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Doubts persist on Ivins' guilt A day after the Justice Department released hundreds of documents purporting to link Bruce E. Ivins to the 2001 anthrax killings, scientists and legal experts criticized the strength of the case and cast doubt on whether it could have succeeded. Federal investigators presented a raft of circumstantial evidence this week intended to prove Ivins' guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. But officials lacked direct evidence, such as hair fibers, DNA samples or handwriting analysis, that the eccentric microbiologist created the deadly powder in his Fort Detrick lab. Questions also remain about Ivins' ability to convert the spores stored in his lab into the powder sent through the mail. More than half a dozen experts in law and bioterrorism pointed out yesterday what they consider major flaws in the government's case and said they were not convinced that Ivins acted alone in mailing the letters that killed five people - or that he was involved at all. They said that the science that led the FBI to Ivins has not been explained and that the other evidence did not amount to conclusive proof....
The FBI's selective release of documents in the anthrax case...What is most conspicuously absent from these FBI documents is any real forensic evidence linking Ivins to the anthrax that was sent. That's particularly striking because the FBI took numerous swabs of Ivins' residence, his office space, his laboratory devices (presumably including the lyothilizer he used), his locker, his cars. If they had discovered any anthrax traces that genetically matched what was sent in 2001, they certainly would have said so. But they don't. It's long been claimed that the property that rendered so dangerous the anthrax sent to Daschle and Leahy was that it was airborne. At times it was even claimed that the anthrax was aerosolized. Under all circumstances, in order for it to be inhalation anthrax, it would have to disperse rather easily. Wouldn't one expect that the FBI's swabs would reveal traces of anthrax somewhere on the clothes, in the home or other physical surroundings of the anthrax attacker? Yet apparently those multiple swabbing episodes turned up nothing, at least based on the documents that were released today. Nor are there any real answers to the question of how Ivins would have manufactured, on his own and without being detected, anthrax grade of the type that was used in the attacks. The numerous hours he spent alone in the lab doesn't address what many of his colleagues said would have been his technological inability to produce anthrax of this type....
F.B.I. Says It Obtained Reporters’ Phone Records The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Friday that it had improperly obtained the phone records of reporters for The New York Times and The Washington Post in the newspapers’ Indonesia bureaus in 2004. Robert S. Mueller III, director of the F.B.I., disclosed the episode in a phone call to Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, and apologized for it. He also spoke with Leonard Downie Jr., the executive editor of The Washington Post, to apologize. F.B.I. officials said the incident came to light as part of the continuing review by the Justice Department inspector general’s office into the bureau’s improper collection of telephone records through “emergency” records demands issued to phone providers. The records were apparently sought as part of a terrorism investigation, but the F.B.I. did not explain what was being investigated or why the reporters’ phone records were considered relevant. The Justice Department places a high bar on the collection of reporters’ records in investigations because of First Amendment concerns, and obtaining such records requires the approval of the deputy attorney general. That requirement was not followed when the F.B.I. obtained the records of two reporters for The Times in Indonesia, Raymond Bonner and Jane Perlez, as well as two reporters there for The Post, Ellen Nakashima and Natasha Tampubolon, officials said....
Former President Ford secretly told FBI about panel's doubts on JFK murder Former President Ford secretly advised the FBI that two of his fellow members on the Warren Commission doubted the FBI's conclusion that John F. Kennedy was shot from the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository in Dallas, according to newly released records from Ford's FBI files. Ford, still a congressman at the time, also told a senior FBI official about internal panel disputes over hiring staff, Chief Justice Earl Warren's timetable for completing the final report on the assassination and what panel members said about the FBI. In turn, Assistant FBI Director Cartha "Deke" DeLoach confidentially advised Ford of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's position on panel disputes; discussed where leaks were coming from; and, with Hoover's personal approval, loaned him a bureau briefcase with a lock so he could securely take the FBI report on the 1963 assassination with him on a ski trip. The new details were included in 500 pages of the FBI's large file on Ford, released in part this past week in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act that The Associated Press and others made on the day Ford died in December 2006. The FBI intends to release additional documents about Ford in several batches, all with parts censored for law enforcement and privacy reasons....
Border agents unevenly spread on boundary Despite efforts to add Border Patrol agents to areas where immigrant traffic is high and drug violence is flaring, officers assigned to the 2,000-mile boundary with Mexico are bunched up near the California coast. And some critics see politics at play. An Associated Press analysis of Border Patrol staffing shows that the San Diego sector, with the shortest section of border and fences covering half the boundary, has four times the number of agents per mile that West Texas does and three times as many as most of Arizona. That is the case even though the Tucson sector in Arizona has been the busiest spot for illegal crossings for years and El Paso sits next to a Mexican city that has seen a surge in drug-cartel violence so severe that Mexicans are pleading for asylum in the U.S. Border Patrol officials defend the staffing levels, saying San Diego's transportation routes and year-round balmy weather make it an attractive spot for smugglers. Others suggest, however, that members of Congress who most embrace the agency's push are rewarded with more agents....
File Keepers If someone develops a practical mind-reading device, you can expect the Department of Homeland Security to argue that skulls are merely another "closed container" that officers guarding the border may search at will. After all, government agents have long been allowed to read documents in briefcases carried by Americans returning from abroad. Why should the medium in which information is stored make a constitutional difference? That argument is only slightly more far-fetched than the one DHS uses to justify its policy regarding border searches of laptop computers. Given the nature and quantity of the data they contain, portable computers are in many ways extensions of our brains. Yet DHS is treating them as if they were no different from purses or fruitcake tins. Recently publicized DHS guidelines confirm that the department for years has been examining the contents of computers at airports and other points of entry "absent individualized suspicion." The guidelines say officers "may detain documents and electronic devices, or copies thereof, for a reasonable period of time to perform a thorough border search," which "may take place on-site or at an off-site location." In practice, this means a customs agent can seize your computer for any reason or no reason at all. He may rummage through your files while you stand there, hoping nothing embarrassing pops up, or he may take the computer to a back room. It may disappear for weeks or months as its contents are copied, analyzed, and shared with various federal agencies trying to determine whether you've broken any laws....
TSA weighs airport gun ban in unsecured areas The Transportation Security Administration may allow airports to ban firearms from terminals, parking lots, roads and other airport areas where many states currently allow passengers to carry lethal weapons. Airport officials and lawmakers are watching closely as the TSA weighs a request by Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to modify its security program to impose an airportwide ban on guns. It is the first such request to TSA from an airport. "Any decisions we make that affect (Atlanta) could affect every other airport in the country," TSA spokesman Christopher White said Thursday. Federal law bars passengers from bringing weapons to or past airport checkpoints. But in many airports, state law allows passengers to carry guns and knives in unsecured areas such as a main terminal — often to airport officials' dismay. In Atlanta, the issue arose last month after the state passed a law to allow Georgia residents with gun licenses to carry firearms onto public transportation, including subways, buses and airports. When the city-owned airport vowed to maintain its longstanding firearms ban, GeorgiaCarry.org, a gun rights group, sued. On July 17, after the lawsuit was filed, the request from Hartsfield officials asked the TSA to amend its airport security program to include a gun ban. Each of the nation's 450 commercial airports has a detailed written security program that can be changed only with TSA approval....
Believe the NRA when it says gun ban extremists are lying One of the loudest voices of warning about the gun ban lobby's true intentions is the National Rifle Association. And now, if one can believe the leftist Mother Jones magazine, we may have even more reason to believe the NRA when they say groups like the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Freedom States Alliance, States United to Prevent Gun Violence and the Violence Policy Center are lying about their true goals: They had a (wo)man on the inside. From the Mother Jones story: This is the story of two Marys. Both are in their early 60s, heavyset, with curly reddish hair. But for years they have worked on opposite ends of the same issues. Mary McFate is an advocate of environmental causes and a prominent activist within the gun control movement. For more than a decade, she volunteered for various gun violence prevention organizations, serving on the boards of anti-gun outfits, helping state groups coordinate their activities, lobbying in Washington for gun control legislation, and regularly attending strategy and organizing meetings. Mary Lou Sapone, by contrast, is a self-described "research consultant," who for decades has covertly infiltrated citizens groups for private security firms hired by corporations that are targeted by activist campaigns. For some time, Sapone also worked for the National Rifle Association. But these two Marys share a lot in common—a Mother Jones investigation has found that McFate and Sapone are, in fact, the same person. And this discovery has caused the leaders of gun violence prevention organizations to conclude that for years they have been penetrated—at the highest levels—by the NRA or other pro-gun parties.....
New Yorkers' Gun Rights May Rest on Hot Dog Vendor's Case If New York's strict antigun laws are overturned in the near future, it may be the work of a hot dog vendor. The vendor, Daniel Vargas, is due next month in court to fight misdemeanor charges that he kept an unlicensed revolver loaded on a basement shelf in his apartment. The case, which has generated 23 hearings and been heard by no fewer than 10 different judges as it winds through Brooklyn's lowest criminal court, would be of little general interest, except for the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that the Second Amendment protects a right to keep a handgun at home for self-defense. Now, suddenly, Mr. Vargas's case, as well as a handful of other cases, are testing the authority of district attorneys to prosecute people for gun possession, a strategy that Mayor Bloomberg has emphasized in his criminal justice policies....

