June 14, 2012

News in Jefferson Country from Pie N Politics dot com editor Liz Bowen:  There is more on the outrageous second accelerated surcharge that Pacific Power is asking from the California Public Utilities Commission. For some reason, Pacific Power is planning on the Klamath dam removal, although at this time there is no reason to believe the dams will be demolished in 2012.

Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazer has not signed the Klamath Hydro Electric Settlement Agreement, which is limbo for several reasons: the first is integrity scientist Paul R. Houser, Ph.D. has filed a serious whistleblower complaint alleging faulty science used by the Department of Interior.

Second: There is a lack of funding for dam removal. Congress has not approved funding, and the State of California has not approved funding, still Pacific Power is seeking approval to obtain funds from its customers for dam removal.

Do we say this is outrageous?

The Republic

Columbus, Indiana

• JOHN MILLER  Associated Press

• June 13, 2012 – 7:15 pm EDT

BOISE, Idaho — A federal judge ruled Wednesday that ranchers won’t be able to turn out domestic sheep on disputed grazing ground in western Idaho’s Payette National Forest.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill’s preliminary injunction, delivered swiftly in his Boise courtroom, is a victory for environmentalists aiming to protect bighorn sheep from diseases transmitted by their domestic cousins.

At issue was the U.S. Forest Service’s decision to keep open three grazing allotments totaling 7,700 acres that had originally been due to be shuttered in 2012.

In March, the Forest Service cited 2011 congressional legislation by Idaho U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson aiming to keep the allotments open for at least another year.

But environmentalists including The Wilderness Society and Western Watersheds Project successfully argued the Forest Service had misinterpreted Simpson’s measure, a rider in the agency’s budget, to the peril of wild sheep.

“The Forest Service was cherry picking its interpretation of the rider language,” said Jon Marvel, director of Western Watersheds Project, in a statement lauding Winmill’s decision.

The Soulen Livestock Co., a big ranching operation based in Weiser, was preparing to turn out sheep on the allotments next month.

A call to the company wasn’t returned.

As part of a 2010 plan to separate the species, the Payette National Forest closed 54,000 acres to grazing last year, with additional shutdowns to occur this summer and next. The closures were to protect about 94 percent of bighorn habitat on the forest.

But Simpson’s bill, passed in December, forbid the Forest Service from spending any money on grazing closures beyond what had already been in place by July 1, 2011. Regional Forester Harv Forsgren in Ogden, Utah, cited Simpson’s rider in March when he delayed the 2012 closures.

Seeking to preserve Forsgren’s decision, Forest Service attorneys told Winmill that they were meeting the intent of the Republican congressman’s bill — to halt additional grazing restrictions, in a bid to give both sides time to work on a compromise.

But environmentalists said the Payette closures had been in the works long before last July, so they shouldn’t be delayed by Simpson’s effort.

“The result of this misinterpretation would have been to turn more domestic sheep out in bighorn habitat in July of this year, putting bighorn sheep at an increased and unacceptable level of risk,” the environmentalists said.

The Idaho Wool Growers Association, which convinced Simpson to intervene last year, didn’t return a phone call on Wednesday.

PNP comment: Let’s just say that many of us “citizens” have our doubts! — Editor Liz Bowen

DFG Launches Science Institute to Showcase Decades of Scientific Work and Support its Scientific Future

JUNE 14, 2012

Media Contacts:
Jordan Traverso, DFG Deputy Director, (916) 654-9937

The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) publicly announced the first phase of its new Science Institute, available for viewing at www.dfg.ca.gov/Science/.

“This website is the first part of a multi-phase approach intended to highlight the exceptional work that DFG scientists have been doing for many, many years and support our scientific future,” said Charlton H. Bonham, Director of DFG. “Our goal is that this Institute will help develop our current scientists professionally, by increasing skills, resources, collaboration and notoriety, as well as attract new scientists to help us plan for the years ahead.”

The website launch is phase one of the Institute. Future phases will include an archive of scientific presentations, professional development tools, better access for DFG scientists to outside science and scientific literature, a science symposium and much more.

Director Bonham prepared a video message for this website launch which can be viewed athttp://youtu.be/S2Injj4sWx8.

Author Unknown

Property Rights: Few have heard of Agenda 21, the U.N. plan for sustainable development that tosses property rights aside. But Alabama has, and it recently secured a victory as important as that over union power in Wisconsin.

After Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s stunning triumph over the excesses and abuses of public-sector unions, the London Telegraph’s James Delingpole, an indefatigable opponent of global warming fraud, opined in a piece titled, “How Wisconsin And Alabama Helped Save The World,” that we should take note of “an equally important but perhaps less well-publicized victory won in the Alabama House and Senate over the U.N.’s malign and insidious Agenda 21.”

