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Defending champion leaves Iditarod race over health concerns

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:00 GMT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Brent Sass, the defending Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion, withdrew from this year’s race on Saturday, citing concerns for his health.Sass scratched at the Eagle Island checkpoint, a statement from the Iditarod said. Eagle Island is about 600 miles (966 kilometers) into the nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race.“He didn’t feel he could care for his team due to current concerns with his periodontal health,” the statement said. The condition typically relates to gum disease.A plane was being sent to Eagle Island to fly Sass off the trail, according to a video posted on the Iditarod Insider web page. “Yeah, I’m pretty sad, but it is what it is,” Sass’ father, Mark Sass, told Alaska Public Media. “I just want him to be OK.”The Iditarod said all 11 dogs on Sass’ team were in good health.Sass was in the lead when he arrived at the Eagle Island checkpoint late Friday night with an almost four-hour advantage over his nearest competitor, Jessie Holmes of Bru...

WV House OKs transgender care ban mental health exemption

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:00 GMT

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia’s Republican supermajority House of Delegates swiftly OK’d a proposal to add mental health exemptions to a bill that would ban certain health care for transgender youth during the last day of its 60-day legislative session Saturday. The chamber approved changes made by the state Senate late Friday that would allow some transgender youth to continue receiving medical interventions, including hormone therapy, if they are at risk of self-harm or suicide.The bill now heads back to the Senate for final approval, which it is likely to receive Saturday before heading to the desk of Gov. Jim Justice. The Republican governor has not taken a public stance on the measure.Lawmakers in West Virginia and other states advancing bans on transgender health care for youth and young adults often characterize gender-affirming treatments as medically unproven, potentially dangerous in the long term and a symptom of “woke” culture.But every major medical...

From wine country to London, bank’s failure shakes worldwide

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — It was called Silicon Valley Bank, but its collapse is causing shockwaves around the world. From winemakers in California to startups across the Atlantic Ocean, companies are scrambling to figure out how to manage their finances after their bank suddenly shut down Friday. The meltdown means distress not only for businesses but also for all their workers whose paychecks may get tied up in the chaos.U.S. customers with less than $250,000 in the bank can count on insurance provided by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Regulators are trying to find a buyer for the bank in hopes customers with more than that can be made whole.That includes customers like Circle, a big player in the cryptocurrency industry. It said it has about $3.3 billion of the roughly $40 billion in reserves for its USDC coin at SVB. That caused USD Coin’s value, which tries to stay firmly at $1, to briefly plunge below 87 cents Saturday. It later rose back above 97 cents, according to CoinDesk.Acros...

3D-printed rocket remains grounded after more launch aborts

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:00 GMT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A rocket made almost completely of 3D-printed parts came within a half-second of blasting off Saturday on its debut flight, but remained grounded after back-to-back launch aborts.The engines ignited, but abruptly shut down, leaving Relativity Space’s rocket, named Terran, standing on its pad. Launch controllers reset the countdown clocks and aimed for the last possible moment of the three-hour window at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. But once again, on-board flight computers halted the countdown, this time with 46 seconds remaining. No cause was given for the problems.The first launch attempt, on Wednesday, was aborted at the one-minute mark because of a bad valve.There was no immediate word on when the company might try again.At 110 feet (33 meters), the rocket is relatively small. Relativity Space said 85% of the rocket, including its engines, came out of its huge 3D printers at company headquarters in Long Beach, California.Given this is a test fl...

Denise Russo, formerly of VH1's reality series ‘The X-Life,’ dead at 44

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:00 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – Denise Russo, formerly a cast member on the VH1 reality show “The X-Life,” was found unresponsive and pronounced dead in California earlier this week. She was 44.TMZ was among the first to report news of Russo’s death, citing law enforcement sources and former “X-Life” cast member Susie Stenberg, who described Russo as “the most loving and loyal person.”A press release from the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s office specified that Russo was found unresponsive on March 5 at a friend’s home in San Diego. Emergency responders performed “aggressive attempts” to resuscitate her, but ultimately pronounced her dead at the scene.The manner of death is currently under investigation, though the Medical Examiner’s office noted the discovery of drug paraphernalia in the home. Chiefs legend Otis Taylor dead at 80 Russo was among the main cast members of the 2011 VH1 reality series "The X-Life," which followed the lives of three extreme athletes and their respective partners. Ru...

