WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — A Tesla driver was killed and a passenger was critically injured Saturday when the car plowed into a fire truck that was parked on a Northern California freeway to shield a crew clearing another accident, fire officials said.
Four firefighters who were in the truck when it was struck on Interstate 680 were treated for minor injuries, said Tracie Dutter, assistant chief of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.
The driver was declared dead at the scene, Dutter said. The car needed to be cut open to remove the passenger, who was taken to the hospital.
Photos showed the front end of the car was crushed and the $1.4 million ladder truck was damaged.
California Highway Patrol Officer Adam Lane said it was not clear whether the driver may have been intoxicated or whether the Tesla Model S was operating with automation or driving assistance features.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating how Tesla’s Autopilot system detects and responds to emergency vehicles parked on highways. At least 14 Teslas have crashed into emergency vehicles while using the system.
Dutter said the truck had its lights on and was parked diagonally on northbound lanes of the freeway to protect responders to an earlier accident that did not result in injuries.
The fatal accident occurred around 4 a.m., and it took several hours to clear the freeway. The firetruck had to be towed away.
The Model S was among the nearly 363,000 vehicles Tesla recalled on Thursday because of potential flaws in its “Full Self-Driving” system. While the recall is aimed at correcting possible problems at intersections and with speed limits, it comes amid a broader investigation by U.S. safety regulators into Tesla’s automated driving systems.
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — A Tesla driver was killed and a passenger was critically injured Saturday when the car plowed into a fire truck that was parked on a Northern California freeway to shield a crew clearing another accident, fire officials said.
Four firefighters who were in the truck when it was struck on Interstate 680 were treated for minor injuries, said Tracie Dutter, assistant chief of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.
The driver was declared dead at the scene, Dutter said. The car needed to be cut open to remove the passenger, who was taken to the hospital.
Photos showed the front end of the car was crushed and the $1.4 million ladder truck was damaged.
California Highway Patrol Officer Adam Lane said it was not clear whether the driver may have been intoxicated or whether the Tesla Model S was operating with automation or driving assistance features.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating how Tesla’s Autopilot system detects and responds to emergency vehicles parked on highways. At least 14 Teslas have crashed into emergency vehicles while using the system.
Dutter said the truck had its lights on and was parked diagonally on northbound lanes of the freeway to protect responders to an earlier accident that did not result in injuries.
The fatal accident occurred around 4 a.m., and it took several hours to clear the freeway. The firetruck had to be towed away.
The Model S was among the nearly 363,000 vehicles Tesla recalled on Thursday because of potential flaws in its “Full Self-Driving” system. While the recall is aimed at correcting possible problems at intersections and with speed limits, it comes amid a broader investigation by U.S. safety regulators into Tesla’s automated driving systems.
Newswise — (Boston)—During the past 17 years, there has been a remarkable increase in scientific research concerning chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) with researchers at the BU CTE Center at the forefront. While some sports organizations like the National Hockey League and World Rugby still claim their sports do not cause CTE, a new review of the evidence by the world’s leading CTE expert strengthens the case that repetitive head impact (RHI) exposure is the chief risk factor for the condition.
CTE became national news in the United States in 2007, but it wasn’t until 2016 that the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke/National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NINDS-NIBIB) criteria for the neuropathological diagnosis of CTE were published, and they were refined in 2021. Rare, isolated case studies reporting aberrant findings or using non-accepted diagnostic criteria have been disproportionately emphasized to cast doubt on the connection between RHI and CTE.
In a review article in the journal Acta Neuropathologica, Ann McKee, MD, chief of neuropathology at VA Boston Healthcare System and director of the BU CTE Center, stresses that now over 600 CTE cases have been published in the literature from multiple international research groups. And of those over 600 cases, 97 percent have confirmed exposure to RHI, primarily through contact and collision sports. CTE has been diagnosed in amateur and professional athletes, including athletes from American, Canadian, and Australian football, rugby union, rugby league, soccer, ice hockey, bull-riding, wrestling, mixed-martial arts, and boxing.
What’s more, 82 percent (14 of the 17) of the purported CTE cases that occurred in the absence of RHI, where up-to-date criteria were used, the study authors disclosed that families were never asked what sports the decedent played.
According to the researchers, despite global efforts to find CTE in the absence of contact sport participation or RHI exposure, it appears to be extraordinarily rare, if it exists at all. “In studies of community brain banks, CTE has been seen in 0 to 3 percent of cases, and where the information is available, positive cases were exposed to brain injuries or RHI. In contrast, CTE is the most common neurodegenerative disease diagnosis in contact and collision sport athletes in brain banks around the world. A strong dose response relationship is perhaps the strongest evidence that RHI is causing CTE in athletes,” she added.
“The review presents the timeline for the development of neuropathological criteria for the diagnosis of CTE which was begun nearly 100 years ago by pathologist Harrison Martland who introduced the term “punch-drunk” to describe a neurological condition in prizefighters,” explained McKee, corresponding author of the study. The review chronologically describes the multiple studies conducted by independent, international groups investigating different populations that found CTE pathology in individuals with a history of RHI from various sources.”
CTE is characterized by a distinctive molecular structural configuration of p-tau fibrils that is unlike the changes observed with aging, Alzheimer’s disease, or any other diseases caused by tau protein.
Funding for this research was provided by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (U54NS115266; R01NS119651; U01 NS 086659), National Institute on Aging (P30AG13846; U19AG06875; R01AG062348; RF1AG057902; K01AG070326), Department of Veterans Affairs (101BX002466, 101BX004613, BX004349), the Nick and Lynn Buoniconti Foundation, Andlinger Foundation, National Football League (NFL) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) through unrestricted gifts, the Mac Parkman Foundation, and the National Operating Committee on Safety for Sports Equipment (NOCSEA).
Linda Graham, MFT, explores the use of gratitude as a buffer and offers tools to help practice gratitude even in the most difficult of times.
Gratitude works its magic – to buffer us from falling into swamps of grudge, trauma and suffering in the first place, or pulling ourselves out of those swamps once we’ve woken up to knowing that we’re not in our right mind or heart space anymore – by bringing us to the experiences of loving awareness and loving presence from which we can respond to confusion, despair, fear, hurt, threat, more wisely.
Gratitude is one of the most direct ways to find our way to a loving awareness of this Being-ness because it immediately brings us into the arc of presence – openness – connectedness with all there is that helped us become all of who we are – acceptance of all that is-ness, that leads to an inner peace and well-being that is the wellspring of love and wise action.
Gratitude practice taps us into the energy field of life itself, from which comes all joy, compassion, forgiveness, etc.
From this energy field of life itself, we can move from being well to faring well in the world.
1- Gratitude to soften grudge
If you’re like me, or my clients, or my friends, holidays may be a mixture of anticipated delight and dread. You may have to re-engage with a parent or sibling who could still be shamingly critical or derisive, or even just negative, with no awareness or accountability for the pain they are inflicting. Some gratitude practices that might be helpful:
Read your own signals of when it’s safe to connect and when it’s not. I.e., knowing from within when it’s safe to be open and when it’s best to have a good boundary. After years of practice, I can finally, finally catch the wave in my body that says “uh-oh, this doesn’t feel safe, I’m outta here,” that has me walking out the door and around the block before I’m even aware I’ve left the conversation. Focus on your heart, your presence, your attitude, your behavior.
Find something to appreciate, right now, about the person you feel like clobbering with a frying pan. That they held the door for you as you walked into the house even though they didn’t pay attention to anything you said. Or they’re being attentive to their 4 year old even though they have no bandwidth for anyone else. Or remembering that a year ago they surprised the heck out of you by getting your daughter the poodle puppy she had so yearned for.
