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Love to nap? Here’s more evidence it’s good for your brain

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:22:00 GMT

Hanna Webster | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)PITTSBURGH — A study published last month in the journal Sleep Health found that regular napping is linked to larger brain volume and could indicate anti-aging properties of napping.While past research looked at people’s brains and sleep habits and made correlations, this study — with global collaboration including Harvard Medical School — took it one step further in analyzing participants’ genes to locate specific traits associated with napping. The Allegheny Health Network Center for Sleep Medicine thinks it’s a step in the right direction for learning more about sleep and cognition.It is estimated that one in three U.S. adults does not get adequate sleep (an average 7 to 8 hours a night), and that around 18% of Americans have a sleep disorder. Teens need more sleep than adults, to accommodate a developing brain. Chronic poor sleep can decrease immune function and increase risk of high blood pressure, diabetes and other health condition...

Josh Uche would ‘love’ to remain in New England, will the Patriots extend him?

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:22:00 GMT

FOXBORO — Josh Uche understands the game outside the game.Whether he plays in New England past this season, a contract year for the talented 24-year-old pass rusher, is closely tied to his performance on the football field. But not entirely.The Patriots’ ongoing negotiations with his agents will be impacted by several factors: his contract demands, the team’s interest, how pass rushers of his age and caliber are currently being paid across the league, salary cap projections, the opportunity cost of signing Uche to a large contract for the team, potential replacements for him on the roster, how the front office projects he’ll play in upcoming years, what Uche believes he’ll do and which side can best flexSo, with all of that in mind, Uche is choosing to keep a clear head. The business game? His agents can handle that. Football is the only game he wants to play.Related ArticlesNew England Patriots | Bill Belichick won’t address Patriots’ report...

50-51 Chicago Cubs win 5th straight game with trade deadline — and decisions — looming: ‘We believe in this clubhouse’

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:22:00 GMT

Nico Hoerner couldn’t help but laugh with Chicago Cubs first base coach Mike Napoli when he got on after his game-tying walk.They realized Napoli didn’t have Hoerner’s handguard protector he wears on base thanks to the Cubs sending 12 batters to plate in the fifth inning Wednesday night against the White Sox.“Good problem to have that go through twice and there’s equipment issues,” Hoerner chuckled.Hoerner’s bases-loaded walk with two outs brought home the go-ahead run to cap a six-run inning against Sox pitchers Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly. It represented the type of approach that fueled the Cubs’ comeback in a 10-7 victory on a muggy evening at Guaranteed Rate Field. They erased the 7-2 lead the Sox built through four innings.Miles Mastrobuoni successfully reached based on a swinging strikeout-turned-wild pitch to score a run and keep the fifth inning alive. Yan Gomes’ pinch-hit hit by pitch set up Mike Tauchman with the bases loa...

Bud Light maker Anheuser-Busch lays off hundreds of US corporate workers after sales slump

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:22:00 GMT

The Associated PressNEW YORK (AP) — Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Bud Light, confirmed this week is laying off hundreds of positions across its U.S. corporate staff.In a statement to The Associated Press, the beer maker said the layoffs will impact less than 2% of its workforce. Anheuser-Busch’s website says the company employs 19,000 employees nationwide. Warehouse staff, drivers and other frontline employees will not be affected, the company said.The job cuts arrive during a rocky time for Anheuser-Busch, which has seen a months-long sales decline for Bud Light since April when conservative critics vowed to boycott the brand after the brewer sent a commemorative can to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Bud Light has also faced backlash from Mulvaney’s supporters and LGBTQ+ rights groups, who say the brand didn’t do enough to support her.Mulvaney later shared that she felt abandoned by Bud Light, and faced “more bullying and transphobia than I could have ever imagined” over the...

Jonas Brothers coming to San Diego on world tour

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:22:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO — San Diego will be "Burnin' Up" this fall when the Jonas Brothers come to town.The musical trio will be performing at Viejas Arena on Oct. 28 as part of The Tour, which announced new North American dates Thursday.Tickets for the San Diego show and other newly-announced North America dates will be distributed through Ticketmaster's Verified Fan presale service.Fans can sign up for presale access here though 7 p.m. PT on July 31. Those who are selected to receive an access code will be able to purchase presale tickets staring on Aug. 3. Free summer concert series returns to Pacific Beach A limited number of general sale tickets are expected to be available at 10 a.m. on Aug. 4 here.In addition to the 26 new North American dates, the Jonas Brothers also added 27 shows across Australia, Europe and New Zealand to the tour schedule.The Tour will kick off on Aug. 12 and 13 with back-to-back shows at Yankee Stadium in New York and will span 90 shows across 20 countries.You can ...

