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In Shawnee National Forest, a debate swirls around how to best protect trees amid climate change and wildfires

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:55 GMT

Karina Atkins | Chicago Tribune (TNS)The Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois is a mosaic of towering trees, lush wetlands and commanding rock formations that are the native habitat for a wealth of plants and animals, including 19 species of oaks.The forest is also a microcosm of an emergent national debate about how North America should manage public lands as wildfires burn through Canada, Hawaii and Louisiana. Climate change is catalyzing extreme weather events and drying ecosystems, making forests increasingly vulnerable.“It’s impossible to take our hands all the way off. We’ve caused this climate change. We’ve introduced invasive species. We’ve put out historic wildfires. We’ve carved up the forest with roads. So, our influence on our forests is inescapable now,” said Chris Evans, a forest research specialist at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.But the U.S. Forest Service and environmentalists have opposing philosophies about how to tend to the Shawnee and othe...

Officials agree: Use settlement funds to curb youth addiction. But the ‘how’ gets hairy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:55 GMT

Aneri Pattani, Emily Featherston, InvestigateTV | (TNS) KFF Health NewsWhen three teenagers died of fentanyl overdoses last year in Larimer County, Colorado, it shocked the community and “flipped families upside down,” said Tom Gonzales, the county’s public health director.Several schools began stocking naloxone, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses. Community organizations trained teens to use it. But county and school officials wanted to do more.That’s when they turned to opioid settlement funds — money coming from national deals with health care companies like Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, and CVS, which were accused of fueling the epidemic via prescription painkillers. The companies are paying out more than $50 billion to state and local governments over 18 years.Much of that money is slated for addiction treatment and efforts to reduce drug trafficking. But some is going to school-based prevention programs to reduce the possibility of addiction before it begi...

What happens when your 0% intro APR period ends?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:55 GMT

Nicole Dieker | Bankrate.com (TNS)Credit cards that offer a 0% intro APR can be extremely appealing — especially if you’re hoping to pay off old debt, fund a big purchase or cover a few months of expenses interest-free. Current credit card interest rates average more than 20%, which means that applying for a credit card with a promotional 0% interest rate could save you a lot of money.But what happens when your 0% intro APR ends? With a credit card promotional rate ending, you could find yourself stuck with higher interest rates and a balance that you aren’t prepared to pay off.Here’s what you need to know about 0% interest credit cards, including how to find out when your 0% APR offer ends and how you can avoid paying interest after your promotional APR period is over.What happens when your 0% intro APR period ends?The promotional period typically lasts 12 to 21 months. Once the promotional period is over, you’ll start accruing interest on any unpaid balances. That includes balance...

What happens to health programs if the federal government shuts down?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:55 GMT

By Julie Rovner, KFF Health NewsFor the first time since 2019, congressional gridlock is poised to at least temporarily shut down big parts of the federal government — including many health programs.If it happens, some government functions would stop completely and some in part, while others wouldn’t be immediately affected — including Medicare, Medicaid, and health plans sold under the Affordable Care Act. But a shutdown could complicate the lives of everyone who interacts with any federal health program, as well as the people who work at the agencies administering them.Here are five things to know about the potential impact to health programs:1. Not all federal health spending is the same.“Mandatory” spending programs, like Medicare, have permanent funding and don’t need Congress to act periodically to keep them running. But the Department of Health and Human Services is full of “discretionary” programs — including at the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control ...

As COVID infections rise, nursing homes are still waiting for vaccines

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:55 GMT

Jordan Rau, KFF Health News, Tony Leys | (TNS) KFF Health NewsDALLAS CENTER, Iowa — “COVID is not pretty in a nursing home,” said Deb Wityk, a 70-year-old retired massage therapist who lives in one called Spurgeon Manor, in rural Iowa. She twice contracted the disease and is eager to get the newly approved vaccine because she has chronic lymphocytic leukemia, which weakens her immune system.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the latest vaccine on Sept. 12, and the new shots became available to the general public within the past week or so. But many nursing homes will not begin inoculations until well into October or even November, though infections among this vulnerable population are rising steeply, to nearly 1%, or 9.7 per 1,000 residents, as of mid-September from a low of 2.2per 1,000 residents in mid-June.“The distribution of the new COVID-19 vaccine is not going well,” said Chad Worz, CEO of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists. “Older adults in t...

