ENVIRONMENT
Landowners Fret Over Impact
In Selling Gas-Drilling Rights
By KRIS MAHER
July 3, 2008; Page A7

Trevor Walczak is concerned about the environmental impact of natural-gas companies drilling on his land in eastern Pennsylvania, but $342,000 in this economy was too good to pass up.

“This type of windfall gives everybody a great opportunity for the future — it’s multigenerational,” says Mr. Walczak, who recently sold lease rights on 163 acres for $2,100 an acre to Ohio-based North Coast Energy Inc.. “Just the ability to become debt-free is a huge leap for somebody.”

The 31-year-old forester, whose family owns a sawmill, thinks worries about how drilling will affect water supplies are overblown. He plans to use his windfall to invest in a quarry.

Thousands of other Pennsylvanians are making a similar calculation. In the current economic squeeze, financial opportunity is outweighing environmental issues for people swept up in a land grab by energy companies targeting gas reserves thousands of feet beneath people’s properties.

Companies eager to secure rights to drill into a deep stratum of shale known as the Marcellus deposit are paying as much as $2,500 an acre, or more, in some parts of the state, up from $25 an acre a year and a half ago, for five-year leases. Meanwhile, royalty rates, which are paid once production starts and could eventually lead to far greater income for mineral-rights owners, have risen to 18% of production revenue in some cases, compared with the state-mandated minimum of 12.5%.

In many cases, energy companies are targeting rural areas that have been depressed for years. “These payments are a real godsend to these people,” says Tim Considine, a professor of natural-resource economics at Pennsylvania State University.

Rising natural-gas prices and new technologies have led to a boom in natural-gas drilling in other states, including Texas, Colorado, North Dakota and Louisiana (See related article). Many landowners there are seeing offers as rich or richer. Some offers in the Fort Worth, Texas, area have run above $25,000 an acre.

“We have 15 buildings on our farm, and every single one of them is in some sort of major need of repair,” says Marian Schweighofer of Damascus, Pa. She says her family, which is the sixth generation of Schweighofers to grow corn and hay and raise cattle and sheep, is close to finalizing terms to sell the rights to drill on its 712 acres. The family plans to use the money to replace old equipment, including a 42-year-old hay baler. She says she would rather have a small tower on a few acres of her property than lose the money needed to keep the farm going.

She and her neighbors are negotiating as a group owning 70,000 acres — not only for environmental reasons, but also to avoid friction over money. “If you signed for $25 and I signed for $50, you were angry at me,” she says. “It pitted one neighbor against another.”

People in rural parts of the state who rely on the land to maintain dairy farms or hunt worry they will have to deal with the kind industrial activity that communities out West have already faced from natural-gas projects, from increased truck traffic and air pollution to pipelines and other changes to the landscape. In some cases, ranchers have joined with environmental groups to fight noise pollution from pumps as well as dust from trucks and drilling.

The big environmental issue is water. Large amounts of pressurized water are needed to fracture rock thousands of feet underground. Once the rocks are free, the gas can flow to the wells. Not only will more of the state’s water be channeled to mining, but some people worry the process could also contaminate wells or parts of the state’s aquifer. Last month, officials at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources shut two new natural-gas wells in the absence of permits to extract water from local streams.

Elizabeth Downey is leaving her concerns about the environment to the state. “With all of the agencies watching them, I’ve got confidence that they’ll do the right thing,” says Mrs. Downey, who got a check for nearly $160,000 after selling the lease rights on 105 acres near Jersey Shore, Pa., for $1,500 an acre.

Energy companies say they are eager to work with the state’s regulators, as rules are developed specifically for areas of the state where drilling is new.

Some landowners are concerned that too much attention to environmental concerns could delay or wipe out royalty opportunities. Louis Matoushek, a 66-year-old former dairy farmer in Clinton Township, sold the lease rights on 195 acres for $125 an acre last August. With a well already on his property, he thought royalty payments would soon follow. But he says action stopped just as the company was about to use water to fracture the rock.

“One of my biggest fears is that this state is going to have rules and regulations that are so tough on the drillers that they’re going to move,” he says.

Buying a Sense of Security for the Home
Services Point Out
Ways to Shore Up
Vulnerable Spots
By JANE HODGES
July 3, 2008; Page B10

Worried that wily thieves could invade our home and steal items like the computer where this story got written and our aging Asimov’s Science Fiction collection, we decided to get bids from residential home-security companies and learn how they’d protect our stuff — and us.

We aren’t alone in our worry about residential security: The security market is a $10 billion industry in the U.S., with a professionally installed and monitored security system in roughly 20% of homes, according to Bill Walker, senior vice president of research at First Research in Raleigh, N.C. Residential clients account for 40% of the industry, First Research reports.

Randall Enos
So just how would different security companies configure our Seattle home with a system, and what would they charge to alert the police about kicked-in doors, broken windows, or triggered motion sensors? To find out, we called ADT Security Services Inc., Brink’s Home Security Inc., Monitronics International Inc. and Protection One Inc., all national companies that provide a free security review as part of their sales pitches.

