NY State spends millions on Frontier Town, but horse riders don’t like it – newyorkupstate.com

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NY State spends millions on Frontier Town, but horse riders don’t like it – newyorkupstate.com

NORTH HUDSON, N.Y. -- Frontier Town, the state’s newest Adirondack campground, opened June 28 with promises to be a “unique, world-class” facility for traditional tent campers, RVers and equestrian campers alike.

So far tent campers and RVers have embraced Frontier Town. Horse riders not so much.

“It’s a lovely facility, but it’s just not well-designed for horse campers,” said Dan Gruen, trails council chairman for the New York State Horse Council, who visited the campground when it was finished and said he has spoken to more than dozen campers who’ve been there since.

hunting bans imperil biodiversity — Furbearer Conservation

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Conservation Researchers: hunting bans imperil biodiversity — Furbearer Conservation

The term “trophy hunting” is one that has been badly abused for decades; causing turmoil and contention throughout the conservation community. All game hunting, to a degree, results in some form of a “reward” for participation; but like other concepts of life, participation does not always result in the administering of a “trophy”.

To put it bluntly, humans hunt and pursue wildlife for many reasons - food, hide/pelt, management, reduction of property damage, or, in many cases, all of the above - far surpassing the sophistical concept that one’s ultimate desire to take part in hunting actions is strictly rooted in the collection of a prize.

Today, the term “trophy hunting” is primarily used as dog-whistle verbiage designated to elicit an emotive response from a cross-section of society; rendering the term “trophy” to little more than a connotative misnomer with regard to the broader concepts of (and reasons behind) modern regulated hunting activities.

Trump Calls for Fed’s ‘Boneheads’ to Slash Interest Rates Below Zero – The New York Times

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Trump Calls for Fed’s ‘Boneheads’ to Slash Interest Rates Below Zero – The New York Times

Mr. Trump’s request is extraordinary for several reasons. The United States economy is still growing solidly and consumers are spending strongly, making this an unusual time to push for monetary accommodation, particularly negative rates, a policy that the Fed debated but passed up even in the depths of the Great Recession. It is also typical for countries with comparatively strong economies to pay higher interest rates, not the “lowest” ones.

Negative rates, which have been used in economies including Japan, Switzerland and the Eurozone, mean that savers are penalized and borrowers rewarded: Their goal is to reduce borrowing costs for households and companies to encourage spending. But they come at a cost, curbing bank profitability.

While it’s unclear how effective they have been as a policy tool — some research suggests negative rates could curtail lending — they are increasingly a reality in much of the world as central banks rush to support economic growth and investors look for safe assets

I think we can all agree on who is the bonehead here.

The Secret Files of the Master of Modern Republican Gerrymandering | The New Yorker

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The Secret Files of the Master of Modern Republican Gerrymandering | The New Yorker

Thomas Hofeller preached secrecy as he remapped American politics from the shadows. The Republican Party operative, known as the master of the modern gerrymander, trained other G.O.P. operatives and legislators nationwide to secure their computer networks, guard access to their maps, and never send e-mails that they didn’t want to see published by the news media. In training sessions for state legislators and junior line drawers, he used a PowerPoint presentation that urged them to “avoid recklessness” and “always be discreet,” and warned that “emails are the tool of the devil.”

Hofeller did not follow his own advice. Before his death, in August, 2018, he saved at least seventy thousand files and several years of e-mails. A review of those records and e-mails—which were recently obtained first by The New Yorker—raises new questions about whether Hofeller unconstitutionally used race data to draw North Carolina’s congressional districts, in 2016. They also suggest that Hofeller was deeply involved in G.O.P. mapmaking nationwide, and include new trails for more potential lawsuits challenging Hofeller’s work, similar to the one on Wednesday which led to the overturning of his state legislative maps in North Carolina.