"GLASGOW, Mont. — Drug crimes in eastern Montana have more than doubled. Assaults in Dickinson, N.D., have increased fivefold in just two years. And the once-sleepy town of Plentywood, Mont., has seen three assaults with weapons in the past few months — a prospect previously unheard of in the tiny community tucked against the Canada border.

"Twenty percent of U.S. EPA's radiation monitors were out of service last year when an earthquake caused a meltdown at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, according to a new report that confirms some of the claims of environmental watchdogs."

"A former BP engineer who assisted in attempts to stop the flow of oil from the company's Macondo well after the Deepwater Horizon explosion was arrested [Tuesday] on charges of intentionally destroying evidence concerning the amount of oil released from the well. Kurt Mix, who resigned from BP PLC in January, was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans and unsealed [Tuesday]."

"The first new case of mad cow disease in the U.S. since 2006 has been discovered in a dairy cow in California, but health authorities said Tuesday the animal never was a threat to the nation's food supply."

"We'd probably like to think that clean, safe food goes hand in hand with pristine nature, with lots of wildlife and clean water. But in the part of California that grows a lot of the country's lettuce and spinach, these two goals have come into conflict."

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been running its Wind Profiler Network for 20 years, using more than 30 radar sites to record hourly information on wind conditions from the ground up to 50,000 feet."

"In their quest to rid cleaning products of toxic chemicals, consumer advocates have now set their sights on Tide, the best-selling laundry detergent.

The release Friday of the Senate Agriculture Committee chairman's draft of a 2012 Farm Bill shifted the political fight over this major legislation into high gear. Finishing the bill by September, when the current law expires, will be a challenge, especially in an election year. The Farm Bill has many provisions that affect the environment, public health, and environmental health.

"Hockey sticks and brawls aren't just for NHL playoff games. Climate scientist Michael Mann has the scars to prove it. But along the way he has picked up some fans as well."

The American Legislative Exchange Council -- ALEC -- has for decades worked to fight protection of public health from environmental threats. Funded with corporate money, the group has won non-profit tax status from the federal government even as it lobbies for industrial interests on an industrial scale. Now, because it backed the gun law that kept Trayvon Martin's killer from arrest, some large corporations are cashing out from ALEC.