Jour : 18 février 2025

When the pandemic closed her mom’s nursing home to visitors, she moved in  Danbury News Times
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Steve Darling is an award winning broadcaster who has spent the past 20 years as one of the most recognizable faces in British Columbia, reporting and anchoring at BCTV and Global Television. He spent 15 years as the co-host of the number one morning new program in the province. Steve is a tireless worker for charity hosting some 50 events a year. He is an ambassador for the Canucks Autism Network and hosts numerous events with BC Children’s Hospital and the Child Development foundation of… Read more
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Published: 13:45 18 Feb 2025 EST
BitFuFu Vice President of Investor Relations Charley Brady joined Steve Darling from Proactive to discuss the company’s North American expansion and its latest acquisition plans. BitFuFu has signed a letter of intent to acquire a majority stake in a 51-megawatt (MW) Bitcoin mining facility in Oklahoma.
Strategically located in an unpopulated area, the fully constructed facility boasts a reliable power supply with an average electricity cost of just 3 cents per kilowatt-hour. The site operates air-cooled Bitcoin miners, delivering high hashrate efficiency to optimize performance and profitability.
Brady highlighted that this acquisition aligns with BitFuFu’s goal to expand its global power capacity to 1GW, reinforcing its position as a leader in Bitcoin mining by securing long-term, low-cost, and reliable power sources.
In addition to the acquisition, BitFuFu shared its unaudited production update for January 2025 with 83 BTC mined through self-mining operations and 200 BTC generated for cloud-mining customers. The company now holds 1,742 BTC in total holdings as of the end of January.
The company also announced an order of 2,000 S21XP miners, set to arrive in the U.S. by March 2025, adding 0.54 exahashes per second (EH/s) of mining capacity.
With continued expansion and investment in cutting-edge mining technology, BitFuFu is solidifying its status as a major player in the Bitcoin mining industry.
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In the following article, I would like to write about the importance of understanding the basic core of deconstructionist and postmodernist ideas which leads us to why the current Western society is at a crossroads between traditionalism and postmodernism or progressivism. I will describe and interpret the current postmodern zeitgeist. I think this is important because it gives us a better understanding of the world we live in and how society thinks. By the end of the article, it will become clear that postmodernism can weaken the country’s defence capabilities because of the lack of willingness to fight for our homeland and can endanger the classical 19th-century ideas of how truth can emerge victorious from lies. Consequently, readers can better understand how a subversive activity works—even though I will not analyze in this article subversion in detail—and whether the current zeitgeist is conducive to such operations.
What exactly is post-truth? In 2016 the Oxford Dictionary chose this expression as the most popular word, and it was used to describe the workings of Vladimir Putin’s media and Donald Trump’s communications. The gist is that there is no truth; everyone has their own narrative, which they believe is true, and facts do not matter.
Camille François, a cyber warfare scholar at Harvard University, has written that in the age of Facebook and Twitter (Editor’s note: now X)—the age of social media—it is impossible to silence dissent as in the old regimes, so propagandists use different methods: flooding the target audience with information, creating a huge buzz on social media. It details two methods:

‘Modern—or rather postmodern—propagandists aim to undermine faith in truth’
Modern—or rather postmodern—propagandists aim to undermine faith in truth. Post-truth represents the postmodernist position: you have your facts and we have our alternative facts. That said, the aim of modern propagandists is not to construct a metanarrative but to destroy the very basis and concept of truth itself. This type of communication can be observed in the functioning of many European parties, especially populist ones, where the aim is to keep certain issues on the agenda, to character assassinate political opponents, and to adapt to changing public opinion rather than to govern along values. But my aim here is not to analyze in detail the political communication of European parties.
Professor at Yale University Marci Shore gives an interesting analysis of the antecedents of the emergence of the postmodern world in the West and the interpretation of postmodern society. She shows how philosophical thought was in the period from the pre-Enlightenment onwards. In the beginning, God was at the centre of the world (and before Christianity, the various polytheistic religions), followed by modern Enlightenment society, where rationality dominated, and finally, we arrive at postmodern society, which has abandoned absolutes in its search for truth.
If we understand it in more detail, before the Enlightenment, God was the epistemological and ontological truth. The answer to what is true was clear: God’s truth was absolute. It follows that there is always an unquestionable truth.
As for modernist thought, the Enlightenment questioned the absolute truth of God but replaced it with rationality and scholarship. The ‘death’ of God left a void, so the most important aim of modern philosophy was to find a way to an absolute truth independent of God, to bridge the subject to the object.
