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03/7/2013

Morning News for Thursday, March 07, 2013

Washington Examiner – “Officials who claim automatic sequestration spending reductions will slash the federal budget to the bone could have instead heeded suggestions last year from government watchdogs that would have saved more than $67 billion, according to a congressional report released today.”

Washington Times – “In Beltway terms, the Federal Communications Commission’s $350 million budget request for 2013 is practically a rounding error. Yet it costs the American people a lot more than that. In fact, it is the third-most-expensive federal agency, but thanks to a lack of transparency, very few people are aware of that fact.”

Weekly Standard – “With the White House closing its doors to public tour groups in order to save money for the sequester, it’s worth remembering some of the other costs the White House incurs annually. Like the “Chief Calligrapher,” Patricia A. Blair, who has an annual salary of $96,725, and her two deputies, Debra S. Brown, who gets paid $85,953 per year, and Richard T. Muffler, who gets paid $94,372 every year.”

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03/5/2013

Morning News for Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Marin Independent Journal – Drakes Bay Oyster Co. backers issue new report critical of scientific data

Washington Free Beacon – “A federal program that guarantees home loans to rural borrowers has seen taxpayer losses and foreclosure rates skyrocket, problems federal watchdogs attribute to bureaucratic mismanagement but others say are more fundamental.”

Daily Caller – “Congressional Republicans are already pressing Environmental Protection Agency assistant administrator Gina McCarthy, President Obama’s pick for the agency’s new administrator, on the EPA’s use of secret data to formulate air quality rules.”

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03/1/2013

Morning News for Friday, March 01, 2013

From the Washington Examiner:

Solyndra was indicative, not exceptional. Just this week, Cause of Action, an activist watchdog nonprofit, said it found a .95 percent correlation between companies that got Energy Department loans and those that made political contributions.

Government Executive:

The Justice Department spent $11.4 million on executives’ non-mission aircraft travel from 2006 through 2011, nearly a quarter of which was for personal travel.

The attorneys general and FBI director serving in this period overwhelmingly accounted for the travel, taking 95 percent of the flights, according to the Government Accountability Office. The AGs and FBI director partially reimbursed the government for the personal trips, in accordance with the law, GAO found.

Wall Street Journal:

Labor leaders had tough words for the Obama administration and Senate Democrats as they demanded that new members be appointed to the embattled National Labor Relations Board.

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02/28/2013

Morning News for Thursday, February 28, 2013

From the Courthouse News Service:

The 9th Circuit blocked the shutdown of a California oyster farm that is fighting a permit denial from the U.S. government.

When Kevin Lunny bought the 1.5-acre oyster farm from its previous owner in December 2004, the deed came with a 40-year reservation of use and occupancy set to expire on Nov. 30, 2012.

The deal gave the National Park Service the right to issue a special use permit at the end of the term, but it instead left the fate of Drakes Bay Oyster Co. in the hands of U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

Related content here: KALW

Washington Free Beacon:

The Justice Department plans to celebrate the government’s “significant improvements” in administering the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) even though a majority of federal agencies, including the Justice Department itself, have ignored the Obama administration’s transparency guidelines.

The Justice Department will mark the fourth anniversary of Attorney General Eric Holder’s 2009 memorandum to federal agencies instructing them to revise their FOIA regulations and adopt a presumption in favor of openness, according to a press release.

Denver Post:

Colorado health and environment officials have ordered Loveland-based Abound Solar, the bankrupt solar-panel maker, to clean up hazardous waste at four Front Range locations.

The Abound facilities are storing thousands of “unsellable” solar panels and thousands of gallons of toxic liquids, according to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reports.

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02/26/2013

E&E Daily: Court allows oyster farm on national seashore to stay open until at least May

INTERIOR: Court allows oyster farm on national seashore to stay open until at least May

Jessica Estepa, E&E reporter
Tuesday, February 26, 2013

A California oyster farm that was slated to close this week will remain open until at least May thanks to a decision yesterday from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In May, the court will hear Drakes Bay Oyster Co.’s appeal of a denied injunction that would keep the farm open while its lawsuit against Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is still pending. Drakes Bay was supposed to shutter operations Thursday, but the court has granted an emergency motion that keeps the farm in the Point Reyes National Seashore open until it has heard the injunction case.

The decision drew praise from the company’s backers and a key Republican but criticism from environmentalists.

In the order, the court said it did so “because there are serious legal questions and the balance of hardships tips sharply in the appellants’ favor.”

The order cited another case in which the Alliance for the Wild Rockies appealed to the 9th Circuit after its injunction was denied. In that case, the appeals court reversed the lower court’s decision.

“We are grateful that the Ninth Circuit has chosen to allow Drakes Bay Oyster Co. to continue operating and recognized the hardships that would have resulted from shutting down the farm before its case could be heard,” said Amber Abbasi, chief counsel for regulatory affairs at Cause of Action, a government watchdog group that is representing Drakes Bay in the case.

Oyster farm owner Kevin Lunny said he is “thrilled” that the company — which finds itself in the center of an ongoing environmental battle — will stay open while his lawsuit against Salazar continues.

“Our fight has always been about more than just our business,” he said in a statement. “Our fight is, and will continue to be, about the great service Drakes Bay Oyster Farm provides to the community as an innovative sustainable farm, an education resource and part of the economic fiber of Marin County.”

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, likewise praised the decision.

“Interior attempted to flat out kill this oyster farm and its jobs by using misleading science and ignoring economic impacts,” Vitter said in a statement. “I applaud the Ninth Circuit for taking this first step to recognizing that the Interior agency bureaucrats, including Ken Salazar, almost put people out of work for no good reason.”

But the environmentalists who have pushed for the farm’s closure point out that a decision from U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers still stands. Earlier this month, Gonzalez Rogers denied the injunction, saying that the court had no jurisdiction over Salazar’s decision to end Drakes Bay’s lease (Greenwire, Feb. 5).

“We are confident the district court got it right when it decided that the Interior secretary had full discretion to let the lease expire and that the oyster company was unlikely to win its lawsuit,” said Neal Desai, Pacific region associate director of the National Parks Conservation Association. “The 9th Circuit Court’s decision today unfortunately delays by two months the ability for Americans to enjoy their national park wilderness.”

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02/26/2013

Morning News for Tuesday, February 26, 2013

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A federal appeals court granted a reprieve Monday to an oyster farm that challenged the federal government’s refusal to renew its lease at Point Reyes National Seashore, site of a proposed marine wilderness.

Drakes Bay Oyster Co. has raised “serious legal questions” about the Interior Department’s action, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The court also said the company and its employees would suffer hardships by having to shut down while the case was pending.

More from the Associated Press.

From Forbes:

Appeals of NLRB decisions pending before the nation’s various Circuit Courts of Appeals since the issuance of the D.C. Circuit’s widely publicized Noel Canning decision have challenged the validity of the Board’s recess appointees and its resulting lack of a quorum.

Reuters:

A federal judge in Washington on Friday dismissed most of the claims brought by a small Chinese firm against President Barack Obama for squashing its bid to build wind farms close to a naval training site… The court did say Ralls could move forward with its challenge to how the statute at issue was implemented in this case. Ralls has argued that the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution entitles it to hear the reasons for the president’s decision.

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02/26/2013

Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Applauds 9th Circuit Ruling for Drakes Bay Oyster Company

Vitter Applauds Court Decision Blocking Interior’s Attempt to Close an Oyster Farm

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