INDIANA DAILY STUDENT
PAGE 8
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2006
Lawmakers push back bill requiring passports at borders By Lara Jakes Jordan The Associated Press
WASHINGTON – A plan to tighten U.S. borders by requiring passports or tamper-resistant identification cards from everyone entering the country by land from Mexico and Canada has been delayed. House and Senate lawmakers agreed to push back the program by 17 months, saying they want to make sure new ID cards being developed by the Bush administration will better secure borders against terrorists without slowing legitimate travelers from Canada and Mexico. The new ID’s will be required for Americans and all others entering the U.S. The delay would only apply to travelers entering the U.S. over land borders from Canada and Mexico. It would not affect travel rules for people coming into the country by airplane or boat, who will have to show their passports to customs officials as of Jan. 8, 2007, to gain entry. The border crackdown was wrapped up in an overall $34.8 billion spending plan for the Homeland Security Department. The House and Senate each aim to approve it later this week, before lawmakers recess for the elections. The spending bill reflects “a dramatic step forward toward making sure that our borders are secure,” Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who helped negotiate the measure, said Tuesday. Gregg added: “We still have a
MIKE MEADOWS • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A forest firefighter turns away to protect himself from the intense heat as the fire, jumps Lockwood Valley road in Ventura, Calif. Tuesday. Despite the renewed intensity, no homes had been lost to the fire, which began on Labor Day and has burned more than 143,100 acres in wilderness about 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Firefighters battle flare-up in Southern California blaze By Jeremiah Marquez The Associated Press
LOCKWOOD VALLEY, Calif. – Fire trucks, bulldozers and water tankers guarded homes within sight of a massive wildfire Tuesday as officials urged rural residents of Southern California mountain communities to evacuate. Thick smoke turned the sky gray and purplish as flames roiled through pines and juniper trees on slopes of Los Padres National Forest, where more than 3,500 firefighters have battled the blaze since it started on Labor Day. No homes had been lost to the fire, one of the largest and longest-burning wildfires in state history, burning some 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Overall, containment was
SMOKING: Students want to clear the air CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 was the research of Stephen Jay of the IU School of Medicine. Jay’s research concluded that secondhand smoke is the third leading preventable cause of death and disease in the United States. “People should be able to walk into Ballantine Hall without having to go through a gauntlet of smoke,” Morgan said. Smokers outside of Ballantine Hall were unenthusiastic about the proposed ban Tues-
just 43 percent. Authorities recommended evacuation of Lockwood Valley, Pinon Pines, Pine Mountain Club and Lake of the Woods – remote Ventura County communities arrayed along roads west of Interstate 5. Wind-whipped flames jumped a road during the day, said U.S. Forest Service fire spokesman Larry Comerford. “It sounded like a jet engine,” Forest Service firefighter Greg Valencia said of a towering wall of flame he saw blow past a home, leaving it unscathed. Water- and retardant-dropping helicopters and aircraft attacked the flames from the sky. On the ground, crews staged equipment at the widely spaced homes for structure protection. At almost every house there
was at least one engine and a few firefighters clearing brush, hosing down roofs and decks. A bulldozer plowed a firebreak around one home. Bits of ash fell from the sky. The new fire activity was a surprise setback for firefighters. The blaze that had been moving relatively slowly with the dying of weekend Santa Ana winds that had the potential to greatly spread flames but did not. The blaze, which has burned more than 143,100 acres – 223 square miles – of wilderness, was ignited by someone burning debris. Firefighting costs have topped $41 million. Gov.Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency for Ventura County. The move clears the way for government assistance with costs related to the fire.
