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

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, landed a part in next summer's Batman movie. Leahy, a Batman aficionado, has done voice-overs for Batman cartoons and cameos in two other Batman films. He is donating his fee to his childhood library….Departed White House advisor Karl Rove, GOP campaign guru, says Hillary Clinton has too many negatives to be elected president….Ford Motor Co.  is looking to hire 70 new engineers and scientists to support its growing programs for alternative fuel vehicles….Former Nebraska Governor and U.S, Senator Bob Kerrey, now president  of the New School University in New York, is signaling a return to Nebraska to reclaim the Senate seat he gave up…..Louisiana state Treasurer John Kennedy announced that he will leave the Democratic party run for re-election this fall as a Republican. Kennedy's re-election campaign announced the switch on his web site. The switch fuels also speculation that Kennedy may run against Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) next year….Sen. Chris Dodd's (D-CT) campaign "is set this week to announce a quite major labor endorsement: the International Association of Firefighters," reports The Politico.
Marc Ambinder notes "that means the Firefighters, the first union to endorse Sen. John Kerry in 2004, won't endorse Hillary Clinton or Bill Richardson, two reliable allies. Dodd, meanwhile, gets a major boost, particularly in New Hampshire, where the Firefighters union takes politics seriously and provides serious help to its endorsed candidate on primary day."…..The Rothenberg Political Report looks at the latest news concerning the arrest of Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) who still hasn't indicated if he's running for re-election next year. However, even with a possible open seat, Democrats "still face a very difficult bid in Idaho. George W. Bush won the state with 67% in 2000 and 68% in 2004, behind only

Wyoming and Utah. Idaho hasn't gone Democratic for President since Lyndon Johnson in 1964 when Barry Goldwater (R) won only a handful of states. The last Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race was legendary Sen. Frank Church (D) in 1974. But he lost reelection six years later." ….Supporters of former Sen. Fred Thompson, on the verge of becoming a candidate for president, are looking at his old, faded pickup truck he used with success as a prop to tour Tennessee recasting himself as a folksy good old boy in his successful Senate campaign….Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) home state office was broken into and burglarized. No details on what was taken…..Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remains comatose and attached to a respirator nearly two years after a devastating stroke, a spokesman for Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv said Sunday…..Sen. Larry Craig, (R-ID), has mounting pressure from constituents and the Republican party in his home state to resign after his plea of guilty to public lewdness. …..

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 503 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515
Phone:(202) 225-6435
Fax:(202) 225-0207

SEC. B, p2
Senate Moments

SEC. B, p3
HISTORY
SCRAMBLE