Month: December 2024

‘Fire Country’ Needs To Course Correct When It Returns  Collider
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Alex Torpey in Hanover, N.H., on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022. ( Valley News – Jennifer Hauck) Jennifer Hauck—Valley News – Jennifer Hauck
By CHRISTINA DOLAN
Valley News Staff Writer
SOUTH ROYALTON — Though he resigned his post in July, former Hanover Town Manager Alex Torpey remains immersed in matters of local government through the creation of a nonprofit called Rethink Local, which provides resources to town leaders throughout Vermont and New Hampshire.
Torpey, 37, also serves as a consultant for the Collins Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he works on projects related to improving the effectiveness of state and local governments.
“I get to go out and help support people in their roles and I really enjoy that,” he said.
Torpey, who is building a house in South Royalton, announced his resignation this summer after serving for the first two years of a three-year contract. Neither he nor town officials elaborated on the reasons for parting ways. Hanover paid Torpey a severance package worth $135,750, town records show.
Torpey’s Rethink Local initiative includes a podcast called “Upper Valley Vibes,” in which he, as the host, spotlights people, organizations and issues relevant to the Upper Valley. The initial episodes explored civic engagement, education, civil disobedience, and voting, among other topics.
Torpey is in the process of launching an email list for municipal managers in Vermont and New Hampshire. The list, which currently has 65 subscribers, will be a free resource for collaboration across states, he said.
“These jobs are getting harder,” he said of municipal management roles, “and I enjoy having the time to help people be successful.”
Woodstock’s purchase of the Aqueduct water system, he said, is an example of one of many “really difficult projects that don’t always have a handbook.” His nonprofit aims to connect municipalities with people in other towns who have undergone similar challenges.
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In his free time, Torpey has been writing science fiction books. “A lot of science fiction is starting to become science fact these days,” he said.
Christina Dolan can be reached at cdolan@vnews.com or 603 727-3208

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Ogle County Life — Monday, Dec. 30, 2024  Ogle County Life
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Army will be participating in its 11th bowl game all-time on Saturday night when the Black Knights take on the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana.
This will be the sixth time Army head coach Jeff Monken has directed his team into postseason play. His 4-1 record all-time in bowls is among the best in the nation.
Louisiana Tech was a late replacement for Marshall, which elected to withdraw from the I-Bowl when too many of its players entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. The Bulldogs placed fifth out of 10 schools in Conference USA with a 4-4 mark, 5-7 overall. The Bulldogs are coming off a 33-0 win over Kennesaw State on Nov. 30 but have dropped three of their last five.
More:Army football to recognize the 101st Airborne Division with special uniform for Navy game
More:Army coach Jeff Monken believes outside influences led Kanye Udoh to transfer portal
Army and Louisiana Tech have met only twice previously, with the Black Knights winning both contests: 14-7 in 2008 at West Point and 35-16 in 2013 – the latter game was billed the Heart of Dallas Kickoff Classic and played at the Cotton Bowl.
An Army win will establish a school record with 12 victories, breaking the tie with the 2018 team that went 11-2. College football expanded to 11 games in 1974.
Army captured the American Athletic Conference on Dec. 6 with a 35-14 win over visiting Tulane. A week later, Navy stunned Army with a 31-13 victory on Dec. 14.
Army is a 16.5-point favorite against the Bulldogs. The over-under is rather low at 44.
Army is 4-2 on the road, having beaten Florida Atlantic, Temple, Tulsa and North Texas, and fallen to Notre Dame at nearby Yankee Stadium and Navy at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland.
Army was 9-0 in 1914, 1916, 1944, 1945, 1949; 9-0-1 in 1946; 9-1 in 1927 and 1933; 9-1-1 in 1930; and 9-3 in 1985, 1988 and the COVID season of 2020. Army was 11-2 in 1996 and 2018 and 10-3 in 2017.
