Krista Barnes’ week began with a utility shutoff notice, but it ended with the promise of a better tomorrow for her and her two daughters. The Barnes family was one of 444 households approved for heating assistance in the first week SNAP began accepting applications for the season.

WASHINGTON – Will a heaping spoonful of nuclear power help Congress swallow a climate bill? The Obama administration and leading congressional Democrats are wooing wavering Democrats and Republicans to back a climate bill by dangling federal tax incentives and new loan guarantees for nuclear power plant construction, even though financial analysts warn that huge capital needs and a history of cost overruns would constrain what many lawmakers hope will be a “nuclear renaissance.”

ARCADIA, Fla. – President Barack Obama made a pitch for renewable energy Tuesday, announcing $3.4 billion in government support for 100 projects aimed at modernizing the nation’s power grid. Touring a field of solar energy panels in west-central Florida, the president urged greater use of several technologies to make America’s power transmission system more efficient and better suited to the digital age. The projects include installing “smart” electric meters in homes, automating utility substations, and installing thousands of new digital transformers and grid sensors.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Officials announced an ambitious project in New Mexico on Tuesday that would allow energy to flow more freely across the nation’s three massive power grids, breaking down significant barriers to ramping up alternative energy in the United States. The proposed Tres Amigas SuperStation in Clovis, N.M., would help route energy from isolated wind and solar installations to urban centers and other places that consume the most power.

Until recently, empty bottles and jars had to be hauled hundreds of miles from Spokane to be transformed into recycled products. Glass collected at the curb was trucked to Calgary, Alberta, and then Edmonton, where it was turned into fiberglass. When that market dried up, Spokane’s glass was shipped to Portland, where a recycling company prepared it for a train trip to California to turn it into wine bottles.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The elevated floor, tall ceilings, steeply pitched roof and broad overhangs are borrowed from the traditional “cracker house” that relied on shade and air movement for relief from Florida’s sultry subtropical climate. A pair of magnolia trees, dark red siding, ceiling fans, bamboo flooring and rustic wooden beams salvaged from a Georgia barn add to the inviting atmosphere of the little house in the middle of Florida State University’s brick-and-mortar campus.