A political newcomer and former Trump critic turned ally, Senator Vance is an ambitious ideologue who relishes the spotlight and has already shown he can energize donors.
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27 Facts About J.D. Vance, Trump’s Pick for V.P.
Mr. Vance spilled scores of details about his life in his coming-of-age memoir. We’ve collected the highlights.
I.M.F. Sees Signs of Cooling in U.S. Economy
The International Monetary Fund warned that inflation remained stubbornly high and that protectionism posed a risk to the global economic outlook.
UnitedHealth has a strong second quarter, but cyberattack keeps it cautious on outlook for the year
UnitedHealth topped second-quarter forecasts but remains cautious about the year as it continues to eat costs from a massive cyberattack and deal with rising medical expenses.
The health care giant on Tuesday said it was sticking with an adjusted earnings forecast for 2024 that it first laid out last fall partly due to growing costs from the attack earlier this year on its Change Healthcare business.
Hackers gained access in February to Change’s system and unleashed a ransomware attack that encrypted and froze large parts of it. Change provides technology used to submit insurance claims, and the attack disrupted payments and claims processing around country.
UnitedHealth booked $1.1 billion in total costs from the cyberattack in the second quarter.
The company said it has restored most of the Change services affected by the attack. Estimated direct costs for its response to the attack have climbed as it started notifying customers who were affected and provided financial support to care providers.
UnitedHealth provides health insurance for more than 49 million people in the United States. Its Optum segment also provides care, runs one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits management businesses and offers technology services.
In the second quarter, UnitedHealth’s net income slumped 23% to $4.22 billion. It reported adjusted earnings of $6.80 per share on $98.85 billion in total revenue.
Analysts expected earnings of $6.66 per share on $98.73 billion in revenue.
Medical costs, the company’s largest expense, climbed more than 8% to $65.46 billion in the quarter.
The company’s U.S. medical enrollment climbed 3% in the quarter even as it lost nearly a million customers with Medicaid coverage. Enrollment in the government-funded program for people with low incomes has fallen nationally as states redetermine eligibility after a pause during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the full year, UnitedHealth said it still projects adjusted earnings between $27.50 and $28 per share. UnitedHealth typically raises its initial forecast at least once this far into the year.
UnitedHealth said that outlook included business disruption costs of between 60 cents and 70 cents per share tied to the cyberattack.
Analysts expect earnings of $27.70 per share, according to FactSet.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. stock edged up less than 1% to $518.56 in premarket trading Tuesday.
Shares of the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based company have slipped 2% so far this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, of which UnitedHealth is a component, has climbed nearly 7%.
Walmart retools its young adult clothing line in pursuit of fashion credibility
NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart has spent three years overhauling its mix of adult apparel to make it stylish as well as sensible for middle America. Now, the nation’s largest retailer is seizing the back-to-school shopping season to take another shot at fashion respectability.
The company plans to relaunch its 30-year-old brand for teenagers and young adults on Tuesday with a new 130-piece fall collection aimed at Generation Z. The retooling of the No Boundaries label is part of a strategy to get customers to think of Walmart as a place to buy cool clothes along with groceries.
The new collection includes of-the-moment styles like baggy jeans, cropped T-shirts, faux leather corsets and bomber jackets. Most items cost $15 or less. Some pieces are made from recycled fabrics to appeal to a generation that values sustainability. The size range was expanded to run from XXS to 5X to be more inclusive.
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company is marketing the revamped No Boundaries on TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest and the online gaming site Roblox. It plans to test new prototypes in stores located in major college towns.
The intended audience is noticing.
“It’s basic, but cute,” Za’Kryra Davis, 16, said while looking at the camouflage pants and denim rompers at a Walmart store in Secaucus, New Jersey, where the new No Boundaries was getting rolled out last week.
Davis, who shops at chains like Rue21 and Forever 21 and gets inspired by trends popping up on social media, said she’s been more open to buying clothes at Walmart in the past few months because she says they look more modern.
Walmart previously relied on a variety of suppliers with separate design teams to build the No Boundaries line, which focused largely on everyday basics like T-shirts and denim. The company hired a dedicated design team to create the relaunch collection, a sign of the brand’s importance to Walmart’s broader fashion strategy.
