Ten years after the anthrax attacks that followed 9/11, the nation has spent some $60 billion trying to put together a biodefense program. One reason Americans do not know the scale of the government's failure is the extreme secrecy with which the programs are conducted. Profits, politics, and the manipulation of public fears may be making the nation's vulnerability to the worst public health threats even worse.
"SAN DIEGO -- In the first case to apply the slavery amendment of the U.S. Constitution to non-human creatures, animal rights and marine mammal advocates today asked a federal court to declare that five orcas are being held as slaves by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment."
"Lawmakers have called on the State Department’s inspector general to investigate the department’s handling of a crucial environmental study on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and urged President Obama to delay a decision on the project until the report is completed."
"BP won approval from the Interior Department to drill its first exploratory oil well in the Gulf of Mexico since the blowout of its Macondo well a year and a half ago touched off the country's worst offshore environmental disaster."
"New uranium mining claims on 1 million acres around the Grand Canyon will be blocked for 20 years under a decision the Bureau of Land Management announced Wednesday."
"The US Department of Interior plans to integrate the responsibilities of two sub-agencies with diverse portfolios overseeing surface mining, federal land management, oil and natural gas royalty collection and hard-rock mining, among other areas, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday."
"Two popular Southern California fisheries have collapsed right under the noses of management agencies that had inadequate data, a new study suggests."
"LOS ANGELES — After a five-year delay, an Earth-observing satellite will be launched to test new technologies aimed at improving weather forecasts and monitoring climate change."
"Three environmental groups sued the U.S. government on Tuesday, challenging claims in a State Department report that said a proposed Canada-to-Texas oil sands pipeline poses little risk to endangered species because spills on the line were unlikely."
"Nebraska Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman has called the Legislature into special session next week to address growing concerns over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline would carry tar sands oil across one of the Midwest's most important aquifers.
The action throws a potentially significant new stumbling block into a Canadian company's hope of winning approval before the end of the year for the 1,700-mile pipeline, which would move diluted bitumen -- often heavy in sulfur, nickel and lead -- from Alberta to the Texas coast.
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