Water Watch

The USGS (United States Geological Survey), well known for their earthquake tracking has now instituted a map that tracks flood and high flow conditions.

"Other information available from this web site for each streamgage include current flood levels, historical peaks and NWS flood forecast information. Monthly flood reports are also available that include maximum flows and compares the data to previous years that observations were made at each station.

"For more than 125 years, the USGS has monitored flow in selected streams and rivers across the U.S. The USGS collects data from more than 7,400 streamgages, many of which provide real-time data in 15-minute increments. The information is routinely used for water supply and management, monitoring floods and droughts, bridge and road design, determination of flood risk, and for many recreational activities."

The agency's wildfire map can also be viewed at GeoMacWildfire Information. By the way, a daily fact we learned from the earthquake tracking site is that Florida and North Dakota have the fewest number of earthquakes in the United States.

New Rules and Fees on Travel

The Department of State instituted a new fee schedule for passport services. Applicants will have the option of pre-ordering a new Passport Card, a low cost, limited use (land and sea only) alternative to the Passport Book designed for those living along the border. In addition, the age for which both parents must appear and sign a passport application on behalf of a child increased from 14 to 16 years old.

Fees are being adjusted to cover the cost of providing efficient and secure passport services including infrastructure, technology and staff. The Passport Execution fee collected by passport acceptance centers and US consular sections abroad is being reduced from $30 to $25.

Go to the State Department site to find additional new fees.

To protect children from abduction, and to address concerns regarding runaway children both parents will be required to personally appear at a passport acceptance facility, passport agency or US consular section abroad with minor applicants under the age of 16 (up from age 14) and sign the application. Application forms and updated information on applying for a Passport and Passport Card are available at http://travel.state.gov/passport.

LAND AND SEA TRAVEL
The following summarizes information available on the Department of Homeland Security’s website.

• JANUARY 31, 2008
  US and Canadian citizens will need to present either a WHTI-compliant document, or a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license, plus proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate. DHS also proposes to begin alternative procedures for US and Canadian children at that time.
  
• LATER
  At a later date, to be determined, the departments will implement the full requirements of the land and sea phase of WHTI. The proposed rules require most US citizens entering the United States at sea or land ports of entry to have either a US passport; a US passport card; a trusted traveler card such as NEXUS, FAST, or SENTRI; a valid Merchant Mariner Document (MMD) when traveling in conjunction with official maritime business; or a valid US Military identification card when traveling on official orders.
  

Note: The passport requirement does NOT apply to US citizens traveling to or returning directly from a US territory.

US PASSPORT AND OTHER TRAVEL DOCUMENTS

• US Passport: US citizens may present a valid US passport when traveling via air, land or sea between the US and the aforementioned Western Hemisphere countries.
• The Passport Card: US citizens may begin applying in advance for this new, limited-use, wallet-size passport card beginning February 1, 2008. We expect cards will be available and mailed to applicants in spring 2008. When available it will only be valid for land and sea travel between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean region, and Bermuda.
• Other Accepted Travel Documents: SENTRI, NEXUS, FAST and the US Coast Guard Mariner Document.  Members of the US Armed Forces on active duty traveling on orders are exempt from the passport requirement. DHS has more information on these travel documents.  This information may be seen at www.dhs.gov.

Go to the Department of State and the US Customs site for more information.

New State Laws and 2008

Stateline again has produced an article of note, New Year ushers in new laws:

"As partygoers count down the seconds toward New Year’s Day, not everyone will be celebrating; in fact, life is about to get tougher for Arizona’s illegal immigrants and the people that hire them. That’s because if businesses are found to knowingly hire undocumented workers, they could lose their licenses – amounting to a death penalty for the business.

"Arizona’s law is one of the most controversial of hundreds of new laws that take effect on Jan. 1. At least 31 states will enforce new laws starting then, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. So as you ring in the New Year, expect some facet of life to change, ranging from where you can smoke in Illinois to how much it costs to enter a strip club in Texas.

"Arizona’s law is considered the nation’s harshest on illegal immigration. Employers there must now check the federal E-Verify database that tracks whether people living in the country are authorized to work. Businesses that violate the law one time could have their licenses suspended for 10 days; a second violation means their license is revoked, essentially putting them out of business.

