ladajo wrote: Hopefully I will get an update on fees waiver from ONR later today.
Seems unlikely. FedGov DC Metro is closed today due to a recent blizzard. May be closed for several more days as another storm is coming tomorrow with another 5-10" of snow on top of near record snow from the blizzard.
Don't know, maybe that ONR office isn't in the DC Metro area.
New update:
I spoke with the NAVAIR representative that is handling the FOIA. It is up for Fee Waiver review and expected to have a determination within a day or so.
In the mean time they have gone and reached out to gather the Peer Reveiw data. Once it is in hand, it will be turned around to the CONTRACTOR (EMC2) for a chance to claim proprietary data and argue for limiting the release (redactions) or denial of the release. They will be given 5 business days to do so. After that the information is up for release and should be forwarded forthwith.
The current FOIA priority is with the Peer Review package. I have been given an option to make an addendum for the latest (or all existing - depends on scope I assign) monthly status reports on the current WB8 contract if I so choose. If I do so, it will reset the 20 day response deadline clock to the day I submit the addendum, which as I understand is currently ticking from 3 Feb based on my clarification input.
Bottom line, Rick Nebel('s lawyers) get(s) a cut on releasability based on proprietary information rights. As far as the requested info, if I say nothing and let it ride, I am due 2 hours research time and 100 pages (apparently already requested), and it is deadline to me by 23Feb. If they grant the Fee Waiver, all that means is I get lots more stuff, but the due day stays the same. The waiver is looking more like not, as it was explained to me, and fair enough made sense. Not decided yet, but it will be based on THE General Public Actual Interest at the time of the FOIA, as well as MY ability to disseminate the info to the General Public.
I think we should let this ride as is, see what it returns for Peer Review. Then later request the monthly updates to current at that time, and even look at the possibility of paying some fees to get mo' stuff if we want it.
No current progress reports. Do not make it look like an inquisition.
Besides it serves no useful (as opposed to gossip) purpose.
Rick is satisfied with his lab team's ability. Ligon says Park is one of the best. He also speaks highly of the engineering staff. The fact that WB-7 ran like a top is good enough for me.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
Josh Cryer wrote:Congrats, you just put Rick behind by about a month.
Only if he wants to be. Othewise he will have his lowest technically competent person write up a decline due to proprietary info type refusal and that will be it, no?
Josh,
Rick will have five days to answer/ not a month. Additionally, if he sticks to long standing principle from Dr. Bussard, he will not have any issue with any release of info. At the end of the day, Dolly is going to be the one to deal with it, not Rick.
Don't be so quick to pull a trigger. Pick your targets with thought.
<insert more jeopardy music here>
<overlay finger tapping here>
With "snowmageddon" in DC, ONR has yet to respond since the "your request in under consideration" regarding my begging for 2hrs/100 pages free, and NAVAIR out west is silent since the "we are waiting on determination" of 2hrs/100 pages verses "The Kitchen Sink" for free.
Hopefully next week we get some progress. Although, next week could also be EMC2's 5 business days from NAVAIR based on NAVAIR telling me they had already put out requests to the POC's for the requested info per the FOIA.
Deadline to me, as I understand it, remains 23Feb10.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it is snowing in Hawaii...
dah-na-naa-naah...dah-na-naah-naa...
I don't want anyone out their spending the weekend in unknowing agony.
News from NAVAIR Weapons:
Fee Waiver denied.
We are on the 2hour/100page plan. As I understand, due to me by the 23rd of Feb, focused to the Peer Review for WB7/7.1.
Edit: Corrected ONR to NAVAIR, still nothing from ONR with the DC Area Weather. I expect something from them later this week regarding fee/waiver.
Last edited by ladajo on Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
ladajo wrote:News from ONR:
Fee Waiver denied.
We are on the 2hour/100page plan. As I understand, due to me by the 23rd of Feb, focused to the Peer Review for WB7/7.1.
Seven days. More or less.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
For future posterity, I wanted to clarify the reasons given why NAVAIR Weapons denied full fee waiver and granted the 2hrs /100pages option instead.
They were very helpful and explained the fee waiver determination nicely. Both on the phone and in the letter. They explained the full criteria required to be met, and then gave the two specific point that they felt were not met:
1. I did not clearly articulate the "General Public's Interest Level" in the information requested. I more so explained (without fully realizing it at the time) that the General Public would incredibly interested in the possibility of success. NAVAIR kindly pointed out that would be "interest after the fact". Fair point, as the general public today knows little to nothing of Polywell or its implications. Educated, they would be, but the FOIA is not meant the mechanism to generate interest, it is meant to satisfy interest...
2. I did not present a credible method to provide effective distribution of the FOIA material to "The General Public". I demonstrated a hoped for mechanism, vice one that exists. And no, talk-polywell.org does not count as an effective mechanism.
If I could have demonstrated these two points, I might have gotten full fee waiver and a "veritable plethora" of project data.
End of the day, I am happy where it is at...next week should be informative one way or the other.
