National (U.S.)

"The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a final rule Tuesday increasing the minimum size for train crews to two people, a longtime ask for rail worker unions, which nearly led to a strike in 2022."

"In March, Enviva, the world’s largest woody biomass producer for industrial energy, declared bankruptcy. That cataclysmic collapse triggered a rush of political and economic maneuvering in the U.S. (a key wood pellet producing nation), and in Europe (a primary industrial biomass energy user in converted coal plants)."

"Chemical manufacturer 3M will begin payments starting in the third quarter to many U.S. public drinking water systems as part of a multi-billion-dollar settlement over contamination with potentially harmful compounds used in firefighting foam and several consumer products, the company said."

"Trillions of evolution’s bizarro wonders, red-eyed periodical cicadas that have pumps in their heads and jet-like muscles in their rears, are about to emerge in numbers not seen in decades and possibly centuries."

"A toxic grass that threatens a quarter of U.S. cows is spreading. Can it be stopped?"

"A federal appeals court in the US has killed a ban on plastic containers contaminated with highly toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” found to leach at alarming levels into food, cosmetics, household cleaners, pesticides and other products across the economy."

"The Biden administration released updated rules Friday for importation of live African elephants and trophies derived from them."

"With chronic water shortages afflicting the Colorado River, discussions about how to cut usage have increasingly focused on a thirsty crop that consumes an especially large share of the river’s water: hay that is grown to feed cattle and produce beef and dairy products."

"Uncertainty about the health effects of abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation risks drawing out for decades the clean up of radioactive waste piles the EPA designated as Superfund sites in March."

"A highly virulent bird flu first detected in dairy cows in Texas and Kansas this week has spread to additional herds, bringing the number of affected states to five and adding evidence the virus may be spreading cow-to-cow."