October 14, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This final rule announces inseason changes to management measures in the Pacific Coast groundfish fisheries including: trip limit adjustments; the reopening of the Pacific whiting primary seasons for the shore-based, catcher/processor, and mothership sectors; bycatch limit increases; and modifications to the trawl Rockfish Conservation Areas. These routine actions, are authorized by the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP), and are intended to allow fisheries to access more abundant groundfish stocks while protecting overfished and depleted stocks.

Notice is hereby given that the Department of Labor will hold a hearing on the Department's proposed regulation under provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA, or the Act), and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (Code), relating to the provision of investment advice to participants and beneficiaries of self-directed individual account plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs).

The Commission denied an application for review filed by Edward Czelada of a Report and Order in this proceeding. The Report and Order upgraded the class of Station WIDL from Channel 221A to 221C3, reallotted Channel 221C3 from Caro to Cass City, Michigan, and denied Czelada's counterproposal to allot Channel 218C3 at Ubly, Michigan and Channel 297C3 at Cass City, Michigan. The Commission determined that the counterproposal was defective because it requested a channel allotment in the noncommercial educational reserved band, which is prohibited under the Commission's rules. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) is granting an exemption to firms designated by the Tokyo Financial Exchange, Inc. (TFX) from the application of certain of the Commission's foreign futures and option regulations based upon substituted compliance with certain comparable regulatory and self- regulatory requirements of a foreign regulatory authority consistent with conditions specified by the Commission, as set forth herein. This Order is issued pursuant to Commission Regulation 30.10, which permits persons to file a petition with the Commission for exemption from the application of certain of the Regulations set forth in Part 30 and authorizes the Commission to grant such an exemption if such action would not be otherwise contrary to the public interest or to the purposes of the provision from which exemption is sought.

The Commission requests comments on a channel substitution proposed by Pappas Telecasting of Central Nebraska, L.P. (``Pappas''), the permittee of KHGI-DT, DTV channel 36, Kearney, Nebraska. Pappas requests the substitution of DTV channel 13 for channel 36 at Kearney.

NMFS issues this temporary rule for a period of 30 days, to allow shrimp fishermen to use limited tow times as an alternative to Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) in state and Federal waters offshore of Texas (from the Texas/Louisiana boundary southward to the boundary shared by Matagorda and Brazoria Counties; approximately 95[deg] 32'W. long.) extending offshore 20 nautical miles. This action is necessary because environmental conditions resulting from Hurricane Ike are preventing some fishermen from using TEDs effectively.

This notice of proposed rulemaking is issued to inform the public that the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress is considering adoption of new fees for registration of claims, special services and Licensing Division services, and that the Office intends to submit a schedule of proposed new statutory fees and fees for certain other services to Congress. The proposed fees would recover a significant part of the costs to the Office of registering claims and provide full cost recovery for many services provided by the Office which benefit only or primarily the user of that service. The new fees are based on reliable information regarding the costs of providing services, and reflect new electronic processing of most claims implemented in the Copyright Office in 2007.

This action withdraws a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that proposed a new airworthiness directive (AD), applicable to General Electric Company (GE) CF6-80C2 and CF6-80E1 series turbofan engines. That action would have required replacement of all clevis pins installed on the thrust reverser central drive units and upper and lower actuators, or replacement of pins that fail an on-wing rebound hardness test. Since we issued that NPRM, we determined there is no unsafe condition that warrants issuing an AD. The likelihood of this event occurring again and significantly damaging an aircraft is very low. Accordingly, we withdraw the proposed rule.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is issuing final regulations regarding documentation required for appointments of disabled veterans. The purpose of this change is to provide consistency with the policy implemented by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

This action modifies Class D Airspace at MacDill AFB, FL. The MacDill AFB Air Traffic Control Tower no longer operates on a full time basis; therefore, the Class D Airspace associated with the tower operations must be modified to reflect the times when the controlled airspace is effective. This action enhances the National Airspace System by relaxing the restrictions to the controlled airspace areas in the vicinity of MacDill AFB, FL.

NCUA is amending its share insurance rules to simplify coverage for revocable trust accounts. The amendments will make the rules easier to understand and apply without decreasing coverage, result in faster share insurance determinations in the event of a credit union closing, and help improve public confidence in the credit union system. The amendments eliminate the concept of ``qualifying beneficiaries.'' Also, for members with revocable trust accounts totaling no more than $500,000, coverage will be determined without regard to the proportional beneficial interest of each beneficiary in the trust. Under the amended rules, a trust account owner with up to five different beneficiaries named in all of his or her revocable trust accounts at one NCUA-insured institution will be insured up to $100,000 per beneficiary. Revocable trust account owners with more than $500,000 and more than five different beneficiaries named in the trust(s) will be insured for the greater of either: $500,000 or the aggregate amount of all the beneficiaries' interests in the trust(s), limited to $100,000 per beneficiary.

NMFS has received a request from the U.S. Navy (Navy) for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to training activities conducted in the Southern California Range Complex (SOCAL), which extends south and southwest off the southern California coast, for the period of January 2009 through January 2014. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is proposing regulations to govern that take and requesting information, suggestions, and comments on these proposed regulations.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) maintains the Commerce Control List (CCL), which identifies items subject to Department of Commerce export controls. This final rule revises the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement changes made to the Wassenaar Arrangement's List of Dual Use Goods and Technologies (Wassenaar List) maintained and agreed to by governments participating in the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual Use Goods and Technologies (Wassenaar Arrangement, or WA). The Wassenaar Arrangement advocates implementation of effective export controls on strategic items with the objective of improving regional and international security and stability. To harmonize with the changes to the Wassenaar List, this rule revises the EAR by amending certain entries that are controlled for national security reasons in Categories 1, 2, 3, 5 Part I (telecommunications), 5 Part II (information security), 6, 7, and 9; adding new entries to the Commerce Control List (CCL), and amending EAR Definitions, as well as adding definitions. The purpose of this final rule is to revise the CCL and definitions of terms used in the EAR to implement Wassenaar List revisions that were agreed upon in the December 2007 Wassenaar Arrangement Plenary Meeting and the Wassenaar List provisions regarding solar cells agreed upon in the December 2006 plenary meeting. This rule also adds or expands unilateral U.S. export controls and national security export controls on certain items to make them consistent with the amendments made to implement the Wassenaar Arrangement's decisions.