American Bald Eagles and the ESA - 8000 nesting pairs? That's enough to call them safe? Really? (video)

It is my firm belief The American Bald Eagle was wrongfully declassified to make way for the continued movement of declassifying other species such as The Northern Spotted Owl. I believe firmly the American Bald Eagle is NOT out of danger and needs to be returned minimally to 'threatened' status.

It is more than right to demand facts from the Interior Department, EPA and Commerce regarding the assault on The Endangered Species Act and even more important to place a moratorium on any further declassification and/or change in the laws until all facts are revealed including any involvement by the Executive Branch of the USA.

I would be especially suspicious of any company with rising stock options that include speculation of any protected lands of the USA and the 'nonsensical' recruitment of scientists with designs on them to do their handy work while exploiting the resources of the American people.

Thank you for your kind attention. Write your legislators. If they don't respond with honest and appropriate measures to protect, elect different representatives. I just don't see it any other way. My children and their children have a right to a heritage that includes species native to this country and rescued away from any 'hint' of endangered or threatened status ! We just don't need the exploitation that bad for an economy.

Any timber industry crying they don't have enough timber to remain viable in the market place are better off out of that market place as they never managed the lands they had well enough in the first place !

I mean who is kidding who here?

Good night.

In 2004, a Kenyan woman won the Nobel Peace Prize for planting trees in an effort to reverse the deadly trend of Human Induced Global Warming.

Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Wangari Maathai holds a tree that she planted during a visit to an environmental project in South Africa.

The reason Professor Maathai planted trees was to act as a carbon sink and absorb carbon dioxide. The reason the people of the USA 'have to' protect their forests is for the same reason. The sooner there is a moratorium on any declassification of the species on The Endangered Species Act, the better. There has been too much of an assault on The Act already and we don't know how much damage was done by The Interior Department under Norton without a complete inquiry and investigation.

Every forest in the USA is important and every protected species within them even more so.

The Northern Spotted Owl and Old Growth Forest go together.

This raptor has an intimate relationship with the forest and there is more and more evidence the forest also is affected by the raptor. I don't know if one can call it mutualism yet, but, we need to find out.

It has a large 'range' to it's territorial needs. It has 'done better' on public lands where there is no disruption to the forest. It has 'done worse' on lands forested within it's habitat range.

This owl species is unique as it is an 'indicator species' which tells scientists attuned to the degree of health of the forest whether the forest itself is well and thriving dependant upon how well this species of owl is doing. If the forest is not doing well, this owl is not doing well. The current status of The Northern Spotted Owl is that it is seeing some growth on protected lands.

If the timber industry were allowed into those protected lands there is a good chance the entire system of Old Growth Forest would collapse as the owl would definately fail to thrive and there would be way to 'monitor' the forest's well being without it.

I don't see an option for the people of the USA except to continue to support the Endangered Species Act, especially when it comes to indicator species such as this. It is my long held belief, the lands of the USA don't belong to it's citizens, they belong to generations past and future in trust and stewardship to the current citizens of the country. After all, someone left those lands and species to us, it is our obligation to do the same and support the scientists most loyal to the patriotic nature of the laws that seek the highest of morals from the people of the USA.

Conservationists spot flaws in plan to save owl

Nature is a British Publication. No wonder the best of advocacy no longer is noted in any American publication unless it comes from Sierra Club. The assault on the environmental movement has been unbelievably undermining to even most of it's scientists. Demoralizing to say the least, although 'the best' of them are still willing to speak out and stand their ground. The Union of Concerned Scientists needs to get involved and network with the other groups of scientists feeling 'the assault' against species and lands they have studies for decades while acting to protect them for the 'public trust' of the people of the USA.


Concerned scientists and Democratic congressmen each sent their own letter to the US Department of the Interior on 2 October, protesting against the agency's draft plan to save the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) from extinction.
The rescue plan for the conservation icon rests heavily on controlling another owl — the barred owl (Strix varia) — that out-competes its spotted cousin. But the Society for Conservation Biology and the American Ornithologists' Union, both hired as peer reviewers by the government, as well as three owl experts who were also consulted, all felt that this emphasis was strange. They say that habitat loss due to logging is the clear cause of the owl's decline.
Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office has begun examining several decisions based on the Endangered Species Act that have been criticized by environmentalists, including that on the spotted owl.
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This is the agency known as The US Fish & Wildlife Service. Don't you care it's been turned into an agency of exploitation rather than protection?

Every person in the USA needs to write to their Senators and Congressman to demand a complete investigation to the destruction of this agency and the impact that movement has taken in realizing much MAY have gone forward to remove protections.

The site of US Fish and Wildlife where one could find a copy of "The Endangered Species Act" has already been destroyed WITHOUT any other legislation proposed to replace it.

This is destuction of the 'public trust' (click here) and the government websites are public property public of this country as well as removing all expertise to allow further incompetency in a pre-meditated methodolgy that is against all interests of 'The Rule of Law' of the USA.

This level of corruption leads directly to the former Attorney General Gonzalez and his willingness to cause irretrievable damage to the assets of Americans to benefit Bush cronies such as the timber industry.

The elections of 2006 of majority of Democrats took the Bush White House off guard and they forced the lawsuit with no legal basis to be filed by the timber industry.

The Bush 'draft' to destroy the Endangered Species Act is at this link and would cause destruction of habitat across the country.

It would systematically remove all protections across the board and lay bare the lands Americans have come to cherish and protect for generations to come as well as those enjoying them today.

Bush Administration Moves To Gut Endangered Species

A secret draft of regulations (pdf) that would fundamentally rewrite the Endangered Species Act was leaked to two environmental organizations, which provided them to the press Tuesday. An article in Salon quotes Earthjustice attorney Jan Hasselman saying, “The proposed changes fundamentally gut the intent of the Endangered Species Act.”
The changes are fiercely technical and complicated, but make future listings extremely difficult, redefine key concepts to the detriment of protected species, virtually hand over administration of the act to hostile states, and severely restrict habitat protections.
Many of the changes — lifted from unsuccessful legislative proposals from then-Senator (now Interior Secretary) Dirk Kempthorne and the recently defeated congressman Richard Pombo — are reactions to policies and practices established as a result of litigation filed by environmental organizations including Earthjustice.
“After the failure of these legislative proposals in the last Congress, the Bush administration has opted to gut the Endangered Species Act through the only avenue left open: administrative regulations,” said Hasselman. “This end-run around the will of Congress and the American people will not succeed.”...

If the newspapers of the country don't want to see protectionist laws enforced then should write editorials to that effect and we can dispense...

... with the formality of 'pretense.' At least one knows where they stand with the hypocritical Washington Post, but, for this to be realize at this time in the progress to Democratic leadership in the House and Senate is just to clear to it's desperate need.

Ah, it's so touching to see the wealthy sincerely appreciate each other at the expense of the less fortunate and those that actually believe law and species preservation actually means something.

Go, figure, huh?

From the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

Bush: Protectionism will cost U.S. jobs (click here)
By JENNIFER LOVEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Alarmed by slipping support for free trade even among Republicans, President Bush is arguing that protectionism will cut Americans out of chances for more - and better - jobs.
Bush has launched a blitz on behalf of pending free trade pacts with four nations. He continued the push Saturday in his weekly radio address.
"More exports support better and higher-paying jobs," the president said. "And to keep our economy expanding, we need to keep expanding trade."
His radio address followed a speech on trade he delivered Friday in Miami. Bush also granted interviews this week to business-oriented news organizations.
Since Democrats took control of Congress in January, it has not approved any free trade agreements that the administration has negotiated, and it has allowed Bush's authority to negotiate future deals under expedited procedures to expire....


