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Horsford, House panel hear how COVID-19 exposes structural racism
WASHINGTON — The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately harmed communities of color, laying bare the systemic racial disparities across the United States, experts told lawmakers this week. Early evidence suggests there are elevated rates of infection and death from COVID-19 in African American populations and other communities of color. Nationwide, Black Americans are dying at nearly […]
Can more conservation, less wildlife trade help prevent the next pandemic?
WASHINGTON — As the United States reels from COVID-19, scientists and environmentalists say beefing up conservation efforts could help protect humanity from future pandemics. Lawmakers and policy experts alike have been focused on the immediate health and economic concerns from the pandemic. But many environmental advocates say the global crisis has also laid bare the […]
Virtual representation: Nevada’s members of Congress adjust to pandemic life
WASHINGTON — Near-constant phone calls. Zoom meetings. Internet town halls. Empty flights to Washington. A lot of handwashing. This is the new normal for Nevada’s congressional delegation. The COVID-19 virus has upended work in the U.S. Congress, as it has in most other workplaces. Nevada lawmakers have shifted the focus of their work, and the […]
Ford, AGs to Trump: Now is not the time for gutting unrelated regs
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford and 20 other attorneys general from across the country are pressing the Trump administration to freeze pending regulations so officials can focus on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The attorneys general sent a letter Tuesday to the White House Office of Management and Budget requesting that the administration cease […]
Visitors flock to national parks after Trump waives fees
The Trump administration is urging Americans to head to national parks as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread. Many people are heading outdoors to seek a reprieve from being cooped up at home. But in Nevada and elsewhere, some fear that the sudden influx of visitors to national parks could put those parks and the […]
Government watchdog: Trump hasn’t justified BLM move
The Bureau of Land Management is losing at least half of the employees designated to move west as part of the Trump administration’s controversial relocation plan, leaving a bare-bones workforce to lead the agency. A scathing analysis of the move from the Government Accountability Office — a nonpartisan, independent congressional research agency — found that […]
Native American women are missing and murdered. Will the federal government act?
Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind was 22, eight months pregnant, and looking forward to her baby shower the following day when she went missing on a sunny August afternoon in 2017. She had gone to a neighbor’s apartment in Fargo, N.D., where she had been asked to help with a sewing project. She never went home. Kayakers discovered […]
Nevada Dems battle DeVos over student loan forgiveness
WASHINGTON — A long-simmering feud between U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and congressional Democrats over student loan forgiveness is heating up as hundreds of thousands of borrowers continue to wait for help on loans they claim were fraudulent. DeVos narrowly avoided a congressional subpoena earlier this month after a lengthy fight against the U.S. House […]
Nevadans bring desert refuge fight to Capitol Hill
WASHINGTON — A diverse coalition of Nevada environmentalists, veterans and tribal and state leaders stormed Capitol Hill offices last week to press lawmakers to block a U.S. Air Force plan to downsize a Nevada wildlife refuge. The Air Force wants to expand its sprawling bombing and training range north of Las Vegas. The proposal — […]
‘Is there a national legislature forming in Reno?’
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) is perplexed by the Trump administration’s plan to move legislative affairs positions for a federal public lands management agency from Washington to Reno, Nev. “Is there a national legislature forming in Reno that none of us know about?” Grijalva asked at a U.S. House […]
Experts urge ‘Apollo-type’ fight against climate disaster; GOP pushes Yucca
WASHINGTON — Climate change could cost Americans billions of dollars, destroy coastal communities and put agriculture, healthcare and military facilities at risk unless the government acts swiftly, experts warned Congress Wednesday. Business leaders, health experts and former military commanders warned the U.S. House Budget Committee of impending disaster if there is no plan to address […]
Trump team’s relocation plan will make BLM an industry servant, critics warn
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration revealed sweeping plans this week to dismantle and disperse the Bureau of Land Management, sending its current headquarters staff to more than half a dozen offices across the Western states, including Nevada, while establishing a small new headquarters office in Grand Junction, Colorado. The massive reorganization, as outlined in a […]