Cattle Rancher

Poor planning and hard economic times forced a central Nevada cattle rancher out of business, not disruptions from Navy training jets screaming overhead, a federal judge ruled Thursday in dismissing an $8.7-million lawsuit. The suit was filed by Don and Barbara Nonella, who moved to Elko, Nev., in 1988 after abandoning their failed 7C Ranch below Fallon Naval Air Station training grounds 60 miles east of Reno. Assistant U.S. Atty.

Matt Hagan, a young cattle rancher from Virginia, moved closer to corralling the old bull of drag racing, John Force, Thursday during the first day of qualifying at the Auto Club National Hot Rod Assn. finals at Pomona. Hagan, 27, picked up three bonus points for the fastest qualifying run of the day. That may not sound like much, but it gave Hagan a 40-point lead over the 61-year-old Force in the funny car division of the NHRA's elite Full Throttle Series. If that lead holds up through the next two days of qualifying, Force would have to win at least three rounds more than Hagan on Sunday, which is elimination day and the culmination of a 17-race regular season and a six-race "Countdown" playoff.

It was Hillary Rodham Clinton's night at the Democratic National Convention, but party activists got a glimpse Tuesday of a surprising new breakout star: a jovial, round-faced warrior with a bolo tie who managed to attack Republicans while keeping a smile on his face. The unlikely partisan gladiator was Brian Schweitzer, who in 2004 became Montana's first Democratic governor in decades. Schweitzer, 52, won his office by eschewing partisanship -- campaigning as a pro-gun conservative with a Republican running mate.

Clifford P. Hansen, a cattle rancher who became Wyoming's governor and then served two terms as a U.S. senator, has died. He was 97. Hansen died at his home Tuesday after receiving hospital treatment for a broken pelvis. A Republican, he served as governor from 1963 to 1967, when he went to Washington after defeating Teno Roncalio, Wyoming's only congressman and a Democrat, in a bid for the Senate. Hansen sat on the Senate Finance and Veterans Affairs committees and was a ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee.

Clifford P. Hansen, a cattle rancher who became Wyoming's governor and then served two terms as a U.S. senator, has died. He was 97. Hansen died at his home Tuesday after receiving hospital treatment for a broken pelvis. A Republican, he served as governor from 1963 to 1967, when he went to Washington after defeating Teno Roncalio, Wyoming's only congressman and a Democrat, in a bid for the Senate. Hansen sat on the Senate Finance and Veterans Affairs committees and was a ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee.

Bir Narayan Chaudhuri, 141, honored as Nepal's oldest man, although he could not prove his age. Chaudhuri, a regular smoker, never made it into the Guinness Book of Records because he had no birth certificate or other documentation of his age. But Nepal's King Birendra recognized and honored him last year as the oldest man in the mountainous kingdom. A cattle rancher, Chaudhuri lived on a regular diet of vegetables, pork and rice.

An Amazon cattle rancher previously convicted of ordering the killing of U.S. nun Dorothy Stang in a land dispute has been acquitted in a retrial, a court official said Tuesday. The same jury convicted another man who confessed to firing the fatal shots but who disputed the circumstances. Stang's death in February 2005 became a symbol of the often violent conflict over natural resources in the region.

Sanci Hiscock is a bright, bouncy 14-year-old with a love for animals and a smile on her face--but an uneasiness about the future. She has leukemia. "I worry about it; whether I'll have a relapse," said Sanci, whose cancer is in remission. "You have to keep a positive attitude. But sometimes it's hard." Doctors at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa are optimistic about her chances. Barring flare-ups or setbacks in the next year, they say a cure is possible.

Ranchers who allow cattle to contaminate a major stream feeding Lake Casitas could lose their grazing permits, Casitas Municipal Water District directors said. The reservoir west of Ojai supplies drinking water to about 55,000 residents in western Ventura County. Manure and decomposing cattle along Santa Ana Creek have been a problem for years, officials said, despite enforcement attempts by the U.S. Forest Service and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Ventura County's cattle-ranching industry is so sleepy that the county's brand inspector has received only four calls in two months. It's so slow, in fact, that the inspector, Dewey Runkle, doubles as Ventura County's senior agricultural biologist and spends most of his time working with produce, pesticides and quarantines. But Runkle says things will pick up in the summer and fall, when ranchers begin shipping their calves to market.

