Climate change has already cost Maryland between $10 billion and $20 billion in cleanup efforts following 85 extreme weather events that have hit the state since 1984, Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman said at a symposium Tuesday. But, she added, not preparing for continuing changes would cost the state far more in the future.

Lierman spoke ...Read more

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources cannot show that it’s protecting wildlife from harmful logging on public lands, six years after the concern was raised by DNR’s own field staff, a state audit concluded.

The Office of the Legislative Auditor undertook a special review of DNR timber sales in 1.3 million acres of wildlife ...Read more

Instagram said Tuesday it will start limiting content for teen users to what they would typically see in a PG-13 rated film, while also offering more robust parental controls for those who want “a more restrictive experience for their teen.”

“Today, we’re announcing that Instagram Teen Accounts will be guided by PG-13 movie ratings by ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — When a Texas oil company first announced controversial plans to reactivate three drilling rigs off the coast of Santa Barbara County, investor presentations boasted that the venture had "massive resource potential" and was "primed for cash flow generation."

But now, less than two years later, mounting legal setbacks and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Several dozen horses calmly graze along the shores of Mono Lake, a sparkling saline expanse spread out before the jagged Sierra Nevada mountains. The September sun is blazing. A pair of brown horses come up side by side and stare intensely at an approaching visitor.

These wild equines soon may disappear from beside the ancient ...Read more

After both onshore and offshore weather headaches in the past week, SpaceX was back Monday night to finish up its third of three contracted launches of competitor Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites.

A Falcon 9 on the KF-3 mission was no match for torrents of rain across Florida late Thursday on its first launch window, followed by more ...Read more

SpaceX launched its 11th test flight of the powerful Starship and Super Heavy rocket from its Texas site Starbase on Monday as it moved ahead in its goals to achieve an operational rocket that could eventually launch from Florida.

Liftoff came at 7:23 p.m. EDT, looking for a repeat of the successful 10th test flight in August and avoiding the ...Read more

SpaceX is set to launch its 11th test flight of the powerful Starship and Super Heavy rocket from its Texas site Starbase on Monday as it moves ahead in its goals to achieve an operational rocket that could eventually launch from Florida.

The launch window opens at 7:15 p.m. Eastern time looking for a repeat of the successful 10th test flight ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A year after tech firm OpenAI roiled Hollywood with the release of its Sora AI video tool, Chief Executive Sam Altman was back — with a potentially groundbreaking update.

Unlike the generic images Sora could initially create, the new program allows users to upload videos of real people and put them into AI-generated ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a bill into law that aims to make artificial-intelligence-powered chatbots safer despite some pushback from the tech industry.

The legislation, Senate Bill 243, requires chatbot operators to have procedures to prevent the production of suicide or self-harm content and put in guardrails, such as ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — After both onshore and offshore weather headaches in the past week, SpaceX is back on Monday to try and finish up its third of three contracted launches of competitor Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites.

A Falcon 9 on the KF-3 mission was no match for torrents of rain across Florida late Thursday on its first launch window, ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Despite the pistachio-colored glow and sulfurous odor, the Baltimore harbor continues to improve in water quality year after year — even if swimming right now isn’t advisable.

Officials from the Waterfront Partnership and City of Baltimore said Friday the annual Healthy Harbor Report Card shows significant improvement in water...Read more

A California physicist and Nobel laureate who laid the foundation for quantum computing isn't done working.

For the last 40 years, John Martinis has worked — mostly within California — to create the fastest computers ever built.

"It's kind of my professional dream to do this by the time I'm really too old to retire. I should retire now, ...Read more

Just as tree rings can tell us how old a tree is and the climate conditions it endured, bivalves like quahog clams and dog cockles can tell a story about the history of the ocean.

And they’re telling us we may be headed for a “tipping point,” according to a study led by the University of Exeter and published Oct. 3 in Science Advances.

...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. – SpaceX is set to finish up its third of three contracted launches of competitor Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites on Thursday night.

A Falcon 9 on the KF-3 mission to launch 24 more of Amazon’s broadband internet satellites is set to lift off from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A targeting 9:34 p.m. Eastern time ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — While Blue Origin was kept out of the Space Force’s latest round of national security missions, the government has opted to rely on Jeff Bezos’ company to build a new place to prep satellites for launch.

Space Systems Command announced Tuesday it had awarded to Blue Origin a $78.25 million contract to construct a space ...Read more

LOS ANGELES – Santa Catalina Island’s mule deer are back in the crosshairs.

This month, the California Island Conservancy announced a plan to rid the landscape of its entire nonnative deer population using contracted hunters, saying the animals increase the risk of wildfire.

Last year, the conservancy — which manages 88% of the island �...Read more

UC Berkeley professor Omar Yaghi, a Jordanian immigrant molded by the American public school system, reached the pinnacle of his field on Wednesday, sharing the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

After receiving the award for his work on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which have incalculable applications, Yaghi acknowledged the role his American ...Read more

To make life easier for people with a common bladder condition, Medtronic is digging in far away from urinary tract.

Treatment for urinary urge incontinence can require pads, absorbent underwear and medications that come with bothersome side effects. The Minnesota-run medtech firm’s tiny new implant, designed to help patients forget about ...Read more