National (U.S.)

"Eco-minded shoppers will soon see a new U.S.-approved label on many products, including household cleaners and skin-care items, made with bio-based ingredients."

President Obama's new executive order requiring executive agencies to test regulations for balance between costs to industry and benefits to Americans drew mixed reactions. Environmentalists called it a cave-in and business lobbyists said it did not go far enough. In fact, it did not much change existing executive orders already on the books to do the same thing. Stakeholders and analysts saw it as a maneuver in a complex game of appearances and a feint that may blunt a GOP plan to do things far more radical.

Cash-strapped communities across the country find themselves being courted by private companies -- including Goldman Sachs -- who want to buy their water utilities. They should heed the unhappy experiences of communities who have already privatized.

Water managers, farmers, electric utilities, skiers and some 30 million water users breathed a sigh of relief in recent weeks with news that snowpack in the basin of the Colorado River was better. The relief may be temporary. The drought that has plagued the region for 11 years may become the new "normal."

"Tuna and swordfish collected from some California grocery stores and sushi restaurants contained mercury levels as much as three times the threshold that authorizes federal food regulators to pull seafood from shelves, according to a study by an environmental health group."

"The Obama administration opened an aggressive new legal front in the enduring trade fight over lucrative softwood lumber exports, accusing Canada of violating a 2006 deal by allowing British Columbia to sell vast quantities of cut-rate, Crown-owned timber to lumber companies."

Darrell Issa, the incoming GOP chair of the House Oversight Committee, has vowed to investigate Democratic wrongdoing. First, though, he may have to put to rest questions about his own past.

"Mining companies can proceed with their challenge to U.S. EPA's new policies on mountaintop-removal coal mining, a federal judge has ruled in a preliminary decision that says EPA may have exceeded its legal authority."

"President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he would order a government-wide review of regulations with the goal of eliminating those that hurt job creation and make the U.S. economy less competitive."

"Higher ocean levels force Ventura officials to move facilities inland, an action that is expected to recur along the coast as the ocean rises over the next century."