Missoula County appeals to get forest papers The U.S. Forest Service has withheld information sought by Missoula County officials as they looked into road easement negotiations conducted privately between the federal agency and Plum Creek Timber Co., the county said in documents Friday. Deputy County Attorney D. James McCubbin sent the Forest Service an appeal of its response to an information request the county filed June 25 under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Missoula County has criticized Rey over negotiations in which the government and Plum Creek, the country's largest private landowner, agreed on changes to an agreement about company use of Forest Service roads. Some county commissioners in the state have said the changes would make it easier for Plum Creek to sell timberland for housing or other development, perhaps leaving counties with the high cost of providing public services in remote places. Commissioners say the easements traditionally allowed company use of Forest Service roads only for management of Plum Creek forests. Rey maintains the terms have allowed broader uses. After conducting an investigation requested by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., the Government Accountability Office said in October that the agreement between Rey and Plum Creek could set a precedent allowing other private landowners to use forest roads for development of subdivisions. The amendment would substantially increase of the value of many Plum Creek lands in Western Montana, according to the GAO, which also found the private talks blocked public involvement....
Monday, November 03, 2008
Missoula County appeals to get forest papers The U.S. Forest Service has withheld information sought by Missoula County officials as they looked into road easement negotiations conducted privately between the federal agency and Plum Creek Timber Co., the county said in documents Friday. Deputy County Attorney D. James McCubbin sent the Forest Service an appeal of its response to an information request the county filed June 25 under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Missoula County has criticized Rey over negotiations in which the government and Plum Creek, the country's largest private landowner, agreed on changes to an agreement about company use of Forest Service roads. Some county commissioners in the state have said the changes would make it easier for Plum Creek to sell timberland for housing or other development, perhaps leaving counties with the high cost of providing public services in remote places. Commissioners say the easements traditionally allowed company use of Forest Service roads only for management of Plum Creek forests. Rey maintains the terms have allowed broader uses. After conducting an investigation requested by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., the Government Accountability Office said in October that the agreement between Rey and Plum Creek could set a precedent allowing other private landowners to use forest roads for development of subdivisions. The amendment would substantially increase of the value of many Plum Creek lands in Western Montana, according to the GAO, which also found the private talks blocked public involvement....
Rift widens among area tribes, private landowners Private landowners and businesses here have a double threat from state and federal traditional cultural property regulations. They are trying to stop the temporary designation of Mount Taylor as a traditional cultural property from becoming permanent, which they say has already violated their rights and stopped them from using their land for any commercial purposes. If made permanent, they say the Grants area economy will be destroyed. Not only is the state Cultural Property Review Committee considering making a state-level traditional cultural property permanent, but the Forest Service has also temporarily designated Mount Taylor to be a traditional cultural property under the Historic Preservation Act and could move to make it permanent. The land within the federal traditional cultural property is some 1,100 square miles and includes more than 200,000 acres of private land. Even though the listing is temporary, anyone using land within or nearby the boundaries of the area is required to follow regulations as if the listing were permanent. This means that if landowners wish to do anything with their land requiring a federal or state permit, they must consult with five area tribes, including the Navajo Nation and Pueblo of Acoma, before being allowed to use their land as they wish. “They did this without public knowledge,” says Joy Burns, who owns land within the traditional cultural property boundaries....
Land auction suspended as tribes claim first rights The U.S. Forest Service has suspended the auction of its former ranger station in Twisp, Okanogan County, after the Colville Confederated Tribes complained that it should have had the right to acquire the property first. Caught in the middle of the dispute in federal court is the Methow Valley town, which has made acquisition of the property, including 17 buildings on 6.7 acres, the focus of its redevelopment plans. Twisp's Public Development Authority made the only bid on the site — $1 million — before the Forest Service halted the online auction. The town's residents have made "a huge local investment in developing a vision for that property," said Kate Jones, executive director of the Methow Arts Alliance and a member of the Public Development Authority. Jones said the authority has spent $30,000 on a feasibility study for the project, which envisions a town center that combines ecological awareness and the arts through education. Project advocates hoped to incorporate a new library, a farmers cooperative and an American Indian cultural center. Now the project has been thrown in doubt, and some residents are concerned the Colville Tribe is interested in Twisp as a potential casino site. Tribal Business Council Vice Chairman Michael Finley said Tuesday the tribe wants the property for cultural reasons....
Omnibus land act includes wilderness designations Republican Mike Beagle of Eagle Point and Independent Dave Willis of Lincoln are excited about the coming vote. But they are looking beyond Tuesday's general election, albeit an event in which both voted and will follow closely. They are anticipating a potential Senate lame-duck session beginning Nov. 17 in which the Senate is expected to vote on the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2008, which contains two proposed wilderness areas in southwest Oregon among its more than 150 public lands, water and resources bills. If the bill passes in the Senate, the House may also act on it before the year is out. Beagle, field coordinator for Trout Unlimited in Oregon and Washington, supports creation of the roughly 13,700-acre Copper Salmon Wilderness in the Elk River drainage near Port Orford. Willis chairs the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, which is pushing for creation of the roughly 23,000-acre Soda Mountain Wilderness in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in the mountains east of Ashland. Willis spearheaded the creation of the monument in 2000. Bills calling for the creation of both wilderness areas are contained in the omnibus package. In the case of the monument, the bill also would retire grazing leases in and around the monument through a buyout of willing ranchers. The buyout would be paid for through private sources....
