live casino evolution
live casino evolution
Election 2024: All 174 seats confirmed as independents eye up government formation
WASHINGTON — The National Park Service is seeing a surge in private support bigger than anytime in its 108-year history as it also faces a maintenance backlog of more than $23 billion, made worse this fall by hurricane damage to its most popular location. Three years after setting a goal of raising $1 billion, the Park Service’s official charitable partner, the National Park Foundation, is almost there, having raised $840 million since 2021, the foundation’s outgoing president and CEO Will Shafroth said. That fundraising under the Campaign for National Parks is in addition to efforts of park partners across the country — such as the Trust for Public Land, American Battlefield Trust, Conservation Legacy and the Student Conservation Association — that collectively want to raise another $3.5 billion. Visits to national parks rose from about 275 million in 2010 to 325 million last year. Shafroth said many of these visitors, inspired by the beauty of places like Yellowstone National Park, say the parks and staff have “created an amazing experience for me and my family. I want to give back.” Hundreds of thousands more give back by volunteering, whether rebuilding trails, clearing trash, serving as docents or organizing special events. “National parks experienced substantially increased public interest over the past two years,” according to the 2024 Park Partners Report commissioned by the foundation. There are now at least 470 partner groups, many of them “Friends” organizations that coordinate volunteer work with superintendents of individual parks. That community provided nearly 1 million volunteer hours in the park system last year, the equivalent of 122,500 days or 471 full-time employees, according to the report. One of those groups is Friends of the Smokies, which has about 2,000 members who volunteer for projects in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee, the most popular of the 63 national parks with 13.3 million visitors in 2023. The park, which stretches over 816 square miles, sustained extensive damage from Hurricane Helene in late September, and many roads and trails are still closed to the public, said Dana Soehn, president of Friends of the Smokies. But the group is eager to get to work when the Park Service completes its assessments and makes restoration plans, she said. “We stand at the ready to really push and raise funds,” Soehn said. “The public-private partnership in helping meet these challenging times is something that’s critically needed. Our organization is able to provide $2 million to $4 million of funding each year to help support the national park.” Funding needs The private funding goes a long way to help the cash-strapped National Park Service, with an operating budget of $3.3 billion in fiscal 2024, which supports about 20,000 full-time employees. The Senate’s Interior-Environment Appropriations bill would provide $3.5 billion in fiscal 2025, as the Biden administration requested, but the House version would cut the funding to $3.1 billion. The Great American Outdoors Act passed by Congress in 2020 provided up to $1.3 billion per year for five years through 2025 to help reduce $23.3 billion in deferred maintenance projects. Private donations won’t do much to reduce the maintenance backlog because most people aren’t interested in funding infrastructure projects like roads and bridges that are the government’s responsibility, Shafroth said. “We’re never going to be very effective at convincing donors to pay for pothole repair and water systems and things like that,” he said. “So we really need to focus on the things that are resonant to donors and also are a high need for the parks.” When Lilly Endowment Inc. announced a $100 million contribution in August, Shafroth’s foundation said the funds would go toward four priorities: creating environmental stewardship opportunities for young people, protecting fragile ecosystems and diverse species in the parks, developing new technologies to improve visitor experiences, and providing “a more comprehensive historical narrative” about national parks and the communities around them. Many donors to the park system, especially corporate givers, are also motivated by the knowledge that public lands used for recreation are an economic driver. Outdoor recreation generates $1.2 trillion in annual economic activity and supports 5 million jobs, according to a report released in November by the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable using data from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. The ORR is a coalition of more than 110,000 businesses in the sector. The Interior Department reported last year that visitor spending in communities near national parks totals more than $50 billion a year, supporting nearly 400,000 jobs. Other legislation Advocates for the parks are urging Congress to rev up this economic engine by passing a package of bills that would overhaul how public land agencies distribute passes and permits, encourage technology to improve visitor experiences, restore campgrounds and address housing shortages near outdoor recreation areas, among other things. The House passed the legislation sponsored by Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., in April by voice vote under suspension of the rules. Dozens of groups are urging the Senate to pass the measure in the lame-duck session. “Despite the profound and widespread benefits that parks and outdoor recreation offer, they are chronically underfunded with many systems facing a significant backlog of capital improvement projects,” more than 50 organizations said in a Nov. 12 letter to Senate leaders urging them to prioritize the legislation. Aside from their economic importance, Shafroth noted that national parks play a role in uniting Americans. “You know, our country just feels so divided in so many ways, especially politically,” he said. “It feels like those divisions just dissolve when people enter a national park. They’re just citizens of the United States. They’re just lovers of the outdoors, appreciators of America’s story.” Shafroth announced this fall that he plans to step aside as president and CEO of the National Park Foundation and turn over the reins to Park Service veteran Jeff Reinbold, most recently the superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington. The pair will work together on the transition in December and January, then Shafroth said he plans to develop a new program at the foundation addressing issues facing the park system, including climate change, housing shortages near parks and development of new technologies.
The standard Lorem Ipsum passage, used since the 1500s "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC "Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?" Thanks for your interest in Kalkine Media's content! To continue reading, please log in to your account or create your free account with us.