From The San Francisco Chronicle:

The whine of voracious liberals (click here)
Does the extremism of some progressives spell danger to delicious evolution? Well, yes
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, October 12, 2007
I hear it nearly every week in response to nearly any column that has anything to do with me daring to say I appreciate or admire or moderately wish to commend some sort of progressive movement or corporation or product, one that appears to be creating some sort of good in the world, moving things forward or upending the status quo or infuriating the religious right and making you think/shop/screw anew.
I get the e-mails. And there is, by and large, a general outpouring of agreement, understanding, clarity. There are also lots of healthy disagreement, discussion, valid points of contention. There is the requisite tiny hunk of phlegmy, grunting hate mail from the turgid and the monosyllabic and the neoconservative. Well and good and lovely.
But then there's this other hunk, a surprisingly large and very whiny group of responders who invariably say something like this: It does not matter that Company X has made impressive strides in environmental awareness or product design or gay rights or whatever the hell you're talking about. It does not matter that maybe you're a little bit right and this is a slightly revolutionary thing you mention....

The grossly wealthy in the USA need to understand 'wealth management' no longer comes with RIGHTS to lust after public and protected lands.

The is the link that goes to the complete criticism of the US Fish and Wildlife MISMANAGEMENT plan for the Northwest Old Growth Forest

This is the map at The New York Times today (click here), generously explaining how intricately public lands, including National Parks could be scrupulously managed to allow the exploitation, OH EXCUSE, me 'survival' of the timber industry in Montana.

If you read through the document at the link to this entry, it is grossly easy to discover the vast incompetency and mismangement by Fish and Wildlife under The Bush White House. One simply has to connect the dots to realize the people at Fish and Wildlife don't have adequate resumes.


Also noted in this document would be RECENT research pointing to the incredible ability of The Northern Spotted Owl to use forest lands currently lost through wildfires. As a matter of fact further research is needed to know exactly the link between this raptor and the regrowth of forest after wildfires. It is not difficult to understand why the Bush White House threw little effort to stop the wildfires of these lands. Kill the birds, their nesting areas and then take the land for crony industries such as timber.


This is the article from the New York Times to sell the public on destroying it's National Forests (click here). Incredible, isn't it? The focus at the other papers were just as heinous and I'll have to dig them out of a file in a minute. I mean, after all, The New York Times shouldn't stand alone in it's exploitation of the American Public and it's land use.

Under the direction of former Secretary Gail Norton, the funding to Fish & Wildlife was cut to insure 'inside' assessment of The Old Growth Forest

Kindly click on link at title to this entry.

Gail Norton left The Deparment of Interior accused of mismangement of the funds budgeted to The Department of the Interior. It is time to resume that investigation and see it through as well as start a new investigation of the complete disregard of the Endangered Species Act and the proposed destruction of The Northern Spotted Owl.

October 2, 2007
Secretary Dirk Kempthorne
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240

RE: Northern Spotted Owl Draft Recovery Plan

Dear Secretary Kempthorne:

The northern spotted owl is one of the most intensively studied endangered raptors in the
world. Decades of scientific research and the largest mark-recapture population studies
ever conducted on a threatened species have provided valuable insights into the owls’
habitat requirements, prey base, and demographic characteristics 1 . As scientists with
backgrounds in population ecology, wildlife and endangered species management,
natural resource management and forest ecosystems, we are greatly concerned that,
according to scientific peer review recently conducted by owl experts and three of the
nation’s leading scientific societies, much of this science was ignored in the published
draft recovery plan for the northern spotted owl 2 . Based on these reviews, and the
alleged political interference documented in a May 9 hearing on the Endangered Species
Act in the House Natural Resources Committee, 3 we respectfully request that you
withdraw the draft owl recovery plan and assemble a team of scientists to redraft a
recovery plan truly based on the best available science.

The spotted owl is an indicator species of the status of old-growth forests in the Pacific
Northwest, which historically included up to two-thirds of the forest age classes in the
region but now represent just under 20 percent 4 . In particular, the Northwest Forest Plan
(NWFP) is a landmark ecosystem management plan that put in place a reserve system for
the owl and hundreds of species associated with older forests throughout the region.
Recent scientific assessments have concluded that there is no reason to depart from a
conservation strategy rooted in fixed reserves and the spotted owl situation would be far
bleaker today if not for the protections afforded to it under the NWFP 5 . While there has ...

1 Anthony, R.G., E.D. Forsman, A.B. Franklin, D.R. Anderson, K.P. Burnham, G.C. White, C.J. Schwarz, J. Nichols, J.E. Hines, G.S. Olson, S.H. Ackers, S.L. Andrews, B.L. Biswell, P.C. Carlson, L.V. Diller, K.M. Dugger, K.E. Fehring, T.L. Fleming, R.P. Gerhardt, S.A. Gremel, R.J. Gutierrez, P.J. Happe, D.R. Herter, J.M. Higley, R.B. Horn, L.L. Irwin, P.J. Loschl, J.A. Reid, and S.G. Sovern. 2006. Status and trends in demography of northern spotted owls, 1985-2003. Wildlife Monographs No. 163:1-47.

2
www.conbio.org/Sections/NAmerica/SCBA%20Comments%20to%20FWS%20Northern%20Spotted%20
Owl.pdf; http://www.wildlife.org/policy/index.cfm;
http://www.fws.gov/pacific/ecoservices/endangered/recovery/peer.html

3
DellaSala, Dominick. Written testimony for the House Natural Resources Committee Hearing entitled
“Endangered Species Act Implementation: Science or Politics?”
http://www.nccsp.org/files/land/spottedowltestimonydds.pdf Additional information available at
http://www.nccsp.org/

4
Strittholt, J.R., D.A. DellaSala, and H. Jiang. 2006. Status of mature and old-growth forests in
the Pacific Northwest, USA. Conservation Biology 20:363-374.

5
Courtney, S.P., J.A. Blakesley, R.E. Bigley, M.L. Cody, J.P. Dumbacher, R.L. Fleischer, A.B. Franklin,
J.F., R.J. Gutierrez, J.M. Marzluff, and L. Sztukowski (eds). 2004. Scientific evaluation of the status of the

Page 2

been ground-breaking research on owl habitat relations 6 that has expanded our understanding of owl habitat use, there is no scientific basis for departing from the
reserve network of the NWFP or any reason to conclude that old-growth forests are no
longer essential to the owl’s survival. And though barred owls have emerged as a
growing threat to spotted owls, the science is far from conclusive regarding how this
biological invasion will affect the survival and recovery of the northern spotted owl.

Based on our understanding of the ecology of the spotted owl, we see no scientific basis
for either reducing habitat protections for the owl – as currently proposed under Option 1
of the recovery plan– or departing from a conservation strategy that is rooted in the fixed
reserves of the NWFP such as Option 2 7. Rather, increased threats from barred owls and
potential climate change effects justify protecting more habitat – not less – as a
precautionary principle in the conservation and recovery of listed species that is clearly
missing from the draft recovery plan.

In closing, we understand that you have recently commissioned a review of eight
Endangered Species Act decisions influenced by former Assistant Deputy Secretary Julie
MacDonald as part of reforms underway to improve the Fish & Wildlife Service’s track
record on Endangered Species Act decision making. We request that you include in these
department reviews the draft spotted owl recovery plan for three reasons: (1) the science
may have been tampered with by high ranking officials; (2) the plan is not based on
credible science as indicated by scientific peer review; and (3) the plan is a key decision
document that could determine the fate of millions of acres of old-growth forests in the
Pacific Northwest.

