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When one snow leopard can’t reproduce, whole species feels it

What does it mean when a snow leopard, important to species survival, is deemed effectively sterile? That was the topic of conversation at the Louisville Zoo last week after a reproductive assessment of Meru, an 8-year-old snow leopard. The Louisville Zoo has been hoping since Meru's arrival in 2018 that he and their female snow leopard, NeeCee, would produce cubs. Zookeepers began giving them time together in 2021. As one of the 52 zoos in the United States to have snow leopards, the Louisville Zoo is an important part of the species survival plan. Ron Evans, general curator for ...

Heighten awareness of colorectal cancer

Each March, Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month calls on our nation to confront a disease that is both common and devastating, yet in so many cases, entirely preventable. When found early, colorectal cancer is one of the most treatable and beatable cancers, with a five-year survival rate of 91%. That’s why screening and early detection are critical. A recent report from the American Cancer Society underscores the urgency: colorectal cancer is increasingly affecting younger adults, and rectal cancer rates are rising. These shifts mean screening, awareness, and timely follow-up care ...

Early intervention needed to stop teen suicides

There are some injuries where you have to wait to respond. You can’t put a cast on a leg before it breaks. You can’t give chemotherapy before someone has cancer. Taking out an appendix proactively is not only useless, but it’s also wrong. Then there are the ones that require intervention before the problem occurs. Suicide — especially among teenagers — can’t wait for the break to happen first. The problem is the “break” doesn’t look like a crisis at all. It looks like normal teenage behavior — until it doesn’t. That can leave shattered families trying to ...

AI regulations from social media mistakes

Twenty years ago, no one really knew where social media was going to go. Facebook had just dropped “The” from its name. It was not yet ubiquitous. It was only beginning to move beyond college campuses and into broader public use. By 2006, it opened the doors wide. There were just two requirements: have an email address and be at least 13. It was a revolution without a war. We can remember a time when we weren’t in years-long WhatsApp group chats or documenting every sandwich on Instagram. But the inch-by-inch way social media’s before and after bled together can obscure how ...

State should consider I-99 extension

People unfamiliar with Blair County’s mid-20th century highways probably cannot grasp the picture fully of how major roadway projects over the subsequent decades were the springboard for great economic progress. Interstate 99 has been the biggest economic generator up to now for the county as a whole and it isn’t done yet, as this editorial will discuss. However, numerous other improvements, including bigger ones such as the modern, four-lane, limited-access Route 22, Altoona’s 10th Avenue Expressway and 17th Street corridor, plus the improvements to Plank Road, Logan Boulevard ...

Narrowing tax base would be a self-inflicted progressive wound

One of the most consequential trends in American politics is that Democrats are increasingly discovering what Republicans have known for decades: Voters don’t like taxes. Now the gubernatorial primary in California has become an experiment in how far tax cuts might take a Democratic politician in one of the country’s bluest states. Katie Porter, one of the most progressive legislators during her six years in Congress, is running for governor and polling in the middle of a crowded field. To boost her languishing campaign, she has proposed eliminating state income taxes — for ...