The BulleTin • Wednesday, March 10, 2021 A3
TODAY
Today is Wednesday, March 10,
the 69th day of 2021. There are
296 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 10, 1864, President
Abraham Lincoln assigned
Ulysses S. Grant, who had
just received his commission
as lieutenant-general, to the
command of the Armies of the
United States.
In 1785, Thomas Jefferson was
appointed America’s minister
to France, succeeding Benjamin
Franklin.
In 1848, the U.S. Senate rati-
fied the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, which ended the Mexi-
can-American War.
In 1876, Alexander Graham
Bell’s assistant, Thomas Watson,
heard Bell say over his experi-
mental telephone: “Mr. Watson
— come here — I want to see
you” from the next room of
Bell’s Boston laboratory.
In 1906, about 1,100 miners in
northern France were killed by a
coal-dust explosion.
In 1913, former slave, abolition-
ist and Underground Railroad
“conductor” Harriet Tubman
died in Auburn, New York; she
was in her 90s.
In 1914, the Rokeby Venus, a
17th century painting by Diego
Velazquez on display at the
National Gallery in London, was
slashed multiple times by Mary
Richardson, who was protesting
the arrest of fellow suffragist
Emmeline Pankhurst. (The
painting was repaired.)
In 1927, the Sinclair Lewis novel
“Elmer Gantry” was published
by Harcourt, Brace & Co.
In 1969, James Earl Ray pleaded
guilty in Memphis, Tennessee,
(on his 41st birthday) to assassi-
nating civil rights leader Martin
Luther King Jr. (Ray later repudi-
ated that plea, maintaining his
innocence until his death.)
In 1985, Konstantin U. Chernen-
ko, who was the Soviet Union’s
leader for 13 months, died at age
73; he was succeeded by Mikhail
Gorbachev.
In 1988, pop singer Andy Gibb
died in Oxford, England, at age
30 of heart inflammation.
In 2000, Pope John Paul II ap-
proved sainthood for Katharine
Drexel, a Philadelphia socialite
who had taken a vow of poverty
and devoted her fortune to help-
ing poor Blacks and American In-
dians. (Drexel, who died in 1955,
was canonized in October 2000.)
In 2015, breaking her silence in
the face of a growing controversy
over her use of a private email ad-
dress and server, Hillary Clinton
conceded that she should have
used government email as secre-
tary of state but insisted she had
not violated any federal laws or
Obama administration rules.
Ten years ago: The House
Homeland Security Committee
examined Muslim extremism in
America during a hearing punc-
tuated by tearful testimony and
angry recriminations. (Chairman
Peter King, R-N.Y., accused U.S.
Muslims of doing too little to
help fight terror in America;
Democrats warned of inflaming
anti-Muslim sentiment.)
Five years ago: Donald Trump
and his Republican rivals turned
their presidential debate in Mi-
ami into a mostly respectful but
still pointed discussion of Social
Security, Islam, trade and more.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau made an official visit to
the White House.
One year ago: Bernie Sanders
and Joe Biden canceled prima-
ry-night rallies in Cleveland amid
concerns over the spread of the
coronavirus. Biden won prima-
ries in the battleground state of
Michigan and three other states,
dealing a serious blow to Sand-
ers. Clusters of the coronavirus
swelled on both U.S. coasts, with
more than 70 cases linked to a
biotech conference in Boston
and infections turning up at 10
nursing homes in the Seattle
area. Infections in Italy topped
the 10,000 mark.
Today’s Birthdays: Talk show
host Ralph Emery is 88. Actor
Chuck Norris is 81. Playwright
David Rabe is 81. Actor Katharine
Houghton (“Guess Who’s Coming
to Dinner?”) is 79. Actor Richard
Gant is 77. Rock musician Tom
Scholz (Boston) is 74. TV person-
ality/businesswoman Barbara
Corcoran (“Shark Tank”) is 72.
Actor Shannon Tweed is 64. Actor
Sharon Stone is 63. Magician
Lance Burton is 61. Rock musician
Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam) is 58. Brit-
ain’s Prince Edward is 57. Actor
Stephen Mailer is 55. Actor Paget
Brewster is 52. Actor Jon Hamm is
50. Rapper-producer Timbaland
is 49. Singer Robin Thicke is 44.
