SAINT GEORGE, Maine (AP) — A Maine state agency has been awarded $1 million to help acquire an island in the state's midcoast area for conservation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mississippi will get $31.7 million as its 2018 share of federal royalties from Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and natural gas drilling.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government is set to pay Louisiana $94.7 million of its royalties from Gulf of Mexico offshore oil revenue earned in fiscal year 2018.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Environmental organizations are suing the Trump administration over the approval a coal-mining project near a national park in southern Utah.

KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have relaunched an effort to acquire a federal trust ownership agreement to manage National Bison Range in Montana.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Department of the Interior in September asked states what it could do to "restore trust and be a good neighbor." Alaska's acting wildlife commissioner has provided a long list of suggestions.

NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut's Mashantucket Pequot Tribe should not be allowed to amend its lawsuit against the department over a casino proposal, the U.S. Department of the Interior said in a new court filing.

The Day reported the department argued in its filing Wednesday that the tribe's attempt should be denied due to "undue delay and futility."

MASHPEE, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts tribe is protesting a recent federal government decision that could lead to the loss of its sovereign reservation.

The Cape Cod Times reports the Mashpee Wampanoag (MASH'-pee WAHM'-puh-nawg) staged a walk through the tribe's ancestral homeland on Cape Cod Saturday before holding a rally on the tribe's powwow grounds.

BOSTON (AP) — A Cape Cod tribe filed a federal lawsuit Thursday challenging the Trump administration's decision not to protect its 300-acre (121-hectare) reservation granted by the Obama administration.

The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe's complaint, filed in federal court in Washington D.C. on Thursday, argues that a Sept. 7 ruling by the U.S. Department of the Interior was "arbitrary," ''capricious" and ignored evidence provided by the tribe.

MASHPEE, Mass. (AP) — The country's largest Native American organization is calling on the Trump administration to explain its decision not to recognize the reservation of a Massachusetts' tribe.

MASHPEE, Mass. (AP) — The country's largest Native American organization is calling on President Trump's administration to explain its decision not to recognize the reservation of a Massachusetts' tribe.

BOSTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of the Interior ruled Friday it cannot hold land in trust for a Massachusetts tribe, reversing a decision it made under former President Barack Obama and throwing into doubt the tribe's plans for a $1 billion casino.

The agency, in its 28-page ruling, said the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe does not qualify for having land placed into trust because it wasn't under federal jurisdiction when the Indian Reorganization Act passed in 1934.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Trump administration is aiming to open millions of acres (hectares) of Alaska Arctic land for drilling that was protected under the Obama administration.

PORT ANGELES, Wash. (AP) — The National Park Service is expected to sign an agreement with the City of Port Angeles that would transfer ownership of the Elwha water facilities to the city.

The Peninsula Daily News reports the transfer agreement between the two parties was approved by the Port Angeles City Council last week.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The federal government on Wednesday put on hold one of the largest-ever projects to remove juniper trees to help an imperiled species after an appeal by an environmental group seeking to halt the plan.

A U.S. Department of the Interior administrative panel granted the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's motion to set aside its decision in May to remove juniper trees from about 1,100 square miles (2,800 square kilometers) in Idaho's Owyhee County.

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A second Oklahoma tribe is facing litigation over the citizenship status of the descendants of its former slaves.

The Tulsa World reports that the Muscogee Creek Freedmen filed a federal lawsuit last week against the Creek Nation and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Interior Ryan Zinke is headed to Salt Lake City for a speech at a rodeo on the Utah holiday Pioneer Day.

The U.S. Department of the Interior announced in a statement Monday that Zinke will deliver an address at the Days of '47 Rodeo on Tuesday. It's one of several events on the Pioneer Day holiday that celebrates the arrival of Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley.

Officials didn't immediately say what he would speak about.

RIVERTON, Wyo. (AP) — A report by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of the Inspector General has confirmed that the roads department operated by two Wyoming tribes misspent $6.2 million of federal money.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland and the U.S. Department of the Interior have agreed to study transferring part of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to the state as part of a plan to relieve traffic congestion.

