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For years, he couldn’t donate at the blood center where he worked. Under new FDA rules, now he can

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:18 GMT

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — Over the last six years, blood center employee Dylan Smith was often asked how frequently he gave blood himself. His answer was always the same: As a gay man, he couldn’t.That changed this month.Thanks to new federal guidelines finalized in May, gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships can now donate at many blood centers around the country without abstaining from sex. Bloodworks Northwest, where Smith works as a donor services supervisor, adopted the change on Dec. 6. He and his partner gave blood for the first time the next day. “It’s been really emotionally difficult just to explain every single time the reason why,” said Smith, 28. “To be able to finally step up and support the mission that I really have just believed in since I started here just makes my heart feel so happy.”The new U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines are the latest step in a yearslong effort to reverse restrictions that were designed to protect the blood supply fr...

The war took away their limbs. Now bionic prostheses empower wounded Ukrainian soldiers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:18 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — When Alexis Cholas lost his right arm as a volunteer combat medic near the front lines in eastern Ukraine, his civilian career as a surgeon was over. But thanks to a new bionic arm, he was able to continue working in health care and is now a rehab specialist helping other amputees.The 26-year-old is delighted with his sleek black robotic arm — he described it as “love at first sight” — and realizes how lucky he was to get one. “There are fewer (bionic) arms available than lost ones,” Cholas said.Russia’s war on Ukraine has created a massive need for prosthetic limbs. An estimated 20,000 Ukrainians have had amputations since the war started in February 2022, many of them soldiers who lost arms or legs due to blast wounds.Only a small number was able to receive bionic prostheses, which are more advanced and can provide greater mobility than the traditional prosthetic limbs. They are also far more costly than conventional prostheses. Bionic artificial limbs typical...

Chatty robot helps seniors fight loneliness through AI companionship

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:18 GMT

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — Joyce Loaiza lives alone, but when she returns to her apartment at a Florida senior community, the retired office worker often has a chat with a friendly female voice that asks about her day. A few miles away, the same voice comforted 83-year-old Deanna Dezern when her friend died. In central New York, it plays games and music for 92-year-old Marie Broadbent, who is blind and in hospice, and in Washington state, it helps 83-year-old Jan Worrell make new friends. The women are some of the first in the country to receive the robot ElliQ, whose creators, Intuition Robotics, and senior assistance officials say is the only device using artificial intelligence specifically designed to alleviate the loneliness and isolation experienced by many older Americans. “It’s entertaining. You can actually talk to her,” said Loaiza, 81, whose ElliQ in suburban Fort Lauderdale nicknamed her “Jellybean” for no particular reason. “She’ll make comments like, ‘I wou...

Rules aimed at long-contaminated groundwater drive California farmers and residents to court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:18 GMT

Near fields awash with strawberries and greens, Ileana Miranda and her family pay $72 a month to get water piped into their home in a rural California community — and that’s before they consume a drop.They pay to bring it from more than a mile away because the groundwater beneath them has been contaminated with nitrates leached into the soil from years of large-scale farming.Now, the San Jerardo cooperative — where Miranda and 300 others live — and environmental organizations have sued the state, demanding stricter rules about how much fertilizer farmers can use in the hope that the next generation of residents in the community 100 miles (161 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco will have cleaner water.“We understand crops need these chemicals to grow, but you don’t need to put that much in the groundwater,” said Miranda, who manages the cooperative. “It is essentially poisoning the groundwater that we need to live.”Some California farming communities have been plagued...

Need last-minute gifts? Presidential hopefuls offer ornaments, gift wrap – and Trump mug shot merch

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:18 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The field of 2024 presidential candidates may have some options for shoppers scrambling for a last-minute holiday gift.As the campaign for the White House kicks into full gear, the contenders are offering an onslaught of holiday-themed merchandise, many of which capture some of the surreal aspects of the 2024 race. Donald Trump, for instance, is embracing his status as the first former president to face criminal charges by emblazoning his mug shot on Christmas sweaters, gift wrap and stockings. Trump and his supporters have embraced the image of him intensely glaring into a Fulton County Jail camera since he surrendered on charges that he illegally tried to interfere in Georgia’s 2020 election.Trump’s campaign is hardly backing away from his status, offering items emblazoned with the mug shot almost immediately after it was taken in August, with nearly daily emails offering supporters a mug, T-shirt or poster bearing the image, along with the words “Never...