Fish & Wildlife Service policy requires recovery plans to be based on the best available
science in order to recover a species to the point where it no longer requires protections
afforded under the Endangered Species Act. We are concerned that because this recovery
plan would remove from protection old-growth forest habitat at a time when threats are
increasing and owl population declines are accelerating that it could lead to future up-
listing of the species to endangered status. For these reasons, we request that you
commission a team of scientists to redraft the recovery plan and place related forest
management policies on hold until a new draft is proposed.


Northern Spotted Owl. Sustainable Ecosystems Institute, Portland, OR. Lint, J. 2005. Status and trends of
Northern Spotted Owls populations and habitat. USDA PNW-GTR-648. DellaSala, D. A., and J. Williams.
2006. Northwest Forest Plan Ten Years Later – how far have we come and where are we going.
Conservation Biology 20:274-276. 6
Franklin, A.B., D.R. Anderson, R.J. Gutierrez, and K.P. Burnham. 2000. Climate, habitat quality, and fitness in Northern Spotted Owl populations in northwestern California. Ecological Monographs 70:539- 590. Dugger, K.M., F. Wagner, R.G. Anthony, and G.S. Olson. 2005. The relationship between habitat characteristics and demographic performance of Northern Spotted Owls in Southern Oregon. The Condor 107:863-878. Olson, G.S., and several others. 2004. Modeling demographic performance of Northern Spotted Owls relative to forest habitat in Oregon. J. Wildlife Management 68:1039-1063. 7 Carroll, C., and D.S. Johnson. In review. The importance of being spatial and reserved: assessing habitat relationships and conservation options for the northern spotted owl with Bayesian spatial autoregressive models.

Page 3

Sincerely,
*
Affiliation are provided for identification only
Dominick A. DellaSala, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist, Executive Director
National Center for Conservation Science & Policy, Ashland, OR
Carlos Carroll, Ph.D., Research Ecologist
Klamath Center for Conservation Research
Orleans, CA

Gordon H. Orians, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Biology
University of Washington, Seattle

Dave Perry, Ph.D. Forest Ecologist
Emeritus Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR

James R. Karr, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus
University of Washington, Seattle

David W. Inouye, Ph.D.
Ecologist and Conservation Biologist
University of Maryland, College Park
Dan Rosenberg, Ph.D., Wildlife Biologist
Oregon Wildlife Institute and Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
Oregon State University, Corvallis

Trina B. Bassoff, Ph.D.
Biological Anthropology
Steven Green, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
University of Miami
Matthew I. Palmer, Ph.D.
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology
Columbia University, New York, NY

Francis G. Howarth, Ph.D. Conservation Biology
L.A. Bishop Distinguished Chair of Zoology
Bishop Museum, Honolulu

Marc Meyer, Ph.D., Research Wildlife Ecologist and Postdoctoral Fellow
University of California Merced Wawona, CA

This is about the lust for wealth by the Bush crony timber industry and the 'redirection' of scientists willing to be (please click here).

These are what the logging industry does. It doesn't care if Old Growth Forest is to be protected due to species endangerment, they want profits and they intend to get them at the cost of generational heritage of Americans.

..."The Bush administration's draft regulations gutting the Endangered Species Act haven't even been publicly proposed yet, but the timber industry is already trying to strip the nation's wildlife of protection." said Kristen Boyles, an attorney with Earthjustice. "Once again, the Bush administration is undermining protection of our nation's endangered species to benefit their friends and campaign contributors in the timber industry."...

The lawsuit the timber industry filed was drafted by a former Bush White House official that went to work for the timber industry. The lawsuit has not basis in status. There is no law to back it up. The lawsuit was followed by the demands of a Secretary of the Interior to declassify Endangered Species to allow exploitation of Old Growth Forest in the Northwest USA including Oregon, Washington State and California.

This link (click here) will take you to a video by The New York Times which appeared today whereby 'influenced' scientists are appearing to consent to assist timber companies to stay in business when in fact the scientists are so intimadated in fear of habitat destruction and species demise they are working as hard as they can to PREVENT species from disappearing through desperate management strategies.

If lands are endangered due to exploitation of development of any kind, there is no reason to turn out backs on these lands even outside the parks to insure the protections needed are extended to those required to protect species from demise. What the scientists in the USA are facing today is a choice between two chronic evils rather than the best of all worlds. If development has to be contained it should proceed but NOT at the expense of those lands already protected within the laws of the people of the USA, but, expanded to even further measures. This is what extraordinary personal wealth has brought the citizens of the USA and it's scientists, HEARTACHE !

Page 4

Nancy E. Cowden, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biology, Lynchburg College
Lynchburg, VA

Johannes Foufopoulos, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Conservation Biology
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Carolyn Mollie Bigger, Ph.D. Forestry
El Cajon, CA
Elizabeth Wright Smith, M.S.
Cape Coral, FL

Gretchen North
Associate Professor, Biology
Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA

Craig R. Kuchel, M.S. Wildlife Biology
Florence-Carlton School
Florence, MT

Ronnie Schenkein, DVM
Member, Audubon Society, Sapsucker Woods Ornithology Laboratory and
Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas, Coudersport, PA

Jo Anna Hebberger, Ph.D. Plant Ecologist
Manheim, PA
Martin Hilovsky, M.S.
Senior Scientist / President
EnviroScience, Inc., Stow, OH

Matthew Rubino, M.S. Zoology
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC

Stephen B. Hager, Ph.D.
Co-Chair Department of Biology
Augustana College, Rock Island, IL
Kefyn M. Catley Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC

Page 5

Sheila Ward, Ph.D. Ecology
University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras
Jack Lyon, Ph.D.
Scientist Emeritus, Rocky Mountain Research Station
Ft. Collins, CO

John O. Whitaker, Jr., Ph.D.
Professor of Ecology and Organismal Biology,
Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana
Melissa Lee, M.S. Plant Ecology
University of Memphis
Memphis, TN

Ronald M. Lanner, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Forestry
Utah State University, Logan, UT

David M. Armstrong, Ph.D.
Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
University of Colorado-Boulder
Rachel Shelton, M.S.
Fisheries and Wildlife Management
Michigan State University, Lansing

Maria Laura Fernandez-Medina, M.S. Agricultural and Resource Economics
University of California, Davis
Nanci J. Ross, M.S. Tropical Ecology/Ethnobotany
Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Connecticut, Storrs
Tina Rhea, M.S. Wildlife Biology
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
John Schoen, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
Audubon Alaska, Anchorage

A. Christy Wyckoff, M.S. Wildlife Disease Biologist
Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Larry Kline, M.S. Range Management
Lakewood, CO

Page 6

Ray C. Telfair II, Ph.D.
Certified Wildlife Biologist (The Wildlife Society)
Whitehouse, TX

Edward J. Laurent, Ph.D. Wildlife Habitat Modeling
North Carolina State University, Raleigh
Stephen Zitzer, Ph.D. Ecologist
Desert Research Institute, Las Vegas, NV
Stephen B. Malcolm, Ph.D.
Professor, Dept. Biological Sciences
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
Bob Deacy, M.S.

