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Alison Laferriere/Scripps Institution of Oceanography/TNS/TNS

'Doomsday fish' washed ashore in California, but what does that mean?

LOS ANGELES — If one oarfish landing on a beach is a sign of a disaster to come, how bad will it be if three wash up in quick succession?

A silvery 10-foot-long creature, the oarfish has fueled fisherman's tales of sea serpents — and in some cultures has been a portent of natural disasters.

It's rare to see an oarfish up close in ...Read more

Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS

DOJ indicts Phillips 66 for Southern California refinery allegedly dumping industrial wastewater into sewer

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal grand jury in Los Angeles voted to indict Texas-based oil refiner Phillips 66 for allegedly dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of industrial wastewater from its Carson refinery into the Los Angeles County sewer system and then failing to report it, according to a Thursday statement from the U.S. Department ...Read more

New maps show high-risk zones for whale-ship collisions − vessel speed limits and rerouting can reduce the toll

Imagine you are a blue whale swimming up the California coast, as you do every spring. You are searching for krill in the Santa Barbara Channel, a zone that teems with fish, kelp forests, seagrass beds and other undersea life, but also vibrates with noise from ship traffic. Suddenly, the noise gets louder.

You start to make a slow, ...Read more

SpaceX chalks up 82nd Space Coast launch of the year

ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX sent up another rocket Thursday to mark the 82nd launch of the year on the Space Coast.

A Falcon 9 lifted off at 11:07 a.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 on the Starlink 6-66 mission carrying 24 of the internet satellites to low-Earth orbit.

To date, SpaceX has flown up more than 7...Read more

RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post/TNS

Feds release options for future of Colorado River as negotiations between states stall

DENVER — Federal officials released a range of scenarios Wednesday that could be used to manage the overallocated and shrinking Colorado River as time for the seven basin states to reach an agreement grows short.

The Bureau of Reclamation’s four proposed plans are not set in stone, but for the first time offer insight into how federal ...Read more

Piedmont power line plan: Environmental groups worry of 'unintended consequences'

BALTIMORE — Wednesday, some Maryland environmental groups formally entered the fray over the Piedmont power line proposal, issuing a letter that calls for the project to receive a stringent environmental review through a federal law.

Because of its breadth, the groups believe that the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project — which will ...Read more

Fast fashion may seem cheap, but it’s taking a costly toll on the planet − and on millions of young customers

Fast fashion is everywhere – in just about every mall, in the feeds of influencers on social media promoting overconsumption, and in ads constantly popping up online.

Its focus on the continual production of new clothing is marked by speedy fashion cycles that give it its name. Fast fashion is intended to quickly copy high-end ...Read more

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

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

Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

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

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

Missouri Department of Conservation/TNS

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

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

L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

What's the latest on the Colorado River negotiations?

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released a breakdown Wednesday of five potential paths forward for the fragile state-to-state negotiations surrounding Colorado River operating guidelines that must be updated by 2026.

The Colorado River, which is Southern Nevada’s primary source of water, holds a precarious future as the basin experiences ...Read more

Parmy Olson: Google Chrome's divorce is the DOJ's antitrust warm-up act

News broke this week that the U.S. Department of Justice wants to force Alphabet Inc.’s Google to sell Chrome, its dominant web browser. That has led to much head scratching in the tech industry. Sure, Chrome is an important moat for Google’s business, but is it really the source of the company’s power? And if a company buys Chrome for an ...Read more

Atmospheric river meets bomb cyclone: The result is like a fire hose flailing out of control

The West Coast’s rainy season has arrived in force, as an atmospheric river carrying moisture from the tropics joins a bomb cyclone off the Pacific Northwest coast. Heavy, wet snow began falling in the mountains on Nov. 19, 2024, and bursts of rain have been blasting the Oregon and Northern California coasts. These storms are forecast to ...Read more

Companies are still committing to net-zero emissions, even if it’s a bumpy road – here’s what the data show

Companies around the world are increasingly committed to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions to slow and ultimately reverse climate change.

One indicator is the number of companies that have set emissions targets as part of the Science Based Targets initiative, or SBTi, a global nonprofit organization. That number grew from 164 ...Read more

Sony Interactive Entertainment/Sony Interactive Entertainment/TNS

How to transfer data from an old console to the Playstation 5 Pro

While some gamers will pick up a PlayStation 5 Pro for the first time, many others will be adding Sony’s newest system to an existing family of consoles. That means transferring all the data from the previous system to a new one.

It’s one of the most trying experiencing with getting a midgeneration refresh. I went through the experience ...Read more

Handout/U-Turn Audio/TNS

Gadgets: Great turntable for beginners and beyond

Whether you're new to turntables or are getting into them, the U-Turn Audios Orbit Basic Turntable is a great choice. As the name says, it's a simple analog external belt-driven turntable. It would be ideal if you're a beginner or someone like I was a few years ago, with a collection of albums from my youth wanting them to make a comeback in ...Read more

Lezlie Sterling/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

‘March Madness, except it’s video games.’ Sacramento hosts top esports tournament at Cal Expo

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Winners embraced, losers shook their heads and fans erupted in cheers.

The emotions at the Cal Expo soared this weekend as students from across the nation clashed in tense, high-stakes esports battles.

In competitions featuring keyboards and frantic mouse clicks, the video-game players dueled in games like Super Smash ...Read more

Handout/Sony Interactive Entertainment/TNS

Review: With PlayStation 5 Pro, Sony creates attractive alternative to high-end gaming PC

The lines between high-end PCs and video game consoles are blurring, which means the tired console wars are winding down. On the software side, once-exclusive Microsoft and PlayStation games are going cross-platform after a certain amount of time to draw larger audiences. And on the hardware side, Sony has released the PlayStation 5 Pro.

The ...Read more

Jim Rossman/Jim Rossman/TNS

Jim Rossman: Messages can gobble up storage space

This week a reader writes, “Recently I was notified about needing more storage. Looking at my concentration of 50 gigabytes, about 28 GB is messaging and 12 gb is photos. Do I need to delete from my phone and Mac? Best way to reduce?"

The best settings are what works for you.

If you’ve got that one friend who likes to send you daily ...Read more

Kalea Hall/The Detroit News/TNS

GM opened a lab to prevent software bugs in new vehicles. Here's how it works

WARREN, Michigan — General Motors Co. has developed a software-testing lab inside its Global Technical Center that it's replicating elsewhere, including in GM's Silicon Valley office, to prevent bugs from entering new vehicles and affecting customers.

The lab was born out of GM's software struggles, which included a stop sale on the Chevrolet...Read more