"A federal judge this week blocked the Trump administration from conditioning disaster and security funds for states on their immigration policies."
"The administration is opening millions of additional acres of public land to mining while slashing royalty rates and environmental regulations for coal. Environmentalists warn of skyrocketing costs and threats to land, water and air."
Before giving summer its send-off, consider that heat kills more people in the U.S. annually than any other weather-related disaster. Phoenix journalist Katherine Davis-Young is well acquainted with this human toll. Drawing on her own reporting experience, she looks at how to cover extreme heat in your community. Pro tip: Don’t wait until next summer to familiarize yourself with vulnerable communities and investigate local mitigation policies.
Journalistic values — whether code of ethics-style values like truth, context and fairness, or news-style values like impact, novelty and human interest — are nothing to be shy about and can make for great journalism. But some values can be distorted and drag journalism down a dead end, argues the new WatchDog Opinion. Two environmental cases where false balance does damage.
"The price gap between used electric and gas cars is now just $900 — that's the lowest ever."
"An Indonesian archipelago that’s home to three-fourths of Earth’s coral species, a stretch of Icelandic coast with 70% of the country’s plant life and an area along Angola’s Atlantic coast featuring savannahs, forests and estuaries are among 26 new UNESCO-designated biosphere reserves. The United Nations cultural agency says the reserves — 785 sites in 142 countries, designated since 1971 — are home to some of the planet’s richest and most fragile ecosystems."
"President Donald Trump’s transportation department has been pulling back grants already announced for recreational trails and bicycle lanes, telling local officials their projects fail to promote road capacity or are “hostile to motor vehicles.”"
"The state’s first climate deception case unfurled Thursday in North Carolina Business Court, where attorneys for the town of Carrboro and Duke Energy spent six hours sparring over legal arcana to answer a single question: Should a jury hear a case alleging that Duke Energy is responsible for lying about the link between climate change and extreme weather that has inflicted millions of dollars of property damage on the town? "
"The Trump administration has offered coal reserves in Wyoming in its latest move to reinvigorate the country’s coal industry. One environmental lawyer says it’s “ludicrous” to be selling leases for the most expensive and dirtiest form of energy."
"One Year After Helene: People who lost their homes turned to FEMA for aid. Some are still slogging through red tape. Wealthier Getting More: We found that in some North Carolina counties, homeowners with the highest incomes received two to three times as much FEMA housing assistance as lower-income ones."
"Slogging through a thick slop of mud and rock, Brian Hill passed the roof that Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters had just ripped off someone’s barn and dumped into his yard. Then he peered into the unrecognizable chaos inside what had been his family’s dream home.
