U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance

Sportsmen Alert!

For information about the following message, please contact:

U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance

801 Kingsmill Parkway, Columbus, OH 43229

Phone: (614) 888-4868     Fax: (614) 888-0326

Email: info@ussportsmen.org       Website: www.ussportsmen.org

May 9, 2008

Urgent – Action from Journalists and Outdoor Industry Required

The following is being issued on behalf of the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA):

Every member of the outdoor industry needs to contact their congressman or congresswoman and respectfully request he or she become a co-sponsor of H.R. Bill 5502.

If passed, H.R. 5502 will greatly reduce the fees and bureaucratic red tape individual journalists and small media crews must pay and cut through to film on public lands in the United States.

The bill is currently in committee. (See details below)

The House Committee on Natural Resources is waiting to hear from the Department of the Interior (DOI) and Department of Agriculture (DOA) regarding the language of the bill.  Neither DOI or DOA is in favor of changes to the existing law.

Congressional co-sponsors for the bill are vitally important.  Without them, this bill could die at the committee level and the current law, which is confusing and economically unfair to journalists, will remain in effect.

Review the H.R. Bill 5502 on the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) Web site.

Contact Your Congressman/Congresswoman and ask them to co-sponsor H.R. Bill 5502.

Filming on Public Lands Bill

H.R. 5502 (”The POMA Bill”) was filed in February by Congressman Dan Boren (D-OK) and Congressman Don Young (R-AK), members of the House Committee on Natural Resources.

The bill, should it get out of committee and pass the legislature, would direct the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to create an annual permit for individual photographers or film crews of five or less who photograph on public lands.  The annual permit would replace the exorbitant, arbitrary fees currently assessed for filming, photography and sound recording on public lands.

Passage of this bill will create a uniform process for working media, save the media dozens of hours of time and thousands of dollars and ensure the continued coverage of public-land opportunities and wildlife and public land-use issues.

POMA has worked closely with Representatives Boren and Young on this issue, but to ensure a positive outcome, we need your help.

For more information, contact POMA Executive Director, Laurie Lee Dovey at lldovey@professionaloutdoormedia.org, 814-539-6030.

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance is a national association of sportsmen and sportsmen’s organizations that protect the rights of hunters, anglers and trappers in the courts, legislatures, at the ballot, in Congress and through public education programs.  For more information about the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance and its work, call (614) 888-4868 or visit its website, www.ussportsmen.org.

 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,346965,00.html

LOS ANGELES  —  Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing “Ben-Hur” and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the ’50s and ’60s, has died. He was 84.

The actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said.

Powers declined to comment on the cause of death or provide further details.

“Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life. He was known for his chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played,” Heston’s family said in a statement. “No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country.”

Heston revealed in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer’s disease, saying, “I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure.”

With his large, muscular build, well-boned face and sonorous voice, Heston proved the ideal star during the period when Hollywood was filling movie screens with panoramas depicting the religious and historical past. “I have a face that belongs in another century,” he often remarked.

The actor assumed the role of leader offscreen as well. He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild and chairman of the American Film Institute and marched in the civil rights movement of the 1950s. With age, he grew more conservative and campaigned for conservative candidates.

In June 1998, Heston was elected president of the National Rifle Association, for which he had posed for ads holding a rifle. He delivered a jab at then-President Clinton, saying, “America doesn’t trust you with our 21-year-old daughters, and we sure, Lord, don’t trust you with our guns.”

Heston stepped down as NRA president in April 2003, telling members his five years in office were “quite a ride. … I loved every minute of it.”

Later that year, Heston was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. “The largeness of character that comes across the screen has also been seen throughout his life,” President Bush said at the time.

He engaged in a lengthy feud with liberal Ed Asner during the latter’s tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild. His latter-day activism almost overshadowed his achievements as an actor, which were considerable.

Heston lent his strong presence to some of the most acclaimed and successful films of the midcentury. “Ben-Hur” won 11 Academy Awards, tying it for the record with the more recent “Titanic” (1997) and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003). Heston’s other hits include: “The Ten Commandments,” “El Cid,” “55 Days at Peking,” “Planet of the Apes” and “Earthquake.”

He liked to the cite the number of historical figures he had portrayed:

Andrew Jackson (”The President’s Lady,” “The Buccaneer”), Moses (”The Ten Commandments”), title role of “El Cid,” John the Baptist (”The Greatest Story Ever Told”), Michelangelo (”The Agony and the Ecstasy”), General Gordon (”Khartoum”), Marc Antony (”Julius Caesar,” “Antony and Cleopatra”), Cardinal Richelieu (”The Three Musketeers”), Henry VIII (”The Prince and the Pauper”).

Heston made his movie debut in the 1940s in two independent films by a college classmate, David Bradley, who later became a noted film archivist. He had the title role in “Peer Gynt” in 1942 and was Marc Antony in Bradley’s 1949 version of “Julius Caesar,” for which Heston was paid $50 a week.

Film producer Hal B. Wallis (”Casablanca”) spotted Heston in a 1950 television production of “Wuthering Heights” and offered him a contract. When his wife reminded him that they had decided to pursue theater and television, he replied, “Well, maybe just for one film to see what it’s like.”

Heston earned star billing from his first Hollywood movie, “Dark City,” a 1950 film noir. Cecil B. DeMille next cast him as the circus manager in the all-star “The Greatest Show On Earth,” named by the Motion Picture Academy as the best picture of 1952. More movies followed:

“The Savage,” “Ruby Gentry,” “The President’s Lady,” “Pony Express” (as Buffalo Bill Cody), “Arrowhead,” “Bad for Each Other,” “The Naked Jungle,” “Secret of the Incas,” “The Far Horizons” (as Clark of the Lewis and Clark trek), “The Private War of Major Benson,” “Lucy Gallant.”

Most were forgettable low-budget films, and Heston seemed destined to remain an undistinguished action star. His old boss DeMille rescued him.

The director had long planned a new version of “The Ten Commandments,” which he had made as a silent in 1923 with a radically different approach that combined biblical and modern stories. He was struck by Heston’s facial resemblance to Michelangelo’s sculpture of Moses, especially the similar broken nose, and put the actor through a long series of tests before giving him the role.

The Hestons’ newborn, Fraser Clarke Heston, played the role of the infant Moses in the film.

More films followed: the eccentric thriller “Touch of Evil,” directed by Orson Welles; William Wyler’s “The Big Country,” costarring with Gregory Peck; a sea saga, “The Wreck of the Mary Deare” with Gary Cooper.

Then his greatest role: “Ben-Hur.”

Heston wasn’t the first to be considered for the remake of 1925 biblical epic. Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster and Rock Hudson had declined the film. Heston plunged into the role, rehearsing two months for the furious chariot race.

He railed at suggestions the race had been shot with a double: “I couldn’t drive it well, but that wasn’t necessary. All I had to do was stay on board so they could shoot me there. I didn’t have to worry; MGM guaranteed I would win the race.”

The huge success of “Ben-Hur” and Heston’s Oscar made him one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood. He combined big-screen epics like “El Cid” and “55 Days at Peking” with lesser ones such as “Diamond Head,” “Will Penny” and “Airport 1975.” In his later years he played cameos in such films as “Wayne’s World 2″ and “Tombstone.”

He often returned to the theater, appearing in such plays as “A Long Day’s Journey into Night” and “A Man for All Seasons.” He starred as a tycoon in the prime-time soap opera, “The Colbys,” a two-season spinoff of “Dynasty.”

At his birth in a Chicago suburb on Oct. 4, 1923, his name was Charles Carter. His parents moved to St. Helen, Mich., where his father, Russell Carter, operated a lumber mill. Growing up in the Michigan woods with almost no playmates, young Charles read books of adventure and devised his own games while wandering the countryside with his rifle.

Charles’s parents divorced, and she married Chester Heston, a factory plant superintendent in Wilmette, Ill., an upscale north Chicago suburb. Shy and feeling displaced in the big city, the boy had trouble adjusting to the new high school. He took refuge in the drama department.

“What acting offered me was the chance to be many other people,” he said in a 1986 interview. “In those days I wasn’t satisfied with being me.”

Calling himself Charlton Heston from his mother’s maiden name and his stepfather’s last name, he won an acting scholarship to Northwestern University in 1941. He excelled in campus plays and appeared on Chicago radio. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Force and served as a radio-gunner in the Aleutians.

In 1944 he married another Northwestern drama student, Lydia Clarke, and after his army discharge in 1947, they moved to New York to seek acting jobs. Finding none, they hired on as codirectors and principal actors at a summer theater in Asheville, N.C.

Back in New York, both Hestons began finding work. With his strong 6-feet-2 build and craggily handsome face, Heston won roles in TV soap operas, plays (”Antony and Cleopatra” with Katherine Cornell) and live TV dramas such as “Julius Caesar,” “Macbeth,” “The Taming of the Shrew” and “Of Human Bondage.”

