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National Butterfly Center
The National Butterfly Center is a private nature preserve operated by the North American Butterfly Association that serves as an outdoor butterfly conservatory. It is located adjacent to Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, near the city of Mission in Hidalgo County in the U.S. state of Texas. Description The National Butterfly Center is engaged in preserving the 340 species of butterflies found in the Rio Grande Valley through habitat restoration. It is considered "the most diverse sanctuary" for butterflies in the United States. The grounds of the center are planted with native species that provide nectar for butterflies, and serve as hosts for caterpillars. Over 240 species of butterflies have been identified in the center's grounds, including the monarch butterfly, the Mexican bluewing, and the red-bordered pixie. Habitat restoration has also attracted birds to the center that cannot be seen anywhere else in the continental US, such as green jays and chachalacas, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeffrey Glassberg
Jeffrey Glassberg is an American biologist and author. Following a distinguished academic career he pioneered and patented work in DNA Fingerprinting. Later he founded the North American Butterfly Association (NABA) and is the leading proponent of moving interest in butterflies from hobbyist collecting and nets to butterflying with binoculars and cameras. He has written a number of field guides as well as numerous articles. Life Early life Jeffrey Glassberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 27, 1947, where his family lived until 1952 when they moved to Long Island, New York. His father established his own company making automobile seat covers and his mother worked there as well. Glassberg's early years were devoted to nature; bird-watching, chasing butterflies, and, with his younger brother, to chemistry experimentation. Moving from the buildings of New York City to a place of forests and meadows on Long Island where his parents allowed him to roam stimulated h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Antonio Express News
The ''San Antonio Express-News'' is a daily newspaper in San Antonio, Texas. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation and has offices in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. The ''Express-News'' is the third largest newspaper in the state of Texas, with a daily circulation of nearly 100,000 copies in 2016. The newspaper's online presence includes both the subscription version of the ''San Antonio Express-News'' and the ad-supported ''mySA''. History The paper was first published in 1865 as a weekly tabloid-style newspaper under the name ''The San Antonio Express''. At that time, the city had already had a number of other newspapers in a number of different languages. However, all the other publications went out of business, leaving only the ''Express'' to serve the city. In December 1866, the ''Express'' made the move from a weekly paper to a daily newspaper, and expanded into a full newspaper by the early 1870s. The early days of the ''Express'' was marked by several leadership chang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published six days a week by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp. The newspaper is published in the broadsheet format and online. The ''Journal'' has been printed continuously since its inception on July 8, 1889, by Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser. The ''Journal'' is regarded as a newspaper of record, particularly in terms of business and financial news. The newspaper has won 38 Pulitzer Prizes, the most recent in 2019. ''The Wall Street Journal'' is one of the largest newspapers in the United States by circulation, with a circulation of about 2.834million copies (including nearly 1,829,000 digital sales) compared with ''USA Today''s 1.7million. The ''Journal'' publishes the luxury news and lifestyle magazine ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Emergency Concerning The Southern Border Of The United States
The National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States (Proclamation 9844) was declared on February 15, 2019, by President of the United States Donald Trump. Citing the National Emergencies Act, it ordered the diversion of billions of dollars of funds that had been appropriated to the U.S. Department of Defense for military construction. Trump declared the emergency after he signed, but derided, a bipartisan funding bill (passed by the House and the Senate a day before) containing border security funding without funding for the border wall that Trump demanded. Trump had previously threatened to declare a national emergency if Congress did not pass his entire desired program for a wall on the United States–Mexican border by February 15, 2019. Under Proclamation 9844, the Trump administration intended to redirect $8 billion in previously-agreed expenditure and to use the money to build the wall instead. Under Trump's plan, $3.6 billion assigned to military c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge
The Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge located in the Lower Rio Grande Valley region of southern Texas. It is along the northern banks and reaches of the Lower Rio Grande, north of the Mexico—United States international border. Ecology Only 5% of the native riparian, floodplain, and wetland habitats remain along the lower Rio Grande and its local tributaries, but the diversity within these fragments adds up to a significant 1,200 species of native plants, 700 species of vertebrates (including nearly 500 bird species), and 300 species of butterflies. Eleven different biological communities exist on the National Wildlife Refuge, from the Chihuahuan Desert thorn forest to tidal wetlands. Wildlife includes the rare ocelot, crested caracara, Mexican bluewing butterfly, great kiskadee, red-billed pigeon, Altamira oriole, ringed kingfisher, and green jay The green jay (''Cyanocorax luxuosus'') is a species of the New World jays ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Lomita Chapel
