By Sandee LaMotte, CNN

(CNN) — Cognitively healthy older adults with high levels of a biomarker called p-tau217 in their blood had an estimated 38% greater chance of developing early signs of dementia over five years, a new study found. Over 10 years, the risk was 78% higher, although the data was not as robust.

“What this tells me is that we really can use p-tau217 blood tests in future to be able to understand somebody’s individual risk of cognitive impairment,” said lead study author Rachel Buckley, an associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.

Traditionally, diagnosing Alzheimer’s required expensive and invasive procedures like PET scans or spinal taps. However, blood tests that measure levels of phosphorylated tau 217, or p-tau217, “strongly predict” the buildup of sticky beta-amyloid plaques in the brain, Buckley said.

The amyloid plaques, which trigger inflammation and damage communication between neurons, can collect in the brain decades before memory loss or cognitive decline — even when people are in their 30s and 40s.

As beta-amyloid levels rise in the brain, tangles of proteins called tau begin gathering inside brain cells, causing neurons to collapse and die. In some diseases such as frontal lobe dementia, which damages executive function instead of memory, tangles can accumulate without the presence of amyloid.

Not everyone with high levels of amyloid will progress to dementia, just as having tau in the brain does not dictate cognitive impairment later in life, Buckley said.

“However, if an early stage of tau is combined with very elevated levels of amyloid, amyloid appears to be the match that lights the fire for the spread of disease across the brain,” she said. “What we think the p-tau217 test can show us is the moment when amyloid is starting to cause this sort of wildfire.”

Such tests are not recommended for cognitively healthy people, but specialists can use them in people with signs of mild cognitive impairment or more advanced dementia.

“Hopefully, p-tau217 tests can one day function like tests that measure your risk of developing diabetes or having a heart attack — but this test would be for your risk for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia,” said Buckley, who also investigates memory disorders at the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute in Boston.

How blood tests will be used

Insights from Alzheimer’s blood tests are invaluable, but results should not be the sole method of identifying disease risk, said Alzheimer’s prevention researcher Dr. Richard Isaacson, director of research at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Florida. He was not involved in the study.

“Never would I order a p-tau217 test in isolation. Why? For one, it tells you only one small part of what is most often a complicated biological picture,” said Isaacson, who runs multiple blood and cognitive tests on his patients to double-check p-tau217 results.

“Also, ordering a single test increases the chance of a less meaningful result, like a false positive,” he said. “If someone has a cold, if someone has kidney dysfunction, it can skew results.”

Instead of just using p-tau217 and amyloid blood tests for diagnosis, Isaacson runs them to look for clues on how people are responding to treatment and lifestyle changes, he said.

“In our lab, we are exploring using these tests as a real-time metric, like an engine light,” Isaacson said. “If you have one or two copies of APOE4 and APOE4 protein levels ar

By Mike Valerio, Simone McCarthy, CNN

Beijing (CNN) — An American scientist who has studied underground nuclear tests has been detained in China for more than 18 months on spying charges, according to his supporters and a US lawmaker.

Youlin Chen, a seismologist, has been “wrongfully detained” since November 2024, US Senator Edward Markey said in a statement Tuesday.

President Donald Trump raised Chen’s detention and asked for his freedom during a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing in May, according to Global Reach, a US non-profit that has been working with Chen’s family on his case.

Chen, who was living in Boston and has a college-age son, is the only American currently held in China designated as wrongfully detained, the non-profit said.

The case adds another point of friction between the US and China as they try to stabilize ties. Its revelation comes weeks after China confirmed the arrest of another US scholar, Min Zin, who it said is “suspected of spying and endangering Chinese national security.”

Global Reach said there are suspicions that Chen’s detention is linked to China’s recent expansion of its nuclear capabilities, including carrying out an alleged underground nuclear test in 2020. Beijing denies this test.

Chen’s work focuses on using seismological data to improve methods to identify and monitor nuclear tests. It has included research into North Korea’s underground nuclear testing.

Chen’s research has been funded by the US State Department and US Air Force Research Laboratory.

In December 2020, he authored a technical report that used regional seismic data recorded across Asia, including data from stations in China, to improve methods for nuclear-test monitoring and yield estimation, according to Global Reach.

A subsequent 2024 study that he authored was also funded by the US Air Force Research Laboratory and the US Department of State and “further reinforces Chen’s expertise in the seismic monitoring and detection of underground nuclear tests,” the group said.

He was detained at the airport after visiting his parents in Beijing, according to Kieran Ramsey, chief investigative officer at Global Reach.

A State Department spokesperson told CNN that the US has raised Chen’s case directly with Chinese officials and called for his immediate release.

When asked by CNN whether the case was raised by Trump during his meeting with Xi, a White House official said that “President Trump has been clear that he wants every American detained abroad to return home.”

China’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday denied that Chen was “wrongfully detained” and said judicial authorities handle cases in accordance with the law, when asked about the case at a regular press briefing.

Chen was charged with espionage on May 1, 2025, but has not yet stood trial. The family decided to speak out now about his detention because Trump’s request has not been acted on, Global Reach said.

Chen’s wife, Yufang Rong, said she had not spoken to her husband for over 600 days and was concerned for this health.

“Youlin has never held a US government security clearance and to suggest he was involved in espionage is both wrong and inconsistent with the public and collaborative nature of the work that he has done,” she said in a statement provided by Global Reach.

Noting that her husband “works transparently with Chinese colleagues on scientific collaboration,” she added: “He is doing precisely the kind of people-to-people engagement that the Chinese government says it wants.”

US embassy officials have visited Chen several times, but Chinese officials are always present, preventing him from speaking freely, Rong told Reuters in an interview. She retained a Chinese lawyer, but he was allowed to see Chen only after the scientist had been detained for more than 13 mon

Carolina Garcia

CALEXICO, Calif. (KYMA) – Eugenio, Javier y Carlos, quienes son integrantes de distintas comisiones de la ciudad, expresaron su rechazo a una propuesta impulsada por el alcalde de Calexico, Victor Legaspi, que pretende modificar una ordenanza para permitir que los integrantes del concilio puedan destituir a miembros de comisiones.

Esta propuesta será votada la noche de mañana miércoles en el punto 14 de la agenda de la ciudad.

“En su solicitud dice que otra agencia lo está pidiendo de emergencia rápido, y luego dice para remover un comisionado cuando sea apropiado. ¿Qué significa cuando sea apropiado? Es lo que yo no entiendo”, señaló Javier González, quién encabeza la comisión de la policía de la ciudad.

Cerca de 20 ciudadanos participan en diferentes comisiones enfocadas en temas como seguridad, mejoras comunitarias, parques y embellecimiento de la ciudad. Cuestionaron la rapidez en la que se busca analizar, señalando que se trata más de un tema político.

En entrevista para Telemundo, expresaron que si bien tienen opiniones diferentes sobre la administración municipal, eso no debería ser motivo para su remoción, ya que son ellos tres quienes han trabajado de manera independiente en actividades comunitarias como jornadas de limpieza.

Para conformar las comisiones son los propios miembros del concilio quienes al inicio de cada gestión seleccionan a los ciudadanos que forman parte de estas comisiones.

Al solicitar un comentario del alcalde Victor Legaspi sobre esta propuesta, precisó que después de la sesión una vez se determine una decisión dará un posicionamiento.

The post Voluntarios rechazan propuesta para que concilio remueva miembros appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

The post Celebrating the Past, Present, and Future of MCASB  appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

The real estate frenzy spurred by the coronavirus pandemic continues, though at a slower pace. Buyers are still competing for a limited supply of housing, driving up prices for affordable properties.

The typical home value in the United States was $368,720 in May, 0.8% higher than the year before.

Increasing mortgage rates have slowed growth, with prices even declining in some places. But some areas are still seeing price jumps compared to the year before.

Stacker compiled a list of cities with the fastest-growing home prices in California using data from Zillow. Cities are ranked by the dollar change in the Zillow Home Values Index for all homes from the 12 months ending May 2026. The charts in this story were created automatically using Matplotlib. Data was available for 50 cities and towns in California.

#50. San Anselmo

– Typical home value: $1,705,187
– 1-year price change: +$63,701 (+3.9%)
– 5-year price change: +$114,513 (+7.2%)
– Metro area: San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA

#49. El Segundo

– Typical home value: $1,769,191
– 1-year price change: +$63,996 (+3.8%)
– 5-year price change: +$326,467 (+22.6%)
– Metro area: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

#48. Ladera Heights

– Typical home value: $1,725,731
– 1-year price change: +$64,081 (+3.9%)
– 5-year price change: +$386,700 (+28.9%)
– Metro area: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

#47. Cupertino

– Typical home value: $3,130,244
– 1-year price change: +$65,980 (+2.2%)
– 5-year price change: +$778,223 (+33.1%)
– Metro area: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

#46. Belmont

– Typical home value: $2,316,928
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