Microsoft/Activision Deal Hits a Potential Game Changer

It could make Microsoft a bigger player than ever, but will it go through?

COLETTE BENNETT

When it comes to supremacy in the video game industry, anyone familiar with it knows that it's an intense, endless battle, fought with tooth and nail.

While many companies have tried to enter the ring, only a few have emerged from it victorious: Tencent, Nintendo, Sony (SNE) - Get Sony Corp. Report, and Microsoft (MSFT) - Get Microsoft Corporation Report (sorry, Sega).

While the game industry is a massive revenue tornado in the U.S. today, valued at $173.7 billion as of 2020, it blossomed in Japan long before it hit our shores, and Nintendo led the charge first, launching its first game "EVR Race" in 1975.

By the time Microsoft decided it wanted in by 2000, Sony and Nintendo had long dominated the Japanese market and were known as trusted publishers who made excellent games.

And while American audiences took to the Xbox well, Asian markets wanted nothing to do with it, leaving Microsoft with the frustrating problem of being unable to capture the interest--and the revenue-- of a major sector of the market.

Microsoft's recent announcement that it intends to acquire video game publisher Activision Blizzard (ATVI) - Get Activision Blizzard, Inc. Report is an elegant solution to that problem. By combining Activision Blizzard's assets with its own, Microsoft can boost its ranking without solving the Japan problem, making it the third biggest video game company alongside Tencent and Sony.

But there are some who oppose the deal.

Daniel Boczarski/WireImage via Getty Images


Who's Against the Activision Blizzard Acquisition?

On Thursday, four U.S. senators sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission requesting that it take a closer look at the Microsoft/Activision deal, The New York Times reported.

In the letter, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Sheldon Whitehouse implore FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan to consider how the merger could gloss over the importance of numerous sexual harassment claims that have been directed at Activision Blizzard over the last year.

It also points a finger at Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, whose resignation has been called for by everyone from investors to current Activision Blizzard employees, leading strikes and efforts to unionize.

“This lack of accountability, despite shareholders, employees, and the public calling for Kotick to be held responsible for the culture he created, would be an unacceptable result of the proposed Microsoft acquisition,” the letter reads. "If the FTC determines that the deal could worsen the negotiating position between workers and the companies, then the agency should oppose it."

Two shareholders have also filed lawsuits in regards to the upcoming acquisition, claiming that the board is seeking to “procure for themselves and senior management [...] significant and immediate benefits" and calling the future sale "unfair for a number of reasons."

The billion dollar deal is currently under review with the FTC, as all mergers above a certain scale must be submitted for government antitrust review. In the meantime, the Securities and Exchange Commissions' investigation into Activision Blizzard is ongoing.

The game publisher did get one reprieve this week, however: An $18 million settlement for female employees of the company that alleged they experienced sexual harassment and pregnancy-related discrimination.

However, the fine print is worth a read (and a think). It states that by filing a claim, defendants agree to "remove from the personnel files of each Eligible Claimant any references to the Eligible Claimant’s allegations of sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, or related retaliation or determined by the EEOC to be related to such allegations."

In other words, once you agree to getting a relief payout, it's like your harassment never happened in the first place.

MOST COMES FROM IRAQI KURDISTAN
Iraq oil exports $11.07 bn in March, highest for 50 years


Oil ministry figures show Iraq exported more crude last month than it has since 1972 

(AFP/Hussein FALEH) (Hussein FALEH)

Sat, April 2, 2022

Iraq exported $11.07 billion of oil last month, the highest level for half a century, as crude prices soared amid shortfall fears following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the oil ministry said.

The second largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Iraq exported "100,563,999 barrels for revenues of $11.07 billion, the highest revenue since 1972", the ministry said.

The figures published late Friday are preliminary data but final data "generally does not vary" much, a ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In February, oil revenues reached an eight-year high of $8.5 billion dollars, with daily exports of 3.3 million barrels of oil.

Oil exports account for more than 90 percent of Iraq's income.

Crude prices spiked over fears of a major supply shortfall after Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24. Russia is the world's second biggest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia.

On Thursday, the OPEC group of oil producing countries and its Russia-led allies agreed on another modest oil output increase, ignoring Western pressure to significantly boost production as the Ukraine conflict has rocked prices.

The 13 members of the Saudi-led OPEC and 10 countries spearheaded by Russia -- a group known as OPEC+ -- backed an increase of 432,000 barrels per day in May, marginally higher than in previous months.

The United States has urged OPEC+ to boost production as high energy prices have contributed to soaring inflation across the world, which has threatened to severely derail the recovery from the Covid pandemic.

