"At the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, the justices heard arguments in a case that drug manufacturers say could open the floodgates to thousands of lawsuits — mainly from parents who contend that vaccinations caused their children's autism. At issue is how far a federal law reaches in barring state lawsuits over vaccines."
The National Institute on Money in State Politics collects data about spending related to state-level races in all 50 states, codes and collates it, and presents it all in a searchable online database.
"The Obama administration, under heavy pressure from the oil industry and others in the Gulf Coast, on Tuesday lifted the moratorium on deep water drilling that it imposed in the wake of the disastrous BP oil spill.
"Google is backing a plan to lay undersea cables to connect offshore windmills off the mid-Atlantic coast, a step the Internet giant hopes will boost wind power as an energy source."
"The soils in large areas of the Southern Hemisphere, including large parts of Australia, Africa and South America, have been drying up in the past decade, a new study finds."
"With climate legislation stalled in Congress and U.S. EPA just months away from regulating greenhouse gases for the first time, 37 states have taken sides in a court battle that could end up steering U.S. climate policy for years."
In a hotly contested Maryland race for House of Representatives, incumbent Democrat Rep. Frank Kratovil plays up his environmental credentials in a a district where the livelihoods of farmers and watermen (plus a tourist industry) depend on the environment. His opponent, Republican Andy Harris, offers a stark contrast and is making a strong showing."
"BEIJING -- During her first official visit to China, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson today signed an agreement with Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian that formalizes the partnership between the United States and China on environmental protection."
"A roundup of wild horses began Monday in northwestern Colorado over the objections of animal advocacy groups."
"Free-range cattle roam widely across the West, protected by centuries-old laws that give them the right of way while grazing and force landowners to fence them out. But as urban sprawl has extended into what used to be seemingly endless pasture land, cow-friendly open range laws are under fresh scrutiny, criticized as anachronistic throwbacks to the Wild West days before Interstate highways and tract homes."