Scheduling appointments by phone was straightforward. Once at our home, representatives spent anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes each assessing our house, outlining what equipment we’d need for adequate protection and writing a service bid.

Each of the recommended alarm systems included a programmable panel with communications technology to link our home to emergency dispatch centers, at least one motion sensor, door and window sensors, the option of “glass break” alarms for windows, a siren and a remote-control device with panic buttons. Smoke alarms can be linked to the systems to alert the local fire department of excess smoke or heat.

Our 1960s two-story home has a partial above-ground basement and garage topped off by a main floor upstairs. Representatives differed slightly in their depictions of how and where intruders tend to enter homes. (For example, one said they tend to enter via the front door and another said they tend to exit through it.) But they unanimously agreed that the basement, with a door facing the backyard and several ground-level windows, was our most vulnerable area. They all recommended at least one basement motion sensor plus window alarms (set off if the window is opened) or glass-break alarms (set off if the window is broken) downstairs, though they differed on the sensor’s placement.

Reps from Brink’s and Monitronics said that our garage door would be difficult to break in because of its front-of-house location and the particular garage-door-opener system we use. But the Protection One rep contradicted that, explaining that most garage-door openers work off remotes with low radio frequencies and can potentially be opened by determined thieves sampling different door remotes.

The ADT rep told us that if we keep a garage-door opener in a car parked on the street, we should always lock the car, as she knew instances in which robbers and attackers used garage-door remotes from unlocked cars parked on the street to gain entry into homes. All four representatives said we should arm the door from our basement den to the garage, just in case.

Upstairs, the reps all said that our windows were too high for a thief to seriously consider and wouldn’t need window alarm or glass-break protection. But our two exterior doors would need alarms. They also said we’d need a motion sensor in the living room, though they differed slightly on where to place it.

All four companies offer systems that work over the home’s existing phone lines, but each offers cellular backup for a slight charge. The representatives from ADT, Brink’s and Protection One said that if a determined thief cut our phone line, then a system reliant solely on land lines would be unable to contact police, though sirens would still function. The Monitronics rep said he thought the alarm would go off if the land line were cut, but the other reps said this wouldn’t happen because if that were the case, alarms would go off any time that inclement weather, construction, or repair work disengaged our phone line. Because of this issue with land lines, and because some homeowners use cellphones in lieu of getting land lines, all the reps recommended cellular backups for phone-line alarm systems.

Reps from ADT, Protection One and Brink’s recommended GSM-only systems (using a cellular technology known as global system for mobile communications). Both ADT and Protection One offer GSM service, and Brink’s will offer it later in 2008, the rep said. The Brink’s rep encouraged us to get a radio-wave backup, which would transmit distress signals via radio waves to police or emergency workers, until GSM is available. ADT noted that VOIP-based systems (voice over Internet protocol) can be used as a backup or even as a primary alarm.

As for the cost, monthly monitoring prices ranged from $30.99 to $50.99, depending on whether we chose cell backup and a linked fire alarm, and whether we qualified for partner discounts. (ADT offered discounts to USAA and AAA members.) All companies required an initial three-year contract, payable monthly, after which shorter-term contracts were available. (ADT offers two-year contracts to USAA members.)

Installation prices varied, from $267.45 for Monitronics to $1,187 for ADT, without USAA discounts but including two linked smoke detectors. All four reps said we would need to pay an annual $10 alarm fee required by the city of Seattle to offset the costs of responding to false alarms, and every rep but the one from Monitronics said our price would include fees ranging from $50 for Protection One to $82 for Brink’s to cover the permits for minor electrical work.

Of course, we’re hoping that now that we’ve outlined our home’s trouble spots and considered its lack of robber-attracting possessions — just try hauling an old 300-pound TV out any door or window — that this information alone will deter break-ins. But just in case, by the time this story prints, we’ll be “armed.”

Write to Jane Hodges at rjeditor@dowjones.com

Thousands celebrate summer solstice at Stonehenge
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Prolonged rain and cloud cover meant that the sun did not shine on the traditional and annual Stonehenge celebrations to mark the longest day at the ancient monument.

Yahoo! Buzz Digg Newsvine Reddit FacebookWhat’s this?STONEHENGE, England (AP) — Thousands of partygoers, pagans and self-styled druids cheered and banged drums Saturday to greet the dawn at Stonehenge on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice.
Blowhorns signaled the rise of the sun over the ancient stone circle at 4:58 a.m. — although in typically English fashion, the sunrise was barely visible through the clouds.

Still, the mist and drizzle did not dampen the spirits of revelers who gathered under umbrellas, ponchos and plastic bags to greet the dawn.

“I’ve done this for the last three years,” said Peter Rawcliffe, 26, who cycled the 50 miles from his home in the city of Oxford. “I suppose I’m a bit of a closet druid.”

