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North Korea warns of pre-emptive nuclear strike on U.S. – UN approves new sanctions against North Korea

The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously for tough new sanctions to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test, a move that sparked a furious Pyongyang to threaten a nuclear strike against the United States.

North Koreans attend a rally in support of a statement given on Tuesday by a spokesman for the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army vowing to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War as well as boasting of the North's ownership of "lighter and smaller nukes" and its ability to execute "surgical strikes" meant to unify the divided Korean Peninsula, at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Thursday. Photo: Jon Chol Jin/AP — North Koreans attend a rally in support of a statement given on Tuesday by a spokesman for the Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army vowing to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War as well as boasting of the North’s ownership of “lighter and smaller nukes” and its ability to execute “surgical strikes” meant to unify the divided Korean Peninsula, at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Thursday. Photo: Jon Chol Jin/AP

By Edith M. Lederer and Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS —The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously for tough new sanctions to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test, a move that sparked a furious Pyongyang to threaten a nuclear strike against the United States.

The vote Thursday by the U.N.’s most powerful body on a resolution drafted by North Korea’s closest ally, China, and the United States sends a powerful message to North Korea that the international community condemns its ballistic missile and nuclear tests – and its repeated violation of Security Council resolutions.

The new sanctions are aimed at making it more difficult for North Korea to finance and obtain material for its weapons programs.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

North Korea vowed on Thursday to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States, amplifying its threatening rhetoric as U.N. diplomats voted on whether to level new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test.

An unidentified spokesman for Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry said the North will exercise its right for “a preemptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors” because Washington is pushing to start a nuclear war against the North.

Although North Korea boasts of nuclear bombs and pre-emptive strikes, it is not thought to have mastered the ability to produce a warhead small enough to put on a missile capable of reaching the U.S. It is believed to have enough nuclear fuel, however, for several crude nuclear devices.

Such inflammatory rhetoric is common from North Korea, and especially so in recent days. North Korea is angry over the possible sanctions and over upcoming U.S.-South Korean military drills. At a mass rally in Pyongyang on Thursday, tens of thousands of North Koreans protested the U.S.-South Korean war drills and sanctions.

Army Gen. Kang Pyo Yong told the crowd that North Korea is ready to fire long-range nuclear-armed missiles at Washington.

“Intercontinental ballistic missiles and various other missiles, which have already set their striking targets, are now armed with lighter, smaller and diversified nuclear warheads and are placed on a standby status,” Kang said. “When we shell (the missiles), Washington, which is the stronghold of evils, …. will be engulfed in a sea of fire.”

The U.N. Security Council was considering a fourth round of sanctions against Pyongyang in a fresh attempt to rein in its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The resolution was drafted by the United States and China, North Korea’s closest ally. The council’s agreement to put the resolution to a vote just 48 hours later signaled that it would almost certainly have the support of all 15 council members.

The statement by the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

It accused the U.S. of leading efforts to slap sanctions on North Korea. The statement said the new sanctions would only advance the timing for North Korea to fulfill previous vows to take “powerful second and third countermeasures” against its enemies. It hasn’t elaborated on those measures.

The statement said North Korea “strongly warns the U.N. Security Council not to make another big blunder like the one in the past when it earned the inveterate grudge of the Korean nation by acting as a war servant for the U.S. in 1950.”

North Korea demanded the U.N. Security Council immediately dismantle the American-led U.N. Command that’s based in Seoul and move to end the state of war that exists on the Korean Peninsula, which continues six decades after fighting stopped because an armistice, not a peace treaty, ended the war.

In anticipation of the resolution’s adoption, North Korea earlier in the week threatened to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War.

North Korean threats have become more common as tensions have escalated following a rocket launch by Pyongyang in December and its third nuclear test on Feb. 12. Both acts defied three Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from testing or using nuclear or ballistic missile technology and from importing or exporting material for these programs.

U.S. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said the proposed resolution would impose some of the strongest sanctions ever ordered by the United Nations.

The final version of the draft resolution, released Wednesday, identified three individuals, one corporation and one organization that would be added to the U.N. sanctions list if the measure is approved.

The targets include top officials at a company that is the country’s primary arms dealer and main exporter of ballistic missile-related equipment, and a national organization responsible for research and development of missiles and probably nuclear weapons.

The success of a new round of sanctions could depend on enforcement by China, where most of the companies and banks that North Korea is believed to work with are based.

