More Orr 3

More Orr 3

Carl Pope: Bush-bashing must cease!

Cadillac and TNC team up to "Showcase World's 'Last Great Places'"

BuRec news release: CRSP dam closures

GAO completes Phase 1 study on Hispanic Land Grants

Texas critique of Page dismissed as 'PR'

High-voltage dispute jolts Page

Security heightened at western dams

Navajo Nation farm gets high subsidies

Most federal crop subsidies go to corporate farms, non-farmers

Lawyer's role in reviving ex-industrial sites disputed

Antelope Point public meeting information

Alcohol laws get tougher at Lake Powell

===================================================+

Date: Saturday, September 15, 2001 9:42 PM
Subject: Carl Pope: Bush-bashing must cease!

_________________________
>To: Sierra Club staff
>From: Allen Mattison
>Date: Sept. 12, 2001
>Re: Club message change in response to national crisis
>
>In response to the attacks on America, we are shifting our communications
strategy for the immediate future. We have taken all of our ads off the
air; halted our phone banks; removed any material from the web that
people could perceive as anti-Bush, and are taking other steps to prevent
theSierra Club from being perceived as controversial during this crisis.
We will re-evaluate as the national climate shifts.
>
>For now, we are going to stop aggressively pushing our agenda and will cease
bashing President Bush. We strongly need to avoid any perceptions that
we are being disrespectful to President Bush. Now is a time for rallying
together as a nation; the public will judge very harshly any groups whom
they view as violating this need for unity.
>
>If you are asked about what this terrorism does to the Sierra Club's agenda,
please respond simply by saying that right now the public needs to focus
on comforting each other and strengthening our national security to deal
with the crisis at hand. When debate on other issues resumes, we will
rejoin those debates.
>
>
> Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club executive director:
>The Sierra Club extends our deepest sympathy to all Americans whose lives
have been touched by this tragedy. Right now, what's most important is
that Americans stand together as one nation, giving support and
consolation to our families, friends, neighbors and colleagues. Our
national attention must focus on helping those who've lost loved ones, on
strengthening our security and on finding those responsible for this
attack. The Sierra Club cancelled our national annual meeting and board
meeting, which had been scheduled for this weekend in San Francisco.
>
>Now is a time for mourning, for reflection and for solutions to thimmediate
crisis at hand. Our nation faces other long-term problems and
challenges, but now is not the time for those debates. Only when the
healing is underway and we have begun tackling the security challenges we
face, will our nation be ready to focus again on other issues. When the
focus returns to other longer-term issues, the Sierra Club will resume
our national debate on those issues.

===================================================+

Date: Saturday, September 15, 2001 9:41 PM
Subject: Cadillac and TNC team up to "Showcase World's 'Last Great Places'"

GM, Cadillac Help Nature Conservancy Showcase World's 'Last Great Places'

Photography exhibit marks 50th anniversary of environmental organization

DETROIT, Sept. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Stunning images of Alaska, Indonesia,
Brazil and Mexico are among the "Last Great Places" being showcased in a
unique photography exhibit that commemorates the 50th anniversary of The
Nature Conservancy.

General Motors and its Cadillac Division are sponsors of "In Response to
Place," an exhibit that opens to the public Sept. 15 at the renowned
Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and tours the United States
through 2004. The photographs will be on display at GM global
headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit in mid-2004.

Twelve internationally recognized photographers, including Annie
Leibovitz and William Wegman, were commissioned by The Nature Conservancy
to capture their impressions of what the environmental organization calls
"Last Great Places" -- ecologically critical locations throughout the
world. Images range from William Christenberry's soothing portrait of
Alabama's Cahaba River to ethereal imagery of Indonesia's Komodo National
Park as captured by Hope Sandrow.

"These 144 photographs show a true love of place. They are revealing and
elegant reminders of our natural resources and the need to protect them,"
said Cadillac Division General Manager Mark R. LaNeve.

Added Dennis Minano, GM Vice President of Environment and Energy and
Chief Environmental Officer: "General Motors has long been a partner
with The Nature Conservancy. Sponsoring 'In Response to Place' adds yet
another facet to our relationship. We're proud to play this role in
celebrating the Conservancy's golden anniversary."

GM and The Nature Conservancy have been partners since 1994. During the
past seven years, GM has donated $5.8 million in cash and more than 100
trucks to aid the often-rugged conservation work of the Conservancy. GM
Chairman John F. "Jack" Smith, Jr. serves on the Conservancy's Board of
Governors and is co-chairman of the Conservancy's "Campaign for
Conservation," a $1-billion capital campaign that will raise money to
preserve key natural areas in more than 200 places in the Americas, Asia
and the Pacific.

In addition, GM recently joined the Conservancy and Brazil's Society for
Wildlife Research and Environmental Education in an effort to restore and
protect 30,000 acres of critically endangered rainforest in southern
Brazil. This land purchase is made possible by a $10-million gift from
GM, and is the largest known private investment in a forest protection
and restoration project.

"In Response to Place" features the following artists and locations:

-- William Christenberry, Bibb County Glades and Cahaba River, Alabama.

-- Lynn Davis, Utah Plateaus, Utah.

-- Terry Evans, Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, Oklahoma.

-- Lee Friedlander, Upper San Pedro River, Arizona.

-- Karen Halverson, Cosumnes River Valley and Howard Ranch, California.

-- Annie Leibovitz, Shawangunk Mountains, New York.

-- Sally Mann, Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, Mexico.

-- Mary Ellen Mark, Virginia Coast Reserve, Virginia, and Pribilof
Islands, Alaska.

