Free Republic

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law-abiding people in Spokane into dishwater-detergent smugglers. They are bringing Cascade or Electrasol in from out of state because the eco-friendly varieties required under Washington state law don't work as well. Spokane County became the launch pad last July for the nation's strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a measure aimed at reducing water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010, the same time similar laws take effect in several other states. But it's not easy to get sparkling dishes whenyou go green....

PHOENIX — A federal judge has tossed out efforts by two environmental groups to void a provision of federal law that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff invoked to build a stretch of border fence in Cochise County. Judge Ellen Huvelle said there is nothing unconstitutional about a 2005 law that lets Chertoff unilaterally decide he need not comply with various other federal statutes when constructing barriers and roads on the U.S.-Mexico border. She said it would be one thing if Congress gave Chertoff the power to unilaterally repeal a law. Instead, Huvelle said, federal lawmakers simply gave him the power,...

FORT HUACHUCA — A longtime critic of Fort Huachuca’s impact on the San Pedro River claims the 2002 biological opinion between the post and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is badly flawed which has led to the errors being incorporated into the 2007 biological opinion. Phoenix physician Dr. Robin Silver said a 21-page study from the Center for Sustainable Economy, a Santa Fe, N.M., based organization, challenges the Army’s figures based on per capita instead of the more scientific economic model. Silver is chairman of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity. Garrison Commander Col. Melissa Sturgeon said “the fort...

Think those advancing anthropogenic global warming theories are serious about their views? Well, an article from Sunday’s Telegraph should scare every person around the world about the zealotry and danger surrounding this issue (emphasis mine throughout): Scientists who questioned mankind's impact on climate change have received death threats and claim to have been shunned by the scientific community. They say the debate on global warming has been "hijacked" by a powerful alliance of politicians, scientists and environmentalists who have stifled all questioning about the true environmental impact of carbon dioxide emissions. Shocked? Astounded? That’s only the beginning: Timothy Ball, a...

FORT HUACHUCA — A federal judge has approved a lawsuit settlement in which the post and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will renegotiate a biological opinion. “Fort Huachuca’s proactive decision to re-initiate consultation was instrumental in the Center for Biological Diversity and the Army agreeing to settle the lawsuit involving activities at Fort Huachuca and the impact of these activities on the San Pedro River basin,” post spokeswoman Tanja Linton said Tuesday. Jeff Humphrey, a Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman in Phoenix, said the settlement was signed Friday by U.S. District Judge Cindy K. Jorgenson, who is assigned to...

Federal officials took the first step Monday to remove the endangered status of Arizona's pygmy owls, whose protection sparked a tightening of development rules and a change in environmental consciousness in Pima County. Removal of federal protection may make it easier for some developments to be built on Tucson's fast-growing Northwest Side. The old-growth saguaro and ironwood forests there are considered prime owl habitat. But it won't roll back the tide of tougher development standards that local governments have pushed through in recent years, a top Pima County official and a leading homebuilders' spokesman said. Where an owl "delisting" is...