Fed Showdown In Nevada Over Desert Tortoise

[burntheships]

A major development in the showdown at the Bundy ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada -- Possible deal is in the works.

This would be the best possible outcome IMO,
one that never would have happened without the support
offered from people showing up and gaining national
attention from many Law Enforcement, and Elected Officials.

The I-Team has learned that a tentative deal has been brokered by Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie to de-escalate the tense standoff between rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters and the Bureau of Land Management.

Sources tell the I-Team that Sheriff Gillespie has negotiated a potential agreement in which the BLM would halt its roundup of Bundy's cattle and withdraw its employees from the Gold Butte area.

The BLM wants to proceed with the sale of the cattle already gathered during the roundup but is reportedly willing to share the revenue from the sale with Bundy.
http://www.8newsnow.com/story/25230368/major-development-in-bunkerville-cattle-battle-between-cliven-bundy-and-blm

[burntheships]

Update:
BREAKING NEWS: BLM ends roundup of Bundy cattle

LAS VEGAS -- The Bureau of Land Management has announced it will stop the roundup of cattle owned by rancher Cliven Bundy. The BLM says the animals have been illegally grazing on public lands for 20 years.

The BLM made the announcement Saturday morning, a week after rangers started gathering the animals from land near Gold Butte.

The agency says it is concerned about the safety of its employees and the public. Earlier this week, BLM officers and supporters of the Bundy family were involved in a scuffle. Cliven Bundy's son, Ammon Bundy, was tased twice by federal agents. Another woman said she was thrown to the ground by an officer.

With more Bundy supporters pouring in from around the country, safety concerns began to grow.


http://www.8newsnow.com/story/25230368/major-development-in-bunkerville-cattle-battle-between-cliven-bundy-and-blm

[zorgon]

My faith in Nevada hath been restored

on a side note... I am now on George Knapp's friend list at FB

[zorgon]

"The BLM wants to proceed with the sale of the cattle already gathered during the roundup but is reportedly willing to share the revenue from the sale with Bundy."

A first in Cattle Rustling history   LOL The Rustler willing to share part of the profits of the theft

[burntheships]

A first in Cattle Rustling history   LOL The Rustler willing to share part of the profits of the theft

Yep.. how many Water Towers did they destroy,
as you had mentioned he bought the water rights long ago?

[Gigas]

This land grab is reminiscent of a time back 1980s when the California cabazon Indians who numbered only around 20, were used by the whackenhut security front of the us government for a secret weapons development base.

They had an Indian casino with some very covert and bizarre non tribal characters involved. This was around the time the PROMIS software was heisted away from inslaw by government agents and a very strange character named Micheal Reconisuito re coded back doors in the software before being sold to world governments.

An agent for the government named Jimmy Hughes who was the tribal casino non tribal security director along with an even more stranger fellow named Nichols, appeared to run the place and the secret operations going on in the desert of Joshua tree.

Turned out the ex tribal leader named Alvarez was murdered one sunny afternoon in his patio while having drinks with two friends who, for just being there, were killed also, all shot execution style. The reason being, tribal leader Albert Alvarez was against the secret cabal operating in the tribes territory.

The triple murder went unsolved for decades but a daughter of one person killed there refused to stop looking for the killer. Turned out to be an ex military ranger gone all god smacked and skipped the country to Honduras to start anew and open a ministry of god. Jimmy was still a killer though and when he slipped into Miami he was picked up and brought to trial.

Jimmy Hughes admitted he did it and they let him go. Thats justice in america.

So now we know this land has military value exceeding the rights of people who been there for a century.

Seeing all this unfold, imagine if you can how the Indians felt back in the 1800s as it was taken from them and they were killed for acting like they owned it after being residents for centuries before the white man came, saw and decided to take it all.

Ironic isn't it, were seeing that exact same event occurring once again

[burntheships]

@Gigas, good points.
You might like this video by Russell Means




Now....an update from The Bundy Ranch.

BREAKING NEWS:

The BLM Have left where they were staying! They then let the Cattle released! They are moving towards the Ranch this very instant, WE WANT TO THANK YOU VERY VERY VERY MUCH!

https://www.facebook.com/bundyranch

[zorgon]

The patriots at the Bundy Ranch are an example of what all Americans should do. STAND FOR YOUR FREEDOM, STAND AGAINST A CORRUPT GOVERNMENT, AND STAND FOR WHAT MADE AMERICA GREAT! ~ Defend Freedom


Welcome to Nevada!!!!

[thorfourwinds]

The above David Blackmon story has already been scrubbed from all Forbes sites.   

However:

(photo: courtesy Catholic.org)

» Breaking: Sen. Harry Reid Behind BLM Land Grab of Bundy Ranch

Kit Daniels
Infowars.com
April 11, 2014

The Bureau of Land Management, whose director was Sen. Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) former senior adviser, has purged documents from its web site stating that the agency wants Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's cattle off of the land his family has worked for over 140 years in order to make way for solar panel power stations.

Corrupt Democratic Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) working with the Chinese gov't to take land from hard-working Americans.


