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From flush to faucet: More places look to turn sewage into tap water

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:26:46 GMT

Matt Vasilogambros And Kevin Hardy | Stateline.org (TNS)FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. — After an Orange County resident flushes her toilet, the water flows through the Southern California community’s sewer system, meanders its way to the sanitation plant, has its solids removed, is piped to a wastewater recycling facility next door and undergoes three different purification processes until it is clean enough to drink.“It tastes like water,” said Mehul Patel, executive director of operations for the Orange County Water District’s project, after taking a gulp from a clear plastic cup at the sampling station, as he stood outside the final purification process facility on a warm afternoon earlier this month.“It’s just like any other water, but it’s gone through a lot,” he said. “People shouldn’t judge where it came from, but where it is now.”Mehul Patel, executive director of operations for Orange County’s wastewater recycling plant, shows the reverse osmosis membrane sheets used in the secon...

Biology, anatomy, and finance? More med students want business degrees too

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:26:46 GMT

Samantha Liss | (TNS) KFF Health NewsJasen Gundersen never considered a career in business when he entered medical school nearly three decades ago to become a rural primary care doctor.But, today, he isn’t working in rural America and he doesn’t do primary care. In fact, he no longer practices medicine at all.As CEO of CardioOne, which provides back-office support to cardiologists, Gundersen is part of a growing trend: physicians and medical school students earning advanced business degrees to work the business side of the booming health care industry.Just over 60% of medical schools now offer dual MD-MBA programs, more than twice the number two decades ago, a recent study shows. And researchers estimate the number of dual-degree graduates has nearly tripled. Still, it’s difficult to know exactly how many physicians now have business degrees. While the medical school students who simultaneously earned both a medical and business degree represent almost 1% of the roughly 28,000 medic...

Doctors on (video) call: Rural medics get long-distance help in treating man gored by bison

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:26:46 GMT

Arielle Zionts | KFF Health News (TNS)GANN VALLEY, S.D. — Rural medics who rescued rancher Jim Lutter after he was gored by a bison didn’t have much experience handling such severe wounds.But the medics did have a doctor looking over their shoulders inside the ambulance as they rushed Lutter to a hospital.The emergency medicine physician sat 140 miles away in a Sioux Falls, South Dakota, office building. She participated in the treatment via a video system recently installed in the ambulance.“I firmly believe that Jim had the best care anyone has ever received in the back of a basic life support ambulance,” said Ed Konechne, a volunteer emergency medical technician with the Kimball Ambulance District.A bison on Jim Lutter’s ranch in central South Dakota. (Arielle Zionts/KFF Health News/TNS)The ambulance service received its video system through an initiative from the South Dakota Department of Health. The project, Telemedicine in Motion, helps medics across the state, especial...

States strive to get opioid overdose drug to more people

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:26:46 GMT

Anna Claire Vollers | (TNS) Stateline.orgPosing as shoppers, a team of researchers from the University of Mississippi called nearly 600 pharmacies across the state and asked a simple, yes-or-no question: “Do you have naloxone that I can pick up today?”Mississippi enacted a law authorizing pharmacists to sell the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone— often sold under the brand name Narcan — in 2017. The drug, which can be administered via nasal spray or injection, can prevent death from overdose by blocking the effect of opioids in the body.The results of the survey, conducted last year, were disheartening: Despite the Mississippi law, 41% of the pharmacies the researchers called refused to dispense naloxone. Only 37% had naloxone available for same-day pickup. Most of the pharmacies saying they could not immediately provide naloxone said it required a prescription, which was false.“It seems like that refusal might have been driven by a lack of education about the state’s naloxone ...

Gallery: Waltham police officer laid to rest

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:26:46 GMT

Hundreds took part in the funeral for fallen police officer Paul Tracey at Our Lady’s Comforter of the Afflicted Church in Waltham.

