In brief: 101-year-old wins worker award

Lincoln, Neb. – A 101-year-old woman who works for the Nebraska Legislature has been chosen as America’s Outstanding Oldest Worker for 2010.

Sally Gordon has been an assistant sergeant-at-arms for the Nebraska Legislature for 26 years, helping with its day-to-day operations when it’s in session.

Before that, she worked as a secretary for three Nebraska governors and as a model.

Gordon accepted the award Tuesday from Experience Works, the nation’s largest nonprofit training center for older workers, at the Nebraska Capitol. It hadn’t even been built when she was born in 1909.

“I used to be a model,” Gordon said. “Now I feel like a model T.”

Reno, Nev. – A federal appeals court on Tuesday cleared the way for the roundup of more than 2,000 wild horses in California and Nevada, rejecting critics’ claims that the free-roaming mustangs have a legal right to remain on the range.

In an after-hours order, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco refused to grant an emergency stay sought by animal rights groups ahead of the scheduled roundup today.

The order came as lawyers for the Obama administration mounted their most vigorous defense to date for rounding up wild horses in the West, arguing in court filings that leaving the overpopulated herds on public rangeland would do the mustangs more harm than good.

Critics say the helicopter-led roundups are inhumane, often leading to dozens of injuries and deaths. They also dispute BLM’s population estimates and maintain that livestock grazing has caused more ecological damage to the federal land that also supports numerous wildlife species, including deer, antelope and sage grouse.