Cristine Russell

As countless creatures remain undocumented, a study offers an answer to a longstanding scientific mystery… More »

Two journalists find a perfect marriage theme in the trappings of print media, from typewriters to notebook-and-pen party favors… More »

Madelyn Pugh Davis, pioneering television writer, author, and role model for women everywhere, has passed away at the age of 90… More »

What you need to understand about the situation as it unfolds… More »

News reports about the nuclear accidents in Japan are using "meltdown" indiscriminately, creating excessive fear… More »

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, and the government's clumsy response, both resemble the 1979 U.S. nuclear disaster… More »

As the car darling of the 2011 Detroit auto show, can this electric vehicle change American driving habits?… More »

The founding administrator of the EPA is concerned about the agency's work now that the Republicans have assumed control of the House… More »

A new study reveals the polarization of voters on this issue. How will the coming elections affect the bill?… More »

The man who took on tobacco in the 1960s reflects on how smoking culture has changed since the days of Mad Men… More »

This week the scientific father of the test-tube baby won the Nobel. A look at how in vitro fertilization has affected parenthood.… More »

Some grumble that Earl was over-hyped, but it's better to be safe than sorry… More »

A dispatch from the island as the community awaits the storm… More »

What the late lion of the Senate would have thought about health care passing… More »

CHICAGO -- The world may wear green on St. Paddy's Day. But Chicago holds the bragging rights for ushering in this global Irish holiday by dyeing its central river green -- bright emerald green -- before the annual St. Patrick's Day parade here.Today, inspired by the presidential occupants' Chicago ties, the White House also jumped into the act by pouring green dye into the South and North lawn fountains for the second year in a row.Watching the river turn green…… More »

You've got to love a "local" paper that takes the tabloid staples of love, sex and scandal and runs with them.… More »

As you ring in the New Year, take your glass of champagne and toast the blue moon in the sky above. It's a once in a generation thing, a special astronomical happening that reminds us that while life is highly unpredictable, the heavens are not.Tonight's New Year's Eve blue moon is the first since 1990. Another won't roll around for another 19 years. So the time to celebrate is now. I'll walk outside tonight as the clock strikes twelve, bundled up and looking for…… More »

The small island states that could slowly go underwater from climate change had mixed reactions to the weak international accord that came out of Copenhagen. The US-led political deal hammered out at the end by President Obama and the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa fell far short of what the vulnerable islands and other developing countries had pushed for in terms of setting binding commitments to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and holding…… More »

Like canaries in the coalmines of yore, low-lying islands in the midst of the world's vast oceans face the possibility of extinction. Rising waters from global warming could literally drown many of them in the decades to come. At the climate change conference in Copenhagen, voices from these vulnerable island nations--places like Tuvalu in the Pacific and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean--are singing loudly and persistently to be heard at the 12 day United Nations…… More »

"Put your right hand in, put your right hand out..." Okey dokey. Before you "wiggle all about," how about a moment of silence for the Hokey Pokey and one of the songwriters credited with coming up with it? Guitar and banjo player Robert Degen, who died recently on his 104th birthday, did not exactly create a cure for cancer, hunger, or war. But amidst all the world's troubles, it's worth considering how much his Hokey Pokey could contribute to global happiness and…… More »