Breaking News

Uncategorized

Firefighters knock down Long Island brush fire

NEW YORK (AP) — Firefighters in New York knocked down a dwindling brush fire in a wooded stretch of Long Island on Sunday as officials warned that high wind gusts could leave the region vulnerable to additional blazes. Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency a day earlier after four separate fires broke out across large swaths of Long Island’s Pine Barrens region, prompting closures to the highway and evacuations of a military base. As of Sunday, all visible flames had been knocked down, including the last remaining fire burning in the hamlet of Westhampton, according to ...

Tropical low tracks west across Australian coast, leaving one dead and several injured

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Flooding rains lashed the Australian east coast even though it avoided the destructive winds of its first tropical cyclone in 51 years, officials said Saturday. One person was confirmed dead and several were injured. Tropical Cyclone Alfred had been expected to become the first cyclone to cross the Australian coast near the Queensland state capital of Brisbane, Australia’s third-most populous city, since 1974. But it weakened Saturday to a tropical low, which is defined as carrying sustained winds of less than 39 mph. The cyclone’s remnants crossed ...

States dangle incentives and loosen laws for more power

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Facing projections of spiking energy demand, U.S. states are pressing for ways to build new power plants faster as policymakers increasingly worry about protecting their residents and economies from rising electric bills, power outages and other consequences of falling behind Big Tech in a race for electricity. Some states are dangling financial incentives. Others are undoing decades of regulatory structures in what they frame as a race to serve the basic needs of residents, avoid a catastrophe and keep their economies on track in a fast-electrifying society. “I ...

Voluntary isolation concerning

It’s Friday morning, and you’re nearing the end of the work week. You’re ready to be done, and in just a few hours, you will be. Are you looking forward to hanging out with friends, maybe over to someone’s house for dinner? Perhaps go out on the town? Or are you planning to grab takeout and curl up on the couch with a blanket and movie? My guess is the latter sounds more appealing. No, I don’t think you are an introvert. I just believe we as a society are hard-wired to spend more time at home. The studies back this up. According to Psychology Today, on a typical day, ...

Yes to English as official language

“Official” is a very English word. It has its roots in the Old French “oficial” and the Latin “officialis,” and now — thanks to a new Trump executive order — describes the status of the English language. President Trump’s executive action making English our official language repeals a Bill Clinton executive order that required the government, as well as groups receiving federal funds, to provide language assistance to non-English speakers. Trump’s move will have little practical effect, since the increase in bilingualism the United States has been driven by high ...

How much we still miss those times

Have you ever gone to a party that transports you back in time? I’ve attended two in one week, in Santa Monica, California, and Washington, D.C., I’m missing the ’60s of my childhood something awful. Time trips took me to Madison, Wisconsin, and Harlem in New York, where our family and friends were making America anew. Those are places where we knew the Zeitlins and the Seabrooks. The ’60s spirit is very different from the way we live now in vengeful Donald Trump’s America. Even as young children, we captured the zeitgeist of dissent, folk songs and rock ‘n’ roll, ...