National (U.S.)

"The Supreme Court may use an L.A. case to decide for the first time who can be held responsible for storm water runoff pollution."

Cornfields -- which occupy a big fraction of U.S. farmland -- differ from normal ecosystems in that they are nearly sterile ecologically. Breeding and spraying aim to prevent anything from living but corn.

"We'll start in a cornfield — we'll call it an Iowa cornfield in late summer — on a beautiful day. The corn is high. The air is shimmering. There's just one thing missing — and it's a big thing...

...a very big thing, but I won't tell you what, not yet.

"MIAMI -- Hurricane season 2012, which officially ends Saturday, will go down in hstory as the year of Superstorm Sandy, which carved a path of death and devastation from the Caribbean to the Jersey Shore."

"Scientifically speaking, it also was notable for something it was not: intense. For the third consecutive season, the tropics churned out what not long ago would rank as an abnormally large number of storms - yet curiously only one of 19 managed to reach Category 3 strength.

"YADKINVILLE -- Google, of all companies, last year got into the business of hog poop."

Don't believe everything you read in the news media. A new study of 13,950 peer-reviewed scientific articles published between 1 January 1991 and 9 November 2012 reports that only 24 of them, or 0.17% rejected the idea that human activity was causing global warming. It was self-published by geologist-blogger James Lawrence Powell.

"A subsidiary of Nabors Industries Ltd. pumped a mixture of chemicals identified only as “EXP- F0173-11” into a half-dozen oil wells in rural Karnes County, Texas, in July. Few people outside Nabors, the largest onshore drilling contractor by revenue, know exactly what’s in that blend. This much is clear: One ingredient, an unidentified solvent, can cause damage to the kidney and liver, according to safety information about the product that Michigan state regulators have on file."

"In the midst of the domestic energy boom, livestock on farms near oil-and-gas drilling operations nationwide have been quietly falling sick and dying. While scientists have yet to isolate cause and effect, many suspect chemicals used in drilling and hydrofracking, or fracking, operations are poisoning animals through the air, water or soil."

A new study suggests that BP's use of dispersants during the 2010 Gulf oil spill likely allowed oil to penetrate beaches more deeply, making harmful effects last longer.