Howdy,
Here are some critter pictures from the last month or so. Enjoy!
Showing posts with label Sheridan WY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sheridan WY. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Wyoming Winter Storm- "ATLAS" October 4, 2013
The 1st Big Winter Storm, which hit southern Montana, most of Wyoming, and then the Black Hills and Rapid City of South Dakota. Because the temps were still high, as it's only October, with them around 30°F here in Sheridan, it was a heavy wet snow, which caused lots of issues because most of the leafed-trees still had all their leaves. Broken limbs and branches cause many power outages here in Sheridan, and around the storm area. Beacuse we live in a valley, and the inversion, we didn't get as much snow as say Rapid City, with 24 inches+ or Lead and Deadwood S.D. that were in the 48 inch range. We get out Fox and CBS Major Network TV from Rapid City, like KOTA-TV and KEVN, and there were issues with then during and after the storm for a few days.
Monday, September 16, 2013
WHEN COAL Comes En Masse to our Western Cities, Towns and Communities, Like Sheridan, WY!
|
Posted: 16 Sep 2013 08:43 AM PDT
Backed-up traffic as a coal train passes through Billings, MT.
CREDIT: Western Organization of Resource Councils
BILLINGS, MONTANA — Not so long ago, the two warehouse district streets that parallel the railroad tracks running through Montana's biggest city were, in the description of a local architecture firm, "seedy and dangerous, highlighted by saloons, gambling, fighting, and regular police traffic." Today, Minnesota Avenue and Montana Avenue are the heart of a small but thriving retail, entertainment and residential loft district, part of a spreading urban transformation that has brought new vitality to Billings — a revitalization that some residents fear may be in jeopardy as coal mines operating in the Powder River Basin of northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana could in the near future begin shipping massive quantities of coal to export terminals in the Pacific Northwest. Though their communities may differ greatly, the coal industry's drive to breathe new life into a struggling economic sector is uniting activists and residents alike — from ranchers in the West, to small towns like Livingston, Sheridan, and Billings, to the cities in Washington and Oregon facing the possible construction of large coal export facilities. Founded as a railroad town in 1882 — it is named for the then-head of the Northern Pacific — Billings has long dealt with freight trains rumbling through the heart of their city on tracks that separate the north and south sides. But people here worry that a dramatic increase in the number of trains moving through the center of the city will bring an unacceptable level of congestion, potential health impacts from diesel fumes and coal dust blowing off the open cars, and setbacks to the urban renaissance currently underway. Those kinds of concerns are mirrored in many communities across the Northern Plains and Pacific Northwest, which are in the cross hairs of a possibly huge jump in coal train traffic that could significantly affect community life. Freight trains, including coal carriers a mile and a quarter long, delay auto traffic on heavily-traveled 27th Street in Billings for seven or eight minutes. During peak travel times those lines of waiting traffic can be several blocks long, according to Billings residents, and can delay access to the city's hospitals for residents on the south side. And it's not just traffic that is raising concerns: Dr. Robert Merchant, a Billings pulmonologist, told The Daily Climate, that he fears the dust, diesel fumes and noise will adversely affect the health of city residents. "A marked increase in coal trains will markedly impact the health of my patients," he said. "I need to keep them out of the hospital." ![AP779473313206[1]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sRvEm6paZ5cmwl9j8e52Ve7_locGemSwxhRmuQxHIf1trctiSiECAkluaRQROGs1eyseP-Zqi4PIo9HAeWfGaanCZDIcuQn2a6Z4_Mzh-q2nAfeHE3kwLtgsywOiPhSGyeNTo5Ixa0OBt8clpBFpwulg=s0-d)