Deleted from BLM.gov but reposted for posterity by the Free Republic, the BLM document entitled "Cattle Trespass Impacts" directly states that Bundy's cattle "impacts" solar development, more specifically the construction of "utility-scale solar power generation facilities" on "public lands."

"Non-Governmental Organizations have expressed concern that the regional mitigation strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone utilizes Gold Butte as the location for offsite mitigation for impacts from solar development, and that those restoration activities are not durable with the presence of trespass cattle," the document states.

The first segment of the document pulled by the feds from BLM.gov.

Another moronic, self-serving 'law' coming to light that is designed for one thing: screw We, The People.

2. What is off-site mitigation and does SRMP fit?

Off-site mitigation is covered under current BLM policy and consists of compensating for resource impacts by replacing or providing substitute resources or habitat at a different location than the project area.

Off-site mitigation is supplemental to on-site mitigation and is used to enhance the BLM's ability to fulfill its mission of providing multiple uses on the public lands, while ensuring its resource management objectives are met.

Solar regional mitigation planning for SEZs [Solar Energy Zones) would be considered a strategic approach to off-site mitigation, one that specifically identifies compensation priorities based on landscape-level or other ecological, recreation, or socioeconomic objectives.

Any off-site mitigation and compensation, including regional mitigation planning for SEZs, would be triggered only for unavoidable impacts that could not be measurably avoided or minimized to an acceptably low significance level. source

Another BLM report entitled "Regional Mitigation Strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone" (BLM Technical Note 444) reveals that Bundy's land in question is within the "Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone and surrounding area" which is part of a broad U.S. Department of Energy program for "Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States" on land "managed" by BLM.

"In 2012, the BLM and the U.S. Department of Energy published the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States," the report reads. "The Final Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement assessed the impact of utility-scale solar energy development on public lands in the six southwestern states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah."


"The Approved Resource Management Plan Amendments/Record of Decision (ROD) for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States implemented a comprehensive solar energy program for public lands in those states and incorporated land use allocations and programmatic and SEZ-specific design features into land use plans in the six-state study area."

Back in 2012, the New American reported that Harry Reid's son, Rory Reid, was the chief representative for a Chinese energy firm planning to build a $5-billion solar plant on public land in Laughlin, Nevada.

ENN Energy Group, a clean-energy firm that manufactures a range of renewable-energy products, is seeking to construct its solar panel facility on a 9,000-acre stretch of land on a Clark County desert plot.

The controversy stems from the fact that Clark County officials voted to sell ENN the public land for $4.5 million, a figure startlingly below the $38.6-million appraisal.

Move along, sheeple. Nothing going on here...business as usual. 


After more than two years of secret negotiations beginning in 2009, lawmakers in Clark County, Nevada, unanimously agreed to sell 9,000 acres of public land to ENN for the bargain price of just $4.5 million ($500 per acre) in December 2011.


This is where they commit perjury.

Both Rory and his father have since denied having ever discussed the $5-billion deal. A spokeswoman for Sen. Reid, Kristen Orthman, insisted that he'd never deliberated over the project with his son. Rory Reid added, "I have never discussed the project with my father or his staff."

Too bad perjury is not punishable as treason.


To expedite the project, ENN recruited Nevada's largest and most renowned law firm, Lionel Sawyer & Collins, where Rory Reid works. 

Moreover, Richard Bryan, who has an extensive history in the state's political system — a former Nevada governor, attorney general, and U.S. senator — heads the Chinese energy firm.

"Senator Reid has actually gone to China, has actually had visits with the chairman of ENN, the entire global enterprise, has actually taken a look at some of their developments there," Bryan said of Reid's involvement. "It would seem to me that Senator Reid would exercise his persuasive powers on behalf of the state of Nevada."

Wang's company wants to build a 720-megawatt solar farm, research park, and thin-film solar panel manufacturing facility in southern Nevada, and has said it expects to spend between $4 billion and $6 billion on the project. That is at least half the $8 billion ENN plans to invest in green energy in the United States over the next decade.

The proposed project, titled the Mohave Green Center, will feature a 93,000-square-metre factory with the capacity to manufacture 5.4 million silicon thin-film panels a year from its six production lines. The adjoining power plant will be built in two 360MW phases, using modules from the factory. Capital investment in the project is expected to total somewhere between US$4 billion and US$6 billion.

Due to its close proximity to Nevada's borders with California and Arizona, as well as to several substations, the plant is ideally situated to take advantage of several lucrative consumer markets. However, ENN's representative, the former US Senator and Nevada governor Richard Bryan, has already stated that while no power purchase agreement has been signed for the project, Nevada utility NV Energy first will have first refusal; around 100MW of capacity will also be used to run the factory.

One potential stumbling block for ENN is the title restriction on land earmarked for development that forbids it being used for industrial or energy-related purposes.

Although Bryan believes that with the help of the US Senate and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar this particular obstacle can be overcome.  souce


The project is threatened, however, because NV Energy—Nevada's largest utility provider—has said it is not in the market for renewable energy at this time, citing the higher costs of solar power and the fact that it has already exceeded the state-mandated quota for renewable sources through 2014.

