Traffic Alert: Chestnut Street in Watertown
WATERTOWN, N.Y. (WWTI) – Chestnut Street in the City of Watertown was closed down early this afternoon for sewer work on Wednesday.
According to the City of Watertown's Department of Public Works, the street will be closed between Holcomb St. and Sherman St. beginning at 1:30 pm and will be re-opened by the end of the day.
Local traffic for businesses will be allowed to travel on the road.
All drivers are asked to use caution if traveling through the area or to seek alternate routes for the duration of the projet.
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26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Springfield Police Department marks fifth anniversary of body-worn camera program
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – The Springfield Police Department marked the fifth anniversary of its body-worn camera (BWC) program, celebrating a milestone in transparency, accountability, and public safety. Launched during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic on June 3, 2020, Springfield's program made the city the first major municipality in Massachusetts to implement a body-worn camera system fully. These federal arrest warrant letters deemed fake in Massachusetts All sworn officers and supervisors, just under 500, are equipped with cameras during duty, contributing to over 115,000 hours of recorded footage to date. Police Superintendent Lawrence E. Akers said the cameras have made a significant difference in community relations and policing outcomes. 'The body cameras help us in several different areas, from police-community relations to aiding prosecutions by the District Attorney's Office,' said Akers. 'The use of the cameras has increased our officers' accountability and decreased the amount of citizen complaints we receive. Body-worn cameras are an essential tool to continue to build trust within our community. There was a time I couldn't imagine having to wear body cameras, now, especially for our younger officers, I can't imagine a time they wouldn't want to wear them.' Mayor Domenic J. Sarno credited the program with strengthening public trust and modernizing law enforcement efforts in Springfield. 'I want to commend our Springfield Police Department, led by Superintendent Larry Akers, for their continued belief, support, and investment in our body-worn camera program,' Sarno said. 'All officers and supervisors, totaling just under 500, now wear the body-worn cameras, which have greatly enhanced our public safety aspects and brought increased transparency and accountability on police and public interactions, including hours of video footage of our brave and dedicated police officers saving lives.' The program began with 12 officers and supervisors who were first outfitted with Getac body-worn cameras in June 2020. By October of the same year, the entire department was equipped and trained. Now, the training is fully integrated into the Springfield Police Academy's curriculum, ensuring that recruits are ready to use the technology immediately upon graduation. In spring 2025, the department transitioned from Getac cameras to Axon body-worn cameras, continuing its commitment to using up-to-date technology. Uninformed officers are required to keep their cameras on throughout their shifts, with automatic activation triggered by the activation of emergency vehicle lights or manual activation by the officer. Each device captures footage beginning 30 seconds before activation, with audio recording starting at the time of activation. However, there are specific limitations in place to protect privacy. Officers do not use the cameras inside schools (except the Quebec Unit), during certain medical emergencies, in private residences without permission or a warrant, or when dealing with confidential informants. Additionally, the devices do not have facial recognition or night vision capabilities. As the department moves forward, the body-worn camera program will remain a core component of its strategy to foster trust and transparency between officers and the community. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Billion-Dollar Breakthroughs: Inside The Global Race To Extend Human Healthspan
Hevolution CEO Dr. Mehmood Khan in conversation with GSK Chair Sir Jonathan Symonds In a luxurious conference center buzzing with Nobel laureates, biotech executives and Saudi royalty, one number kept surfacing during presentations: eight billion. Not dollars—though investment figures approached that scale—but people. The potential market for healthspan technologies encompasses every human on earth, creating what might be the ultimate investment opportunity of the 21st century. At the Hevolution Global Healthspan Summit 2025, the world's largest gathering for healthspan science, the discussion wasn't if humans could live longer, healthier lives, but how quickly we could make it happen. "I'm a firm believer, when you put several hundred scientists collectively working in a connected manner in the world, not in any one country, but in the world, from the west to the east, to solve a common challenge, that is how you put a man on the moon," declared Dr. Mehmood Khan, CEO of Hevolution. "That is your moonshot." Hevolution is a first of its kind global non-profit organization incentivizing independent research and entrepreneurship in the emerging field of healthspan science. The urgency behind this global mobilization is clear. Dr. Anshu Banerjee, Director at the World Health Organization, presented sobering statistics: "The number of older people above 60 is going to double by 2050, from 1.1 billion to 2.1 billion, and soon we'll have more people above 60 than under 10." Even more concerning: "Life expectancy is increasing, but healthspan is actually worsening. The increase in healthy life expectancy is not following the same pace as life expectancy overall." Global Lifespan versus Global Healthspan Women face particular challenges in this equation. While they "live longer than men," Banerjee noted they "spend more years in poor health," with the healthspan gap between genders widening since 2002. While American researchers navigate the FDA's complex pathway, Saudi Arabia is positioning itself as the global accelerator for healthspan innovations. His Excellency, addressing attendees, detailed the kingdom's "Innovation Pathways" designed for rapid approval of promising medicines, AI systems, and medical devices. This regulatory agility represents a strategic advantage in what has become a geopolitical race to commercialize healthspan technologies. With "maturity level four" recognition from the WHO and pending "world listed Authority" status, Saudi Arabia is creating an ecosystem where longevity science can flourish without traditional regulatory bottlenecks. The summit's scientific presentations ventured far beyond traditional human-centered research. Comparative biology—studying extraordinarily long-lived species like bowhead whales that can live over 200 years—emerged as a frontier with untapped potential. "These are models of disease resistance, healthspan, and lifespan," explained Dr. Vera Gorbunova, whose work