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Something is happening to our Sun. It has to do with sunspots, or rather the activity cycle their coming and going signifies. After a period of exceptionally high activity in the 20th century, our Sun has suddenly gone exceptionally quiet. Months have passed with no spots visible on its disc. We are at the end of one cycle of activity and astronomers are waiting for the sunspots to return and mark the start of the next, the so-called cycle 24. They have been waiting for a while now with no sign it's on its way any time soon.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Monday threw cold water on a major energy bill that Democrats are hoping to pass before the end of the year, saying it contains "troublesome" measures that would force electric utilities to generate a greater share of their power from renewable sources.

"That would be very troublesome for all of us in the Southeast," McConnell told reporters. "That's a mandatory rate increase and would produce a lot of difficulty."

A national coalition of distributors and contractors associated with heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) today criticized Congress for inserting unprecedented "regionalization" provisions in the Energy Bill that will pit consumers against special-interest environmental groups in Washington, DC.