Uvalde trial weighs criminal responsibility in school shooting response

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The trial of former Uvalde CISD police officer Adrian Gonzales got underway Tuesday, with a jury seated and opening statements expected to begin.

Gonzales is charged with child endangerment in connection with the law enforcement response to the May 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where 19 children and two teachers were killed.

He faces 29 counts of abandoning or endangering a child — one count for each child who was inside the classrooms.

Prosecutors allege Gonzales failed to confront the shooter despite being among the first officers on scene.

Adrian Gonzales in court on Jan. 6, 2026.

Before opening statements Tuesday morning, Gonzales’s defense attorney asked the judge to exclude graphic autopsy photos of the children, arguing the images could unfairly prejudice the jury. The judge ruled that some photos may be admitted but said he will decide which ones on a case-by-case basis as the trial proceeds.

The judge also placed limits on courtroom language, allowing the children to be referred to as “victims,” but not as victims of Gonzales.

Gonzales’s attorney emphasized that Gonzales never fired a weapon and was not the shooter, arguing he should not be held responsible for the massacre.

Prosecutors countered that under Texas law, adults responsible for children have a legal duty to protect them — a central argument in the child endangerment charges.

The case marks one of the first major courtroom tests of efforts to hold law enforcement officers criminally accountable for actions taken — or not taken — during the Uvalde school shooting response.

The jury was selected from more than 400 potential jurors, and the trial is being held in Corpus Christi in Nueces County after a judge granted a change of venue, citing concerns that an impartial jury could not be seated in Uvalde.

During jury selection Monday, presiding Judge Sid Harle acknowledged it was likely no one in the jury pool had not already heard about the shooting.

Former Uvalde CISD police chief Pete Arredondo is the only other officer to be indicted. He is awaiting a separate trial.

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NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps resigns after inflammatory texts revealed in trial

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The fallout from NASCAR’s federal antitrust trial continued into the new year as NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps on Tuesday announced his resignation after more than 20 years with the top racing series in the United States.

His resignation comes after last month’s trial in which inflammatory texts Phelps sent during contentious revenue-sharing negotiations were revealed. Phelps will leave the company at the end of the month, ahead of the start of the first exhibition race of the season on Feb. 1.

He was named NASCAR’s first commissioner last season after a courting process for the same role by the PGA golf tour. The opportunity with the PGA was revealed during December testimony of the antitrust trial brought by two race teams against NASCAR and Phelps testified he pulled out of consideration for that role upon the NASCAR promotion from president.

The top executive at NASCAR was deeply bruised during the trial — and the discovery process leading into it — when communications he exchanged with his leadership team was exposed. In one exchange, Phelps called Hall of Fame team owner Richard Childress “a stupid redneck” who “needs to be taken out back and flogged.”

That led Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris, an ardent supporter of both NASCAR and Richard Childress Racing, to write a damning letter demanding Phelps’ removal as commissioner.

After he concluded his testimony in the nine-day trial last month, Phelps left the stand with his jaw clenched, his face red, and he made no eye contact with NASCAR’s owners as he briskly headed directly out of the courtroom. His fiancée trailed after him as he even refused to look in her direction.

NASCAR settled the lawsuit with 23XI Racing, owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports, owned by Bob Jenkins, the day after Morris’ letter went public and two days after Phelps’ testimony.

“As a lifelong race fan, it gives me immense pride to have served as NASCAR’s first Commissioner and to lead our great sport through so many incredible challenges, opportunities and firsts over my 20 years,” Phelps said in a statement. “Our sport is built on the passion of our fans, the dedication of our teams and partners, and the commitment of our wonderful employees.

“It has been an honor to help synthesize the enthusiasm of long-standing NASCAR stakeholders with that of new entrants to our ecosystem, such as media partners, auto manufacturers, track operators, and incredible racing talent.”

He added he will seek “new pursuits in sports and other industries” and thanked colleagues, friends and fans that “played such an important and motivational role in my career.”

He also thanked the France family, the founders and owners of NASCAR, who hired him away from the NFL two decades ago and promoted him to a position that could have netted him $5 million annually with bonuses.

“Words cannot fully convey the deep appreciation I have for this life-changing experience, for the trust of the France family, and for having a place in NASCAR’s amazing history,” Phelps concluded.

Phelps is a native of Vermont, where as a child he became a fan of local racing. He graduated from both the University of Vermont, where he set the school record in the 800 meters, and Boston College, where he earned a masters in business administration.

NASCAR thanks Phelps for leadership

NASCAR said that Phelps’ leadership transformed a stale schedule with new events, “bucket list fan experiences,” and reshaped its strategic vision. Phelps was also lauded for expanding NASCAR’s international footprint, securing long-term media rights and charter agreements, and building a leadership team that is focused on building the future of stock car racing with fan experience at its core.

“Steve will forever be remembered as one of NASCAR’s most impactful leaders,” said Jim France, the NASCAR Chairman and CEO. “For decades he has worked tirelessly to thrill fans, support teams and execute a vision for the sport that has treated us all to some of the greatest moments in our nearly 80-year history.”

Phelps also led NASCAR as it became the first sport to return to competition during the COVID-19 shutdown, as well as developing races inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the downtown streets of Chicago.

“Steve leaves NASCAR with a transformative legacy of innovation and collaboration with an unrelenting growth mindset,” France added.

Lesa France Kennedy, the NASCAR executive vice chair, said “while his career may take him elsewhere, he’ll always have a place in our NASCAR family.”

NASCAR did not announce any additional leadership or personnel changes and said there are no immediate plans to replace him as commissioner or to seek outside leadership. His responsibilities will be delegated internally through NASCAR’s president — now Steve O’Donnell — and the executive leadership team.

O’Donnell moved into Phelps’ role as president upon Phelps’ promotion to commissioner. Although the two were mostly in favor of improving revenue-sharing for the teams in over two-plus years of bitter negotiations, the discovery process showed their growing frustration with NASCAR’s board of directors over its refusal to make the charters permanent.

The Childress texts

Phelps appeared to be an advocate for more concessions for the race teams, but as the process dragged on, he ultimately fell in line with the France family and that’s when his communications became more pointed. He testified he felt the teams had received a fair deal on the new charter agreements.

But it was the attacks on Childress that drew the most attention and Phelps said in court he regretted his words, had apologized to Childress and explained he was venting out of frustration.

It wasn’t good enough for Morris, a longtime backer of Childress teams.

“We can’t help but wonder what would happen if Major League Baseball brought in a new commissioner and he or she trash-talked one of the true legends who built the game like Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle or Babe Ruth?” Morris wrote. “Such blatant disrespect would probably not sit well with the fans — such a commissioner most likely wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, keep his or her job for very long!”

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

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The Era of AI-Orchestrated Hacking Has Begun: Here’s How the United States Should Respond

On Nov. 13, Anthropic announced it had disrupted the “first AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign,” conducted by Chinese cyber actors using its agentic Claude Code model. Discussed in depth at a congressional hearing on Dec. 17, the operation represents a major escalation from previous malicious uses of AI to generate malware or improve phishing emails, ushering in an era of high-speed and high-volume hacking.

For years, experts have warned that agentic AI would allow even unsophisticated nation-states and criminals to launch autonomous cyber operations at a speed and scale previously unseen. With that future now in reach, policymakers and industry leaders must follow a two-pronged strategy: ensuring that organizations have access to fit-for-purpose cyber defenses and managing the proliferation of AI capabilities that will allow even more powerful cyber operations in the future. Both steps are important not only to safeguard U.S. networks, but also to solidify U.S. technical leadership over competitors such as China.

How the Cyber Campaign Worked

In a detailed report, Anthropic assessed with high confidence that a Chinese state-sponsored group designated as GTG-1002 used its Claude Code model to coordinate multi-staged cyber operations against approximately 30 high-value targets, including technology companies, financial institutions and government agencies. The campaign produced “a handful of successful intrusions.” The hackers circumvented safety features in the model, breaking the workflow into discrete tasks and tricking Claude into believing it was helping fix cybersecurity vulnerabilities in targeted systems.

Humans provided supervision and built a framework that allowed Claude to use open-source hacking tools to conduct the operations. But Claude “executed approximately 80 to 90 percent of all tactical work independently” — from initial reconnaissance and vulnerability identification to gaining access to targeted systems, removing data, and assessing its value. Automation allowed GTG-1002 actors to achieve an operational tempo impossible for human operators; its “peak activity included thousands of requests, representing sustained request rates of multiple operations per second.”

Some outside researchers have questioned the effectiveness of this campaign, pointing out that Claude hallucinated about data and credentials it claimed to have taken. Some also noted the low quality of AI-generated malware. But this is only the beginning. As AI models become more powerful and ubiquitous, the techniques this campaign demonstrated will only grow more sophisticated and accessible. The question is who adopts them next and how quickly.

AI is Empowering U.S. Adversaries

Anthropic’s attribution of this campaign to Chinese state-sponsored actors grabbed headlines at a time of rising geopolitical tensions and high-profile Chinese cyber operations targeting U.S. telecommunications networks and critical infrastructure.

China has a large ecosystem of state-affiliated hacker groups that operate at scale. These groups function essentially as businesses, broadly targeting organizations in the United States and other countries and then selling stolen information to government and commercial customers. GTG-1002’s approach — targeting 30 organizations, gaining access and exfiltrating data where possible — fits this model perfectly. For a high-scale hacking enterprise, using AI automation to increase efficiency is a natural evolution. It is what every business is trying to do right now.

At the same time, the campaign relied on open-source, relatively unsophisticated hacking tools. Any resourceful adversary — Russian cyber criminals, North Korean crypto currency thieves, Iranian hackers — could conduct similar campaigns using advanced AI models. Many of them probably are right now. What was novel was the operational tempo — Claude Code executed reconnaissance, exploitation, and data analysis at a pace no human team could match.

The key takeaway is that adversaries everywhere now have the ability to conduct high-speed, high-volume hacks. Unfortunately, cyber defenders are not prepared to meet this challenge.

