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Today — 16 September 2024Main stream

2024 Emmy Awards: The complete list of winners

16 September 2024 at 03:34

By Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — The 2024 Primetime Emmy Awards arrived on Sunday.

The awards, presented by the Television Academy, honored the best of the 2023-2024 TV season. The 76th edition of the ceremony came just months after the 75th edition, which was held in January after being delayed by the dual Hollywood strikes.

Here are the winners, including several previously announced at the Creative Arts Emmys.

Comedy series

“Abbott Elementary”

“The Bear”

“Curb Your Enthusiasm”

Winner: “Hacks”

“Only Murders in the Building”

“Palm Royale”

“Reservation Dogs”

“What We Do in the Shadows”

Drama series

“The Crown”

“Fallout”

“The Gilded Age”

“The Morning Show”

“Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Winner: “Shōgun”

“Slow Horses”

“3 Body Problem”

Drama lead actress

Jennifer Aniston, “The Morning Show”

Carrie Coon, “The Gilded Age”

Maya Erskine, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Winner: Anna Sawai, “Shōgun”

Imelda Staunton, “The Crown”

Reese Witherspoon, “The Morning Show”

Drama lead actor

Donald Glover, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Walton Goggins, “Fallout”

Gary Oldman, “Slow Horses”

Winner: Hiroyuki Sanada, “Shōgun”

Dominic West, “The Crown”

Idris Elba, “Hijack”

Limited series

Winner: “Baby Reindeer”

“Fargo”

“Lessons in Chemistry”

“Ripley”

“True Detective: Night Country”

Limited series / TV movie lead actress

Winner: Jodie Foster, “True Detective: Night Country”

Brie Larson, “Lessons in Chemistry”

Juno Temple, “Fargo”

Sofía Vergara, “Griselda”

Naomi Watts, “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”

Limited series / TV movie lead actor

Matt Bomer, “Fellow Travelers”

Winner: Richard Gadd, “Baby Reindeer”

Jon Hamm, “Fargo”

Tom Hollander,“Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”

Andrew Scott, “Ripley”

Directing for a drama series

Hiro Murai, “First Date,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Winner: Frederick E.O. Toye, “Crimson Sky,” “Shōgun”

Saul Metzstein, “Strange Games,” “Slow Horses”

Stephen Daldry, “Sleep, Dearie Sleep,” “The Crown”

Mimi Leder, “The Overview Effect,” “The Morning Show”

Directing for a comedy series

Randall Einhorn, “Party,” “Abbott Elementary”

Lucia Aniello, “Bulletproof,” “Hacks”

Winner: Christopher Storer, “Fishes,” “The Bear”

Ramy Youssef, “Honeydew,” “The Bear”

Guy Ritchie, “Refined Aggression,” “The Gentlemen”

Writing for a limited or anthology series or movie

Winner: Richard Gadd, “Baby Reindeer”

Charlie Brooker, “Joan Is Awful,” “Black Mirror”

Noah Hawley, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” “Fargo”

Ron Nyswaner, “You’re Wonderful,” “Fellow Travelers”

Steven Zaillian, “Ripley”

Issa López, “Part 6,” “True Detective: North Country”

Writing for a drama series

Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Graham Wagner; “The End,” “Fallout”

Francesca Sloane, Donald Glover; “First Date,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Rachel Kondo, Justin Marks; “Anjin,” “Shōgun”

Rachel Kondo, Caillin Puente; “Crimson Sky,” “Shōgun”

Winner: Will Smith, “Negotiating With Tigers,” “Slow Horses”

Peter Morgan, Meriel Sheibani-Clare; “The Ritz,” “The Crown”

Limited series / TV movie supporting actor

Jonathan Bailey, “Fellow Travelers”

Robert Downey Jr., “The Sympathizer”

Tom Goodman-Hill, “Baby Reindeer”

John Hawkes, “True Detective: North Country”

Winner: Lamorne Morris, “Fargo”

Lewis Pullman, “Lessons in Chemistry”

Treat Williams, “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”

Talk series

Winner: “The Daily Show”

“Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

“Late Night With Seth Meyers”

“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”

Writing for a comedy series

Quinta Brunson, “Career Day,” “Abbott Elementary”

Meredith Scardino, Sam Means; “Orlando,” “Girls5eva”

Winner: Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky; “Bulletproof,” “Hacks”

Christopher Storer, Joanna Calo; “Fishes,” “The Bear”

Chris Kelly, Sarah Schneider; “Brooke Hosts a Night of Undeniable Good,” “The Other Two”

Jake Bender, Zach Dunn; “Pride Parade,” “What We Do in the Shadows”

Directing for a limited or anthology series or movie

Weronika Tofilska, “Episode 4,” “Baby Reindeer”

Noah Hawley, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” “Fargo”

Gus Van Sant, “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”

Millicent Shelton, “Poirot,” “Lessons in Chemistry”

Winner: Steven Zaillian, “Ripley”

Issa López, “True Detective: North Country”

Writing for a variety special

Winner: Alex Edelman, “Alex Edelman: Just For Us”

Jacqueline Novak, “Jacqueline Novak: Get On Your Knees”

John Early, “John Early: Now More Than Ever”

Mike Birbiglia, “Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and The Pool”

“The Oscars”

Scripted variety series

Winner: “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”

“Saturday Night Live”

Limited series / TV movie supporting actress

Dakota Fanning, “Ripley”

Lily Gladstone, “Under the Bridge”

Winner: Jessica Gunning, “Baby Reindeer”

Aja Naomi King, “Lessons in Chemistry”

Diane Lane, “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”

Nava Mau, “Baby Reindeer”

Kali Reis, “True Detective: Night Country”

Reality competition program

“The Amazing Race”

“RuPaul’s Drag Race”

“Top Chef”

Winner: “The Traitors”

“The Voice”

Comedy lead actress

Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”

Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”

Selena Gomez, “Only Murders in the Building”

Winner: Jean Smart, “Hacks”

Kristen Wiig, “Palm Royale”

Maya Rudolph, “Loot”

Drama supporting actress

Christine Baranski, “The Gilded Age”

Nicole Beharie, “The Morning Show”

Winner: Elizabeth Debicki, “The Crown”

Greta Lee, “The Morning Show”

Lesley Manville, “The Crown”

Karen Pittman, “The Morning Show”

Holland Taylor, “The Morning Show”

Comedy supporting actress

Carol Burnett, “Palm Royale”

Winner: Liza Colón-Zayas, “The Bear”

Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks”

Janelle James, “Abbott Elementary”

Sheryl Lee Ralph, “Abbott Elementary”

Meryl Streep, “Only Murders in the Building”

Comedy lead actor

Matt Berry, “What We Do in the Shadows,”

Larry David, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”

Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building”

Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”

Winner: Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”

D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, “Reservation Dogs”

Drama supporting actor

Tadanobu Asano, “Shōgun”

Winner: Billy Crudup, “The Morning Show”

Mark Duplass, “The Morning Show”

Jon Hamm, “The Morning Show”

Takehiro Hira, “Shōgun”

Jack Lowden, “Slow Horses”

Jonathan Pryce, “The Crown”

Comedy supporting actor

Lionel Boyce, “The Bear”

Paul W. Downs, “Hacks”

Winner: Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear”

Paul Rudd, “Only Murders in the Building”

Tyler James Williams, “Abbott Elementary”

Bowen Yang, “Saturday Night Live”

Television movie

Winner: “Quiz Lady”

“Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie”

“Red, White & Royal Blue”

“Scoop”

“Unfrosted”

Guest actor in a drama series

Winner: Néstor Carbonell, “Shōgun”

Paul Dano, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Tracy Letts, “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty”

Jonathan Pryce, “Slow Horses”

John Turturro, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Guest actress in a drama series

Winner: Michaela Coel, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Claire Foy, “The Crown”

Marcia Gay Harden, “The Morning Show”

Sarah Paulson, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Parker Posey, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Guest actor in a comedy series

Winner: Jon Bernthal, “The Bear”

Matthew Broderick, “Only Murders in the Building”

Ryan Gosling, “Saturday Night Live”

Christopher Lloyd, “Hacks”

Bob Odenkirk, “The Bear”

Will Poulter, “The Bear”

Guest actress in a comedy series

Winner: Jamie Lee Curtis, “The Bear”

Olivia Colman, “The Bear”

Kaitlin Olson, “Hacks”

Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “Only Murders in the Building”

Maya Rudolph, “Saturday Night Live”

Kristen Wiig, “Saturday Night Live”

For a complete list of Emmy nominees, go to Emmys.com.


©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Jeremy Allen White, left, Liza Colón-Zayas and Ebon Moss-Bachrach pose in the press room with their awards for their roles in “The Bear” during the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024.

2024 Emmy Awards: The complete list of winners

16 September 2024 at 03:26

By Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — The 2024 Primetime Emmy Awards arrived on Sunday.

The awards, presented by the Television Academy, honored the best of the 2023-2024 TV season. The 76th edition of the ceremony came just months after the 75th edition, which was held in January after being delayed by the dual Hollywood strikes.

Here are the winners, including several previously announced at the Creative Arts Emmys.

Comedy series

“Abbott Elementary”

“The Bear”

“Curb Your Enthusiasm”

Winner: “Hacks”

“Only Murders in the Building”

“Palm Royale”

“Reservation Dogs”

“What We Do in the Shadows”

Drama series

“The Crown”

“Fallout”

“The Gilded Age”

“The Morning Show”

“Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Winner: “Shōgun”

“Slow Horses”

“3 Body Problem”

Drama lead actress

Jennifer Aniston, “The Morning Show”

Carrie Coon, “The Gilded Age”

Maya Erskine, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Winner: Anna Sawai, “Shōgun”

Imelda Staunton, “The Crown”

Reese Witherspoon, “The Morning Show”

Drama lead actor

Donald Glover, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Walton Goggins, “Fallout”

Gary Oldman, “Slow Horses”

Winner: Hiroyuki Sanada, “Shōgun”

Dominic West, “The Crown”

Idris Elba, “Hijack”

Limited series

Winner: “Baby Reindeer”

“Fargo”

“Lessons in Chemistry”

“Ripley”

“True Detective: Night Country”

Limited series / TV movie lead actress

Winner: Jodie Foster, “True Detective: Night Country”

Brie Larson, “Lessons in Chemistry”

Juno Temple, “Fargo”

Sofía Vergara, “Griselda”

Naomi Watts, “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”

Limited series / TV movie lead actor

Matt Bomer, “Fellow Travelers”

Winner: Richard Gadd, “Baby Reindeer”

Jon Hamm, “Fargo”

Tom Hollander,“Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”

Andrew Scott, “Ripley”

Directing for a drama series

Hiro Murai, “First Date,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Winner: Frederick E.O. Toye, “Crimson Sky,” “Shōgun”

Saul Metzstein, “Strange Games,” “Slow Horses”

Stephen Daldry, “Sleep, Dearie Sleep,” “The Crown”

Mimi Leder, “The Overview Effect,” “The Morning Show”

Directing for a comedy series

Randall Einhorn, “Party,” “Abbott Elementary”

Lucia Aniello, “Bulletproof,” “Hacks”

Winner: Christopher Storer, “Fishes,” “The Bear”

Ramy Youssef, “Honeydew,” “The Bear”

Guy Ritchie, “Refined Aggression,” “The Gentlemen”

Writing for a limited or anthology series or movie

Winner: Richard Gadd, “Baby Reindeer”

Charlie Brooker, “Joan Is Awful,” “Black Mirror”

Noah Hawley, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” “Fargo”

Ron Nyswaner, “You’re Wonderful,” “Fellow Travelers”

Steven Zaillian, “Ripley”

Issa López, “Part 6,” “True Detective: North Country”

Writing for a drama series

Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Graham Wagner; “The End,” “Fallout”

Francesca Sloane, Donald Glover; “First Date,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Rachel Kondo, Justin Marks; “Anjin,” “Shōgun”

Rachel Kondo, Caillin Puente; “Crimson Sky,” “Shōgun”

Winner: Will Smith, “Negotiating With Tigers,” “Slow Horses”

Peter Morgan, Meriel Sheibani-Clare; “The Ritz,” “The Crown”

Limited series / TV movie supporting actor

Jonathan Bailey, “Fellow Travelers”

Robert Downey Jr., “The Sympathizer”

Tom Goodman-Hill, “Baby Reindeer”

John Hawkes, “True Detective: North Country”

Winner: Lamorne Morris, “Fargo”

Lewis Pullman, “Lessons in Chemistry”

Treat Williams, “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”

Talk series

Winner: “The Daily Show”

“Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

“Late Night With Seth Meyers”

“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”

Writing for a comedy series

Quinta Brunson, “Career Day,” “Abbott Elementary”

Meredith Scardino, Sam Means; “Orlando,” “Girls5eva”

Winner: Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky; “Bulletproof,” “Hacks”

Christopher Storer, Joanna Calo; “Fishes,” “The Bear”

Chris Kelly, Sarah Schneider; “Brooke Hosts a Night of Undeniable Good,” “The Other Two”

Jake Bender, Zach Dunn; “Pride Parade,” “What We Do in the Shadows”

Directing for a limited or anthology series or movie

Weronika Tofilska, “Episode 4,” “Baby Reindeer”

Noah Hawley, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” “Fargo”

Gus Van Sant, “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”

Millicent Shelton, “Poirot,” “Lessons in Chemistry”

Winner: Steven Zaillian, “Ripley”

Issa López, “True Detective: North Country”

Writing for a variety special

Winner: Alex Edelman, “Alex Edelman: Just For Us”

Jacqueline Novak, “Jacqueline Novak: Get On Your Knees”

John Early, “John Early: Now More Than Ever”

Mike Birbiglia, “Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and The Pool”

“The Oscars”

Scripted variety series

Winner: “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”

“Saturday Night Live”

Limited series / TV movie supporting actress

Dakota Fanning, “Ripley”

Lily Gladstone, “Under the Bridge”

Winner: Jessica Gunning, “Baby Reindeer”

Aja Naomi King, “Lessons in Chemistry”

Diane Lane, “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”

Nava Mau, “Baby Reindeer”

Kali Reis, “True Detective: Night Country”

Reality competition program

“The Amazing Race”

“RuPaul’s Drag Race”