-- Richard Misrach, Pyramid Lake and Stillwater Marsh, Nevada.

-- Hope Sandrow, Komodo National Park, Indonesia.

-- Fazal Sheikh, Grand Sertao Veredas National Park, Brazil.

-- William Wegman, Cobscook Bay, Maine.

The photography exhibit will tour the United States through 2004, when it
will then be showcased at international sites. The U.S. tour schedule
includes:

-- September-December 2001: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

-- February-May 2002: Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston.

-- June-August 2002: Friends of Photography, San Francisco.

-- September-December 2002: High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

-- January-April 2003: Field Museum, Chicago.

-- May-August 2003: Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis.

-- September-November 2003: Boston Public Library, Boston.

-- December 2003-February 2004: New York City.

-- March-June 2004: Museum Center, Cincinnati.

-- July-September 2004: Renaissance Center, Detroit.

-- September-November 2004: Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, Wash.

The Nature Conservancy is a private, international, nonprofit
organization established in 1951 to preserve plants, animals and natural
communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting
the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and
its 1.1 million members have been responsible for the protection of 12
million acres in the United States, and have helped through partnerships
to preserve more than 80 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean,
Canada and the Pacific. The Conservancy owns and manages 1,340
preserves, the largest private system of nature sanctuaries in the world.
You can visit the Conservancy at www.nature.org .

General Motors, the world's largest vehicle manufacturer, designs, builds
and markets cars and trucks worldwide. In 2000, GM earned $5 billion on
sales of $183.3 billion. It employs about 372,000 people globally. GM
also operates one of the largest and most successful financial services
companies, GMAC, which offers automotive, mortgage and business financing
and insurance services to customers worldwide. GM is investing
aggressively in digital technology and e-business within its global
automotive operations and through such initiatives as e-GM, GM BuyPower,
OnStar and its Hughes Electronics Corp. (NYSE: GMH) subsidiary. For more
information on GM in the areas of products, plants and partnerships,
please visit www.gmability.com .

Cadillac is a division of GM that markets the Catera, DeVille, Escalade,
Seville and Eldorado. Find out more about Cadillac products and their
environmentally sound principles and actions at www.cadillac.com .

SOURCE General Motors Corporation; Cadillac Division; The Nature
Conservancy

09/11/2001 08:31 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com

===================================================+

Date: Saturday, September 15, 2001 9:42 PM
Subject: BuRec news release: CRSP dam closures

Salt Lake City, Utah
Barry D. Wirth (801) 524-3774
e-mail: bwirth@uc.usbr.gov

For Immediate Release: September 12, 2001

Reclamation Visitor Services Remain Closed High Security Alert Remains in
Effect

The Bureau of Reclamation's various visitor centers remain closed today
and security at the agency's dams and power plants continues at the
highest level following the incidents yesterday at the World Trade Center
in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. In addition, tours and
public access to Reclamation's facilities remains closed.

In the case of the Upper Colorado Region, this includes visitor
facilities at Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona and Flaming Gorge Dam in Utah.
Additionally, the road access to the Gunnison River near Crystal Dam in
Colorado is closed. Float tours from Glen Canyon Dam down river to Lee's
Ferry on the Colorado River are suspended because Reclamation has closed
access to the river below Glen Canyon Dam.

All power plants have remained open throughout the national emergency and
all scheduled water deliveries have been carried out. There are no
changes in operations as a result of the events of the past 24 hours. As
yet, there is no schedule for the reopening of the visitor centers.

The Bureau of Reclamation provides water and hydroelectricity throughout
the western United States. The agency operates over 500 dams and 58
hydroelectric power plants which generate over 42 billion kilowatt hours
annually.

===================================================+

Date: Saturday, September 15, 2001 9:42 PM
Subject: Bingaman: GAO completes Phase 1 study on Hispanic Land Grants

---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ----------------
From: BINGAMAN-RELEASES@bingaman.senate.gov
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 1:16 PM
To: bingaman-releases@lists.nm.org
Subject: Bingaman Press Releases

GAO COMPLETES PHASE I OF COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON HISPANIC LAND GRANTS

Final Report Issued After More Than 200 New Mexicans Weigh In

WASHINGTON - After eliciting public comments from more than 200 New
Mexicans, the General Accounting Office (GAO) has completed work on phase
I of its comprehensive study on land grant claims in New Mexico. Today's
action will allow the GAO -- the investigative arm of Congress -- to move
ahead in this first-ever federal study on the issue.

U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici, and Rep. Tom Udall, asked
the GAO to undertake a study on claims stemming from implementation of
the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo - the pact that ended the
Mexican-American War. GAO issued an "exposure draft" in January that
began to define "community land grant." After hearing from more than 200
New Mexicans, the GAO made changes that were incorporated into the report
released today. For example, it added two additional community land
grants identified by grant heirs.

"I'm pleased New Mexicans have taken such an interest in this report and
that so many have offered input to this first-ever federal study on land
grants. The more New Mexicans are involved with the report, the more
complete the study will be," Bingaman said. "It's very important that
New Mexicans continue to follow this closely as the GAO moves ahead."

"The GAO has gone to great lengths to accommodate the understandably
intense public interest in the land grant issue. Many New Mexicans have
offered information and documentation to aid this challenging effort to
unravel 150 years of history, and it is my hope we can continue down this
path of cooperation as we proceed with the process," Domenici said.

