National (U.S.)

"For U.S. EPA at the Supreme Court, it's been the best of times -- and the worst.

""Big food producers are moving to try to head off criticism of how they use additives, with a main industry group saying it plans to give more information to regulators about how companies determine the safety of the thousands of chemicals and other ingredients in processed foods."

"ExxonMobil Corp. has agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle federal claims arising from a 2012 crude oil pipeline spill in Louisiana."

"The federal government is protecting 20 types of colorful coral by putting them on the list of threatened species, partly because of climate change."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) voted Tuesday to end a moratorium on issuing plant licenses that it had imposed while it considered nuclear waste storage issues."

"Tyson Foods could lose around $500 million in government contracts if found guilty in and ongoing criminal probe by the Environmental Protection Agency over the recent release of toxic chemicals at a plant in Monett, Mo."

"New Hampshire Senate candidate Scott Brown has added his name to the list of Republicans who have dismissed the science behind climate change, despite previously stating that global warming is real."

"The Obama administration is working to forge a sweeping international climate change agreement to compel nations to cut their planet-warming fossil fuel emissions, but without ratification from Congress."

The wolf known as OR7 prompted some reflective writing -- and a flood of reader response -- in the Pacific states. The coverage reminds us that there is room for the personal and evocative as well as the objective and informative in environmental journalism. And it restored Sacramento Bee writer Matt Weiser's faith in the newspaper.