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CIBC Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in WaFd, Inc ( NASDAQ:WAFD – Free Report ) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 7,086 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $247,000. Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of WaFd by 80.8% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,188 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 531 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in WaFd by 100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,644 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 822 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of WaFd by 515.8% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,558 shares of the bank’s stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 1,305 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in shares of WaFd by 60.1% during the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,904 shares of the bank’s stock worth $66,000 after buying an additional 715 shares during the period. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of WaFd in the second quarter worth $80,000. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. WaFd Stock Up 2.9 % Shares of WAFD opened at $37.15 on Friday. WaFd, Inc has a 52 week low of $25.78 and a 52 week high of $38.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.98 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.57. WaFd Dividend Announcement The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.80%. WaFd’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.94%. Insiders Place Their Bets In other WaFd news, EVP Ryan Mauer sold 12,132 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.33, for a total transaction of $404,359.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 100,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,345,532.08. The trade was a 10.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website . Insiders own 2.25% of the company’s stock. Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of WaFd in a report on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com upgraded WaFd from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of WaFd from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of WaFd from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.00. Get Our Latest Analysis on WAFD WaFd Profile ( Free Report ) WaFd, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Washington Federal Bank that provides lending, depository, insurance, and other banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business and personal checking accounts, and term certificates of deposit, as well as money market accounts and passbook savings accounts. Recommended Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding WAFD? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for WaFd, Inc ( NASDAQ:WAFD – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for WaFd Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for WaFd and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .A new American human-rated spacecraft made its first foray into space on Dec. 5, 2014. Under contract to NASA, Lockheed Martin builds Orion as the vehicle to take American astronauts back to the Moon and eventually beyond. Orion’s overall shape harkens back to the Apollo Command and Service Modules, but using today’s technology is a larger and far more capable vehicle for NASA’s Artemis Program. Orion’s first mission, called Engineering Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), used a Delta-IV Heavy booster, at the time the most powerful operational rocket. The 4.5-hour mission demonstrated Orion’s space-worthiness, tested the spacecraft’s heat shield during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, and proved the capsule’s recovery systems. Although the EFT-1 mission didn’t include a crew, the Orion capsule flew higher and faster than any human-rated spacecraft in more than 40 years. At 7:05 a.m. EST on Dec. 5, 2014, the three-core first stage of the Delta-IV Heavy rocket ignited, lifting the Orion spacecraft off from Launch Complex 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force, now Space Force, Station (CCAFS) in Florida to begin the EFT-1 mission. Three minutes and fifty-eight seconds after liftoff, the two side boosters separated as the center core continued firing for another 93 seconds. The second stage ignited thirteen seconds after separation to begin the first of three planned burns. During the first burn, the Service Module’s protective fairing separated, followed by the Launch Abort System. Lasting about 11 and a half minutes, this first burn of the second stage placed the spacecraft into a preliminary 115-by-552-mile parking orbit. While completing one revolution around the Earth, controllers in Mission Control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, led by Flight Director Michael L. Sarafin, verified the functioning of the spacecraft’s systems. The second stage ignited a second time, firing for 4 minutes and 42 