Lifestyle related news.
NEW YORK (AP) — Attempted book bans and restrictions at school and public libraries continue to surge, setting a record in 2022, according to a new report from the American Library Association released late last week. More than 1,200 challenges were compiled by the association in 2022, nearly double the then-record total from 2021 and [...]
PHILADELPHIA — The bright lights of Philadelphia's famous Boathouse Row — long one of the city's signature nighttime sights — are going dark, at least for now. Outlining a cluster of historic boathouses along the Schuylkill River near the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the twinkly lights reflect off the water and give definition to the [...]
SEATTLE (AP) — Shawn Lee, a high school social studies teacher in Seattle, wants to see lessons on the internet akin to a kind of 21st century driver's education, an essential for modern life. Lee has tried to bring that kind of education into his classroom, with lessons about the need to double-check online sources, [...]
LEOMINSTER, Mass. (AP) — The music was blaring on a February afternoon when Francisco Torres stopped by a Massachusetts barbershop, proclaiming he was half-angel, half-devil. He wanted a dozen people to come outside the shop and shoot him with an automatic weapon stored in his car trunk. Before anyone could make sense of the request, [...]
NEPTUNE, N.J. — Coastal communities around the world are adding a tropical twist to shoreline protection, courtesy of the humble coconut. From the sands of the Jersey Shore to the islands of Indonesia, strands of coconut husk, known as coir, are being incorporated into shoreline protection projects. Often used in conjunction with other measures, the [...]
ASPEN, Colo. — Snow falls thick as skiers shed their gear and duck into the Sundeck Restaurant, one of the first certified energy efficient buildings in the United States — this one at 11,200 feet above sea level atop Aspen Mountain in Colorado. Skiers in brightly colored helmets jockey for a spot at the bar, [...]
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Parts of California were under water, the Rocky Mountains received another bout of snow and water was released from some Arizona reservoirs to make room for an expected bountiful spring runoff. All the moisture in recent months has helped alleviate dry conditions in many parts of the West. Even major reservoirs [...]
TOMS RIVER, N.J. — The former Ciba-Geigy chemical plant poisoned the ground and water in Toms River, N.J., where the rate of childhood cancer cases rose significantly in the 1980s and 1990s. It was one of the nation's worst toxic waste sites, was added to the federal Superfund cleanup list and still has a vast [...]
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Federal regulators recently designated two U.S. freshwater mussels as threatened, a further sign of trouble for native mollusks that help cleanse waters by filtering out pollutants as they feed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it was granting protection to longsolid and round hickorynut mussels, which have declined in many [...]
PHOENIX (AP) — America's schools say kids are hungry — just as pandemic-era benefit programs have lapsed. As a result, there is growing concern about its effects on kids' ability to learn. Congress temporarily made school meals free to all American schoolkids, but since that ended last fall, the need to feed students has only [...]