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Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Cracks run on the top of a dam in Wenchuan, China's southwest Sichuan Province May 20, 2008. CHENGDU, China – Nearly 70 dams scarred by the force of China's most powerful earthquake in three decades were in danger of bursting, the government said Sunday, while looming rains added to worries about relief efforts for millions of homeless survivors. The confirmed death toll from the May 12 quake rose to 62,664, with another 23,775 people missing, Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin said. Premier Wen Jiabao has said the number of dead could surpass 80,000. A magnitude 5.8 aftershock rattled the quake area...

HARRISBURG -- With a section of a Pittsburgh bridge dropping 8 inches and an Interstate 95 support pillar cracking in Philadelphia, Gov. Ed Rendell is turning up the heat under the Legislature to provide infrastructure repair funds more quickly. Mr. Rendell sent a letter to all 253 legislators yesterday urging quick passage of a $240 million "supplemental debt authorization." His program of borrowing would enable state officials to fast-track repairs on some of the state's 6,000 bridges classified as structurally deficient, along with fixing ailing highways, repairing "state-owned, high-hazard dams" and beginning flood mitigation projects. Also yesterday, Mr. Rendell called...

1976 Teton Dam disaster is just one hurdle facing any project to store more water and make more electricity. While Gov. Butch Otter and the Idaho Legislature talk about ways to build new dams and enlarge existing ones, the discussions are framed by two floods - one that some fear could happen at any minute, and another more than three decades ago that still hangs over the part of the state once devastated by its power. Weiser residents are watching the weather closely as above-average snowpack threatens to swell the Weiser River, which has no dam, to flood stage this...

The agreement announced Tuesday on the future of the Klamath River offers reason for cautious hope that the troubled waterway can recover from years of human intervention and abuse while meeting the conflicting needs of fish and farms. The agreement � forged by the farmers, fishermen, American Indians, government agencies and conservation groups whose views on the Klamath’s future long have clashed � achieves the seemingly impossible: a broadly supported plan to allocate the free-flowing waters of the river without dams. Therein lies the hope. And therein lies the caution. That these longtime adversaries, who for years battled over a...

BANGKOK, Thailand - Six proposed dams on the Mekong River could displace up to 75,000 villagers and harm hundreds of species like the endangered giant catfish and Irrawaddy dolphin, conservationists warned Tuesday. Premrudee Daoroung, director of the Bangkok-based environmental group TERRA, said 13-year-old plans to build four dams in Laos and one each in Thailand and Cambodia have been revived as part of efforts — mostly by China, Thailand and Vietnam — to find new energy sources for their growing economies. "The natural flow of the river will all be completely changed," Premrudee said. "Of course, it will affect all...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- California Energy Commission analysts urged Oregon, California and Washington to deny any requests from PacifiCorp to increase electricity rates to help pay for upgrading Klamath dams. A Monday letter signed by California Energy Commission executive director B.B. Blevins asks the public utility commissions in each of the three states to authorize cost recovery only for decommissioning the four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. Indian tribes, fishermen and conservation groups want the dams removed to open up spawning habitat for struggling salmon runs. "The Energy Commission has a responsibility not only to provide reliable energy supplies,...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday proposed a $9 billion water bond measure that would earmark more than half the money for dams opposed by most of the Democrats who dominate the Legislature. The proposal eclipses the governor's previous $5.9 billion bond plan, in large part by adding a third dam project in Contra Costa County. Whether the lawmakers will go along with dams - and how much they are willing to pay for them - will be a key part of the negotiations in the Legislature's upcoming special session on water projects. Senate President Pro Tem. Don Perata, D-Oakland, has...

The Schwarzenegger administration on Wednesday dusted off a failed dam proposal as a way to shore up California water supplies in light of a federal judge's ruling limiting shipments from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. But it seemed doubtful that the Democrat-controlled Legislature - long-opposed to new dams - would go along in the waning days of its 2007 session. At a Capitol news conference flanked by city water leaders, farm and building industry representatives, Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman said an Aug. 31 ruling by a federal judge in Fresno could cut water flows out of the delta by about a...

