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    A federal judge is temporarily blocked portions of a new Florida law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that bans transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers. Judge Robert Hinkle says in Tuesday's ruling that “gender identity is real” and the state has no rational basis for denying patients treatment. Hinkle issued a preliminary injunction, saying three transgender children can continue receiving treatment. The lawsuit challenges the law DeSantis signed shortly before he announced a run for president. The ruling was narrowly focused on the three children whose parents brought the suit. Attention on the new law has focused on language involving minors. Hinkle’s ruling focuses on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

      Researchers at California State University, Long Beach, used drones to study juvenile white sharks along the Southern California coastline and how close they swim to humans in the water. Turns out, it’s pretty close. That's according to the university's Shark Lab, whose researchers published their findings Friday. There were no reported shark bites in any of the 26 beaches surveyed between January 2019 and March 2021. The juvenile sharks mostly congregated in two spots and swam near humans on 97% of the days surveyed in those areas. The sharks often swam within 50 yards of the wave breaks — closest to surfers and stand-up paddle boarders.

        Two New Jersey utilities have joined forces on a clean energy project to pump water from a reservoir to 84,000 homes and businesses. New Jersey American Water Company and NJR Clean Energy Ventures put more than 16,500 floating solar panels atop the water of a reservoir in Millburn. The power generated by those floating panels provides 95% of the electricity that the Canoe Brook Water Treatment plant requires each day. The companies say the 17-acre solar array is the largest floating solar array in North America. Long popular in Asia, floating solar arrays are starting to catch on in the United States.

          A pill has been shown to halve the risk of death from a certain type of lung cancer when taken daily after surgery to remove the tumor, according to clinical trial results presented on Sunday. The results were unveiled in Chicago at the largest annual conference of cancer specialists, hosted…

            Chimpanzees are our closest living ancestors, however now researchers say, despite not being able to speak they have a complicated communication system. According to a new study, chimpanzees use basically the same sign language as pre-speech human babies. Buzz60’s Tony Spitz has the details. 

              The oxygen-depleted “dead zone” that forms each year in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana and Texas is forecast to cover about 4,155 square miles this year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday that's about 1,200 square miles smaller than the average during the 36-year history of dead zone measurements in the Gulf. But it said it's still more than twice as large as the long-term hypoxia-reduction goal set by a federal-state task force. LSU marine biologist Nancy Rabalais, however, says there’s a good chance the estimate could be high for a second straight year because of less rainfall in the Midwest. Scientists will travel along the coasts of Louisiana and Texas later this summer to see if the estimate holds up.

                A report on the Chesapeake Bay has found strong disparities between communities in different parts of the bay’s watershed in terms of health, economics and social justice concerns. The report was released Tuesday by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. It's the first time an integrated environmental justice index was included in the center's evaluation of the health of the nation's largest estuary. It presented the challenges of improving the health of the nation’s largest estuary in a larger context, specifically to include the health of people of communities in the watershed.

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                The installation of shiny glass windows throughout the Trico Building drew attention recently to the long-vacant downtown Buffalo building, but despite a banner going up to promote its apartments, the first units are almost a year away from being ready.

                Major League Baseball plans to discuss whether to postpone games in New York and Philadelphia on Wednesday night because of poor air quality caused by smoke from Canadian wildfires. The New York Yankees are scheduled to host the Chicago White Sox, and the Philadelphia Phillies are slated to host Detroit. MLB said it planned to speak with the teams involved at about 4 p.m. The National Weather Service issued an air quality alert for New York City, saying: “the New York State Department of Health recommends that individuals consider limiting strenuous outdoor physical activity to reduce the risk of adverse health effects.” In Philadelphia, the NWS issued a Code Red.

                Smoke from Canadian wildfires is pouring into the U.S. East Coast and Midwest and covering the capitals of both nations in an unhealthy haze. It's delaying some flights Wednesday, sending school recesses indoors, forcing the cancelation of events and prompting people to fish out pandemic-era face masks. Canadian officials have expanded evacuation orders and asked other countries for help fighting more than 400 fires nationwide. Meanwhile, air quality with what the U.S. rates as hazardous levels of pollution has extended into central New York, with massive tongues of unhealthy air extending as far as North Carolina and Indiana. It's affecting millions of people.

                People at the epicenter of the fight for voting rights six decades ago are reflecting on the times and their struggles. As the U.S. awaits a Supreme Court decision on whether the Voting Rights Act will be reinforced or further eroded, they say they're certain their struggles were worth it. Their stories from the front lines of history recount tragedies, racism, oppression and ultimately hope. Ten years ago, the Supreme Court halted the Justice Department's ability to enforce the Voting Rights Act in states and counties with a history of voter suppression. The justices will decide how strongly to protect minority groups when they challenge political boundaries drawn through redistricting.

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