If you’re hiking or camping in the arid Southwest and West in the next few months, get ready for what could be the experience – or fright – of a lifetime.
Across the United States, in California, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas, tens of thousands of tarantulas will being crawling out of their burrows in search of females – making for a fascinating, if a little creepy – display of the wonders of nature.
It’s tarantula mating season.
“If you’re lucky enough you can sometimes see them in hordes crossing the roads at certain times of the year,” said Dan McCamish, a senior environmental scientist with California State Parks.
His advice? Leave them alone.
"It’s a wild animal – it doesn’t want to be picked up and loved and hugged,” he said. “In general the species is very docile, but if you were to handle one they could bite you.”
A federal judge blocked enforcement of a provision in President Donald Trump's recently enacted tax and spending bill that would deprive Planned Parenthood and its members of Medicaid funding, saying it is likely unconstitutional.
In a tent by the Mediterranean Sea, Hidaya Al-Motawaq cradles her crying baby boy and tries to offer what comfort she can. "Khalas," she murmurs repeatedly. "Khalas, khalas." Enough, that's enough.
An investigation has been triggered after a three-year-old boy died after being left in a hot car by a contractor for the state human resources department in Alabama.
Tom Lehrer, the popular and erudite song satirist who lampooned marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War, then largely abandoned his music career to return to teaching math at Harvard and other universities, has died. He was 97.
Israeli forces intercepted the Gaza Aid Flotilla ship, the “Handala,” minutes before midnight local time on Saturday and took the 20 passengers on board captive, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
