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As abortion battle shifts, Planned Parenthood to boost regional affiliate funds, cut national staff

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:00 GMT

Planned Parenthood is shifting funding to its state affiliates and cutting national office staff to reflect a changed landscape in both how abortion is provided and how battles over access are playing out.The group, a major provider of abortion and other health services and also an advocate for abortion access, told its staff on Monday that layoff notices would go out in June. It provided The Associated Press with an overview Tuesday.The changes are to kick in on July 1, just over a year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that provided a right to abortion across the country. Since then, most Republican-controlled states have banned or restricted abortion, and most Democrat-controlled states have made moves to protect access.“We are in a moment when I just believe that Planned Parenthood needs to change, too,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the two arms of the organization: the political Planned Parenthood Action Fund ...

4-year-old child is ‘OK’ after being dropped from high border wall in San Diego

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A 4-year-old child was dropped into the United States from a high border wall with Mexico in a surveillance video that captures a routine — and highly risky — occurrence.“Remarkably, the child is ok!” Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz tweeted in his caption to the agency’s one-minute, 37-second video, which was posted on Twitter on Monday. “Do not trust smugglers!”The jerky, black-and-white images appear to show the child and one adult being aided by another adult over the wall, which rises as high 30 feet (9.1 meters) between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, California. Ortiz said agents heard gunfire while tending to the child.The child came with two adults, all of whom were in Border Patrol custody, agency spokesman Michael Scappechio said Tuesday. It had not been confirmed if the adults were the child’s parents or what nationality they were. It was also unclear if they would be released in the United States to pursue immigration cases or deported.A...

Caustic feedback, serious injuries and the quiet mental health suffering of horse racing jockeys

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:00 GMT

BALTIMORE (AP) — Eurico Rosa da Silva was in a dark place. On the track, the jockey in his early 30s was winning races and making money. At home, he was fighting suicidal thoughts every day.“I got to the point where I have no more choice but to go for help,” he recalled recently. “I went because if I have no choice, I would kill myself.”Da Silva got help in 2006 and rode for more than a decade before retiring. He’s one of the lucky ones.Earlier this year, horse racing was stunned by the suicides less than six weeks apart of two young jockeys, 23-year-old Avery Whisman and 29-year-old Alex Canchari. A friend of Whisman’s, Triple Crown-winning rider Mike Smith, said he has seen similar tragedies over three decades.“I know several riders that I knew very well committed suicide when it was all said and done,” Smith said. “This is not all of a sudden just happening. It’s been going on. You just never heard of it.”The dangers of riding thoroughbreds at high speed add up to an ...

2 US Senators promote closer Serbia-Kosovo ties in Balkans visit

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:00 GMT

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Two U.S. Senators said Tuesday they hope that European Union-backed negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia can achieve results this year in resolving the dispute between the two countries and normalizing their relations.The Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy and Gary Peters were visiting Albania’s capital Tuesday following a stop in Kosovo during a trip that also will take them to Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. The conflict in Kosovo erupted in 1998 when separatist ethnic Albanians rebelled against Serbia’s rule, and Serbia responded with a brutal crackdown. About 13,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, died. NATO’s military intervention in 1999 eventually forced Serbia to pull out of the territory. Washington and most European Union countries have recognized Kosovo as an independent state, but Serbia, Russia and China have not.Washington and Brussels have stepped up efforts to help solve the Kosovo-Serbia dispute, fearing further instability in Euro...

‘A sign of his compassion’: Man killed while helping ducklings safely cross busy California street

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:00 GMT

ROCKLIN, Calif. (AP) — His family says it’s no surprise that Casey Rivara’s final act was one of compassion. When he spotted a mama duck trying to guide her ducklings across a busy California intersection, Rivara stopped his car at a red light and got out to help them make it to safety. Rivara made sure traffic in all directions was stopped, witnesses said, then escorted the duck and her babies to the other side of the street around 8:15 p.m. last Thursday in suburban Rocklin, northeast of Sacramento. “All the ducks made it safely across,” said 11-year-old Jude Peterson, who was watching with a carpool group after track practice. “He did something amazing.” His good deed done, Rivara was walking back to his car when another vehicle came through the intersection and struck him. He flew through the air and landed in the street. The 41-year-old father of two died at the scene. “Casey was the kindest, most amazing husband and father. Even his last act in this world was a sign of h...