SB County supervisor wants Marines to expand into wilderness areas A San Bernardino County supervisor is proposing that the Marine Corps leave a popular off-roading mecca intact and instead expand its Twentynine Palms training center into two wilderness areas. The military is considering enlarging the 932-square-mile base to the west, taking in the Johnson Valley Off-Highway Vehicle Area, and to the east, right up to the edges of the Sheephole Valley and Cadiz Dunes wilderness areas. But the federally protected wilderness could become new live-ammunition training grounds in an alternative plan suggested by San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt. The supervisor has asked Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office to consider removal of the wilderness designation from more than 150,000 acres in the two areas to accommodate the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center expansion. He contends the land has little value as wilderness. And keeping Johnson Valley open for the estimated 800,000 recreational visits a year is essential to the economies of the High Desert towns of Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms, Mitzelfelt said....
Fire fuel vegetation gets the axe in southern Utah Huge swaths of pinyon and juniper trees are disappearing southeast of Enterprise, but instead of going up in smoke, the prodigious trees are being chewed up and spit out. With a relatively slow fire season, state and federal agencies have joined together to clear fire fuels from around communities that increasingly encroach on southwestern Utah's open spaces.
As part of the effort, Color Country Interagency Fire Center has used a piece of equipment called a bullhog to help clear trees while leaving wanted plants such as sagebrush and cliff rose, which are important winter forage for wildlife. The Cedar City-based Color Country office is a consortium of state, federal and community fire agencies responsible for wildland fires in five counties in southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona. When not clearing areas by hand using chain saws and axes, the BLM uses its bullhog. With 48 carbide teeth protruding from a rotating cutting head, the machine reduces mature juniper trees to wood chips in seconds....
As part of the effort, Color Country Interagency Fire Center has used a piece of equipment called a bullhog to help clear trees while leaving wanted plants such as sagebrush and cliff rose, which are important winter forage for wildlife. The Cedar City-based Color Country office is a consortium of state, federal and community fire agencies responsible for wildland fires in five counties in southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona. When not clearing areas by hand using chain saws and axes, the BLM uses its bullhog. With 48 carbide teeth protruding from a rotating cutting head, the machine reduces mature juniper trees to wood chips in seconds....
U.S. West's sea of oil will take time to tap A key issue in the Rocky Mountain West this political season is how to tap Western oil reserves that could be twice as large as Saudi Arabia's - but are encased in rock.
The presidential campaigns have weighed in, mindful of polls that suggest that finding new sources of energy is a priority for many Western voters. In the Mountain West, oil shale plays as prominent a role as natural gas and oil drilling. "Unlike the Bush administration's reckless develop-at-all-costs strategy, (Barack) Obama will work with local stakeholders to determine the best path forward and will ensure that science - not big oil - guides our decision-making processes," Obama campaign spokesman Matt Chandler said in a written statement. What Bush has referred to as "enormous reserves" lie beneath the Green River Basin of northwestern Colorado, southwestern Wyoming and eastern Utah. The area contains an estimated 1 trillion to 1.8 trillion barrels of oil - up to three times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia - locked in rock. Roughly 800 billion barrels are considered recoverable. The trick is getting the oil out. People have tried off and on for nearly a century. The shale, or kerogen, is a precursor that wasn't buried deeply enough or naturally processed long enough to complete the transformation to oil. And even the most ardent supporters of mining oil shale concede commercial development is likely at least a decade off...
The presidential campaigns have weighed in, mindful of polls that suggest that finding new sources of energy is a priority for many Western voters. In the Mountain West, oil shale plays as prominent a role as natural gas and oil drilling. "Unlike the Bush administration's reckless develop-at-all-costs strategy, (Barack) Obama will work with local stakeholders to determine the best path forward and will ensure that science - not big oil - guides our decision-making processes," Obama campaign spokesman Matt Chandler said in a written statement. What Bush has referred to as "enormous reserves" lie beneath the Green River Basin of northwestern Colorado, southwestern Wyoming and eastern Utah. The area contains an estimated 1 trillion to 1.8 trillion barrels of oil - up to three times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia - locked in rock. Roughly 800 billion barrels are considered recoverable. The trick is getting the oil out. People have tried off and on for nearly a century. The shale, or kerogen, is a precursor that wasn't buried deeply enough or naturally processed long enough to complete the transformation to oil. And even the most ardent supporters of mining oil shale concede commercial development is likely at least a decade off...
GAO suggests more third-party verification of MMS RIK production The US Minerals Management Service could improve oversight of its oil and gas royalty-in-kind (RIK) program by verifying more production data through third parties and improving reports of benefits and costs, the Government Accountability Office said on Oct. 29. "Under the royalty-in-kind program, MMS's oversight of its natural gas production volumes is less robust than its oversight of oil production volumes. As a result, MMS does not have the same level of assurance that it is collecting the gas royalties it is owed," the congressional government watchdog service added in its report. RIK payments make up a growing share of the oil and gas royalties MMS and the US Bureau of Land Management generate, according to GAO. About 58% of the $9.74 billion in royalty payments received in fiscal 2006 were in-value (cash) while 42% were in-kind, it said. MMS takes the oil or gas it receives as an in-kind royalty and sells it on the open market. The agency has said the program increases revenue, improves efficiency, and shortens the compliance cycle....
