The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is extending the public comment period on a proposal to run part of an off-road desert race through a new national monument in Nevada amid complaints the agency rigged the process to approve the route over the objections of conservationists.
The agency has extended the deadline from July 31 to Aug. 3 for the Best in the Desert Race. Thirty-seven miles of next month's 650-mile race would run on existing dirt roads within the Basin and Range Monument that President Obama established last summer northeast of Las Vegas.
The agency will have two weeks to consider the public comments and issue a decision. But that's just two days before the race is to begin Aug. 19.
Conservationists claim it's part of a ploy to prevent them from filing any legal challenges.