Did guns trigger western wildfires? (+video)

So far this year, dozens of wildfires have been traced to shooting. But politicians are hesitant to restrict gun use and gun rights advocates are skeptical of the link between shooting and fire. ?

By BRIAN SKOLOFF and NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS,?Associated Press / July 3, 2012

Crews battle the Shingle Fire east of Cedar City, Utah. Dozens of western wildfires have been caused by shooting, including 21 in Utah.

AP Photo/The Deseret News, Scott G Winterton

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In the tinder-dry U.S. West, where campfires, fireworks and even lit cigarettes are banned across public lands, another fire-starting culprit remains free of most restrictions: guns.

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This year, officials believe target shooting or other firearms use have sparked at least 21 wildfires in Utah and nearly a dozen in Idaho. Shooting is also believed to have caused fires in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.

Officials have been asking the public to scale back shooting as legions of firefighters contend with one of the busiest and most destructive wildfire seasons to ever hit the West.

But many in the region avid proponents of the Second Amendment right to bear arms, so most state lawmakers are hesitant to enact any formal restrictions.

"We're not trying to pull away anyone's right to bear arms. I want to emphasize that," said Louinda Downs, a county commissioner in fire-prone Davis County, Utah. "We're just saying, target practice in winter. Target practice on the gun range. When your pleasure hobby is infringing or threatening someone else's right to have property or life, shouldn't we be able to somehow have some authority so we can restrict that?"

The state's Republican Gov. Gary Herbert took the unusual step of authorizing the top state forest official to impose gun restrictions on public lands after a gunfire-sparked fire. Herbert said his decision doesn't limit gun rights, but is a common-sense response to dry conditions.

Guns rights advocates are skeptical that firearms use can cause so many wildfires.

Clark Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Sports Shooting Council, said that perhaps 5 percent of the wildfires in the state have been caused by target shooters this year.

"I don't know how much of a problem it really is," he said.

Officials believe steel-jacketed bullets are the most likely culprits. One shot that hits a rock and throws off sparks can ignite surrounding vegetation and quickly spread. Popular exploding targets are also blamed for causing wildfires.

For weeks, state officials have said they were powerless to ban gun use because of Second Amendment rights, but legislative leaders say they found an obscure state law that empowers the state forester to act in an emergency.

Among the recent fires, target shooters on June 21 ignited a blaze south of Salt Lake City that forced the evacuation of about 2,300 before it was contained.

Aposhian said his group will conduct tests to determine if the steel-jacketed bullet theory is true. If there are limits, "we want to make sure it is not knee-jerk legislation to ban guns or ammunition," he said. "If it turns out the problem is with a few types of rounds, we will not be an apologist for them."

There is no need for such tests, Utah state fire marshal Brent Halladay said. With steel bullets, "you might as well just go up there and strike a match," he said.

Statistics on wildfires caused by firearms are incomplete because the federal government does not list "shooting" as a cause on its fire reports. But some officials write in "target" or "shoot" as a cause, said Jennifer Jones of the National Interagency Fire Center in Idaho.

On land managed by the U.S. Forest Service only, the center found 17 such wildfires in 2010, 28 last year and 13 so far this year.

This year, the federal Bureau of Land Management said 11 of 31 wildfires it has battled in Idaho have been sparked by shooting activities.

Officials at Arizona's Tonto National Forest had seven wildfires caused by firearms in 2010, 10 in 2011 and at least five so far this year. The potential for fire is so great that shooting for several years has been prohibited on BLM property in the Phoenix area.

In one case in the state, prosecutors said five friends at a campout and bachelor party set off a fire on May 12 when one loaded an incendiary shell, which burns rapidly and causes fires, into a shotgun and pulled the trigger.

Meanwhile, firefighters are wary of more wildfires with the arrival of the Independence Day holiday on July 4.

