"CALGARY — [Alberta] Premier Alison Redford shot down calls from opposition parties and the union representing workers at the XL Foods plant for a public inquiry to get to the bottom of the huge beef recall stemming from E. coli tainted product at the Brooks facility."

"Federal and Massachusetts officials said Thursday that they lacked clear authority to take action earlier against a now-shuttered specialty pharmacy that set off safety alarms at least six years ago and is now at the center of a burgeoning meningitis outbreak."

"Mitt Romney's campaign opened an attack on the Obama administration's climate change policies yesterday by warning farmers that greenhouse gas regulations could hike fuel prices. He also suggested that President Obama might pursue a carbon-pinching cap-and-trade program if he wins the election."

"Oil industry groups and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are asking a federal court to overturn new Securities and Exchange Commission rules that will force oil, gas and mining companies to disclose their payments to foreign governments."

"WASHINGTON, DC -- Chevron [Tuesday] lost its U.S. Supreme Court bid to block global enforcement of a $19 billion judgment by an Ecuadorean court in a long legal fight over contamination of the Amazon rainforest."

"MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Republican Senate candidate John Raese filled in wetlands and damaged more than 2 miles of streams when he rerouted them to create waterfalls on a private, 18-hole West Virginia golf course that federal regulators say he built without the required permits."

"A high-profile Kentucky environmental enforcement action involving hundreds of alleged clean-water violations at dozens of mining operations in Eastern Kentucky apparently is coming to a close."

"BANGKOK -- Organised crime trade worth billions of dollars is responsible for 50 to 90 percent of illegal logging in parts of the Amazon basin, Central Africa and Southeast Asia, with implications for deforestation, climate change and the well-being of indigenous people, said a report released Thursday."

"BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- With each steady stroke, John Lipscomb inched the canoe deeper into an infamous urban waterway. The water surrounding the boat grew increasingly murky; the sulphuric stench more offensive."

"ALBANY, N.Y. -- State regulators claim a strong record of oil and gas drilling oversight, but their own reports reveal thousands of unplugged abandoned wells and other industrial problems that could pose a threat to groundwater, wetlands, air quality and public safety."

The Army Corpts of Engineers changed the operating schedule for the Clearwater Dam on the Black River in Missouri in the 1990s in response to requests by Missouri farmers. On October 3 Arkansas is going to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that the Corps action has damaged the 23,000-acre Black River Wildlife Management Area 115 miles downstream. What's more, the state is arguing that the Corps should compensate it under the "takings clause," a favorite conservative legal weapon.

"Hundreds of thousands of active oil and gas wells go without government inspection in any given year, and fines for regulatory violations are too small to change drilling company behavior, according to an energy watchdog group's review of regulation and enforcement activities in six states."

"SAN FRANCISCO -- Next month, the climate change litigation circus leaves Washington, D.C. First stop: the James R. Browning U.S. Courthouse."

Is the threat of lawsuits discouraging cleanup of abandoned mine drainage that impairs many U.S. waterways? That seems to be the case under an interpretation of existing water pollution law.

"Lawn product company Scotts Miracle-Gro Co will pay $12.5 million in criminal fines and civil penalties for illegally including insecticides in bird food products and for other violations, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday."