"GUN BARREL CITY — For nearly 83 years, Jim Howell was hardly one to cause a political ruckus. But this spring, he realized that a crude oil superhighway ran through his backyard — just two feet below his patchy lawn and seven feet beyond a newly built porch displaying a sign declaring 'cowpokes welcome.'"

"A World Bank-backed coal plant in South Africa is seeking to delay the implementation of pollution controls, a request that is raising new concerns about the bank's ability to enforce environmental standards on projects it supports."

"Nearly 40 self-described Native Americans, local residents, environmental activists, and scientists spoke out in opposition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) latest proposal to address contamination in the Ringwood Mines/Landfill Superfund site at a meeting held on Thursday, Nov. 7. More than 130 people attended the almost five-hour assembly, which was held at Ryerson School on Valley Road."

"Fumes could enter Minneapolis homes from the soil, once contaminated with a solvent from an old General Mills lab."

"The Tennessee Valley Authority has polluted groundwater supplies around all of its coal-fired power plants – including ones near Gallatin and Clarksville, a national environmental group concluded in a report released Thursday."

"RENO, Nev. -- Rural neighbors of an abandoned World War II-era copper mine that has leaked toxic chemicals in northern Nevada for decades have won up to a $19.5 million settlement from companies they accused of covering up the contamination."

"MONTREAL — Parts of the Chaudière River remain contaminated despite weeks of cleanup operations and the removal of nearly 43 million litres of oily water from the river."

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has clarified that no island composed of debris from the Fukushima tsunami is heading towards the U.S. coast of California."

If you are a fly-fisher, you may go to Michigan's Au Sable River to get away from it all. But you can't get away from the pollution funded by secret money in American politics. NPR turns over some rocks.