National (U.S.)

"If you've been waiting all season for that quintessential taste of summer -- a juicy, ripe tomato from the garden -- you might be disappointed. This year a tomato blight has swept across the Northeast and is moving into Midwestern gardens and farms."

The Local Food Hub in the Charlottesville, Va., area is an example of a new trend: nonprofit distribution enterprises that aggregate food produced by small-scale local farmers and move it quickly to local customers such as restaurants, schools, and retirement homes.

Laboratory researchers are pursuing technologies for skipping the burning of coal altogether, and producing electricity directly from carbon via fuel cells.

"The White House budget update released on Tuesday still reflects a controversial Obama administration plan to combat global warming by auctioning all permits to emit greenhouse gases even though Congress has said it will give away a substantial portion to industry."

Think electric cars are small and wussy? Go out on the drag strip and smell the burning rubber. "Mike Willmon's 1978 Ford Pinto can go from zero to 60 in about 3.5 seconds — just like the $1 million Ferrari Enzo." He built it himself.

"The pesticide DDT almost wiped out the double-crested cormorant. Now, the bird is thriving, and it's blamed for devouring fish in lakes, rivers, and fish farms in many parts of the country. Karen Kelly reports on the struggle to share resources with this unpopular bird" -- on The Environment Report August 25, 2009.

"The U.S. Department of Energy said on Monday it has awarded $27.6 million of funding to evaluate the potential risks of storing carbon dioxide underground, which is seen as a way to control global warming."