May 16, 20253 min readTornadoes Expected to Strike Multiple States This Weekend in One of the Worst Seasons This DecadeTornadoes are predicted across swaths of the U.S. in the coming days, likely adding to this year’s already high tally of such stormsBy Meghan Bartels edited by Dean Visser Thomas Trott/Getty ImagesTornadoes threaten huge swaths of the U.S. this weekend amid a season already marked by unusually high storm activity, even as the National Weather Service faces budget cuts likely to impede its ability to respond to severe weather.What to ExpectThe National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center has forecast severe thunderstorms with scattered tornadoes—some of them intense—across parts of Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, Arkansas and Ohio for the afternoon and evening of May 16.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.“Today we’re expecting a severe weather outbreak across the mid-Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio valleys,” says Jenni Pittman, a meteorologist and deputy chief of the Science and Technology Integration division at the National Weather Service’s Central Region Headquarters. These regions stretch farther east than the historically prevalent “Tornado Alley” of the mid- to late 1900s.“Then we see a renewed chance for severe weather Sunday, continuing Monday and continuing Tuesday as well,” Pittman says. “A lot of the risks on Sunday through Tuesday are going to be from the High Plains pretty much through the Midwest.” National Weather Service maps show these risks concentrated in Kansas and Oklahoma.This weekend’s predicted tornadoes would follow a slight lull in the region, she adds. “We’ve had a little bit of a break here in May, which is typically a pretty busy severe weather month,” Pittman says. “April was very active, and the rest of May does look pretty active as well.”This Year in TornadoesAs of May 15, the National Weather Service has tallied 779 tornadoes in its local storm reports—a preliminary number but a helpful metric for tracking the season’s severity. For comparison, between 2005 and 2015, that same tally averaged 624; between 2010 and 2024, it was 592.“As of mid-May, the U.S. is running well above the typical number of tornadoes to this point in the year,” says Rich Thompson, chief of forecast operations for the Storm Prediction Center.This year to date also stands out against individual years. The most active tornado season of recent years was 2011, when hundreds of storms struck in late April; by mid-May the tally stood at more than 1,300 storms, with more than 2,200 by the end of the year.That year also demonstrated the close connection between just a few days of serious storms and a bad season. “Intense tornadoes are disproportionately responsible for damage, injuries and deaths, and such tornadoes are more common on a few ‘outbreak’ days,” Thompson says. “Thus, the number of outbreak days often determines the severity of the season, with 2011 being the prime example of multiple high-impact tornado outbreaks.”Overall, this year is more on par with last year, which had seen 815 tornado reports by this point in the season. Notably, one third of those storms have occurred during just three outbreak days in March and April, Thompson says.Matthew TwomblyWhat to KnowIf you live in an area where tornadoes are forecast, follow local weather and emergency response offices closely. In general, experts recommend having supplies available to shelter in place and having a safety plan for pets as well as humans. Pittman also recommends that people have multiple ways to stay on top of weather alerts (such as through broadcasts on television and on battery-powered radios, outdoor sirens and fully charged mobile phones).During an event, the National Weather Service recommends that people living where a severe thunderstorm watch is active head to “an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building.”If you’re caught away from shelter, the calculus becomes more complicated. In a vehicle, if a storm is still at a distance, you may be able evade it by driving at a right angle to the tornado’s apparent approach. If already caught in the winds, park instead, and either keep your seat belt fastened and protect your head and neck or get out of the car if there’s someplace safe to lie below the elevation of the roadway. Avoid sheltering under bridges, however, which don’t offer much protection, experts note.

His girlfriend Taylor Swift may own homes on both coasts, but Travis Kelce’s house is located a bit closer to his office, so to speak. The NFL star has played for the Kansas City Chiefs since 2013 and currently resides in a $6 million mansion in Leawood, Kansas.The Cleveland, Ohio, native was first romantically linked to Swift in 2023, when he attended her concert at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City and spoke about her on New Heights, the podcast he hosts alongside his brother, fellow football star Jason Kelce. Swift subsequently attended a few of Travis’s football games, and by October of that year the pair were seen holding hands at an SNL party, confirming their romance. Kelce purchased his current home not long after this—and it feels safe to say that his newfound need for additional privacy may have been a factor in his decision to upgrade his digs.Not much is publicly known about where the tight end lived in the early days of his NFL career, but below, we unpack what we do know about Kelce’s real estate investments.Suburban starter homeIn 2019, Kelce paid $995,000 for a 10,000-square-foot house in a Kansas City neighborhood known as Briarcliff West. The property was built in 1995 and has everything a suburban home should: three bedrooms, five bathrooms, a pool, wine cellar, theater room, and a backyard fit for entertaining. Though he’s since upgraded, it seems that Kelce still owns this pad.Private, wooded mansionTaylor Swift went onto the field to congratulate Travis Kelce after the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl this year. Photo: Michael Owens/Getty ImagesKelce’s most recent property acquisition came right after he was publicly linked to Swift—and therefore needed a bit more privacy. The $6 million mansion is located in the desirable suburb of Leawood, Kansas, which is about a 20 minute drive southwest of Arrowhead Stadium, where the Chiefs play. With 17,000-square-feet and nearly 3.5 acres to sprawl out, the grand estate is nothing short of spacious and secluded. The castle-like stone home was built in 1998 and has six bedrooms and six bathrooms, plus a six car garage, wine cellar, tennis and pickleball courts, a miniature golf course, and a pool that the listing referred to as “Beverly Hills–style,” according to Realtor. In October of 2024, the Daily Mail reported that Kelce was in the process of adding a 396-square-foot underground space to the home, which would house a golf simulator.

The Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) awarded the Thaden School in its fifth iteration. The 30-acre middle and high school campus in Bentonville, Arkansas, was a collective design effort by Marlon Blackwell Architects, EskewDumezRipple, and Andropogon Associates. The project pulls directly from the rural vernacular of the Ozark region. Thaden School beat out steep competition for the prize, including an aquarium in Mexico by Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO, a veterinary office in Argentina, an expansive park in Mexico, and an old pumphouse that was turned into apartments in Canada. The biennial MCHAP prize “acknowledges the best built works of architecture in the Americas.” It is awarded by the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) College of Architecture and announced at a benefit held in Crown Hall, the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe–designed building on the IIT campus. Over 250 submissions were received for nomination to the 2025 Americas Prize. These were whittled down to the five finalists. As in past years, the jury visited each of the finalist projects and met with the designers and clients before settling on the Thaden School as the winning project. All of the new campus buildings are connected with the landscape. (Tim Hursley) The 2025 MCHAP Americas Prize jury was headed by industry professionals, hailing from across the Americas. It was chaired by Maurice Cox, former Commissioner of the City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development. Cox was joined by Giovanna Borasi, director, Canadian Centre for Architecture; Gregg Pasquarelli, founding principal, SHoP Architects; Mauricio Rocha, founder, Taller | Mauricio Rocha, and the 2023 Americas Prize recipient; and Sofia von Ellrichshausen, founding partner of Chilean firm Pezo von Ellrichshausen. MCHAP Director Dirk Denison remarked about visiting the projects and complimented each of the five finalists. “Traveling together, I witnessed firsthand the incredible insights each jury member brought to these five standard-setting works,” he said. “All the finalists emerged organically from needs and demands of their immediate contexts, with ingenuity and a synergy of creativity between the client and designer—a synergy that is the hallmark of so many MCHAP finalists.” The cafeteria at Thaden School is one of the many spaces faced with a large window overlooking the grassy campus. (Tim Hursley) Porches and screened passageways are among many architectural features that recall local vernacular. (Tim Hursley) The jury praised Thaden School for its rootedness to site and context. Connection with the outdoors is a core part of the school’s curriculum; the design team tapped into this with gabled structures that recall barn buildings, through screened porches, and attention to the landscape and grounds. “The building’s character shapes a campus steeped in the rural culture of its place—the barn, the porch, and the long and low farm buildings are artfully assembled into a new academical village that powerfully interprets the pedagogical mission of ‘youth learning by doing,’” the jury collectively shared in a statement. The campus comprises a number of buildings, each with a unique program, connected to one another via series of pathways. Among these is the Home Building, where communal spaces were located: the dining hall, library, bookstore, and lounges. The buildings have low-lying profiles reminiscent of agricultural buildings as well as distinct, angular roof shapes as seen on the Bike Barn, the Arts and Administration Building, Performance Building, and others. Open-air passageways, garage-style doors, and large spans of glazing cement the connection with the rural surroundings. The low-lying buildings with gabled rooflines recall traditional barn architecture. (Tim Hursley) “The collaborative effort of the design teams read through this powerful composition,” the jury commented. “Space is both contained and open-ended, inviting the public to enter into the center of student life. The threshold between outdoor and indoor is made of outward-facing porches, covered passageways, and outdoor rooms. This flexible composition of the campus encourages learning, recreation, farming, and civic gathering.” Several of the Thaden School buildings have been recognized in AN’s Best of Design awards program in the education category. In 2021 EskewDumezRipple received recognition for its work on the Home Building. Marlon Blackwell was similarly applauded in 2020 for its design for Bike Barn, and then again in 2024 for the Performance Building. Last year, Taller | Mauricio Rocha won the MCHAP for Anahuacalli Museum. Other past recipients include, in 2014, Grace Farms by SANAA in New Canaan, Connecticut.

