"SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- An undercover video that showed California cows struggling to stand as they were prodded to slaughter by forklifts led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history. In Vermont, a video of veal calves skinned alive and tossed like sacks of potatoes ended with the plant's closure and criminal convictions."

"Now in a pushback led by the meat and poultry industries, state legislators across the country are introducing laws making it harder for animal welfare advocates to investigate cruelty and food safety cases.

"Makers of the specialty cocktails used to crack open the Earth and set loose gobs of oil and gas are sparring once again on behalf of their corner of the energy industry."

"LOS ANGELES -- The company that runs the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant sparred with environmental activists Friday over the details of a once-confidential report that shows industry engineers were aware of problems with steam quality inside equipment that later malfunctioned."

"Canada's Harper Administration is allegedly restricting what environmental information government scientists can share with journalists, according to academics and media watchdogs. Host Steve Curwood learns more from Tyler Sommers, coordinator of Democracy Watch."

"When China's environment ministry told attorney Dong Zhengwei he couldn't have access to two-year old data about soil pollution because it was a 'state secret', it added to mounting public outrage over the worsening environment."

"At 5pm on Friday afternoon, The New York Times posted the following announcement: 'The Times is discontinuing the Green blog, which was created to track environmental and energy news and to foster lively discussion of developments in both areas. This change will allow us to direct production resources to other online projects. But we will forge ahead with our aggressive reporting on environmental and energy topics, including climate change, land use, threatened ecosystems, government policy, the fossil fuel industries, the growing renewables sector and consumer choices.'"