Latest news with #Thomason
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Yahoo
Sisters remember parents killed in 2022 Memorial Day Weekend DUI crash in Coles Co.
MATTOON, Ill. (WCIA) — It's been almost three years since 19-year-old Aurora Gordon and her older sister, 27-year-old Shelby Thomason, lost their mother and step father. 55-year-old James 'Howard' Sutton and 44-year-old Rachel Sutton died after being hit by a drunk driver at the intersection of Coles County Roads 1200N and 500E in 2022. It was a route they always took, although their reason for being on the road that day was out of the ordinary. Four-year-old hospitalized after gunfire in Champaign home 'My step dad never wanted to go out to eat, and he decided he said, 'Lets go [get] Mexican… It's Memorial Day, why not treat ourselves,'' Gordon said. The couple was in one car, while then-16-year-old Gordon decided to take her own. Gordon was driving behind her parents when she saw it — a car headed for the intersection that didn't look to be stopping. 'I start to slow down and that's when it had struck my mom's car and flipped it,' Gordon said. 'At this point I'm probably 500 feet behind them, and I pulled over to the side of the road.' Thomasboro child injured after being hit by train She said it was like something out of a movie. 'I saw every single flip of this car in slow motion [but] I heard nothing [like] my ears didn't work,' she said. After calling 911, Gordon called her older sister, who rushed over from a Memorial Day cookout. 'I'm [answered] like, 'Hello,'' Thomason said. 'It's so traumatizing, it's so embedded in my brain. That call is something I will never forget. The way she was screaming like, 'Shelby, mom and Howard were hit.' Thomason met Gordon at the crash site not knowing much, but hoping for the best. She saw helicopters which made her believe her parents may still be alive. 95-year-old Seymour man still 'horsing' around 'We're sitting there [and] there's tons of people around us just trying to calm us down,' Thomason said. 'The cop ends up coming back to us and he goes, 'I'm going to need you to sit down for this information,' and we obviously we knew what that meant.' The sisters said it was surreal driving away from the crash knowing their parents laid there dead. Thomason didn't hesitate to take Gordon under her wing, and moved her into her home that same day. The memory of it all continues to haunt them both. Gordon has since been diagnosed with PTSD. Thomason lives with the constant anxiety and fear of something similar happening again. '[Gordon] was having very, very, very bad panic attacks there for a while almost every other day, and we even had to call the suicude hotline a few times,' Thomason said. 'She was in the hospital a few times because that trauma is real.' Armed Urbana man arrested following road rage incident The two said while everyone makes mistakes, there's no excuse for getting behind the wheel drunk. 'I see it all over social media, people making jokes about it,' Gordon said. 'It's not a game, this is not a joke, like people actually die because of drunk driving.' They know first-hand how devastating it can be when reckless drivers enter the roadway. 'Just be aware, be cognitive of what can happen, whose lives you can affect, whose lives you can take, and the trauma that comes along with that for other families but also yourself,' Thomason said. Coles County deputies said there were two people in the car that hit the Suttons. The then-19-year-old driver, Douglas Wilson, was sentenced to 14 years in prison last year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hamilton Spectator
22-05-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Region says it's got 70% of Wilmot industrial site, but details remain elusive
Waterloo Region's latest update on its plans to turn 770 acres of Wilmot farmland into an industrial park left the public with more questions than answers, say opponents. In a restrictive press conference on May 14, officials announced they have secured more than 70 per cent of the farmland. The wording was ambiguous about whether or not the region had actually bought the land, said environmentalist Kevin Thomason. 'You'll notice the region never said they bought the land or owned the land. It just said they've secured access to the land, so they can go on and study the land. 'They kept trying to convince us and say that it's all this sort of doublespeak. You've got to read between the lines, and you've got to try to see what they're saying. They're not telling the truth. And the press release they sent out is full of misinformation.' Last week's event was only the second one held by the region, prompting Thomason to note there's a good reason the region received a dishonourable mention for the Canadian Association of Journalists' Code of Silence Award for Government Secrecy. 'How can this be in the best public interest? And why is our region doing this to our own public, the region that, in the past, has always been the leader in the province and now being called out as the laggard in the entire country?' added Thomason. In the press release, the region mentions the need for shovel-ready land that is capable of supporting large-scale development projects. 'Reaching this major milestone gets us significantly closer to securing long-term investment and economic prosperity locally,' said Chair Karen Redman in the release. 'It's imperative, now more than ever, that Waterloo Region be ready to support Canadian manufacturing and well-paying, local jobs.' Thomason took issue with that claim, calling it false and noting that Waterloo Region has thousands of acres of shovel-ready land sitting vacant. He added that Wilmot Township itself has 95 acres in its industrial park that have sat vacant for 23 years without a single lot sold, for example. 'We've got thousands of acres, and there are just so many things that, right from the beginning, show that this has just been such a bungled fiasco by the region,' said Thomason. The region said last week it's committed to beginning to do its due diligence on these areas. Officials also mentioned that they would continue planting on the lands where appropriate and that no existing crops would be removed and would be harvested once ready. That policy reverses last summer's decision to destroy 160 acres of feed corn on land it had acquired. The bare land was allowed to sit empty with no cover crop, leading to soil erosion difficulties this spring. 'No farmer in the world would leave their fields bare and exposed to the weather for nine months straight, like the region has done,' said Thomason. The region said in the release that we have missed out on major employers who have gone elsewhere due to the 'absence of large, shovel-ready sites.' To date, the region has not listed an employer needing a 700-acre site that has decided not to settle down in Waterloo. The two common examples brought up are Schneider's and Dr. Oetker, which were 50 acres or smaller, and Waterloo has many readily available sites of that size, noted Thomason. The region continues to tout the benefits, saying the site meets 'global standards and offers strategic advantages,' which they listed as: a large, contiguous development footprint, immediate access to Highway 7/8 and arterial transportation routes, existing hydro, water, and wastewater infrastructure, location outside water protection areas, proximity to Waterloo Region's skilled workforce and world-class post-secondary institutions, and tech sector. Thomason told The Observer that the advantages listed by the regions are all incorrect. He pointed to claims that the site has a large contiguous development footprint, noting that the site is bisected by roadways, a major hydro corridor and several streams. Thomason said there would be no readily available workforce given that the site is 50-km round trip for anyone from KW or Cambridge, adding that there's already a labour shortage. Also problematic, he said, was the lack of infrastructure, which would require a massive cost to build. 'There's no water there. There's no sewage there. There's no road or transportation infrastructure. They say it's on a highway, but that highway doesn't even go to the border,' added Thomason. 'You've got a factory with a thousand trucks daily or whatever coming to it. They're going to have to wind their way all through the streets of Kitchener or whatever to try to get on the 401, go west to Detroit or other places.' The Fight for Farmland opposition efforts are as important today as they were when the project came to light, he added. 'The need… is greater than ever. The need for the community to push back is greater than ever, and that's exactly what's happening,' said Thomason. 'We're going to fight for the better future that we know we need, and not be destroyed by this secret backroom plan that no one has had any input on.'
NBC News
07-05-2025
- Health
- NBC News
Trump administration has shut down CDC's infection control committee
The Trump administration has terminated a federal advisory committee that issued guidance about preventing the spread of infections in health care facilities. The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) crafted national standards for hand-washing, mask-wearing and isolating sick patients that most U.S. hospitals follow. Four committee members said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention delivered the news about HICPAC's termination to members on Friday. A letter reviewed by NBC News — which members said the CDC sent out after a virtual meeting — states that the termination took effect more than a month prior, on March 31. According to the letter, the termination aligns with President Donald Trump's executive order calling for a reduction of the federal workforce. Four professional societies previously wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on March 26 asking him to preserve the committee amid widespread cuts to federal health agencies. The CDC and HHS did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment Tuesday. Several of the committee's web pages have been archived, meaning they are still available to view online but are no longer being updated. Some members now say they fear that its guidelines will be frozen in time, unable to evolve with new scientific research or the spread of drug-resistant organisms, which are a particular threat to hospitals. 'At some point, when things need to change, the guidelines likely won't change, and then people will be sort of flying by the seat of their pants,' said Connie Steed, a HICPAC member since 2023 and former president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. Dr. Anurag Malani, a fellow at the Infectious Diseases Society of America who joined HICPAC in January, said the committee was close to finalizing new guidelines for airborne pathogens before the termination. The guidelines, which had not been updated since 2007, included a controversial recommendation that would allow surgical masks in lieu of N95 respirators to prevent the spread of certain pathogens. 'There was really a lot of important material in there, and I think a lot of lessons learned from Covid that helped shape those guidelines to put us in a better place than we were pre-pandemic,' Malani said. Jane Thomason, the lead hygienist at National Nurses United — a professional association for registered nurses that criticized the new mask recommendations — lamented the loss of the committee. HIPAC appointed Thomason to a work group last year. 'While we had significant concerns regarding HICPAC's make up and proposed guidance, the termination of the committee removes important public transparency,' Thomason said in a statement Tuesday. 'Without HICPAC's public meetings, there is no longer any public access to the process for drafting CDC guidance on infection control for health care settings. This further undermines safety for patients, nurses, and other health care workers.' According to the CDC letter from Friday, HICPAC has made 540 recommendations to the agency since its inception more than three decades ago — 90% of which were fully implemented. Malani said it's important for those recommendations to continue so that infection control practices stay consistent across the country. 'You'd want to avoid seeing state and local health departments try to figure this out on their own,' he said.