After 40 witnesses and 43 days of testimony, here’s what we learned at Trump’s civil fraud trial

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:26:46 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — After hearing from 40 witnesses over 2 1/2 months, Judge Arthur Engoron sounded almost wistful as he presided over the last day of testimony in Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial. “In a strange way, I’m gonna miss this trial,” he said Wednesday.Things aren’t over yet in the case, in which New York Attorney General Letitia James has accused Trump of inflating his wealth on financial statements used to secure loans and make deals.Closing arguments are scheduled for early January. The judge has already ruled that Trump is liable for making fraudulent statements, but other claims and a potential final penalty still need to be decided. Trump denies any wrongdoing. He says the financial documents actually understated his net worth and came with caveats that should shield him from liability. The trial has offered fresh insight into Trump’s finances, his dealings with lenders, his aspiration to be an NFL owner, and some of the fuzzy math — mistaken or intentiona...

Mexico closes melon-packing plant implicated in cantaloupe Salmonella outbreak that killed 8 people

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:26:46 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Health Department on Friday ordered the temporary closure of a melon-packing plant implicated in salmonella infections that killed five people in Canada and three in the United States. The department did not name the company involved, but Canada’s Public Health Agency linked the outbreak to Malichita and Rudy brand cantaloupes. Mexico did not say what violations were found at the plant in the northern border state of Sonora, and said testing was being done to find the source of the contamination.Inspectors took samples of water and swiped surfaces at the plant to look for traces of salmonella bacteria. Since October, at least 230 people in the U.S. and 129 in Canada have been sickened in this outbreak.The cantaloupes implicated in this outbreak include two brands, Malichita and Rudy, that are grown in the Sonora area. The fruit was imported by Sofia Produce LLC, of Nogales, Arizona, which does business as TruFresh, and Pacific Trellis Fruit LLC, of ...

City council votes to rename stadium at Centennial Park after late mayor Rob Ford

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:26:46 GMT

Toronto City Council has voted to rename the football stadium at Centennial Park ‘Rob Ford Stadium’ in honour of the controversial late former mayor.As part of its final council meeting of the year, councillors voted 17-6 to proceed with the name change, bypassing any public consultation which is typically part of the city’s naming policy.Friday’s debate was split between those who supported Ford during his years as a councillor and mayor and those who opposed him.Coun. Paul Ainslie, who put forth the motion, pointed out the number of former mayors who have been honoured with commemorative renamings, such as Mel Lastman Square at the North York Civic Centre, Barbara Hall Park, and June Rowlands Park.Conversely, Coun. Dianne Saxe said the word “Centennial” is one that unites everyone while the name “Rob Ford” is one that “could not be more divisive.”Saxe, along with councillors Amber Morley, Josh Matlow, Ausma Malik, Lily Chang and Alejandra Bravo, all voted a...

Court revives lawsuit over Connecticut rule allowing trans girls to compete in school sports

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:26:46 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents of Connecticut’s policy letting transgender girls compete in girls high school sports will get a second chance to challenge it in court, an appeals court ruled Friday, which revived the case without weighing in on its merits.Both sides called it a win. The American Civil Liberties Union said it welcomes a chance to defend the rights of the two transgender high school track runners it represents. The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the four cisgender athletes who brought the lawsuit, also said it looks forward to seeking a ruling on the case’s merits.In a rare full meeting of all active judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, judges found the cisgender runners have standing to sue and have described injuries that might qualify for monetary damages. The runners also seek to alter certain athletic records, alleging they were deprived of honors and opportunities at elite track-and-field events because they say “male ath...

Kansas’ top court says a GOP election law is vague and revives a lawsuit against it

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:26:46 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas law that makes it a felony to impersonate an elections official is vague enough that voting rights advocates can pursue a legal challenge, the state’s highest court ruled Friday, reviving a lawsuit that a lower court dismissed.The Kansas Supreme Court’s decision came in a challenge to a 2021 law that critics say hinders voter registration drives. Four groups argued in the lawsuit that their members could be prosecuted even if they were clear that they were not election officials but others still mistakenly believed they were. Backers of the law have scoffed at that argument. The groups are pursuing another lawsuit against other elections restrictions that the Republican-led Legislature passed in 2021 over Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto amid false claims by some in the GOP that the 2020 presidential election wasn’t valid. One of the groups, Loud Light, said the law at issue in Friday’s ruling led it to stop registering vo...