1.1 million Utah acres of public land closed to off-highway vehicles The Bureau of Land Management on Friday approved five new Resource Management Plans for field offices in Utah that will close almost 1.1 million acres, or 13 percent, of public lands to off-highway vehicle travel in these areas, according to a news release.
Off-highway vehicle travel on designated roads is still allowed on 7.6 million acres, or 88 percent of public lands in the five field office areas of Moab, Kanab, Price, Richfield and Vernal. The new plans replace 25-year-old plans and better address “the need for improved recreation opportunities, better management of cross-country travel to protect natural resources, the use of best management practices to mitigate the impacts of energy development activities and additional safeguards for the protection of environmentally sensitive areas,” the BLM’s release said....
Off-highway vehicle travel on designated roads is still allowed on 7.6 million acres, or 88 percent of public lands in the five field office areas of Moab, Kanab, Price, Richfield and Vernal. The new plans replace 25-year-old plans and better address “the need for improved recreation opportunities, better management of cross-country travel to protect natural resources, the use of best management practices to mitigate the impacts of energy development activities and additional safeguards for the protection of environmentally sensitive areas,” the BLM’s release said....
Endangered gopher frogs get a break this year Mississippi gopher frogs breed only in ponds so shallow they dry up in summer. Hot, dry springs have stranded tadpoles every year since 1998, when 2,488 froglets hopped out of Glen's Pond in coastal Harrison County, Miss. The pond held water longer this year. And 181 tadpoles survived a deadly parasite, made it through metamorphosis and headed into the surrounding DeSoto National Forest. Biologists saved seven generations. They wash some eggs in well water, apparently removing the parasite, hatch them in a lab and put the tadpoles in screen-covered outdoor tanks. Scientists believe fewer than 100 mature adults live in the wild. Five zoos - in Detroit, New Orleans, Memphis, Miami and Omaha, Neb. - have 75 more frogs. Mississippi gopher frogs once lived in longleaf pine forests from western Alabama to southeast Louisiana. Timbering all but eradicated those forests. The frogs live underground, in stump holes and burrows dug by other animals. They have other oddities. Their breeding call sounds like snoring....Sounds like some women I've known. Hope they are endangered too.
Packer's growing clout vexes ranchers The recent announcement by Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS that it intends to acquire two big U.S. beef processors has cattle ranchers and feeders on edge, fearing a loss of competition in the market. "I'm hoping we have some chance of shutting this (merger) down," said Schreiber, who raises calves on his ranch with about 250 mother cows. "This is a very tough industry to survive in, and it's not going to help if we lose competition for our product." JBS, whose U.S. headquarters is in Greeley, has designs on becoming the nation's largest meatpacker. It already had taken a big step in that direction last year when it acquired Greeley-based Swift and Co. for $1.4 billion from a partnership that included Vail-based ski-resort mogul George Gillett. That deal made JBS the third-largest beef producer in the U.S., behind No. 1 Tyson Foods and second-ranked Cargill. JBS would be positioned to leapfrog to the top of the industry under its proposed acquisition of competitors National Beef and Smithfield Beef, the fourth- and fifth-largest packers, respectively. The deals would give JBS about 35 percent of all U.S. beef-processing capacity. But JBS's growth plans took a hit, at least temporarily, when the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit recently, claiming that JPS's acquisition of National Beef would harm consumers and cattle producers. The Justice Department did not oppose the Smithfield deal. Reaction to the antitrust lawsuit has been mixed. Many ranchers and feedlot operators favor the action because they say it will preserve competition in meatpacking, thus helping them obtain higher prices when they sell cattle to the packers for slaughter. Other analysts see the Justice Department's move as harmful to the meatpacking industry, which has struggled in recent years with low profit margins and excess capacity. Allowing mergers, they say, will improve plant efficiencies and help hold costs down....
Florida Cracker Cattle & Cracker Horse Program In the year 1521, Juan Ponce De Leon brought a small herd of Andalusion cattle and horses with him on his second expedition to the New World. These were the first cattle and horses to ever set foot (or hoof) on what is now the continental United States. 
The Spanish explorers were forced back to their ship by the Caloosa Indian warriors, and Ponce De Leon received a mortal wound. There is no record of what became of the explorers livestock, so it is imagined that these were the first cattle to ever run wild in Florida. The challenge to conquer Florida went out, and other conquistadors soon followed. These explorers brought cattle, swine, and horses. Each expedition party certainly would have arrived with horses for transportation. Like the early cattle, these horses were the product of selective breeding, and many were of Andalusian lineage. The horses played a tremendous role in Florida History...Ranching was born when Jesuit and Franciscan Friars set up a system of missions across north and north-central Florida. Their mission was to convert Indians to Christianity but the Friars also used Indian labor to tend livestock and crops. These were the first established ranches in North America. Note that the pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock had not yet been born! By 1618 Florida's Spanish Governors were seriously expanding cattle production on local ranchos. The Spanish herds, as well as those kept by the Indians and many cattle running wild, flourished on the immense prairies and rangeland of Florida. The result of this herd increase was that Spanish Cattlemen in Florida began to ship cattle to the large trading center of Cuba. This was the first industry to develop in the New World and trade with Cuba would continue for the next three hundred years. By 1700 there were over 30 privately owned ranchos in Florida. A census ordered by Spanish tax collectors reported over 20,000 cattle on the ranchos. Mission herds were exempt from reporting, cattle owned by individual chiefs and those running wild would not have been counted....