In contrast, during postmodernism—the generation of 1968—we gave up the idea that there is a holistic order that connects the particular to the universal, the individual to the world through stable structures. So, the postmodern world begins when we move from epistemological uncertainty to ontological uncertainty. When we abandon the belief that there is a stable reality beneath the narratives we create.
The article also mentions the ideas of several other philosophers, such as Tony Judt and Jean-François Lyotard. The former argues that the seduction of postmodern theory lies in its subversion not only of centuries-old certainties but of certainty itself. According to the latter, postmodernism is a disbelief in metanarratives.
‘The answer to what is true was clear: God’s truth was absolute’
The most important representative of deconstruction in postmodern thought is French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who argues ‘for the difference between signifier and signified to be somewhere absolute and irreducible.’ As Marci Shore puts it: ‘This centre—this “transcendental signified”—is precisely what is missing, what does not and cannot exist. The implication is both destabilizing and liberating. “The absence of the transcendental signified extends the domain and play of signification infinitely,” wrote Derrida…For Derrida, “play” suggested openness, an embracing of plurality…Meaning is never self-identical, but rather always fluid and in flux…The relationship between words and things is not fixed; words are always already at play with one another, and so there can be no once-and-for-all determinate truth. Life is not a closed structure. There are no closed structures; life is constant movement.’
Interestingly, Derrida—and other postmodern left thinkers—argue that to have a constant truth is to favour totalitarianism. If there is no fixed truth, totalitarian systems cannot win. The existence of a transcendental signifier is already a totalitarian threat; its absence is salutary and joyful. It is an absence that gives not a deficit but a surplus of meaning. The rejection of absolute truth serves as a defence.
Thus, according to the zeitgeist, there is no absolute truth, everyone can be right, anything is free and nothing is certain. This can be seen in the popularity of leftist ideologies in the West, where more and more things like nation and homeland are becoming relative. And from this relativity comes the post-truth world, where there is no need to be consistent in the battle of narratives, which greatly favours the external subversion of society.
The question arises as to why it is important to understand the ideas of postmodern philosophers—take for example the most traditional institutions in the Western world: the national armies. It is therefore important to be aware of the dominant narratives. According to Derrida’s theory, there are no contradictory words and all words can be true, meaning is never constant, etc. This is also the zeitgeist in Europe today, which is open libertarianism. But why is this a problem?
The military is based on authoritarianism. It is an institution where there is epistemological and ontological truth, embodied for example in the omnipotence of command. However, authority and respect also play an important role. This idea stands in stark contrast to the deconstructivist tendency that dominates postmodern society.
It is no accident that recruitment is a growing problem in Western societies. After all, why would anyone go to work in an institution that stands for traditional values such as country, nation, and ‘national justice’? The 20th and 21st centuries have transcended them: nothing is fixed, everything is fluid. Of course, there will always be some in society who believe in old values, but they are fewer in number—that is not the spirit of the time now.
The rise of postmodernism was also helped by the fact that history ‘ended’ at almost the same time. After 1991 the West started to disarm its armies, as liberal democracy had defeated communism—there was no need for large armies anymore, as democracies no longer went to war with each other over common values and economic relations. Eventually, this was overturned in 2022 and the Western world realized that history is not over. However, precisely because of the aforementioned zeitgeist, it is no longer easy to recruit soldiers. The UK has acknowledged that the last time in its history that it had such a low level of military personnel was in 1815 during the Napoleonic Wars. In the US and Europe, too, there is a problem of recruiting. In an interview with Euronews, Vincenzo Bove, professor of political science at the University of Warwick, identified three reasons: young people’s values have changed; inadequate pay; and demographic changes.
‘Why would anyone go to work in an institution that stands for traditional values such as country, nation, and “national justice”?’
In my opinion, the changed values can be traced back to the postmodern social thinking outlined above. And, as mentioned earlier, the end of history has only reinforced this, as the Western states began to reduce their armies massively after 1991. This is also apparent from the statistics that NATO member states’ defence spending fell dramatically after 1991.
Jarosław Wołkonowski’s study looked at expenditure between 1949 and 2017. In his paper, I would highlight the following three important findings[1]:

The figures published by NATO for 2014–2024 also show that 10 member states did not reach the requirements until 2022, but the war has awakened the alliance, as the figure has risen to 23 member states by 2024.
