NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Monday, January 29, 2001

INCIDENTS

01-026 - Independence NHP (PA) - Theft Arrest

On January 5th, rangers and members of the Philadelphia support office 
law enforcement group began surveillance on one of the Eastern 
National stores in the park. A man identified as E.R. had 
been seen removing a total of $182 in merchandise without paying on 
two occasions. E.R. also had an outstanding federal arrest warrant 
from 1999 against him for misappropriation of merchandise from the 
Eastern National store in the park's visitor center. E.R. was seen 
again in the park on January 19th and was arrested. Two hypodermic 
needles and five sealed health and vitamin bottles believed to have 
been recently stolen were found on his person during the search 
incident to his arrest. A clerk working at a nearby General Nutrition 
Center store said that E.R. had been in the store, that he hadn't 
purchased anything, and that the bottles were from the store. E.R. 
has eleven documented retail thefts in his criminal history, and was 
recently released from prison after serving a six-month sentence. Two 
prior convictions for retail theft automatically made this a felony 
within the city of Philadelphia. E.R. was transferred to city police 
for prosecution. [Michael Williams, LES, INDE, 1/25]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Plan

No new information. Please check the NPS Fire Management Program 
Center web page (www.fire.nps.gov) for further information on fire 
plan projects.

Park Fires

No fires reported.

CULTURAL/NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No submissions.

INTERPRETATION AND VISITOR SERVICES

No submissions.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No submissions.

MEMORANDA

"New Federal Register Publication Procedures," signed by the associate 
director for administration and sent electronically on January 26th to 
the directorate, field directorate, and center managers. The full text 
follows:

"The President, through his Chief of Staff Andrew Card, has expressed 
an interest in the Federal regulatory process and, accordingly, has 
asked by memorandum that all Departments and Bureaus take certain 
steps regarding the promulgation of regulations.  

"To accomplish this objective, we have been instructed that, in the 
short term, all documents submitted to the Office of the Federal 
Register for publication first go through Bureau regulatory contacts 
and then directly to the Executive Secretariat for clearance.  This 
includes all routine notice documents, announcements, etc., that would 
normally come directly from the Field or Regional Offices for 
publication in the Federal Register.  

"The effect of this new clearance process is that documents received 
by this office for publication in the Federal Register will be delayed 
for some period of time.  Since this is a new  process, it is not 
possible to determine the exact amount of time that this review will 
require.

"The first set of such documents was forwarded to the Executive 
Secretariat on Tuesday, January 23rd. We will be contacting by 
telephone or email the authors of these documents to inform them of 
the delay in publication. We will likewise inform all subsequent 
authors of documents submitted for publication of the new procedures 
so that they are aware of probable delays.

"We are advising that all Regional Offices, Parks and Centers who 
anticipate the publication of time sensitive notices in the Federal 
Register be made aware of these new requirements and that they provide 
additional time for the publication of routine notice documents and 
announcements. 

"In addition, we are requesting that Regions and program offices who 
publish a high volume of time-sensitive ROUTINE notice documents and 
announcements, and whose operations may be significantly effected by 
these procedures notify Deke Cripe immediately by email of the nature 
of the document and the implications for publication delay.  We will 
compile this information and work with the Executive Secretariat to 
encourage timely review and approval of such documents."

INTERCHANGE

No submissions.

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Indiana Dunes NL (IN) - The park has a GS-401-9/11/12 fire management 
officer position open until February 6th. The park has from 40 to 120 
wildfires a year, performs six to ten prescribed burns a year, and has 
a fire effects monitoring team. There is a significant urban interface 
component to the job, and a federally endangered butterfly and 
numerous rare plants must be considered in fire operations. The 
announcement states that the applicant must qualify as a burn boss 
within 12 months of being hired.  For information contact Bob Daum, 
chief of resource management, at  219-926-7561 ext 340. [Bob Daum, 
INDU]

Carlsbad Caverns/Guadalupe Mountains NPs (NM/TX) - The parks' 
administrative office is seeking a person for a detail as a GS-560-11 
budget analyst. It's being offered at the GS-9 or GS-11 grade level. 
There's no promotion for those at the GS-9 level, as the detail will 
be for only 30 to 60 days. Only travel and per diem are provided. If 
interested, send an email message with your name, phone number, 
position title and grade to personnel staffing specialist Pat Courter 
by COB on February 2nd. Call her at 505-885-8884 ext 24 with any 
questions. [Pat Courter, CAVE]

                            *  *  *  *  *

Distribution of the Morning Report is through a mailing list managed 
by park, office and/or regional cc:Mail hub coordinators.  Please 
address requests pertaining to receipt of the Morning Report to your 
servicing hub coordinator.  The Morning Report is also available on 
the web at http://www.nps.gov/morningreport

Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the 
cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.

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