"PARKS, Armstrong County -- From the road, it looks like any fenced-in patch of trees and overgrown grass. Passersby have to look closely to notice the signs warning of radiation, or to see the Homeland Security guards patrolling with rifles slung over their backs."

"GEORGETOWN, S.C. -- The rusty stains on Shirley Carter's home are a permanent reminder of her fight with the local steel mill, just down U.S. Highway 17 near the boat docks. No matter how many cans of industrial-strength acid she went through, the red tint on her property never seemed to go away. In 1998, Carter and her neighbors sued Georgetown Steel, then owned by the company Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney co-founded, Bain Capital."

"In southern Illinois, farmer Jim Unverfehrt steered his pickup beside a corn crop already lost, then hopped out to search for the soybeans he planted six weeks earlier."

"Months before vaulting to the top of the veepstakes, Rep. Paul Ryan got under President Barack Obama's skin by calling for killing the president's favored green-energy subsidies."

"LOS ANGELES -- A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by nearly 3,000 Filipino workers claiming injury from pesticide exposure while worked for Dole Food Co."

"CHICAGO -- At Ming Hin Cuisine in Chicago's Chinatown, a giant shark fin decorates the wall in the main dining room, and shark fin soup is offered on the banquet menu for customers willing to pay the price."

"In the Olympics of pollution, an environmental group has given Kentucky a gold medal of sorts for spewing the most toxic air emissions from its power plants, most of them fueled by coal."

"WASHINGTON, DC -- Eight U.S. biofuel industry organizations have formed a new coalition to defend the nation’s Renewable Fuel Standard and to advocate for domestic production of advanced biofuels. Their first fight is against a movement by members of the House of Representatives who are pressuring the Obama Administration to waive the federal Renewable Fuel Standard."

"A new survey suggests a popular class-room solution for Canadian and American teachers may be causing problems for Mother Nature. The study from Oregon State University says a quarter of teachers who use live organisms as teaching tools release the species into the wild when the classroom unit is finished, but only 10 per cent of them do it through a planned release program."

"Tropical storm Ernesto weakened on Wednesday as it dumped heavy rains over Mexico's southern Yucatan peninsula and headed toward the Gulf of Mexico, where the country's main oil operations are located."