Calif. may drink from ocean by 2011 The California Coastal Commission approved a plan Wednesday to build the Western Hemisphere's largest desalination plant - a move aimed at relieving water shortages in the nation's most populated state. The decision came after a daylong debate over the merits of the $300 million Carlsbad project, which is expected to eventually produce 10 percent of San Diego County's water supply from ocean water. Construction on the plant could begin next year and begin delivering drinking water in 2011, according to Connecticut-based Poseidon Resources Corp., which is heading the project. Commissioners gave the plant conditional approval in November. However, final approval hinged on the commission endorsing the company's plans to make the plant carbon-neutral and to restore wetlands to make up for the marine life that would get drawn in and killed through the plant's intake system....

More Nebraska Beef recalled despite assurances Federal authorities last month assured consumers that a meat plant linked to nearly 50 illnesses caused by tainted ground beef had made enough changes after a recall to ensure that its products were safe. Less than a month later, the same processor has recalled 1.2 million pounds of other beef products that might have sickened more than 30 people. The changes made after the first recall of meat processed by Nebraska Beef Ltd. affected only ground beef, Laura Reiser, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Saturday. Nebraska Beef on Friday recalled 1.2 million pounds of primal cuts, subprimal cuts and boxed beef that were made on June 17, June 24 and July 8. The products have been linked to illnesses in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illlinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. As in the earlier recall, all the beef being recalled now was sold to retailers and other companies that planned to further process the meat. So product labels probably will not include the "EST 19336" code that identified Nebraska Beef....

NM holds off on lesser prairie chicken hunt The heads of the state Game and Fish Department and the Game Commission have decided to hold off on issuing hunting permits for the lesser prairie chicken, a longtime candidate for possible protection under the Endangered Species Act. Game and Fish director Bruce Thompson and Game Commission chairman Tom Arvas said they will not issue permits while a decision to list the bird as a protected species is pending before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Given the strong public interest in protecting this species, it's prudent for us to take more time to work with our partners to assure that we continue to take the best approach for conserving this species and its habitat," Arvas said in a statement Thursday. The Game Commission on July 21 approved a structure for lesser prairie chicken hunting in New Mexico that could have started as early as this fall. The plan included a strict permitting process, but conservationists, sportsmen's groups and others argued that such an activity could derail long-term efforts to conserve the bird's population....

US study finds mountain's snowpack not affected by climate change Maybe the snow in the Washington state's Cascade mountains isn't in such immediate peril from global warming after all. Despite previous studies suggesting a warmer climate is already taking a bite out of Washington's snowpack, there's no clear evidence that human-induced climate change has caused a drop in 20th century snow levels, according to a new study by University of Washington scientists. In fact, the newest study also predicts the Cascade snows - vital to water supplies, crop irrigation and salmon - could enjoy a delay in the effects of global warming. But the findings have already become part of a scientific debate with an unusually political tone. It's an ongoing disagreement that has UW researchers taking sides against each other and has attracted the attention of political groups....

