skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

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.

Proposed GOP Platform Advocates Surrendering Public Lands

play audio
Play

Tuesday, July 19, 2016   

CARSON CITY, Nev. -- A movement to remove public lands from federal control has found its way into a draft of the Republican Party platform. At the GOP convention in Cleveland this week, Nevada delegates will consider one plank up for debate that would transfer authority over certain federal lands to the states in which they are found. Such a move could open them up for drilling or sale to private interests.

Eighty-one percent of land in Nevada belongs to federal agencies. Dan Lorimier, conservation coordinator with the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, said he is deeply concerned that the Republican Party is considering the views of what he calls a radical fringe group.

"It hasn't been adopted by the party at the convention,” Lorimier said, "but I think it's indicative of what side of the fence Republicans as a party are coming down on in this issue."

The movement to relinquish federal control is led by Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who is in a long-term dispute with federal officials over grazing rights. Bundy's son, Ammon Bundy, and others, occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in an armed standoff in early 2016.

The Nevada Legislature passed a bill in 2015 aimed at transfering 7.3 million acres of federal land to the state. But the U.S. Secretary of the Interior has rejected the idea.

Lorimier said public lands are the property of all Americans and not something that can simply be given away. Environmentalists, conservationists, and other groups adamantly oppose any transfer of federal lands, which, according to Lorimier, most states can't afford to properly manage.

"This is a plan to steal outright a huge bequest to Americans,” Lorimier said. “And I just feel that this has some ethical issues that are so deep that it just resonates as intrusive into the American ethic."

The party’s platform committee also adopted measures that would end the president's ability to designate national monuments and weaken the Endangered Species Act, which protects threatened animals such as the sage grouse and Mexican gray wolf.

The draft must be formally adopted by party delegates to become part of the official platform.

The proposed Republican Party platform is available here.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021