National (U.S.)

"San Onofre is among the facilities to be studied in the $2-million pilot program conducted by the National Academy of Sciences."

"Scientists say the U.S. biological defense system relied on kits that were far less able to help detect lethal germs than officials thought."

"The Department of Energy has confirmed that its oldest double-shell tank is actively leaking radioactive and hazardous chemical waste from its inner shell."

"Solyndra, the solar panel maker that failed despite a $528 million federal loan, on Monday won court approval for its plan to repay creditors and end its politically charged bankruptcy, after a judge overruled objections by the U.S. government."

"NEW YORK -- Dozens of wells drilled this year across rural Ohio are quietly pumping out the answer to the U.S. energy industry's most loaded question: Is the Utica shale formation, touted as a potentially $500 billion frontier, a boom or a bust? Yet the answer is likely to remain concealed for some time."

The Texas-based energy company TXU was, under the Bush administration, supposed to be the cutting edge of a coal resurgence. The 2007 leveraged buyout of TXU is widely regarded to be one of the worst deals in private equity history. But the firms that led it -- KKR, TPG, and Goldman Sachs -- made money with big fees even as the company tumbled toward financial ruin.

"A year before people began dying of meningitis caused by a tainted drug from a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts, the Food and Drug Administration worried that compounders across the country might be selling another substandard drug, one possibly made with unapproved Chinese ingredients."

"When it comes to feeding your children organic food, pediatricians have new advice for parents. Organic produce and meat might be worth the hefty price tag, but you can probably skip the organic milk."

"WASHINGTON -- The owner of a small nuclear reactor in Wisconsin said Monday that it would close the Kewaunee Power Station early next year because it was unable to find a buyer and the plant was no longer economically viable."

"Federal appeals court judges gave no indication [Friday] that they see any significant legal obstacles to the Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act."