Consumer

"In March, a letter to the editor appeared in the Los Angeles Times imploring Congress to take action against a California law that requires farmers provide hogs, calves and chickens with enough room to turn around, lie down and stretch. A chief problem with the law, according to the letter, is that it applies to animals raised in other states if products from those animals are sold into California."

"The Trump administration has fired the two leaders of an influential health group that determines when insurance must provide free preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies, for millions of Americans. In letters dated May 11, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. notified the two doctors who chaired the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that he was terminating their appointments immediately, before the end of their multiyear terms."

"The Trump administration on Thursday loosened federal rules that require grocery stores and air-conditioning companies to reduce greenhouse gases used in cooling equipment, a step that President Donald Trump said would help lower grocery costs."

"The Chesapeake Bay’s blue crabs have clawed their way out of the cellar. The dredge survey conducted last winter by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Virginia Institute of Marine Science found that the Bay’s crab population — especially the young crustaceans — have rebounded from a protracted slump, despite an unusually harsh winter."

"Funding for wildlife crossings has been included in a bipartisan transportation bill that the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee plans to introduce to the House in the coming weeks. The BUILD America 250 Act would invest in roads, bridges and transit infrastructure across the country, as well as fund wildlife crossings through the reauthorization of the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program."

"NextEra Energy agreed to buy Dominion Energy in a roughly $67 billion deal that would create the largest power company in the U.S., underscoring the energy industry’s pursuit of scale and capital to meet growing electricity demand from U.S. tech companies."

"The state of Minnesota has filed a new lawsuit against Maplewood-based 3M, alleging that PFAS from the company’s manufacturing plant in Cottage Grove continue to contaminate groundwater and the Mississippi River."

"Wherever they turn, residents in and around Santa Fe Springs, California, contend with toxic hazards." "Proposed hazardous waste oversight changes are years behind schedule and fail to account for a community’s health risks from pollution, environmental groups warn."

"The findings highlight inflationary pressures on electricity costs in mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states. “The price impacts on customers have been very large and are not reversible,” the grid market monitor said."

"Emergency department visits for tick bites have surged to the highest level for this time of year since 2017, driven by warmer temperatures that are boosting tick activity especially in the Northeast and Midwest."