National (U.S.)

"Researchers point to concerns over pesticides as diseases as bee numbers drop while farmland requiring the pollinators increases"

"With California working to list atrazine as toxic to the reproductive system, three of the United States' most-widely used pesticides are under fire for adverse health effects."

"The American Petroleum Institute together with the nation's largest oil companies ran a task force to monitor and share climate research between 1979 and 1983, indicating that the oil industry, not just Exxon alone, was aware of its possible impact on the world's climate far earlier than previously known."

"The National League of Cities, which represents over 19,000 U.S. cities, filed a motion in a federal court Tuesday to support the Obama administration's push to curb carbon emissions against legal challenges."

"A majority of U.S. Republicans who had heard of the international climate deal in Paris said they support working with other countries to curb global warming and were willing to take steps to do so, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Tuesday."

"A century ago American chestnut trees dominated the eastern woodlands from Georgia to Maine. Growing straight and tall they were prized for timber. Wildlife depended on the nuts they provided every year."

"Eighty-five percent of male smallmouth bass tested in or nearby 19 National Wildlife Refuges in the U.S. Northeast had signs of female reproductive parts, according to a new federal study."

"LOS ALAMOS, N.M. - The $2 billion contract to manage one of the federal government's premier nuclear weapons laboratories will be up for grabs after 2017."

"Dreaming of a white Christmas? Depending on where you live, you might want to keep dreaming, according to current weather reports. If you live in the eastern or central United States, Friday could be 'one of the warmest Christmas Days of your lifetime,' The Weather Channel reported Sunday."

"How oil industry lobbyists played the long game — wearing down an overmatched federal bureaucracy to gain access to a fuel-rich corner of the Alaskan wilderness. "