The United States and other nations worry that North Korea’s third nuclear test pushed it closer to its goal of gaining nuclear missiles that can reach the U.S. The international community has condemned the regime’s nuclear and missile efforts as threats to regional security and a drain on the resources that could go to North Korea’s largely destitute people.

The draft resolution condemns the latest nuclear test “in the strongest terms” for violating and flagrantly disregarding council resolutions, bans further ballistic missile launches, nuclear tests “or any other provocation,” and demands that North Korea return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It also condemns all of North Korea’s ongoing nuclear activities, including its uranium enrichment.

But the proposed resolution stresses the council’s commitment “to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution” and urged a resumption of six-party talks with the aim of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula “in a peaceful manner.”

The proposed resolution would make it significantly harder for North Korea to move around the funds it needs to carry out its illicit programs and strengthen existing sanctions and the inspection of suspect cargo bound to and from the country. It would also ban countries from exporting specific luxury goods to the North, including yachts, luxury automobiles, racing cars, and jewelry with semi-precious and precious stones and precious metals.

According to the draft, all countries would now be required to freeze financial transactions or services that could contribute to North Korea’s nuclear or missile programs.

To get around financial sanctions, North Koreans have been carrying around large suitcases filled with cash to move illicit funds. The draft resolution expresses concern that these bulk cash transfers may be used to evade sanctions. It clarifies that the freeze on financial transactions and services that could violate sanctions applies to all cash transfers as well as the cash couriers.

The proposed resolution also bans all countries from providing public financial support for trade deals, such as granting export credits, guarantees or insurance, if the assistance could contribute to the North’s nuclear or missile programs.

It includes what a senior diplomat called unprecedented new travel sanctions that would require countries to expel agents working for sanctioned North Korean companies.

The draft also requires states to inspect suspect cargo on their territory and prevent any vessel that refuses an inspection from entering their ports. And a new aviation measure calls on states to deny aircraft permission to take off, land or fly over their territory if illicit cargo is suspected to be aboard.

—

Lederer reported from the United Nations. Foster Klug in Seoul contributed to this report.

Inspired by a Navajo Code Talker Hero: Meet U.S. Marine Sgt. Delshayne John, Navajo

Sgt. Delshayne John speaks fluent Navajo, serves as a communications Marine and credits his decision to serve in the military to his upbringing on the Navajo reservation in Fort Defiance, Ariz., and the influence of his grandfather, Jimmie M. Begay. Begay served as a Navajo code talker during World War II. Photo by Sgt. Ray Lewis/Marine Forces Reserve/DoD/Dvidshub.net

Cpl. Nana Dannsaappiah, DoD, Indian Country Today Media Network

What makes Sgt. Delshayne John stand out from his fellow Marines at Marine Corps Support Facility New Orleans isn’t the fact that he rose through the ranks to be meritoriously promoted to sergeant in less than three years.

It isn’t that he is only on his first tour and already works directly for a three-star general. It isn’t that the 21-year-old, 175 pounds packed into a lean 6-foot-2 inch frame, is an experienced rodeo rider, basketball and football player, wrestler and cross country virtuoso.

What makes John different is his Native American heritage. His two great granduncles or as he refers to them, grandfathers, Leonard Begay and Jimmie M. Begay, served as Navajo code talkers during World War II.

John, who speaks fluent Navajo, serves as a communications Marine and credits his decision to serve in the military to his upbringing on the Navajo reservation in Fort Defiance, Ariz., and the influence of one specific grandfather, Jimmie M. Begay.

“My dad left when I was three and he (Jimmie M. Begay) has always been there for me so he has been the father figure in my life,” said John.

There is always something to do

Traditional Navajo houses made of wooden poles, tree bark and mud, called hogans, and trailers sparsely populated the valley overlooked by mountains. There were no amusement parks or shopping malls, just families engaged in their daily chores and livestock roaming the plains.

In one trailer, John, his three younger brothers and his sister lived with their mother – no electricity and no running water. His grandfather and grandmother lived in the next house down the road.

In the absence of John’s father, Begay took it upon himself to groom John into a respectable young man, filled with the Navajo traditional values and able to take care of his mom and siblings as the man of the house.

John described his grandfather as very stern. Granddad’s rules: you don’t sleep in, you rise before the sun, you run towards the east every morning, pray and come back.

“You can’t be lazy,” he said the old veteran used to insist. “There is always something to do.”