Find something to appreciate, right now, about the connection, the dynamic between you and this person, which may simply be “I get to practice patience right now” or “I get to practice compassion right now” or “I am moving 20 minutes closer to sainthood right now.”
Find something to forgive right now. When you’re struggling to be tolerant rather than contentious with someone, imagine this person as a vulnerable one year old, or a greedy two year old, or a defiant three year old, or a full-of-life ten year old, or a confused sixteen year old, or a desperate to find a direction in life twenty year old. (Which may be who’s actually driving this person’s behavior in the current moment.) Allow your heart to open to the more vulnerable version of the person you are struggling with, seeing your grudge in this larger perspective, encompassing all of the person and letting the grudge soften.
Savor the gratitude for your own practice of softening the grudge and easing your heart.
2-Gratitude to heal trauma
I’m part of a clinical study group developing an integrative model for treating trauma; this past week my colleague Joanna spoke of “embracing the defensive structures,” meaning:
We all use our innate survival responses of fight-flight-freeze-collapse when our resources for coping through connection are overwhelmed or we perceive connections themselves to be unsafe. These survival responses are hard-wired into our body-brains in utero. They operate much faster than our adult conscious appraisals of yes-no, green light – red light could possibly operate. When one or all of those survival responses gets repeatedly encoded in our developing neural circuitry (my early-learned pattern of regulating the anxiety coming up in a conversation by walking out the door for fresh air still coming up, unknowingly, when I am perfectly safe in a conversation now) or when traumatizing events like betrayal or violence lock those survival response patterns into our body memory, our normal openness and expansiveness of resilience and well-being can be blocked by these contracted survival defenses.
Gratitude plays a key role in unpacking and re-wiring these trauma responses by de-pathologizing them. No shame-blame-weakness in normal responses to abnormal,
terrifying, or toxic circumstances. In fact, we can be grateful that these innate survival responses did allow us to survive, even if they constrict us or cause their own suffering later down the road. By becoming conscious…and compassionate…and accepting…and embracing of those mechanisms that kept us afloat, even though they sometimes threaten to sink us now, we soften our grudge toward ourselves, or toward the traumatizing events, and deepen into the place in our hearts and minds that can resolve and let go of the trauma and the defenses against the trauma. Embracing our defenses as they are, even while choosing to use other more adaptive coping strategies now, doesre-wire the brain, does change our conscious relationship to those habitual patterns now, does create conscious, alternative choices. (See Exercises to Practice below for examples of how to do this.)
The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.
– Carl Rogers
3-Gratitude to move through suffering with grace
Suffering is an inevitable part of the human condition and human conditioning. Gratitude helps us move through our suffering with more grace and peace of mind and heart:
Allowing us a respite from the suffering, even for a few moments. Gratitude drops us into a space where our survival patterns of responding to hurt, danger, life threat aren’t operating, at least for a few moments.
When my brother was in the hospital with life-threatening and painful blood clots, those moments he and I spent on the phone every day in gratitude practice gave him a much needed respite from the pain and fear, not because the gratitude was a distraction but because it moved him into a state of mind and heart where the pain and fear weren’t operating.
“Waking up” to the larger perspective and learning the lessons hidden within the suffering.
One of my favorite teaching stories of all time is the story of the Chinese Farmer and the Horse, from the Zen tradition.
A Chinese farmer has a horse; his neighbor comes over to visit and exclaims, Oh, how fortunate that you have a horse!” The Chinese farmer non-committally says, “We’ll see.” The next day the horse runs away. The neighbor comes over to offer his sympathy. “Oh, how unfortunate that you’ve lost your horse.” The Chinese farmer again says non-committally, “We’ll see.” The next day the horse returns to the farmer, bringing a new mare with him. The neighbor rushes over to congratulate the farmer. “Oh, how fortunate! Now you have two horses!” The Chinese farmer replies as before, “We’ll see.” The next day the farmer’s son is out riding the mare to break it in; the mare throws him and he breaks his leg. The neighbor comes over as before, “Oh, how unfortunate. Your son has broken his leg!” The Chinese farmer replies, “We’ll see.”
A month later the army comes through the area recruiting soldiers. They can’t accept the farmer’s son because of his broken leg. The neighbor again comes over to sympathize, “Oh, how fortunate! Your son doesn’t have to go into the army!” The Chinese farmer again replies, “We’ll see.”
The story continues on. We learn to keep an open mind about any particular event; we don’t always know how fortunate or
unfortunate any particular circumstance is. But the equanimity that comes from being grateful, at least accepting of every experience, every moment, no matter our initial view of it, brings us to the larger perspective that we often don’t know in the moment the opportunities hidden in what appears to be monolithic tragedy or trauma. We often say, as my friend Paula did after suddenly losing her job of seven years in an unforeseen downsizing of her company, ” I wouldn’t wish the pain and suffering of those days on anyone, and there’s no way I could have known at the time how things would turn out, and things don’t always turn out for the better, but losing that job was the best thing that ever happened to me. I never would have found my deeper dream of having my own photography studio if I had stayed there another 10 years out of being scared to leave.”
Maturing ourselves through the suffering itself. From three of my favorite wisdom teachers:
Gratitude in our darkest times is more than a matter of remembering our blessings so we can hold the hard stuff in a bigger perspective. With understanding, we see that often it is the suffering itself that deepens us, maturing our perspective on life, making us more compassionate and wise than we would have been without it. How many times have we been inspired by those who embody a wisdom that could only come from dealing with adversity? And how many valuable lessons have we ourselves learned because life has given us unwanted challenges? With a grateful heart, we’re not only willing to face our difficulties, we can realize while we’re going through them that they are a part of our ripening into wisdom and nobility. – James Baraz
The Buddhist teachings are fabulous at simply working with what’s happening as your path of awakening, rather than treating your life experiences as some kind of deviation from what is supposed to be happening. The more difficulties you have, in fact, the greater opportunity there is to let them transform you. The difficult things provoke all your irritations and bring your habitual patterns to the surface. And that becomes the moment of truth. You have the choice to launch into the lousy habitual patterns you already have, or to stay with the rawness and discomfort of the situation and let it transform you, on the spot. – Pema Chodron
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. – Melodie Beattie
Gratitude is simply one of the most effective tools we have over the long haul to reliably soften grudge, resolve trauma and move through suffering with grace.
SARASOTA, Fla. — A Florida congressman was injured in an accident at his home Wednesday afternoon, his office said.
U.S. Rep. Greg Steube’s office released a short statement saying that he had been involved in an accident on his property and had sustained several injuries. The statement didn’t include details about the injuries or how serious they were.
“We will provide additional updates when possible,” the statement said. “Please pray for the Congressman and his family.”
Steube was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2018 and just began his third term. The Republican represents all of Sarasota and Charlotte counties and part of Lee County.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor Jeremy Renner says he is out of the hospital after being treated for serious injuries from a snow plow accident.
In response to a Twitter post Monday about his Paramount+ TV series “Mayor of Kingstown,” Renner tweeted, “Outside my brain fog in recovery, I was very excited to watch episode 201 with my family at home.”
Renner was run over by his own 7-ton Pistenbully snow groomer in Nevada while trying to use it to free a relative’s vehicle on a private road near Lake Tahoe on New Year’s Day, authorities said.
The accident left him in critical condition with major chest trauma and other injuries, according to a Renner representative.
Authorities are still investigating but have said there were no signs that Renner was impaired and no indication of any foul play.
The 52-year-old two-time Oscar nominee plays Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and has a recurring role in the “Mission Impossible” franchise.
