Public

The roundup of bison that have strayed from their refuge in Yellowstone National Park, part of a Quixotic plan to protect domestic cattle from the disease brucellosis, is an example of Western environmental gridlock.

The conservation group American Rivers released its list of the 10 most endangered American rivers. It ranks as most-threatened the Upper Delaware River, threatened by natural gas wells that use hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."

"Three months after the U.S. cancelled a plan to build a vast nuclear-waste repository in Nevada, the country's ad hoc atomic-storage policy is becoming clear in places like Wiscasset, Maine."

"In a legal settlement that could affect the entire U.S. meat industry, the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to identify and investigate thousands of factory farms that have been avoiding government regulation for water pollution with animal waste."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a new permit requirement that would decrease the amount of pesticides discharged to U.S. federal waters."

"Facing multiple investigations, including one from the U.S. attorney general, companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill have secured legal teams with deep Department of Justice and White House ties."

BP's efforts to cut off the riser pipe and install a collection cap over its blown out deepwater oil well hit complications Wednesday -- a stuck saw. But the effort continues. Meanwhile, the area of coastline affected expanded beyond Louisiana to Alabama and Mississippi and soon possibly Florida.