Eco-Mole.

Chutzpah Award California Assembly Leader Republican Scott Baugh found a novel way to cut the soaring costs of political campaigning: You cheat. In 1995, when the Huntington Beach politician realized that he couldn't win an assembly seat on his own, he recruited a decoy candidate to split the Democrat vote. Three years later, when the California Fair Political Practices Commission accused him of concealing a series of illegal cash contributions, Baugh agreed to pay a fine of $47,900. Politicians who spend millions to win elections might now consider using their money to "fix" elections. In California, even if you're caught, it's a lot cheaper than running an honest campaign.

Who Needs HDTV? That was the title of a Journal story that questioned the eco-impacts and techno-shortcomings of high-definition TVs. Last October, 300 of the 1,600 US TV stations agreed. They petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to demand revisions of HDTV broadcast standards because the new receivers "cannot easily receive a viewable picture in anything short of ideal circumstances."

Prince Lanced Britain's Prince Charles was mortified when The Observer identified him as a "secret supporter" of the Countryside Alliance, a militant coalition of fox-hunting advocates. Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair's promise to ban fox-hunting has outraged many of Britain's landed gentry. St. James Palace hotly denied that Charles was a foxhunting proponent and called the use of his name "misleading." What was Prince Charles' contribution? In 1995, the Alliance was permitted to hold a cocktail party at Highgrove House, the Prince's country home. The Countryside Alliance also listed Sir Christopher Bland, chair of the BBC'S board of directors, as a contributor. Bland's contribution? A bottle of wine. The Alliance also claimed it had the backing of the Queen's Dressmaker, Sir Hardy Amies, and the Page of Honor to the Queen, Lord Vestey.

Pump Me, Jesus! Televangelist Pat Robertson made a bundle when he sold his TV network holdings to media baron Rupert Murdoch. In August 1998, Robertson used the money to buy an oil refinery in Santa Fe Springs, California. Shut down in ]995, the Powerine refinery had been acknowledged the state's "dirtiest" refinery. Records uncovered by Citizens for Better Environment [CBE, 500 Howard St., No. 506, San Francisco, CA 94105] revealed that Robertson's CENCO Refining Company warned city officials that an environmental review "could delay the start of the refinery." CENCO threatened to "not go forward" unless the project was approved without public comment or outside review. CBE notes that the refinery is located in a community that is "70 percent Latino and already the site of several environmental hazards."

Tax-Paid Poacher Dale Koelzer leases his Duck Creek lands to the State of Montana to run its Department of Livestock buffalo-capture facility Koelzer also rents out his basement to state employees assigned to slaughter any bison that stray from Yellowstone National Park in search of winter forage. Koelzer's now in trouble for lying about killing a buffalo that wandered onto his property. "The bison had been skinned with its head and genitalia removed," reports the Buffalo Field Campaign [BFC, [phone]]. BFC'S Mike Meese asks how Montana officials can justify giving "taxpayer's dollars to a known wildlife poaching criminal." Meese wants Koelzer's contract with the state's $750,000 bison capture program cancelled. "If it were an ordinary citizen that poached, he would be behind bars right now."

Disrobe for Disarmament

Physician and anti-nuclear crusader Helen Caldicott was in San Francisco for a conference on disarmament last October. Frustrated by the total lack of media concern about nuclear disasters resulting from Y2K computer problems, Caldicott asked her audience, "What does it take to get their attention? Do I have to take my clothes off?" Dr. Patch Adams jumped up and yelled "I'll do it! Who will join me?" Adams, Caldicott and about 50 audience members, shucked their clothes, called the press and marched down Van Ness Avenue chanting "Nudes, not nukes!" The result: One print story and a few seconds on the 11 o'clock news. CNN video footage of the event was broadcast in Costa Rica. [For more details, check www.y2kwash.org.]

Bonfire of the Manatees Florida's Manatee Task Force (MTF) isn't as green as it sounds. It was quietly formed by the state's largest marine recreation interests and is headed by Wade Hopping, a lobbyist for the National Marine Manufacturers Association. Hopping's goal, as revealed in a September 3, 1999 memo, is to "delist the manatee" as an endangered species. While there is some evidence that the state's population of 2,500 manatees may be slowly growing, the number of boats on the state's waterways is growing even faster. The MTF fears that protecting the manatees will impair its ability to sell boats, rent docks and build marinas. Protecting manatees makes Wade Hopping mad: He once opposed a bill requiring the installation of protective propeller guards on boats.

Pepsi Hits the Butts-eye Several years ago, PepsiCo Inc. announced that it would stop placing ads in bullrings since "bullfights go against the policy followed by the PepsiCo Inc. Company." Alas, the watchful activists at SHARK [Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, PO Box 28, Geneva, IL 60134, (630) 2629908] have videotaped bullfights in Peru that recorded bulls "tortured, bleeding, crying out and dying right under Pepsi signs and banners." The video was featured on Roberta Markbreit's public access show Contempo. [For local airing, contact SHARK. Pepsi's toll-free number is [phone]. For more information, check out www.PepsiBloodbath.com.]

Oil Together Now The US Senate gave Amoco, Mobil, Exxon, Chevron, and the rest of the Big Oil crowd a free hand to avoid paying full royalties on oil pumped from public lands. This cozy scam robs the US Treasury of an estimated $66 million a year. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) called the program "out-and-out cheating" but 51 of her colleagues (46 Republicans and 5 Democrats) approved Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson's (R-TX) resolution to continue the handout.

Mole Nip To the California Assembly, which narrowly voted to give the Pacific Lumber Company (PalCo) $230 million to save northern California's Headwaters Forest from the clearcutters' axe. Capitol Weekly reveals that, before the vote, PalCo's parent company, Maxxam, doled out $254,431 to 88 assemblymembers. Former State Attorney General Dan Lungren (who failed to prosecute PalCo for its role in the crushing death of Earth First! activist David Chain) received $39,381. "[Maxxam CEO Charles] Hurwitz put up $250,000 and came out of it with $230 million," observed Headwaters activist Darryl Cherney, "Whether it's junk bonds or junk politicians, Hurwitz knows how to invest his money." Earth First! gave the 88 pols its 1999 "Golden Stump Award."

Mole Nip To the Australia's Department of Industry, Science and Resources, whose "Net Energy" website styles itself "Australia's premier energy efficiency site." Anti-nuclear activists noticed that numerous Net Energy postings critical of alternative power (e.g. "Solar energy ... has some important disadvantages ... [and] the capital costs of conversion, maintenance and storage are extremely high") were copied verbatim from the website of the Uranium Information Center.