"TOMS RIVER, N.J. — In one of the largest beach repair projects in U.S. history, the federal government has begun dumping so much sand on a stretch of the New Jersey shore that it could fill a football stadium more than five times over."
"At the end of a Senate hearing last month, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) challenged Dave McCurdy, president of the American Gas Association, to say how Congress and the public can be confident about the cybersecurity defenses of the nation's natural gas infrastructure when no one is keeping score."
As some warned, federal environmental agencies have begun to purge web info on topics like climate change. WatchDog TipSheet has that story, plus items about an unusual libel lawsuit, a news outfit using satellite for groundtruthing, a new source of online water data, how journalists can protect against surveillance and more.
The 2017 hurricane season officially begins this week and experts say it may be worse than usual. So the latest TipSheet has sources and tools to help you prepare for your hurricane coverage. Understand the importance of landfall and storm path, find out about this year's big wild card, and get tips for staying safe.
"The reluctance of U.S. federal regulators to require operators of nuclear reactors to spend $5 billion to enhance the security of spent fuel rods stored underground threatens the country with a potential catastrophe, scientists warned on Friday."
"Across the country, companies keep extra natural gas in aging underground wells that weren't originally designed for such storage."
"U.S. weather forecasters on Thursday predicted more tropical storms in 2017 than normal for the Atlantic hurricane season, which last year brought one of the deadliest recorded storm systems that killed several hundred people."
Flooding is no longer just a local disaster story. As the phenomenon worsens and spreads, it simultaneously raises issues like development, insurance, stormwater management and climate change. The latest TipSheet runs down longer-term angles of flooding, and offers sources and tools to better cover your own flood stories.
"Several state attorneys general are asking federal regulators to strengthen rules on trains transporting crude oil."
"As part of its 2018 budget, the Trump administration is proposing to reduce by half the size of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a cushion against global price shocks and supply disruptions. The administration said it expects the drawdown to reduce the federal deficit by $16.6 billion, part of a package of deficit reduction measures over the next 10 years."
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