Department of Environmental Resources Management
Palm Beach County, FL

Dan F. Ippolito, Prof. of Biology
AuSable Institute of Environmental Studies
Grand Rapids, MI

David S. Lee, Curator of Birds
North Carolina State Museum
Raleigh, NC

Melissa Child, M.A. Conservation Biology
Columbia University, NY

Laurie J. Vitt, Ph.D.
George Lynn Cross Research Professor and
Curator of Reptiles, Norman, OK
Tim Patton, Ph.D.
Ecology and Wildlife Science
Southeastern Oklahoma State University
Durant, OK

Marcel van Tuinen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor Department of Biology & Marine Biology
University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Stephen P. Ellner, Ph.D.
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

This is about pre-mediated destruction of The Endangered Species Act and the annihilation of The Northern Spotted Owl and it's unique habitat(click on

Page 7

Fred C. Sibley, Ph.D. Retired Ornithologist
Smithsonian Institute and Fish and Wildlife Service
Alpine, NY

James Tyler Bell, M.S. Environmental Science
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Edgewater, MD

Lisa Rapaport, Ph.D. Behavioral Ecology
Department of Biological Sciences
Clemson University, Clemson, SC

Deborah Bidwell, M.S. Zoology
College of Charleston, Charleston, SC

Susan G. Letcher, Ph.D. candidate
University of Connecticut, Storrs
Robyn J. Burnham, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
and Curator of Paleontology
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Jennifer E. Price, Ph.D. Aquatic Ecologist
South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
Columbia, SC

Thomas J. Daniels, Ph.D.
Vector Ecology Lab, Louis Calder Center
Fordham University, Bronx, NY

Virginia N. Brown, M.S. Environmental Management
Vulcan Materials Center for Environmental Stewardship and Education
Samford University in Birmingham, AL
William D. Anderson, Jr., Ph.D. Ichthyology
Grice Marine Biological Laboratory
Charleston, SC

David F. Murray, Ph.D.
Professor of Botany and Curator Emeritus
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Dorothy Boorse, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biology
Gordon College, Wenham , MA

Page 8

Brian D. Linkhart, Associate Professor
Department of Biology, The Colorado College
Colorado Springs, CO

Donna Hart, Ph.D.
Primatology and Human Variation
University of Missouri – St. Louis
Kathleen Perillo, M.S. Environmental Science
Professor of Biology
Clark College, Vancouver, WA

Karen Goetz, M.S. Conservation Biology
SanFrancisco, CA

Lisa Brohl, M.S. Environmental Science
Chair Lake Erie Islands Chapter
Black Swamp Conservancy, Put-in-Bay, OH

David J. Berg, Ph.D.
Professor of Conservation Biology
Miami University, Oxford, OH

Renata Platenberg, Ph.D. Ecologist
St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Peter Chesson, Ph.D.
Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Arizona Tucson
Robert C. Foehring, Ph.D.
Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology
University of Tennessee Health Science Center Memphis, TN

Hartwell H. Welsh, Jr. Ph.D.
Research Wildlife Biologist
Arcata, CA

James J. Provenzano, Ph.D. Cellular Physiology
President, Clean Air Now
Los Angeles, CA

Alina M. Szmant, Ph.D.
UNCW-Center for Marine Science
Wilmington, NC

Page 9

Steve Jones, Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor of Natural Resources and Marine Science
University of NH-Durham

Rhonda Kranz, M.S. Ecologist
Takoma Park, MD

Marlijn Hoogendoorn, Ph.D. Ecology
Minneapolis, MN

Craig C. Downer, M.S. Wildlife Ecology
Minden, NV

Richard S. Feldman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Environmental Science & Policy School of Science Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY

Thomas F. Ihde, Ph.D. Fisheries Science
Solomons, MD

William A. Szelistowski, Ph.D.
Ecology, Department of Biology
Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL

Andrew J Tyre, Ph.D. Conservation Biology, Statistical Ecology, Decision Theory
School of Natural Resources
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Noreen E. Reist, Ph.D.
Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Biomedical Sciences
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO

D. Ann Pabst, Ph.D.
Biology and Marine Biology
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Wilmington, NC

Julie A. Reynolds, Ph.D.
Biology Department
Duke University, Durham, NC

Yoyi Steele, M.S.
Important Bird Areas Coordinator
Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative, Madison

This story started with a letter. But, it began with the corrupt and since resigned Gail Norton (click here please)

These are the precious forest lands of "The Old Growth Forests" of the Pacific Northwest. They are protected lands by the laws of the USA. They have been plotted against by the those at the Secretary to the Interior and The Bush White House.

Page 10

Steve K. Sherrod, Ph.D.
Executive Director George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center
Bartlesville, OK

Robert T. Magill, M.S. Certified Wildlife Biologist
Wildlife Specialties, L.L.C.
Palisade, CO

Scott Russell, Ph.D. Biology
University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Bob Krebs, Ph.D.
Dept. of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences
Cleveland State University, OH

Francesca T. Grifo, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist and Director, Scientific Integrity Program
Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington, D.C.

Jennifer P. Kross, M.S. Wildlife and Fisheries Science
Ducks Unlimited
Bismarck, ND

Aaron Kennedy, M.S. Biology
Miami University, FL

Howard Whiteman, Ph.D.
Professor Wildlife and Conservation Biology
Murray State University, Murray, KY

Vicki Tripoli. Ph.D. Environmental Science
Ashland, OR

Sylvia Halkin, Ph.D. Animal Behavior
Professor, Dept. of Biology
Central Connecticut State University, New Britain
Jonathan N. Baskin, Ph.D. Emeritus Professor
Biological Sciences Dept., California State Polytechnic University Pomona
Pomona, CA

Dylan Kesler, Ph.D.
Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences
University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

Page 11

Sarah Spear Cooke, Ph.D. Restoration Ecologist
Seattle, WA
Robert J. DiStefano, M.S. Fisheries Science
Harrisburg, MO.

Laszlo J Szijj, Ph.D.
Emeritus Prof. of Biology
Calif. State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA
Carole Griffiths, Ph.D.
Associate Prof. Biology, Long Island University Research Associate, American Museum
of Natural History, NY

Doug Martin, Ph.D. Ecologist
WSRC/Savannah River National Laboratory
Aiken, SC

Jennifer Fox, M.S. Wildlife Ecology
International Falls, MN

John Rotenberry, Ph.D.
Professor Department of Biology
University of California, Riverside, CA

Curt Meine, Ph.D.
Conservation Biology
Center for Humans and Nature and the Aldo Leopold Foundation
Baraboo, WI

Laura Farrell, M.S Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
University of Vermont, Burlington

Richard J. Clark, Ph.D. Vertebrate Zoology
Emeritus Professor of Biology
York College of Pennsylvania, York, PA

David K. Mellinger, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Senior Research
Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies
Oregon State University, Newport, OR

Hugh H. Iltis, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI
Kipp C. Kruse, Ph. D
.
Page 12

Emeritus Professor of Biological Sciences
Eastern Illinois University Charleston, IL
Karla I. Gustafson, Ph. D.
Ethics Professor at Husson and Unity Colleges
Bangor, ME

Gail Olson, Ph.D. Wildlife Biologist
Olympia, WA

Cc: P. Phifer, US Fish & Wildlife Service
PNW congressional delegation
Honorable Governors Christine Gregoire, Ted Kulongoski, Arnold Schwarzenegger

A quick review to set the tone for where I am going

At the title to this entry is a link to an LA Times article regarding the Former General Sanchez and his statement regarding Iraq, basically, "Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide." From a General's perspective I am sure he is correct, from a USA citizen standpoint there is plenty room to leave Iraq.

Generals have taken far to prominent a position in a government adrift in a sea of apathy. The USA that exists today is not the USA of seven years ago. It is a drift in a lagging economy and basically a ship without a rutter.

Generals don't dictate USA policy. There is no reason to believe we are in Iraq forever. No way. We are out of there and the countries in the region will find a way to peace with a change in leadership in DC and a return to diplomacy. Just that simple.

We are not holding the hands of the Middle East anymore. We are securing USA borders and shoring up USA national security and we are rebuilding OUR infrastructure. We have an entire young generation without satisfying personal achievement because the older generation is not retiring with 'greed' as a goal. The older American sees a country with a shrinking ability to support them in 'style' while younger Americans have no solid base of income or a career to springboard their own futures and family security.

