一 | RENO, Nev. -- In an ongoing legal battle with the Biden administration over a Nevada lithium mine, environmentalists are poised to return to court with a new approach accusing U.S. wildlife officials of dragging their feet on a year-old petition seeking endangered species status for a tiny snail that lives nearby. The Western Watersheds Project said in its formal notice of intent to sue that the government's failure to list the Kings River pyrg as a threatened or endangered species could push it to the brink of extinction.It says the only place the snail is known to exist is in 13 shallow springs near where Lithium Americas is building its Thacker Pass Mine near the Oregon line.President Joe Biden has made ramped-up domestic production of lithium a key part of his blueprint for a greener future. Worldwide demand for the critical element in the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries is projected to increase six-fold by 2030 compared with 2020.Past lawsuits filed by conservationists and tribes have taken aim — largely unsuccessfully — at the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, which they accused of cutting regulatory corners to expedite approval of the mine itself in 2021.The new approach targets the department's Fish and Wildlife Service, charged with ensuring protection of fish and wildlife habitat surrounding the mine site 200 miles (321 kilometers) northeast of Reno.Western Watersheds Project says groundwater pumping associated with the mine’s 370-foot-deep (113-meter) open pit will reduce or eliminate flows to the springs that support the snails.In the formal 90-day notice of intent to sue sent to Interior Secretary Deborah Haaland last month, they say her agency's failure to make a 12-month finding on the listing petition filed in September 2022 is a violation of the Endangered Species Act.“The Fish and Wildlife Service isn’t supposed to sit on its hands while species are in imminent danger of extinction, but the fact that it hasn’t met the deadlines on the pyrg raises questions about why they might be delaying,” Adam Bronstein, the project's Nevada director, said in a statement.“It would be absolutely unacceptable if the Biden Administration is waiting until it’s too late to save the species so as not to interrupt the construction of a lithium mine," he said.Interior Department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said in an email Thursday the department had no comment on the group's intent to sue.Western Watersheds Project said time is of the essence because the snails were imperiled even before any new mining was contemplated due to livestock grazing, round-building and, increasingly, the anticipated impacts of climate change.“The species has no regulatory protection whatsoever ... because it is not an endangered species, or even a Bureau of Land Management-listed Sensitive species, and has no state law protections," the notice said.Conservationists and tribal lawyers claimed a partial victory last year when U.S. District Judge Miranda Du concluded the bureau failed to fully comply with new interpretations of the 1872 Mining Law. But she stopped short of blocking the project, allowing construction to begin as the bureau shored up plans for disposal of waste rock.The opponents appealed, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Du's ruling in July.The tiny snail’s shell is less than 2 millimeters (0.08 inches) tall. By comparison, a U.S. nickel coin is 1.95 millimeters thick. They've managed to survive in isolated springs, which are remnants of extensive waterways that have covered what is now dry land only to recede many times over the last 2 million years, the listing petition said.The project says three of the springs are within a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) buffer zone, the bureau established in its review of potential impacts of a 10-foot (3-meter) drawdown of the groundwater table, and the rest are less than 4 miles (4.8 kilometers) away."As drought frequency increases with climate change, the Kings River pyrg will be at high risk of extinction,” the letter to Haaland said. It notes that the Nevada Department of Wildlife considers the pyrg “extremely vulnerable to climate change.”Lithium Americas had no comment on the notice of intent to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service, spokesman Tim Crowley said. The company said when the listing petition was filed last year that it's done extensive work to design a project that avoids impacts to the springs.The Bureau of Land Management said earlier its environmental review of the project that it didn't detect any of the snails "within the direct footprint of the project or any area likely to be adversely affected by the project.”。 8月26日消息，近日，A股上市公司星宇股份被曝出“羞辱式”劝退应届生一事引发热议。 据媒体报道，一位涉事应届生提供了公司HR“劝退”他们的面谈录音。 A股车灯上市公司星宇股份2025年秋招大量招录研发、技术、管培生岗位应届生，规模约400人，含不少985/双非硕士，承诺1个月产线实习后转入技术岗。 2026年7月这批学生正式入职，仅入职1个月左右，HR集中一对一约谈，推出“羞辱式”二选一方案：
主动离职：当天签“个人原因离职”协议，公司补偿半个月工资；拒绝离职：强制调岗至车间一线流水线，做打螺丝、线路插接等普工工作，原定1个月产线实习延长至3个月，薪资按操作工标准重新核算。
8月25日，江苏省常州市人力资源和社会保障局发布通报，该公司无违规申领政府补贴，公司人力总监已停职。
通报称，星宇股份共招录2026届高校毕业生440名，与其中107人解除劳动合同。协商过程中方法简单生硬，缺乏充分有效沟通，造成不良影响，对此企业深表歉意，已对人力资源总监作出停职处理。经查，该企业不存在违规享受就业和人才类政府补贴行为。 事件发生后，人社部门及时提供一对一就业推荐服务，截至8月25日，107人中已有22人实现就业，14人参加其他企业面试，对其余人员人社部门将继续提供就业服务。 公开资料显示，常州星宇车灯股份有限公司创立于1993年，2007年10月整体变更为股份有限公司，2011年2月在上海证券交易所成功上市。
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