ABC News correspondent to speak at UPJ commencement
'Ms. Ramos is an exceptionally talented and successful national news correspondent with a record of meritorious service in our military,' Pitt-Johnstown President Jem Spectar said in a release. 'We are honored to have her share her inspirational journey from small-town Topeka, Kansas, to the highest echelons of national and international reporting.'
She'll address the UPJ graduates during the 1 p.m. ceremony Saturday at the Pitt-Johnstown Sports Center.
Ramos is an acclaimed reporter who has worked across all ABC News platforms, from 'Good Morning America' and 'ABC News Tonight' to ABC News Live, 'Nightline' and '20/20.'
She started with the agency as a multi-platform reporter in Washington, D.C., and covered the Pentagon.
Ramos has reported on a variety of topics during her career, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House, the Alabama U.S. Senate race and the Parkland shooting.
Prior to joining ABC News, she worked for local stations in Missouri, Kansas and South Carolina.
In 2008, during the Iraq War, Ramos was a first lieutenant, and upon her return from the tour, she and her husband produced the award-winning special 'To Baghdad and Back' using footage she captured on a small handheld camcorder.
During Saturday's ceremony, she'll be presented with the President's Medal of Distinctive Excellence.
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New York Post
13 hours ago
- New York Post
Single mom who is a quadruplet gives birth to ‘rainbow' quintuplets after losing first child
A single mother who was born a quadruplet delivered a set of premature quintuplet 'rainbow babies' in Texas after the loss of her first child. Theresa Troia, a 36-year-old nurse consultant, delivered five babies via cesarean section on June 3 at just 28 weeks of gestation. 5 Theresa Troia, a quadruplet herself, delivered quintuplets in early June. Theresa Troia/Facebook A whole team of medical staff at the Las Palmas Medical Center flanked the mother and 'had every second planned and every role ready' to support her through the delivery and months of NICU stays with the quints. Troia gave birth to three daughters, including Isabella and Viviana, and two boys. Isabella and Viviana are identical monochorionic-diamniotic, or Mo-Di, twins, meaning they shared a placenta in utero but grew in amniotic sacs. 5 Troia is a single mother after her relationship with the quintuplet's father fizzled out. Theresa Troia/Facebook The other three children are named Kyla, Joseph and Jaxon. Troia didn't undergo any fertility treatments to conceive the quints and was originally told she would be having quadruplets until one of the fetuses '[chose] to make a grand entrance by splitting into TWO,' she wrote on Facebook. Even with the unexpected extra baby and breakup with their father, Troia insisted that the pregnancy couldn't have been any easier. 5 The quintuplets were delivered at just 28 weeks of gestation. Theresa Troia/Facebook 'I didn't have any nausea, vomiting, cravings, anything like that. I didn't have any swelling. So I was really lucky,' Troia told ABC News. One of the most difficult parts of her pregnancy was not having her mother, who passed away a decade ago, by her side to provide much-needed guidance on how to carry and raise multiples, but she's excited to 'see what it was for her' to raise a small squadron. Still, she's confident in her ability to raise the five babies right based on her own upbringing alongside her three brothers. 5 Troia is a quadruplet with three brothers. Theresa Troia/Facebook 'To me, the normal is multiples, you know, because I don't obviously know any different, but it was nice growing up and always having a sibling there,' Troia told the outlet. It wasn't Troia's first pregnancy, either. In a post celebrating the quints, Troia thanked her 'first baby' for paving the way. 5 Kyla, Isabella and Jaxon were released from the NICU last week. Theresa Troia/Facebook 'Your short life changed everything and transformed my life in ways I can't truly express. I carry all of you — in my body, in my heart and in my soul, forever intertwined,' she wrote. Troia celebrated her new pentad as her 'rainbow babies' — a term frequently used to refer to the first child born after a miscarriage, stillborn, or infant death. The quintuplets were the first-ever to be born in the Las Palmas Del Sol Healthcare system, which has two locations in El Paso with NICUs. Kyla, Isabella, and Jaxon were cleared to go home last week while Joseph and Viviana continue their treatment in the NICU. 'They're all doing great and they're all growing. You would never know that they were premature babies or quintuplets, because they're doing so, so good. They're so healthy,' Troia told the outlet.
