Fabens, Texas, back into Mexico after abandoning 743 pounds of marijuana. They sought release pending the outcome of their appeals, but the motion was denied by U.S. District Judge Fortunato Pedro "Pete" Benavides of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in Austin, Texas, who said the men "had not shown unique or unusual circumstances that justify their release based on an exceptional reason." Judge Benavides granted a motion by Ramos that his appeal be sealed and ordered the government's response to both men's motions sealed....
Border agents' case inspires song A Southern California musician has written and recorded a song to support imprisoned Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, whose case has stirred a congressional and grass-roots protest against the Bush administration. Michael Britton, who makes a living performing an acoustic one-man-band show, said he was inspired to act when he learned details of the case. Ramos and Compean were convicted and sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison respectively after a drug smuggler they shot fleeing across the border was given immunity to testify against them. "I'm upset that men like Ramos and Compean are sitting in federal prison simply for doing their jobs, while drug smugglers are allowed to go free and sue the Border Patrol for violating their 'civil rights,'" he said....Go to the link to the article and you can listen to the song.
Sheriff: Deputy prosecuted by Mexico's demand Investigators had no plans to bring charges against Texas Sheriff's Deputy Gilmer Hernandez until the Mexican government intervened and demanded it, the officer's supervisor told WND. Sheriff Don Letsinger of Rocksprings, Texas, said the Texas Rangers were not going to recommend prosecution, but federal law enforcement took over the case in response to the Mexican government's intervention. Also, in the high-profile case of border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, the Department of Homeland Security investigation was opened March 4, 2005, the same date the Mexican Consulate demanded prosecution for the shooting of drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, according to numerous agency investigative reports authored by Special Agent Christopher Sanchez. WND can find no documentation of any Border Patrol investigation launched against Ramos or Compean prior to that date. In both trials, WND has uncovered indications the prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, withheld key, possibly exculpatory, information from the defense and the juries. Hernandez stopped a van full of illegals for running a stop sign April 14, 2005, in Rocksprings. The driver attempted to run over Hernandez, prompting the officer to fire his weapon at the rear tires. A bullet fragment hit a Mexican woman in the mouth, cutting her lip and breaking two teeth. Hernandez, convicted of felony civil rights violations, is incarcerated in Del Rio, Texas, awaiting sentencing. "Deputy Hernandez had a right to stop that vehicle," Letsinger told WND. "Can you look at what happened and say that Deputy Hernandez intentionally wanted to injure someone in that vehicle? You cannot. Deputy Hernandez did not want to injure anyone that day. He fired at the tires to stop the vehicle and he was justified in doing so."....
Judicial Watch seeks Ramos-Compean records The government watchdog Judicial Watch has filed several Freedom of Information Act requests in the case of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison in the shooting of a drug smuggler given immunity to testify against them. Judicial Watch Director of Research Chris Farrell told WND his group is seeking relevant records and communications from the State Department, several agencies within the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department, including the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas, which prosecuted the case. Judicial Watch requests information concerning: Drug smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila. * Any U.S. government "deals" with Aldrete-Davila. * U.S. government communications with the Mexican government concerning Aldrete-Davila and/or the prosecution of Ramos and Compean. * The participation of U.S. government personnel in coordinating, facilitating and/or approving the lawful entry or entries of Aldrete-Davila into the U.S.* The terms and conditions permitting Aldrete-Davila to lawfully enter the U.S....
Feinstein still probing Ramos-Compean case The office of Sen. Patrick Leahy confirmed to WND the Vermont Democrat has given Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., permission to investigate the prosecution and sentencing of Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos. As WND reported, Feinstein, who said she believes the sentences were "extreme," postponed the hearings, originally scheduled for Feb. 27. Leahy's office told WND Feinstein has the authority to schedule hearings on the case whenever she chooses. Feinstein is chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security. The California senator's office confirmed to WND an investigation into the border agents' prosecution and sentencing is underway, but no hearing dates have been scheduled....
Ramos attorney calls for mistrial The prosecutor in the high-profile case that sent border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean to prison never showed the defense a potentially exculpatory Department of Homeland Security memo. The document, an April 12, 2005, memo by Special Agent Christopher Sanchez, was first made public by WND in a report published Feb. 6. Mary Stillinger, attorney for Ramos, confirmed she learned of the memo from the WND story. "This is huge," Stillinger told WND, arguing the government's failure to disclose the document to the defense denied her client his right to a fair trial and establishes the basis for declaring a mistrial. "The government has a 'Jencks Act requirement' to give us any written statements by DHS Special Agent Christopher Sanchez before the defense cross-examined him," Stillinger told WND. The Jencks Act requires prior statements of a witness be turned over to the defense before the defense begins cross-examination. "The prosecution could have waited until they questioned Sanchez at trial," Stillinger noted, "but they had an obligation to turn that document over to the defense before we started our cross-examination."....