The USA has become morally bankrupt under the current administration and the former Republican majority legislature. Besides a genocidal and illegal war, the 'Arms Race' has returned to the USA and Russia at a time when there should be mutual disarmament in nuclear weapons and expectations to uphold The Non-Proliferation Treaty. At a time when the USA should be rejoicing in China's success in providing an international venue for the 2008 Olympics, we are looking at nuclear ships and subs as a potential threat and an expanded edition of still another arms race.

The USA has a service economy that waits on foreign visitors while grateful for a devalued dollar so Europe now has a new playground and a city in New York to purchase the latest Gucci cheaper than Paris or Geneva.

The people of the USA have a Vice President with a Nobel Peace Prize. The very same one that left office with a world mostly at peace and a nation with a fiscal surplus. Yet all anyone can do is turn their noses up at the 'idea' of actually having to stop using fossil fuels without clear paths to victory of having a home powered by solar or wind.

The USA financial markets have overtaken the culture of those that are wealthy and the moral place for conservation, environmentalism, peace and wild land preservation and protection has become unfashionable. What I am going to present tonight will make many upset. It requires a call of the Senate and House to investigate the current trend by the Bureau of Fish and Wildlife, the Department of the Interior and the EPA. The public lands of the USA are being exploited and there is a cultural movement among 'The Wall Street' breed to allow it to happen.

What I am about to present tonight can easily lead to impeachment. It's abuse of government and negligence of the 'public trust' of the people of the USA. You won't hear this any place else, I already tried to enlist the assistance of The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Seattle Post Intelligencer. I was met with the same rhetorical shunning of the issue I have stipulated above. Wealth first, the American people NEVER.

It's Saturday Night

"Apethetic Way to Be" by Reliant K

Yeah, I'm not angry
And no, I'm not upset
It's taken me awhile
But this is what I've learned
Emotional attachment is really not a threat
When I'm simply not concerned

The things that I take on
I soon shrug off
'cause I know no one
Will ever be content
With the way things are
Or with what they've got
So I've given up and now I'm just indifferent

You all laugh at me
Like I'm not happy
With anything, any time, anywhere
And the half of me's all about apathy
And the other half just doesn't care

I must admit;
All the words you spoke, I hated
Cause I don't see just how I can be motivated
Enough to break a sweat over a dying race
It seems our fate is something we've already embraced

Yeah, I'm not angry,
And no, I'm not upset
It's taken me awhile
But this is what I've learned
Emotional attachment is really not a threat
When I'm simply not concerned

You all laugh at me
Like I'm not happy
With anything, any time, anywhere
And the half of me's all about apathy
And the other half just doesn't care

Yeah, bein' apathetic's a pathetic way to be
(I don't care)
What matters to you does not matter to me
('cause I don't care)

So take a wild guess
It's like I just couldn't care less
If all the things you find impressive
Just blew up and made those messes
That you'll frantically repair
Like it's a life or death affair
And all the while you're unaware
For this, you really shouldn't care
But it's so hard to see the reality
That the end will be the end of things
And our hearts are all we get to bring
So let's go ahead and make them worth something

You all laugh at me
Like I'm not happy
With anything, any time, anywhere
And the half of me's all about apathy
And the other half just doesn't care

You all laugh at me
Like I'm not happy
With anything, any time, anywhere
And the half of me's all about apathy
And the other half just doesn't care

I'm well aware that everything
Is a far cry from all right
I'm well aware that all of us
Can at times, be too uptight
And possibly, the remedy
Is a dose of apathy
You point your finger at you
I'll point mine right back at me

Morning Papers - It's Origins

The Rooster
"Okeydoke"

Summertime Lake Michigan level expected to drop further

Lake Michigan basin as viewed from the Space Shuttle

Draining the Great Lakes will do nothing to solve the water problems of the USA, it will only increase the problems currently at issue.

By DAN EGANdegan@journalsentinel.com
Posted: March 17, 2007
Winter might have seemed like it returned to normal this year, but Lake Michigan hasn't.

Despite the cold and snow of the past few months, the water level of Lake Michigan continue to drop; as of Friday, Lake Michigan was about an inch lower than it was at this time last year, and about 17 inches below its long-term average. The long-range forecast for water levels isn't calling for things to get much better this summer.
"All indications are the lake is going to be lower than it was last year," said Cynthia Sellinger of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The reason: Lake Superior is within about 2 inches of its all-time low, and that means less water is tumbling down the St. Marys River and into Lakes Michigan and Huron. It also might not have been as snowy this winter as some people think. Sellinger points out, for example, that 1.3 inches of precipitation fell over Lakes Michigan and Huron in February, compared with a long-term average of 1.72 inches for the month....

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are seen at a news conference in Moscow, Friday, Oct. 12, 2007. [AP]

The new official licensed products of the commemorative insignia of Fuwa mascots are seen in this photo issued by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), October 12, 2007. In celebration of the 300-day countdown to the Beijing Olympic Games,BOCOG issued 11 kinds of limited edition products in three categories, namely, insignias, badges and gold-made or silver-made souvenirs. [BOCOG]

Morning Papers - continued...

RIA Novosti

Russia concerned by Japan-U.S. missile shield - FM Lavrov
TOKYO, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is concerned by plans by the U.S. and Japan to deploy a joint missile defense system, the foreign minister told Tokyo's Kyodo news agency.
"Japanese-U.S. cooperation in missile defense is cause of concern for us. We are against the creation of a missile defense system as a means of achieving military superiority. The deployment of such a system will spur an arms race both regionally and globally," Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on Saturday.
He said the system is part of the U.S. global missile defense shield and could be used against Russia and China.
Tokyo and Washington have intensified joint missile defense programs since North Korea's nuclear bomb and long-range missile tests last year.
Around 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed across Japan under a bilateral security arrangement.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071013/83758834.html



Russian PM Zubkov hosts talks with Rice, Gate
MOSCOW, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov hosted talks in Moscow on Saturday with the United States state and defense secretaries.
The government press office said the meeting with Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates, on the second day of their visit to the Russia, focused on trade and economic relations.
The Russian side stressed the need to conclude the negotiating process on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization and the importance of abolishing the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which denies normal U.S. trade relations to countries with non-market economies that restrict their citizens' right to emigrate.
The controversial amendment is still applied to Russia, and has proved a key barrier for the country's entry to the WTO.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071013/83749591.html



Russia, U.S. fail to agree on key issues at defense talks
MOSCOW, October 12 (RIA Novosti) - The U.S. and Russia failed to resolve a missile defense dispute at Friday's talks in Moscow between the countries' foreign and defense ministers, but agreed to resume negotiations in Washington next April.
U.S. State Secretary Condoleezza Rice said talks in the "two-plus-two" format had failed to overcome differences on U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Central Europe and Russian proposals to extend the START-1 arms reduction treaty, but a decision was made to continue discussions at the level of experts.
Rice said that at the talks, she and Defense Secretary Robert Gates had tried to respond to Russia's concerns on the missile shield, and were willing to continue efforts to allay its concerns.
Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted tense talks with Rice and Gates at his country residence near Moscow on defense issues.
Moscow strongly opposes U.S. plans to deploy elements of its missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, considering them a threat to its national security. Washington has insisted the European missile shield is intended to stave off the threat of missile attack from "rogue states" such as Iran or North Korea.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the U.S. side offered an alternative to its missile defense plans in a bid to allay Russia's concerns, and said Moscow would study it. "Today our American counterparts presented their return proposal, aimed at finding a solution to the dispute," he said.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20071012/83677780.html



Rice meets rights activists during tense Moscow visit
MOSCOW, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Russian human rights activists in Moscow on Saturday, a day after unsuccessful defense talks with the country's leaders.
The United States has repeatedly voiced concerns over the alleged erosion of democracy and human rights in Russia under President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin, in turn, has warned against outside interference, and condemns the use of NGOs by foreign states to influence domestic policy.
Rice's meeting in the U.S. Embassy, attended by several heads of NGOs, appeared likely to further strain tensions with Moscow. However, according to one of the officials present at the talks, she avoided making judgments on the rights situation in Russia.
Alexander Brod, head of the Moscow Human Rights Bureau, told RIA Novosti: "She did not give an assessment. Those present gave their evaluation of the situation as a whole, and discussed particular areas of human rights violations."