While OPEC refused to budge, Washington said it would tap its strategic stockpile by a record amount in a bid to cool soaring prices.

The international benchmark contract, Brent North Sea crude, flirted with a record high in early March as it soared to almost $140 per barrel, but has retreated since then.

On Friday, oil was around $100 a barrel.

Oil revenues are critical for Iraq's government, with the country mired in a financial crisis and needing funds to rebuild infrastructure after decades of devastating war.

Iraq, with a population of some 41 million people, is also grappling with a major energy crisis and suffers regular power cuts.

Despite its immense oil and gas reserves, Iraq remains dependent on imports to meet its energy needs.

Neighbouring Iran currently provides a third of Iraq's gas and electricity needs, but supplies are regularly cut or reduced, aggravating daily load shedding.

ak-gde/pjm/dv

Staley wary equity strides for women’s tourney will continue

By PETE IACOBELLI

1 of 5

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley poses with a trophy after being named Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year, Wednesday, March 30, 2022, in Minneapolis. 

(Carlos Gonzalez/Star Tribune via AP)


MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Putting women on the same level with men when it comes to swag bags and logos is a starting point, and for Dawn Staley that’s all it is.

South Carolina women’s coach is not certain there will ever be true equity among the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments.

“I just don’t know,” Staley told The Associated Press. “I mean, the hotel is nice,” she added sitting at her downtown hotel two blocks from the Target Center, where the Gamecocks will play Louisville on Friday night in the women’s Final Four.

Staley has enjoyed the tournament experience this year — the Gamecocks played two games at home and two games in Greensboro, North Carolina — better than a year ago in the pandemic-caused bubble set up in San Antonio.

After a scathing report issued last summer about numerous inequities between how men’s teams are treated compared with the women, Staley is torn about whether the NCAA can make lasting strides.

“It’s good what we’re hearing,” she said. “But is it something that’s going to last four, five years down the road?”

She is not alone.

Two weeks ago, it was three members of Congress who said the NCAA had taken little more than “short-term steps” toward bridging the gap.

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform; Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus; and Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) sent a letter to the NCAA the week of the tournament’s start.

On Thursday, the trio introduced the Gender Equity in College Sports Commission act designed to create a 16-person bipartisan panel to study the issue across all NCAA sports.

Speier said in a release the NCAA had made “pathetic progress towards correcting the deeply misogynistic attitudes and treatment of the women’s teams compared to the men’s teams.”

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer has dealt with inequality issues for all of her 36 years with the program.

“I call it hot dogs for the girls and steak for the boys,” she said. “It will be a great time when you don’t need Title IX, but unfortunately in our world, there’s discrimination still against people, women and we need to keep battling.”

The longtime discussion garnered national attention the past year with critics taking NCAA leadership to task in 2021 after Oregon’s Sedona Prince posted a social media video about the inequities, particularly the weight rooms.

Louisville coach Jeff Walz believes that tournament organizers made mistakes, but too much was made of the differences in weight rooms.

Waltz said the disparity was “blown way out of proportion” and that he has “never been a big proponent of everything has to be the same” for men and women to have equally enjoyable experiences in their respective NCAA Tournaments.

UConn guard Paige Bueckers, whose team plays Stanford in the other national women’s semifinal here Friday night, believes more needs to be done before the tournaments are on equal footing.

“It’s definitely not where it needs to be,” the Huskies sophomore sensation said. “But change isn’t going to happen overnight and you can see the growth.”

NCAA President Mark Emmert, speaking the women’s Final Four on Wednesday and again in New Orleans Thursday at the men’s event, is happy with the progress that’s been made, although bigger issues like distributing tournament revenues to women’s programs are only in the early stages of discussion.

In Staley’s view, revenue — “The units,” as she calls them — is the largest divide between the men and women.

The men’s tournament has a deal that’s averaging $770 million a year that will jump to an average of $1.1 billion in 2025.

The women’s tournament is tied into other women’s NCAA championships for TV rights. ESPN’s current contract ends in 2024 and Staley believes those rights can go for much more than the NCAA is getting now.

“It’s the right time,” Staley said. “This is a good game that people like to watch.”

ESPN analyst and former UConn All-American Rebecca Lobo sees the rising interest in the game and believes that can lead to more exposure and ultimately better broadcast contracts.

One example she said was this year’s women’s selection show. The show is generally broadcast on the Monday, the day after the men’s highly anticipated Sunday night bracket reveal. But this year it aired after the men’s show and, “wow, we have the best ratings since 2006,” Lobo said.

“Let’s use this year and figure out, all right, did this keep us along the path that we’re trying to go toward,” Lobo said.

