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As pandemic emergencies end, people battling long COVID feel ‘swept under the rug’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:56 GMT

Jackie Fortiér | (TNS) KPCC/LAistLost careers. Broken marriages. Dismissed and disbelieved by family and friends.These are some of the emotional and financial struggles long COVID patients face years after their infection. Physically, they are debilitated and in pain: unable to walk up the stairs, focus on a project or hold down a job. Facing the end of the federal public health emergency in May, many people experiencing lingering effects of the virus say they feel angry and abandoned by policymakers eager to move on.“Patients are losing hope,” said Shelby Hedgecock, a self-described long COVID survivor from Knoxville, Tennessee, who now advocates for patients like herself. “We feel swept under the rug.”The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in March that 6% of U.S. adults, or about 16 million, were experiencing long COVID, or ongoing health problems that continue or emerge after a bout of COVID-19. Researchers estimate that 1.6% of U.S. adults, or about 4 million,...

Watch: Rare white killer whale calf spotted off Southern California coast

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:56 GMT

NEWPORT, Calif. — Video captured Monday showed a pod of orcas swimming off the Southern California coast, including a rare glimpse at a white killer whale calf.The footage of the orca pod was captured by Newport Coastal Adventure, who was tipped off to the pod's location around 10:30 a.m. by a Long Beach whale watching company.The orcas were initially spotted over 45 miles from the Newport Harbor, but crews with Newport Coastal Adventure decided to take all available boats out on a last-minute trip for a chance to see the killer whales, according to Captain Delaney Trowbridge.The 20 passengers went to the last known location of the orcas and were ultimately able to spot them. The group witnessed a pod of seven orcas in the waters, including a three-year-old calf named Frosty due to its white appearance, Trowbridge said. VIDEO: Rare sighting of whale without tail breaching off Southern California coast According to Newport Coastal Adventure, Frosty has a unique genetic condition th...

Former San Diego commander nominated to be Naval Academy superintendent

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:56 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Rear Adm. Yvette Davids, former commander of a San Diego-based warship, has been nominated to be the next superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael M. Gilday also nominated Davids to become a vice admiral, USNA stated Friday in a news release.If the U.S. Senate confirms Davids' nomination, she would be the first woman to become superintendent of the Annapolis, Maryland service academy and the 64th person to assume the role since it was founded in 1845. Sheriff’s department looking to build transparency about military equipment Davids earned a Bachelor of Science in Oceanography from USNA before going on to graduate from the Naval War College with a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies in 2002. She then earned a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in 2012.Davids, who is from San Antonio, Texas, was the first H...

Mississippi jail escapee a suspect in killing, carjacking

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:56 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A man who escaped from a Mississippi jail over the weekend is suspected of killing a man and stealing his pickup truck in Jackson, authorities said Tuesday. Anthony Watts, 61, was shot and killed Monday night around 7 p.m. on Interstate 55 after he pulled over to help a man who had wrecked a motorcycle. Police say that man shot Watts several times and then stole his Red Dodge Ram. Watts died at the scene. “Based on information gathered from investigators, the suspect … fit the description of 22-year-old Dylan Arrington,” Jackson Police Chief James E. Davis said. Arrington is one of four prisoners — along with Casey Grayson, Corey Harrison and Jerry Raynes — who escaped Saturday night from the Raymond Detention Center, a facility near Jackson, through breaches in a cell and the roof. Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones said the men might have camped out on the roof before fleeing the facility and going their separate ways. The four were in custody for various...

Tobacco company settles with US over business in North Korea

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:56 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A British tobacco company has agreed to pay more than $629 million to settle allegations that it did illegal business with North Korea in violation of U.S. sanctions, the Justice Department said Tuesday.British American Tobacco, one of the largest tobacco companies in the world, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, while the company’s Singapore subsidiary pleaded guilty to bank fraud and sanctions charges. BAT said in its own statement that the settlement concerns sales from 2007 through 2017 and that the company has since taken steps to improve its business practices.North Korea faces stringent U.S. and international sanctions going back nearly two decades for its nuclear weapons program and development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Pyongyang has continued to research and test more nuclear weapons. It has also worked to evade sanctions with the cooperation of allies like China and illicit trade with barred countries ...

