Flint’s lead water crisis part of infrastructure conference

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder addresses attendees of the Water Infrastructure Conference at the Riverfront Banquet Center Tuesday March 7, 2017, in Flint, Mich. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder addresses attendees of the Water Infrastructure Conference at the Riverfront Banquet Center Tuesday March 7, 2017, in Flint, Mich.

Marathon’s $89,000 Drug May Exploit Patients, U.S. Senators Say

Marathon Pharmaceuticals LLC is facing added criticism over the $89,000 price tag on its drug for a rare muscle disorder as a group of eight U.S. lawmakers said they’re concerned that it “exploits” patients. In a March 3 letter to Marathon Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Aronin, seven Democratic U.S. senators and one independent demanded information on the closely held drugmaker’s pricing practices and product development costs for Emflaza, used to treat lethal Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

EPA Withdraws Obama-Era Request for Data On Oil, Natural Gas

The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it is withdrawing an Obama-era request that oil and natural gas companies provide information on methane emissions at oil and gas operations. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said the withdrawal is effective immediately, adding that he wants to assess the need for the information the agency has been collecting under a directive issued in November.

Governor Cuomo Announces $39.2 Million in New NY Broadband Program…

More Than 32,700 Homes and Business to Gain Access to High-Speed Broadband in the Capital Region through Round II Advances Governor’s Goal of Providing Broadband Access to All New Yorkers by the End of 2018 Round II Awards and Census Block Data Available Here Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced $39.2 million in New NY Broadband Program Round II grants have been awarded to 11 projects in the Capital Region. These awards will provide 32,737 homes and businesses with access to high-speed broadband for the first time, and leverage $9.8 million in private matching funds – bringing the total public-private investment in the Capital Region to $49 million in Round II.

Kansas governor to wield veto pen on tax bill

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, speaks of the tax bill he was sent last week at the Kansas Chamber annual dinner in Topeka, Kan., Tuesday night, Feb. 21, 2017. Brownback said Tuesday that he will veto a bipartisan bill that would roll back personal income tax cuts he’s championed to help balance the state budget.

School budget: more for at-risk, less for cyber/private kids

In this Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017 photo, state Rep. Tim Kelly, a Saginaw Township Republican, speaks at a House GOP news conference in the Capitol in Lansing, Mich. Kelly likes parts of Gov. Rick Snyder’s K-12 budget plan but has concerns about proposed cuts to a program that gives public schools funding for non-core classes offered to private and home-schooled students and reductions to cyber charter school funding.

Ohio drillers say 6 shale counties saw $43M tax bump

Oil-and-gas drillers in Ohio have paid $43 million in property taxes to local governments and schools in six shale counties since 2011, according to a report released Thursday. The finding by the Ohio Oil and Gas Association and Energy In Depth Ohio, a natural-gas research and education group, comes as Republican Gov. John Kasich has renewed calls for a severance-tax increase on the industry.

Dakota Access Oil Pipeline Seen Gaining U.S. Approval Soon

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to issue Energy Transfer Partners LP the last permit it needs to finish the controversial Dakota Access oil pipeline, two North Dakota lawmakers said. Acting Army Secretary Robert Speer directed the Army Corps to move forward with the easement necessary to build the final leg of the $3.8 billion crude line under North Dakota’s Lake Oahe, North Dakota Senator John Hoeven said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday, citing a conversation he had with Speer.

California looks to build $7 billion legal pot economy

The future of California’s legal marijuana industry is being shaped in a warren of cubicles tucked inside a retired basketball arena, where a garden of paper cannabis leaves sprouts on file cabinets and a burlap sack advertising “USA Home Grown” dangles from a wall. Here, in the outskirts of Sacramento, a handful of government workers face a daunting task: By next year, craft regulations and rules that will govern the state’s emerging legal pot market, from where and how plants can be grown to setting guidelines to track the buds from fields to stores.

Vice President Pence promised to stop taxpayer-funded abortion…

Addressing the 44th annual March for Life on Friday, Vice President Mike Pence declared that it was a new day for anti-abortion activists in America. “This administration will work with Congress to end taxpayer funding for abortion and abortion providers, and we will devote those resources to health care services for women across America,” Pence told the crowd of thousands gathered on the National Mall.

To Toll or Not to Toll Is Question for Trump Infrastructure Plan

The Brent Spence Bridge between Ohio and Kentucky carries twice as much traffic as it was built to handle — it’s 54 years old and functionally obsolete. But an effort to replace the span on one of America’s busiest trucking routes has languished for years — even after governors from both states agreed on a $2.5 billion plan about five years ago.