CREDIT: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Over the past few years, six new West Coast coal export terminals have been proposed to move U.S. coal to Asia, primarily China. Currently there are no U.S. coal export facilities on the West Coast, and the modest but growing export trade in U.S. coal headed for Asia is shipped from terminals in British Columbia. Three of the U.S. terminal plans have fallen by the wayside, but the three that remain, in Cherry Point, Washington, Longview, Washington, and Boardman, Oregon, would have the capacity to ship close to 120 million tons of coal per year.A study prepared last summer by three transportation experts for the Western Organization of Resource Councils determined that at full capacity, those six terminals would be able to ship 170 million tons of coal. According to the report, "Heavy Traffic Ahead," that would mean an additional 57 coal trains passing through Billings on average every day. With the three remaining terminal plans, the coal train traffic would be almost 70 percent of what the study projected for the original six terminals, meaning that freight train traffic in Billings could roughly triple from what it is today. That could bring the total stalled traffic time on the three Billings streets that cross the train tracks to about seven hours a day. "It's already an issue," said Ed Gulick, an architect whose firm has played a key role in the urban redevelopment here and has an office just south of the railroad tracks. With triple the number of trains, he said, "downtown would be cut off from the interstate, so it will be a huge issue."  Gulick concedes that many elected officials here don't see the issue in the same light as he does. In April 2012, the county commissioners in Yellowstone County, which includes Billings, wrote the state's three-man congressional delegation voicing their support for the proposed coal terminals and predicting they would help expand Montana's coal industry and spur employment. But as Larry Swanson, an economist who heads the University of Montana's O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West points out, mining in the years 1991-2011 never accounted for more than two percent of the state's jobs. And he projects that through 2020, the big job growth fields will be health care and social assistance, trade, and retail and hospitality. The Powder River Basin currently accounts for more than 40 percent of U.S. coal production. As coal used for electricity generation domestically has declined in recent years, the industry has started to pin its hopes for growth on Asia's appetite for that fuel. Two years ago, for example, the CEO of industry giant Arch Coal, Steven F. Leer, referred in a press release to the company's "strategic objective of expanding Powder River Basin coal sales into the Asia-Pacific region." And last year, the president of Cloud Peak Energy, Colin Marshall, announced the purchase of a new mine site in the basin, saying the acquisition would "position Cloud Peak Energy well for future growth in our Asian exports as additional terminal capacity becomes available." The study prepared for the Western Organization of Resource Councils projects that most of the industry's hoped-for boom in exports to Asia from Montana and Wyoming would be shipped via BNSF lines from the Powder River Basin to the Pacific Northwest. BNSF is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company chaired by investing wizard Warren Buffett. Communities large and small across that region have been coming to grips with what a major increase in coal train traffic could mean. In many of them, existing rail lines run straight through their downtowns, so the possibility of large numbers of coal trains blocking passage for auto traffic is no small matter. In Sheridan, Wyoming — population about 18,000 — city officials commissioned a study that looked into relocating the rail line and associated downtown rail yard. The study concluded that the project would cost between $140 million and $169 million. With no relocation of the rail lines and rail yard, the study predicted that in ten years, the number of vehicles experiencing delays at the town's main rail crossing would more than double to between 3,365 and 4,945 depending on the timing of rail traffic coming through. "Sheridan had to scramble to come up with $5 million for upgrades to its sewage treatment plan," said Brad Mohrmann, a consultant who has worked on a separate study of economic development possibilities for the current railroad properties if the rail line is moved. "Where are they going to get $160 million? That would never happen … BNSF is not interested in throwing in one dime." 
CREDIT: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Located on the Yellowstone River, east of Bozeman, Livingston is a gateway to Yellowstone National Park to the south through the Paradise Valley. It's become a mecca for anglers, authors and artisans, and the small downtown next to the railroad tracks is an eclectic amalgam of coffee shops, a rail museum in the historic depot, restaurants featuring locally grown food, and fly fishing shops along with welding and industrial supply stores. Currently about 15 trains a day come through Livingston, said Kerry Fee, executive director of the Park County Environmental Council, who expects the number could double with construction of the coal export terminals. Though he agrees there will be some job growth at the railroad maintenance facility, he thinks overall it would very much be a net negative for the community. For some in Livingston, climate change is also a significant concern. Courtney Lehmans, a 20-year resident, says Montana during much of that time has been dealing with drought, and she points to the rapid disappearance of many of the glaciers in Glacier National Park as clear evidence of warming. With a big increase in coal production in the Powder River Basin, she says "they'll be shipping it to China and the emissions are going to hit the jet stream and come right back to us." There are only three places in Livingston where vehicles can cross the tracks, and only one of them is an underground bypass that operates even when trains are coming through but which sometimes floods. Fee thinks that double the number of trains will increase the odds that emergency vehicles and EMTs will at some point face an emergency and not be able to get from one side of town to another. Noise is another concern. Fee says he can hear the train horns from four miles away, and the effort required to pull long trains up Bozeman Pass to the West makes them sound like jet engines in the valley below. "It's pretty darn loud," Fee said. "It will affect property values and it is not going to be good for the economy." The post When Coal Comes To Town: Western Communities Brace For Coal Export Explosion appeared first on ThinkProgress. |
"This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in."
-Teddy Roosevelt- Chicago, IL, June 17, 1912
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sarah Palin's consultant on European Economic Issues forgot to tutor SP on fall of Soviet Union! But the Apologist on the right are out there rationalizing the whole affair! Idiots!
Well, the dingbat is at it again. Everytime she has to go off script (Not using a teleprompter, and speaking off the cuff, so to speak!) she makes a complete ass of herself. Always! And her paid support team is about a useful as teats on a bull. I think that is standard operating procedure for the right these days. We have Bachmann rewriting the history of slavery, we have Glennie Beckster rewriting everything he talks about history wise, with I am sure help from his mentor and Professor at Beck U., the infamous adjunct “professor,” David Barton. Barton is just a nuts as Beck, and his grasp of history is just as flawed. And on to Spud"NUT" Sarah, who makes up shit as she goes along. She really should do her Greta breaking news commentaries using a teleprompter, because she just stutters and stammers her way to serious laugh-ability!
Take a gander at this, with her interpretation of world and European history. And and rambling nonsensical rants. This lady is really nuts! But she has her cult following! (See below)
Hey, where is Dutchman Joshua Livestro? Or does he just get paid the $4000.00 a month for current European economic issues. I find it ironic that a person, Ole' SpudNut herself, who disrespects, dislikes, disparages, dishonors, and totally disses Europeans on a regular basis hires a European as a consultant. Granted it all wasn't above boards, and they tried to hide it at some obscure LLC buried in Wyoming LLC paperwork and maze. But we figured them out, right "SpudNut" Sarah?
There are the monthly payments to Joshua Livetro, the right-winged Dutchman. As discussed in previous posts, and at Mother Jones, we had discovered that Paideia Research LLC, using the Sheridan WY address was setup up to funnel money to Livestro. This setup was done by world-class LLC setter-upper David DeLoach from California. He use to be an attorney, but then life happened and he didn't pay his attorney club fees and bam, disbarred. Or so the story goes.
Here is a recent tweet that was retweeted by Livestro, so we know where his mind is:
I mean it isn't horrible, but obviously the Dutchman who "SpudNut" Sarah is suppose to hate "She hates European Socialist Politics" is still fascinated by the Kenyan meme. But he has done a fabulous job with Spudnuts European Economic issues consulting, don't you think?
Hey SpudNut- How's that Europeny Economikiny Thing working out for you? Idiot!
I truly think "SpudNut" Sarah missed the point of Obama's Sputnik comment. Either she didn't understand the analogy or whatever, but it flew way over her head. Most of us who have studied international politics, and governments know that the Soviet Union's economy was not one to emulate. It had it's problems which effected it for years, if not decades. We all knew that, at least the educated grownups in the room. Yet SputNut puts up another FaceBook rant citing a source that shows her comment was correct, and she is now a Rhodes Scholar when it comes to past European Economies, but mainly the the Communist U.S.S.R. as she called them.