‘1 Out of Every 100,000’: This Rare Piebald Elk Is Turning Heads in Colorado With Her Unusually Splotchy Fur The female ungulate has white patches on her face and body, likely because of an uncommon genetic condition that affects pigmentation The female elk was spotted grazing and lounging around Estes Park, Colorado. Colorado Parks and Wildlife / Wayne D. Lewis via Facebook Elk are a common sight in Estes Park, the small Colorado town that serves as the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. Hundreds of the hoofed ungulates can be found roaming all over town and in the neighboring national park. They take over golf courses, cause traffic jams, wander into souvenir shops and lounge on lawns. But this month, one particular elk is turning heads, thanks to its unusual coloring. A female elk—called a cow—has been spotted grazing around Estes Park with patches of white fur peppering her brown coat, according to a Facebook post from Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW). The cow has piebaldism, a rare condition that results in unpigmented skin and hair in animals and humans. “This rare genetic trait occurs in about 1 out of every 100,000 elk,” according to the post.Piebaldism is an inherited disorder that affects the cells responsible for producing melanin, which contributes to hair, skin and eye color. These cells, which are called melanocytes, are missing in some areas for humans and animals with the condition. “Piebaldism is a recessive genetic trait that makes wildlife’s fur or facial features appear white and splotchy,” said Kara Van Hoose, a CPW spokeswoman, to KMGH-TV’s Landon Haaf earlier this year. “So, it’s really easy to pick out, but a little bit harder to decipher exactly what that is.” According to the National Library of Medicine, humans with piebaldism often have a patch of white hair near the front of the head, an area called the forelock. Their eyebrows, eyelashes and forehead skin may also be lighter in color, and they may have other patches of unpigmented skin throughout their body. Though piebaldism itself does not affect a person’s health, the unpigmented patches of skin can become sunburned more easily, leading to an increased risk of skin cancer. The piebald cow in Estes Park is unusual, but she’s not the first elk to be spotted with the condition in Colorado. In 2023, a wildlife biologist also snapped photos of a piebald cow near Montrose, a community in the southwest part of the state on the other side of the Continental Divide. Piebald deer and elk have also been seen in Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Oregon and beyond.Also this week, rangers at a park in Pittsburgh spotted a piebald robin, reports CBS Pittsburgh’s Madeline Bartos. The bird still has its iconic red breast, but its typically dark feathers are speckled with bits of white. The unusual robin, seen in Riverview Park, has partial leucism, a phrase that’s sometimes used interchangeably with piebaldism, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “This does not hurt the bird, except that it doesn’t blend in with its environment as easily as it would otherwise,” according to an Instagram post from the Pittsburgh Park Rangers. “Only 1 in 30,000 birds have leucism, so this splotchy robin is pretty rare and special.” Piebaldism and leucism are often confused with albinism. But albino animals typically have pink eyes, because the lack of melanin allows the color of their blood vessels to shine through. Leucistic or piebald animals, by contrast, usually have normal-colored eyes. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Margaret Hamilton (December 9, 1902 – May 16, 1985) was an American entertainer and educator, with a fifty-year career in entertainment spanning theater, film, radio and television. She was best known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West and her Kansas counterpart Almira Gulch in the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film The Wizard of Oz. A former schoolteacher, she worked as a character actress in films for seven years before she was offered the role that defined her public image. In later years, Hamilton appeared in films and made frequent cameo appearances on television sitcoms and commercials. She also gained recognition for her work as an advocate of causes designed to benefit children and animals and retained a lifelong commitment to public education. This photograph shows Hamilton as Miss Eddels in Sid and Marty Krofft's Sigmund and the Sea Monsters c. 1973. Photograph credit: NBC Television Network; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: Kiwifruit Lysander Spooner Cape Barren goose Archive More featured pictures

When arsenic is mentioned, many people associate it with a bygone poison. The type of quiet killer used in a murder mystery set on a train somewhere in Victorian England. It seems like a problem of the past.However, arsenic is a naturally occurring substance that can contaminate groundwater and food irrigated with tainted water. And in an alarming new study, researchers have found that climate change is impacting the level of arsenic that people are ingesting. Given that arsenic is a carcinogen, it’s primed to become a lethal killer. Billions of people are at risk of developing arsenic-induced diseases.Why Arsenic Levels are Rising in Rice In a 2025 study in The Lancet, an international team of researchers revealed the results of a study that measured two components associated with climate change — increased carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and surface temperatures — in rice paddies in China.“One important chemical aspect that has been known about rice is its ability to accumulate arsenic, leading to an important and crucial question: Can CO2 and temperature affect arsenic concentration, and if so, what are the health consequences?” says Lewis H. Ziska, an associate professor in environmental health sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. The study was the first of its kind. Although scientists have long understood how both inorganic and organic arsenic can make their way into food or water, they weren’t sure how climate change might influence arsenic levels.To find out, the researchers grew rice in controlled paddies in China from 2014 to 2023. To a certain extent, the research team expected to find some arsenic in the rice because it grows in flooded paddies and absorbs arsenic from the water.The research team also expected the CO2 levels and surface temperatures would increase because climate change scientists have charted a projection of the likely increase. But would increased CO2 levels and temperatures lead to higher arsenic levels? And what might that mean if people eat the tainted crop? Impacts of Eating ArsenicThe study found that the increased