Alaska and Hawaii

"The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reissued a permit Friday to Coeur Alaska Inc. for its Kensington mine plans, clearing the way for construction to resume on the final component of the complex that's been on hold since 2006 because of environmentalists' lawsuits."

"With a deadline looming for approval of a federal plan that would open the Gulf of Mexico to deepwater fish farming, House lawmakers and conservationists are plotting strategies to block such offshore ventures until Congress creates a system to regulate them."

"State regulators violated the Alaska Constitution when they approved exploration permits for the proposed Pebble copper and gold mine without allowing the public to weigh in first, according to a civil lawsuit filed Wednesday."

Despite what you see on TV's "The Deadliest Catch," the Rambo-style competition for crab in the Bering Sea has been ended under a new system that permanently divides up the catch among all the boats in the fishery. ---

With a push from EPA and some stimulus money, two contaminated Alaskan mines will be cleaned up.

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has rejected a controversial land trade that would have allowed oil and gas drilling in part of a national wildlife refuge in Alaska."

The mysterious, miles-long "blob" found floating in the Chukchi Sea is not an oil spill or alien life-form, according to early tests, but an unusual algal bloom.

"The U.S. Forest Service agreed Monday to sell timber to a Ketchikan mill in a roadless area of the Tongass National Forest after the Obama administration's approved the sale."

"The Obama administration is withdrawing a controversial Bush-era logging plan for millions of acres of federal forests in western Oregon."