Reading archive 2024-02-28

How drinking coffee may lower your risk for diabetes

Over 100,000 Michigan primary votes were ‘uncommitted.’ What does that mean?

‘Dreadful’ Wonka-themed children’s event leads some guests to call police: The organizer behind ‘Willy’s Chocolate Experience’ apologized for the ‘sheer and utter disappointment’

South African city copes with climate change by chopping down trees - "More than two-thirds of South Africa’s 20,400 plant species are found nowhere else in the world, said Karen Esler, a distinguished professor of conservation at Stellenbosch University. Invasives have already driven at least seven of the Cape’s plant species extinct, and 14 percent are in immediate danger of extinction, she said, adding that if native species are lost, local ecosystems will be even more disrupted by climate change."

A simple way to get microplastics out of your water: New research found that boiling drinking water can remove up to nearly 90 percent of microplastics

How to hang art and photos to please the eye and the brain: Consider height, symmetry and balance for the most appealing result - "A more dependable rule of thumb, says Linda Kafka, founder of the Science in Design Academy in Toronto, is to hang pieces so that their centers are 56 to 60 inches above the finished floor. And if the art is going over furniture, aim to hang it eight to 10 inches from the top of the sofa or whatever piece is beneath it, she says."

Mike Johnson is again staring down a government shutdown — and his conference: The House speaker is juggling competing demands from his members while trying to strike a deal to keep the government open

Mitch McConnell to step down as Republican Senate leader in November: ‘I have many faults. Misunderstanding politics is not one of them,' McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday

The green revolution sweeping Sweden

Suspect in Md. toddler’s killing had been released despite ICE detainer: Montgomery County officials said Nilson Granados-Trejo was arrested last year on theft charges, which did not meet the threshold for county enforcement of ICE detainers.