(NEW YORK) -- Two people have been charged in the death of Dartmouth College student Won Jang, 20, who was found dead by the Connecticut River on the school's New Hampshire campus in July, according to police.
The Hanover Police Department announced misdemeanor charges for providing alcohol to persons under 21 years of age at an event Jang attended before his death.
A sorority was also charged as a corporation for facilitating an underage alcohol party, which was organized by its members, according to the Hanover Police.
Jang was found dead off the shore of the Connecticut River on the school's campus on July 7 after drinking at a fraternity party the night before, according to police.
At the time of his death he had a blood alcohol level of 0.167.
Dartmouth College previously suspended a sorority and fraternity on campus in relation to Jang's death.
The college said its Greek organizations have a responsibility to ensure the school remains a safe, respectful, equitable and inclusive community.
"Following the tragic loss of Won Jang during the summer, Dartmouth immediately suspended both Alpha Phi and Beta Alpha Omega, and an internal investigation was initiated. These suspensions remain in effect pending the results of Dartmouthâs internal investigation and conduct process, which is still ongoing," Dartmouth said in a statement to ABC News Friday.
(WASHINGTON) -- Scott Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager who has helped fundraise for Donald Trump, is the president-elect's choice to lead the Department of Treasury.
Bessent has advised Trump on economic policy and has been a frequent presence at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club over the last two weeks.
The announcement for the job, which needs Senate approval, was supposed to come earlier but had been stalled due to intense infighting among Trump's top advisers â including transition co-chair Howard Lutnick â about who should get the job.
"Scott is widely respected as one of the World's foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists. Scott's story is that of the American Dream," Trump said in his announcement statement.
Bessent, 62, has been involved in financial firms for over 35 years.
Born and raised in Conway, South Carolina, Bessent graduated from Yale University in 1984.
After graduating from Yale in 1984, Bessent went to work for different investment companies.
He worked for Democratic megadonor George Soros from 1991 to 2000, where he was a managing partner. Later, he returned to Soros Fund Management (SFM) - the private investment firm that manages assets for the Open Society Foundations - as chief investment officer from 2011 to 2015.
Economists from both sides of the aisle believe Bessent is a middle-of-the-road pick.
Bessent made large donations supporting Trump and served as an economic adviser. He has also made several television appearances on behalf of the president-elect.
Bessent spoke at a conference run by the Manhattan Institute in June, where he laid out a three-point economic plan that he intended to propose to Trump.
"Well, I might even advise him to campaign on three arrows," Bessent said. "It would be 3% real economic growth, and how do you get that? Through deregulation, more U.S. energy production, slaying inflation and forward guidance on competence for people to make investments â so that the private sector can take over from this bloated government spending."
Bessent, who is gay, resides in New York City with his partner and two children.
As the highly anticipated treasury pick lingered, Elon Musk threw his support behind Howard Lutnick over Scott Bessent.
"Would be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback. My view [for what it's worth] is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change," Musk wrote on X. "Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another."
Three influenza A (H5N1/bird flu) virus particles (rod-shaped). Note: Layout incorporates two CDC transmission electron micrographs that have been inverted, repositioned, and colorized by NIAID. Scale has been modified. Image via CDC and NIAID.
(NEW YORK) -- As seasonal influenza ramps up, and with bird flu continuing to circulate, some public health experts are worried there may be a strain on the public health system.
Since the bird flu outbreak began earlier this year connected to dairy cows and poultry, there have been 55 human cases reported in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This includes a child in California, who was confirmed on Friday by the agency to be the first pediatric case linked to the outbreak.
There is currently no evidence of person-to-person transmission of bird flu and the risk to the general public is low, federal health officials say. But with millions of seasonal flu infections around the corner, there is some concern about additional stress on how public health surveillance systems will track the virus.
"I think it does add a layer of stress, at least in the public health planning part of things, because we have to think about what resources would be necessary were we to have a significant outbreak of bird flu," Dr. Tony Moody, a professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases specialist at Duke University, told ABC News.
Bird flu and seasonal flu at the same time
Currently, respiratory virus activity is low in the U.S., but the country is on the brink of entering traditional flu season.
Dr. Otto Yang, a professor of medicine and microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the flu season earlier this year in the Southern Hemisphere looked typical so the same can be expected for the Northern Hemisphere.
Countries in the Southern Hemisphere experience their flu season before countries in the Northern Hemisphere. This often provides a glimpse as to what the upcoming flu season may potentially look like for the Northern Hemisphere, though it is not fully predictive of what may occur in each individual country.
"It looks like everything so far points to a fairly typical flu season in terms of the numbers, not [an] especially severe flu season, but not one especially mild either," he told ABC News.
So far, all bird flu cases in humans in the U.S. have been mild and patients have all recovered after receiving antiviral medication. Almost all confirmed cases have had direct contact with infected livestock.
Yang said he doesn't see bird flu putting a major strain on the health system right now, but there are unknown factors such as whether COVID-19 or RSV will lead to a higher number of cases than normal.
