Chart to accompany Moore article of Jan. 22, 2018.

With all the talk about a possible government shutdown due to an impasse on immigration reform, no one seems to be paying attention to a story of even bigger long-term consequence. Congress is preparing a two-year budget that blows past bipartisan spending caps to the tune of $216 billion through 2019.

Frigid temperatures trail storm dropping more snow on South

A wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain blanketed a large swath of the South, trailed by a blast of frigid air that could approach record low temperatures Wednesday. By Tuesday evening, steadily dropping snow about 15 miles northwest of Atlanta was forcing cars on Interstate 75 to slow considerably amid scattered fender benders.

Tsongas: Puerto Rico needs ‘robust federal partner’

Four months after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, the devastation and difficulty recovering is still apparent across the island, something that U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas and other members of the congressional delegation from Massachusetts saw firsthand during a visit last week. Officials toured a community health center and a children's hospital, observed damage from a helicopter and met with leaders of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was criticized for an initially slow response, as they work to help the island rebuild.

Trump Had a 24-Year-Old Campaign Staffer Serving as Deputy Drug…

What do you get when you get when the Trump administration's notorious staffing problems meet its insufficient focus on the opioid epidemic? A 24-year-old former Trump campaign staffer serving in the second most important position in the Office of National Drug Control Policy , which coordinates the federal government's multi-billion dollar anti-drug efforts and President Trump's strategy to fight rampant opioid abuse. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Taylor Weyeneth, who graduated from St. John's University in Queens in May 2016, was until recently second-in-command at ONDCP.

Scientists Are Getting Way Better at Forecasting. It Could Change How We Deal With Droughts.

This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When a rainstorm slammed California's Russian River watershed in December 2012, water rushed into Lake Mendocino, a reservoir north of San Francisco.

Most of mudslide-stricken California town told to empty out

In this Jan. 9, 2018 image from video provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, a woman and an infant are hoisted aboard a Coast Guard helicopter as they are rescued from a flood-damaged home in Montecito, Calif. Flash floods on Tuesday swept immense amounts of mud, water and debris down from foothills that were stripped of brush by a recent wildfire.

Wild swings occur in numbers of California mudslide missing

The number of missing after a California mudslide has fluctuated wildly, due to shifting definitions, the inherent uncertainty that follows a natural disaster, and just plain human error. On Thursday, the number provided by authorities went from 48, down to eight, then back up to 43. Officials say a clerical mistake led to the figure of eight being released.

Interagency Task Force report addresses opioid abuse

USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture in November awarded $2.8 million in grants to support rural health. Of the nine awards funded by NIFA's Rural Health and Safety Education Competitive Grant Program, six were designed specifically to prevent and reduce opioid abuse.

To catch mass killer, focus on fentanyl shipments

With people across the country dying at the rate of 53 a day from overdoses of fentanyl and similar compounds - now the leading killers in the opioid epidemic - efforts to stop this scourge ought to come from every corner of the federal government. But even as President Trump has declared the opioid epidemic a national emergency , some agencies have failed to act as if it is one.

Lucy Parke dies aged eight from rare Progeria syndrome

BREAKING NEWS: Trump's lawyer tries to BAN publication of explosive book with cease and desist letter to author and publisher 'Dumb as s***, a dope, and a f***ing idiot': Trump's top officials and billionaire confidants including Rupert Murdoch let loose on what they really think about the president I've got DOZENS of tapes of hours of interviews Michael Wolff tells friends as he says White House sources simply walked over to his hotel to spill 'You can't make this s*** up': How Trump's aides '100% came to believe he was incapable of functioning in his job' The 'bomb cyclone' has detonated! Whiteout storm hits the Northeast with heavy snow and gale-force winds - closing schools and causing traffic chaos as plows run around-the-clock to clear roads and more than 3,300 flights are cancelled The simple tweaks that will make healthy meals even BETTER for you 'I slept with five of his ... (more)

Storm slaps coastal South with most snow in nearly 3 decades

A brutal winter storm smacked the coastal Southeast with a rare blast of snow and ice Wednesday, hitting parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina with their heaviest snowfall in nearly three decades. Forecasters warned that the same system could soon strengthen into a "bomb cyclone" as it rolls up the East Coast, bringing hurricane-force winds, coastal flooding and up to a foot of snow.

‘Like a hurricane’: Coastal streets deserted in winter storm

Temperatures plummeted overnight to 2 degrees in the north Georgia mountains, 14 in Atlanta and 26 as far south as New Orleans as the... . Steam rises above the waters of the Mississippi River underneath the Eads Bridge as the temperature hovers around -1 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018, in St. Louis.