Quotes
W.C. Fields was ahead of his time. Many of his quotes seem appropriate for 2020.

"Start every day off with a smile and get it over with."
"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull."
"There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation."
"Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against."

Carpenter to Millionaire
Winfield Scott Stratton was born in Kentucky in 1848. His father, was a boatbuilder, heavy handed, and strict. His mother made babies, twelve of them. Of the four boys only Winfield survived. Winfield and his father did not get along. So much so that young Winfield became especially angry one day and went into the house and got his rifle. He shot at his father but missed. At the age of ten, he was so sick of being surrounded by women that he resolved that he would never have anything to do with them.

Given that home and upbringing  Stratton went west. After a couple of stops in Iowa, he ended up in Colorado Springs in 1872. In spite of their differences, his father taught Stratton carpentry. Stratton set up a carpentry shop which became a success, but he was not happy with a carpenter's life. For seventeen years he worked at carpentry in the winter and each summer he traveled around Colorado prospecting for gold. Given enough time and failures he became disgusted with prospecting. At 41 he arrived in the Cripple Creek mining district.

Disgusted or not, he bought into the Independence Mine that still had not been proven. A partner bought an option for sixty days of the mine. Stratton would give up the mine if the partner decided to exercise the option. Eventually, before giving up the mine, Stratton went into one of the cross-cuts from the main shaft that had been abandoned. By digging and poking around he found some rocks that showed color that indicated gold was nearby. He took the bag full of rocks to an assayer. Stratton did not tell the option-holding partner and for sixty long days he nervously sweated. The partner did not exercise the option. He relinquished any claims he had and returned to California.

The assay showed the vein Stratton hit would pay $380 a ton. Stratton decided to limit his income to $2,000 a day from the Independence and became Cripple Creek's first millionaire.

Not All That Is Yellow is Gold
I wanted to be a prospector but it just didn't pan out.

Silence is gold. Duct tape is silver.

My friend Ty came in first in the Beijing Marathon but has not received the gold medal because China refuses to acknowledge Ty won.

Colorado Autumn Gold

Early Bronco
The first Denver quarterback was Frank Tripucka, forever better in our memories than on the field. Tripucka came to the Broncos as an assistant coach and ended up as the starting quarterback. Frank was simply known as “The Trip."

He played in three professional football leagues in his 15 year career. His playing days included: NFL 4 years (Detroit Lions, Chicago Cardinals, Dallas Cowboys,) 7 years in the Canadian Football League (Saskatchewan Roughriders) and 4 years in the AFL as QB for the Denver Broncos.

In 1960, in the inaugural AFL regular season game, the Broncos beat the Boston Patriots 13-10. With someone to throw the ball, the Broncos managed to win four games that first year, finishing 4-9-1. The major highlight of the season came from Tripucka himself when he threw the very first touchdown pass in AFL history. In 1962, he again led the league with 240 completions, 440 attempts, and 2,917 yards. This included a week two victory over Buffalo, in which Tripucka threw for a remarkable 447 yards, a franchise record that stood for 38 years. He also held the Bronco record for interceptions.

Without Tripucka, there would have been even worse quarterback play. Without a decent quarterback, there would have been very little community support. With diminished community support, the team could have folded or moved. Basically, if you have a football team with no stars you've got nothing. "The Trip" started  Denver's sixty year love affair with the Broncos.

Questions
Where did Frank Tripucka go to collage?    (Answers below.)
What was Tripucka's Bronco uniform number?

Two Makes a Duo
Murder in the Rockies
Two Miles High and Six Feet Under
Two good novels make a great duo. Further adventures of Andrew Coyle, Esquire  Lawyer-Detective 1896

Suffragette Not
There was an old dame in a huff
"Women don't want the vote," she cried, "stuff"
When they said, "But we do," She answered "Pooh Pooh."
"I don't and let that be enough!"

Taken from Kick Ass a collection of anti-suffrage and suffrage literature by Jessica King

Answers
Frank Tripucka was a quarterback at Notre Dame 1945-49
Tripucka and Payton Manning were the only two Bronco players to wear number 18.
(Tripuka insisted that number 18 be un-retired so that Manning could wear it and win the Super Bowl.)