AI and the Cyber Offense-Defense Balance

Cybersecurity has long been a competition between offense and defense, with the offense having the edge thanks to the large attack surfaces produced by modern networks. While defenders must work to patch all vulnerabilities to keep the hackers out, the offense just needs to locate one entry point to compromise the defenders’ systems. Cybersecurity experts are concerned that AI-enabled automated operations, like the one uncovered by Anthropic, will further tip the balance by increasing the speed, scale, and persistence of hacks.

At the same time, AI holds the potential to address many long-standing cybersecurity challenges. AI-enabled testing can help software developers and infrastructure owners remediate vulnerabilities before they are exploited. Managed detection and response companies have touted their use of AI to reduce incident investigation time from hours to minutes, allowing them to disrupt ongoing operations and free up human analysts for more complex tasks. When layered and done right, these solutions can give defenders a fighting chance at keeping up with the new speed and scale of offense — but only if they are widely adopted.

For years, criminals have targeted “cyber poor” small businesses, local hospitals and schools because they are less able to purchase state-of-the art defenses to keep hackers out and less able to resist ransom demands when criminals get in. To ensure these organizations are not overwhelmed by the new pace of AI-driven hacking, organizations will need to adopt newer, high-speed defensive tools. Increased automation will make these tools cheaper and more accessible to those with limited cyber defenses. But it is hard to imagine how this will happen domestically without more funding and targeted efforts to raise cybersecurity standards in key critical infrastructure sectors — at a time that the Trump administration is cutting back on U.S. cyber investments.

The same resource divide exists internationally, where middle and lower income countries are at risk of crippling cyber incidents because they lack resources for basic defenses. It will take concerted international engagement and capacity building to ensure countries can keep pace with new threats, but it is in the United States’ interests to help them do so.. As the United States and China compete to promote global adoption of their technology ecosystems, developing countries in particular are looking for solutions across the full technology stack. AI-enabled cyber defenses — offered individually or baked into other services — can strengthen the United States’ appeal as a technology partner.

When AI Competition Meets Proliferation Risks

In addition to strengthening cyber defenses, it is also important for policymakers and industry leaders to reduce the risk that AI systems will be exploited to orchestrate cyber operations in the first place. GTG-1002’s activities were only discovered and stopped because hackers used a proprietary model; Anthropic had visibility into the groups’ activities and could cut them off, once discovered.

The good news is that companies like Anthropic, OpenAI and Google can learn from malicious use of their models and build in stronger capabilities to detect and block future incidents. Athropic’s transparency in the GTG-1002 case helps build muscle memory so that companies can work together to prevent similar incidents in the future (though some experts argue Anthropic could have gone farther in explaining how the operation worked and sharing actionable details, like sample prompts). The bad news is that as open-source models like China’s DeepSeek improve, malign actors will not need to rely on proprietary models. They will turn to open source models that operate with limited or no oversight.

This is a place where tensions between U.S.-China AI competition and cybersecurity meet. Both countries are competing across multiple dimensions to become the world’s AI leader. U.S. companies — including Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic — have the edge when it comes to the raw capability of their proprietary models. Chinese AI companies (and some U.S. ones, too) have pressed ahead with the development of lower cost, open-source models that are more easily accessible to users in developing countries in particular.

The economic, political, and national security stakes for this competition are enormous. To ensure the United States maintains a competitive advantage, the Trump administration has sought to reduce AI safety requirements. But if this campaign is a sign of what is to come, both the United States and China should have an interest in preventing the models their companies create from being exploited by criminals, terrorists, and other rogue actors to cause harm within their territories.

The Trump administration’s AI Action Plan calls for more evaluation of national security risks, including cyber risks in frontier models. The question is what additional safeguards need to be put in place to reduce this risk, which incentives are needed, and how to build consensus on such standards internationally.

What Must Be Done Now

It is impossible to stop AI-driven campaigns. But policymakers and industry leaders can still strengthen cyber defenses to mitigate risk. This requires incentivizing development of AI applications that enable secure software development, improved penetration testing, faster threat detection, and more efficient incident response and recovery. Funding and concerted engagement by government and private cybersecurity experts will be needed to support adoption among cyber-poor providers of critical services, like hospitals and schools.

It also requires strengthening safeguards to make it harder for bad actors to weaponize easily accessible AI models. Ideally, the United States would do this in parallel with China requiring increasing safeguards in its own models. (Otherwise, the administration’s recent decision to sell more powerful chips to China will allow China to produce more unsafe models, and faster.)

Regardless, the United States must continue efforts within its own AI safety community to identify and mitigate misuse of U.S. models. Transparency about incidents like this one is a good place to start. But to stay ahead of the threat, companies and researchers should be further encouraged to share information about risks, improve testing standards, and develop mitigations when bad actors circumvent safeguards.

FEATURED IMAGE: Visualization of floating programming code windows on a glowing cyber grid. (Via Getty Images)

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Sybil Wilkes Breaks Down What We Need to Know: January 6, 2025

Source: Reach Media / Radio One

Sybil Wilkes delivers the latest on “What We Need to Know,” keeping our community informed and empowered. From changes in childhood vaccine guidelines to a wide-open governor’s race in Minnesota and crucial tax deadlines for business owners, here’s a breakdown of today’s essential headlines.

