National (U.S.)

By DAVID POULSON 
A private detective once told me how she used Google to nab a crook for workers' compensation fraud.

She plugged the guy's full name into the search engine. Nothing too interesting came up. But then she entered it with the last name before the first name.

By RHITU CHATTERJEE 

In 2003, more than 50 people in the Midwest became ill with the monkey pox virus. The source for the African pathogen – pet prairie dogs that were kept next to infected Gambian pouch rats in a pet store.

In the early 1970s, Arkansas aquaculturists imported the Asian Black carp to control fish parasites in aquaculture ponds. Now these mussel-eating fish are happily lurking deep in the waters of the Mississippi River Basin. Scientists fear that they may be driving precious endangered snails and mussels to extinction.

 By JAN KNIGHT Katrina coverage driven by disaster myths, reinforces push to use military during domestic disasters, study suggests

 By MARCUS R. DONNER 

First the bad news: It's not the camera's fault the picture is bad. In the years I've spent looking at photos taken by reporters, the unfortunate truth as to why the photos weren't good was invariably operator error, not a problem with the camera. Today's point-and-shoots, and consumer digital SLRs, are very good at getting photos properly exposed and in focus.

Now the good news: There are a few simple things you can do to make your photos better.

 Kenneth R. Weiss and Usha Lee McFarling of the Los Angeles Times are the 2007 winners of the $75,000 Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment for their five-part series "Altered Oceans."

Grantham Prize jurors said the July 30-Aug. 3, 2006, series "gives life to all those generalities about the decline of the oceans in a way that should grab the imaginations not only of politicians responsible for taking corrective steps but also of ordinary readers."

By JACKLEEN de LA HARPE

By BILL KOVARIK and KEN WARD JR.

A young Virginia Tech scientist is standing up in a canoe, gesturing at the river around him. "Imagine this," he says. "It's 300 million years ago. There are no trees – just giant ferns. There are no birds or flowering plants. There are no dinosaurs – they won't show up for many millions of years. Everything about the landscape is utterly different. But in the river – the fish – are the same then as they are today."