By DON HOPEY, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pumped by consumer shock at gasoline prices flowing hard toward $5 a gallon, pressure is mounting to end the 1981 moratorium on offshore drilling, which was adopted to protect the environmental and tourism value of the nation's beaches.

People who live in counties where lots of coal is mined are much more likely to suffer from an array of chronic, life-threatening health problems, according to a new study published in April's American Journal of Public Health.