Today in history:

On July 31, 2012, at the Summer Olympics in London, swimmer Michael Phelps won his 19th Olympic medal, becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time. (He would finish his career with 28 total Olympic medals, 23 of them gold.)

Also on this date:

In 1715, a fleet of Spanish ships carrying gold, silver and jewelry sank during a hurricane off the east Florida coast; of some 2,500 crew members, more than 1,000 died.

In 1919, Germany’s Weimar Constitution was adopted by the republic’s National Assembly.

In 1945, Pierre Laval, premier of the pro-Nazi Vichy government in France, surrendered to U.S. authorities in Austria; he was turned over to France, which later tried and executed him.

In 1957, the Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations designed to detect Soviet bombers approaching North America, went into operation.

In 1964, the U.S. lunar probe Ranger 7 took the first close-up images of the moon’s surface.

In 1971, Apollo 15 crew members David Scott and James Irwin became the first astronauts to use a lunar rover on the surface of the moon.

In 1972, vice-presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton withdrew from the Democratic ticket with George McGovern following disclosures that Eagleton had received electroshock therapy to treat clinical depression.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) in Moscow.

In 2020, a federal appeals court overturned the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, saying the judge who oversaw the case didn’t adequately screen jurors for potential biases. (The Supreme Court later reimposed the sentence.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Jazz composer-musician Kenny Burrell is 93.
• Actor Geraldine Chaplin is 80.
• Former movie studio executive Sherry Lansing is 80.
• Singer Gary Lewis is 78.
• International Tennis Hall of Famer Evonne Goolagong Cawley is 73.
• Actor Michael Biehn is 68.
• Rock singer-musician Daniel Ash (Love and Rockets) is 67.
• Entrepreneur Mark Cuban is 66.
• Rock musician Bill Berry (R.E.M.) is 66.
• Jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan is 65.
• Actor Wesley Snipes is 62.
• Musician Fatboy Slim is 61.
• Author J.K. Rowling is 59.
• Actor Dean Cain is 58.
• Actor Jim True-Frost is 58.
• Actor Ben Chaplin is 55.
• Actor Eve Best is 53.
• Football Hall of Famer Jonathan Ogden is 50.
• Country singer-musician Zac Brown is 46.
• Actor-producer-writer B.J. Novak is 45.
• Football Hall of Famer DeMarcus Ware is 42.
• NHL center Evgeni Malkin is 38.
• NASCAR driver Kyle Larson is 32.
• Hip-hop artist Lil Uzi Vert is 29.
• Actor Rico Rodriguez (TV: “Modern Family”) is 26.

In a report released last week, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs identified problems at the medical center related to surgical services and how leadership there addressed quality management concerns.

“We take allegations of oversight and misconduct seriously and have strengthened our policies and procedures to ensure consistent, high-quality care from licensed professionals,” said Terrence Hayes, the VA’s press secretary, in a Tuesday statement. “We plan to fully implement all recommendations by December.”

The Hampton facility recently confirmed it was replacing several top officials, including its director, chief of staff and chief of surgery.

The OIG launched its review following multiple complaints it received about the center in 2022.

“We got some concerns about surgical quality so we engaged with the facility trying to get some response,” said Julie Kroviak, the department’s principal deputy assistant inspector general for health care inspections. “We then sent further questions to the regional office — and after that we just became more concerned about the quality review processes.”

Kroviak said the report can get a “little bit technical” but shouldn’t be dismissed.

“I think it can be written off as ‘Oh just some detailed processes weren’t followed by clinical leaders.’ But those processes are so critical to the foundation of a patient’s safety program,” she said. “If the highest levels of leadership are not aware of them, truly not aware of them, there are so many places for things to go seriously wrong.”

For example, the report found that after concerns were raised about patient safety, facility leaders issued a summary suspension of the assistant chief of surgery’s clinical privileges in January 2023. But it says the surgeon’s clinical privileges were restored after facility leaders failed to follow required protocol. The surgeon transferred to another VA health facility in June 2023, which “precluded facility leaders from correcting the process, including initiating additional actions,” the report states.

The Hampton center serves southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. From Oct. 1, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2022, the center served more than 66,000 patients.

The report states OIG received a complaint, which included five patient case examples, in December 2022 that the assistant chief of surgery provided poor surgical care and that the chief of staff was aware of the concerns but did not address them.

After OIG requested additional information, the Veterans Integrated Service Network responded and said the facility conducted a focused clinical care review of 15 cases performed by the assistant chief of surgery. It found six cases did not meet the standard of care and four of those had intraoperative complications, including one patient who experienced a laceration of the liver and another who underwent surgery in concerningly close proximity to having received chemoradiation therapy.

The report states OIG opened its hotline inspection in May 2023. During this review, widespread failures and deficiencies were identified related to facility leaders’ responses to care concerns and subsequent privileging actions involving the assistant chief of surgery, professional practice evaluations of surgeons, surgical service quality management and institutional disclosures.