Man shot in altercation with Border Patrol agents A Border Patrol agent shot a suspected illegal entrant three times early Wednesday morning at a Rio Rico gas station after the man became combative and reportedly started throwing rocks, officials said. The shooting victim, believed to be between 20-30 years old who has not yet identified, was in stable condition Wednesday morning with non-life threatening injuries after being airlifted to a Tucson hospital, said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada. The man suffered a wound to his arm and a grazing wound to his torso, he said. The encounter occurred shortly after 4 a.m. at the Pilot gas station/fast-food store just south of Rio Rico off of Interstate 19. Three Border Patrol agents were at the gas station on break to get coffee when they spotted a man they suspected was an illegal border crosser near the gas pump, Estrada said. When they approached him to ask him questions to determine his immigration status, he refused to answer and became combative. At one point, he pointed his finger at them and threatened to kill them, Estrada said. The agents, including one supervisor, called and asked for assistance from a Santa Cruz County Sheriff's deputy, who arrived within minutes, Estrada said. He was there with the people involved for a few minutes but was walking back to his vehicle when he heard shots fired, Estrada said. The man had reportedly picked up a rock and launched it at the agents, prompting the shooting, Estrada said. The deputy wasn't leaving the scene, but its unclear why he was walking back to his car, he said....
Thursday, February 22, 2007
The Man Who Would Not Be King
posted by David Boaz
Today is the 275th anniversary of George Washington’s birth, although the federal government has instructed us to observe Washington’s Birthday (not Presidents’ Day) on a convenient Monday sometime before the actual date. There’s a reason that we should celebrate George Washington rather than a panoply of presidents. As I wrote last year: George Washington was the man who established the American republic. He led the revolutionary army against the British Empire, he served as the first president, and most importantly he stepped down from power…. [Washington] held “republican” values – that is, he believed in a republic of free citizens, with a government based on consent and established to protect the rights of life, liberty, and property. From his republican values Washington derived his abhorrence of kingship, even for himself. The writer Garry Wills called him “a virtuoso of resignations.” He gave up power not once but twice – at the end of the revolutionary war, when he resigned his military commission and returned to Mount Vernon, and again at the end of his second term as president, when he refused entreaties to seek a third term. In doing so, he set a standard for American presidents that lasted until the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose taste for power was stronger than the 150 years of precedent set by Washington. Give the last word to Washington’s great adversary, King George III. The king asked his American painter, Benjamin West, what Washington would do after winning independence. West replied, “They say he will return to his farm.” “If he does that,” the incredulous monarch said, “he will be the greatest man in the world.”
posted by David Boaz
Today is the 275th anniversary of George Washington’s birth, although the federal government has instructed us to observe Washington’s Birthday (not Presidents’ Day) on a convenient Monday sometime before the actual date. There’s a reason that we should celebrate George Washington rather than a panoply of presidents. As I wrote last year: George Washington was the man who established the American republic. He led the revolutionary army against the British Empire, he served as the first president, and most importantly he stepped down from power…. [Washington] held “republican” values – that is, he believed in a republic of free citizens, with a government based on consent and established to protect the rights of life, liberty, and property. From his republican values Washington derived his abhorrence of kingship, even for himself. The writer Garry Wills called him “a virtuoso of resignations.” He gave up power not once but twice – at the end of the revolutionary war, when he resigned his military commission and returned to Mount Vernon, and again at the end of his second term as president, when he refused entreaties to seek a third term. In doing so, he set a standard for American presidents that lasted until the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose taste for power was stronger than the 150 years of precedent set by Washington. Give the last word to Washington’s great adversary, King George III. The king asked his American painter, Benjamin West, what Washington would do after winning independence. West replied, “They say he will return to his farm.” “If he does that,” the incredulous monarch said, “he will be the greatest man in the world.”
NEWS ROUNDUP
V.P.-Turned-Environmentalist Al Gore Creates Frenzy At U. Of T. He's a former Vice-President of the United States. His movie, "An Inconvenient Truth", is up for an Oscar. And he's the poster boy for the environment - printed on recycled paper of course. All of which is making Al Gore a hot ticket in Toronto. The American politician turned environmentalist came to the U. of T. Wednesday night for a long awaited speech, and there were throngs of fans to greet him. So were ticket scalpers, who are seeing a different type of green. Reports indicate more than 20,000 people were trying to get their hands on a ducat for the event. But there's only room for 1,500 of them inside. What tickets there were originally cost $20. They sold out almost immediately. "We had about 23,000 hits on our website, which of course collapsed the website because we couldn't sustain it," muses the U. of T.'s Ingrid Stefanovic. "So there's been a huge enthusiasm for the event." And not just huge but expensive. The demand was so high that on the Internet auction site Craig's List, people were offering up to $500 for a single pass....
