Tax on Oil May Help Pay for Cleanup

The federal government has a large rainy day fund on hand to help mitigate the expanding damage on the Gulf Coast, generated by a tax on oil for use in cases like the Deepwater Horizon spill. Up to $1 billion of the $1.6 billion reserve could be used to compensate for losses from the accident, as much as half of it for what is sometimes a major category of costs: damage to natural resources like fisheries and other wildlife habitats. Under the law that established the reserve, called the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, the operators of the offshore rig face no more than $75 million in liability for the damages that might be claimed by individuals, companies or the government, although they are responsible for the cost of containing and cleaning up the spill. The fund was set up by Congress in 1986 but not financed until after the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska in 1989. In exchange for the limits on liability, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 imposed a tax on oil companies, currently 8 cents for every barrel they produce in this country or import...more

Effects of grazing on grouse habitat

ARS rangeland scientists David Ganskopp (now retired) and Chad Boyd studied cattle grazing patterns on sagebrush communities. They found that cattle first preferred to graze on perennial grass growing between sagebrush plants. These grasses between sagebrush plants were called "interspace" tussocks, which are the individual grass plants. When cattle consumed around 40 percent of the interspace tussocks, they then began to graze on the tussocks growing beneath sagebrush itself. The researchers also noted that grass tussocks under spreading, umbrella-shaped shrub canopies were less likely to be grazed than tussocks beneath erect, narrow canopies. Boyd and Ganskopp concluded that ranchers could preserve grouse habitat by monitoring the rate at which cattle were consuming interspace tussocks and moving them to new grazing lands when 40 percent of the interspace tussock had been consumed. Their findings also suggest that cattle impacts on grouse nesting habitats may be affected by site factors like sagebrush shape and stature that are not readily controlled with grazing management...more

Feds doing 1st investigation of major meatpackers

The federal government is conducting its first investigation into whether the handful of large meatpackers that slaughter most of the nation's cattle are illegally or unfairly driving down cattle prices, according to an official representing independent beef producers nationwide. The investigation is under way as the Justice and Agriculture Departments hold a series of antitrust hearings on competition in agriculture, and the USDA is expected to release sweeping antitrust rules covering the meat industry this spring. Many ranchers and critics of the meatpacking industry are cautiously hopeful the investigation and more aggressive action by a little-known federal agency will force meatpackers to competitively bid for more cattle. That, they say, could help slow a 15-year trend in which several thousand ranchers are forced out of business every year, resulting in the smallest U.S. cow herd in several decades and threatening a way of life that has kept the nation supplied with beef for more than a century. Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of R-CALF USA, said the federal Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration has been speaking with his group's members for months and is "clearly asking questions in the context of an investigation."...more

It's All Trew: Vibrating 'critter' frightens rattlesnake-wary cowboy

Old Jake wasn't completely over the hill yet but he was a little long in the tooth. He still rode horseback daily by himself as he and his wife Sally lived way out in the hills working for a big ranch. The kids were gone and the house was empty, but Sally knew Jake would never be satisfied working at any other occupation. She worried about him working alone and purchased a cell phone for him to carry as he rode in case he was ever injured or left afoot out on the range. Now Jake did not understand modern technology nor did he trust anything technical. He called the cell phone "the critter" and refused to take it with him, stating the loud ring would booger his horse and get him bucked off. After 50 years of marriage to Jake, Sally finally worked it out. To ease his mind she put the phone on vibrate instead of ring, but Jake did not understand fully with the explanation going over his head like the prairie breeze. Finally, after long arguments he agreed to carry the critter but "technically" never promised to use it. It looked expensive so in order to prevent loss he pushed it down deep in his front Wranglers pocket. As usual Jake mounted up before sun-up and began his daily ride. The day progressed as he and his mount attended the ranch work Along about mid-afternoon they kicked up a mad rattlesnake in heavy sagebrush...more

Song Of The Day #300

It's song #300 on Ranch Radio and it's swinging Monday, so we better have something special.

One of my favorite western swing instrumentals is The Beaumont Rag and my favorite modern version of the tune is by an Irish fiddler. That's right...Irish.

Give a listen to Natalie MacMaster playing the tune found on her No Boundaries CD and see if it won't get your heart started and your foot tappin'.

