A $12 million donation from Oprah Winfrey to the Smithsonian Institution continues to support public discussions about African American history and culture in the nation’s capital. The Smithsonian Institution announced the donation in June 2013. The money supported fundraising for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Along with an earlier gift of…

Renner and Winters transformed a historic mansion into a luxurious Holmby Hills estate, turning an ambitious renovation into a lucrative sale. Some houses are bought for their addresses. Others are bought for what they could become. For actor Jeremy Renner and his longtime business partner Kristoffer Winters, a 1920s mansion in Los Angeles became the…

A Pennsylvania appeals court has upheld an order blocking the sale of a 60-acre family farm. The ruling stops a deal that would have allowed one sister living on the property to sell the land for $250,000 while continuing to live there under a 99-year lease. The Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld an injunction issued by…

What appeared to be a neglected field in Madison County, Iowa, concealed remnants of rare native ecosystems. When John and Sheri Paule bought the first 40 acres of their property, its hillsides were overrun with invasive vegetation, leaving little indication of what the landscape might once have been. Surviving bur oak trees, however, offered a…