“Top Chef”

Winner: “The Traitors”

“The Voice”

Comedy lead actress

Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”

Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”

Selena Gomez, “Only Murders in the Building”

Winner: Jean Smart, “Hacks”

Kristen Wiig, “Palm Royale”

Maya Rudolph, “Loot”

Drama supporting actress

Christine Baranski, “The Gilded Age”

Nicole Beharie, “The Morning Show”

Winner: Elizabeth Debicki, “The Crown”

Greta Lee, “The Morning Show”

Lesley Manville, “The Crown”

Karen Pittman, “The Morning Show”

Holland Taylor, “The Morning Show”

Comedy supporting actress

Carol Burnett, “Palm Royale”

Winner: Liza Colón-Zayas, “The Bear”

Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks”

Janelle James, “Abbott Elementary”

Sheryl Lee Ralph, “Abbott Elementary”

Meryl Streep, “Only Murders in the Building”

Comedy lead actor

Matt Berry, “What We Do in the Shadows,”

Larry David, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”

Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building”

Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”

Winner: Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”

D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, “Reservation Dogs”

Drama supporting actor

Tadanobu Asano, “Shōgun”

Winner: Billy Crudup, “The Morning Show”

Mark Duplass, “The Morning Show”

Jon Hamm, “The Morning Show”

Takehiro Hira, “Shōgun”

Jack Lowden, “Slow Horses”

Jonathan Pryce, “The Crown”

Comedy supporting actor

Lionel Boyce, “The Bear”

Paul W. Downs, “Hacks”

Winner: Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear”

Paul Rudd, “Only Murders in the Building”

Tyler James Williams, “Abbott Elementary”

Bowen Yang, “Saturday Night Live”

Television movie

Winner: “Quiz Lady”

“Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie”

“Red, White & Royal Blue”

“Scoop”

“Unfrosted”

Guest actor in a drama series

Winner: Néstor Carbonell, “Shōgun”

Paul Dano, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Tracy Letts, “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty”

Jonathan Pryce, “Slow Horses”

John Turturro, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Guest actress in a drama series

Winner: Michaela Coel, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Claire Foy, “The Crown”

Marcia Gay Harden, “The Morning Show”

Sarah Paulson, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Parker Posey, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Guest actor in a comedy series

Winner: Jon Bernthal, “The Bear”

Matthew Broderick, “Only Murders in the Building”

Ryan Gosling, “Saturday Night Live”

Christopher Lloyd, “Hacks”

Bob Odenkirk, “The Bear”

Will Poulter, “The Bear”

Guest actress in a comedy series

Winner: Jamie Lee Curtis, “The Bear”

Olivia Colman, “The Bear”

Kaitlin Olson, “Hacks”

Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “Only Murders in the Building”

Maya Rudolph, “Saturday Night Live”

Kristen Wiig, “Saturday Night Live”

For a complete list of Emmy nominees, go to Emmys.com.


©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Jeremy Allen White, left, Liza Colón-Zayas and Ebon Moss-Bachrach pose in the press room with their awards for their roles in “The Bear” during the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024.
Before yesterdayMain stream

‘This is not a bill’: How to decipher explanations of benefits and pay for your medical care

11 September 2024 at 21:39

Christopher Snowbeck | (TNS) The Minnesota Star Tribune

Bobbie Putman-Bailey knows how to solve problems when it comes to medical bills and health insurance.

In one instance, upon the surprise realization her specialist doctor had gone out of network for her health plan, the 42-year-old Maple Grove, Minnesota, resident convinced the insurer to overturn coverage denials that could have cost her hundreds of dollars. The key, Putman-Bailey said, was to write an appeal that was long on details, while also agreeing to eventually switch to an in-network doctor — just not immediately, since she was beginning a new treatment at the time.

In another case, she wrangled with a specialty pharmacy to prevent billing for a shipment of the wrong medication to her house. It helped, Putman-Bailey said, that she was prompt in calling to report the problem and already had talked with the pharmacy several times about ambiguities with its online ordering system.

For consumers, the first step in all such disputes is to stay on top of billing documents, Putman-Bailey advised, and ask questions as soon as possible. She recognizes, of course, this can be easier said than done.

“It sucks because you are sick, and you’re chronically ill, and there are days when … you don’t have the energy to get up and look at things,” said Putman-Bailey, who has Crohn’s disease. “But if you wait until things show up in your mailbox, it’s almost too late.”

Getting sick in the U.S. health care system can trigger an avalanche of confusing paperwork. Here’s what you need to know about how to read a medical bill — plus those documents proclaiming “This Is Not a Bill” from health insurers — to help prevent the illness from spreading to your bank account.

Bills vs. EOBs

Two types of documents typically arrive in a patient’s mailbox and/or online portal after receiving health care services: One is a medical bill from a doctor’s office or health system, the second is an“explanation of benefits” form from your health insurer.

The insurance document, called an EOB, often arrives first. It reflects the health plan’s evaluation of the service received, including the amount of insurance coverage for the service, according to the Minnesota Council of Health Plans, a trade group for nonprofit health insurers in the state.

EOBs typically list the provider’s charge for a service. They also show the negotiated price the insurance company and provider agreed to consider full payment. And then, the form shows how the negotiated cost will split between the insurer and the patient.

Insurers typically describe this split as “cost-sharing,” which factors in deductibles and co-insurance that are key for patients to understand when shopping for a health plan.

“If there is a remaining bill, the doctor’s office directly sends you a bill for the remaining amount,” said Lucas Nesse, chief executive of the Minnesota Council of Health Plans, via email. “If the amount on the bill you receive from your doctor’s office does not match the amount on your EOB, the first step is to call your clinic to see if they have updated their bill to reflect payment from your insurance.”

Patients often notice on EOBs the contrast between the health care provider’s charge and the negotiated payment rate because the discounts can be very large.

“You can see them allow only 10% of the charge sometimes,” said Bill Foley, an insurance advocate and volunteer leader with Cancer Legal Care, a nonprofit group in Oakdale. “The spread can be tremendous.”

Once the bill comes from the doctor’s office or health system, patients should compare the amount due with the EOB to make sure they agree on the patient’s financial responsibility. When they don’t match, patients should call the health care provider and/or health insurer.

“Typically, your medical bill should not be more than what your explanation of benefits says you owe,” said Julia Dreier, the deputy commissioner of insurance at the Minnesota Department of Commerce.

Starting Oct. 1, a new state law goes into effect that lets patients request a review from their health care provider to check the accuracy of medical codes used in their billing. The law prohibits providers from making further collection efforts during this process, which culminates in a notice sent to patients within 30 days of the review’s completion.

“A medical provider will always … provide notice about whether the coding was accurate,” said Joe Schindler, vice president of finance policy and analytics at the Minnesota Hospital Association.

Comparing EOBs and medical bills can be difficult when health care providers practice “global billing” and roll all charges into one final bill, said Eric Ellsworth, director for health data strategy at Consumers’ Checkbook Health. Schindler of the Hospital Association noted patients can always ask for a more detailed bill from their health care provider.

Denials and codes

Consumer advocates say patients, in many ways, are better off relying on their online portals for billing documents rather than paper statements that arrive in the mail. That’s because a health insurer’s decision on whether to pay or deny a claim can change as more information becomes available.

Foley recommends, in fact, patients compare the bill they receive in the mail to the online version to see if that one is more current.

When there’s a balance due, the key question is: Why?

“Is it because insurance hasn’t adjudicated your claim yet?” Foley asked. “Is it because you have a legitimate out-of-pocket expense? Is it due to a denial?”

There are several types of denials, Ellsworth said. Some services just aren’t a covered benefit, he added, pointing to in-vitro fertilization as an example in a number of health plans. Sometimes there’s a limitation patients might not have appreciated, such as when an insurer will pay for cataract surgery but not some multifocal lenses.

Insurers might deny a claim because the health plan deems the service not medically necessary. Some denials result in financial responsibility for patients, Ellsworth said, while others create a financial risk for the health care provider.

The Minnesota Council of Health Plans said insurers list on the EOB a “reason code” to explain the reason for a claim’s denial. Reasons can vary from services being out of network to the lack of prior authorization from a health plan.

It’s not clear exactly how often denials happen across all types of insurance, but consumer advocates say appeals are few and far between. They worry the process of filing appeals is just too confusing and/or difficult for patients to navigate.

To appeal a denied claim, patients must navigate the language of medical coding, which is how health care providers and health insurers communicate about the services provided. Many medical bills and EOBs don’t actually include these codes, so patients must contact either their provider or health plan to understand. Patients can then use the codes and descriptions to determine whether their insurer processed their claims correctly according to their plan’s benefits.

“If there’s a balance due that you’re questioning, then it’s really important to know those codes,” Foley said. “We’ve set up this system where all of these claims are handled by computers now instead of people. So, the codes are really key. That’s the magic.”

When facing big bills for out-of-network care, patients should explore whether the federal No Surprises Act provides any help. And advocates say rather than trying to navigate all this alone, patients should seek help from a friend, family member or even government agencies.

“If someone’s stuck, I would encourage people to call us,” said Dreier of the Commerce Department.

‘I’m not trying to duck the bill’

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office has online tips for handling medical bills and pointers for ensuring your portion is accurate. The state Commerce Department has online information about denials and appeals. Ellsworth of Consumers’ Checkbook said people in “self-insured” health plans that large employers typically run — especially those operating in multiple states — can seek help from the Employee Benefit Services Administration (EBSA) at the U.S. Department of Labor.

Some advocates refer to a book called “Never Pay the First Bill” when talking about how consumers should think about questionable medical bills. Patients often want to pay promptly, Foley said, either because they received good care or from fear of being sent to collections and suffering credit score dings.

Those are good instincts, Foley said, yet there are times when he advises consumers to let everything play out a bit before making a payment.

“The key is: Just keep the provider in the loop. Let them know that you are aware that they’ve sent you a balance-due statement but that you’re still working through the details of it,” he said. “Make sure you are staying in contact with your provider and telling them: ‘Hey, I’m not trying to duck the bill.’ That’s really an important thing.”

Putman-Bailey, the patient from Maple Grove, said to be suspicious if any medical paperwork is delayed since that can be a sign of trouble.

The Minnesota Medical Association said providers must submit claims to insurance companies within six months of the date of service, although most are quicker. Insurers generally pay claims within 30 days of receipt, the Medical Association said, and EOBs are available when claims process.

As for phone calls, Putman-Bailey said she’s learned the importance of recording the date of the conversation, the name of the customer service representative and the agent’s phone number, if possible. Another tip: When insurers assert a service is not medically necessary, Putman-Bailey asks to talk with the physician who made that decision.

The process can feel adversarial and is often emotional, Putman-Bailey said, but she always tries to stress how it’s not personal.

“I usually am saying to the person on the phone: ‘This is not about you,’” she said, “‘this is about the system.’”

©2024 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

For consumers, the first step in all such disputes is to stay on top of billing documents, Putman-Bailey advised, and ask questions as soon as possible. She recognizes, of course, this can be easier said than done. (Vinnstock/Dreamstime/TNS)

Recipe: Gluten-free gnocchi with lemon, peas and spinach goes down easy

11 September 2024 at 21:04

Gretchen McKay | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)

Come dinnertime, pasta made with corn, rice, lentils or chickpeas can be a godsend to those with gluten sensitivities. But it also can break their hearts, just a little.

Not only is gluten-free pasta super expensive when compared to “regular” spaghetti, rigatoni and other noodles made with milled durum wheat, but it’s tough to find a gluten-free product that’s not gummy or doesn’t generally taste like mush.

That’s my son Jack’s view, anyway. He’s avoided eating anything with gluten for about a decade due to celiac disease.

As someone who absolutely adores, cooks and eats a lot of pasta, I can’t imagine how hard that must be. So the mom in me is always on the lookout for a tasty alternative he might enjoy.

A great sauce can help disguise the weird (some might say off-putting) textures that are a signature characteristic of gluten-free pasta. But what my kid misses most is wheat-free pasta that not only tastes like the real deal he remembers from childhood, but also boasts the same structural integrity.

This recipe, which couples highly rated Le Veneziane gluten-free potato gnocchi with an easy, cheesy cream sauce kissed with fresh lemon, just might be the answer.

You won't miss the wheat in this gluten-free gnocchi tossed with spinach and peas in a lemony cream sauce. (Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)
You won’t miss the wheat in this gluten-free gnocchi tossed with spinach and peas in a lemony cream sauce. (Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

Made with minimal prep in a single skillet, it takes about 15 minutes to pull together and includes one of the healthiest leafy greens, fresh spinach, along with peas, which are loaded with fiber and a great source of inexpensive plant-based protein.

True, the light cream, cheese and butter in the dish add calories and dreaded fat. But so long as you go easy on the serving size and don’t eat the entire pan yourself (Jack, are you listening?), it’s a wonderful occasional comfort food for the gluten-sensitive.

To make it less rich, substitute half-and-half for the cream and add more lemon or chicken broth. It’s best served right from the stove. If you have leftovers, you’ll want to add a little broth when you rewarm it.

You can find Le Veneziane gnocchi on Amazon. Like most gluten-free products, it’s a bit of a splurge, but worth it.

“This is the best thing you’ve ever made me,” raved my kid after I fed him and his wife.

Gnocchi with lemon, peas and spinach

PG tested

  • 2 17.5-ounce packages gluten-free gnocchi, fresh or frozen
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 shallot, finely minced
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons corn starch
  • 1/2 cup gluten-free vegetable broth
  • Zest and juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 cup light cream or half-and-half
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
  • 2 or 3 cups chopped fresh spinach
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • Crushed red pepper flakes or chopped chives, for garnish

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook gnocchi according to package instructions (about 2 minutes, or until they float to the top).

Drain and set aside. To keep them from sticking together while you make the sauce, drizzle with a little olive oil or add a bit of butter and stir to combine.

To make the sauce, melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add shallot and cook for 1 minute. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Whisk in flour and slowly pour in the broth. Whisk in lemon zest and lemon juice

Pour in heavy cream and whisk to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat to medium low and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens a bit.

Stir in Parmesan cheese until melted. Add chopped spinach and frozen peas and cook for 2 minutes or until spinach is wilted. If you want a thicker sauce, you can cook for a few more minutes, stirring to help it thicken up.

