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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.

Clean Water Blueprint Upheld

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Tuesday, March 1, 2016   

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania's newly-revised plan to clean up roughly 19,000 miles of rivers and streams got a major boost from the the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.

The American Farm Bureau Federation and others had asked the high court to hear their challenge to the Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Blueprint, calling it a "land grab" by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

William C. Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), says denying that request means a unanimous Federal Appeals Court decision in Harrisburg upholding the plan stands.

"Now the Supreme Court has ruled, we can finally move on," says Baker. "And the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, for one, would like to reach out to the litigants and urge them to work with us."

Each state in the Chesapeake Bay watershed worked with the EPA to formulate its own plan to meet water quality standards by 2025.

Jon Mueller, CBF's vice president for litigation, believes the decision shows it is possible for the federal and state governments to cooperate in developing commonsense, science-based limits for pollution.

"And that EPA can give to the states the authority that they have to develop plans to meet those goals, in a way that is specific to their particular needs for that state," says Mueller.

Litigation over the Clean Water Blueprint took five years, and the effort to reduce pollution is already off by 29 million pounds, most of it coming from Pennsylvania.

Baker points out it isn't just about cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.

"It's really all about cleaning up Pennsylvania's rivers and streams for the benefit of Pennsylvania, and that also helps the bay downstream," he says.

The cleanup will be costly. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation says the state will need to allocate significant new funds to meet its goals, but stands to reap more than $6 billion a year in natural benefits if the blueprint goal is achieved.




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