CHICAGO — The Great Lakes region is enjoying another year of lower water levels and wider beaches.

July water levels on Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are down more than 2 feet from 2020, a year of near historic highs when waves devoured cherished stretches of sandy coastline. With the exception of Lake Ontario, the other Great Lakes are ...Read more

BALTIMORE -- Raynold Smith beefed with another man for months and when they crossed paths in March 2021, both were armed.

The reason Smith didn’t pull the trigger? In a split-second moment, when life and death hung in the balance, he glimpsed a child’s car seat and suddenly realized everything his enemy stood to lose. Almost immediately, ...Read more

Federal prosecutors unveiled fraud and money-laundering charges this week against a former Qualcomm research engineer and three others for allegedly duping the San Diego company into paying $150 million to acquire technology that it putatively owned already.

A federal grand jury handed up the indictment in May, but it was unsealed on Monday. It...Read more

LOS ANGELES — With California enduring historic drought amplified by global warming, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday released a new plan to adapt to the state’s hotter, drier future by capturing and storing more water, recycling more wastewater and desalinating seawater and salty groundwater.

The governor’s new water-supply strategy, ...Read more

CHICAGO — If it were up to Jacques Wallace, no Chicagoan would find a loved one dead of heat stress, without air conditioning, ever again.

Wallace still remembers how hot it was a decade ago when he walked into the Near West Side building where his mother, Jacqueline, lived in a studio apartment. “It was over 100 degrees in there, in the ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The fragile little fish that swim around in dark tanks in a lab are the last hope for their kind. The lab director who oversees their care, Tien-Chieh Hung, explained that when the Delta smelt captives are young, scientists at the UC Davis Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory put snails in the black interiors of the ...Read more

Jackie Minett is a tour guide at Butterfly World in Coconut Creek, Florida, dubbed the “butterfly capital of the world.” She leads children and seniors, some tourists, some Floridians, around the gardens to gawk at butterflies: zebra longwings, emperor butterflies, and, most recognizable of all, monarchs.

South Florida’s monarch ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — Bob Karp waited nearly three hours through a hot August Sunday for a glimpse of the painted bunting — sometimes called the most gorgeous bird in North America, with its feathers flashing red, green and blue.

And just about the time Karp had given up hope, walking back to his car at Dix Park in Raleigh, it landed right in ...Read more

Wildfires could make their way into the keystone state and possibly into your backyard, climate, fire and forestry scientists say.

As wildfires become increasingly common across the western United States, Pennsylvania and its residents have so far remained insulated from the flames destroying communities worldwide.

But forest and climate ...Read more

Cats are everywhere on the internet. They’re the subject of memes, card games and even have their own day. But in the world of video games, felines have been criminally underrepresented. Projects starring cats are few and far between, and those games haven’t really stood out — until now.

“Stray” has captured players’ hearts and ...Read more

Dewalt has recently added the 20V Max Cordless Dry Hand Vacuum to its famous 20V Max cordless tool line.

The handheld vacuum works off the 65 air watt Dewalt 5.0Ah DCB205 rechargeable battery pack (sold separately) to produce just over 20 minutes of vacuuming, and 15 tank fills. A bright LED light on the top of the unit assists by lighting ...Read more

My mom needs a new printer.

This isn’t earth-shattering news, but she’s serious about it.

My mom’s computer evolution has been an interesting one.

A decade ago, I talked her into getting rid of an old Dell Windows PC in favor of an Apple Mac Mini. She and dad kept it for three or four years until they decided they didn’t like being ...Read more

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Danny Rubin leveraged his Hampton Roads public relations expertise to fill a workplace and educational need: better communication skills.

And Rubin is living out his business’ “Write well, open doors!” mantra as he found an underserved market and entrepreneurial opportunity through writing.

He’s sharing his ...Read more

Telexistence Inc. and FamilyMart Co. are rolling out a fleet of AI-driven robots to restock shelves in 300 convenience stores across Japan.

The robot arms are designed to replenish drinks in refrigerators and are now in mass production, Tokyo-based Telexistence said in a statement Wednesday. They’ll be installed in FamilyMart locations across...Read more

Those who enjoy watching the skies will see two events later this week collide: A supermoon will compete with the Perseid meteor shower to light the night.

The Perseid meteor shower will peak on Thursday night into the early hours of Friday, according to the American Meteor Society, though it has been active for weeks with star-gazers spotting ...Read more

When I was asked if I wanted to review a new VAIO laptop, my mind was transported back to when VAIO was a Sony product with a top-of-the-line reputation.

As a desktop support manager, I remember ordering a very slick VAIO laptop that was coveted by almost everyone in the office. VAIO pushed the design envelope to produce some very sexy laptops....Read more