Two of the more tangible steps taken by the NCAA to elevate the women’s event has been to make the logo, “March Madness,” a part of the on-court branding and expand the field to 68. There was also an inaugural women’s “First Four,” an element of the men’s tournament since 2011.

Bueckers has seen increased attention in the women’s tournament this year.

“Change is going to come,” Bueckers said. “And it has to come now rather than later.”

___

More AP coverage of March Madness: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

NEW NORTH AMERICAN STANDARD
New vehicles must average 40 mpg by 2026, up from 28 mpg


This Dec. 12, 2018, file photo shows traffic on the Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles. New vehicles sold in the U.S. will have to travel an average of at least 40 miles per gallon of gasoline in 2026 under new rules unveiled by the government. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday its fuel economy requirements will undo a rollback enacted under President Donald Trump. 

(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

DETROIT (AP) — New vehicles sold in the U.S. will have to average at least 40 miles per gallon of gasoline in 2026, up from about 28 mpg, under new federal rules unveiled Friday that undo a rollback of standards enacted under President Donald Trump.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said its new fuel economy requirements are the strongest to date and the maximum the industry can achieve over the time period. They will reduce gasoline consumption by more than 220 billion gallons over the life of vehicles, compared with the Trump standards.

They’re expected to decrease carbon dioxide emissions — but not as much as some environmentalists want — and raise new vehicle prices in an industry already pressed by inflation and supply chain issues.

For the current model year, standards enacted under Trump require the fleet of new vehicles to get just under 28 miles per gallon in real-world driving. The new requirements increase gas mileage by 8% per year for model years 2024 and 2025 and 10% in the 2026 model year.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whose department includes NHTSA, said the rules also will help strengthen national security by making the country less dependent on foreign oil and less vulnerable to volatile gasoline prices. Gasoline nationwide has spiked to an average of more than $4.22 per gallon, with much of the increase coming since Russia, a major oil producer, invaded Ukraine in late February. It cost $2.88 per gallon just a year ago, according to AAA.

Gas prices also have helped to fuel inflation to a 40-year high, eating up household budgets and hitting President Joe Biden’s approval ratings.



“Transportation is the second-largest cost for American families, only behind housing,” Buttigieg said. The new standards, he said, will help keep the U.S. more secure and preserve “the freedom of our country to chart its future without being subject to other countries and to the decisions that are being made in the boardrooms of energy companies.”

But auto dealers say more stringent requirements drive up prices and push people out of an already expensive new-car market. NHTSA projects that the new rules will raise the price of a new vehicle in the 2029 model year by $1,087.

Trump’s administration rolled back fuel economy standards, allowing them to rise 1.5% per year, which environmental groups said was inadequate to limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change. The standards had been rising about 5% per year previously.

But the new standards won’t immediately match those adopted through 2025 under President Barack Obama. NHTSA officials said they will equal the Obama standards by 2025 and slightly exceed them for the 2026 model year.

The Obama-era standards automatically adjusted for changes in the type of vehicles people are buying. When they were enacted in 2012, 51% of new vehicle sales were cars and 49% SUVs and trucks. Last year, 77% of new vehicle sales were SUVs and trucks, which generally are less efficient than cars.

Some environmental groups said the new requirements from NHTSA under Biden don’t go far enough to fight global warming. Others supported the new standards as a big step toward reducing emissions, with the American Lung Association calling for even stronger standards to drive a transition to all new vehicles having zero-emissions by 2035.

“Climate change has gotten much worse, but these rules only require automakers to reduce gas-guzzling slightly more than they agreed to cut nine years ago,” said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Center at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Officials said that under the new standards, owners would save about $1,400 in gasoline costs during the lifetime of a 2029 model year vehicle. Carbon dioxide emissions would drop by 2.5 billion metric tons by 2050 under the standards, the NHTSA said.

Automakers are investing billions of dollars to develop and build electric vehicles but say government support is needed to get people to buy them. The companies want government tax credits to reduce prices as well as more money for EV charging stations to ease anxiety over running out of juice.

John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a large industry trade group, said increased regulations will require supportive government policies. Regulators should consider safety, consumer buying preferences, improved fuel economy and the transition to electric vehicles, he said in a statement.

NHTSA sets fuel economy requirements, while the Environmental Protection Agency develops limits on greenhouse gas emissions. NHTSA officials said their requirements nearly match rules adopted in December by the EPA, so automakers don’t have to comply with two rules.

