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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Broad VA Coalition Pushing Climate Action

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Wednesday, February 3, 2016   

RICHMOND, Va. - A broad coalition is pushing Gov. Terry McAuliffe to speed the state's transition away from fossil fuels and interestingly, it's not just environmentalists.

A coalition of 50 groups wrote to the governor asking how his office will implement an Environmental Protection Agency plan to help slow climate change. The signers include civic, health, faith, and environmental groups.

Tram Nguyen is co-executive director of the New Virginia Majority, which often advocates for immigrants and people of color. She says the group became involved because its members are among the first in the state to be hurt by climate change.

"If you look at Hampton Roads and the effects of sea-level rise, oftentimes it's the communities of color, low-income communities in low-lying areas, that don't have the resources to deal with sea-level rise," she says.

A poll done for the Sierra Club last fall found that Virginia voters favor the EPA's Clean Power Plan by two to one. And the Rev. Faith Harris, vice-chair of Virginia Interfaith Power and Light, says there are theological arguments to support it.

She says the Bible is clear that people should care about what happens to their fellow human beings, even those in other parts of the world, and take care of the world itself.

"I worship and respect God also, through the way I care for that which God created and that which God cares about," says Harris.

Nguyen says environmental issues can't be seen separate from everything else. And for many of her group's members, she says the boundaries don't really exist.

"They are able to see the intersection between some of the pollution and the asthma that their children are experiencing, and then their lack of health care to address the asthma," says Nguyen.

Critics of the EPA's Clean Power Plan warn it will slow economic growth and jobs. Nguyen disagrees, and says not taking action to curb climate change is putting profits ahead of people.



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