Supreme Court denies pork industry appeal of animal welfare law
The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a petition to review the case of Triumph Foods, LLC v. Campbell, which sought to override a Massachusetts’ animal welfare law known as Question 3.
massachusetts
States rush to support clean energy as Trump retreats from renewables
Massachusetts is one of many states nationwide with programs that encourage renewable energy development to meet robust greenhouse gas reduction goals. And like Massachusetts, many other states are sharpening their clean energy strategies to navigate the anti-renewable energy policies of the Trump administration.
“How can this happen?” Fight over sewage sludge on farms intensifies
By Marin Scotten
Ryan Dunham heard his eleven-year-old daughter’s scream from his living room. He bolted up the stairs to the bathroom where she was taking a shower and couldn’t believe his eyes. The water flowing from the faucet was brown, and it smelled like “decay, rot and death.”
As Los Angeles fires rage, states battle over effort to make oil and gas industry accountable for climate change harms
By Dana Drugmand
As fires rage through southern California, the costs of extreme weather events linked to climate change are forecast to keep climbing – adding fuel to growing efforts by some US states to make the oil and gas industry liable for helping foot the bill despite looming legal challenges.
Dire threats seen for America’s ‘most endangered’ rivers
By Johnathan Hettinger
Rivers from Arizona to Alaska, Mississippi to Connecticut, and California to the Carolinas face dire threats from climate change, overdevelopment, pollution and water scarcity, according to a new report released by American Rivers this week.
Citing “catastrophic disaster”, small Massachusetts town sues over PCB contamination
By Dana Drugmand
Monsanto and General Electric (GE) engaged in a “criminal corporate action” through a secret 1972 deal that allowed the companies to keep profiting from the sale and use of dangerous PCBs despite knowing the toxins were harmful, according to a lawsuit filed by a small Massachusetts town awash in PCB contamination.
Monsanto’s ‘cancer index’, an alleged conspiracy, and new PCB-related complaints
By Dana Drugmand
The former Monsanto company – now owned by Bayer AG – illegally cut a secret deal with General Electric Co. decades ago to try to shield itself from liability related to PCB contamination in western Massachusetts, engaging in a conspiracy that continues to wreak harm on the region, according to new complaints from local officials.
Dealing with disease and death, a community fights PCB contamination
By Dana Drugmand
PITTSFIELD, Mass — For more than two decades, Nina McDermott was a fixture at Allendale Elementary School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, teaching third grade to young students. Even after being diagnosed with breast cancer and then kidney cancer McDermott kept working, fighting for her life as well as her job – until it became clear that her battle to beat the disease could not be won.
GE, Bayer, blamed for child’s cancer in a community awash in PCB pollution
By Carey Gillam
A Massachusetts mother filed a lawsuit on Tuesday blaming widespread PCB pollution by General Electric (GE), Monsanto and its German owner Bayer AG, and several other companies for causing her 9-year-old son to develop leukemia and suffer repeated debilitating medical treatment.
Farmers face steep crop losses in US Northeast amid summer storms
By Grace van Deelen
While much of the country suffers from extreme heat this summer, the US Northeast has seen excessive rains and extreme flooding, conditions that have decimated crops, drowned livestock, and left farmers struggling.