News

A tornado destroyed much of the town of Xenia in April 1974. The storm killed 33 people and injured hundreds. There are few signs of the devastation in Xenia today, but many residents still have vivid memories of the twister and its aftermath.

Environmentalists are focusing on big corporations to prevent the destruction of rain forests cut down for paper products. With help from some unlikely characters, they've scored a success against one of the world's largest paper companies.

Pledge 51 creates applications for Nigeria's low-tech cellphones. The company thinks it could grow its business with help from foreign investors, but Nigeria's low GDP has made that difficult. If the country changes the way it calculates this figure, that could help Pledge 51 bring in new investment.

Residents were outraged when The Times-Picayune cut its paper-and-ink edition to three days a week to focus on its website. Now the paper is facing a new competitor for the local media market — one based 80 miles away.

Interest rates on government-backed college loans are set to double July 1 — unless Congress agrees on a fix before then. The president is expected to urge Congress on Friday to block that increase.

The dose of radiation an astronaut would experience on a trip to Mars is higher than the annual limit set for workers at nuclear power plants. But Mars enthusiasts say the radiation threat isn't high enough to cancel the trip.

In 2004, Peter Obetz was in the middle of a divorce when he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He says the news was not only a wake-up call for him to change his life, but it also brought him closer to his friend Jeff Jarrett. He's been cancer-free since 2009.

As humans have cut into Brazil's forests, the toucan population has taken a dive. The trees, in turn, have changed, too: Without large-billed birds to eat fruit with big seeds, only trees with small seeds thrive. Eventually, one scientist says, "the impacts on the forest could be quite dramatic."

Elysha O'Brien calls herself a "Mexican white girl." Not just because of her ethnically ambiguous appearance, she says, but also because she can't speak Spanish. Fearing their children would experience discrimination if they spoke Spanish, her parents chose not to teach them their native tongue.

The clock is ticking for those who hope Illinois becomes the 13th state to legalize same-sex marriage. After passing the Illinois Senate in February, a bill to legalize gay marriage has stalled in the House. Backers are trying to get it through before the Legislature adjourns Friday night.