Opposition Grows to Obama's Refusal to Reveal Secret Patriot Powers

 By Noel Brinkerhoff

 

United States - Congressional Democrats, the media and civil libertarians are continuing their fight with President Barack Obama over his administration’s secret interpretations of the Patriot Act.

 

Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, who sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder last week claiming a classified intelligence operation based on the Patriot Act interpretation is not as critical to national security as the administration says.

 

Wyden and Udall also wrote that Americans would be “stunned” if they knew what the government was really doing based on the legal theory being employed through the Patriot Act. In October, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) said that the government’s use of “Section 215 is unfortunately cloaked in secrecy. Some day that cloak will be lifted, and future generations will ask whether our actions today meet the test of a democratic society: transparency, accountability, and fidelity to the rule of law and our Constitution.”

 

The Department of Justice has insisted that revealing anything about the secret spy program could “cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States.”

 

Federal lawyers are trying to dismiss two lawsuits, one by The New York Times and the other by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, that seek to force the administration into disclosing how the Patriot Act has been interpreted.

Activists Sue to Stop illing of Pacific Northwest Sea Lions

By Teresa Carson

United States - Wildlife activists sued on Monday to stop the killing of sea lions that have been eating endangered Columbia River salmon, seeking a reprieve for the animals a day before three Pacific Northwest states are authorized to begin executing them.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., follows last week's decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service to sanction the limited killing of California sea lions.

The Humane Society of the United States, Wild Fish Conservancy and two individual plaintiffs are seeking an injunction barring the authorization from taking effect on Tuesday.

The hungry sea lions swim 140 miles upstream and cluster at the Bonneville Dam, on the border between Oregon and Washington state, to eat salmon and steelhead trout as the fish head up the Columbia River to spawn. That is seen by the states as a threat to the recovery of the fish.

But animal rights activists argue that the sea lions are unfairly blamed for low fish stocks and charge that fishing, hatchery practices, hydroelectric dam barriers, and environmental degradation pose a far greater risk.

"Federal law allows the killing of sea lions only in very limited circumstances, when the agency proves they are having a significant negative impact on salmon," Jonathan Lovvorn, Humane Society senior vice president, said in a written statement.

"The National Marine Fisheries Service's decision to kill hundreds of native marine mammals to reduce salmon losses by a couple of percentage points at best, while simultaneously authorizing much larger man-made sources of endangered salmon mortality, is both outrageous and patently illegal."

Brian Gorman, spokesman in the Seattle office of the National Marine Fisheries Service, called the legal challenge "not unexpected."

"Now, it is up to the court to respond," Gorman said.

Wildlife activists have battled the fisheries service in court for several years over the controversial practice of killing sea lions to protect stocks of Columbia River basin Chinook salmon.

The sea lions are guarded under the Marine Mammals Protection Act and the suit charges the fisheries service's order violates those laws.

Under Thursday's order, the states can kill only sea lions known to have eaten salmon and are limited to 92 animals per year.

The sea lions can be killed only if zoos or aquariums don't want them. Since 2008, the states have killed 28 sea lions and 10 have been sent to zoos or aquariums.

The Federal permission was set to run from March 20 to May of 2016.

The Bonneville Dam is the first hydroelectric dam on the Columbia River, which divides Washington and Oregon.

US Appeals Court Allows Wolf Hunts

By Matthew Brown

Billings, Montana - A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit from conservation groups that want to block wolf hunting and trapping that have killed more than 500 of the predators across the Northern Rockies in recent months.

The ruling from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Congress had the right to intervene when it stripped protections from wolves last spring.

Lawmakers stepped in after court rulings kept wolves on the endangered list for years after they reached recovery goals. Wildlife advocates claimed in their lawsuit that Congress violated the Constitution's separation of powers by interfering with the courts.

But in an opinion authored by Judge Mary Schroeder, the court said Congress was within its rights. 

Schroder wrote that lawmakers changed the Endangered Species Act to deal with Northern Rockies wolves, and did not directly interfere with the court's prerogative to decide when the law is being followed.

The amendment marked the first time Congress has forcibly removed a species' endangered status. It was tacked onto a federal budget bill by Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson and Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.

"This case has made it clear that those who persist in trying to manage wildlife through the courts, in spite of all scientific evidence that this species has recovered, no longer have a defensible position," Simpson said Wednesday.

Michael Robinson with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that sued to restore protections, said a Supreme Court appeal was possible but no decision had been made.

"We're very disappointed and very saddened," Robinson said. "Hundreds of wolves have been hunted and trapped and snared, and they are essential to their ecosystem."

