"Interior Vacancies Vex Leaders And Lawmakers Alike"
"Key Interior Department vacancies have lingered for an unusually long time, leaving Secretary Ryan Zinke's management team problematically short-handed."
Source: Greenwire, 11/08/2017
Government
State Clean Water Fund Means Local Projects, Local News
An EPA program that helps pay for municipal water infrastructure is facing Congressional appropriations scrutiny. But with the program looking like it may escape big cuts, it remains a reservoir of reportable local projects. Find out more in the latest TipSheet, plus get state-by-state resources.
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Amid the Fog of Policy, Reporting on Pesticide Regulation
Pesticides are a big environmental story. And under Trump, they are much in the news. But pesticide regulation, and its political, environmental and public health fallout, is an older and more complex tale. The Backgrounder explains how the rules work (and don't), and provides leads and resources for your reporting.
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"Trump’s Gang of Climate Deniers Has Grown Into an Army"
"He keeps picking deniers for top government positions: NASA might soon be run by a GOP congressman who blames global warming on the sun."
Source: New Republic, 10/31/2017
FEMA Won't Disclose Plan for Responding to a Hurricane in Puerto Rico
"The disaster-relief agency, under fire after Hurricane Maria, won’t release the plan, even as a comparable document for Hawaii remains public."
Source: ProPublica, 10/27/2017
Down Hundreds Of Staff, NWS ‘Teetering On The Brink Of Failure’ - Union
"After the onslaught of devastating hurricanes and wildfires, the United States is enduring one of its most costly years for extreme weather. A near-record $16 billion weather disasters have ravaged the nation. Meanwhile, the National Weather Service workforce is spread razor thin, with hundreds of vacant forecast positions."
Source: Washington Post, 10/27/2017
Small Montana Firm Lands Biggest Contract To Restore Puerto Rico Power
"For the sprawling effort to restore Puerto Rico’s crippled electrical grid, the territory’s state-owned utility has turned to a two-year-old company from Montana that had just two full-time employees on the day Hurricane Maria made landfall."
Source: Washington Post, 10/25/2017
"E.P.A. Cancels Talk on Climate Change by Agency Scientists"
"The Environmental Protection Agency has canceled the speaking appearance of three agency scientists who were scheduled to discuss climate change at a conference on Monday in Rhode Island, according to the agency and several people involved."
Source: NY Times, 10/23/2017
SEJ Objects Over EPA Response to AP Story; plus, Suits & Rulings Involving Interior, EPA, NOAA
The SEJ has written the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to object to its criticism of an Associated Press story about Superfund sites following Hurricane Harvey floods. That, plus a judge rules against EPA for withholding records on the pesticide Enlist Duo, and more, in this month's WatchDog.
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"US, States Struggle To Pay Spiraling Cost Of Fighting Fires"
"The long and brutal 2017 wildfire season is stressing the state and federal agencies that have to pay for the army of ground crews and machinery required to fight them."
Source: AP, 10/17/2017
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