Shots Fired In Nova Scotia Neighbourhood, Suspects Still At Large

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:00 GMT

Dateline hosts talk to KXAN on first SXSW panel, Austin murders, new podcast

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:00 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Keith Morrison and Josh Mankiewicz of Dateline – which has covered several notorious Austin murders, including Moriah Wilson and Heidi Broussard – will appear at SXSW for their first panel discussion Saturday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. CT at the Austin Convention Center. The two sat down with KXAN’s Sam Stark ahead of their session to talk Dateline, their voyage into podcasting and reporting on Texas crimes. Can you talk about the explosion of the true crime genre in recent years?“I give credit to our boss, frankly, who persuaded us. He saw the zeitgeist and saw what was coming – he recognized that [true crime] were the sorts of stories that most attracted people's attention. Whenever we did a true crime story, back in the 90s, the numbers show a pretty clear indicator that it was what people wanted to watch,” Morrison said. “Most people in their lives will never be the victim of violent crime. But everybody has been in a relationship that did not work out how ...

Texas women's basketball soars to Big 12 tournament championship game with win over Oklahoma State

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:00 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KXAN) — Through a season full of injuries and adversity, the Texas women's basketball team now finds itself in a familiar position — the Big 12 tournament championship game. The top-seeded Longhorns took down fourth-seeded Oklahoma State 64-57 in the semifinals Saturday at Municipal Auditorium.Shaylee Gonzales with 17 points to lead the Longhorns, but the attack behind her was very balanced. DeYona Gaston notched 14 points while Shay Holle added 13. Rori Harmon was the fourth Longhorn in double digits with 11, while leading the team with 10 assists and tying for the team lead of seven rebounds. Harmon is just 7-for-32 shooting so far in the tournament, but the Longhorns have found a way offensively.MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and sign up for our More than the Score sports newsletter at kxan.com/newslettersAfter getting off to their slowest start of the season with a 6-point first quarter in the quarterfinals, the Longhorns wer...

Five takeaways from the February jobs report

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:00 GMT

The February jobs report was a bit of a mixed bag with the unemployment rate rising even as the economy added more jobs last month than economists had expected.The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.6 percent, though economists had been expecting it to stay down at the January level of 3.4 percent—a more than 50-year low. The economy added 311,000 jobs while analysts were expecting a monthly increase of only 225,000.Perhaps most significantly, wages increased only 0.2 percent from January to February, averaging out to an increase of just 3.6 percent over the last three months This is important for the Federal Reserve as it weighs further interest rate hikes, which slow the economy down in order to combat inflation. If the central bank perceives wage growth to be slowing, it could ease up on the pace or duration of its rate hikes, which could put the economy on a path to steadier growth.Here’s what the latest job numbers mean for the economy.Conditions for workers overall still remain ...

Ecologists want you to eat invasive frogs, but Texas frogging laws are stricter than you might think

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:57:00 GMT

TYLER, Texas (KETK) - The State of Utah is serving up the American Bullfrog on a silver platter but in Texas, where frog "gigging" is more popular, the laws are more strict.In Utah, the American Bullfrog is an invasive species and Utahns can hunt as many bullfrogs as they can eat, according to KTVX. Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources even lists its own "breaded bullfrog legs" recipe. Texas is a different story for the amphibians, though.Bullfrogs are native to parts of Texas, but are considered invasive in much of the western U.S. and several other continents. "It is a significant predator on anything it can get in its mouth," said former UT Tyler professor and internationally recognized herpetologist, Dr. Neil Ford. "In the west, those prey have not evolved with the bullfrog, so [they] have no defense. In addition, no predators on bullfrogs occur in those states. Bullfrogs also have a high reproductive rate."In Texas, bullfrogs are hunted for their legs, which are usually served...