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Misinformation obscures standards guiding gender-affirming care for trans youth

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:32:36 GMT

Helen Santoro | (TNS) KFF Health NewsAlmost three weeks after Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, signed a bill making it a felony for doctors to provide gender-affirming care to transgender minors, a judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing enforcement of the law for three children whose parents are part of an ongoing lawsuit.Florida is one of at least 20 states that have limited gender-affirming treatment for minors. The legislators sponsoring some of these bills say their intent is to protect children and families from pressure “to receive harmful, experimental puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and to undergo irreversible, life-altering surgical procedures,” as a new Montana law puts it.“Gender transitions involving major surgeries not only result in sterility, but other irreversible negative biological effects,” said Montana state Sen. John Fuller, the Republican who introduced the bill.Such laws and policies, and statements — such as Fuller’s — used to ju...

OceanGate, owner of the submersible that imploded during a dive to the Titanic, suspends operations

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:32:36 GMT

By PATRICK WHITTLE (Associated Press)The company that owned a submersible that imploded on its way to explore the wreck of the Titanic, killing all five onboard, said Thursday it has suspended operations.Investigators believe the Titan imploded as it made its descent into deep North Atlantic waters on June 18. Among those killed was Stockton Rush, the submersible’s pilot and chief executive officer of the company, OceanGate.The Coast Guard said last week that human remains have likely been recovered from the wreckage of the submersible and are being examined by medical officials in the U.S. Remote operated vehicles, known as ROVs, were used to retrieve the debris from the ocean floor about 12,500 feet (3,810 meters) underwater.The U.S. Coast Guard has convened a Marine Board of Investigation, its highest level of investigation, into the implosion, and plans to hold a public hearing in the future. The statement on OceanGate’s website says the Everett, Washington-based com...

CP NewsAlert: Nunavut signs agreement in principle with Ottawa on health funding

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:32:36 GMT

OTTAWA — Nunavut has signed on to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s health funding offer, which would see $381 million in federal funding delivered to the territory over 10 years.The announcement comes after Northwest Territories and Yukon confirmed deals with Ottawa earlier today.More coming. The Canadian Press

Roommate charged in elderly man’s death following Brampton house fire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:32:36 GMT

A 26-year-old man is facing a second-degree murder and arson charge after his 80-year-old roommate died following what investigators called a suspicious fire at their Brampton residence.Peel Regional Police and first responders were called to a property in the Pennyroyal Crescent area around 1:30 p.m. on July 2 for reports of a basement fire.Police said Brampton firefighters and Emergency Services located an elderly male within the unit suffering from obvious signs of trauma.Despite life-saving measures performed on the victim, police said 80-year-old Anthony Ambrose died from his injuries.Police arrested the victim’s roommate, 26-year-old Julius Adigun, on Wednesday. The accused was charged with second-degree murder and arson endangering life.The investigation remains ongoing.One person is dead following an early morning two-alarm blaze at a Brampton home. CITYNEWS/Arthur Pressick

Biden makes his economic case in deep-red South Carolina, says his policies add jobs in GOP states

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:32:36 GMT

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Making his case for 2024, President Joe Biden declared in deep-red South Carolina on Thursday that Republican-led states are gaining factory jobs because of economic measures he pushed through Congress despite stiff GOP opposition.In a nod toward next year’s elections, Biden argued that government investments in computer chips, batteries and electric vehicles will help the U.S. out-compete China and that his agenda has delivered in ways that former President Donald Trump could not. “I didn’t get much help from the other team, but that didn’t stop us from getting it done,” the president said, speaking in a state that he lost by nearly 12 percentage points in 2020. “Every Republican member of Congress voted against the Inflation Reduction Act.”White House officials maintain that if Republicans had their way, South Carolina, like many other Republican-controlled states, would have lost out on billions of dollars in investments and thousands ...

