That’s good news, especially considering the traction tree planting has gotten across Nevada. Nonprofit Impact NV has committed to planting 100,000 trees in Nevada over 10 years; UNLV’s Las Vegas Urban Forest Center will put in 3,000 trees in the next five years and train local aborists; and the city of Las Vegas has committed to installing 60,000 trees by 2050.

Neighbors in the East Las Vegas Valley say a proposal to build hundreds of homes on the edge of the desert is in direct conflict with the push to protect the area and stop any future development. For years now, there’s been an effort to bring a national monument to the area.

The darkest time of the year is the winter solstice, the day with the least sunlight and the longest night. However, the coldest time of the year is typically about one month after the winter solstice. So why isn't the darkest time of the year also the coldest?

Although you may not believe it, boarding passengers on a plane is one of the most difficult operational processes of airlines. It may seem simple and predictable to passengers, but " boarding " is a complex stage with rigorous logistics behind it, designed to reduce the time spent on the ground and ensure maximum efficiency. Romania, through its major airports, Otopeni, Cluj-Napoca and Iași, could implement on a large scale internationally tested methods to improve this stage and reduce unnecessary waiting and flight delays, thus gaining customer respect and higher competitiveness in the regional market.

Major change in airports. Efficient passenger boarding is an ongoing challenge for airlines and is essential to reduce delays and optimize the flight experience. In Romania, where air transport has become more and more accessible, the implementation of new rules could significantly improve this process. Following successful international strategies and adapting them to local airports could have a positive impact on passengers and airlines alike.

Jason Steffen is associate professor of physics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. A longtime science team member of NASA's Kepler mission, he has contributed to the discovery and characterization of thousands of exoplanets that orbit distant stars. In the first half, he shared insights into the journey of the Kepler mission and its groundbreaking discoveries. Launched in 2009, Kepler operated for about four years and then was repurposed in what was known as the K2 mission, providing an additional five years of data. He explained the distinctions between Kepler and the Hubble Space Telescope-- Kepler was designed to be very precise at making measurements of stars, which allowed it to identify over 2,700 new planets, while Hubble was more adept at taking stunning photos.