Joe Shirley

The Navajo Nation voted to change its government structure Monday, significantly increasing the power of the president in relation to the tribal council. Navajos reduced the size of their tribal council from 88 to 24 members and gave their president line item veto power.
About 44 percent of 94,000 eligible voters turned out, according to the [...]

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department study, due next month, will show there are already significant threats posed to endangered species in the region by industrial and agricultural pollutants in the four corners region.

The Navajo Nation’s president, Joe Shirley, Jr., was put on paid administrative leave by the Tribal Council Monday after it heard a report about possible ethical, civil and criminal violations concerning tribal contracts with two companies, OnSat Network Communications and the Shiprock-based Biochemical Decontamination Systems.
Details of the alleged violations found during the investigation haven’t been [...]

In a dramatic move yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency withdrew the air quality permit it issued last summer for the Desert Rock coal-fired power plant, which is slated to be built in the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners region just southwest of Farmington. The action drew praise from critics of the plant and blistering commentary from its proponents.