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Justice Dept. investigating former Interior Secretary Gale Norton's ties to oil companyWASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether former Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton illegally used her position to steer lucrative oil leases to Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the company she works for now, officials with both departments confirmed to The Associated Press.

WASHINGTON --The head of a Republican environmental advocacy group is set to plead guilty in the Jack Abramoff scandal and is cooperating with an FBI investigation into corruption involving Congress and the Bush administration, two people close to the case said Wednesday. Italia Federici served as a go-between for Abramoff, the once-powerful lobbyist, and J. Steven Griles, the deputy interior secretary during President Bush's first term, prosecutors said Wednesday in documents charging her with tax evasion and obstructing a Senate inquiry into the Abramoff scandal. Under a deal with the Justice Department, she must cooperate with authorities and is identifying...

WASHINGTON - Federal officials are investigating how National Archives documents of interest to Indians suing the Interior Department were found discarded in a trash bin and a wastebasket. The discovery came to light on Sept. 1, when Archives staff noticed federal records in one of the trash bins behind the National Archives Building near the Capitol. They notified the Archives' inspector general, Paul Brachfeld, whose staff recovered the documents. They found at least a portion of the documents were Bureau of Indian Affairs records dating to the 1950s, according to Jason Baron of the Archives' Office of General Counsel, in...

WASHINGTON - In Jack Abramoff's world, prominent Washington tax-cut advocate Grover Norquist was a godsend. Moving money from a casino-operating Indian tribe to Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition founder and professed gambling opponent, was a problem. Lobbyist Abramoff turned to his longtime friend Norquist, apparently to provide a buffer for Reed. The result, according to evidence gathered by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, was that Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform became a conduit for more than a million dollars from the Mississippi Choctaw to Reed's operation, while Norquist, a close White House ally, took a cut. Without citing any specific...

Thank you all for five great years. I have the utmost respect for the outstanding team of dedicated employees in the Department of the Interior. I said that the day I arrived here as Secretary, because I had learned it during my previous tour of duty at Interior, in the Solicitor’s Office. That respect has continued growing ever since. My husband John Hughes has been my partner throughout the adventure of the past five years. And a fascinating adventure it has been. We both want to thank you for your friendship, your hospitality, your extra efforts, your patience. Most of...

Department of the Interior For Immediate Release: March 23, 2006 Contact: Hugh Vickery (202 )208-6416 Norton Names 12 To New Sporting Conservation Council; Will Advise Interior On Hunting, Wildlife Resource Issues (COLUMBUS, Ohio) -- Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton today announced the creation of a new Sporting Conservation Council that will advise the Department of the Interior on resource conservation issues of interest to the hunting community. Norton also named the initial members who will represent various parts of the community. The council will provide important input in the areas of habitat restoration and protection; the impact of energy development...

The president and first lady met in the Oval Office with representatives from various organizations honored for their support of the U.S. military. President Bush welcomed Peru's President Toledo to the White House. Click here for his remarks. Bush addressed the National Newspaper Association Conference. Click here to read his remarks. He commented on the port debate. Click here for article "Norton is resigning after five years as" Interior Secretary, "the Associated Press has learned. Norton planned to announce her decision Friday, March 10, 2006, a senior government official and another source familiar with her decision told the AP," per...

Compromise: The accord would divvy up the basin's water during dry years Representatives of the seven Colorado River Basin states announced Friday they have reached a tentative agreement about how the river will be managed during water shortages. The deal culminates a year of sometimes stormy negotiations between upper basin states Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico, plus California, Arizona and Nevada in the lower basin over how the river's precious resource should be shared. The stakes are enormous. Interior Secretary Gale Norton late in 2004 gave the seven basin states until February to submit a joint proposal for an...

Stones' keyboardist wins Bush environment award By John Helprin Associated Press October 5, 2005 WASHINGTON -- The Rolling Stones' keyboardist has carved out a new role as the Bush administration's idea of the model conservationist. Chuck Leavell took time from the Stones' "A Bigger Bang" world tour to meet Tuesday with Interior Secretary Gale Norton, a day after playing the MCI Center. He and his wife, Rose Lane, were named "Outstanding Citizen Stewards" for their tree farming near Macon, Ga. Advertisement For him, it's only forests, family and rock and roll. "Her family has been connected to the land for...