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Los Angeles Times
Thanks to a $5,000 rebate and DIY skills, their L.A. yard has it all — except grass
Water-hungry lawns are symbols of Los Angeles' past. In this series, we spotlight yards with alternative, low-water landscaping built for the future. When it's hot in Los Angeles, hummingbirds, butterflies and bees flock to the gardens that Lexie Glass and her husband, Evan Hursley, have been building in Harvard Park for the past three years. 'Their garden is a good example of how your landscape can be a universe for wildlife,' says Katie Tilford, development director at Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants, which has featured Glass and Hursley's garden on its annual Native Plant Garden Tour. For Glass, the gardens are not just 'their space,' but an environment to be shared with the natural world. 'The [COVID-19] pandemic really stressed the importance we hold for the landscape around Southern California,' says Glass, who is originally from Arkansas, 'so creating our own around our house was an exciting opportunity.' When the couple purchased the 900-square-foot Craftsman in late 2021, their front and back lawn were primarily brown and dead, and concrete was prevalent. A creative couple — Glass is a designer and Hursley is an architect — the 31-year-olds were accustomed to creating plans and managing projects. So when they learned that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's turf replacement program would pay them to convert their grass into a low-water landscape with California-friendly plants, they were excited to spearhead a DIY project for themselves and use the rebate to cover their expenses. Soon after the two bought the property, they started their yard project by removing the L-shaped strip of concrete in the backyard with a sledgehammer. Next, they dug a pathway through the back and side yards, installing the broken pieces of concrete to form 'sinuous paths that would lead to moments of discovery,' Glass says. After laying the groundwork for their paths, the couple removed a gnarled fig tree stump and covered the grass and weeds with leftover cardboard boxes from their move. This process, known as sheet mulching, involves layering cardboard or newspaper over the grass and weeds to smother them, creating a natural compost that enriches the soil and suppresses weed growth. Despite their initial lack of gardening knowledge, Glass and Hursley caught on quickly by watching YouTube videos on how to plant a native garden in Los Angeles by filmmaker Loren Johnson, who had torn out his lawn. They also attended online lectures on the Waterwise Community Center and California Native Plant Society channels. Similarly, they taught themselves how to install drip irrigation, select native plants and design their garden using resources such as the Waterwise Garden Planner and Calscape websites. 'Evan and I spent many Saturday mornings, eating breakfast and watching the native garden design lectures during our planning phase,' Glass says. Given the compact size of their bungalow, the couple saw their garden as more than just a wildlife habitat. It was an extension of their home. In the backyard, where they planned to spend most of their time, they included a lounge area next to a fire pit, complete with Adirondack-style chairs they built with redwood. They also added an outdoor dining area, a birdbath and an alcove with a bench, all situated in the shade of fragrant natives. The backyard is anchored around an open-air pavilion that serves as a dining room, which was created from existing four steel columns and steel beams installed on a concrete pad. To give it a more streamlined look, they removed the corrugated sheet metal roof and added 2-by-8 foot wood members across the beams, painting both the wood and steel black. Next, they attached string lights along the bottom of the wooden members and installed tension cables from the ground to the end members in a zigzag pattern, allowing the five morning glory plants they planted to climb up the wires and over the trellis. Working on weekends, the couple installed the pathways and mulched the soil after it had decomposed under the weight of the sheet mulching. To add rocks to their design, the couple transported them on a stretcher. 'That was a lot of work,' Hursley says. They then moved on to planting, sourcing primarily from Theodore Payne, Plant Material and Artemisia native plant nurseries in Los Angeles. When it came to choosing the plants, the couple aimed to create a dynamic garden by varying the heights and widths of the plants to achieve a visually appealing effect. They strategically placed some of the tall plants to screen unsightly views and create shady moments. 