Agenda 21 is one of those compacts, like Law of the Sea, Kyoto and New START, that are supported by an apologetic administration with a fondness for the redistribution of American power and wealth on a local and global scale.

It fits in perfectly with President Obama’s pledge to “fundamentally transform” America, its institutions and its heritage of capitalist freedom.

Agenda 21 has not been ratified by the U.S. Senate, but it may not have to be if in a second Obama term theEnvironmental Protection Agency pursues it by stealth, as it has other environmental agendas that make war on the free enterprise system and rights we hold dear.

One of those is property rights. “Land … cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market,” Agenda 21 says.

“Private land ownership is also a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth and therefore contributes to social injustice; if unchecked, it may become a major obstacle in the planning and implementation of development schemes.”

Not liking the sound of that, Alabama recently passed Senate Bill 477 unanimously in both of its houses. The legislation bars the taking of private property in Alabama without due process and says that “Alabama and all political subdivisions may not adopt or implement policy recommendations that deliberately or inadvertently infringe or restrict private property rights without due process, as may be required by policy recommendations originating in or traceable to Agenda 21.”

Agenda 21 is intended to foster what environmentalists call “sustainable development” in the belief that man since the Industrial Revolution has been a plague on the planet, plundering its resources while destroying nature and putting the world at risk of disastrous climate change, poverty and disease.

At the end of March, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson jetted off to Paris’ ministerial meeting of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, as the press release put it, “to discuss the agency’s international efforts on urban sustainability.”

Excuse us, but “urban sustainability” at the behest of global organizations is not what the EPA was created to do.

Jackson will represent the U.S. at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which will be held June 20-22 in Rio de Janeiro.

“Specifically, in a transition to a green economy, public policies will need to be used strategically to reorient consumption, investments and other economic activities,” a U.N. document describing the conference explains.

The EPA’s war on coal, its regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant and its regulatory abuses including the use of drones to spy on American farmers are key parts of this international agenda that Jackson says “is the rarest of opportunities to truly change the world. … It means working together to strengthen the effectiveness of environmental governance.”

We don’t need “environmental governance,” just a governance of, by and for the people of the United States.

Nor do we need to “reorient” our consumption and economic activities.

Alabama has just told the U.N. and the EPA what they need to be told — don’t tread on us.

By Pete Kasperowicz – 06/13/12 09:10 AM ET

 Hillicon Valley , The Hill’s Technology Blog

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday introduced the Preserving Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act, which would require the government to get a warrant before using aerial drones to surveil U.S. citizens.

More broadly, Paul’s bill is aimed at preventing “unwarranted governmental intrusion” through the use of drones, according to the lawmaker.

“Like other tools used to collect information in law enforcement, in order to use drones a warrant needs to be issued,” Paul said Tuesday. “Americans going about their everyday lives should not be treated like criminals or terrorists and have their rights infringed upon by military tactics.”

The bill, S. 3287, would require the government to obtain a warrant to use drones with the exception of patroling national borders, when drones are needed to prevent “imminent danger to life” or when there are risks of a terrorist attack.

The bill would also give Americans the ability to sue the government for violating the act. And, it would prohibit evidence collected with warrantless drone surveillance from being used as evidence in court.

More from The Hill:
♦ Hillary Clinton to head US delegation to UN earth summit
♦ House to waive environmental laws for security agency on border
♦ Bernie Sanders: ‘McCarthyite’ tactics used against nuke chief
♦ Report: Insurers gave Chamber $100M to fight health reform
♦ House GOP blasts Obama health law over spending projections
♦ Sen. Graham slams labor board as ‘Grim Reaper of job creation’
♦ Rand Paul not backing down on farm bill
♦ Issa to Holder: Give me ‘serious proposal’ to drop contempt vote

While drone surveillance in the United States would undoubtedly prove controversial, the use of drones is currently a topic of international concern. Some Democrats have said the use of drones to disrupt terrorist networks is hurting America’s image overseas.

Additionally, the United Nations is considering an investigation into drone airstrikes inside Pakistan, which could focus on the rate of civilian casualties caused by these attacks.

Congress has ordered the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to move toward allowing drones to fly alongside commercial aircraft in U.S. airspace by 2015.

The FAA is planning a pilot program to test fly drones in six locations, but will not set the rules for what the unmanned aircraft can be used for.

Law enforcement agencies and state and local governments have expressed a strong interest in unmanned aircraft, and are being courted as potential customers by the booming drone industry.

There is opposition, however, from groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that have raised concerns about the impact of the drones on privacy.

 http://www.capitalpress.com/newsletter/SB-strawberry-crop-061412-art

By STEVE BROWN

Capital Press

Posted: Thursday, June 14, 2012 11:11 AM

California’s strawberry acreage continues to increase, with 3 percent more acres planted last year, an industry representative says.

