Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 33

GLsperStarVTribune Lottors Sunday, November 17, 1996 170 Star Lane, Box 80, Casper, WY 82602 The Casper Daily Tribune: Est Oct 9, 1916 by J.E. Hanway; The Casper Star: Est. in 1949 mm, Cas)er Slur Tribune liol) 1 1 less, Publisher David llipselmian, Editor Will Gov. Weld be the nation's next AG? ARMS. PRESENT LuS40 Gramon i Robert D.

Novak CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. TOW. Who'll replace tenn-lirnits Smith? Joan Barron STAR-TRIBUNE Nunn, long a major Democratic voice on national security questions, has vastly more foreign policy experience than Mitchell and would be more popular with Senate Republicans. Senate GOP Whip Don Nickles has publicly suggested Nunn for the job. Clinton considered Republican Sen.

Richard Lugar, a former Senate Foreign Policy Committee chairman, a third serious contender for the State portfolio. But Lugar quickly ruled himself out. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY DALEY? Even before the election, President Clinton had decided on one new Cabinet member: Chicago Democratic power broker William Daley to be secretary of Transportation, rectifying a 4-year-old snub. Both Daley and his brother, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, thought he was set for Transportation in 1992.

But at the last moment, Daley was shunted aside for Denver Mayor Federico Pena, in the interests of ethnic diversity. Instead of sulking, Daley has proved a loyal Clinton booster managing congressional approval of NAFTA and the Democratic national convention. LOTT RULES Sen. Trent Lott demonstrated last week that he plans to be a hands-on majority leader when he quietly nixed Sen. William Roth from putting out his own agenda as chairman of the critically important Senate Finance Committee.

When Lott's staffers got word that Roth had drafted such a press release, they politely advised that it might be a good idea for Senate Republicans to coordinate policies before going public. WASHINGTON -When Massachusetts Gov. William Weld was spotted last weekend at the Ashby Inn in Paris, not far from the nation's capital, suspicion was fanned in political circles that the liberal Eepublican is being considered for President Clinton's next attorney general. That buttressed Democratic speculation that Weld is the ideal solution for Clinton's Janet Reno problem. The White House is furious with Attorney General Reno for her appointment of multiple special prosecutors but fears that her dismissal would cause a firestorm.

That could be prevented by replacing her with Weld, who resigned as an assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration with a public protest about Attorney General Edwin Meese's ethics. Weld's Republican presidential ambitions were undermined in this year's election by his unsuccessful effort to unseat Sen. John Kerry, and he is reported bored by the job after six years as governor. A further asset He is a good friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton. SECRETARY OF STATE NUNN? Although former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell still is the most likely choice to be the next secretary of state, President Clinton is also looking at retiring Sen.

Sam Nunn. Mitchell is much closer personally to Clinton, who has never had a warm relationship with Nunn. But effectiveness by his announcement two years before the next election. His pending retirement has, however, stirred speculation on candidates for the treasurer's office in 1998. Topping my list is Cynthia Lummis, a former legislator who is general counsel and intergovernmental affairs specialist in the office of Gov.

Jim Geringer; Steve Degenfelder, deputy commissioner of public lands; Bill Schilling, executive director of the Wyoming Heritage Society, and Eric Alden, Wheatland lawyer and former legislator. All are Republicans. Lummis was set to run two years ago if Smith hadn't Alden ran anyway and lost the primary to Smith. Alden is the best prepared of the bunch. He can use his 1994 Alden for Treasurer campaign signs.

Or, he can run for secretary of state again, using his 1994 Alden for Secretary of State signs. Two years ago, Alden first filed for secretary of state but the race got too crowded so he switched to the treasurer's contest Schilling ran for secretary of state, too, but didn't switch and lost with the others to Diana Ohman. Undoubtedly, more Republican names will surface. Meanwhile, education reform juts on the legislative horizon like a huge boulder. The current plan is for the Legislature to get the consultants' report on the cost of education in February.