I flipped my phone to view the screen but almost didn’t answer. Usually, I’d let it roll to voicemail.
“Hi, Cand, can you talk?”
Irritation rose like goosebumps.
I shouldn’t have answered.
“I’ve got some bad news.”
My shoulders tightened — just another “poor me” tirade.
“I’ve been diagnosed with macular degeneration.”
A breath — shallow and filled with gravel — was followed by a soft hiccough.
I tamped down my annoyance. We rarely spoke. When we did, it was typically short, tense and impersonal.
“I’m going blind.” Mom’s high-pitched whine pierced my soul. I cried when I got off the phone. For her loneliness. Her fear. For the bad breaks she’d seemed to have her whole life.
Unwilling to abandon her to her terror, I called the next day.
“Hi, Mom, how are you?”
“I won’t be able to drive anymore,” she spat as if it were my fault, and I struggled to stay in the moment rather than revert to my child self. Ever the dutiful daughter, I’d grown up walking on proverbial eggshells. But after a deep breath, I listened. Faced with blindness on top of COPD and CHF, she laid out the picture of the rest of her life: the need to leave her home, 24-hour oxygen, and needles in her eyes.
Thus, my quest began: to do what I could to ease my mother’s pain.
Our disaffection stemmed from our own traumas — including a childhood of neglect, an alcoholic father, sexual violence — but it was the pain we shared that truly kept us apart: my relinquishing my son for adoption when he was an infant 25 years earlier. The terrible words she’d spoken after I’d signed away my parental rights — ”he’s dead to me now”— had cut deep and forced our already-frayed relationship into near-complete separation. I’d walked away that day feeling both motherless and childless and resorted to the only coping mechanism I knew ― dissociation.
Many people experience mild forms of dissociation, like daydreaming or getting lost in a book, but for me, it meant complete detachment. I concealed my son’s existence from everyone, myself included, because if my own mother could hurt me so grievously, surely the rest of the world could inflict even greater pain.
When I finally talked to her, I pretended nothing had happened, just as I’d done as a child after bouts of abuse. Unfortunately, I continued to live disconnected for many years to follow.
What finally pulled me out of the fog was reconnecting with my son, Michael. We reunited when he turned 18, and the possibilities and promises of the future let light into the dark places of my heart. I gave him control over how our relationship progressed, and when he was 20, after two long years of waiting, he asked to meet face to face. Until then, I hadn’t truly realized how I ached for the boy I’d lost.
But the sheer rapture of holding him in my arms would never be repeated: Before we had the chance to meet again, he died in his sleep at just 23 years old.
I floundered in the aftermath of losing him a second time. I never truly processed his loss the first go-round, and now I confronted the need to mourn both. But how? My life was an endless parade of should haves, could haves and would haves. Anxiety filled my days. My heart raced. I couldn’t eat or concentrate. Then the holidays arrived, followed closely by his birthday. Every day seemed to present new horrors.
Collapsing on the floor in the middle of my bedroom, I surrendered to the pain. When I finally came up for air and saw my reflection in the full-length mirror, what I saw wasn’t a grown woman but a little girl. All I wanted to do was reach out, brush the hair from her forehead and hold her as she cried. That’s when I realized what she needed ― what I needed ― was to be mothered. But, because I didn’t trust my own mother, I decided I’d have to do it myself.
Through a conscious effort to learn self-compassion, I built new pathways for my brain. Instead of running from the pain, I sat with it. Instead of listening to old internal, judgmental messages, I spoke aloud affirmations and declarations of acceptance. Instead of viewing myself as the enemy, I pretended the face looking back at me was a friend. Eventually, I didn’t have to pretend any longer.
“When I finally came up for air and saw my reflection in the full-length mirror, what I saw wasn’t a grown woman but a little girl. … That’s when I realized what she needed ― what I needed ― was to be mothered.”
So, when my mother called to tell me she was going blind, what I heard was her fear. Faced with a future in which she couldn’t breathe, see or care for herself, my heart broke ― not in half but open.
Maybe I could share what I’d learned with her. But what could I do? I lived thousands of miles away, having moved there largely to escape her.
What I did was start to accept her calls or return her messages. Sometimes she railed against the unfairness, voice condescending and bitter, but no matter what she said or how she said it, I never told her she should “look on the bright side” or that “everything’s gonna be all right.”
Because it wouldn’t be.
Using the same techniques with my mom I’d used to mother myself, I asked questions and encouraged her to share memories of happy times, people she loved and places she missed. I sang songs and played my guitar for her ― the miles between us diminished by technology and kindness.
Ultimately, I called almost every day, sometimes just a quick, “How are you doing?” If she was in the middle of a panic attack, I’d talk her through the five senses exercise ― adapting a four-senses version since she couldn’t see. I urged her to develop a gratitude habit and learned not to suggest she take a deep breath ― because she couldn’t.
Three years after my son’s death, out of the blue, she asked, “Can I have a picture of Michael?”
My heart flipped. I swallowed, unsure of what to say.
“I have pictures of the other grandkids on my hutch, and I was hoping, even though I can’t see anymore, you’d send me one of Michael.”
“Um, yeah, sure.” I began to pace. “I have one of his graduation pictures. I could make a copy. Would that work?”
“That would be perfect. Can you make it 5-by-7? I have a frame already.”
“OK,” I said on autopilot.
When I got off the phone, I went to my remembrance shelf, picked up his high school senior picture and studied it closely. In it, he stood leaning against a tree, his black turtleneck sweater contrasting with his fair complexion. Shaggy hair hung just above his eyes, expression serious.
The bitterness that I’d missed his graduation had given way long ago to gratitude that I had a copy of this photograph. I brought it into the kitchen, took it out of the frame, smoothed it out on the counter, and it finally struck me. My grief had so consumed me that I couldn’t see the truth: My mother had also lost a grandchild.
Michael’s senior year photo, taken in 2008.
Courtesy of Candace Cahill
How could I have remained in the dark for so long? When the pain of Michael’s absence crushed my spirit, how could I not see that it did the same to my mother? Youth played a role, certainly, ignorance more so, but I am relieved that I finally saw the truth.
I didn’t think I’d survive losing my son twice, but I’ve found hidden amongst the despair a gift. The coping tools I’d discovered after his death helped my mother endure the pain, fear and uncertainty leading up to her own. And the compassion I extended to her gave me a sense of serenity I never expected to achieve. I am so grateful for my son ― for many reasons ― and although I miss him terribly and always have, I think without him, I may never have rebuilt a relationship with my mother.
Candace Cahill is an artist and park ranger from Denali, Alaska, and the author of “Goodbye Again: A Memoir.” You can find out more about her work at candacecahill.com.
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Hailey Bieber is getting candid about the “very scary” moment she suffered a mini-stroke last year and how it’s affected her mental and physical health since then.
In April, the model explained in a Youtube video that she had been rushed to the hospital the month prior with “stroke-like symptoms” caused by a blood clot in her brain while having breakfast with her husband, Justin Bieber, in Palm Springs, California.
In that video, she recalled feeling a “weird sensation” in her right arm and numbness in her fingertips before she was admitted to the hospital.
“I struggled with a lot of anxiety after. I struggled with a little bit of PTSD of just, like, the fear of maybe it was gonna happen again,” she sharedduring the latest episode of the “Run-Through with Vogue” podcast on Thursday.
Bieber — who later underwent a patent foramen ovale closure procedure to mend a hole in her heart — got candid about how “terrifying” the experience was.
“It was just a feeling that I was, like, I never want to experience that ever again. It was so terrifying, so jarring, so discombobulating in every single way that you could imagine,” the Rhode Beauty founder recalled.
