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March is when oil equipment starts using ice roads on the Alaskan North Slope. It's also when polar bears and cubs emerge from dens. Aerial spotters find dens so roads and workers can bypass bears.

Last year, big fleets in the Bering Sea caught more halibut, by accident, than local fishermen caught on purpose. The big ships throw out that halibut; the local fishermen make their living from it.

Climate change is opening up the Arctic to luxury cruises, including an Alaska-to-New York voyage. The vacation destination takes advantage of warming oceans but raises safety and ethical concerns.

The hardy tamarisk, which arrived from Asia, is crowding out native plants in many Western states. It chokes small streams and rivers and sucks up scarce water. And it's hard to get rid of it.

Throughout November, hundreds of people are lining up to peer through the telescope at Lowell Observatory in northern Arizona. What they'll see: Mars in close opposition with the Earth. This is the nearest the red planet has been to Earth since 2003. If you miss it this month, you'll have to wait until 2018 for such an incredible view. Sadie Babits has this postcard from the observatory.

On one ride, a guy knocked one of the girls off her bike. But it didn't discourage these Afghan teens from cruising around Kabul every Friday and challenging the view that women shouldn't bike.

Alaska may overhaul the way it spends its oil wealth. While the state has a lot of oil, the price of oil has dropped so much that the state now has a $3.5 billion deficit — two-thirds of its budget.

Alaska's economy depends heavily on oil for jobs and tax revenues. Shell's decision to halt oil and gas exploration off the state's northern coast is a "huge disappointment," the governor says.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson got an earful from other countries over U.S. climate policy. At a meeting of the Arctic Council, they pressured him not to pull out of the Paris climate agreement.

Astronauts at the International Space Station convened a class from space with schoolchildren in Idaho. One student wanted to know: "If you threw a baseball in space, how fast would it go?" Meanwhile, tests suggest that repairs to space shuttle Endeavour's underbelly may not be needed.