http://pioneer.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODE/HeraldandNews/

Some observations on Tuesday’s election results:

Herald and News Editorial

May 17, 2012

   Klamath County commissioner

   Dissatisfaction with incumbents Al Switzer and Cheryl Hukill went beyond their qualified support of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, but there’s no doubt it was a major part in their defeats. That’s especially true when results of the races for state legislators also are considered. None of the candidates in any of the four commissioner or state legislator races who was publicly identified with supporting the KBRA won. The results completed a process of replacing the three incumbents that began two years ago when Dennis Linthicum defeated John Elliott in the 2008 Republican primary.

   The two winning candidates in the primary race for the Republican nominations for commissioner positions 1 and 3, Tom Mallams and Jim Bellet, respectively, move on to the general election. For Position 1, Mallams will face Democrat Ted Lindow, a former county commissioner who served from 1987 to 1991 during an era when voters routinely rejected commissioner incumbents. That string finally ended when Switzer was elected to the first of four terms in 1996. He was trying for his fifth Tuesday, but finished third in the four-person field. There was no Democrat running in the primary election for Position 3, in which Jim Bellet won the Republican nomination for the position held by Cheryl Hukill, who finished third. Unaffiliated candidates can file for the general election from May 30 to Aug. 18.

   Klamath County state legislators

   Senate District 28 and state Representative District 56: Doug Whitsett won his third four-year term for the senate district, which includes all of Klamath County and portions of Lake County and two others. We hope to see him increasing his influence in the Legislature because Klamath County badly needs more visibility and clout at the state level. It doesn’t have the numbers, so has to rely on success in building bridges with other state legislators.

   Gail Whitsett, who has served as chief of staff for her husband, Doug, is moving to a different position as a state representative, but is well-acquainted with state-level government. She won a two-year term to replace State Rep. Bill Garrard in District 56.

   Klamath County treasurer

   Jason Link, who pulled together Klamath County’s financial matters in the aftermath of a botched previous audit process and other problems, was “elected” treasurer with 58 percent in the primary. Because it’s a nonpartisan position, his name still will appear on the Nov. 6 general election ballot, but will be the only one elected.

   Klamath Falls City Schools levy

   Wow — In an area hurting badly economically and hard to convince to increase taxes, Klamath Falls City Schools voters turned out a substantial margin (56.5 percent) in favor, something that probably hasn’t happened in a local school district for more than 30 years. The last time that comes to mind was in the 1970s when voters approved the bond issue that upgraded what is now Mazama High School — then a two-year mid-high — to a four-year high school and changed Klamath Union from a two-year high school to a four-year school. Mazama is now part of the Klamath County School District. The city district’s levy funds will be spent to reduce class sizes by increasing teacher numbers, add elective classes and replace textbooks.

By Jacqui Krizo

Herald and News FINALLY gets it (I think). We, opponents of destroying our infrastructure / hydro dams, and of selling our water and farms, are not just a little group of “obstructions,” “liars,” or  “naysayers,” who are “afraid of change.”

We ARE the majority of American citizens who have organized, voted, and had enough. Like Mallams said last week when speaking of the bi-state alliance, Senator Whitsett and whistleblower Dr. Houser, “I will not surrender.” Mallams gave up his time, and his future, to represent you and me, without borders, in Oregon and California, as did once-retired Senator Doug Whitsett, and state representative elect Gail Whitsett. Dr. Houser gave us his time, and gave up his job, to insist on true science that “Americans can trust.”

We would not be where we are without them. Yet they would not be where they are without us.

We ARE the team. We’ve let God lead us, and he did not, and will not let us down.

By the way, I’m in the middle of editing Dr Houser’s Klamath Falls presentation. He was great, as were the audience questions.

Onward Christian Soldiers!

Mallams: Election win sends message, Republican nominee is opponent of KBRA, H&N 5/17/12. “The Republican who ousted longtime Klamath County commissioner Al Switzer said his win in Tuesday’s primary election sends a clear message: Voters do not agree with the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement. Tom Mallams, a Beatty-area rancher and outspoken opponent of the KBRA, bested Switzer in Tuesday’s primary election, taking 43 percent of the vote in a four-way race….”

