James Russ and Joseph Parker, the former and current presidents of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in northern California, are seeking to make their reservation healthy again.

That means helping their people, they say, and specifically tackling high rates of diabetes and obesity that affect their tribal nation and many other Indigenous communities.

It also means restoring their land and the river that has been intrinsically linked with their people for millennia.

“We are Native people tied to the resources and rhythms of the Eel River,” Parker said. “Our health is connected to the river.”

Now, the tribal nation is confronting the Trump administration over the river’s future and fighting some of its regional allies to reclaim water rights that have been overlooked for a century.

The struggle is taking place as the entity with a dominant stake in the river for generations, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., seeks to give up in Lake and Mendocino counties its network of Eel River dams and a linked hydropower plant. The move has triggered a federal review that has pitted the tribes, together with environmental groups in favor of dam removal, against farming interests, reservoir supporters and the Trump administration, which has taken a dim view of dam demolition.

The tribes never had much of a say when those dams went up starting 118 years ago, but they have been heavily involved in talks in recent years geared to planning for the future of the Eel River. Due to a century-old diversion that links the Eel River to the Russian River in the south — and to farms and about 100,000 residents who rely on the upper Russian for drinking and irrigation supplies — those talks have drawn in a host of sometimes competing interests, including counties and farm and fishery groups with a wider scope of interest across the North Coast.

Our “water rights were completely ignored,” Parker said of his ancestors. “The Round Valley Indian Tribes were very much in survival mode when the dams were built and the diversions began.

“It started in 1905 when W.W. Van Arsdale posted a note along a tree saying he had a right to appropriate more than 100,000 acre-feet of Eel River water to put into the Russian River basin,” Parker said. “That’s how it all started.”

PG&E has informed federal officials it wants to decommission Scott and Cape Horn dams and give up the aging, associated hydropower plant, offline since 2021, that has helped get Eel River water through Mendocino County’s Potter Valley into the Russian River basin.

In 2022, the power company applied to surrender its operating license to the Federal Energy Regulation Commission, which oversees the nation’s hydropower projects. The utility giant followed through with formal plans to FERC in June 2025.

Historically, FERC has had the final say and has not stood in the way of dam removal, though Congress and the White House have.

Years from now, the tribes and their allies hope their efforts will lead to the nation’s next big dam removal project, freeing the headwaters of California’s third longest river to revive its beleaguered salmon and steelhead trout runs — and the culture and economy of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, said John Bezdek, an attorney for the seven-tribe nation.

“The fishery declined with the significant diversions of water into the watershed,” Bezdek said. “It was a source of subsistence and culture. This is a fishing tribe. That was taken away from them.”

Farming interests and others in the region, however, are against dam removal, pointing to downstream ripples for irrigators and drinking water customers, the loss of reservoir water for aerial fire suppression and the blow to the hundreds of Lake County residents and visitors around the largest of those reservoirs, Lake Pillsbury, a destination for boaters and hunters.

They secured a powerful ally late last year in the Trump administration, which raised its objections to dam regulators in a Dec. 19 letter from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. She warned that “if this plan goes through as proposed, it will devastate hundreds of family farms and wipe out more than a century of agricultural tradition in Potter Valley. Without it, crops fail, businesses close and rural communities crumble.”

Rollins also said that her department would work with the Department of the Interior to bring “real solutions” for water security to the North Coast.

The Round Valley tribes responded Jan. 14 in a letter to those two agencies, spotlighting a familiar slight: Rollins’ failure to acknowledge or even mention the tribes’ “senior water and fishing rights, much less our culture, our economy and our way of life.”

“We are reminding the departments … that the discussions going back to DC have been one sided and that we have been left out of the conversation,” Parker said in an interview with The Press Democrat.

Tribes to DC: Respect local solution

Just as dam removal opponents, including Lake County itself, are lobbying the administration to intervene and block federal sign-off on PG&E’s plans, the tribes and their allies are asking Washington, D.C., to allow a locally brokered water pact to proceed.

Known as the two-basin solution, it solidified a 30-year framework under which diversions from the Eel River to the Russian River would continue after dam removal, at least in periods of high flows, and only if there’s enough water in the Eel to support its salmon and steelhead runs. The pact supporters, including many local governments and water providers, agreed to construct a new diversion facility to support those operations, and to return water rights to Round Valley Indian Tribes who, as the first people in the area, have seniority rights to Eel River flows.

Hailed by supporters as historic when it was finalized in early 2025, the deal sought to rectify wrongs that disadvantaged tribes and harmed Eel River fisheries, signatories said.

“Our tribal members work and live in the broader regional community and despite the historic injustice to our tribal community, an ‘all or nothing approach’ is simply not realistic,” Parker wrote to the secretaries.

Parker and Russ said it was better to come together with partners and collaborate on a solution.

“We decided at the time we could spend the next 20 years arguing about what’s right and what’s wrong,” Russ said. “We decided collectively to focus on our commonalities so that maybe our kids and grandkids wouldn’t be fighting this war. We started to figure out what would be beneficial for everyone.”

But the deal has many staunch opponents, and few more visible these days than Cloverdale Vice Mayor Todd Lands, who has made his opposition to the pact and to dam removal a central part of his campaign for a seat on the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. In January, he accompanied Secretary Rollins at an American Farm Bureau Federation conference in Anaheim, speaking out against the two-basin solution and appealing to the Trump administration to intervene.

“The two-basin solution does not guarantee water,” Lands told The Press Democrat. He fears the change from year-round to seasonal diversions will not be enough to fill Lake Mendocino, which helps sustain dry-season flows in the upper Russian River, the main source of drinking water for communities stretching from Ukiah to Healdsburg.

“This will cause drought conditions, not allow cities to replenish their water systems for fire and public use, and cause disease in the (Russian) river basin,” Lands said. “People will have to decide between showers and laundry and will not be able to have their own gardens as a food source.”

He also echoed shared concerns among dam removal opponents that the Round Valley Indian Tribes would cease all diversions “if the goals of the water supply and fish in the Eel River are not met.”

