Working poor on Minden Street exhausted after Harvey

AP Photo/Gregory Bull HOUSTON (AP) — Like many of his neighbors on flood-ravaged Minden Street, Lino Saldana knows if he doesn’t work, he doesn’t get paid. As volunteers helped him rip out waterlogged, moldy drywall and carpet from his wrecked home, adding to piles of debris along the street that have grown to five feet, Saldana was asked if he…

AP EXCLUSIVE: Toxic waste sites flooded in Houston area

AP Photo/Jason Dearen HIGHLANDS, Texas (AP) — As Dwight Chandler sipped beer and swept out the thick muck caked inside his devastated home, he worried whether Harvey’s floodwaters had also washed in pollution from the old acid pit just a couple blocks away. Long a center of the nation’s petrochemical industry, the Houston metro area has more than a dozen…

From Isaac Asimov to Aimee Mann, ‘robophobia’ plagues humans

AP Photo/David Bookstaver CINCINNATI (AP) — Robots are secretly plotting to kill us. Or enslave us. Or, at best, they will take our jobs, one by one. From science fiction written by Isaac Asimov eight decades ago to “Dilbert” cartoons today, the relationship between robots and humans has long fascinated – and worried – people. There’s even a term, “robophobia,”…

From Isaac Asimov to Aimee Mann, ‘robophobia’ plagues humans

AP Photo/Fabian Bimmer CINCINNATI (AP) — Robots are secretly plotting to kill us. Or enslave us. Or, at best, they will take our jobs, one by one. From science fiction written by Isaac Asimov eight decades ago to “Dilbert” cartoons today, the relationship between robots and humans has long fascinated – and worried – people. There’s even a term, “robophobia,”…

Texas cuts aid to ‘colonias’ after years of offering help

AP Photo/Eric Gay ALAMO, Texas (AP) — While the economy in Texas has boomed over the last 20 years, along the border with Mexico about a half million people live in clusters of cinderblock dwellings, home-built shacks, dilapidated trailers and small houses. Texas has more than 2,300 of these communities known as colonias, the Spanish word for “colony.” For decades,…

Texas cuts aid to ‘colonias’ after years of offering help

AP Photo/Eric Gay ALAMO, Texas (AP) — While the economy in Texas has boomed over the last 20 years, along the border with Mexico about a half million people live in clusters of cinderblock dwellings, home-built shacks, dilapidated trailers and small houses. Texas has more than 2,300 of these communities known as colonias, the Spanish word for “colony.” For decades,…

Like a cut and paste tool, gene editing transforms research

WASHINGTON (AP) — Gene editing is getting fresh attention thanks to a successful lab experiment with human embryos. But for all the angst over possibly altering reproduction years from now, this technology already is used by scientists every day in fields ranging from agriculture to drug development.New gene editing tools let scientists alter the DNA of living cells – from…

US hospitals set record for fast heart attack care

AP Photo/Mark LennihanThere’s never been a better time to be treated for a heart attack. U.S. hospitals have set a record for how quickly they open blocked arteries, averaging under one hour for the first time since these results have been tracked. More than 93 percent of patients now have their arteries opened within the recommended 90 minutes of arrival….

Videos show rescue of rape victim, serial killer confessions

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — After hearing a woman’s screams inside a large metal container, investigators sawed and pried open the bin, rescuing the woman who had been chained inside for about two months by a serial killer, according to new videos released by prosecutors.The videos also show Todd Kohlhepp, in cold and emotionless detail, confessing to killing seven people in…