Alaska's Mount Redoubt Erupts Six Times

Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano erupted six times, sending an ash plume more than 9 miles into the air in the volcano's first emissions in nearly 20 years. Ash from Alaska's volcanos is like a rock fragment with jagged edges and has been used as an industrial abrasive. It can injure skin, eyes and breathing passages. The young, the elderly and people with respiratory problems are especially susceptible to ash-related health problems. Ash can also cause damage engines in planes, cars and other vehicles. Alaska Airlines on Monday canceled 19 flights because of the ash. In-state carrier Era Aviation canceled four, and Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage kept 60 planes, including fighter jets, cargo aircraft and a 747 commercial plane, in shelters...Fox News

Redoubt ash goes north

Mount Redoubt roared to life Sunday and Monday, blasting a column of ash and steam almost 12 miles above Cook Inlet. The eruptions -- which started Sunday night, persisted through the early hours Monday, then struck again Monday evening -- canceled commercial airline flights and spurred Alaskans north of Anchorage to protect their cars and homes. "That's a very high plume," Alaska Volcano Observatory geophysicist John Power said of the largest ash cloud, which rose 60,000 feet high. "That's about as high as they go." The latest explosion, which occurred at 7:41 p.m., prompted the National Weather Service to declare a new ash fall advisory for Susitna Valley -- including the communities of Willow, Talkeetna and Cantwell -- which was scheduled to remain in effect until 5 a.m. today. An advisory was also issued for Bristol Bay, west of the volcano. Earlier Monday, lower-level winds carried Redoubt's abrasive volcanic particles roughly due north over the Susitna Valley, and significant ash fall was reported in Skwentna, Willow, Trapper Creek and Talkeetna, according to the National Weather Service...Anchorage Daily News

U.S. Chamber unveils NIMBY Watch Web site

Last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce unveiled a NIMBY-Watch Web site called Project No Project. With case studies from more than 30 states, Project No Project chronicles how NIMBY (”not in my backyard”) activists “block energy projects by organizing local opposition, changing zoning laws, opposing permits, filing lawsuits, and bleeding projects dry of their financing.” Many of the projects blocked are not coal plants but alternative energy projects or infrastructure often touted as “green.” The site invites readers to provide examples from their own locales of NIMBY efforts to block or stall energy-related projects. Proponents of “green jobs” should be concerned as much as free-market and property-rights advocates, because ”stimulus” projects are vulnerable to the same NIMBY tactics that, for example, have immobilized the Cape Wind Project in Nantucket, Mass...Open Market

Here's Your Sign

His first mistake was trying to steal four guns. His second one was trying to steal them at a gun show. The alleged crook scooped up four Smith & Wesson guns from a vendor's table at the RK Gun Inc. show Sunday at Cessna Activity Center, 2744 George Washington Blvd. But he didn't make it far. The vendor and at least two others who were at the show grabbed the man before he could make it out the door, held him down, then cuffed him with zip ties -- hard plastic fasteners -- until law enforcement officers arrived. Austin Sechler, the vendor who said the man tried to steal from him, said it was "the very wrong place to do this." "He finally gave up when there was four guys laying on him," Sechler said...Wichita Eagle

Reign of toads

Nevada's U.S. Senator Harry Reid and others seeking to curry favor with the green extreme have virtually guaranteed no new nuclear or coal-fired generating plants will be built to provide Southern Nevadans with reliable, relatively inexpensive power in the near future. Not to worry, though. Lawmakers and bureaucrats in Washington who have never so much as worked a summer as a replacement meter reader -- let alone run a power company -- assure us the gap will easily be filled with all the new wind and solar plants due to come on line any day now. True, that energy may cost a little more -- if your heart started to race last summer when you opened your electric bill and found it exceeded $300, start contemplating the number "nine hundred" -- but it's all to "save the planet," you understand. There's plenty of money in Washington's new "stimulus package" to fund any hustler with some fast patter who promises to set up a "public-private partnership" to get new green energy on line. Hopefully all those federal dollars can do just as well this time as when they funded the big "Colorado oil shale" miracle of the 1970s. On the bright side, at least the green extremists can be counted on not to file any lawsuits that might block or delay the development of ...Oh, wait...Las Vegas Review-Journal

Elko panel seeks to block forest service road plan

The Elko County Commission is trying to find a way to block or at least postpone the U.S. Forest Service's pending plan to regulate use of national forest roads and close some it determines are redundant or damaging to the environment. The commissioners directed the district attorney's office this week to research legal options to prevent the agency from moving forward with its Travel Management Plan for most of the northern and eastern parts of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. They also said they intend to request the Forest Service to complete a more thorough environmental impact statement in reviewing the proposed plan instead of a less detailed environmental assessment. Commissioner Demar Dahl said on Wednesday that the comment period was about to close and they only have maps that "hardly anyone can read." County planner Randy Brown said Forest Service officials "have not conducted themselves in a manner in which we can offer any good comments."...Las Vegas Review-Journal

