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38+ min ago (950+ words) Western Heights Public Schools spent millions on misguided expenses, overpaid and underpaid employees, and committed a litany of other financial mistakes, according to a state audit released Thursday, four years after outraged district residents and state officials requested it. The Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector's Office investigated the small southwest Oklahoma City district's 2019-2022 finances. Former Superintendent Mannix Barnes was in charge for much of that period until he was suspended amid a 2021 state takeover of the district. Barnes earned $1.13 million in total compensation from August 2019 through December 2022. State auditors deemed all of his earnings an improper expense because Western Heights' school board failed to approve his employment contracts in open meetings. Western Heights paid another $500,000 in legal fees to fight the state takeover and to defend Barnes in court. "This half-million dollars represents a substantial use of public funds on…...

53+ min ago (487+ words) NASA's Artemis mission aims to put humans back on the Moon in less than 2 years, and the China National Space Administration plans to follow suit soon after. As astronauts return to the lunar surface for increasing periods of time, they will need structures that shield them from the Moon's intense temperature fluctuations. In a day, temperatures can swing from 121C (249.8F) to "131C ("203.8F). A creative solution may lie in structures made from "mooncrete," a concrete analogue made from Moon rocks. Lunar regolith concrete (LRC) can effectively regulate temperature when exposed to dramatic fluctuations, according to new research that will be presented on 15 December at AGU's Annual Meeting 2025 in New Orleans. "Lunar regolith has silicon, it has oxygen elements, it has carbon. We have everything that we need to build," said coauthor Arup Bhattacharya, a building scientist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge....

1+ hour, 3+ min ago (1461+ words) From the birth of the agency that took on Southern Nevada's water crisis to the installation of a third straw at Lake Mead , a small but mighty woman has been there through it all: Pat Mulroy. And today, as an outsider to the stalemate between the seven Colorado River states that are running out of time to strike a deal that will last two decades, Mulroy isn't thrilled with the progress. "What I see missing is they have not figured out the one thing that really allowed a lot of the other discussions to move forward, which is that they enjoy a common fate," she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Tuesday. "The notion that one part of this river system will be better off than another part of the river system is ridiculous." But she understands the nuanced challenges…...

1+ hour, 15+ min ago (381+ words) A 16-year-old boy brought a knife to school and was fatally stabbed when another boy " allegedly his friend " tried to take it away from him, officials in North Carolina said on Thursday. "It can only be described in one word, senseless," said District Attorney Jim O'Neill, who also called the fatal stabbing "an accident," WXII reported. The incident happened Tuesday morning during what had been described as a fight between two students at North Forsyth High School in Winston-Salem, as CrimeOnline reported. The fight was captured on video " and officials pleaded with the community not to "share, like, or comment" on the videos out of respect for the families involved. Those videos were a key part of the investigation, as well as multiple witnesses, O'Neill said. "This was not an intentional act on the part of the 18-year-old. It was…...

1+ hour, 50+ min ago (619+ words) Inset: Kenyon Dobie (Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office). Background: The scene of the Dec. 5, 2025, stabbing attack that Kenyon Dobie was a victim of in North Carolina (WCNC/YouTube). A North Carolina man who has raised over $100,000 on GoFundMe after being stabbed on a light rail train last week is facing his own assault case now after being charged with allegedly socking his pregnant girlfriend in the face, causing a "facial fracture." He also allegedly threatened to kill the woman and her kids. Kenyon Dobie, 24, appeared in court Thursday for the alleged attack on the mother of his unborn child and 1-year-old son, with a no-contact order being issued following his release on bond with electronic monitoring, according to court records. Dobie has amassed more than $114,000 on GoFundMe as of Thursday evening after being stabbed on a Charlotte light rail on Dec....

2+ hour, 3+ min ago (810+ words) An Idaho legislative task force is preparing to propose a complete re-write of the state's child custody code. The Child Custody and Domestic Relations Task Force met Wednesday to discuss its legislative proposals compiled after hours of meetings with testimony from judges, attorneys, parents, social workers, advocates and others. "It's like we're playing catch up from years and years and years of problems," task force member Sen. Carl Bjerke, R-Coeur d'Alene, said Wednesday. The exact draft bill proposal wasn't available Wednesday. Co-Chair Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, said changes were still being made. There will also be a proposal to clarify that police must enforce violations of custody orders, and to require a wealthier parent to pay attorneys fees for the other parent in cases where there is a substantial resource imbalance. The proposed changes and a "white paper" report outlining…...

3+ hour, 2+ min ago (587+ words) After a three-week delay in the club's start caused by difficulty finding a new head coach, NYU's club flag football team is back on track for the fall. The team's new head coach, Polly Adler, renewed the club's hope in the season." "I'm excited to give back to the club because it's what got me started in flag football," Adler said. Last May, former head coach Anthony Velazquez failed to submit his renewal forms to keep his position on the team. After multiple attempts to contact him, players felt ghosted by Velazquez and ultimately had to drop him." "I just felt disappointed because that was not something that I expected to happen," Adler said. "The way [Velazquez] talked to the team last year, it sounded like he was going to stick around for years and help the club develop." Staffing…...

3+ hour, 13+ min ago (484+ words) When I was growing up in the suburbs of Denver, my family and I took a lot of road trips: quick weekenders into the Rocky Mountains; longer jaunts to Durango, Colo., or the Great Sand Dunes; multiday journeys to southern Oregon and back. Those drives allowed lots of time to observe the wide-open scenery and roadside attractions " and, punctuating those long stretches of freeway, the motels. Late last year, on the hunt for a story, I was surprised to find a widely agreed upon date when the first motel opened in the United States: Dec. 12, 1925. That was when the Milestone Mo-Tel in San Luis Obispo, Calif., turned its lights on, beckoning drivers traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles and in between to stop and stay the night. We never made it to Little America (a hotel, technically) " the location…...

4+ hour, 3+ min ago (458+ words) From above, the site resembles an enormous geometric tapestry. On the ground, it represents something more significant: the steady evolution of utility-scale solar from a niche technology to a central component of America's generating fleet. The Mesquite Solar Complex began in 2011 and has grown through five sequential development phases. Today, the facility delivers roughly 530 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity, supported by a 70 MW / 280 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery system. That combination is enough to power about 150,000 homes each year, depending on weather conditions and regional demand. The construction I thought I spotted from the plane wasn't a mirage. Mesquite is still expanding. In 2024, RWE added a 52.5 MW solar project and a 10 MW (40 MWh) battery system to the site. Additional parcels around the complex have also been approved for utility-scale solar development. Maricopa County authorized a land-use change in mid-2025 for new solar capacity…...

4+ hour, 14+ min ago (190+ words) A van driver has been rescued from flood water after his vehicle became stuck. Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to a road near Melverley at 13:56 GMT on Thursday and was able to lead the man to safety. It has reminded motorists of the dangers of driving on flooded roads and advised them to avoid flood water where possible. On Friday there were four Flood Alerts covering Shropshire following heavy rain. The alerts covered land around the rivers Severn, Vyrnwy, Tern, Perry, Corve, Teme and Onny. The Environment Agency said water levels had peaked in most places, but they were likely to remain high and they could rise again. A string of bike and walking trails across southern Scotland have been closed for safety checks. A carcass thought to belong to a Tapanuli orangutan, the world's rarest…...