PETERSHAM, Mass. In a towering forest of centuries old eastern hemlocks, it’s easy to miss one of the tree’s nemeses. No larger than a speck of pepper, the Hemlock woolly adelgid spends its life on the underside of needles sucking sap, eventually killing the tree. The bug is one in an expanding army of insects […]

WASHINGTON Did anyone see it coming, the apparent new rapport between President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump? Just a few months ago they were regularly flinging insults back and forth. Today they’re trading phone calls and pleasantries. Apparently, membership in one of the world’s most exclusive clubs, the club of U.S. presidents, has a […]

OAKLAND, Calif. Federal officials investigating a fire that killed 36 people during a party at an Oakland warehouse plan to bring in engineers to examine the building’s electrical system, as they try to pinpoint the cause of a blaze that has cast a spotlight on similar artists’ colonies around the country that offer cheap housing […]

BALTIMORE The man who crashed a Baltimore school bus into a transit bus, killing himself and five other people, had been in at least a dozen car accidents in the past five years, had a history of seizures and other medical issues, and recently had his commercial driver’s license privileges suspended because of an outdated […]

HAGERSTOWN, MD The trucking industry scored a victory this week when Republican lawmakers effectively blocked Obama administration safety rules aimed at keeping tired truckers off the highway. But there’s more coming down the road. The American Trucking Associations is vowing to come back next month, when both the White House and Congress will be under […]

SALISBURY, N.C. The man accused of firing an assault rifle inside a Washington restaurant said he regrets how he handled the situation but refused to completely dismiss the false online claims involving a child sex ring that brought him there. “I just wanted to do some good and went about it the wrong way,” Edgar […]

WESSON, MISS. American flags hung from every pole and business in the small Mississippi town of Wesson as the remains of a 23-year-old sailor headed to his last resting place Wednesday, 75 years to the day after he was killed at Pearl Harbor. Fireman 1st Class Jim H. Johnston was buried with full military honors […]

BEIRUT President Bashar Assad today that Syrian forces’ victory in the battle for Aleppo will be a “big gain” for his government but that it will not end of the country’s civil war. Assad’s comments came as his troops were pushing further into the rebel-held enclave in eastern Aleppo, in swift advances that were hardly […]

BRUSSELS NATO’s top military officer said Wednesday that about 150 Turkish officers have been recalled or retired from the alliance’s high command since a failed coup attempt in Turkey, placing a significant burden on his staff. U.S. Army General Curtis Scaparrotti said losing so many seasoned officers had placed “an extra load on our remaining […]

WASHINGTON The giraffe, the tallest land animal, is now at risk of extinction, biologists say. Because the giraffe population has shrunk nearly 40 percent in just 30 years, scientists put it on the official watch list of threatened and endangered species worldwide, calling it “vulnerable.” That’s two steps up the danger ladder from its previous […]