Quotes
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies." ~Groucho Marx

"Politics, noun. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage."  ~Ambrose Bierce

"The House, I don't know whether it's the finest public housing in America or the crown jewel of the American penal system." ~Bill Clinton

"I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself."  ~Ronald Reagan

"Happy Labor Day!" ~G. Eldon Smith

The League
In her address to the National American Women's Suffrage Association's (NAWSA) 1919 convention in St. Louis, Missouri, President Carrie Chapman Catt proposed the creation of a "league of women voters to finish the fight and aid in the reconstruction of the nation." From  that speech The League of Women Voters was formed to work within the National American Woman Suffrage Association. In August 1920 the
19th Amendment stated that women could vote, thus ending the need for NAWSA.

The League of Women Voters continued as a stand-alone organization made up from the States that already formally approved voting rights for women. Colorado was one of them to join in 1920. From the very beginning it became apparent that the legislative goals of the League were not exclusively focused on women's issues and that citizen education needed to be aimed at all of the electorate, not just women.

A founding principle of the League was not to lure women to one party or another. The League has remained bipartisan throughout its100 year history. Two examples where LWV had a particular impact: After World War II, President Truman designated LWV as an observer of United Nations to ensure it would remain a non-governmental entity.

Secondly, League of Women Voters sponsored and moderated national Presidential candidate debates for 1976-84. In 1984 after the debate between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale, LWV dropped out of the debates because the political parties wanted to change the rules, to rules and format that were something the LWV could not support as bipartisan.

The League of Women Voters continues to work for:

• defending women's rights
• improving elections, including fair redistricting
• ensuring access to affordable, quality health care for all Americans
• helping immigrants become active participants in our democracy

Administration of Nature
Interior Secretary Bernhardt scraps a plan from the previous administration to return Grizzly Bears to the Northern Cascades in Washington State.

The EPA declines to regulate percolates, a rocket fuel ingratiate, shown to cause fetal brain damage. Percolates are found in some drinking water supplies.

Federal administrators are making plans to open Florida's coastal waters to oil and gas drilling after the November elections.

Reintroducing wolves to Colorado is not in the hands of Federal or even State Wildlife administrators. In Colorado the public will vote on a bill to bring wolves to public lands in Northern Colorado.  
 
Slim Prospects
The prospector was kicked out of a saloon because it is illegal to sell liquor to minors.
The prospector in Leadville always ordered the same dessert, Kart cake.
Miners make good accomplices because they mine their own business.
The miner quit his mining job because every time he put his helmet on he felt light headed.

Quotes
A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen - Winston Churchill

An honest man in politics shines more there than he would elsewhere - Mark Twain

Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word
- Charles De Gaulle

Conserving Public Lands
America is once again a house divided. Progressive versus conservative, rural versus urban and so on and on. Is it too much to hope that public land held inalienable for all time might be a place where all citizen groups might find enough common grounds to be called united again?.

Last year Congress established as wilderness 700,000 acres of new federal wilderness. Also bipartisanally approved  the Land and Water Conservation Fund to be made permanent. In western States, dominantly  the home of most public land, annual polls have shown over-whelming support for public land protection. Two-thirds of voters give priority of public lands over oil and gas drilling. Western voters, by bi-party lines support the goal of protecting  thirty percent of America's land and ocean areas by 2030...a mere 10 years from now.

In spite of the improvements, 1,000,000 acres of land and the animal species and plant life that goes with it   is lost each year, Many species are in danger of becoming extinct. We need to act decisively to protect and conserve our protected areas and expand them to thirty percent in ten years....2030.

                                                          30 X 30  We can do it

It was a dark and stormy night......
Late one night a burglar broke into a house and while he was sneaking around he heard a voice say, "Jesus is watching you." He looked around and saw nothing. He kept on creeping and again heard, "Jesus is watching you." In a dark corner, he saw a cage with a parrot inside. The burglar asked the parrot, "Was it you who said Jesus is watching me" The parrot replied, "Yes." Relieved, the burglar asked, "What is your name?" The parrot said, "Clarence." The burglar said, "That's a stupid name for a parrot. What idiot named you Clarence?" The parrot answered, "The same idiot that named the rottweiler Jesus."


