"WASHINGTON, DC -- For decades, affluent families have flocked to Spring Valley, a quiet neighborhood hugging the northwestern boundary of the nation’s capital. True to its name, magnolias are blooming and daffodils carpet the yards. But during World War I, soldiers called it Death Valley. It was here that the Army cooked up chemical weapons, launched poison-packed mortar shells and sent gas clouds billowing over the fields."

"The memory and attention problems plaguing thousands of veterans from the first Gulf War might be caused by low-level exposure to insecticides and nerve gas, said researchers at Georgia Health Sciences University."

This year's mild winter in much of the U.S. has meant a longer tick season. That has meant more contact between ticks and mammals like humans and dogs -- and more tick bites. It is still too early to be sure what this will mean for tick populations or the prevalence of tick-borne disease in the coming year.

"CENTRAL POINT, Ore. --- Electric vehicle drivers can now cruise along the southern Oregon stretch of Interstate 5 without range anxiety. Officials from the Oregon Department of Transportation, along with charging station partner AeroVironment and the Oregon Department of Energy, opened the first phase of the West Coast Electric Highway in a ceremony on Friday. When complete, the highway will stretch along Interstate 5 from the Canadian to Mexican borders."

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"A new study finds that even low doses of hormone-disrupting chemicals -- used in everything from plastics to pesticides -- can have serious effects on human health. These findings, the researchers say, point to the need for basic changes in how chemical safety testing is conducted."

"What was killing all those honeybees in recent years?  New research shows a link between an increase in the death of bees and insecticides, specifically the chemicals used to coat corn seeds."

"A proposed natural gas pipeline that has faced opposition from groups in both New York and New Jersey has won the endorsement of the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has final approval over the $850 million project."

"An energy company with oil and gas leases across much of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation’s western edge has suspended plans to drill a well near a culturally sacred ridge, halting the operation after tribal members voiced concern that it would spiritually denude the site."

"A small, glitter-green insect that has killed more than 50 million ash trees in the Midwest and beyond has arrived in the Philadelphia region."