Another interesting detail is Gallup International’s research from 2024, which shows Western societies’ unwillingness to fight for their country if it was involved in a military conflict. In the end, in my opinion, it comes down to the fact that we eliminated our society’s core values, and the ‘carpe diem’ lifestyle does not favour traditionalism. Why would someone defend their country if everything is relative, and everyone is right?
Turning to propaganda and the postmodern man, it is interesting to examine Hannah Arendt’s idea of the lie. In her view, the traditional lie was solid compared to the modern lie.
Traditional lie:

Modern lie:

In the postmodern lie, however, there is no longer a coherent narrative—it is all about confusion, misleading, and disinformation. This is also borne out by Camille François’ earlier point that the current attack on social media is either about over-information or character assassination. Since, as we know, the truth does not exist, because everything is fluid, and neither does the lie, which can easily be used by the opposing sides to target a society. Through the media comes the idea of freedom of speech.
‘The truth does not exist, because everything is fluid, and neither does the lie, which can easily be used by the opposing sides to target a society’
Freedom of speech is the foundation of liberal democracies. John Stuart Mill discusses this in his On Liberty. Mill invented the theory of the marketplace of ideas, following the analogy of the market. The idea is that in the marketplace of ideas, truth will always emerge in the free competition and transparent discourse of ideas.
The importance of competing ideas and robust debates can be found already by John Milton, since in a ‘free and open competition, truth always wins’. Thomas Jefferson and Fredrick Siebert also believed in free debate, because truth and reason will always win. Besides, their ideas reflect enlightened thinking based on reason.
Here the problem of postmodern thinking returns. If there is no truth, since everything is relative and free (but if there is an absolute truth, Derrida calls it totalitarianism), then in the marketplace of ideas, truth—since it does not exist—cannot stand out. If there is no truth, thus no lie, and no set of values, then anything can be disseminated in the public discourse of democratic countries, because there is freedom of speech. And the truth will not emerge because it does not exist. This greatly favours disinformation and subversive operations by foreign countries, but also by populists from within. This brings us to information operations and subversive activities. Thus, in my opinion, it is clear that the spread of social media and postmodern thinking is conducive to disinformation. To create a barrier to the spread of disinformation and subversion, Western societies must consider returning to their core values. It is easier to subvert and undermine democracy in a valueless society than in one which has its own beliefs and values. Conserving tradition and values does not mean regression. We must progress with the intention of conserving what is important.
[1] Jarosław Wołkonowski, ‘NATO defense expenditures in 1949–2017’, InfoGlob, Vilnius, SHS Web of Conferences 57, 01032, 2018, pp. 1–10.
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Thomas P. Cullinan’s 1966 Southern Gothic novel, “The Beguiled,” is a story about women. Here, the all-female residents of a seminary in Virginia are rattled by the arrival of a wounded Union soldier at the height of the Civil War, and what he might represent for each of them. This man, Corporal John McBurney, appears to be harmless at first but sets off an unsettling chain of events that incite rage, envy, and resentment among the women (and children). The slow-burn novel jumps across perspectives, helping us piece together a dizzying, suspenseful tale about the fallout of war, and how it extends to the secluded residents of the seminary.
However, Cullinan’s agonizingly slow narrative grants agency to his female characters only in relation to McBurney, as their individual wants and desires vanish the moment he’s not around. There is some interiority weaved in when the events culminate in acute tragedy, but Cullinan paints the concept of femininity in broad, horribly shallow strokes. It is a novel about women, written by a man who is only interested in fleshing them out through the narrow lens of heteronormative desire and jealousy. Solidarity and sisterhood are foreign to the premise of “The Beguiled,” and any adaptation worth its salt would undoubtedly have to address and remedy this glaring issue without foregoing complexity.
Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood teamed up to bring “The Beguiled” to life in 1971 to extremely controversial effect. Although critics panned the release due to its misogynistic, sexploitation bent, Eastwood opined that the film bombed due to poor marketing and his attempt to play against type (which, in his case, was lone wolf-heroism and stoic masculinity). Siegel and Eastwood’s take on the novel feels rather superficial, the focus being on McBurney’s (manipulative) sexual charm and how it provokes the most violent, dangerous impulses in the women surrounding him. Although Eastwood’s McBurney is meant to be an unsavory predator, his victims are etched as caricatures, pale shadows of who they are meant to be.
More than 40 years after the film’s release, Sofia Coppola decided to remake “The Beguiled” with women at the forefront of the grisly Gothic horror tale.