“The findings identified through this inspection highlight not only failures of facility leaders to ensure that the required processes were appropriately implemented, but also a lack of leaders’ basic understanding of the processes that support delivery of safe health care,” the report states.

The report provided a dozen recommendations, including that summary suspensions, clinical care reviews and proposed revocation of privileges are conducted in accordance with the requirements and policies of the Veterans Health Administration. It further advised the center to ensure that ongoing professional practice evaluations include documentation of all conclusionary outcomes.

In his statement, Hayes said the VA fully supported OIG’s findings.

Hayes said a new team is meeting bi-weekly to address OIG’s recommendations with a target year-end completion goal. He said the facility has introduced a new reporting tool to track clinical care metrics, suspensions, privilege changes, state board reports and ongoing evaluations. Additionally, the facility has initiated monthly patient risk meetings in surgery services.

Hayes noted Michael Harper is taking on the role of acting medical center director until Aug. 5. Harper will then be replaced by Walt Dannenberg, who currently serves as the medical center director of the Long Beach VA Medical Center in California. Hayes said the leadership changes were done to “align with the VA’s commitment to high-reliability principles” but were not directly related to the report.

The House of Representatives’ Committee on Veterans’ Affairs also recently completed an investigation into the Hampton VA Medical Center after lawmakers said they received credible complaints about patient safety concerns and medical incompetence. As a result of the investigation, the committee announced last week that the center was making a series of personnel changes.

Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com

Now he will serve the maximum allowable sentence.

Justin Lee Palmer, 44, of Jonesboro, was sentenced July 25 to 30 years in federal prison without the possibility of parole and a lifetime of supervised release on a production of child pornography charge, according to a July 26 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Palmer pleaded guilty to the charge Aug. 4, 2023, court records show.

“A vile, disgusting, reprobate has finally received his due,” U.S. Attorney Jonathan D. Ross said in the release.

McClatchy News reached out to Palmer’s attorney for comment July 30 but did not immediately hear back.

Authorities first learned of Palmer during a 2020 investigation into the sexual abuse of a 9-year-old girl which was filmed and distributed to users on KIK, a messaging app, officials said.

The FBI identified Palmer, username “skipdinnergetmethin,” as someone who received the video of the abuse, according to court records.

Further investigation into Palmer revealed that he “used the screen name ’skipdinnergetmethin’ to pose as a 15-year-old girl and coach teen and preteen girls how to be anorexic,” officials said.

“Palmer instructed girls to perform a variety of humiliating and harmful acts while they were naked so that they would feel disgusted with themselves and be motivated to lose weight,” according to officials.

FBI Little Rock Special Agent in Charge Alicia D. Corder called Palmer’s actions “revolting and deplorable.”

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Predations ’far beyond the typical scope’

Investigators found saved conversations on Palmer’s phone between him and his victims in which he asked their weight “stats,” called them pigs and directed them to take photos and videos of themselves naked, court records show.

Palmer’s phone contained 38 images and 49 videos of one 13-year-old girl, 71 of which showed sexual acts, according to court records.

“Palmer’s predations went far beyond the typical scope of production cases,” Ross said in a sentencing memo, calling the abuse “calculated and cruel.”

He encouraged the girls to “drink toilet water, cut into their skin, urinate into a bottle and drink it, masturbate with household objects, and cover their skin in shameful phrases about their weight,” according to court records.

“The humiliation, self-hatred, and physical pain these victims — known and unknown — suffered as a result of Palmer’s lies and manipulation was, and likely continues to be, undoubtedly profound,” Ross said.

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©2024 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Police responded to the 100 block of Dover Circle, near East Severn Road in the East Belvedere neighborhood, following a 911 call at 5:23 p.m. Officers found a man with life-threatening injuries.

The victim has been taken to a hospital for treatment. No further information has been made available as of Tuesday evening.

The investigation is ongoing.

Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com

When his body arrived at the funeral home, after undergoing a state autopsy, the undertaker told the family that the 43-year-old’s internal organs were missing. The family said they had not given permission for his organs to be retained or destroyed.

Moore said her daughter and other son drove four hours to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where the autopsy had been performed, and picked up a sealed red bag containing what they were told was their brother’s organs. They buried the bag along with him.

“We should not be here. This is something out of science fiction. Any human would not believe that something so barbaric is happening,” Kelvin’s brother Simone Moore, said Tuesday.

Six families, who had loved ones die in the state prison system, have filed lawsuits against the commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections and others, saying their family members’ bodies were returned to them missing internal organs after undergoing state-ordered autopsies. The families crowded into a Montgomery courtroom Tuesday for a brief status conference in the consolidated litigation.

