From the latest issue of SEJ's biweekly TipSheet: EOL, which is searchable by both common and scientific terms, has vastly expanded its content since its launch in 2008 and now provides extensive nitty-gritty on about half of all described species, as laid out in more than 950,000 pages and more than 760,000 images.

Snow cover has many implications, from ski resorts short on snow and farmers who rely on snowmelt for irrigation to firefighters and residents battling major fires in unusual locations in the middle of winter and smothering blizzards in areas at the other end of the extreme snow spectrum this year.

The analysis can be a useful starting point for targeting angles you want to investigate for toxic pollution stories. The raw data also offer numerous ways to look at occurrences and trends in many ways nationally and locally the agency hasn't addressed or emphasized in its analysis.

The assessments, expected late January 2012, could have wide-ranging direct and indirect effects in realms such as toxic site cleanups, brownfield development, manufacturing processes, domestic food production and sales, and international trade of food and possibly other goods.