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Don Lindich/Takenjoy/TNS

Sound Advice: Golf rangefinder a hole-in-one gift idea and TV shopping tips

Quality $80 golf rangefinder: I wish I would have come across this sooner for Father's Day, but it is Father's Day gift giving that caused me to come across this nice golf rangefinder, which was recently introduced and getting good reviews. This is also a product category that I have been asked to cover, so a lot of readers should enjoy this as ...Read more

California 'strike team' aims to keep wolves from attacking cattle on ranches

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California wildlife officials may use “injurious” techniques to chase wolves away from cattle ranches in the state’s Sierra Valley and Siskiyou County rangeland this summer, part of a new program aimed at reducing wolf attacks on livestock, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

The pilot program, ...Read more

Jim Rossman/Jim Rossman/TNS

Jim Rossman: What to do when your cloud storage is full?

I got a question from a friend last week who received an email message from Apple about his iPhone.

The message read, “Your iCloud storage is full. Because you’ve exceeded your storage plan, your documents, contacts and device data are no longer backing up to iCloud and your photos and videos are not uploading to iCloud Photos. To ...Read more

Tribit/Tribit/TNS

Gadgets: A powerful portable speaker

Tribit's StormBox Lava portable wireless (Bluetooth 5.4) speaker is as advertised: powerful, great-sounding and portable.

The powerful bass-heavy, room-filling sound comes from 80 watts of internal speakers consisting of dual 30W neodymium magnet woofers and dual 10W silk dome tweeters. This adds up to the powerful, clear and crisp sound at ...Read more

Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Kangaroo hopping around Florida road highlights problems with exotic pets

ORLANDO, Fla. — The stunning sight of a kangaroo hopping down a busy St. Cloud road made headlines last month and, for the animal sanctuary that took in the wayward marsupial, provided another reminder that ordinary people owning exotic animals is not always easy or wise.

“I blame the internet for people getting a lot of things they ...Read more

Charley Gallay/Getty Images North America/TNS

Wearing a computer on your face? Snap looks to take on rivals with new augmented reality glasses

For years, Snap has envisioned a future where people wear glasses to view and interact with computer-generated images without having to scroll through their smartphones.

The Santa Monica, California-based tech company will soon see if its multibillion-dollar bet on augmented reality glasses has paid off.

Snap said Tuesday it plans to release ...Read more

Courtesy SpaceX/TNS/TNS

SpaceX plans up to 76 Starship launches annually from old Delta IV launch site

The first of two Environmental Impact Statements around SpaceX plans for Starship launch sites on Florida's Space Coast was released last week, and it lays out the company’s plans to fly as many as 76 times a year from Cape Canaveral Space Station.

The Department of the Air Force owns the property at Space Launch Complex 37 that was most ...Read more

SPACEX/TNS

SpaceX launches Starlink mission while Axiom Space waits out weather

Tuesday morning’s weather was nice enough on the Space Coast for one of two planned launches, but high winds in a potential abort site forced the human spaceflight plans of Axiom Space and SpaceX to push the Ax-4 mission from Kennedy Space Center to at least Wednesday.

The payload of 23 Starlink satellites on another SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

'PayPal Mafia': How power trio of Musk, Thiel and Sacks rode Silicon Valley startup success into Trump White House

First Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and David Sacks upended America’s financial-services industry with an innovative Silicon Valley startup called PayPal that rocketed to dominance as the internet took hold.

Now the conservative billionaires have leveraged the power, wealth and connections that grew out of their membership in the “PayPal Mafia” ...Read more

California's Salton Sea is emitting foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide gas, triggering health concerns

LOS ANGELES — On scorching days when winds blow across the California desert, the Salton Sea regularly gives off a stench of decay resembling rotten eggs.

New research has found that the shrinking lake is emitting the foul-smelling gas hydrogen sulfide more frequently and at higher levels than previously measured.

The findings document how ...Read more

Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Apple debuts Liquid Glass interface at design-focused WWDC event

Apple Inc. unveiled a new operating system interface called Liquid Glass at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, an event that focused heavily on aesthetics and design elements rather than software breakthroughs.

For the first time, the same interface will work across the company’s products, executive Alan Dye said Monday during a ...Read more

NASA/NASA/TNS

Amid Musk threat to decommission SpaceX Dragon, NASA reveals more Boeing Starliner delays

As the fracas between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump escalated last week to the point of Musk threatening to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, NASA revealed even more delays to Dragon’s alternative, Boeing’s Starliner.

“NASA is assessing the earliest potential for a Starliner flight to the International Space Station in ...Read more

Rob Nikolewski/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

This California company converted a diesel tugboat to electric power

CHULA VISTA, California — It took some work and cost a pretty penny, but a Chula Vista boatbuilding and repair company recently converted a tugboat from diesel power to all-electric at its shipyard that covers 1 million square feet of land and water on San Diego Bay.

“Electrification in maritime is important,” said Todd Roberts, president...Read more

Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group/TNS

California tsunami: Here's where damage and casualties could be the worst

Tsunamis pose a risk to the entire California coast. But should a major one strike, how bad could it be?

A single tsunami likely won't cause the worst-case scenario for every region. But in total, more than 680,000 Californians are in a tsunami hazard area during the daytime. And in all, $12.6 billion in damage is possible across California's ...Read more

Bastien Inzaurralde/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

On 7-5 vote, Southern California Air Quality Management District rejects gas appliance surcharge aimed at improving air quality

LOS ANGELES — On a 7-5 vote, the South Coast Air Quality Management District on Friday rejected controversial measures aimed at reducing air pollution by imposing surcharges that could make natural gas-powered water heaters and furnaces more expensive to buy.

In voting to deny the measures, AQMD board member Janet Nguyen said the rule would ...Read more

Handout/SpaceX/TNS

Axiom Space's record-setter to lead astronauts from 3 nations on private mission

Peggy Whitson has spent nearly two years of her life in space as an Axiom Space employee and former NASA astronaut.

Next week she’ll lead a mission with three men representing countries that haven’t sent anyone to space in more than four decades.

Whitson, 65, will command the Ax-4 mission targeting liftoff as early as 8:22 a.m. Tuesday ...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Lethal algae bloom is over, but sickened marine mammals aren't safe yet

LOS ANGELES — It was one of the largest, longest and most lethal harmful algae blooms in Southern California's recorded history, claiming the lives of hundreds of dolphins and sea lions between Baja California and the Central Coast. And now, finally, it's over.

Levels of toxic algae species in Southern California coastal waters have declined ...Read more

Seals playing computer games for science reveal how they navigate in murky water

One by one, Nick, Luca and Miro took their places in front of a screen at a German research lab to participate in a video game for science.

The task was straightforward. While viewing a simulation of moving through the ocean, the subjects would touch a red target on the left if they thought they were moving left, and a red target on the right ...Read more

Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Wildlife rescued from Baltimore harbor as officials work to clean oil spill

BALTIMORE — As efforts to clean thousands of gallons of oil from waters near Baltimore’s Harbor East continue, officials are working to rescue turtles and other wildlife from the affected areas. Officials say that the leak originated from diesel tanks that supplied fuel to the Johns Hopkins Hospital care facilities.

A.J. Metcalf, a ...Read more

Lin Wei/Xinhua via ZUMA Press/TNS

Here's how Canadian wildfires are impacting Michigan air quality

DETROIT — As Canadian wildfire smoke continues to drift south toward the United States, air quality in Michigan worsening, prompting officials to issue warnings.

The Michigan Air Quality Division issued an advisory Thursday for elevated levels of fine particulate (PM2.5) in the eastern Upper Peninsula and all counties in the northern Lower ...Read more