on naked mole rats has revealed remarkable cancer resistance mechanisms. Pedro Magalhães, developer of a comprehensive database tracking lifespans across species, argued that understanding "why we live as long as we live" requires examining the evolutionary innovations that allow certain animals to far outlive humans. This approach faces funding challenges, however. Despite promising discoveries, researchers called for "more consortia" and a "big effort in comparative biology of aging" to translate animal longevity secrets into human applications. The unexpected star of the summit wasn't a new compound but an existing class of medications: GLP-1 agonists, originally developed for diabetes and now famous for weight loss. Dr. Christoph Westphal, co-founder of Longwood Fund, made a stunning prediction: "If all of us in this room, within three or four or five years, can prove that with GLP-1s you can extend healthy lifespan, it will actually be the first healthy lifespan increasing drug available. It's going to totally change the world." Westphal's enthusiasm reflects a paradigm shift in longevity research. "If you had told me that you would take something that has an effect in the brain and all over the body, and it's perfectly safe and it actually makes you live longer, I would have said, no way. But that's exactly what a GLP-1 is." The lesson for investors is clear, according to Dr. Srinivas Akkaraju of Samsara BioCapital: "A drug that shows measurable effects in a modest time with a modest number of patients can lead to longer studies for confirmation." The challenge is finding "near- to medium-term measurements that de-risk the investment." Perhaps the summit's most ambitious initiative is already underway in the UK. Professor Rahid Ali's "Our Future Health" program has collected data from over 1.5 million participants, with 1.3 million providing blood samples, making it the "world's largest health research study of its type." By deploying collection points in everyday locations like supermarkets and pharmacies, the program has democratized participation across socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. The goal: five million participants creating an unprecedented dataset that could reveal the early signals of disease and the effectiveness of preventative interventions. Notably, Ali reported that "about 80% of the general population, once they understand the importance of working with industry, are willing to participate" despite growing privacy concerns around health data. "We're investing across the entire value chain, from idea all the way into clinical trials and beyond," explained a senior Hevolution executive. The foundation isn't just writing checks—it's creating an "action shop and a money shop" designed to shepherd promising longevity science from laboratory concepts to market-ready interventions. Dr. William Greene, Chief Investment Officer at Hevolution Foundation, emphasized the need to "invest in translation, since there's a valley of death between interesting laboratory observation and something that seems to actually impact health." The goal is finding "the outcome that we're looking for that will actually make humans into big mice"—transitioning laboratory findings into human benefits. This fundamental challenge was echoed by Dr. Jarod Rutledge: "If you're trying to do genomic management, or something that's purely preventative, commercial models are very challenging, but if you can start from a state of disease and walk all the way back to state of youthful health, then I think that is really promising." In an industry where early adopters could pay millions for unproven therapies, Hevolution's emphasis on global equity stood out. Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, emphasized that proposals undergo rigorous ethical review centered on one question: "Is the science good, but can it help fulfill the commitment to benefit all?" This principle—extending healthspan advancements to "all of human humanity" rather than creating a longevity gap between wealthy and developing nations—appears foundational to Hevolution's approach. HRH Dr. Haya Al Saud, SVP of Research at Hevolution, outlined the broader societal benefits: "First, we'll be able to reduce healthcare costs. Healthcare spending is skyrocketing worldwide, so this is a crucial and immediate impact. Second, we can tackle the workforce challenge we're seeing today... If we're able to extend healthspan, people can live—and work—longer, in good health." Dr. Haya at Global Healthspan Summit 2025. She also highlighted a surprising social benefit: "Many women leave the workforce because they are the primary caregivers for sick family members. By extending healthspan, we can support and encourage women to remain in the workforce." The summit highlighted how philanthropic organizations are evolving from passive funders to active ecosystem builders. Her Royal Highness Princess Dr. Haya bint Khaled Al Saud described philanthropy as a "catalyst for change" in the healthspan field. Yet Dr. Khan insists that true global access requires commercial involvement: "I do not believe there is an example, other than maybe mass polio vaccine campaigns, where the public sector can, on its own, democratize something. Every example I can think of in democratization has happened because the private sector figured out how to get something into the hands of as many people as possible." He added a historical perspective: "Government invented the internet, the private sector scaled it, and then leveraged it for core commerce." As Dr. Khan concluded the summit, he emphasized that it's not heroic individuals but collective wisdom that will transform aging: "It is not heroes that we are developing. It is the future of this collective wisdom that we're actually investing behind, because it's going to take the village, not a hero." The fundamental question remains: Can we translate scientific breakthroughs into practical interventions that meaningfully extend the healthy human lifespan? The convergence of unprecedented funding, regulatory innovation, massive datasets, and ethical frameworks suggests we're entering a new phase in longevity science—one where theory meets application. Whether the first beneficiaries emerge from clinical trials in Riyadh, research labs in Boston, or digital health platforms in London remains to be seen. What's clear is that the race for extended healthspan has evolved from fringe science to mainstream pursuit. With eight billion potential customers waiting, the winners stand to transform not just healthcare, but the fundamental human experience of aging itself.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Moderna agrees to true placebo-controlled trial of new COVID vaccine, Kennedy says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Tuesday that Moderna has agreed to a true placebo-controlled trial of its new COVID-19 vaccine. While noting that he was aware of concerns about the Food and Drug Administration's limited approval of the new mRNA vaccine for high-risk populations, Kennedy assured the agency will monitor and collect data throughout the trial for every adverse outcome.
