Reid Will Force Confirmation Of TSA Administrator

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will force the confirmation of a Transportation Security Administration chief back into motion as soon as the Senate reconvenes on January 19th. Talking Points Memo reports: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will schedule a formal Senate roll call vote on the nomination of Errol Southers," the Obama appointee who Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has blocked for the past four months over worries about TSA employees being able to unionize. Reid will file a cloture motion to overcome DeMint's block. Sen. Reid's promise to act comes in the wake of widespread Democratic outrage over DeMint's continued politicization of the confirmation, even after the recent terror attempt on a trans-national airliner headed to Detroit...read more

Bills filed to limit access to gun data

State lawmakers submitted a series of bills this week to protect the privacy of Hoosiers who hold gun permits. At least three different bills have been filed, legislators said. The proposed laws would prohibit the Indiana State Police from publicly releasing the names, home addresses and other identifying information about permit holders. Current law allows anybody to purchase the state's full permit database for $32. It includes a permit holder's race, height, hair color, eye color and more. Rep. Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington, Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus, and Rep. Mike Murphy, R-Indianapolis, each submitted a bill to cut off that access, they said. Public permit data causes problems, Welch said. It "either tells people where handguns are, or where handguns are not," Welch said...read more

A White House intervention for bickering leaders of U.S. intelligence

The White House this month issued a classified order to resolve mounting frictions between the nation's intelligence director and the CIA over issues including how the agency conducts covert operations, U.S. officials said. The intervention reflects simmering tension between the two most powerful players in the U.S. intelligence community: Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair and CIA Director Leon E. Panetta. The memo maintains the CIA's status as the nation's lead spy service on covert missions, rejecting an attempt by Blair to assert more control. But the document also includes language detailing the agency's obligation to work closely with Blair on sensitive operations...read more

NMSU wins challenge rodeo

The New Mexico State University rodeo team overpowered the competition for the fourth year in a row at the New Mexico College – High School Rodeo Challenge in Farmington Nov. 6-8.

NMSU placed first overall at the event, with the men’s team placing first and the women’s team placing second. The rodeo is held by the New Mexico Rodeo Council as a contest between college rodeo teams and high school students
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In the bareback riding, Trevor Haught, of Payson, Ariz., placed second in the bareback riding.

Garrison DeWitt, of Rio Rico, Ariz., and Thorsen Dusenberry, of Desert Hills, Ariz., placed second and third, respectively, in the saddle bronc riding event.

Cody Loomis received third in the bull riding.

Silver City, N.M., native Bryce Runyan won first in the tie-down roping.

The team of JoDan Mirabal, header, of Grants, N.M., and Grayln Elkins, heeler, of New Mexico Highlands University, won first in the team roping.

For the women’s team, Katie Waybourn, of Aztec, N.M., placed second in the barrel racing. She also was named the women’s reserve all-around champion for the rodeo.

Watch Out For The Biscuit Police!

Midcontinent wants ND lawsuit dismissed

Midcontinent Communications says it did nothing wrong when it buried cable in North Dakota. It is asking a judge to dismiss a federal lawsuit that claims the company did not get the proper permission from private landowners. The lawsuit filed in Bismarck by New Salem farmer Dale Neidhardt in late November seeks unspecified damages from South Dakota-based Midcontinent Communications Investors and Delaware-based TCI Midcontinent. Defense attorney Zachary Pelham says in court documents that Midcontinent "complied with all applicable laws" when installing cable used for cable TV, high-speed Internet and telecommunications services. The dispute centers around cable buried on private property for which state, county or township governments have easements for roads. An easement gives one party the right to go onto another party's property. Neidhardt's lawsuit says Midcontinent might have obtained permits from the state or political subdivisions that held easements but should have known that the governments had no ownership in the land. The lawsuit says Midcontinent should have reached agreements with landowners for the use of their land...read more

TSA Going After Bloggers Who Wrote About Directive to Increase Security After Terror Incident

