Wye-Mullan Plan

The Wye-Mullan Comprehensive Plan for development in the area south of Missoula International Airport is being hotly debated at Missoula community meetings. After the Consolidated Planning Board finishes its review, the matter will move to the Missoula County Commission and the Missoula City Council.

The draft of the Wye-Mullan plan is available online: http://www.co.missoula.mt.us/opgweb/LongRange/WyeMullan.htm

Source: "Wye-Mullan development at center of difficult debate." Missoulian October 31, 2004.

Milltown Dam Removal

NorthWestern Corp. is seeking to amend its license and begin Phase 1 of the Milltown Dam removal and clean up project in December 2004.

The documents NorthWestern filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) are available through the FERC e-Library: NorthWestern Energy submits final Milltown application for license amendment pursuant to of the requirements of 18 CFR 4201 under P-2543
Note: This is an extremely large PDF file. The FERC library also offers a File List page which has links to images of each individual page.

You may also want to review the EPA's page on the Milltown Reservoir Sediments/Clark Fork River Superfund Site: http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/sites/mt/milltowncfr/home.html
This page includes a link to the Milltown Reservoir Revised Proposed Plan.

Source: "Dam removal reaches final countdown." Missoulian October 30, 2004. A1.

Indian Tribal Prison Facilities

Max Baucus introduced a bill in the Senate recently to improve funding for Indian Tribal Prison Facilities like the Blackfeet Indian Reservation jail he visited recently.

Bill number S.2919, "A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide funding for Indian tribal prison facilities, and for other purposes."
Go to the Congressional Bills page on GPO Access and search for "S.2919" (using quotation marks).

The report referenced in the article below is the Department of the Interior's "Neither Safe nor Secure: An Assessment of Indian Detention Facilities."
http://www.oig.doi.gov/upload/IndianCountryDetentionFinal%20Report.pdf

Source: "Baucus gets look a jail conditions." Missoulian October 29, 2004. B1.

Bison Range Agreement

The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility group is charging that the costs associated with the National Bison Range plan have been changed due to pressure from officials at the Department of the Interior.

Press Release from PEER: http://www.peer.org/press/529.html

Draft Funding Agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation: http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/cskt-fws-negotiation/F-FY2005FWS-CSKTDraftAFA.pdf

The Cost Comparison Chart: http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/cskt-fws-negotiation/SenatorBurnsAtt1revised10-4-04..pdf

Source: "Group charges feds with tinkering of Bison Range costs." Missoulian October 29, 2004. A1.

Hydropower Licenses

A proposed regulation limits the appeals process with regard to hydropower licensing. The comment period expires November 9th.

http://www.regulations.gov/fredpdfs/04-20392.pdf

Source: "Bush proposes restrictions on dam appeals." Missoulian October 28, 2004. A9.

CDC Ethics Committee

The CDC has established a panel of ethicists for the first time. They will initially look at guidelines for administering flu shots.

For more information on influenza, look at the CDC site on the illness:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/
The site provides information on prevention, treatment, and current flu activity.

Source: "U.S. Creates Ethics Panel on Priority for Flu Shots." New York Times October 28, 2004

Voter Registration Challenges

U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott has issued a restraining order against Republican party challenges of thousands of voter registrations.

http://www.ohsd.uscourts.gov/pdf/04-cv-735.ORDER.pdf

Source: "Hearings halted on challenges to voter registrations." Missoulian October 28, 2004. A9.

Federal Reserve Survey of Business Activity

The Federal Reserve Board "Beige Book" collects information from the Fed's 12 regional banks. A summary and reports from each regional bank are available on the Fed site:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/FOMC/BeigeBook/2004/20041027/Default.htm

Source: "Energy costs not hampering economic growth, notes Fed." Missoulian October 28, 2004. A9

Rollover Ratings

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has just released new crash test ratings for some 2005 models: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/nhtsa/announce/press/pressdisplay.cfm?year=2004&filename=pr44-04.html

More information on crash tested vehicles (including previously tested vehicles) is available at Safercar.gov: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/ncap/index.cfm

Source: "Ford Focus, Ranger last in crash, rollover tests." Missoulian. October 27, 2004. A7

Absentee Voting

In a recent report on early voting in Montana, it was mentioned that Montana has had "unconditional/no excuse needed" early voting since 1999.

For more information on absentee voting and voting in general, check out the Missoula County Office of Elections: http://www.co.missoula.mt.us/Election/

For information on what the Montana Code says about voting, look at Title 13, which covers elections: http://data.opi.state.mt.us/bills/mca_toc/13.htm

In particular, section 13-13-201 covers absentee voting.

Source: "No excuses necessary: State law allows early voting for all." Missoulian. October 27, 2004. A1

Going-to-the-Sun Road Rehabilitation Plan

The Going-to-the-Sun road will be under reconstruction beginning in 2006. Alternative transit systems are being discussed this week in meetings in Browning (10/26) and Kalispell (10/27). View the press release below:

http://www.nps.gov/glac/pphtml/newsdetail14988.html

You may also want to review the Going-to-the-Sun Road Rehabilitation Plan/Final Environmental Impact Statement (released in April 2003).

Summary: http://www.nps.gov/glac/pdf/2003roadsum.pdf

Full document: http://www.nps.gov/glac/pdf/2003roadeis.pdf

Source: "Sun Road meetings to look at transportation during work." Missoulian, October 26, 2004, B1

Crime in the United States

The 2003 data on crime in the U.S. has just been released by the FBI. Crime in the United States is an annual report issued within the Uniform Crime Reports Program.

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/03cius.htm

Source: "FBI: Violent crime down 3 percent" Missoulian October 26, 2004, A7

Levin Report

Report of an Inquiry into the Alternative Analysis of the Issue of an Iraq-al Qaeda Relationship
Citation: "Pentagon Reportedly Skewed C.I.A.'s View of Qaeda Tie." New York Times October 22, 2004.

A report issued yesterday by Carl Levin (D-MI), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Duelfer Report

The Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's WMD, the much-discussed report on weapons of mass destruction written by Charles Duelfer, has been published online: http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS54633.

A paper version of the report should be available at the depository libraries in Montana in a few weeks. The volumes of the report will be at the following call numbers:
PREX 3.2:IR 1/V.1
PREX 3.2:IR 1/V.2
PREX 3.2:IR 1/V.3
PREX 3.2:IR 1/KEY

Due to the large size of the document, the University of Michigan Documents Center has divided the document in smaller, easier to download parts: http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/duelfer.html