“It’s a really magical experience,” he said.

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Police estimated 28,000 revelers had made the trip, one of the largest numbers in years. They said there were 15 arrests for theft and other minor offenses.

Trevor Wyatt, 55, described the historic site as his “cathedral.”

“It’s been a sacred place for 6,000 years for the people of this country,” he said.

Wyatt, who lives in London, said he is neither pagan nor druid, “just English.”

In ancient times, a druid was a member of the Celtic priesthood who would act as priest, arbitrator, scholar, magistrate and healer. They appeared in sagas and in Christian legends as magicians or wizards.

Solstice celebrations were a highlight of the pre-Christian calendar and in many countries bonfires, maypole dances and courtship rituals linger on as holdovers from Europe’s pagan past.

Zoe Neale, 48, cheerfully admitted her visit to Stonehenge “is part of my mid-life crisis.” She left her West London office amid gentle teasing from her colleagues Friday afternoon to see a very English tradition.

“I’ve always thought it’s just a bunch of old hippies. I’m just going to ignore the hippie things and think about Stonehenge and the sunrise,” she said.

Throughout the night, visitors gathered in groups to dance around drummers and bagpipe players — or to swig from cans of beer to the beat of techno music.

“We heard about it through our really studious friends, but we’re going to come and get drunk,” said Alison Newcomer, a 21-year-old student from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain about 80 miles southwest of London, was built over three phases between 3000 B.C. and 1600 B.C. It is one of Britain’s most popular tourist attractions, drawing more than 750,000 visitors a year.

The solstice is the one day of the year that visitors are allowed access throughout the night to the stone circle. Representatives of English Heritage, the monument’s caretaker, were on hand to make sure no one climbed on or vandalized the stones.

Though the stone circle’s alignment with the midsummer sunrise makes it an ideal location for celebrating the solstice, the event has a controversial past.

A clash between police and revelers at the solstice celebration in 1985 led to closure of the monument for the solstice for 15 years. During those years riot police and people determined to celebrate the solstice often clashed.

But in 2000, English Heritage reopened Stonehenge for the solstice, and celebrations since have been peaceful, with only a few arrests for minor offenses each year.

“People generally respect the stones and we don’t have a problem,” English Heritage spokeswoman Rebecca Milton said.

Exactly how and why Stonehenge was built remains a mystery. Some experts believe it is aligned with the sun simply because its builders came from a sun-worshipping culture, while others believe the site was part of a huge astronomical calendar.

In May, researchers said new evidence suggests the stone circle was used as a burial ground. Cremated remains found at the site date to 3000 B.C. and radiocarbon dating shows burials continued at the site for at least 500 years.

Apartment Sales Remain Vigorous in Manhattan
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By JOSH BARBANEL
Published: July 2, 2008
Correction Appended

Despite slowing sales and continuing economic worries, market studies released yesterday showed that the Manhattan co-op and condominium market remained strong in the peak spring selling season, with prices up 25 percent or more compared with a year ago, and overall prices roughly flat or just below record levels.

Average prices reached about $1.67 million for a Manhattan apartment in the second quarter, 1 percent to 3 percent below the record levels reported in the previous quarter, according to the series of competing market studies prepared by the major brokerage firms in New York City.

But these figures include a number of closings over the winter at two immensely expensive new condominium projects — the Plaza Hotel on Fifth Avenue and 15 Central Park West — that drove up average prices in the first quarter.

When these high-end sales were excluded for the second quarter, Gregory J. Heym, the chief economist of both Halstead Property and Brown Harris Stevens, said his figures still showed that average sales prices were actually up about 5 percent over the first quarter. “Prices are at incredibly high levels,” Mr. Heym said.

Yet Mr. Heym and other analysts said there was increasing concern that prices would remain flat or perhaps decline over the next year, especially if the economy continued to weaken. So far, he said, despite reports of recent and impending layoffs, the local economy has “yet to show any real weakness.”

While luxury sales remained very strong, the reports showed slowing sales and weakening prices for studios and one-bedroom apartments, where buyers are extremely sensitive to tighter lending requirements and larger down payments now being demanded by mortgage lenders.

The number of sales dropped sharply, by about 22 percent, compared with the second quarter of 2007, which was a record year for sales, according to an analysis released by Prudential Douglas Elliman. But at the same time, the number of sales was higher compared with the same period in 2006.

The inventory of unsold apartments rose to 9,968 in the second quarter, 21 percent higher than the year before, according to a tally by the Corcoran Group. But the total number of apartments listed for sale in June had fallen by 1.2 percent since April, and was reported to be below inventory levels of several years ago.

Strong luxury sales and faltering studio sales had the perverse effect of catapulting the median price — the price of the apartment exactly in the middle of all sale prices — to a record. It was close to or slightly above $1 million, depending on the report.

The report by Prudential Douglas Elliman found that average co-op prices fell by 8 percent compared with the previous quarter, to $1.28 million, while the average condo price fell by 2.3 percent, to $1.94 million.

