James' World 2

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About four years ago, Clifford Harper, then 85, announced to his wife that he was quitting alcohol. Harper wasn’t a heavy drinker but enjoyed a good Japanese whiskey. It was the first of a series of changes Linda Kostalik saw in her husband. After he’d cleared out the liquor cabinet, Harper, a prolific academic who has authored several books, announced he was tired of writing. Next, the once daily runner quit going to the gym. Kostalik noticed he also was growing more forgetful.

The behaviors were unusual enough that, at an annual physical, the couple’s physician recommended they consult a neurologist. A battery of medical tests and brain scans revealed that Harper’s surprising actions and memory loss were the result of dementia.

Harper’s neurologist at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) asked whether he might like to enroll in a long-running study of dementia in African Americans.* The study’s focus on Black health piqued Harper’s interest, and he decided to participate for as long as he could. “I hope it will help other men like me,” Harper says.

As a Black American, Harper faces a risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias that is twice that of white Americans his age. The reasons for this disparity are still unclear, but researchers know Black Americans are particularly vulnerable to a number of confirmed risk factors, such as living in areas with higher rates of air pollution and encountering difficulties accessing healthy foods and high-quality education. Some studies suggest that experiencing racism and other forms of discrimination contributes to a higher risk of cognitive decline. Race or gender discrimination also raises a person’s risk of heart disease and, as a result, some forms of dementia.

That’s part of what prompted Harper to participate in OHSU’s study, called the African American Dementia and Aging Project (AADAPt), which was established in part to capture the unique history and experiences of Black communities in Oregon. The state’s first constitution banned nonwhite citizens from settling there. The ban was overturned by the early 1900s, and shipyard work during World War II brought an influx of Black workers to the region, but they still faced discrimination and racism in many forms. By the end of the war, racist lending practices—called redlining—led most of the Black community to live in segregated neighborhoods or those that were poor in resources needed for good health, such as parks and grocery stores.

Discrimination in the scientific world, along with other factors such as distrust of researchers, led to underrepresentation of Black communities in brain research. Even today, clinical trials for new treatments of Alzheimer’s include very few people of color. As a result, researchers and doctors are ill-equipped to understand the causes of dementia in these communities. “Not only are there health disparities around rates of Alzheimer’s, but we’ve understudied the Black population in relation to the causes,” says Andrea Rosso, an epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh.

Now that Alzheimer’s and some other dementias can be diagnosed early and their progress potentially slowed, figuring out who’s most vulnerable is even more critical. Diagnostic tests and interventions aren’t yet reaching all those who need them. Researchers should include historically minoritized communities in studies of these new frontiers in dementia diagnosis and treatment, says epidemiologist Beth Shaaban of the University of Pittsburgh. If adequate attention isn’t paid to diverse populations, communities that already experience disproportionate rates of dementia will be uninformed about their increased risk, how to lower it, and how to access diagnoses and care. “We are very concerned that these disparities and the rapid evolution of the new technology could leave people behind,” Shaaban says.

AADAPt and other studies aim to correct this inequity. The project seeks to understand the forces driving cognitive decline in Black Americans, identify protective factors that lead to healthy aging, and find practical solutions. The team hopes to eventually use the data to build predictive models that will catch cognitive decline early and potentially help people such as Harper access new medicines and treatments via clinical trials.

At the turn of the century, researchers projected that an aging baby boomer generation would drastically increase the incidence of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. No treatments or protective strategies were known at the time, and the search for solutions focused largely on the tangles of proteins that jammed up brain circuits.

n the past two decades, scientists have discovered that certain drivers of Alzheimer’s may be controllable. In 2011, dementia researcher Deborah Barnes of the University of California, San Francisco, and her colleagues reported that poor education and smoking—things that could be addressed by behavioral changes and social reform—were among the greatest threats to aging brains. In a 2022 follow-up study, Barnes reported other modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer’s, such as midlife obesity and sedentary lifestyle, which can raise a person’s risk for heart disease.

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Many studies have shown that playing these games can improve people’s cognitive abilities — not just on the specific task they’re working on, but related tasks, too. That “isn’t terribly surprising,” said Adrian Owen, a professor of cognitive neuroscience and imaging at Western University in Ontario, Canada, just as someone who practiced memorizing phone numbers would probably get better at remembering dates.