Adjusting Recommendations for Routine Childhood Vaccines

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is planning to adjust its recommendations for routine childhood vaccines. While core immunizations for diseases like MMR, polio, and HPV will remain standard, the new proposal suggests a more targeted approach for others. This means decisions regarding flu, COVID-19, and rotavirus vaccines would shift to a shared conversation between families and their doctors, focusing on children at higher risk. These proposed changes are emerging as flu cases are on the rise across the country. It’s important to note that insurers will still be required to cover recommended vaccines at no cost to you.

Minnesota’s Upcoming Governor’s Race

Minnesota’s upcoming governor’s race is heating up. Governor Tim Walz has announced he will not seek a third term, creating a major opportunity for new leadership. U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar is reportedly considering a run for the position, with sources saying she has received strong encouragement to enter the race. Her potential candidacy is causing other prominent Democrats, including Attorney General Keith Ellison, to re-evaluate their own political plans. On the Republican side, Mike Lindell, the “MyPillow guy,” has confirmed he is seeking the party’s nomination, adding another dynamic to the developing field of candidates.

Tax Tuesday

CPA Katrina Craft has a critical reminder for all business owners. If you paid any individual $600 or more for their services during 2025, you are required to file a 1099-NEC form for them by January 31st. This applies to payments made by check or direct deposit to non-corporate service providers, including lawyers. Failing to meet this deadline can result in significant penalties, ranging from $60 to over $630 per form, and will likely attract unwanted scrutiny from the IRS. However, if you processed payments through platforms like PayPal Business, you don’t need to worry, as those companies issue their own tax forms. Stay on top of your deadlines to keep your business finances in order.

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Is the US headed toward an electricity crisis of its own making?

Most intriguingly, Trump Media & Technology, the parent company of Trump’s own social media platform, Truth Social, announced in December that it would pursue a merger with nuclear fusion startup TAE Technologies. TAE hopes to generate clean baseload power in the early 2030s, though scientists consider cracking commercially viable fusion to be more technically challenging than running a niche and unprofitable social media platform.

Meanwhile, tech giants’ ambitions for AI computing construction have ballooned. Thomas said that while 20 to 30 gigawatts of data centers are operating today, 100 gigawatts are trying to connect in the next five years. Analysts at BloombergNEF predicted in December that data centers will consume 106 gigawatts by 2035; that number grew by 36% from the company’s tally just seven months prior.

A crisis of rising energy costs

Rep. Sean Casten, an Illinois Democrat and a leading energy wonk in Congress, said he worries about the current federal leadership’s capacity to respond to a full-blown energy crisis.

“Tell me how much volatility is coming down the pike, and it’s sort of like you’ve got a JV baseball team that’s working the ER shift tonight — if nobody checks into the ER, we’re gonna be fine,” he said.

Even so, Casten thinks widespread blackouts are a low-probability outcome because energy regulators have such a bias toward protecting reliability.

“The state utility commissions, the regional transmission organizations, they don’t always make good decisions, but they generally do prioritize reliability,” he said. “Having said that, the energy crisis that I think we should be super concerned about is on the price side.”

The Trump administration has raised the cost of energy not just by reducing supply. The delays it has caused for offshore wind projects have racked up hundreds of millions of dollars of unforeseen expenses, even before the most recent attempt to stop them from finishing construction. The interruptions also signal to foreign investors that billion-dollar projects in the U.S. are susceptible to extralegal disruption by the government, chilling future investment. Trump’s DOE has repeatedly invoked emergency powers to force old coal-fired plants to keep running beyond their planned retirement, leaving customers to foot the bill for tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars.

Those are system-level cost increases. On a more individual scale, when Republicans demolished the Inflation Reduction Act, they removed incentives for families to upgrade household energy efficiency, the Scott Institute’s Samaras noted. “Those save the homeowner money, but they also reduce the peak electricity demand when you really need it.”

Batteries could turn the crisis into a massive opportunity

The Trump administration could tackle the crisis by simply allowing American energy, including clean technologies, to flourish.

“Just get out of the way and stop blocking solar and wind permits,” said Shannon Baker-Branstetter, senior director of domestic climate and energy policy at the Center for American Progress. “If they believe in all of the above, really let it be all of the above.”

But that seems unlikely. Instead, the Trump administration is promoting gas power, though it has not taken steps to deal with the five-or-more-year waitlists to even buy gas turbines or their rapidly inflating costs. Its exotic nuclear bets won’t pay off for years, if ever.

Americans will have to look elsewhere for a remedy, and after so many pessimistic conversations, I finally found someone who was not only unfazed by recent developments but also optimistic about the future.

Pier LaFarge hails from Alabama and runs a startup called Sparkfund, which works with utilities to tap the benefits of clean and distributed energy. He speaks the language of the cleantech world but sees things differently than many in that cohort do.

