Free Republic

This morning, President Bush made a call from the Roosevelt Room to the crew of the Space Shuttle, Discovery, and let them know how proud Americans are of them, and thanking them for being ‘risk takers.’ Commander Collins informed the President that they flew over Texas today and told him how beautiful it was.Later in the morning, the President attended the signing ceremony for CAFTA, making remarks in the East Room of the White House, accompanied by Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, foreign dignitaries, legislators and administration officials. He later departed the White House for his month long working ‘vacation’...

Judy Brown Regional Editor REEDSVILLE - Boer goats, bred for meat, hardly resemble dairy goats, says Christine Kocourek of Floppy Ear Farm. Ms. Kocourek and her husband, Keith Schroeder, who own a 10-acre farm in Manitowoc County, are securing more land for an expanding meat goat business built around Boers. The animals grow quickly to 80 pounds, and then are butchered at up to 10 months old. Unlike their dairy goat relatives, Boer goats are solid meat animals with bucks weighing 200 to 300 pounds. "They gain weight real fast compared to dairy goats," Ms. Kocourek said. She said Boers...

Tejon Ranch and its conservation partner, The Trust for Public Land, have figured out which 100,000 acres of the ranch's 270,000 acres will be carved out into a preserve. If the deal goes through, some of Tejon's majestic peaks and canyons in the Tehachapi Mountains could forever be saved from development. A step is being taken in that direction today, though an actual deal is much further away. The majority of the land is in the southeastern portion of the Tehachapis. There's also a swath next to Interstate 5 intended to connect the future preserve with the Wind Wolves Preserve...

In the face of pressure from farmers, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Board has removed payment caps and deductibles for livestock producers whose cattle are killed by wolves. The DNR Board on April 27 approved a rule that removes the proposed $250 deductible and the $15,000 payment cap for livestock losses due to wolf depredation. At a series of public meetings around the state in mid-February, livestock producers and hunting dog owners opposed the proposed payment limits. The board also approved eligibility criteria that requires producers to have only one calf killed to receive depredation compensation. The Wisconsin Farm...

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (Reuters) - The judge in the Michael Jackson molestation trial on Thursday barred prosecutors from calling an expert on domestic violence they hoped would explain the apparently erratic behavior of the accuser's mother for jurors. Judge Rodney Melville also said he would allow evidence showing that Jackson's then-13-year-old accuser and younger brother had masturbated while looking at the pop star's pornography, potentially bolstering defense claims that the boys had run wild at Neverland. Both rulings were setbacks for the prosecution, which is in the final stages of presenting its case to the jury of eight women and...

A former American government packing plant veterinarian says the United States government is hiding cases of mad cow disease. American Records Are Not Credible, Former Plant Veterinarian Says Dr. Lester Friedlander said Wednesday that colleagues with the United States Department of Agriculture have told him of cases that the USDA has chosen not to announce. Friedlander, who has been invited to speak to Parliament's agriculture committee next week on proposed changes to Canadian inspection legislation, refused to give details. He said the USDA employees are close to retirement and risk losing their pensions. He has previously spoken out, however, about...

News-Press articles can't be posted, so here's the link: http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050319/NEWS01/503190523/1075

Cattlemen challenge border closing under NAFTA Last Updated Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:27:21 EST CBC News PICTURE BUTTE, ALTA. - Some Canadian cattle farmers took their arguments to reopen the U.S. border to NAFTA on Wednesday, saying the closure is a trade and investment dispute, not a response to the health threat of mad cow disease. INDEPTH: Mad Cow Disease The Canadian Cattlemen for Fair Trade is claiming damages under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement. They say the actions of the U.S. government have given an unfair advantage to its own investors. The lobby group says...

FARTING and belching livestock will no longer be a threat to the ozone layer -- thanks to a new vaccine that prevents their potent 'pffts' and 'burps!' "Anyone who has ever been on a farm before knows just how toxic farmhouse fumes can be," says atmospheric researcher Jarrah Rolland, "but now we know it's more than just the smell we need to worry about." Scientists at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, CSIRO, blame farm animals for one-fifth of all global emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide. These two volatile substances are...

Today: March 07, 2005 at 17:50:38 PST Idaho Rancher Slays Wolf Under New Rule By JOHN MILLER ASSOCIATED PRESS BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A rancher in remote central Idaho shot a wolf he said was harassing his cattle - the first time one of the federally protected predators has been killed under new guidelines that took effect Feb. 2. The rancher shot the female gray wolf on private property late Sunday. He watched it and another larger wolf chasing his cattle, the rancher told officials. The other wolf escaped. Under the new rule that affects Idaho and Montana, people can...

