Document Ev61XxLRJax8Gy8DMo74MdjmL

From: mscowboy Sent: 2017-10-27T10:04:49-04:00 Importance: Normal Subject: THE WESTERNER 10/26 Received: 2017-10-27T 10:04:59-04:00 THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/ Thursday, October 26, 2017 Zinke Unveils Massive Overhaul of Energy & Environmental Policies DAVID REESE Virtually all federal energy policies will be overhauled, as will "burdensome" environmental protections, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said this week in a report on how he will "streamline" domestic energy production. The 44-page "Final Report: Review of the Department of the Interior Actions that Potentially Burden Domestic Energy" was released Wednesday. It takes broad swipes at the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, fracking regulations, Arctic oil and coal mining rules, and outlines a number of Secretarial Orders Zinke has signed or will sign. Among the findings in the report is that the National Environmental Policy Act impedes domestic development of coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy. Accordingly, Zinke said, he has signed Secretarial Order 3358, to "establish the Executive Committee for Expedited Planning." The Department of Interior oversees energy development on federal lands and waters, which generates roughly $10 billion a year, according to the report. The "Energy Burdens Report" is the Interior Department's response to President Trump's Executive Order 13783. The report "outlines the Trump Administration's bold approach to achieving American energy dominance," Zinke's office said in a statement...more Will be interesting to see if they do something similar for livestock grazing, rather than the comparatively paltry, pitiable and pathetic 6 to 12 "OutcomeBased Grazing Authorizations" Posted by Frank DuBois at 11:24 PM No comments: Permalink X] Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Labels: Energy, Livestock Grazing Trump Blocks Full Release Of JFK Assassination Records After Last Minute CIA Push With much of America clicking furiously all day Thursday on the website of the National Archives, hoping to be among the first to catch the release of thousands of previously unseen JFK Assassination records, the U.S. government was in danger of missing the deadline to release the trove of previously classified records from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, "adding an unexpected twist to a saga already rife with rumors and conspiracies" according to NBC.Caving to lobbying pressure by intelligence agencies, Trump announced he would not order the release of the full tranche of records, instead following last-minute recommendations of his national security agencies that some of those records be redacted, White House officials said. During a call with reporters, White House officials explained that while some 2,800 JFK records will be released today, the publications of the remaining records has been postponed for 180 days to give agencies more time to figure out what they want redacted. By late Thursday afternoon, the memo specifying which material the CIA, State Department and other agencies still want to keep under wraps had yet not made it to Trump's desk, intel officials told NBC News. "There's a mad scramble going on in the executive branch to get this done," one official said. As CBS adds, the delay requests some of which were registered a couple of months ago and some more recently - come from agencies throughout the government including the CIA and FBI. Some of the worry seems to center around documents created in the 1990's, when the congressional committee was crafting the legislation setting Thursday as the release date. Officials told CBS News there is concern the documents may reveal sources and operations from the near past and include current people or operations. Of particular concern, according to officials, are names in the documents...more Posted by Frank DuBois at 11:08 PM No comments: Permalink 3 K Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Two who dug trenches at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to pay $10,000 each in restitution Duane Ehmer and Jake Ryan, convicted of digging trenches on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge during the 2016 armed occupation of the federal property, each have agreed to pay $10,000 in restitution. The money will go to the Burns Paiute Tribe "for cultural resource restoration, repair and monitoring activities," according to newly filed court documents. Ehmer of Irrigon and Ryan of Plains, Montana, each were convicted by a jury in March of depredation of government property, a felony that could bring up to six years in prison. A judge later convicted Ehmer and Ryan of trespass and tampering with vehicles and equipment, both misdemeanors. At trial, prosecutors played videos showing Ehmer and Ryan taking turns using a government excavator to dig the trenches on Jan. 27, 2016, the day after the arrest of the occupation leaders and the police shooting of occupation spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum at a roadblock off the refuge. Ehmer dug one trench and then Ryan took over and dug a second one. Their defense lawyers argued that they built the trenches because they