NOAA exceeded its authority to regulate fishing, plaintiffs say. Industrial aquaculture in open waters is associated with many serious environmental and health concerns, including the escape of farmed fish into the wild, outcompeting wild fish for habitat, food and mates or intermixing with wild fish and altering their genetics and behaviors; the spread of diseases and parasites from farmed fish to wild fish and other marine life; and pollution flowing through the open pens into natural waters.   read more

Men who had said their sexual functioning had been flagging reported moderate increases in their interest in sex and in their performance, although when it came to erections, a drug like Viagra or Cialis would be more effective, the researchers reported. Those who said they felt blue reported a small improvement in mood. But the drug had no discernible effect on vitality or walking speed in men with those complaints.   read more

The crisis hotline received more than 450,000 calls in 2014, a 40% increase over the previous year. About 1 in 6 calls are redirected to backup centers when the crisis line is overloaded, the report said. Calls went to voicemail at some backup centers, including at least one where staffers apparently were unaware there was a voicemail system. Hotline callers "made numerous complaints of long wait times for responders, being put 'on hold' or calls 'not being put through' to a responder."   read more

Rep. Marsha Blackburn said she'd subpoenaed documents from three groups she said are withholding information. Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, top Democrat on the investigative panel, called the subpoenas unjustifiable and abusive. Schakowsky said Republicans want to build a database of patients, doctors and researchers that would risk their privacy and safety. The subpoenas are "a new low in the Republicans' attack on women's health care," Schakowsky said.   read more

About 38,300 people were killed on U.S. roads, and 4.4 million people were seriously injured, the council said. That would make 2015 the deadliest driving year since 2008. The council said a stronger economy and lower unemployment rates were probably among the key factors, along with lower gas prices. With driving more affordable, more people are on the road. Average gas prices were 28 percent lower last year than in 2014 and are projected to continue dropping this year.   read more

The number of earthquakes with a magnitude 3.0 or greater has risen in Oklahoma from a few dozen in 2012 to more than 900 last year. Recent peer-reviewed studies suggest injecting high volumes of wastewater could aggravate natural faults. SandRidge Energy initially refused to comply before reaching an agreement with the agency last month. Oklahoma House Speaker Jeff Hickman is pushing a bill to make clear the Corporation Commission has the power to order wells to shut down or reduce volume.   read more

Zimroth said he's discovered that many officers and higher-ups don't understand what's expected of them and are unaware of the changes. The message "needs to be communicated and reinforced better, not just at the top, but throughout the department," he wrote. Zimroth said that part of the reform must be to make sure the practice is done correctly. "Getting it right means this: that police officers understand their lawful authority and limit their activities to what is permitted by law."   read more

In a class action filed Wednesday in Federal Court, plaintiff Bryan Strother says the National Guard offered soldiers bonuses in order to inflate its reserves and that the plaintiff class is "victims of one of the most egregious mass frauds in U.S. Military history." According to the complaint, the Defense Dept. has mismanaged $8.5 trillion and that it uses computer software dating back to 1959. The "archaic accounting systems" contributed to defendants' decision to recoup bonuses from vets.   read more

"Our whole team was angry... You could see that there was a intentional, deliberate method to prevent us from doing our job," said DEQ's Jim Henry. He said his office had urged involvement of the Centers for Disease Control, but the DEQ prohibited further communication on the matter. "They prevented that team from coming here and helping us to find the source," Henry said. After that, he said, there more cases of Legionnaires' in the summer of 2015, four of them fatal.   read more

The evacuations of more than 6,400 hospital and nursing-home patients in New York City after Hurricane Sandy reinforced concern about the readiness of health care providers during emergencies. However, federal rules do not require that critical medical institutions make even minimal preparations for major emergencies, from hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes to bioterrorist attacks and infectious epidemics such as Ebola and Zika.   read more

As the city of Flint, Michigan, prepared to begin drawing its drinking water from the Flint River, an official with the municipal water plant said his superiors were prodding him to move too quickly, an email released by the governor’s office Friday shows. “If water is distributed from this plant in the next couple weeks, it will be against my direction,” Mike Glasgow wrote to officials with the state Department of Environmental Quality.   read more

A coalition of voting rights groups on Friday sued a federal elections official who decided that residents of Alabama, Kansas and Georgia can no longer register to vote using a national form without providing proof of U.S. citizenship. Their complaint contends the action by executive director Brian Newby will hurt voter registration drives and deprive eligible voters of the right to vote in the presidential primary elections.   read more

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said Friday he plans to take legal action against the Environmental Protection Agency following reports that it didn’t alert the state to river contamination after a massive mine waste spill. Reyes said it’s critical the agency be held responsible for damage from the spill that contaminated rivers in three Western states last year and he will file a notice of claim, the first step toward a lawsuit. He didn’t set a deadline for the action.   read more

Texas has become the first state to call for a ban on allowing bite mark evidence, which legal experts say is likely to reverberate in courtrooms across the U.S. The Texas Forensic Science Commission formally recommended Friday that judges stop accepting bite mark analysis until the technique is supported by better research. There’s currently no scientific proof that teeth can be definitively matched to human skin.   read more

Many teachers provide misinformation about climate change, the survey found. The evidence that human activity is a major cause of recent climate change is overwhelming, but 30% of the 1,500 teachers surveyed said they emphasize that recent global warming “is likely due to natural causes,” while 12% said they did not emphasize human causes. Half of that 12% said they did not discuss any causes at all. Close to a third of the teachers also reported conveying messages that are contradictory.   read more

With fallout from the water emergency expected to send house prices lower, the vacancy rate may continue to rise. "The water crisis didn't cause the root problem in Flint that's contributing to these high vacancy rates, but it's going to exacerbate the issue going forward," said RealtyTrac VP Daren Blomquist. Flint's real estate problems lie in the loss of higher-paying manufacturing jobs in recent decades and a roughly 20 percent decline in its population since 2000.   read more