As I enter week five on crutches and unable to put weight on my right leg I learned that it is possible to wear out the rubber feet on crutches. I wore through my original set of and found myself looking up all-terrain crutch feet which almost led to a complete existential meltdown. Luckily, a new set of Magic the Gathering cards was released last week so instead of confronting reality I chose to sooth my inner child by purchasing overly expensive pieces of colorful cardboard. - Kumar

Fifteen years ago, while in school at Earlham College, I was roped into joining my biology major friends on a midnight field trip to count salamanders. We dressed in rubber boots, armed with 5-gallon buckets and headlamps. We packed into a maroon twelve passenger van and drove into the rolling Indiana countryside to Dr. John Iverson’s vernal ponds. We spent the next few hours scouring half a dozen ponds for as many salamanders as we could catch. We found both spotted salamanders and a handful of the larger tiger salamanders as well. It was dirty, wet, and briefly led me to consider switching majors to something with midnight field trips.

Around the same time I was tromping through the Indiana countryside, another project was coming to life less than a hundred miles away at the Fernald Preserve. The Preserve, which used to be home to a uranium processing facility, was under active restoration as a natural area. Researchers at Fernald shared that one of the first indicator species they looked for in the restoration process was the presence of spotted salamanders. The first spotted salamanders were seen in the late aughts and since then a diverse set of animals have been found there. [WYSO]

Despite the Preserve remaining host to a storage facility for the “low-grade” radioactive waste it is also home to “everything from beavers to bobcats, frogs to salamanders, and even species that are under threat, like the Blanchard's cricket frog, and rare birds.” There is “a grove of newly planted deciduous hardwoods, beaches, oaks and maples.” It is pretty incredible to hear the ways in which the land has been reclaimed from such an intense and degrading use. Perhaps someday I’ll get to relive my college days and count a few more salamanders.

Last week, when we highlighted a few common utility scams, we left out one of the most egregious, energy sub-metering in multi-unit buildings. Despite the rather wonky language, sub-metering is basically the process of allowing each tenant to have their own electricity metered and subsequently charged for their usage. The practice sounds logical and straightforward, but the industry that offers these services in Ohio is operating with little oversight which has led to skyrocketing bills for some customers.

The way the systems works is that companies like National Energy Partners (NEP), which claims to serve over 30,000 accounts in Ohio, enter into an agreement with landlords, who they “would pay $22,000 to $72,000 per tenant as a “door fee” plus another $6 a month per head, on the scale of tens of thousands of renters.” Those fees give NEP the exclusive right to “serve” those tenants. At the same time, “state law doesn’t guarantee submetered customers the ability to choose their own cheaper power suppliers, protections against power shutoffs, or access to bill pay assistance.” That leaves tenants stuck with NEP and whatever fees and price increases they choose to implement. [Signal Ohio]

Customers have been complaining about these charges for years and finally the Ohio Supreme Court issued a rebuke to NEP in a recent decision. The Court agreed with American Electric Power (AEP) which filed the complaint against NEP claiming the company was essentially providing the same service as a utility without being subject to the same rules. The Court referred the issue back to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) which had earlier declined to treat NEP as a utility and therefore not regulate the company nor the submetering practice in the state. But, the legislature may ultimately have the final word as House Bill 173, which has already moved through the House, is currently in Senate Committee.

Almost two weeks ago the U.S. House used a discharge petition to get around GOP leadership to vote in favor 224-202 to extend temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitians qualifying for the program for three years. The bill, which faces uncertainty in the Senate, is all but assured to be vetoed by President Trump if it ever reaches his desk. The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal after lower courts halted the immediate end of the program. The Supreme Court is scheduled later this week to consider whether or not to fast-track which includes reviewing TPS for Haitian and Syrians in the program and could have broad implications for the TPS program overall.

Part of the aim of the House vote was to act before the Supreme Court considered the matter. The logic being that if Congress could extend the protections via law, it would relieve the court of having to make a ruling on the case at all. One of the primary points of criticism of the attempted revocation of TPS for Haitians is that it is not safe for them to return to Haiti. However, the ‘State Department warns Americans not to travel to Haiti “due to kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest.”’ [AP]

Regardless of the outcome of the appeal, Springfield resident and president of the Haitian Support Center, Vilès Dorsainvil, will be at the court to hear the arguments. In an interview with Kathryn Mobley, Vilès was asked why he is planning on attending the proceedings, to which he responded, “I just want to experience, first, how that will go, and I think this experience will help me to understand better how the judicial system works, and also be there as a community leader. I always tell folks that they don't have to worry too much for Haitians. Resilient is who we are.” [WYSO]