History or Mystery
Get History and Mystery in either one or both :
Murder in the Rockies
Two Miles High and Six Feet Under

by G. Eldon Smith at Amazon and Kindle

 Quotes
"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
Barack Obama

"Popularity should be no scale for the election of politicians. If it would depend on popularity, Donald Duck and The Muppets would take seats in Senate." Orson Welles

"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it." Mark Twain

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month. Theodore Roosevelt

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book. Ronald Reagan

Excerpt from Murder in the Rockies

In 1893, Andrew Coyle gets off of the train in Denver and checks into a famous hotel.

Coyle walked half a block to the Windsor, and once inside put his suitcases down to survey the lobby. It  was as beautiful as any hotel in his hometown of Philadelphia, or at least as good looking as any hotel in Pittsburgh. A cut-glass chandelier hung from the ornate ceiling which looked to be two stories up. Between two Corinthian columns a mahogany front desk stood in front of rows of pigeonholes for room keys and mail. Groups of red velveteen easy chairs and settees sat in small groups around the room.

"Ahhh," Coyle sighed, "Civilization in the Wild West."

He spotted a side door with a sign over it that said, "Gentlemen's Smoking Room and Bar."

My, how times have changed. ~ G. Eldon Smith
To get your Amazon copy: highlight the LINK below, then right click, then click on "Open Link"
https://www.amazon.com/G-Eldon-Smith/dp/1938467701

Gunnison Sage Grouse
In December 2011, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead and then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar established a Sage-Grouse Task Force that consisted of representatives of each of the affected states and relevant federal agencies. Over months and years a plan was fashioned that states, federal agencies, and private land owners all agreed to. When added to the body of past and current efforts, it would ensure a viable sage-grouse population in the West and preclude the listing of the species.

Three years later, that plan was reviewed by incoming Interior Secretary Zinke (at that time) to slash Sage-grouse protection. The Bureau of Land Management’s proposed changes would unravel greater sage-grouse protections put in place just three years before. In 2015 western states and federal officials had approved plans to reverse the bird’s decline and prevent the need to list it as endangered.

Now in 2020, six environmental  groups filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management for the federal plan that would allow more drilling on public lands that make up the Sage Grouse Habitat. The public lands in question involve Colorado counties of Montrose, Gunnison, Ouray, Mesa, Delta, and San Miguel. 

We will report in future blogs, the outcome of the lawsuit against plans to attack with more drilling on public lands. This habitat is the home of a species  that only exists in Colorado and Utah, and the number of Sage Grouse is quickly dwindling.

                      Two male Sage Grouses showing off to impress hens.

 My Colorado Thoughts a Blog About Anything Colorado
Welcome to the Blazing State, where there are more fires than anyplace this side of hell ~G. Eldon Smith

Truckers are advised to use I-40 in New Mexico or I-80 because I-70, the main highway west-east through Colorado, is blocked by fires close to the highway, firefighting equipment, and traffic waiting for hours for their turn to go.

The sun rising is an unusually bright, color of red, Very pretty, if you don't mind the smoke it is shining through.

Hardy and Bernardi
With the death of Caroll Hardy this past week, memories of CU football legends Hardy and Bernardi come into sharp focus. As a high school wanna-be athlete (didn't quite make it) my teammates and I considered Hardy and Bernardi as ultimate role models.

Hardy played Tailback in coach Dal Ward's single wing offense. Single wing Tailbacks both ran and passed in an offense that eventually evolved into the single back offense that is popular  seventy years later. CU was 26-11-3 during his football playing days.

In baseball Hardy was CU's all-time career batting average leader for 200 or more bats (.392), twice batting over .400 including .447 as a senior. As a sprinter on the indoor track team, he once ran a 9.8 in the 100-yard dash, one of the fastest times posted for the day, and he was proficient in the broad jump. Hardy earned 10 varsity athletic letters.