Still, winning over customers born between 1997 and 2012 will be challenging given Walmart’s heavy competition. The generation of digital natives is known to be price conscious and willing to shop around, frequenting everything from second-hand shops and ultra-fast-fashion online retailer Shein to discounters like Target, and mall-based stores like American Eagle Outfitters.
Olivia Meyer, 22, who lives in Riverview, Florida, gets inspired by trends on the internet and makes most of her fashion purchases online, typically from Amazon, to ensure quick delivery. She approved of the cargo pants and strappy tops she saw while checking out the fall No Boundaries collection on Walmart’s website.
“I’m not loyal to one place,” Meyer said. But she added, “I think Walmart has a shot at targeting Gen Z and getting our dollars.”
While Gen Z spends the least amount on fashion of any demographic cohort except the so-called Silent Generation, retailers are eager to court young consumers because they represent the future, said Neil Saunders, managing director of research firm GlobalData.
“If you don’t capture them today, you run the risk of them going to a rival,” he said. “Traditionally, Walmart has not been appealing to this kind of younger demographic, which is why it’s trying to change.”
Walmart said No Boundaries generates annual sales of $2 billion, but Saunders thinks the numbers have been stagnant for a few years. He said the retailer needs to overcome the perception that its fashion aspirations end at floral prints, pull-on pants and other styles more typically worn by older adults.
Walmart signaled just how much it wants to get taken seriously as a fashion destination three years ago when it hired Brandon Maxwell, an American designer who has dressed celebrities such as Lady Gaga, as the creative director for its “elevated” fashion brands, Free Assembly and Scoop.
In February, the company hosted social media influencers who focus on trendy but affordable style at a fashion show that featured Maxwell’s designer collection, which is sold at high-end Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.
“It’s always about the women in my life who define what I do, and it’s no different at Walmart,” said Maxwell, who mingled with the Walmart guests during a luncheon after the show.
To boost its legitimacy as a one-stop shop for fashionistas, Walmart has added store mannequins and colorful displays of its clothing. Under the stewardship of Denise Incandela, executive vice president of apparel and private-label brands, the company has featured more than 1,000 brands and partnered with celebrities like Sofia Vergara.
Incandela said at a recent industry conference in New York that Walmart’s scale — it operates more than 4,600 stores in the U.S. — can help drive quality and low prices. But the big growth opportunity in clothing is with the Gen Z customer who “cares about style,” she said.
“We have created a brand that is more modern, has better quality, has silhouettes that are more relevant to the Gen Z customer,” Incandela said. “We’re improving the shopping experience, but we have to change that perception.”
At the Walmart in Secaucus, Elizabeth Fernandez, 58, and her daughter, Destiny Fernandez, 38, said they found the women’s clothing more appealing than in the past. They were also drawn to the overhauled No Boundaries line. Their shopping cart brimmed with pants, shorts, tops and skirts drawn from throughout the store.
Citing the cropped puffer jackets and different denim washes on the racks, Destiny Fernandez judged Walmart to be on the mark in the way it had recycled and refreshed earlier trends.
“It’s all stuff that is coming back,” she said. “So I am going to take a look.”
A sweet, native and nutritious snack from the garden? Look no further than blueberries
I’ve been growing dwarf blueberries for three years, and my plants are covered in green fruits right now. Deliciously sweet and rich in fiber, manganese, potassium, vitamins C and K, and antioxidants, the berries are native to North America and can be grown throughout most of the continent.
There are several categories of blueberries to choose from:
• Lowbush have a low-growing, spreading habit and are reputed to produce the tastiest fruit.
• Highbush grow upright to 6 feet tall.
• Half-high types grow to 3-4 feet tall.
• Rabbiteyes, most of which are hardy in zones 7-9, are more heat- and drought-tolerant than the others and can reach 8-15 feet tall.
• Dwarf varieties can be any type that have been bred to grow in small containers, like window boxes or hanging baskets.
New plants can take up to five years to produce a good crop, so I’ve been managing my expectations while giving them the best care.