USA Today
05-05-2025
- Health
- USA Today
TikTok says okra water has tons of health benefits. Here's what nutrition experts say.
TikTok says okra water has tons of health benefits. Here's what nutrition experts say. Show Caption Hide Caption Omega-3 supplements: Do they really work? You can find Omega-3s in fatty fish and plant-based sources like walnuts. You likely know okra as the vegetable that's found in gumbo, or eaten as a side dish. But using okra as the basis for a health drink? That's the premise of okra water, a trend that's racking up hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok. Users claim that chopping up okra, soaking it in water and refrigerating overnight before drinking it every morning boasts all sorts of benefits, from helping with pregnancy and diabetes to increasing vaginal lubrication and boosting gut health. "Fans are drawn to it for its alleged health benefits like blood sugar control or gut health, and because it's natural, easy and affordable," says Washington, D.C.-based dietitian Caroline Thomason. But are those alleged health benefits actually true? TikTok Shop is full of supplements. Nutrition experts warn to 'tread carefully.' What is okra good for? Okra on its own offers nutrients including fiber, antioxidants, minerals, amino acids and carbohydrates, according to WebMD. Some small studies have shown okra consumption to be beneficial for cholesterol and diabetics, though researchers stress that more studies are needed to be sure how effective it can be for blood sugar management. Even then, experts aren't sure how many of okra's benefits transfer when you soak it in water, because there hasn't been very much research to confirm that okra water offers specific advantages to humans that differ from straight-up okra. What we do know: Just as no-pulp orange juice doesn't contain the fiber that OJ with pulp has, drinking okra-soaked water likely won't give you the fiber that you'd get from actually eating okra. The National Academy of Medicine suggests healthy adults drink between nine and 13 cups of water daily, so this can be one avenue to boosting your daily water intake. If you like the taste and texture of okra water, nutrition experts say have at it. Just don't expect it to give you all the health boosts TikTokers claim it will. "I would say most of the claims are personal testimonies rather than science-backed results," Thomason says. "Remember that what's trending doesn't always have an effective or proven track record. Okra water won't be able to replace your medications or a balanced diet, but if it helps you eat more veggies and drink more water, that's a win." A TikTok-backed boost to your sex life? Here's what to do instead. Who should not drink okra water? Diet experts say okra doesn't have a ton of cons, but those who are prone to getting kidney stones should know that the vegetable contains oxalate, which is a compound that can cause stones to form. Remember, too, that there are easier – and more research-backed – ways to reap nutritional benefits of okra water. Namely, eating okra and drinking water on their own. "It's certainly not harmful, but it's also not a magic cure for your health issues either," Thomason says. "If you're looking for the supposed health benefits, eating whole okra or adding more fiber-rich vegetables to your diet is a more reliable way to support your gut health and improve blood sugar levels."
BBC News
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Romantic era songs in Cornish language to be performed
A collection of eight Romantic era classical songs being composed in Cornish are set to be performed later this a Shalott, meaning the Lady of Shallot in Cornish, has been composed by Matthew Thomason from Falmouth. The lyrics will be entirely in Cornish, and the songs will be performed at venues across Cornwall in June and Thomason said he wanted to create a "living, breathing and deeply cultural artifact" with the work. He said he had been inspired by Romantic composers such as Schubert, Schumann and Thomason said: "The Cornish language is on the rise, it's becoming more popular but we need these cultural assets like music, art where people can really engage with the language and enjoy it."
