Mexican troops fan out across state hit by drug war

Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers set up roadblocks on major highways on Saturday in President Felipe Calderon's home state, where drug gangs have stepped up attacks on Mexican security forces. Troops toting automatic weapons and wearing ski masks to shield their identity searched vehicles in the western marijuana-growing state of Michoacan for signs of drug smuggling after the government ordered 5,500 soldiers and police to deploy to the area by land, sea and air. The surge, one of the biggest in the three-year drug war, came after drug gangs targeted federal police in recent days in retaliation for the capture of a high-ranking member of the local La Familia (The Family) cartel. In a brazen move last week, the cartel dumped the tortured and blood-smeared bodies of 12 federal police in a heap by a remote highway -- the latest victims of tit-for-tat violence that has killed some 12,800 people since Calderon took office in 2006. A video allegedly showing the policemen being stripped, beaten and executed was briefly posted on YouTube, reported El Universal newspaper...Reuters

10 police arrested in Mexico over federal killings

Ten policemen were arrested in the western state of Michoacan in connection with the murder of 12 federal police whose bodies were found piled next to a road, prosecutors said. The men are being held for 40 days while the killings are investigated. The preventative detention will allow investigators "to strengthen evidence that the men arrested today undertook criminal acts in support of the Michoacan 'La Familia' (drug cartel) and determine their responsibility for the murder of federal agents," prosecutors said in a statement...AFP

Algae bloom in Elephant Butte water suspected in dogs' deaths

Elephant Butte Lake water was sampled Friday by the New Mexico Environment Department to investigate an algae bloom that could be toxic to pets and humans, said Toby Velasquez, law enforcement and boating safety bureau chief with New Mexico State Parks. The scrutiny comes after two 3-year-old pit bulls, belonging to a Truth or Consequences woman on a camping trip, became ill and later died after swimming for about an hour along a cove, became ill and later died. Because it was only reported to the state later and after the pit bulls' bodies were disposed of, no one will ever know if their deaths were related to algae, Velasquez said. Humans also are at risk for skin irritations from toxic algae blooms, which form for short periods of time primarily in the summer and are more prevalent in isolated coves. "It's kind of like a virus. It hits some people and not others," Velasquez said...SilverCitySunNews

Treasury Dept. cuts ‘Humor in the Workplace’ job opening

U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) on Friday morning called on the Treasury Department to axe a job opening seeking an applicant who can “create cartoons on the spot” in order to introduce “humor in the workplace.” The job posting, offered on FedBizOpps.gov, called for the selected candidate to give “two, 3-hour, Humor in the Workplace programs that will discuss the power of humor in the workplace, the close relationship between humor and stress, and why humor is one of the most important ways that we communicate in business and office life.” Buy 9:58 a.m. eastern standard time, the Bureau of Public Debt “determined that it no longer has a need for this requirement.”...RawStory

For the original solicitation see my post here.

Limits on Logging Are Reinstated

In a move to protect endangered species, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Thursday that his department had reversed a Bush administration decision to double the amount of logging allowed in and around old-growth forests in western Oregon. Veering between swipes at “indefensible” moves by the Bush administration and pledges to step up noncontroversial timber sales, Mr. Salazar said in a conference call with reporters that he was reinstating a compromise reached 15 years ago to limit logging with the goal of protecting watersheds, trout and salmon fisheries and endangered birds like the northern spotted owl. The Bush policy, challenged in the courts by environmentalists, would have allowed timber companies to cut up to 502 million board-feet of lumber annually from 2.6 million acres of forests in the region, or about double the amount allowed under the Northwest Forest Plan, which was adopted in 1994 under President Bill Clinton. In fighting the Bush plan, known as the Western Oregon Plan Revisions — or to its detractors, “Whopper” — environmentalists argued that the department’s Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the forests, had failed to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service about the logging’s impact on endangered and threatened species. Environmentalists also took issue with a related decision that narrowed the extent of protected habitat for the spotted owl...NYTimes

Past Warming Shows Gaps In Climate Knowledge: Study

A dramatic warming of the planet 55 million years ago cannot be solely explained by a surge in carbon dioxide levels, a study shows, highlighting gaps in scientists' understanding of impacts from rapid climate change. During an event called the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, global temperatures rose between 5 and 9 degrees Celsius within several thousand years. The world at that time was already warmer than now with no surface ice. "We now believe that the CO2 did not cause all the warming, that there were additional factors," said Richard Zeebe, an oceanographer with the University of Hawaii at Manoa...Reuters

Who's Afraid of... The big bad wolf?

