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CDC study warns of 'dramatic increase' in deadly fungus across US

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:00 GMT

(The Hill) - Candida auris, a rare and sometimes deadly fungal disease, is spreading through the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned this week, citing a “dramatic” increase in cases.According to the CDC, Candida auris is a type of yeast that can cause severe illness in hospitalized patients. It primarily affects older people and those with weakened immune systems, rejects treatments from traditional antifungal medications and has a mortality rate of up to 60 percent, health officials said.There were at least 2,377 confirmed cases in the U.S. in 2022, according to CDC statistics. That total was a steep jump from the 1,474 cases in 2021 and continued a rapid increase from 2020, when there were just 757 confirmed cases. Tranq making ‘deadliest drug threat’ in US ‘even deadlier,’ DEA warns Health officials said that the fungus’s resistance to antifungal medication is “particularly concerning” because those medications are often the first option for treatm...

Rangers sign Lefty Will Smith to 1-year, $1.5M deal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:00 GMT

SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP) — Left-handed reliever Will Smith agreed to a $1.5 million, one-year contract with the Texas Rangers on Saturday and will report to spring training.The 33-year-old was 0-3 with a 3.97 ERA and five saves in 65 relief appearances last year for Atlanta and Houston, which acquired him on Aug. 2 for current Ranger Jake Odorizzi. The Astros declined a $13 million option on Nov. 9, allowing Smith to become a free agent as he completed a $40 million, three-year contract.He was an All-Star with San Francisco in 2019, the final season with the Giants for current Rangers manager Bruce Bochy. Smith had a career-high 37 saves for Atlanta in 2021.He has a 31-34 career record with 91 saves in 513 appearances over 10 seasons for Kansas City (2012-13), Milwaukee (2014-16), San Francisco (2016, 2018-19), Atlanta (2020-22), and Houston (2022).Infielder Mark Mathias was designated for assignment to open a roster spot. He was 3 for 10 with three RBIs and three walks in five spring t...

Trudy Rubin: Russian attack on a U.S. drone underlines why we must help Ukraine win

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:00 GMT

Whether or not to help the Ukrainians drive Russian invaders out of their country is rapidly becoming a 2024 campaign issue.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says aiding Kyiv is not a vital U.S. interest, and dismisses the brutal Russian invasion as a “territorial dispute” with Ukraine. Meantime, former President Donald Trump says if he were reelected, he would negotiate a deal that let Russia take over Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine. (Most Ukrainians speak Russian.)So, even though the coming months will be critical for Ukrainian efforts to roll back the Russians, the political debate over aid to Ukraine is bound to grow in 2023. Vladimir Putin will try to sway that debate in Russia’s favor, with risky machinations like the Russian downing of an unmanned U.S. drone over international Black Sea waters on Tuesday. MAGA House members and Fox News host Tucker Carlson will stir up the GOP base by repeating Kremlin talking points.This is why it is more crucial than ever for P...

Tyler Cowen: Artificial Intelligence is about to transform childhood. Are we ready?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:00 GMT

With the introduction of GPT-4 and Claude, AI has taken another big step forward.GPT-4 is human-level or better at many hard tasks, a huge improvement over GPT-3.5, which was released only a few months ago. Yet amid the debate over these advances, there has been very little discussion of one of the most profound effects of AI large language models: how they will reshape childhood.In the future, every middle-class kid will grow up with a personalized AI assistant — so long as the parents are OK with that.As for the children, most of them will be willing if not downright eager. When I was 4 years old, I had an imaginary friend who lived under the refrigerator, called (ironically) Bing Bing. I would talk to him and report his opinions to my parents and sister.In the near future, such friends will be quite real, albeit automated, and they will talk back to our children as directly as we wish. Having an AI service for your child will be as normal as having a pet, except the AI serv...

St. Louis and MoDOT crews increase pothole patrol amid spring weather

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:00 GMT

ST. LOUIS - With the start of warmer weather, potholes that formed in the winter are becoming bigger and deeper. The city and MoDOT plan to keep up with demand across the St. Louis region.Recent roller coaster weather has allowed potholes to expand."In springtime, they pop up more often, much like daffodils,” said Tom Blair, district engineer for MoDOT.To keep up with demand, the Missouri Department of Transportation planned to increase crews. They said a milder winter has freed up some money in the budget to use on projects such as fixing potholes. Top story: Search for missing St. Charles woman leads to abandoned car "You'll also see a lot of our crews out there do road sweeping, shoulder sweeping,” Blair said. “Sort of like that spring cleanup, like we all want to do on our yard, that's what MoDOT has to do in the spring; we prioritize all that spring cleanup stuff, which includes filling potholes."In 2022, St. Louis officials said they had filled more than 6,000 potholes. Cur...

