Congress set for year-end push on tax, spending compromise
By ALAN FRAM Congressional leaders are girded to push a Christmas compromise on tax cuts and spending through the House and Senate by week’s end after Republicans and Democrats reached…
Natural resource management
New plant tests US appetite for seawater desalination
By ELLIOT SPAGAT There’s far more riding on the Americas’ largest seawater desalination plant than the 50 million gallons of drinking water it will produce for the San Diego area…
Residents of contaminated town wary of government efforts
By MARTHA WAGGONER In the little town of Navassa, work has always been hard and dirty. From antebellum rice plantations to Jim Crow-era fertilizer factories and more recently, a massive…
South Carolina still on edge from floods; 2 die in truck
By ADAM BEAM and MEG KINNARD It could take until the weekend for the threat of flooding to ease in storm-tattered South Carolina, where a senator warned of a potential…
Fired regulator: Brown pushed to waive oil safeguards.
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER California’s top oil and gas regulators repeatedly warned Gov. Jerry Brown’s senior aides in 2011 that the governor’s orders to override key safeguards in granting oil industry…
Land agency: Agent’s gun may have been used in pier slaying
By PAUL ELIAS The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is investigating whether an agent’s gun was used in the shooting death of a woman walking on a popular San Francisco…
W.Va. oil train derailment was 1 of 3 with safer tank cars
By JOHN RABY and JONATHAN MATTISE The fiery derailment of a train carrying crude oil in West Virginia is one of three in the past year involving tank cars that…
Seas rise, Fla. GOP leaders balk at climate change
By MICHAEL J. MISHAK This May 17, 2014, file photo shows Blanca Mesa of Miami protesting against Sen. Marco Rubio’s statements on climate change as activists and beach-goers join hands…