"Federal regulators leaned on McDonald's to quickly recall 12 million 'Shrek'-themed drinking glasses this spring because they concluded that a typical 6-year-old could be exposed to hazardous levels of the metal cadmium by touching one of the glasses just eight times in a day, according to documents obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act."

A second report from the Oil Spill Commission, "entitled 'Decision-Making in the Unified Command,' portrays the cleanup effort as confused, wasteful and often ineffective, and offers thinly veiled criticism of some of the key figures in the effort, including Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

"The United States and EU said on Wednesday that U.N. climate talks were making less progress than hoped due to rifts over rising economies' emission goals, while China pushed back and put the onus on rich nations."

"The sun may warm the Earth more during waning solar cycles, new satellite data has shown, turning scientific understanding on its head and helping to explain extreme local weather patterns, scientists said on Wednesday."

"President Barack Obama issued an executive order today establishing the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, aimed at coordinating planning and information exchange between the federal government and coastal interests as restoration efforts following the oil spill begin."