Public

"WASHINGTON, D.C. - Negotiators between the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate on Monday night released a $1.012 trillion compromise 2014 spending bill that would restore Great Lakes cleanup money to last year's levels and also repeal a newly enacted cut to cost of living adjustments, or COLAs, for disabled military retirees and their survivors."

"FirstEnergy, one of the country’s largest electric companies, has agreed to work toward reducing its carbon emissions in response to pressure from shareholders including New York State and Connecticut pension funds, New York Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said on Tuesday."

"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- About one-third of the West Virginia American Water customers affected by a do-not-use water advisory had been told they can use their tap water as of Tuesday evening, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said Tuesday night."

"A federal judge in Charlotte has delivered a startling victory for industries that are part of the country’s long-running asbestos-liability fight, cutting more than $1 billion from what a company owes to current and future victims."

"Consumers can now see whether their personal care products contain toxic chemicals, using an online database made available Friday by the California Department of Public Health."

"Cannonball jellyfish are bland at best. In China, where slivered, dry jellyfish are commonly served before banquets and strewn across salads, cooks don't use the cellophane-like strips without first dousing them in soy sauce or sesame oil."

Valley fever, a sometimes-serious fungal disease endemic to the Southwest, is spread by windborne soil dust. Climate change may make it worse.

"Carbon dioxide emissions from the nation’s energy sector rose about 2% in 2013 after declining for several years, federal energy officials reported Monday."

"The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Monsanto Co's biotech seed patents on Monday, dealing a blow to a group of organic farmers and other activists trying to stop the biotech company from suing farmers if their fields contain a few plants containing the company's genetically modified traits."