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Desert Hot Springs, CA PERMIT NO 00005
Friday, March 27, 2020 Vol. 24 No. 24
Coronavirus Relief Bill Senate passes $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill By Desert Star Staff US Senators have passed a much-delayed $2 trillion stimulus bill, aimed at bolstering the US economy as the country is rattled by coronavirus lockdowns. The mammoth package was approved after
days of bitter partisan fighting. Senators moved to vote on the bill late Wednesday night after the last hurdle preventing its passage – an amendment put forward by four Republican senators to curb the legislation’s generous
unemployment provisions – was eliminated, failing to gain the necessary 60 yeas. The amendment, filed by Senator Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska), sought to limit the payouts so that the unemployed would not
receive more money than they would have otherwise through their jobs.Sasse, along with three other GOP Senators – Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) and Rick Scott (R-Florida) – argued that the bill, which envisions $600 a week for those forced out of work by coronavirus
lockdowns on top of regular unemployment insurance payments, discourages people from going to work at all. “You’re literally incentivizing taking people out of the workforce at a time when weneed critical infrastructure supplied withworkers” Graham said.
Groups Warn CA Desert Tortoise on Path to Extinction
By Desert Star Staff MOJAVE DESERT, Calif. -- The desert tortoise is dangerously close to extinction in California, according to a petition filed this week by conservation groups. Advocates are asking the California Fish and Game Commission to upgrade the species’ status from threatened to endangered. Pamela Flick, California program director for Defenders of Wildlife, said California’s state reptile may move slowly but its decline in the wild has been a lot faster. “Adult tortoise population numbers have dropped by over 50% in some recovery
areas just since 2004,” she said, “and by as much as 80% to 90% in some habitat since approximately 1980.” Research has shown the animals are falling victim to a variety of threats including uncontrolled offroad vehicle use, livestock grazing on wildlands, the spread of contagious disease, disruption from highway and utility projects, and extended droughts likely associated with climate change. Flick said inadequate protective measures taken over the past few decades have failed. Continues on Page 3
The desert tortoise is losing ground to off-road vehicles, development, disease, drought and animal grazing. (Kurt Moses/National Park Service)