Even after John completed his chores, sitting back and relaxing in the house wasn’t an option. Begay pushed him to go outside and play with his siblings or find something productive to do.

Begay trained his grandson to do many things, from fixing cars to taming horses.

John remembers when he got his first horse. Several wild horses roamed the reservation. The rule was whoever caught them, kept them. As John explained it, the problem was not with catching the horses but taming them. Begay caught a wild horse and domesticated her, and when she had a baby, Begay gave the foal to John.

“He taught me how to do it then he said ‘here’s your horse, now break it,’” John said.

“I just never felt like I could be bored with him, no matter what we were doing he always had something to teach me,” he added.

The two bonded over chores and many of the reservation activities: hunting, branding cows, feeding the family animals, rodeo, etc.

As John grew older and the responsibility of taking care of his younger siblings became greater, so did the stress. He couldn’t show any weakness or emotional vulnerability as the man of the house – not to his younger brothers and sister – but he knew he could always confide in his grandfather.

“We got pretty good about reading each other,” said John. “Anytime I needed somebody to talk to, he was always there for me so he was like my shoulder to lean on.”

I envied him

In 1942, the Marine Corps began recruiting and training Navajos for code talking because they spoke an unwritten language, unintelligible to anyone except another Navajo. Navajo Marines developed and memorized codes which, it is believed, the Japanese never cracked. They became America’s answer to the Japanese interception and decryption of indispensable messages during World War II.

Begay served in the war as a code talker and it was his stories about serving in the military that opened John up to a world outside the reservation and the Marine Corps.

“What really got me is the bond that he built with a lot of different people and that he got to travel,” said John. “I just saw what kind of person it made him and I envied him and wanted to be like him.”

Begay passed away in 2006. John was still a teenager coming of age, 15 years old.

His grandfather had always hinted that he wanted John to join the Marines but never pushed him, John said. In his last days, Begay finally admitted to John that he wanted him to join, but he encouraged him to pursue whatever he was passionate about.

“That just kind of sealed it for me,” John said about his decision to enlist.

John graduated Navajo Prep High School in New Mexico in 2009. He left for the Marine Corps that same year.

The legacy continues …

Marine Corps recruit training has a reputation of being physically challenging. John, whose active youth read like an ironman competition – wrestling, playing basketball, football, running track, wrangling cows and riding bulls – was prepared for the physical aspect. It was the emotional isolation he wrestled with.

“The hardest part was being away from my family,” he said. “It was the first time I left the reservation.”

He earned his eagle, globe and anchor and became a Marine Jan. 19, 2010, at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.

The newly minted Marine’s first duty station was Marine Forces Reserve headquarters in New Orleans, where his fellow Marines say his grandfather would be proud.

“No doubt his grandfather would be proud of him, very proud,” said Cpl. Travis Ortega who works with John in the MARFORRES G-6 Communications and Electronics Division, and was with him in boot camp, Marine Combat Training and communications school.

Pfc. John arrived in 2010 and was placed at the G-6 service desk, the first stop for troubleshooting information technology systems. He made it his mission to stand out, and eventually, callers were requesting John by name. He also worked in several other sections of the G-6, earning a reputation as the go-to-guy wherever he worked.

“If you need something done, he is the guy to go to,” said Ortega. “No matter if he’s never heard of it or seen it before, he’ll find a way and figure it out for you.”

When MARFORRES moved its headquarters from New Orleans proper to Algiers, La., in 2011, John was added to the team in charge of setting up communication equipment for the new building.

After consistently proving himself a valuable asset during his young career, he was selected for a highly-coveted but demanding position to work directly for the MARFORRES and MARFORNORTH commander, Lt. Gen. Steven Hummer, and his staff.

In August 2012, Hurricane Isaac hit New Orleans and Marines had the option of voluntarily evacuating. At the same time, Hummer’s MARFORNORTH was tasked with supporting the Republican National Convention, so the general remained in New Orleans. John stayed back also – to make sure the general and his staff had all means available to communicate.

Personnel were shorthanded, the general needed updates, video teleconferences had to be set up and broken equipment needed fixing. John tackled the issues by day, and stood watch outside the general’s office at night.

“When you have generals on deck, nobody is not going to not stand post,” he said.

For his actions during the hurricane, John received a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal. Those who knew him and worked with him weren’t surprised.

“You can always rely on Sgt. John to provide excellent results,” said Master Sgt. Esteban Garcia, who supervises John. “He is very reliable and has initiative.”

