Honeybee losses improve

There’s a glimmer of hopefor America’s ailing honey bees as winter losses were the lowest in more thana decade, according to a U.S. survey of beekeepers released Thursday.

Beekeepers lost 21 percent of their colonies over last winter, the annual Bee Informed Partnership survey found. That’s the lowest winter loss level since the survey started in 2006 and an improvement from nearly 27 percent the winter before.

The U.S. government hasset a goal of keeping losses under 15 percent in thewinter.

Hannity takes vacation

Sean Hannity is taking a couple days off amid a growing advertiser boycott after pushing a conspiracy theory involving a slain Democratic National Committee staffer.

So far, seven advertisers have pulled out of Mr. Hannity’s show after he continued to promote a baseless story that claimed the staffer, Seth Rich, was murdered possibly for releasing DNC emails to Wikileaks.

Corrosion caused failure

A steam tank explosion at a box company that killed four people last month was caused by a failure where the tank had been patched in an emergency repair in 2012, according to a report issued Thursday by a federal investigative agency.

The company never obtained a permit for the repair nor acted on a recommendation for a more permanent solution, according to a report from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. And the city didn’t inspect the unit.

Defeat device use

General Motors was sued for allegedly putting defeat devices in trucks to beat emissions tests, making it the fifth carmaker to be accused of diesel cheating since Volkswagen AG admitted in 2015 to flouting pollution rules.

Owners and lessees of more than 705,000 GM Duramax branded diesel trucks filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday, claiming GM installed defeat devices in two models of heavy-duty trucks from 2011 to 2016.

Gender surgeries rise

More than 3,200 transgender surgeries, from “facial and body contouring” to actual “gender reassignment,” were performed in the United States last year, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons said Monday in releasing the first such numbers ever reported.

The 2016 total, reflecting a rapid evolution of public attitudes and health coverage, represented a 19 percent increase from the previous year, the data show.

Four teenagers stabbed

Four teenagers were stabbed outside a public school in Manhattan on Wednesday after a simmering dispute between one of them and a fifth teenager escalated into violence, officials said.

The teenagers who were stabbed, all boys, were expected to survive.

Also in the nation ...

Maryland's medical marijuana program faces a potential new delay after a judge Thursday ordered a temporary halt to the program amid a lawsuit that alleges regulators failed to consider racial diversity in licensing businesses. ... Nevada and Connecticut now ban “conversion therapy,” a discredited method meant to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.