BIG RIVALRY WIN:Army football to play for CIC Trophy following win over Air Force
ARMY DEPTH CHART:Army football depth chart for Independence Bowl game vs. Louisiana Tech
More:College football TV, radio, web schedules for 2024
Here’s how to watch Army football vs. Louisiana Tech, including time and TV information:
Army football vs. Louisiana Tech will air live on ESPN. Lowell Galindo and Fozzy Whittaker have the TV call with Tori Petryon the sidelines.
The AP No. 19 Black Knights and Bulldogs will kick off at 9:15 p.m. ET on Saturday, Dec. 28.
More:AAC champ Army moves up five spots in AP poll, face Marshall in Dec. 28 Independence Bowl
The Army football radio network features WBNR (1260-AM, 96.5-FM), WLNA (1420-AM, 94.3-FM) and WGHQ (920-AM, 92.5-FM). Rich DeMarco and Dean Darling have the call, with host Joe Beckerle and reporter Tony Morino. The game can also be heard on The Varsity app, Knight Vision website and Sirius XM channels 81 and 201 (Army radio feed). The ad hoc network Bowl Season Radio will have the national call, with Tony Rowland, Justin Fuente and reporter Chris Mycoskie.
kmcmillan@th-record.com
X / Twitter: @KenMcMillanTHR
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On the topic of the Jimmy Butler trade rumors, Heat's Pat Riley releases statement on the matter.
Zachary Weinberger
With all the trade speculation around Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler, team president Pat Riley has released a statement saying that they will not trade the 35-year-old. This came after rumors of the relationship between the Heat and Butler were fractured, which included Riley telling the forward to keep his “mouth shut” back during a May press conference.
“We usually don't comment on rumors, but all this speculation has become a distraction to the team and is not fair to the players and coaches. Therefore, we will make it clear – We are not trading Jimmy Butler,” Riley said via the statement that was posted to the team's official X, formerly Twitter, account.
As Riley said in the statement, it is rare to see that a response would be needed for rumors and certain reports, but the legendary former coach and executive thought that it was being a distraction to the team that is focused on winning games.
The relationship between Riley and Butler has been talked about within the past year, especially starting in May when Riley held his end-of-season press conference. He would respond to a comment made by Butler in a video that if he was healthy during the last postseason, the Heat would have beat the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks.
“For him to say that, I thought, ‘is that Jimmy trolling, or is that Jimmy serious?’” Riley said. “If you’re not on the court playing against Boston or on the court playing against the New York Knicks, you should keep your mouth shut.”
Butler was reportedly “caught off guard” by the comment made by Riley according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald and was also “disappointed” that the team would not deny the original rumors of Miami “open” to trading the star.
“A source said that Butler was caught off guard when Heat president Pat Riley, during a May news conference, scolded him,” Jackson wrote. “For saying that ‘Boston would be at home' and ‘New York damn sure would be [expletive] at home' if Butler had been healthy for Miami’s five-game first-round playoff loss against the Celtics, which he missed because of a knee injury.”
“According to a source, Butler was also disappointed that the Heat did not publicly deny a Dec. 10 ESPN report that Miami was open to trading him,” Jackson wrote.
The initial speculation on trade rumors started when Butler was seeking a contract extension after last season, but Riley was non-committal during the aforementioned press conference.
“Well, you know, we don't have to do that for a year and so we have not discussed that internally right now but we have to look at that and then make that kind of commitment,” Riley said. “Okay. And when do we do it? We don't have to do it until 25 actually, but we'll see. We haven't made a decision on it. And we really haven't really in earnest discussed it. So we'll see what happens.”
Riley would not be the only one to comment on the Butler trade rumors as even Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra would have a blunt message, saying “We want Jimmy Here” according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
“That’s just the deal,” Spoelstra said Thursday morning at shootaround before Miami takes on the Orlando Magic. “You have to compartmentalize in this business. We want Jimmy here. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it. And it’s just unfortunate that you have to control or deal with a lot of the noise on the outside. In terms of this morning, this was a pretty focused group coming off of the last game that we came [to Orlando].”
At any rate, the Heat are 14-13 before they take on the Orlando Magic on Thursday night as Butler is “doubtful” for the contest.