Wyo. Senate turns back industry amendment A move to remove a section that industry doesn't like from a bill reforming Wyoming's eminent domain law failed Tuesday on a tie vote in the Senate. The Senate went on to adopt House Bill 124 on a strong voice vote. It comes up today or second reading in the Senate. The contentious section in the bill says fair market value can be determined by the price paid for other comparable easements. It also allows disclosure of confidential settlement agreements if a case goes to court and the judge agrees the sales price is relevant to a claim. Opponents of the section argue it will lead to more court cases if left in the bill. They also contend the existing eminent domain law works well and doesn't need a fix. The original purpose of the bill is a response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision in a case out of Connecticut. In that case the court upheld the action of a public government entity which condemned private property and transferred it to a private entity for development....See email from Laura Goodman
Midland oilman shares water study plans An Austin hydrology and water resource specialist firm will conduct a year-long study of an aquifer under Clayton Williams' farm and the Belding area in Pecos County. Plans were presented Tuesday at Middle Pecos Groundwater Conservation District meeting in the Pecos County Courthouse in Fort Stockton. The meeting was set for January, but was postponed due to weather. Williams, a Midland oilman who grew up in Fort Stockton, said he studied the water under his property in the early 1980s and this is just an extension. The information will be available first to the groundwater district, then to the public through the board. Purposes of the study are to get updated information about the Edwards-Trinity aquifer and well conditions, compile data into a form that can be updated continuously and assess groundwater conditions, water quality and recharge, Thornhill Group President Mike Thornhill said. "We already know there's enough water just from producing wells to last 55 years. We know there's recharge. We want to make sure Fort Stockton has enough, not only for today, but for growth," Williams said. "We'll take the study one step at a time. If at some point Midland needs the water and we can make the economics work," Williams indicated he could sell some to Midland. " ... But that's an if."....
Pipelines studied for coalbed water The Wyoming Pipeline Authority is trying to determine whether it makes sense to develop a network of pipelines to carry coalbed methane water away from the Powder River Basin and discharge it into the North Platte or Bighorn rivers. Don Likwartz, supervisor of the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, said the amount of water being discharged by coalbed methane wells is growing rapidly. He said that by the end of October 2006, the industry already had produced more water than it did in all of 2005. When the final numbers are in, Likwartz expects the industry will have produced 680 million barrels of water last year. "It's going to be the highest year ever for water production," he said. Some view that as a problem because of what's in the water. Some ranchers and landowners complain that salts and other compounds in the discharged water kill trees and grass. Environmental regulators in Montana have sued Wyoming in an attempt to get the state to regulate methane water discharges into rivers that flow into Montana....
Wyo. Panel angrily rejects bill on wolf plan Several legislators who voted against a proposed wolf management bill Wednesday expressed bitter frustration with how the federal government has treated the state since the predators were reintroduced in the northern Rocky Mountains more than a decade ago. "I'm frustrated. I'm irritated," said Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody, chairman of the House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee. "Quite frankly, I'm pissed with the Fish and Wildlife Service." Childers' committee unanimously rejected a proposed Senate bill and associated amendments that would have accepted the federal government's proposal to designate a permanent management area in northwestern Wyoming. The committee vote came after several ranchers, outfitters and representatives of agricultural groups testified that wolves are killing too many elk, moose and livestock in the state....
Wolf center seeking to breed two endangered species Just beyond a path of wood chips, a gray wolf peers out from its fenced-in enclosure. The 7-year-old male, Lukas, is one of the Wolf Conservation Center's "ambassador" wolves, shown to visitors to help dispel myths about an animal that has fascinated and frightened humans. Farther up the path, past a roped-off area, are two enclosures for the center's more elusive residents - breeding pairs of Mexican gray wolves and red wolves, endangered species driven to near extinction in the 20th century. The breeding pairs don't have names. They are not shown to the public and are mostly hidden by plastic slats in their fencing to minimize contact with people and to lessen distractions during the breeding season - which ends this month. The breeding pairs are part of federal programs designed to bolster the population of both species so they can be reintroduced to their traditional ranges - the Southwest for the Mexican gray wolf and the southeastern United States for the red wolf....
Tre Arrow offers wrong lessons Tre Arrow spends his days in the Wilkinson Road jail, waiting for the legal system to deal with an extradition order that would send him back to the U.S. Before he was arrested for shoplifting in Victoria, Arrow was on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's most wanted list, accused of firebombing and burning logging and gravel trucks in Oregon. Since his arrest, he has pleaded guilty to the shoplifting charge and applied for refugee status. Arrow -- who changed his name from Michael Scarpitti for spiritual reasons -- is an environmental activist who will go any length for his cause. What makes Arrow different? Well, he has a network of supporters and $350,000 has been collected for his legal war chest. And the other inmates aren't guest lecturers in local schools....
Some wildland firefighters shun top ranks, poll finds A survey of wildland firefighters indicates many are reluctant to volunteer for supervisory jobs after an incident commander was criminally charged in the deaths of four firefighters in Washington state. But a spokeswoman for federal firefighting agencies said Wednesday there has been no decline in the numbers of firefighters signing up to lead management teams. Ellreese Daniels, a former U.S. Forest Service incident commander, was charged in federal court here last month with involuntary manslaughter and lying to investigators in the wake of the deaths of four firefighters in the Thirtymile Fire in Okanogan County in July 2001. Responding to concerns that the federal charges would make wildfire incident commanders more reluctant to serve if their decisions could lead to a prison sentence, the International Association of Wildland Fires conducted an online survey of its members Jan. 28-Feb. 15....