Those fears were inflamed in December when a California-based attorney for the Round Valley Indian Tribes told a group of Potter Valley farmers that diversions would one day end — comments that were caught on video and circulated widely.

In an interview with The Press Democrat, Bezdek, the tribal attorney based in Washington, D.C., sought to clarify that statement.

“Obviously if the fishery doesn’t recover, that will be a problem for us,” he said. “But we believe the best science is available and it says that we can do this.”

Parker and Russ elaborated.

“We believe everything is integrated,” Russ said. “The other side is saying we are putting fish before people. But we need healthy fish for a healthy balance for people. We are trying to create a healthy ecosystem for healthy people.”

Critical resource over millennia

The Round Valley coalition, made up of the Yuki, Pit River, Little Lake, Pomo, Nomlacki, Concow and Wailacki tribes, trace their ancestry in the area to “the beginning of time,” Bezdek said.

The Eel River and its tributaries served as the center of Indigenous culture, religion and trade.

“Our elders used to tell us stories about seeing so many fish that you could walk on their backs,” Bezek said. “Now, when we fish, we barely see a fish. Our ecosystem has just been decimated.”

As they told Rollins and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in their Jan. 14 letter, the tribal nation seeks to bring back the health of the river and their community.

“If the river is not healthy, the community is not healthy,” Russ said.

Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt, who has close ties to the region’s farming industry, has heard the concerns of those opposed to dam removal, including their fears the tribe will end all diversions.

He isn’t buying that claim.

“There’s no automatic termination and no single entity can end diversions,” Rabbitt said. “The whole thing is a collaborative effort.”

Rabbitt, who read the Round Valley Indian Tribes’ letter, said he supported their effort “to set the record straight” and “establish a position within all the noise that’s going on. That’s vitally important.”

At the same time, he understood people’s fears and reservations.

“I will admit, I’m not a huge fan of taking down dams, but ultimately it isn’t my decision,” he said. “But then it’s ‘OK, what happens if you’re on your soapbox in the corner, it comes down and there’s no agreement for diversion? Then what?’

“We have to move forward.”

Rabbit is board president of the entity created by the pact outlining a post-dam future, the Eel-Russian Project Authority. Its aim for fish, he said, is “making sure both runs” — the Eel’s and the Russian’s — “are healthy. Our goal is to keep the diversion active and to do it in a responsible, collaborative way.”

Parker said collaboration is key and he shared his hope the Trump administration will work with the tribes and Eel-Russian Project Authority.

A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture said it had received the tribes’ letter and “looks forward to formally responding to President Parker on this important topic.” The Department of the Interior declined to comment.

Bezdek said both secretaries have reached back out to him and are trying to coordinate dates to discuss a way forward.

“We were here before Sonoma County and Mendocino County and we will be here after they are gone,” Parker said. “PG&E’s decision to decommission the project is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring fairness. We know we won’t be adequately compensated, but the two-basin solution is the first step to heal those wounds and remedy this historical wrong.”

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Boston University researchers in a groundbreaking study found that those with CTE have a much higher chance of being diagnosed with dementia.

The largest study of its kind from the Boston University CTE Center reveals that the progressive brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy should be recognized as a new cause of dementia.

The BU researchers discovered that those with advanced CTE — who had been exposed to repetitive head impacts — had four times higher odds of having dementia.

“This study provides evidence of a robust association between CTE and dementia as well as cognitive symptoms, supporting our suspicions of CTE being a possible cause of dementia,” said Michael Alosco, associate professor of neurology at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine.

“Establishing that cognitive symptoms and dementia are outcomes of CTE moves us closer to being able to accurately detect and diagnose CTE during life, which is urgently needed,” added Alosco, who’s the co-director of clinical research at the BU CTE Center.

The researchers studied 614 brain donors who had been exposed to repetitive head impacts, primarily contact sport athletes.

By isolating 366 brain donors who had CTE alone, compared to 248 donors without CTE, researchers found that those with the most advanced form of CTE had four times increased odds of having dementia.

The four times odds are similar to the strength of the relationship between dementia and advanced Alzheimer’s disease pathology, which is the leading cause of dementia.

Dementia is a clinical syndrome that refers to impairments in thinking and memory, in addition to trouble with performing tasks of daily living like driving and managing finances. Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause, but there are several other progressive brain diseases listed as causes of dementia that are collectively referred to as Alzheimer’s disease related dementias (ADRD).

With this new study, the authors argue that CTE should now also be formally considered an ADRD.

The study also reveals that dementia due to CTE is often misdiagnosed during life as Alzheimer’s disease, or not diagnosed at all. Among those who received a dementia diagnosis during life, 40% were told they had Alzheimer’s disease despite showing no evidence of Alzheimer’s disease at autopsy. An additional 38% were told the causes of their loved one’s dementia was “unknown” or could not be specified.

In addition, this study addressed the controversial viewpoint expressed by some clinicians and researchers that CTE has no clinical symptoms. As recently as 2022, clinicians and researchers affiliated with the Concussion in Sport Group meeting, which was underwritten by international professional sports organizations, claimed, “It is not known whether CTE causes specific neurological or psychiatric problems.”

Alosco said, “There is a viewpoint out there that CTE is a benign brain disease; this is the opposite of the experience of most patients and families. Evidence from this study shows CTE has a significant impact on people’s lives, and now we need to accelerate efforts to distinguish CTE from Alzheimer’s disease and other causes of dementia during life.”

As expected, the study did not find associations with dementia or cognition for low-stage CTE.

The BU CTE Center is an independent academic research center at the Boston University Avedisian and Chobanian School of Medicine. It conducts pathological, clinical and molecular research on CTE and other long-term consequences of repetitive brain trauma in athletes and military personnel.

By Max Bryan, mbryan@detroitnews

Oakland County’s community mental health agency and a nonprofit that provides mental health services in the county are accusing each other of acting in bad faith as the county absorbed part of the nonprofit’s services Thursday.

Crisis care nonprofit Common Ground announced in a statement Thursday afternoon that it was ending its adult crisis services at its Pontiac location because the Oakland Community Health Network “failed to issue multiple monthly payments” to the nonprofit.

