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• Credit unions become new safe harbors
While this year’s economic problems have hit several parts of the banking and finance industry, credit unions have been somewhat insulated from the impact. The business structure credit unions hold and a tendency to be conservative in loan decisions may be reasons credit unions, for the most part, have held up through this year’s problems, industry experts say.

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• Obama repeats vow to move rapidly on climate issues
President-elect Barack Obama has indicated that he intends to move rapidly on one of the most ambitious items on his agenda - tackling climate change.

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• EPA Moves to Ease Air Rules for Parks
The Environmental Protection Agency is finalizing new air-quality rules that would make it easier to build coal-fired power plants, oil refineries, and other major polluters near national parks and wilderness areas, even though half of the EPA's 10 regional administrators formally dissented from the decision and four others criticized the move in writing.

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• Green groups ramp up attacks on oil sands
Environmental organizations in Canada and the United States are stepping up their campaign to derail Alberta's oil sands and seeking funding from deep-pocketed endowments, including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

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• Lawsuit may force another look at fish harvests
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, environmental groups, and the Northwest tribes suing over the latest salmon plan seem to have forgotten the law of unintended consequences. Their opposition to NOAA Fisheries' 2008 Columbia River Hydro System Biological Opinion (Hydro BiOp), likely will force the federal agency to also re-evaluate its harvest limits for fish listed under the Endangered Species Act.

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• G&F reassigns wolf management team
Wyoming’s wolf management team no longer exists, save one specialist who will continue to investigate livestock losses to wolves. The Cowboy State’s four-man wolf management team was hired by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department just a few months ago, after wolves in the Northern Rockies were removed from the federal endangered species list.

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• World Carbon Emissions Continue to Increase
  Obama Won't Visit U.N. Climate Conference Before Taking Office
Carbon emissions from industrialized nations rose through the first six years of the 21st century, reversing a slackening in the 1990s caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to new figures from the United Nations. There was a slight plateau in 2006 that experts cautioned is unlikely to continue as a trend.

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• Global cooling prediction of guest speaker
  An Ottawa researcher says human activity is not causing a warming of the Earth
A professor from Carleton University may get the cold shoulder from environmentalists when he speaks in London tomorrow. Tim Patterson, a paleoclimatologist from the department of Earth sciences, will give an opposing view to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Patterson is speaking at a Canadian Club of London luncheon.

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• Methane plant good for people, environment
The gas released by bacteria consuming the mounds of waste at the Southeast Berrien County Landfill goes up in flames. Officials of the Buchanan facility for nearly a decade have wanted to capture the methane rather than burn it. Only recently have advances in technology and increased energy values made the project feasible.

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• New Ice Age predicted - But averted by global warming?
Deep ice sheets would cover much of the Northern Hemisphere thousands of years from now - if it weren't for us pesky humans, a new study says. Emissions of greenhouse gases - such as the carbon dioxide, or CO2, that comes from power plants and cars - are heating the atmosphere to such an extent that the next ice age, predicted to be the deepest in millions of years, may be postponed indefinitely.

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• Wilderness bills will have new allies, new foes next year
Now that two Idaho wilderness bills are officially dead for the year, the Republicans behind the proposals are planning how to get ideas crafted during the Bush era to pass through a Democratic Congress and White House.

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• Borough files to take land under eminent domain
Paperwork has been filed for Jenkintown Borough to take control of two parcels of land under the eminent domain law. Borough officials hope constructing a 68-space parking lot will revitalize a slumping business district; one of the two landowners will likely file preliminary objections.

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• In Long Branch, eminent domain battle continues
Like too many other people across New Jersey, I am fighting to keep my home. No, it isn't because of the mortgage mess. It is something far more intentional on the part of the government.

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• 'Off-grid' couple fight power line
  They don't use electricity but were forced to sell land to AEP
Charles and Melanie Ogle have lived happily off the power grid for 17 years in their solar-powered log home perched on a ridge in the Hocking Hills. They don't want or need electric lines, but it seems that a power line is about to be strung outside their house anyway.

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• Railroad Wants Public To Fund Painting
  Council Member Wants CSX To Fix Rusting Bridge
If you own a house that's run-down and not up to code, the city will make you fix it. But the same standard apparently does not apply to a huge corporate railroad. Metro Council wants CSX to paint an aging railroad bridge downtown, but the company wants taxpayers to pay for it.

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• Eminent domain for drain
The city will resort to using eminent domain temporarily to place equipment near a drainage channel slated for improvements. The action follows failed attempts to gain consent from two homeowners.

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• Border fence land suits continue despite construction delays
Government efforts to seize private land for stretches of border fencing will continue even though construction has been put on hold in parts of the Rio Grande Valley

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• State offers tool to fight blight
While housing advocates praised blight legislation passed in Harrisburg last week, it is unclear to what extent the new tool could be used in Scranton. The law allows judges to appoint conservators who can facilitate the rehab of decaying properties, but it is limited to buildings vacant for a year and where the owner is absent.

