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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.

New Governor's Mansion Garden Highlights Ozone Pollution

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Tuesday, November 12, 2019   

RALEIGH, N.C. — A garden planted in front of the North Carolina Governor's Mansion uses certain plants to make pedestrians aware of odorless and invisible ozone pollution.

Pamela Grundy is a volunteer with the nonprofit organization Clean Air Carolina and helped spearhead the garden. She said breathing ozone irritates the lungs. Yet unlike smog or other types of air pollution, most people are unaware of its presence.

"An ozone garden is a garden that helps people understand the effects of ozone,” Grundy said. “By looking at the damage that ozone does over the course of an ozone season to plants, you can visualize what that problem is."

Ozone is especially dangerous to vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly and people with existing respiratory problems. According to a report by the American Lung Association, Charlotte and Concord are two North Carolina cities that have seen an increase in ozone pollution over the past few years.

Grundy pointed out that while all plants, including agricultural crops, are susceptible to ozone, special plants called bioindicators allow us to see clear patterns of ozone damage.

"Those include cutleaf coneflower - we like to use those in our ozone gardens because they're big and they're pretty and they show the damage very well,” she said. “But also things like pawpaws, spice bushes, milkweed; there are a lot of plants that will show this distinctive kind of damage."

She said she hopes the ozone garden will spur people into thinking about how air quality affects both human health and the environment.

"Having it at the executive mansion, and particularly in the place where it is, which is outside the gates, where people walk by all the time, so, it's nice to have that in such a prominent place,” Grundy said.

Co-sponsored by Clean Air Carolina, Audubon North Carolina and The Butterfly Highway, the garden also features native plants providing food and resting spots for birds and pollinators.

Disclosure: Clean Air Carolina contributes to our fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, Energy Policy, Environment, Environmental Justice. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


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