NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Wednesday, April 25, 2001

INCIDENTS

01-166 - National Capital Parks (DC) - Assault on Officers

On April 17th, two plainclothes investigators from the USPP narcotics 
and vice unit saw a man attempting to conceal a laser sight for a 
handgun within his car. The investigators removed him from the vehicle 
and attempted to retrieve a handgun from his waist. A violent struggle 
ensued in which both investigators were assaulted. The man was 
eventually subdued and taken into custody. One investigator suffered a 
laceration to his face that required several stitches; the other 
injured his back. Both were flown by USPP helicopter to the MedStar 
Unit at Washington Hospital Center, where they were treated and 
released. The man who was arrested was taken to another hospital for 
treatment of minor injuries sustained during the arrest. He will be 
charged with assault on a federal office and with weapons violations. 
[Sgt. R. MacLean, USPP, NCR, 4/19]

01-167 - Lake Mead NRA (NV/AZ) - Pursuit; Kidnapping; Attempted Murder

On the morning of April 21st, Henderson PD officers pursued a vehicle 
into the park and south down Lakeshore Drive. The driver, J.P., 
25, was wanted for a carjacking that had occurred earlier in 
the day in their city. The incident began when J.P. was riding in 
a taxi to the Las Vegas airport. He began acting strangely, causing 
the driver to become alarmed and seek assistance upon arrival at the 
airport. J.P. fled from the taxi and jumped into another cab and 
took off. A 54-year-old woman from Baltimore who was in the cab jumped 
from the taxi and was seriously injured. She has not yet regained 
consciousness. J.P. crashed the taxi into a Chevy Blazer in 
Henderson; when the Blazer's driver got out to examine the damage, 
J.P. got into the vehicle and fled. The park was advised as the 
pursuit neared Lake Mead. Ranger Brian Cooperider was at home when he 
heard the alert broadcast and drove his cruiser to the intersection of 
Lakeshore Drive and Lake Mead Marina. He laid out stop sticks in the 
southbound lane shoulder to deflate the Blazer's tires, with his 
cruiser across the northbound lane. At this part of the intersection, 
the northbound and southbound lanes are separated by a median strip 
with concrete curbs. J.P. approached the intersection at a high 
rate of speed, then slowed dramatically when he saw Cooperider's 
cruiser. The Blazer crossed the median and headed for Cooperider, who 
was pulling the stop sticks across the road as the vehicle headed 
toward him. The Blazer hit the patrol vehicle on its left side, but 
Cooperider was not injured. He was able to clear the roadway so that 
pursuing vehicles could get through; he attempted to join the chase, 
but found that his vehicle was partially disabled. J.P. continued 
out of the park and into Boulder City, where he struck another police 
car. J.P. then headed back to Las Vegas. A roadblock was set-up on 
US-95/I-515 south of Flamingo Road by Nevada Highway Patrol trooper 
Bobby Kintzel. When J.P. came upon it, he aimed the Blazer at 
Kintzel and crushed him against the side of his cruiser. Kintzel 
suffered a fractured skull, broken pelvis, broken right leg, and 
severe internal bleeding. At the time of the report, he was in the ICU 
and still unconscious. J.P. was finally forced off the road and 
arrested. During his run through the park, he also sideswiped a 
vehicle operated by Y.P., 40, of North Las Vegas, forcing 
her into an embankment. She was not injured. Las Vegas Metro PD is 
handling the investigation. J.P. has been charged with one count 
of attempted murder of a police officer, two counts of robbery, and 
one count of kidnapping. The charges may be amended to include the 
attempt on Cooperider; federal charges may also be filed. [Paul 
Crawford, SPR, LAME, 4/23]

01-168 - Appalachian NST (GA-ME) - Human Remains Found

Two hikers discovered skeletal remains while hiking off-trail within 
the Appalachian Trail corridor about five miles south of Harpers Ferry 
on April 22nd. Search parties were not able to locate the site until 
the following morning. The federally-owned corridor straddles the 
boundary between Virginia and West Virginia; the remains were found 
within 200 feet of that boundary in West Virginia. Harpers Ferry NHP 
and AT Park Office rangers are assisting both states in the 
investigation. Foul play is suspected. [Robert Gray, CR, APPA, 4/24]

                   [Additional reports pending....]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Plan

On Friday, April 27th, the staff of Marine Corps University will host 
an interagency wildland fire community symposium on "Leadership and 
Organizational Change" at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia. 
This is an outgrowth of a visit paid to the Marine Corps University 
last December by the interagency leadership task group of NWCG's 
training working team. NPS deputy chief ranger and incident commander 
Rick Gale will speak at the symposium. His presentation will include a 
brief history of firefighting and leadership development efforts.  Dr. 
Michael Useem, director of the Center for Leadership and Change 
Management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, will be 
a keynote speaker and panel discussion moderator.  Dr. Useem is the 
author of "The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and 
Disaster and their Lessons for Us All." Attendees will include senior 
level managers, members of NWCG, agency fire managers and training 
managers.

