skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

California's McCloud River Among "Most Endangered" in U.S.

play audio
Play

Wednesday, April 14, 2021   

REDDING, Calif. - The 2021 top 10 list of America's "Most Endangered Rivers" is out - and the McCloud River in Shasta County is number seven.

The report from the group American Rivers noted the McCloud is threatened by a 40-year-old plan that had been revived by the Trump administration to raise the Shasta Dam by more than 18 feet. Caleen Sisk, chief of the Winnemem Wintu tribe, said that would flood 5,000 acres upstream on the McCloud and drown 39 sites sacred to her people.

"Winnemum Wintu people still go to the ceremonies, and go to the sacred places to pray and carry on the traditions," she said. "We've lived there for thousands of years, and so we have very deep-rooted connections to the river."

The tribe takes its name, Winnemem, from the original name of the McCloud River. The Shasta Dam, finished in 1945, creates a reservoir that supplies water to the Central Valley.

Supporters of raising the height of the dam have said it would create more water storage and generate additional power. Environmental groups have noted that the dam also obstructs the native salmon population.

Amy Souers Kober, American Rivers' vice president for communiction, said she'd like Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, as the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history, to reject the plan to make the Shasta Dam taller and enlarge its reservoir.

"We need the Biden administration to do what's right here," Kober said. "It does not make any sense to further damage this river and the tribe's sacred sites when there are better, available, more cost-effective water-supply solutions."

The report and a related petition is on the American Rivers website, and the tribal efforts to stop the project are online at run4salmon.org.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021