State
Lafayette Middle School awarded recycling grant after 5-year process
Oxford Eagle
Five years ago, Lafayette Middle School sixth grade teacher Joanna Porter realized how much paper was being wasted around the school building.
Canton High receives $1K recycling grant
Madison County Journal
Canton High School, in conjunction with Keep Canton Beautiful, recently received a grant from the Mississippi Recycling Coalition to further recycling efforts on the school’s campus.
CLEVELAND LOSES EARTH DAY GRANT
Bolivar Commercial
For many years, Cleveland has sponsored an Earth Day event where county residents can turn in hazardous materials such as paint, electronics, appliances and tires; this year the event has been canceled.
The reason for the cancelation is lack of funding from a grant usually awarded to the city.
Supervisor proposes unified waste collection in county
Picayune Item
The possibility of the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors forming a unified garbage collection system was discussed this week.
Keeping Noxubee Refuge clean: Volunteers, visitors pitch in to keep trash from piling up during shutdown
Commercial Dispatch
Lana Taylor visits the Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee Wildlife Refuge about once a week.
Taylor enjoys wildlife photography, but she took a picture of a different scene when she visited the refuge on Sunday morning. She saw a group of young adults, in two kayaks, picking up litter in the early morning hours. She briefly talked to the volunteers before snapping their picture.
State Government
End of 2018 Revenue Report is out and the numbers are up
Y’all Politics blog
The December 2018 revenue report is out and collections are up for the end of the year.
Total revenue collections for the month of December FY 2019 are $40,980,914 or 8.50% above the sine die revenue estimate.
Sen. Wicker named chairman of commerce committee; Sen. Hyde-Smith expands assignments
WLOX
U.S. Senator Roger Wicker was named Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Wednesday.
Regional
Tire redemption a big hit; thousands left to give
WMC
Thursday marks day two of the city of Memphis’s tire redemption program.
National
Trump nominates acting EPA head, an ex-coal lobbyist, to run agency
Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler to run the agency permanently, the White House said, placing a former energy lobbyist at the helm of the nation’s top environmental regulator.
Shutdown Means E.P.A. Pollution Inspectors Aren’t on the Job
NYT
WASHINGTON — 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.
Fiat Chrysler to pay around $650M in emissions cheating case
AP
Fiat Chrysler will pay more than $650 million to settle allegations of cheating on emissions tests.
Utilities Speed Up Closure of Coal-Fired Power Plants
WSJ
Just last summer, Northern Indiana Public Service Co. planned to retire two of its five remaining coal-fired power plants by 2023. Now, it plans to do away with all of them over the next decade, and buy more solar and wind power instead.
Oral-B Glide floss tied to potentially toxic PFAS chemicals, study suggests
USA Today
Using Oral-B Glide dental floss might be associated with higher levels of toxic PFAS chemicals in your body, according to a new peer-reviewed study of consumer behaviors potentially linked to the substances.
Trump administration to restaff key wildlife refuges to continue hunts
The Hill
The Trump administration plans to restaff 38 wildlife refuges during the government shutdown in order to continue to provide “opportunities, including hunting," according to an internal email obtained by The Hill.
Put Down the Kombucha and Pick Up a Crossbow: Hipsters Are the New Hunters
Want organic, sustainable meat? Kill it yourself, say veteran hunters trying to appeal to the next generation of recruits to keep the sport alive
WSJ
BOGART, Ga.—A group of veteran hunters set out last month in a forest northeast of Atlanta with apprentices. Among them, a former vegetarian, a Haitian-born grad student and a farmers-market manager. They wore camouflage and carried crossbows.
Press releases
Speaker Gunn Announces Appointments to Gulf Coast Restoration Fund
Wednesday, Speaker Philip Gunn announced his appointments of Greg Cronin and Jim Simpson to the Gulf Coast Restoration Fund, a trust fund established to help determine the allocation of monies collected from the Deep Water Horizon settlement.
Vicksburg, Miss. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Vicksburg District activated its Emergency Operations Center to “emergency watch” status Jan. 3 due to forecasted high water on the Mississippi River and its tributaries.
