Lastest Stories by Maria Wood

Nationwide, 207.7 million people, or 62.5% of eligible U.S. residents age 5 or older, were fully vaccinated as of Jan. 9, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID Data...
The omicron variant accounted for more than 95% of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. in the last week of 2021, according to recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. Although omicron...
The National Park System comprises 63 national parks and over 350 national park sites that stretch over more than 84 million acres. Dotting across all states and U.S. territories, the sites range...
“Urban park” may seem to be a contradiction in terms. When you think of a city park, you likely picture a small, flowering lot squeezed between two skyscrapers. It’s natural to think that,...
Americans over the past century have followed the old adage about “Go West, young man.” Beginning just after the turn of the 20th century, the West’s population soared, growing from nearly 7.1...
Despite the pandemic in 2020, 237 million people trekked to one of the nation’s more than 400 national park sites, the National Park Service reports. To make that trip, most drove or flew hundreds...
While COVID-19 kept many people at home for another year, more than seven million households moved to another county in 2020 — almost half a million more than moved in 2019. Over the same period,...
It’s easy to see why humans like to drink. Sipping wine, beer, or a mixed drink occasionally releases endorphins, natural opiates that calm us and uplift our mood. After a stressful day at work, a...
Most people probably don’t realize it, but history might be practically in their backyard or just around the corner. Many towns and cities around the country are home not only to historical sites...
Many parents aim to give their child a name that will set them apart from the thousands of Johns and Jennifers in their classrooms and on their playgrounds. But they also don’t want a name so...
When analyzing population shifts in the U.S., we tend to focus on larger trends of how many and where. For example, according to the 2020 census, all regions of the country recorded population growth...
Hollywood laid an egg in 2020, but a happier ending may be written in 2021. To halt the spread of the COVID-19 virus, moviegoers avoided large venues like movie theaters and some film houses closed...
There are a number of “best movies” lists. The most famous is probably the American Film Institute’s “100 Years–100 Movies”. The online movie and TV review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has...
Plastics, plastics, everywhere — and a lot of the plastic products we use and discard end up as waste in our landfills and waterways. The American Chemistry Council recorded 35.7 million tons of...
Being your own boss can be exhilarating — and risky. An entrepreneur is defined as a solo business owner, which means you reap most of the rewards if successful but shoulder all the downside if...