"Workers entered a damaged reactor building at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Thursday for the first time since explosions crippled the plant two months ago. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power, said the workers were attempting to install a ventilator to help lower radiation levels inside the reactor building."
"Federal protections for some 1,200 gray wolves in Montana and Idaho end on Thursday under unprecedented legislation passed by the U.S. Congress last month removing them from the endangered species list."
Depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, which has supported life on the U.S. High Plains for decades, poses as much of a threat to the region as drought, depression, or depopulation.
"Less than a week after the wedding of his son William to Kate Middleton, Prince Charles was in Washington on Wednesday to, among other things, speak at a Georgetown University conference on the future of food and sustainable agriculture, a pet issue of his for nearly 30 years."
"Two environmental groups have challenged the air pollution permit for a $750 million iron plant in southwestern Louisiana, which is the first project that was approved under the greenhouse gas regulations that were implemented by U.S. EPA in January."
"Advocates of stringent curbs on greenhouse gas emissions sued the federal government on Wednesday, arguing that key agencies had failed in their duty to protect the earth's atmosphere as a public trust to be guarded for future generations."
"Anticipating a slow-motion disaster that could break flood records dating to the 1920s, thousands of people from Illinois to Louisiana have already been forced from their homes, and anxiety is rising along with the mighty river, even though it could be a week or two before some of the most severe flooding hits."
"HACKLEBURG, Ala. — Over the last week, this close-knit little town has had to grapple with a most unfamiliar feeling: not knowing where everyone is. When the tornadoes came through last Wednesday, ripping over the hills at speeds of up to 200 miles an hour, it left a town alien to itself. The bodies of strangers showed up in backyard ponds, survivors found themselves lying in open fields away from homes that were no longer there and, at night, there was no light, not as much as a streetlamp, to gather around and take stock."
Last year, legislation to put new teeth in federal whistleblower protections failed when a single senator put a secret hold on it late in the session. The good news is Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) has introduced the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2011 to restart the legislative effort.
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