ANY AVERAGE MILEGE  STANDARD APPLIED IN THE US ALSO APPLIES IN CANADA

Indian scholars, activists criticize school hijab ban ruling

By SHEIKH SAALIQ

1 of 10

Indian Muslim students wearing hijabs and face masks gather to meet student activists in Kundapur in district Udupi, Karnataka state, India, Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022. An Indian court ruling upholding a ban on Muslim students wearing head coverings in schools has sparked criticism from constitutional scholars and rights advocates amid concerns of judicial overreach regarding religious freedoms. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)


NEW DELHI (AP) — A recent court ruling upholding a ban on Muslim students wearing head coverings in schools has sparked criticism from constitutional scholars and rights activists amid concerns of judicial overreach regarding religious freedoms in officially secular India.

Even though the ban is only imposed in the southern state of Karnataka, critics worry it could be used as a basis for wider curbs on Islamic expression in a country already witnessing a surge of Hindu nationalism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party.

“With this judgment, the rule you are making can restrict the religious freedom of every religion,” said Faizan Mustafa, a scholar of freedom of religion and vice chancellor at the Hyderabad-based Nalsar University of Law. “Courts should not decide what is essential to any religion. By doing so, you are privileging certain practices over others.”

Supporters of the decision say it’s an affirmation of schools’ authority to determine dress codes and govern student conduct, and that takes precedence over any religious practice.

“Institutional discipline must prevail over individual choices. Otherwise, it will result in chaos,” said Karnataka Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi, who argued the state’s case in court.

Before the verdict more than 700 signatories including senior lawyers and rights advocates had expressed opposition to the ban in an open letter to the court’s chief justice, saying, “the imposition of an absolute uniformity contrary to the autonomy, privacy and dignity of Muslim women is unconstitutional.”

The dispute began in January when a government-run school in the city of Udupi, in Karnataka, barred students wearing hijabs from entering classrooms. Staffers said the Muslim headscarves contravened the campus’ dress code, and that it had to be strictly enforced.

Muslims protested, and Hindus staged counterdemonstrations. Soon more schools imposed their own restrictions, prompting the Karnataka government to issue a statewide ban.

A group of female Muslim students sued on the grounds that their fundamental rights to education and religion were being violated.

But a three-judge panel, which included a female Muslim judge, ruled last month that the Quran does not establish the hijab as an essential Islamic practice and it may therefore be restricted in classrooms. The court also said the state government has the power to prescribe uniform guidelines for students as a “reasonable restriction on fundamental rights.”

“What is not religiously made obligatory therefore cannot be made a quintessential aspect of the religion through public agitations or by the passionate arguments in courts,” the panel wrote.

The verdict relied on what’s known as the essentiality test — basically, whether a religious practice is or is not obligatory under that faith. India’s constitution does not draw such a distinction, but courts have used it since the 1950s to resolve disputes over religion.

In 2016, the high court in the southern state of Kerala ruled that head coverings were a religious duty for Muslims and therefore essential to Islam under the test; two years later India’s Supreme Court again used the test to overturn historical restrictions on Hindu women of certain ages entering a temple in the same state, saying it was not an “essential religious practice.”

Critics say the essentiality test gives courts broad authority over theological matters where they have little expertise and where clergy would be more appropriate arbiters of faith.

India’s Supreme Court is itself in doubt about the test. In 2019 it set up a nine-judge panel to reevaluate it, calling its legitimacy regarding matters of faith “questionable”; the matter is still under consideration.

The lawsuit in Karnataka cited the 2016 Kerala ruling, but this time the justices came to the opposite conclusion — baffling some observers.

“That’s why judges make for not-so-great interpreters of religious texts,” said Anup Surendranath, a professor of constitutional law at the Delhi-based National Law University.

Surendranath said the most sensible avenue for the court would have been to apply a test of what Muslim women hold to be true from a faith perspective: “If wearing hijab is a genuinely held belief of Muslim girls, then why ... interfere with that belief at all?”

The ruling has been welcomed by Bharatiya Janata Party officials from Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the federal minister of minority affairs, to B. C. Nagesh, Karnataka’s education minister.

Satya Muley, a lawyer at the Bombay High Court, said it’s perfectly reasonable for the judiciary to place some limits on religious freedoms if they clash with dress codes, and the verdict will “help maintain order and uniformity in educational institutions.”

“It is a question of whether it is the constitution, or does religion take precedence?” Muley said. “And the court’s verdict has answered just that by upholding the state’s power to put restrictions on certain freedoms that are guaranteed under the constitution.”

Surendranath countered that the verdict was flawed because it failed to invoke the three “reasonable restrictions” under the constitution that let the state interfere with freedom of religion — for reasons of public order, morality or health.

“The court didn’t refer to these restrictions, even though none of them are justifiable to ban hijabs in schools,” Surendranath said. “Rather, it emphasized homogeneity in schools, which is opposite of diversity and multiculturalism that our constitution upholds.”

