Horse Processing Legislation

By an overwhelming 44-5 majority, Montana senators voted on April 16 to reject Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s amendments to HB 418, the controversial bill to permit horse processing and restrict court appeals seeking to halt construction of a slaughter plant. Other legislative measures regarding horse processing are on the table in 13 other states, including North Dakota and Arkansas. Montana senators agreed with their colleagues in the House of Representatives, who voted on April 8 to send the measure back to Gov. Schweitzer in its original form. In a news conference April 3 to announce the partial veto, Gov. Schweitzer said he recognized the need for horse processing, and would be willing to look at modifying the state's regulatory structure if a company wanted to build a plant in the state. However, he objected to the provisions in HB 418 that would limit environmental appeals, saying no other business in Montana received such protections. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Ed Butcher (R-Winifred), seeks to encourage construction of a processing plant by preventing Montana courts from issuing an injunction stopping or delaying the construction of an equine-processing facility. It also would have required anyone who challenges a facility's environmental permit to post a substantial bond. When it reaches his desk, Gov. Schweitzer has 10 days to either sign or veto the measure. If he takes no action, it automatically passes into law. The Governor has not made his intentions public. In North Dakota, House lawmakers on April 16 passed HB 1496, which authorizes a $50,000 study to evaluate the construction of a slaughter plant in their state, and identify legal roadblocks. The North Dakota Senate approved its version of the measure in March. Gov. John Hoeven must now decide whether to sign HB 1496 into law. He is expected to take action next week. In Arkansas, a resolution urging Congress to support equine processing has passed both the House and Senate. The measure, HCR 1004, now awaits Gov. Mike Beebe’s signature...Quarter Horse News

Hat Tip: Sue Wallis & United Horsemen's Front

Song Of The Day #019

Bill (1917-2008) and Earl (1919-1998) Bolick were born and raised in East Hickory, North Carolina. Their very religious parents taught them at an early age to sing gospel music. While each played several instruments, they eventually settled on Bill playing the mandolin and Earl playing the guitar.

They made their first radio appearance in 1935 as part of a group called "The Crazy Hickory Nuts." In 1936 they signed with RCA as a brother duo and The Blue Sky Boys were born. Their first release, Sunny Side Of Life/Where The Soul Never Dies, was an instant hit and they went on to record over 100 songs for RCA before they both left for the war in 1941. They returned in 1946, had some more hits, but didn't like the direction country music was taking, refused to have an electric guitar on their recordings, and retired from music in 1951. They were brought out of retirement in the 60's as part of the hootenanny craze and recorded a couple more albums.

Along with the Monroes, Delmores and Dixons, the Blue Sky Boys were part of the "brother sound" of early country music. Bill and Earl, though, had a unique style of harmony that influenced later artists such as the Louvin Brothers and the Everly Brothers.

This being a gospel music day, our selection by the Blue Sky Boys is I'm S-A-V-E-D, recorded in 1940. It's available on the box set Blue Sky Boys.

If you like your gospel music with a soft choral arrangement and with a modern, weak-kneed, sissified message, then this song ain't for you.

Border agroterrorism workshop heads to tribal land

Laguna Pueblo officials hope an agricultural terrorism course being held at the pueblo this week will help create a way for tribes to coordinate their emergency preparedness plans for livestock and crops with the state's plan. The course, "Preparedness and Response to Agricultural Terrorism," focuses on preparing the agricultural industry in case of a major attack, but also provides a framework for dealing with more common threats, including animal and plant diseases. It will be the first course of its kind on pueblo land and geared specifically toward pueblo farmers and ranchers. "This is the most comprehensive class available to teach how to recognize and deal with issues that might affect agriculture whether from accidental, natural or criminal cause," said Billy Dictson, co-director of the Southwest Border Food Safety and Defense Center and director of New Mexico State University's Office of Biosecurity in Las Cruces. Ken Tiller, emergency management coordinator with Laguna Pueblo, said he requested the training because the state's preparedness plan didn't address how it would coordinate with pueblos in case of an incident. "The tribes are sovereign, but most of our lands are right next door, like Laguna and Acoma, and they weren't included in the state's basic plan," Tiller said. "This is an effort to start doing outreach to the tribes and it will help fill in the gap that wasn't addressed by the state." The course, led by Louisiana State University's National Center for Biomedical Research and Training and Academy of Counter Terrorism Education, is tailored teach the tools farmers and ranchers need to create and implement a response plan, said Jeff Witte, director of agriculture biosecurity for the state Department of Agriculture and co-director of the Southwest Border Food Safety and Defense Center...AP

