California’s Death Valley hit 130 degrees Sunday, shattering the August record not only for the region but also for all of North America.

Sunday’s reading, the third hottest temperature recorded on Earth and the hottest since the 1930s, comes as the western United States continues to see scorching weather from Arizona to Montana.

As many as 52 million people remain under heat alerts in the West on Monday, where some could see temperatures between 110 and 130 degrees. The heat is expected to last throughout the week, possibly setting more than 100 new daily record highs.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is sticking with its crowd-friendly waiver of entrance fees at national parks during the coronavirus pandemic, as managers at some parks try and fail to keep visitors a safe distance apart and communities appeal for a shutdown at other parks that are still open.

Two days before he cursed a supervisor and quit the National Park Service job he loved, Dustin Stone arrived to work in a foul mood. A decision by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to keep national park sites open despite the coronavirus outbreak left him angry and in disbelief.

Talk about too close for comfort.

The National Park Service (NPS) is urging visitors to practice safe social distancing at parks that remain open during the coronavirus pandemic.

With the COVID-19 outbreak drastically disrupting daily life for millions of Americans, the great outdoors have become a welcome refuge for many. Inspired, Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt temporarily suspended all park entrance fees last week to make it easier for people to get outdoors. The decision is effective until further notice.

A new Ogden-based airline is providing flights to Western national parks and is looking to expand to a second plane.

Utah Airways was launched Jan. 5 by Utah pilots David Story and Bret Kobe after Story said he felt there was a need for the service. The airline flights leave from the Ogden-Hinckley Airport and provide direct flights to the Grand Canyon South Rim, the Grand Canyon West Rim, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Yellowstone National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion Nationa

Tucked inside the defense authorization bill that the Senate passed Friday was an unrelated public lands package that's set to bring the biggest expansion to the National Park Service in decades.
Despite some conservative opposition—a chorus that skewered the legislation as a pork-barrel land grab—the measure also establishes thousands of acres of new wilderness areas. The bill designates seven sites as official national park units, many of which place a special emphasis on history, such as Manhattan Project work sites in New Mexico, Tennessee and Washington State.

Taxpayers shell out $52,000 a year to maintain the home of Black History Month founder Carter Woodson. Yet the tiny, dilapidated row house in northwest Washington D.C., with a "No Trespassing" sign and iron bars blocking the front door and windows hasn’t seen a visitor in the seven years since the National Park Service bought it for $2.1 million and designated it a National Historic Site.