Public

"A New Mexico meat plant received federal approval on Friday to slaughter horses for meat, a move that drew immediate opposition from animal rights group and will likely be opposed by the White House."

"Colorado oil and gas industry regulators have given medical community leaders a written assurance that doctors can obtain and share trade-secret information about fracking chemicals for the purpose of treating patients and protecting public health."

"Bad news for American gourmets: the commercial oyster industry in the Pacific Northwest has been failing for several years, and may go on failing as increasingly acid oceans put the larvae of the bivalve Crassostrea gigas seriously at risk."

"CONWAY, S.C. -- Environmental groups say state-owned electric utility Santee Cooper is trying to mislead the public about its proposed plan to contain groundwater pollution at the closed Grainger plant here, but Santee Cooper officials say the proposal is in its early stages and more detailed information -- including answers to environmentalists’ questions -- will come as the plan works its way through the regulatory process."

"President Obama’s ambitious goals to curb the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions, unveiled last week, will get a fortuitous assist from an incipient shift in American behavior: recent studies suggest that Americans are buying fewer cars, driving less and getting fewer licenses as each year goes by."

"SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. -- In parts of California's Sierra Nevada, marshy meadows are going dry, wildflowers are blooming earlier and glaciers are melting into ice fields."

"SHAFTER -- One afternoon last fall, Tom Frantz cradled a video camera in his hand and pointed it at an oil well on the edge of this San Joaquin Valley farm town."

"Tiffany Mellers jogs behind her two daughters as they pedal their bikes along a ribbon of packed sand along Long Island Sound. “They are good girls,” Mellers said. “They deserve a healthy life.” Behind them, a 500-foot tall candy-stripe smokestack, a fixture of Bridgeport’s waterfront for nearly five decades, rises in the distance. A third generation of residents is now growing up in its shadow. But today this old giant is merely a vestige of this region’s coal-fired past. New England is virtually coal-free."

"FURNACE CREEK--Blame it on dueling thermometers. The National Weather Service thermometer recorded a peak temperature at 4 p.m. Sunday of 128 degrees in Death Valley National Park, which ties the record for the hottest June day anywhere in the U.S."

"YARNELL, Ariz. -- Gusty, hot winds blew an Arizona blaze out of control Sunday in a forest northwest of Phoenix, overtaking and killing 19 members of an elite fire crew in the deadliest wildfire involving firefighters in the U.S. for at least 30 years."