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APPLE PRESS RELEASE/TNS

Apple bundles creative apps into $13-a-month subscription

Apple Inc. announced a new subscription bundle of creative apps called Creator Studio, an attempt to give its photo- and video-editing software fresh momentum in the face of intensifying competition.

The bundle, announced Tuesday, includes Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro and Pixelmator Pro, among others, and will be available Jan. 28 for $12.99 per ...Read more

NICOLAS TUCAT/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Microsoft swears off local subsidies as worry over AI power crunch looms

Who's going to pay for the artificial intelligence boom?

As tech titans invest billions into data centers and high-tech computer chips to fuel their AI ambitions, concerns are building over energy costs, especially in communities where data centers pop up.

Microsoft says it will pay its own way.

The Redmond-based tech giant on Tuesday ...Read more

How bits of Apple history can be yours

In March 1976, Apple cofounders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak both signed a $500 check weeks before the official creation of a California company that would transform personal computing and become a global powerhouse.

Now that historic Wells Fargo check could be sold for $500,000 at an auction that ends on Jan. 29. The sale, run by RR Auction, ...Read more

OpenRock/TNS/TNS

Gadgets: Soundbar for the win!

In a matter of minutes, the whole atmosphere for my Sunday afternoon football watching turned for the better. That's what I got with the OXS SoundBar S21 sound system. And I’ll add a line I say often about soundbars: It is one of the most underrated accessories. Once you get one, you’ll understand.

The AC-powered OXS S21 2.1 Channel ...Read more

Jim Rossman/Jim Rossman/TNS

Jim Rossman: A little planning will make things easier after you’re gone

If your family is like mine, one person is likely in charge of doing the finances and paying the bills and because so much of our financial dealings happen online, that task will usually fall to one person.

If you happen to be that person for your family, have you thought about what kind of information your family would need to move forward ...Read more

Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS

'Save the whales' worked for decades, but now gray whales are starving

Recently, while sailing with friends on San Francisco Bay, I enjoyed the sight of harbor porpoises, cormorants, pelicans, seals and sea lions — and then the spouting plume and glistening back of a gray whale that gave me pause. Too many have been seen inside the bay recently.

California’s gray whales have been considered an environmental ...Read more

Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Arizona draws a line on groundwater use after letting Saudi-owned company pump freely for years

For years, the water table has been dropping beneath thousands of acres of desert farmland in western Arizona, where a Saudi-owned dairy company has been allowed to pump unlimited amounts of groundwater to grow hay for its cows.

But the company and other landowners in the area will now face limits under a decision by state officials to impose ...Read more

Ken Lambert/The Seattle Times/TNS

How Seattle's weather wonks sparked a Northwest tempest in a teapot

Even in this era of Real Housewives and celebrity boxing on Netflix, you haven’t seen a real fight until you’ve watched weather nerds battling over a botched forecast.

Take the Christmas Eve Windstorm That Never Happened.

Most of us in Western Washington were glad the gale-force winds predicted for Dec. 24 didn’t show up.

Not so the ...Read more

Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Why California is keeping this unusual solar plant running when both Trump and Biden wanted it closed

The electricity it makes is expensive, its technology has been superseded, and it’s incinerating thousands of birds mid-flight each year. The Trump administration wants to see this unusual power plant closed, and in a rare instance of alignment, the Biden administration did, too.

But the state of California is insisting the Ivanpah power ...Read more

NASA/TNS

SpaceX knocks 3rd Space Coast launch of 2026; readies for Crew-11 return

SpaceX launched its third mission of the year from Florida's Space Coast on Monday afternoon while preparing for the early return later this week of Crew-11 from the International Space Station.

A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:08 p.m. Eastern time on the Starlink 6-97 mission with ...Read more

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Avian flu death count rises to 32 birds at Orlando's Lake Eola, including 26 swans

ORLANDO, Fla. — Avian flu has been blamed for the deaths of 32 birds at Lake Eola Park since Dec. 17, including 26 of the city’s signature swans.

All of the dead swans are Royal Mute swans, and 23 of the 26 belonged to the city. Three others were wild swans who apparently joined the flock at the park.

“It’s heartbreaking, the swan is a...Read more

Bryant Turffs/The Florida Manta Project/TNS

Florida bill would ban the capture of endangered marine wildlife for aquariums

TAMPA, Fla. — Floridians were enraged last summer when a viral video showed men offshore Panama City capturing a giant manta ray, a federally threatened species, and hoisting the animal onto their boat.

That anger only skyrocketed when it became clear that Florida’s wildlife agency had approved the capture: The Florida Fish and Wildlife ...Read more

Turtle Island Restoration Network/Turtle Island Restoration Network/TNS

Plastic pellets known as 'nurdles' are polluting beaches and waterways

SEADRIFT, Texas — Aboard an aluminum skiff or one of her five kayaks, fourth-generation shrimper and fisherwoman Diane Wilson often plies the coastal bays and streams near her tiny hometown of Seadrift, Texas.

But instead of fishing for shrimp, black drum or blue crabs, these days the 77-year-old is an environmental activist looking for “...Read more

Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

NASA targets Artemis II rollout to pad, details launch options

ORLANDO, Fla. — NASA could be sending a crew on the Orion spacecraft out past the moon in less than a month if everything falls into place. But first the agency has to get its rocket to the launch pad.

That could as early as next Saturday when the mobile launcher topped with the Space Launch System rocket and Orion could make the 4-mile slow ...Read more

'It is scary': Oak-killing beetle significantly expanding range in SoCal

LOS ANGELES — A tiny beetle responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of oak trees in Southern California has reached Ventura County, marking a troubling expansion.

This is the farthest north the goldspotted oak borer has been found in the state. Given the less-than-one-half-inch insect’s track record of devastating oaks since being ...Read more

SpaceX/SpaceX/TNS

SpaceX launches 2nd Space Coast mission of 2026

SpaceX knocked out Friday the first of a series of afternoon launches in the coming week with another Starlink mission from Florida's Cape Canaveral.

A Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-96 mission with 29 more of the internet satellites lifted off at 4:41 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40.

This was ...Read more

Hugh Carey/Colorado Sun/Zuma Press/TNS

EPA opposes Colorado plan to close coal-fired power plants

DENVER — The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday determined Colorado cannot order the closure of coal-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act, and, therefore, the agency will deny the state’s plan to reduce the haze that clouds views at Rocky Mountain National Park and other federal lands.

The move is part of the Trump ...Read more

SpaceX/SpaceX/TNS

SpaceX targets afternoon launch of 2nd Space Coast mission of 2026

SpaceX has the first of a series of afternoon launches in the next week on tap Friday with another Starlink mission from Florida's Cape Canaveral.

A Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-96 mission with 29 more of the internet satellites is targeting 2:34 p.m. Eastern time in the middle of a four-hour window from 1:03 to 5:03 p.m. from Cape Canaveral ...Read more

SpaceX targets afternoon launch of 2nd Space Coast mission of 2026

ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX has the first of a series of afternoon launches in the next week on tap Friday with another Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral.

A Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-96 mission with 29 more of the internet satellites is targeting the opening of a four-hour window at 1:03 p.m. rom Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space ...Read more

Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom blasts Trump's climate retreat while defending his own green agenda

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s State of the State address came a day after President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from dozens of international and United Nations organizations, including the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change — the foundational U.N. agreement that has guided international cooperation to combat the ...Read more