By IAN URBINA18 March 2013 (The New York Times) – Last year, two inspectors from California’s hazardous waste agency were visiting an electronics recycling company near Fresno for a routine review of paperwork when they came across a warehouse the size of a football field, packed with tens of thousands of old computer monitors and […]
By Jim Malewitz, Staff Writer 18 March 2013 (Stateline) – Threatened by another summer of crop-shriveling drought, Kansans are watching a bold experiment unfold in Sheridan County, population 2,556, a sliver of the state’s northwest corner. On lands dominated by agriculture, locals have agreed to across-the-board cuts to water use. The state of Kansas didn’t […]
By Clifford Krauss19 March 2013 NEW ORLEANS (The New York Times) – The chief executive of the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig acknowledged in court on Tuesday that his crew should have done more to avert the 2010 oil well blowout that left 11 dead and soiled hundreds of miles of beaches […]
By Tasneem Raja19 March 2013 (Mother Jones) – Ten years later, the Bush administration’s projected price tag for the war in Iraq seems downright cute. According to the first-ever comprehensive count of the true toll of the combined wars, the estimate the administration used to sell the invasion in 2003 was about 100 times too […]
[Desdemona can think of another reason why the invasion and occupation were disastrous: If the U.S. had instead poured trillions of dollars into upgrading its energy-production infrastructure to renewables, we wouldn’t need to invade oil-producing nations ever again.] By Richard Sanders19 March 2013 (Daily Telegraph) – The lead unit of the US Marine Corps arrived […]
By John Eligon and Matthew L. Wald16 March 2013 MACON, Missouri (The New York Times) – Five years ago, rural America was giddy for ethanol. Backed by government subsidies and mandates, hundreds of ethanol plants rose among the golden fields of the Corn Belt, bringing jobs and business to small towns, providing farmers with a […]
6 March 2013 (NRDC) – The bounty of America’s fisheries have fed a hungry nation, built homes, seduced tourists, fueled commercial enterprises, put kids through college, and provided a decent living to millions. But in the late 1980s and 1990s, many fish stocks off our shores, from haddock in New England to summer flounder in […]
By Hope Yen13 March 2013 WASHINGTON (AP) — A record number of U.S. counties — more than 1 in 3 — are now dying off, hit by an aging population and weakened local economies that are spurring young adults to seek jobs and build families elsewhere. New 2012 census estimates released Thursday highlight the population […]
By Amy Quinton28 February 2013 (California Capital Network) – California has officially shattered an all-time record for the driest January and February in the northern Sierra since record-keeping began in 1921. This year, the area has received only 2.3 inches of precipitation. The northern Sierra is crucial in providing statewide water supplies because snow melt […]
By Mark Stevenson13 March 2013 MEXICO CITY (AP) – The amount of Monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico dropped 59 percent this year, falling to the lowest level since comparable record-keeping began 20 years ago, scientists reported Wednesday. It was the third straight year of declines for the orange-and-black butterflies that migrate from the United States […]
