Your adjudicated newspaper for Riverside County
desert
STAR W E E K L Y
PRESORTED STANDARD US POSTAGE PAID
Spark Scientific Discovery at Home see page 6
Desert Hot Springs, CA PERMIT NO 00005
Friday, April 16, 2021 Vol. 24 No. 29
‘Time to end America’s longest war’
By Desert Star Staff US President Joe Biden has officially announced that American troops will leave Afghanistan by September, ending the 20-year conflict.
The pullout will miss the May 1 deadline the US agreed to in the Taliban’s peace treaty. “We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military
presence in Afghanistan, hoping to create the ideal conditions for our withdrawal, expecting a different result,” Biden said on Wednesday afternoon. “I am now the
fourth US president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans. Two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth.”
“It is time to end America’s longest war. It is time for American troops to come home.”
Continues on Page 3
California’s McCloud River Among “Most Endangered” in the U.S.
By Suzanne Potter REDDING, Calif. - The 2021 top 10 list of America’s “Most Endangered Rivers” is out - and the McCloud River in Shasta County is number seven. The report from the group American Rivers noted that the McCloud is threatened by a 40-year-old plan revived by the Trump administration to raise the Shasta Dam by more than 18 feet. Caleen Sisk, chief of the Winnemem Wintu tribe, said that would flood 5,000 acres upstream on the McCloud and drown 39 sites sacred to her people. “Winnemum Wintu people still go to the ceremonies and go to the sacred places to pray and
carry on the traditions,” she said. “We’ve lived there for thousands of years, and so we have very deep-rooted connections to the river.” The tribe takes its name, Winnemem, from the original name of the McCloud River. The Shasta Dam finished in 1945, creates a reservoir that supplies water to the Central Valley. Supporters of raising the dam’s height have said it would create more water storage and generate additional power. Environmental groups have noted that the dam also obstructs the native salmon population. Continues on Page 2
‘Chief Caleen Sisk of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe opposes efforts to raise the Shasta Dam and enlarge the reservoir because it would flood her tribe’s ancestral lands. (Winnemem Wintu Tribe)