"In an effort to halt dramatic declines in the cod population, federal officials overseeing the fishing industry on Monday announced unprecedented measures that effectively ban all commercial fishing of the region’s iconic species in the Gulf of Maine."

"Federal regulators shut down the commercial fishing season for northern shrimp in the Gulf of Maine for a second straight year on Wednesday, citing concerns about the declining population and warmer ocean temperatures."

"With only a week before voters go to the polls to decide on an open-space preservation plan, seldom has such a proposal caused as much of a rift on this issue -- one widely embraced in the past. Not this time."

"NEW YORK — After Superstorm Sandy, officials in New York and New Jersey vowed to make sure the unprecedented destruction wouldn't happen again. Two years later, would it?"

"Loren 'Buzz' Kiskadden first noticed a water problem at his house trailer in rural Amwell Township, Washington County, while using a hose to fill a wading pool for his grandchildren in June 2011. 'A gray sludge was filing up the bottom of the pool. It was just nasty,' said Mr. Kiskadden, 55, in testimony before the state Environmental Hearing Board last week in Pittsburgh. 'I shut the water off and told the kids not to get in it.'"

"A federal water study commissioned by the Cuomo administration as it weighed a key decision on fracking was edited and delayed by state officials before it was published, a Capital review has found."

"Manhattan's Central Park is surrounded by one of the densest cities on the planet. It's green enough, yet hardly the first place most people would think of as biologically rich."

"It has been nearly two years since Hurricane Sandy crashed ashore in New Jersey, devastating cities throughout the region. As cities and towns along the coast consider how to prepare for future weather patterns, and avert the kind of damage that happened in 2012, a two-pronged response has emerged — a kind of municipal fight-or-flight response."