Suicide is on the rise among kids and teenagers, a new study has found. Published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics, the findings revealed that hospital visits for suicide-related reasons nearly doubled between 2008 and 2015.
By examining billing data from U.S. children's hospitals over that seven-year period, the researchers found that suicidal thoughts were increasingly responsible for hospital visits by adolescents. Suicide attempts and suicidal ideation were the cause of just 0.66 percent of visits in 2008, but in 2015 the percentage spiked to 1.82 percent, per the Pediatrics study. The visits were especially high among teenagers 15 to 17 years old.
The study further found that adolescent girls appear to be at a slightly higher risk than their male peers for suicide. NPR noted that puberty — a "risk factor for suicide" — could possibly be behind the divide, as girls tend to reach puberty faster than boys.
Beyond age and gender, the seasons also seemed to influence suicide rates. The study notes that spikes occurred in spring and fall, while summer observed the lowest suicide rates. "It really speaks to the stress and the strain at school," Dr. Robert Dicker, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Zucker Hillside Hospital, told NPR. "Kids appear to be under much more academic success to achieve and their perception of falling short." Read the full study at Pediatrics. Mary Catalfamo
President Trump would like you to forget that he boasted of his business deals in Saudi Arabia many times throughout his presidential campaign.
The president on Tuesday tweeted that he has "no financial interests in Saudi Arabia," and any suggestion otherwise is just "FAKE NEWS." Trump distanced himself from foreign interests after critics suggested his business with Saudi Arabia may influence his response to the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who Turkish officials believe was murdered when he went to visit the Saudi consulate.
But Trump has long touted his past dealings with Saudi Arabia. "I love the Saudis," he said at his very first campaign event at Trump Tower. "Many are in this building." Trump sold a full floor of Trump World Tower to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for $12 million in 2001, reports CBS News. More recently, CNN reports, a lobbying firm for Saudi Arabia paid the Trump International Hotel about $270,000 between 2016 and 2017. And per The Washington Post, Trump's hotels have seen a substantial uptick in Saudi visitors this year.
In 2015, Trump said that he "makes a lot of money with" the Saudis and that "they pay me millions and hundreds of millions." And at a rally, he suggested he likes Saudi Arabia specifically because of his business dealings there. "They buy apartments from me," he said. "They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much." Brendan Morrow
Trump, August 2015: I make $40 million, $50 million from Saudi Arabia. I like them a lot. pic.twitter.com/UaeKtBwmfL
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 12, 2018
The police cannot simply kill your dog because you have failed to license it with the city, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday, reversing a lower court decision.
The case in question involved a police raid on the Detroit home of Nikita Smith in response to a report that marijuana was sold there. While executing the search warrant, officers fatally shot Smith's three dogs, one of which was pregnant. An officer allegedly commented after shooting a dog, "Did you see that? I got that one good." The raid turned up 25.8 grams of marijuana, and Smith was given a misdemeanor charge that was later dismissed.
She sued over the death of her dogs, and a district court ruled the suit could not go forward because Smith did not have "legitimate possessory interest" in the dogs "because they were unlicensed." The appeals court disagreed, holding that just "as the police cannot destroy every unlicensed car or gun on the spot, they cannot kill every unlicensed dog on the spot." Smith's suit can now proceed.
"The opinion establishes that pet owners' Fourth Amendment rights do not depend on a license," said Smith's lawyer, Chris Olson. "More importantly, the opinion foreclosed a post hoc 'get out of jail free card' for police officers that unreasonably shoot dogs every day in this country." Bonnie Kristian
China's detention of religious and ethic minorities, notably Uighur Muslims, is the "largest internment of civilians in the world today," outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Monday night. "It may be the largest since World War II," she added, labeling the arrangement "straight out of George Orwell."
"At least a million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities have been imprisoned in so-called 're-education camps' in western China," Haley reported, accusing Beijing of using torture to force them "to renounce their religion and to pledge allegiance to the Communist Party."
China on Tuesday responded with its most significant defense of the camps to date, tacitly admitting detainees are held at length against their will. Shohrat Zakir, chair of the government in the Xinjiang autonomous region where many Uighurs live, told state-run media the facilities are "humane" vocational training centers with amenities including air conditioning, sports, and movie screenings. He described them as a useful tool for opposing "terrorism and extremism."
"Today's Xinjiang is not only beautiful but also safe and stable," he said. "No matter where they are or at what time of the day, people are no longer afraid of going out, shopping, dining, and traveling." Zakir is himself an ethnic Uighur. Bonnie Kristian
A rising star in the Republican Party is dangerously close to losing her seat in the House.
A University of Utah poll released Monday shows that Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) and her Democratic opponent, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, are now tied. Each candidate has 46 percent support, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. Another 8 percent of those polled remain undecided.
This is the first major poll released in the Utah congressional race that shows Love without any advantage over McAdams, reports Real Clear Politics; she previously held a lead of at least three points. In fact, the same poll in June found that Love held a six-point advantage over McAdams. Love hasn't lost her Republican support, notes the Tribune, rather, McAdams has been more successful at picking up undecided voters. Love told reporters on Monday that she didn't believe the poll and that she normally "runs five points ahead of what the Tribune" finds.
Love was elected in 2014 as Congress' first black Republican woman, and she easily won her re-election in 2016. Real Clear Politics lists Utah's 4th Congressional District as one of 30 toss-ups in the midterms. Democrats are vying to win 23 seats in order to take control of the House.
The University of Utah's poll was conducted by speaking to 403 registered voters from Oct. 3 to Oct. 11. The margin of error is 4.3 percentage points. Brendan Morrow
WWE is not altering its plans to hold an event in Saudi Arabia amid mounting criticism from fans and reportedly even its own employees.
Some wrestlers on WWE's roster are uncomfortable performing at Crown Jewel, a wrestling pay-per-view event scheduled for next month in Saudi Arabia, reports Sports Illustrated. This follows the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who went missing after arriving at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. The Saudi government is reportedly preparing to report he was killed during a botched interrogation after weeks of claiming no knowledge. Turkey says it has evidence Khashoggi's body was dismembered.
Khashoggi's disappearance has prompted various forms of corporate protest — JPMorgan Chase pulled out of an upcoming business conference in Saudi Arabia, and a Hollywood talent firm has threatened to return a $400 million Saudi investment. WWE fans are watching closely, but the wrestling company simply said in a vague statement to the New York Post that it continues to "maintain an open line of communication" with its wrestlers and will "monitor the situation."
WWE first held an event in Saudi Arabia earlier this
Secretary of Defense James Mattis isn't going anywhere just yet.
Mattis told reporters on Monday that Trump has assured him he is "100 percent" behind him, per CBS News. This came after Trump told 60 Minutes on Sunday that it "could be" that his secretary of defense will leave the administration because "I think he's sort of a Democrat."
In response, the retired four-star Marine Corps general told reporters that he has actually never registered for a political party, and his "portfolio is bipartisan." He also said he and the president have "never talked" about the possibility of him leaving the administration.
60 Minutes' question for Trump came following reports that Trump and Mattis' relationship had grown strained; The New York Times reported in September that the president has "soured on his defense secretary" and is "increasingly concerned that he is a Democrat at heart." With such a high turnover rate in the Trump administration, this has naturally raised the question of whether Mattis is on his way out, but for now, he says he's "on [Trump's] team." Brendan Morrow
If President Trump ever gets tired of referring to Elizabeth Warren as Pocahontas, Tucker Carlson just offered him a bunch of offensive new nicknames.
The Fox News host during a segment on Monday night referred to Warren using a whole slate of Native American-themed insults, including "Lie-
Carlson wasn't impressed with Warren's DNA test, though, saying the results only show that she might be "about roughly as American Indian as every white person you've ever met, which is to say not American Indian at all." The Fox News host then said that Warren had appointed herself the "head of the #MeSioux movement" with these claims, having "leveraged" Native Americans' suffering to "climb the greasy pole of our fake meritocracy."
Later in the show, Carlson also floated the idea that Warren may have paid The Boston Globe, which found "ethnicity was not a factor in her rise in law," for their coverage of her DNA test. He asked, "Are they taking payment directly from her or is it just a kind of moral payment?” Brendan Morrow