"Many people use these times to show patriotism as well as support for the Second Amendment," Aposhian said.
Associated Press writers Felicia Fonseca and Susan Montoya Bryan contributed to this report. Skoloff reported from Salt Lake City.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/3b56eU7Ltig/Did-guns-trigger-western-wildfires-video

chris carter

Survey finds Japan business confidence improves

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/survey-finds-japan-business-confidence-improves-012106857--finance.html

gina carano at last al green

Eduardo Stanley: The Book "Valley of Dreams and Shadows" Reveals a Reality About Farmworkers Many Don't Accept

FRESNO, California -- "One of the problems is that in some supermarkets they report
where the peaches they sell are grown, but they say nothing about those who harvest
them" explains Ken Light during the presentation of the book, Valley of Shadows and
Dreams (Heyday, 2012) on Saturday, June 2nd, in Fresno. This is precisely the book's
purpose: to show the lives of Valley agricultural laborers and their families.

The work is a photographic essay by Ken Light, professor of photojournalism at the
University of California at Berkeley, with texts by his wife, writer Melanie Light and
with a preface by Thomas Steinbeck, son of the famous author John Steinbeck (1902-
1968 ), author of the very famous book "The Grapes of Wrath", which narrates the
miseries of immigrants from the Dustbowl, who came west to the Central Valley of
California during the Great Depression of 1929-1930.

The misery of the laborers has not changed since then, according to the authors of the
book, although the laborers are not from Oklahoma anymore, as in Steinbeck's novel, but
primarily from Mexico.

And such misery has numbers: while a farm worker makes around $16,000 per year,
his/her labor contributes to a wealthy industry of $13 billions in the Valley (in 2002,
according to the American Farmland Trust.)

"Americans have a tradition of being innovators. That's why it seems so amazing that in
the Valley business continues as usual" said Melanie, referring to the labor situation and
the lives of farm workers.

Other photographs in the book show abandoned and empty housing developments, as if
they are suspended in time, places that were about to become homes or neighborhoods.
They were built hastily by developers during the height of the construction boom and
abandoned during the economic crisis in 2007.

These developments which encroached on the agricultural land, are now muted ghosts of
an illusion of the consumption and "progress" that spectacularly collapsed, affecting the
entire Valley and now the global community.

The book, "Valley of Dreams and Shadows" has 154 pages and over 110 beautifully
printed photos. It is not a collection of pictures accompanied by texts, but a careful and
critical photographic and written narrative essay that took five years to complete. The
authors also try to show the dreams of the inhabitants of the valley, and how things seem
not to change.

The forces that are opposed to social and political change didn't cahnge their point
of view with the appearance of the book."Here comes another photographer from an
enlightened metropolis to focus on the ills of the Valley. With sugarplum dreams of
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965, famous photojournalist who made portraits of peasants,
displaced and marginalized, including those in the Central Valley) and Grapes of
Wrath importance dancing through his head, Ken Light is ready to tell the world about
his ride on what a Fresno State photography professor calls the "poverty tourism
circuit," ... documenting the usual suspects of awfulness: poverty, environmental
degradation, vanishing cultures, home foreclosures, growing economic disparity...."
wrote Donald Munro, Entertainment columnist from The Fresno Bee on May 29 (http://
fresnobeehive.com/2012/05/our_valley_thro.html)

