Fight brews over drilling watchdog

Formerly the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the Obama administration has renamed it the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. Plans are to further split the agency up into three separate divisions, all under the Department of Interior. The idea is to remove an apparent conflict of interest - charging one agency with both ensuring safety and maximizing oil revenues for the federal government. But the plan is drawing fire from nearly everyone involved. Environmentalists say the reforms don't go far enough. Offshore drillers say they are not being consulted. Government watchdogs say they lack transparency. And Congress says information has been slow in coming...more

Federal records show steady stream of oil spills in gulf since 1964

The oil and gas industry's offshore safety and environmental record in the Gulf of Mexico has become a key point of debate over future drilling, but that record has been far worse than is commonly portrayed by many industry leaders and lawmakers. Many policymakers think that the record before the BP oil spill was exemplary. In a House hearing Thursday, Rep. John J. "Jimmy" Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.) said, "It's almost an astonishingly safe, clean history that we have there in the gulf." Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the industry's "history of safety over all of those times" had provided the "empirical foundation" for U.S. policy. But federal records tell a different story. They show a steady stream of oil spills dumping 517,847 barrels of petroleum -- which would fill an equivalent number of standard American bathtubs -- into the Gulf of Mexico between 1964 and 2009. The spills killed thousands of birds and soiled beaches as far away as Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Altogether, they poured twice as much as oil into U.S. waters as the Exxon Valdez tanker did when it ran aground in 1989. The industry's record had been improving before the BP spill. In 2009, the largest one was about 1,500 barrels, about what BP's damaged well was leaking every hour before it was capped last week...more

Gulf Coast lawmakers press to lift offshore drilling ban

Democratic and Republican lawmakers from the Gulf Coast are working together to lobby the administration to speed up permits for offshore drilling in shallow water and to lift the moratorium on drilling in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico. "This ban hurts everybody," Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., said on the House floor Thursday. "We stand united on the Gulf Coast to support good-paying jobs." Boustany and other Gulf Coast lawmakers, including Alabama's representatives, said the administration's policies could cost the region's already fragile economy thousands of jobs. "Deepwater drilling supports thousands of jobs along the coast, and I urge the administration to keep the families these jobs support in mind when conducting safety tests," said Rep. Bobby Bright, D-Montgomery. "It is, without a doubt, in everyone's best interest to get deepwater oil workers back to work as quickly as possible." Environmentalists applaud the drilling ban in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill...more

On timber, thanks for nothing

After a year of study, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's crackerjack task force on western Oregon timber management has concluded that, gee, lots of people are frustrated and things are pretty tough out there. We can't wait for next year's sequel in which the Obama task force is invited back to take another yearlong look and rediscovers that, believe it or not, lots of people remain frustrated and things are pretty tough out there. This could go on forever. It would be laughable if the unemployment rate across much of rural Oregon wasn't running at 12 to 15 percent, if timber towns weren't trying desperately to hold together their basic public services such as police and libraries, if huge swaths of public forests weren't overstocked with small trees one lightning strike or tossed cigarette away from going up in flames late this summer. We made the mistake of taking the interior secretary at his word last year when the Obama administration abandoned the Western Oregon Plan Revision, or WOPR, which sought to increase logging on more than 2 million acres of public forests. Salazar promised that the task force would come up with a plan that would increase logging and thinning while complying with the Endangered Species Act. Instead, the task force issued a report Thursday that calls for a three- to five-year planning process and concludes what everybody already knows: Major obstacles such as distrust among competing interest groups and conflicting federal policies stand in the way of increasing logging on western Oregon's public forests and creating more economic activity in rural communities. Given all that rural Oregon is struggling with, this "plan to have a plan," as Oregon's Rep. Peter DeFazio described it Thursday, is inexcusable. There's no urgency in the task force report, no acknowledgement of the economic emergency, no commitment to provide any leadership to help resolve the conflicts over management of the public forests. As Rep. Greg Walden said, "It's doubly frustrating that while this report was being put together, timber sales dropped to historic lows. The sick forests and the economy in southern Oregon can't wait any longer." If the Obama administration doesn't have the time or attention to give to Northwest forest issues, it ought to just say so rather than carry on any more charades like this one. Other leaders, notably DeFazio and Sen. Ron Wyden, have offered serious proposals to break the stalemate on public lands by protecting old-growth trees and allowing speedier access to smaller logs. Wyden promised Thursday to press for a legislative alternative, and we urge the senator and the rest of the Oregon delegation to step up their efforts in Congress. Let's not waste any more time waiting for the Obama administration to lead the way toward a better, saner forest policy on western Oregon lands. If there's anything valuable about the task force report, it's the takeaway message that it's folly to wait for the administration to solve our forest issues. Oregonian

Cap and Trade is Dead. Who's to Blame?

