Federal Eye

Updated 1:57 p.m. ET

Several wine producers in California’s Napa Valley will their glasses to Washington this weekend after government officials brought an end to the six-year “Battle of Calistoga.”

At issue was the federal government’s appellation system, overseen by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, a tiny agency within the Treasury Department. The agency has established more than 190 American Viticultural Areas since 1978. The Napa Valley has 14 AVAs, but Calistoga had yet to earn the distinction despite its local regard as one of the most viticulturally significant areas in the valley.

The TTB decided to grant Calistoga its own AVA last week. The formal notice will be published Tuesday in the Federal Register.

Master winemaker James P. “Bo” Barrett, who operates Calistoga’s Chateau Montelena, applied for the region’s AVA in 2003 as a way to kill some free time while recovering from a skiing accident.

“Everybody is very surprised that Calistoga was never federally recognized, because in the world of wine, Calistoga is recognized as a great area for wine,” Barrett said. The area is home to 36 smalller, loosely associated mostly mom-and-pop wineries that produce only a few thousand crates annually, he said.

Though Barrett and his colleagues are happy, TTB’s final decision could spell trouble for Calistoga Cellars, a nearby winery that uses the Calistoga name even though it’s located outside the region. The agency decided the winery has three years to either start using Calistoga-grown grapes or change its name. AVA rules require that 85 percent of a wine’s
grapes must come from the named area.

The winery refuses to use Calistoga grapes, arguing they’re too expensive for the mid-priced wine it produces. A company representative declined to comment, saying the company plans to thoroughly review the decision before making a decision about its future.

“It’s easy to get the grapes,” Barrett said. “The grapes are available and we’re going to welcome them into the Calistoga community.”

The National Zoo's baby panda, Tai Shan, is headed back to China early next year. The widly popular bear is supported by dozens of veterinarians, zoo keepers, animal reproductive experts and volunteers based at the National Zoo in Northwest Washington and at the Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Va.

Watch The Eye's video profile above of panda support staff (which first appeared in May). Staffers once again tried unsuccessfully earlier this year to impregnate Tai Shan's mother, Mei Xiang. You'll see staffers and volunteers discuss her pregnancy status, why it's so difficult to determine a panda pregnancy, and talk about the popularity of their black and white friends.

Special thanks to Zoo spokeswoman Sarah Taylor, primates and pandas curator Lisa Stevens, lead veterinarian Suzan Murray and Janine Brown and her staff in the Reproductive and Endocronology Laboratory in Front Royal.

Know of other federal employees The Eye should profile? E-mail your ideas

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In the news...

Worth a Click: The new site, ReportStolenValor.org, produced by AMVETS, helps track reports of fake military veterans accepting benefits. Also: DOL.gov/challenge/, the Labor Department's first foray into Gov 2.0, encourages Web sites to add their job search resources to the department's system. Users will later vote for the most useful sites.

• Cabinet and Staff News: Where are Obama's female appointees? Defense Secretary Robert Gates says 3,000 troops could be added to 30,000 already slated for Afghanistan. Justice Department's second-in-command steps down. The White House gives social secretary Desiree Rogers unprecedented support. Homeland Security Janet Napolitano says TSA "collective bargaining" can be achieved. U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry will testify on Capitol Hill next week.

More than two dozen health reporters complained this week to Food and Drug Administration officials about an agency policy requiring employees to obtain permission before speaking with reporters. The journalists also said they're worried employees might be withholding important information during interviews since FDA press staffers often listen to the conversations.

"Nearly all prior administrations allowed open communication between agency employees and the media. The FDA should restore this policy," the letter said.

Requiring government employees to obtain permission before speaking with reporters is nothing new -- The Eye has endured this miserable policy too many times to mention -- but it is new at FDA, the letter said.

More from the letter:

Public information officers can play an important role in answering questions and facilitating interviews. But when they forbid, delay or monitor contact between reporters and employees, they interfere with the public's right to know and can delay access to timely information necessary to protect and advance public health. Usually the most accurate information comes from federal employees closest to the facts, not a go-between. These practices are a disservice to Americans.

In keeping with President Obama's promise to make government more transparent and accountable, we hope FDA will end these harmful practices and restore the free flow of information.

FDA spokesman George Strait -- himself a former ABC News medical correspondent -- insisted there is no "written policy" requiring employees to notify his office about interactions with reporters. But he said reporters that reach out to his office first will get the timely assistance and information they need.

"Our deadlines are your deadlines," he said. "Those aren’t necessarily the deadlines of a scientist who’s in a laboratory. We understand that, and frankly, the scientists like for us to be able to handle that part of the world."

“It’s sort of like when a White House reporter wants something out of the White House," he said, suggesting White House reporters call the White House press office when they need most of their information.

Um, no.

The letter's co-signers include the American Society of News Editors, Radio Television Digital News Association and Betty Ann Bowser, health correspondent for the "PBS NewsHour." No other reporters from national news outlets signed the letter.

Leave your thoughts in the comments section below

By The Post's Juliet Eilperin:

A controversial economist working at the Office of Management and Budget has raised questions about whether a new air pollution rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency would impose too high a cost on coal-fired power plants, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Randall Lutter, who served as the Food and Drug Administration's head of policy under George W. Bush and has battled environmentalists for years on issues such as climate change and smog, has been examining the economic impact of federal rules at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Documents in EPA's public docket show he is now probing whether a rule to cut sulfur dioxide emissions would cost coal-fired utilities too much. The rule -- which was proposed last month and would take effect in June under a court order -- would prohibit short-term spikes of sulfur dioxide, which has been linked to respiratory diseases and premature deaths.