Reid has responded by badmouthing NV Energy and threatening to have one of its coal-fired power plants shut down.



As reported, the ENN deal ignited a heated controversy, mainly because separate appraisals valued the plot of land at $29.6 million and $38.6 million, tens of millions of dollars more than the selling price.

However, the county commissioners drafted a series of conditions that must be met before the project can launch, including achievements in job creation and investment, and a provision stating that ENN must have a power company committed to purchasing energy from the new plant.

The latter requirement has been the primary obstacle — then, Harry Reid stepped in.
The Nevada senator recently initiated an online discussion, purportedly to address his annual energy summit, as an effort to persuade NV Energy, the state's largest utility company, to ink a deal as ENN's first customer.

In the July 30 forum, Reid asserted that construction on the project "would start tomorrow if NV Energy would purchase the power." The power company controls "95 percent of all of the electricity that is produced in Nevada and they should go along with this," he added.

(photo courtesy WesternJournalism.com)

And journalist Marcus Stern with Reuters also reported that Sen. Reid was heavily involved in the deal as well.

"[Reid] and his oldest son, Rory, are both involved in an effort by a Chinese energy giant, ENN Energy Group, to build a $5 billion solar farm and panel manufacturing plant in the southern Nevada desert," he wrote. "Reid has been one of the project's most prominent advocates, helping recruit the company during a 2011 trip to China and applying his political muscle on behalf of the project in Nevada."

"His son, a lawyer with a prominent Las Vegas firm that is representing ENN, helped it locate a 9,000-acre (3,600-hectare) desert site that it is buying well below appraised value from Clark County, where Rory Reid formerly chaired the county commission."

ENN is headed by Chinese energy tycoon Wang Yusuo, who made a fortune estimated by Forbes at $2.2 billion distributing natural gas in China. Wang escorted Reid and a delegation of nine other U.S. senators on a tour of the company's clean energy operations in Langfang, and Reid featured Wang as a speaker at his 4th annual National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas last year.


Although these reports are in plain view, the mainstream media has so far ignored this link.

The BLM's official reason for encircling the Bundy family with sniper teams and helicopters was to protect the endangered desert tortoise, which the agency has previously been killing in mass due to "budget constraints."

700 – 840 endangered tortoises face BLM euthanization "because that's the sensible thing to do."

» Before Nevada Cattle Rancher Standoff, BLM Killed Off Hundreds of Endangered Tortoises

[...] All of this illustrates how the BLM's dispute with Mr. Bundy has nothing to do with saving or protecting tortoises (most of which were given to the facility by people who owned them as pets, and which the BLM is either killing or releasing into the wild – animals raised in captivity don't usually fare well in the wild) as they claim, and everything to do with making an example out of Mr. Bundy for having the gall to stand up for his property, bullying him into submission by brute force.

"A tortoise isn't the reason why BLM is harassing a 67 year-old rancher; they want his land," journalist Dana Loesch wrote.

"The tortoise wasn't of concern when [U.S. Senator] Harry Reid worked with BLM to literally change the boundaries of the tortoise's habitat to accommodate the development of his top donor, Harvey Whittemore."

"Reid is accused of using the new BLM chief as a puppet to control Nevada land (already over 84% of which is owned by the federal government) and pay back special interests," she added.

"BLM has proven that they've a situational concern for the desert tortoise as they've had no problem waiving their rules concerning wind or solar power development.

Clearly these developments have vastly affected a tortoise habitat more than a century-old, quasi-homesteading grazing area."

"If only Cliven Bundy were a big Reid donor."

Update: The Drudge Report, the #1 news aggregate site in the world, has now picked up this story. Unfortunately for the BLM, the documents they wanted to delete are now exposed for the world to see.

Update #2: ENN Energy Group describes itself as a "privately-owned clean energy distributor in China." However, as the People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party, all large companies in China, one way or the other, are either controlled or are heavily influenced by the Chinese government.

[burntheships]

"If only Cliven Bundy were a big Reid donor."

Maybe after this Nevada will send Harry Reid a message:
Go Home Harry! Afterall he has been in the Senate since 1987,
and has forgot he is there to serve the people!

Send Harry packin his bags!

And now....to show how dastardly corrupt the BLM
really is...they have killed hundreds of
Desert Tortoise claiming they did not have enough
money to keep them alive!

Hogwash!

The U.S. U.S. Bureau of Land Management auctioned off 29 land leases in Elko County, Nev for shale development!

Thursday, March 14, 2013 8:38 am

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Buyers snapped up 29 federal land leases totaling more than 56 square miles in a northeastern Nevada area.

