January Chill Brings Changes, Chagrin, and Citizen Action

News in the West

~~ Bluff Balloon Festival | Jan. 17 - 19 starting at 7:00 AM

Learn more about this Gov. Candidate by attending this meeting

~~ Ut. Gubernatorial Candidates Debate

~~ Diné turning Hogans into Cash on Airbnb

      (Be sure to read the comments after the article.  Many Dine' have concerns about this; similar to the concerns about tourists tramping all over "sacred" lands in Bears Ears landscapes.)

~~ Is Renewable Energy Viable or Dammed?  High Country News

Utah's Unpopular Tax Bill Facing Possibility of Referendum vote: 
Have you signed?   14 counties have secured with enough signatures, but the combined effort must reach  116,000 signatures statewide.  To Sign: contact Logan Monson in Blanding, Kim Henderson in Monticello, Kelly and Cricket Green in La Sal, and Cassie Patterson in Moab.

~~ Mojave County Fights BLM Jeep Trail Closures   "The BLM Works for Us!"

~~ America a Nation of Builders; Pres. Trump Hopes to Speed up the Process

~~ Here's to a "Meatless" Golden Globe Awards Event by Matt Goble of Dry Bottom Farms in Utah

~~ BLM's Move West Based on Common Sense

~~ Businesses in Cedar City Help Referendum Push  -- Go and do likewise!

~~ Protesters in Virginia Stop Gun Confiscation Legislation

~~ Video Explains the Seriousness of Virginia's Infractions Against Constitutional Rights of Citizens

~~ Vegan or Beef?  What are the Facts? 

~~ Salt Lake Trib. via Zac Podmore Attacks Sutherland Institute The lack of balance in Podmore's reporting results in lopsided news, i.e. fake news. No listing included in the article of " Non-profits" and foundations who dump tens of thousands into support FOR Bears Ears enlarged. One such donor is the Wyss Foundation: 

Canyon Zephyr editor, Jim Stiles noted: "I've been perusing Guidestar this afternoon, looking at non-profits like the "Conservation Lands Foundation," whose chair is Mr Wyss...CLF gave $130,000 to Utah Dine' Bikeyah in 2018. And another $100,000 to Friends of Cedar Mesa. Mr.Podmore surely knows this because until recently his wife was assistant director of FCM. Cold scrutiny of groups like Sutherland is fair and necessary. But The Tribune KNOWS what resides on the other side of the coin, and so surely does Podmore. And they say nothing. Yet Podmore wasn't always like this. In an email to me three years ago, Podmore wrote, ""You make the best case against alliances between conservationists and the recreation industry that I've heard in a while. I agree with you. Silence about the destructive nature of industrial tourism is poisoning greater conservation movement, and like you've written time and again, it often threatens wild places more than extractive industry." I agree. "Silence is poisoning the greater environmental movement."

~~ Bad Forest management, Cause of California Fires

~~ Native Tribes Impacted Negatively Because of Kayenta Coal Mine Closure

~~  The Temper Tantrum that Never Ends: Environmentalists Using Tribes 

~~ Natural Resources Chair, Grijalva Opposes BLM Move to Colorado -- "because it's Racist" 

~~ The Irony of Wind Turbine Blades;  They take forever to Disintegrate

~~ Pork IndustryTakes Issue with Impossible Sausage Labeling

~~ Who Cares About Protecting US Citizens! Trump's Border Wall Compromises Fish!    More Non-human Rights Protection: High Country News

~~ Borden Dairy Co, Files for Bankruptcy.  "Borden Dairy Co., which was founded in 1857, announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the District of Delaware. This comes not long after Dean Foods announced it was filing for bankruptcy in November.. . ."

~~BEAR ESSENTIALS: Oct. 20, 2018~~

Matt Redd Monticello rancher, photo by Aaron Huey
November 2018 issue of National Geographic

~~Bears Ears: Lead story in November National Geographic: Battle for the American West

Though dozens of local people were interviewed over the course of several weeks by author Hannah Nordhaus, very little was used in the actual article from those interviews.  The editing staff at Nat’l Geo was part of that dilemma, and the real story was bigger than a single article could cover. Maps and photographs were great.  Sandy Johnson was one of several ranchers who were interviewed. (Photos were by Aaron Huey who made at least 4 or more trips to San Juan)

 

~~Sage Grouse Controversy Raised Again in  Newest Nat’l Geo

~~Cedar Mesa 360 degree video by Aaron Huey

~~What Bears Ears Means to Native Americans: Nat’l Geographic

Energy Fuels White Mesa Uranium Mill--Aaron Huey photo

Kyle Kimmele, one of many SE Utah citizens who own mining leases.  Photo by Aaron Huey

~~774 comments submitted regarding Energy Fuels/ US Uranium Market

“One of many comments made by businesses impacted by foreign suppliers of uranium: “The US uranium industry has suffered great harm and our national security is threatened as a result of excessive imports of foreign uranium. The United States over reliance on price insensitive uranium from countries like Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with their state-owned and funded companies, has displaced US production and led to a severe decline in the industry. As a service provider to the US uranium industry, this has also hurt our business.”

~~Write-In Candidates for County Commissioner—Districts 2 and 3                                                          

                                                      

1)     Republican Al Clark running as Write-in against Kenneth Maryboy District 3

2) Democrat Maryleen Tahy running as write-in District 2 

n
Phil Lyman running against Marsha Holland District 73 

 Audio of  Debate with Marsha Holland.

 “Public lands management is an area that we certainly do not agree on. I prefer local management of local resources and I rely on constitutional provisions that guarantee that even a state like Utah has an equal footing with other states. Federal agencies are creating massive problems to which they claim to be the solution. It is time for Utah to end the madness. We are not a federal administrative unit, but a sovereign and independent State; sometimes we have to act like it. 
I have never been accused of being neutral on matters of public land, fiscal responsibility, or political accountability. The State Legislature has the duty to safeguard these qualities and to safeguard the liberty of the people against federal encroachment, not the reverse for which Ms. Holland seems to advocate.”

“Any legislation that I am involved in is going to emphasize less government interference with people’s lives and more accountability from government agencies. If I could figure out legislation to rein in the federal agencies and put them in their proper jurisdictional role instead of this god-like role that they think they have, I would do that.”    Recapture Incident: “A mistake that I made was believing that the federal agencies had integrity and that the department of justice believed that a person was innocent until proven guilty. And that the U.S. attorneys followed that same ideology.”

~~Kelly Laws Running for County Commissioner in District 3

Why Voters Should Not Support Tax Increases 

By Phil Lyman

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Be sure to vote: Mail in or at polling booths

Navajo Man Shot by Ranger at Canyon de Chelly

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Read Past Editions of Bear Essentials at: http://beyondthebears.blogspot.com/

Documenting Bears Ears Controversy and Public Land Issues since July 2016