Coppola’s “The Beguiled” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017 and immediately made an impact with a historic Best Director win. However, this adaptation became laced with controversy from the get-go: although the film was superior to the 1971 version in its treatment of femininity and female agency, it seemed to have deliberately evaded intersectionality. The only Black character from the novel, Mattie, is visibly missing from the film, and Edwina, a biracial woman in the source material, is portrayed by Kirsten Dunst in this adaptation. Coppola justified some of these choices in a statement published on IndieWire:
“There are many examples of how slaves have been appropriated and ‘given a voice’ by white artists. Rather than an act of denial, my decision of not including Mattie [the only Black character in the novel] in the film comes from respect […] Some have said that it is not responsible to make a film set during the Civil War and not deal directly with slavery and feature slave characters. I did not think so in preparing this film, but have been thinking about this and will continue to do so.”
Coppola also went on to state that she did not wish to “perpetuate an objectionable stereotype” that was embedded within the source material, which informed her decision to focus solely on “male and female power dynamics that could relate to all women.” Although the intent to not regurgitate harmful stereotypes is understandable, the story of “The Beguiled” is only half complete when the perspectives of characters of color are completely left out. It is a feminist perspective that is not inclusive at all, with Coppola eliminating an integral layer of race-based politics in a Civil War narrative set in the Confederate South.

If you’re able to overlook these grave missteps, then Coppola’s version is certainly more surefooted and empowering than the Eastwood adaptation, as it does not approach female sexuality from a fetishistic lens. It reinvents the source material by investing depth into female characters who were originally written to evoke cheap sensationalism, and Coppola takes a languid, measured approach to the evolving story. In an interview with The Film School Rejects, the director explained why she had decided to remake the controversial 1971 film:
“When I saw the movie it was so fascinating to me that these macho filmmakers — Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood — would make a story set in a girl’s school in the South. It’s such a male point of view of a group of women that I thought ‘Okay, I want to tell that story from the women’s point of view’ […] I felt like I had to give these women a voice, and then I thought to flip it over from their point of view and [show] women during wartime; you always see stories about men at war, but I don’t think I’ve seen what happens to the women left behind.”
Moreover, Coppola’s film improves upon the novel’s psycho-dramatic aspects by unearthing the rot beneath sophisticated facades. Colin Farrell plays Corporal John McBurney in this iteration, and his callous treatment of the women feels more pointed and jarring because of his guileless facade. However, this flawed feminist reinterpretation suffers from the same pitfalls as the novel it is based on: we see very little of who these women are outside of their tempestuous, complex feelings for the only man in their vicinity.
Perhaps, it is best if we collectively leave “The Beguiled” behind as a novel worth adapting, and focus on the countless women-centered stories that actually deserve to be brought to life.

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Opinion | The GOP is pushing a false choice  The Washington Post
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Professional Morticians Watch ‘The Monkey’ with Osgood Perkins & Theo James
Steven Spielberg’s Mysterious UFO Movie Gets a New June 2026 Release Date
SCREAMBOX Laughs It Up With ‘Cannibal Comedian’ This March [Trailer]
‘Masters of the Universe’ Finds Its Ram-Man, Plus “Agatha All Along” Actress Sasheer Zamata Joins the Cast
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“The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs” Returns in March with New Monthly Format
HBO Reveals How Many Seasons “The Last of Us” is Expected to Run
‘Twisted Metal’ Season 2 Teaser Trailer – The Deadly Tournament Begins This Summer!
Linda Cardellini Reportedly in Talks to Star in ‘Crystal Lake’ Series from A24
Lifetime’s ‘Trapped in the Spotlight’ Finds Music in Sisterhood [Review]
‘The Gorge’ Review – Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller Charm in Romantic Genre-Mashup
Undercooked Mechanics in ‘Urban Myth Dissolution Center’ Leave You Wanting More [Review]
‘Heart Eyes’ Review – A Crowd-Pleasing Blend of Savage Slasher and Romantic Comedy
‘The Monkey’ Review – Death Gets Funny and Gory in This Madcap Stephen King Adaptation
Murderous Monkeys and Carnivorous Cats: Stephen King’s Most Terrifying Animals
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Survive a Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland in ‘MINSK’ [Video]
Build, Hide, and Survive in ‘Confronted’; Steam Demo Coming February 20
Co-op Horror Title ‘Alchemists’ Launches February 20 on Steam
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Australian filmmaker Sean Byrne (The Loved Ones, The Devil’s Candy) heads into shark-infested waters with new horror movie Dangerous Animals, and Variety reports this morning that IFC Films and Shudder have acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film.
