Etc., etc., etc. …...

Coming in future issues…..

Progress Report on Fontenelle Trees

Nebraska Byways:
Stories about
Nebraskans

WESTERN ARCTIC
GETS REPRIEVE

NRDC and our partners have scored a major courtroom victory for Arctic wildlife. In late September, a federal judge blocked the Bush administration from proceeding with oil and gas development in more than 1 million acres in the Western Arctic Reserve, including a pristine nesting area for migratory birds and the calving grounds for the Teshekpuk Lake caribou herd.

The court ruled that the Interior Department failed to consider the cumulative environmental impacts of oil and gas drilling on this sensitive ecosystem. In tandem with our courtroom campaign, BioGems Defenders have sent more than 100,000 messages urging the Bush administration and Congress to uphold protections for important habitat areas within the reserve.

COURT UPHOLDS STRICT LIMITS ON DEADLY SONAR

A federal appeals court has rejected the Bush administration's attempt to turn back a landmark NRDC courtroom win that limits the peacetime deployment of a powerful low-frequency active sonar system. According to the Navy's own studies, the LFA sonar system generates noise so intense that dangerous levels of sound travel more than 300 miles -- posing a deadly threat to whole populations of whales and other marine mammals that depend on their hearing to survive.

Three years ago, a lower federal court sided with NRDC and our partners and ruled that the Navy's plan to deploy this powerful new sonar system across 75 percent of the world's oceans violated a host of federal laws. In the wake of the appeal court's decision, the Navy must continue to adhere to an agreement with NRDC, which limits LFA testing and training to an area in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.

More WPA stories about Nebraska by Nebraskans

In the Who Says There's Never Any Good News Department: A Japanese whaling factory ship was disabled and burning in Antarctic waters when a fire broke out in the engine room. One crewman was reported missing. The ship was illegally hunting inside the internationally recognized Whale Sanctuary Waters…. Two months after his brain hemorrhage, South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson has left a Washington hospital and entered a private rehabilitation facility. Meanwhile Senate colleagues are raising funds for Johnson, seen as a sign he intends to run for reelection in 2008….Republican presidential candidate John McCain said the war in Iraq has been mismanaged for years and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be remembered as one of the worst in history….Former Senator and VP nominee in 2004, John Edwards, currently holds a lead in the Democratic primary in Iowa. Edwards tips the scales at 24% while Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama each have 18%… Iraq war amputee denied photo-op with Bush: "'Are you telling me that I can't go to the ceremony 'cause I'm an amputee?'" asked David Thomas, an Iraq war veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart. Thomas was told he could not wear shorts to attend a ceremony with President Bush because the media would be there, and shorts were not advisable because the amputees would be seated in the front row. David responded, "I'm not ashamed of what I did, and y'all shouldn't be neither." When the guest list came out for the ceremony, his name was not on it….Speculation among politicos about a possible vice-presidency slot on the Democratic ticket for Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell or on the GOP ticket for Texas Gov. Rick Perry was quashed when they both emphatically rules out such a scenario…..Geneologists have traced back Rev. Al Sharpton's family tree to link him to a relative of former South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond,

former white segregationist. Sharpton is an outspoken black minister involved in civil rights…..The Romney family tree certainly supports the Mormon religious doctrine of polygamy. GOP candidate Mitt Romney's great grandfather had five wives and one of his great-great grandfathers had at least twelve wives before the federal government outlawed polygamy…At least one Gore confidante says the former VP could jump in the presidential race as late as next fall and still win the party nomination because he has made enough money since leaving office to self-finance a run to the White House…Right wing talk show host and flamboyant provocateur Michael "Savage" is promoting himself as a presidential candidate in 2008...Bill O'Reilly, another right wing abrasive talk show host for FOX, on the late February "60 Minutes" television program declared he is for civil unions, some gun control, abortion rights and other not-so-conservative  positions Consumer guru Ralph Nader is making waves about another presidential run in 2008 despite his very poor showing in 2004………………….... 

U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson: Phone: (202) 224-6551  Fax: (202) 228-001240, Suite 5 Dirksen Basement (Temp)
Washington, DC 20510
senator@bennelson.senate.gov
U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel: Phone: (202) 224-4224  Fax: (202) 224-5213
346 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
chuck_hagel@hagel.senate.gov
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry: Phone: (202) 225-4806, Fax (202) 225-5686   1517 Longworth House Office Bldg. Washington,DC 20515
Rep. Lee Terry:Phone: (202) 225-4155  Fax: (202) 226-5452  1513 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
talk2lee@mail.house.gov
Rep. Adrian Smith:Phone: (202) 225-6435 FAX (202) 225-0207 503 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

SEC. B, p2
Senate Moments

SEC. B, p3
HISTORY
SCRAMBLE