Uncle Sam’s Land Grab: Does the Clean Water Restoration Act Only Return What the Supreme Court Took? n title and in summary, the Clean Water Restoration Act sounds benign enough. But Dan Parmeter, executive director of the Minnesota-based American Property Coalition, calls it "the biggest federal power grab probably in the history of the country." Its summary by the Congressional Research Service notes that it "replace[s] the term ‘navigable waters' ... with the term ‘waters of the United States' ... ." The ostensible aim is to restore to the federal government authority under the Clean Water Act that the Supreme Court took away with narrow readings of the legislation in 2001 and 2006. Yet land-rights advocates believe the bill is much more insidious. "It's really a wolf in sheep's clothing," Parmeter said last month. "It's a national land-use-control bill. And if Mr. [James] Oberstar [the House sponsor] and other members of the committee want a national land-use-control bill, then explain it as a national land-use-control bill and let's have a debate ... . Don't try to mask it under the guise of the Clean Water Act." And Chuck Cushman, executive director and co-founder of the American Land Rights Association (based in Washington state), said: "It's really a watershed-control bill. It will control watersheds, and if you control watersheds, then you control the land."...The key phrase says that the Clean Water Restoration Act gives federal agencies control over waters of the United States and "activities affecting these waters." "That pretty much includes any kind of significant human activity," Parmeter said. "I think the Clean Water Restoration Act as-is goes way beyond - way beyond - what was ever intended by the Clean Water Act of 1972. It basically gets at controlling nonpoint source pollution."....

Ugly fish with humanoid teeth and a nasty personality pulled from El Paso's Ascarate Lake The fish, caught Tuesday, had humanlike teeth, growled, was 15 inches long, bit a hook in half and stunned a man who weighs about 200 pounds. "I believe it's a piranha," Rodriguez said. "When I caught it, it scared me. ... It was very aggressive; it snapped his jaw and snorted at me when I tried to get it. It cut the hook in half leaving part of it in its mouth." Rodriquez, 33, said he has caught different types of fish at Ascarate Lake since he was a child, but "I've never caught a fish like that in my life." Dustin Barrett with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department identified the exotic fish as a red-bellied pacu, a fish closely related to dreaded piranha....

EPA Keeps Biofuels Levels in Place after Considering Texas’ Request Following extensive analysis, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen L. Johnson today announced his decision to deny a request submitted by the State of Texas to reduce the nationwide Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). As a result, the required total volume of renewable fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, mandated by law to be blended into the fuel supply will remain at 9 billion gallons in 2008 and 11.1 billion gallons in 2009. “After reviewing the facts, it was clear this request did not meet the criteria in the law,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. “The RFS remains an important tool in our ongoing efforts to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions and lessen our dependence on foreign oil, in aggressive yet practical ways.” Current law authorizes EPA to waive the national RFS if the agency determines that the mandated biofuel volumes would cause “severe harm” to the economy or the environment. The agency recognizes that high commodity prices are having economic impacts, but EPA’s extensive analysis of Texas’ request found no compelling evidence that the RFS mandate is causing severe economic harm during the time period specified by Texas....

Statement by Gov. Rick Perry on EPA Denial of Texas' RFS Waiver Request "I am greatly disappointed with the EPA’s inability to look past the good intentions of this policy to see the significant harm it is doing to farmers, ranchers and American households. For the EPA to assert that this federal mandate is not affecting food prices not only goes against common sense, but every American’s grocery bill. "Denying Texas’ request is a mistake that will only increase the already-heavy financial burden on families while doing even more harm to the livestock industry. Good intentions and laudable goals are small compensation to the families, farmers and ranchers who are being hurt by the federal government’s efforts to trade food for fuel. Any government mandate that artificially props-up a single industry to the detriment of millions of Americans is bad public policy. "Congress specifically created an emergency waiver provision for situations like these and EPA refuses to implement it."

Judge Rules Indians Owed $455 Million A federal judge ruled yesterday that Native Americans suing the U.S. government over mismanaged royalties collected from gas and oil companies that drilled on their lands are entitled to $455 million -- far less than the $47 billion they were seeking. The ruling is the latest -- and probably not the last -- chapter in a 12-year legal dispute that U.S. District Judge James Robertson compared to Charles Dickens's legal tome, "Bleak House," in a January opinion. Robertson's ruling yesterday focused on how much royalty money was withheld from trust accounts managed by the Department of Interior on behalf of half a million Native Americans and their heirs over the past 121 years. The Native Americans' attorneys said that the government had badly mismanaged the trusts and that there was a shortfall of nearly $4 billion. At a June bench trial, the lawyers said the Native Americans were owed $47 billion, a figure that represented the "benefit" the government received from improperly using the missing money. That figure was lower than the $58 billion estimate given before the trial started. However, Robertson found their arguments unconvincing. The Native Americans' calculations suffer "from numerous methodological flaws that were illuminated by the government's presentation and, in many instances, are obvious to anyone having basic familiarity with the case," the judge wrote....

Stimson puts Bonner mill up for sale Just a few weeks after closing the operation, Stimson Lumber is officially putting its Bonner sawmill up for sale, setting the price tag at $16 million. The announcement of the sale plan came Thursday afternoon, as Stimson officials met with Missoula County Commissioners, Congressional representatives, the Forest Service and local economic development leaders. The company is putting the Bonner mill on the market, with plans for the auction block if there are no suitable offers in the next few weeks. Stimson closed the mill for good late last spring, saying market conditions would no longer support continued operation of the mill, which had been running continuously since the 1880s. Stimson spokesman Jeff Webber says market conditions are no better now, telling Montana's News Station the "short and long term timber supply is not good enough to operate the mill"....
Fight heats up for water along Utah/Nevada border Along with a lawsuit filed this week over water on the Utah/Nevada border, Great Basin Water Network expects to file a petition today appealing Nevada State Engineer Tracy Taylor's ruling last month that granted almost 19,000 acre-feet of water rights to the Southern Nevada Water Authority to supply Las Vegas with water. The water rights named in the petition impact the Cave, Dry Lake and Delamar valleys located inland from the border, where Taylor said there is "unappropriated" water for export. Great Basin Water Network board member and Utahn Steve Erickson said Thursday that the timing of the suit in Nevada state court is meant to coincide with developments on another battle over water in the Snake Valley region, which more importantly to Utah is located along the Utah/Nevada border. Erickson's group is alleging Taylor "grossly" overestimated at least the Dry Lake Valley's perennial yield of water, and that for all of the valleys Taylor arbitrarily cut off the time period for which he will consider "potential impacts to downstream water rights holders and the environment."....
BLM has a decision to make regarding wild horse population The Bureau of Land Management says it has some tough decisions to make in September regarding increases in wild horse population and the rising cost of maintaining the "symbol" of Nevada. The BLM says Nevada's wild horse population is at a turning point. They are caught between dwindling food supplies and a government agency facing an economic squeeze. There is a national advisory board meeting scheduled for September where one way or another a decision will be made on what to do with 30,000 wild horses in Nevada. The BLM says the best solution would be to find people to adopt the horses and provide for them but there are more than 1,100 horses at the Palomino Valley BLM facility. Scott Kandel, a horse trainer with a former wild horse of his own, says adoptions are down dramatically because of the price of hay, fuel and the economy. According to the BLM, it cost them $37 million to care for the horses, an estimated cost of $58 million is expected in 2009 and an incredible $72 million estimated for 2012....
Geothermal lease sales strong Federal land managers sold a record $28.2 million in geothermal leases in eight Northern Nevada counties this week, including one parcel where the rights to produce energy from hot water and steam beneath the earth sold for $1,000 per acre. The Reno-based ENEL Geothermal paid the U.S. Bureau of Land Management more than $2.7 million for the 2,707-acre parcel in Churchill County -- one of 35 parcels totaling 105,312 acres of public lands made available under the 10-year leases. Last August, when the BLM sold $11.7 million worth of geothermal leases in Nevada, the highest bid was $520 per acre. As of early this year, Nevada had 40 geothermal projects in development -- more than any other state....