Elko road settlement headed back to federal court

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to wade into a decade-old dispute between Elko County and the federal government over protection of a threatened fish and public access to a remote road on national forest land. The high court's refusal to hear the rural county's appeal of a federal appeals court ruling was cheered by environmentalists, who said it reaffirms their right to intervene in the case on behalf of the bull trout. It means the legal battle over South Canyon Road in northeast Nevada is headed back to U.S. District Court in Reno, where a judge earlier had ruled the conservationists have no legal standing to participate in the case that pits private property interests against environmental protection. After years of legal wrangling, the Forest Service agreed to give Elko County right of way to the road. In return, the county agreed not to perform any road work without prior Forest Service approval. The environmental groups sued, arguing the federal government lacked authority to cede the right of way without environmental studies and a public process. Last June, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. Elko County then appealed to the Supreme Court...AP

Ranchers complain about increasing wolf attacks on herds

Ranchers in southwestern Alberta say they have seen more wolf attacks on their herds than ever before. At last 17 cattle have been killed in the Porcupine Hills area since November, twice as many as the year before, and the ranchers say wolves are costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Lifetime Porcupine Hills rancher Clay Chattaway is calling for a cull, saying the wolves seem to be getting braver, moving in closer and becoming more aggressive. "Only part of the wolf problem is the ones that they kill," he said. "The other part is the harassment. If cattle aren't happy and settled, they're definitely not gaining weight, and if they're really harassed, they're probably losing weight, and we make our money on weight gain." "There is no doubt they have to be managed, and culling is one of the management tools."...CBC News

Producers should expect even harder attacks from HSUS

The industrial activism movement "is coming at us like a freight train," it affects all of livestock and poultry production, it affects states with and without ballot initiatives and there will likely be federal and state legislation restricting the way livestock and poultry are grown, according to Chad Gregory, senior vice president of the United Egg Producers. He emphasized that the "freight train" analogy came from a cabinet secretary in the Obama Administration. Gregory, speaking at the Midwest Poultry Federation's "Simmering Issues Workshop," discussed the aftermath of the passage of the Proposition 2 (Prop 2) ballot initiative in California last November and "what's next," and he said what's next will be even harder attacks by industrial activist groups such as the $120-million Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), which has been emboldened by its victory in securing the passage of Prop 2. Gregory noted that the HSUS agenda involves stopping all food animal production in the U.S. -- leaving consumers only a choice of a vegetarian diet -- as well as ending all fishing and hunting, all zoos and all human-oriented health and wellbeing research that uses animals. "If you don't think that can happen in the U.S., look to Europe," Gregory said in response to a question. He pointed to how the European Union was the largest beef exporter in the world 10 years ago and is today the largest beef importer in the world because of regulatory restrictions on the way animals are produced...Feedstuffs

Top 10 Time-Lapse Videos Show Nature at Work

The world is filled with sluggish spectacles. Watching them would be painful were it not for time-lapse photography, which can make those long stories short and remarkably entertaining. When a phenomenon happens very slowly, viewing accelerated footage helps scientists take a step back and see the big picture: At higher speeds, things that we regard as fixed take motion — even the dullest scenes spring to life. Here are Wired Science's picks of the best time-lapse videos of nature at work...

Go here for their top ten.

PLC & NCBA Join With Conservation Groups To Comment On USDA Funding

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD), Partnership of Rangeland Trusts (PORT), the Nature Conservancy (TNC) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) joined the Public Lands Council (PLC), the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and American Sheep Industry (ASI) in submitting comments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on an interim final rule on the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). The groups urged USDA to support ranching and conservation in the west by making EQIP available on both private and public lands. From an environmental standpoint, public and private lands in the west cannot be distinguished. “EQIP is one of the most important and widely used conservation programs to which our members have access,” said Skye Krebs, PLC President and rancher from Ione, Oregon. “The ability for ranchers to make improvements on public lands while benefiting their operation is important to the greater Western landscape.” Although EQIP is principally intended to serve production agriculture and address natural resource concerns on private lands, in many western states, production agriculture occurs on private, state and federal lands. “Federal permittees control more than 110 million acres of the most biologically diverse private lands in the West,” Krebs explains...cattlenetwork

Song Of The Day #001

This is an experiment. I like old-time country, bluegrass, string band, western, western swing and dixieland jazz. I also like modern artists who honor the traditional sound. I will be experimenting with sharing my library by this "song of the day" posting.