And turn up that volume so your neighbors can enjoy it too!

Go To FileFactory.com

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Cat wrangling and cowpony dancing

by Julie Carter

The hallmark of a cowboy is long days, stupid stunts and never forgetting the story. Laughing at themselves is one of the things they do best.

The agitated cowboy was kicking up dust with his boot while he was paced a small circle, recalling the day with disgust.

His bride had promised to deliver a barn cat to a friend in need of one and his job was to catch it and put it in the pet carrier. No step for stepper, he thought.

The feline was overdue to have a new batch of kittens and the cowboy was sure her cumbersome load would slow her enough for him to get ahold of her and as he promised, carefully place her in the cage that would deliver her to the other side of the county.

As far as he was concerned, a good cat was a long-gone cat.

The noise from the barn was a mixture of snarls, screeches and cussing, all of which came from the cowboy and only some of which came from the cat.

Crashing, banging and at last, the barn door flew open and a flash of fur gave meaning to "running like a scalded cat."

Moments later the cowboy wandered into the daylight wearing a dazed look with his hat sitting slightly askew.

He examined the blood running down his arm and with a cautious hand felt of the claw marks across his face.

"I've been to a hundred county fairs and a goat roping or two," he said, "but I ain't never been as humiliated as I am right now. I've been bit, scratched, hissed at, run over and outsmarted by a cat too stupid not to get pregnant every time she passes by a tomcat."

His degradation plummeted to rock-bottom when his bride came from behind the house still in her bathrobe and slippers, carrying the cat, petting and cooing goodbyes to her as she tucked her inside the carrier.

Where's your horse

The cowboy was day working the area ranches and not one for wasting any daylight, he decided he was up for a little fun when he heard there was a team roping in town that night.

With his horse already in the trailer, he headed to the arena just as thunderheads opened up. Even after entries were taken, the downpour continued so the roping was cancelled. The cowboys got their entry fee money back for another day.

Cash in their pockets and time on their hands is always an ingredient for cowboy mischief.

The Prairie Dog, a local watering hole, filled up fast with the rejects from the rained-out roping. Some lively fun was "fixin' to commence."

Blayke walked in still wearing his chaps and spurs from the day's work. The barmaid, a new hire, was a little on the lippy side and not particularly well-versed in cowboys.

As Blayke headed to the bar, she shouted across the room, "Well cowboy, where's your horse?"

He answered, "Out in the trailer."

"Yea, right!" she said with obvious doubt based on the ignorance she had about cowboys.

"You'll believe me when I ride him around the bar," Blayke said.

"That'll be the day," she naively challenged.

That's all it took. Blayke walked out the door and directly to his trailer, unloaded his bay cowpony and headed back to the bar.

He had to tie his stirrups up so the horse could fit through the door but once inside he let them down again, and stepped up into the saddle.

He began loping slow figure eights around the pool tables while the barmaid stood dumbfounded, mouth open in shock and shaking her head.

The yee-haws from the cowboys leaning on the bar only encouraged the show.

With a glance toward the dance floor, Blayke's intentions were apparent. Some-one handed him a beer as he passed by and the barmaid grabbed a Polaroid camera.

She snapped a picture just as Blayke spun his mount around the floor with his beer held high as if to toast the crowd.

The photo was pinned to the wall for all to see, even years later.

It was documented proof that there isn't much you can challenge a cowboy with that he won't make his best, if unwise, effort to try to meet.

Julie, witness to and part of many unwise cowboy moments, can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net

Song Of The Day #299

Today's Gospel tune is Another Soldier Down by Ricky Wasson.

Deputy shot; illegal immigrants suspected

A veteran sheriff's deputy was shot and wounded Friday after encountering a group of suspected illegal immigrants who apparently had been hauling bales of marijuana along a major smuggling corridor in the Arizona desert- a violent episode that comes amid a heated national debate over immigration. State and federal law enforcement agencies deployed helicopters and scores of officers in pursuit of the suspects after the deputy was shot with an AK-47 on Friday afternoon, and the search continued into the night. Deputy Louie Puroll, 53, had a chunk of skin torn from just above his left kidney, but the wound was not serious. He was released Friday night from Casa Grande Regional Medical Center. The shooting was likely to add fuel to an already fiery national debate sparked last week by the signing of an Arizona law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration in the state. Puroll was found in the desert after a frantic hourlong search, suffering from a gunshot wound, Pinal County sheriff's Lt. Tamatha Villar said. The 15-year department veteran had been performing smuggling interdiction work before finding the bales of marijuana and encountering the five suspected illegal immigrants, two armed with rifles. "He was out on his routine daily patrol in the area when he encountered a load of marijuana out in the desert. He obviously confronted the individuals and took fire," Villar told The Associated Press...more

