U.S. Forest Service asked to Delay New Water Rights affecting Ski Areas

Western lawmakers are pushing the U.S. Forest Service put a time out on the new water rights policy that will affect major ski areas.  

The new water rights clause would affect major ski areas in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming. 

All water rights would be federally owned and controlled that were previously used by ski areas for snowmaking, irrigation, restrooms, lodging facilities, and culinary purposes.

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 In a Dec. 1 letter to Cheif Tom Tidwell of U.S. Forest Service, Senators Mark Udall, John Barasso, James Risch, and Michael F. Bennet ask for a moratorium and further review of the new 2011 water rights clause.

“All water rights owners should be concerned,” Porzak said, claiming that the change would require ski areas to transfer ownership of several types of water rights to the Forest Service.(Summit County Voice)

There are significant changes in the new clause in comparison to the previous wording of the 2004 clause where it gives ski areas almost all control of water rights associated with ski area operations.  There have been no issues with the clause for the past seven years.

The National Ski Association is claiming that the new 2011 clause is a "water grab" while the U.S. Forest Service claims its for simplification. In NSAA's testimony to the House Natural Resources Committee's Subcommittee on National Parks, Forest, and Public Lands their attorney Glen Porzak gave testimony.

"Ski areas invest hundreds of millions of dollars on water rights to support and enhance their operations. Water is crucial to ski area operations and ski area water rights are considered valuable assets to ski area owners.

"However, the Forest Service is now imposing a new water clause that requires the ski areas to transfer exclusive ownership of many types of water rights to the federal government. These are valuable private property rights which the Forest Service now wants for Free."

"Not only would ski areas not be compensated for these valuable water rights, they would also lose the ability to control the uses for which this water is applied in the future. If these water rights are owned by the U.S. government,the ski area would have no guarantee that the water will continue to be used for ski area purposes in the future," said Porzak.. 

http://summitcountyvoice.com
http://www.therepublic.com
http://magicvalley.com
press release

The skinny

Journalists have been called the watchdogs of society.  Tuesday Dec. 6th a student run newspaper was accused of crying wolf.  

Truth has long been a journalistic standard.  In an alarming trend however we see truth cast aside for scandal, shock, and impact.  Recently the BYU-Idaho Scroll has come under fire as well as the university itself over a dress standard issue that has grabbed global attention.   

Just this Tuesday a seemingly innocent article was published in the BYU-Idaho Scroll "Testing Center Reminds Students of Dress and Grooming Standards".  It tells the story of a self-described curvy girl turned away from the testing center because of her too tight skinny jeans resulting in being unable to take the scheduled exam. 

There has been a recent campaign reminding students that tight, form fitting clothing is against the honor code.  Starting first when those sporting skinny jeans were asked to read a sign repeating the school's position on form fitting clothing.  Posters were displayed in line for exams showing a girl wearing skinny jeans discouraging form fitting clothing. 

Originally flyers were also posted and available displaying a similar message.

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In an email to a news site Kevin Miyasaki the Student Services and Activities Vice President at BYU-Idaho said, "We have not identified "skinny jeans" as a specific violation of the dress and grooming standard. We are aware of the incident and the Student Honor Office is working with the Testing Center to address the issue.  The wording in the BYU-Idaho dress and grooming standard regarding formfitting clothing is as follows: Clothing is inappropriate when it is sleeveless, strapless, backless, or revealing. It should not have slits above the knee or be formfitting."

Public Relations Manager Andy Cargal was quoted in ABC's Skinny Jeans Too Suggestive for Mormon College said, "The university has no official policy concerning skinny jeans, but form-fitting clothing is generally off limits. Cargal said the college hasn’t introduced any new policies to crack down on skinny jeans specifically. The university instructed employees at the Test Center to take down the No Skinny Jeans sign last week, Cargal said.

The topic was all over the university students social media pages immediately after the issue of the Scroll was released.  It continued to spread gaining attention of alumni, parents, and eventually national news.

Many expressed concern at the harshness of BYU-Idaho's supposed stance asking where they would be able to find jeans that didn't show "the form of the leg".

One student said,"the difference between skinny jeans and flared are the calves. Are those the curves the testing center are wary of?"


The original public consensus was that "skinny jeans" were officially banned from the BYU-Idaho campus.