"Today's report is another step forward in getting a clear understanding
of land grants in our state," Udall said. "I'm very pleased that so many
New Mexicans took the time to contribute to the GAO study. I hope that
the comments and documents solicited will allow for a final report in
late 2002 that is comprehensive."

Copies of the document will be available at county offices and public
libraries where there are community land grant claims. It is immediately
available at www.gao.gov. Hard copies will also be available through
congressional offices.

In the report, the GAO identifies three categories of community land
grants:

Grants where the granting documentation indicates a common use of land;
Grants in which the grant heirs themselves and/or scholars believe
included a common use of land; and Grants to Indian pueblos.

The final GAO report will describe the procedures established to
implement the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, identify concerns about how
the treaty was implemented, and what alternatives might be needed to
address these concerns. After having the benefit of the final GAO report,
the lawmakers will determine the best course of action, including
possible legislation.

Contacts: Jude McCartin (Bingaman) 202-224-1804; Sarah Echols (Domenici)
202-224-7098; Glen Loveland 202-225-6190.

===================================================+

Date: Saturday, September 15, 2001 9:41 PM
Subject: AZ Daily Sun: Texas critique of Page dismissed as 'PR'

Texas critique dismissed as 'PR'

Arizona Daily Sun
09/10/2001

League of cities and Towns' legal counsel, David Merkel, isn't the first
to call for change in the relationship between Page Electric Utilities
(PEU) and the council. His viewpoint was the third in a series set in
motion by last winter's PEU Comprehensive Plan, a document that offered
ideas on how Page could bring its finances under control.

The plan was given to City Manager Don Klepper for analysis. Before
Klepper issued his report March 16, an independent investment analyst
called attention to flaws in PEU's autonomy with a report released Jan.
4.

The investment analyst was Linda Patterson, former assistant deputy
treasurer and director of investments for the Texas state treasury, and
former city treasurer for the city of Fort Worth.

Patterson also is the founder and first president of the Texas
Treasurer's Association. She said principals of her firm have a combined
35 years of experience in public funds management.

The Patterson & Associates report made many of the same statements later
issued by Klepper and Merkel, including: PEU can financially obligate the
city by changing purchasing limits and engaging in intergovernmental
agreements normally struck between municipal governments. PEU effectively
controls city assets by holding its reserves in a separate Local
Governmental Pool. City officials or staff members are not on an
authorization list for the pool. PEU can develop its own accounting
system and has inordinate power over its financial reporting.

Mayor Dean Slavens called Patterson & Associates a "PR firm in Texas."
Slavens, mayor since May 31, accused the prior council, headed by Mayor
Bob Bowling, of seeking a one-sided opinion that would agree with
council's agenda of getting control of PEU's reserves and bailing out the
city.

"Then they sent that opinion to the new city manager and to a friend of
Mr. Stoddard's so they could say they think it's right," Slavens said.
"In other words, the Texas PR's opinion is growing like a weed."

Patterson described her company as an SEC-registered institutional
investment advisory firm focusing on public sector money management and
treasury operations.

"The procedural controls affecting public funds are critical to assure
that public monies are safe and that they are managed in an open and
fully disclosed manner," she said Monday. "For this reason we have worked
with many municipalities across the country to review their control
structures and handling of public funds.

As for Slavens' critique, Patterson said, "Obviously everyone sees
situations differently and these differences of opinion, expressed in a
constructive manner and in an open arena, are what make our local
government entities function productively for its citizens."

-- Todd Glasenapp

===================================================+

Date: Saturday, September 15, 2001 9:39 PM
Subject: AZ Daily Sun: High-voltage dispute jolts Page

High-voltage dispute jolts Page

By TODD GLASENAPP
Sun Correspondent
09/10/2001

PAGE -- The Page City Council's practice of allowing its semi-independent
utility to have complete control of its finances is unheard of and
borders on malfeasance in office, according to legal counsel for the
state's League of Cities and Towns.

The council has put itself at legal and financial risk by handing over
legislative and fiduciary responsibilities to the Page Electric Utility,
General Counsel David Merkel said in an informal opinion to city
officials.

The three-paragraph letter was sent May 14 by electronic mail to City
Attorney Charles Stoddard and forwarded to City Manager Don Klepper. But
it was released to the Daily Sun by another source only recently.

Klepper has defended recent moves to bring the utility under the city's
budgeting and purchasing processes. Critics contend that will lead to the
tapping of the utility's reserve funds for general city operations.

Mayor Dean Slavens, who opposes any city tampering with the PEU's
reserves, called the e-mail an "opinion" lacking in independent research.
Slavens said Merkel's opinion is based on ideas "fed" to him by Stoddard.

Slavens voided Stoddard's May contract extension in July, following
release of a legal opinion that said Stoddard had illegally approved his
own contract. Stoddard was returned to work by the entire City Council
six days later.

"The 'opinion' (by Merkel) does not refer to a single law," Slavens said.
"It just draws conclusions. Those conclusions were based on one-sided
documents that were written to help the former council follow through
with its plan to get control of PEU and, most importantly, to get control
over PEU's reserve funds so the city might get out of its financial
crisis."

Slavens said PEU's attorney, Scott Rhodes, earlier provided a 26-page
opinion that showed the city and utility were acting legally. Rhodes'
December 1999 opinion did call attention to areas in need of fixing,
though.

Klepper points, however, to a previous study by an independent Texas
financial advisory firm that paralleled many of Merkel's points. Slavens
has dismissed the Texas report as "PR."

AN INDEPENDENT PEU

PEU was organized in 1985 to take over electrical service from Arizona
Public Service Co. At that time, the council wanted to take politics out
of electrical service, and it gave the PEU its own board to set rates,
hire employees and establish reserves.