The Spanish explorers were forced back to their ship by the Caloosa Indian warriors, and Ponce De Leon received a mortal wound. There is no record of what became of the explorers livestock, so it is imagined that these were the first cattle to ever run wild in Florida. The challenge to conquer Florida went out, and other conquistadors soon followed. These explorers brought cattle, swine, and horses. Each expedition party certainly would have arrived with horses for transportation. Like the early cattle, these horses were the product of selective breeding, and many were of Andalusian lineage. The horses played a tremendous role in Florida History...Ranching was born when Jesuit and Franciscan Friars set up a system of missions across north and north-central Florida. Their mission was to convert Indians to Christianity but the Friars also used Indian labor to tend livestock and crops. These were the first established ranches in North America. Note that the pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock had not yet been born! By 1618 Florida's Spanish Governors were seriously expanding cattle production on local ranchos. The Spanish herds, as well as those kept by the Indians and many cattle running wild, flourished on the immense prairies and rangeland of Florida. The result of this herd increase was that Spanish Cattlemen in Florida began to ship cattle to the large trading center of Cuba. This was the first industry to develop in the New World and trade with Cuba would continue for the next three hundred years. By 1700 there were over 30 privately owned ranchos in Florida. A census ordered by Spanish tax collectors reported over 20,000 cattle on the ranchos. Mission herds were exempt from reporting, cattle owned by individual chiefs and those running wild would not have been counted....
Cowboy up: Kindergartners get a real Old West experience Defying the clichéd saying, it actually was their first rodeo. All eight kindergarten classes at Lydia Rippey Elementary celebrated "Cowboy Day" on Wednesday.
The students, most clad in western attire and cowboy hats, rotated between four themed activity stations. The classes took turns making western art, racing stick horses, learning the basics of rodeo and listening to campfire tales. A culmination of weeks of schoolwork, Cowboy Day was held in lieu of a Halloween festival at Lydia Rippey. The kindergartners have used the cowboy theme in most aspects of their recent studies, incorporating it in math problems, crafts, writing and story time. Kindergarten teacher and Cowboy Day coordinator Ione Randleman is seeing the results. "They've been reading all these cowboy books, and we keep hearing them say the vocabulary. It's really starting to click," she said. Volunteers from the Aztec High School Future Farmers of America, the Four Corners Rodeo Team and the 4-H Club were on hand to teach the kindergartners how to lasso, barrel race, ride bareback and sit in a saddle bronc saddle. Aztec Feed and Supply provided most of the rodeo equipment. The enthralled children were more than willing participants....
The students, most clad in western attire and cowboy hats, rotated between four themed activity stations. The classes took turns making western art, racing stick horses, learning the basics of rodeo and listening to campfire tales. A culmination of weeks of schoolwork, Cowboy Day was held in lieu of a Halloween festival at Lydia Rippey. The kindergartners have used the cowboy theme in most aspects of their recent studies, incorporating it in math problems, crafts, writing and story time. Kindergarten teacher and Cowboy Day coordinator Ione Randleman is seeing the results. "They've been reading all these cowboy books, and we keep hearing them say the vocabulary. It's really starting to click," she said. Volunteers from the Aztec High School Future Farmers of America, the Four Corners Rodeo Team and the 4-H Club were on hand to teach the kindergartners how to lasso, barrel race, ride bareback and sit in a saddle bronc saddle. Aztec Feed and Supply provided most of the rodeo equipment. The enthralled children were more than willing participants....
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Bruja haunting not just for Halloween
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy
Julie Carter
Across the West, reports of hauntings are common to homesteads, old ranch dwellings and at locations of bloody battles that represent the taming of the land.
Sometimes you can feel the presence of the restless spirits of those cheated of life in a moment of anger, greed or determination to civilize the land. The irony of the violence to advance progress is perhaps what keeps the phantoms tethered to a particular place.
Ghostly voices and melodies are heard frequently as they waft across a wind-swept hilltop or through a valley that gives an echo to the eerie whispers and wails. No one can explain them with any convincing facts, but plenty try to justify it to ease the tickle of fear quivering in their gut.
Cowboying on a land that has seen hundreds of years of living, dying and battles for boundaries often provides a notable response in man and beast.
Here in the Southwest we know that the brujas abound.
Riding through a lonely place and having the hair stand up on the back of your neck, feel a cold wind on a hot day, or see a shadow where none should be, heightens the senses of awareness in every fiber of your body.
Simultaneously your horse will pull up on full alert, tense, ears searching for a sound, breath coming in snorts while nostrils flare. They will sometimes, for no obvious reason, refuse a trail or resist going through a gate.
A legendary haunting takes place down in the South Texas brush country at a set of corrals that, historically, was used to rest cattle when they trailed up from Laredo to San Antonio.
Sometimes cattle buyers would take delivery at these pens, so they would arrive with cowboys to finish the drive and enough gold to pay for the herd.
The legend goes that one time the vaqueros trailing the cattle decided to take the buyer's gold and keep the cattle.
A gunfight broke out and a number of vaqueros were killed while others escaped.
