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Will Medicare Part B premiums go up again in 2024?

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:07:00 GMT

Next year’s Medicare Part B premiums are expected to be announced soon and there is speculation that coverage of another pricey new Alzheimer’s medication could cause monthly costs to go up, echoing what occurred in 2022.Leqembi received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July, becoming the second drug of its kind to hit the market after Aduhelm. The drug comes with an annual cost of $26,500.While only approved for patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia who are also confirmed to have a brain plaque called amyloid, the pharmaceutical industry expects Leqembi to be popular.While the medication is not a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, Leqembi is the first drug to demonstrate clinical benefits to patients by slowing down the progression of the disease. This is accomplished by targeting and reducing amyloid plaque in the brain, the buildup of which is linked to cognitive decline.Leqembi’s manufacturer Eisai estimates about 100,000 people will be ...

Northern Minnesota tree-planting project is building better forests for deer

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:07:00 GMT

Deer need two kinds of habitat to survive the snowiest winters in northeastern Minnesota, food and cover, and without both kinds, deer numbers tend to dwindle — just as they have for the past decade.While there usually is enough food, namely aspen browse from recently logged-off areas, the amount of winter cover for deer has been shrinking, in some areas alarmingly fast.A deer is dusted with snow while nibbling on balsam boughs in Duluth, Minn. on March 1, 2023. Dense forests of conifers — cedars, balsam, spruce and pines — are critical habitat for white-tailed deer to survive winter in northeastern Minnesota, especially with a trend toward heavier snow winters over the past decade. The evergreen trees keep snow off the ground, allow easier travel and can even keep deer warmer than the open forest. (Dan Williamson / Forum News Service)That’s the assessment of several Minnesota Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologists past and present, and it’s the reason behind a growing ...

With Meta’s Quest 3, mixed reality is here. So now what?

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:07:00 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — Last week, I spent several hours trying Meta’s latest goggles, the Quest 3. They ship next month. The headset runs virtual reality games with a novel twist: While shooting a blaster gun, snatching bats from midair and controlling a robot, I could see the real world through built-in cameras.This is what Meta — and its new rival, Apple, which recently unveiled the $3,500 Vision Pro headset — call “mixed reality” or “spatial computing,” interchangeable terms to describe computers that blend digital data with the physical world.These immersive computers, the companies say, could eventually become indispensable tools that change the way we live. Imagine reading a holographic recipe in the corner of your eye while cooking, for example, or staring at furniture parts with digital assembly instructions overlaid on them.But for now, the devices are primarily used for playing games, and killer apps have yet to surface.Meta’s $500 Quest 3 headset, arriving in stores ...

Grading the Week: Randy Gregory’s leaving Denver with $28M in his pocket. Could Broncos GM George Paton go with him?

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:07:00 GMT

Randy Gregory is heading to San Francisco with a guaranteed $28 million in his pocket. If you’re curious, that averages out to $9.3 million per Broncos sack and $4.67 million per Denver start. Nice work if you can avoid it.All of which kinda begged this question from the usual gang of idiots inside the Grading The Week offices recently:What exactly, George Paton, would you say you … do here?George Paton’s Latest Job Review — DOK, now this, first off: In movie terms, Paton, the Broncos’ GM, no longer has what Hollywood calls “final cut.”League sources confirmed recently to the Grading The Week buzzards that coach/PR specialist Sean Payton has the last and loudest word on everything.Paton has a title. Sunshine Sean has all the power. That was part of the conditions that got the latter out of the makeup chair at Fox and into the hot seat at Dove Valley.Look, NFL general managers have to push a lot of buttons. But you’ve got to nail just four of...

Assaf: People think drug use causes homelessness. It’s usually the other way around

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:07:00 GMT

A common perception among many Californians is that substance abuse is a chief cause of people losing their housing and living on the streets. But research debunks this myth.Findings from the recent California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness encompassing more than 3,200 adults — the largest and most representative sample of homeless individuals since the 1990s — found that 50% have not used any drugs (methamphetamine, cocaine, crack cocaine or nonprescription opioids) in the last six months.While drug use is much lower in California’s housed population, by no means does every person who is homeless actively use drugs.For those who did use drugs in the last six months, 40% of people started using — more than 3 times a week —after becoming homeless. Thirty-one percent of those individuals reported using methamphetamine and 11% used nonprescription opioids more than three times per week. Those who spent most of their nights unsheltered in a non-vehicle (sleeping out...

Cottle: Can anyone lead House Republicans out of the darkness?

