State
Victims identified in stolen car wreck that caused dangerous chlorine cloud
Sun Herald
Christopher Johnson, 40, who was driving a BMW that had been reported stolen, and passenger Caitlin Dubose, 20, died Saturday night when the car left Palmer Creek Drive in Harrison County, plowed through a fence, hit a metal utility building and veered off into the woods.
...In addition to the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office, Harrison County Fire Services, the Gulfport Fire Department’s HAZMAT team and emergency responders from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality worked the accident.
2 Saucier residents killed after crashing stolen car
WLOX
The small community on Palmer Creek Road was panic ridden after two people died in a car accident around 10 p.m. Saturday night.
...A sea of hazmat crews, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and the Department of Environmental Quality worked to secure the area, remove toxins, and clean up the area.
Mississippi Power to buy $100M solar facility's electricity
AP
MERIDIAN, MISS.
Regulators are approving plans for Mississippi Power Co. to buy electricity from a solar facility to be built in eastern Mississippi.
Mississippi mental health agency to shift workers
AP
Mississippi’s mental health department will begin handing off some direct care workers to regional mental health centers as part of an effort to cut its budget and comply with a federal mandate.
Mississippi universities seek bonds after 2017 brought none
AP
Mississippi's eight public universities thought they had a deal with lawmakers for predictable bond funding each year. But the Legislature didn't do any general borrowing earlier this year. Now, as the universities make their yearly bond request, they're emphasizing the importance of a yearly money infusion to campus operations.
Regional
In the Gulf of Mexico, the world's largest fish species
Times-Picayune
Whale sharks, the largest species of fish in the world, have been known to congregate in the area where the Mississippi River drains into the Gulf of Mexico. Now for the first time, researchers have estimated the regional population of the species.
The Tortoise and the Lair
An unprecedented coalition forges a plan to save one of the most crucial animals in the longleaf pine ecosystem
Garden & Gun
When the fires burn hot, the ground temperatures in a longleaf pine blaze can reach five hundred degrees. The soaring thick-barked pines have evolved to thrive in such an inferno, but not many other trees can take the heat. Maples and sweet gums burn to coals. Oaks char and wither.
National
The Trump administration just disbanded a federal advisory committee on climate change
Washington Post
The Trump administration has decided to disband the federal advisory panel for the National Climate Assessment, a group aimed at helping policymakers and private-sector officials incorporate the government’s climate analysis into long-term planning.
E.P.A. Promised ‘a New Day’ for the Agriculture Industry, Documents Reveal
NY Times
WASHINGTON — In the weeks before the Environmental Protection Agency decided to reject its own scientists’ advice to ban a potentially harmful pesticide, Scott Pruitt, the agency’s head, promised farming industry executives who wanted to keep using the pesticide that it is “a new day, and a new future,” and that he was listening to their pleas.
Old Oil Is New Again
Companies say conventional wells can be profitable, no fracking required
WSJ
From California’s Central Valley to the Native American lands of Oklahoma, more small- and mid-sized oil firms—many backed by private equity—are forgoing expensive shale drilling projects and opting for old-school wells instead.
Asian carp found near Lake Michigan got past barriers
AP
An adult Asian carp found in a Chicago waterway near Lake Michigan this summer began its life far downstream and apparently got around a series of electric barriers intended to keep the invasive species out of the Great Lakes, officials said Friday.
U.S. recommends 3-year prison term for former VW exec
Detroit News
Federal prosecutors are recommending a three-year prison sentence and a $20,000 fine for the former leader of Volkswagen's diesel competence program and pleaded guilty to a criminal charge in September for his role in the automaker’s diesel emissions scandal.
Opinion
How Jeff Sessions is stopping the EPA’s slush fund
BY BENJAMIN ZYCHER
The Hill
Principles are to be found in many places, a blessing in the Beltway where principles are needed on a daily basis. One such principle is enshrined in the appropriations clause of the constitution: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” And here is another principle not found in the constitution: “Punish your enemies and reward your friends.”
The ‘Resistance’ Goes Lower
Green groups are attacking staffers merely for working in Trump’s government.
WSJ
By Kimberley A. Strassel
In a better world, Americans would never hear the name Samantha Dravis. She wouldn’t be pictured on the front page of the New York Times or added to environmentalist “watch lists.”
Press Releases
Transportation of Big Game Harvested in Other States
8/18/2017
From MDWFP
JACKSON – Mississippians traveling out of state to hunt big game this fall need to be aware of a new rule affecting the transport of their trophy. In May 2016, the Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks passed 40 Miss. Admin Code, Part 2, Rule 2.7 Prohibition on Cervid Carcass Importation, to Protect Mississippi from Chronic Wasting Disease. Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a fatal neurological disease that affects cervids and has been found in 24 states and 3 foreign countries. A cervid is a member of the deer family and includes white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, moose, caribou, red deer, sika deer, and fallow deer.
Rule 2.7 states that it is unlawful to import, transport, or possess any portion of a cervid carcass originating from any state, territory, or foreign country where the occurrence of CWD has been confirmed by either the state wildlife agency, state agriculture agency, state veterinarian, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), or the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
This rule shall not apply to the importation of:
§ Meat from cervids that has been completely deboned.
§ Antlers, antlers attached to cleaned skull plates or cleaned skulls where no tissue is attached to the skull.
§ Cleaned teeth.
§ Finished taxidermy and antler products.
§ Hides and tanned products.
§ Any portions of white-tailed deer originating from the land between the Mississippi River levees in Arkansas
As of August 15, 2017, CWD has been confirmed in the following states: Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Additionally, the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, Norway, and South Korea are CWD positive. CWD has not been found in Mississippi.
The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks continues to monitor Mississippi for CWD. They ask for your help by reporting any sick deer you observe. To report a sick deer, please call 601-432-2199.
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