For decades, the High Plains Aquifer has provided irrigation for the nation's breadbasket. But we're depleting it far faster than it's being filled — just as the prospect of climate change-related drought becomes more evident.
The ABC News icon, who broke barriers for women in broadcast journalism and became one of the most revered interviewers and relaxing presences in television history over the course of more than a half-century on the air, is set to retire next May.
No, it's not your imagination: Almost half of the country is getting pounded with snow — even though we're a week into Spring.
The locals facing house arrest for threatening the victim online now have company in public shame — a prominent figure in town is calling into question the verdict and the victim's consent, while fans of Big Red continue to support a coach who may have known about the whole thing.
Time's new covers are great, but that we need them, regardless of the progress that's been made, means gay marriage hasn't, in fact, quite "won" yet. It won't have won until marriage is legal for same-sex couples throughout the U.S., and recognized federally, too. It won't have won until "gay marriage" is no different than any marriage.
New police documents were released today from the ongoing investigation into the Sandy Hook school shooting, including search records that reveal shooter Adam Lanza had amassed a gigantic home arsenal. Here's what they found.
Daniel Gross on the consequences of tax hikes, Jeffrey Toobin on the fight for gay marriage, Bob Garfield on the golden age of journalism, Jonathan Mahler on Florida Gulf Coast University, and Avik Roy on the right to health care.
This week, the news cycles has been consumed by the Supreme Court's oral arguments on two closely-watched legal battles in recent history, but unlike virtually every other news story on the planet these days, there were no images or videos because cameras are not allowed in Supreme Court proceedings.
Since the morning of Dec. 14 last year authorities have kept a tight lid on how much information was made public during the investigation into the Sandy Hook massacre. Thursday morning that will change. A court order to seal several documents related to the case is set to expire and when it does, the documents will be released.
Discovered: We may come from microscopic worms after all; men and women tell stories differently; having fewer children tied to living longer; we feel in 3D.
Lawyers for the Aurora shooter filed a motion in court Wednesday offering a guilty plea deal — acknowledging that Holmes is willing to spend life in prison without a chance for parole if it means avoiding the death penalty. Whether he can really avoid it will be determined very soon.
Tim McDaniel, an 18-year vetaran of the biology department at the public school in Dietrcich, Idaho, might have to figure out how to teach the miracle of life to his high-school students without saying the word "vagina" after a group of unhappy parents found the word offensive
From the details revealed in 2,700 pages of documents about the lead-up to Jared Loughner's attack on Giffords in 2011, it seems as though gun control advocates will find much more to strengthen their arguments than will the NRA.
A representative for Grey Group denies trying to fool Reddit with a heart-warming story on behalf of Olive Garden. Chief communications officer Owen Dougherty told The Atlantic Wire. "It would be against our social code of conduct."
The Supreme Court sounds like it maybe be ready to strike DOMA down, but new questions from Justices Anthony Kennedy and Sonia Sotomayor may leave a more sobering reality for advocates of gay rights: After this week's historic proceedings, the Court may not punt on California's Prop.8, and there may not be a sweeping overall ruling on the two same-sex marriage cases.
Two bills currently sit in the state's House of Representatives and Senate, both ready to enact harsh penalties on whomever might want to help you get high or sell you that purple alien-headed glass pipe you never knew you needed. Really, Florida?
Kate Losse on Sheryl Sandberg's Facebook feminism, Maureen Dowd on the legacy of the Supreme Court, James C. Capretta on explaining conservative economic policy, Matthew Yglesias on NIMBY-ism, and Jack Shafer on boy genius Nick D'Aloisio.
It's a very busy week for the troubled Pistorius clan in dramatic legal proceedings that aren't going away anytime soon and that continue to shed light beyond the obvious celebrity drama in South Africa.
Remember the old aphorism that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? It's not so pleasant when it happens to you! Or at least that seems to be the thinking of a lot of New York City chefs who've found themselves "ripped off," cuisine-wise.
A new report by the Environmental Protection Agency found that the majority of rivers and streams in this country can't support healthy aquatic life and the trend is going in the wrong direction.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
An attorney representing Jose Martinez says Disneyland has agreed to pay him $8,000 in damages after he was stuck on the famous "It's a Small World" ride for about 30 minutes in 2009.
After a brief standoff at the suspect's home late on Tuesday night, police arrested the man suspected for firing shots across his Tacoma neighborhood.
Discovered: Bull sharks can have two heads; women don't want to run for political office; Africa used to have penguins; gangs don't use the Internet.
If you took any random nine Americans matching the demographics of the Supreme Court, would they support making gay marriage legal?
Latinos! Kids! Soda! Cue the coverage of government spending in a time of sequester — and possibly some race-baiting photos to accompany said coverage. But let's take a few minutes to study this study with a little pre-emptive explaining.
