FLE
8-Year-Old Boy Held From Plane for Appearing on No-Fly List An 8-year-old boy expecting to catch a plane home is denied entry for appearing on a terrorist no-fly list, reported MyFoxKansasCity.com. Bryan Moore was set to catch his first plane trip when he arrived at an airport in Cortez, Colorado to fly home after visiting his sister, said the report. "They almost got me scheduled in and then the lady just bowed her head and said, 'We can't get you on this plane, you're a terrorist,'" Moore said. The soon-to-be third grader was red flagged as a threat to national security because his name popped up on the national watch list. According to the Transportation Security Administration, no children are on the terrorist watch list. The TSA said if a child's name matches up, it's up the airline to make the necessary changes and let them board the plane. "It's not really fair that I couldn't get home because another man in the world was a terrorist," Moore said....
Documents Cite Further Offending by Smuggler in Border Agents Case Cipriano Ortiz-Hernandez hung his head and confessed that he was storing marijuana in his Clint, Texas, home when federal authorities turned up there. He admitted to Drug Enforcement Administration agents that he was being paid to hide the drugs by dealers who delivered marijuana on ten occasions in the four months before the agents showed up at his door on Oct. 23, 2005. According to DEA documents labeled "sensitive," obtained by Cybercast News Service, Ortiz-Hernandez identified one of the drug dealers as Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, a Mexican who at the time was under a federal immunity deal for a previous drug offense. Aldrete-Davila was the man at the center of a notorious case in which two U.S. Border Patrol agents were imprisoned earlier this year, unleashing a controversy that continues and will be the subject of Senate hearings this week. As a Senate panel prepares to investigate the prosecution of Ramos and Compean at a hearing on Tuesday, lawmakers have said that one of the questions they intend to put to U.S. attorney Johnny Sutton -- the prosecutor who offered the immunity deal -- will deal with a second alleged offense by Aldrete-Davila. "Why was this drug smuggler allowed to get immunity from prosecution without pleading guilty to any crime, then allowed get essentially a visa where he's allowed to travel back and forth into the U.S.?" Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked during a telephone press conference late last week....
D.C. Wants High Court To Hear Gun Case The District will ask the Supreme Court to uphold its strict 30-year handgun ban, setting up what legal experts said could be a test of the Second Amendment with broad ramifications. The high court has not ruled on the Second Amendment protection of the right to keep and bear arms since 1939. But at a morning news conference yesterday, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and Attorney General Linda Singer said they expect the court to hear a case they called crucial to public safety. In a 2 to 1 decision in March, a panel of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the city's prohibition against residents keeping handguns in their homes is unconstitutional. In May, the full appeals court declined a petition from the city to reconsider the panel's decision. Some gun control advocates have cautioned that a defeat in the Supreme Court could lead to tough gun laws being overturned in major cities, including New York, Chicago and Detroit. Fenty said the District had no choice but to fight because more guns in homes could lead to increases in violent crime and deadly accidents. Gun rights advocates welcomed the chance to take the fight to the high court. A central question the D.C. case poses is whether the Second Amendment protects an individual's rights to keep and bear arms....
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
State Dispatchers Dismissed Early 911 Reports of Tahoe Fire Two dispatchers with the California Highway Patrol initially dismissed 911 calls reporting a fire on the south rim of Lake Tahoe, causing a seven- to nine-minute delay in the response to it, recordings released Friday show. Dispatchers told callers that the smoke they were seeing was from a controlled burn in the area. The smoke was actually from a wildfire that ultimately destroyed 254 homes and burned 3,100 acres of mountain wilderness. “I’m on the golf course, it’s Lake Tahoe Country Club, and we can see smoke coming off the mountain to the west of us,” a man reported, according to a transcript of the first call received at 2:02 p.m. June 24 by the patrol’s communications center in Truckee. The dispatcher responded: “Yeah. Yeah, they’re doing a — a control burn there.” The unidentified male caller said: “Thank you. Sorry to bother you.” Capt. Gary Ross, commander of the Truckee office, said the dispatchers’ dismissals of the reports caused a delayed response to the fire. Also, Highway Patrol policy instructs dispatchers to keep callers on the line and transfer them to a local fire department in such situations. In these cases, the dispatchers let the callers hang up. Both dispatchers have been reassigned while the Highway Patrol investigates, Captain Ross said....
Scholar: USFS conclusion wrong concerning Angora fire path After a first-hand look, one forest-restoration specialist has drawn significantly different conclusions than the U.S. Forest Service about how and why the Angora fire burned so intensely. Tom Bonnicksen, emeritus professor of forest science at Texas A&M University and visiting scholar with the Forest Foundation, a logging-industry group, toured the burned area last week. "The Angora fire was a crown fire that killed all the trees that were 40-60 inches in diameter. Anybody can see that; all you have to do is look at it," said Bonnicksen during a phone interview on Tuesday. "This was a situation where homeowners didn't stand a chance. They were victims of the surrounding forest." he said. Bonnicksen said fire racing through the top of an overly dense forest was the major cause of property damage, while Rex Norman, USFS spokesman, has repeatedly reiterated the initial findings of agency investigators....
Some blame BLM policies for huge blaze The spread of the Milford Flat Fire across a wide swath of central Utah desert is sparking concern among some Utah lawmakers that the Bureau of Land Management hasn’t managed the cheatgrass and pinyon-covered rangeland within the burn area well enough to prevent wildfires. The Milford Flat Fire, ignited July 6 by lightning, is Utah’s largest-ever wildfire, incinerating more than 363,000 acres of rangeland upon which many area ranchers depended for their livelihoods. But Utah state Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Parowan, said despite drought conditions, ranchers may have been dealt an unnecessary blow. “I just feel like (we have) failed environmental policy in the whole country,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of fuel build-up, a lot of pinyon-juniper. We’re not managing the land enough.” Stowell, who toured the burn area Wednesday, criticized the BLM for not allowing enough cattle to graze rangeland in the region and permitting pinyon-juniper forests killed by bark beetles to remain standing. As a testament to the fire resistance of intensely managed land, some of the rangeland in the Milford Flat Fire’s path that was pastured didn’t burn, Stowell said. “Years ago, we didn’t have a lot of forest fires or range fires because we had proper grazing,” Millard County Commissioner John C. Cooper said. Now, he said, the BLM is often too eager to limit grazing, especially during a drought. “The abundance of fuel has become crazy,” he said. “When we have these fires, it’s replaced by cheatgrass. We need to reseed this burned area.”....
On fire lines, cost a concern His first day leading the attack on the Milford Flat fire, Rowdy Muir declared his crews would stop it - the largest wildfire in Utah's modern history - with half the money he'd been promised to do the job. Spending less to do more might sound like an audacious claim, since costs seem to be flaring up as fast as new wildfires and the acreage they leave in ashes. But the incident commander's pledge is a sign that wildfire managers no longer look only at the fire lines, but the bottom line as well. For decades, wildfire costs were addressed with a blank check. Congress, state forest agencies and local fire departments would spend first and pay later, usually the next budget year. "In the last few years, we have become more cost conscious," said Randy Eardley, a spokesman for the BLM and the Interagency Fire Center in Boise. At the Milford Flat fire, as with all wildfires these days, auditors are on the scene with spreadsheets and calculators. Even the tube of lip balm or sunscreen a medic hands out gets logged and tallied for the final bill. The air tankers dousing homes with fire retardant, the food service contractors for the 500 firefighters, the satellite mapping experts, the portable toilet providers - expenses add up fast....
Climate Change Debate Hinges On Economics Here's the good news about climate change: Energy and climate experts say the world already possesses the technological know-how for trimming greenhouse gas emissions enough to slow the perilous rise in the Earth's temperatures. Here's the bad news: Because of the enormous cost of addressing global warming, the energy legislation considered by Congress so far will make barely a dent in the problem, while farther-reaching climate proposals stand a remote chance of passage. Despite growing public concern over global warming, the House has failed to agree on new standards for automobile fuel efficiency, and the Senate has done little to boost the efficiency of commercial office buildings and appliances. In September, Congress is expected to start wrestling with more ambitious legislation aimed at slowing climate change; but because of the complexity of the likely proposals, few expect any bill to become law. Even if passed by Congress and signed by President Bush, the final measure may not be tough enough to slow global warming....
Group works to preserve open space between Springs & Pueblo Following examples elsewhere in the state, ranchers and conservationists are working to save 200,000 acres of open space between Colorado Springs and Pueblo from urban sprawl. Rancher Jay Frost is an unlikely member of the group, which calls itself the Peak to Prairie Conservation Initiative. The second-generation rancher just sold development rights to 915 acres along Fountain Creek to the group. He always knew he would have to sell some land but he is surprised to feel good about it. "Our family always loved this place, but agriculture can be a tough racket," Frost, 46, told the Gazette recently while taking a break from mowing hay with his sons. "It would be easy to sell the place. We get offers all the time. This way, we get some of the value while keeping the ranch on the land." Landowners get tax breaks, allowing them to stay in business, while development is blocked where conservation easements are in place. Such a buffer already exists in an area between Monument and Castle Rock to the north. The Nature Conservancy, the national leader in creating conservation easements, is behind the latest initiative, along with Colorado Open Lands. They want to start by blocking development on at least 60,000 acres in the next 10 years....
Pneumonia kills Oregon bighorns State biologists are trying desperately to deal with a domestic sheep disease that is killing bighorns in one of Oregon's signature Rocky Mountain bighorn herds. The Hells Canyon herd, numbering 900 animals in Oregon, Washington and Idaho (most of them in Oregon), is the largest of the state's Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep herds, also found throughout the Wallowa Mountains. High desert sheep are California bighorns, a subspecies of the Rocky Mountain. Craig Ely, northeast regional supervisor for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, told the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday in Lincoln City that Hells Canyon sheep are dying of a bacterial pneumonia strain common in domestic sheep. It affects domestic lambs only mildly but is deadly for wild bighorns. Some Hells Canyon bands have been wiped out by the pneumonia, some haven't yet been affected, and still others had survivors when it swept through. Domestic sheep ranchers are under a court order to remove their animals from 6,000 acres of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area.
Sierra Blancans again debate possible sludge dump That smell - a peculiarly pungent combination of sewage chemicals and human waste - might soon be wafting back into Sierra Blanca. It's the scent of money for some in this tiny, economically frustrated border town. It's the stench of environmental injustice to those fighting to keep their desert home from again becoming a dumping ground. "If someone else doesn't want it, why in the hell would we want it in our backyard?" asked Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West, a lifelong Sierra Blanca resident. A decade and a half ago, New York-based Merco Joint Ventures started hauling treated New York City sewage to scrubland just outside Sierra Blanca, spraying tons of it daily on thousands of acres. The spraying stopped in 2001, and the company went bankrupt. Now, the state of Texas has bought the land and leased it to a group that wants to resume spreading sewage....
Butterflies aren't free The Taylor's checkerspot butterfly is no bigger than a man's thumb, sports splashy orange and black wings, cavorts in sunny meadows ringed by oak and pine, tastes with its feet, nectars on wild strawberries, has a short (but splendid) lifespan of five to eight days, and is in imminent danger of forever disappearing from the face of the earth. Fifty years ago, Euphydryas editha taylori fluttered in more than 70 meadows throughout the Puget Sound region, Willamette Valley and south Vancouver Island. Since then, 97 percent of the butterflies' upland prairie habitat has been wiped out — victim of agriculture, urban development, logging, invasive plants, pesticides, a Wal-Mart parking lot and drought. They've vanished from British Columbia and all but 14 spots in Washington and Oregon. Of those sites, most have fewer than 50 butterflies. But one rare patch of prairie, tucked behind a hummock off an old wagon trail outside Corvallis, is home to about a thousand Taylor's checkerspots, a quarter of the population on the planet....
Roan drilling plan sparks controversy In the Roan, driling means disrupting a pristine piece of Colorado's natural heritage in order to access the state's abundant natural resources. Lawmakers are still battling over how to balance those interests. The controversy heated up in early June when federal officials decided to allow drilling for natural resources in the Roan. Democratic lawmakers were upset, members of the public were angry and Gov. Bill Ritter wrote a scathing letter to Secretary of the Interior Dick Kempthorne, saying the decision undermined the state's relationship with the federal government. U.S. Reps. Mark Udall and John Salazar tried to block Bureau of Land Management funding for the plan, but that measure failed in Congress. In Colorado, others want to embrace the plan. Two GOP lawmakers said they want to make the most of it by funneling Roan drilling revenue into state higher education coffers, which are desperately in need of more money. Then, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar parried with a plan to block President Bush's new choice to lead the BLM, the federal department that approved the Roan drilling proposal....
Conflicting science? Some coal-bed methane industry officials are upset because it appears federal land managers have chosen to accept peer-reviewed studies of sage grouse over the work of their own environmental consultants. Earlier this month, the Wyoming Bureau of Land Management accepted the results of more than five years of studies performed by University of Montana researchers, headed by professor David Naugle. The work was vetted through the peer review process and will be published in the industry's top journals: the Journal of Wildlife Management, and the Journal of Avian Diseases. Among Naugle's findings: Sage grouse leks within development areas are predicted to disappear, on average, within four years of coal-bed methane development. From 2000 to 2005, sage grouse populations within coal-bed methane fields declined 86 percent, whereas populations outside active areas declined by 35 percent, according to the studies. Gene George, of Gene George & Associates, said several oil and gas companies have paid for studies for more than a year to analyze the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's grouse count database and the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission's database of drilling information. "We hired someone to confirm his answers, and we can't confirm them," George said. "We didn't generate that data. It is based on the Game and Fish's own database, not industry's database." Renee Taylor, of Taylor Environmental Consulting in Casper, said she hadn't yet read Naugle's final work. However, her own work during the past year disputes his findings. Presented with her findings, federal land managers have given her only a "stone-faced" reply, she said....
DM&E: Ranchers using courts to stall Railroad officials and supporters say opponents are using the courts to delay development, but landowners in western South Dakota say they're simply protecting their land in unfair negotiation. Complaints filed by landowners halted eminent domain hearings earlier this week in the Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad's efforts to gain right-of-way for tracks into Wyoming. Landowners claimed the state violated its own due process laws. The railroad responded by asking the South Dakota Supreme Court for an expedited review to move the issue along quickly. "It's just a delay tactic," DM&E chief executive officer Kevin Schieffer said of the landowners' actions. Jim and Bev Varelman, who raise quarter horses and hay east of Hermosa, are among those suing the DM&E. She said their dealings with the railroad have not been good. "They have been trying to say they negotiate in good faith," she said. "Many years go by without correspondence. The offers we get have no monetary value. Five days before the circuit court hearing, we finally got an offer that was not a good offer at all." Bev Varelman said the proposed rail route would separate 438 acres of their ranch from a water source. It would make the land unusable for raising livestock, and the DM&E has been unwilling to take her suggestion and move the track a quarter-mile south to avoid the problem, she said....
Texas ranchers scoff at border fence He's been living here off and on for more than half a century, so rancher Bill Moody figured he had experienced about all the excitement and madness the Texas-Mexico border could offer. When there's not a drug bust going down or a lost immigrant begging for food, Moody sometimes finds himself in the company of Hollywood directors, such as the one who filmed "Lonesome Dove" here years ago and was back recently working on a prequel called "Comanche Moon." But the federal plan for a massive security fence along the border strikes Moody, 84, as too far-fetched for a screenplay and downright nutty for his gigantic Rancho Rio Grande, which runs through three counties between Del Rio and Eagle Pass. "If the wall would help, I wouldn't mind. But it won't help. It'll be a big expense, a big problem, ugly as hell and unfriendly to Mexico," said Moody, heir to one of the largest and oldest fortunes in Texas. "It's not going to happen." Moody and other landowners along the Rio Grande generally have little in common with open-border proponents and environmental activists, who also oppose the 698-mile fencing project Congress approved late last year. Taken together, though, their voices have cranked up the heat against a border fence....
In Role Reversal, China Blocks Some U.S. Meat China announced Saturday that it was blocking imports of some U.S. processed meat that showed signs of contamination, turning the tables on critics who in recent months have questioned the safety of Chinese exports and making good on a warning that it would apply greater scrutiny to food shipments entering its borders. The suspension affected some of the largest U.S. food companies, including Cargill Meat Solutions and Tyson Foods, the world's largest meat processor. In recent weeks, Beijing has rejected a number of other U.S. products at its ports of entry, including health supplements, sugar-free drink mix and dried fruits such as raisins and apricots. The increasingly aggressive moves are raising concern that what started as a seemingly isolated investigation in March over contaminated pet food from China has trigged a broader trade skirmish. The Chinese government said it had stopped problem shipments from seven U.S. companies. Among them, Tyson's frozen poultry products were contaminated with salmonella and Cargill's frozen pork ribs were laced with a feed additive designed to keep animals lean, the government said. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine also said that frozen chicken feet from Sanderson Farms contained an anti-parasite treatment residue and that frozen pig ears from Van Luin Foods USA also tested positive for the leanness-enhancing additive, called ractopamine....
