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4.2.26

A newborn's death likely linked to the mom drinking raw milk while pregnant

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A newborn's death likely linked to the mom drinking raw milk while pregnant

A newborn baby died from a listeria infection likely linked to the child's mother drinkingraw milkduring pregnancy, health officials said.

Associated Press

New Mexico officials this week warned people to avoid consuming unpasteurized dairy products following the death. Interest in and sales of raw milk have been rising in recent years, fueled by social media and growing support from the Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'sMake America Healthy Again movement.

State officials provided few details about the newborn, citing privacy restrictions. While investigators said they could not determine the exact cause of the baby's death, "the most likely source of infection was unpasteurized milk." That conclusion was based on information gathered during the investigation, including the timing of the infection and reports that the mother drank raw milk during pregnancy, an official said.

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Raw milk can contain several disease-causing germs, including listeria. That is a type of bacteria that can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm birth, or fatal infections in newborns, even if the mother is only mildly ill.

Pasteurization — the process of heating milk to a high enough temperature to kill germs — can prevent infections from listeria as well as other types of bacteria as well as viruses. Raw milk can contain germs that cause infections from avian influenza, brucella, tuberculosis, salmonella, campylobacter, cryptosporidium and E. coli. Many of those infections are particularly dangerous to young children, people older than 65 and those with weakened immune systems.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Former Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, congressional overseer of US foreign affairs, has died

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Former Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, congressional overseer of US foreign affairs, has died

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — FormerU.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, a crewcut-wearing Indiana Democrat from southern Indiana who was a leading foreign affairs voice during three decades in Congress and helped oversee investigations of theSept. 11 attacks, died Tuesday. He was 94.

Associated Press FILE - President Barack Obama, right, presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 24, 2015, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) FILE - Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., Rep. Jim Wright, D-Texas, Rep. John Brademas, D-Ind., and Stephen Solarz, D-N.Y., stand on the steps of the House of Representatives following a vote, Aug. 2, 1978, in Washington. (AP Photo/John Duricka, File) FILE - Reporters hold up tape recorders as Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., makes comments on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Dec. 18, 1986. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File) FILE - Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, left, and Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., chairmen of the Senate and House select committees on the Iran-Contra affair, confer as the group continued hearings on Capitol Hill, in Washington, May 8, 1987. (AP Photo/Lana Harris, File) FILE - Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., speaks at the University Speakers Series at Indiana State University, Sept. 20, 2012, in Terre Haute, Ind. (Jim Avelis/The Tribune-Star via AP, File)

Obit Lee Hamilton

Hamilton, a moderate lawmaker respected by Democrats and Republicans alike who also led a congressional probe of the Reagan administration'sIran-Contra affair, died Tuesday peacefully in his Bloomington, Indiana, home, said his son Doug Hamilton, who did not cite a cause.

The elder Hamilton was at the forefront of congressional opposition tothe 1991 Persian Gulf Warwaged by President George H.W. Bush and advocated continued economic sanctions against Iraq before military action over its invasion of Kuwait.

He decided against seeking reelection in 1998 and said after leaving Congress that he believed the U.S. needed to be regarded around the world as more than a leader of military coalitions.

"The United States must be — and must be seen as — an optimistic and benign power," Hamilton said in 2003. "We must speak and act as a source of optimism, a beacon of freedom, a benign power forging a consensus approach toward a world of peace and growth and freedom. And American power must be accompanied by American generosity."

President Barack Obama presented Hamilton with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015, saying during the ceremony that Hamilton was a man "widely admired" on both sides of the aisle, "for his honesty, his wisdom, and consistent commitment to bipartisanship."

"Indiana mourns the passing of Lee Hamilton, a man whose life embodied integrity, civility, and public service," Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, said in a statement Wednesday.

9/11 investigations

Hamilton was a small-town lawyer known for his exploits as a high school basketball star when he first won election to his southern Indiana congressional seat in 1964 at the age of 33.

With his thick glasses and calm, deliberate manner, Hamilton rose to become chairman of the House Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees and a Democratic leader on international relations before retiring from Congress in 1999.

His reputation as an evenhanded moderate had Capitol Hill leaders turn to him for some of the most tumultuous matters facing Washington. But he also faced criticism that he was not aggressive enough in pursuing allegations of wrongdoing by Republican administrations.

Hamilton was tapped in 2002 as vice chairman of the Sept. 11 attacks commission. That group spent 20 months investigating the 2001 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people when 19 hijackers flew airliners into New York's World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania countryside.

He presented a united front with the panel's Republican chairman, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, through clashes with the George W. Bush White House and its lobbying efforts for changes to the U.S. intelligence system.

The commission found that both the Clinton and Bush administrations failed to grasp the gravity of terrorist threats and took actions so feeble that they never even slowed the al-Qaida plotters.

