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College not the only path to successful future

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:55 GMT

Despite a growing sentiment against college and its high sticker prices, getting a bachelor’s degree is still worth it: In 2021, the median earnings of 25- to 34-year-olds with a bachelor’s degree were 55% higher than those who only completed high school, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.But a traditional college degree isn’t the only ticket to a well-paying career and rewarding life.“The number of alternative pathways that are available is expanding dramatically. It’s no longer, ‘I have to go to a four-year school,’” says Mark Schneider, director of the U.S. Education Department’s Institute of Education Sciences. Increasingly, he says, hiring managers focus on skills rather than degrees.Many of these alternative pathways are more affordable than a bachelor’s degree, too. To build the skills necessary for a successful and potentially lucrative career, consider these six routes.1. Community collegeYou can earn an associate degree in just two years at a ...

Joel Kinnaman is beyond words in ‘Silent Night’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:55 GMT

If ever there was a movie with the most appropriate title, it would easily be this week’s “Silent Night.”For this high-octane, extremely violent revenge thriller from the Hong Kong master John Woo (“Hard Target,” “Face/Off”) is exactly that: A “silent” movie with not one word of dialogue.Joel Kinnaman (“The Suicide Squad,” “For All Mankind”) stars as Godluck, a regular guy playing with his son on Christmas Eve when tragedy strikes. The boy is killed, Godluck, seriously wounded, is left unable to speak. The two victims might as well be trash left in the gutter by the speeding car.Like “John Wick,” “Taken” and others, Godluck becomes an avenging angel bent on take-no-prisoners revenge.For Kinnaman, 44, “Just taking away the sound doesn’t really give you a good movie.”Showing up without any lines to learn meant a different kind of preparation. “Actually” Kinnaman said in a Zoom interview, “it made me understand pretty quickly that when you remove one element – that there will be ...

Editorial: Are generic drugs too cheap for their own good?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:55 GMT

More than 90% of prescriptions in the U.S. are filled with generic drugs. These cheaper alternatives to branded medications have expanded access to care for millions of Americans while saving the health system hundreds of billions of dollars a year. While the prices of branded drugs have skyrocketed in recent years, generics prices have been falling steadily.For patients, this sounds like unqualified good news. Yet there’s a downside if prices fall too low: In recent months, major manufacturers have declared bankruptcy and scaled back production. Hundreds of generic drugs are now in shortage, including lifesaving cancer treatments and medicines for premature babies.How can prices for in-demand products fall too low? As ever when it comes to the U.S. health care market, the answer isn’t straightforward.The Hatch-Waxman Act, passed in 1984, laid the groundwork for the modern generics industry. One of its greatest achievements was establishing a regulatory regime in which generic drugs...

Zito: Why elite schools are anti-Israel protest hotspots

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:55 GMT

TV host Mike Rowe said that eight years ago, he was switching the news channels on his television and saw several college students setting fire to the American flag and dancing around a pile of burning flags. They were telling reporters in interviews they were disgusted with Old Glory and “fearful” of the flag.“It wasn’t lost on me in the moment that all of these events were happening at what is considered the best of the best elite universities across the country,” Rowe told me. Among supposedly non-elite students, though, the situation wasn’t and isn’t as bad.Rowe said it didn’t take long for him to figure out why those “elite” students drew those conclusions about Old Glory: The idea of associating fear with the flag came from the very people who were supposed to be instructing these privileged students.Rowe said the evidence was crystal clear when Jonathan Lash, then the president of Hampshire College, chose not to assu...

Dear Abby: BF said ‘park anywhere,’ she got towed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:55 GMT

Dear Abby: I went to visit a man I was dating and there was no visitor parking available. He told me to park in any space, even though there were signs stating non-residents would be towed. He said not to worry about it, that I’d be there only a few hours. Suffice it to say, I got towed.He did drive me to the tow yard to retrieve my car, but he didn’t offer to pay for my tow charge, or even half of it. I thought it would have been nice of him to at least offer, and that his not offering demonstrated lack of character.Yes, I know I chose to believe him at my own risk and that I’m responsible for my choices. But I trusted his information. In your opinion, did that demonstrate questionable character on his part? — Towed in TexasDear Towed: I’m not sure it demonstrated lack of character, but it certainly demonstrated lack of generosity. If he couldn’t bring himself to take full responsibility, I agree he could have offered to pay half the fee. (I hope...

