The U.S. military is working with the Environmental Protection Agency to address concerns raised when the agency sharply criticized plans for a military buildup on Guam.

The pressure is on to figure out how to meet environmental laws, community expectations and a 2014 deadline to move in 8,600 Marines from Okinawa. An EPA analysis gave the military proposal its most severe rating, and both groups are trying to move forward without significant delays to the massive project.

The military is working under a self-imposed deadline to finalize its federally required plans — drawn up as an environmental impact statement — by the end of summer in order to begin construction this fall. They say that schedule is necessary to meet an existing agreement with Japan for the Marines’ move.

Meeting the summer deadline will require substantially rewriting and reanalyzing major parts of the military’s plans, including how it will house tens of thousands of temporary workers during construction and how it can avoid dredging as much as 25 acres of coral in Apra Harbor to make way for visiting carriers.

“We’re in agreement with most of the issues that have been brought out,” said David Bice, the retired Marine Corps major general tasked with spearheading the buildup. “How do we deal with it? That’s the crux of the matter.”

For now, the EPA has not asked the military to formally rewrite its proposal, a plan that also includes building an aircraft carrier berth and moving an Army air defense unit to Guam. The EPA could ask for that at a later date.

Instead, the military and the EPA are working together to address current and predicted environmental concerns on Guam that, when combined with the military’s plans, could further tax the island’s struggling water and sewage systems.

“We understand and support DOD’s military mission,” said Nova Blazej, an EPA special assistant who has been on the Guam military project for three years. “We’ve been engaged with the military on this — we want to help ensure that this project meets all national environmental laws and meets the DOD’s deadline.”

Despite three years of collaborative work on the project, Blazej said she understood why the military received such a poor rating from EPA.

The island itself is an environmental challenge. All of Guam’s sewage plants are in noncompliance with the Clean Water Act, according to the EPA. Making the island fully compliant with all environmental standards — without the buildup — would take $800 million to $1 billion, Bice said.

Still, the harsh rating was rare. The EPA reviews about 250 environmental impact statements from other federal agencies each year. On average, only three projects each year rate “inadequate,” she said.

That inadequacy, according to the EPA’s analysis, includes military plans that would “exacerbate existing substandard environmental conditions on Guam,” including public health, the island’s sole aquifer, sewage systems, air quality, trash collection, coral reefs and other marine life.

Solving many of those problems, both Bice and EPA officials say, involves getting more money from other federal agencies.

“How to pay for it is the next big challenge,” Blazej said.

Bice said Thursday he is seeing more movement on that front. Last week, Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn met with his counterparts from various federal agencies to talk about finding money for Guam, Bice said.

“This is a federal move,” Bice said. “It’s not just a Marines’ move. I’m talking about all federal agencies. They all have a stake in Guam. It cannot be done without their support.”

The EPA, despite its recent analysis, says it is trying to do its part. In years past, the agency has given the island about $1 million for water and wastewater improvements; this year, Guam got $13 million, Blazej said.

The EPA acknowledges that money doesn’t come close to refurbishing Guam’s water and sewage systems. And, in the end, it could be the EPA’s “inadequate” rating that has long-lasting effects for Guam and the buildup.

If this summer’s report from the military remains unsatisfactory in the EPA’s eyes, the project could get referred for mediation by the Council on Environmental Quality, a board that oversees the environmental impact statement process.

That move, however, is even rarer. From 1970 to 2000, only 26 projects were referred for mediation, according to the EPA. More recent numbers were unavailable.

The mediation would involve the council acting on behalf of the president to resolve the environmental issues and challenges between the EPA and the federal agency pursuing the project. The council’s purpose is not to stop any project from coming to fruition, and the agency has no record of that ever happening, Blazej wrote this week in an e-mail in response to a question. If the two sides cannot work out their differences, the president could resolve the matter. That has never happened, she said.

For now, meetings were to start this week between the EPA and the military to continue working on the Guam buildup.

Bice said that work, along with much of the criticism and comments during the past few months, will be addressed in this summer’s report. He also said the current deadline — moving the Marines to Guam by 2014 — remains.

“Many have said it’s unrealistic,” he said of the timeline. “I acknowledge that 2014 remains the target.”

Officials from the EPA were less certain the hard work will meet the military’s summer deadline for a final set of plans.

“I don’t think we can make a conclusion on that,” said Lynn Kuo, another EPA special assistant who has been working solely on the Guam military buildup project since last year. “If all the stars align, it could work out. But the stars have to align.”

References
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=68468

State and local development dir. Shannon Reeves and Director of Political Strategies for New Media George Alafoginis, 2 RNC officials, are in Guam this week as part of Steele’s commitment to provide more party resources to U.S. territories, they told the Pacific Daily News. It is Reeves’ second trip, after visiting last year. The 2 top staffers will also attend the party’s Lincoln Day Dinner at a local resort.

“The visit is a part of party building activities the committee undertakes everyday to ensure the Republican Party is competitive in every state and territory, which is an important priority for Chairman Steele. To do otherwise — and not make critical investments in our state and local parties — would be political malpractice,” said RNC communications director Doug Heye.

It is the RNC’s second foray into Pacific Rim politics. Earlier this year, Hotline OnCall reported Steele had directed $20K to the Northern Mariana Islands for a GOV race, which the GOP lost.

On Guam, an island nation of 178K people, Gov. Felix Camacho (R) is term-limited, and LG Michael Cruz (R) and Sen. Eddie Calvo (R) are seeking the GOP nomination to replace him. Ex-Gov. Carl Gutierrez (D) is the likely Dem nominee.

Steele won the RNC chairmanship in Jan. ‘09 in large part because of a bloc of voters representing the island territories. Because of RNC rules, Guam and the NMI have as many votes on the RNC as, say, TX and CA — 3 each. Steele critics accused his campaign of cutting a deal with island delegates, a charge Steele’s camp has denied.

Steele ultimately won by a 91-77 margin, meaning the 12 island votes — representing Guam, the NMI, American Samoa and the Virgin Islands — provided his margin of victory over ex-SC GOP chair Katon Dawson.

A week-long trip from DC to Guam could cost several thousand dollars, according to airline websites. And the 2 aides had to leave the country just to get to Guam, too: Every flight we found went through Tokyo’s Narita Airport, an uncomfortable 14-hour flight from DC’s Dulles Airport.

References:

http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2010/02/rnc_sends_staff.php

I was looking to buy a Lanikai LU-21C Ukulele. Guitar Audio’s site popped up on Google shopper as one of the cheapest places to buy. I had to take advantage. One of the first things I liked was the fact that they take PayPal as a payment. The second thing was that their website is laid out neatly and I could find the ukulele really quickly. The third is their free shipping button. I really had to take advantage of the great deals.

It’s been a while since I ordered stuff from the internet. I’d say a good 2-3 years and this is a musical instrument. Buying an instrument online violates my internal dialog where you need to listen to the instrument before buying it.  Also, I was a little hesitant especially since I was getting the ukulele at a really great price ($121.95). Other sites list this ukulele at $139, $159, and $195. I put my order in on Tuesday, used the free shipping option, and received the ukulele on Monday. They shipped it on Wednesday (I ordered it really late on Tuesday).

I was tracking the package the whole time. The tracking slip said it was 10 pounds. I was a little confused. How does a 3 pound ukulele weight 10 pounds. The answer? Really good packing. The people at Guitar Audio really know how to pack instruments. The whole time I thought the ukulele was just going to ship in a small box. Nope, Guitar Audio took time in packing my precious ukulele in several layers of padding before shipping it out.

I’m definitely going to use Guitar Audio again in the future!

The Lanikai LU-21CE is a beautiful ukulele. I’ve had it for a couple days now and I’m blown by the sound quality coming out of this tiny box.