'Hypocritical': Labor ramming through 36 bills slammed
Authored by Eric Utter via AmericanThinker.com, This is going to be controversial to many, but I am going to tell it like I see it, so damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. The Biden administration, set up as it was by the Obama administration, has been a clear and present danger to the United States of America. In almost every way imaginable. It has tanked an economy that otherwise was on the way to (an almost inevitable) rapid, post-pandemic recovery, causing pain to countless American families. Speaking of the pandemic, its ludicrous lockdown policy, and a host of other counterproductive and destructive policies, caused immeasurable physical, mental, and emotional harm to millions of people—and summarily destroyed many small businesses, particularly restaurants. It fostered a growing oligarchy by ensuring certain government-approved giant corporations prospered while the small businesses were devastated. It nourished this budding fascism even as it took every opportunity to baselessly label Donald Trump and his supporters as “fascists.” Similarly, it incessantly talked of “saving our democracy” even as it tried to destroy it by pushing for the end of the Electoral College and the filibuster, supporting the advent of congressional representation for Washington, D.C., urging the granting of statehood to Puerto Rico, and, most egregiously, going to any and all lengths to get rid of its chief political opponent, Donald J. Trump. It is still doing all it can to obstruct the will of the people, as was evident in its post-election auctioning off materials for the border wall for pennies on the dollar, as well as in placing various other roadblocks in front of the incoming administration. (In other words, it is doing everything possible to counteract the will of the people. Doesn’t sound very democratic to me.) Leaving the border wide open for years has created the greatest current—and latent—security threat the nation has ever faced. Period. In colluding with the social media giants to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story, or with foreign agents to concoct the Russian-collusion hoax, Democrats have shown, time and again, they will do anything to attain and retain power. The Biden administration made that abundantly clear...seven ways from Sunday. In its constant use of lawfare and its “accountability for thee but not for me” perversion of the justice system, it has created a two-tiered system of justice that is deeply anti-American and monstrously pernicious. And that is troubling—and frightening—to most Americans. The Biden administration has helped make a mockery of common sense—if not of reality itself —with its official inability to define what a woman is, and to simultaneously approve of “gender reassignment” surgeries and procedures (even for the very young)...and biological men in women’s locker-rooms, bathrooms, and on their sports teams. It has done grievous damage to our culture—and unity—by endlessly promoting the absurd ideologies of DEI and CRT. Its unwillingness to ever be available, accountable, or transparent is only matched by its overwhelming desire and propensity to lie to the very citizens it is supposed to serve. Which we have seen in its attempts to protect itself, smear Trump and his supporters, give a pass to the Chinese spy balloon, and in its flat-out refusal to tell Americans anything resembling the truth about the drone fiasco that has been ongoing for over a month. The non-answers and gibberish that has spewed from the mouths of “government officials,” has been truly mind-blowing...on this and numerous other matters. As if all of this weren’t enough, its foreign policy may yet lead to our destruction. It essentially surrendered to goat-herders in Afghanistan, leaving behind billions of dollars of high-end military equipment, more than a dozen dead Americans, and our reputation and dignity. It has bizarrely coddled Iran while playing hardball with Israel, the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. And it seems almost determined to get us directly involved in a shooting war with Russia, if not a nuclear one. To me, this is far worse than incompetence, more than malfeasance. To me, it spells T-R-E-A-S-O-N . Were this an age of reason , what other conclusion could be reached?A high-speed passenger train collided with a fire engine at a crossing on Saturday in Florida, injuring three firefighters and at least a dozen train passengers, authorities said. The crash happened at 10.45am in crowded downtown Delray Beach, multiple news outlets reported. The Brightline train was stopped on the tracks, its front destroyed, about a block away from the Delray Beach fire rescue truck, its ladder ripped off and strewn in the grass several yards away, The Sun-Sentinel newspaper reported. The Delray Beach Fire Rescue said in a social media post that three Delray Beach firefighters were in stable condition at a hospital. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue took 12 people from the train to the hospital with minor injuries. Emmanuel Amaral rushed to the scene on his golf cart after hearing a loud crash and screeching train brakes from where he was having breakfast a couple of blocks away. He saw firefighters climbing out of the window of their damaged truck and pulling injured colleagues away from the tracks. One of their helmets came to rest several hundred feet away from the crash. “The front of that train is completely smashed, and there was even some of the parts to the fire truck stuck in the front of the train, but it split the car right in half. It split the fire truck right in half, and the debris was everywhere,” Mr Amaral said. Brightline officials did not immediately comment on the crash. A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board said it was still gathering information about the crash and had not decided yet whether it will investigate. The NTSB is already investigating two crashes involving Brightline’s high-speed trains that killed three people early this year at the same crossing along the railroad’s route between Miami and Orlando. More than 100 people have died after being hit by trains since Brightline began operations in July 2017 – giving the railroad the worst death rate in the United States. But most of those deaths have been either suicides, pedestrians who tried to run across the tracks ahead of a train or drivers who went around crossing gates instead of waiting for a train to pass. Brightline has not been found to be at fault in those previous deaths.
MWC powers clash as Utah State visits No. 20 San Diego State
Trump takes bold pre-inauguration steps: Threats, tariffs, and global negotiations ahead of 2nd termUnions score a major win in Wisconsin with a court ruling restoring collective bargaining rights
No. 6 Florida focused amid unbeaten start, ready for Stetson
Police urge people to call 999 if you see this man
- Previous:
- Next: live casino philippines
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25818641/DSCF4275.jpg)