thought the FBI planned to raid the refuge. Their restitution amounts were the final ones negotiated with prosecutors. Thirteen others who either pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge or were convicted at trial have agreed to pay a total of $78,000 to the government toward the costs of the 41-day takeover and damage to the wildlife sanctuary in southeastern Oregon...more Posted by Frank DuBois at 11:07 PM No comments: Permalink >2 IX Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Labels: bundy, Civil Liberty/FLE, oregon standoff The Park Service's proposal to double entry fees could fix its maintenance problem 161 years from now The National Park Service raised eyebrows this week with a plan to more than double, and in some cases nearly triple, entrance fees at the nation's most popular national parks. The new changes would affect 17 national parks and potentially bring in an additional $70 million a year, according to the Park Service, which says the increases are necessary to address the $11.3 billion maintenance backlog in the federal parks.At a rate of $70 million a year it would take more than 161 years for that extra annual revenue to wipe out the entire $11.3 billion backlog -- to say nothing of the maintenance needs that would arise between now and then. On top of that, the fees would offset less than onequarter of the $297 million Park Service budget cut proposed by the Trump administration...more If this goes as usual, fees will go up and the budget won't be cut. By raising their fees the Parkies will say they have made a 'good faith' effort to partially fund their maintenance backlog and use that to lobby Congress for additional appropriations. Will that work? You bet it will. Posted by Frank DuBois at 11:05 PM No comments: Permalink _ Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Labels: +, Park Service Whitefish's No-Bid Puerto Rico Contract Spotlights Troubled FEMA Grants The federal agency paying for a controversial no-bid, $300 million contract to rebuild Puerto Rico's power grid has for years received scathing reports from government auditors for how it oversees the management of similar grants. Members of Congress from both parties have raised questions about the selection last week of Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC to lead the rebuilding of Puerto Rico's hurricane-ravaged electrical grid. The two-year-old Montana-based company had just two employees prior to beginning its work in Puerto Rico. The contract with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority is among the biggest yet awarded in the wake of Hurricane Maria, which slammed the U.S. territory Sept. 20 and knocked out electrical power. Prepa spokesman Carlos Monroig said Whitefish is getting paid through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The inspector general of FEMA's parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, has repeatedly criticized the agency for lax oversight of grants. The office frequently recommends that FEMA withhold or claw back payments that didn't follow federal regulations. FEMA oversees a vast web of disaster relief work: In September, there was $68 billion of ongoing FEMA grants spread across 653,000 projects, and multiple audits and reports by the inspector general show a pattern of problems in how these funds were being spent...more Posted by Frank DuBois at 8:10 PM No comments: Permalink >3IX Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Not one, but two super eruptions formed the colossal Yellowstone caldera llowstone supervolcano was created by not one, but two powerful and closely spaced eruptions that took place some 630,000 years ago. The super eruptions were powerful enough to affect the global climate as the planet was recovering from an ice age. Supervolcanoes, such as the one resting beneath the Yellowstone National Park are capable of generating eruptions that dwarf those of their smaller cousins. Evidence of the ferocity and magnitude of these eruptions is evident in the sheer size of the 45 x 30 mile (72 x 48 km) Yellowstone caldera - the crater that formed in the wake of the supervolcano's most recent bout of activity. A team of geologists from the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) discovered a new record of the violent events that formed the Yellowstone caldera in two layers of ash and the shell sediments located off the Californian coast...more Posted by Frank DuBois at 7:33 PM No comments: Permalink >2 X Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Ranch Radio Song of the Day Hank Thompson's 1953 recording of Rub-A-Dub-Dub is our feature today. https://youtu.be/ KwpxiDFXkw Posted by Frank DuBois at 7:58 AM No comments: Permalink >2 IX Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Labels: ranch radio song of the day Wednesday, October 25, 2017 Fats Domino - Ranch Radio's 4 Song Tribute We lost the Fat Man yesterday, and here are 4 of my favorites: Ain't That A Shame, Blueberry Hill, Let The Four Winds Blow, I Want To Walk You Home https://youtu.be/ieICpIOFksI Posted by Frank DuBois at 8:01 PM No comments: Permalink Xl_, ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook Email To remove your name from this list, reply with "remove" in the subject line