   MELISSA BLOCK, host: And I'm Melissa Block. Dozens of
environmental activists showed up in front of the White House
today. They were there to be heard and to get arrested. It was
part on an ongoing peaceful protest against a proposed oil
pipeline that would cut across the American Midwest. Organizers
say that over the past 10 days, about 800 people have been
handcuffed and bussed off to a police station. NPR's Richard
Harris has the story.  RICHARD HARRIS: At issue here, it's a
proposed pipeline which would connect oil resources in Alberta,
Canada, to refineries on the Texas coast. The 1,700 mile long
Keystone XL, as it's called, would help our friendly northern
neighbor expand development of one of the largest, but dirtiest,
sources of oil on the plant. It's bound up in hardened
formations called tar sands and it's not easy to extract. The
Obama administration says it will decide by the end of the year
whether to approve this pipeline.  So, environmental groups are
making that decision a test of the admin