So what happened? How did a Democratic President who came to office talking up climate change and promising a strong carbon cap, plus a Democratic Senate and House of Representatives, plus the late impetus of the oil spill, somehow come away with barely more than nothing? As a stunned environmental community sifts through the wreckage, they'll find no shortage of perpetrators. -The filibuster and the Republicans: It should go without saying at this point, but the increasing reliance on the filibuster has made the U.S. Senate a deeply, deeply dysfunctional body—and the Republicans, who were nearly lockstep against any climate legislation with a cap, were only to happy to abuse it. It was always going to be difficult to get any kind of carbon cap passed in the Senate... The Democrats: While it's true that the filibuster present a high barrier for any climate and energy action, the reality is that Reid may have struggled to get even 51 votes for a stronger bill, because a number of Democrats were almost as obstructionist as their Republican colleagues. Coal state Democrats like Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and George Voinovic Evan Bayh of Indiana were almost certainly never going to vote for a bill with a carbon cap, knowing what it might do to the coal industry. Farm state Democrats like Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska weren't any better. The truth is there weren't enough Democrats willing to support a carbon cap, let along Republicans... The White House: It's all Obama's fault—that's the message that many more liberal greens are coalescing around. For all his talk in the campaign about climate change and the need to get a price on carbon (during the campaign he called to reduce carbon emissions 80% by 2050), Obama seemed generally detached from the Congressional fight over climate legislation. Andrew Revkin at Dot Earth noted that Obama never gave a substantial speech focused on the need for the U.S. to face up to the long-terms of climate change and truly take energy innovation seriously; never brought climate researchers to speak to his White House staff...-Environmentalists: Over the past few years, most environmental groups have made climate change their number one priority. And within that—led by wonky organizations like the Natural Resources Defense Council and especially the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)—shooting for an economy-wide carbon cap was the number one tool. A price on carbon was the only way, the market-oriented way, to reduce emissions and fight climate change. Put a cap on carbon and businesses would respond, changing the way they used energy, funding innovative new cleantech startups and ushering in an era of green jobs. That was the great green pitch—trust me, I've been getting it almost every day, in various ways, for the past two years. That pitch failed...more

Business & Medical System Sí; President & Congress, No

Gallup has released their Confidence In Institutions poll.

Here are some of the results for 2010, as compared to last year:

Big Business +3
Medical System +4

The Presidency -15
Congress -6

Fran Smith writes:

What I think is more interesting, however, is that the main institutional targets of President Obama’s and the Democratic Congress’ recents attacks and draconian laws gained in confidence in this year’s poll. The Administration’s demonization of the health care system didn’t seem to resonate with the public. In this year’s poll, the medical system ranked as number five in overall confidence, up 4 points from last year. Banks and big business - also the targets of the Administration’s ire, were up one and three points, respectively, in the 2010 poll. With these kinds of polling results, the Dems are right to be running scared.

And oh yes, Congress continues to rank last in public confidence at 11%.

Broncoball: 'Horseback hockey' without sticks

Witnessing the birth of a sport is pretty rare. So when I was invited to the debut of something called Broncoball, I was all for it. To watch, that is. Nobody said anything about taking part. I was lured in by Donnie Nelson, the James Naismith of Broncoball. It's a fitting connection seeing as Nelson has made a career out of basketball, the sport Naismith invented. Nelson has done so well as president of the Dallas Mavericks that he's become a part-owner of the Mesquite Rodeo. He loves watching the animals and riders, but his kids don't. That's what spurred him to come up with a new, hopefully dynamic game on the dirt of a rodeo arena...One observer described Broncoball as "horseback hockey." That's a good start, just minus the sticks. There are two teams, each with four riders on quarterhorses, plus a fifth guy who isn't. Riders go from offense to defense like in hockey or basketball. The ball gets tossed from rider to rider, with at least three teammates required to touch it before taking a shot. The shot actually is a throw to the fifth guy, who stands atop a barrel inside the goal, a chalk-lined circle that's off-limits to riders. Catches made atop the barrel score two points; it's only one point if he comes off the barrel to make the catch. The ball is a practice softball. It's the same size as a regular softball only much softer, so it's easy to catch barehanded and doesn't hurt if it hits anyone — or the horses. Luckily for me, there are only a few more rules: • Any ball hitting the ground is a turnover; • Riders have eight seconds to shoot or pass; • Defenders can jerk, jostle, shove and push opposing riders, but only with one hand. The biggest duty for those of us in zebra shirts is keeping a ball in play. Whenever one falls, or a goal is scored, an official flips another to the nearest player on offense. While everyone is on the other end, we collect stray balls in our area. This becomes more treacherous as the game goes on, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who has ever been around horses...more