Dangerous Animals swims to theaters in the U.S. on June 6, 2025.
Hassie Harrison (“Yellowstone”), Jai Courtney (Terminator Genisys) and Josh Heuston (“Heartbreak High”) lead the cast of Sean Byrne’s shark movie Dangerous Animals.
In Dangerous Animals, “Zephyr (Harrison), described as a savvy and free-spirited surfer, is abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer (Courtney). Held captive on his boat, she must figure out how to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below.
“The only person who realizes she is missing is new love interest Moses (Hueston), who goes looking for Zephyr, only to be caught by the deranged murderer as well.”
Shudder’s Emily Gotto said in a statement, “Sean Byrne is one of the most visceral filmmakers in the current genre space and we are thrilled to join forces with him again on Dangerous Animals. In this film, he ventures boldly into two of horror’s most terrifying realms—serial killers and sharks—fusing them into a singularly intense and ferocious spectacle. Prepare for a groundbreaking cinematic experience that will leave you breathless this summer.”
Byrne teases, “There have been a lot of shark films over the years but, I promise, none like this, where audiences are left to decipher who the deadliest creature really is – man or animal. It’s a survival horror experience with teeth that screams to be seen on the big screen.”
Nick Lepard wrote the screenplay for Dangerous Animals, which comes courtesy of Brouhaha Entertainment, LD Entertainment, Oddfellows Entertainment, and Range Media Partners.
Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth’s prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.
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“In all my years as a licensed mortician, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Writer-director Osgood Perkins and star Theo James sat down with a pair of actual morticians to get their professional opinions on The Monkey.
Based on the Stephen King short story, the film opens in theaters on February 21 from Neon.
When twin brothers find a mysterious wind-up monkey, a series of outrageous deaths tear their family apart. 25 years later, the monkey begins a new killing spree forcing the estranged brothers to confront the cursed toy.
James Wan produces the gory horror comedy.
Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, and Sarah Levy also star.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “With brisk storytelling efficiency and a playful spirit, The Monkey delivers a Stephen King adaptation like no other. Perkins pushes back against logic in favor of entertaining midnight madness, and death has never been funnier or gorier as a result.”
Bloody Disgusting is celebrating the release of The Monkey with Stephen King Week, including giving away a 1/50 resin sculpt from the original monkey.

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By Talya Meyers
Medical refrigerators, donated by partner Sanofi and distributed to U.S. nonprofit providers, enhance Direct Relief’s pharmaceutical replenishment program.
Pharmacists at CrossOver Healthcare Ministry were excited to participate in Direct Relief’s long-standing ReplenishRx program when a staffer asked them an unexpected question: “Do you have enough refrigerator space for all your patients?”
The answer: It’s complicated. CrossOver, a charitable pharmacy in Richmond, Virginia, provides its services — medical and dental visits, labs, social work, and Medicaid enrollment assistance, along with prescription medications — entirely through volunteer time and donations. Although they’ve been a Direct Relief partner for more than a decade, their facilities were too small for a long time to house all the medications, let alone the cold-chain medicines like insulin, that their patients needed.
Now, they were in a larger facility, but medical refrigeration was an ongoing challenge. Getting enough insulin for patients was, as CrossOver CEO Julie Bilodeau termed it, “chaos.” Insulin supplies were unpredictable and took up to 12 weeks to come in. “We were finding we had to switch people from one insulin to the other,” she explained.
For CrossOver’s pharmaceutical staff, this wasn’t ideal. The pharmacy offers medications to low-income, uninsured patients who have “a much higher incidence of chronic disease,” Bilodeau explained. “Helping patients manage diabetes is really critical for us.”
Joining the ReplenishRx program, which offers U.S. healthcare partners access to a wide range of prescription medications, including commonly requested medications for chronic diseases like diabetes, was a game-changer for them. But with about 1,000 patients with diabetes registered at the pharmacy, storing enough refrigerated insulin to meet each person’s need — consistently — was a challenge.
Direct Relief offered an additional, supportive donation: two pharmaceutical-grade refrigerators from healthcare company Sanofi, which collaborates with the organization. In total, Direct Relief was distributing 32 medical refrigerators, which maintain and monitor highly consistent temperatures to safeguard cold-chain medications and vaccines, to replenishment partners across the U.S.
