The study tested blood samples from more than 500 women.

All the women were about 10 weeks pregnant when the samples were initially taken, and scientists evaluated the samples for different forever chemicals.

Researchers found that those with higher blood levels of the chemicals both weighed more and had more body fat when they returned for a follow-up visit between 17 to 20 years later.

“If they have a chemistry that allows them to interact with the receptors on a cell surface and if that’s a cell that’s a fat cell, then it might be sending the signal for that cell to take on more fat,” said Nora Demers, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University.

PFAS are known to linger in the human body, interfere with hormones and cause a wide range of health problems. Considering the findings, researchers are stressing the need to recognize pregnancy as a sensitive time for chemical exposure that could lead to future heart issues.

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Randall Tackett, a professor in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Georgia, said he believes there are a few reasons more antidepressant overdoses are being reported.

“I think there’s a number of things that come into play with the antidepressants. Number one is, I think we’re seeing more of them actually being prescribed,” Tackett said.

Tackett said another reason could be because people are taking antidepressants with other drugs.

“Antidepressants are not uncommonly prescribed with narcotics and pain-relieving drugs so you have a good mix there that could be potentially an issue,” said Tackett.

According to analysis of CDC overdose data, suicides involving antidepressants increased 2% each year from 1999 to 2015. Since then, Scott Thompson, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado, said they have been steady.

“But since 2015, the number of suicides attributed to antidepressants has been truly stable,” Thompson said.

Thompson said this isn’t the case for other drugs over the same period.

“The number of deaths attributed to opioids has increased twenty-fold. So again, antidepressants are largely safe,” said Thompson.

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So far this year, ISIS has claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks in Turkey, Iran and Russia. Affiliated actors also carried out a stabbing attack in Germany and threatened a Taylor Swift concert in Austria.

“The threat continuum evolves on a daily basis, and our intelligence community is certainly doing the best they can with the resources available to them,” said James DeMeo, an adjunct faculty instructor at Tulane University.

The renewed ISIS threat, along with the emergence of other terrorist groups across the Middle East, is highlighting how the U.S. and its allies are struggling to fight them.

“It’s crowded the terrorism landscape, and now different groups are vying for that power and to be the next group that’s going to target the next biggest country, which puts the U.S. front and center,” said Sara Harmouch, a doctoral candidate at American University.

In July, the U.S. Central Command released a statement saying ISIS was responsible for 153 attacks in Iraq and Syria in the first half of 2024 and is on pace to more than double the total number of attacks it claimed in 2023.

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The study looked at police shootings from 2015 to 2020 and found that 45% occurred in rural areas and 22% in suburban areas.

Julie Ward, one of the study’s authors and a professor at Vanderbilt University, said the focus on urban shootings led researchers to examine the numbers in other areas.

“We wanted to see if that actually matches the per capita rates of shootings in these areas,” Ward said.

The findings reveal that police shootings affect rural areas at a higher rate than urban areas.

“When we look on a per capita basis, the rates of these shootings appear to be substantial in rural and suburban areas relative to urban areas,” Ward said.

Betsy Brantner Smith, spokesperson for the National Police Association, said that from a law enforcement perspective, working in rural and suburban areas involves significant risk.

“It’s actually more dangerous to be a rural or suburban law enforcement officer than to be an urban law enforcement officer,” Brantner Smith said.

Brantner Smith noted that so far this year, 41 police officers have been fatally shot, with nine in urban areas.

“The vast majority were either in rural or suburban areas,” Brantner Smith said.

She recommends examining crime against police in these areas, in addition to police shootings.

“Not only to look at crime and criminology but also to look at attacks on police officers,” Brantner Smith said.

Ward also noted that in rural areas, less than half of the shootings involved local police. She believes that any proposed reforms should apply to both local police and local sheriffs.

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The CDC said most people infected have no symptoms, but others could develop severe neurological problems.

Ned Walker, a professor at Michigan State University said that the illness spreads through mosquito bites mostly in eastern states.

“Primarily along the East coast, but some parts of up-state New York and the Midwest,” Walker said.

Walker says what makes Triple E different from other mosquito-born illnesses is that the virus is extremely dangerous.

Massachusetts is a state Walker said experts look at to see where the virus is spreading.

“We kind of look to Massachusetts, as you could say, a ‘canary in the coal mine’ for what’s happening,” said Walker.

To protect residents from the virus, including several towns at high risk, the state is now spraying those areas with mosquito-killing pesticides. Something Dawn Wesson, a professor of tropical medicine at Tulane University said can be an effective tool.

“Doing a proactive spraying of that environment. Say if it’s a ball field or a soccer pitch or whatever that might be,” Wesson said.

But spraying isn’t enough. Wesson recommends that everyone wear insect repellant, especially younger kids and older adults that are most at risk.

“Using some kind of a repellant that stays on reliably is going to be important,” said Wesson.

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By law, gear sold in Massachusetts and Connecticut must be free of forever chemicals by 2027 and 2028, respectively.

The International Association of Fire Fighters estimates that cancer for turnout gear accounted for 66% of firefighter deaths between 2002 and 2019.

The Massachusetts law also requires any turnout gear manufacturers selling products treated with forever chemicals to notify the buyer in writing.

“Presumably it can be done without jeopardizing their safety. If there are all other things equal, it would be a nice thing to do to get the exposures lower and over time, of course, their blood levels will be lower as well,” said Dr. David Savitz, a professor of epidemiology at Brown University.

Both bills were opposed by the turnout gear industry and the nation’s chemical makers.

The American Chemistry Council released a statement, saying that this bill may have unintended consequences for the performance of personal protective equipment that firefighters need.

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The study looked at nutritional and advertising guidelines from the World Health Organization.

However, Lauren Dunaway, a registered dietitian and professor at Tulane University, says that in the United States, we have our own guidelines separate from the WHO.

“They’re called the Dietary Guidelines, and they’re a joint project between the USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services,” Dunaway said.

That is why she has questions about the study, which suggests that 60% of foods marketed to children 6 to 36 months old have too much sugar and salt — as well as make misleading marketing claims.

“How are they defining healthy, and how are they defining the misleading claims?” Dunaway asked.

Regan Bailey, a parent and professor of nutrition at Texas A&M, says the best thing to do when shopping for baby and infant food is to try to avoid products with a lot of added sugar and higher amounts of sodium.

“You want to limit sodium as much as possible, so not adding it and looking for products with lower sodium amounts,” Bailey said.

Despite some skepticism, Bailey believes foods that come in pouches are fine to feed children as long as they have good ingredients.

“They are a safe and nutritious way to help children meet dietary recommendations,” Bailey said.

Bailey also says that beginning at about 12 months, table foods are encouraged. So, rather than only using pre-packaged products, cutting food into smaller pieces is also an option.

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In March, a $418 million settlement was reached with the National Association of Realtors. The settlement, Kristin Francis with KW Metro Center Arlington said, stops Realtors from posting commission on any multiple listing service.

“We can’t publish our commissions. So now we have to have individual discussions house by house,” Francis said.

Before these rule changes took effect, sellers had to pay commission to their agent, who then split that fee with the buyer’s agent. Now, sellers can negotiate those fees down.

“The buyer and the buyer’s agent still have to have that conversation to say, ‘Hey, my professional fee is X,’ and we can go and ask the seller to cover that, and they may say yes, or they may say no,” Francis said.

But commissions aren’t the only thing changing. Michelle Sloan, a broker at RE/MAX TIME in Cincinnati, said buyers can no longer see a home without a written agreement.

“They will need a buyer’s agreement with a buyer’s agent in order to see that property,” Sloan said.

She said this change will help agents keep clients who are serious about buying a home.

“Just like a seller is bound to the listing agent by contract, now the buyer is going to be bound to their buyer’s agent by contract,” Sloan said.

Some experts say, in the end, these changes are really about transparency and they should give both buyers and sellers a clearer idea of how they’re compensating brokers.

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Engy Ziedan, an economics professor at Tulane University, said the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law in 2022 helped set the stage for Thursday’s prescription drug deal.

“Medicare made an announcement with the Inflation Reduction Act that passed, that over the next few years, certain drugs are going to be negotiated in price,” Ziedan said.

Fast forward two years and the first ten drugs were just announced. The most common is Eliquis, a blood thinner that nearly four million Medicare enrollees use. In the new deal, the drug will see a 56% decrease in price.

“The price of it is going down from $521 to $231,” Ziedan said.

Along with blood thinners, drugs to treat diabetes and heart disease are also on the list, with reductions ranging between 38% and 79%.

“It’s going to lower prices if you have diabetes or heart disease,” Ziedan said.

These price reductions don’t kick in until 2026, but Utibe Essien, an assistant professor of medicine at UCLA, said that starting in 2025, a new rule takes effect, capping how much enrollees pay every year.

“Including a copayment limit that limits the copays at about $2,000 for Medicare enrollees,” Essien said.

Essien believes this will drastically help the 67 million people enrolled in Medicare, nearly 90% of whom are over the age of 65.

“People are saving up to thousands of dollars a month,” Essien said.

The Biden administration said these new prices are expected to save taxpayers $6 billion. However, the Associated Press reports that details on how those calculations were made have not been released.

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When it comes to teaching during the pandemic, Jennifer Steele, an associate professor at American University’s School of Education, wasn’t just thrown into the mix as an educator, but also as a parent whose kids go to public school in Virginia.

“We were juggling all pieces of that. Teaching online, me at the university, and our kids learning online,” Steele said.

She says she understands why educators are pushing for a reset as fears continue to grow that students could be left with developmental issues from lost learning time.

“There may have been some skills that would have gotten covered in class that were hard to cover in remote or hybrid environments,” Steele said.

As for how this reset would work, Steele believes improving teacher burnout starts with pay and working conditions.

“Higher pay attracts teachers to high-need schools and keeps them there, but that isn’t the whole story. Working conditions and leader support matter a lot as well,” said Steele.

To help curb the learning gap and improve chronic absenteeism, Douglas Harris, an economics professor at Tulane University, says tutoring should be more readily available.

“Assign a tutor, who, in a very targeted way, can try and get them up to speed on the things they’re missing,” Harris said.

As for what families can do, Harris said it’s best to ask questions and get more involved.

“Parents should be asking teachers and school leaders at parent-teacher conferences and so on, ‘How is my child really doing?'” said Harris.

According to the Pew Research Center, about half of Americans think the public education system is going in the wrong direction, with 82% saying it’s been trending that way for the past five years.

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