02/22/07 Brit Withdrawal & Updating the Database

British Withdrawl & Updating the Database plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair said they will withdraw around 1,600 troops from Iraq in the coming months and aims to further cut its 7,100-strong contingent by late summer if Iraqi forces can secure the country`s south. BLAIR: Over time and depending naturally on the progress and capability of the Iraqi security forces, we will be able to drawn down further. Possibly to below 5000 once the Basra Palace site has been transferred to the Iraqi's in late summer. The UK military presence will continue into 2008 for as long as we are wanted and have a job to do. Blair has said he is stepping down after a decade as Britain's PM and some people think the troop pullout is his way of leaving office on a positive note. U.S. officials are downplaying the withdrawal but officially call it a sign us success in Iraq. Washington State has removed over 176,000 names from the voter registration rolls, according to Secretary of State Sam Reed. The names removed came from duplicates, deceased or felons. In 2006, the statewide system consolidated all 39 separate county systems into one database substantially decreasing opportunity for fraud in Washington`s elections. Under Reed`s leadership, a law was passed in 2002 clearing the way for a statewide voter registration database. The database later became a federal mandate required in all 50 states to address issues raised by the 2000 Presidential election. Reed will be working with officials in Oregon, California, Montana & Idaho to help cross check their voter rolls. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. Here in the Northwest, salmon aficionados of which there are many would like nothing better then to rid our ocean and rivers of the carnivorous and dreadfully hated &sea lion. Yet in an odd twist, these same individuals could end up being protected by the very marine mammal they detest. Could there be bigger lesson here? The waters of the Puget Sound are venerable to terrorists so the Navy has determined that the best way to secure them and the Kitsap-Bangor Naval Base is to use dozens of trained seal lions and dolphins to detect underwater mines and locate suspicious swimmers. Amazingly Sea Lions can be trained to be kind of an underwater rope horse, herding a swimmer then cuffing them with a rope they carry in their mouth that allows the villain to reeled into a boat. Pretty cool. Even Sea Lions have their advocates so prior to implanting the final stages of this security mission the navy is working with groups concerned for the welfare of sea lions. That in itself is an oxymoron in the Northwest but tell me, other then the fact they are a source of food can a salmon protect society. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.