A new tool from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) will identify and rank 114 clusters of sage grouse based on population trends.

The tool, called sage grouse cluster ordering by unified trend assessment or SCOUT, draws from population and abundance data spanning 25 years. Clusters represent sage grouse “neighborhoods.” They’re organized by leks, which are grouse breeding grounds.

Nyssa Whitford is the sage grouse biologist with WGFD. She said the rankings will help focus conservation efforts.

“We’re ranking every cluster, so we’ll know how they stack up against each other,” said Whitford. “We’re going to be focusing on those opportunity clusters. These are areas where we feel that we can move the needle.”

Whitford said the tool is part of Wyoming’s adaptive management strategy with sage grouse, which was reiterated through an executive order signed by Gov. Mark Gordon last year and a new Bureau of Land Management plan. Whitford said this approach tracks sage grouse populations and habitats for early intervention.

“The goal of adaptive management is when something starts to kind of go sideways, we can quickly pull it back to where it needs to be,” said Whitford.

Sage grouse live their entire lives in the sagebrush sea: The plant is an important food source and habitat. They are especially vulnerable to the threat of habitat fragmentation.

“Anything that’s kind of inhibiting that life cycle, they just do not respond favorably to it,” said Whitford. “They need the intact sagebrush sea to survive.”

Whitford explained that unbroken, quiet tracts of sagebrush are also critical to the springtime mating displays of sage grouse, called “lekking.”

“It’s a very visual and acoustic display,” said Whitford. “It’s very quiet out there, and so you can really get to hear all the pieces of the mating display. There’s like these pops and the swishing of the wings.”

The best time to observe lekking across Wyoming is in April.

The output from the SCOUT tool will be used to create a report that addresses questions about clusters of concern.

Whitford provided examples of potential questions: “What does the habitat look like in that cluster? Has it changed? Is it more fragmented? Has there been new development? Has there been a wildfire recently?”

The output and report will be shared with a working group made up of representatives from different agencies and industries, who will use the findings to guide conservation efforts.

Whitford said WGFD has been monitoring leks since the 1940s and codified those efforts in the 1990s, but SCOUT offers a new and more consistent way to study all the data.

“Wyoming cares deeply about its sage grouse populations and really wants to make sure all the entities involved, whether they’re managing the landscape or they’re managing the population, are on the same page and moving forward in the same direction,” said Whitford.

A man is dead after a brutal stabbing inside a San Francisco hospital and now federal immigration officials are pointing squarely at California’s sanctuary policies and the Biden administration’s border decisions as contributing factors.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is urging Governor Gavin Newsom and state officials not to release the suspect, a Venezuelan national in the country illegally who had previously been encountered and released by Border Patrol.

Wilfredo Jose Tortolero-Arriechi is accused of fatally stabbing 51-year-old Alberto Rangel inside Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on December 4. Rangel succumbed to his injuries two days later, on December 6.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, ICE has already lodged a detainer request to keep Tortolero-Arriechi in custody — a request that now hangs in the balance in a state that has repeatedly clashed with federal immigration enforcement.

DHS TAKES VICTORY LAP AFTER ARRESTING OVER 10K ILLEGAL ALIENS IN DEEP BLUE CITY DESPITE VIOLENT RIOTS

“If it weren’t for the Biden administration’s reckless open-border policies, Alberto Rangel would still be alive,” Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement, directly tying the killing to federal immigration policy. She also called on Newsom to ensure the suspect is not released, blasting sanctuary policies that she says “put American lives at risk.”

The suspect had reportedly displayed alarming behavior in the weeks leading up to the attack, allegedly threatening hospital staff and his own doctor before the deadly stabbing unfolded.

EXCLUSIVE: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT RELEASED UNDER BIDEN ‘CATCH AND RELEASE’ ALLEGEDLY KILLS DRIVER IN POLICE CHASE

Federal officials say Tortolero-Arriechi was first encountered by U.S. Border Patrol in 2023 and then released into the country. The case is adding new fuel to the fight over California’s sanctuary policies.

Earlier this year, ICE revealed that more than 33,000 criminal illegal immigrants are currently in custody across California with active detainers, including individuals accused or convicted of serious crimes such as homicide, sexual assault and drug trafficking.

Despite that, officials say thousands have been released.

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Since January 2026 alone, California jurisdictions have declined to honor ICE detainers in more than 4,500 cases, according to the agency. Those releases included individuals tied to dozens of homicides, hundreds of assaults and a wide range of other violent and drug-related offenses, ICE said.

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The latest push from federal officials builds on earlier warnings. In February, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons sent a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta urging him to “put the safety of Americans first” by honoring detainers for more than 33,000 criminal illegal immigrants in state custody.

Lyons warned that “no community serious about keeping its residents safe will tolerate a clear aberration of the law,” pressing California officials to cooperate with ICE and take “the worst of the worst off the streets.”

Meanwhile, Alberto Rangel’s death is now being used by federal officials to underscore what they argue are the real-world consequences of those policies.

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Newsom’s office pushed back on that characterization, saying the state’s approach prioritizes accountability and public safety.

“If someone commits a serious crime, they should be held accountable in our justice system,” a spokesperson for Newsom’s office told Fox News Digital. “Allowing someone to evade responsibility simply by being deported undermines the rule of law and completely disrespects the victims harmed by that crime. Our focus must always be to ensure those who commit violent acts face their consequences here.”

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The governor’s office also pointed to California’s record of cooperating with federal immigration authorities in certain cases, noting that, since 2019, the state has coordinated the transfer of more than 12,000 individuals, including those convicted of serious and violent crimes, into ICE custody.

Officials added that state law allows coordination with ICE for individuals convicted of serious felonies or those facing credible charges, and said California does not interfere with federal immigration enforcement.

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They also argued that federal authorities do not always take custody of individuals when detainers are issued, claiming ICE fails to pick up roughly one in eight people released from state prisons who have immigration holds.

Tortolero-Arriechi remains in custody at the San Francisco County Jail, where he faces homicide and weapons charges, as pressure mounts on California leaders over whether they will comply with federal requests to keep him there.

In a statement issued after his death in December 2025, SEIU Local 521 Chief Elected Officer Riko Mendez said, “Our hearts are with the family, friends, and coworkers of Alberto Rangel,” remembering him as a dedicated social worker.

On a night when the Atlanta Hawks’ season ended with a 51-point beating from the New York Knicks, the Denver Nuggets may have managed to outdo them on the “embarrassing closeout losses” scale.

The Minnesota Timberwolves played Thursday’s Game 6 without Anthony Edwards, Donte DiVincenzo and Ayo Dosunmu, and they still bullied their way to a 110-98 victory.

And the Nuggets’ 2025-26 season is now over.

After entering it with title aspirations, Denver could easily be seen as one of the NBA’s most disappointing teams. They were seventh in the league in regular-season net rating and 21st in defensive rating. They got embarrassed by a lower seed in the first round.

Yes, injuries had their say. Nikola Jokić, Aaron Gordon, Cameron Johnson, Christian Braun and Peyton Watson all missed significant time. Gordon and Watson didn’t play in Thursday’s Game 6.

But even with that context in mind, Denver came up well shy of its potential. And that could mean a dramatic summer.

Given the Nuggets’ early exits from each of the last three postseasons, few would bat an eye over anything short of a Jokić trade. But it may be difficult to truly overhaul the roster through trades.

The last two front offices have already spent pretty much every available trade asset. So, what should be the priorities in this between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place offseason? The answer is below.