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Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot/TNS

Trump administration pays wind developer to walk away from California offshore lease

The Trump administration on Monday said it will pay two more energy companies, including one developing a wind project off California's Morro Bay, to abandon their projects in federal waters.

The U.S. Department of the Interior said it will pay a total of $885 million to Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind to voluntarily end their offshore ...Read more

Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot/TNS

Trump administration pays wind developer to walk away from California offshore lease

The Trump administration on Monday said it will pay two more energy companies, including one developing a wind project off Morro Bay, to abandon their projects in federal waters.

The U.S. Department of the Interior said it will pay a total of $885 million to Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind to voluntarily end their offshore wind leases, ...Read more

Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Kennedy Space Center gets its hands on biggest Artemis III puzzle piece

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A massive piece of NASA’s Artemis project floated into the Space Coast on Monday with the arrival of the biggest portion of the Space Launch System rocket for next year’s Artemis III mission.

The top four-fifths of what will be a 212-foot-tall core stage arrived to KSC’s Turn Basin after making a 900-mile trip ...Read more

Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

Hoover Dam is headed for trouble under new emergency Colorado River plan

Federal water managers are putting the nation’s largest dam in a precarious position as they try to balance out the Colorado River system in a year of record low snowpack.

Toward the bottom of the Bureau of Reclamation’s marquee announcement last week was a paragraph that said lower flows out of Lake Powell could reduce Hoover Dam’s ...Read more

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Weather knocks out Monday SpaceX Falcon Heavy attempt, could try again Tuesday

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Poor weather took out Monday what would have been the first SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch since 2024, but SpaceX has a backup available Tuesday morning, although SpaceX has yet to confirm when it will retry.

When it does launch, Central Florida could be in store for pair of double sonic booms with the planned returned ...Read more

Rfzoom/Dreamstime/TNS

Tips sought on deaths of 5 bald eagles in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

DETROIT — Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials are asking the public for help to find what killed five bald eagles in the Upper Peninsula.

The eagles' carcasses were found between April 3 and April 17 in a single area of Garden Peninsula in Delta County, the department said Monday. The peninsula is bordered by Big Bay de Noc to ...Read more

Alex Wong/Getty Images North America/TNS

Critics slam Trump's purge of National Science Board: 'Wholesale evisceration of American leadership in science'

The future of the National Science Foundation is in question after a slew of scientists who serve on the National Science Board, an independent body that promotes the progress of American science and provides advice to the U.S. president and Congress, were abruptly dismissed from their positions Friday by the White House.

All 22 current members...Read more

Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Sonic booms in store Monday morning with 1st SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch since 2024

Central Florida could be in store for pair of double sonic booms Monday morning with the planned returned landing of both of the side boosters for the first SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch since 2024.

The company is targeting an 85-minute launch window that opens at 10:21 a.m. for the heavy-lift rocket flying on the ViaSat-3 F3 mission from Kennedy ...Read more

Tim Dominick/The State/TNS

SC property owners upset about pipeline face legal action if they don't cooperate

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Attorneys for a company seeking to extend a natural gas pipeline through South Carolina are threatening to take property owners to court if the landowners don’t grant access to their property.

Letters were sent earlier this month to multiple South Carolina residents who have not given Elba Express LLC permission to survey ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Newsom celebrates Delta tunnel advancement while his bond plan is shot down

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Delta tunnel project cleared a key regulatory step Thursday after the Delta Stewardship Council — a state body created in 2009 following the Legislature’s passage of the Delta Reform Act to oversee planning — voted to uphold the state’s finding that the project complies with the Delta Plan.

The approval came ...Read more

Christoph Dernbach/dpa/Zuma Press/TNS

Apple's next era: After Tim Cook's dream run, new CEO has to help the company catch up

Tim Cook had a lot to prove when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs handed over the reins as chief executive nearly 15 years ago.

Jobs was known as a creative visionary, a fiery innovator who launched the iPhone and other iconic products. While some naysayers doubted Cook could carry the brand forward, he has proven them wrong, leading the company on ...Read more

Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Maryland receives federal flood mitigation, Chesapeake Bay funding

The United States Environmental Protection Agency awarded $39 million to Chesapeake Bay watershed states, including Maryland, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded $800,000 in funds for state flood-mitigation projects.

The EPA shifted money from coordination activities to field-tested projects, according to its announcement ...Read more

Kevin Hardy/Stateline/TNS

Nitrate contaminates the drinking water of millions of Americans, study finds

Nearly one-fifth of Americans relied on drinking water systems with elevated and potentially dangerous levels of nitrate in recent years, according to a new study released Thursday.

The nonprofit Environmental Working Group examined test data collected by water systems across the country between 2021 and 2023, the most recent data available.

...Read more

Fire crews responded to dozens of wildfires burning in Georgia and northern Florida on April 23, 2026. Georgia Department of Natural Resources via AP

Why the Southeast is burning – extreme drought is only part of the reason

Large parts of the southeastern U.S. are in the midst of an exceptional drought, and it is fueling dozens of wildfires in Florida and Georgia.

One of those wildfires, in southeastern Georgia’s Brantley County, had destroyed more than 50 homes by April 23, and state officials said about 1,000 other homes were at risk. Another fire ...Read more

Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group/TNS

'Help save Willy': Rep. Liccardo introduces bill to implement 'whale desk' in San Francisco Bay

Bay Area federal lawmakers marked Earth Day by introducing a bill Wednesday aimed at mitigating rampant whale deaths in the San Francisco Bay — an alarming statistic that has reached its highest level in 25 years.

The bill — named the “Save Willy Act,” in a nod to the popular 1993 movie “Free Willy” — would implement a “whale ...Read more

Space junk in orbit threatens GPS, satellites and Maryland jobs

Satellite collisions in orbit could trigger a catastrophic global chain reaction, potentially halting space exploration, destroying GPS and raising risks for Maryland’s aerospace sector, which supports more than 45,000 jobs.

That’s the warning from space policy experts and aerospace industry officials.

“If there are one or two more ...Read more

Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Scores of Forest Service plans could be upended after Boundary Waters mining vote

Congress’ move to allow mining in a national forest near a wilderness area may have broad ramifications across the country.

The U.S. Senate voted April 16 to overturn a mining ban in Minnesota’s Superior National Forest, the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

By using an obscure tool known as the Congressional Review...Read more

Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Tesla boosts spending plan to $25 billion in AI, robotics push

Tesla Inc. anticipates billions of dollars in additional spending this year to support Elon Musk’s ambitions to transform the electric-vehicle pioneer into an AI and robotics company.

Capital expenditures this year will exceed $25 billion, the company revealed Wednesday, roughly three times last year’s outlay. The planned investment is up ...Read more

Win McNamee/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump compliments outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook, but adds vulgar insult

It’s not every U.S. CEO who gets complimented by the U.S. president on their way out of their company — or gets insulted in vulgar terms at the same time.

But Tim Cook now has that double-edged distinction, after President Donald Trump this week declared he was a fan of the outgoing Apple CEO, but also recalled what he described with a ...Read more

Colorado Parks and Wildlife/Colorado Parks and Wildlife/TNS

Colorado map shows wolves moved through central, northwest areas of Western Slope in past month

DENVER — Colorado’s wolves roamed a smaller slice of the state in April as spring denning activity began.

All of the wolves tracked by the state remained largely in the northwest quadrant of the state between March 24 and April 21, according to a new map released Wednesday by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Their territory stretched west from...Read more