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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Governor, Most of Legislature Get F on Environmental Report Card

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Monday, June 5, 2017   

PHOENIX – The Sierra Club's annual Environmental Report Card is out for 2017 – and Gov. Doug Ducey and most of the Republican majority in the Legislature get a failing grade.

The report singles out a water bill that gives the advantage to livestock interests over tribes and public lands.

It also pans failed attempts to eliminate the State Parks Board and to legalize snake shot in urban areas.

Sandy Bahr, director of the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club, says lawmakers also passed resolutions asking that the federal Clean Power Plan be rescinded and that the Antiquities Act be weakened to make it harder to establish new national monuments.

"Not only are legislators not promoting environmental protection, but they're actively working against protecting our air, our water, our wildlife," she states.

Conservative legislators argue that they're pursuing a pro-jobs agenda.

The report gave A-plus grades to five state senators and 17 state representatives, largely for beating back a number of anti-environment bills.

Bahr says the most destructive issue isn't about the environment, per se – the governor signed a package of bills designed to make it harder to get an initiative on the ballot and easier for lawmakers to get around the ones that do pass.

"That really is the main tool that we have available for any kind of statewide change in environmental policy,” she points out. “So making it more difficult and more expensive when it is already difficult and expensive is the absolute wrong way to go.”

Conservation and voting rights advocates are challenging several of those laws in the courts.



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