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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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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.

EPA Officially Minimizes Role of Science in Rulemaking

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Wednesday, January 6, 2021   

CONCORD, N.H. - The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized a new rule that says certain types of public-health studies can no longer be considered in making federal regulations - studies that underpin many of the current rules that protect air, land and water from pollution and toxic chemicals. It's seen as a major concession to big business, and comes at the tail end of Donald Trump's presidency.

Catherine Corkery, director and senior organizing representative for the Sierra Club's New Hampshire chapter, said she expects the Biden administration to reverse it.

"This is a travesty and totally unacceptable," she said, "and we are counting down the days of the end of this administration."

The current EPA is moving to exclude any public-health studies that contain personal medical data, saying the goals are to ease the regulatory burden on manufacturing and protect privacy. However, the agency already masks private data in its publications.

Corkery said public-health studies have been crucial to regulations that have lowered air pollution significantly in states such as New Hampshire, with one of the highest asthma rates in the country.

"These have proven to work," she said. "We have fewer cases of asthma and chronic diseases because of those improvements."

Conservation groups have argued that many important air-pollution rules under the Clean Air Act never would have come to pass without research such as the 1990 "Harvard Six Cities" study, which relied on personal medical data - stripped of identifying information - to link air pollution to higher death rates.


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The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

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Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

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Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

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Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

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Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

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New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

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Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

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Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

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