Oct 20 NASA spacecraft successfully touches asteroid for rare space samples By Marcia Dunn, Associated Press A NASA spacecraft has descended to an asteroid and momentarily touched the surface to collect a handful of cosmic rubble for return to Earth. It was a first for the U.S. Continue reading
Oct 19 WATCH: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to collect sample from asteroid Bennu By Elizabeth Cantwell, The Conversation OSIRIS-REx will touch down on asteroid Bennu, collect a sample of the dust and begin its journey back to Earth, where scientists will study it, hoping to learn secrets of the solar system's origin. Continue reading
Oct 19 Marine heat wave ‘blobs’ are becoming more severe as oceans warm By Nicola Jones, Yale Environment 360 With oceans absorbing more than 90 percent of global warming, marine heatwaves are becoming hotter and larger and are lasting longer. Scientists say the trend has major ecological consequences, from altering fish and plant populations to forcing whales into hazardous… Continue reading
Oct 18 PG&E lacked basic training before California blackouts By Michael Liedtke, Justin Pritchard, Associated Press When Pacific Gas & Electric cut power to large swaths of wildfire-prone Northern California last fall, few of the emergency personnel managing the blackouts for the nation’s largest utility had learned the fundamentals of managing an emergency in their home… Continue reading
Oct 18 Touch-and-go: US spacecraft sampling asteroid for return By Marcia Dunn, Associated Press After almost two years circling an ancient asteroid hundreds of millions of miles away, a NASA spacecraft this week will attempt to descend to the treacherous, boulder-packed surface and snatch a handful of rubble. Continue reading
Oct 18 Is Facebook really ready for the 2020 election? By Barbara Ortutay, David Klepper, Associated Press Ever since Russian agents and other opportunists abused its platform in an attempt to manipulate the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook has insisted — repeatedly — that it’s learned its lesson and is no longer a conduit for misinformation, voter… Continue reading
Oct 17 AP FACT CHECK: Trump sees what others do not in the pandemic By Hope Yen, Calvin Woodward, Associated Press “I believe we’re rounding the corner.” “We’re a winner on the excess mortality.” “We have the vaccines coming and we have the therapies coming.” “We have done an amazing job.” President Donald Trump sees in the pandemic what he wants… Continue reading
Oct 17 Rural Midwest hospitals struggling to handle virus surge By Stephen Groves, Associated Press Rural Jerauld County in South Dakota didn’t see a single case of the coronavirus for more than two months stretching from June to August. But over the last two weeks, its rate of new cases per person soared to one… Continue reading
Oct 16 Watch 4:19 Pandemic pauses the growing season for this Arctic gardening guru By Erin McKinstry, Alaska Public Media North of the Arctic Circle, in the tiny Alaskan village of Anaktuvuk, one woman is trying to expand agriculture in a climate largely hostile to it. Nasaġraq Rainey Hopson has successfully grown fresh produce for her community for several years,… Continue watching
Oct 15 Drought more likely than blizzards this winter, forecasters say By Seth Borenstein, Associated Press U.S. weather officials are predicting a mostly warmer than normal winter, but they are also worried about a worsening drought. Continue reading