09-22-2001

INSIDE WASHINGTON: Inside Washington for September 22, 2001

Greens Waging War No More, For a While


The environmental community has been on a roller coaster since the
September 11 terrorist strikes. In the hours after the attacks, national
green groups pulled advertising campaigns that were critical of the Bush
Administration. And after months of clashes with the White House, Sierra
Club officials urged staffers not to bash President Bush. Activists also
concede that Congress is more likely now to allow oil drilling in Alaska's
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, although their champion, Sen. John F.
Kerry, D-Mass., continues to promise to fight drilling proposals. In the
meantime, however, environmental groups cheered news that Donald
Schregardus, the President's nominee to lead the Environmental Protection
Agency's enforcement office, had given up.


Operation Finite Help for Our Ailing Elderly


The fates this year of both a Medicare overhaul and prescription drug
legislation are increasingly unclear: House Ways and Means Committee
Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., says he plans to move forward, but
Democrats warn against proceeding on anything potentially divisive. But
older Americans may get limited help with high drug costs this year, says
Tom Scully, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services, which oversees Medicare. Scully says the White House plans to
appeal a recent court ruling keeping the Bush Administration from
activating its plan to make prescription discount cards available for
purchase by the elderly. The Administration also may ask Congress to
clarify Bush's authority to implement the program.


E-Cavern Hopes It's Struck Gold in Kentucky


Spooked by recent images of disaster? A company in Louisville, Ky., has a
solution: Store your important electronic information near Louisville, in
a cavern the size of 100 football fields. Better yet, build your new
office there-secure in the knowledge that at least 25 feet of rock
separates you from the rest of the world. For more than a year before the
terrorist attacks of September 11, a company called e-Cavern had been
upgrading the facility-a former mine-with super-fast fiber-optic links and
electrical connections. The company had also been holding informal
discussions with potential government clients, but it accelerated its
efforts this week. The company's Web site, created before the attacks,
notes that the cavern "can withstand a direct hit by a 747, or a
Force 5 tornado."


Afghanis Battle on the Web, Too


Several Web sites linked both to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia and
to Afghani opposition groups have gone down under a barrage of hate mail
and hacker attacks. The afghan-ie.com, and Taleban.com sites, both
pro-Taliban, and afghan.gov.af, site of the anti-Taliban Afghani Northern
Alliance, have all been unreachable. Afghan-government.com, which was the
virtual embassy in Washington for Afghani opposition groups, has been
transformed by hackers into a message board featuring bitter anti-Taliban
and anti-bin Laden postings.




National Journal