Andrew Tate loses appeal against house arrest in Romania as human trafficking case continues

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:32:36 GMT

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Andrew Tate, the divisive social media personality and former professional kickboxer who is charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking, and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, lost an appeal on Thursday against a court’s earlier decision to keep him under house arrest, his spokesperson said.The Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled against Tate’s appeal, which challenged a court’s June 23 decision to extend the house arrest measure for 30 more days as the criminal case continues. That decision was made days after Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, formally indicted the 36-year-old social media star along with his brother Tristan, and two Romanian women in the same case. All four were initially arrested near Romania’s capital in late December, and have denied the allegations against them.Before the appeal court’s final ruling on Thursday, two judges had disagreed on whether or not to uphold the house arrest measure, so a third...

Recent events that indicate Earth’s climate has entered uncharted territory

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:32:36 GMT

As a warming Earth simmered into worrisome new territory this week, scientists said the unofficial records being set for average planetary temperature were a clear sign of how pollutants released by humans are warming their environment. But the heat is also just one way the planet is telling us something is gravely wrong, they said.“Heat sets the pace of our climate in so many ways … it’s never just the heat,” said Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Brown University. Dying coral reefs, more intense Nor’easters and the wildfire smoke that has choked much of North America this summer are among the many other signals of climate distress.“The increasing heating of our planet caused by fossil fuel use is not unexpected, but it is dangerous for us humans and for the ecosystems we depend on. We need to stop it, fast,” said Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.Some other recent “firsts” and events that indicate climate change has entered uncharted territ...

Photographers sue over injuries suffered during 2020 Wisconsin police protests

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:32:36 GMT

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Two freelance photographers have filed a lawsuit alleging that police unlawfully shot them with rubber bullets during a protest over police racism in Wisconsin three years ago.Alyssa Schukar and Scott Olson filed the lawsuit in federal court in Milwaukee on July 4. According to the lawsuit, Schukar and Olson were assigned to cover protests in Kenosha in August 2020 for the New York Times and Getty Images, respectively.The protests erupted after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, who is Black, seven times during a domestic disturbance. The shooting left Blake paralyzed.The demonstrations went on for days. Kyle Rittenhouse, a teen who lived in nearby Illinois at the time, shot three men during a protest on Aug. 23, killing two of them. A jury acquitted Rittenhouse of homicide and reckless endangerment charges in November 2021 after he said he acted in self-defense. Rittenhouse was 17 years old on the night of the shootings.Schukar and Olson were covering a p...

Cameraman injured at Yankee Stadium by wild throw has broken eye socket

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:32:36 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A cameraman hit in the head by an errant throw Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium has a broken eye socket and is home resting, the YES Network said in a statement Thursday.Positioned right next to the New York Yankees’ dugout on the first-base side, Pete Stendel of YES Network was struck by a hurried throw from Baltimore Orioles rookie shortstop Gunnar Henderson, who fired high to first as he tried to complete a double play in the fifth inning.Stendel was taken to the hospital, and YES said late Wednesday he was conscious and undergoing tests. The network provided an update Thursday saying he has an orbital fracture and had been released.“Every time that a ball goes over the first baseman or even a foul ball from the hitter, you don’t want to see it going towards a fan. It just happened to be in the wrong spot, and I hope he’s doing all right,” Henderson said following his team’s 6-3 victory. “My prayers go out to him. I’m just thankful for the guys that rushed ...

Missing 2-year-old girl is found dead in an overgrown alley in Detroit, ending a massive search

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:32:36 GMT

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A missing 2-year-old Michigan girl who disappeared during an attack on her mother was found dead nearly 100 miles away in Detroit, three days after she vanished.Wynter Cole Smith’s body was discovered Wednesday evening by FBI agents in an overgrown alley in a neighborhood on the east side of Detroit, ending a massive search along a major interstate between the city and the state capital. “I am deeply saddened to report that the search for Wynter Cole Smith has come to an end,” said Lansing police Chief Ellery Sosebee. “This investigation has moved from a missing child case to a homicide investigation.” Sosebee declined to offer more details as he promised that the girl’s family will get justice. “This is not the outcome anyone had hoped for,” Sosebee said.Wynter lived with her mother in Lansing, 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of Detroit. Rashad Trice, 26, was suspected of taking Wynter late Sunday. Police said Trice stabbed the 22-year-o...