WILLIAMS—The Northern Arizona Authors Association meets this Saturday, March 30 at 10 am. The meeting will be held at the Wild West Junction east of 1st Street on historic route 66 in Williams.
Monthly Archives: March 2013
Are Williams water woes washing away?
Kaibab Lake – 2012
This year two heavy snows seemed to have been helpful to the northern Arizona community in recovering from their water woes. At least for this year.
Ice forming on Santa Fe dam.
Over the hill, the dam at Buckskinner park started spilling over which is good news for the city. Buckskinner park opened for vehicle traffic today.
The old dam has been spilling over filling both ponds and creating a frog haven. This area has been dry the last two years.
On the fourteenth, Dogtown and Kaibab lakes were filling, but neither were to capacity. Ducks, however, took advantage of the rising lake by swimming in areas which, last year, were completely dry.
There is snow yet to melt and Williams residents know that they can expect snow through May. The current long range forecast, in fact, shows a chance of rain Friday and the possibility of snow above 6800 feet on Monday. Lows at night are expected to be in the lower 30s with temperatures rising to the lower 60s throughout the rest of the week.
Virus vial missing from Galveston lab
GALVESTON, Texas (AP) – Officials say a vial containing a virus that can cause hemorrhagic fever has gone missing from a research facility in Galveston, but say there’s no reason to believe there’s a threat to the public.
The University of Texas Medical Branch said Saturday that there was no breach in the security its Galveston National Laboratory and no indication of wrongdoing. Officials suspect the missing vial containing the Guanarito virus was destroyed during the lab’s cleaning process but the investigation continues.
Read more at FOX Houston
Get that tune out of your head – scientists find how to get rid of earworms
They are the songs you cannot get out of your head. Now scientists may have found a way to help anyone plagued by those annoying tunes that lodge themselves inside our heads and repeat on an endless loop.
Researchers claim the best way to stopping the phenomenon, sometimes known as earworms – where snippets of a catchy song inexplicably play like a broken record in your brain – is to solve some tricky anagrams.
This can force the intrusive music out of your working memory, they say, allowing it to be replaced with other more amenable thoughts.
But they also warn not to try anything too difficult as those irritating melodies may wiggle their way back into your consciousness.
For those unwilling to carry around a book of anagrams, a good novel may also do the trick.
Read more at The Telegraph
And you thought the Obama Executive Order privileged was bad.
There has been much todo about the abuse of the presidential executive order and, perhaps, rightly so. The regular old trustworthy media outlets will let you know it is much todo about nothing.
Executive orders were intended to inform the employees how they are to carry out the laws created by the Legislative branch (Congress). They were not to be used to circumvent those laws or create laws as they have been used by recent presidents.
But how would you feel if the employee of your employee could write their own “executive orders” with full force of law:
“…punishable as a Class B misdemeanor by a fine of not more than $5,000.00 for individuals and $10,000.00 for organizations, or imprisonment for not more than six (6) months, or both.”
Such is the case with Executive Order Number: 04-13-04-R by M. Earl Stewart of the Coconino National Forest, “Done at Flagstaff, Arizona this 13th day of March, 2013..”
The order is to prevent people from “Possessing or using a bicycle off of National Forest System Roads or trails in the restricted areas.” Those new restricted areas are as follows:
1.Schnebly Hill Area: SR89A to the west, Caner Canyon to the north, Schnebly Hill Road to the east and south.
2.Transept Area: Junction of Verde Valley School Road and Forest boundary in Section 11, then north to junction with Templeton Trail, then east to switchbacks next to private property, then further east to SR179, then south along SR179 to Forest boundary, then west to Verde Valley School Road.
3.Scheurman Mt. – Airport Area: Junction of Lower Red Rock Loop Road and Forest boundary in Section 28 west and north along Lower Red Rock Loop Road to SR89A, then east to Sedona High School and then east along boundary with private/Forest boundary north of Carroll Canyon, continuing east along private boundary north of the Sedona Airport to Brewer Road, then southwest generally following Oak Creek along Forest/private boundary to junction of Ridge Trail with Chavez Ranch Road, follow Chavez Ranch Road west to Upper Red Rock Loop Road, and then west to connect with Lower Red Rock Loop Road.