Utility officials have cited the organizing act, Ordinance 128, in
fighting off council efforts to bring assets, purchasing and personnel
under forms of city control. PEU's assets, set aside for the future
purchase of peaking power, are estimated at $15 million.

But Merkel said the council has opened itself to liability by allowing a
board without legislative powers, such as PEU, to control those
functions. The practice amounts to the city "abrogating its legislative
and fiduciary responsibilities," he wrote.

"The city may bounce along for years without serious incident, but sooner
or later this whole thing is going to blow up in the council's face,"
Merkel warned.

The relationship between the city council and PEU, a political hot potato
for years, has been just that again this year. Slavens, PEU's first board
chairman and a former PEU salaried consultant, has accused Klepper of
plotting to tap into the utility's reserves.

Maintaining PEU's autonomy was a campaign promise of Slavens' in the
March primary election. It was his second-highest priority, next to
fixing Page's finances. He took office May 31.

Meanwhile, Councilmember Dan Brown said he and another newly seated
councilmember, Wes Berry, are working on a compromise plan that would
give the council "technical oversight" over the utility while staying
true to Ordinance 128. Berry is a retired Arizona Public Service manager.

In the Aug. 22 Lake Powell Chronicle, the PEU board outlined a history of
operation that included $10.5 million in net revenues over a recent
five-year period and $2.7 million in rebates to customers.

"Currently, there is a cry for more oversight of the PEU board by the
city manager and some of Page City Council," the report said. "This
attitude is somewhat bewildering to the PEU board and some of the
citizens in Page when the utility performance is considered."

RESERVES ON TAP?

Slavens and PEU General Manager Kent Romney feel that a July 17
memorandum by Klepper indicates a desire for PEU money. Klepper urged
repeal of the January 2000 Ordinance 384-00, which clarifies PEU's
purchasing ability.

Repeal would "bring control of PEU's purchasing under the control of the
City Council through its agent, the city manager," Klepper wrote. "Any
transaction over $10,000 would get council review, and this would serve
also as an opportunity for the council to ask questions about the impact
of such purchases on the city in general to include any environmental
impact."

Purchases between $5,000 and $10,000 would require review by the city
manager, Klepper added. Klepper has said he does not want PEU's reserves
to be transferred to the city, and only seeks administrative "oversight."

Klepper said recently that centralizing responsibility to the city for
purchasing would improve the integrity of the process.

Ideally, Klepper said, "The people who order materials are never the ones
who check it in on the docks. The people who write purchase orders are
never the ones to write the checks to pay the invoices.

"We have a system here by which purchase orders are generated, first to
finance, then to administration. Finance tells us if we have authority,
then we see programmatically if it makes sense. Then there is a separate
branch of government that pays the bills. There can't be a single action
taking place across all three lines."

Merkel also said the PEU does not engage in competitive bidding, adding,
"The PEU may be getting there (sic) money's worth in procurement, but
without competitive bidding processes in place one never knows."

Slavens said, "If the 'opinion' reached that conclusion, it can only mean
that Mr. Stoddard conveniently forgot to tell the writer that PEU has its
own council-approved purchasing rules which do include competitive
bidding."

Yet Merkel predicted the city council may have to pay for PEU's controls.

"Allowing the PEU Board to exercise almost complete financial control
over the PEU assets with only pro forma approval by the council is
unheard of!" Merkel wrote.

He added, "Until and unless the council has the political will to regain
control, I fear not much will happen in the way of improvements to this
situation. I am frankly surprised that some taxpayer(s) haven't brought
suit to rectify the situation -- or at the very least made a political
issue out of this -- or if they have, the Page electorate is not as smart
as one would hope they would be."

FLOURISH VS. FLOUNDER

Slavens said, "The 'opinion' insults the citizens of Page ... The Page
electorate is a lot smarter than this outsider gives them credit for.
Fifteen years ago the electorate voted to create PEU and keep it
independent from city politics. Since then, PEU has flourished and the
city has floundered. Who says the electorate isn't smart?"

Two years ago, then-Mayor Jim Sippel suggested the city had suffered
financially from a decision not to seek a franchise tax from PEU. The
city had been getting $1 million a year in that manner from Arizona
Public Service.

Sippel's unilateral attempts to bridge the gap between the city and PEU
ended with his surprise resignation, during a February 2000 council
meeting. PEU's board chairman resigned six months earlier.

"It ain't broke, so why fix it?" Slavens asked. "The 'opinion' and every
other 'opinion' that's like it are about the one part of the city that no
one has ever seriously complained about ... The PEU is the city's finest
asset."

Merkel's letter to Stoddard concludes, "I am not sure what more I can add
to what has already been said by all the professionals who have looked at
the situation from a dispassionate standpoint. Good luck!"

===================================================+

Date: Saturday, September 15, 2001 9:42 PM
Subject: AP: Security heightened at western dams

Security heightened at western dams

By John K. Wiley
ASSOCIATED PRESS

September 12, 2001

SPOKANE, Wash. Operators of hydroelectric dams across the West closed
visitor centers and limited access as a precaution after terrorist
attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

The Grand Coulee Dam and powerhouse in central Washington state were
locked down, tours were canceled and the visitor center was closed
Tuesday, said Craig Sprankle, a spokesman with the Bureau of Reclamation.

The bureau also was limiting access to its Hungry Horse project in
Montana, he said.