'You have to walk around the plants, which helps to create intrigue,' Glass says. 'This was a tip we learned while watching the lecture series held by the California Native Plant Society on YouTube.' According to Tilford, the couple chose a plant palette that is easy to maintain and recommended in Theodore Payne's 'Easy Native Plants for Southern California' list, which includes several varieties of sage, apricot mallow, De La Mina lilac verbena and bush sunflower, with California native wildflower seeds filling in the gaps. The couple chose these plants not only for their low-maintenance requirements but also for their leaf textures, flower colors and the timing of when the plants will flower or go dormant. In the front yard, where they installed a dry creek bed that collects stormwater, the couple was inspired by Cues to Care, landscape architect Joan Nassauer's theory that visible human care for a landscape can effect change in the neighborhood. 'We added lots of fragrant varieties to the front yard to greet us and our guests home, but also to hopefully spark intrigue with neighbors as they walk by,' Glass says. 'We hoped they would enjoy both the site and the smells of native plants and begin to appreciate native plants if they didn't already.' Glass and Hursley planted 250 mostly one-gallon plants, 80% of which are native to California, while the others are drought-tolerant plants from countries with similar climates. Three years in, they admit they made mistakes along the way. 'Everything grew much larger than the literature we read predicted,' Hursley says. 'Coyote mint is taking over our creek bed.' Also, some plants didn't survive. Trial and error is to be expected in a garden, Tilford says. 'That's part of the experience. Allowing yourself to fail is a way of permitting yourself to learn something new. That is a valuable lesson: Everything is going to get bigger than you think, especially if it's next to a path or sidewalk.' After submitting Glass and Hursley plans to the LADWP's replacement program, which currently offers a $5-per-square-foot rebate, the $5,100 they received covered all their material expenses. 'All we had to supply was the labor,' Glass says. When nearly 300 tour-goers visited the garden in the spring, they were treated to bright orange California poppies, cobalt-blue ceanothus flowers — a fan favorite, the couple says — yellow bush sunflowers and the bold pink flowers of hummingbird sage. Come summer, some plants are dormant, but the wildlife, and in some instances, flowers like De La Mina verbena continue to bloom. Although they added plants to nearly half the property, the couple likes that the garden feels much larger than it did before. 'Our theory is that our brains soak in all these new layers of visual interest and perceive multiple outdoor rooms,' Glass says. At one point, when the front yard was covered in mulch and the plants were going in, some neighbors questioned the project, saying the grass looked better. But as the plants started coming in and colorful native plants lined the sidewalks, their neighbors were charmed. 'It gives you a reason to explore the garden,' Hursley says, smiling. 'We can walk around for hours.' 'We hope that everyone can see that you can do it yourself,' adds Glass. 'You do not need ample space to create your oasis — just a bit of planning and an appetite for experimentation.' Peppermint Tree, Agonis flexuosa Desert Museum Palo Verde, Cercidium 'Desert Museum' 'Eureka' Semi Dwarf Lemon, Citrus X Limon 'Eureka' Washington Navel Dwarf Orange, Citrus Sinensis, Washington Dwarf Bartlett Pear, Pyrus Communis Morning Glory, Calystegia purpurata Howard McMinn Manzanita, Arctostaphylos 'Howard McMinn' Concha Ceanothus, Ceanothus 'Concha' Firecracker Penstemon, Penstemon Eatonii Desert Spoon, Dasylirion Wheeleri 'Desert Spoon' California Buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculatum Scarlet Columbine, Aquilegia formosa Moonshine Yarrow, Achillea 'Moonshine' Desert globemallow, Sphaeralcea ambigua Coyote Mint, Monardella Villosa Parry's Agave, Agave Parryi California Fuchsia, Epilobium canum Star Jasmine, Jasminum multiflorum Narrow Leaf Milkweed, Asclepias fascicularis Margarita BOP Penstemon, Penstemon heterophyllus 'Margarita BOP' White Sage, Salvia Apiana De La Mina Verbena, Verbena lilacina 'De La Mina' Bush Sunflower, Encelia californica Common Yarrow, Achillea millefolium Everett's Choice