Stir in cooked gnocchi and cook for 1 minute or until heated through.

Plate the gnocchi, spooning the sauce and peas over the top. Garnish with crushed red pepper, basil or chives, and extra Parmesan cheese, if desired. Enjoy!

Serves 2-3.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

©2024 PG Publishing Co. Visit at post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

You won’t miss the wheat in this gluten-free gnocchi tossed with spinach and peas in a lemony cream sauce. (Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

ACA enrollment platforms suspended over alleged foreign access to consumer data

11 September 2024 at 20:53

Julie Appleby | (TNS) KFF Health News

Suspicions that U.S. consumers’ personal information could be accessed from India led regulators to abruptly bar two large private sector enrollment websites from accessing the Affordable Care Act marketplace in August.

New details about the suspensions come in legal filings made late Friday stemming from an effort by the two to regain access to the Obamacare marketplace before the upcoming ACA open enrollment period, which starts Nov. 1.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wrote in a Sept. 2 letter to the companies that they were suspended after the agency identified “a serious lapse in the security posture” that could have led to marketplace data, including consumers’ personal information, being accessed from overseas.

The letter, included in the court filings, also noted that regulators will audit the two companies because they have “reasonable suspicion” that they are players in a separate problem: signing people up for Obamacare coverage — or changing their policies — without the consumers’ permission.

Whether those legal issues will be resolved before the upcoming enrollment period is an open question. Currently, the concerns raised about the companies remain allegations, with none of the legal challenges or the audit close to a ruling or conclusion.

Still, the larger issue of fraudulent ACA enrollment by rogue insurance agents seeking commissions will continue to pose a headache for regulators, with more than 200,000 complaints filed by consumers in the first six months of 2024. And it has become a political problem for the Biden administration. GOP lawmakers blamed the schemes partly on Biden-backed expanded Obamacare premium subsidies.

President Joe Biden has claimed record-breaking enrollment under the ACA as one of his administration’s major accomplishments, and regulators are looking to thwart deceptive enrollment schemes without slowing legitimate sign-ups. In recent weeks they’ve removed at least 200 agents’ access to the federal ACA marketplace, and in July began requiring, in many circumstances, that brokers participate in three-way calls with their clients and the healthcare.gov help center before changes can be finalized.

The CMS letter now adds another layer. It is the first time this year the agency has called out a company over questionable enrollments, saying it suspects “the Speridian Companies” might have “directed its employees and other agents to change Marketplace enrollees’ coverage and enroll insured and uninsured consumers without the enrollees’ consent.”

California-based Speridian Global Holdings owns the companies in question, which include enrollment platform Benefitalign and TrueCoverage, doing business as the Inshura enrollment site. It has a data center in India.

The now-suspended Benefitalign site handled at least 1.2 million applications for ACA coverage during the last open enrollment period, according to court documents, which would rank it among the largest of the private enrollment sites allowed to integrate with healthcare.gov, the federal marketplace.

Previously, CMS had said publicly only that it suspended the websites for “anomalous activity.”

The suspended companies deny any wrongdoing related to enrollment schemes. Spokesperson Catherine Riedel declined comment beyond their court filings.

In late August they filed a complaint against CMS over the suspensions in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking a restraining order. They added to that complaint on Sept. 6, calling CMS’ suspension action “lawless.”

On Aug. 8, CMS suspended the two websites from accessing healthcare.gov information.

It did so, according to the Sept. 2 letter, over concerns that some consumer information “is processed and/or stored” in India, citing “suspicions” that the data is “being accessed from outside of the United States.”

That’s a problem, the letter says, because marketplace data must stay in the U.S. to “eliminate the possibility that foreign powers might obtain access.” Additionally, websites approved by CMS to integrate with the federal marketplace cannot transmit data outside of the U.S. or allow access from outside the country, under the terms of agreements such companies sign to get CMS approval to operate.

CMS did not spell out what consumer information might have been included, but ACA applications can contain information including a person’s name, date of birth, address, and detailed household income information.

Speridian companies were suspended, then reinstated, from the marketplace in prior years over other concerns, including problems with false Social Security Numbers submitted with some TrueCoverage ACA applications in 2018, and for a 2023 effort by Benefitalign to access the federal marketplace’s “software testing environment” from India, according to the CMS letter.

In seeking a restraining order against CMS, the companies argue that the agency’s action to suspend them now is arbitrary and capricious and violates its own regulations as well as the due process clause of the Constitution.

The filing calls the Sept. 2 CMS letter explaining the reasons for the suspensions “a post hoc justification” that includes a litany of “‘concerns,’ suspicions,’ ‘allegations.’” The filing also asserts “these intimations of violations are made without evidence of any actual violation.”

The court documents say the suspensions will prevent the companies from participating in the upcoming open enrollment period, harming them and “the thousands of brokers” and “millions of consumers who count on brokers” using those websites to sign up for ACA coverage.

The suspension remains in place, the CMS letter says, partly because its concerns have not been allayed by information provided by the companies, but also while the audit is conducted.

CMS has “reasonable suspicion, based on credible evidence it has considered,” that the companies were involved in enrolling consumers or changing their coverage without specific permission, the letter stated, noting that such allegations are included in a civil lawsuit filed by private sector lawyers in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The firms have previously said the allegations in the civil lawsuit are without merit.

Brokers who have used the suspended websites in the past have other options to enroll clients, including several other websites currently approved to integrate with the federal Obamacare marketplace. Consumers can also go directly to the federal or state ACA websites and enroll themselves or get assistance from call centers associated with those marketplaces.

___

(KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

(Dreamstime/TNS)

US uninsured rate was stable in 2023, even as states’ Medicaid purge began

11 September 2024 at 20:45

Phil Galewitz | (TNS) KFF Health News

The proportion of Americans without health insurance remained stable in 2023, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, close to the record low the Biden administration achieved in 2022 through expansions of public programs, including the Affordable Care Act.

About 8% of Americans were uninsured, a statistically insignificant increase of just 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier. But because of the Census survey’s methodology, the findings likely don’t capture the experience of tens of millions of Americans purged from Medicaid rolls after pandemic-era protections expired in spring 2023.

Enrollment in Medicaid, the government health program for people with low incomes and disabilities, reached its highest level in April 2023. That was just before what’s called the “unwinding,” the process states have used to disenroll people from the program after the federal government lifted a prohibition on culling enrollment.

It isn’t yet clear what effect the unwinding has had on insurance coverage, but the Census Bureau will release additional data on Thursday from a different survey that may refine the numbers.

“We are likely at a turning point,” said Leighton Ku, director of the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University. “We are about to change to a new season where things will be a little worse off from Medicaid unwinding.”

The Medicaid unwinding has been completed in most states, and more than 25 million people have been disenrolled, according to KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. The Census report, based on surveys conducted early this year, counts people as uninsured only if they lacked insurance for all of 2023. So, for example, a person who was on Medicaid in April 2023 before the unwinding began then lost coverage and never regained it would nonetheless be counted as insured for the entire year.

Many people purged from Medicaid were successfully reenrolled in or obtained other insurance, such as Affordable Care Act marketplace or job-based coverage. Others remained uninsured.

Advocates have feared the unwinding would trigger a rise in the uninsured rate as people struggled to find alternative coverage.

But states, private health insurers, and advocates launched intense efforts to contact enrollees by phone, email, and social media to ensure they did not experience gaps in coverage.

Still, because of the way the Census Bureau reports the uninsured rate, the full impact of the unwinding won’t be known until the 2026 report.

Beyond Medicaid, several other factors boosted the number of Americans with health insurance last year, including a strong economy and near-record-low unemployment. Most Americans obtain insurance through their jobs, according to the Census, meaning that higher employment typically results in broader health coverage.

Another key factor: enhanced federal subsidies that since 2021 helped lower the cost of private coverage through Obamacare. Sign-ups on Affordable Care Act marketplaces hit a record high of 20.8 million in 2024, according to a Treasury report released Tuesday.

But that extra financial assistance is slated to expire at the end of 2025, setting up a flashpoint for whichever party controls power in Washington after the November elections. Democrats want to extend the subsidies introduced during the pandemic, while many Republicans wish to let them end.

Before Congress passed the ACA in 2010, the uninsured rate had been in double digits for decades. The rate fell steadily under President Barack Obama but reversed under President Donald Trump, only to come down again under President Joe Biden.

In addition to expanding subsidies, the Biden administration increased advertising and the number of counselors who help people sign up for plans during the open enrollment season, which Trump greatly curtailed.

Also contributing to the reduction in the number of uninsured Americans are state efforts to expand coverage to mostly low-income residents. North Carolina, for example, expanded Medicaid eligibility in December 2023, resulting in more than 500,000 additional enrollees.

Decades of research shows that expanded health coverage helps people individually and the public overall. Health insurance pays for routine care and can protect people from financial calamity because of severe injuries or illness.

People who are uninsured are more likely to delay or avoid getting health care, which can lead to relatively minor problems becoming more severe and costly to treat. Having more people covered also means more patients can pay their bills, which can improve the financial condition of hospitals and other providers.

The health insurance data released annually by the Census Bureau is considered the most accurate picture of health coverage in the United States. The state-level uninsured data it plans to release Thursday, based on a larger survey, counts people as uninsured if they say they don’t have coverage at the time they’re contacted. Thus, it likely will provide more insight into the effects of the unwinding.

(KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

(Dreamstime/TNS)

Experts: How Harris and Trump’s plans could impact housing affordability

11 September 2024 at 17:26

Andrew Dehan | (TNS) Bankrate.com

The housing market has an affordability problem. During the pandemic, historically low mortgage rates boosted demand, driving home prices to record highs. After decades of underbuilding, construction labor shortages and rising material costs, the supply shortage continues to push homeownership further out of reach. To afford the typical home today, Americans need at least a six-figure salary, according to a Bankrate study.

While the housing market typically isn’t moved by presidential elections, both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have weighed in with varying proposals. While these would need approval in Congress to move forward, here’s what we know about their plans so far, and what the experts think.

Affordable housing

Vice President Harris has shared plans for 3 million new housing units over the next four years, spurred by a tax break incentivizing home builders to create more starter homes. She has also proposed up to $25,000 in down payment assistance for eligible first-time homebuyers, along with restrictions on how landlords determine rent increases and limits on tax breaks for institutional investors who buy single-family homes.

It’s unclear if such plans would work. The rent cap, for example, could have unintended consequences, says Mark Hamrick, Washington bureau chief and senior economic analyst for Bankrate.

“Price controls including constraints on rent can have the impact of limiting supply which, in turn, can exacerbate the problem,” Hamrick says. “Who wants to build or own if they’re constrained from setting prices?

Meanwhile, former President Trump has suggested opening tracts of federal land for housing development, removing restrictive regulations on homebuilding and addressing supply chain disruptions.

“Almost 25% of the cost of a newly constructed single-family home is embedded in regulations at all three levels of government,” says Jim Tobin, president and CEO of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), which lobbies on behalf of pro-business and pro-housing candidates. For a multifamily unit, that share is closer to 43%.

Though Trump hasn’t yet detailed how he’d reduce regulations, his past tenure could hint at what might come. In his first term, he signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which included a lower corporate tax rate and a provision creating Opportunity Zones to encourage investment in lower-income areas.

“Changes in tax policy, if significant, could have a variety of impacts on the economy and the housing market, in particular,” Hamrick says. “A lower corporate tax rate could stimulate housing activity, boost investment and potentially lead to increased housing market activity. Among the potential ripple effects could be a rise in construction, more supply and lower home prices.”

On the flip side, a higher corporate tax rate could have the inverse effect, Hamrick says. Home builders could scale back activity or pass the higher costs onto homebuyers.

“Former President Trump said he wants to lower the C corp rate,” says Bill Kilmer, senior vice president of Legislative and Political Affairs at the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), which represents the housing finance industry. “I imagine that, like the Biden budget proposal, Vice President Harris would want to raise the corporate rate as a means of revenue to pay for some other priorities.”

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

In his first term, Trump zeroed in on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) underpinning the U.S. housing finance system. In the wake of the 2008 housing crisis, Fannie and Freddie were placed under government conservatorship to help stabilize the market.

Trump has advocated for taking the GSEs out of conservatorship, which could lead to more competition — in other words, more options — in the mortgage market and minimize taxpayer exposure, Kilmer of the MBA says.

It could also raise mortgage costs, says Chen Zhao, senior manager of Economics at real estate brokerage Redfin.

“When Fannie and Freddie were in trouble, there was this question of, ‘Is there an applied guarantee from the federal government for these mortgage-backed securities (MBS)?’ And the answer turned out to be yes, because the government basically just took them over,” Zhao says. “But once you introduce that question mark about whether or not the MBS are guaranteed, it means that rates have to trade for a little bit higher in order to account for that additional risk.”

For her part, Harris has pointed to a 2015 Moody’s study that found privatizing Fannie and Freddie would add approximately $1,200 a year to the cost of a typical mortgage. ​​

“(Harris) really wants (the GSEs) as permanent, sponsored entities with those professional charters to lean in more to the mission side of their charter and their affordable housing mandate,” Kilmer says. “Not just their goals, but also sort of what they can be doing to increase supply and affordability.”

Immigration

Trump has indicated that, if reelected, he plans to deport millions of undocumented immigrants — a move his campaign has said would help lower housing costs.

Yet, approximately 20% of the construction labor force — residential and otherwise — is immigrant labor, according to Tobin of the NAHB.

“The construction industry has struggled with lack of labor supply for years,” Hamrick says.

“The thing about the recent wave of immigrants is that they don’t demand a lot of housing, actually, because they are either housed in public housing or they’re housing with relatives or friends,” Zhao says. “So, there’s not a lot of net housing demand that’s being added.”

Harris has shifted her stance on immigration — circling back to investing in the southern border wall — but continues to oppose mass deportations. During the Democratic National Convention in August, Democrats touted solutions to expanding legal entry and paths to citizenship.

“We’ve got to find a way to create a visa system for immigrants who want to work in the construction sector, to come into this country under a visa and work in our sector,” Tobin says. “We’re hopeful that the next President of the United States will lead into that and solve that problem.”