We won’t crash headlong into an energy crisis, LaFarge assured me, precisely because everyone’s talking so much about crashing headlong into an energy crisis. This point recalled the Heisenberg uncertainty principle from my high school chemistry days: The act of observing something changes the thing that is observed.

Utilities and data center developers, LaFarge said, are coalescing around the understanding that demand during a relatively small number of hours in the year is constraining the AI buildout.

For decades, utilities built out the grid to meet the few hours of the year when demand peaks. That leaves capacity — in terms of power plants and transmission and distribution lines — wildly underutilized much of the time. The energy crisis won’t materialize, LaFarge argues, because it will catalyze the power sector to improve utilization of the existing grid.

Solve for a few moments of stress, and AI’s voluminous consumption of kilowatt-hours can support the fixed costs of running the grid for everyone else.

“Cheap batteries and data centers solve all of it,” he said. “You charge up when there’s excess, you drop it on the transmission and distribution corridors, you serve the data centers, downward pressure on rates, you win the future.”

In Oregon, an AI customer is already directly paying for grid batteries that will be used to benefit all of Portland General Electric’s customers. LaFarge said he has seen other confidential AI energy service agreements that will put multiple billions of dollars of downward pressure on utility rates for regular customers.

That’s more or less what Energy Secretary Chris Wright was talking about on his December publicity tour, though he attracts skepticism from clean-energy analysts when his idea for smart capacity investment amounts to forcing aging coal plants to stay open and hemorrhage money that other people have to pay for.

But if AI companies procure batteries, or portfolios of distributed energy and controllable demand, the economics change drastically. This would, in fact, achieve the cleantech sector’s long-held dream of an interactive and decentralized energy system.

This rosy scenario could fail to materialize for myriad reasons — states and regions failing to build grid infrastructure, regulators letting utilities dump billions of dollars into gas-plant construction at inflated costs instead of targeted battery investments, local leaders giving data centers sweetheart deals instead of demanding they pitch in.

But if batteries are allowed to play, the AI-fueled energy crisis could join the long list of energy crises that never came about. It’s comforting to know that’s at least a possibility.

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Podcaster Tim Dillon: Trump has “basically said, if you start protesting in a way we don’t like…we might kill you.”

TIM DILLON (HOST): Iran! It’s because of Hezbollah in Lebanon or it’s the Houthis in Yemen. These are all the groups that are preventing you from living the life you want. All of those groups, the Houthis, Hezbollah, Al Shabaab is back. Al Shabaab from Somalia. We’ve resurrected — Al Shabaab has returned. There’s a there’s a big scandal in — and I’m not saying that there isn’t fraud. I’m sure there’s fraud, but the money is going back to Al Shabaab.

So, now Al Shabaab has returned and, you know, we’ve got the Houthis and we’ve got Hezbollah and Israel’s basically saying to Trump, we’ve got to go back into Iran and we’ve got to decapitate the Iranian regime, which there’s a lot of protests right now happening in Iran. People are taking to the streets. They’re protesting and Trump basically has said if you start killing the protesters, will — this is Donald Trump’s tweet. If Iran shots, I think he meant shoots, but whatever. If Iran shots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States Of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go! Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Now here’s the other thing. He’s threatened to kill protesters in our country. I mean, we have the national guard in cities. He basically has basically said, if you start protesting in a way we don’t like, we might kill you.

So, now I’m against riots. I’m obviously all — that’s crazy, but like he literally is concerned with the protesters in Iran. This is the concern. The concern is the safety of the protesters who are in Iran. It seems weird, but whatever. Whatever. You know, it’s an odd — it’s a tweet, a truth social, whatever you call it a truth. When he’s doing stuff on truth social, he’s truthing.

It feels like they’re about to go to war. It feels like we’re on the eve of a war where he goes, hey, man. If Iran harms a hair on the head of one of those protesters, we’re going to come to their rescue. And coming to their rescue means we’re going to decapitate the Iranian government and then the fun begins.

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Seis tips para obtener fármacos que previenen el VIH superando obstáculos del sistema de salud – KFF Health News

Zach Dyer

Cuando Matthew Hurley quiso empezar a tomar PrEP para prevenir el VIH, el médico no conocía el medicamento, y cuando finalmente se lo recetó, las facturas que le enviaron eran caras… y erróneas. “Decidí escribirles porque el proceso fue realmente muy frustrante”. En un momento dado, me pregunté: “¿Debería simplemente dejar de tomar este medicamento para no tener que lidiar con estos problemas de facturación y estas cuentas tan elevadas?”.

— Matthew Hurley, 30 años, de Berkeley, California

Hace un par de años, Matthew Hurley recibió el tipo de mensaje de texto que muchas personas temen: “¿Cuándo fue la última vez que te hiciste una prueba de ETS (enfermedades de transmisión sexual)?”

Una persona con la que Hurley había tenido sexo sin protección recientemente acababa de recibir un diagnóstico positivo de VIH.

Hurley fue a una clínica para hacerse la prueba. “Por suerte no tenía VIH, pero fue una llamada de atención”, dijo.

