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The reservoir behind the Glen Canyon Dam is extremely low. Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Why Colorado River negotiations stalled, and how they could resume with the possibility of agreement

The seven U.S. states that make up the Colorado River basin are struggling to agree on how best to manage the river’s water as its supply dwindles due to climate change and a period of prolonged drought. Their negotiations, which are not open to the public, missed a Feb. 14, 2026, deadline the federal government had established, after which...Read more

Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Pentagon's Anthropic bashing rekindles Silicon Valley's resistance to war

Artificial intelligence powerhouse Anthropic's battle with the Pentagon has sparked some soul-searching in Silicon Valley that could reshape the tech sector's complicated relationship with war and the White House.

Anthropic is the San Francisco-based startup behind the chatbot Claude and some of the most powerful AI on the market. In its ...Read more

NASA/TNS

NASA's new astronaut class gets a name

ORLANDO, Fla. — NASA’s newest class of astronaut candidates just found out what people will call them.

The tradition of the previous astronaut class — the Flies — bestowing the name the following class has continued, according to a Thursday press release from NASA.

The 10 candidates of NASA’s 24th astronaut class, chosen in 2025 and ...Read more

Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Florida was on the verge of restoring this beloved river. What happened?

TAMPA, Fla. — A legislative proposal that charted the clearest course in years for reviving Florida’s storied Ocklawaha River, dubbed by supporters as the state’s “next great restoration project,” appeared destined for success last month.

Over several weeks, the bill that required a state plan to restore the winding north-central ...Read more

Sammy Fretwell/The State/TNS

South Carolina school reportedly built on land coated with polluting industry's waste

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s environmental agency plans to test the soil at an elementary school near Darlington for toxic forever chemicals after learning the property may have been a disposal site for a textile plant’s contaminated sewer sludge.

The S.C. Department of Environmental Services says it has records showing that 91 tons ...Read more

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

NASA set for overnight roll of Artemis II rocket back to the launch pad

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — NASA hopes it has only one more roll to the launch pad before it gets a shot to launch four astronauts around the moon on the Artemis II mission.

Teams are set to begin the 4.2 mile journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39-B beginning at 8 p.m. Thursday for what would be around a 12-hour trip.

Winds ...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

California leads lawsuit saying Trump cannot roll back key climate rule

LOS ANGELES — California is suing the Trump administration over its decision to roll back the endangerment finding, the U.S. government’s longstanding scientific conclusion that planet-heating pollution seriously threatens Americans, state officials announced Thursday.

Attorney General Rob Bonta, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Air ...Read more

Pittsburgh's air pollution not only led to increased deaths, but it also had other negative effects, from lowered IQ in children to adverse birth outcomes.  G Fiume/Getty Images Sport via Getty Images

Pittsburgh’s air pollution estimated to claim 3,000+ lives per year − and EPA rollbacks aren’t helping

In October 1948, a thick haze rolled into Donora, Pennsylvania, a steel town in the Monongahela Valley, south of Pittsburgh. For five days, toxic fumes from a zinc smelter – a plant that turns zinc ore into pure zinc metal – poured out of the factory’s stacks, became trapped in the valley and thus blanketed Donora. The air was filled ...Read more

Capstone Copper's Pinto Valley Mine in Miami, Arizona. Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Global copper demand outstrips supply, threatening electrification and industrial growth

Demand for copper is surging because of demand from new technologies, but suppliers are struggling to keep up, and they are likely to fall further behind in the coming years, resulting in shortfalls globally. Even though copper prices are at historically high levels, the financial risk involved in mining means that prices will need to go much...Read more

Robyn Beck/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

If the giant sequoia is dying out, why are there tens of thousands of seedlings and saplings?

In a Sierra Nevada canyon all but incinerated in the 2021 KNP Complex fire, a new forest of California's beloved giant sequoias is now growing. Only not yet one that is actually giant.