All of the dams continued to produce electricity.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stepped up security at scores of dams,
including 54 from St. Louis to Seattle in its Northwest Division,
spokesman Paul Johnston said from Omaha, Neb.

"We have gone to a higher level of security. We are closing visitor
centers and limiting access to visitors," said Nola Conway, a spokeswoman
for the Corps' Walla Walla office. The office operates eight dams in the
Pacific Northwest, including four on the Snake River in southeastern
Washington state.

"We don't normally talk about security. We're limiting access to a lot of
projects, canceling tours, closing gates and that sort of thing,"
Johnston said, adding that most of the dams are topped with state
highways.

"Closing off those roads at a considerable distance from a project can
put a real crimp in the normal way of doing business," he said. "It's
something we could do, but we have not done."

However, the Arizona Department of Transportation closed U.S. Highway 93
just south of Hoover Dam until at least 7 a.m Wednesday. The highway
passes over the dam between Arizona and Nevada. Highways crossing the
Colorado River at Davis Dam near Bullhead City, Ariz., and Parker Dam
near Parker, Ariz., also were closed.

Diana Cross, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Reclamation regional office in
Boise, said the agency was taking precautions "in facilities all over the
western U.S. ... All our dams and power plants at heightened security
level right now."

Private utilities also were increasing security at dams they operate.

Avista Utilities, a Spokane-based utility that operates eight dams in
Washington, Idaho and Montana, was limiting access, but spokeswoman Robyn
Dunlap declined to elaborate on what security measures were being taken.

The Department of Energy, citing safety concerns because of the
distracting nature of the attacks, sent all nonessential personnel home
Tuesday at the Hanford nuclear reservation in south-central Washington.
Energy Department spokesman Mike Talbot said there was no known threat to
the site.

Normal operations were set to resume Wednesday at Hanford, although
security will remain heightened, the Energy Department said. Hanford for
four decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons and contains the nation's
largest stockpile of nuclear waste.

The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Phoenix also went on a
heightened state of alert. Spokesman Alan Bunnell said the precautions
were similar to those in effect during the Gulf War.

===================================================+

Date: Saturday, September 15, 2001 9:41 PM
Subject: AP: Navajo Nation farm gets high subsidies

Navajo Nation farm gets high subsidies

Associated Press
Sept. 11, 2001

The 68,000-acre farm the Navajo Nation runs near Farmington, N.M.,
received $3.1 million in farm subsidies last year under the same program
that pays individual farmers, the 10th-largest amount in the nation and
three times the next-highest subsidy in New Mexico.

The federal government has put millions into the water program that
supports the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry farm. The farm, a
$500 million investment, has not turned a profit in more than 25 years of
operation. A highly critical Navajo Nation Council changed the makeup of
the farm's board and fired its manager this year.

Interim general manager Tsosie Lewis believes the changes are turning
around the operation, which is expected eventually to total 110,000 acres.

"The biggest thing is we've been able to pay our bills on time this
year," he said. "Once there's a permanent general manager, I see we'll be
part of the community again. We're trying to build confidence back in our
workforce and as part of the economic engine in San Juan County and the
Navajo Nation."

A February report by a consultant said the farm lost $11.75 million in
1995-99 and would need $25 million to become solvent, leading some tribal
councilors to question why the farm's finances were so dismal, given that
it does not pay property taxes and gets free water.

But the council agreed to back the farm with $10 million that had been
set aside for a potato processing plant that never materialized. Much of
the money paid off short-term debts; the rest helped get in this year's
crops.

The farm falls under the same rules for payments as any other
agricultural operation.

New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau spokesman Erik Ness of Las Cruces
said that although hay farmers are concerned about competition from the
farm, the farm bureau also believes that since subsidies are open to all
agricultural operations, "our feeling is if they filled out the paperwork
and followed the rules like everyone else did, they're just as eligible
as anyone else."

Hay growers are upset about the government subsidizing the farm and about
the farm sending hay into the open market, Ness said.

"We don't think it's fair independent farmers have to compete against
their own government," he said.

===================================================+

Date: Saturday, September 15, 2001 9:41 PM
Subject: AP: Most federal crop subsidies go to corporate farms, non-farmers

Santa Fe New Mexican

Most federal crop subsidies go to corporate farms, non-farmers

By JOHN KELLY/The Associated Press September 10, 2001

Almost two-thirds of the $27 billion in federal farm subsidies doled out
last year went to just 10 percent of America's farm owners, including
multimillion-dollar corporations and government agencies, a review of
Agriculture Department records by The Associated Press shows.
Rules that base subsidy payments on farm acreage, rather than financial
need, mean that money flowed to such people as media mogul Ted Turner and
basketball star Scottie Pippen.

At least 20 Fortune 500 companies and more than 1,200 universities and
government farms, including state prisons, received checks from federal
programs touted by politicians as a way to prop up needy farmers.
Subsidies also went to real-estate developers and absentee landowners in
big cities.

Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and chairman of the Senate Agriculture
Committee, called such examples an "embarrassment, a black eye that can
only undermine public and taxpayer support for the programs."

The American Farm Bureau Federation, the nation's largest farm group,
supports the rules, passed by Congress since 1996. But many individual
farmers and other critics question a system that gives the country's
biggest farmland owners the fattest checks.

"There have to be limits," said Mike Korth, who received about $73,000 in
payments last year to help keep his Nebraska corn farm afloat. "Why are
we giving millions of dollars to millionaires?"

Government aid made up almost half of total farm income nationwide last
year. But recipients don't have to be cash-strapped farmers, or even
farmers at all. The subsidies flow to anyone with a stake in farmland and
the crops that land produces.