“We will be seeking more answers about what happened to these organs and where they ended up,” Lauren Faraino, an attorney representing the families said after court. Faraino said there are additional families who are affected.

In one of the lawsuits, another family said a funeral home in 2021 similarly told them that “none of the organs had been returned” with their father’s body after his death while incarcerated.

The lawsuits also state that a group of UAB medical students in 2018 became concerned that a disproportionate number of the specimens they encountered during their medical training originated from people who had died in prison. They questioned if families of incarcerated people had the same ability as other patients’ families to request that organs be returned with the body.

UAB, in an earlier statement about the dispute, said that the Alabama Department of Corrections was “responsible for obtaining proper authorizations from the appropriate legal representative of the deceased.” “UAB does not harvest organs from bodies of inmates for research as has been reported in media reports,” the statement read.

UAB spokesperson Hannah Echols said in an emailed statement Tuesday that sometimes that organs are kept for additional testing if a pathologist believes it is needed to help determine the cause of death.

The University of Alabama System, which includes UAB, is a defendant in the lawsuits. Lawyers for the university system indicated they will file a motion to dismiss the lawsuits. UAB no longer does autopsies for the state prison system.

The Alabama Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

It’s a legal question expected to be handled in court, primarily because of different interpretations of Chesapeake’s city charter — seemingly the only charter for a major Hampton Roads city that puts the city in this novel position.

Multiple council members are challenging mayors this November elections in surrounding cities, like Virginia Beach and Portsmouth. Yet Chesapeake finds itself in this situation as it’s the only Hampton Roads city with a provision in the city charter that requires council members to formally resign from their council seat during their mayoral election bid instead of after. Carey’s council term is set to end Dec. 31. Chesapeake’s charter provision calls for a council resignation by June 30, though it was established when Chesapeake held city elections in May.

The ongoing legal question has spurred division among council members, some of whom are practicing a boycott of certain city business they don’t believe Carey should be part of, like closed sessions, as a result.

At a July 23 meeting, some residents said Carey was being penalized for an oversight issue in the charter, and called for council to make the appropriate changes in lieu of legal action. But that’s challenging in a Dillon’s Rule state like Virginia, where the General Assembly determines the scope of local governments’ power. That means when a city needs to update its charter, state legislators are the ones who can make it happen.

“No two local government situations are alike, and they’re often quite obscure provisions that are at issue,” said Richard Schragger, a law professor at the University of Virginia.

He added that in Chesapeake’s case, it can be tricky because even if the dates should have been changed, the charter also clearly states June 30.

“So then the question becomes, if there’s ambiguities in the interpretation of that provision, who makes that decision? And generally we end up in courts when that’s the case,” Schragger said.

For most Hampton Roads cities, council members who declare candidacy in a mayor’s race must formally resign their council position following the election or upon the start of the newly elected mayor’s term, according to the respective city charters. That includes Norfolk, Hampton, Suffolk and Virginia Beach.

In Virginia Beach, Councilman Chris Taylor, representing District 8, has joined a crowded field to challenge the sitting mayor. To do so, Taylor had to file a formal resignation letter effective after the election since his council term spans until 2026, which will necessitate a special election. His resignation will take effect Dec. 31, regardless of whether he wins or loses the mayoral race.

Sabrina Wooten is another Virginia Beach council member challenging the mayor, but her term ends at the end of the year.

Portsmouth’s charter lacks any resign-to-run requirement. The current vice mayor, Lisa Lucas-Burke, is challenging sitting Mayor Shannon Glover. There is no apparent provision in Newport News’ charter that addresses resign-to-rule stipulations, but a process for filling vacancies is included.

General Assembly action in 2021 shifted Chesapeake’s elections from May to November, but the accompanying provision for resignation was not altered, according to an opinion issued in May by Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. His opinion concluded that Carey was required to step down by June 30.

In March, Carey declared a bid to challenge Mayor Rick West. On July 9, a majority of council members directed the city attorney’s office to file a writ of mandamus with the Circuit Court asking a judge to compel Carey to resign from his position as he seeks election as mayor.

While it’s still unclear when the city will formally file the petition in Circuit Court, Carey said he was officially served last week by the city with a notice of intent to file. City Attorney Catherine Lindley previously said a “reasonable time” must lapse before filing with Circuit Court, though she has declined to specify what that timeframe will be.

Carey has previously called the move political and unethical.

“Citizens realize how foolish this endeavor is for council to waste taxpayer dollars to attack a political opponent,” he said in a phone interview Monday.

Carey was first elected to City Council in May 2020. He assumed his role July 1 when Chesapeake still held local elections in May instead of November. In Miyares’ opinion, he stated that though resignation would have the effect of shortening Carey’s term, it’s “due to his voluntary decision to seek election to the office of mayor, as was the case prior to the 2021 amendments for council members seeking to become mayor in middle of their otherwise four-year term.”