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• Condemning a landmark? Restaurant's owners discuss uncertain future
Judy Patti and her sons Aaron and Chris greet customers at Patti's Restaurant with a down-home familiarity that comes with more than 70 years in business. For the most part, her customers return the favor. But lately, Mrs. Patti said, they've been upset about the possible fate of the landmark eatery.

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• Oil-Shale Rules Lower Drillers' Royalty Payments
The U.S. Department of Interior on Monday gave energy companies a big break in the royalties they will be required to pay for oil-shale production on federal land. Environmental groups accused the department of trying to "handcuff" the incoming Obama administration and "subsidize" global warming.

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• Research and Markets: This Report on U.S. Nuclear Energy is Now Available
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "U.S. Nuclear Energy Outlook" report to their offering. Nuclear power plays a major role in the U.S. energy industry as the country, after coal and natural gas, produces its maximum amount of electricity from nuclear power plants. Oil and hydropower are the next biggest sources of energy.

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• Kentucky Governor Objects to Proposed Changes in Mining Rules
Governor Steve Beshear formally objected to a proposed move by the Bush Administration to weaken restrictions that prohibit dumping mountaintop mining waste near rivers and streams.

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• More Ethanol Plant Bankruptcies Predicted
Look for more ethanol plant bankruptcies soon. Mark Lakers, president of Ag and Food Associates, an Omaha, Nebraska, middle market merger and acquisitions investment bank, expects as many as 40 Chapter 11 filings by the end of January.

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• Oil shale rules completed
Commercial oil shale production in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming took another step forward Monday when the federal government published rules on how such operations would be run and how much the government would get in royalty payments from actual oil production.

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• Project to turn poop to power
A new pipeline project is in the works for Kern County but it won't be transporting fossil fuels. Bakersfield-based BioEnergy Solutions plans to start construction early next year on a distribution network that will collect methane gas from a cluster of Shafter dairies to be sold to Pacific Gas and Electric for power generation.

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• World energy outlook - 2008
The world’s craving for energy will grow 45 percent by 2030 with coal accounting for more than a third of the overall rise, according to the latest edition of the annual World Energy Outlook published by the International Energy Agency (IEA). But current trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable - environmentally, economically, and socially - they can and must be altered, said Nobuo Tanaka Executive Director of the IEA.

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• OPEC ready to act to help prop up prices
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said Monday it was ready to intervene to help prop up prices as a looming global recession undermines worldwide demand for oil. "In the current extremely volatile situation, closer monitoring and more frequent intervention are required," OPEC said in its November monthly report published Monday.

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• The Energy Debates: Wind Farms
Wind farms harness the wind's energy to generate electricity. Wind energy actually comes mainly from the sun. When solar energy heats up the atmosphere, hot air rises while cooler air swirls down to replace it. This movement results in wind.

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• Border Patrol says fence slows attacks on agents
The Border Patrol has finished installing razor-sharp barbed wire atop a 5-mile stretch of fence on the Mexican border, an addition critics call heavy-handed and an eyesore.

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• U.S. says food, drug inspection access in China improving
U.S. officials opened the first overseas Food and Drug Administration office in Beijing on Wednesday as they gear up for a long battle to ensure the quality of food, drug, and feed imports from China.

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• Officials Defend Bailout; Auto Industry Wants A Share
Capitol Hill hosted a contentious day of bailout battling on Tuesday, as in the morning the House Financial Services Committee grilled Bush Administration officials on the Treasury Department Troubled Asset Relief Program, and in the afternoon, auto industry leaders appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to plead for a piece of the bailout pie.

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• New House Democrats wary on taxes, bailout
  But big Democratic advantage in the House gives Speaker Pelosi leeway
A mandate for change for President-elect Barack Obama? Sweeping enactment next year of the long-delayed Democratic agenda? A tax hike on those earning more than $250,000 a year, as Obama indicated during the campaign?

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• Iran sends mixed signals on U.S.-Iraq pact
Reaction in Iran to the approval by Baghdad of a controversial military pact with Washington has been mixed, with praise from the judiciary, a blast from conservative papers and silence from government.

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• Nebraska senators told safe-haven law exposes problem
Nebraska's lawmakers are trying to limit the state's open-ended safe haven law with an age cap on children who can be dropped off at hospitals without fear of prosecution.

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• Barack Obama’s Health-Care Reform May Help Many People
The universal health-care systems, proposed by president elect Barack Obama, may be the last hope for many people living without medical insurance and in poverty. People who have very low incomes cannot afford the hundreds of dollars needed for health insurance, and so they live without any, hoping not to get sick.

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• Factory production rises in October
Industrial production grew in October, after September produced the worst dropoff in factory output in 62 years, according to a report released Monday by the Federal Reserve.

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• Tight strings sought on auto bailout
As Congress started debating today whether to grant Detroit's automakers $25 billion in loans, the car companies and the United Auto Workers are coming under intense pressure to make concessions in exchange for the bailout.

