National (U.S.)

"A fatal bat disease has been confirmed in Kentucky for the first time, state and federal officials said Wednesday."

Mark Twain was not only one of America's most under-appreciated nature writers, but he may also have been the Jon Stewart of his time -- blending satire with acute journalistic observation to puncture received wisdom with real truth. Francesca Lyman starts a discussion on the subject in Sacramento -- Twain's old stomping grounds.

"With the Obama administration moving to impose tougher limits on toxic air pollution as well as emissions that lead to smog and acid rain, it's betting the private sector can add a new technology to the utility industry's arsenal."

"We're one week away from the first anniversary of the worst oil spill in the nation's history, and to commemorate it, House Republicans spent Wednesday marking up a trio of bills that would dramatically increase drilling in the US."

Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker's payback to the billionaire Koch brothers who helped elect him went beyond crushing unions to deregulating pollution. According to the liberal blog Think Progress, Walker and state Supreme Court Judge David Prosser worked quietly behind the scenes to allow Koch's Georgia Pacific paper plants to keep dumping thousands of pounds of phosphorus into the Fox River near Green Bay.

"The Davis Besse incident has resurfaced in the wake of the ongoing nuclear crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant. Stories recounting close ties between Japanese nuclear regulators and utilities there have reinvigorated critics who say the NRC has not been an aggressive enough U.S. watchdog."

"A year after the worst oil spill to strike U.S. waters, oyster beds are struggling along the Gulf of Mexico, the dolphin population is experiencing what the federal government calls an 'unusual mortality event,' and red snapper with rotting fins are showing up on fishing lines."

"A federal appeals court has upheld two decisions that threw out most of a lawsuit field against chemical giant DuPont Co. by Parkersburg [WV] residents over the pollution of their city's water with the toxic chemical C8."

"The Philadelphia Water Department announced yesterday that it is enhancing its testing procedures and reviewing treatment technology after federal environmental officials found radioactive iodine in the city's drinking water."

"Several Democratic senators said Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency should step up regulation of the natural gas industry because they are concerned that toxic chemicals used in drilling could enter the public water supply."