Whistleblower: BLM Ignores IIlegal Grazing After Bundy Fiasco
From: E&E News “Hoover alleges that BLM’s decision to fire him was “improper retaliation” for an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint he filed last year and for “disclosing illegal grazing and other activities by one of its permittees, who was ...
Interior Department border deployments are mired in secrecy
From: High Country News “On May 15, it was reported by The Hill that 47 Interior Department officers were currently assigned to the border — more than twice the previous number. This leaves public-lands advocates worried about the effects of their absence on the lands these ...
No Word From Feds on Tampa Sewage Spat
From: Tampa Bay Times “Jerry Phillips, the attorney who prepared the complaint for the environmental group, said the group hasn’t given up, but it hasn’t heard a peep from the federal government. That’s not unusual since President Donald Trump took office, Phillips said. ...
A Steal of a Deal: How Ranchers Take Advantage of Public Lands
From: The Revelator “BLM’s own records reveal that much of the sagebrush West is in severely degraded condition due to excessive commercial livestock grazing,” Kirsten Stade, advocacy director for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said in a press release when the ...
Letter to the Editor: A Response to Chris Stewart’s and Mike Lee’s Letter on Wild Horses
From: St. George News “As a Utah constituent located in Utah’s 2nd Congressional District, I will not – nor will I ever – consider Chris Stewart the “wild horse guy.” I would, however, consider him so deep in the pocket of the USDA, he wouldn’t even be able to tell the ...
Forest Service Chief: Agency Auditing Alaska Region Timber Program
From: KFSK “The chief of the U.S. Forest Service has responded to the Petersburg borough that the federal agency is conducting an audit of the timber program on national forest land in the Alaska Region. Vicki Christiansen’s May 8th letter to borough mayor Mark Jensen apologizes ...
The Administration Tried to Muzzle this Scientist on Climate Change. But He Won’t Go Away
From: Washington Post “Last week, Luber was in Washington to accept one of six Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards. The prizes were established in 1979 by Christie Hefner and named for her father, who founded Playboy magazine. (I was a member of the 2019 judging panel.) Luber, who ...
Yellowstone Connectivity Upgrades Inevitable: Sholly
From: Yellowstone Insider “In an ideal world, visitors would turn off their cellphones during their Yellowstone National Park visits, preferring to commune with nature and patiently await an Old Faithful eruption or two. And, indeed, many visitors do indeed adopt this approach to a ...
Ethics Experts Explain How to Protect Taxpayers From Pruitt-Like Scandals
From: Think Progress “Among its more than a dozen recommendations, the OIG says the EPA should recover these funds from the “responsible official or officials.” Ten of the 14 recommendations in the report remain unresolved, however, and in its response, the EPA asserted that ...
Wallace Could Fill Extended Interior Vacancy
From: Jackson Hole News & Guide “If confirmed, in fact, Wallace would oversee two agencies that have lacked Senate-confirmed leadership dating to when Trump took office. Dan Smith, a deputy director who’s “exercising the authority of director,” now leads the National Park ...
Parents, Schools Await Results of Federal Health Study into Synthetic Turf with Tire Crumbs
From: The Oregonian “This delay was entirely predictable based on the history of this issue particularly and of the current administration’s languid stance on health and safety,” he said. “The approach the regulatory agencies are sticking with is a Trump-era classic: Do nothing ...
Toothless Law Lets White House Keep Jobs Vacant
From: E&E News “More than halfway through President Trump’s first term, the Interior Department remains rife with key vacancies despite a federal law that suggests the agency should be hobbled by the lack of leadership. Instead, Interior hasn’t so much as slowed down ...
PEER Challenges Legality of NPS Operations Deputy Appointment
From: Federal News Network “PEER said David Vela can’t legally serve as the National Park Service’s acting deputy director for operations because he was appointed by another deputy director, not the NPS director, since that position is vacant. PEER is asking the Interior ...
EPA Head Asked to Back up Claim That Climate Change is ’50 to 75 Years Out’
From: The Hill “Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler is being asked to back up recent claims that climate change consequences are still “50 to 75 years out.” In a freedom of information request filed by the Sierra Club late Monday, the conservation ...
Singapore Plans to Regulate 11 Chemicals as Hazardous Substances
From: Chemical Watch “Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) is planning to place controls on 11 chemicals, in accordance with proposed updates by international conventions. The parties to the Stockholm and Rotterdam Conventions are considering placing controls on 11 new ...
NGO Seeks ‘Moratorium’ on New PFASs in US
From: Chemical Watch “In a 27 March letter to leaders of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), PEER said this jump has come after industry voluntarily pledged to phase out the use of two long-chain substances – PFOA and PFOS – because of their toxicity and ...
Misleading the Public: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Debate Flared Up Again
From: High North News “After the timeframe for submitting comments on the draft Environmental Impact Statement for drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has closed, the organization Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) claims that essential ...
Helicopters Gone Wild
From: Honolulu Civil Beat “Commercial helicopter tours in Hawaii are a bane to grounded residents, but a popular tourist activity that has proven a successful business for a handful of tour companies in the islands. The lack of regulation and lucrative nature of these commercial ...
This Trump Appointee Has a History of Fighting the National Weather Service. Will Scott and Rubio Support Him Anyway?
From: Tampa Bay Times “President Donald Trump’s pick to run the federal agency in charge of weather forecasting and water monitoring hit a snag this month. A federal report alleged widespread sexual harassment at AccuWeather, the former company of his nominee, Barry Myers. It’s ...
Organizations Team up to Produce Survival Guide for Government Whistleblowers
From: Federal News Network “Few federal management challenges are as vexing as how to deal with whistleblowers. For whistleblowers, things can be even tougher. They face retaliation and job loss. To mark the 30th anniversary of the Whistleblower Protection Act, the Project on ...
