"Just as vacationers head to the coast to beat the July heat, a new study offers a bit of caution: 82% percent of the almost 300 Gulf Coast beaches that recently underwent water testing were found to have potentially unsafe levels of fecal bacteria."

"A Houston oil company that grew into one of the largest producers in the Gulf of Mexico before going bust last year is planning to abandon hundreds of oil wells and pipelines it acquired over the last decade, potentially adding to the fast-growing tangle of neglected oil and gas infrastructure off the Louisiana coast."

"Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) said Sunday that too many people in the state died during the unprecedented heat wave that settled over the Pacific Northwest last week, warning the climate change-fueled temperature extremes were only a “harbinger of things to come.”"

"They’re arriving in swarms so dense it can appear the earth is moving. They’re covering roads and fields, pelting ATV riders, and steadily devouring grains and grass to the bedevilment of farmers and ranchers. A massive population of grasshoppers is proliferating in the sweltering American west, where a deep drought has made for ideal conditions for grasshopper eggs to hatch and survive into adulthood."