Saturday, December 06, 2003

Park Service Takes Badge of Chief for Talking to Press The National Park Service has placed Park Police Chief Teresa C. Chambers on leave for talking to the media, the Washington Post reports. Chambers, the first woman chief in the Park Service's two-century history, told the Post in an interview published Dec. 2 that her force was short-handed. She said requirements for extra officers at national monuments, imposed by the Department of Homeland Security, left her agency without budget or officers enough to fight ongoing routine crime at the many parksites around the capital her force polices. Park Service Deputy Director Don Murphy told the Post that Chambers violated federal rules prohibiting officials from "lobbying" or discussing budget proposals before they are finalized. -- "Park Police Chief Placed On Leave After Remarks; Moran, Labor Union Criticize Action," Washington Post, Dec. 6, 2003, by David A. Fahrenthold, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40048-2003Dec5.html 2:00:01 PM

States FOIA EPA Papers on Utility Meetings, Pollution Rule A group of 6 states filed a FOIA request on Dec. 4, 2003, for documents on how EPA arrived at its controversial "New Source Review" (NSR) decision. Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C. are seeking information on communications between three agencies -- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Energy (DOE), and the White House Council on Environmental Quality" -- and a host of utility industry groups they suspect may have secretly and improperly influenced EPA to weaken 3-decade-old provision requiring utilities to install pollution control equipment when they rebuild old plants. Full Story. 1:30:47 PM