DEAL ALLOWS ROAD THROUGH REFUGE

WASHINGTON Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will sign a land-swap agreement Monday to allow a small, remote Alaska village to construct a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, a vast wilderness area that has been protected for decades.

The signing ceremony at Interior headquarters, which will proceed despite the government shutdown, marks a pivotal development in a political fight that has raged for more than 30 years. Alaskan politicians have argued the road would provide a route in poor weather for medical evacuations to the closest regional airport, while environmentalists counter that it would fragment a pristine stretch of tundra and lagoons otherwise off-limits to traffic.