CO2 levels and temperatures indeed lead to higher concentrations of arsenic. The researchers’ rice paddies were representative of rice paddies in Asia, which means that what happened in their paddies is likely happening in others around the region.Higher arsenic rates in rice are a major health concern. Arsenic is a known carcinogen. When found in drinking water, there is an increased risk of bladder and skin cancer. Other studies have found that ingesting arsenic can lead to cancer in the digestive tract, hematopoietic system, kidneys, liver, or lymphatic system.Problematically, billions of people can now be considered at risk for arsenic-related cancers. More than half of the world’s population depends on rice as a staple food. Scientists are concerned that the increased arsenic in a staple food like rice could lead to a spike in future cancer cases throughout Asia.Rice Consumption in the U.S. But what does this mean for the U.S. food supply? Rice consumed in the U.S. comes from the Arkansas Grand Prairie, Gulf Coast, Mississippi Delta, or Sacramento Valley. These crops have not been tested by scientists to determine how CO2 levels and surface temperatures are impacting the arsenic concentrations. But if climate change can raise arsenic levels in Asia, Ziska says it can happen in the U.S. as well.“It seems likely given the biogeochemistry of how rice can accumulate arsenic when grown under flooded (paddy) conditions,” Ziska says.It’s a research area that Ziska says needs more attention, both in terms of long-term study support and public awareness. Many people don’t realize that climate change has the ability to alter the food supply by creating conditions that are ripe for toxins.“Climate change isn’t just about wildfires and sea-level rise and storms of the century. It’s also affecting a food staple — rice — that is consumed by half the world’s population every day. Maybe we should pay attention,” he says. This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:National Cancer Institue. ArsenicEmilie Lucchesi has written for some of the country's largest newspapers, including The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and an MA from DePaul University. She also holds a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Illinois-Chicago with an emphasis on media framing, message construction and stigma communication. Emilie has authored three nonfiction books. Her third, A Light in the Dark: Surviving More Than Ted Bundy, releases October 3, 2023, from Chicago Review Press and is co-authored with survivor Kathy Kleiner Rubin.

May 15, 20253 min readLawmakers Push to Legalize Emissions-Heavy ‘Supersonic’ PlanesA bill to repeal the ban on supersonic flights over the U.S. could increase the demand for the gas-guzzling jets from around a dozen to as many as 240By Corbin Hiar & E&E News The Concorde, seen above as it is returned to the Intrepid Museum last year, was last in commercial operation in 2003. Lawmakers want to help bring back supersonic flights by legalizing it in U.S. airspace, as United Airlines and others invest in the planemaking startup Boom Supersonic. Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesCLIMATEWIRE | Lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol are seeking to repeal a half-century-old regulation that prevents civilian aircraft from traveling faster than the speed of sound over the United States.The "Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act" could vastly increase the potential market — and emissions — of Boom Supersonic, a planemaking startup backed by United Airlines; Japan Airlines; and Sam Altman, the billionaire CEO of the artificial intelligence firm OpenAI.No commercial supersonic planes have been in operation since the Concorde ceased flights between New York and London in 2003. But aviation analysts estimate that the jets Boom is developing would consume at least two times more fuel per passenger than flying on commercial airplanes in operation now.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.The bill is from Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), whose state is home to Boom's manufacturing plant, and Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), the chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation. It's co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah and Tim Sheehy of Montana as well as Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas."Supersonic flight without an audible sonic boom should obviously be allowed," said Blake Scholl, Boom's founder and CEO, in statements released by the bill's lead sponsors. "I urge Congress to pass the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act supersonically, so we can all enjoy faster flights and maintain American leadership in aviation."The legislation would order the Federal Aviation Administration to scrap or update a 1973 regulation that prohibits non-military-related supersonic flight over the U.S. within a year of the bill's passage. It specifically calls for the agency to allow for civilian flights in the national airspace "at a Mach number greater than 1 so long as the aircraft is operated in such a manner that no sonic boom reaches the ground in the United States."The congressional push to undo the overland flight ban comes as NASA prepares to conduct its first test flights of a supersonic jet developed by Lockheed Martin to produce sonic "thumps," rather than booms, when traveling faster than the speed of sound. The United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization is also set to develop new noise standards that member states could adopt.In February, Boom completed a series of supersonic test flights in a prototype plane that it claimed did not produce sonic booms that were audible from the ground. The speed of sound, or Mach 1, varies based on atmospheric conditions but is generally around 767 mph at sea level.The following month, Scholl visited Washington to lobby Trump administration officials to repeal the supersonic flight ban, POLITICO Pro reported at the time.The International Council on Clean Transportation, an environmental research group, estimated in 2022 that dropping overland flight prohibitions for supersonic aircraft in the U.S. and other major markets could increase the demand for the gas-guzzling jets from around a dozen to as many as 240. The company has already reported inking deals with airlines to produce 130 planes.Boom is designing its engines to run on sustainable aviation fuel, which has a fraction of the carbon emissions of traditional jet fuel. But operating the supersonic jets with SAF would be uneconomic for most airlines given the higher cost of SAF and the greater fuel consumption required to break the sound barrier.Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.

