Petrified Forest expansion in danger

The Arizona Republic reports:

For nearly a decade, some of the state’s largest ranchers have waited patiently to strike a deal with the federal government to enlarge Petrified Forest National Park and protect the area’s geological and archaeological treasures.

But time appears to be running out as development pressures increase and the ongoing drought makes the cattle industry less viable.

Meanwhile, bills seeking the park’s expansion by 97,000 acres, doubling its size, languish in U.S. House and Senate subcommittees with no hearing dates scheduled. And the state, which has been a latecomer in endorsing the expansion, still faces a laborious process in determining the value of State Land Department property that would be involved in the process.

Read more.

Great Sand Dunes update

Rocky Mountain News reports:

The Great Sand Dunes National Monument and Preserve is one step closer to doubling in size and becoming Colorado’s fourth national park.

Money to buy the Baca Ranch property adjacent to the existing monument, which features the tallest sand dunes in North America, was officially placed in escrow Friday at a California title company.

Read more.

Omarosa wishes she’d been “badder”

From column in the Detroit Free Press last Thursday:

Still, Omarosa has emerged victorious, judging from the opportunities showered on her since her exit. A political consultant who once worked for the Clinton-Gore White House, she’s now planning to design a line of business suits and accessories inspired by the clothing she wore on the show.

She’s also fielding offers to get back on television, perhaps as a host of a reality show or a political commentator for the the 2004 presidential election. “There’s a deal that would put me on the air very soon, but I can’t tip my hand,” she hints.

She’s proud the offers have been for smart projects, not “silly things like jumping off a roof or eating bugs.” And while she won’t say the show portrayed her unfairly as a rhymes-with-witch, she does allow that “what I saw was just not my reality.”

For Omarosa, getting canned is proving to be a great career move. “If I knew that being so bad would have been good, I would have been badder,” she says with a laugh.

Hold the fries please

From Wampum:

Late last year triballaw saw a case where a burger place, that employed about 20 Diné fired one of the workers for speaking Diné (aka “Navajo”). MB posted on this at the time, you can find the original here. Then we had a note out of the Los Angeles Indian community (quick: what is the largest Indian city in the US?) about Micky Dee having scholarships for Afro-American and Spanish-American college-bound youth, but nada for Indian college-bound youth. I was the designated stuckee to call corporate and learn that it was up to the local franchisees to best determine their market needs and opportunities or some such eyewash. Today in Israel, in MacDonalds, it is a cause for termination for one employee to speak Arabic to another.

City falls victim to Internet hoax, considers banning items made with water

This story is making the rounds of the blogs today. This report from AP via The Sacramento Bee.

ALISO VIEJO, Calif. (AP) – City officials were so concerned about the potentially dangerous properties of dihydrogen monoxide that they considered banning foam cups after they learned the chemical was used in their production.

Then they learned that dihydrogen monoxide – H2O for short – is the scientific term for water.

“It’s embarrassing,” said City Manager David J. Norman. “We had a paralegal who did bad research.”

The paralegal apparently fell victim to one of the many official looking Web sites that have been put up by pranksters to describe dihydrogen monoxide as “an odorless, tasteless chemical” that can be deadly if accidentally inhaled.

As a result, the City Council of this Orange County suburb had been scheduled to vote next week on a proposed law that would have banned the use of foam containers at city-sponsored events. Among the reasons given for the ban were that they were made with a substance that could “threaten human health and safety.”

The measure has been pulled from the agenda, although Norman said the city may still eventually ban foam cups.

“Our main concern is with the Aliso Creek watershed,” Norman said. “If you get Styrofoam into the water and it breaks apart, it’s virtually impossible to clean up.”

For 10 years NewMexiKen lived near Aliso Creek upstream from what is now Aliso Viejo. Most of the time then the creek suffered from a near total lack of dihydrogen monoxide.

Mountain lions everywhere!

From the Santa Fe New Mexican:

Pam Beach has seen grizzly bears, black bears and wolverines, but one large predator had always eluded her.

“I had never seen a mountain lion,” Beach said Friday. “And I never expected to see one on Marcy Street.”

She was one of many to spot a mountain lion walking around downtown Santa Fe Thursday night and Friday morning.

A receptionist at the Santa Fe New Mexican, Beach said the lion walked in front of The New Mexican shortly after 8 a.m., then bolted across Marcy Street and disappeared.

“Poor little guy. He was scared,” she said, describing the animal as small — perhaps 100 pounds — and probably young. “I hope he finds his way home.”

As far as wildlife officials could tell, the lion might have done just that.

Read more.

Bear, elk lawsuits influence lion hunt

From The Arizona Daily Star:

Arizona wildlife managers feel they have to shoot first and ask questions later, says the lawyer who defended the state in a lawsuit that resulted in a $2.5 million settlement for a Tucson girl mauled by a bear on Mount Lemmon.

That settlement and a more recent $3 million jury award for a Tucson man injured when he hit an elk with a vehicle affected the decision to order a mountain lion hunt in Sabino Canyon, said Tucson attorney Mick Rusing. “It is the real driving force behind the scene,” Rusing said.

“The default position of Game and Fish is now, ‘When in doubt, take it out,’ ” Rusing said. “If the courts and the Legislature are not going to protect these agencies and the people who make the decisions, that’s the way it’s going to be.”

Attorney Ted Schmidt represented Anna Knochel, the 16-year-old girl who was mauled by a bear in 1996 during a 4-H campout in the Santa Catalina Mountains. He agreed with Rusing that liability concerns are influencing decisions on the mountain lions, but said the concerns are justified.

He said Game and Fish knows it has nonyielding mountain lions in Sabino Canyon and knows that such animals can attack and kill. “I would expect any wildlife expert would tell you that’s a pretty serious problem. If anything were to happen, you might very well be able to make that case against the state of Arizona,” he said.

Read more.

Times have changed

From Morning Briefing in the Los Angeles Times:

Another recent Morning Briefing item mentioned that no woman had run a marathon under three hours until Adrienne Beames’ 2:46:30 in 1971.

Chuck DeBus, former coach of the Los Angeles Track Club, called to say that until 1969, women weren’t even allowed to run a race of more than five miles without written permission from the national chairman of women’s track and field.

DeBus said he wrote the legislation that changed the rule.

We can dream

From the Los Angeles Times, Does Arizona Have the Past on Its Side?:

As Arizona looks nervously ahead to selection Sunday after losing to Washington in the Pac-10 tournament Friday, some are noting that Lute Olson’s only national championship team was a youthful group that bumped through the conference season with an 11-7 record and lost four of its last nine regular-season games.

So did this one.

The similiarities don’t end there. Read more.

This May be the Last Thing You Ever Read Alone

Comment from Electablog*:

The Justice Dept is petitioning the FCC to get much more access to your broadband and/or internet connectivity. The idea is that they need to prevent terrorists who might be avoiding surveillance by using internet telephony – which makes for a compelling argument until you ask yourself: Well, which of our freedoms couldn’t ultimately benefit a terrorist?. If the FCC goes along, what it means is that investigators will be able to essentially tap into everything you type, everything you receive and every site you visit. And when it comes to the latter, let’s be realistic. Electablog [or NewMexiKen] ain’t your problem.

George Carlin, where are you when we need you?

Legislation in the House of Representatives, H. R. 3687, would “amend section 1464 of title 18, United States Code, to provide for the punishment of certain profane broadcasts, and for other purposes.” The bill actually lists words that are “profane.”

George Carlin once had a routine where he said the “seven words you can’t say on television.” [7KB wav file]. Note: This sound file contains seven words some might consider offensive.

Compare and contrast.