Author: Reporter

Putin’s love of money: Efforts to steer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine made little progress over two years

Putin’s love of money: Efforts to steer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine made little progress over two years

Posted by | Feb 2, 2024

It has been nearly two years since the United States and its Western allies froze hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian foreign holdings, in retaliation for Moscow’s unprovoked and brutal invasion of Ukraine. That roughly $300 billion in Russian Central Bank money has been sitting untapped as the war grinds on, while officials from multiple countries have debated the legality of sending the money to Ukraine. The idea of using Russia’s frozen assets is gaining new traction lately as continued allied funding for Ukraine becomes more uncertain and the U.S. Congress is in a stalemate over providing more...

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Antakya Aftermath: Families remain afraid to go home one year since deadly earthquake in Türkiye

Antakya Aftermath: Families remain afraid to go home one year since deadly earthquake in Türkiye

Posted by | Feb 2, 2024

A year after a powerful earthquake in southern Türkiye reduced hundreds of thousands of homes to rubble, Fatma Kirici lives in a tent with her husband and two grown children, afraid to return to the multistory house they fled that somehow still stands. “Our house is at the edge of a precipice,” said Kirici, 50, whose 20-year-old daughter and son-in-law died in the quake when their house collapsed. “I don’t want to put my other kids at risk.” As Türkiye marks the first anniversary of the 7.8-magnitude quake that struck last February 6, people living in the hardest-hit regions...

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ADHD treatments face continued drug shortages after a pandemic-triggered surge of adults sought help

ADHD treatments face continued drug shortages after a pandemic-triggered surge of adults sought help

Posted by | Feb 1, 2024

Prescriptions for ADHD treatments surged among adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to fuel lingering shortages that frustrate parents and doctors. New prescriptions for stimulants used to treat the condition jumped for young adults and women during a two-year window after the pandemic hit in March 2020, according to a study published in January in JAMA Psychiatry. Prescriptions also soared for non-stimulant treatments for adults of all ages, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration researchers found. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is one of the most common developmental disorders in children, particularly boys. The use of drugs like Adderall to treat it...

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Pandemic puppies: Animal shelters face overcrowding as families abandoned pets over housing struggles

Pandemic puppies: Animal shelters face overcrowding as families abandoned pets over housing struggles

Posted by | Feb 1, 2024

Kaine is a big, buoyant dog looking for a home. But lately, he is spending a lot of time at the office. Animal shelters around the U.S. are bursting at the seams amid the rising cost of living, so the gray and white 7-year-old has been staying in a worker’s office at the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society while awaiting adoption. The shelter near Albany, New York, is “beyond full,” said CEO Ashley Jeffrey Bouck. That means Kaine — along with his crate, dog bed and chewy toys — has to share space with a staffer, a desk and file...

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Warehouse liquidation: Wisconsin joins list of states trashing stockpiles of vital pandemic gear

Warehouse liquidation: Wisconsin joins list of states trashing stockpiles of vital pandemic gear

Posted by | Feb 1, 2024

When the coronavirus pandemic took hold in an unprepared U.S., states scrambled for masks and other protective gear. Three years later, as the grips of the pandemic have loosened, many states are now trying to deal with an excess of protective gear, ditching their supplies in droves. With expiration dates passing and few requests to tap into its stockpile, Ohio auctioned off 393,000 gowns for just $2,451 and ended up throwing away another 7.2 million, along with expired masks, gloves and other materials. The now expiring supplies had cost about $29 million in federal money. A similar reckoning is...

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End of pandemic aid and soaring rent prices drive homelessness up to a record 12% nationwide

End of pandemic aid and soaring rent prices drive homelessness up to a record 12% nationwide

Posted by | Jan 31, 2024

The United States experienced a dramatic 12% increase in homelessness to its highest reported level as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more Americans, according to federal officials. About 653,000 people were homeless, the most since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007. The total in the January count represents an increase of about 70,650 from a year earlier. The latest estimate indicates that people becoming homeless for the first time were behind much of the increase. A rise in family homelessness ended a downward...

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