seconds to raise Orion’s apogee or high point above the Earth to 3,600 miles. During the coast to apogee, Orion remained attached to the second stage and completed its first crossing through the inner Van Allen radiation belt. Three hours and five minutes after launch, Orion reached its apogee and began its descent back toward Earth, separating from the second stage about 18 minutes later. The second stage conducted a one-minute disposal burn to ensure it didn’t interfere with the spacecraft’s trajectory. During the passage back through the Van Allen belt, Orion fired its thrusters for 10 seconds to adjust its course for reentry. At an altitude of 400,000 feet, the spacecraft encountered the first tendrils of the Earth’s atmosphere at a point called Entry Interface, traveling at 20,000 miles per hour (mph). A buildup of ionized gases caused by the reentry heating resulted in a communications blackout with Orion for about two and a half minutes. The spacecraft experienced maximum heating of about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, proving the worthiness of the heat shield. After release of Orion’s forward bay cover, two drogue parachutes deployed to slow and stabilize the spacecraft. Next followed deployment of the three main parachutes that slowed the spacecraft to 20 mph. Splashdown occurred 4 hours and 24 minutes after launch about 600 miles southwest of San Diego, California. A video of the Orion EFT-1 mission can be viewed here . Standing by to recover the Orion capsule, U.S. Navy Divers assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11 and Fleet Combat Camera Pacific and crew members from amphibious transport dock U.S.S. Anchorage (LPD-23) stepped into action, first placing a flotation collar around the spacecraft. After securing a tow line to the capsule, the sailors towed it aboard the amphibious well deck of Anchorage , which set sail for Naval Base San Diego arriving there on Dec 8. Engineers from NASA and Lockheed Martin conducted a preliminary inspection of the spacecraft during the cruise to San Diego and found that it survived its trip into space in excellent condition. The Orion EFT-1 mission met all its objectives and received many accolades. “Today was a great day for America,” said Flight Director Sarafin from his console at Mission Control. “It is hard to have a better day than today,” said Mark S. Geyer, Orion program manager. “We’re already working on the next capsule,” said W. Michael “Mike” Hawes, Lockheed Martin’s Orion program manager, adding, “We’ll learn a tremendous amount from what we did today.” NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations William H. Gerstenmaier praised all personnel involved with the EFT-1 mission, “What a tremendous team effort.” NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden summarized his thoughts about the mission, “Today’s flight test of Orion is a huge step for NASA and a really critical part of our work to pioneer deep space.” After its arrival at Naval Base San Diego, workers placed the Orion capsule aboard a truck that delivered it to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Dec. 18. After engineers conducted a thorough inspection of the spacecraft at KSC, workers trucked it to the Lockheed Martin facility in Littleton, Colorado, where it arrived on Sept. 1, 2015. Engineers completed final inspections and decontamination of the vehicle. The KSC Visitor Complex has the capsule on display. The next time an Orion spacecraft flew in space during the Artemis I mission, the Space Launch System (SLS) carried it into orbit after launch from KSC’s Launch Complex 39B. The thunderous night launch took place on Nov. 16, 2022. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I provided a foundation for human deep space exploration and demonstrated our commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond. The uncrewed Orion spacecraft spent 25.5 days in space, including 6 days in a retrograde orbit around the Moon, concluding with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 11, exactly 50 years after the Apollo 17 Moon landing . On April 3, 2023, NASA named the four-person crew for the Artemis II mission, the first flight to take humans beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The crew includes NASA astronauts G. Reid Wiseman as commander, Victor J. Glover as pilot, and Christina H. Koch as a mission specialist as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy R. Hansen as the other mission specialist. The four will take an Orion spacecraft on a 10-day journey around the Moon to human rate the spacecraft and SLS. Interested in learning more about the Artemis Program? Go to https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis/Police release new photos as they search for the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO NEW YORK (AP) — Two law enforcement officials say a masked gunman who stalked and killed the leader of one of the largest U.S. health insurance companies on a Manhattan sidewalk used ammunition emblazoned with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose." The official were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke Thursday to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Police also released photos of a person they say is wanted for questioning in the ambush the day before of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The words on the ammunition may have been a reference to tactics insurance companies use to avoid paying claims. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are bringing Trump's DOGE to Capitol Hill WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s DOGE time at the U.S. Capitol. Billionaire Elon Musk and fellow business titan Vivek Ramaswamy arrived on Capitol Hill for meetings with lawmakers. The two are heading up President-elect Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, with its plans to “dismantle” the federal government. Trump tapped the duo to come up with ways for firing federal workers, cutting government programs and slashing federal regulations — all part of Trump's agenda for a second-term at the White House. House Speaker Mike Johnson said there's going to be “a lot of change” in Washington. Hegseth faces senators' concerns not only about his behavior but also his views on women in combat WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Hegseth has spent the week on Capitol Hill trying to reassure Republican senators that he is fit to lead President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Defense in the wake of high-profile allegations about excessive drinking and sexual assault. But senators in both parties have also expressed concern about another issue — Hegseth’s frequent comments that women should not serve in frontline military combat jobs. As he meets with senators for a fourth day Thursday, his professional views on women troops are coming under deeper scrutiny. Hegseth said this week that “we have amazing women who serve our military.” Pressed if they should serve in combat, Hegseth said they already do. Hamas official says Gaza ceasefire talks have resumed after weekslong hiatus ISTANBUL (AP) — A Hamas official says that after a weekslong hiatus international mediators have resumed negotiating with the militant group and Israel over a ceasefire in Gaza, and that he was hopeful a deal to end the 14-month war was within reach. Ceasefire negotiations were halted last month when Qatar suspended its talks with mediators from Egypt and the United States over frustration with a lack of progress between Israel and Hamas. But Bassem Naim, an official in Hamas’ political wing, said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press that there has been a “reactivation” of efforts to end the fighting, release hostages from Gaza and free Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Why the rebel capture of Syria's Hama, a city with a dark history, matters BEIRUT (AP) — One of the darkest moments in the modern history of the Arab world happened more than four decades ago, when then-Syrian President Hafez Assad launched what came to be known as the Hama Massacre. The slaughter was named for the Syrian city where 10,000 to 40,000 people were killed or disappeared in a government attack that began on Feb. 2, 1982, and lasted for nearly a month. Hama was turned into ruins. The memory of the assault and the monthlong siege on the city remains visceral in Syrian and Arab minds. Now Islamist insurgents have captured the city in a moment many Syrians have awaited for over 40 years. France's Macron vows to stay in office till end of term, says he'll name a new prime minister soon PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to stay in office until the end of his term in 2027 and announced that he will name a new prime minister within days. In his address to the nation on Thursday, Macron came out fighting, laying blame at the door of his opponents on the far right for bringing down the government of Michel Barnier. He said they chose “not to do but to undo” and that they “chose disorder.” The president also said the far right and the far left had united in what he called “an anti-Republican front.” He said he’ll name a new prime minister within days but gave no hints who that might be. 7.0 earthquake off Northern California prompts brief tsunami warning SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The National Weather Service has canceled its tsunami warning for the U.S. West Coast after there was a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. According to the U.S. Geological Survey on Thursday, at least 5.3 million people in California were under a tsunami warning after the earthquake struck. It was felt as far south as San Francisco, where residents felt a rolling motion for several seconds. It was followed by multiple smaller aftershocks. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injury. Yoon replaces the defense minister as South Korea's parliament moves to vote on their impeachments SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president has replaced his defense minister as opposition parties moved to impeach both men over the stunning-but-brief imposition of martial law that brought armed troops into Seoul streets. Opposition parties are pushing for a vote on motion to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday evening. They hold 192 seats but need 200 votes for the motion to pass. Yoon’s office said he decided to replace Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun with Choi Byung Hyuk, a retired general who is South Korea’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Kim earlier apologized and said he ordered troops to carry out duties related to martial law. The Foreign Ministry also worked to mitigate the backlash and concern over South Korea's democracy. The US government is closing a women's prison and other facilities after years of abuse and decay WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press has learned that the federal Bureau of Prisons is permanently closing its “rape club” women’s prison in California and will idle six facilities in a sweeping realignment after years of abuse, decay and mismanagement. The agency informed employees and Congress on Thursday that it plans to shutter the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, and its deactivate minimum-security prison camps in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. Staff and inmates are being moved to other facilities. The closures come amid an AP investigation that has uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons. From outsider to the Oval Office, bitcoin surges as a new administration embraces crypto NEW YORK (AP) — Bitcoin burst on the scene after trust had withered in the financial system and Washington’s ability to protect people from it. Now, it’s Washington’s embrace of bitcoin that’s sending it to records. Bitcoin briefly surged above $103,000 after President-elect Donald Trump said he will nominate Paul Atkins, who's seen as friendly to crypto, to be the Securities and Exchange Commission's next chair. The crypto industry, meanwhile, did its part to bring politicians friendly to digital currencies into Washington. It's a twist from bitcoin's early days, when it was lauded as a kind of electronic cash that wouldn’t be beholden to any government or financial institution.
No injuries or damage immediately reported as quake sparks tsunami warning
This is CNBC's live blog covering European markets. European markets are expected to open lower on Friday, as investors in the region digest the latest political developments in France. > 24/7 San Diego news stream: Watch NBC 7 free wherever you are Following a vote that toppled French Prime Minister Michel Barnier's minority government on Wednesday evening — a motion backed by both left and right-leaning lawmakers after Barnier forced his contested budget through parliament without a vote — the country's President Emmanuel Macron gave a defiant speech criticizing politicians for not thinking about "the voters." He insisted he would see out the remainder of his presidency, which will see him stay in office until 2027. Barnier resigned from his post Thursday morning , but will continue in a caretaker role while Macron selects a replacement. The euro was marginally lower against the dollar before the European opening bell following a rise in the previous session. At 6:21 a.m. London time it was trading around $1.0574. In Asia, markets were mixed , with traders monitoring political instability in South Korea following President Yoon Suk Yeol's brief imposition of martial law. Money Report UniCredit's Orcel could still sweeten his bid and take on a double M&A offensive India's central bank revises down economic growth forecast for 2025, keeps interest rate steady Across the Atlantic, investors are looking ahead to the publication of U.S. nonfarm payroll figures, which are expected to have increased in November . Opening calls The FTSE 100 is expected to open 8 points lower at 8,341 on Friday morning, while the German DAX index is slated to lose 24 points at the opening, according to IG, bringing it down to 20,334. Meanwhile, IG is predicting that the CAC 40 will open around 8 points lower at 7,322. — Chloe Taylor CNBC Pro: Top picks for 2025: Stocks from Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Malaysia among Macquarie's favorites — all with more than 50% upside Macquarie has named several Asian companies as its top picks for 2025, with predicted gains ranging from 50% to over 80% in their share prices. The selection spans multiple sectors including technology, automotive, defense, and power utilities, reflecting the investment bank's positive view on these industries for the coming year. CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here. — Ganesh Rao Also on CNBC Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: Ulta Beauty, Lululemon and more Stock futures are little changed ahead of key jobs report There's an important jobs report coming Friday. Here's what to expectA flop of a season finale. The All Blacks farewelled respected centurion Sam Cane and veteran halfback TJ Perenara – as they finish their test careers and depart to Japan – with victory in their final outing of the