Pamela Liebman, the president and chief executive of the Corcoran Group, said there was “a lot of pressure on one-bedrooms and studios” but that “anyone who thinks price appreciation is over in this market is dreaming.”

The flat sales picture has led many brokers to look back on 2007 as the golden age of Manhattan real estate, when inventory was falling and prices were rising regularly to new records.

Ms. Liebman said that while “everything was perfect in 2007,” the party was far from over. “It is still a party,” she said. “We are just not serving Cristal.”

Jonathan J. Miller, the president of Miller Samuel Inc, an appraisal firm, who prepares the market report for Prudential Douglas Elliman, said that the decline in average prices was the first since the fall of 2006, and could augur a turning point in the market.

“We are looking at several years of lackluster performance at best,” Mr. Miller said.

Dorothy Herman, president and chief executive of Prudential Douglas Elliman, said that “obviously the frenzy mentality is gone,” and she predicted that the market would be flat or down slightly during the rest of the year.

She said buyers were cautious and price sensitive, and lenders were requiring a lot more cash down. Still, she said, “New York was different from the rest of the country,” and she said that bidding wars over well-priced apartments would continue. “I don’t think New York is going to collapse,” she said.

For the first time, the report by the Corcoran Group distinguished sales of new condo and co-op apartments from sales of existing apartments, which is similar to the way real estate sales data is collected across the country.

The report found that the average sales price of existing apartments rose 10 percent compared with a year ago, to $1.43 million, and fell 8 percent from the first quarter. But average sale prices at new developments rose to $2.2 million, a 61 percent increase from a year ago, and a 17 percent increase from the first quarter.

In Brooklyn, the report found that co-op and condo prices rose 5 percent in the first half of 2008 compared with a year earlier, to an average of $621,000. In Williamsburg, where the prices were highest, the average price fell by 26 percent. The average price of a single-family town house fell by 17 percent in Brooklyn, to $1.2 million.

Hall F. Willkie, the president of Brown Harris Stevens, said that the market reports reflected closed sales, based on contracts that were signed in the last 3 to 12 months. But based on contracts signed recently, he said that sales were off 16 percent this year, but the total value of sales was roughly equal to the total value of sales a year ago.

“If properties are priced within their value range, they sell and they sell well,” he said.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 3, 2008
An article on Wednesday about second-quarter reports on the Manhattan real estate market misstated the period of time over which average co-op prices fell by 8 percent, according to Prudential Douglas Elliman. It was since the previous quarter, not the previous year.

Washington’s Boyhood Home Is Found
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By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Published: July 3, 2008
George Washington’s boyhood home has been found.

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Mesick, Cohen, Wilson, Baker Architects
A rendering of George Washington’s family house and surrounding land at Ferry Farm in Stafford County, circa 1738. A ferry, which gave the farm its name, crosses the Rappahannock River in the foreground. More Photos »

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The bowl of an 18th-century pipe, darkened from heavy use, was a key discovery at the site of the boyhood home of George Washington. The pipe, found in one of the cellars of the house, bears a Masonic crest. More Photos >
Researchers announced Wednesday that remains excavated in the last three years were those of the long-sought dwelling, on the old family farm in Virginia 50 miles south of Washington. The house stood on a terrace overlooking the Rappahannock River, where legend has it the boy threw a stone or a coin across to Fredericksburg.

On the subject of legend, the archaeologists who made the discovery could no more tell a lie than young George. No, there was not a single cherry tree anywhere around, not even a stump or a rusty hatchet. The tale of the boy owning up to whacking his father’s prized cherry tree, the one thing most people think they know of Washington’s youth, has long since been discredited as apocryphal.

But finding the house, archaeologists and historians say, may yield insights into the circumstances in which Washington grew up. Actual documentary evidence of his formative years is scant.

“What we see at this site is the best available window into the setting that nurtured the father of our country,” Philip Levy, an archaeologist and associate professor of history at the University of South Florida, said in an announcement of the discovery.

Dr. Levy and other members of the excavation team said the foundations, stone-lined cellars and other remains suggested that this was far from being the rustic cottage of common perception, but instead one befitting a family of the local gentry. It was a much larger one-and-a-half-story residence, with perhaps eight rooms and an adjacent structure for the kitchen.

David Muraca, director of archaeology for the George Washington Foundation, said the size, characteristics and location of the structure, as well as many artifacts from the time of Washington’s youth, had led experts to conclude that this was indeed the house they were looking for. “This is it,” Mr. Muraca said firmly.

The announcement was made by the foundation, owner of the National Historic Landmark site called Ferry Farm. Archaeologists described the excavations in a telephone news conference arranged by the National Geographic Society, a supporter of the research.

George was 6 when the family moved to the farm in 1738. His father, Augustine, had bought the farm, which then covered 600 acres, to be closer to an iron furnace that he managed. The father and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington, and their six children occupied a house that had been built earlier in the century.

