"When pollution gets bad enough in the rivers supplying Iowa’s largest city with drinking water, it costs Des Moines around $16,000 a day to run a special system to filter out dangerous nitrates. It’s a fact of life in the agriculture-dependent state — and climate change is making the water quality problem even worse."
"An EPA lawyer said the dissent letter “is likely protected speech under the First Amendment” and advised against “retaliatory” moves."
"When former top Environmental Protection Agency official Judith Enck noticed a cavalcade of chemical and plastics industry lobbyists visiting the agency’s Washington headquarters in February, she wondered what could be up."
"Lee Zeldin, currently the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is understood to be the leading candidate for Attorney General after President Donald Trump fired Pam Bondi."
"The U.S. Bureau of Land Management opened a seven-day public comment period on March 31 as part of its proposal to open 336,425 acres of public lands in the Greater Chaco Region in New Mexico to oil and gas drilling. If the proposal moves forward, new oil and gas leasing and development on federal lands will be allowed within 10 miles of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, even on lands directly bordering the park."
"A judge ruled on March 31 that construction on President Trump’s White House ballroom must halt until Congress authorizes the project. The lawsuit was brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation."
"A new study of pesticide exposure in Peru finds a mechanistic association between exposure and cancer, and shows how “complex pesticide mixtures” can contribute to the development of cancer in people, even at exposure levels currently deemed safe."
"An Iraqi militia allied with Iran offered on Wednesday to negotiate with the Iraqi government for the release of a kidnapped American journalist, according to two Iraqi security officials." "The Iranian-aligned militia, Kataib Hezbollah, is pressing for the release of members detained by the Iraqi government in exchange for freeing the journalist, Shelly Kittleson."
"John Beard takes no pleasure in being right. In January, he told Capital B that he feared U.S. military action in Venezuela, which ultimately gave America preferential access to the South American nation’s vast oil reserves, would lead to disaster in southeast Texas."
"Work to get lead out of Garden State homes has surged in recent years, fueled by an influx of federal pandemic relief money and urgency from Newark’s drinking water crisis. But it’s been years since Newark largely dealt with its water problems, with the subsequent calm taking attention away from lead issues."
