North Carolina state biologist Luke Etchison holds a French Broad crayfish he found in Little River. POLK COUNTY, North Carolina — The small section of forest before me looked as though it was clear-cut. The ground was flat and treeless, covered in a thin layer of jumbled sticks and leaves. This region, a wetland formed by…
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Library funding assures opportunities for rural, low-income people As an adult services librarian in northern Colorado, I’ve seen firsthand how federal funding strengthens our libraries and, through them, our communities. At my library, federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds help support digital literacy training, homebound delivery services, and access to job-seeking resources for…
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Readers not buying this bridge Re: “Gov. Polis’ pedestrian bridge has a long way to go,” July 13 editorial The editorial laid out great reasons that this project should be scrapped: 1) The cost is unaffordable with today’s budget constraints. 2) The design failed to follow mandated design guidelines. 3) “Undulating waves like Colorado’s white-water…
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Researchers study black swifts in Glacier National Park, Montana, in 2018. Cuts to the Park Service means the parks are missing out on species monitoring data. This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk Collaboration. Stories of struggle flow unceasingly from our public lands…
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False hope from the Epstein battle Re: “Trump slams his supporters over Epstein ‘hoax’,” July 17 news story If there’s one thing everyone ought to know by now, it’s that President Donald Trump never suffers for his infidelities and other misconduct. There’s no doubt in my mind that Elon Musk is orchestrating the current coup…
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This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. For 25 years, a group of the country’s top experts has been fastidiously tracking the ways that climate change threatens every part of the United States. Their findings informed the National Climate Assessments, a series of congressionally…
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Government leaders need to get off wrong side of history and gain new perspective In the book “Mark Twain” by Ron Chernow, I found the perfect explanation for why many people conformed to “the terrifying power of the environment to shape and distort human behavior.” He was referencing the justification of slavery by so many…
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Too fragile to understand our history? Re: “Signs posted seen as threats to ‘whitewash’ dark side of history,” June 28 news story The term “snowflake” is often used to insult political liberals. With the power invested in me as a U.S. citizen, I nominate President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Bergum our Snowflakes in…
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Sisters Emilee and Natalee De Santiago sit together on the front porch of what remains of their home on January 19, 2025, in Altadena, California. In the wake of the record-breaking wildfires in Los Angeles in January — some of the most expensive and destructive blazes in history — one of the first things California…
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A home along the Broad River that was ripped apart by Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters. HENDERSON COUNTY, North Carolina — Once again, I found myself staring at a crack in a large rock on the side of a mountain. It was June, and rainy, and I was searching for a glossy amphibian called the Hickory Nut Gorge…
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