The gringo buyers, fearing an ambush on the trail back home, buried the gold in the pens along with their fallen comrades. The vaqueros watched from the brush as the burial of gold and cowboys took place.
The story goes that the vaqueros were too afraid to disturb the graves to take the gold and the white cattle buyers wouldn't return for the gold out of fear of the vaqueros.
Supposedly, the gold remains and so do the spirits of the fallen.
Today's modern vaqueros at the ranch, not aware of the legend, will regularly come to the patron during a cattle working and tell him there are brujas at those corrals. "Muy peligroso," they will say. "No good to work there."
At these corrals, cattle are hard to pen and often, both man and beast sense a presence that encourages the flight instinct.
The pens have been rebuilt over the years, but never moved. The patron said any time there was a plan to relocate the corrals, strange things would occur.
The reigning ghosts and brujas seem to think those pens belong right there and nowhere else.
Visit Julie’s website for a discount offer on her new book, Cowboys You Gotta Love ‘em. www.julie-carter.com
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy
Julie Carter
Across the West, reports of hauntings are common to homesteads, old ranch dwellings and at locations of bloody battles that represent the taming of the land.Sometimes you can feel the presence of the restless spirits of those cheated of life in a moment of anger, greed or determination to civilize the land. The irony of the violence to advance progress is perhaps what keeps the phantoms tethered to a particular place.
Ghostly voices and melodies are heard frequently as they waft across a wind-swept hilltop or through a valley that gives an echo to the eerie whispers and wails. No one can explain them with any convincing facts, but plenty try to justify it to ease the tickle of fear quivering in their gut.
Cowboying on a land that has seen hundreds of years of living, dying and battles for boundaries often provides a notable response in man and beast.
Here in the Southwest we know that the brujas abound.
Riding through a lonely place and having the hair stand up on the back of your neck, feel a cold wind on a hot day, or see a shadow where none should be, heightens the senses of awareness in every fiber of your body.
Simultaneously your horse will pull up on full alert, tense, ears searching for a sound, breath coming in snorts while nostrils flare. They will sometimes, for no obvious reason, refuse a trail or resist going through a gate.
A legendary haunting takes place down in the South Texas brush country at a set of corrals that, historically, was used to rest cattle when they trailed up from Laredo to San Antonio.
Sometimes cattle buyers would take delivery at these pens, so they would arrive with cowboys to finish the drive and enough gold to pay for the herd.
The legend goes that one time the vaqueros trailing the cattle decided to take the buyer's gold and keep the cattle.
A gunfight broke out and a number of vaqueros were killed while others escaped.
The gringo buyers, fearing an ambush on the trail back home, buried the gold in the pens along with their fallen comrades. The vaqueros watched from the brush as the burial of gold and cowboys took place.
The story goes that the vaqueros were too afraid to disturb the graves to take the gold and the white cattle buyers wouldn't return for the gold out of fear of the vaqueros.
Supposedly, the gold remains and so do the spirits of the fallen.
Today's modern vaqueros at the ranch, not aware of the legend, will regularly come to the patron during a cattle working and tell him there are brujas at those corrals. "Muy peligroso," they will say. "No good to work there."
At these corrals, cattle are hard to pen and often, both man and beast sense a presence that encourages the flight instinct.
The pens have been rebuilt over the years, but never moved. The patron said any time there was a plan to relocate the corrals, strange things would occur.
The reigning ghosts and brujas seem to think those pens belong right there and nowhere else.
Visit Julie’s website for a discount offer on her new book, Cowboys You Gotta Love ‘em. www.julie-carter.com
Books For Review
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TOR/FORGE publishers has sent me two new books for review. One is a new novel by the excellent author and friend Elmer Kelton, and the second is a reissue of three Zane Grey novels in one volume. I hope to find time to review these books, especially the Kelton novels, in the near future. In the meantime, here is some info from the publisher.
Texas Sunrise: Two Novels of the Texas Republic
Elmer Kelton
Forge Books
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2064-3
ISBN-10: 0-7653-2064-9
Trim: 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches
368 pages
InTexas Sunrise, Elmer Kelton brings together two novels that tell the story of the Texas Revolution as seen by the brothers Thomas and Joshua Buckalew who emigrate to Texas at a time when the Mexican-controlled province welcomes settlers.
In Massacre at Goliad, tensions mount between Mexican authorities and American newcomers, and revolution is in the air, something Thomas Buckalew welcomes but Joshua fears – he is in love with a Mexican girl.
The story touches on the immortal battle of the Alamo, but centers on the infamous Goliad massacre, and ultimately the decisive battle of San Jacinto, which made Texas an independent republic.
After the Bugles continues where Massacre at Goliad ends – on the battlefield at San Jacinto. Joshua Buckalew tries to put the pieces back together but finds that starting over in the aftermath of war can be as challenging as the war itself. The racial differences that helped foment the conflict have not gone away. And Texas finds that being an independent republic can be more difficult than being a colonial extension of Mexico.
Western Legends
Zane Grey
Forge Books
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2065-0
ISBN-10: 0-7653-2065-7
Trim: 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches
784 pages
Three classics of the western genre by the greatest of its founders
Zane Grey is the most famous writer in westerns, a founder of the genre. His works have been made into more than one hundred movies and his stories have endured for a century, influencing all others in the genre.