Olympic gold medal gymnast
Shannon Miller is 44. Actor
Thomas Middleditch is 39. Coun-
try singer Carrie Underwood is
38. Actor Olivia Wilde is 37.
— Associated Press
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
States look to step up wolf kills
Predator species’ return
to the West has become
politicized for lawmakers,
similar to gun rights
BY MATTHEW BROWN AND IRIS
SAMUELS
Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont. — Payments
for dead wolves. Unlimited hunt-
ing of the animals. Shooting wolves
from the air.
Wolf hunting policies in some
states are taking an aggressive turn,
as Republican lawmakers and con-
servative hunting groups push to
curb their numbers and propose
tactics shunned by many wildlife
managers.
In Montana, lawmakers are ad-
vancing measures to allow shoot-
ing wolves at night and payments
to hunters reminiscent of bounties
that widely exterminated the spe-
cies last century. Idaho legislation
would allow hunters to shoot them
from motorized parachutes, ATVs
or snowmobiles year-round with no
limits in most areas.
And in Wisconsin, just weeks af-
ter President Donald Trump’s ad-
ministration lifted protections for
wolves in the Great Lakes region,
hunters using hounds and trappers
blew past the state’s harvest goal
and killed almost twice as many as
planned.
The timing of the Wisconsin
hunt was bumped up following a
lawsuit that raised concerns Pres-
ident Joe Biden’s administration
would intervene to restore gray
wolf protections. The group behind
the suit has close links to Repub-
lican political circles including in-
fluential donors the Koch brothers
and notable Trump loyalists — Kris
Kobach, a former U.S. Senate can-
didate from Kansas, and rock star
and gun rights advocate Ted Nu-
gent.
Antipathy toward wolves for kill-
ing livestock and big game dates to
early European settlement of the
American West in the 1800s, and
flared up again after wolf popu-
lations rebounded under federal
protection. What’s emerging now
is different: an increasingly politi-
cized campaign to drive down wolf
numbers sometimes using methods
anathema to North American hunt-
ing traditions, according to former
wildlife officials and advocates.
“It’s not a scientific approach to
wildlife management. It’s manage-
ment based on vengeance,” said
Dan Vermillion, former chairman
of Montana’s fish and wildlife com-
mission. Vermillion and others said
wolves were being used to stoke po-
litical outrage in the same way Sec-
ond Amendment gun rights were
used in recent elections to raise
fears Democrats would restrict fire-
arms.
Hanging in the balance is a de-
cades-long initiative that brought
back thousands of wolves in the
Rocky Mountains, Pacific North-
west and Great Lakes regions.
Adam Messer/via AP
A gray wolf, a member of the Nez Perce pack, travels through a snowy area north of Old Faithful in Yellowstone National
Park, Wyoming, in 2002. Antipathy toward wolves in the American West, dating to the 1800s, has flared up since the reintro-
duction of the species.
Considered among scientists and
can accidentally catch pets or other
environmentalists a major conser-
animals.
vation success, the predator’s return
In response to concerns that the
remains a sore point for ranchers
treatment of wolves will drive away
whose livestock are sometimes at-
tourists hoping to glimpse one in
tacked by wolves and hunters who
places like Montana’s Glacier Na-
consider wolf packs competition in
tional Park, Brown said their nega-
the pursuit of elk,
tive impact can’t be
deer and other big
ignored.
“Conservative, traditional
game.
“I certainly be-
In Montana and
lieve there are peo-
American
values
of
God,
Idaho, wolf num-
ple who come to
family and country —
bers exploded after
look at wolves,” he
their reintroduc-
“But we are
that’s what we intend to said.
tion from Canada
also hurting the
in the 1990s. Fed-
focus on. We need to get outfitting industry.”
eral protections
Critics including
ahead of our predator
were lifted a decade
Democratic Sen.
ago. The states have
Pat Flowers, a for-
populations, including
been holding an-
mer state wildlife
wolves. They will quickly department su-
nual hunts since,
and wildlife of-
warned
expand their range. They pervisor,
ficials cite stable
of a significant toll
population levels as reproduce quickly, spelling on Montana’s wolf
evidence of respon-
population. State
trouble for other wild
sible wolf manage-
Senate Minority
ment.