Calling the mini-stroke “definitely the scariest thing I’ve ever gone through,” she added that returning to Palm Springs after suffering the medical emergency has been “very triggering” for her.
Though she’s visited the area numerous times since the incident, including during the recording of the podcast episode, she confessed that it wasn’t easy for her and felt “strange.”
“Even the first couple of times coming back here after was a little bit of a strange, triggering kind of feeling for me because you just remember exactly how everything happened in that moment,” she explained.
She added, “But I think the bright side for me is that it led me to find out I had this hole in my heart.”
Bieber said she is “just now starting to come out of that kind of fight-or-flight feeling of being nervous about something bad happening again” after battling anxious thoughts about her future health.
“I look back at it and it could’ve been so much worse,” she stressed.
Elsewhere in the interview, Bieber said that even though she is “open to talking about the experience if it could help somebody else,” it was still “really hard to talk about” initially.
“Even the YouTube video that I had made for my YouTube channel was hard for me. It brings back the feelings for me of going through that experience. It gets easier, and easier with time to be able to talk about it.”
She added, “I’m just really grateful that I was able to have had amazing doctors and nurses, and people that helped me get to the bottom of what actually happened.”
MELBOURNE, Australia — Venus Williams has withdrawn from the Australian Open for an undisclosed injury she sustained while playing in a tournament in Auckland, New Zealand this week.
A seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, Williams received a wild-card entry into the Australian Open last month to compete in what would have been her 22nd major at Melbourne Park.
But the Australian Open said on Saturday the 42-year-old Williams had withdrawn from the tournament beginning Jan. 16. It did not provide specifics regarding the injury.
It continues a run of misfortunes for Williams, who last played at Melbourne Park in 2021.
A two-time Australian Open finalist, Williams injured an ankle and knee in that appearance when stumbling awkwardly at the net in a second-round match against Sara Errani.
Her best efforts at Melbourne Park came when she was beaten by her sister Serena Williams in finals in 2003 and 2017.
Now ranked 1,003, Williams said when granted the wild card in December that she was excited to be returning to Melbourne.
“I’ve been competing in the country for over 20 years now and the Australian community has always supported me wholeheartedly,” she said.
The five-time Wimbledon singles champion has struggled with injuries over the past two years and was restricted to playing just four tournaments in the U.S. last August. She did not progress beyond the first round in those events and ended her season when beaten by Alison van Uytvanck at the U.S. Open.
But she started 2023 on a positive note by defeating fellow American Katie Volynets in Auckland. She was then beaten by China’s Zhu Lin in three sets in the second round.
___
More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
ATLANTA — Pulse was more than a safe space for Brandon Wolf and his friends. The nightclub was a haven for members of Orlando, Florida’s LGBTQ community — a place to be themselves without fear.
“It’s probably the first place I ever held hands with somebody I had a crush on,” Wolf said. “Without looking over my shoulder first, it’s one of the first places I ever wore my skinniest pair of jeans without being afraid of what someone might call me.”
On June 12, 2016, a gunman targeting the club’s patrons killed 49 people there, including two of Wolf’s best friends, and wounded 53. “It’s left such a hole in our hearts,” Wolf said.
After mass shootings, the loss felt by marginalized groups already facing discrimination is compounded. Some public health experts say the risk for mental health issues is greater for these groups — communities of color and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community among them.
The trauma is especially acute when the shootings happen at schools, churches, clubs or other places that previously served as pillars of those communities — welcoming and accepting spaces that are difficult to replace due to a lack of resources or the sociological and historical impact they have had.
“Folks from marginalized communities are already dealing with the burden of … discrimination and racism … and the emotional toll that they take,” said Dr. Sarah Lowe, a professor with the Yale School of Public Health and a clinical psychologist who has researched the long-term mental health consequences of mass shootings and other traumatic events. “All these other stressors can not only increase risk for mental health problems following a mass shooting, but they also increase risk for further loss of resources.”
As a result, there is the potential for members of such marginalized communities to leave or for the community itself to shut down, said Alan Wolfelt, a grief counselor and educator at the Center for Loss and Life Transition in Fort Collins, Colorado.
“That is why it is vital to support these communities, acknowledge their grief openly and honestly, and then help them rebuild their community in terms of meaning and purpose while realizing they have been totally transformed,” said Wofelt, who provides mental health services and education for individuals and communities that have experienced loss.
Club Q, a gay nightclub in Colorado, says it will eventually reopen at the same location, but with a new design and a permanent memorial, to honor five people killed last month in a targeted shooting. Club Q was a sanctuary for the LGBTQ community in the mostly conservative city of Colorado Springs, patrons said.
Pulse will not reopen. The site where it operated is now a memorial, and supporters plan to convert it into a permanent museum. The club’s closure has deeply scarred the LGBTQ community, which has tried to “re-create the sense of belonging” that Pulse had, Wolf said.
“I live next to a few other LGBTQ establishments and those are really important, but there was something truly special about Pulse and the community that we were able to create here,” he said. “For communities like ours, safe spaces are lifelines. They’re the refuges we carve out in a world that threatens violence against us every time we walk out the door.”
In some cases, traumatic events threaten basic necessities for marginalized groups, increasing the risk for mental health issues, said Lowe, the clinical psychologist.
Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York, was closed for two months after 10 Black shoppers and workers were fatally shot during a racist rampage. During that time, there was no grocery store on the East Side.
Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, was founded in 1816 and became a pillar of the African American community in the state’s Lowcountry region.
On June 17, 2015, a self-avowed white supremacist who targeted a Bible study at the church killed nine Black congregants. One of the victims was minister Myra Thompson, sister of South Carolina State Rep. JA Moore.
“My sister was a servant to the other parishioners at the church, and she dedicated a lot of her life and her love to serving others through the church,” Moore said.
The church reopened for Sunday services four days after the massacre. It was important to send a message, he said.
“Even seven years later, the church is still resilient and still rebuilding and still serving,” Moore said. “I think the message that reopening up after such a horrific event is the story of African Americans in this country, the history of this country, where no matter our trauma and our pain and the horrors that we have to endure, we recognize that it’s an obligation as Americans to continue to push forward.”
Wolf, now 34, has also pushed forward. Following the shooting at Pulse, he became an advocate and activist for the LGBTQ community and now works as press secretary for Equality Florida.
He said Orlando nonprofit organizations that support the LGBTQ community have expanded their services, and other LGBTQ-owned bars and restaurants have grown their customer base. Wolf believes the city has become more inclusive since the shooting.
“While I think there’s a hole and there will always be something missing where Pulse used to be, I also think it’s beautiful that we’ve chosen to take the important components of what made Pulse, Pulse, and infuse them into every which way we live our lives in this city,” he said.
———
Associated Press journalists Cody Jackson in Miami and Lekan Oyekanmi in Houston contributed to this report.
Newswise — Sights, smells and sounds of everyday life can supply the triggers that take someone with PTSD right back to the scarring scene they’re trying to forget.
With PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, a honking horn, a crowded coffeehouse or a sharp scent can bring back traumatic memories that can raise the heart rate, increase muscle tension and lead to anxiety and depression. These reactions occur even without the presence of danger, but they pose their own threat by causing strains on relationships at home and work, igniting the need to avoid certain situations and contributing to mood changes.
PTSD can happen to anyone at any age, according to the National Institutes of Health, and treatment options include medications as well as therapy. Researchers at MUSC Health recently published a paper in the Journal of Psychiatric Research where they worked with medical device company Zeriscope to test a device called Bio Ware, which is designed to enhance the effects of prolonged exposure therapy, a common, evidence-based therapy for patients with PTSD.
