The approval of a new factory just outside the Great Lakes Basin could mark the beginning of a manufacturing revitalization that relies on draining millions of gallons of water from the lakes. [node:read-more:link]

Philadelphia has long struggled with stormwater that sends massive amounts of polluted runoff into nearby rivers. Rather than spending nearly $10 billion it didn’t have on a new 30-mile-long tunnel, the city is investing a fraction of that on thousands of “green” infrastructure sites. And the strategy is paying off, Bruce Stutz reports in Yale Environment 360.The city is seven years into a 25-year project designed to reduce 85% Philadelphia’s combined sewer overflows by 85% under an agreement with the EPA, Stutz explained. [node:read-more:link]

A federal judge dismissed Exxon Mobil Corp.’s attempt to stop the attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts from investigating its alleged fraud regarding what company officials knew about climate change and when. [node:read-more:link]

Nebraska’s economy has remained relatively strong, but recent growth has been slower. Measures of economic output and employment growth both slowed through 2017 alongside historically low levels of unemployment. Tightening labor markets likely have contributed to some of the recent slowdown as wage gains in Nebraska also have continued to accelerate. Though unemployment has remained low across the state, economic activity in rural areas has continued to weaken alongside persistently low agricultural commodity prices. [node:read-more:link]

I’m exhausted by the overwhelming negative responses the topic evokes in so many people. A few weeks ago, like thousands of other scientists around the globe have done before, I stood up in front of a public audience and “defended” my Ph.D. thesis to a jury of senior scientists. My time in GMO research creating virus-resistant plants has meant dealing with the overwhelming negative responses the topic evokes in so many people. [node:read-more:link]

A federal district judge in the Southern District of Iowa recently allowed a First Amendment challenge to the state’s “Ag Gag” law to go forward.  The law, passed in 2012, makes “agricultural production facility fraud” a crime.  A person is guilty of this charge if he or she willfully obtains access to an agricultural production facility by false pretenses or makes a false statement as part of an application or employment agreement with the intent to commit an act not authorized by the owner of the agricultural production facility.  The lawsuit, filed in October 2017 by several animal right [node:read-more:link]

Tech giant Microsoft is working to eliminate the broadband gap in rural areas, but the company needs rural residents' help to accomplish that goal.  While the private sector can play a leading role in closing the rural broadband gap, the public sector also needs to play a part, she said. [node:read-more:link]

The Farm BIll reports are the culmination of a year-long process by FBLE partners to study the farm bill and develop concrete recommendations that will advance shared public values.Researching, writing, and publishing these joint recommendations advances our mission to work together across disciplines toward a farm bill that meets the long-term needs of our society, including public resources stewardship, economic opportunity and stability, public health and nutrition, and fair access and equal protection under the law.Each report presents a set of recommendations along a particular theme, [node:read-more:link]

In the latest peer-reviewed publication on the potential impacts of a border wall on plants and animals, conservation biologists say that border walls threaten to harm endangered Texas plants and animals and cause trouble for the region's growing ecotourism industry. [node:read-more:link]

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has appointed a lawmaker to be the state's new agriculture commissioner. #Rep. Andy Gipson will succeed fellow Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith once she moves to the U.S. Senate. He will serve the rest of the current commissioner's term, which ends in January 2020. [node:read-more:link]