Adult services at Common Ground include a crisis helpline, walk-in assessments and a sober support unit for adults experiencing mental health crisis or substance abuse. Common Ground CEO Heather Rae said 8,000-9,000 people use the nonprofit’s adult crisis services annually.

In its own statement following Common Ground’s, OCHN announced it was immediately assuming responsibility for the services. OCHN is contracted through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to lead the county’s provider service network.

“That the attempts to cause panic among the Oakland County residents and the citizens of the county are very shocking and disappointing, because you’re talking about people whose lives have been put at risk when they believe help is no longer available for them at their most vulnerable,” said OCHN CEO Dana Lasenby.

Common Ground members have attended county meetings since November opposing OCHN absorbing its services.

“Transition meetings between the organizations were initially productive and focused on program continuity and collaboration. However, discussions ultimately stalled as Common Ground shifted its focus toward financial demands rather than operational coordination for the people served,” OCHN’s statement reads.

Rae contends OCHN hasn’t paid the nonprofit since November for its crisis residential unit or sober support unit and hasn’t paid for its main contract since December. In its statement, Common Ground claims OCHN told them Tuesday they didn’t plan to make these payments, citing “outstanding cost settlement reviews.”

Rae said the cost settlement — more than $1 million — is usually worked out in late spring or summer. OCHN claims those funds that Common Ground owes the network were an overpayment.

“It is premature for them to have a number because it is not as simple as that. We go through an audited process, an in-depth review of payments made, expenditures, and we arrive together at a number, and we work that for as long as it takes,” Rae told The Detroit News on Thursday. “Usually, it takes a month or two to arrive at what is the reality of who owes who and how much.”

Rae also claimed Common Ground’s amount would be much smaller if the amounts OCHN hasn’t paid them were factored in.

Lasenby called Rae’s claims about the $1 million and monthly payments “inaccurate.” She said they have tried to work out the overpayment amount with Common Ground “for quite a bit of time now.”

Lasenby also said the last payment they made to Common Ground was in December.

“January payment was not made because of a contractual breach of the provider,” Lasenby said.

In addition to the money claims, Rae said Common Ground issued 155 layoff notices in December for Feb. 13, when OCHN was originally supposed to absorb the services. OCHN claimed in its statement that it has transitioned more than 55 employees from Common Ground “to support the continuation of crisis services” and expects that number to grow as employees transition from the nonprofit.

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Detroit Lions tight end Brock Wright and his fiancée, Carley Johnston, are urging Michigan’s top lawmakers to approve legislation that would ban painful experiments on dogs at taxpayer-funded institutions, joining a growing push that has already drawn support from Wright’s teammate Sam LaPorta and several high-profile Michigan natives.

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By Paula Span, KFF Health News

You’re ready to leave the hospital, but you don’t feel able to care for yourself at home yet.

Or, you’ve completed a couple of weeks in rehab. Can you handle your complicated medication regimen, along with shopping and cooking?

Perhaps you fell in the shower, and now your family wants you to arrange help with bathing and getting dressed.

There are facilities that provide such help, of course, but most older people don’t want to go there. They want to stay at home; that’s the problem.

When older people struggle with daily activities because they have grown frail, because their chronic illnesses have mounted, or because they have lost a spouse or companion, most don’t want to move. For decades, surveys have shown that they prefer to remain in their homes for as long as possible.

That means they need home care, either from family and friends, paid caregivers, or both. But paid home care represents an especially strained sector of the long-term care system, which is experiencing an intensifying labor shortage even as an aging population creates surging demand.

“It’s a crisis,” said Madeline Sterling, a primary care doctor at Weill Cornell Medicine and the director of Cornell University’s Initiative on Home Care Work. “It’s not really working for the people involved,” whether they are patients (who can also be younger people with disabilities), family members, or home care workers.

“This is not about what’s going to happen a decade from now,” said Steven Landers, chief executive of the National Alliance for Care at Home, an industry organization. “Do an Indeed.com search in Anytown, USA, for home care aides, and you’ll see so many listings for aides that your eyes will pop out.”

Against this grim backdrop, however, some alternatives show promise in upgrading home care jobs and in improving patient care. And they’re growing.

Some background: Researchers and elder care administrators have warned about this approaching calamity for years. Home care is already among the nation’s fastest-growing occupations, with 3.2 million home health aides and personal care aides on the job in 2024, up from 1.4 million a decade earlier, according to PHI, a research and advocacy group.

But the nation will need about 740,000 additional home care workers over the next decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and recruiting them won’t be easy. Costs to consumers are high — the median hourly rate for a home health aide in 2024 was $34, the annual Genworth/CareScout survey shows, with big geographic variations. But an aide’s median hourly wage was less than $17.

These remain unstable, low-paying jobs. Of the largely female workforce, about a third of whom are immigrants, 40% live in low-income households and most receive some sort of public assistance.

Even if the agencies that employ them offer health insurance and they work enough hours to qualify, many cannot afford their premium payments.

Unsurprisingly, the turnover rate approaches 80% annually, according to a survey by the ICA Group, a nonprofit organization that promotes co-ops.

But not everywhere. One innovation, still small but expanding: home care cooperatives owned by the workers themselves. The first and largest, Cooperative Home Care Associates in the Bronx borough of New York City, began in 1985 and now employs about 1,600 home care aides. The ICA Group now counts 26 such worker-owned home care businesses nationwide.

“These co-ops are getting exceptional results,” said Geoffrey Gusoff, a family medicine doctor and health services researcher at UCLA. “They have half the turnover of traditional agencies, they hold onto clients twice as long, and they’re paying $2 more an hour” to their owner-employees.

When Gusoff and his co-authors interviewed co-op members for a qualitative study in JAMA Network Open, “we were expecting to hear more about compensation,” he said. “But the biggest single response was, ‘I have more say’” over working conditions, patient care, and the administration of the co-op itself.

“Workers say they feel more respected,” Gusoff said.

Through an initiative to provide financing, business coaching, and technical assistance, the ICA Group intends to boost the national total to 50 co-ops within five years and to 100 by 2040.

