 From Carnegie Studios in Long Rock, Colorado, it's Huppet News. Good evening. I'm Herman Hansen and like I am so sure. And I'm Aranda Lahairher. And here is this week's news. With nearly two-thirds of the United States abnormally dry or worse, the government's spring forecast offers little hope for relief, especially in the West where a devastating mega drought has taken root and worsened. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's official spring outlook Thursday sees an expanding drought with a drier than normal April, May and June for large swath of the country from Louisiana to Oregon, including some areas hardest hit by the most severe drought. We are predicting prolonged and widespread drought, National Weather Service Deputy Director Mary Erickson said. It's definitely something we're watching and very concerned about. Thursday's National Drought Monitor shows almost 66% of the nation is in an abnormally dry condition, the highest mid-March level since 2002. More than 44% of the nation is in moderate or worse drought, and nearly 18% is an extreme or exceptional drought, all of it west of the Mississippi River. Climate scientists are calling what's happening in the West a mega drought that started in 1999. Winter and spring wheat crops have also been hit hard by the western drought with 78% of the spring wheat production area in drought conditions. The dry, warm conditions in the upcoming months likely will bring an enhanced wildfire season, said John Gottschalk, Chief of NOAA's prediction branch. Daniel Swain of UCLA said the wildfires probably will not be as bad as 2020, because so much vegetation already has burned and drought conditions retarded regrowth. Last year he said wildfire was so massive it will be hard to exceed, though this fire season likely will be above average. Drought and heat breed a vicious cycle. When it's this dry, less of the sun's energy goes to evaporating soil moisture because it's not as wet, Swain said. That leaves more of the energy to heat up the air, and the heat makes the drought worse by boosting evaporation. 11 people have died this year from avalanches in Colorado. Historic snowfalls last weekend prompted the Colorado Avalanche Information Center to issue an avalanche warning across the front range. The number of deaths is only one away from a record set in 1993, and experts believe the count of deaths this year is higher due to more seeking the backcountry to ski rather than resorts. I think it's a little bit of the uncertainty of the ski resorts. People are worried if they're going to be open or not is one, and two, you need to have reservations. And three, people's comfort levels of being around other people, said Matt Bird, uh, yeah, co-owner of Longmont Ski Shop Angles Sports Exchange. So going into the backcountry, there aren't any reservations, and there are no times they're open or closed, and there's probably not many people around you. So there's a lot of reasons people are choosing to go to the backcountry route. Dustin Dyer, co-owner and director of Kitt Mountain Adventure Center, another organization focused on avalanche safety, said, what I think it is, is the influx of new people flooding the places experienced people used to ski, which is pushing them into new zones they don't know as well. A Facebook page appearing to belong to a Georgia Sheriff's Office spokesperson who was helping to investigate the recent massage parlors slings, promoted a t-shirt with racist language about China and the coronavirus last year. The Facebook account belonging to a Jay Baker features numerous photos of Cherokee County Sheriff's Captain Jay Baker going back months, including one in which he is in uniform outside the Sheriff's Office. The account was deleted Wednesday night. Baker also came under criticism for saying Wednesday that the 21-year-old man accused of carrying out the massacres had had a bad day. Asian American activists said Baker's comments and the Facebook post undermine public confidence that investigators are adequately addressing Tuesday's atrocity. Six of the eight victims of Tuesday's attacks were of Asian descent, including two of the four victims who were killed in Cherokee County. Baker did not respond to voicemails and an email requesting comment on the Facebook post. The Sheriff's Office also did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Longmont will continue to participate in a $100,000 region-wide effort to monitor unregulated compounds that make it into the city's drinking water supply. By a unanimous vote Tuesday night, City Council agreed, an amendment to a pact with the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District to gauge the presence and concentrations of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, hormones, and pesticides in water sources. The program monitors contaminants from a variety of sources, including wastewater, runoff from lawns and agriculture and recreation. Monitoring is conducted biannually at more than 20 sampling locations to assess impacts of trends and changes in water quality. The effort also helps assess the impacts from adverse events such as floods and wildfires. China has protested to the United States and Japan. Over a joint statement, it said maliciously attacked its foreign policy and seriously interfered in China's internal affairs. The Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said China was strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed to the statement. His comments came a day before U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is due to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and top foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi in Alaska. The China-Japan statement expressed concern over threats to Taiwan, Beijing's human rights violations in Xinjiang, its activities in the South China Sea, and unilateral action that seeks to change the status quo over Japan-controlled East China Sea Islands that China also claims. There was no indication that the Alaska talks had been derailed, and Zhao said China was prepared to discuss its policies on Xinjiang and Hong Kong. Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi Tuesday, afterwards saying that democracy and human rights are being challenged, and the United States will push with its partners for free and open Indo-Pacific. Blinken said the Biden administration is committed to work with the U.S. allies as they face challenges from China and its ally North Korea, which is pursuing an illicit nuclear weapons program. Blinken has said the Alaska meeting is part of an effort to introduce new clarity into the relationship between the world's two biggest economies. Waumont Summer Day camps will commence on Memorial Day weekend and span until mid-August with groups of 15 enjoying a variety of activities around the St. Brain Memorial Building. Summer camps won't be allowed to take field trips, swimming will be limited, social distancing will be encouraged, and staff and campers 11 and older will be required to wear masks during the day. Sunset pool, meanwhile, is scheduled to open May 28th, with reservations still required to limit capacity. Reservations also are required at all other Waumont Recreation Facilities, as Boulder County remains at the yellow status on the state's COVID-19 dial. A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators and Congressmen is urging the federal government not to approve recommendations to remove 144 cities from the designation of metropolitan statistical areas. Re-classifying them as micro-polletin would put key federal funding at risk, they said. The request comes after the Associated Press reported this month that the federal government is contemplating raising the population criteria for core cities in metro areas from 50,000 residents to 100,000 residents. Doing so would reclassify more than a third of the current 392 metro areas as micro-polletin statistical areas. Officials in some of the effective cities worry that the change could have adverse implications for federal funding and economic development, since some housing, transportation, and Medicare reimbursement programs are directed specifically to metropolitan statistical areas. If approved, it wouldn't take effect until 2023. Statisticians who recommended changing the definition of a metro area say it's long overdue, given that the U.S. population has more than doubled since the 50,000-person threshold was introduced in 1950. Back then, about half of U.S. residents lived in metros, now 86% do. Scores of city leaders and rural researchers have also written, urging the Office of Management and Budget to reject the proposal. The city manager of Mankato, Minnesota, estimated that her community would lose directly $400,000 in funding that goes toward homeless shelters, affordable housing, and medical care to the uninsured. This federal funding also leverages other low-income housing projects, said Susan Arns. Another concern for many metros' areas at risk of being reclassified is that they will have less name recognition outside their region, George Hammond, a University of Arizona economist said Tuesday during an online seminar about the topics sponsored by the National Association for Business Economics and the Association for University Business and Economic Research. U.S. Russia ties nosedived on Thursday after Russian leader Vladimir Putin shot back at President Joe Biden's description of him as a killer. The back-and-forth underscored Biden's desire to distance himself from former President Donald Trump's perceived softness on Putin despite actions his administration took against Russia. Although Biden agreed to extend a major arms control deal with Russia, he has been notably cool toward Moscow and highly critical of many of its activities. In taking a tough stance on Russia, Biden has said the days of the U.S. rolling over to Putin are done, and he has taken pains to contrast his style with the approach of Trump who avoided direct confrontation and frequently spoke about Putin with approval. In an interview broadcast Wednesday, Biden replied, I do when asked if he thought Putin was a killer. Also Wednesday, U.S. intelligence released a report finding that Putin authorized influence operations to help Trump's reelection bid. Later that day, Putin recalled his ambassador to the U.S., and on Thursday he pointed at the U.S. history of slavery and slaughtering Native Americans and the atomic bombing of Japan in World War II. Responding to that, the White House said Biden would continue to look to work with Putin on areas of mutual concern but stress that he was not going to hold back when he has concerns about Putin's actions. Putin had been asked about Biden's comment during a video call marking the anniversary of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, and he responded along the lines of, it takes one to know one, saying his counterparts' words reflected the United States' own problems. At the same time, he offered to have a phone call with Biden to discuss issues of mutual interest. And that's all we have time for. For Puppet News, I'm Hanson Schmanzin. And I'm Aranda Laheyarher. Good night.