Biodiversity

A Bush-appointed holdover inspector general has teamed up with an ultraconservative Senator in a "plumber" operation aimed at punishing agency employees who revealed attempts to gut the Endangered Species Act via "midnight regulations."

A coalition of 262 citizen groups from many walks of life urge the new Congress to pass legislation ending the widespread practice of government retaliation against federal employees who reveal government waste, fraud, and abuse.

The Southern Environmental Law Center's top 10 places in America's South that face "immediate, potentially irreparable threats in 2009" represent a cross-section of the major environmental issues facing these states.

In this issue: Smog lingers over Houston–media muddle Bush's record as air progress slows; Green space may calm and cool us; Journalists probe environmental justice issues; Land use in the West; The award-winning beryllium story; Montana mine's toxic legacy; Tracking campaign cash; What was behind EPA blackout? and more. Download the PDF here.

Two conservation groups are suing the Interior Department to get hidden documents they say could show the sale would harm polar bears and other marine mammals.

The Environmental Protection Agency looks determined to keep the public from knowing whether a pesticide on which it has waived safety rules may be a factor in the worldwide bee die-off known as "colony collapse disorder."

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), a conservationist group that litigates wildlife-protection issues, has filed suit challenging Interior Department secrecy on a political scandal.

Mexico released a report condemning the border fence along the U.S. border as environmentally destructive.

A Fortune 500 energy company is applying for an "incidental take" permit that would allow it to kill endangered and threatened species that live on the largest swath of land ever covered by one permit.