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Peter Barnes

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News >  Spokane

1.3 million comment on forest plan

WASHINGTON – More than 1.3 million people have sent letters, e-mails, and faxes to the Forest Service in the last two months regarding changes that would open tracts of national forest to new roads for logging and mining. The Forest Service extended the comment period, which ended Monday, beyond the election after receiving comments on proposed changes to roadless area rules that have been in dispute since President Bill Clinton signed them into law in 2001.
News >  Spokane

Hanford B reactor now on list of potential National Park sites

WASHINGTON – The Hanford Reach reactor where engineers extracted plutonium for the bomb that destroyed Nagasaki is now on the National Park Service's list of potential historic parks. In mid-October, President Bush signed legislation allowing the Park Service to study whether the Hanford B reactor and other facilities key to the Manhattan Project should become part of a national park. Hanford is the site of the first large-scale nuclear reactor, and it culled plutonium from tons of uranium for the world's first nuclear explosion at Alamogordo, N.M., in 1945.
News >  Spokane

Backers say Nader made a difference

WASHINGTON, D.C. – By 10:20 Tuesday night, about 150 people stood, yelling and applauding at the National Press Club as Ralph Nader spoke to the happiest party of any losing candidate in town. Ten minutes before, in a darkened cove marked off with "press area" scribbled on a piece of paper, he told Fox News that he hadn't been following the results too closely.
News >  Nation/World

U.S. debt hits $7.4 trillion ceiling

WASHINGTON – Regardless of who wins Tuesday's election, Congress will return to the capital a few days later and pass legislation allowing the Treasury to accommodate the largest national debt in history. As predicted by the Treasury Department in August, government liabilities hit the $7.4 trillion federal debt ceiling earlier this month. The department took last-resort accounting measures to ensure bonds and other securities are repaid on time without breaking the law, but Treasury representatives say spending can stay below the limit only until mid-November.
News >  Spokane

State may avoid ballot woes

WASHINGTON – Voting problems and ballot disputes that may plague some states on Election Day aren't expected to affect Washington or Idaho, a study released last week predicts. Both states should escape controversies surrounding provisional ballots, electronic voting machines and other issues, although both states still will have some voters using the system that created the most controversy in 2000, the punch-card ballot.
News >  Spokane

House passes sales tax deduction

WASHINGTON – A measuring allowing people to deduct their sales tax on their federal income tax returns passed the House on Thursday night, but its fate in the Senate remained uncertain as some senators vowed to kill the bill over an unrelated section on tobacco regulation. "What would hold up this bill doesn't have anything to do with the tax portion," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
News >  Spokane

‘A long time coming’

WASHINGTON – After 15 years of planning, nearly $200 million in construction and efforts to amass artifacts from around the Western Hemisphere, the National Museum of the American Indian opened Tuesday with thousands of the people it seeks to represent. "It's been a long time coming," said Francis SiJohn as he and other members of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe assembled on the National Mall. SiJohn talked about the museum as the smell of burning sage floated on the breeze.
News >  Spokane

Electoral College targeted once again

WASHINGTON – A suggestion to snip the Electoral College from the Constitution resurfaced in Congress last week as a Vancouver, Wash., representative helped introduce a resolution to replace it with direct presidential elections. Although a similar amendment did not receive a hearing when introduced in 2001, and the current proposal is not likely to reach the House floor this year, Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., and a Democratic colleague from Texas plugged a proposal to elect the president via the popular vote.
News >  Spokane

Changes at CDC not likely to affect lab

WASHINGTON – Controversial changes in the federal Centers for Disease Control agencies are not expected to affect a Spokane lab that researches mining safety, the lab's director said. The CDC is restructuring its agencies in ways that former directors of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health say will undermine the institute's independence.