LOS PAYASOS - YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK

Builder sent to jail for flood mitigation An Idaho man is being sent to prison for meeting his local government's demands during a subdivision development to fix a drainage problem that periodically had left the town of Driggs flooded, after federal officials then said their regulations banned such work. The dire situation for developer Lynn Moses is being publicized by Bryan Fischer, the chief of Idaho Values Alliance, who said the "crime" for which Moses has been sentenced to 18 months in prison was, "Protecting the city of Driggs from flooding." Moses' lawyer, Blake Atkin of Salt Lake City, confirmed the circumstances of the case, explaining that although the federal government repeatedly has denied having jurisdiction over the work involved, an opinion shared by the U.S. Supreme Court, Moses nevertheless was convicted on charges relating to his work on the streambed of Teton Creek, an intermittent runoff channel that has water in it for probably eight weeks out of the year. "Worse, Mr. Moses has been convicted of 'pollut(ing) a spawning area for Yellowstone cutthroat trout,' despite the fact that there have been no fish in this stream bed for more than 150 years," Fischer wrote. "[A resident] who has lived near the flood channel for 18 years, says he has never seen fish in this stream bed. And it's not even possible for the stream bed to serve as a spawning ground since it only has water two months out of every year in the first place."....
A 'Hidden Tax' Of Rules Hits Economy President Bush's fiscal 2009 U.S. budget is the first to top $3 trillion. Federal spending has risen from 18% of GDP in 2000 to 21% today. What is less well documented are regulatory compliance costs — such as environmental, labor and energy efficiency mandates. As a result, too many remain unaware of the size and scope of regulation. Regulations are a "hidden tax" now estimated to cost business and consumers hundreds of billions, above and beyond federal spending itself. While the Dow collapses, we have a bull market in government regulations. The 50-plus departments, agencies and commissions are now at work on 3,882 rules; 757 will affect small businesses. More than 51,000 final rules were issued from 1995 to 2007. Those regulations are not free. Enforcing and overseeing them costs $42 billion per year. A far bigger cost — one that is not counted in the budget — is compliance. Regulatory compliance costs of $1.16 trillion are now higher than Canada's entire 2004 GDP ($1.017 trillion). At a time of lackluster 1% economic growth, the regulatory state costs 8.5% of U.S. GDP. Combined with the 21% of GDP consumed by federal spending, we have a federal government that absorbs nearly 30% of economic output. None of this includes state and local government, which push the burden of government up to 53.9% of GDP. The Federal Register, which lists all new rules, ran to 72,090 pages in 2007. This was down 3.8% from 2006. The record year was 2004, which saw 75,676 pages....
The GDP Illusion Government spending is one third of GDP, and it rose by a whopping 3.4 percent in the second quarter, following a 1.9 percent rise in the first quarter. There was a rise of 1.6 percent in state and local government spending, and a steep 6.7 percent rise in federal spending. “National defense” or military spending rose by a walloping 7.3 percent, as it did also in the first quarter. Civilian federal government spending rose by 5.3 percent. So what we have is a huge increase in government spending plus government giving people money to spend, all borrowed. The government can keep GDP rising by borrowing ever more money from abroad and spending it directly or giving it to residents to spend, while keeping interest rates pushed down via money expansion....
Government may be the worst threat to privacy In a recent post on airport security over at the Civil Liberties Examiner site, I mentioned that the Transportation Security Administration recently announced the loss of an unencrypted laptop computer containing pre-enrollment records for approximately 33,000 people, intended for use in the Clear registered traveler program. I wish I could say that was an isolated incident, or the sort of bumbling confined to a single government program, but it's not. In fact, a report in the latest issue of Consumer Reports finds that "government is among the biggest sources of ID leaks and that penalties are rarely imposed on those who are negligent." The magazine reports that, just from 2005 to mid-June of this year, 44 million consumer records containing sensitive personal information were lost or exposed by government missteps. Government ineptitude with data security may become an increasing problem, now that Homeland Security, with the courts' blessing, has ruled that border agents may seize and search electronic devices without cause. Jeff Vining, writing for Gartner Group, warns that a seized storage device may pass through the hands of any number of agents, working for a variety of agencies. "The only legal limitations to this scenario are to avoid causing exceptional damage to the laptop's hard drive and to conduct the search and investigation in an inoffensive manner. This means that digital information can be downloaded by government agents, never returned or destroyed." We already know what the government does with its own data; anybody care to bet that it will take better care of information stored on privately owned laptops and flash drives?....

