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President Joe Biden blamed climate change and Mother Nature’s “wrath” for wildfires in the past two years in an interview with The Daily Show Monday, failing to note that a historic blaze in New Mexico was started by his administration. “Mother Nature let her wrath be seen over the last two years,” said Biden, apparently referencing the above-average number of acres burnt in the 2022 wildfire season. “For example, I have travelled on helicopter over more forest area burned to the ground than the entire state of Maryland.” The president toured the Caldor wildfire in California by helicopter in 2021, but opted to fly by New Mexico’s Hermit’s Peak fire, the largest in the state’s history, in Air Force One, according to Reuters. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) issued a report in June taking responsibility for the Hermit’s Peak fire, which grew out of control from a controlled burn initiated by the USFS, according to The Washington Post. The USFS report concluded that … [Read more...] about Biden Blames Climate Change For Burned Out Forests — But His Admin Caused One Of The Biggest Wildfires In History

The coronavirus pandemic has been defined by so much loss. Of lives, jobs, relationships. Of normalcy. But amid that upheaval, there have been occasional moments of hope, small positive changes borne from the chaos of the past three years. Hundreds of you wrote to us about the ways that pandemic disruptions surprisingly reshaped your lives for the better. Some of you found time to start a new business venture or fall in love. Lockdowns allowed you to spend more time with your children or parents, or prioritize your own happiness through daily morning walks, new recipes or oil painting. In June 2020, I adopted a sickly kitten, a responsibility I wouldn’t have been able to take on had I not been newly working from home. Now she’s almost 3 years old and a lovable companion for whom I feel immensely grateful. Reading your pandemic silver linings genuinely improved my week. I hope you enjoy them, too. Here’s some of what you shared, lightly edited for clarity. “In the spring … [Read more...] about Californians Share Their Pandemic Silver Linings

How much further will the Supreme Court go to assist in the arming of America? That has been the question since last June, when the court ruled that New York’s century-old gun licensing law violated the Second Amendment. Sooner than expected, we are likely to find out the answer. On March 17, the Biden administration asked the justices to overturn an appeals court decision that can charitably be described as nuts, and accurately as pernicious. The decision by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit invalidated a federal law that for almost 30 years has prohibited gun ownership by people who are subject to restraining orders for domestic violence. The Fifth Circuit upheld the identical law less than three years ago. But that was before President Donald Trump put a Mississippi state court judge named Cory Wilson on the appeals court. (As a candidate for political office in 2015, Wilson said in a National Rifle Association questionnaire … [Read more...] about We’re About to Find Out How Far the Supreme Court Will Go to Arm America

PUTUMAYO, Colombia — In a rebel-held town deep in the jungle, Joel ran drills beside his comrades, line after line of them in camouflage and boots, rifles at their sides. “To the right!” their instructor shouted. For Joel, 36, this scene was familiar. He had spent six years in the army, fighting on the front lines against a brutal insurgency that had terrorized Colombia for decades. But now he had a new employer: an illegal armed group that included the same insurgents he had spent his military career battling to defeat. “I know it shouldn’t be like this,” he said recently, cradling a rifle in his lap. But after he left the army, he said, he’d struggled to make ends meet. Then came an offer of a salary of $500 a month, nearly twice Colombia’s monthly minimum wage. Now, “my children live better lives,” he said, “because I can feed them.” Colombia’s peace accord, signed in 2016 by the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was supposed to … [Read more...] about Deep in Colombia, Rebels and Soldiers Fight for the Same Prize: Drugs

In 1980 an ecologist and an economist chose a refreshingly unacademic way to resolve their differences. They bet $1,000. Specifically, the bet was over the future price of five metals, but at stake was much more -- a view of the planet's ultimate limits, a vision of humanity's destiny. It was a bet between the Cassandra and the Dr. Pangloss of our era. They lead two intellectual schools -- sometimes called the Malthusians and the Cornucopians, sometimes simply the doomsters and the boomsters -- that use the latest in computer-generated graphs and foundation-generated funds to debate whether the world is getting better or going to the dogs. The argument has generally been as fruitless as it is old, since the two sides never seem to be looking at the same part of the world at the same time. Dr. Pangloss sees farm silos brimming with record harvests; Cassandra sees topsoil eroding and pesticide seeping into ground water. Dr. Pangloss sees people living longer; Cassandra sees rain … [Read more...] about Betting on the Planet

Sports bars seem to come and go in Denver, but a few have become institutions. One of those was LoDo’s Blake Street Tavern, the MVP of the sports bar scene for two decades before suddenly announcing earlier in March that it would close on April 9 . And while Blake Street Tavern is the first bar that many people think about when looking for a venue to catch the game, there are plenty of other awesome spots in Denver to cheer for your favorite team or to root against your most-hated foe. March and April are particularly good times to do that as the NCAA’s Final Four is wrapping up, Major League Baseball is beginning and the NBA and the NHL are heading toward playoff season. Here are nine of our favorites: Society Sports + Spirits LoDo sports bars can sometimes be as two-dimensional as their big-screen TVs. But Society goes way beyond the bland beer and bro-ish feel with two floors worth of sporting bliss. With three enormous projectors, 28 flat-screens and four “sound zones,” … [Read more...] about 9 of the best sports bars in Denver