While sulfur dioxide emissions are now measured in 24-hour and annual increments, the new rule would evaluate them every hour, prohibiting sulfur dioxide from exceeding a limit of 50 to 100 parts per billion in one hour.

Continue reading this story >>>

By The Post's Carrie Johnson:

Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden, the Justice Department's second in command, will step aside Feb. 10 to return to private law practice in Washington.

The deputy AG post, one of the most critical in the department, will be filled on an acting basis by deputy assistant attorney general Gary Grindler, said two sources familiar with the move, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel matters. Grindler has been handling sensitive issues this year for the department's criminal division.

Ogden had managed the day-to-day operations of the department's more than 100,000 employees since his Senate confirmation earlier this year. He served as a senior Justice Department official managing the civil division during the Clinton administration and co-led the transition team after President Obama was elected last year.

In recent weeks, Ogden suffered from a painful bout of appendicitis, which required hospitalization and may have prompted him to think about his future, two friends said in interviews.

Continue reading this story >>>

Federal employees have a higher chance of snow days or early dismissals this Winter season as the Washington region gears up for a colder than normal winter and a better chance of a big winter storms.

Government officials outlined the potential closing or early dismissal scenarios for the Washington region on Thursday at the Office of Personnel Management. Officials insisted they will do everything they can to announce closings by 4 a.m. on days with bad weather.

"I know that the commute for many people in our region, they start out from faraway places, that commutes have to start early, and I think one of the errors of the past is that we waited too long," OPM Director John Berry said at the meeting.

Though Berry makes the call on closing D.C.-area federal offices, federal executive boards do so in other parts of the country. The government loses roughly $100 million in productivity and opportunity costs each time it closes D.C.-area offices.

“It’s not an insignificant number. We do not make this decision lightly," Berry said.

The last time the federal government shut down D.C-area offices was in early 2003when a blizzard crippled the region for days.

This year, the Mid-Atlantic can expect a colder than normal winter and a higher likelihood of big winter storms thanks in part to El Nino, the weather phenomenon that warms the Gulf of Mexico and causes rainier Winters in southern parts of the U.S.

"That basically means we have more seeds for these big winter time blizzards to effect the Washignton region," said Christopher Strong, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service's Washington/Baltimore regional offices.

When bad weather strikes, OPM officials consult the weather forecasts and coordinate with officials at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Decisions might get made in time for late-night newscasts the night before, otherwise officials hold a conference call around 3:30 a.m. That first call is followed by another call with senior OPM staff around 3:50 a.m., at which point the OPM director can make a decision from one of five options:

Cabinet secretaries and other top administration officials will host the five breakout sessions at Thursday's jobs summit. Check The Eye's brother blog, 44, for updates throughout the day from the summit. Here's the breakdown:

Paving the Road for Small Business Job Growth, hosted by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Small Business Administrator Karen Mills.

Creating Jobs through the Rebuilding of America’s Infrastructure, hosted by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag.

Expanding Job Opportunities for American Workers Through Exports, hosted by National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers and President of the U.S. Export-Import Bank Fred Hochberg.

Encouraging Business Competitiveness and Job Creation, hosted by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors Christina Romer.

Preparing Workers and Strengthening Main Street, hosted by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Melody Barnes, director of White House Domestic Policy Council.

Happy Thursday! Lawmakers want to give immunity to gay military service members that agree to testify at Congressional hearings about the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) unveiled the measure Wednesday that would expand whistleblower protections between members of the military and lawmakers to include any instance when an active-duty member testifies about the Pentagon policy that bans openly gay people from serving in the military. It would also apply to service members that disclose their sexual orientation during a hearing.

The House and Senate armed services committees are likely to hold hearings on repealing the policy next year, Hastings said.

The Hastings bill -- which has 27 co-sponsors -- appears to be a backdoor way to make "don't ask, don't tell" illegal since current military whistleblower law grants protections to service members that want to report violations of law or policy to lawmakers, an inspector general or other Defense officials.

“I am extremely proud of the men and women who serve in our Armed Forces and truly appreciate the countless sacrifices they continue to make every single day to protect this nation and the American people," Hasting said. "They deserve better than Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and now is the time to take action."

The bill's fate is unclear and seems more designed to incrementally slide Congress into an eventual (inevitable?) repeal. Besides, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said last month that a "don't ask" repeal will be included in next year's Defense authorization bill.

President Obama has taken hits from gay rights groups for appearing to drag his feet on repealing "don't ask" and the Defense of Marriage Act. Hastings noted Wednesday that he's reached out to the White House twice on the matter and has heard no response. He's not the only one.

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Four Democratic lawmakers want the Census Bureau to give preference to long-term unemployed Americans when the agency starts hiring temporary workers for next year's decennial headcount. But the recommendations will likely to fall on deaf ears since agency staffers finalized plans for next year's census long ago.

Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) sent a letter Wednesday to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke asking the Census Bureau to prioritize job applicants who have been out of work "for an extended period of time" and applicants set to lose unemployment benefits "in the near term."

A Schumer spokesman said later that the senators are most concerned about the unemployed who have exhausted their benefits or may do so when the agency is hiring. The agency will do most of its hiring next spring.

The bureau plans to hire more than 1 million people next year to help conduct follow-up interviews with Americans who fail to return their Census questionnaires -- making the federal bureau among next year's biggest hirers. Though the historically low unemployment rate made recruitment efforts difficult during the 2000 count, the agency has been so swamped with applications this time around it has canceled a recruitment advertising campaign.