More sanctions for deadly fentanyl if bill becomes law

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:56 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Over the past year, the U.S. Treasury Department has used its sanctions powers to impose wide-ranging financial penalties on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine — turning Russia into the most sanctioned country in the world. Now, the federal agency is facing increasing pressure, including from legislation introduced Tuesday in the Senate, to use those tools with similar vigor against the people, financial institutions and companies that have participated in the explosion of fentanyl use and distribution in the U.S.“As a matter of policy we are dealing with drug cartels who have tremendous economic gain to be made,” said Paul DelPonte, executive director of the nonprofit National Crime Prevention Council, which is pushing for tougher action against those behind the scourge of drug overdose and death. “There are a lot of hands involved in this crime.”Fentanyl is the deadliest drug in the U.S. today. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estim...

Montana House cancels after rally for transgender lawmaker

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:56 GMT

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana’s House speaker canceled a Tuesday floor session a day after seven protestors were arrested for disrupting proceedings with demands that Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a transgender Democrat silenced by lawmakers for comments against bans on gender-affirming care, be allowed to speak.The cancellation is the latest development in a standoff over whether Montana Republicans will let the lawmaker from Missoula speak unless she apologizes for her remarks last week on a gender-affirming care ban proposal.Speaker Matt Regier did not take questions on Tuesday or explain why lawmakers were not returning to the floor, but in a brief statement called the disruptions a “dark day for Montana.”“Currently, all representatives are free to participate in House debates while following the House rules,” Regier told reporters. “The choice to not follow the House rules is one that Rep. Zephyr has made. The only person silencing Rep. Zephyr is Rep. Zephyr. The Montana House will n...

Entertainment, civil rights notables honor Harry Belafonte

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:56 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Reaction poured in Tuesday from civil rights leaders and the entertainment world following the death of Harry Belafonte at age 96. As a prominent activist, charismatic singer, Hollywood leading man, Broadway star and trailblazing Black entertainer, Belafonte’s loss was felt across a wide swath of American life. ___“May God Have My Dear Friend Harry Belafonte At A Peaceful Rest. We Are Losing Our Giants Left And Right. We Have To Celebrate Our Elders While They Are With Us.” — Spike Lee, who directed Belafonte’s final film, 2018’s BlacKkKlansman.” ___“Another ‘GREAT TREE’ has fallen: Harry Belafonte, a Trailblazer and Hero to us all. Thank you for your music, your artistry, your activism, your fight for civil rights and justice — especially risking your life back in the day to get money to the movement. Your being here on Earth has Blessed us all.” — Oprah Winfrey. ___“Harry Belafonte was a true mentor and friend. I am heartbroken to hear of hi...

B.C. Appeal Court sides with mom in case involving access to parental medical records

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:56 GMT

VANCOUVER — The British Columbia Court of Appeal has struck down a section of the province’s child protection legislation that allowed social workers to access a parent’s medical records without their consent, a search warrant or a court order. The three-judge panel says a section of B.C.’s Child, Family and Community Service Act is unconstitutional, finding the legislation lacked safeguards to protect parents’ deeply personal medical information.The ruling says the act allowed child welfare workers with the Ministry of Children and Family Development to access private medical information on parents from public bodies, including hospitals and medical clinics. The panel says the section of the act allowing broad access to parents’ medical history was not “minimally intrusive” as a lower court found, and could give access to “intensely private information” that was not a necessary part of an investigation. The appeals court ruling ...

‘Mojave Max’ tortoise emerges in Vegas; latest since 2000

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:56 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A desert tortoise that is the focus of schoolchild predictions and local lore about the start of spring has emerged from its winter burrow at a nature preserve in Las Vegas, officials said Tuesday.Mojave Max’s appearance above ground with burrow-mate at 3:40 p.m. Monday at the Springs Preserve marked the latest date since an annual watch contest began in 2000 for the critter compared locally with Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania. Phil’s handlers said Feb. 2 that their groundhog predicted their spring wouldn’t arrive until April.In Las Vegas, where the threatened species’ reptilian winter rest is called brumation, the earliest a Mojave Max has emerged since 2000 was a little before noon on Feb. 14, 2005. The latest had been April 17, 2012.Three male tortoises since 2000 have borne the moniker Mojave Max. Today’s Max is marked with a radio transmitting device attached to his shell. The tortoise seen with Mojave Max on Monday does not hav...