Two Energy Information Agency (EIA) reports lay out the opportunities and the difficulties with oil and gas development in the United States.

Watching smoke rise above the Capitol building is rarely a good sign. And last week that certainly was true, as tragedy struck when Frager’s Hardware, a Capitol Hill institution, burned in a 4-alarm fire. Frager’s, which opened in 1920, spanned almost a full city block, with a hardware store, an equipment rental service, a paint store, and a garden center, and had just over 60 employees.

The most recent Congressional Budget Office projections gave many in Washington an opportunity to declare victory over the nation’s budget woes, and a summer full of non-budgetary fun in the sun.

One of the most valuable programs run by the World Bank is its Doing Business Project, which evaluates countries’ business climates and provides a road map for improving them. It’s a terrific resource for companies as they gauge where to trade and invest -- and for governments as they contemplate reforms to boost growth, create jobs, and enhance their competitiveness.

In an attempt to block the construction of new coal export facilities in the Pacific Northwest and block expanded exports to Asia, the Bellingham Herald reports that environmental groups sued coal companies and railroads claiming coal dust from train cars is harming the environment.