Saturday News Roundup

Congresswoman Anna Eshoo from Palo Alto is calling for an investigation into Vice President Dick Cheney's role in the diversion of water from the Klamath River Basin that resulted in what was reportedly the largest commercial salmon disaster in U.S. history.

A congresswoman from Palo Alto is calling for an investigation into Vice President Dick Cheney's role in the diversion of water from the Klamath River Basin that resulted in what was reportedly the largest commercial salmon disaster in U.S. history.

Democratic Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and 36 members of Congress from California and Oregon made the request Wednesday following reports that Cheney pressured U.S. Department of the Interior employees to divert water from the Klamath River Basin to benefit Republican political prospects among Oregon farmers.

"This smells as bad as 80,000 dead salmon," Eshoo said in a prepared statement. "Those who depend on salmon for their livelihood, including many of my constituents, deserve to know exactly what the Vice President did to implement a water policy that circumvented the Endangered Species Act and devastated commercial, sport and tribal fishing in California and Oregon.''

Cheney coordinated the 2002 Klamath diversion, resulting in the deaths of 80,000 salmon that have had major impacts on West Coast populations from the Klamath River to Santa Cruz County, according to a statement from Eshoo's office.

"The Vice President is not above the law or immune from congressional oversight,'' Eshoo said. "It's time for the Vice President to come clean with the American people.''