Laura Bliss
Editor and writer at Bloomberg Businessweek. Pulitzer finalist 2024. Cities, science, climate and maps. lbliss2@bloomberg.net
- Reposted by Laura Bliss“It was just one fire after another… And it’s still like that today.” “I don’t want to stay at a park service that looks like this. But I don’t want to give up on it, either.” “Trump’s probably the best union organizer we have” www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
- New BW feature: While federal unions play defense elsewhere, a unionization wave is building in the National Park Service, driven by slash-and-burn Trump Admin. cuts, decades of prior bipartisan neglect, and worker-to-worker organizing www.bloomberg.com/news/feature... w/ @mslaurabliss.bsky.social
- Reposted by Laura BlissPark service staff have long joked that they’re “paid in sunsets,” sometimes relying on food banks. Supervisor told one, “seasonals are to be seen, not heard.” Staff often have to share bedrooms with co-workers, or the mice who keep infesting the housing. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
- New BW feature: While federal unions play defense elsewhere, a unionization wave is building in the National Park Service, driven by slash-and-burn Trump Admin. cuts, decades of prior bipartisan neglect, and worker-to-worker organizing www.bloomberg.com/news/feature... w/ @mslaurabliss.bsky.social
- The old joke in the National Park Service is that rangers are “paid in sunsets.” Spurred by the Trump administration’s chainsaw cuts to the federal workforce, now many workers are hoping to change that, by unionizing. My latest, with @josheidelson.bsky.social: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
- Reposted by Laura BlissNew BW feature: While federal unions play defense elsewhere, a unionization wave is building in the National Park Service, driven by slash-and-burn Trump Admin. cuts, decades of prior bipartisan neglect, and worker-to-worker organizing www.bloomberg.com/news/feature... w/ @mslaurabliss.bsky.social
- Scoop with @josheidelson.bsky.social: 24 US national parks (including Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Grand Teton and Olympic) are petitioning to unionize, following successful union elections in Yosemite earlier this summer. Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
- California has proposed new regulations to avoid landfill fires that would address some of the problems highlighted my and @rachaeldottle.bsky.social's investigation into America's hot garbage problem for @bloomberg.com. Read about our impact here: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
- Reposted by Laura BlissLiteral "hot garbage." @mslaurabliss.bsky.social (KSJ '23) and Rachael Dottle's reporting on US landfills is excellent, but what they found stinks www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202... (article from July)
- National parks will remain open during the government shutdown, per NPS memo www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
- Reposted by Laura BlissHoly shit: Stateline spoke to nearly a dozen firefighters, agency staffers and contractors, who said that top officials assigned to the fire deployed the crews to a remote location under false pretenses so federal agents could check their immigration status. www.hcn.org/articles/fir...
- SCOOP: A federal employee at Yosemite National Park was fired last week after flying a trans pride flag from El Capitan earlier this year www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
- Reposted by Laura BlissUS trash dumps produce emissions that endanger residents—due to physical & chemical processes that are not well understood—but that neither federal nor state regulations adequately address, explain @mslaurabliss.bsky.social & @rachaeldottle.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202... #sanitation
- Reposted by Laura Blisslong loud 👏👏👏👏👏 to @mslaurabliss.bsky.social for this literal and figurative garbage fires ... "or the industry’s preferred phrase is 'elevated temperature landfill,' or ETLF, which operators say has nothing to do with fire." www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
- As housing costs soar, running water has become a luxury in Portland, Phoenix and other wealthy US cities. Latest for @bloomberg.com with Klara Auerbach, gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
- Reposted by Laura BlissAbsolutely incredible, groundbreaking piece of investigative reporting— these reporters deserve every single journalism award coming their way (there will be many!) Gift link below in the QT (fyi kind of a long read, so save it for later if you must)
- 3/ For @bloomberg.com, @rachaeldottle.bsky.social and I dove into one dangerously hot landfill near LA that shows the problems that can arise as waste piles higher and deeper. “Garbage fire,” at the very least, is an apt metaphor for what we found. Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
- AMERICA HAS A HOT GARBAGE PROBLEM. LITERALLY. A THREAD 1/ Last year, I spotted some data on LinkedIn that caught my attention. Fires at recycling facilities were skyrocketing as more vape pens, smartphones and electric toothbrushes enter America’s blue bins
- 2/ I wondered what was happening in the final resting place for so much waste, landfills? Turns out, a lot. Several have been overheating to 200F+ temperatures, leading to toxic gases, geysers of trash juice and sick neighbors who say they feel gaslit about what's going on
- 3/ For @bloomberg.com, @rachaeldottle.bsky.social and I dove into one dangerously hot landfill near LA that shows the problems that can arise as waste piles higher and deeper. “Garbage fire,” at the very least, is an apt metaphor for what we found. Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
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View full thread12/ Advocates say there are simple fixes to improve safety. I hope you'll read: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
- Reposted by Laura BlissMy colleagues @mslaurabliss.bsky.social and @rachaeldottle.bsky.social did a deep dive into the toxic landfill problem making communities across the US sick. Free gift link: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
- Reposted by Laura BlissMasterful, infuriating story from @mslaurabliss.bsky.social & @rachaeldottle.bsky.social. The insane part is the burning garbage & its impact on people. But they don't shy away from loads of important context, nuance & science! A+ explanatory journalism. Gift link www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
- Reposted by Laura Bliss
Missed this: the ghost of Gregory Ain may help some LA residents rebuild collectively, again - Reposted by Laura BlissIT'S ABOUT TIME
- My heart is still beating so fast. Thank you @pulitzerprizes.bsky.social Thank you @bloomberg.com and especially the CityLab team @kristoncapps.bsky.social @nicflatow.bsky.social and David Dudley Stories here! www.bloomberg.com/features/des...
- Reposted by Laura BlissReally great reporting by @mslaurabliss.bsky.social It seems the Park Planned homeowners intend to rebuild en masse fairly close to Ain's original plans. This will be amazing.
- In the wake of major disasters, homeowners are largely left on their own to navigate the complicated roadmap to recovery -- if they can afford to rebuild. So when I happened to connect with Kim Yu on a reporting trip to LA in late January, I was immediately struck by her community-minded approach.
- Weeks earlier, she'd lost her home in Altadena in the Eaton fire along with thousands of others. Yet Kim, a member of Altadena's volunteer town council and safety engineer, told me she was determined to help her whole neighborhood build back in a more fire-resilient fashion.
- What Kim was talking about wasn't empty rhetoric. Already, one of her neighbors, Mark Lansdown, a retired architectural project manager, was drafting plans to rebuild his own family's home -- and Kim and Chien's home, and the homes of however many of their dozens of neighbors wanted in.
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View full threadWriting this story gave me some hope and I hope reading it does too. Gift link below. Thanks to my wonderful colleagues Jeff Muskus and Jane Yeomans at @bloomberg.com for the edit and gorgeous photos. Gift link here: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
- “On paper, I do school programs and run the visitor center,” says Alex Wild, who was fired on Feb. 14 from his role as an interpretive park ranger at Devils Postpile National Monument. “But I am also the only EMT, and I run the entire search and rescue and medical services program in the park.”
- The US Army Corps is building an $1 billion underwater defense system complete with shock waves, bubble curtains and screeching acoustic noises to protect the Great Lakes against its arch nemesis: Invasive carp. New from me; gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