Food-Labeling Effort Gains New Momentum Shoppers are in the dark about where much of their food comes from despite a five-year-old law requiring meat and other products to carry labels with their country of origin. That soon may change. Reports of tainted seafood from China have raised consumer awareness about the safety of imported food and many of the law's most powerful opponents have left Congress. "The political dynamic is such that there's just no getting around it," said Colin Woodall, director of legislative affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. The livestock group has opposed a mandatory labeling program. The law's leading opponents are grocery stores and large meatpacking companies, many of whom mix U.S. and Mexican beef, along with other businesses involved in getting products to supermarket shelves. They say the tracking and the paperwork needed to comply with the law is too burdensome and would cause them to raise prices. The labeling requirement, popular with small, independent ranchers who sell their own products, applies to certain cuts of beef, lamb, pork, as well as to peanuts, fruits and vegetables. Processed foods are exempt. So are restaurants and other food service establishments....
Ranchers start last roundup of tainted cows Ordinarily, a roundup on the Morgan ranch would happen in the fall. Jim and Sandy Morgan, along with Sandy's parents, Connie and Bruce Malcolm, and perhaps a few neighbors, would head into the hills behind the red butte south of Bridger and bring in the cows and their calves. They would trail behind the cows and check out the bulky calves, admiring the traits for which their Black Angus herd is known. But this week, the roundup came early, at the end of a two-month ordeal that began with the discovery that seven of the Morgans' cows had brucellosis, a contagious disease that causes cows to abort their calves. In Montana, the disease had been eradicated in livestock, earning the state brucellosis-free status, but it is still present in wild bison and elk. To maintain the brucellosis-free status, the Morgans' entire herd of about 600 cows and calves will have to be destroyed. About 2,400 other cows that livestock officials believe may have had contact with the Morgan herd have been tested and found free of the disease. Friday, the Morgans and Malcolms and a few of their neighbors gathered the last of the cattle from the pasture to be shipped to slaughter beginning Monday....
Restoring history at Point Reyes Historic buildings that have served ranchers for decades on the far west tip of Marin, helping carve the region's indelible identity, are being rehabilitated. The land on Point Reyes has been used for agriculture for almost two centuries, and the barns and buildings housing animals, equipment, tools and wood have been part of the landscape. The buildings have taken a beating over the years, from thick fog to harsh winds. Now the Point Reyes National Seashore is spending $300,000 to upgrade several of the wooden buildings - which are still in use - over the next two years. And some of the buildings have a few years on them. The seashore's historic preservation crew will be rehabilitating a tool shed, built in 1865; main barn, 1880; machine shop, 1925; garage, 1945, as well as a woodshed constructed in 1945....
Schemer worked Yellowstone National Park for 2 decades despite numerous complaints Tourist John F. Philips arrived here in the summer of 1902 with the hope of catching some prized trout in Yellowstone Lake. Instead, he left bitter and befuddled after a brush with one of Yellowstone's most notorious businessmen, E.C. Waters. "This man, 'Captain' Waters as he calls himself, is a very impertinent and obtrusive person, of whom complaints and criticisms were in the mouths of nearly all persons who came in contact with him," Philips wrote from his home in Kansas City, Mo., about a week later. "The general verdict was that he is a public nuisance." Philips' letter is one in a stack of complaints in Yellowstone's archives about Waters during his scandal-ridden 20 years in the park. Waters was eventually run out of the park, but not before he left behind an emblem of his ambition: the wreck of an eponymous steamship still visible today on the eastern shore of Stevenson Island. Historian Richard Bartlett said Waters - who ran a Billings hotel in 1885 and was elected a Montana territorial legislator the next year - was "probably the most difficult concessionaire who ever operated in Yellowstone Park."....
Butch, Sundance live on in debate over their deaths If the Pinkerton detective bunch had left them alone, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid would have lived out their days as law-abiding ranchers in Argentina. At least that's what Cassidy's great-great nephew Bill Betenson believes about the outlaw pair. On Thursday, Betenson spoke about their lives in Argentina for people at the Western Outlaw-Lawmen History Association's Cheyenne Shootout. What is known is that the two men and Etta Place traveled to Argentina in 1901, Betenson said. Place was the companion of Harry Longabaugh, popularly known as the Sundance Kid. Shortly after arriving in Buenos Aires, they walked into a bank. "We know they tried a new concept," Betenson said. "They actually deposited money in the bank." They left $12,000 in gold notes. They traveled to Cholila in west-central Argentina. The current mayor of the town told him Cassidy owned the first titled land in the valley, Betenson said. The men bought 1,500 acres of lush ranch land nestled at the base of the craggy Andes Mountains. Cassidy, whose real name was Robert LeRoy Parker, wrote that he had 300 head of cattle, 1,450 sheep and 28 good saddle horses. Betenson showed the group slides of old photos taken in front of the cabin at the Argentina ranch. Looking out from the photos are the two men and Place....
State Dispatchers Dismissed Early 911 Reports of Tahoe Fire Two dispatchers with the California Highway Patrol initially dismissed 911 calls reporting a fire on the south rim of Lake Tahoe, causing a seven- to nine-minute delay in the response to it, recordings released Friday show. Dispatchers told callers that the smoke they were seeing was from a controlled burn in the area. The smoke was actually from a wildfire that ultimately destroyed 254 homes and burned 3,100 acres of mountain wilderness. “I’m on the golf course, it’s Lake Tahoe Country Club, and we can see smoke coming off the mountain to the west of us,” a man reported, according to a transcript of the first call received at 2:02 p.m. June 24 by the patrol’s communications center in Truckee. The dispatcher responded: “Yeah. Yeah, they’re doing a — a control burn there.” The unidentified male caller said: “Thank you. Sorry to bother you.” Capt. Gary Ross, commander of the Truckee office, said the dispatchers’ dismissals of the reports caused a delayed response to the fire. Also, Highway Patrol policy instructs dispatchers to keep callers on the line and transfer them to a local fire department in such situations. In these cases, the dispatchers let the callers hang up. Both dispatchers have been reassigned while the Highway Patrol investigates, Captain Ross said....
Scholar: USFS conclusion wrong concerning Angora fire path After a first-hand look, one forest-restoration specialist has drawn significantly different conclusions than the U.S. Forest Service about how and why the Angora fire burned so intensely. Tom Bonnicksen, emeritus professor of forest science at Texas A&M University and visiting scholar with the Forest Foundation, a logging-industry group, toured the burned area last week. "The Angora fire was a crown fire that killed all the trees that were 40-60 inches in diameter. Anybody can see that; all you have to do is look at it," said Bonnicksen during a phone interview on Tuesday. "This was a situation where homeowners didn't stand a chance. They were victims of the surrounding forest." he said. Bonnicksen said fire racing through the top of an overly dense forest was the major cause of property damage, while Rex Norman, USFS spokesman, has repeatedly reiterated the initial findings of agency investigators....
Some blame BLM policies for huge blaze The spread of the Milford Flat Fire across a wide swath of central Utah desert is sparking concern among some Utah lawmakers that the Bureau of Land Management hasn’t managed the cheatgrass and pinyon-covered rangeland within the burn area well enough to prevent wildfires. The Milford Flat Fire, ignited July 6 by lightning, is Utah’s largest-ever wildfire, incinerating more than 363,000 acres of rangeland upon which many area ranchers depended for their livelihoods. But Utah state Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Parowan, said despite drought conditions, ranchers may have been dealt an unnecessary blow. “I just feel like (we have) failed environmental policy in the whole country,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of fuel build-up, a lot of pinyon-juniper. We’re not managing the land enough.” Stowell, who toured the burn area Wednesday, criticized the BLM for not allowing enough cattle to graze rangeland in the region and permitting pinyon-juniper forests killed by bark beetles to remain standing. As a testament to the fire resistance of intensely managed land, some of the rangeland in the Milford Flat Fire’s path that was pastured didn’t burn, Stowell said. “Years ago, we didn’t have a lot of forest fires or range fires because we had proper grazing,” Millard County Commissioner John C. Cooper said. Now, he said, the BLM is often too eager to limit grazing, especially during a drought. “The abundance of fuel has become crazy,” he said. “When we have these fires, it’s replaced by cheatgrass. We need to reseed this burned area.”....
On fire lines, cost a concern His first day leading the attack on the Milford Flat fire, Rowdy Muir declared his crews would stop it - the largest wildfire in Utah's modern history - with half the money he'd been promised to do the job. Spending less to do more might sound like an audacious claim, since costs seem to be flaring up as fast as new wildfires and the acreage they leave in ashes. But the incident commander's pledge is a sign that wildfire managers no longer look only at the fire lines, but the bottom line as well. For decades, wildfire costs were addressed with a blank check. Congress, state forest agencies and local fire departments would spend first and pay later, usually the next budget year. "In the last few years, we have become more cost conscious," said Randy Eardley, a spokesman for the BLM and the Interagency Fire Center in Boise. At the Milford Flat fire, as with all wildfires these days, auditors are on the scene with spreadsheets and calculators. Even the tube of lip balm or sunscreen a medic hands out gets logged and tallied for the final bill. The air tankers dousing homes with fire retardant, the food service contractors for the 500 firefighters, the satellite mapping experts, the portable toilet providers - expenses add up fast....
Climate Change Debate Hinges On Economics Here's the good news about climate change: Energy and climate experts say the world already possesses the technological know-how for trimming greenhouse gas emissions enough to slow the perilous rise in the Earth's temperatures. Here's the bad news: Because of the enormous cost of addressing global warming, the energy legislation considered by Congress so far will make barely a dent in the problem, while farther-reaching climate proposals stand a remote chance of passage. Despite growing public concern over global warming, the House has failed to agree on new standards for automobile fuel efficiency, and the Senate has done little to boost the efficiency of commercial office buildings and appliances. In September, Congress is expected to start wrestling with more ambitious legislation aimed at slowing climate change; but because of the complexity of the likely proposals, few expect any bill to become law. Even if passed by Congress and signed by President Bush, the final measure may not be tough enough to slow global warming....
Group works to preserve open space between Springs & Pueblo Following examples elsewhere in the state, ranchers and conservationists are working to save 200,000 acres of open space between Colorado Springs and Pueblo from urban sprawl. Rancher Jay Frost is an unlikely member of the group, which calls itself the Peak to Prairie Conservation Initiative. The second-generation rancher just sold development rights to 915 acres along Fountain Creek to the group. He always knew he would have to sell some land but he is surprised to feel good about it. "Our family always loved this place, but agriculture can be a tough racket," Frost, 46, told the Gazette recently while taking a break from mowing hay with his sons. "It would be easy to sell the place. We get offers all the time. This way, we get some of the value while keeping the ranch on the land." Landowners get tax breaks, allowing them to stay in business, while development is blocked where conservation easements are in place. Such a buffer already exists in an area between Monument and Castle Rock to the north. The Nature Conservancy, the national leader in creating conservation easements, is behind the latest initiative, along with Colorado Open Lands. They want to start by blocking development on at least 60,000 acres in the next 10 years....
Pneumonia kills Oregon bighorns State biologists are trying desperately to deal with a domestic sheep disease that is killing bighorns in one of Oregon's signature Rocky Mountain bighorn herds. The Hells Canyon herd, numbering 900 animals in Oregon, Washington and Idaho (most of them in Oregon), is the largest of the state's Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep herds, also found throughout the Wallowa Mountains. High desert sheep are California bighorns, a subspecies of the Rocky Mountain. Craig Ely, northeast regional supervisor for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, told the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday in Lincoln City that Hells Canyon sheep are dying of a bacterial pneumonia strain common in domestic sheep. It affects domestic lambs only mildly but is deadly for wild bighorns. Some Hells Canyon bands have been wiped out by the pneumonia, some haven't yet been affected, and still others had survivors when it swept through. Domestic sheep ranchers are under a court order to remove their animals from 6,000 acres of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area.
Sierra Blancans again debate possible sludge dump That smell - a peculiarly pungent combination of sewage chemicals and human waste - might soon be wafting back into Sierra Blanca. It's the scent of money for some in this tiny, economically frustrated border town. It's the stench of environmental injustice to those fighting to keep their desert home from again becoming a dumping ground. "If someone else doesn't want it, why in the hell would we want it in our backyard?" asked Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West, a lifelong Sierra Blanca resident. A decade and a half ago, New York-based Merco Joint Ventures started hauling treated New York City sewage to scrubland just outside Sierra Blanca, spraying tons of it daily on thousands of acres. The spraying stopped in 2001, and the company went bankrupt. Now, the state of Texas has bought the land and leased it to a group that wants to resume spreading sewage....
Butterflies aren't free The Taylor's checkerspot butterfly is no bigger than a man's thumb, sports splashy orange and black wings, cavorts in sunny meadows ringed by oak and pine, tastes with its feet, nectars on wild strawberries, has a short (but splendid) lifespan of five to eight days, and is in imminent danger of forever disappearing from the face of the earth. Fifty years ago, Euphydryas editha taylori fluttered in more than 70 meadows throughout the Puget Sound region, Willamette Valley and south Vancouver Island. Since then, 97 percent of the butterflies' upland prairie habitat has been wiped out — victim of agriculture, urban development, logging, invasive plants, pesticides, a Wal-Mart parking lot and drought. They've vanished from British Columbia and all but 14 spots in Washington and Oregon. Of those sites, most have fewer than 50 butterflies. But one rare patch of prairie, tucked behind a hummock off an old wagon trail outside Corvallis, is home to about a thousand Taylor's checkerspots, a quarter of the population on the planet....
Roan drilling plan sparks controversy In the Roan, driling means disrupting a pristine piece of Colorado's natural heritage in order to access the state's abundant natural resources. Lawmakers are still battling over how to balance those interests. The controversy heated up in early June when federal officials decided to allow drilling for natural resources in the Roan. Democratic lawmakers were upset, members of the public were angry and Gov. Bill Ritter wrote a scathing letter to Secretary of the Interior Dick Kempthorne, saying the decision undermined the state's relationship with the federal government. U.S. Reps. Mark Udall and John Salazar tried to block Bureau of Land Management funding for the plan, but that measure failed in Congress. In Colorado, others want to embrace the plan. Two GOP lawmakers said they want to make the most of it by funneling Roan drilling revenue into state higher education coffers, which are desperately in need of more money. Then, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar parried with a plan to block President Bush's new choice to lead the BLM, the federal department that approved the Roan drilling proposal....
Conflicting science? Some coal-bed methane industry officials are upset because it appears federal land managers have chosen to accept peer-reviewed studies of sage grouse over the work of their own environmental consultants. Earlier this month, the Wyoming Bureau of Land Management accepted the results of more than five years of studies performed by University of Montana researchers, headed by professor David Naugle. The work was vetted through the peer review process and will be published in the industry's top journals: the Journal of Wildlife Management, and the Journal of Avian Diseases. Among Naugle's findings: Sage grouse leks within development areas are predicted to disappear, on average, within four years of coal-bed methane development. From 2000 to 2005, sage grouse populations within coal-bed methane fields declined 86 percent, whereas populations outside active areas declined by 35 percent, according to the studies. Gene George, of Gene George & Associates, said several oil and gas companies have paid for studies for more than a year to analyze the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's grouse count database and the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission's database of drilling information. "We hired someone to confirm his answers, and we can't confirm them," George said. "We didn't generate that data. It is based on the Game and Fish's own database, not industry's database." Renee Taylor, of Taylor Environmental Consulting in Casper, said she hadn't yet read Naugle's final work. However, her own work during the past year disputes his findings. Presented with her findings, federal land managers have given her only a "stone-faced" reply, she said....
DM&E: Ranchers using courts to stall Railroad officials and supporters say opponents are using the courts to delay development, but landowners in western South Dakota say they're simply protecting their land in unfair negotiation. Complaints filed by landowners halted eminent domain hearings earlier this week in the Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad's efforts to gain right-of-way for tracks into Wyoming. Landowners claimed the state violated its own due process laws. The railroad responded by asking the South Dakota Supreme Court for an expedited review to move the issue along quickly. "It's just a delay tactic," DM&E chief executive officer Kevin Schieffer said of the landowners' actions. Jim and Bev Varelman, who raise quarter horses and hay east of Hermosa, are among those suing the DM&E. She said their dealings with the railroad have not been good. "They have been trying to say they negotiate in good faith," she said. "Many years go by without correspondence. The offers we get have no monetary value. Five days before the circuit court hearing, we finally got an offer that was not a good offer at all." Bev Varelman said the proposed rail route would separate 438 acres of their ranch from a water source. It would make the land unusable for raising livestock, and the DM&E has been unwilling to take her suggestion and move the track a quarter-mile south to avoid the problem, she said....
Texas ranchers scoff at border fence He's been living here off and on for more than half a century, so rancher Bill Moody figured he had experienced about all the excitement and madness the Texas-Mexico border could offer. When there's not a drug bust going down or a lost immigrant begging for food, Moody sometimes finds himself in the company of Hollywood directors, such as the one who filmed "Lonesome Dove" here years ago and was back recently working on a prequel called "Comanche Moon." But the federal plan for a massive security fence along the border strikes Moody, 84, as too far-fetched for a screenplay and downright nutty for his gigantic Rancho Rio Grande, which runs through three counties between Del Rio and Eagle Pass. "If the wall would help, I wouldn't mind. But it won't help. It'll be a big expense, a big problem, ugly as hell and unfriendly to Mexico," said Moody, heir to one of the largest and oldest fortunes in Texas. "It's not going to happen." Moody and other landowners along the Rio Grande generally have little in common with open-border proponents and environmental activists, who also oppose the 698-mile fencing project Congress approved late last year. Taken together, though, their voices have cranked up the heat against a border fence....
