Pro golf's Masters tournament was nearly washed out last week. Mother Nature dumped four inches of rain onto the Augusta National Golf Club course in Georgia, delaying the event's opening round. The Masters is one of four major championships run by the Professional Golf Association (PGA).
A flood of controversy has also hit the traditional event. For nine months, Martha Burk (right), the chairman of the National Council of Women's Organizations, has led a protest against Augusta for excluding women. Hootie Johnson, the golf club's chairman, won't allow women to join the club and play in the Masters tournament. "This is symbolic of all the ways women are left out," Burk told the New York Times. She asked Augusta National's 300 members to support her cause.
Warning: American Rivers at Risk
Our nation's rivers jump with wildlife and rush with rapids. But a new report shows that many rivers are in danger of drying up.
American Rivers, an environmental group, revealed its list of the 10 most endangered U.S. rivers last week. At the top: the Big Sunflower River in Mississippi. There, the threat is a plan to drain 300 square miles of wetlands in order to build a pump system to control flooding and water crops. Two other rivers on the list, the northwestern Klamath River and New England's Ipswich River, face severe water shortages.
American Rivers president Rebecca Wodder says that people can protect our rivers by watering crops more efficiently and getting drinking water elsewhere: "America's demand for fresh water is nearing nature's limits."