This could become the state's first oil shale fracking site.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management geologist Lorenzo Trimble tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal the Elko County oil and gas leases sold Tuesday for $1.27 million to six different companies.
http://m.shalereporter.com/industry/article_0de547ba-8ca4-11e2-ab4e-0019bb30f31a.html

"
The way this works, of course, is that BLM runs land theft operations by claiming they are "managing" the land and thereby kicking everyone else off it. They then invoke a reptile, an owl, a bird, a snake or some other animal which they claim to be "saving," even while they are stealing and destroying hundreds of cattle belonging to a private rancher trying to make an honest living in a nation where productive Americans are increasingly branded "enemies of the state."

Once control of the land is established via court order or by bringing armed men with automatic weapons, BLM then turns around and leases the land to fracking companies who proceed to exploit the land using hydraulic fracturing techniques that inject toxic chemicals into groundwater supplies (and have been linked to earthquakes). The money collected by the BLM is then used to increase BLM salaries and bonuses.

In essence, the BLM is a criminal mafia racket, and Cliven Bundy just happened to be in the way of their next target, the Gold Butte area of Nevada. That is why they brought hundreds of heavily armed men to a "save the tortoise" operation.
http://www.naturalnews.com/044670_BLM_lies_fracking_leases_Bundy_ranch.html#

"

[burntheships]

"Funny how the government will arrest cows for trespassing but not illegal aliens."

https://www.facebook.com/bundyranch

[thorfourwinds]

(JERRY HENKEL/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL)

In addition to Reid's and his son's questionable affairs with the ENN project, the Nevada senator has had other dubious political dealings within the clean-energy sector. American solar firm Amonix, for example, recently slipped into financial disarray after receiving $6 million in federal tax credits and a $15.6-million grant in 2007 for research and development.
 
Amazingly, the company is only 16 months old, without any track record of success, yet it received a multi-million-dollar, taxpayer-funded jackpot. Many critics asked why. In a July article, the Las Vegas Review-Journal offered this answer:

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Gov. Brian Sandoval were among the political leaders who lauded the company when it announced it would start making solar panels in the Golden Triangle Industrial Park.

Reid in particular has pushed for solar energy research and development in Nevada, drawing parallels between the value of Nevada sunshine and Saudi Arabian oil.

DOE-Loan Programs Office » Nevada Geothermal Power Company, Inc. (Blue Mountain)

Of course, Amonix was not the only Nevada-based green energy project to lurch into financial ruin. Nevada Geothermal, a renewable energy company that secured a $98-million federal loan guarantee, acknowledged in an SEC filing this summer that "material uncertainties exist which cast significant doubt upon the company's ability to continue as a going concern."

Similar to his dealings with Amonix, Sen. Reid was largely instrumental in securing government support for Nevada Geothermal. In fact, according to the New York Times, Reid "pressur[ed] the Department of Interior to move more quickly on applications to build clean energy projects on federally owned land and urg[ed] other member of Congress to expand federal tax incentives to help build geothermal plants, benefits that Nevada Geothermal has taken advantage of."

And now, it seems Sen. Reid's political status has influenced not only the green-energy agendas in his state but the financial interests of Nevada's largest law firm — where it just so happens his son is employed. source 

A federal court has ordered rancher Cliven Bundy to remove his cattle from land managed by the Bureau of Land Management in central Nevada. He refuses to do so. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times / August 20, 2013)


Bundy Ranch, the Federal Government, and the Nevada Water Tipping Point

April 12, 2014
By Monica Morrill

Many Americans have been watching with great consternation the ongoing struggle between the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Marshals against Cliven Bundy and his family. There are no signs of either side relinquishing their position. Many onlookers have been informed that this dispute is over protecting the desert tortoise. But it is nothing of the sort. In fact, the reality of the dispute goes far underneath what is being talked about.

The more appropriate source of the dispute is ground water as well as surface water -- this is a war over water.

Cliven Bundy and his family claim that they can trace their family ownership back to around the 1870s on their current property in Clark County. This is well before any Federal offices such as the EPA, BLM, or water management were created.

This corresponds with the Homestead rights that were established during the Lincoln administration in 1862 to entice people to settle the western frontier and expand the U.S. agricultural enterprises. This 19th-century policy was meant to encourage and support settlement by families like the Bundys.

Now, over 150 years later, what seemed to be borderless country surrounding small-town Bunkerville in Nevada is an inhospitable petri dish for the experiments of growing Federal regulations.


The Bundy Ranch "VO" is now the the last large cattle ranch standing in Clark County. 

According to an anonymous source who has lived in Nevada for thirty-five years, the other major ranches in Clark County have been driven out of existence for one reason or another by the BLM and the Feds.

It is claimed that the BLM are masquerading as conservationists, using their Federal power to wield the final blow to reclaim the settlement rights they once honored to settlers like the Bundys.
For two decades, Bundy has waged a one-man range war with federal officials over his cattle's grazing on 150 square miles of scrub desert overseen by the BLM.

Since 1993, he's refused to pay BLM grazing fees, arguing in court filings that his Mormon ancestors worked the land long before the BLM was formed, giving him rights that predate federal involvement. (BLM claims he owes more that $1 million.)

Bundy also likes to say he "fired the BLM," vowing not to give one dime to an agency that he says is plotting his demise. The back fees exceed $300,000, he said.


