"It’s a simple rule, designed to protect both homeowners and taxpayers: If you want publicly subsidized flood insurance, you can’t build a home that’s likely to flood. But local governments around the country, which are responsible for enforcing the rule, have flouted the requirements, accounting for as many as a quarter-million insurance policies in violation, according to data provided to The New York Times by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which runs the flood insurance program."

"The president’s plans for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may fall flat. But a massive ConocoPhillips project is moving full speed ahead."

"While the federal government weighs taking the Canada lynx off the list of threatened species, a new study points to reduced populations in Washington State, Colorado and Montana."

"Two communities — one in Canada, one in the U.S. — share both a border along the St. Marys River and a toxic legacy that has contributed to high rates of cancer. Now the towns are banding together to fight a ferrochrome plant."

"The Fish and Wildlife Service today [Wednesday] unveiled a sweeping, multistate plan to protect the monarch butterfly without adding it to the Endangered Species Act list."

"This map shows every rural county in America, areas where the coronavirus outbreak initially was slow to spread. Humboldt County in Northern California was the first rural county to report a case, on Feb. 20, a month after the virus first reached the U.S."

"It was Wednesday, March 11, when life began to turn upside down for Lee Householder and his 42 employees at Project:Homes, a nonprofit that does energy efficiency retrofits in Virginia."

"Some local officials are disappointed the federal government will end funding for coronavirus testing sites this Friday. In a few places those sites will close as a result. This as criticism continues that not enough testing is available."

"At a White House briefing March 19, President Donald Trump said, “Nobody knew there’d be a pandemic or an epidemic of this proportion.” But that’s simply not the case."

"The nation's largest source of energy jobs — the energy efficiency sector — is experiencing mass layoffs from the coronavirus as utility and state programs shut down across the country, according to contractors and industry representatives."