Moody added that health systems have conversations every year about respiratory virus season regarding whether there are enough beds, enough staff and enough equipment to treat sick patients, and that unknown factors always present a threat.
"That's what we would be thinking about, is, what can we do to try to blunt that as much as possible, because it's not so much that the public health system can't absorb it," he said. "They just can't absorb everything all at once."
Testing for bird flu
With flu season expected to start ramping up in the coming weeks, it may be increasingly difficult to differentiate bird flu from seasonal flu without more extensive testing, experts say.
"The reality is, we want to be ahead of a problem. There's a surveillance challenge that was easier in the summer because we didn't have seasonal flu cycling," said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News medical contributor. "As we enter flu season, we're going to have a respiratory mix that includes flu and may include cases of avian, and it'll be an even greater needle in the haystack."
Right now, a PCR test, which checks for genetic material, is needed to detect a novel flu virus in a patient. More than 60,000 tests have been completed by public health labs to detect any presence of bird flu since February of this year, according to the CDC.
Tests are sent to public health labs if there is suspicion of bird flu exposure from a clinician or a sample was submitted for surveillance purposes. Health care systems send in a quantity of flu samples to public health labs for additional testing to help detect any new bird flu cases, which is how a case in Missouri was initially identified.
"We're doing some opportunistic sampling of cases that would get additional sequencing. [Our hospital] is sending five samples per week to state labs that would ultimately get deeper identification for bird flu," Brownstein said.
The nation's flu surveillance systems "are built to be able to detect novel flu infections even during peak flu season" the CDC told ABC News in a statement in part. "The level of testing performed is designed to scale with increases in seasonal flu activity so that we're casting a wider net and maintaining the ability to detect rare infections with novel influenza viruses."
Other surveillance methods like emergency department trends and wastewater data may become less reliable as seasonal flu ramps up, Brownstein said.
"Patients that have access to rapid tests at home also aren't necessarily collected and connected to surveillance systems" he added.
Risk of recombination
Questions have swirled about whether or not bird flu and seasonal influenza could form a recombinant virus, meaning a combination of the two.
There is currently no evidence that this has happened and, although it is possible for either virus to mutate with each new case, experts believe this is unlikely considering bird flu is not yet showing evidence of person-to-person transmission.
"It certainly is possible, but generally you get recombination when you have hosts where both strains can get in easily, and at the moment the bird flu strain is not traveling human to human, and so very, very few humans are infected with it," Yang said. "It's been a handful of cases, so the risk is really tiny."
Moody said so-called "recombination events" do happen, with people becoming infected with multiple viruses at the same time or multiple strains of a virus. However, most of the time, they are "failures," he said.
"That's an important thing to understand, these recombination events are happening all the time and, most of the time, it doesn't go anywhere," Moody said. "Very, very rarely it does, and then that becomes a possibility for transmission"
How to best protect yourself
Moody and Yang say they both recommend that people receive the flu shot. Flu vaccines are currently available for everyone six months and older, according to the CDC.
In the last flu season prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, flu vaccination prevented an estimated 7 million illnesses, 3 million medical?visits, 100,000 hospitalizations, and 7,000 deaths in the U.S., the CDC said.
The seasonal flu vaccine does not protect against bird flu, but it can reduce the risk of human influenza viruses, and therefore lower the risk of co-infection.
"Is there the potential for some cross-benefit for the avian flu? There may be. It's hard to say, because, of course, these viruses are distinct from one another," Moody said.
The label for a ready-to-eat product by Yu Shang Food, Inc. that is part of a recall. Image via U.S. Department of Agriculture
(NEW YORK) -- An infant has died in a listeria outbreak linked to a brand of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, federal authorities said Friday.
As of Friday, 11 people have been infected in four states in the outbreak, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among them, nine people have been hospitalized and an infant from California has died, the CDC said.
The infections have been linked to recalled ready-to-eat meat and poultry products by Yu Shang Food, based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, according to the CDC. The recalled products include pork hock, chicken feet, pork feet, duck neck, beef shank and pork tongue.
Most of the cases -- seven -- were in California, while two were in Illinois and one each in New York and New Jersey, according to the CDC. Those infected ranged in age from under 1 to 86, with a median age of 64, according to the CDC.
The infant who died and his pregnant mother were both infected in the outbreak, according to the CDC. The infant had a twin who also died, though listeria was not found in the other twin's sample and the case is not included in the outbreak, the CDC said.
One other listeria illness was reported in an infant who recovered, the CDC said.
"We did not receive any reported illness from the group of 11 illness," Yu Shang Food told ABC News. "Those 11 cases are collected by CDC from 2021 to 2024. Among of these 11 illnesses, there are 9 people only mentioned they had visited Asian stores before they got sick, but not mention they purchased YUSHANG brand products or ate YUSHANG brand products. There was 1 infant dead, but no evidence showed the mother ate Yushang brand products to get sick, only mentioned she ate Yushang brand products before got sick."
"The true number of sick people in this outbreak is likely higher than the number reported, and the outbreak may not be limited to the states with known illnesses," the CDC said.
