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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.

After Years-Long Fight for Protection, A Win for Sage Grouse

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Friday, May 18, 2018   

CARSON CITY, Nev. – Environmental groups are celebrating a court decision this week which they hope puts the bi-state sage grouse one step closer to protection.

Groups first petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the bi-state sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act back in 2005. The agency in 2015 denied the bird protection. But a district court judge in California this week found Fish and Wildlife hadn't offered enough basis for that decision.

Ileene Anderson, senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity, says threats to the bird should have been clear all along.

"There isn't a lot of genetic mixing anymore; in some populations, there's simply not enough birds left in them to be able to successfully reproduce over time,” says Anderson. “And so, we're really worried about this whole population going extinct."

The Fish and Wildlife Service and the groups that sued the agency will now have through next week to propose a timeline to the court to decide how to remedy the issue.

Anderson says the bi-state sage grouse habitat along the California-Nevada border has become fragmented through urban development and livestock grazing. She says classifying the bird as threatened or endangered would make it possible to slow habitat loss.

"Trying to find that balance between keeping habitat around for these very imperiled species, while also allowing prudent ranching to occur on these lands, I think that there is a 'sweet spot' there that can have both happen,” says Anderson.

Anderson says protecting the bird requires protecting its unique habitat, which she says would be good for the whole Mono Basin ecosystem.


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