"A gold rush brought settlers to South Dakota’s Black Hills roughly 150 years ago, chasing the dream of wealth and displacing Native Americans in the process. Now, a new crop of miners driven by gold prices at more than $3,000 an ounce are seeking to return to the treasured landscape, promising an economic boost while raising fears of how modern gold extraction could forever change the region."
"A Texas-based federal judge assented to a Trump administration request Tuesday and ended Endangered Species Act protections for the lesser prairie chicken."
"Bayer, the biotech company and manufacturer of Round Up, has substantially increased its spending on lobbying in Iowa since the introduction of a pesticide labeling bill in 2024."
"After Steven Barrows left his job at a hog slaughtering facility in Sioux City, Iowa, he sent a tip to the Environmental Protection Agency. In the tip, received by the EPA April 16, Barrows described the parking lot of Seaboard Triumph Foods LLC as a 'dump site for rotten meats.' He also sent photos -- some displaying dead pigs piled up outside of the building and others showing a smoky, noxious gas wafting inside."
"In the nation’s leading pork-producing state, animal waste fuels crop growth but impairs water quality in a leaky circular system."
"Louisville’s drinking water utility says a West Virginia factory’s PFAS pollution could cause problems locally. The facility faces a lawsuit for violating its permit."
"Much of the Upper Midwest on Saturday was dealing with swaths of unhealthy air because of drifting smoke from Canadian wildfires, covering the northern region of the U.S. at a time when people want to be enjoying lakes, trails and the great outdoors."
A powerful politician and his family’s groundwater-polluting agricultural business were the focus of an award-winning series that delved into the intersection of politics, power, privilege and regulatory capture. In the latest Inside Story Q&A, journalist Yanqi Xu discusses how the reporting uncovered deep and unexpected impacts on small town economies, water quality and the living conditions of the hog farms’ neighbors.
"House Bill 15 forbids settlements to close or curtail “base load” power plants, which exclude renewables. The law may pave the way for future fossil-fuel subsidies."
"Ray Bickel spent over a decade driving a truck through giant corn and soybean fields in Clinton County, Iowa, applying pesticides. He says it was good work, while it lasted." “He was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, which is blood and bone marrow cancer."