Here are some technical specifications:

MODEL: LU-21CE
SCALE LENGTH: 15in.
WIDTH AT NUT: 1.375in.
TOP: Nato
BACK/SIDES: Nato
FRETBOARD: Rosewood
FRETS: 18
MACHINES: Chrome Die-Cast
BINDING: White

The E in LU-21CE means it’s an acoustic/electric ukulele. The non-electric is LU-21C. The C means it’s a concert size ukulele. There are different sizes of ukuleles (soprano, concert, tenor, baritone). Put it all together, it’s a concert sized acoustic/electric ukulele. In this case, the preamp is a Belcat UK-2000. I’ve read other sites that say their LU-21CE came with a Shadow preamp. This preamp, according to their site, uses a UK-4000 for the pickup. The UK-4000 is a piezo style pickup (sits under the bridge). From the Belcat website, it looks like this combo is the best that they sell.

The ukulele comes with Aquila strings which are already prestrung. This model uses Nato for most of the body parts. For the most part it sounds really great and I can definitely hash out a song without confusion. The sound quality isn’t as great as it’s spruce or mahogany counterparts. This ukulele is made from Nato wood. To me, the Nato wood seems very light and not as sturdy as maple, spruce, or mahogany. I’m going to admit that this is my first Nato based instrument. Overall, it’s a great play if you are starting out like me.

The electric part of this ukulele was a little disappointing. I was expecting a nice chorus, tremolo, sustain sound coming from any ukulele that has a preamp and a piezo pickup. I was wrong. The sound came out raw. Almost as if all we did was place a microphone inside the body. I guess this is what’s supposed to happen but then it got me thinking that if that’s the original sound, then the whole ukulele is off. Sure I can adjust the bass and treble from the preamp but it didn’t change the fact that I really felt like it was pumping out a raw sound.

I’m going to have to try it out with some of my BOSS pedals. For amplification, the electronics do a great up in amplifying the sound. I guess I just need a better way of managing the output.

Out of 10, I’d probably give this ukulele a 7. The price is perfect and I wasn’t able to find another ukulele in the same range that was an acoustic/electric. Like all my other instruments, I buy low when first starting then upgrade as I get better. I’m sure you follow the same philosophy.

Enjoy!

References:
Guitar Audio
Lanikai Ukuleles

Took the gamble and upgraded to WP 2.9.2. The Arthemia theme is working. So far so good.

Check out this article:

TOKYO — Attention, Marines: If you need a new home for those helicopters on Okinawa, give Tinian a call. The tiny mid-Pacific island is waiting to hear from you.

That’s the message from leaders on the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, according to a spokesman for Gov. Benigno R. Fitial.

“We would be willing to consider any relocation the government would present to us,” said spokesman Tom Linden, who serves as coordinator of the commonwealth’s Military Integration Management Committee.

When asked Thursday if that could include permanently playing host to as many as 4,000 Marines and helicopters comprising air operations at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma — the focus of a U.S.-Japan stalemate involving relocation of the base on Okinawa — Linden said it depends on what Pentagon leaders ultimately want.

“If they wish, I guess it would,” he said during a phone interview.

It was not known what the military thought of the idea. A phone call to the Joint Guam Program Office, the military office on Guam charged with coordinating the buildup, was not returned Thursday.

Japanese officials on a committee to look at alternatives to hosting Marine air operations on Okinawa met this week with Guam officials and Fitial to discussed options there and on Tinian and other islands in the commonwealth. Under a 2006 U.S.-Japan military realignment pact, Japan is to pay nearly 60 percent of the projected $10.6 billion cost of relocating Marines from Okinawa to Guam.

Tinian’s interest in hosting U.S. military troops is a far cry from growing concerns on Okinawa and Guam, where the issues include, respectively, the continued presence and the impending arrival of thousands of Marines.

“We would like to see some military buildup in the area,” Linden said this week. “Tinian has been waiting for 30 years. They have been expecting to have a military buildup for quite some time.”

The Manhattan-size island, a major launching point for B-29 bombing missions of Japan during World War II, lies about 80 miles north of Guam.

So far, the military wants to use Tinian as a training area for the 8,600 troops from III Marine Expeditionary Force who are expected to move from Okinawa to Guam by 2014.

That training would require four small-arms ranges and a 1,000-square-meter area to allow platoons to conduct maneuvering exercises, according to John Jackson, a retired Marine Corps colonel who is director for the Guam program office. As many as 300 Marines would come monthly for week-long training. They would bring their own supplies, set up their own tents and stay on their own land.

