U.S. News

Evolutionary biologist John Nyakatura at Humboldt University in Berlin has spent years studying a 290-million-year-old fossil dug up in central Germany's Bromacker quarry in 2000. The four-legged plant-eater lived before the dinosaurs and fascinates scientists "because of its position on the tree of life," said Nyakatura. Researchers believe the creature is a "stem amniote" -- an early land-dwelling animal that later evolved into modern mammals, birds and reptiles.

In the 1970s and '80s, he was part of a small cohort of organizational behaviorists who argued that just focusing on skills in the workplace wasn't enough. Instead, they insisted that an individual's competencies must be assessed and reinforced. People [in the field] said it's all knowledge, skills and abilities. But a few of us kept arguing that there was a behavioral level they weren't tapping with skills, that skills were too micro." Today, he proudly notes, "there's hardly a human resources organization serving 100 or more people that doesn't use competency language."

Oregon's two senators are urging the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to update federal regulations to permit interstate commerce of food products containing a key non-psychoactive ingredient of cannabis.

"Too often when we talk about mobility, we have a tendency to go straight to self-driving cars and autonomous vehicles. But what we really should be talking about is how this technology and innovation that is happening right now can impact and improve the quality of life for people," Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said while announcing at the North American International Auto Show, her first time attending as governor. She was joined by top state transportation and economic development officials.

The partnership, among other things, will develop an automated guided vehicle (AGV) for industrial use. The innovation center will develop solutions to provide a safer and more efficient manufacturing environment that will enhance the global value chain, they said.

A federal health official says a nationwide injunction on new Trump administration rules that allowed more employers to opt out of providing women with no-cost birth control will force Americans to "violate" their consciences.

Federal officials plan to ease restrictions on drone flights over crowds and at night.

U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Philadelphia issued a nationwide injunction preventing the rules from taking effect, a day after another judge issued a more limited ruling blocking their enforcement in 13 states and the District of Columbia.

U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland granted a request by 14 Democratic attorneys general for a preliminary injunction. The rules, which are set to go into effect Jan. 14, allow businesses or nonprofits to obtain exemptions to an Obamacare requirement for contraceptive coverage on moral or religious grounds.