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Recent News Stories

• Congress likely to delay health care overhaul
  CNN (A.P.)--As Congress returns from summer recess, lawmakers are expected to continue needling pharmaceutical makers and health insurers with investigations, while holding off on major health care reform until next year. [Read more]
• Facing Veto, Democrats Drop Plan for Vote on Child Bill
  N.Y. Times--Congressional Democrats have scrapped plans for another vote on expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, thus sparing Republicans from a politically difficult vote just weeks before elections this fall. [Read more]
• FDA to List Drugs Being Investigated
  Washington Post--The Food and Drug Administration will begin posting every three months a list of drugs whose safety is under investigation because of complaints brought to the agency's attention by drug companies, physicians and patients. [Read more]
• Pentagon debates development of offensive cyberspace capabilities
  L.A. Times--The current emphasis is on intelligence gathering and defending U.S. electronic security, but some officials think the military should know how to attack other nations' computer systems. [Read more]
• Senate candidates' energy positions are very similar
  The Virginian Pilot--Both promise to work in Washington for new federal investments in wind and solar power development, along with new technologies to make coal-fired power plants run cleaner. [Read more]
• John McCain’s Energy Follies
  N.Y. Times (Editorial)--John McCain is proving, so far, to be such a disappointment on issues he once seemed to understand better than almost anyone else in his party. [Read more]
• Obama Has a Plan To Manage Our Oil Reserve
  Wall Street Journal (Opinion)--Sen. Barack Obama is proposing a simple maneuver -- called an exchange, or swap. [Read more]
• The world we avoided
  Nature--The Montreal Protocol rescued the ozone layer, but also prevented drastic regional climate changes. [Read more]
• Gustav Relief Sends Red Cross Into Debt
  Washington Post--The American Red Cross said yesterday that it is going deep into debt to fund a $70 million Hurricane Gustav relief effort, an unusual occurrence even as the nation's biggest disaster aid charity braces for a trio of powerful storms lurking in the Atlantic. [Read more]
• Funding storm research could save cash, lives
  Miami Herald--The cost of Ike -- and storms of Ike's ilk -- are calculated by the damage and ruination left after hurricanes crash ashore. [Read more]
• High-resolution satellite launched in California
  A.P.--A super-sharp Earth-imaging satellite that can detail an area the size of a baseball diamond's home plate from space has been launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the Central California coast. [Read more]
• CERN fires up new atom smasher to near Big Bang
  A.P.--It has been called an Alice in Wonderland investigation into the makeup of the universe — or dangerous tampering with nature that could spell doomsday. [Read more]
• No greenhouse gas in coal substitute
  USA Today--Imagine an electricity source that kind of looks like coal and packs all of coal's energy punch but is cheaper and produces no greenhouse gas emissions.That's what Seattle-based NewEarth Renewable Energy says it developed with E-Coal. [Read more]
• Company uses algae to make ethanol more eco-friendly
  USA Today-- Corn-based ethanol is getting slammed for straining the world's food supply and contributing to global warming by encouraging the plowing of grasslands. [Read more]
• European science satellite launch is delayed
  AFP--The launch of a satellite to monitor Earth's gravitational field, scheduled for Wednesday from a base in northern Russia, has been postponed to October 5 because of technical problems, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced on Monday. [Read more]
• China to launch space mission in late September
  A.P.--China will launch its third manned space mission in late September, featuring its first-ever space walk, a state news agency said. [Read more]
• Palin's Efforts to Reform Health Care Are Complicated
  Washington Post--The battle Sarah Palin has waged over competition in health care has been one of her signature efforts since she became governor in 2007. [Read more]
• McCain talks up oil drilling, green energy
  CNET--John McCain formally accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination here on Thursday in a speech extolling the virtues of both oil drilling and green energy. [Read more]
• Senate Forges a Compromise Energy Bill
  Business Week--High energy prices have become a bitterly contested political issue. Republicans are bashing Democrats for standing in the way of drilling for more oil and gas at home. [Read more]
• Best bet to turn the White House green?
  Reuters--Who's best equipped to turn the White House green -- John McCain or Barack Obama? Both have made energy security and environmental stewardship part of their presidential campaigns. [Read more]
• NASA may extend shuttle use to 2015
  Houston Chronicle--More flights are risky, but Russia's fight in Georgia may curtail Soyuz. [Read more]
• NASA moves space shuttle Atlantis to launch pad
  A.P.--NASA moved shuttle Atlantis to the launch pad on Thursday for a flight next month to the Hubble Space Telescope after being waylaid by a pair of tropical storms. [Read more]
• Feds warn climate change could harm giant sequoias
  A.P.--Federal researchers are warning that warming temperatures could soon cause California's giant sequoia trees to die off more quickly. [Read more]
• Drilling For Clean Energy
  Washington Post--An open letter from Rep. Jim Marshall and Rep. Roscoe Bartlett on drilling for clean energy. [Read more]
• A Bad Experiment in Voting
  Washington Post (Editorial)--The words “Florida” and “Internet voting,” taken together, should send a chill down everyone’s spine. Nevertheless, Florida’s Okaloosa County is seeking permission from the state to allow members of the military to vote over the Internet in November. [Read more]