Matthew Daly, Author at The Rapid City Post

Trump attacks Charlamagne Tha God after radio host criticizes his presidency

August 3, 2025

President Donald Trump has criticized radio host Charlamagne Tha God, saying that the broadcaster “knows nothing about me or what I have done.” Trump’s comments on Sunday followed Charlamagne’s criticism on a Fox News show hosted by Lara Trump. Charlamagne said he wouldn’t rate Trump’s presidency highly, citing negative impacts on vulnerable communities. He also predicted traditional conservatives might reclaim the Republican Party from Trump’s movement, referencing controversy over Jeffrey Epstein. Trump called Charlamagne a “racist sleazebag” and criticized his professional nickname.

FILE - EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin attends a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission Event in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

EPA eliminates research and development office, begins layoffs

July 19, 2025

The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees. The agency’s Office of Research and Development has long provided the scientific underpinnings for EPA’s mission to protect the environment and human health. The EPA said in May it would shift its scientific expertise and research efforts to program offices that focus on major issues like air and water. The agency said Friday it is creating a new Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions that will allow it to focus on research and science “more than ever before.″ Once fully implemented, the changes will save EPA nearly $750 million, officials said.

President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony to sign the "Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act," in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump offers regulatory relief for coal, iron ore and chemical industries

July 17, 2025

President Donald Trump is granting two years of regulatory relief to coal-fired power plants, chemical manufacturers and other industries as he seeks to reverse Biden-era regulations he considers overly burdensome. Trump issued a series of proclamations late Thursday exempting a range of polluting industries that he calls vital to national security. The proclamations cover coal-fired power plants, taconite iron ore processing facilities used to make steel, and chemical manufacturers that help produce semiconductors and medical device sterilizers. The proclamations allow the facilities to comply with Environmental Protection Agency standards that were in place before rules imposed in recent years by the Biden administration, the White House says.

FILE - Pumpjacks operate in the foreground while a wind turbines at the Buckeye Wind Energy wind farm rise in the distance Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, near Hays, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

Interior Secretary Burgum must personally approve all wind and solar projects, a new order says

July 17, 2025

All solar and wind energy projects on federal lands and waters must be personally approved by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. That’s according to a new order that authorizes Burgum to conduct “elevated review” of activities ranging from leases to rights of way, construction and operational plans, grants and biological opinions. The Interior Department says the enhanced oversight is aimed at “ending preferential treatment for unreliable, subsidy-dependent wind and solar energy.” Clean-energy advocates say the action could hamstring projects that need to be underway quickly to qualify for federal tax credits that are set to expire under the tax-cut and spending bill that the president signed July 4.

FILE - Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, speaks during the confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

GOP plan to sell more than 3,200 square miles of federal lands is found to violate Senate rules

June 24, 2025

A plan to sell more than 3,200 square miles of federal lands has been ruled out of Republicans’ big tax and spending cut bill after the Senate parliamentarian determined the proposal by Senate Energy Chairman Mike Lee would violate the chamber’s rules. The Utah Republican has proposed selling public lands in the West to states or other entities for use as housing or infrastructure. The plan would revive a longtime ambition of Western conservatives to cede lands to local control after a similar proposal failed in the House earlier this year. The plan received a mixed reception Monday from the governors of Western states but has been denounced by environmental advocates as a betrayal of public trust.

FILE - EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, April 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Budget cuts at Trump EPA become flashpoint at a heated hearing — and, Democrats say, may kill people

May 21, 2025

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency clashed angrily with Democratic senators Wednesday, accusing one of being an “aspiring fiction writer” and saying another does not “care about wasting money.″ Democrats countered that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s tenure will likely mean more lung cancer and other illnesses suffered by Americans. The heated exchanges, at a Senate hearing to discuss President Donald Trump’s proposal to slash the agency’s budget in half, showed the sharp partisan differences over EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s deregulatory approach.

Matthew Daly.