“We don’t have a policy against skinny jeans. One department on campus took our honor code and they interpreted it in their own way,” Cargal said. “University officials went to the Test Center, educated them, and the signs were taken down.”

The Scroll has been rebuked for their role in the "anti-skinny jean scare" and has posted a correction.  However their story seemed to report on accurate events.  The untruth was perhaps found in the heading above the continued section on the second page saying that skinny jeans were "prohibited".   The fact is that the story hyped up or not, spread like wild fire.  It seems an example of student journalism that had real repercussions. 

A BYU-Idaho facebook status today read "Wondering if skinny jeans are allowed on campus? They are. BYU-Idaho's longstanding dress & grooming standards promote principles of modesty and restrict formfitting clothing, but skinny jeans are not singled out or prohibited. In addition, the Testing Center issue reported in Scroll has been corrected and is no longer in force."

Some interesting links:

• http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsfaithblog/53068768-180/skinny-byu-jeans-idaho.html.csp
• http://gawker.com/5865998/mormon-colleges-skinny-jeans-ban-debated-overturned 
• http://gawker.com/5865693/mormon-college-bans-skinny-jeans 
• http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/12/skinny-jeans-too-suggestive-for-mormoncollege/
• http://www.byuicomm.net/blog/2011/12/07/testing-center-reminds-students-of-dress-and-grooming-standards/ 
• http://www.byuicomm.net/blog/2011/12/07/official-position-of-byu-idaho-on-skinny-jeans/ 
• http://www.facebook.com/BYUID/posts/334491879898320 

Occupy Boise Protestors brave downpour

Occupy Wall Street has spread across the country reaching Boise, Idaho on October 5^th with a gathering of at least 300 locals.  Despite the torrential downpour Idahoans braved the weather conditions to protest on 8^th street. 

The protesters started at the Anne Frank Memorial by Boise River and marched on to the Idaho capitol crying “We are the 99%.”  The organization is claiming that they march against all the bank bailouts and the extreme power and sway that the banks and that Wall Street has on United States politics. 

One protest sign read “This rain is the only ‘trickle down’ you’re going to get.”  Others read slogans like “audit the feds” or “people not profit.” Many citizens demand that the greed of huge corporations be put in check.

Occupy Wall Street started out with 12 protesters and has spread from New York across the entire country.  An Occupy Pocatello has begun at the Idaho State University will be taking place at 5pm on October 7^th starting at the Pocatello Art Walk at Simplot Square.  Occupy Idaho Falls is scheduled for October 8^th from 5:30 to 11:30 at the Idaho Falls Green Belt.  

The Facebook page for Occupy Pocatello reads, “We stand in solidarity with Occupy Wall St to show our contempt for Corporate Greed and Political Corruption.”

“This is nonpartisan. This is about everybody. This is about elderly people, students, liberals, conservatives.  It affects and is a part of every American’s life. Everyone wants to be a part of a democracy, and I think the general feeling is that that’s not the case right now. If anything comes of this, that’s what’s going to happen, that’s what’s going to be the case,” said OccupyBOI spokesman Tom Kershaw as quoted by Boise Weekly.

CAES pushes earnings 41.9 million

The Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) boasted an 11-1 return of the 1.6 million that Idaho taxpayers invested this year.  The center pushed their total earnings to 41.9 million, with 18.2 million earned in competitive grants, and other funding. 

 

The CAES is owned by the state but it is also part of the Idaho State University as well the Idaho National Laboratory.  It is also in collaboration with Boise State University and University of Idaho.

"CAES is a great example of what the Idaho universities and Idaho National Laboratory can accomplish by working together," Governor Otter said.

In 2011 an economist from ISU estimated that the center created around 366 jobs.  This certainly adds a hopeful light on the current 9% unemployment rate in Idaho.  

For a state that provides itself on being financially efficient this project is turning out a great profit, and is leading to more research and development.  One of the projects that will be funded will be a way to recover uranium from seawater.  Total the researchers at the Center earned more than 25 different grants and competitive awards.  

“I think one of the things that makes it so successful is that theres a lot of people with a lot passion and a lot of talent,” said David Solan CAES Boise State University Co-Director. 

"The CAES partnership has proven to be a great investment for taxpayers, and you're going to see more of that kind of collaborative public-private effort from my administration in the years to come,” said Governor Otter. 

