A Declaration of Local Emergency is now in effect in Greene County. The Greene County Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to approve it as the delta variant of the coronavirus spreads throughout southwest Missouri. According to county officials, the declaration is a way to further support community efforts to respond to the growing cases of COVID-19. They say it will help expedite area responses allowed by law during a crisis. It opens up additional channels for the Springfield-Greene...

Smoke traveling from the Western wildfires is reaching all the way across the U.S., bringing vibrant red sunsets and moon glow to the East. But it's also carrying poor air quality and harmful health effects thousands of miles away from the flames. Large fires have been actively burning for weeks across the Western U.S. and Canada. Currently, the largest in the U.S. is the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, which has now burned more than 600 square miles of land and become so large it generates its own...