"North Carolina is one of the country's largest poultry producers — and getting bigger. Large-scale chicken farms are spreading across the state. Government regulations have allowed these farms to get much closer to where people live. That's not just a nuisance. Neighbors say it's also a potential health hazard."

"A federal appeals court upheld the government’s new coal dust exposure rule for coal miners Monday, rejecting industry challenges to it."

"A German newspaper has reported that the use of "defeat device" software to cheat on U.S. emissions laws was widespread knowledge within the diesel-engine group at Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany."

"Long before a natural gas storage well sprung a disastrous leak near Los Angeles, California, utilities and national industry groups were raising alarms about the danger of aging underground storage infrastructure."

"The utility whose leaking natural gas well has driven thousands of Los Angeles residents from their homes acknowledged that it understated the number of times airborne levels of the cancer-causing chemical benzene have spiked during the crisis."

"Global emissions of mercury from manmade sources fell 30 percent from 1990 to 2010, in part from decreasing use of coal, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported on Wednesday."

"Under pressure to devise a fix for its polluting diesel cars, the chief executive of Volkswagen, Matthias Müller, met for the first time with a senior government official in the United States to discuss the crisis that has engulfed the German carmaker since September."

"The California Air Resources Board said on Tuesday it rejected Volkswagen AG's (VOWG_p.DE) plan to fix 2.0 liter diesel cars equipped with software that allows them to emit up to 40 times legally allowable pollution."

"Alex Hummell says few dentists seem worried enough about invisible, odorless mercury to take the kinds of precautions needed to prevent everyday exposures."

"Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday ordered new regulations, including stepped-up inspections and safety measures, for all natural gas storage facilities in California in response to the continuing leak that has displaced thousands of people in the Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles."