A USA TODAY probe reveals some of the reason why USDA officials did not recall meat they knew could be tainted with salmonella from school lunch programs. The story is based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

"Most world leaders plan to attend a climate summit in Copenhagen this month, boosting chances that a new U.N. deal to fight climate change will be reached, host Denmark said on Tuesday."

"Climate change dominated the meeting of Commonwealth heads of government that concluded Sunday in Port of Spain with a statement of support for an international legally binding agreement in Copenhagen next month."

Hoping to please the farm lobby, Congress ordered the nation's gasoline refiners to blend more ethanol into the fuel Americans use. But fuel demand falling because of the recession and more efficient vehicles has made this impossible.

"Recycling centers across California are closing, and scores of troubled youths are being tossed from 'green' jobs onto unemployment rolls in the wake of Sacramento's raid on bottle deposit funds."

"Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell has directed the agency's regions and research stations to jointly produce draft "landscape conservation action plans" by March 1 to guide its day-to-day response to climate change."

"The Department of Natural Resources' efforts to combat chronic wasting disease -- an illness that threatens Wisconsin's entire deer herd -- have had little effect after seven years and nearly $41 million in state and federal spending, data and interviews indicate."

"The 2009 Atlantic hurricane season ended Monday without a hurricane landing on U.S. shores and with the fewest named storms in 12 years, according to the National Hurricane Center."

"Twenty-five years on, the world's worst industrial accident continues to kill and blight many lives. And still there's been no trial."

"What kind of insurance policy do you take out if you operate a large nuclear plant in one of the most densely populated, fastest-growing communities in Canada?"