As far as John’s motivations, it’s simple: honor his grandfather and ancestors by being the best Marine he can be.

“I’m really proud of the legacy that my ancestors set for me and I just hope that I can amount to a fraction of what they were,” John said.

For now he sits at his desk, answering questions for an interview, typing away at an email, his phone is ringing, and an officer is walking towards him with a concerned look on his face. Some might get frustrated or muddle through the demanding scene, but to John, it’s just another day at the office. He remains calm, answers the phone and addresses the officer, who tells him that the general’s computer needs urgent fixing. Off he runs to assess the situation.

John, who plans on serving at least 20 years in the Marines, is calculating his next move to become a Marine Corps Special Operations Command critical skills operator or a Marine security guard assigned to protect embassies around the globe.

It wouldn’t be hard for a Marine like John to do so. His physical fitness is top-notch and he has earned a reputation which is all his own.

John says his current repute is because he finds something positive everyday and puts his best foot forward even when the situation is not ideal.

Those who know him say that he is just being John, paying his respects to his grandfather and the proud historical legacy of the Navajo code talkers.

Battle Over Redskins Name Goes Before Federal Trademark Trial and Appeal Board

Indian Country Today Media Network Staff

The long-running battle over the Washington Redskins name gets a restart today, Thursday, March 7, when a group of Native Americans goes before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in Washington, D.C, to argue that the franchise should lose their federal trademark protection, based on a law that prohibits registered names that disparaging, scandalous, contemptuous or disreputable.

Leading the move against the use of the term redskins is Susan Shown Harjo, who has spent nearly a third of her life fighting the use of the nickname.

According to CBSDC and the Associated Press, Redskins general manager Bruce Allen said last month that it is “ludicrous” to think that the team is “trying to upset anybody” with its nickname, which many Native Americans consider to be offensive.

That’s beside the point, Harjo told CBSDC/AP. She’s never suggested that the Redskins deliberately set out to offend anyone. But that doesn’t mean that people aren’t offended.

“It’s just like a drive-by shooting,” Harjo said Wednesday. “They’re trying to make money, and not caring who is injured in the process — or if anyone is injured in the process. I don’t think they wake up or go to sleep dreaming of ways to hurt Native people. I think they wake up and go to sleep thinking of ways to make money — off hurting Native people.”

SR 529 bridge nears completion

Kirk Boxleitner, The Marysville Globe

MARYSVILLE — The ongoing replacement of the State Route 529 Ebey Slough Bridge has seen some significant milestones since this winter, and if the weather permits, March 8-11 will mark yet another key step toward the completion of the nearly three-year construction project.

“We’ve completely demolished the existing bridge structure, well below the ground line, to the point that no remnants are visible,” said Joe Rooney, chief inspector for the project with the Washington State Department of Transportation. “Once that was complete, we were able to build the approach fills on the west side of the new bridge, which put us in place to pave the full width, not including the final overlay we’ll be doing in April.”

According to Rooney, so long as the construction work doesn’t get rained out, SR 529 is set to be closed from First Avenue to Milepost 6, including the Ebey Slough Bridge, starting at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 8, and lasting until 5 a.m. on Monday, March 11.

“We’ll finally be pulling out that temporary barrier to put in temporary striping along where the permanent channels will be,” Rooney said. “The plastic imprinted striping will go in place this spring, but the new bridge will be at full capacity for the first time. With a little bit of landscaping work left, we should be completely out of here by May.”

Rooney noted that the original construction timeline afforded WSDOT and its contractor, Granite Construction, well into the summer months to wrap up their work, so they’re ahead of schedule and well within their budget.

“We’ve just been extremely fortunate,” Rooney said. “There haven’t been any significant change orders or design errors or surprising site conditions, and when you’re working that far under the surface, who knows beforehand what you can find. Granite Construction have been great partners as well.”

The project typically employed between 50-60 personnel on site, between subcontractors and specialists in fields such as pile-driving stone columns into the ground to form the supports for the new bridge.

“We built the new bridge well before we demolished the old one, which allowed us to keep traffic flowing throughout construction,” Rooney said. “We also benefitted from replacing a two-lane bridge with a four-lane bridge, so we were able to set up the two lanes on the west side of the new bridge as a staging area for construction without reducing the existing traffic capacity of the bridge. People had two lanes of traffic on the old bridge, and they’ve had two lanes of traffic on the new bridge, so they haven’t seen much difference yet.”

