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Colorado loses out to Alabama for Space Command HQ; Polis says ‘politically motivated’
The U.S. Air Force has selected Huntsville, Ala., as the permanent headquarters for the U.S. Space Command, passing over the command’s existing base in Colorado Springs, the Air Force said Wednesday. Gov. Jared Polis and Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera, both Democrats, raised concerns that President Donald Trump overruled military decision-makers and made the decision to […]
‘Millions of birds will die’: Last-minute Trump rule aids industry
In July 2011, a pipeline owned by ExxonMobil burst near Laurel, Montana, dumping 42,000 gallons of crude oil into the nearby Yellowstone River. As federal officials reported the damage for weeks afterward, they found American white pelicans, owls and other bird species covered in oil, injured or dead. ExxonMobil agreed to pay $12 million to […]
Bipartisan members of Congress launch wildfire caucus
Congressional Republicans and Democrats from the West are banding together with a common interest in mitigating and responding to the increasing intensity and frequency of wildfires. In a sign of the rising danger wildfires pose, Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado, a Democrat, and Rep. John Curtis, a Utah Republican, announced plans to launch the Bipartisan […]
Washington Monument closed after visit from Interior secretary who’s positive for COVID-19
The National Park Service temporarily closed the Washington Monument on Friday after a recent visit by Interior Secretary David L. Bernhardt, who tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday. Bernhardt, a Colorado native, visited the iconic District of Columbia monument “recently,” Interior Department spokesman Nicholas Goodwin said in an email. Employees who came into contact […]
Biden picks Michigan’s Granholm for Energy, North Carolina’s Regan for EPA and New Mexico’s Haaland for Interior
President-elect Joe Biden will nominate U.S. Rep. Debra A. Haaland to lead the Interior Department, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to head the Energy Department and North Carolina’s top environmental regulator, Michael Regan, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, his presidential transition team said Thursday night. The selections were announced as part of the incoming […]
New Mexico’s Rep. Debra Haaland in contention to head Interior Department
President-elect Joe Biden is considering U.S. Rep. Debra A. Haaland to lead the Interior Department, a choice that would put the nation’s first Native American Cabinet secretary in charge of the department that oversees most federal-tribal relations. An individual close to Haaland, a New Mexico Democrat first elected to the House in 2018, said Wednesday […]
Colorado makes the finalist list for Space Command HQ
The Air Force on Thursday named sites in Colorado, Florida and four other states finalists to permanently house the U.S. Space Command headquarters — a prize that would mean billions in federal defense spending for the state with the winning bid. Congress created both the Space Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in space, and […]
Rewards and risks loom for Colorado if BLM decisions are overturned
A controversial federal plan to allow energy development on 95% of public lands in the Uncompahgre region of southwest Colorado could be reviewed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management if a federal judge’s ruling against the agency’s leadership stands. Conservationists and legal observers say it’s too early to predict how that sweeping ruling will […]
Pendley’s BLM decisions in Colorado targeted for rollback
A federal judge’s ruling that the acting head of the Bureau of Land Management was serving unlawfully in that position could have implications for dozens of decisions the agency made across the West during the past 15 months — including in Colorado, Arizona and Nevada. After the judge’s Sept. 25 ruling that William Perry Pendley […]
‘I just don’t trust the system any more’: Voters on edge as election nears
WASHINGTON — Widespread anxiety and confusion around voting, compounded by the pandemic that has spread to millions of Americans, including President Donald Trump. A vastly underfunded and decentralized electoral system that could take days and possibly weeks to certify results. Attempts to suppress voting, interfere with elections and cast doubt on the integrity of mail-in […]
Sweeping federal protections inch closer for 400,000 acres of western Colorado public lands
Four long-standing efforts to protect tracts of public lands in western Colorado are closer to becoming law after Democrats in the state’s congressional delegation bundled them and attached the package to a must-pass defense authorization bill. The public lands measure, called the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy, or CORE, Act, extends varying levels of federal […]
‘You just have to act’: Thousands outraged by police brutality rally at March on Washington
WASHINGTON — On the 57th anniversary of the original March on Washington and in the throes of a pandemic, thousands of demonstrators on Friday joined Democratic lawmakers on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to demand Congress act on police brutality and voter suppression. The event, organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, […]