OMB Chief 'Optimistic' About Budget Deal. Top Obama administration official Sylvia Mathews Burwell on Wednesday said she is "cautiously optimistic" congressional negotiators will reach a budget deal this month that would replace some of the across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester. With current funding levels set to expire on Jan. 15, the lead congressional negotiators - Budget committee chairs Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) - are under a Dec. 13 deadline to try to reach a deal setting new spending levels and replacing sequester cuts. Politico

Smithsonian Gets $1M to Save Endangered Languages. The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History has received a $1 million grant to launch a long-term initiative to digitize and preserve recordings of endangered languages. The London-based Arcadia Fund is providing funds for the first two years of the project to digitize materials in the museum's National Anthropological Archives. The museum announced the grant Wednesday. Washington Post

Canadian First Nations Chief Lays Blame on Alaska Catch for Low Yukon Salmon Runs. Preliminary data indicates the 2012 Chinook salmon run on the Yukon River was the worst ever. The International Yukon River Panel is meeting in Whitehorse, the capital city of Canada's Yukon territory, this week to plan a management strategy for 2014. Federal Fisheries officials who represent Canada at the talks refuse to say how they plan to address the issue. Closed-door meetings were held Sunday and continued Monday with a public session beginning Tuesday. Alaska Dispatch

Arctic Ocean Stores 58 Megatons of Carbon Each Year-As Long as It's Not Too Warm. It turns out that while we may be pouring out carbon dioxide, there's one place on Earth that's preventing this gas from reaching our atmosphere. The Arctic Ocean is slowly becoming more of a carbon sink, soaking up carbon before it can impact our climate. These findings have important implications for future climate models and the health of the Arctic ecosystem. Science World Report

Russian Delegation to Norway to Discuss Arctic Interaction. A delegation of the Federation Council upper house of Russia's parliament will arrive in Norway on Thursday for talks with the leadership of the country and Norwegian parliamentarians. Interaction in the Arctic will top the agenda. Valentina Matviyenko, who leads the delegation, noted "progressive development" of bilateral cooperation. Bilateral trade was worth $2.7 billion in 2012, with both countries stepping up investment cooperation, Matviyenko said. Voice of Russia

Shell's Alaska Oil Comeback in Arctic Proposed for July Start. Royal Dutch Shell is back, baby! Well, maybe. The Netherlands-based oil giant has long said it would not return to offshore drilling in Alaska until it had fully learned its lesson following 2012, a mistake-riddled year that ended when Shell's runaway drill rig, the Kulluk, ran aground during a Gulf of Alaska storm. Alaska Dispatch

Federal Study Warns of Sudden Climate Change Woes. Hard-to-predict sudden changes to Earth's environment are more worrisome than climate change's bigger but more gradual impacts, a panel of scientists advising the federal government concluded Tuesday. The 200-page report by the National Academy of Sciences looked at warming problems that can occur in years instead of centuries. The report repeatedly warns of potential "tipping points" where the climate passes thresholds, beyond which "major and rapid changes occur." And some of these quick changes are happening now, said study chairman James White of the University of Colorado. Business Week

Polar Bear Population Could Drop Two-Thirds by 2050 - [Russian] Minister. The number of polar bears in the Arctic could drop by two-thirds by 2050 because of poaching, pollution and global warming, Russia's natural resources and ecology minister said Wednesday. Speaking at the International Forum on the Conservation of Polar Bears, Sergei Donskoi said that active industrial development in the Arctic in recent decades is one factor that has negatively affected the population of the beasts. RIA