A speck of a species – felling pines across West The pristine mountainsides of the Gore Range, across the lower Blue River Valley, have taken on a new color lately. The red hue stretching like fingers through the normally dark-green forests is a telltale sign – even from a distance – of the devastation being wreaked by a tiny culprit, about the size of a match head: the mountain pine beetle. This color is becoming increasingly common in northern Colorado and throughout the West as the tiny beetle lays waste to vast swaths of vulnerable lodgepole pine forests, typically monocultures of trees that are weakened by drought and are all about the same mature age – perfect fodder for the voracious beetle. The destruction, which has killed millions of lodgepole pines in Colorado alone, will alter the look of the landscape and is a risk to local economies that depend on mountain tourism. It's also prompting a major response because of concerns about the threat to life and property from falling trees, as well as the increased risk of wildfire. "The forest is resetting itself on a landscape scale," says Jim Maxwell, a US Forest Service spokesman for the Rocky Mountain region....
Audit shows Interior workers exposed Workers at the massive U.S. Department of Interior headquarters in downtown Washington are exposed to potentially hazardous waste and life-threatening fire hazards, according to an internal audit. The findings come as employee health complaints have skyrocketed in connection with the large-scale renovation of the 71-year-old building, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the D.C.-based organization that released the audit Wednesday. Interior officials said they expected to find health and safety violations when they requested the audit. Most of the findings stemmed from the modernization work itself, such as the removal of asbestos and installation of new electrical systems. “The buildings are completely safe for employees and visitors,” spokesman Frank Quimby said. Officials have already started addressing the findings....
Sharpshooters cull deer in northwestern Minnesota Sharpshooters are culling deer in northwestern Minnesota to try to stop the spread of bovine tuberculosis. Six sharpshooters with the U.S. Department of Agriculture began killing deer on Tuesday at 56 baited sites in an area east of Thief River Falls, and more shooters are expected to arrive this week. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources wildlife health program coordinator Michelle Powell said the culling likely will continue through March. She estimates that hundreds of deer will be shot. The deer are being killed in an area where an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis has infected both cattle and wild deer. DNR aerial surveys indicate there are about 1,000 deer in the area. "It's extremely critical," Powell said. "The risk of not stopping it basically means an ongoing transmission potential between deer and cattle."....
Anti-cruelty bill advances (Colo) A sweeping animal protection bill that would ban everything from bestiality to dogs' riding unrestrained in the back of pickups was endorsed by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. The bill also would extend domestic violence protection orders to pets, make it easier to pursue felony charges in animal abuse cases, remove a requirement that veterinarians get a court order to euthanize some seriously injured or abused animals and change the definition of dangerous dogs. But rural lawmakers objected to its broad nature and the pickup ban. "What I see is a real difference between urban and rural Colorado," Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, said of the pickup provision, which includes an exemption for ranching and farming. "If anyone's been out to the Western Slope lately, that's how the dog goes to work. That's how the dog travels with the family." Indeed, some witnesses expressed concern that the measure would hinder the ability of ranchers and rural law enforcement officers to shoot injured animals without a veterinarian's consent....
Mad-cow scrutiny is scaled way back While Washington ranchers are raising a fuss over Canadian cattle and the danger of mad-cow disease, the region's only mad-cow testing lab is quietly preparing to close March 1. The lab at Washington State University in Pullman opened after the nation's first mad-cow case spurred a flurry of new safeguards against the fatal, brain-wasting disease. But three years later, many of those measures are being dismantled. Others proposed after the infected dairy cow was discovered in Mabton, Yakima County, never materialized. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently scaled back mad-cow testing by more than 90 percent, leading to closure of the WSU lab and several others around the country. The agency has backed off plans for a mandatory animal-tracking system, which can help identify the source of an infection and other animals at risk, and now says the program will be voluntary. Several of the unappetizing — and risky — practices that came to light in the wake of the initial mad-cow case are still allowed, including the use of cow blood as a food supplement for calves. And even the prohibition on slaughtering sickly cows, called downers, for human consumption has not been made permanent, though it is being enforced....
Sitting Bull's kin seek home for chief's bones Sitting Bull's four surviving great-grandchildren want the bones of their famous ancestor moved from a cement-clad grave in South Dakota to Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana. Ernie LaPointe of Lead, S.D., the spokesman for the family, said that for 50 years, Sitting Bull's grave on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation near Mobridge, S.D., has been neglected and dishonored. Now, LaPointe says, new owners of the property plan to exploit the legendary Lakota political and spiritual leader's memory. LaPointe and his sisters, Marlene Little Spotted Horse Andersen, Ethel Little Spotted Horse Bates and Lydia Little Spotted Horse Red Paint, sent letters Wednesday advising government and tribal officials in the Dakotas and Montana of their intent to have the remains moved. "This is to notify you and other interested parties of family right and authority to re-inter our Great-Grandfather Sitting Bull to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Montana," it says. "We do this because North Dakota, South Dakota and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have not honored their promise for proper care and maintenance of our Grandfather's burial site."....
Bones aren't Sitting Bull's, some say Some contend that the bones cemented into the ground at Mobridge, S.D., aren't those of Sitting Bull, but of an unknown man placed in his grave in the middle of the night after the Hunkpapa Sioux leader's death. For a century or more, rumors have circulated that Sitting Bull's body was spirited away by his followers and reburied in Canada. That's the story Jerome First Jr., 70, of Poplar, heard from his father and grandfathers. "Years ago, when I was younger, my Dad told me that when Sitting Bull was sick and near death that he told the old chiefs he wanted to be buried in Turtle Mountain just across the border in Canada where he went after the Little Bighorn," First said. Even before Sitting Bull was killed Dec. 15, 1890, he knew he was dying, First said. "Sitting Bull had a dream of his death and he knew there would be a fight over his grave," First recounted....