"The fact of the matter is, we just didn't get it in this country," Hamilton said when the commission released its report in 2004. "We could not comprehend that people wanted to kill us; they wanted to hijack airplanes and fly them into big buildings."

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Iran-Contra committee

Hamilton gained national prominence in the mid-1980s with his selection as a co-chairman of the congressional Iran-Contra committee, which investigated the Reagan administration's diversion of profits from Iran arms sales to help Nicaragua's Contra rebels. The panel's report found that President Ronald Reagan created an atmosphere at the White House in which subordinates felt free to skirt the law and Constitution.

"There was too much secrecy and deception," Hamilton said at the time. "Information was withheld from the Congress, other officials, friends and allies and the American people."

Hamilton, however, gained little Republican support for the committee's work. Then-Rep. Dick Cheney, a top Republican on the Iran-Contra committee, called the report a political document that selected only the most damaging evidence against the Reagan administration.

Hamilton was considered as a possible vice presidential running mate both for Michael Dukakis in 1988 and Bill Clinton in 1992, but they decided against picking the nontelegenic congressman from a Republican-leaning state.

Born April 20, 1931, in Daytona Beach, Florida, Hamilton was the son of a Methodist minister and moved with his family to Evansville, Indiana, as a child.

He went on to college at DePauw University and attended Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, before graduating from Indiana University's law school in 1956.

Former Indiana governor and former vice president Mike Pence, a Republican, said in a statement that while their politics differed, his respect for Hamilton was "boundless."

After Congress

After serving in Congress, Hamilton continued with his interests in foreign affairs and congressional reform as director of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center. He also spent time as a faculty member at Indiana University, which in 2018 named its School of Global and International Studies after Hamilton and longtime Republican Sen. Richard Lugar,who died in 2019.

Hamilton's son said he took his father into his office on Monday, the day before he died.

"He believed in doing as much good as he could for as long as he could," Doug Hamilton said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Hamilton and his wife were married for 58 years after meeting while students at DePauw. Nancy Hamilton died in 2012. He is survived by three children, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Associated Press writer Isabella Volmert contributed from Lansing, Michigan. Davies is a former Associated Press writer.

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Bill Gates, mentioned in Epstein files, says he was 'foolish'

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Bill Gates, mentioned in Epstein files, says he was 'foolish'

Microsoft co-founderBill Gatessaid he "regrets every minute" he ever spent withJeffrey Epstein, speaking out after the release ofEpstein filesthat included mentions of him.

NBC Universal

Gates told"Nine News Australia"in an interview posted Wednesday that it was "foolish" to have spent time with Epstein, the convicted sex offender, and that Epstein's claims about him in the files were "false."

" Apparently, Jeffrey wrote an email to himself. That email was never sent; the email is false," he said. "So I don't know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?

"It just reminds me, every minute I spent with him I regret, and I apologize that I did that," he added.

Gates was one of several of the world's richest and most prominent men mentioned in the millions of filesthe Justice Department released Fridayin connection with Epstein.

He said that he met Epstein in 2011, years after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes, and that they had "a number of dinners" together.

He denied ever having gone to Epstein's private island.

"The focus was always he knew a lot of very rich people, and he was saying he could get them to give money to global health," Gates said. "In retrospect, that was a dead end, and I've said many times, but I'll say again, I was foolish to spend time with him. I was one of many people who regret ever knowing him."

In a series of emails from 2013 that he sent to himself, Epstein appeared to suggest that Gates was having an extramarital affair and seeking illicit drugs.

Epstein wrote in an email dated July 18, 2013, that he had decided to resign from a role he had with the Gates Foundation and BG3, a think tank Gates founded, because he got "caught up in a severe martial dispute between Melinda and Bill." Melinda French Gates is Gates' ex-wife.

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"I have the greatest respect for my friend of 7 years, and wish them both well," Epstein wrote.

With multiple typos, Epstein wrote about his relationship with Gates: "In my role as his right hand I had been asked on mulitple occassion and in hindsight , wrongly acquiesced into participating in things that have ranged from the morally inappropriate , to the ethically unsound and had been repeatedly asked to do other things that get near and potentially over the line into the illegal."

Epstein described those activities as "helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls, to facilictating his illicit trysts, with married women,to being asked to provide adderal."

A spokesperson for Bill Gates denied the allegations in a statement Tuesday. "These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false," the statement said. "The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein's frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame."

Melinda Gates said in an interview with NPR's "Wild Card" podcast Tuesday that she felt "unbelievable sadness" seeing her ex-husband's name mentioned in the new batch of files.

"Whatever questions remain there ... for those people, and for even my ex-husband, they need to answer to those things, not me," she said. "And I am so happy to be away from all the muck that was there."

Gates was among a long list of powerful men, which includes President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and former President Bill Clinton, named in the millions of files the Justice Department collected.

