"The Red River rose three feet on Tuesday, getting closer to causing major flooding at Fargo, North Dakota for the second straight spring in the key U.S. wheat-growing state."

"People are eating an estimated 13 million pounds of fish per year from the Ohio River -- and that doesn’t count fish caught by commercial fishers."

"The role of the White House Office of Management and Budget in federal rulemaking is expected to come under scrutiny [Tuesday] as a House panel investigates the regulatory process."

"A group of 14 Midwestern electric utilities continued its push today for a different direction on global warming legislation, asking the Senate's lead climate negotiators to get a full economic study on their bill for businesses and consumers in coal-dependent states."

"Do researchers have an obligation to help the general public understand the relevance of their work? One academic thinks so – despite sporting scars from his effort."

Three years after "colony collapse disorder," a still-mysterious syndrome that kills whole beehives, commercial beekeepers are struggling to provide pollination for the nation's crops.

The failure of aging water and sewer pipes damages streets and homes and causes pollution to seep into drinking water supplies in many cities across the country. The only solution may require higher water bills for consumers.

"The federal 'vaccines court' ruled Friday in three separate cases that the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal does not cause autism, a finding that supports the broad scientific consensus on the matter but that greatly disappointed parents who are convinced that their child's illness was caused by vaccines."

"U.S. EPA settled a lawsuit [last week] by agreeing to use the Clean Water Act to address ocean acidification, a move that some see as opening a side door to federal curbs on greenhouse gases that scientists link to problems in the marine environment."

"North American bird species are 'facing a new threat -- climate change -- that could dramatically alter their habitat and food supply and push many species towards extinction,' said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on Thursday when he announced the new report, 'The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change.'"