Leader Jill Cohe-
game,
livestock
and
pets.
”
That’s not satis-
nour, also a Dem-
fied hunting and
ocrat, said the pro-
— Luke Hilgemann, leader of
livestock groups
posals would “take
the group Hunter Nation
and their Republi-
us right back to
can allies in those
having them listed”
legislatures, who contend 1,500
as an endangered species.
wolves in Idaho and 1,200 in Mon-
Wolves lost federal species pro-
tana are damaging the livelihoods
tections in the western Great Lakes
of big game outfitters and cattle and in 2011, but they were re-imposed
sheep producers.
three years later under court order.
“Too many wolves,” Republican
The Trump administration lifted
state Sen. Bob Brown said of his
protections again five days before
mountainous district in northwest
the November election, when In-
Montana. He’s sponsoring a boun-
terior Secretary David Bernhardt
ty-like program that’s similar to
traveled to Minnesota to announce
one in Idaho and would reimburse
the move.
hunting and trapping expenses
On President Joe Biden’s first day
through a private fund.
in office, the White House said it
A separate measure from Brown
would review the wolf decision.
would allow the use of bait and
Wisconsin officials already were
night-vision scopes. Another pro-
planning a hunt in November when
posal would allow snares, which
Hunter Nation, founded in 2018,
critics say are indiscriminate and
sued to force a hunt immediately.
Oregon summer school,
child care to get $325M
BY BETSY HAMMOND
The Oregonian
Many Oregon children and
teens who’ve suffered learn-
ing losses and mental health
impacts from prolonged
school closures will get sum-
mer learning and enrichment
opportunities thanks to sub-
stantial grants to be doled out
this spring, Gov. Kate Brown
and the leaders of the Oregon
House and Senate said Mon-
day.
They plan to have the Leg-
islature allocate $250 million
in state funds and $75 million
from the federal government
to fund the summer program-
ming, they said.
“The past year has been hard
on Oregon kids and their care-
givers — especially working
mothers — in so many ways,”
Brown said in a statement. “As
COVID-19 recedes from our
communities, it’s time to bring
back the summer enrichment
programs that spark joy, foster
creativity, and encourage heal-
ing for our children, who have
persevered through adversities
few generations have faced at
their age.”
State leaders said they will
put a particular emphasis on
getting the money to school
districts and community pro-
grams that will cater to Black
and Indigenous children and
teens and other students and
preschoolers of color.
Given that Oregon has more
than 600,000 students in high
school and younger, not all
students will be included in
summer programming, as
the funding would amount to
about $400 per child or teen
— not enough to provide sub-
stantial learning or enrichment
options.
The group cited a possible return of
protections by the Biden adminis-
tration.
Hunter Nation boasts it’s led by
“America’s greatest Hunters and Pa-
triots” on its website, which also in-
cludes praise for Trump. Its leader,
Luke Hilgemann, formerly served
as CEO at Americans for Prosper-
ity, a conservative advocacy group
backed by industrialists Charles
Koch and his deceased brother, Da-
vid, that has spent tens of millions
of dollars on Republican candidates.
Hunters and trappers killed at
least 216 wolves of Wisconsin’s
1,100 wolves over three days, nearly
doubling the state’s target of 119
animals and forcing an early shut-
down of the season.
Hilgemann participated, and
said in an interview that he chased
a wolf with dogs for 60 miles but
never caught it. It’s up to states to
decide what kind of tactics they use,
he said, while Hunter Nation will
fight any attempt to halt the hunts.
He said group has quickly grown to
20,000 members, but declined to di-
vulge its financial supporters.
“Conservative, traditional Ameri-
can values of God, family and coun-
try — that’s what we intend to focus
on,” Hilgemann said. “We need to
get ahead of our predator popula-
tions, including wolves. They will
quickly expand their range. They
reproduce quickly, spelling trouble
for other wild game, livestock and
pets.”
Adam Winkler, a UCLA Law
professor specializing in gun policy,
said the group’s messaging appears
aimed at mobilizing hunters to get
behind conservative causes.
“I’m not surprised we’re seeing
hunting groups wrap themselves in
the mantle of patriotism,” Winkler
said. “Patriotism has become the
watchword of the right.”