Three organizations file a lawsuit against the USFWS, a new study finds three strains of GE maize likely damaged organs of rats that ate the foods for just three months, pesticide use associated with GE crops may actually be greater than for traditional crops, and GE seed prices skyrocket.

The plants, ranging from very large to very small, are now using chemicals and processes such as liquid chlorine bleach, calcium hypochlorite, or ultraviolet light — allegedly making ~40 million people living nearby safer.

The Alliance for Biking and Walking's second biennial report, while mainly a recitation of statistics, is a highly useful source of leads and context for transit-related stories.

Many story leads are tucked away in this 196-page report: recession impacts from drops in extraction and consumption, increases in importation of key materials, insights on stories related to climate change and air pollution, and much more. 

The site offers some improvements over poring through the Federal Register, but it's not comprehensive, topics are too broad, and there's poor differentiation between topics and constituencies. On the plus side, visitors can comment on in-process regulations, get alerts about specific regulations, attend online public meetings, and sort in-process regs.

The site includes news, studies, reports, fact sheets, data, predictions, educational tools, an events calendar, and images. The agency says it will adapt the site in response to comments, so feel free to provide feedback.

Educating your audience about the complicated new law will be a useful public service. It will also familiarize you with the people involved at your local facilities, what steps they are taking, and who you can contact if a shooting incident or other violation occurs.

The Trust for Public Land's updated online database includes mapping and a finer level of detail, such as information at the county and parcel levels, for some but not all states as yet.

USDA's first major national survey of U.S. organic farms includes 14,540 farms and ranches that cover 4.1 million acres in 50 states.

University of Virginia researchers find algae-based biofuel uses more energy and water and emits more greenhouse gases than other biofuel sources. However, algae has a high energy yield, and growing it wouldn't significantly affect food crops.