"ABC News made an historically large payout to settle a defamation lawsuit earlier this summer, according to a new financial release from the network's parent company Disney and an attorney for the plaintiff."

"Every four years, the nation’s scientists from myriad federal agencies come together to release a comprehensive report synthesizing the current state of climate science. It’s become a routine affair, with a predictable process involving extensive analysis of studies, numerous drafts, and eventual approval from the White House before the public release of the latest National Climate Assessment. But this year was different."

"The impending release of a key government report on climate change will force President Trump to choose between accepting the conclusions of his administration’s scientists and the demands of his conservative supporters, who remain deeply unconvinced that humans are the cause of the planet’s warming."

"On dusty land in Mission, Tex., near the Mexican border, Marianna Trevino Wright recently took a walk with a contractor. She was showing off her effort to turn the earth surrounding the National Butterfly Center into 'an oasis for butterflies,' she said — with 10,000 native milkweed plants that a dwindling number of monarch butterflies use as habitat in their arduous and yearly migration from Mexico and across the United States to Canada."

"An environmental disaster in North Carolina reveals that a rare, potentially dangerous compound is abundant in burned coal."

"A genetically engineered, freeze-tolerant eucalyptus tree is moving closer to receiving approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, amid concerns about the tree’s possible negative effects on the environment."

"President Donald Trump’s America First rhetoric is doing no favors for U.S. ethanol producers, who are hoping to avoid a trade fight with fuel buyers in Brazil."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is taking steps to review the planned revival of the long-dormant nuclear waste dump at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain."

"As President Donald Trump touts new oil pipelines and pledges to revive the nation’s struggling coal mines, federal scientists are warning that burning fossil fuels is already driving a steep increase in the United States of heat waves, droughts and floods."

"A federal court [Tuesday] ruled that U.S. EPA cannot require companies to replace potent heat-trapping chemicals with other substances, dealing a blow to part of the Obama administration's climate change legacy."