As the government reviews how an alleged terrorist was able to bring a bomb onto a U.S.-bound plane and try to blow it up on Christmas Day, the Transportation Security Administration is going after bloggers who wrote about a directive to increase security after the incident. TSA special agents served subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott, demanding that they reveal who leaked the security directive to them. The government says the directive was not supposed to be disclosed to the public. Frischling said he met with two TSA special agents Tuesday night at his Connecticut home for about three hours and again on Wednesday morning when he was forced to hand over his lap top computer. Frischling said the agents threatened to interfere with his contract to write a blog for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines if he didn't cooperate and provide the name of the person who leaked the memo. "It literally showed up in my box," Frischling told The Associated Press. "I do not know who it came from." He said he provided the agents a signed statement to that effect...read more

TSA Withdraws Subpoenas Against Bloggers

In the wake of public outcry against the Transportation Security Administration for serving civil subpoenas on two bloggers, the government agency has canceled the legal action and apologized for the strong-arm tactics agents used. Travel writer and photographer Steven Frischling, who was served with a subpoena by two TSA agents on Tuesday, told Threat Level that he received a phone call Thursday evening from John Drennan, deputy chief counsel for enforcement at TSA, telling him the administration was withdrawing its subpoena. Frischling was told the TSA would no longer be pursuing the investigation into how he received a security directive that he published on his personal blog, Flying with Fish, on Dec. 27. The administration told the Associated Press that its investigation was “nearing a successful conclusion and the subpoenas are no longer in effect.” Frischling, who writes another blog for KLM Dutch Royal Airlines, says Drennan apologized to him when he learned that the two TSA agents who visited him had threatened to get him fired from his KLM contract if he didn’t provide them with information about an anonymous source who sent him the security directive. “He was a bit taken aback when I was telling him about the heavy tactics that they were going to use to sever my contract with KLM,” Frischling says. Drennan also promised to make sure the administration resolved issues that Frischling has been having with his laptop ever since the agents seized it to image the hard drive. Frischling says the laptop was returned to him with “tons and tons of bad sectors” and a corrupt operating system. The audio on his computer has also stopped working, and a red light glows from the audio jack. “I can essentially use the computer, but I don’t know for how long,” he says. “Whoever did this thing, did it fast and dirty and not to my benefit.”...read more

Public-private pairing envisioned for S.F. parks

San Francisco may rely more on corporate and philanthropic sponsors and community volunteers to fund and maintain its parks and recreation centers as it struggles with a mounting budget deficit. That is the hope of Phil Ginsburg, general manager of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, who recently returned from New York City and was wowed by the public-private partnership operating Central Park. The Central Park Conservancy, relying heavily on money from sponsorships, has invested more than $500 million in the showcase urban park in nearly three decades. "Everything- everything - is named: every bench, every tree. And it's done very modestly, very tastefully," Ginsburg said. Under his money-generating vision, more coffee kiosks and hot dog stands would be allowed to operate in San Francisco parks, and fields would be rented out more often for concerts and other special events. Longtime park concessionaires may be ousted by new leaseholders who offer more money. Donors would be recognized by having a grove of trees, playground, golf course or recreation center named in their honor...read more

Rare New Year's Eve 'blue moon' to ring in 2010

Once in a blue moon there is one on New Year's Eve. Revelers ringing in 2010 will be treated to a so-called blue moon. According to popular definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a month. But don't expect it to be blue - the name has nothing to do with the color of our closest celestial neighbor. A full moon occurred on Dec. 2. It will appear again on Thursday in time for the New Year's countdown. "If you're in Times Square, you'll see the full moon right above you. It's going to be that brilliant," said Jack Horkheimer, director emeritus of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium and host of a weekly astronomy TV show. The New Year's Eve blue moon will be visible in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Africa. For partygoers in Australia and Asia, the full moon does not show up until New Year's Day, making January a blue moon month for them. A full moon occurs every 29.5 days, and most years have 12. On average, an extra full moon in a month - a blue moon - occurs every 2.5 years. The last time there was a lunar double take was in May 2007. New Year's Eve blue moons are rarer, occurring every 19 years. The last time was in 1990; the next one won't come again until 2028...read more

