West's wild-horse roundups expand
The Associated Press
RENO, Nev. -- Federal land managers have begun efforts to capture about 50% more wild horses than originally planned this year because of severe drought across the U.S. West -- about 6,000 additional animals primarily in Nevada, Oregon and Colorado.
The Bureau of Land Management said the emergency roundups that began Sunday in Oregon and Monday in Nevada concentrate on places where "chronic overpopulation" of the herds "already has stretched the available food and water to its limits."
"As one of the agencies charged with the responsibility to protect and manage America's wild horses and burros, the [Bureau of Land Management] is prepared to take emergency action where we can in order to save the lives of these cherished animals," Nada Wolff Culver, the bureau's deputy director for policy and programs, said Monday in announcing the effort.
The bureau already has gathered 1,200 animals this year and originally intended to round up about 12,000. The new effort would push the total to about 18,000 across 10 Western states from Montana to California.
The bureau says the estimated 86,000 free-roaming mustangs and burros on federal lands is three times what the ecosystem can sustain, something that animal advocates dispute.
However, horse advocates say the emergency roundups that will continue into September are being driven by pressure from ranchers who don't want the mustangs competing with their livestock for limited forage and water.
"Profit-driven interests ravage the landscape, and we blame the horse," said Laura Leigh, president of the nonprofit group Wild Horse Education.
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association said ranchers already have made voluntary changes to reduce and rotate grazing on federal lands during a drought "more pervasive and dramatic than we have seen in years," said Kaitlynn Glover, the association's executive director of resources.
Ex governor sues state for removal
The Associated Press
CHICAGO -- Ex-convict and former Gov. Rod Blagojevich has sued his home state for booting him from the governor's seat after his 2008 arrest for corruption and stripping him of his right to run for elective office in Illinois.
Before filing the lawsuit Monday, an unapologetic Blagojevich addressed reporters outside the same federal courthouse in Chicago where he was convicted, declaring: "I'm back." He said he hasn't decided, however, if he will seek to run for anything if he succeeds in eliminating the legal hurdles to doing so.
"I haven't thought about running for office," the 64-year-old Democrat said. "But I am not going to rule out any options either."
Then-President Donald Trump freed Blagojevich in February 2020 after he had served eight years of a 14-year sentence, including for trying to sell an appointment to Barack Obama's old U.S. Senate seat for campaign cash. Leaders of both parties in Illinois sharply criticized Trump's commutation.
The Illinois House in January 2009 voted 114-1 to impeach Blagojevich, and the state Senate voted unanimously to remove him, making him the first Illinois governor in history to be removed by lawmakers.
Monday's lawsuit argues the way legislators went about impeaching and ousting him was unconstitutional, including because he wasn't allowed to call and question witnesses. It seeks a permanent injunction declaring the General Assembly's actions unconstitutional.
Blagojevich didn't sound particularly confident about his chances of prevailing, noting for journalists how he had received a C in constitutional law at law school. Because of his felony conviction, he also was stripped of his law license. He is representing himself pro se as a non-lawyer in the suit -- self-representation that is usually reserved for prisoners or the indigent.
Blagojevich said Monday that he earns a living by consulting work, doing a podcast, giving paid speeches and featuring on an app through which celebrities are paid for giving personalized birthday and other greetings. He said he also is writing a book.