Interest rates

Trump has also suggested he would lower interest rates if reelected — but the Federal Reserve, not the president, sets monetary policy, and the Fed operates independently of who sits in the Oval Office.

“History has shown that in countries where politics infects monetary policy, it is less effective,” Hamrick says. “Translated, that means there’s a higher risk of inflation when heads of state or government try to muscle their central banks.”

Harris has said she wouldn’t interfere with the Fed, but rather focus on lowering costs.

To that end, mortgage rates have already started retreating, and forecasters expect them to continue cooling into 2025.

“Rates probably are coming down on their own anyways,” Zhao says.

Tariffs and trade

In his first term, Trump imposed a series of tariffs to restrict foreign trade, particularly with China, including on building materials like steel and aluminum. Many of these tariffs are still in place today.

Harris hasn’t said much on trade to date, but it’s unlikely the U.S. would return to the pre-Trump era of free trade.

If elected to a second term, Trump has said he’d impose further tariffs, including a 10% to 20% tax on all imports, and up to a 60% tax on imports from China. That would add to inflation, according to a recent Goldman Sachs report.

“It is well documented that if you increase tariffs, you basically increase prices. So that has a big inflationary impact,” Zhao says.

While housing costs tend to outpace inflation, higher prices overall make it harder for Americans to afford everyday expenses and set aside savings, such as for a down payment on a home.

“Abnormally high inflation does what inflation tends to do, which is to make prices go higher, robs purchasing power and would ultimately coincide with rising or higher interest rates,” Hamrick says. “Does that sound familiar? It should because that’s what we experienced in recent years. Central banks, like our own Federal Reserve, raise benchmark rates in response to high inflation. That ultimately catches up to mortgage rates and typically slows the broader economy.”

(Visit Bankrate online at bankrate.com.)

©2024 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A pedestrian walks past a sign advertising apartments for sale in Monterey Park, California on January 18, 2024. Mortgage rates this week have dropped to its lowest level in eight months for potential US homebuyers but affordability remains a challenge. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

Do independent voters support Harris or Trump? New poll finds big shift from month ago

11 September 2024 at 17:18

Brendan Rascius | (TNS) McClatchy Washington Bureau

Former President Donald Trump now leads Vice President Kamala Harris by 3 points among independents, marking a dramatic shift from one month ago, according to new polling.

In the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, 49% of independent respondents said they are supporting or leaning toward Trump, while 46% said the same for Harris. Three percent said they’re backing a third-party candidate, and 2% said they’re undecided.

In an early August poll, Harris held an 11-point lead over Trump with independents — with 48% support versus his 37%.

In that poll, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was backed by 12% of independents and other third party candidates received 2% support.

Kennedy has since suspended his campaign, endorsed Trump and urged his supporters to back him.

Political experts previously told McClatchy News that his endorsement “could potentially boost support for Trump.”

In August, Harris likely also benefited from a honeymoon period with voters, having only been in the presidential race since mid-July, experts previously said.

The latest poll, conducted between Sept. 3 and 5, sampled 1,529 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points, meaning Trump’s lead is within this margin.

Other findings in the poll:

Trump has similarly seen a significant increase in his support among Latino voters since August, erasing Harris’ lead, according to the poll.

In the latest poll, 51% of Latino voters said they support the former president, while 47% said the same for Harris.

In August, Harris held a 15-point edge over Trump with Latino voters.

The latest poll also found there is a large gender gap in the support for the two candidates, with Harris leading among women by 15 points and Trump ahead among men by 12 points.

Trump is also leading with white voters, with 50% versus Harris’ 47%. However, Harris is receiving a larger share of support from this demographic than her Democratic predecessors. Biden garnered 41% support among white voters in 2020, and Hillary Clinton received 37% in 2016.

Among all registered voters, Harris is leading Trump by one point — 49% to his 48% — narrowing the race from August, when the vice president was up 48% to Trump’s 45%.

And among those who said they definitely plan on voting, Harris outpaced Trump by three points, 51% compared with his 48%.

The poll comes just hours before the two candidates are set to take part in their first — and potentially only — televised presidential debate. The debate, hosted by ABC News, will air live at 9 p.m. E.T.

The majority of respondents, 70%, said they plan to watch most or all of the debate, and 30% of registered voters said it will be an important factor in determining how they vote.

______

©2024 McClatchy Washington Bureau. Visit at mcclatchydc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

People watch the ABC News presidential debate between Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, at a debate watch party at The Abbey on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in West Hollywood. (Mario Tama/Getty Images/TNS)

‘Determined to blow an election’: Things to watch at Trump-Harris debate

10 September 2024 at 10:10

By John T. Bennett, CQ-Roll Call

Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will be face-to-face for the first time Tuesday night as they debate, aiming to keep the other out of the Oval Office.

Harris closed the polling gap on Trump after her surprise ascension to the Democratic nomination, but she still trails in some polls. She will have a chance to change that when the nominees square off in Philadelphia.

The vice president had narrow leads nationally in a list of polls released in the past few weeks, but her campaign got a surprise Sunday when a New York Times-Siena College survey put Trump up 1 percentage point — suggesting her surge after President Joe Biden dropped out has ended.

  • Workers complete preparations on the media filing center and spin room for the ABC News Presidential Debate

    Final preparations are made in the spin room prior to the ABC News Presidential Debate on September 09, 2024 at the Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump will face off in their first debate at the Constitution Center. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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Final preparations are made in the spin room prior to the ABC News Presidential Debate on September 09, 2024 at the Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump will face off in their first debate at the Constitution Center. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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But a strong debate performance against the unpredictable, bare-knuckle debater Trump could give her White House bid a boost with less than two months until Election Day. The stakes couldn’t be higher in a race that shows ample signs of a photo finish on Nov. 5.

“If her momentum continues, Harris will probably win. But it may not. If she stumbles in the Sept. 10 debate, the momentum of the race may change,” according to William Galston of the Brookings Institution, a former White House aide under President Bill Clinton. “Trump’s campaign could regain its balance and sharpen its focus. And unforeseen events could shift the dynamic between the candidates.”

Polls suggest voters want to hear from Harris about policy, and prognosticators in Las Vegas say she has a better chance of winning the debate. “Latest odds reveal Harris has an implied probability of 57% of winning the debate, while Trump only holds a 53% chance,” according to Vegas Insider. “Kamala Harris’ past debate performance gives her a 55 percent chance of winning the debate, while Donald Trump has a 45 percent shot.”

Here are three things to watch as Harris and Trump debate.

Donald the distracted?

The nominees have taken different paths to Philadelphia, with Harris debate-prepping in Pittsburgh and Trump saying and posting more outlandish things — even threatening, if elected, to throw his opponents in the slammer.

“Therefore, the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” Trump wrote in a post on Sunday. “Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”

Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a Fox News Town Hall.
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a Fox News Town Hall with Sean Hannity at the New Holland Arena on Sept. 4, 2024, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Trump and Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris continue to campaign across swing states as polls show a tight race prior to next week’s presidential debate in Philadelphia. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/TNS)

That followed a wild Friday press appearance in New York during which Trump repeatedly insulted several women who have accused him of sexual assault at a time when women voters could decide the election.

The former president’s antics in recent weeks led one Republican pollster to question whether his heart really is in the presidential race.

“I have never seen a candidate more determined to blow an election. Instead of talking about affordability and immigration security (the top public issues), Trump is once again screaming about prosecuting his opponents,” pollster Frank Luntz wrote on X. “Message to Donald: Focus on helping voters, not yourself.”

Abortion access

Harris has been telling supporters at her rallies for more than a month that the election likely will be extremely close and that Democrats have work to do to secure enough votes to put her in the White House.

She and her campaign are banking that access to abortion will help her with women voters, especially college-educated white suburban ones who often vote Republican.

“The impact of abortion on the 2022 midterms, when Democrats did much better than expected, is undeniable. But some evidence suggests that its impact may be more muted in this year’s contest,” Galston noted.

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at a Labor Day event.
Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at a Labor Day event at Northwestern High School in Detroit, on Sept. 2, 2024. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

Abortion ranked second, at 15 percent, in the Times-Siena survey when likely voters were asked what issue was most important to them. The economy was first, at 22 percent, and immigration third, at 12 percent.

But, to Galston’s point, abortion ranked eighth when registered voters in seven swing states were asked by polling firm Blueprint about their top issues. Still, more of them said they trusted Harris more on abortion than Trump by an 11-point margin. Notably, among registered independent voters in those battlegrounds, the vice president’s advantage grew to 24 percentage points.

Expect her to try to appeal to more voters in that crucial bloc on Tuesday night.

‘Old guard’

It’s doubtful anyone had this on their election-year bingo card: A Democratic presidential nominee praising Iraq War architect and staunch conservative Dick Cheney. In any other year, that might seem laughable.

After all, Democratic lawmakers and officials spent most of the super-hawkish Cheney’s run as vice president harshly criticizing him over his moves as President George W. Bush’s right-hand man on national security and foreign policy after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Yet, in this campaign, which already has been defined by twist and turns, it seems fitting and could add a twist to Tuesday’s debate. Harris on Saturday told reporters she is “proud” to have Cheney’s endorsement. Her campaign also released an ad Monday showing members of Trump’s administration, including former Vice President Mike Pence, saying they would not support him again this year.

It’s an effort to win over Republicans uncomfortable with Trump that Harris began by having GOP speakers at the Democratic convention last month. But bringing up Cheney could give Trump, who has struggled to settle on an anti-Harris message, a much-needed line of attack. In fact, Trump could opt to use the Cheney endorsement to try painting Harris as too much of a wild card on national and global security matters — especially amid worries of a regional Middle East war and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Cheney has long been a proponent of using U.S. military force, even starting preemptive wars. Trump is unabashedly anti-war, often calling them “stupid” and even appearing, at times, to harshly judge those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

“Well, he’s clearly the old guard, the guard that, you know, the country club Republicans that don’t support Donald Trump,” Corey Lewandowski, a Trump campaign adviser, told Fox News on Sunday.

“And so, look, I don’t really care what Dick Cheney says. We saw what happened to Liz Cheney in her last election,” he added. Cheney’s daughter Liz was ousted from House GOP leadership for questioning Trump’s false claims about election fraud and then lost her reelection bid in the 2022 Wyoming Republican primary by a more than 2-to-1 margin after serving as vice chair of the special committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. “She was absolutely destroyed. … So they’re bitter and they’re angry and they’re living in the past. It’s time to move forward.”


©2024 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Final preparations are made in the spin room prior to the ABC News Presidential Debate on September 09, 2024 at the Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump will face off in their first debate at the Constitution Center. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Fentanyl vaccine heads for clinical trials, with goal of saving lives

4 September 2024 at 20:26

Miriam Fauzia | The Dallas Morning News (TNS)

A fentanyl vaccine developed by researchers at the University of Houston is expected to head to clinical trials sometime in the middle of next year, with the hope of being a groundbreaking solution to a deadly crisis.

The vaccine, which has shown success in animal studies, is designed to stop the highly addictive opioid from entering the brain and causing an overdose. Biopharmaceutical startup Ovax acquired the license to produce and test the vaccine in November 2023 and raised over $10 million toward that effort by June.

“We’re all incredibly excited,” said Collin Gage, the start-up’s co-founder and chief executive officer. He added that his company is starting at “ground zero,” but he is confident it will one day have a fentanyl vaccine available to the public.

That day may be a long time from now. While public health emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic, can accelerate a vaccine’s development, testing a new vaccine can take anywhere from five to 10 years — sometimes longer.

Meanwhile, fentanyl overdose deaths have been on the rise in Texas, from less than 80 in 2014 to nearly 2,300 in 2023, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The synthetic opioid — made illegally but also available by prescription — is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, making it the deadliest drug in the opioid crisis.

For fentanyl vaccines, adjuvants are key

The idea of creating an opioid vaccine has drawn scientific attention since the 1970s. Unlike bacteria or viruses, opioids aren’t recognized by our immune systems as foreign invaders. But the immune system can be trained to make antibodies in response to an opioid like fentanyl through a vaccine that links bits of the drug to noninfectious bits of bacteria and uses substances called adjuvants.

Adjuvants are designed to enhance immune response, and are particularly important in vaccines targeting substance use disorders. Past attempts to make these vaccines have been unsuccessful in part because the adjuvants weren’t effective enough, said Jay Evans, director of the Center for Translational Medicine at the University of Montana. Evans is also the chief scientific and strategy officer of Inimmune, a Montana-based biotech company developing and testing a variety of vaccines including ones targeting fentanyl and heroin addiction.

The adjuvant in the University of Houston’s fentanyl vaccine is an enterotoxin, a chemical produced by the bacteria Escherichia coli and modified to be noninfectious. It was first developed at Tulane University in Louisiana in the early 2000s and has been used in a variety of vaccines, said Colin Haile, a research associate professor of psychology at the University of Houston who led its fentanyl vaccine development. Haile is also an Ovax co-founder and adviser.

“It has been in 15 human clinical trials in combination with other vaccines,” he said, referring to the adjuvant used in his team’s vaccine. “There have been studies in infants where the results have been fantastic, nearly no side effects.”

Other researchers such as David Dowling and Dr. Ofer Levy, both Ovax co-founders, are using adjuvants that haven’t been tested in humans but appear to effectively enhance the immune response to vaccines targeting substance use disorders, at least based on animal studies, Dowling said.

Clinical trials littered with challenges

Phase 1 clinical trials for the University of Houston vaccine are planned to begin in the second quarter of 2025. Ovax is also in licensing negotiations with Boston Children’s Hospital for a fentanyl vaccine developed by Dowling and Levy. If those negotiations are successful, phase 1 clinical trials could begin in early 2026.

These trials will aim to establish the vaccine’s safety level, potential side effects and optimal dosage. Finding people to take part in them will be a challenge, Evans said.

“Compared to a normal infectious disease clinical trial, it will be more difficult. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is pretty adamant that you’re not going to test this vaccine in healthy individuals that don’t already have some sort of opioid addiction,” he said. “So we need to target patients in phase 1 who have a history of opioid use disorder, and that’s a harder population to try to recruit. It’s going to take longer; the patient population will have more adverse events because they’re drug users and they will be harder to track.”

