Interior Paid $156 Million For Employees Not To Work
"The Department of the Interior spent more than $150 million on administrative leave for employees working in the secretary’s office last year."
Source: E&E News, 08/24/2026
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NIH Plan To Keep Peer-Review Scores For Grants Secret Draws Concern
"The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) wants to change a key step in the review process determining which research it funds, raising concerns about transparency and political interference."
Source: Science, 08/24/2026La. Oil Disaster Leaves Black Parents Asking How to Keep Their Kids Safe
"As the Louisiana town recovers, residents wrestle with the increasingly difficult task of shielding children from a polluted future."
Source: Capital B, 08/24/2026Report: Big Food Firms Often Sue To Stop Or Slow Public Health Policies
"The newsroom Lighthouse Reports, along with several partners around the globe, found food compa�nies have sued more than 200 times in the past 15 years as governments have tried to rein in unhealthy ingredients in people’s diets."
Source: Investgate Midwest, 08/24/2026Federal Government Thins The Herds Of Wild Horses In Colorado
"A helicopter swooped through the bright blue sky, as a pilot scanned the high desert below for wild horses running through the dusty sagebrush, about an hour's drive west of Meeker, Colorado. A small group of reporters and horse lovers watched from the cover of wizened trees, about a mile from a pen that would trap the horses."
Source: NPR, 08/24/2026Despite Trump’s Attacks, Unions Fight For Good US Clean Energy Jobs
"Ryan McElroen had spent years repairing the New York City subway underground when he got the opportunity to work in the middle of the ocean." "Two years ago, McElroen began being trained by his union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3, for a job in the emerging offshore wind industry."
Source: Guardian, 08/24/2026Rare South American Diseases Offer Clues on the Next Pandemic
"Ebola virus, hantavirus and the pathogen that causes Covid-19 likely jumped from animals to humans. So do these viruses — and scientists say climate change is speeding their spread." "By the time colleagues called Dr. Matías Lahitte, an Argentine infectious disease specialist, it was too late."
Source: New York Times, 08/24/2026Tribes Push Back On Federal Plan For Colorado River Water Cuts
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The Interior Department Friday announced steep reductions in Coloradfo River water allocations for lower basin states. "When the plan was released in draft form last month, the tribes argued they were not sufficiently party to the decision making process and that the proposed use plan does not reflect their rights."
Source: ICT, 08/24/2026Move Over Bears. Fat Marmot Week Puts A Spotlight On The Alpine Rodent
"Last winter was tough for marmots living high in the Colorado mountains, where researchers say two-thirds of one population died while hibernating because of insufficient snow cover. Those that survived are doing well, fattening up in time not just for fall and hibernation season but … drumroll, please … the very first Fat Marmot Week."
Source: AP, 08/24/2026Trump Selects Dr. Heidi Overton, White House Aide, To Lead FDA
"President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he will nominate Heidi Overton, a top aide at the White House’s Domestic Policy Council, to serve as the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration."
Source: Washington Post, 08/21/2026How Florida Quietly Removed Climate Change Content From Textbooks
"Publishers acceded to state requests watering down information on climate change’s impact, WUSF/Hechinger Report investigation finds. Now the state has turned to updating its science standards"
Source: Hechinger Report, 08/21/2026Fish And Wildlife Service Pauses Plan To Change Wetlands Policy
"The Trump administration has hit the brakes on its plan to roll back a Fish and Wildlife Service wetland conservation policy following pushback from prominent Republicans and tens of thousands of duck hunters."
Source: E&E News, 08/21/2026Governors’ Races Increasingly Buffeted By Toxic Politics Of Data Centers
"More governors are shifting their stances or taking more steps to squeeze data centers as the midterm elections near and public opinion sours on the energy-hungry behemoths that tech giants and developers are building to fuel artificial intelligence products and cloud computing. The backlash to the massive server warehouses is enveloping races for governor in some of the nation’s biggest states and presidential battlegrounds."
Source: AP, 08/21/2026Great Waste In The Great Lakes: Plastic Pollution Is Clogging Our Waters
"More than 40 million people in the United States and Canada depend on the Great Lakes for drinking water. Each glass of treated lake water is laden with tiny bits of plastic — microplastics — made of toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases. Also contaminated are fish, staples of Midwestern fish fries and fish boils, and an important part of the diet of Indigenous tribes, certain immigrant populations and communities of color."
Source: Chicago Tribune, 08/21/2026How Trump Is Trying to Crush California’s Environmental Policies
"The Trump administration has taken a series of extraordinary steps to attack California’s position as a national leader in environmental protection, enlisting at least a half-dozen federal agencies to undermine the state’s efforts to pivot away from fossil fuels."
Source: New York Times, 08/21/2026
