Officials are forecasting that hurricane activity will be "above normal" this season, with 13 to 20 named storms. As many as six of those could be major hurricanes. Warm ocean waters and the lack of El Nino conditions are partly to blame.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

There were hugs and tears, smiles and laughter: Parents and students from two schools destroyed in Monday's tornado in Moore, Okla., reunited Thursday with their teachers. The school district reopened all of its schools just for the day on what would have been the final day of classes before summer vacation.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Rep. Marcia Fudge, the head of the Congressional Black Caucus, says any immigration overhaul significantly boosting the numbers of highly skilled immigrants could negatively affect African-Americans with similar skills.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The Supreme Court justice and noted Yankees fan showed her baseball acumen Wednesday while presiding over a re-enactment of the 1972 case that challenged the sport's antitrust exemption.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The state is turning down an estimated $100 billion of federal funds that would have paid for health care coverage for more than a million poor Texans. For Gov. Rick Perry and the state's Republican-dominated Legislature, the potential appearance of supporting "Obamacare" was too much.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

In a major speech, the president rejects the idea that the country can fight an opened-ended "global war on terror." In setting his own guidelines, he defines the standards for using drone strikes and again calls for closing the Guantanamo Bay prison.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The tornado that devastated Moore, Okla., Monday destroyed some 12,000 homes, according to Oklahoma City Police. And for one family, it was the second house they've lost to a tornado in the past 14 years. Rena and Paul Phillips say that the recent loss won't make them move.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

In August, Hurricane Isaac's 12-foot storm surge plowed through cemeteries in Plaquemines Parish, ripping tombs off their foundations and displacing the remains of almost 200 people. About 60 are still unidentified, and at least one is missing.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

After Oprah Winfrey's friend and health adviser learned that 90 percent of the food on Maui is flown or shipped in from outside, he convinced her to turn a portion of her estate on the island into a farm. Winfrey is giving away the food she's now growing on 16 acres of land, but it may soon be for sale.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Itch can be a useful warning sign, or a maddening symptom with no cure. But the origins of itch have long been a mystery. Scientists think they've come closer to understanding the origins of itch in a molecule that makes mice scratch like mad.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Itch can be a useful warning sign, or a maddening symptom with no cure. But the origins of itch have long been a mystery.Scientists think they've come closer to understanding the origins of itch in a molecule that makes mice scratch like mad.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Forecasters predict as many as six major hurricanes in the Atlantic this year due in part to warmer-than-average ocean temperatures.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Over the years, McDonald's has gotten a lot of flack for marketing to kids. At a shareholders meeting Thursday morning, Hannah Robertson, age 9, took the fast-food giant's CEO to task.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The virus's ability to move between these mammals might not bode well for humans. So far, it appears that H7N9 doesn't pass easily between people, but it could mutate over time and pose more of a threat.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Despite advances in predicting dangerous weather and better evacuation planning, some people still stay put when devastation looms. A study of deaths during Superstorm Sandy in 2012 raises a big question: Why didn't the people at risk move to higher ground?

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Central Oklahoma has been hit repeatedly by killer tornadoes. For many residents of the town of Moore, that history offers proof that they'll be able to rebuild, not evidence that they should leave.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Half a dozen temporary shelters have been set up for animals lost when a terrifying tornado hit Moore, Okla. One veterinary technician says, "It's pretty amazing anything could survive what happened, but animals are pretty resilient."

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The president said the death of Osama bin Laden and most of his top lieutenants, and the fact that there have been no large-scale terrorist attacks on the U.S. homeland, meant that a new policy was in order — one that concentrates on capturing, rather than killing terrorist suspects.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

A trend that was interrupted in 2006 and 2007 has resumed: Fewer girls are getting pregnant.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

Biologists said last week that they had overcome a major obstacle in stem-cell research by cloning human embryos. But several images in the published study were duplicated and labeled incorrectly, prompting questions about the authenticity of the results.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us