Latest news with #WesternStates
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Luján and Heinrich ask for FEMA reforms
Jun. 3—New Mexico's senators are urging the Federal Emergency Management Agency to improve its response to catastrophes in Western states. Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján called on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FEMA Acting Administrator David Richardson to improve FEMA's response to wildfires and the subsequent disasters, like flooding or mudslides, that so often follow. Richardson was appointed interim director in early May and made headlines Monday when he commented that he was not aware the country has a hurricane season, according to a report from Reuters. Spokespeople from the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, the agency overseeing FEMA, have said the comment was a joke. "Western states face a distinct and growing threat: namely, catastrophic wildfires followed by cascading disasters such as landslides, flooding, and water system failures that compound damage and slow recovery," the letter reads. "These cascading events — which can happen years after an initial fire — are devastating, and FEMA has repeatedly struggled to respond effectively." In January, President Donald Trump created a council to review FEMA and suggest changes, including whether "FEMA can serve its functions as a support agency, providing supplemental federal assistance," to states, and Trump has suggested eliminating the agency. More than 2,000 FEMA employees have left the agency or have been laid off since Trump began his second term. The senators urged the administration not to weaken FEMA's authority. "Weakening or eliminating federal disaster assistance when state and local resources across the West are overwhelmed and depleted would be a dangerous step backwards," the letter says. Northern New Mexico communities have struggled with flooding in years after the 2022 Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire destabilized watersheds and caused soil degradation and vegetation loss. The senators point to 2024 flooding in Las Vegas, which disrupted the city's annual Fiestas. The senators are calling for FEMA's reimbursement formulas to be updated to reflect that infrastructure like bridges being rebuilt after fires may need to be more robust, given the risk of post-fire floods. They're also calling for FEMA's policies to adapt to the reality that some people living in areas at high-risk of catastrophic natural disasters like wildfires or hurricanes are no longer able to acquire private insurance coverage, asking the agency to "meet the needs of those who fall into this widening gap."
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Long-thwarted efforts to sell public lands see new life under Trump
Cattle gather around a watering hole on federal land near Monticello, Utah. Utah is among several Western states seeking to reduce federal land ownership. (Photo by Utah News Dispatch) Public outcry was swift and forceful after a U.S. House committee last month hastily approved an amendment directing the federal government to sell off more than half a million acres of public land. A few days later, lawmakers advanced the larger bill — a sweeping list of President Donald Trump's priorities — but stripped the federal lands provision. Yet leaders on both sides of the issue say the battle over selling off federal lands is likely just heating up. Some conservatives in Western states have complained for decades that the feds control too much of the land within their borders. They see a long-awaited opportunity in a Trump administration that's sympathetic to their cause. Public lands advocates are bracing for more attempts to turn land over to states, industry groups and developers. 'The threat level is red alert,' said Randi Spivak, public lands policy director with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental nonprofit. 'Some of these states have been champing at the bit for decades to privatize. They're certainly not going to let this opportunity pass without an aggressive effort.' In Western states, where most federally owned lands are located, some leaders view these lands as a treasured inheritance — places reserved for all Americans and critical for wildlife, tourism and outdoor recreation. Others feel that too much of the land in their states is controlled by officials in Washington, D.C., leaving it off-limits for development and curtailing its economic value. Some of these states have been champing at the bit for decades to privatize. They're certainly not going to let this opportunity pass without an aggressive effort. – Randi Spivak, public lands policy director with the Center for Biological Diversity Trump officials and allies have embraced the latter view. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has repeatedly called federal lands America's 'balance sheet,' describing them as untapped assets worth trillions of dollars. He has launched an effort to identify federal lands suitable for housing development. Other proposals have centered around using land sales to pay for tax breaks or to finance Trump's proposed government-run fund that could invest in stocks or real estate. For some state leaders, the newfound interest at the federal level to turn public lands into cash — along with Trump's cuts to land management agency staff — aligns with a long-standing movement to reduce federal ownership. 