Among the few things known of that period are the death of a baby sister, a house fire on Christmas Eve 1740 and the death of Augustine, in 1743. George eventually inherited the farm and lived in the house until his early 20s, though he took to spending more time with his half-brother Lawrence at another family property, later known as Mount Vernon.

Washington’s mother lived in the house until 1772, when she moved to Fredericksburg, and the farm was sold five years later. The house was demolished sometime in the early 19th century; an 1833 painting shows its ruins. Other old buildings and newer ones were destroyed, their timber probably burned as fuel, when the farm was occupied by Union soldiers in the Civil War.

The search for anything left of the boyhood home began in earnest seven years ago. Three likely sites were excavated, Mr. Muraca said. At the first, two years of work turned up ruins from the 17th century. The second set of ruins proved to be from a house built in the mid-19th century.

For the last three years, the research team — sometimes as many as 50 workers in the field and laboratories — turned over the stones and soil at the remaining site. “If we didn’t hit here, we had no other place to look,” Mr. Muraca said.

From sections of foundation stones, the bases of two chimneys and remains of four cellars, the archaeologists determined the dimensions of the main house, a rectangle 53 by 37 feet, not counting the separate kitchen. Other evidence from debris indicated that the house had a clapboard facade and wooden roof shingles.

Mark Wenger, an architectural historian for Ferry Farm, said the house appeared to have had a central hallway with front rooms and back rooms on each side and possibly three rooms upstairs under the slope of the roof. The front rooms faced on the river, which in those days was navigable to large sailing ships.

“It was a very nice gentry house,” Mr. Wenger said, at a time when most people made do with houses of only one or two rooms.

The team found some charred ruins from the documented fire, but they seemed to be confined to one small area of the house. So stories that the family was forced out into the cold winter to live in outbuildings are suspect, the researchers said.

By the end of last year, Mr. Muraca said, “all our data lined up, and we felt that beyond a doubt we had found the Washington house.”

Artifacts from the Washington period were crucial. These included wine bottles, knives and forks, pieces of small figurines, wig curlers, bone toothbrush handles and a clay pipe with a Masonic crest that just possibly was George’s. Fragments of an elaborate Wedgwood tea set, presumably belonging to Mary Washington, showed that the family’s fortunes had revived after the hardships immediately following the father’s death.

The Washington foundation said archaeologists would continue the search for other buildings and gardens at Ferry Farm. The ultimate goal is to reconstruct the house young George grew up in.

Solar Fest turns 10

Fans of all ages flock to Kit Carson Park for three days of music and fun under the sun. Photo by Rick Romancito
Three-day event at Kit Carson Park features Susan Tedeschi, Collective Soul, The BoDeans, Plena Libre, Steve Earle and more
By Deonne Kahler
Saturday, June 28, 2008 6:30 AM MDT

The Taos Solar Music Festival hits the decade mark this year, and since it began in 1999 the event has garnered fans from all over the country with its big name musicians and hot up and comers, family friendly atmosphere, and commitment to raising awareness about environmental issues. This year should be as excellent as ever, and it happens Friday through Sunday (June 27-29) at Kit Carson Park, right in the heart of downtown Taos.

Putting on an event of this size has its challenges, including getting Taoseños used to having a giant weekend-long party in the middle of town. Event co-organizer Dawn Richardson explained, “We went from a place where people were saying ‘What is that noisy thing? What’s going on?’ to ‘Oh yeah, that happens every year.’ For example, instead of people who live close by complaining about the noise, most people now sit out on their porches and listen to the music.”

Here’s who’s playing the main stage …

Friday (June 27)

Taos’s “mountain gothic roots rock” band Bone Orchard kicks the event off at 3 p.m. with songs ranging from Appalachian murder ballads to more punk-inspired fare. At 4:30 p.m., it’s Sharon Gilchrist, mandolin player-singer extraordinaire, and member of popular bands Mary & Mars, Uncle Earl and Santa Fe All Stars. Lately she’s been touring with bluegrass legend Peter Rowan.

Hal Ketchum, who performs at 6 p.m., has what “USA Today” calls “the most effervescent voice in country music.” His first hit was “Small Town Saturday Night,” and he’s been racking up hits and honors ever since. Artists like Trisha Yearwood and Neil Diamond have covered Ketchum’s songs, but there’s nothing better than hearing him do them himself.

Ketchum will be followed by the always outstanding Michael Hearne and his dance band South by Southwest at 7:15 p.m.

Headlining the night is the folk rocking BoDeans at 8 p.m. Well known for their song “Closer to Free” which was chosen as the theme for TV series “Party of Five,” the band’s signature sound is built around a preternatural ability to make gorgeous harmonies and write catchy songs with heart.

Saturday (June 28)

Start your Saturday with a bang when the drum and percussion troupe Concepto Tambor take the stage at 11:15 a.m. with their Afro-Latin grooves, call and response vocals in both Spanish and English, and plenty of rock and roll attitude.

