Coronado lifeguards use leak-proof dry suits for open water rescues. Imperial Beach lifeguards decontaminate in showers after leaving the ocean. And both have ditched jet skis for the protection offered by boats.

These aren't new equipment standards.

They are tools the two South County, California, departments have rolled out independently to ...Read more

Philadelphia has begun pulling large amounts of power for city-owned buildings from a solar array on farmland near Gettysburg.

The project, begun nearly six years ago under former Mayor Jim Kenney, started producing electricity specifically for the city a few weeks ago in Adams County after testing was complete. It is expected to provide up to ...Read more

CHICAGO — Heads down and attentively scanning the ground, a small group of schoolchildren walked through an expanse of grass dotted with yellow dandelions and toward the concrete steps leading to Lake Michigan.

Andrew Scarpelli, a biologist, ambassador for the Alliance for the Great Lakes and guide for this cleanup effort, asked the children ...Read more

A 16-year-old was booked into the Juvenile Detention Center after allegedly shooting 10 people at the Cabana Live restaurant in Sanford, Fla., shortly after midnight on Saturday, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said.

Deputies responded to the restaurant located at 4380 Carraway Place to conduct an area patrol due to the venue hosting a ...Read more

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will step up efforts to secure a truce in Gaza during meetings in the Middle East on Monday, in what could be a final chance to persuade Israel to call off an attack on Rafah.

The White House said Sunday that Israel has agreed to hear out its concerns. Israel has “assured us that they won’t go into Rafah...Read more

On May 1, reproductive care in Florida will change.

Anyone more than six weeks pregnant will be prohibited by law from getting an abortion.

Obstetricians who work privately, or on a hospital staff, already are fielding questions from patients, while also trying to understand the effect on their practices. A wrong call could lead to criminal ...Read more

As tensions boil at universities across the country amid scattered police confrontations with pro-Palestinian protesters, Southern California colleges are grappling with campus safety issues as graduation ceremonies near in the coming weeks.

Locally, major disruptions have occurred at four campuses — USC, UCLA, UC Irvine and Pomona College �...Read more

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators dismissed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s suggestion to send the National Guard to college campuses to quell growing protests against the war in Gaza and U.S. support for Israel.

“I don’t know if you need to call in the National Guard, maybe you just call in the police,” said Senator J.D. Vance, an Ohio ...Read more

DFL state Sen. Nicole Mitchell, of Woodbury, who was arrested in an alleged burglary this month, will be relieved of her committee work and removed from DFL caucus meetings while her case is under review in the courts and the Senate, DFL Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy said in a statement Sunday.

"This is a tragic situation, and there are ...Read more

Tensions rose on the University of Southern California campus Saturday after pro-Palestinian protesters returned with tents and reestablished an encampment in Alumni Park, where 93 people were arrested on Wednesday.

They beat drums and put up banners reading "Free Palestine," "We are all Gaza" and "Stop Funding Genocide."

Shortly after 8 p.m.,...Read more

French President Emmanuel Macron raised the stakes in his call for a credible European defense by adding nuclear weapons to the discussion.

After setting out the need for Europe to come up with a plan to defend itself in a more hostile world during a speech last week, Macron went a step further in an effort to push ahead on talks with other ...Read more

It all changed quickly on the spacious Emory University campus quad shortly after sunrise Thursday morning, student Bella Montealegre recalled.

“(We were) mostly just chanting, dancing, et cetera and then all of a sudden, I see, like, dozens of police officers come from (the north) side of the campus,” Montealegre remembered the day after ...Read more

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will step up efforts to secure a truce in Gaza when he arrives in the Middle East on Monday, in what could be a final chance to persuade Israel to call off an attack on the southern city of Rafah.

“If there’s a deal, we will suspend the operation” in Rafah, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz ...Read more

Fighting has become more heated along the front line in eastern Ukraine, with Russia exploiting its advantage over Kyiv’s forces along several axes, Ukraine’s top soldier said.

“In an attempt to seize the strategic initiative and break through the front line, the enemy has concentrated its main efforts on a number of directions,” army ...Read more

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Why can’t we throw all our trash into a volcano and burn it up? – Georgine T.

It’s true that lava is hot enough to burn up some of our trash. When Kilauea erupted on ...Read more

NEW YORK — Amid ongoing fear of crime, more than 13,300 New Yorkers applied for licenses to carry guns in the city last year, a near-double increase compared to 2022 — and the New York City Police Department's financial bottom line has been boosted by the permit surge, according to a Daily News analysis.

Spokespeople for the NYPD and Mayor ...Read more

The abandoned fieldstone walls of New England are every bit as iconic to the region as lobster pots, town greens, sap buckets and fall foliage. They seem to be everywhere – a latticework of dry, lichen-crusted stone ridges separating a patchwork of otherwise moist soils.

Stone walls can be found here and there in other states, but ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Every year, when spring bleeds into summer, the desert heat awakes a chorus of Las Vegas singers that rival any residency you’ll find on the Strip — cicadas.

But these critters are not the ones you’ve probably been hearing about.

This year has recently been dubbed the year of “cicada-geddon” as two broods of cicadas ...Read more

A team of Montana researchers is playing a key role in the development of a more effective vaccine against tuberculosis, an infectious disease that has killed more people than any other.

The BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guérin) vaccine, created in 1921, remains the sole TB vaccine. While it is 40% to 80% effective in young children, its efficacy is ...Read more

A fast-emerging field of climate research is helping scientists pinpoint just how many dollars from a natural disaster can be tied to the historic emissions of individual oil companies — analysis that is the centerpiece of new state efforts to make fossil fuel companies pay billions for floods, wildfires and heat waves.

When a flood or ...Read more