SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) - With the start of the 83rd Annual Santa Maria Elks Rodeo and Parade now less than a day away, final preparations are taking place today at the Elks Event Center.

Starting at sunrise Tuesday morning, dozens of Elks volunteers, vendors, workers and others involved with the rodeo have been setting up, getting the facility ready for the thousands of visitors that will arrive on Thursday for the start of the four-day event.

"We're hours away from the 83rd Annual Santa Maria Elks Rodeo, said Johnna McGuire, Elks Recreation media director "Honestly, we couldn't be more excited. There's just an electricity in the air. We're ready for it. It's going to be a great, great year!"

With showtime for the rodeo drawing near, Tuesday's final preparations marked the culmination of several months of hard work by the entire Elks Recreation organization.

"It's amazing," said Peter Sterling, Elks Recreation President. "We have a lot of committees and everything else and it all comes together. We work together, coordinate, and everybody communicates here well, and we all seem to get along. That's why we do so well. We can't just twinkle our nose and make it happen. Everybody obviously has to put in the workload and we do."

The rodeo begins Wednesday night with a full night of world class bull riding during the Xtreme Bulls event beginning at 7 p.m.

This marks the second straight year the Elks Rodeo has featured a fifth day of competition following last year's first-ever five-day event, which also included Xtreme Bulls opening on Wednesday night.

On Thursday, the four-day long PRCA rodeo kicks off with the the first day of all-around competition.

The rodeo will begin on Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m., 6 p.m. on Saturday and close with the final day of action starting at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

The Santa Maria Elks Rodeo and Parade will be held May 27-31 31 at the Elks Event Center, located just off of Santa Maria Way on the east side of Highway 101.

For more information about the rodeo, or to purchase tickets, visit elksrec.com.

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By Rupert Neate, CNN

London (CNN) — Three teenage boys who were convicted over the rape of two girls were last week allowed to walk out of a UK court without any custodial sentence, triggering a nationwide outcry.

Now the sentences handed down in the case, described by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as “distressing” and “appalling,” are to be reviewed after the country’s attorney general on Tuesday referred them to the Court of Appeal.

Asked about the sentencing, which saw the teenagers instead receive community rehabilitation orders, Starmer said: “I think it’s distressing for everybody to see, to hear about,” adding that he had found it “distressing as a politician” and “as a father.”

“I can announce that the case will now go to the Court of Appeal, and the Court of Appeal will now review the sentence in that case, and that is clearly the right outcome,” he said Tuesday.

The details of the two attacks, in the small town of Fordingbridge in southern England, horrified members of the public, leading to multiple complaints under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme, which allows anyone to ask the attorney general for a sentencing review.

One victim, then aged 15, was raped by two of the boys in an underpass next to a river, after arranging to meet one of them for a date. A video of her 90-minute ordeal was shared on social media, prosecutors told the court.

The other girl, aged 14 at the time, was threatened with a knife, and forced to leave her mobile phone and AirTag in a shop so her movements could not be tracked. She was made to walk to a remote field, where she was raped by two of the defendants as they again filmed the attack.

French rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot told the BBC she was appalled that the three boys had been spared custodial sentences. “(I am) deeply shocked that these individuals were in fact able to gain their freedom again when in fact the victims are suffering so hard they will never be able to heal,” she said. “Rape is a crime and justice has an essential role. It’s there to, in fact, name the crimes, to recognize the suffering of victims, and to remember that in fact they must not remain unpunished.”

Two of the boys, who were 14 at the time of the offenses and are now 15, were given three-year “youth rehabilitation orders” with 180 days of “intensive supervision and surveillance.” The third boy, who is now 14 but was 13 at the time, was given an 18-month YRO for two charges of rape by aiding and abetting the second attack. The two 15-year-olds were also convicted of taking indecent images of a child.

At the sentencing the judge said he wanted to “avoid criminalizing these children unnecessarily.”

The court had heard that one of the boys had an IQ of the “bottom 1% of his contemporaries” and had been diagnosed with ADHD. Another of the boys was also diagnosed with ADHD as well as “longstanding anxiety.” The third defendant was described as having a “mild cognitive impairment.”

One of the victims told the BBC that hearing the boys’ sentences “hit like a rock straight in my face.

“He (the judge) almost made it seem as if what the boys did was not OK, but it was OK in the eyes of the law, because they were still children,” she said speaking anonymously. “What was the point in putting me through that?”

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By Jacopo Prisco, CNN

(CNN) — Five months into his fourth International Space Station mission, veteran NASA astronaut Mike Fincke was having dinner the day before a routine spacewalk. Suddenly, he found himself unable to speak. The episode in January lasted just 20 minutes and while Fincke felt no pain, he became agitated.

“It was completely out of the blue. It was just amazingly quick,” Fincke recently told the Associated Press.

“My crewmates definitely saw that I was in distress. It was all hands on deck within just a matter of seconds,” he said.

Fincke’s fellow astronauts and a series of emergency protocols kept him safe, but NASA still made an unprecedented move: The agency cut short the SpaceX Crew-11 mission, returning Fincke and three of his fellow astronauts to Earth a month early and leaving the station staffed by only three people. Now, this event might play a role in how future missions are designed.

Jared Isaacman, NASA’s administrator, said in a post-splashdown news conference that the early return was due to a “serious medical condition.” He added that while astronauts receive extensive medical training, there are circumstances in which the option to come home is the best one, and that’s why that possibility is built into the agency’s flight plans.

