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For Immediate Release
May, 07 2020, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Pete Frost, Western Environmental Law Center, 541-543-0018, frost@westernlaw.org
Sarah McMillan, WildEarth Guardians, 406-549-3895, mcmillan@wildearthguardians.org
Josh Osher, Western Watersheds Project, 406-830-3099, josh@westernwatersheds.org
Federal Court Green-lights Bear Baiting Lawsuit
A federal court in Boise today denied the Trump administration's attempt to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to stop black bear baiting in national forests in Idaho and Wyoming - a practice known to result in the deaths of endangered grizzly bears.
WASHINGTON
A federal court in Boise today denied the Trump administration's attempt to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to stop black bear baiting in national forests in Idaho and Wyoming - a practice known to result in the deaths of endangered grizzly bears.
U.S. magistrate judge Candy Dale ordered the suit may proceed despite the Forest Service's claim that it need not re-evaluate how baiting can affect grizzlies. The Forest Service last looked at the issue 25 years ago, and concluded no grizzlies would be affected - a conclusion demonstrated to be false.
In June 2019, wildlife groups filed suit to challenge the Forest Service's decision that states could allow hunters to use bait to hunt black bears in grizzly habitat in national forests. Only Idaho and Wyoming do so.
The groups assert baiting has led to at least 10 recent grizzly deaths in Idaho and Wyoming, often due to mistaken identity.
"States should not allow baiting that can attract grizzlies and lead to their deaths," said Pete Frost, attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center. "Grizzlies have been shot near bait, and more may die, unless the Forest Service properly acts."
The court ruled the Forest Service must "reinitiate consultation" with the Fish and Wildlife Service to obtain its opinion whether the continued use of bait may jeopardize the continued existence of grizzlies. The court also ruled the Forest Service did not need to re-evaluate the environmental effects of its overall national policy.
In 2007, a hunter mistakenly killed a grizzly at a black bear bait station in the Kelly Creek area in the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho. The grizzly was the first seen in the region in 60 years.
In 2016, a teenager was charged with unlawfully killing a grizzly near an illegal bait station on private land near Wallace, Idaho.
From 2017 to 2019, grizzly population monitoring shows the bears have expanded by about 1,500 square miles.
In 2019, a federal judge in Montana rejected the Trump administration's attempt to take grizzlies off the Endangered Species list, in part because grizzlies in separate ecosystems need to wander to achieve genetic connectivity.
In June, 2019, a grizzly bear wearing a tracking collar was discovered near a bait station in the Kelly Creek drainage in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests in Idaho. Idaho Fish and Game urged black bear hunters to use caution when selecting targets in the area.
In fall 2019, a hunter photographed likely a grizzly bear at a bear baiting station on a tributary to the South Fork Clearwater River in Idaho.
In April 2020, an Idaho Fish and Game conservation officer confirmed a grizzly's presence in the Fish Creek Meadows winter recreation area about 7 miles south of Grangeville, farther south than most anticipated. The bear has traveled several hundred miles through Montana and Idaho.
Now that the lawsuit will proceed, the groups will seek a court order requiring the Forest Service to obtain a new biological opinion about how baiting affects grizzlies, and terms and conditions to ensure they are not shot.
The Western Environmental Law Center uses the power of the law to safeguard the public lands, wildlife, and communities of the American West in the face of a changing climate. We envision a thriving, resilient West, abundant with protected public lands and wildlife, powered by clean energy, and defended by communities rooted in an ethic of conservation.
(541) 485-2471LATEST NEWS
Trump Says Iran Blockade Could Last All Summer Amid Fears of Oil Supply 'Powder Keg'
The US and Iran exchanged military strikes on Wednesday as American oil inventories dropped to the lowest level in more than two decades.
Jun 03, 2026
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday tried to project optimism about reaching a deal to end the illegal war he started against Iran, even while acknowledging the crisis could last for several more months.
In an interview with The New York Post, Trump was asked whether the current blockade of Iran would last until Labor Day.
"I don't know," Trump said. "I mean, I think it could be, but I think it's unlikely... I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly."
Q: Do you think the blockade will still be in place by Labor Day?
Trump: It could be, but I think it's unlikely. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly. pic.twitter.com/Ispq2tnPJZ
— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 3, 2026
The president for the last several months has managed to keep oil prices from spiking to disastrous levels by dropping hints that his illegal war will soon be over, even though it has continued with no end in sight.
And while the Trump administration has insisted that its ceasefire deal is still in effect, CNN reported on Wednesday that Iran launched attacks against US military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain after US forces fired a Hellfire missile at a Botswana-flagged oil tanker that was heading toward an Iranian port.
Iran also launched drone and missile strikes at Kuwait's international airport, killing one person and leaving dozens injured, according to Al Jazeera.
Oil industry expert Patrick De Haan on Tuesday warned that the price of oil will soon shoot back up if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed because US petroleum supplies, which have been drained at a rapid pace since the start of the war, are about to hit their lowest level in over two decades.
