State
City meets deadline
Northside Sun
WDAM
Former dump causes bump in Oxford’s new activity center plan
Oxford Eagle
Grant program awards 35 recycling bins to Keep Oxford/Lafayette County Beautiful
Oxford Eagle
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday passed numerous spending bills — full of large budget cuts to many agencies — on to its full chamber as the 2017 Mississippi legislative session enters its final few weeks and lawmakers get down to dickering on a more than $6 billion state budget.
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/09/state-budget-cuts/98964976/ Government offices prepare for water shutdown Mississippi Today
Nobody uses the expression “where the carbon black meets the road,” in part because tires are mostly rubber. But tires would be very different without this crucial additive.
For one thing, they wouldn’t be black: Natural rubber tends to come in shades that evoke maple syrup. More important, tires wouldn’t be nearly as durable without carbon black, a powdery petroleum derivative that makes up 30% of a typical car tire. It has had this important “filler” role for more than a century.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/making-tire-filler-from-eggshells-1489093113 U.S. Infrastructure Gets ‘D+’ Grade From Civil Engineers Getting roads, bridges and other structures to a safe, functioning level would cost $4.59 trillion over the next decade, American Society of Civil Engineers says WSJ
American infrastructure has barely maintained a below-standard grade of “D+” over the last four years, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-infrastructure-gets-d-grade-from-civil-engineers-1489069827 Opinion
We Thought We Would Hit Your Sweet Spot George Shultz and James Baker, each a former secretary of the Treasury and of the State Department, take issue with the Journal’s Feb. 25 editorial “The Carbon Tax Chimera.” WSJ
It’s hard to believe that the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal would oppose a conservative, free-market, revenue-neutral, limited-government, internationally competitive approach to the potential threat of climate change that would eliminate the heavy hand of government regulation by the EPA—and is supported by many of America’s major oil- and gas-producing companies. But that’s exactly what the board did in its Feb. 25 editorial “
The Carbon Tax Chimera.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/we-thought-we-would-hit-your-sweet-spot-1489089073 Press releases
USDA Seeks Project Proposals to Protect and Restore Critical Wetlands
WASHINGTON, March 9, 2017 - Acting Deputy Agriculture Secretary Michael Young today announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing up to $15 million in technical and financial assistance to help eligible conservation partners voluntarily protect, restore and enhance critical wetlands on agricultural lands. Restored wetlands improve water quality downstream and improve wildlife habitat, while also providing flood prevention and recreational benefits to communities.
Funding will be provided through the Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership (WREP), part of the
Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), a Farm Bill conservation program. The partnership is administered by USDA’s
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the leading federal agency for wetland conservation on private lands. Through WREP, states, local units of governments, non-governmental organizations and American Indian tribes collaborate with NRCS through cooperative and partnership agreements. These partners work with tribal and private landowners who voluntarily enroll eligible land into easements to protect, restore and enhance wetlands on their properties.
“These strong, locally led partnerships help improve water quality, prevent flooding, enhance wildlife habitat and provide landowners the financial resources needed to voluntarily conserve our lands,” Young said.
Easements enable landowners to adopt a variety of conservation practices that improve the function and condition of wetlands. The voluntary nature of NRCS' easement programs enables effective integration of wetland restoration on working landscapes, providing benefits to farmers and ranchers who enroll in the program, as well as benefits to the local and rural communities where the wetlands exist.
This year, NRCS is encouraging partners to propose projects that focus on improving water quality as well as habitat on working landscapes in high-priority areas, ranging from the sagebrush of the West to the Chesapeake Bay. A number of at-risk species rely on wetlands, including the American black duck, bog turtle, wood turtle, spotted turtle, Blandings turtle and greater sage-grouse as well as a variety of mussel and fish species.
Proposals must be submitted to NRCS state offices by April 24, 2017. More information is available on the
ACEP webpage.
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