year but the collective performance fell decidedly flat. This was a hemisphere away from the definitive lasting impression Scott Robertson sought to deliver after selecting his strongest available side for an opponent ranked No 10 in the world. The All Blacks saved one of their worst performances of the year – rivalled only by the loss to the Pumas in Wellington – for the last. After struggling to match the Italian physicality and cope with their defensive pressure the All Blacks reverted to their dominant scrum and maul to squeeze out an underwhelming win that improved Robertson’s maiden season at the helm to 10-4 (71% win ratio). Emerging from a deflating defeat against France in Paris last week, the All Blacks bookended their gruelling five-match northern tour by evoking more questions than answers. With the end in sight maybe the All Blacks hit the wall. Maybe they should have introduced more fresh legs and fringe players. On the basis of this performance, though, the All Blacks need serious improvements – none more so than with protecting their ruck ball. Leading 17-6 after a sloppy first half the All Blacks largely fumbled and bumbled their way to the finish. Mark Tele’a’s 70th-minute try marked the first points of the second spell and while Beauden Barrett’s late strike blew out the margin, the All Blacks’ inability to assert their authority is the overarching theme of this contest. That the All Blacks had to survive two yellow cards – one to Scott Barrett for a first-half croc roll cleanout and Anton Lienert-Brown copping the second following repeat team infringements while defending their line – reflects the intense pressure they endured. Mark Tele’a dots down to score the All Blacks' third try of the match. Photo / Photosport The All Blacks’ skill execution, discipline, lineout, carry and clean in the collisions were all well short of standards. Wallace Sititi, Will Jordan and Cam Roigard impressed at times and Asafo Aumua added notable impact from the bench. Otherwise, though, there were few positives for the All Blacks. It’s difficult to gauge Gonzalo Quesada’s Italian team. After a memorable Six Nations that included wins over Scotland and Wales a draw with France, Italy were humbled 50-18 by the Pumas before battling to a 20-17 win against Georgia this month. On this occasion, though, as they welcomed the All Blacks to the home of the Juventus football club for their debut in Turin, Italy fronted with passionate intent throughout. For all their fight and heart Italy fully deserved Tommaso Menoncello’s late try that temporarily offered hope. Italy succeeded by dragging the All Blacks into a dogfight. Their physicality, defensive line speed and breakdown pressure caused the All Blacks major frustrations to turn the contest into a slow, scrappy spectacle that suited Italy’s objectives to stay in the fight. Plagued by poor ruck presentation and cleanouts that have haunted them in recent weeks, the All Blacks struggled to develop phase play continuity and build consistent pressure. While Ethan de Groot’s return led an utterly dominant scrum platform, frustrations built elsewhere with the All Blacks lineout misfiring badly on their ball to lose three throws. All Blacks captain Barrett’s yellow card for a croc roll cleanout – deemed to have threatened his opponent’s knees/lower limbs by shifting excess weight on this area – pushed his side further on the back foot. Barrett’s exit did not, however, cost the All Blacks any points. Roigard, despite dealing with bobbling ball at the base and Italian defenders manhandling him, eventually provided the brief spark with a trademark snipe to claim the opening try. Sam Cane salutes the crowd after playing his final game for New Zealand. Photo / Photosport Even then, though, the All Blacks lacked patience and variety on attack. Before Jordan finally released the shackles late in the half with the second strike the All Blacks were guilty of forcing passes and failing to finish rare line breaks. The introduction of the All Blacks bench injected much-needed impact but it wasn’t enough to deliver a definitive statement. When the time comes to reflect the All Blacks will note they were one point short of an unbeaten northern tour. Such a haul would have projected a narrative of progress and positivity. In the end, though, Robertson’s first season will be difficult to assess. Their 14th and final performance of the year leaves the lasting impression of uncertainty about where they stand. All Blacks: Cam Roigard, Will Jordan, Mark Tele’a, Beauden Barrett tries, Beauden Barrett pen, con 3 Italy: Tommaso Menoncello try, Paolo Garbisi pen 2 HT: 6-17 Liam Napier has been a sports journalist since 2010 , and his work has taken him to World Cups in rugby, netball and cricket, boxing world title fights and Commonwealth Games.