Yu Shang Food has recalled approximately 72,240 pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products due to possible listeria contamination, the U.S. Department of Agricultureâs Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said on Thursday.
The recalled foods include products made before Oct. 28, the CDC said. The products subject to recall have the number âP-46684â or âEST. M46684â inside the USDA mark of inspection. They were shipped to retail locations nationwide and were sold online.
The full list of recalled items can be viewed here. Anyone with the products is advised to throw them away or return them to the place of purchase, and surfaces should be thoroughly cleaned. Listeria can survive in the refrigerator at cooler temperatures and easily contaminate other foods.
"FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumersâ refrigerators/freezers," the agency said.
The FSIS said the problem was discovered when a finished food product produced by Yu Shang Food tested positive for listeria on Oct. 21. Listeria was detected in additional testing of product and environmental samples collected by the FSIS, it said.
"Working in conjunction with public health partners, FSIS determined that there is a link between the [ready-to-eat] meat and poultry products from Yu Shang Food, Inc. and an illness cluster," the FSIS said.
The company initially issued a recall on Nov. 9 that was expanded on Thursday.
People aged 65 and older, pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems are more at risk of serious illness due to listeria, according to the CDC.
Symptoms usually start within two weeks of eating food contaminated with listeria and can include fever, muscle aches, headache, tiredness, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and seizures, according to the CDC.
The CDC advises contacting a health care provider right away if symptoms develop.
SMITH COUNTY â A Smith County man was given a 20 year prison sentence on Friday after pleading not guilty to a 2023 charge of intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle. According to our news partner KETK, 23-year-old William Chaplinski of Big Sandy, was found guilty in Sept. 2023 fatal head-on crash.
Crash reports from the DPS said Chaplinski crossed the center line in a Nissan Titan in attempts to pass another vehicle when he collided into a Kia Sportage head-on. The driver of the Kia, 42-year-old Harry Collins, III of Tyler, was pronounced dead at the scene. Chaplinski was booked into the Smith County Jail on Sept. 9, 2023 after authorities said he was âdetermined to be intoxicated at the time of the crash.â
A year later,Chaplinski entered a not guilty plea with the court, for the intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle charge and was found guilty. He will now serve a 20-year sentence in state prison.
DENVER (AP) â Naji Marshall scored a career-high 26 points, P.J. Washington had 22 and the Dallas Mavericks recovered after blowing a 24-point lead to beat the Denver Nuggets 123-120 on Friday night in an NBA Cup game.
Playing without Luka Doncic, Dallas built a 20-point halftime lead by was down by five before Washington scored nine points in the final 2:41 to improve to 2-1 in the West Group C. Denver was eliminated from the knockout round.
Doncic will be out at least four games with a right wrist sprain.
Nikola Jokic returned from a three-game absence to notch his sixth triple-double of the season. Jokic, who didnât go on the three-game road trip while he and his wife waited for the birth of their second child, finished with 33 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists.
Russell Westbrook scored 16 points.
Dallas led 77-53 early in the third quarter but the Nuggets rallied to take a 113-108 lead late in the fourth. The Mavericks went on an 11-2 run to lead 119-115 with 50 seconds left.
Takeaways
Mavericks: Showed their depth without their best player. Six players scored in double figures.
Nuggets: Christian Braun had 17 points and is the only player to score in double figures in every game this season. Jokic has scored at least 10 points in every game he has played.
Key moment
With the game tied at 113 with 1:52 remaining, Dereck Lively II blocked layups by Jokic and Westbrook in a span of 30 seconds.
Key stat
Westbrook entered Friday night shooting 30.4% from 3-point range in his career and made 4 of 6, including all three in the fourth quarter.
Up next
The Mavericks visit the Miami Heat on Sunday night while the Nuggets head to Los Angeles to play the Lakers on Saturday night.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) â The Daniel Jones era in New York is over.
The Giants quarterback was granted his release on Friday by the team just days after the franchise said it was benching him in favor of third-stringer Tommy DeVito.
âDaniel came to see me this morning and asked if we would release him,” Giants president John Mara said in a statement. âWe mutually agreed that would be best for him and for the team. Daniel has been a great representative of our organization, first class in every way.â
Mara added he was âdisappointedâ at the quick dissolution of the teamâs relationship with Jones, who signed a four-year $160 million contract in March 2023 after leading the Giants to a playoff berth.
âWe hold Daniel in high regard and have a great appreciation for him,â Mara continued. âWe wish him nothing but the best in the future.â
The 27-year-old Jones told reporters Thursday that he gave the team everything he had after being taken sixth overall in the 2019 draft and he believes he still has a future in the NFL. He held himself accountable for the Giants (2-8) making the postseason once in his tenure as the starter.
The Duke product took over early in his rookie season when then-coach Pat Shurmur benched two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning, who was near the end of his career.
Coach Brian Daboll benched Jones on Monday after the Giants returned to practice following a bye week and a 20-17 overtime loss to Carolina in Germany.
Tommy DeVito will start Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with Daboll hoping he can spark the team.