Trump, Musk and Clinton have denied wrongdoing, and authorities have not accused them of any crime in connection to Epstein. Clinton and former Secretary of StateHillary Clintonagreed Monday to testify in Congress about Epstein in the near future.

Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend and accomplice, is the sole person to have been charged and convicted of crimes associated with Epstein. She is serving a prison sentence in Texas.

Epstein died in jail awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.

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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander out through All-Star break with ab injury

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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander out through All-Star break with ab injury

The NBA trade deadlineis drawing nearer and more teams are making game-changing moves to alter the NBA landscape heading into the playoffs. However, through all the hullabaloo, the most impactful event might have happened last night.

USA TODAY Sports

NBA insider Michael Scottoreportsthat reigning MVPShai Gilgeous-Alexanderof theOklahoma City Thundersuffered an abdominal strain duringlast night's gameagainst theOrlando Magic. He is expected to be out through at least the All-Star break.

SGA had been selected as an All-Star Game starter. 2026 would have marked his fourth consecutive All-Star Game appearance.

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The NBA has announced its starters for the 2026 All-Star Game. Starters were selected through a fan vote (50% weight), and a survey of NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%). Players were selected without regard for position. See the five starters from each conference. <p style=Eastern Conference Cade Cunningham, Detroit Pistons (second All-Star selection)

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks (third) Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia 76ers (second) Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics (fifth) Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks (10th) <p style=Western Conference Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors (12th All-Star selection)

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder (fourth) Luka Dončić, Los Angeles Lakers (sixth) Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs (second) Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets (eighth)

Giannis, Curry, Doncic highlight 2026 NBA All-Star Game starters

When did SGA suffer his injury?

Gilgeous-Alexander suffered his abdominal injury during Oklahoma City's128-92win against the Magic on Feb. 3.

Despite the injury, SGA still managed 20 points and nine assists, extending his streak of consecutive 20-point games to 121 games. He played 28 minutes in the contest, scoring his final point with just over two minutes remaining in the game.

When will SGA return?

SGA will miss at least five games, and will be re-evaluated following the All-Star break. Oklahoma City's first game after the break will be on Feb. 20 at home against theBrooklyn Nets.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Shai Gilgeous-Alexanders injury update: Ab strain for Thunder star

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Hornets-Bulls trade grades: Who won the Coby White deal?

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Hornets-Bulls trade grades: Who won the Coby White deal?

The Chicago Bulls keep making moves, this time dealing a player they should have traded well over a year ago in order to actually get something of value.

That player is Coby White, whose contract status has beenthoroughly coveredon this site. The TL;DR version is this: The Bulls just traded him to the Charlotte Hornets at his lowest possible value, which has been a theme of theirs when dealing away players.

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The trade itself is slightly complicated.

On Wednesday, the Oklahoma City Thunder shipped out Ousmane Dieng to the Hornets for Mason Plumlee. Dieng was then re-routed to Chicago, leading to this total trade:

Coby White and Mike Conley Jr. went to Charlotte for Collin Sexton, Dieng, and three second-round selections.

Let's get into the trade-grade game.

Charlotte Hornets: B+

This up-and-coming team just got a heavy upgrade in White, who is especially solid moving off the ball, and it did so without relinquishing much.

The acquisition of White is Charlotte's pre-agency play, as it can now enter the summer with the hope of re-signing the high-scoring guard, who now returns to his home state.

White can start or come off the bench, providing the team with scoring, some playmaking and improved defense. He's essentially a better version of Sexton, which has to be considered a win.

Chicago Bulls: C

Look, we can talk about how the Bulls at least got something out of this deal, and that's all fine and well. But when you consider White had enormous value a year ago and the Bulls failed to pull the trigger, this is what happens.

The Bulls simply waited too long, again, which is underlined thoroughly by this post from Stephen Noh:

(Bluesky screenshot)

We shouldn't celebrate that the Bulls finally got off their butts to act on the Coby White situation, when they should have done it so long ago.

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Injured Penguins defenseman Caleb Jones suspended 20 games by the NHL for violating PED policy

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Injured Penguins defenseman Caleb Jones suspended 20 games by the NHL for violating PED policy

NEW YORK (AP) — The NHL suspended injured Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Caleb Jones for 20 games on Wednesday for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program.

Jones, 28, is in his first season with the Penguins. The club placed him on injured reserve in late October with a foot injury, then assigned him to their American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He played one game for Wilkes-Barre in January before sustaining an upper-body injury.

Jones said through a statement released by the NHL Players Association that he believes he was exposed to a contaminated substance while undergoing exosome therapy from an outside provider.

"While I did not use the prohibited substance intentionally or for performance enhancement, I understand that players are responsible for everything that enters their body and accept the discipline imposed by the program," Jones said. "I'm sorry to have let down my teammates, the Penguins organization, and our fans."

