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Officials in Washington state are upset the Biden administration is challenging a law making it easier for workers who become ill at a former nuclear weapons production site to be compensated. The Supreme Court will likely decide in the next few weeks whether to accept the U.S. Department of Justice’s appeal. If the high court rejects the case, the state law will stand. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Thursday called on the Biden administration to “stop this assault on Hanford workers.” (Geranios, 9/16)

A private company has won federal approval to build an expansive nuclear waste site in Texas, even as residents, state lawmakers, environmentalists and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) rail against it. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Monday issued a license for Andrews, Tex.-based Interim Storage Partners to store as much as 5,000 metric tons of radioactive waste. It’s one of two proposed storage sites — the other is in southeastern New Mexico — that has been under agency review for several years. (MacMillan and Gregg, 9/15)

Child obesity levels in the U.S. increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among children who were already obese from the outset, according to the findings of a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC’s Dr. Alyson Goodman, who contributed to the report, said the results signal a "profound increase in weight gain for kids" and are "substantial and alarming." The study, released Thursday, is the largest yet to look at obesity trends during the pandemic. Among its chief findings was that roughly 22% of children and teens were obese last August – up from 19% a year earlier. (Betz, 9/17)

In line recently at a Winn-Dixie supermarket in Florida, John DiDonna worried that a nearby shopper was standing too close for Covid-era comfort. Mr. DiDonna asked him to take a step back. The shopper, he says, stepped even closer. Mr. DiDonna says he snapped. “Do you love me that much?” he barked. The other person argued back; Mr. DiDonna retorted with “a sprinkling of four-letter words,” he says. “Afterwards, I was mortified.” (Chaker, 9/16)

One evening in July, Stephanie Felts was lying in bed trying to process simultaneous climate disasters all over the world. From a crushing Canadian heatwave to U.S. wildfires and China floods, the drumbeat triggered memories of a close call her family had with a raging inferno when they lived in Salt Lake City a few years ago. “I just realized, OK, this is as good as it will ever be—not because we can’t do anything to make things better, but because we just won’t,” said Felts, 43, who works in financial services and now lives near Atlanta. “It makes you feel like, ‘hey, the apocalypse is starting.’” (Sirtori-Cortina, 9/16)

United Airlines, the first U.S. carrier to require its employees be vaccinated, said Thursday that nearly 90 percent of its workers have received coronavirus vaccines, while Southwest Airlines — which does not mandate the shots — announced new bonus pay to workers who show proof of vaccination. (Aratani, 9/16)

A study conducted earlier this year shows there may be a way to reduce the number of Covid infections on board commercial airplanes to virtually zero. Results of the study appeared in a peer-reviewed article published on Sept. 1 in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings medical journal. The article — a joint effort by Mayo Clinic, the Georgia Department of Public Health and Delta Air Lines — showed that that one polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test performed within 72 hours of flying decreased the rate of infected travelers onboard to 0.05%. That’s five people for every 10,000 passengers. At the time of the study, the rate of infection in the U.S. was 1.1% — or about 1 in every 100 people. (Pitrelli, 9/17)