Evans added that the stigma around addiction and drug use might make people reluctant to disclose their condition and participate in a clinical trial.

Ovax has yet to decide where it plans to run its phase 1 clinical trials, Gage said, but it has been looking at sites in Australia and the Netherlands.

“We’re also looking in the United States,” he said, “but it’s difficult to find the right patient population.”

Future clinical trials would need to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine, who would benefit the most and how long immunity would last.

Vaccines as part of the solution

Some critics of fentanyl vaccines say they pull resources from existing treatments for opioid addiction such as buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone. Some have questioned whether people would seek out the vaccine.

“People have to say they want to be injected, and they have to choose to keep coming back for each injection or infusion,” Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, told The Washington Post in 2023. “The vaccines do nothing to reduce craving or withdrawal or to motivate anyone to return for more care.”

For Haile, a fentanyl vaccine is not the sole solution but another weapon in the fight against the opioid crisis. He and his colleagues at the University of Houston have conducted animal studies investigating how the vaccine affects treatment with buprenorphine, a medication commonly prescribed to manage withdrawals and drug cravings. The findings have yet to be published but are “quite impressive,” Haile said, noting fentanyl vaccines could improve the effectiveness of existing treatments.

“The most important thing to keep in mind is that we’re moving as fast as we can go. … We need to get something to market as quickly as possible to address this terrible problem,” Haile said. “The ultimate goal is to protect people and save lives.”

©2024 The Dallas Morning News. Visit dallasnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A Drug Enforcement Administration chemist checks confiscated tablets containing fentanyl at the DEA Northeast Regional Laboratory on Oct. 8, 2019, in New York. (Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

Adele confirms she’s taking a break after Las Vegas gigs: ‘I want to live my life’

4 September 2024 at 19:02

Nardine Saad | (TNS) Los Angeles Times

Adele says she’s making good on a promise to take a break from music after she completes her residency in Las Vegas.

The “Hello” and “Rolling in the Deep” singer confirmed during her Saturday show in Germany — her last in a 10-show run abroad — that she plans to “rest” when she wraps her three-year gig in Sin City this November.

“I’m not the most comfortable performer, I know that, but I am very f— good at it. And I have really enjoyed performing for nearly three years now, which is the longest I’ve ever done and probably the longest I will ever do,” the 15-time Grammy Award winner said onstage in Munich, according to fan footage posted on TikTok.

Adele has 10 shows left in her “Weekends With Adele” residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The shows will span five weekends this fall after she had to postpone them in February due to illness.

“After that, I will not see you for an incredibly long time and I will hold you dear in my heart for that whole length of my break,” she said, adding that she will “fantasize” about her time onstage. “It has been amazing. I just need a rest.”

“I have spent the last seven years building a new life for myself and I want to live it now,” the 36-year-old said through tears. “I want to live my life that I’ve been building and I will miss you terribly.”

On Tuesday, Adele took Instagram to reflect on her “bespoke” gig in Munich, which launched Aug. 2.

“Wow! Wow! Wow! Munich you were incredible! What a phenomenal experience. I am truly touched by the genuine outpouring of love and good will I felt from every single person who came to every single show,” she wrote, captioning a highlight reel from the shows. She also thanked the fans who attended and her team for making it happen.

“There truly is no feeling like standing in front of people you’ve never met, belting out a bunch of songs that changed your life that in ways somehow changed theirs too. It’s truly remarkable and an extraordinary story to be able to tell. I’ve been sobbing watching this beautiful video! Danke Munchen!,” she wrote.

In July, the superstar told German broadcaster ZDF that her “tank is quite empty” and that she doesn’t have plans for new music “at all.”

“I want a big break after all this and I think I want to do other creative things just for a little while,” the hitmaker said. “You know, I don’t even sing at home at all. How strange is that?”

Likewise, before her Las Vegas residency began, the Oscar winning “Skyfall” singer said she planned to take a break from music and perhaps pursue a degree in English literature or an acting career. However, during a January show, she said she might be open to touring again after completing a follow-up to her award-winning 2021 album “30.” But, as she told a fan in the audience, she wasn’t in any rush to do either of those things yet.

Instead of touring to promote “30,” she took up residence at the Colosseum. She was initially set to launch her residency in January 2022, but unexpectedly shut it down a day before it was meant to open. She blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and issues with the supply chain at the time, then explained later that the postponement was because her “artistic needs” were not being met. She said the show had “no soul in it” and that it “lacked intimacy” inside the 4,000-person theater.

The “Easy on Me” singer ultimately launched “Weekends With Adele” in November 2022 and extended the run twice.

Earlier this month, the British balladeer confirmed during another Munich show that she and sports agent Rich Paul were engaged after repeatedly referring to Paul as her fiance — and sometimes her “husband” — for months. (The two went public with their romance in 2021.) The singer, who shares 11-year-old son Angelo with ex-husband Simon Konecki, has also been vocal about wanting to expand their blended family.

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

British singer Adele poses on the red carpet for the BRIT Awards 2022 in London on Feb. 8, 2022. (Niklas Halle’n/AFP via Getty Images/TNS)

Missing and Murdered Indigenous People in California an ‘emergency.’ Families seek justice

4 September 2024 at 18:42

Emma Hall | The Sacramento Bee (TNS)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Pit River Tribe elder Theodore Martinez knows more of death than anyone should.

“I want to acknowledge some of the people that have been murdered from my tribe,” Martinez said. “These are all my people.”

Martinez’s family, close friends and members of his tribe are among the more than 150 documented cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis in California. The state has the fifth most unsolved cases involving Native people in the country, and tribal leaders have urged for the crisis to be declared a state emergency.

Earlier this year as he stood on the west Capitol steps, Martinez, with anguish in his eyes, recalled each person he’s lost in his lifetime.

There was Little George Montgomery, who was like a brother to Martinez. He was killed decades ago, with the tribe finding his body dismembered, Martinez said. All they had left to bury was his skull.

There was his own brother, Victor, who Martinez said was killed in 1992.

There was his cousin who lived on the Fort Bidwell Reservation in Modoc County. Martinez said she was found dead, face down in the water of the tribe’s hot springs.

There was Dewey McGarva. At 36, he went missing for more than a year. When his tribe found him, there wasn’t much left, Martinez said.

And then, there was Milton “Yogi” McGarva, who identified as Two-Spirit, a third gender identity for Indigenous people. McGarva was stabbed and fatally wounded in 2020.

“These are things that have gone on historically, throughout my territory,” Martinez said. “None of these things have been investigated. Nothing has been done.”

Alina Sanchez 16, left, stands with her mom, Angel Sanchez, center, and sister, Alyssa Sanchez, 13, during a candlelight vigil at the Capitol on May 1, 2024, for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. (Lezlie Sterling/The Sacramento Bee/TNS)
Alina Sanchez 16, left, stands with her mom, Angel Sanchez, center, and sister, Alyssa Sanchez, 13, during a candlelight vigil at the Capitol on May 1, 2024, for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. (Lezlie Sterling/The Sacramento Bee/TNS)

As Martinez looked upon a crowd of Native Californians, he knew he wasn’t the only one who had lost relatives.

The deaths and disappearances of his relatives have gone unsolved by law enforcement for decades, Martinez said. It’s a pain many families relate to: the feeling of being let down and left without closure.

“We as Native people, we need to help each other. We need to support this movement,” Martinez said. “Because without that support, it’s not going to go very far.”

After feeling neglected by law enforcement, these families have taken matters into their own hands. They offer monetary rewards for anyone with knowledge of their relatives’ whereabouts, carrying posters with their loved one’s faces and names.

They haven’t given up. They all want justice.

Families of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People seek justice

Toni Espinoza, a member of Wilton Rancheria, is the sister of Angel Baby Espinoza, who died on Nov. 18, 2001. Her family believes she was killed.

Toni Espinoza said her sister died following a hit and run on Norwood Avenue in North Sacramento. Her family believes Angel Baby was pushed in front of the car by an ex-partner.

“We want justice. I want to be able to tell her kids who did this to their mom,” Toni Espinoza said, her voice beginning to break. “We have a right to know, everybody has the right to justice.”

Family members hold signs of their lost loved ones on the west steps of the Capitol that was lit red to bring awareness during a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People candlelight vigil Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Lezlie Sterling/The Sacramento Bee/TNS)
Family members hold signs of their lost loved ones on the west steps of the Capitol that was lit red to bring awareness during a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People candlelight vigil Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Lezlie Sterling/The Sacramento Bee/TNS)

Toni Espinoza said she worked with a police detective and allegedly found an eye witness. But the case was deemed manslaughter after three years and not pursued as a murder investigation.

To this day, her family, including Angel Baby’s own five children,still mourn her death. They are left with no answers.

“This is why we do what we can,” Toni Espinoza said. “To spread the word, to say her name, to do marches and hold protests in front of the Capitol so somebody will care.”

Over in Mendocino County, 81-year-old Ronnie Hostler and his family have been searching for his beloved granddaughter, Khadijah Britton, 23, who has been missing for the past seven years. Britton belongs to the Wailaki Round Valley Indian tribes.

Britton was last seen in Covelo, California, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations, with an ex-boyfriend forcing her into a car at gunpoint.

While the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office was involved in the case, Hostler is unsatisfied. He said Britton’s disappearance wasn’t investigated until two weeks after her family reported her missing. Today, Britton has been deemed a cold case.

Britton’s family is still trying to find herbut at this point, they are looking for her body to bury in the family cemetery.

“We want to find her, wherever she may be, and we want to take care of her,” Hostler said. “That’s what we want right now, and we’re not getting it.”

Tribes face issues with law enforcement

The Sacramento Bee has spoken to, or heard from, 46 families, tribal leaders and experts in Indian Country affected by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis. They identified obstacles preventing cases from getting solved.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases reflect disproportionate rates of violence against Native communities nationwide. Native people are 2.5 times more likely to experience a violent crime, according to the Association on American Indian Affairs.

When cases are reported, there is sometimes no response, little follow through or poor coordination with criminal investigations, said Keely Linton, the operations director for the Strong Hearted Native Women’s Coalition, a nonprofit that supports families with Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases.

Local law enforcement can be slow to respond to calls of crime and are “less attentive to the interests of tribes,” according to the UCLA American Indian Studies Center. Tribal communities also struggle to trust law enforcement.

Members of the Yurok Tribe including sisters Jone-deh Hostler, 14, left, and Brycee Hostler, 15, center, gather for a Brush Dance in front of the Capitol on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, during an event to bring awareness to missing and murdered indigenous people. (Lezlie Sterling/The Sacramento Bee/TNS)
Members of the Yurok Tribe including sisters Jone-deh Hostler, 14, left, and Brycee Hostler, 15, center, gather for a Brush Dance in front of the Capitol on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, during an event to bring awareness to missing and murdered indigenous people. (Lezlie Sterling/The Sacramento Bee/TNS)

Erik Apperson, the former Del Norte County sheriff, saw this dynamic firsthand when working on Yurok and Tolowa Dee-ni’ tribal lands. Now retired, he recalled meeting a shocked and grieving mother whose young son was killed by another boy on tribal lands.

Despite the tragedy of a young boy dying that night, the need to bring an offender to justice did not outweigh the absence of ability and desire to pursue the case, Apperson said.

“I believe in my heart that it was a homicide, even if negligence played a part in it,” he said.

Why do Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases go cold?

Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis cases are seven times less likely to be solved than any other ethnic group statewide, according to Sovereign Bodies Institute. As a result, most cases go cold, said Linton, who is Íipay and Cupeno.

Families will often feel stigmatized by law enforcement and are often faced with skepticism due to racist stereotypes. They feel law enforcement is uncaring or that their loved one’s disappearance is minimized.

Bernadette Smith sits with a red handprint painted across her face with her daughter Chishkaleh Flores, 2, at the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People vigil at the Capitol on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. She holds a sign of her sister, Nicole Smith, who was murdered in 2017 on the Manchester Rancheria. Her murder is now a cold case. (Lezlie Sterling/The Sacramento Bee/TNS)
Bernadette Smith sits with a red handprint painted across her face with her daughter Chishkaleh Flores, 2, at the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People vigil at the Capitol on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. She holds a sign of her sister, Nicole Smith, who was murdered in 2017 on the Manchester Rancheria. Her murder is now a cold case. (Lezlie Sterling/The Sacramento Bee/TNS)

Racism against Native people can prevent cases from being pursued or taken seriously, said Linton. Officers are not always understanding or trauma-informed about the tribal communities they serve.

As a result, some harbor stereotypical beliefs and prejudices. It’s an issue Greg O’Rourke, the Yurok tribal police chief, faced when he handled a sexual abuse case with his non-Native partner in the his local sheriff’s department.

“I remember very specifically my partner saying ‘do the people on the reservation have kids just so they can molest them?’” said O’Rourke during a hearing on Public Law 280 in March. “This person was a good man, a good cop. But that was the response. How can you provide accurate and humane services when that is the first thing that comes to mind?”

Barriers are also deeply rooted in California’s colonial origins and laws today.

What is Public Law 280?

Enacted in 1953, Public Law 280 requires tribal law enforcement to share criminal jurisdiction with state police agencies, causing overlap and confusion. It’s a law that impeded on Britton’s case being pursued, Hostler said.

“The piece of colonization is still here, embedded with all these laws, all these laws that have moved forward in the state of California,” said Assemblyman James Ramos, D-San Bernardino. “It’s now, recently, that we’re layering back those laws and trying to insert the California Indian voice into it.”

Because of Public Law 280, tribal law enforcement are unable to prosecute non-Native people on tribal land. Tribal police can only arrest and detain non-Natives for “delivery to state and federal authorities,” according to the Department of Justice.

In regards to Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases, it’s often non-Native people perpetrating sexual violence against Native women. Between 86% to 96% of abuse against Native women comes from non-Native offenders, who are rarely punished, the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University found.

How California legislation could help

Tribal police know their communities best, yet they lack the authority of a state officer to investigate murders, said O’Rourke.

This is where Assembly Bill 2138 could provide a solution. This bill, authored by Ramos, would launch a pilot program to grant state peace officer status to tribal police in selected tribal communities from 2025 until 2028.

If passed, this program would go into effect under the Department of Justice. By no later than 2027, the DOJ would submit a report about case clearance rates, including those for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases.