'I look at it as an opportunity to say, 'Hey, turn it over to the state,'' said Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, a Republican. Utah leaders have made the most forceful push to challenge federal land ownership. The state filed a legal challenge last year seeking to take control of more than 18 million acres of 'unappropriated' lands — parcels held by the federal government without a specific designation such as a national park or monument. That effort hit a roadblock earlier this year when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. But with Trump in the White House, state leaders may pivot from challenging the feds in court to seeking their cooperation. 'We would love if the federal government just turned it over to us and said, 'Here, manage these lands,'' Schultz said. 'That's an option as well. Those are discussions that are happening. Everything is on the table.' Schultz declined to say which federal officials have been involved in discussions about transferring lands to the state. Some lawmakers in Wyoming backed a state resolution this year — which ultimately failed — calling on Congress to hand over all federal lands except for Yellowstone National Park. Idaho lawmakers passed a measure calling on the feds to turn over a wildlife refuge to the state. And Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, has called for a 'systematic release' of federal land in the state. But public lands also have many supporters in Western states, including some prominent Republican members of Congress, such as Reps. Mike Simpson of Idaho and Ryan Zinke of Montana. Zinke was Interior secretary for two years during the first Trump administration. John Leshy, who served as solicitor for the U.S. Department of the Interior during the Clinton administration, said proposals to dispose of federal lands tend to be stymied by fierce public backlash. 'Federal lands are really popular,' he said. 'It's political poison [to sell off public land]. It's a different West now. Public attitudes have changed.' Leshy also noted that livestock ranchers especially benefit from discounted lease rates offered by the federal government. The most recent clash over the future of federal lands was the amendment sponsored by a pair of congressional Republicans last month. The measure would have directed the Bureau of Land Management to sell more than 500,000 acres of land in Nevada and Utah. Local governments would have been able to buy the land at market value, with no restrictions on how they used it. Backers said the sale would bring in revenue to cover Trump's proposed tax cuts, while allowing local governments to build much-needed housing on the parcels. Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee said he will try to revive the measure as the Senate considers the bill this month, E&E News reported. Trump wants to log more trees. He'll need states' help. In Nevada, where 85% of land is owned by the federal government, some leaders say their communities are hemmed in by a checkerboard of public lands that constrain development. The city of Fernley, which is growing rapidly, would have acquired 12,000 acres under the proposal. 'We need housing,' said Benjamin Marchant, Fernley's city manager. 'The city can't plan roads and water lines, sewer lines and gas lines, when you have federal land between two parcels that want to develop. This will bring a practical and helpful consolidation of all these lands into one developable area.' Nevada leaders have long worked on proposals to transfer some federal lands to local governments and allow for increased growth. But some lawmakers say the latest push bypassed that collaborative process — and failed to include safeguards that the money raised from the sale of the lands would be reinvested into conserving public lands elsewhere. 'It was a complete betrayal of everything we've worked on in this state,' said Assemblymember Howard Watts, a Democrat. 'This amendment is trying to sell off half a million acres of Nevada's public lands in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. This is not going to address our housing problem. These lands are positioned to be sold off for other forms of development and extraction.' Similar debates are happening in Utah. In southwestern Utah's Washington County, local officials say the disposal of federally controlled land could help alleviate the region's housing crisis and increasingly strained infrastructure. The county is experiencing rapid population growth — in 2022, St. George, the county seat, was the fastest-growing metro area in America. County and city leaders hoped the amendment would have helped them manage the growth. The measure would have disposed of roughly 11,500 acres of federally controlled land in Utah, selling it at market value to local governments. The proposal received pushback from all sides, including environmentalists, hunting and fishing groups, House Democrats and even conservatives. '[The amendment] is consistent with how U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Burgum thinks about federal public lands, as simply assets on a ledger to be sold off,' said Steve Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, an environmental nonprofit. ' … It's just antithetical to how Westerners think about the federal public lands that make up so much of our landscape.' Washington County Commissioner Adam Snow, a Republican, said a lot of the opposition was misguided. The county would have acquired almost half of the land earmarked for disposal, and Snow said much of that would have been used to widen existing roads and construct new ones that are bordered by Bureau of Land Management property. 