Southwest (AZ NM OK TX)

Texas Braces For More Rain. Death Toll Hits At Least 82 With Dozens Missing

"Rising death toll: At least 82 people have died and dozens are still missing after devastating floods hit central Texas. In Kerr County, the hardest-hit area, at least 40 adults and 28 children have been killed, officials say."

Source: CNN, 07/07/2025

Photo Essay: Tohono O’odham Families Carry On Sacred Saguaro Fruit Harvest

"The saguaro cactus is the iconic plant of the Arizona borderlands, and in June and early July, its thorn-covered small fruit ripens. For members of the Tohono O’odham Nation, whose ancestors have lived in this hot desert for thousands of years, harvest time for the “bahidaj” is sacred."

Source: AP, 07/03/2025

US Plans To Begin Breeding Billions Of Flies To Fight New World Screwworm

"The U.S. government is preparing to breed billions of flies and dump them out of airplanes over Mexico and southern Texas to fight a flesh-eating maggot. That sounds like the plot of a horror movie, but it is part of the government’s plans for protecting the U.S. from a bug that could devastate its beef industry, decimate wildlife and even kill household pets."

Source: AP, 07/03/2025
July 15, 2025

UT Austin Energy Institute Webinar: Clean Electricity Revolutionizing the Industrial Sector

The University of Texas at Austin’s McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering Professor and Electrified Processes for Industrial eXCellence Institute CTO Michael Baldea will share how the institute’s research is working to revolutionize the U.S. industrial sector using clean electricity with cost-effective, high-impact solutions. 1 pm ET.

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July 28, 2025

DEADLINE: Next Gen Radio Project

NPR’s Next Gen Radio is a five-day, audio-focused, digital journalism project (some people in-person, some not). Next up: Texas Newsroom, ​Aug 24-29, 2025. Apply by Jul 28. Learn how to report and produce a non-narrated audio piece and a companion multimedia story.

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Trump Cuts EPA Grants to Address Health Risks on Hopi and Navajo Reservations

"Red Feather, which works to improve housing on the Navajo and Hopi reservations, is just one of hundreds of groups that have had grants meant to help disadvantaged communities terminated by the Trump administration." 

Source: Inside Climate News, 06/16/2025

"Developers Propose More Than 100 New Gas Power Plants in Texas"

"Companies plan to build more than 100 new gas-fired power plants in Texas in the next few years amid a race to meet enormous electrical demand from energy-hungry industries, according to a report released Wednesday by the Environmental Integrity Project, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit."

Source: Inside Climate News, 06/12/2025

Battle Over Gas Power Facility Generates Months-Long Investigation

A private social media message piqued Arizona Republic reporter Joan Meiners’ interest in rural retirees’ efforts to block construction of a gas-fired peaker plant next to their homes. Her year-long, grant-funded investigation in 2024 uncovered questionable local government actions and utility executive motives, and concluded with action against the facility. Read Meiners’ account of how rural Arizonans became unlikely climate activists, in the latest FEJ Storylog.

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Will DOGE Evaporate Crucial Water Data?

Streamflow data gathered by thousands of U.S. Geological Survey gauges helps track the country’s floods and droughts. But it may be lost if the Trump administration follows up on a decision not to renew leases of USGS water science centers that read the gauges and disseminate the measurements. Reporter’s Toolbox on the value of this database and the risk of its loss.

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"Data Centers Are Building Their Own Gas Power Plants in Texas"

"Not so long ago, developers of the massive server farms talked about powering them with wind and solar power. But now, with the coming of power-hungry AI platforms, they’re bypassing the grid, building their own gas-fired power plants on site." 

Source: Inside Climate News, 06/06/2025

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