Park Fires

Great Smoky Mountains NP (NC/TN) - Two fires reported:

o       The 506-acre Stony Ridge Rx Fire is being patrolled and mopped 
        up. Some interior areas were still burning yesterday. 
        Monitoring will continue indefinitely. Sporadic light showers 
        were falling on the area.
o       The human-caused White Oak Fire, which was ignited on Monday 
        evening, has burned 30 acres and is currently being 
        suppressed. The fire is in very steep terrain, which is 
        causing difficulties in containment. Resources have been 
        requested from neighboring parks.

New River Gorge NR (WV) - Park crews responded to a 25-acre fire near 
Glen Jean on Monday. The fire was burning in a brushy area near park 
lands (just a half mile from headquarters), and was threatening eight 
to ten houses. Narrow, rough access made it impossible for big 
structural engines to reach the area. Park engines accordingly 
provided structural protection. Fire behavior included rapid rates of 
spread and flame lengths of over eight feet. The fire was contained 
Monday night, with all the houses still standing. The fire was managed 
under unified command; responding along with the NPS were five 
volunteer fire departments, the state's division of forestry, and two 
bulldozers.

Gulf Islands NS (FL/MS) - Control efforts on the BLA Fire on Horn 
Island continued on Monday. With the assistance of a Type 1 crew from 
Fort Apache, park personnel were able to establish a control line and 
burn off along the east flank of the fire, effectively preventing a 
predicted wind shift from driving the fire toward the ranger station. 
The main means for creating the fire line was to have the crew walk 
through four-foot-high grasses and crush them down, thereby creating a 
five-foot-wide line to burn off. This technique will permit the marsh 
grass to grow back, with very minimal impact. A second control line 
was established along the southwest flank of the fire later in the 
day. Both burnouts were successful. At the time of the report, the 
fire had burned about 100 acres and was 75% contained.

Park Fire Danger

Very High       Hawaii Volcanoes, Big Bend
High            Great Smokies, Everglades, New River, Carlsbad 
                Caverns, Guadalupe Mountains

[Debee Schwarz, NPS Fire Information, WASO; Mike Warren, NPS FMPC, 
4/24; Doug Wallner, NERO, 4/24; Mark Lewis, DR, GUIS, 4/24; NPS 
Situation Summary Report, 4/24]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

NPS Unigrid Brochures' New Arrowhead - On April 25th,  the 
Publications Department at Harpers Ferry Center will be test printing 
the new arrowhead on a 50,000-copy brochure. All new brochures will 
get this arrowhead and the department will also begin adding it to the 
342 brochures that are archived, maintained, and reprinted for parks 
and NPS programs - 24 million copies last year. Because the department 
is in the process of making the labor-intensive and costly conversion 
of its entire inventory of brochures from cut-and-paste camera-ready 
art to digital files, the addition of the arrowhead must be 
coordinated with other necessary full-color changes for the ongoing 
reprint program. The 2001 request for 20 percent fee demo program 
money to fund these digital conversions was turned down, but the 
request has been resubmitted for 2002. Currently, 39% of the 
publications inventory is all-digital, 20% is up to half-digital, and 
41% has yet to be converted. Harpers Ferry Center is committed to 
working with parks to the best of its abilities and resources during 
this transition period and asks for understanding of this project's 
magnitude.  [Gary Cummins, HFC]

National Leadership Council News - The third edition of the National 
Leadership Council (NLC) Journal is now available. It has been sent to 
all superintendents via cc:Mail.  Supervisors are asked to ensure that 
employees without access are able to view a hard copy of this report. 
Web addresses referenced within the journal are hyper-linked to 
related web sites for convenience.  All three journals from the most 
recent NLC meetings can be accessed by scrolling down on the web page 
at: http://www.nps.gov/refdesk/policies.html. The latest Acrobat 
Reader program should be installed to read the pdf version. If you 
receive the journal attachment via email, open it by clicking on the 
"pdf" icon within the message. [Marcia Keener, WASO]

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Virgin Islands NP (VI) - Announcement VIIS-01-03 for a GS-025-11 law 
enforcement specialist has been canceled. The vacancy will be 
readvertised as soon as possible as a GS-025-11 supervisory ranger. 
[John Mattox, Acting SA, VIIS]

ADDITIONAL SECTIONS

Regular sections not appearing today (due either to lack of 
submissions or time constraints in preparing this edition) but are 
available at all times:

o       Natural/Cultural Resource Management - Significant 
        developments in these fields.
o       Interpretation/Visitor Services - Significant developments in 
        these fields.
o       Memoranda - Memoranda from WASO to the field on all 
        operational matters.
o       Interchange - Requests or offers from any park or office for 
        materials, information or any other operational needs.
o       Hot Links - Web addresses for NPS-related sites.
o       Film at 11 - Reports on current or upcoming print or 
        electronic media stories on the NPS.

                            *  *  *  *  *

Distribution of the Morning Report is through a mailing list managed 
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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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