"Some radioactive contaminants at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation will threaten the Columbia River for thousands of years, a new analysis projects, despite the multibillion-dollar cleanup efforts by the federal government."

"The Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill that would help protect a single Fortune 500 company from asbestos lawsuits -- a proposal that House Speaker William J. Howell has been quietly maneuvering to have his chamber support for weeks."

"Scientists studying burbot in the Mackenzie River, one of the country's most pristine rivers, have been surprised to discover that mercury, PCBs and DDT in the fish are rising rapidly, a finding they say is linked to climate change."

"Federal authorities on Monday presented a $78.5 million plan intended to block Asian carp, a hungry, huge, nonnative fish, from invading the Great Lakes."

The bright-golden spray toads, small as a dime, once lived in the spray of a waterfall on the Kihansi River in Tanzania. A dam funded by the World Bank destroyed the species habitat, and they are now extinct in the wild. They now live only in captivity.

"Sen. John McCain once led the global warming debate on Capitol Hill, pledging to force repeated floor votes on cap-and-trade legislation until it passed. ... But McCain has gone on hiatus from the issue since losing the presidential election to Barack Obama. And he is likely to keep his distance even more over the next six months due to a primary challenge from a conservative former congressman that threatens to end his Senate career after four terms."

"The Obama administration extended a helping hand to the nuclear industry last week by proposing to expand nuclear power loan guarantee authority by $36 billion, putting into action its long-stated support for the energy source. The question now is what the White House has to gain by providing a total of $54 billion in loan guarantee authority for nuclear projects."