Austyn Gaffney

1 week ago | vtdigger.org | Austyn Gaffney

The federal government deported three migrant farmworkers to Mexico this week, out of eight detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents last month on a dairy in northern Vermont. The deported workers include Luis Enrique Gomez-Aguiliar, 28; Urillas Sargento, 32; and Dani Alvarez-Perez, 22. A fourth worker, Juan Javier Rodriguez-Gomez, 41, has been detained in Louisiana, where he faces a high likelihood of imminent deportation, according to his attorney Brett Stokes.

1 week ago | myheraldreview.com | Austyn Gaffney

PHOENIX — When Don Pike takes his daily walk, he laces up his brown hiking boots, grabs his walking stick and bucket hat and heads outside. Ten feet later, he carefully slips past barbed wire and enters the Tonto National Forest. Unlike other parts of the Tonto, where the ground between native plants and trees is covered with dry grasses, the earth is pale, crusty and barren, like it’s meant to be. That’s because Pike has been pulling weeds. kAm“*@F H@?’E 7:?5 2?J @7 E96> :?

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Austyn Gaffney |Anna Watts

As official research positions are lost to budget cuts, the work of citizen scientists to preserve federal forests is becoming more valuable. Don Pike in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona. As official research positions are lost to budget cuts, the work of citizen scientists to preserve federal forests is becoming more valuable. Don Pike in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona. Credit...

3 weeks ago | nytimes.com | Austyn Gaffney

Vermont was the first state to try to hold polluters accountable for climate disasters. New research aims to assign specific responsibility. In 2023, the Winooski River in Vermont spilled its banks, kissing the green truss bridge that spanned it. River water poured onto the marble floors of the State House. Up to , causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Austyn Gaffney

The outline for the 2026 budget passback, which would need to be approved by Congress, suggests "significant reductions to education, grants, research, and climate-related programs within NOAA" and comes after the dismantling of other agencies like the National Institutes of Health and USAID, and the removal of mentions of climate change from federal websites.