Articles by Grist staff

Beijing skies clear a little, but Olympic athletes still wary

After a disconcertingly smoggy weekend, wind and rain cleared some haze from Beijing’s skies on Tuesday. But with just a week and half left until the Olympic Games begin, officials are considering emergency measures to keep the smog at bay. The city has already kicked half the cars off its roads, halted construction, planted trees, […]

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens indicted on corruption charges

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, has been indicted on seven charges related to a corruption probe involving oil-services company VECO. Check out our past coverage of the Stevens scandal.

EPA staffers told not to talk to media, inspector general, or anyone else

Staffers at the U.S. EPA’s office of enforcement were instructed recently not to talk to anyone from the media, the Government Accountability Office, or the EPA’s own inspector general‘s office in an email from a top EPA official. “If you are contacted directly by the IG’s office or GAO requesting information of any kind … […]

Congress agrees on product-safety bill banning phthalates, lowering lead in toys

The U.S. House and Senate have agreed to a compromise product-safety bill that would ban phthalates from children’s toys, lower toy lead levels, and require third-party safety testing before toys are put on the market. In 2007, some 45 million toys were recalled for high lead levels and other safety defects, and the resulting parental […]