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SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) - A local robotics team, "Team Octobots" – comprised of Santa Barbara County high school students – took home second place at the FIRST Robotics Southern California State Championship in Anaheim earlier this month.

Over 30 high school students battled their way to the finals, beating out higher seated teams. They lost only to the third globally ranked "Team High Tide."

In a press release, team captain and Dos Pueblos High School senior, Zeo Pereira, shared what this win means to him.

"That moment meant a lot to me, especially after a season of early mornings on school nights, up until 3:00am at robotics, and then back to school at 9:00am for several days at a time. It was a big mental battle. I’m proud of the growth our team has shown.”

Now, the team is turning its sights to the FIRST Robotics World Championship in Houston, Texas, set for April 28-May 2. The call has gone out for community help in getting all team members to the competition. The team hopes to raise $50,000 dollars to cover the travel costs.

If you would like to support the team, visit their Give Butter page to make a donation.

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By Brenda Goodman, CNN

(CNN) — Covid-19 vaccines roughly halved the chances that a US adult would need to visit the emergency room or be hospitalized with their infections last fall and winter, according to two sources familiar with the findings of a new study. But you won’t hear about it from the agency that led the research: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The current head of the CDC, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who’s also director of the US National Institutes of Health, blocked the publication of those findings in the CDC’s flagship journal, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, according to the sources.

The authors of the study received an official rejection letter from the journal on Tuesday, one source said, even though the study had cleared internal reviews and had been scheduled for publication.

Andrew Nixon, deputy assistant secretary for media relations at the US Department of Health and Human Services, confirmed that the study had been rejected.

“Scientific reports are routinely reviewed at multiple levels to ensure they meet the highest standards before publication. The MMWR’s editorial assessment identified concerns regarding the methodological approach to estimating vaccine effectiveness and the manuscript was not accepted for publication,” Nixon told CNN.

The rejection is unusual because the study followed the normal methods the agency uses to estimate the effectiveness of vaccines against seasonal respiratory viruses, and it utilized the CDC-led VISION collaboration, which stands for the Virtual SARS-CoV-2, Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses Network. The network uses electronic health records from nine US health systems to monitor vaccine effectiveness from season to season in various age groups.

According to sources familiar with the episode, Bhattacharya took issue with the study’s so-called test-negative design. HHS did not answer a question about what, exactly, Bhattacharya’s concerns had been.

Test-negative studies look at all the people who go to the doctor for a specific symptom or set of symptoms. They then compare vaccination status of people who test positive for a given infection against that of people who test negative for that same infection to derive an estimate of the effectiveness of the vaccine. Test-negative designs help minimize a type of bias called the healthy user effect, with which people seeking medical care may look sicker because they’re more likely to be diagnosed with a disease or condition, compared to people who don’t seek care for their symptoms.

It’s become the standard way of measuring vaccine effectiveness, not only for Covid but for other seasonal respiratory viruses like influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

The rejection of the new study is “pretty problematic in general, because it’s a very standard, well-established study design that has been used for a long time,” said Dr. Fiona Havers, who resigned as senior vaccine policy adviser at the CDC in June over changes to the agency’s vaccine policy made by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. She used to be part of the team that worked on studies with VISION data.

“It’s not perfect, but it is a reasonable way of measuring real-time vaccine effectiveness during the season and getting data that can be tracked over time,” she said.

“This network has published in New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet and all of these other very high-profile journals in the past,” Havers added. “This seems like pretty aggressive interference by a political appointee into CDC scientific processes.”

The rejection of the study was first reported by the Washington Post.

Two weeks ago, after the first round of news stories that detailed a delay in the study’s publication, Bhattacharya

Por Gonzalo Zegarra, CNN Español

Los asesinatos del sangriento último fin de semana de marzo de 2022, episodio que marcó un punto de inflexión en la política de seguridad del presidente Nayib Bukele, llegaron a un juicio masivo que comenzó esta semana contra 486 presuntos miembros de la pandilla MS-13, un proceso bajo un nuevo modelo penal que es criticado por organismos de derechos humanos por restricciones al acceso a la defensa.

Uniformados de blanco, rapados y con mascarillas, cientos de acusados siguen el juicio por videoconferencia. De ellos, 413 están detenidos en el Centro de Confinamiento contra el Terrorismo (CECOT), una cárcel de máxima seguridad emblema del Gobierno de Bukele, y otros 73 están prófugos, pero serán juzgados en ausencia.

Un tribunal especializado en crimen organizado lleva adelante el modelo de macroaudiencia por “más de 47.000 delitos” cometidos entre 2012 y 2022, según la Fiscalía General, entre ellos, ordenar 86 asesinatos entre el 25 y 27 de marzo de 2022. Es un modelo de juicio establecido tras varias reformas aprobadas en 2023 al Código Penal de El Salvador, en el contexto de la implementación de un régimen de excepción que sigue vigente desde hace cuatro años y que suspende garantías constitucionales.

En estos procesos, los detenidos suelen contar con un defensor público. CNN intenta averiguar con qué tipo de acompañamiento legal cuentan las personas que están siendo juzgadas y cómo es el acceso a la defensa en este caso.

El Salvador comenzó 2022 con un promedio de 2,8 asesinatos diarios, una cifra que iba en aumento desde los últimos meses de 2021. El viernes 25 de marzo, las autoridades registraron 14 homicidios, lo que condujo a una reunión de emergencia del Gabinete de Seguridad, pero la escalada de violencia continuó el sábado. La Policía confirmó 62 asesinatos en esa jornada y 11 más el domingo.

Con esos números, es considerado el fin de semana más violento en el país desde la Guerra Civil de los años 80.

En medio de esa ola de sangre, Bukele pidió por redes sociales a la Asamblea que declarara inmediatamente el régimen de excepción. El Congreso, de mayoría oficialista, convocó a una sesión extraordinaria y alcanzó el 75 % necesario para aprobarlo.

Por ese entonces, el Gobierno de Estados Unidos ya había sancionado a dos funcionarios de El Salvador por supuestas negociaciones secretas con la MS-13. Bukele siempre rechazó las versiones de una presunta “tregua” con las pandillas.

El estado de excepción aprobado por la Asamblea se convirtió en la principal apuesta del Gobierno contra las pandillas. Desde ese momento, las autoridades afirman haber capturado a 91.300 personas acusadas de pertenecer supuestamente a las pandillas o tener vínculos con esos grupos criminales. Bukele, que mantiene altos niveles de popularidad, dijo que 8.000 personas que eran inocentes han sido liberadas, mientras que organizaciones de derechos humanos han documentado la muerte de al menos 488 personas bajo custodia de las autoridades.

El lunes, cuando comenzó la primera audiencia del juicio, no se autorizó el acceso a los medios de comunicación. La Fiscalía informó por la noche que los acusados están imputados por “crímenes que marcaron al país”: homicidios, femicidios, extorsión, narcotráfico, desapariciones y tráfico de armas, así como rebelión “al intentar mantener el control territorial para establecer un Estado paralelo”.

Los fiscales, que no han detallado cuánto durará el proceso, han presentado autopsias, análisis balísticos y testimonios, y solicitaron al juez que imponga la pena máxima por cada crimen. Un acusado podría recibir hasta 245 años de condena si es hallado culpable de múltiples cargos.

El martes, cuando s