“The refrigerators allowed us to join the program,” Bilodeau said. “Without [the donation], we would have had to delay and raise significant funds” to be able to store enough insulin to meet patient needs.
Amiyah Newsome, medications program manager at CrossOver, said the refrigerators have made it possible to offer patients who need insulin 90-day prescriptions rather than only being able to provide 30 days at a time — making it more likely patients will have access to and reliably take their medication. They’ve also made it possible for CrossOver to add about 25 new medications to its formulary — the list of prescription medicines available to patients.
Newsome recalled a recent patient with no insurance who was overdue to see a provider — and whose A1C levels, a measure of blood sugar used in diagnosing diabetes, were “not in a safe range.” The insulin he needed was available in CrossOver’s new medical refrigerators, and “he was able to get seen by the provider and get his prescription filled all in one day,” she said.
For Bilodeau, the access the ReplenishRx program provides — and the medical refrigerators that make participating possible — are key to the pharmacy’s mission: “Our mission really is to provide access to health care to people who, without CrossOver, would not be able to access care,” she explained.
But fulfilling that mission in the face of growing demand isn’t always easy. “We’re at capacity. We’re turning people away,” Bilodeau explained. “There’s a tremendous amount of need,” especially, she said, in Richmond, where many people who can’t afford to live in Washington, DC settle in hope of finding an affordable place to live.
CrossOver staff have seen patients from about 150 countries, and Bilodeau said current patients speak between 30 and 40 languages. “That’s kind of built into our DNA: All are welcome,” she explained.
While cold-chain storage isn’t always a widely publicized need, Bilodeau said many nonprofit healthcare providers can’t afford to store all the refrigerated medications their patients need. While many clinics and charitable pharmacies rely primarily on volunteers and donations — all of CrossOver’s pharmacists are volunteers, for example, and the pharmacy relies on external medication donations to stock its shelves — meeting logistical needs often poses a unique challenge.
“A number of clinics are having trouble finding refrigerators like this,” Bilodeau said.
During the past two years, Direct Relief has provided CrossOver Healthcare Ministry, a partner since 2011, with more than $738,000 in medication support, including insulin and other chronic disease medications.
Medical refrigerators, donated by partner Sanofi and distributed to U.S. nonprofit providers, enhance Direct Relief’s pharmaceutical replenishment program.
Pharmacists at CrossOver Healthcare Ministry were excited to participate in Direct Relief’s long-standing ReplenishRx program when a staffer asked them an unexpected question: “Do you have enough refrigerator space for all your patients?”
The answer: It’s complicated. CrossOver, a charitable pharmacy in Richmond, Virginia, provides its services — medical and dental visits, labs, social work, and Medicaid enrollment assistance, along with prescription medications — entirely through volunteer time and donations. Although they’ve been a Direct Relief partner for more than a decade, their facilities were too small for a long time to house all the medications, let alone the cold-chain medicines like insulin, that their patients needed.
Now, they were in a larger facility, but medical refrigeration was an ongoing challenge. Getting enough insulin for patients was, as CrossOver CEO Julie Bilodeau termed it, “chaos.” Insulin supplies were unpredictable and took up to 12 weeks to come in. “We were finding we had to switch people from one insulin to the other,” she explained.
For CrossOver’s pharmaceutical staff, this wasn’t ideal. The pharmacy offers medications to low-income, uninsured patients who have “a much higher incidence of chronic disease,” Bilodeau explained. “Helping patients manage diabetes is really critical for us.”
Joining the ReplenishRx program, which offers U.S. healthcare partners access to a wide range of prescription medications, including commonly requested medications for chronic diseases like diabetes, was a game-changer for them. But with about 1,000 patients with diabetes registered at the pharmacy, storing enough refrigerated insulin to meet each person’s need — consistently — was a challenge.
Direct Relief offered an additional, supportive donation: two pharmaceutical-grade refrigerators from healthcare company Sanofi, which collaborates with the organization. In total, Direct Relief was distributing 32 medical refrigerators, which maintain and monitor highly consistent temperatures to safeguard cold-chain medications and vaccines, to replenishment partners across the U.S.
“The refrigerators allowed us to join the program,” Bilodeau said. “Without [the donation], we would have had to delay and raise significant funds” to be able to store enough insulin to meet patient needs.