4.Possessing or using a bike is permitted ONLY in the following slickrock locations that are within the restricted areas, adjacent to a designated trail: Cow Pies, upper and lower Hangover saddles, slickrock between Hiline Saddle and “the Hiline chute”, slickrock bench above Yavapai Vista, and slickrock bench at junction of Templeton and Cathedral Rock trails.
Oh, unless you work for the “forest service” in which case you can drive vehicles of any kind throughout the forest or whatever as long as it is in the performance of your duty.
“This order is needed to prevent impacts to the highly erosive soils, Oak Creek water quality, archaeological sites, and the Casner Canyon RNA resulting from bicycle use off of National Forest system roads and trails,” the order claims.
Doggone bicycles! Ruining nature. I knew you were evil.
The fact that this can be done by a bureaucratic employee is disturbing enough. But according to a recent press release concerning HB 2551, Game and Fish Director Larry Voyles said, “[C]urrently state law says that if a federal entity establishes regulations related to roads, trails, routes and closed areas, they are automatically codified by Arizona state law and if a person operates outside the parameters of the federal regulation, that individual is automatically in violation of state law.”
That means that this Executive Order enjoys full coverage of Arizona State Law. This means that an employee of the employee of our national government can willey-nilley make a law completely bypassing that nasty old Tenth Amendment, the rights of the citizens of Arizona with no due interference from our State Legislature—not to mention in complete violation of the Constitution of the United States of America. And the State employee of the national employee of the national employee has to enforce it. And all without having to file one campaign finance report.
Get it?
Senator Chester Crandell and The Arizona Game and Fish Commission support the bill, “…but the commissions support is contingent on changes that will be offered by the commission allowing the State of Arizona to decide which federal rules and regulations will become enforceable by state wildlife officers under state law.”
By the way, we are not referring to any old H.B. 2551,
“Amending title 6, Arizona Revised Statutes, by adding chapter 18; providing for the delayed repeal of title 6, chapter 18, Arizona Revised Statutes, as added by this act; relating to financial institutions.”
We are referring to the new and improved H.B. 2551 “strike all” amendment that would,
“Strike everything after the enacting clause and insert:
“Section 1. Section 28-1174, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:
28-1174. Operation restrictions; violation; classification
&tc., &tc., ad nauseam.
You’re welcome. If we can confuse you any more, then we should be getting a check from George Soros.
Korean propaganda video depicts attacks on U.S. with nucs
Recently a comical version of North Korean propaganda was posted on the Internet going viral. The propaganda film was real, depicting the life of the citizens of the United States, but the Internet video contained a British voice-over.
Less comical is the recent video published on a “semi-official” site in Korea. The video shows weapons on parade, being fired and Washington in the crosshairs with a slick Hollywood-style soundtrack.
Western analysts suspect that nations like North Korea and Iran do not have the capability to strike the United States, yet. It is unclear if and when either nation will ever acquire the capability.
Propaganda films such as this, however, may spark debate over the wisdom of drawing down our own nuclear arsenal while other nations are not.
Marine kills two at Quantico base, takes own life
WASHINGTON | Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:04pm EDT
(Reuters) – A Marine shot dead two fellow service members at a base in Quantico, Virginia, then killed himself, the Marines said on Friday.
The shootings took place late on Thursday near the officer candidate school at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, and all three people who died were active-duty Marines, base commander Colonel David Maxwell said.
“The shooter, an active-duty Marine, was pronounced dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound by law enforcement at the scene,” he told a news conference carried by local media.
Maxwell gave no motive for the shooting and an investigation is under way. The two slain Marines, a man and a woman, were permanent personnel assigned to the officers school, as was the shooter, he said.
Read more at Reuters News
Heavy metal gets attention of the Arizona House.
PHOENIX—Republican representative Thomas Forese has introduced two pieces of legislation aimed at metal theft.
HB 2261 would amend the criminal code of the ARS 13-1820 concerning the theft of metals. A person would commit metal theft if “without lawful authority” the person knowingly:
1. Controls ferrous metal or nonferrous metal that is the property of another with the intent to deprive the other person of the metal.