Heston wrote several books: “The Actor’s Life: Journals 1956-1976,” published in 1978; “Beijing Diary: 1990,” concerning his direction of the play “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial” in Chinese; “In the Arena: An Autobiography,” 1995; and “Charlton Heston’s Hollywood: 50 Years of American Filmmaking,” 1998.

Besides Fraser, who directed his father in an adventure film, “Mother Lode,” the Hestons had a daughter, Holly Ann, born Aug. 2, 1961. The couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1994 at a party with Hollywood and political friends. They had been married 64 years when he died.

In late years, Heston drew as much publicity for his crusades as for his performances. In addition to his NRA work, he campaigned for Republican presidential and congressional candidates and against affirmative action.

He resigned from Actors Equity, claiming the union’s refusal to allow a white actor to play a Eurasian role in “Miss Saigon” was “obscenely racist.” He attacked CNN’s telecasts from Baghdad as “sowing doubts” about the allied effort in the 1990-91 Gulf War.

At a Time Warner stockholders meeting, he castigated the company for releasing an Ice-T album that purportedly encouraged cop killing.

Heston wrote in “In the Arena” that he was proud of what he did “though now I’ll surely never be offered another film by Warners, nor get a good review in Time. On the other hand, I doubt I’ll get a traffic ticket very soon.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                Contact: Cory Johnson (614) 888-4868 ext. 214

March 25, 2008                                                      Sharon Hayden (614) 888-4868 ext. 226

Legislation To Remove Barriers

Introduces 87,000 to Hunting

(EDGEFIELD, S.C.) – Across the country, more than 87,000 new hunters have taken to the field thanks to laws that remove barriers to youth hunting.

The new laws and regulations are the direct result of the Families Afield initiative, which was launched to help turn the tide against waning youth hunter recruitment and decreasing license sales - a key source of revenue for state wildlife agencies.  The program was spearheaded by the NWTF and its partners, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance. 

Together, with the support of the National Rifle Association and local sportsmen’s organizations, Families Afield is getting results.  As barriers to hunting are struck down in state capitals nationwide, a new generation is discovering America’s time-honored hunting tradition.  To date, 25 states have passed laws as a result of Families Afield.

In addition, a new research report from Mile Creek Communications shows that many states that have introduced apprentice license programs have shown sharp increases in youth license sales, from 10 percent to 111 percent.

“We are always looking for ways to open the door and invite new hunters in,” said Ohio Division of Wildlife Chief Dave Graham.  “Our apprentice license has really allowed us to put out the welcome mat.  And the best part of the project is that, just as our early research indicated, young hunters accompanied by a mentor are among the safest of all hunters.”

The apprentice license programs help new hunters learn under the watchful eye and guiding hand of licensed adult mentors.  Completion of a hunter education course is still required for a new hunter to become fully licensed.

Mik Mikitik, hunter education coordinator for the Washington Division of Fish & Wildlife, added that the programs have proven to be very popular, and are expected to gain popularity among novice hunters both young and old.

“What really surprised us here in Washington is that approximately 60 percent of the hunters taking advantage of these new opportunities are over 18 years old,” said Mikitik.  “So we’re seeing that all people, not just youth, are wanting to try hunting, and hopefully it’s something that they’ll enjoy for a lifetime.”

The new programs have garnered support from not only state wildlife agencies, but also lawmakers such as Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal, who expressed his support for the mentoring system.

“This is how I learned to hunt, and how my son learned to hunt, and I think most hunters agree that it is the best way to pass on the tradition,” said Gov. Freudenthal. 

For more information about the NWTF visit the Web site at www.nwtf.org or call (800) THE-NWTF.

About the NWTF: In 1973, when the National Wild Turkey Federation was founded, there were an estimated 1.3 million wild turkeys and 1.5 million turkey hunters. Thanks to the work of wildlife agencies and the NWTF’s many volunteers and partners, today there are more than 7 million wild turkeys and nearly 3 million turkey hunters. Since 1985, the NWTF and its cooperators have spent more than $258 million upholding hunting traditions and conserving more than 13.1 million acres of wildlife habitat.

The NWTF is a nonprofit organization with more than 550,000 members in 50 states, Canada, Mexico and 14 other foreign countries. It supports scientific wildlife management on public, private and corporate lands as well as wild turkey hunting as a traditional North American sport.

For more information about the NWTF, call (800)-THE-NWTF or visit www.nwtf.org.

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance is a national association of sportsmen and sportsmen’s organization that protects the rights of hunters, anglers and trappers in the courts, legislatures, at the ballot, in Congress and through public education programs.  For more information about the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance and its work, call (614) 888-4868 or visit its website, www.ussportsmen.org.