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071013/83746795.html



Sarkozy signals rapprochement with Russia over Iran nuclear program
MOSCOW, October 10 (RIA Novosti) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday that Russian and French positions had become closer with regard to Iran's nuclear program.
Sarkozy was speaking after discussing the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The Iranian nuclear program is seen by some Western countries as a bid to develop nuclear weapons, despite repeated Iranian statements to the contrary.
"We have had a profound discussion on the matter and I listened to President Putin's analysis. I think our positions have become closer," Sarkozy said.
Sarkozy said that, despite slightly different approaches to analyzing the uranium enrichment program resumed by Iran in January 2006, Russia and France were unanimous that Iran was willing to cooperate on the issue.
"The most important thing is that they [Iran] are willing to cooperate," Sarkozy said.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20071010/83318593.html



Iran's Khamenei calls for boycott of Mideast conference
TEHRAN, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has urged Islamic countries to boycott November's U.S.-sponsored international conference on the Middle East.
The conference was first proposed by U.S. President George Bush and subsequently approved by the Middle East Quartet, comprising the United States, United Nations, the European Union, and Russia.
"How can Islamic countries possibly participate in this event when the Palestinians describe this conference as a sham and do not intend to attend it?" he said at a religious meeting in Tehran.
He said all Islamic countries should treat the conference as a deception, and a stratagem by the Americans.
Iran's supreme leader said the Americans are attempting to "impose their will on the Palestinian people" and "save the Zionist regime [Israel]."

http://en.rian.ru/world/20071013/83751286.html



Gas blast kills at least nine in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine -1
(updates death toll, adds presidential press office statement in para 3)
KIEV, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - At least nine people are confirmed dead following a household gas explosion that caused a section of a building to collapse in Dnepropetrovsk, south-central Ukraine, rescuers said on Saturday.
So far three people have been pulled out of the rubble alive, and a further 21 are injured, the head of the regional emergency services said. The blast occurred in a nine-storey building in Ukraine's third-largest city, located to the south of Kiev.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko called on his Cabinet to do everything possible to help relatives of the victims, and those injured in the accident, the presidential press office said. He also offered his condolences to the victims' families, and urged Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych to urgently ascertain the cause of the disaster.
The governor of the Dnepropetrovsk Region is keeping the president updated on developments at the site of the blast, the statement said.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20071013/83757853.html



President Putin signs degree on federal border agency
MOSCOW, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on setting up a federal agency dedicated to securing Russia's borders, the Kremlin press office announced on Saturday.
At a news conference three days ago, the president said Russia was investing heavily in border infrastructure, particularly in the turbulent North Caucasus region.
He said that in order to prepare itself for a visa-free regime with the European Union, Russia must ensure the security of its external borders, and guarantee European partners that the country is secure from outside terrorist and criminal elements.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071013/83736351.html



Russia intercepted over 300 foreign spies in past 4 years - FS
MOSCOW, October 10 (RIA Novosti) - The head of Russia's Federal Security Service told a popular weekly that the FSB had identified over 300 foreign spies over the past four years.
"More than 270 actively operating agents and 70 foreign intelligence recruits, including 35 Russians, have been exposed since 2003," Argumenty i Fakty quoted Nikolai Patrushev as saying. He said that 14 agents and 33 recruits have been caught this year alone.
Patrushev said six Russians were caught in an attempt to transfer state secrets to foreign countries, and have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
Retired Colonel Valentin Shabaturov was given a 12-year sentence this year for treason and espionage. The court proved he had actively cooperated with foreign intelligence for seven years, from 1999 to 2006, and revealed state secrets to them.
Igor Arsentyev, a lieutenant colonel in the reserves, was sentenced to nine years in prison on the same charges in September.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071010/83308532.html



Russia successfully tests short-range missile intercept
MOSCOW, October 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has successfully test-fired a short-range anti-ballistic missile at a test site in Kazakhstan, a Space Forces spokesman said Thursday.
"A combined team of the Space Forces, the Sary Shagan testing site and industry officials fired a short-range interceptor missile at a target missile," Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin said.
He said the launch had been conducted to assess the possibility of extending of the service life of interceptor missiles on combat duty around Moscow.
According to some reports, at least 68 short-range A-135 interceptors (NATO reporting name Gazelle) are currently deployed in the Moscow missile defense system to protect radars and strategically important infrastructure.
The Gazelle, with an effective range of up to 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) is similar in design and mission to the U.S. Sprint missile of the U.S. Safeguard system.
The Sary Shagan testing site on the west bank of Lake Balkhash has been operational since October 1958. In recent years, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces conducted tests of six anti-missile systems, 12 air defense systems, seven types of missile interceptors, 12 types of ground-to-air missiles and 18 radars at the site.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071011/83439840.html



Odessa-Gdansk pipeline to be extended
MOSCOW. (Vladimir Saprykin for RIA Novosti) - The success of the informal energy summit held by Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Wednesday will be judged later, when the agreements reached there become reality.
But it was certainly an achievement, because it offered more cooperation possibilities for participants, who endorsed the extension of the Ukrainian-Polish Odessa-Brody pipeline to Poland's port Gdansk and refinery in Plock. The pipeline is designed to pump oil from the Caspian to Europe, bypassing Russia.
The sides' oil producing and transporting companies signed a corporate agreement, which became the first practical step to preparing a feasibility study for the pipeline project.
The president of Kazakhstan did not come to Vilnius, but his energy and mineral resources minister, Sauat Mynbayev, said Kazakhstan viewed the project as a practical possibility and could take part in it.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20071012/83636003.html



Will Sarkozy become Sarko?
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Yelena Shesternina) - On October 9-10, French President Nicholas Sarkozy will pay a visit to Moscow to have talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
This will be their second meeting since Sarkozy was elected president. For the first time, the two presidents met at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm and intrigued the journalists on the eve of the usually boring official talks. While they were talking before a regular meeting, the French president's phone rang. Having spoken for a minute, Sarkozy gave the receiver to Putin. It later transpired that they were not dealing with global problems. Their wives - Cecilia and Lyudmila - simply decided to check what their husbands were doing. The first ladies had their own program and found a common language rather quickly. Judging by all, their husbands also got on quite well.
At any rate, when French journalists asked him about his opinion of Putin, Sarkozy said that the Russian president seemed a calm and very clever man one could easily talk to. This admission perplexed political analysts who predicted almost return to the Cold War times for Moscow and Paris after Sarkozy became president.
During the election campaign the then presidential nominee was not very complimentary to Russia, and tried to distance himself as much as he could from the policy of Jacques Chirac, who had been Moscow's number one defender in Europe for many years.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20071008/83005256.html



