Free Republic

This is a video - no text is available other than the title: Why Russia Destroyed the World's 4th Biggest Lake

A leak was discovered earlier this year in a massive pipeline that delivers water from the Colorado River into Southern California, according to a joint news release from Glendale Water & Power, Foothill Municipal Water District and the Crescenta Valley Water District. A temporary repair was made to allow the pipe, which measures almost 9 feet 8 inches in diameter, to continue to function at a reduced capacity but now the permanent components are ready for installation and the pipeline will need to be shut off. The increased conservation call includes the cities of Beverly Hills, Burbank, Glendale, Long Beach,...

This episode is about China's Loess Plateau, which was anciently a lush area. But as more people made it their home, the demand for resources grew. Over the course of thousands of years, aggressive farming and overgrazing stripped away the vegetation almost entirely. This lead to severe soil erosion and eventually turned the Loess plateau into basically a denuded desert. In the mid 1990s, Chinese and foreign scientists and civil engineers surveyed this area to see if anything could be done to restore the land. The project that followed has implications that go far beyond China.

When Daniel Wilson learned earlier this year that the state of California wants to bulldoze his family's pear orchard to build a giant Sacramento River water diversion, he and his brother were making a major new investment in the crop. Located near the town of Hood, in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the orchard has grown Bartlett pears for 50 years as the foundation of the family farm. But Bartletts are not as marketable as they once were. So the brothers were grafting thousands of trees to grow new pear varieties – Bosc and River Maid Red – to ensure viable...

SAN ANTONIO, Feb. 6, 2012 – Navy veteran Hector Hernandez leans down to hug his dog as she pants noisily from her most recent dash around the living room. She nuzzles into his hand -- a momentary calm in the storm of activity that’s Bella. Hector Hernandez watches his wife, Anita, play with their foster dog, Bella, as their daughters, Tiffany, left, and Anita look on in their home in San Antonio. Bella belongs to the Defense Department's Military Working Dog Breeding Program on Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. The program, which breeds Belgian Malinois for a variety...

Move America Forward - We're so very pleased with the effect our K9 Care Packages are having for the troops and their military working dogs in Afghanistan. Since we began this effort to help K9 units, the response has been very positive. Supporters love the idea of sending special packages for military dogs and the troops who work with them. We recently received a response from a soldier in Afghanistan confirming that these packages are making a great impact on the teams receiving them and gives us more encouragement to keep sending K9 packages to our brave troops! Move America...

WASHINGTON — Federal protections for California's delta smelt will remain intact, but Western water controversies will keep on boiling, with a Supreme Court decision Monday not to hear farmers' ambitious challenge to a key environmental law. The court's decision, issued without comment, effectively upholds the conclusion by a Fresno, Calif.-based trial judge and a lower appellate court that the Endangered Species Act can protect even those plants and animals that don't cross state borders.

Occasionally, Szarik will open one or both eyes as he watches people walking past. Whenever Kacy Sandlin moves, he is on his feet — all four of them — as her protector. No longer does the shiny thick black- and brown-coated German shepherd put on gear like other military working dogs to do his job detecting drugs. Szarik has hip issues and other ailments that meant he could no longer do his military work. So the dog was put up for adoption, once it was determined he could cope in the civilian world. Even though Szarik is retired, he doesn’t...

Reason TV gives a report on the problems plaguing California’s Central Valley, once a breadbasket to the world, and now a government-created basket case of dust, unemployment, poverty, and now starvation. The short documentary focuses on two federal policies that heavily impact the farming region, the first water policy and environmentalism, and the second immigration: The crisis in the Central Valley comes directly from the application of the Endangered Species Act to the Delta smelt, one of a number of bait fish species indigenous to the area. The order by a federal judge relying on that law cut off irrigation...

FORT HUACHUCA — Teamwork, a word involving more than one helping another. When it comes to the Army, teamwork has a more than special connection in one area — between a being that walks on two legs and another whose four paws hit the ground. Soldier and dog are part of the service’s military working dog program. And on this southern Arizona Army post is one of nine teams — Sgt. Zachary McNew and Chico — who recently returned from Hawaii, where they won two trophies during an eight-event competition in which 37 teams vied for honors. “We did way...

Roc, Kisma and Jampy, military working dogs assigned to the 56th Security Forces Squadron, take a rest at the Military Working Dog kennels at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., March 25, 2010. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Jason Colbert) 3/31/2010 - LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. (AFNS) -- Three military working dogs here are due to be medically retired April 6, and took a final run at the kennel obstacle course March 25. The dogs and their partners are assigned to the 56th Security Forces. View the slideshow.

