The Society of Environmental Journalists has written EPA again, asking that its press shop stop distortions, ethically questionable treatment of journalists and appropriation of partisan news for official press releases. That, plus an update on the SEJ’s executive director search, in the latest President’s Report.
A veteran freelancer struggles with tax season in the wake of an unexpected personal tragedy. But as she makes her way through a forest of forms, she offers a series of tips and observations for fellow independents, in the return of our regular Freelance Files column.
They may not be the sexiest topics on the environmental agenda. But building codes and zoning can become a matter of life and death when natural disasters strike. This week’s TipSheet runs down the reporting challenge when floods, earthquakes and wildfires threaten your coverage area.
"An EPA survey of drinking water utilities revealed that they need nearly half a trillion dollars in infrastructure upgrades during the next two decades."
"Former Texas Comptroller Susan Combs, who has a long history of sparring with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over species listings, has been appointed to a key Trump administration post overseeing policy for the wildlife agency and national parks."
"Nearly a third of the senior Interior Department (DOI) career officials reassigned under Secretary Ryan Zinke in a major agency reshuffling are Native American, even though Native Americans make up less than 10 percent of the Department’s workforce, a review by TPM has found."
"In its latest legal salvo against California, the Department of Justice announced Monday it is filing suit against what it branded an “extreme’’ state law that tries to give California power to veto sales of federal land to private interests."
"National Park Service officials have deleted every mention of humans’ role in causing climate change in drafts of a long-awaited report on sea level rise and storm surge, contradicting Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s vow to Congress that his department is not censoring science."
"As unusually warm ocean water melts the ice from below, the glaciers' grounding lines are receding fast, bolstering fears of worst-case sea level rise."
"Hurricane Harvey damaged more than 204,000 homes and apartment buildings in Harris County, almost three-quarters of them outside the federally regulated 100-year flood plain, leaving tens of thousands of homeowners uninsured and unprepared."
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