He called the congressional budget bill rider that lifted protections "undemocratic" and said that it set a precedent for future political meddling with imperiled wildlife.

Wolves once thrived across North America but were exterminated across most of the continental U.S. by the 1930s, through government sponsored poisoning and bounty programs.

They were put on the endangered list in 1974. Over the last two decades, state and federal agencies have spent more than $100 million on wolf restoration programs across the country.

The Northern Rockies is now home to more than 1,700 wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming and expanding populations in portions of eastern Oregon and Washington. That figure is up slightly from 2010, although Wyoming and Idaho saw slight declines.

In the Northern Rockies wolf hunting is allowed in Montana and Idaho and could resume in Wyoming this fall.

Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin also are considering wolf seasons after protections for wolves were lifted in the upper Great Lakes in December.

Wisconsin's legislature on Wednesday approved a measure to establish a hunting and trapping season that would run from mid-October through the end of February. It still has to be approved by the governor.

There more than 4,400 of the animals in the Great Lakes and a struggling population of several dozen wolves in the Desert Southwest. Alaska, where the animals never went on the endangered list, has an estimated 10,000 wolves.

In parts of Montana, ranchers and local officials frustrated with continuing attacks on livestock have proposed bounties for hunters that kill wolves. Montana wildlife officials said they will consider ways to expand hunting after 166 wolves were killed this season, short of the state's 220-wolf quota.

Idaho allows trapping. Its 10-month wolf season runs until June and has claimed 353 wolves so far.

Prior lawsuits resulted first in the animals' reintroduction to the Northern Rockies and then later kept them on the endangered list for a decade after the species reached recovery goal of 300 wolves in three states.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is monitoring the hunts. But agency officials have said they have no plans to intervene because the states have pledged to manage wolves responsibly.

Federal officials have pledged to step in to restore endangered species protections if wolf numbers drop to less than 100 animals in either Montana or Idaho.

Even without hunting, wolves are shot regularly in the region in response to livestock attacks. Since their reintroduction, more than 1,600 wolves have been shot by government wildlife agents or ranchers.

Wyoming Tribe Gains Right to Kill Bald Eagles

By Laura Zuckerman

Wind River Indian Reservation, Wisconsin - The Fish and Wildlife Service has approved a first-time permit allowing a Native American tribe in Wyoming to kill two bald eagles in a centuries-old religious ceremony once outlawed by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The step was hailed on Wednesday as a victory that honors the cultural and religious rituals practiced by the 9,600 Northern Arapahos on the Wind River Indian Reservation in west-central Wyoming.

"The eagle has been with us for so long, even before the settlers came. For the government to tell us, you can't use that bird anymore ... it slaps natives in the face," said tribal member Lokilo St. Claire.

It is almost always illegal to kill bald eagles, which were removed from the federal threatened and endangered species list in 2007 but are still safeguarded by laws like the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States and is depicted on everything from the Great Seal of the United States to the dollar bill.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees conservation of eagles, has granted very few so-called "take" permits allowing Native Americans to kill golden eagles for religious purposes, spokeswoman Diane Katzenberger said.

The permit allowing a tribal take of bald eagles is believed to be the first of its kind.

Approval for the permit for the Northern Arapaho stems from a federal lawsuit the tribe filed in November that claimed the government's ban on the taking of an eagle infringed on religious and free speech rights guaranteed to tribal members by federal law, the constitution and treaties.

The Northern Arapaho first applied to the service in October 2009 and submitted a revised application in November 2010 to harvest eagles to be used in the "sun dance," an annual summer ceremony sacred to the tribe.

It was unclear whether the lawsuit would now be withdrawn. Andrew Baldwin, attorney for the tribe, said the Northern Arapaho would seek to renew the permit each year.

SUN DANCE

The bald eagle soared back from the brink of extinction after a 1972 ban on the pesticide DDT and after protections under the Endangered Species Act in 1978.

Breeding pairs have climbed from about 400 in 1963 to an estimated 9,700 today.

The Northern Arapaho say a robust population of eagles and the fact that the service is considering an application by a wind developer in Oregon that would permit the killing of golden eagles are sufficient reasons to approve their request.

The whirring blades of wind turbines can kill eagles.

The permit was issued to the tribe on March 9 "after careful consideration," according to the service.
Groups like the American Bird Conservancy say they support giving priority to permits for public safety - near airports, for example - and tribal religious needs.

Outside of those areas, permits need to be carefully evaluated to ensure they will not reduce the still-recovering bald eagle populations, conservancy vice-president Darin Schroeder said.

The sun dance, which requires the use of eagle feathers, and other ceremonies were banned as "Indian offenses" by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the 1890s and it wasn't until 1934 that the government formally lifted those prohibitions, according to the Native American Rights Fund.