Another approach gaining ground: registries that allow home care workers and clients who need care to connect directly, often without involving agencies that provide supervision and background checks but also absorb roughly half the fee consumers pay.

One of the largest registries, Carina, serves workers and clients in Oregon and Washington. Established through agreements with the Service Employees International Union, the nation’s largest health care union, it serves 40,000 providers and 25,000 clients. (About 10% of home care workers are unionized, according to PHI’s analysis.)

Carina functions as a free, “digital hiring hall,” said Nidhi Mirani, its chief executive. Except in the Seattle area, it serves only clients who receive care through Medicaid, the largest funder of care at home. State agencies handle the paperwork and oversee background checks.

Hourly rates paid to independent providers found on Carina, which are set by union contracts, are usually lower than what agencies charge, while workers’ wages start at $20, and they receive health insurance, paid time off, and, in some cases, retirement benefits.

Other registries may be operated by states, as in Massachusetts and Wisconsin, or by platforms like Direct Care Careers, available in four states. “People are seeking a fit in who’s coming into their homes,” Mirani said. “And individual providers can choose their clients. It’s a two-way street.”

Finally, recent studies indicate ways that additional training for home care workers can pay off.

“These patients have complex conditions,” Sterling said of the aides. Home care workers, who take blood pressure readings, prepare meals, and help clients stay mobile, can spot troubling symptoms as they emerge.

Her team’s recent clinical trial of home health aides caring for patients with heart failure— “the No. 1 cause of hospitalization among Medicare beneficiaries,” Sterling pointed out — measured the effects of a 90-minute virtual training module about its symptoms and management.

“Leg swelling. Shortness of breath. They’re the first signs that the disease is not being controlled,” Sterling said.

In the study, involving 102 aides working for VNS Health, a large nonprofit agency in New York, the training was shown to enhance their knowledge and confidence in caring for clients with heart failure.

Moreover, when aides were given a mobile health app that allowed them to message their supervisors, they made fewer 911 calls and their patients made fewer emergency room visits.

Small-scale efforts like registries, co-ops, and training programs do not directly address home care’s most central problem: cost.

Medicaid underwrites home care for low-income older adults who have few assets, though the Trump administration’s new budget will slash Medicaid by more than $900 billion over the next decade. The well-off theoretically can pay out-of-pocket.

But “middle-class retired families either spend all their resources and essentially bankrupt themselves to become eligible for Medicaid, or they go without,” Landers said. Options like assisted living and nursing homes are even more expensive.

The United States has never committed to paying for long-term care for the middle class, and it seems unlikely to do so under this administration. Still, savings from innovations like these can reduce costs and might help expand home care through federal or state programs. Several tests and pilots are underway.

Home care workers “have a lot of insight into patients’ conditions,” Sterling said. “Training them and giving them technological tools shows that if we’re trying to keep patients at home, here’s a way to do that with the workforce that’s already there.”

The New Old Age is produced through a partnership with The New York Times.

©2026 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Jolie Kerr

Special to The Washington Post

January is a great time of year to pick off decluttering projects, big and small. The new year, new you vibe can transform a task you’ve been putting off into one you cannot wait to cross off your to-do list.

And for many people, that overcrowded, overstuffed feeling the home can take on gives way to a burst of energy to get rid of it all.

Parting with your things, however, can be hard even when you’re excited at the prospect of a fresh start. Picking some easy(ish) decluttering projects is a great way to build momentum.

Here are 20 pretty easy things to consider removing from your home, your car or your life, in service of a less-cluttered 2026:

Holiday decorations

Start with the most obvious: As you take down holiday decor, weed out and throw away broken light sets and ornaments. (Will you need replacements? Order them now when you’re thinking of it, and they’re on sale.) Include holiday cards in the purge; keep the ones you want and throw away the rest.

Unwanted gifts

This one pushes the boundaries of “easy.” It can be hard to get rid of a gift that someone put thought and effort into. But if you got a gift you will truly never use, get rid of it. Return it, regift it, donate it, whatever the right move is, make it now. It won’t be easier in July.

Holiday food

It’s time to break up with that tin of peppermint bark, the container of homemade cranberry sauce or the turkey carcass that hasn’t and will never be turned into stock. Use it up now or throw it out.

Ingredients from 2025 that are languishing

If you bought an ingredient for a dish you made once and will never make again, or that you simply ended up not liking, this is the time to remove it from your life.

That one serving platter that exists to cause you trouble

Not everyone will have one of these, but those of you who do know the exact platter in question: It’s too heavy, too wide or too weirdly shaped, and it never quite works for anything other than getting in your way. Make 2025 the last year you deal with this diva! Donate or sell it if you can, and if it’s an heirloom or similarly significant, pass it along to a family member.

Reusable bags

These things proliferate in the night, and we all have too many of them. If you’ve still got a stack of Trader Joe’s bags with receipts from 2024 in them, a stash of plastic bags spilling out of other plastic bags or shopping bags from stores you haven’t shopped at in years, it’s a sign that you do not actually reuse those reusable bags you keep hanging on to.

Automotive detritus

Does your car need to be cleaned out? Grab a trash bag and spend five minutes purging. It will have an almost-immediate positive effect on your life.

Broken, duplicate or unused cooking utensils and small appliances

This one is especially well-suited to people who plan to make changes to their diets or undertake new cooking or baking endeavors in the new year. Donating or selling utensils and small appliances in January is ideal because for every person who vowed to eat less ice cream in the new year, there’s also a person who is making 2026 their year of ice cream artistry.

Anything you don’t like the smell of

Whether it’s a candle, a body wash, a countertop spray or a perfume, the experience of feeling stuck with a scented item that you hate the smell of is so relatable. Free yourself from those stinking shackles! Admit it was a mistake, and cast it off.

Promotional items and/or freebies you got in 2025

Water bottles, koozies, T-shirts, key chains, notepads — promotional items take many forms, and they’re free, which makes it easy to say, “Eh, it was free. Might as well keep it.” But if you didn’t pay for it and you don’t use it, you owe it nothing and it owes nothing to you. Toss, recycle or donate.

