Environmental News FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Seattle) Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing that nine Northwest communities and tribes will receive a total of $4.75 million to assess and clean up contaminated properties under the agency’s Brownfields Program.

(Seattle) Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing that nine Northwest tribes and communities will receive a total of $4.75 million to assess and clean up contaminated properties under the agency’s Brownfields Program.

NEW YORK – Today, the U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced nine projects across California will receive a total of nearly $4 million to assess and clean up contaminated properties under the agency’s Brownfields Program.

JACKSON, Miss. (May 7, 2020) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced four grant recipients in Mississippi have been selected to receive awards totaling $1,464,000 to assess and clean up contaminated properties under the agency’s Brownfields program.

BOSTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing that three grantees in the state of Maine have been selected to receive $1.4 million to assess and clean up contaminated properties under the agency's Brownfields Program.

Environmental News  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Three more Dreamliners used as collateral

This paper proposes a new methodology for estimating teacher value-added. Rather than imposing a normality assumption on unobserved teacher quality (as in the standard empirical Bayes approach), our nonparametric estimator permits the underlying distribution to be estimated directly and in a computationally feasible way. The resulting estimates fit the unobserved distribution very well regardless of the form it takes, as we show in Monte Carlo simulations. Implementing the nonparametric approach in practice using two separate large-scale administrative data sets, we find the estimated teacher value-added distributions depart from normality and differ from each other. To draw out the policy implications of our method, we first consider a widely-discussed policy to release teachers at the bottom of the value-added distribution, comparing predicted test score gains under our nonparametric approach with those using parametric empirical Bayes. Here the parametric method predicts similar policy gains in one data set while overestimating those in the other by a substantial margin. We also show the predicted gains from teacher retention policies can be underestimated significantly based on the parametric method. In general, the results highlight the benefit of our nonparametric empirical Bayes approach, given that the unobserved distribution of value-added is likely to be context-specific.

The corona crisis has hit the German economy at full force. Already, 470,000 applications have been filed for a German government subsidy that prevents employees from getting laid off, 20 times more than the previous record during the 2009 financial crisis.

The coronavirus crisis has forced another 3.2 million Americans to file for jobless aid, bringing the total number to 33.5 million in the seven weeks since the pandemic forced millions of companies to close and layoff huge amounts of staff.

Elon Musk is cruising toward another major payday.

Former NFL star Brett Favre said Wednesday he would repay the state of Mississippi $1.1 million after a state auditor discovered the Mississippi Department of Human Services paid the ex-quarterback for speaking engagements that never happened.

California is slated to be refunded the $247 million it paid to a Chinese car company under a massive $1 billion deal for face masks, which were not federally certified by the agreed upon deadline.

Ohio State University will pay about $41 million to settle a dozen lawsuits by 162 men alleging sexual abuse by a team doctor, Richard Strauss.

The US economy lost a staggering 20.5 million jobs in April, the steepest plunge in payrolls since the Great Depression and the starkest sign yet of how the coronavirus pandemic is battering the world's biggest economy.

There were two Reggies in New York City.

There were two Reggies in New York City.

Dwayne Wade's home features a chef-caliber kitchen, multiple formal and informal living areas, a master suite, wine room, elevator, professional theater and — of course — a basketball court.

Hall of Famer and 12-time All Star Mike Piazza buys a three-bedroom condominium at The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Miami Beach for $5.6 million. The 3,838-square-foot condo has views of Surprise Lake and Biscayne Bay.

Switzerland paid $3.48 million for a four-bedroom, 5,300-square-foot condo in the Pinnacle building in downtown Chicago.

A private island in Islamorada on the Florida Keys is for sale for $17 million. The island is called Terra's Key, after its owner John Terra, and has historical significance dating back to the 1800s.

Out of nearly 20 bids at a public auction for the Norman Lykes House, the winning bid came from a man who lives out of state, Heritage Auctions told The Associated Press.

