Liberty
Matters News Service
June 26 , 2008
Memorial to Injustice
June 23rd marked the third anniversary of the Kelo decision. Americans were astonished three years ago, by the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that ignored the Fifth Amendment in favor of the property thieves in New London, Connecticut. Susette Kelo’s little pink house has been moved to a new location in the city where it now stands as a memorial to the injustice perpetrated on that black day. “The house will stand as a monument to the bravery of Susette Kelo and her neighbors, and to the thousands of others who have battled and are battling unlawful land grabs across the country,” said Institute of Justice (IJ) attorney Scott Bullock. It is ironically fitting that the development project, which cost Suzette and her neighbors their homes, has never been built. In fact, the developer, Corcoran Jennison, has defaulted on its financing obligations and has been fired. “New London’s Fort Trumbull project has been an unmitigated disaster,” commented IJ senior attorney Dana Berliner. Even though nearly $80 million in taxpayer’s money was spent on the project, “there has been no new construction in the area and nothing to show but brown empty fields,” Berliner continued. “The developer was so desperate for funding, that it applied to the federal Housing and Urban Development agency to obtain taxpayer-subsidized loans to build luxury apartments on the land where Susette’s neighborhood once stood.” Susette’s little house not only serves as a monument to those fighting tyranny, but is also home to preservationist Avner Gregory, who dissembled the house and moved it a mile from its original location. Susette Kelo lives in Groton, Connecticut.
Pink House That Inspired a Nation Reopens This Weekend
Not Even Iowans Like Ethanol
“Senator Charles Grassley recently called on Iowans to protest what he called a ‘smear campaign’ against ethanol,” said David Ridenour, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR). “Don’t look for that massive protest any time soon. Ethanol is drawing criticism from the Senator’s own backyard,” he continued. NCPPR recently released a survey asking Americans what they thought about ethanol. The results were probably not pleasing to Sen. Grassley and other politicians who thought the ethanol project would solve our energy crisis. “41% of Americans want Congress to repeal the corn ethanol mandate entirely, while 35% want Congress to repeal the law it passed just last December, which will double [ethanol production]. Just 6% want the mandate to increase as planned while 5% want it to be even expanded further.” A majority of Farm Belt respondents are against the costly scheme as well. “Twenty-five percent want it repealed entirely, while 30% want it scaled back,” the report stated. Two studies, one from Princeton University and another from the University of Minnesota, further convinced Farm Belt residents of the folly of ethanol. According to the studies, “ethanol contributes more greenhouse gas to the atmosphere than does conventional gasoline, because it encourages the clearing of so-called carbon sinks, such as rainforests.” Mr. Ridenour said; “Ethanol is costing us as taxpayers, it is costing us as consumers, and it is costing us important environmental resources…Ethanol is the fuel to nowhere. Like the infamous ‘bridge to nowhere’ earmark, ethanol mandates mean we all pay enormous costs so a few can benefit.”
Farm-Belt Voters Favor Eliminating or Reducing Corn Ethanol Mandate, New Poll Finds
Colorado Grand Jury Looks At Conservation Easements
Something is fishy with Colorado conservation easements and Attorney General John Suthers says the grand jury will try to determine if the state’s program has been compromised. Already, several land appraisers have lost their licenses because they boosted land values so their clients could take advantage of the state taxpayers’ generosity. Although state officials will not reveal the focus of their investigation, the grand jury is expected to rely on information from a state Division of Real Estate inquiry begun in November 2007. Specifically, that investigation centered on conservation easement transactions formulated by Denver attorney Rodney Atherton and Noah Land Conservation, a nonprofit organization that controls the properties. An ethics complaint has also been filed with the Colorado Supreme Court against Atherton by state real estate chief, Erin Toll. Since 2001, about $275 million in tax credits have been taken on about 1,500 donations, records show. Atherton aroused the suspicion of the real estate chief by his connection with an exclusive hunting club that was financed by 19 wealthy businessmen, including former Denver Bronco, Bill Romanowski. The investors exploited the state’s conservation easement law by divvying up parcels of a 2,067-acre ranch in Adams County and using the tax benefits to fund luxury vacation club memberships. Atherton is alleged to have engineered the scheme and planned to reap profits using conservation easements as his investment tool.
Grand jury to be seated to study conservation-easement program
Some Environmentalists Advocate Tree Harvest
New Jersey, like many of these United States, has lost much of its timber-based industry to the environmental movement. These days, instead of relying on paper manufactured in its own mills, which once numbered in the dozens, it now imports products from mills in Canada and Tennessee. More than one million acres of New Jersey forests are protected in seven counties. Robert R. Williams, vice president of forestry operations for Land Dimensions Engineering, says demand for wood products has not diminished despite environmentalist’s best efforts to change the habits of humanity. The wood just comes from some place else at a much higher cost. Williams said the practice of letting the forests fend for themselves is not a good idea. Research shows that forests and the ecosystems benefit most from harvesting trees for use right here in the U.S. instead of using precious energy to import timber from around the world. “I think the problem is people don’t understand that cutting down a tree is not necessarily a bad thing,” said Beth Ciuzio, of the New Jersey Audubon Society. The Audubon Society, among other conservation groups, is slowly coming to the realization that it is better to manage forests rather than let them grow up in brush, only to go up in flames every year. Ciuzio notes that the red-headed woodpecker and northeastern pine snake like to live in areas with fewer trees and more disturbed areas. New Jersey is planning to thin 100,000 acres of pinelands around the Warren Grove gunnery range, site of a major fire last year, but the Pinelands Commission says it won’t stray too far from current practices. As the cost of everything from paper to lumber increases, not to mention the millions (even billions) of dollars spent on fighting the annual forest fires, some are finally becoming aware that the environmentalist’s “hands-off those trees” approach is not very smart. “People believe nature will heal itself. That’s part of the problem,” said Jim Barresi, state forester with the Department of Environmental Protection’s Forest Service. Forests need to be managed otherwise they suffer horrific consequences and we suffer higher prices.
'Cutting down a tree is not a bad thing'