And with between 11 and 30% of veterans experiencing symptoms of PTSD, the research team looked at using Bio Ware with service members at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center specifically.
With in vivo exposures, which are a key component of prolonged exposure therapy, patients are tasked with putting themselves in safe but uncomfortable or triggering situations outside of their therapy sessions, as a form of homework. If they have a fear of crowded spaces, for example, their therapist may ask them to go to the grocery store at a busy time and then share their reaction at the next therapy session. If the service member is stressed by loud spaces and avoids them, their therapist may send them to a loud sporting event, for example, in an effort to help them learn to feel more comfortable in those situations and not have to avoid them in the future.
When done properly, in vivo exposures have proven successful and helpful to patients, but with so much relying on the patient and their interpretation of their own stressors, Sudie Back, Ph.D., a professor in the department of psychiatry at MUSC Health and principal investigator for the NIMH-funded study, sees room for error.
“What I find so exciting about this new Bio Ware device,” she said. “Is that when used alongside evidence-based, exposure treatment methods for PTSD, we’ve seen significantly better results for our patients.” Back and her team saw significant decreases in both PTSD symptoms and depression symptoms with their patients who used the new technology.
As a wearable device, the Bio Ware system includes a discreet button-shaped camera attached to the patient’s clothing, a watch-sized tool around their wrist and a Bluetooth headphone in their ear so their therapists can be virtually with them in the experience or situation that causes them stress. The clinician can see immediate recordings of the patient’s heart rate, breathing and emotional distress, and they can guide them through the experience by either pushing them to do more or pulling them back to do less, to optimize the in vivo exposure.
According to Back, “This is the first time, to my knowledge, that we’ve been able to virtually go with patients during their in vivo exposures and have instant access to their physiological data in the moment to really help them get the most out of those exercises, which I believe will translate into them seeing significant reductions in their PTSD symptoms.”
Bill Harley, the co-founder and CEO of Zeriscope, compares it to working out on your own versus with a personal trainer.
“Communicating with patients while simultaneously seeing their biophysics is incredibly helpful,” he said. “A lot of healing happens in the in vivo exposures, and Bio Ware enriches that experience.”
The “special sauce” created with Bio Ware lies in the autonomic nervous system according to Robert Adams, M.D., the president and co-founder of Zeriscope and a professor of neurology at MUSC Health. Previously developed watches aimed for something similar, but they only collected pulse information. This system goes a level deeper, he says, by directly questioning the autonomic nervous system.
The autonomic nervous system controls physiologic reactions like heart rate, blood pressure and breathing. By using the same technology used in lie detector tests, physicians can take this galvanic skin response, change the patient’s triggering experience accordingly and watch how the actions that they direct the patient to do impact the autonomic nervous system.
One of these days, they know they gotta get goin’,
Out of the door and down the street all alone.
Adams thinks the line from the Grateful Dead song “Truckin’” summarizes the need for Bio Ware. “It’s an expression of what exposure therapy really is. You’ve got to go back out into the real world on your own, but we can help.”
###
About MUSC
Founded in 1824 in Charleston, MUSC is the state’s only comprehensive academic health system, with a unique mission to preserve and optimize human life in South Carolina through education, research and patient care. Each year, MUSC educates more than 3,000 students in six colleges – Dental Medicine, Graduate Studies, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy – and trains more than 850 residents and fellows in its health system. MUSC brought in more than $327.6 million in research funds in fiscal year 2021, leading the state overall in research funding. MUSC also leads the state in federal and National Institutes of Health funding, with more than $220 million. For information on academic programs, visit musc.edu.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Baker Mayfield threw two touchdown passes to Tyler Higbee, Cam Akers rushed for 118 yards and three more scores, and the Los Angeles Rams routed the Denver Broncos 51-14 Sunday for their second victory since mid-October.
Mayfield went 24 of 28 for 230 yards in another standout performance for his second win in three starts with the Rams (5-10), who produced the best game of their dismal season on Christmas.
Rookie Cobie Durant returned his second interception 85 yards for a touchdown with 4:08 left to cap the Rams’ first 50-point performance under Sean McVay since their famed 54-51 victory over Kansas City in 2018.
For at least one more week, Los Angeles avoided becoming the first defending Super Bowl champion to lose 11 games. Even with the NFL’s 32nd-ranked offense coming in, Los Angeles became just the second team to score 50 points in the NFL this season, joining Dallas earlier this month, and put together a comprehensively dominant performance.
In his Los Angeles debut, Larrell Murchison made 2 1/2 of the Rams’ six sacks of Russell Wilson, who passed for 214 yards with three interceptions for Denver (4-11).
The beleaguered Wilson was not sharp in his return from a one-game absence with a concussion, throwing interceptions to end Denver’s first two drives. The second pick was by Bobby Wagner, who faced his longtime teammate and friend for the first time after spending a full decade together in Seattle.
Wagner also sacked Wilson during the first half, when the Rams improbably racked up 261 of their 388 yards before halftime and eventually scored on their first eight drives against Denver’s above-average defense, already matching their full-game season high in points with their 31-6 halftime lead.
Denver trailed 41-6 before Wilson hit Greg Dulcich for the Broncos’ only touchdown with 8:30 to play.
Akers continued his late-season surge by producing the Rams’ first 100-yard rushing game of the season, while Higbee led the passing attack with 94 yards receiving for an offense missing its top three wideouts due to injury.
The Rams led by double digits less than nine minutes in when Durant picked off Wilson’s second pass and Mayfield hit Higbee for a 9-yard TD three plays later. Higbee became the Rams’ career franchise leader in touchdown catches by a tight end with his 19th score.
Wagner then poached a pass from Wilson across the middle of the field and made a long return, and the Rams scored two snaps later on Akers’ 3-yard run. Los Angeles had scored just one touchdown off a takeaway all season long before doing it twice more in the first quarter.
The Rams’ 17-point first quarter was their highest-scoring opening period since Week 6 of McVay’s first season in 2017. They subsequently scored touchdowns on four consecutive drives for the first time in McVay’s tenure.
Higbee made his second TD catch early in the second quarter after a smooth 75-yard drive by the Rams’ long-struggling offense. Akers then punched it in again 1:06 before halftime for a 31-3 lead.
Ramsey picked off Wilson’s long heave to the end zone on Denver’s opening drive of the second half. The Rams’ pressure on Wilson improbably was led by Murchison, who signed with LA 13 days ago after Tennessee cut him.
INJURIES
Murchison left in the fourth quarter with a neck injury. … Dulcich was ruled out with a hamstring injury late in the fourth quarter.
UP NEXT
Broncos: At Chiefs on Sunday.
Rams: “At” Chargers on Sunday.
———
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP—NFL
TORONTO — A bus rolled over on an icy highway in British Columbia on Christmas Eve, killing four people and injuring three dozen, Canadian authorities said Sunday.
A statement from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the bus crashed on Highway 97C east of Merritt. It said the accident was still under investigation but it was believed that extremely icy road conditions caused the rollover.
Interior Health, the regional health authority, said 36 people were treated for injuries ranging from minor to serious. It said eight remained hospitalized Sunday morning, including two in serious condition and two with non-life-threatening injuries.
Newswise — PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The risk of firearm death in the U.S. is on the rise: in 2020, firearms became the leading cause of death for children, adolescents and young adults. Yet the risk is far from even — young men in some U.S. zip codes face disproportionately higher risks of firearm-related injuries and deaths.
