HIGHLIGHT: FLORIDA

St. Petersburg: Manatees that are dying by the hundreds mainly from pollutioncaused starvation in Florida should once again be listed as an endangered species, environmental groups said Monday in a petition seeking the change. The petition filed with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service contends it was an error to take manatees off the endangered list in 2017, leaving the slow- moving marine mammals listed only as threatened. “The Fish and Wildlife Service now has the opportunity to correct its mistake and protect these desperately imperiled animals,” said Ragan Whitlock, attorney for the Florida- based Center for Biological Diversity.

LYNNE SLADKY/ AP A group of manatees are pictured in a canal in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 2010.