Argentina tried to play fast and loose with a Supreme Court ruling this week, but a New York judge smacked it down.

A team from Cornell University has designed a microchip that can be inserted directly into plants to tell farmers exactly when their crops need watering. This is very good news for Gaia.

Good afternoon, TAI readers! We hope you’ve had a restful weekend. As you gear up for the week ahead, take a look at what you may have missed on the site during the week we’ve left behind:

The religious news out of the Middle East isn’t unrelentingly bad this week. Our Lady of Arabia, the first Catholic cathedral in Bahrain, is slated to be built on land donated by the country’s king himself.

Financial service jobs are growing at a faster rate in the Sun Belt than in traditional financial powerhouses like NYC. Telework and high quality of life at a cheaper cost of living are drawing workers to new places.

The free higher education plan Starbucks is offering employees isn’t the great act of munificence that some seem to have expected, but it will largely benefit all parties involved.

China grows much of its crops in its driest provinces, according to a new report. That’s a very water-intensive practice, in a country that can’t afford to be profligate with that precious resource.

The death toll from the Ebola virus in West Africa is now higher than 300, with over 600 infected. Health organizations say it requires an urgent response.

A new report from the Congressional Budget Office finds that America’s ill-conceived biofuels policy could raise gas prices up to 9 percent by 2017. It’s time to end this boondoggle.

North Dakota is on track to get three new oil pipelines by 2016. Connecting the state’s Bakken shale formation with the country’s pipeline network is vital to the continued success of the shale revolution.