Taos loves reggae, and fans won’t be disappointed with Taj Weekes & Adowa at 12:45 p.m. Their latest album is called “Deidem,” or “all of us,” and it’s a meditation on our fragmented world and the need for every person to be heard.

Flamenco band Pacifika takes the stage at 2:30 p.m. They are a sexy Latin jazz, hip-hop, pop hybrid that’ll get you out of your beach chair in no time. Pacifika is Silvana Kane, Peruvian-born singer and actress, Adam Popowitz, Canadian-bred guitarist and producer, and Toby Peter, dub bassist born in Canada and raised in Barbados.

At 4:15 p.m. Taos Renaissance man Robert Mirabal and his band brandish their Pueblo-inspired sound, ranging from delicate flute songs to full-blown rock and roll. Mirabal himself is on a roll, having just won his second Grammy for “Johnny Whitehorse Totemic Flute Chants.” He and his band never fail to mesmerize.

The Coup at 6 p.m. may be this year’s breakout act. Oakland emcee Boots Riley and DJ Pam the Funkstress create a sound that’s Sly and the Family Stone meets James Brown meets hip-hop. The band’s 2006 debut album “Pick a Bigger Weapon” is a funky combo of the personal and political, The Coup is all about grassroots activism grounded in danceable beats. Not to be missed.

Multiple hit wonder band Collective Soul headlines at 8 p.m. with their catchy guitar rock and high-energy live show. The band released “Afterwords” last year and seems poised to take over the rock airwaves once again.

Sunday (June 29)

Start your day with tribal songs from the Taos Pueblo Singers at 11 a.m., then kick back for well-loved community member and fine singer, songwriter, musician and producer Don Richmond at 11:45 a.m., whose countrified songs always satisfy.

Passafire at 1 p.m. blends roots reggae, progressive rock and experimental dub to create an unusual sound that has won them an avid fan base, and it recently opened for bands as diverse as Toots and the Maytals and Van Halen. ‘Nuff said.

At 2:30 p.m. Allison Moorer (wife to Steve Earle and sister to Shelby Lynne) has Southern soul written all over her and a voice that could sing the phone book and still sound fabulous. Moorer’s latest album is the outstanding Mockingbird, where she covers such female powerhouses as Patti Smith, June Carter Cash and Nina Simone.

Plena Libre, which goes on at 3:45 p.m., has been largely responsible for the reinvention of Puerto Rico’s plena tradition, an Afro-Puerto Rican rhythm (Plena Libre means “liberated plena.”) The orchestra modernized the traditional ensemble with bass, keyboards, timbales, congas, trombones and percussion, making it even more danceable.

Steve Earle, who plays at 5:45 p.m., is known for rough around the edges country rock and strong opinions. His latest album, Washington Square Serenade, seamlessly combines songs of love and protest, a gift he’s been honing since his 1986 debut “Guitar Town” burst on the scene and took country music to a whole new level.

Closing out the weekend is the outstanding Susan Tedeschi at 7:30 p.m. She sings the blues with a folk, gospel and R&B tinged heartache, and backed by her crack band this set is not to be missed.

Bring sunscreen and layers, car pool, and don’t forget your ID if you plan to visit the beer garden.

Doors open at 1:30 p.m. Friday (June 27), and 10:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday (June 28-29). Children 10 and under get in free. A three-day pass is $95; Saturday-Sunday pass is $85; Friday is $25; Saturday and Sunday each $45. To buy tickets or for more details, visit www.solarmusicfest.com.

Icing on the cake

As if all the great music wasn’t enough, here’s more fun stuff happening this weekend:

Dancing

Folks can dance anywhere on the grounds, and do, but this year festival organizers are getting a little more, well, organized about it. Friday night (June 27) folks can two-step and swing at the Solar Cantina (on the Solar Stage) for Hal Ketchum and Michael Hearne’s sets.

It’s salsa Sunday (June 29) with Rigoberto Trejo at 3:15 p.m. Trejo, a DJ with KXMT-FM 99.1 has a fan base of women from 8-80 years old and he’s not only charming, he also happens to be an expert salsa dancer. He’ll give a group lesson right before Plena Libre’s set.

After party

If you’re not ready to head home after Collective Soul on Saturday night (June 28), there’s an after party happening at the Don Fernando Hotel with Taj Weekes & Adowa — and it’s free. Tickets are first come, first serve, and you can only get them at Solar Fest at the KBAC radio booth. It’s likely that a few other Solar Fest artists will show up as well, so don’t miss it.

Art

Ed Sandoval did the spectacular festival poster this year, and local artists including George Chacón, Pat Woodall, Randy Pijoan and Rich Nichols will be putting their own artistic stamp on painted sun catchers throughout the weekend. Look for them by the main stage.