âDefinitely not happy about it,â said Jones, who read a 90-second statement before taking questions from reporters. âYeah, not what you want to hear. So, yeah, all those emotions you have. But at the end of the day, this is football. Weâre in a business where you’re expected to get results and we werenât doing it.â
Jones, who is now free to sign with any team, went 24-44-1 as a starter in New York after being the sixth overall pick in the 2019 draft. A significant portion of those victories came in 2022, when the Giants went 9-7-1 and beat Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs.
Yet whatever forward momentum the club generated in 2022 quickly evaporated in 2023. New York was 1-5 in Jones’ six starts during an injury-marred season and he further regressed this fall.
Jones completed just 63% of his passes with eight touchdowns and seven interceptions even with dynamic rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers at his disposal. The Giants are last in the NFL in scoring and with public sentiment all but gone for the player once known as âDanny Dimes,â Daboll opted to go in another direction while Jones can get a head start on trying to reboot his career elsewhere.
ARLINGTON (AP) â The Texas Rangers agreed to one-year contracts for right-handed pitchers Dane Dunning and Josh Sborz ahead of Friday night’s tender deadline, leaving them with three players still eligible for salary arbitration.
Dunning got a $2.66 million deal that includes $985,000 in performance bonuses for innings in 2025, down from his $3,325,000 salary this season when he was on the injured list twice with right shoulder issues. He would earn $50,000 each for reaching 30, 40, 50 and 60 innings, $75,000 apiece for 70, 80 and 90, and $80,000 for 100, 105, 110, 120, 130, 140 and 150.
Sborz, who had right shoulder surgery this month, got $1.1 million with $250,000 in bonuses for innings after making $1,025,000 this year. He would earn $25,000 for five innings, $50,000 for 10, $75,000 for 15 and $100,000 for 20.
Texas tendered 2025 contract offers to all 27 eligible players on its big league roster. That included first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, switch-hitting catcher Jonah Heim and center fielder Leody Taveras, who are all eligible for salary arbitration.
After getting the final seven outs in the World Series championship-clinching victory at Arizona in Game 5 in 2023, Sborz missed 107 games this year while on the injured list four times for right shoulder issues.
The Rangers revealed Friday that Sborz had a debridement procedure performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles on November 13. The team said there is a reasonable expectation Sborz can return to game action in the first half of the 2025 season.
Sborz pitched only 16 1/3 innings in 17 appearances this year. He was 2-2 with a 3.86 ERA.
Dunning missed 29 games during his IL stints, and was demoted to Triple-A Round Rock at one point during the season. While with the Rangers, he went 5-7 with a 5.31 ERA in 26 games (15 starts) while splitting time between the rotation and the bullpen like he also did during the World Series season.
LOS ANGELES (AP) â Chris Woodward has been named first base coach by the Los Angeles Dodgers, marking his second stint on manager Dave Roberts’ staff.
The Dodgers made the announcement Friday night. Woodward was the Dodgers first base coach from 2016-18 before leaving to take over as manager of the Texas Rangers.
Woodward fills the opening created after former first base coach Clayton McCullough became manager of the Miami Marlins.
Woodward had a 211-287 record in nearly four seasons with the Rangers. He has been a senior advisor on the Dodgers’ Major League and Player Development staff for the past two seasons.
Dodgers executive vice president and general manager Brandon Gomes said Woodward will take over base running and infield responsibilities with third base coach Dino Ebel shifting to outfield duties.
LONDON (AP) â A woman who claimed mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor âbrutally raped and batteredâ her in a Dublin hotel penthouse was awarded nearly 250,000 Euros ($257,000) on Friday by a civil court jury in Ireland.
Nikita Hand said the Dec. 9, 2018, assault after a night of partying left her heavily bruised and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
McGregor testified that he never forced the woman to do anything against her will and said she fabricated the allegations after the two had consensual sex. His lawyer had called Hand a gold digger.
The fighter, once the face of the Ultimate Fighting Championship but now past his prime, shook his head as the jury of eight women and four men found him liable for assault after deliberating about six hours in the High Court in Dublin.
He was mobbed by cameras as he left court but did not comment. He later said on the social platform X that he would appeal the verdict and the âmodest award.â
Hand’s voice cracked and her hands trembled as she read a statement outside the courthouse, saying she would never forget what happened to her but would now be able to move on with her life. She thanked her family, partner, friends, jurors, the judge and all the supporters that had reached out to her online, but particularly her daughter.
âShe has given me so much strength and courage over the last six years throughout this nightmare to keep on pushing forward for justice,â she said. âI want to show (her) and every other girl and boy that you can stand up for yourself if something happens to you, no matter who the person is, and justice will be served.â
The Associated Press generally does not name alleged victims of sexual violence unless they come forward publicly, as Hand has done. Under Irish law, she did not have the anonymity she would have been granted in a criminal proceeding and was named publicly throughout the trial.
Her lawyer told jurors that McGregor was angry about a fight he had lost in Las Vegas two months earlier and took it out on his client.
