Appearance trumps reality in campaign ads as the GOP's war on the "war on coal" heats up.

"A recent report from 'PBS NewsHour' on climate change has drawn sharp criticism from climate groups that feel it provides a false sense of debate around the facts of climate change."

"The segment, which aired on September 16, features interviews with 'converted skeptic' and University of California, Berkeley professor Richard Muller, along with climate skeptic Anthony Watts, a retired meteorologist.

Federal and state health officials say that pesticide spraying for adult mosquitoes has reduced risk of West Nile virus by killing specific percentages of mosquitoes. When confronted with Freedom of Information Act requests for the data to back up those claims, they do not seem to be able to find any.

"In a letter submitted Friday afternoon to internal investigators at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a whistleblower engineer within the agency accused regulators of deliberately covering up information relating to the vulnerability of U.S. nuclear power facilities that sit downstream from large dams and reservoirs."

"The letter also accuses the agency of failing to act to correct these vulnerabilities despite being aware of the risks for years.

"The current poster child for global warming is a polar bear, sitting on a melting iceberg. Some health officials argue the symbol should, instead, be a child."

"Organizers of the Kansas State Fair can restrict the display of an animal rights group's video that shows animal slaughter at its annual agricultural event, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday."

"The numbers released quietly by the federal government this year were alarming. A ferocious germ resistant to many types of antibiotics had increased tenfold on chicken breasts, the most commonly eaten meat on the nation’s dinner tables. But instead of a learning from a broad national inquiry into a troubling trend, scientists said they were stymied by a lack of the most basic element of research: solid data."

"Two newspapers produced excellent series in August that scrutinized climate crises related to having too little water, and too much, in their respective regions. The Kansas City Star took on the toll of the severe drought afflicting the Great Plains, while The News Journal in Wilmington, DE, examined impacts of sea-level rise in the Mid-Atlantic. The series share many admirable characteristics. In fact, both opened with the same characterization of a creeping but inexorable dilemma."

"U.S. regulators have rejected claims by oil and gas companies that a requirement to disclose payments to foreign governments is so big of a burden that it outweighs a broader goal of choking off corruption in countries where they operate."

"The problem isn’t the public’s reasoning capacity; it’s the polluted science-communication environment that drives people apart, says Dan Kahan."

"The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is often called the 'black hole' of federal rules, a White House office where proposed regulations can enter in one form and exit months later in another."

"PARKS, Armstrong County -- From the road, it looks like any fenced-in patch of trees and overgrown grass. Passersby have to look closely to notice the signs warning of radiation, or to see the Homeland Security guards patrolling with rifles slung over their backs."

A recent EPA shutdown of its effort to gather basic information on livestock feeding operations may make it impossible for the agency to regulate water and air pollution from the manure they generate.

"A Luzerne County physician claims in a federal lawsuit that Pennsylvania's new oil and natural gas drilling law will force him to violate ethical rules in treating his patients."

"In a speech to the Senate on Thursday, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) addressed what he calls the 'major environmental crisis of our time,' and took aim at the 'myths' of Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Ok.) and other legislators who ignore or actively deny the existence of anthropogenic climate change."