Latest news with #U.S.BoardonGeographicNames
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Federal board considers ‘Mount Carola' as name for peak in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough
This map by the state of Alaska shows the location of Mount Carola in the Alaska Range. (State of Alaska image) The federal government may name an Alaska Range mountain after a longtime Talkeetna miner and pioneer woman this week. On Thursday, the domestic names committee of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names is scheduled to meet in Washington, D.C., to consider proposals for new names. On its agenda is Mount Carola, a mountain between Ruth Glacier and Tokositna Glacier in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. The mountain doesn't currently have a federally registered name, according to U.S. Geological Survey records. Carola June Young, born in 1936, was a longtime resident of Talkeetna and the rural Matanuska-Susitna Borough. She was a former owner of the Fairview Inn in Talkeetna, one of the founders of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post, and former president of the Yentna Mining District, which includes Petersville. After her death in 2018, one of her daughters, Michele Stevens, sought to name the mountain — which overlooks the Cache Creek area, her home for 40 years — in her honor. The naming is supported by the Talkeetna Historical Society, the Mat-Su planning commission and the Alaska Miners Association, which petitioned the Alaska Historical Commission, the last stop before the national board. 'Carola Young embodies the Alaska spirit and is the kind of legend we can all be proud of,' wrote Deantha Skibinski, executive director of the Alaska Miners Association, 'and AMA could not be more proud to endorse naming a mountain after her.' During its October 2024 meeting, the board voted 6-1 to approve the nomination and submit it for federal approval. At the same meeting, the board approved the renaming of Arkose Peak to Souvenir Peak, and it approved the naming of a nearby, unnamed mountain to Arkose Peak, reflecting local use by mountaineers and skiers. Both peaks, each above 5,000 feet high, are in the Talkeetna Mountains within the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Neither of those proposals is on the federal board's agenda this month, nor is a proposal to rename 'Nazi Creek' in the Aleutians. The Alaska Historical Commission approved that latter change in April, but it remains under consideration by the federal board. The World War II-era name was chosen as part of a pattern of naming features in a grid starting with different letters of the alphabet, and advocates for the change said the original naming was arbitrary. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Five months after Trump order, most federal agencies are using ‘Gulf of America,' Mount McKinley
Denali, North America's tallest peak, is seen from Parks Highway on Sept. 20, 2022. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) On Friday, the federal agency in charge of offshore oil and gas drilling announced that it will be rewriting its core regulations to replace all references to 'Gulf of Mexico' with 'Gulf of America.' The change by the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management is only the latest in a series of actions by federal agencies, and a review of the Federal Register — the official journal of the federal government — shows most agencies have already implemented President Donald Trump's Jan. 20 executive order, which instructed the federal government to replace the gulf's name in official records. That order also officially renamed Denali to Mount McKinley, the name used by the federal government between 1896 and 2015 for North America's tallest peak. In February and March, the domestic names committee of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names formalized the president's order and a subsequent one by the U.S. secretary of the Interior about the Gulf of Mexico and Mount McKinley. At Denali National Park, websites changed the name of North America's tallest mountain within 10 days; it was listed as Denali on Jan. 28, and by Jan. 30, it was 'Mount McKinley.' The printed brochures took longer but are now updated. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which handles ocean mapping, changed the gulf's name on ocean charts, and the U.S. Geological Survey changed the name in the Geographic Names Information System, the federal government's core database. Even the agency in charge of the nation's spy satellites altered its records. As the Atlantic hurricane season begins, the National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center has already updated its maps, and the U.S. Coast Guard changed its regulations in March. Other agencies, including the BOEM, have taken longer to act. In late May, the federal agency in charge of pipeline safety changed its regulations. More actions are coming, according to notices published in the Federal Register, the official daily journal of the federal government. In August, the Federal Aviation Administration will change parts of its aviation maps to account for the new names. Additional changes are expected in the coming months from other agencies and from states, which have been slower to act on the new names. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House to vote on bill to codify Trump's Gulf of America executive order