In Role Reversal, China Blocks Some U.S. Meat China announced Saturday that it was blocking imports of some U.S. processed meat that showed signs of contamination, turning the tables on critics who in recent months have questioned the safety of Chinese exports and making good on a warning that it would apply greater scrutiny to food shipments entering its borders. The suspension affected some of the largest U.S. food companies, including Cargill Meat Solutions and Tyson Foods, the world's largest meat processor. In recent weeks, Beijing has rejected a number of other U.S. products at its ports of entry, including health supplements, sugar-free drink mix and dried fruits such as raisins and apricots. The increasingly aggressive moves are raising concern that what started as a seemingly isolated investigation in March over contaminated pet food from China has trigged a broader trade skirmish. The Chinese government said it had stopped problem shipments from seven U.S. companies. Among them, Tyson's frozen poultry products were contaminated with salmonella and Cargill's frozen pork ribs were laced with a feed additive designed to keep animals lean, the government said. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine also said that frozen chicken feet from Sanderson Farms contained an anti-parasite treatment residue and that frozen pig ears from Van Luin Foods USA also tested positive for the leanness-enhancing additive, called ractopamine....
Food-Labeling Effort Gains New Momentum Shoppers are in the dark about where much of their food comes from despite a five-year-old law requiring meat and other products to carry labels with their country of origin. That soon may change. Reports of tainted seafood from China have raised consumer awareness about the safety of imported food and many of the law's most powerful opponents have left Congress. "The political dynamic is such that there's just no getting around it," said Colin Woodall, director of legislative affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. The livestock group has opposed a mandatory labeling program. The law's leading opponents are grocery stores and large meatpacking companies, many of whom mix U.S. and Mexican beef, along with other businesses involved in getting products to supermarket shelves. They say the tracking and the paperwork needed to comply with the law is too burdensome and would cause them to raise prices. The labeling requirement, popular with small, independent ranchers who sell their own products, applies to certain cuts of beef, lamb, pork, as well as to peanuts, fruits and vegetables. Processed foods are exempt. So are restaurants and other food service establishments....
Ranchers start last roundup of tainted cows Ordinarily, a roundup on the Morgan ranch would happen in the fall. Jim and Sandy Morgan, along with Sandy's parents, Connie and Bruce Malcolm, and perhaps a few neighbors, would head into the hills behind the red butte south of Bridger and bring in the cows and their calves. They would trail behind the cows and check out the bulky calves, admiring the traits for which their Black Angus herd is known. But this week, the roundup came early, at the end of a two-month ordeal that began with the discovery that seven of the Morgans' cows had brucellosis, a contagious disease that causes cows to abort their calves. In Montana, the disease had been eradicated in livestock, earning the state brucellosis-free status, but it is still present in wild bison and elk. To maintain the brucellosis-free status, the Morgans' entire herd of about 600 cows and calves will have to be destroyed. About 2,400 other cows that livestock officials believe may have had contact with the Morgan herd have been tested and found free of the disease. Friday, the Morgans and Malcolms and a few of their neighbors gathered the last of the cattle from the pasture to be shipped to slaughter beginning Monday....
Restoring history at Point Reyes Historic buildings that have served ranchers for decades on the far west tip of Marin, helping carve the region's indelible identity, are being rehabilitated. The land on Point Reyes has been used for agriculture for almost two centuries, and the barns and buildings housing animals, equipment, tools and wood have been part of the landscape. The buildings have taken a beating over the years, from thick fog to harsh winds. Now the Point Reyes National Seashore is spending $300,000 to upgrade several of the wooden buildings - which are still in use - over the next two years. And some of the buildings have a few years on them. The seashore's historic preservation crew will be rehabilitating a tool shed, built in 1865; main barn, 1880; machine shop, 1925; garage, 1945, as well as a woodshed constructed in 1945....
Schemer worked Yellowstone National Park for 2 decades despite numerous complaints Tourist John F. Philips arrived here in the summer of 1902 with the hope of catching some prized trout in Yellowstone Lake. Instead, he left bitter and befuddled after a brush with one of Yellowstone's most notorious businessmen, E.C. Waters. "This man, 'Captain' Waters as he calls himself, is a very impertinent and obtrusive person, of whom complaints and criticisms were in the mouths of nearly all persons who came in contact with him," Philips wrote from his home in Kansas City, Mo., about a week later. "The general verdict was that he is a public nuisance." Philips' letter is one in a stack of complaints in Yellowstone's archives about Waters during his scandal-ridden 20 years in the park. Waters was eventually run out of the park, but not before he left behind an emblem of his ambition: the wreck of an eponymous steamship still visible today on the eastern shore of Stevenson Island. Historian Richard Bartlett said Waters - who ran a Billings hotel in 1885 and was elected a Montana territorial legislator the next year - was "probably the most difficult concessionaire who ever operated in Yellowstone Park."....
Butch, Sundance live on in debate over their deaths If the Pinkerton detective bunch had left them alone, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid would have lived out their days as law-abiding ranchers in Argentina. At least that's what Cassidy's great-great nephew Bill Betenson believes about the outlaw pair. On Thursday, Betenson spoke about their lives in Argentina for people at the Western Outlaw-Lawmen History Association's Cheyenne Shootout. What is known is that the two men and Etta Place traveled to Argentina in 1901, Betenson said. Place was the companion of Harry Longabaugh, popularly known as the Sundance Kid. Shortly after arriving in Buenos Aires, they walked into a bank. "We know they tried a new concept," Betenson said. "They actually deposited money in the bank." They left $12,000 in gold notes. They traveled to Cholila in west-central Argentina. The current mayor of the town told him Cassidy owned the first titled land in the valley, Betenson said. The men bought 1,500 acres of lush ranch land nestled at the base of the craggy Andes Mountains. Cassidy, whose real name was Robert LeRoy Parker, wrote that he had 300 head of cattle, 1,450 sheep and 28 good saddle horses. Betenson showed the group slides of old photos taken in front of the cabin at the Argentina ranch. Looking out from the photos are the two men and Place....
GAO
Forest Service: Vegetation Management Projects Approved during Calendar Years 2003 through 2005 Using Categorical Exclusions, by Robin M. Nazzaro, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, House Committee on Natural Resources. GAO-07-1016T, June 28.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1016T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071016thigh.pdf
Forest Service: Vegetation Management Projects Approved during Calendar Years 2003 through 2005 Using Categorical Exclusions, by Robin M. Nazzaro, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, House Committee on Natural Resources. GAO-07-1016T, June 28.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1016T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071016thigh.pdf
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Giving credit where credit is due
Cowgirl Sass and Savvy
By Julie Carter
There are a couple of cowboys in heaven that not many days go by I don't think about them. I miss them both very much.
I've thought a lot about both of them recently, because after a long journey in life and a dream to put many of the stories in print, my book of cowboy stories rolled off the press.
Those cowboys are very much part of this project because they are very much part of who I am, starting at the top of the list, a cowgirl.
Those cowboys were my dad, and after he died, my step-dad. They were both fine men remembered with honor for their knowledge and abilities in ranching in an era that is no more.
And I was blessed to have them both in my life.
Somewhere along the way, I realized that their legacies depend on me to carry them on and, even more so, to pass them on.
In a lifetime, I have collected a PhD-equivalent of little things about cowboying, cows, horses and right-living.
I'd be hard pressed to itemize them all because they aren't all tangible things. They are things that just are.
Some of the lessons loom large in my daily life and I think even a partial list might hit home for many.
· Slow is fast. Work cattle slow and your day will get over faster and with a more successful conclusion. Quiet patience is good with cattle, horses, kids and women.
· A very few well-placed words speak louder and clearer than a long speech.
· Polite ways will open many doors and keep even more from slamming shut.
· Good horses, good grass and a good cow dog will make a cowboy about as content as he can be. Throw in a wife who can cook and a pickup that will run and it's pure bliss.
· Find something in everything to laugh about. Nothing soothes the soul like laughter and nothing eases a tense situation like a smile. When the gate didn't get shut and the cattle got out, smile because that colt you are riding will get some needed miles under a saddle. Laugh because you may just as well.
· Know that Mother Nature has the upper hand. Respect her, don't fight her because it's a fixed fight.
· Wet saddle blankets make good horses and respectful kids. Hard work is a solid foundation for the cowboy and the horse he rode in on.
· Enjoy the little things. Take time to pat the dog, soothe the colt, watch the sunrise and the sunset. Just because they are there everyday doesn't mean they always will be.
· Make good memories, not bad enemies.
· Honesty is a smooth-riding horse.
I can't tell you why I know some of the things I know, like how to read a cow and her intentions or a horse and what the look in his eye tells me.
Some things I know were never spoken to me, but were lived in front of me. They weren't verbal lessons but were a sum total of who these men were and where they came from.
Integrity was paramount. It encapsulated these basic men who simply lived life the best way they knew how.
They were cowboys, but they were also just good people. And in recalling anything about either of them, first comes to mind they could both laugh and enjoy life at any level.
That is the best of the legacy that they left to me.
I'm not only holding tightly to it, but I'm doing my best to share it with anyone that crosses my path.
See Julie’s Web site at www.julie-carter.com. Her new book is off the press and shipping has begun.
Cowgirl Sass and Savvy
By Julie Carter
There are a couple of cowboys in heaven that not many days go by I don't think about them. I miss them both very much.
I've thought a lot about both of them recently, because after a long journey in life and a dream to put many of the stories in print, my book of cowboy stories rolled off the press.
Those cowboys are very much part of this project because they are very much part of who I am, starting at the top of the list, a cowgirl.
Those cowboys were my dad, and after he died, my step-dad. They were both fine men remembered with honor for their knowledge and abilities in ranching in an era that is no more.
And I was blessed to have them both in my life.
Somewhere along the way, I realized that their legacies depend on me to carry them on and, even more so, to pass them on.
In a lifetime, I have collected a PhD-equivalent of little things about cowboying, cows, horses and right-living.
I'd be hard pressed to itemize them all because they aren't all tangible things. They are things that just are.
Some of the lessons loom large in my daily life and I think even a partial list might hit home for many.
· Slow is fast. Work cattle slow and your day will get over faster and with a more successful conclusion. Quiet patience is good with cattle, horses, kids and women.
· A very few well-placed words speak louder and clearer than a long speech.
· Polite ways will open many doors and keep even more from slamming shut.
· Good horses, good grass and a good cow dog will make a cowboy about as content as he can be. Throw in a wife who can cook and a pickup that will run and it's pure bliss.
· Find something in everything to laugh about. Nothing soothes the soul like laughter and nothing eases a tense situation like a smile. When the gate didn't get shut and the cattle got out, smile because that colt you are riding will get some needed miles under a saddle. Laugh because you may just as well.
· Know that Mother Nature has the upper hand. Respect her, don't fight her because it's a fixed fight.
· Wet saddle blankets make good horses and respectful kids. Hard work is a solid foundation for the cowboy and the horse he rode in on.
· Enjoy the little things. Take time to pat the dog, soothe the colt, watch the sunrise and the sunset. Just because they are there everyday doesn't mean they always will be.
· Make good memories, not bad enemies.
· Honesty is a smooth-riding horse.
I can't tell you why I know some of the things I know, like how to read a cow and her intentions or a horse and what the look in his eye tells me.
Some things I know were never spoken to me, but were lived in front of me. They weren't verbal lessons but were a sum total of who these men were and where they came from.
Integrity was paramount. It encapsulated these basic men who simply lived life the best way they knew how.
They were cowboys, but they were also just good people. And in recalling anything about either of them, first comes to mind they could both laugh and enjoy life at any level.
That is the best of the legacy that they left to me.
I'm not only holding tightly to it, but I'm doing my best to share it with anyone that crosses my path.
See Julie’s Web site at www.julie-carter.com. Her new book is off the press and shipping has begun.
FLE
Editorial - A Stinging Report EVER SINCE Americans began stocking up on plastic dropcloths and duct tape, terms such as "americium-241" and "cesium-137" have been deservedly ominous. These are two dangerously radioactive substances, useful in certain industrial devices and potentially harmful if dispersed by the explosion of a "dirty bomb." Yet these are the very materials that investigators at the Government Accountability Office were able to order with ease -- and in alarming quantities -- in a recent sting. This year, an enterprising team at the GAO set up two phony companies, which the auditors used to apply for licenses from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and from state regulators in Maryland, to buy special moisture density gauges containing the radioactive substances. Even though each company's assets consisted of little more than a post-office box and cash to buy the equipment, the federal authorities quickly granted a license to one of the fake companies -- without any effort to visit the company's supposed facilities or to conduct a face-to-face interview with those who filled out the application. The investigators also easily tampered with the federal permit to allow for unlimited purchases of the material. They used the permit to order dozens of moisture gauges. Maryland regulators, on the other hand, asked to visit the worksite of the fake company that had sent them an application, whereupon the auditors withdrew their license application. Why make it easy to manipulate the system, especially when federal regulators can make a few relatively inexpensive changes to tighten safeguards? The NRC has revamped its guidelines in response to this embarrassment. NRC officials can, however, still learn something from their counterparts in Maryland, where, according to a spokeswoman for the state Department of the Environment, the authorities conduct on-site visits, not just interviews, before granting licenses....
Gun Shops Under Closer Scrutiny When criminals need guns, they have plenty of options in a country with nearly 100,000 licensed gun stores. But drug dealers and other crooks don't shop just anywhere. They have their favorites. In Compton, Calif., gangsters preferred Boulevard Sales & Service, a shop police said was so felon-friendly, some salesmen offered tips on how to buy a gun despite a criminal record. In Philadelphia, shady gun buyers sent girlfriends to a suburban pawn shop, Lou's Loan, where the staff wouldn't raise a fuss if a young woman came by a few times a month to purchase cheap handguns. And on the outskirts of New Orleans, killers-to-be armed themselves at Elliot's Gun Shop. Over the past five years, the store was the source of 2,300 weapons later linked to crime, including an astonishing 125 homicides, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In fact, government figures show that an extremely small number of gun shops account for a spectacularly large number of weapons used in crimes. Stores like these have long occupied protected territory. The products they sell are legal. Congress has sheltered them from lawsuits and limited the power of regulators. It can take years for the ATF to revoke a dealer's license. But there are signs that scrutiny is on the rise. Over the past three years, ATF agents have cracked down on some of the stores most notorious for selling large numbers of weapons used in street crime. In 2005 and 2006, some 220 firearms dealers had their licenses revoked - 20 more than in the previous eight years combined....
Lawmakers block access to gun sales data Pro-gun rights Democrats teamed with House Republicans on Thursday to block local governments and law enforcement agencies from gaining routine access to gun-purchasing data. The House Appropriations Committee defeated two attempts by gun control advocates to strip four-year-old restrictions on the use of information from Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tracing gun sales. The votes were a victory for the National Rifle Association and came despite the Democratic takeover of Congress in January. The committee's emotional debate often focused on broader gun rights issues rather than the matter at hand, involving when the bureau can share such information. Gun control advocates say the gun sales data is essential to uncovering dealers who sell guns that disproportionately end up in the hands of criminals. Gun rights advocates, led by Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., said mayors such as New York's Michael Bloomberg want the data to sue out-of-state gun dealers. Tiahrt, the key sponsor of the restrictions on sharing gun trace data, also said easing the restrictions could lead to the disclosure of police officers' identities and other details to criminals....
Editorial - A Stinging Report EVER SINCE Americans began stocking up on plastic dropcloths and duct tape, terms such as "americium-241" and "cesium-137" have been deservedly ominous. These are two dangerously radioactive substances, useful in certain industrial devices and potentially harmful if dispersed by the explosion of a "dirty bomb." Yet these are the very materials that investigators at the Government Accountability Office were able to order with ease -- and in alarming quantities -- in a recent sting. This year, an enterprising team at the GAO set up two phony companies, which the auditors used to apply for licenses from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and from state regulators in Maryland, to buy special moisture density gauges containing the radioactive substances. Even though each company's assets consisted of little more than a post-office box and cash to buy the equipment, the federal authorities quickly granted a license to one of the fake companies -- without any effort to visit the company's supposed facilities or to conduct a face-to-face interview with those who filled out the application. The investigators also easily tampered with the federal permit to allow for unlimited purchases of the material. They used the permit to order dozens of moisture gauges. Maryland regulators, on the other hand, asked to visit the worksite of the fake company that had sent them an application, whereupon the auditors withdrew their license application. Why make it easy to manipulate the system, especially when federal regulators can make a few relatively inexpensive changes to tighten safeguards? The NRC has revamped its guidelines in response to this embarrassment. NRC officials can, however, still learn something from their counterparts in Maryland, where, according to a spokeswoman for the state Department of the Environment, the authorities conduct on-site visits, not just interviews, before granting licenses....