17 caught in search for Ariz. deputy's attackers

Authorities searching for drug smugglers who shot and wounded an Arizona sheriff's deputy in the desert south of Phoenix said they captured 17 suspected illegal immigrants Saturday, including three who may have been involved in the incident. Several hundred officers from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, assisted by several helicopters, scoured a 10-square-mile area of rugged desert about 50 miles south of Phoenix on Saturday. The search was called off as darkness fell. The U.S. Border Patrol searched areas outside the perimeter and made additional arrests of suspected illegal immigrants. "Their numbers are much, much higher," Villar said. A Border Patrol spokesman said he couldn't immediately ascertain how many detentions his agency made...more

This shows the resources that exist and how they can be deployed. Would the response be the same for a civilian?

Drug violence kills 14 in Mexico border state

Drug violence in Mexico's Chihuahua state has claimed 14 lives just across the US border, eight of them in the crime capital Ciudad Juarez, local authorities said Saturday. The latest slayings, which took place on Friday, brought the Monday-to-Friday death toll to 55 in Ciudad Juarez alone, the Chihuahua deputy attorney general's office told reporters. Some 850 people have been killed in this border city of 1.3 million so far this year, while more than 2,660 were killed there in 2009, according to official figures. Officials blame the violence on a battle for control of key drug trafficking routes into the United States between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug gangs...more

Women - Victims of Silence and Invisibility along U.S., Mexican Borders

Three young women aged 16, 17 and 20 reported having been raped by masked men. Civilian border-watchers heard their cries, less than 100 yards from the Arizona border. They were helpless, but the reports didn't slow deportation proceedings against them. It was early May in 2008, and a few days later, two more women were found alive but badly beaten near Arivaca, south of Tucson. During the same week, yet two more women reported having been raped. The rapists are known to hang women's bras and panties from tree limbs as trophies. According to Tim Vanderpool of The Tuscon Weekly, under the desert’s cloak of night, rape is the norm and the "Price of Admission" for women wanting illegal entry into the United States. As dawn approaches, for many of these migrant women, daylight brings the brutal harshness of reality, triggering the memory of what they’ve lost in their desperate journey north, in hopes of finding a better life. On Wednesday, April 28, 2010, Tim Johnson of McClatchy Newspapers reports that Amnesty International released its INVISIBLE VICTIMS: MIGRANTS ON THE MOVE IN MEXICO report, which reveals that as many as six out of every 10 Central American women and girls are raped as they pass through Mexico hoping to cross illegally into the United States...more

Mexico's crime syndicates increasingly target authorities in drug war's new phase

As a public safety chief was riding home last weekend after an evening of political schmoozing at the state fair, a stolen tractor-trailer burst onto the highway -- and another high-profile ambush began with a blast of light. They were lobbing grenades at her. Over the next six minutes -- as the official, Minerva Bautista, screamed into a police radio, "They're killing me!" -- up to 40 heavily armed commandos unleashed more than 2,700 rounds at her three-vehicle convoy of armor-plated sport-utility vehicles. Some of the weapons were capable of penetrating a vehicle's engine block or knocking down a helicopter. Mexico's crime syndicates appear to be escalating their attacks against the state, according to law enforcement officials. No longer content to fight police officers and soldiers when confronted with arrest, the drug organizations are increasingly targeting police commanders and public officials. "In the last few weeks, the dynamics of the violence have changed," said Interior Minister Fernando Gómez-Mont, the country's top security official. "The criminals have decided to directly confront and attack the authorities."...more

