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‘A huge shock to the system’: Doctors warn about asthma inhaler switch coming in January

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:14:47 GMT

(CNN) — Starting January 1, a drug that thousands of patients depend on to help them breathe will disappear from pharmacy shelves, and doctors are concerned patients may have delays switching to alternatives and getting them covered by insurance.Manufacturer GSK has said it’s discontinuing the branded asthma inhaler Flovent, and instead is making an “authorized generic” version, which is identical but without the same branding.Physicians who treat patients with asthma say the authorized generic will work just as well as the branded drug, but it doesn’t appear to be covered as widely by insurers. That may mean patients will have to obtain new prescriptions and sort out coverage hurdles at the height of respiratory virus season.“This medication has been the most commonly used inhaled medication for the past 25 or 30 years,” said Dr. Robyn Cohen, a pediatric pulmonologist at Boston Medical Center. “It’s the one that, overwhelmingly, pediatricians reach for when they decide that th...

Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who pleaded guilty to helping kill her abusive mother, is released from prison

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:14:47 GMT

(CNN) — Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who admitted to helping her boyfriend kill her abusive mother in a case that generated national attention, was released from prison on parole Thursday, a Missouri corrections official told CNN.Blanchard pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2016 after confessing that she convinced her boyfriend to stab her mother Dee Dee Blanchard to death as she slept. Prosecutors sentenced her to 10 years in prison in a plea deal after attorneys uncovered the abuse she experienced at the hands of her mother.Blanchard was the victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare syndrome in which a caregiver fakes, exaggerates or induces illness in a child to gain attention. Dee Dee was found to have convinced those around her, including doctors, that her daughter was afflicted with leukemia and muscular dystrophy among other ailments — a subject examined in the HBO Max documentary “Mommy Dead and Dearest.”Blanchard admitted to being in the house at th...

End of an era for Stoughton pizza institution

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:14:47 GMT

As 2023 comes to a close, so too will the incredible run of a beloved Stoughton pizza institution.Denneno’s Pizza will shut its door for the final time on New Year’s Eve after 68 years of serving up thin-crust pies to pizza lovers south of Boston – and beyond.Customers who spoke to 7NEWS said they’d driven nearly two hours to get their final slices of Denneno’s pie, with some waiting hours more in line.Owner Mark Denneno, who started working at the pizza place when he was just 8 years old and is now 69, said it’s time to retire.“The time has come for us as a family to make a difficult decision to close our family business,” Denneno’s said in a statement. “We are grateful for your patronage and support for the past 68 years. The family business has played an integral part in shaping our lives in regard to public service.”Tom Lato, a third generation Denneno’s customer, said he had many fond memories of the restau...

An associate of Russian opposition leader Navalny is sentenced to 9 years in prison

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:14:47 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — An associate of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to nine years in prison on Friday, the latest move in a relentless Kremlin crackdown on dissent.Ksenia Fadeyeva, a regional legislator who headed a local branch of Navalny’s organization in the Siberian city of Tomsk, was convicted on charges of organizing an extremist group. Her lawyers said they would appeal the verdict, arguing that Fadeyeva had ended her involvement with Navalny’s organization before the authorities labeled it extremist in 2021.Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, hailed Fadeyeva as “honest and brave,” saying on X that those who fabricated the criminal case against her will eventually face punishment.Navalny, the most prominent foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism. Earlier this month, he went missing for several weeks until his lawyers announced Monday that he has been moved from a prison in c...

Canadians optimistic that 2024 will be better than 2023: Maru poll

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:14:47 GMT

“There’s always next year.” It’s not just the mantra of long-suffering Maple Leafs fans.It’s also how many make peace with the struggles and shortcomings of another calendar year. With 2024 on the horizon, Canadians seem ready to ring in the new year with an optimistic outlook.That’s the finding of a new Maru public opinion poll released Friday morning that found a majority of Canadians (70 per cent) think 2024 will be better than 2023.Optimism was highest among the youngest Canadians (aged 18-34) and oldest (55 +), while those in the middle (35-54) were more jaded.Women (71 per cent) were also slightly more optimistic than men (68 per cent).Those living in Atlantic Canada were the most optimistic bunch (73 per cent) while Albertans were the least optimistic (64 per cent). Ontarians were somewhere in the upper-middle (71 per cent).On what they expect for the Canadian economy, Canadians are basically split, with nearly half (48 per cent) saying 202...