2. Obtains ferrous metal or nonferrous metal that is the property of another by means of any material misrepresentation with intent to deprive the other person of the metal.
3. Comes into control of lost, mislaid or misdelivered ferrous metal or nonferrous metal that is the property of another under circumstances providing means of inquiry as to the true owner and appropriates the metal to the person’s own or another’s use without reasonable efforts to notify the true owner.
4. Controls ferrous metal or nonferrous metal that is the property of another knowing that the metal was stolen.
5. Unless acquired in the ordinary course of business by an automotive recycler or a scrap metal dealer, the inferences listed in section 13‑2305 apply to any prosecution under subsection A, paragraph 4 of this section.
Ferrous metal is defined as metals that will attract a metal while non-ferrous metal will not.
For the purposes of prosecution, the value of the metal would include the damage to the property from which the metal was stolen which occurs during the theft.
As an additional means of combating metal theft, the Legislator has also introduced HB 2262 which would amend sections of ARS Title 44 relating to the licensing and record keeping of scrap dealers in Arizona.
Currently scrap dealers are required to register with the Department of Public Safety and keep records of any transactions they make in metals exceeding $25. The new law would require them to keep records of all transactions.
It would also add certain records that scrap dealers must keep. It would also allow cities and counties to add regulations aimed at recovering the cost of enforcing this law.
DPS would also be required to submit a report every two years to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House identifying all scrap dealers in the State of Arizona. All law enforcement officer in the state to register with a free web site that would send detailed descriptions of stolen items to scrap metal dealers and other law enforcement agencies within 100 miles of the theft.
Senate Bill seeks to change vanity plates
PHOENIX—There are currently three bills for new vanity plates working their way through the Senate.
SB 1116 Creates a disabled veteran special plate if $32,000 is paid for its implementation to ADOT by December 31, 2013.
SB 1343 Creates a Girls’ Youth Organization special plate (GYO plate) if $32,000 is paid for its implementation to ADOT by December 31, 2013
SB 2025 Creates a Fallen Hero special plate if $32,000 is paid for its implementation to ADOT by December 31, 2013.
If Democrat Steve Farley has his way, they will take a new shape. In response to complaints that officers complaining about the difficulty seeing the letters, the Senator has introduced SB 1206. The bill would change 24-2405 to read:
A special plate issued pursuant to this article shall have a standard design with one area on the plate that is a three inch square that is set aside for a logo or message. The department shall determine the standard design of the special plate, and the logo or message is subject to the approval of the department. This section applies to all special plates that are authorized pursuant to this article after the effective date of this section.
The Senator has also introduced SB 1198 which is aimed at preventing obscuring the readablity of license plates with coatings or electronic means. The Bill would add Paragraph D to ARS 28-2354 reading:
Unless authorized by the department, a person shall not apply a covering or any substance to the license plate or use an electronic device or electrochromatic film that obscures from any angle the numbers, characters, year validating tabs or name of the jurisdiction issuing the plate.
While there is a penalty for covering up the name of the State on a license plate, the bill does not appear to provide a penalty for violating the proposed provision.
Court sides with student in case over textbooks
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that textbooks and other goods made and sold abroad can be re-sold online and in discount stores without violating U.S. copyright law.
In a 6-3 opinion, the court threw out a copyright infringement award to publisher John Wiley & Sons against Thai graduate student Supap Kirtsaeng, who used eBay to resell copies of the publisher’s copyrighted books that his relatives first bought abroad at cut-rate prices.
Justice Stephen Breyer said in his opinion for the court that once goods are sold lawfully, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere, publishers and manufacturers lose the protection of U.S. copyright law.
“We hold that the ‘first sale’ doctrine applies to copies of a copyrighted work lawfully made abroad,” Breyer said.
Had the court come out the other way, it would have crimped the sale of many goods sold online and in discount stores, and it would have complicated the tasks of museums and libraries that contain works produced outside the United States, Breyer said. Retailers told the court that more than $2.3 trillion worth of foreign goods were imported in 2011, and that many of these goods were bought after they were first sold abroad, he said.
Read more at Yahoo! News