"For the public officials who safeguard Milwaukee's water, Cryptosporidium changed everything."

"With smoke and tar from faulty light fixtures leaking into New York City public school classrooms at alarming rates, the Bloomberg administration said on Tuesday that it would cut in half the time it needed to replace them."

"The owners of power plants that burn coal are playing high-stakes poker as they decide whether to install expensive pollution controls or shut down."

"The White House [Tuesday] threatened to veto the latest version of House legislation designed to fast-track the controversial Keystone XL pipeline between Canada's oil sands and Gulf Coast refineries."

"Most utilities have not implemented voluntary cybersecurity measures recommended by an industry organization that oversees reliability, according to findings from a report released this morning by two House Democrats who say they reveal gaps in the government's voluntary approach to cybersecurity."

"For the fourth time since 1956, Portlanders on Tuesday night rejected a plan to fluoridate city water, 60 percent to 40 percent."

"Pinning the deadly tornado in the US state of Oklahoma on climate change is wrongheaded, even though the world is set to see a rise in high-profile weather disasters due to global warming, the leader of a UN body said Tuesday."

"The federal government might have enough money in its emergency coffers to help tornado-ravaged Oklahoma without Congress having to pass another contentious disaster response bill, the Senate's top Democrat said yesterday."

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters he wasn't immediately considering legislation to help finance cleanup and recovery from the massive tornado that hit Oklahoma City and its suburbs earlier this week, killing at least 24 people.

"Right now, we don't need the money," the Nevada Democrat said.

"WACO, Texas — Federal agents and the state fire marshal have effectively barred a federal safety panel from the site of a Texas fertilizer plant blast that killed 15 people and injured about 200 others, hampering its investigation, the panel's chairman said."

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has some fresh news from World War II: Thirteen Merchant Marine ships sunk by the German navy in the Battle of the Atlantic threaten to release oil from their watery graves."