More Suburbanites are Raising Chickens

Mostly farm families wait to pick up the chicks, but mixed in with the rural chick-raising veterans are first-timers like Justin and Stacey DeWeese, both 25. They collect a box of 30 chicks, which they plan to raise in suburban St. Louis. Motivated by the taste of farm-fresh eggs and a desire to try something new, the couple built a coop at a friend's house and researched how to care for a flock. Stacey said the couple wants chickens "for the eggs, to watch them play in the backyard." And to "kill the bugs," Justin added. It's a phenomenon that's playing out all over the nation. Poultry dealers, chicken feed businesses and self-proclaimed "chicken enthusiasts" report city slickers and suburbanites are showing greater interest in raising small flocks of chickens far from the farm. Clearview's manager Karen Ruck said about every tenth person who calls to inquire about ordering chicks through the store says they've never raised chickens before. She hears from suburban moms, who want a few hens to teach their kids responsibility, and new gardeners, seeking birds to go with their attempts to grow backyard vegetables. Livestock feed and pet food maker Purina Mills is seeing double-digit growth for its small, 5-pound bag of all-natural poultry feed marketed since 2003 to people who raise small flocks for eggs or as companion animals. Backyard Chickens, a Web site that began to help city residents raise chickens, says its community of about 27,000 people is growing rapidly, with about 100 new members daily...AP

Are their premises registered with the USDA?

EPA Proposes Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a proposal today finding greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to the public's health and welfare, a determination that could trigger a series of sweeping regulations affecting everything from vehicles to coal-fired power plants. In a statement issued at noon, EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson said, "This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations." The finding identifies six gases -- carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluorid -- as contributing to global warming. EPA noted in its official announcement that in making the determination that climate change poses a threat to Americans, Jackson took into account "the disproportionate impact climate change has on the health of certain segments of the population, such as the poor, the very young, the elderly, those already in poor health, the disabled, those living alone and/or indigenous populations dependent on one or a few resources." Global warming also poses a national security threat, the statement added, as well as an environmental one. The move, coming almost exactly two years after the Supreme Court ordered the agency to examine whether emissions linked to climate change should be curbed under the Clean Air Act, marks a major shift in the federal government's approach to global warming...WashPost

Renewable Energy's Environmental Paradox

The SunZia transmission line that would link sun and wind power from central New Mexico with cities in Arizona is just the sort of energy project an environmentalist could love -- or hate. And it is just the sort of line the Interior Department has been tasked with promoting -- or guarding against. If built, the 460-mile line would carry about 3,000 megawatts of power, enough to avoid the need for a handful of coal-fired plants and to help utilities meet mandated targets for use of renewable fuel. "We have to connect the sun of the deserts and the winds of the plains to places where people live," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said recently. But the line would also cross grasslands, skirt two national wildlife refuges and traverse the Rio Grande, all habitat areas rich in wildlife. The graceful sandhill crane, for example, makes its winter home in the wetlands of New Mexico's Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, right next to the path of the proposed power line. And much of the area falls under the protection of the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM)...Washington Post

Lawyers ask judge to split sweeping grazing suit

A federal lawyer is asking a judge to break apart a sweeping lawsuit that accuses federal land mangers of putting grazing and energy ahead of preserving sage grouse on millions of acres in six western states. The lawsuit, filed last year in U.S. District Court in Boise, challenges 16 separate land use plans developed by the Bureau of Land Management in Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and California. The Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project claims the BLM violated federal environmental laws when the agency failed to properly weigh the impacts grazing and natural gas drilling have on sage grouse and its diminishing habitat. Thursday's hearing in Boise focused on procedure rather than the merits of the case. Lawyers for the government, cattlemen and energy developers argue the case should be split and argued separately in the six different states...AP