Solar Village

Stop by the free Solar Village where more than two dozen exhibitors will educate and inspire about all things solar, and pick up a solar-baked cookie or croissant while you’re at it. Conscious Alliance is hosting a food drive for Shared Table, and all festivarians donating 10 non-perishable food items (no ramen noodles, please) receive a free limited-edition poster by artist Chris Huang. The Solar Village is open to the public Friday from 1-6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Wind farms could soon blow on to Taos County’s horizon

File photo Wind turbines could soon dot the Taos County landscape.
By Andy Dennison
Saturday, June 28, 2008 2:19 PM MDT

Wind-power entrepreneurs still don’t know if they have enough consistent winds west of the Río Grande Gorge to be commercially profitable.

However, the group headed by Taos attorney Eliu Romero is going ahead with plans to get a county permit to allow them to install some 65 wind turbines for the county’s first wind farms. A July 8 hearing is scheduled in front of the Taos County Planning Commission. “The people with the money for this project need a year’s data,” said Romero Wednesday (June 25).

“We need about 5 1/2 months more.” Romero, listed as agent for the project, said wind speeds and endurance have been “acceptable” so far this year on two poles that were installed on land just east of Tres Piedras and another north of Tres Piedras, respectively. “But we are going into the less windy part of the year,” he said. “We need more data to determine the feasibility.”

If initiated, “Taos Wind Farm” and “Wind Mountain Project” would have 40 and 15 turbines, respectively, on two separate private landholdings that would each generate 1.5 megawatts of power. Electricity would be sold to the Kit Carson power grid. Turbines cost $1.5 million each, Romero said, and rise 284 feet into sky.

The group must get a height variance from the county to install the turbines. The larger wind farm is seven miles of Tres Piedras on three sections, leased by Martin E. and Dennis C. Romero. The smaller version is four miles northeast of Tres Piedras near No Agua and a clay-pigeon shooting range, owned by Rebeca Maria Romero Rainey. Turbines would be placed on 20-acre plots, spreading out across the acreage, according to the group’s variance application.

“We are going ahead with the permit in hopes that the winds pan out,” said Romero.

From Taos to Myanmar: Relief effort spans globe

Submitted photo Residents of the storm-ravaged region of Myanmar get some much-needed relief in the cyclone’s wake.
By Jerry Padilla
Monday, June 30, 2008 5:32 PM MDT

On May 2, a cyclone slammed into Myanmar, killing more than 130,000 and displacing an estimated 2.4 million residents in the southern delta region.

“I had never seen so much damage; 10,000 trees, many several stories tall were leveled, and seeing that up front, it is almost unbelievable,” said Katrina Lehman. “The saddest is all the displaced children, many who lost their parents, and entire families. If enough salt water cannot be pumped out of rice fields in the southern delta region — so it can be planted soon — there will not be a crop this season, things will just get worse, and there could be famine.”

Lehman, a former Taos High School teacher now teaching technology and English at the International School in Yangon, Myanmar, experienced the tragedy up close and is now working to make a difference in the lives of Myanmar’s stormravaged residents.

“My friends and I put my Toyota to work for loading and transporting supplies,” continued Lehman. “I left it with them to use. I wanted to stay, but my fellow teachers decided I needed to come back to the U.S., to continue raising consciousness about just how much relief aid is still needed there.”

Lehman said that a cyclone warning preceded the deadly event, but warnings as the storm’s severity were never received. Ten hours after the cyclone hit land, the damage was done.

“It was total devastation,” Lehman said. “It felt like a war zone and everyone was in shock.”

Phone service was out, there was no electricity, and almost no potable water. When her fellow teachers arrived at the school, they found a tree in the building, the gymnasium’s roof had blown off and water damage prompted the school’s closing. Teachers and students met and decided to pitch in together to commence a relief effort.

“So many people had lost not only homes, but several family members as well. We began renting trucks to load with rice, transporting it as far as the road was passable to one of the worst hit areas about 60 miles south of Yangon, (formerly known as Rangoon).”

Teachers and students from 27 different countries, visiting artists, and others who happened to be there, all pitched in to help the survivors. Teachers donated their pay checks. Travelers wrote home asking for donations. And aid workers kept preparing family packs, of eggs, rice, fish, cooking oil and potable water for distribution.

“We bought and loaded 104 gallons of diesel fuel in a rented truck and transported it in boats in regions where the damage was worst — boats were among the only means of transportation in the storm’s wake,” she said.

After the storm

Now, more than a month after the deadly storm, residents — including countless orphaned children — are trying to pick up the pieces and resume as normal a life as possible. For many of the area youth, are is providing the vehicle with which many are coming to grips with the tragedy.

“It’s very interesting to see what children depicted about their parents and families during art therapy sessions,” Lehman said. “Many people who were not found very soon after probably didn’t make it. A pregnant woman lost three of her four children, and we hope some of the missing brothers and sisters of all the orphaned children might be found alive … perhaps displaced by the confusion.”

“One little old man was found clinging to a tree, and he was the only one of his family who wasn’t swept away,” she continued. “People were washing in, and drinking water that had corpses. It was like a holocaust.”