Zachary Weinberger is a credentialed Miami Heat reporter and an Associate Editor covering the NBA at-large, NCAA Football, and NCAA Basketball for ClutchPoints. He graduated from Florida Atlantic University in 2022, covering sports at the FAU University Press and later at The Palm Beach Post.
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December 28: Colorado Football Day  9News.com KUSA
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While the findings are preliminary, the work is a promising first step in finding new therapies against tuberculosis, according to the researchers. Credit: Mathias Katz/Unsplash. All Rights Reserved.
October 1, 2024
By Katie Bohn
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A compound found in African wormwood — a plant used medicinally for thousands of years to treat many types of illness — could be effective against tuberculosis, according to a new study that is available online and will be published in the October edition of the Journal of Ethnopharmacology.
The team, co-led by Penn State researchers, found that the chemical compound, an O-methylflavone, can kill the mycobacteria that causes tuberculosis in both its active state and its slower, hypoxic state, which the mycobacteria enters when it is stressed.
Bacteria in this state are much harder to destroy and make infections more difficult to clear, according to co-corresponding author Joshua Kellogg, assistant professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
While the findings are preliminary, Kellogg said the work is a promising first step in finding new therapies against tuberculosis.
“Now that we’ve isolated this compound, we can move forward with examining and experimenting with its structure to see if we can improve its activity and make it even more effective against tuberculosis,” he said. “We’re also still studying the plant itself to see if we can identify additional molecules that might be able to kill this mycobacterium.”
Tuberculosis — caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, or Mtb — is one of the world’s leading killers among infectious diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are about 10 million cases a year globally, with approximately 1.5 million of those being fatal.
While effective therapies exist for TB, the researchers said there are several factors that make the disease difficult to treat. A standard course of antibiotics lasts six months, and if a patient contracts a drug-resistant strain of the bacteria, it stretches to two years, making treatment costly and time consuming.
Additionally, the bacteria can take two forms in the body, including one that is significantly harder to kill.
“There’s a ‘normal’ microbial bacterial form, in which it’s replicating and growing, but when it gets stressed — when drugs or the immune system is attacking it — it goes into a pseudo-hibernation state, where it shuts down a lot of its cellular processes until it perceives that the threat has passed,” Kellogg said. “This makes it really hard to kill those hibernating cells, so we were really keen to look at potential new chemicals or molecules that are capable of attacking this hibernation state.”
Multiple species of the Artemisia plant have been used in traditional medicine for centuries, the researchers said, including African wormwood, which has been used to treat cough and fever. Recent studies in Africa have suggested that the plant also has clinical benefits in treating TB.
“When we look at the raw plant extract that has hundreds of molecules in it, it’s pretty good at killing TB,” Kellogg said. “Our question was: There seems to be something in the plant that’s really effective — what is it?”
For their study, the researchers took raw extract of the African wormwood plant and separated it into “fractions” — versions of the extract that have been separated into simpler chemical profiles. They then tested each of the fractions against Mtb, noting whether they were effective or ineffective against the bacteria. At the same time, they created a chemical profile of all of the tested fractions.
“We also used machine learning to model how the changes in chemistry correlated with the changes in activity that we saw,” Kellogg said. “This allowed us to narrow our focus to two fractions that were really active.”
From these, the researchers identified and tested a compound that effectively killed the bacteria in the pathogen’s active and inactive states, which the researchers said is significant and rare to see in TB treatments. Further testing in a human cell model showed that it had minimal toxicity.
Kellogg said the findings have the potential to open new avenues for developing new, improved therapeutics.
“While the potency of this compound is too low to use directly as an anti-Mtb treatment, it may still be able to serve as the foundation for designing more potent drugs,” he said. “Furthermore, there appear to be other, similar chemicals in African wormwood that may also have the same type of properties.”
The researchers said that in the future, more studies are needed to continue exploring the potential for using African wormwood for treating TB.