âHeâs not a man, heâs a coward,â attorney John Gordon said in his closing speech. âA devious coward and you should treat him for what he is.â
Gordon said his client never pretended to be a saint and was only looking to have fun when she sent McGregor a message through Instagram after attending a Christmas party. He said Hand knew McGregor socially and that they had grown up in the same area.
She said he picked her and a friend up in a car and shared cocaine with them, which McGregor admitted in court, on the way to the Beacon Hotel.
Hand said she told McGregor she didn’t want to have sex with him and that she was menstruating. She said she told him ânoâ as he started kissing her but he eventually pinned her to a bed and she couldn’t move.
McGregor put her in a chokehold and later told her, ânow you know how I felt in the octagon where I tapped out three times,â referring to a UFC match when he had to admit defeat, she said.
Hand had to take several breaks in emotional testimony over three days. She said McGregor threatened to kill her during the encounter and she feared she would never see her young daughter again.
Eventually, he let go of her.
âI remember saying I was sorry, as I felt that I did something wrong and I wanted to reassure him that I wouldnât tell anyone so he wouldnât hurt me again,â she testified.
She said she then let him do what he wanted and he had sex with her.
A paramedic who examined Hand the next day testified that she had never before seen someone with that intensity of bruising. A doctor told jurors Hand had multiple injuries.
Hand said the trauma of the attack had left her unable to work as a hairdresser, she fell behind on her mortgage and had to move out of her house.
Police investigated the womanâs complaint but prosecutors declined to bring charges, saying there was insufficient evidence and a conviction was unlikely.
McGregor, in his post on X, said he was disappointed jurors didn’t see all the evidence prosecutors had reviewed.
He testified that the two had athletic and vigorous sex, but that it was not rough. He said âshe never said ânoâ or stoppedâ and testified that everything she said was a lie.
âIt is a full blown lie among many lies,â he said when asked about the chokehold allegation. âHow anyone could believe that me, as a prideful person, would highlight my shortcomings.â
McGregorâs lawyer told jurors they had to set aside their animus toward the fighter.
âYou may have an active dislike of him, some of you may even loathe him â there is no point pretending that the situation might be otherwise,â attorney Remy Farrell said. âIâm not asking you to invite him to Sunday brunch.â
The defense said the woman never told investigators McGregor threatened her life. They also showed surveillance video in court that they said appeared to show the woman kiss McGregorâs arm and hug him after they left the hotel room. Farrell said she looked âhappy, happy, happy.â
McGregor said he was âbeyond petrifiedâ when first questioned by police and read them a prepared statement. On the advice of his lawyer, he refused to answer more than 100 follow-up questions.
The jury ruled against Hand in a case she brought against one of McGregorâs friends, James Lawrence, whom she accused of having sex with her in the hotel without consent.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (ESPN) â Entering an important matchup with the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers will be without starting quarterback Brock Purdy and defensive end Nick Bosa.
The Niners officially ruled out Purdy (right shoulder soreness) and Bosa (left hip/oblique) Friday afternoon, just before the team was scheduled to fly to Wisconsin. Coach Kyle Shanahan announced that veteran Brandon Allen will start in place of Purdy, with Josh Dobbs available as the backup.
With Purdy and Bosa out and left tackle Trent Williams (ankle) again listed as questionable, the 5-5 Niners could be without three of their most important players in a game they desperately need to stay in the postseason hunt.
“We’re missing two good players, definitely,” Shanahan said. “But we’ve got a lot of good players out there. By no means do we not have a chance to win. We’re going to fight our tails off and expect this to be a real good game.”
While Bosa missing a game to recover has been a real possibility for the past two weeks, Purdy’s absence grew into one over the past 24 hours. Purdy was a limited participant in Wednesday’s practice, but Shanahan and the Niners believed his sore shoulder would continue to get better as the week went on.
Then Purdy was on the field for some light throwing before Thursday’s practice, but that clearly didn’t go well as he retreated to the weight room for further treatment. That apparent setback surprised the 49ers.
The writing was on the wall earlier Friday when Purdy was nowhere to be found during the portion of practice open to media.
“This is something that we didn’t think would happen early in the week,” Shanahan said. “We were fully preparing for Brock to go and got a little surprised about this yesterday.”
According to Shanahan, Purdy had an MRI on the shoulder Monday and it did not show any structural damage that would offer cause for concern that he could miss extended time. But Shanahan also said he was unsure when Purdy will be back.
“I don’t want to say there’s long-term concern,” Shanahan said. “We thought he just needed some rest and we really weren’t concerned about [him] not being good this week. But when he started up Thursday, it just surprised him, surprised us with how it felt. So, we had to shut him down. I really don’t know what to think of it. … But the way it responded this week, it’s really up in the air next week. We’ll have to see on Monday.”
Shanahan added that Purdy could not point to a specific play where he hurt the shoulder in last week’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks. But Shanahan noted that Purdy’s shoulder felt tight during the game and led to him spending more time warming in the game than he usually would.
With Purdy out, Allen is poised to make his 10th regular-season start since entering the league as a sixth-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2016. Three of those starts were for the Denver Broncos in 2019, with the other six for the Cincinnati Bengals in 2020 and 2021. He has been with the 49ers since 2023, running the scout team against the defense for much of that time.
