"The state of Montana is asking the courts to throw out some major Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decisions after a federal judge ousted the agency’s acting director from his post."
"The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) mishandled the distribution of aid in Puerto Rico after two devastating 2017 hurricanes, the agency’s Office of Inspector General said in a report released Thursday."
"The Trump administration says it will comply, for now, with a federal court ruling that blocks William Perry Pendley from continuing to serve as the temporary head of the Bureau of Land Management."
"A federal court ruling that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management had an illegitimate director for more than a year has cast doubt over a slew of the agency’s recently completed efforts to boost oil and gas development on federal lands, according to lawyers and environmental groups."
"The White House has been quietly working in recent weeks to reshape the leadership of NOAA with a goal of criticizing climate science, according to people who were contacted about the job."
"When William Perry Pendley started work today, he did so as something other than the Bureau of Land Management's leader for the first time in 427 days."
Climate change may have made an unexpected appearance at the raucous 2020 presidential debate last night, but it's equally important to quiz state and local candidates on the topic too. The latest TipSheet offers environment and energy journalists a list of 10 key climate change questions to ask in reporting elections in your coverage area.
"An order by the chief judge of the Montana federal court on Friday not only ousted William Perry Pendley as the top official at the Bureau of Land Management but might also invalidate a wide range of decisions he took to open up vast parts of the American west to oil and gas drilling."
More revelations of Trump administration duplicity on the science front, per the new WatchDog opinion column, which reports on a scoop about political appointees trying to warp weekly public health data to ensure they don’t undercut Trump’s political messaging. Oh, and Bob Woodward’s new book affirming the president knew of COVID-19’s dangers early on, but deliberately played them down.
Although the realities of the pandemic may mean fewer state and local ballot measures in the upcoming election — and the presidential contest is drawing much of the spotlight — they can still be potentially fruitful stories for reporters willing to seek them out. Here are eight top ways to track this year’s environment and energy ballot measures, from the latest Reporter’s Toolbox.
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