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Oil prices are skyrocketing, but this is why companies won't rush to drill in California

LOS ANGELES — If you are an oil producer with wells in California and global oil prices have risen to over $100 a barrel in the last week, are you going to drill new wells?

It’s a question that touches the lives of hundreds of thousands of Californians who either live near oil wells or receive royalty checks as mineral rights owners.

...Read more

SpaceX celebrates birthday with launch from Cape Canaveral

ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX has lit many more candles than needed for its birthdays since it was founded by Elon Musk in 2002.

It lit one more Saturday at 8:37 a.m. with a Falcon 9 rocket that launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 flying another 29 Starlink satellites to orbit.

For the company’s 24th ...Read more

Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Trump administration orders restart of oil drilling along California coast amid Iran war

President Donald Trump is asserting executive authority to demand the controversial resumption of offshore oil drilling along California’s coastline as gas prices soar amid the ongoing war with Iran.

On Friday, Trump signed an executive order giving the Department of Energy the ability to use a Cold War-era law known as the Defense Production...Read more

K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

This Southern Nevada city is the state's only Lake Mead user that doesn't send water back

LAS VEGAS — Boulder City proudly proclaims itself as the home of Hoover Dam.

But for decades, despite its proximity to Lake Mead, it has only taken water from the reservoir without giving any back, lagging behind other Southern Nevada cities that now recycle nearly every drop used indoors.

That could change soon, officials say.

“We’ve ...Read more

Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Trump officials direct Sable to resume California oil operations

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday took action to clear the way for oil production off the California coast in a bid to ease the global fuel pressures created by the war with Iran.

The announcement by Energy Secretary Chris Wright follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Friday and directs Sable Offshore ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Travis Kalanick debuts plan for 'gainfully employed robots'

Uber Technologies Inc. co-founder Travis Kalanick has launched a new venture that will focus on creating “gainfully employed robots” for the food, mining and transport industries.

Kalanick is remaking his real estate company, City Storage Systems, which owns ghost-kitchen operator CloudKitchens, and renaming it Atoms, according to a ...Read more

Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump EPA moves to roll back recent limits on ethyene oxide, a carcinogen

The Trump administration on Friday moved to roll back Biden-era limits on emissions of ethylene oxide, a cancer causing chemical, often used in the sterilization of medical devices.

The Environmental Protection agency said repealing the rules, which fall under the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, would “safeguard the...Read more

Treatment plants can capture over 95% of methane from food waste, compared to about 50% at landfills. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

How sewage treatment plants could handle food waste, sparing landfills and the climate

Every day, food scraps disappear into trash bags, are hauled away and forgotten. But that waste could be turned into something productive.

Across the United States, about 97 million metric tons of food waste are discarded each year, of which about 37 million metric tons end up buried in landfills.

Once underground, that ...Read more

A metal claw reaches for an iron and manganese nodule on the seabed for testing. USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

In its hunt for critical minerals, the US is misconstruing what is and is not America’s

Americans have a reputation for being bad at world geography, and the current U.S. administration is no exception, particularly when it comes to correctly identifying what is – and is not – part of the United States of America.

President Donald Trump’s April 2025 executive order “unleashing America’s offshore critical ...Read more

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

After fixes, NASA targets April 1 for Artemis II lunar mission

NASA plans to roll back to the pad as early as next week for the Artemis II mission to fly crew around the moon, which could set up a shot to launch as soon as April 1.

“All the teams polled ‘Go’ to launch and fly Artemis II around the moon, pending completion of some of the work before we roll out to the launch pad,” said NASA’s Lori...Read more

Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times/TNS

H5N1 bird flu spreads to sea otters and sea lions along San Mateo coast, wildlife experts say

Researchers say the H5N1 bird flu outbreak in California elephant seals has spread to other marine mammals, including a sea otter and sea lion.

However, wildlife officials are cautiously optimistic the outbreak will remain contained. It has so far only been detected on beaches in San Mateo County, although testing is being conducted along the ...Read more

Frederick Murphy/CDC/TNS/TNS

Minnesota researchers work to tame one of world's deadliest viruses

MINNEAPOLIS — University of Minnesota researchers have made key discoveries about one of the world’s most lethal pathogens, the Marburg virus, including potential weaknesses that could result in vaccines or drug treatments against it.

Marburg is lesser-known than its close cousin, Ebola, and remains confined so far to Africa. But its ...Read more

Ronaldo BolaÒos/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Why hundreds of people in LA are strapping cameras on their bodies to do chores

The hottest new gig-economy job in Los Angeles is performing at home to help artificial intelligence understand how humans move.

Hundreds of people from Santa Monica to Los Feliz are strapping cameras on their heads and hands as they do chores at home so bots can watch how they make coffee, scrub toilets, water plants and wash dishes.

At a ...Read more

(Eric Harkleroad/KFF Health News)/KFF Health News)/TNS

The people -- and research -- lost in the NIH exodus

‘No Longer Based on Facts or Truth’

Sylvia Chou, 51, Maryland

Program director, National Cancer Institute

Sylvia Chou specializes in communication between patients and their health care providers, and social media’s role in public health. She joined the federal government in 2007 as a fellow and became a civil servant in 2010.

She ...Read more

Republicans target public lands protections in a new way

Over the past year, GOP leaders and the Trump administration have used a law known as the Congressional Review Act to push for coal mining in Montana, oil drilling in Alaska and copper mining in Minnesota, while also attempting to reverse protections for a national monument in Utah.

The rarely used act gives Congress a few months to revoke new ...Read more

(Eric Harkleroad/KFF Health News)/KFF Health News/TNS

Six federal scientists run out by Trump talk about the work left undone

Marc Ernstoff, a physician who has pioneered immunotherapy research and treatments for cancer patients, said his work as a federal scientist proved untenable under the Trump administration.

Philip Stewart, a Rocky Mountain Laboratories researcher focused on tick-borne diseases, said he retired two years earlier than planned because of hurdles ...Read more

Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

Florida Legislature votes to ban local net-zero climate programs

Both chambers of the Florida Legislature have approved a bill to ban local governments, public schools and state universities from adopting net-zero policies, where the goal is to offset the planet-warming greenhouse gases they emit into the atmosphere.

The Senate passed House Bill 1217 Wednesday. It will now be sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ...Read more

Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant/TNS

Connecticut black bears are emerging from dens and they're hungry. What you need to know as conflicts grow

HARTFORD, Conn. — As the snow begins to melt and the temperatures rise, black bears in Connecticut are set to re-emerge and become active, just as state officials are urging people to take precautions and know how to stay safe.

There are between 1,000 and 1,200 black bears in Connecticut, according to the state’s Department of Energy and ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Spotify once had a reputation for underpaying music artists. It hopes to change that perception

Back in the early 2010s, the music industry was at a low point.

Piracy was rampant. Compact disc sales were on a steady decline. And the then-new audio streaming services, like Spotify, were taking hits from creators for paying low royalty rates.

Today, Spotify has grown into the world's most popular audio streaming subscription service and ...Read more

Ford Pro telematics customers now have access to an AI-powered chatbot

Ford Motor Co.'s commercial fleet customers now have access to a new artificial intelligence-powered chatbot within the Ford Pro Telematics Software platform that can help provide information faster, flag maintenance needs sooner and suggest tips for greater efficiency.

AI has become the fastest-adopted technology with chatbots increasingly ...Read more