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Maahs pleas to death of livestock

A Unadilla farmer entered a no contest plea Monday to a felony charge of abandonment or neglect of livestock after paying restitution of $56,646 to Otoe County.

Sheriff deputies arrested John Maahs, 61, after finding hundreds of pig carcasses in multiple piles around his farm northwest of Unadilla.

Otoe County Attorney David Partsch said Maahs originally told deputies that three pigs may have died from the flu.

"When they asked to see the pigs, he told the deputies that there might have been 40 pigs," Partsch said.
In a court affidavit Deputy Joe Rehrs described the discovery of the dead animals.

“I first observed several rotting pig carcasses in the first pen. In the second pen there was a pile of rotting pig carcasses in different stages of decay. The pile was approximately four feet high and several feet long in each direction.

“The third pen had another pile of rotting and decaying pig carcasses similar to the previous pen,” he said.
“I asked Maahs what was in the pens further to the east. Maahs stated that this was all of them.

“I shined my flashlight to the east and near the east wall I observed a large pile of rotting and decaying carcasses.

“I asked Maahs if we could continue to the east, again Maahs lowered his head and began walking to the east side.

“In each pen I observed rotting or decaying pig and goat carcasses,” Rehrs said.

He said there were also eight dead goats surrounding an empty feeder in the center of a pen on the west end of the building.

Rehrs directed Maahs to another nearby building, where additional dead animals were found.
Deputies found several dead goats in pens near the driveway and then came to a large machine shed.

“Also inside the building were several large piles of dead animal carcasses. It appeared that there were goat, cow and pig carcasses in several of the piles,” Rehrs said.

A pen near Maah's residence contained pigs that appeared to have recently died and several who were sick and could not get up.

Partsch said Monday that Maahs has offered him no explanation as to what happened at the farm.
An anonymous phone call alerted sheriff's deputies to investigate.

Partsch said several animals were found alive, including 40 small feeder pigs that were in a chicken coop. Rehrs described them as very thin and said there was no water or food in the building and no containers to put water in.

“I observed four or five pigs that had recently died,” he said.

The deputies found about 20 pigs loaded onto a trailer that was attached to a tractor. There was no food or water on the trailer.

Partsch said Maahs paid restitution for the care of the living animals until they were sold. He also paid restitution for the burning of buildings, clean up of carcasses and mass burials of animals.

Trash piles up in remote deserts along U.S. border

Picking her way into the desert brush, Raquel Martinez gathered scores of plastic water bottles tossed in an Arizona desert valley near the Mexico border, often by migrants making a risky trek into the United States across increasingly remote terrain.

'We need more bags... there's so much trash,' said Ms Martinez, one of scores of volunteers helping clean up the dry bed of the Santa Cruz River about 10 miles north of the Mexico border on Saturday.

Trash tossed by thousands of illegal immigrants as they chase the American Dream has been a persistent problem for years in the rugged Arizona borderlands that lie on a main migration and smuggling route from Mexico.

The problem was compounded as immigrants and drug traffickers responded to ramped up vigilance on the U.S.-Mexico border by taking increasingly remote routes, leaving more waste behind in out-of-the way and hard-to-clean areas, authorities say.

'Migants used to follow the washes or follow the roads or utility poles,' said Robin Hoover, founder of the Tucson-based non-profit Humane Borders.

'Now they're having to move farther and farther from the middle of the valleys,' he added.

'They end up making more camp sites and cutting more trails when they do that, and, unfortunately ... leave more trash.'

Those making the punishing march carry food, water and often a change of clothes on the trek through remote desert areas that can take several days.

Most is tossed before they pile into vehicles at pickup sites like the one getting attention on the outskirts of Rio Rico, from where they head on to the US interior.

'One of the problems that we are facing is that these sites are becoming more and more remote as law enforcement steps up its efforts,' Henry Darwin, director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, said of the flourishing borderland garbage dumps.

'There's probably sites out there that we haven't encountered yet or don't know about because there's a lot of people out in those areas,' added Mr Darwin, who gave testimony on the issue to state lawmakers earlier this month.

There are no numbers to show exactly how many would-be migrants or smugglers take the illegal and surreptitious trek across the border into Arizona from Mexico each year.

But in an indication of the scale of the migration, federal border police made nearly 130,000 arrests last year in Arizona, where hundreds of Border Patrol agents, miles of fencing and several unmanned surveillance drones have been added in recent years to tighten security along the porous border.

With limited funding for clean up, Arizona environmental authorities draw on volunteers to help in drives like the one near Rio Rico, where an estimated 140 volunteers including residents, community and youth groups took part on Saturday.

Clean up efforts since 2008 by the department of environmental quality have included pulling 42 tons of trash from 160 acres of Cocopah tribal lands in far western Arizona, and clean ups at least seven sites on ranches and public land in areas south of Tucson.

Signs of illegal immigrants and even drug traffickers making the circuitous foot journey abound in the mesquite-studded riverbed near Rio Rico, a vigorous day's walk north of the border.

'I've found about a trillion water bottles,' said David Burkett, a lawyer from Scottsdale, who worked up a sweat as he filled his fourth 50-pound trash bag. Nearby are tossed backpacks, food containers, a blanket and a pair of shoes.

He points out that alongside the apparent migrant trash is a large amount of other waste including a couch, kitchen countertops and yard debris, likely tossed by residents and contractors. Still, it is a shock to those living locally.

'We don't realize how bad it is until we come down and see it,' said Candy Lamar, a volunteer who lives in sprawling, low density Rio Rico, as she works to pick up trash.

The area getting attention on Saturday lies a few miles from a remote spot where the bodies of three suspected drug traffickers were found shot to death 'execution style' last November.

The area is not far from another out-of-the-way spot where Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot dead by suspected border bandits in December 2010. Volunteers working on Saturday were aware of the potential hazards.

As she stuffed a blue garbage sack with trash, retiree Sharon Christensen eyed discarded burlap sacking, blankets and cord -- the remains of a makeshift backpack of the type often used by drug traffickers walking marijuana loads up from Mexico.

'It would make me hesitant to come out here on my own, knowing that this kind of activity is going on ... It is a concern, and we need to be mindful,' said Christensen, a retiree and hiking enthusiast.

Shoppers hand over piles of personal data to stores: survey

Welcome to the era of the candid consumer.

From their food allergies to home addresses, shoppers around the world are becoming increasingly willing to share more personal information with their favourite merchants, as they look for a more personalized and efficient shopping experience, an IBM survey of more than 28,000 people in 15 countries showed.

That is good news for retailers on both sides of the Atlantic as they look for ways to target the right demographic of shoppers with new products.

“They are willing to share information if there is perceived benefit,” said Jill Puleri, global retail leader of IBM’s global business services. “It doesn’t have to be monetary benefit.”

While consumers around the world still have reservations about sharing financial details such as how much they earn, they are less worried about divulging other private information.

For instance, about three-quarters of the people surveyed were willing to dish out details about their media usage such as the TV shows they watch, while 73 per cent of the group were fine with disclosing demographic information such as their ethnicity.

About 61 per cent of people were comfortable sharing their names and addresses with retailers, while about 59 per cent of those surveyed said they were OK with disclosing lifestyle-related information such as whether they owned more than one car, or had moved into a new home, or had a child recently.

“These are things that I think are pretty important to a retailer,” Ms. Puleri said, adding that the change in shopper behavior was phenomenal.

“We have always thought the consumer was pretty guarded with their information,” Ms. Puleri told Reuters.

More than half of the people surveyed were even willing to disclose their exact location and related information, hoping for a more targeted and smarter shopping experience.

“What it tells us is that they really want a personal experience,” she said. “They don’t want to find advertising in their mailbox or in their email about things they are never going to buy.”

Shoppers in emerging markets such as Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, South Africa and China were more willing to share private information versus their counterparts in mature markets such as Europe, Australia, Japan, Canada and the United States, Mr. Puleri said.

Contrary to popular perception, shoppers said they are keen to receive more communication from merchants, the survey showed. That indicates many retailers have not been reaching out to their real target audience, Ms. Puleri said.

Shoppers also want information from merchants delivered through channels relevant to them.

For example, fewer shoppers rely on email to find out about new products. Meanwhile, 85 per cent of consumers believe social networks will save them time, Ms. Puleri said.

Retailers should pay more attention to “noise on the wire” to understand better how their brands are perceived by the public, IBM’s Ms. Puleri said.

For example, discussions around some brands focus predominantly on price, availability, where to purchase, etc, indicating that these brands are highly price-sensitive.

On the other hand, discussions around other brands are focused on terms such as “self-improvement” and style, indicating that these brands are less price-sensitive.

With these insights, retailers selling brands with more price sensitivity should focus their marketing around promotions and sales, while the others could adopt a different approach, she said.

One finding that binds shoppers around the globe is their love for a good bargain. About 53 percent of consumers said they actively seek out items on sale, but this is not limited to mature markets. Sixty-nine per cent of Brazilians who participated in the survey also said they chased sale items.

“We are still seeing that frugality continue,” Ms. Puleri said.

While more private information from shoppers will surely help retailers understand their target audience better, the rapid influx of digital data also poses new challenges.

A recent IBM study of more than 1,700 chief marketing officers from 64 countries showed that a vast majority of them recognize a critical and permanent shift occurring in the way they engage with their customers, but question whether their marketing units are prepared to manage the change.

“There is a ton of experimenting going on, but there is not a lot of perfection,” Ms. Puleri said, urging retailers to get their act together fast.

