California Dolphin

October 2, 2024 / 7:27 AM EDT / AP Education Secretary Cardona on student loans Education Secretary Cardona talks student loan relief, college affordability after setbacks 05:36 The 12-month grace period for student loan borrowers ended on Sept. 30. The “on-ramp” period helped borrowers who are struggling to make payments avoid the risk of defaulting and hurting their credit score. “The end of the on-ramp period means the beginning of the potentially harsh consequences for student loan borrowers who are not able to make payments,” said Persis Yu, Deputy Executive Director at the Student Borrower Protection Center. Around 43 million Americans have student loan debt, amounting to $1.5 trillion. Around eight million of those borrowers had enrolled in the SAVE plan, the newest income-driven repayment plan that extended the eligibility for borrowers to have affordable monthly student loan payments. However, this plan is currently on hold due to legal challenges . With the on-ramp period and a separate program known as Fresh Start ending and the SAVE plan on hold, student loan borrowers who are struggling to afford their monthly payments have fewer options, added

Updated on: October 2, 2024 / 7:11 AM EDT / CBS/AFP What to know about human cases of bird flu What to know about the human cases of bird flu case detected so far 03:26 Forty-seven tigers, three lions and a panther have died in zoos in south Vietnam due to the H5N1 bird flu virus, state media said Wednesday. The deaths occurred in August and September at the private My Quynh safari park in Long An province and the Vuon Xoai zoo in Dong Nai, near Ho Chi Minh City, the official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported. According to test results from the National Centre for Animal Health Diagnosis, the animals died “because of H5N1 type A virus,” VNA said. The zoos declined to comment when contacted by AFP. No zoo staff members in close contact with the animals had experienced respiratory symptoms, the VNA report added. Education for Nature Vietnam, an NGO that focuses on wildlife conservation, said there were a total of 385 tigers living in captivity in Vietnam at the end of 2023. About 310 are kept at 16 privately owned

Living in Los Angeles is a lot like folding a fitted sheet: It seems almost impossible to do well — until someone shares a tip or two that smooths things out and makes the whole process infinitely easier to navigate. I’ve been the beneficiary of many a Los Angeles life hack over the years. Some were passed along by longtime Angelenos with the solemnity of handing down a family heirloom. Others were on-the-job discoveries. All of them made it infinitely easier to fold the fitted sheet of living in the City of Angels. That’s why I recently put out a call for readers to share their own L.A. life hacks: the coping mechanisms, shortcuts and workarounds that decrease the frustration and increase the enjoyment of everyday life in our city. You’ll find the best of them here — along with some others I’m proud to have discovered (or been told about) that I deploy on a regular basis. Once you’ve had a chance to drink deeply from the trough of hive-mind wisdom given freely by your fellow Angelenos, consider sharing your L.A. life hack. You’ll

Diego Luna is thinking about time a lot lately. How it’s passing. And how it’s spent. His latest project, “La Máquina,” which premieres Oct. 9 on Hulu and is the streamer’s first Spanish-language series, was first dreamed up by Luna and his longtime friend and collaborator, Gael García Bernal, as a feature film project more than a decade ago. But as the years wore on, the chance to turn this boxing story into a thrilling episodic series felt both obvious and exciting. “I’m glad it took us time,” Luna tells The Times on a sunny afternoon in September at the Chateau Marmont. “Because I think the opportunity to talk about the career of a boxer and the relationship between him and his manager at the end of his career is really strong. It serves, in many ways, to reflect and establish parallels between that and what we go through as actors. In our careers. In our journey in this business.” Esteban (García Bernal) knows his days as a professional boxer — as “La Máquina” — are numbered. He can’t continue chasing the glory of years

This election day, voters will have a direct voice in deciding whether to preserve or enhance abortion rights in 10 states, including six in which abortion is outlawed or seriously restricted. As it happens, new data points arrive almost weekly to inform voters what’s at stake in these ballot campaigns. To put it bluntly, the health of pregnant women and those of childbearing age hangs in the balance. With the election now less than five weeks away, let’s take an up-to-date look at this increasingly dismal landscape. We expect that if Donald Trump is elected he will find a way to impose a nationwide abortion ban. Then we will start seeing these tragedies and near-tragedies in every state. — Nancy L. Cohen, president, Gender Equity Policy Institute There can no longer be any doubt that the abortion bans enacted in more than 20 states threaten women’s health. The bellwether state is Texas, the only state to impose its abortion ban as early as September 2021, even before the Supreme Court’s June 2022 ruling in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned the nationwide abortion right

When Nora Bruhn bought admission to the Lightning in a Bottle arts and music festival on the shores of Kern County’s Buena Vista Lake earlier this spring, her ticket never mentioned she might end up with a fungus growing in her lungs. After weeks of night sweats, “heaviness and a heat” in her left lung, a cough that wouldn’t quit and a painful rash on her legs, her physician brother said she might have valley fever, a potentially deadly disease caused by a dust-loving fungus that lives in the soils of the San Joaquin Valley. Bruhn said she hadn’t been warned beforehand that Kern County and Buena Vista Lake are endemic for coccidioides — the fungus that causes the disease. “If there had been a warning that there’s a potentially lethal fungal entity in the soil, there’s no way I would have gone,” said the San Francisco-based artist. “Honestly, I would have just been paranoid to breathe the whole entire time I was there.” The incidence and range of valley fever has grown dramatically over the last two decades, and some experts warn that the

Thee Sacred Souls are still getting used to things. After performing nearly 200 shows around the globe to adoring audiences, rocking NPR’s Tiny Desk, and receiving a cosign from Beyonc é in a recent issue of GQ,”the members of the San Diego-based sweet soul group still harbor a bit of disbelief. “I never thought I’d find myself on a stage in front of thousands of people. It’s just a strange feeling, knowing that people are watching you — people you have no idea who they are,” bassist Sal Samano says, just one day before heading out on a month-long European tour. “I’m definitely grateful to be where I am; I just can’t believe where I ended up — coming from house shows and playing alleyways.” One of the top acts in contemporary soul revival music, Thee Sacred Souls count fans among older enthusiasts of 1960s-style sweet soul as well as Gen Z listeners who vibe with the group’s grooving messages of romanticism, introspection and empowerment. A testament to its pull, the act performed between legends Barbara Mason and Smokey Robinson at the deeply stacked Fool

A Silver Alert was issued Tuesday for a 73-year old man who was reported missing in Long Beach. Truman Simon was last seen at approximately 5:20 p.m. Tuesday near California Avenue and East 61st Street, said the California Highway Patrol, which issued the alert on behalf of the Long Beach Police Department. Simon is Black, 5 feet, 8 inches tall, weighs 110 pounds, has gray hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a baseball cap, a white buttoned up shirt, gray sweatpants and tan shoes. Authorities believe Simon may be traveling on foot. Anyone who sees Simon or knows of his whereabouts was asked to call 911. The Silver Alert program was established by the CHP to issue and coordinate alerts involving the unexplained or suspicious disappearances of elderly, developmentally disabled or cognitively impaired individuals.