Health & Safety

Older athletes find competition and community at the National Senior Games

5:36pm July 13, 2023

by Jillian Forstadt

More than 11,000 athletes from across the U.S. have flocked to Pittsburgh this week to compete in the National Senior Games. The Olympics-style competition celebrates staying active and healthy aging.

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FDA approves the first over-the-counter birth control pill, Opill

4:44pm July 13, 2023

by Sydney Lupkin

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill. The daily oral contraceptive, called Opill, will be available without a prescription.

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A week in science: A copper-age "queen," a sea squirt and malaria-fighting mosquitoes

4:44pm July 13, 2023

NPR's Adrian Florido talks with Short Wave hosts Regina Barber and Geoff Brumfiel about a copper-age "queen," a 500-million-year-old sea squirt, and a way to help mosquitoes fight malaria.

Veterinarians worry about their access to tranquilizer xylazine with new restrictions

4:28pm July 13, 2023

by Scott Maucione

Multiple states are cracking down on xylazine after it started showing up in illicit opioids. But controlling the drug is causing headaches for veterinarians who use the drug to sedate large animals.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the latest member of the Kennedy dynasty to run for president, regularly shares a dizzying range of falsehoods and conspiracy theories.

RFK Jr. is building a presidential campaign around conspiracy theories

4:28pm July 13, 2023

by Shannon Bond

The latest member of the Kennedy dynasty to run for president regularly shares a dizzying range of falsehoods and conspiracy theories on podcasts and at other campaign appearances.

Health & Safety

Turbulence aboard Allegiant flight injures 2 passengers, 2 flight attendants

3:50pm July 13, 2023

by Associated Press

Two passengers and two flight attendants were injured when a plane plunged nearly a mile during severe turbulence Wednesday while flying from North Carolina to Florida, officials

President George H. W. Bush holds a bag of crack cocaine as he poses for photographers in the Oval Office of the White House, Sept. 5, 1989.

Why the crack cocaine epidemic hit Black communities 'first and worst'

2:59pm July 13, 2023

by Tonya Mosley

"We won't heal until we make sense of the crack epidemic," Donovan X. Ramsey says. His book, When Crack Was King, examines the drug's destructive path through the Black community.

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New Forsyth County program to support pre-teen boys' development and self-esteem

1:26pm July 13, 2023

by Amy Diaz

Motivating Males on the Move aims to be a safe space for boys ages 9 through 13 to learn about their development, body image and self-esteem, and masculinity.

Beautician Murphy Oyewole at his salon at Balogun Market, Lagos Island, Lagos.

Health & Safety

Nigerians are rattled by prices that just keep going up. How are they coping?

12:59pm July 13, 2023

by Emmanuel Akinwotu

When the government ended its fuel subsidy in May, the cost of gas, food and public transport all jumped. On buses, customers double up in seats — "lapping' they call it — to split a fare.

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Opill is the first birth control pill available over the counter in the United States.

FDA approves Opill, the first daily birth control pill without a prescription

12:26pm July 13, 2023

by Bill Chappell

From convenience stores to online, the tablet "will be an available option for millions of people in the United States," the director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research says.