How a government shutdown could affect travel

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:55 GMT

By Sean Cudahy | NerdWalletIf Congress cannot reach a spending deal by Oct. 1, a resulting government shutdown could significantly impact travel and not in the best way.The U.S. Travel Association warns a shutdown could come with “dire consequences,” costing the industry an estimated $140 million per day.Some of the aviation industry’s most essential workers — air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration officers — would be required to work without pay. Past shutdowns have led to more federal employee absences, longer security lines and more flight delays.“The federal government is already failing the traveler,” U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman said in a statement. “A shutdown would be further proof of Washington’s inability to find reasonable solutions to problems that affect Americans nationwide.”How would a government shutdown affect air travel?Even though thousands of federal workers would be furloughed in the event of a government sh...

Stock market today: Wall Street wavers, Treasury yields ease amid encouraging inflation report

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:55 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Most of Wall Street is wavering on Friday following some encouraging signals on inflation, as it limps to the end of what’s been a miserable September.The S&P 500 was 0.2% lower in afternoon trading, with the majority of its stocks falling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 145 points, or 0.4%, to 33,523, as of 1:33 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.2%.Nike jumped 7.1% after reporting better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Strength overseas helped it make up for some declines in North America.Yields in the Treasury market eased further from the highest levels in more than a decade. Yields fell after a report showed the measure of inflation that the Federal Reserve prefers to use was a smidgen cooler last month than economists expected.The 10-year Treasury yield pulled back to 4.55% from 4.58% late Thursday. It charged this week to its highest level since 2007, up from 3.50% in May and just 0.50% in 2020.When Tre...

McCarthy’s last-ditch plan to keep the government open collapses, making a shutdown almost certain

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:55 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s last-ditch plan to keep the federal government temporarily open collapsed on Friday as hard-right holdouts rejected the package, making a shutdown almost certain.McCarthy’s right-flank Republicans refused to support the bill despite its steep spending cuts of nearly 30% to many agencies and severe border security provisions, calling it insufficient. The White House and Democrats rejected the Republican approach as too extreme.The bill’s failure a day before Saturday’s deadline to fund the government leaves few options left to prevent a shutdown that will furlough federal workers, keep the military working without pay and disrupt programs and services for millions of Americans.The outcome puts McCarthy’s speakership in serious jeopardy with almost no political leverage to lead the House at a critical moment that has pushed the government into crisis.Ahead of voting, the Republican speaker all but dared his hold-out colleagues to ...

European Union heads to visit Canada amid talks for access to EU science grants

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:55 GMT

OTTAWA — The top heads of the European Union are expected to visit Canada this year, as officials discuss the possibility of Ottawa joining a major research-funding pact. Brussels and Ottawa hold leaders’ summits every two years as part of an agreement signed in 2017 alongside a major trade deal.The EU’s ambassador to Canada, Melita Gabric, says detailed planning for the visit has yet to start, but it is expected for sometime “this year.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed an agreement with Trudeau in March that calls for more collaboration on green vehicles and fighting disinformation — and Gabric says more details could be hammered out during a visit.The EU commissioner for budgets, Johannes Hahn, says the meeting will help both sides take stock of their support for Ukraine, as well as talks to have Canada possibly join a more than $100-billion scientific research program called Horizon Europe.Hahn is visiting Canada to drum up invest...

Sunwing Airlines to fold into WestJet within a year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:21:55 GMT

CALGARY — WestJet says it aims to wind down Sunwing Airlines and integrate the low-cost carrier into its mainline business by October of next year.WestJet, which bought the Toronto-based company’s main airline and vacation divisions in May in a move representing a major consolidation of the aviation market, says Sunwing’s 18 Boeing 737s and 2,000 employees will be folded into the Calgary-based carrier in a seamless transition.WestJet and Sunwing together make up 37 per cent of seat capacity on direct flights to sun destinations, and 72 per cent from Western Canada, according to a report from the Competition Bureau last fall.Some experts have warned that the move could mean less service and higher fares — particularly in Western Canada and smaller cities across the country.As a condition of Ottawa’s sign-off on the Sunwing acquisition, both parties pledged to maintain capacity on the most affected routes and keep the Sunwing Vacations head office in Toronto and a regional...