March, 05 2015, 08:00am EDT
Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Supports Downlisting Gray Wolves Nationwide
Seventy-eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter today urging Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell to support downlisting gray wolves to a status of "threatened" instead of moving forward with a 2013 proposal to strip Endangered Species Act protections from most wolves in the lower 48 states. The support in the House for downlisting comes after a federal court's recent decision to reject the Service's proposal to end federal protections for gray wolves in the Great Lakes region and Wyoming.
WASHINGTON
Seventy-eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter today urging Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell to support downlisting gray wolves to a status of "threatened" instead of moving forward with a 2013 proposal to strip Endangered Species Act protections from most wolves in the lower 48 states. The support in the House for downlisting comes after a federal court's recent decision to reject the Service's proposal to end federal protections for gray wolves in the Great Lakes region and Wyoming.
"A nationwide threatened designation would allow for the development of a national recovery plan to return wolves to places like the southern Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada and Adirondacks," said Brett Hartl, endangered species policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Downlisting is a good alternative to an attempt by some in Congress to do an end-run around the Endangered Species Act to end protection for wolves in the Great Lakes region, a move that would hurt wolf recovery and undermine the integrity of the law for all listed species."
The letter is led by Rep. Raul Grijalva, (D-Ariz.), the current ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, and his predecessor on the committee, Rep. Peter DeFazio, (D-Ore.). It points out that wolves have only been restored to 5 percent of their historic range, and that a "threatened" designation is now more appropriate. The letter notes that if wolves were listed as "threatened" nationwide it would allow for more flexible management to address wolf conflict in areas like the Great Lakes where wolves are present, but still allow for wolves to recover elsewhere where there is suitable habitat.
In January the Center, the Human Society of the United States and 20 other organizations filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reclassify gray wolves as threatened. The petition explains that continued federal oversight and funding of wolf recovery efforts are needed in places like the western Great Lakes.
The Fish and Wildlife Service's previous piecemeal efforts to take away protections from gray wolves in the northern Rockies and western Great Lakes have been roundly criticized by scientists and repeatedly rejected by multiple federal courts. Courts have recognized that several states have recklessly reduced wolf numbers through unnecessary and cruel hunting and trapping programs.
In a separate letter sent to the Fish and Wildlife Service, an additional 14 conservation organizations representing 1.9 million people sent a letter in support of the petition filed by the Center and Humane Society.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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UN Chief Warns of Israel's Syria Invasion and Land Seizures
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stressed the "urgent need" for Israel to "de-escalate violence on all fronts."
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
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In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
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"You condemn the murder of an insurance executive who was a father of two kids," he said. "At the same time, you say there's obviously an outpouring behavior of people whose claims are being denied, and we need to reform the system."
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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Multiple journalists were also killed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Sudan, Myanmar, Colombia, and Ukraine, according to the report, and hundreds more were detained and are now behind bars in countries including Israel, China, and Russia.
Meanwhile, in a statement released Thursday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) announced that at least 139 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza began in 2023, and in a statement released Wednesday, IFJ announced that 104 journalists had perished worldwide this year (which includes deaths from January 1 through December 10). IFJ's number for all of 2024 appears to be higher than RSF because RSF is only counting deaths that occurred "on the job or in connection with their work."
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