Missouri Attorney General's plan to restrict gender-affirming care for minors draws criticism   

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:00 GMT

ST. LOUIS - Reaction to a plan by Missouri Attorney Andrew Bailey to restrict gender-affirming care is drawing sharp criticisms from advocates for transgender youth. “These kids are fabulous kids, and there is nothing that I would like better than for them to just be themselves,” said Susan Halla, executive director of TransParent, a national organization that provides support for the families of transgender and gender-nonconforming youth. Bailey’s office shared details of his plan on Monday. Planned Parenthood was among the organizations calling Bailey’s claims false and harmful and insisting gender-affirming care is safe, effective, and life-saving. The ACLU of Missouri believes Bailey is outside his authority to implement the restrictions and has called them reckless and dangerous.  Top story: Search for missing St. Charles woman leads to abandoned car The news comes following an allegation from a former employee at the Washington University Transgender Cen...

Daycare re-opens after more than a year of changes following child left alone

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:00 GMT

FLORISSANT, Mo. - A daycare facility in St. Louis County just reopened under a probationary license. The Tendercare Learning Center on New Halls Ferry has been closed since December 2021, when Missouri’s Office of Childhood suspended its license for reportedly leaving a toddler outside for nearly four hours.“It should never happen,” said Steve Fleddermann, the facility’s attorney, as he explained what went wrong. “The teacher did a headcount, and that’s not enough, because, as children will do, by the time they actually filed in, the line starts moving the child decides to go back and stay outside.”A 2-year-old child was documented by regulators as being out alone in a fenced-in playground from 10:33 a.m. until 3:23 p.m. on that day in December. It was unseasonably warm, with temperatures reportedly in the low 50s. Top story: Search for missing St. Charles woman leads to abandoned car “Fortunately, there was no injury in this case, but that’s not to say there couldn’t have been,”...

Contact 2 cleans up car wash membership mess

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:00 GMT

ST. LOUIS – As winter turns to spring, it’s prime time to get the grime off your vehicle. Brian Byrd says he was surprised to find he was still paying for his last trip to the Zips Car Wash on South Kingshighway, months after he last pulled off the lot.“I happened to notice there was a $20 debit from Zips and I thought, I hadn’t been to Zips in months,” he said. “So, I went back and looked at some of the other previous statements, and sure enough, they’d been hitting me for about six months.”Bryd tells us the charges totaled $120. He says he didn’t sign up for a monthly membership.“The interface, I noticed, was a little confusing. I thought I had just purchased one car wash, turns out it ended up being a membership. Full-on membership,” he said. “The thing that was kind of odd is I never got an email or any kind of confirmation, anything like that, that a membership had started.” Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. ...

Avs wallop unrecognizable Chicago Blackhawks, 5-0, without Cale Makar, out with lower-body injury

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:00 GMT

The Chicago Blackhawks look unrecognizable, even from the team that delivered a gut check to Colorado’s season in January. The Avalanche have looked unbeatable since then.Against a shell of the Blackhawks’ former selves, the Avs sailed to a 5-0 win Monday night at Ball Arena behind Alexandar Georgiev’s 26-save shutout, his fifth of the season.Colorado (41-22-6) was gasping to stay above .500 and keep up in the playoff race after a 3-2 loss Jan. 12 at United Center. It was the end of a 1-6-1 stretch coming out of the holiday break. At the 40-game mark, the Avs were 20-17-3.They have the best record in the NHL (21-5-3) since that day.The Blackhawks were already tanking at that point. But they truly accelerated (or decelerated) between Avalanche matchups, trading Patrick Kane, Max Domi, Sam Lafferty and Jake McCabe before the deadline.And Jack Johnson to Colorado. Acquired in an exchange of depth defensemen — Andreas Englund is injured and didn’t play for ...

Women’s basketball: CU Buffs stun Duke to advance to Sweet 16

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:00 GMT

DURHAM, N.C. – There are easier ways to get from Boulder to Seattle, but for the Colorado women’s basketball team, a detour through North Carolina has made the journey sweet.On Monday night, the sixth-seeded Buffaloes stunned third-seeded Duke, 61-53 in overtime at Cameron Indoor Stadium in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.The Buffs (25-8) have advanced to the Sweet 16 for the seventh time in program history and for the first time since 2003. They will face second-seeded Iowa on Friday in Seattle.This is the first time CU has advanced to the Sweet 16 from the road. The previous six times, the Buffs won games in Boulder to get to this point.To do it, the Buffs dominated in overtime, outscoring the Blue Devils 11-3 in the extra period.Quay Miller finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds for CU, just the 13th double-double in the NCAA Tournament in CU history. Jaylyn Sherrod had 14 points and Aaronette Vonleh finished with 12 points.Vonleh scored back-to-back layups to give the B...