Gov. Larry Hogan announced the agreement in a news release Monday.

BRADFORT, Vt. (AP) — A trail system in Vermont has received national recognition from the U.S. Department of the Interior.

QUARTZSITE, Ariz. (AP) — The state's water agency says it won't endorse a proposed lease of Colorado River water from Quartzsite.

The small town in La Paz County has an annual allocation of 1,070 acre-feet of river water. But it doesn't have a way to get the water from the river about 20 miles away.

The Central Arizona Water Conservation District has proposed leasing it for up to 50 years to replenish groundwater around Phoenix and Tucson.

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — The Bureau of Land Management is seeking to reinstate independent advisory groups that were suspended last year as part of a review across the U.S. Department of the Interior.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. Department of the Interior says Montana will receive more than $29 million in funding for critical state conservation and outdoor recreation projects.

KULR-TV reported Tuesday that more than $9 million will go to Sport Fish Restoration and more than $21 million will go to Wildlife Restoration funds.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — The U.S. Department of the Interior has announced Massachusetts will receive $11.5 million for conservation and outdoor recreation projects.

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — Ball State University is receiving a nearly $50,000 federal grant to develop a virtual museum for engaging Indiana's legacy in civil rights.

The U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service announced Monday that the university is receiving an African American Civil Rights Grant for the project.

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago will receive $445,000 from the federal government to preserve a church on the city's West Side where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. frequently preached.

In a news release, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service said that the preservation of Stone Temple Baptist Church is one of 51 projects in 24 states to receive a total of $12.6 million in what are called African American Civil rights Grants.

BROOKHAVEN, N.Y. (AP) — Officials with the U.S. Department of the Interior are heading to Long Island to hear from local residents about the federal proposal to open up new areas to offshore drilling.

U.S. House Rep. Lee Zeldin is hosting Friday's public input session. The Long Island Republican opposes the Trump administration's proposal to authorize new areas for offshore drilling for oil and natural gas.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut officials on Monday called for an investigation of the U.S. Department of the Interior's failure to act on revenue sharing agreements between the state and two Native American tribes that are needed for the tribes to build and operate a new casino.

U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, and U.S. Reps. John Larson and Joe Courtney, all Democrats, made the request in a letter to the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal expressed skepticism about the Trump administration's plan to allow offshore oil drilling along Georgia's coast.

Local media outlets report that Deal said he would need to consider the effect on the state's tourism industry before deciding whether or not to support the federal government's plan.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The University of Rhode Island says it's been informed that the core of its main campus will be added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The university says the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Park Service recognized the campus center as a historic district.

The district includes more than a dozen structures on 29 acres.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — MGM Resorts International has asked to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the state and two federally-recognized Native American tribes against the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Connecticut has asked a federal judge to approve amendments to a revenue-sharing agreement that would allow a new casino in East Windsor, in direct competition with an MGM casino being built in Massachusetts.

NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (AP) — The U.S. Department of the Interior is fining a central Indiana county for violating a federal law aimed at protecting Native American gravesites.

BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP) — Maine's congressional delegation is turning a critical eye on a U.S. Department of the Interior proposal to raise fees at national parks, including Arcadia National Park.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins and independent Sen. Angus King sent a letter to the department after an announcement that it's proposing increasing fees at 17 national parks. The peak season increases would help offset overdue maintenance costs.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Santa Fe County, four pueblos and the U.S. Department of the Interior have scheduled more closed-door meetings this week about roadway disputes that threaten to impede funding for a planned regional water system in the Pojoaque Basin.

The Santa Fe New Mexican (http://bit.ly/2wbYORL) reports that the Bureau of Indian Affairs says some county roads trespass on tribal land.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — An Indian tribe says it will continue its efforts to build gambling facilities in Lansing and near Detroit Metropolitan Airport following a new setback.

The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians says it received a letter this week from the U.S. Department of the Interior saying that the tribe's applications to put land into trust for the projects have been denied. The tribe on Thursday says the denial is based on flawed legal analysis.