Please note that all links to the
news stories below were accurate and working at the time of posting and
archiving, however, the Guardian has no control on the length of time
that a respective news source will continue to maintain any story in its
own archives, so be advised that you may encounter non-working links Bill McKee - Editor
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Martz
and Racicot tied to BNSF "Gov. Judy
Martz and former Gov. Marc Racicot have ties to
the railroad company that Martz has said charges
Montana farmers the highest shipping rates in the
nation and that recently announced a rate increase
expected to cost Montanans $5 million or
more."
Court
Rules on Ten Commandments Displays A
federal appeals court ruled Thursday that three
counties violated the Constitution by posting the
Ten Commandments in public buildings, even though
the religious laws were accompanied by other
historical documents
The
local overnight low temperature last night was +6F
and yesterday's afternoon high temp was +27F.
No precipitation has been recorded at our location
during the last 24-hour period ending at 6AM.
Daily local min-max temp & precip charts
may be seen on our PR Temp
& Precip Data page
The
local overnight low temperature last night was
+27F and yesterday's afternoon high temp was +31F.
One inch (1.0") of precipitation in the form
of snow has been recorded at our location during
the last 24-hour period ending at 6AM. Daily
local min-max temp & precip charts may
be seen on our PR Temp
& Precip Data page
13-Dec-2003
business as usual at the Forest Service Court
told of massive timber theft, fraud "A
U.S. Forest Service timber theft unit was
disbanded just as it uncovered evidence of massive
theft and fraud on the Tongass National Forest in
Alaska, a former investigator testified this week.
Steven Slagowski, a former
special agent for the unit, said huge rafts of
logs worth millions of dollars routinely
disappeared while they were being floated down
Alaskan rivers in the early 1990s, only to end up
being secretly sold in Asia for inflated prices.
He also said entire islands in
southern Alaska were clearcut, but a fringe of
forest was left standing around their perimeters
to make it appear to sea traffic as if nothing had
been removed.
Slagowski said there was
evidence the clearcuts destroyed bald eagle
nesting sites, in violation of federal law.
"I felt the timber theft I
looked at was potentially massive," Slagowski
said. "It was theft of unprecedented
proportion."
But his report was ignored, and a meeting the
concerned agents arranged with former Forest
Service chief Jack Ward Thomas eventually resulted
in a decision to disband the unit in 1995..."
[This is still more evidence of the moral rot
which is characteristic of most the USFS's
timber 'decisionmakers', from the top on down.
Theft and deception, when not rewarded by grade
and pay increases, are merely winked at by many of
the public's miserable USFS "stewards"
as we know well from local examples. - Ed.]
Riding the middle path In Idaho’s
remote Owyhee region, an effort to protect
wilderness and keep ranchers in business threatens
to crack under pressure, or slip into oblivion
The
local overnight low temperature last night was
+25F and yesterday's afternoon high temp was +38F.
One inch (1.0") of precipitation in the form
of snow has been recorded at our location during
the last 24-hour period ending at 6AM. Daily
local min-max temp & precip charts may
be seen on our PR Temp
& Precip Data page
Forest
Health Bill a "Jobs" issue,
former Forest Service boss says [as
readers of this website know, we have maintained
for years now that most FS timber "work"
(most of it a national disgrace) is just a jobs
program and wooden welfare for government
bureaucrats, loggers, the rest of the timber
industry, and a subsidy to the building industry -
the health and welfare of the forest has almost
nothingto do with what's being done in
the forests - Ed.]
Report
says state's power plants big polluters Montana's power
plants rank 11th in the nation for dioxin
pollution — a cancer-causing toxin found in
power plant emissions, a new study shows
Forest-care
shift sparks controversy "... Some
of the harshest criticism has come from scientists
within the Forest Service, who regard the policy
shift as particularly bad news for the spotted
owl, which in the Pacific Northwest is endangered.
The depth of the opposition to what the Forest
Service is proposing shows that there is no
scientific rigor to what they are doing,"
said Jay Watson, who directs the Wilderness
Society's wild lands fire program. "It is
voodoo science, voodoo economics -- a blind desire
to cut trees and call it fuel reduction. I hope
the agency listens to what it is being
told...""
The
local overnight low temperature last night was
+31F and yesterday's afternoon high temp was +40F.
Eight inches (8.0") of precipitation in the
form of snow has been recorded at our location
during the last 24-hour period ending at 6AM.
Daily local min-max temp & precip charts
may be seen on our PR Temp
& Precip Data page
The
local overnight low temperature last night was
+30F and yesterday's afternoon high temp was +40F.
One-half inch" (0.5000") of
precipitation in the form of light snow has been
recorded at our location during the last 24-hour
period ending at 6AM. Daily local min-max
temp & precip charts may be seen on our
PR Temp & Precip Data page
News
Archives
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regularly archive the stories appearing on this page. You can see other News,
Links, & Commentary stories by selecting the appropriate
available archive period in the table below.
In accordance with
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in the stories above is
distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit
research and educational purposes only.
About
the Painted Rocks Guardian's
News, Links, & Commentary Section
It is a
daily look at environmentally related stories from around the country,
many of which are illustrative of the high level of incompetence (and
worse) existing within most of the government entities currently charged
with administering our nation's parks, forests, other public lands,
waterways, and airsheds. As you read these news stories from many
different sources, you will note that almost all environmental
protection/preservation efforts and programs to save our nation's public
treasures originate from private environmental organizations, often
times via court order, and NOT through the respective governmental
agencies with primary administration responsibilities. Most of these
governmental entities (e.g., the Forest Service) have become top heavy
with many levels of career bureaucrats who, instead of protecting and
preserving the nation's priceless resources, are 'busy' catering to
consumptive/extractive industry interests in the course of administering
politically designed social welfare employment programs and wealth
redistributionist grant programs. While the current system is almost
hopelessly corrupt at many levels, it is being increasingly understood
as such by the general public. Increased general public awareness of the
problem is necessary to trigger environmentally informed political
actions that will eventually save the nation's public treasures.
Effective solutions to the current situation will most likely involve
the deconstruction of several bureaucratic agencies as they exist today
with a functional redesign that will shift major policy development and
administrative direction authority into the hands of environmental
groups/organizations (as contrasted with agency hand-picked and selected
'citizen groups' dominated by consumptionists) and out of the hands of
self-interested bureaucrats and extractive industry interests.
- Bill McKee - Editor.
