-By Samantha Kimmey

February 17, 2013- Thousands of demonstrators protested the proposed Keystone XL at the National Mall on Sunday.

“Hey hey, ho ho, Keystone pipeline’s got to go!” protestors chanted at one point.

“I’m ashamed of what my country is doing. I’m ashamed we’re knocking on your door with dirty oil. I want to stand up here as a Canadian and say I’m sorry to the workers in Canada and the workers in America who have to go home and look their kids in the eye and know that they are damaging their future,” said Evangeline Lilly, a Canadian actor.

-By T. Steelman

February 7, 2013- Last year, the Georgia Department of Labor started encouraging employers to report job applicants that fail their drug test. Because the unemployed love to spend what little money they have on drugs. This scheme to get out of paying unemployment insurance has netted exactly one report. Just one job applicant who failed the burdensome pee-in-a-cup test and who is now no longer receiving unemployment.

-By Jeff Spross

January 30, 2013- The American Legislative Exchange Council is a “stealth business lobbyist,” according to the New York Times. It has been bleeding corporate and business members over the last year due to controversial legislation it has promoted on issues ranging from voter suppression to minimum wage laws.

-By Joe Romm

January 29, 2013- The Senate confirmed John Kerry as a Secretary of State by a vote of 94 to 3. I believe this is a turning point in the fight to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.

Once again, I do not think that a man who had dedicated his Senate career to fighting catastrophic climate change would start his term as Secretary approving the expansion of one of the dirtiest sources of fossil fuels in the world.

-By Jim Rutenberg

January 26, 2013- A brand new conservative group calling itself Americans for a Strong Defense and financed by anonymous donors is running advertisements urging Democratic senators in five states to vote against Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee to be secretary of defense, saying he would make the United States “a weaker country.”

Another freshly minted and anonymously backed organization, Use Your Mandate, which presents itself as a liberal gay rights group but purchases its television time through a prominent Republican firm, is attacking Mr. Hagel as “anti-Gay,” “anti-woman” and “anti-Israel” in ads and mailers.

Those groups are joining at least five others that are organizing to stop Mr. Hagel’s confirmation, a goal even they acknowledge appears to be increasingly challenging. But the effort comes with a built-in consolation prize should it fail: depleting some of Mr. Obama’s political capital as he embarks on a new term with fresh momentum.

Audit trail reveals that donors linked to fossil fuel industry are backing global warming sceptics

-By Steve Connor

January 24, 2013- A secretive funding organisation in the United States that guarantees anonymity for its billionaire donors has emerged as a major operator in the climate "counter movement" to undermine the science of global warming, The Independent has learnt.

The Donors Trust, along with its sister group Donors Capital Fund, based in Alexandria, Virginia, is funnelling millions of dollars into the effort to cast doubt on climate change without revealing the identities of its wealthy backers or that they have links to the fossil fuel industry.