Author: Alerts CC

Children who regularly participate in sports and other athletic activities have been shown to have higher self-esteem than those who do not, but the young players who make up Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West (JRW) Little League team recently suffered from a major blow.

Hailing from one of Chicago’s roughest and most dangerous neighborhoods, the all-African-American team served as a textbook example of the unifying power of sports. The team provided one of the most well known feel-good stories of last summer when it won the U.S. Little League Championship and made it to the international finals before losing to a South Korean team.

Now, that title is being stripped away.

Last week Wednesday, the team was forced to give up their national title due to the use of ineligible players, who did not qualify to play because they lived outside of the team’s boundaries. But the community that supported them while they achieved despite-the-odds success and national fame still considers the young players “champions.”

“This is a heartbreaking decision,” said Little League International President Stephen Keener in a statement publicly announcing the difficult decision. “What these players accomplished on the field and the memories and lessons they have learned during the Little League World Series tournament is something the kids can be proud of, but it is unfortunate that the actions of adults have led to this outcome.”

Despite the team and community’s disappointment, President Obama — who met with JRW players at the White House following their championship win — still holds the team in high regard and supports their efforts.

“The president is proud of the way that they represented their city and the way they represented their country,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters last Wednesday.

The team is said to have used a map with altered boundaries to select its 2014 squad, and “met with other leagues in Illinois District 4 to get the territory they wrongfully claimed was theirs,” the league said.

Team manager Darold Butler was suspended, while Illinois District 4 administrator Michael Kelly was terminated from his position. The team remains on probation and will hold no tournament privileges until the governing body determines it is compliant.

The national title will be awarded to the the Las Vegas-based Mountain Ridge club, the Nevada team that JRW defeated last summer. Similarly, JRW’s other regional titles will be given to teams who lost those games.

Ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft have been operating under an interim agreement in Virginia for the better part of a year now, but a new law setting license procedures and standards for drivers will allow the transportation businesses to pick up and drop off passengers safely and legally.

“I am proud to sign this legislation, which supports innovation in our transportation system while also protecting the safety of citizens across the commonwealth,” said Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. “Virginia is leading the way on attracting and supporting innovative companies in every sector of our economy.”

Ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft allow users to conveniently catch a ride and pay for it easily all via their smartphone. Users simply open the respective app, select a pick-up location and drop-off point, and within minutes, a driver will be there to take them where they need to go. Once there, the payments are automatically handled through the app.

Last spring, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles issued Uber and Lyft a civil penalty each. In June, the DMV then sent letters to the companies informing them that they were operating illegally and must cease and desist, or else the state would fine the companies’ drivers.

By August, McAuliffe and Herring had hashed out an interim agreement allowing the companies to legally operate until lawmakers could set up some regulations.

Although legal English is difficult for everyday citizens to properly decipher and understand, the new regulatory law, House Bill 1662, is fairly simple. It requires the companies to screen their drivers, ensuring that they all pass criminal background checks, aren’t in the sex registry database, and have clean driving records. These requirements are essentially identical to the processes Uber and Lyft already use to screen their prospective drivers.

According to Delegate Tom Rust, who sponsored House Bill 1662, “Now that this legislation will become law, Virginians can take advantage of this new technology with assurance that reasonable safety and liability measures are governing its use.”

The law basically formalizes the temporary agreement between the ride-sharing services, Governor McAuliffe, and Attorney General Mark Herring, allowing the the companies to conduct business. AG Herring also said that the new law can serve as a model for other states looking to develop regulations for ride-sharing services.

“As other states grapple with regulation of TNCs and the emerging sharing economy, they should look to Virginia, where we have found the balance between safety, passenger protection and innovation,” said the Attorney General. “This law will strengthen our economy, give consumers more transportation options, and further cement Virginia’s reputation as a national leader for pro-business policies and reasonable regulation.”

Electronic cigarettes may not be the healthy alternative smokers think they are, according to new research conducted on laboratory mice.

E-cigarettes and vaporizers have become extremely popular in the U.S. They’re battery operated and can be easily charged using a wall charger or USB device, and many people believe they’re less dangerous than tobacco cigarettes.