La Lomita Chapel is a historic Catholic chapel in Mission, Texas. It was once an important site for the Cavalry of Christ, a group of priests who traveled long distances on horseback to minister to Catholics living on isolated ranches along the Rio Grande. In 2018, the chapel became the subject of a dispute between the United States government and the Catholic Church due to the Trump administration's proposal to seize the chapel's land for the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. In 2019, the proposed seizure was blocked by a budget provision enacted by Congress.La Lomita chapel spared by border wall deal ''Austin American-Statesman'' (February 16, 2019). Architecture and site The chapel is made of white[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecotourism
Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel (using sustainable transport) to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide funds for ecological conservation, to directly benefit the economic development and political empowerment of local communities, or to foster respect for different cultures and for human rights. Since the 1980s, ecotourism has been considered a critical endeavor by environmentalists, so that future generations may experience destinations relatively untouched by human intervention. Ecotourism may focus on educating travelers on local environments and natural surroundings with an eye to ecological conservation. Some include in the definition of ecotourism the effort to produce economic opportunities that make conservation of natural resources financially possible. Generally, ecotourism deals with interaction with biotic components of the natura ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Native American Graves Protection And Repatriation Act
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law enacted on November 16, 1990. The Act requires federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American "cultural items" to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated American Indian tribes, Alaska Native villages, and Native Hawaiian organizations. Cultural items include human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. A program of federal grants assists in the repatriation process and the Secretary of the Interior may assess civil penalties on museums that fail to comply. NAGPRA also establishes procedures for the inadvertent discovery or planned excavation of Native American cultural items on federal or tribal lands. While these provisions do not apply to discoveries or excavations on private or state lands, the collection provisions of the Act may ap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Safe Drinking Water Act
The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is the principal federal law in the United States intended to ensure safe drinking water for the public. Pursuant to the act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to set standards for drinking water quality and oversee all states, localities, and water suppliers that implement the standards. The SDWA applies to every public water system (PWS) in the United States. There are currently over 148,000 public water systems providing water to almost all Americans at some time in their lives. The Act does not cover private wells (in 2020, 13% of US households were served by private wells). The SDWA does not apply to bottled water. Bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. National Primary Drinking Water Regulations The SDWA requires EPA to establish ''National Primary Drinking Water Regulations'' (NPDWRs) for contaminants that may cause adverse public h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endangered Species Act Amendments Of 1978
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was first passed in 1973 and forms the basis of biodiversity and endangered species protection in the United States. The original purpose of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 was to prevent species endangerment and extinction due to the human impact on natural ecosystems.U.S. Congress (1979). "Endangered Species Act Amendments of 1978, Legislative History". U.S. Code Congressional and Administrating News Volume 7. St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Co. The three most powerful sections of the ESA are Sections 4, 7 and 9. Section 4 allows the Secretaries of Interior and Commerce to list species as threatened or endangered based on best available data.Petersen, Shannon (2002).Acting for Endangered Species: The Statutory Ark. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. Section 7 requires federal agencies to consult with Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) or National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) before taking any action that may threaten a lis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
US Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of federal law. It also has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party." The court holds the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law. However, it may act only within the context of a case in an area of law over which it has jurisdiction. The court may decide cases having political overtones, but has ruled that it does not have power to decide non-justiciable political questions. Established by Article Three of the United States Consti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge
Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge situated along the banks of the Rio Grande, south of Alamo in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, in Hidalgo County, South Texas. The wildlife refuge was established for the protection of migratory birds in 1943. Its unique location is at the meeting of different climates and habitats: subtropical wetlands, Chihuahuan Desert, Gulf Coast, and Great Plains. Its riparian location has developed a reputation for diverse birding. Due to its location near the Mexico–United States border, this wildlife refuge is threatened by the Trump wall. Fauna Notable species among the fauna in the refuge include the Texas ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis albescens'') and Gulf Coast jaguarundi (''Puma yagouaroundi cacomitli'') feline species. Both species are listed as endangered in the ''Endangered Species Act of 1973, as Amended''. The Texas ocelot is listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
