Free Republic

Some have speculated that the standoff between federal agents and Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is the result of a secretive deal orchestrated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and political allies in the solar industry. But the Bundy standoff is really the culmination of a long battle with environmentalists who want to keep federal lands off limits to economic activity. The primary vehicle used by government officials and environmentalists to advance this goal has been the desert tortoise, which was listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act in 1990. The land Bundy’s family had used for cattle grazing since...

Fort Huachuca’s leadership over the years on water conservation has established an indisputable record of accomplishments, which serves to protect the San Pedro River and its watershed. And the surrounding civilian communities have also provided hard work and innovation — actions that other communities with similar challenges now try to emulate. Confirmation that this team is doing things the right way was announced on Friday. Officials from the Army and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reached agreement on a formal Biological Opinion last Monday. For those wondering what the fuss is about, the lack of a Biological Opinion has...

In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denied a petition filed by a number of groups (led by the radical anti-gun, anti-hunting environmental group Center for Biological Diversity) to ban the use of lead ammunition. The 2010 denial was based on the simple fact that the EPA does not have the legal authority under the Toxic Substance Control Act to ban or regulate ammunition. As we reported in 2010, this is not an accident. When TSCA was passed in 1976, pro-gun legislators led by the late Sen. James McClure (R-Idaho) added language to the bill specifically exempting ammunition from EPA...

On the rare occasion when federal bureaucrats waver in their commitment to expanding their own regulatory power, environmental extremists can always be counted on to look for a sympathetic judge to expand it for them. The latest clever scheme would undermine the right of Americans to hunt and fish, using the judicial branch to implement policies too hot for regulators or lawmakers to touch. Congress needs to step in and disarm this assault on traditional sporting activities. The California-based Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) fired the first shot in August when it asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban...

A federal project comes up, radical groups threaten to entangle it in litigation, the government pays them to go away. Fundraising! To avoid lawsuits, American tax dollars are being used to pay off radical environmental groups. The groups are using the money to threaten more lawsuits. Research provided to the Western Legacy Alliance has documented payments of at least $4,697,978 in taxpayer dollars to 14 environmental groups in 19 states and the District of Columbia. These payments are not being made because the radical groups won a legal battle or proved that the federal government was destroying the environment. Instead,...

Lead, for centuries the core ingredient of ammunition, is now coming under attack itself. As the American military begins to embrace “green bullets,” environmental groups are pushing state and federal officials to ban the use of lead in hunters’ guns and fishermen’s tackle. Their goal is to protect both the animals that scavenge the carcasses of hunted prey and the people who consume meat from hunting expeditions. On Tuesday, the Center for Biological Diversity and the American Bird Conservancy plan to file a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency seeking a comprehensive nationwide ban on lead-based sporting ammunition and fishing...

As announced in a recent fundraising letter to its members, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) will launch a “once-in-a-lifetime campaign” this summer to “ban all lead bullets everywhere in the United States.” Make no mistake, hunters and shooters are in the crosshairs of this extremist group. With regard to issues pertaining to wildlife and the environment, the NRA focuses on science when formulating its decisions and policies, not politics and emotion. We would all be better off if CBD did the same. With no scientific justification for a lead ban, CBD’s campaign is a deceptive attack on hunting. Radical...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   ARIZONA: NRA WINS RIGHT TO DEFEND HUNTERS AGAINST LAWSUIT SEEKING TO BAN LEAD AMMUNITION   Friday, January 15, 2010   Phoenix, Az. - Judge Paul G. Rosenblatt has ruled that the NRA has a right under federal law to intervene in a lawsuit filed, in the plaintiff’s own words, as part of a campaign “to ban the use of lead bullets[.]” NRA will now be able to defend hunter’s rights against the claims of extremist environmental groups that filed the lawsuit.The lawsuit, filed January 27, 2009, by the Center for Biological...

A LARGE number of workers are trapped in lifts and 7000 others have been evacuated after an explosion rocked an office block in Melbourne's CBD this afternoon. About 7000 workers have been evacuated from two buidlings at 570 Bourke St and 600 Bourke St following the explosion at an electricity substation behind the 35-storey office tower at 570 Bourke St. Five workers are believed to be trapped in lifts at 570 Bourke with a yet-to-be determined number trapped at 600 Bourke. The fire brigade is in contact with the trapped workers via mobile phone and they are reported to be...