The bird above is not your typical charismatic species. It’s no bald eagle, no peregrine falcon. It’s a groundbird known as the lesser prairie-chicken that lives in the southern Great Plains. It’s not even the greater prairie-chicken, another, related avian species, that’s a bit larger. Today, however, this bird is very much worth paying attention to. In 2023, lesser prairie-chickens — which are actually fascinating birds, not least for their ridiculous mating rituals — were granted protection under the Endangered Species Act, the country’s strongest wildlife law. Scientists say this protection is justified: The population of lesser prairie-chickens has crashed since the last century from hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of birds to roughly 30,000 today. Now the Trump administration is trying to axe those extinction-thwarting protections. In a motion filed earlier this month in a Texas court, the administration argued that federal officials made an error when listing prairie-chickens under the Endangered Species Act. The listing — which makes it illegal to kill or harm the birds, with a number of exceptions — should be tossed out, the administration said. The move isn’t totally unexpected. Prairie-chickens overlap in some areas with oil and gas drilling. And President Donald Trump has signaled that he will prioritize drilling over environmental safeguards. Yet it reveals that his administration will take extreme steps to undo wildlife protections if they stand in the way of his agenda. If his administration is successful in delisting the bird, it will signal that no endangered species is safe — especially those, like these chickens, that happen to live where fossil fuels are buried.Send us a tipDo you have a story idea or a tip to share? Reach Benji Jones at benji.jones@vox.com or at the secure encrypted address benjijones@protonmail.com. You can also find him on Signal at @benji.90.The dance of the prairie-chickenMale lesser prairie-chickens are extremely extra.Each spring, they come together in breeding grounds called leks to dance for females, hoping to attract them as mates. They inflate large sacs on their neck, flare yellow combs above their eyes, and raise wing-like feathers behind their heads. Then they stomp their feet and start booming, producing a noise that sounds like sped-up yodeling. (These are not to be confused with the greater sage-grouse, a bird in the same family that has a similarly spectacular display.)The Great Plains were once filled with these unusual dancing birds, which play important roles in grassland ecosystems: They provide food for raptors, spread seeds, and control insects. But in the last few centuries, prairie-chickens lost most of their habitat — largely to the expansion of oil and gas, commercial farming, housing developments, and, more recently, wind energy. Scientists estimate that the range of lesser prairie-chickens has shrunk by 83 percent to 90 percent since European settlement.“Grasslands are the most threatened ecosystem on the continent and in the world, and nowhere more so than in the southwestern Great Plains,” said Ted Koch, executive director of the North American Grouse Partnership, a bird conservation group. Facing extinction as a result of powerful industries, the prairie-chicken has been caught up in a game of political ping pong. The government first granted them federal protection in 2014. Then, in response to a lawsuit filed by an oil-industry trade group and several counties in New Mexico, the Texas court tossed out the listing in 2015. They were officially delisted in 2016. The suit argued that in granting federal protections the government didn’t adequately consider existing voluntary efforts, such as habitat conservation, to conserve the birds.Shortly after, the Interior Department — the government agency that oversees endangered species listings — reevaluated the bird and once again determined, under the Biden administration, that it is at risk of extinction, even with those voluntary efforts in place. In 2023, Interior added the chickens back on the endangered species list. That brings us to the present day, when these forsaken birds could once again lose protection. Trump moves to strip endangered species protections on a technicalityThe Trump administration is arguing that the Interior Department made a mistake when it recently listed the birds again. It comes down to a somewhat wonky technicality. Briefly, the Endangered Species Act allows the government to grant formal protection to a species or to a population of a species — if those populations are important on their own, and at risk. That’s what the Biden administration did: It determined that there were two distinct populations of lesser-prairie chickens and it granted each of them slightly different protections. One of the populations is in the northern end of the birds’ range, including Oklahoma and Kansas, and the other is in the southern reaches of its range, in Texas and New Mexico. Under the Trump administration, Interior claims that it didn’t provide enough information to show that the two bird populations are distinct. That’s reason enough to delist the birds, the administration argues, while it reviews their status over the next year. If the species is delisted — even temporarily — the government would be able to permit activities, such as energy projects, even if they might harm the bird and the endangered grasslands it’s found in. Male lesser prairie-chickens fight for territory at a lek in Edwards County, Kansas. Michael Pearce/Wichita Eagle/Tribune News Service via Getty ImagesAvian experts, meanwhile, say the reasoning behind the original listing — which was the result of months of work and more than 30,000 public comments — is sound, and these birds are very clearly in trouble. “The North