Traumatic brain injury Is a principal cause for Death and disability on the planet. Blunt force trauma for the brain, often from a nasty fall or a traffic accident, makes the death of deaths Over 61,000 Americans Every 12 months. Over 80,000 will develop long -term disability.

While a big a part of the physical brain damage occurs immediately – known as the first stage of injuries – additional brain damage may end up from the destructive chemical processes that arise within the minutes to weeks after initial impact. In contrast to the first stage of injuries Secondary level Could possibly be prevented by aligning the molecules that drive damage.

I’m a Material scientistAnd my colleagues and I work to design treatments as a way to neutralize the damage to a secondary traumatic brain injury and reduce neurodegeneration. We have designed A New material That could Goals and neutralize For mice that improve their cognitive recovery and offer potential recent treatment for humans.

Biochemical Fallout

The primary stage of traumatic brain injury can Damage and even destroy the blood-brain barrier – An interface that protects the brain by restricting what it could actually enter.

The disturbance of this barrier triggers damaged neurons or the immune system to release certain chemicals that result in destructive biochemical processes. A process called Excitotoxicity occurs when too many calcium ions are approved in neurons, which prompts enzymes which can be fragmentation of DNA and damage cells, which results in death. Another process, NeuroinflammationResults from the activation of cells which can be often called microglia and may trigger inflammation in damaged areas of the brain.

These secondary phase processes also create harmful molecules which can be called Reactive oxygen species. These molecules that include free radicals, modify and deform essential proteins in cells chemically and deform them unusable. You can even break DNA strands, which results in potentially harmful genetic mutations.

If you stay deactivated, damage Oxidative stress Can have devastating consequences for long -term health and neurocognitive rest. Researchers have associated the biochemical changes and by -products AlzheimerPresent Parkinson's And Whenamongst other things.

Connections Called antioxidants Can aim at this oxidative stress and improve long -term neurocognitive rest through chemical interaction with reactive oxygen species in a way that may neutralize its harmful properties.

Find the best antioxidant

My team and I studied whether an antioxidant called A Thiol group Could help treat traumatic brain injuries.

Thiol groups are chemical compounds that contain a sulfur atom that’s sure to a hydrogen atom. Sulfur atoms are much larger than hydrogen atoms, which suggests that the sulfur atom in a thiol has a powerful pull on a single electron of a hydrogen atom. This weakens the bond between hydrogen and its electron Just hand over his electron to other atoms.

As a result, thiols interact With many alternative reactive oxygen species, including those that damage the DNA. We not only chosen Thiols for his or her antioxic properties, but additionally for his or her ability to bind and neutralize others as brain as brain Lipid peroxidation products. These neurotoxic compounds are formed as by -products when reactive oxygen species damage fats within the body.

To put these thiols into the body, now we have installed them in materials Called polymers. These are long chains of organic molecules from individual units called monomers. So that the monomers can connect with one another, a lonely electron – or free radical – initiates a bond with a monomer, causing a series response. Imagine this process to change off plenty of domino stones: The thrust of your hand (the free radical radical on this case) hits a domino (the monomer) after which incorporates the remainder of the domino stones to a line (the polymer ) to form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwrvj9rz2qq

Since Thiole can inhibit this polymerization process, we needed to do a monomer with a so -called Protection of the group This may be chemically removed after polymerization to turn out to be our thiole. Since A-lipoic acidA standard addition present in pharmacies incorporates such a protective Thiol group. We used it to make our monomer.

We then made a series of those monomers RAFTA controlled process through which polymers may be designed in such a way that the body is left by the urine. For this purpose, a water -soluble mit monoma may be added to the chain in order that the polymer can dissolve within the bloodstream.

Finally, we treated the polymers to remove the protective group and produce thiololymers that were ready for further tests.

Tests on TBI

Next we tested how well our thiololymers have neutralized reactive oxygen species.

First we called a technology UV-visible spectrophotometryWhich lights up a laser in a cell sample that incorporates each our polymer and our brain damage molecules. If there may be reactive oxygen species within the sample, the sunshine is minimally absorbed. But if our polymer neutralizes these connections, the sunshine is severely absorbed. Through these studies we found that our Thiolpolymer neutralized reactive oxygen species Like hydrogen peroxide by as much as 50%and other neurotoxic molecules Like acrolein by as much as 100%, which protects neurons from damage.

We carried out additional tests by having suspended fluorescence proteins free of charge radicals and have found that proteins that weren’t treated with our thiololymers were destroyed. Proteins treated proceed to be fluorescentThis indicates that our thiol polymer radically neutralized the free and guarded the protein.

After all, we injected the Thiolpolymers into mice right into a traumatic brain injury. Brain scans showed that our polymer not only successfully focused on the damaged area of ​​the brain, but additionally prepared immediate protection of further injuries. Our Thiolpolymer was capable of reduce reactive oxygen species in injured mice to only 3% via the conventional values ​​present in unhurt mice. Untreated mice with a traumatic brain injury had a rise of 45%in comparison with unhurt mice.

Future work on thiololymers

Our results suggest that these thiololymers can function potential treatment for the secondary stage of a traumatic brain injury. Further tests will help to find out whether this material may reduce the chance of long -term disability.

We are currently developing A Cheap process To incorporate the thiole with tiny nanoparticles. This will help increase the variety of thiols in the fabric and at the identical time improve the power to flow into within the bloodstream for longer protection.

Many additional studies on animals are required to substantiate the effectiveness of our material within the treatment of traumatic brain injuries. If our results are still positive, we wish to check the effectiveness of our material in people in clinical studies. We hope that these treatments could improve the long -term results for victims of automotive accidents, falls and even sports -related injuries to the brain.

Your genes play a very important role When determining your size, your hair and eye color and your skin tone, you don't tell the entire story who you’re. Your surroundings are incredibly vital to shape your personality, your preferences and dislikes and your health. In fact, their eating regimen, social interactions, exposure to dirt, physical activity and education are common Exceed the influence of genetics on lots of the functions they define.

If you learn how your genes and the environment increase your probability of developing asthma, heart disease, cancer, dementia and other diseases, life -changing consequences can have. The area of ​​genomics has made it relatively easy to check quite a lot of genetic variations in reference to the chance of illness each within the hospital and at home.

And lately, science has progress within the detection of the Environmental This risk for several diseases and the determination of possibilities for optimizing treatments based in your personal environmental pollution.

My work as Pharmacologist and toxicologist led me to the creation Exposomics science – The examination of all physical, chemical, biological and social aspects that influence their biology. While your genome includes all of the genes that encode your biology, your exposome is an idea that features all of your environmental pollution. As the best way researchers use DNA sequencer to look at genomics, scientists use chemistry and high-tech sensors in exposomics to measure the results of hundreds of environmental aspects on health.

Medicines don't all the time work

For many individuals, standard drug therapies simply don’t work to treat certain diseases. control Blood pressure often requires months of attempt and error. It can take months and even years to find out an appropriate treatment plan For depression.

Unwanted events attributable to medication More than 1 million Visits to emergency rooms yearly within the USA What drives these differences within the drug effects between patients? Is it your genes? Don't you’re taking your medication, as prescribed on the premise of unintended effects? Or something else?

As it seems, your environment can have a significant impact on how well certain treatments give you the results you want. Think of the warning signs that advise you, for instance, not drink grapefruit juice while taking a certain medication. This is because a natural chemical in grapefruit inhibits the enzymes that reduce these medication. Some common statins for checking high levels of cholesterol can construct on toxic values, for the reason that chemical in grapefruit juice blocks its normal processing.

Grapefruit shouldn’t be the one environmental factor that influences the best way they react to their medication. Over 8,600 chemicals are utilized in the USA within the United States they usually are exposed to hundreds of those chemicals every single day. It is more likely than not that lots of these chemicals can interact with the medication they take.

Some of the chemicals we use to maintain fleas and ticks from pets can actually Increase the values The same enzyme blocked by grapefruit juice, which implies that a statin might be broken down so quickly that it doesn’t control the increased cholesterol level.

Products from combustion The drug -metabolizing enzymes also can affect organic substance resembling motor exhaust gas and burning wood. Some of those chemicals, called Polyaromatic hydrocarbonscan inactivate medication for the treatment of asthma. The environmental factor that triggers your asthma can prevent the medication from working to treat work.

A chemical solution?

Researchers help to seek out advances in chemistry to seek out out which chemicals are in the best way of treatment.

Your hospital laboratory can already measure dozens of molecules in your blood. Measuring their salt levels can tell the doctors how their kidneys work, levels of cholesterol indicate their risk of heart diseases, and certain enzymes show the health of their liver. These common tests are routinely and useful for nearly every patient.

There are many additional tests that might be used to find out how a certain disease reacts progress or therapy. The hemoglobin -a1c levels determine how well the glucose levels in patients with prediabetes or diabetes are checked. And hundreds of other human diseases have their very own Corresponding biomarker.

In research laboratories, scientists can recognize the existence of hundreds of molecules at the identical time with instruments Mass spectrometer. Every chemical in a single sample has a novel mass, and these devices measure these masses in order that scientists can categorize. For this reason, scientists can discover all pesticides, plasticizers, plastics, pollution and other chemicals in a certain sample. You also can measure your individual internal biology, e.g. B. the connections involved within the processing of the food they eat and the hormones that behave.

In addition, mass spectrometers can Measure lively ingredient metabolites. If you’re taking a drugs, it is often broken all the way down to several different compounds or metabolized. Some of those compounds contribute to the effect of the drug, others are inactive. The evaluation of which metabolites can be found in your body provides information on process medication and whether the medication that you just take interact.

If you summarize all of those aspects, scientists can examine how their environment can affect the effectiveness of their medication.

A greater recipe – for you

Together with dozens of scientists in lots of institutions, my colleagues and I develop methods to measure all chemicals of their bodies. The project, called indipharm – briefly, for individualized pharmacology – tools designed to measure a wide selection of medicines, drug metabolites and environmental chemicals at the identical time.

By combining environmental data with genetic information, we hope to enhance how medicinal products work in humans by checking out whether chemicals of their environment or nutrition change the processing of a certain medication. This includes whether the drugs administered are on therapeutic values, how the medication and chemicals interact with one another, and determine whether other variable -intended drug effects influence. This could cause the quantity of prescribed medicines to alter, switch to a different drug and even redesign the medication itself.

Our team begins with the identification of the biological and biological aspects which might be assembled with metabolic diseases, including obesity and diabetes, along with frequent diseases resembling hypertension, high cholesterol and depression. For example, there may be significant differences How well people react to anti-adiposity or anti-diabetes medication, and we hope to seek out out why this may profit from tailor-made treatment.

Bringing the best medication at the best time at the best time requires a greater understanding of the environmental aspects that influence their functioning. We imagine a future through which a physician can use your genetic and environmental history to seek out one of the best drug treatment that may give you the results you want right from the beginning, which reduces the necessity for attempt and error.

GLENDALE, Ariz. – The look on Zygi Wilf's face said all of it. It was as if the owner and chairman of the Minnesota Vikings had just seen a horror movie with a terrible ending. He left the locker room and stood there for a couple of seconds, staring blankly at the gang in front of him. His son Jonathan showed him an extended hallway. And off we went slowly into one other offseason.

How could it end so abruptly? How could a Vikings team with 14 wins go from potential No. 1 seed to loser within the wild card round so quickly? Wilf's thoughts turned to questions like these.

However, none of them were as confusing as this one: What happened to quarterback Sam Darnold?

Two weeks ago, Darnold's Vikings teammates doused him with water bottles as a part of a locker room celebration after a win at US Bank Stadium. Now they were at State Farm Stadium on Monday night, closing their bags and heading to the buses after suffering a brutal 27-9 loss to the underdog Los Angeles Rams.

The dichotomy between the 2 scenes was as stark because it was confusing. In the primary snapshot, it appeared as if Darnold, 27, had made a profession change and ignited a corporation in the method. At second glance, it was fair to wonder how much of Darnold's impressive play this season was a mirage.

“I think it's very important that we all reflect on Sam's work,” Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell said after the sport. “It didn’t work out in the end and I think Sam would be the first to tell you (he could have played better).”

After a loss like this, there are often multiple culprits. The offensive line can also be obvious for Minnesota. The Rams sacked Darnold nine times, tying an NFL playoff record. Additionally, based on Next Gen Stats, 12 Rams defenders generated a minimum of one pressure, essentially the most in a game since Week 6 of 2021.

Hoecht throws up the “LA” after the Rams’ last sack

: #MINvsLAR on ESPN/ABC
: Keep streaming @NFLPlus and ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/iWM1Pofp0U

– NFL (@NFL) January 14, 2025

Allocating space and draft capital to interior defenders shall be a priority this offseason. O'Connell suggested this on Monday evening.

Still, that concern pales as compared to the importance of what happens at quarterback — and what meaning for every part else — which is why Darnold's loss over the past two weeks is so devastating.

After playing well enough in the primary 16 games to guide the Vikings to a 14-2 record and legit NFL MVP consideration, Darnold struggled within the regular season finale, a 31-9 rout. Defeat in Detroit. Against the Lions, he accomplished just 18 of 41 passes for 166 yards, posting his third-worst passer rating (55.5) and his highest miss rate of the season (34.2).

Those issues continued against the Rams. His numbers — 25-for-40 passing for 245 yards, a touchdown and an interception — belied Darnold's comfort level. He misplaced several throws. Darnold, who has been accurate so often this season, threw behind his receivers. He spun out of the pocket but didn’t release the ball. His eyes often moved too quickly from right to left. His feet kept swinging backwards and forwards. He tried to avoid pass rushers who surrounded him almost each time.

Darnold's system failed in almost every way. If it wasn't his vision, it was his footwork. If it wasn't his vision or his footwork, it was his arm.

“I left too many throws that I normally would,” he said afterwards.

If he had said that earlier in his profession in New York or Carolina, some might need laughed. However, despite being aware of O'Connell's plan and development process this season, he demonstrated in a big sample that he can develop in rhythm, execute the football with precision and withstand pressure.

Darnold also showed resilience, overcoming a difficult midseason stretch against the Colts and Jaguars during which he threw five interceptions. The way he responded to those tough film sessions, throwing 18 touchdowns and two interceptions over the subsequent seven games, showed what he was able to.

end of December, The athleteDianna Russini of 's reported, “After speaking with a team source, one thing is clear: The Vikings want Darnold back in Minnesota for 2025.” Separately, one other Vikings worker wrote, “I hope we can keep him.” Darnold's MVP Opportunities increased. Against the Packers within the team's final home game of the season, he accomplished 33 of 43 passes for 377 yards, three touchdowns and one interception and was subsequently drenched by his teammates within the locker room.

The Sam Darnold experience continues. pic.twitter.com/k5db9DYdtp

— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) December 30, 2024

This 2024 Vikings season, billed as a transition yr to a more flexible future centered around rookie quarterback JJ McCarthy, had exceeded even the rosiest expectations.

“Outside these walls, no one really believed in him,” running back Aaron Jones said of Darnold on the time. “Nobody gave him a chance. But he proves everyone wrong.”

That was the crescendo, a byproduct of an infrastructure optimized along Darnold's model. At the time, the Vikings staff emphasized the role rhythm and timing played in Darnold's success and the importance of his feet and eyes being in sync.

Hidden within the jargon was a very important reality: Darnold trusted the play calls and reads a lot that it was more about sticking to a selected timing than watching the sphere and making decisions based on what he saw. His struggles in Detroit and Arizona were best summed up by a break in timing. Both the Lions and Rams hampered Darnold's ability to maneuver up within the pocket, and each teams mixed countless stunts and exotic pressures to forestall Darnold from becoming comfortable, assessing the image in the sphere, and throwing.

There were quite a few examples from Monday evening. At the beginning of the second quarter, Darnold dropped back and faced the fitting sideline. Rams defensive lineman Braden Fiske pushed Vikings left guard Blake Brandel toward Darnold, who stepped aside and kept a watch on receiver Jordan Addison while receiver Jalen Nailor crossed the sphere openly. Darnold threw a pass in Addison's direction. But the ball was late and behind Addison, and it was intercepted by Rams cornerback Cobie Durant.

Later within the quarter, the Rams attacked safety Quentin Lake from deep. He slipped past right defenseman Dalton Risner, forcing Darnold to step forward and shift his vision from right to left. Unsure of what he saw, he looked back to his right. But before he could release the ball, one other blitzer, Rams cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon, speared him within the back. Darnold fumbled, and Rams edge rusher Jared Verse recovered and rumbled 57 yards for a touchdown, extending Los Angeles' lead.

JARED VERSE SCOOP AND POINT!

: #MINvsLAR on ESPN/ABC
: Keep streaming @NFLPlus and ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/bXLHmOUaQW

– NFL (@NFL) January 14, 2025

“There are some examples where if you go back tomorrow and look at the tape in an air-conditioned room, you'll think, 'Man, why didn't I just do this or that?'” O'Connell said. “But it’s difficult at the moment. It’s difficult considering how quickly things are happening out there.”

Good quarterbacks have the arm and athleticism, especially in the fashionable NFL, however the mind is what sets the highest quarterbacks apart. Matthew Stafford's operational capability on the opposite side of the sphere confirmed that, and Monday night confirmed a widely held opinion in regards to the Vikings' future: Franchise-tagging or extending Darnold, who is about to develop into a free agent, is mindless for the team's need elsewhere, particularly on the inside of the offensive line.

Of course, one other move toward Darnold would raise questions. How ready is McCarthy? What veteran option could the Vikings pair with McCarthy? And what would O'Connell take into consideration having to construct a completely latest quarterback option?

These are completely different questions than those that went through Wilf's head as he wound his way through the bowels of the stadium on Monday evening. But they’ll soon be on his plate after a wildly successful season that resulted in a disappointing blitz, a rollercoaster ride for a quarterback who couldn't polish the progress he'd made.

Investors can aim not only to generate profits, but additionally to assist society in the method. But only a number of of them Impact investors We discovered whether your strategy has a positive impact in a study published in Journal of Business Ethics.

Impact investing goals to generate financial returns while achieving positive social or environmental outcomes. But aspiring to do good by selecting the suitable assets doesn't guarantee that you’ll. We call this uncertainty “impact risk.”

After conducting 124 interviews with impact investors and an experiment with 435 participants, we found that when evaluating their investment options, many impact investors assume that they may achieve having a positive impact on the world, quite than that Evaluate impact risk directly.

In other words, they assume that certain corporations, comparable to solar energy corporations or microfinance initiatives, are inherently good for society. This “win-win” mindset leads investors to focus totally on financial performance quite than evaluating whether their investments have a social or environmental impact. This often means investors cannot determine whether certain investments perform higher on social metrics than others.

We have found that this mindset discourages investors from looking for information that would indicate deficiencies in an investment's social performance.

Why it matters

It exceeded $1.5 trillion globally by the tip of 2024, in response to data from Impact Investment, a fast-growing financial sector Global Impact Investing Network. The industry has attracted one Spectrum of investorsincluding high net price individuals, banks, development finance institutions, corporations, foundations, pension funds and non secular institutions.

Almost 75% of younger retail investors, including Millennials and Gen Z, value aligning investments with their social values.

With a big a part of the planned $84 trillion in assets It is predicted to be inherited by older people and spread to Millennials and other younger Americans by 2045, often called “large wealth transfer“Financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley And vanguard are attempting harder to appeal to affect investors. They now offer a spread of investment options that promise each social impact and financial results.

However, we now have found that good intentions alone may not produce consistent social impact. Without sound risk assessments and ongoing assessments of whether investments are achieving intended outcomes, impact investments cannot achieve their goals.

What isn’t yet known

Many questions remain about how investors can effectively assess impact risks without creating potentially burdensome reporting requirements – for themselves or their clients. Some of ours related research has found that financial managers are concerned about this potential burden.

But latest regulations are likely anyway. For example one Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rule would require U.S. public corporations to reveal risks related to climate change. However, attributable to pending litigation, the rule was not implemented delayed – perhaps indefinitely.

What's next?

Our next phase of research builds on these findings and examines how impact investors search for and reply to signs of underperformance. With other colleagues on the University of Virginia, we’re currently studying whether moral clarity—the extent to which individuals feel confident of their ethical decision-making—influences investor behavior.

By continuing to explore connections between impact and financial performance, we aim to contribute to a broader discussion, each in Science and in practiceabout the way to ensure investments truly profit people and the planet.

Health-related bills signed into California law will take effect on January 1 and directly impact Californians in 2025. Numerous bills are passed yearly.

The California Coalition for Chronic Care annually reviews proposed draft laws to make sure patients' voices are heard and their needs are taken under consideration. These five bills passed could have the best impact on California patients with chronic and rare diseases.

1. AB 2258 (Zbur) – Health insurance: cost sharing

This bill codifies federal guidelines that require health plans and health insurers to cover services essential to providing really useful preventive services without incurring out-of-pocket costs. Under AB 2258, patients can expect a reduced financial burden because health plans are prohibited from adding cost-sharing for services related to preventive services and screenings which can be considered critical under the California Code.

2. AB 2613 (Zbur) – Advisory Board for Rare Diseases

This bill establishes the Jacqueline Marie Zbur Rare Disease Advisory Board to extend patient access to rare disease services by developing recommendations, applying for grants, and advocating for people with rare diseases.

3. SB 729 (Menjivar) – Health insurance: InferClity diagnosis and treatment

This bill expands health care coverage by requiring insurance providers to cover infertility diagnosis and services, ensuring comprehensive treatment for people affected by infertility.

4. SB 1061 (Limón) – Medical Debt

This bill prohibits health care providers from reporting patients' medical debt to credit reporting agencies, thereby providing relief to individuals burdened by medical expenses.

5. AB 1842 (Reyes) – MedicaCon-assisted treatment

Hundreds of bills are passed every year in California which have the potential to affect access to health care, treatment, and insurance coverage.

“The California Chronic Care Coalition monitors proposed bills and decides which ones will have a positive impact on people with chronic illnesses. However, it is important for everyone to review their health plan annually to ensure that their providers, medications and other treatments remain available and that they understand how to include associated fees and cost-sharing in their plan,” explained President and CEO Liz Helms. “In the coming year, we will review the proposed bills and work with member advocates, legislators and others to advance the interests and concerns of California patients.”

These bills don’t represent a representative sample of the big variety of bills passed in 2024, but CCCC believes they could have probably the most significant impact on Californians facing ongoing and long-term treatment.

Originally published: December 25, 2024 at 3:22 pm PST

Justin Kurzels“new historical crime drama”,The Order“, in the main role Jude Law And Nicholas Holtis described as captivating “Cat and mouse thriller.”

But for Criminologists like usThe white supremacist extremism What happens within the film just isn’t a reference to a distant past, but a mirrored image of the beliefs and rhetoric that also exist percolate on social media and encourage terrorist attacks.

The film's namesake, the real-life white supremacist group The Order, which operated within the early Nineteen Eighties, laid the muse stone for lots of the white power gangs lively today.

The origins of the order

The order, also often known as the Brothers of Silence, means in German “The Silent Brotherhood” was founded in 1983 by Robert “Bob” Mathews, an avid anti-Semite and white supremacist who held anti-communist and conspiratorial, anti-government views.

A lifelong member of the John Birch Society and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mathews joined the National Alliance, led by William Pierce, shortly after moving to the Pacific Northwest in 1974.

Pierce was arguably the leading thinker of his time within the white power movement and was the creator of “The Turner Diaries“, a dystopian work of fiction depicting a race war became popular under the racist right.

At this point, Mathews also entered the orbit of one other distinguished figure within the white power movement: Richard Butlerwhile visiting Butler's Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho.

Butler was a patriarch of the Church of Jesus Christ Christa cult that was a racist and anti-Semitic perversion of mainstream Christianity. Every yr Butler hosted the World Congress of Aryan Nationsa summit that brought together a potpourri of figureheads and groups from across the white power movement.

Shortly after the 1983 meeting, Mathews and eight other disaffected white men – 4 of whom had served within the United States – gathered US Armed Forces – founded the order. Mathews wanted the Order to be the premier paramilitary strike force for the leadership of the white power movement. Their explicit goal was to bring a few white supremacist society.

The order was also a Melting pot of white power ideology, with recruited members from the National Alliance, Aryan Nations, Ku Klux Klan, Christian Identity congregations, Posse County And the covenant, the sword and the arm of the Lord.

A blueprint for a race war

Mathews was no stranger to paramilitary groups.

He had founded the short-lived company a decade earlier Arizona Sons of Liberty along with other Birchers and Mormon survivalists to stave off the “spreading communist revolution” in America.

However, the Order differed from the disbanded Sons of Liberty in that it had an operational manual that guided its creation, structure, and purpose: “The Turner Diaries.”

Using the novel as a guide, The Order's Strategy for the preparation of a revolutionary race war involved the raising of cash through forgery and robbery; securing weapons; distribution of funds to other white power groups; and to advocate for “leaderless resistance” to higher prevent detection and infiltration by federal law enforcement. Even the group's name was derived from the book's fictional white power group, “the Organization.”

Robbery, forgery and murder

Originally the Order tried to rob Drug dealers, pimps and sex employees.

But targeting them proved harder than expected. Their first successful armed robbery was of a pornographic video store and only netted them $369. The paltry sum prompted the order to pursue more lucrative goals: Armored cars and banks.

The group's best haul got here in a 1984 Brinks armored automotive robbery in Ukiah, California. The $3.6 million in money they stole was a Then recording due to an attack on an armored automotive.

The order also engaged in forgery, using a printing press at Richard Butler's Aryan Nations compound in Idaho. Counterfeiting not only provided the Order with the cash it needed to finance its activities, but additionally fulfilled its goal of undermining trust within the U.S. government by injecting counterfeit money into the country's economic system.

There was one problem: the Order wasn't very expert at forgery. Bruce Pierce, a member of the Order, was arrested in December 1983 in Union Gap, Washington, for using counterfeit $50 bills. Pierce was subsequently arrested posted bail and disappearedwhich caught the eye of the FBI. Another member of the order, Tom Martinez, was arrested in June 1984 for using the counterfeit $10 bills at a liquor store.

The forgery errors didn’t deter the group. Members simply shifted their focus to armed robberies.

The Order had also compiled an inventory of distinguished assassination targets, which included financiers Baron Elie de RothschildTelevision producer Norman Lear, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, banker David Rockefeller And Morris Deesthe founding father of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

But as a substitute of selecting a famous goal, the order decided to go after a Denver-based Jewish disc jockey by name [Alan Berg]. Berg routinely insulted right-wing extremist callers on his radio show, amongst other things David Lanea member of the order. Berg was murdered in June 1984 in front of his house. While 4 members of the Order were there charged with murderOnly two, Bruce Pierce and David Lane, were convicted.

Everything is falling apart

Just like many white supremacist groupsThe Order never achieved its most important goal of beginning a race war and establishing a white homeland.

Tom Martinez, certainly one of the members caught coping with counterfeits, became an FBI informant after I discovered about it Mathews' plan to murder the liquor store owner to stop him from testifying in regards to the counterfeit money. Soon afterward, Mathews burned to death in a single Standoff with law enforcementand one other 10 members were charged under racketeering laws, resulting in the group's disintegration.

But the order's legacy lives on.

First, the Order hardened the revolutionary orientation of the far right by spreading the conspiracy that Western governments were under the Order's control Zionist occupation governmentor ZOG – an alleged intrigue by Jewish elites. While this conspiracy theory has its roots in fakery Protocols of the Elders of Zion, The New York Times reporting of the Order brought national attention to the group's crimes and the way they were committed to boost money to fight ZOG. The Mainstreaming this terminology helped spread these conspiracy theories.

Second, David Lane, certainly one of the order's founding members, wrote certainly one of the white power movement's most prolific mantras: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” Known simply as “14 words” is Lane’s clarion call usually quoted in white power propaganda, memes and publications thus far.

Finally, the order was sometimes called a neo-Nazi terrorist group because of its white power ideology. However, the dearth of domestic terrorist laws in U.S. law resulted within the order's members being primarily convicted Blackmail and conspiracy. Even Berg's death resulted in just two members of the order being convicted Violation of Berg's civil rightsnot murder.

Mostly on the state level Terrorism laws were only created after the September 11 attacks, and thus far there isn’t a federal law against domestic terrorism. To us, the federal government's failure to treat domestic extremists just like the Order as terrorists downplays the results of their violence.

Local law enforcement is abdicating responsibility

The order's coordination and ideological rigor made it an outlier amongst white supremacist groups.

Interestingly, we found that the persistent assumption that white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups are structurally organized and all the time ideologically motivated is true diverted the eye of local law enforcement.

Rather than treating these groups equally Street gangsLocal police often leave their law enforcement duties to the federal government. But since today's white power gangs, comparable to Proud boys or Rise above the movementBecause police operate primarily out of local communities, we consider that local law enforcement can do a a lot better job of tracking members and deterring violence because they, not federal agents, have more insight into group dynamics and their find out about criminal activities.

Research shows that systematic monitoring and targeting of groups that engage in violent behavior deters future acts of violence. From our perspective Inattention from local law enforcement is a key reason why white supremacists and other domestic extremists are among the many strongest “persistent and deadly threat” within the United States, because the Department of Homeland Security noted in a 2020 report.

A virtually $13 billion effort to increase BART to San Jose and Santa Clara secured a commitment of billions of dollars from the federal government earlier this yr, but as the subsequent administration takes shape, it's unclear how Donald Trump's second term will pan out the funding could impact transportation megaprojects across the country.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority broke ground earlier this yr on the six-mile, four-station BART extension that can eventually run through downtown San Jose and into Santa Clara, helping create a rail ring across the Bay Area . It has been a long time within the making, and the announcement in August that VTA would receive $5.1 billion — 40% of the project's cost — marked a serious milestone in making the rail line a reality.

President Joe Biden made historic investments in infrastructure during his time in office and signed the bill into law Bipartisan infrastructure law In November 2021, it could fund repairs to one in all five miles of roads and greater than 45,000 bridges across the county. In addition, $91.2 billion was invested in repairing and modernizing public transportation.

But nobody knows what the Transportation Department will seem like when Trump takes office on Jan. 20, said Kevin DeGood, director of infrastructure policy on the Center for American Progress.

There might be massive spending cuts on the federal level as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tapped to steer the brand new Department of Government Efficiency, have vowed to “cut” entire agencies.

But the $5.1 billion VTA is predicted to receive comes from the Federal Transit Administration's Capital Investment Grants program, which DeGood said is allocated by Congress.

“CIG funding has historically been very stable,” he said. “And federal agencies have met and been able to meet the funding commitments contained in those agreements.”

Under the last Trump administration, DeGood said, the president desired to reward public-private partnerships and states and native governments that put up their very own money for transportation infrastructure — which VTA has done.

The transportation agency said in an announcement it’s “confident” the project will move forward because it “entered the technical phase of the program this summer, which determines the federal cost share.”

“Congress consistently funded the Capital Investment Grant program throughout the previous Trump administration,” VTA said. “Transportation is an area of ​​bipartisan cooperation. There are CIG projects throughout the county in red and blue states that have been promised federal funding.”

Campbell Deputy Mayor Sergio Lopez, who serves as chairman of the VTA board, said: “The strategy has always been to aggressively stick to our schedule, both to ensure we deliver a project on time but also because of a possible change. “in administration.”

Lopez, who took over because the board this month after Cindy Chavez left for a brand new job in New Mexico, said they’ve worked hard to make sure they’ve “strong working relationships” with the FTA and Democratic and Republican staff Congressional committees have been on Capitol Hill.

“We had some really productive conversations,” Lopez said, referring to a recent trip by VTA staff to D.C. “I feel like they were impressed and had an appreciation for where we are with the project and that we are one of the projects in the United States.” I believe there may be plenty of interest within the query being asked at this scale and caused excitement.”

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who serves as executive vice chairman, said he was also “confident that the federal government will continue to invest in Silicon Valley and enable growth.”

“Our new president has been a builder throughout his career and understands that good infrastructure underpins economic vitality,” he said in an announcement.

While Trump has yet to announce his plans for the Transportation Department, Project 2025 — a greater than 900-page transition book from the Heritage Foundation — paints a bleak picture. Trump has distanced himself from the document, but a few of its authors are being considered for roles in his incoming administration. Many of the authors worked for Trump during his first term in office.

Diana Feargott-Roth, who wrote the section on the DOT, served as deputy assistant secretary for research and technology in Trump's first administration. In her segment, Angstgott-Roth called the Capital Investment Grants program “another example of Washington's tendency to fund public transit expansion rather than maintain or improve existing facilities.”

She said the primary Trump administration called on Congress to eliminate this system entirely, but this system “enjoys strong support on Capitol Hill.”

“At a minimum, a new Conservative government should ensure that every CIG project meets sound economic standards and a rigorous cost-benefit analysis,” Feargott-Roth wrote.

Given the uncertainty about what a second Trump presidency might entail, DeGood believes there might be some threat to transportation dollars.

“I think there is some risk with the new administration that they will try to scramble to fund transit,” he said. “And if so, it could harm the implementation of megaprojects like this railway line.”

While Good Samaritan warns San Jose officials against delaying approval of its latest hospital, a newly released construction schedule revealed the ability may not open in time to interchange the present hospital, which can meet the state's seismic requirements in 2030 now not meeting will place greater strain on local health services.

The Good Samaritan campus – owned by HCA Healthcare – is currently going through the rezoning approval process.

Good Samaritan CEO Patrick Rohan revealed at a committee meeting Wednesday that the hospital is already behind schedule as he seeks to have the City Council consider the corporate's rezoning application on Nov. 19.

“The first phase of the project alone will take six years, meaning any delay will jeopardize state-mandated seismic schedules and the hospital’s ability to remain open,” Rohan said. “The postponement of the decision is not just a delay. It effectively ensures that a vital community hospital will be closed and this area of ​​San Jose will be left without access to acute care.”

Under California law, all older hospitals that provide acute care beds, meaning beds for patients who need around-the-clock medical care, must meet seismic requirements by the tip of this decade. Good Samaritan officials warned that the state could revoke its facility's license by that date without retrofitting or replacing the present hospital.

To avoid disruption to patient care, the healthcare provider intends to proceed operating the present hospital while it builds the brand new facilities, which include a parking garage and a central power plant.

Rohan estimated the project will cost $1.2 billion. Since the brand new hospital will sit in the present car parking zone, Rohan said Good Samaritan will construct the parking garage first, which he estimated would take 12 to 14 months. The power plant would follow an analogous schedule before construction of the hospital begins.

Although Kaiser Permanente Hospital in San Jose goes through the identical process the town approved last month, HCA and Good Samaritan faced a way more difficult path.

Last month, the town's Planning Commission really helpful that the City Council reject the hospital's plan as several commissioners criticized HCA for its past business practices that they said put “profits over people.”

At the center of their dissatisfaction were Good Samaritan's decision to now not offer acute psychiatric beds and HCA's plan to downgrade the trauma unit at East San Jose Regional Medical Center before the county purchased the hospital and restored services.

Nursing staff also questioned how HCA would have the opportunity to offer effective patient care with the brand new facility when the present hospital cannot provide adequate staffing.

HCA called the Planning Commission's decisions arbitrary and illegal in a transient filed by its attorneys at Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP.

The hatred toward the Good Samaritan and the HCA continued Wednesday when District 5 Councilman Peter Ortiz requested a postponement to get more feedback from the community, adding that the town “rewards bad actors or holds them accountable.” “can pull”.

“Our general plan holds the city accountable for ensuring our health resources are planned with equity in mind and that everyone has access to services,” Ortiz said. “We as council members have this responsibility.”

Jaria Jaug, associate director of nursing policy at Working Partnerships USA, said stakeholders need to be on the table negotiating a patient protection fund with community oversight to revive psychiatric care on the hospital and forestall future divestitures.

“The city is committed to helping address the homelessness and mental health crisis,” Jaug said. “Companies that are exacerbating these crises should give back to the community and help solve the problems we face. HCA has a reputation for divesting wherever it is not profitable, even at the expense of the community and mental health care.”

sixth District Councilmember Dev Davis also got right into a tense dialogue with Rohan after she repeatedly asked him what happens to individuals who need acute mental health care and received no response.

“I’m not just for preserving, protecting and expanding medical services,” Davis said. “I think you need to restore health care, particularly the very urgent mental health needs that we have in this county and this community. I think it’s horrible that you closed your mental health facilities and you have another chance.”

However, ninth District Councilwoman Pam Foley, who represents the world where the hospital is situated, declined to support the postponement request, citing concerns concerning the negative impact delays could have on the community.

Foley said her office has provided significant community engagement beyond the necessities outlined in city policy and is in energetic negotiations with HCA to create greater community advantages.

“It bothers me a little that my office, in coordination with city staff and the Good Samaritan, did not do our due diligence regarding outreach and community engagement,” she said.

The Good Samaritan didn’t reply to questions from The Mercury News about its plans and the impact on services if the brand new hospital just isn’t operational by January 1, 2030.

Instead, the hospital continued to attract attention to the devastating impact of delaying its approval.

“Good Samaritan Hospital has been a faithful steward of the San Jose planning process and has extensively communicated the benefits and impacts of our $1.2 billion proposal and state-mandated seismic retrofit,” Good Samaritan Hospital said in an announcement. “We incorporated this feedback into the plan presented to the city council. Any delay in our proposal assuming more feedback is needed jeopardizes the state’s enormous legal deadlines and jeopardizes the hospital’s ability to remain operational.”

Originally published: November 8, 2024 at 6:05 am PST

An Orange County research university within the shadow of Disneyland may soon develop into home to an educational think tank dedicated to studying Walt Disney's life's work and the Anaheim theme park's impact on the world.

Disney historian Jeff Kurtti and Chapman University Professor Brian Alter explore the feasibility of developing a Walt Disney Think Tank on the research university, positioned 5 miles from Disneyland in Old Towne Orange.

The think tank would examine the life, legacy and global impact of the Disneyland founder, in addition to his influence on art, music, culture, business, economic development, transportation, urban planning, thematic environments, placemaking, science, technology and innovation.

“A think tank on Walt Disney is such an interesting and deep area of ​​research,” Kurtti said during a telephone interview. “Even today, almost 60 years after his death, the things he imagined are still relevant. People keep coming back to them. Our intention is to explore this aspect of Walt Disney’s personality – biographically, creatively and professionally.”

Alter has taught science and education at Chapman, Harvard and McGill universities. His hottest course at Chapman: The Pursuit of Happiness and Knowledge: Charles Darwin and Walt Disney.

“Walt Disney is a visionary whose career has spanned numerous industries and continues to shape everyday life around the world. From an academic perspective, Walt Disney remains woefully under-researched,” Alter said in an announcement released by Chapman.

Almost the whole lot Walt Disney worked on either expanded an idea, evolved an idea, or pushed it forward with a brand new dynamic that continues to resonate today, Kurtti said.

“Whether it's movies, music, parks or placemaking, these are all things that Walt Disney still touches on, long after he's gone,” Kurtti said.

Kurtti visited Disneyland for the primary time as a baby in 1971 and immediately became a “huge Disney nut.” He was hired by the Disney company in 1986 and spent the following many years working on projects at Disneyland.

“For me, there's always this great feeling because it's Walt's Park,” Kurtti said. “It’s the one he got his hands on.”

Kurtti can't consider a greater place for a Walt Disney Think Tank than Chapman University.

“In the evenings I sat on my laptop and could hear the fireworks every night at 9:30 because it's so close to Disneyland,” Kurtti said. “It’s almost as if Chapman was created to have something important to do with the study of Walt Disney.”

Alters and Kurtti are expected to finish the Walt Disney Think Tank feasibility report in a couple of yr.

Originally published: November 5, 2024 at 10:18 am PST