Associated Press: Influential environmental group Sierra Club has named environmental activist and author Michael Brune (BROON) as its new executive director. The 38-year-old Brune replaces Carl Pope, who served as executive director for the nation’s oldest environmental group for 18 years. Pope will remain with Sierra Club as executive chairman focusing on the organization’s work battling climate change. For the past seven years, Brune served as executive director of the Rainforest Action …