day afternoon. “It’s different smoking indoors; I can understand the ban on that,” sophomore Eric Aiken said, preparing to light a Camel Light. “Indoors you’re circulating the same air over and over again, but outdoors you should be able to have free roam. There’s a plentiful supply of oxygen. I think (the ban) is silly.” Junior Jon Wargo shared much of that sentiment as he smoked outside Ballantine. “Since Kilroy’s banned smoking outside there’s not a place for a smoker to go rest anymore,” he said. “I think
we should have the freedom to have a cigarette outside. As long as there’s a place to put it out, I don’t see the problem.” Morgan said since IUPUI has already shown that such a smoking policy is viable on a large campus, he hopes the Bloomington campus will adopt a smoking ban within the next six months. IU Director of Media Relations Larry MacIntyre said he was not aware of any discussion about the issue at the administrative level yet, and such a plan might have to be approved by the board of trustees.
long way to go. Nobody is going to argue about that.” The massive spending bill also includes plans to: –Spend $1.2 billion on border fencing, vehicle barriers and technology to prevent illegal immigrants and criminals from sneaking into the country. –Overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency to give its director a direct line to the president during catastrophes, and remerge disaster preparedness planning with response missions. –Give the Homeland Security Department authority to shut down chemical plants that fail to meet security standards. –Buy nuclear detectors to scan shipping cargo, and hire more Coast Guard inspectors and customs agents at seaports. –Allow Americans to legally import a 90-day supply of prescription medications from Canada by carrying them back across the border, while retaining bans on importing drugs by mail or the Internet. Lawmakers who represent states on the Canadian border have long opposed the tamperproof ID program that was urged by the 9/11 Commission. They fear the plans will slow cross-border commerce with Canada – the largest trading partner of the U.S. – and scare away tourists. Currently, border crossers need only a picture ID card, like a driver’s license, and a birth certificate to get into the United States. Neither document would be accepted
under the proposed rules because they can be easily forged. Instead, the administration is seeking to require border crossers to show passports or a cheaper alternative, dubbed a “PASS” card, that is still being designed. But technology to read the cards, as well as security standards to make sure they work, is not ready. The congressional agreement worked out Monday night would delay the program until June 2009. “This has been shaping up as a train wreck in slow motion,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Tuesday. “Poor planning and premature implementation of this system could clog our borders while making us even less secure.” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told Congress Tuesday he would consider permitting travelers to use alternative forms of ID, such as driver’s licenses, if they are improved to prevent tampering or other forgeries. “Our interest here is in an efficient and inexpensive, but nevertheless reliable, form of identification that achieves the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission,” Chertoff told the House Homeland Security Committee. Democrats said the spending plan doesn’t go far enough and called for more money for emergency responders and ports, as well as stronger protections at chemical plants. “We need to do all that we can to protect this country, and I don’t think this bill does that,” said Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark.
Nature article says U.S. government blocked report on global warming By Randolph E. Schmid The Associated Press
WASHINGTON – A government agency blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration disputed the Nature article, saying there was not a report but a two-page fact sheet about the topic. The information was to be included in a press kit to be distributed in May as the annual hurricane season approached, but it wasn’t ready. “The document wasn’t done in time for the rollout,” NOAA spokesman Jordan St. John said in responding to the Nature article. “The White House never saw it, so they didn’t block it.” The possibility that warming conditions may cause storms to become stronger has gener-
ated debate among climate and weather experts, particularly in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. In the new case, Nature said weather experts at the NOAA – part of the Department of Commerce – in February set up a sevenmember panel to prepare a consensus report on the views of agency scientists about global warming and hurricanes. According to Nature, a draft of the statement said that warming may be having an effect. In May, when the report was expected to be released, panel chair Ants Leetmaa received an e-mail from a Commerce official saying the report needed to be made less technical and was not to be released, Nature reported. Leetmaa, head of NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in New Jersey, did not immediately respond to calls
seeking comment. NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher is currently out of the country, but Nature quoted him as saying the report was merely an internal document and could not be released because the agency could not take an official position on the issue. However, the journal said in its online report that the study was merely a discussion of the current state of hurricane science and did not contain any policy or position statements. The report drew a prompt response from Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., who charged that “the administration has effectively declared war on science and truth to advance its anti-environment agenda ... the Bush administration continues to censor scientists who have documented the current impacts of global warming.”
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