The Weekend Off – News You Missed

Alaska

ADN – State pushing feds to allow Western Arctic caribou hunt

Alaska’s biggest caribou herd, one that has swelled and crashed over the past four decades, now is stirring conflict between state and federal managers over who should get to hunt the animals.

The Federal Subsistence Board decided in April to close federal lands where the Western Arctic caribou herd is hunted — except to locals, those hunters federally qualified for subsistence. The year-long closure to other caribou hunters would begin July 1.

Alaska Public Media – Young, Murkowski to do ‘double whammy’ on energy bill

Alaska Congressman Don Young will have a say in drafting the final version of Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s energy modernization bill. That’s because the U.S. House passed its own energy bill this week, to match the Murkowski bill already passed in the Senate. House leaders then picked Young to serve on the conference committee that will negotiate a compromise between the two bills.

Fairbanks News Miner – Air pollution in North Pole worse than Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Detroit combined

The highest counts of episodic PM 2.5 particulate pollution reported in the country are coming from a pollution monitor on Hurst Road in North Pole.

The counts are not just high. They are outrageously high — almost twice as high as the next highest community in the nation, according to data collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

National

Talking Points Memo – Donald Trump Promises California That ‘There Is No Drought’

Donald Trump told an an audience in California Friday that “there is no drought,” according to a report from USA Today.

The state saw a record dry year in 2015 and the problem is so bad that earlier this month Gov. Edmund Brown Jr. issued an executive order creating long-term standards for water use in the state. The order bans the practice of hosing off sidewalks, washing cars with the wrong kinds of hoses and requires individuals to report their water use, according to the state’s website.

Des Moines Register – Tribal land issues block Bakken pipeline in Iowa

State and federal officials are blocking work on the planned Bakken oil pipeline in three Iowa counties after questions were raised about the possible disruption of a sacred site of historical and cultural significance to Sioux tribal members.

NY Times – What Can’t Tech Money Buy?

IT did not take long for the tech industry to become the new establishment, and to assign itself the rights and responsibilities that come with such prosperity.

In 2010, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett unveiled the Giving Pledge, a take on the old industrialist Gospel of Wealth for a new era of the superrich. Since then, many of Silicon Valley’s most moneyed founders and chief executives, including Larry Ellison, Elon Musk, Pierre Omidyar, Tim Cook, Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg, have signed on to give most of their wealth to a vague “philanthropy.”

International

The Guardian – French strikes: situation getting better but crisis not over, says minister

Strikes have continued at French oil refineries as part of an ongoing standoff with the government over labour reforms, as footage emerged apparently showing a middle-aged woman being pushed to the ground by a policeman.

Petapixel – Shocking AP Photo Leads to Internal Investigation of Kenyan Police

AP photographer Ben Curtis recently captured a photograph seen round the world. A brutal and shocking image that has sparked outrage and forced Kenya’s police chief to launch an internal investigation. (Warning: Some of the content in the video above is graphic. Proceed at your own risk.)

 Al Jazeera – France protests: Dozens detained in clashes with police

At least 77 people have been detained across France during labour reform protests, which attracted an estimated 18,000 demonstrators in the French capital.

In Paris, demonstrators shouted anti-government slogans and sirens wailed in the background, as the march advanced on Thursday from the Bastille plaza through eastern part of the city.

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