The sponsor pushed out its latest Tiger Woods comeback ad last night on Facebook, where it's been shared more than 8,000 times, with messages of support and messages of disgust and general argument because, well, Nike's message is simple — and brazen.
Right now, people around the country and beyond are heading to their computers and looking up the word marriage. What does the definition of the word tell us about the current state of our view of marriage equality?
The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday, and here's the transcript, featuring key sections on support regarding the gay marriage ban — to get a sense of which way the justices might be leaning, or at least a better sense than you can from pundits.
The Riverside City Council in California wants to make it perfectly that when they offered $100,000 for the "arrest and conviction" of the fugitive cop-turned-killer, they meant arrest and conviction — not "burned to death in a mountain cabin."
It's been a while since we had a good, old-fashioned, Brooklyn-hippie-yuppie mocking grocery shopping story, but here we go again, thanks to the New York Daily News, taking all the Park Slope Food Coop tropes we've ever known and making them larger than life.
After the case in Steubenville and an ongoing situation in Torrington, the stories of three women who say they were raped at the University of North Carolina, including a new federal investigation looking into the school's response, bring to light a potentially very troubling sign rape culture in our schools may be more widespread than we thought.
As word streamed out from a confusing day, the tea leaves pretty much read that the Proposition 8 ban will likely not be struck down — and that the key justice, Anthony Kennedy, may push for the Court to dismiss Prop. 8 or hand it back to the lower courts in California, wary of "uncharted waters." Ladies and gentlemen — and ladies and ladies, and gentlemen and gentlemen — the Supremes aren't ready to rule yet.
In The New York Times' telling, the City Council speaker and mayoral hopeful who happens to be openly gay, is "temperamental and surprisingly volatile." The piece have some saying, "This story would never have been written if Christine Quinn was a man."
Amy Davidson on gay marriage, Nate Cohn on post-Iraq liberalism, Michael Pettis on risky banking, Josh Barro on "soaking the poor," and John Dickerson on Marco Rubio and Rand Paul.
Just in case no one understood them after all those other threats, the North Koreans announced today that their army is now on "combat duty posture No. 1." And the Spaniard behind the world's most ubiquitous propaganda machine is ready to explain.
This Tuesday is stressful — what with the Supreme Court tension and North Korea wanting to meet us at the flagpole at 3 p.m. It's all a bit much, really. So you should probably meet Pedro Quezada, the immigrant father from New Jersey who just won the $338.3 million lotto jackpot.
Tennessee lawmakers were relived to learn on Monday that a new sink in the state capitol, pictured above, is for the custodial staff to wash their mops and not, in fact, a special bath for Muslims to wash their feet before prayer.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
You probably saw this coming: Andrew Watkins, the former president of the Harvard quiz bowl team that was stripped of four championships for allegedly cheating, is denying that he actually cheated. But did he?
Historians, take note: On this day, which is not a day in 1732, a boundary dispute between two Southern states took a turn for the wet.
Unmanned attacks in countries like Pakistan have become an increasingly controversial and no less common reality — Pakistani officials reported another one by U.S. missile fire just this weekend. So what do all of the strikes look like broken down by the available data? They look like this.
Discovered: gay parents get viewed negatively; people support politicians who are vague about gun control; prostitute-seeking men are not, in fact, very common; excess choices increase risky decisions.
Even after pleas from their school officials and a week of national shame, the students of Torrington High in Connecticut are still taking to social media to defend one of the rape suspects who was the star of their football team.
In 1967, a liberal Supreme Court bucked public opinion in throwing out laws banning interracial marriage. When the current Supreme Court hears arguments on two gay marriage cases beginning on Tuesday, the opposite may occur.
In a surprise move that compounds the conversation on race and college admissions in America, the Supreme Court decided on Monday to hear the case of Michigan's Proposal 2, perhaps signaling that an already emotional ruling on affirmative action this week could give way to a more sweeping decision soon. As if the justices didn't have a busy enough week already.
If there is one consistent adult behavior over the years, it's freaking out about what horrifying, disabling, possibly forever damaging things teens are doing now. Such is the case with the "new teen body obsession": thigh gap. And the reactions might be getting worse.
There is a crucial update to a crucial story: The human responsible for the groundhog is taking the fall for Phil's incorrect (and apparently litigious) prediction that spring was on its way. And it may have worked.
A vial containing a potentially deadly virus has gone missing from a Texas laboratory. But you really shouldn't freak out because everything is going to be fine and it won't affect you, unless you have some very strange pets.
Yes, yes, the Florida Gulf Coast University story is interesting. Underdog and all that. But in our Bracket of Celebrity/Pundit Bracket Predictions — perhaps the most-watched bracket of brackets in the world — we have sad news to report. Our favorite Cinderella story didn't make the Elite Eight.
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