A regular reader writes in to protest my assertion that America now has enough proven fossil fuel reserves to last for centuries, warning “Fracking technology isn’t sustainable.”
As with other shorthand terms designed to eliminate case-by-case by analysis, when “unsustainable” comes to mean merely “bad,” the results can get silly.
Officials in Elko County have approved a pilot project designed to keep sage grouse off the endangered species list by killing ravens with poisoned eggs and reducing wildfire threats through livestock grazing.
Elko County commissioners say the program, set to begin on the 15,000-acre Devils Gate Ranch, is needed because wildfires and ravens pose the biggest threat to the chicken-sized bird. Fires destroy sagebrush the birds rely on, while ravens are by far its most common predator.
By a disturbingly slim 5-4 majority, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled March 26 that police cannot bring a drug-sniffing police dog onto a suspect’s property to look for evidence without first getting a search warrant.
The ruling upholds a Florida Supreme Court ruling throwing out evidence seized in the search of Joelis Jardines’ Miami-area house. That search was based on an alert by Franky the drug dog from outside the closed front door.
In Northwest Las Vegas, I motor from time to time along Lone Mountain Road between Jones and Decatur boulevards.
Recently, these streets have been repainted with solid white lines designating bicycle lanes. In addition to the re-striping, the city of Las Vegas has posted reflective metal “Bike Lane” signage, 10 to the mile.
Envisioning cars that can go “coast to coast without using a drop of oil,” President Barack Obama on March 15 urged Congress to authorize another $2 billion over the next decade to expand research into weaning automobiles off gasoline.
“The only way to break this cycle of spiking gas prices — the only way to break that cycle for good — is to shift our cars entirely, our cars and trucks, off oil,” the president said.
A letter poured in last week:
“Please tell me who needs an assault weapon other than our military?????? i just do not understand anyone buying one for any good reason other than assault of some horrible kind. i am 71, each day i am more troubled about the world and the direction it’s going in.”
By the numbers, then:
What’s slowing down job creation in Nevada, where the real unemployment rate — counting part-timers who would prefer full-time work, and those who’ve given up looking — averaged 20.3 percent in 2012?
One prime suspect is ObamaCare, with its mandate that employers with 50 full-time employees or more must offer health insurance — not just some high-deductible coverage for catastrophes, but a costly package including every kind of Politically Correct bell and whistle.
A 200-megawatt wind energy project near Searchlight, Nevada (home town of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) has been approved by the federal government.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Wednesday the project will be built on almost 19,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land about 60 miles southeast of Las Vegas.
From the mailbag
Another Fearless Drug Warrior is writing my boss at the daily Review-Journal, trying to get me fired.
One “Scott Miller” wrote in on March 12: More »
During the Christmas season, 1994, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration put Las Vegas medical doctor Dietrich Stoermer, who had treated our troops in Vietnam, on trial here for writing “too many” painkiller prescriptions.
Since other doctors worried about being “red-flagged” by the drug police if they took on the cases of chronic pain patients, Dr. Stoermer was often the refuge of last resort for such sufferers. He ended up with a lot of them.
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