Gun Shops Under Closer Scrutiny When criminals need guns, they have plenty of options in a country with nearly 100,000 licensed gun stores. But drug dealers and other crooks don't shop just anywhere. They have their favorites. In Compton, Calif., gangsters preferred Boulevard Sales & Service, a shop police said was so felon-friendly, some salesmen offered tips on how to buy a gun despite a criminal record. In Philadelphia, shady gun buyers sent girlfriends to a suburban pawn shop, Lou's Loan, where the staff wouldn't raise a fuss if a young woman came by a few times a month to purchase cheap handguns. And on the outskirts of New Orleans, killers-to-be armed themselves at Elliot's Gun Shop. Over the past five years, the store was the source of 2,300 weapons later linked to crime, including an astonishing 125 homicides, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In fact, government figures show that an extremely small number of gun shops account for a spectacularly large number of weapons used in crimes. Stores like these have long occupied protected territory. The products they sell are legal. Congress has sheltered them from lawsuits and limited the power of regulators. It can take years for the ATF to revoke a dealer's license. But there are signs that scrutiny is on the rise. Over the past three years, ATF agents have cracked down on some of the stores most notorious for selling large numbers of weapons used in street crime. In 2005 and 2006, some 220 firearms dealers had their licenses revoked - 20 more than in the previous eight years combined....
Lawmakers block access to gun sales data Pro-gun rights Democrats teamed with House Republicans on Thursday to block local governments and law enforcement agencies from gaining routine access to gun-purchasing data. The House Appropriations Committee defeated two attempts by gun control advocates to strip four-year-old restrictions on the use of information from Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tracing gun sales. The votes were a victory for the National Rifle Association and came despite the Democratic takeover of Congress in January. The committee's emotional debate often focused on broader gun rights issues rather than the matter at hand, involving when the bureau can share such information. Gun control advocates say the gun sales data is essential to uncovering dealers who sell guns that disproportionately end up in the hands of criminals. Gun rights advocates, led by Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., said mayors such as New York's Michael Bloomberg want the data to sue out-of-state gun dealers. Tiahrt, the key sponsor of the restrictions on sharing gun trace data, also said easing the restrictions could lead to the disclosure of police officers' identities and other details to criminals....
Saturday, July 14, 2007
MEXICAN WOLF
Catron County Sheriff’s Department
Sheriff Shawn Ménages
P.O. Box 467
Reserve, N.M. 87830
Press Release
July 12, 2007
The Catron County Sheriff’s department is finalizing the investigation into the allegation that a USDA Wildlife Services Officer pointed a firearm at a New Mexico Game and Fish employee while in the field on July 5, 2007.
The incident now under investigation occurred after the USFWS issued a lethal take order July 3, 2007, on a Mexican Grey wolf. Three wildlife services officers were in the field on July 5, 2007, serving the lethal take order when Angela Dassow, a NMDGF employee, was instructed by a Supervisor to drive to the location and contact the three officers to stop the order.
According to Ms. Dassow’s statement she arrived to discover four unattended vehicles and left a hand written note on one of the windshields and drove away. Soon thereafter, Dassow returned and walked into the area to locate the three USDA Wildlife Services Officers. Upon making contact, she was informed that the order had been carried through without any knowledge of a change. According to Dassow one of the men retrieved a rifle and pointed it toward her and said she didn’t have a right to be there. When asked if she was in fear for her life, Dassow stated, “I did not think he would shoot me; since I was only there to deliver a message.” As of 4:30 p.m. Law Enforcement had not been contacted. It was then, approximately five hours after the alleged incident had occurred, that Deputy Snyder discovered an unattended car crashed into the right of way fence of state road 12 in Apache Creek. Nearly one hour later Snyder was contacted and told that the driver was Angela Dassow and that she was at her nearby residence. Snyder, along with an Arizona Game and Fish biologist arrived to find Ms. Dassow lying on the floor in her house. They learned that she had punched a window out of her residence to gain access since the key would not work. Consequently, she sustained cuts that caused her to be transported to an Arizona hospital for treatment. While awaiting the ambulance, Dassow said she was in her car and traveling out of town for a few days, when she decided to return for something that she had forgotten. Upon arriving to the turn-off, she was traveling too fast and crashed into the right of way fence. Dassow had to be reminded by the Arizona Game and Fish Officer to report the alleged aggravated assault to Deputy Snyder from earlier in the day.
During the alleged incident also present, in addition to the three Wildlife Services Officers, was Mike Miller, a Ranch employee. According to all four men, there was never a firearm handled around Dassow nor were there any threats made. Instead, they alleged that Dassow was out of control, was screaming at them, became very upset when she learned of the wolf being shot, and at one point stated "you killed my wolf.” They also stated Ms. Dassow took possession of the grey wolf and carried it towards her Department issued truck, stopping at one point under a tree and was crying while holding and petting the dead wolf. They stated she declined assistance from Wildlife Services to transport the wolf, placed it into her Department truck and left.
Once completed the case will be forwarded to the Seventh Judicial District Attorney’s office for review.
Catron County Sheriff’s Department
Sheriff Shawn Ménages
P.O. Box 467
Reserve, N.M. 87830
Press Release
July 12, 2007
The Catron County Sheriff’s department is finalizing the investigation into the allegation that a USDA Wildlife Services Officer pointed a firearm at a New Mexico Game and Fish employee while in the field on July 5, 2007.
The incident now under investigation occurred after the USFWS issued a lethal take order July 3, 2007, on a Mexican Grey wolf. Three wildlife services officers were in the field on July 5, 2007, serving the lethal take order when Angela Dassow, a NMDGF employee, was instructed by a Supervisor to drive to the location and contact the three officers to stop the order.
According to Ms. Dassow’s statement she arrived to discover four unattended vehicles and left a hand written note on one of the windshields and drove away. Soon thereafter, Dassow returned and walked into the area to locate the three USDA Wildlife Services Officers. Upon making contact, she was informed that the order had been carried through without any knowledge of a change. According to Dassow one of the men retrieved a rifle and pointed it toward her and said she didn’t have a right to be there. When asked if she was in fear for her life, Dassow stated, “I did not think he would shoot me; since I was only there to deliver a message.” As of 4:30 p.m. Law Enforcement had not been contacted. It was then, approximately five hours after the alleged incident had occurred, that Deputy Snyder discovered an unattended car crashed into the right of way fence of state road 12 in Apache Creek. Nearly one hour later Snyder was contacted and told that the driver was Angela Dassow and that she was at her nearby residence. Snyder, along with an Arizona Game and Fish biologist arrived to find Ms. Dassow lying on the floor in her house. They learned that she had punched a window out of her residence to gain access since the key would not work. Consequently, she sustained cuts that caused her to be transported to an Arizona hospital for treatment. While awaiting the ambulance, Dassow said she was in her car and traveling out of town for a few days, when she decided to return for something that she had forgotten. Upon arriving to the turn-off, she was traveling too fast and crashed into the right of way fence. Dassow had to be reminded by the Arizona Game and Fish Officer to report the alleged aggravated assault to Deputy Snyder from earlier in the day.
During the alleged incident also present, in addition to the three Wildlife Services Officers, was Mike Miller, a Ranch employee. According to all four men, there was never a firearm handled around Dassow nor were there any threats made. Instead, they alleged that Dassow was out of control, was screaming at them, became very upset when she learned of the wolf being shot, and at one point stated "you killed my wolf.” They also stated Ms. Dassow took possession of the grey wolf and carried it towards her Department issued truck, stopping at one point under a tree and was crying while holding and petting the dead wolf. They stated she declined assistance from Wildlife Services to transport the wolf, placed it into her Department truck and left.
Once completed the case will be forwarded to the Seventh Judicial District Attorney’s office for review.
Friday, July 13, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Lawmakers Propose Cap on Emissions The nation can begin to address the risks of climate change while avoiding harm to the economy, senators said Wednesday in unveiling anti-pollution legislation. The bill would establish a mandatory cap on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, refineries and industrial plants but allow companies to trade emission credits and avoid making emissions cuts if the costs become too high. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., one of the bill's chief sponsors, called it a "strong and balanced approach ... while protecting the American economy." It also includes incentives aimed at spurring other nations such as China to address climate change. The bill is one of five that are being considered in the Senate to tackle global warming. It is expected to be the one most closely embraced by industry, including companies that would be most affected. Joining Bingaman at a news conference Wednesday to announce the legislation were executives of some of the country's biggest coal-burning utilities and unions representing autoworkers and coal miners....
Political Liquor's Economic Hangover Just Beginning From pre-school to planning funerals, green is in. Very in. But green policies and decisions need to be based on more than a vague desire to save the planet. The principles of the natural sciences and economics must play an essential role -- a part of policy-making that often eludes politicians. The latest examples are the federal government's efforts to reduce the United States's dependence on imported oil (now more than 60 percent) by shifting a big share of the nation's largest crop, corn, to the production of ethanol for fueling automobiles. Good goal, bad policy. In fact, in the short- and medium-term, ethanol can do little to reduce the vast amount of oil that is imported, and the ethanol policy will have widespread and profound ripple effects on other commodity markets. Corn farmers and ethanol refiners are ecstatic about the ethanol boom, of course, and are enjoying the windfall of artificially enhanced demand. But it is already proving to be an expensive and dangerous experiment for the rest of us. The U.S. Senate is debating new legislation that would further expand corn ethanol production. A 2005 law already mandates production of 7.5 billion gallons by 2012, about 5 percent of the projected gasoline use at that time. These biofuel goals are propped up by a generous federal subsidy -- via tax credits -- of 51 cents a gallon for blending ethanol into gasoline, and a tariff of 54 cents a gallon on most imported ethanol, to keep out cheap imports from Brazil. This latest bill is a prime example of the government's throwing good money after a bad idea, of ignoring science and economics in favor of politics, and of disdain for free markets....
Clearing the Air Of former Bush officials, Christine Todd Whitman would seem to be the most difficult to cast as a White House puppet. During her tenure as Environmental Protection Agency director from 2001 to 2003, Whitman looked askance at the Bush line on global warming. It became clear early on, says one ex-administration official, that there were "Whitman people" at EPA who repeatedly sparred with "Bush people" elsewhere in the administration. Yet the former New Jersey governor, a famously moderate-to-liberal Republican, faced a rabid grilling the week before last by House Democrats, who believe the government lied about post-9/11 air quality in Lower Manhattan in order to expedite the reopening of Wall Street. Growing visibly angry at times, and sighing resignedly at others, Whitman denied the allegations, which gained currency among Democrats after an August 2003 report by the EPA inspector general on the agency's response to the World Trade Center collapse....
Fla. Gov Champions Environmentalism Republican Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday opened a two-day summit on preventing climate change, launching him into a leadership role on an issue that Democrats have so far championed more vocally. Crist opened his "Serve to Preserve" event with a promise that Florida will lower carbon dioxide emissions and make use of alternative energy sources. Crist said the flat peninsular state has much to lose should ocean levels rise and a lot to gain if it takes a lead in developing renewable energy technologies. Crist will be joined Friday by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, another Republican who has pushed environmental causes. Crist will also sign executive orders that will require utilities to lower carbon dioxide emissions and force state agencies to conserve energy and use biofuels when possible....
Why the Army and its local boosters are losing the Pinon Canyon battle For all its infighting, backbiting and rancor, the U.S. House of Representatives last month experienced a surprising moment of overwhelming unity. Unfortunately for Colorado Springs military boosters, Rep. Doug Lamborn wasn't in on the bipartisan backslapping. Rather, the freshman Republican was on the losing end as southeast Colorado ranchers claimed yet another victory in their effort to kill Fort Carson's expansion plans at Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, east of Walsenburg and about 100 miles south of Colorado Springs. Lamborn, whose 5th Congressional District includes Fort Carson, watched in vain as 383 of his colleagues voted to prevent the upcoming year's military construction budget from being used for "any action that is related to or promotes the expansion" of the post's 235,000-acre training ground. Specifically cut was funding for environmental and economic analysis — a key step to the Army's ambition of expanding by some 418,000 acres into cattle country rife with environmental, historical and scientific wonders. It's not a killer. The Senate still has to agree with House appropriators in a coming committee vote. Even if the Senate is on board, there's always next year....
Editorial - The senators' chance In the next few weeks, the Army's plans to nearly triple the size of its training facility at Piñon Canyon in southeastern Colorado will face a key legislative test. And we hope that by then, Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar will reject the proposal. The test will come in the form of a military construction bill that will be before the Senate. In the House version, an amendment was added by 3rd District Rep. John Salazar and 4th District Rep. Marilyn Musgrave that would deny the Army any funding to proceed on the project in the next fiscal year. That includes money to conduct scheduled environmental reviews on the targeted area. If the final version of the construction bill does not include the Salazar- Musgrave amendment, the Army will be able to move forward. Yet so far, neither Colorado senator has shown any interest in championing the House amendment. To this point, Allard and Ken Salazar have not come out for or against the plan. They've mainly said that they a) oppose the use of eminent domain to acquire land for the 414,000-acre addition and b) insist that the expansion be a "winner" for the region's economy. If the senators mean what they say about eminent domain, for example, it's difficult to imagine how the Army could comply. How could it occupy an area more than four times the size of the city of Denver without condemning private property, when many farmers and ranchers in the affected region have already vowed they'll never willingly sell? Gov. Bill Ritter has signed a bill stating that Colorado opposes any such project that seizes private land. The senators should follow his lead, and the wishes of the local constituents, by formally announcing their opposition to the expansion....
BLM nominee finds wide support at Senate committee hearing James Caswell, nominated to head the Bureau of Land Management, won praise from senators of both parties Thursday as he pledged to maintain an even-handed balance between development and conservation of public lands. Western senators raised numerous energy and public lands issues with Caswell and other nominees to key energy and mining positions, all of whom had a joint hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "I passionately believe in multiple-use management and conservation of our public resources with a commitment to balance, cooperation, collaboration and sharing," Caswell testified. "In my view, achievement of this commitment requires scientific information, and listening to, learning about, and collaborating with the owners of our public lands, the American people." Caswell, a Vietnam veteran, has 40 years' experience as a resource manager, beginning with the BLM and ending with the Forest Service, including heading the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho and Montana. He spent the past six years in the Idaho governor's office as administrator for Office of Species Conservation. He worked on the wolf and Yellowstone grizzly bear management plans in the state. "Both of those issues were politically and emotionally charged," he said....
No violations by BLM officer found An investigation found no violations of agency policy and procedures last year when a handcuffed man in the custody of a Bureau of Land Management law enforcement officer shot himself while in the officer's patrol vehicle. Keith Allers, the BLM deputy director of law enforcement in Washington, D.C., described the June 7, 2006, incident at a BLM shooting range north of Billings as an "extremely unfortunate incident," but he said an internal investigation showed the officer was not in the wrong. Nathan Kelley had been arrested on a probation violation after the officer found him and another man drinking beer and shooting handguns. Kelley was in the back seat of the patrol car with his hands cuffed behind his back when he was able to get control of one of the guns and shoot himself in the head. Kelley, 25, survived the wound and later pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced Wednesday to 34 months in federal prison. BLM officials have not changed their arrest policies or procedures as a result of the incident, Allers said. Instead, the agency has warned its officers to be "ultrasensitive" in similar situations, he said. "We're very confident that our procedures are sound," Allers said.... This doesn't make sense to me. How does a person with his hands handcuffed behind his back shoot himself in the head? If a handcuffed person in Federal custody can obtain a weapon and shoot himself, and the BLM claims their procedures are sound, then the officer must be at fault. Conversely, if the officer is not at fault, then the procedures cannot be adequate.
Study: Wolves barely affect elk, aspens A University of Wyoming professor has concluded that wolves don't cause elk to vary their behavior enough to allow aspen stands to recover, contradicting in some ways earlier studies indicating an "ecology of fear" had taken root in the big-game animals. Matt Kauffman, a professor of zoology and physiology, undertook a three-year study that concluded this year. He, along with Yellowstone National Park biologist Doug Smith and researchers from the University of Montana and Alberta, analyzed 700 elk kill sites over 10 years in the northern range of Yellowstone. His research showed that the predation risk is driven more strongly by habitat features than distribution of wolf packs. Elk are more likely to be killed in open meadows than in forested areas with slopes. The research also concluded that elk do not adjust their willingness to forage based on areas that are riskier for predation. Instead, elk will forage where food is available, particularly in later months in the winter when there is less food....
Denver Water is still paying for blazes long since quenched Denver Water is still paying a hefty price for the Hayman Fire of 2002 and the Buffalo Creek Fire of 1996. The problem is sediment. When there isn't enough ground cover, soil erodes, and the shedding brown has created a budgetary black hole for Denver Water. Traps designed to stop the soil from pouring through Goose and Turkey creeks into Cheesman Reservoir are catching more soil this year than ever. The annual $300,000 budgeted to clean the traps won't cover the job this year, Kevin Keefe, who supervises reservoir operations for the utility, said this spring. In the fall of 2005, the utility cleaned 28,000 cubic yards from the trap at Turkey Creek. Last fall, the amount rose to 60,000, and it took Denver Water more than 1,100 truckloads to haul all the sediment away....
Elkhorn Mountains ranch in public hands The entire 5,548-acre Iron Mask Ranch in the Elkhorn Mountains near Townsend is now in public ownership. On Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management announced the transfer of the final 2,472 acres from The Conservation Fund to the federal agency. It’s the end of a five-year effort to keep what the BLM and others call “critical winter range” for elk and bighorn sheep out of the hands of developers. “Thanks to our partners in this effort — The Conservation Fund, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Montana’s congressional delegation and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation — this important acquisition is now a reality,” said Rick Hotaling, BLM field manager in Butte. “BLM is pleased to have played a role in facilitating this acquisition for the public.” The Conservation Fund had partnered with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation almost five years ago to purchase the property with the intent of selling it to the BLM....
