Under the Radar

JUDICIARY -- DOMENICI ADMITS TO CONTACTING OUSTED NEW MEXICO PROSECUTOR ABOUT CORRUPTION PROBE: In Dec. 2006, the Bush administration asked David Iglesias, the U.S. attorney in New Mexico, to resign. Iglesias lost his position despite having "received a positive evaluation last year" and the Justice Department saying his strategic plan had "complied with the department's priorities." Iglesias has not taken his firing lying down; he told the media "that two members of Congress attempted to pressure him to speed up a probe of Democrats just before the November elections." "I believe that because I didn't play ball, so to speak, I was asked to resign," Iglesias said. Everyone in New Mexico's congressional delegation denied contacting Inglesias, except for Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM). But over the weekend, Domenici admitted he had called Iglesias about the ongoing corruption probe, but said, "I have never pressured him nor threatened him in any way." Iglesias has said the lawmakers who contacted him "appeared eager...for an indictment to be issued before the elections in order to benefit the Republicans." Despite the glowing performance reviews Iglesias had received, Domenici contacted the Justice Department to express "general concerns about the performance" of Iglesias and question "whether he was up to the job." Legal experts say Domenci's actions may violate congressional ethics rules that prohibit lawmakers from communicating "with a federal prosecutor regarding an ongoing criminal investigation." "It's going to precipitate a huge problem." said ethics lawyer Stanley Brand. Tomorrow, both the House and Senate will hold hearings about the U.S. attorney firings.

NATIONAL SECURITY -- U.S. DESIGNS NEW NUCLEAR WARHEAD: Last week, the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the U.S. Navy announced they have settled on a design for a "new generation of atomic warheads." Should the new design -- dubbed the "Reliable Replacement Warhead" -- go into production, it would be the first new nuclear weapon built by the United States since the end of the Cold War. The new weapon design, touted as "critical to sustaining long-term confidence in our nuclear deterrent," is the result of the Bush administration's 2001 Nuclear Posture Review and is a departure from the policies of previous administrations, which put stockpiles through a "life-extension process every 20 to 30 years." The NNSA is expected to "define a cost schedule and a production plan" over the next 10 months, though the Bush administration has already included $88 million for the new weapon in the FY08 budget request and the program would require significant upgrades to the nation's nuclear weapons production facilities. Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-IN), who chairs the subcommittee in charge of funds for upgrading the weapons production facilities, has criticized the Bush administration for failing to present a "clear, coherent national policy to justify the new warhead." In addition, the previous chair of the same committee, Rep. David L. Hobson (R-OH), denied the administration's request for funding for the development of a nuclear "bunker buster" weapon. Instead, he encouraged the creation of a program to upgrade the reliability of the nation's current nuclear arsenal. As the Washington Post reports, "the Bush administration turned this into a program to develop a new nuclear warhead." Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is "100 percent opposed" to the production of the Reliable Replacement Weapon. She added, "you are essentially creating a new nuclear weapon. And it's just a matter of time before other nations do the same thing."

KATRINA -- SCIENTISTS ESTIMATE LOUISIANA COASTLINE WILL DISAPPEAR IN 10 YEARS: In the wake of the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, many coastal scientists in Louisiana are warning that the Gulf of Mexico could creep up to New Orleans's doorstep in as few as ten years. Wetlands and marshes that provided a natural barrier between the city of New Orleans and the nearby ocean have been devoured due to development of coastal areas primarily in the form of levees and canals for oil, gas, and shipping lines. This massive "land loss" in Louisiana has resulted in "the arrival of a tipping point in the coast's demise," where hundreds of square miles of wetland have been washed out to sea in recent decades and the entire coastal region could be swallowed in a decade unless action is taken. Scientists note that federal and state efforts to reverse this land loss have been largely ineffective. "The most disturbing concern may be this: coastal restoration efforts have been under way for two decades, but not a single project capable of reversing the trend currently awaits approval." Last week, Bush toured the Gulf Coast region for the first time in six months. Even with the threat of the swelling coast line, Bush continues to underfund the levee system, crucial in preventing floods in New Orleans. With his new budget, Bush shifted $1.3 billion away from raising and armoring levees, installing flood gates, and building permanent water pumps. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) told President Bush that "this vital emergency post-Katrina work is now being treated like typical [Army Corps of Engineers] projects that takes decades to complete." But with a quickly receding coastline, New Orleans does not have decades to wait.