LeBron James breaks silence after son Bronny's hospitalization

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:22:00 GMT

LeBron James has broken his silence after his oldest son, Bronny, suffered cardiac arrest during basketball practice at the University of Southern California. The Los Angeles Lakers star posted a message on Twitter on Thursday morning. "I want to thank the countless people sending my family love and prayers," he wrote. "We feel you and I’m so grateful. Everyone doing great. We have our family together, safe and healthy, and we feel your love."LeBron said he will "have more to say" when the family is ready "but I wanted to tell everyone how much your support has meant to all of us! #JamesGang."Bronny James #6 of the West team reacts after sinking a three-point shot during the 2023 McDonald's High School Boys All-American Game at Toyota Center on March 28, 2023, in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images)On Monday morning, Bronny collapsed on the court of USC's Galen Center. He was initially admitted to the ICU. He is now recovering in the hospital and is in stable...

Squeegee worker guilty of manslaughter in case exemplifying Baltimore’s racial and class divides

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:22:00 GMT

BALTIMORE (AP) — Following a 10-day criminal trial rife with racial and political overtones, a Baltimore teenager was found guilty Thursday of voluntary manslaughter in the deadly shooting of a baseball bat-wielding driver who approached youths washing windshields at a busy downtown intersection last summer.Throughout the trial, defense attorneys tried to assign some responsibility to Timothy Reynolds, who armed himself with a metal bat and confronted the group of windshield washers near the city’s Inner Harbor during rush hour. Reynolds, 48, was shot five times, including three gunshot wounds to his back.“I would submit to you that Mr. Reynolds was the author of his own death,” defense attorney J. Wyndal Gordon said during closing arguments Monday.The defense repeatedly highlighted the differences in size and maturity between the victim, a white man weighing over 300 pounds (135 kilograms), and the African American defendant, a high school student who turned 15 the day after the sh...

Wildfire in Greece triggers explosions at ammunition depot and relocation of fighter jets

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:22:00 GMT

RHODES, Greece (AP) — A wildfire whipped on by strong winds triggered a series of massive explosions Thursday at an air force ammunition depot in central Greece, and F-16 fighter jets were being moved from a nearby air base as a precaution while firefighters worked to tame multiple blazes in the country.The Greek air force said the military base was not under an immediate threat. The depot was evacuated before the explosions, and no injuries were reported, although continued blasts prevented firefighting teams from approaching the site.Fires have raged across parts of Greece during three successive Mediterranean heat waves in the past two weeks, leaving five people dead, including two firefighting pilots, and triggering a huge weekend evacuation of tourists on the island of Rhodes.The fire in the Volos area of central Greece’s Magnissia region reached the ammunition storage facility about 6 kilometers (4 miles) north of the major military air base in Nea Anchialos. Local media...

Alaska asks US Supreme Court to strike down the rejection of a proposed copper, gold mine

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:22:00 GMT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The state of Alaska wants the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a federal agency’s rejection of a proposed copper and gold mine in southwest Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in January blocked the proposed Pebble Mine, citing concerns with potential impacts on a rich aquatic ecosystem that supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery. It was the 14th time in the roughly 50-year history of the federal Clean Water Act that the EPA flexed its powers to bar or restrict activities over their potential impacts on waters, including fisheries.Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor in a statement Wednesday said having a case heard directly by the Supreme Court rather than first in the lower courts is “an extraordinary ask, but it’s appropriate given the extraordinary decision being challenged.”“The EPA’s order strikes at the heart of Alaska’s sovereignty, depriving the State of its power to regulate its lands and w...

Sign outside Quebec Ukrainian summer camp vandalized with pro-Russian graffiti

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:22:00 GMT

CHERTSEY, Que. — Officials who run a summer camp north of Montreal for Ukrainian children say one of its signs has been vandalized with pro-Russian graffiti.A photo shows the Camp Ste-Sophie sign vandalized with graffiti spelling the words “Russia” and “Wagner” — the name of the Russia-affiliated paramilitary group active in the invasion of Ukraine.Also written on the sign at the entrance of the camp was the letter “Z,” a symbol found on tanks and other Russian military equipment in the Ukrainian war theatre.Simon Kouklewsky, vice-president of the Montreal-based parish that oversees the camp, says a parish member alerted him to the vandalism last Saturday and that camp officials reported the discovery to Quebec provincial police.Rev. Archpriest Volodymyr Kouchnir, who leads the parish, says no children were present at the time the vandalism was discovered because the camp, located in Chertsey, Que., is being renovated.The Ukrainian Canadian Congre...