Jones, the younger brother of Panthers defenseman Seth Jones, had one point in seven games with the Penguins in October after signing a two-year deal with Pittsburgh last summer.

Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas said the club "appreciates" Jones' transparency and that Jones will follow all NHL and NHLPA protocols during the suspension. Dubas added that Jones has the "full support" of the organization.

AP NHL:https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

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Epstein files rife with uncensored nudes and victims' names, despite redaction efforts

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Epstein files rife with uncensored nudes and victims' names, despite redaction efforts

NEW YORK (AP) — Nude photos. The names and faces of sexual abuse victims. Bank account and Social Security numbers in full view.

All of these things appeared in the mountain of documents released publicly by the U.S. Justice Department as part of its effort to comply with a law requiring it to open its investigative files onJeffrey Epstein.

That law was intended to preserve important privacy protections for Epstein's victims. Their names were supposed to have been blacked out in documents. Their faces and bodies were supposed to be obscured in photos.

Mistakes, though, have been rampant. A review by The Associated Press and other news organizations has found countless examples of sloppy, inconsistent or nonexistent redactions that have revealed sensitive private information.

A photo of one girl who was underage when she was hired to give sexualized massages to Epstein in Florida appeared in a chart of his alleged victims. Police reports with the names of several of his victims, including some who have never stepped forward to identify themselves publicly, were released with no redactions at all.

Despite the Justice Department's efforts to fix the oversights, a photo of one topless woman remained on the site, with her face in full view, Wednesday evening.

Some accusers and their lawyers called this week for the Justice Department totake down the siteand appoint an independent monitor to prevent further errors.

A judge scheduled a hearing for Wednesday in New York on the matter, thencancelled itafter one of the lawyers for victims cited progress in resolving the issues. But that lawyer, Brittany Henderson, said they were still weighing "all potential avenues of recourse" to address the "permanent and irreparable" harm caused to some women.

"The failure here is not merely technical," she said in a statement Wednesday. "It is a failure to safeguard human beings who were promised protection by our government. Until every document is properly redacted, that failure is ongoing."

Annie Farmer, who said she was 16 when she was sexually assaulted by Epstein and his confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, said that while her name has previously been public, other details she'd rather be kept private, including her date of birth and phone number, were wrongly revealed in the documents.

"At this point, I'm feeling really most of all angry about the way that this unfolded," shetold NBC News. "The fact that it's been done in such a beyond careless way, where people have been endangered because of it, is really horrifying."

Trump administration defends its Epstein files redaction efforts

The Justice Department has blamed technical or human errors on the problems and said it has taken down many of the problematic materials and is working to republish properly redacted versions.

The task of reviewing and blacking out millions of pages of records took place in a compressed time frame. President Donald Trump signed the law requiring the disclosure of the documents on Nov. 19. That law gave the Justice Department just 30 days to release the files. It missed that deadline, in part because it said it needed more time to comply with privacy protections.

Hundreds of lawyers were pulled from their regular duties, including overseeing criminal cases, to try and complete the document review — to the point where at least one judge in New York complained that it was holding up other matters.

The database, which isposted on the Justice Department website, represents the largest release of files to date in the yearslong investigations into Epstein, whokilled himself in a New York jail cellin 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

Epstein files rife with missed or incomplete redactions

Associated Press reporters analyzing the documents have so far found multiple examples of names and other personal information of potential victims revealed.

They have also found many cases of overzealous redactions.

In one news clipping included in the file, the Justice Department apparently blacked out the name "Joseph" from a photo caption describing a nativity scene at a California church. "A nativity scene depicting Jesus, Mary and (REDACTED)," it said.

In an email released in the files,a dog's nameappeared to have been redacted: "I spent an hour walking (REDACTED) and then another hour bathing her blow drying her and brushing her. I hope she smells better!!" the email said.

The Justice Department has said staff tasked with preparing the files for release were instructed to limit redactions only to information related to victims and their families, though in many documents the names of many other people were blacked out, including lawyers and public figures.

Images remain uncensored

The Justice Department has said it intended to black out any portion of a photo showing nudity, and any photos of women that could potentially show a victim.

In some photos reviewed by The AP, those redactions did obscure women's faces, but left plenty of their bare skin exposed in a way that would likely embarrass the women anyway. Photos showed identifiable women trying on outfits in clothing store dressing rooms or lounging in bathing suits.

One set of more than 100 images of a young woman were nearly all blacked out, save for the very last image, which revealed her entire face.

Associated Press reporters from around the world contributed to this report.

The AP is reviewing the documents released by the Justice Department in collaboration with journalists from CBS, NBC, MS NOW and CNBC. Journalists from each newsroom are working together to examine the files and share information about what is in them. Each outlet is responsible for its own independent news coverage of the documents.

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