John Flesher

Stay informed with John Flesher’s coverage and analysis.

  • Stephens’ kangaroo ratEnvironment

    America spends $1.2 billion a year on endangered species, but almost half goes to just 2 kinds of fish

    By Matthew Brown, John Flesher, and others
  • Drinking waterHealth

    You have a roughly 50% chance of drinking cancer-causing ‘forever chemicals’ from any U.S. faucet, massive government study finds

    By John Flesher and The Associated Press
  • FILE – Eva Stebel, water researcher, pours a water sample into a smaller glass container for experimentation as part of drinking water and PFAS research at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Center For Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response on Feb. 16, 2023, in Cincinnati. The 3M chemical company announced Thursday, June, 22, 2023 a $10.3 billion settlement with U.S. water utilities and agencies over PFAS pollution that will allow them to test and treat drinking water contaminated with these “forever chemicals.(AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File)Environment

    3M will pay more than $10 billion to settle lawsuits over the contamination of public drinking water systems with ‘forever chemicals’

    By John Flesher and The Associated Press
  • FILE – A road bisects a wetland on June 20, 2019, near Kulm, N.D. The Supreme Court has made it harder for the federal government to police water pollution. The decision from the court on Thursday, May 25, 2023, strips protections from wetlands that are isolated from larger bodies of water. It’s the second ruling in as many years in which a conservative majority has narrowed the reach of environmental regulations. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)Environment

    Supreme Court curbs U.S. government regulation of wetlands, making them easier to develop

    By John Flesher, Michael Phillis, and others
  • FILE – The BP Whiting refinery in East Chicago, Ind., stands on Sept. 21, 2017. A BP subsidiary will pay a $40 million penalty and install technology to control releases of benzene and other contaminants at its Whiting oil refinery on the Indiana shoreline of Lake Michigan, Biden administration officials said Wednesday, May 17, 2023. (DroneBase via AP, File)Environment

    A BP subsidiary just agreed to pay a record $40 million penalty and invest $197 million in improvements at an oil refinery in Indiana

    By John Flesher and The Associated Press
  • Bat signalEnvironment

    Scientists light the bat signal on climate change as study finds 81 of North America’s 154 bats face ‘severe population decline’ over 15 years

    By John Flesher and The Associated Press
  • FILE – A 2021 Toyota Prius that runs on a hydrogen fuel cell sits on display at the Denver auto show Sept. 17, 2021, at Elitch’s Gardens in downtown Denver. As fossil fuel emissions continue warming Earth’s atmosphere, the Biden administration is turning to hydrogen as an energy source for vehicles, manufacturing and generating electricity. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)Tech

    Biden is offering $8 billion to whoever can figure out how to produce clean hydrogen energy

    By Jennifer McDermott, John Flesher, and others
  • Sherry BableEnvironment

    ‘I’m even afraid to cut that grass, because what’s still left in the soil?’ East Palestinians still terrified of their town after toxic train crash

    By John Flesher and The Associated Press
  • In this image taken from video provided by the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the bow of the Ironton is seen in Lake Huron off Michigan’s east coast in a June 2021 photo. Searchers have found the long-lost Great Lakes ship that came to a tragic end. Officials with the sanctuary in Alpena, Mich,, say they’ve located the Ironton, a freight schooner that plunged to the bottom of Lake Huron in 1894. The Ironton collided with another vessel in rough seas. Reports at the time said the seven-member crew scrambled into a lifeboat but it was tethered to the ship and pulled down. Five crewmen died. (Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary via AP)Lifestyle

    History detectives have finally found a ship that tragically sank in 1894 but they’re keeping the location hidden

    By John Flesher and The Associated Press
  • Green BayEnvironment

    ‘It will be hard to contain’: Large plume of toxic chemicals leak into Green Bay from groundwater near Tyco plant

    By John Flesher and The Associated Press
  • Cities rewildingEnvironment

    London is releasing wild beavers, Chicago is floating wetlands and Frankfurt is letting hedgehogs run free: Inside the world’s ‘rewilding’

    By John Flesher and The Associated Press
  • A northern long-eared batEnvironment

    Biden just put another bat on the endangered species list after a fungus ripped through the population and killed millions

    By John Flesher and The Associated Press