Border States Deal With More Illegal Immigrant Crime Than Most, Data Suggests

Arizona lawmakers say their new immigration enforcement law will help them fight an illegal immigrant crime wave that is sweeping the state, a claim that is backed by studies and statistics that suggest border states have a disproportionately high number of criminals who are illegal immigrants. "We've been inundated with criminal activity. It's just -- it's been outrageous," Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer told Fox News. "Crime is off the chart in this state," added Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, president of the Arizona Association of Sheriffs. While the correlation between illegal immigrants and crime is almost impossible to quantify precisely, the available numbers indicate that Arizona -- as well as California and Texas -- are dealing with increased crime as a result of high illegal immigrant populations and activity. In 2004, the year when the data was most recently available, 12.4 percent of California prisoners were illegal immigrants, as compared with an estimated 6.9 percent of the state population. In Arizona, 11.1 percent of the prison population was undocumented, compared with 7 percent of the overall state population. In Texas, the percentage was also slightly higher in the prisons than it was statewide. A Government Accountability Office study from 2005 also found that most illegal immigrant arrests were happening in California, Texas and Arizona. The study sampled a prison population of more than 55,000 illegal immigrants, and found that 80 percent of all the arrests were in those three states...more

Mexico: the real war next door

It bewilders me that my fellow citizens don't take the disintegration of government authority in northern Mexico seriously. As I've written repeatedly, no country is more important to us socially, economically and security-wise than Mexico. Afghanistan's fluff by comparison. Precisely 100 years ago, in 1910, the Mexican Revolution erupted in northern Mexico -- already the most prosperous and industrially developed portion of the country. That revolution lasted a bloody, destructive decade. It wasn't the bandido affair beloved of Hollywood knuckleheads, but a complex contest for power with large armies, strategic campaigns, major battles, trench warfare, barbed wire and machine guns. In 1915, the military vision of the self-taught Gen. Alvaro Obregon -- destined to become Mexico's president -- was more sophisticated than that of the US Army. Mexico pioneered the 20th century's revolutions. Since then, northern Mexico -- from the border cities southward through the industrial powerhouse of Monterrey -- has continued to be the country's primary agent of change. Influenced by its proximity to America, the north long has been a different country from the impoverished states south of the capital. Now a new Mexican revolution is underway in the vital north. In 1910, idealists struggled to change an autocratic regime. In 2010, criminal syndicates fight to wrest power from a democratic government and to grab market share from each other. (In an eerie parallel, a bloody strike in the northern mining center of Cananea helped ignite the 1910 revolution; today, a three-year-long strike in Cananea by mining and metal workers signals a new generation's impatience with the status quo -- and we're just not paying attention.) During that earlier revolution, the citizens of El Paso, Texas, and Douglas, Arizona, gathered to watch the battles just across the border as Pancho Villa's troops drove out the Federals, then as the Constitutionalists defeated Villa. Those spectators were confident in their immunity as American citizens. We're no longer immune...more

How Arizona became center of immigration debate

The frustration had been building for years in Arizona with every drug-related kidnapping, every home invasion, every "safe house" discovered crammed with illegal immigrants from Mexico. The tensions finally spilled over this month with passage of the nation's toughest law against illegal immigration, a measure that has put Arizona at the center of the heated debate over how to deal with the millions of people who sneak into the U.S. every year. Arizona is the biggest gateway into the U.S. for illegal immigrants. The state is home to an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants - a population larger than that of entire cities such as Cleveland, St. Louis and New Orleans. Over the past three years, Border Patrol agents have made 990,000 arrests of immigrants crossing the border illegally in Arizona, or an average of 900 a day. The figures represent 45 percent of all arrests of illegal immigrants along U.S. borders. Authorities routinely come across safe houses and vehicles jammed with immigrants across the vast Arizona desert. Last week, 67 illegal immigrants were found crammed inside a U-Haul truck - a fairly typical scenario in the state. The volume of drugs coming through the Arizona border is also eye-popping. Federal agents seized 1.2 million pounds of marijuana last year in Arizona. That amounts to an average of 1.5 tons per day. Pot busts have become so common that until recently federal prosecutors in Arizona generally declined to press charges against marijuana smugglers caught with less than 500 pounds...more

