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The Fraternal Order of Police, the largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers with over 330,000 members, sent a letter to President Donald Trump last week expressing “outrage and shock” that the National Park Service would fund a project honoring the legacy of the Black Panther Party. “Mr. President, as far as we are concerned the only meaning they brought to any lives was grief to the families of their victims,” wrote Chuck Canterbury, the national president of the Fraternal Order of Police. “According to our research, members of this militant anti-American group murdered 16 law enforcement officers over the...

Organizers for an art festival are seeking $90,000 to erect a 45-foot-tall sculpture of a naked woman on the National Mall as way to combat the objectification of female bodies. WTOP reports the Catharsis on the Mall organizers are trying to raise money to move the sculpture, known as R-Evolution, from San Francisco to Washington D.C. so it can be placed on the National Mall facing the White House, for all festival-goers and tourists to see. The fundraising page for the move, which has received almost $20,000 in three days (albeit only 22 percent of its goal), claims the R-Evolution sculpture can...

KEEDYSVILLE — The National Park Service didn’t put up that big statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee near the Newcomer House on Shepherdstown Pike, and has no plans to take it down. But U.S. Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., said this week that he believes the statue should come down, and that the park service should review all monuments and exhibits concerning the Confederacy that are on its properties for historical accuracy. Delaney’s concern over the statue, which became the possession of Antietam National Battlefield when it acquired the Newcomer property several years ago, is not simply that it recognizes...

Published on Aug 16, 2017 Al Sharpton tells Charlie Rose that the Jefferson Memorial should no longer be funded by American taxpayers because Jefferson was a slave holder. Video @ link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg4XKIX1bs4

The Interior Department won’t be removing monuments to Confederate soldiers at national battlefields that are “an important part of our country’s history,” according to a spokesman. “The National Park Service is committed to safeguarding these memorials while simultaneously educating visitors holistically and objectively about the actions, motivations and causes of the soldiers and states they commemorate,” spokesman Jeremy Barnum told E&E News. National Park statements come after a woman was killed counter-protesting a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. The city voted to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Park officials say the Confederate monuments in Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania are staying put, according to our affiliate WSET. The national park has not received any complaints about the monuments, park spokesperson Katie Lawhon told USA Today. "These memorials, erected predominantly in the early and mid-20th century, are an important part of the cultural landscape," Lawhon said in an email to USA Today. Lawhon told reporters that the park's mission includes interpreting the actions, motivations, and causes of the soldiers. Gettysburg National Military Park focuses on the Battle of Gettysburg, which was the bloodiest battle during the Civil...

Someone has vandalized the Lincoln Memorial, the National Park Service says. The words "F--- law" were found written in red spray paint early Tuesday on a pillar at the monument that overlooks the Capitol building and National Mall, NPS said Tuesday afternoon. The graffiti was found about 4:30 a.m. Work to remove the words is underway. A preservation crew is using a "mild, gel-type architectural paint stripper" to remove the paint without damaging the stone. The crew is applying a layer of the gel, rinsing it, checking how effective it was and repeating as necessary. Additional vandalism, in silver spray...

President Trump will donate his first quarter salary to the National Park Service, White House press secretary Sean Spicer announced Monday. "The president has spoken with counsel and made the decision to donate his first quarter salary to a government entity," Spicer said at Monday's briefing. Spicer handed a check for $78,333.32 for the National Park Service to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Spicer said the paycheck starts from Jan. 20, when Trump took office, until now.

Park service invokes separation of church and state: The shining symbols on the Knob will stay muted unless NPS and Lions Club come to agreement. MILFORD — The cross and star that shone for year over Milford, from high on the hill known as "The Knob," may have to go. The Knob used to be private land. But in October 2015 it was transferred to Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area under the National Park Service (NPS), which comes under federal regulations. Displays of religious symbols on government property are not allowed, although special use permits can be granted. Up...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it possesses a “limited amount” of 9mm bullets for agents in the field as well as for training purposes, and it is rationing its ammunition based on internal requests until it can award a new contract. [ ] The apparent role poor planning, or another agenda, played in the issue came to light when ICE said it would have run out of 9mm ammo by June 2017 in the absence of a modified contract with its supplier, Vista Outdoor Inc. So, the agency last month approved a $363,307 ceiling increase to contract No. HSCEMS-11-D-00002....