Some thoughts on the election: The KBRA impact; a wow for the city schools, H&N 5/17/12. “None of the candidates in any of the four commissioner or state legislator races who was publicly identified with supporting the KBRA won…”

New joint opinion may help irrigators, H&N 5/17/12.

www.klamathbasincrisis.org

PNP comment: Super, the sun will still be above the mountains here in Siskiyou and we should get to view this ecilipse. — Editor Liz Bowen

By Matt Weiser
mweiser@sacbee.com

Stargazing enthusiasts across Northern California are mobilizing for the biggest event of its kind to visit the region in two decades: a “Ring of Fire” solar eclipse visible across half the state Sunday evening.

The so-called “annular” eclipse means the moon will pass directly in front of the sun without obscuring it completely. As a result, the sun will appear as an orange ring in the sky.

The moon will be at one of its more distant points in its orbit around Earth, making it appear about 94 percent of the sun’s diameter. The effect will be visible across virtually all of Northern California in a 200-mile-wide diagonal swath from the Oregon border to Lake Tahoe.

Some of the best viewing locations will include Crescent City, Redding, Susanville and, in Nevada, Pyramid Lake. These areas lie along the central path of the moon’s alignment with the sun on Sunday evening, and the eclipse will be truly concentric along this path.

People in many other areas of Northern California and northern Nevada will be able to observe the annular effect, although not perfectly concentric.

The eclipse is expected to begin at about 5:13 p.m., when the moon starts its transit in front of the sun. The full annular effect will be visible for four and a half minutes starting at about 6:26 p.m. Sunday, though the exact time and duration will vary slightly depending on location.

The full annular effect will not be visible in Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area or points south. These regions will see, instead, a partial solar eclipse.

Experts say there is no longer much scientific value in studying solar eclipses. Yet they continue to fascinate because they provide a rare opportunity to actually observe planetary bodies pass each other across vast distances of space.

The last annular eclipse visible in America occurred in 1994.

“They’re just neat to look at and something people will remember for a lifetime,” said Dan Ruby, associate director of the Fleischmann Planetarium & Science Center at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/18/4498810/eclipse-to-turn-sun-into-a-ring.html#storylink=cpy

PNP comment: We have already posted Mark Baird’s response to this. But here is the easy-to-get-to link:    Oh, did I say that once again the truth has been twisted into lies? Yep they have. — Editor Liz Bowen

http://pienpolitics.com/?p=9984

Environmental group sues over Siskiyou County dam | capitalpress.com

http://www.capitalpress.com/content/TH-siskiyou-dam-suit-w-infobox-051812

By TIM HEARDEN

Capital Press

May 17, 2012

MONTAGUE, Calif. – An environmental group has followed through on its threat to sue a water district over the operation of a roughly 90-year-old dam in Siskiyou County it believes is causing losses of federally protected coho salmon.

The Orleans, Calif.-based Klamath Riverkeeper filed an Endangered Species Act suit in federal court in Sacramento May 17 after having given the Montague Water Conservation District 60 days’ notice in March, a news release announced.

The suit calls on the irrigation district to remedy the Dwinnell Dam’s impacts to salmon runs, which the group asserts are on the verge of extinction.

“We simply have to better manage limited water resources to benefit everyone in the watershed,” Klamath Riverkeeper executive director Erica Terence said in a statement. “We hope to resolve this issue in a way that will restore endangered coho salmon while preserving a viable agricultural economy in Siskiyou County.”

The Karuk Tribe signaled its intentions to join the lawsuit, filing its own 60-day notice to litigate on the same grounds. Craig Tucker, the tribe’s Klamath coordinator, told the Capital Press that it wants to “find a way to balance water use between farms and the fishing community … so that everyone can have their needs met.”

Lisa Faris, the Montague water district’s office manager, said May 17 she did not yet have a comment about the suit.

Klamath Riverkeeper argues that the dam, which creates the Shastina Reservoir and provides water to agricultural and residential customers, has caused a loss of 20 percent of habitat for coho in the Shasta River since it was built in the 1920s, Terence has said.

The group believes the water district is violating the Endangered Species Act by operating the dam without an incidental take permit. The group asserts it has documentation that the dam has caused such water quality and fisheries problems as toxic algae blooms, elevated water temperatures lethal to fish and blocked access to upstream habitat.

Klamath Riverkeeper’s lawsuit is only the latest in a series of skirmishes between environmental groups and landowners over the use of water from the Shasta and Scott rivers, which are key tributaries of the Klamath River.

