Tag Archives: Protection

Trump administration sued over protection for vanishing bumble bee

Bumble Bee

By Laura Zuckerman

(Reuters) – An environmental group sued U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday for delaying a rule that would designate the rusty patched bumble bee as an endangered species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a branch of the Interior Department, in September proposed bringing the bee under federal safeguards.

The rule formalizing the listing of the vanishing pollinator, once widely found in the upper Midwest and Northeastern United States, was published in the Federal Register on Jan. 11 and was to take effect last Friday.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said the listing has been delayed until March 21 as part of a broader freeze ordered by Trump’s White House on rules issued by the prior administration aimed at protecting public health and the environment.

The group argued in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that U.S. wildlife managers had violated the law by abruptly suspending the bumble bee listing without public notice or comment. They said the rule technically became final when it was published in the Federal Register.

The lawsuit seeks to have a judge declare that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted unlawfully and to order the agency to rescind the rule delaying the bumble bee’s listing.

“The science is clear – this species is headed toward extinction, and soon. There is no legitimate reason to delay federal protections,” Natural Resources Defense Council senior attorney Rebecca Riley said in a statement.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could not immediately be reached for comment.

Bumble bees pollinate wildflowers and about a third of U.S. crops, from blueberries to tomatoes, according to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

The bee’s population and range have declined by more than 90 percent since the late 1990s due to disease, pesticides, climate change and habitat loss, according to wildlife officials.

The insect is one of 47 varieties of native bumble bees in the United States and Canada, more than a quarter of which face the risk of extinction, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In September, seven varieties of yellow-faced bees in Hawaii became the first such insects to be added to the U.S. list of endangered species because of losses due to habitat destruction, wildfires and the invasion of nonnative plants and insects.

(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman in Salmon, Idaho; Editing by Curtis Skinner)

Alabama Supreme Court Extends Child Protection Laws To Unborn Babies

The Alabama Supreme Court has issued a landmark ruling for the rights of unborn children.

In an 8 to 1 decision, the Court ruled that the state’s child protection laws apply to unborn children, declaring that the court believes a child in the womb has a right to life.

The ruling came in the case of a woman who had been using cocaine while pregnant.  When her child was born, the infant has cocaine in their system and the mother was charged with violation of the state’s chemical endangerment statute.

Her lawyers claimed that an unborn child was not a child under the definition of state law.

Mat Staver of the Liberty Counsel applauded the court’s decision.

“In an age where some judges do not know the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, or do not even care, finally the Alabama Supreme Court springs forth with a ray of light,” Staver said in a statement.

Experts Warn Country Not Ready For EMP Blackout

Experts say that the catastrophic destruction of an electromagnetic pulse attack on the nation could be prevented but that most non-military groups and citizens are not ready.

The executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security says that technology to avoid losing power and electronics from electromagnetic pulse exists and that it’s financially viable to upgrade the nation’s power grid for this protection.

“The problem is not the technology,” Peter Pry told Fox News. “We know how to protect against it. It’s not the money, it doesn’t cost that much. The problem is the politics. It always seems to be the politics that gets in the way.”

Pry said the total cost to upgrade the entire nation is less than what is given in foreign aid to Pakistan each year.

The worst case scenario estimated from a 2011 study on the impact of an EMP on the electric grid would be 500,000 dead within the first few minutes.