BIRDS OF A FEATHER: President Obama gave his home state a conservation victory on Wednesday, declaring 48 native plants and animals in Hawaii as endangered, and setting aside more than 40 square miles for them to inhabit. Wildlife officials and conservationists praised the administration's "holistic approach," which scraps an old strategy of trying to protect endangered species by adopting separate plans tailored to each species' individual habitat. Instead, the new tactic is to restore health to the overarching ecosystem that's shared by many species, which experts say will help fight large-scale threats like invasive weeds and feral pigs. The newly protected Hawaiian natives include two Honeycreeper birds, a picture-wing fly and 45 ferns, trees and shrubs that are found nowhere on Earth but the island of Kauai. One of the two birds, known as the akikiki or Kauai creeper, has seen its population shrink by 80 percent since the 1960s, while the other, the Kauai akepa (pictured), is down more than 50 percent just since 2000. (Sources: Honolulu Advertiser, Associated Press)

 

OVER THE HUMP: Federal prosecutors filed charges Wednesday against a sushi restaurant and chef in Santa Monica, Calif., just days after Oscar-winning filmmakers outed the eatery for selling endangered whale meat on the sly. The Hump, a sleek sushi spot located at the Santa Monica Airport, quickly admitted "responsibility for the wrongdoing charged by the U.S. attorney," saying it would pay a fine and settle the issue in court. The case first surfaced when a member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society got a tip that the Hump was illegally selling whale meat; he then passed the tip on to the makers of The Cove, a documentary about Japanese dolphin hunting that won an Oscar at Sunday night's Academy Awards. While the filmmakers were in town for the Oscars, they sent two undercover animal activists with miniature cameras into the Hump, where they were served a $600 plate of endangered sei whale. The illegal sale of a marine mammal is a misdemeanor under federal law — with a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000 for a person and $200,000 for an organization — but the Hump's troubles may not stop there. Santa Monica City Councilman Kevin McKeown, who's a vegetarian, asked the city attorney at Tuesday night's council meeting to look into whether the case might be grounds for revoking the restaurant's business license. (Source: Los Angeles Times)

 

A SUDDEN TWIST: Spring may not yet have fully sprung, but people in central Arkansas got an early preview of the season's dark side on Wednesday night as a series of powerful tornadoes slashed around the region, destroying dozens of homes and killing at least one person. The first twister struck at 7:28 p.m. and damaged 22 houses, followed by another at 9:25 that damaged nine homes and injured one person. A third funnel cloud touched down at 10:05, causing still-undetermined destruction to several homes and hurting three people, two of them critically. The blast of tornadoes was accompanied by strong thunderstorms and hail the size of golf balls, according to the National Weather Service, and follows another preseason twister that hit Oklahoma on Monday (pictured). A "slight risk" of severe thunderstorms remains Thursday over much of Florida and the lower Mississippi and Tennessee valleys. (Sources: CNN, AP, National Weather Service)

 

MAKING QUAKES: Natural gas mining in Texas may be responsible for several minor earthquakes in the state over the last two years, according to a new study by seismologists working in Dallas. Analyzing records from 11 recent quakes, the researchers pinpointed their origin to a spot roughly one-tenth of a mile south of the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, on a geologic fault about 15,000 feet below the surface. They soon realized that the epicenter sits almost exactly on the site of a "wastewater reinjection well," where 9,000 barrels of saltwater were blasted to depths of 10,000 to 14,000 feet daily, part of drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Several other studies in recent years have linked these types of deep gas wells with earthquakes, and while the researchers say this Texas connection is "plausible, not definitive," they add that no further quakes have occurred since saltwater reinjection was stopped following a third set of tremors in June. "The earthquakes were right in our backyard," says the study's lead author, "and quakes don't happen too often in Texas." (Source: USA Today)

 

GREEN HOUSE EFFECT: Can a 10,000-square-foot mansion really be green? What if it's owned by a philanthropist who's given millions of dollars to environmental causes over the years? That's a question currently facing city officials in eco-minded Berkeley, Calif., where software mogul Mitch Kapor (pictured) is planning to build a 6,500-square-foot house with a 3,500-square-foot, 10-car garage that, despite its massive size, is considered "green" by the city's zoning board. The board grades houses on a "green point" scale, and a house with 60 points gets the green designation regardless of its size. Kapor's would-be neighbors are appealing the zoning board's decision, arguing that the house's heating and cooling needs would be many times those of a normal-sized house, generating an energy demand that they say negates any other eco-friendly features. But Kapor's architect tells the New York Times that the situation is being exaggerated, and another local architect who's also a member of Berkeley's Landmarks Preservation Commission defends the city's green-point scale. "True, the greenest house is the house you don't build," he says. "But we assume people are going to build new homes, and we encourage them to make them better." (Source: New York Times)

 

— Russell McLendon