#SEJSpotlight: David Boraks, Environment Reporter, WFAE-FM
Meet SEJ member David Boraks! David covers the environment, energy, development, housing and other topics for WFAE, the NPR affiliate in Charlotte, NC.

Meet SEJ member David Boraks! David covers the environment, energy, development, housing and other topics for WFAE, the NPR affiliate in Charlotte, NC.

And the winners are...

"Environmental groups in Florida are warning that unusually high numbers of manatee deaths in the first five months of the year, blamed in part on resurgent algal blooms contaminating and destroying food sources, could threaten the long-term future of the species."
"From city centres to rural fields, human activity has decimated populations of France's most common bird species, scientists warned on Monday, citing data collected over 30 years by volunteer ornithologists."
"Biden is making a big push to produce electric vehicles and batteries in the U.S. with “good-paying union jobs.” But the details of how that’s all going to work are still fuzzy."

At least 16 states currently have critical infrastructure anti-protest laws that could sweep up journalists on the scene, reports the latest TipSheet. The laws, which more states are considering, apply to pipelines, but sometimes other facilities that impact the environment too, like powerlines, dams, port facilities and refineries. How to keep track and avoid going to jail.
"Texas’ biggest fix to February’s deadly winter blackout that left more than 4 million people without power puts new attention on projections by the state’s climatologist but does not dwell on climate change after a deep freeze buckled the state’s unprepared electric grid."

New thinking and narratives are needed to solve complex environmental challenges like the climate crisis. But for journalists, the ongoing split between religion and environment beats hampers that effort. It’s a reality environmental journalist Meera Subramanian knows from conversations at her own kitchen table. So she helped organize a recent Society of Environmental Journalists’ webinar to explore closing the gap.
"The Western monarch butterfly is disappearing before our eyes. The number of graceful, black-and-orange winged insects overwintering in coastal California this year dropped to under 2,000, compared with more than 29,000 the year before. And that was already a fraction of its previous population."
"A former Florida Department of Health employee has received whistleblower status a year after being fired for repeatedly violating the agency’s policy about communicating with the media."