Cleaning products you don’t use

A small collection of cleaning agents are all you need to keep a clean home. Stocking a huge array of cleaning products is counterproductive. They’ll get in your way and make it harder for you to keep your home clean! Unwanted cleaning products, including ones that have been opened, are also super donate-able.

Old slippers

Alas, old slippers are not super donate-able, which can make them oddly hard to part with. But when you replace old slippers with new ones, it is time to say goodbye to your old friends. Beware of the role reassignment trap, here: Are those house slippers you bought in 2019 really going to serve as your new outdoor shoe?

Old dog leashes and collars

Leashes and collars are to our dogs as slippers are to us, which is funny to think about! Hopefully, bringing a bit of humor to the purge party will make it easier to admit that those old leashes and collars will not be used again.

Broken luggage

If you returned from holiday travels with broken luggage, repair it or toss it. Deal with it now; it won’t become less broken in the future.

Hair accessories, products or tools from two hair styles ago

Maybe it’s a bottle of purple conditioner from your short-lived platinum blond era or the round brush you bought when you decided to cut bangs or those clips you bought when you admitted the bangs were a mistake and set about growing them out. If it’s intended for a hairstyle you no longer have, it’s clutter that’s taking up valuable bathroom storage space.

Too many hangers

A common reason people struggle to keep their clothes organized is that their closets are simply too jammed up to be functional. Free up some space by paring down your spare hanger collection.

Rags, used sponges and old toothbrushes

All the stuff you reassigned as cleaning tools, if you’re not actually using them, then you’re just storing old, gross trash with your cleaning supplies.

Clothes you didn’t mend in 2025

This can feel like a bummer, because it requires admitting that you meant to do something, and didn’t, and that you’re unlikely to do it in the future. Use January’s “fresh start” energy to make a clean break from those unmended clothes, instead of clinging to a past you’ve grown out of.

Broken electronics you didn’t fix in 2025

Ditto broken electronics.

Empty boxes

Empty boxes — shipping boxes, product boxes, even unused storage containers — take up space and get in the way. Remove them from your orbit! Put the broken electronics and unmended clothes and gross old toothbrushes in them and get rid of all of it at once!

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How does a global community provide for the needs of its citizens without destroying the planet? That’s the crux of “Anthropause: The Beauty of Degrowth,” a new book out this month.

In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, society shut down for a few months. As humans stayed inside, animals returned to their old habitats and pollution eased as industry slowed.

Retired researcher—and new metro Detroit resident—Stan Cox looks at how that “anthropause” could be a preview of the necessary societal changes to save lives and the planet.

He spoke with All Things Considered – Detroit host Russ McNamara last month. Click on the media player to listen or read selected transcripts below.

Listen: New book examines equitable degrowth as necessary to combat climate change

Russ McNamara, WDET: Why did you write this book?

Stan Cox, Author: The main point I’m making in the book is imagining that we as a society, if we were to rapidly phase out fossil fuels and get by just on the energy that could be generated other ways; and if we stopped plundering the earth for minerals and cutting down forest and causing ecological damage; and we had less energy and materials, and had to allocate them carefully: people know that’s going to mean sacrifice. What am I going to have to give up and so forth?

And what I’m saying in the book is okay, yeah, there are certain things, obviously that will have to be given up. But let’s consider all of the dangers and nuisances, terrible stuff that we put up with an advanced industrial society that has all this energy and materials running through it.

We would be saying goodbye to a lot of those harms and ills by simply not doing a lot of the stuff that requires so much energy input. So the rest of the book, then, is going through specific technologies and activities and so forth that are really harmful to people and the environment, of course, that we would not have the fuel to undertake them, or we would be using resources for meeting people’s basic needs, and we wouldn’t be spending a lot of energy on these other things.

RM: You discuss this and I’m reminded of data centers to run artificial intelligence. People certainly don’t seem to want them and definitely don’t want these in their backyard because there is this concern about the high cost of electricity, and the amount of groundwater that is needed.

SC: That’s absolutely right. One of the big reasons these communities don’t want them is that they create this horrific noise at very high decibel levels and low low frequency noise, which is especially dangerous to human health. When I started writing the book, there wasn’t as much being said about A.I. and the data centers at that time, so I did eventually incorporated them, but the beginning of the second chapter is about noise pollution and and I just used it. It’s seemingly a very small thing, but it really brings out other issues. The leaf blower, especially the gas powered leaf blower, also produces this low frequency and very high volume sound—about eight times the decibel level that the World Health Organization says is safe – and they’re producing a wind about the speed of an EF five tornado. The low frequency sound can travel like three football fields. It’s still above the safe limit.

RM: So what are the societal impacts? Let’s say we start degrowth right now. What are the benefits?

SC: We can’t go on like we’re on the trajectory that we’re on now, because. A degrowth is going to happen. Either a chaotic, brutal degrowth where it’s a Mad Max kind of future, because we’ve tried to force growth to continue and have destroyed ecosystems

Or we can have a planned, rational degrowth that ensures that there’s enough for everybody and that we’re not causing ecological collapse. But there’s no way that growth can continue at this rate.

Sometime in the past three years, we passed a milestone. The quantity of human made stuff—that is everything that human society has manufactured or built or produced—if you weigh all of it up, the mass of all of that exceeds the total mass of all living things on Earth, all plants, animals, microbes, et cetera, and that quantity of stuff being produced is is doubling every 20 years. And clearly that can’t go on.

Herb Stein, an economist from the 70s or 80s was kind of the Yogi Berra of economists. He had a line: “if something can’t go on forever, it won’t” and that’s where growth cannot go on forever. So we have to pull back, create what I called in the book an “anthropause” of our own, and try to have a rational, safe and just reduction in the amount of economic activity for the good of everybody.

 

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Safety continues to improve in Detroit. 

Recent numbers suggest that homicides fell well below 200 last year. That was the first time that happened in six decades. 

There are a number of things that are given credit for the decline. Community violence interventionists who are preventing harm, and police officers that focus on de-escalation and complete their homicide investigations. It can also be attributed to increased surveillance with things like Project Green Light. 

