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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.

Pendley Must Go as BLM Leader, Sporting Groups Say

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Monday, August 31, 2020   

DENVER -- Western hunters, anglers and conservationists are calling for the immediate removal of William Perry Pendley as head of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Pendley has served as acting director of the agency for more than a year. He was formally nominated to be director in June, but had his nomination pulled after a public outcry.

Aaron Kindle, director of sporting advocacy for the National Wildlife Federation, lives in Colorado. He said Pendley's anti-public lands stance made him a bad pick for the job from the start.

"There was already issues with him even taking the job at all," Kindle said. "And now to skirt the procedures that every BLM director has gone through before really raises a lot of red flags and just proves how entirely unfit he is to be in this position."

The National Wildlife Federation and its western affiliates have sent a letter to senators calling for his dismissal.

They say a string of temporary appointments to keep Pendley in office were illegally used to avoid a Senate confirmation process required by the Constitution. Pendley has remained the de facto leader of the BLM because of a succession order he signed.

Kindle said Pendley has prioritized drilling and mining on public lands during his tenure as acting director, which has come at the expense of public lands, and sportsmen and women.

"Some of the most seminal sporting paradise out there he would take out of public hands and mine it, drill it, use it up in any way possible, much to the chagrin of the whole sporting community and our sporting traditions," Kindle added.

The BLM oversees 248 million acres of public lands.

In their letter to senators, the group also called out Pendley's inflammatory statements about the Black Lives Matter movement, immigrants and the LGBTQ community.

Disclosure: The National Wildlife Federation contributes to our fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, Endangered Species & Wildlife, Energy Policy, Environment, Public Lands/Wilderness, Salmon Recovery, and Water. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


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