National (U.S.)

"Federal officials this week offered the first national blueprint on how to clean up methamphetamine labs — prompting state health experts to consider changes to their policies."

"The group of Cabinet secretaries and White House advisers who meet regularly to craft the president's energy and environmental agenda now numbers 13, double what it was during the administration's early days. It's just one of the signs that the administration is stepping up its push to pass energy and climate legislation this year."

Carbonless copy papers, used for most credit card receipts, are coated with a powdery layer of Bisphenol A, an endocrine disruptor.

The US Chamber of Commerce violated its own rules to reach a climate change position that has driven companies out of its fold. That is the picture painted by interviews with current and former US Chamber board members, several of whom divulged new revelations about the Chamber's internal climate controversy.

"Clean air advocates are girding for a battle over a possible amendment to the annual U.S. EPA spending bill that would weaken the agency's ability to regulate air pollution from oceangoing vessels."

"The operators of 10 U.S. mines, including the largest private-sector coal company in the world, have been warned they must improve health and safety conditions or face stricter enforcement and penalties, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration said Wednesday."

"The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted [Thursday] to confirm Pennsylvania's controversial mining director as the director of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement."

"An overhaul of federal toxics regulations will require prioritizing tens of thousands of chemicals currently in the marketplace, representatives of industry and advocacy groups agree. At issue: the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today published a final rule to ensure that safe and reliable drinking water is provided to aircraft passengers and crew. The rule requires airlines to have their water systems inspected at least once every five years, report the test results to the EPA and fix any 'significant deficiencies.'"

Engineering and construction firm KBR has profited from the war in Iraq, thanks to secret-no-bid contracts coordinated by the office of then VP Cheney, who had previously headed KBR's parent company. Evidence shows that US soldiers were exposed to carcinogen sodium dichromate as part of KBR's activities in Iraqi oil fields.