Environment

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Police monitor the George Washington Bridge, the site of controversy a year ago when lanes were closed under questionable circumstances, creating a massive traffic backup. (Associated Press Photographs)

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SPAN OF TIME: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was damaged politically by the Bridgegate scandal, even though no investigators have directly linked him. (Associated Press)

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The New Hampshire Rebellion - a nonpartisan grassroots group - wants politicians to know their state is 'not for sale." (Image from New Hampshire Rebellion)

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National Edition News cover for December 27, 2014 - 10 years after tsunami, Indonesia has iffy peace: A woman offers prayers on a tiled memorial wall displaying names of victims from the Asian tsunami, in Phang Nga, Ban Nam Khem province, Thailand, Friday, Dec. 26, 2014. December 26 marks the 10th anniversary of one of the deadliest natural disasters in world history: a tsunami, triggered by a massive earthquake off the Indonesian coast, that left more than 230,000 people dead in 14 countries and caused about $10 billion in damage. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

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Hundreds of National Guard recruiters were accused of defrauding the government of millions of dollars in the National Guard Recruiting Assistance Program, but critics say the Army's investigation is the fraud. (Associated Press/File)

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A woman offers prayers on a tiled memorial wall displaying names of victims from the Asian tsunami, in Phang Nga, Ban Nam Khem province, Thailand, Friday, Dec. 26, 2014. December 26 marks the 10th anniversary of one of the deadliest natural disasters in world history: a tsunami, triggered by a massive earthquake off the Indonesian coast, that left more than 230,000 people dead in 14 countries and caused about $10 billion in damage. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

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A fishing boat came to rest nearly two miles inland in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, after by the devastating tsunami that hit the country on Dec. 26, 2004. Banda Aceh was the most devastated area of the nation, suffering more than 100,000 local deaths. (Associated Press)

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Acehnese women visit the Tsunami Museum in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, the worst-hit region of the 2004 tsunami. (Associated Press)

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Major League Baseball Commissioner-elect Rob Manfred participates in the ALS ice bucket challenge outside the organization's headquarters in New York in August. The campaign raised $115 million through the ice bucket challenge. (Associated Press)

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This Thursday, March 6, 2014 file photo The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the nation's only underground nuclear waste repository near Carlsbad, N.M., remains idle. Operations at the site were halted following a truck fire and a release of radiation nine days later. Operations were put on hold at the nation’s only underground nuclear waste repository in early February when a work truck caught fire. Nine days later, a container of waste that had been packed at Los Alamos National Laboratory and placed into one of the storage rooms at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad ruptured. The radiation leak contaminated more than 20 workers and forced the indefinite closure of the facility, leaving the federal government without a place to dispose of tons of Cold War-era waste from locations around the country. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan,File)

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In this on March 6, 2014, file photo, Empty nuclear waste shipping containers sit in front of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. Operations were put on hold at the nation’s only underground nuclear waste repository in early February when a work truck caught fire. Nine days later, a container of waste that had been packed at Los Alamos National Laboratory and placed into one of the storage rooms at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad ruptured. The radiation leak contaminated more than 20 workers and forced the indefinite closure of the facility, leaving the federal government without a place to dispose of tons of Cold War-era waste from locations around the country. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)

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Former GOP presidential contender Sen. Rick Santorum said, "We are putting the pieces together, just trying to build the model and see if it takes off. We are trying to raise money, and we put a good team together in Iowa and South Carolina already, and we are working on one in New Hampshire." (Associated Press)

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The orangutan named Sandra sits in her enclosure at Buenos Aires' Zoo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Dec. 22, 2014. An Argentine court has ruled that Sandra, who has spent 20 years at the zoo, should be recognized as a person with a right to freedom. The ruling would free Sandra from captivity and have her transferred to a nature sanctuary in Brazil after a court recognized the primate as a "non-human person" which has some basic human rights. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

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FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2014 file photo a farmer drives his tractor past a soybean field toward grain storage bins near Ladora, Iowa. U.S. agriculture has a big appetite for freer trade with Cuba, and soybeans are one of the main products Cuba now buys from the United States. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday he accepted the decision of the state Department of Environmental Conservation to ban high-volume hydraulic fracturing statewide as a result of a state health department review. (Associated Press)

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This April 2011 file photo provided by Colorado Parks and Wildlife shows a male and female Gunnison sage grouse near Gunnison, Colo. New research could have implications for sheep and cattle grazing in the habitat of the ground-dwelling bird that environmentalists are trying to protect across the Rocky Mountain region. A study published in the December issue of Wildlife Biology suggests grass height can have a big influence on the nesting success of the greater-sage grouse. (AP Photo/Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Mike Danzenbaker, File)

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Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican, offered muted protest when President Obama declared Bristol Bay exempt from energy exploration indefinitely. "It is incredibly frustrating that this administration looks at Alaska ... and decides that conservation is our most pressing need," she said. (Associated Press)