As another way to combat Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases, California passed the Feather Alert in 2022, an emergency notification system similar to the Amber Alert.

But the alert has run into obstacles.

In December, The Bee found that the California Highway Patrol only sent out one Feather Alert. CHP has a history of not issuing alerts tribes requested, either because it did not meet their criteria or for undisclosed reasons. Since then, about 60% of Feather Alert requests have been rejected, according to the Press Democrat.

New amendments have been implemented for the Feather Alert. Law enforcement agencies are now required to respond to requests within 48 hours. If an alert is denied, law enforcement must provide written notice to a government agency or tribe that explains why.

“We’re starting to address and make the alert system stronger,” said Ramos, who is Cahuilla and Serrano.

A booth is set up for Indigenous Justice during the MMIP event at the Capitol on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Lezlie Sterling/The Sacramento Bee/TNS)
A booth is set up for Indigenous Justice during the MMIP event at the Capitol on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Lezlie Sterling/The Sacramento Bee/TNS)

Tribal leaders have urged more funding toward investigations. In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom awarded almost $20 million in grants to 18 tribes to fund prevention efforts for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases.

Families, meanwhile, called for the convictions of the perpetrators who enact violence against their loved ones. Justice has not been swift for most families, but McGarva’s family did have their call answered. Jarrett Bleu Rucker, the man who killed McGarva, one of Martinez’s relatives, was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison earlier this year.

“The victory and justice for Yogi was not easily won,” said Morning Star Gali, the founder of Indigenous Justice, who assisted McGarva’s family in the criminal justice process. “It was a difficult four years in the making, with his family not knowing when they would be able to breathe a sigh of relief.”

The road to support starts with visibility, priority and mutual respect for California’s first people, Ramos said.

“It’s time that our voices be heard,” Ramos said. “It’s time that our voices and what’s affecting our people doesn’t go in silence.”

The Strong Hearts Native Helpline provides culturally-specific resources for Native Americans experiencing domestic and sexual violence through a helpline 1-844-7NATIVE (762-8483).

©2024 The Sacramento Bee. Visit at sacbee.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Family members hold signs of their lost loved ones during a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People vigil held at the Capitol on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Lezlie Sterling/The Sacramento Bee/TNS)

Use these strategies to avoid impulse buying

2 September 2024 at 10:50

By René Bennett, Bankrate.com

Many of us have given in to the temptation to buy something we don’t need.

Maybe you were passively scrolling through your social media feed when a sponsored post came up, showcasing the latest tech gadget with glowing reviews. Unable to resist, you clicked the “buy” button for fear of missing out, only to find the excitement faded not long after, leaving you with regret and a dent in your bank account.

What is impulse buying?

Impulse buying is the act of making unplanned purchases on a whim without considering long-term goals and needs. From flashy tech to trendy fashion items, impulse purchases can quickly drain your bank account and hinder your long-term financial goals.

The temptation is further fueled by social media — 48% of social media users have made an impulse purchase, according to Bankrate’s Social Media Survey. And 68% of those said they regretted an impulse purchase they made on social media.

Coupled with the current high-inflation environment, succumbing to impulse purchases can have even more detrimental effects on our savings than usual. But there are ways you can curb impulsive spending habits and focus on more long-term financial goals.

Strategies to stop impulse buying

1. Reflect before purchasing

Getting into the habit of slowing down and reflecting before making an impulse buy can be a big money-saver.

Some questions you should ask yourself:

  • Is this item a want or a need?
  • Can I afford it without sacrificing something more important?
  • Will this bring long-term value and satisfaction?
2. Stick to a shopping list

Before heading to the store or browsing online, make a shopping list of items that you genuinely need. A shopping list provides a clear plan for your shopping trip, eliminating ambiguity and reducing the chances of being swayed by impulses. It also acts as a reminder of your goals and priorities.

You could try using a shopping list app which can help you organize your shopping lists and even share them with friends or family members to streamline your shopping process.

3. Implement the 24-hour rule

When you come across something you’re tempted to buy immediately, give yourself a cooling-off period of 24 hours. Why? The purpose of the 24-hour rule is to create a space between the initial impulse and the actual purchase — often, the initial excitement and compulsion to buy can fade after that time period. By waiting, you give yourself a chance to reconsider the purchase in a more neutral state of mind.

During those 24 hours, you can take the time to research the item’s features, read reviews, compare prices and consider if it aligns with your needs and budget.

4. Unfollow accounts that fuel your temptation

The constant stream of captivating images, flashy ads and influencers promoting products on social media can make it incredibly tempting to click that “buy now” button without a second thought. With just a swipe or a scroll, we’re exposed to a never-ending array of products and services, each promising to improve our lives in some way. But that promise can be deceiving and succumbing to the temptation can lead to financial stress and instability.

One big step you can take to help resist the siren call of impulse buys is to carefully curate your social media feed to prevent yourself from seeing those items in the first place. Unfollow brands and promoters that consistently tempt you. You might even want to remove certain shopping apps from your phone or set time limits for those that have the strongest pull on you. Even a few changes to your social media feed can reduce the constant exposure to shopping triggers and help you save money.

5. Prioritize clear financial goals for long-term gratification

Envision your ideal financial future, and set clear goals. Instead of simply saying you want to save money, set a specific target, such as saving $5,000 within the next year. Once you’ve established goals, you can fit them into your budget to align your spending with what you want to achieve in the long term.

It’s easy to give in to temporary pleasures when we’re surrounded by lures to buy stuff all the time, but reminding yourself of your financial goals and learning to wait can help you find long-term fulfillment. As you achieve smaller milestones toward your goals, reward yourself (within reason) to maintain a positive mindset and reinforce your commitment to the larger goals.

6. Pay with cash

Take the time to budget exactly how much you can spend on your purchases and withdraw cash to spend on those purchases. By using cash, you avoid overspending and impulse purchases.

If you’re used to paying with a card to rack up credit card points or cashback rewards, you’ll lose out on these benefits when you pay with cash. But once you start to gain more discipline by paying with cash, you might be able to transition back to responsible credit card use.

Be aware of signs of impulsive spending habits

The thrill of impulsive buying might not show up right away, but there are some signs to look out for, including:

  • You’re spending beyond your means or more than you intended during your purchase.
  • You hide purchases from family members or a partner.
  • You’re unable to pay bills or save as much as you’d like because of high spending elsewhere.
  • You feel guilty or regretful about spending.

Bottom line

By establishing clear financial goals and prioritizing your long-term needs over short-term impulse purchases, you can regain control of your finances and make decisions that support future aspirations. Keep track of how much you’ve saved from cutting back on impulse buying — those savings can go toward a specific savings fund or be invested in a high-yielding certificate of deposit (CD) to earn money back in the form of interest.

Key takeaways

  • Impulse buying means purchasing items you did not plan to buy.
  • Impulse buying can result in more spending which can lead to less savings and even an increase in debt.
  • There are steps you can take to reduce impulse buying, such as prioritizing financial goals and sticking to a shopping list.

Visit Bankrate online at bankrate.com.

©2024 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Getting into the habit of slowing down and reflecting before making an impulse buy can be a big money-saver. (Dreamstime/TNS)

Review: These 5 must-read books drop in September

31 August 2024 at 13:25

Chris Hewitt | The Minnesota Star Tribune (TNS)

Summer is the season for blockbuster movies, but autumn is when the publishing world unleashes one title after another from some of the biggest, and biggest selling, authors.

We’ll see new books from “The Overstory” writer Richard Powers and “Leave the World Behind” novelist Rumaan Alam, for instance. Here are five others we can’t wait to dive into, all due in September:

Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist Kushner's latest is about a woman who is lying to everyone about everything. Sadie (not her real name, of course) is a secret agent, sent to France to infiltrate a group of anarchists. (Handout/Simon & Schuster/TNS)
Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist Kushner’s latest is about a woman who is lying to everyone about everything. Sadie (not her real name, of course) is a secret agent, sent to France to infiltrate a group of anarchists. (Handout/Simon & Schuster/TNS)

Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner

Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist Kushner’s latest is about a woman who is lying to everyone about everything. Sadie (not her real name, of course) is a secret agent, sent to France to infiltrate a group of anarchists. She has a lover, whom she’s surveilling, and friends, whom she’s using, and everything works well until she becomes fascinated by a man who may be even more duplicitous than she is.

Sept. 3, Simon & Schuster, $29.99.

Devils Kill Devils, Johnny Compton

Guardian angels are supposed to be a good thing, but Sarita isn’t so sure when, on her wedding night, her angel, Angelo, who has repeatedly saved her from disaster, kills her husband. Compton’s followup to last year’s “The Spite House” is said to be a super-violent tale of horror that casts vampires in a whole new light.

Sept. 10, Macmillan, $28.99.

Final Cut, Charles Burns

This graphic novel (very graphic — it’s definitely not for kids) is a tale of romantic obsession that’s also about identity and nostalgia. Brian and Jimmy, who used to make goofy science-fiction short films when they were in middle school, reunite as adults to create a more ambitious feature film. Inspired by their beloved “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” it drives them and their collaborators, including muse and lead actor Laura, into a remote forest where things take a dark turn.

Sept. 24, Pantheon, $34.

The Siege, Ben Macintyre

The prolific British writer’s nonfiction accounts of spycraft — including “Agent Zigzag,” “Colditz” and “Operation Mincemeat” — generally take him to World War II and the heroes who worked in the shadows to bring it to a close. But the events of “The Siege” happened in 1980, during America’s Iran Hostage Crisis. It’s a minute-by-minute account of the six days after armed gunmen stormed the Iranian embassy in London, taking 26 hostages.

Sept. 10, Crown, $32.

The Small and the Mighty, Sharon McMahon

Duluth-based social media influencer, podcaster and “America’s government teacher” McMahon— whose popularity has zoomed as the country has become more divided and confusing — unveils 12 witty portraits of average Americans who made enormous contributions but didn’t get into the history books, like the guy who was at Alexander Hamilton’s deathbed and who wrote the preamble to the Constitution.

Sept. 24, Thesis, $32.

©2024 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist Kushner’s latest is about a woman who is lying to everyone about everything. Sadie (not her real name, of course) is a secret agent, sent to France to infiltrate a group of anarchists. (Handout/Simon & Schuster/TNS)

My best friend is 30 years my senior. Here’s what she’s taught me about life

31 August 2024 at 13:20

Deborah Vankin | Los Angeles Times (TNS)

LOS ANGELES — She was 63.

I was 33.

We shared cocktails at a rooftop bar overlooking Sunset Boulevard during golden hour. And the connection was palpable.

No, this isn’t the start to an “L.A. Affairs” romance column. But it is about a love affair of sorts. My best girlfriend of the last two decades is 30 years older than me.

I met Loraine in 2001. I was newly married and working as an associate arts editor at L.A. Weekly, where I was writing book reviews and covering the arts. A friend introduced us at a literary salon one evening. It was a brief business exchange. We were sitting on the floor of the now-shuttered French-Vietnamese restaurant Le Colonial, cross-legged on silk pillows awaiting the start of the readings. Loraine leaned over and gave me her card, mentioning she had just published a debut novel.

“It’s about marriage, adultery and regular church attendance,” she whispered, clearly pleased with her pithy elevator pitch. I stuffed the card in my purse.

A few weeks later Loraine convinced me to meet her for apple martinis at a rooftop restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. I had been hesitant to spend a free evening with a relative stranger who was a generation-plus older than I and with whom I assumed I had little in common. My friends at the time were all raucous creative types in their 20s and early 30s. Clichés raced through my head: Would she be stuffy or old-fashioned? Would we have anything to talk about? I’d have to watch my manners.

“I’ll be home within the hour,” I told my husband, determined to keep the meeting quick and cordial, a professional nicety.

But our conversation stretched on and on. I learned Loraine had grown up in a small town just north of New Orleans, one of the only Jewish families there at the time. She’d studied art in Paris during college — and she regaled me with stories of ill-fated romances she’d had there — before breaking into Hollywood as a TV writer in the 1970s. She penned what many consider the single most iconic TV show in pop culture history in 1980, the “Who Shot J.R.?” episode of “Dallas.”

“Then I made a pivotal mistake in my career,” she told me.

“What?!” I was rapt.

“I turned 50. That was it. Hollywood stopped calling,” she said, shrugging matter-of-factly. “So I turned to writing novels instead.”

“The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc” would go on to become a national bestseller.

It was one of those mysterious, pivotal nights. Seemingly benign at the time, it proved to be life-changing in hindsight. Loraine’s resilience and joie de vivre was inspiring. I didn’t for a minute notice the age gap — and haven’t to this day.

Loraine Despres Eastlake, left, and Deborah Vankin lie on the ground under a tree in Franklin Canyon Park in 2022. (Deborah Vankin/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Loraine Despres Eastlake, left, and Deborah Vankin lie on the ground under a tree in Franklin Canyon Park in 2022. (Deborah Vankin/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Sure, Loraine has curly, silver hair and oversized glasses and, at 86, now walks a tad more gingerly than she used to. But I don’t see an older woman when I look at her; I see the essence of a person, timeless and ageless, housed in a corporeal shell (one that’s in pretty darn good shape, I should add). I see a teenage girl, still ever-curious about the world around her. I see a 20-something women, still evolving through new creative pursuits, most recently poetry writing. I see an accomplished power player in midlife at the peak of a highly successful TV writing career, self-satisfied and oozing with agency. I see a woman, late in life, struggling to unearth new pathways toward creative and intellectual relevance — and succeeding.

Suffice to say: My editor ended up passing on the book review, but Loraine got me instead.

As our friendship blossomed I learned that Loraine was all kinds of fabulous. She was part New York intellectual, part West Coast hippie, part Hollywood elite. Her closet was stuffed with expensive designer clothes, which she often passed over for unassuming yogawear. She drank Prosecco and swam naked in her cobalt-tiled pool. She once convinced me to spend the entire afternoon lying on our backs, in the dirt, beneath an old and glorious oak tree in Franklin Canyon Park, the sun glimmering through the leaves.