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Jan. 25, 2010 – Their truck sways from side to side and bumps up and down along a path in Afghanistan. But what would be an intolerable ride for most is just something Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Paul N. Krist, a dog handler for 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, and his dog, Max, have accepted as part of the job. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Paul N. Krist enjoys a moment with his bomb-sniffing dog, Max, before beginning a search for homemade explosives in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, Jan. 19, 2010. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Walter Marino  (Click...

Sgt. 1st Class Rex, a patrol explosive detector dog with the 178th Military Police Detachment, is presented to the audience as a new member of the Corps of Non-commissioned Officers at an NCO induction ceremony in the Morale, Welfare and Recreation tent on COL Q-West, Dec. 12. Photo by Sgt. Matthew Cooley, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary). COL Q-WEST — Sgt. 1st Class Rex, a working dog with the 178th Military Police Detachment, was inducted into the Corps of Non-commissioned Officers here, Dec. 12. The ceremony, normally for newly-promoted NCOs, inducted 32 human Soldiers and Airmen along with Rex, who was...

Imagine your city is located next door to a valley water district with enough surplus water to meet your needs but instead your city imports about two-thirds of its water hundreds of miles from the Colorado River and the Sacramento Delta, and pays a premium price for it, resulting in environmental degradation in the process. Do you think this is wise policy for water rate payers in a city that praises itself for its Green City Action Plan? Moreover, as your city conserves more water due to a purported drought, municipal water rates go up because of a decline in...

Saturday, that connection — past and present — came together as a group of former military working dog handlers visited the fort to say thanks to the handlers and their families as well as members of the fort’s veterinarian clinic. For Sgt. 1st Class Charlotte Banks, the fort’s kennel master and only one of two women in the Army with that job, being a military working dog handler means a lot of deployments away from family. In March, Banks will be leaving the post and heading for a year deployment to Iraq, where she will be the program manager for...

9/3/2009 - JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq (AFNS) -- On a deployment, a multitude of distractions can make sleep challenging for some servicemembers including F-16 Fighting Falcons roaring on the flightline and helicopters thundering through the air. Also putting rest to the test are 70-pound Labrador retrievers taking up half the bed. For Air Force and Army military working dog handlers at Joint Base Balad, the deployed environment requires not only working, but also living with a canine comrade. "Military working dogs normally stay in a kennel when not training or working," said Staff Sgt. Melinda Miller, 732nd Expeditionary Security Forces...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31, 2009 – Military working dogs have come a long way since the days of ancient Persia and Assyria, where they donned armor, spiked collars and warned of impending attack or charged on the enemy's cavalry. But they are as important as ever, and U.S. military leaders are making sure they are rewarded with a happy retirement. Air Force Staff Sgt. Christa Quam holds her puppy, which will enter the military working dog program in a year at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. The dogs are enrolled in a 60- to 90-day training program, where they are trained...

8/19/2009 - BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- A handful of Airmen and their canine companions deployed here as part of the 455th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron defend Bagram Airfield and search up to 700 vehicles on a daily basis. Since they inherited the base defense mission, the Airmen and their K-9s have found thousands of pounds of bomb-making materials, drugs and other illegal items. When the handlers first arrived, their Army K-9 counterparts didn't have enough room to adequately accommodate the Airmen and their dogs. So Tech. Sgt. Drew Odell, the NCO in charge, found a small piece of land...

MOSUL, Iraq, Aug. 18, 2009 – Chew toys and leashes in hand, Iraqi police dog handlers and their working dogs arrived at Forward Operating Base Marez here Aug. 16 to fine-tune their skill in basic obedience and explosive detection techniques. An Iraqi police dog handler instructs his dog to sit during a course with U.S. forces at Forward Operating Base Marez, Iraq, Aug. 15, 2009. The course is designed to fine-tune obedience and explosive detection skills of the Iraqi working dogs and their handlers. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Christopher Kozloski  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The class is...

8/11/2009 - TRANSIT CENTER AT MANAS, Kyrgyzstan (AFNS) -- Airmen of the 376th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron here are aiding a team of Kyrgyz Department of State Security Service dog handlers to hone the skills necessary to manage their own law-enforcement, force protection, antiterrorism and explosive-detection canine program. The program, which started about three years ago, was prompted when the Kyrgyz president visited Transit Center at Manas and was fascinated by the 376th ESFS Military Working Dog program. "They (Kyrgyz government representatives) approached the Air Force leadership at Manas, and they agreed to train our team," said Kyrgyz Maj. Natalia...