Some in the commonwealth, which consists of 15 islands including Saipan and Rota, say current military plans for Tinian aren’t mutually beneficial. Specifically, they say the Marines’ training proposal may not mitigate for what the local economy could lose — access to chili pepper crops, grazing lands and tourist attractions like the runway the B-29 “Enola Gay” used as it took off to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, according to Phillip Mendiola-Long, the current president of Tinian’s chamber of commerce.

“The chamber supports the buildup,” Mendiola-Long said during a phone call earlier this week. “But we have to have an equal partner. We’re going to start to slide.”

Yet it’s unclear, at this point, whether the Marines would be allowed any liberty time to spend money on the island. That’s what has some worried and looking for more military investment.

For more than three decades the military has leased nearly 28 square miles on Tinian, an area that covers two-thirds of an island that has fewer than 3,000 residents and no stop light. Past military training there was infrequent but significant, local and military officials said. Every two to three years, a few hundred troops would drop in for two to three weeks to train and spend money.

“The local hotels would fill,” Mendiola-Long said. “We’d run out of money in the ATMs.”

Vendors would sell food, and troops on liberty would gamble in the island’s sole casino, he added.

Between training sessions, the military land remained open to the public.

When the military announced nearly four years ago it would use Tinian for more frequent training, commonwealth leaders grew interested, Mendiola-Long said. But they found out late last year that the military plans for Tinian involve only expeditionary training.

The Marines “must be able to defend, deter, meet treaty obligations or any other contingency,” said Col. Robert Loynd, one of two Marines on Guam who currently make up Marine Forces Pacific (Forward) Guam, the unit proposed to grow to 8,600 Marines.

That could mean tourist areas could be closed for portions of the training, according to Jackson. It would periodically cut access to the island’s main north-south road, he added. And, while military construction might add a couple hundred temporary jobs to the island, overall the military estimates it will need 12 to 15 full-time jobs to work security, clean out temporary toilets and cut back brush.

“We’re going to cut the grass and clean up the poo-poo?” said Mendiola-Long, with a hint of indignation.

Linden says Fitial is working with Guam leaders to find ways the proposed buildup could benefit Tinian more. The Futenma offer is part of those plans.

“The feeling is that Guam is getting all the money with very little lost,” Linden said. “On Tinian, the military is going to use more land, with next to no economic impact.”

References:

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=67975

Courtsey of Alan Chan

I saw this really cool proposal to turn the Federated States of Micronesia (F.S.M.) into a World Park sort of a national preserve. That makes so much sense for a country that wants to preserve its culture and land.

Here’s the article by Justin Nobel from TIME.com:

Imagine a protected park half the size of the continental U.S., covering a sea-life-loaded swath of the Pacific Ocean and the 607 tropical islands therein. The park’s inhabitants live mostly in traditional villages and still remember how to do things much of the world has forgotten, such as make clothes from scratch and live off the land. This park would, in fact, encompass an entire country — the Federated States of Micronesia (F.S.M.) — and if the archipelago nation pulls it off, it will be the first of its kind in the world. “It’s a visionary, radical concept,” says Howard Rice, an instructor at the College of Micronesia who came up with the idea. “There’s never been a world park. It doesn’t exist in the dictionary. It doesn’t exist anywhere.”

If successful, Micronesia will be the first nation to become a wholly protected area, adhering to development and conservation standards designed to safeguard the country’s unique culture and rich marine biodiversity and kick-start its placid economy. According to Rice, who once operated an eco-tourism company in the Caribbean, developing high-end eco-tourism is the answer to F.S.M.’s perennial job shortage. Michigan State University (MSU) has already agreed to provide technical expertise for the park, and the National Geographic Society has also issued the project its stamp of approval. This spring, Pohnpei, one of F.S.M.’s four states, will host an economic summit to address the park’s planning.

There are hurdles. Although the state of Pohnpei is spearheading the effort to move the project forward, its development-hungry governor has proposed building a casino and resort complex “of not less than 1,000 rooms” — not exactly a conservation-minded move. In fact, even though the world-park concept was first floated in 2004, no guidelines for development in the park have been drawn yet, bringing into question how valuable the project will really be in conservation terms. The national government, too, remains skeptical. “It might be a workable idea,” says Joseph Urusemal, a senator who was President when the world-park concept was introduced. “We just couldn’t get a good grip on what it was going to be, how much it would cost and what would be the benefit.”