Wolves caught on camera, 23 lambs killed

A motion-detector camera has photographed two wolves killing lambs on a ranch in Eastern Oregon — the first documented wolf attack on livestock in Oregon since they started moving into the state in 1999. Baker City-area sheep rancher Curt Jacobs said Wednesday his family — third generation sheep ranchers — had been moving ewes and lambs from the ranch compound, where they had been brought in for lambing, out to pasture last week. Monday morning, Jacobs, 52, found the wolves had come back and killed more lambs. One of the cameras captured a photo of two wolves looking right at it, with dead lambs at their feet. The attack is likely to revive the contentious debate over whether ranchers should be allowed to shoot wolves on sight. "It's all right to have the animal be here," Jacobs said from his ranch. "But if every time you went to work in the morning, somebody stopped you and took your lunch pail and you couldn't say nothing about it, it would get old after awhile." Jacobs said photos of the wolves and their tracks will go into his claim for $7,300 in compensation from Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation group supporting the return of wolves to Oregon. In all he had 23 lambs killed, and others too injured to be sold. The dead lambs had suffered bites down over the rib cage...AP

Hat Tip: The Outdoor Pressroom

U.S. will approve higher ethanol blend

The U.S. government will eventually allow higher levels of ethanol to be blended into gasoline, Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen said on Tuesday. Ethanol is currently approved to make up 10 percent of gasoline, but producers have lobbied the government to increase the blend level. "I absolutely believe that when all the science is in, the efficacy of using greater than 10 percent blends will be validated," Dinneen told reporters at an Energy Information Administration summer energy outlook conference. Growth Energy and 52 ethanol manufacturers petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency last month to raise the maximum blend level for ethanol in gasoline to as much as 15 percent. Dinneen said he expects the EPA to issue a notice "within days" to begin collecting public comment on the issue. The EPA has 270 days to act on the ethanol producers' request...Reuters

Currently, ethanol receives subsidies through mandated concumption, grants, loan guarantees, tax incentives and tariffs on imports. The tax incentives alone are estimated to be $9 billion in 2009. Higher blends means more subsidies.

BMI Surveillance: The Food Police Will Be Watching You

Two doctors from the nonprofit Altarum Institute have taken a page from the Department of Homeland Security playbook, and began advocating a “Body Mass Index surveillance system” this week. What kind of surveillance? An electronic registry of children’s personal health information, gathered in order to monitor their weight. Here’s our question: Will the FBI start tapping phone conversations any time the words “cookies” and “ice cream” are spoken? Let’s hope not. Because although Body Mass Index (BMI) is a popular measurement for weight-conscious consumers, it’s simplistic to the point of being practically useless. This new surveillance system is reminiscent of the BMI “report card” that Arkansas mandated in 2003 in order to grade students’ weight. How did that work out? “The BMI testing has not put a dent in the state's number of overweight kids,” The Baltimore Sun reported three years later...CFCF

EPA releases national greenhouse gas inventory; Ag responsible for 6 %

An EPA news release from yesterday stated that, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released the national greenhouse gas inventory, which finds that overall emissions during 2007 increased by 1.4 percent from the previous year. The report, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2007, is the latest annual report that the United States has submitted to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change.” The inventory report, which can be downloaded here, stated on page 34 that, “The Agricultural chapter contains anthropogenic emissions from agricultural activities (except fuel combustion, which is addressed in the Energy chapter, and agricultural CO2 fluxes, which are addressed in the Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry Chapter). Agricultural activities contribute directly to emissions of greenhouse gases through a variety of processes, including the following source categories: enteric fermentation in domestic livestock, livestock manure management, rice cultivation, agricultural soil management, and field burning of agricultural residues. CH4 and N2O were the primary greenhouse gases emitted by agricultural activities. CH4 emissions from enteric fermentation and manure management represented about 24 percent and 8 percent of total CH4 emissions from anthropogenic activities, respectively, in 2007. Agricultural soil management activities such as fertilizer application and other cropping practices were the largest source of U.S. N2O emissions in 2007, accounting for 67 percent. In 2007, emission sources accounted for in the Agricultural chapters were responsible for 6 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.”...agriculturelaw