This week, "brain rot" became Oxford's word of the year , Dick Van Dyke continued to be awesome , and movies showed some life in theaters. Here's what NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour crew was paying attention to — and what you should check out this weekend. Mississippi Masala Mississippi Masala , the classic film, is streaming on Max . Mississippi Masala was made by Mira Nair, who later made Monsoon Wedding , and it stars Sarita Choudhury, who plays Seema Patel in And Just Like That , and a very young and beautiful Denzel Washington. The main protagonists are an Indian family who moved to the U.S. and it's a rare love story between a brown female protagonist and a young Black man. It's beautifully shot in the American South and also kind of reclaims the narrative of the usual American South that we see in films. — Bedatri D. Choudhury Like Water for Chocolate What's making me happy right now is Como Agua para Chocolate or Like Water for Chocolate on HBO. It's a beautiful Spanish language series all about family and food. It is sumptuously filmed. Every episode features a recipe that it really dives into, the credits have close ups of the ingredients. As a Spanish language show, it hasn't gotten as much attention as it should have here in the U.S. And for those who are familiar with the book or the 1992 adaptation, this update has meaningful stuff in it. It better explains what was happening in Mexico at the time and talks about the racial politics of the moment that continue to affect us to this day. It also does a more interesting job with the mother and daughter dynamic. — Cristina Escobar Hasan Minhaj: Off With His Head I finally caught up with Hasan Minhaj's latest Netflix special, Off With His Head and I really loved it. Last year he came under fire for a New Yorker interview that he gave where he admitted that some of the stories he told in previous stand-ups had been embellished for comedic effect. This led to him losing the gig to replace Trevor Noah as Daily Show host and he wound up posting a 20-minute rebuttal video . In this special, he is directly and also indirectly addressing the controversy while taking a prickly and more self-reflective approach than in his previous comedy. He offers very pointed observations of progressivism and in-group dynamics that don't read as scolding, but more like blunt and honest. He has some choice words for Ruth Bader Ginsburg that I think a lot of people might share some similar ideas about. He cracks jokes about the financial diversity of the audience in San Jose, California. I think he's doing some really interesting things here. While that New Yorker article clearly changed him, I don't think it changed him for the worse, which is so refreshing. — Aisha Harris More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter by Linda Holmes James Acaster is one of my favorite standup comedians, and he has a new special streaming on Max called James Acaster: Hecklers Welcome . I don't want to tell you too much about it, because it's genuinely lively and unusual, and you deserve to discover its idiosyncratic thoughtfulness and goofiness for yourself. But he has a fabulously interesting mind that chews on ideas about comedy and audiences in ways that pay off with generosity and nuance. And there's a very good story about Easter. I caught up this week with Natasha Rothwell's Hulu series How to Die Alone , which I thought was really touching and very funny. Rothwell is a gem (she was the best thing about the first season of The White Lotus for me), and here, she plays a woman who works at JFK who has a near-death experience that causes her to rethink everything. It's a special show. The best thing I made for myself this week was the Smitten Kitchen pumpkin bread. Pumpkin bread is a great example of a baked good with plentiful recipe options online, but you should just make the best one . Among other things: It's designed to use a whole can of pumpkin instead of leaving you a third of a can you have to stick back in the fridge. Dhanika Pineda adapted the Pop Culture Happy Hour segment "What's Making Us Happy" for the Web. If you like these suggestions, consider signing up for our newsletter to get recommendations every week. And listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify .‘Haryana Defence’: Rahul Gandhi Terms Maharashtra Assembly Elections Defeat ‘Unexpected’ Too
Folks reported strange things in a New York town in 1945, right after the government announced an experiment adding tiny amounts of fluoride to the municipal drinking water. “Dozens of Newburgh residents called the water department to complain that the water was discoloring their saucepans, hurting the flavor of carbonated beverages and causing digestive upsets,” the Washington Evening Star reported on Feb. 22, 1951. One Newburgh resident demanded restitution from the city, claiming her false teeth dissolved overnight in a glass of tap water. The same thing happened in North Carolina, where residents of Charlotte flooded the city water department with complaints of illness not long after the water fluoridation program was announced there in 1949. All of these complaints? They came before the fluoride had actually been added to the water. The callers had only heard this would happen. Newspapers described it as something used in some insecticides, but didn’t mention that it is a mineral naturally