Three fine, characteristic works are included in this omnibus: To the Last Man, the story of Arizona’s Pleasant Valley War—an historic brutal family feud that ended in universal slaughter; The Mysterious Rider, a romantic adventure featuring Hell Bent Wade, a basically good man with a violent temper that leads him to murder—and redemption; and The Lone Star Ranger, the tale of a youth turned gunman turned Texas Ranger—and perhaps the spark that inspired that mythic character, The Lone Ranger.
TOR/FORGE publishers has sent me two new books for review. One is a new novel by the excellent author and friend Elmer Kelton, and the second is a reissue of three Zane Grey novels in one volume. I hope to find time to review these books, especially the Kelton novels, in the near future. In the meantime, here is some info from the publisher.
Texas Sunrise: Two Novels of the Texas Republic
Elmer Kelton
Forge Books
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2064-3
ISBN-10: 0-7653-2064-9
Trim: 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches
368 pages
InTexas Sunrise, Elmer Kelton brings together two novels that tell the story of the Texas Revolution as seen by the brothers Thomas and Joshua Buckalew who emigrate to Texas at a time when the Mexican-controlled province welcomes settlers.
In Massacre at Goliad, tensions mount between Mexican authorities and American newcomers, and revolution is in the air, something Thomas Buckalew welcomes but Joshua fears – he is in love with a Mexican girl.
The story touches on the immortal battle of the Alamo, but centers on the infamous Goliad massacre, and ultimately the decisive battle of San Jacinto, which made Texas an independent republic.
After the Bugles continues where Massacre at Goliad ends – on the battlefield at San Jacinto. Joshua Buckalew tries to put the pieces back together but finds that starting over in the aftermath of war can be as challenging as the war itself. The racial differences that helped foment the conflict have not gone away. And Texas finds that being an independent republic can be more difficult than being a colonial extension of Mexico.
Western Legends
Zane Grey
Forge Books
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2065-0
ISBN-10: 0-7653-2065-7
Trim: 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches
784 pages
Three classics of the western genre by the greatest of its founders
Zane Grey is the most famous writer in westerns, a founder of the genre. His works have been made into more than one hundred movies and his stories have endured for a century, influencing all others in the genre.
Three fine, characteristic works are included in this omnibus: To the Last Man, the story of Arizona’s Pleasant Valley War—an historic brutal family feud that ended in universal slaughter; The Mysterious Rider, a romantic adventure featuring Hell Bent Wade, a basically good man with a violent temper that leads him to murder—and redemption; and The Lone Star Ranger, the tale of a youth turned gunman turned Texas Ranger—and perhaps the spark that inspired that mythic character, The Lone Ranger.
Most Presidents Ignore the Constitution
The government we have today is something the Founders could never have imagined.
By ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO
In a radio interview in 2001, then-Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama noted -- somewhat ruefully -- that the same Supreme Court that ordered political and educational equality in the 1960s and 1970s did not bring about economic equality as well. Although Mr. Obama said he could come up with arguments for the constitutionality of such action, the plain meaning of the Constitution quite obviously prohibits it.
Mr. Obama is hardly alone in his expansive view of legitimate government. During the past month, Sen. John McCain (who, like Sen. Obama, voted in favor of the $700 billion bank bailout) has been advocating that $300 billion be spent to pay the monthly mortgage payments of those in danger of foreclosure. The federal government is legally powerless to do that, as well.
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt first proposed legislation that authorized the secretary of agriculture to engage in Soviet-style central planning -- a program so rigid that it regulated how much wheat a homeowner could grow for his own family's consumption -- he rejected arguments of unconstitutionality. He proclaimed that the Constitution was "quaint" and written in the "horse and buggy era," and predicted the public and the courts would agree with him.
Remember that FDR had taken -- and either Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain will soon take -- the oath to uphold that old-fashioned document, the one from which all presidential powers come.
Unfortunately, these presidential attitudes about the Constitution are par for the course. Beginning with John Adams, and proceeding to Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush, Congress has enacted and the president has signed laws that criminalized political speech, suspended habeas corpus, compelled support for war, forbade freedom of contract, allowed the government to spy on Americans without a search warrant, and used taxpayer dollars to shore up failing private banks.
All of this legislation -- merely tips of an unconstitutional Big Government iceberg -- is so obviously in conflict with the plain words of the Constitution that one wonders how Congress gets away with it.
In virtually every generation and during virtually every presidency (Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland are exceptions that come to mind) the popular branches of government have expanded their power. The air you breathe, the water you drink, the size of your toilet tank, the water pressure in your shower, the words you can speak under oath and in private, how your physician treats your illness, what your children study in grade school, how fast you can drive your car, and what you can drink before you drive it are all regulated by federal law. Congress has enacted over 4,000 federal crimes and written or authorized over one million pages of laws and regulations. Worse, we are expected by law to understand all of it.
The truth is that the Constitution grants Congress 17 specific (or "delegated") powers. And it commands in the Ninth and 10th Amendments that the powers not articulated and thus not delegated by the Constitution to Congress be reserved to the states and the people.
What's more, Congress can only use its delegated powers to legislate for the general welfare, meaning it cannot spend tax dollars on individuals or selected entities, but only for all of us. That is, it must spend in such a manner -- a post office, a military installation, a courthouse, for example -- that directly enhances everyone's welfare within the 17 delegated areas of congressional authority.