"US distillate inventories will likely fall under 100 million barrels for the first time in over 20 years, exacerbated by high exports due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz," De Hann wrote in a social media post. "This is a powder keg waiting to go off if a deal to reopen the strait doesn't happen soon."
In an analysis published Wednesday, The American Prospect's Ryan Cooper similarly warned that the tricks used by nations around the world to keep a lid on oil prices, such as releasing petroleum reserves, would soon be ineffective thanks to hard supply constraints.
"As storages dwindle and run out, the only way to match demand to supply will be for the price to rise high enough to destroy something like 10 to 20% of global oil consumption," Cooper wrote. "And because a great deal of oil demand is obligatory and therefore not very price-sensitive, that price will likely be north of $150 per barrel."
This would lead not just to an explosion in gasoline and diesel fuel prices, Cooper continued, but a "corresponding price hike for anything that needs to be transported, or involved in plastic in some way, which is to say basically everything."
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Surgeon Who Treated Victims of US-Backed Israeli Genocide Wins House Primary in New Jersey
“I am going to Congress to fight for you—for healthcare, not bombs, to abolish ICE, and to unrig the economy once and for all,” Adam Hamawy told supporters.
Jun 03, 2026
Dr. Adam Hamawy, a retired US Army combat surgeon who in 2024 volunteered at a Gaza hospital amid Israel's genocidal assault, handily prevailed Tuesday in the Democratic primary race in New Jersey's 12th Congressional District after running on a message of "healthcare, not bombs."
"I am going to Congress to fight for you—for healthcare, not bombs, to abolish ICE, and to unrig the economy once and for all," said Hamawy, the heavy favorite to win in November in the deep-blue district. "I will never take money from corporate PACs or AIPAC. I will always vote my conscience—I will be beholden to no one."
Justice Democrats and IMEU Policy Project, progressive organizations that backed Hamawy with $200,000 in mail ads, celebrated his victory in the crowded primary, where the surgeon received nearly 10,000 more votes than the second-place candidate.
“Dr. Adam Hamawy’s heroism and commitment to human rights were at the heart of his campaign to end Washington’s bottomless budgets for war abroad and to invest in communities at home," the groups said in a joint statement. "Voters were drawn to Dr. Hamawy’s candidacy because he knows firsthand the reality of Israel’s genocide in Gaza like few do—having worked to save the lives of Palestinian children under bombardment and unimaginable conditions."
"His experience is necessary in Congress now more than ever, as too many of the people meant to represent us continue to look the other way while our tax dollars fund injustices here and abroad," they added. "Dr. Hamawy will not look away from injustice, because he is unbought and committed to building on his lifetime of service to chart a new path in our politics away from cruelty, and toward compassion for all.”
Hamawy's campaign was also backed by prominent progressive lawmakers, including US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who celebrated his win in a social media post late Tuesday.
"Dr. Hamawy will be a strong progressive voice in the House and, as a physician, he understands our healthcare system is broken and we need Medicare for All," Sanders wrote.
Hamawy, who is running to fill the seat of retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, has spoken openly about his experience volunteering at the European Hospital in southern Gaza, from which he was evacuated in May 2024 after Israeli authorities trapped him and his team in the besieged enclave.
"I have never in my career witnessed the level of atrocities and targeting of my medical colleagues as I have in Gaza," said Hamawy, who served in Iraq. US Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) credits Hamawy with saving her life after her helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004.
Speaking to supporters late Tuesday, Hamawy said that "for my whole life, I have tried to tackle the crises we face with my hands, treating patients."
"But I am a surgeon. I don’t like putting Band-Aids on bullet wounds," he continued. "It’s time for some preventative care. To get my patients—and all of us—the care they need, we are going to change the very system that’s hurting us."
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Fired Scott Pelley Says '60 Minutes' Under Bari Weiss Wanted 'Falsehoods and Bias' Injected
"Incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc," said the veteran journalist as his 37-career with CBS News came to an end.
Jun 03, 2026
Fired by the network where he had worked for nearly four decades on Tuesday night, veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley said in a statement that he had been directed by the new management team at CBS News, led by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, "to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story" and also "told to include assertions that are unverified" in his reporting.
What looks like the collapse of "60 Minutes" has played out both behind closed doors at the network in recent months and publicly, with a series of high-profile firings of other longtime journalists and producers at the show. Details of internal meetings have been leaked, revealing serious tension between veteran members of the nation's most-watched television news magazine and Weiss' new management team.
“The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable,” Pelley said in his statement, released just hours after Nick Bilton, the show's new executive producer appointed by Weiss last month, announced the firing. “The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well."
Bilton said in his statement that Pelley had been “terminated for cause effective immediately," following a contentious staff meeting on Monday in which Pelley accused Weiss, who was not at the meeting, of being "brought in to kill" the program, not save it.
Despite "repeated attempts to have direct conversations with him over the weekend" and earlier on Tuesday, Bilton said, his efforts "to find common ground" with Pelley were not successful. "That was not the path Scott chose," he said.
Pelley's narrative of events was starkly different.
"Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause," Pelley said in a statement sent to several news outlets. "Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos."
“For my part," he continued, "new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.”
Pelley concluded: “I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.”
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