FYI: There were 470,000 cattle and 29,000 dairy cows in Nevada in 2012, the state Agriculture Department reports.

Follow the Money
The real wealth is in the water to support the plush green golf courses, and surrounding housing developments, gleaming swimming pools, and other demands by hotels and households in Las Vegas, Arizona, and Southern California.

The same anonymous source claims that there has been a pattern of behavior: land in Clark County has been targeted as property that the BLM can use; the BLM makes an offer to buy the property from the owner (prices vary but it can be a very low market price); the BLM purchases the land; the property is then stripped of the water rights; and the land is resold without the right to water resources.

But what good is a farm or ranch without water?

In other words, the BLM is not only driving out the cattle, the cattle rancher, and potentially any wildlife that depends on the riparian environment. The BLM is setting up a situation whereby the surrounding small towns will also go extinct.

The BLM's actions are ensuring that no one will return to the area.

Although Nevada Senator Dean Heller has issued a public statement about his concern over the handling of the Bundy family case, he has not elaborated on the water issue.

The author made several attempts to reach Heller's Communications Director regarding the importance of water related to this case, but there was no response from Senator Heller's office. (UPDATE: See "Heller" below.)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has kept his official statement simple over the past few days. Senator Reid, "hopes that the transpassing of cattle are rounded up safely so the issue can be resolved."   

While it is not clear exactly what "transpassing" means, what is more obvious is that some in the media have overlooked the small detail that the head of the Bureau of Land Management, a division of the Department of Interior, is Neil Kornze, who was also the former Senior Policy Advisor to Senator Reid from 2003 to 2011. Mr. Kornze has served as the BLM Principal Deputy Director for a little over a year until the U.S. Senate confirmed him as the Director of the BLM a few days ago.

Kornze was a key player in the development of the Western Solar Plan and the agency's successful authorization of more than 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy, surpassing a congressionally-established goal 3 years ahead of schedule. He has also been active in tribal consultation, especially as it relates to oil and gas and renewable energy development.

On April 8th, three days ago, Senator Reid posted the following press release on his website:
"I'm pleased that the Senate confirmed Neil Kornze as the Director of the Bureau of Land Management today. Neil is just perfect for this position. Raised in Elko, Nevada, Neil really understands the role of public lands in rural America, and natural resources across the West."

Senator Reid continued, "His expertise is going to be invaluable to the Bureau of Land Management. I have every bit of confidence that Neil Kornze will be the best director we have ever had at BLM and I wish him success in this role."

Furthermore, it might be coincidental that the problems with the Bundy cattle ranching began in 1993, the same year Patricia Mulroy began serving as general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. From 1989, Ms. Mulroy was also the general manager of the Las Vegas Valley Water District. The author attempted to contact Ms. Mulroy for a comment but she retired from both positions a few months ago in February.

It's also possible the drought in the western states could have been the catalyst to the desperate actions by the Federal authorities surrounding the Bundy cattle operation.


Heller UPDATE:

Heller Expresses Disappointment over BLM's Handling of Cattle Roundup - Press Releases - News - United States Senator Dean Heller

April 9, 2014
Urges the agency to preserve Nevadans' constitutional rights
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) issued this statement regarding land closures that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has initiated due to the ongoing, court-ordered roundup of rancher Cliven Bundy's cattle:

"I spoke with BLM Director Kornze this morning to express great disappointment with the way that this situation is being handled.

I told him very clearly that law-abiding Nevadans must not be penalized by an over-reaching BLM. After hearing from local officials and residents, and receiving feedback from the Nevada Cattlemen's Association in a meeting this morning, I remain extremely concerned about the size of this closure and disruptions with access to roads, water and electrical infrastructure.

I will continue to closely monitor this situation, and urge the BLM to make the necessary changes in order to preserve Nevadans' constitutional rights."

(courtesy: Catholic.org)

Currently, water rights in Nevada run anywhere from $7,000 to $50,000 per acre foot (depending on the time of year and the amount of rainfall or snowfall in the western region). The water in Nevada is then auctioned, as it has been for at least twenty-five years. That same water can be resold in Las Vegas, Arizona, or Southern California.

Bunkerville in Nevada is ensconced between the Virgin River and the main road, Riverside Road. The Virgin River is a tributary to Lake Mead. The river, along with other sources, discharges into Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States. Both the Virgin River and Lake Mead are part of the Colorado River Basin. In fact, Lake Mead is considered to be the largest surface water collection for the Colorado River.

Whoever controls the water controls the vast wealth that is distributed to a network of states at a crucial time during a water shortage.

So why then are there rumors of about 5,000 concerned citizens flocking to the aid of a family that seems to have a simple property-right dispute?

It appears that it is because it is not just the Bundy Family under threat of threats of regulations -- a figurative gun ready to fire at their very existence. The citizens of America have either long tolerated mounting regulations or they have not noticed them.

