SALT LAKE CITY

Girl Scouts’ new troop will welcome transgender youth

The Girl Scouts are opening a troop at a gay pride center in Salt Lake City that officials say will welcome transgender youth and children from LGBT families.

In an era where the Girl Scouts of the USA has struggled with declining membership and recruiting enough adult volunteers, the idea was conceived by a Utah staffer who helps create troops outside the typical scouting mold.

Though the national organization says it isn’t the first to openly invite transgender youth, the new group is drawing attention in conservative Utah where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups have long struggled to find acceptance and were only recently given anti-discrimination protections.

“Girl Scouts is all about empowering girls to become leaders who make the world a better place,” said Shari Solomon-Klebba, who has helped start troops at shelters and refugee centers. “Why not at the Pride Center?”

The new Utah troop had its first meeting Monday.

GRANTS PASS, Ore.

Emergency closure of West Coast sardine fishery OK’d

Federal regulators on Wednesday approved an emergency closure of commercial sardine fishing off Oregon, Washington and California to prevent overfishing.

The decision was aimed at saving the West Coast sardine fishery from the kind of collapse that led to the demise of Cannery Row, made famous by John Steinbeck’s novel of the same name set in Monterey, California.

Meeting outside Santa Rosa, California, the Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to halt the current season as early as possible, affecting about 100 fishing boats. The season normally would end June 30.

Earlier this week, the council shut down the next sardine season, which was set to begin July 1.

The action was taken based on revised estimates of sardine populations, which found the fish were declining in numbers faster than earlier believed.

The council did not take Wednesday’s decision lightly and understood the pain the closure would impose on the fishing industry, said council member Michele Culver, representing the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

However, it was necessary because of a new assessment of sardine stocks showing they were much lower than estimated last year, when harvest quotas were set.

– From news service reports