The Karnataka ruling has been appealed to India’s Supreme Court. Plaintiffs requested an expedited hearing on the grounds that a continued ban on the hijab threatens to cause Muslim students to lose an entire academic year. The court declined to hold an early hearing, however.

Muslims make up just 14% of India’s 1.4 billion people, but nonetheless constitute the world’s second-largest Muslim population for a nation. The hijab has historically not been prohibited or restricted in public spheres, and women donning the headscarf — like other outward expressions of faith, across religions — is common across the country.

The dispute has further deepened sectarian fault lines, and many Muslims worry hijab bans could embolden Hindu nationalists and pave the way for more restrictions targeting Islam.

“What if the ban goes national?” said Ayesha Hajeera Almas, one of the women who challenged the ban in the Karnataka courts. “Millions of Muslim women will suffer.”

Mustafa agreed.

“Hijab for many girls is liberating. It is a kind of bargain girls make with conservative families as a way for them to go out and participate in public life,” he said. “The court completely ignored this perspective.”

___

Associated Press writer Krutika Pathi in New Delhi contributed to this report.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

America in 1950: U.S. releases gold mine of Census data after 72-year waiting period


Census enumerator Thomas Cronin interviews a painter during the 1950 Census. What makes the 1950 Census so significant is that it's the first one that details an America on the heels of World War II, at the start of the baby boom and in full postwar economic swing a decade after the Great Depression. Photo courtesy National Archives

April 1 (UPI) -- On Friday, the National Archives released detailed results from one of the most anticipated government head counts in history -- which it says provides a "window into history" and a snapshot of America in the middle of the 20th century.

The bureau released detailed findings that it gathered from the 1950 U.S. Census -- which was expected to be a genealogical and historical gold mine of information that shows the first snapshot of postwar America more than 70 years ago.

Early on Friday, the National Archives and Records Administration unveiled the 6.4 million pages of digitized 1950 Census data from 6,373 microfilm rolls, including names, ages, addresses and answers to questions about employment status, job description and income.

Taken every 10 years, the U.S. Census collects a detailed account of citizens that results in a pretty accurate head count of Americans coast to coast. Although rudimentary information from a Census becomes available not long after it's taken, the detailed information like that released on Friday is only allowed to be released 72 years following a Census. The 1940 Census was released a decade ago.

An enumerator from the U.S. Census Bureau visits a farmer during the 1950 Census, somewhere in the Midwest. Photo courtesy National Archives

What makes the 1950 Census so significant is that it's the first one that details an America on the heels of World War II, at the start of the baby boom and in full postwar economic swing a decade after the Great Depression.

"The 1950 Census opens a window into one of the most transformative periods in modern American history, revealing a country of roughly 151 million people who had just recently emerged from the hardships and uncertainties of World War II and the Great Depression," the Census Bureau said in a post this week.

"With little housing construction during the prior two decades, the nation's population mostly lived in cities and rural areas, often in crowded conditions. Suburbanization had only recently begun and would increase substantially in the coming decades thanks to the G.I. Bill, sustained postwar economic expansion and construction of a comprehensive interstate highway system.

RELATED Report: Median household income climbs over past five years ending 2020

"In hindsight, we can now see that on many demographic fronts the U.S. population in 1950 looked more like the country in 1940 than the rapidly growing, youthful nation to come in 1960 or 1970."

The Census data shows that of the nation's 10 largest cities in 1950, only New York City and Los Angeles went on to have larger populations in 2020. The other eight -- Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, St Louis, Washington, D.C., and Boston -- all saw their populations fall in the following seven decades.

A look at the 1950 Census form, which included a total of 38 questions. Photo courtesy National Archives

Eighty-nine percent of people counted in the 1950 Census were White; only 28% of households in Washington, D.C., had a TV, while 97% had a radio; 7,000 homes in the area lacked flushable toilets; and more than 3,000 had no electric lights.

RELATED Census Bureau: Black, Latino, Indigenous populations undercounted in 2020

The 1950 Census included 38 questions for Americans to answer -- including whether they had a kitchen sink and what type of toilet or refrigerator they used. People were also asked about their education, how much money they made and how much money relatives in their home made, while married women were asked how many children they had.

A Census-taker is seen during a visit to a home in Virginia during the 1950 Census. Detailed information from that Census was released for the first time on Friday. Photo courtesy National Archives

A preliminary assessment of the data showed an abundance of marriages and young families in smaller households, Census officials said.

Census data is only made public every 72 years as a result of a 1952 agreement between the Census Bureau and National Archives that was codified by Congress in 1978.

