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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put out a press release on the Friday before Christmas touting of his efforts to secure a $4.99 million federal grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service to The Nature Conservancy “to support the conservative of private lands” in Kentucky. “Senator McConnell contacted the NRCS in support of TNC’s application,” said the release. […] McConnell’s press release also quoted Will Bowling, who is the director The Nature Conservancy’s Central Appalachian Project. Bowling expressed his gratitude to McConnell for securing his group this multi-million-dollar grant of taxpayer money. …

Tucson Federal District Court Judge David Bury issued a decision on December 30 denying a retrial for imprisoned former Congressman Rick Renzi of Arizona, developments which I've been tracking over the last six months. Bizarrely, at the same time, Bury admitted in his nine-page opinion that virtually everything factual Renzi had asserted in his motion for a retrial regarding the prosecution's misconduct was true. The prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence from Renzi's defense — which likely would have changed the jury's mind — not just once, but multiple times. Some of it was not discovered until after the trial was over,...

Get rid of hippies, save the planetThe Green movement needs to rethink its philosophy from the ground-up. That's according to Peter Kareiva, a leading conservation expert and chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy, the world's biggest environmental group.It must abandon the idea that nature is "feminine" and in particular that it's "fragile", he said, because not only is this artificial, it's wrong, and so many bad ideas follow.When people believe that a fragile "Mother Nature" is harmed by anything humans do, it's actually the humans who suffer, Kareiva argues in the co-written essay Conservation in the Anthropocene. It's little wonder...

When the steel claw of an excavator slashes into the berm of the Great Works Dam on Monday morning, it will mark the start of a multimillion-dollar project to allow endangered and dwindling species to return to their historic spawning grounds along Maine’s longest river, the Penobscot. When the project is done - scheduled for 2015, after an additional dam is razed and another bypassed - it will open access to 1,000 miles of habitat for the native fish, including endangered Atlantic salmon and short-nosed sturgeon that journey from the Gulf of Maine to breed in the cold, fresh waters...

The murderous secular humanist religions of Communism and Nazism were spawned by the anti-God/utopian tradition of Revolutionary France. The Black Book of Communism, an 800- page compendium of the crimes of Communist regimes worldwide, graphically details the terror, torture, man-made famine, mass deportations, starvation, and massacres undertaken on behalf of revolutionary utopian ideals. The reality of Communism, which claimed to be an emissary of the Enlightenment, of universal brotherhood, and of happiness for all as envisioned by Gracchus Babeuf, turned out to be not only a sadistic engine for unimaginable evil but also the creator of hells on earth. The...

http://www.newsmeat.com/ceo_political_donations/Henry_Paulson.php Think they all voted for the bill? I was just doing some research on Mr. Paulson. From Wikipedia - He has intimate relations with China elite and has visited over 70 times. He is co-chair of The Nature Conservancy's Asia Pacific Council and founding chair of the School of Economics and Management at the University of Tsinghua. He loves snakes. He is quoted as saying he "likes to hold them and look at them". His wife is quoted as saying "He had that snake look in his eyes". He is a Christian Scientist. (I don't know much about this,...

Environment: In 2005, America used 15% of its corn crop to replace just 2% of its gasoline. Two new studies say use of biofuels will leave the world a warmer and hungrier place.The law of unintended consequences has reared its ugly head once again, with a study published in the Feb. 7 issue of the journal Science. According to University of Minnesota ecologist and study co-author David Tilman, converting the grasslands of the U.S. to corn for ethanol releases excess CO2 emissions of 134 metric tons per hectare (equal to 2.47 acres). The reason is that plants, from grasses to...

Al Gore’s campaign against global warming is shifting into high gear. Reporters and commentators follow his every move and bombard the public with notice of his activities and opinions. But while the mainstream media promote his ideas about the state of planet Earth, they are mostly silent about the dramatic impact his economic proposals would have on America. And journalists routinely ignore evidence that he may personally benefit from his programs. Would the romance fizzle if Gore’s followers realized how much their man stands to gain? Earlier this year Gore experienced a notable public relations debacle. The Tennessee Center for...

37,000 Acres of Irvine Ranch Land Receives Prestigious ‘National Natural Landmark’ Designation from U.S. Department of Interior • ‘The Irvine Ranch National Natural Landmark’ joins Mount Shasta, Anza Borrego, Hawaii’s Diamond Head and other beloved national landmarks • Honor recognizes designated land as “a nationally significant natural area” • First site in California to receive NNL designation since 1987 • Land is “a shining example of our nation’s natural treasures,” says National Park Service Director Fran Mainella • Governor Schwarzenegger notes, “Today’s event celebrates another area of our state that can be enjoyed for generations.” NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Standing on...

Voters may feel deja vu when they ponder Proposition 84 on the Nov. 7 ballot, because like five other bond measures in the last decade, it promises clean water, flood control, better parks and coastal protection. And like the last water bond to go before voters, in 2002, Proposition 84 was written by a Sacramento lobbyist whose clients are land preservation and environmental groups that stand to win public money for pet projects through the measure. Of the $11 billion that Californians have borrowed over the last decade ... less than $1 billion remains. Proposition 84 carries the highest price...

