News Digest for September 7, 2007

All the links in today’s news digest lead to current stories. Please note that some media organizations update their web sites regularly, which may result in broken links in the future.

WORD OF THE DAY

Plenitude • \PLEN-uh-tood\ • noun – 1: the quality or state of being full: completeness *2: a great sufficiency: abundance

Gabriel was ecstatic over about her first crop of corpse flowers. The plenitude of her garden’s bounty of titan arum was evident to her neighbors at the first blooming. The Glade Air Freshener salesman made a “killing” that week.

WEATHER
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/total_forecast/index.php?minlon=-124.8&maxlon=-120.57&minlat=46.2&maxlat=49.33&mapwidth=354&map.x=144&map.y=269

La Nina developing in Pacific Ocean (KING-TV, Seattle)
http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_090607WAB_la_nina_SW.a97b15f8.html

ENERGY & UTILITY ISSUES

California Heat Wave Ends With a Death Toll Near 25 – A week of excessively high temperatures has ended in Southern California after causing more than 20 deaths and sporadic power failures. (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/us/07heat.html?ex=1346817600&en=d01e5b239887b02f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Former Enron Chief Appeals Conviction – Former Enron chief executive Jeffrey K. Skilling today appealed criminal convictions that sent him to prison for more than 24 years, seeking a new trial and citing "profound, inherent weaknesses in the government's case." (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090700959.html?nav=rss_business

Avista sees a change in the wind: Long-term power plan anticipates 'gassy, windy' future, shift from coal (Spokesman Review via Electric Light & Power)
http://uaelp.pennnet.com/news/display_news_story.cfm?Section=WireNews&Category=HOME&NewsID=151604

Montana – FERC grants company another 3-year permit to study Gibson site. A Bellingham, Wash., company has received another three-year permit to study the hydroelectric potential of Gibson Dam on the Sun River west of Augusta (Choteau Acantha)
http://www.choteauacantha.com/articles/2007/09/06/news/news3.txt

FERC approves TXU sale – TXU Corp.'s pending buyout has been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. (Dallas Business Journal)
http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2007/09/03/daily24.html?ana=from_rss

Coal-fired power plant to offset CO2 emissions – Seven regional utilities that propose building a $1.6 billion coal-fired power plant on the South Dakota border have agreed to offset the CO2 emissions of the plant's Minnesota customers, according to a local report. (Power Engineering)
http://pepei.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=ONART&PUBLICATION_ID=6&ARTICLE_ID=304924&C=ENVIR

Canada – Report buttresses argument against power lines, EMF emissions would be 149 times level recommended. A scientific report released late last week joins others in raising serious public-health concerns over long-term exposure to electromagnetic fields from high-voltage power lines. (The Province)
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=392a56cf-50c6-4c07-9745-630b9dbb7066

Remembering Nat Washington, by Joel Connelly, Seattle Post-Intelligencer – Strange Bedfellows. A tree-flanked oasis of shade, the residence around the corner from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Ephrata housed the single most interesting source for Washington history ever encountered by this reporter.
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/seattlepolitics/archives/121345.asp?from=blog_last3

WATER, FISH & THE ENVIRONMENT

Feds reel out third salmon plan – Northwest - U.S. officials hope their latest proposal to protect fish, yet keep dams, pleases a skeptical judge (The Oregonian)
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1189135513132230.xml&coll=7

Federal Executives Comment on New Approach for Salmon Recovery – NOAA Fisheries to review the proposed action to develop a biological opinion for listed fish. (Via PRWeb)
http://www.prweb.com/releases/salmon/recovery/prweb551900.htm

MP3 Audio for local media can be found here:
http://www.salmonrecovery.gov/biological_opinions/fcrps/ba-ca/index.cfm
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1189135513132230.xml&coll=7

News Release NW River Partners – Science-Based Plan Step in Right Direction. Today the Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation released to the public a draft plan to aid the recovery of Pacific salmon and steelhead stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act. (Links to PDF File)
http://nwriverpartners.org/documents/NWRPresponsetoFedAgenciesBA9-6-07.pdf

News Release (SOWS) – New Salmon Plan Follows Administration's Blueprint for Failure: Administration Continues Failing Salmon, Fishermen and Northwest
Communities (Via PR Newswire)
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-06-2007/0004658068&EDATE=

Hatchery coho making their way to area tributaries (The Daily News, Longview)
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2007/09/07/this_day/news04.txt

Estimated 780,000 pink salmon head up Puyallup River – The Puyallup River runs as gray as wet concrete, but the real color of the river these days is pink; as in hundreds of thousands of pink salmon. (The Olympian)
http://www.theolympian.com/news/story/210351.html

Oops! – Biologists use wrong fish trying to save endangered trout species. Scientists say error is a potential black eye, but they are optimistic about the project's success (Contra Costa Times)
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_6826070?source=rss&nclick_check=1

