Congress wades into toxic mine spill caused by EPA
The focus on a toxic mine spill that fouled rivers in three Western states shifts to Congress this week as lawmakers kick off a series of hearings into how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accidentally unleashed the deluge of poisoned water.
Republican committee leaders said EPA officials were frustrating their attempts to investigate the spill by withholding documents that could explain what went wrong when a cleanup team doing excavation work triggered the release.
Flood zones could expand, raising costs for Colorado
New research shows flood like the one that ransacked northern Colorado two years ago, killing 10 people, might be more common than previously thought – and that could require more homeowners to get flood insurance and trigger more stringent construction rules.
The September 2013 flood caused $3 billion in damage to neighborhoods, highways. farms and oilfields. Nearly 2,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, many in small mountain towns.
UK drone strike kills 3 ISIS fighters in Syria
Prime Minister David Cameron revealed Monday that British forces had used a drone strike over Syria in August to kill three islamic State fighters, including two Britons.
He told Parliament that the attack was legally justified because the militants were plotting lethal attacks against Britain and the fighters could not be eliminated any other way.
“There was a terrorist directing murder on our streets and no other means to stop them,” Cameron said.
Air Force wants owner to give up NV bomb range site
The U.S. Air Force is giving an ultimatum to owners of a remote Nevada property now surrounded by a vast bombing range including the super-secret Area 51: Take a $5.2 million “last best offer” by Thursday for their property, or the government will seize it.
The answer: No, at least for now. The owners, who trace their mining and mineral claims to the 1870s, include descendants of a couple who lost their hardscrabble mining enterprise after the Air Force moved in the 1940s.
Greek island overwhelmed by stranded migrants
After perilous sea voyages from neighboring Turkey, thousands of migrants have been stranded on the Greek island of Lesbos for days, some for nearly two weeks, running out of money and desperate to get to mainland Greece and continue on their route.
The island of some 100,000 residents has been transformed by the sudden new population of some 20,000 refugees and migrants, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan – and the strain is pushing everyone to the limit.
