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A wind-driven wildfire in tinder-dry Southern California that prompted calls for the evacuation of more than 20,000 homes may be close to being controlled.

"Seeking to close what a lawyer called 'serious gaps' in regulation, 64 environmental and community groups on Tuesday petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to clamp down on toxic air emissions from oil and gas operations."

"WASHINGTON — The accelerating rate of climate change poses a severe risk to national security and acts as a catalyst for global political conflict, a report published Tuesday by a leading government-funded military research organization concluded."

"Instead of a one-on-one faceoff, 'Last Week Tonight' hosts one that is 97 against 3."

"Last week was Wildfire Awareness Week in California, a time when firefighters and forest managers travel up and down the state talking about fire risk and public safety. Usually that would mean wildfire conditions were just picking up, with higher temperatures drying out fuels nurtured by winter rain and snowpack."

"Smog could worsen across the United States in the coming decades as climate change boosts summer temperatures and makes ozone levels more difficult to control, a new study says."

"TANGIER ISLAND, Va. — As in many places, conversations on this remote island in the Chesapeake Bay tend to steer toward the weather. But here it's not just small talk."

"New York has its Empire State Building, Paris has its Eiffel Tower and now, finally, Washington has its Monument back. The best view in the District and one of the city’s signature tourist draws returned to duty Monday when the obelisk reopened after $15 million in repairs following the 2011 earthquake."

"Chemicals in water from deep underground in hydraulic fracturing wells have caused problems as they get to water treatment plants in other states. It’s a potential problem to consider as North Carolina moves closer to allowing fracking."

"A draft letter from a U.S. EPA science advisory committee recommends a tight standard for how much ozone pollution can be in the air, recommending that the lower bound of the standard should be 60 parts per billion, much lower than the current standard. But the letter notes that committee members haven't made a decision on the upper bound of the ozone standard."