WASHINGTON — The Republican-led House is expected to vote Thursday on legislation that would make President Donald Trump's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America federal law. Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene of Georgia introduced the GOP bill after Trump signed an executive order in January that ordered Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to 'take all appropriate actions to rename the Gulf' and update a database of the 'official names for geographic features in the 50 states.' While Trump does not need congressional approval to ensure the name change is reflected across the federal government, the bill would prevent a future president from easily reversing the move through executive action. 'As the previous administration made it painfully clear, executive orders can be undone and overwritten, and that's why we have to move it through the legislative process — and we are,' House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Tuesday. 'We're going to pass Marjorie Taylor Greene's bill to permanently rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.' It is unclear whether Republicans have enough backing to pass the bill. Assuming all Democrats oppose it, Republicans can afford to lose only four votes — and at least one Republican has already made his opposition clear. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said Tuesday that he plans to vote "no," calling the legislative effort "juvenile." 'We're the United States of America. We're not Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany or Napoleon's France. I just — we're better than this. It just sounds like a sophomore thing to do," Bacon told CNN. Greene suggested that Bacon might not be the only Republican detractor. "Some of my Republican colleagues don't want to vote for my Gulf of America Act which is one of President Trump's favorite executive orders," she wrote Wednesday on X. "They say they would rather vote on 'more serious EOs.'" In addition to codifying the name change, the Gulf of America Act would direct the chairman of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to ensure that 'any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico' is deemed a reference to the Gulf of America. Should it become law, federal agency heads would have 180 days to ensure agency-specific records are updated to reflect the name change, as well. The measure is unlikely to get enough Democratic support in the Senate to overcome procedural hurdles if it makes it through the House. Some of Trump's other efforts to rename landmarks have drawn Republican opposition, as well. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska fiercely criticized Trump's decision to revert the name of Mount Denali in her home state to Mount McKinley in the same executive order as the Gulf of America renaming. Murkowski introduced legislation in February that would officially require the mountain to be recognized "by its true name," Denali. Democrats have roundly criticized Greene's bill, with House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California framing the vote as a waste of time and resources. "House Republicans should use this time, this free week that they have, to vote on policy that matters for everyday Americans," Aguilar said at a news conference Tuesday. "But instead, we're talking about Marjorie Taylor Greene's bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico — a slap in the face to hard-working Americans who want their leaders to bring down the cost of living." Trump touted his effort to rename the Gulf at a rally in Michigan commemorating the first 100 days of his second term, telling supporters that he has become "very unpopular in Mexico" because of the name change. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has repeatedly dismissed Trump's order, insisting that her government will continue to refer to the Gulf by its historic name. The Associated Press' refusal to refer to the Gulf solely as the Gulf of America made it a top target of the White House, which for months denied it access to certain events and barred its reporters from traveling with Trump, prompting a legal challenge. A federal judge ordered the White House in April to stop sidelining the AP, calling it "contrary to the First Amendment" and directing the administration to "put the AP on an equal playing field as similarly situated outlets, despite the AP's use of disfavored terminology." Trump indicated Wednesday that another name change could be on the horizon. He said that he was considering a plan to begin calling the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf and that he will make the decision ahead of a trip next week to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. "They're going to ask me about that when I that when I get there, and I'll have to make a decision," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I guess a lot of people get ideas from us." Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, said that if Trump were to officially rename the Persian Gulf, he would erase "the identity of an entire region." 'The Persian Gulf is not just a name on a map — it's a reflection of a shared and ancient history that cannot and should not be erased to appease narrow political interests or provoke tensions," Abdi said in a statement. This article was originally published on
NBC News
08-05-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
House to vote on bill to codify Trump's Gulf of America executive order