Bear bites Cruces camper A man camping near the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in southwestern New Mexico was bitten by a bear Thursday morning, marking the second run-in between a camper and a bear in the state this week. The New Mexico Game and Fish Department said the camper in the latest incident, Bill Thorp of Las Cruces, was treated at a hospital here for a bite to his buttocks. Thorp was camping in the Grapevine Campground about 40 miles north of Silver City when he heard something outside his tent. He got up and shut the tent's flap and was lying down inside when the bear bit him through the tent. By the time he got out of the tent, the animal was gone. He then drove to Silver City, where he was treated at about 4 a.m....
State's TB-free cattle status at risk New Mexico has 60 days to prove a tuberculosis outbreak in a Curry County dairy is isolated and won’t spread, or the federal government will yank the rest of the state's TB-free cattle status. Such a move would be a big hardship for beef and dairy cow operations across the state, according to the state veterinarian and Northern New Mexico cattlemen, costing an estimated $4 million to $6 million just for testing. "This is the first time in two years new TB cases were found, which creates some serious issues for the state," said Dr. Dave Fly, the state veterinarian. "Losing the TB-free status would be a huge, huge hit for the livestock industry." Fly said TB is an industrywide problem. "We have two serious investigations under way in two other states with possible cases of TB in beef cattle that trace back to (New Mexico)," Fly said. "This is not just a dairy issue."....
Ranchers accept deal for lost herd Livestock officials next week will destroy almost 600 cows and calves from a herd infected with brucellosis after the owners of the animals reluctantly agreed Thursday to accept $475,000 in compensation. The deal with the U.S. Department of Agriculture came less than eight hours before a deadline set by the Montana Department of Livestock. The agency planned to forcibly condemn and slaughter the herd in Bridger beginning Friday morning if a deal had not been reached. The destruction of the animals is required by the USDA to preserve the state's brucellosis-free status. Jim and Sandy Morgan, who own most of the Bridger herd, turned down two previous USDA offers as insufficient. The Morgans said the latest offer, while about $15,000 more than one earlier proposal, still came up $100,000 short of their true losses. The USDA does not compensate for lost potential - namely the difference between what the calves in the herd are worth now, versus what they would be worth if they were fattened up and sold in the fall as the Morgans once planned. Also left uncompensated is the incalculable loss of a livestock line carefully tended by the family for three generations. "Sandy's grandpa started this line of cows in the 1920s," Jim Morgan said. Scheduled for slaughter are 284 calves, 289 cows, 16 bulls and one steer the Morgans raised for beef for the family....
Ted Turner snags up more Nebraska land The 100-year tenure of the McMurtrey Family at a pioneer ranch in Cherry County ended June 26 with a public referee auction at Valentine. R.E. "Ted" Turner purchased the property by offering the highest bid. Turner bought the 26,332 deeded acres for nearly $10 million. The exact amount was $9,584,848, or $364 dollars per acre. The opening bid was $290 per acre. It was the largest ranch land auction ever held in Cherry County, according to Eric Scott, Cherry county attorney. The auction was ordered by the Cherry County District Court. Erba "Hub" McMurtrey built his ranch starting with Kinkaid homesteads with three McMurtrey Brothers in 1908. Ranch acreage increased with multiple buys from settlers and neighboring ranchers. "My father was a pioneer of the country," said Mary Alice McMurtrey Williams, during a visit at her town home just after the auction. Some of the big hills on the north range were bought for “$2 per acre." The ranch headquarters was moved to the present site along the meadows of Boardman Creek in 1925, when McMurtrey Williams was three years old....
Parade marshal shares wealth of rodeo memories Brown has many memories from his years on the Stampede board — and one of the most vivid ones involved Western cowboy singing star Gene Autry. Here’s how it goes: Autry was the first star when the new arena was built in 1950 and came back to perform in 1952. He was in the area during Stampede time in 1954 and stopped by the rodeo to visit. Jimmy Wakely was the singing star that year. Autry was back behind the chutes drinking whiskey and visiting with the cowboys when Wakely said, “Our good friend Gene Autry is here tonight behind the chutes and, in a little while, I’m going to ask him to come out and get on a horse and take an introduction.” Someone told Brown to take Autry aside and get some black coffee in him and Brown complied. Autry said to Brown, “Wakely knows better than that. You don’t introduce anyone without letting him know ahead of time.” “When Gene went out into the arena to get on a horse, he made a skip to do a jump mount into the stirrup, missed and fell flat on his face,” Brown recalled. “He got back up, got on and made a quick circle around the arena and rode out. I don’t think he even waved. He was embarrassed and as mad as a hornet.”....
Lawmakers Propose Cap on Emissions The nation can begin to address the risks of climate change while avoiding harm to the economy, senators said Wednesday in unveiling anti-pollution legislation. The bill would establish a mandatory cap on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, refineries and industrial plants but allow companies to trade emission credits and avoid making emissions cuts if the costs become too high. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., one of the bill's chief sponsors, called it a "strong and balanced approach ... while protecting the American economy." It also includes incentives aimed at spurring other nations such as China to address climate change. The bill is one of five that are being considered in the Senate to tackle global warming. It is expected to be the one most closely embraced by industry, including companies that would be most affected. Joining Bingaman at a news conference Wednesday to announce the legislation were executives of some of the country's biggest coal-burning utilities and unions representing autoworkers and coal miners....
Political Liquor's Economic Hangover Just Beginning From pre-school to planning funerals, green is in. Very in. But green policies and decisions need to be based on more than a vague desire to save the planet. The principles of the natural sciences and economics must play an essential role -- a part of policy-making that often eludes politicians. The latest examples are the federal government's efforts to reduce the United States's dependence on imported oil (now more than 60 percent) by shifting a big share of the nation's largest crop, corn, to the production of ethanol for fueling automobiles. Good goal, bad policy. In fact, in the short- and medium-term, ethanol can do little to reduce the vast amount of oil that is imported, and the ethanol policy will have widespread and profound ripple effects on other commodity markets. Corn farmers and ethanol refiners are ecstatic about the ethanol boom, of course, and are enjoying the windfall of artificially enhanced demand. But it is already proving to be an expensive and dangerous experiment for the rest of us. The U.S. Senate is debating new legislation that would further expand corn ethanol production. A 2005 law already mandates production of 7.5 billion gallons by 2012, about 5 percent of the projected gasoline use at that time. These biofuel goals are propped up by a generous federal subsidy -- via tax credits -- of 51 cents a gallon for blending ethanol into gasoline, and a tariff of 54 cents a gallon on most imported ethanol, to keep out cheap imports from Brazil. This latest bill is a prime example of the government's throwing good money after a bad idea, of ignoring science and economics in favor of politics, and of disdain for free markets....
Clearing the Air Of former Bush officials, Christine Todd Whitman would seem to be the most difficult to cast as a White House puppet. During her tenure as Environmental Protection Agency director from 2001 to 2003, Whitman looked askance at the Bush line on global warming. It became clear early on, says one ex-administration official, that there were "Whitman people" at EPA who repeatedly sparred with "Bush people" elsewhere in the administration. Yet the former New Jersey governor, a famously moderate-to-liberal Republican, faced a rabid grilling the week before last by House Democrats, who believe the government lied about post-9/11 air quality in Lower Manhattan in order to expedite the reopening of Wall Street. Growing visibly angry at times, and sighing resignedly at others, Whitman denied the allegations, which gained currency among Democrats after an August 2003 report by the EPA inspector general on the agency's response to the World Trade Center collapse....
Fla. Gov Champions Environmentalism Republican Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday opened a two-day summit on preventing climate change, launching him into a leadership role on an issue that Democrats have so far championed more vocally. Crist opened his "Serve to Preserve" event with a promise that Florida will lower carbon dioxide emissions and make use of alternative energy sources. Crist said the flat peninsular state has much to lose should ocean levels rise and a lot to gain if it takes a lead in developing renewable energy technologies. Crist will be joined Friday by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, another Republican who has pushed environmental causes. Crist will also sign executive orders that will require utilities to lower carbon dioxide emissions and force state agencies to conserve energy and use biofuels when possible....
Why the Army and its local boosters are losing the Pinon Canyon battle For all its infighting, backbiting and rancor, the U.S. House of Representatives last month experienced a surprising moment of overwhelming unity. Unfortunately for Colorado Springs military boosters, Rep. Doug Lamborn wasn't in on the bipartisan backslapping. Rather, the freshman Republican was on the losing end as southeast Colorado ranchers claimed yet another victory in their effort to kill Fort Carson's expansion plans at Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, east of Walsenburg and about 100 miles south of Colorado Springs. Lamborn, whose 5th Congressional District includes Fort Carson, watched in vain as 383 of his colleagues voted to prevent the upcoming year's military construction budget from being used for "any action that is related to or promotes the expansion" of the post's 235,000-acre training ground. Specifically cut was funding for environmental and economic analysis — a key step to the Army's ambition of expanding by some 418,000 acres into cattle country rife with environmental, historical and scientific wonders. It's not a killer. The Senate still has to agree with House appropriators in a coming committee vote. Even if the Senate is on board, there's always next year....
Editorial - The senators' chance In the next few weeks, the Army's plans to nearly triple the size of its training facility at Piñon Canyon in southeastern Colorado will face a key legislative test. And we hope that by then, Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar will reject the proposal. The test will come in the form of a military construction bill that will be before the Senate. In the House version, an amendment was added by 3rd District Rep. John Salazar and 4th District Rep. Marilyn Musgrave that would deny the Army any funding to proceed on the project in the next fiscal year. That includes money to conduct scheduled environmental reviews on the targeted area. If the final version of the construction bill does not include the Salazar- Musgrave amendment, the Army will be able to move forward. Yet so far, neither Colorado senator has shown any interest in championing the House amendment. To this point, Allard and Ken Salazar have not come out for or against the plan. They've mainly said that they a) oppose the use of eminent domain to acquire land for the 414,000-acre addition and b) insist that the expansion be a "winner" for the region's economy. If the senators mean what they say about eminent domain, for example, it's difficult to imagine how the Army could comply. How could it occupy an area more than four times the size of the city of Denver without condemning private property, when many farmers and ranchers in the affected region have already vowed they'll never willingly sell? Gov. Bill Ritter has signed a bill stating that Colorado opposes any such project that seizes private land. The senators should follow his lead, and the wishes of the local constituents, by formally announcing their opposition to the expansion....
BLM nominee finds wide support at Senate committee hearing James Caswell, nominated to head the Bureau of Land Management, won praise from senators of both parties Thursday as he pledged to maintain an even-handed balance between development and conservation of public lands. Western senators raised numerous energy and public lands issues with Caswell and other nominees to key energy and mining positions, all of whom had a joint hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "I passionately believe in multiple-use management and conservation of our public resources with a commitment to balance, cooperation, collaboration and sharing," Caswell testified. "In my view, achievement of this commitment requires scientific information, and listening to, learning about, and collaborating with the owners of our public lands, the American people." Caswell, a Vietnam veteran, has 40 years' experience as a resource manager, beginning with the BLM and ending with the Forest Service, including heading the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho and Montana. He spent the past six years in the Idaho governor's office as administrator for Office of Species Conservation. He worked on the wolf and Yellowstone grizzly bear management plans in the state. "Both of those issues were politically and emotionally charged," he said....
No violations by BLM officer found An investigation found no violations of agency policy and procedures last year when a handcuffed man in the custody of a Bureau of Land Management law enforcement officer shot himself while in the officer's patrol vehicle. Keith Allers, the BLM deputy director of law enforcement in Washington, D.C., described the June 7, 2006, incident at a BLM shooting range north of Billings as an "extremely unfortunate incident," but he said an internal investigation showed the officer was not in the wrong. Nathan Kelley had been arrested on a probation violation after the officer found him and another man drinking beer and shooting handguns. Kelley was in the back seat of the patrol car with his hands cuffed behind his back when he was able to get control of one of the guns and shoot himself in the head. Kelley, 25, survived the wound and later pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced Wednesday to 34 months in federal prison. BLM officials have not changed their arrest policies or procedures as a result of the incident, Allers said. Instead, the agency has warned its officers to be "ultrasensitive" in similar situations, he said. "We're very confident that our procedures are sound," Allers said.... This doesn't make sense to me. How does a person with his hands handcuffed behind his back shoot himself in the head? If a handcuffed person in Federal custody can obtain a weapon and shoot himself, and the BLM claims their procedures are sound, then the officer must be at fault. Conversely, if the officer is not at fault, then the procedures cannot be adequate.
Study: Wolves barely affect elk, aspens A University of Wyoming professor has concluded that wolves don't cause elk to vary their behavior enough to allow aspen stands to recover, contradicting in some ways earlier studies indicating an "ecology of fear" had taken root in the big-game animals. Matt Kauffman, a professor of zoology and physiology, undertook a three-year study that concluded this year. He, along with Yellowstone National Park biologist Doug Smith and researchers from the University of Montana and Alberta, analyzed 700 elk kill sites over 10 years in the northern range of Yellowstone. His research showed that the predation risk is driven more strongly by habitat features than distribution of wolf packs. Elk are more likely to be killed in open meadows than in forested areas with slopes. The research also concluded that elk do not adjust their willingness to forage based on areas that are riskier for predation. Instead, elk will forage where food is available, particularly in later months in the winter when there is less food....
Denver Water is still paying for blazes long since quenched Denver Water is still paying a hefty price for the Hayman Fire of 2002 and the Buffalo Creek Fire of 1996. The problem is sediment. When there isn't enough ground cover, soil erodes, and the shedding brown has created a budgetary black hole for Denver Water. Traps designed to stop the soil from pouring through Goose and Turkey creeks into Cheesman Reservoir are catching more soil this year than ever. The annual $300,000 budgeted to clean the traps won't cover the job this year, Kevin Keefe, who supervises reservoir operations for the utility, said this spring. In the fall of 2005, the utility cleaned 28,000 cubic yards from the trap at Turkey Creek. Last fall, the amount rose to 60,000, and it took Denver Water more than 1,100 truckloads to haul all the sediment away....
Elkhorn Mountains ranch in public hands The entire 5,548-acre Iron Mask Ranch in the Elkhorn Mountains near Townsend is now in public ownership. On Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management announced the transfer of the final 2,472 acres from The Conservation Fund to the federal agency. It’s the end of a five-year effort to keep what the BLM and others call “critical winter range” for elk and bighorn sheep out of the hands of developers. “Thanks to our partners in this effort — The Conservation Fund, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Montana’s congressional delegation and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation — this important acquisition is now a reality,” said Rick Hotaling, BLM field manager in Butte. “BLM is pleased to have played a role in facilitating this acquisition for the public.” The Conservation Fund had partnered with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation almost five years ago to purchase the property with the intent of selling it to the BLM....
Bear bites Cruces camper A man camping near the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in southwestern New Mexico was bitten by a bear Thursday morning, marking the second run-in between a camper and a bear in the state this week. The New Mexico Game and Fish Department said the camper in the latest incident, Bill Thorp of Las Cruces, was treated at a hospital here for a bite to his buttocks. Thorp was camping in the Grapevine Campground about 40 miles north of Silver City when he heard something outside his tent. He got up and shut the tent's flap and was lying down inside when the bear bit him through the tent. By the time he got out of the tent, the animal was gone. He then drove to Silver City, where he was treated at about 4 a.m....
State's TB-free cattle status at risk New Mexico has 60 days to prove a tuberculosis outbreak in a Curry County dairy is isolated and won’t spread, or the federal government will yank the rest of the state's TB-free cattle status. Such a move would be a big hardship for beef and dairy cow operations across the state, according to the state veterinarian and Northern New Mexico cattlemen, costing an estimated $4 million to $6 million just for testing. "This is the first time in two years new TB cases were found, which creates some serious issues for the state," said Dr. Dave Fly, the state veterinarian. "Losing the TB-free status would be a huge, huge hit for the livestock industry." Fly said TB is an industrywide problem. "We have two serious investigations under way in two other states with possible cases of TB in beef cattle that trace back to (New Mexico)," Fly said. "This is not just a dairy issue."....
Ranchers accept deal for lost herd Livestock officials next week will destroy almost 600 cows and calves from a herd infected with brucellosis after the owners of the animals reluctantly agreed Thursday to accept $475,000 in compensation. The deal with the U.S. Department of Agriculture came less than eight hours before a deadline set by the Montana Department of Livestock. The agency planned to forcibly condemn and slaughter the herd in Bridger beginning Friday morning if a deal had not been reached. The destruction of the animals is required by the USDA to preserve the state's brucellosis-free status. Jim and Sandy Morgan, who own most of the Bridger herd, turned down two previous USDA offers as insufficient. The Morgans said the latest offer, while about $15,000 more than one earlier proposal, still came up $100,000 short of their true losses. The USDA does not compensate for lost potential - namely the difference between what the calves in the herd are worth now, versus what they would be worth if they were fattened up and sold in the fall as the Morgans once planned. Also left uncompensated is the incalculable loss of a livestock line carefully tended by the family for three generations. "Sandy's grandpa started this line of cows in the 1920s," Jim Morgan said. Scheduled for slaughter are 284 calves, 289 cows, 16 bulls and one steer the Morgans raised for beef for the family....
