BUZZWORTHY: American honeybees are once again dying off in droves, the Washington Post reports, as "colony-collapse disorder" flares back up after a year of slowing down. "Everybody is seeing [bee] losses this winter," one Pennsylvania beekeeper tells the Post. "This was probably the worst year ever." A new study suggests bee losses have stabilized around 30 percent, but those findings are based on last winter's data, and while a new count won't come out till spring, the Post reports that many commercial beekeepers have already seen losses as high as 50 percent since fall. Researchers have made strides recently in tracing the causes of CCD — ranging from parasitic mites and pesticides to malnutrition and fatigue — but they say there are likely a variety of factors conspiring to kill the country's bees. "We think there's a cumulative effect, and trying to point the finger to one particular thing is difficult," says a USDA honeybee expert. "But bee health is in really bad shape, and we need to understand why." Not all bee news this week is necessarily bad, however — on Tuesday, New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will consider whether to scrap the city's longtime ban on urban beekeeping. (Sources: Washington Post, New York Times)

 

TUNA HELPER: Leaders and diplomats from 175 countries are in Doha, Qatar, this week for a 12-day U.N. summit on endangered-species issues. There are 42 proposals on the table, but so far the summit has largely been a battle over one fish: Atlantic bluefin tuna. The warm-blooded ocean dweller is a staple in Japanese sashimi, and even though its population has plummeted some 75 percent in recent decades due to overfishing, Japan says it will ignore any international bluefin ban. That position has pitted Japan — along with other Asian counties, North African countries and Australia — against the United States and Europe, which support the ban. Other issues being debated in Doha include a controversial proposal to legalize the trade of elephant ivory, which is widely blamed for fueling elephant poaching in Africa, and a U.S. proposal to outlaw all international trade in materials made from polar bears. (Sources: Associated Press, BBC News)

 

A RIVER RUNS OVER IT: The Red River is rising faster than expected in North Dakota and Minnesota, threatening another round of devastating floods following last year's record-breaking inundations. The National Weather Service's latest flood forecast shows the river rising to 38 feet in Fargo this weekend — 20 feet above flood stage and just 3 feet below last year's record flood (pictured, near Oxbow, N.D. in March 2009). This winter's frequent snowstorms piled up unusually large amounts of snow that are now melting, thanks to relentless rains and an early arrival of warm temperatures. Disaster was averted last year as workers and volunteers spent days piling up sandbags along the flood-prone river's banks, a feat they'll now have to repeat. "The timing of the predictions is almost identical to last year," Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney tells the AP. "The difference is we're not in the mad scramble to get organized. We're already organized." (Sources: AP, Fargo-Moorhead Forum, National Weather Service)

 

VACCINE COURT: There is too little evidence to prove that mercury-containing vaccines can cause autism, a federal court ruled on Friday, dealing a major blow to anti-vaccination groups and lending more weight to the idea that genetics and environment play a role. After reviewing three test cases, special masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims released more than 600 pages of findings, concluding that all three cases lacked adequate support for their claims that vaccines spurred a child's autism. Anti-vaccine groups have argued for years that thimerosal, a compound derived from mercury, was responsible for causing autism, since it was once common in infant vaccines and often predated the onset of autism symptoms, typically between the ages of 1 and 2. It was removed from infant vaccines in 1999, but many experts say the lack of evidence directly linking it to autism suggests other factors may be more relevant, including genetics and exposure to environmental toxins. (Source: CNN)

 

PIPE DREAMS: Water and sewer pipes across the United States are corroding and crumbling, the New York Times reports today in the latest installment of its "Toxic Waters" series. Many of the pipes were installed more than a century ago, writes the Times' Charles Duhigg, and they're beginning to age disgracefully, with a water pipe now bursting every two minutes somewhere in the country. One breaks almost every day in Washington, D.C., where Duhigg profiles city water manager George Hawkins, a "long-haired environmentalist" who's now trying to upgrade the capital's water system by convincing residents to take on higher water bills that can cover the cost. "People pay more for their cellphones and cable television than for water," Hawkins says. "You can go a day without a phone or TV. You can't go a day without water." In addition to serving as an example of the trade-off between cheap water bills and cheap water pipes, Hawkins' work is also drawing widespread attention because of the customers his water system serves — including Congress, the White House and some 2 million other customers. (Source: New York Times)

 

— Russell McLendon