Local News

WASHINGTON — The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a confirmation hearing March 7 to consider REI Chief Executive Sally Jewell’s nomination to become the next Interior Secretary.

President Obama nominated Jewell earlier this month to succeed Ken Salazar, who said he will leave the administration at the end of March and return to Colorado.

The hearing will be led by committee Chairman  Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon.

Jewell, an avid mountain climber and skier who worked as a banker and a petroleum engineer, would be taking on a department with a dual mission of protecting public lands while tapping timber, coal, gas and other wealth from them.

Already, Jewell’s nomination has drawn attention from interest groups, ranging from mountain bikers who want to lift the ban from their pursuits in national parks to east coast governors who want drilling permitted off the Atlantic Coast.

Good morning. Happy Friday to you.

Responding to Newtown: What do you think of this idea? State Sen. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup, wants to put panic alarms in school administrative offices in case of a threat. The alarms would be directly connected to police.

State parks and the state budget: Last summer, Times reporter Javier Panzar revealed that the plan to pay for park operations through sales of the Discover Pass entry card was coming up short. Proceeds were well below expectations. Now a lawmaker wants to match Discover Pass revenues with state general-fund money. Parks officials want the state to kick in and help, even though another general fund shortfall is expected.

REI CEO Sally Jewel,
nominated for U.S. Interior Secretary

REI’s Sally Jewell and presidential succession: Jewell’s nomination as U.S. secretary of the interior puts her No. 8 in the line of succession to the president.  But, Jewell, it should be noted, was born in England. So, she could not fill in for the president.   Still, she would hardly be the first Cabinet member in that predicament.

Resounding support for women in combat: Want to guess the percentage of Americans who favor women in combat? It’s a very high number. Interestingly, the Quinnipiac survey that came up with that figure shows less support for including women in any military draft.

A day  late but too tempting to ignore: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is in a tiff with a former White House doctor, Connie Mariano, who said Christie needs to lose weight if he wants to run for president. She worries about him dying in office. Christie told the doctor in question to “shut up.” OK, that was yesterday’s news. But watch the officer/aide to the right of Christie as the governor goes full New Jersey.