"Armed Border Patrol agents raided a protest camp in Lochiel, in southeast Arizona, making way for contractors to cut down the last standing cottonwood tree Monday morning for a double border wall, after protesters protected it for more than 70 days."
The Interior Department keeps an extensive database of thousands of permits it issues to use federal lands for grazing livestock. And as the latest Reporter’s Toolbox notes, that data can readily be used as an investigative tool to look for one thing the government would rather the public not see — a penchant for permit partiality.
"A federal judge on Friday barred the Trump administration from building a US-Mexico border barrier through Big Bend National Park in Texas while courts consider an environmental lawsuit challenging the project."
"The Trump administration plans to resume border security construction at Big Bend National Park in coming weeks, according to a notice submitted in federal court Tuesday."
"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Tuesday it would “reconsider” air-quality regulations amid Texas’s diesel price “disaster.”
"Federal regulators approved South32’s Hermosa mine despite identifying adverse impacts to multiple endangered or threatened species, the suit notes."
"A proposal to find new water for the Southwest by using desalinated ocean water from Mexico faces difficult odds as what remains of the waning Colorado River is legally contested by its surrounding states."
"Officials in New Mexico, the nation’s largest historic producer of uranium ore, banned new leasing of state lands for uranium mining on Friday." "The move to block new mining projects comes as the Trump administration seeks to revive American uranium production."
"A deadly flash flood in the Grand Canyon over the weekend was probably driven by a confluence of climate factors, including drought, wildfire scarring and warming temperatures in the Pacific Ocean that can supercharge storms."
"A handful of mega data center projects would emit over 100 million tons per year of greenhouse gases, an enormous amount roughly equal to the annual emissions of a mid-sized industrialized country."