'Redneck Stonehenge': Utah Farmer Builds Fence From Wrecked Autos to Send Message to Neighbors A farmer has erected a fence in his backyard made of three old cars sticking up in the air to send a message to new neighbors that he can do whatever he wants on his farm. "This is just a fun way for me to say, 'Hey boys, I'm still here,'" said Rhett Davis. "This is my redneck Stonehenge." Davis came up with the idea after neighbors who recently moved into homes next to his hayfield complained about his farm. "The people who bought the homes say, 'Well, we love looking into your yard and seeing the horses and the cattle, but we don't like the flies, and we don't like the mosquitoes,' and when I cut my field to bale it, they say, 'We don't like the dust in the air,'" Davis said. Davis said he offered to pay half the cost of a fence between his property and the others and to build it. He said his neighbors declined the offer, saying it would block their view....

Wildlife, energy advocates reach accord about sage grouse Landowners and wildlife conservationists gave up large swaths of habitat they considered important to sage grouse, particularly in the Powder River Basin. Energy developers, some reluctantly, agreed to a stipulation that they must demonstrate activity will result in no loss of sage grouse or sage grouse habitat in "core areas." Most all stakeholders agree that the state's plan to protect sage grouse is a true, workable compromise. "We wanted to come up with a solution that protected an adequate number of sage grouse without shutting down the state development-wise. There was a lot of good give and take, and overall we came up with a core area strategy. It's a solid concept," said Mark Winland of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, who served on the governor's Sage Grouse Implementation Team. Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Friday issued an executive order outlining the state's plan to protect sage grouse and sage grouse habitat in Wyoming. It's the culmination of a multi-stakeholder effort that began in June 2007 when the governor held a summit in Casper regarding sage grouse, which some groups want to be listed under the Endangered Species Act. The governor's order consists of 12 stipulations and a map of "core" areas where the stipulations could be implemented, including a mandate for developers to demonstrate their proposed activity will result in no loss of sage grouse or sage grouse habitat....

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Border patrol agent held at gunpoint A U.S. Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint Sunday night by members of the Mexican military who had crossed the border into Arizona, but the soldiers returned to Mexico without incident when backup agents responded to assist. Agents assigned to the Border Patrol station at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the international border in an isolated area about 100 miles southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who was not identified. It was unclear what the soldiers were doing in the United States, but U.S. law enforcement authorities have long said that current and former Mexican military personnel have been hired to protect drug and migrant smugglers. "Unfortunately, this sort of behavior by Mexican military personnel has been going on for years," union Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) said on its Web page. "They are never held accountable, and the United States government will undoubtedly brush this off as another case of 'Oh well, they didn't know they were in the United States.' Since 1996, there have been more than 200 confirmed incursions by the Mexican military into the United States. Local 2544, the largest in the NBPC, is headed by veteran Border Patrol agent Edward "Bud" Tuffly II. He noted on the Web page that the local's leadership would "withhold further comment on this incident until we see how our leaders handle it."....
Report: FBI Harassed Ivins Bruce E. Ivins, the FBI's prime suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people, spent last fall drinking heavily, taking large numbers of pills and typing ranting e-mails late at night, a fellow scientist says. But the FBI also offered Ivins' own son and daughter millions of dollars and a new sports car to testify against their father, and even confronted the entire family in public at a shopping mall, The Washington Post reports. vins, a career government infectious-disease researcher, killed himself last week as the FBI was preparing to arrest him in connection with the anthrax attacks. The anonymous fellow scientist tells the Post that Ivins "was e-mailing me late at night with gobbledygook, ranting and raving" regarding the FBI's "persecution" of his family. That scrutiny involved showing Ivins' daughter photos of the victims and telling her "your father did this," the scientist says. The bureau also coaxed her twin brother with the $2.5 million reward offered in what it called the "Amerithrax" case plus any sports car he wanted, the source says. In March FBI agents confronted Ivins, his wife and son at a Frederick, Md., shopping mall, the source tells the Post. "You killed a bunch of people," the agents told Ivins. They asked his wife, "Do you know he killed people?"....
Documents Unsealed in Anthrax Case A federal judge on Wednesday unsealed documents related to the 2001 anthrax attacks, as the Justice Department prepared to declare, over lingering skepticism, that the case had been solved. Federal law enforcement officials planned to address the growing questions about the strength of its evidence against a military scientist who killed himself after investigators linked him to the attacks. Officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation are particularly eager to close the case and publicly rebut accusations from defenders of the scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, that the bureau may have hounded an innocent man into committing suicide. Robert M. Blitzer, who formerly directed the F.B.I.’s section on domestic terrorism, bristled at criticism of the bureau’s methods in the anthrax case and called them a necessary part of tracking down the killer. “You do the best you can, and it’s not always pretty,” he said....
Long, Crooked Road of the Anthrax Probe The bioweapons lab at Fort Detrick north of Washington, where anthrax suspect Bruce Ivins had worked since 1990, became a focus of federal investigators soon after anthrax-laced letters [pictures of the letters here] arrived at media organizations and Senate offices following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Five people died from the anthrax mailings. Many feared that the anthrax letters were the work of al Qaeda or other foreign terrorists. But investigators decided early on that few people in the world had the high degree of technical and scientific sophistication to handle anthrax strains, and that most of those people worked in the United States. In mid 2002, FBI officials said the agency was scrutinizing 20 to 30 scientists who might have had the knowledge and opportunity to send the anthrax letters. That year, Steven J. Hatfill, a bioweapons expert and a former Fort Detrick scientist, was the only scientist called a "person of interest" in the investigation by then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft. Investigators searched Hatfill's apartment, car, a storage unit in Florida and his girlfriend's home. They seized his computer and bags of personal items he had thrown away in preparation for moving. Hatfill vehemently denied any connection with the letters. (Hatfill later sued the government -- and some reporters, seeking their confidential sources -- saying he has struggled to find employment as a scientist after reporters and federal agents tailed him for years. Little more than a month ago, he reached a settlement with the Justice Department valued at $5.85 million.)....
Vital unresolved anthrax questions The FBI's lead suspect in the September, 2001 anthrax attacks -- Bruce E. Ivins -- died Tuesday night, apparently by suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to charge him with responsibility for the attacks. For the last 18 years, Ivins was a top anthrax researcher at the U.S. Government's biological weapons research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Maryland, where he was one of the most elite government anthrax scientists on the research team at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID)...If the now-deceased Ivins really was the culprit behind the attacks, then that means that the anthrax came from a U.S. Government lab, sent by a top U.S. Army scientist at Ft. Detrick. Without resort to any speculation or inferences at all, it is hard to overstate the significance of that fact. From the beginning, there was a clear intent on the part of the anthrax attacker to create a link between the anthrax attacks and both Islamic radicals and the 9/11 attacks...One other fact to note here is how bizarrely inept the effort by the Bush DOJ to find the real attacker has been. Extremely suspicious behavior from Ivins -- including his having found and completely cleaned anthrax traces on a co-worker's desk at the Ft. Detrick lab without telling anyone that he did so and then offering extremely strange explanations for why -- was publicly reported as early as 2004 by The LA Times (Ivins "detected an apparent anthrax leak in December 2001, at the height of the anthrax mailings investigation, but did not report it. Ivins considered the problem solved when he cleaned the affected office with bleach"). In October 2004, USA Today reported that Ivins was involved in another similar incident, in April of 2002, when Ivins performed unauthorized tests to detect the origins of more anthrax residue found at Ft. Detrick....
Was Bruce Ivins the anthrax killer? The media narrative now being woven around the apparent suicide of U.S. government scientist Bruce E. Ivins – a prominent anthrax researcher who worked at Ft. Detrick's U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases bio-weapons research lab (USAMRIID) – is that he was a lone nut, a "homicidal maniac" who poisoned the five people killed in the 2001 anthrax attacks and was determined to go on another killing spree at his workplace as the Feds closed in on him. The Times of London headline says it all: "Mad Anthrax Scientist in Threat to Kill Co-Workers." However, as we sift through the reams of media coverage occasioned by this startling development in a 7-year-old case, we get quite a different story from the alleged objects of his rage: his colleagues on the job at Ft. Detrick. As the Washington Post reported: "Colleagues and friends of the vaccine specialist remained convinced that Ivins was innocent: They contended that he had neither the motive nor the means to create the fine, lethal powder that was sent by mail to news outlets and congressional offices in the late summer and fall of 2001. Mindful of previous FBI mistakes in fingering others in the case, many are deeply skeptical that the bureau has gotten it right this time. "'I really don't think he's the guy. I say to the FBI, "Show me your evidence,"' said Jeffrey J. Adamovicz, former director of the bacteriology division at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, on the grounds of the sprawling Army fort in Frederick. 'A lot of the tactics they used were designed to isolate him from his support. The FBI just continued to push his buttons.'" Another one of his co-workers, Richard O. Spertzel, pointed out that "USAMRIID doesn't deal with powdered anthrax. I don't think there's anyone there who would have the foggiest idea how to do it. You would need to have the opportunity, the capability, and the motivation, and he didn't possess any of those."....
Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. DHS officials said the newly disclosed policies -- which apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens -- are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such procedures have long been in place but were disclosed last month because of public interest in the matter. Civil liberties and business travel groups have pressed the government to disclose its procedures as an increasing number of international travelers have reported that their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices had been taken -- for months, in at least one case -- and their contents examined. The policies state that officers may "detain" laptops "for a reasonable period of time" to "review and analyze information." This may take place "absent individualized suspicion." The policies cover "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form," including hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover "all papers and other written documentation," including books, pamphlets and "written materials commonly referred to as 'pocket trash' or 'pocket litter.' "....
State: Just in case, we'll take your gun A new report to the Connecticut state legislature shows police have used the state's unique gun seizure law to confiscate more than 1,700 firearms from citizens based on suspicion that the gun owners might harm themselves or others. The state's law permits police to seek a warrant for seizing a citizen's guns based on suspicion of the gun owner's intentions, before any act of violence or lawbreaking is actually committed. The law has remained hotly debated since its passage, as some point to possible murders and suicides it may have prevented and others worry that police would abuse the law. "It certainly has not been abused. It may be underutilized," Ron Pinciaro, co-executive director of Connecticut Against Gun Violence, told the Waterbury Republican American. "The bottom line from our perspective is, it may very well have saved lives." Attorney Ralph D. Sherman, who has represented several of the gun owners whose firearms were confiscated under the law, disagrees. "In every case I was involved in I thought it was an abuse," he told the newspaper. "The overriding concern is anybody can report anybody with or without substantiation, and I don't think that is the American way." Joe Graborz, executive director of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union, an affiliate of the ACLU, told WND the law "continues to invest unusual and far-reaching powers in police authority that does not belong there" by requiring "police to act as psychologists in trying to predict and interpret behavior."....
Pentagon shuts down controversial counter-intelligence outfit The Pentagon said Monday it has shut down a secretive counter-intelligence outfit that aroused controversy over tracking the activities of anti-war groups. The so-called Counter-Intelligence Field Activity (CIFA) is being absorbed into a new Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) center that will be in charge of both espionage and counter-intelligence activities, the Pentagon said in a statement. "The Department of Defense activated the Defense Counterintelligence (CI) and Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Center today, and simultaneously disestablished the Department's Counterintelligence Field Activity," the Pentagon said. CIFA was created under former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2002 as a separate entity to conduct counter-intelligence efforts against suspected terrorists in the United States. It came under fire in December 2005 following disclosures that it had kept unverified surveillance reports of anti-war activists in a database. CIFA was empowered to conduct counter-intelligence investigations, but most of its operations remain classified. It reportedly grew to employ about 1,000 people. "CIFA's designation as a law enforcement activity did not transfer to DIA. The new center will have no law enforcement function," the Pentagon said....
Bush Proposes Regulatory Change to Ease Spying With these Bush guys, you’ve got to read the fine print. On July 31, they published in the Federal Register a proposed change to Title 28, Section 23, of the Code of Federal Regulations. This is the section that governs domestic spying. The existing language said that information gathered in an intelligence case could be disseminated only “where there is a need to know and a right to know the information in the performance of a law enforcement activity.” This limitation was designed to protect “the privacy and constitutional rights of individuals,” the statute behind this section states. Well, that limitation would be null and void. The new regulations would allow dissemination “when the information falls within the law enforcement, counterterrorism, or national security responsibility of the receiving agency or may assist in preventing crime or the use of violence or any conduct dangerous to human life or property.” Boy, you can’t get much broader than that. Wait, you can. Because the existing language said you could share this intelligence info with “a government official or any other individual, when necessary to avoid imminent danger to life or liberty.” Now, the Bushies have deleted the word “imminent.”....
Texas defies Hague and executes José Medellín A Mexican man at the centre of an international legal dispute has been executed in Texas for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1993. While protestors both for and against the death penalty demonstrated outside the Huntsville Unit near Houston last night, José Medellín, 33, died after being given a lethal injection. The execution came just before 10pm shortly after the US supreme court denied a last request for a reprieve. Pleas for a stay came from Washington, Mexico and the international court of justice (ICJ). They had all urged Texas not to execute Medellín until a hearing had been held to determine whether or not his original trial was sound. The state's Republican governor, Rick Perry, rebutted attempts to delay off the execution arguing that the state's courts were not bound by the rulings of the ICJ. The ICJ in the Hague had ordered Medellín's case and those of 50 other Mexicans on death row be reviewed because none had been informed of their right to consular assistance. The US state department said it was powerless to delay the execution, noting that the country's supreme court had ruled in March that president Bush did not have the authority to intervene in the case....

