H.R. 263: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Reauthorization Act of 2013

House Committee on Natural Resources

House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands

S. 51: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Reauthorization Act of 2013

Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works

Senators Wyden and Reid Planning 2013  Omnibus Federal Lands Bill
Please read this excerpt from Public Lands News  (Jan. 18, 2013):

Conservation legislation at the top of Wyden’s  list

Despite the failure of the last Congress to act on dozens if  not hundreds of conservation bills, new Senate Energy Committee Chairman Ron  Wyden (D-Ore.) intends to tackle the backlog first thing this  year.

“To that end, one of Sen. Wyden’s first priorities will be to  pass the dozens of lands bills left over from last Congress,” said Wyden’s press  assistant Samantha Offerdahl. “As you may know,  Sen. Wyden introduced  several wilderness bills that didn’t move last year,  including proposals to  protect thousands of acres of wilderness land near Devil’s Staircase, Cathedral  Rock, Horse Heaven and Wild Rogue in Oregon.”

As usual the obstacle  last year was the Senate’s filibuster rule.Faced with the press of other  business, such as Hurricane Sandy
relief, Senate leaders did not choose to offer  either an omnibus wildlife bill,  an omnibus lands bill or a combination of the  two on the floor.

 Wyden intends to meet that Senate impasse head  on. “Generally, Sen. Wyden has said that he would like to restore the  Energy and Natural Resources Committee to something resembling the success of  the committee in the past,” said Offerdahl.
“That means routinely passing public  lands bills important to the nation, and moving through the gridlock that halted  the progress of public lands bills many members of the Senate introduced in  previous years.”

House members have already begun reintroducing  park and rec bills this month for the 113th Congress, with a handful of minor  measures in the hopper. For instance Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) introduced a  bill (HR 250) January 15 that would
require Congressional approval of any  national monument designated by a President. Senators will begin introducing  their bills January 22.

Last year the Senate Energy Committee,  under former chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.),  did not get around to going public  with an omnibus lands bill that was expected to include 100 or so individual  bills, although it reportedly assembled a measure. Those individual bills would  have designated new national parks,  designated wild and scenic rivers,  designated wilderness areas, authorized land exchanges and much  more.

A wildlife bill composed of 19 individual measures promoted  by sportsmen effectively expired on the Senate floor Nov. 26,
2012, when Sen.  Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) demanded a procedural vote on the budget impacts of the  bill (S 3525). Sixty votes were needed to keep the bill alive, but only 50  senators voted for it.

Some of the items in the wildlife bill were  also candidates for the omnibus lands bill, if not the whole measure.

All the conservation legislation will have to start over  in this 113th Congress; however, the odds will be slightly more favorable  because Wyden intends to move aggressively on them. In addition Democrats who  tend to support omnibus land bills and omnibus wildlife bills made modest gains  in the November 6 elections.

The Senate Energy Committee had been  taking the lead in assembling an omnibus bill but Senate Democratic leaders did  not give clearance for floor consideration. For its part the House Natural  Resources Committee moved more than 100 land bills through the House floor, only  to see them die in the Senate.

End of Public Lands News article  excerpt.
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225 Sheriffs that are saying NO to Obama's Gun Control .... is Yours on the
List?

Sheriffs have risen up all over our great nation to stand up against the unconstitutional gun control measures being taken.

 The following is a list of sheriffs and state sheriff’s associations from who have vowed to uphold and defend the Constitution against Obama’s unlawful gun control measures.  I applaud these public servants for their courage and conviction.  


I call on sheriffs all over this nation to add their voices to the growing numbers of faithful protectors of our freedom. -Richard Mack

Measures would keep voters involved

Tom Cordier says he was regularly “dismissed and thwarted” by the Albany City Council in his attempts to get officials to take better control of debt spending.


So the Albany resident decided voters should be put in charge of some of the city’s pursestrings.

 And he was galvanized into action when he learned that Clackamas County had passed a measure in 2011 requiring voters to approve new urban renewal plans in unincorporated areas.

Message from a Watchdog in Reedsport:

"Texan Eric Reed, founder and national coordinator of the “Guns Across America” rallies, told WND he’s irritated about all the talk of new gun-control regulations and overreach by the federal government in violation of our Second Amendment rights.

 “I was trying to figure out why people weren’t being  more proactive about this, Reed said. “Then I realized I’m part of the problem.
It takes somebody to stand up and say, ‘Hey, we’re not going to accept this.  We’re against it.’

 “We want Americans who feel the same way to come out.  We want to stand up, be united and get our point across.”