Americans have been surrounded, deliberately corralled, by an increasing code of regulations. Americans have regulations pointed at their healthcare in the form of ObamaCare, their finances by the mercurial IRS, their communications by the NSA, the future education of young Americans by the newly launched Common Core.

When will Americans reach the tipping point?

It might all begin in Senator Reid's home state -- the Nevadan Wild West.

The first segment of the document pulled by the feds from BLM.gov.

Reid and his eldest son, reports indicate, were integral in the support and/or implementation of a $5 billion solar plant being built in the county by a Chinese company.

Officially, the federal agency has suggested they are only after Bundy because his cattle are a threat to an endangered species of tortoise. That narrative, however, fell apart in the opinion of many critics when it was revealed the agency itself has engaged in the widespread slaughter of the animal.

The recent allegations of Reid's hand in the Bundy attack are bolstered by the fact that his former senior adviser also served as the director of the BLM. According to reports, Reid successfully redrew the endangered tortoise's protected habitat to benefit a donor, indicating his concern is more about his political and financial future than the well-being of this reptile.

Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/shocking-allegations-link-harry-reid-nevada-ranch-standoff/#Um2cXFF31qi7Xs8B.99

(Photo Credit: Free Republic)

As Bundy confirmed, he is far from the only rancher intimidated by the BLM. He is, however, the last one left fighting. According to a statement he made recently, there were 52 other ranchers in the vicinity of his property at one point – and they are all gone.

SIGN THE PETITION

[thorfourwinds]

Federal agency vows to continue legal action after ending Nevada ranch standoff | Fox News

Published April 13, 2014
FoxNews.com

(courtesy foxnews.com)

The Bureau of Land Management vowed Saturday that it would continue its legal fight to remove illegal cattle from a rural Nevada range after ending a tense weeklong standoff with a rancher and his supporters.

"After 20 years and multiple court orders to remove the trespass cattle, [rancher Cliven] Bundy owes the American taxpayers in excess of $1 million. The BLM will continue to work to resolve the matter administratively and judicially," a statement from the bureau said.

"We ask that all parties in the area remain peaceful and law-abiding as the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service work to end the operation in an orderly manner."

BLINK!

'OPERATION GATHER' ceases

The BLM also announced that it was wrapping up its month-long operation to seize the 900 cattle roaming on federally owned land approximately 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas and would release the 400 head of Bundy's cattle it had already seized "in order to avoid violence and help restore order."
  
"Based on information about conditions on the ground, and in consultation with law enforcement, we have made a decision to conclude the cattle gather because of our serious concern about the safety of employees and members of the public," the statement read.," the statement read.

Bureau officials had dismantled designated protest areas supporting Bundy, who they say refuses to comply with the "same laws that 16,000 public land ranchers do every year."

A group of about 1,000 supporting Bundy cheered and sang "The Star Spangled Banner" when BLM made its announcement.

The standoff at the ranch became increasingly tense the longer it lasted, prompting elected officials in several states to weigh in, militia members to mobilize and federal land managers to reshape elements of the operation. The Las Vegas Sun reported that some protesters were carrying handguns and rifles, but there were no reports of shots fired or injuries.

The roundup started last Saturday after the BLM and National Park Service shut down an area half the size of Delaware to let cowhands using helicopters and vehicles gather about 900 cattle that officials say are trespassing.

Bundy, 67, and his large family cast their resistance to the roundup as a constitutional stand. He says he doesn't recognize federal authority over state land.

The dispute that triggered the roundup dates to 1993, when the BLM cited concern for the federally protected tortoise. The agency later revoked Bundy's grazing rights.

Bundy claimed ancestral rights to graze his cattle on lands his Mormon family settled in the 19th century. He stopped paying grazing fees and disregarded several court orders to remove his animals.
BLM officials, however, say Bundy owes more than $1.1 million in unpaid grazing fees. 

BLM faced criticism when police used stun guns on one of Bundy's adult sons during a Wednesday confrontation on a state highway near the Bundy melon farm in the Gold Butte area.
 
Video of that confrontation spread on the Internet, along with blog commentary claiming excessive government force and calls to arms from self-described militia leaders. Some have invoked references to deadly confrontations with federal authorities, including a siege of a ranch home in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and the fiery destruction of a religious compound near Waco, Texas, that killed 76 people in 1993.


We're pretty sure that this had notning to do with their decision to stand down.   

"Our mission here is to protect the protestors and the American citizens from the violence that the federal government is dishing out," Jim Landy, a member of the West Mountain Rangers, who made the journey from Montana to Nevada, told Fox News Channel.

"People here are scared."

Arizona state Rep. Bob Thorpe of Flagstaff said he and state legislators weren't arguing whether Bundy broke laws or violated grazing agreements. Thorpe said the Arizona lawmakers were upset the BLM initially restricted protesters to so-called free speech zones.

Sen. Dean Heller and Gov. Brian Sandoval, both Republicans, have also said they were upset with the way the BLM was conducting the roundup. After the areas were removed Thursday, Sandoval issued a new statement.

"Although tensions remain high, escalation of current events could have negative, long lasting consequences that can be avoided," it said.