Co-authors from Penn State are R. Teal Jordan, research technologist and lab manager in veterinary and biomedical sciences, and Xiaoling Chen, graduate student in pathobiology. Also co-authors on the paper were Scarlet Shell, Maria Natalia Alonso, Junpei Xiao, Juan Hilario Cafiero, Trevor Bush, Melissa Towler and Pamela Weathers, all at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Disease and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture helped support this work.
Katie Bohn
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(OSV News) — For Catholics who wrestle with mental health challenges, the mixed messages they often receive can do little to relieve the anguish they experience. Their fellow faithful — emphasizing spirituality — may counsel more intense prayer. Clinicians, meanwhile, may completely discount the therapeutic benefits of anything remotely religious.
“Everything is a demon, or everything is an electrical impulse. Both are false,” said Daniel Coleman, a missionary for Souls of the Christian Apostolate. SOCA, a Denver-based, lay-led movement seeks to engage Catholics in daily mental prayer — a practice of silent, intimate conversation with God.
“Yes, there are chemical reactions,” Coleman added. “And yes, there’s unseen agencies — but we have to be responsible.”
For the last four months, Coleman has focused almost solely upon an answer to that conundrum: The Divine Fulfillment free online conference titled “Transforming Mental Health Through Catholic Spirituality.”
For three days — Dec. 27-29 — viewers can access the one-of-a-kind event, which organizers describe as designed “to guide participants from feelings of emptiness to a state of divine fulfillment.” The conference unites experts in psychology and spiritual theology to explore the intersection of mental health and mental prayer, to focus on a “whole person” approach to healing.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, or NIMH, nearly one in five U.S. adults experiences mental illness each year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a surge in anxiety and depression symptoms among adults in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with anxiety increasing from 15.6% to 18.2%, and depression increasing from 18.5% to 21.4%, between 2019 and 2022. The most affected groups included adults 18-29 years old, those with less than a high school education, those with family incomes less than 100% of the federal poverty level, and those living in rural areas.
In 2023, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops launched a National Catholic Mental Health Campaign, designed to inspire a nationwide conversation around the topic of mental health and to mobilize the Catholic Church to respond compassionately and effectively to the mental health crisis.
Coleman recalled a brainstorming session with Kevin Roerty, founder and CEO of SOCA, around the time of the USCCB’s announcement, that grew into the Divine Fulfillment Conference.
“We were having a conversation: ‘If we had a conference, what would we do? What would it be?’” remembered Coleman. “And (Kevin) thought for a long moment. He paused — and then he looked up and said, ‘Mental health and mental prayer.’ And when he said it, it resonated very deeply and it was like, ‘Yes, let’s do that.’”
According to a description provided by organizers, the conference will feature bishops, licensed mental health professionals, and veteran thought leaders, all of whom will “address some of the most pressing psychological and spiritual challenges facing Catholics today, including anxiety, depression, isolation and lack of purpose.”
Participants are promised “the opportunity to receive not only inspiration but also practical, faith-based tools to enhance their mental well-being and strengthen their connection to God.”
“For the last four months, I’ve interviewed now over 50 leaders in spirituality and mental health to provide a conference that gives generational impact,” Coleman said, “to really swing the needle on a very grave amount of suffering that many people are enduring quietly and in isolation, because of this shame and the stigma associated with mental illness and seeking help for it.”
Among the more than 40 experts featured are Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of Philadelphia and Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, co-chairs of the U.S. bishops’ mental health campaign; Bishop John P. Dolan of Phoenix, one of the most outspoken American prelates on the necessity of spiritual accompaniment for those suffering from mental illness; Father Timothy Gallagher, an Oblate of the Virgin Mary and a preeminent writer on Ignatian spiritual direction and discernment; Bob Schuchts, author and founder of the Tallahassee, Florida-based John Paul II Healing Center; Theresa Karminski Burke of Rachel’s Vineyard; and Paul Vitz, a professor at Divine Mercy University, a Catholic institution offering psychology and counseling graduate degrees.