WASHINGTON — The Republican-led House is expected to vote Thursday on legislation that would make President Donald Trump 's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America federal law. Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene of Georgia introduced the GOP bill after Trump signed an executive order in January that ordered Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to 'take all appropriate actions to rename the Gulf' and update a database of the 'official names for geographic features in the 50 states.' While Trump does not need congressional approval to ensure the name change is reflected across the federal government, the bill would prevent a future president from easily reversing the move through executive action. 'As the previous administration made it painfully clear, executive orders can be undone and overwritten, and that's why we have to move it through the legislative process — and we are,' House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Tuesday. 'We're going to pass Marjorie Taylor Greene's bill to permanently rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.' It is unclear whether Republicans have enough backing to pass the bill. Assuming all Democrats oppose it, Republicans can afford to lose only four votes — and at least one Republican has already made his opposition clear. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said Tuesday that he plans to vote "no," calling the legislative effort "juvenile." 'We're the United States of America. We're not Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany or Napoleon's France. I just — we're better than this. It just sounds like a sophomore thing to do," Bacon told CNN. Greene suggested that Bacon might not be the only Republican detractor. "Some of my Republican colleagues don't want to vote for my Gulf of America Act which is one of President Trump's favorite executive orders," she wrote Wednesday on X. "They say they would rather vote on 'more serious EOs.'" In addition to codifying the name change, the Gulf of America Act would direct the chairman of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to ensure that 'any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico' is deemed a reference to the Gulf of America. Should it become law, federal agency heads would have 180 days to ensure agency-specific records are updated to reflect the name change, as well. The measure is unlikely to get enough Democratic support in the Senate to overcome procedural hurdles if it makes it through the House. Some of Trump's other efforts to rename landmarks have drawn Republican opposition, as well. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska fiercely criticized Trump's decision to revert the name of Mount Denali in her home state to Mount McKinley in the same executive order as the Gulf of America renaming. Murkowski introduced legislation in February that would officially require the mountain to be recognized "by its true name," Denali. Democrats have roundly criticized Greene's bill, with House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California framing the vote as a waste of time and resources. "House Republicans should use this time, this free week that they have, to vote on policy that matters for everyday Americans," Aguilar said at a news conference Tuesday. "But instead, we're talking about Marjorie Taylor Greene's bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico — a slap in the face to hard-working Americans who want their leaders to bring down the cost of living." Trump touted his effort to rename the Gulf at a rally in Michigan commemorating the first 100 days of his second term, telling supporters that he has become "very unpopular in Mexico" because of the name change. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has repeatedly dismissed Trump's order, insisting that her government will continue to refer to the Gulf by its historic name. The Associated Press' refusal to refer to the Gulf solely as the Gulf of America made it a top target of the White House, which for months denied it access to certain events and barred its reporters from traveling with Trump, prompting a legal challenge. A federal judge ordered the White House in April to stop sidelining the AP, calling it "contrary to the First Amendment" and directing the administration to "put the AP on an equal playing field as similarly situated outlets, despite the AP's use of disfavored terminology." Trump indicated Wednesday that another name change could be on the horizon. He said that he was considering a plan to begin calling the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf and that he will make the decision ahead of a trip next week to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. "They're going to ask me about that when I that when I get there, and I'll have to make a decision," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I guess a lot of people get ideas from us." Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, said that if Trump were to officially rename the Persian Gulf, he would erase "the identity of an entire region." 'The Persian Gulf is not just a name on a map — it's a reflection of a shared and ancient history that cannot and should not be erased to appease narrow political interests or provoke tensions," Abdi said in a statement.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gulf of Mexico name change for Florida textbooks and laws signed. When will it happen?