Amy Lueders, BLM state director in Nevada, said Friday that two protesters were detained, cited for failure to comply with officers at a barricade on Thursday and released.

That brought the number of arrests to three. Bundy's son, Dave Bundy, was arrested Sunday on State Route 170 and released Monday with citations accusing him of refusing to disperse and resisting arrest.
Lueders said 380 cows were collected by Thursday. She declined to provide a cost estimate for the herding operation.

Fox News' Edmund DeMarche, Matt Finn and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

FOR THE RECORD

Oath Keepers Vow to Stand by Bundy Ranch in Cattle Dispute with Feds


April 11, 2014

In response to the mounting dispute and worries this could become the next Ruby Ridge or Waco, militias from all across the country, including Texas, Montana, Utah, New Hampshire, and Florida, have mobilised to stand with the Bundy family and others protesting the BLM.

Now Oath Keepers, a non-partisan association of 40,000 current serving and former military, police, and first responders who have pledged to fulfill their oaths to 'defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,'" has released a statement that they, too, will stand by the Bundys against the corrupt actions of this government.

It reads in part:

This is not about cattle.  This is about power, and the trampling of rights.  It's about a systemic power grab and abuse of power by the federal government as it runs roughshod over the rights of honest, hard-working rural Americans and over the rights of all the Western states.

This is not an isolated incident.

It is but the latest in a long train of abuses aimed at subjecting rural Americans to absolute despotism while destroying the property rights, economy, and independence of the rural West, in particular, and eventually wiping out all of rural America.

This is an attack on all of the West, which is why patriotic legislators and lawmen from all over the West are answering the call to defend it.

And it is not just ranching that is under attack.

It is also mining, farming, logging, fishing, oil and gas, and any other industry that uses natural resources or the land.

This is a full spectrum, frontal assault on the rural West.

Ultimately, it is about bankrupting and impoverishing independent rural Americans to bring on a planned depopulation of the West.

This is truly a range war, and it is being waged by all three branches of the federal government, including complicit federal judges who "make it legal" through their willful rulings that strip away any meaningful redress or shelter for ranchers and farmers who have worked the land for generations only to now be told that they can no longer do so because of one endangered species or another.  Entire regions of the West are being shut down and impoverished using this tactic.

In this case, the Bundy family has run cattle on that same range since 1877 and they used to have fifty-two neighboring ranchers who did the same.  Now, using the Desert Tortoise as the weapon of choice, the federal government has run all the other ranchers in Clark County, Nevada out of business, and Cliven Bundy truly is the last man standing.

And it is also about all Nevadans being "prohibited" from using their own "Public Land" and the fact that the Feds were imposing their will over the state and it's people at gun-point.

Unless We the People begin to take a meaningful stand now, in full support of our patriotic state public servants who are willing to lead us, the domestic enemies of the Constitution will not stop until the West is a land of ghost towns, devoid of people, and we are all crammed into city slums, totally dependent and weak, with no protection of our rights, like third-world urbanized peons under the arbitrary and capricious control of corrupt dictators.

[thorfourwinds]

(photo courtesy danaradio)

The Real Story Behind The Bundy Ranch Harassment | The Dana Show

Posted on April 11, 2014 by danaradio

By now you're familiar with the standoff between the federal government, i.e. the Bureau of Land Management, and 67 year-old rancher Cliven Bundy. (If not, check the backstory and my radio interview with him here.)

The BLM asserts their power through the expressed desire to protect the endangered desert tortoise, a tortoise so "endangered" that their population can no longer be contained by the refuge constructed for them so the government is closing it and euthanizing over a thousand tortoises.

The tortoises, the excuse that BLM has given for violating claims to easements and running all but one lone rancher out of southern Nevada, is doing fine. In fact, the tortoise has lived in harmony with cattle in the Gold Butte, Clark County Nevada for over a hundred years, or as long as Cliven Bundy's family has lived on the land as ranchers. In fact, the real threat to it is urbanization, not cattle.

A tortoise isn't the reason why BLM is harassing a 67 year-old rancher.

They want his land.

The tortoise wasn't of concern when Harry Reid worked BLM to literally change the boundaries of the tortoise's habitat to accommodate the development of his top donor, Harvey Whittemore. Whittemore was convicted of illegal campaign contributions to Senator Reid. Reid's former senior adviser is now the head of BLM.

Reid is accused of using the new BLM chief as a puppet to control Nevada land (already over 84% of which is owned by the federal government) and pay back special interests. BLM has proven that they've a situational concern for the desert tortoise as they've had no problem waiving their rules concerning wind or solar power development.
Clearly these developments have vastly affected a tortoise habitat more than a century-old, quasi-homesteading grazing area. If only Clive Bundy were a big Reid donor.

BLM has also tried to argue that the rules have changed, long after Bundy claims he secured rights and paid his dues to Clark County, Nevada.

BLM says they supersede whatever agreement Bundy had prior; they demanded that he reduce his living, his thousand-some-odd head of cattle down to a tiny herd of 150. It's easy for the government to grant itself powers of overreach, but it doesn't make it right. Many bad things are done in the name of unjust laws.