"Another new law takes effect just after the clock strikes midnight – literally. About 20 gay couples who have already registered will gather on the steps of the New Hampshire State House in Concord to enter civil unions, including state Rep. Gail Morrison (D) and her partner. The ceremony will take place “as soon as the New Year bells have completed ringing,” Morrison said. “It’s because of the change in the law that we will be gathering there.”

"The law makes New Hampshire the fourth state to offer same-sex couples the same state-level rights provided by traditional marriage. The civil union license forms are similar to marriage license forms, except that terms like “bride” and “groom” are absent.

"On the other coast, Oregon will become the fifth state to offer domestic partnerships to same-sex couples, giving them the same inheritance, hospital visitation and other legal rights afforded married couples.

"Massachusetts set a precedent in July with a first-in-the-nation law that requires every uninsured resident who can afford health care to buy it. Now the state will follow up: Every able resident who still hasn’t gotten health insurance by Jan. will not only lose a state income tax exemption, but get slapped with monthly fines.

Read the rest of the article at Stateline.org

Greetings from Your Governor

From the Pew Trust site, Stateline.org, and written by Eric Kelderman

This year's seasonal greetings from the nation's state governors feature a cowboy poem, original artwork, lots of family photos, several pets and even a few mentions of a Merry Christmas.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter (R), spending his first Christmas in the governor's mansion, chose the poem A Cowboy's Christmas Prayer by Squire Omar Barker for the text of his holiday card. "I ain't much good at prayin' — Lord, and you may not know me. For I ain't much seen in Churches, where they preach Thy Holy Word," writes Barker, a former New Mexico English teacher and state legislator known by the moniker "Lazy S.O.B."

Tennessee's Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) continued his tradition of painting the cover art for his card, this year depicting a single, red, snow-covered leaf inspired by a scene he saw while running in a nearby park, according to his spokeswoman.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) of California has painted the cover art for previous holiday cards, but this year chose the work of Golden State artist Hiro Yamagata.

Govs. Kathleen Sebelius (D) of Kansas and M. Jodi Rell (R) of Connecticut also adorned cards with the paintings of artists from their respective home states.

More common this year were holiday cards crammed with photos of family members. Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) loads the cover of his card with a portrait of 10 people, including his wife Dawn, their three children, two in-laws and three grandchildren.

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) has a photo of 13 people inside his card, including Manchin and his wife Gayle, their three children, two in-laws and six grandchildren.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) beats that with five photos showing a total 17 people: A portrait of Perdue and wife Mary and separate pictures of each of his four children their spouses and seven grandchildren.

Gov. Ed Rendell (D) of Pennsylvania includes not only the First Lady, their son and his fiancée, but also the younger couples' two dogs — another popular feature in governors' greetings.

Read the rest of the article at the Pew site.

 

White House Announces (Secret) Nuclear Weapons Cuts

The following is selected from an article posted by the Federation of American Scientists, written by Hans M. Kristensen:

Estimates of the Secret Cuts

Before the latest announcements, I and my colleague Robert Norris estimated that the stockpile consisted of approximately 9,900 warheads of which roughly 4,600 were operational. With the new announcements, we predict the following development:

The White House announcement reaffirms the 2004 decision to reduce the size of the Defense Department's nuclear weapons stockpile "by nearly 50 percent from the 2001 level." This objective was reaffirmed by the national Nuclear Security Administration in a press release earlier today. The DOD stockpile included roughly 10,500 warheads in 2001, which means that the 2004 stockpile plan probably envisioned a stockpile of some 5,400 warheads by 2012. It is this cut that the White House reaffirmed today, but implemented by the end of 2007 instead of 2012.

The additional 15 percent reduction announced today and confirmed by the White House would cut approximately 800 warheads more from the 5,400, resulting in an estimated stockpile of roughly 4,600 warheads by 2012.

* * *

So for now, most of the "cut" warheads will likely remain at the bases where they are and only gradually be moved to the central warhead storage locations such as Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. The only known timeline for this move is 2012, by which time no more than 2,200 strategic warheads can remain at bases for operational delivery platforms according to the SORT agreement.

* * *

The While House statement highlights that "the US nuclear stockpile will be less than one-quarter its size at the end of the Cold War" [1991, ed.]. But the stockpile the administration plans for 2012 is large by post-Cold War standards:

* Four times the combined number of nuclear weapons of all the world’s nuclear weapons states, excluding Russia.
* Almost half of the stockpile – a maximum of 2,200 warheads – will be operational, and a third of those (more than 850) will be on alert.
* More than 10 times bigger than in 1950, when the United States decided to contain the Soviet Union.