He admits not even having seen the book but does refer to the contents of the book
ironically in his article titled Our Valley Through the Eyes of a Stranger on the Fresno Bee web site. Public comments to this column were more measured and dignified than the text of Munro. One commentator invited Munro to attend the book launch and talk with the authors. The invitation came from Myrna Martinez Nateras, of the Pan Valley Institute (www.afsc.org), an organization that co-sponsored the book authors' visit to Fresno. Munro did not attend, nor did the newspaper, The Fresno Bee, cover the event. This attitude did not surprise the audience of about 50 people who attended the release of "Valley of Dreams and Shadows" in the local Fresno Arte Americas. Hugo Morales, director of Radio Bilingue (www.radiobilingue.org), and who moderated the dialogue between authors and the public, recounted his experience when he met with a senior executive of an agricultural business in the valley asking for a donation to an education project for the field workers. "They said no, it did not seem right that workers become educated because then they would leave the field and companies like ours need workers," said Morales. "They do not want anything to change here." This attitude of not changing anything was evident in the 90's, when the University of California looked at the possibility of building its tenth campus in Fresno, in the heart of the Valley. A team of "notables" evaluated the proposal and rejected it! Finally, in 1995, a new campus began to be built in Merced, 60 miles north of Fresno. How is it possible to reject such an idea in an area with high unemployment and low education? Surely because of the fear that our Valley might be seen by many strange eyes, such as Munro wrote about? These trends are reflected in all its complexity in the powerful images of Ken Light, who is no stranger to the Valley. His interest in documenting the lives of farm workers started in 1970, when he settled in the Bay from the East. At that time the farmworkers movement led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta was still intense. "It was an incredible story that I felt had to be documented," explains Ken. Through the years, he produced several books devoted to farm workers and immigrants in general "With These Hands" (1986) and "To the Promised Land" (1988) "I was working with Ken a few years ago, in Sinaloa, Mexico," said Morales. "The intensity of his art is incredible." The work behind the project, mostly invisible to the reader, is also intense. Melanie made several trips to the Valley and discovered issues that would lead them to the development of the book. She recalled her experience of seeing the birth and death records in Visalia in the local public library, while researching for an article about the photographer Hansel Mieth (1009-1998) who worked photographing in the valley during the Depression. The records showed the amazing ethnic diversity that even then was part of the fabric of Valley communities. On her drive home she found that this visit had piqued her interest and literally opened her eyes, she was no longer just another Coastal California driving down Highway 99, but a Californian citizen seeing many issues of the Valley in a new way and wanting to tell others, and delve into the myriad of important social issues that she discovered like water, undocumented workers, industrial agriculture, pollution, governance, democracy and who's in charge, all of which are written about in the book. Melanie and Ken also traveled to Fresno's City Hall to begin the book project on May 1st, 2006, the day of the national Immigration march, to photograph and interview documented and undocumented workers. Some of those images are also in the book. Melanie learned about the struggles of farmworkers throughout California's history, some little known, even in the Valley. For example after the Great Depression of 1929- 39, the laborers were receiving less than half the salary before the 30's economic crisis. "In 1933 and 1934 there was protests and strikes which at the end of, workers were able to get paid a little more," said Melanie. Then Ken compared the agricultural work with that of the coal miners, who dig up coal from the earth, and how the profit and wealth this created was enjoyed by others, and then the profits leave the area; and the workers and land is left impoverished. Their impressions and their sensitivity, reflected in some remarkable photos and text, cannot be the work of a stranger to the Valley and those who live here. Not surprisingly, the authors dedicated the book "To those who still live in the shadows but dream of justice." Valley of Dreams and Shadows is available for purchase here on Amazon.com.

?

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eduardo-stanley/valley-of-dreams-and-shadows-farmworkers-_b_1640992.html

judy garland

Mexican election could return old rulers to power

MEXICO CITY?? The party that ruled Mexico for most of the past century looked set for a comeback on Sunday as voters chose a new president, seeking an end to a brutal drug war and weak economic growth that have worn down the ruling conservatives.

Twelve years after the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost power, opinion polls showed its candidate, Enrique Pena Nieto, heading into the vote with a double-digit lead over his opponents despite lingering doubts about the party.

Tainted by corruption, electoral fraud and occasional bouts of brutal authoritarianism during its 71 years in power, the PRI was voted out in 2000. It has bounced back, helped by the economic malaise and a tide of lawlessness that have plagued Mexico under the conservative National Action Party, or PAN.

Pena Nieto, a youthful-looking former governor of the State of Mexico, has established himself as the new face of the PRI with the aid of favorable media coverage led by Mexico's most powerful broadcaster, Televisa.