She knew so much about art, an interest we bonded over and which would become a throughline of our friendship. When I began covering art for The Times, she became one of my go-to plus-ones for museum and gallery openings. We’ve taken that interest abroad too, touring art studios in Cuba, visiting museums in Vienna and, most recently, journeying to Japan’s art island, Naoshima.

I suppose this is where I relay how the three-decade age gap has provided illuminating pearls of wisdom during divorce, career changes and aging woes. But honestly? That’s not been the case. Loraine is there for me in an emergency, but she isn’t the motherly, advice-dispensing type.

Rather, Loraine teaches by example. She’s living proof that fabulousness is about attitude, not age. And that vitality has less to do with hip mobility than it does a sustaining lust for life and unrelenting curiosity about the world. I wonder: Had I not met Loraine, would I be aging, now, with as much ease and universality? Would I be more susceptible to the rigid and relentless stereotypes with which society brands women of a certain age? Loraine is, above all else, a writer. And the narrative she’s crafted for herself — a feminist art scholar turned advertising copywriter and single mother turned happily remarried TV writer turned novelist turned poet — bucks society’s expectations. I hope to continue writing it.

“Oh, it’s so nice you have a surrogate mother in L.A.,” my own mother would often say of Loraine when she visited from the East Coast. Loraine is older than my mom and the fact that I had a “kind of aunt-like person” living nearby brought her comfort.

Loraine would bite her lip whenever my mom said that; but afterward, we’d marvel at the mischaracterization of our friendship. Our conversations are devoid of motherly energy; instead they range from our romantic lives to clothes to books and contemporary art. Our recent Japan trip included several nights at a yurt camp by the sea (which we abandoned due to mold).

Last July Fourth we climbed atop an Echo Park hillside, took edibles and watched the fireworks melting across the sky.

“Really, where do you think we go when we die?” I asked in a haze.

“Beats me,” she said, chuckling. “Pass the nuts, will you?”

Then we burst out laughing.

The beginning of the 2020 pandemic was the first time I ever felt our age gap. Our experiences sheltering in place were very different. I was batch-cooking soup and binge-watching FX’s “Better Things,” relishing what felt like a rare solitude. Loraine became low-level depressed and, as the months of the pandemic turned to years, tinged with bitterness. It was a rare mood for the typically happy-go-lucky Loraine.

Loraine Despres Eastlake, left, and Deborah Vankin in a Yayoi Kusama art installation in 2018. (Deborah Vankin/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Loraine Despres Eastlake, left, and Deborah Vankin in a Yayoi Kusama art installation in 2018. (Deborah Vankin/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

“It’s like being robbed of the last years you have left,” she’d say on the phone. “I’m withering here at home.”

Recently, Loraine’s taken to repeating herself, as is the case with almost anyone her age.

“So what are you up to this weekend?” she’ll ask me on the phone, minutes after I answered the question already.

I just politely repeat myself, resigned to a sort of linguistic meditation, learning to enjoy the same conversation threads over and over again.

When we broached the issue recently, she told me, sighing: “I suffer from CRS.”

I braced myself for what that meant.

“Can’t Remember Shit,” she said, laughing — one of her long, loose chuckles that trails off with a cheery whine, as if she were a flapper wielding a cigarette holder in the air, head tossed back in the wind. “It is what it is.”

I’ve found myself using that phrase a lot lately: It is what it is. Loraine may not overtly mentor me in life, but her open embrace of whatever life offers reminds me to be present, to live in the moment.

Thinking about our friendship, I see a supercut of us: the time Loraine and I danced on a cafe rooftop in Cuba to live music; when we sailed through the air on trampolines on my 45th birthday with ’80s music playing over the loudspeaker; the New Year’s Eve we posed for selfies in wigs at a friend’s house; Loraine chasing a flying cockroach around our Miami hotel room as I squealed from atop the bed; her pure, unabashed joy when we rounded a corner in a Naoshima museum recently and she found a Cy Twombly work on display.

We were, in all those moments, 16 and 35 and 86. We meet somewhere in the middle, in the universal mind meld that is true friendship. And I’m grateful for every year of it.

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Some people have long, healthy friendships with best friends 30 years older than them. (Jim Cooke/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

How do you make friends outside your generation? These people share how they did it

31 August 2024 at 13:15

By Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — On a bench near the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market in July, Peggy Cheng recalled the time a television writer pitched her a wacky sitcom centered around the unlikely scenario of a young woman who had befriended her elderly neighbors.

Cheng, who was working in TV development at the time, wasn’t impressed.

“She thought it was so unique and I was like, ‘Hmm,’ ” said the 40-year-old Brentwood resident, laughing.

After all, the writer could have been describing Cheng’s life. Her best friend, Karen Letzkian, lives in the unit above hers and is 24 years her senior. They even had a meet-cute: A leaky toilet brought them together. But their difference in age has not stopped the two from being active participants in each other’s lives. Cheng spent months helping Letzkian plan her wedding. Letzkian picked Cheng up from the hospital after surgery. And they’re both always up for a last-minute trip to the local Ralph’s.

“I share everything with her,” Cheng said. “She’s one of the few friends who knows every facet of my life.”

Letzkian, a retired IT consultant, says the feeling is mutual. “Life is more fun when we’re together. I think that sums it up.”

As it turns out, age-gap friendships like Cheng and Letzkian’s may be more common than many of us think. A 2019 AARP survey found that nearly four in 10 adults have a close friend who is at least 15 years older or younger than they are. Even more are interested in cultivating these types of friendships. Nearly eight in 10 adults want to spend more time with people outside their age groups, according to a report from the Washington, D.C.-based organization Generations United.

Although research on the benefits of intergenerational friendships is nascent, several studies suggest that older adults who regularly interact with younger people experience less anxiety, depression and reduced cognitive decline than their more age-siloed peers. For younger folks, having friends outside their generation may help reduce both internal and external ageism, and address feelings of isolation and loneliness.

“From both sides there are individual level benefits that have the potential to improve health and well-being,” said Lauren Dunning, director of future of aging at the Milken Institute.

But ask those who are in age-gap friendships what they like about it, and chances are they’ll simply tell you they are in it for the enjoyment and pleasure of spending time with someone who “gets” them.

“There’s this exchange of ideas and knowledge, and this recognition that having fun is just as much a part of later life as it is for younger life,” said Catherine Elliott O’Dare, a professor in social policy at Trinity College in Dublin who studies the benefits of intergenerational friendships.

We spoke to six intergenerational friend groups in L.A. about how they met, what they do together and the benefits of their age difference.

Justin Beverly, 26, student. Jose Bautista, 73, retail worker. Nicholas Baraban, 33, retail worker

How did you meet?

Bautista: “We all used to work at the Hobby Lobby and these guys used to have beers after work. One day I invited myself along, but on one condition — we have to play [music].”

Favorite activities:

Playing music, going to the batting cage, open mic nights, barbecues.

What makes the friendship special?

Baraban: “I had a best friend who passed away — a bandmate. Jose helped me start playing with other people again. He was the first person I opened up to about playing out again.”

Bautista: “We’ve become best friends. I can rely on these guys for anything and I know they’ll come through. And me too. They can count on me for anything.”

Best part of being in an age-gap friendship?

Beverly: “Getting everyone’s perspective and point of view. People have more stories to tell from different times. It gives an interesting dynamic.”

Bautista: “I don’t feel an age difference with them. I don’t know how a 73-year-old is supposed to act.”

Baraban: “I don’t feel an age difference so much.”

Jeannine Bell, 69, retired high school teacher. Antoine Cason, 38, former NFL quarterback for the San Diego Chargers, recent college football referee

Two friends sit together in the bleachers of a high school football stadium.
Friends Jeannine Ball, 69, left, and Antoine Cason, 38, sit in the bleachers of Lakewood High School’s football stadium in Lakewood. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

How did you meet?

Bell: “My son Josh was a waterboy for the football team at Los Alamitos High. Antoine walked past us before school one morning and says, ‘Hey J-Dub. How are you doing?’ I said, ‘Who was that?’ and he said, ‘That’s the nicest guy on the football team.”

Cason: “Then I took your photography class senior year and after I went to college I’d come back and see everyone and it just grew from there.”

Favorite activities:

Football activities, going to dinner, and spending time with mutual friends and each other’s families.

What makes the friendship special?

Bell: “He inspires me every time I see him. He lifts up people around him, his personality obviously, but also he cares about people. He gives back.”

Cason: “Every time I’m around her I feel the genuine love and care. She really cares. Sometimes you don’t feel that way around people. And my family loves her too.”

Best part of being in an age-gap friendship?

Bell: “I want to stay relevant for every day of my life. He helps me do that. And it’s not just the age difference. He is a different color than I am, a different culture. I love understanding that better. I can’t say I understand it totally but hopefully it makes me communicate better with everyone as a result of that.”

Cason: “For me — especially where I’ve been, what I’ve done — I feel safe with her. I like to stay as private as I can because everything I’ve done has been in the public. And I just feel safe. That’s very important.”

Flora Grewe, 4 ½, student. Mary Ota, 105, retired medical office worker

A young girl hands flowers to an older woman.
Flora Grewe, 4 1/2, hands her friend Mary Ota, 105, a handful of flowers in Carpinteria. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

How did you meet?

Ota: “Flora and her family lived at the end of the street where I used to go for a walk. I would sit on my walker and rest before turning around and she would come and bring me flowers. Then she started coming over and we just became friends. Now we get together a lot.”

Favorite activities:

Doing puzzles, getting matching manicures, giving presents.

What makes the friendship special?

Ota: “She is a sweet little girl, always smiling and just adorable. At first she was quite shy, but what was adorable is she would write notes and bring them to me. She would always smile when she brought me things, and even if they were just weeds, I would put them in water.”

Grewe: “I don’t even know! I just like her!”

Best part of being in an age-gap friendship?

Ota: “A friend like Flora keeps things lively. Young people are so full of life. And connecting with young people makes you recall when you were young and your children were young.”

Grewe: “She let me have two cupcakes at her birthday party. She’s nice.”

patricia smith 73, retired faculty support at UCLA, yoga teacher. Adam Fowler, 43, consultant

Two friends sit on an outdoor couch outside an apartment.
Patricia Smith, 74, and Adam Fowler, 43, sit outside Patricia’s apartment. (Zoe Cranfill/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

How did you meet?

Fowler: “I took a position in Global Economics and Management at UCLA while I was applying to PhD programs. The first day the person I was replacing warned me about the woman down the hall. I hadn’t been in Los Angeles terribly long and I was like, ‘Oh, God, I hope this isn’t a nightmare.’ But we just hit it off.”

smith: “He endeared me to him with the ‘Yes, ma’am.’ It reminded me of the way I was brought up. And his Southern accent was the cutest thing in the world.”

Favorite activities:

Picnics at the Hollywood Bowl, movie nights at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, talking on the phone, fixing up smith’s apartment.

What makes the friendship special?

Fowler: “She made it comfortable to grow as a human. I was from the boonies of Arkansas, trying to figure out who I was in terms of coming out as gay, pursuing a PhD from a family where I was already the first generation of college students, and this was a person who was so secure in who she was and kind and generous.”

smith: “He was always so freaking smart, but he was smart without being arrogant. That was one of the more endearing qualities I recognized in him right away.”

Best part of being in an age-gap friendship?

smith: “He helps me to stay young. He turns me onto stuff. When I don’t know what’s going on, I just call him and he sets me straight. He helps me to pay attention — not to mention that he does [stuff] for me. That’s priceless.”

Fowler: “It’s such a source of context and wisdom. Whenever you get spun up on something small in your own life, patricia can either help you laugh about it or put it in some broader context. And just everything she’s done, moving here from Chicago, things she’s been through, all of that is so very interesting. I’d say it’s the resilience for me.”

Marlo Wamsganz, 54, designer. Norma Hench, 83, retired teacher

A pair of friends hold hands while sitting together.
Marlo Wamsganz, left, 54, and Norma Hench, right, 83, have been friends for years. The pair like to swap books, plant clippings, hike and visit botanic gardens. (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

How did you meet?

Wamsganz: “We were both living in Vermont and I was dating her partner Glenn’s son. The first time we met we were already walking around her gardens. Then I moved on from that relationship and Glenn passed away. We lost touch, not because we didn’t love each other, but because life goes on. “

Hench: “It took me a full year to get my act together after Glenn died and move to L.A. where my son lives. I flew from Vermont to JFK and, lo and behold, there’s Marlo!”

Wamsganz: “We were both relocating to L.A. and when we got on the plane I believe we were in the same row. I thought, ‘This is wild.’ “

Favorite activities:

Visiting botanic gardens, trying new foods, hiking in Malibu, visiting museums and swapping books.

What makes the friendship special?

Wamsganz: “Norma loves to learn new things, she’s up for anything, she’ll taste anything, and she also likes to dig deep into things. I love how positive she is and she speaks her mind. She’s very fair and believes in rights for all people. And she’s a great conversationalist.”

Hench: “I want to tell a story: We were crossing Ventura Boulevard — this big multi lane street, and right in the middle of the crosswalk there was a praying mantis. And without missing a beat, didn’t Marlo reach down and pick up this praying mantis and carry it with her across to the other side of the street and put it on the lawn? Now, doesn’t that speak volumes?”

Best part of being in an age-gap friendship?

Hench: “I never think about an age difference. I’m not even aware of that. Maybe I’m in denial.”

Wamsganz: “I don’t either. Although I do ask her some things. Like, how long do hot flashes go on?”

Peggy Cheng, 40, entrepreneur. Karen Lektzian, 64, retired IT consultant

Two friends walk arm in arm at a shopping center.
Friends Peggy Cheng, 40, left, and Karen Lektzian, 64, shop at the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

How did you meet?

Cheng: “Her master toilet flooded my unit, and it was easier to go through my unit to fix it. I was working really long hours at that time, so I was just like, ‘Yup! OK! Bye!’ She was like, ‘Can I get you any gift cards or a dinner?’ and I was just like, ‘No! I don’t really expect to interact with you.’ “

Lektzian: “The remediation took three weeks, and over the course of those three weeks we had quite a few interactions, so we got to know each other a little bit. I invited her to dinner and with the proximity we started to run into each other more often and it was so easy to just say, ‘Want to pop up for a drink? Or, do you want to cook dinner tonight?’ “

Favorite activities?