I guess that's why they call him Jimmy "Broncoball" Bason.

Song Of The Day #366

It's Swingin' Monday on Ranch Radio and we're bringing you the rip snortin'est version of Sally Gooden I'll bet you've ever heard. It's by Boone Creek, the bluegrass group started by Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas in 1977.

You'll find the tune on their One Way Track CD by Sugarhill Records.

And then, there were 10, but still no Champion

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

Last week the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee met to conclude work on S.1689, the Organ Mountain and Desert Peaks Wilderness Act. The bill, cosponsored by Senators Bingaman and Udall of New Mexico, has generated a contentious and divisive debate in Dona Ana County, New Mexico where the federal land designations would occur.

In work done Wednesday and finished Thursday, July 22, the markup of the bill was approved and cleared for action on the floor of the Senate. That approval came with the vote and the decision of that committee’s membership. The vote was 23-0 in favor of allowing the bill to go to the Senate floor. Thirteen Democrats and 10 Republicans voted to allow the bill to proceed.

The Organ Mountain and Desert Peaks Wilderness Act is an attempt to designate higher protection status to five mountain ranges. If successful, this action would expand federal control and diminished access to all mountain ranges within that County.

Only seven percent of the county is held privately. Slightly more of the county is controlled by the state of New Mexico and the remainder is all federal land. The backdrop of federal and or state lands with restricted access includes more than 4.5 million acres of Ft. Bliss, White Sands Missile Range, McGregor Range, White Sands National Monument, Holloman Air Force Base, the Jornada Range, the San Andres National Wildlife Refuge, and the New Mexico State University college ranch.

The local debate has created a wide divide. The environmental supporters of the bill have built a coalition of local businesses and organizations that number about 220 while the opposition has a coalition of more than 800 that do not support the bill in its current form. The Las Cruces Hispano Chamber of Commerce has recently conducted an externally funded media blitz in favor of the bill and appears to be the environmental spearhead of the action, while the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce (GLCCC) has become the symbolic antagonist to the bill in its current form.

“It became very clear to us that Senator Bingaman was not interested in our concerns about the whole process of how this thing happened,” says Sara Cox Hopkins, a descendent of ranching pioneer W.W. Cox and rancher within the Organ Mountain portion of the proposal. “When we were finally allowed to talk to the Senator, we had to travel to his office in Albuquerque and he granted us 30 minutes. That’s it. That’s all we have seen him other than in public forums.”

The opposition of S.1689 has evolved from attempts to voice concerns by those who have duties, responsibilities, and investments on the lands involved to what has become the center of the storm, border security. “The matter of border security really got our attention,” relates current GLCCC board chair, Kiehl Hoffman. “When we started understanding the conditions of human and drug trafficking issues, our perspective changed dramatically. We didn’t want that duplicated here.”

That argument against the bill has focused on the Potrillo Mountain Complex portion of the proposal. That component lies near the Mexican border and the argument has centered on matters of national security. From work done in conjunction with the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO), a profile of the characteristics of the “Arizona Class” human and drug smuggling corridors was compiled. Every one of those corridors that emanate from the 388 miles of the Arizona border with Mexico have similar characteristics.

The characteristics they share are as follows:

1. The corridors have wilderness/de facto wilderness safe havens.
2. They have east /west highway access north and south of the corridors.
3. They have rugged and complex north/south mountain and drainage orientation which provides channels of movement.
4. They are almost entirely or heavily dominated by federal land agency management.
5. The concentration of American private property rights at risk is limited as is the presence of resident American habitation.
6. All corridors have high, strategically located points of observation.

“If anything, the Potrillo Mountain complex portion of S.1689 has the potential to exceed the dangers of the Arizona corridors,” retired Border Patrol agent and current head of the National Border Patrol Museum Board of Governors, David Ham says. “Along with the classic characteristics of the Arizona corridors, the presence of the major interstate railroad, the interstate pipeline, the Las Cruces airport, and the Robledo-Las Uvas corridor extension north from the Potrillos is a major national security risk waiting to happen if this bill passes.”

With the problems occurring in Arizona and the firestorm that has been created with Arizona’s attempt to protect itself from illegal immigration, one would think that Arizona leadership in the House and Senate would be acutely aware of the border dangers. American citizens would think that sitting, senior senators would be especially alert to matters of national security risk and yet John McCain (R-AZ) was one of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee members who voted for the bill to be heard on the Senate floor. Neither Mr. McCain nor any of his colleagues even suggested amendments to the bill that would serve to blunt the danger that the Potrillo Mountain complex portion of the bill will pose to American security.

Mere citizens must learn that the action by the Republicans on the committee was an exercise in tradition and protocol. Committee members are expected to honor the wishes of senators when those elected officials jointly sponsor a bill that affects their state. At least Republican senators are expected to follow that protocol, but the border community of Arizona and New Mexico is getting weary of tradition and protocol.

Following the Krentz murder, border district representatives and state senators rushed to the press with demands for more security. Harry Teague (D-NM) hurled a letter out into space pledging millions of dollars to be spent on enhanced border security measures. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) motored to Apache, Arizona and told the locals that she was going to find solutions. Senator McCain himself declared he would like to be at that meeting if he could find a ride that night from his campaign stop at Sierra Vista, but the fact is there is no true border champion.

If Americans were polled to name the most visible and vocal border champion in Congress, there would not be a name that would surface from a border state. Jan Brewer, no doubt, would be a clear favorite among state leaders, but Congress would have a hard time fielding a border state leader who has demonstrated that he or she would stake a career on his or her border security principles. There isn’t such a leader.

The adherence to the powerful environmental agenda on the American border has put us all in jeopardy. Senator Bingaman’s actions prove that point. He was intent from the jump to elevate his name into the history of wilderness champions, no matter the negative impact on his constituents in Southern New Mexico. After all, it is easier to slap a name on a piece of land than it is to engineer legislation that encourages and stimulates community independence and resourcefulness.

Arrests shed light on border kidnappings

The bedraggled immigrants were picking their way through the boulders and scrub when a group of heavily armed men descended on them just short of the California- Mexico border. They corralled them in a cave and pointed their guns on the 10 men and one woman. These lawless badlands in the hills east of Tijuana have long teemed with bandits and rapists, but these criminals demanded only phone numbers. They started calling the immigrants' loved ones in Pomona, San Diego and Bakersfield: Send us money or we'll shoot, they said. The days-long kidnapping ordeal in May illustrates a growing trend as roaming gangs of well-organized, heavily armed gunmen turn their sights on illegal immigrants, making a treacherous journey ever more dangerous for people trekking north. In the spree of kidnappings, which began about two years ago, gunmen hold people captive until family members in the U.S. send wire transfers of up to $5,000 to accounts in Mexico. Some immigrants are beaten; several have been killed, including a pair of brothers from Mexico City. Many straggle across the border and turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents. Others end up in migrant shelters in Tijuana, too frightened to report the cases to Mexican police...more

Ranchers looking for more help on border

It's been four months since the murder of Cochise County rancher Robert Krentz and his neighbors are speaking out about the response made along the border. The murder put the ranching community and the nations border problems in the spot light and ranchers were hoping the tragedy might mean changes; changes some of them are still waiting to see. Cochise County rancher Gary Thrasher said, "I'm frustrated. I thought they could get something done a whole lot quicker than what they are. I thought they could move more people to the border with a simple stroke of a pen." Steve Brophy, the President of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association said, "Enough hasn't been done and it needs to be." And some of them said because the response hasn't changed neither has the foot traffic coming through. Patrick Bray the Executive Vice President of the Arizona Cattleman's Assoc. said, "The sad thing is that we're over a hundred days out from the murder of Robert Krentz and these guys say its status quos. Nothing has changed." But not all ranchers agree. Kelly Glenn-Kimbro was lucky enough to have the border patrol become her new neighbors...more

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

The young guns have arrived

by Julie Carter

He was only about 3 feet tall - boots, hat and all. He stood looking through the rails of the arena fence as his daddy and three other cowboys rode into the arena, pulling their hats down tight and shaking out their ropes.

His little brother played in the dirt on the ground behind him, driving a toy truck and trailer through freshly built "roads" headed toward a tiny stick corral. His interest in the arena was intense, but only for short periods of time. He had "work" to do.

It was ranch rodeo time, in the infancy of the sport as a competition. That was 20 years ago.

Today, both those little cowboys are grown up.

The older one rides into that same arena with his britches tucked in the tops of his boots, a trendy shape to his straw hat and a cocky grin on face.

The other, sitting solid in the saddle on a horse that isn't as calm as he is, wears a look of serious competitive intent.

A cousin rides in next to him, followed by a friend that rounds out the team of four.

The game is on. The young guns have arrived and before the day is over, they will have proved themselves a force to be reckoned with.

Ranch rodeo is a family sport as much as any has ever been. As it evolved through the years, the youngsters of the early days fell eagerly into the footsteps of their fathers, holding out for the day they too could participate.

Father and son, father and daughter, husband and wife, cousins, brother-in-laws, father-in-laws and any other assorted family connection possible, team up, enter up and in the spirit of competition, spend a day roping, riding and hoping to claim a little of the prizes at the end of the day.

Youth ranch rodeo hit the scene some years back, serving to fine tune the young buckaroos into competition-ready young adults.

A cowboy with a baby on the saddle in front of him during the warm-up or after the rodeo is a common sight. Before long, that same baby is the toddler at the arena fence shouting "Go Dad," with all his might.

The family dynamics at any event make it a kinfolk reunion as much as a rodeo competition. There will be several family patriarchs and matriarchs watching the events and being greatly entertained as they observe different branches of the family compete against each other, young and old.

There isn't much left out here in the West that keeps families connected like they were 50 years ago.

The few remaining big family ranches maintain a connection through the work they do, but this venue for ranch family playtime has added a new dimension.

Whether the "kids", taking in all ages from 9-60, arrive from the ranch, from a titled job, a college campus or anywhere in between, it all comes together in the competition.

Watching brothers rope and load a steer into a trailer with the same banter and sibling "encouragement" going on as would happen in the middle of a four-section pasture, takes "reality" entertainment to a new level.

And that little cowboy I saw last week standing on the fence rail hollering encouragement to his dad?

He'll be a third generation ranch rodeo cowboy and with any luck, his old dad might be given a spot on the team.

Julie has been watching and photographing ranch rodeo for two decades and still loves the next one just as much as the first one. Reach her for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net

He taught yours truly about media bias - Daniel Schorr, Journalist, Dies at 93

Daniel Schorr, whose aggressive reporting over 70 years as a respected broadcast and print journalist brought him into conflict with censors, the Nixon administration and network superiors, died on Friday in Washington. He was 93...more

In July of 1974 I went to work as a Legislative Assistant to Senator Pete Domenici.

On August 9, 1974 Richard Nixon resigned his Presidency.

Several of us staffers sat with Domenici in his office and watched Nixon's resignation speech. Just as the speech ended, CBS called Domenici and wanted him to come to their studio for an interview. There were several senior staffers there, but for some reason Domenici asked me to drive him to CBS (I later figured out that since I was the last person to go on his staff from NM, Domenici figured I had been least influenced by the system and most accurately reflected the views of New Mexicans, especially rural New Mexicans, on Nixon).

When we arrived at CBS they put us in a waiting room which was surrounded by tv monitors. After a short period of time a CBS employee came and took Domenici away to get his nose powdered for the tv appearance.

That left me in the room alone. Keep in mind that at this point I had not quite bought into the media bias thing.

I was watching the monitors as they interviewed Ronald Reagan who at that time was the Governor of California. In walked Daniel Schorr, chief White House correspondent for CBS. Schorr looked up at the monitors, saw Reagan being interviewed, and with a hateful scowl on his face said,"Burn, Ronnie baby, Burn."

I remember thinking, "You know, there might be something to this media bias after all."

That thought has been mightily reinforced over the last thirty-six years.