Senate climate change fight looks as tough as healthcare reform bill

Senate Democrats will face a problem when they return in January every bit as tough as crafting the healthcare bill: Assembling a climate and energy package that can be shoehorned into the election-year calendar. Imposing limits on greenhouse gases is a White House and Democratic priority, but it’s stuck in line behind healthcare, Wall Street reform and jobs legislation. It’s also become increasingly apparent since the Copenhagen climate summit that the Senate will go forward in a dramatically different direction than the House, which approved its own climate bill last summer. Environmentalists familiar with Democratic plans say party leaders remain committed to bringing up a bill next year. They are looking to Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) effort to craft a compromise plan with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). But in a sign of how difficult it will be to cobble together 60 votes, Kerry and Graham have provided few details about what their plan will contain. They hope to blend emissions limits with wider offshore oil-and-gas drilling, expanded federal financing for nuclear power and a lot of support for low-emissions coal projects, among other measures aimed a navigating a thicket of regional and partisan interests...read more

New groups join climate lobby fray

The next round of the battle over climate change policy on Capitol Hill will involve more than the usual suspects — way more. Watch soup makers face off against steel companies. Witness the folks who pump gas from the ground fight back against those who dig up rock. And watch the venture capitalists who have money riding on new technology try to gain advantage in a game that so far has been deftly controlled by the old machine. An analysis of the latest federal records by the Center for Public Integrity shows that the overall number of businesses and groups lobbying on climate legislation has essentially held steady at about 1,160, thanks in part to a variety of interests that have left the fray. But a close look at the 140 or so interests that jumped into the debate for the first time in the third quarter shows a marked trend: Companies and organizations that feel they’ve been overlooked are fighting for a place at the table...read more

Beef Group Challenges U.S. EPA Climate Finding

A beef industry group has challenged a ruling by U.S. environmental regulators that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health, saying the move would hurt agriculture. The ruling earlier this month by the Environmental Protection Agency earlier opens the way for regulation of six heat-trapping gases without new laws passed by Congress. Livestock farms emit carbon dioxide from the tailpipes of machinery and trucks, while waste from cattle also emits methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association filed a petition in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals this week, saying EPA climate regulations would hurt large farms. "This unilateral move by the EPA jeopardizes our ability to remain competitive in the global marketplace," said Tamara Theis, chief environmental counsel for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. She said potential EPA rules could force many farms to get permits to emit greenhouse gases or slow operations. If farms had to buy the permits in a market or curtail beef output it could help force many of them to close...read more

Can farming save Detroit?

John Hantz is a wealthy money manager who lives in an older enclave of Detroit where all the houses are grand and not all of them are falling apart. Once a star stockbroker at American Express, he left 13 years ago to found his own firm. Today Hantz Financial Services has 20 offices in Michigan, Ohio, and Georgia, more than 500 employees, and $1.3 billion in assets under management. Along the way he passes vacant buildings, abandoned homes, and a whole lot of empty land. In some stretches he sees more pheasants than people. And that, he says one afternoon in his living room between puffs on an expensive cigar, "is how I got onto this idea of the farm." Yes, a farm. A large-scale, for-profit agricultural enterprise, wholly contained within the city limits of Detroit. Hantz thinks farming could do his city a lot of good: restore big chunks of tax-delinquent, resource-draining urban blight to pastoral productivity; provide decent jobs with benefits; supply local markets and restaurants with fresh produce; attract tourists from all over the world; and -- most important of all -- stimulate development around the edges as the local land market tilts from stultifying abundance to something more like scarcity and investors move in. Hantz is willing to commit $30 million to the project...read more

Famous San Francisco sea lions leave in droves

Two mysteries surround a huge herd of sea lions that were hanging out on a pier in San Francisco Bay: Why did so many show up, and why did so many leave at once? Just last month, Pier 39, famous in San Francisco for its sea lions and the throngs of tourists they attract, was groaning under the weight of more than 1,500 of the animals. The record number delighted tourists and baffled experts. "Most likely, they left chasing a food source," said Jeff Boehm, executive director of the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, which runs an information center and gift shop at Pier 39. "It's probably what kept them here in the first place." The animals began leaving in droves the day after Thanksgiving, almost as if someone had issued an order. But Boehm said the fact that so many sea lions stayed for so long is even stranger than their disappearance...read more

AC/DC concert in doubt over rare bird risk

AUSSIE rockers AC/DC could have to cancel a sold-out concert because their big sound poses a danger to rare birds. Animal rights campaigners are threatening legal action if the veteran band goes ahead with a gig planned for Wels airport in Austria in May. Hans Uhl of BirdLife said birds nesting in the area at the time would be threatened by anthems such as Highway To Hell and You Shook Me All Night Long. "The second biggest colony of curlews in Upper Austria and various other ground-nesting birds must not become endangered," Mr Uhl said...

