Interior Department renaming sites containing Native slur
WASHINGTON — Nearly 650 geographic features will be renamed to remove a slur after the Board on Geographic Names voted on final replacements, the Interior Department announced on Thursday.
The valleys, streams, reservoirs and other geographic features will receive new names, effective immediately, that do not contain the word “squaw,” which the Interior Department said “has historically been used as an offensive ethnic, racial and sexist slur, particularly for Indigenous women.”
“I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. “That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long.”
The word that has been removed from the geographic features comes from an Algonquian word for a young woman, and while the original word was not offensive, its meaning and intent shifted over time. Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, signed a secretarial order last November to establish a Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force.
—CQ-Roll Call
Poll: No respect, low morale prompt most Texas teachers to ‘seriously’ consider quitting
DALLAS — Roughly three-quarters of Texas teachers say they’ve seriously considered leaving the profession because of a lack of respect and support, a new poll by the Charles Butt Foundation found.
Many of them had taken at least some concrete steps toward finding other jobs. As schools across the state grapple with staffing shortages, these figures are another worrying sign that educators are burnt out. That can lead to students in larger class sizes or a reliance on substitutes.
“Teachers are struggling a lot right now,” research associate Victoria Wang said. The statewide survey included 1,291 public school teachers between April 4 and May 16. It has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Among those who seriously considered leaving, 68% updated their resume while roughly one-third applied or interviewed for another job. More than a quarter enrolled in classes to prepare for a different position.
—The Dallas Morning News
Pipeline operators to plead no contest in Orange County oil spill and pay nearly $5 million
LOS ANGELES — The Texas company operating the pipeline that caused a massive oil spill in the waters off Huntington Beach agreed to plead no contest to state environmental charges and pay nearly $5 million in fines and penalties, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Orange County and state prosecutors this week charged Houston-based Amplify Energy Corp. and two subsidiaries — Beta Operating Co. and San Pedro Bay Pipeline Co. — with misdemeanor counts of pollution and failing to immediately report last fall's discharge of oil into state waters to the Office of Emergency Services.
The companies were also charged with four misdemeanor counts for taking two brown pelicans, which are protected birds, and taking two migratory nongame birds, a western grebe and a Brandt's cormorant, according to a criminal complaint filed in Orange County Superior Court.
The plea agreement still needs to be approved by a judge. Authorities expect Judge Larry Yellin to consider it at a hearing.
—Los Angeles Times
Blinken visits Kyiv in new US show of support for Ukraine
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Kyiv Thursday for meetings with Ukrainian officials as the country’s military presses to regain territory that Russia seized in the first six months of its invasion.
The trip to Ukraine is Blinken’s third since the start of the war on Feb. 24 and his fifth since becoming the Biden administration’s top diplomat, according to the State Department.
Blinken met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba for about 30 minutes. He also visited a children’s hospital in Kyiv, where he met some of the patients, as well as Patron, a Jack Russell terrier that has helped Ukraine’s military find more than 200 mines laid by Russian forces.
The visit was timed to a consequential moment for Ukraine, which celebrated its independence day on Aug. 24, a senior State Department official, speaking to reporters on customary condition of anonymity, told reporters. That day also marked six months since Russia invaded.
—Bloomberg News