Around a dozen residents spoke at a July 23 meeting, mostly expressing frustration with division among council and the city money and resources that will be dedicated to litigating the issue. Others said he should stay in his seat through the end of his current term.

Resident Nancy Pettigrew and George Reed of the New Chesapeake Men for Progress argued that the intent of the charter change law wasn’t to result in a monthslong vacancy when a council member runs for mayor.

“Forcing Councilman Carey off the council at this point in the year will hamper the work that the City Council does,” Pettigrew said. “And in fact, we are already seeing that happen.”

Reed cited a summary document about the 2021 law when it was passed, which states the terms of mayor, council and school board members should not be shortened as a result of shifting elections to November. It also states all those members elected at a May general election and whose terms end as of June 30 “shall continue in office until their successors have been elected at the November general election and have been qualified to serve.”

Another election-related bill passed that year amended that portion of state code and the clause Reed cited was removed.

“We ought to have a writ of mandamus to get our city attorney to configure our charter to meet the state law,” Reed said. “I say to you there must be a different agenda. You should explain that agenda to the public. Because it’s certainly not running good governance with transparency and accountability.”

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com

NEW YORK (AP) — The director of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 vision for a complete overhaul of the federal government stepped down Tuesday amid blowback from Donald Trump’s campaign, which has tried to disavow the program created by many of the former president’s allies and former aides.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said Paul Dans’ exit comes after the project “completed exactly what it set out to do.” Roberts, who has emerged as a chief spokesman for the effort, plans to lead Project 2025 going forward.

“Our collective efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels — federal, state, and local — will continue,” Roberts said.

What started as an obscure far-right wish list is now a focal point in the 2024 campaign. Democrats for the past several months have made Project 2025 a key election-year cudgel, pointing to the ultraconservative policy blueprint as a glimpse into how extreme another Trump administration could be.

The nearly 1,000-page handbook lays out sweeping changes in the federal government, including altering personnel rules to ensure government workers are more loyal to the president. Heritage is building a database of potential new hires to staff a second Trump White House.

Yet Trump has repeatedly disavowed the document, saying on social media he hasn’t read it and doesn’t know anything about it. At a rally in Michigan earlier this month, he said Project 2025 was written by people on the “severe right” and some of the things in it are “seriously extreme.”

“President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way,” Trump campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement.

They said, “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you.”

But Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, wrote a foreword to a forthcoming book by Roberts in which he lauds the Heritage Foundation’s work. A copy of the foreword was obtained by The Associated Press.

“The Heritage Foundation isn’t some random outpost on Capitol Hill; it is and has been the most influential engine of ideas for Republicans from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump,” wrote Vance.

Quoting Roberts elsewhere in the book, Vance writes: ″We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.”

Trump campaign representatives did not respond to messages inquiring about whether the campaign asked or pushed for Dans to step down from the project. The Heritage Foundation said Dans left voluntarily and it was not under pressure from the Trump campaign. Dans didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Project 2025 has many ties to Trump’s orbit

In many ways, Project 2025 served as a potential far-right White House in waiting, a constellation of outside groups that would be ready for action if Trump wins a second term.

The project included not only the detailed policy proposals that Trump could put into place on day one at the White House. Project 2025 was also building a personnel database of resumes for potential hires, drawing Americans to Washington to staff a new Trump administration.

Many Trump allies and former top aides contributed to the project. Dans formerly worked as a personnel official for the Trump administration. And Trump regularly campaigns on many of the same proposals in the Project 2025 book — from mass deportations to upending the Justice Department — though some of its other proposals, including further taxes on tips, conflict with some of what Trump has pledged on the campaign trail.

It was clear that Project 2025 was becoming a liability for Trump and the Republican Party.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and top Democrats have repeatedly tied Trump to Project 2025 as they argue against a second term for the former president.

The Harris campaign said Project 2025 remains linked to Trump’s agenda, written by his allies for him to “inflict” on the country.

“Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn’t make it less real — in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding,” said Harris for President Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.

For months Trump’s campaign had warned outside groups, and Heritage in particular, that they did not speak for the former president.

In an interview from the Republican convention first published by Politico, LaCivita said Project 2025 was a problem because “the issues that are going to win us this campaign are not the issues that they want to talk about.”

It was almost certain than Trump’s campaign forced the shakeup, said one former Heritage aide granted anonymity to discuss the situation.

Trump’s team was well aware it couldn’t risk any missteps from Heritage in this final stretch ahead of the election.

By announcing the departure, Roberts appeared to be sending a signal to the Trump campaign that changes were being made at Heritage to tamp down any concerns over Project 2025, said another conservative familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it.

If Trump wins the White House, he almost certainly will need to rely on Heritage and other outside entities to help quickly staff a new administration, the person said.

Heritage says Project 2025 is not going away

Project 2025’s website will remain live and the group will continue vetting resumes for its nearly 20,000-person database of potential officials eager to execute its vision for government, the Heritage Foundation said Tuesday.