Evidence that playing one type of game will make you smarter overall or help you improve on a completely different kind of task is less compelling.

“Brain training works in the sense that, if you want to learn to play the violin,” you will get better if you practice the violin, Dr. Owen said. But if you learn to play the violin, “do you get any better at the trumpet? Well, the obvious answer is no.”

Some brain training companies have said that their games can also help stave off cognitive decline, but research investigating the connection is slim. One of the few studies that has looked at this found that healthy older adults who played a game designed to improve processing speed had a 29 percent lower risk of dementia a decade later. People who played two other games, a memory task or a problem-solving task, also had decreased risk, though the benefit wasn’t significant compared to people who didn’t play any games.

Experts said this study suggested that brain training games have promise, but additional clinical trials are needed.

There is more research on how everyday hobbies and behaviors — like doing crossword puzzles, playing board games, reading books or newspapers, or learning another language — may protect against cognitive decline.

Several studies have suggested that the more often people engage in cognitively stimulating activities, the lower their risk for cognitive impairment or the later they receive a dementia diagnosis. For example, one found that, among adults who developed dementia, those who regularly completed crossword puzzles delayed the onset of memory decline by more than two years compared to those who didn’t.

If something is mentally challenging, “chances are that’s probably pretty good for your brain,” Dr. Ross said. But, she added, those studies of everyday activities are not randomized controlled trials — the gold standard in science and medicine — that would provide a definitive link between cognitively stimulating hobbies and a lowered risk of dementia. In other words, the current evidence only shows an association, not a direct cause and effect.

When asked why either of these types of activities, whether it’s a specially designed game or a crossword puzzle, might help the brain, experts mentioned the theory of “cognitive reserve.” The idea is the more “mental muscle” someone has built up, the more resilient they are to dementia, said Dr. Joe Verghese, the chair of the neurology department at the Stony Brook University Renaissance School of Medicine.

These activities likely won’t prevent the brain damage that leads to dementia. But if someone does get Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive reserve “can mask the effect and delay the onset of symptoms for a few years,” Dr. Verghese said.

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Josie Norton

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“An accountability center is involuntary, OK — you’re not coming in and out,” Randy Shumway, chairman of the state Homeless Services Board, said in an interview. Utah will end a harmful “culture of permissiveness,” he said, and guide homeless people “towards human thriving.”

While the Utah effort began before Mr. Trump’s return to office, it mirrors his pledge to move the homeless from urban cores to “tent cities” with services. And it accelerated after Mr. Trump issued an executive order in July, calling for strict camping bans and expanded power to involuntarily treat homeless people.

Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, quickly praised Mr. Trump’s order and told Utah planners to follow it.

Critics of the new plan say that confining people to a site on the city’s outskirts threatens civil liberties and warn that the promised services may not materialize. The efforts coincide with deep cuts to Medicaid, which could thwart the project’s financing.

“I’m super anxious about it,” said Jen Plumb, a physician and Democratic state senator who calls the promise of high-quality medical care “pie in the sky.”

Utah already has a severe shortage of psychiatric beds, she noted. The legislature is unlikely to fund hundreds of new beds, she said, and even if it did, there is no work force to staff them.

Without enormous new spending, she said, the center could function less as a treatment facility than “a prison or a warehouse.”

The emerging portrait of the Utah center, scheduled to open in 2027, brings to life a vow that Mr. Trump made two years ago in an extraordinary campaign video.

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The proposed site where Utah plans to place as many as 1,300 homeless people outside of Salt Lake City.

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A truck hauling “aggressive” monkeys thought to be carrying hepatitis C, herpes, and Covid-19 has overturned in Mississippi, with at least one on the loose, according to authorities.

The truck was loaded with caged Rehsus monkeys when it crashed on Interstate 59, north of Heidelberg, on Tuesday.

It was transporting the monkeys to a testing facility in Florida, Connecticut news outlet WFSB reported.

Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson told local outlet WAPT that 21 monkeys were on the truck, six of whom escaped.

“The monkey that got away actually crossed interstate, went out into a wooded area,” Johnson said.

