"BOKOSHE, Oklahoma — Here in the land of wind-whipped, rolling plains, the gray dust, which sparkles in just the right light, seems inescapable. Residents of this town near the Arkansas line say they have spotted it on their grass, trees, ponds, barns, furniture and cars."

"New Mexico has filed a lawsuit against Colorado in the nation’s highest court alleging the state should be held responsible for the Gold King Mine spill and its handling of the contaminants that have leached from surrounding mines for decades."

"Firefighters across Arizona and New Mexico battled 31 wildfires on Wednesday, their efforts complicated by a relentless heat wave and bone-dry conditions. And in the Angeles National Forest, on the northern edge of Los Angeles, two fires kept more than 300 families from their homes as the fires threatened to merge into one."

"Ten years after a federal agent crashed a pow-wow of a Texas tribe and seized their ceremonial eagle feathers, the tribe has won a settlement that lets members keep the feathers – and get court costs paid, too."

"In a victory for Big Bend ranchers and conservationists, a Presidio county special commission has awarded six landowners about $2.8 million in compensation for the use of their property to construct the Trans-Pecos pipeline and the resulting loss in property value."

"The wind that blows through Bokoshe, Okla. is an ominous one. A small, low-income town near the Arkansas border, Bokoshe sits in the shadow of a coal power plant. Its toxic byproduct, coal ash, is trucked daily to a nearby dump, and when the wind blows through town, that ash rains down on its residents. They believe it is to blame for the asthma and cancer that runs rampant there."

"The Bureau of Land Management announced Monday that several parcels of land intended for oil and gas drilling in northwestern New Mexico will no longer be put up for bid at a leasing auction in October."

"PERRIN, Texas -- On a sunny Saturday afternoon, Cody Murray's water well exploded in flames. Natural gas unexpectedly flowed up with the water and ignited when a switch flipped in the pump house where he stood. It turned the air to fire."

"Record flooding along the swollen Brazos River in Texas on Tuesday prompted mandatory evacuations after at least six people died in the worst floods in more than 100 years."

"AUSTIN, Texas — The state has removed aerial-surveillance photos taken during severe floods from a public website. The decision comes after the El Paso Times earlier this month published a story with dozens of such photos showing apparent oil spills in different river systems over the past few years."