The AP analysis of more than 22 million checks sent out by the
Agriculture Department in fiscal year 2000 shows that 63 percent of the
money went to the top 10 percent of recipients, including many that don't
fit the image of the struggling family farmer.

That's how the heirs of John R. Simplot, a retired tycoon worth $4.7
billion by Forbes magazine's last tally, received $167,000 in aid through
the family's Idaho farming empire. A trust in Simplot's name got another
$92,000.

Although J.R. Simplot Co. recorded $2.7 billion in sales last year, not
all the Simplot farms do well, family spokesman Fred Zerza said.

"Each of these farm operations is a separate entity that has to stand on
its own, and farming has been a tough business lately," Zerza said.

In the last three years, with crop prices tumbling to near-record lows,
Congress passed a series of bailouts, sending billions of dollars in
extra aid to rescue farmers from mounting debt, foreclosure and
bankruptcy.

The result? Farm subsidies that politicians predicted would decline under
the so-called Freedom to Farm bill of 1996 instead exploded.

Of the 1.6 million farm-aid recipients last year, the average recipient
got about $16,000. About 57,500 recipients got more than $100,000, and at
least 154 got more than $1 million.

Mary Kay Thatcher, a lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau Federation,
argues against limits, saying big farms take bigger risks, log higher
expenses and produce more.

"It's not like these guys are getting rich from government payments,"
Thatcher said. "They've had to have them in order to survive."

Yet among the recipients are companies and organizations that do not seem
to need taxpayer handouts.

Agriculture Department records show checks sent to at least 20 Fortune
500 companies, including IBP, Chevron ($100,770), Archer Daniels Midland
($17,793) and Caterpillar ($59,184).

"The price-support program is to encourage production of the crops, and
we are just as much a part of that program as anyone else," said
spokesman Ed Spaulding of Chevron, which hires tenants to farm some of
the oil-bearing land it owns and then collects crop payments to maximize
its return on the property.

Scottie Pippen, whose contract pays him about $14 million a year,
received $26,000 for growing hardwood trees on an environmentally
sensitive plot in his native Arkansas. When Pippen bought the land in
1993, it already was enrolled in the conservation program, according to
USDA records.

And Ted Turner, one of the largest private landowners in the United
States, and his companies collected at least $190,000 in subsidies last
year.

Russ Miller, manager of Turner's farm and ranch companies, said more than
half the subsidies his boss got were for conservation programs and added
that Turner has spent millions of his own money on such projects. "We
feel there is a public good from what we are doing on our farmland,"
Miller said.

At least $17 million in crop subsidies went to government agencies of all
stripes - airports, wildlife departments and prisons. Colleges and
universities got another $6.3 million on research crops or farmland
bequeathed by benefactors.

The House Agriculture Committee already has endorsed a package that
funnels more money into the existing system and adds some new subsidies,
but critics say it does not curb payments to megafarms or the rich.

©Santa Fe New Mexican 2001

===================================================+

Date: Saturday, September 15, 2001 9:15 PM
Subject: AP: Lawyer's role in reviving ex-industrial sites disputed

A warrior on the 'brownfield'
Lawyer's role in reviving ex-industrial sites disputed

By Jim Wasserman
ASSOCIATED PRESS

September 10, 2001

SACRAMENTO -- Three years ago, when advocates for the poor decided to
fight thousands of polluted industrial sites that blight California's
black and Latino neighborhoods, they turned to an opinionated attorney
who knows her way around both.

Now, after a long, polarizing battle in the Capitol, they call Jennifer
Hernandez a "warrior."

But political opponents characterize her as a stalking-horse for
developers and a corporate attorney posing as an environmentalist. In
turn, she has described them as white-liberal elites who keep poor
neighborhoods down with purist, unrealistic environmentalism.

Welcome to the jungle.

As California tries to check sprawl that spawns the nation's worst
traffic, developers and politicians want to clean up vacant, contaminated
industrial sites for desperately needed housing. And arguments over the
precise definition of "clean" have cracked open divisions between
minority communities and the more well-heeled environmental movement.

Few participants have sparked more intensity or attracted more heat than
Hernandez.

In a state that national authorities consider backward for slowness to
act on "brownfields," Hernandez has become a sort of Latina Johnny
Appleseed for developing them.

The daughter and granddaughter of East Bay steelworkers, a Harvard
graduate who grew up amid the gritty smell of Pittsburg, Hernandez helps
cities and builders plan big developments on former factory and refinery
sites.

Now the San Francisco-based corporate attorney, supported by Latino
legislators in the Capitol, is trying to do the same for poor
neighborhoods blighted by old gas stations and dry-cleaner sites.

It has put Hernandez, 42, in the bull's-eye of a uniquely California
phenomenon: a struggle over inner-city environmentalism beyond the
traditional arenas of mountain meadows and ocean coastlines.

Hernandez, a Clinton campaign donor who lives in Berkeley and sits on the
board of the California League of Conservation Voters, has locked horns
with other
environmentalists over the soul of their 30-year-old movement.

"She's been a real champion for us, and she's taken a beating," says John
Gamboa, director of the San Francisco-based Greenlining Institute. The
institute, which seeks bank investments in poor neighborhoods, partnered
with Hernandez and state Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Commerce, for a bill to
remove toxic obstacles to loans and housing projects.

The legislation, written and shepherded by Hernandez on her own time and
considered a "signature issue of the Latino Caucus," passed the Senate in
June and awaits an Assembly vote in days ahead. If passed, the bill would
go to Gov. Gray Davis for approval or veto.

