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Mysterious Covid-19 lineages in US sewers could offer clues to chronic infections

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

By Deidre McPhillips | CNNAs Covid-19 testing and other coronavirus tracking efforts peter out in the United States, wastewater surveillance has become the primary method to monitor early community spread of the virus. And there’s some evidence that close investigation of the findings could also help unravel some of the mysteries of long Covid.Genetic sequencing of wastewater samples from sewer systems across the country has uncovered dozens of unique strains of the coronavirus, with multiple mutations in unusual combinations.One possible explanation for these “cryptic lineages” is that they can be traced back to people who have been living with a chronic – and serious – Covid-19 infection for years.In a recent preprint study, about two dozen researchers set out to understand the origin of these cryptic lineages by closely examining the evolution of one from Wisconsin. The lineage was linked to a single facility that served 30 people and was persistently present for more than a year...

Trump described Pentagon plans, shared classified map, indictment says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

By ERIC TUCKER, JILL COLVIN and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER (Associated Press)MIAMI (AP) — Former President Donald Trump described a Pentagon “plan of attack” and shared a classified map related to a military operation, according to a sweeping 37-count felony indictment related to the mishandling of classified documents that was unsealed Friday and that could instantly reshape the 2024 presidential race.The indictment paints a damning portrait of Trump’s treatment of sensitive information, accusing him of willfully defying Justice Department demands to return documents he had taken from the White House to Mar-a-Lago and even enlisting aides in his efforts to hide the records and even telling his lawyers that we wanted to defy a subpoena for the materials stored in his estate.“I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes,” one of Trump’s lawyers described the former president saying, according to the indictment. He also asked if it would be b...

Texas businessman linked to Paxton charged in $172 million loan deal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

By Jake Bleiberg, Paul J. Weber and Jim Vertuno | Associated PressAUSTIN, Texas — A Texas businessman at the center of the scandal that led to the historic impeachment of state Attorney General Ken Paxton was charged Friday with making false statements to mortgage lenders to obtain $172 million in loans.The federal indictment of real estate developer Nate Paul is the result of a yearslong FBI investigation — a probe Paxton involved his office in, setting off a chain of events that led to a separate federal probe of the attorney general and his impeachment and suspension from office last month.Paul was charged with eight counts of making false statements while seeking loans from mortgage lenders in the U.S. and Ireland. There was no mention of Paxton or the attorney general’s office during the hearing.Paul, 36, who entered the federal courtroom shackled and wearing jeans, a blue shirt and Nikes, did not enter a plea during his initial appearance in an Austin court nor visibly r...

Pandemic aid saved millions of Americans from eviction and the data proves It

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

By Jennah Haque | BloombergEdwin Bautista was a senior at the University of Texas at Austin and part-time technician at a consulting firm when inflation started to ravage his spending power. After his rent surged past $1,000 a month in early 2021 he feared he would have to move out — until he got a $7,300 lifeline from the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program.That kept him in his apartment and even helped him build a small nest egg. Now graduated and working full-time, he’s a first-time homebuyer.Bautista is one of millions of renters who benefited from temporary programs put in place during the coronavirus pandemic, including restrictions on evictions, income support — and the rental assistance program. One of the most ambitious investments in emergency housing in the nation’s history, it has disbursed $46 billion in aid to state and local governments since early 2021 and kept millions of people in their homes, according to an analysis of government data by Bloomberg News.(1...

Slain woman found by duck hunter is ID’d; she was notorious California killer’s first victim

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

Almost 25 years after Wayne Adam Ford walked into the sheriff’s office in Eureka with a woman’s breast in a Ziploc bag, his first victim has finally been given a name.Kerry Ann Cummings, 1991. (Family photo via Humboldt County sheriff’s office) When Ford turned himself in, he said he had killed several women, including the one whose torso had been found a year earlier, in October 1997, by a duck hunter on Ryan Slough, near Eureka.Several years later Ford was convicted of four murders and since then has been on death row in San Quentin — but Victim No. 1 remained unidentified.On Wednesday, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office announced that she was Kerry Ann Cummings, who was 25 when her family last heard from her, in 1997.Genealogical investigation aided by the forensic lab Othram made the match using DNA from the victim and her sister, Kathie Cummings, the sheriff’s office said.The sister told Humboldt County investigators that Kerry Cumming...

