Evan Mallett is hovering over some plants in a Victorian-era greenhouse in Portsmouth, N.H.
Mallett, a chef at the Black Trumpet Bistro, is collecting medicinal herbs, which he infuses in alcohol to make his own bitters, a bittersweet alcoholic concentrate used to flavor cocktails.
Mallett says he often forages in the woods for ingredients like wild chamomile, dock and burdock root for his bitters, too.
The "homemade bitters" trend is relatively new.
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Joe Kelso and John Winter probably waited too long. The couple has been together for a dozen years but only got serious recently about buying a house in San Francisco.
They saved enough to be able to afford anything under $500,000, but houses at such prices are now few and far between.
This spring, the median home price in San Francisco topped $1 million, up by a third from last year.
There are still houses listed for under $400,000, but that's just to get the bidding going. Those types of properties will sell for more than $500,000, while still requiring maybe $100,000 worth of work.
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Few Detroiters think the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history is great news.
But plenty see it as an opportunity. Many Detroit businesses hope the bankruptcy will mean more stability and certainty, in a city that has had little of either in recent years.
Sandy Baruah, head of the Detroit Regional Chamber, says the bankruptcy filing did not come as a surprise to him. And it shouldn't surprise anybody else.
"Detroit is not unique," Baruah says. "Great American cities like New York, Pittsburgh have all gone through some form of bankruptcy/receivership, and all of those cities look back on the time as kind of the defining point that put their cities on a much more sustainable path. All three of those cities are now vibrant, urban centers."
The Two-Way
Michigan AG Appeals Court Order Blocking Detroit Bankruptcy
A court in Italy has convicted five people on charges of manslaughter and negligence for the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia off Tuscany last year that left 32 passengers and crew dead.
The court at Grosseto, the city nearest the spot where the Costa Concordia ran aground in January 2012, accepted plea bargains for the cruise ship's helmsman, cabin service director, two bridge officers and the head of the company's crisis team.
The sentences handed down by the court:
— Director of the crisis unit, Roberto Ferrarini: 2 years, 10 months
— Cabin Service Director Manrico Giampedroni: 2 1/2 years
— First Officer Ciro Ambrosio: 1 year, 11 months
— Helmsman Jacob Rusli Bin: 1 year, 8 months
— Third Officer Silvia Coronica: 1 1/2 years
The trial of Captain Francesco Schettino, accused of multiple counts of manslaughter and of abandoning the vessel with thousands still aboard, has been adjourned until late September as the court awaits electrical tests of the ship. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
The ship hit a rock and capsized after Schettino diverted it from its planned route, steaming past the island of Giglio at night as a salute to the people of the tiny Tuscan island.
Sky News says Schettino's defense claims that:
"... no one died in the collision itself, but that the failure of a backup generator and supposedly water-tight compartments that were flooded created problems during the evacuation, when the deaths occurred."