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FDA approves two gene therapies for sickle cell, bringing hope to thousands with the disease

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:36 GMT

(CNN) — The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved two gene-based treatments for sickle cell disease, including the first therapy that uses the gene-editing technique CRISPR, opening a new era of treatments for genetic conditions.The medicines, called Casgevy and Lyfgenia, are potential cures for people with sickle cell, a debilitating and life-shortening inherited red blood cell disorder that disproportionately affects African Americans.Casgevy is the CRISPR-based treatment, made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Crispr Therapeutics, while Lyfgenia, made by Bluebird Bio, uses an older gene therapy approach. Both were cleared for people age 12 and older with histories of vaso-occlusive crises, painful events caused by the disease.“Sickle cell disease is a rare, debilitating and life-threatening blood disorder with significant unmet need,” said Dr. Nicole Verdun, director of the FDA’s Office of Therapeutic Products within its Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research....

Prince Harry loses a round in libel case

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:36 GMT

LONDON  — Prince Harry lost a preliminary round Friday in his libel case against the publisher of the Daily Mail tabloid over an article that said he tried to hide his efforts to retain publicly funded protection in the U.K. after walking away from his role as a working member of the royal family.A judge at the High Court in London ruled that Associated Newspapers Ltd. can continue to argue that the story reflected an “honest opinion” about the facts of the case and therefore was not libelous. The publisher, which is the defendant in the case, has a “real prospect” of showing that public statements issued on Harry’s behalf were misleading, the judge wrote in his decision.“I anticipate that, at trial, the defendant may well submit that this was a masterclass in the art of ‘spinning,'” Justice Matthew Nicklin wrote. “And, the defendant argues, it was successful in misleading and/or confusing the public.”A hearing is scheduled...

Patients expected Profemur artificial hips to last. Then they snapped in half

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:36 GMT

Brett Kelman, Anna Werner, CBS News | (TNS) KFF Health NewsBradley Little, a physical education teacher in Arizona, was leading his class through a school hallway in 2017 when he collapsed. Little feared he was having a stroke. Or, in a sign of the times, that he’d been shot. He tried to stand, but his leg wouldn’t move.A student ran for help. Firefighters arrived and hoisted Little onto a gurney. At the hospital, an X-ray revealed that the artificial hip implant in Little’s right leg had “suddenly and catastrophically structurally failed,” according to a lawsuit Little would later file in federal court. The implant severed at its “neck” — a 2-inch-long titanium part linking Little’s thigh to his torso.“It looked like a laser went through it,” Little said in an interview. “It was like someone just went in there and cut it right in the middle.”Profemur artificial hips were once considered innovative for a feature known as a “dual modular neck,” intended to modernize total hip replace...

124th Army-Navy: America’s Game comes to Gillette Stadium

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:36 GMT

Navy’s Xavier Arline could be the last of the true triple option quarterbacks in college football.Arline will be the Midshipmen’s boots on the ground when Navy takes on Army in the 124th rendition of America’s Game on Saturday (3 p.m.) for the first time at Gillette Stadium. Air Force beat Navy on Oct. 21 but lost to Army on Nov. 11. Army can claim sole possession for the Commander’s in Chief Trophy with a win over Navy.The nation’s three services academies, Navy, Army, and Air Force, stubbornly held on the triple option ground game while the rest of FBS expanded into more prostyle passing offenses. The 21st century triple option is derived from the original Wishbone offense instituted at Texas by coach Darrell Royal in the late 1960s.The NCAA essentially legislated the demise of the triple option when it outlawed the cut block on March 4, 2022. The new rule banned below the waist blocking outside of the tackle box in an attempt to limit knee injuries along the line of scrimmage. Na...

Boston Police: No threat at the Snowport

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:36 GMT

Receive a disturbing text about something going down either today or Saturday in the Seaport district of South Boston? Boston Police says it’s a hoax.“We have no credible threat in the Snowport,” Sgt. Det. John Boyle, Boston Police’s chief spokesman, told the Herald Friday.From what the Herald can gather, some people online shared a text message about a possible mass casualty event in the Snowport.Some people who saw screenshots took to social media, namely on Reddit, to ask about the credibility of such a threat. The posters were not warmly received by responders who saw straight through the hoax.The hoax threat appears like it may be related to an an advertised protest called “Shutdown Snowport for Palestine,” according to a flyer posted by Party for Socialism and Liberation Boston, which is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. today in the area.A notice emailed by corporate security for a bank located within a mile of the planned demonstration said that the...

