"More than 200 data centers are going up in dozens of competitive House districts — and neither party knows how to handle their political fallout heading into the midterms."
The news has been full of warnings about a larger-than-normal El Niño, the periodic weather pattern that portends drastic fluctuations in everything from temperatures and precipitation to ocean currents and hurricanes. The latest Issue Backgrounder takes a step back to help explain exactly how this phenomenon works and what its impacts may be, while offering a parting thought on smart coverage.
"Days before the beginning of Pride Month in June, a glamorous drag queen with long, wavy red hair, a matching mustache and carabiner earrings stared into a camera and levied a strong accusation against a famous sustainable outdoors apparel brand: "This is a corporation trying to erase an activist."
"In the days after Hurricane Helene devastated the southern Appalachians in late September 2024, Blue Ridge Parkway Superintendent Tracy Swartout went up in a helicopter to survey the damage. What she saw was deeply troubling. 'When Helene happened, we ended up with 58 landslides spread across 200 linear miles of the parkway,' Swartout says."
"Few public universities get more federal research funding than the University of Washington."
"In late April, heavy machinery began moving into the Pishë Poro-Narta protected landscape on Albania’s Adriatic coast without permits or public notice. Bulldozers and excavators felled coastal pine trees, flattened sand dunes, and cut new roads through previously untouched habitat." "The incursion was the realization of a luxury resort development backed by Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law."
"The U.S. just hit a big milestone: It got more power from solar panels than from coal plants in May."
"The decision voided the EPA guidance to terminate the $2.8 billion grant program. But it stopped short of requiring the agency to resume administering it."