EPA Will Mandate Tests On Pesticide Chemicals

The Environmental Protection Agency for the first time will require pesticide manufacturers to test 67 chemicals contained in their products to determine whether they disrupt the endocrine system, which regulates animals' and humans' growth, metabolism and reproduction, the agency said yesterday. Researchers have raised concerns that chemicals released into the environment interfere with animals' hormone systems, citing problems such as male fish in the Potomac River that are bearing eggs. Known as endocrine disruptors, the chemicals may affect the hormones that humans and animals produce or secrete. "Endocrine disruptors can cause lifelong health problems, especially for children," EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in a statement. "Gathering this information will help us work with communities and industry to protect Americans from harmful exposure." Testing will begin this summer and will focus on whether these chemicals affect estrogen, androgen and thyroid systems. The tests eventually will encompass all pesticide chemicals. Pesticide industry officials said they had anticipated the move, which was set into motion in 1996 by the passage of the Food Quality Protection Act, and they planned to cooperate on the matter...WPost

Cure for honeybee colony collapse?

For the first time, scientists have isolated the parasite Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia) from professional apiaries suffering from honeybee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success, according to an April 14 announcement. In a study published in the new journal from the Society for Applied Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology Reports, scientists from Spain analyzed two apiaries and found evidence of honeybee colony depopulation syndrome (known as colony collapse disorder in the U.S.). They found no evidence of any other cause of the disease (such as the Varroa destructor, Israeli acute paralysis virus or pesticides) other than infection with N. ceranae. The researchers then treated the infected surviving under-populated colonies with the antibiotic drug flumagillin and demonstrated complete recovery of all infected colonies...Feedstuffs

NAIS meeting strikes out again

A stakeholders summit on the troubled National Animal Identification System (NAIS) Wednesday in Washington, D.C., ended -- again -- with no consensus from the livestock industry. Officials from major livestock groups, representing a full range of viewpoints on the issue, met with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to lay out their positions. Vilsack called the meeting after House agricultural appropriations subcommittee chairwoman Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.) told him earlier this month that "the clock is ticking" on future funding for the program. Both she and House Agriculture Committee chairman Collin Peterson (D., Minn.) have threatened to end spending based on the underperformance of NAIS, which so far has cost taxpayers more than $120 million. Following today's meeting, Vilsack announced a new round of public "listening sessions" in an attempt to find a way to design a system that works effectively for market protection and animal health. He noted that there were entrenched positions among some species groups, but he remained optimistic on finding a solution for a system that would be effective for all participants. With sharp criticism coming from Congress about the failed effort to develop such a system, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is under considerable pressure to find a solution before funding is for the program is zeroed out in the fiscal 2010 agricultural spending bill...Feedstuffs

Ticks Take Toll On Cattle

Following a treacherous winter, some ranchers in western South Dakota are already having an even worse spring. Hundreds of cattle have died and officials believe an infestation of winter ticks may be to blame. There are usually around 200 head of cattle grazing on the May ranch near Kyle. But in less than two months, a quarter of them have mysteriously died...two in the last two days. "Fifty-four head. Doesn't seem to be an end in sight. We've been doing this for thirty years. Never. Never seen anything like this," rancher Liz May said. The Mays aren't alone in their struggles. Veterinarian Norma Headlee says this season, she's seen about 250 individual cases of animals dying after being bitten by a winter tick...KELOLAND

Kilmer Asks $33 Million For New Mexico Ranch

Val Kilmer, who's failed to find a buyer for parts of his 6,000-acre New Mexico ranch, has now listed all of it for $33 million. The 49-year-old actor, who announced in February that he may run for New Mexico governor next year, says he's listing so that "someone who has the time and the finances" can maintain and preserve the property. His Pecos River ranch (with nearly six miles of the popular trout-fishing river) is about 25 miles southeast of Santa Fe and remains largely wild with canyons and pine forests. There's a main log house of about 5,600 square feet with four bedrooms, and two guest houses. The star of "The Doors" (1991) and "Batman Forever" (1995) assembled the ranch roughly 13 years ago. In 2006, he asked $18 million for 1,800 acres of the property, including the main houses. In January Mr. Kilmer offered those houses on a 1,000-acre parcel for $9 million, down from $12 million a few months earlier. John Watson, president and CEO of ranch broker Orvis/Cushman & Wakefield, has the listing...WSJ