US Judge Won't Reopen U.S. Border to All Canada Beef Mon March 7, 2005 10:19 AM GMT-05:00 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge has denied a request from U.S. meatpackers to open the U.S. border to all beef from Canada, dealing another blow to reopening trade that has been interrupted since May 2003, when Canada discovered its first case of mad cow disease. "On the fourth of March there was an order denying the plaintiff's motion for preliminary injunction," said the clerk's office at the U.S. District Court in Washington. The American Meat Institute had sought a preliminary injunction against...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - One of the largest land conservation deals in California history became final Friday when the state and two private groups closed escrow on a $95 million agreement to preserve the nearly pristine stretch of coastal rangeland that surrounds Hearst Castle. Nearly all the 82,000-acre Hearst Ranch about 200 miles north of Los Angeles will remain undeveloped, while 13 miles of coastline that has been privately held for generations will transfer to the state for public access, according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office. "The landscape and the coastline will remain pristine," said Nita Vail, executive director of...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Bush administration violated the Endangered Species Act when it relaxed protections on many of the nation's gray wolves. The decision by U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones in Portland rescinds a rule change that allowed ranchers to shoot wolves on sight if they were attacking livestock, said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group. In April 2003, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service divided the wolves' range into three areas and reclassified the Eastern and Western populations as threatened instead of endangered. The Eastern segment...

Nogales International After seven years, a Santa Cruz County rancher has won a judgment of $600,000 for alleged libelous and false statements posted on the internet by an environmental activism group. On Friday, Jan. 21, a Tucson jury found the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group based in Tucson, guilty of making "false, unfair, libelous and defamatory statements" against Jim Chilton, a Southern Arizona Rancher. Chilton owns the Montana Allotment, which extends west of Nogales from the U.S./Mexico border, along the Buenos Aires Refuge around the hamlet of Oro Blanco and ghost town of Ruby and into Pima...

  Washington, D.C. (Jan. 26, 2005) – A Pima County jury has awarded Arizona rancher Jim Chilton $600,000 in a libel suit against the Tucson-based environmental group, Center for Biological Diversity.  On Jan. 21, jurors in Pima County Superior Court voted 9-1 that the Center made “false, unfair, libelous and defamatory statements” regarding Chilton's management of his Forest Service grazing allotment.   Chilton, a fifth generation producer and member of the Public Lands Council (PLC) and National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), claimed the Center made false statements about him in a news advisory, and that the Center posted defaming photographs of his operation on its web site.  The photos of Chilton’s...

Tucson's Center for Biological Diversity must pay rancher and banker Jim Chilton $600,000 because the environmental group defamed him with a press release and photos posted on its Web site, a jury decided Friday. In a 9-1 verdict, jurors in Pima County Superior Court awarded Chilton $100,000 for the harm done to his reputation and Arivaca cattle company. The jury tacked on an additional $500,000 in punitive damages meant to punish the center and deter others from committing libel. Chilton, whose wife, Sue, is chairwoman of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission, sued the center over material that alleged he...

CHEYENNE -- With fierce-looking horns and shaggy black hair, the yaks that live on Willis Larson's ranch look like a cross between domesticated cattle and sasquatch walking on all fours. But despite the intimidating impression that they first offer, the scraggly coated bovines are actually tamer than cattle and train easily for use as pack animals, Larson says. Yaks also produce a low-fat, flavorful meat that has begun to attract health-conscious people looking for an alternative to beef. When he talks about his yaks, Larson's voice softens and he speaks about the complexity of each animal's personality. "They're clowns, and...

After routing the opposition at the polls last year, Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez has signalled an escalation of his offensive against the country's elites with a "war" on latifundio, big rural estates that he blames for rural poverty. This is a mistake. Land reform is likely to weaken the farm sector. It has regularly failed Latin America in the past and is especially pointless in Venezuela, where nine out of 10 people live in urban areas. Land reform that gives the government the ability to expropriate land that is idle or unproductive or where owners are unable to prove legal...

Burning Manure Pile Has Neighbors Fuming 2 hours, 1 minute ago Strange News - AP MILFORD, Neb. - A large pile of composting manure burning for almost two months has neighbors upset and state officials looking for a way to put it out. Concerned about emissions, the state's Department of Environmental Quality will make its recommendation by the end of the week, said spokesman Rich Webster. David Dickinson, who owns and operates Midwest Feeding Co. near this town about 20 miles west of Lincoln, said he has tried to spread the pile out and douse it with water but the...

I have been arranging my extensive CD collection which lead me to play some of those long forgotten CD. This afternoon it was Mendelssohn "Reformation" Symphony. This might not be the best symphony of this rather underrated composer. The 5th popularity has suffered from being a "heftier" work, more intellectual, less crafted and vital than the "Italian". As if trying to encompass the reformation movement in music were possible. Still, the last movement opening is one of the most stirring moments of the repertoire, and a powerful musical image of the liberation of the spirit, no matter what religious connotation...