The group said Dans, who had started the project from scratch more than two years ago, will leave the Heritage Foundation in August. Roberts will now run Project 2025 operations.

Roberts has faced criticism in recent weeks after he said on an episode of former Trump aide Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast that the country is in the midst of a “second American Revolution” that will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be.”

Earlier this month, in an interview before beginning a prison sentence for defying a congressional subpoena, Bannon mentioned Roberts as the type of leader who could land a top job in a Trump White House.

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Mascaro reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

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In this year alone, the U.S. has had a myriad of natural hazards worsened by climate change: the earliest recorded Category 5 hurricane to make landfall; floods throughout the country; record-breaking heat everywhere; tornadoes in the Midwest; and wildfires in the West. The La Nina weather pattern is expected to arrive soon, which is likely to fuel storms in the Atlantic during this year’s hurricane season.

Climate change amplifies the frequency, duration and intensity of extreme weather events. It can cause all kinds of disruptions and health hazards while driving up expenses like heating, cooling and homeowners insurance.

Get hammered enough by amplified weather events and you might wonder if there’s somewhere a little less hazard-prone to live. While there is no place on Earth that is immune to the impact of climate change, some places are less exposed to risk than others.

Last year, NerdWallet examined federal data and found that most of the fastest-growing places in the U.S. are also at high risk for natural hazards that are exacerbated by climate change. This year, we explored which places — in this case, counties — are least likely to feel the impact of natural hazards.

Isolation doesn’t guarantee fewer risks — just fewer people

If you rank places only by Federal Emergency Management Agency rating, the counties in the U.S. with the lowest risks are the places with the fewest people.

At the top of that list is Loving County in North Texas, where just 64 people reside — the least populous county in the country. No. 2 is Kalawao, Hawaii, which was originally established as an area of forced isolation for people with Hansen’s disease, or what was once more colloquially known as a leper colony. And No. 3 is Keweenaw, Michigan, a peninsula containing a national park where, as the county’s website says, you can “find solitude in the pristine, remote wilderness while sharing trails with the island’s moose and wolves.”

However, solitude doesn’t make for the best measure of risk from natural hazards. FEMA’s risk index takes population into account as part of social and community risk when it makes its risk designations — it stands to reason that the fewer the people, the lower the risk. But, of course, the natural hazards are still there: North Texas isn’t immune from extreme heat, tornadoes or extreme thunderstorms, for example. A Hawaiian island won’t be immune from a hurricane, earthquake, flash flood, wildfire or tsunami. And any area that is designated a peninsula, like Keweenaw, Michigan, is highly likely to be flood-prone.

While FEMA’s National Risk Index measures current risk, it must be noted that extreme weather effects are projected to worsen as the planet continues to warm on our current trajectory, and in coming decades, coastal flooding will increase as sea levels rise.

Note also that FEMA’s ratings consider not only the kinds of events that can be worsened by climate change (floods, droughts, wildfires, storms), but also natural hazards that aren’t affected by climate change, like earthquakes and volcanoes.

What midsize counties have the lowest climate change risks?

To get a better picture of what might make an area least vulnerable to natural hazards and still boast the creature comforts of basic infrastructure, NerdWallet set a population control of at least 100,000 people. It includes the annual cost of living in 2023 dollars, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator for households comprising two adults and two children.

What most populated counties have the lowest climate change risks?

People migrate to some of the most populated areas in the country for obvious reasons, like the availability of housing, jobs, entertainment and a desire for proximity to lots of other people.

Among the counties with populations above 1 million residents, here are the counties where the risk of natural hazards is lowest. The analysis also includes the annual cost of living in 2023 dollars, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator for households with two adults and two children.

No matter where you live, climate change will cost you

The terrible truth about climate change is that even if you uproot your life and move to a place with low risks of natural hazards, intense weather events are still likely to find you. For example, most of the relatively high risks in midsize counties have to do with winter weather. In some places, winters are becoming less severe, but in others, they are worsening. And one big event could be devastating.

In the U.S., extreme weather events cost nearly $150 billion per year, according to The Fifth National Climate Assessment, a report released in November 2023 by the federal government. That sum doesn’t account for additional costs including loss of life, health care costs, or damages to what are known as ecosystem services — for example, food, water, timber and oil. There’s a billion-dollar weather or climate disaster in the U.S. every three weeks, on average, the report found. That is compared with one every four months in the 1980s.

Despite all this, nearly half of all Americans (45%) don’t believe that climate change will affect them personally, according to a December 2023 survey by Yale University. So how about what a single person pays: Issues related to climate change will cost a child born in the U.S. in 2024 at least $500,000 — and as much as $1 million — over their lifetime due to indirect and direct costs (such as missed cost-of-living increases and lower earnings), according to an April analysis conducted by ICF, a global consulting firm, and released by Consumer Reports.

