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Boston Globe
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
America loves its public lands so don't sell them off
Trump's views on public lands weren't always like this. In January 2016, before voters in the Republican presidential primary launched Donald Trump toward his first term, Trump and his son Donald Jr. attended the world's largest firearm trade show in Las Vegas. The pair sat for interviews and rubbed elbows at the SHOT Show with gun manufacturers, hunters, and shooting sports aficionados. Throughout the visit, the Trumps carried a strong conservation message in press conferences and interviews with the media. The future president Advertisement There is little doubt that Don Jr., an avid hunter who has long enjoyed American public land, was largely responsible for his father's take at that time. Observers, particularly hunters and anglers who identified as Republican or independent, applauded Trump's words. But when Trump was elected for his second term, a new crew was at his back and some of the same players wanting the federal government to jettison the citizens' public lands were chirping in the president's ear that public lands could be sold to pay down the national debt. Don Jr., meanwhile, has been largely silent. Americans own, use, and enjoy more than 640 million acres of land, about a third of the land mass in the nation, mostly acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. Federal agencies, from the Forest Service to the Department of Defense, manage these lands on our behalf. Mining companies, oil and gas companies, ranchers, and loggers lease the vast resources of these lands, paying back into the treasury. Hunters, anglers, hikers, off-road vehicle enthusiasts, and anyone else wanting to escape the noise of civilization can enjoy these lands, usually for free or a nominal fee. Public land provides clean air and water in an ever-changing climate. Advertisement Yet some states, led most recently by Utah, believe they should take those lands from the nation's taxpayers for their own use. Trump, in 2016, was dead right: The states have often chosen to sell off the land to private interests. Nevada once had 2.7 million acres of state land and now owns just 3,000. Oregon had 3.4 million acres and now has 776,000 acres. The notion of selling off land for housing development is one that many politicians have embraced. Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources recently voted to clear the path for sales of land around the Nevada cities of Las Vegas and Reno and near the fast-growing retirement community of St. George, Utah, tacked on as part of the budget reconciliation. But much of the housing shortage in the nation is found in New York and Florida, while housing shortages in Nevada, Arizona, and Utah are often tied to significant water or labor shortages. Moreover, the federal government already has the ability to sell off certain parcels of public land, taking into account public input, not a dark-of-night maneuver in Congress. The Biden administration, for instance, Moreover this sell-off philosophy of federal lands ignores the fact that public lands are vastly popular. In the early 1900s, states in the East, jealous of the vast public resource in the West, pushed for passage of the Weeks Act, which allowed the federal government to purchase thousands of acres of land from private interests from Maine to Alabama. National Forests like Pennsylvania's Allegheny and Vermont's Green Mountain were once private lands and now are enjoyed by millions of Americans. Advertisement Public lands pay. Oil and gas royalties are cheaper, mining is cheaper, grazing is cheaper. A rancher grazing a cow on public land pays less than $1.50 a month to do so. On private land, that cost can be $50 per cow. And outdoor recreation is worth $1.2 trillion. All may not be grim with Burgum and his 'balance sheet' language. During his confirmation hearing, Burgum, a sportsman, touted public lands as a miracle and channeled America's public lands hero, President Theodore Roosevelt. Yet we may be reaching a turning point for the future of our public lands. Perhaps it is time for Don Jr. to help his father make the right choice, as he did when he was just one of many candidates for the nation's highest office.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Yahoo
Man steals more than 40 firearms from vehicle parked at Las Vegas hotel: police
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A man accused of stealing more than 40 firearms from a pickup truck parked at a hotel in Las Vegas faces more than 90 charges, documents said. On Jan. 25, a man called the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to report his pickup truck was broken into in the Westgate Hotel parking garage. He said his truck was carrying approximately 80 firearms and roughly 40 of them were missing, documents said. The man told police he parked in the garage on Jan. 23 and came back on Jan 25., noticing a window was smashed and several firearms missing. The arrest report said there were 46 firearms stolen. He said he worked for a gun auction company based in Wyoming and had recently picked up the firearms in California, bringing them to Las Vegas. He said he was in town for the SHOT Show, which stands for Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade Show, the report stated. The SHOT show was held from Jan. 21-24 in Las Vegas this year. Surveillance footage from the garage showed a man, later identified as Francisco Iniguez, 37, 'acting suspicious.' In the footage, Iniguez was checking door handles on vehicles in the garage, according to his arrest report. Iniguez approached the victim's truck before going back to his vehicle with two black bags, the footage showed. He then went to his vehicle, which was rented, and drove it over to the victim's truck. Ten minutes later, a maintenance worker appeared to 'spook' Iniguez and he left, the report stated. Police used social media and a previous Clark County Detention Center booking photo to identify Iniguez. Detectives later saw Iniguez and a woman at a home putting luggage into a vehicle that a records check showed was stolen, according to the report. Police conducted a vehicle stop in a restaurant parking lot and took Iniguez into custody. During an interview with police, Iniguez said the guns were in his house and provided his address, specifically saying police could find them in his upstairs rooms. He also told police he saw the keys in a vehicle at a Strip casino and stole it, the report stated. Iniguez also told police there was fentanyl in a backpack in the vehicle and under his bed, adding that he was a 'habitual user' and 'steals stuff to support his habit,' according to the report. In his home, police found 43 guns — but only 35 belonged to the victim at the Westgate, they said. Iniguez faces the following charges: 47 counts of grand larceny of a firearm 47 counts of prohibited person in possession of a firearm one count of burglary of a motor vehicle He was held at the Clark County Detention Center on a $708,000 bail. His next court appearance was scheduled for Feb. 3. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