About 38,000 acres of strawberries from San Diego to Monterey Bay have been yielding about 68,000 pounds per acre this year, said California Strawberry Commission communications director Carolyn O’Donnell. The total crop last year was 2.5 billion pounds.

The harvest is ahead of last year, she said. The weather has been better this year, she said, and so far 90 million trays — at about 9 pounds per tray — have been harvested. Last year at this time, 77 million trays had been harvested.

There has been no significant disease pressure on the crop, O’Donnell said. That is often dependent on the weather as much as anything else, and the weather can vary throughout the 500-mile-long coastal growing region.

Exports go mostly to Canada and Mexico, but other destinations include Japan, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

Last year, 242 million pounds of fresh berries and 35 million pounds of frozen berries were exported.

U.S. production has greatly increased in recent years. According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, nationwide it has grown from 500 million pounds in 1974 to 2.9 billion pounds in 2011. About 80 percent of that goes into the fresh market.

In Oregon, 2,000 acres of strawberries yielded a total of 22.6 million pounds last year, according to NASS. Most of the production, 19.8 million pounds, went into the processing market.

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

Lessons from dam removal on the Elwha River 

Supporters of Klamath River dam removal screen Elwha documentary 

By SHELBY KING

H&N Staff Reporter

June 14, 2012

Glines Canyon, a 210-foot-tall concrete high-arch dam, was one of two dams removed last year on the Elwha River. Photo by Steve Ringman/Seattle Times/MCT

     CHILOQUIN — Stakeholders who worked for years on negotiating controversial, but now stalled, water and dam removal agreements said a Wednesday screening of a film about dam removal in Washington state provided hope that the Klamath River dams will come out.

   “This film was a light at the end of the tunnel in terms of our situation here,” said Klamath Tribes Council member Frank Summers.

   About 20 people gathered at the Klamath Tribal Administration Office in Chiloquin for a showing of “Undamming the Elwha,” a recently released documentary about the decades-long fight, and ultimate success, of a campaign to remove two dams on the Elwha River, a 45-mile waterway that flows from the Olympic Mountain Range to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

   The movie was created by filmmakers Katie Campbell and Michael Werner in conjunction with public broadcasting station KCTS 9 in Seattle and Earthfix, a consortium of public media stations in the Northwest specializing in bringing attention to environmental issues.

   Campbell and fellow Earthfix reporter Amelia Templeton were at the showing and led a discussion following the movie.

   “I think it’s important to bring this tribe’s story to your tribe, since you’re dealing with similar issues,” Campbell said. “What made a huge difference up there was to have political leaders who would be a champion for the issue.”

   Campbell said the proponents of dam removal on the Elwha worked for more than two decades to convince local and federal lawmakers that the environmental benefits of dam removal outweighed the benefits of inexpensive energy production.

   Unfulfilled promises

   Klamath Tribes Council member Jeff Mitchell said the support Klamath River dam removal proponents were promised in 20 01 by Oregon’s federal lawmakers has yet to be fulfilled.

   “Right now my biggest concern is our elected officials,” he said. “Sometimes I think (U.S. Rep. Greg) Walden is more worried about where he’s going to end up in a leadership position than he is about his own constituents.”

   Mitchell said in 2001, when tribal members went to Washington D.C. to ask Walden, R – Ore., U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D – Ore., and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber for help in reaching an agreement between irrigators, tribal members and other Basin water users, they were told they needed to come up with an agreement of their own.

   “They said, ‘ You know the water system better than anyone. You need to come together and bring a solution back to us,’ ” Mitchell said. “If you can do that then we will get this thing moving.”

   Mitchell and Tribal Council vicechairman Don Gentry said it’s disheartening stakeholders worked so hard to write that agreement — known as the Klamath Basin Restoration Agree- ment — only to see it stalled in congressional hearings.

   “This movie gives me hope that we can overcome our political differences and do what is right,” Gentry said. “ It shows that dam removal is possible.”

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

Prices up 19 percent from 2011, farmers optimistic market will stay strong 

By JOEL ASCHBRENNER

H&N Staff Reporter

June 14, 2012

Tuesday on his farm in the Henley area. Hay farmers around

the Klamath Basin began harvesting this week.

    Swathers rumble over green fields in the Klamath Basin, leaving straight rows of cut alfalfa in their wakes.

   The first hay harvest of the year is under way and local farmers are hoping for good yields and high prices.

   “This week everyone will be cutting, if they haven’t already,” said Tulelake-area hay farmer David King, who started bailing hay on Tuesday.

   Grass and alfalfa hay are two of the Basin’s staple crops, accounting for about 15 percent of total agricultural sales in Klamath County, according to the Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center.

   Farmers will harvest the perennial forage crop several times as it grows throughout the summer. King said he’ll cut his alfalfa three times this summer, four on his more productive fields.

