Latest Stories

Inside of vault described in polygamist tria in Texasl

By TRISH CHOATE, Scripps Howard News Service

ELDORADO, Texas - When it came time to pick a Texas Ranger to wiggle through a little hole into the Temple Annex vault of the YFZ Ranch in April 2008, Sgt. Jesus "Jesse" Valdez was the one.

13-year-old in Calif. struggles with albinism

By CHERI CARLSON, Scripps Howard News Service

VENTURA, Calif. - Carolina Canosa turned 13 this year. She has "Twilight" posters hanging on her bedroom wall and loves the Jonas Brothers, manicures and frozen yogurt, like any other teenager.

Carolina also albinism -- a condition that results in vision problems and little color in her skin, hair and eyes -- and that's what people always seem to notice first.

Video Patrol: 'North by Northwest' better than ever

By BRUCE DANCIS, Scripps Howard News Service

"That's funny." (Man at prairie crossing)

"What?" (Roger Thornhill, played by Cary Grant)

"That plane's dustin' crops where there ain't no crops." (Man)

Motorized recliner with a DUI record goes back on eBay

By MARY LYNN SMITH, Minneapolis Star Tribune

The police auction of a souped-up motorized recliner, confiscated because the owner was drunk, is back on track, now that the La-Z-Boy company's concerns have been satisfied.

Randall: Bad girls wink at trouble

By SHARON RANDALL, Scripps Howard News Service

Here's to the Bad Girls, bless their hearts, who make all the Good Girls look good.

There's one in every family. You know who she is. She's the topic of conversation at every family table where she shows up late, or not at all, peddling some excuse nobody will buy.

Good places to eat and shop in Tokyo

By MARLENE PARRISH, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

TOKYO - Practice your chopstick skills before you go to Tokyo, although all restaurants keep at least a couple of forks set aside.

-- Unagi donburi. Donburi means "food arranged on steamed rice." Unagi is eel. Some people freak out because eels look like, um, snakes. Cooked, it's just a piece of fish, sweet-sauced and served over rice, often with shredded omelet to the side. Delish.

Sophisticated toilets in Tokyo

By MARLENE PARRISH, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

TOKYO - "Birds do it, bees do it, even all the Japanese do it ..."

Apologies to Cole Porter.

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore. Nope, we're in a bathroom in Tokyo about to alight on a (ital) ne plus ultra (end ital) electric toilet. In America, we sit, we go, we wipe, we flush.

Fun things to do in Tokyo

By MARLENE PARRISH, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

TOKYO - Tokyo is huge. If you stand on the top level of the highest skyscraper and do a 360-degree turnabout, you will see city to the horizon. It has parks, but no suburbs. High-speed roadways run through canyons of architecture, but numerous side streets, large and small, define neighborhoods, and each 'hood has its own main street and koban, police station cubicle.

Comics: Johns returns Superboy to Legion of Super-Heroes

By ANDREW A. SMITH, Scripps Howard News Service

Forget turning lemons into lemonade. I'm beginning to think writer Geoff Johns can turn lemons into fine wine.

Johns has gained a reputation for fixing characters that have become radioactive because various revamps have made their histories too convoluted. He did it with Hawkman, he did it with the 1960s Green Lantern and Flash, and now he's doing it with the Legion of Super-Heroes.

GameOn: 'Crack in Time,' 'Motorsport 3' big hits

By CHRIS CAMPBELL, Scripps Howard News Service

Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time

Platform: PlayStation 3

Genre: Platformer

Publisher: Sony

ESRB Rating: E for Everyone

Grade: 4 stars

A favorite recipe for limeade pie

By ELLEN FOLKMAN, St. Petersburg Times

Limeade pie is a favorite of many cooks. Donna Lesser of Tampa, Fla., has been making it for 30 years. She says it's a great last-minute dessert. This limeade pie whips up quickly, but you must consider about a two-hour refrigeration time before serving. Be sure to completely combine the limeade and sweetened condensed milk. This will take longer than you think.

Roasted bone marrow is a rich primal repast

By JANET K. KEELER, St. Petersburg Times

Could the time have finally arrived for roasted bone marrow to be served in every household on Sunday nights?

Bad boy chef Anthony Bourdain calls the Roast Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad at London's St. John restaurant his "death row meal." That's high praise for a man who has eaten his way around the world a few times.

Schram: Rise and fall and rise again of Obama

By MARTIN SCHRAM, Scripps Howard News Service

Looking back, we can see how the Remarkable Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Barack Obama really began months ago, way back in November 2009.

U.S. citizens now showing up at day-labor hiring sites

By TIMOTHY PRATT, Las Vegas Sun

LAS VEGAS - In the latest sign of the economic free fall, U.S. citizens are starting to show up in the early mornings outside home improvement stores and plant nurseries across the Las Vegas Valley, jostling with illegal immigrants for a shot at a few hours of work.

Experts say the slow starting but seemingly inexorable trend is occurring nationwide.

Dear TripAdvisor: Approaching celebrities...airplane snorers

By LESLEY CARLIN, TripAdvisor.com

Q: I'm going to L.A. next week for the first time. If I see a celebrity in a restaurant, is it OK to say hi? Can I ask for an autograph or photo?

By DYLAN DARLING, Scripps Howard News Service

N. Calif. water picture grows worse each day

Northern California water managers are growing increasingly uneasy with each winter day marked more by sunshine than rainfall.
"It's shaping up to be about as challenging a year as water managers in California have ever had," said Jeff Sutton, general manager of the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority.

Read more |

Dispute over recreational gold mining on Klamath River

An American Indian tribe from the Klamath River has petitioned the state to ban a popular form of recreational gold mining on parts of the river and many of its tributaries.

Cloud seeding plan in California sparks debate

A power company's plans to amplify snowstorms in northern California have sparked a debate about cloud seeding.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has installed seven propane-burning cloud seed "generators" -- collections of equipment that propel silver iodide particles into the air -- atop ridges in Siskiyou and Shasta counties.

Read more |

Calif. backs Native American tribe for federal status

State lawmakers have said the Winnemem Wintu Tribe should be recognized again by the federal government.But leaders of the small band of American Indians in northern California said the call will only be ceremonial unless it is heard by members of the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C., and the tribe gains recognition once again with the federal government.

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Calif. mine owner wants to build world's tallest statue of Jesus

Ted Arman has big plans for his Iron Mountain Mine and the acidic water that seeps from the federal Superfund site.

Read more |

Thousands of young trout and salmon die in California mishaps

More than 100,000 young fish slated to restock a lake and bay have died in California hatcheries in recent days due to malfunctioning equipment.The most recent mishap happened Monday, when about 75,000 Chinook salmon smolts, or juveniles, perished while being transported in tanker trucks from a fish hatchery in Anderson, Calif., to the San Pablo Bay near Vallejo.

Dead Wrong

A seven-month investigation into federal mortality records reveals hundreds of thousands of death certificates filed every year in the United States are wrong, meaning we don't really know what's killing Americans. A first-of-its-kind study also found that younger, well-educated and wealthy people are more likely to be autopsied when they die. More men than women are autopsied. And blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans are more likely to be autopsied than whites.

Autopsy rates differ by race, age, sex, education

Cause of death investigations often dead wrong

Accurate death certificates challenged by poor training

Poll: Doubts persist over accuracy of death certificates

Survey results among different groups

Death poll findings, by questions

What to do if you distrust the death diagnosis

Where to find death records

Deaths by heart disease by state

Editorial: We don't know what's really killing Americans