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Barabak: In today’s politics it’s all about nastiness and party loyalty

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:12 GMT

Last weekend, the Texas Republican Party voted to punish one of its own.Tony Gonzales, a two-term congressman from San Antonio, was censured for, among other things, backing a modest gun safety law after 19 children and two teachers were slaughtered at an elementary school in Uvalde.The day after the party issued its condemnation, Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson appeared on Fox News (motto: “Lying to viewers for fun and profit”) where he cracked wise about the removal of a cancerous growth from President Biden’s chest.“Biden is the cancer,” the Amarillo Republican said. “He’s what needs to be removed, not the lesion they found.”There has been no clamor among Texas Republicans to sanction Jackson for his callous and tasteless remark, and none is expected.Together, the events — though unrelated — say a good deal about the state of our politics and, especially, the nature of the Trumpified GOP.Forget basic human decency. What counts is pugnacity, acting out and blind, unswerving allegiance to...

Opinion: How has American health care gone so terribly wrong?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:12 GMT

We all have bad weeks. Mine recently made me marvel at the astonishing dysfunction of our health care system. In calling out the system I intend no disrespect to the talented and heroic overachievers in nursing, pharmacy, medicine and the other providers who fight the system every day on behalf of our patients.Despite such efforts, the sad but undeniable fact is that our health care system — the way the U.S. distributes and pays for health care — makes it the most expensive failed enterprise in the history of human civilization.Part of what set me off that week was a series of examples of my patients’ chronic struggles to access mental health services. After years of poor funding and a deluge of demand since the pandemic began, providers are in short supply. Scarcity is coupled with barriers imposed by insurance networks. Absent reasonable access to services, primary care doctors like me become the psychiatrists of first and last resort, pushing the bounds of our competence. But wha...

Pedro Gomez’s son, Rio, has homecoming to remember with Team Colombia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:12 GMT

MESA, Ariz. – Rio Gomez has pitched hundreds of innings since his father first introduced him to baseball.But Wednesday was different.Representing Colombia, his mother’s home country, the Arizona native pitched in his hometown for the first time since his father, longtime baseball reporter Pedro Gomez, died on Super Bowl Sunday two years ago. And Rio was facing the A’s, a team his dad covered for the San Jose Mercury News and Sacramento Bee before becoming a star at ESPN.Rio’s mom, Sandi, was in the stands at Hohokam Stadium for the exhibition game and said the scenario couldn’t have been much better.“It just seemed like the perfect game,” Sandi said.Rio Gomez, and mom Sandi, spend some time together after the Oakland A’s spring training game against the Columbian National team at Hohokam Stadium on March 8, 2023 in Mesa, Arizona.Photo by John Medina Gomez, who was born and raised in Arizona, got to pitch in front of his mother, friends and a crowd of roughly 2,000 ...

Bodies of 2 Mexico kidnapping victims expected to be returned to the US for further autopsies, source says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:12 GMT

By Josh Campbell, Fidel Gutierrez, Karol Suarez and Elizabeth Wolfe | CNNThe bodies of two Americans killed in an armed kidnapping in Mexico are expected to be returned to the US on Thursday, a source from the Mexico Attorney General’s Office tells CNN, as the two survivors have returned to the US for treatment at a hospital.The remains of Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown likely will be transported to a funeral home in Brownsville, Texas, a US official familiar with the investigation said. The repatriation would come two days after the bodies were discovered alongside their two surviving friends in a house around the Mexican city of Matamoros.Autopsies were completed Wednesday morning in Mexico, an official from the Tamaulipas Prosecutor’s Office told CNN, though Mexican authorities have not released causes of death. Second autopsies will be performed in the US, the US official said.CNN has reached out to the US State Department about the repatriation of remains.The dece...

