In my lifetime, I have adopted and found homes for more than 60 cats, five dogs and one red antelope. It breaks my heart that animals are homeless and on the streets, and that thousands every week are put to sleep because no one wants them. I can’t stress how important it is to have your animals spayed...

The New Year will soon be here, and you know what that means: more resolutions you won’t keep, again. Most people make the same New Year’s resolutions over and over, only to give up when March rolls around. The most common resolution is to lose weight, followed by quitting smoking, getting a better...

The “spirit bear” or “ghost bear” holds a prominent place in the stories and myths of indigenous people in North America. Stories about these creamy white bears spread from British Columbia to people in the area that is now the United States, where they were assumed to be mythological creatures. In...

Boston Scientific in Valencia is well known for the products it builds for its Neuromodulation Division. The company develops, designs and manufactures pulse generators that are implantable in humans and are used to eliminate pain. What most people probably don’t know is that the people Boston Scientific...

I’ve always wanted to live a completely sustainable life. My idea was to move to a ranch in Idaho or Montana. I’d have an orchard, a huge vegetable garden and stock animals, especially chickens. I used to love to fish, but now, I can’t kill anything at all. I even try to save bugs when they are...

I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving feast. Mine was spent with family, and the food was never-ending. Reflecting upon the history of the American Thanksgiving, I thought you might like to know where the idea came from. Many people will say the Native Americans and colonists wanted to celebrate their...

There are about 600 species of oak trees in existence, 90 of which live in the United States. Oaks can be found throughout Asia, Europe, Central America, India and Mexico. China has approximately 100 species of oak, and Mexico has 160 species. Many species of oak are threatened by extinction due to land...

The California condors are critically endangered. Although biologists have made huge gains in the condor population, they remain critically endangered. Historically, flocks of condors soared all across America from California to New York, from the far north into Baja. Today they inhabit coastal California...

Mojave National Preserve was established in 1994 through the California Desert Protection Act and is managed by the National Park Service. I was lucky enough to visit the area last weekend. I thought I’d been to every park in California, but then, I’d never heard of the Mojave National Preserve,...

A major portion of the Powerhouse Fire closure area in the Angeles National Forest has been lifted. Seventeen months after the wildfire decimated more than 30,000 acres of land (47.2 square miles) and destroyed nearly 60 structures including 30 homes, part of the fire closure remains in effect, especially...