Why 72 years? The federal government has never really given a definitive answer -- but one of the most common beliefs is that the blackout period was put in place to protect people's private information, and 72 years was the estimated lifespan at the time of the agreement in 1952.

It's estimated that about 26 million Americans who were living in the United States in 1950 are still alive today -- meaning they will be able to research their own names and information, or the names of parents and family members.

A number of prominent Americans alive today were also alive during the taking of the 1950 U.S. Census -- including musician and rocker Bruce Springsteen, who was "Born in the USA" in 1949. UPI Photo/File | License Photo

Some of the more prominent people who were alive at the time of the mid-20th century Census are President Joe Biden, former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, along with entertainers including Bruce Springsteen, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford and historical figures like former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and three sitting Supreme Court justices.

There is no cost to search through the 1950 Census records, which are available online.

"Typically people interested in their family history are always looking at dead people," Lisa Lousie Cooke, a Texas-based genealogist, told The Washington Post.

"This [Census] collection includes many people who are currently alive today ... so there's a huge nostalgia component."

U.S. surgeons' group teaching Ukrainians to treat war wound

By Alan Mozes, HealthDay News

An injured Ukrainian woman receives treatment after a shelling in a residential area in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 18. 

Photo by Vladyslav Musiienko/UPI | License Photo

Images of Ukrainians being carried on stretchers from bombed-out buildings, wounded and bleeding, are heartbreaking, but one American surgeons' group is doing its part to help teach the war-torn country's citizens how to halt life-threatening bleeds.

When serious injury strikes, time is of the essence, experts from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) warn. But many of those who care for the injured on the spot aren't healthcare professionals and lack adequate medical training.

However, the good news is that those skills "are easily learned and very doable" by pretty much anyone, said Dr. Roxi Horbowyj.

A Philadelphia-based critical care surgeon, Horbowyj is an educator and trainer with an ACS-sponsored campaign called STOP THE BLEED.

The campaign's aim, said Horbowyj, is straightforward: "To help the U.S. public, and really the global public, learn how they can be very successful when it comes to saving a life, by learning how to perform compression, pack a wound and put on a tourniquet."

The guiding principle, Horbowyj noted, is that when someone is injured, "it's the people right next to you that really have the best opportunity to step in and save your life."

The campaign sets up training programs -- in person and/or online -- offering "how-to" classes on the basics in how to recognize when a bleeding situation is gravely serious, as well as how to get it under control.

The program first started as part of a 2015 "call to action" launched by the U.S. government, with direct support from the U.S. Department of Defense. The goal was to enlarge the pool of Americans with the know-how needed to stop a bleeding emergency.

Since then, says Horbowyj, the effort has expanded into program launches in Lithuania and across the United Kingdom.

But she noted that the lion's share of the program's international focus has actually centered on Ukraine.

"We started teaching courses in Ukraine in 2014 and 2015," said Horbowyj, who acknowledged having a personal connection to that country -- both of her parents were born there.

"The Ukraine conflict really started eight to nine years ago," Horbowyj explained. That's when Russia first invaded the eastern part of country, eventually leading to the annexation of Crimea, which had been part of Ukraine.

That invasion also kick-started a violent separatist movement in the area, upping the risk of injury to locals caught in the crossfire.

Since then, the "program in Ukraine has been really well-received," Horbowyj said, though what started as in-person training was forced to gravitate to an online format with the pandemic.

"COVID and the quarantines and lockdowns really interrupted a lot of our work there," she said. But after an initial pause, the project shifted to a remote Zoom-based format. So far, said Horbowyj, the move has proven to be very successful, due to an enthusiastic buy-in on the part of Ukraine's leadership.

"We have taught blood control skills to Ukrainian officials at a very, very high level, which I think is an incredible testament to how seriously they take the issue," Horbowyj said.

The program has managed to maintain training in an active war zone.

"We know bleeding is the foremost reason that injured people die," said Horbowyj. "It's very much our belief that this training can save lives in Ukraine, which is why we're doing this."

Elizabeth Shaw, head of communications and public affairs with the International Committee of the Red Cross, agreed the program could make a huge difference.

"The humanitarian situation in Ukraine is increasingly dire and desperate," Shaw said. "Security, access and availability mean blood supplies in war are not as reliable as in peace time."

Since "bleeding out" is a major cause of death in war-related trauma, "training both health professionals and the general public in how to limit or stop bleeding can not only save the life of the patient, but also reduce the need for blood transfusion," she noted.

More information

There's more on the importance of bleeding control at STOP THE BLEED.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Heart disease remains No. 1 killer of women, but awareness falls

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in America, accounting for more than one in five deaths. Still, far too few women realize the danger.