And with a stroke of the pen, Florida became the first state to officially recognize "Gulf of America" as the name of the body of water off the western coast bordering nearly half of the state. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed two bills (HB 575, HB 549) that rename what's currently still known as the Gulf of Mexico in state law and public school textbooks. The move is a response to President Donald Trump's day-one executive order, "Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness," to change the name of the Gulf and rename Denali, a mountain in Alaska, back to Mount McKinley. DeSantis was also the first to use "Gulf of America" in any official capacity when he referred to it in an order concerning the freak winter storm that shattered Florida's 130-year-old snow records just hours after Trump's directive in January. Here's what to know. Under HB 575, The Designation of the Gulf of Mexico, all references in Florida statutes to the Gulf of Mexico must be changed to Gulf of America. It's a long list, as it includes 53 different mentions, including all descriptions of boundary lines for Florida counties bordering the Gulf, references to tourist development taxes, coastal construction regulations, property rights regulations, beach management, the definition of "coastal barrier islands." tax regulations for oil drilling aznd more. A tongue-in-cheek amendment to the bill from Rep. Dr. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, to instead change the name of the Gulf to the Gulf of Endor — with requirements for other landmarks to also be renamed after other "Star Wars" locations — was not added or we might have seen the Grand Canyon renamed "Sarlacc Pit," Las Vegas now called "Mos Eisley" and Interstate 4 changed to the "Kessel Run." The changes to state law will take effect on July 1, 2025. Under HB 549: Gulf of America, all state agencies must update their geographic materials to use the new name. Initially, that would have meant all existing school books and educational materials, but an amendment changed that to require the new name in all instructional materials and library media collections adopted or acquired on or after July 1, so schools have some time. On January 20, the first day of his second term, Trump directed the secretary of the interior to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America' for use on official maps and throughout the federal government. This is ordinarily at least a six-month process, but it was fast-tracked by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names and quickly adopted by Google Maps, Apple Maps and others. Once it was changed, Trump issued a proclamation declaring Feb. 9 to be "Gulf of America Day." "The area formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico has long been an integral asset to our once burgeoning Nation and has remained an indelible part of America," the order said. It didn't receive universal acceptance. MapQuest allowed users to name the Gulf whatever they wanted and the order was mocked by Democrats, late night hosts and on social media. The Associated Press, a worldwide news organization, announced that its widely used style guide would continue to refer to the Gulf as the "Gulf of Mexico" since it shares borders with another country and has been called that for more than 400 years. The Trump administration reacted by barring its reporters from events. AP sued, and last week, a federal judge ordered the White House to lift its access restrictions. Other countries are not obligated to honor the new name. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo mocked the suggestion at the time, suggesting the United States should be called "Mexican America." However, recognizing the new name is likely to be a sticking point for countries hoping to deal diplomatically with the Trump administration. Trump is not the first to suggest it. In 2012, former U.S. Rep. D. Stephen Holland of Mississippi proposed a bill to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to "Gulf of America." He meant it as a joke, to mock his Republican colleagues he said seemed to want to push anything or anyone Mexican out of the state. Two years previously, when he was on "The Colbert Report," late night host Steven Colbert created a "Gulf of America" fund to help clean up after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster dumped 210 million gallons across nearly 60,000 square miles of the Gulf over a period of four months in 2010. "I don't think we can call it the Gulf of Mexico anymore," he said at the time. "We broke it, we bought it." More than half of Florida's coast borders the Gulf of Mexico, a partially landlocked body of water between the United States and Mexico that links ports in five Southern states and Mexico with the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean with two passages — called the Florida Straits — on either side of Cuba and the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba. The Gulf has an average depth of 5,300 feet. The Gulf mainland shore runs more than 4,000 miles from the Florida Keys to Cabo Catoche on the Yucatán Peninsula. Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas all share the coast, along with the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo. While existing residents certainly knew about it and had their own names, the first European to find the Gulf was Sebastián de Ocampo in 1508-1509, according to the Texas State Historical Association. It remained unnamed until the early 1540s and was considered part of the "North Sea" (Atlantic Ocean). One map dated 1584 called it "Mare de Nort," or "Sea of the North." Baptiste Boazio, the illustrator and map maker of Francis Drake's Caribbean cruise of attacks in the 1580s, used "Gulf of Mexico" on his map "View of Entire Route of Sir Francis Drake's West Indian Voyage." A 1630 map called the body of water "Gulf of New Spain." The Spanish name evolved into Seno Mexicano. "Seno" means "gulf" or "bay." It has also been called Golfo de Nueva España and Golfo de México on various maps and documents, and there are at least 32 different versions of the name in different languages and dialects, according to the United States Geological Survey. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Gulf of America now official name in Florida. When do books change?
