State
MDEQ Lifts Beach Water Contact Advisory in Hancock County
WXXV
(Jackson, Miss.) – MDEQ lifted a water contact advisory Friday for Station 4 (Bay St. Louis Beach) in Hancock County.
Just how likely are you to be bitten or die from a venomous snake encounter in MS?
Clarion Ledger
Photographs of people with snakes they've killed always draw reactions on social media. People comment about how it could have bitten someone and inevitably someone comments that it could have killed someone.
State Government
Mississippi National Guard unit has first female battalion leader
AP
The Mississippi National Guard’s largest unit has its first female battalion commander.
The mayor of Diamondhead has died. ‘He was a tireless advocate for the city.’
Sun Herald
Diamondhead Mayor Tommy Schafer died on Friday in Louisiana from surgery complications, according to a release from the city manager.
Oil Spill
Seafloor damage from BP spill vastly underestimated in rush for legal settlement
NOLA.com
After BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, 2010, Paul Montagna was given the job of rushing into the blackened seas to find out how much harm the nation’s biggest oil disaster was doing to the creatures on the sea bottom — the tiny, barely understood and rarely seen organisms that quite literally form the foundation of the Gulf’s ecosystem.
Regional
Florida blocks oyster harvesting as court mulls Georgia water case
AJC
Florida officials on Saturday will begin enforcing a ban on oyster harvesting in the Apalachicola Bay as the state tries to protect the iconic region while it hashes out a long-running water dispute with Georgia at the U.S. Supreme Court.
5,000 Burmese pythons removed from Florida Everglades
Fox News
Florida wildlife officials announced last week that 5,000 invasive Burmese pythons have been removed from the delicate Everglades ecosystem since setting up elimination programs three years ago.
National
At EPA, coronavirus disrupts research and raises questions over air quality impact
McClatchy
A research vessel that has collected data on the Great Lakes for 30 years will remain docked this summer. Government scientists studying the emissions of heavy-duty diesel trucks do not have access to their labs. And Andrew Wheeler, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is no longer signing critical regulations by hand.
Manufacturers to phase out sales of food packaging containing 'forever' chemical
The Hill
Three food manufacturers whose packaging contains a type of PFAS chemical will phase it out from their packaging over the next few years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Friday.
As crews dig up lead-poisoned dirt, accelerated cleanup of Pueblo Superfund site cast as EPA model
Denver Post
PUEBLO — For more than a decade, the Gonzales family ate chilis, cucumbers and tomatoes grown in a garden behind their house in the low-income Bessemer neighborhood, where industrial smelters a century ago belched pollution.
Smaller Nuclear Plants May Come With Less Stringent Safety Rules
NPR
For more than a half century, nuclear power has been focused on one kind of plant: a huge, complicated, expensive facility, with armed guards, located away from cities and next to a river.
Refiners Retrench as Demand For Gasoline, Jet Fuel Shrivels
WSJ
U.S. fuel makers slashed production during the second quarter as they reeled from a historic decline in demand for gasoline and jet fuel.
'Murder hornet' trapped for first time in Washington state, experts say
Fox News
Nearly four months after the murder hornet first appeared in the U.S., researchers at the Washington State Department of Agriculture have trapped the irate insect for the first time in the state.
Opinion
Security of Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi at risk: Opinion
Jen Sidorova and Jameson Taylor
Guest Columnists
Hattiesburg American
The long-term financial stability of the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi could be at risk. Despite a historic bull market run, PERS fell $9 billion further into debt to public employees over the past decade, reaching a record-high $18 billion in accrued, yet unfunded, pension benefits prior to the global pandemic.
Press Releases
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries Propose Regulatory Definition of Habitat Under Endangered Species Act
Changes would improve clarity around description of habitat, address Supreme Court ruling
July 31, 2020
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service have proposed a regulatory definition of the term “habitat” that would be used in the context of critical habitat designations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
