"TANGIER ISLAND, Va. — As in many places, conversations on this remote island in the Chesapeake Bay tend to steer toward the weather. But here it's not just small talk."
"New York has its Empire State Building, Paris has its Eiffel Tower and now, finally, Washington has its Monument back. The best view in the District and one of the city’s signature tourist draws returned to duty Monday when the obelisk reopened after $15 million in repairs following the 2011 earthquake."
"Mysterious holes that were discovered at an Indiana sand dune last year -- and which nearly swallowed a child -- will keep a Lake Michigan park closed indefinitely."
"Prominent Republicans and conservative news media outlets rallied in recent weeks around the cause of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, whose armed standoff with authorities over grazing rights on federal land had made him an instant folk hero on the right. But Bundy’s GOP defenders, including Sens. Dean Heller (Nev.) and Rand Paul (Ky.), rapidly abandoned him on Thursday following reports of incendiary remarks that the white rancher made about minorities. Bundy wondered aloud whether blacks would be better off as slaves picking cotton, and alleged that people of color are 'against us.'"
"Elwha: A River Reborn"
By Lynda V. Mapes
Photography by Steve Ringman
The Mountaineers Books & The Seattle Times, $29.95
Reviewer: ELIZA MURPHY
After recognizing the industrial potential of the Elwha River rushing off the Olympic Mountains in Washington State, one dam visionary abandoned his post as managing editor at a local newspaper to harness that river.
"Florida Gov. Rick Scott and environmental advocates Wednesday called for federal officials to reconsider their delay of a $2 billion plan intended to help the Everglades and lessen coastal water pollution."
"The Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and Our Gamble over Earth’s Future"
By Paul Sabin
Yale University Press, $28.50
Reviewer: JENNIFER WEEKS
In the fall of 1990, economist Julian Simon received a check for $576.07 in the mail, along with a sheet of metal prices. The check was from Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich. There was no note enclosed.
"Louisiana's coast is disappearing at the rate of about a football field an hour. Since the 1930s, the Gulf of Mexico has swallowed up an area the size of Delaware."
''Cementing protection for one of the largest privately owned pieces of land on California's 1,100-mile coastline, a San Francisco environmental group on Monday donated to the public the Coast Dairies property - a pastoral expanse of rolling meadows, redwood forests and panoramic ocean views north of Santa Cruz."
