Bureau of Reclamation got it right in the Klamath Basin, News Deeply by Family Farm Alliance Dan Keppen and John Bezdek, former senior advisor to the Deputy Secretary, US DOI, 9/26/17. John Bezdek is a former attorney at the Department of the Interior holding several senior positions over a 20-year career working on water resources and related issues. He is now an attorney in private practice in Washington, D.C. (HERE for Klamath Dams decommissioning and others articles on KBC's Bezdek page) Dan Keppen is executive director of the Family Farm Alliance, which represents Western irrigators, and is a member of the Western Agriculture and Conservation Coalition

'Let it burn' approach to wildfires creating a disaster for our forests, Senator Dennis Linthicum guest writer for H&N 9/10/17. "...Up until the 1980s, the average duration of wildfires was just six days. The number of distinct fires or ignitions hasn’t changed over time but wildfires, today, are much larger and last much longer. Today, the average fire lasts 52 days, or nearly two months. The Chetco Bar fire is estimated to double the 52-day average, with nearly four months of burn. Last winter was a record-setting winter for cold, snow and rain. The drought is over; our reservoirs and dams are full; rivers and streams are still flowing with snowmelt. Could it be that these extraordinary burn rates are directly related to policy and not to global warming?..."

Judge rejects claims of Klamath Basin irrigators, H&N 9/8/17. "...The plaintiffs argued their wells were drilled into a confined aquifer that’s separated from the Sprague River by layers of rock and clay, as well as a shallower alluvial aquifer. Shutting down the wells isn’t allowed because OWRD only has jurisdiction over wells drilled into an aquifer “adjacent” to the surface water..." “There’s nothing to stop Oregon Water Resources from regulating every aquifer in a basin (within a mile of surface waters) and calling it an aquifer system,” (attorney Laura Schroeder) said."

New law makes it way too easy to take guns away from people without cause, H&N by Rep E. Werner Reschke 9/8/17. "SB 719 calls for the forced confiscation of property (guns) by the police with no due process, no conviction of a crime and no accusation of a crime. It allows anyone, including strangers off the street, to make assessments and a case before a judge. It allows judges, with no mental health credentials, to render judgment on another person’s state of mind whom they have never met or spoken to. Furthermore, it actually forbids judges from considering assessments of the respondent’s mental health by people who actually do have mental health credentials. The law even goes so far to allow a judge to confiscate every firearm in a household because one person in the household has a past DUI conviction."

PUBLIC COMMENT: PacifiCorp - Iron Gate Dam Spillway Dewatering Project; Public Notice for Water Quality Certification and/or Waste Discharge Requirements (Dredge/Fill Projects). KBC News Question: Why is Iron Gate chosen for inspection? Are all California dams being dewatered and inspected? Is there a suspected problem with this particular dam?  9/8/17

California Farm Bureau Federation Friday Legislative Review 9/8/17. " require California to enforce the federal Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act (ESA) and their implementing regulations and policies as they were on January 19, 2017. If it is determined that the federal government has weakened any of those laws, California agencies are required to adopt regulations, with extremely limited public input, that are at least as stringent as what was in place on January 19, 2017, requires sellers of electricity to procure a minimum of 60% of their electricity products from eligible renewable generation resources by 2030, ..."

Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma - Scott Tucker nears trial for payday loan rent-a-tribe scheme, Native Finance, followed by Oklahoma tribe agrees to pay $48 million to avoid prosecution in payday lending scheme, 9/6/17. "To skirt state loan interest caps, Tucker entered into agreements with three federally-recognized tribes- the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, Santee Sioux of Nebraska, and Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma. In exchange for one percent of the profits from the payday lending operations, the tribes agreed to provide Tucker’s businesses with sovereign immunity.
Payday Lenders Join With Indian Tribes, posted to KBC 2/24/18. "We don't want to brag," said Bill Follis, a former loan officer at a bank who has been the Modoc chief since 1974. "But it's good."..." Because of the sovereign immunity granted to tribes by the U.S. government, they are shielded from interest-rate caps and other payday-loan regulations..."
Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma buys 800 acres near Lava Beds Oct 22, 2017