Is Disney teasing an Avatar land with multiple rides at Disneyland?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:12 GMT

The Disneyland resort may soon be home to a version of Walt Disney World’s Pandora themed land with a banshee flight simulator and a water ride through a bioluminescent rainforest — or at least that’s what Disney’s official D23 fan group appears to be teasing.Media outlets are interpreting a new D23 story as confirmation by Disney that a new Avatar themed land with multiple rides is coming to Disneyland.SEE ALSO: 11 places Disneyland could build an Avatar experience — See the listDisney CEO Bob Iger announced in February that an Avatar experience is coming to the Disneyland resort following the success of “Avatar: The World of Water” in theaters and the Pandora — The World of Avatar themed land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida.Disneyland has not made an official announcement about what the Avatar experience will be, where it will be located or when it will open at the Anaheim theme park resort.SEE ALSO: Disney World’s struggling $5,000 Star Wars hotel cuts fall dates for midwee...

California lawmaker seeks to establish 20-year cardroom moratorium

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:12 GMT

Smaller cardrooms would be able to expand if a proposed a new gambling bill backed by California tribes gets the approval of the state legislature.On March 8, the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee approved advancing AB341, a proposal to invoke a new cardroom moratorium for the next 20 years. State Assemblymember James Ramos, the first California Indian ever elected to the state legislature, proposed the bill on Jan. 30.The new bill would create a new moratorium, that was previously established by the Gambling Control Act of 1997, which prevented new cardrooms from opening and existing ones from expanding in the last 25 years. The act set a 10-year moratorium on cardroom expansions, which the state legislature extended periodically with the exception of last year.The vote on a bill to extend the moratorium failed back in August after California Senate Governmental Organization Committee Chair Bill Dodd broke the deadlocked 3-3 vote causing the bill not to meet the Senate’s...

ANI: Q4 Earnings Snapshot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:12 GMT

BAUDETTE, Minn. (AP) — BAUDETTE, Minn. (AP) — ANI Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ANIP) on Thursday reported a loss of $4.2 million in its fourth quarter.The Baudette, Minnesota-based company said it had a loss of 28 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and stock option expense, were 76 cents per share.The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 68 cents per share.The drugmaker posted revenue of $94.2 million in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $86.8 million.For the year, the company reported that its loss widened to $47.9 million, or $3.05 per share. Revenue was reported as $316.4 million.ANI expects full-year earnings in the range of $2.09 to $2.59 per share, with revenue in the range of $360 million to $385 million.ANI shares have increased 7% since the beginning of the year. The stock has increased 17% in the las...

Methode: Fiscal Q3 Earnings Snapshot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:12 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — CHICAGO (AP) — Methode Electronics Inc. (MEI) on Thursday reported fiscal third-quarter earnings of $19.9 million.The Chicago-based company said it had profit of 54 cents per share.The maker of electrical components for the auto and computer industries posted revenue of $280.1 million in the period.Methode expects full-year earnings to be $2.50 to $2.60 per share, with revenue in the range of $1.16 billion to $1.18 billion._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MEI at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MEISource

Genesco: Fiscal Q4 Earnings Snapshot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:12 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Genesco Inc. (GCO) on Thursday reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $38.9 million.The Nashville, Tennessee-based company said it had profit of $3.21 per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $3.06 per share.The seller of footwear, hats, clothing and accessories posted revenue of $725 million in the period.Genesco expects full-year earnings in the range of $5.10 to $5.90 per share._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on GCO at https://www.zacks.com/ap/GCOSource

Precision BioSciences: Q4 Earnings Snapshot

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:35:12 GMT

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Precision BioSciences Inc. (DTIL) on Thursday reported a loss of $28.5 million in its fourth quarter.On a per-share basis, the Durham, North Carolina-based company said it had a loss of 26 cents.The results did not meet Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 24 cents per share.The genome editing company posted revenue of $10.6 million in the period, beating Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $6 million.For the year, the company reported that its loss widened to $111.6 million, or $1.27 per share. Revenue was reported as $25.1 million._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on DTIL at https://www.zacks.com/ap/DTILSource