AXIOS (Rebecca Falconer) - How extreme heat is rewriting the job of state government
As climate change makes extreme heat more frequent and dangerous, states are building systems to manage a hazard they weren't historically built to handle. The big picture: In a growing number of states, officials are appointing heat officers, writing statewide plans, setting worker protections, funding cooling infrastructure, and coordinating responses across agencies. Driving the news: July was the hottest month ever measured in the contiguous U.S., with every Lower 48 state above its 20th-century average. - The speed at which states have ramped up their response to extreme heat has been "stunning," V. Kelly Turner, associate director of heat research at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, told Axios. - "Heat's everywhere, but…