By Joe Yogerst

(CNN) — Disney World, Times Square and Yellowstone National Park can be packed to the rafters with tourists. But there are plenty of other places across the United States that continue to fly beneath the travel radar.

While there are literally hundreds of locations that fit that description, here are 25 destinations — from cities and national parks to regions and even entire states — that remain refreshingly underrated.

They’re listed geographically from the Northeast to the Pacific:

Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts

Far western Massachusetts boasts the Berkshires, while the state’s eastern end is anchored by Boston and Cape Cod. So what’s in the middle? Pioneer Valley, an area carved by the Connecticut River where several vintage mill cities have reinvented themselves in modern times.

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is located in Springfield, where the sport was born in 1891 as a rainy-day indoor activity. The city’s Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum & Sculpture Garden celebrates the Springfield-born children’s author.

Quirky independent shops, farm-to-table restaurants and bakeries — plus a vibrant LGBTQ scene — make Northampton worth a visit, or hop across the Connecticut River and hike a portion of the New England Trail through the north woods.

Block Island, Rhode Island

Unlike the other big isles off southern New England, this offshore slice of the Ocean State has gone the extra mile to preserve its natural environment. In fact, the Nature Conservancy declared the petite isle one of a dozen “Last Great Places” in the western hemisphere.

Wildlife refuges and other nature areas protect 40% of Block Island, and residents are renowned for their fierce opposition to anything that might imperil their pristine Atlantic home.

Hitting the beaches, and biking and trekking 32 miles of coastal and inland trails are the main daytime activities. After dark, the island boasts a surprisingly good food scene and laid-back bars like Captain Nick’s and the Poor People’s Pub.

Buffalo, New York

Once a boomtown at the confluence of the Great Lakes and Erie Canal, Buffalo snoozed through much of the 20th century. As the Western New York metropolis awakens again, people have come to realize that all that downtime helped preserve the city’s classic architecture.

Among Buffalo’s stylish structures are the Art Deco City Hall, the Greek Revival Buffalo History Museum, the Victorian glass houses at the botanical gardens, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s streamlined Martin House.

A renaissance of the city’s once derelict waterfront includes the Canalside shopping and entertainment district, lakeside hiking and biking trails, a naval maritime museum, and Silo City with its iconic grain elevators. Meanwhile, Niagara Falls is just up the road.

Pennsylvania Wilds

From abundant wildlife and untamed mountain streams to the old growth trees of the Forest Cathedral and Pine Creek’s gaping Mid-Atlantic version of the grand canyon, there’s still plenty of wild in north-central Pennsylvania.

One of the least populated places east of the Mississippi River, the Wilds sprawl across a vast expanse of the rugged Allegheny Plateau. In addition to Allegheny National Forest, the region harbors m

Happy Friday! We made it to the end of the week and the weather pattern looks quite toasty into the holiday weekend. We begin Friday morning with marine layer clouds for most and some areas of fog. Low clouds clear quickly giving way to the heat. High rise into the 70s and 80s for all, some inland areas reach upper 80s. Winds will be breezy at times, another Wind Advisory may need to be issued for the Gaviota corridor.

The sweltering heat arrives this weekend. Saturday through Monday expect 80s and 90s for most. Fire risk is elevated as brush is quite dry and abundant. Heat related illness may be possible for those at risk. Check in on the elderly and youn children. Skies every day will be sunny and winds will be strong for most.

Tuesday of next week is another weather pattern shift, most areas start to ease with temperatures. Expect relief from the heat by Wednesday. More marine clouds will form and drop temperatures drastically. Enjoy!

The post Warm Friday, heatwave into Mother’s Day weekend appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Andi Babineau, CNN

(CNN) — Tyler Robinson, the Utah man accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, is set to appear virtually in court Friday as a judge weighs consequential decisions in the high-profile case that has seen attorneys voice concerns about potentially tainting the jury pool and evidence processing delays.

Utah Judge Tony Graf is expected to rule on whether to boot cameras from the courtroom – a defense request that prosecutors have vehemently opposed – and whether to delay Robinson’s preliminary hearing, which his lawyers have argued is needed to give them time to examine DNA analysis of some of the evidence.

Kirk was fatally shot in front of a large crowd during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University last September. After a 30-plus-hour manhunt, Robinson turned himself in to authorities, accompanied by his father and a family friend.

His defense attorneys have argued media coverage has been largely prejudicial to Robinson and requested that cameras be excluded from the courtroom. Prosecutors, meanwhile, have said keeping them is the best way to combat misinformation about a case centered on the public assassination of the prominent conservative activist.

Robinson will appear from jail with his camera off Friday – a common request from his attorneys for remote hearings.

He has not yet entered pleas for the charges he faces, including aggravated murder, felony use of a firearm, obstruction of justice and witness tampering. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty.

Arguments for and against cameras in court

The defense team filed for the camera ban back in January and argued during an April hearing that Robinson’s “fair trial rights will be jeopardized” if cameras remain in court because the jury pool could be tainted.

Prosecutors took an opposing stance, with Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander saying: “Mischief lurks in the dark or in secret.”

“Conspiracy theories abound, and the antidote is the actual, real proceedings,” he said during his closing argument.

A coalition of news outlets, including CNN, and Kirk’s widow Erika Kirk were also in favor of keeping the proceedings open to cameras.

Three witnesses were called during the April hearing – two for the defense and one for the prosecution.

The defense witnesses, trial consultant Bryan Edelman and cognitive psychologist Christine Ruva, testified extensively about the reasons they believed media coverage had negatively impacted Robinson’s case so far.

