State
Starkville forming ad-hoc recycling committee
Commercial Dispatch
Starkville is putting together an informal recycling committee to review the city's program and look at possible ways to improve it.
Sanitation rates set for increase
Starkville Daily News
Starkville residents can expect to pay more for residential and commercial sanitation rates beginning April 1.
Cleanup Day for local community
WTOK
Impressions are important to Philadelphia Mayor James Young. He says a beautiful city is part of that.
Countywide cleanup day being planned by county, cities
Picayune Item
Company is coming and it’s time to clean up.
That was the message shared Tuesday morning during a meeting of civic, business and government leaders as they formulated a plan for next month’s Great American Clean-Up Day.
Vicksburg leaders prepare for Mississippi River flooding
WLBT
The Mississippi River is rising in Vicksburg, and it’s creating flooding concerns for residents.
Senate approves bill extending duck hunting season
WLOX
The U.S. Senate approved a resolution package Tuesday that could extend duck hunting season to January 31st. The package would also include special hunts for military, veterans and youths.
State Government
Mississippi tweaking pension rule for elected officials
AP
Retired Mississippi government employees who win legislative seats this year could be paid for legislative work while continuing to collect pension benefits. That is according to a new rule the state pension system is on track to adopt.
AG Hood warns state workers of paycheck scam
NewsMS
Attorney General Jim Hood is warning Mississippi employees that scammers are targeting them in attempt to reroute directs deposits of employees’ pay to another bank account.
Oil Spill
How the BP oil spill settlement could help bald eagles and brown pelicans in Louisiana
Daily Advertiser
Audubon Louisiana wants more than $1.4 billion of the settlement money from BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill to be spent on restoration projects along the state's Gulf Coast.
Regional
Mississippi River diversion project will protect critical bird habitats, Audubon Society says
The Advocate
The National Audubon Society has deemed the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, a $1.3 billion Mississippi River diversion planned for lower Plaquemines Parish, a key project necessary to protect and restore bird populations along the U.S. Gulf Coast, according to a new report from the environmental-advocacy group.
Alabama coal firm to pay $775K in air pollution penalties
AP
One of Alabama's largest coal companies has agreed to pay $775,000 in penalties related to air pollution violations near Birmingham.
Stan Meiburg Assumes EMC Chairmanship
Coastal Review Online
RALEIGH — The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality announced Monday that former Environmental Protection Agency deputy administrator Stanley “Stan” Meiburg has taken over as chairman of the state’s Environmental Management Commission.
National
EPA greenhouse gas estimates show increase in methane
The Hill
Methane emissions from oil and natural gas in the U.S. grew by 0.5 percent in 2017, according to new data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Court tosses challenge to EPA's exclusion of certain scientists from advisory boards
The Hill
A federal judge Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) policy of removing scientists with EPA grants from its advisory boards.
Black mold, rats and lead: Survey of military families paints slum-like picture of housing on U.S. bases
Washington Post
For thousands of service members and their families, military housing is decrepit, dangerous and inescapable, according to survey results released Wednesday by an armed services advisory organization.
Senate Passes a Sweeping Land Conservation Bill
NYT
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday passed a sweeping public lands conservation bill, designating more than one million acres of wilderness for environmental protection and permanently reauthorizing a federal program to pay for conservation measures.
US crude oil production expected to hit records this year and next
The Hill
U.S. oil production is anticipated to break records in the next two years — and prices are primed to increase slightly, according to an energy study released Tuesday.
Opinion
Our last chance to save the Gulf
BY DAVID YARNOLD, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
The Hill
In the last decade, the Gulf Coast has been slimed by the worst oil spill in U.S. history, slammed by increasingly volatile hurricanes, eroded by rising seas and hit with toxic red tide.
Today, in the face of continuing natural and man-made disasters, the Gulf Coast states are embarking on the largest ecosystem restoration effort ever attempted anywhere.
