Dec. 3 marks the 25th anniversary of the most catastrophic industrial accident in history: the leak of poisonous gas from a chemical plant in the Indian city of Bhopal. A similar accident some months later in West Virginia drove Congress to pass legislation intended to protect citizens from such disasters by requiring emergency planning and public disclosure of chemical releases. Twenty-five years after the Bhopal tragedy, much progress has been made, but much remains to be done to provide a minimum level of protection against chemical releases.

On Nov. 17, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that some 14,700 taxpayers had taken part in its recently concluded tax amnesty program by coming forward to report previously undisclosed income hiding in foreign bank accounts. The figure represents a near doubling of the original estimate of 7,500 taxpayers the IRS provided at the end of the voluntary disclosure program. Credited in part for the success of the tax amnesty program is the Obama administration's larger emphasis on tax enforcement. With a beefed up IRS enforcement budget, new tax treaties with countries that once acted as tax havens, and stricter tax haven legislation in the works on Capitol Hill, the U.S. is starting to get serious about international tax enforcement.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will revise existing standards for six major air pollutants, according to top agency officials. The changes could yield major public health benefits.