California couple fined for digging up and burying Joshua trees
CNN
A California couple has been fined for digging up and burying dozens of protected Joshua trees to make room for a home they were building, officials said.
Jeffrey Walter and Jonetta Nordberg-Walter, residents of San Bernardino County, have been ordered to pay $18,000 as part of a diversion agreement -- the terms they must fulfill in order to have the 36 misdemeanor counts -- one for each uprooted tree -- against them dismissed. The couple has opted not to have attorneys in the case, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Douglas Poston told CNN.President Joe Biden on Sunday delivers his first commencement address of the 2024 season at Morehouse College, where the president may for the first time in months have to confront the angst that’s been percolating on college campuses nationwide toward his administration’s policies on the Israel-Hamas war.
Arab and Palestinian Americans left a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday night frustrated they did not have a clear understanding of how the Biden administration might act upon their concerns as the Israel-Hamas war devastates the civilian population in Gaza, participants told CNN.