Allen said he didn’t know until Friday that he would be starting, based on the expectation that Purdy would feel better as the week went on.
Shanahan said that despite his injury, Purdy will travel with the team to Green Bay. Bosa, however, will not. Bosa has been dealing with injuries to both hips and obliques, though the left side has been more bothersome this week.
Last week, Bosa played against Seattle despite pain in his right side but injured the left side with about nine minutes left in the third quarter. He did not return to the game and when it was over said he felt like he was “compensating” for the injury on the right side when he hurt the left.
Bosa didn’t sound very optimistic Wednesday that he’d be able to play against the Packers, saying, “It gets better every day. We’ll see.”
In addition to Bosa and Purdy, the Niners will also be without cornerback Charvarius Ward for a third straight game. Ward returned to practice this week after being away from the team to grieve the death of his 1-year-old daughter. Ward rejoined the team last weekend, but Shanahan said neither side wanted to rush anything because Ward hadn’t practiced since before the Oct. 27 game against the Dallas Cowboys.
“We were just happy to get him back in the building this week,” Shanahan said. “We don’t want to put any pressure on him by any means to get ready to play. He just wanted to get back on the field. … Hopefully he’ll be good to go next week.”
As for Williams, he played last week against the Seahawks after not practicing all week. He could do it again this week after again sitting out all three days of practice, though this time the 49ers have a long flight to Green Bay added to the mix.
Shanahan said a decision on Williams won’t be made until “right up to kickoff.” Tight end George Kittle, who missed last week with a hamstring injury, does not have a game designation and is cleared to return against the Packers.
HOUSTON (AP) â Dillon Brooks scored a season-high 28 points and led the Houston Rockets to a 116-88 win over the Portland Trail Blazers in an NBA Cup game on Friday night.
Brooks matched a career-high with six 3-pointers on eight attempts, and the Rockets made 15 of 39 (38.5%) from beyond the arc.
Tari Eason scored 22 points off the bench, Jalen Green had 17 and Alperen Sengun added 14 as the Rockets won for the seventh time in eight games. Six of those wins were by double figures. Houston is 2-0 in NBA Cup play
For Portland, Deni Avdija and Shaedon Sharpe scores 13 points apiece and Toumani Camara had 11.
Portland has lost two straight games to open a four-game trip. They previously won three straight at home. The Trail Blazers are 1-1 in the in-season tournament.
Takeaways
Trail Blazers: Portland was missing two of its five leading scorers in Scoot Henderson, out for the first time with a left quad contusion, and Deandre Ayton, who remained sidelined with a deep contusion in his right index finger.
Rockets: Houston, at 12-5, has outscored opponents by 163 points through 17 games, the highest total through the first 17 games of a season in franchise history. The previous record of 131 was held by the defending champion 1996-97 Rockets, who started the season 15-2.
Key moment
The Rockets were trailing early when Eason checked in and provided a spark, scoring 12 points in an energetic 13 minutes in the first half. Eason finished with a game-best plus-minus of +33 points.
Key stat
Houston outscored Portland 23-7 in fast-break points and generated 28 points off Portlandâs 21 turnovers.
Up next
The Trail Blazers and the Rockets will meet again Saturday night in Houston for the second half of a back-to-back.
HOUSTON (AP) â Kimberly Rubit had one priority in mind as Hurricane Beryl ripped through Houston this summer: her severely disabled daughter.
The 63-year-old worked nonstop to prevent Mary, 42, from overheating without air conditioning, water or lights after Beryl knocked out power to their home for 10 days. At least three dozen other people suffered heat-related deaths during the extended outage.
âIt was miserable,â Rubit said. âIâm sick of it.â
Electric grids have buckled more frequently and outages have become longer across the U.S. as the warming atmosphere carries more water and stirs up more destructive storms, according to an AP analysis of government data. In the Pacific Northwest this week, a â bomb cyclone â caused roughly half a million outages.
People with disabilities and chronic health conditions are particularly at risk when the power goes out, and many live in homes that lack the weatherizing and backup power supplies needed to better handle high temperatures and cold freezes, or can’t pay their electricity bills, said Columbia University sociomedical sciences professor Diana Hernandez, who studies energy instability in U.S. homes.
At any given time, one in three households in the U.S. is “actively trying to avoid a disconnection or contending with the aftermath of it,â Hernandez said.
In Texas, as another winter approaches, people can’t shake fears of another blackout like the one during a cold freeze in 2021 that left millions without power for days and killed more than 200 people. Despite efforts to create more resilience, a winter storm that powerful could still lead to rolling blackouts, according to ERCOT, which manages most of the state’s power grid.
Beryl also knocked out power to millions for days, sickening many in the sweltering July heat. Local and state officials showered criticism on CenterPoint Energy, Houstonâs power utility, saying it should have communicated more clearly, taken more preventive measures such as tree trimming before the storm hit and repaired downed power lines more quickly. The utility’s response remains under investigation by the Texas attorney general.
