"White House officials began sifting through their pool of potential nominees for the newly vacant seat on the nation’s highest court Sunday, girding for battle with Republicans who are insisting that President Obama leave the choice of a new justice to his successor."

"President Obama designated three new national monuments in the California desert Thursday, expanding federal protection to 1.8 million acres of landscapes that have retained their natural beauty despite decades of heavy mining, cattle ranching and off-roading."

"A former Freedom Industries executive was sentenced Thursday to one month in federal prison for a chemical spill that fouled the drinking water supply of 300,000 West Virginians."

Gasoline refiners would blend ethanol into fuel even if the Congressionally-passed law and EPA rules didn't require it. The reason: it's needed to boost the octane rating that makes cars perform properly.

"It took Sen. Ted Cruz to finally persuade me to answer a riddle that's bothered me for years. Suppose somebody yanked away the law that currently props up the nation's ethanol industry, as Cruz has proposed. What would actually happen?

"An environmental group is formally questioning Peabody Energy's ability to fully bond its coal mines in Wyoming and elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain region, saying the St. Louis-based company has insufficient funding to qualify for self-bonding."

"With the FBI tightening its ring around them, the last four holdouts in the armed takeover of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon surrendered Thursday, ending a 41-day standoff that left one man dead and exposed simmering anger over the government's control of vast expanses of Western land."

"President Barack Obama told supporters 'don't despair' and overreact to the Supreme Court's decision this week that temporarily blocks the administration's rules to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants."

"After a runaway oil train killed 47 people in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, just miles from the Maine border in 2013, Mainers demanded to know more about the state’s railways."

"The James River Association says they will challenge a permit issued by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to Dominion Virginia Power last month, which will allow the discharge of 350 million gallons of coal ash pond water into the James River."

"The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday easily passed a bill requiring federal environmental regulators to act faster when lead contamination is found in drinking water."