Separately, a trial is under way in the Siskiyou County Farm Bureau’s suit against the California Department of Fish and Game over its interpretation of rules regarding water diversions from the Scott and Shasta rivers. The trial is set to resume May 29 in Siskiyou County Superior Court.

Dwinnell Dam is not one of the four dams suggested for removal under the Klamath Basin agreement.

Online

Klamath Riverkeeper: www.klamathriver.org

Karuk Tribe: http://www.karuk.us/karuk2/index.php

Siskiyou Golden Fairgrounds

9 a.m. with a variety of activities

Please attend and honor our service men

Admission is free

From 11 a.m.-noon there will be an appreciation ceremony to honor the service of veterans. The ceremony will feature keynote speaker and Siskiyou County native Brigadier General Daniel Hokansen who grew up in Happy Camp.

Gen. Hokansen is the deputy director for strategy, policy and plans for North American Aerospace Defense Command and United States Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado.

His combat deployments include operations Just Cause, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and he commanded the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Iraq.

Land Rights Network
American Land Rights Association
PO Box 400 – Battle Ground, WA 98604
Phone: 360-687-3087 – Fax: 360-687-2973
E-mail: alra@pacifier.com
Web Address: http://www.landrights.org
Legislative Office: 507 Seward Square SE – Washington, DC 20003

Hearing about: “Failed Federal Forest Policies: Endangering Jobs,
Forests and Species”

Alert – Alert – Monday, May 21st Congressional Hearing-Longview.

Come tell your story about how Spotted Owl management by the US
Forest Service has damaged and destroyed local communities all over
the Northwest.

Urgent Action Needed By All Private Property and Federal Land Use
Allies.

You may not realize how terrific this is that Rep. Jaime Herrera
Beutler (R-WA) was able to get the Natural Resources Committee to
hold a hearing in Longview. A terrific job by Congresswoman Beutler.

See the press release below. You must make plans to be in Longview on
Monday, May 21st at 9:00 AM. Come late if you can’t get there by
9:00 AM.

This is your chance to be heard in Washington, DC. No matter where
you live in Oregon or Washington State, this is a hearing you cannot
miss.

WHO:

Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04)
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-03)

WHAT:

Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands oversight
field hearing on:

“Failed Federal Forest Policies: Endangering Jobs, Forests and
Species”

Witnesses will be by invitation only.

WHEN:

Monday, May 21, 2012
9:00 A.M. PDT

WHERE:

Cowlitz County Convention Center
1900 7th Avenue
Longview, Washington, 98632

You can bring written testimony for the record. Just address it in
the form of a letter to:

Honorable Don Hastings, Chairman, Natural Resources Committee
US House of Representatives,
Washington, DC 20515

Put the hearing date and time on your letter.

If you cannot hand your letter in at the hearing, then fax or e-mail
it.

Action Items:

—–1. Forward this message to at least 10 people. Your whole list
if possible.

—–2. Call your friends, neighbors and business associates to alert
them to the House Natural Resources Committee hearing.

—–3. Bring signs supporting the use of Federal lands for good
forestry. Bring signs supporting schools and local counties.

—–4. Call your Congressman to urge him or her to attend this
hearing. Call any Congressman at (202) 225-3121.

—–5. Bring handouts to tell about what has happened in your
community as a result of the failed Northwest Forest Plan and the
failed Forest Service forestry policies.

—–6. Bring a letter or press release to hand to the press at this
hearing. This is critically important.

—–7. Bring signs to hold at the hearing support families and
communities. You can make your signs up on your computer or go to
Fred Meyer to buy white signboard. Buy colored wide mouth felt time
pens. This hearing is a big deal. You must be heard and seen.

—–8. Bring pictures of your family, your home, your business to
help the press understand the negative impact on real people by the
failed forest management policies.

—–9. If you cannot attend in person, then send an e-mail with your
testimony to jill.strait@mail.house.gov
<mailto:jill.strait@mail.house.gov>
. Mark it Testimony for the record for the Longview Field Hearing.

—–10. Send a copy of your testimony to your own Congressman by
e-mail, fax or letter. If you don’t have their e-mail or fax
addresses, call your Congressman at (202) 225-3121 to ask for the
staff person who handles forestry, Endangered Species Act or Natural
Resources issues. Ask for his or her e-mail address.

