IN THE NEWS  /  FEB 15

• FDA, state stretched thin in inspecting food.

  A deadly salmonella outbreak that forces the removal of nearly 2,000 products from grocery store shelves raises the question: How can this happen?   Dallas Morning News , Texas

• Salmonella outbreak eases way for food safety reforms.

  The salmonella outbreak that has killed as many as nine people and sickened hundreds nationwide has created what advocates say is an unprecedented opportunity to reform the way America safeguards its food supply.   Baltimore Sun , Maryland

• How safe is Widows Creek?

  Waste ponds at TVA's Widows Creek steam plant sit over limestone formations that could allow toxic heavy metals to contaminate groundwater, say geological and environmental experts.  Huntsville Times , Alabama

• Immensity of drywall problem still unfolding.

  With more than 313 million pounds of Chinese drywall imported into Florida in 2006, some of it good and some of it bad, getting a handle on where the system broke down is a daunting task.   Bradenton Herald , Florida

• W.R. Grace civil suits have been in the courts for decades.

  More than two decades ago, the lawsuits against W.R. Grace & Co. began trickling into the Lincoln County Courthouse with relative obscurity, brought by former miners and their families.   Missoula Missoulian , Montana

• W.R. Grace: The trial - death in the air.

  Peggy Strand thinks her deceased father unintentionally exposed the family to toxic asbestos fibers that clung to his clothes after working at W.R. Grace & Co.'s Libby vermiculite operation.  Missoula Missoulian , Montana

• Sick workers, guardsmen blame KBR.

  Ten contractors and dozens of National Guardsmen -- including a dying senior officer -- allege that Houston-based KBR knowingly allowed them to be poisoned by cancer-causing chemicals at a Basra water plant where they were making repairs to keep Iraq's oil fields pumping during the war.   Houston Chronicle , Texas

• EPA wanted tougher C8 limit, memo says.

  Federal government scientists originally sought a much tougher standard for the toxic chemical C8 than was included in a nationwide health advisory issued last month, according to an internal U.S. Environmental Protection Agency memo. Charleston Gazette , West Virginia

• Romulus toxic waste site may reopen.

  Neighbors of a mile-deep pair of hazardous waste injection wells in Romulus thought the project was dead when state and federal regulators shut it down in late 2006 after leaks and mismanagement.   Detroit Free Press , Michigan

• Pollution afflicts Thai farmers.

  Farmers in a cadmium-polluted village in northern Thailand have been complaining of symptoms similar to Japan's "itai itai" disease, a type of cadmium poisoning and one of the four major pollution-related diseases in Japan.  Osaka Daily Yomiuri Shimbun , Japan

• Forced to beg: new scandal of thalidomide.

  Hundreds of afflicted babies were born in Spain during the late 1950s and 1960s, yet so far neither they nor their families have received any compensation from the state or the pharmaceutical company that produced the drug.  London Times , England

• New fight to stop mass fluoridation of water supplies.

  Opponents of the mass fluoridation of water will next week try to stop a government drive to add the chemical to supplies used by millions of people in England and Wales. London Observer , England

• Pace of climate change exceeds estimates.

  The pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than recent predictions, because industrial greenhouse gas emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms in global ecosystems. Washington Post

• Is America ready to quit coal?

  With concerns over climate change intensifying, electricity generation from coal, once reliably cheap, looks increasingly expensive.  New York Times

• Water agencies debate desalination.

  Is it time to stick a straw into the Pacific Ocean? About 20 water agencies up and down the California coast seem to think so. San Francisco Chronicle , California

• Leasing decision met with criticism.

  Environmentalists cheered, but oil industry groups expressed disappointment at this week's decision by the Interior Department to abandon the Bush administration's accelerated offshore leasing program. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner , Alaska

• Fish farming and First Nations.

  British Columbia has the fourth largest aquaculture industry in the world. But some First Nations people in the region say the farms are killing off wild salmon - and they're taking their complaints to court. Living On Earth

• Central Valley hard-hit by diabetes epidemic.

  Every week in the San Joaquin Valley, at least 19 people die of diabetes - and the death toll is rising.   Fresno Bee , California