Missing killer whales

CNN reports on the recent decline in the orca population of Puget Sound, near Seattle.

Tiny home has its advantages

CNN reports on a tiny, environmentally friendly home:

The house cost them $15,000, and the utilities are a mere $15 a month. The couple now live on property owned by their daughter in California wine country, where the average home in 2007 cost $725,000. If they want to leave, the home has wheels and can be pulled behind their vehicle and plugged into any RV park in the nation.

The family still has their 1,800-square-foot home, but they will probably sell it. The house is too expensive, they say, costing them about $1,500 a month in mortgage payments, plus another $160 in utilities.

The change to their shed-like home has been so dramatic that Bill Kastrinos is now building the tiny homes to sell. He's sold 11 in six months, most of them in the range of $15,000 to $20,000. Clients range from people on welfare to retirees on fixed income, he says. Inquiries about the homes are on the rise, he adds.

Are the owners of the home a jot less happy for having made this drastic lifestyle change? I seems not. The owner tells CNN, ""Living in a small house has allowed me to do what I love doing, which is designing more small houses."

How Sarah Palin destroyed the town of Wasilla

In this CNN i-report interview, an Alaskan explains what Sarah Palin did to the environment -- to the social ecology -- of her hometown.