Department of Commerce March 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NOAA Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) is an environmental education program that promotes locally relevant, experiential learning in the K-12 environment. Funded projects provide meaningful watershed educational experiences for students, related professional development for teachers, and helps to support regional education and environmental priorities in the Pacific Northwest, the northern Gulf of Mexico and New England. These new geographic areas are intended to build upon on the successes of the existing B-WET Programs in the Chesapeake Bay, California, and Hawaii.

This announcement provides notice that Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA) has filed an administrative appeal with the Department of Commerce asking that the Secretary override the California Coastal Commission's (CCC) objection to TCA's construction of an extension to California State Route 241 in northern San Diego and southern Orange Counties, California.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) and its advisory committees will hold public meetings, April 1-7, 2008, in Anchorage, AK.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (``USPTO'') amends the Rules of Practice in Trademark Cases to require a description of the mark in all applications to register a mark not in standard characters. This requirement will facilitate more accurate and comprehensive design coding and pseudo-mark data determinations, and therefore will promote better searchability of marks within the USPTO trademark database. The USPTO will maintain its practice of printing the description of a mark on the certificate of registration only when the USPTO deems the description necessary to clarify what is claimed in the mark.

The Department of Commerce preliminarily determines that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of lightweight thermal paper from the People's Republic of China. For information on the estimated subsidy rates, see the ``Suspension of Liquidation'' section of this notice.

In FY 2006, EDA funded the development of a practitioner- oriented curriculum to acquaint local economic development practitioners with the benefits, process, and practice of economic regionalism. Pursuant to its National Technical Assistance, Training, Research and Evaluation program, EDA previously solicited applications for a project designed to implement the regional training curriculum, but determined applications received under that solicitation were not satisfactory. Accordingly, EDA now re-solicits applications to implement the regional training curriculum developed under the FY 2006 award.

Block groups are statistical geographic divisions of a census tract, defined for the tabulation and presentation of decennial census data. Block groups also will be used to tabulate and present period estimates from the American Community Survey (ACS) \1\ after 2010. Block groups provide the geographic framework within which the Bureau of the Census (Census Bureau) defines census blocks. Each block group comprises a reasonably compact and contiguous cluster of census blocks; up to nine block groups can be contained within a single census tract.

On November 7, 2007, the Department of Commerce (``the Department'') published the preliminary results of its fourth administrative review of the antidumping duty order on carbon and certain alloy steel wire rod from Mexico. The review covers one producer of the subject merchandise, Hylsa Puebla, S.A. de C.V. (``Hylsa''). The period of review (``POR'') is October 1, 2005, through September 30, 2006. Based on our analysis of comments received, these final results differ from the preliminary results. The final results are listed below in the ``Final Results of Review'' section.

On November 8, 2007, we, NMFS, received a petition to list populations of Pacific eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus) in Washington, Oregon, and California as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). We find that the petition presents substantial scientific and commercial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted. Accordingly, we will initiate a status review of the species. To ensure that the status review is complete and based upon the best available scientific and commercial information, we solicit information regarding the population structure and status of Pacific eulachon throughout their range in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California.

The President's Export Council (PEC) will hold a full Council meeting to discuss topics related to export expansion. The meeting will include discussion of trade priorities and initiatives, PEC subcommittee activity, and proposed letters of recommendation to the President. The PEC was established on December 20, 1973, and reconstituted May 4, 1979, to advise the President on matters relating to U.S. trade. It was most recently renewed by Executive Order 13446. Date: April 8, 2008. Time: 10 a.m. (EDT) Location: U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 4830, 1401 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230. Because of building security, all non-government attendees must pre-register. Please RSVP to the PEC Executive Secretariat no later than April 4, 2008, to J. Marc Chittum, President's Export Council, Room 4043, 1401 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230, telephone (202) 482-1124, or email Marc.Chittum@mail.doc.gov. This program will be physically accessible to people with disabilities. Seating is limited and will be on a first come, first served basis. Requests for sign language interpretation, other auxiliary aids, or pre-registration, should be submitted no later than March 31, 2008, to Marc Chittum, President's Export Council, Room 4043, 1401 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230, telephone (202) 482-1124, or email Marc.Chittum@mail.doc.gov.

NIST invites and requests nomination of individuals for appointment to the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Advisory Board. NIST will consider nominations received in response to this notice for appointment to the MEP Advisory Board, in addition to nominations already received.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific cod by vessels catching Pacific cod for processing by the offshore component in the Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the A season allocation of the 2008 total allowable catch (TAC) of Pacific cod apportioned to vessels catching Pacific cod for processing by the offshore component of the Central Regulatory Area of the GOA.

In response to a request for a changed-circumstances review from myonic GmbH and pursuant to section 751(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, and 19 CFR 351.216 and 351.221(c)(3), the Department of Commerce is initiating a changed-circumstances review of the antidumping duty order on ball bearings and parts thereof from Germany.

NMFS issues a final rule to repeal regulations providing for a groundfish vessel incentive program (VIP) that was designed to reduce the rate at which Pacific halibut and red king crab are taken as incidental catch in Alaska groundfish trawl fisheries. The VIP has not performed as intended because of the costs associated with implementation and enforcement, the relatively small number of vessels covered by the regulation, and the implementation of more effective bycatch reduction programs. This action is necessary to reduce a regulatory burden on the industry and to reduce the administrative costs necessary to support a program no longer considered an effective means to reduce bycatch rates.

On January 23, 2008, the Department of Commerce (the Department) received a request on behalf of the petitioner, DuPont Performance Elastomers L.L.C. (DPE) \1\ for a changed circumstances review and a request to revoke, in part, the antidumping duty (AD) finding on certain polychloroprene rubber products from Japan.

This document corrects the fax number in the ADDRESSES section of a proposed rule published in the Federal Register of March 5, 2008.

NOAA's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management is issuing this notice to advise the public that a DEIS for OCRM's review of amendments to the Washington Coastal Management Program has been prepared and is available for public review and comment. Written requests for the DEIS and written comments on the DEIS can be submitted to the individual listed in the section FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. Public Hearings will be held on April 10, 2008 and April 11, 2008. The public comment period commenced on February 29, 2008 as noticed in the Federal Register at https://frwebgate4.access.gpo.gov/ cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi?WAISdocID=5668694961+0+0+0&WAISaction=re trieve and will close on April 14, 2008. Public Comment Hearings: The start of the public comment period on the DEIS commenced February 29, 2008 and will close on April 14, 2008. Two public hearings will be held; one on April 10, 2008 and one on April 11, 2008 in Lacey, Washington and Seattle, Washington, respectively. The public hearing on April 10th will be held in Lacey, Washington at the Washington State Department of Ecology Headquarters, (300 Desmond Drive) and will begin at 3:30 p.m. and last until 6:30 p.m. The public hearing on April 11th will be held in Seattle Washington at the Mountaineers Building, Tahoma 2 Room (300 Third Avenue West) and will begin at 3:30 p.m. and last until 6:30 p.m.

NMFS is continuing its solicitation of nominations for the Advisory Panel (AP) on Pacific Whiting called for in the Pacific Whiting Act of 2006 (Act). An initial solicitation was published in the Federal Register on October 24, 2007 and resulted in insufficient nominations to meet the requirements of the Act. Nominations are being sought for at least 6, but not more than 12 individuals to serve as United States representatives on the AP. Nomination packages received during the initial solicitation period will be considered in final selection of United States representatives to the AP and it is not necessary to resubmit them.