Just look at Obamacare.

This heavy-handed tactic has run the other ranchers from the area and now Bundy is the last one. He's the last one because he stood up to the federal government.

So why does BLM want to run Bundy off this land and is Reid connected?
I discussed this on "Kelly File" tonight, video via Jim Hoft.

*UPDATE: Those who say Bundy is a "deadbeat" are making inaccurate claims.

Bundy has in fact paid fees to Clark County, Nevada in an arrangement pre-dating the BLM.

The BLM arrived much later, changed the details of the setup without consulting with Bundy — or any other rancher — and then began systematically driving out cattle and ranchers. Bundy refused to pay BLM, especially after they demanded he reduce his heard's head count down to a level that would not sustain his ranch.

Bundy OWNS the water and forage rights to this land.

He paid for these rights. He built fences, established water ways, and constructed roads with his own money, with the approval of Nevada and BLM.

When BLM started using his fees to run him off the land and harassing him, he ceased paying.

So should BLM reimburse him for managing the land and for the confiscation of his water and forage rights?

Cliven Bundy's problem isn't that he didn't pay — he did — or that his cattle bother tortoises — they don't — it's that he's not a Reid donor.

**One last thought: For those conservatives saying that since BLM arrived in the late 90s, it's the law now, well, so is Obamacare.

[thorfourwinds]

ENN cancels 720 MW solar renewable energy project

ENN cancels 720 MW solar project
June 17, 2013
By PennEnergy Editorial Staff




ENN Solar Energy, a China-based company, has canceled its Mojave Green Center solar power generation project in Laughlin, Nevada.

ENN was forced to cancel the project after the company was unable to secure the power purchase agreements (PPAs) needed to move forward with the new solar complex.

The PPAs had to be secured by this month, according to the agreement approved by the County Commission in December 2011, and automatically terminated June 13.

The proposed project included plans for a 720 MW solar power farm, a silicon thin-film manufacturing plant, and a solar research and development facility on 9,000 acres in southern Clark County. ENN originally said the project would have created at least 500 jobs to the local economy by the end of 2016.

The agreement with Clark County, where Laughlin is located, was signed in December 2011 on the contingency that ENN could secure the power purchase agreements.
 
Some in the community were shocked by the cancelation of the project because of the recent closure of the San Onofre nuclear power plant. The source said the county is looking at alternative ways to economically develop the 9,000 acres ENN purchased for the project.




Nevada Solar Factory Canceled | Photovoltaic (PV) | ReWire | KCET

A project that would have included a solar power station and a million-square-foot solar panel factory a few miles from the California state line won't be built, its backers announced last month.

The $5 billion, Chinese-backed ENN Mojave Energy project at the southernmost corner of Nevada couldn't find utilities that wanted to buy its power, either in Nevada or across the line in California.

Planned for about 9,000 acres of county-owned land on the Nevada side of the Colorado River above the gambling resort town of Laughlin, the ENN plant claimed in its initial promotional material that it would provide steady employment for between 500 and 2,000 people at its factory, with about the same number hired for short-term construction jobs. The plant would have cost between $4 and $6 billion, and was backed strongly by Nevada's senior Senator Harry Reid.

But in order to close the deal on the county land, ENN Mojave Energy needed to nail down Power Purchase Agreements for the 740 megawatts of solar power it would have produced. In 2011 when the plant was proposed, the assumption was that ENN's power would be snapped up by California utilities seeking to meet their obligations under the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) law, which requires them to generate 33 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020.

But due to both the structure of California's grid and de facto state policy, it's much easier for California utilitiies to meet their RPS obligations with power generated in California.

As for Nevada's domestic utilities, the largest -- NV Energy -- rebuffed heated demands by Reid to buy ENN Mojave's power. NV Energy has only a 15 percent renewable energy obligation, and it's already met that goal. Buying more power from a new solar plant outside Laughlin just wasn't a prioriity for NV Energy.

In a rather pointed press statement issued a year ago this month, NV Energy's Jennifer Schuricht basically suggested that ENN take a number and stand in line to sell the utility power. "NV Energy would certainly welcome a bid from ENN when we issue the next RFP (request for proposals), and their success, like all other projects, would be dependent on the benefits, especially price, that they can demonstrate for the customers of NV Energy," said Schuricht.

The project needed power purchase agreements in place by June in order to buy the first phase's land from Clark County. Without those agreements, the deal fell through. As Tim Carlson, ENN Senior Vice President, wrote in a letter to the county, "Unfortunately, the market will not support a project of this scale and nature at this time."

Solar backers might have derived some metaphorical joy from ENN Mojave's location, had it been built: Until a few years ago, Laughlin was home to the 1,580 megawatt coal-fired Mohave Generating Station, owned by Southern California Edison. That controversial plant, which burned coal mined on the Navajo and Hopi reservations and polluted the air across the desert southwest, was shut down in 2005 and began demolition in 2009.