SACRAMENTO – California voters could decide as early as February whether to spend billions of dollars to build dams and a canal to divert water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday. His statement, made during a news conference at a shrinking federal reservoir, shows the governor wants to accelerate the timeframe to devise a far-reaching water plan. It also sets the stage for a summer of negotiations with the Democrat-controlled Legislature. If the sides can reach a deal, Schwarzenegger said a bond measure could be added to the ballot for the Feb. 5 presidential primary. That...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A group of Klamath River Native Americans kicked off a road trip today from San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf to demand removal of several salmon-killing dams on the Klamath River. Members from the the Yurok, Karok and Hoopa tribes plan to tow hand-carved redwood canoes to Omaha, Neb., to a Berkshire Hathaway stockholders' meeting. The company, headed by billionaire and philanthropist Warren Buffett, owns PacifiCorp, the firm which holds the four hydropower dams on the Klamath River blamed for decimating local salmon runs. "We hope to meet with Mr. Buffett and convince him to do the right thin

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday promoted a $6 billion plan for increased water storage and protecting fresh water supplies, calling for two new dams and better management of the delta. "Our state's population is increasing rapidly. We also have earthquakes and major storms that could really destroy our levee system," the governor said, speaking against the backdrop of Friant Dam at Millerton Lake, in the Sierra foothills east of Fresno. Two-thirds of Californians depend on the Sierra Nevada snowmelt for drinking water while Central Valley growers use it to irrigate their fields. Schwarzenegger said the state's expected growth - to...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A Pacific Northwest utility must build new fish ladders and take other steps to help salmon swim freely past four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River if it wants to renew its license to produce electricity, federal fisheries agencies said Tuesday. The cost of the ladders, turbine screens and fish bypasses was estimated at nearly $300 million. The high cost could boost pressure on the utility, PacifiCorp, to remove the dams altogether — something environmentalists have been pushing for. Removing the dams would open access to 350 miles of salmon spawning habitat that have been blocked...

Democrats in the state Senate on Thursday said California does not need to build new reservoirs as it tries to cope with the expected consequences of global warming. Instead, the state should rely on conservation, underground storage and boosting the height of existing dams. Their plan, outlined in a series bills, runs counter to Republicans’ desire for new reservoirs to help California address the changes anticipated from global climate change. It sets up a potential clash in the coming months with Republicans and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who proposed $4.5 billion for two new reservoirs and underground water storage in his...

Democrats in the state Senate on Thursday said California does not need to build new reservoirs as it tries to cope with the expected consequences of global warming. Instead, the state should rely on conservation, underground storage and boosting the height of existing dams. Their plan, outlined in a series bills, runs counter to Republicans' desire for new reservoirs to help California address the changes anticipated from global climate change. It sets up a potential clash in the coming months with Republicans and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who proposed $4.5 billion for two new reservoirs and underground water storage in his...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday proposed another huge round of borrowing to build prisons, schools and dams in a state of the state speech that also called for cleaner fuels to help curb global warming. The borrowing proposals, which add up to $43.3 billion, are similar to ideas that were cut out of the enormous borrowing plan the governor put forth last year. The Legislature changed it and cut it in half, and voters eventually approved $42.7 billion in bonds in November. Addressing a joint session of the Legislature, Schwarzenegger said he was bringing the ideas back because,...