Some current and future costs are likely to include:

• Homeowners insurance. If you’re a homeowner, you know all too well how heightened weather-related disaster risks play into your homeowners insurance premiums. In certain places where risk is highest, private insurers won’t provide coverage for floods and wildfires.
• Home maintenance, upgrades and safeguards against climate risks. These could include installing a sump pump or resealing basement walls; upgrading insulation and windows; adding or enhancing heating or ventilation systems; roofing upgrades and more.
• Energy bills. With increased heating and cooling needs come higher energy bills.
• Food. Weather changes present challenges to food production, which could lower supply and increase prices.
• Higher taxes due to more government spending and lower government revenues. The Consumer Reports report cites reduced personal and corporation earnings that lead to less tax revenue combined with higher expenses that the government must take on for health care and infrastructure damages.
• Lower income. The Consumer Reports analysis cites a possible decrease in labor hours due to extreme weather, which may lead to lower earnings.

Climate migration within the U.S. is already happening. A 2021 survey by the real estate website Redfin found that among those who plan to move, half say climate change-fueled conditions like natural disasters and extreme temperatures are factors in their decision. There are expenses associated with uprooting your life and moving elsewhere — and those aren’t costs that everyone can afford.

Anna Helhoski writes for NerdWallet. Email: anna@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @AnnaHelhoski.

The article You Can’t Escape Climate Change, but in Some Areas, Risk Is Lower originally appeared on NerdWallet.

You see them crowding checkout counters at grocery stores — a rainbow of bubble-gum pink, lime green and blueberry packets, slender and upright, like a multicolored chorus line of dancers tempting an impulse purchase. At the gym, they’re dissolved into enormous jugs of cherry-tinted water.

They’re especially prevalent on TikTok. Just search #watertok for a flood of #watergirlies, clutching Stanley tumblers at their #waterstations, which are crammed with neon-bright hydration powders and flavored syrups. #Wateroftheday? How about Strawberry Birthday Cake Water. Or Caramel Apple Sucker Water.

“If your water isn’t turning your mouth blue, you’re apparently hydrating wrong,” one skeptical dietitian observed on TikTok last year.

Hydration supplements in the form of powders, tablets and liquid additives have become a norm among consumers over the last decade, and are more popular than ever. The global electrolyte hydration drinks market was valued at $1.72 billion in 2023, according to Data Bridge Market Research. And it’s growing. The business of boosting one’s H2O is projected to reach $3.26 billion by 2031.

Why hydration is important

This bonanza of new hydration products plays to a basic but critical need: More than 50% of people around the globe, including in the U.S., are chronically underhydrated, according to the National Institutes of Health, which cites worldwide surveys. (“Underhydration” refers to people who don’t meet the recommended daily fluid intake, whereas “dehydration” refers to a more severe fluid deficit.)

Those statistics are concerning, considering hydration is the oil to our body’s engine. It aids in muscle repair, digestion, energy and focus. It’s necessary for lubricating joints, regulating body temperature and removing toxins from the body. It carries nutrients to cells and is crucial for hormonal balance, which can affect blood pressure and the menstrual cycle. Our level of hydration also contributes to our hair and skin health.

“Proper hydration keeps every system of the body running smoothly,” says dietitian-nutritionist Vanessa King, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

After years of striving to adhere to a 1945 U.S. Food and Nutrition Board recommendation of eight glasses of water a day, it tracks that we’d want to zhuzh up the ritual. (Some studies, however, suggest we need less water daily and that water requirements vary for individuals.) But is there any actual health value to these water additives? Do they aid with hangovers, enhance our workouts or energize us? Or are they simply there to make plain old water taste like a piña colada?

It depends on what product you’re peppering into your Hydro Flask.

“Hydration supplements can replenish you when your fluid status is down — so after workouts, for hangovers or when you’ve been sick,” says Dr. Vijaya Surampudi, an endocrinologist, nutrition specialist and professor at UCLA. “Depending on their composition, some get better absorbed and improve your hydration. Some are just for flavoring and they can have a lot of sugar or artificial coloring — it can be like drinking a soda.”

She notes that because these powders and tablets are categorized as supplements, they aren’t regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “So you just have to trust what’s on the label.” (To fill this gap in regulation, some sleuthing social media users have even carved out a niche content genre in which they analyze the ingredients listed on the labels of celebrity-backed supplements.)

What’s in hydration supplements?

More often than not, a hydration powder or tablet includes a mix of four main ingredients: electrolytes (such as sodium, potassium, magnesium and chloride), a carbohydrate (such as glucose), vitamins (typically B vitamins, sometimes C) and amino acids. Depending on their quantity, and how they interact with one another, those ingredients may help hydrate your body more efficiently.

