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Loss of smell from COVID-19 takes up to three years to return, study finds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:59 GMT

Jason Gale | Bloomberg News (TNS)The loss of taste and smell — hallmarks of a coronavirus infection early in the pandemic — became a stubborn blight for many long COVID-19 sufferers, but new research shows that the sensory problems gradually abate.Smell and taste disturbances were reported in almost two-thirds of the 100 people who had caught a mild case of COVID-19 in the fall of 2020 in Trieste, Italy, and were randomly selected for studying alongside 100 uninfected people for comparison. Both groups were followed for three years.About a quarter of the COVID-19 cases couldn’t taste properly a year after the acute illness but, after two years, there was little difference between them and controls. The research, published Thursday in a letter to the journal JAMA Otolaryngology, suggests that so-called gustatory dysfunction, linked to the taste bud-damaging immune response to lingering vestiges of SARS-CoV-2 in the tongue, resolves faster than problems with smell.More than a quarter ...

He was too sick for a lung transplant. Then, doctors held his heart in place with breast implants

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:59 GMT

Ilana Arougheti | Chicago TribuneCHICAGO — Before David “Davey” Bauer made history at Northwestern Medicine for a double lung transplant assisted by a pair of DD breast implants, he considered himself a fairly healthy guy.Bauer, 34, spent his hours off from his landscaping job in De Soto, Missouri — near St. Louis — golfing, snowboarding and skateboarding. Cigarettes, he thought, were the only negative. A former smoker who went through a pack a day for four years, Bauer switched to vaping in 2014.“I thought it seemed like a safer alternative,” Bauer said. “In hindsight, it seems like I should have just quit sooner … it’s not good to inhale anything in your lungs, other than oxygen, obviously.”So when Bauer entered an urgent care clinic outside of St. Louis in April with the flu, he expected to recover fast.“They were just like, ‘He’s got the flu, there’s a little bit of pneumonia in his lungs, here’s a Z-Pak, you’re good to go,’” Susan Gore, Bauer’s girlfriend of seven years, ...

Column: Style points aside, the Chicago Bears weren’t apologizing for grindy win in Week 10. ‘We found a way to win.’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:59 GMT

With a little more than 6 minutes to play in the third quarter , Chicago Bears running back D’Onta Foreman treated the “Thursday Night Football” audience to a rare entertainment surge. Down inside the Carolina Panthers 5-yard line, Foreman knew he had a shotgun handoff coming and sensed with how the defense was aligned the middle would likely be clogged.Thus, when Foreman took the football from rookie quarterback Tyson Bagent, he quickly planted and cut. “I just bounced it back (right),” he said.Foreman instantly saw Panthers linebacker Frankie Luvu coming over the top and accelerated.“I knew it was going to be a bang-bang kind of run. It was just kind of mano a mano. May the best man win.”Foreman did, bouncing off Luvu’s tackle attempt at the 2, spinning back inside and powering backward through safety Vonn Bell at the goal line.In the Bears’ extraordinarily grindy 16-13 win at Soldier Field, that was the game’s only offen...

Watch: Police chase ends in Carlsbad

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:59 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Authorities chased a suspect driving a silver Prius on Interstate 5 near San Diego Friday morning. SkyFox followed the pursuit overhead.According to the San Diego Police Department, officers attempted a traffic stop for a speeding vehicle around 9:40 a.m. near the westbound Interstate 8 at Willows Road. Police say the driver of the Prius failed to yield. Widespread rainfall, mountain snow possible in San Diego County SDPD reported "the suspect began making threats that he was going to injure someone" around 10:10 a.m. It's unclear at this time how that message was relayed to authorities.The driver eventually made it to the Interstate 5, and police were able to stop the driver near Highway 78 in Carlsbad.This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

5.0 magnitude quake strikes Dominican Republic near border with Haiti

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:59 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck the northwest Dominican Republic on Friday near the border with Haiti.The tremor occurred at a depth of 12 miles (19 kilometers) just west-northwest of Las Matas de Santa Cruz, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.Officials in the Dominican Republic said the quake was felt in the border town of Montecristi all the way south to the capital of Santo Domingo.It was the strongest earthquake to hit the country this year, Dominican geologist Osiris de León said.Jenrry Castro, mayor of the northwest town of Villa Vazquez, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that minor damage was reported in two schools. Products also fell off supermarkets shelves in the area, he said, adding that crews were inspecting all schools and municipal buildings in the town.The quake occurred in an area that has become a flashpoint in an ongoing border dispute between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.No immediate damage or injuries were reported ...

Acapulco recovery moves ahead in fits and starts after Hurricane Otis devastation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:59 GMT

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — The 58-year-old woman, a cook by profession, toiled on a recent afternoon inside a luxury apartment with expansive views of the Pacific, putting Gucci and Dior shoes into a bag to take to her employer. Around her only the apartment’s skeleton and piles of debris, walls and windows stripped by Hurricane Otis, remained.But Rufina Ruiz was optimistic. Her house, in a suburb near the entrance to Acapulco, only flooded, while homes in the adjacent neighborhood were “buried.” And she still has a job, even though that meant she was not home when the government census of the hurricane’s victims was taken, which would have translated into aid. “I’d rather work,” she said.More than two weeks after Otis went from tropical storm to Category 5 hurricane in a record 12 hours, catching authorities and residents flat footed, this city of 1 million, a blend of big hotels and impoverished suburbs, tourism and drug violence, is trying to recover at a similarly unequal rhythm.Ca...

Maple Leafs’ Matthews passes on chance to join Nylander on Toronto subway

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:59 GMT

It doesn’t sound like Auston Matthews will be joining Toronto Maple Leafs teammate William Nylander on the subway to commute to work anytime soon.A photo of Nylander riding the subway to Scotiabank Arena went viral this week — he was sitting beside a man with a Leafs hat — and then the Toronto forward told Postmedia’s Terry Koshan that he takes the TTC to most games.Apparently Nylander takes the subway quite often on game days pic.twitter.com/xfYDMYNTdj— Denise Steele (@Deniseasteele) November 9, 2023Matthews likely hurt his chances of getting a gig as a TTC spokesperson with his response to Nylander’s choice of travel.“I usually like to give myself enough time to get to the rink. I don’t know if he’s in the same category there,” Matthews said with a smile on Friday when asked if he’ll consider public transit.“I think the weekday games, he’ll find himself on the subway every once in a while. I mean, I don’t blam...

Foreign meddling inquiry turns to experienced hands as deadlines loom

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:59 GMT

OTTAWA — A federal commission of inquiry into foreign interference is turning to veterans of previous inquiries as it hires staff who will work on a tight timeline.Marie-Josée Hogue, who heads the commission, has chosen Shantona Chaudhury to be lead counsel of the inquiry.Chaudhury was recently co-lead counsel of the Public Order Emergency Commission, which examined the government’s response to protests that severely disrupted downtown Ottawa and key border crossings early last year.Several lawyers hired to be counsel for the interference inquiry also worked on the public order commission, or other inquiries.Paul Cavalluzzo, who was lead counsel for the inquiry into the case of Maher Arar, has been brought on as a senior policy adviser.The foreign interference inquiry has also issued a call for applications for standing from individuals and groups interested in taking part.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2023.The Canadian Press

Former Indiana legislator agrees to plead guilty to fraud in casino corruption scheme

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:59 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A former Indiana lawmaker has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge alleging that he accepted promises of lucrative employment from a gaming company during his time in public office, federal prosecutors said Friday. Sean Eberhart, 57, agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, according to court documents filed Thursday. The offense is punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in prison, three years of supervised release following any imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Eberhart’s attorney declined to comment when reached by phone Friday. A plea hearing had not been scheduled for Eberhart as of Friday afternoon, according to court records.The former Republican state representative represented central Indiana’s House District 57 for 16 years before leaving office in November 2022. He is accused of accepting compensation and the promise of future employment in exchange for favorable action in the General Assembly, pros...

A teenager taken from occupied Mariupol to Russia will return to Ukraine, officials say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:59 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Ukrainian and Russian officials on Friday reported reaching an agreement to bring a Ukrainian teenager taken to Russia amid the war last year back to his home country, in accordance with his wishes. Bohdan Yermokhin, a 17-year-old whose parents passed away years ago, will be reunited with a cousin “in a third country” on his 18th birthday later this month, with a view to then return to Ukraine, Russian children’s rights ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova said in an online statement Friday. Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets also confirmed on Friday that Yermokhin “will soon be in Ukraine.” Yermokhin is one of thousands of Ukrainian children taken to Russia from Ukrainian regions occupied since the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion, an effort that has prompted the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin and Lvova-Belova. Judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, said they found ...