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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Conservation Scorecard Raises Public Health Questions for WYO

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Thursday, March 3, 2011   

CASPER, Wyo. - Public health, energy policy and the environment were voted on specifically more than 20 times when the U.S. House recently approved a new spending bill, according to a new scorecard from the national League of Conservation Voters. Votes on specific issues were tracked, and because the League is pro-environment, scores reflect decisions made along those lines.

Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis received a "zero," as did many other western Republican Congressmen.

Alex Taurel, legislative representative for the League, explains the problem with that score by pointing to one amendment that prevents the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating mercury pollution from cement plants, even though mercury is a documented neurotoxin.

"You've got Washington politicians saying, 'We're somehow more qualified than EPA scientists to figure out what's the appropriate level for mercury pollution.'"

Debate on the bill focused on tough decisions to lower federal spending in order to reduce the federal deficit. Taurel says decisions allowing more pollution in the water and air are shortsighted for states closely tied to traditional energy production, however. While decisions to lift pollution controls were touted as a way to boost business and the economy, he argues that the end result will be the opposite.

"More people will go to the hospital. More people will be missing work. All of that has economic consequences. We need to think about those sorts of impacts, especially at a time when our economy is struggling to get out of a recession."

Nationwide, 74 Representatives scored "zero" and 86 scored 100 percent. The complete scorecard is available at www.lcv.org.





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