American Grouse Partnership agrees completely that listing of chickens is warranted,” said Koch, a former biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the division within Interior that implements the Endangered Species Act.The move to delist prairie-chickens appears to be an effort by the Trump administration to skirt wildlife regulations that some perceive to stand in the way of the oil industry, said Jonathan Hayes, executive director of Audubon Southwest, a regional office of the National Audubon Society, a large environmental nonprofit. “Whether it’s true or not, this chicken symbolizes a challenge, or an impediment, to oil and gas development for industry,” Hayes told Vox. “We would expect this administration to push back on regulations that may or may not impact oil and gas. That’s what it feels like is happening here.” In a statement to Vox, the Interior Department said it has an “unwavering commitment to conserving and managing the nation’s natural and cultural resources…and overseeing public lands and waters for the benefit of all Americans, while prioritizing fiscal responsibility for the American people.”The new administration can quibble with the technical points of the listing, Koch said, but that will do nothing to change the reality: The bird is at risk of extinction and needs to be protected. “Whether somebody wants to engage in debate on technicalities is up to them, but simply and fundamentally lesser prairie-chickens are threatened with extinction,” Koch said. “Delisting lesser prairie chickens on a technicality is going to do nothing to address the underlying threat to these ecosystems.”The future for threatened species in the US There’s no guarantee that prairie-chickens will lose protection. The Trump administration’s motion to delist the birds came in response to a pair of lawsuits filed by both the state of Texas and groups representing the oil and livestock industries. The suits allege that the Interior Department made a mistake in splitting the birds into two distinct populations and failed to follow the best available information. (Interior’s spokesperson told Vox they will not comment on ongoing litigation.)Before Trump took office, the government was planning to defend its decision to protect the birds — and to split them up — in court, in response to those lawsuits. Now it’s reversing course and agreeing with Texas and the oil industry to toss out the listing.It’s possible that the judge overseeing this case could agree to remove protections, said Jason Rylander, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. In that case, groups like his would try to appeal to block the delisting. The court could also tell the government to review the bird’s status while keeping existing protections in place, Rylander says. What’s key here is that the decision to list lesser prairie-chickens involved a formal rulemaking process with public input. It’s not clear that the government can simply reverse its decision and yank federal protections without going through that process again.“The government can’t act in a capricious way,” Hayes of Audubon said. “It can’t just blow with the wind, and that’s exactly what it did here. They just changed their minds when the administration changed. I’m not sure how they will legally defend their complete 180.”But no matter how this plays out, this effort to delist lesser prairie-chickens puts other threatened species in an even more precarious spot, especially those that live in regions with oil and gas.One example is the endangered dunes sagebrush lizard. It’s a small, scaly reptile that lives in the Permian Basin of Texas, the largest oil-producing region in the country, and nowhere else on Earth.The state of Texas similarly sued the government after it listed the dunes sagebrush lizard as endangered last year. The suit — which asks the court to vacate the endangered listing — alleges, among other things, that the government didn’t rely on the best available data to evaluate the lizard’s extinction risk. That case is still pending, though environmental advocates fear that the Trump administration could side with Texas and claim it made a mistake when listing the lizard. Then there’s the beloved monarch butterfly. Following decades of population decline, the government proposed federal protections for the iconic insect late last year. Monarch habitat similarly overlaps with the oil and gas industry, as well as commercial farmland. Fossil-fuel groups have already asked the Trump administration to reconsider the listing. “As the Trump administration is in power, we can expect that endangered species protections are going to be under attack,” Rylander said. “I think there’s a chance we can stop this in court,” he said of efforts to delist the prairie-chicken, “but I think if we don’t, we will see more efforts to remand and vacate listings that they [the Trump administration] don’t want to have in place anymore.” It’s important to remember that wildlife protections benefit people, Koch said. And prairie-chickens are a good example. Most of the remaining birds live on sustainably managed, private ranchlands in the Great Plains, he said. Those lands — those working grassland ecosystems — are under threat from energy development and other industries that are more profitable. Saving prairie chickens means saving those lands. And saving those lands benefits the ranchers that live on them, he said.“The purpose of the Endangered Species Act is to conserve the ecosystems upon which we and all other species depend,” Koch said. “People depend on grassland ecosystems, and so do lesser prairie-chickens. We need to save grasslands for both of us.”See More:

He retired last year after 13 seasons playing starting center for the Philadelphia Eagles. And Jason Kelce’s houses reflect his ties to the area. Since retirement, the NFL star has kept busy hosting an ESPN talk show and the popular podcast New Heights with his brother, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end (and beau to Taylor Swift), Travis Kelce. Through it all, the Ohio native has continued to keep his primary residence in Pennsylvania, not too far outside of Philly, where he spent his entire professional football career. In 2022 Kelce bought a beach house on the Jersey Shore, where he can retreat to along with his wife, podcast host Kylie Kelce, and their four daughters.Read on to learn more about the athlete’s real estate portfolio.Pennsylvania compoundJason Kelce and his wife, Kylie Kelce, at the premiere of Kelce, an Prime Video documentary about the family, in 2023. Photo: Lisa Lake/Getty ImagesWhile playing for the Philadelphia Eagles, Kelce purchased a charming four-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Haverford, Pennsylvania, in 2018 for $680,000. The single-family home was built in 1959 and has original wood-burning fireplaces, vaulted ceilings with wood beams, and endless natural light. The football family’s home is nestled far back from the road on one acre of land, complete with a panoramic wraparound deck and in-ground pool. Jason and Kylie opened their doors for a mini tour in February 2024, when they renovated their children’s playroom with Pottery Barn Kids.In 2020, Kelce expanded the estate with the $3.96 million purchase of an eight-acre plot next door. Three years later, he paid $1.35 million to add on a third parcel. In February, the football star was granted permission from the local zoning board to build a fourth home and add a privacy fence around the compound, which now totals 10 acres.Jersey Shore beach houseIn 2022 Jason increased his real estate holdings when he bought a $2.2 million house in Sea Isle City, New Jersey, a beach town known for its laid-back family-friendly ambiance. Originally built in 1988, the 2,200-square-foot traditional-style home has four bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, and was completely renovated in 2017. With two wraparound decks and an abundance of windows and skylights, the three-story home offers endless views of the ocean and sandy shores of neighboring Ludlam Beach.

Look, up on the internet! It’s a clip, it’s a teaser… No! It’s the full Superman trailer we’ve been waiting for! After giving us bits and pieces, DC Studios has finally released a massive three-minute trailer for this summer’s Superman, written and directed by James Gunn. The sizzle reel finally gives a sense of the central conflict of the movie, in which Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) takes advantage of public opinion turning against Superman when he stops a war in foreign lands. We also are hinted that these actions create ripples within the Daily Planet newsroom and cause friction with the movie’s pseudo-Justice League. Also somehow Lex Luthor is able to invade the Fortress of Solitude where he wrecks things with a character called the Engineer! And if you don’t know who the Engineer is, boy do we have some details to reveal to you… “Ms. Lane,” 2025 Style For all the kaiju and extra meta-humans that he’s including in Superman, Gunn has always insisted that the movie is primarily about Superman and the triangle between Clark, Lois, and Lex. The trailer makes that point in its first scenes, which also call back to a beloved moment in the original Superman movie from 1978. Once again, we have Lois (Rachel Brosnahan) interviewing Superman (David Corenswet) to satisfy the world’s curiosity. But the tone is quite different from any version we’ve seen in the past. Owing perhaps to the already comfortable relationship between a Lois and Clark where she knows he is Superman, we see a feistier version of the Man of Steel. He almost gets defensive at Lois’ questions, with the hero insisting that he did good because it needed to be done, and that matters more than issues of international law. More importantly though, we get to see one of the most crucial parts of any Superman performance, the transformation between mild-mannered Clark Kent and the Man of Steel. That transition was pulled off beautifully by Christopher Reeve in the original movie where he became a totally different person within one unbroken shot. It is a favorite moment for many in that movie, including Gunn. Cut to 2025 and Corenswet does the same thing here, albeit it’s much more subtle. He’s slouched and sitting back when Clark agrees to let Lois interview Superman. But when it’s time for the interview to begin, he sits up and squares his shoulders. He gives a confident, hopeful look and drops his voice by an octave to begin. While not as pronounced as Reeve’s changes, the subtly matters. As demonstrated by the emphasis on Smallville here, with Pa Kent (Pruitt Taylor Vince) giving an inspirational voiceover, a job usually reserved for Supes’s Kryptonian father Jor-El, this Superman is both a son of Krypton and a son of Kansas. Neither is a fake. Both are his real identity and thus the lines between them will blur. Photo: DC Studios The trailer underscores Lex Luthor’s role as the ultimate big bad. Driven by jealousy and refusing to respect an alien, Luthor thinks his mistrust has been proven correct when Superman stops a war. However, the well-groomed CEO has got a lot of other heavy hitters to help him out, including a woman in black leather whose hands turn into blades as they destroy the Fortress of Solitude. That is the Engineer, played by María Gabriela de Faría, and she takes some explaining. The Engineer first debuted in 1999’s The Authority #1, written by Warren Ellis and penciled by Bryan Hitch. Part of the Wildstorm Universe, a comic book universe separate from the DC stable, the Authority were a collection of heroes