"WASHINGTON — On the fourth floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the staff of the White House chief technology officer has been virtually deleted, down from 24 members before the election to, by Friday, only one."
"Within hours of moving by executive order to dismantle U.S. actions on the climate change crisis, the Trump Administration asked a federal court to stand down on pending litigation over the Clean Power Plan. The legal salvo could keep regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel power plants in limbo for the foreseeable future."
"Children with elevated blood-lead levels at age 11 ended up as adults with lower cognitive function and lower-status occupations than their parents, according to new research that offers one of the clearest looks yet at the potential long-term health impact of the potent neurotoxin."
"The number of Chinook salmon predicted to return to the Klamath River on the California-Oregon border this fall fishing season is around 11,000 fish. That is the lowest number in recorded history. Coho salmon is already listed under the Endangered Species Act in California and Oregon."
"The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a new, more detailed plan for laying off 25 percent of its employees and scrapping 56 programs including pesticide safety, water runoff control, and environmental cooperation with Mexico and Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement."
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's scientific integrity watchdog is reviewing whether EPA chief Scott Pruitt violated the agency's policies when he said in a television interview he does not believe carbon dioxide is driving global climate change, according to an email seen by Reuters on Friday."
The National Press Foundation is offering all-expenses-paid fellowships for a four-day training program for journalists, Jun 18-21 in Washington, DC. Issues to be examined: how proposed budget cuts and changes at the U.S. EPA and elsewhere could affect the environment; water use out West; the latest scientific research on the environment; the outlook for clean energy and climate treaties; how to find and use the best data to underscore your reporting on the environment; and more. Apply by Apr 24.
"Japan's whaling fleet returned on Friday from its months-long Antarctic hunt in the name of scientific research with a take of more than 300 minke whales, a hunt that prompted complaints from Australia."
"General Electric and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are battling over the last stretch of the PCB clean-up of the Housatonic River in Massachusetts from Pittsfield through Great Barrington."
"Manatees were taken off the U.S. Interior Department's list of endangered species on Thursday and reclassified as threatened, a move condemned by conservationists who say it weakens protections for the giant marine mammal, also known as a sea cow."
