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Animal shelter raises money with drunk raccoon merch

admin - Latest News - December 9, 2025
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Animal shelter raises money with drunk raccoon merch



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October 12, 2025
Oct. 12, 2025, 6:00 AM EDTBy Jon-David RegisNatalie Silva, a high school senior in Massachusetts, wants to play soccer in college, but she is still recovering from a right knee injury during a game over a year ago.Silva remembers colliding with an opposing player. As she fell, she heard her knee “pop” when her cleats got stuck in the turf on a field where her Uxbridge High School team was playing an away game.“I was playing on an indoor field where the turf is on top of concrete. If it was grass, there would’ve been more cushion,” claims Silva, 18, who goes to school about 50 miles southwest of Boston. She said she met with her doctor, who was concerned that her cleats were made for playing on grass, not turf. “The turf 100% played a role in my injury,” Silva said.The multibillion-dollar artificial turf industry has convinced local governments and school boards that turf fields are a way to save money and increase playing time for young people. As hundreds of synthetic fields and playgrounds are installed at schools, colleges, and public parks in the U.S. every year, stakeholders from lawmakers to school boards and soccer moms are debating claims like Silva’s about the safety of playing on such surfaces.Boston and Westport, Connecticut, have effectively banned turf that contains rubber from recycled tires due to concerns about exposure to chemicals. Vermont has passed restrictions, and in California, a reversal of a previous decision now allows local communities to impose bans. Groups like the NFL Players Association, and physical therapists and other clinicians believe playing on turf increases the risk of torn ligaments, sprained ankles, and other injuries.A study of NFL data released in 2024 found higher incidences of lower-extremity injuries on artificial turf than on natural grass. The odds of a serious injury requiring season-ending surgery were significantly higher, the study said. “ACL and ankle sprains are the main injuries we see from turf,” said HIDEF Physical Therapy founder Zach Smith, who works with athletes in Seattle as they recover from turf-related injuries.“The turf provides better grip and more friction,” he said. “Great for performance, but bad for joints.”Safety debate mountsArtificial turf — first widely introduced in the 1960s at the former domed stadium of Major League Baseball’s Houston Astros — is made from plastics to mimic the look of grass. It typically contains tiny black pellets called “crumb rubber,” processed using shredded tires.By 2020, there were 13,000 synthetic turf sports fields in the U.S., with about 1,500 installed annually, according to the National Recreation and Park Association. Nowadays, young people who participate in sports, from football to field hockey and lacrosse to soccer, are less likely to play on natural grass than on artificial turf, also called synthetic grass, synthetic turf, or astroturf.Python Park, a 12-acre playing field in Avondale Estates, Georgia, belongs to the Paideia School. Paideia is changing its fields from grass to turf. Sam Whitehead / KFF Health NewsThe Synthetic Turf Council, a leading industry trade group, did not return calls and emails to answer questions about chemical hazards and injuries. But the industry has pointed to research showing no definitive link between artificial turf and health problems, including sports injuries.Manufacturers support their product.“Artificial turf lets kids play safely on a lush, mud-free surface all year long,” said Adam Grossman, chief executive of Southern Turf Co., headquartered in Austin, Texas.“No fertilizers, pesticides, or watering required,” said Grossman, adding that his company’s products are “nontoxic.”Brad Blastick, president of Lazy Grass Co. in Alpharetta, Georgia, said his company’s products feature “built-in cushioning, helping to reduce injuries and keep kids active and safe.”In a January letter to protest a Santa Clara County, California, proposal to ban artificial turf, the president and CEO of the Synthetic Turf Council, Melanie Taylor, said “forever chemicals are ubiquitous in today’s environment, including water, air, soil, and a variety of food products.”Synthetic turf does not contain more than what’s in other parts of the environment, and it helps communities across the country save money, Taylor said in the letter. “Motions to ban synthetic turf hinder communities’ ability to access these benefits [and] should be reconsidered,” she wrote.Long-term consequencesCritics of turf dispute the industry’s claims, including those about safety.The pellets of crumb rubber in turf contain toxic chemicals like petroleum compounds, metals, and lead, according to Stuart Shalat, former director of the Division of Environmental Health at Georgia State University.“When fields heat up, they can release fumes or transfer chemicals to skin,” said Shalat, who is now retired. “And we don’t yet fully understand the long-term effects, especially for children.”The Paideia School, a K-12 private school in Atlanta, is switching from grass to turf at Python Park, its off-campus location in Avondale Estates that has two soccer fields and a diamond for baseball and softball.Janet Metzger, a self-described environmentalist who lives near Python Park, said she tried to persuade the school to cancel the project because she is worried about the impact on nature.“When there’s natural grass, you have insects and life in the soil that keep the area vibrant,” Metzger said. “Turf kills the environment and harms all the species that live there.”The Paideia School declined an interview request to answer questions about why it is installing turf.In instituting their restriction on turf fields, government officials in California and Vermont said they were worried about PFAS, which are known as “forever chemicals,” and other hazardous materials that can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin. A 2024 federal Environmental Protection Agency report on the crumb rubber in turf found that chemicals associated with tire crumb rubber were in the air, on surfaces, and on the skin of study participants but concluded there were no elevated levels in their bodies. EPA researchers, however, said their study was not designed to assess health risks associated with crumb rubber.Meanwhile, the U.S. Consumer Protection Agency has issued recommendations for limiting exposure to crumb rubber recycled tire materials used in playground surfaces, encouraging people to wash their hands and other exposed skin after leaving playgrounds with these surfaces, and to avoid eating and drinking while there.This year is shaping up to become one of the hottest on record. Turf absorbs heat from the sun and can become much hotter than natural grass, creating a health hazard, according to the Center for Environmental Health.“On turf, you get more blisters, turf toe, and turf burns. I’m playing recreational soccer now and dealing with blisters myself,” said Smith, the Seattle physical therapist who specializes in orthopedic injuries and rehabilitation. “Turf gets hot, and when you add sweat and heat, it becomes a dangerous combination.”Brian Feeley, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of California-San Francisco, said his studies show ACL and Achilles tendon injuries are more likely on turf and more likely to require surgery.“Artificial turf doesn’t release cleats as easily,” he said. “That puts more torque and strain on the knees and ankles.”And Feeley said the long-term consequences can be severe: “An ACL injury as a young athlete can keep you from playing at the next level and lead to arthritis in your 30s.”Natalie Silva is still recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament injury in her right knee that she says happened in February 2024 during a high school soccer game played on a turf field.Natalie SilvaSilva, the injured high school soccer player, said she wishes her games had been played on natural grass. The Uxbridge High School principal’s office and athletic department declined multiple requests to comment.She vividly recalls the match in February 2024 when she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee.“I went up to head the ball and landed awkwardly on my right leg,” she said. “The goalie ran into me at full speed, and my knee popped. I immediately fell to the floor in agony. Every bump in the car ride home made my leg jerk — it felt detached.”Before the injury, Silva said, she had hoped to play soccer in college. Now, she is struggling through rehabilitation three times a week and can’t play for a full year.Asked about her future in soccer, Silva said she doesn’t know what to expect. Right now, she’s just trying to enjoy senior year.“The mental side of it is the worst,” Silva said. “The feeling of one day being able to do everything and the next you can’t walk or even move your leg. The mental aspect of it lasts longer than the pain.”Jon-David RegisJon-David Regis is a contributor to KFF Health News. Fred Clasen-Kelly contributed.
November 13, 2025
Nov. 13, 2025, 11:57 AM ESTBy Melanie Zanona, Julie Tsirkin and Sahil KapurWASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson says he still has “PTSD” from the GOP’s failed effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act during President Donald Trump’s first term.Now, the party is about to plunge back into the tricky policy debate that once cost them seats in the House.This time around, though, Republicans are mostly stopping short of calling for a full-scale repeal of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, even as they slam the policy as a failure. Instead, the mantra among Republicans is “fix Obamacare.”But the clock is ticking. Open enrollment for health insurance has already begun and enhanced Obamacare subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year, more than doubling insurance premiums for millions of Americans in red and blue states alike, with some seeing increases of thousands of dollars per month.Republicans, under pressure from Democrats after the government shutdown revived the health care clash, have not coalesced around legislation or even an abstract idea, and are only now starting serious discussions about putting proposals together.Trump calls for end of filibuster, takes aim at Affordable Care Act03:16As the party scrambles to craft an alternative, multiple Republicans are vying for Trump’s endorsement of ideas that could alleviate skyrocketing costs that are just around the corner. Two Republican senators have competing plans to create federally funded spending accounts that would help Obamacare enrollees directly, rather than subsidize insurers to keep costs down.Johnson, R-La., said House Republicans have also been brainstorming proposals behind the scenes and will “be rolling out some of those ideas,” but he declined to put a timeline on it.“I haven’t prejudged that or put any dates on it, but I mean, we worked on it today. We’ve been working on it every day. We got more members joining the discussion,” Johnson told NBC News on Wednesday evening. “This is how it works. It’s a deliberative process, where you build out the consensus, and we’ll be working on that in earnest in the days ahead.”Johnson also said he recently traded texts with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., about the possibility of working on a bipartisan solution. But Jeffries is pushing for a three-year extension of the expiring ACA tax credits, which Johnson has said is a nonstarter.If Republicans aren’t able to agree on an alternative solution before the end of this year, they’ll have to decide whether to join with Democrats in extending the ACA tax credits, which risks drawing Trump’s ire, or letting them expire, which risks infuriating voters ahead of next year’s midterm elections.Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who said he talked to Trump at length last week about the importance of health care, warned, “not only is it morally bankrupt, it’s political suicide” for Republicans to let the subsidies expire without an alternative in place.Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told NBC News he pitched Trump on his plan, which would put federal money in health savings account-style accounts for individuals to “increase competition and drive down costs.”Scott hopes to release the text of the bill as soon as possible, citing a mid-December deadline set by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to give Democrats a vote on the expiring ACA subsidies.Scott, who chairs the Senate Republicans’ policy committee, invited health care-focused guest speakers to weekly party lunches over the last six weeks to illustrate why members should oppose extending the ACA subsidies, as Democrats were demanding during the shutdown.“Obamacare has failed us. Cost has skyrocketed,” Scott told reporters in the Capitol on Monday. “The way to fix it is, any Obamacare subsidies go to the individual through an HSA and then allow people to buy whatever plan that fits their family.”It’s an idea that Trump — who stepped up his public attacks on Obamacare last week when Democrats were still digging in on their shutdown demands — seems open to.“We’re gonna pay a lot of money to the people. They’re gonna go out and buy their own health care, and we’re gonna forget this Obamacare madness,” Trump said during a bill signing to end the shutdown Wednesday evening.Earlier this week, Trump suggested naming the replacement plan “Trumpcare.”Despite the president repeatedly railing against Obamacare, a White House official told NBC News that Trump had not ruled out extending the ACA subsidies.“We need to do the right thing policy-wise but also the smart thing politically,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the president’s thinking.Another emerging idea is from Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., chairman of the Senate’s health committee, who advocated for flexible spending accounts that, like Scott’s proposal, would help Obamacare enrollees directly.Cassidy has pitched his idea to Republicans and the Trump administration, but also across the aisle as the only tangible solution to address rising health care costs with a chance of passing the House and being signed into law by Trump.“I don’t know if we can get something bipartisan, but you never can unless you at least give it a shot,” Cassidy said. “We actually want to get something that lowers health care costs for the American citizens implemented as quickly as possible. There’s some things we’re going to disagree on that might be really good policy, but if we’re going to get it done quickly, it has to be things that we do agree on.”The viability of those ideas remains to be seen.“While Republicans have talked for years about replacing the ACA, none of these current ideas are fully fleshed out yet. A tweet is not a health care plan,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a nonpartisan research group. “So, it’s hard to tell exactly how these concepts of replacing ACA premium assistance with cash or health accounts would really work in practice.”“If people could use these Trump health care dollars to buy insurance not regulated by the ACA, it would likely cause the ACA to collapse and upend protections for pre-existing conditions,” Levitt continued.There is a third option. Republicans could try to overhaul Obamacare with only GOP votes by using the “budget reconciliation” process for a second time during Trump’s second term. The procedural tool allows Republicans to pass legislation with a simple majority, and Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has advocated doing so, pitching it as an alternative to Trump’s calls to get rid of the filibuster.Graham has even suggested crafting a Republican alternative to Obamacare and passing a package by Jan. 1 — no small feat — to avoid higher premiums from kicking in, according to two people familiar with his private comments. Graham’s suggestion is not being considered as a serious proposal because of the monumental lift required to put together such a plan, these people said. And, it’s an open question what would even be allowed under Senate rules, with multiple senators and aides telling NBC News they would need to run it by the Senate’s parliamentarian, who referees the reconciliation process, before hitting go.Republicans tried multiple times during Trump’s first term to repeal or undo Obamacare. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, and that applies here,” Van Drew said. “I don’t want us to flounder around, say we’re working on something, go back and forth. And then Jan. 1 comes, and some people are not able to pay their bills because their health insurance costs so much, or other folks just give up their health insurance.”Van Drew said if they can’t pass an alternative before the end of the year, then they need to extend the subsidies for another year in order to buy themselves more time.And if Republicans don’t act, then Van Drew said he’d be open to signing a discharge petition to prevent ACA subsidies from lapsing — a tricky and rarely used procedural tool to go around leadership’s head that requires 218 signatures to succeed. Jeffries started a discharge petition Wednesday for a three-year extension of the ACA tax credits; if every Democrat signs on, they’ll need four Republicans to join them to force a House vote. That is unlikely to happen.“If we don’t do anything, we just flounder around, it’s certainly something I would consider,” said Van Drew, who participated in a bipartisan and bicameral health care meeting last week.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Republicans now “own” the health care crisis, previewing the Democratic line of attack ahead of the midterms.In exchange for opening the government, Democrats got a promise for a floor vote in mid-December on an ACA bill of their choosing. But there’s no guarantee about the outcome. Democrats are exploring ways to win over Republicans, such as changing the eligibility requirement or income caps. But another wrinkle has emerged: a battle over GOP demands for stricter abortion guardrails around the ACA money, which Democrats say is a nonstarter.Meanwhile, Johnson has refused to commit to putting any Senate-passed ACA bill on the House floor. The speaker has insisted he needs to build consensus among his members first and has deputized House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., to work with the three chairmen of the committees with relevant jurisdiction over the issue, as well as the GOP doctors caucus, to put together some ideas. The working group will hold listening sessions with members next week.Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told NBC News the ACA money should “absolutely” expire, despite the wishes of some in the GOP to renew it.“There’s not gonna be any deal cut,” Norman said.Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., the chair of the House Republican Policy Committee, said the GOP solution should not require federal money.“We should look at how we’re going to lower costs without having to inject more federal dollars into it,” he said. “The Democrat solution is to throw more federal dollars at it. We don’t have the access to that.”Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has questioned how serious her colleagues are about a health care plan. Greene, the MAGA firebrand, who said her family’s health care costs have risen threefold since the ACA took effect, warned that her party will suffer politically in 2026 if they fail to improve the system.“Republicans must finally come up with a plan to address affordability,” she told NBC News. “Ignoring this crisis will not only leave the American people in a crisis but will likely lead to losses in the midterms. We have the majority; it’s time to solve this problem that the Democrats created.”Melanie ZanonaMelanie Zanona is a Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News.Julie TsirkinJulie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill.Sahil KapurSahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.Lillie Boudreaux and Gabe Gutierrez contributed.
October 27, 2025
Hunt on for remaining Louvre thieves after firsts arrests made
November 30, 2025
Nov. 30, 2025, 5:49 AM ESTBy Freddie ClaytonIsraeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 70,000 people in over two years of war, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, as the death toll continues to climb despite the ongoing ceasefire.Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed at least 70,100 people since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 2023, which equates to more than 3% of the 2.3 million people living in the enclave. A further 170,983 people have been wounded.The World Health Organization has said that the numbers given by health officials in Gaza are reputable.A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza remains in effect but has been tested by repeated outbreaks of violence, as Gaza’s residents face hunger, flooding and the onset of a bitter winter.Israeli fire killed two Palestinian children in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday. The two brothers, aged 11 and 8, died when an Israeli drone struck close to a school sheltering displaced people in the town of Beni Suhaila, according to staff at Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. The Israeli military said it killed two people who crossed into an Israeli-controlled area, “conducted suspicious activities” and approached troops. The statement didn’t mention children.Israeli strike on Gaza leaves 24 Palestinians dead, dozens wounded00:27Sunday’s grim milestone arrives more than two years after Hamas launched multipronged surprise attacks on Israel that left 1,200 people dead, with 240 people taken hostage by Hamas and other affiliated militant groups.An estimated 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced since Oct. 7 2023, and more than 1.5 million people “urgently require emergency shelter assistance,” the United Nations’ migration agency IOM said last month.Walid Qabalan, a 53-year-old man, now lives with his family of nine in a small tent in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis. On the second day of the war, Walid, his wife, and their children were forced to flee their home in the city of Abasan, east of Khan Younis, after their home became too dangerous to reach.His daughter Amira, who is 13 and should be in eighth grade, instead spends her daily life keeping the family safe.“My days are spent making dough, waiting at the charity kitchen line, fetching water,” she told NBC News.Eleven-year-old Abrar, who should be in fifth grade, left school from the very first day of the war.They took our childhood,” she said. “Our playtime is gone, our home is gone, our memories are gone.”President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan was endorsed by a majority vote at the United Nations earlier this month, though world powers were still divided over whether it can convert the fragile ceasefire into the long-term solution that has eluded the Middle East.Designed to usher Gaza from rubble-strewn war zone into a new era, Trump’s plan would establish a “Board of Peace” to temporarily govern the territory and an International Stabilization Force taking over responsibility for maintaining the peace from the Israel Defense Forces currently occupying parts of the Gaza Strip.The proposal would be “phase two” of Trump’s 20-point plan first announced in September, “phase one” of which brought a prisoner and hostage exchange.Freddie ClaytonFreddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London. 
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