Pakistan’s army says it killed 8 militants during a raid along the border with Afghanistan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:55 GMT

Pakistan’s military said its forces raided a militant hideout in a former stronghold of local Taliban in the country’s northwest near the border with Afghanistan, triggering an intense shootout that killed eight militantsIn an overnight statement, the military stated that the intelligence-based operation took place on Sunday in the South Waziristan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and that troops seized weapons and ammunition from the hideout.No further detail was given about the militants’ identities. But blame usually falls on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuaries in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, which also emboldened the Pakistani Taliban who also often target troops across t...

Supporting nonprofits on GivingTuesday this year could have a bigger impact than usual

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:55 GMT

Supporting nonprofits on GivingTuesday this year could have a bigger impact than usual. Why? Because nonprofits and industry groups say donations so far are down compared with previous years. Many organizations will look to make up the difference on GivingTuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, which started as a hashtag in 2012 and has grown into one of the biggest fundraising dates on the calendar. Many nonprofits will run matching campaigns, meaning a supporter has pledged to double or sometimes triple the donation of other, smaller donors.Combine that boost with businesses that match employee donations and it can really add up, said Tim Pries, who runs a small production studio in the Bay Area matching employee gifts to nonprofits of up to $1,000. “It’s just kind of exponential, which makes me happy in my heart that a little bit goes a much longer way, especially on that day,” Pries said. A large amount of charitable giving happens at the end of the calendar year, coinciding wi...

Final trial over Elijah McClain’s death in suburban Denver spotlights paramedics’ role

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:55 GMT

DENVER (AP) — The third and final trial over the 2019 death of Elijah McClain after he was stopped by police in suburban Denver involves homicide and manslaughter charges against two paramedics. It’s a prosecution experts say enters largely uncharted legal territory by levying criminal charges against medical first responders.McClain had been stopped and put into a neck hold by police that left him weakened when the paramedics arrived and injected him with the powerful sedative ketamine. The 23-year-old Black man went into cardiac arrest on his way to the hospital and was pronounced dead three days later.Initially no one was charged because the coroner’s office could not determine exactly how McClain died. But in 2021, social justice protests over the 2020 murder of George Floyd drew renewed attention to McClain’s case, prompting an indictment against the paramedics and three officers. Jury selection in the paramedics’ trial is set to begin Monday.“What we saw thre...

Ukraine is shipping more grain through the Black Sea despite threat from Russia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:55 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Grain thunders into rail cars and trucks zip around a storage facility in central Ukraine, a place that growing numbers of companies turned to as they struggled to export their food to people facing hunger around the world.Now, more of the grain is getting unloaded from overcrammed silos and heading to ports on the Black Sea, set to traverse a fledgling shipping corridor launched after Russia pulled out of a U.N.-brokered agreement this summer that allowed food to flow safely from Ukraine during the war.“It was tight, but we kept working … we sought how to accept every ton of products needed for our partners,” facility general director Roman Andreikiv said about the end of the grain deal in July. Ukraine’s new corridor, protected by the military, has now allowed him to “free up warehouse space and increase activity.”Growing numbers of ships are streaming toward Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and heading out loaded with grain, metals and other cargo despite the threat...

Trump hints at expanded role for the military within the US. A legacy law gives him few guardrails

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:35:55 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Campaigning in Iowa this year, Donald Trump said he was prevented during his presidency from using the military to quell violence in primarily Democratic cities and states.Calling New York City and Chicago “crime dens,” the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination told his audience, “The next time, I’m not waiting. One of the things I did was let them run it and we’re going to show how bad a job they do,” he said. “Well, we did that. We don’t have to wait any longer.”Trump has not spelled out precisely how he might use the military during a second term, although he and his advisers have suggested they would have wide latitude to call up units. While deploying the military regularly within the country’s borders would be a departure from tradition, the former president already has signaled an aggressive agenda if he wins, from mass deportations to travel bans imposed on certain Muslim-majority countries.A law first crafted in the nation’s in...