UTAH

Trump administration moves ahead to shrink national monuments

SALT LAKE CITY – The U.S. government implemented final management plans Feb. 6 for two national monuments in Utah that President Donald Trump downsized more than two years ago that ensure lands previously off-limits to energy development will be open to mining and drilling despite pending lawsuits.

The lands have generated little interest from energy companies in the two years since President Donald Trump cut the size of Bears Ears National Monument by 85% and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by nearly half, said Casey Hammond, acting Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management with the U. S. Department of the Interior.

Hammond said the department had a duty to work on the management plans after Trump signed his proclamations in December 2017, despite the pending lawsuits by conservation, tribal and paleontology groups aiming to restore the monuments to their original sizes.

Conservation groups that have called the decision the largest elimination of protected land in American history criticized the administration on Feb. 6 for spending time on management plans they believe will become moot. They contend Trump misused the Antiquities Act to reverse decisions by previous presidents.

A federal judge last year rejected the administration’s bid to dismiss the lawsuits.

The biggest fear by conservationists is that the excluded lands on some of the most pristine stretches of the American Southwest will become ravaged by mining, drilling and extraction. They also worry about off-road vehicle use and logging. Government officials opted to allow off-road vehicles on designated routes in Bears Ears, for instance, rather than choosing broader closures.

Market dynamics have limited interest in a large coal reserve found in the now unprotected lands cut from Grand Staircase and uranium on lands cut from Bears Ears.

ARIZONA

Flags on Navajo Nation lowered to honor deceased Code Talker

WINDOW ROCK – Flags on the Navajo Nation were lowered the week of Feb. 3 to honor a revered Navajo Code Talker who died in New Mexico in late January.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said in a statement that all flags would fly at half-staff for four days as a tribute to Joe Vandever Sr.

Vandever died Jan. 31 of health complications in Haystack, according to his family. He was 96.

Vandever was among hundreds of Navajos who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, transmitting messages using a code based on the Navajo language. The code developed by an original group of 29 Navajos was used to confound Japanese forces. It was never broken.

Vandever enlisted in the Marines in Santa Fe in March 1943 and was honorably discharged in January 1946. He worked multiple jobs after the war, including for an oil company and as a mining prospector, and stressed the importance of the Navajo language. He also was a medicine man.

Less than a handful of Navajo Code Talkers are still alive.

MONTANA

No sanctions for state lawmaker over socialism comments

HELENA – The speaker of the Montana House conceded on Feb. 5 that the Legislature will likely do nothing to sanction a Republican state representative after the lawmaker refused calls to resign over his assertion that the U.S. Constitution allows socialists to be jailed or shot.

Republican House leaders, including Speaker Greg Hertz, wrote to Rep. Rodney Garcia on Feb. 3, asking him to resign following his “inflammatory” and “deeply disturbing” comments at a Republican gathering in Helena the previous Friday.

Garcia told The Associated Press on Feb. 3 the only way he would resign is “if God asked me to.”

It’s not practical to call Montana’s part-time lawmakers into a special session to sanction Garcia, given the estimated minimum cost of $50,000, Hertz said.

Hertz said he has the authority to remove House members from interim committees that keep working when the Legislature is not in session, but that Garcia is not serving on any interim committees.

Constituents in Garcia’s legislative district could gather signatures on a petition for a an election to remove him from office, but there are no indications that anyone is doing so.

Garcia is running for the state Senate this year.

Garcia likens socialism to treason and asserts that people who are found to be socialists could be jailed or shot. He could not cite which part of the Constitution supports his claims. The Constitution defines treason as levying war against the United States or providing aid and comfort to their enemies.

KANSAS

Abortion amendment fails despite GOP holding vote open for 5 hours

TOPEKA – A proposed anti-abortion amendment to the Kansas Constitution suffered a major setback Feb. 7, falling four votes shy of placement on the statewide August ballot.

House Republicans held open the vote for more than five hours in an effort to reach the required two-thirds majority, but drew only 80 votes with 84 needed. The amendment cleared the Senate in late January.

If passed by voters, the amendment would mean the state constitution doesn’t include the right to an abortion.

Supporters say it will guarantee lawmakers the ability to regulate abortion following a Kansas Supreme Court decision this spring that found a personal right to autonomy extends to a woman’s decision to end a pregnancy. Opponents contend it could pave the way for the Legislature to ban abortion if the federal right to the procedure ever ends.

The amendment hit a wall in the House, formed by Democrats and four Republicans. No Democrats backed the amendment even though several have supported anti-abortion legislation in the past.

The Republicans who voted no expressed reservations that the amendment was set for the August primary instead of the general election in November, when turnout would be higher.

Raising the stakes, the state’s leading anti-abortion group released a statement saying it would oppose Medicaid expansion unless the Legislature approved the amendment. Expansion enjoys bipartisan support and is a key goal of Gov. Laura Kelly, but is vehemently opposed by some Republican leaders.

NEW MEXICO

Scammers steal $447,000 from county in New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE – County officials in New Mexico have changed some of their internal procedures after acknowledging that Bernalillo County lost about $447,000 as a result of an online scam.

Scammers targeted one of the 1,472 registered vendors listed on the county website’s transparency portal, the Albuquerque Journal reported on Feb. 5.

The county expects to maintain transparency by keeping contracts visible, but a list of vendor names has been removed from the site, officials said.

The scammers were able to setup a fraudulent bank account in Texas, submit a payment change for one of the vendors and submit fake documents with the vendors name before the county began submitting payments to scammers, county officials said.

The scam was discovered after the vendor contacted the county “because they weren’t receiving their checks and they wanted to know why,” county spokesman Tom Thorpe said.

A more stringent transaction verification process has been instituted, and county employees have received training on identifying fraudulent transactions, emails and other documents, he said.

The county is currently working with its insurance carrier to recoup the loss, Thorpe said.