Ted Turner snags up more Nebraska land The 100-year tenure of the McMurtrey Family at a pioneer ranch in Cherry County ended June 26 with a public referee auction at Valentine. R.E. "Ted" Turner purchased the property by offering the highest bid. Turner bought the 26,332 deeded acres for nearly $10 million. The exact amount was $9,584,848, or $364 dollars per acre. The opening bid was $290 per acre. It was the largest ranch land auction ever held in Cherry County, according to Eric Scott, Cherry county attorney. The auction was ordered by the Cherry County District Court. Erba "Hub" McMurtrey built his ranch starting with Kinkaid homesteads with three McMurtrey Brothers in 1908. Ranch acreage increased with multiple buys from settlers and neighboring ranchers. "My father was a pioneer of the country," said Mary Alice McMurtrey Williams, during a visit at her town home just after the auction. Some of the big hills on the north range were bought for “$2 per acre." The ranch headquarters was moved to the present site along the meadows of Boardman Creek in 1925, when McMurtrey Williams was three years old....
Parade marshal shares wealth of rodeo memories Brown has many memories from his years on the Stampede board — and one of the most vivid ones involved Western cowboy singing star Gene Autry. Here’s how it goes: Autry was the first star when the new arena was built in 1950 and came back to perform in 1952. He was in the area during Stampede time in 1954 and stopped by the rodeo to visit. Jimmy Wakely was the singing star that year. Autry was back behind the chutes drinking whiskey and visiting with the cowboys when Wakely said, “Our good friend Gene Autry is here tonight behind the chutes and, in a little while, I’m going to ask him to come out and get on a horse and take an introduction.” Someone told Brown to take Autry aside and get some black coffee in him and Brown complied. Autry said to Brown, “Wakely knows better than that. You don’t introduce anyone without letting him know ahead of time.” “When Gene went out into the arena to get on a horse, he made a skip to do a jump mount into the stirrup, missed and fell flat on his face,” Brown recalled. “He got back up, got on and made a quick circle around the arena and rode out. I don’t think he even waved. He was embarrassed and as mad as a hornet.”....
FLE
FBI databases on Americans being sifted to identify risks posed by possible terrorists The FBI is gathering and sorting information about Americans to help search for potential terrorists, insurance cheats and crooked pharmacists, according to a government report. Records about identity thefts, real estate transactions, motor vehicle accidents and complaints about Internet drug companies are being searched for common threads to aid law enforcement officials, the Justice Department said in a report to Congress on the agency's data-mining practices that was obtained Tuesday. In addition, the report disclosed government plans to build a new database to assess the risk posed by people identified as potential or suspected terrorists. The chairman of the Senate committee that oversees the Justice Department said the database was "ripe for abuse." The American Civil Liberties Union immediately derided the quality of the information that could be used to score someone as a terror threat. The report, sent to Congress this week, marked the department's first public detailing of six of its data-mining tools, which look for patterns to catch criminals. The disclosure was required by lawmakers when they renewed the USA Patriot Act in 2005. It comes as the Justice Department faces sharp criticism from Congress and civil liberties advocates for violating peoples' privacy rights in terror and spy investigations....
Senate hearing to probe Ramos-Compean prosecution Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein will preside over a Senate judiciary committee hearing examining the prosecution of former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. As WND reported, Feinstein believes the agents' 11- and 12-year sentences for their actions in the shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler were excessive. "I strongly believe that the sentences in this case are too extreme, given the criminal nature of the defendant and his possession of large quantities of drugs," Feinstein said in a statement earlier this year. "These men were given sentences that some individuals who are convicted of murder wouldn't receive." Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., is asking a House committee also to examine the case. The congressman wants to look at the involvement of the Mexican government in the decision to prosecute the agents and Texas Deputy Sheriff Gilmer Hernandez. Sutton also prosecuted Hernandez, who was convicted of violating the civil rights of two illegal aliens injured from shell fragments that struck them as the officer shot at the tires of a van in which they escaped from a routine traffic stop. The van driver had tried to run over Hernandez....
In sting, agents buy material for 'dirty bomb' Undercover congressional investigators posing as West Virginia businessmen obtained a license with almost no scrutiny from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that let them buy enough radioactive material from U.S. suppliers to build a "dirty bomb," a new government report says. The investigators obtained the license within 28 days from officials at the NRC, the report by the Government Accountability Office says. NRC officials approved the request with a minimal background check that included no face-to-face interview or visit to the purported company to ensure it existed and complied with safety rules. Using a post-office box at Mail Boxes Etc., a telephone and a fax machine, the undercover men from the GAO obtained the license "without ever leaving their desks," the report says. After counterfeiting copies of the license, the GAO undercover agents ordered portable moisture-density gauges, which contain radioactive americium-241 and cesium-137 and are commonly used at construction sites to analyze soil, water and pavement. The investigators ordered 45 gauges - enough to build a bomb with sufficient radioactive material to qualify as a level-3 threat on the International Atomic Energy Agency's scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the most hazardous....
Military Files Left Unprotected Online Detailed schematics of a military detainee holding facility in southern Iraq. Geographical surveys and aerial photographs of two military airfields outside Baghdad. Plans for a new fuel farm at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The military calls it "need-to-know" information that would pose a direct threat to U.S. troops if it were to fall into the hands of terrorists. It's material so sensitive that officials refused to release the documents when asked. But it's already out there, posted carelessly to file servers by government agencies and contractors, accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. In a survey of servers run by agencies or companies involved with the military and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Associated Press found dozens of documents that officials refused to release when asked directly, citing troop security....
N.J. senator proposes toy gun ban A New Jersey senator wants to make it illegal to sell or give to anyone under age 18 toy guns that look so realistic they can be mistaken for a real firearm. "The margin between a child's stupid mistake and a tragic ending is far too thin," said Sen. Nicholas Scutari. Scutari, D-Union, introduced the proposal in late June and plans to push it when the Legislature reconvenes late this year. He said the bill stems from an incident in a Union Township where four students were suspended after bringing a cap gun to school. "We need to stress to our children that guns are not toys, but deadly weapons which should always be regarded with extreme caution and handled with respect," Scutari said. "Restricting access to imitation firearms will help to drive that point home." Gun rights advocates plan to fight the bill. "It misses the mark because it demonizes toys instead of criminal behavior," said Scott Bach, president of the New Jersey Association of Rifle and Pistol Clubs, which is the National Rifle Association's New Jersey organization. If the measure is enacted, New Jersey would join several states that have restricted access to realistic toy guns to minors....
FBI databases on Americans being sifted to identify risks posed by possible terrorists The FBI is gathering and sorting information about Americans to help search for potential terrorists, insurance cheats and crooked pharmacists, according to a government report. Records about identity thefts, real estate transactions, motor vehicle accidents and complaints about Internet drug companies are being searched for common threads to aid law enforcement officials, the Justice Department said in a report to Congress on the agency's data-mining practices that was obtained Tuesday. In addition, the report disclosed government plans to build a new database to assess the risk posed by people identified as potential or suspected terrorists. The chairman of the Senate committee that oversees the Justice Department said the database was "ripe for abuse." The American Civil Liberties Union immediately derided the quality of the information that could be used to score someone as a terror threat. The report, sent to Congress this week, marked the department's first public detailing of six of its data-mining tools, which look for patterns to catch criminals. The disclosure was required by lawmakers when they renewed the USA Patriot Act in 2005. It comes as the Justice Department faces sharp criticism from Congress and civil liberties advocates for violating peoples' privacy rights in terror and spy investigations....
Senate hearing to probe Ramos-Compean prosecution Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein will preside over a Senate judiciary committee hearing examining the prosecution of former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. As WND reported, Feinstein believes the agents' 11- and 12-year sentences for their actions in the shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler were excessive. "I strongly believe that the sentences in this case are too extreme, given the criminal nature of the defendant and his possession of large quantities of drugs," Feinstein said in a statement earlier this year. "These men were given sentences that some individuals who are convicted of murder wouldn't receive." Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., is asking a House committee also to examine the case. The congressman wants to look at the involvement of the Mexican government in the decision to prosecute the agents and Texas Deputy Sheriff Gilmer Hernandez. Sutton also prosecuted Hernandez, who was convicted of violating the civil rights of two illegal aliens injured from shell fragments that struck them as the officer shot at the tires of a van in which they escaped from a routine traffic stop. The van driver had tried to run over Hernandez....
In sting, agents buy material for 'dirty bomb' Undercover congressional investigators posing as West Virginia businessmen obtained a license with almost no scrutiny from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that let them buy enough radioactive material from U.S. suppliers to build a "dirty bomb," a new government report says. The investigators obtained the license within 28 days from officials at the NRC, the report by the Government Accountability Office says. NRC officials approved the request with a minimal background check that included no face-to-face interview or visit to the purported company to ensure it existed and complied with safety rules. Using a post-office box at Mail Boxes Etc., a telephone and a fax machine, the undercover men from the GAO obtained the license "without ever leaving their desks," the report says. After counterfeiting copies of the license, the GAO undercover agents ordered portable moisture-density gauges, which contain radioactive americium-241 and cesium-137 and are commonly used at construction sites to analyze soil, water and pavement. The investigators ordered 45 gauges - enough to build a bomb with sufficient radioactive material to qualify as a level-3 threat on the International Atomic Energy Agency's scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the most hazardous....
Military Files Left Unprotected Online Detailed schematics of a military detainee holding facility in southern Iraq. Geographical surveys and aerial photographs of two military airfields outside Baghdad. Plans for a new fuel farm at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The military calls it "need-to-know" information that would pose a direct threat to U.S. troops if it were to fall into the hands of terrorists. It's material so sensitive that officials refused to release the documents when asked. But it's already out there, posted carelessly to file servers by government agencies and contractors, accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. In a survey of servers run by agencies or companies involved with the military and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Associated Press found dozens of documents that officials refused to release when asked directly, citing troop security....
N.J. senator proposes toy gun ban A New Jersey senator wants to make it illegal to sell or give to anyone under age 18 toy guns that look so realistic they can be mistaken for a real firearm. "The margin between a child's stupid mistake and a tragic ending is far too thin," said Sen. Nicholas Scutari. Scutari, D-Union, introduced the proposal in late June and plans to push it when the Legislature reconvenes late this year. He said the bill stems from an incident in a Union Township where four students were suspended after bringing a cap gun to school. "We need to stress to our children that guns are not toys, but deadly weapons which should always be regarded with extreme caution and handled with respect," Scutari said. "Restricting access to imitation firearms will help to drive that point home." Gun rights advocates plan to fight the bill. "It misses the mark because it demonizes toys instead of criminal behavior," said Scott Bach, president of the New Jersey Association of Rifle and Pistol Clubs, which is the National Rifle Association's New Jersey organization. If the measure is enacted, New Jersey would join several states that have restricted access to realistic toy guns to minors....
Thursday, July 12, 2007
MEXICAN WOLF
Biologist Reports Threat at Wolf Shooting
A former state Game and Fish Department biologist says a federal employee leveled a rifle at her and told her she had "no business" being around when she tried to halt the recent shooting of a problem wolf in Catron County. Angela Dassow, who encountered three Wildlife Service employees and a ranch hand at the scene, said in an interview with the Journal that Game and Fish "sent me out to let them know that the lethal removal order was not valid and there was a problem with it, and they weren't supposed to kill her that day." She arrived after the female Mexican gray wolf had been killed. Ranch hand Mike Miller disputed Dassow's claim that she was threatened. He is a cowboy who works on the Adobe Ranch where the wolf was killed on July 5 and was present during the encounter. "Nobody pointed a gun at her," Miller told the Journal on Wednesday. Miller said Dassow was "off in la-la land" after she saw the already-dead female wolf on the ground. Dassow, a 26-year-old biologist who left her job after the incident, talked about the incident as she drove home to Wisconsin on Wednesday. One of the Wildlife Service employees "walked up to the front of his truck and picked up his rifle and pointed it at me and said I had no business being there," Dassow said in the telephone interview. "If he just simply wanted to tell me I didn't have the right to be there, he could have just told me. He didn't need to pick up a gun. It wasn't like I had a gun." Miller said, "Nobody did nothing to her ... The rifles were laying against a fence."....
Biologist Reports Threat at Wolf Shooting
A former state Game and Fish Department biologist says a federal employee leveled a rifle at her and told her she had "no business" being around when she tried to halt the recent shooting of a problem wolf in Catron County. Angela Dassow, who encountered three Wildlife Service employees and a ranch hand at the scene, said in an interview with the Journal that Game and Fish "sent me out to let them know that the lethal removal order was not valid and there was a problem with it, and they weren't supposed to kill her that day." She arrived after the female Mexican gray wolf had been killed. Ranch hand Mike Miller disputed Dassow's claim that she was threatened. He is a cowboy who works on the Adobe Ranch where the wolf was killed on July 5 and was present during the encounter. "Nobody pointed a gun at her," Miller told the Journal on Wednesday. Miller said Dassow was "off in la-la land" after she saw the already-dead female wolf on the ground. Dassow, a 26-year-old biologist who left her job after the incident, talked about the incident as she drove home to Wisconsin on Wednesday. One of the Wildlife Service employees "walked up to the front of his truck and picked up his rifle and pointed it at me and said I had no business being there," Dassow said in the telephone interview. "If he just simply wanted to tell me I didn't have the right to be there, he could have just told me. He didn't need to pick up a gun. It wasn't like I had a gun." Miller said, "Nobody did nothing to her ... The rifles were laying against a fence."....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Hungry bears break into homes in Red Lodge, causing big mess Gladys Clark is thinking she ought to get herself a slingshot so she'll be ready the next time a bear comes for breakfast. At 91, Clark concedes she'll have to practice, but she was handy with one when she was an Eastern Montana ranch girl riding the range. Sunday morning, Clark pulled open the sliding glass door on her log home on Rock Creek in Red Lodge to let in some fresh air and went upstairs to get ready for the day. When she came downstairs, a large black bear was standing with its paws on her counter and rummaging through the kitchen cupboards. "Let me put it this way: I was startled," she said. So she screamed, "What are you doing in my kitchen? Get out of here!" "I screamed and I kept screaming at him, and he looked back at me over his shoulder and then walked around the little kitchen table and out the door," she said. The night before, downstream on Rock Creek, a bear helped itself to the contents of Janis Frank's cupboards after breaking through a storm door to get inside. Luckily, Frank, 80, was outside on the front porch when the bear let himself in. When she ran around back and saw the mangled door, she figured it was a bear and ran to a neighbor's house to call 911. With a game warden's help, the bear was evicted, but not before it ransacked Frank's kitchen....
Ranchers face big losses of cattle, grazing land The temperature was 140 degrees in the sun and the ground was still smoldering Sunday when firefighters first allowed rancher Lee Yardley back into charred grazing land to survey the damage done to his cattle herd by the Milford Flat Fire. “About 95 percent of my herd’s grass feed was destroyed up there,” said Yardley as he stood in a field of black ash. “And I still don’t even know how many head I’ve lost.” The fire has burned more than 334,000 acres across central Utah since Friday, and much of the land is open range leased by ranchers for cattle grazing. Yardley, a fifth-generation cattle rancher who runs a 1,000-acre ranch with his brother Joe in Sulphurdale, had much of his herd scattered when the fire overran firefighters Saturday and burned the land while his cattle grazed. Some cows wandered back to the ranch, some were found miles away and badly burned, and others didn’t make it at all, he said during another outing Wednesday to locate his cows. The Yardleys’ uncle, Mike Yardley, a cattle rancher near Milford, where the fire started, had his herds hit the hardest, Lee Yardley said. His uncle’s herd of 600 cattle was grazing in Rock Corral Canyon when the fire “came down on top of them” and killed most of them. But, he added, he had found six of his uncle’s cows wandering 50 miles from their home Tuesday....
Energy firm agrees to protect birds Yates Petroleum Corp. has agreed to evaluate its power line facilities in Wyoming and New Mexico and make modifications to prevent bird deaths. The action is part of a settlement agreement involving Yates, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The case stems from the discovery of four dead eagles found near power lines owned by Yates at its coalbed methane facilities in the Powder River Basin. As part of the settlement Yates paid $10,000 in penalties, half of which will go to the Murie Audubon State Rehabilitation Fund. "Yates is pleased with the agreement and anxious to work with (the Fish and Wildlife Service) and the Murie Fund to protect our nation's birds," said Lisa Norton, environmental manager for Yates. In addition to facility upgrades, Yates has agreed to develop a comprehensive avian protection plan, ongoing monitoring and employee training regarding raptor and migratory bird protection. So far, Yates has spent $25,000 in facility upgrades, according to the company....
Finding common ground on land use in West The Sopris Foundation will hold a conference on "Innovative Ideas for a New West" Friday through Sunday at the Wilma Theater. Missoula is not the only midsize city in the West experiencing unprecedented changes in land use. In fact, its struggles are typical of the challenges facing many other communities. And that's what makes it the perfect place for the Sopris Foundation's annual conference examining regional land-use issues, said Piper Foster, manager of the Aspen, Colo.-based organization. The Sopris Foundation was seeded 14 years ago by Colorado rancher Kate McBride Puckett and her father, John McBride, a developer who was involved in the creation of Vail and Snowmass ski resorts. One of its primary goals is to help communities like Missoula gain access to innovative ideas, Foster said, and the yearly conference has become an increasingly popular way of meeting that goal....
