Public

"One swarm covered the side-view mirror of a Volvo station wagon in a lot by the Hudson River, trapping a family of three inside. Another humming cluster the size of a watermelon bent a tree branch in front of a Chase Bank on the Lower East Side, attracting a crowd of gasping onlookers. And for several hours, thousands of bees carpeted a two-foot-tall red standpipe on the patio of a South Street Seaport restaurant, sending would-be outdoor diners elsewhere."

"A Brooklyn public school building that had leaking light fixtures will be moved to the top of the list of schools with PCB problems, and the city will replace its lighting very soon, city officials said last week."

"The Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Civil Rights has agreed to investigate a complaint filed by residents of a largely African-American community in Alabama where millions of tons of coal ash were dumped between 2009 and 2010."

"The federal government could soon give the final go-ahead for Royal Dutch Shell to begin drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean. Shell has spent $4 billion since 2007 to prepare for this work, and is hoping to tap into vast new deposits of oil."

"But the plan to drill exploratory wells is controversial — opposed by environmental groups and some indigenous people as well.

"Japanese authorities failed to disclose U.S. data about the spread of radiation spewing from a crippled nuclear plant last year, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday, leaving some evacuees fleeing in the same direction as the radioactive emissions."

"Environmentalists are furious at President Barack Obama — he failed on cap and trade, his energy message has turned into the more GOP-friendly “all of the above” and he’s all but done talking about global warming. But he’s racking up the endorsements anyway."

"An Arizona mining company has asked a federal court to void a $220 million settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency, saying it found the Justice Department was conducting an criminal investigation of the agency over the case."

"Diplomats from over 190 countries agreed on a draft text on green global development on Tuesday to be approved this week at a summit in Rio de Janeiro, but environmentalists complained the agreement was too weak."

"Last month a virus broke out in several open water salmon farms in British Columbia that has the region’s fish farm owners scrambling to mitigate their losses."