To better understand the magnitude of the gun violence crisis and put it in perspective, researchers at Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania compared the risk of firearm-related death for young adult men living in the most violent areas in four major U.S. cities with the risks of combat death and injury faced by U.S. military personnel who served in Afghanistan and Iraq during active periods of war.
The results were mixed: The study, published in JAMA Network Open, found that young men from zip codes with the most firearm violence in Chicago and Philadelphia faced a notably higher risk of firearm-related death than U.S. military personnel deployed to wartime service in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the opposite was true in two other cities: The most violent areas in New York and Los Angeles were associated with much less risk for young men than those in the two wars.
In all zip codes studied, risks were overwhelmingly borne by young men from minority racial and ethnic groups, the study found.
“These results are an urgent wake-up call for understanding, appreciating and responding to the risks and attendant traumas faced by this demographic of young men,” said Brandon del Pozo, an assistant professor of medicine (research) at Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School and an assistant professor of health services, policy and practice (research) at the University’s School of Public Health.
Del Pozo conducts research at the intersection of public health, public safety and justice, focusing on substance use, the overdose crisis, and violence. His recently released book, “The Police and the State: Security, Social Cooperation, and the Public Good,” is based on his academic research as well as his 23 years of experience as a police officer in New York City and as chief of police of Burlington, Vermont.
“Working as a police officer, I witnessed the toll of gun violence, and how disruptive it was for families and communities,” del Pozo said. “It stood out to me that the burden was not distributed evenly by geography or demographic. Some communities felt the brunt of gun violence much more acutely than others. By analyzing publicly available data on firearm fatalities in cities and in war, we sought to place that burden in sharp relief.”
At the same time, del Pozo said, he and the other study authors were responding to oft-repeated inflammatory claims about gun violence in American cities.
“We often hear opposing claims about gun violence that fall along partisan lines: One is that big cities are war zones that require a severe crackdown on crime, and the other is that our fears about homicides are greatly exaggerated and don’t require drastic action,” del Pozo said. “We wanted to use data to explore these claims — and it turns out both are wrong. While most city residents are relatively safe from gun violence, the risks are more severe than war for some demographics.”
Illustrating the magnitude of the firearm crisis
To conduct their analysis, the researchers obtained information on all fatal and nonfatal shootings of 18- to 29-year-old men recorded as crimes in 2020 and 2021 in Chicago; Los Angeles; New York; and Philadelphia — the four largest U.S. cities for which public data on those who were shot were available. For New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, they used shooting death and injury data sets made public by each city; for Los Angeles, they extracted firearm death and injury data from a larger public data set of recorded crimes. Data were aggregated to the zip code level and linked to corresponding demographic characteristics from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey.
The researchers acquired wartime combat-related mortality and injury counts for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan from peer-reviewed analyses of U.S. military data covering the years 2001 to 2014 for the war in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2009 for the war in Iraq, both of which were periods of active combat. Because there is limited data about the risks of serving in different military units at different times during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the researchers considered the mortality and injury data of a single, de-identified Army brigade combat team engaged in combat during a 15-month period of the Iraq War that involved notably above-average combat death and injury rates at a time considered to be the height of the conflict.
The analysis included 129,826 young men residing in the four cities considered in the study.
The researchers found that compared to the risk of combat death faced by U.S. soldiers who were deployed to Afghanistan, the more dangerous of the two wars, young men living in the most violent zip code of Chicago (2,585 individuals) had a 3.23 times higher average risk of firearm-related homicide, and those in Philadelphia (2,448 people) faced a 1.9 times higher average risk of firearm-related homicide. Singling out the elevated dangers faced by the U.S. Army combat brigade in Iraq, the young men studied in Chicago still faced notably greater risks, and the ones faced in Philadelphia were comparable.
However, these findings were not observed in the most violent zip codes of Los Angeles and New York, where young men faced a 70% to 91% lower risk than soldiers in the Afghanistan war across fatal and nonfatal categories.
When the researchers looked at the demographics of the young men in the zip codes studied, they determined that the risk of violent death and injury observed in the zip codes studied was almost entirely borne by individuals from minority racial and ethnic groups: Black and Hispanic males represented 96.2% of those who were fatally shot and 97.3% of those who experienced nonfatal injury across all four cities.
In the study, the researchers make the point that the risk of firearm death is not the only thing that young men living in violent U.S. zip codes have in common with young men at war.
“Exposure to combat has been associated with stress-inducing hypervigilance and elevated rates of homelessness, alcohol use, mental illness and substance use, which, in turn, are associated with a steep discounting of future rewards,” they write. “Our findings — which show that young men in some of the communities we studied were subject to annual firearm homicide and violent injury rates in excess of 3.0% and as high as 5.8% — lend support to the hypothesis that beyond the deaths and injuries of firearm violence, ongoing exposure to these violent events and their risks are a significant contributor to other health problems and risk behaviors in many U.S. communities.”
Del Pozo added that the health risks are likely even higher for people in cities, because they need to face their “battles” every day over a lifetime, as opposed to military personnel in a tour of duty in Afghanistan, which typically lasted 12 months. The study results, del Pozo said, help illustrate the magnitude of the firearms crisis, a necessary understanding to municipalities seeking to formulate an effective public health response.
“The findings suggest that urban health strategies should prioritize violence reduction and take a trauma-informed approach to addressing the health needs of these communities,” del Pozo said.
Other Brown contributors included Dr. Michael J. Mello, a physician and researcher at the Warren Alpert Medical School and the Injury Prevention Center at Rhode Island Hospital.
The study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (K01DA056654) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (P20GM139664).
Newswise — Bethesda, Md. – In recognition of their outstanding research that has brought visibility to issues impacting the Armed Forces and their families, several behavioral health professionals from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) were the recipients of the Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University (MFRI)’s 2022 Barbara Thompson Excellence in Research on Military and Veteran Families Award. The award is based on their scientific publication, “The role of posttraumatic stress symptoms and negative affect in predicting substantiated intimate partner violence incidents among military personnel,” published in the journal Military Behavioral Health in August 2021.
Dr. Stephen Cozza, a psychiatrist in USU’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) Dr. Eddie McCarroll, a CSTS scientist and social worker, and Dr. David Riggs, chair of USU’s Department of Psychology, were among the participating scientists in a multi-institutional research project led by Dr. Valerie Stander at the Naval Research Center in San Diego, who received the award.
The researchers looked at symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among active-duty service members, seeking to determine whether any particular symptoms might be associated with an increased risk for intimate partner violence. They studied the extent to which PTSD symptoms – particularly hyperarousal and persistent negative emotions, like fear, anger, or shame – might be unique risk factors, compared to symptoms associated with other comorbid conditions (e.g. depression, anxiety, insomnia, alcohol dependence, or binge drinking). Ultimately, they found that general symptoms of negative affect (e.g. anger/irritability and sleep disruption), which are common in PTSD, and comorbid alcohol dependence, were the strongest predictors of intimate partner violence.
The publication was selected for the prestigious award through a rigorous and highly selective process, through which applications and nominations are not accepted. According to the institute, a large panel of accomplished scholars examines every relevant research article published during the eligible year. The final decision is made after multiple rounds of review involving standardized quantitative assessments. About 500 articles were considered.
The MFRI established the Barbara Thompson Award in 2015, in partnership with Military REACH at Auburn University, to bring visibility to issues of military and veteran families, and to outstanding new research. The award aims to increase the impact of rigorous research on programs, policies, and practices that impact military members and their families, while strengthening connections between researchers and practitioners interested in military and veteran families.