Environmental groups support the much-compromised bill, which let cities
force landowners to clean up small vacant sites. It also sets eventual
one-size-fits-all cleanup standards. But agreement comes after three
years of fighting the concept in general, and Hernandez in particular.

In short, environmentalists charge her with trying to weaken cleanup
standards for developers under a populist guise of helping poor,
inner-city neighborhoods.

"To me, what's disturbing is that someone is carrying legislation that
she claims is aimed to help community groups," says Bill Magavern, a
Sacramento-based legislative analyst for the Sierra Club. "But the person
who's written it makes a living representing large developers who stand
to profit from weakening public health standards."

Hernandez, who counts among her clients East Bay cities and real estate
giant Catellus Development Corp., calls that the typical rhetoric of a
grown-up establishment power that guards the status quo.

"Environmental solutions that facilitate development are seen as
developer-friendly," she says, "and the 'Scarlet D' is anathema to at
least one generation of environmental leaders."

Hernandez is a partner with Beveridge & Diamond, a Washington, D.C.-based
law firm established in 1973 by the first director of the Environmental
Protection
Agency, William Ruckelshaus. Though Ruckelshaus is gone, the
environmental law and real estate firm largely represents corporate
interests that prefer free-market approaches to the government
regulations and mandates preferred by environmental groups.

As a self-admitted "expensive attorney," Hernandez specializes in often
mind-numbing technical detail that accompanies brownfield cleanups and
development.

"Her name always comes up in California as one of the leading attorneys
on brownfields," says Robert Colangelo, head of the Chicago-based
National Brownfields Association.

Yet environmental groups question Hernandez's green credentials,
especially for representing the California Radioactive Materials
Management Forum.

The forum is a collection of universities, hospitals and utilities that
generate low-level nuclear waste. Hernandez and environmentalists clashed
during the forum's unsuccessful attempts to build a desert waste facility
in San Bernardino County.

Dan Hirsch, president of the Los Angeles-based Committee to Bridge the
Gap, says, "Her reputation is as an advocate for polluting interests who
attempts
from time to time to masquerade as someone with environmental
credentials."

Of her nuclear waste work, Hernandez says, "Yes, I represent university
and hospital clients trying to deal responsibly with it."

In conversation, Hernandez laments how shortcomings in American science
education have created "nothing close to a scientifically literate
decision-making class." She says judges and politicians generally feel
safer backing unrealistically strict environmental standards -- or doing
nothing.

Which brings her back to the black and Latino neighborhoods.

If nothing happens to thousands of vacant, contaminated properties that
keep them undesirable, she says, the environmental fallout will be
magnified far beyond a Capitol debate over "how clean is clean?"

"These properties, now commonly called brownfields," Hernandez wrote
recently, "are one of several forces driving growth and development into
previously undeveloped areas, leaving behind a scarred community and
creating this year's commute nightmare on last year's open space."

Copyright 2001 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

===================================================+

Date: Saturday, September 15, 2001 9:42 PM
Subject: Antelope Point public meeting information

____________________________________

ANTELOPE POINT MARINA DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (EA)
PUBLIC WORKSHOP ANNOUNCED FOR ANTELOPE POINT RESORT & MARINA
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

The Navajo Nation and the National Park Service (NPS) today announced an
upcoming public scoping workshop on the Antelope Point Resort and Marina
Environmental Assessment within the Navajo Nation and Glen Canyon
National Recreation Area. The workshop will be held on September 14,
2001, from 6 pm-8 pm in Page, Arizona, at the Courtyard by Marriott, 600
Clubhouse Drive. The public is encouraged to attend at any time during
the two-hour period. The workshop format will include informal
interaction, exhibits, and opportunities to make written and verbal
comments. No presentations are scheduled.

The Navajo Nation and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area share a
lengthy boundary along the south shore of Lake Powell, the San Juan
River, and the Colorado River segment between Glen Canyon Dam and Lees
Ferry. To foster cooperative management and development of Glen Canyon
and adjacent tribal lands, the Navajo Nation, the National Park Service,
Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Secretary of the
Department of the Interior signed a Memorandum of Agreement in 1970
outlining mutual responsibilities in developing and managing the common
areas. This agreement recognized the Nation's desire to commercially
develop areas contiguous to Lake Powell for recreational use and provided
for cooperative planning, administration, and development of such
recreation sites.

In 1985, decisions by the Navajo Tribal Council to proceed with planning
for a recreational development at Antelope Point led to the preparation
of the Antelope Point Development Concept Plan/Environmental Assessment
(DCP/EA) in 1986. This document assessed the feasibility of the
development concept and alternatives and the effects of these management
actions.

The Navajo Nation will be preparing an additional environmental
assessment (EA) in cooperation with the National Park Service to address
specific effects of the currently proposed development and the future
operation of the marina site. The goal of the environmental assessment is
to evaluate the environmental and social issues and impacts attendant on
implementing the proposal submitted by GMF Antelope, LLC. and evaluate
alternatives to the proposal that minimize these potential effects.

For more information, contact Char Obergh with the National Park Service
at 928-608-6208, or visit our web page at
http://www.nps.gov/glca/antptpl.htm, or Thomas Boyd with the Navajo
Nation at 928-871-7392.

