Government

Battle Over Gas Power Facility Generates Months-Long Investigation

A private social media message piqued Arizona Republic reporter Joan Meiners’ interest in rural retirees’ efforts to block construction of a gas-fired peaker plant next to their homes. Her year-long, grant-funded investigation in 2024 uncovered questionable local government actions and utility executive motives, and concluded with action against the facility. Read Meiners’ account of how rural Arizonans became unlikely climate activists, in the latest FEJ Storylog.

SEJ Publication Types: 
Visibility: 

Will DOGE Evaporate Crucial Water Data?

Streamflow data gathered by thousands of U.S. Geological Survey gauges helps track the country’s floods and droughts. But it may be lost if the Trump administration follows up on a decision not to renew leases of USGS water science centers that read the gauges and disseminate the measurements. Reporter’s Toolbox on the value of this database and the risk of its loss.

SEJ Publication Types: 
Visibility: 

California’s Yurok Tribe Gets Back Ancestral Lands Taken Over 120 Years Ago

"As a youngster, Barry McCovey Jr. would sneak through metal gates and hide from security guards just to catch a steelhead trout in Blue Creek amid northwestern California redwoods. Since time immemorial, his ancestors from the Yurok Tribe had fished, hunted and gathered in this watershed flanked by coastal forests. But for more than 100 years, these lands were owned and managed by timber companies, severing the tribe’s access to its homelands."

Source: AP, 06/06/2025

Months After Hurricane Helene, North Carolinians Struggle To Find Housing

"Before the remnants of Hurricane Helene swamped this town, the Super 8 Motel, wedged between a highway and the Swannanoa River, provided affordable short and long-term housing for dozens of people who couldn't find affordable housing elsewhere."

Source: NPR, 06/06/2025

"Lutnick Says Hurricane Center Is Fully Staffed Despite Key Vacancies"

"Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told a congressional committee that the US National Hurricane Center was fully staffed even though key positions are going unfilled as hurricane season begins."

Source: Bloomberg, 06/05/2025

"Why Trump’s Push For ‘Gold-Standard Science’ Has Researchers Alarmed"

"Many scientists fear the Trump administration’s new standard means putting political appointees in charge, which could undercut independent research." 

Source: Washington Post, 06/04/2025

"More Lobbyists Turn Up At Trump’s Interior Department"

"Two more former industry lobbyists have taken up influential positions at President Trump’s Interior Department, Public Domain has learned." "They join a stable of industry insiders at DOI, including DOGE operative Tyler Hassen, who made millions in the energy sector before joining the agency" 

Source: Public Domain, 06/04/2025

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Government