48th annual Western Heritage Awards honors portrait book on rural life

Paul Mobley took the summer off at his cabin in Michigan to escape the thing that wore him out during his years as a commercial photographer in New York: taking pictures. Then, he saw some farmers hanging around outside a coffee shop. "I just looked at their faces and thought, ‘I have to take their picture,’” he said. "It was a kind of rebirth of my photo career.” Four years and more than 100,000 miles crisscrossing America later, Mobley figures he has captured the essence of rural life in a photo book. "American Farmer, The Heart of Our Country,” a collection of more than 200 portraits of farmers and ranchers in their native habitat, along with 45 profiles by writer Katrina Fried, has been selected for a Wrangler Award by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. The Wrangler is "like winning an Oscar,” museum spokeswoman Shayla Simpson said. Mobley’s book was selected from among seven entries in the photo book category of the literary division, she said. It will be presented at the museum Saturday during the 48th annual Western Heritage Awards ceremony...The Oklahoman

Jody McCrea dies at 74

Jody McCrea, the actor son of Joel McCrea who appeared in a spate of westerns in the 1950s and '60s but was best known for his comedic work in the surf and on the sand as a regular cast member of the popular "Beach Party" movies, has died. He was 74. McCrea, whose mother was actress Frances Dee and who later became a cattle rancher in New Mexico, died of cardiac arrest April 4 in Roswell, N.M., said his brother, Peter. The strapping, 6-foot-3 McCrea launched his acting career in films in 1955 and teamed up with his movie-star father in the 1959-60 TV western "Wichita Town," in which the elder McCrea played the marshal and Jody one of his deputies. Over the next decade, McCrea appeared in about two dozen films and television shows, including the movie westerns "The Broken Land," "Young Guns of Texas," "Law of the Lawless," "Young Fury" and "Cry Blood, Apache." The beach movies provided a distinct change of pace. Beginning with "Beach Party," the 1963 American International Pictures comedy starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, McCrea appeared in "Muscle Beach Party," "Bikini Beach" "Pajama Party," "Beach Blanket Bingo" and "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini." Recalling the much taller McCrea, Avalon said, "He was a well-built, real athletic-looking guy, and he really was a surfer: He'd get on that board and surf." Although McCrea had two famous parents, Avalon said, "he never boasted about who his parents were."...LA Times

My Posts at New Mexico Liberty

For those who may be interested, here are links to my March posts to NM Liberty:

Greens Have A Reverse Tea Party

A HISTORIC EXPANSION OF GOVERNMENT

Condom Conundrum

Donating For Dollars? Bailed Out Banks Contribute To Campaigns

Is Rand Relevant?

Supporters of Free Markets Are Crazy, Says Harvard

In New Terror Video, AIG Demands Huge Ransom from U.S.

Stripper Tax In NY, "Pole" Tax In Texas

Eight Republican Senators Vote for Pork-Laden Spending Bill

"Obama Aims to Shield Science From Politics" - Does He Really?

You, Too, Can Profit from Pork and Earmarks

Not A Natural Disaster

$1.8 Million For Pig Odor Research; $200,000 For Gang Tatoo Removal

Troops Leaving Iraq, Guard Pulls Ouf Of New Orleans

Tax-free Internet shopping may be at an end

If a little-known but influential alliance of state politicians, large retailers, and tax collectors have their way, the days of tax-free Internet shopping may be nearly over. A bill expected to be introduced in the U.S. Congress as early as Monday would rewrite the ground rules for mail order and Internet sales by eliminating what its supporters view as a "loophole" that, in many cases, allows Americans to shop over the Internet without paying sales taxes. The final legislation is expected to be introduced by Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, and Rep. Bill Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, who have championed similar proposals in the past. In response to complexity concerns, the pro-tax forces have offered a proposal that they hope Congress can be persuaded to adopt. The concept is called the Streamlined Sales Tax Agreement, invented in 2002 by state tax officials hoping to straighten out some of sales tax laws' most notorious convolutions. Since 2003, more than 20 states have signed on, either wholly or partially, to the agreement, meaning they agree to simplify their tax codes and make them uniform. If enough states participate, proponents believe it will be easier to convince Congress to make sales collection mandatory for out-of-state retailers...cnet news