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Jokic leads Nuggets past Lakers 113-111, and into first NBA Finals

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:37:15 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nikola Jokic is a player unlike almost anything the NBA has ever seen, and now he’s taking his Denver Nuggets somewhere they’ve never been.Jokic had 30 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists, and the Nuggets advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in team history Monday night, sweeping the Western Conference finals with a 113-111 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.Canadian Jamal Murray scored 25 points for the top-seeded Nuggets, who overcame LeBron James’ 31-point first half and a 15-point halftime deficit with a tenacious finish in Game 4 to earn their first conference title in their 47 NBA seasons.“It’s incredible,” Murray said. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s surreal. We’re going to keep making history, that’s the thing. We’re going to keep that mindset.”Jokic earned his eighth triple-double of the playoffs by the third quarter, breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s 1967 NBA record for triple-doubles in a single post-season. The bulky Serbian centre with a point...

Shelters start to fill in Guam as US territory in Pacific braces for Typhoon Mawar

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:37:15 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — Authorities in Guam warned anyone not living in a fully concrete house to head to safety elsewhere and emergency shelters began to fill as residents braced for Typhoon Mawar, a powerful storm that could deliver the biggest hit in two decades to the U.S. territory in the Pacific.Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero urged residents in a YouTube message to remain calm and prepare for Mawar, which the weather service said could hit the southern part of Guam around midday Wednesday. She ordered the National Guard to help those in low-lying areas evacuate ahead of the storm as residents stocked up on jugs of water and generators.“Current forecasts are not favorable to our island,” she said. “We are at the crosshairs of Typhoon Mawar. Take action now, stay calm, stay informed and stay safe.”If Guam doesn’t take a direct hit, it will be very close, said Patrick Doll, the lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tiyan, Guam.The center of the Category 3 storm was about 1...

A lifetime of racism makes Alzheimer’s more prevalent in Black Americans

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:37:15 GMT

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Constance Guthrie is not yet dead, but her daughter has begun to plan her funeral. It will be, Jessica Guthrie says, in a Black-owned funeral home, with the songs of her ancestors. She envisions a celebration of her mother’s life, not a tragic recitation of her long decline.As it should be. Constance has lived 74 years, many of them good, as a Black woman, a mother, educator and businesswoman.But she will die of Alzheimer’s disease, a scourge of Black Americans that threatens to grow far worse in coming decades.Black people are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than white people in the United States. They are less likely to be correctly diagnosed, and their families often struggle to get treatment from a medical system filled with bias against them. About 14% of Black people in America over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s, compared with 10% of white people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disparity is likely even more, beca...

High blood pressure plagues many Black Americans. Combined with COVID, it’s catastrophic

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:37:15 GMT

DISTRICT HEIGHTS, Md. (AP) — Charles Thomas was unwell but he had no time for rest.He was on the cusp of a management promotion and a move to Florida to begin a new chapter that would alter his family’s financial future and break the cycle of generational poverty. Yet, as his family’s prospects improved, concerns about his health grew. A severe bout of COVID-19 left the 52-year-old weak and in recovery for weeks. His wife, Melanese Marr-Thomas, worried he was pushing himself too hard to get back in the swing of things. Charles was a big man at 6 feet tall and 300 pounds. He struggled for years to get his weight under control.Later in life, that struggle gave way to high blood pressure and a medley of medications. In a nation plagued by high blood pressure, Black people are more likely to suffer from it — and so, in the time of COVID-19, they are more likely than white people to die. It’s a stark reality. And it has played out in thousands of Black households that have lost mothers a...

Black kids face racism before they even start school. It’s driving a major mental health crisis.

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:37:15 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — To her students who need the most support, India Strother is rarely just “Ms. Strother” — she’s a family figure they call “Mom,” a trusted guide as they negotiate their teenage years.They open up to her about their dating lives. About pregnancy scares. About their fights with their parents, about the trauma they experience outside school. She keeps a mental list of those at risk of self-harm or suicide, and checks to see how they are doing. It’s just part of the job of being a counselor at any American high school. But at predominantly Black schools like the one in Columbus, Ohio, where Strother works, students’ mental health is further tested by pressures and discrimination they endure because they are Black, as well as poverty and violence in some communities that have faced years of disinvestment.“Anytime you deal with African American mental health, you’re not dealing with one thing,” Strother said. “It is several things. It is trauma that has not bee...

