NATION

Arizona

Historic lodge on Grand Canyon North Rim destroyed by wildfire

USA TODAY NETWORK

PHOENIX — The historic Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim was consumed by a wildfire, Grand Canyon National Park officials said on July 13, as the roaring blazes have prompted evacuations and air quality concerns in the area.

Two wildfires burning around 30 miles apart to the north of the Grand Canyon had grown to over 45,000 acres by July 13, according to state and federal fire officials. The lodge, which opened in 1937, was about five-and-a-half hours north of metro Phoenix and was the only hotel located inside the national park at the North Rim.

The wildfire has burned between 50 and 80 structures on the North Rim, according to park officials.

The inner canyon, including Phantom Ranch, was closed, as were trails to the inner canyon, because a water treatment facility on the North Rim was damaged by fire and was leaking chlorine gas, park officials said. Chlorine gas is toxic and is heavier than air, meaning it could settle into the lower part of the canyon.

Park officials said the gas leak prevented fire retardant from being dropped and forced firefighting personnel to evacuate.

A vast area had been put under evacuation orders, the Kaibab Plateau from the Utah-Arizona line down to the Grand Canyon. Fire crews urged the public to avoid the area. Highway 89A was closed at Fredonia and Bitter Springs while the North and South Kaibab Trails, as well as the Bright Angel Trail below Havasupai Gardens, were closed to hikers.

The original North Rim lodge was built in part for the Union Pacific Railroad, which quickly reestablished a cafeteria and recreation hall after the 1932 fire, according to the National Park Service.

The new lodge sat on the foundation of the former and used many of the original's materials, but was scaled back in its design, removing a second story and observation tower that were part of the original, according to the National Park Service.

Architect Gilber Stanely Underwood followed National Park Service guidelines that required buildings to represent their environment. The lodge was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987, according to the National Park Service.

'We are devastated by the loss of the Grand Canyon Lodge'

There are a few other hotels near the main visitor hub of the North Rim, and they are at least a dozen miles farther from the canyon's edge. The lodge building, made of a limestone façade, was sourced nearby, and massive ponderosa pine trees were turned into support beams to hold up a sloped roof capable of supporting heavy loads of snow, according to the National Park Service.

Aramark operated the Grand Canyon Lodge. Debbie Albert, an Aramark spokesperson, confirmed the loss of the property.

"We are devastated by the loss of the Grand Canyon Lodge and numerous other historic buildings at the Grand Canyon’s North Rim," Albert said. "We are grateful that all of our employees and guests have been safely evacuated, and we join the National Park Service in mourning the loss of these iconic and beloved structures."

The property consisted of a main lodge building with 23 deluxe cabins and over 90 regular cabins. The original lodge that opened in the late 1920s burned down in a fire in September 1932. That fire destroyed the lodge within minutes, sending the lodge's staff fleeing in the early morning hours, according to the National Park Service.

Among the amenities typical of a hotel, the lodge complex included a saloon, a deli, a coffee shop, a post office, a gift shop, and a visitors center. They were all in operation before wildfire closed the North Rim to visitors, according to the National Park Service.

White Sage, Dragon Bravo wildfires burning on the North Rim

The farther north of the two fires, the White Sage Fire, had burned 40,126 acres. Smoke was first reported on the evening of July 9, after a thunderstorm. The fire was sparked by lightning and intensified by strong winds and low relative humidity, according to InciWeb. It burned through grass, shrubs, and native pinyon-juniper trees, the BLM reported.

The Dragon Bravo Fire, burning to the south within Grand Canyon National Park, reached 5,000 acres according to InciWeb, a federal government wildfire tracker.

The Dragon Bravo Fire was responsible for burning the North Rim structures, including the historic lodge. Hot, dry, and windy conditions fueled its growth, with flames spreading through mixed conifer, aspen, and ponderosa pine forests, according to InciWeb.

Over 500 fire personnel were assigned to the White Sage fire, while 70 were assigned to the Dragon Bravo Fire. Both fires remained at 0% containment on the morning of July 13.

Supreme Court of the United States

POLITICS

Supreme Court lets Trump fire hundreds of Education Department workers and dismantle the agency

Maureen Groppe

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON − An ideologically divided Supreme Court on July 14 allowed the Trump administration to fire hundreds of workers from the Education Department and continue other efforts to dismantle the agency.

The court's three liberal justices opposed the order, the latest win for President Donald Trump at the high court.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the majority handed Trump the power to repeal laws passed by Congress “by firing all those necessary to carry them out.”

“The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naïve,” Sotomayor wrote in her 19-page dissent, “but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is great.”

The majority did not explain its decision in the brief, unsigned order.

The decision came a week after the court allowed the administration to move forward with large-scale staffing cuts at multiple agencies.

Trump is trying to fulfill his campaign promise to end the Education Department and move school policy to the states.

“Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies," Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.

She said the administration will continue to perform education-related functions required by law while "empowering families and teachers by reducing education bureaucracy."

The Education Department workers were placed on administrative leave in March and were to stop receiving salaries on June 9 before a judge intervened at the request of Democratic-led states, school districts and teachers' unions. The government has been spending more than $7 million a month to continue paying the employees who remain unable to work, according to the American Federation of Government Employees.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Massachusetts said the White House's decision to fire more than 1,300 workers has prevented the federal government from effectively implementing legally required programs and services. Such changes can't be made without the approval of Congress, which created the department in 1979, Joun ruled in May.

The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals backed that decision. The court said the administration provided no evidence to counter Joun's "record-based findings about the disabling impact" of the mass firings and the transfer of some functions to other agencies.

The Justice Department said the Constitution gives the executive branch, not the courts, the authority to decide how many employees are needed.

"The Department of Education has determined that it can carry out its statutorily mandated functions with a pared-down staff and that many discretionary functions are better left to the States," Solicitor General John Sauer told the Supreme Court.

An executive order Trump signed in March directed McMahon to "facilitate the closure of the Department of Education."

Republicans have long accused the federal government of holding too much power over local and state education policy, even though the federal government has no control over school curriculum.

McMahon announced roughly half the agency's workforce would be eliminated through a combination of mass layoffs and voluntary buyouts. That would have reduced the staff from 4,133 workers when Trump began his second term in January to 2,183 workers.

The administration also wants the Small Business Administration to take over student loans and move special education services to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Joun's May 22 order blocked the administration from transferring those functions and required the department to reinstate fired workers.

The appeals court said Trump doesn't have to employ as many Education Department workers as the previous administration but can't cut so many that the agency can't function as Congress intended.

States challenging the moves said the administration removed nearly all the workers who certify whether colleges and universities qualify for federal student aid programs. And it gutted the department in charge of the data used to allocate billions of dollars to states, lawyers for New York and other states told the Supreme Court.

Unless the firings are reversed while the courts are deciding if the administration is acting legally, "it will be effectively impossible to undo much of the damage caused," lawyers for the Democracy Forward Foundation had told the Supreme Court.

After the court's decision, Skye Peryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said the group will "aggressively pursue every legal option as this case proceeds to ensure that all children in this country have access to the public education they deserve."

The Justice Department had told the Supreme Court that the harms to the government from having to rehire the workers as the litigation continues are greater than any harms the challengers said they'll suffer from diminished department services. The department also opposed the challenge on procedural grounds.