News briefs

Tribune News Service on May 22, 2025

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Judge blocks Trump from dismantling Education Department

A federal judge Thursday blocked President Trump from dismantling the Department of Education and ordered the reinstatement of thousands of federal workers fired in waves of mass layoffs.

District Court Judge Myong Joun ruled that only Congress can eliminate the Education Department, which assists students with special needs, enforces civil rights laws and manages federal student loan programs among other functions.

“Irreparable harm (would) result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for America’s most vulnerable student populations,” Joun wrote in a sharply worded 86-page ruling.

The judge, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, said the layoffs of DOE workers amount to far more than a crackdown on waste as the administration has claimed.

—New York Daily News

US hurricane forecast: ‘Everything is in place’ for another above-average season

The Atlantic Ocean is likely to churn out another above-average hurricane season, thanks to warmer-than-usual sea temperatures, according to the latest forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NOAA predicts that the 2025 hurricane season could see 13 to 19 named storms, six to 10 of which could strengthen into hurricanes and three to five of which could become major storms — Category 3 or higher.

This season, NOAA expects the Atlantic to be stocked with hot water and less storm-destabilizing wind shear than usual. And on top of that, there’s likely to be more activity from the West African Monsoon, the starting point for the “conveyor belt” of storms that swirl across the Atlantic.

“Everything is in place for an above-average season,” said Ken Graham, director of the National Weather Service, at a press conference Thursday morning. Graham reminded coastal residents that, no matter the forecast, it only takes one storm to cause a disaster.

—Miami Herald

Scientists solve 100-year-old mystery behind diabetic nerve damage

DALLAS — About half of all people with diabetes develop diabetic peripheral neuropathy — a painful, often debilitating condition that can feel like burning, stabbing or numbness, especially in the legs and feet.

Despite its prevalence, the condition remains poorly understood. But researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have shed new light on it by linking it to a little-known nerve structure first described more than a century ago: the Nageotte nodule.

In a study published this month in the journal Nature Communications, the team found that dorsal root ganglia — clusters of nerves near the spine that relay sensory signals like pain to the brain — were filled with these nodules in diabetic tissue donors.

These microscopic bundles, showing signs of both nerve injury and jumbled regrowth, could offer fresh insight into what drives diabetic peripheral neuropathy and help reframe how scientists study and treat it, said Stephanie Eid, a research assistant professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School, who was not involved in the study.

—The Dallas Morning News

Chemical castration of sex offenders to be piloted in 20 UK prisons

LONDON — A total of 20 prisons in the UK are to pilot the chemical castration of sex offenders, British Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said.

The UK government is exploring whether to enforce the chemical castration on offenders as mandatory, Shabana Mahmood told members of parliament, after recommendations from the independent sentencing review to explore its use further to reduce the risk of reoffending.

The review led by former justice secretary David Gauke recommended reforms to overhaul the prisons system and make sure there is space to jail the most dangerous offenders after a string of emergency measures to deal with the capacity crisis.

It also looked at ways to cut reoffending, with one proposal to consider further use of chemical suppressants, currently being piloted in southwest England. In a statement to the House of Commons, Mahmood said: “The review has recommended we continue a pilot of so-called medication to manage problematic sexual arousal.

—dpa