Arnold Suffers Not Only From Broken Leg But a Case of "Dam-nesia?" Damnesia - damn amnesia, e.g., "What's Arnold's problem? Oh, he's suffering from damnesia again." - Pseudodictionary.com Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is using the environmentalists own "Global Warming" rhetoric as a reason to build new dams in California which they have opposed (see here: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070107/news_1n7dams.html). Even worse for environmentalists, he proposes to free up the long-standing political log jam on the infamous "Peripheral Canal" which would send water, which is dangerously backing up behind flood levees in Sacramento, around the Delta to Southern California. With shrewd ideological co-opting tactics like...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to draw on his popular campaign against global warming to promote something not so popular among environmentalists – building new dams in California. His strategy will attempt to capitalize on fears that climatic disruptions linked to global warming could take a toll on fish and wildlife, as well as increase flood risks and reduce overall water supplies for a growing state. To guard against those threats, Schwarzenegger will aggressively pursue at least one, and possibly two new reservoirs as part of his 2007 agenda. The combined price tag could be as much as $3.7...

California Governor Schwarzenegger and Oregon Governor Kulongoski today directed their respective state agencies to organize a Klamath Summit to be held before the year ends. The governors have joined forces and are holding the summit to resolve a multitude of complex issues related to the health of the river that impact salmon fishermen, tribes, hydroelectric power and a host of environmental and habitat concerns. “We have the problems of water quality, water supply, listed species, energy generation, and agricultural sustainability expressed in countless ways in the Klamath Basin,” Governor Kulongoski said. “We must forge a consensus on a sustainable approach...

Scientists have long said the only way to restore Louisiana’s vanishing wetlands is to undo the elaborate levee system that controls the Mississippi River, not with the small projects that have been tried here and there, but with a massive diversion that would send the muddy river flooding wholesale into the state’s sediment-starved marshes. And most of them have long dismissed the idea as impractical, unaffordable and lethal to the region’s economy. Now, they are reconsidering. In fact, when a group of researchers convened last April to consider the fate of the Louisiana coast, their recommendation was unanimous: divert the...

June 24— The Qatari man designated an enemy combatant by the Bush administration was planning another Sept. 11 attack, sources told ABCNEWS. Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri, 37, was deemed an enemy combatant by the Bush administration on Monday after officials said he was positively identified by an al Qaeda detainee as being part of a planned second wave of terror attacks on the United States. Government officials said they believed al Qaeda's top leadership sent Al-Marri to the United States to coordinate a new round of attacks. "Al-Marri was sent to the United States as a facilitator for other al...

Revelations in the Peoria Journal Star earlier this week that the Peoria/Champaign area is one of seven in the United States on a terrorist “circuit” were frightening. “Terrorists enter the United States in San Francisco and Los Angeles, then move to Phoenix, then Denver," reported Phil Luciano of the PJS. "From there some head to Peoria and Champaign. Some terrorists remain in those communities, while others head on to New York City" (emphasis added). Luciano was provided this information by Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy, who received it at a recent FBI conference held in Springfield. Names of larger cities...

COIHAIQUE, Chile · With Chile trying to manage both Latin America's most dynamic economy and a looming energy squeeze, the government has embraced a plan to build a series of dams here in the rugged, pristine heart of Patagonia that would flood thousands of acres. The plan, proposed by a Spanish-owned electricity company, would harness the rushing rivers of the sparsely populated region known as Aisen, which is dotted with national parks and nature reserves. But environmental groups have condemned the proposal, which they say will damage ranching and tourism. They have mounted an international campaign to block construction. LocalLinks...

MILLINGTON, Md. - American eels are crafty fish, able to slither up rocks and around branches in just a tiny bit of water. But it turns out they're not the strongest swimmers — and dams throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed may be blocking their natural migration patterns and contributing to a sharp population decline. Maryland biologists are hoping to boost the fortunes of the American eel, which is found across the Atlantic coast but is most abundant in the Chesapeake and its tributaries. Even in the Chesapeake, though, eels aren't doing so great. Scientists believe they're being stymied in part...

A busy beaver's dam work is felt downstream in a major way, a new study suggests. Beavers are well known for creating large pond-like areas upstream from their dams, but scientists have found that the construction projects also spread water downstream with the efficiency of a massive once-every-200-years flood. Researchers spent three years in the Rocky Mountain National Park examining downstream valley ecosystems in the Colorado River.

