BUNKERVILLE, Nev. (AP) - The Latest on U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s tour in Nevada of two national monuments being scrutinized by the Trump administration (all times local):
7:17 p.m.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke toured two national monuments in Nevada on Sunday and canceled plans for meetings Monday in the Las Vegas area in order to head back to Washington, D.C., for what he said will be a Cabinet meeting involving President Donald Trump’s top appointees.
Zinke met reporters outside a rancher’s home in Bunkerville, the hometown of jailed cattleman and anti-government icon Cliven Bundy about 80 miles (129 kilometers) northeast of Las Vegas. He didn’t meet with any Bundy family members.
The head of the department that includes the Bureau of Land Management made it clear he believes in small-sizing national monuments.
But he didn’t say he has made any decisions about whether to downsize the sprawling Gold Butte and Basin and Range monuments created last year by President Barack Obama before he left office.
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8:40 a.m.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is making a stop in rancher Cliven Bundy’s hometown in Nevada, during his tour of national monuments on President Donald Trump’s potential chopping block.
Zinke plans a stop Sunday in Bunkerville ahead of visits Monday to the nearby Gold Butte and Basin and Range national monuments.
Bunkerville is about 80 miles (129 kilometers) northeast of Las Vegas, and is the town closest to Bundy’s ranch in Nevada.
Bundy is the anti-federal cattleman accused of organizing an armed confrontation in April 2014 that forced U.S. Bureau of Land Management agents to quit a roundup of Bundy cows.
Bundy argues that the federal government has no jurisdiction in vast rangelands of the West.
Nevada’s Democratic congressional delegation is urging Zinke keep his hands off Nevada’s national monuments.
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