That meant allowing them to do their own thing without any fertilizer in their first year, then giving each plant a single 4-ounce dose of ammonium sulfate in the spring of their second year. That not only nourished them but also worked to lower the soil’s pH, which is essential for blueberries.
Along with cranberries and huckleberries, blueberries have the lowest pH requirement of any edible plant, thriving only when the soil measures between 4.0 and 5.2. So applying a fertilizer labeled for acid-loving plants immediately after they flower in every subsequent year is important to keep them healthy and productive.
I’m also letting my plants grow wild until after their fifth birthday, when I’ll start annual early-spring prunings by removing old growth and thinning them to allow more air to circulate and allow sunlight to reach their centers.
With the exception of rabbiteyes, which must be cross-pollinated with other varieties (three or more is best) in order to produce fruit, most varieties are self-pollinating. Still, planting two or three different varieties together will result in bigger berries and a larger crop. That’s why I planted my Sapphire Cascade and Midnight Cascade plants in the same large pot on the back deck.
All blueberries can be grown in containers (for highbush plants, use wide pots that are at least 18 inches deep).
Blueberries require a site that provides full sun, protection from strong winds and plenty of air circulation, so they shouldn’t be crowded. They also need a lot of water, with container-grown plants requiring even more than those planted in the garden.
Apply 2-3 inches of mulch around plants after the soil warms up every spring, and again in late autumn if you live in an area that experiences frosts and freezes.
And if rabbits or deer visit your garden, surrounding the plants with a temporary fencing barrier will help protect them over winter.
After harvesting (or bringing any types of berries home from the market), I give them a quick soak in a 50/50 solution of white vinegar and water, then drain and store in the fridge. The few minutes spent doing that increases their life immensely. Try it!
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Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.
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For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.
A Baltimore man died after being sedated and restrained by medics. His mom wants answers
BALTIMORE — When Trea Ellinger left a Baltimore drug rehab facility last summer, he assured his anxious mother that everything was fine. He had his medications and was planning to meet up with his girlfriend.
By the following afternoon, he was dead — not from the violence his mom feared he might face, but because he didn’t survive an encounter with first responders in downtown Baltimore.
Ellinger, 29, died after being sedated and restrained. Despite repeated comments from police and medics at the scene acknowledging the dangers of lying face down in the prone position, responders failed to act urgently when the handcuffed Ellinger turned onto his stomach and remained that way for several minutes, according to investigators and experts.
His death adds to a list of similar cases. A recent investigation led by The Associated Press found that the practice of giving sedatives to people detained by police has spread quietly across the nation over the last 15 years. The strategy, which was intended to reduce violence and save lives, has resulted in some avoidable deaths.
In Ellinger’s case, the autopsy determined that he died from overdosing on an antidepressant and methadone, which is commonly prescribed to curb opioid cravings. The findings didn’t say if other factors might have contributed to his death.
His mother, Lori Ellinger, questions the autopsy’s findings and wants to know why paramedics decided to use an injectable sedative.
“I do believe they killed my son with that shot,” she said. “He shouldn’t be dead at 29 years old.”
Independent experts say Trea Ellinger could have died from the combined effects of being sedated and lying prone, which can obstruct a person’s airways.
The Baltimore City Fire Department, which employs the city’s medics, provided copies of its policies regarding the use of sedatives, physical restraints and other related topics. But the agency declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding Ellinger’s death, citing the potential for future litigation.
None of the first responders involved have been charged, and Ellinger’s family hasn’t sued.
According to an investigative report released in May by the Maryland attorney general’s office, a 911 caller reported that a man was lying in the middle of a downtown Baltimore street, speaking incomprehensibly, and acting combative and distressed.
Police body camera footage of the encounter shows officers handcuffing Ellinger at the request of medics. Officers laid him on his side until he was injected with midazolam and then lifted him onto a stretcher.
“As long as he’s not lying face down, that would be great,” one of the medics says.
Ellinger was initially positioned on his side again, but his continued flailing shifted him onto his stomach while first responders affixed the stretcher straps, according to the report. Inside the ambulance, one medic started checking his vital signs while another sat by his head. He remained face down, sometimes struggling against the stretcher’s straps, the report says.
