"National Hurricane Center staff would normally be working on forecast improvements: 'We can't do any research and development for the next hurricane season.'"
"Training has been halted for thousands of western firefighters. The U.S. Forest Service can’t award contracts for needed equipment. In forests across the West, no federal employees are doing work to reduce dry “fuel” that feeds catastrophic blazes."
"Even as a partial shutdown halts the functions of many U.S. government departments, forcing the Department of the Interior to close national parks, the Trump administration is continuing to push for the expansion of oil drilling on sensitive, federally owned lands in Arctic Alaska."
"The Food and Drug Administration has stopped routine food safety inspections of seafood, fruits, vegetables and many other foods at high risk of contamination because of the federal government’s shutdown, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the agency’s commissioner, said on Wednesday."
"U.S. President Donald Trump cannot withhold disaster relief once an emergency has been declared, federal statutes show, despite the Republican’s tweet on Wednesday that he had ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to cease helping victims of last year’s California wildfires."
"Big-box retailers such as Lowe’s and Home Depot have already dropped it amid a public outcry over fatalities".
"President Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated Andrew Wheeler as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, setting him up to permanently fill a position the former coal lobbyist has held in an acting role since July."
"The two-week-old shutdown has halted one of the federal government’s most important public health activities, the inspections of chemical factories, power plants, oil refineries, water treatment plants, and thousands of other industrial sites for pollution violations."
Journalists: Interested in covering a developing story on water contamination? Denmark (S.C.) Citizens for Safe Water is organizing an event including mass water distribution to the citizens of Denmark, free food trucks and celebrity speakers.
"George, the last of his species of Hawaiian land snail, died on New Year's Day. He was approximately 14 years old."
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