The guy she references. a one Peter Schweizer,,the author of a piece that was a way to justify and rationalize what SpudNut said, also missing Obama's point about Sputnik. What do we have to do with these folks, draw them a freaking picture? But I must point out Schweizer's leanings are to the right, as some of his books are- "Do as I Say (Not as I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy" and "Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty-Year Struggle and Final Triumph over Communism." So, of course his little apologist breakdown and justification of SpudNuts miss-speak was going to lean right, and to the meme he advocates. Of course Spudnut didn't mention that in her FaceBook post to her cult, because they already assume she would reference a friendly justifier and rationalizer! Pathetic, just so pathetic! Oh, before I forget, Peter and his wife, Rochelle, wrote "The Bushes: Profile of a Dynasty", which the New York Times called "the best" of the books on the Bush family. Now those are some awe inspiring books I do say. I haven't read them, but I can probably guess which way they lean, but I could be wrong. Hey, did you hear that Spudnut, I said I could be wrong! That wasn't too hard. You might want to try it sometime.
Here is part of what Schweitzer said-
But Stromberg misses Palin’s larger and more important point about history: Sputnik was really meaningless in the larger scheme of things. It was all hype, and it was basically used by people in Washington to advance their own political agenda. (Palin had no larger point about history because she is clueless, an idiot, and not a serious and deep thinker, as her toughest decision each day is which outfit, or which pair of shorts or sweatpants to wear, so come on Peter, you Palin apologist who thinks his chivalry will get him a piece of the cherry pie! Your an asshole Peter!) and
Take a gander at this, with her interpretation of world and European history. And and rambling nonsensical rants. This lady is really nuts! But she has her cult following! (See below)
Hey, where is Dutchman Joshua Livestro? Or does he just get paid the $4000.00 a month for current European economic issues. I find it ironic that a person, Ole' SpudNut herself, who disrespects, dislikes, disparages, dishonors, and totally disses Europeans on a regular basis hires a European as a consultant. Granted it all wasn't above boards, and they tried to hide it at some obscure LLC buried in Wyoming LLC paperwork and maze. But we figured them out, right "SpudNut" Sarah?
There are the monthly payments to Joshua Livetro, the right-winged Dutchman. As discussed in previous posts, and at Mother Jones, we had discovered that Paideia Research LLC, using the Sheridan WY address was setup up to funnel money to Livestro. This setup was done by world-class LLC setter-upper David DeLoach from California. He use to be an attorney, but then life happened and he didn't pay his attorney club fees and bam, disbarred. Or so the story goes.
Here is a recent tweet that was retweeted by Livestro, so we know where his mind is:
I mean it isn't horrible, but obviously the Dutchman who "SpudNut" Sarah is suppose to hate "She hates European Socialist Politics" is still fascinated by the Kenyan meme. But he has done a fabulous job with Spudnuts European Economic issues consulting, don't you think?
Hey SpudNut- How's that Europeny Economikiny Thing working out for you? Idiot!
I truly think "SpudNut" Sarah missed the point of Obama's Sputnik comment. Either she didn't understand the analogy or whatever, but it flew way over her head. Most of us who have studied international politics, and governments know that the Soviet Union's economy was not one to emulate. It had it's problems which effected it for years, if not decades. We all knew that, at least the educated grownups in the room. Yet SputNut puts up another FaceBook rant citing a source that shows her comment was correct, and she is now a Rhodes Scholar when it comes to past European Economies, but mainly the the Communist U.S.S.R. as she called them.
The guy she references. a one Peter Schweizer,,the author of a piece that was a way to justify and rationalize what SpudNut said, also missing Obama's point about Sputnik. What do we have to do with these folks, draw them a freaking picture? But I must point out Schweizer's leanings are to the right, as some of his books are- "Do as I Say (Not as I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy" and "Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty-Year Struggle and Final Triumph over Communism." So, of course his little apologist breakdown and justification of SpudNuts miss-speak was going to lean right, and to the meme he advocates. Of course Spudnut didn't mention that in her FaceBook post to her cult, because they already assume she would reference a friendly justifier and rationalizer! Pathetic, just so pathetic! Oh, before I forget, Peter and his wife, Rochelle, wrote "The Bushes: Profile of a Dynasty", which the New York Times called "the best" of the books on the Bush family. Now those are some awe inspiring books I do say. I haven't read them, but I can probably guess which way they lean, but I could be wrong. Hey, did you hear that Spudnut, I said I could be wrong! That wasn't too hard. You might want to try it sometime.
Here is part of what Schweitzer said-
But Stromberg misses Palin’s larger and more important point about history: Sputnik was really meaningless in the larger scheme of things. It was all hype, and it was basically used by people in Washington to advance their own political agenda. (Palin had no larger point about history because she is clueless, an idiot, and not a serious and deep thinker, as her toughest decision each day is which outfit, or which pair of shorts or sweatpants to wear, so come on Peter, you Palin apologist who thinks his chivalry will get him a piece of the cherry pie! Your an asshole Peter!) and
I think SputNut had no clue about how tying together the Sputnik as a government bureaucratic program and the Soviet's final economic demise could be accomplished. But her word salad flowed, albeit not to lucid and/or cognizant. Her comment was just part of a rant where she was stitching words together to make a sentence. Was I the only one who saw her stutter and stammer her way through the answers? All those short stop and goes where her slow brain processing and searching for words to form a sentence, and something that might sound believable. Obviously she succeeded because the apologists are all over the place on the right, rationalizing how SpudNuts brain was actually processing her thoughts. Amazing, because by her own non-verbals she appeared to be wanting out of the discussion about Sputnik and the "Communist U.S.S.R.", so she segwayed into her SpudNut Promotion, something she was more comfortable in talking about, because the word began to flow, and her grimace that made her look like she really had to go take a pee was gone!
Now, I am going to say this just once SpudNut, Obama's analogy had to do with the American Spirit and American Exceptionalism, (Something you accuse him of not promoting, and here he is promoting it and you have to say negative stuff again. Grow-up little girl, and realize your damn beauty pageants are over, so stop trying to win the popularity contest. Admit it, you lost.) and was meant as a motivational comment. Everyone isn't a deep-thinker like yourself, which in and of itself is sarcasm, and for once in your life can you say you might have been wrong in you comments? You were wrong about the scope-sights on politicians, you were wrong about blood libel, you were wrong in your Sputnik/Sputnut moment, and you are a fucking crazy, vindictive, lying, narcissistic, neurotic, manipulating, hateful, fearmongering bitch! Get over it. Quit trying to justifying everything you fuckup! You remind me of some people I know!
So, have you figured it out Spudnut? The object of that part of his speech was motivational in nature, and not talking about the decline of the Communist U.S.S.R.. Got it?
No one disagrees that the Soviets eventually went bankrupt, in part because if their massive military, and yes, space spending, while their people went hungry. But the space race didn't end with the Soviets putting a satellite into space. The race ended when Americans landed on the moon. Well partially, as there were follow up objectives over the next 20+ years, like space stations (Mir) and the Soviet version of the space shuttle. It's obvious that Spudnut didn't understand her history when she spoke, and so should have come right out an apologized. Not going to happen, ever!
For all those interested in SarahPAC'S FEC Filings, here is a good site:
http://www.fec.gov/law/feca/feca.pdf
And as an added feature I have brought to you the reason why Palin will never make it on the national stage- Her Cult of Followers that are just as insane and irrational as her. There seems to be a common thread amongst the cult and the cult-leader, that being a glaring love for the anti-intellectual, and the educational goal of being pro anti-intelligence. The dumber the better. For them being called smart as a box of rocks is a compliment. So, without delay, and for your entertainment I introduce the members of the newly former "SpudNut Society" whose secret leader sends them secret messages through her Facebook Page! Dorothy tried to have an intelligent discussion with 
Joe Coelho but as you see, it was fruitless!
Joe Coelho but as you see, it was fruitless! 
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)