Disasters

"Hurricane Sandy, the monster storm bearing down on the East Coast, strengthened on Monday after hundreds of thousands moved to higher ground, public transport shut down and the stock market suffered its first weather-related closure in 27 years.

About 50 million people from the Mid-Atlantic to Canada were in the path of the nearly 1,000-mile-wide (1,600-km-wide) storm, which forecasters said could be the largest to hit the mainland in U.S. history. It was expected to topple trees, damage buildings, cause power outages and trigger heavy flooding.

"TOKYO — Elevated levels of cesium still detected in fish off the Fukushima coast of Japan suggest that radioactive particles from last year’s nuclear disaster have accumulated on the seafloor and could contaminate sea life for decades, according to new research."

"The state of Louisiana has asked a federal judge to declare a jury trial to decide on its claim for more than $1 billion from BP Plc to compensate the state for economic losses resulting from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill."

Although predictions are still iffy, Pepco and other utilities around the District of Columbia and the Atlantic seaboard are bracing for winds and water from Hurricane Sandy. Some experts think the impact of the hurricane itself will be worsened by interaction with a large blocking dome of high pressure.

"Documents obtained by Greenpeace show officials controlling information about wildlife affected by the disaster."

"MANZANILLO, Cuba -- Hurricane Sandy made landfall Thursday just west of Santiago de Cuba in southern Cuba, where residents boarded over windows and cleared drainage gutters ahead of the strengthening storm that had roared across Jamaica and left two dead in the Caribbean."

"Scientists say the U.S. biological defense system relied on kits that were far less able to help detect lethal germs than officials thought."

"Solyndra, the solar panel maker that failed despite a $528 million federal loan, on Monday won court approval for its plan to repay creditors and end its politically charged bankruptcy, after a judge overruled objections by the U.S. government."

The Texas-based energy company TXU was, under the Bush administration, supposed to be the cutting edge of a coal resurgence. The 2007 leveraged buyout of TXU is widely regarded to be one of the worst deals in private equity history. But the firms that led it -- KKR, TPG, and Goldman Sachs -- made money with big fees even as the company tumbled toward financial ruin.

"SHIPPINGPORT, Pa. -- Chesapeake Energy has a permit to frack just one mile from the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport. Whether that is cause for alarm, experts can’t say."