"MOHAVE COUNTY, Ariz. — Breakneck agricultural development by well-heeled out-of-staters has upended conservative orthodoxy in this parched rural county."
"How an Undercover Oil Industry Mercenary Tricked Pipeline Opponents Into Believing He Was One of Them." "A former Marine working for the private security firm TigerSwan infiltrated an array of anti-Dakota Access pipeline groups at Standing Rock and beyond."
"Some lawmakers and environmental activists say the state of Vermont needs to act faster to test water in schools for the presence of lead."
"The American Farm Bureau lobbies to protect the status quo, and its own interests".
"A new scientific survey has found that the glaciers of the Arctic are the world’s biggest contributors to rising seas, shedding ice at an accelerating rate that now adds well over a millimeter to the level of the ocean every year."
"California's Joshua Tree National Park on Wednesday will become the latest casualty of the federal government's partial shutdown, closing campgrounds amid health and safety concerns over near-capacity pit toilets."
"House Democrats signaled their readiness for 2019 combat with President Trump with the New Year's Eve release of an omnibus spending bill aimed at reopening the government."
The new year will likely mean subpoenas on EPA’s FOIA response policies, as a Democrat takes the chair in the House Oversight Committee amid charges the agency is choking off politically sensitive record requests. And are new laws in a dozen states making coverage of pipeline protests a felony? That, plus air emission exemptions for animal feedlot operators and data on illegal fishing. All in the latest issue of the WatchDog.
The Trump administration’s “war on science” is playing out not just at the EPA, with its controversial proposed “secret science” rule, but at federal agencies throughout the government. This special TipSheet lays out the conflict, and offers guidance on how to turn the overarching issue into a story with character and a regional or local sense of place. Plus, see more in our ongoing 2019 Journalists’ Guide to Energy & Environment.
"Gulping down oysters has long been a favourite New Year's Eve ritual for the French, but as winters get warmer and summers get drier many growers worry there will soon be fewer of the prized mollusks to go around."
