Wednesday, November 18, 2009Last Update: 3:00 PM PT

     WASHINGTON (CN) - Boaters in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary will no longer be allowed to discharge sewage while motoring through the sanctuary, if a proposed National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration regulation is adopted as written.
     The NOAA action would work with an earlier action by the Environmental Protection Agency creating a no discharge zone for the state waters of the sanctuary.
     The regulation would require recreational boaters to lock and secure portable and installed marine toilets when they enter the boundaries of the sanctuary.

     WASHINGTON (CN) - To help combat money laundering and terrorist financing, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the Treasury plans to allow state and local law enforcement, and EU member state law enforcement, to make requests for information from U.S. financial institutions.
     Under the same proposed rule, the agency also would be able to request information on its own behalf, to assist investigations or perform trend analysis.
     Since money laundering can consist of varied crimes, before using the program a requestor would have to certify that the matter is significant and that the enforcement agency has been unable to find the information through traditional means.
     The data provided would be for gathering leads, as it is for the Federal Government under the current program, since the information collection does not replace a subpoena or other legal process, according to FinCEN's Nov. 17 fact sheet on the USA PATRIOT Act program.

     WASHINGTON (CN) - The Department of Homeland Security has established guidelines for prohibiting awards of Federal Protective Service contracts for guard services when the principal has been convicted of a "serious felony," according to a new regulation.
     Serious felonies are those that involve dishonesty, deliberate violence, lack of integrity, or an inability to run a business, according to the regulation. Examples include unfair trade practices, attempted tax evasion, illegal drug or weapons trafficking, and immigration violations.
     The rule allows for exceptions, however. Business concerns may submit an application that shows that the person or entity with the felony no longer owns, controls or operates the company.
     Applications also may be submitted that explain why a conviction is not a "serious felony" as it is defined in the rule, or why "commission of the serious felony no longer calls into question the individual or business concern's integrity or business ethics."
     The burden of proof is on the applicant.

     WASHINGTON (CN) - The Defense Department has increased the area of the danger zone around the U.S. Marine Corps training grounds at the Ulupau Crater, Hawaii, for boater safety, according to a new rule.
     The agency says that a more uniform shape will make the area easier to patrol, and will make it simpler for boaters to know whether or not they are in the hazard zone.
     The department also has extended the hours of weapons firing from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, to 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
     Regarding environmental reports, the department states that sensitive wildlife areas were already in the danger zone, and that since "the probability of an unintended projectile exiting the crater is negligible, an expanded danger zone will not incrementally change, modify or otherwise adversely impact sensitive marine species and organisms."
     Click here for this and other new regulations.

     WASHINGTON (CN) - The brown pelican has completed a forty year journey from near extinction to full recovery according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which will remove the bird from the Endangered Species List.
     The brown pelican, the state bird of Louisiana, was hunted for its feathers for use in the millinery trade and was so popular that President Theodore Roosevelt created the first national wildlife refuge to protect the bird in 1903.
     In the 1970's the pesticides DDT and dieldrin threatened even protected populations in national wildlife refuges, which led to a federal ban on the pesticides' use in 1972.
     The brown pelican population has soared from a low of around 10,000 at the time it was given protected status, to an estimated 650,000 today. The brown pelican remains protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.