SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN)

(AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN)

"In Florida, Gen Z Activists Step Into the Fight Against Sugarcane Burning"

"Every year, farmers in South Florida set fire to more than 400,000 acres of sugarcane fields pre-harvest, creating a “black snow” of ash and soot that falls on the low-income communities nearby."

Source: Youthcast Media Group, 10/20/2023

Georgia Slave Descendants Sue Over Zoning Threatenening Island Homes

"Black residents of a tiny island enclave founded by their enslaved ancestors off the Georgia coast have filed suit seeking to halt a new zoning law that they say will raise taxes and force them to sell their homes in one of the South’s last surviving Gullah-Geechee communities."

Source: AP, 10/17/2023

Backyard Sewage And Parasitic Disease: EPA Opens Civil Rights Probe In Alabama

"Sewage collecting in crudely dug trenches. Failing septic tanks that send waste bubbling into backyards. These are some of the common sights across Alabama’s Black Belt, a strip of 24 continuous counties blessed with deep fertile soil but long plagued by inadequate wastewater infrastructure and the commensurate parasitic disease."

Source: Grist, 10/12/2023

Groups Ask EPA To Intervene In An Alabama Water System Plagued By Leaks

"Environmental groups have asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to intervene in a south Alabama water system they said has been plagued by leaks, contamination and financial mismanagement, endangering residents in the low-income community."

Source: AP, 10/11/2023

Politicians Say Florida News Site Lets Them Buy Coverage. Is Your State Next?

"Political strategist Eunic Epstein-Ortiz arrived in Florida from New York in 2017 to help a major labor union turn out voters for the following year. She recalls being pleasantly surprised by the positive coverage the campaign received from Florida Politics.

The website is Florida's answer to Politico: It illuminates developments on politics and policy for insiders and news buffs, and it influences what other outlets report about the state. And it reflects the drive of its founder, Peter Schorsch.

Source: Floodlight/NPR, 10/09/2023

Home Insurance Likely To Be a 2024 Climate Story Near You

In the first of a two-parter for our 2024 Journalists’ Guide to Environment & Energy, TipSheet looks at what climate-driven disasters mean for the home insurance market. Storms, floods and fire rip through communities, yet a federal insurance program falls short, lawmakers shy away from real reform and insurers grow hesitant to cover the risks, while homeowners often attempt to rebuild in the same problematic locales. Plus, see part two on extreme weather and insurance.

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"New Saltwater Forecast Could Spare Most Of New Orleans, Jefferson Parish"

"Forecasts for when salt water advancing up the Mississippi River will reach the New Orleans area were drastically pushed back Thursday, potentially sparing most of the city and Jefferson Parish entirely from the threat while avoiding the need to build an emergency pipeline estimated to cost as much as a quarter of a billion dollars."

Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, 10/06/2023

EPA Opens Civil Rights Probe Into Alabama’s Management Of Sewage Funds

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will investigate possible racial discrimination in Alabama’s management of funds that can be used to bolster sewage infrastructure."

Source: The Hill, 10/05/2023

Biden Declares Emergency, Pipeline Planned As Salt Threatens Drinking Water

"The White House declared an emergency Wednesday for four Louisiana parishes threatened by salt intrusion in drinking water and officials warned that barges would be insufficient to deal with the problem on the east bank of New Orleans and Jefferson, prompting an urgent plan to build a pipeline."

Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, 09/28/2023

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