District piles up $1 million in savings with scant snow

A lack of snow six weeks into the winter season has meant a savings of $1 million for the region's state Department of Transportation office.

There's been no overtime and contracted snow-plow drivers have not been needed, said Rick Mason, spokesman for PennDOT's District 3, which encompasses nine counties, including Montour, Northumberland, Snyder and Union.

"So far it has been a good winter as far as not having any major snowstorms to deal with," Mason said Thursday.

That trend will continue for at least the next 10 days, a meteorologist said.

"There is no significant snow in the near future," said Tom Kines, of AccuWeather in State College. "It will get cold, but no snow."

District 3 spent $2.9 million on winter maintenance from Dec. 1, 2010, to Jan. 12, 2011, Mason said. The Valley received 7 inches of snow during that period, AccuWeather meteorologist Alan Reppert said Saturday.

The district spent $1.8 million from Dec. 1, 2011, to Jan. 12, 2012, according to Mason. The Valley received 1 inch of snow during that period, Reppert said.

"We are under budget as of now," Mason said. "We all know that can change, but if it keeps up, this could be a good winter and we would be able to put money in the summer maintenance fund."

The winter season has brought temperatures 6 degrees above the normal of 36.2, Kines said.

"There has been some cold days, but it seems that when precipitation is on the way, it warms up and leaves us with just rain," he said. "It will get cold and stay cold for a period of time, but we just don't see any significant snow."

While Terry Specht, Sunbury city clerk, was unsure of winter maintenance costs for the city, she was sure money was being saved.

"It's been good so far," she said. "It is hard to tell until we see what the rest of the winter is like."

District 3 last year bought 28,000 tons of salt and 59,000 tons of anti-skid materials, Mason said. Anti-skid is used to treat roads before a storm arrives. It has used 5,200 tons of salt and 6,500 tons of anti-skid, so far this winter, Mason said, down from 9,600 tons and 13,000 tons, respectively, during the same six-week period last winter.

While PennDOT and local municipalities were treating roads on Friday, Kines said not to worry just yet.

"So far we have been lucky," he said. "It is a long winter."

Winter is for planning, not planting

Several readers recently asked about tips for winter planting. The best tip I can offer is: Don't. Deep winter is not a good time to plant. The fall planting window extends from the arrival of the autumn rains until the middle of December. The spring planting window opens in mid-to-late-February and continues through April.

Why? For established plants, winter is root growth time. Even though not much is happening above ground, mature plants continue to lengthen and strengthen their root systems through the cooler months. Newly planted plants must adjust to the shock of transplanting before making new roots. During that period, they are very susceptible to molds and mildews, which proliferate in damp, chilly soils. As I have often noted, maritime Northwest gardeners lose far more plants to root rots than to winter cold.

So what should we be doing? This is a fine time to make plans for the year to come. Paper gardening is an excellent task for a rainy or snowy winter day. Sketch on graph paper, not so much to keep lines straight but to give you a good idea of relative size. I prefer to use larger scale graph paper, where each square can represent a square foot.

When planning an ornamental bed that will contain shrubs and small trees as well as perennials, record each woody plant as a large circle indicating the ultimate drip line/shade zone. Make a smaller mark in the center to show where the actual trunk or base will be. This acts as a guide for companion planting, so you don't tuck sunlovers in what will soon be a deeply shaded spot.

If you made a rough sketch of last year's vegetable plot, use it to guide this season's planting choices. If you are not using a crop rotation pattern, this is a terrific time to start. Crop rotation avoids repeatedly planting the same crops in the same place. Some crops, such as the nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant) and the cabbage clan (also kale, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and greens) can deplete essential nutrients from the soil. This eventually weakens plants and attracts pests and diseases.

To rotate crops, we divide them into four major family groups; nightshades and cabbage kin (see above), the legumes (peas and beans), and various squash and corn. If you are just getting started, give each family group its own bed or area this year, then next season, shift them all one spot over. If you've been gardening for a while without shifting plant locations, use last year's chart as a guide and change every family group's position this year.

As a rule of thumb, wait 3-4 years before replanting a family group in a given bed. Some combinations are especially disease-prone, so be sure to avoid planting any of the nightshade crops in the same place.

There are a few exceptions to this rule. For instance, you can plant the onion family (onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, chives) anyplace, year after year. Root crops like carrots, beets, turnips and radishes can also be interplanted freely. Hardy herbs will help attract pollinator and repel pests, so tuck thyme, oregano, parsley, basil, and cilantro in all beds.

Edge each bed with sweet alyssum, marigolds, and calendulas to pull in the pollinators. Make permanent plantings of rosemary, sage, dill, borage, lavender and fennel to form a "bug bank" where beneficial bugs can overwinter in peace. Plant fallow beds with buckwheat or winter rye to build soil nutrients and reduce erosion. Happy planning!