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For people with sickle cell disease, ERs can mean life-threatening waits

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:43 GMT

Sara Hutchinson | (TNS) KFF Health NewsHeather Avant always dresses up when she goes to the emergency room.“I’ve been conditioned to act and behave in a very specific way,” said Avant. “I try to do my hair. I make sure I shower, have nice clothes. Sometimes I put on my University of Michigan shirt.”It’s a strategy to combat discrimination the 42-year-old photographer in Mesquite, Texas, has developed over a lifetime of managing her sickle cell disease, a rare blood disorder that affects an estimated 100,000 Americans. The hereditary condition can affect a person of any race or ethnicity, but Black patients, like Avant, make up the majority of those afflicted in the U.S.For people living with the disease, a sickle cell crisis can happen at any time. When it does, their rigid, sickle-shaped red blood cells become stuck in their blood vessels, blocking flow and causing extreme pain or breathing difficulties. A crisis can escalate into life-threatening complications such as strokes, sei...

Will mortgage rates go down? Experts weigh in

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:43 GMT

Jeff Ostrowski | Bankrate.com (TNS)The average rate on 30-year fixed mortgages remained at generational highs this week, climbing to 8.01%, up from 7.99% the previous week, according to Bankrate’s weekly national survey of large lenders.The average rate on 30-year home loans hit its highest point since August 2000, according to Bankrate research. That was before the Sept. 11 terror attacks led the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates, and well before the Great Recession spurred the Fed to keep rates low throughout the 2010s.The current run-up in mortgage rates reflects a variety of factors: a resilient U.S. economy, the Fed’s ongoing war on inflation and, more recently, a sharp rise in 10-year Treasury yields, which serve as an informal benchmark for 30-year mortgage rates. The 8% barrier stands as just one more unwelcome milestone in the upward trajectory of borrowing costs.“We’ve seen a tremendous run-up in rates,” says Tom Wind, head of Consumer Lending at U.S. Bank. “It’s kin...

Doubts abound about a new Alzheimer’s blood test

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:43 GMT

Judith Graham | (TNS) KFF Health NewsFor the first time, people worried about their risk of Alzheimer’s disease can go online, order a blood test, and receive results in the privacy of their homes.This might seem appealing on the surface, but the development has Alzheimer’s researchers and clinicians up in arms.The Quest Diagnostics blood test, AD-Detect, measures elevated levels of amyloid-beta proteins, a signature characteristic of Alzheimer’s. Introduced in late July, the test is targeted primarily at people 50 and older who suspect their memory and thinking might be impaired and people with a family history of Alzheimer’s or genetic risks for the condition.Given Alzheimer’s is among the most feared of all medical conditions, along with cancer, this could be a sizable market indeed. Nearly 7 million older adults in the U.S. have Alzheimer’s, and that number is expected to double by 2060 if medical breakthroughs don’t occur.But Alzheimer’s researchers and clinicians aren’t convin...

Israel pushes deeper into Gaza and frees Hamas captive; Netanyahu rejects calls for cease-fire

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:43 GMT

By NAJIB JOBAIN, SAMY MAGDY and LEE KEATH (Associated Press)KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli ground forces pushed deeper into Gaza on Monday, advancing in tanks and other armored vehicles on the territory’s main city and freeing a soldier held captive by Hamas terrorists. The Israeli prime minister rejected calls for a cease-fire, even as airstrikes landed near hospitals where thousands of Palestinians are sheltering beside the wounded.The military said a female soldier captured during Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 incursion was rescued in Gaza — the first since the weekslong war began. It provided few details, but said in a statement that Pvt. Ori Megidish “is doing well” and had met with her family.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed her home, saying the “achievement” by Israel’s security forces “illustrates our commitment to free all the hostages.”He also rejected calls for a cease-fire to facilitate the release of captives or end the war, which he has said will be long...

Doctors could revive bid to block Arizona ban on abortions performed due to genetic abnormality

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:43 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — A federal appeals court has agreed to give abortion rights advocates a chance to revive their bid to block an Arizona law that makes it a felony for doctors to perform abortions on patients seeking the procedure solely because of a fetal genetic abnormality, such as Down syndrome.In an order issued Monday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to a lower court to consider the doctors’ request for a court order blocking the law. The appeals court didn’t rule on the merits of the challenge but concluded nonetheless that the doctors had legal standing to make the request. The three-judge panel said the doctors believe they would be targeted for prosecution, given that at least one of the state’s 15 county prosecutors intends to enforce the law, and that the doctors had shown they suffered economic losses by complying with the law. “Even if the regulations were crystal clear, plaintiffs would still lose revenue from the abortions that they can no longer...