Rooney acknowledged the challenges of demolishing an old bridge directly over a waterway in an ecologically conscious fashion, so as not to contaminate the surrounding wetlands.

“We couldn’t have any debris at all, which is pretty difficult when you’re taking out a 700-foot-long span,” Rooney said. “To their credit, Granite Construction took this task seriously, and still managed to take out the existing structure to 10 feet below the mud line.”

Rooney reiterated that the scheduled closure of the SR 529 Ebey Slough Bridge from 8 p.m. on Friday, March 8, until 5 a.m. on Monday, March 11, is entirely weather-dependent, so check the WSDOT site at www1.co.snohomish.wa.us/Departments/Public_Works/Services/Roads/roadsup for the latest information.

‘By the grace of God’: How workers survive on $7.25 per hour

Meet Crystal Dupont and John White. Both are both struggling to live on minimum wage, one at the start of her career and the other toward the end of his.

By Allison Linn, Staff Writer, NBC News

Working from the bedroom she shares with her mother, Crystal Dupont fields customer service phone calls for a national appliance brand. Dupont, 25, subsists mainly on minimum wage pay. She is living without health insurance because she can’t afford it. Photos: David Friedman, NBC News

Crystal Dupont knows what it’s like to try to live on the federal minimum wage.

Dupont has no health insurance, so she hasn’t seen a doctor in two years. She’s behind on her car payments and has taken out pawn shop and payday loans to cover other monthly expenses. She eats beans and oatmeal when her food budget gets low.

When she got her tax refund recently, she used the money to get ahead on her light bill.

“I try to live within my means, but sometimes you just can’t,” said Dupont, 25. The Houston resident works 30 to 40 hours a week taking customer service calls, earning between $7.25 and $8 an hour. That came to about $15,000 last year.

It’s a wage she’s lived on for a while now, but just barely.

About 3.6 million Americans were earning at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour in 2012, and those weren’t all high school students flipping burgers.

About half of them were 25 or older, a little more than one-third were working full time and a little less than three-fourths had graduated from high school, according to the most recent government data.

A person working full time for minimum wage would take home an annual salary of $15,080. That’s a shade higher than the poverty threshold for a household containing two adults, and about $8,000 less than the poverty line for a family of four.

These are the workers who answer your customer service calls, deliver your pizzas, take care of your children, bag your groceries and serve your food.

President Barack Obama has called on Congress to give them a raise by increasing the minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2015.

Liberal-leaning economists say the move would help millions of workers without better prospects pay their bills. It would also pump more money into the economy through higher consumer spending, they argue.

“Unfortunately, for far too many people, the ladder that they’re on doesn’t have a whole lot of rungs,” said Doug Hall, director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network at the progressive Economic Policy Institute.

But conservative thinkers argue the move would hurt both the economy and low-wage workers. They say employers would have to cut benefits or jobs so they could afford to pay the higher wages to remaining employees. Some say the minimum wage already keeps people out of a job.

“There (are) the people who are already working and are getting the minimum wage, and there’s the other group of people who are not working because of the minimum wage,” said Mark Perry, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Caught in the middle of this debate are the workers themselves, millions of whom are preoccupied with the daily worries of getting by.

White rests on the back of an old Dodge pickup truck loaded with firewood at the homestead that has belonged to his family for more than 50 years. White heats his home with firewood, which is plentiful on the 100 acres he shares with his brother, and which costs far less than heating oil. He is also part of a program that helps subsidize energy costs for low-income residents.

Workers like John White, 61.

“It’s by the grace of God that I am having ends meet,” said White, who was out of work for 20 months before he got his current, part-time job delivering pizzas.

White has applied for a number of jobs, but he worries that at his age he is often overlooked for younger, more highly trained workers.

He earns a base salary of $7.25 an hour when he is prepping or doing other chores, but that drops to $4.50 an hour when he goes out on a delivery because he is supposed to also earn tips.

The Department of Labor allows tipped employees to be paid a base salary that is below minimum wage, but the employer must be able to show the employee receives minimum wage when tips are included.

In the past few years, White has relied on help from his church when he couldn’t pay his electric or phone bill, or needed car repairs. His fellow parishioners also helped him pick up odd jobs.

