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Wildlands Network

Where the Buffalo Roam…But You Can’t

By John C. Street, 9/8/2009 – Today, there is land aplenty for the buffalo to roam, for eagles to soar and for those of us who cling to hunting and fishing as a sacred way of life. However, unknown to many in the hunting and fishing community there is a document titled “Agenda 21” that spells out action plans for doing away with hunting and fishing and curtailing access to public land.

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Private Property

A Major Property Rights Advance Plus An Astonishing Exchange By The Fifth Circuit Court Of Appeals

By Ronald A. Zumbrun, 6/17/2009 – Ever since 2005 when the United States Supreme Court ruled in Kelo v. Town of New London, Connecticut, there has been heightened attention paid to the Constitution’s protection of private property rights. The Kelo Court held that the government’s power of eminent domain was so great that it could take one person’s private property for another’s private economic gain. The Court chose to rewrite our nation’s Constitution by substituting public “purpose” for public “use.” The purpose here was to improve the tax base.

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Climate Change

United Nations ICLEI and The City of Spokane

By Edwin X. Berry, Ph.D, 5/11/2009 – Spokane, WA signed onto the United Nations International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) Climate Protection Campaign in 2001. Since then, the city has spent money, resources and time attempting to comply with the requirements of ICLEI. The rationale for the program was to comply with the United Nations sponsored Kyoto Protocol to reduce GHG emissions. The City of Spokane assumed that the United Nations IPCC made truthful statements about the effects of GHG emissions and especially carbon dioxide emissions on the earth’s climate. We now know without a shadow of doubt that the UN IPCC lied and is still lying about the effects of our carbon dioxide and other GHG emissions on climate.

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Articles

Moving “California Forward” to Higher Taxes?

By James Anderson Merritt, 4/21/2009 – A group dedicated to reforming California government tested its taxation and revenue proposals before a supposedly “friendly audience” at a facilitated “Town Hall” consensus-building meeting in Santa Cruz in mid-March, 2009. They encountered surprising resistance, even from a room filled primarily with self-identified “liberals,” as it dawned on attendees that the proposals would at least grease the skids for higher taxes. Time will tell whether that resistance is echoed or amplified in subsequent meetings held in the Fresno area and Los Angeles.

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Articles

California Backward?

By Andrea Sanchez, 4/21/2009 – Santa Cruz County Treasurer-Tax Collector Fred Keeley is at the helm of a movement to repeal Proposition 13 and the 2/3 voting supermajority required for tax increases. The mantra is crisis, crisis, crisis and the claim is that a new organization called "California Forward" can fix it. This use of crisis is meant to scare voters into agreeing to increased taxes.

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Private Property

HR 875 and SB 425 Threaten Farms, Ranches and Vegetable Gardens

By Leonard Galley, 4/1/2009 – Farmers, ranchers, and backyard gardeners, House Resolution 875 and Senate 425 are bad laws.  They are being promoted as “food safety” laws that in reality will drive the small farm and ranch right out of business.  [Note: Snopes.com denies these bills are a threat.  Snopes is not a reliable source for this type of information – the farmers in Klamath Falls, Oregon are.]   […]

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Illegitimate Government

Native American Tracey Mease’s Story

By Ronald A. Zumbrun, 3/25/2009 –

Tracey Mease is a Native American and true lineal Robinson Rancheria Tribe member as well as a citizen of the United States.  On
December 5, 2008, the leaders of the tribe disenrolled her and other selected members of the tribe without due process, equal protection, any hearing, or right to representation.  The question remains whether the U.S. federal courts, backed by the U.S. Constitution, will step in and protect Tracey’s rights. This would be a precedent-setting issue.



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Santa Cruz County

Two Steps Forward and One Step Back

By Michael Shaw, 9/11/2008 –

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors is preparing to issue a water moratorium in South County on well drilling and new construction water hook ups. This action is a direct result of successful litigation that eliminated the Pajaro Valley’s illegal tax imposed on farmers for the water withdrawn from their own wells. The water agency now owes tens of millions in reimbursement that it cannot pay.

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