Esa experiencia impulsó a Hurley a buscar información sobre PrEP, sigla para la profilaxis preexposición. Este medicamento antirretroviral reduce considerablemente la probabilidad de adquirir VIH, el virus que causa el sida. Cuando se toma tal cual se indica, la terapia es 99% eficaz para prevenir la transmisión sexual.

Hurley comenzó a tomar PrEP y todo marchaba bien durante los primeros nueve meses, hasta que cambió su seguro médico y tuvo que ver a un nuevo doctor. “Cuando le mencioné PrEP, me dijo: ‘¿Qué es eso?’ Y yo pensé: esto no pinta bien”.

Hurley, quien es bibliotecario, asumió el rol de docente. Le explicó al doctor que el régimen de PrEP que seguía implicaba tomar una pastilla diaria y hacerse análisis de laboratorio cada tres meses para detectar posibles infecciones o complicaciones de salud.

Hurley se sorprendió de saber más sobre PrEP que su propio médico.

La Administración de Alimentos y Medicamentos (FDA, por sus siglas en inglés) aprobó el primer fármaco, Truvada, en 2012. Además, Hurley vive en el área de la bahía de San Francisco, una de las zonas con mayor concentración de personas LGBTQ+ en el país y con una larga historia de activismo en salud y VIH.

Amistades mayores que él y conocidos que sobrevivieron a la epidemia de sida le compartieron lo duro que fue vivir en una época sin tratamientos eficaces ni opciones preventivas. Para él, decidir tomar PrEP fue una forma de proteger su salud y también la de su comunidad.

Así que insistió, y el doctor, tras investigar por su cuenta, aceptó recetarle el medicamento.

Hurley recibió la atención necesaria, pero tuvo que asumir el papel de experto en la consulta médica.

“Es una gran carga”, señaló Beth Oller, doctora en medicina familiar y miembro de la junta de GLMA, una organización nacional de profesionales de salud LGBTQ+ y aliados centrada en la equidad en salud. “Una quiere poder ir al médico a hablar sobre su salud sin tener que estar educando ni abogando por sí misma en cada paso”.

Oller agregó que muchas personas queer han tenido experiencias negativas en consultas. “Tengo muchos pacientes que no recibieron atención preventiva durante años debido al estigma médico”, afirmó.

Problemas con la facturación

Superar los obstáculos iniciales para acceder a medicamentos preventivos contra el VIH fue solo el comienzo. Hurley empezó a recibir una serie de facturas relacionadas con la PrEP: análisis de sangre: $271,80. Visita médica: $263.

Se sorprendió. Sabía —aunque en la oficina de facturación parecían no saberlo— que, según la Ley de Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio (ACA, por sus siglas en inglés), la mayoría de los seguros privados y programas de Medicaid ampliado deben cubrir PrEP y los servicios relacionados, como los exámenes de laboratorio, se cubren como atención preventiva sin costo para el paciente.

Las facturas por las visitas médicas y los análisis se acumularon.

Hurley reclamaba por las facturas y, casi siempre, recibía una negativa. Pero volvía a protestar.

Compartió una serie de cartas de reclamos por un servicio específico, en las que la oficina de facturación admitía que el análisis de sangre había sido mal codificado inicialmente como diagnóstico. Una vez corregido el error, según Hurley, el seguro cubrió el servicio.

Puede parecer que se resolvió rápido y fácilmente, pero Hurley dijo que el proceso fue eterno. Tuvo que lidiar con al menos seis facturas erróneas durante varios meses. Calcula que invirtió más de 60 horas en resolver los cobros.

Durante ese tiempo, contó, el departamento de facturación “seguía mandándome correos y facturas diciendo: estás en mora, estás en mora, estás en mora”.

Cansado de tantas complicaciones, Hurley decidió buscar un proveedor de salud (y una oficina de facturación) con más conocimiento sobre PrEP. Eligió a AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Allí, el equipo médico pudo explicarle los pros y contras de los distintos tratamientos preventivos disponibles. Sabían cómo manejar el formulario del seguro de Hurley.

Desde entonces, no ha recibido más facturas inesperadas.

Pero tener que separar la atención en salud sexual y PrEP del cuidado médico general no es lo ideal.

“Tengo que tratar con varias organizaciones distintas para que me atiendan de manera integral”, señaló.

Un proveedor no tiene que ser especialista en VIH, en enfermedades infecciosas ni siquiera un doctor para recetar PrEP. Los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC, por sus siglas en inglés) alientan a los proveedores de atención primaria a tratar PrEP como cualquier otro medicamento preventivo.

Cómo evitar algunos de los dolores de cabeza que enfrentó Hurley:

1. Infórmate para saber si PrEP es para tí

Los CDC calculan que 2,2 millones de personas en Estados Unidos podrían beneficiarse del uso de medicamentos preventivos contra el VIH, pero solo poco más de una cuarta parte los recibe.

“No todo el mundo conoce la existencia de PrEP, y hay muchas personas que sí han oído hablar del medicamento pero no saben que puede beneficiarles”, explicó Jeremiah Johnson, director ejecutivo de PrEP4All, una organización dedicada al acceso universal a medicamentos y prevención del VIH.