China Daily

CPC ready for national congress
By Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-13 08:20
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Friday completed preparations for the Party's national congress by approving two key documents - amendments to the Party Constitution and a report by the 16th Central Committee of the CPC.
The 7th Plenary Session of the CPC's 16th Central Committee discussed and agreed to submit the documents to the 17th National Congress of the CPC, scheduled to start on Monday.
The CPC Central Committee's Political Bureau presided over the plenum, which was addressed by Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, according to a communiqu released after the plenum.
Hu explained the draft work report to be presented by the CPC Central Committee to the national congress, which outlines the Party's priorities for the next five years.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-10/13/content_6171831.htm



Chen Liangyu expelled from CPC
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-12 18:31
BEIJING -- The Seventh Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Friday endorsed the decision made by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee of expelling former Shanghai party chief Chen Liangyu from the CPC.
The meeting reviewed and approved the investigation report on the case of Chen, former secretary of CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, handed over by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).
The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee decided to expelling Chen, 61, from the party on July 26 after the CCDI's investigation into a social security fund scandal.
The meeting also endorsed the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee's decision of expelling Du Shicheng, former deputy secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the (CPC), from the party.
Du, 57, also former secretary of the Qingdao Municipal CPC Committee in Shandong, was expelled for taking huge bribes and leading a dissolute life.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-10/12/content_6170911.htm



China's longest tunnel under lake opens to traffic
(newsphoto)
Updated: 2007-10-11 17:06
Vehicles move along a 3.46 km-long tunnel under the Dushuhu Lake in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province on October 10, 2007. The tunnel is part of the 7.37 km-long Dushuhu bridge and tunnel project, which opened to traffic Wednesday after more than one year of construction. The tunnel is the longest of its kind in China. [newsphoto]

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2007-10/11/content_6166789.htm



China hikes bank reserve rate to 13%
(chinadaily.com.cn/Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-13 16:22
China ordered banks to set aside more money as reserves for the eighth time this year to cool speculation in stocks and real estate and curb the fastest inflation in 10 years.
Lenders must park 13 percent of deposits as reserves from October 25, up from 12.5 percent, the People's Bank of China said Saturday on its Web site. The required ratio is the highest in almost a decade.
The move is aimed at "strengthening liquidity management in the banking system and checking excessive credit growth", the central bank said in a statement. Excess liquidity could lead to price hikes and pour more fuel into the sizzling economy.
China's consumer prices surged 6.5 percent in August from a year earlier, the biggest jump since December 1996. The rate breached the government's annual 3 percent target for a fourth consecutive month, as food costs soared.
China's trade surplus jumped 56 percent in September, the customs authorities said Friday, taking it to US$185.65 billion for the first nine months of the year, more than the US$177.5 billion for all of last year.
Money supply is surging as the central bank sold the yuan to buy into the foreign currency brought into the country by the trade surplus. Some of that money is finding its way into stocks, pushing the benchmark CSI 300 Index up 181 percent this year. Money supply rose 18.5 percent in September.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-10/13/content_6172368.htm



Health service for all by 2010 - minister
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-13 18:43
SHANGHAI -- Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu has vowed to establish a medical service system which covers all urban and rural Chinese by 2010.
The Ministry of Health will deepen the ongoing medical reform to attain the objective, the minister said at a Sino-American medical forum opened in Shanghai, China's leading metropolis, on Friday.
The reform of China's public health sector is in a crucial period. It covers a wide range of subjects including medical insurance, drug manufacturing and distributing and supervision and legislation of medical management.
Increasing public criticism on high medical expense burden and endless hospital sandals have compelled the ministry to launch the reform which involved 16 ministries and commissions to brainstorm the reform.
"Public medical service should not be a burden to the society, but an important aspect of sustainable social development," the minister said.
Eight think tanks including World Health Organization, Mckinsey, World Bank, Development Research Center of the State Council and four Chinese universities have submitted their proposals on the reform to the ministry.
"The final plan of the reform will be a mixture of the proposals," he said.
China started a medical service reform in 1992 to abolish a system in which governments cover more than 90 percent of Chinese medical expenses.
Medical insurance has been introduced and promoted in urban areas in Guangdong and some other provinces since 1992 and cooperative medical care has been experimented in some rural counties to find a way to provide all Chinese with affordable medical service.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-10/13/content_6172454.htm


US-Russia missile defense talks fail
(AP)
Updated: 2007-10-13 17:41
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin warned President Bush's top two Cabinet officials on Friday to back off US missile defense plans for eastern Europe as high-level talks yielded little more than a pledge to meet again.
Despite presenting new cooperation proposals intended to bring Moscow on board, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates failed in a series of tough meetings to turn around Moscow's opposition to the system and other strategic issues.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-10/13/content_6172427.htm



Forbes: Woman, 26, mainland's richest
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-09 07:31
A 26-year-old woman worth $16.2 billion is the Chinese mainland's richest person, topping a list of tycoons whose wealth has soared amid a boom in stock and property prices, the business magazine Forbes said Monday.
The fortune of Yang Huiyan - also Asia's richest woman - is based on shares in Country Garden Holdings Ltd, a real estate developer founded by her father, Forbes said. It said the company's Hong Kong stock market debut this year made billionaires of Yang and four other people.
In second place was another developer, Hui Wing Mau, with a net worth of $7.3 billion. No 3 was Guo Guangchang, chairman of a manufacturing, retailing and real estate conglomerate, Fosun Group, with a fortune of $4.85 billion.
Their rise reflects a sharp rise in Chinese real estate prices over the past year.
Yang also represents an unusual case of second-generation wealth in China, most of whose richest people are self-made entrepreneurs still in their 30s and 40s.
Her net worth was more than seven times that of last year's richest mainland person, appliance retailer Gome's Huang Guangyu, who was worth $2.3 billion. Huang, also known as Wong Kwong-yu, dropped to No 10 on this year's list, even though his net worth rose by more than 50 percent to $3.6 billion.
Forbes said it compiled its list by looking at shareholdings in public companies and estimating what holdings in private entities would be worth if public.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-10/09/content_6158746.htm



China to allocate 80b yuan for high-tech development
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-13 15:25
The China Development Bank (CDB) will provide 80 billion yuan (US$10.7 billion) to support the development and innovation of high-tech enterprises in upcoming five years.
According to a memorandums of understanding recently signed by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and CDB, the fund will be used in high-tech innovation, key projects, small-and medium-sized high-tech firm development and etc.
It is an effort initiated by NDRC to formulate efficient finance channels for the high-tech industry at China Hi-tech Fair being held in Shenzhen.
Apart from government supportive policies, the industry still needs other effective financing methods such as venture capital investment, bank loans and public listing.
The NDRC will work with the CDB and Shenzhen Stock Exchange to promote cooperation between high-tech enterprises and the capital market in a bid to solve financial difficulties of high-tech enterprises.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2007-10/13/content_6172333.htm



Foreign exchange reserves swell to US$1.43 trillion
By Xin Zhiming (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-13 09:23
The country's foreign exchange reserves expanded to US$1.43 trillion at the end of September, a year-on-year increase of 45.1 percent, the central bank said on Friday.
That's 3.5 percentage points higher than in the first six months.
"The increasing trade surplus has been the main driver of the reserve expansion," said Hu Shaowei, a senior economist with the State Information Center.
China's trade surplus was US$185.7 billion in the first nine months - more than for the whole of last year - according to Customs.
It may also be a result of incoming "hot money" as the domestic stock and property markets surge, said Chen Xingdong, chief economist of BNP Paribas Peregrine Securities in Beijing.
Some analysts said the reserves could have been higher if not for the transfer of funds to the newly launched China Investment Corp, but the central bank did not reveal whether this is the case.
Hu said the expanding trade surplus is difficult to control and contributes to the country's ballooning reserves.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' latest macroeconomic forecast said the surplus could reach a record high of about US$260 billion this year.
Meanwhile, the central bank said, the annual growth in broad money supply or M2 accelerated to 18.45 percent in September, up by 1.39 percentage points from the end of June.
Yuan-denominated lending rose to 25.9 trillion yuan (US$3.44 trillion) at the end of September, a year-on-year increase of 17.13 percent.
Banks extended 3.36 trillion yuan in new loans in the first nine months of the year, 607.3 billion more than last year, which, analysts said, could add pressure to fixed-assets investment.
The central bank said in a statement that the financial situation was, on the whole, "stable".

