In the news
■ Kellyn LaCour-Conant of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana noted, “After enjoying oysters at home with family and friends, you can help protect our coast,” as the environmental group that makes reefs from shells adds a partner, The Green Project, so that contribution is not limited to just restaurants.
■ Bob Maindelle, a fishing guide in Central Texas, is sounding an alarm over the underwater weed hydrilla, which was imported as an aquarium plant in the 1950s and is now endangering boat propellers as well as fish.
■ Tonya Hays of Mississippi State University and Jonathan Harris of the Northern Gulf Institute have dreamed up “Banner: A Sea Turtle Saga,” a children’s musical staged by theater students that was inspired by the rescued critter convalescing at the Mississippi Aquarium.
■ Blaine Phillips of the Conservation Fund said, “It’s about restoring culture; it’s about honoring their ancestral rights,” as the Nanticoke and Lenape tribes in Delaware get aid to buy back 41 acres that were part of their ancestral homelands.
■ Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta said, “What we know is $500 for a family that’s living below the margins … can be life-changing,” as city leaders plan pilot programs to give cash directly to residents in hopes of lifting them out of poverty.
■ Dr. James Hildreth, president of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., was inspired by his 956 students who’ve kept the city’s virus testing sites and vaccination clinics running, so much so that each was awarded $10,000 in federal relief funds.
■ Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong, said masks equipped with breathing valves are simply “selfish” after a guest at a quarantine hotel wore one when he opened his door to get meals and get rid of trash and the person across the hall ended up with the same mutant strain.
■ Megan Beezley got an apology from the Transportation Security Administration “that your screening experience was not what you expected” after the transgender woman said she had to show five forms of ID at the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., airport and then was groped rather than patted down.
■ Taulby Roach, head of the agency that oversees Metro Transit in St. Louis, said officials are “literally begging for employees” as they’re forced to reduce bus service along three dozen routes because they’re short 150 workers, mostly drivers.