WYOMING

Groups sue to protect wolves in northern Rockies

CHEYENNE — Six conservation groups have filed a lawsuit challenging a recent federal government decision not to protect wolves in the northern U.S. Rocky Mountain region under the Endangered Species Act, arguing that states are exercising too much leeway to keep the predators’ numbers to a minimum.

The groups sued the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the directors of those agencies July 2 in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Montana.

The lawsuit follows a Fish and Wildlife Service decision in February to reject conservationists’ requests to restore endangered species protections across the region. Wolves are in no danger of extinction as states seek to reduce their numbers through hunting, the agency found.

The decision not to return wolves to endangered status in the region violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to properly analyze threats to wolves and rely on the best available science involving the animals, the six groups wrote in their lawsuit.

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The lawsuit critiques state wolf management programs in the region. Montana and Idaho plan to sharply reduce wolf numbers while Wyoming allows wolves outside a designated sport hunting zone to be killed by a variety of means, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit singled out how a Wyoming man last winter ran down a wolf with a snowmobile, taped its mouth shut and brought it into a bar before killing it. The killing drew wide condemnation but only a $250 state fine for illegal possession of wildlife under Wyoming law.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit filed by Animal Wellness Action; the Center for a Humane Economy; Project Coyote, a project of the Earth Island Institute Inc.; the Kettle Range Conservation Group; Footloose Montana; and the Gallatin Wildlife Association.

Wolves have been protected as an endangered species in the region off and on since they were first delisted in 2008. They were first listed in 1974 and populations were successfully reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park and Idaho in the mid-1990s.

UTAH

3 hikers die amid triple-digit temperatures

SALT LAKE CITY — Three hikers died in early July in suspected heat-related cases at state and national parks in Utah, including a father and daughter who got lost on a strenuous hike in Canyonlands National Park in triple-digit temperatures.

The daughter, 23, and her father, 52, sent a 911 text alerting dispatchers that they were lost and had run out of water while hiking the 8.1 miles Syncline Loop, described by the National Park Service as the most challenging trail in the Island in the Sky district of the southeast Utah park. The pair set out on July 12 to navigate steep switchbacks and scramble through boulder fields with limited trail markers as the air temperature surpassed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Park rangers and a helicopter crew with the Bureau of Land Management began their search for the lost hikers in the early evening on July 12, but found them already dead. The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office identified them on July 15 as Albino Herrera Espinoza and his daughter, Beatriz Herrera, of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Their deaths were being investigated as heat-related.

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Later on July 13, first responders in southwest Utah responded to a call about two hikers “suffering from a heat related incident” at Snow Canyon State Park, which is known for its lava tubes, sand dunes and a canyon carved from red and white Navajo Sandstone.

A multi-agency search team found and treated two hikers who were suffering from heat exhaustion. While they were treating those individuals, a passing hiker informed them of an unconscious person nearby. First responders found the 30-year-old woman dead, public safety officials said.

Her death was being investigated by the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department. She had not been identified publicly.

NEW MEXICO

Village ravaged by wildfire hit by floodwaters

RUIDOSO — Roads throughout a mountain village in southern New Mexico that was recently ravaged by wildfire were closed on July 9 as authorities tried to keep vehicles out of the path of rushing water.

Officials in Ruidoso reported that several bridge crossings were closed as mud and debris-laden water could be seen rushing down creeks and across streets as the National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency.

A mobile home park was evacuated, and village officials reported multiple natural gas leaks caused by the floodwaters.

Residents posted videos of the roiling water, saying they were unable to get home because of the flooding. Police cars blocked traffic, and concrete barriers were in place along some roads as the strong current carried debris downstream.

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The National Weather Service in Albuquerque reported that there had been multiple water rescues and that the storms had produced up to 1.5 inches of rain and warned that more rainfall was expected.

Forecasters also issued flood watches and warnings for other areas, including in northern New Mexico where many residents have yet to recover from the aftermath of a 2022 blaze that was sparked by a pair of government-planned fires that went awry.

OKLAHOMA

Survivors of Tulsa Race Massacre appeal ruling

OKLAHOMA CITY — Attorneys for the last two remaining survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court on July 2 to reconsider the case they dismissed last month and called on the Biden administration to help the two women seek justice.

Viola Fletcher, 110, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109, are the last known survivors of one of the single worst acts of violence against Black people in U.S. history. As many as 300 Black people were killed; more than 1,200 homes, businesses, schools and churches were destroyed; and thousands were forced into internment camps overseen by the National Guard when a white mob, including some deputized by authorities, looted and burned the Greenwood District, also known as Black Wall Street.

The lawsuit was an attempt under Oklahoma’s public nuisance law to force the city of Tulsa and others to make restitution for the destruction. Attorneys argue that any money the city receives from promoting Greenwood or Black Wall Street should be placed in a compensation fund for victims and their descendants.

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In a petition for rehearing, the women asked the court to reconsider its 8-1 vote upholding the decision of a district court judge in Tulsa last year to dismiss the case.

Attorney Damario Solomon Simmons also called on the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into the massacre under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007, which allows for the reopening of cold cases of violent crimes against Black people committed before 1970. A spokesperson for the DOJ declined comment.

NEBRASKA

Buffett to cut off Gates Foundation after his death

OMAHA — Investor Warren Buffett announced another $5.3 billion in charitable gifts on June 28, but in a major shift of his longtime giving plan he said he plans to cut off donations to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation after his death and let his three children decide how to distribute the rest of his $128 billion fortune.

Buffett laid out his new plan for his estate in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. The 93-year-old billionaire, who leads Berkshire Hathaway, said Howard, Susie and Peter Buffett will have to unanimously agree where to give his Berkshire Hathaway stock after his death.

Buffett has given about $55 billion worth of Berkshire stock to five foundations since he outlined his giving plan in 2006, with the biggest share by far going to the Gates Foundation. The other four foundations are affiliated with his family, including the ones each of his children run.

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Buffett will leave it up to his kids to decide what to do with his Berkshire stock, much like he does now when he lets the foundations decide how to use his gifts. He said they already know the goal of his giving.

“It should be used to help the people that haven’t been as lucky as we have been,” Buffett told the Journal. “There’s eight billion people in the world, and me and my kids, we’ve been in the luckiest 100th of 1% or something. There’s lots of ways to help people.”

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