'These were not pristine wilderness lands. Some of the environmental groups tried to make it sound like we're selling off Zion National Park, and that's not even close to true,' Snow said. 'If we can just not have to deal with the federal government every time we want to chip seal a road or improve an intersection, that would be really nice. Because we have to ask 'Mother, may I?' for everything out here.' Local leaders say federal parcels could help ease housing pressures as well. Snow said transferring parcels to the city or county is one of the only ways to stop the area from becoming wildly expensive. 'We're running out of room real quick,' he said. ' … There is still private land to develop, but they're going to charge an absolute premium.' The amendment that was stripped from the House bill was widely criticized for not having any restrictions on what could be done with the land. 'There was no language whatsoever that would require Washington County or St. George to do anything with these lands. They could lease them for development. They could sell them outright,' said Bloch. In Utah, lawmakers have created a state Department of Land Management — essentially a placeholder agency that would be funded and staffed only if their effort to assume control of large swaths of federal land succeeds. Schultz, the House speaker, said the state is committed to keeping the lands in the public domain, reopening roads and campgrounds closed by the feds. Western states' budgets, industries rely on federal lands. So does wildlife. 'We'd just take over the job from the federal government,' he said. 'It is something that the state absolutely would do, and we'd do it more efficiently, more effectively and we'd have better outcomes.' Schultz said the state could bring in the revenues needed to manage the land by raising lease prices for oil and gas operations on parcels currently managed for drilling. But some public lands advocates say that's not realistic. The federal Bureau of Land Management employed more than 950 people in the state as of 2024, and feds also assume the expensive task of wildfire management on their lands. 'If you look at the history of what Utah has done with their lands, they've sold more than half of them,' said Devin O'Dea, Western policy and conservation manager with Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. 'We're certainly of the perspective that states could not handle the economic costs of managing these lands. Their hand would be forced; they would have to sell these lands in order to deal with those costs.' John Robison, Idaho Conservation League public lands and wildlife director, said Simpson — the Idaho congressman — and the state's two senators have all won praise from constituents for their work on public lands compromises. 'Savvy Idaho politicians know that public lands are popular,' he said. But other state leaders insist their governments are better equipped to manage the lands. Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, a Republican, was among the officials who signed an amicus brief in support of Utah's lawsuit against the feds. 'We live here, we work here, and we are far better stewards of our forests and resources than federal bureaucrats in Washington,' Labrador said in a statement. ' … If Idaho owned this land, we could lease it for timber, grazing, and mining — just like the federal government does — but reinvest that revenue right here in Idaho.' Stateline reporter Alex Brown can be reached at abrown@ , Idaho Capital Sun reporter Clark Corbin can be reached at ccorbin@ and Utah News Dispatch reporter Kyle Dunphey can be reached at kdunphey@ SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Here's the Salary Needed To Take Home $100K in the Western States
Want to take home $100,000? If you reside among the Western states that make up the U.S., you'll need to make at least $130K. Western states with a higher cost of living, like California and Hawaii, necessitate close to $145K in annual earnings. Discover More: Explore Next: To determine these amounts, GOBankingRates conducted an in-house study about the income one needs to earn to bring home a $100,000 salary in every U.S. state. Each Western state was isolated for the purposes of this article with a full methodology available at the end. Find out how much you need to make in order to take home $100K in the Western states. Salary needed for $100K: $130,999 Tax burden: 23.7% Check Out: That's Interesting: Salary needed for $100K: $135,420 Tax burden: 26.2% Learn More: Salary needed for $100K: $144,879 Tax burden: 31.0% Salary needed for $100K: $139,008 Tax burden: 28.1% Salary needed for $100K: $144,939 Tax burden: 31.0% View Next: Salary needed for $100K: $141,351 Tax burden: 29.3% Salary needed for $100K: $142,121 Tax burden: 29.6% Salary needed for $100K: $130,999 Tax burden: 23.7% For You: Salary needed for $100K: $139,547 Tax burden: 28.3% Salary needed for $100K: $148,309 Tax burden: 32.6% Salary needed for $100K: $139,681 Tax burden: 28.4% Trending Now: Salary needed for $100K: $130,999 Tax burden: 23.7% Salary needed for $100K: $130,999 Tax burden: 23.7% Methodology: To generate the income for what it takes to bring home a $100,000 salary by state, GOBankingRates surveyed income taxes at both the federal and state level (including FICA). Income tax estimates were created by using an in-house calculator for a single person filing taxes and using the standard deduction (with 2024 tax brackets). Once the three income taxes were calculated as an annual amount, GOBankingRates found each state's (4) total annual income taxes paid and (5) total income tax burden. All data was collected on and is up to date as of March 12, 2025. More From GOBankingRates Surprising Items People Are Stocking Up On Before Tariff Pains Hit: Is It Smart? Are You Rich or Middle Class? 8 Ways To Tell That Go Beyond Your Paycheck This article originally appeared on Here's the Salary Needed To Take Home $100K in the Western States Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Russia Today
6 days ago
- General
- Russia Today
Ukraine training terror groups in Africa
Ukraine is training jihadist fighters and supporting terrorist groups in Africa's Sahel region, a Russian Foreign Ministry official has said, accusing Kiev of funneling Western-supplied weapons to militants operating across the continent. Tatyana Dovgalenko, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Partnership with Africa, made the remarks on Thursday at the 13th International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues in Moscow. Representatives of 104 countries, including African delegations, have gathered at the event to discuss a new global security architecture. 'The Kiev regime continues systematic efforts to destabilize the continent, collaborating with terrorist networks in the Sahel, particularly by training and organizing militants,' Dovgalenko said, according to TASS. 'There is evidence that the arms delivered to Ukraine by Western states are being transferred to terrorist factions operating in various global regions, including Africa,' she added. Moscow has made terrorism and counter-extremism a central focus of its security cooperation with African states, particularly those in the Sahel, which have been embroiled in a decade-long jihadist insurgency. Dovgalenko noted that terrorist groups have adapted to modern technologies and shifting counterterrorism strategies, warning that nearly 60% of global terrorism deaths in 2024 occurred in Africa, with the Sahel accounting for 20% of the continent's attacks. Ukraine has been at the center of a growing diplomatic storm in the Sahel region since an ambush by Tuareg rebels in July 2024 left dozens of Malian soldiers and Russian Wagner Group contractors dead. Reports have claimed that Ukrainian military intelligence supplied information used in the deadly attack. Moscow and the Alliance of Sahel States made up of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have jointly denounced Kiev's 'criminal alliance' with extremist groups. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier accused Ukraine of openly abetting terrorists in the region. Mali cut diplomatic ties with Ukraine in August. Niger followed suit shortly afterwards, with Burkina Faso later confirming its relations with Kiev were effectively frozen. Ukraine has denied the allegations. Last month, Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said Kiev must be held accountable for fueling instability in Africa, which has resulted not only in the deaths of Malian soldiers but also in civilian casualties. The West African regional bloc ECOWAS, which Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso officially quit in January, also warned against 'foreign interference' that threatens the region's peace and security. In a speech on Wednesday marking 50 years since the group's formation, ECOWAS Commission President Omar Alieu Touray identified terrorism as one of the 'formidable' challenges facing the community and called for collective efforts to address the crisis.
E&E News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- E&E News
Senior BLM leader and Western states liaison exits
Another senior Bureau of Land Management official has left the agency. John Gale, who served as the bureau's liaison to Western states, has resigned and his Grand Junction, Colorado-based position is no longer listed on BLM's online leadership page. Gale, whose formal job title was program executive for intergovernmental and external affairs, a senior executive service-level position, quietly submitted his resignation and informed his staff and colleagues of his departure over the past week. Advertisement BLM declined to comment on Gale or the future of his Western liaison post.