Según las guías clínicas de los CDC, cualquier persona sexualmente activa puede considerar incluir PrEP como parte de su plan de atención preventiva.

Se recomienda especialmente para quienes no usan condones con regularidad, personas que se inyectan drogas y comparten agujas, hombres que tienen sexo con hombres y personas con parejas que viven con VIH o cuyo estado serológico es incierto.

La gran mayoría de quienes usan PrEP son hombres. Existen grandes desigualdades raciales, de género y geográficas tanto en la distribución de los casos de VIH como en el acceso a la medicina preventiva.

Por ejemplo, según los patrones de nuevas infecciones en Estados Unidos, un grupo que podría beneficiarse del medicamento son las mujeres negras cisgénero, cuya identidad de género coincide con su sexo asignado al nacer.

2. No asumas que tu doctor sabe qué es PrEP

Si tu doctor no está bien informado, empieza por informarte tú. También puedes llevarle guías clínicas e información relevante. Muchas agencias estatales o locales de salud pública tienen guías específicas para profesionales. Por ejemplo, el Instituto del SIDA del Departamento de Salud del estado de Nueva York tiene materiales para proveedores.

Los CDC también tienen pautas sobre PrEP, pero muchos de los sitios web de esa agencia relacionados con salud LGBTQ+ están en revisión. Durante la administración Trump, algunos recursos sobre VIH/sida fueron retirados de los portales federales. Otros ahora incluyen mensajes como este: “Esta página no refleja la realidad biológica y por lo tanto esta administración y este Departamento la rechazan”.

3. Hazte los análisis en laboratorios dentro de la red

Johnson señaló que los errores de facturación como los de Hurley son muy comunes. “Los costos de los análisis de laboratorio en particular pueden ser complicados”, dijo.

Por ejemplo, en el consultorio podrían codificar mal el análisis requerido para PrEP como si fuera diagnóstico y no atención preventiva. Como resultado, pacientes como Hurley terminan con facturas que no deberían pagar.

Si el personal médico comete este tipo de errores, puedes hacerles llegar la guía de codificación y facturación de PrEP de NASTAD, una asociación de autoridades de salud pública que administran programas de VIH y hepatitis.

Hazte los exámenes de laboratorio dentro de la red de tu seguro. Si los haces fuera de la red, advirtió Johnson, puede ser más difícil apelar.

Si las facturas siguen llegando, apela. Y si no logras resolver la disputa, Johnson recomienda presentar una queja ante la agencia reguladora del plan de salud.

4. Busca maneras de ahorrar

Hay varios tipos de PrEP. Existen versiones genéricas más económicas de Truvada, como la combinación de emtricitabina/tenofovir disoproxil fumarato, que suele abreviarse como FTC/TDF. Las versiones más nuevas como Apretude y Yeztugo tienen precios de lista en los miles de dólares. Revisa el formulario de tu seguro y pídele a tu doctor que recete el medicamento que esté cubierto.

Con el aumento previsto de las primas de salud y millones de personas en riesgo de perder la cobertura de Medicaid, muchas podrían quedar sin seguro médico en 2026. Empresas farmacéuticas como Gilead y Viiv ofrecen programas de asistencia para pacientes que califican. Si tienes que pagar de tu bolsillo, sitios como GoodRx pueden ayudarte a encontrar las farmacias con precios más bajos.

5. Considera la telemedicina

La telemedicina se ha convertido en una opción popular, especialmente para personas que no viven cerca de proveedores inclusivos o buscan una forma más privada de acceder a PrEP.

En 2024, aproximadamente 1 de cada 5 personas que tomaban PrEP lo hacían por esta vía. Farmacias en línea como Mistr y Q Care Plus ofrecen PrEP sin necesidad de una consulta presencial, y los análisis se pueden hacer en casa.

Algunas plataformas ofrecen opciones para reducir costos si no tienes seguro.

La telemedicina también amplía la cantidad de profesionales dispuestos a recetar PrEP. Y para muchos pacientes, hablar con un proveedor de manera remota puede hacerles sentir más seguros. “Están en la comodidad de su dormitorio o sala, pero pueden interactuar virtualmente con un proveedor. Eso abre muchas puertas a la honestidad y la confianza”, explicó Alex Sheldon, director ejecutivo de GLMA.

6. Busca atención inclusiva

GLMA creó el LGBTQ+ Healthcare Directory, una base de datos de profesionales de salud en todo el país que se identifican como amigables con la comunidad queer. Como descubrió Hurley, vivir en una gran ciudad no garantiza que tu doctor esté al día en temas de salud LGBTQ+.

Pregunta a personas de confianza en tu comunidad. Puede que haya buenas opciones cerca de ti.

La Línea de Ayuda sobre Atención Médica (Health Care Helpline) te ayuda a navegar los obstáculos del sistema de salud para que puedas acceder a una buena atención. Envíanos tu pregunta más compleja y podríamos asignar una persona para investigar. Comparte tu historia y tu pregunta aquí. Este proyecto colaborativo es una producción conjunta de NPR y KFF Health News.

