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Madagascar’s huge ocean algae bloom was caused by dust from drought-stricken southern Africa

Current News / News & Features /

Scientists have found new evidence that desertification, potentially linked to global warming, leads to large amounts of nutrient-rich dust landing in the sea, causing ocean algae to grow rapidly. Biological oceanographer John A. Gittings and an international group of researchers have found an example of this phenomenon in the Indian Ocean ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Maryland student transportation director says school buses are safe, after several accidents this year

Current News / News & Features /

BALTIMORE — During the first two months of the school year, there have been 13 traffic accidents involving Carroll County school buses, according to Transportation Services Director Michael Hardesty. No accident-related injuries were reported.

“With over 250 to 300 busses on the road every single day, doing 5.2 million miles annually, we ...Read more

Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump's first week in office may set tone on abortion policy

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s first actions upon taking office in January could set the tone for how much he plans to leave the issue of regulating abortion to the states.

Presidents typically make two key global family planning decisions during their first week in office: whether to fund the United Nations Population Fund, ...Read more

Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Cities, states say they'll need more help to replace millions of lead pipes

Current News / News & Features /

A new federal rule will require water utilities across the country to pull millions of lead drinking water pipes out of the ground and replace them, at a cost of billions of dollars.

States, cities and water utilities agree that the lead pipes need to go to ensure safe water for residents. But they say they may struggle to do so in the 10-year ...Read more

Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

A clever wolf repeatedly snuck into a Minnesota ranch. Biologists figured out its MO.

Current News / News & Features /

ORR, Minn. — Nothing seemed to stop Wolf 04D.

The wildlife biologists thought they had ended a decades-long struggle between rancher and wolf when they built a 7.5-mile fence in the heart of Minnesota’s wolf territory. Even the rancher, Wes Johnson, had high hopes when he came across a wounded deer on his land and saw that the wolves ...Read more

Ana Ramirez/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

San Diego will soon charge homeowners for trash pickup. Prepare for a bigger tax bill -- and more options

Current News / News & Features /

SAN DIEGO — San Diego officials are busy working out details of how they’ll begin charging nearly 300,000 city households for trash pickup next summer, and they have recently decided to add the trash fees onto twice-a-year property tax bills.

Other crucial decisions will come soon on how much to charge, whether to subsidize low-income ...Read more

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

California's protections for transgender care could be tested under Trump

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — When Mars Wright saw that Donald Trump had been elected again as president, the 29-year-old Los Angeles artist and streetwear designer felt relieved he had already undergone surgeries for his gender transition.

Wright, a transgender man, has chronicled his medical journey online, flexing and dancing to show how his body ...Read more

Missouri Department of Conservation/TNS

A Missouri deer hunter just killed a mountain lion. How common are these big cats?

Pets / Cats & Dogs News /

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri deer hunter reportedly killed a mountain lion Monday, Nov. 18, according to a social media post from the Missouri Department of Conservation.

“We are aware of an incident that occurred this past weekend in Iron County where a deer hunter killed a mountain lion,” the department wrote on Facebook on Monday. “...Read more

Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Political stress: Can you stay engaged without sacrificing your mental health?

Current News / News & Features /

It's been two weeks since Donald Trump won the presidential election, but Stacey Lamirand's brain hasn't stopped churning.

"I still think about the election all the time," said the 60-year-old Bay Area resident, who wanted a Kamala Harris victory so badly that she flew to Pennsylvania and knocked on voters' doors in the final days of the ...Read more

(Eric Harkleroad/KFF Health News)/KFF HEALTH/TNS

Social Security tackles overpayment 'injustices,' but problems remain

Health / Senior Living /

In March, newly installed Social Security chief Martin O’Malley criticized agency “injustices” that “shock our shared sense of equity and good conscience as Americans.”

