"While the public and the media focus on Scott Pruitt's ethics scandals, the EPA boss is quietly advancing a regulatory overhaul that could have profound implications for air quality standards."
"Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, discussed hiring a friend of a lobbyist family that owned a condominium he was renting for $50 a night, newly released emails suggest. The files also show communications involving the lobbyist’s client interests that have not previously been disclosed, suggesting a closer relationship between the lobbyist, J. Steven Hart, and the agency than previously known."
"When it comes to global warming, America’s political climate may have changed more than the Earth’s over the past three decades."
This free massive open online course (MOOC), from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin, is for journalists, editors, journalism professors, students and anyone interested in quickly asking questions of and assessing data. Instructor is Andrew Ba Tran (pictured), data reporter for the Washington Post’s rapid response investigative team.
"The 13 bald eagles were found lifeless on a Maryland farm more than two years ago, many with wings splayed, bodies intact, and talons clenched. ... And at least six, according to a federal lab report, had ingested a highly toxic pesticide that essentially has been banned from the U.S. market, in part because it is lethal to birds."
"The Interior Department would take over part of the Army Corps of Engineers' civil works program under a wildly ambitious federal government reorganization plan proposed by the Trump administration today."
"Scandal-plagued Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has now spent more than $4.6 million from public coffers on security, according to documents obtained by The Intercept and documented under the Freedom of Information Act. "
"EPA has decided against imposing new regulations to help prevent chemical spills from industrial facilities from reaching the nation's waterways."
"Since 2008, an average of 24 million people have been displaced by catastrophic weather disasters each year. As climate change worsens storms and droughts, climate scientists and migration experts expect that number to rise."
"The House passed its farm bill Thursday by a vote of 213-211 after weeks of uncertainty over whether leadership would be able to secure enough support within the fractious GOP Conference to pass a measure that is critical to farm country."
