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Agriculture secretary oversees food production, rural life, and nutrition programs that help millions afford healthy diets

Two years after President Abraham Lincoln created the Department of Agriculture in 1862, he nicknamed it “the people’s department” because half of all Americans lived on farms at that time. Today, fewer than 2% of Americans farm, but the Agriculture Department still touches people’s lives in many ways.

The modern U.S. ...Read more

Pedro Ugarte/Getty Images North America/TNS

Scientists have developed concrete that can melt snow on its own

PHILADELPHIA — Dropping temperatures and the prospect of snow looming in the forecast have Philadelphians crunching through layers of road salt that keep ice and snow from settling on sidewalks and streets.

But what if a sidewalk could melt ice on its own?

That's the goal of a three-year-long project at Drexel University to develop self-...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Nearly 100 acres of agriculture land slated for community solar development in Maryland

BALTIMORE — A fifth community solar project has entered Harford County’s development pipeline and is set to add nearly 40 acres to the roughly 61 acres already dedicated to community solar generating systems in Harford County.

Per state law, these systems allow property owners to build solar power systems on their land as long as the ...Read more

Nintendo/TNS

Nintendo Switch 2 revealed with more details coming in April

After breathless speculation and much digital ink spilled, Nintendo unveiled the Nintendo Switch 2, the successor to its hugely successful console, in a video. Aside from its appearance of it, not much is known about the system. Here’s what can be confirmed:

What games will it play? The Nintendo Switch 2 can play physical and digital games ...Read more

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump signs executive order reversing Biden-era restrictions on oil and gas exploration in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An executive order signed by President Donald Trump in the first hours of his second term reversed Biden administration orders that restricted oil and gas development in Alaska.

Trump signed several executive orders during an inauguration day event at the Capitol One Arena. One of Trump’s orders rescinded dozens of ...Read more

Melina Mara/Abaca Press/TNS

What do Trump's environmental rollbacks mean for California?

President Donald Trump announced Monday that he will pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement, streamline permitting for oil and gas drilling and revoke electric vehicle rules.

The claims, which came in his inaugural address and in statements from the White House, are a replay of actions Trump took to roll back environmental ...Read more

Colorado Parks and Wildlife/TNS

Colorado releases 15 wolves from Canada in second round of historic reintroduction

Colorado wildlife officials released 15 wolves from Canada into the central mountains over the last week as part of the second wave of the state’s historic, voter-mandated reintroduction of the native predator.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists began capturing the wolves on Jan. 10, and agency officials announced Sunday that CPW had ...Read more

Angelina Katsanis/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Short on 3M settlement funds, Minnesota town hikes water rates to pay for PFAS treatment plants

Forever chemicals run through the water supply of Hastings, Minn., and city Public Works Director Ryan Stempski believes he knows why.

“I can throw a football over to 3M Cottage Grove,” he said.

That short distance — and the river separating Hastings from several 3M plants — has been an obstacle to accessing millions of dollars to help...Read more

Ernesto Benavides/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Uranium fever collides with industry's dark past in Navajo country

A few miles south of the Grand Canyon, thousands of tons of uranium ore, reddish-gray, blue and radioactive, are piled up high in a clearing in the forest.

They’ve been there for months, stranded by a standoff between the mining company that dug them deep out of the ground, Energy Fuels Inc., and the leader of the Navajo Nation, Buu Nygren.

...Read more

Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

New EPA rule means local governments must check more pipes for lead

ATLANTA — Metro Atlanta’s largest water utilities, in response to a federal deadline, reported this fall that there were no lead pipes in their drinking water systems that they knew of.

But thousands of pipes on private property remain unchecked. And a new federal rule requires local governments and water utilities to be more proactive ...Read more

Reinventing the South Florida seawall to help marine life, buffer rising seas

MIAMI – In the back of a million-dollar mansion under construction in Miami Beach, contractors are installing what may be the future first line of coastal defense from erosion and climate-driven sea-rise.

It’s a seawall but not your old-school plain poured concrete installation. This is a “living seawall” and it’s cutting-edge in both...Read more

Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Do offshore wind farms harm whales? Experts weigh in as Trump labels them 'dangerous'

In recent months, President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly said offshore wind turbines are harming, and perhaps killing, whales.

“They’re dangerous,” he said during a Jan. 7 news conference, citing a string of whale strandings in Massachusetts. “The windmills are driving the whales crazy, obviously.”

Specifically, noises created ...Read more

KEREM YUCEL/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Use of PFAS-tainted sludge as fertilizer raises cancer risk on farms, EPA says

Farm families that consume milk, eggs and beef they raise themselves face an increased risk of cancer if their fields were fertilized with PFAS-laced sewage sludge, the EPA reported this week.

The results do not suggest that the broader food supply is contaminated. EPA identified risks for people consuming some animal products from their land, ...Read more

SpaceX/SpaceX/TNS

SpaceX catches booster again, but loses Starship upper stage during test flight

SpaceX sent up its first test flight of the year for its Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Texas, catching the booster for just the second time back at the launch site, but suffering a loss of the upper stage.

The seventh test flight overall for the 396-foot-tall combined rocket lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, ...Read more

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Writing on clay tablets -- uncovered in Iraq -- reveal hidden history of ancient city

An ancient game board, building remains and three clay tablets recently discovered by archaeologists in northeastern Iraq provide new details about Mesopotamian life.

The clay tablets are the first cuneiform tablets from the Middle Bronze Age to be found in the region, according to a Jan. 14 news release from the University of Central Florida....Read more

Handout/Bournemouth University/TNS

Ancient burials reveal 'remarkable' women-dominated society in UK. 'Relatively rare'

When the Romans reached Britain in the first century, they were shocked to find “remarkable” women standing in their way.

Female tribal leaders Cartimandua and Boudica became legends, leading uprisings that destroyed Roman towns and challenged the authority of the empire, and women in their community were able to own property, divorce and ...Read more

Bob Wick/Bureau of Land Management/TNS

In its final days, Biden administration pitches sweeping subsistence protections in National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Biden administration on Thursday rolled out last-minute plans to add protections for more than 3 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska for subsistence resources.

A portion of the areas chosen for additional protections is close to Nuiqsut, an Iñupiaq village in the northeastern area of the reserve, ...Read more

NOAA/NOAA/TNS

Where is Tahlequah? What we know about the mother orca and her calf

SEATTLE — This week, mother orca Tahlequah may have surpassed her 2018 tour of grief, when she carried her dead calf for 17 days and more than 1,000 miles.

Tahlequah was last seen still carrying her latest calf — dead since at least New Year’s Eve — on Jan. 10 off San Juan Island. That evening the southern resident family, part of J pod...Read more

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Blue Origin New Glenn reaches orbit on debut launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Blue Origin managed something no commercial rocket company has ever done successfully by reaching orbit on the first try with its New Glenn rocket during an overnight launch early Thursday.

The heavy-lift rocket for Jeff Bezos’ company is trying to become a competitor for SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. Dubbed NG-1...Read more

'A project of the year.' New Miami-Dade facility helps keep wastewater out of the sea

MIAMI — Miami-Dade is a significant step closer to a state-mandated goal of re-using its wastewater, rather than pouring the partially treated stuff into the sea.

On Wednesday, the county and Florida Power & Light debuted the FPL Miami-Dade Clean Water Recovery Center, a brand-new facility designed to take a big chunk of the county’s ...Read more