Public

A small earthquake in a part of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are where quakes aren't expected raises concerns about flooding from future levee failures.

"The central U.S. was hit Tuesday with a massive storm with wind gusts up to 81 mph. The storm snapped trees and power lines, ripped off roofs, delayed flights and soaked commuters hunched under crumpled umbrellas. The storm spanned from the Dakotas to the eastern Great Lakes. The unusual system had barometric pressure similar to a Category 3 hurricane, but with much less destructive power."

"A growing number of creatures could disappear from the earth, with one-fifth of all vertebrates and as many as a third of all sharks and rays now facing the threat of extinction, according to a new survey assessing nearly 26,000 species across the globe."

"The South Pacific island nation of Palau has declared all the waters within its Exclusive Economic Zone to be a marine mammal sanctuary for the protection of whales, dolphins, and dugongs."

"Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania signed an executive order on Tuesday effectively banning further natural gas development on state forest lands."

"Members of President Barack Obama's Oil Spill Commission said this week that they were shocked to learn during their months of investigation that federal drilling rig inspectors generally know little or nothing about the process of safely lining and sealing an offshore oil well."

Nomadic herdsmen in East Africa have adapted to shifting patterns of water and forage for thousands of years. Now climate change is forcing them farther afield, and communities are killing each other.

"The European Union and the United States said on Tuesday they were pressing for solutions to concerns China may be exploiting its stranglehold on rare earth metals, crucial in the making of everything from portable phones to wind turbines."

"A federal investigation into contaminated Chinese-made drywall has been a long, hard tug-of-war for U.S. investigators trying to pry information from Chinese government officials and manufacturers. When a team of investigators traveled to China last year, the tug-of-war became physical, with a Chinese official trying to wrest a piece of drywall from an American’s hands."