The sheriff’s department initially said in a Facebook post that the monkeys posed “potential health threats.”

“The driver of the truck told local law enforcement that the monkeys were dangerous and posed a threat to humans. We took the appropriate actions after being given that information from the person transporting the monkeys. He also stated that you had to wear PPE equipment to handle the monkeys,” the department said.

Authorities said the truck was carrying monkeys from Tulane University.

The university told The Independent that the monkeys left the Tulane National Biomedical Research Center in Covington, Louisiana, and were traveling to a non-Tulane-affiliated location.

“The primates in question belong to another entity,” the university said, adding that they were not being transported by a Tulane-affiliated service.

Tulane said in a statement on X Tuesday evening that the monkeys are not infectious.

“The primates in question belong to another entity & aren’t infectious. We’re actively collaborating with local authorities & will send a team of animal care experts to assist as needed,” the university wrote.

Tulane stressed to The Independent that the monkeys “have not been exposed to any infectious agent.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, “All but one of the escaped monkeys have been destroyed. We have been in contact with an animal disposal company to help handle the situation,” authorities said.

Mississippi Wildlife and Fisheries also responded to the scene.

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A truck hauling ‘aggressive’ monkeys carrying hepatitis C, herpes, and Covid has overturned in Mississippi, with several on the loose, according to authorities (Jasper County Sheriff’s Department)

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As Category 5 hurricane Melissa bears down on Jamaica, it is poised to be the worst storm to ever hit the Caribbean island, surpassing the damage from Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.

Gilbert, which hit Jamaica as a Category 4 hurricane, sent 19 feet of storm surge slamming into the eastern shore of the island and brought torrential rains and destructive winds. It killed 49 people, destroyed 100,000 homes, and did $700 million in damage, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Melissa, though, is far stronger and will hit from a direction that could expose more coastline to surge. And it is slower-moving, which means Jamaica will be subjected to the storm’s onslaught—especially torrential rains—for longer.

“This is going to be a lot worse than Gilbert,” says Phil Klotzbach, a senior research scientist at Colorado State University, who studies hurricanes.

Jamaica is no stranger to storms, but it has only been hit directly by five major ones (those of Category 3 or stronger), according to the best available historical records, which go back to the late 19th century. All of those major storms were either Category 3 or Category 4—we don’t know of any in recorded history that hit the island as a Category 5.

And Melissa is in rarefied company even among already rare Category 5 storms—it is exceptionally intense for an Atlantic basin hurricane. As of Monday afternoon, its maximum sustained winds are a stunning 175 miles per hour. Gilbert’s winds topped out at 130 mph when it collided with Jamaica.

Even if Melissa weakens some before it makes landfall in Jamaica, it will still be an exceptionally strong storm, and the fact that it is hitting from the south means it is running smack into a longer coastline than Gilbert did with its eastern approach. The nation’s capital, Kingston, sits on its southern shore.

The surge from Melissa is expected to reach nine to 13 feet above ground level, but exactly where that surge will be concentrated will depend on the storm’s exact path. Even small deviations could make a big difference in where the worst winds and waves hit. The farther west Melissa drifts before making a sharp turn to the northeast, the less likely it will be that the major population areas of the eastern half of the country, such as Kingston, will see the worst of the surge.

And then there is the fact that Melissa is creeping along at a pace between 3 and 5 mph, compared with Gilbert’s more typical 12 mph. “It’s barely moving,” Klotzbach says, which means the winds, surge, and rain will last agonizingly long. In fact, “they’ve been getting rain from this storm for days now,” Klotzbach says, as the weather system has drifted south of the island. Most of Jamaica is projected to get more than a foot of rain, and a wide area is forecast to get up to 30 inches. Some spots could see up to 40 inches. That amount of rain can be catastrophic, especially in Jamaica’s hilly terrain, where it can cause flash floods and landslides.

The Jamaican government has ordered mandatory evacuations for some flood-prone areas, according to the Jamaica Observer, and utilities are planning ahead for restoration efforts once the storm passes. “A Category Four hurricane potentially going through the middle of our island could have unprecedented damage on our facilities,” said Hugh Grant, chief executive officer of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), at a media briefing on Sunday, according to the Jamaica Observer. “Here at JPS, it’s likely to be a rebuild and not just a restoration.”