Amiyah Newsome, medications program manager at CrossOver, said the refrigerators have made it possible to offer patients who need insulin 90-day prescriptions rather than only being able to provide 30 days at a time — making it more likely patients will have access to and reliably take their medication. They’ve also made it possible for CrossOver to add about 25 new medications to its formulary — the list of prescription medicines available to patients.
Newsome recalled a recent patient with no insurance who was overdue to see a provider — and whose A1C levels, a measure of blood sugar used in diagnosing diabetes, were “not in a safe range.” The insulin he needed was available in CrossOver’s new medical refrigerators, and “he was able to get seen by the provider and get his prescription filled all in one day,” she said.
For Bilodeau, the access the ReplenishRx program provides — and the medical refrigerators that make participating possible — are key to the pharmacy’s mission: “Our mission really is to provide access to health care to people who, without CrossOver, would not be able to access care,” she explained.
But fulfilling that mission in the face of growing demand isn’t always easy. “We’re at capacity. We’re turning people away,” Bilodeau explained. “There’s a tremendous amount of need,” especially, she said, in Richmond, where many people who can’t afford to live in Washington, DC settle in hope of finding an affordable place to live.
CrossOver staff have seen patients from about 150 countries, and Bilodeau said current patients speak between 30 and 40 languages. “That’s kind of built into our DNA: All are welcome,” she explained.
While cold-chain storage isn’t always a widely publicized need, Bilodeau said many nonprofit healthcare providers can’t afford to store all the refrigerated medications their patients need. While many clinics and charitable pharmacies rely primarily on volunteers and donations — all of CrossOver’s pharmacists are volunteers, for example, and the pharmacy relies on external medication donations to stock its shelves — meeting logistical needs often poses a unique challenge.
“A number of clinics are having trouble finding refrigerators like this,” Bilodeau said.
During the past two years, Direct Relief has provided CrossOver Healthcare Ministry, a partner since 2011, with more than $738,000 in medication support, including insulin and other chronic disease medications.
Filed Under: Health, North America, Sanofi, United States, Virginia
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MARINETTE, Wis. (WBAY) – If you need to visit the Marinette County Courthouse, expect changes to protect you and everyone who works within the justice center.
This is the first week with the new security protocols.
Visitors need to go through a screening stations before going to the 1st and 2nd floor of the judicial center.
Deputies may search your personal items, including purses, handbags, computers and totes.
Anything deemed a hazard may be confiscated, and the sheriff’s office says some items won’t be returned, including knives, razors, pointed scissors, guns, metal knuckles, fireworks, and any other item that is deemed unnecessary or a threat to safety.
Sheriff Randy Miller issued a statement Monday, the first day of the new screening, “As some have mentioned, this has become a necessity to keep all safe that come into this building. One of the first screens today was one of our judges himself, and, overall, the new process went well.”
The sheriff thanked the public for their patience and understanding.
He also thanked the deputy who volunteered to take on this duty.
Copyright 2025 WBAY. All rights reserved.

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Inaugural Chatham Education Foundation Comedy Night scheduled for Saturday  New Jersey Hills
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February 18, 2025 13:00 ET  | Source: DelveInsight Business Research LLP DelveInsight Business Research LLP
New York, USA, Feb. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Global Allergy Diagnostics Market to Observe Growth at a CAGR of ~12% by 2032 | DelveInsight 
The allergy diagnostics market is expanding rapidly due to the growing prevalence of allergic diseases. Additionally, worsening environmental conditions, including declining air quality in industrialized regions caused by rising pollution levels, are further driving market growth.
DelveInsight’s Allergy Diagnostics Market Insights report provides the current and forecast market analysis, individual leading allergy diagnostics companies’ market shares, challenges, allergy diagnostics market drivers, barriers, trends, and key market allergy diagnostics companies in the market.
Key Takeaways from the Allergy Diagnostics Market Report
To read more about the latest highlights related to the allergy diagnostics market, get a snapshot of the key highlights entailed in the Global Allergy Diagnostics Market Report
Allergy Diagnostics Overview
Allergy diagnostics play a crucial role in identifying specific allergens responsible for allergic reactions, enabling targeted management and treatment. These diagnostics include skin prick tests (SPT), blood tests measuring allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE), and more advanced molecular techniques such as component-resolved diagnostics (CRD). Skin prick tests provide rapid results by introducing small amounts of allergens into the skin and observing localized reactions, while blood tests, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) or radioallergosorbent tests (RAST), measure IgE levels to various allergens. CRD offers a more precise identification of allergenic proteins, helping distinguish between true allergies and cross-reactivities, which is particularly useful for food allergies and venom hypersensitivity.  