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2007-10/13/content_6171927.htm



One of "Jena Six" teens jailed in Louisiana
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-13 09:25
New Orleans - A Louisiana teen-ager who spent more than nine months behind bars in connection with the "Jena Six" case is back in jail to complete his sentence in an earlier juvenile case, an official said on Friday.
Mychal Bell, 17, was taken into custody on Thursday night, said LaSalle Parish District Attorney J. Reed Walters.
He was given an 18-month sentence in a juvenile detention facility, according to the Alexandria, Louisiana, Town Talk newspaper.
Walters said Bell's sentence in juvenile court was postponed after he and five other black teen-agers were charged with attacking a white Jena, Louisiana, high school classmate in December 2006 after months of racially charged incidents in the central Louisiana town of 3,000.
"As I earlier pointed out, Mychal Bell had four dispositions, as they are known in Louisiana juvenile court, before the so-called Jena Six case occurred," Walters said in a statement.
Walters declined further comment on Bell's incarceration because juvenile cases are not public record under Louisiana law, as in most US states.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-10/13/content_6171943.htm



3 scientists win Nobel Prize in medicine
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-09 10:07
New York -- As a child in Italy during World War II, he lived for years on the streets and in orphanages. Six decades later, as a scientist in the United States, Mario Capecchi joined two other researchers in winning the Nobel Prize in medicine.
Their work led to a powerful and widely used technique to manipulate genes in mice, which has helped scientists study heart disease, diabetes, cancer, cystic fibrosis and other diseases.
The $1.54 million prize was awarded Monday to Capecchi, 70, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City; Oliver Smithies, 82, a native of Britain now at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and Sir Martin J. Evans, 66, of Cardiff University in Wales.
Their "gene-targeting" technique lets scientists deactivate or modifying individual genes in mice and observe how those changes affect the animals. That in turn gives clues about what those genes do in human health and disease.
The work has had "a revolutionary effect on the ability to understand how genes work," said Richard Woychik, director of The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, a center for mouse genetics.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-10/09/content_6159959.htm


85-year-old Nobel laureate Yang: 'Young wife makes me younger'
(chinaview.cn)
Updated: 2007-09-25 17:37
BEIJING - Chinese-American Nobel laureate of physics Yang Zhenning said to Xinhua his wife Weng Fan, 54 years his junior, has made him younger and more energetic.
Yang and his wife visited China's Sun Yat-Sen University on Saturday in Guangzhou. Holding his wife's hand tightly, he said: "She really makes me feel the energy of youth."
He added: "I am now 10 times more famous than before since the current marriage."
Yang, 85, married 31-year-old Weng Fan on December 24, 2004.
It was the second marriage for both of them. Yang's first wife Du Zhili died in 2003 and Weng wed her first husband shortly after graduation from college and got divorced soon afterwards.
In 1957, Yang won and shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Lee Tsung-dao "for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws, which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles."
Since late 2003, Yang has been giving regular lectures exclusive for freshman in China's elite Tsinghua University.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-09/25/content_6133691.htm


Gore and UN climate panel share Nobel Peace Prize
(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-13 08:45
OSLO -- Former US vice-president Al Gore and the UN climate panel won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their part in galvanizing international action against global warming before it "moves beyond man's control".
The award appeared to be a snub to President George W. Bush, who has doubted the science of global warming and rejected caps on emissions of gases believed to cause it, but the White House said it was happy for the winners and praised their work.
Gore, who lost narrowly to Bush in the 2000 presidential election, and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were chosen to share the $1.5 million prize from a near record field of 181 candidates.
The Nobel Committee said the award was made because of their efforts to draw attention to mankind's impact on the climate and measures needed to address it before rising temperatures bring droughts, floods and rising seas.
"Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man's control," the committee said.
Gore has lectured extensively on the threat of global warming and last year starred in his own Oscar-winning documentary film An Inconvenient Truth to warn of the dangers and urge action against it.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-10/13/content_6171850.htm

continued...

This is a desalination plant in Saudi Arabia. The southern USA needs to start to build one if it's going to survive Human Induced Global Warming.

The Jubail desalination plant in Saudi Arabia is the largest in the world.

Georgia Town Running Low on Water (click here)

The water supply for the small town of Jefferson, Georgia is only weeks away from drying up.The city’s reservoir is more than four feet below normal right now. It’s so low that silt and chemicals from the bottom are being processed through the water treatment facility.The city is now getting its water from Jackson County and the city of Commerce. Without that water, Jefferson’s reservoir would be completely dry."The water here, if we had no other source of water, that would last us two, maybe three weeks at best. If we had nothing coming in," said Jeff Killip with Jefferson’s Public Works department.The city is pushing conservation and has had a good response from its customers. They say the citizens of Jefferson have reduced water use by 25 percent.

The USA desalination plants can be powered by solar power as there won't be many days without it anymore. The states along The Great Lakes are absolutely correct, the 'water shed' to The Great Lakes must stay intact in order for the lakes to replenish themselves year after year. The southern USA should have built salination plants a long time ago rather than shunting water from northern California. The aqueducts of Southern California ADD to the drought as the exposed water evaporates along it's movement from northern sources to southern sources. I have no sympathy for southern states that never planned for this, everyone knew it was coming, where were they? Waiting for federal money from Bush to solve their problems? Ha !

Editorial: Hands off our H2O (click here)
Pass the Great Lakes compact now, before more people start thinking like New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.From the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Oct. 11, 2007
"States like Wisconsin are awash in water."

Those words from Democratic presidential hopeful and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson should send a shiver up the spine of every Wisconsin resident - and spur new urgency in state legislators to approve enabling legislation for the Great Lakes compact.
While not perfect, the compact is designed to provide some protection for the Great Lakes from those who would like to take water out of the lakes' natural basin without returning it. The compact has been agreed to by the governors of the eight Great Lakes states but still has to be approved by the legislatures of those states and then by Congress.
A legislative task force under the leadership of state Sen. Neal Kedzie (R-Elkhorn) worked on enabling legislation for a year but was unable to reach consensus and foundered last month over several issues, mainly involving certain standards and diversion questions. A new task force was formed by the governor, but that committee has barely started to wrestle with the issues and there is no guarantee that it will reach consensus.
The first order of business of any enabling legislation should be to protect the Great Lakes. Any diversion of water outside the natural basin should be returned to the lakes, and communities that ask for water should have in place conservation policies that minimize their demand for water.
But enabling legislation should also allow for reasonable growth in communities such as New Berlin and Waukesha that are wholly or partially outside the basin, running into water supply problems in underground aquifers and willing and able to return the water and enact conservation measures. Enabling legislation should not be so restrictive that it stifles economic growth in the region, and it needs to deal with the groundwater issues raised by the compact.
Stifling growth won't help the environment; poor communities can't clean up brownfields or develop green energy solutions.
Waukesha County is not the enemy. The enemy is people who would open the taps on the Great Lakes without regard for the health of those lakes and their communities.
Approving compact legislation would provide a necessary measure of protection. And it needs to be approved before more people start talking like Richardson.
How important is it for Wisconsin to approve enabling legislation for the Great Lakes compact? Send a letter to: Journal Sentinel editorial