Long lines of voters snaked around city blocks in the capital. The first national exit polls were expected when voting ends in the westernmost part of the country at 8 p.m.

"It's time for the PRI to return. They're the only ones who know how to govern," said Candelaria Puc, 70, preparing to vote in Cancun with the help of a friend because she cannot read or write.

"The PRI is tough, but they won't let the drug violence get out of control," she added, speaking in a mix of Mayan and Spanish.

After ending the PRI's rule in 2000, the PAN raised hopes high. But years of weak growth and the death of more than 55,000 people in drug-related killings since 2007 have eroded its popularity.

Violence continued in the days before Sunday's vote.

In the Pacific beach resort of Acapulco, one of the cities most affected by the drug war, four people were killed on Saturday, two of them tortured and beheaded, a hallmark of drug-related killings, Guerrero state police said.

The PRI mayoral candidate in the city of Marquelia, about 40 miles from Acapulco, was kidnapped by an armed group, prompting a protest of his supporters that closed a highway for five hours, a party leader said.

Bidding to become the country's first female president, PAN candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota was third in the polls.

Pena Nieto's closest challenger in pre-election polling was former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the front-runner for much of the 2006 race. Lopez Obrador ultimately lost by half a point to President Felipe Calderon of PAN and refused to accept defeat.

Claiming fraud, he led massive protests in the capital for weeks, bringing much of Mexico City to a standstill and alienating even some of his supporters.

Though his campaign bid surged late on when a wave student-led opposition to the PRI boosted his ratings, polls suggest Lopez Obrador will fall short of the 35 percent of votes he won in 2006.

"This is no time for the country to go in reverse," a relaxed Lopez Obrador said of the PRI before voting.

Final polls showed Pena Nieto winning 40 percent to 45 percent of the vote, Lopez Obrador close to 30 percent with Vazquez Mota not far behind. Gabriel Quadri, a fourth candidate competing for a smaller party, is expected to pick up a few percent. The one with the most votes wins, with no need for a second round.

Pena Nieto has seized on Calderon's failure to tame cartels with a military-led offensive, arguing the PRI's experience in power means it best understands how to restore peace to Mexico and reinvigorate the economy.

FEAR OF FRAUD
Lopez Obrador has in recent weeks sounded alarms about possible vote fraud, raising concerns he might call new street protests if he loses again.

His belligerence after 2006 exposed tensions within the main leftist grouping, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), although it has rallied behind him again for this campaign.

Though it has effective and popular control in Mexico City, the PRD's record outside the capital has been tainted by allegations of corruption and incompetence.

"It is important to stop the PRI coming back to power," said 22-year-old Rafael Peralta, a first-time voter. "They brutally repress protests and give handouts with conditions."

The PRI laid the foundations of the modern state with a nimble blend of politics and patronage that allowed it to appeal to labor unions and captains of industry at the same time.

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The party that nationalized the oil industry in 1938 also made sweeping free-market reforms in the 1990s and signed the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Canada, upholding a populist image while a small cadre of well-connected capitalists grew rich through effective oligopolies.

Mexicans eventually tired of the one-party rule that stifled dissent, rewarded loyalists and allowed widespread corruption.

The era of old-time PRI bosses known as "dinosaurs" gave way to a more democratic era under the 1994-2000 presidency of Ernesto Zedillo, who instituted reforms that allowed opposition parties to compete in a fair vote and oust the PRI.

On Sunday voters will also decide on six state governors and both houses of Congress, with gains expected for the PRI.

The legislative results will help determine whether Pena Nieto will be able to push through his plans to liberalize antiquated labor laws, improve the tax take and open up state oil giant Pemex to more private investment.

Financial investors are encouraged by Pena Nieto's reform agenda, which would be more friendly toward foreigners, and hold out hope he would promote well-educated technocrats like those who oversaw the economy during the PRI's later years in power.

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48033435/ns/world_news-americas/

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