[at-l] Park Service Website back online (ENS)

[Snodrog5@aol.com (Snodrog5@aol.com)]

As earlier mentioned, the NPS site is back up! Here's some background:

<A HREF="http://ln.doubleclick.net/adi/ly.ln/news_ens;h=news;prov=ens;pos=1;sz=468x60;tile=1;!category=adult;!category=financial;ord=1234567?";>Environment News Service: AmeriScan: February 14, 2002</A> 
PARK SERVICE WEBSITE BACK ONLINEWASHINGTON, DC, February 14, 2002 (ENS) - The 
Department of Interior, which had to shut down its entire computer system in 
answer to a lawsuit 10 weeks ago, has brought the National Park Service back 
online. While most Interior Department (DOI) sites remain off line, including 
the main agency site and sites for the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service, the Park Service site is now up and running, 
offering information for park visitors across the nation. On December 5, 
2001, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the DOI's computer 
systems left Indian trust accounts, which include about $3 billion in assets, 
vulnerable to outside interference. Lamberth ordered the DOI and its agencies 
to remove all its systems with any links to Indian trust data from the 
Internet, until the agency can demonstrate that the systems meet appropriate 
security standards. The agency is now reviewing all its information systems, 
but for the time being, many functions will remain unavailable. Even the 
Indian Trust computer system, which helped track payments due to tribes and 
other Native American beneficiaries, has been offline, keeping the DOI from 
issuing these funds. On Tuesday, Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced she 
has authorized the Office of Trust Funds Management to begin issuing 
estimated oil and gas payments to Indian trust beneficiaries. "I am glad that 
we are able to get estimated payments moving," Norton said. "The past couple 
of months have been frustrating for all involved. This is a very high 
priority for the department, and we are working aggressively to manage these 
accounts and ensure that estimated payments are made to individual Indians." 
The estimated payments will be based on a percentage of payments made to 
individuals during the three most recent months when checks were issued, 
Norton said. Due to the ongoing systems shutdown, the income from oil and gas 
leasing can not be forwarded to the Office of Trust Funds Management for 
distribution. Because new oil and gas revenues are not being processed and 
deposited to the owners' accounts, no payments have been made since December 
5. Since December, a team of computer experts and technicians have been 
evaluating Interior's information technology systems, improving the 
protection of individual Indian trust data and taking the steps to gain the 
court's permission to reconnect the department's computer system to the 
Internet. In late January, the court gave its permission to activate the 
Integrated Records Management System to process grazing and timber lease 
payments. The Department of the Interior has trust responsibilities for 
American Indians, dating back to 1887, and manages, among other things, rents 
and royalties from grazing, mining, logging and oil drilling on Indian lands. 
    

    





--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
---