The Guardian

• Two top Noaa officials linked to Trump’s ‘Sharpiegate’ incident put on leave

  Two men led inquiry into 2019 debacle involving incorrect hurricane projections that tarnished federal agency’s record

  Two high-ranking officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were placed on administrative leave on Friday, fueling speculation that the Trump administration was retaliating against them for actions taken during the president’s first term.

  Jeff Dillen, who was serving as deputy general counsel, and Stephen Volz, who heads the agency’s satellites division, led the investigation into whether agency administrators abdicated their scientific ethics when they altered the forecast of a deadly hurricane to match statements made by the president.

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• US heat dome causes dangerous conditions for more than 100 million people

  High temperatures and humidity across north-eastern coast increase risk of heat exhaustion, illnesses and death

  More than a 100 million people in the US will face dangerous conditions over the weekend as a heat dome that has scorched much of the center of the country nudges eastward.

  Heat advisories were in place on Friday all across the north-eastern coast from Portland, Maine, to Wilmington, North Carolina, with the daytime heat index temperatures 10 to 15F above average in some places.

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• From punk rock to gardening classes: the cemeteries getting a new lease on life

  ‘Instead of just a choral group in a chapel, now it’s a rock group in a mausoleum,’ says one unspooked supporter

  Rodney Anonymous, lead singer of the punk rock band The Dead Milkmen, has performed in venues around the world. His favorite place to play live is filled with the dead at the Laurel Hill cemetery in Philadelphia, where he used to ride his bike as a kid.

  The acoustics are great, and when there’s a full moon, there’s no place like it, the singer said. The band, whose songs include Punk Rock Girl and Bitchin’ Camaro, have played at the burial grounds at least five times since 2012, and have plans to appear again next year.

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• Trump effort to ditch greenhouse gas finding ignores ‘clearcut’ science, expert says

  Architect of landmark EPA ‘endangerment finding’ says repealing it will lead to more extreme weather in US

  One of the architects of a landmark 16-year-old finding on pollution’s impact on health that the Trump administration now wants to eliminate says that doing so would ignore “clearcut” science that has only become clearer today because of extreme weather.

  The Trump administration plans would sweep away the US government’s legal authority to limit greenhouse gases in order to address the climate crisis.

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• White House rescinds $20m for clean water in pesticide-contaminated rural California

  EPA said grant to provide clean water was a ‘wasteful DEI program’ as pesticide leaches into residents’ wells

  For decades, thousands of residents in California’s agricultural heartland couldn’t use their wells because the water was too contaminated with pesticides. In December, the Biden administration stepped in with a long-awaited $20m grant to provide clean water, improve municipal sources and relieve the region’s financial and health burden.

  The Trump administration just took the money away.

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