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“Too many wolves”: Congress and DOI signal shift on gray wolf policy
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Top Stories, Approved, National, Rocky Mountain Voice

“Too many wolves”: Congress and DOI signal shift on gray wolf policy

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice At a House Natural Resources Committee hearing last week, frustration among ranchers, landowners and state officials across the West boiled over. What followed wasn’t just venting—it was a coordinated push by lawmakers and the Interior Department to delist the gray wolf and rein in the Endangered Species Act’s long hold on predator policy. “The ESA was never meant to be a Hotel California—where you can check in but never leave,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, borrowing a now-familiar line from Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman to describe how species once listed rarely come off. “We’ve far exceeded the original goals… in some cases by more than twofold.” Burgum’s comments came in response to multiple lawmakers from Colorado, Cal...
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Walcher: It’s not just Chinese farmland—it’s unchecked federal control over 700 million acres
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Approved, GregWalcher.com, National, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Walcher: It’s not just Chinese farmland—it’s unchecked federal control over 700 million acres

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com An article BBC Science Focus highlights the difficulties of “multi-tasking,” handling several things at a time, which apparently most of us don’t do very well. “In an ideal world, we’d focus on one task at a time, get it finished and only then move onto something else.” But in real life, “It’s all too common for you to be making great progress on one thing, when… BAM! You suddenly need to deal with something else.” That is common, not only in our personal lives, but also in government. In the decade I worked on Capitol Hill, no crisis happened on any Monday morning. Instead, whenever we were winding down some big project, a new crisis would appear, usually at 4:00 pm on Friday. Multi-tasking wasn’t a popular term back then, but it apt...
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U.S. government dropped millions on media outlet Politico. Here’s what they spent it on
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Approved, National, The Daily Caller

U.S. government dropped millions on media outlet Politico. Here’s what they spent it on

By Robert McGreevy | Daily Caller U.S. government agencies have dropped a staggering $34 million in contracts with Virginia-based news outlet Politico, mostly on subscriptions, according to data from USASpending.gov. The payments vary in size and scope and come from virtually every government agency. The Department of the Interior‘s (DOI) National Park Service awarded a contract worth $862,025 over a period between 2021 and 2025 for subscriptions to Politico’s Energy and Environment (E&E) News service. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, another DOI subsidiary, also made a purchase order of $455,140 to Politico for an “online news subscription” over a similar timeframe. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE DAILY CALLER
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Trump picks Burgum to head Department of the Interior
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Approved, National, Washington Examiner

Trump picks Burgum to head Department of the Interior

By Emily Hallas | Washington Examiner President-elect Donald Trump selected Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) to be secretary of the Department of the Interior in a surprise announcement Thursday. Trump made the announcement during an event at his Mar-a-Lago resort, saying that he had planned to reveal the nomination on Friday. “We’re going to turn our country around,” the president-elect said Thursday evening as he commented that the results of the election, with him winning a second term, would stop another 1929 economic recession from happening.  READ THE FULL STORY AT WASHINGTON EXAMINER
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56 Colorado counties with tax-exempt federal lands getting $48M, that’s $2 per acre
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The Center Square, Approved, State

56 Colorado counties with tax-exempt federal lands getting $48M, that’s $2 per acre

By Joe Mueller  | The Center Square Fifty-six counties in Colorado will receive $47.8 million as payment for approximately 24 million acres of tax-exempt federal lands within the state, or about $2.00 per acre. The funding, called “Payments in Lieu of Taxes,” was created in 1976 and rewritten and amended in 1982. The money paid to help local governments offset losses in property taxes for the nontaxable federal lands within their boundaries. A formula is used to calculate the payments. Population, revenue-sharing payments and the amount of federal land within the county are taken into account. “Payments in Lieu of Taxes” are made in addition to other federal funds paid for oil and gas leasing, livestock grazing, and timber harvesting, according to the U.S. Department of the Interi...
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