MONTANA

US may lift protections for Yellowstone, Glacier grizzlies

BILLINGS – The Biden administration took a first step on Feb. 3 toward ending federal protections for grizzly bears in the northern Rocky Mountains, which would open the door to future hunting in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said state officials provided “substantial” information that grizzlies have recovered from the threat of extinction in the regions surrounding Yellowstone and Glacier national parks.

But federal officials rejected claims by Idaho that protections should be lifted beyond those areas, and they raised concerns about new laws from the Republican-led states that could potentially harm grizzly populations.

The move kicks off at least a year of further study before final decisions about the Yellowstone and Glacier regions.

The states want protections lifted so they can regain management of grizzlies and offer hunts to the public. As grizzly populations have expanded, more of the animals have moved into areas occupied by people, creating public safety issues and problems for farmers.

State officials have insisted future hunts would be limited and not endanger the overall population.

After grizzlies temporarily lost their protections in the Yellowstone region several years ago, Wyoming and Idaho scheduled hunts that would have allowed fewer than two dozen bears to be killed in the initial hunting season.

U.S. government scientists have said the region’s grizzlies are biologically recovered but in 2021 decided that protections were still needed because of human-caused bear deaths and other pressures. Bears considered problematic are regularly killed by wildlife officials.

KANSAS

State GOP picks election conspiracy promoter as leader

TOPEKA – Republicans on Feb. 11 narrowly picked an activist who has promoted unfounded election conspiracies and promised a shakeup to lead the Kansas GOP for the next two years, following weeks of infighting that mirrors the acrimony in the party across the U.S.

Within 30 minutes of the change in the Kansas Republican Party’s leadership, its state committee reviewed a resolution demanding that the U.S. House impeach President Joe Biden for “tyranny” over comments he and his aides made in the summer of 2021 decrying misinformation about coronavirus vaccines spreading within the GOP.

The Kansas state committee elected Mike Brown, who has long been active in the GOP in the Kansas City area, as its new chair through the 2024 elections. The vote came three months after Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly narrowly won reelection and the only Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, won another term handily in her Kansas City-area district.

Last year, Brown ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination for Kansas secretary of state. Both he and his opponent, Helen Van Etten, a longtime Topeka activist and former RNC member, promised to revive the Kansas party. But Brown asked fellow Republicans whether they were happy with the results of the past two governor’s races, won by Kelly, and Davids’ election victories.

In Kansas, the GOP holds a voter registration advantage, which means that Democrats win big races by attracting votes from moderate Republicans and independent voters, while Republicans generally prevail when the party is unified.

NEW MEXICO

Democratic lawmakers pushing for alcohol tax

SANTA FE – Democratic lawmakers in New Mexico are pushing for a flat 25-cents-a-drink tax to combat the state’s alcohol death rate, which is the highest in the country and nearly twice the national average.

The legislation survived its first committee on Feb. 10, advancing on a 6-4 vote.

The Albuquerque Journal reports that if the proposal advances through the Capitol, New Mexico would raise alcohol taxes and dedicate an extra $155 million in new revenue to support health, treatment and other programs.

But the newspaper said the proposal is facing blunt opposition from the national alcohol industry, local breweries and others.

Al Park, a lobbyist for the New Mexico Brewers Guild, said the changes would undo incentives that helped the state grow its craft beer scene.

New Mexico now taxes alcohol by the liter or gallon. The amount varies based on the type of booze, how much of it is sold and who made it.

But the proposed legislation would shift to a flat tax per serving regardless of what the customer is buying, according to the Journal.

Supporters say the goal is to avoid favoring any particular drink.

Rare butterfly now an endangered species

ALBUQUERQUE – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has named the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly in New Mexico as an endangered species, an environmental group said on Jan. 30.

The orange and dark-brown butterfly is found only in high-elevation meadows in the Lincoln National Forest in southern New Mexico.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, most populations of the rare butterfly have been wiped out and just 23 adult checkerspot butterflies were detected in 2021 surveys.

Experts say only two small populations of the butterfly remain because most of its habitat has been degraded by grazing, development and motorized recreation.

In response to a 1999 scientific petition from the Center, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to protect the butterfly in 2001 due to habitat loss from livestock grazing, drought and the suppression of historical low-intensity fires.

But the agency withdrew the proposal in 2004 and a subsequent 2009 listing petition was denied due to political pressure.

OKLAHOMA

Shrine to honor slain priest, first US Catholic martyr

OKLAHOMA CITY – Stanley Francis Rothe, a 46-year-old priest shot to death in Guatemala in 1981, became the first person born in the United States to be declared a martyr by the Catholic Church.

Now a $50 million shrine built to honor the slain missionary – killed by three masked assassins who entered his rectory during Guatemala’s civil war – is expected to draw thousands of pilgrims to his home state.

A dedication Mass set for Feb. 17 was set to mark the official opening of the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City. The Spanish colonial-style structure incorporates a 2,000-seat sanctuary as well as a visitor center, gift shop, museum and smaller chapel that will serve as Rother’s final resting place.

The shrine grounds also will feature a re-creation of Tepeyac Hill, the Mexico City site where Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared to an Indigenous Mexican man named Juan Diego in 1531. An artist created painted bronze statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego – each weighing thousands of pounds – for the Oklahoma site.

Catholic donors funded the shrine, which was constructed debt free, Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul S. Coakley said.

Rother served several Oklahoma parishes before volunteering for mission work in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, in 1968.

Amid political and military unrest in the late 1970s, parishioners began disappearing, their bodies found dumped on roadsides. By 1981, Rother knew he was on a “hit list,” according to the Oklahoma City archdiocese.

Rother became one of at least 13 Catholic priests killed during the war, branded as communists in collusion with left-wing revolutionary guerrillas.

In December 2016, Pope Francis officially recognized Rother as a martyr. In September 2017, in the final step before sainthood, Rother was beatified at a special Mass that drew about 20,000 people, making him the first U.S. priest to be beatified.

For Rother to become a saint, a miracle involving his intercession must be verified.