Word: lands
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which administers America's public lands, was running the auction on Dec. 19, in the waning days of the Bush Administration. Environmental groups including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) had been fighting the move, arguing that the energy companies would damage nearby national parks and culturally sensitive areas. But the fight seemed lost, until DeChristopher, an economics student at the University of Utah, arrived at the sale. "I saw this as a very corrupt and fraudulent process, and a threat to my future," he says...
...decided to do something, but what? He thought about making a show or a speech, but as he watched the rapid-fire auction unfold around him he had an idea. He would bid himself-entirely without the cash to pay for any land he might win. "I thought I'd just drive up the prices," DeChristopher says...
...like he'd just gotten out of class-as DeChristopher had-was bidding for oil and gas leases, they didn't say anything. At first he simply bid near the beginning of an auction, to keep prices rolling, but as the sales continued, he started to win plots of land-12 parcels in all, more than 22,000 acres, at the cost of $1.79 million. By the end, DeChristopher was simply bidding nonstop, and BLM officials finally caught on to what he was doing and took him into custody. Though now in the hands of the feds, he remains cool...
...prosecuting DeChristopher if he failed to come up with the funds. He and his friends put out an appeal on the Internet, and less than a month after the sale, he had raised over $100,000 in donations, enough to cover legal expenses and the initial payment for the land rights. It's not clear at the moment whether the BLM will even take his money. The legal status of the parcels is in limbo, pending an ongoing investigation-as is the question of whether or not the government continues to plan to press charges. DeChristopher says any consequences...
...Bishop Richard Williamson; another cleric from the splinter faction publicly criticized the Pope and condemned his 2006 visit to Istanbul's Blue Mosque; Israel's chief Rabbinic council said inter-faith talks with the Vatican should be put on hold, while others have questioned whether a slated papal Holy Land trip in May should be called off over the episode. Meanwhile, Catholic progressives around the world have taken the Pope's actions as a deliberate slap because the followers of French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre reject the reforms of the Second Vatican Council...