Traveling, cooking, eating out, running errands.

What makes the friendship special?

Lektzian: “We just have so much fun together. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing. And we have so many common interests. It’s just so natural. Life is more fun with her.”

Cheng: “I like that I can share everything with her. She’s one of the few friends who knows every facet of my life. I can go to her for advice and if it’s serious she will just switch into that mode and then immediately we will have the giggles.”

What is the best part of being in an age-gap friendship?

Lektzian: “I don’t really notice when I’m with my friends my own age versus Peggy.”

Cheng: “I don’t feel it either. She’s equally energetic and way more fit than I am!”


©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Friends Justin Beverly, 26, Jose Bautista, 73, and Nicholas Baraban, 33, from left, hang out at Johnny Carson Park in Burbank, California, on July 24, 2024. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Make this the year you maximize shoulder season

30 August 2024 at 20:24

Patrick Clarke | (TNS) TravelPulse

Summer is coming to a close but that doesn’t mean your travel plans have to be put on hold until the holidays.

Labor Day weekend signals the arrival of shoulder season, a fantastic time for travelers with some flexibility to save big on a spectacular getaway while avoiding the large crowds at the same time.

Make this the year that you capitalize on this golden opportunity.

The coming days and weeks will see airfares drop and become more affordable before beginning to climb again and eventually peaking around the Thanksgiving holiday.

“Summer is winding down and consumer focus is on returning to normal work and school schedules. Our data shows that airfares are trending downward, and we expect that to continue for the immediate future,” says Glenn Cusano, President of Fareportal, the corporation behind OTA brands CheapOair and OneTravel.

There are plenty of great deals out there right now as several airlines are launching sales with one-way fares under $40 and even offering discounted all-you-can-fly passes as demand dips.

Plus, travelers should be able to find plenty of favorable hotel rates, especially if they’re able to put those unused vacation days to work and stay mid-week.

Shoulder season globetrotters could potentially save even more on a more comfortable stay by booking a vacation rental. Vrbo experts point out that travelers can save hundreds per night on beach houses in popular coastal destinations such as North Carolina’s Outer Banks; Gulf Shores, Alabama; Charleston, South Carolina; and Pensacola, Florida.

Guests can even save up to $900 a night on an eight-bedroom beachfront property in Miramar, Florida, by booking during the shoulder season compared to peak summertime.

In addition to lower rates and smaller crowds, travelers can still take advantage of awesome weather, especially in southern locales that remain warm well into October.

Nonetheless, the potential for destructive and disruptive tropical storm systems and hurricanes remains through November. So those heading to the most at-risk destinations should strongly consider protecting their investment with travel insurance.

If the idea of planning a shoulder season trip is daunting, working with a trusted travel adviser can help as these helpful experts can not only point you toward the best savings based on your own unique interests and help protect your trip but also land you special perks through their connections with various suppliers.

However you decide to make plans, don’t let another golden shoulder season go by the wayside.

__________

©2024 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Visit at travelpulse.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Cape Hatteras National Seashore in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. (Dreamstime/TNS)

Quick Fix: Greek Salmon

30 August 2024 at 20:15

Linda Gassenheimer | Tribune News Service (TNS)

For a simple, refreshing summer dinner, I decided to serve a Greek salad with salmon sauteed in an olive oil, lemon and garlic sauce. Fresh oregano gave a burst of flavor to the sauce.

A secret to keeping the salmon juicy and flaky is to under cook it a little leaving the inside a little translucent. The salmon will continue to cook in its own heat when removed from the stove. Using a meat thermometer can help ensure perfect doneness: it should read between 110 to 115 degrees.

HELPFUL HINTS:

Ant type of fresh salmon can be used.

4 chopped garlic cloves can be used instead of minced garlic.

Any type of lettuce can be used.

COUNTDOWN:

Assemble salad on plates.

Make sauce.

Cook salmon.

SHOPPING LIST:

To buy: 3/4 pound salmon fillet, 1 head romaine lettuce, 1 tomato, 1 cucumber, 1 container black pitted olives, 1 bottle reduced-fat vinaigrette dressing, 1 lemon, 1 jar minced garlic, 1 bunch fresh oregano or 1 bottle dried and 1 container whole wheat pita breads.

Staples: olive oil, onion salt and black peppercorns.

Greek Salmon

Recipe by Linda Gassenheimer

  • 2 cups Romaine lettuce leaves torn into bite size pieces
  • 1 tomato cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 cup cucumber cut into 1/2 to 1-inch pieces
  • 1/2 cup sliced onion
  • 6 pitted black olives
  • 4 tablespoons reduced-fat vinaigrette dressing
  • 2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves or 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 3/4 pound salmon fillet
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 whole wheat pita breads cut into triangles

Divide lettuce between two dinner plates. Top lettuce with tomato, cucumber, onion and olives. Drizzle vinaigrette dressing over the salad. Mix olive oil, lemon juice, oregano and minced garlic together in a small bowl. Heat a medium-size skillet over medium high heat. Add the salmon skin side up and pour the olive oil mixture into the skillet. Saute 5 minutes, turn salmon over with skin down. Continue to cook 4 minutes. A meat thermometer should read 110 to 115 degrees. Remove salmon, divide in half and place on the two plates with the salad. Spoon the remaining skillet sauce over the salmon. Sprinkle the salmon with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with the pita bread triangles.

Yield 2 servings.

Per serving: 621 calories (42 percent from fat), 29.0 g fat (4.1 g saturated, 12.0 g monounsaturated), 98 mg cholesterol, 41.8 g protein, 49.4 g carbohydrates, 7.8 g fiber, 527 mg sodium.

(Linda Gassenheimer is the author of over 30 cookbooks, including her newest, “The 12-Week Diabetes Cookbook.” Listen to Linda on www.WDNA.org and all major podcast sites. Email her at Linda@DinnerInMinutes.com.)

©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Greek salad with salmon sauteed in an olive oil, lemon and garlic sauce. (Linda Gassenheimer/TNS)

Helping a minor travel for an abortion? Some states have made it a crime

30 August 2024 at 20:02

Anna Claire Vollers | (TNS) Stateline.org

Helping a pregnant minor travel to get a legal abortion without parental consent is now a crime in at least two Republican-led states, prompting legal action by abortion-rights advocates and copycat legislation from conservative lawmakers in a handful of other states.

Last year, Idaho became the first state to outlaw “abortion trafficking,” which it defined as “recruiting, harboring or transporting” a pregnant minor to get an abortion or abortion medication without parental permission. In May, Tennessee enacted a similar law. And Republican lawmakers in AlabamaMississippi and Oklahoma introduced abortion trafficking bills during their most recent legislative sessions, although those bills failed to advance before the sessions ended.

Those five states are among the 14 that enacted strict abortion bans following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs decision, which dismantled the federal right to abortion. Now, conservative state lawmakers are pushing additional measures to try to restrict their residents from getting them in states where it remains legal.

“A lot of folks thought Dobbs was the floor and it’s really not,” said Tennessee state Rep. Aftyn Behn, a Nashville Democrat who’s challenging Tennessee’s trafficking law in court. “[Anti-abortion lawmakers] are coming for state travel and the ability to even talk about abortion.”

Abortion-rights advocates have filed lawsuits in AlabamaIdaho and Tennessee, arguing the laws are vague and violate constitutional rights to free speech and travel between states. A federal judge has temporarily blocked Idaho’s law from being enforced while the case is ongoing.

Proponents of the laws argue they’re needed to protect parental rights and to prevent other adults from persuading adolescents to get abortions.

“This is a parental rights piece of legislation,” Idaho Republican state Rep. Barbara Ehardt told Stateline. “We can’t control someone getting an abortion in Oregon. But you cannot take a child to get an abortion without the parent’s knowledge because, at least in the past, we would have called that kidnapping.”

But critics warn that abortion trafficking laws could have grave implications not only for interstate travel, but also for personal speech and communication between friends, or between children and adults they trust.

“If courts go down this road, it could change the scope of the First Amendment,” Mary Ziegler, a legal historian and law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, told Stateline. “It could have an effect on what else qualifies as crime-facilitating speech, and that could limit the kinds of things people can say and do online and in other contexts.”

Opponents also question whether states should be permitted to interfere in the business of other states. Criminalizing travel within an abortion-ban state to reach another state for a legal abortion would “allow prosecutors to project power across state lines,” said Ziegler.

“We haven’t seen states try to interfere in what’s happening in other states in quite the same way in a long time,” she said. “That’s why there is legal uncertainty — because we’re not talking about something where we have a lot of legal precedent.”

‘Parental rights’

Tennessee state Rep. Jason Zachary, a Knoxville Republican, defended Tennessee’s legislation as “a parental rights bill” that “reinforces a parent’s right to do what’s best for their child,” in remarks he made to the Tennessee General Assembly before the bill passed. Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed it into law in May.

The following month, Behn joined with Nashville attorney and longtime abortion access activist Rachel Welty to file a lawsuit challenging the new law.

Behn and Welty sued nearly a dozen district attorneys in Tennessee, alleging they ignored Welty’s requests to define what behavior would be deemed illegal under the new law. The Tennessee law says that abortion trafficking occurs when an adult “intentionally recruits, harbors, or transports” a pregnant minor within the state to get an abortion or an abortion-inducing drug without parental consent, “regardless of where the abortion is to be procured.”

A hearing to determine whether the court will grant a temporary injunction blocking the Tennessee law, which is currently in effect, is scheduled for Aug. 30.

After Idaho passed its law in April 2023, two advocacy groups and an attorney who works with sexual assault victims sued the state attorney general. The plaintiffs claim Idaho’s law is vague and violates the First Amendment right to free speech, as well as the right to travel freely between states. The right to interstate travel isn’t spelled out in the U.S. Constitution but it’s implied, legal experts say. The Idaho law directly applies to travel within the state, but it also notes that defendants are not immune from liability if “the abortion provider or the abortion-inducing drug provider is located in another state.”

Megan Kovacs, a board member with the Northwest Abortion Access Fund, which is a plaintiff in the case along with the Indigenous Idaho Alliance, said it is “so clearly unconstitutional to disallow people from accessing health care from within or outside their state.” Kovacs added that her group also wants to protect its volunteers from legal liability.

Neither the Idaho nor the Tennessee law exempts minors who become pregnant after being raped by a parent.

“If that person had to go to a parent who didn’t believe them or wanted to defend that family member who was the abuser, that only impedes healing even more,” said Kovacs, who has spent a decade working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

Ehardt, who sponsored the Idaho bill, said any adult who is told by a child about an incident of incest should call authorities rather than helping the minor obtain an abortion without parental consent.

“You have to call the police and they will be the ones to help protect the child’s safety,” she said.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held a hearing in May in Seattle, and Kovacs said she expects to learn in the next few weeks whether the court will uphold the temporary injunction blocking Idaho’s law while the lawsuit rolls on.

In July 2023, a group of health care providers sued Alabama Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall and district attorneys, asking the court to prevent the state from prosecuting people who help Alabamians travel to get abortion care in states where it’s legal.

The providers filed the lawsuit in response to remarks that Marshall made on a radio show in 2022, when he suggested that some people who aid a pregnant person in planning or traveling to get an abortion in another state could be prosecuted under the state’s criminal conspiracy laws. A judge denied Marshall’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit earlier this year, and the case is ongoing.

A coordinated effort

The Tennessee and Idaho laws mirror language in model legislation that was published in 2022 by the National Right to Life Committee, which bills itself as the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization.

“With this model law, we [are] laying out a roadmap for the right-to-life movement so that, in a post-Roe society, we can protect many mothers and their children from the tragedy of abortion,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life Committee, in a June 2022 statement introducing the model anti-abortion law.

Anti-abortion-rights organizations, like other interest groups, have long coordinated strategies to promote their preferred legislation to state and federal lawmakers.

The Idaho and Tennessee laws focus specifically on minors, even though they comprise a small fraction of people who get abortions. Those under 19 accounted for 8.1% of abortions, and those under age 15 accounted for just 0.2% of abortions in 2021, the most recent year for which the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published data.

Kovacs and Ziegler say the bills zero in on minors’ access to abortion because policies that regulate children and teens tend to be more politically acceptable than broader restrictions that affect adults. Such bills also tend to be more likely to survive legal challenges in court.

A chilling effect

Nobody in Tennessee or Idaho has yet been prosecuted under the abortion trafficking laws, but an Idaho woman and her son were charged with kidnapping last fall for allegedly taking the son’s girlfriend, a minor, out of state to get an abortion.

One main goal of a law such as Tennessee’s, Behn believes, is to create a chilling effect so that average people are scared to help anyone who might need an abortion, for fear of breaking the law.

“These bills create an environment of suspicion, fear and misinformation,” said Behn. “But I do think we will see more aggressive district attorneys start to prosecute these cases. [The law] widens the permission structure to start prosecuting people.”

Laws criminalizing abortion travel and imposing other abortion restrictions may be designed to provoke a legal challenge, Ziegler said. With a 6-3 conservative majority, the U.S. Supreme Court might be inclined to support them.

Abortion-rights advocates argue that restrictive abortion laws end up harming even those people who live in states where abortion is still legal.

Oregon, for example, has some of the strongest abortion protection laws in the nation. And yet the strict abortion ban next door in Idaho has made it more difficult for Oregonians to access care, said Kovacs, who lives in Oregon.

Before Idaho’s ban, many people in Eastern Oregon traveled to Idaho for abortion care, she said, because its clinics were closer than Oregon’s clinics, most of which are concentrated on the western side of the state. Last year, in response to increasing abortion restrictions in other states, Oregon passed a sweeping health care omnibus bill that strengthens protections for abortion providers and explicitly allows minors to seek abortions without parental consent. It was signed into law and took effect in January.

Ziegler said it’s not hard to imagine that if abortion trafficking laws are upheld in abortion-ban states, at some point prosecutors in those states could file charges against providers in “safe” states for providing abortion help, such as mailing abortion pills.

“I think it’s not intended to just stop with the people who are in the ban states,” Ziegler said.

©2024 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A sign taped to a hanger hangs near the Idaho Capitol in Boise after protests against the state’s new abortion laws, which effectively banned the procedure. (Sarah A. Miller/Idaho Statesman/TNS)
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