How these ingredients chemically interact with one another directly affects hydration. Water follows sodium for absorption, for example, and sodium molecules travel best with glucose molecules across the lining of the gastrointestinal tract, Surampudi says, so carbohydrates like sugar are not a bad thing in your supplements — they’re actually preferred.

Even so, it’s a delicate balance. A supplement with too much sugar may work against your aim to be healthier.

“The body stores excess sugar for energy later, and that’s stored as fat,” Surampudi says. “And if you drink too much [sugary fluids], that can lead to health complications.”

While sugar and sodium help fuel hydration, those with diabetes or high blood pressure should be careful with hydration supplements, paying attention to their sugar or salt intake.

“Use it with caution and discuss with your healthcare provider,” Surampudi says.

Do we need them?

Hydration supplements aren’t unsafe for most people to take daily if the sugar content is moderate — but they’re often not necessary, says Dr. Christopher Duggan, editor of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and a Harvard Medical School professor.

Most adults and children don’t meet daily hydration recommendations, he says, which is currently 13 eight-ounce cups of fluid for healthy men and nine for healthy women, according to the National Academy of Medicine. (Note this recommendation includes all fluids, not just water. And we tend to get 20% of our water intake from food.)

“So if adding a light flavoring gets them to drink more water, that’s probably not a terrible thing,” Duggan said. “But if the expense is high, it’s ultimately not worthwhile. Because unless you’re participating in vigorous exercise or your GI tract doesn’t work normally, water alone is probably an adequate hydration.”

Some hydration supplements even contain ingredients that are not hydrating when consumed in large quantities, such as caffeine. Though caffeine is a diuretic, consuming up to 400 mg of it daily can actually help with hydration, according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ King. Other flavored powders contain various B vitamins, which may cause problems in excess.

“B6, if you consume too much of it because you’re getting it elsewhere, there’s a risk for some people of neuropathy, which means damage to the peripheral nerves (which are outside of the brain and spinal cord), and which can cause numbness and tingling, among other things,” Surampudi said.

Surampudi recommends consuming hydration supplements only in moments when your body is especially challenged.

“If there’s a situation where you’re fluid down, or in a high altitude or in an extremely hot climate, that’s where these things can be helpful,” she said.

How 8 top hydration supplement brands perform

So take your hydration boosters with a healthy dose of skepticism. Here’s an analysis of eight hydration supplements — the good, the bad and the meh — according to L.A.-based dietitian Katie Chapmon.

Liquid I.V.’s Hydration Multiplier. “I would not have someone choose this to use every day because the added sugar is really too much — it’s the first and second listed ingredients. The other thing is: They boast, on their website, that the hydration multiplier has ‘3x the electrolytes of the leading sports drink.’ And that may be wonderful for someone who is doing very high-impact sports or who would require serious electrolytes replacement, but it’s not for the average person. Electrolytes balance out our cells, but if we have too much it throws off that balance and our cells can actually become oversaturated; it can make it harder for that cell to work and to get hydrated. This is why a more moderate amount of electrolytes may be a better option for athletes and heavy sweaters.”

Nuun Sport Hydration. “This one has a lower amount of added sugar. It might be for someone who wants to flavor their water — which, alone, would help increase fluid intake and therefore their hydration. It has electrolytes — your sodium, magnesium, potassium, chloride — but I would not have someone use this from a serious athletic standpoint because athletes need to not only replenish electrolytes lost but also sugars lost through expelling energy through exercise. Would it help hydrate cells? Sure, a little bit. But most people will end up drinking this because they like the flavors — and a lot of people like Nuun’s flavors.”

Cure Hydrating Electrolyte Drink Mix. “I like this one as a water flavoring — out of all of them, it was one of my favorites for that. But it’s not a true electrolyte blend. It includes sodium and Himalayan salt. But there’s no chloride and magnesium. This would not be a recommendation for gym-goers or athletes as it doesn’t contain any sugars, which are needed for adequate electrolyte and energy replenishment. It’s just a water flavoring because it contains lower amounts of sodium and potassium than other hydration alternatives. The ingredients are straightforward and clean — it has no added sugar, which is great — but it’s not in the same boat as an electrolyte product, even though it’s advertised as that.”

MIO Strawberry Watermelon Liquid Water Enhancer and MIO Sport Electrolytes + B Vitamins. “Out of all of these, MIO is probably one of my least favorites. The first is just a water flavoring, but all these additives — like sucrose acetate and Red 40 — they’re not good for you. Red 40 is a synthetic food dye. It’s considered safe, but a lot of people can have allergies causing headaches. It’s safe but not as good as Cure, which uses a natural additive like beet powder for color. Mio Sport uses Blue 1 for coloring, also a synthetic dye. It does contain B vitamins — B3, B6 and B12 — but not the complete B complex of eight B vitamins. It’s also not as strong of an electrolyte blend. Like Cure, it is missing your chloride and magnesium.”