Great leader cast his legend in Eastern Montana Sitting Bull will be on familiar ground should his remains be re-interred at Little Bighorn Battlefield. He knew Eastern Montana well. The Lakota recognized no state boundaries in their nomadic world. Sitting Bull often camped north of the Yellowstone in the winter and hunted south of it during the summer. He prayed here, sought visions here and did battle here for nearly 30 years. At midlife, the legendary Sioux war chief and spiritual leader forged the mightiest alliance of Indian forces on the Northern Plains and won his greatest victory here. Montana knew him at the height of his power, before his sad subjection and violent death. Sitting Bull was born along the Grand River in what is now South Dakota sometime in the 1830s. Euro-Americans were already trickling toward the frontiers of the Northern Plains, displacing native populations as they advanced. The Lakota were feeling the pressure as they roamed a huge territory that included the Dakotas and parts of Nebraska, Montana and Wyoming. As they ranged westward, the Lakota increasingly clashed with other tribes in ever-shrinking Indian Country....
Art of the Saddle comes to Museum Fans of western movies and sophisticated scholars of history alike recognize the importance of the horse in the winning of the West. (Humorists often point out that, back in the old days, girlfriends and wives sometimes ran a poor second compared to a favorite Cayuse.) As revered as these four-footed friends were, however, it was the western saddle that made days, even weeks, of riding possible for cowboys, soldiers and outlaws. Beginning March 10 and continuing through Sept. 2, artful examples of this indispensable gear will come out of history's shadows and into the spotlight at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum. The exhibition entitled “Art of the Saddle: A Leather Canvas in Miniature” will feature half-scale saddles designed and constructed by Wickenburg's Carson Thomas. “These are functional art forms as well as pieces of history,” said Museum Director Royce Kardinal. “Our exhibit will dramatize their significance from the 1830s to present day.”....
Rodeo show took rural cowgirls all the way to New York City When MaryAnn Mayfield Stephen went to New York in 1950 to promote the Dublin-based World Championship Rodeo, she performed alongside Milton Berle on "Texaco Star Theater." And she was so young and naive, she didn't even know Berle was the biggest star in the early days of television. In fact, when she began performing her trick-roping stunts, she scolded Berle for touching her ropes. "We didn't have television, so I had no idea who he was," Stephen said. "That shows you where I was from." The cowgirls who rode in the Dublin World Championship Rodeo may have been from the country. But in the middle of the 20th century, they participated in a sparkling spectacle that took them from Erath County all the way to New York City. Whether they were performing in the Quadrille (a square dance with horses), trick riding or roping, the women combined beauty, grace, skill and athletic ability. These were accomplished horsewomen — most could ride before they could walk — and they often performed their stunts while riding horses galloping at top speed. They dressed in sleek, flamboyant western pant suits that most made themselves. And they entertained thousands of people across the country. The World Championship Rodeo was directed by rancher and rodeo promoter Everett Colborn. He put Dublin, about 95 miles east of Abilene, on the map as the Rodeo Capital of Texas from 1937 to 1959 when the rodeo was headquartered there....
The Corn Flakes Cure The fall of 1970 found me and my bride on a place on Clear Creek on the north side of the Bear Paw Mountains. I was working for Harry Olson, and it was sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The cattle were shipped, the hay was all up, and we were doing the usual fall chores. Harry had an old wooden grain bin with a pile of rye in it that he'd thrashed a year or two before, and he wanted to take it in to the feed plant in town to have it mixed with a little barley to be made into pellets for the cows. Boy, was that some awful stuff. It was full of smut or ergot or whatever that stuff was, and the dust was as black as coal. Bein' the low man on the totem pole, it was my job to get in the bin and shovel that valuable commodity into a little auger that he'd stuffed in a window. I don't know if anyone has ever died from breathin' that black junk, but it sure wouldn't surprise me any if that were the case. I think it was beyond a doubt the worst bin I've ever had the pleasure of shovelin' in my life. By the time we finally got that truck full, I was in pretty bad shape....
V.P.-Turned-Environmentalist Al Gore Creates Frenzy At U. Of T. He's a former Vice-President of the United States. His movie, "An Inconvenient Truth", is up for an Oscar. And he's the poster boy for the environment - printed on recycled paper of course. All of which is making Al Gore a hot ticket in Toronto. The American politician turned environmentalist came to the U. of T. Wednesday night for a long awaited speech, and there were throngs of fans to greet him. So were ticket scalpers, who are seeing a different type of green. Reports indicate more than 20,000 people were trying to get their hands on a ducat for the event. But there's only room for 1,500 of them inside. What tickets there were originally cost $20. They sold out almost immediately. "We had about 23,000 hits on our website, which of course collapsed the website because we couldn't sustain it," muses the U. of T.'s Ingrid Stefanovic. "So there's been a huge enthusiasm for the event." And not just huge but expensive. The demand was so high that on the Internet auction site Craig's List, people were offering up to $500 for a single pass....
