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WASHINGTON (AP) -- A House committee on Thursday rejected an auto industry-backed plan to raise gas mileage standards for new vehicles. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee wanted to increase the requirements for any vehicle that uses renewable fuels. The measure was put together after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., signaled her support for a Senate plan passed last week to increase standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. The committee is considering energy legisla...

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Tony Blair stepped down Wednesday as prime minister of the United Kingdom. Tradition calls for him to visit Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace and inform her he is leaving; the queen then phones Gordon Brown, Blair's long-established successor, to ask him to form a new government.

Thus ends a decade-long career, much of it stellar -- but overshadowed ultimately by Blair's loyalty to U.S. intervention in Iraq. When Iraq went sour, the main political casualty was not George Bush but the other best-known Western leader.

Now that Blair has snapped the book shut on his last prime minister's questions, the international community wants to give him a job. The "Quartet" of mediating powers in the Middle East -- the European Union, the United States, the United Nations, and Russia -- is said to be thinking of Blair as its envoy. Other international groups want him, too.

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It's itchy and annoying and this year, poison ivy is thriving. A new study suggests- global warming may be to blame for an increase in the plant's size and the severity of the rash it causes.

The study is being conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Researchers examined how the increase of carbon dioxide in the past 50 years, brought on by climate change, has affected the growth of poison ivy.

At Frederick Meijer Gardens, Horticulturist Rob McCartney doesn't necessarily agree with the finding of the study, but says poison ivy is something we all need to learn how to spot. As he points to a large patch of it in the far corners of the property he says, ?It really likes the forest edge environment."

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Scientists at the institute directed by J. Craig Venter, a pioneer in sequencing the human genome, are reporting that they have successfully transplanted the genome of one species of bacteria into another, an achievement they see as a major step toward creating synthetic forms of life.

Other scientists who did not participate in the research praised the achievement, reported today in the journal Science. But some expressed skepticism that it was as significant as Venter said.

His goal is to make cells that might take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and produce methane, used as a feedstock for other fuels. Such an achievement might reduce dependency on fossil fuels and strike a blow at global warming.

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In little more than 60 years, the number of domestic manufacturers of push mowers has declined from 60 to a single company, aptly named American Lawn Mower. But the market is growing for the Shelbyville, Ind., company. While sales still lag far behind power mowers ? 350,000 vs. six million ? the numbers have increased more than three-fold in the last five years, according to The Associated Press. Spokesmen for sales outlets interviewed by the AP credited greater numbers of women doing lawn work ...

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