Endangered Species Act misused at times With utmost respect for endangered and threatened species — including three dozen snails, two fuzzy lichens and the Singapore roundleaf horseshoe bat — it seems we might have strayed slightly off the healthy-planet path. ESA requires staggering investments in time and effort and money to save bugs and bushes often in countries that cannot provide electricity and running water to most of their citizens. But never mind world politics. Another unfortunate consequence of the well-intended ESA is its use as a weapon against legitimate and beneficial land use. One of the reasons so many species face extinction today is that our fast-growing population continues to mow and plow and build on once-uninhabitable (at least by people) habitat. As the world's dominant species, that's what we do. Protecting fragile ecosystems is fast becoming the priority it should be here and abroad, but ESA has been marched out frivolously in some cases to prevent change without just cause. A rancher out west lost everything after environmentalists filed documents to stop improvements to his ranch (and thus his family's lifestyle) because the construction threatened an ESA-protected mouse — which was proved later, after a lengthy and costly court battle, didn't exist on the property....
Judge deems Lower Owens River healthy The long legal battle stemming from Los Angeles' diversion of the Lower Owens River nearly a century ago took a historic turn Wednesday as an Inyo County judge declared the waterway restored. "I can now officially declare that the Lower Owens River is a river," Superior Court Judge Lee Cooper said at a hearing. Cooper also approved an agreement and order lifting the $5,000-a-day fine he imposed on Los Angeles in September 2005, to compel the city's Department of Water and Power to restore a 62-mile stretch of the river. The new pact, negotiated by Los Angeles with environmental groups and government agencies that had pressed the city to rehabilitate the river, will halt penalties that amounted to $3.3 million. Los Angeles still faces possible sanctions if it fails to maintain the required flow of water and monitoring of the river. It also faces other lawsuits filed by environmentalists....
Desert enemy No. 1: Buffelgrass University of Arizona researchers are preparing their first concerted attack against buffelgrass, an invading species that threatens to forever change this part of the Sonoran Desert. The search-and-destroy mission begins Aug. 2 at the Santa Rita Experimental Range east of Sahuarita, followed a couple of weeks later by an assault on thick stands of the tough, hard-to-kill plant on Tumamoc Hill, on Tucson's West Side. Buffelgrass, brought to this area decades ago from Africa as a possible source of erosion control and cattle forage, has spread like wildfire, crowding out native vegetation and creating a severe fire hazard. That makes it more than just an environmental issue — it's now a public-safety concern, said Travis Bean, a principal research specialist at the UA Desert Laboratory and buffelgrass expert. "Life and property, by far, are our priority, number-one concerns," Bean said. Experts say buffelgrass infestation in Central and Southern Arizona is doubling each year....
Ritter: Epidemic can't be stopped Gov. Bill Ritter said Wednesday that the pine beetle epidemic that has killed nearly half of the state's lodgepole pine trees will have an "impact for generations to come" and will change the look of Colorado's forests. After getting a look at stands of dead trees from the air, Ritter said the outbreak is part of a natural cycle that has been encouraged by the drought, milder winters and the fact there are so many clusters of the same type and age of tree that are attractive to the beetles. He said the epidemic can't be stopped, only managed to reduce the risk of wildfires. That will change the look of Colorado's forests as more pine trees die and are replaced with new ones. Ritter praised ski resorts for working to keep the bugs at bay by spraying insecticide on trees along their borders....
Senators:millions for Tahoe Basin unspent Nevada’s two senators complained Wednesday that millions of dollars they secured for the Lake Tahoe Basin in the past couple of years have gone unspent. “We worked hard to get this money,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “We expected this money to be spent.” Reid’s comments follow a devastating wildfire in the region, which burned about 3,100 acres and destroyed more than 200 homes in recent weeks. He and Sen. John Ensign, a Republican, met with U.S. Forest Service head Gail Kimbell at the Capitol on Wednesday to talk about ways they can help prevent another devastating fire in the Lake Tahoe area. More than $30 million has been set aside for the Lake Tahoe Basin from public land sale revenues in Nevada since 2005, according to Reid. The Forest Service has spent $12.5 million of that funding, according to Kent Connaughton, assistant deputy chief of the Forest Service....
Off-road groups want in on debate Off-roading groups are concerned that they could be left out of the discussion on how to prevent motorized vehicle damage to public lands. In late June, a group of 13 former rangers and public land managers calling themselves the Rangers for Responsible Recreation identified reckless off-roading as the No. 1 problem facing public lands across the U.S. The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is supporting the ranger group, continued its national campaign on Tuesday when it released figures on criminal activity on lands under the protection of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management or the BLM between 2004 and 2007. Across California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, BLM records showed about 6,600 off-road violations for hit-and-run and other driving offenses, and about twice as many incidents of driving under the influence for off-roaders as compared to automobiles, according to a press release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility or PEER. In interviews Tuesday, representatives of the national Off-Road Business Association and BlueRibbon Coalition said they support law enforcement cracking down on irresponsible riders who give the sport a bad name, but they also feel scapegoated....
Utah plans to join the Wild and Scenic Rivers System For almost 40 years, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act has been protecting beautiful rivers in states across the West – except two. Utah and Nevada have yet to place any rivers on the Wild and Scenic list, which was started in 1968 to protect outstanding rivers from development. For Utah, however, that could change within the year. The Bureau of Land Management in Utah recently identified 30 river segments that are eligible for designation; another 118 are still being considered. The eligible segments include stretches of the Green River, Nine Mile Creek and Bitter Creek. Unlike Utah, however, Nevada has no plans to nominate any rivers. “I suppose the main reason is that Nevada is a very arid state and we don’t have many rivers,” says Dante Pistone of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. Across the nation, 11,409 segments of about 165 different rivers qualify as wild and scenic. About 70 percent of them are located in the West. Some of the best known include California’s Big Sur River, one of the longest coastal streams, which is lined with towering redwoods, and the Deschutes River in Oregon, which offers excellent whitewater rafting and a remarkable steelhead and native rainbow trout fishery....
Al Gore And NBC: Birds Of A Feather Politics: Was what Al Gore called "the largest global entertainment event in all of human history" also the largest in-kind political contribution? And where's the Fairness Doctrine when you need it? Considering that here in the U.S. the Peacock Network's three-hour Gore infomercial on global warming lost out in the ratings to "Cops" and "America's Funniest Home Videos," Gore's claim may be open to question. Live Earth, in fact, may have been America's funniest home video. Ever. But thanks in large part to the 75 hours of free airtime that NBC gave Gore on its various stations, starting with NBC and including CNBC, Bravo, the Sundance channel, Universal HD and Telemundo, Gore may now be the 800-pound gorilla this political season. Gore insists he's not running for president. Yet, as we have wondered before, why would a man who insists that global warming is the biggest threat to mankind, bigger than nuclear terror, not want control of the reins of a major world polluter and chief resister to Kyoto? Dan Harrison, an NBC corporate senior vice president, called the Gore effort "an initiative we believe in" -- the "we" presumably including corporate parent General Electric. (NYSE:GE) Yet he insisted: "I don't think climate change is a political issue." NBC and GE have other interests in hyping climate change. Let's not forget GE is the parent of NBC and stands to make a wad of cash from selling alternative energy products from wind turbines to solar panels to those compact fluorescent bulbs containing mercury....
Army says opponents have all of its Pinon documents Fort Carson says it has given a group opposing expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site all documents it has that the group has sued to get. An attorney for the group, Not One More Acre!, said Wednesday he is in the process of determining whether the group is satisfied that the Army has turned over all of the documents sought. "We hope to know by next week whether we can resolve the case (the lawsuit to obtain documents)," the attorney, Stephen Harris of Colorado Springs, said. The group sued the Army in February, seeking a court order to compel the Army to provide a variety of documents believed to be related to the controversial proposed expansion of the training site. The proposed expansion covers large parts of Southeastern Colorado and faces strong opposition from farmers and ranchers who own land and other property in the area....
Fight To Save Local Gym Enters Round 2 The National City councilmembers will consider a recommendation to renew its authority to take over private land for economic redevelopment, also known as eminent domain. The city's eminent domain authority expires next month. The city wants to redevelop its downtown area, specifically along National City Boulevard. One property standing in the way of that opportunity, according to the city, is the Community Youth Athletic Center. The gym's owners said at-risk youth have been going to the gym for five years to box, play and even do their homework. "This was literally a gun store. And what goes on in here at the 'house of respect' now is we teach kids how to live without using guns. That sounds like redevelopment to me," said Patrick Russell of the CYAC. But there are plans for private developers to build a high-rise condominium complex with office and retail space. Attorney Dana Berliner of the Institute For Justice told NBC 7/39, "Why is it that the gym owes it to the city to move their location, close their gym down for months, in order to make it more convenient for them to build condos here? If somebody wants to build condos, you can build them on whatever land they can buy."....
Judge halts hearing on DM&E A circuit judge has stopped a planned a three-day hearing on eminent domain for the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad's proposed train project to ship Wyoming coal. The hearing was to have begun Tuesday in Pierre. But Circuit Judge James Anderson ordered the South Dakota Transportation Commission to stop the hearing. Anderson also ordered the commission and the state Department of Transportation to appear at a hearing July 24 to show why the eminent-domain case should be allowed to proceed. The route of the new track would cross some western South Dakota ranches and other land owned by people who don't want to sell. Former Gov. Bill Janklow, a lawyer for several landowners, filed court documents arguing that the commission's procedure for hearing eminent-domain cases did not follow state law....
Editorial - California's asset grab IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE a more naked misuse of governmental power than California's sustained grab of assets it conveniently labels unclaimed property. For years, the state has been hunting for bank accounts, safe deposit boxes and other assets that it believes have been forgotten, then scooping up the proceeds and using them to balance its budget. Are those assets genuinely unclaimed? The truth is that the government does hardly anything to find out. In fact, it does just the opposite. It hires accountants and auditors who sift bank and real estate records looking for pots of gold and then take a commission on what the government seizes. Back in the 1980s, the government took over property only after it had made considerable efforts to track down the owners. It pored through public records and placed newspaper ads listing names and the accounts it believed to be abandoned. But that had the unwelcome effect of working, so every time the government found an owner, it denied itself the chance to steal the property. The solution? Stop looking so hard. The budget for the so-called locator unit was cut, and the government stopped running detailed public notices. The money then flowed more readily, and to date, California has seized well over $1 billion. It's pretty clear that the government did not exactly break a sweat in searching for some of the owners. A quick trip through the state controller's website Monday showed assets unclaimed by Antonio Villaraigosa, Willie Mays, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt — to name a handful of California's more recognizable figures. These people can't be difficult to track down. Mays is being honored at baseball's All-Star Game in San Francisco tonight; perhaps the state could have him paged....
NM Senator calls for border ranch support U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman today said he is pleased that the U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection will incorporate cattle fencing as part of their efforts to rebuild vehicle barriers along the New Mexico-Mexico border. In late June, Bingaman called on CBP to act quickly to replace a new vehicle barrier along the border that was unintentionally erected by the U.S. government on the Mexican side of the border. Bingaman also called on CBP to integrate a cattle component as part of the rebuilding process. The misplaced barrier is located about 17 miles west of Columbus. In a letter to Bingaman, CBP formally announced that they have begun the process of dismantling the 1.5 miles of existing vehicle barrier that was constructed on the Mexican side of the border and are simultaneously constructing new barrier on the U.S. side. Temporary fencing will be erected during the rebuilding process to ensure the border remains secure. The addition of a cattle component to the vehicle barrier is one of the key recommendations made by the Southwest New Mexico Border Security Task Force. Bingaman created the Border Task Force 2003....
Ranchers, officials trying to negotiate price of cattle tainted by brucellosis The Montana Board of Livestock issued an order Wednesday to slaughter a herd of quarantined cattle near Bridger if the owners and federal government cannot agree soon on a price for the animals. Seven cows from the ranch tested positive for brucellosis in May, and Montana could lose its coveted brucellosis-free status if the 600 or so cattle aren't slaughtered within 60 days of that discovery - or by July 17. Board members pushed up that deadline during a conference call, saying the state's billion-dollar livestock industry depends on a speedy resolution. Under the order, state officials will begin arranging for the herd's slaughter if no written agreement is reached by ranchers Jim and Sandy Morgan and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service by midnight Friday. The Morgans would be compensated but not under the more expensive deal they have been seeking. "I'm totally sympathetic to (the herd owners), but we have to think about the rest of the state," board member Jan French said. "There are a lot of people with herds in Montana that this would affect." The Morgans called Wednesday's order unfair and said they felt "steamrolled by the state." "We're willing to do everything we can to help the state out," Jim Morgan said. "We would like a little help in return."....
Cowboy era lives on at 60-year-old steak house t’s a bizarre juxtaposition. Think urban neighborhood, and then visualize a nine-acre lot sporting a tiny old house with burlap sacks for curtains and a door from an old Yuma jail. Next to it, put Li’l Abner’s Steakhouse. That’s what you’ll find in the Continental Reserve neighborhood on Silverbell Road in Marana. “I used to tell people the way you find Abner’s is to get on Silverbell and drive until you find a building and smell mesquite,” said owner David Hoffman. “Now, I tell them to drive until they reach a bare spot.” The steak house turns 60 this year and stands as a reminder of the old ranching days from which today’s urban Marana sprang. In 1947, Larry and Duchess Lewis built Li’l Abner’s as a hangout for cowboy ranchers on land that in the 1860s served as a stage stop for Butterfield Express. Because he was an optician and she was a Hollywood dancer, the couple decided on an eyeglasses shop and a bar. “I like to say they would sell glasses to the cowboys after they’d had a couple of drinks,” Hoffman said. “When they woke up, they could see better.”....
Hungry bears break into homes in Red Lodge, causing big mess Gladys Clark is thinking she ought to get herself a slingshot so she'll be ready the next time a bear comes for breakfast. At 91, Clark concedes she'll have to practice, but she was handy with one when she was an Eastern Montana ranch girl riding the range. Sunday morning, Clark pulled open the sliding glass door on her log home on Rock Creek in Red Lodge to let in some fresh air and went upstairs to get ready for the day. When she came downstairs, a large black bear was standing with its paws on her counter and rummaging through the kitchen cupboards. "Let me put it this way: I was startled," she said. So she screamed, "What are you doing in my kitchen? Get out of here!" "I screamed and I kept screaming at him, and he looked back at me over his shoulder and then walked around the little kitchen table and out the door," she said. The night before, downstream on Rock Creek, a bear helped itself to the contents of Janis Frank's cupboards after breaking through a storm door to get inside. Luckily, Frank, 80, was outside on the front porch when the bear let himself in. When she ran around back and saw the mangled door, she figured it was a bear and ran to a neighbor's house to call 911. With a game warden's help, the bear was evicted, but not before it ransacked Frank's kitchen....
Ranchers face big losses of cattle, grazing land The temperature was 140 degrees in the sun and the ground was still smoldering Sunday when firefighters first allowed rancher Lee Yardley back into charred grazing land to survey the damage done to his cattle herd by the Milford Flat Fire. “About 95 percent of my herd’s grass feed was destroyed up there,” said Yardley as he stood in a field of black ash. “And I still don’t even know how many head I’ve lost.” The fire has burned more than 334,000 acres across central Utah since Friday, and much of the land is open range leased by ranchers for cattle grazing. Yardley, a fifth-generation cattle rancher who runs a 1,000-acre ranch with his brother Joe in Sulphurdale, had much of his herd scattered when the fire overran firefighters Saturday and burned the land while his cattle grazed. Some cows wandered back to the ranch, some were found miles away and badly burned, and others didn’t make it at all, he said during another outing Wednesday to locate his cows. The Yardleys’ uncle, Mike Yardley, a cattle rancher near Milford, where the fire started, had his herds hit the hardest, Lee Yardley said. His uncle’s herd of 600 cattle was grazing in Rock Corral Canyon when the fire “came down on top of them” and killed most of them. But, he added, he had found six of his uncle’s cows wandering 50 miles from their home Tuesday....
Energy firm agrees to protect birds Yates Petroleum Corp. has agreed to evaluate its power line facilities in Wyoming and New Mexico and make modifications to prevent bird deaths. The action is part of a settlement agreement involving Yates, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The case stems from the discovery of four dead eagles found near power lines owned by Yates at its coalbed methane facilities in the Powder River Basin. As part of the settlement Yates paid $10,000 in penalties, half of which will go to the Murie Audubon State Rehabilitation Fund. "Yates is pleased with the agreement and anxious to work with (the Fish and Wildlife Service) and the Murie Fund to protect our nation's birds," said Lisa Norton, environmental manager for Yates. In addition to facility upgrades, Yates has agreed to develop a comprehensive avian protection plan, ongoing monitoring and employee training regarding raptor and migratory bird protection. So far, Yates has spent $25,000 in facility upgrades, according to the company....
Finding common ground on land use in West The Sopris Foundation will hold a conference on "Innovative Ideas for a New West" Friday through Sunday at the Wilma Theater. Missoula is not the only midsize city in the West experiencing unprecedented changes in land use. In fact, its struggles are typical of the challenges facing many other communities. And that's what makes it the perfect place for the Sopris Foundation's annual conference examining regional land-use issues, said Piper Foster, manager of the Aspen, Colo.-based organization. The Sopris Foundation was seeded 14 years ago by Colorado rancher Kate McBride Puckett and her father, John McBride, a developer who was involved in the creation of Vail and Snowmass ski resorts. One of its primary goals is to help communities like Missoula gain access to innovative ideas, Foster said, and the yearly conference has become an increasingly popular way of meeting that goal....