Emerging technologies are further improving allergy diagnostics by increasing accuracy and reducing false positives. Basophil activation tests (BAT), for instance, assess immune cell responses to allergens, offering an alternative for patients who cannot undergo skin or blood tests. Microarray-based assays enable the simultaneous detection of multiple allergens, enhancing efficiency in clinical settings. Additionally, advancements in point-of-care diagnostics are making allergy testing more accessible and convenient, especially in remote areas. Personalized allergy diagnostics, integrating genetic and immunological markers, are also on the horizon, promising more precise and individualized allergy management strategies.

Allergy Diagnostics Market Insights 
North America is projected to hold a significant share of the allergy diagnostics market throughout the forecast period. This dominance can be attributed to the rising prevalence of allergies in the region. Furthermore, North America exhibits a high level of awareness regarding allergies of different causes. The presence of leading market players and well-established centers specializing in allergy and immunology services further drives the adoption of allergy diagnostic products.  
For example, the increasing cases of allergies, including food allergies, drug allergies, and hay fever, along with a growing number of manufacturers in the United States, are expected to drive demand for allergy diagnostics, contributing to the market’s expansion in the region. DelveInsight’s analysts estimate that 57.5 million prevalent cases of food allergy were found in 2023 in the 7MM. The analysis suggests that around 58% of all food allergy cases across the 7MM were located in the United States.
Additionally, advancements in product development, regulatory approvals, and strategic collaborations are anticipated to further propel the United States allergy diagnostics market in the coming years. Consequently, these combined factors are likely to accelerate market growth during the forecast period.
To know more about why North America is leading the market growth in the allergy diagnostics market, get a snapshot of the Allergy Diagnostics Market Outlook 
Allergy Diagnostics Market Dynamics
The allergy diagnostics market is experiencing significant growth, driven by rising allergy prevalence, advancements in diagnostic technologies, and increasing awareness among healthcare providers and patients. Allergic diseases, including asthma, rhinitis, and food allergies, are on the rise globally due to environmental pollution, changing lifestyles, and genetic predispositions. This increasing disease burden is pushing the demand for accurate and early diagnostic solutions, which, in turn, is fueling market expansion.
Technological advancements, particularly in molecular diagnostics and automated immunoassay platforms, have revolutionized allergy testing. Traditional skin prick tests and blood tests are now supplemented by highly specific and sensitive multiplex assays, which allow simultaneous detection of multiple allergens with minimal sample volumes. This progress is enhancing diagnostic accuracy and efficiency, making allergy diagnostics more accessible and reliable. The shift towards personalized medicine is also influencing market trends, as physicians increasingly seek targeted diagnostic tools to develop customized treatment plans for patients.
Regulatory policies and reimbursement frameworks play a crucial role in shaping the allergy diagnostics market. In many regions, stringent regulatory approvals and varying reimbursement structures impact market penetration and adoption rates. While developed markets such as North America and Europe have well-established healthcare infrastructures supporting allergy diagnostics, emerging economies face challenges related to affordability, access, and awareness. However, increasing healthcare expenditure and government initiatives in countries like China and India are expected to bridge this gap over time.
Competition in the market is intensifying with key players focusing on research and development to introduce innovative diagnostic solutions. Companies are investing in next-generation sequencing, microarray technologies, and AI-driven diagnostic tools to gain a competitive edge. Mergers, acquisitions, and strategic collaborations are also shaping the market landscape, enabling firms to expand their product portfolios and geographical presence. The rising adoption of point-of-care testing solutions further indicates a shift towards decentralized and home-based allergy diagnostics.
Overall, the allergy diagnostics market is poised for robust growth, driven by rising disease prevalence, technological innovation, and increasing healthcare investments. While challenges such as regulatory hurdles and affordability remain, ongoing advancements in diagnostic techniques and a growing emphasis on early disease detection are expected to propel the market forward in the coming years.
Get a sneak peek at the allergy diagnostics market dynamics @ Allergy Diagnostics Market Dynamics Analysis
Allergy Diagnostics Market Assessment
Which MedTech key players in the allergy diagnostics market are set to emerge as the trendsetter explore @ Allergy Diagnostics Companies 
Table of Contents 
Interested in knowing the allergy diagnostics market by 2032? Click to get a snapshot of the Allergy Diagnostics Market Trends
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