But according to researchers at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, e-cigarettes may not be the downside-free solution that smokers have been searching for. They contain some of the same harmful chemicals used in tobacco cigarettes, and they may even weaken the immune system in the lungs.

“We have observed that [e-cigarettes] increase the susceptibility to respiratory infections in the mouse models,” Shyam Biswal, a professor of environmental health sciences and the study’s senior author said in a release.

Some of the mice in the study were exposed to the scaled-down equivalent of a human’s exposure to e-cigarette vapor over the course of two weeks, while the control group was exposed to air.

Both groups were then exposed to virus-causing bacteria. The e-cigarette group were much more likely to display weakened immune responses, and some died.

“This warrants further study in susceptible individuals, such as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) patients who have switched from cigarettes to e-cigarettes or to new users of e-cigarettes who may have never used cigarettes,” Biswal added.

The study specified that though animal tests may not apply to humans, they still raise the possibility that e-cigarette smokers may be more susceptible to lung infections. The study could result in increased regulations for e-cigarettes in the future.

The study, which was published on Feb. 4 in PLoS One, also discovered that the actual nicotine intake from e-cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes is about the same, even though the nicotine content was lower in e-cigarettes.

February is a big month for dental health. Not only does the American Dental Association (ADA) sponsor National Children’s Dental Health Month this month, but it’s also National Pet Dental Health Month.

According to the Culpeper Star Exponent, veterinarians use the month of February to stress the importance of pet dental health and help combat the numbers of cats and dogs that suffer from dental disease and complications. The American Veterinary Dental Society says that 80% of dogs and 70% of cats display signs of oral disease by the time they reach three years of age.

Because of these statistics, veterinarians encourage pet owners to check their cats and dogs for signs of oral disease. Ideally, your pet should have white teeth, light-pink gums and fresh breath. If your pet’s teeth don’t display these features, you should visit the veterinarian for a pet dental cleaning.

Keeping your pet’s teeth in good condition isn’t just a matter of keeping “doggie breath” at bay — poor dental health can have a significant impact on your pet’s quality of life. The Star Exponent reports that dogs and cats can feel toothaches just like we can. In addition, regular dental care can allow your pet to live two to five years longer.

Children’s dental health is also grossly overlooked. According to the Centers for Disease Control, a stunning one of every five children age five to 11 has one or more untreated dental cavity.

To help combat tooth decay in children, the ADA has named February National Children’s Dental Health Month. By encouraging participation from parents, teachers and caregivers, the ADA’s program works to teach millions of children across the country about the benefits of good dental health.

When an amazing 75% of people have reported feeling that an unattractive smile harms one’s chances for a successful career, it’s extremely important to make sure your children receive the best dental care and develop good dental hygiene habits early on in life.

And even if you’re neither a child nor a pet, you can still observe good dental hygiene throughout the month of February — enjoy your Valentine’s sweets in moderation, and always brush and floss your teeth!

Fences are meant to protect the property they surround — not only keeping young children and animals inside the perimeter, but keeping unwanted parties outside — but what if the barrier became the way in to a protected property?

On February 1, the Secret Service arrested a man as he tried to climb a waist-high, temporary barrier set up on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House’s main fence. Agents were able to apprehend him before he made it over, charging him with unlawful entry. Officials eventually turned him over to D.C. police.

No information about any motive the man may have had has been released, but Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said that an effort would be made to speak to him. It was also unclear whether there had been any previous arrests in connection with attempts to jump the auxiliary fence.

The Washington Post reports that the man was trying to climb an auxiliary barrier, which is composed of interlocking metal barriers that look like bike racks. Reuters, however, reports that it was a bicycle rack that the man tried to jump.

This second barrier was put in place days following the notorious fence jumper incident of 2014, in which the Secret Service failed to stop a man wielding a knife from jumping the fence, making it across the lawn, into the White House, past the stairway leading to the first family’s living quarters, and into the East Room, where an agent was able to tackle him.

The incident not only led to the new barrier, but also to a shakeup in Secret Service management. However, there continue to be security foibles despite the agency’s attempt to tighten things up. On January 26 — only a couple of weeks ago — a small drone operated by a U.S. spy agency employee did crash on the White House grounds.