Lehman said she’s hoping to dispel an American misnomer that there’s little an average American citizen can do to help.

“That is just not true,” Lehman emphasized.

She said that local organizations are coordinating donations with the Burmese people and other cultures of Myanmar. A simple donation of $5 can feed a displaced family for up to a week, Lehman said. Additionally, area monasteries have taken the lead in local efforts for distribution of aid, serving as the “soup kitchens” of Myanmar. The head Buddhist monks are the village leaders.

The people are very strong, and very generous, and are the true heroes. Traditionally the barefoot monks come out very early in the morning asking for donations, in order to have enough to share with the poor. Lehman said that several other organizations are aiding in the humanitarian effort. They include: ■ www.beyondrangoonproject.com ■ The Foundation for the People of Burma www.foundationburma.org ■ www.asiasociety.com . Lehman is planning to return to Myanmar shortly. Anyone wanting information or to donate to the cause can reach Nancy Jenkins at 575-758-4820.

Huddling Up

Photo by Gabe Toth
By Gabe Toth
Friday, June 27, 2008 2:27 PM MDT

New Taos football coach Rex Stevenson, flanked by Athletic Director James Branch, left, and boys basketball coach John Graham, right, visits Taos High School Tuesday (June 24).

Stevenson recently arrived from Florida after a 2,200-mile journey on Saturday (June 14), but his trailer didn’t get to Taos until the following Tuesday (June 17). He said the trip across the southern part of the United States wasn’t too much trouble until he started heading across Texas.

“When I got to the other side of San Antonio, what they call hill country, that’s when things got bad,” he said. “It was just killing my little truck.”

Once he hit southern New Mexico, where “the hills turned into mountains,” Stevenson — a former police chief — said it was too much for his Chevy S-10 and he had to leave the trailer with the Socorro Police Department. A few days later, he returned with help from Branch and Taos school board member Arsenio Córdova, and Stevenson’s stuff finally joined him in his new home.

Pearce tours Enchanted Circle

File photo Congressman Steve Pearce was in Taos Tuesday (July 1) to drum up support for his bid to secure a U.S. Senate seat.
By Patricia Chambers
Thursday, July 3, 2008 6:26 AM MDT

Congressman Steve Pearce was joined by other Republican candidates for a three-day “North East New Mexico Enchanted Circle Tour” that began July 1 in Angel Fire and ends Thursday (July 3) in Las Vegas.

Pearce is hitting the stump in “Udall Country” in his campaign for the U.S. Senate against the popular Democrat Tom Udall, who currently represents the Third Congressional District in the House of Representatives.

Unlike the other two Congressional Districts, the diverse District 3 is dominated by a majority of Democrats, so it’s hard going for Republicans vying for the attention of voters here.

The winner of the statewide U.S. Senate race will replace Sen. Pete Domenici, who has represented New Mexico in Washington, D.C. since 1972. The Republican majority in the Senate could narrow considerably if Udall wins.

Pearce defeated U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson in the June 2 Republican Primary Election to earn the chance to compete against Udall in November. Wilson, who like Pearce and Udall chose not to run for reelection to the House of Representatives, will not return to Congress in January.

The decision of the state’s three members of the House of Representatives also means New Mexico will send three freshmen Congressman to Washington, D.C. next year.

Dan East, the Republican nominee for the District 3 Congressional seat, also joined Pearce’s campaign tour in Northern New Mexico.

Gas prices top priority for voters

As the campaign year began, no one would have predicted that the price of gas would top voters concerns, but five months before the general election, the cost of energy is the number one issue for voters, Pearce said.

“I hear about the price of gasoline at every stop we make,” he said.

Although Pearce’s connection with the oil industry has raised some suspicion with voters, his approach to legislation in Congress has followed the Republican party line. He has consistently support small government and the free market, and those positions seem to have helped him beat Wilson in the primary.

The District 2 Congressman owned Lea Fishing Tools, Inc., an oil field services company in Hobbs, N.M., until the fall of 2003. He sold his company’s assets for more than 500,000 shares of common stock in the Texas-based Key Energy.

Pearce says the current oil crisis is the result of lawsuits by environmentalists during the past two decades that limited the building of oil refineries, restricted commercial drilling and objections to the construction of nuclear power plants.

He will be telling voters that there are no immediate solutions to rising fuel prices, but opening drilling sites would balance prices and give the United States control over energy supplies.

New drilling leases, wind, geothermal and nuclear plants will stop speculators and limit the influence of Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries, Pearce said.

“It all works together,” he said.

The three-day campaign tour through northern and eastern New Mexico made stops in Angel Fire, Taos, Eagle Nest, Questa, Red River, Ratón, Clayton, Springer, Wagon Mound and Las Vegas.

He will speak at the Brown Motel in Springer at 9 a.m. Thursday (July 3) and will appear before the Wagon Mound Village Council at 1 p.m.

The Congressman’s last appearance will be an interview at KLVF-Radio in Las Vegas at 3:30 p.m.