"Hurricane season [began] Saturday, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting an active season, with perhaps seven to 11 hurricanes."

"BEAUMONT, Texas -- The sound was deafening as workers sandblasted a section of the Gulf Coast Project, the southern installment of TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL Pipeline project."

"Fears of terrorism have made it harder than ever for citizens to find out what dangerous chemicals lurk in their backyards, The Associated Press has found. Secrecy and shoddy record-keeping have kept the public and emergency workers in the dark about stockpiles of explosive material."

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency is releasing new public service advertising this week, created in conjunction with the Advertising Council, to educate Americans about its wireless emergency alert system."

"A freight train smacked into a truck carrying garbage and careened off the tracks in Rosedale Tuesday afternoon, triggering an explosion felt throughout the region and sending up a plume of black smoke visible for miles."

"Mistakes were made, and one narrative too readily embraced, in coverage of the blast. Meanwhile, The Dallas Morning News excelled."

"A key satellite positioned to track severe weather in the eastern United States has failed, just as the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is about to start."

"Victoria County, a little slice of the Texas chemical coast, has nearly 39 million pounds of concoctions that can poison and nearly 11 million pounds that can catch fire."

"The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season could be 'extremely active' and spawn 13 to 20 tropical storms, seven to 11 of which are expected to become hurricanes, the U.S. government's top climate agency predicted on Thursday."

"At least 800,000 people across the United States live near hundreds of sites that store large amounts of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate, which investigators are blaming as the source of last month's deadly blast at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, a Reuters analysis shows."

"Until an outbreak of tornadoes in the past week, this year had been a relatively quiet one for twisters in the Midwest and Plains states."

"WACO, Texas — Federal agents and the state fire marshal have effectively barred a federal safety panel from the site of a Texas fertilizer plant blast that killed 15 people and injured about 200 others, hampering its investigation, the panel's chairman said."

"The federal government might have enough money in its emergency coffers to help tornado-ravaged Oklahoma without Congress having to pass another contentious disaster response bill, the Senate's top Democrat said yesterday."

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters he wasn't immediately considering legislation to help finance cleanup and recovery from the massive tornado that hit Oklahoma City and its suburbs earlier this week, killing at least 24 people.

"Pinning the deadly tornado in the US state of Oklahoma on climate change is wrongheaded, even though the world is set to see a rise in high-profile weather disasters due to global warming, the leader of a UN body said Tuesday."

"Most utilities have not implemented voluntary cybersecurity measures recommended by an industry organization that oversees reliability, according to findings from a report released this morning by two House Democrats who say they reveal gaps in the government's voluntary approach to cybersecurity."