A ministerial meeting aimed at finalizing the Trans-Pacific Partnership is set for the last week in July. The meetings, according to the report, are set to begin on July 23rd and likely be in the United States. The meeting of trade ministers from the dozen countries involved would likely mark the final stage in the TPP negotiations, a massive trade pact covering 40 percent of the world's economy. Plans for the final negotiations were stalled until recently when the U.S. passed Trade Promotion Authority, which was signed this week by President Barack Obama.

27 states have now filed a lawsuit against the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers in response to the Clean Water Rule, known as the Waters of the U.S. rule. The rule is slated to become law August 28th after being published in the Federal Register on Monday. The lawsuit filed in a Savannah, Georgia, federal court follows a trio of cases filed Monday by 18 other states arguing that the EPA violated the Clean Water Act, other laws and Supreme Court decisions, when it declared that tributaries and other small waters are subject to federal jurisdiction and pollution control laws.

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