ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida won’t get the next SpaceX Starship launch, but with the first of three launch towers on the Space Coast near completion, Elon Musk expects the company to build up the launch rate quickly.

“We expect Starship to fly weekly at some point in the first half of next year, and then second half of next year twice weekly ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A white SUV drives past fields of grapes and nut trees and pulls to a stop on the dirt shoulder across the highway from a strange tableau:

Thousands of burned tree trunks stacked neatly to the end of a country block, a mountain range of chipped wood piles rising behind them. Logs dangle like toothpicks from machines with ...Read more

Bears are having a very bad year.

Across much of the United States, a warm winter and persistent drought have decimated the natural foods that black and brown bears rely on. With nearly every station at the buffet in short supply, the adaptable eaters are turning to human food.

From California to Connecticut, desperate bears have raided ...Read more

Oil spills pose a multifaceted threat in the Great Lakes, where oil transit pathways overlap and concentrate in major waterways such as the Straits of Mackinac and St. Clair River, a group of researchers found in a new study led by Lake Superior State University.

Although major oil spills such as the Enbridge Line 6b rupture into a Kalamazoo ...Read more

With a stroke of a pen, President Donald Trump has officially created the United States’ 64th national park.

Chiricahua, in southeastern Arizona, was established as a national monument in April 1924 to protect its towering rhyolite hoodoos – tall spires of rock – and diversity of wildlife. The mountainous landscape is commonly ...Read more

A Bloomington, Minnesota, startup is testing whether its interactive prescription drug dispenser can help older Minnesotans take their medications on schedule — especially in rural areas that lack pharmacies.

Omcare’s Home Health Hub is about the size of a coffee maker and dispenses medications, sent monthly by mail, along with alarms to ...Read more

Silicon Valley companies may be going all in on artificial intelligence, but Bay Area residents are broadly concerned about the technology — including many of the tech workers riding the wave.

That’s according to a poll of Bay Area locals this summer by the Mercury News and Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a nonprofit think tank. Only 28% of ...Read more

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. -- Few cities in California last week felt the full brunt of the climate crisis more than the small coastal town of San Clemente.

The beach city at the southern end of Orange County for months has been dealing with widespread coastal erosion from El Niño-related Pacific storms that has threatened a crucial rail line and ...Read more

CHICAGO — Advocates and volunteers say over 1,000 birds were killed or injured after colliding with buildings in the Chicago area during fall migration this past weekend.

Most birds were rescued or recovered in and around downtown Chicago and on Northwestern University’s Evanston campus Saturday and Sunday, according to collision monitors. ...Read more

California’s coastal bluffs and beaches look rugged, but they can be surprisingly fragile in the face of a powerful El Niño.

The state saw that in 1982-83, when storms amid one of the most destructive El Niño winters in California history battered the coastline with powerful waves and torrential rain, leaving hundreds of millions ...Read more

Olight's new Oclip 2 Series flashlights are remarkably powerful and feature-rich. They provide hands-free light from a fully adjustable, palm-sized light.

The series has two models, the Oclip 2 Pro ($49.99) and the Oclip 2 Ultra ($69.99), with adjustable lighting in a dual-axis head that tilts up to 115 degrees and swivels a full 360 degrees....Read more

This week’s reader email, “I hope you can help me. I tried to print a receipt from an email, but it just hung up the printer. It would not print even though it showed it was in cue. The printer says it is offline. I have deleted the request to print that document, shut off the printer, unplugged the printer, but nothing works. When I try ...Read more

When “Gears of War” came out 20 years ago, it stood out from the crowd of shooters because of its cover-based gameplay. The novelty captured the danger and visceral nature of gunplay, where survival means hiding for safety rather than trying to dodge bullets.

Since then, more shooters have adopted that element, and it has become a ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — When Tropical Storm Rachel slammed the region last weekend, brown, sewage-tainted water once again flowed across the U.S.-Mexico border into southern San Diego.

Such scenes are not new. Cross-border pollution has long impacted the Tijuana River Valley and beyond. So, when it became apparent that the region was in for a potentially...Read more

The summer of 2026 once again saw wildfire smoke from the West Coast and Midwest blanketing East Coast skies. Smoke-filled summer skies now seem to be the norm across America, and wildfire season isn’t even close to over.

The public response is also becoming normal. When investigators determine that a person started a wildfire, online chatter...Read more

LOS ANGELES — As ocean levels rise, waves crash farther inland and the coast continues to crumble, Southern California is on track to lose 30% to 70% of its beaches over the next several decades. Almost half of all beach cliffs are likely to retreat by 30 to 80 feet by 2100. And a 1.6-foot increase in sea level rise by 2060 will leave low-...Read more

In 1987, biologists captured the last free-flying condor to transfer it to captivity, and the largest flying North American bird species was officially declared extinct in the wild. Today, after decades of coordinated efforts and millions of dollars spent on captive breeding and reintroduction efforts, more than 300 condors have been restored...Read more

A slight upturn in young striped bass numbers from last year’s survey isn’t enough for Maryland’s state fish, also known as rockfish, to repopulate, experts say.

Allison Colden, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Maryland executive director, said the fish needs committed action from Atlantic Coast states if its population has any chance to...Read more