If you don't like the old-time sound, don't waste your time listening.

The first selection is Cliff Carlisle's 1939 recording of Black Jack David. Carlisle, from Kentucky, was born in 1903 and passed away in 1982. He was a yodeler, and pioneered the use of the Hawaiian steel guitar in country music.

This song is available from Cliff Carlisle - Blues Yodeler and Steel Guitar Wizard



Email recipients go here to play song

FileFactory.com

Love the Longears? Mule Days Are Coming!

Mule Day is a week-long celebration held each year in Columbia, Tenn. This year's event will be Monday March 30 until Sunday April 5. According to the Mule Days muleday.com official Web site, this event started in 1840 as "Breeder's Day," a meeting for mule breeders. Organizers say it now attracts more than 200,000 people and takes place over four days. In addition to mules, traditional Appalachian food, music, dancing, and crafts are featured. "Mule Day" has been a popular Columbia tradition for nearly 170 years. The heavy involvement of Maury County, Tennessee, in the mule industry has caused the event to grow over time into "one of the largest livestock markets in the world." Of course the draw for many is the mule sale on Tuesday March 31, but there also are many other events, including a mule and donkey seminar on the evening of Thursday April 2. Other events include "working mule," "best of breed," and lumberjack competitions. The annual mule pull contest requires a pair of mules to pull a sled loaded with cinder blocks 10 feet. Each pair is given three tries to make it the full 10 feet. The team that pulls the most weight wins. There's also classes for Western riding, mule driving, gaited mules, draft mules, mini-mules, and a riding mule show...The Horse

Obama Administration: Constitution Does Not Protect Cell-Site Records

The Obama administration says the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures does not apply to cell-site information mobile phone carriers retain on their customers. The position is being staked out in a little-noticed surveillance case pending before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. The case has wide-ranging implications for Americans, as most citizens have or will carry a mobile phone in their lifespan. At issue is whether the government can require federal judges to order mobile phone companies to release historical cell-tower information of a phone number without probable cause — the standard required for a search warrant. While judges have varied on the issue, the resulting evidence can be used in a criminal prosecution. The court filing underscores that the Obama administration is continuing to maintain the Bush administration's hard-line position when it comes to supporting warrantless surveillance...Wired

Obama Administration Supports Telco Spy Immunity

The Obama administration vigorously defended congressional legislation late Wednesday that immunizes U.S. telecommunication companies from lawsuits about their participation in the Bush administration's domestic spy program. It was the first time the Obama administration weighed in on a federal court challenge questioning the legality of the legislation President Barack Obama voted for as an Illinois senator in July. "Accordingly, the court should now promptly dismiss these actions," the Justice Department wrote (.pdf) U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco late Wednesday. Walker is weighing a challenge to the immunity legislation in a lawsuit brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation of San Francisco. Congress crafted the bill after Walker refused to dismiss separate challenges brought by EFF accusing the nation's telecoms of violating the rights of millions of Americans for allegedly funneling electronic communications to the National Security Agency without warrants. The EFF claims Congress was prohibited from legalizing what the EFF termed was unconstitutional activity by the telecommunication companies. The government claimed immunity was necessary (.pdf) because the spying allegations threatened to expose state secrets...Wired

Drug Cartel Violence Spills Into U.S. From Mexico

Sgt. David Azuelo stepped gingerly over the specks of blood on the floor, took note of the bullet hole through the bedroom skylight, raised an eyebrow at the lack of furniture in the ranch-style house and turned to his squad of detectives investigating one of the latest home invasions in this southern Arizona city. A 21-year-old man had been pistol-whipped throughout the house, the gun discharging at one point, as the attackers demanded money, the victim reported. His wife had been bathing their 3-month-old son when the intruders arrived. “At least they didn’t put the gun in the baby’s mouth like we’ve seen before,” Sergeant Azuelo said. That same afternoon this month, his squad was called to the scene of another home invasion, one involving the abduction of a 14-year-old boy. This city, an hour’s drive north of the Mexican border, is coping with a wave of drug crime the police suspect is tied to the bloody battles between Mexico’s drug cartels and the efforts to stamp them out. Since officials here formed a special squad last year to deal with home invasions, they have counted more than 200 of them, with more than three-quarters linked to the drug trade. Tucson is hardly alone in feeling the impact of Mexico’s drug cartels and their trade. In the past few years, the cartels and other drug trafficking organizations have extended their reach across the United States and into Canada. Law enforcement authorities say they believe traffickers distributing the cartels’ marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs are responsible for a rash of shootings in Vancouver, British Columbia, kidnappings in Phoenix, brutal assaults in Birmingham, Ala., and much more...NY Times

