ICYMI: Uranium Mystery, Greenland Burns & Penguins Love Sushi (Duh)

A weekly roundup for busy people

ICYMI

By Paul Rauber

Illustrations by Peter Arkle

July 19, 2019

Police in Guthrie, Oklahoma, have “quite a few unanswered questions” after a traffic stop of a stolen car reveals an open bottle of Kentucky Deluxe whiskey, a timber rattlesnake, and a canister of uranium.

President Trump’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission recommends that it perform fewer inspections at US nuclear facilities, a move promoted by the nuclear industry.

Berkeley, California, bans gas hookups in most new construction. 

A record-breaking 1.8 million people object to the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal to remove endangered species protections for the gray wolf.  

Retired US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, a champion of environmental causes, dies at age 99. 

Police in Wellington, New Zealand, are called to remove two blue penguins from a sushi truck in the city’s train station.  

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt wants to relocate hundreds of senior employees of the Bureau of Land Management from Washington, DC, to several western states. The agency’s new headquarters would be in Grand Junction, Colorado.  

Yosemite National Park’s iconic Ahwahnee Hotel, Curry Village, and Badger Pass ski area get their historic names back following the park's $12 million deal with Delaware North, its former concessionaire, which had trademarked the names.  

A lightning strike on Yellowstone's historic Mount Holmes Fire Lookout burns it to the ground. 

High temperatures in France produce a glacial lake high on Mt. Blanc.  

California’s 2011–2019 drought killed 150 million trees

wildfire in Qeqqata, Greenland, is burning out of control.

Eighty-seven percent of Americans are unaware of the strong scientific consensus that climate change is caused by humans. 

Volkswagen ends production of its iconic Beetle in favor of producing more SUVs.

American Electric Power agrees to shutter one of two 1,300-megawatt coal-fired power units at its Rockport, Illinois, plant by 2028. AEP plans to replace the power with wind, solar, and battery storage. 

The program to restore the California condor after its near extinction in the early 1980s celebrates the hatching of the 1,000th condor chick

House Republicans introduce a bill to make it easier for ranchers to kill black vultures, which sometimes prey on young livestock. 

The Government Accountability Office finds that Trump’s EPA violated ethics guidelines when it dismissed academics on its scientific advisory panels and replaced them with people with ties to industry. 

The number of butterflies is declining by 2 percent a year.