An environmental group has filed a lawsuit to have the Mexican garter snake listed as an endangered species. The Center for Biological Diversity's federal suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, marks its latest push to achieve endangered status for the snake. It also asks that the Fish and Wildlife Service reconsider its recent finding that the endangered species label is not warranted for the snake. That decision has been called into question because of a scandal involving former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Julie MacDonald, who was found...

Whoever named Surprise Canyon got it right. Mere miles from bone-dry Death Valley, the canyon cradles two unexpected jewels: a gushing mountain stream and what's left of a once-bustling silver mining town. Environmental groups allege that, before they won protection for the area in 2001, off-roaders destroyed the canyon by cutting trees, dumping boulders in the water and using winches to drag their Jeeps up the waterfalls.

An Arizona appeals court on Wednesday upheld a jury’s $600,000 judgment in favor of a rancher in a defamation lawsuit, rejecting an environmental group’s argument that documents it posted on the Internet were shielded by the First Amendment. The Court of Appeals upheld a Pima County Superior Court jury’s award of compensatory and punitive damages to Jim Chilton in his lawsuit against the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit with offices in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, D.C. A lawyer for the rancher said the appellate court had stood up for a person wrongly defamed, while an attorney...

ARIVACA, Ariz. -- Jim Chilton is one of hundreds of ranchers targeted by environmental groups for allegedly allowing cattle to despoil the West's backcountry. Now Mr. Chilton is showing ranchers how to turn the tables on the green groups by using their own playbook. The Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson is known for its lawsuits against ranching practices -- and for its methods of posting photos on the Internet that it says depict land destruction. So when the Center came after Mr. Chilton, he struck back with a defamation suit in Arizona Superior Court in Tucson last year. He...

SIERRA VISTA - Arizona voters may be asked next year to approve an Active Management Area in the Sierra Vista Subwatershed to protect the San Pedro River by controlling growth. The Save the San Pedro Ballot Initiative supporters are preparing petition language in an effort to force a statewide vote. To get the measure on the 2006 ballot, the group would have to obtain 200,000 valid signatures of registered voters. Bruce Babbitt, --- Strain said he is convinced the guiding hand of the initiative is Phoenix physician Dr. Robin Silver, board chairman of the Center for Biological Diversity and vice...

SIERRA VISTA - The Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon Society are seeking court orders to force several federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense and Fort Huachuca's commanding general, into compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act or the federal Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal district court in Tucson, names as defendants the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Small Business Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Defense and "Barbara Fast, in her official capacity as commanding general of Fort Huachuca."...

Say post's growth threatens San Pedro Environmentalists worried about the fate of the San Pedro River filed papers Thursday in anticipation of another lawsuit against Fort Huachuca. The fort's "incremental, piecemeal expansion" - and Sierra Vista's accompanying growth - are threatening one of the continent's hot spots for species diversity, according to activists' notice of intent to sue the military and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. If the fort doesn't do something about the area's declining water table, the post must downsize so the river and its endangered species can survive, says the 83-page notice filed by the Tucson-based...

Who is Lucy Ramirez?? What does she know, and when did she know it??? The plot thickens......... To answer the above questions, check out the link to "Lucy Ramirez" at CrushKerry.com. It appears that Lucy Ramirez ACTUALLY exists. She is a democRat activist and fundraiser in Texas. Just a coincidence??? I don't think so. Check this out, and start connecting the dots. My guess is that it will eventually lead to the DNC and the Kerry campaign. If anyone saw pathetic Joe Lockhart on Fox News this morning, he looked like a deer caught in headlights. His body language had...

FORT HUACHUCA -- The father of U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., said he never asked his son to introduce an amendment to a House Defense Authorization bill to remove this Southern Arizona Army post from any responsibility for water use off the installation. The Renzi rider, as the amendment is called, has stirred up some environmentalists who say the amendment will mean the San Pedro River will be harmed, if not killed, if the rider is adopted. Retired Army Maj. Gen. Eugene Renzi said he is the president of Man Tech, a major military contractor that does work on the...

Still wrong after all these years Worldwatch misdiagnoses the planet again by Ronald Bailey The World Summit on Sustainable Development will convene in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002. The World Summit is the 10th anniversary follow-up to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.At the Earth Summit, ideological environmentalism achieved considerable success in advancing its agenda for reshaping the world's economy. That Summit saw the adoption of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the incorporation of the precautionary principle in international treaties.In the 10 years since the Earth...