Judge Simon has come to essentially the same conclusion about the Obama administration’s latest proposal. The original treaties did not envision “such a cynical and disingenuous promise,” Judge William Fletcher, of the federal appeals court for the Ninth Circuit, ruled last week. PhotoThere are two recent pieces of welcome news affecting the Pacific Northwest’s beleaguered salmon populations — battered by dams, habitat loss, timid government agencies and global warming. The ruling showed Judge Simon to be as vigorous a champion of the fish and of the act as his predecessor, now-retired Judge James Redden, who had rejected three survival plans from three different administrations — Bill Clinton’s, George W. Bush’s and Barack Obama’s. At best, he said, they promised to do little more than to slow the rate at which the fish would go extinct.

Source: New York Times July 04, 2016 07:21 UTC