Four minutes later, the medics discussed getting Ellinger repositioned, but they didn’t act immediately. After another minute passed, Ellinger was “moving only slightly,” the report says. Finally, a medic released the straps and helped roll Ellinger onto his side, noting that his lips were blue. The same medic told his colleague he could administer Narcan, an opioid overdose reversal medication.
Ellinger was unhandcuffed and placed on his back as medics began performing chest compressions, according to the report. He regained a pulse and was transported to the hospital, where he later died.
The report was produced under a relatively new state law that requires the Maryland attorney general’s office to investigate all in-custody deaths. In this case, investigators specifically noted that they were only tasked with investigating the actions of the police officers, not those of the medics or other first responders.
Eric Jaeger, an emergency medical services educator in New Hampshire who has no connection to the case, said the most obvious problem was that the medics left Ellinger prone for several minutes, potentially hindering his ability to breathe. He said he shows the bodycam footage to his students as an example of what can go wrong when a patient’s airways aren’t prioritized during sedation.
“I think Trea Ellinger would be alive today if he had been placed on the stretcher face up,” Jaeger told the AP.
He also questioned the initial decision to sedate Ellinger, saying medics should be particularly discerning about when to administer such drugs because of the risks they pose.
When dealing with an agitated patient, fire department policy directs medics to “place the patient in supine position (face up) as soon as practical.” A different policy says a restrained patient should be placed “face up or on their side, if at all possible.”
Fire officials declined to answer questions about the case, including whether the agency is conducting an internal review. The union representing firefighters and paramedics also declined to comment, and the mayor’s office didn’t respond to recent inquiries about the case.
It appears the decision to sedate Ellinger using midazolam was in accordance with department policy.
Gail Van Norman, professor emeritus of anesthesiology at the University of Washington, said the sedative could have depressed his respiration and relaxed the muscles of his upper airway, making him more vulnerable to cardiac arrest.
“The medics made a few medical mistakes,” she said. “But this was a rapidly evolving situation where the unexpected happened. I don’t envy them the decisions they had to make.”
Ellinger died last July. In April, Baltimore prosecutors announced their decision not to bring charges. The investigative report was released the following month.
Meanwhile, Lori Ellinger is still trying to process the untimely death of her only child. She wears a necklace shaped like a guitar that symbolizes Trea’s passion for music. She scrolls through old photos on her phone and reminisces about his childhood.
Trea Ellinger grew up in rural northeastern Maryland and worked for a concrete company after finishing high school. Despite his struggles with substance abuse, he spent much of his 20s crisscrossing the country with a traveling carnival, a job he loved. In the months before his death, he was trying to stay on track and taking methadone to curb his opioid cravings.
His mom said he had been previously diagnosed with mental health issues, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Lori Ellinger visited her son at his rehab facility and brought him some groceries the day before his death. She said he seemed in good spirits. But a couple hours later, he called and said another resident had stabbed him in the shoulder during an argument. His injuries weren’t severe, but the facility asked him to leave, she said.
She believes he ended up sleeping on the streets that night. The following afternoon, he was seen stumbling around downtown Baltimore, falling repeatedly and acting disoriented, according to the investigative report.
Watching the videos and reading the report, Lori Ellinger’s heart breaks for her son. Clearly he was experiencing some sort of crisis, but she didn’t get a call until hours later, when a nurse told her he had already died.
“I love and miss him,” she said. “We had a lot of good years — but not enough.”
Elon Musk Allies Help Start Pro-Trump Super PAC
The group, America PAC, is funded by several wealthy tech entrepreneurs in Mr. Musk’s social circle and is said to be likely to draw financial support from the SpaceX and Tesla founder himself.
For Biden, How to Cool the Temperature Without Freezing His Campaign
Former President Donald J. Trump has gone from being an instigator of political violence to a victim of it. The assassination attempt raised questions about how far language should go in a heated campaign.
Tuskegee syphilis study whistleblower Peter Buxtun has died at age 86
NEW YORK — Peter Buxtun, the whistleblower who revealed that the U.S. government allowed hundreds of Black men in rural Alabama to go untreated for syphilis in what became known as the Tuskegee study, has died. He was 86.
