"Senator Barbara Boxer said on Tuesday she plans to investigate the explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant earlier this month that killed 15 people and injured scores more."

"A federal jury didn't hear from prosecutors about toxic chemicals in the drinking water of south suburban Crestwood. Or about higher-than-normal cancer rates in the working-class village. But on Monday, the jury ensured that the only public official to stand trial in the tainted water scandal will be held accountable for a more than 20-year scheme to conceal the secret use of a Crestwood well — crimes uncovered by a 2009 Tribune investigation."

"WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said on Thursday he would pick Howard Shelanski, an antitrust expert, as his new regulatory czar, a powerful White House position charged with reviewing regulations proposed by government departments."

"GENEVA -- At the start of a major conference to regulate chemical and hazardous waste safety, top officials voiced optimism Saturday that delegates will approve new international controls on several industrial compounds and agree to clamp down on some cross-border pollution."

"With two schools near a plant storing ammonium nitrate -- the fertilizer used in the Oklahoma City bombing -- West, Texas, Superintendent Marty Crawford said he had always worried about an explosion like the one that happened last week."

"At a glance, U.S. EPA's plan to cut an $11.5 million grant program in an effort to meet the sequestration mandate doesn't look like much given the agency's $8.5 billion budget. But that's a lot of money to state and local air regulators who have been counting on it."