Broadband in New York to get funding boost

FCC will reverse course and direct $170 million to the Empire State after threatening to bid the money out elsewhere. Broadband in New York to get funding boost FCC will reverse course and direct $170 million to the Empire State after threatening to bid the money out elsewhere.

With Senate okay, Nikki Haley makes history

Washington, Jan 25 – The US Senate has confirmed Nikki Haley to the cabinet-level position of ambassador to the UN, marking a major milestone in Indian American ascendancy in US politics. Haley, who has said she would work to reform the UN, was nominated to the position by President Donald Trump and won the support of an overwhelming Senate majority cutting across the political divide on Tuesday.

Appeals court to decide future of California carbon auctions

Businesses looking to invalidate California’s fee for carbon pollution take their arguments to a state appeals court Tuesday in a case that could determine the future of one of California’s signature efforts to combat climate change. With a central piece of Gov. Jerry Brown’s legacy on the line, lawyers for the state and for environmental advocacy groups will defend a program that has been closely watched around the world as a potential model for controlling carbon emissions.

Trump Declares in Order He’ll Seek – Prompt Repeal’ of Obamacare

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday commanding federal agencies to try to waive or delay requirements of Obamacare that impose economic or regulatory burdens on states, families, the health-care industry and others. The order declares that Trump’s administration will seek the “prompt repeal” of the law, and that the government should prepare to “afford the states more flexibility and control to create a more free and open healthcare market.”

Energy choice Perry steps away from Dakota Access pipeline

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he has stepped down from the boards of two energy companies that are developing the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline project. Perry, who is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for energy secretary, said in a letter to ethics officials that he resigned Dec. 31 from Energy Transfer Partners LP and Sunoco Logistics Partners LP.

California revenue is growing. So why the talk of deficits?

California’s economy is expanding and voters just approved billions of dollars in tax increases, yet Gov. Jerry Brown this week projected a budget deficit for the first time in four years and called for spending cuts. The paradoxical budget picture is a result of revenue growing more slowly than economists had predicted after years of rapid increases from a hard-charging economy.

Gov. Brown plays small ball with budget

California Governor Jerry Brown is proposing an austere state budget for 2017-18, trying to rein in spending in the face of economic – or political – headwinds. That’s the deficit projected for the coming fiscal year, the first red ink in California since 2012-13.

Corzine Agrees to Futures Industry Ban in CFTC Settlement

Jon Corzine has agreed to a lifetime ban from the futures industry to settle a U.S. lawsuit that he failed to properly oversee MF Global Holdings Ltd. as the brokerage spiraled toward failure in 2011. Corzine, an ex-governor and U.S. senator from New Jersey and the former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., also agreed to pay a $5 million penalty from his own pocket to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, under a consent order approved by a federal judge in New York Thursday.

Free tuition Q&A: Could New York’s plan spread across US?

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, right and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wave at the audience as they arrive onstage at an event at LaGuardia Community College, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017, in New York. Gov. Cuomo announced a proposal for free tuition at state colleges to hundreds of thousands of low- and middle income residents.

US states, leery of Russia malware, re-examine cybersecurity

Several states around the country on Saturday asked cybersecurity experts to re-examine state and utility networks after a Vermont utility’s laptop was found to contain malware U.S. officials say is linked to Russian hackers. The Burlington Electric Department, one of Vermont’s two largest electric utilities, confirmed Friday it had found on one of its laptops the malware code used in Grizzly Steppe, the name the U.S. government has given to malicious cyber activity by Russian civilian and military intelligence services.

The Latest: Vermont governor ‘outraged’ over utility malware

Vermont’s governor says he has been in touch with the federal government and the state’s utilities about the discovery on a utility laptop of a malware code used by Russian hackers. Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin says people should be “alarmed and outraged” Russian President Vladimir Putin “has been attempting to hack our electric grid.”

This Week in Solar

As the year comes to a close, it’s fitting that the week in solar was dominated by the kind of large, macro trends that seem to move and shake the solar industry every few months. But unlike 2015, when we had Nevada upend net metering in the final hours of the year, most of the news from the solar industry is positive at the end of 2016.

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These undated file combination photo provided by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections shows death row inmates Ronald Phillips and Raymond Tibbetts. Ohio Gov. John Kasich turned down Phillips’ request for mercy on Wednesday, … Dec. 21, 2016.

Tesla Gets a Jump on Google, Uber, Ford in Race to Autonomous

There was, in hindsight, a clear element of risk to Tesla Motors Inc.’s decision to install Autopilot hardware in every car coming off the production line since October 2014. It paid a price, with federal regulators probing the deadly crash of a Model S while in driver-assist mode and critics slamming Tesla for rolling the technology out too soon.