WASHINGTON — Cyberattacks against water utilities across the country are becoming more frequent and more severe, the Environmental Protection Agency warned Monday as it issued an enforcement alert urging water systems to take immediate actions to protect the nation’s drinking water. About 70% of utilities inspected by federal officials over the last year violated standards … Read more
ST. LOUIS — The Environmental Protection Agency distributed about $3 billion to states last year to replace harmful lead pipes based on unverified data, according to an agency inspector general’s memo, likely meaning some states got too much money and others got too little. Investigators found two states had submitted inaccurate data, the memo dated … Read more
The U.S. government has a specialized plane loaded with advanced sensors that officials brag is always ready to deploy within an hour of any kind of chemical disaster. But the plane didn’t fly over eastern Ohio until four days after the disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment there last year. A whistleblower told The Associated Press that … Read more
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday that he has signed a new law regulating transgender people’s use of bathrooms, locker rooms and dormitories in public education buildings, making Mississippi at least the 12th state to restrict transgender students from using facilities that align with their gender identity. Reeves criticized a federal regulation … Read more
ATLANTA — Georgia’s governor on Thursday signed a bill putting new regulations on the production and sale of products containing kratom, a plant-based supplement. The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, prohibits the sale of kratom to anyone under 21 and says it must be kept behind a counter or in a display area that … Read more
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it has finalized a ban on consumer uses of methylene chloride, a chemical that is widely used as a paint stripper but is known to cause liver cancer and other health problems. The EPA said its action will protect Americans from health risks while allowing certain commercial … Read more
ALBANY, N.Y. — It’s now illegal to sell weight-loss and muscle-building supplements to minors in New York, under a first-in-the-nation law that went into effect this week. Experts say loose federal regulation of dietary supplements has resulted in these products sometimes including unapproved ingredients, like steroids and heavy metals, putting kids at risk. The U.S. … Read more
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s administration is indefinitely delaying a long-awaited menthol cigarette ban, a decision that infuriated anti-smoking advocates but could avoid a political backlash from Black voters in November. In a statement Friday, Biden’s top health official gave no timeline for issuing the rule, saying only that the administration would take more time … Read more
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Republican attorneys general from 17 states filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging new federal rules entitling workers to time off and other accommodations for abortions, calling the rules an illegal interpretation of a 2022 federal law. The lawsuit led by Tennessee and Arkansas comes since finalized federal regulations were published on Monday … Read more
WASHINGTON — Coal-fired power plants would be forced to capture smokestack emissions or shut down under a rule issued Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency. New limits on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric plants are the Biden administration’s most ambitious effort yet to roll back planet-warming pollution from the power sector, the nation’s … Read more