CRATER LAKE — Someone has stolen thousands of rounds of ammunition from a locked building at Crater Lake National Park, and the National Park Service is asking for the public’s help in finding the whoever is responsible. According to a news release Friday from the Park Service, the rifle and pistol ammunition was stolen from a locked building in the park’s headquarters area. The ammunition was used as part of the park’s law enforcement program. Its theft is a felony. Anyone with information that could help invesitgators is asked to contact the Investigative Services Branch by phone, text, website, email...

It all started last Friday following the swearing-in ceremony of President Donald J. Trump on the west steps of the Capitol.The official and verified Twitter account of the National Park Service retweeted a side-by-side comparison posted by Binyamin Applebaum of Friday’s crowd and the same shot — taken at the same time — of Barack Obama‘s ceremony eight years ago. The revelation was clear: Trump’s crowd sizes were, well, trumped by those of Obama’s. And the crowd sizes weren’t even close.Soon enough, the tweet was un-retweeted, and in its place an apology from the National Parks Service that read, “We regret...

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service purposefully raised hell on its official government Twitter account last Friday during the Inauguration Ceremony when the NPS re-tweeted a tweet belittling the newly elected President. The original tweet, made by Binyamin Appelbaum, a New York Times correspondent, read, “Compare the crowds: 2009 inauguration at left, 2017 inauguration at right” and featured a biased split image of Obama’s 2009 Inauguration vs. Trump’s 2017 Inauguration. Compare the crowds: 2009 inauguration at left, 2017 inauguration at right.#Inauguration pic.twitter.com/y7RhIR2nfC — Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) January 20, 2017

Groups planning to protest President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next month monopolized the National Park Service permits to use public spaces around Washington during the event — until Bikers for Trump showed up. Bikers for Trump founder Chris Cox said he had to negotiate with National Park Service officials to find space for the motorcyclists because anti-Trump groups had scooped up nearly every location for their “disruption” events surrounding the Jan. 20 inauguration. Securing a designated area for the thousands of bikers expected to roll into Washington to watch Mr. Trump take the oath of office is crucial to avoiding clashes...

The Interior Department and the National Park Service held a conference call on Tuesday — “Coming Out Day” — to announce a renewed effort to “tell a more inclusive story of our nation’s history” by giving places around the country connected to the homosexual movement certain historic designations. “I’m pleased to be joined by [National Park Service] Director [Jonathan] Jarvis to discuss the efforts of the National Park Service to tell a more inclusive story of our nation’s history,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said on the conference call with reporters. “It’s fitting that we do this today, on National Coming...

This article was originally published on Grist. This week Grist is celebrating National Parks and the humans who use them. Check out the rest of the series here. For its first one hundred years, the National Park Service had a pretty clear agenda: preserve America’s remote wilderness wonders. The far-way, tough-to-get-to, gotta-drive-or-hike-to-it stuff. The more pristine and undisturbed, the better. But for its next one hundred, the parks service is eyeing a whole new type of preservation: local beaches, tree-lined urban rivers, or a historic building within biking distance of downtown. Less Half Dome, more Superdome. That’s right: The folks...

President Barack Obama said in his weekly address today that he had set aside “more than 265 million acres of public lands and waters” as national parks and monuments, which is “more than any administration in history.” Among the national monuments he created, Obama said in his weekly address, was “Stonewall.” This monument commemorates riots that took place in 1969. Citing Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks, leading into his citation of Stonewall, Obama said: “As President, I’m proud to have built upon America’s tradition of conservation.” The president said in his June 24 proclamation [1] creating the “Stonewall National Monument:”...

President Barack Obama wants more people to appreciate and visit America's national parks as the park system nears its 100th birthday in August. Obama and his family spent the night at Yosemite National Park in California after touring an underground cave on Friday at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. The president then gave a rousing speech at Yosemite that urged Americans to "get out into the great outdoors." He tapped Congress, thanking them for working to protect the parks.

President Barack Obama wants more people to appreciate and visit America’s national parks as the park system nears its 100th birthday. […] The president plans a speech at Yosemite on Saturday, and he’s expected to highlight the economic benefits of the 400-plus sites managed by the National Park Service. Obama also is expected to discuss climate change and other threats to the park system, and highlight programs to encourage more people to visit parks. …

Change comes as state readies for a potentially dangerous fire season. "We’ve got to change course in the way we manage fire," professor saysIn the 40 years since fires sparked by lightning have been allowed to burn unabated in a section of Yosemite National Park, ecologist Scott Stephens has watched extensive conifer forests grow back as a patchwork of not just trees, but also meadows with wetland plants. Places in the Illilouette Creek Basin that were typically dry are now covered with four inches of water, said Stephens, a professor of fire science at the University of California at...