Congressional deal halts Interior Dept.'s western wilderness program

CORVALLIS GAZETTE-TIMES, 4/13/2011 - A last-minute budget deal reached by Congressional leaders would block an Obama administration plan to make millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West eligible for federal wilderness protection. ∴ Republican lawmakers had complained that the wilderness plan would circumvent Congress's authority and could be used to declare a vast swath of public land off-limits to oil-and-gas drilling. Read more in the GT...