Health professionals, not police should care for intoxicated prisoners: B.C. watchdog

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:43 GMT

SURREY, B.C. — The head of British Columbia’s police watchdog says caring for intoxicated prisoners is a health-care issue and shouldn’t be a police responsibility. A report released by Ronald J. MacDonald, the chief civilian director of the Independent Investigations Office, says holding those who are intoxicated in jail cells is outdated and offers no guarantee of their safety and health.The report came after a man in Williams Lake, B.C., who was thought to be suffering from alcohol or drug withdrawal, had a “life-threatening health crisis” in RCMP cells last year.The unidentified man was arrested on Nov. 13, began vomiting about 24 hours later, then was found struggling to breathe and was rushed to hospital. The report says the RCMP’s call for help was actually “optimal” for the man because his symptoms were serious enough that he was hospitalized, but any later would have increased his risk of death. MacDonald says the officers didn̵...

Seth Rogen, Jennifer Robertson join CBC’s ‘The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:43 GMT

Actors Seth Rogen and Jennifer Robertson have joined an upcoming CBC reality show that will crown Canada’s top potter. Rogen, who creates his own pottery when he’s not making movies, will serve as executive producer and guest judge on “The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down.”Robertson, known for playing Jocelyn Schitt on the hit CBC TV comedy “Schitt’s Creek,” will host the competition that will put 10 amateur potters to the ultimate test.Vancouver-based artist and ceramics instructor Brendan Tang and ceramicist and educator Natalie Waddell from Toronto will also serve as judges on the show.CBC says the series, inspired by the U.K.’s “The Great Pottery Throw Down,” was filmed this summer in Rogen’s hometown of Vancouver.“The Great Pottery Throw Down” will broadcast in Canada on CBC and CBC Gem sometime in the winter 2024. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Oct. 30, 2023.The Canadian Press

Biden administration is moving toward a narrower student loan relief targeting groups of borrowers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:43 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is moving toward a narrower student loan relief plan that would target specific groups of borrowers — those with soaring interest, for example — rather than a sweeping plan like the one the Supreme Court rejected in June.An Education Department document obtained by The Associated Press details a draft of new federal rules paving the way for a second attempt at student loan relief. The proposal targets groups that are seen as especially vulnerable, focusing on those who owe so much, or make so little income, that they otherwise may never repay their loans.Though full details are likely months away, the department says it wants to provide relief to — borrowers whose balances exceed what they originally owed; those who have loans that entered repayment 25 or more years ago; those who used loans to attend career-training programs that led to “unreasonable” debt loads or insufficient earnings; those who are eligible for other loan forgiveness pr...

MUST-WATCH: Can you survive Five Nights at Freddy’s?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:43 GMT

The incredibly popular video game series has come to the big screen! But will Freddy and his scary animatronic friends reign from the top spot of the MUST-WATCH, or could it go to the last film from the director of the Exorcist? Perhaps a documentary about one of pop music’s biggest scandals? You’ll have to keep reading to find out!The Caine Mutiny Court-MartialWhere to watch: Paramount+First up, the final film of a directing legend!Kiefer Sutherland in the Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, courtesy of Paramount.The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is the final film by William Friedkin (the Oscar-winning director who made the French Connection, the Exorcist, and Sorcerer). Based off of a play by the same name, the film stars Kiefer Sutherland (from the Lost Boys and 24) as a U.S. Naval Captain who was forcibly removed from command by his first officer (played by Jake Lacy from the White Lotus). The first officer is facing charges of mutiny, and so it’s up to his lawyer (played...

Judge orders federal agents to stop cutting Texas razor wire for now at busy Mexico border crossing

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:43 GMT

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge Monday ordered Border Patrol agents not to interfere with razor wire that Texas installed at a busy crossing for migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border, ruling that the barrier can only be cut to provide aid during medical emergencies.The temporary restraining order signed by U.S. District Judge Alia Moses allows federal agents to cut the wire in order to “provide emergency medical aid” to migrants, some of whom were gashed or snagged by the wire after crossing the Rio Grande seeking to enter Texas. But Moses otherwise ruled that the barriers should remain intact for now as a court case over the barrier moves forward.The state last week sued the Biden administration over the destruction of razor wire in Eagle Pass, where thousands crossed in late September outpacing federal processing resources and humanitarian aid. “Another win for Texas & our historic border mission,” Abbott posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. Spokespersons for U.S. Custom...