Dreaming of a white Christmas? Try Alaska. Meanwhile, some US ski areas struggle with rain

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:18 GMT

For most Americans dreaming of a white Christmas, this year’s prospects aren’t good.Although parts of the Rockies and Midwest already have snow or could get a fresh dusting by Monday, other parts of the country that are normally coated in white this time of year are still sporting their drab late-fall look.“Some people will get their dream, their wish, and get a white Christmas right at the last minute,” said Judah Cohen, the director of seasonal forecasting at Verisk Atmospheric and Environmental Research. “But most of the country will have a brown Christmas.” Among the areas more accustomed to snowy Decembers is the Northeast, where a powerful storm blew in this week and dumped heavy rain on the region’s ski areas, wreaking havoc on the snowpack.“It didn’t wash out our trails. But it was crazy rain,” said Tom Day, the general manager of Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford, New Hampshire.He hiked the ski area Monday, when it was closed, as 3.5 inches (8.8 ce...

New Mexico prepares for June presidential primary amid challenge to Trump candidacy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:18 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s major political parties are scheduled to certify presidential contenders to appear on the state’s June 4 primary ballot, amid uncertainty about whether Donald Trump can be barred from contention by any state under anti-insurrection provisions of the U.S. Constitution.Party-certified presidential candidates will be vetted in February by the New Mexico secretary of state’s office to ensure they meet administrative requirements to run for the office. New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, said she won’t exclude candidates that meet administrative requirements — unless a court with jurisdiction intervenes.The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday barred Trump from the state’s ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone from holding office who swore an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it. It’s the first time in history the provision has been used to prohibit someo...

Punishing their own but passing few laws, a Congress in chaos leaves much to do in 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:18 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — This Congress started with showy bluster, a bitter 15-round, multi-day spectacle to elect a House speaker, a Republican who vowed to “never quit,” and then did just that.House lawmakers proceeded not only to oust the GOP speaker, they also punished their own colleagues with censures and expulsion, launched an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and were barely able to conduct the basics of governing by keeping federal offices from shuttering. While this first year of the 118th Congress was a historic one, thanks to the dizzying turmoil coming from the Republicans on the House side of the Capitol, next year is headed toward more of the same. With just 27 bills and resolutions signed into law, not counting a few board appointments, it’s among the most do-nothing sessions of Congress in recent times. “This fall has been a very actively stupid political environment,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, the bow-tie-wearing Republican from North Carolina, who emerg...

Military command ready to track Santa, and everyone can follow along

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:18 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — As children around the world eagerly await Santa’s arrival on Christmas, the military is ready to track him and see if he’s using any new technology.Armed with radars, sensors and aircraft, the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado keeps a close watch on Santa and his sleigh from the moment he leaves the North Pole. And it once again will share all those details so everyone can follow along as Santa travels the globe beginning Christmas Eve.NORAD, the military command that is responsible for protecting North American airspace, has launched its noradsanta.org website, social media sites and mobile app, loaded with games, movies, books and music. And there’s a countdown clock showing when the official tracking of the sleigh will start.The military will track Santa with, “the same technology we use every single day to keep North America safe,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Elizabeth Mathias, NORAD’s chief spokesperson. “We’re able to follow the light from Ru...

What’s streaming now: Bradley Cooper conducts, Lidia Bastianich cooks and Percy Jackson quests

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:10:18 GMT

A new Percy Jackson series and a PBS special hosted by cookbook author and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich are some of the new television, movies and music headed to a device near you.Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are a heartwarming CBS holiday special about adoption, a thriller starring John David Washington about artificial intelligence and the return of Marvel’s mind-bending “What If…” series.NEW MOVIES TO STREAM— “Maestro,” Bradley Cooper’s follow-up to “A Star Is Born” takes a loving look at the life of Leonard Bernstein and wife Felicia Montealegre. Cooper co-writes, directs and stars opposite Carey Mulligan in a portrait of the public and private side of the legendary composer and conductor. AP Film Writer Jake Coyle called it a “high wire act of a biopic” in his review, favoring the experimental black-and-white beginning over the later years, which focuses more on the increasingly c...