Mojave Cross can stay on display in National Preserve

An 8-foot cross honoring fallen soldiers in the remote Mojave National Preserve in California can stay where it is, because the Supreme Court said Wednesday that the Constitution nowhere requires the "eradication of all religious symbols in the public realm." Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing the lead opinion in a 5-4 decision in which several justices wrote separate concurrences and dissents, compared the Mojave Cross to a hypothetical highway memorial marking the death of a state trooper to make the point that such displays "need not be taken as a statement of governmental support for sectarian beliefs." "The Constitution does not oblige government to avoid any public acknowledgment of religion's role in society," Justice Kennedy said in his opinion. "Rather, it leaves room to accommodate divergent values within a constitutionally permissible framework." Leading the dissenters was Justice John Paul Stevens, who called the war memorial "unprecedented" in its starkly religious tone. "Congressional action, taken after due deliberation, that honors our fallen soldiers merits our highest respect," said Justice Stevens, who recently announced his plan to retire. "As far as I can tell, however, it is unprecedented in the nation's history to designate a bare, unadorned cross as the national war memorial for a particular group of veterans." The justices didn't rule technically on the constitutional issue of whether the cross constitutes an establishment of religion. However, they declined to rule that the cross was a First Amendment violation, as asked, and the majority justices' language indicate a more benign view of religion expression on public lands...more

Wolf vs. Livestock Compensation Gets $1 Million

Ten states will share $1 million from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to help compensate ranchers for losses caused by wolves and to help them implement non-lethal methods of preventing the wolves from killing their livestock. Since being listed as a federally-protected endangered species in 1967, the gray wolf has staged a rapid comeback and the violent interface between wolves and livestock producers has again become an issue. For example, the Montana Department of Fish and Wildlife reported confirmed wolf kills of 298 cattle and 461 sheep from 1995 to 2007. "Wolf populations are expanding in several parts of the nation, and this grant program gives us another tool to help states minimize conflict where wolves and human activities overlap," said Rowan Gould, acting Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a press release. States to receive compensation funds include; Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington. According to the FWS, amounts awarded to each state were based the number of livestock killed by wolves in each state, the number of wolves in each state, and need in each state...more

Sagebrush stirrings

Utah State Representative Chris Herrod has gotten a lot of attention since his bill to explore seizing federal land through eminent domain became law last month. Colleagues in other Western legislatures have called seeking tips on replicating his success in their states. And the law was a topic of discussion this week when U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar paid a visit to Salt Lake City. A majority of the land in Utah, as in many Western states, is owned by the federal government. Herrod’s measure treats the federal government like any other property owner in the state. It allows Washington to keep the rights and title to the land but not ultimate jurisdiction over it. That jurisdiction rests with Utah, and it means that federal land holdings may be subject to state eminent domain authority. Outrage over federal land policies is nothing new in Western states, where local officials have long sought to develop public land and collect tax revenue from it. Now, with Democrats in charge in Washington and conservative activists energized in their opposition towards the Obama administration’s health care, energy and budget policies, some in the West are trying to counter what they see as federal heavy-handedness in land-use matters...more

Judge: Enviros must file new suit on grouse decision

A federal judge has rebuffed a first attempt by an Idaho-based environmental group to challenge a March 5 decision on federal protection for the greater sage grouse. But to Western Watersheds Project, which has its main office in Hailey, Tuesday’s decision by U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill won’t really end up a setback. The organization still plans to urge the judge to tell the federal government to list the grouse under the Endangered Species Act, said its longtime attorney, Laird Lucas of Advocates for the West. It just will do so in a separate case. So, the debate over the bird’s future — imperiled by numerous threats to its sagebrush habitat across the West — will continue to play out in the courts...more

BLM settles dispute over San Juan Basin plan

The Bureau of Land Management and conservation groups have settled an eight-year dispute over a management plan for nearly 10,000 natural gas wells in the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico. The groups claimed the BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act and other federal laws in developing a 2003 management plan for drilling over 20 years in the 16,000-square-mile basin that straddles the border of New Mexico and Colorado. A federal court ruled in favor of the agency in 2008, and the groups countered with an appeal. That appeal was dismissed Monday after both sides reached a compromise that, in part, calls for the BLM to consider impacts to cultural, wildlife and other resources when reviewing new lease sales. The agency also plans to hold annual meetings to discuss proposed oil and gas development in the basin, consult with tribal officials from the Navajo Nation and develop an online system that the public can access for information on existing wells and lease locations as well as proposed oil and gas projects...more