Comments may be sent to GLCA_AntelopePoint@nps.gov or write to: U.S.
Department of Interior, National Park Service, Glen Canyon National
Recreation Area, P.O. Box 1507, Page, Arizona 86040, Attn: Suzy Schulman,
Environmental Specialist.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

On February 21, 2001, the National Park Service and the Navajo Nation
received one proposal for the development and operation of the Antelope
Point Resort and Marina Development in response to the Phase II
Prospectus (solicitation/bid package) issued in October 2000.

This project is the first commercial recreational venture of the Navajo
Nation on Lake Powell. The preferred alternative provides for the
construction of a marina complex that includes:
* 250 - 300 commercial rental slips (mooring)
* six administrative slips for the agencies
* 10 slips for other authorized commercial operators
* boat rentals (60-100 houseboats and 60-70 small boats)
* tourboats (up to 2/capacity >149)
* fuel dock and pumpout facilities
* marina store, restrooms, launch ramp
* marina-related services

Other facilities (land-based) include:

* parking facilities
* dry storage, repair and maintenance facilities
* campground complex w/ showers and dump stations
* lodging complex with restaurant and cocktail lounge
* cultural center complex

The proposal submitted by GMF Antelope, LLC (GMF) of Paradise Valley, AZ
has been reviewed by the Navajo Nation and the National Park Service, and
it has been determined to meet the minimum requirements outlined in the
solicitation package. The Director of the National Park Service and the
Executive Director for Economic Development for the Navajo Nation have
selected this proposal and will begin working with GMF to finalize the
details of the proposal and contractual requirements.

The Concession Contract and Business Site Lease will be executed upon
finalization of the terms and conditions and upon completion of a
site-specific environmental assessment. This effort will take
approximately five months to complete. The National Park Service hopes to
execute the Concession Contract by December 31, 2001. Construction on the
project would begin in 2002.

If you would like to be put on the mailing list to receive information
about the environmental assessment or would like to submit comments,
please send your correspondence to GLCA_AntelopePoint@nps.gov or write
to: Superintendent, Glen Canyon NRA, P.O. Box 1507, Page, AZ 86040.

The park makes comments, including names and home addresses of
respondents available for public review during regular business hours.
Individual respondents may request that we withhold their home address
from the record, which the park will honor to the extent allowable by
law. If you wish us to withhold your name and/or address, you must state
this prominently at the beginning of your comment. However, we will not
consider anonymous comments. Submissions from organizations, or
businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as
representatives or officials of organizations or businesses, are made
available for public inspection in their entirety.

===================================================+

Date: Saturday, September 15, 2001 9:42 PM
Subject: Alcohol laws get tougher at Lake Powell

.08 enforced on the lake
Sep 12 2001
By Seth Muller
Lake Powell Chronicle

Lake Powell, once divided by a different legal drinking limit in Arizona
and Utah, now has a uniform .08 blood alcohol content as Arizona lowered
its limit from .10.

The new Arizona driving under the influence law took effect Sept. 1, and
lake patrol deputies Eric and Brett Axlund with the Coconino County
Sheriff's Department are strictly enforcing the law on the waters.

The deputies find boating and recreational drinking are often mixed.

"We've had a lot of borderline .08s on the lake" in the past, Brett
Axlund said. "Probably more than we see on the roads."

During an operating under the influence checkpoint on Aug. 4, the
sheriff's department made four OUI arrests, but one person registered a
.09 on a breath test and officers did not arrest him. Lt. Ron Anderson
said it is possible that person could have caused a boating accident.

"I agree with the .08 rule fully. Impairment starts at .06 and .07,"
Anderson said. "In boats, (drinking) is even more dangerous because you
have no lanes of traffic, no brakes and no seat belts or air bags. I
believe boating requires more concentration and you always have to be
thinking ahead."

The Utah portion of Lake Powell has for several years fallen under the
.08 blood alcohol limit, but .10 served as the limit in the 20 square
miles of the lake in Arizona until the recent change.

Some boaters on the lake said they are glad to see the legal limit
lowered.

"I think its a really good idea," said Jennifer Doyle, a recreational
boater from Phoenix. "The heat when you're on a boat combined with the
drinking can make it worse."

Ted Fujii, visiting from Los Angeles, said he's a non-drinker, and
believes anyone operating a boat should not drink as well.

"It's just really dangerous," Fujii said.

Mike Silverman of Scottsdale believes a .08 legal limit is somewhat
strict, but he understands the safety issue.

"What's the real difference between .10 and .08?" Silverman said. "I
think people just have to learn to be responsible."

Anderson estimates about 90 percent of the boating accidents on Lake
Powell are related to alcohol and drugs. He hopes the lowering of the
legal limit will give deputies a chance to get some unsafe boaters off
the lake.

The Axlunds did not make any OUI arrests on the lake the first weekend
the law took affect - Labor Day weekend, but a handful of underage
drinking charges were filed.

Alberto Gutier, Director of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, said
the new law passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jane Dee Hull
April 1, is about more than just a new limit.

"This reduction in the threshold for BAC limit is about impairment which
is affected by a variety of factors that must be considered by someone
consuming alcohol," Gutier said.

Those factors include the amount of alcohol a person consumes, gender,
the number of hours spent drinking, whether the person drinks on an empty
stomach, and the person's body weight.

The deputies have patrolled Lake Powell enforcing OUI and other laws
since April 1987. Coconino County is second in the state for boat traffic
with slightly more than a million boaters per year, most recreating at
Lake Powell. Mohave County has the most boat traffic in the state.

The sheriff's department works with other agencies to patrol the lake.
National Park Service, Arizona Game and Fish and Utah Game and Fish
officers also monitor the lake.

©Lake Powell Chronicle 2001