Wyo. Senate turns back industry amendment A move to remove a section that industry doesn't like from a bill reforming Wyoming's eminent domain law failed Tuesday on a tie vote in the Senate. The Senate went on to adopt House Bill 124 on a strong voice vote. It comes up today or second reading in the Senate. The contentious section in the bill says fair market value can be determined by the price paid for other comparable easements. It also allows disclosure of confidential settlement agreements if a case goes to court and the judge agrees the sales price is relevant to a claim. Opponents of the section argue it will lead to more court cases if left in the bill. They also contend the existing eminent domain law works well and doesn't need a fix. The original purpose of the bill is a response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision in a case out of Connecticut. In that case the court upheld the action of a public government entity which condemned private property and transferred it to a private entity for development....See email from Laura Goodman
Midland oilman shares water study plans An Austin hydrology and water resource specialist firm will conduct a year-long study of an aquifer under Clayton Williams' farm and the Belding area in Pecos County. Plans were presented Tuesday at Middle Pecos Groundwater Conservation District meeting in the Pecos County Courthouse in Fort Stockton. The meeting was set for January, but was postponed due to weather. Williams, a Midland oilman who grew up in Fort Stockton, said he studied the water under his property in the early 1980s and this is just an extension. The information will be available first to the groundwater district, then to the public through the board. Purposes of the study are to get updated information about the Edwards-Trinity aquifer and well conditions, compile data into a form that can be updated continuously and assess groundwater conditions, water quality and recharge, Thornhill Group President Mike Thornhill said. "We already know there's enough water just from producing wells to last 55 years. We know there's recharge. We want to make sure Fort Stockton has enough, not only for today, but for growth," Williams said. "We'll take the study one step at a time. If at some point Midland needs the water and we can make the economics work," Williams indicated he could sell some to Midland. " ... But that's an if."....
Pipelines studied for coalbed water The Wyoming Pipeline Authority is trying to determine whether it makes sense to develop a network of pipelines to carry coalbed methane water away from the Powder River Basin and discharge it into the North Platte or Bighorn rivers. Don Likwartz, supervisor of the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, said the amount of water being discharged by coalbed methane wells is growing rapidly. He said that by the end of October 2006, the industry already had produced more water than it did in all of 2005. When the final numbers are in, Likwartz expects the industry will have produced 680 million barrels of water last year. "It's going to be the highest year ever for water production," he said. Some view that as a problem because of what's in the water. Some ranchers and landowners complain that salts and other compounds in the discharged water kill trees and grass. Environmental regulators in Montana have sued Wyoming in an attempt to get the state to regulate methane water discharges into rivers that flow into Montana....
Wyo. Panel angrily rejects bill on wolf plan Several legislators who voted against a proposed wolf management bill Wednesday expressed bitter frustration with how the federal government has treated the state since the predators were reintroduced in the northern Rocky Mountains more than a decade ago. "I'm frustrated. I'm irritated," said Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody, chairman of the House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee. "Quite frankly, I'm pissed with the Fish and Wildlife Service." Childers' committee unanimously rejected a proposed Senate bill and associated amendments that would have accepted the federal government's proposal to designate a permanent management area in northwestern Wyoming. The committee vote came after several ranchers, outfitters and representatives of agricultural groups testified that wolves are killing too many elk, moose and livestock in the state....
Wolf center seeking to breed two endangered species Just beyond a path of wood chips, a gray wolf peers out from its fenced-in enclosure. The 7-year-old male, Lukas, is one of the Wolf Conservation Center's "ambassador" wolves, shown to visitors to help dispel myths about an animal that has fascinated and frightened humans. Farther up the path, past a roped-off area, are two enclosures for the center's more elusive residents - breeding pairs of Mexican gray wolves and red wolves, endangered species driven to near extinction in the 20th century. The breeding pairs don't have names. They are not shown to the public and are mostly hidden by plastic slats in their fencing to minimize contact with people and to lessen distractions during the breeding season - which ends this month. The breeding pairs are part of federal programs designed to bolster the population of both species so they can be reintroduced to their traditional ranges - the Southwest for the Mexican gray wolf and the southeastern United States for the red wolf....
Tre Arrow offers wrong lessons Tre Arrow spends his days in the Wilkinson Road jail, waiting for the legal system to deal with an extradition order that would send him back to the U.S. Before he was arrested for shoplifting in Victoria, Arrow was on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's most wanted list, accused of firebombing and burning logging and gravel trucks in Oregon. Since his arrest, he has pleaded guilty to the shoplifting charge and applied for refugee status. Arrow -- who changed his name from Michael Scarpitti for spiritual reasons -- is an environmental activist who will go any length for his cause. What makes Arrow different? Well, he has a network of supporters and $350,000 has been collected for his legal war chest. And the other inmates aren't guest lecturers in local schools....