Global Warming, Global Myth The public has been led to believe that increased carbon dioxide from human activities is causing a greenhouse effect that is heating the planet. But carbon dioxide comprises only 0.035% of our atmosphere and is a very weak greenhouse gas. Although it is widely blamed for greenhouse warming, it is not the only greenhouse gas, or even the most important. Water vapor is a strong greenhouse gas and accounts for at least 95% of any greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide accounts for only about 3%, with the remainder due to methane and several other gases. Not only is carbon dioxide's total greenhouse effect puny, mankind's contribution to it is minuscule. The overwhelming majority (97%) of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere comes from nature, not from man. Volcanoes, swamps, rice paddies, fallen leaves, and even insects and bacteria produce carbon dioxide, as well as methane. According to the journal Science (Nov. 5, 1982), termites alone emit ten times more carbon dioxide than all the factories and automobiles in the world. Natural wetlands emit more greenhouse gases than all human activities combined. (If greenhouse warming is such a problem, why are we trying to save all the wetlands?) Geothermal activity in Yellowstone National Park emits ten times the carbon dioxide of a midsized coal-burning power plant, and volcanoes emit hundreds of times more. In fact, our atmosphere's composition is primarily the result of volcanic activity....

Teddy Roosevelt vs. the Environmentalists Teddy was a conservationist, not a preservationist. Not surprisingly, this meant that he wanted to conserve natural resources, not preserve them. To conserve is to save in order to use later. Cash reserves are money set aside for the future. Fuel reserves are there in case you need them later. Preserves are not supposed to change. Like a museum or an archeological site, they are to be frozen in time. TR and his Director of Forestry Services, Gifford Pinchot created a system of 'wildlife Reserves'. They argued that it would not be fair for one generation to do all the logging and all the digging and to leave nothing behind for future generations. They didn't think of these reserves as something pristine, which would be rendered somehow ceremonially unclean by the signs of human development. They just wanted to share natural resources and beauty with future generations, like ours. In fact the shift in language from 'resources' to 'the environment' signals the shift in world-view from conservation to preservation. A resource, by its very nature, is to be used, sparingly, perhaps, but nonetheless, used. This is why the Roosevelt-Pinchot philosophy is known to historians as the 'wise-use' movement. It's why the administration's forestry handbook contained explicit instructions for how to extract lumber and minerals from the protected lands. That's why the memorial lauds 'development', which contemporary environmentalists forbid in places like ANWR. The preservationists of the time, like Sierra Club founder, John Muir, fought against them. While Roosevelt/Pinchot sought to make nature useful to humanity, by opening it to efficient use, and protecting it from destruction, Muir claimed that nature was to be useful to nature itself, not to man. For Roosevelt earth is for us, for people. For Muir man and land were equals. It wasn't the conservationist Roosevelt who put ANWR's oil out of our reach, but the environmentalist Carter....