Interior's Norton: Slow rebound for offshore oil, gas By William L. Watts​ ​​​​WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Damage to onshore facilities and other bottlenecks created by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita have slowed the recovery of offshore oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Tuesday. Figures released by the department's Minerals Management Service showed that 90% of oil production and 72% of natural gas production in the Gulf remains off line. The agency said that Hurricane Rita destroyed a total of 63 offshore platforms in the Gulf, and damaged 30 fixed platforms.td>

Over the Weekend President George W Bush concluded a 3 day visit to various Command Centres relating to Hurricane Katrina and Rita returning to the White House Sunday afternoon. Vice President Dick Cheney was admitted to the hospital for the elective surgery on his knees. It was announced after doing both knees (originally only one was to be done but surgery went so smoothly it was decided to do the other) that he might be in hopital for up to 48 hours, in fact he was only in for 27 hours and walked without any assistance to his limo early...

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service today announced that it is seeking initial public comment on the development of its 2007-2012 five-year leasing plan for energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and accompanying environmental impact statement. The announcement is the first step in a two-year process to develop the leasing plan. It does not include proposals for new lease sales but instead asks the public for general information and comment not only on energy development but also on other economic and environmental issues in the OCS areas. “The Outer Continental Shelf contains billions of barrels of oil and...

WASHINGTON - A federal judge has given Interior Secretary Gale Norton an ultimatum: Either appear in his court or face the prospect that he'll rule against her on an accusation that she retaliated against American Indians suing her agency for lost royalties. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth gave Norton the choice in an order he issued late Monday. The judge has frequently battled with the Interior Department since a class-action suit was filed in 1996 on behalf of more than 300,000 Indians seeking an accounting of trust funds set up in their behalf more than a century ago. The government...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Bush administration violated the Endangered Species Act when it relaxed protections on many of the nation's gray wolves. The decision by U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones in Portland rescinds a rule change that allowed ranchers to shoot wolves on sight if they were attacking livestock, said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group. In April 2003, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service divided the wolves' range into three areas and reclassified the Eastern and Western populations as threatened instead of endangered. The Eastern segment...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Citing a need for domestic energy, the government plans to open for exploratory drilling thousands of acres on Alaska's North Slope that have been protected for decades because of migratory birds and caribou. The Bureau of Land Management has concluded that oil and gas exploration in the northeastern corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska can be conducted with "minimal impact" on the area's wildlife. While most of the 22 million-acre reserve is open to oil development, its lake-pocked northeastern corner has been fenced off, dating back to the Reagan administration, because of environmental concerns. That area also...

Oh my God ... how .. how could this be?

Richard Nixon is remembered mostly as a disgraced liar, but by today's standards (summed up in four words—Dick Cheney Energy Czar) he was one helluva Republican environmentalist. After all, Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, signed the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act. The first President Bush was no Nixon, but he did sign the 1990 Clean Air Act. And of course there was President Teddy Roosevelt, the highest regarded Republican environmentalist of them all who helped establish the National Park Service. From its inception in 1916, the agency's core mission was, and legally still is, to conserve...

FAIRBANKS--Interior Secretary Gale Norton looked out on a crowd of people hoisting political signs during a downtown rally at Veterans Memorial Park on Friday and saw many endorsing Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Others displayed the name of former Gov. Tony Knowles, Murkowski's challenger in the Nov. 2 election. Regardless of the candidate they supported, several of the signs also displayed messages advocating the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development. Norton, who was in Alaska to meet with leaders on natural resource issues and campaign for Murkowski and President Bush, acknowledged the ANWR-drilling support on both sides of...

This was posted over on thehighroad.org. Also, Phil VanCleave, head of VCDL, has a thread posted over on packing.org. There is currently a country wide campaign started this week to get the secretary of the Interior, (who packs herself) to change the policy and let CCW holders in U.S. Parks. Perhaps some of you have read this at Packing.org already. We should continue to contact the Secretary of the Interior, who could make the change without Congress' approval: Ms. Gale Norton Secretary of the Interior U.S. Department of the Interior Dept. HG, 1849 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20240 Phone:...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Access to the Statue of Liberty, which has been closed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, will be relaxed beginning this summer, although tourists will still not be allowed inside the statue itself. Pledges of $7 million in donations, including a $100,000 gift from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, will finance upgrades that were necessary before the monument could be reopened. Secretary of Interior Gale Norton said Tuesday that the observation deck on the statue's pedestal will be reopened sometime in late July. Currently, tourists can visit Liberty Island but are not allowed inside the 151-foot statue or...