Interior Department to investigate White House-Klamath connections

...The Interior Department inspector general will look into possible political interference by the White House in developing water policy in the Northwest, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry announced Friday.
The inquiry follows the disclosure that President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, briefed dozens of political appointees at the Interior Department more than a year and a half ago about diverting water from the Klamath River in Oregon to irrigate farms.
Last September, 33,000 chinook salmon died in the Klamath River in Northern California. The California Department of Fish and Game laid much of the blame on low flows controlled by the federal government for creating conditions that allowed a fatal gill rot disease to spread through the fish.
A report on the fish kill by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not been released.
Kerry asked for the IG investigation after a story about Rove's meeting with the political appointees appeared in The Wall Street Journal...