Read the entire article at the Strategic Security Blog, FAS site

 

The GAO's Comptroller General's Speech

A Call for Stewardship

"For the 11th year in a row, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) was prevented from expressing an opinion on the consolidated financial statements of the US government — other than the Statement of Social Insurance — because of serious material weaknesses affecting financial systems, fundamental recordkeeping, and financial reporting."

Despite improvements in financial management since the US government began preparing consolidated financial statements more than a decade ago, three major impediments prevent the US government from obtaining a clean opinion:  (1) serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense, (2) the federal government's inability to adequately account for and reconcile intragovernmental activity and balances between federal agencies, and (3) the federal government's ineffective process for preparing the consolidated financial statements.

"Until the problems outlined in our audit report are adequately addressed, they will continue to have adverse implications for the federal government and American taxpayers," Walker said in a letter to the President and Congress.

"The federal government's fiscal exposures totaled approximately $53 trillion as of September 30, 2007, up more than $2 trillion from September 30, 2006, and an increase of more than $32 trillion from about $20 trillion as of September 30, 2000," Walker said. "This translates into a current burden of about $175,000 per American or approximately $455,000 per American household."

Read the rest of the speech by the Comptroller General before the National Press Club, A Call for Stewardship

CIA's Electronic Reading Room

The Electronic Reading Room:

"The CIA has established this site to provide the public with an overview of access to CIA information, including electronic access to previously released documents. Because of CIA's need to comply with the national security laws of the United States, some documents or parts of documents cannot be released to the public. In particular, the CIA, like other U.S. intelligence agencies, has the responsibility to protect intelligence sources and methods from disclosure. However, a substantial amount of CIA information has been and/or can be released following review. See "Your Rights" for further details on the various methods of obtaining this information."

 

How They Spend Our Money

OMB Watch has created a new website, FedSpending.org. Here's how it sees its role:

This website, created by OMB Watch, is a free, searchable database of federal government spending. To begin searching, select either the Grants or Contracts tab at the top left side of this page. You can easily switch back and forth as you search.

The data below on total federal spending was taken directly from the FedSpending.org database. With over $12 trillion in federal spending, this more open and accessible tool for citizens to find out where federal money goes and who gets it is long overdue. We believe this website is a good first step toward providing that access.

FedSpending.org relies on the federal government's data for this website. The data is largely from two sources: the Federal Procurement Data System, which contains information about federal contracts; and the Federal Assistance Award Data System, which contains information about federal financial assistance such as grants, loans, insurance, and direct subsidies like Social Security.

The data are often missing parts or sections and at times are significantly limited in its usefulness. This is solely because of the way the government collects and manages the information. OMB Watch is not responsible for the quality of the data and hopes the use of this website will prompt the government to improve the quality of the information it collects and provides to the public.

OMB Watch obtained the Federal Assistance Awards Data System data from the U.S. Census Bureau. It obtained the Federal Procurement Data System data from Eagle Eye Publishers, Inc. because the government's FPDS-NG site did not contain complete data for FY 2005, and what data it had raised serious quality concerns. Eagle Eye Publishers, Inc. went directly to the Department of Defense to obtain data missing from FPDS-NG and also cleaned up many fields in the database.

This website would not be possible without the support of the Sunlight Foundation, which made a three-year $334, 272 grant to fund FedSpending.org, $194, 687 of which will be spent in the first year. The Sunlight Foundation supports using new information technologies to enable citizens to learn more about what Congress and their elected representatives are doing, and thus ensure greater transparency and accountability by government, help reduce corruption, and foster public trust in the vital institutions of democracy.

OMB Watch started development of this website after years of frustration over not being able to obtain information about federal contracts and grants. We believe the public has a right to know how government spends money so that citizens can hold elected officials accountable for the national priorities they set.

Applying for an Absentee Ballot

If you're interested in applying for an absentee ballot, either for a particular election or as a permanent absentee voter, there's a site that will link to your state's instructions for applying. There are forms to download as well as relevant dates for deadlines to apply:

The links will take you to the official sites of the Secretaries of State and/or Directors of Elections in the 55 states and territories. If these offices do not have an official Web site, you will be taken to the official Web site for that state.