Trickling down: The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank has received a $1.4 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as reimbursement for debris disposal and other costs related to the August flood. The reimbursement also covers the cost of cleaning and disinfecting property and equipment and restoring refrigeration and freezing gear at the food bank’s damaged Choctaw Drive distribution facility. It also will help the food bank get a temporary facility to support its services. The funds were made available through FEMA’s Public Assistance program, according to a news release. The program reimburses expenses to eligible local and state governments and certain private nonprofit entities in 26 designated parishes to repair or replace disaster-damaged facilities and infrastructure.
A first: LSU researchers have found the presence of carbon in the internal tissues of seaside sparrows living in areas exposed to oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, according to the LSU AgCenter’s School of Renewable Natural Resources. Carbon from oil previously had been found in marine species, but this is the first time evidence of oil from the spill was found in a terrestrial vertebrate species, the AgCenter says. The presence of carbon from oil in the sparrows’ feathers and their gut contents indicated it was from a chronic or long-term exposure, says Philip Stouffer, one of the researchers on the project. Researchers are not sure of the implications of finding the oil in the sparrows, Stouffer says. The LSU AgCenter has the full story.
Making the case: The top executives of AT&T and Time Warner appeared on Capitol Hill today in an attempt to convince a Senate subcommittee the two companies’ proposed $85.4 billion merger will ultimately be good for consumers. As USA Today reports, several GOP and Democratic lawmakers have voiced antitrust concerns surrounding the proposed merger, as did President-elect Donald Trump, who says the blockbuster deal would concentrate too much power in the hands of too few. AT&T is the nation’s second largest wireless carrier and also a major player in the pay-TV space as the owner of DirecTV. Time Warner has HBO, Warner Bros. and CNN among the assets in its entertainment and media portfolio. A potential concern is that AT&T might give preferential treatment to its own content, either by withholding access or raising the costs of such programming to rivals. Read the full story.