He promised to overhaul the Social Security Administration’s often heavy-handed efforts to claw back money that millions of recipients — including people who are ...Read more

Chet Strange/Getty Images North America/TNS

Even blue states are embracing a tougher approach to crime

Current News / News & Features /

The outcomes of seven ballot measures in Arizona, California and Colorado reflect the stricter approach to crime that’s been seen across much of the country recently, with voters and policymakers driven by concerns over rising retail theft, homelessness, fentanyl misuse and challenges in police recruitment and retention.

Voters have decided ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Musk, Ramaswamy eye a 5-day week in office for federal workers

Current News / News & Features /

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — President-elect Donald Trump’s picks to lead the newly formed task force to review government spending — said they will push for eliminating work-from-home policies for federal workers, an idea that could spark clashes between the new administration and government employee unions.

“Requiring federal ...Read more

Western NC Democrats warn that funds in state's Helene relief bill won't aid businesses, housing

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Western North Carolina Democrats are blasting wide-ranging legislation passed this week that they describe as a power grab shrouded in a disaster relief package.

The disaster-relief portion of state Senate Bill 382 fails to meet the moment for storm battered Western North Carolinians who need immediate help to keep ...Read more

Royal Canadian Mounted Police/TNS/TNS

Survivor of harrowing blizzard walk across Canada-Minnesota border testifies in smuggling ring trial

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FERGUS FALLS, Minn. – The van carrying 11 migrants from Winnipeg got stuck in the snow as a blizzard raged. Just north of the Canadian border, the driver told the group to get out and walk until they reached a second vehicle that would be waiting.

“He just said, ‘Keep moving straight,’” Yash Patel, one of the migrants, recalled to a ...Read more

YOAN VALAT/AFP/TNS

French President Macron decries firing of Haiti's prime minister, calls decision 'dumb'

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French President Emmanuel Macron, who is visiting several South American nations during his attendance at this week’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is castigating members of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council for ousting the country’s second prime minister, Garry Conille, this year — the country’s third since the 2021 ...Read more

Courtesy Tulare County District Attorney’s Office/TNS/TNS

California student passes state bar at a record 17 years, 8 months old

Current News / News & Features /

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A 17-year-old former Oxford Academy student just became the youngest person to pass the California bar exam.

Sophia Park learned on Nov. 8 that she had passed the July 2024 exam, which will allow her to become a practicing lawyer in the state.

At 17 years, 8 months old, Park beat the record for the youngest person to pass...Read more

Katy Kildee, The Detroit News/The Detroit News/TNS

Trump chooses Michigan GOP Chairman Pete Hoekstra to be ambassador to Canada

Current News / News & Features /

LANSING, Mich. — President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday he's nominating Pete Hoekstra, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, to be the next U.S. ambassador to Canada.

The development means a Michigan resident will have a role in the coming Trump administration and state Republicans will have to select a new leader in the coming...Read more

Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

FBI arrests suspect in plot to bomb New York Stock Exchange

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NEW YORK — A Florida man has been arrested by the FBI on accusations of plotting to blow up the New York Stock Exchange, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Harun Abdul-Malik Yener was charged in Miami-Dade County with “attempting to use an improvised explosive device to damage or destroy a building used in interstate or foreign ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Dallas doc gets 190 years for injecting IV bags with heart-stopping drugs

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A Dallas anesthesiologist has been sentenced to 190 years in prison for injecting “heart-stopping drugs” into IV bags at the surgical center where he worked, leading to the death of a co-worker and “numerous cardiac emergencies,” federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. injected IV bags of saline with a nerve-...Read more

Gardiner Anderson/New York Daily News/TNS

City University of New York plans free speech task force amid criticism on response to pro-Palestinian protests

Current News / News & Features /

NEW YORK — The City University of New York is convening a task force on free speech amid pushback over its response to protests critical of Israel, Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez announced during this year’s State of the University address Wednesday.

The working group is tasked with developing a systemwide policy across its 25 campuses ...Read more