The House passed a measure that would allow visitors to carry loaded, concealed guns in National Parks. It passed 279 to 147, with 105 Democratic votes.
"Advocates of gun rights are poised to win a Congressional victory that eluded them under a Republican president." Visitors carrying loaded and concealed weapons in National Parks.
A Texas state senator is seeking documents on meetings between Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Chairman H.S. Buddy Garcia and a lobbyist for Asarco as he was preparing to approve its application to reopen a smelter.
President Obama picks Ignacia Moreno to be the nation's top environmental prosecutor at the Justice Department. Environmentalists criticize her background as corporate attorney for General Electric.
Topics include global change, renewable energy, water resources, forest management, biodiversity, agriculture, traditional knowledge and environmental justice.
"President Obama will announce on Friday that he has chosen Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the New York City health commissioner, as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...."
"Republicans blocked President Barack Obama's pick for the No. 2 job at the Interior Department on Wednesday in a dispute over oil and gas development on federal lands, but Democrats vowed they would soon make a second attempt to win confirmation."
"The Senate confirmed Craig Fugate as administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday, hours after Sen. David Vitter, R-La., dropped his hold on the nominee."