Canada – Salmon 'spill' prompts calls for closed farming system. Calls to have British Columbia's salmon farming industry move to a closed, shore-based system were revived yesterday while crews scrambled to respond to the latest "spill" of Atlantic salmon from an open net pen in Clayoquot Sound. (Globe and Mail)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070907.BCSALMON07/TPStory/TPNational/BritishColumbia/

Dam Safety – We have a lot of old dams. Roughly 25-hundred hold back waters here in the Northwest. Even the sturdiest structures made from concrete and wood don’t hold up forever. (Oregon Public Radio)
http://www.nwpr.org/07/HomepageArticles/Article.aspx?n=3204

The overcrowded ark – The Endangered Species Act has become unwieldy. Time for a change (The Economist Magazine)
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9767816

Golly, another study – A $500,000 question for lake. Capitol Lake managers are at odds over an ambitious schedule that would attempt to complete a Capitol Lake versus Deschutes River estuary comparison in 22 months at a cost of $500,000. (The Olympian)
http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/210287.html

Too many straws in the glass – Duke going after improper pumpers: With drought sapping lakes, utility enforcing lake limits
http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8knpp%5E%5CfgntwqnVSjh%27%40%3E%20bfem%5Ev

'Gray Water' Codes Pose Enforcement Challenge – Across the country people are disconnecting the pipes taking water from their homes to local water treatment plants. (National Public Radio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14210147&ft=1&f=17

CONSERVATION & RENEWABLE ENERGY

First Wave Energy Buoy Deployed on West Coast (Oregon Public Radio)
http://www.nwpr.org/07/HomepageArticles/Article.aspx?n=3205

Kansas – College inadvertently steals wind from beneath high school's wings (Dodge City Globe)
http://www.dodgeglobe.com/stories/090707/loc_20070907003.shtml

Insert cynical comment about burning biomass here…. Curb on wood stoves in works
Board to vote on banning their use about 30 days each winter for bad-air days. (Sacramento Bee, may require free registration)
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/365145.html

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

Arctic ice cap to melt faster than feared, scientists say (Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003873003_arcticice07m.html

Global warming: Too hot to handle for the British Broadcasting Corporation – Green groups protest after corporation calls off day of programming dedicated to climate change
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2934318.ece

TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Judge strikes down part of Patriot Act – Federal Judge Throws Out Parts of Patriot Act, Says Court's OK Needed to Get Internet Records (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/06/AR2007090600999.html?nav=rss_technology

Feds OK Fee for Priority Web Traffic – The Justice Department on Thursday said Internet service providers should be allowed to charge a fee for priority Web traffic. The agency told the Federal Communications Commission, which is reviewing high-speed Internet practices, that it is opposed to "Net neutrality," the principle that all Internet sites should be equally accessible to any Web user. (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/06/AR2007090601262.html?nav=rss_technology

Shutting Down Big Downloaders – Comcast Cuts Internet Service to Bandwidth Hogs. The rapid growth of online videos, music and games has created a new Internet sin: using it too much. (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/06/AR2007090602545.html?nav=rss_metro

Review: After Smoke Clears, FiOS a Hit – If the installers hadn't almost burned my house down, I'd say Verizon's new cable television and high speed Internet service was fantastic. (The Associated Press)
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hDQ4VqX3NSOqLqy4jqcSiJFBOxqA

Wenatchee – Peshastin mill site eyed for tech area. A Leavenworth developer has offered to buy the Port of Chelan County's 59-acre Peshastin mill site for $3.3 million to turn it into a campus for high-tech research and development. (Wenatchee World)
http://www.wenworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070906/NEWS04/709060436/1001

FCC may ban cable exclusivity deals – Federal regulators appear set to crack down on cable companies that sign exclusive deals with apartment and condominium buildings, denying residents the fruits of emerging pay-TV competition. (USA Today)
http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2007-09-05-cable-fcc_N.htm?csp=34

Cable Ads Mark Switch to Digital TV – The cable television industry has launched a $200 million advertising campaign to assure customers they will still be able to watch their favorite programs after the transition to digital broadcasting. (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/06/AR2007090601180.html?nav=rss_technology

GENERAL NEWS

Virus Is Seen as Suspect in Death of Honeybees – Scientists sifting genetic material from thriving and ailing bee colonies say a virus appears to be a prime suspect — but is unlikely to be the only culprit — in the mass die-offs of honeybees reported last fall and winter. (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/science/07bees.html?ex=1346817600&en=be14bdfc2ca321fd&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

DIVERSIONS

Evergreen student wins facial-hair contest
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003870383_webbeard05m.html?syndication=rss

Kids smarter than apes -- sometimes, anyway – It's official: Your toddler is smarter than a chimp, at least at some things.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2007-09-06T223616Z_01_N06373599_RTRUKOC_0_US-TODDLERS-APES.xml&src=nl_usmorningdigest

65-year-old gets carded in supermarket
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070906/ap_on_fe_st/65_year_old_carded;_ylt=ApIFHKdmtN.jdpTLn8PNwvztiBIF

Bush shows gift of gaffe at APEC summit
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSPAR75418520070907?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

Corrupt China official felled by 11 mistresses
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSPEK36711520070907?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews