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As of this year, the WNBA -- women's pro basketball league -- will be celebrating its 18th birthday. Over the past two decades, the league has matured from a questionable proposition -- many thought it would quickly fold, as earlier attempts had -- into an organization in its own right. Still, the league often struggles to get the same media coverage as men's sports teams, and it has a much smaller fanbase overall. Although many people are quick to point to smaller, niche audiences for women's sports, many in the industry say it's more about a lack of coverage than anything else. The WNBA has its season during the summer, when the NBA is off-season. Even during this time, the NBA receives more coverage than the WNBA does. Similarly, even though the WNBA games score higher TV rates than ...

Physical therapy is often associated with illness, injury, or surgery -- patients tend to only think about the importance of physical therapy after something serious occurs. But new studies show that physical therapy has benefits beyond what we have seen before. A local Newark news source recently profiled a physical therapist who helps young children -- some younger than three years old -- who need extra help with mobility and coordination skills. As therapist Tara Parsley explains, pediatric physical therapy can be a very different process from our "normal" conception of treatment because kids "don't always see the medical side of it, that we're doing this to make them better." Small exercises that we tend to take for granted -- jumping on a trampoline, for instance, or rolling acr...

With summertime comes summer events, with weddings, graduation parties, and family get-togethers being among the most popular. Using party tent rentals to shelter guests is just one choice that hosts have, along with renting tables, chairs, linens, and decorations, too. Yet with renting a tent comes a certain amount of risk. Although a tent can provide protection from wind, rain, and hot sun, there are safety precautions party hosts most take when relying on one of these structures. Having the right area for an event is one concern: This August, in Dorset, Vt., a man was cited for crashing into two party tents and a tree at a church. The man claimed to have fallen asleep at the wheel. He drove away from the scene only to report it to police later. No injuries were reported. Yet...

Everyone's heard the legend about founding father George Washington's wooden teeth, but have you also heard that it's not true? Washington did wear dentures, but they were made of ivory, gold, and even bone -- never wood. Where did the tales of our first President's most famous quirk come from, and how did it come to be established as fact, to the point that school teachers were including it in their curriculum? English professor William M. Etter, Ph.D., who writes for the Mount Vernon website, is unsure of the explanation, though it's likely because Washington's ivory teeth became stained over time, leading to a grainy appearance that seemed wood-like. "Indeed, in a 1798 letter to Washington, (John) Greenwood emphasized the importance of cleaning these dentures regularly after ex...

Plymouth Speedway dirt track in Indiana was expected to have around 2,500 people show up this Saturday, but due to a fatal on-track crash there's no telling how many people will show up. On Saturday August 10, three-time Nascar champ Tony Stewart was involved in yet another horrific accident on the track at Canandaigua Motosports Park in upstate New York. Stewart's car struck Kevin Ward Jr's at high speed, causing Ward's car to crippled under the high impact, resulting in Ward's death. Stewart made the executive decision to pull out of the race event in Indiana after the accident which has rocked the racing world. This was the second consecutive race Steward has withdrawn from after already deciding not to compete in a Nascar Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen International in New York....

For years, graffiti has slowly been transitioning from a renegade act of defiance to a nearly mainstream form of art. Graffiti pieces are selling at contemporary art auctions, and the internet is making it easier for images to proliferate, allowing artists to make a name for themselves. Of course, no transition this big comes without it's share of hurdles, as demonstrated by several major lawsuits filed this month. First, three graffiti artists targeted Terry Gilliam for violating the copyright they hold on a large scale Buenos Aires mural called Castillo by including the mural in his newest film, The Zero Theorem. Then Maya Hayuk took singer Sara Bareilles and Sony Music to task for using her Bowery Street mural to promote a concert tour. She's also in a legal battle with Coach over...

In the midst of a historic drought, a new analysis of state records has revealed that the Bay Area of California has been losing as much as 23 billion gallons of water a year. Due to a variety of problems experienced by the region's water providers, including aging and broken pipes, the counties have leaked enough to submerge all of Manhattan with five feet of water. This news has been ill-received by area residents attempting to conserve their water usage. According to research conducted by the San Jose Mercury News, Bay Area water agencies have lost anywhere from three to 16% of their treated water. This news comes in light of area residents who have been forced to reduce their water use by up to 20% and abide by California's first statewide restrictions on outdoor watering. However, ...

As Mom and Dad age, it's daughters -- not sons -- who are more likely to provide care for their elderly parents, according to a new study. The research, presented in a paper to the American Sociological Association in San Francisco, was conducted by Angelina Grigoryeva, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Princeton University. Grigoryeva's study concluded that daughters of aging parents provide an average of 12.3 hours of care per month, as opposed to sons' care, which averaged out to 5.6 hours per month. Overall, the study found that in families with sons and daughters, gender tended to determine which child would perform care-giving duties. In fact, daughters tended to not only spend more time with an elderly parent, but sons would actually reduce their time if they had a siste...

Classrooms in Chicago city schools are going to get more comfortable soon. Air conditioning has been installed in 57 out of 681 public schools, and 29 more will receive air conditioning units by October's end. According to officials, 154 schools total have received air conditioning over the past two years. The air conditioning comes after several years of complaints from parents, teachers, and students alike. Both parents and teachers say that the high temperatures in the classroom make it difficult for students to actually learn. In Chicago, temperatures in the mid to high 80s persist from May until the end of September. The Chicago Public School system serves approximately 400,000 students, elementary to high school. The air conditioning installations are part of a larger, five yea...

House flipping might be risky, but it can also be highly profitable. According to a new report by CNBC, however, house flippers need to get smarter -- the margins for flippers are smaller, and it's led to a much larger group of high-end house flippers, at least for now. "Flippers no longer have the luxury of 20 to 30% annual price gains to pad their profits," explains Daren Blomquist, the VP of RealtyTrac, a real estate information website. "As the market softens, successful flippers will need to focus on finding properties that they can buy at a discount and efficiently add value to." Consequently, many home-flippers have been looking toward high-end neighborhoods. Not only do these homes have greater potential for adding value, but they are also being bought by less penny-pinching ...