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Day two of David Pecker testimony wraps in NY Trump trial; Supreme Court hears arguments on Idaho's near-total abortion ban; ND sees a flurry of campaigning among Native candidates; and NH lags behind other states in restricting firearms at polling sites.

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The Senate moves forward with a foreign aid package. A North Carolina judge overturns an aged law penalizing released felons. And child protection groups call a Texas immigration policy traumatic for kids.

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The urban-rural death divide is widening for working-age Americans, many home internet connections established for rural students during COVID have been broken and a new federal rule aims to put the "public" back in public lands.

Petitioners to Zinke: Keep Public Lands the Way They Are

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Friday, November 17, 2017   

HELENA, Mont. – Conservation, hunting, business and other outdoor interests have sent a petition to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, asking him to commit his agency to keep public lands in public hands. The coalition filed the letter under the Administrative Procedure Act, requesting that Zinke develop regulations to prohibit the sale or transfer of public lands without consent from Congress.

Martin Hackworth is the executive director of the Sharetrails.org/Blue Ribbon Coalition, which supports motorized vehicle use on public lands. He believes the Interior Secretary is sincere in his pledge to protect these lands but would like the agency to codify this promise.

"What I would be completely opposed to are large-scale transfers of federal lands to state or local entities, or selling them off, and that's the reason why I'm a part of this process," he explains. "I agree with all my friends in the environmental and preservationist community that that's a terrible idea."

Hackworth says states can't afford to manage public lands and believes access would become restricted if states took over. Many groups that are part of the petition became concerned earlier this year when the Trump administration ordered a review of national monuments across the country, including the Upper Missouri River Breaks in Montana.

Gia Randono is a fifth-generation Montanan who co-owns Lewis and Clark Trail Adventures, an outfitter and guide company. She echoes Hackworth's concern about state management and says access to public lands is crucial to her business.

"We never want to take that for granted, and we would not like to see any lands transferred to states, which makes it easier, then, to transfer to private ownership," she warns. "It would really put a constraint on our business."

Public lands generate $887 billion in consumer spending annually, according to the Outdoor Industry Association.


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