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

New polling in Texas, Iowa, Arizona and Arkansas shows movement for the 2nd and 3rd place candidates. In Texas Obama trails Clinton by two points in Texas and Edwards trails Clinton by one point in Iowa. In Arizona Giuliani trails home state McCain by just nine points and McCain leads in Texas while Giuliani leads in New Hampshire. Mike Huckabee leads in Arkansas…..Former Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana will run for governor of that state if his residency issue is cleared up by the state's attorney general….The Federal Election Commission is investigating the 2004 presidential race and insiders say the Bush campaign has failed the audits thus far and may owe the taxpayers $40 million…..Public loyalty to the Republican Party has dropped since the Bush takeover in 2000 according to the Pew  Research Center. In 2002 the two major parties were roughly at parity, today half the population leans towards the Democrats while just 35% lean Republican. What's more, the nation's collective psyche is adopting Democratic issues as their own…..Why did Katie Couric keep pressing John and Elizabeth Edwards on 60 Minutes about their decision to continue his presidential campaign when she didn't give up her job as host of the Today Show when her husband was diagnosed with cancer?…..A massive peace symbol has sprouted on the lawn in front of the west steps of the Capitol. A U.S. Capitol Police officer deduced that anti-war activists carefully sprinkled fertilizer to create the slightly darker green shape on the lawn.
"That's one of the smartest things I've seen the protesters do," the officer said….Former Sen. John Edwards has surged in the polls since he and his wife divulged her cancer is back. Nearly two-thirds of those polled also agreed he and his wife did the best thing by continuing to campaign for his party's nomination…The polling showed Edwards gained 9 points

since mid-March.Former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) leads Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) 44% to 34% in latest polling in a hypothetical Senate race. Six years ago Sununu defeated Shaheen in the race for the Senate….Nebraska Congressman Lee Terry (R-NE1), in a rare unpartisan moment, bucked the Bush administration regarding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and called for a change in office….Sen. John McCain, himself an aspirant for the White House, blocked Sen. Clinton's attempt to get $45 million in aid for New York for 9/11 related problems in the Senate last week….some professionals are quietly predicting Sen. Obabama could-empasize- could outraise Sen. Clinton in upcoming Federal Election Commission reports….Did anyone count the number of seconds it took Nebraska AG Jon Bruning to announce he was forming an exploratory committee for U.S. Senate after Sen, Hagel waffled on his  future plans?...Former GOP Gov. Tommy Thompson will make it official and take his "exploratory" committee to a full presidential candidate……………...

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. Tom Osborne:Phone: (202) 225-6435  Fax: (202) 236-1385
507 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

SEC. B, p2
Senate Moments

SEC. B, p3
HISTORY
SCRAMBLE