July 08, 2013; 2:11 PM
Increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) over the past 30 years have caused an 11 percent increase in foliage over arid regions of North America, Australia, Africa and the Middle East, according to researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) from Australia.
The image below is satellite data that shows the percent amount that foliage cover has changed around the world from 1982 to 2010. Note the biggest increases are in the arid regions of western North America, Africa and western Australia. Image courtesy of CSIRO.

This process, also known as CO2 fertilization, occurs where elevated CO2 enables a leaf during photosynthesis, the process by which green plants convert sunlight into sugar, to extract more carbon from the air or lose less water to the air, or both, according to the CSIRO press release.
The elevated CO2 causes individual leaves of a plant to use less water, thus plants in arid regions will respond by increasing their total number of leaves, according to the report.
Scientists have long known the effects of CO2 on foliage, but until now it has been difficult to demonstrate, according to CSIRO research scientist Dr. Randall Donohue.

The Obama administration announced Friday that it would significantly scale back the health law’s requirements that new insurance marketplaces verify consumers’ income and health insurance status.

Instead, the federal government will rely more heavily on consumers’ self-reported information until 2015, when it plans to have stronger verification systems in place.

The White House delay on the employer mandate to provide health insurance has raised questions about the readiness of the Affordable Care Act on the whole.
A new rule says the online exchanges can accept statements about income and health insurance status.

The delay comes after a Tuesday announcement that the federal government would postpone for one year a requirement that employers with 50 or more full-time workers provide health coverage.

“I think that Health and Human Services is doing the best that it can under the circumstances,” said Sara Rosenbaum, a health policy professor at George Washington University.

In the last hour, a Boeing 777 operated by Asiana Airlines crash-landed at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). Immediately, dozens of tweets began flowing with news and firsthand accounts from the airport — including Samsung executive David Eun, who says he was aboard the downed plane, calling the experience "surreal" and reporting that "most everyone seems fine." Several pictures of the 777 show the vertical stabilizer completely missing, emergency slides deployed, and black smoke billowing above.

The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.