They look like hamsters on growth hormones, bark like dogs and swim as fast as otters -- all reasons why chiguiros, the world's largest rodents, are an object of unending fascination for zoologists and wildlife enthusiasts. But ranchers here in northeastern Colombia fail to see the attraction. They claim that the rodents, which stand knee-high to humans and weigh as much as 120 pounds, consume valuable pasture, foul drinking water and spook their horses and cows.

It was Hillary Rodham Clinton's night at the Democratic National Convention, but party activists got a glimpse Tuesday of a surprising new breakout star: a jovial, round-faced warrior with a bolo tie who managed to attack Republicans while keeping a smile on his face. The unlikely partisan gladiator was Brian Schweitzer, who in 2004 became Montana's first Democratic governor in decades. Schweitzer, 52, won his office by eschewing partisanship -- campaigning as a pro-gun conservative with a Republican running mate.

An Amazon cattle rancher previously convicted of ordering the killing of U.S. nun Dorothy Stang in a land dispute has been acquitted in a retrial, a court official said Tuesday. The same jury convicted another man who confessed to firing the fatal shots but who disputed the circumstances. Stang's death in February 2005 became a symbol of the often violent conflict over natural resources in the region.

At dawn, John Lacey and four hired hands head out on horseback from the Fish Creek Corral to perform one of the American West's most venerable pastoral rites: corralling a herd of bellowing steers scattered across thousands of hardpan acres. Lacey, a rail-thin third-generation rancher, leads the way atop Notch, the sure-footed 10-year-old mare he prefers for such chaotic chores.

The snow curled up before the massive plow blade fitted to the front of one of John Duvall's tractors. The 58-year-old rancher clenched his jaw as the vehicle trembled and then stalled. He still had a hundred yards of snowed-in road to clear before he could haul hay to the starving herd of cattle clustered in a small clearing. "This is [what] you put up with every day," Duvall said. "You're working your butt off and looking at your livelihood go down the drain."

Howard Blair has outlived two wives, endured years of searing drought and survived sudden freak storms that tossed massive boulders down the Providence Mountains toward his homestead. He lost his favorite horse to a bite from the deadly Mojave green rattlesnake. Now, he must decide whether to sell the ranch that has been in his family for generations or to stay and run the risk of financial ruin.

A ranch hand suspected of killing one of the nation's most prominent cattle ranchers in Montana this week is also wanted in the 1986 slaying of a 26-year-old man in Irvine, authorities said Wednesday. David Llamas, 32, of Corona was arrested in Hobson, Mont., after Tuesday's discovery of the body of Wayne Stevenson, 51, a leading cattleman in that state, said Jim Hubble, a Judith Basin County attorney. Irvine police said they were ecstatic at the news of Llamas' arrest.

Four generations of Sharon Beck's family have braved the bitter winds in this valley ringed by the Blue Mountains, driving out coyotes and bears, and making the range safe for their livestock. Now Beck sees a new threat to her land--one she and other ranchers thought was wiped out in the 1930s: wild wolves.

HIGH above the northeast Napa Valley, one of California's original wine estates is being brought back to life by cowboys. Pat and Anne Stotesbury left Montana cattle ranching behind to grow Cabernet Sauvignon vines on the rugged flanks of Howell Mountain and make wine in a massive stone winery. The 1886 building dominates the mountain ridge like a ruined medieval castle.

Four generations of Sharon Beck's family have braved the bitter winds in this valley ringed by the Blue Mountains, driving out coyotes and bears, and making the range safe for their livestock. Now Beck sees a new threat to her land--one she and other ranchers thought was wiped out in the 1930s: wild wolves.