Damn, guess I'll have to cancel my trip plans.

Horse floaters may be a dying breed

Ever wondered the origins of the saying 'long in the tooth' or 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth?' Horses's teeth, unlike humans', continue to grow with age. They also wear down with use, but the changes in the characteristics of the teeth over time make it possible to make an estimate of a horse's age. When the animal reaches old age, the crowns of the teeth are very short and the teeth are often lost altogether. It's the obscure job of equine dentists - known colloquially as 'horse floaters' - to ward off the problems that wear and tear can have on a horse's pearly whites. Using instruments roughened with diamond grit, horse floaters file down equine teeth so that they don't grow into sharp points that can cut the horses' cheeks or throw off their chewing rhythms. But US veterinary oversight boards in Texas and several other states have moved to curb unlicensed floaters, who use specially modified power tools and sedatives without veterinary supervision or authorisation. Carl Mitz has been a horse floater for 25 years. He and three fellow floaters have responded with a suit accusing the board of violating Article 1, Section 19 of the Texas state constitution, which holds that 'no citizen of this state shall be deprived of life, liberty, property, privileges or immunities, or in any manner disfranchised, except by the due course of the law of the land.' Regulating teeth floating, they say, deprives them of their right to earn an honest living, which is what they believe this clause explicitly protects...read more

I'm gonna start a new group - The Freedom For Floaters Foundation.

Down on the Farm, an Endless Cycle of Waste

Day and night, a huge contraption prowls the grounds at Frank Volleman’s dairy in Central Texas. It has a 3,000-gallon tank, a heavy-duty vacuum pump and hoses and, underneath, adjustable blades that scrape the surface as it passes along. In function it is something like a Zamboni, but one that has crossed over to the dark side. This is no hockey rink, and it’s not loose ice being scraped up. It’s cow manure. Lots of cow manure. A typical lactating Holstein produces about 150 pounds of waste — by weight, about two-thirds wet feces, one-third urine — each day. Mr. Volleman has 3,000 lactating Holsteins and another 1,000 that are temporarily “dry.” Do the math: his Wildcat Dairy produces about 200 million pounds of manure every year. Proper handling of this material is one of the most important tasks faced by a dairy operator, or by a cattle feedlot owner, hog producer or other farmer with large numbers of livestock. Manure has to be handled in an environmentally acceptable way and at an acceptable cost...read more

E. coli-tainted beef infects 21 people in 16 states

Twenty-one people in 16 states have been infected in recent days with a potentially lethal strain of E. coli bacteria, after consuming beef in restaurants supplied by the same Oklahoma meat company, federal officials said. The outbreak spurred the company, National Steak and Poultry, to voluntarily recall 248,000 pounds of beef Dec. 24. The products, which range from steaks to sirloin tips, were packaged in October and shipped to restaurants, hotels and institutions nationwide, according to the company. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service has only a partial list of restaurants that received the potentially tainted beef, including two chains, Moe's and Carino's Italian Grill, primarily in the West and Midwest. The recall is considered a "class 1" or a "high health risk" by the USDA, which regulates the meat industry, because among the pathogens that can harm human health, E. coli O157:H7 is one of the most lethal. Even for those who survive, there can be long-term health effects. Nine of the 21 sickened have been hospitalized, the USDA reported. The department has identified cases in six states -- Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota and Washington. The agency said the contamination appears to have begun with tainted beef used for chopped steak that was "co-mingled" with other products in the plant...read more

Song Of The Day #212

Ranch Radio will continue with early country music from the 20's.

Our first tune is Sweetest Girl In Town by Ford & Morris, The Georgia Songsters and is on their 22 track CD Georgia Songsters 1926-1930.

The second selection is Sam McGee performing Buck Dancer's Choice and it's available on his 23 track CD Sam McGee 1926-1934. Old Sam could pick.