Strong investment returns in Oregon's public pension fund still leave $14
billion deficit

By Ted Sickinger, The OregonianThe Oregonian on January 25, 2013 at  6:30 PM, updated January 25, 2013 at  9:54 PM
  
 to change Oregon's pension benefits will be argued after the Legislature opens next month.Oregon Blue
BookInvestment returns for Oregon's public pension fund exceeded 14 percent in 2012,  driven by strong returns from stocks and bonds, as well as big markups in the  estimated value of illiquid private equity and real estate holdings. 
   
Gains like that will help recover a little ground on the $16.3 billion  actuarial deficit the system reported at the end of 2011. And the return number  will likely become fodder in the coming debate over reforms to the Public Employee Retirement System when the Oregon Legislature convenes in February. 

PERS unfunded liability down $2 billion

The unfunded liability carried by the Public Employees Retirement System fund shrank by about $2 billion in 2012, according to early estimates based on the year’s 14 percent market earnings.

The unfunded liability has been estimated at $16 billion for the past year, mostly reflecting the losses from the 2008 market
crash when the fund lost $17 billion.

Oregon Supreme Court decision gives leeway to police on searches

A divided Oregon Supreme Court handed down a decision on police searches that satisfies no one, but appears to give more leeway to police.

 At issue was a 2005 decision, also by a divided court, that bars use of incriminating evidence that police obtain after making
an unlawful stop — but the defendant consents to the search that turns up the evidence.

 The court majority decided that it depends on the circumstances, and whether the defendant’s consent was truly voluntary

Oregon Supreme Court OK's police check of license plates

If you drive by police and an officer is running a license-plate check on your car — without you being aware of it — the Oregon Supreme Court has decided that’s OK.

But the public will never know why the  court decided that way, because the justices split in an unusual 3-3 tie earlier this month.
So by default, the court upheld a 2010 Court of Appeals decision that the practice does not violate  state constitutional guarantees against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Because Judge Jack Landau voted in that 2010  decision, handed down three months before he joined the high court, he could not
take part in its review by the Supreme Court the following year.

About the Author

John M. Bryson is the McKnight Presidential Professor of  Planning and Public Affairs in the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs  at the University of Minnesota. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and in 2011 received the Dwight Waldo Award from the American  Society for Public Administration for "outstanding contributions to the  professional literature of public administration over an extended scholarly  career." He consults widely on strategic management with public, nonprofit, and  business organizations in the United States and abroad.


A Review
 
This textbook is terribly done. There has  been a Harvard project on the same topic that describes the planning process for  nonprofits in three stages - Bryson uses eight. There is also a Herrington Bryce  textbook that has been praised and that is readily
available.

If you are  considering this text for your use, I would strongly recommend one of the  others; if your professor has assigned this, beg him or her to choose another.  This is an overcomplicated repetitive mess of a manifesto on Bryson's  self-important and overcomplicated view of what should be a straightforward  topic. And it is sheer pain to read.

- Bryson is verbose and  overcomplicates everything - He would cite five sources to tell you the sun has  risen, just so you would know that he is well-read . . . he never uses 50 words  when he can use 500 or better yet 1,000. That makes this a really
tough read.  Bryson never heard that brevity is the soul of wit.

- This book is  incredibly repetitive - he seemingly does not have a lot of faith in his reader,  so he says everything five times. His lack of respect for the reader goes so far  as to tell you how to set up a room for a meeting, how to cover use a dry erase  board and easel paper, and just to be helpful he even includes a template of an  oval for you to use in making ovals to post during
your meeting. A blank page in  the book with a black outline of an oval. I wish I were kidding. Bryson doesn't  have a lot of respect for the rest of us.

- He is a terrible writer. His  paragraphs are lengthy and disjointed. His constant citing of sources is  ludicrous. He is one of those
people in the world who can't just say what he has  to say, he has to make everyone think he's smarter than they are. But if he were  somewhat smarter,  he'd have had the insight to make this book actually  readable.

- Bryson seems to be a classic example of a consultant with no  real-world experience. He barely covers leadership, a pretty important topic,  but in addition to his helpful advice on ovals and easel paper, he does discuss  the uses of dishonesty
and selective disclosure in the planning process, but in  such a throw away manner that all you can get is how clever he wants you to  think he is.

- He proselytizes incessantly. Bryson spends a lot of effort  on his view of how one should achieve transcendence (really! - you can't make  this up!) while making numerous and repetitive political statements against  conservatives, corporate interests and a variety of others.

I realize  that most of you will be buying this book because you have to, as it will have  been selected for you by your professor. Beg your professor to choose another  text. There are several much better ones out there. Plead. Do whatever it takes.  This is the
one of the worst books I have ever encountered. It is truly terrible and extremely frustrating. 
  
 
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