The Legislature will adjourn and return in May or June for a special session of six days or so to deal solely with the education reform package. It sounds so tidy. One legislator who sees ruts in the road is Sen. Charles Scott of Casper. A special session on education reform and finance will be a disaster, Scott said.

He noted that historically special sessions have been short lasting only a few days. The reason is because the legislators' collective mood in a special session is for a quick fix, a band-aid, to tide over the problem until the next regulation session in the winter. But Scott stressed that education reform is not a cut-and-dried issue and can't be completed in six days. "I want our leadership to do something different," he said. His suggestion is to have the Legislature pass a stop-gap measure and then take the time to see what the consultants recommend.

The Legislature then could work education reforjn properly in the 1998 budget session, which could be lengthened. What about the supreme court's July 1, 1997 deadline for the Legislature to produce a new school finance plan? Scott said he believes that if the legislators are making progress, the court will give them another year. Scott is not the only legislator or official who is concerned about the time table. He is on target about the nature of special sessions, particularly those held in the spring or summer when no one wants to be indoors in Cheyenne for whatever reason. Leafy spurge revisited: In retrospect, the extraordinarily emotional debate over state land sales was triggered in part by a noxious weed.

Several years ago, the state Land Board voted to sell off small, odd tracts of state land, most of them in northeast Wyoming, because the state couldn't afford to treat the land for weed infestation, notably leafy spurge. The idea was that if ranchers bought the land they were more likely to pay to have the weeds eradicated or at least controlled. Agriculture officials said leafy spurge was difficult if not impossible, to kill. It was the weed that wouldn't die. Now we find there's a biological weed control for leafy spurge.

According to a pamphlet from the Powder River Basin Resource Council, the weapon is insects, such as leafy spurge flea beetles. Also, goats love it. Imagine the contentious debates, the angry confrontations, the multiple studies that may have been avoided if a means to control leafy spurge had available years ago. Insects and goats were the answer all along. CHEYENNE Treasurer Stan Smith can expect a cool reception from the Legislature next year.

Smith's embrace in full-page newspaper ads of the two ill-advised term limits ballot proposals has not endeared him to his fellow Republicans. They might accept such a hearty endorsement for term limits from a newcomer to elected office. But Smith is in the middle of his fourth term. GOP legislators, present and former, have denounced his position as hypocritical. Smith's rationale is that he always has supported term limits, but they didn't go into effect until 1993 so his earlier years in office don't count In his endorsement letter, Smith also announced he will not be seeking a fifth term.

He said this should be no surprise to anyone, and he didn't feel he was hampering his Ups downs of Clinton's omnibus parks law 4) The flood insurance alone will cost the American taxpayer more than $6.1 million for the 75 acres involved. That's before a hurricane hits in hurricane-prone Florida. Charles Levendosky STAR-TRIBUNE needed for the facility, according to critics. The deal is sweeter than was necessary. And all this could have been accomplished by the normal leasing process which is how many ski resorts in the Western states acquire use of the land.

The Glacier Bay National Park just west of the Tongass National Forest in southern Alaska is a popular cruise ship destination because of its scenery. A provision in the parks act limits the ability of the National Park Service to control the number of cruise ships allowed in the area each day. In addition it strips much of the authority of the NPS to control pollution from the cruise ships: noise pollution and oil slicks from the ship engines and air contaminants from the ship smokestacks. Engine noise disturbs the whales. Wildlife experts have been concerned about this phenomenon.

With the rate of cruise ships in Glacier Bay likely to increase, the problem becomes worse. This is one more example of increased pressure on wildlife and habitat due to increasing numbers of people who want to partake of it In a sense, we could end up destroying what we low by our desire to be part of it And that is the reason this nation needs more national wildlife areas set aside for the future so that a few popular ones aren't trampled under by too many feet And the omnibus parks act does, in fart, create new heritage areas, historic trails, and preserves. The three sparkling gems in the legislation are the preservation of the Presidio in San Francisco, the Sterling Forest in New York and New Jersey, and the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas. and from the Small Business Administration. The flood insurance alone will cost the American taxpayer more than $6.1 million for the 75 acres involved.