CenterPoint says it is focused now on improving resiliency, customer communications and community partnerships with the one defining goal: âto build the most resilient coastal grid in the country that can better withstand the extreme weather of the future.â
Texas lawmakers, meanwhile, are debating whether assisted living facilities need more regulation. One suggestion: requiring them to have enough emergency generator fuel to power lifesaving equipment and keep indoor temperatures safe during an extended blackout, as Florida did after a scandal over hurricane-related nursing home deaths.
The legislative panel also reviewed emergency responses this month. Regulated facilities and nursing centers fared better than places such as senior communities that aren’t subject to strict oversight, according to city and state officials. This meant hundreds of apartment complexes catering to older adults, as well as private homes, were likely more susceptible to losing power and going without food.
âWeâve got to find a way to mark these facilities or get it entered into the computer dispatch systems,â said Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management. âThere are so many places in our own city that we have no idea until that 911 call comes in to that facility,â he said.
Texas energy companies have been required since 2003 to provide advance notice of scheduled outages to medically vulnerable households that submit a form with physician approval. But that law didn’t require the utilities to share these lists with state or local emergency management agencies.
Numerous states have similar regulatory requirements and 38 have policies aimed at preventing disconnections during extreme weather, according to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. In Colorado, medically vulnerable residents are protected from disconnection for up to 90 days. In Arkansas, utilities canât disconnect power to people who are 65 or older if temperatures are forecast to reach above 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34 Celsius).
In Houston, Rubit and her daughter share one of the roughly 3,000 households where unreliable power can quickly spiral into a life-and-death issue because at least one person requires a medical device powered by electricity, according to public filings from CenterPoint. The utility offers such households payment plans to keep the electricity on when they fall behind on their bills.
The utility’s efforts bring little solace to community members at a Houston living center for seniors, Commons of Grace, where outages have become a haunting facet of life for more than 100 residents, said Belinda Taylor, who runs a nonprofit partnered with the managing company.
âIâm just frustrated that we didnât get the services that we needed,â Taylor said. âItâs ridiculous that we have had to suffer.â
Sharon Burks, who lives at Commons of Grace, said it became unbearable when the power went out. She is 63 and uses a breathing machine for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which causes shortness of breath. She had to resort to her battery-powered breathing pump, which isnât meant to be used for long periods.
âI didnât expect anything from CenterPoint,” Burks said. “Weâre always the last to get it.â
(NEW YORK) -- President Donald Trump said he wants Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon and author who argued against pandemic lockdowns, to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
"He will work under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to, among other things, properly evaluate harmful chemicals poisoning our Nationâs food supply and drugs and biologics being given to our Nationâs youth, so that we can finally address the Childhood Chronic Disease Epidemic," Trump said in his announcement.
If confirmed by the Senate, Makary's job would be to oversee the FDA's $7 billion budget and report to the health secretary. The agency oversees $3.6 trillion in food, tobacco and medical products, including some 20,000 prescription drugs on the market.
Here are three things to know about Makary:
Makary is a respected transplant surgeon who questioned his colleagues' recommendations on COVID
Makary was known during the pandemic as an experienced medical expert willing to challenge his colleagues' assumptions on COVID, although he was often criticized by his peers for cherry-picking data or omitting context.
He frequently appeared on Fox News and wrote opinion articles that questioned the value of lockdowns and masks for children. He supported the use of vaccines but opposed mandates and doubted the utility of boosters, at odds with full-throated recommendations on boosters from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Among his views was that the U.S. government was underestimating the number of people who were likely immune to the virus. In early 2021, he predicted much of the country would reach "herd immunity" by that April, reducing risk of the virus dramatically.
That assumption, however, did not happen.
As restrictions eased and a new variant surfaced, virus-related deaths soared from about 4,000 a week to about 15,000 a week by September, making 2021 a deadlier year than when the pandemic began.
Makary stood by his assertion that "natural immunity" was still being underestimated by the U.S. government.
"One reason public health officials may be afraid to acknowledge the effectiveness of natural immunity is that they fear it will lead some to choose getting the infection over vaccination. That's a legitimate concern. But we can encourage all Americans to get vaccinated while still being honest about the data," he wrote a separate opinion article in The Washington Post.
He sounds a lot like RFK Jr. when talking about the 'poisoned' food supply, pesticides and ultra-processed foods.
After the pandemic, Makary began turning back to his initial focus railing against an overpriced health care system. He's long argued that the system is broken, overcharging patients and running unnecessary tests.
He also began speaking more critically about America's food system, echoing a message embraced by Trump's pick for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"We've got a poisoned food supply. We've got pesticides. We've got ultra-processed foods and all sorts of things that have been in the blind spots in modern medicine," Makary told Fox News this September.
Kennedy also would require Senate confirmation to get the job.
In a later interview, Makary praised Trump's decision to pick Kennedy.
"He wants to address corruption in health care and corruption in our government health agencies," he said.
He warns against 'drugging our nation's children.'
It's not clear exactly what Makary would do if confirmed as FDA commissioner, as much of his work would likely be steered by Trump and the incoming health secretary, possibly Kennedy.