By all rights, he should have been executed; it was his fourth killing within a year. But in June, federal officials gave a male wolf a rare reprieve. In Catron County’s Canyon del Buey—outside the town of Aragon—Alpha Male 1114, a Mexican gray wolf, had killed and eaten a calf. His mate, Alpha Female 903, was likely involved as well. Under the Mexican gray wolf reintroduction project’s current rules—which include a three-strikes-you’re-out rule for cattle-killing lobos—such a transgression is punishable by death. “That particular animal and that particular pack has represented a really tough set of decisions because we recognize our responsibility to help ranchers if wolves are affecting their landscape,” Bud Fazio, Mexican gray wolf recovery coordinator at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, says. “Yet we also recognize our responsibility to restore wolves to the landscape and give them every chance possible to make it out there.” In this particular case, Fazio says, managers allowed the wolf to remain in the wild where he could continue helping his mate raise their pups—“and therefore restore more wolves to the wild before any future decisions to remove him.”...SantaFeReporter

Westerners tell their stories about gas booms' effects

Filmmaker Zachary Fink said the thing that drew him to make a film about the Rocky Mountains natural gas boom was the “unholy alliance,” as one conservative New Mexican rancher put it, between traditionally conservative ranchers and typically more liberal environmentalists. As a cultural anthropologist, Fink said it was interesting to him to learn how the two oft-opposing sides worked together on energy issues. Through interviews with three different westerners affected by the boom, “Last Hat in Town” chronicles the transformation of wide-open Colorado ranch lands to areas covered with natural gas drilling activity. Fink's intention in directing the film is to give people on both sides of the issue “a voice, and a human face,” Fink said...GJFreePress

States awash in stimulus money to weatherize homes

Ready or not, states are getting a tenfold boost in federal money to weatherize drafty homes, an increase so huge it has raised fears of waste and fraud and set off a scramble to find workers and houses for them to repair. An obscure program that installs insulation in homes and makes them more energy-efficient is distributing $4.7 billion in stimulus funds - dwarfing the $447 million originally planned by Congress this year and the $227 million spent in 2008. That is enough to weatherize 1 million homes, instead of the 140,000 normally done each year...AP

Judge fines pest-control firm for not checking squirrel trap

A judge has fined the manager of a pest control company $1,000 for failing to check a squirrel trap. Tom Homka of Cherry Hill-based Orkin Pest Control was cited for animal cruelty in June. Orkin had set the traps at the Pottery Barn for Kids here. Monmouth County Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals police chief Victor Amato said the company left a trapped nursing female squirrel and her baby for several days without sustenance. Amato said the animals were trying to get out of the cages and were dying. The squirrels were taken to an animal hospital for treatment and lived. AP

The Squirrel Police are on the march, with a chief no less.

Treasury Dept. Seeks Contractors For "power of humor in the workplace"

Humor In The Workplace
Solicitation Number: RFI-BPD-09-0028
Agency: Department of the Treasury
Office: Bureau of the Public Debt (BPD)
Location: Division of Procurement

This is a sources sought notice and not a request for quotations. The purpose of this announcement is to seek qualified contractors with the capability to provide presentations for The Department of Treasury, Bureau of the Public Debt (BPD), Management Meeting with experience in meeting the objectives as described herein.

The Contractor shall conduct two, 3-hour, Humor in the Workplace programs that will discuss the power of humor in the workplace, the close relationship between humor and stress, and why humor is one of the most important ways that we communicate in business and office life. Participants shall experience demonstrations of cartoons being created on the spot. The contractor shall have the ability to create cartoons on the spot about BPD jobs. The presenter shall refrain from using any foul language during the presentation. This is a business environment and we need the presenter to address a business audience...FedBizOps.Gov

Are you laughing - or crying?

