"A controversial public relations contract between the global firm Mercury and the state of Michigan has ended, The Hill has learned. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) came under fire for hiring the high-powered firm to help deal with the fallout from the water contamination crisis in Flint, Mich."

"Efforts to restore Atlantic salmon to the Connecticut River watershed have been largely unsuccessful. The once abundant fish are now rare. But recently Steve Gephard, supervising fisheries biologist with Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Projection, found evidence of wild salmon spawning in a Connecticut river."

"On Jan. 21, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iraq's prime minister in Davos, Switzerland, and handed him a personal note from President Barack Obama pleading for urgent action."

"In the end, Maryland lawmakers couldn’t ignore the same haunting story from beekeepers. “I go into winter with a really strong population, managed them to be fat and healthy, treated for mites, with plenty of food,” said Bonnie Raindrop, a keeper in Baltimore County. “But at the end of winter, you open your hives and they’re all dead.”