When two towns — one an affluent suburb and the other a poor rural community — faced similar air pollution crises, lopsided government action made clear there was an underlying race and class divide. Reporter Sharon Lerner shares the story behind her award-winning reporting that tells the “Tale of Two Toxic Cities,” in our latest Inside Story Q&A.
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"You can now see how coronavirus lockdowns have changed air pollution, hospital lights and even white asparagus harvests."
"Cleaner, quieter, cheaper Postal Service vehicles — if Mitch McConnell allows them"
"The White House on Friday announced its intention to formally nominate William Perry Pendley to be the director of the Bureau of Land Management, which he has directed in an acting capacity for nearly a year."
"The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will not take up Douglas Benevento’s nomination for the No. 2 position at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) announced her opposition."
"Last fall, European Space Agency satellites detected huge plumes of the invisible planet-warming gas methane leaking from the Yamal pipeline that carries natural gas from Siberia to Europe."
"Chesapeake Energy, the shale gas drilling pioneer that helped to turn the United States into a global energy powerhouse, has filed for bankruptcy protection." "The Oklahoma City-based company helped turn the US into a global energy powerhouse but ran up huge debts in the process".
"Beneath a searing Louisiana sun, a crowd gathers on a former sugar cane plantation to commemorate Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States. Rows of unmarked graves stand nearby—believed to be the resting place of those who’d been enslaved on the plantation. A few people, clad in face masks, hold up a banner: Honoring Our Ancestors. Another sign, staked into the grass, is aimed not at the past, but at the future: FORMOSA: YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE."
"NPR's Rachel Martin talks to Rebekah Jones, a scientist who was fired from Florida's health department, who is now publishing a coronavirus dashboard of her own to track the state's COVID-19 cases."
