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Medication abortions are under fire: Here’s how they work

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:06 GMT

Medication abortions became the preferred method for ending pregnancy in the U.S. even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. They usually involve taking two prescription medicines days apart — at home or in a clinic.In contrast, abortion procedures are an invasive medical technique that empties the womb. They are sometimes called surgical abortions, although they don’t involve surgery.In the United States, abortions by pills usually involve the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. As more states seek abortion limits, demand for the pills is expected to grow. But they have been targeted by abortion foes including Christian conservatives who filed suit in Texas seeking to overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone. A hearing on the suit was held Wednesday. HOW DO ABORTION DRUGS WORK?Mifepristone is taken first, swallowed by mouth. The drug dilates the cervix and blocks the effects of the hormone progesterone, which is needed to sustain a pregnancy.M...

Review: Enter Aly & AJ’s voyage into the sun kissed desert

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:06 GMT

“With Love From,” Aly & AJ (Aly & AJ Music)Disney starlets-turned-indie sister duo Aly & AJ return with a new album, storytelling their way through a big American road trip into a ’70s dreamy and electric landscape through the sun kissed desert.In the duo’s album, “With Love From,” they demonstrate their ability to make their familiar indie-pop sound reminiscent of a time in music where rock stars delivered subdued confessionals — longing for love or coming alive staying up all night on a tour bus traveling across the country. The sisters sound stronger as they ever have as a duo as they let go of ’80s style-synth production to let their voices breathe on the more stripped down, folksy Americana-inspired 11-track album. “With Love From” simply starts off with the country-infused track “Open to Something and That Something Is You.” The perfect song to serenade a lover, twinged with longing, desire and an open heart to love. “After Hours” is a folk ...

‘Just tell Avril I’m not mad,’ says topless Junos protester after being charged

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:06 GMT

EDMONTON — A woman facing a criminal charge after a topless protest at the Juno Awards said she isn’t upset about Avril Lavigne swearing at her and demanding she get off stage.Casey Hatherly, who goes by the name Ever, hopped on the Junos stage on Monday night while the Canadian pop-punk star was introducing a performance. “I really was hoping that Avril would be punk rock and anti-establishment, maybe hand me the mic and let me say my thing,” said Hatherly in a phone interview on Wednesday. “I’m totally not upset about anything that went down.“Just tell Avril I’m not mad.”Hatherly also made a court appearance Wednesday in Edmonton on a charge of mischief.The 37-year-old from Vancouver said it was easy for her to get onto the stage before security escorted her away. “I just walked up there,” Hatherly told media outside court. “It was so easy.”She said she spent the night in custody and officers played Lavigne...

Incomprehension in small Quebec town after pedestrians killed by truck

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:06 GMT

AMQUI — The town of Amqui, Que., was taking steps toward a return to normal life on Wednesday, even as citizens mourned the two men who died after a truck was driven into groups of pedestrians.Businesses on St-Benoît Boulevard were once again open, and pedestrians were venturing back out on the street that was the scene of Monday’s tragedy.Daniel Thériault, who worked as a paramedic for 27 years and now works for the local church, found it hard to hide his anger at what had happened. He described what he saw Monday as a “war zone.”“There’s still anger … when our citizens are attacked, (they’re like) members of our family, because they were part of the community,” Thériault said in a phone interview. Two people were killed and nine were injured when a man drove a truck down one of the eastern Quebec town’s main streets, allegedly hitting several different groups of pedestrians in what police have described as an intentional act.Thirty-eight-year-old Steeve Gagnon is...

Son of Flyers GM Briere apologizes for ‘serious lack of judgment’ after wheelchair video goes viral

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:06 GMT

The son of interim Philadelphia Flyers general manager Daniel Briere apologized on Wednesday for having a “serious lack of judgment” after a video went viral showing a man push an empty wheelchair down a flight of stairs.In the video, which appears to be from a fish-eye security camera at Sullivan’s Pub in Erie, Penn., two men wearing backward ball caps climb the stairs and have a conversation before one of the men – who is wearing a white ball cap – appears to sit in the empty wheelchair at the top of the stairs and wheels it forward, toward the entrance to the bar.After the man with the white ball cap stands up out of the chair, the second man positions the wheelchair at the edge of the stairs. The man with the white cap then pushes the chair down the stairs. A portion of the chair appears to break off as it hits the stairs.The time stamp on the video displays Saturday’s date of 3-11-2023 and counts up from around 11:38 p.m. As of 4:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday, the v...

