KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — In a bid to safeguard biodiversity and the Caribbean's tourism-based economy, regional political leaders and corporate executives will gather Friday on billionaire Richard Branson's private island with the aim of protecting 20 percent of the region's coastal resources by 2020.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill Wednesday that clears the way to schedule Michigan's first gray wolf hunting season since the resurgent predator, reviled by some as a menace to farm animals and beloved by others as a symbol of untamed wildness, was driven to the brink of extinction in the lower 48 states a half-century ago.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Any day now, billions of cicadas with bulging red eyes will crawl out of the earth after 17 years underground and overrun the East Coast. The insects will arrive in such numbers that people from North Carolina to Connecticut will be outnumbered roughly 600-to-1. Maybe more.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A tiger and two mountain lions were among a menagerie of wild cats seized from private farmland in rural northeast Kansas, where they lived in inadequate chain-link enclosures and weren't properly fed or watered, authorities said Monday.
A report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that fish stocks in federal waters improved in 2012 on catch limits for fishers, Tallahassee.com reports.
The USDA and EPA report on declining bee populations irked beekeeping organizations that hoped for restrictions on neonicotinoid pesticides, Northwest Public Radio reports.
The Michigan Senate's approval of a bill that gives the state's Natural Resource Commission the power to designate animals as game species has launched an effort from animal rights groups to keep wolves off the list, the Daily Tribune reports.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Drought and demand are pushing the Colorado River beyond its limits — with the needs of more than 40 million people in seven Western states projected to outstrip dwindling supply over the next 50 years, according to an endangered rivers list released Wednesday.
A Chamber of Commerce study reported more than 100 new EPA rules have been forced by "sue and settle" tactics from environmental groups, The Hill reports.
The European Union has sent information requests to several commodity-trading firms as part of its investigation into potential energy-price manipulation, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission told Charlotte-area residents that a crack at a reactor at Duke Energy's Shearon Harris Plant did not pose a threat to safety, WSOC-TV reports.
Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser said a European Union investigation into possible price fixing has not found anything that could damage the company, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The U.S. Geological Survey said water levels in aquifers declined from 2000 to 2008 at a rate nearly three times greater than any point in the last century, Reuters reports.
ExxonMobil Corp. said it would refocus its research on algae-derived biofuels after it invested $100 million over the last four years with few solid results, Bloomberg reports.
An international group of solar trade groups issued a statement calling on the European Union and the U.S. to avoid a trade war over solar panels with China, The Washington Post reports.