This land is our land: States crack down on foreign-owned farm fields

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:36 GMT

Kevin Hardy | Stateline.org (TNS)Andy Gipson gets concerned even when American allies such as the Netherlands and Germany invest in large swaths of Mississippi’s farmland.“It just bothers me at a gut level,” he said.For Gipson, Mississippi’s commissioner of agriculture and commerce, the growing trend of foreign ownership could threaten what he views as the state’s most valuable asset: the land that grows its forests, rice and cotton.“It is our ability as a country, as a state to produce our own food, our own fiber and our own shelter,” he told Stateline. “And I think every acre that’s sold to anybody outside of this country is one less acre that we have to rely on for our own self-interest, our own national food security.”Gipson has spent recent months studying the growing amount of his state’s farmland being bought up by foreign interests. He chaired a study committee that just issued a 363-page report on the issue requested by the legislature after a lawmaker had offered a bill to...

Not getting a COVID-19 vaccine could lead to preterm birth in pregnant women, new study shows

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:36 GMT

Hanna Webster | (TNS) Pittsburgh Post-GazetteCOVID-19 infection can lead to preterm birth, a study published last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows, but getting vaccinated protects against it.Researchers found a serious adverse effect on preterm birth from COVID infection during pregnancy, a risk that had plummeted to zero by fall 2022, following widespread COVID vaccination among pregnant women.Doctors at local hospital systems have noticed similar trends and mirrored results among pregnant patients in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.“We had pregnant patients who would come in very ill,” said Dr. Michael Aziz, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at Allegheny Health Network, which he said pushed to vaccinate the pregnant population early on.“We saw more pregnant patients getting vaccinated … and then a reduction in emergency room visits, ICU visits and a reduction in preterm births and stillbirths,” he said.Physic...

How a local museum helped 100-plus Chicago Bears employees tell their stories through sneakers for My Cause, My Cleats campaign

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:36 GMT

When Sneakerhead University first opened its doors on State Street in fall 2022, co-founders Shay Belvin and Mykol Branch had one room with three tables, a bucket of 12 paints and a desire to preserve sneaker history and tell stories using sneakers.While students at North Carolina Central, a historically Black university in Durham, N.C., Belvin and Branch came up with the idea to sell Black empowerment T-shirts through their now-defunct label “HBCU Made.” It was during that time they also had the idea to create a sneaker museum.“We wanted a creative way to tell the Black story of different topics and the movement of America,” Belvin told the Tribune. “Selfie museums were really huge (at the time).”The two studied marketing in college, and after graduation Belvin, a Detroit native, came to Chicago to start a museum while Branch initially returned home to Baltimore to open one. They chose Chicago, they said, because they could list brands and people...

Massachusetts shelter site at state transportation building closing, families transitioned to Quincy

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:36 GMT

An overnight shelter at the state’s transportation building in Boston shuttered its doors Friday, as officials transitioned local and migrant homeless families staying there to a college dorm in Quincy.The roughly three weeks families stayed in the building marked one of the first times Gov. Maura Healey turned to a state-owned building in downtown Boston to house those waiting for shelter placement.Operations at the transportation building will shift to Eastern Nazarene College, where the Healey administration previously said they contracted Australian-based AMI Expeditionary Healthcare to run a temporary shelter.A contract between the state and the organization obtained through a public records request authorizes up to $11.5 million in spending for two temporary shelter sites, the locations of which were redacted in the document provided to the Herald.Emergency Assistance Director Lt. Gen. Scott Rice said the Healey administration will also open an additional site in Revere where ...

Some states’ economies cool even as the nation’s sizzles

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:36 GMT

Tim Henderson | Stateline.org (TNS)A still-roaring national economy grew at an unexpectedly robust 5.2% annual rate in the third quarter of this year, but early indicators show a more mixed picture for many states heading into the holidays.The preliminary unemployment rate rose in 38 states and economic output slowed in 32 states in October, according to a Stateline analysis of preliminary federal economic data. Yet states where the economy is still humming — such as Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia — have added hundreds of thousands of jobs since 2020 and are helping to keep national output strong.Economists note that the uptick in the jobless rate may be the result of long-inactive workers seeking jobs; those job-searchers are included in the unemployment rate.Most economists surveyed by Stateline said the states with elevated unemployment rates and lagging production were experiencing growing pains as they continue to recover from the pandemic. A modest slowdo...