U.S. judge: Withdrawal of bistate grouse listing was illegal

FILE - This March 1, 2010 file photo from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a bi-state sage grouse, rear, as he struts for a female at a lek, or mating ground, near Bridgeport, Calif. Citing the government's repeated reversals and refusals to protect a cousin of the greater sage grouse the last two decades, conservationists are suing again to try to force the federal listing of the bi-state sage grouse along the California-Nevada line. The Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians and Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco last week against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It's the latest move in a legal and regulatory battle that dates to the first petition to list the bird in 2001 under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. (Jeannie Stafford/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP, File)