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News

Women differ from men in the structure of their hearts, the types of heart problems they have, the risk factors for heart disease they carry, and even the symptoms they experience during a heart attack, experts say. 

Photo by hamiltonpaviana/Pixabay

In fact, "Awareness of heart disease as the leading cause of death among women actually declined from 2009 to 2019," Dr. Dipti Itchhaporia, president of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), said during a HealthDay Now interview. "We've done so many educational efforts over the past decade and still less than 50% of women recognize that heart disease is the number one killer."

It's also not widely known that women differ from men in the structure of their hearts, the types of heart problems they have, the risk factors for heart disease they carry, and even the symptoms they experience during a heart attack, experts say.

"I had a patient with jaw pain," said HealthDay Now medical correspondent Dr. Robin Miller. "She went to the dentist twice before she came to see me, and she was in the midst of having a heart attack."

Much of the problem stems from the fact that cardiology has long been a male-dominated field, said Itchhaporia, who is an interventional cardiologist with Hoag Heart and Vascular Institute in Newport Beach, Calif.

"I think women may not even think of cardiology," Itchhaporia said of female doctors. "Women have different perceptions of cardiology than men, and they have different goals that could influence their choice."

Female cardiologists are more likely to report sex discrimination, but it goes beyond that, Itchhaporia said. Women in medicine tend to choose fields that allow for long-term patient relationships, as well as a more family-oriented lifestyle.

Unfortunately, that lack of female perspective in cardiology has caused research into heart disease to be largely focused on men, Itchhaporia noted.

A study to be presented at the ACC's upcoming meeting found that clinical trials led by a female doctor tended to have more women participating in them -- 45%, compared with 38% when a man is in charge of the study, Itchhaporia said.

Not just smaller versions of male hearts

"Generalization of trial results may be inaccurate if the studies are only comprised of men. And so I think improving representation of women in trials yields more real-time, real-life results that reflect the broader patient population," Itchhaporia said.

"The bottom line is preventing and treating heart disease requires a workforce that's as diverse as the patients seeking the care," she added.

So what are the differences between women and men when it comes to the heart?

"Let me just start by saying that up until about 20 years ago, we thought men and women's hearts were the same. We were just men with periods," said Miller, a practicing physician with Triune Integrative Medicine in Medford, Ore.

We've now learned that "women's hearts are smaller, our walls are thinner, our blood vessels are smaller. We have a more rapid heart rate than men," Miller said.

Women's bodies also respond differently to stress, Miller said. Women experience an increase in heart rate, while men tend to have their blood vessels constrict, causing their hearts to pump harder and increasing their risk of high blood pressure.

Because of these physical differences, women tend to suffer different types of heart disease than men, the experts said.

"We don't generally have the usual coronary artery disease. We have microvascular disease, which is in the smaller blood vessels," Miller said. Because of this, the usual heart scans might miss impending disease in women.

Women are also more likely than men to experience a tear in a coronary artery, as well as a weakening of the heart's main pumping chamber, known as "broken heart syndrome," Itchhaporia and Miller said.

"Broken heart syndrome is like a stun gun to the heart where there's a trauma and the heart looks like it's having a heart attack, but it's not," Miller explained. "Generally, people recover. That's far more likely to happen in women."

Heart risk factors also differ

With these differences also come different risk factors for heart disease in women.

Some occur directly from specifically female medical conditions. For example, women can develop high blood pressure and diabetes during pregnancy, and those increase the risk of heart disease, Itchhaporia said.

"One of the newer things we found is that your menstrual history has an impact on your heart," Miller added, noting that premature menopause, endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome all increase heart risk in women. "Menopause is when things really start to go down. Once we stop having periods, our risk goes up."

Even risk factors shared between the genders -- cholesterol, high blood pressure, inactivity, obesity -- can sometimes affect women differently than men.

"For example, women with diabetes are more likely to develop disease than men with diabetes," Itchhaporia said. "Smoking among women is a greater risk factor for heart disease compared to men."

Women even suffer different symptoms when they're experiencing a heart attack, the experts said.

Studies have shown that some younger women, ages 30 to 55, who experience a heart attack had been experiencing symptoms for as long as a month, Miller noted.

"They just sort of ignore it," Miller said. "They didn't recognize the symptoms because sometimes they're very vague."

"You don't have the classical chest pain," Itchhaporia said. "Now they can, but they may have more neck pain, jaw pain, shortness of breath. So I think it's just important for us to remember that atypical quality. There are some true sex differences."

Because of these differences, Itchhaporia believes there "needs to be this redoubling of efforts by organizations interested in women's health" to educate women on their gender-specific heart risks.

