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Traditionally, purveyors of alcoholic beverages have focused a lot of their attention on the holiday season. But one major spirits company says the tide is turning, and summer is fast becoming an even more popular time of year to imbibe. Kate Pomeroy of spirits giant Pernod Ricard says there are two sides to the story when it comes to summer’s growth in liquor popularity. “There’s the traditional summer drinks - the rums, the tequilas, the vodkas,” she notes, “but then on the other side what we’re seeing is whiskey, which is a burgeoning trend across the whole category. Consumers are...

A Virginia woman charged with leaving her one of her two children inside her hot car last month apparently did not learn her lesson the first time, leaving the children in the car again on Monday as she turned herself in to authorities. Laquanda Newby of Henrico, Va., now faces three counts of contributing to the delinquency or abuse of a child, reports CBS 6 out of Richmond. Newby was initially accused of leaving one of the children, ages 6 and 1, inside the car as she shopped at Sam's Club on May 26. When she showed up at the...

We are Robyn and Michelle Lytle–a Chicago-based couple on a mission. Michelle came up with the idea for The TaTa Top in response to a story Robyn told her about an incident at a Chicago beach. Robyn had been hosting two Dutch women as a cultural exchange, and they were not familiar with the topless laws in the U.S. When they went to visit one of Chicago’s beaches, they didn’t think twice about running into the lake topless for a quick swim on a hot summer day. Chaos ensued, and a male lifeguard told them they had to leave unless...

Hollywood has forgotten how to tell a story. Hollywood has had a dismal summer. The bad news started coming out in late July, but there were a few still-to-come movies with promise of softening the stats. Alas, they did not. Jim and I took the kids to see one of those flicks on opening Friday night. (Does it matter which one? I hardly remember it.) Jim got tickets online early, in case our preferred 7 o’clock-hour show sold out, and we arrived early to get good seats. We needn’t have bothered. If our foursome made three dozen in the theater,...

The May 2014 EU election saw the lowest voter turnout on record, according to updated figures discreetly released by the European Parliament during the summer holiday period for EU institutions. The updated numbers, published on the Parliament website, show that turnout struggled to reach 42.54% in 2014, well below the 43.1% initially announced. Diplomatic pencils will be being snapped in despair at the lowest public enthusiasm for an EU poll since 1979, when elections were first held. The tweaked figures will also come as an embarrassment for EU officials who had hailed the results of the 2014 poll for finally...

The gooey three-part treat shows up in surprising spots.While the oven or stove top is the route we traditionally go to make colder foods hotter, there've been other heat-it-up candidates through the modern age: hot plates, microwave ovens, the fireplace, even running a packet of something under the hot water tap. (We've all tried it.) But the small, outdoor fire preceded all of these by eons. And that there's only one contemporary dish associated with the original stove seems unlikely, and yet it stands: the s'more. Yep yep: Hot dogs and beans and coffee in a vintage pot all have...

Call it the return of the summer "polar vortex" if you want -- a mass of cool, dry air from the north is forecast to bring more unseasonably cool temperatures next week in Maryland and across the eastern United States. **SNIP** Twice this month, Baltimore has set new record lows, most recently on Friday. The low of 57 degrees at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport broke a record set in 2008, of 59 degrees. On July 18, a low of 57 broke a record dating to 1976.

 by Gina Cassini | Top Right NewsWhere was this for my son's pool party last weekend?We must have spent 3 hours making water balloons for the kids, and my fingers were sore afterwards.Very soon, I'll be able to do it in mere minutes. My fellow Texan and inventor Josh Malone, along with his kids, developed a much faster way to replace the time-consuming process of filling water balloons.Malone's device, which can fill 100 balloons in a minute, attaches to the hose directly for one-time use. He calls it "Bunch O Balloons" and launched a Kickstarter campaign for the manufacture-ready project. It's called the"Bunch...

Okay, the Russians have invaded Ukraine, Obama is probably playing golf, another few hundred "uninvited guests" have arrived at our Southern border, and Germany and Argentina are gearing up for The World Cup Final. My big concern, however, is finding the BEST recipe for my new 1.5 quart ice cream maker.