The Bureau of "Nature Conservancy" How this non-governmental entity governs... Article, with links to related material, posted May 26, 2006 at Trumpet America JOYCE MORRISON * The Bureau of "Nature Conservancy" It would almost appear The Nature Conservancy has been given bureau status with the United States government. They don't need appropriations to run their bureau as they are funded from grants given to them by their close partnerships, Memorandums of Understanding, agreements, and other connections to government agencies - as well as public donations. One of TNC's most recent actions as a bureau has been the signing of an...

Administration seeks $2.27 million for Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge NASSAWADOX, Va. – The Nature Conservancy today applauded President Bush’s request to fund the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge with $2.27 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund in Fiscal Year 2007. The Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge and much of the surrounding area in southern Northampton County, are widely recognized as globally important habitat for millions of migratory birds. The Nature Conservancy works with the refuge staff, state agencies and private landowners on the Eastern Shore to protect these vital natural areas...

In an unusual campaign to hedge their political bets, a coalition of 11 leading environmental groups has quietly drafted a ballot measure asking California voters next year to approve the largest parks and water bond in state history. The proposed measure, now awaiting a title and summary from California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, would raise $5.4 billion to shore up aging levees in San Francisco Bay's delta, build new drinking water treatment plants, fund flood control, restore salmon runs and purchase new parklands from Monterey Bay to Lake Tahoe to inner-city Los Angeles. --snip-- ``We're hopeful the governor and the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - After two years dissecting The Nature Conservancy, the Senate Finance Committee reported Tuesday that large charities may need stricter laws to prevent insider deals, regulate moneymaking ventures and open more activities to public scrutiny. Committee Chairman Charles Grassley said the panel's report, to be examined in a Wednesday hearing, shows The Nature Conservancy engaged in aggressive planning to maximize tax advantages. It acted no differently than many large corporations, and such planning is probably widespread among large charities, Grassley said. "Current law has not kept up with the sophistication and complexity of many of today's charities," the...

Two years ago the Washington Post ran a series that exposed of The Nature Conservancy's fast and loose manipulation of the U.S tax Code. These articles along with grassroots contacts from folks like you resulted in the Senate Finance Committee conducting an investigation of the Nature Conservancy's practices. It appears The Nature Conservancy has hired high priced Washington lobbyists who are conducting private negotiations with the Senate Finance Committee. In exchange for some modest changes of the tax law, the investigation will end. Then things will largely remain business as unusual for The Nature Conservancy to continue its battle against...

On February 18, The Nature Conservancy partnered with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which is a division of the United States Department of Agriculture. This is another “partnership” with immense powers and no public input, whatsoever – no knowledge, no discussion, no opinion, no vote, nothing. The Nature Conservancy is a non-profit. That is laughable. TNC is a multi-billion dollar “non-profit” biodiversity conservation organization with assets nearing 3 billion dollars. They are a global land acquisition group up to its eyeballs in U.N. global governance missions and Agenda 21 implementation, and it partners with anyone who will further its agenda...

Tucked away in Orange County, N.Y., a 90-year-old dam will start coming down today. Piece by piece, a team of engineers from the Nature Conservancy and the Army Corps of Engineers will begin removing major parts of the Cuddebackville Dam on the Neversink River as part of a painstaking effort to save an endangered mussel that is blocked by the dam from going upstream. The project is the first in New York history in which a dam is being removed for purely environmental reasons. It also signals a change of purpose for the Army Corps of Engineers, which has spent...

Green Wealth: Funding the Enemy Green and animal rights organizations do not subsist on the sale of calendars, books, and stuffed animals. They are wealthy beyond the comprehension of most Americans and others who support them in the belief they are "protecting the environment" and saving animals from "cruelty" and "extinction." You will be astonished to learn that there are more than 4,000 environmental groups in America today. "And the number is growing," warns Ron Arnold of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, "and they are really out to get you." Worse, they have the clout and the...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two conservancies paid $13.2 million to purchase 4,520 acres of sensitive desert habitat once slated to become the site of a new city, the conservancies announced Thursday. In addition, the Nature Conservancy and the state-owned Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy said they would buy about another 4,000 acres as part of their plan to protect sand dunes and palm oases and to create a wildlife corridor between the nearly 800,000-acre Joshua Tree National Park and the 20,000-acre Coachella Valley Preserve in southeastern California. The land was once slated as the site of the Joshua Hills development, which...

Congress has reacted angrily to revelations of abuses by a wide variety of charities, including scandals at well-established organizations such as United Way and the Nature Conservancy, and the disclosure that some tax-exempt groups have been acting as "accommodation parties" in abusive tax shelters. In the wake of a long-running series of scandals and controversies involving charities and nonprofits, Congress's tax-writing committees are launching an effort this week to crack down on fraudulent activities and tighten laws governing tax exemptions for those groups. The Senate Finance Committee will look at a broad range of possible revisions, including changes that would...