The Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a final rule, effective September 16, 2010, implementing endangered status for three species of birds from Latin America and the Caribbean -- the Andean flamingo (Phoenicoparrus andinus), the Chilean woodstar (Eulidia yarrellii), and the St. Lucia forest thrush (Cichlherminia lherminieri sanctaeluciae) -- under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended, which prohibits the take, import, export, transport, sale, etc. of these species.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced on August 11, 2010, the opening of the Haiti Apparel Center. USAID states that the new facility will help Haiti grow its private sector workforce by training more than 2,000 professionals per year to help meet the need for skilled workers in Haiti's garment industry. In addition to providing vocational training, the center will further enable Haiti to maximize the benefits of the Haitian Economic Lift Program (HELP) Act signed into law in May 2010, which improves U.S. market access for Haitian apparel exports.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology announces that its Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Advisory Board will hold an open meeting on September 13, 2010, which will include an overview on (1) the current manufacturing climate and policy initiatives, (2) MEP program evaluation metrics and (3) a discussion of how to support small manufacturers' commercialization of new products and services.
On August 12, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency sent the Office of Management and Budget its final rule on Greenhouse Gas reporting for additional sources of fluorinated GHGs. This action pertains to requirements for five different source categories, which include Electronics Manufacturing, Fluorinated Gas Production, SF6 in Electric Power Systems, Manufacturers of Electrical Equipment, and Importers of Pre-charged Equipment and Closed-Cell Foams. The purpose of this final rule is to collect accurate and comprehensive emissions data to inform future climate change policies.
On August 12, 2010, the Agriculture Marketing Service issued "World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates" for wheat, coarse grains, rice, oilseeds, sugar, livestock, poultry, dairy, and cotton.
The Department of Transportation has issued a final rule, effective October 1, 2010, to amend certain provisions of its drug testing procedures dealing with laboratory testing of urine specimens. Some of the changes will also affect the training of and procedures used by Medical Review Officers. According to DOT, the changes are intended to create consistency with many, but not all, of the new requirements established by the Department of Health and Human Services.
On August 11, 2010, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that the Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) rose 0.2 percent in June from its May level, rising after one monthly decline. The Freight TSI has risen 4.7 percent over the last 13 months, starting in June 2009, after declining 15.3 percent in the previous 10 months beginning in August 2008. The Freight TSI measures the month-to-month changes in freight shipments in ton-miles, which are then combined into one index. The index measures the output of the for-hire freight transportation industry and consists of data from for-hire trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines and air freight.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued a final rule correcting the Spanish language text in Sample Label 13, published in FTC's July 19, 2010 final rule which amended the light bulb labeling requirements of the Appliance Labeling Rule. (See ITT's Online Archives or 07/22/10 news, 10072228, for BP summary of the July final rule.)
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued its civil penalties enforcement information for August 13, 2010. Compass Bank remitted $607,500 to settle allegations of violations of the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations. Custom Polymers, Inc. agreed to remit $57,800 to settle an allegation of violation of the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations.
The Census Bureau has issued an AES broadcast announcing that due to extremely high volume, filers may experience delays using the AESDirect system on August 13, 2010 and for the next couple of days and should expect delays receiving responses from the AES. The AESDirect support staff is working to secure additional temporary bandwidth and server capacity to handle the increase in load due to the outage on August 12, 2010. Filers using EDI, VPN or AESPcLink will see additional delays, as Census adjusts processing to handle the load. All Electronic Export Information received will be submitted to the AES and all responses from the AES will be processed. (Census advises that a Compliance Alert is triggered when the date of filing is after the date of export. This alert is automatically triggered by the AES and cannot be changed. AESDirect filers who receive a Compliance Alert for shipments exported under the Downtime Policy should keep a copy of the AES Downtime Broadcast, issued on 08/12/2010, along with the ITN(s).) AES broadcast #201044 available by emailing documents@brokerpower.com.