China appoints a new defense minister after months of uncertainty following sacking of predecessor

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:14:47 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China has appointed a new defense minister after months of uncertainty following the firing of his predecessor for reasons still unexplained. The official Xinhua News Agency announced former navy commander Dong Jun would serve in the largely ceremonial role, but offered no comment on the reasons for the switch or the current circumstances of previous minister Li Shangfu, who has not been seen or heard from since August. The uncertainty surrounding the leadership of the world’s largest standing military comes as Washington and its Asian allies are offering stronger resistance to China’s bid to assert itself as the dominant military power in the region.The Associated Press

Silver Alert issued for missing 74-year-old Kyle man

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:14:47 GMT

KYLE, Texas (KXAN) -- A Silver Alert was issued late Thursday night for a man reported missing from Kyle. The Kyle Police Department is searching for Leonard Diggs, 74, who has a diagnosed cognitive impairment.Diggs is described as a Black man, 177 lbs, 5'07" in height, with black hair, brown eyes, and was last seen wearing a gray jacket with yellow stripes, a green shirt, black jeans, and black and brown shoes. According to police, he was last seen at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 28 at 5695 Kyle Parkway, Kyle, TX 78640 in a Red, 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe with TX License Plate 2PYKV.Law enforcement officials believe Diggs' disappearance poses a credible threat to his health and safety.Silver Alert flyer for Leonard Diggs, 74, reported missing from Kyle Dec. 28, 2023. (Photo: Kyle Police Department) If you have any information regarding this missing senior citizen...

West metro bakery Muddy Paws Cheesecake has closed — but is asking for donations to help reopen

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:14:47 GMT

Muddy Paws Cheesecake, a 30-year-old bakery in St. Louis Park that boasts over 200 flavors of cheesecake, closed this week — possibly permanently, unless it can pay down significant debts within the next couple weeks.And it’s asking the public for donations to help stay afloat.The cheesecake bakery was founded in the early 1990s by Tami Cabrera and once had storefronts on Snelling Avenue in St. Paul and in Maple Grove and Uptown Minneapolis, before transitioning to its St. Louis Park flagship in the mid-2000s.Muddy Paws has made more than 480,000 cheesecakes over the past three decades, including on the Food Network, at the White House and for TV host Al Roker, according to the company’s website. The business has also donated cheesecake, money and volunteer hours to a variety of local nonprofits, theater organizations and community support networks.In an extensive post on the bakery’s website, Cabrera outlined the “snowball” of how the bakery ended up in nearly a half-million ...

Wabasha County bookkeeper accused of embezzling $3.75M after falling victim to online romance scam

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:14:47 GMT

LEWISTON, Minn. — A Wabasha County woman who claims to be the victim of an ongoing online scam is being accused of stealing more than $3.75 million from her Lewiston employer and, separately, from a vulnerable adult.According to a warrant and criminal complaint filed last week in Wabasha County District Court, Sharon Schmalzriedt, 61, of Wabasha, faces a felony theft charge for allegedly using her employer’s funds to pay someone she met online.According to the criminal complaint:Schmalzriedt worked for the Lewiston company remotely from Wabasha, doing bookkeeping, payroll and accounts payable.The complaint said she was having marital problems and, in October 2019, began an online relationship with a man identifying himself as Erik Lockwood.According to message transcripts, Lockwood and another person identifying themself as Lockwood’s attorney told Schmalzriedt that Lockwood was owed $7 million for work he did in Dubai. They told Schmalzriedt that Lockwood needed to borrow money to ...

Binyamin Appelbaum: Why do we build houses in the same way we did 125 years ago?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:14:47 GMT

BUENA VISTA, Colo. — In 1969, the federal government announced that it would hand out millions of dollars in subsidies to companies willing to try something new: build houses in factories.Then as now, America was in the throes of a housing crisis. There weren’t enough places to live. Mass production provided Americans with abundant and cheap food, clothing, cars and other staples of material life. But houses were still hammered together by hand, on site. The federal initiative, Operation Breakthrough, aimed to drive up the production of housing — and to drive down the cost — by dragging the building industry into the 20th century.It didn’t work. Big companies, including Alcoa and General Electric, designed new kinds of houses, and roughly 25,000 rolled out of factories over the following decade. But none of the new homebuilders long survived the end of federal subsidies in the mid-1970s.Last year, only 2% of new single-family homes in the United States were built in factories. Two d...