“This is what we trained for. It’s built in our planning. It was executed very well,” Isaacman added. “We will capture any relevant lessons learned to inform preparations for subsequent missions.”

But as NASA pursues long duration missions farther into space, what if it’s no longer as simple to just come back?

Health issues in space

SpaceX Crew-11 returned to Earth safely on January 15, eight days after the episode — meaning this wasn’t an emergency evacuation, which would have unfolded in a matter of hours. Still, Fincke was the first in over 290 visitors to the ISS to return home early due to a health concern.

NASA hasn’t revealed many details about the incident, which tracks with its usual approach of protecting astronaut privacy and keeping all medical matters confidential. Even when studies analyze specific aspects of astronauts’ health, the research typically doesn’t disclose identities. Fincke later revealed the early exit was due to concern for his health, without disclosing any formal diagnosis, though he told the Associated Press the symptoms were likely space-related.

And while the response to his situation was unique, Fincke is far from the first person to experience a medical issue in space.

The strong forces and the weightlessness experienced during space travel have a variety of effects on the human body. NASA has been studying these effects for over 50 years and groups them into five key hazard areas: radiation, isolation, distance, microgravity and hostile environments. These forces can cause ailments including bone and muscle loss, cardiovascular issues, immune dysfunction and vision impairment.

One key process that weightlessness affects is blood flow. Away from Earth’s gravity, blood and other body fluids are pushed up toward the head from the legs and torso, causing swelling in the upper body. In 2019, a study conducted on 11 healthy astronauts — nine unidentified men and two women with an average age of 46 — revealed that six of them suffered from stagnant or reverse blood flow, one experienced a blood clot an

Por Matt Egan, CNN

Los mercados respiraron aliviados al comprobar que el frágil alto el fuego entre Estados Unidos e Irán sobrevivió al largo fin de semana y que se están logrando avances en un posible acuerdo para poner fin a la guerra.

Las acciones estadounidenses están rozando máximos históricos y los futuros del petróleo se han alejado de los US$ 100 por barril.

Sin embargo, aún es demasiado pronto para dar por superada esta crisis energética histórica. Algunos analistas advierten que un precio de la gasolina a US$ 5 sigue siendo un peligro real para este verano boreal.

En primer lugar, las meras declaraciones sobre un acuerdo vago en las redes sociales no son para nada suficientes para los inversores.

El mercado debe ver que se ha alcanzado un acuerdo real en el que ambas partes se comprometen no solo a poner fin a la guerra, sino también a reabrir el estrecho de Ormuz, la vía marítima crucial que Irán ha utilizado para mantener como rehén la economía mundial.

“Nada ha cambiado fundamentalmente. El Estrecho permanece cerrado”, afirmó Rory Johnston, investigador del mercado petrolero y fundador de Commodity Context.

Johnston recalcó que Teherán se muestra reacio a reabrir el estrecho de Ormuz porque sigue siendo el principal punto de influencia de Irán.

“En cuanto abren ese grifo, pierden rápidamente su poder de negociación”, dijo.

En segundo lugar, el mercado exige pruebas de que el estrecho de Ormuz se está reabriendo realmente, idealmente sin peajes ni tasas que incrementen el ya elevado precio del petróleo.

Para solucionar la crisis de suministro, es necesario que el flujo de buques cisterna a través del estrecho de Ormuz vuelva a los niveles previos a la guerra.

“Soy escéptico. Lo creeré cuando lo vea”, dijo Bob McNally, fundador y presidente de Rapidan Energy Group, a CNN en una entrevista telefónica.

Algunos actores importantes del Golfo también se muestran escépticos.

Sultan Al Jaber, CEO de ADNOC, la compañía petrolera estatal de Abu Dhabi, declaró la semana pasada que, incluso si el conflicto terminara de inmediato, se necesitarían al menos cuatro meses para recuperar tan solo el 80 % del flujo que existía antes del conflicto a través del estrecho.

Es poco probable que se logren recuperar por completo los niveles de flujo previos a la guerra hasta la primera mitad de 2027, según declaró el CEO de ADNOC.

También existe incertidumbre sobre si el alto el fuego se mantendrá.

Los futuros del crudo Brent subieron un 4 % el martes, y recuperaron parte de la fuerte caída del lunes, en un contexto de alta tensión en el Golfo. Las fuerzas estadounidenses llevaron a cabo “ataques de autodefensa” contra plataformas de lanzamiento de misiles y embarcaciones iraníes en las cercanías del estrecho de Ormuz.

Cabe destacar que los funcionarios estadounidenses afirmaron que los ataques iban dirigidos contra embarcaciones que intentaban colocar minas, lo que pone de manifiesto la fragilidad del alto el fuego y los peligros que afrontan los buques que intentan transitar por la vía fluvial.

Incluso en el mejor de los casos en el que se mantenga el alto el fuego, se llegue a un acuerdo y se reabra el Estrecho, el sistema energético mundial ya sufrió graves daños.

Según S&P Global Energy, la guerra ha causado la pérdida de más de 1.200 millones de barriles de petróleo. Y esa cifra aumenta cada día que el estrecho de Ormuz permanece prácticamente cerrado.

No solo ha disminuido la oferta, sino que la demanda de energía está aumentando debido al inicio de la temporada de viajes de verano.

“Incluso en el mejor de los casos, un endurecimiento fundamental del mercado es inevitable. Hay una matemática brutal e inexorable que no se puede cambiar con un acuerdo”, dijo McNally. “No quiero ser pesimista, pero no creemos que hayamos terminado”.