He gets $135 a month in food stamps, now known as SNAP, but lost his state-subsidized health insurance after he got his pizza delivery job. A lifelong bachelor, he lives in a family home in Robesonia, Pa., that he and his sibling inherited.

White’s wages have fallen steadily over the past decade. He worked in a warehouse of a regional department store for nearly 14 years and was earning $12.50 an hour before he was let go in 2003 after a dispute with a co-worker.

He was unemployed for about half a year until he got a job as a security guard in 2004. He earned $10.60 an hour in that job, and held it for six years until he was let go in June of 2010.

He’s been in the part-time pizza delivery job for nearly a year, but his financial situation remains precarious.

He’s hoping to pick up more hours. But unlike steadier jobs he’s had in the past, he’s learned that with this kind of job, there’s no guarantee of stable hours.

“You don’t even get eight hours in one day, (and) you might be lucky to get eight hours in one week,” he said.

Hoping for a better future

Dupont didn’t expect her working life to start out this way. She graduated from high school in 2006, a year after her father passed away, got a job and moved out of the family home.

But Dupont soon found that she couldn’t earn enough money to live on her own. She also needed to be home to help her mother, who is disabled and can’t drive because she has seizures.

Without her father’s income, Dupont and her mother couldn’t keep up on house payments, and the home they’d lived in since 1998 went into foreclosure in 2009. They moved into an apartment and now live on Dupont’s salary and her mother’s disability benefits and food stamps.

In January, Dupont started taking classes at Houston Community College, where she is in the business technology and computer science programs.

She took out a $3,500 student loan but is hoping that she can use scholarships and grants, or perhaps find a second job, to avoid taking on more debt.

On her days off, she’ll sometimes spend six hours studying, working ahead two or three weeks in her classes because she enjoys it so much.

“It tells me that there’s more than what I’m doing now out there – there’s more to life than this,” she said.

Action plan to protect scared sites

By Monica Brown, Tulalip News Writer

President Obama along with four cabinet-level departments joined with the Historic Preservation Advisory Council to develop an action plan that will strengthen the protection on Indian scared sites and enable access by tribes. The action plan created March 5, 2013, is required by the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that had been signed in December 2012, by the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and the Historic Preservation Advisory Council.

“Through collaboration and consultation, the signatory agencies are working together to raise awareness about Indian sacred sites and the importance of maintaining their integrity,” said Milford Wayne Donaldson, chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. “The tools to be developed under this action plan will help agencies meet their Section 106 responsibilities while affording greater protections for sacred sites. The Advisory Council is very pleased to be part of this historic initiative to address the protection and preservation of Indian sacred sites.”

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Since 2009, USDA has stepped up Tribal consultation efforts. We understand the importance of these sites and will continue to make sure Tribes have full access to the resources they need in their communities.”

The MOU will remain in effect for five years and commits the signing parties to work together so that they may coordinate and collaborate ways to improve the protection of tribal sites and ensure tribal access to Indian sacred sites. It is understood that special care and confidentiality of some sites is necessary in some which involve sensitive information. Sacred site locations may be geological features, bodies of water, archaeological sites, burial locations, traditional cultural properties, and stone and earth structures. The sacred sites that have religious and cultural significance may be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places

Energy Secretary Steven Chu stated “Protecting America’s air and water and our nation’s heritage is an important part of the Energy Department’s commitment to Tribal Nations across the country, particularly those that are neighbors to the Department’s National Laboratories, sites and facilities. I look forward to continuing this important work and collaborating with other federal agencies and Tribal Nations to protect Indian sacred sites throughout the United States.”

The Action Plan includes:

A Mission Statement that commits the agencies to work together to improve the protection of and tribal access to Indian sacred sites, in accordance with Executive Order 13007 and the MOU, through enhanced and improved interdepartmental coordination, collaboration and consultation with tribes;
A list of actions the agencies will undertake together;
A commitment to consultation with Indian tribes in developing and implementing the actions outlined in the plan to ensure meaningful strategies for protecting sacred sites;
The establishment of a standing working committee made up of designated senior staff from the participating agencies, as well as other subject matter experts from the participating agencies as needed, to carry out the stipulations of the MOU; and
The commitment of the Agencies to designate senior level officials to serve as members of a Core Working Group, which the Department of the Interior will Chair.

Secretary Salazar also announced that Interior plans to provide a report on the Department’s Tribal Listening Sessions on Sacred Sites. Last year, the Department held several Tribal Listening Sessions across the country to elicit tribal and spiritual leaders concerns regarding sacred sites.