Great Job Zach Dyer & the Team @ Public Health Archives – KFF Health News Source link for sharing this story.

Meta pauses international expansion of its Ray-Ban Display glasses | TechCrunch

Meta is pausing its plans to sell its Ray-Ban Display glasses outside the U.S. due to “unprecedented demand and limited supply,” the company said on Tuesday. Meta had originally planned to launch the glasses in France, Italy, Canada, and the U.K. in early 2026.

“Since launching last fall, we’ve seen an overwhelming amount of interest, and as a result, product waitlists now extend well into 2026,” the company said. “Because of this unprecedented demand and limited inventory, we’ve decided to pause our planned international expansion.”

Meta says it will continue focusing on fulfilling U.S. orders while it re-evaluates its approach to international availability.

Unveiled in September, the Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses are controlled by a wristband called the Meta Neural Band, which detects subtle hand gestures.

At CES this week in Las Vegas, Meta showed off new features coming to the glasses and the Neural Band. The glasses are getting a new teleprompter feature that gives users a portable way to deliver prepared remarks. Plus, users can now jot down messages using their finger on any surface while wearing Meta Neural Band and have those movements transcribed into digital messages.

Meta is also expanding pedestrian navigation to Denver, Las Vegas, Portland, and Salt Lake City.

Great Job Aisha Malik & the Team @ TechCrunch Source link for sharing this story.

West Fort Worth nonprofit fills emergency food gaps, continues distribution into 2026

Before Sunday service at Westside Presbyterian Church, four members of the Fort Worth Community Collaborative prepared more than 70 chorizo and egg breakfast burritos.

They distributed the meals to unhoused folks in the Las Vegas Trail area and along Camp Bowie Boulevard.

That work is part of the 76116 Community Table Initiative, which was started by the community collaborative in November. The nonprofit, which primarily works to address clothing insecurity, began food distribution efforts during the federal SNAP pause in November 2025.

Because of the demand during those two months, the organization plans to continue providing food to the community into the new year.

“With us opening up the food programming in November and then continuing it, we did find such a high need here in this area,” said Kiama Cavazos, program director for the Fort Worth Community Collaborative. “We’ve shifted our mission and focus to be more inclusive.”

Cavazos said the decision to provide food during the pause of SNAP benefits in November was immediate. In order to do the most good, the nonprofit looked at the gaps in food donation within a 5-mile radius.

Based on those gaps, the Fort Worth Community Collaborative began the free food program open to all, no proof of need required. Services throughout the week include:

Meal kits feeding a family of four on Tuesday evenings.
Hot meals to go from the church on Friday evenings.
Hot breakfast, including giving meals directly to unhoused community members, on Sunday mornings.
Direct emergency grocery support to 25 high-need families in Fort Worth ISD.

Many individuals served were unable to receive food at other pantries because of barriers such as income proof and ID requirements, Cavazos said.

In those two months, the collaborative served over 2,000 people from 37 ZIP codes.

“A lot of what inspired us to continue the program and make it more sustainable and long-term was because there is a need,” she said.

Dorie Kirk and Kiama Cavazos place new magnets for the Fort Worth Community Collaborative on the nonprofit’s donation bin on Jan. 4, 2026. (Ismael M. Belkoura | Fort Worth Report)

Cavazos said the nonprofit will likely not continue food services three times a week. Nevertheless, food assistance will continue. The nonprofit plans to continue food outreach twice a month for unhoused community members. The meal kit program will also likely continue, Cavazos said.

The Fort Worth Community Collaborative always intended to broaden its service to the community, executive director Dorie Kirk said.

The nonprofit started providing free clothing to the community three years ago. In August 2024, the organization established a storefront called Cowtown Closet, which continues to supply free and low-cost clothes.

However, the SNAP pause accelerated the nonprofit’s decision to fully delve into the food relief world, Kirk said.

“It’ll continue to just be a natural progression,” she said. “We have a five-year plan, a 10-year plan, but we’re never afraid to go, ‘This is the need that needs to come first.’”

The organization is primarily funded by private donations, allowing it to serve people in need without the restrictions that come with state and local grants.

Check out the Fort Worth Community Collaborative’s schedule for food distribution details.

Ismael M. Belkoura is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at ismael.belkoura@fortworthreport.org.

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

Great Job Ismael M. Belkoura & the Team @ Fort Worth Report for sharing this story.

TPR News Now: Tuesday, January 6, 2026

Listen to TPR’s morning newscast for a roundup of the latest headlines and news developments.

This morning’s headlines:

Jury selected in trial of former Uvalde school district police officer
Mexico condemns US military operation in Venezuela
Vaccine scientist talks vaccine scale backs
Gov. Abbott wants new anti-fraud measures for child care programs
2025 holiday shopping season got off to a flat start

Today’s weather in San Antonio: Some areas of fog in the morning, otherwise it will clear for a high near 83. Mostly clear tonight with a low around 60.

Great Job Marian Navarro & the Team @ Texas Public Radio for sharing this story.

FROUSA NEWSIndependent journalism for New Braunfels, Comal County, Guadalupe County, and The Texas Hill Country.