"CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Polluted air causes roughly 200,000 early deaths each year across the United States, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conclude after tracking emissions from industrial smokestacks, vehicle tailpipes, marine and rail transport, and commercial and residential heating."

"Federal regulators have reached a tentative deal with Carnival Corp. on a plan to reduce air pollution from nearly a third of its cruise ships, but the accord comes too late to reverse at least a temporary loss of lucrative cruise business for Baltimore."

"Paul Bailey made the White House pitch on July 31. Flanked by six colleagues from the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the coal industry’s most public voice, Bailey pressed the case for 'achievable' greenhouse gas emissions standards for coal-fired power plants."

"SAN FRANCISCO -- The use of pesticides and the planting of genetically engineered crops on U.S. national wildlife refuges are illegal and damaging to the environment, say four advocacy groups who have filed a federal lawsuit to halt these practices on national wildlife refuges across the Midwest."

"The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals deals a blow to a years-long effort by Drakes Bay Oyster Co. to extend its lease in Point Reyes National Seashore."

"Steps such as quitting smoking and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol could save more than 200,000 Americans a year, a report finds."

"Eating raw oysters in the summertime is always risky; aqueous pathogens peak when the ocean is warm, which is part of why folk wisdom suggests one should only eat raw shellfish in months with an 'R' in the name. But this summer's been riskier than ever."

"CHICAGO -- When city students arrived for the first day of school under the blazing temperatures of a Midwest heat wave, staff greeted them with some unusual school supplies: water bottles, fans and wet towels to drape around their necks."

"The Rio Grande is the lifeblood of South Texas. Cities and farmers on both sides of its international border depend on its water. A 70-year-old treaty between the United States and Mexico is supposed to keep the river’s water flowing. But in the last three years, Mexico has fallen behind on its end of the deal. That has heightened tensions between the two countries and jeopardized the future of agriculture in the Rio Grande Valley."

"The Obama administration's launch of a crude-by-rail safety inspection push dubbed the 'Bakken blitz' could open fault lines between freight operators and oil producers that have turned to the tracks to tote a record-high volume of flammable fuel."

"'It's a jungle if you're an eagle right now on the Chesapeake Bay,' says Bryan Watts, a conservation biologist at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. 'You have to watch your back.'"

"Firefighters in California gained ground on Monday against a massive wildfire burning part of Yosemite National Park, although complete containment may be weeks away, officials said."

"The Eagle Ford shale geological formation unfurls through the lower third of Texas, stretching 400 miles long and 50 miles wide from East Texas to Mexico, from Brazos County northeast of Houston to the Burgos Basin just over the border."

The small Michigan town of Mancelona is the site of one of the nation's largest underground plumes of the toxic industrial solvent trichloroethylene. Wells dug to supply uncontaminated water are now themselves threatened.

"For years, the advocacy group Environment and Human Health Inc. has led the battle against outdoor wood furnaces, claiming their smoke is bad to breathe. Now it has an ally -- Attorney General George Jepsen."