   Henley-area farmer Kenny Schell spent Wednesday afternoon cutting alfalfa in a field off Reeder Road. Schell said he will harvest his alfalfa three times and his grass hay twice this summer.

   The crop looks decent so far, Schell said, but he won’t know how much it yields until he bails the hay. Basin hay crops have experienced limited rain damage compared to previous years, but the several late freezes “really knocked the crap out of the hay,” he said.

   The market has been strong for Klamath Basin hay growers. The average price of hay in Oregon was $228 per ton in May, up 19 percent from May 2011.

   Drought in the midwest last summer reduced the supply of hay and drove up prices. Schell said he is optimistic the market will remain strong.

   King, the president of Klamath Basin Hay Growers Association, listed a number of factors that could affect the market for local hay. With the price of milk down, dairymen are looking to save money by buying lower quality hay, King said. Cows will produce less milk on the low-grade hay, but curtailing the milk supply could in turn help lift the price of milk.

   But on the other hand, there could be increased international demand for Klamath Basin hay, King said. Much of the Columbia River Basin hay is rain damaged, so countries like China, Japan and Saudia Arabia, which buy hay from Seattle ports, could look farther south to the Klamath Basin for their hay supplies, King said.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

This information and much more that you need to know about the ESA,
the Klamath River Basin, and private property rights can be found at The
Klamath Bucket Brigade’s web site – http://klamathbucketbrigade.org/index.html –
please visit today.

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

Urgent, Urgent, Urgent, House May Cave On LWCF. Call Now.

The Senate & House have been Deadlocked Over LWCF Highway Bill Funds.

It looks like the House is beginning to cave.

That battle has now turned into funding a CARA like Trust Fund. The Greens want to set a precedent for these funds so the LWCF gets over

$1 Billion dollars every year, automatically, off budget. That will be the death of rural America.

*Action Items: (The LWCF is a huge issue that threatens you).*

* *

—–1. Please forward this message out quickly to at least 10 other people. Your whole list if possible.

—–2.. Call, fax and e-mail your Congressman. Deluge him or her with calls to stop the LWCF Funding. Call any Congressman at (202) 225-3121. Focus especially on the Congressmen on the LWCF Highway Bill Conference Committee and the House leadership listed below.

—–3. Call, fax and e-mail any Congressman or Senator from your state who is on the Conference Committee.

—–4. Call the leadership in the House. Make sure they know that if the House lets you down on the LWCF, you will remember in November.

We’ve listed their numbers below. Make sure they know that Republicans will not be given immunity on the LWCF issue. If they sell you out, you will remember.

—–5. Deluge the Speaker of the House John Boehner at (202)

225-0600 or the Capital Switchboard at (202) 225-3121. Urge him to oppose any LWCF funds in the Highway Bill Conference Committee. .

E-mail Boehner at: — bill.greene@mail.house.gov <mailto:bill.greene@mail.house.gov>

—–6. Call, fax and e-mail the offices of other House Leaders:

Rep. Eric Cantor House, Majority Leader (202) 225-4000

Fax: (202) 226-1115. E-mails: steve.stombres@mail.house.gov <mailto:steve.stombres@mail.house.gov>

neil.Bradley@mail.house.gov <mailto:neil.Bradley@mail.house.gov>

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, House Majority Whip (202) 225-0197

Fax: (202) 225-0781 E-mails: brian.worth@mail.house.gov <mailto:brian.worth@mail.house.gov>

Natalie.Buchanan@mail.house.gov

<mailto:Natalie.Buchanan@mail.house.gov>

—–7. Call both your Senators. Call any Senator at (202) 224-3121.

Tell them the same thing. Pay special attention to the Senators on the Conference Committee. We’ve shown which Republicans sold you out by voting for the LWCF amendment.

—–8. Call your friends, neighbors and business associates. Get them to call, fax and e-mail your Congressman and Senators.

Who will win? Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and the Greens are fighting hard for the giant land acquisition LWCF trust fund.

The House is fighting back. But they are staring to cave in. They need to know you support them as they hold firm against the pressure from the Senate.

You are making history but you must keep up the pressure. This battle will likely go to the end of June or even beyond. But the LWCF part of the battle is raging now and will be decided shortly. Your calls, faxes and e-mails are critical now.

Keep calling at least two or three members of the Highway Bill conference committee every day.

Your Time Is Now, Make History, Stop LWCF Highway Bill Funds

—–The Greens are going all out. They are calling every day. If you fail to call, fax and e-mail your Senators and Congressmen, you will lose.

You must call, fax and e-mail your Congressman and both Senators.

PLUS, PLUS, PLUS The Members of the Conference Committee listed below.

—–If the Park Service, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and BLM get the EXTRA $1.4 Billion Dollars over their normal appropriations over the next two years the greens are going for, no community will be safe. Land acquisition will go crazy. The Greens want to use this as a precedent for spending every year.