Frank Bernardi played two sports, football and baseball. He was a wing back in the same backfield  with Hardy. In a 46-0 win over Colorado State in 1954, he gained 152 yards and scored twice—on only five carries for a gaudy 30.4 yards per carry .

Both Hardy and Bernardi were drafted in the NFL draft. Bernardi played six years with the Chicago Cardinals and one year with the Broncos. Hardy was drafted by the 49ers and played one season for them before switching to pro baseball. He thought a baseball career would last longer than a football career. In baseball he is remembered as the only player to pinch hit for Ted Williams. He also hit once for Roger Maris.

                                                                  

                  Caroll Hardy                     CU Football                                Frank Bernardi

 
100 Years of Women's Suffrage
As the nation celebrates on Aug. 18, the centennial anniversary of the adoption of the 19th amendment, people still see much remains to be done. Women today vote at a consistently higher rate than men. In the 2018 midterms, 55 percent of eligible women turned out to vote, compared with 51.8% of men, according to a Pew report. Yet more men are elected than women.

The women’s suffrage movement was a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States. It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right, and the campaign was not easy:  On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all American women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
.

In Colorado

Ellis Meredith, an accomplished journalist who led Colorado’s suffrage movement, was widely known as the “Susan B. Anthony of Colorado.” She attended the Women’s Congress in Chicago in 1893. While she was there, she convinced Susan B. Anthony to send organizer Carrie Chapman Catt to Colorado, saying, “If Colorado goes for woman suffrage, you may count on a landslide in that direction throughout the West."



The Colorado Territorial legislature passed the Referendum of 1893. ”The act itself was drafted by lawyer
J. Warner Mills of Denver and sponsored by Rep. J.T. Heath of Montrose County. In the end, 55% of the electorate turned out to vote on the referendum, with 35,798 voting in favor and 29,551 voting against. Thus, the bill passed and Colorado women were able to vote in all elections that men were eligible to vote.

Spencer Penrose: Pioneer, Philanthropist
Spencer “Speck” Penrose was born on November 2, 1865, as the fifth of seven sons of a prominent Philadelphia family. The Penrose men attended Harvard University. Brothers Boies, Charles, and Richard graduated from there with high honors. Unlike them, Spencer graduated from Harvard at the bottom of his class. While at Harvard, he had a boating accident, and lost an eye. He bought two glass eyes. One had red streaks painted on it to simulate a blood-shot eye and matched his good eye in the morning. The other glass eye was clear, and he used it in the evening,

After Harvard, Spencer Penrose migrated to Las Cruces, New Mexico. He established several businesses, selling each for enough to cut his losses and try his next venture. In Utah, he dabbled in copper mining. In 1892 his brother, Richard, who had become a successful geologist, and a Philadelphia friend, Charles L. Tutt wrote to Speck about a potential gold rush in Cripple Creek, Colorado.

In the Cripple Creek mining district Penrose and Tutt bought part interest in the C.O.D. (Cash On Delivery) which turned out to be one of Cripple Creek's more successful mines. They sold their share of the C.O.D. mine and invested in a copper operation that the other mining men said would not produce enough copper to pay for the expense of extracting it. Richard Penrose came up with a new method of extracting copper from the ore and Speck made his millions. (It is nice to have a geologist in the family.)

William Jackson Palmer, had the Antlers Hotel rebuilt in 1901 after a fire in Colorado Springs. After a honeymoon trip in Europe, Penrose had ideas about what a hotel should be. Speck  reportedly wanted to buy the Antlers, but Palmer wouldn't sell. For $90,000, Penrose purchased a site outside the boundaries of the city, to avoid Colorado Springs' alcohol-free ordinance. He had the Broadmoor Hotel built for three million dollars. He used the architect firm which designed New York's Grand Central Station. The Broadmoor remains one of the most luxurious hotels in the West.

When Hollywood was making the movie True Grit in western Colorado, John Wayne stayed at the Broadmoor. You don't need a better recommendation than that.

Many charities and charity institutions in Colorado Springs and as far away as the University of Denver have benefited from the generosity of Spencer "Speck" Penrose and his wife Julie.


Only in Washington
Despite the Corona virus outbreak, the administration speeds up wall building on the Mexican border.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to allow more fine-particulate air pollution even though it appears to be a key contributor to mortality from COVID-19.

Environmental organizations challenge the EPA's plan to allow dirty industrial plants to pollute communities during startups, slowdowns, and plant malfunctions.

The EPA has announced a freeze on enforcing environmental regulations. Their excuse  to abdicate responsibility for being the nation's environmental police is the agency put antiquated dirty factories, power plants, etc.and other polluters in charge of determining whether they believe the corona virus will prevent them from meeting legal requirements. Polluters are to police themselves. 

EPA will announce in the next few days that the agency will loosen controls on methane. Fire powered power plants will be allowed to release more toxic gases. More industrial soot will be released into the air. EPA officials say less strict methane rules will allow the gas and oil industry to free of "crippling regulations."

Former EPA bosses who served under Democratic and Republican administrations have stated that the Environmental Protection Agency should renounce political  influence in setting environment friendly regulations. The Environmental Protection Network is a bipartisan group of more than 500 former EPA employees  and senior managers who said regardless of the results of the coming election the agency needs to change it's path to a more protective status for the environment. The former heads' statement said they are "concerned about the current state of affairs at EPA."


But Not Seriously
The EPA charges companies for illegal air pollution. It's a mist-demeanor.
I watched a documentary on oil pollution from leaking ships. It was pretty slick.
The seas  are being polluted by fish pooping in the water, those Bass Turds.

Quotes
Where there are sheep, the wolves are never very far away.” – Plautus

“Wolves go after a wounded deer, it is the nature of the beast.” – Barbara Delinsky

"It would be difficult to overestimate the biological and conservation value of this achievement." (connect the entire North American wolf population from coast to coast) ~L.David Mech  PhD. Renowned Wolf Expert

"The problem is when everything around you also seems to be shifting  you reach your your breaking point. And the wolf is a pretty good villain." ~State Senator Kerry Donovan, Vail

“When shepherds quarrel, the wolf has a winning game.” – German proverb

Colorado Initiative 107
In November's election, Colorado voters will be asked to decide whether grey wolves will be re-introduced into Colorado. If the resolution passes, state wildlife biologists will be required to introduce wolves on public land west of the Continental Divide before the end of December 2023.

Ranchers oppose wolves being being introduced because of loss of livestock even though the resolution makes provisions for state reimbursement for lost livestock. Ranchers mention long and tedious efforts to get their claims approved. 

Hunters also join in opposition because of resulting small herds of deer and elk. Rural towns in turn claim that less wildlife means fewer hunters which leads to less business for local merchants. County Commisioners are against the resolution for the reasons above and lost  coal mining jobs and potential ranching jobs. Moffat County Commissioner Ray Beck said, "What have we got left? Tourism and recreation. We can't hang our hat on that."

In a lecture at CU Denver, Mike Phillips, biologist, who has worked on various wolf recovery programs, most recently Yellowstone National Park and is a State Senator in Montana gave reasons to support Initiative 107. Phillips is considered a wolf expert. "The entire science of wildlife management grew out of a need for things to shoot because great  herds had been destroyed." Phillips also said there is a misconception the the wolf is a supreme killer.  Most efforts to hunt end up with gray wolves coming up empty-pawed.

It will be the first time that the reintroduction of wolves anywhere in the United States is decided by popular vote. “Ultimately, people will determine where predators such as wolves can live,” says Rebecca Niemiec, an assistant professor in the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Department at Colorado State University. She says that research has shown that the effectiveness of many conservation initiatives depends not only on ecological factors but also on social factors, like the public’s attitude toward a species.

Unfortunately, the wolf is characterized by: "the wolf huffed and puffed until he blew the house down," or "Little Red Riding Hood said what big teeth you have" or sayings like "thrown to the wolves," "a wolf in sheep's clothing." Wolves have a bad image in the public's conception.  We will see on election day.

Leave with a howling success
Did you hear about the cow that cried wolf? Fake Moos!

A fox, a wolf and a weasel all go to a restaurant.The waitress comes over and asks what they want to drink.
"Water" says the Fox,
"Coffee" growls the Wolf,
And "Pop!" Goes the Weasel!