The following is the address to submit letters of concern.

The Fish & Game Commission will be meeting in June and  August to review  information.

Letters of concern can be sent to the following address with regard to the recent ( Petition http://www.fgc.ca.gov/regulations/2012/gwpetition.pdf  )   filed with Calif. Fish & Game by Center of Biodiversity, Big Wilflife and others to have the gray wolf listed on California Endangered Species List.

The following address was taken from the California Regulatory Notice Register:   Dr. Eric Loft, Wildlife Branch, Dept. Fish & Game, 1812 Ninth Street, Sacramento, Calif.   95811 ,    wildlifemgt@dfg.ca.gov

Nancy Monchamp,  Modoc County Rancher

May 31
BLM Roseburg District Office
777 NW Garden Valley Blvd.
Roseburg, Oregon
4:00 to 6:00 p.m.

Pass this out, we must make a strong showing at this event.  This comes from Danile Robertson’s web site Oregon Wild.  This event is at the BLM again, and will have no way for anyone to ask questions as a group or come to a consensus.  You will be standing in groups with an individual facillitator answering your questions so there is no controversy and the BLM  can say the public had input.  Only problem is someone else is speaking for you which they have no authority to do in the first place.  Loma

–
Loma Wharton Co-Chair www.theliberators11.org

http://www.oregonwild.org/oregon_forests/old_growth_protection/westside-forests/western-oregon-s-patchwork-public-lands/BLM-planning/blm-public-involvement

By Damon Arthur
Published Thursday, February 16, 2012

Redding.com

Todd Nash has seen the video of OR-7 — the gray wolf living in eastern Shasta County — and gives it two thumbs-down.

Nash, a rancher from Wallowa County in northeast Oregon, said the video depicts OR-7 as nonthreatening to cattle.

But Nash said OR-7 killed two of his calves in May 2011, before the gray wolf left his pack and began his well-documented, solo journey southwest through Oregon and eventually into Shasta County.

“It’s far from what takes place here,” Nash said, referring to the video, which shows OR-7 trotting across a field. At one point OR-7 approaches some cattle, and an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife range rider climbs aboard an ATV to shoo the wolf away from the livestock.

“The range rider in that video looked like it was pretty effective. It was anything but,” Nash said.

The video was shot by Marc Bales of Bend, Ore. The video was recently posted on the Internet and can be seen on Redding.com.

OR-7 crossed from Southern Oregon into California on Dec. 28, making history as the first wolf in the state since 1924. He traveled south into Shasta County in early January but then headed east into Lassen County.

Last Saturday the wolf turned west and crossed back into Shasta County.

Read it:

http://m.redding.com/news/2012/feb/16/did-wolf-kill-calves/

Surprise surprise! The Tucker Hillman Tribe’s fake environmental group is filing suit against another economic engine in Siskiyou County. The Tucker Hillman tribe intends to join the suit as well.

What a joke.

Look up the Klamath River Keeper website. The felon Grant Leaf Hillman is the President of the Riverkeepers. The Greencorp Socialist S. Craig Tucker is on the Board of the Riverkeepers.

Peter Brucker of the Salmon River Pot Growers Association, trustee of the Black Bear Commune, is also on the Board. Erica Terrance of Black Bear Commune, is also a player in this environmental scam.

Wake up folks, or the joke will be on you. It is time to start turning up the heat on the Tucker Hillman tribe through the BIA.

Perhaps we should boycott all tribal businesses until the crooks are gone.

Time to start a protest of the Hillman tribe’s plan to build a casino off reservation! Think what trouble Hillman and Tucker could get into with casino profits?

A forensic audit of all of the Tribe’s grants since Hillman took over might be interesting. Jim Wadell statements should be investigated as well.

Tucker said in a Groundwater meeting, the reason the Tucker Hillman Tribe wants to get the Coho numbers up is so they can get a cannery and then they can start killing Coho. There were eye witnesses to this statement.

Quite the protector of the environment isn’t he?

When will the honest, hardworking members of the Karuk Tribe kick these crooks out?

When will the Shasta Nation challenge the fraud of Treaty R/ Treaty Q through which the Tucker Hillman tribe got its recognition. Who says crime does not pay?

Mark Baird

Vice President Scott Valley Protect Our Water