Greta Thunberg won’t be school striking anymore but will still protest

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

STOCKHOLM — Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg said Friday she will no longer be able to skip classes as a way to draw attention to climate change because she is graduating from high school.Thunberg, 20, started staging Friday protests outside the Swedish parliament building during school hours in 2018. Teenagers from around the world followed her lead, leading to an international student movement called Fridays for Future.Because she won’t be a student anymore, Thunberg noted that her future Friday activities that “technically” won’t be school striking. But in a tweet, she vowed to continue protesting, saying, “The fight has only just begun.”“We are still moving in the wrong direction, where those in power are allowed to sacrifice,” Thunberg wrote on Twitter. “We’re rapidly approaching potential nonlinear ecological and climatic tipping points beyond our control.”As a teenager Thunberg was invited to speak...

Man faces hate crime charges for yelling homophobic slurs during San Francisco attack

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

By Olivia Wynkoop | Bay City NewsA 20-year-old San Francisco man is facing hate crime charges for allegedly yelling anti-LGBTQ rhetoric while throwing a glass object at a man in the Castro District earlier this week, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced Thursday.Muhammed Abdullah was arrested Monday near 18th and Church streets after allegedly following two men while shouting homophobic remarks, prosecutors said. He allegedly threw a glass object at one of the victims, who suffered an injury not considered life-threatening.Jenkins charged Abdullah with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon — with a hate crime special allegation — and misdemeanor battery, violation of a person’s civil rights and petty theft. If found guilty of all charges and allegations, Abdullah faces over 10 years in state prison.“San Francisco is a safe haven for LGBTQ people,” Jenkins said in a news release. “Our city is proud of our diversity and for being an open ...

A San Jose neighborhood watch party was wrapping up. Just 450 feet away burglars struck.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

It was a blustery night in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood on Tuesday as concerned residents sat in white lawn chairs munching on chips and cookies in the driveway of Debbie Blackwell’s house on Padres Drive.The group of nearly 60 residents who gathered were so fed up with a spate of recent incidents  — from stolen cars to home break-ins — they organized a neighborhood watch party with the help of police officers where crime prevention tips were projected on a screen illuminating Blackwell’s garage doors.But on that very night — right under everyone’s noses — burglars were making their next move.Just 450 feet away on Hervey Lane — a distance a bit longer than a football field — two unidentified men smashed the window of yet another house as the watch party was wrapping up and neighbors were headed back to their homes. Residents who learned about the incident the next morning were shell-shocked, wondering how burglars co...

Humboldt County Sheriff's Office identifies woman killed in 1997

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

(KTXL) — The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office said a woman who was killed 25 years ago was finally identified with the help of a forensic genealogy lab. She was identified as Kerry Ann Cummings, born in 1972. According to the sheriff’s office, in October of 1997, a duck hunter found a dismembered torso in the Ryan Slough, north of Eureka. More remains were found the following January on Clam Beach. Toward the end of 1998, on Nov. 3, a man walked into the sheriff’s main station carrying a human body part. The sheriff’s office identified him as Wayne Adam Ford, and he told deputies that he had killed several women — He was sentenced to death in 2006 for four counts of first-degree murder. 2 men wrongfully convicted of Oakland murder file lawsuit He also admitted to killing the woman whose remains were found, and more of her remains were found during a search of his encampment. Despite the recovery and descriptive details of the woman, investigators were unable to conf...

Stock market today: Wall Street drifts higher, heads for another winning week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:32 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are drifting toward a fourth straight winning week on Wall Street Friday, as investors wait for next week’s slate of potentially market-moving updates. The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in another listless day of trading, and it’s on pace to close out the week with a modest gain of 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 53 points, or 0.2%, at 33,886, as of 2:40 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq was 0.3% higher.Tesla was at the front of the market, rallying 4.4% after announcing General Motors electric vehicles will be able to use much of its extensive charging network beginning early next year. GM rose 1.2%. They helped overshadow losses for energy stocks, which fell with the price of crude oil. Exxon Mobil slipped 0.6% and was one of the heaviest weights on the market. Ski resort operator Vail Resorts, meanwhile, dropped 6.3% after reporting weaker results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. This week has been relatively quiet fo...