Environment

In Los Angeles, some see drought as a design opportunity. The Arid Lands Institute in Burbank is developing ways to turn the city into a "sponge" in order to take in water and store it for later.

The solar industry employs nearly 174,000 workers in the U.S., up 22 percent from a year ago. But the industry's future is murky, as government subsidies are set to expire within two years.

John Cruden returns to the department as litigation over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill intensifies. He'll also defend Obama climate change rules and try to protect wildlife while in the post.

The rules are mostly voluntary, which disappoints environmental groups, but they should ratchet down the amount of leaked methane from new or modified oil and gas operations, which contributes to climate change.

Many crops we eat today are the product of genetic modifications that happen in a lab, not in nature. Scientists and consumers are divided how cautious we need to be about these foods.