SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- While most look for ways to avoid the steady rain falling from atmospheric rivers, some take advantage of the unwieldy weather patterns to improve forecasts and to help control, and ultimately modernize, the complex labyrinth of waterways hydrating California.

Weather researchers with the Scripps Institution of ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- “Anthony Sledwards” was named this year’s winner for the metro in the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s annual Name a Snowplow contest, a nod to the Minnesota Timberwolves' superstar.

Gov. Tim Walz named the winners on Wednesday, saying he was “always thrilled that Minnesotans are this clever.”

The contest, ...Read more

Thomas Wenski, the archbishop of Miami, has been working with immigrants in Miami for going on 50 years.

His flock is worried. Although thousands of recent immigrants in his Catholic archdiocese are here legally, many know people who are not. Florida is home to some 1.2 million people who are in the country illegally.

Some of Wenski’s ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I'm at my wit's end with my partner’s extreme focus on achieving FIRE (financial independence, retire early). What started as a healthy interest in personal finance has turned into an all-consuming obsession. We're both 29 and have lived together the last year. My boyfriend has become fixated on retiring by 35, which means saving ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho -- Pickleball noise has become a national scourge, The New York Times reported in June.

The noise from the sport, which has exploded in popularity in recent years, was a session topic at an annual noise control conference, is the focus of a Facebook group on “pickleball noise mitigation” with nearly 2,500 followers, and has ...Read more

I've always been a nervous flier. The second I take my assigned seat in a plane, I pull my headphones over my ears and glue my eyes shut in an attempt to drown out the sound of a plane taking off.

The tactic usually works, but with the recent fatal midflight collision at Reagan National Airport followed by an air ambulance crash in Philadelphia...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Standing in front of about 50 people at Cal State Northridge's Art Galleries Saturday afternoon, Denise Sandoval fumbled with the mic hanging around her neck and apologized.

"I'm not as cool as Janet Jackson," the Chicana and Chicano studies professor said. Her curated tour of the show everyone was there to see — a ...Read more

Two new Superbells calibrachoas are hitting the garden centers this year and will forever change your mind on the incorporation of double flowers in your designs. That’s right: Superbells Double Vintage Coral and Double Smitten Pink will win your hearts.

Yours truly had a mental block on double calibrachoas until a few years ago when I had ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- “Just paint. You’ll find your way,” renowned Philadelphia illustrator Charles Santore told his youngest son, Nicholas, from his hospital bed at Pennsylvania Hospital one day in August 2019.

Nicholas, Nicky to his family, met his father’s advice with silence. He was an artist, and a very good one, but he hadn’t painted ...Read more

Many people think $2 bills are rare, but in reality, there are millions still in circulation, and they continue to be printed. However, while most $2 bills are only worth their face value, certain ones can fetch thousands of dollars on the collector’s market.

This article will explore which $2 bills are worth the most, why they hold their ...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The weddings were initially supposed to cost $100 a pop. They ended up being free.

Y’all-Mart, a quarterly Columbia art fair advertised as a “flea market for Southern eclectic folks,” hosted eight free gay weddings Sunday as a fundraiser for the Harriet Hancock Center’s name change and gender marker fund.

Stoked by an...Read more

As a dating coach, I get questions that run the gamut from first date to the early stages of a relationship. Let's look at a few of those recent questions today.

Question: I’m a head taller than him. I enjoy his company, but I’m worried I won’t get over the height difference. What do I do?

Answer: There’s really nothing I can say here....Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

When a student "tattles," should you deal with it or ignore it?

Answer: I LOVE answering this question because this tends to be a HUGE problem in many classrooms, and it has an incredibly simple, air-tight answer.

First, I feel your pain. Before I developed the following simple strategy, I was in an impossible situation as...Read more

Are you like me, a member of a rotten club neither of us wants to be in?

That is the chronic disease club — those of us who have some kind of underlying illness that, while it might vary in its severity, is generally not curable.

We are many. Estimates from the American Hospital Association put our club membership at 133 million, not quite ...Read more

True confession, and this is embarrassing considering the times we live in, but I can't take good selfies.

There, I said it. That's a load off.

I think it's because I'm short and short people have short arms and long people have long arms. You need long arms for good selfies. Good skin without age-defining wrinkles helps, too.

It is always a ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- After waiting for several years, Shamiran, 18, and her family had less than two days to pack up and leave behind their lives in Iraq when they were granted permission to come to the United States as refugees. With only a few personal belongings, the family arrived in Chicago on Jan. 19.

Just one day after their arrival, ...Read more

We all spend money on things we know we probably shouldn’t. It could be fantasy football for some people and expensive craft beer for others.

As with any spending, the key is how you balance it against the other needs and wants that compete for your dollars. In addition to discretionary purchases like travel and entertainment, we recently ...Read more

No matter what I do, whether it’s good, bad or just plain stupid, my wife, Sue, has my back. And I have hers.

But lately, neither one of us has wanted to make the exchange. That’s because we both threw our backs out.

I injured mine while cleaning the bathroom, which is what I get for trying to be helpful around the house.

The irony was ...Read more

When Keith Werfelman heard about a boxing gym opening in his hometown of Mokena, Illinois, created to support those in addiction recovery through physical exercise, he knew he had to join.

“I’ve never seen that before,” Werfelman said. “I prefer doing that over a regular workout gym because I don’t want to get buff; I just want to be ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — On a recent Saturday afternoon, at an art therapy event at Pasadena City Church, 11-year-old Eleanor Norman sat at a table and dipped her brush into the watercolors in front of her to paint a picture: a bright red phoenix flying over a pink sunset.

In some ways, the phoenix — a mythical creature often associated with strength ...Read more