U.S. crops ready for picking, but farm workers in short supply It’s nearly apple-picking time in Washington’s Yakima Valley. Cherry season will be around for a few more weeks, and a bounty of other fruits and vegetables are maturing on branches and in fields.
“The orchards are big and beautiful,” said Dan Fazio, executive director of the Washington Farm Labor Association. More
Ebola virus re-emerges in Congolese conflict zone KINSHASA, Congo — At least four new cases of the Ebola virus have emerged in Congo’s northeast, just a week after an outbreak in the northwest was declared over, the country’s health ministry said Wednesday.
There was no indication the two outbreaks, separated by more than 1,553 miles, are related, Health Minister Dr. More
Trump pressures China with threat to crank up size of proposed tariffs WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday tried to increase pressure on China to change its trade practices by directing administration officials to consider more than doubling the size of proposed tariffs he has already threatened to slap on $200 billion in imports.
But the administration stopped short of actually making such a move, raising questions about whether it was a negotiating ploy in its widening trade war with China. More
Photographer joins bear hunt, but not to kill The largest grizzly hunt in the Lower 48 in more than 40 years is set to open next month in Wyoming, and more than 7,000 people applied for a chance to kill one of up to 22 bears. Among the tiny number of people who won the draw for permits is a wildlife photographer who has produced some of the most famous images of the area’s grizzlies.
Thomas Mangelsen, who has lived near Grand Teton National Park for four decades, said this week that he will use the permit to shoot bears as he’s always done – with a camera, not a gun. More
Sen. Collins says it’s ‘unbelievable’ that Trump wants to stop Russia probe Donald Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to halt Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, ramping up his attacks on the probe as the president’s former campaign chairman goes on trial for unrelated criminal charges. More
Deltona vice mayor says city has unpaid IRS bill worth nearly $1 million However, when he tried to bring it up during Thursday's special council meeting, he got shut down.Storozuk and Mayor Santiago Avila Jr. went back and forth."Vice Mayor JodyLee, you're out of order. 05/2/2024 - 11:54 pm | View Link
A second flag of a type carried by rioters during the attack on the U. S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was displayed outside a house owned by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
An “Appeal to Heaven” flag was flown outside Alito’s beach vacation home last summer.
The first time Elle Barbeito skinned an invasive Burmese python she almost lost her lunch. Twice. Initially she nicked the snake’s stomach with the razor and semi-digested prey spilled out. Things got even more disgusting farther down the digestive system.
Despite the disgust, Barbeito was after beauty. And she found it, not only in the edgy fashion pieces she makes out of invasive Burmese pythons that she and her father catch, but in the larger process of removing a magnificent but highly destructive predator from her beloved Florida.
It’s a blisteringly hot morning in her father’s backyard in Cutler Bay, south of Miami, and the 27-year-old Barbeito pinches the skin on the belly of a thawing 7-foot python and starts meticulously cutting.
By KEN SWEET (AP Business Writer)
NEW YORK (AP) — The bank accounts of tens of thousands of U. S. businesses and consumers have been frozen in the aftermath of the abrupt shutdown and bankruptcy of financial technology company Synapse, which acts as a middleman between financial technology companies and banks.
Synapse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April and has shut down its services to some of its fintech or bank partners, including Evolve Bank & Trust.
By SEAN MURPHY (Associated Press)
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A wind farm in southwest Iowa suffered a direct hit from a powerful tornado that crumpled five of the massive, power-producing towers, including one that burst into flames. But experts say fortunately such incidents are rare.
Video of the direct hit on the wind farm near Greenfield, Iowa, showed frightening images of the violent twister ripping through the countryside, uprooting trees, damaging buildings and sending dirt and debris high into the air.
Several of the turbines at MidAmerican Energy Company’s Orient wind farm recorded wind speeds of more than 100 mph as the tornadoes approached just before the turbines were destroyed, the company said in a statement.
“This was an unprecedented impact on our wind fleet, and we have operated wind farms since 2004,” MidAmerican said.
While there have been isolated incidents of tornadoes or hurricanes damaging wind turbines, fortunately such occurrences are extremely rare, said Jason Ryan, a spokesperson for the American Clean Power Association.
Although requirements vary from state to state about how far turbines must be located from other structures, Ryan said the giant turbines are not placed directly next to homes and other occupied structures.
There are currently nearly 73,000 wind turbines in operation across the country, he said.
In the space of 10 days, two of South Florida’s international airports have been the scenes of big airliners — including the Boeing 757 used by former President Donald Trump — involved in separate wing-clipping incidents while they rumbled their way to remote parking places.
The Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged Wednesday it is investigating both episodes, neither of which involved any injuries.
The most recent incident involved an Atlas Air Boeing 747 cargo jet.
FORT LAUDERDALE — Say your neighbor has a yacht so big that it dwarfs the dock behind his home. Do you call the city to complain?
Michael Meldeau did. It wound up getting him sued by one Steven Howell, owner of the yacht.
The two men live on Delmar Place in Fort Lauderdale’s upscale Las Olas Isles, just north of Las Olas and west of the Intracoastal.
The yearslong feud isn’t your run-of-the-mill neighborhood dispute.