"U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, the first black U.S. senator from the deep South since Reconstruction, is proposing that the site where the Civil War began be raised in status to that of a national park."

"Attorneys representing three households in northeast Fresno have filed a potential class-action lawsuit against the city and others over discoloration and lead in water coming from faucets in their homes."

"Brushing aside a fresh court ruling, three federal agencies said they are withholding a permit on a portion of the project near Sioux Land."

"State regulators last year documented 276 new cases of groundwater contamination across Texas, a slight increase compared to 2014 but far fewer than in years past."

"Just south of Johnson Creek sits an abandoned landfill that time, and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, forgot."

"Environmentalists sued the Obama administration on Thursday seeking new federal water-quality standards designed to protect marine life against the corrosive effects of carbon emissions absorbed into the ocean from the burning of fossil fuels."

"California will tighten controls on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, factories and public utilities under a pair of bills signed on Thursday by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown."

"The governor of North Dakota has activated the state's National Guard ahead of a U.S. District judge's decision Friday morning that could inflame protesters who have been gathered here for weeks in an effort to block a pipeline project."

"A North Dakota judge issued a warrant Wednesday for the arrest of Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who is accused of spray-painting construction equipment during a protest against the Dakota Access pipeline."

"A federal judge ordered U.S. wildlife managers on Wednesday to enlarge habitat protections in Idaho, Montana and Colorado for the Canada lynx, a rare wild cat that roams the Rockies and mountain forests of several other states."