Group pushes for more Gila wilderness, grazing buyout

The Gila National Forest in southwestern New Mexico is where famed naturalist Aldo Leopold first hatched the idea of setting aside the nation's untamed lands as wilderness. Nearly 85 years ago, he helped carve the world's first designated wilderness out of the Gila. Now, conservationists want the federal government to protect more land in the region, saying the diversity and remote roadless landscapes that straddle New Mexico and Arizona are on par with the country's top natural gems. "It's because the wildlife and the wild landscapes down there are so exemplary that we think we have the Yellowstone of the Southwest," said Bryan Bird, public lands director for WildEarth Guardians. The group released a report this month on what Bird calls a "novel" and "surgical" approach to protecting the greater Gila region, which includes parts of three national forests, a handful of wilderness areas and hundreds of thousands of acres managed by state and federal agencies. The report recommends that roadless areas radiating from the Gila River and its headwaters be added to the nation's wilderness preservation system and that Congress authorize a voluntary grazing permit retirement program to elevate conflicts between the needs of ranchers and wildlife, namely the endangered Mexican gray wolf...Silver City Sun-News

As they expand the wolf recovery area, will we see more wilderness and more buyouts?

Feinstein: Solar energy could destroy the Mojave Desert

Increasing the nation's use of wind and solar power has been seen as an ideal way to protect the environment against pollution, oil spills, and nuclear waste. Now, however, fears are rising that the pressure to quickly ramp up large-scale production of alternative energy may in itself become a threat to fragile ecosystems. That is the concern of Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA, who announced last week that she intends to introduce legislation to declare part of the Mojave Desert a national monument, closed to further development. The area in question is a 500,000 acre parcel, once owned by the railroads and known as the former Catellus lands, which conservationists acquired between 1999 and 2004 and handed over to the federal government. The Bureau of Land Management has made the land available for any purpose except mining. Fourteen solar energy projects and five wind energy projects have now submitted applications to build there, though all the applications are years away from being approved. "This is unacceptable," Feinstein wrote in a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. "I urge you to direct the BLM to suspend any further consideration of leases to develop former railroad lands for renewable energy or for any other purpose."...Raw Story

The greenies continue their NIMBY ways, even on renewable energy.

As climate changes, is water the new oil?

If water is the new oil, is blue the new green? Translation: if water is now the kind of precious commodity that oil became in the 20th century, can delivery of clean water to those who need it be the same sort of powerful force as the environmental movement in an age of climate change? And, in another sense of green, is there money to be made in a time of water scarcity? The answer to both questions, according to environmental activists watching a global forum on water, is yes. The week-long meeting in Istanbul ends Sunday, which is International World Water Day, an annual United Nations event that began in 1993 to focus attention on sustainable management of fresh water resources. What was clear at this year's World Water Forum in Turkey was the notion that clean, fresh water supplies are waning due to a warming world. "As climate change accelerates and we see a changing hydrological cycle, diminishing access to resources, there are direct human impacts that are water-related," said Jonathan Greenblatt, a professor at the University of California-Los Angeles who advised the Obama transition team on civic engagement and national service...Reuters

Quickly, try to think of something that is not related to global warming.

Stimulus Ideals in Conflict on the Texas Prairie

Over the years the Katy Prairie has survived the cattle ranchers who tamed its fields, the rice farmers who cleared its wildflowers and tall grasses, and even the encroachment of Houston, some 30 miles to the east, whose spiraling outward growth turned most of the formerly lonesome prairie into subdivisions and strip malls. Now the prairie is facing a new threat: the federal stimulus law. Texas plans to spend $181 million of its federal stimulus money on building a 15-mile, four-lane toll road — from Interstate 10 to Highway 290 and right through the prairie — that will eventually form part of an outer beltway around greater Houston called the Grand Parkway. The road exemplifies an unintended effect of the stimulus law: an administration that opposes suburban sprawl is giving money to states for projects that are almost certain to exacerbate it. North Carolina is extending Interstate 295 outside Fayetteville, which will benefit Fort Bragg but use up limited resources that were being sought by bigger areas like Charlotte and Raleigh. New Hampshire plans to widen Interstate 93, which gets clogged because so many residents of southern New Hampshire now commute to Boston for work. Lawmakers in Washington decided to widen several highways around the state, but snubbed projects sought by Seattle. The plan to build a new leg of the Grand Parkway near here highlights the tension between some of the competing priorities of the Obama administration. The administration’s desire to change the way the country thinks about development, and to wean it from its dependency on foreign oil, is clashing with its need to spend stimulus money as fast as possible...NY Times