Ultima Replenisher, Broad Spectrum Electrolyte Mix. “This one is OK from a standpoint that it’s going to flavor water and has the electrolytes that we’re looking for, like potassium, sodium, magnesium and chloride. But they’re relatively low amounts, containing one-sixth the amount of sodium in Nuun and Orgain; therefore, it is not for serious athletes.”

LMNT Zero-Sugar Electrolytes, Raw Unflavored. “This is a clean, straightforward brand and zero calories — just your electrolytes. It isn’t flavored, though, so would not be an adequate water flavoring product. It would be good for a smoothie boost or if someone is on an elimination diet. But you’d need to add in a carbohydrate source, like fruit, for this to be more hydrating. It would have to be a whole lemon squeezed in. Or, if doing a smoothie, add a quarter cup of frozen berries to help absorb the electrolytes and help hydration.”

Water Boy Hydration Electrolyte Drink Mix for Weekend Recovery. “I was nervous about the high sodium content here. Sodium is the first ingredient and it’s almost 50% of your daily value. Compared to the other electrolytes — potassium, magnesium and chloride — the sodium is very high and the others are low. It’s a really odd balance. But it has zero sugar and it has only 1 gram of carbohydrates, which, from the ingredient list, I’m assuming is coming from a natural flavor or potentially the vegetable juice. But it’s not enough carbohydrates to balance out the high sodium content. This product is marketed as a ‘hangover’ cure because alcohol dehydrates the body; dehydration is a major contributor to hangover symptoms. Rehydrating the body using alkaline salt neutralizes the acid from alcohol and dehydration; however, this product would benefit from a better balance of all electrolytes, not just high amounts of sodium.”

Orgain Hydro Boost, Rapid Hydration Drink Mix. “I like this one for athletes. Sugar is the first ingredient, but for athletes that would help absorb the electrolytes. And it would also replenish glucose storage in the muscles. And I like the balance of sodium and chloride here too. There’s also potassium. It’s missing magnesium, but because the sodium and chloride are so well balanced it outweighs that. There’s also no synthetic flavoring. It’s all things like organic lemon juice and organic monk fruit. It’s not for everyday use because of the high sugar content, but great for athletes for specific use like a long-intense bike training, high energy, intermittent workouts or an event, like a sports game.”

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The study led by a group of Swedish researchers and published Sunday in the Journal of the American Medial Association, found that a test  based on measuring certain proteins in the brain had about a 90% accuracy rate in diagnosing Alzheimer’s in those with cognitive symptoms. By comparison, primary care doctors and specialists had a 61% and 73% accuracy rate in diagnosing the disease, the study found.

Currently, the disease can be definitively diagnosed only by more expensive and invasive tools such as PET scans and spinal taps. The neurodegenerative disease afflicts more than 6 million Americans, and Baltimore and Maryland have been found to have some of the nation’s highest rates of prevalence.

The blood test in the study and others of its ilk are only available in research trials at the moment. Getting one to the market and available in a primary care physician’s office would represent “incredible progress,” said Corinne Pettigrew, an assistant professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who was not involved in the study.

“This would allow patients to review options for treatments, learn about what to expect of the disease and plan for the future,” said Pettigrew, who leads outreach, recruitment and engagement for the Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

She said the test also would be important for ruling out Alzheimer’s as the reason for a patient’s cognitive impairment, allowing doctors to seek and treat the actual cause.

The study involved 1,213 people in Sweden whose average age was 74 and who were being evaluated because of cognitive symptoms. According to the paper, Alzheimer’s is often misdiagnosed by primary care physicians and even specialists because of a lack of or limited access to diagnostic tools. That prevents patients from starting treatments for those with early Alzheimer’s, which require test results confirming the disease, the study said.

“The higher diagnostic accuracy of the blood test indicates that it could be suitable for implementation in primary care, but future studies need to examine its effect on clinical care,” according to the study, which was led by Dr. Sebastian Palmqvist, of Lund University in Sweden. “In addition to improving diagnostic accuracy, a positive test result could further support the initiation of widely available treatments.”

Ilene Rosenthal, program director at the Greater Maryland chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, called the study findings “extremely exciting” for advocates such as her organization who have pushed for more research to understand and treat the devastating disease.

“When you have 90% accuracy,” she said, “that’s very impressive.”

Rosenthal envisions a time when a blood test for Alzheimer’s will be as common and widely available as those that test for cholesterol.

“This should become a normal part of a physical or a wellness visit,” she said.

Alzheimer’s still has no cure, but there are treatments that can ease its symptoms and change its progression if started early enough. That makes the development of a test vital, and it will incentivize patients and doctors to use them, Rosenthal said.

“The real urgency right now is the availability of new treatments. But these treatments are only going to work in the early stages,” she said. “It’s so much better to know than to not know.”