“We’ve had several leaders — archbishops, bishops, priests — be very vulnerable,” said Coleman, “and talk about their own mental and emotional struggles due to traumas in childhood, or being diagnosed with mental illnesses, or having to take sabbatical from their positions as clerics because of the pressures of their positions and unresolved things from their past.”
Coleman emphasized, however, that the conference won’t simply be sharing and prayer.
“We’re not just feeding people spiritually — we’re also putting them in touch with equipment and resources that they themselves or the people around them can utilize to either directly receive help for mental illness,” he said, “or at least be put in contact with institutions and organizations and clinicians who can point them in the right direction.”
For Coleman and his colleagues, the need for engagement with mental health issues is not only obvious — it’s also urgent.
“It is a conversation,” said Coleman, “that needs to be had for the global church.”
Kimberley Heatherington writes for OSV News from Virginia.
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BETHESDA, Md. (OSV News) — Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for Military Services has called a decision by a U.S. military…
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The 10 Most Entertaining War Movies, Ranked  Collider
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In a perfect world with no transfer portal or early NFL Draft entries, Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman would have a full complement of players at his disposal when the Wildcats take on Rutgers in the Rate Bowl.
Instead, Klieman is just thankful that a vast majority of his frontline players will still be available for Thursday’s 4:30 p.m. CT matchup against the Scarlet Knights at Chase Field in Phoenix.
“I think that’s the biggest thing is the players you’re able to retain and keep here,” said Klieman, who lost 15 players but only two starters to the portal since the regular season. “And credit to those kids, credit to their teammates.
“I told them after Iowa State (a 29-21 loss on Nov. 30) that we have a really good bunch of talented players, and if you stay, I think we can do collectively some special things. The core of our best players returned.”
Related:Kansas State football running back DJ Giddens to forgo senior season and enter NFL Draft
Related:Kansas State football reveals changes to depth chart ahead of Rate Bowl
More importantly, said junior nose tackle Damian Ilalio, those players who stuck around are fully invested.
“This game is the most important game of our lives because it’s the next one,” Ilalio said. We hammer that in to all the younger players. Even the older guys that are returning (next year) and even older guys that are leaving, it’s really important to cap their careers off with a win and send them out as winners.”
For super-senior offensive lineman Taylor Poitier, who started all 12 regular-season games at right guard, ending on a high note is a high priority.
“All the guys that I came in with, all the sixth-year guys, it’s just one last opportunity with each other,” said Poitier, who missed both the 2021 and ’22 seasons with knee injuries but came back as a key reserve last year before moving into the starting lineup. “We’re never going to get this back, and just leaving here with a W is a better thing than anything else.
“It’s just really exciting, just because of all the things we’ve been through throughout the whole year, it’s really going to shape us how we perform this bowl game.”
The Rate Bowl offers an opportunity for the Wildcats to bounce back from a horrible November in which they lost three of four games to finish the regular season at 8-4 after a 7-1 start. They face a Rutgers team (7-5) that won three of its last four.
“From the last game of the season to now, we have basically a new team,” said junior linebacker Desmond Purnell, who finished the season with 44 tackles, including nine for loss, with 3.5 sacks. “It’s going to help us propel into next year. And with a win like this, especially against a good Rutgers team from the Big Ten, it’s going to help us out in the 2025 season.”
While the Wildcats kept most of its lineup intact, it did lose three starters on offense in leading rusher DJ Giddens to the NFL Draft, while wide receiver Keagan Johnson and right tackle Carver Willis left via the portal. They also lost junior cornerback Jacob Parrish, who like Giddens, chose to forgo his senior season and declare for the draft.
“I’m excited that those core guys have stuck together as a team, and we’re excited,” Klieman said. “We’re going to play a lot of young kids on the 26th, but we’ve got a lot of returning veterans that have played a lot of football that are going to play. It’s going to be a big challenge.”
A challenge, yes, but the last thing the Wildcats want is to end the season on a sour note.
“Going into the offseason with a loss kind of sucks for a long time,” Ilalio said. “You don’t get that chance at redemption that you do during the season, so it’s really important for us to go out and take this seriously and go win this bowl game.”
Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.

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