<p>Put away those shorts and tank tops, Chicago, and get ready for another "polar vortex."</p> <p>That’s what some people are calling the unseasonably cold temperatures expected to come to the northern and eastern United States next week, as a patch of cold air flows from northern Canada to the Great Lakes area and slips eastward toward the coast.</p>

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's economic development strategy is simple: Have the federal government do what is constitutionally mandated and then get out of the way of the states. Let them compete, he says. The companies will go to the states that are the most nimble, with the right mix of regulations and taxes, the ability to educate workers and incentives that lessen risk, he said. "Competition is uncomfortable," he said Wednesday in Rock Hill. "But it's what has allowed America to maintain its edge." Perry stressed his philosophy with several different examples Wednesday before business leaders from York, Chester and...

PHILADELPHIA — DINNER with your children in 19th-century America often required some self-control. Berry stains in your daughter’s hair? Good for her. Raccoon bites running up your boy’s arms? Bet he had an interesting day. As this year’s summer vacation begins, many parents contemplate how to rein in their kids. But there was a time when Americans pushed in the opposite direction, preserved in Mark Twain’s cat-swinging scamps. Parents back then encouraged kids to get some wildness out of their system, to express the republic’s revolutionary values. American children of the 19th century had a reputation. Returning British visitors reported...

In their excellent book, The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History, William and Nicholas Klingaman relate the history, causes, and effects of the record cold that gripped the northern hemisphere in 1816.  For most in America, Europe, and Asia, the winter of 1815-1816 was the coldest in living memory.  What followed in the spring and summer of that year was equally disastrous.  It was an entire year of cold rains, crop failures, hunger, and economic collapse. There were multiple causes for the extreme weather of 1816, but all of them were natural,...

A group of climate change scientists were rescued by helicopter Jan. 2, after being stranded in the ice since Christmas morning. But the majority of the broadcast networks’ reports about the ice-locked climate researchers never mentioned climate change. The Russian ship, Akademic Shokalskiy, was stranded in the ice while on a climate change research expedition, yet nearly 98 percent of network news reports about the stranded researchers failed to mention their mission at all. Forty out of 41 stories (97.5 percent) on the network morning and evening news shows since Dec. 25 failed to mention climate change had anything to...

A group of climate change scientists were rescued by helicopter Jan. 2, after being stranded in the ice since Christmas morning. But the majority of the broadcast networks’ reports about the ice-locked climate researchers never mentioned climate change. The Russian ship, Akademic Shokalskiy, was stranded in the ice while on a climate change research expedition, yet nearly 98 percent of network news reports about the stranded researchers failed to mention their mission at all. Forty out of 41 stories (97.5 percent) on the network morning and evening news shows since Dec. 25 failed to mention climate change had anything to...

"Sydney — All 52 passengers who spent Christmas and New Year trapped on an icebound Russian research vessel in Antarctica were airlifted from the ice Thursday in a dramatic rescue mission. A Chinese helicopter which landed on a makeshift landing pad next to the marooned ship ferried the scientists, tourists and journalists in groups of 12 to an Australian government supply ship, the Aurora Australis. The passengers had been stuck for 10 days in thick pack ice ...........

We’ve Heard All About Obama’s Vacations, But Not Much About KY Senator Rand Paul’s Summer Break. He and a Partner Teamed up to Do Pro Bono Eye Surgeries for the Poor. People Who Came to the Surgery Center “Legally Blind or Much Worse” Were All Seeing Before They Left.Isn’t It Interesting What The Media Considers Newsworthy? Wonder Why The Media Isn’t Interested In That? Guess It Doesn’t Fit The Image They Try To Create For Conservatives.

<p>Amid concerns about the Fukushima nuclear crisis, the International Olympic Committee voted Saturday to select Tokyo as the host city for the 2020 Summer Games.</p> <p>The capital city outdistanced two other finalists — Istanbul and Madrid — as Japanese officials vowed that radioactive leaks would have no effect on the Games.</p>

The summer of 2013 is over in a few days, and has had the fewest 40ºC (104F)temperature readings of any year in the last nine decades. There were only 832 40ºC (temperatures recorded in 2013, compared to 8,357 in 1936.

You might want to put aside any plans for the beach this weekend. The high temperature on Saturday is forecast to stay one notch below 70 degrees, threatening the record for July 27. Lows are expected to dip into the mid and upper 40s in some suburbs Saturday night, with northern suburbs experiencing slightly colder and southern suburbs slightly warmer temps conditions.