"Studies show that community-based programs -- at churches, grocery stores, hair salons -- are effective in improving awareness and ultimately outcomes," Itchhaporia said. "And I really hope that social media will provide a really important tool to reaching the public about prevention and lifestyle management."

More information

The American College of Cardiology has more about women's heart health.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Robot dog patrolling the ruins of ancient Italian city Pompeii

Spot, a dog-like robot developed by Boston Dynamics, is now being used to patrol the ruins of Pompeii, Italy, to inspect structures for safety and identify tunnels used by tomb raiders. Photo courtesy of Pompeii Archaeological Park

April 1 (UPI) -- Officials in Italy said they have enlisted the service of a robot dog to patrol the ancient ruins of the city of Pompeii, with the mechanical quadruped's duties including identifying safety issues and finding tunnels created by thieves.

The Pompeii Archaeological Park announced Spot, a dog-like robot developed by U.S. firm Boston Dynamics, is now wandering the ancient ruins of the city, which was destroyed by a volcanic eruption nearly 2,000 years ago.

The park said Spot's duties include inspecting the ancient buildings for dangerous structural issues, assessing the progress of restoration work and identifying and inspecting tunnels created by relic thieves.

"Often the safety conditions within the tunnels dug by grave robbers are extremely precarious, and so the use of a robot could signify a breakthrough that would allow us to proceed with greater speed and in total safety," Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the archaeological park, said in a news release.

The robot is the latest in a series of efforts to improve conditions at the park, which was cited by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2013 as a possible addition to its list of world heritage sites in peril.

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

Cesar Chavez Day: A look back at farmworker leader

(9 images)

President Joe Biden declared Thursday Cesar Chavez Day, in honor of the United Farm Workers president who led protests of labor practices starting in 1963. Chavez died on April 3, 1993.


Cesar Chavez, president of the United Farm Workers union, tapes an interview at ABC affiliate radio station KLOS in Los Angeles on October 1, 1976. UPI File Photo
License photo | Permalink


Chavez responds to reports that the Ku Klux Klan was trying to help lettuce growers involved in a strike with his farmworkers’ union at a press conference in Los Angeles on February 8, 1979. He threatened a nationwide boycott if violence in the strike field increased. File Photo by Bob Flora/UPI
License photo | Permalink



Chavez (L) is accompanied by San Francisco Supervisor Bob Gonzales (R) as they march in a picket line outside a supermarket in San Francisco on March 22, 1979. The farmworkers were boycotting Chiquita bananas, which were produced by a firm that owns one of the nation’s largest iceberg lettuce producers, the UFW’s chief target in a strike. Led by Chavez, some 250 picketers paraded in front of the store. UPI File Photo
License photo | Permalink



Chavez shows Helen, his wife of 33 years, a plaque from the city of Montreal expressing support for the union’s latest grape boycott on October 24, 1985. It marks the 51st time Chavez has wielded his only real weapon – the consumer boycott – since he began organizing in 1963. File Photo by Mark Loundy/UPI
License photo | Permalink



A weakened Chavez (L, sitting) holds the hand of his wife to his cheek during a song at a mass held in his honor where he broke his 36-day fast in Delano, Calif., on August 21, 1988. From left to right: Ethel Kennedy, Helen Chavez, Cesar Chavez, Juana Chavez (Cesar’s mother) and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Jackson took up the hunger strike where Cesar Chavez left off, fasting on water for three days before passing on the fast to celebrities and leaders. Participants included actor Martin Sheen; the Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; actor Edward Olmos; actro Emilio Estevez; Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert Kennedy; Peter Chacon, legislator; actress Julie Carmen; actor Danny Glover; singer Carly Simon; and actress Whoopi Goldberg. File Photo by Martin Jeong/UPI
License photo | Permalink



Chavez (R) receives a piece of bread from Ethel Kennedy. Chavez went on the water only fast more than a month prior to protest the reckless use of pesticides that endanger farmworkers. File Photo by Martin Jeong/UPI
License photo | Permalink



Chavez ends his fast as Kennedy looks on. File Photo by Martin Jeong/UPI
License photo | Permalink



UFW and sympathizers march through Altamont Pass near Livermore, Calif., on February 26, 1975. During their 110-mile march from San Francisco to the Gallo Winery in Modesto, the 250 marchers were demonstrating in support of their 18-month strike and boycott of Gallo wines, which had a contract with the Teamsters. UPI File Photo
License photo | Permalink



Chavez talks to a crowd of some 3,100 striking Imperial Valley lettuce pickers at a mass rally in Calexico, Calif., on February 1, 1979. Chavez said that the UFW was gearing up for a possible nationwide lettuce boycott. File Photo by Mark Loundy/UPI
License photo | Permalink