The seedlings and saplings are mostly knee-high to chest-high and mixed with thickets of ceanothus and other post-fire brush growing amid the true giants that ...Read more

Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Trump vows to fight invasive carp in Great Lakes, but Illinois federal funds remain frozen

CHICAGO — A recent pledge by President Donald Trump to protect the Great Lakes from invasive carp comes as his administration continues to withhold federal funding for a key Illinois project designed to stop the spread into Lake Michigan.

Illinois officials say they welcome the president’s public support but are urging immediate action. ...Read more

Thunderful Games/Thunderful Games/TNS

Xbox Play Anywhere Showcase highlights five promising gems

Each year Game Developers Conference, Microsoft hosts an event normally focused on indie projects, but this year, it has expanded its focus, reflecting a change in the company. It’s now called the Xbox Play Anywhere Showcase, and it featured projects from smaller studios with some backed by AA publishers.

Here’s a list of five titles that...Read more

Roger Simmons/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Ready to roll again, NASA's workhorse crawler has been hauling rockets since Apollo

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — When he’s not at work, Sam Dove drives a Chevy Silverado 1500. But on the job, he gets behind the wheel of a 16-million-pound behemoth that’s been transporting NASA’s rockets for more than 60 years.

Dove gets to drive the crawler-transporter 2 (CT-2), which was one of two tracked vehicles originally designed to ...Read more

Many older adults rely on electric-powered medical equipment, such as portable oxygen and nebulizers that help them breathe. Westend61 via Getty Images

Power outages can threaten the lives of medical device users – knowing who is most at risk will help cities respond

When the power goes out and stays off for hours, the result can be more than just a hassle – for millions of Americans who rely on medical equipment, losing electricity can become a medical emergency.

Your neighbor might rely on an oxygen concentrator to breathe – a machine the size of a carry-on bag that hums quietly through the ...Read more

Giuseppe LoPiccolo/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS

Coming of age: Mega Cat Studios releases new 'God of War' video game

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh’s own rising video game design studio recently spearheaded “God of War: Sons of Sparta” — the latest entry in the widely beloved triple-A franchise — and emerged a different outfit.

With more than 66 million units sold since the God of War series debuted on Playstation 2 in 2005, the opportunity to transform ...Read more

Jim Rossman/Jim Rossman/TNS

Jim Rossman: Sometimes technology is annoying

I had an email exchange with a reader yesterday.

He wrote, “I recently bought a pair of Dayton speakers for my desktop. They connect via Bluetooth, which is fine, but every time Bluetooth connects/disconnects from the speakers, it makes a LOUD ding-dong alert sound, which I find rather annoying. I can't find anything online about adjusting ...Read more

Oliver Berg/dpa/TNS

Playing Tetris can help tackle memories of trauma, trial finds

LONDON — Playing Tetris could help reduce distressing memories of trauma, a study has found.

Health workers who played the classic computer game as part of their treatment experienced fewer flashbacks, researchers said.

Experts are now hoping to test the method, which they describe as “accessible, scalable and adaptable," on a larger ...Read more

TNS

Gadgets: High-tech vacuum

Being the owners of two dogs who shed, we wage a daily battle against the fur. We keep up with it, but having a vacuum like the new Ultenic U15 smart cordless to test instantly made life easier.

The Ultenic U15 is lightweight, doesn’t take up much closet space, and is easy to move around. It stands upright; often this style is referred to ...Read more

Handout/Grasshopper Manufacture/TNS

Review: Suda’s new hero doesn’t quite hit mark in ‘Romeo Is a Dead Man’

You can’t talk about Goichi Suda without mentioning Travis Touchdown, the protagonist of the “No More Heroes” series. The bombastic otaku has always been “the representative character of Grasshopper Manufacture, like a mascot in a way,” according to the video game developer.

But after nearly 20 years of working on Travis stories, ...Read more

Headup Games/TNS

Four standout games from the Nintendo Partners Preview

Every Game Developers Conference, Nintendo highlights projects from several independent studios through its Nintendo Partner Preview. The smorgasborg of games shows upcoming projects on their systems. They’re not all exclusives, but they are proof that indie studios care about being on the company’s platforms.

The surprising part of the ...Read more