But Makary has previously suggested an overhaul of FDA's "erratic" bureaucracy, which he says was too eager to approve opioids and too cautious when it came to other drugs like the COVID antiviral pill Molnupiravir.
"For too long, FDA leaders have acted like a crusty librarian who gets annoyed when someone wants to borrow a book. But then give preference to people they like," Makary wrote in a 2021 opinion article in Fox News.
More recently, he's called for a ban on cell phones on schools, and praised Kennedy for questioning the use of anti-anxiety and anti-obesity drugs in children.
"What he is really focused on is this concept that we can't keep drugging our nation's children," Makary said of Kennedy.
When asked if Kennedy can accomplish what he wants to do in four years, Makary told Fox News he'll try by bringing in more scientists and letting "them do good work."
Kennedy "is really the quintessential environmental health attorney of our era, and that may be the quintessential issue of our era," Makary said.
(NEW YORK) -- Since being tapped as President-elect Donald Trump's controversial pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been criticized by medical and public health experts for his anti-vaccine history, his current vaccine skepticism, his take on the COVID-19 pandemic -- and by some for his descriptions of fluorinated water. But some of the environmental attorney's views are also receiving support from some unexpected sources.
On Wednesday, renowned food author Michael Pollan echoed those criticisms -- but offered some praise for Kennedy's criticism of the American food industry, which Kennedy has accused of propagating obesity and chronic disease.
"He's voicing a critique of the food system that is important," Pollan told ABC News, while making clear he was drawing a "strong distinction" between Kennedy's food stances and his medical advice -- and that he thinks Kennedy is a "horrible" choice for the job.
Pollan's comments join a stance taken in recent days by some prominent Democrats who have praised Kennedy for his vows to "Make America Healthy Again," in part by tackling the food industry -- while condemning him for his years working against vaccine health policies.
The comments from Pollan to ABC News came after he shared a seemingly positive article on social media about Kennedy titled, "They're lying about Robert F. Kennedy Jr." -- a move that prompted Kennedy himself to reply and suggest they work together.
"Thanks @michaelpollan!" Kennedy wrote Thursday on X. "I'd love to work with you to restore our public health agencies to their rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science and Make America Healthy Again."
Asked if he would take Kennedy up on the offer, Pollan was clear: "No."
"I've got my role to play, and that's not the role," he told ABC News.
Kennedy has faced fierce criticism over his claims that vaccines are behind an "epidemic" of diseases in America, and that cavity-fighting mineral fluoride, added in small amounts to some drinking water, is "industrial waste." Pollan said Kennedy's stances on vaccines and fluoride "seem nutty" and that he was overall a "horrible" pick to lead HHS.
But Pollan -- who has authored multiple books, including several on the effects of food on the human body -- offered some praise for Kennedy for his views on ultra-processed food and the overuse of corn and soy.
"He's injected these issues into the national conversation, and I think that's a big deal," Pollan said.
He also praised Kennedy for linking the epidemic of obesity and chronic disease to agricultural policies -- a move he said is "really important."
"I'm looking for glimmers in an otherwise bleak landscape," Pollan said.
Pollan's approval of Kennedy's food stances follows similar praise from some Democrat officials.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said he was "excited by the news" that Kennedy had been appointed to lead HHS, writing on X that he was "most optimistic" about Kennedy "taking on big pharma and the corporate ag oligopoly to improve our health."
He wrote in a subsequent post that "Science must remain THE cornerstone of our nation's health policy" and said "the science-backed decision to get vaccinated improves public health and safety," but noted that he is "for a major shake-up in institutions like the FDA that have been barriers to lowering drug costs and promoting healthy food choices."
Earlier this week, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey posted a video on social media about how he has been "raising the alarm of the dangers of our current food system."
"Food in America is making us sick," Booker said in the video. Though he did not mention Kennedy by name, Kennedy reposted the video, thanking Booker for his "long history of leadership on this issue."
Asked by ABC News, Booker said he had not yet made up his mind on Kennedy's nomination, saying that Kennedy would need to go through the confirmation process and that Kennedy's stances on vaccines were "very troubling." He added he was "super skeptical of the Trump administration's efforts in any way to say that they are going to be doing things to make us more healthy."
Still, Booker added he was "happy to hear" Kennedy on some of the issues around health, saying, "There's a growing coalition in America from both sides of the aisle really demanding change. I hope, if the Trump administration is willing to do something right and positive on these issues, I'll be right there."
"When it comes to RFK, we're going to look at the totality of his record, we're going to evaluate and make a decision, but my focus is trying to block Trump from doing more damage to Americans health, like he did last time," Booker said.
Pollan, for his part, questioned just how much Trump would let Kennedy make true reforms to the food industry, should Kennedy be confirmed.
"I have my doubts about whether Trump is going to give him authority to do what he wants to do around food," Pollan said of Kennedy, who over the weekend was in a viral photo eating McDonald's with Trump and others on Trump's plane. "Whether he'll get anywhere, I have my doubts -- but I am pleased to see these issues getting talked about."
