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California Looks to Spend Some Medicaid Money on Housing
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California Looks to Spend Some Medicaid Money on Housing

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — At the start of 2022, Thomas Marshall weighed 311 pounds. He had been hospitalized 10 times in five years, including six surgeries. He had an open wound on his left leg that refused to heal — made worse by living in a dirty, moldy house with five other people, two ball pythons, four Chihuahuas and a cage full of rats.More than a year later, Marshall has lost nearly 100 pounds. His wound has healed. His blood pressure has returned to normal levels. His foot, which had nerve damage, has improved to the point he goes on regular walks to the park.Lots of factors are at play in Marshall's dramatic turnaround, but the one he credits the most is finally having stable housing, after the nonprofit Sacramento Covered helped him get a one-bedroom, 500 square-foot (46.4-sq...
California Faces More Flooding After Strong Pacific Storm
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California Faces More Flooding After Strong Pacific Storm

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — A strong late-season Pacific storm that brought damaging winds and more rain and snow to saturated California was blamed for two deaths and forecasters said additional flooding was possible Wednesday in parts of the state.Tuesday's storm focused most of its energy on central and southern parts of the state, bringing threats of heavy runoff and mountain snowfall. In the north, intense hail was reported in Sacramento, the state capital.Locally heavy rain and snowmelt may cause flooding Wednesday in southern California and central Arizona, the National Weather Service warned.Trees and power lines were reported downed in the San Francisco Bay Area. An Amtrak commuter train carrying 55 passengers struck a downed tree and derailed near the East Bay village of Porta C...
U.S. Investigators Cite BP Training, Safety Failures in Ohio Refinery Deaths
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U.S. Investigators Cite BP Training, Safety Failures in Ohio Refinery Deaths

(Reuters) - BP violated U.S. process safety rules and did not train workers properly at its Toledo, Ohio refinery in September, contributing to the death of two workers at the plant last year, U.S. federal investigators said Thursday.The two refinery workers died from their burns following an explosion in September 2022. They had been trying to correct rising liquid levels in the fuel gas mix drum, causing a flammable vapor cloud to form and ignite, according to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor.Investigators said BP Products North America failed to properly train operators to identify the presence of naphtha, a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture, during an upset.The company also failed to implement shutdown procedures for the equipment when asked to do so by the operat...
Tennis-Nakashima Bests Fellow American Isner as Indian Wells Gets Underway
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Tennis-Nakashima Bests Fellow American Isner as Indian Wells Gets Underway

INDIAN WELLS, California (Reuters) - Rising American Brandon Nakashima beat veteran John Isner 7-6(7) 6-3 to set up a second round meeting with Daniil Medvedev in first round action at Indian Wells on Wednesday.Nakashima, 21, saved a set point in the first breaker and stepped up his defense in the second to see off the big-serving Isner before a crowd that included Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his family."Coming to this tournament, it's always super exciting for me," said Nakashima, who made his tour debut at Indian Wells in 2018."Growing up here, close by in San Diego, it's one of the tournaments where I grew up coming here as a little kid, watching all the top pros."So to be able to play here now against another top American on the center court here, is a super s...
Israel’s Rightward Shift Is Straining Its Ties With US Jews
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Israel’s Rightward Shift Is Straining Its Ties With US Jews

An array of U.S. Jewish leaders are sounding alarms about what they see as a threat to Israel’s democracy posed by its new government, fearing it will erode the independence of its judiciary and legal protections for minority groups.While some Jewish leaders dismiss such fears are overblown, a solid majority of mainstream Jewish American groups are voicing unprecedented criticism of the Israeli government, raising fears about a growing rift between Israel and the predominately liberal American Jewish population. Some progressive voices have gone even further, saying Israel can never truly be a democracy as long as it rules over millions of Palestinians who do not have the right to vote.The controversies come even amid a flare-up of deadly violence involving Israelis and Palestinians. On...
Temple University Police Officer Fatally Shot During Chase
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Temple University Police Officer Fatally Shot During Chase

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Temple University police officer was fatally shot near campus Saturday night while chasing a robbery suspect, officials said.Temple said in a statement that the alleged robbery took place at a nearby convenience store and the officer was pronounced dead at the university hospital.The statement said the university was heartbroken. It said it would not identify the officer at this time out of respect for family and friends.The Temple University Police Association said details of the shooting were still incomplete, but he was killed in the line of duty.WPFI-TV reported that the officer was shot in the head, and there were no immediate arrests.Political CartoonsKen Kaiser, the university's senior vice president and chief operating officer, was quoted by the Philadelphi...
Former President Jimmy Carter in Hospice Care
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Former President Jimmy Carter in Hospice Care

ATLANTA (AP) — The Carter Center said Saturday that former President Jimmy Carter has entered home hospice care.The charity created by the 98-year-old former president said on Twitter that after a series of short hospital stays, Carter “decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention."It said he has the full support of his medical team and family, which “asks for privacy at this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers.”Carter, a Democrat, became the 39th U.S. president when he defeated former President Gerald R. Ford in 1976. He served a single term and was defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.In August 2015, Carter had a small cancerous mass removed from his liver. The follow...
Why Sick Minks Are Reigniting Worries About Bird Flu
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Why Sick Minks Are Reigniting Worries About Bird Flu

NEW YORK (AP) — A recent bird flu outbreak at a mink farm has reignited worries about the virus spreading more broadly to people.Scientists have been keeping tabs on this bird flu virus since the 1950s, though it wasn't deemed a threat to people until a 1997 outbreak in Hong Kong among visitors to live poultry markets.As bird flu hits more and varied animals, like at the mink farm, the fear is that the virus could evolve to spread more easily between people, and potentially trigger a pandemic.Scientist say another kind of bird flu was likely behind the devastating 1918-1919 flu pandemic, and avian viruses played roles in other flu pandemics in 1957, 1968, and 2009.Still, the risk to the general public now is low, says Dr. Tim Uyeki of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....
Bitter Cold, Snow Blast Southwest; Arizona Highways Closed
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Bitter Cold, Snow Blast Southwest; Arizona Highways Closed

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Bitter cold, rain and snow blew across much of the Southwest U.S. on Tuesday, closing stretches of interstate and state highways in northern Arizona where as much as a foot (30 centimeters) of snow was possible and even colder weather on the way.A winter storm warning remains in effect into Wednesday evening for much of northern Arizona and New Mexico, the National Weather Service said.A 40-mile (64-kilometer) stretch of northbound Interstate 17 from Lake Montezuma north to Flagstaff was closed Tuesday evening. A short stretch of I-40 near Winslow also was shut down as the powerful cold front continued to move east.It’s likely to produce snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) per hour in parts of northern Arizona including Flagstaff, the weather service sa...
Migrants Seeking US Sponsors Find Questionable Offers Online
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Migrants Seeking US Sponsors Find Questionable Offers Online

Pedro Yudel Bruzon was looking for someone in the U.S. to support his effort to seek asylum when he landed on a Facebook page filled with posts demanding up to $10,000 for a financial sponsor.It's part of an underground market that's emerged since the Biden administration announced it would accept 30,000 immigrants each month arriving by air from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti. Applicants for the humanitarian parole program need someone in the U.S., often a friend or relative, to promise to provide financial support for at least two years.Bruzon, who lives in Cuba, doesn't know anyone who can do that, so he searched online. But he also doesn't have the money to pay for a sponsor and isn't sure the offers — or those making them — are real. He worries about being exploited or fallin...