Some wildland firefighters shun top ranks, poll finds A survey of wildland firefighters indicates many are reluctant to volunteer for supervisory jobs after an incident commander was criminally charged in the deaths of four firefighters in Washington state. But a spokeswoman for federal firefighting agencies said Wednesday there has been no decline in the numbers of firefighters signing up to lead management teams. Ellreese Daniels, a former U.S. Forest Service incident commander, was charged in federal court here last month with involuntary manslaughter and lying to investigators in the wake of the deaths of four firefighters in the Thirtymile Fire in Okanogan County in July 2001. Responding to concerns that the federal charges would make wildfire incident commanders more reluctant to serve if their decisions could lead to a prison sentence, the International Association of Wildland Fires conducted an online survey of its members Jan. 28-Feb. 15....
A speck of a species – felling pines across West The pristine mountainsides of the Gore Range, across the lower Blue River Valley, have taken on a new color lately. The red hue stretching like fingers through the normally dark-green forests is a telltale sign – even from a distance – of the devastation being wreaked by a tiny culprit, about the size of a match head: the mountain pine beetle. This color is becoming increasingly common in northern Colorado and throughout the West as the tiny beetle lays waste to vast swaths of vulnerable lodgepole pine forests, typically monocultures of trees that are weakened by drought and are all about the same mature age – perfect fodder for the voracious beetle. The destruction, which has killed millions of lodgepole pines in Colorado alone, will alter the look of the landscape and is a risk to local economies that depend on mountain tourism. It's also prompting a major response because of concerns about the threat to life and property from falling trees, as well as the increased risk of wildfire. "The forest is resetting itself on a landscape scale," says Jim Maxwell, a US Forest Service spokesman for the Rocky Mountain region....
Audit shows Interior workers exposed Workers at the massive U.S. Department of Interior headquarters in downtown Washington are exposed to potentially hazardous waste and life-threatening fire hazards, according to an internal audit. The findings come as employee health complaints have skyrocketed in connection with the large-scale renovation of the 71-year-old building, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the D.C.-based organization that released the audit Wednesday. Interior officials said they expected to find health and safety violations when they requested the audit. Most of the findings stemmed from the modernization work itself, such as the removal of asbestos and installation of new electrical systems. “The buildings are completely safe for employees and visitors,” spokesman Frank Quimby said. Officials have already started addressing the findings....
Sharpshooters cull deer in northwestern Minnesota Sharpshooters are culling deer in northwestern Minnesota to try to stop the spread of bovine tuberculosis. Six sharpshooters with the U.S. Department of Agriculture began killing deer on Tuesday at 56 baited sites in an area east of Thief River Falls, and more shooters are expected to arrive this week. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources wildlife health program coordinator Michelle Powell said the culling likely will continue through March. She estimates that hundreds of deer will be shot. The deer are being killed in an area where an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis has infected both cattle and wild deer. DNR aerial surveys indicate there are about 1,000 deer in the area. "It's extremely critical," Powell said. "The risk of not stopping it basically means an ongoing transmission potential between deer and cattle."....
Anti-cruelty bill advances (Colo) A sweeping animal protection bill that would ban everything from bestiality to dogs' riding unrestrained in the back of pickups was endorsed by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. The bill also would extend domestic violence protection orders to pets, make it easier to pursue felony charges in animal abuse cases, remove a requirement that veterinarians get a court order to euthanize some seriously injured or abused animals and change the definition of dangerous dogs. But rural lawmakers objected to its broad nature and the pickup ban. "What I see is a real difference between urban and rural Colorado," Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, said of the pickup provision, which includes an exemption for ranching and farming. "If anyone's been out to the Western Slope lately, that's how the dog goes to work. That's how the dog travels with the family." Indeed, some witnesses expressed concern that the measure would hinder the ability of ranchers and rural law enforcement officers to shoot injured animals without a veterinarian's consent....
Mad-cow scrutiny is scaled way back While Washington ranchers are raising a fuss over Canadian cattle and the danger of mad-cow disease, the region's only mad-cow testing lab is quietly preparing to close March 1. The lab at Washington State University in Pullman opened after the nation's first mad-cow case spurred a flurry of new safeguards against the fatal, brain-wasting disease. But three years later, many of those measures are being dismantled. Others proposed after the infected dairy cow was discovered in Mabton, Yakima County, never materialized. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently scaled back mad-cow testing by more than 90 percent, leading to closure of the WSU lab and several others around the country. The agency has backed off plans for a mandatory animal-tracking system, which can help identify the source of an infection and other animals at risk, and now says the program will be voluntary. Several of the unappetizing — and risky — practices that came to light in the wake of the initial mad-cow case are still allowed, including the use of cow blood as a food supplement for calves. And even the prohibition on slaughtering sickly cows, called downers, for human consumption has not been made permanent, though it is being enforced....
Sitting Bull's kin seek home for chief's bones Sitting Bull's four surviving great-grandchildren want the bones of their famous ancestor moved from a cement-clad grave in South Dakota to Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana. Ernie LaPointe of Lead, S.D., the spokesman for the family, said that for 50 years, Sitting Bull's grave on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation near Mobridge, S.D., has been neglected and dishonored. Now, LaPointe says, new owners of the property plan to exploit the legendary Lakota political and spiritual leader's memory. LaPointe and his sisters, Marlene Little Spotted Horse Andersen, Ethel Little Spotted Horse Bates and Lydia Little Spotted Horse Red Paint, sent letters Wednesday advising government and tribal officials in the Dakotas and Montana of their intent to have the remains moved. "This is to notify you and other interested parties of family right and authority to re-inter our Great-Grandfather Sitting Bull to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Montana," it says. "We do this because North Dakota, South Dakota and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have not honored their promise for proper care and maintenance of our Grandfather's burial site."....
