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Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot/TNS

NASA Langley Research Center opens first wind tunnel in more than 40 years

HAMPTON, Va. — NASA officials and state leadership cut the ribbon Friday on the agency’s first new wind tunnel in more than 40 years as the agency undergoes a wave of consolidation.

The Flight Dynamics Research Facility at Langley Research Center is a 25,000-square-foot facility that aims to play a major role in providing research for ...Read more

RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post/TNS

Federal government implements 10-year Colorado River plan after states fail to find deal

Federal water managers on Friday announced a 10-year plan to manage the critical Colorado River that opens the door to unprecedented water supply cuts to three states and will require near-constant negotiation between water users in the river basin.

The report made public Friday is the culmination of years of intense and divisive negotiations ...Read more

E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker says the Trump's halting of carp project an attack on Great Lakes water

CHICAGO — President Donald Trump’s administration has stopped work on a project to slow the spread of invasive carp in the Great Lakes, a move Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday said amounted to a major attack on Illinois’ and the nation’s freshwater supply.

The comments came hours after the Pritzker administration said it had asked the federal...Read more

RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post/TNS

Federal government implements 10-year Colorado River plan after states fail to find deal

Federal water managers on Friday announced a 10-year plan to manage the critical Colorado River that opens the door to unprecedented water supply cuts to three states and will require near-constant negotiation between water users in the river basin.

The report made public Friday is the culmination of years of intense and divisive negotiations ...Read more

RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post/TNS

Trump administration spares Southwest from harshest water cuts in new Colorado River plan

The Trump administration has released its long-awaited 10-year plan for dealing with worsening water shortages along the Colorado River. Instead of ordering the most drastic water cutbacks it could have imposed, the administration chose to take more of a wait-and-see approach.

The plan allows for harsh water cuts if they’re deemed necessary, ...Read more

Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times/TNS

California produced over half its May electricity from solar, a world record

California hit a major milestone in May, generating more than half its electricity from the sun in what is believed to be a global first, according to a new analysis from the U.K.-based energy think tank Ember.

“California has had a wealth of solar growth in the last five years,” said Abby Lestina, an analyst at Grid Status, another group ...Read more

RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post/TNS

Trump administration releases long-awaited 10-year plan for dwindling Colorado River

The Trump administration has released its long-awaited 10-year plan for dealing with worsening water shortages along the Colorado River. It allows for harsh water cutbacks if deemed necessary, potentially requiring California, Arizona and Nevada to cut up to 3 million acre-feet per year — up to 40% of the combined allotments.

But state and ...Read more

When a vehicle is stopped but the engine is running, it's still burning gas and emitting pollutants. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

Leaving vehicle engines idling is unhealthy, expensive – and often illegal

A bus company that left its buses’ engines running while parked in Boston neighborhoods has settled a lawsuit by agreeing to pay US$5.6 million in damages for the resulting air pollution.

The settlement came in a citizen-enforcement lawsuit under the Clean Air Act, which allows any person to sue alleged polluters for the harm done ...Read more

Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Sharks can hear you swimming from 100 feet away. That's not necessarily a bad thing

LOS ANGELES — Forget the smell of blood and all the shark fears we’ve internalized thanks to “Jaws” and “Shark Week.” Turns out, the first thing a shark notices about humans actually might be the unique sounds we make in the ocean.

And great white sharks — at least the ones in a sharky hot spot like Southern California— have ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Anthropic's AI models hacked three organizations during tests

Anthropic PBC announced that its artificial intelligence models had breached three different organizations during cybersecurity tests that went awry, a little more than a week after its chief rival, OpenAI, disclosed a similar incident.

Anthropic said in a blog post Thursday that it made the discovery after performing a review of its own ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

LinkedIn is cracking down on 'AI slop' with new reporting tool

LinkedIn has a new mission: Cleaning up the AI-generated junk in its feed.

The Microsoft-owned platform on Thursday unveiled a “seems like AI slop” button so users can report posts that appear to be low-quality posts written by AI.

“People come to LinkedIn to connect with real people and share their real perspectives, ideas and expertise...Read more

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images North America/TNS

Silicon Valley donors poured $194 million into California politics. Now comes the wealth tax fight

For more than 15 years, Google co-founder Sergey Brin didn’t spend a cent in California elections, but earlier this year, when it seemed likely a union-backed wealth tax would make its way onto the November ballot, he reopened his wallet.

The $85 million that he’s contributed so far this year eclipses his past political spending in the ...Read more

SpaceX/SpaceX/TNS

Overnight SpaceX national security launch brought sonic boom to Central Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. — That bump in the night you might have heard in the wee hours of Thursday morning could have been for national security.

That’s because a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the NROL-95 mission carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex ...Read more

A fire whirl, or fire tornado, rises from flames near Wofford Heights, Calif., in August 2021. David McNew/Getty Images

4 ways wildfires generate tornadoes, lightning and other extreme weather, sometimes miles from the flames

Thick smoke from massive wildfires has been spreading in North America and Europe once again in 2026. The health impacts of breathing this particle-filled air are becoming well known, but wildfires’ influence on the weather is less widely recognized.

We often think about weather controlling wildfires: Dry air, heat, wind and ...Read more

Scott Olson/Getty Images North America/TNS

Army Corps halts work on Great Lakes invasive carp barrier

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has halted construction at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam complex, a state-federal project in Joliet, Illinois, meant to block invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes.

"The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued the stop work order," Army Corps Public Affairs Officer Gene Pawlik said Wednesday. "The project is ...Read more

SpaceX/TNS/TNS

Overnight SpaceX national security launch could bring sonic boom to Central Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. — That bump in the night that might be heard in Central Florida in the wee hours of Thursday morning might be for national security.

That’s because a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the NROL-95 mission carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office is set to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s ...Read more

Judge allows federal land transfer to state of Alaska that will support Ambler Road and Alaska LNG

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A federal judge last week rejected a bid by conservation groups to stop the Trump administration from conveying land to Alaska to support development of the 200-mile Ambler Road that could open up access for mining in a remote Arctic region.

Alaska U.S. District Judge Aaron Peterson on Friday dismissed portions of the ...Read more

Simon Lehmann/Dreamstime/TNS

China's Moonshot AI passes funding goal to hit $35 billion value

Moonshot AI secured a $35 billion valuation after raising a larger-than-anticipated $3.5 billion in a just-closed round of financing, riding the momentum from a breakthrough Kimi K3 model that sent ripples through Silicon Valley.

The Beijing-based startup managed to secure far more than the $1 billion to $2 billion it initially targeted, people...Read more

Lionel Bonaventure/Getty Images North America/TNS

OpenAI bot's rogue attack rattles industry leaders, policymakers and consumers

What will happen to the world if artificial intelligence bots break free from our control and act independently?

While it's been a troubling conundrum addressed by AI experts and Hollywood science-fiction scriptwriters for decades, it may have just happened.

OpenAI said last week that it temporarily lost control of its AI in what some worry ...Read more

Dreamstime/TNS

Once high-flying PayPal becomes a takeover target as it attempts a turnaround

Digital payments giant PayPal was soaring high five years ago, riding the surge in online shopping after the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped people's buying habits.

Now the San José fintech company has reportedly become a takeover target as it tries to get more people to click on the PayPal button to purchase items amid fierce competition.

Stripe,...Read more