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• Israel spurns U.N. plea to ease Gaza blockade
Israel stood fast Wednesday by its decision to clamp shut cargo crossings at the Gaza Strip, brushing off pleas to ease the blockade from United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.

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• Plea to halt DR Congo atrocities
Community groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo have made an impassioned plea for European troops to be sent to halt atrocities there. They say they have witnessed scenes never seen in their history, and that U.N. peacekeepers are powerless.

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• China, Cuba Sign Trade Agreements
Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao signed several trade and investment agreements with Communist Cuba during his historic visit to the island nation, which aims to further boost ties between the two allies.

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• Canada Reports Its 15th Case of Mad Cow Disease
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed on Monday a new case of mad cow disease in a seven-year-old dairy cow born well after Ottawa banned feed practices thought to spread the disease. It is the country’s 15th case. The animal was discovered on a farm in the Pacific province of British Columbia.

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• Croatia's Serbia ‘Genocide’ Case To Proceed
The International Court of Justice has ruled that it can hear a Croatian lawsuit filed against Serbia for genocide during the war in the early 1990s. The verdict of the 17-member trial chamber at the United Nations’ highest court was delivered by Court President Rosalyn Higgins at a public session on Tuesday. The trial chamber officials voted 10 to seven in favour of Croatia.

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• Israeli Tanks Move Into Gaza Strip
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli tanks have moved into the Gaza Strip, further threatening a fragile cease-fire Israel signed with Hamas militants in June. The witnesses say the tanks leveled lands Tuesday along the southern Gaza border east of the city of Rafah.

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• G-20 calls for overhaul of financial rules, action on growth
Leaders from the biggest developed and emerging nations agreed to further steps to shore up a global economy sliding into recession, and laid out regulatory proposals to prevent a recurrence of the financial crisis.

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• New fighting in Congo despite rebel pledges
Government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo have engaged in heavy fighting with rebels despite their leader's pledge to back a cease-fire, the United Nations and witnesses said Monday. The clashes forced government troops to abandon the eastern Congolese town of Rwindi on Sunday, according to U.N. spokesman Madnodje Moumoubai.

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• U.N.-backed scheme gives poor farmers insurance against extreme weather
A new United Nations-supported scheme seeks to provide financial support to poor rural farmers facing the impact of climate change and natural disasters.

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• Republicans Invite Bad Press Coverage
  By Cliff Kincaid
The Washington Times has a front-page story about House Republican Eric Cantor, who charges that “the Republican Party in Washington is no longer ‘relevant’ to voters and must stop simply espousing principles…” The story seems designed to help Cantor capture the number two position in the House Republican leadership. But deep inside the article we learn that Cantor “ended up voting for the Democrats’ [Wall Street bailout] bill.”

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• Turning Boom into Bust
  By Alan Caruba
Energy is called “the master resource” because every other aspect of life operates off of it. Nations that are rich in energy resources such as oil, natural gas, and coal, grow wealthy.

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• The world has never seen such freezing heat
  By Christopher Booker
A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

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• Labor's role in Detroit's disaster
  By Henry Lamb
While Detroit's big three automakers grovel for a tax-funded bailout, 14 U.S-based, international automakers announced last year's additional investments of $39.3 billion in 69 facilities that employ 92,700 people with an annual payroll of $6.3 billion. Why are the U.S.-based international automakers expanding, while Detroit's big three are grasping for a life-saving handout? The answer, of course, is labor unions; only two facilities of the U.S.-based international automakers are unionized, one in California, the other in Illinois. All the others are union-free and are doing quite well.

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• Giving special interests power to take your property
  By Rep. Jason Murphey
In the past, I have written about the possibility of the expansion of the Trans-Texas Corridor into Oklahoma and described why it is important that we not allow foreign-owned companies to control Oklahoma roads.

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• Restricting Freedoms and Choices
  By Ron Paul
As the financial sector continues its tailspin despite efforts to bail out Wall Street, among the few gainers in recent stock trading have been those companies looking for a new “shot in the arm” with government funding from the next administration.

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• Opportunity
  By Tom DeWeese
There is no question that election day, 2008 was a dismal one for those who believe in limited government, free enterprise and individual liberty - the principles of freedom upon which this nation was founded. There is carnage on the battlefield; despair in our hearts; and fear for our future. What does the future hold? Where do we go from here? Can we survive?

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• Global warming numbers get a little help from their friends
  By Lorne Gunter
Last week, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies – one of four agencies responsible for monitoring the global temperatures used by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – released its statistics for October. According to the GISS figures, last month was the warmest October on record around the world.

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• Data Is Not Enough to Dissuade Politically-Correct "Scientists"
  By Fred Gielow
The idea the earth is warming has been so impressed upon the public consciousness as a result of relentless propaganda, little attention is given to actual data that suggest nothing of the sort is going on. According to theory, as CO2 continues to be released into the atmosphere by thoughtless human beings, the globe gets proportionally warmer. So, with ever-increasing CO2 emissions, we should see ever-increasing temperatures. That is, if the global warming fear mongers are right.

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