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By Joan Gralla (Reuters) - While Pennsylvania, northwestern Louisiana and gas-rich areas around the Gulf of Mexico are losing jobs and revenue as the fracking industry shrinks after a price collapse, oil-rich North Dakota and Texas are in the midst of a boom. Other winners in the fracking lottery include central and southern Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio and Wyoming, where the economy is expanding and revenues are climbing.

Across much of the United States, this has been an unusually mild winter, especially for those living east of the Mississippi. Not a few people have noted that spring seems to have come early this year. Of course, in a meteorological sense that could be true, but in 2012 it will also be true in an astronomical sense as well, because this year spring will make its earliest arrival since the late 19th century: 1896, to be exact

Tornadoes are forecast to swarm Friday through a very large and populated area of the nation, stretching from Illinois, Indiana and Ohio to Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and other states.

Encroaching seas have eroded southeastern Louisiana.

"When do you believe life begins?" Johnny DuPree, Democratic candidate for governor of Mississippi, asked during a public debate on October 14. The question was rhetorical, and DuPree's answer--not a surprise in one of the most socially conservative US states--was the same as that of his Republican opponent: "I believe life begins at conception." [More]

For Douglas Meffert, those attempting to harness the water power of the Mississippi River aren't just scientists and engineers; they're visionaries who could transform the way power grids operate in the Southeast, and perhaps other areas of the United States. Meffert, a professor of bioenvironmental research at Tulane University, said that with his work, he's carrying on the mission of the late professor William Mouton, a revered New Orleans structural engineer, to end the southeastern United States' reliance on fossil-fuel energy from the Gulf of Mexico.

Listen up, Mark Twain fans! River cruising in America is poised to undergo a new renaissance, with steamboat operations soon to return to the Mississippi River.

As the U.S. slowly abandons its dams, more and more pilot programs pop up for deriving power from tides and river currents.

Nearly 200 Kemp's ridley ( Lepidochelys kempii ), green ( Chelonia mydas ) and loggerhead ( Caretta caretta ) sea turtles washed up along the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coasts in April, the most deaths in one month since record keeping began in 1986. And 100 green sea turtles were found dead on the coast of Uruguay in the first three months of this year.

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - This year's record Mississippi River floods are forecast to create the biggest Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" since systematic mapping began in 1985, U.S. scientists reported on Tuesday. [More]

My hometown lies on a sandbar, squarely in the floodplain of the Upper Mississippi River. Winona (Minnesota) benefited from its position along the river, rapidly growing to wealth as a steamboat port and lumber town. The second railroad bridge across the Mississippi was built there, and in 1900, Winona had more millionaires per capita than any other town in the country.

By Meryl Dakin VICKSBURG, Miss., May 19 (Reuters) - The Mississippi River [More]

By Kathy Finn AMELIA, Louisiana (Reuters) - A day after Army engineers opened a key spillway to relieve flooding along the Mississippi River, residents of small Louisiana towns braced on Sunday for a surge of water that could leave thousands of homes and farms under as much as 20 feet of water. [More]

The Mississippi River has leveled off, but flooded communities throughout the Midwest remain in crisis. Mark Strassmann reports on the challenges ahead for victims of the flood.

It's a somber morning here at AccuWeather.com HQ while we report the news that over 230 people have been killed by yesterday's tornado outbreak, mainly in Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. This is the deadliest outbreak since I was born in 1974, and it's a real shame that it can happen in this time of modern technology. Here are maps of the tornado and funnel cloud reports yesterday: