Latest news with #DonnerParty
Time of India
2 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
JD Vance's wild take on weight loss drug Ozempic sparks criticism
Politicians usually avoid cracking jokes about eating habits—especially when it comes to weight loss drugs. But not JD Vance. The Vice President of the United States stunned listeners with a strange and awkward take on the popular diabetes and weight loss drug Ozempic, casually tossing in a cannibalism reference that many are calling "gross" and "tone-deaf. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now " On a recent appearance on comedian Theo Von's podcast, Vance launched into an unscripted riff about a medical commercial he'd seen. 'I only saw it briefly,' he said, 'but I could have sworn that two of the medications in this med pack were—Ivermectin and Ozempic. And I'm like thinking to myself, what is the situation where you need emergency Ozempic?' Then came the part that really raised eyebrows. With a laugh, Vance added, 'I thought like, you know, if you have a Donner Party situation... and it's like alright, we gotta suppress our appetites.' Wait—what? What was the Donner Party? Credit: X/@pitsenberger To decode Vance's joke, you'd have to go back to 1846, when a group of American pioneers known as the Donner Party became stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains while traveling to California. With winter closing in and food supplies exhausted, some members of the group reportedly resorted to cannibalism to survive. It's a dark, tragic chapter in American history—and probably not the best setup for a punchline about a modern weight-loss drug. Social media reactions Social media lit up in the hours after the podcast aired, with critics slamming Vance for making light of both the desperation of the Donner Party and the medical struggles of people using Ozempic. Many pointed out that the drug is not just used by people who want to lose weight, but is also used by diabetes patients. One user commented, 'Ozempic was designed for patients with diabetes, and people with the disease also use it, J Dunce. Diabetes can be caused by other conditions, like pancreatitis and pregnancy. ' Another commented, 'What kinda of #weirdo uses "Donner Party" as the metric to evaluate bulimic therapy???' A third said, 'Why is he talking like he is expert on something he doesn't know about? Ozempic is a diabetic drug. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now It helps to regulate sugar in diabetics.' What is Ozempic? Ozempic is a prescription medication primarily used to help manage type 2 diabetes. It works by mimicking a natural hormone that regulates blood sugar levels and slows digestion, which can help people feel fuller for longer. While not originally developed as a weight loss drug, one of its side effects is appetite suppression—leading to noticeable weight loss in many patients. In recent years, Ozempic has entered the public conversation beyond diabetes care, with growing demand among people seeking medical help for obesity.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Yahoo
Hidden fortune: Could the Donner Party's legendary gold stash still be out there?
Back in May 1891, Truckee was abuzz with treasure fever. While on a fishing excursion near Donner Lake, Edward Reynolds uncovered a cache of coins near the shore, claiming that they had been buried by Elizabeth Cooper Graves of the ill-fated Donner Party. A Winnemucca newspaper reported that Reynolds found nearly 200 coins in all — both American coins and others from far-flung locales including France, Spain and South America. But later reporting by the Reno Evening Gazette cast doubt on the entire story, calling it "weird and sensational," and insinuating that the discovery was an effort to boost sales for a Donner Party history book written by someone with close ties to Reynolds. Whatever the source of the coins, there was general agreement that it wasn't the Donner Money — a legendary cache believed to be buried at yet another campsite for Donner Party survivors. Here's the story of life-changing and possibly history-changing treasures still missing in Nevada and the Sierra. George Donner, along with 24 other Donner Party members, were trapped by a snowstorm at Alder Creek Valley near Truckee in late 1846. Only 11 of them survived; George Donner himself died of gangrene in March 1847. Over the next few decades, tales of a buried cache — $10,000 in gold, according to most reports — had sparked the imaginations of treasure seekers. The Nevada State Journal in 1890 reported that one prospector, using an "electric mineral ball," had found the exact spot of the gold, and was waiting for the valley's floodwaters to subside before digging it up. Apparently, he had no luck. More than a century later, the Nevada Historical Society's Phillip I. Earl wrote that the gold's discovery had never been publicly announced, and that "there is good reason to believe that it was dug up and stolen after Donner's death." More: Exploring Donner Summit, California's most historically important square mile The first-ever train robbery west of the Rockies was a fairly elaborate operation involving accomplices in Nevada and California all working toward one goal: stealing the payroll for Gold Hill's Yellow Jacket Mine. A train carrying $41,800 in gold pieces and $8,800 in silver bars — worth well over $1 million in today's dollars — left Oakland for Ogden, Utah, on Nov. 4, 1870. A San Francisco-based accomplice sent a coded telegram to a gang of five robbers about the train's cargo, and the robbers blocked the track with rocks and railroad ties near Verdi. The gang boarded the train, grabbed the loot, divided it out and went their separate ways. One buried $20,000 near Virginia City. Two others buried $7,500 in a ravine near Peavine. The other three scattered, but were captured within the week, along with three accomplices. Nearly all of the fortune was recovered except for 150 gold coins, estimated to be worth about $70,000 today. Treasure hunters still think the missing coins could be found buried somewhere in northwestern Nevada. More: This California town was named one of the 10 best small towns in US. Hint: think Gold Rush The last robbery of a horse-drawn stage in the U.S. happened on Dec. 5, 1916, in northeastern Nevada near the Idaho border. Stage driver Fred Searcy was driving a two-horse mail stage alone on a snowy night between Three Creek, Idaho, and Jarbidge, Nevada, when he was robbed and murdered. A search party found the crime scene on the outskirts of Jarbidge, a gold-rush town of 1,500. They discovered that $3,000 was missing (a little over $80,000 in today's dollars). Ben Kuhl, a drifter with a criminal record, was tied to the murder and robbery thanks to a bloody palm print found on a torn letter at the crime was tried and convicted the following year, the first murderer in U.S. history to be convicted using palm-print evidence. Kuhl appealed the admissibility of the palm print as evidence to the Nevada Supreme Court, but failed; however, his death sentence was commuted to life in prison. He eventually confessed to the murder, but insisted that he didn't ambush Searcy — he said Searcy was an accomplice, and Kuhl shot him during an argument over how to split the booty. The money, however, was never recovered, and is believed to be buried somewhere in Jarbidge Canyon. More: These 7 California towns are 'bizarrely' named, says WorldAtlas. We can think of a few more The Washoe Tribe faced stark difficulties in the early 20th century. During the Paiute War of 1860, Captain Jim Henuheka, a prominent spokesman for the tribe, had encouraged the Washoe to surrender their firearms to ensure peace between the tribe and the white settlers in the area. But over the ensuing decades, they had little to show for their conciliatory approach — no tribal reservation, no hunting and fishing rights, and only scattered landholdings that had been left unclaimed by settlers. The tribe's population had dwindled to just 300. In 1913, famed Washoe basket weaver Sarah Jim Mayo created a special basket as a plea to President Woodrow Wilson to remind the U.S. government of its historic alliance with the Washoe. The basket's design included an eagle and arrows reminiscent of the presidential seal, and an image of her father handing over a rifle. The basket also included an inscription woven into the design: 'Nevada and California/ Sarah, I am his daughter/ Captain James, First Chief of Washoe tribe/ This basket is a special curio, 1913.'Accompanying the basket was a letter explaining the Washoe Tribe's plight. Wilson acknowledged receiving the basket and thanked Mayo for it; meanwhile, the U.S. Congress acted to send $5,000 in relief for sick and elderly tribal members and $10,000 to purchase homestead lands for the tribe. However, the fate of the basket itself remains a mystery. More: These California road trips are the best in the nation Legends of a secret underground river filled with gold nuggets, or possibly a fortune in oil, have circulated in Nevada for a century. According to one story, a prospector in 1927 claimed to have spent four days exploring the underground river, emerging with buckets of gold-laden sand — but he dynamited the entrance because he didn't own the land, and never found another way in. Then in 1992, scientist Wally Spencer claimed he found the river again from satellite photos, estimating a flow of 17 billion gallons a day. That would be 200 times as large as the Truckee River, and nearly six times what the entire state uses in a day — which would be enough to revolutionize the state's agriculture industry. But when Spencer approached the state about his find, state officials doubted his underlying claims, and wouldn't guarantee him a multimillion-dollar finder's fee for providing information on the river. He took his story to TV's 'Unsolved Mysteries,' claiming the state had bugged his phone and his house to learn the river's died in 2003. The Reno corporation he created to profit from the find dissolved in 2007. If any of his associates know where the alleged river is, they haven't spoken up about it yet. Nevada and UNLV may battle it out on the football field for the replica each fall, but in January 1844, Capt. John C. Fremont decided the original "Fremont Cannon" wasn't worth the effort. Fremont and 40 U.S. Army engineers left St. Louis the previous summer, hoping to find a less arduous route to the West Coast. They were lugging a last-minute addition to their supplies: a 12-pound howitzer. The expedition was unsuccessful, and after leaving the Oregon Territory they turned south to explore the Great Basin. In January, low on supplies and searching for a pass over the Sierra Nevada into California, the party decided to leave the cannon 1997 and 2001, volunteers with the U.S. Forest Service discovered pieces of what they believe to be the missing cannon; Nevada State Museum officials say they're confident it's the real deal. UNLV football coach Bill Ireland used the legend of the lost cannon as inspiration for a trophy to be held by the winner of the annual Nevada-UNLV football game. The replica cannon, college football's heaviest and most expensive trophy, has been passed back and forth between the two schools since 1970. Fremont's original cannon is now housed at the Nevada State Museum in Carson. This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: Lost treasures of the Sierra: $10,000 in Donner Party gold
Chicago Tribune
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: FEMA established