That's before a hurricane hits in hurricane-prone Florida. When Hurricane Bertha bumped into the coast in September, it cost taxpayers $3 billion. One of the beaches that is part of this giveaway supports the largest nesting population of the threatened loggerhead sea turtles in the Western Hemisphere. It will now host a sprawl of condominiums instead. Just leaning into the wind.

Not one member of the Florida congressional delegation objected to the inclusion of this beach acreage in the giveaway. Real estate and construction interests pumped nearly three-quarters of a million dollars into the PACs of Florida's two senators in the six years ending December 1994. Now you and I will spend many more million to assist Florida's condominium builders. Does that reveal the dollar-green underbelly of politics? In Utah, a sweetheart deal was given to a prominent Utah developer who acquired 1,320 acres of prime federal land within the Wasatch-Cache National Forest near Ogden to develop a ski resort The parks act not only authorizes but 'directs a land swap for the development of the ski resort In doing so it bypasses the normal review to determine the impact on the watershed, wildlife, and the environment It also waives the normal requirement for public discussion. The Olympics are the reason for the haste, according to those who support the swap.

The Snowbasin ski facility is to be used in the winter Olympics. However, 1,320 acres is more than is sensitive area. The creation of the nation's first Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is momentous. This legislation creates an 11,000 acre preserve in the Flint Hills of east-central Kansas. The National Park Trust has agreed to sell the tallgrass prairie ecosystem portion of the Spring Hill Ranch to the federal government This preserve is one of the few examples of tallgrass prairie left in America The Big Bluestem grasses in a tallgrass prairie, about mid-July after the rainy season, can be 10 to 12 feet high.

Explorers who passed through this endless sea of grasses 200 years ago were forced to use compasses in order to gauge their direction they could only see a small portion of the sky when walking through this prairie. According to diaries of early settlers in these areas, they had to stand on the backs of their horses in order to see where their cattle might be. They looked for wavering at the tops of the grasses. This preserve showcases the significance of the omnibus parks act Given the anti-environmental stance of many in the 104th Congress, this major piece of legislation is amazingly positive. In one of the few times that President Clinton stood firm on an issue, he wrested free one of the best parks bill this country has had in many decades.

The Presidio, located at the Golden Gate Bridge, is the oldest continuously operated military post in our nation's history. The garrison flew three different flags in its 220 years: Spain, Mexico, and the United States. The Presidio was designated a national historic landmark in 1962 its buildings and their contents are a treasure of military history. The Presidio is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is open to the public. Under the omnibus parks legislation, a publicprivate trust will be created to manage the Presidio as an historic and scenic resource and see to its upkeep.

The trust has 15 years to make the Presidio self-sustaining through user fees and recreational and educational leases of some of its buildings. The time period is short, but Congress can extend that period if necessary. Overall, this is a creative approach to managing a national treasure. The parks legislation provides federal funding for the purchase of more than 17,000 acres of the Sterling Forest by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission of the states of New Jersey and New York. The Secretary of Interior is authorized to exchange unreserved federal lands for 2,000 more acres of the forest The Sterling Forest protects important water resources and is considered an environmentally On Nov.

12, President Clinton signed the Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Management Act into law. It's a stunning piece of legislation for those who love our public lands, but it isn't without a few nasty setbacks. The omnibus parks act makes more than 60 changes, land exchanges, and Improvements in the national park system and affects 41 states. However, the nation certainly would have been better off without three of these included modifications. The taxpayers are going to pick up a big ticket for one item in the parks act the giveaway of a large portion of the Coastal Barrier Resources System that was created in 1982 to protect threatened coastal wildlife, wetlands, and habitats for migratory birds.

A section of the parks law authorizes an exemption to the coastal barrier law and allows federal subsidization for the development of specified undeveloped barrier islands and beaches of Florida. The land developers can now get federal flood insurance to the tune of 182,000 per coastline acre, and money from the Department of Transportation Opinion Editor Charles Levendosky. For information, questions and comments about this page, call (307) 2660619 or (800) 442-6916; email editorialttrib.com; fax (307) 2660568..