CONCORD, N.H. --In 1936, when the Merrimack River overflowed its banks and swept away roads, bridges and buildings from central New Hampshire to the Massachusetts coast, the Army Corps of Engineers took action. The agency built five dams and several reservoirs, seizing thousands of acres of private property in more than a dozen New Hampshire towns. The project, finished in 1963, protected residents downstream, including parts of Massachusetts. In the 1950s, Massachusetts and New Hampshire entered into a deal to compensate those towns each year for lost property taxes. Because Massachusetts received more of the benefit from the dams, that...

Tucked into the folds of the gigantic state infrastructure bond lawmakers were grappling with into the evening Monday is money aimed at buying and removing dams on the Klamath River. It is the first sign that money would be available from the state to grease the skids in negotiations between the dam owner and the fleet of sometimes conflicting parties that have a stake in using the river or restoring its debilitated fish runs. Tribes, environmental groups, fishermen, farmers and agencies have been meeting every two weeks to hash out a settlement that could involve decommissioning Pacificorp's dams and removing...

Broken ice dam blamed for 300-year chill 14:21 10 January 2006 NewScientist.com news service Kurt Kleiner A three-century-long cold spell that chilled Europe 8200 years ago was probably caused by the bursting of a Canadian ice dam, which released a colossal flood of glacial meltwater into the Atlantic Ocean. Two new papers, using different computer models, show that the massive freshwater flood accounts for evidence of the sudden climate change, which cooled Greenland by an average of 7.4°C, and Europe by about 1°C. It was the most abrupt and widespread cool spell in the last 10,000 years. Evidence for the...

GIVEN THE PASTING PRESIDENT BUSH has taken over the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, one might have assumed the president's critics were in agreement about how to prevent such disasters. But for years now, the left has been deeply ambivalent about the most logical and time-tested mitigator against the threat of city-wide and regional floods: dams.How could dams, embraced by everyone from beavers to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, be a source of contention? Ask the environmentalists. Their campaign against dams has gained influence and stalled, decommissioned, or otherwise limited the construction of many dams and levees, including one project that could...

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Fish advocates see the plan to demolish Condit Dam on the White Salmon River as good news for salmon everywhere, but the state Ecology Department says the project could hurt fish downstream and might violate the federal Endangered Species Act. Demolition of the 125-foot-high hydroelectric dam, owned by Portland-based PacifiCorp, is proposed for October 2008. The project would open 33 miles of steelhead habitat and 14 miles of salmon habitat in the area of the river blocked by the dam since 1913. The river forms a portion of the boundary between Klickitat and Skamania counties along the...

My engineering training kicked in when I saw the NASA photographs from space of New Orleans, and of the whole Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. There is an obvious solution to the New Orleans problem. The Dutch have already demonstrated it. Take New Orleans as the first and worst example. The pumps, levees and canals intended to protect New Orleans have been controlled by local authorities. They left three of the four pumping stations dependent on the local power grid. Hellooo. The precise time those pumps are most needed is during a storm when the local power grid...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A federal court ruling that rejects the Bush administration's latest effort to balance Columbia Basin salmon recovery against hydroelectric dams has fish conservationists pressing anew for breaching four dams on the lower Snake River. "What the law requires is an honest analysis of how we configure the hydro system so we can get salmon back in our rivers," said Jan Hasselman, attorney for the National Wildlife Federation. "What all the scientists tell us is such an honest analysis would call for breaching the lower four Snake River dams." But with President Bush and the Republican-led Congress...

Years ago when I had a full head of hair, I worked for the New Jersey Institute of Technology and gained a great respect for engineers and architects. Without them, nothing gets built, nothing works, and we would all be back rubbing two sticks together to make a fire. In early March, my local daily newspaper ran a story that was four paragraphs long and buried at the bottom of the page. Engineers see U.S. Infrastructure Sinking. It was one of those stories deemed newsworthy enough to include since it cited a report by the American Society of Civil Engineers,...