Buxtun died May 18 of Alzheimer’s disease in Rocklin, California, according to his attorney, Minna Fernan.
Buxtun is revered as a hero to public health scholars and ethicists for his role in bringing to light the most notorious medical research scandal in U.S. history. Documents that Buxtun provided to The Associated Press, and its subsequent investigation and reporting, led to a public outcry that ended the study in 1972.
Forty years earlier, in 1932, federal scientists began studying 400 Black men in Tuskegee, Alabama, who were infected with syphilis. When antibiotics became available in the 1940s that could treat the disease, federal health officials ordered that the drugs be withheld. The study became an observation of how the disease ravaged the body over time.
In the mid-1960s, Buxtun was a federal public health employee working in San Francisco when he overheard a co-worker talking about the study. The research wasn’t exactly a secret — about a dozen medical journal articles about it had been published in the previous 20 years. But hardly anyone had raised any concerns about how the experiment was being conducted.
“This study was completely accepted by the American medical community,” said Ted Pestorius of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaking at a 2022 program marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the study.
Buxtun had a different reaction. After learning more about the study, he raised ethical concerns in a 1966 letter to officials at the CDC. In 1967, he was summoned to a meeting in Atlanta, where he was chewed out by agency officials for what they deemed to be impertinence. Repeatedly, agency leaders rejected his complaints and his call for the men in Tuskegee to be treated.
He left the U.S. Public Health Service and attended law school, but the study ate at him. In 1972, he provided documents about the research to Edith Lederer, an AP reporter he had met in San Francisco. Lederer passed the documents to AP investigative reporter Jean Heller, telling her colleague, “I think there might be something here.”
Heller’s story was published on July 25, 1972, leading to Congressional hearings, a class-action lawsuit that resulted in a $10 million settlement and the study’s termination about four months later. In 1997, President Bill Clinton formally apologized for the study, calling it “shameful.”
The leader of a group dedicated to the memory of the study participants said Monday they are grateful to Buxtun for exposing the experiment.
“We are thankful for his honesty and his courage,” said Lille Tyson Head, whose father was in the study.
Buxtun was born in Prague in 1937. His father was Jewish, and his family immigrated to the U.S. in 1939 from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, eventually settling in Irish Bend, Oregon on the Columbia River.
In his complaints to federal health officials, he drew comparisons between the Tuskegee study and medical experiments Nazi doctors had conducted on Jews and other prisoners. Federal scientists didn’t believe they were guilty of the same kind of moral and ethical sins, but after the Tuskegee study was exposed, the government put in place new rules about how it conducts medical research. Today, the study is often blamed for the unwillingness of some African Americans to participate in medical research.
“Peter’s life experiences led him to immediately identify the study as morally indefensible and to seek justice in the form of treatment for the men. Ultimately, he could not relent,” said the CDC’s Pestorius.
Buxtun attended the University of Oregon, served in the U.S. Army as a combat medic and psychiatric social worker and joined the federal health service in 1965.
Buxtun went on to write, give presentations and win awards for his involvement in the Tuskegee study. A global traveler, he collected and sold antiques, especially military weapons and swords and gambling equipment from California’s Gold Rush era.
He also spent more than 20 years trying to recover his family’s properties confiscated by the Nazis and was partly successful.
“Peter was wise, witty, classy and unceasingly generous,” said David M. Golden, a close friend of Buxtun’s for over 25 years. “He was a staunch advocate for personal freedoms and spoke often against prohibition, whether it be drugs, prostitution or firearms.”
Another longtime friend Angie Bailie said she attended many of Buxtun’s presentations about Tuskegee.
“Peter never ended a single talk without fighting back tears,” she said
Buxtun himself could be self-effacing about his actions, saying he did not anticipate the vitriolic reaction of some health officials when he started questioning the study’s ethics.
At a Johns Hopkins University forum in 2018, Buxtun was asked where he got the moral strength to blow the whistle.
“It wasn’t strength,” he said. “It was stupidity.”
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AP reporters Edith M. Lederer in New York and Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed. Lederer was a friend of Peter Buxtun’s for more than 50 years and played a role in AP’s report on the Tuskegee study.