As Vietnam veterans age, there has been an explosion of claims for disabilities related to Agent Orange. It could cost the taxpayers $42 billion over the next 10 years, and it raises questions about the government's failure to address Agent Orange risks before using it.
"With prayers and the solemn tolling of bells, but also with second-line parades and the drumming of Mardi Gras Indians, New Orleanians throughout the region on Sunday took stock of their rebuilt lives in the five years since the worst event in the region's history, and promised each other to keep the recovery going."
"No more sunny side up. No more eggs Benedict. No more almost-set scrambled eggs. After of one of the largest egg recalls on record, critics say the egg industry is resorting to the worst tactic of all: blaming the victim."
"The U.S. National Hurricane Center was monitoring three tropical systems in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday, and computer models still showed all three steering clear of key oil and gas producing areas in the Gulf of Mexico."
"On Thursday, some of the country's most respected environmental groups -- in the midst of their biggest political fight in two decades -- sent a group of activists to Milwaukee with a message. We're losing."
"In a remote reach of the Gulf of Mexico, nearly 200 miles from shore, a floating oil platform thrusts its tentacles deep into the ocean like a giant steel octopus. ... Even as regulators investigate the causes of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the broader dangers posed by the industry’s push into deeper waters have gone largely unscrutinized."
In the debate over how to meet the nation's 'clean energy' goals, the nuclear industry seems to be winning.
The application of sewage sludge (renamed "biosolids" by industry PR) to fields has created worries about smell, disease, and toxic contaminants. Federal efforts to track sludge problems have been fragmented, haphazard, and delayed -- which does not inspire confidence in industry-backed federal assurances that sludge is safe. The assurances have preceded the evidence that would support them.
"The Obama administration has urged the Supreme Court to toss out an appeals court decision that would allow lawsuits against major emitters for their contributions to global warming, stunning environmentalists who see the case as a powerful prod on climate change."
"A study released on Thursday finds that 39 sites in 21 states where coal-fired power plants dump their coal ash are contaminating water with toxic metals such as arsenic and other pollutants, and that the problem is more extensive than previously estimated."