California Fuchsia, Epilobium canum 'Everett's Choice' Hummingbird Sage, Salvia Spathacea California Poppy, Eschscholzia Californica Brittlebush, Encelia farinosa Allen Chickering Sage, Salvia 'Allen Chickering' Palmer's Indian Mallow, Abutilon palmeri Elegant Clarkia, Clarkia unguiculata Bird's Eyes, Gilia tricolor Iris Pacific Coast Hybrids Wendy Alumroot, Heuchera 'Wendy' Coral Bells, Heuchera Yerba Buena, Clinopodium douglasii Seaside Daisy, Erigeron glaucus Catalina Currant, Ribes viburnifolium Safari Sunset Conebush, Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset' San Miguel Island Buckwheat and Red Buckwheat, Eriogonum grande var. rubescens Germander Sage, Salvia chamaedryoides Cow's Horn Cactus, Euphorbia grandicornis Variegated African Candelabra, Euphorbia ammak variegata Blue Flax, Linum lewisii Turf Replacement Rebate Program Planting a Native Garden in Los Angeles Waterwise Garden Planner Green Gardens Group Education California Friendly and Native Landscape Training California Native Plant Society Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants Plant Material Artemisa Nursery
USA Today
a day ago
- USA Today
Gen Z has become lonely and antisocial. We have only ourselves to blame.
I'm not surprised that Gen Z has different drinking habits from other generations. I just wish we weren't so opposed to being social. Over the past several years, it has become apparent that Gen Z is pulling back from many of the social habits of previous generations. In part due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in part because of other cultural forces, Gen Z is rapidly becoming a more reclusive generation, and one that socializes differently. But now, it is becoming clear that young people are going out less and staying in more, in part because we are less inclined to drink alcohol. The decision for Gen Z and all Americans to cut back on drinking isn't a bad thing, but young people need replacements for the social interactions that going to a bar or house party provides. We're becoming too isolated. Opinion: Gen Z's risk-averse behavior makes love elusive. Are we all going to die alone? Gen Z does consume less alcohol, but we're also far less social Americans are drinking less overall. While there are conflicting reports about Gen Z's unique habits, it is clear that we were ahead of the curve. While other age groups have seen declines in the number of people who say they drink over the past year, this decline has been consistent for those under 35 since the pandemic. I am one of those young people who forgoes drinking on a typical basis. I'll indulge here and there on special occasions, but I am far from a frequent drinker. Health reasons drive my decision-making, as they likely do for many sober-curious individuals out there. More Americans are realizing just how bad alcohol is for you, with Gen Z leading the charge. Opinion: Gen Z is a lonely generation that is drinking less. This could be bad. Still, I try to tag along with my friends even when they are drinking and I am not. Young people need to be more secure in their decision not to drink, rather than removing themselves from the situation altogether. Gen Z has to find ways to become more social Generation Z, born between 1997 to 2012, is dealing with loneliness and anti-dating epidemics. I don't think we need to drink more, but we have to stop pulling back socially. We're missing out on social settings, choosing instead to stay home. We all know the likely causes. The crosswinds of the pandemic, work-from-home culture and a pullback from the bar scene have turned us into homebodies. What we don't know are the solutions. But we have to find some. Young people need to become more involved in activities, whether that be community organizations or just doing something regularly with friends. Something has to fill the void that is left by our withdrawal from the bar and party scene. Something as simple as going out for a group dinner with friends, or doing something active with others, can go a long way. Believe me, I understand that the bar scene is unattractive to many of us, and that trying to cut back on alcohol is a virtuous decision, but something has to replace the positive social benefits that alcohol provides. We can't all be homebodies – otherwise, the loneliness problems that our generation faces are likely to worsen. Young people are approaching their social lives differently, but right now, it's hurting us. We all need to put in more effort in order to change that dynamic for the better. Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.