Endangered Species Act misused at times With utmost respect for endangered and threatened species — including three dozen snails, two fuzzy lichens and the Singapore roundleaf horseshoe bat — it seems we might have strayed slightly off the healthy-planet path. ESA requires staggering investments in time and effort and money to save bugs and bushes often in countries that cannot provide electricity and running water to most of their citizens. But never mind world politics. Another unfortunate consequence of the well-intended ESA is its use as a weapon against legitimate and beneficial land use. One of the reasons so many species face extinction today is that our fast-growing population continues to mow and plow and build on once-uninhabitable (at least by people) habitat. As the world's dominant species, that's what we do. Protecting fragile ecosystems is fast becoming the priority it should be here and abroad, but ESA has been marched out frivolously in some cases to prevent change without just cause. A rancher out west lost everything after environmentalists filed documents to stop improvements to his ranch (and thus his family's lifestyle) because the construction threatened an ESA-protected mouse — which was proved later, after a lengthy and costly court battle, didn't exist on the property....
Judge deems Lower Owens River healthy The long legal battle stemming from Los Angeles' diversion of the Lower Owens River nearly a century ago took a historic turn Wednesday as an Inyo County judge declared the waterway restored. "I can now officially declare that the Lower Owens River is a river," Superior Court Judge Lee Cooper said at a hearing. Cooper also approved an agreement and order lifting the $5,000-a-day fine he imposed on Los Angeles in September 2005, to compel the city's Department of Water and Power to restore a 62-mile stretch of the river. The new pact, negotiated by Los Angeles with environmental groups and government agencies that had pressed the city to rehabilitate the river, will halt penalties that amounted to $3.3 million. Los Angeles still faces possible sanctions if it fails to maintain the required flow of water and monitoring of the river. It also faces other lawsuits filed by environmentalists....
Desert enemy No. 1: Buffelgrass University of Arizona researchers are preparing their first concerted attack against buffelgrass, an invading species that threatens to forever change this part of the Sonoran Desert. The search-and-destroy mission begins Aug. 2 at the Santa Rita Experimental Range east of Sahuarita, followed a couple of weeks later by an assault on thick stands of the tough, hard-to-kill plant on Tumamoc Hill, on Tucson's West Side. Buffelgrass, brought to this area decades ago from Africa as a possible source of erosion control and cattle forage, has spread like wildfire, crowding out native vegetation and creating a severe fire hazard. That makes it more than just an environmental issue — it's now a public-safety concern, said Travis Bean, a principal research specialist at the UA Desert Laboratory and buffelgrass expert. "Life and property, by far, are our priority, number-one concerns," Bean said. Experts say buffelgrass infestation in Central and Southern Arizona is doubling each year....
Ritter: Epidemic can't be stopped Gov. Bill Ritter said Wednesday that the pine beetle epidemic that has killed nearly half of the state's lodgepole pine trees will have an "impact for generations to come" and will change the look of Colorado's forests. After getting a look at stands of dead trees from the air, Ritter said the outbreak is part of a natural cycle that has been encouraged by the drought, milder winters and the fact there are so many clusters of the same type and age of tree that are attractive to the beetles. He said the epidemic can't be stopped, only managed to reduce the risk of wildfires. That will change the look of Colorado's forests as more pine trees die and are replaced with new ones. Ritter praised ski resorts for working to keep the bugs at bay by spraying insecticide on trees along their borders....
Senators:millions for Tahoe Basin unspent Nevada’s two senators complained Wednesday that millions of dollars they secured for the Lake Tahoe Basin in the past couple of years have gone unspent. “We worked hard to get this money,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “We expected this money to be spent.” Reid’s comments follow a devastating wildfire in the region, which burned about 3,100 acres and destroyed more than 200 homes in recent weeks. He and Sen. John Ensign, a Republican, met with U.S. Forest Service head Gail Kimbell at the Capitol on Wednesday to talk about ways they can help prevent another devastating fire in the Lake Tahoe area. More than $30 million has been set aside for the Lake Tahoe Basin from public land sale revenues in Nevada since 2005, according to Reid. The Forest Service has spent $12.5 million of that funding, according to Kent Connaughton, assistant deputy chief of the Forest Service....
Off-road groups want in on debate Off-roading groups are concerned that they could be left out of the discussion on how to prevent motorized vehicle damage to public lands. In late June, a group of 13 former rangers and public land managers calling themselves the Rangers for Responsible Recreation identified reckless off-roading as the No. 1 problem facing public lands across the U.S. The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is supporting the ranger group, continued its national campaign on Tuesday when it released figures on criminal activity on lands under the protection of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management or the BLM between 2004 and 2007. Across California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, BLM records showed about 6,600 off-road violations for hit-and-run and other driving offenses, and about twice as many incidents of driving under the influence for off-roaders as compared to automobiles, according to a press release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility or PEER. In interviews Tuesday, representatives of the national Off-Road Business Association and BlueRibbon Coalition said they support law enforcement cracking down on irresponsible riders who give the sport a bad name, but they also feel scapegoated....
Utah plans to join the Wild and Scenic Rivers System For almost 40 years, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act has been protecting beautiful rivers in states across the West – except two. Utah and Nevada have yet to place any rivers on the Wild and Scenic list, which was started in 1968 to protect outstanding rivers from development. For Utah, however, that could change within the year. The Bureau of Land Management in Utah recently identified 30 river segments that are eligible for designation; another 118 are still being considered. The eligible segments include stretches of the Green River, Nine Mile Creek and Bitter Creek. Unlike Utah, however, Nevada has no plans to nominate any rivers. “I suppose the main reason is that Nevada is a very arid state and we don’t have many rivers,” says Dante Pistone of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. Across the nation, 11,409 segments of about 165 different rivers qualify as wild and scenic. About 70 percent of them are located in the West. Some of the best known include California’s Big Sur River, one of the longest coastal streams, which is lined with towering redwoods, and the Deschutes River in Oregon, which offers excellent whitewater rafting and a remarkable steelhead and native rainbow trout fishery....
Al Gore And NBC: Birds Of A Feather Politics: Was what Al Gore called "the largest global entertainment event in all of human history" also the largest in-kind political contribution? And where's the Fairness Doctrine when you need it? Considering that here in the U.S. the Peacock Network's three-hour Gore infomercial on global warming lost out in the ratings to "Cops" and "America's Funniest Home Videos," Gore's claim may be open to question. Live Earth, in fact, may have been America's funniest home video. Ever. But thanks in large part to the 75 hours of free airtime that NBC gave Gore on its various stations, starting with NBC and including CNBC, Bravo, the Sundance channel, Universal HD and Telemundo, Gore may now be the 800-pound gorilla this political season. Gore insists he's not running for president. Yet, as we have wondered before, why would a man who insists that global warming is the biggest threat to mankind, bigger than nuclear terror, not want control of the reins of a major world polluter and chief resister to Kyoto? Dan Harrison, an NBC corporate senior vice president, called the Gore effort "an initiative we believe in" -- the "we" presumably including corporate parent General Electric. (NYSE:GE) Yet he insisted: "I don't think climate change is a political issue." NBC and GE have other interests in hyping climate change. Let's not forget GE is the parent of NBC and stands to make a wad of cash from selling alternative energy products from wind turbines to solar panels to those compact fluorescent bulbs containing mercury....
Army says opponents have all of its Pinon documents Fort Carson says it has given a group opposing expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site all documents it has that the group has sued to get. An attorney for the group, Not One More Acre!, said Wednesday he is in the process of determining whether the group is satisfied that the Army has turned over all of the documents sought. "We hope to know by next week whether we can resolve the case (the lawsuit to obtain documents)," the attorney, Stephen Harris of Colorado Springs, said. The group sued the Army in February, seeking a court order to compel the Army to provide a variety of documents believed to be related to the controversial proposed expansion of the training site. The proposed expansion covers large parts of Southeastern Colorado and faces strong opposition from farmers and ranchers who own land and other property in the area....
Fight To Save Local Gym Enters Round 2 The National City councilmembers will consider a recommendation to renew its authority to take over private land for economic redevelopment, also known as eminent domain. The city's eminent domain authority expires next month. The city wants to redevelop its downtown area, specifically along National City Boulevard. One property standing in the way of that opportunity, according to the city, is the Community Youth Athletic Center. The gym's owners said at-risk youth have been going to the gym for five years to box, play and even do their homework. "This was literally a gun store. And what goes on in here at the 'house of respect' now is we teach kids how to live without using guns. That sounds like redevelopment to me," said Patrick Russell of the CYAC. But there are plans for private developers to build a high-rise condominium complex with office and retail space. Attorney Dana Berliner of the Institute For Justice told NBC 7/39, "Why is it that the gym owes it to the city to move their location, close their gym down for months, in order to make it more convenient for them to build condos here? If somebody wants to build condos, you can build them on whatever land they can buy."....
Judge halts hearing on DM&E A circuit judge has stopped a planned a three-day hearing on eminent domain for the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad's proposed train project to ship Wyoming coal. The hearing was to have begun Tuesday in Pierre. But Circuit Judge James Anderson ordered the South Dakota Transportation Commission to stop the hearing. Anderson also ordered the commission and the state Department of Transportation to appear at a hearing July 24 to show why the eminent-domain case should be allowed to proceed. The route of the new track would cross some western South Dakota ranches and other land owned by people who don't want to sell. Former Gov. Bill Janklow, a lawyer for several landowners, filed court documents arguing that the commission's procedure for hearing eminent-domain cases did not follow state law....
Editorial - California's asset grab IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE a more naked misuse of governmental power than California's sustained grab of assets it conveniently labels unclaimed property. For years, the state has been hunting for bank accounts, safe deposit boxes and other assets that it believes have been forgotten, then scooping up the proceeds and using them to balance its budget. Are those assets genuinely unclaimed? The truth is that the government does hardly anything to find out. In fact, it does just the opposite. It hires accountants and auditors who sift bank and real estate records looking for pots of gold and then take a commission on what the government seizes. Back in the 1980s, the government took over property only after it had made considerable efforts to track down the owners. It pored through public records and placed newspaper ads listing names and the accounts it believed to be abandoned. But that had the unwelcome effect of working, so every time the government found an owner, it denied itself the chance to steal the property. The solution? Stop looking so hard. The budget for the so-called locator unit was cut, and the government stopped running detailed public notices. The money then flowed more readily, and to date, California has seized well over $1 billion. It's pretty clear that the government did not exactly break a sweat in searching for some of the owners. A quick trip through the state controller's website Monday showed assets unclaimed by Antonio Villaraigosa, Willie Mays, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt — to name a handful of California's more recognizable figures. These people can't be difficult to track down. Mays is being honored at baseball's All-Star Game in San Francisco tonight; perhaps the state could have him paged....
NM Senator calls for border ranch support U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman today said he is pleased that the U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection will incorporate cattle fencing as part of their efforts to rebuild vehicle barriers along the New Mexico-Mexico border. In late June, Bingaman called on CBP to act quickly to replace a new vehicle barrier along the border that was unintentionally erected by the U.S. government on the Mexican side of the border. Bingaman also called on CBP to integrate a cattle component as part of the rebuilding process. The misplaced barrier is located about 17 miles west of Columbus. In a letter to Bingaman, CBP formally announced that they have begun the process of dismantling the 1.5 miles of existing vehicle barrier that was constructed on the Mexican side of the border and are simultaneously constructing new barrier on the U.S. side. Temporary fencing will be erected during the rebuilding process to ensure the border remains secure. The addition of a cattle component to the vehicle barrier is one of the key recommendations made by the Southwest New Mexico Border Security Task Force. Bingaman created the Border Task Force 2003....
Ranchers, officials trying to negotiate price of cattle tainted by brucellosis The Montana Board of Livestock issued an order Wednesday to slaughter a herd of quarantined cattle near Bridger if the owners and federal government cannot agree soon on a price for the animals. Seven cows from the ranch tested positive for brucellosis in May, and Montana could lose its coveted brucellosis-free status if the 600 or so cattle aren't slaughtered within 60 days of that discovery - or by July 17. Board members pushed up that deadline during a conference call, saying the state's billion-dollar livestock industry depends on a speedy resolution. Under the order, state officials will begin arranging for the herd's slaughter if no written agreement is reached by ranchers Jim and Sandy Morgan and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service by midnight Friday. The Morgans would be compensated but not under the more expensive deal they have been seeking. "I'm totally sympathetic to (the herd owners), but we have to think about the rest of the state," board member Jan French said. "There are a lot of people with herds in Montana that this would affect." The Morgans called Wednesday's order unfair and said they felt "steamrolled by the state." "We're willing to do everything we can to help the state out," Jim Morgan said. "We would like a little help in return."....
Cowboy era lives on at 60-year-old steak house t’s a bizarre juxtaposition. Think urban neighborhood, and then visualize a nine-acre lot sporting a tiny old house with burlap sacks for curtains and a door from an old Yuma jail. Next to it, put Li’l Abner’s Steakhouse. That’s what you’ll find in the Continental Reserve neighborhood on Silverbell Road in Marana. “I used to tell people the way you find Abner’s is to get on Silverbell and drive until you find a building and smell mesquite,” said owner David Hoffman. “Now, I tell them to drive until they reach a bare spot.” The steak house turns 60 this year and stands as a reminder of the old ranching days from which today’s urban Marana sprang. In 1947, Larry and Duchess Lewis built Li’l Abner’s as a hangout for cowboy ranchers on land that in the 1860s served as a stage stop for Butterfield Express. Because he was an optician and she was a Hollywood dancer, the couple decided on an eyeglasses shop and a bar. “I like to say they would sell glasses to the cowboys after they’d had a couple of drinks,” Hoffman said. “When they woke up, they could see better.”....
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
In Australia, a Drought Spurs a Radical Remedy(Subscription)
....The drought's severity and impact are spurring Australia, the world's driest inhabited continent, to tackle a problem that also is starting to afflict more populous countries: how to survive with less water. Australian leaders spent decades building reservoir systems to try to turn vast expanses of marginal cropland in its harsh interior into an agricultural mecca. But recent years have brought record drought -- and predictions that climate changes from global warming could make Australia's interior even drier. That has the government looking to change course, while farmers protest that the droughts haven't gotten worse -- only the politics surrounding them. In the U.S., farmers and policy makers squabble over how to keep dwindling water resources like the Ogallala Aquifer from disappearing. In China, Beijing is struggling to keep the Yellow River -- known as the cradle of Chinese civilization -- from drying out. The Australian government's proposal to preserve its Murray-Darling river basin is one of the most far-reaching anywhere. It calls for taking over management of water rights from the local jurisdictions that share the basin, something akin to Washington taking over the Mississippi River. The government proposes buying out farmers from areas with too little water, and upgrading irrigation systems to reduce waste from leaching channels or leaking pipes. In all, the budget is $8.6 billion , a significant sum in a nation of only 20 million people. ....James Kahl doesn't doubt officials handed out too many water entitlements over the years, but he doesn't think the federal government will necessarily manage water any better. He says his family's first 20 years on the farm were unusually wet, and now, the area is probably coming to the end of a 20-year dry period. Driving across his property in a white SUV, he points out areas where huge floods swept across the farm's black fields in past years. Bureaucrats may ignore such cycles, he says, and simply push to drive farmers out. "There are people who really think we shouldn't make anything off these rivers," Mr. Kahl said one recent afternoon as white cockatoos squawked around him and emus gathered on his empty fields. They'd like "to let it all go back to kangaroos and wild pigs, and then the world will be a happy place."....
....The drought's severity and impact are spurring Australia, the world's driest inhabited continent, to tackle a problem that also is starting to afflict more populous countries: how to survive with less water. Australian leaders spent decades building reservoir systems to try to turn vast expanses of marginal cropland in its harsh interior into an agricultural mecca. But recent years have brought record drought -- and predictions that climate changes from global warming could make Australia's interior even drier. That has the government looking to change course, while farmers protest that the droughts haven't gotten worse -- only the politics surrounding them. In the U.S., farmers and policy makers squabble over how to keep dwindling water resources like the Ogallala Aquifer from disappearing. In China, Beijing is struggling to keep the Yellow River -- known as the cradle of Chinese civilization -- from drying out. The Australian government's proposal to preserve its Murray-Darling river basin is one of the most far-reaching anywhere. It calls for taking over management of water rights from the local jurisdictions that share the basin, something akin to Washington taking over the Mississippi River. The government proposes buying out farmers from areas with too little water, and upgrading irrigation systems to reduce waste from leaching channels or leaking pipes. In all, the budget is $8.6 billion , a significant sum in a nation of only 20 million people. ....James Kahl doesn't doubt officials handed out too many water entitlements over the years, but he doesn't think the federal government will necessarily manage water any better. He says his family's first 20 years on the farm were unusually wet, and now, the area is probably coming to the end of a 20-year dry period. Driving across his property in a white SUV, he points out areas where huge floods swept across the farm's black fields in past years. Bureaucrats may ignore such cycles, he says, and simply push to drive farmers out. "There are people who really think we shouldn't make anything off these rivers," Mr. Kahl said one recent afternoon as white cockatoos squawked around him and emus gathered on his empty fields. They'd like "to let it all go back to kangaroos and wild pigs, and then the world will be a happy place."....
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