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The hurricane weakened to a Category 4 as it carved a path of destruction across Jamaica. Limited communications have left officials with only partial reports as they seek to assess the scale of the damage.

Here’s the latest.

Hurricane Melissa slowly cut a soaking and destructive path across Jamaica on Tuesday after making landfall as one of the strongest Category 5 storms on record.

The hours-long overland passage sapped some of the storm’s strength, dropping it to a Category 4 by the time it began moving off Jamaica’s north coast in the afternoon, on a churning path expected to take it to Cuba last Tuesday or early Wednesday. Forecasts of Melissa’s path after that take it toward the Bahamas later on Wednesday.

Melissa has brought heavy rainfall throughout the Caribbean since late last week. The storm did not make landfall on Haiti, but it has nevertheless dropped a significant amount of rain there, and forecasters warned that flash flooding and landslides are expected for the next day. Officials there have announced that schools will be closed on Wednesday and a workers will be asked to stay home.

Jamaica’s health care system is facing “one of its most severe crises in recent memory” after Hurricane Melissa battered the island’s hospitals and clinics, according to a memo by the local response team of the Pan American Health Organization.

The storm’s advance has unleashed flood warnings in multiple hospitals, threatening to overwhelm them and disrupt essential services.

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Kingston, Jamaica, on Tuesday, as Hurricane Melissa approaches.Credit…Octavio Jones/Reuters

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Heavy floodwaters swept across southwestern Jamaica, winds tore roofs off buildings, and boulders tumbled into roads Tuesday as Hurricane Melissa came ashore as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, tied for the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricanes in history.

The storm landed in southwestern Jamaica near New Hope and is expected to exit around St. Ann parish in the north, forecasters said. The storm is expected to slice diagonally across the island, then head for Cuba. It has been blamed for at least seven deaths so far in the Caribbean — three in Jamaica, three in Haiti, and one in the Dominican Republic.

Landslides, fallen trees and numerous power outages were reported ahead of Melissa’s landfall, with officials in Jamaica cautioning that the cleanup and damage assessment would be slow.

“There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,” Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Monday. “The question now is the speed of recovery. That’s the challenge.”

What to know:

• Storm threatens flooding and landslides: Melissa could cause catastrophic flash flooding and numerous landslides, the U.S. National Hurricane Center warned Monday. A life-threatening storm surge of up to 13 feet (4 meters) is expected across southern Jamaica, and massive wind damage is expected in Melissa’s core.
• Cuba is next at risk: The storm is expected to make landfall late Tuesday or early Wednesday in eastern Cuba, where hundreds of thousands of people have prepared to evacuate. Up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain are forecast in areas, with a significant storm surge along the coast. The hurricane is expected to reach the southeastern Bahamas by Wednesday evening.
• Warming oceans fuel Melissa’s ferocity: The warming of the world’s oceans caused by climate change helped double Hurricane Melissa’s wind speed in less than 24 hours over the weekend, climate scientists said Monday. Scientists said this is the fourth storm in the Atlantic this year to undergo rapid intensification of its wind speed and power.

Evacuations already well underway in Cuba

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ

The president of the Provincial Defense Council and first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, said that some 281,000 people have already been evacuated and taken to 101 evacuation centers in that region or are staying with neighbors or relatives.

Some low-lying or coastal communities have been completely evacuated, with only the personnel in charge of safeguarding property remaining.

Of the 16 reservoirs managed by the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources in the province, five are discharging water, with 78% of their capacity accumulated in anticipation of heavy downpours.

Blocked roads and severe flooding seen across Jamaica

By DÁNICA COTO

Desmond McKenzie, deputy chairman of Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Council, noted that extensive damage was reported in the southwestern parish of St. Elizabeth, which he said “is under water.”

He said severe damage also was reported in parts of Clarendon in southern Jamaica.

Almost every parish in the country is experiencing blocked roads, fallen trees, damaged utility poles and excessive flooding, McKenzie said.

He said four main hospitals are damaged, with the storm knocking out power to one of them, forcing officials to evacuate 75 patients.

At least 3 families trapped and unable to be rescued until conditions improve, officials say

By DÁNICA COTO

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