The latest: September 8, 2017

Florida seafood industry braces for Irma

The storm is expected to make landfall in South Florida on Saturday morning. The state’s $200 million seafood industry is preparing for the worst.

By Amanda Buckle, John Sackton, and Jason Huffman | Read more


Sarah Chadwick Gibson

Some Alaska fisheries had a record-setting year for wild salmon. But no one wanted to gut all those fish

Bristol Bay, Alaska supplies 40 percent of the world’s sockeye salmon. Now, a visa shortage has thrown the industry into crisis.

By Sarah Gibson | Read more


By the way, we’re hiring! If you think you’d make a great News Producer or General Assignment Reporter, check out our job descriptions here. Or know someone great? Send them our way by forwarding this email. Please apply by September 30.


Workers picking strawberriesFlickr / Donna Sutton

Think immigrants are taking our jobs? Try picking strawberries for a day

Can hands-on experience foster more empathetic views towards migrant labor? A sociologist investigates.

By Michael Carolan | Read more


Just the one-liners

Hurricane Irma may hit citrus groves, tomato greenhouses, and sugar cane fields. Reuters reports on farmers’ efforts to prepare for the storm.

New York City will join Boston, Chicago, Detroit, and Dallas in offering free school lunch to all students, the New York Times reports. You’re probably gonna have some questions about that.

In Maine, a lobster named “Passy Pete the Lobster” has predicted the region will have six more weeks of summer. And he’s been right two years in a row. Don’t ask how! You gotta watch the video from local station WLBZ-2 in Bangor. But hint: some scrolls, some dudes in tuxedo t-shirts, some top hats, and some good old fashioned crustacean fun.

Beyonce’s birthday cake cost $3,500, according to PEOPLE Food. Philadelphia bakery Cake Life made it taste like honey and lavender and look like a geode. Told ya there’d be good news.

The Counter Stories by our editors.