occurring in water and soil. “By the time the compound was put in,” the Evening Star wrote, “... complaints had ceased.” And so began the fluoride wars, a decades-long battle of science, urban myth, emotion and passionate division. It’s a public debate that has invoked Nazis and Communists, mind control, public poisoning and civil rights. And with President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who promises to end fluoridation of public water — to his Cabinet, it’s part of today’s politics. Tooth decay had long been a profound public health issue in America. “Not one person in 10 had a mouth full of teeth,” Willard VerMeulen told The Washington Post in a 1988 interview when he described his dental practice in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the 1930s. The dentist went on to describe the Saturday morning routine of extracting scores of rotten teeth from the mouths of children. Grand Rapids became the first U.S. city to try adding fluoride to its drinking water in 1945. In the 1940s, bad teeth was the top reason the Selective Service booted aspiring soldiers from the Army. About 17% of recruits didn’t have “six opposing teeth,” according to the American Dental Association. By then, American scientists researching fluoride believed they may have come across a simple antidote for better dental health. It began in 1901, when a dental school graduate from the East Coast headed west to open his first practice and was startled by the pronounced brown stains on the teeth of his patients in Colorado Springs. Curiously, Frederick McKay observed that the folks with “Colorado Brown Stain” had otherwise remarkably healthy teeth. McKay began researching this, and was joined by others hopscotching from Colorado to Idaho to Arkansas, following reports of other brown-toothed children. The answer finally came exactly 30 years after he met his first mottled tooth. The chief chemist at a company in Pennsylvania, exhausted after years refuting claims that aluminum cookware was poisonous, tested a water sample from one of the brown-tooth towns and found high levels of fluoride. The early research focused on how to reduce the fluoride levels on some water sources across the nation. The idea was to get rid of the brown stains, the result of over-fluoridation called fluorosis. “Scrub, Scrub, Scrub, Just Like Tub,” read the headline of a 1941 story in the Albuquerque Tribune advising people of ways to eliminate the stains. Eventually, H. Trendley Dean, head of the Dental Hygiene Unit at the National Institutes of Health, homed in on the benefits of the fluoride and sought to determine levels that strengthened the teeth but didn’t stain them. The Grand Rapids experiment was his first chance to try this out. Within 11 years of the 15-year experiment, the level of tooth damage from decay dropped by 60% among the city’s children, according to the National Institutes of Health. As other municipalities began adding fluoride to the public water supply, studies continued to show improvement in children’s dental health. The fear of fluoridation, however, began to bloom. “The German chemists (under Hitler) worked out a very ingenious and far-reaching plan of mass control,” read one of the many letters opposing fluoridation that were published by the Hartford Courant in February 1955. A reader in the Chippewa Herald-Telegram in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, urged editors that same year to alert FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover that fluoridation programs should count as an “attempt at poisoning the public water supplies.” Historians have debunked the myth of Nazi involvement, and scientists have knocked down scores of theories centering on singular and weird examples of health issues. The growing dissent may have had something to do with that moment in American culture. Widespread fluoridation was beginning as part of the “long list of social developments that swept into the public conscience on the wings of scientific achievement,” R. Allan Freeze and Jay H. Lehr wrote in their 2009 book, “The Fluoride Wars: How a Modest Public Health Measure Became America’s Longest-Running Political Melodrama.” The authors drew parallels between this public division and the development of nuclear power and the widespread development of genetically altered food. “Like the pasteurization of milk and the iodization of salt, fluoridation was delivered publicly rather than privately,” they wrote. “Those that wished to avoid the governmental benevolence had to work to do so.” As hundreds of studies were published establishing the dental benefits of fluoride and debunking medical concerns, the nation continued to see hundreds of votes, lawsuits and legislative battles over the practice. A Canadian paper, the Kingston Whig-Standard, boiled the conflict down in a 1972 editorial that said, “This is not a public-health issue. It is a civil rights issue.” NIH calls it an “achievement ranking with the other great preventive health measures of our century.”
Utah NHL team walks to arena after bus gets stuck in Toronto traffic
