By Jill Nolin | Editor
“The hazards to animals aren’t just the direct killing. The hazard to a lot of our species today are indeed the habitat conversions, habitat destruction. We are at a place where roughly 80 to 90% of species that are on our endangered list aren’t there because people are shooting them or killing them intentionally.” - Mike Worley, Georgia Wildlife Federation president
Female red-cockaded woodpecker at a nest cavity at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Saturday, 1 June 2024. Experts worry a new rule change could put species like the red-cockaded woodpecker at risk of habitat loss. Larry Woodward/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
CONSERVATION
By Ross Williams
A federal rule change set to go into effect this fall could cause big changes to Georgia’s landscape, and environmental groups are sounding the alarm.
“It’s probably the worst action that’s ever been taken in the history of the Endangered Species Act,” said Will Harlan, southeast director of the Center for Biological Diversity in Asheville, North Carolina. “It is absolutely devastating for not just listed species, but all wildlife. It will wreak havoc upon the ecosystems that both wildlife and humans depend upon.”
The change rescinds the definition of “harm” in the Endangered Species Act. Under the new rule, intentionally killing a protected species remains forbidden, but indirectly killing a species by altering or destroying its habitat is not.
A traveler looks at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer as they walk around a line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport on March 24, 2026 in Houston. ICE officers were deployed to airports during Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages this year. Newly public documents show TSA has been sharing passengers’ personal information with ICE. (Photo by Antranik Tavitian/Getty Images)
IMMIGRATION
By Ariana Figueroa
The Trump administration has for more than a year used personal information airline passengers provide to the Transportation Security Administration for immigration enforcement, according to documents obtained by a government watchdog group.
The documents, collected by the government accountability organization American Oversight, show for the first time a formal data-sharing agreement since May 2025 between TSA and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is shown on a monitor as Dr. Anthony Fauci, left, testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on July 29, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
DC BUREAU
By Jennifer Shutt
Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the nation’s most visible public health officials during the coronavirus pandemic, declined to answer questions from a U.S. Senate committee in a tense and confrontational hearing Wednesday, citing his Fifth Amendment rights.
Fauci said during a brief opening statement he believed Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., was trying to get him to make statements under oath that would lead to criminal charges.
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