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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

National Parks May Receive More Funding for 100th Birthday

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Friday, April 4, 2014   

EAST YELLOWSTONE, Wyo. – Fans of Wyoming's national parks are watching carefully as Congress puts President Barack Obama's budget under the microscope this month.

The president is proposing an increase of $55 million in the National Park Service budget for 2015, including $10 million as a Centennial Initiative to get the parks ready for the agency's 100th anniversary celebration in 2016.

John Garder, budget and appropriations director of the National Parks Conservation Association, says it's a promising start after years of budget trimming have taken a toll on park maintenance and staffing.

"It's a modest increase over last year,” he says. “It doesn't get parks back to where they were just a few years ago, before damaging cuts, to ensure that people can have a really inspiring and a safe experience out in our parks."

Yellowstone National Park is Wyoming's biggest park tourist draw, followed by Grand Teton National Park. Devils Tower National Monument would also see a boost in funding.

Garder says additional park funding is much needed for a system that has put off about $12 billion of maintenance in recent years.

From historic resources to water and sewer systems, visitor centers, roads and trails, he says many are in disrepair.

"The main cause for the growth of the deferred-maintenance backlog is the decline in Congress' investment in the construction account, which creates so many jobs,” he explains. “In today's dollars, the construction account for the National Park Service has been cut nearly in half, just in the last four years."






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