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:07:00 GMT

Who out there picked nine months in the office betting pool for how long Kevin McCarthy would survive as House speaker? Go ahead. Raise your hands. Looks like you’re due a victory lap.On Tuesday, the right-wing extremists made good on their long-dangled threat to depose McCarthy — whom they never wanted or trusted as speaker in the first place. The “motion to vacate” introduced Monday by Rep. Matt Gaetz, the self-appointed King of the Wingers, wound up passing with the support of eight Republicans and all of the 208 Democrats present. With this decapitation, the first ever in the House, McCarthy has indeed made history.But the conference’s clown car rolls on, with Republicans now scrambling to select their next driver. With no obvious candidate who can win full Republican support, the process promises to be messy. For now, Rep. Patrick McHenry is serving as the interim speaker, thanks to a 2003 rule that, ironically, required McCarthy to designate who his temporary successor would b...

Bretón: Newsom’s pick to replace Feinstein has a big hole in her resume

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:07:00 GMT

It hasn’t been emphasized enough that Laphonza Butler, California’s newest U.S. senator, has no legislative experience.This hole in her resume matters a great deal despite an erosion of public faith in legislative experience that is a bipartisan affliction in our politics. It was one of the factors that led to the election of President Donald Trump. In liberal, one-party California, the importance of legislative experience was disregarded by Gov. Gavin Newsom when he appointed the inexperienced Butler to fill the seat of the late Dianne Feinstein.Sworn in on Tuesday, Butler has been celebrated widely for her race, her gender, her orientation and her sterling credentials of a certain kind. She has also been lauded within an echo chamber of Democrats, many of whom have been elected to public office even if Butler never has.Lost in the aftermath of Butler’s appointment has been the kind of critical scrutiny that would normally accompany an important political appointment. Her appointme...

Sellers will not regret earthquake retrofitting

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:07:00 GMT

Question: Regarding your September 30, 2023, column titled “The indispensable role of insurance-friendly improvements” on The Mercury News and East Bay Times websites: The sample suggestion list included “The foundation inspections list flaws and corrections. Addressing or neglecting those items can enhance or ruin the chances of insurability.” Our parents’ Silicon Valley home of 55 years has a foundation with unreinforced cripple walls. We never had a problem. However, it is time to sell. We want to clear obstacles before selling.   We will hire a presale seller inspector. In the meantime, where can we best do research on foundation repairs or upgrades to enhance the insurability of the family home? Answer: Cripple walls are wooden supports between the structure’s floor and the concrete foundation. The height is usually 1 foot to 4 feet. You are prudent to gather information. Earthquake retrofitting cripple walls is encouraged.For more information, view the following websites:Appli...

How Neil Sheehan Really Got the Pentagon Papers

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:07:00 GMT

On the night of March 23, 1971, New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan excitedly called Max Frankel, the Times’s Washington bureau chief, to give him the news he had been waiting weeks to hear. “I got it all,” Sheehan told Frankel.Sheehan had just accomplished one of the greatest journalistic coups of the 20th century. He had obtained the Pentagon Papers, the Defense Department’s 7,000-page secret history of the Vietnam War, which revealed that the government had been lying to the American people about the brutal conflict since it began. It was the first mass leak of classified documents in modern American journalism, four decades before WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden.But Sheehan had lied to his source, Daniel Ellsberg, a disillusioned former defense analyst turned whistleblower, to get the documents. He had secretly copied them after he had promised Ellsberg he wouldn’t.Sheehan confessed to his editors that he had “Xeroxed the materials without permission and the source was unaware tha...

Two 6.3 magnitude earthquakes kill at least 15 and injure nearly 40 others in western Afghanistan

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:07:00 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Two 6.3 magnitude earthquakes have killed at least 15 and injured nearly 40 others in Herat province in Afghanistan, according to Mohammad Abdullah Jan, spokesman for the country’s national disaster authority.Jan said four villages in Zenda Jan district of Herat province suffered the brunt of the tremblors. Damage to dozens of houses were reported, he said.The United States Geological Survey reported a pair of 6.3 magnitude earthquakes. It said the epicenter was 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) northwest of Herat city. There was an aftershock with a 5.5 magnitude.A map on the USGS website indicates seven earthquakes in the area. At least five powerful earthquakes struck the city around noon, Herat city resident Abdul Shakor Samadi said. “All people are out of their homes,” Samadi said. “Houses, offices and shops are all empty and there are fears of more earthquakes. My family and I were inside our home, I felt the quake.” His family began shouting and ran outside, a...