"The solar power business is growing quickly in the U.S. More than 500,000 homeowners and businesses installed solar panels in just the first half of this year, according to a Solar Energy Industries Association report."

"With a record U.S. harvest just coming in, the river transportation system that is at the heart of the nation's farm economy is overstrained by rising demand for shipping capacity, a low barge inventory, and a dilapidated lock system."

"The Tongass National Forest, a panoply of snow-dusted peaks and braided rivers, slender fjords and more than 5,000 islands draped over a stretch of Pacific coastline, is widely viewed as one of America’s great natural treasures. Under pressure from environmentalists, the Obama administration pledged four years ago to phase out logging of virgin woodlands here."

"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."

"Marla Spivak sat on the curb outside an emergency room in Arizona nearly four decades ago holding a jar with a lone honeybee buzzing around inside. She was 22, and on her way to a summer job with a renowned bee researcher."

"An excruciating mosquito-borne illness that arrived less than a year ago in the Americas is raging across the region, leaping from the Caribbean to the Central and South American mainland, and infecting more than 1 million people. Some cases have already emerged in the United States."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposal to eliminate mercury pollution from dental offices nationwide."

"Pollution investigators have found toxic compounds in groundwater below the Delaware Air National Guard base matching those that prompted shutdowns this summer of the city of New Castle's entire three-well public supply network and two Artesian Water Co. wells."

"The decades-long decline in lead-poisoned children in Maryland has essentially stalled, but state officials said Thursday they are taking steps in the coming months to address gaps in the marathon effort to eliminate the environmental health threat."