Crow Rancher Sues Feds Over Buffalo Herd

Bureau of Indian Affairs agents rounded up 175 bison belonging to a Crow rancher and impounded them until she paid more than $16,000 to get them back, the rancher claims in Federal Court. She says the government had awarded her tribal leases to another member of the tribe without telling her. Nelvette Siemion says she's owned and operated the White Buffalo Ranch with her husband, George Siemion, for more than 39 years. The Siemions say they leased more than 25 parcels of tribal land to raise American bison and other livestock. In mid-May 2008, the BIA allegedly notified ranchers that it planned to impound about 200 buffalo of "undetermined ownership/no brands" in the Fort Smith area...CourthouseNews

TSCRA Applauds Legislation To Phase Out Gov. Subsidies For Corn-Based Ethanol

The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) today applauded legislation that would phase out government subsidies for corn-based ethanol over five years and promote the commercial development of second-generation biofuels. The Affordable Food and Fuel for America Act, introduced by Representatives Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) would force corn-based ethanol to become commercially viable without the assistance of government dollars and compete with other commodities that use corn for input, but don't draw on government subsidies to remain viable. According to the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, in 2008, feed costs for livestock, poultry and dairy reached a record high of $45.2 billion - an increase of more than $7 billion over 2007 costs. Yet farm gate cattle and calf receipts have remained between $49 and $50.2 billion during the past five years...cattlenetwork

Chairman Wants No New Feds on the Farm

The House Agriculture Committee chairman threatened Thursday to slow the progress of a food safety bill until the concerns of farm groups are addressed. Minnesota Democrat Collin C. Peterson said he is worried that the bill would allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate farm activities. “Having read this bill ... they are clearly, in my opinion, going to be on the farm,” he said at a hearing on the issue. Unless his concerns are met, Peterson said he may hold a markup on the bill and report it out unfavorably. If Peterson’s committee gives the bill what is known as an adverse report, that will have an impact on when — or whether — it is brought up for floor action. Peterson is responding to agriculture groups that say a broad food safety overhaul would impose burdensome regulations on certain food producers, especially smaller family-owned farm operations...CQPolitics

Third Calgary Stampede Chuckwagon Horse Dies

An outrider horse competing in the GMC Rangeland Derby chuckwagon race at the Calgary Stampede in Alberta, Canada, died Friday following a pulmonary embolism. The Thoroughbred was the second chuckwagon race horse to succumb to a cardiac issue, and the third to die at the event in six days. A chuckwagon team horse died from a cardiac episode following a race on July 1. On July 7, another team horse was euthanized on the track after it broke a leg during the race. "Handlers were leading the horse to the barn area when it collapsed," said Stampede spokesman Doug Fraser. Event veterinarians determined the horse had a pulmonary embolism, Fraser said. This condition typically occurs when a blood clot dislodges and settles in a horse's pulmonary artery, blocking the blood supply to its heart. TheHorse

Long flights, long drives bring rodeo contestants flocking to Farmington

A sizzling 98 degrees and a scorching sun welcomed the first batch of National High School Finals Rodeo contestants to the Land of Enchantment on Thursday afternoon. Contestant and animal check-in began at noon Thursday and continues until Sunday. Sandwiches, cookies, cold water and sweating volunteers greeted contestants at shaded checkpoints in the McGee Park parking lot. Traveling with horses had the majority of contestants and their families driving great distances overnight to avoid excessive heat exposure. The horses have a separate check-in process that requires health and identification records and proof of the Coggins test. If owners fail to bring appropriate papers, the horse will be held in quarantine. In addition, all incoming horse trailers are washed and sprayed before being parked on the premises. Precautions are being taken to ease worries about the recent outbreak of the Vesticular Stomatitis horse virus. The virus forced some contestants to leave their horses at home. Seventeen-year-old Ali Mullin traveled three days from Cartwright, Manitoba, Canada. If Mullin brought her horse, she said it would have remained in quarantine for three weeks before re-entering Canada. Instead, she is renting a local horse, which a lot of competitors are doing...FarmingtonDailyTimes

Song Of The Day #085

This morning Tex Williams will give us some legal and financial advice with his The Big Print Giveth.

