Latest news with #Raze
Forbes
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Valorant' 10.10 Patch Notes Bring PC And Console Closer Together
A new Valorant patch is here. Credit: Riot Games A new set of patch notes has been released for Valorant, and while there aren't too many big balance changes, it does set things up for grater parity between the console and PC versions of Valorant. The Valorant 10.10 patch notes have basically no real balance changes of consequence for standard play. Raze gets a visual update that will more accurately indicate hitboxes for her Boom Bot and Paint Shells, which should make playing against them a littler easier to manage. Other than that, all the balance changes come for the Swiftplay mode. In Swiftplay, new agent Tejo gets a change that sees his Armageddon starting points increase to three from two. Although, this isn't really a change for this patch, it's actually part of his rework from the last patch that went undocumented. Other agent changes come in the form of bug fixes, with the 10.10 patch notes featuring quite a few of them. Omen gets a change reverted from a few patches ago which should stop dead allies spectating Omen being able to see through nearsights, while the really annoying issue where Vyse could no longer use Arc Rose for the remainder of the round if it was placed too close to the spike has also been solved. You can see them all in the full patch notes. The bigger news is mostly behind the scenes, with some UI changes coming to Valorant on console to bring it closer in line with the PC version. This will bring the two versions closer together in terms of features, and should make it easier for the dev team to implement changes across both of them at the same time in the same way. Initially this is just to do with the Collection section of the menus, but you can expect to see a lot more changes like these in the coming months. It's also time for Pick'Ems to return, this time for Valorant Masters Toronto. From May 28th, you will be able to make your picks for the Swiss Stage in-client and on the web, with some rewards on the line if you manage to predict all the results correctly. With Masters just around the corner, it really isn't a surprise to see such a small patch for Valorant, but that should mean we are only a few weeks away from a much bigger patch that should bring some welcome balance changes and maybe even some new content to play with.
New York Times
15-05-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Trump Budget Cuts Hobble Antismoking Programs
Students at Wyoming East High School in West Virginia's coal country had different reasons for joining Raze, a state program meant to raise awareness about the health risks of tobacco and e-cigarettes. Cayden Oliver, 17, grew up around generations of people who smoked and vaped, and he wanted to make his own choice. Nathiah Brown, 18, was struggling to quit e-cigarettes and showed up for moral support. Kimberly Mills, 18, wanted to prove that even though she had been a foster child, she would defy the odds. This high school's program cost West Virginia less than $3,000 a year and was meant to protect teenagers in the state that has the highest vaping rate in their age group. It fell prey to U.S. government health budget cuts that included hundreds of millions of dollars in tobacco control funds that reached far beyond Washington, D.C. At the high school, students pack into stalls in the school restrooms, sneaking puffs between classes. 'It's bad now,' said Logan Stacy, 18, a member of the Raze group. 'Imagine what it will be like in two years.' Experts on tobacco control said the Trump administration's funding cuts would set back a quarter-century of public health efforts that have driven the smoking rate to a record low and saved lives and billions of dollars in health care spending. Still, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 29 million people in the United States continue to smoke. The decimation of antismoking work follows a year of lavish campaign donations by tobacco and e-cigarette companies to President Trump and congressional Republicans. During budget hearings on Wednesday, lawmakers expressed concerns about the cuts to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. At least one pending lawsuit could reverse them. So far, though, the budget reductions have sliced across several federal agencies and every state, more than 20 former federal and current state tobacco control staff members said in interviews. At the Food and Drug Administration, officials fired many staff members who levied fines on retailers that sold tobacco to minors or marketed illicit vapes. Some scientists who were experts in addiction and toxicology lost their jobs. The agency also fired the team that wrote proposals to ban menthol cigarettes and to reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, efforts the Trump administration has abandoned. Most staff members who review new tobacco products for approval kept their jobs. The National Institutes of Health canceled grants to researchers examining tobacco use among certain groups, including L.G.B.T.Q. youths, Black people and young people. One $14 million grant sought to determine the most effective messages to persuade teenagers not to vape. The White House shuttered the Office on Smoking and Health at the C.D.C., a unit that traced its roots to a landmark report by the surgeon general in 1964 that first linked smoking to lung cancer. The office distributed nearly $100 million of its $260 million budget to the states. It supported an antismoking ad campaign called Tips From Former Smokers, which featured people who were often visibly debilitated from tobacco-related disease. Those ads drove calls to a national network of help lines staffed with trained coaches. The C.D.C. also funded youth initiatives like the West Virginia Raze program across the United States. State health departments have already received notices that no funding will come from the C.D.C. New York State's health officials had to lay off 13 tobacco control staff members, and in North Carolina, nine of 12 tobacco staff members were let go, according to a department spokeswoman. The help lines for quitting smoking in Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington and Tennessee relied on the C.D.C. for half or more of their funding, according to state officials and Thomas Ylioja, president of the North American Quitline Consortium, which is based in Phoenix. Those dollars paid for staff members to counsel callers and provide free smoking cessation aids like nicotine patches, gums or, in some states, medications. States are now trying to figure out how to keep up with thousands of calls and pay for the supplies. Mr. Kennedy has made chronic disease his top priority, taking aim at artificial colors in food and unproven theories about vaccines. Yet decades of data show that smoking is a top driver of cardiovascular disease, cancer and premature death. 'Ultimately, the casualties of these cuts are the American people and their wallets,' said Brian King, the executive vice president at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, who was forced out as the F.D.A. tobacco division chief on April 1. 'The math is very simple: Less tobacco control work equals more tobacco-related disease and death.' The Department of Health and Human Services did not directly respond to questions about the elimination of the C.D.C.'s antismoking work, but said that the F.D.A. was continuing to enforce tobacco laws. 'H.H.S. remains committed to reducing tobacco use, preventing youth addiction and protecting public health,' Andrew Nixon, a department spokesman, said in an email. 'Functions are being streamlined — not abandoned — to ensure continued impact in a tighter fiscal environment.' But some public health experts fear a reversal of progress: The rate of smoking cigarettes has reached a 75-year low among adults, and the rate of youth vaping has hit a 25-year low. 'We're at an inflection point,' said Mitch Zeller, a former director of the F.D.A.'s tobacco center. He likened the cutbacks to 'kneecapping' the agencies' mission. The tobacco industry, meanwhile, has heavily supported Republican politicians and introduced new products. In 2024, Reynolds American, which makes Newport cigarettes and Vuse vapes, gave $10 million to PACs supporting President Trump and $4.6 million to support Republican leaders in Congress. Altria, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes and NJOY vapes, contributed $6.4 million to congressional Republicans and $1 million to the Trump inaugural committee. Breeze Smoke, a vape company, and the Vapor Technology Association each contributed at least $1 million to the inauguration. The F.D.A. has the authority to review new tobacco products, under a standard that's meant to help cigarette smokers make the transition to less harmful products and to avoid luring a new generation of tobacco users. New offerings from the $50 billion U.S. tobacco industry include IQOS, a penlike heated tobacco device that was being introduced in Austin, Tex., and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., after reaching $11 billion in sales in 2024, so far mostly in Japan and the European Union. Oral nicotine pouches, like Zyn, are used by a small but rapidly growing percentage of teenagers. The students in West Virginia knew they could go online or take a quick drive up the Coalfields Expressway to buy the illicit e-cigarettes that have flooded the country. Green apple, peach and strawberry slushy and jam flavors are popular, Mr. Brown said. Teenagers also like vapes that can be easily hidden from teachers and passed off as a pen, a highlighter or a smartwatch. He said some students vape in class — and blow the vapor into their sleeve — to seem cool. Others, he said, are addicted. 'I wish we could make the kids understand this is not a 'gotcha' sort of thing,' said Christy Cardwell, the adult adviser of the Raze program and an English teacher at Wyoming East High School. Instead, she said, 'this is a 'we want to get it from you and stop you from doing this before you make such a destructive decision that you can never take it back.'' One recent study that followed people for four years found that those who used e-cigarettes exclusively were twice as likely as others to develop COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 'That was pretty shocking and was discussed quite widely,' said Sven Eric Jordt, a tobacco, cancer and physiology researcher at Duke University. The strategies federal officials have used to identify smoking trends and, more recently, vaping behavior are among the many efforts eliminated by the Trump cutbacks. The National Youth Tobacco Survey, an annual study by the F.D.A. and C.D.C., is expected to be conducted this year but not in following years, Mr. Zeller said. The survey has tracked the rise and fall of youth e-cigarette use, listing teenagers' favored brands and flavors. The F.D.A. ran a campaign called the Real Cost, which featured award-winning anti-vaping ads that reached young people on YouTube and gaming platforms. Researchers estimated that the campaign prevented about 444,000 young people from taking up vaping in 2023 and 2024. Most of the staff members who coordinated the campaign were fired recently, according to Mr. King. The lack of survey data will limit the ability of experts to identify trends and rising popularity of the latest products, and to figure out how to combat the latest or most harmful. 'We will, as a country, basically be flying blind in terms of what nicotine and tobacco products people use very soon,' Dr. Jordt said. The Trump administration also fired C.D.C. staff members who ran the long-running ad campaign featuring people who were weakened by smoking-related illnesses. The ads sent viewers to help lines that have been credited by C.D.C. researchers with helping one million people quit smoking. The public service ads that have already been purchased are expected to end after September, former C.D.C. staff members said. Since 2012, the ads had concluded with a prompt for people to call a help line, but now direct people to a C.D.C. website. Mr. Brown, one of the students at Wyoming East, was relying on the Raze program to help him quit vaping, and said he was frustrated by being unable to stop for good. 'Walking down the hall, I'm out of breath, ' he said. Another student, Mr. Oliver, said he had helped a couple of friends quit e-cigarettes for good, and was disappointed that Raze was folding. 'This program means a lot to me,' he said. 'I try to help people see the big picture.'
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
RAZE faces cuts, will not be returning after the cut
BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) – Most school halls in the Mountain State have been adorned with RAZE banners at one time or another. Raze is West Virginia's youth tobacco prevention and education program. After 24 years, the program is bidding farewell after budget cuts. Funding cuts eliminate Raze tobacco education program in West Virginia Back in 2023, the Mountain State was awarded 7.9 Million dollars in a lawsuit against the company JULE. House Bill 3521 would have awarded $1.19 million of that to tobacco education efforts, but it died in the State Senate on the last day of the 2025 legislative session. RAZE released a letter thanking advisors for the last 24 years of effort. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Lack of state, federal funding leads to West Virginia's Raze program's elimination, leaders say
Raze, a youth-led program aimed at preventing youth smoking and vaping in West Virginia for more than 20 years, will end this summer because of state and federal funding cuts. (Raze photo) Raze, a youth-led program aimed at preventing youth smoking and vaping in West Virginia for more than 20 years, will end this summer because of state and federal funding cuts, the organization said Thursday. The program will run out of money June 30. Leaders have started to alert participating middle and high schools and adult advisors that there will be no more support for the program after that, said Chaste Barclay, director of health promotions for the American Lung Association, which supports the program. 'We are devastated that the administration in Washington and state leaders eliminated funding support for tobacco education programs for Raze youth and their schools,' the organization said in a statement Thursday. 'Over the years, this program has saved lives and reduced the burden of tobacco use in youth. The program made incredible progress in reducing youth tobacco use in West Virginia, and we can't allow funding decisions to reverse this progress.' West Virginia has some of the highest rates in the country for adult and youth cigarette and e-cigarette use. In 2022, 21% of West Virginia adults smoked, according to the American Lung Association. That same year, 27.5% of teenagers in the state used electronic cigarettes, the organization said. West Virginia also has among the highest rates for tobacco-caused cancer deaths in the country. Raze received $315,000 for the 2025 fiscal year, Barclay said. The majority of the funding was from the federal government. That money came from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's Office of Smoking and Health, which was eliminated as of April 1. As for state funding, a spokeswoman for the House of Delegates said the state budget has not included a regular allocation for the Tobacco Education Program since 2017, and a governor has not requested funding for the program since then. The state may have provided the program with supplemental funds since then, she said. '[The American Lung Association] has been around for 120-plus years, and have worked through all the different administrations and the ups and downs,' Barclay said. 'So it's just unfortunate the timing. But we'll continue to look for funding. Hopefully we can get it back in some way and be able to support it.' This year, 1,558 West Virginia teens from 53 different groups participated in the Raze program, the organization said in the statement. Participants completed more than 1,600 tobacco education activities aimed at bringing awareness to the dangers of tobacco use using peer-to-peer education, the organization said. While the program started with the goal of preventing youth cigarette use, the main messaging from the program for years now has been preventing use of e-cigarettes and vapes, Barclay said. Without the program, Barclay said the state's youth smoking and vaping rates will increase. The tobacco-related products keep changing, she said, and younger and younger kids are using them. 'We've heard of fourth and fifth graders using [them],' she said. 'So I think without that activism out there, and peer-to-peer education, which has been so successful in the past, I think we're just going to see an increase in numbers. And so that'll lead to future generations being addicted, and additional health issues down the line, and billions of dollars in health care.' The organization called on Gov. Patrick Morrisey to include a tobacco prevention bill that died during the regular session on the call for a potential special legislative session this year. House Bill 3521 would have allocated $1.19 million from a state settlement with the vaping manufacturer Juul to tobacco education efforts in the state. The state settled with the company in 2023 for $7.9 million in a lawsuit that alleged the company targeted minors with their advertising. The bill passed in the 93 to 6 in the House of Delegates but was pending in the Senate finance committee when the session ended. 'We urge Gov. Morrisey to include this legislation in a special session to ensure that the funding is used for its original intent and continues the good work we have done to reduce youth tobacco use in West Virginia,' the organization said. The governor's office did not immediately return an email seeking comment Thursday. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