Now, Mayor Mary Sheffield is creating an Office of Neighborhood & Community Safety, which will focus on mental health issues, after-school programs and resident access to jobs to further increase safety. 

What exactly will the office do? And why is a holistic approach needed to increase resident safety?

Shantay Jackson is the Director of the National Offices of Violence Prevention Network at the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, which will help establish Detroit’s office. She spoke with The Metro‘s Sam Corey.

 

 

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Being a mom can mean a lot of different things. For people experiencing pregnancy, the whole ordeal can be stressful, daunting and quite scary.

And without the proper tools and resources, moms are often at risk after giving birth during the postpartum period, which can lead to dangerous outcomes for mom and baby. 

ROSE or The Reach Out, Stay Strong, Essentials program is for birthing parents. It provides pregnant people with the skills and information they need to have better outcomes after giving birth. 

Dr. Jennifer E. Johnson is the founding Chair of the Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health at Michigan State University. Dr. Johnson is a University Distinguished Professor, and the first C. S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health at MSU. 

 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

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Support local journalism.

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For more than half a century, the American environmental movement has struck a familiar rhythm: alarm, action, and industry backlash.

The first Earth Day in 1970 helped launch the modern movement, and by the end of that year, the Environmental Protection Agency was born. It was a promise that government had a crucial role to play, that it could protect our air and water from industry polluters.

Over the decades, that promise has ebbed and flowed: environmental rules were expanded under presidents from both parties, then pared back under others, only to be reinforced again as new science and public pressure emerged.

Critics — including historian Douglas Brinkley and former EPA administrators from both parties — argue the rollback push is an attempt to turn back decades of federal environmental protections.

Meanwhile, a striking silence is showing up in a place with massive moral reach. A new large-scale study of more than 700,000 Catholic parish sermons finds that climate change is rarely mentioned, even after the late Pope Francis issued some of the strongest language on climate change written by a religious leader.

Harvard historian of science Naomi Oreskes led that research. She joined The Metro’s Robyn Vincent to discuss the price of that silence.

 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

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Michigan’s schools are increasingly tasked with more than teaching.

They are expected to raise reading and math scores, address rising mental health needs, manage technology and discipline, and serve as safe, stable places for families under stress. In some communities, they’re also absorbing fear sparked by immigration enforcement actions. That includes the detention of Detroit students seeking asylum.

Academically, the picture is mixed. On national exams, Michigan’s scores remain close to the U.S. average. But since the pandemic, other states have improved more quickly, especially in early reading. Michigan has moved more slowly, and over time, that difference adds up.

Meanwhile, chronic absenteeism is improving, but many students, especially in Detroit, still miss school regularly.

The state has increased funding and continued free school meals. Educators say those steps help. They also say long-standing challenges persist in special education, staffing, and student support.

This is the landscape facing Michigan’s new top education official.

Dr. Glenn Maleyko was sworn in last month as State Superintendent of Public Instruction. He steps into the new role after nearly a decade leading Dearborn Public Schools. He has identified literacy as his priority and launched a statewide listening tour.

The Metro’s Robyn Vincent sat down with Maleyko to learn how he plans to lead a system being asked to do more than it was designed to handle.

 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

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By Anne Snabes, asnabes@detroitnews.com

When he was to gather with family at his grandparents’ house for Christmas dinner this year, Edward Constantineau of Sterling Heights planned to be surrounded by the people who pushed him to fight to recover from the hardest thing he’s ever faced in his young life, a hurdle he’s still working to overcome.

Constantineau was just 19, working out at his local gym in March of this year, when he suffered the unimaginable for a teenager: a stroke. He underwent immediate surgery on a bleed in his brain and later went through six weeks of inpatient rehab at a facility in Detroit, learning how to move again, talk and regain fine motor skills.

But through it all, Constantineau said his biggest motivator as he’s gone through rehab and fought to recover has been “my family and friends.”

“My family was always there,” said Constantineau, now 20. “I mean, my mom never left my side.”

Henry Ford Health officials say Constantineau’s story highlights the importance of early detection and rapid treatment of strokes, only about 10-15% of which occur in people younger than 50. Constantineau’s stroke was caused by a rare condition called arteriovenous malformation, in which arteries and veins mesh together without capillaries connecting them, said his neurologist, Dr. Mohammed Rehman.

Constantineau didn’t know he had the malformation at the time, but it ruptured.

Rehman said that in Edward’s case, the gym receptionist called 911 “right away.”

“If you ever have a neurological deficit … or you think something is going on and something is off, don’t hesitate” to call 911, Rehman said.

Looking back on her son’s ordeal and how it started, Stephanie Constantineau, Edward’s mom, thinks he “saved his own life” by asking for help when he was in the gym and felt his arm weaken. He was the one who asked the receptionist to call 911.

“I definitely believe there was a stronger force with him, watching over him,” she said. “I don’t know, a guardian angel, if you will.”

And Rehman believes Constantineau’s steadfast support system and drive to get better have played a role in his “remarkable” recovery.

“That’s a very rare thing I see, because at his age, when you face something like this, it’s very tough to cope with a lot of things,” Rehman said. “And I could tell, Eddie was driven.”

The stroke

Constantineau, a 2023 graduate of Henry Ford II High School, where he played varsity baseball, said he doesn’t have any memory of the stroke, but he has been told that it started soon after he got to his gym, The Edge Fitness Clubs, on March 14.

As he was doing lat pulldowns, an exercise that involves pulling down a weighted bar attached to a gym machine while seated, he felt his left arm go weak. He asked the gym’s receptionist to call 911; she also called his parents.

Paramedics brought Constantineau to Henry Ford Macomb Hospital in Clinton Township, where they quickly performed surgery.

The next couple of days were “kind of a blur,” Stephanie Constantineau recalled. She describes them as “emotional” and “hard.” She felt helpless as a parent.

“I think the first 48 to 72 hours were really touch and go with him, like it was just like getting him through those first three days to see how, if he was going to recover from the surgeries,” she said.