Ontario mother using painful experience of losing a child to help others going through it

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:00 GMT

Through her own painful experience losing a child, Stefania Thomson is working to help other parents going through the same tragedy.On her Instagram account “Home with Stefania,” she is guiding other parents suffering through the grief of their own unthinkable tragedies.“I am a mom of three. My oldest is about turn six in a couple of weeks and after her 1st birthday, I found out that I was pregnant with my son,” shared Thomson, who is now a child bereavement advocate.“When he turned six months old, he became sick. And developed a persistent fever. He was diagnosed with a life-threatening genetic condition called hemophagocytic lympho histiocytosis, known as HLH … that affects the entire immune system, and the only cure is a bone marrow transplant.Thomson’s oldest daughter was Jack’s bone marrow donor, but after several complications, Jack passed away in February 2020. That’s when she turned to Instagram, deciding to use her platform to help both herself and o...

Contractor says it has settled lawsuit with sick and dying coal ash workers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:00 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Attorneys for a group of workers who believe their jobs cleaning up a massive coal ash spill in Tennessee led to a slew of illnesses, including fatal cancers, have reached a settlement with the contractor who organized the cleanup for the Tennessee Valley Authority, according to a notice posted on the Jacobs Engineering website on Tuesday. Beginning in 2013, more than 200 workers sued Jacobs, claiming the company’s supervisors misled them about the dangers of the ash, failed to provide them with protective gear like respirators, and tampered with the air monitoring equipment meant to keep the workers safe. In 2018, a Knoxville jury took only a few hours to decide that Jacobs had breached its duty of safety, exposing workers to airborne “fly ash” with known carcinogens. The jurors said Jacobs’ actions were capable of making the workers sick. The key question of whether they caused each worker’s specific illness was left for a different jury in a second p...

Super Typhoon Mawar closes in on Guam as residents shelter, military sends away ships

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:00 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — Residents of Guam stockpiled supplies, battened down windows and abandoned wood and tin homes for emergency shelters as Super Typhoon Mawar bore down as the strongest storm to approach the U.S. Pacific territory in decades.The U.S. military sent away ships, President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration and anyone not living in a concrete house was urged to seek safety elsewhere ahead of Mawar, which could arrive as a monster Category 5 storm. Guam Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said on social media that the emergency declaration will support the mobilization of resources into Guam, which is “especially crucial given our distance from the continental U.S.” Guerrero ordered residents of coastal, low-lying and flood-prone areas of the territory of over 150,000 people to evacuate to higher elevations.Federal assistance will be needed to save lives and property and “mitigate the effects of this imminent catastrophe,” Guerrero said in a letter to the president reques...

Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne weigh in on ‘When Harry Met Sally’ debate of ‘Platonic’ friendships

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:00 GMT

Can men and women be friends? 1989’s “ When Harry Met Sally ” said no, but Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen disagree.The pair co-star in the new Apple TV+ series “ Platonic,” debuting Wednesday, about longtime best friends who, as the title suggests, are just that. In fact, the actors had conversations early on to make sure the characters never cross a line.“I honestly don’t like things about infidelity,” Rogen said in a recent interview. “I just don’t like it. That was something that I was like so clear (on) and something we talked about a lot… ’How do we signal to the audience, ‘that’s not a thing we have to worry about’? They can enjoy the show, laugh and not have this nagging thing in the back of their heads of like, ‘Is she going to cheat on her husband with this guy?’”Both Byrne and Rogen, who are each married, say they have longtime friends of the opposite sex.“I have a lot of friendships with women that I’ve had for decades and decades and decades,” he...

Pritzker announces unit of over 30 'peacekeepers' to provide crisis support in Chicago

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:00 GMT

CHICAGO — Governor Pritzker announced Tuesday the creation of a citywide unit in Chicago that will deploy "peacekeepers" to provide crisis support.The Citywide Crisis Prevention & Response Unit (CPRU) will have over 30 peacekeepers and street outreach partners to "provide essential assistance in de-escalation, conflict resolution, and crisis support across Chicago."“The most important work we do is keeping our communities safe, and this is another important step towards addressing violence and conflict through research-based, community-focused approaches,” said Gov. Pritzker. “IDHS is creatively utilizing their funding to find high-impact solutions to the current problems facing Chicago, and I’m thankful for their hard work heading into the summer months.”Announced ahead of Memorial Day weekend, the unit is now permanent in Chicago.“The CPRU is an essential tool in keeping our communities safe because these individuals bring invaluable insight and knowledge that allow us to redu...