Thursday, May 21, 2020

News Clippings May 21, 2020

State

Water and sewer work resume near Biloxi Cemetery after two-year halt
WLOX

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) -Following a two-year halt, work on new water and sewer lines near the Biloxi City Cemetery resumed on Wednesday.

Pontotoc Aldermen award sewer rehab project
Pontotoc Progress

At a recessed board meeting last week Pontotoc Aldermen unanimously approved a motion awarding a sewer rehab project to Suncoast Infrastructure, Inc., of Florence, Alabama. 

New app evaluates feral hog damage
Delta Farm Press

With a few clicks of a button, farmers can use Mississippi State University's new app to map out where feral hogs have been as well as assess the cost from the damage.


State Government

Judge Nominated as Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner
AP

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Court of Appeals Judge Sean Tindell of Gulfport is in line to become the new public safety commissioner in Mississippi.

Ex-Louisiana warden chosen to lead Mississippi prisons
AP

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Wednesday that he is nominating a former warden of Louisiana’s Angola prison to take charge of the Mississippi prison system that is under federal investigation and has struggled for years with tight budgets, short staffing and shoddy living conditions.

Lieutenant Governor announces lawmakers back in session May 26th
WLBT

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - State lawmakers will return to the Capitol May 26th - that word from Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann.

PORT OF GULFPORT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RESIGNS
WXXV

Jonathan Daniels, the executive director and CEO of the Port of Gulfport, has resigned his position in Mississippi to take a similar position in Florida.


Regional

Cities find green ways to reduce storm floods
AP

NEW ORLEANS — For more than a century, New Orleans has depended on canals and pumps to get rid of stormwater in a city where about half the land is below sea level.

EPA finds elevated lead in soil at two Hamilton Co. schools; cleanup not necessary per EPA
WTVC

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Chattanooga’s industrial past is still harming families today with eight neighborhoods are on the EPA’s National Superfund Site for toxic lead. The EPA and TDEC discovered lead contamination in the soil in 2016.


National

EPA's Wheeler grilled by Democrats over environmental rollbacks amid COVID-19
The Hill

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler defended the agency’s rollback of Obama-era regulations from criticism from Democratic senators at a Wednesday hearing. 

Our Pandemic Habits Cut Carbon Emissions, But It's Not Clear They'll Last
NPR

With businesses closed and people at home the country is using a lot less energy and emitting fewer of the greenhouse gases that warm the climate.

New York Town Discovers a Possibly Toxic Problem
WSJ

A small city in upstate New York has become the latest place to contend with the disposal of toxic “forever chemicals” that the U.S. military has been trying to destroy, as concerns grow that such chemicals contribute to air pollution.

Americans Are Cooking More Seafood, but Fishermen Are Struggling
WSJ

The coronavirus crisis is hitting seafood businesses even harder than the meat industry, prompting fishermen and processors to overhaul their operations and look for new customers.
U.S. supermarket shoppers are buying more fish and shellfish to prepare at home during quarantine, but business owners say the rise isn’t enough to offset the loss of sales to restaurants, where 70% of seafood is consumed, according to market-research firm Urner Barry.

These before and after images show how much a Michigan dam failure drained a lake
CNN

Videos and images captured by witnesses show just how much water was unleashed when Michigan's Edenville Dam failed.

Florida’s Grayton Beach No. 1 in top-10 US list
AP

The sand along the coast of Grayton Beach State Park is so unique, some say it speaks to you.


Press Releases

Lab Director Imprisoned for Falsifying Water Sampling
Baker Donelson
Michael T. Dawkins

If a company or a laboratory has purposefully misrepresented to regulators the chemicals or contaminants tested for or the levels of those constituents detected by the testing, regulators may seek criminal prosecution of the responsible parties.