What do you call a wolf in sheep's clothing? A woolf.

Historical Mysteries by G. Eldon Smith
Murder in the Rockies
Two Miles High and Six Feet Under

Quotes
Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us. - Wilma Rudolph, American sprinter and three-time gold medalist

You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get. - Michael Phelps, American swimmer and most-decorated Olympian of all time

The world never puts a price on you higher than the one you put on yourself. - Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater and three-time gold medalist

Without passion, you won't do something 100 percent. That's the bottom line. - Apolo Ohno, American speed skater and eight-time medalist

 
2020 Olympics
The Japanese Olympic Games were supposed to be going about now. Instead the pandemic won the medal. But for fans of the Olympics, and aren't we all, there is the new Olympic and Paralympic Museum opening July 30, 2020 in Colorado Springs, if the pandemic allows.
























Photo:  Bill Baum


The 60,000 sq, ft, building is located on a 1.7acres site and houses 13 galleries. Feature attractions include:

• USOPM is part of the Olympic Museums Network (more than 30 sports museums around the world and lead by the IOC)
• USOPM is the only comprehensive Olympic & Paralympic museum in the United States.
• USOPM is the physical home for U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame, which has 154 members.
• The Flame Café seats more than 150 guests.
• The Museum Shop will provide access to impressive and unique merchandise.

One gallery features one of the most extensive Olympic medal and torch collections in the world. Another gallery gives visitors a chance to try six different Olympic Sports including the 30 yard dash, alpine skiing, and archery among several others.

The museum is one of the most accessible anywhere and definitely not as boring as the word museum implies. Tickets are on sale:  tickets.usopm.org/..

That Is Just Peachy
In spite of the late freeze which diminished the size of the crop, there are some fresh & juicy peaches from the Grand Junction area available in stores and at farmers' markets. They won't last long, so if you want to enjoy a Colorado tradition, it is best to purchase a few while they last.

Rocky Ford Melons
Amazingly sweet and juicy, Rocky Ford Cantaloupes will start rolling into grocery stores across Colorado in mid-July. The ripest cantaloupes are picked daily through the growing season and will go from the field to the grocery store in about 12 hours.

Andrew Coyle Historical-Mysteries by G. Eldon Smith
available now Amazon and Kindle and fine bookstores
Murder in the Rockies
Two Miles High and Six Feet Under

Quotes from Nikola Tesla
The harness of waterfalls is the most economical method known for drawing energy from the sun.

The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

From my childhood I had been intended for the clergy. This prospect hung like a dark cloud on my mind.

Of the various branches of electrical investigation, perhaps the most interesting and immediately the most promising is that dealing with alternating currents.


Lab in Colorado Springs
Nikola Tessla's first Colorado experiment was in Telluride, Colorado where a mine owner transmitted power from town and a hydroelectric plant which was down below, up to his mine. This invention was the basis of modern power transmissions.

Tessla also established that electrical energy could be transmitted  through the air. Thus his laboratory and broadcasting tower in Colorado which he calculated was high enough to send currents unobstructed from Pikes Peak to Paris.

One experiment in the Colorado Springs lab resulted putting out all the lights in the Springs.The citizens of Colorado Springs referred to him as the Colorado Springs Mad Scientist.

In 1899 he ran out of money before he could finish his experiment. He returned to New York.

Tessia is credited with inventions, or contributing knowledge to the invention of Alternating Current, Radio, and X-rays. Patent problems and legal complications kept his from getting full credit for all he had done.

Environmental Protection Agency Gone Astray
In revising the Waters of the United State rule, the EPA narrows the regulations of the Clean Water Act making it easier to get water approved as clean. 

The EPA loosens regulations on mercury and other toxic emissions by coal fired power plants making it hard to tighten up the regulations in the future.
Sierra Club publication

The Administration wants to allow more fine particulate air pollution even though it appears to be a chief contributor to mortality  from CDIV-19.

Andrew Coyle Historical Mysteries
Murder in the Rockies
Two Miles High and Six Feet Under
Amazon and Kindle
by G. Eldon Smith