The CAES director Bill Rogers discussed what a great year it was for the center. 

In regards to the five million dollars in grants awarded to CAES by the U.S. Department of Energy, "Winning these grants illustrates the power of collaboration and what the CAES partners can achieve by working together," said Bill Rogers, CAES director.  The grants will fund research in solar energy, energy efficiency, and geothermal energy. 

At a point in history when the impact of burning fossil fuels as well as the future reliability the importance of research in alternative energy sources has escalated. Idaho is making an impact on this new development and this new phase in renewable energy sources.

Idaho Senator in opposition to further extension of federal unemployment

Roger Madsen the Director of the Idaho Department of Labor sent a letter to Senator Crapo in opposition of the further extension of the federal unemployment benefits on Nov.7 for Thursday’s US Senate Finance committee hearing concerning unemployment. 

Idaho received federal funding as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, known as the Stimulus Act.  Out of the $787 billion act $40 billion was to extend unemployment benefits and increase the benefits by $25 a week.  The leftover funds would be plugged into the current state economy in hopes of saving nearly 1000 Idaho jobs. 

“I am deeply concerned about all Idahoans, especially those who are unemployed.  Our local office employees are doing everything in their power daily to help these people find work,” said Madsen.

$750 million in the federal extended benefits have gone to 20% of the labor force.

In his letter Madsen referred to the unemployment insurance program the most successful social program since its inception but expressed his concern that continuing the extension would deter many from going back to work. He also added that in continuing to accept so much federal funding for the unemployment program was only adding to the country debt deficit, calling the money “borrowed dollars”.

Madsen said, “If we want to give our Idaho businesses the confidence they need to increase hiring, action needs to be taken to reduce the national deficit, and unemployment insurance extensions must come to an end.”

“We won’t let those who are unable to find work through no fault of their own suffer, but Congress would do well to listen to the Idaho delegation’s legitimate concerns about spending money they don’t have,” said Governor Otter in a 2010 press release.  

Gov. Otter continued to explain, “Congress is ruining a great worker-and-employer-funded program by turning it into another open-ended federal entitlement for which Idaho taxpayers are on the hook. Our jobless Idahoans should at least get the benefits.”

In May of 2011 in a news release Governor Butch Otter discussed his Hire One program stating that Idaho businesses that were hiring Idaho workers and therefore improving the economy would receive a tax benefit.

This seemed like a step forward to decrease the almost 10% unemployment rate. 

Accusations that ballot box stuffing shaped the outcome of Russia Elections

In the largest opposition protest Russia has seen in years, people gather to protest the election fraud in which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his party are accused of rigging the parlimentary election this weekend.

Estimates have placed the number of protesters as high as 10,000.  The cries of "Russia without Putin" pierce through the air.

 300 protesters were detained to stop them from marching in addition to the estimated 200 arrests.  

Putin's party United Russia won about 50% of the votes, but most are claiming this is due to ballot box stuffing and other forms of election fraud.  Regardless after twelve years the public is sending Putin a message of their weariness of his control of the government.

He first rose to power as acting President in 1999 when President Boris Yeltsin resigned.  He was then elected in 2000 and re-elected in 2004 drawing out his career as President until May 2008. He then became Prime Minister and has remained so until now.  If he continues to stay in power for the two next elections he will have done so for a quarter of a century. 

Interestingly enough the only independent election monitoring group called Golos, was disabled on Sunday the day of elections by hackers.  Its director and her assistant's cellphones, social media and email accounts were all hacked as well on the day of elections. Golos is funded by US and European grants.

Planet similiar to earth confirmed

The popularity of imaginings of things with green heads, of life in far off universes, or travel at light speed is evident in our pop-culture and media. A new planet showing signs of similarity with our own planet has recently been confirmed, the planet Kepler 22-b.

So far it is the closet planet to earth with so many similarities.   This planet is also in range of a star similar to our own.  Through the Kepler telescope a team of astronomers have been able to identify about 2,326 possibly earth-like planets.  Over the holidays Kepler 22-b was confirmed as an earth-like candidate.


Kepler b-22 is about 15% closer to its sun making its year shorter at 290 days.  The star's light however is around 25% less than our own, leaving the planet at a mild 22 degrees Celsius.

The team expects to identify many more earth-like candidates in the future.