Open up: Louisiana wildlife and fisheries regulators have reopened state waters in the Gulf of Mexico that were previously closed because of oiling from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Associated Press reports that the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, in a news release Tuesday, says the 100-yard buffer from any shoreline in a portion of the upper Barataria Basin centered near Bay Jimmy and Bay Batiste will reopen to all commercial and recreational fishing. Before the announcement, those waters were closed to all commercial and recreational fishing except for recreational and charter boat angling. The department says it will continue monitoring conditions to determine whether the area requires new closures.
Holding court: A federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday over whether a Louisiana company should be allowed to drill for natural gas on a longstanding lease near Glacier National Park that’s on land considered sacred to the Blackfeet Indians. The Associated Press reports that the 6,200-acre lease was suspended by federal officials in the 1990s along with dozens of others in the Badger-Two Medicine area south of Glacier. Owner Solenex LLC of Baton Rouge filed a 2013 lawsuit to lift the suspension on the lease issued in 1982. The company wants U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., to decide the case so it can drill this summer. Tribal leaders have asked Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to cancel the lease and 17 others that remain suspended. The Badger-Two Medicine area is the home of the creation story of the four Blackfoot tribes in Canada and Montana and the Sun Dance that is central to their religion.
Bronze age: Kenilworth Science and Technology School student Ashton Fox has earned a bronze medal in an international science Olympiad for his science project on using nanoparticles, proteins and near-infrared light to kill cancer cells. A news release from the school says Ashton was one of only two students from the United States accepted to participate in the International Environment Sustainability Project Olympiad in The Netherlands. The eighth-grader also was one of the youngest participants in the Olympiad, where he competed with students up to 18 years old in open competition. “He is a very bright young man, and to tell you the truth, I’m not sure I fully understand how he did this,” says Kenilworth science teacher Elkhan Akhundov, who accompanied Ashton and Ashton’s parents to the competition, according to the school’s news release. This is the second consecutive year that a Kenilworth student has excelled at an international science competition, the school says. Last year, Jalen Scott was the only U.S. student invited to participate in the Golden Climate International Environmental Project Olympiad in Kenya, where he won the grand award.