Black children are more likely to have asthma. A lot comes down to where they live

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:37:15 GMT

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Amid the balloons, cake and games at his best friend’s birthday party on a farm, 5-year-old Carter Manson clutched his small chest.“He just kept saying ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,’’’ his mother, Catherine, recalled tearfully. “I picked him up and told him it was OK and to just breathe. Just breathe.”It was the first time Carter had an asthma attack in public, and the inhaler he sorely needed was in the family car. Catherine calmed her terrified son and ran to get the inhaler; only then was Carter able to breathe easily. “You say in your head as a parent that I’m going to be prepared next time,” Catherine, 39, said.“But anything can trigger them,” she said.Black children are more likely to have asthma than kids of any other race in America. They’re more likely to live near polluting plants, and in rental housing with mold and other triggers, because of racist housing laws in the nation’s past. Their asthma often is more severe and less likely...

Asian stocks mixed after more US debt talks fail to break impasse

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:37:15 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets were mixed Tuesday after more talks in Washington on government debt ended with no deal to avoid a potentially jarring default.Shanghai and Hong Kong declined while Tokyo and Sydney advanced. Oil prices rose.Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index edged up less than 0.1% on Monday as Congress and the White House negotiated over Republican demands to cut social programs in exchange for agreeing to raise the amount the government can borrow.“The resumption of debt ceiling negotiations spurred some hopes despite distinct risks of brinksmanship and blame-shifting,” Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank said in a report.The Shanghai Composite Index sank 0.8% to 3,270.46 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gained 0.6% to 31,286.70. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong shed 0.3% to 19,626.06.The Kospi in Seoul advanced 0.8% to 2,576.48 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 added 0.4% to 61,963.68.New Zealand declined while Singapore and Jakarta advanced.Worries about a poten...

Donald Trump to appear by video as judge reinforces ban on attacking witnesses

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:37:15 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The judge in Donald Trump’s criminal case is holding a hybrid hearing Tuesday to make doubly sure the former president is aware of new rules barring him from using evidence to attack witnesses.Trump won’t have to show up to court for the afternoon hearing at a Manhattan courthouse, avoiding the mammoth security and logistical challenges that accompanied his arraignment last month.Instead, the Republican will be connected by video conference, with his face beamed onto courtroom TV monitors. His lawyers and prosecutors must still appear in person.Judge Juan Manuel Merchan agreed to the extra step of personally instructing Trump on the restrictions after listing them May 8 in what’s known as a protective order.Trump is allowed to speak publicly about the case, but he risks being held in contempt if he uses evidence turned over by prosecutors in the pretrial discovery process to target witnesses or others involved in the case.Trump pleaded not guilty April 4 ...

Why do so many Black women die in pregnancy? One reason: Doctors don’t take them seriously

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:37:15 GMT

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Angelica Lyons knew it was dangerous for Black women to give birth in America.As a public health instructor, she taught college students about racial health disparities, including the fact that Black women in the U.S. are nearly three times more likely to die during pregnancy or delivery than any other race. Her home state of Alabama has the third-highest maternal mortality rate in the nation.Then, in 2019, it nearly happened to her.What should have been a joyous first pregnancy quickly turned into a nightmare when she began to suffer debilitating stomach pain.Her pleas for help were shrugged off, she said, and she was repeatedly sent home from the hospital. Doctors and nurses told her she was suffering from normal contractions, she said, even as her abdominal pain worsened and she began to vomit bile. Angelica said she wasn’t taken seriously until a searing pain rocketed throughout her body and her baby’s heart rate plummeted.Rushed into the operating room f...

Success coaches ‘dig a little deeper’ to help community college students

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:37:15 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — Daisy Donjuan’s family never saw the value in college. After graduating from high school, she did what was expected of her — dropped education, worked and pitched in at home.When she enrolled in Dallas College after a five-year break in school, she had to navigate a dizzying array of options and decisions as she sought a career outside of retail management.With the help of a success coach, Donjuan created a plan to graduate through the college’s paralegal program. She avoided taking classes that didn’t advance her goals and stayed on top of coursework.“It felt good, the fact that someone is actually checking up on you and that they’re keeping up with you,” Donjuan, 24, said. “They actually care about us succeeding.”Amid declines in enrollment in community colleges nationally and low completion rates, Dallas College invested nearly three years ago in hiring counselors who take a more hands-on approach to advising. The program pairs students with success coaches to navig...