For the Northern Arapaho tribe's St. Claire, the bald eagle is a powerful symbol of native pride just as the sun dance is a powerful symbol of native spirituality.

"When we do take a bird, it will be treated with the utmost respect. Every part of it will be used and nothing will be wasted," he said.

The government maintains a repository for Native American tribes for feathers and other parts of eagles killed by accident or by poaching. But the demand can exceed supply and St. Claire said those articles are sometime unfit for ceremonial purposes.

"The feathers have to be in good condition - not damaged by being frozen - because they are meant to be used all through the person's life and even passed from father to son," he said.

US Physician Behind Suicide Law Dies

Portland - A physician who campaigned for the U.S. state of Oregon's Death With Dignity Act has died using lethal chemicals obtained under the law he championed. He was 83.

A spokesman for the organization Compassion and Choices says Peter Goodwin died Sunday at his home surrounded by his family. Goodwin told the Oregonian last month he's battled a rare brain disorder for six years.

Oregon was the first state to allow terminally ill patients to take their own lives with the help of lethal medications supplied by a doctor.

The act was the result of a long campaign by Goodwin, and he's called it his greatest legacy.

5,000 Homeless Americans Live in Tent Cities

By Noel Brinkerhoff

 

United States - While the U.S. unemployment rate has improved slightly in recent months, the rosy news of better times ahead contrasts with the difficult reality still haunting many Americans, especially for those living in tents to survive.

 

It is estimated that at least 5,000 individuals today call “tent cities” their home. These makeshift, and unhealthy, settlements have sprung up in more than 50 cities, including Portland, Oregon; Lakewood, New Jersey; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Pinellas Park, Florida; and Bakersfield, California.

 

Some of the tent cities house a few dozen, while others provide shelter for as many as 300. Many are supported by local churches while others face eviction because of safety code violations.

 

The conditions of the encampment in Ann Arbor have been described as “unhygienic." There are no toilets and electricity is only available in the one communal tent where the campers huddle around a wood stove for warmth in the heart of winter,” according to the BBC News.

Odd Stories: Stolen Rabbits Returned

Portland - Sadly for more than a dozen freed rabbits, they were returned to their unfortunate fate.

Farmer Levi Cole, an instructor for the Portland Meat Collective, said 18 of his rabbits were taken from him the day before he was supposed to teach a class about raising, slaughtering, and cooking them.

The owner of Portland Meat Collective, Camas Davis, claims ten one-day-old baby rabbits were left behind and died of neglect. However, there is serious doubt as to if the babies ever existed.

Erin Ford, a board member of the animal rights group Rabbit Advocates said whoever stole them dropped them by the house of one of their volunteers. All but one were, named Roger, was retrieved from Rabbit Advocates' lawyer's office.

Members of the group say they are still trying to persuade the meat collective to not slaughter the rabbits.

"If they stay in our care, it will be a good result. If they don't, I don't like to think of what the end result will be for these darling little furry ones, " said vice president said Mary Huey.

Prisoners Using Social Media to Harass Victims.

United States – People who are victims of crimes may not be able to rest safely when their attackers are behind bars – at least for now.

Through the smuggling of the phones into their cells, prisoners are gaining access to cell phones at an alarming rate, California prison officials found more than 12-thousand phones in ten months' time. Six years ago 261 phones were confiscated in the same amount of time. After they set up Facebook accounts, they use the website to contact their victims or intimidate witnesses.

Timothy Heaphy, a U.S. attorney, said criminals' use of social networks to reach witnesses made his job harder.

"We deal every day with witnesses who are afraid of being identified. If there are increased instances where folks who are incarcerated can reach outside the walls of the jail, that's going to make it more difficult for us to get cooperation." He said.

Rob Bovett, an Oregon district attorney, said the increasing numbers is troublesome and the law isn't catching up with technology.  Along with the obvious smuggling issue that arises in the prisons, it can also be hard to determine who exactly is sending the messages. Those who are caught rarely face any punishments.

Odd Stories: Passing Officer Sent into House

Tigard, Oregon – Video of a crash between police officer Caleb Phillips, and Clyde Allen Rizzutto that happened in September has been released.

The video, provided by Phillips' in-car camera, shows the officer driving with his police lights and siren on to respond to a call. After spotting Rizzutto's car in the distance he figured it was best for him to go around thinking he would turn right. As Phillips was passing him howevevr Rizzutto turned to the left and struck the car. The car then went into someone's home as they were watching television.

Officials say the accident was avoidable and cited Rizzutto is blame for the wreck.