And Congress cannot deny the equal protection of the laws. Thus, it must treat similarly situated persons or entities in a similar manner. It cannot write laws that favor its political friends and burden its political enemies.
There is no power in the Constitution for the federal government to enter the marketplace since, when it does, it will favor itself over its competition. The Contracts Clause (the states cannot interfere with private contracts, like mortgages), the Takings Clause (no government can take away property, like real estate or shares of stock, without paying a fair market value for it and putting it to a public use), and the Due Process Clause (no government can take away a right or obligation, like collecting or paying a debt, or enforcing a contract, without a fair trial) together mandate a free market, regulated only to keep it fair and competitive.
It is clear that the Framers wrote a Constitution as a result of which contracts would be enforced, risk would be real, choices would be free and have consequences, and private property would be sacrosanct.
The $700 billion bailout of large banks that Congress recently enacted runs afoul of virtually all these constitutional principles. It directly benefits a few, not everyone. We already know that the favored banks that received cash from taxpayers have used it to retire their own debt. It is private welfare. It violates the principle of equal protection: Why help Bank of America and not Lehman Brothers? It permits federal ownership of assets or debt that puts the government at odds with others in the free market. It permits the government to tilt the playing field to favor its patrons (like J.P. Morgan Chase, in which it has invested taxpayer dollars) and to disfavor those who compete with its patrons (like the perfectly lawful hedge funds which will not have the taxpayers relieve their debts).
Perhaps the only public agreement that Jefferson and Hamilton had about the Constitution was that the federal Treasury would be raided and the free market would expire if the Treasury became a public trough. If it does, the voters will send to Congress those whom they expect will fleece the Treasury for them. That's why the Founders wrote such strict legislating and spending limitations into the Constitution.
Everyone in government takes an oath to uphold the Constitution. But few do so. Do the people we send to the federal government recognize any limits today on Congress's power to legislate? The answer is: Yes, their own perception of whatever they can get away with.
Mr. Napolitano, who served on the bench of the Superior Court of New Jersey between 1987 and 1995, is the senior judicial analyst at the Fox News Channel. His latest book is "A Nation of Sheep" (Nelson, 2007).
The government we have today is something the Founders could never have imagined.
By ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO
In a radio interview in 2001, then-Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama noted -- somewhat ruefully -- that the same Supreme Court that ordered political and educational equality in the 1960s and 1970s did not bring about economic equality as well. Although Mr. Obama said he could come up with arguments for the constitutionality of such action, the plain meaning of the Constitution quite obviously prohibits it.Mr. Obama is hardly alone in his expansive view of legitimate government. During the past month, Sen. John McCain (who, like Sen. Obama, voted in favor of the $700 billion bank bailout) has been advocating that $300 billion be spent to pay the monthly mortgage payments of those in danger of foreclosure. The federal government is legally powerless to do that, as well.
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt first proposed legislation that authorized the secretary of agriculture to engage in Soviet-style central planning -- a program so rigid that it regulated how much wheat a homeowner could grow for his own family's consumption -- he rejected arguments of unconstitutionality. He proclaimed that the Constitution was "quaint" and written in the "horse and buggy era," and predicted the public and the courts would agree with him.
Remember that FDR had taken -- and either Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain will soon take -- the oath to uphold that old-fashioned document, the one from which all presidential powers come.
Unfortunately, these presidential attitudes about the Constitution are par for the course. Beginning with John Adams, and proceeding to Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush, Congress has enacted and the president has signed laws that criminalized political speech, suspended habeas corpus, compelled support for war, forbade freedom of contract, allowed the government to spy on Americans without a search warrant, and used taxpayer dollars to shore up failing private banks.
All of this legislation -- merely tips of an unconstitutional Big Government iceberg -- is so obviously in conflict with the plain words of the Constitution that one wonders how Congress gets away with it.
In virtually every generation and during virtually every presidency (Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland are exceptions that come to mind) the popular branches of government have expanded their power. The air you breathe, the water you drink, the size of your toilet tank, the water pressure in your shower, the words you can speak under oath and in private, how your physician treats your illness, what your children study in grade school, how fast you can drive your car, and what you can drink before you drive it are all regulated by federal law. Congress has enacted over 4,000 federal crimes and written or authorized over one million pages of laws and regulations. Worse, we are expected by law to understand all of it.
The truth is that the Constitution grants Congress 17 specific (or "delegated") powers. And it commands in the Ninth and 10th Amendments that the powers not articulated and thus not delegated by the Constitution to Congress be reserved to the states and the people.
What's more, Congress can only use its delegated powers to legislate for the general welfare, meaning it cannot spend tax dollars on individuals or selected entities, but only for all of us. That is, it must spend in such a manner -- a post office, a military installation, a courthouse, for example -- that directly enhances everyone's welfare within the 17 delegated areas of congressional authority.
And Congress cannot deny the equal protection of the laws. Thus, it must treat similarly situated persons or entities in a similar manner. It cannot write laws that favor its political friends and burden its political enemies.
There is no power in the Constitution for the federal government to enter the marketplace since, when it does, it will favor itself over its competition. The Contracts Clause (the states cannot interfere with private contracts, like mortgages), the Takings Clause (no government can take away property, like real estate or shares of stock, without paying a fair market value for it and putting it to a public use), and the Due Process Clause (no government can take away a right or obligation, like collecting or paying a debt, or enforcing a contract, without a fair trial) together mandate a free market, regulated only to keep it fair and competitive.
