"The Senate Finance Committee’s abrupt move to take up “tax extenders” legislation is testing the lobbying clout of the renewable energy sector and other special interests in Washington."
"When disease strikes in the developing world, like the current Ebola outbreak in Guinea, doctors, nurses and epidemiologists from international organizations fly in to help. So do anthropologists."
"Inspection teams were set to venture into an underground nuclear waste disposal vault in New Mexico on Wednesday to look for the source of a radiation leak nearly seven weeks ago that exposed 21 workers and forced a shutdown of the facility."
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency failed to disclose cancer risks to volunteers used in research studies on harmful pollutants, a government watchdog says."
"Environmental groups believe a large favor was handed to corporations, billionaires and the campaigns they fund when U.S. Supreme Court justices decided Wednesday to strike down overall limits on campaign contributions."
The federal government certainly won't tell you. But the nonprofit research group FracTracker will give you data and maps on some 1.1 million oil and gas wells in 36 U.S. states. It's a great starting point for stories on the environmental impacts of drilling and fracking in your area.
Just claiming something as "confidential business information" is not enough. Wyoming's Supreme Court said the state's drillers, and state regulators, bear the burden of showing why they are withholding disclosure of the often-toxic chemicals pumped underground in fracking operations.
Kentucky is the latest state to consider legislation criminalizing undercover photography of animal abuse in farm operations, which often ends up in the news. But Democratic Rep. Joni Jenkins (pictured), who sponsored the measure to which the Senate attached the Ag-Gag language, says she won't call it up in the House.
"The much-welcomed storms that hit California this week and over the past month increased the Sierra Nevada snowpack, a critical source of water for cities and farms. But they didn't end the drought, experts say. They simply improved a disastrous situation to dismal."
"The Tennessee branch of Americans For Prosperity (AFP) — funded by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch — has been working with lawmakers opposed to mass transit projects in the state."
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