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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.

Local Businesses: MT National Monument Provides Economic Boost

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Monday, July 17, 2017   

FORT BENTON, Mont. – Public lands provide a major economic boost to local communities in Montana, according to groups that support the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument being kept as it is, while the U.S. Interior Department reviews the monument’s status.

A new report from Democratic members of the Joint Economic Committee in Congress shows outdoor recreation generated $5.8 billion in consumer spending and $1.5 billion in wages in Montana in 2012.

Nicolle Fugere, who owns Missouri River Outfitters, says she's seen the effect of the monument on her small town of Fort Benton.

"The Breaks provide tourism for this community here in Fort Benton, and without that, we wouldn't have the town that we do now,” she states. “We really rely on tourism in the summer."

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ordered a review of 27 monuments to examine whether there was enough public input in their creation or expansion and if they are properly sized.

He's already taken a couple off that list, and is expected to release decisions on the rest in late August.

Fugere says her business, which provides guided canoe trips down the Missouri River, has grown steadily over the last decade.

She says the river will be popular no matter what its status is, but the national monument designation has meant more facilities and protections for the Missouri Breaks, which means less destruction of the natural habitat.

"It's preserved the river, so that won't happen more and more,” she stresses. “And with more people coming down, you need to put things in place so that the river stays the way it is."

The Joint Economic Committee report also found in rural counties nationally that have 100,000 acres of protected public lands, compared to those with none, income per person is higher by more than $4,300.




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