Bones aren't Sitting Bull's, some say Some contend that the bones cemented into the ground at Mobridge, S.D., aren't those of Sitting Bull, but of an unknown man placed in his grave in the middle of the night after the Hunkpapa Sioux leader's death. For a century or more, rumors have circulated that Sitting Bull's body was spirited away by his followers and reburied in Canada. That's the story Jerome First Jr., 70, of Poplar, heard from his father and grandfathers. "Years ago, when I was younger, my Dad told me that when Sitting Bull was sick and near death that he told the old chiefs he wanted to be buried in Turtle Mountain just across the border in Canada where he went after the Little Bighorn," First said. Even before Sitting Bull was killed Dec. 15, 1890, he knew he was dying, First said. "Sitting Bull had a dream of his death and he knew there would be a fight over his grave," First recounted....
Great leader cast his legend in Eastern Montana Sitting Bull will be on familiar ground should his remains be re-interred at Little Bighorn Battlefield. He knew Eastern Montana well. The Lakota recognized no state boundaries in their nomadic world. Sitting Bull often camped north of the Yellowstone in the winter and hunted south of it during the summer. He prayed here, sought visions here and did battle here for nearly 30 years. At midlife, the legendary Sioux war chief and spiritual leader forged the mightiest alliance of Indian forces on the Northern Plains and won his greatest victory here. Montana knew him at the height of his power, before his sad subjection and violent death. Sitting Bull was born along the Grand River in what is now South Dakota sometime in the 1830s. Euro-Americans were already trickling toward the frontiers of the Northern Plains, displacing native populations as they advanced. The Lakota were feeling the pressure as they roamed a huge territory that included the Dakotas and parts of Nebraska, Montana and Wyoming. As they ranged westward, the Lakota increasingly clashed with other tribes in ever-shrinking Indian Country....
Art of the Saddle comes to Museum Fans of western movies and sophisticated scholars of history alike recognize the importance of the horse in the winning of the West. (Humorists often point out that, back in the old days, girlfriends and wives sometimes ran a poor second compared to a favorite Cayuse.) As revered as these four-footed friends were, however, it was the western saddle that made days, even weeks, of riding possible for cowboys, soldiers and outlaws. Beginning March 10 and continuing through Sept. 2, artful examples of this indispensable gear will come out of history's shadows and into the spotlight at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum. The exhibition entitled “Art of the Saddle: A Leather Canvas in Miniature” will feature half-scale saddles designed and constructed by Wickenburg's Carson Thomas. “These are functional art forms as well as pieces of history,” said Museum Director Royce Kardinal. “Our exhibit will dramatize their significance from the 1830s to present day.”....
Rodeo show took rural cowgirls all the way to New York City When MaryAnn Mayfield Stephen went to New York in 1950 to promote the Dublin-based World Championship Rodeo, she performed alongside Milton Berle on "Texaco Star Theater." And she was so young and naive, she didn't even know Berle was the biggest star in the early days of television. In fact, when she began performing her trick-roping stunts, she scolded Berle for touching her ropes. "We didn't have television, so I had no idea who he was," Stephen said. "That shows you where I was from." The cowgirls who rode in the Dublin World Championship Rodeo may have been from the country. But in the middle of the 20th century, they participated in a sparkling spectacle that took them from Erath County all the way to New York City. Whether they were performing in the Quadrille (a square dance with horses), trick riding or roping, the women combined beauty, grace, skill and athletic ability. These were accomplished horsewomen — most could ride before they could walk — and they often performed their stunts while riding horses galloping at top speed. They dressed in sleek, flamboyant western pant suits that most made themselves. And they entertained thousands of people across the country. The World Championship Rodeo was directed by rancher and rodeo promoter Everett Colborn. He put Dublin, about 95 miles east of Abilene, on the map as the Rodeo Capital of Texas from 1937 to 1959 when the rodeo was headquartered there....
The Corn Flakes Cure The fall of 1970 found me and my bride on a place on Clear Creek on the north side of the Bear Paw Mountains. I was working for Harry Olson, and it was sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The cattle were shipped, the hay was all up, and we were doing the usual fall chores. Harry had an old wooden grain bin with a pile of rye in it that he'd thrashed a year or two before, and he wanted to take it in to the feed plant in town to have it mixed with a little barley to be made into pellets for the cows. Boy, was that some awful stuff. It was full of smut or ergot or whatever that stuff was, and the dust was as black as coal. Bein' the low man on the totem pole, it was my job to get in the bin and shovel that valuable commodity into a little auger that he'd stuffed in a window. I don't know if anyone has ever died from breathin' that black junk, but it sure wouldn't surprise me any if that were the case. I think it was beyond a doubt the worst bin I've ever had the pleasure of shovelin' in my life. By the time we finally got that truck full, I was in pretty bad shape....
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