A rare medical condition

Rehman, a neuroendovascular physician at Henry Ford Health, said most strokes are caused by a blockage of a blood vessel, while others are caused by a bleed in the brain. He said one of the rare causes of a bleed in the brain is an arteriovenous malformation.

Capillaries connect arteries to veins in the body. An arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is a jumble of arteries and veins with no capillaries between them, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The incidence of the condition is around 1 in 100,000 people. The malformations typically occur in the brain, and they’re usually present from birth, according to Henry Ford Health.

Rehman said AVMs often present in young people, and bleeding most commonly occurs between the ages of 10 and 40. He said the Henry Ford Health system sees three to five ruptured arteriovenous malformations a year, and it also sees around 40 to 50 people a year whose malformations haven’t ruptured. AVMs cause symptoms such as severe headaches, seizures or weakness as damage builds, he said.

Dr. Mark Goldberger, a neurosurgeon, did the initial surgery on Constantineau, removing a significant amount of blood from the brain. In the following weeks, his doctors did a few angiograms, or blood vessel tests. In the second angiogram, they discovered the AVM, Stephanie Constantineau said.

Rehman said it took Constantineau at least five to seven days to wake up from the initial surgery ― he was in a coma. Overall, he spent 27 days in the intensive care unit.

“It’s heartbreaking to see your son go through something like this and not know how it’s gonna end up,” Stephanie Constantineau said, tearfully. “Like I say, ‘You just put all your faith in God and the doctors, and just trust that everything’s going to be OK.’ But it’s hard, because we have two other kids.”

She said she never left her son’s side. She spent every night at the hospital and would return home briefly to shower.

The therapy process

After leaving the hospital, Constantineau spent 43 days in inpatient rehabilitation. He said the beginning of the recovery process was “the toughest.”

“I was at a stage where I couldn’t even sit up straight,” he said, referring to when he was in the hospital and the early days of rehab. “I had lost all my muscle and was just sitting in a wheelchair, which was tough every single day. I just felt like stuck in a place where I couldn’t even move.”

He said therapy was “intense” and “very constant,” occurring five or more days a week. He underwent occupational, physical and speech therapy, the latter of which was necessary because he had “no voice after coming off of intubation,” he said.

Constantineau said fine motor skills were “the most frustrating” part of therapy, and he’s still working on it.

“He still doesn’t have, like, mobility of his left hand, like the wrist and fingers, yet,” said Stephanie Constantineau, adding that the recovery takes “a good 18 months.”

“I mean, we haven’t lost hope,” she said. “He works hard every single day.”

At home, Constantineau continues to do therapy each day, he said. In his family’s basement, he does exercises his therapist has recommended and rides on a stationary bike.

“I’ve been trying to adjust to getting back into my regular life by hanging out with friends” and taking an online class at Macomb Community College this fall, he said.

The signs of stroke

Rehman said in an email that strokes can affect anyone at any age, though the likelihood of it increases with age. He said about 10-15% of strokes occur in people under 50. He urged everyone, including young people, to be aware of the signs of a stroke and shared the acronym F.A.S.T. It stands for “Facial drooping, Arm weakness, Slurred speech, Time to call 911.”

He said that if you or anyone around you experiences these symptoms, you should seek medical attention immediately.

“The fact that Eddie sought help immediately when he began experiencing symptoms is incredibly important,” he said. “That allowed 911 to be called and emergency care to be administered quickly. When a stroke occurs, every second counts. The faster a person seeks treatment, the better their outcome.”

His plans for the future

In January, Constantineau will resume in-person classes at MCC, where he is studying exercise science. He plans to re-do the classes he was taking when the stroke occurred earlier this year.

After finishing his associate’s degree, he plans to transfer to Oakland University and is planning to go into health care, either as a nurse or a physician assistant. Constantineau said he originally wanted to go into health care because of his interest in sports, but after everything he’s experienced since his stroke, it has reinforced his decision to go into the field.

Looking back on his experience, Constantineau said the early days of his recovery were “rough” — “I think I was stuck in that ‘why me?’ mentality” — but is now “very confident” with the progress he has made. But he also knows that recovery takes time.

“I think that’s the tough part … just waiting all that time, but … I’m definitely optimistic for the future,” he said.

By DEVI SHASTRI, Associated Press

The new year is a time when many try to start new good habits and commit to improving health and wellness.

But resolutions, lofty as they may be, can turn daunting quickly with all the advice and sometimes contradicting information coming at you from news reports, advertisers, influencers, friends and even politicians.

But they don’t have to be.

This year, The Associated Press got the downlow on all manner of health and wellness claims and fads. The good news is that the experts mostly say to keep it simple.

As 2026 arrives, here’s what you can skip, what you should pay attention to and how to get credible information when you are inevitably faced with more confusing claims next year.

Protein and fiber are important, but you probably don’t need to pay more

When it comes to your diet, experts say most people can skip the upcharge. If you’re eating enough, you’re probably getting enough protein and don’t need products that promise some big boost.

And it’s true that most people could use more fiber in their diets. But, please, ditch the “fiber-maxxing” trend. Instead, eat whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains.

A good skin care routine is not expensive or complicated

That 20-step skin care routine and $200 serum some TikToker sold you on? Dermatologists say you really don’t need it. Stay away from the beef tallow and slather on a good sunscreen instead (yes, even if you have darker skin ), they say.

And the same rule for simplicity applies to that hourlong “everything shower.” The best showers are simple and short, dermatologists say, no “double cleansing” required.

There are many simple ways to get that workout in

If the gym and all its equipment feel intimidating, you can drop the illusion that a good workout requires either. This year, the comeback of calisthenics put the focus back on no frills, bodyweight workouts you can do in the comfort of home. Research shows calisthenics helps with muscle strength and aerobic conditioning. You may eventually need weightlifting or other equipment, but it is a great place to start to build consistency and confidence.

Be wary of wellness fads and treatments — they are often too good to be true

Even if you imbibe too much this New Year’s Eve, doctors say you can do without “IV therapy” which have vitamins you can get more easily and cheaper in pill form — if you even need more, which is unlikely if you have a balanced diet. You’re pretty much just paying for “expensive urine,” one doctor said.