“Uniformed Services University faculty members are highly sought out, not only for their expertise, but also for their willingness to contribute to mission-relevant team efforts. It is not surprising that members of different specialties and, indeed, from different departments at USU, were able to make significant contributions to this effort,” said Dr. David Benedek, chair of USU’s Department of Psychiatry and associate director of USU’s CSTS.
The award recipients presented their research in detail and discussed the implications for future research during a virtual award ceremony on Dec. 9.
# # #
About the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences: The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, founded by an act of Congress in 1972, is the nation’s federal health sciences university and the academic heart of the Military Health System. USU students are primarily active-duty uniformed officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Public Health Service who receive specialized education in tropical and infectious diseases, TBI and PTSD, disaster response and humanitarian assistance, global health, and acute trauma care. USU also has graduate programs in oral biology, biomedical sciences and public health committed to excellence in research. The University’s research program covers a wide range of areas important to both the military and public health. For more information about USU and its programs, visit www.usuhs.edu.
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Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU)
DETROIT — Most small SUVs flunked the latest frontal crash tests done by the insurance industry, but oddly enough, they’re just as safe as they were before.
That’s because the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety updated the test so it places more emphasis on keeping back-seat passengers safe.
Only the Ford Escape and Volvo XC40 got the top “good” rating in this year’s testing released Tuesday. The Toyota RAV4 was rated “acceptable,” while Audi’s Q3, the Nissan Rogue and the Subaru Forester were “marginal.”
The remainder, the Buick Encore, Chevrolet Equinox, Honda CR-V and HR-V, Hyundai Tucson, Jeep Compass, Jeep Renegade, Mazda CX-5 and Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross got the bottom rating of “poor.”
IIHS President David Harkey said the test is being changed because vehicle structures, air bags and seat belts have made the SUVs safer for front-seat passengers than those in the back. Now, the risk of fatal injury is 46% higher for rear-seat passengers than drivers in the front, Harkey said.
“Before we were just focused on how well the driver was protected,” Harkey said. “It’s not that the vehicle has become any less safe.”
The institute has a history of changing its widely watched tests in an effort to get automakers to make safety improvements, and Harkey says they normally respond to the changes.
While safety belts restrain back-seat passengers, they’re susceptible to head and neck injuries, and in many of the SUVs, the belts are relatively low tech and simply tighten up in a crash.
Newer belts have sensors that determine a crash is imminent and they pull a passenger into the proper seating position before a crash, slowing the passenger’s speed with the vehicle, Harkey said. After impact, they loosen a bit to prevent belts from rising off the pelvis and into the abdomen where they can cause severe internal injuries, he said.
Some automakers already have put more sophisticated belts in their back seats, something that can be done without a big model update, Harkey said. “The industry has always been good about responding to tests that we have introduced,” he said. “We expect they will do so in this case, and we expect they will be able to do so quickly.”
The institute used a crash dummy that represents a small woman or a 12-year-old child to test for injuries to rear-seat passengers, and Harkey says the dummy does a good job of showing risk to passengers of all sizes.
When the IIHS introduced the moderate overlap front crash test in 1995, most vehicles were rated poor or marginal. Automakers responded with stronger structures and air bags to make front-seat riders safer, and all 15 small SUV models used to get good ratings.
In the original moderate overlap test, a vehicle travels at 40 mph toward an aluminum barrier. About 40% of the vehicle’s width hits the barrier on the driver’s side.
Some of the SUVs tested have more sophisticated rear safety belts, but the timing has to be worked out to function better in the milliseconds before and after a crash, Harkey said. “Now they’ve got to go back and figure out are they firing at the right time?” he said.
Small SUVs are the most popular new vehicles sold in the U.S. So far this year, compact and subcompact SUVs combined account for 23.4% of all new vehicle sales, according to Edmunds.com.
DETROIT — Most small SUVs flunked the latest frontal crash tests done by the insurance industry, but oddly enough, they’re just as safe as they were before.
That’s because the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety updated the test so it places more emphasis on keeping back-seat passengers safe.
Only the Ford Escape and Volvo XC40 got the top “good” rating in this year’s testing released Tuesday. The Toyota RAV4 was rated “acceptable,” while Audi’s Q3, the Nissan Rogue and the Subaru Forester were “marginal.”
The remainder, the Buick Encore, Chevrolet Equinox, Honda CR-V and HR-V, Hyundai Tucson, Jeep Compass, Jeep Renegade, Mazda CX-5 and Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross got the bottom rating of “poor.”
IIHS President David Harkey said the test is being changed because vehicle structures, air bags and seat belts have made the SUVs safer for front-seat passengers than those in the back. Now, the risk of fatal injury is 46% higher for rear-seat passengers than drivers in the front, Harkey said.
“Before we were just focused on how well the driver was protected,” Harkey said. “It’s not that the vehicle has become any less safe.”
The institute has a history of changing its widely watched tests in an effort to get automakers to make safety improvements, and Harkey says they normally respond to the changes.
While safety belts restrain back-seat passengers, they’re susceptible to head and neck injuries, and in many of the SUVs, the belts are relatively low tech and simply tighten up in a crash.
Newer belts have sensors that determine a crash is imminent and they pull a passenger into the proper seating position before a crash, slowing the passenger’s speed with the vehicle, Harkey said. After impact, they loosen a bit to prevent belts from rising off the pelvis and into the abdomen where they can cause severe internal injuries, he said.
Some automakers already have put more sophisticated belts in their back seats, something that can be done without a big model update, Harkey said. “The industry has always been good about responding to tests that we have introduced,” he said. “We expect they will do so in this case, and we expect they will be able to do so quickly.”
The institute used a crash dummy that represents a small woman or a 12-year-old child to test for injuries to rear-seat passengers, and Harkey says the dummy does a good job of showing risk to passengers of all sizes.
When the IIHS introduced the moderate overlap front crash test in 1995, most vehicles were rated poor or marginal. Automakers responded with stronger structures and air bags to make front-seat riders safer, and all 15 small SUV models used to get good ratings.
In the original moderate overlap test, a vehicle travels at 40 mph toward an aluminum barrier. About 40% of the vehicle’s width hits the barrier on the driver’s side.
Some of the SUVs tested have more sophisticated rear safety belts, but the timing has to be worked out to function better in the milliseconds before and after a crash, Harkey said. “Now they’ve got to go back and figure out are they firing at the right time?” he said.
Small SUVs are the most popular new vehicles sold in the U.S. So far this year, compact and subcompact SUVs combined account for 23.4% of all new vehicle sales, according to Edmunds.com.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Justin Herbert threw for 367 yards and a touchdown and a short-handed Chargers defense got the best of the Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa as Los Angeles beat Miami 23-17 on Sunday night.
The Chargers (7-6) moved into position for the final AFC playoff berth, ahead of the New York Jets. Their hold though would be short lived if New England beats Arizona on Monday night.
“It was an incredible team win,” coach Brandon Staley said. “Defensively we answered all the challenges in the game that we had to face.
“Justin was fantastic and definitely led the way for our team. He made a lot of winning plays and really made good decisions throughout the game.”
Herbert — the sixth overall pick in 2020, one behind Tagovailoa — completed a career-high 39 passes on 51 attempts for his 21st 300-yard game. He became the first NFL quarterback to throw for 13,000 yards in his first three seasons.
“There were a lot of good things from all three phases. The defense did an incredible job,” Herbert said.
Tyreek Hill scored two touchdowns for the Dolphins, one of them on an improbable recovery of Jeff Wilson Jr.’s fumble that Hill took 57 yards to the end zone. But Tagovailoa had his worst game as an NFL starter, completing 10 of 28 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown as the Dolphins (8-5) lost their second straight.
“They played to what they’re good at, and we just didn’t execute,” Tagovailoa said. “It was very disappointing for us to go out there as an offense and show what we showed. That’s not to our standard.”
The Chargers held Miami to 219 yards despite not having safety Derwin James, cornerback Bryce Callahan and defensive lineman Sebastian Joseph-Day because of injuries. The Dolphins came in with the league’s top-ranked pass offense.
LA’s offense was buoyed by the return of Mike Williams, who had missed four of the last five games with a high ankle sprain. Williams had six catches for 116 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown while getting both feet in bounds near the back of the end zone to extend the Chargers’ lead to 10-0 early in the second quarter.
Austin Ekeler, who finished with 104 scrimmage yards, had a 1-yard run off left tackle with 18 seconds left in the quarter to extend the lead to 17-7.
Keenan Allen added 12 receptions for 92 yards.
Cameron Dicker kicked three field goals, including one from 29-yards that gave the Chargers a 23-14 advantage with 2:40 remaining. Dicker’s kick capped a 17-play, 79-yard drive that took 8:39 off the clock.
Hill finished with four catches for 81 yards, including a 60-yard TD in the third quarter on Tagovailoa’s best throw of the night, and became the Dolphins’ single-season leader in receiving yards. Chargers cornerback Michael Davis slipped in coverage at the LA 40, allowing Hill to make an easy catch and saunter untouched to the end zone to get Miami within 17-14.
Miami’s Jason Sanders booted a 55-yard field goal with 1:10 remaining, but Los Angeles recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.
“That’s hard to take. There’s a lot of investment, and it’s not good enough,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said. “I thought the defense played well enough for us to win. There’s stuff we can clean up, for sure. There’s a multitude of things.”
SCOOP AND SCORE
The Dolphins had 5 net yards and one first down on their first three possessions before finally getting on the scoreboard, thanks to Hill.
On second-and-4 from the Miami 41, Wilson fumbled while tackled by Chargers safety Alohi Gilman during a 6-yard gain. There was a scramble for the loose ball until Hill picked it up, changed direction and quickly sprinted to his right and up the sideline.
Hill became the only player in the Super Bowl era to score TDs via receiving, rushing, kick return, punt return and fumble return.
RECORD BOOK
Ekeler finished with eight receptions for 59 yards. His third catch moved him past Kansas City’s Kimble Anders (369) for the most by an undrafted running back in the common draft era. Ekeler now has 375 receptions in his six-year career.
INJURIES
Dolphins: Wilson suffered an ankle injury during the second quarter. Safety Eric Rowe had a hamstring injury in the third quarter.
UP NEXT
Dolphins: At Buffalo next Saturday night.
Chargers: Host Tennessee next Sunday.
———
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP—NFL
Newswise — Those on the front line of the Covid pandemic need mental health support to help them recover from, or manage, the stress and trauma they faced – according to University of East Anglia research.
A new report published today investigates the impact of the pandemic on nurses working in care homes.
It shows how care home nurses were unprepared for the situation they found themselves in, and that this impacted their mental health and wellbeing.
The research team say that these frontline workers need a mental health and wellbeing strategy to help promote recovery from the symptoms of trauma and moral distress that they faced during the pandemic.
Lead researcher Diane Bunn, from UEA’s School of Health Sciences, said: “Our work shows that care home nurses were completelyunprepared for the extraordinary situation they found themselves in during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that this has impacted their mental health and wellbeing.
“They had to manage a highly infectious new disease, associated with high mortality, in residents already living with complex clinical conditions.
“They did this alongside staff shortages, constantly changing and conflicting guidelines and with minimal external professional support.
“Health and social care staff are still very much in a recovery phase. They need time to recover from all that happened during the pandemic and many of them will need counselling and mental health support for some time.
“Supporting care home nurses to recover from the pandemic is essential to maintain a healthy, stable workforce.”
The research team carried out in-depth interviews with care home nurses about their experiences of the pandemic, across homes for older people in England and Scotland. They particularly focused on the nurses’ resilience and mental wellbeing.
“All of the nurses we spoke to described being attentive to the needs of others, but less attentive to their own needs, which came at personal cost,” said Bunn.
“There are many lessons to be learnt to support their recovery and ensure appropriate policies are in place in preparedness for the next pandemic,” she added.
The study highlights a range of strategies to help nurses accept and recover from their experiences, and suggestions for how to better-prepare for future pandemics. These include:
Bespoke mental health and wellbeing strategy for care home nurses in the current pandemic recovery period and ensuring that this is ongoing and adaptable for future pandemics and disasters.
Wider professional and government recognition of the specialist skills required of care home nurses.
Revisit guidance to better prepare for any future pandemics and disasters on care homes
Involvement of care home nurses in the development of disaster-response policies in care homes.
Consistency of guidelines, and research-informed methods for effective communication of guidelines.
“Support for care home nurses will likely benefit other care-home workers either directly through wider roll-out, or indirectly through improved wellbeing of nurse leaders,” added Bunn.
This work was led by the University of East Anglia in collaboration with researchers at the University of Leicester. It was funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
‘Care-home Nurses’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic: Managing ethical conundrums at personal cost: A qualitative study’ is published in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship on December 6, 2022.
Books make for a wonderful present, whether the recipient is into cooking, biographies, sports, video games, and more. Here are some of the best books to gift this holiday season.
The 2023 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records takes readers on a journey that’s out of this world, revealing the latest and greatest record-breaking achievements here on Earth and across the vast distances of space. A wonderful book for all ages, and something that will become a collectible in the future.
A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories offers an unprecedented glimpse into the formation of the legendary talent of Leonard Cohen. In A Ballet of Lepers, readers will discover that the magic that animated Cohen’s unforgettable body of work was present from the very beginning. The pieces in this collection offer startling insight into Cohen’s imagination and creative process, and explore themes that would permeate his later work.
The Series: What I Remember, What It Felt Like, What It Feels Like Now by Ken Dryden is the new book by the Hall of Fame goalie and bestselling author. It celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series that is considered one of the most important moments in hockey history. Dryden says it changed the game, on the ice and off, everywhere in the world, and became one of the most significant events in all of Canada’s history.
The Trapped In A Video Game series is a fantastic collection for chapter readers who love both books and video games. Getting sucked into a video game is not as much fun as you’d think – there might be jetpacks, hover tanks, and infinite lives, but what happens when the game starts to turn on you? In this best-selling series, 12-year-old Jesse Rigsby finds out just how dangerous video games – and the people making those games – can be.
Down And Out In Paradise: The Life Of Anthony Bourdain is the first book to tell the true and full Bourdain story, relating the highs and lows of an extraordinary life. Author Charles Leerhsen shows how Bourdain’s never-before-reported childhood traumas fueled both his creativity and the insecurities that would lead him to a place of despair.
The Lonely Planet guides are must-have travel books for anyone who loves the sport of globetrotting. Whether you’re buying a gift for someone who has a specific destination in mind, or a wanderlust that flies by the seat of their pants, there’s a Lonely Planet book designed specifically for them.
And while you’re curled up with a great book, be sure to have a Glade candle or plug-in nearby. Their incredible scents for the holiday season are warm, inviting, and homey, including Apple of my Pie, Snow Much Fun, and Pine Wonderland, to name just a few.
terrifying, or toxic circumstances. In fact, we can be grateful that these innate survival responses did allow us to survive, even if they constrict us or cause their own suffering later down the road. By becoming conscious…and compassionate…and accepting…and embracing of those mechanisms that kept us afloat, even though they sometimes threaten to sink us now, we soften our grudge toward ourselves, or toward the traumatizing events, and deepen into the place in our hearts and minds that 