View the action plan here.

Congresswoman Votes Against VAWA Because of LGBT Inclusiveness

Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn said she rejected the VAWA because of its LGBT inclusion.

By Michelle Garcia, Advocate.com

A Republican congresswoman admitted that the only thing preventing her from voting in favor of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act because of its’ LGBT-inclusive provisions, among others.

Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn told MSNBC that she voted against the newly approved House version of the VAWA due to added protections for LGBT people subjected to partner violence, as well as Native American people and immigrants. Blackburn was one of the 138 to vote against the bill, with 286 in favor. Eighty-seven Republicans supported the LGBT-inclusive VAWA.

“I didn’t like the way it was expanded to include other different groups,” she said. “What you need is something that is focused specifically to help the shelters and to help out law enforcement who is trying to work with the crimes that have been committed against women and helping them to stand up.”

Ore. report says coal-train dust data too sparse

Industry data is too scant to gauge the health effects of coal dust blowing off of trains headed from the Great Plains to export terminals along the West Coast, according to a review by Multnomah County’s health department.

The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. — Industry data is too scant to gauge the health effects of coal dust blowing off of trains headed from the Great Plains to export terminals along the West Coast, according to a review by Multnomah County’s health department.

County Chairman Jeff Cogen, a coal export opponent, requested the report on health effects, The Oregonian newspaper (http://bit.ly/Z6n9yg) reported.

Local governments can’t stop the export projects, he said, but “the burden should be on the coal companies and the train companies to prove that this is not going to damage the health of our residents.”

One in nine Multnomah County residents lives within a third of a mile of potential coal-train routes, the report said.

Three of the five terminals being considered for coal exports could send trains through Portland – one in Coos Bay and two along the Columbia River in Longview, Wash., and at a Port of St. Helens industrial park near Clatskanie.

The analysis looked at the impact if all three projects succeed, bringing up to 90 million tons of coal through the county on 16 to 19 trains each day. But some of the traffic might be on the Washington side of the river, and two of the terminals haven’t applied for permits.

“The bottom line is a lot of the information on coal dust dispersal is proprietary, and it’s not well validated,” said Gary Oxman, who recently retired as county health officer and oversaw the report. “It doesn’t mean there’s a terrible risk from train transport, but it needs to be illuminated more.”

The report says the federal government should do a regional study of export proposals, a call similar to one made by Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber.

The dust contains harmful metals, including cadmium. But little is known about how it’s dispersed or the size of the particles. Smaller particles are more likely to lodge in the lungs.

BNSF Railway has estimated that up to a ton blows off of a single car. But terminal and rail officials say most of the dust is lost near mines in Montana and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.

Coal shipments have been going through Washington to export ports in British Columbia for decades with no complaints made to regulators there, say advocates such the Alliance for Northwest Jobs and Exports, a trade group that includes railroads and coal companies.

“Coal dust is one issue where people involved in the alliance feel very, very comfortable that it’s not a concern,” said spokeswoman Lauri Hennessey. “I really feel it’s a red herring.”

The report concludes the trains a mile long would generate relatively small increases in diesel pollution and noise, but they would go through areas already heavily affected by pollution. The trains could create cumulative delays of up to two hours per day at at-grade rail crossings, the report said.

—

Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com

3 rail cars derail in Missoula, spilling coal

Crews work to clean up spilled coal and repair tracks on Tuesday where three Montana Rail Link rail cars derailed. The derailment near Railroad Street West and Trade Street in Missoula. Photo: Tom Bauer/Missoulian

Associated Press

MISSOULA, Mont. — Three cars on a Montana Rail Link train derailed in Missoula with one of the coal cars spilling some of its contents.

MRL spokeswoman Lynda Frost tells the Missoulian ( http://bit.ly/XLR53U) the train cars derailed about midnight Monday. Frost says one car was upright, one was tilted and one tipped on its side.

No one was injured. The cause of the derailment is under investigation.

Frost expected the derailment to be cleaned up by Tuesday evening.

A conservation group that opposes plans to increase the number of coal trains from the Powder River Basin says Tuesday’s spill is a reminder of the risks.

The Northern Plains Resource Council says the export terminals proposed in Oregon and Washington could mean up to 40 trains a day moving through Montana.

Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com

Washington’s ex-governors get into it for TV

Former governors John Spellman (left) and Chris Gregoire sit down for a taping of "The Governors: A KCTS 9 Special" on Tuesday afternoon. 9. Photo: Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald — Former governors John Spellman (left) and Chris Gregoire sit down for a taping of “The Governors: A KCTS 9 Special” on Tuesday afternoon. 9. Photo: Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald

By Jerry Cornfield, Herald Writer

SEATTLE — Four former Washington governors spent an hour in a television studio Tuesday dishing on the high, low and unforgettable moments each experienced as the state’s chief executive.

And then it got interesting when the two liberal Democrats and two moderate Republicans detoured into politics.

Democrats Chris Gregoire and Mike Lowry and Republicans Dan Evans and John Spellman all praised last week’s Supreme Court ruling toppling a voter-approved requirement for a two-thirds majority to raise taxes.

“Two-thirds doesn’t make any sense,” said Evans, the state’s only three-term governor who served from 1965-77. “You can’t let the minority run the government or the state.”

But Gregoire, who left office in January after two terms, said not to expect a flood of new taxes this year because lawmakers know how popular the supermajority rule is with voters.

“I would be shocked if legislators run wild right now,” she said.

Then Evans added a spirited exclamation: “No legislator likes to do it unless they have to do it. Doggone it; the people have the last say.”

The gubernatorial quartet gathered in the KCTS9 studio in Seattle to tape an hour-long special to air April 16. Enrique Cerna of KCTS and Joni Balter, assistant political editor of The Seattle Times, moderated the conversation.

While each of the four ex-governors served in a different decade, they shared a similar passion for public service when they ran for the office.

Of course, not every one had an equally easy time getting the job.

Spellman first ran in 1976 and lost to Democrat Dixie Lee Ray, the state’s first woman governor.

“We didn’t see her coming on and it was kind of a shock,” he said. “We didn’t know how to lay a glove on her.”

Four years later he ran again. He expected a rematch but she lost in the primary. Spellman went on to defeat Democrat Jim McDermott and is the last Republican to serve as governor.

Gregoire etched her place in state history with a nail-biting defeat of Republican Dino Rossi in 2004 following recounts and a court case.

When asked to describe her experience, she joked: “One word comes to mind, refresh.” She was referring to continually checking online for the updated tallies of votes during the final hand count.

Once in office, each dealt with budget shortfalls. Three — Spellman, Lowry and Gregoire — raised taxes to help fill the gap.

“It had to be done,” Spellman said, adding the money was needed for schools and social services. “It didn’t help me politically.”

Evans, meanwhile, tried twice without success to win voter approval of an income tax as part of a larger reform package.

“We got our heads handed to us” the first time, he said. “We tried it one more time and it was almost three-to-one. People will live with the taxes they know. When something new comes up, they get skeptical.”

Lowry, who served from 1993-97, sounded much like a candidate again when he called today’s opposition to taxes “self-defeating. I think we’ve kind of lost sight of the importance of a well-run government. We need to get more revenue into this state.”

The potential of initiatives to handcuff lawmakers and governors in budget-writing and policy-making united the foursome.

“I think initiatives are leading us to anarchy,” Spellman said, adding he’d like to see some areas of government immune to change through initiatives.

As for achievements, Lowry cited his expansion of the Basic Health Program providing subsidized health insurance to the poor while Spellman said it was establishing a relationship with China which is now the state’s leading trade partner. Evans said he’s most proud of creating the community college system and the Department of Ecology.

One of the more emotional moments came when they discussed their toughest decisions.

For Gregoire, it was endorsing marriage for same-sex couples. She said she struggled with it mightily and “the weight of the world was lifted” when she went public.

Her most difficult day was the one when four Lakewood police officers were gunned down.

Lowry said he regrets not commuting the death sentence for convicted Snohomish County triple murderer Charles Campbell in 1994. Lowry opposed the death penalty but said he could not override the actions of the courts which had rejected Campbell’s repeated appeals.

One of the last questions they faced is how they prepared for life after being governor.

For Gregoire, it meant re-learning how to drive after eight years of getting chauffeured everywhere. She said she’s gaining her confidence, though not so much with parallel parking.

“It’s an adjustment,” she said. “Parking the car is an adjustment.”

Evans, who also served as a state lawmaker and U.S. senator, welcomed not being in the spotlight.

One of the frustrations of being governor, he said, is everyone recognizes you and you can’t get away with your family.

“It ultimately fades away and anonymity returns,” he said.