Long-used abortion pill in US under threat in Texas lawsuit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:06 GMT

AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — A conservative judge in Texas raised questions Wednesday about a Christian group’s effort to overturn federal regulators’ decades-old approval of a leading abortion drug, in a case that could threaten the country’s most common method to end pregnancies.Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk heard more than four hours of debate over the Alliance Defending Freedom’s request to revoke or suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone. Such a step would be an unprecedented challenge to the FDA and its authority in deciding which drugs to permit on the market.Kacsmaryk said he would rule “as soon as possible,” without giving any clear indication of how he might decide and leaving open the question of whether access to the standard regimen for medication abortions might soon be curtailed throughout the country.Mifepristone, when combined with a second pill, was approved in 2000 and is used to end pregnancies until their 10th week. It ha...

Construction along Toronto’s Lake Shore causing commuter headaches, standstill traffic

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:06 GMT

While traffic on Lake Shore Boulevard near Jarvis Street has been an ongoing headache for commuters, it’s recently become even worse, with some drivers waiting up to three hours in the area.Some drivers tell CityNews they’ve become increasingly frustrated, exhausted, and desperate to get moving.“Absolutely ridiculous. I’m a little bit stressed. I’m nine months pregnant right now, I’m sitting in traffic, and I don’t know when we’re going to get out of this,” said one woman who had been waiting over an hour in the logjam.“[It’s] extremely frustrating,” said another driver. “It takes me 40 minutes to get home when I live 10 minutes away.”CityNews first brought you the story in November when the four lanes of Lake Shore were reduced to one lane between Cherry and Yonge Streets as Enbridge worked to replace portions of a high-pressure natural gas pipeline.A different portion of that pipeline is being repl...

Suburban residents, Metra concerned about new railway merger

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:06 GMT

ITASCA, Ill. — Much to the disappointment of some residents in a number of Chicago suburbs, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board has approved the merger of Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern.The deal is worth billions of dollars and proponents say it will be good for the economy, but opponents have long expressed concerns about what it will do to their communities.Wednesday's decision is two years in the making and comes after the board held several local public hearings and reviewed an environmental impact study. "We made this decision because, in general terms, we found that on balance, the merger of these two railroads will benefit the American economy and be an improvement for all citizens in terms of safety and environment," board Chairman Marty Oberman said from Washington D.C.The $31 billion merger will create the largest freight company and run from Canada to Mexico through the United States. It will impact 54 crossings on 20 miles of Metra's Milwaukee Distri...

MedWatch Daily Digest: A female hormone that could hurt the heart – and more

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:06 GMT

For Wednesday, March. 15, WGN’s Dina Bair has the latest on new medical information, including: More Coverage: WGN's Medical Watch How estrogen, a naturally occurring hormone, may alter heart rhythm.Why a new study by researchers at the University of Alberta reveals how fevers are good for helping the body heal.Have back pain? Why riding a horse may help.

Wrestling's Bella Twins are changing their name, leaving WWE

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:06 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – The Bella Twins aren’t going by “The Bella Twins” anymore.The former WWE wrestlers, 39, announced on this week’s episode of their SiriusXM “Nikki & Brie Show” podcast that they’ve decided to embark on a “new chapter,” which necessitated a name change.“So today is a massive day for Brie and I, huge,” the entertainer formerly known as Nikki Bella said. “It’s a day of celebration, a day of excitement. It is the start of a new chapter. We are going back to our roots; we are going back to the names that we were given at birth.“Today, we are officially, from here on out, the Garcia Twins.” Can you increase your odds of picking the perfect NCAA March Madness bracket? Nikki and Brie Garcia went on to explain that they changed their names after a “mutual” decision not to renew their contracts with WWE. WWE, meanwhile, owns the trademark on “The Bella Twins,” Variety reported, citing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.The women added that they harbored no ill will toward t...