"At least 800,000 people across the United States live near hundreds of sites that store large amounts of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate, which investigators are blaming as the source of last month's deadly blast at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, a Reuters analysis shows."

"The Forest Service would be allowed to forgo environmental reviews for forest thinning projects smaller than 10,000 acres under a provision in the House farm bill."

"The owners of power plants that burn coal are playing high-stakes poker as they decide whether to install expensive pollution controls or shut down."

"The White House [Tuesday] threatened to veto the latest version of House legislation designed to fast-track the controversial Keystone XL pipeline between Canada's oil sands and Gulf Coast refineries."

"Most utilities have not implemented voluntary cybersecurity measures recommended by an industry organization that oversees reliability, according to findings from a report released this morning by two House Democrats who say they reveal gaps in the government's voluntary approach to cybersecurity."

"Pinning the deadly tornado in the US state of Oklahoma on climate change is wrongheaded, even though the world is set to see a rise in high-profile weather disasters due to global warming, the leader of a UN body said Tuesday."

"The federal government might have enough money in its emergency coffers to help tornado-ravaged Oklahoma without Congress having to pass another contentious disaster response bill, the Senate's top Democrat said yesterday."

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters he wasn't immediately considering legislation to help finance cleanup and recovery from the massive tornado that hit Oklahoma City and its suburbs earlier this week, killing at least 24 people.

"Right now, we don't need the money," the Nevada Democrat said.

"WACO, Texas — Federal agents and the state fire marshal have effectively barred a federal safety panel from the site of a Texas fertilizer plant blast that killed 15 people and injured about 200 others, hampering its investigation, the panel's chairman said."

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has some fresh news from World War II: Thirteen Merchant Marine ships sunk by the German navy in the Battle of the Atlantic threaten to release oil from their watery graves."

"A growing body of mortality research on immigrants has shown that the longer they live in this country, the worse their rates of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. And while their American-born children may have more money, they tend to live shorter lives than the parents."