who set themselves to making a better world by enforcing their will. Under the pen of Ellis and other writers, including Mark Millar and Grant Morrison, the Authority applied amoral realpolitik to superheroes, something antithetical to heroes such as the Justice League. In fact, the famed Superman story “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way” saw Superman stand up to and rebuke a team modeled on the Authority. However, when DC took full control of the Wildstorm line, they integrated the Authority into the DC Universe where they are heroes with questionable tactics. Judging by the trailer, Gunn plans to use the Engineer as more of a villain or at least antagonist. As in the comics, the Engineer has nano technology that allows her to change her body into a weapon, not unlike the T-1000 from Terminator 2. She’s clearly working alongside Lex here, but it’s hard to imagine that Gunn won’t have Supes teach the Engineer something about how to create a better world through inspiration instead of force. Photo: DC Studios Is That Ultraman? Bizarro? Joining the Engineer in the fight against Superman is a hulking male figure in all leather. We’ve seen this figure before, duking it out with Superman in a stadium. But this is the best look that we’ve had at him so far, and the best look we’ve gotten at the emblem on his chest. That “U” shaped design is familiar to comic book readers who recognize that as the emblem of Ultraman, the Superman of Earth-3. In the DC multiverse, Earth-3 is the evil dimension, in which Ultraman, Owlman, and Superwoman lead the Injustice League of America, taking the place of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman of the Justice League of America. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! However, Ultraman usually has no problem showing his face and often runs around in a blue and red getup, not this leather number. And he certainly wouldn’t take orders from a weenie like Lex Luthor. So who is that guy? Given his massive powers and his hidden face, smart money suggests that the figure is in fact Bizarro, a flawed but super-strong clone of Superman. It would follow that Lex would make his own version of Superman and, in a blow against his hubris, get it wrong. That origin has been used for Bizarro in the comics, and it would fit within the themes that Gunn seems to be exploring. Photo: DC Studios Rick Flag Sr. of the Creature Commandos One of the more confusing parts about James Gunn’s tenure as the co-head of DC Studios is that he’s doing only a partial reboot of the now defunct DCEU. Sure, Henry Cavill is out as Superman and it seems that the events of Justice League and Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice didn’t happen. But The Suicide Squad and Creature Commandos, or at least some version of them, did happen. Thus far the only bridge between these worlds is Rick Flag Sr., who is played by Frank Grillo. We first met Flag in animated form in Creature Commandos, where he was assigned by Amanda Waller to lead Task Force M. Throughout that series, Flag expresses sorrow at the death of his son Rick Flag Jr., who was played by Joel Kinnaman in Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad. Flag doesn’t get to do much in this trailer other than look very serious and escort Superman into custody, alongside the Engineer and maybe-Bizarro. But his sober expression suggests that he still has a mistrust of guys who take things into their own hands, owing perhaps to his anger at Flagg’s death at the hands of Peacemaker during the mission to stop the Thinker from exploiting Starro the Conqueror in Corto Maltese. Remember? Photo: DC Studios The scenes of Superman in custody apparently lead to images of him in a sort of prison made of cubed glass, reminiscent of Magneto’s holding pen in X-Men or the monster cages in The Cabin in the Woods. Initially we see soldiers beating on Superman within the prison. Later he seems to have gained the power to bust out. In between we get a shot of Metamorpho, one of the more highly-anticipated characters in the movie. Played by Anthony Carrigan, Metamorpho has the ability to turn himself into any element (including Kryptonite, maybe?), and we see a bit of that power at work when his hands start to dissipate in a strange way. Metamorpho is just one of the heroes who show up in the trailer, which also gives us better looks at Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) flying through the sky, Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi) using his T-spheres, and the Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) using his power ring in a particularly jerky way. But we also see glimpses of other figures in the prison, suggesting that there are somehow even more metahumans than we realized. It’s hard to see any of the others, save for the woman imprisoned in the cube to Superman’s left. There we see a blond woman in a pink dress who reacts in horror. On one hand, that might just be a regular lady in a pink dress who, for some reason, gets sent to the same jail as Metamorpho and Superman. However, the outfit doesn’t look too different from the one worn by a C-list fantasy hero called Amethyst. Created by writers Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn and artist Ernie Colón, Amethyst first debuted in 1983’s The Legion of Super-Heroes #298 and was soon spun off into her own comic. Amethyst is the princess of a magical place called Gemworld where she has high fantasy adventures. Amethyst has carried her own series from time to time but doesn’t enjoy the same level of popularity as even Guy Gardner. But if Gunn’s going to delve into different genres for his version of the DC Universe, Amethyst is a great way to bring more fantasy into the world of superheroes. Superman flies into theaters on July 11, 2025.