The local conservation community also sees the world park as a straight-up tourism initiative backed by foreign researchers out of touch with local values. Though there are state governments, Micronesia’s limited land — all 607 small islands comprise only 271 square miles in total — is mostly controlled by family clans, and setting even small patches of it aside has proved problematic in the past. In the early 1990s, the U.S.-based Nature Conservancy tried to survey land in Pohnpei for a proposed watershed-management plan. “We almost got macheted to death,” says Bill Raynor, who moved to Pohnpei from California 30 years ago and helped establish the Conservancy’s presence in Micronesia. “None of us wants to walk out to the communities with a finished plan produced by university experts. That’s not the way to go here in Micronesia.”

The park’s advocates argue that the project is a work in progress. Nothing will be finalized without consulting the communities, says Richard Paulsen, a recreation- and resource-studies expert at MSU. “Our complete intention is that this be a Micronesian concept,” he says. “This is something that the person on the street must understand, accept and be able to live with.”

The larger question — whether an entire country can declare itself a park without the support of an international conservation body — has, in a way, been answered. “If the government wants to do it, they can do it,” says Peter Shadie of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. But that doesn’t mean the park would fit his organization’s definition of a protected area, which emphasizes the long-term conservation of nature and its associated ecosystem services and cultural values. “The definition [of protected area] has a lot of latitude,” says Shadie. “At the end of the day, it is a class of land use purposely set aside for conservation, rather than a class of land use designed for people to live in.”

By definition, though, the world park would envelop both people and their property, a factor that is a concern to many Micronesians. They worry that the initiative might cast their country as some sort of zoo: a place for travelers to gawk at a culture locked in the past. And just how landowners will react to having rules imposed on them by the central government remains to be seen. “Ownership here is very, very tight,” says John Haglelgam, who served as President of F.S.M. from 1987 to 1991 and is now a history professor at the College of Micronesia. “The world park goes to the core of the land-ownership system.”

The park could be an answer to the question that has plagued Micronesia’s leaders for decades: how to achieve economic development while maintaining F.S.M.’s culture. Politicians worry the country will suffer the same fate as its island neighbor Guam, home to high-rise hotels and a traditional culture in shards. But Guam also offers opportunity, and some 2,000 F.S.M. residents migrate out of the country each year both to Guam and the U.S. seeking education and employment.

Is pinning the nation’s future on a flock of eco-tourists realistic? Many say no. “F.S.M. is in economic desperation,” says Haglelgam. “But I don’t think this is the magic bullet.”

References:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1959020,00.html

RICHMOND, VA. — U.S. Sen. Jim Webb plans to visit Japan, Okinawa and Guam next week.

Webb chairs the Senate Committee on Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee and the Committee on Foreign Relations East Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee.

Webb said Tuesday it will be his first trip to Japan since the change in government last year.

I was thinking about doing the butterfly but it didn’t work out.

Here I cut sheet cake into circles. The body is made of half circles. The face is the only complete circle. The antenna are Pocky sticks.

The feet are made from fondant.

This cake was very challenging and fun to make at the same time. I built my diagram in MS Excel (pictured on the left). The diagram gave me a bigger picture of how many pieces I needed of each color. My first concept design was to cut out 2 inch squares but then after drawing it out it would have been a 2 by 3 foot cake. My second concept was to shape the cake before decorating. This didn’t work out well because of the small corners.

After baking and icing the cake part, I covered it in white fondant. Then I began cutting out my squares and placing them on the cake.

After cleaning up, I found some extra fondant and decided to throw in some extras. Here are the extras:

1-Up and Grow Mushroom are made completely out of fondant. The cake and the mushrooms were a hit at the party. I’m not sure if I’ll ever make one like this again, but I am inspired to make the 8-bit title screen.

Here’s my recipe for chocolate cake, by Hershey’s

Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.  10 to 12 servings.

VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13×9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

Enjoy!