The post Santa Barbara Allows Wedding Venues in Funk Zone and Other Areas appeared first on edhat.

The post As Highway 101 Construction Enters Its Final Phase, Los Patos Ramp Closure Raises Community Concerns appeared first on edhat.

The post Expect Closures and Detours on Highway 101 in Santa Barbara Through Early April appeared first on edhat.

By Lauren Fox, Alayna Treene, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump was presented Sunday with a potential off-ramp to the more than month-long Department of Homeland Security shutdown: fund every part of the department except enforcement operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, two sources familiar with the conversations told CNN.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune spoke with Trump right after staff presented the idea to the president, but Trump rejected the idea as he took to Truth Social to attack Democrats for not backing the “SAVE America Act,” a federal elections overhaul bill that faces near-impossible odds in the Senate, the sources said.

“I don’t think we should make any deal with the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats unless, and until, they Vote with Republicans to pass ‘THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,’” Trump posted on Truth Social, echoing a threat he first made in a phone interview with NewsNation earlier Sunday evening.

“It is far more important than anything else we are doing in the Senate, and that includes giving these same terrible people, the Dems (who are to blame for this mess!), a Five Billion Dollar cut in ICE funding, a deal which, even when disguised as something else, is unacceptable to me and the American people,” the president added.

But the funding idea marked a major reversal for Republicans who have blocked similar proposals from Democrats for weeks and reflected the shifting political dynamics as security lines grow across the country at understaffed airports.

It also reflects a growing sentiment among some in the GOP, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, whose state has been badly hit by TSA lines in recent days.

Democrats have long argued that they’d be willing to fund everything but ICE as negotiations over reining in Trump’s immigration enforcement policies have stalled in the Senate.

Despite lawmakers having multiple meetings with White House border czar Tom Homan in recent days, aides warn progress has been tedious and slow. And there is little sign negotiators could break the logjam by week’s end by solely continuing to search for a middle ground on the complicated immigration enforcement policies that Democrats have attacked for months.

As part of the plan, Trump was told lawmakers could fund immigration pieces of ICE using reconciliation – the arcane budget process that allows Senate Republicans to pass bills with just 51 votes, the sources said. That process last summer allowed the GOP to inject billions into immigration enforcement last summer without Democratic support.

Trump’s call for Capitol Hill to back the elections overhaul bill will likely be a nonstarter for Democrats, and even before the Sunday night missive, Republicans — who’d been waiting for Democrats to respond to the latest White House offer in DHS talks — suggested negotiations were largely stalled.

“We’re hitting pause for a minute, and everyone’s collecting themselves and figuring out where they want to be,” Thune said Sunday afternoon.

The elections bill already faced an unlikely future in the Senate, especially with the White House demanding it include controversial provisions ending the widespread practice of no-excuse mail voting and targeting transgender policies.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Alison Main, Aileen Graef and Kit Maher contributed to this report.

The post Trump

By Katia Hetter, CNN

(CNN) — A surprisingly simple measure may offer clues about longevity.

Muscular strength, as determined by two tests, was a key predictor of a person’s risk of death, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open.

Researchers followed more than 5,000 women between the ages of 63 and 99 and found that those participants with greater strength had a significantly lower risk of death over the next eight years.

The findings raise questions about how strength influences healthy aging and what people can do to maintain strength. To better understand the study’s implications, I spoke with CNN wellness expert Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and clinical associate professor at George Washington University. Wen previously served as Baltimore’s health commissioner.

CNN: What were this study’s main findings?

Dr. Leana Wen: Researchers analyzed data from women who were enrolled in a large, long-running study of aging. At the start, investigators assessed muscular strength in two ways: by measuring handgrip strength and by timing how quickly participants could stand up from a seated position without using their arms. The researchers then followed these women for about eight years and tracked who survived during that period.

The key finding was that women with stronger grip strength and better chair-stand performance had a lower risk of death from any cause during follow-up.

The association remained even after researchers accounted for factors such as age, chronic medical conditions, socioeconomic characteristics, physical activity levels and measures of sedentary behavior. In other words, muscular strength itself appeared to be an important predictor of longevity. This finding is consistent with previous research indicating that handgrip strength could be a good indicator of overall strength and performance in daily life.

CNN: Why is muscular strength linked to longevity?

Wen: Muscular strength reflects the health of multiple systems in the body. When people maintain strength as they age, it often indicates that their muscles, bones, nervous system and metabolism are functioning well together. These systems support mobility, balance and the ability to perform everyday activities.

Stronger muscles also help protect against injuries and disability. We can see that in people with better strength, who are generally less likely to fall or may recover more easily if they do. They tend to maintain independence longer because they can perform routine tasks such as climbing stairs, getting groceries and carrying bags.

There are also metabolic benefits. Skeletal muscle plays a major role in regulating blood sugar and energy use. Preserving muscle mass and strength has been linked with better control of conditions such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. These factors together may help explain why muscular strength appears to correlate with survival.

CNN: The researchers used both grip strength and the ability to stand up from sitting in a chair. Why are these particular tests useful?

Wen: These tests are simple but informative measures of functional strength. Researchers often use grip strength because it is easy to measure and correlates with overall strength thro