“Speculation and sensationalism,” is how Edelman described the reports he saw, while Ruva said she reviewed “overwhelming anti-defendant” material.

Prosecution witness Cole Christensen, a Utah County Sheriff’s Office Investigator, introduced a report he compiled showing news coverage skewed in many directions, including coverage prejudicial toward Robinson, prosecutors and both Charlie and Erika Kirk.

The defense’s effort to ban cameras stems in part from violations of a decorum order that have occurred over the course of the case so far, including a pool videographer at a December hearing picking up audio of conversations between Robinson and his lawyers and a different videographer in January capturing close-up images of Robinson.

Defense asks to postpone preliminary hearing

By Andy Rose, CNN

(CNN) — Mike Miller and Benjamin Radford have both spent years talking about Bigfoot – from very different points of view.

“When you hear something or you see something, you know, that sticks with you and becomes part of you, and you just can’t shake it,” says Miller, who’s been on the hunt for the yeti for nearly two decades with the Ohio Night Stalkers.

“It’s a fascinating question, whether or not these creatures exist,” allows Radford, a folklorist and deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine.

But that’s about all Miller and Radford agree on when it comes to the existence of an unidentified species of hairy giants.

For Miller – the hunter – finding Sasquatch is a mystery whose answer could be around any corner or in any cave.

For Radford – the skeptic – it’s a source of constant disappointment.

“If they’re real, they live and breathe and poop and eat and sleep and drop dead, and we should be able to find one,” Radford says. “How are they being elusive? There would have to be thousands of them.”

The long-running debate got a new spark in March.

A big uptick in reports – known by Bigfoot aficionados as a “flap” – was catalogued around Portage County, Ohio, just east of Akron, with unidentified figures averaging 8 feet tall in wooded areas along the Mahoning River.

“And it stopped just as quickly as it started,” says Jeremiah Byron, host of the Bigfoot Society Podcast, which collected and mapped the reports and has posited a dramatic change in weather conditions from winter to spring may have put a Bigfoot herd on the move.

The sudden surge of claimed sightings – call it the Ohio Flap of 2026 – reignited a debate that’s been going on in North America for upwards of a century. Does a breed resembling hulking apes – hominoids, if you want to be technical – live among us?

On one point, both believers and non-believers seem to agree:

It’s a helluva lot of fun to talk about.

“It’s such a weird world,” Byron smiles.

The Bigfoot mystery and its investigations span decades

The folklore about mysterious and elusive creatures in North America, experts say, became more mainstream with a 1960 article in True magazine, describing a tall, hairy figure that looked “partly human and partly animal.”

What started as pure storytelling evolved into more organized searching for answers, using newer technology.

The question of true or false became a sensation in 1967 with the famous film shot by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin in the Pacific Northwest, capturing a hairy figure ambling through a Northern California wood. Decades of debate have followed on whether the film was a hoax.

The mystery even got the attention of the FBI, which agreed in 1976 to examine 15 hair samples taken from a reported Bigfoot encounter in Oregon. This “is a serious question that needs answering,” reads a letter from the director of the Bigfoot Information Center and Exhibition.

After putting the samples under a microscope, the FBI provided its answer: “It was concluded as a result of these examinations that the hairs are of deer family origin.”

But the demand for answers to time-worn mysteries only increased, as the weekly TV series “In Search Of…” hosted by Leonard Nimoy included several Bigfoot stories in its chronicle of the strange. (Both Byron and Radford cite the show as helping to inspire their interest in unexplained phenomena.)

Now, the search for ’Squatch is also a source of humor and even marketing, wit

By Jen Christensen, CNN

(CNN) — Access to medication abortion has changed and then changed again over the past week, leaving doctors and patients confused.

The nonsurgical option used to manage abortions at home is still available, at least for now. The US Supreme Court issued a stay Monday that protects access to mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in a medication abortion, via telemedicine appointments or the mail. The stay is in place until next week while the high court reviews emergency appeals.

But even if the courts eventually limit access to mifepristone, medication abortion will remain an option in the United States through other methods, even in states with highly restrictive abortion laws.

The latest case

Medication, rather than surgery, has become the most frequently used method of abortion in the United States. Typically, the process involves two medications: mifepristone and misoprostol.

In 2023, President Joe Biden eliminated an in-person prescription requirement for mifepristone, permitting distribution of the drug via telehealth and the mail.

In October, the state of Louisiana asked the 5th US Court of Appeals to reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone. Louisiana argued that people who got the medication through the mail or telehealth were violating the state’s strict law that prohibits abortion with few exceptions.

The state claims that with remote prescribing, there are “nearly 1,000 illegal abortions in Louisiana per month.”

The appeals court agreed with Louisiana and issued a ruling Friday that would have stopped the telehealth and mail option for mifepristone, even in states where abortion is completely legal. The stay from the Supreme Court suspends that decision, at least temporarily.

If telehealth and mail are no longer an option for mifepristone, it will still be available through in-person consultations. But that could be logistically difficult for people who live in states with restrictive abortion laws, who may have to go out of state to see a provider.

The other option is to use misoprostol alone, as was done before mifepristone was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2000. This is often the approach used in other countries.

How abortion medication works

Mifepristone blocks a hormone called progesterone, which the body needs for the pregnancy to continue. The hormone helps maintain the inside of the uterus, and without it, the uterus will expel its contents.

Misoprostol is approved to prevent and treat gastric ulcers caused by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). It also is used off-label for other kinds of ulcers and has several gynecological uses, including to induce contractions, to decrease blood loss after delivery and to treat miscarriages.

When used for an abortion, misoprostol works to help empty