Today is Monday, May 12, the 132nd day of 2025. There are 233 days left in the year. Today in history: On May 12, 1933, the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration established both the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which provided federal funding to states for relief programs, and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which provided economic support to farmers through agricultural surplus reductions. Also on this date: In 1780, the besieged city of Charleston, South Carolina, surrendered to British forces in one of the worst American defeats of the Revolutionary War. In 1846, the pioneers of the Donner Party left Independence, Missouri, on the Oregon Trail, beginning their ill-fated attempt to migrate to California. In 1932, the body of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was found in a wooded area near Hopewell, New Jersey. In 1949, the Soviet Union lifted the Berlin Blockade, which the Western powers had succeeded in circumventing with their Berlin Airlift. In 1975, members of the new Khmer Rouge-led Cambodian government seized an American merchant ship, the SS Mayaguez, in international waters, sparking a three-day battle that resulted in the deaths of 41 Americans. In 1982, in Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpowered a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet who attacked Pope John Paul II. (In 2008, the pope's longtime private secretary revealed that the pontiff was slightly wounded in the assault.) In 2008, a devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province left more than 87,000 people dead or missing. Today's Birthdays: Hockey Hall of Famer Johnny Bucyk is 90. Musician Steve Winwood is 77. Actor Bruce Boxleitner is 75. Actor Gabriel Byrne is 75. Singer Billy Squier is 75. Basketball Hall of Fame coach George Karl is 74. Country musician Kix Brooks is 70. Actor Ving Rhames is 66. Actor-filmmaker Emilio Estevez is 63. Chef/TV personality Carla Hall is 61. Actor Stephen Baldwin is 59. Skateboarder Tony Hawk is 57. Actor Kim Fields is 56. Actor Rhea Seehorn is 53. Actor Malin Akerman is 47. Actor Jason Biggs is 47. Actor Rami Malek is 44.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Deseret News archives: Donner Party played a significant role in immigration to Utah, West
A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives. On Feb. 19, 1847, the first rescuers reached members of the Donner Party, who had been snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains near the California-Nevada border for nearly four months. The group originated in Illinois, bound for new promises in the area that would become California. But the group fell behind after leaving the Oregon Trail. Eventually stranded due to weather, dozens of party members starved to death. The living resorted to cannibalism in the Sierra Nevada over the winter of 1846-47. Forty-two of the group's 89 members died. And the story is inextricably linked to Utah, the 'Crossroads of the West.' The disastrous, three-month crossing of Utah and Nevada in 1846 set the stage for one of the Old West's worst tragedies. Per Deseret News accounts, the group, also known as the Donner-Reed Party, was the first to use Emigration Canyon, which would later become the primary route of early Mormon pioneers. You can still see evidence of this group's work along the pioneer trails in Utah, whether it is in Echo Canyon or Weber Canyon or what is now the Ogden area. The group camped by the Jordan River near where the state fairgrounds now stand, then ventured off across the Great Salt Lake desert. Eventually, the party was met with a storm that brought heavy snow to the Sierra Nevada a month earlier than usual. The group also was plagued by personality conflicts and a lack of leadership. Here are some selected stories from Deseret archives about the Donner group, westward exploration and Utah connections: 'Tragedy of Donner Party begin in Utah' 'Mistake after mistake dogged tragic journey' 'About Utah: One group's disaster paved the way for another's success' 'New plaque marks Donner-Reed 1846 campsite' 'Gateway to Salt Lake Valley: Emigration Canyon boasts rich history' 'Taylor Halverson: How the Donner Party affected the pioneers' arrival in the Salt Lake Valley' 'About Utah: Donner Party is librarian's expertise' 'Donner descendants leave feuds in past' 'Donner Party straggler is 150 years late' 'Possible Donner items seen' ''The Best Land Under Heaven': The Donner-Reed Party revealed'
Chicago Tribune
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: FDR signs order authorizing Japanese-American internment
Today is Wednesday, Feb. 19, the 50th day of 2025. There are 315 days left in the year. Today in history: On Feb. 19, 1942, during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which paved the way for the internment of 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S.-born citizens. Also on this date: In 1473, astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland. In 1847, the first rescuers reached members of the Donner Party, who had been snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains near the California-Nevada border for nearly four months. In 1878, inventor Thomas Edison was issued a patent for the phonograph. In 1945, Operation Detachment began during World War II as the first wave of U.S. Marines landed at Iwo Jima, where they commenced a successful monthlong battle to seize control of the island from Japanese forces. In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford, calling the issuing of the 1942 internment order for people of Japanese ancestry 'a sad day in American history,' signed a proclamation formally confirming its termination. In 2003, an Iranian military plane carrying members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in southeastern Iran, killing all 275 people on board. In 2008, an ailing Fidel Castro resigned the Cuban presidency after nearly a half-century in power; his brother Raúl was later named to succeed him. Today's birthdays: Singer Smokey Robinson is 85. Rock musician Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) is 77. Author Amy Tan is 73. Actor Jeff Daniels is 70. Actor Ray Winstone is 68. Actor Leslie David Baker is 67. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is 66. Tennis Hall of Famer Hana Mandlíková is 63. Singer Seal is 62. Actor Benicio Del Toro is 58. Author-cartoonist Jeff Kinney is 54. NBA center Nikola Jokić is 30. Singer-songwriter Chappell Roan is 27. Actor Millie Bobby Brown is 21.