Alaska Sues Over Listing Polar Bear As Threatened The state of Alaska sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Monday, seeking to reverse his decision to list polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Gov. Sarah Palin and other state officials fear a listing will cripple offshore oil and gas development in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in Alaska's northern waters, which provide prime habitat for the only polar bears under U.S. jurisdiction. "We believe that the Service's decision to list the polar bear was not based on the best scientific and commercial data available," Palin said in announcing the lawsuit. Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity, the lead author of the petition that led to the listing, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists addressed skeptics' objections during the listing process. She called the lawsuit "completely ridiculous and a waste of the court's time."....
Mt. Soledad Cross Safe for Now Most residents of San Diego, Calif., like the cross at the center of the city’s Mt. Soledad War Memorial – so much so that a local leader says if a court order ever forced the cross off the now-federally owned property it would seriously divide the city. “It would certainly result in a great deal of polarization in the community,” Bill Kellogg, president of the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association, told CNSNews.com. “I think the community cares very, very much about it – and I’ve heard reports about radio broadcasters and others wanting to chain themselves to the cross, that people want to lay in front of the bulldozers.” That is a little less likely to happen, however, given that a federal court ruled last week that the cross is constitutional and can stay on federal property. “The Court finds the memorial at Mt. Soledad, including its Latin cross, communicates the primarily non-religious messages of military service, death and sacrifice,” wrote U.S District Judge Larry A. Burns in an opinion delivered last week. “The primary effect of the Mount Soledad memorial is patriotic and nationalistic,” Burns wrote. The decision, which is expected to work its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, is the latest decision in response to a series of lawsuits that have been filed against the nearly 30-foot-high cross (43 feet with base) over the last 20 years, beginning in 1988, when atheist Philip Paulson first sued the city of San Diego....
Rancher fearful after bison killings A longtime South Park rancher who had 32 of his bison killed last winter — including six bulls and 26 cows, some of which were pregnant — said the open-range shooting has left him and his family with "a lot of fear." Monte Downare said in his witness-impact statement filed Monday in the criminal case against Texas businessman Jeff Scott Hawn that his whole family has been traumatized. "This is very hard on not only me, but because this is a working ranch, my entire family is involved — wife, sons and daughters, son-in-law, daughter-in-law," said Downare. "We all make a living off of this ranch. Not only was it disturbing for him to kill all those buffalo, but we sell the offsprings to make a living." Hawn, 44, has been charged with 32 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals in connection with the slaughter of Downare's bison. The animal-cruelty charges allege that between Feb. 26 and March 14, Hawn unlawfully and knowingly "tortured, needlessly mutilated, or needlessly killed" the animals....
Range tenants: Cattle and wildlife could benefit from program State Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Parowan, wants to take a number of trophy game tags away from the public and give them to groups of ranchers who have had grazing permits partially suspended, reducing the number of cattle they can run on public lands. The grazing associations would then auction the hunting permits to wealthy hunters and use the proceeds to grow forage and develop water sources with a goal of improving the carrying capacity so their grazing permits can be restored in full. At first glance, Stowell's proposed legislation sounds like a terrible idea. It seems like the little guy, the wildlife and Utah's arid, fragile public lands would be the losers. It sounds like the ranchers and the rich hunters would win again. But what if Stowell's plan would benefit wildlife as well as cattle; Joe Hunter as well as Joe Rancher? What if it resulted in better habitat, more game animals and more permits to hunt them? A similar program conducted by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources in cooperation with public land management agencies already exists. Permits are given to sportsmen and conservation organizations for auction, and the groups use the money for habitat improvement projects under the watchful eye of DWR. But could projects be developed that would benefit both livestock and wildlife? State wildlife officials and federal land managers say yes. And would the public accept more cattle on public lands? That's the great unknown....
A New Path for Wolf Management As the dust settles on a federal court’s reinstatement of Endangered Species protections for gray wolves, one thing is clear: we need to find a new path to achieve balanced, science-based wolf management by the states. At the moment we seem mired in endless conflict that is serving no one’s interests particularly well — not wolves, conservationists, state wildlife managers, landowners or anyone else with a concern for wolves. So, where do we, as a region, go from here? Though the Greater Yellowstone Coalition was not a party to this litigation, the federal court’s ruling points out some significant problems in the delisting decision. In a clearly worded opinion, the court expressed its concern that Greater Yellowstone’s wolves are genetically isolated from wolf populations in central Idaho and around Glacier National Park, which could result in a long-term decline in the health of wolves. The decision also identified Wyoming’s laws and plans directing wolf management — especially the Predator Zone, where roaming wolves can be killed at any time for any reason — as an impediment to delisting. The three states and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service face an important choice: fight this injunction decision and prolong the court battle or begin fixing the flaws in the state-management plans....
Eco-plore with ranch rider in the wild west In the old days, cowboys explored and exploited the vast open ranges of the country, embodying the frontier spirit of the Wild West. Our attitude towards the environment has since changed, and now, a new generation of ranches offered by Ranch Rider seeks to co-exist harmoniously with nature. Tony Daly, Managing Director of Ranch Rider, comments: "These “green ranches” practice a more sustainable style of ranching through energy-saving techniques and conservation initiatives. The Siwash Lake and the Rocking Z are examples of how ranchers can be great stewards of the earth, ensuring that future generations can still enjoy the scenic beauty of the Wild West." Many wilderness ranches claim to be off grid, but there's no greenwash at the Siwash Lake in British Columbia, as the ranch has recently been awarded with a 5 Green Key eco-rating by the Hotel Association of Canada: the highest accolade for environmental and social responsibility. While guests are out eco-ploring on unspoiled wilderness trails, the luxury ranch is working behind the scenes to ensure a seamless green stay for its guests. Siwash Lake runs on solar power and a combined diesel generator. Biodegradable chemicals, energy saving light bulbs and emission controlled wood stoves are just a few of the ranch's initiatives – the 2-acre organic garden rounding off the eco theme....
Bison death toll climbs to 80 in Flying D anthrax outbreak Nearly 80 bison have succumbed in a rapidly spreading anthrax outbreak on Ted Turner’s Flying D Ranch in the Spanish Peaks, and officials are scrambling to contain the disease, a state livestock agent said Monday. “We’re in the process of cleaning up,” Steve Merritt, a Montana Department of Livestock public information officer, told the Belgrade News. “The number of dead the last time I heard was approximately 80 animals.” Gallatin County commissioners on Sunday closed Spanish Creek Road to make it easier for livestock officials to implement a quarantine of bison in the affected area, Commissioner Joe Skinner said. About nine miles of the road traverses the Turner ranch and parts of the affected area. “The closure is in effect until further notice, until we get a handle on” the infection, Skinner said. In addition to the quarantine of several thousand acres of Turner’s ranch, livestock officials are working to “clean up” the infected site, which entails gathering up the carcasses of fallen bison, burning and burying them, Merritt said....

Boone Doggle Boone Pickens may be a fine man, and has played a colorful and useful role on the American stage for decades. But his "energy plan," which he's spending a fortune to promote on cable TV, is not a plan. Asserting that something would be good to do is not "a plan." Saying how to do it is "a plan." By this standard, what the legendary oil man is devoting $58 million to pitch hardly amounts to a decent slogan. He would replace natural gas in electricity production with wind, and use the natural gas to power cars. He fails to mention any practical theory of how to get there -- that would really be "a plan." Instead, he relies on the deus ex machina of Congress, waving a legislative wand to make people do things they would choose not to do, given the extravagant and unjustified costs involved. Having reasons is not "a plan" either, but Mr. Pickens has his reasons. He says we spend $700 billion a year on foreign oil, which he calls a "transfer of wealth." But exchanging money for oil at the market price is an exchange of things of equal value. If we didn't value their oil more than our dollars, we wouldn't participate in such a bargain. In fact, Mr. Pickens's "plan" bears a family resemblance to John Kerry's 2004 "energy independence plan," which on closer inspection was merely a scheme to reduce oil consumption by a couple million barrels a day, an amount equal to our imports from the Persian Gulf. Whatever its utility as an upraised middle digit to the Middle East, it's a strategy that does not even succeed on its own silly terms....

Inquiry Finds Under-Age Workers at Meat Plant State labor investigators have identified 57 under-age workers who were employed at a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, and have asked the attorney general to bring criminal charges against the company for child labor violations, Dave Neil, the Iowa Labor Commissioner, said on Tuesday. “The investigation brings to light egregious violations of virtually every aspect of Iowa’s child labor laws,” Mr. Neil said in a statement announcing the results of a seven-month investigation at Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meat plant. In a raid in May, 389 illegal immigrant workers were detained there in the largest immigration enforcement operation ever at a single workplace. Mr. Neil said that investigators had found multiple child labor law violations for each under-age worker at the plant. They included employing minors in prohibited occupations, exposing them to hazardous chemicals, and making them work with prohibited tools like knives and saws, he said....