INTELLIGENCEMan Is Held After Police Seize Tapes of Buildings and a DamBy ERIC LICHTBLAUPublished: August 11, 2004 ASHINGTON, Aug. 10 - The federal authorities, on heightened alert over the prospect of another Al Qaeda attack, are conducting a terrorism investigation into an illegal immigrant from Pakistan found with videotapes of downtown buildings and transit systems in four Southern states and of a dam in Texas, officials said on Tuesday.Officials acknowledged that they had no direct evidence linking the suspect, a former Queens resident named Kamran Shaikh, to terrorism. But they said they remained keenly interested in determining why he made...

August 11, 2004 -- A Pakistani who lives in Queens is being held in Charlotte, N.C., after videotaping skyscrapers in six major U.S. cities and making mysterious money transfers totaling $120,000, prosecutors said yesterday. Kamran Shaikh, 35, a father of three who lives in Elmhurst, also videotaped mass-transit systems in four of the cities and a dam in Texas, prosecutors said. Shaikh, who has lived in the United States for 13 years and has used the alias Kamran Akhtar, is being held without bail on immigration charges. He was busted in Charlotte on July 20 after Police Officer Anthony Maglione...

December 28, 2004 17:02 PM Water Supply Services In Penang Not Affected By Tsunami PENANG, Dec 28 (Bernama) -- Penang's water supply infrastructure, services and quality have not been affected by the tsunami triggered by the underwater earthquake near Sumatra, Indonesia, last Sunday. Perbadanan Bekalan Air Pulau Pinang Sdn Bhd (PBAPP) general manager Datuk Liew Chook San said Tuesday the company's personnel were monitoring water supply 24 hours a day. "We continue supplying water to Tanjung Bungah, Batu Ferringhi, Teluk Bahang, Balik Pulau and other areas with no compromises on quality and pressure," he said in a press statement here....

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

You're allowed to know that Shasta Dam sits on the Sacramento River 12 miles northwest of Redding, that it's 1,077.5 feet high and consists of 6.27 million cubic yards of concrete. The federal Bureau of Reclamation thinks it's all right to divulge that the structure is a curved gravity type dam built between 1938 and 1945 and modified in 1995 and 1996. That information is readily available on the bureau's Web site. But there is plenty the agency doesn't want you to know about Shasta Dam and others, and that quest for secrecy and security led one of its agents...

Rare victory for protesters Agence France-Presse / News24.com, November 19, 2004 China has suspended work on the Pubugou dam project and fired at least one Communist Party official following recent large-scale demonstrations, residents said Friday. www.threegorgesprobe.org/tgp/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=11891 Mouse that roared over Tiger Leaping Gorge by Josephine Ma, South China Morning Post, November 19, 2004 'The [dam] proposal was drawn by kids sitting in the office and they don't know the actual situation. ... And when it reaches the State Council, the leaders don't know the situation and approve it,' says Yunnan farmer Ge Quanxiao. www.threegorgesprobe.org/tgp/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=11887 Beijing moves in to defuse dam...

More than two million tons of waterborne cargo, including some that floats through the Port of Pittsburgh district, will be disrupted by the planned two-week shutdown next month of the McAlpine Lock on the Ohio River near Louisville, Ky. Chemical, mining and basic manufacturing companies are among those that could be adversely affected by the emergency closure, said James R. McCarville, executive director of the Port of Pittsburgh Commission, a state agency that promotes commercial river use. "This is something we think will have a significant impact. Everything below Louisville that comes here will be subject to closing. All of...

Private enterprise is honoring its commitment to properly care for the nation's locks and dams. The federal government is not. Deferred maintenance of our waterways could have a ripple effect on the region's economy and safety. Trib readers learned Tuesday in a dispatch from Sandra Tolliver that the infrastructure of the Port of Pittsburgh -- America's second largest inland port -- is living on borrowed time.