Rider Grabbed Life by the Reins

Edgewood's Kenny McOsker was not one to hide from the dangers of life. And, in the end, it was one of those dangers that killed him. The 34-year-old McOsker was at the Galisteo Rodeo on Sunday when, upon finishing his winning bronc ride, he was kicked in the head by his horse. The horse's hoof caught him in the face, crushing his left cheek and making it difficult for paramedics to give him oxygen. He was rushed to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, where his family made the difficult decision Tuesday to unhook the machines keeping him alive. McOsker died soon afterward. "He certainly always lived life to the fullest," said his father, Martin McOsker. Kenny McOsker was a construction engineer for a firm in Corrales, but his weekends were spent on a horse. He was part of the close-knit fraternity of amateur rodeoers who travel each weekend to events all over the state. He shared his passion with his family: His 14-year-old daughter Bailey and 6-year-old son Kole also compete. His other son, Zeb, is 17 months and a little young for the cowboy life. His wife, Tay, is expecting their fourth child...more

Song Of The Day #365

Ranch Radio's Gospel tune this Sunday morning is Pickin' Time by Johnny Cash.

The tune is on his 12 track CD The Fabulous Johnny Cash.

Will America’s Police Become Federales?

Police unions across America are moving closer to being federalized. The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2009 was reintroduced in the Senate by Majority Leader Harry Reid on April 12, where it currently awaits debate. The act is part of a supplemental appropriations bill meant to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. If passed, the act would place first responders (police, firemen, paramedics) under federal union regulations. Control would be removed from state and local authorities except in places with fewer than 5,000 people or with fewer than 25 full-time first responders. In effect the act seeks to nullify important aspects of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 which in turn reversed much of the pro-union Wagner Act of 1935. Taft-Hartley is currently the cornerstone of U.S. labor law and allows individual states to regulate their own public-sector worker relations. Most of the attention paid to the act has focused on the disastrous budget consequences it would have for local authorities. Public-employee payments (wages, pensions, and health benefits) already consume a huge slice of the expenditures of cities and states; for many the burden is so heavy they are verging on bankruptcy. The San Francisco Chronicle (July 14) reported, “Oakland [Calif.] laid off 80 police officers Tuesday after negotiations between city officials and union leaders failed on one simple matter: job security. The police union demanded that the city guarantee that its officers would not be laid off for three years in exchange for giving up some pension benefits that would have eased the city’s budget problems. City leaders, however, said it would have been irresponsible of them to agree to protect police jobs for more than one year because the city’s budget problems are likely to worsen.” The act would remove such flexibility from local authorities and instead impose the unfunded mandate of applying federal standards that would be determined by the Federal Labor Relations Authority. In disputes a labor relations czar would arbitrate the “hours, wages, and terms and conditions of employment.” Local governments would no longer be able to adjust pay scales and benefits according to their own budgets nor would local voters have any input...more

Life on the border — the ranchers

by Hugh Holub

The ranchers in the border zone have been frustrated for a long time about how much illegal activity goes on through federal lands at the border. It has steadily gotten more and more dangerous out on the range due to the drug cartels. None of the ranchers I’ve talked to are willing to have their names used in a story for fear of retaliation.

Part of the recent secret video showing illegal entry and drug smuggling on the border was shot in the borderlands near Nogales. It should not be any surprise that if you set up a camera in one of the canyons near the border you will see lots of illegal activity. That’s because the Border Patrol is not sitting there to catch the illegal activity. Doubtless given the amount of electronic surveillance at the border, the Border Patrol’s video tapes would be extremely shocking to see how much illegal ativity is actually monitored, but not responded to because agents are not close enough to react. This is a point made over and over again by border ranchers.

Border area ranchers have had to deal with illegal entry and drug smuggling for years. Except where the Border Patrol has set up a Forward Observation Base (one of them is on a ranch west of Nogales), the borderlands are a dangerous place.

One rancher described how his cowboys are aware of drug cartel and human smugglers perched on hilltops near the border, spotting when the Border Patrol is absent, so they can run their loads of drugs or chains of people through the line. The rancher believes the cartel spotters are using satellite phones to report since cell phone service is non-existent on most of the ranch.

“We just go about our business being cowboys hoping the smugglers will leave us alone,” said the rancher.

Up until Douglas rancher Robert Krentz was murdered by a suspected drug smuggler or spotter, the ranchers and their cowboys always offered aid and assistance to illegal entrants who got into trouble on their ranches.

