The newly upgraded and expanded MAPLight.org will help you make connections between lobbying and campaign contributions and the actions of members of the US House and Senate, including their votes on specific bills and issues.

A new project of EPA and the National Renewable Energy Lab will analyze development potential for wind, solar, or small hydro power at contaminated sites in various stages of cleanup.

Find out if an endangered or threatened animal or plant species lives in counties of interest to your audience, and cover it in the context of current news developments or some other at-risk-species angle.

For the first time in 25 years, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has updated the list of federally-protected migratory birds. The net result is the addition of 175 species, bringing the total to 1,007.

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.