Environmental Health

"Four ways the new administration can elevate evidence and build up the science ranks".

"President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has selected Michael S. Regan, North Carolina’s top environmental regulator, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Mr. Biden’s transition team announced Thursday. The decision elevates for the first time a Black man to lead the powerful department, which is central to achieving the new administration’s climate change agenda."

"Michigan legislators on Wednesday finalized a plan to borrow $600 million to finance the state’s proposed settlement with the residents of Flint, whose water was contaminated with elevated levels of the neurotoxin lead."

"Scientists reveal further details about the damage sustained under Trump — and the challenges for Biden in restoring science’s standing at the agency."

"Michael Regan, who has been secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality since 2017, is under consideration for EPA administrator by President-elect Joe Biden's team."

"Dozens of Trump political appointees are petitioning to become part of the permanent bureaucracy — a process known as "burrowing" that is common at the end of administrations."

"President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has chosen Brenda Mallory, an environmental lawyer who spent more than 15 years working in the federal government under both Republican and Democratic presidents, to lead the Council on Environmental Quality, according to two people close to the Biden transition team."

"A top Trump appointee repeatedly urged top health officials to adopt a 'herd immunity' approach to Covid-19 and allow millions of Americans to be infected by the virus, according to internal emails obtained by a House watchdog and shared with POLITICO."

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency is proposing to slash disaster aid to states by making it substantially harder for them to qualify for assistance after extreme weather events like floods, wildfires or storms."

"TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Over a lifetime on the industrial side of this university town, Antonia Brand has become accustomed to breathing bad air."