But since the murder of Krentz, the cowboys all over the border region have been instructed not to have any contact with illegal entrants out of fear they will be murdered.

All the ranchers I’ve talked to are armed. But they joke that “a 94 [Winchester rifle] is not match for a 47 [an AK 47 carried by drug smugglers]”.

They fervently hope they will never encounter a convoy of smugglers armed with automatic weapons on their ranches. When they see suspected illegal entrants or drug smugglers, they head off in the opposite direction.

Some ranchers have given up their federal leases on some lands simply because continuing to run cows in those areas was too risky. They also joke about how the cartel and the anti-ranching environmentalists win in that case. “Some of the environmentalists would rather have illegal entrants and drug smugglers out there instead of our cows,” said one rancher. He then joked that maybe the jaguars and wolves should be trained to eat drug smugglers.

There are also stories about how the drug cartel has been buying up ranches on the Mexican side of the border to protect their smuggling zones. Even though the boundary of the US ranches abuts Mexico, there was a long history of cooperation between ranchers on both sides of the border. That is disappearing...

Several of the ranches have installed drinking foundations at their watering tanks in the canyons north of the border, so illegal entrants don’t die of thirst. It is an amazing site to be in one of these remote canyons near the border and see drinking fountains.

Some of the ranchers have installed “side step” gates on their fence lines. The reason for this is they got sick and tired of people cutting their fences.

However, on one of the ranches, the Border Patrol installed sensors at the side step gates, rendering them useless. The illegal immigrants continue cutting the rancher’s fences...

Read the complete article at the Tucson Citizen.

51 Bodies Found in Mass Graves in Mexico

In one of the more macabre discoveries of Mexico’s drug wars, soldiers have found at least 51 bodies dumped in mass graves after what appeared to be a series of executions by drug gangs in northern Mexico. The bodies were buried in several graves scattered over an area the size of three soccer fields in an isolated zone east of the city of Monterrey, Mexican officials said. Since receiving an anonymous tip on Thursday, soldiers have been using backhoes to dig up plots . There were so many bodies that the authorities were using refrigerated trucks to hold them. Alejandro Garza y Garza, the prosecutor for the state of Nuevo León, told local news media on Saturday that investigators were nearing the end of their search. Many of the dead, he said, appeared to have been tortured. “Some were tied up with rope, others taped up with their hands bound with tape,” he said. “There are others with handcuffs. Most of them have tattoos.” Photographs showed charred spots on the ground, suggesting some bodies may have been partially burned. Mexico’s drug cartels sometimes use corrosive liquids, fire and other methods to dispose of victims or make it harder to identify the bodies...more

Battles paralyze Mexican city across from Texas

Late-night gunbattles with gangs who forced citizens from their cars and used the vehicles to block streets paralyzed a border city, sound of gunfire alarmed Texans on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande. The Nuevo Laredo city government posted messages on Facebook warning citizens to stay indoors as the battles erupted at several intersections in the city across from Laredo, Texas. Frightened people on the U.S. side of the border called emergency dispatchers after hearing the gunfire, Laredo police spokesman Joe Baeza said Thursday. "We were getting reports from people who live on the river's edge that they could hear gunfire and explosions from the Mexico side," Baeza said. Gangs used stolen cars and buses to block several main avenues in the city across from Laredo, Texas. Several residents called local newspapers to report thefts. "For your security, stay in your homes until the alert has passed," the city government wrote on Facebook. When the violence subsided, the government urged citizens to come forward and reclaim their stolen vehicles. Nuevo Laredo is among several northern cities under siege from a turf battle between the Gulf cartel and its former enforcers, the Zetas gang of hit men. Violence has surged along the northeastern border with the United States since the two gangs split earlier this year...more

Senate rejects $3B Indian trust settlement

The U.S. Senate has rejected a $3.4 billion government settlement with American Indians that had been added to a much larger war-funding bill. The Senate passed the almost $60 billion bill funding President Barack Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan late Wednesday — but not before stripping out the settlement and $20 billion in other domestic spending approved by the House. The Senate’s approval would have given the Obama administration the authority to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in 1996 by Elouise Cobell of Browning, Mont. Between 300,000 and 500,000 Native Americans claim the Interior Department mismanaged billions of dollars held in trust by the government. The House attached the settlement to the war-funding bill earlier this month. [link]