A three-bedroom duplex in River North that Roeper owned from 2005 until 2014 sold Jan. 7 for 13% less than what Roeper got for it.

Billionaire Adam Neumann, who was ousted from WeWork after the company’s botched attempt to go public last year, is selling a swanky penthouse in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood for $37.5 million. The 41-year-old Israeli entrepreneur, whose unorthodox management style made shocking headlines in recent months, reportedly combined a four-bedroom penthouse and a three-bedroom apartment that he bought in 2017 into a massive three-story unit.

Yousef Selassie, 19, pleaded not guilty to first-degree grand larceny, identity theft and other charges at his Manhattan Supreme Court appearance for the lucrative scheme that operated from January through May this past year.

Garcia Luna, accused of turning a blind eye toward murderous drug overlord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman while serving as Mexico’s secretary of public security from 2006-12, arrived in Brooklyn Federal Court with his attorney for a Friday afternoon hearing.

Christian Pacheco, 42, was wrongly convicted in the racially-motivated Latin Kings killing of Lemuel Cruz, who died in December 1995 at a Brooklyn club called El Sabor Latino. Pacheco was nabbed by cops as he was trying to save Cruz's life. “I don’t regret helping him — honestly, I don’t. That’s the kind of person that I am," Pacheco told reporters Thursday.

A Brooklyn federal magistrate denied Genaro Garcia Luna release from prison due to coronavirus, saying he was a flight risk.

The hefty payout comes after the federal Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the city Education Department in 2016 for allowing a “pattern and practice of discrimination” to flourish at Pan American High School during the 2012-13 school year.

CUNY officials hope the new relief effort — started with two $1 million donations from the Dimon and Petrie Foundations — will eventually grow to $10 million.

A new fossil find may help pinpoint the origins of mammals’ uber-flexible hyoid bone, which anchors the tongue and gives us our signature swallowing style.

Nearly half a billion years ago, marine arthropods called trilobites lined up single-file before meeting a tragic end.

Thousands of fossils from Colorado show how plants and animals evolved together after an asteroid devastated life on Earth.

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer on Tuesday reached an agreement to purchase the Forum from Madison Square Garden Co. for $400 million in cash.

A philanthropic group founded by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and his wife says it has pledged more than $25 million toward the coronavirus outbreak.

The Lakers have paid back $4.6 million in federal coronavirus relief the franchise applied for as part of the Paycheck Protection Program.

I know that many millennials are doing their part to flatten the curve. But it's nerve-wracking not to trust someone you live with.

If you're looking to watch a basketball story of empowerment or want to start off March Madness right, then HBO Sports' upcoming 'Women of Troy' is a must see.

USC athletic director Mike Bohn and coaches Clay Helton and Andy Enfield are giving back a combined $1 million in salary to help the school during the coronavirus pandemic.

Saving Wall Street in the 2008 crash didn't save Main Street. We can't let that happen again.

Slick-fielding infielder Roberto Baldoquin cost the Angels $14 million to sign out of Cuba in 2015, but he was released recently because his bat didn't develop.

The versatile actor vaulted to international stardom after playing a police inspector in the 2008 film. Khan, 54, was adored in India despite not being a Bollywood heartthrob.

In all, 46.89% of registered voters cast ballots in the March 3 primary, which was moved up from June with hopes that turnout would be high and presidential candidates would be forced to address issues mattering most to Californians.

In a federal lawsuit, students accuse Florida Career College of breaking promises about career training and job placement. The for-profit school has been allotted $17 million in federal pandemic aid.

The Clippers, Lakers and Kings, along with Staples Center, have established a fund to provide financial assistance to the arena's hourly employees.

Major League Baseball teams agree to contribute $1 million each toward a fund that will assist ballpark workers during the suspended season.

The Angels will pay at least $1.2 million to workers who would have staffed games at Angel Stadium, including those contracted by third parties.

Gameday workers impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic will collectively receive $1.3 million in financial assistance from the Dodgers.