An energy firm linked to uranium mining interests around Bears Ears National Monument in Utah met with a senior Department of Interior official just one month President Donald Trump issued a surprise request to review the monument's boundaries. When the review concluded, Trump shrank the monument by 85%. — Read the rest

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke (previously) is leaving the cabinet at the end of the month.

Even by Trump administration standards, Scott Pruitt is a fucking mess, and as his day of reckoning looms, his staff are doing everything they can to take the heat off their boss, which is why Pruitt press-staffer Michael Abboud approached multiple reporters to give them dirt on Pruitt archrival Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

Babbling Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke somehow feels native tribes people have a deep love and respect of the Confederacy. The United States must keep its Confederate memorials for the sake of the natives!

Employing racism to excuse racism, Zinke referred to first tribes people as "native Indians" and attempted to draw a false equivalency between Union commanding officers and Southern ones. — Read the rest

If you leave a senior US government position, Elizabeth Warren wants you to wait at least four years before taking a job at a "market dominant" company — any company with a $150b (or larger) market cap, or that controls "the product or labor supply in their industry."

In the same week that Democrats announce they'll hold hearings to probe why Trump's Interior Department shrank Bears Ears National Monument by 85%, the internet is abuzz with this image. Archaeologists have identified this artifact as a 2000-year-old tattooing instrument, unearthed from Bears Ears in Utah. — Read the rest

They're just gonna drill everything they can while Trump's in power, aren't they.

Ryan Zinke (previously) is one of Trump's most notoriously scandal-haunted cabinet members; as Secretary of the Interior he presided over the catastrophic failure of the federal government to intervene in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria (he did, however, award a $300,000,000 grid-repair contract to a two-man shop from his hometown where his son had been given a cushy job).

Embattled Trump Secretary of the Interior chair Ryan Zinke (previously) unveiled a plan to raise the service charge for using our nation's parks to $70/day (it's currently $25/day), a move that would price access to national parks out of the budgets of 71% of working-class Americans.

Whitefish Energy's had quite a week: last week the two-person company from Whitefish, Montana (hometown of Trump Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke) was awarded a $300M contract to help rebuild the power-grid in Puerto Rico, with some very favorable terms including $462/hour for subcontracted supervisors, no penalties for nonperformance, and a guarantee that the government wouldn't audit its expenditures.

Whitefish Energy is the 2-person Montana company from Trump Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's hometown of Whitefish, Montana that was awarded a $300M contract to help remediate Puerto Rico's shattered electrical grid, billing its subcontractors at $462/hour for supervisors and $319.04/hour for linesmen in a sweetheart deal that banned Puerto Rico from auditing the company's expense reports, or penalizing it for nonperformance.

When mainland US cities like Houston and Miami get hit by hurricanes, they rely on mutual aid deals with out-of-state and Canadian power authorities to rebuild, as hundreds of skilled maintenance workers flood in and work for free to get their grid up and running; but debt-crushed Puerto Rico is paying $300 million to Whitefish Energy, a two-person company from Trump Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's hometown of Whitefish, Montana.

First it was HHS Secretary Tom Price's private-jet binge, which eventually ended his political career; then it was the $1MM+ pricetage for paid protester Mike Pence's football game stunt, and now it's Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke who traveled on the taxpayer's nickel and then keynoted $5000-a-head GOP fundraisers and other non-government business.

They've been on the Endangered Species list for 42 years. Today, Trump removed the Yellowstone grizzly bear's federal protections under the Endangered Species Act. The reason? A reported population rebound. The U.S. Department of Interior announced their plan to strip the grizzly's protections and return species oversight to the states. — Read the rest

A recently signed executive order by our glorious Orange Julius has directed the Secretary of the Interior to reconsider rules limiting energy production in our National Parks.

Mother Jones:

In late March, President Trump signed his 19th executive order, titled "Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth," which in addition to rolling back a number of Obama-era climate polices may also make it easier for energy companies to drill in America's national parks.

The "Curse of the Crying Boy" involves any number of kitschy prints of a sad child that are said to bring ruin to any house where it hangs. The legend began with a 1985 article in The Sun titled "Blazing Curse of the Crying Boy." — Read the rest

According to Wikipedia, Raymond Zinke Gallun (rhymes with "balloon") "was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. He lived a drifter's existence, working a multitude of jobs around the world in the years leading up to World War II." At least a few people have said that The Planet Strappers is an underrated science fiction novel. — Read the rest