Biden nominee linked to 1989 sabotage draws Republican ire

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — President Joe Biden’s nominee to oversee federal lands in the U.S. West is facing Republican pressure to withdraw over her ties to environmental activists convicted of spiking trees to sabotage a national forest timber sale more than 30 years ago. As a college student in Montana, U.S. Bureau of Land Management nominee Tracy Stone-Manning sent a profanity-laced letter to federal officials warning that spikes had been inserted into trees in Idaho’s Clearwater National Forest and that “people could get hurt” if the area was logged. She later testified against two men convicted in the case. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso says Stone-Manning should be disqualified for collaborating with the saboteurs.