This song is available on Tex Williams & His Western Caravan: 1946-1951.

I recommend you take his advice.

Go to folder - FileFactory.com

Climate Change And Carbon Credits: Sorting Out The Confusion

...To mitigate greenhouse gases, Tweeten says one solution is to impose a $26 per ton tax at a coal mine or oil well that is designed to offset the $26 cost per ton of carbon dioxide that society has to pay. While no one wants the cost of energy to rise, Tweeten says a cap and trade policy is becoming a popular alternative which would allow heavy energy users to pay for a permit to emit more than their share of greenhouse gases. Following the issuance of permits by governments, a market would develop for the trading of them. But he says the purpose would be to raise the cost of carbon-based fuels to the point that alternative source of energy would be preferred. Tweeten says agriculture would have a difficult time slowing the momentum, because food production accounts for only 13% of manmade sources of greenhouse gases, and biofuels contribute only minor positive results in the limitation of greenhouse gases. He says a gallon of ethanol requires nearly a gallon of fossil fuel equivalent in the form of motor fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, transportation, and processing. However, he says agriculture would have a modest role by supplying only 300 million tons of carbon credits, which means one ton of carbon stored in the soil for perpetuity. He calculates a farmer could break even by spending up to $1.30 per acre annually to retain the carbon, but would lose money if he has to sacrifice more than one-half bushel of corn to hold or sequester the carbon. He says that means no-till production can be the most profitable enterprise, but then again, it requires more carbon-based chemicals to control weeds. Farmers would have the option of selling their carbon capture enterprise to industry, but the result would be minimal compared to the overall cost. Tweeten says authorities project a $50 billion cost to control the climate in the year 2035, but carbon credits sold by farmers for $26 per ton would net agriculture only $390 million. While that is only the US, Tweeten says the world’s nations acting individually would be too small to have any positive impact, and many times they have other priorities, such as poverty, disease, conflict, or food insecurity...AgNetwork

Reflective roof paint repels the heat

On bright days, the rooftop of the Anaheim Hilton is so blindingly white that it looks like a mirror positioned directly at the sun. That dazzling glare might just be the greenest thing to happen to the top of a building since solar panels. The white coating deflects nearly 85% of the heat that hits it, reducing the surface temperature by as much as 50 degrees. That means less energy is needed to cool the hotel's interior, cutting air-conditioning costs and carbon emissions. This is no ordinary coat of paint. Designed by an 82-year-old former military scientist from the Inland Empire, the tinted topcoat is filled with tiny hollow glass balls that deflect heat, layered over a waterproof undercoat made of recycled rubber. The Hilton spent more than $150,000 on the project, which was completed in March. That's $300,000 less than the cost of a conventional repair to the old, leaky roof, said Jerome Annaloro, director of property operations at the hotel. If the reflective material cuts utility costs this summer the way management anticipates it will, Annaloro said, he will recommend white roofs for the entire Hilton chain...LATimes

Even hard-liners want to experiment in Arizona

"We squashed the timber industry and the Forest Service, and dictated the terms of surrender" in the Southwest, says Kieran Suckling, the director of the Center for Biological Diversity. He's talking about a war that began in the 1980s, when the Tucson-based group charged that the U.S. population of Mexican spotted owls had shrunk to just a few thousand because of logging in the old-growth ponderosa pines. The group ultimately won a 1996 court injunction that temporarily shut down logging on all national forests in Arizona and New Mexico. Within a few years, applying more legal pressure on behalf of all affected species, it forced the Forest Service to reduce logging by 70 percent and limit the harvest to trees less than 16 inches in diameter. That explains the historic occasion last April 22: The Center for Biological Diversity and the Grand Canyon Trust signed a deal with timber entrepreneur Pascal Berlioux. Berlioux's company, Arizona Forest Restoration Products, hopes to do restoration work on at least 600,000 acres over 20 years, cutting only trees that are smaller than 16 inches. In turn, the Center promises not to file lawsuits against his work, and to defend it in court if other groups sue...HighCountryNews