VOLKSWAGON VILLAINY: The auto giant VW has been installing software meant to cheat emissions testing on several of its diesel engine models since 2009.  The company admits that nearly 500,000 cars in the United States have “defeat devices” that allow their so-called clean diesel engines to test below Clean Air Act standards.

DOUBLE DUMPING: A Yale University study announced that the amount of waste dumped in U.S. landfills since 2010 is at least double what the Environmental Protection Agency had determined. Relying on actual landfill weight measurements rather than EPA estimates, the team calculated that the average American threw away five pounds of trash per day in 2013. 

LIFE IN THE COLD CRETACEOUS: A team of paleontologists announced the discovery of a new dinosaur species found in northern Alaska. The herbivorous, duckbilled dinosaur was likely quite common to the frigid area some 70 million years ago, supporting the theory that many dinosaurs were already much more like their warm-blooded bird descendants than cold-blooded reptiles.

LOVEBIRDS: In a study just published by PLOS Biology, male and female finches that were randomly assigned partners reproduced less successfully than those allowed to choose their own mate. 

SOMETHING TO GROUSE ABOUT: The Obama administration announced that it will not grant the greater sage grouse endangered species status. Once plentiful throughout the Western United States, the greater sage grouse population has declined over the past century by as much as 80 percent.

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