Same for “wellness” focused products like microbiome testing kits that generate information that doctors can’t actually act on. And if you don’t have diabetes, there’s scant evidence that you need a continuous glucose monitor.

To improve your health, go back to the basics

The idea of a panacea pill, product or routine can be enticing. But science already knows a lot about how to improve mental and physical health, and they are tried and true:

1. Whether you’re in the city or the country — walk more. Research shows walking is great for physical and mental health. It’s so good for you, doctors are literally prescribing time in the outdoors to their patients.

2. Take steps to get certain health metrics under control, like high blood pressure, which often goes undiagnosed and is known to cause a range of health problems down the road. Prioritize getting enough sleep, and make sure your family does too. Don’t just eat right — eat slower.

3. Give your mind some care too. Set better boundaries with your technology and regain and retrain your attention span. Build out your social networks and invest in all forms of love for the people around you.

These lifestyle changes don’t just make you feel better in the moment. Research shows they impact your life for years to come, by lowering the risk of dementia and many other health issues.

Don’t know who to trust? Start with your doctor

It can be tough to know who to listen to about your health, faced with compelling personal stories on social media from people who swear something worked from them, or clever marketing and advertising from companies that scare you or promise an easy fix.

Doubts have been raised this year about established medicine, including the safety of food dyes, fluoride dental treatments,hepatitis B shot for newborns, and hormone therapies for menopause.

While the medical system is not perfect, your doctor remains the best person to talk to about prevention, health concerns and potential treatments.

If you can’t get to a human doctor and turn to Dr. Google instead, be sure to follow these tips and never use it to diagnose yourself. When you do get that doctor’s appointment, you can make the most of it by bringing a list of written questions — and don’t hesitate to ask for any clarification you need.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By ALI SWENSON The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Enhanced tax credits that have helped reduce the cost of health insurance for the vast majority of Affordable Care Act enrollees expired overnight, cementing higher health costs for millions of Americans at the start of the new year.

Democrats forced a 43-day government shutdown over the issue. Moderate Republicans called for a solution to save their 2026 political aspirations. President Donald Trump floated a way out, only to back off after conservative backlash.

In the end, no one’s efforts were enough to save the subsidies before their expiration date. A House vote expected in January could offer another chance, but success is far from guaranteed.

The change affects a diverse cross-section of Americans who don’t get their health insurance from an employer and don’t qualify for Medicaid or Medicare — a group that includes many self-employed workers, small business owners, farmers and ranchers.

It comes at the start of a high-stakes midterm election year, with affordability — including the cost of health care — topping the list of voters’ concerns.

“It really bothers me that the middle class has moved from a squeeze to a full suffocation, and they continue to just pile on and leave it up to us,” said 37-year-old single mom Katelin Provost, whose health care costs are set to jump. “I’m incredibly disappointed that there hasn’t been more action.”

Some families grapple with insurance costs that are doubling, tripling or more

The expired subsidies were first given to Affordable Care Act enrollees in 2021 as a temporary measure to help Americans get through the COVID-19 pandemic. Democrats in power at the time extended them, moving the expiration date to the start of 2026.

With the expanded subsidies, some lower-income enrollees received health care with no premiums, and high earners paid no more than 8.5% of their income. Eligibility for middle-class earners was also expanded.

On average, the more than 20 million subsidized enrollees in the Affordable Care Act program are seeing their premium costs rise by 114% in 2026, according to an analysis by the health care research nonprofit KFF.

Those surging prices come alongside an overall increase in health costs in the U.S., which are further driving up out-of-pocket costs in many plans.

Some enrollees, like Salt Lake City freelance filmmaker and adjunct professor Stan Clawson, have absorbed the extra expense. Clawson said he was paying just under $350 a month for his premiums last year, a number that will jump to nearly $500 a month this year. It’s a strain for the 49-year-old but one he’s willing to take on because he needs health insurance as someone who lives with paralysis from a spinal cord injury.

Others, like Provost, are dealing with steeper hikes. The social worker’s monthly premium payment is increasing from $85 a month to nearly $750.

Effects on enrollment remain to be seen

Health analysts have predicted the expiration of the subsidies will drive many of the 24 million total Affordable Care Act enrollees — especially younger and healthier Americans — to forgo health insurance coverage altogether.

Over time, that could make the program more expensive for the older, sicker population that remains.

An analysis conducted last September by the Urban Institute and Commonwealth Fund projected the higher premiums from expiring subsidies would prompt some 4.8 million Americans to drop coverage in 2026.

But with the window to select and change plans still ongoing until Jan. 15 in most states, the final effect on enrollment is yet to be determined.

Provost, the single mother, said she is holding out hope that Congress finds a way to revive the subsidies early in the year — but if not, she’ll drop herself off the insurance and keep it only for her four-year-old daughter. She can’t afford to pay for both of their coverage at the current price.

Months of discussion, but no relief yet

Last year, after Republicans cut more than $1 trillion in federal health care and food assistance with Trump’s big tax and spending cuts bill, Democrats repeatedly called for the subsidies to be extended. But while some Republicans in power acknowledged the issue needed to be addressed, they refused to put it to a vote until late in the year.

In December, the Senate rejected two partisan health care bills — a Democratic pitch to extend the subsidies for three more years and a Republican alternative that would instead provide Americans with health savings accounts.

In the House, four centrist Republicans broke with GOP leadership and joined forces with Democrats to force a vote that could come as soon as January on a three-year extension of the tax credits. But with the Senate already having rejected such a plan, it’s unclear whether it could get enough momentum to pass.

Meanwhile, Americans whose premiums are skyrocketing say lawmakers don’t understand what it’s really like to struggle to get by as health costs ratchet up with no relief.

Many say they want the subsidies restored alongside broader reforms to make health care more affordable for all Americans.

“Both Republicans and Democrats have been saying for years, oh, we need to fix it. Then do it,” said Chad Bruns, a 58-year-old Affordable Care Act enrollee in Wisconsin. “They need to get to the root cause, and no political party ever does that.”