About 12.5 million tons of cargo move through three antiquated locks and dams on the lower Monongahela River each year, but lack of money to rebuild the dams threatens to halt those shipments. The reconstruction project, already 10 years in the making, will last 15 more years if the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cannot devote $60 million to it annually. If anything happens to shut down river traffic, every household in the region would see higher utility and gasoline costs. Thousands of jobs directly and indirectly tied to river transportation could be jeopardized. "We think we're living on borrowed...

The jobs of hundreds of workers who oversee operation of the region's river system for the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers could be in jeopardy if a shortfall in federal funds to upgrade the rivers' aging lock-and-dam system continues, officials warned Thursday. Operation of the river system itself could also be in peril, along with the millions of dollars worth of commerce that are shipped annually. "While we are here to celebrate a really striking development in the dedication of the Braddock dam ... we have some problems because of the perilous condition of our locks and dams," said James...

Elizabeth Dam improvements could be delayed 15 years or longer When tow boat Capt. Steve Lumpkins moves coal through the century-old locks and dam on the Monongahela River at Elizabeth, he gingerly avoids weakened concrete walls and jutting metal rods that could gash and sink the 195-foot barges he pushes. "There are big chunks out of the wall as we approach from the upper end and three spots that we avoid touching that could cause a crash. That metal could rip the whole side of a barge open,'' Lumpkins said from the Richard C., a tow boat he operates for...

<p>A controlled explosion late this morning at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' dam on the Monongahela River will close a portion of the river to boating and fishing from about 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.</p> <p>The demolition of a 90-foot section of the 100-year-old fixed crest dam at Locks and Dam 2 at Braddock is scheduled for noon. All river traffic and activity will be restricted about one-quarter mile in each direction.</p>

Senators speak up for critics; landowners fear loss of water A proposed dam on the Kettle River in British Columbia has people on both sides of the border concerned. A decision on a proposed hydroelectric dam on the Kettle River in British Columbia, just north of Laurier, Wash., is likely to be delayed several months while proponents address public objections. Washington's two senators are among those voicing concerns that prompted suspension of a six-month fact-finding period by the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office. Midway through the process, dam proponents said they needed more time to answer questions. Critics say the...

A local dive shop owner says FBI agents are wasting their time scouring Keys dive shops for information about suspicious people who took scuba classes. On May 23, the FBI released a warning that some terrorists had been seeking "an offensive scuba diver capability." Concerned that future terrorist attacks might come by sea, the bureau apparently is compiling a database of all the country's certified scuba divers. "Why spin your wheels interviewing the dive shops when they should be going right to PADI?" asked Capt. Bill Grosscup, owner of Captain's Corner on Greene Street. The Professional Association of Diving Instructors,...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. There's more electrical power flowing from TVA's dams, and it's not just because it has been raining. The Tennessee Valley Authority is in the midst of a program to increase the amount of electricity produced at its hydroelectric dams by improving the turbines, electrical power generators and control rooms. The original goal of the modernization project that began in 1992 was to boost the electrical power output capacity of TVA's hydroelectric program by 240 megawatts. TVA officials have since revised that goal to 700 megawatts. The project is scheduled to be...

<p>The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has long been on a path to certify by this year that Sacramento can withstand the theoretical 100-year storm, a move that would make property flood insurance a choice as opposed to a mandate for Sacramento homeowners.</p>

Portland-based Ecotrust hopes the campaign will sell a new way of thinking about the environment Upstairs in Wieden + Kennedy's Portland advertising offices, Spencer Beebe finishes what he calls his "half-hour elevator speech." It's about the complexities of saving salmon and preserving forests while building a healthy economy -- ideas long-discussed within the conservation community. But Beebe is in trouble: His audience isn't tracking. Not even Dan Wieden, whose agency created award-winning campaigns for Nike, Coca Cola and others. Wieden finally breaks in: "I'm just a simple ad guy. So you have to speak sort of monosyllabically and slowly." Then,...