SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has made her recommendation about whether to reverse former President Donald Trump’s decision to downsize two sprawling national monuments in Utah,
Haaland traveled to Utah in April to visit the monuments as she became the latest cabinet official to step into a public lands tug-of-war that has gone on for years. She is the first Indigenous official to get involved in the decision.
A string of U.S. officials has heard from advocates for expanding national monuments to protect archaeological and cultural sites, and from opponents who see such moves as federal overreach.
Biden asked Haaland to research whether the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante should be restored. Native American tribes supported the creation of Bears Ears by President Barack Obama, but Republican state leaders opposed it. Grand Staircase is older but has long been a point of contention for conservative state leaders who consider both monuments U.S. government overreach.
iStock/LanaStockTo celebrate both June 6 as National Drive in Day, and the return to summer fun as the pandemic eases, Coca-Cola is handing out free sodas. The