It is clear that the Framers wrote a Constitution as a result of which contracts would be enforced, risk would be real, choices would be free and have consequences, and private property would be sacrosanct.
The $700 billion bailout of large banks that Congress recently enacted runs afoul of virtually all these constitutional principles. It directly benefits a few, not everyone. We already know that the favored banks that received cash from taxpayers have used it to retire their own debt. It is private welfare. It violates the principle of equal protection: Why help Bank of America and not Lehman Brothers? It permits federal ownership of assets or debt that puts the government at odds with others in the free market. It permits the government to tilt the playing field to favor its patrons (like J.P. Morgan Chase, in which it has invested taxpayer dollars) and to disfavor those who compete with its patrons (like the perfectly lawful hedge funds which will not have the taxpayers relieve their debts).
Perhaps the only public agreement that Jefferson and Hamilton had about the Constitution was that the federal Treasury would be raided and the free market would expire if the Treasury became a public trough. If it does, the voters will send to Congress those whom they expect will fleece the Treasury for them. That's why the Founders wrote such strict legislating and spending limitations into the Constitution.
Everyone in government takes an oath to uphold the Constitution. But few do so. Do the people we send to the federal government recognize any limits today on Congress's power to legislate? The answer is: Yes, their own perception of whatever they can get away with.
Mr. Napolitano, who served on the bench of the Superior Court of New Jersey between 1987 and 1995, is the senior judicial analyst at the Fox News Channel. His latest book is "A Nation of Sheep" (Nelson, 2007).
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wyoming proposes changes in its wolf plan Wyoming is revising its gray wolf management plan in hopes of placating concerns about providing enough protection for the animals, but environmentalists said the changes are inadequate because wolves can still be shot on sight in most of the state. The state's revisions include new wording to clarify its commitment to maintain at least 15 breeding pairs of wolves and 150 individual wolves in the state and new wording that further restricts the state's ability to change trophy game boundaries. By revising its management plan, Wyoming is trying to avoid being left out of a new attempt by the federal government to remove the gray wolf in the Northern Rockies from the endangered species list. But a representative of an environmental group advocating for the predator said the state's proposed changes are still not sufficient. "We do not feel that this plan goes far enough," Sierra Club representative Melanie Stein said....
Grijalva: Bush policies bad for federal public lands The Bush administration mounted a "concerted strategy" to reduce protections for federal public lands and to open them to all types of industry, a Tucson congressman says in a new report. The report lists more than 40 actions by federal agencies such as the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management that Rep. Raúl Grijalva says harmed public lands. They often allowed mining, timber and other private industry to exploit resources at the environment's expense, he claims. Grijalva, a Democrat, is a congressional leader on public lands issues, as he chairs the National Parks, Forest and Public Lands subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee. However, Bush administration officials and agency managers have generally defended their actions, calling them efforts to restore balance to public lands policy after eight years of Clinton administration policies that more commonly sided with environmentalists. Federal officials have also cited budget pressures in explaining some of the decisions....
Mountain lion killed in Santa Ritas not rabid Rabies was not to blame for the strange behavior of a mountain lion that stalked a hiker and his dog last weekend in Madera Canyon, tests show. Following protocol, the Arizona Game & Fish Department tracked and killed the lion Sunday. Officials said the lion's overall preliminary necropsy showed nothing out of the ordinary. "He did appear to be healthy," said Leonard Ordway, Tucson regional supervisor for Game & Fish. A few tests are still pending, Ordway said, but so far nothing explains the lion's unusual behavior. Mountain lions usually keep their distance from humans, said Heidi Schewel, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service in Tucson. That was not the case Saturday, when a man hiking with his dog was stalked in the Santa Rita Mountains, according to Game & Fish....
A Solar Gold Rush Is Spreading From California to New Jersey Solar power is exploding in America, particularly in California. San Luis Obispo's Palm Theatre and Berkeley's Shotgun Players are now the first solar-powered theaters in the country; FedEx's distribution center in Fontana has a solar system covering 20,834 square feet; and Google's Mountain View campus boasts America's largest corporate solar installation. True to its pioneering spirit, California is leading the way -- but that's not to say other states aren't tagging quickly behind. There's New Mexico, with an abundance of arid land and sunlight, offering the perfect platform for large-scale solar thermal installation projects. New Mexico recently welcomed a project from Germany's Schott Solar, one of the world's leading solar companies, which has invested $100 million to build a solar equipment manufacturing plant outside Albuquerque. As the solar industry continues to swell, is there actually a foreseeable downside? Those in the industry say rooftop photovoltaic panels won't be enough to combat climate change; the need is for larger solar thermal systems like Nevada Solar One, the world's third-largest solar power plant, located just south of Boulder City, Nev., which went online in 2007. But big plants, usually built in the desert where the sun shines the brightest, require high-voltage transmission power lines to reach customers in the cities, and where those power lines are supposed to go is a divisive environmental issue. For example, in San Diego, the local utility company has faced opposition to building a power line through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California's largest state park and a vulnerable wilderness that environmentalists have vowed to protect. Similar battles might break out in the future as the need for renewable energy projects conflicts with where, exactly, to put them....
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