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The first section of an 1,100-mile oil pipeline officially opened Wednesday in Azerbaijan. It will eventually carry oil from the Caspian Sea through Georgia and on to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Writer Thomas Goltz has traveled the route of the pipeline by motorcycle and tells Melissa Block about the project.

In addition to flooding and power outages, Hurricane Katrina's landfall on the Gulf Coast may create delays in the area's oil and gas production, which supplies a large amount of the nation's needs. Monday morning, oil prices surged above $70 a barrel.

The cargo ship MV Torgelow returned to her home port in Mombasa, Kenya, last weekend after being held for 53 days by pirates off the coast of Somalia. This and other similar attacks are preventing relief agencies from delivering food and other supplies by sea to Somalia, according to relief officials.

In the third and final story in our series profiling California's Inland Empire, NPR's Scott Horsley reports that this sprawling region east of Los Angeles and north of San Diego has one of the fastest-growing economies in the nation. Affordable housing has drawn commuters from the coast, who in turn attracted small businesses. Then good highways and railroads turned the Inland Empire into a major distribution center. Now the question is whether it can climb the economic ladder by attracting high-paying jobs.

A day-long odyssey that began at the Capitol Rotunda, then to the Washington National Cathedral, and finally on a presidential jet to Southern California came to and end Friday when the late President Ronald Reagan's casket was interred at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley. Rachael Myrow of member station KPCC reports from along the motorcade route leading from Pt. Mugu Naval Air Station on the coast, where the late president's casket arrived, to the library in the inland valley.

This dangerous storm is the worst in more than 10 years to barrel toward the Atlantic Coast. Matthew is expected to pummel Florida all day before spinning toward Georgia and South Carolina.

David Greene has the latest information on Hurricane Matthew, which was downgraded to a Category 3 storm. Early Friday morning, it was nearing Florida's coast.

There’s a new effort underway make hundreds of thousands of dried and preserved plants collected along the East Coast available through a digital database. For centuries, explorers, scientists, and amateur botanists scoured the country to document and preserve plant species. Once prized like fine art, the collections were often bequeathed to institutions that housed herbaria, … Continue reading New Digital Database for Centuries-Old Plant Collection →

Groundwater depletion is a big problem in parts of California. But it is not the only groundwater problem. The state also has many areas of polluted groundwater, and some places where groundwater overdraft has caused the land to subside, damaging roads, canals and other infrastructure. Near the coast, heavy groundwater pumping has caused contamination by pulling … Continue reading California Law Barring Groundwater Recharge Clashes With Sustainability Goals →

The U.S. Coast Guard has decided it no longer needs four of the nation's most picturesque lighthouses, and it's inviting certain types of organizations to take them over at no charge.