Aaron Hernandez's Brain Reveals Signs Of CTE, Says Lawyer
Former New England Patriots NFL football player Aaron Hernandez listens to testimony during his murder trial in February 2015.
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The brain of former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez showed severe signs of the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, referred to as CTE, according to doctors who conducted tests after he committed suicide in April while imprisoned for murder.
“We’re told it was the most severe case they had ever seen of someone of Aaron’s age,” said Hernandez’s attorney, Jose Baez, in a news conference announcing the filing of a lawsuit against the National Football League and the New England Patriots. Hernandez was 27 when he hanged himself in his prison cell.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Boston on behalf of his daughter, Avielle Hernandez, citing loss of companionship. It argues that the league and team knew of the damage caused by repetitive impact injuries to the brain, but that they “failed to disclose, treat or protect him from the dangers of such damage.”
The New England Patriots said the team had no comment on the suit.
A statement issued by the Boston University CTE Center says Dr. Ann McKee, chief of neuropathology at the VA Boston Healthcare System and director of the Center, examined Hernandez’s brain and found that “Mr. Hernandez had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), Stage 3 out of 4, (Stage 4 being the most severe). This diagnosis was confirmed by a second VABHS neuropathologist. In addition, Mr. Hernandez had early brain atrophy and large perforations in the septum pellucidum, a central membrane.”
McKee said, “CTE is associated with aggressiveness, explosiveness, impulsivity, depression, memory loss and other cognitive changes.”
In 2015, Hernandez was sentenced to life-without-parole for the 2013 murder of his friend, Odin L. Lloyd. He was acquitted earlier this year of two other murder charges stemming from a 2012 incident. He hanged himself five days after the acquittal.
His death brought to an end the controversial saga of a talented young player who couldn’t seem to escape trouble off the field.
Hernandez, raised in the hardscrabble town of Bristol, Conn., was a star at the University of Florida where his team won a national championship. But a failed drug test and his involvement in a bar fight caused many teams to pass him over until the fourth round of the NFL draft.
He played three seasons with the Patriots, earning a $40 million contract. About a year after signing it, he was implicated in the murder of Lloyd.
Hernandez stopped playing football at the age of 23. His lawyer, Jose Baez, said that his brain damage was indicative of a player with a median age of 67 years.
The Hernandez lawsuit and brain test results are likely to reignite the debate over contact sports, such as football, and potential brain injury.
In a separate study published earlier this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association, McKee found that 110 of 111 brains of deceased NFL players showed evidence of CTE.
A Tale Of Two States: How California And Texas May Fare Under GOP Health Plan
In the GOP’s attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, California would lose a lot of federal funding. Texas would gain a lot in the short term, but experts worry Texas would not use the money well.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The Senate is taking one more stab at repealing the Affordable Care Act. Republicans say they’ll vote on what’s known as the Graham-Cassidy bill next week. Among other things, it would dramatically redistribute federal funds to states. And generally, states that expanded Medicaid stand to lose billions of dollars. The rest would see a short-term influx of funds. We’re going to hear from one of those states, Texas, in a minute. First, from KQED in San Francisco, April Dembosky explains why California would be one of the hardest hit states.
APRIL DEMBOSKY, BYLINE: The new Graham-Cassidy legislation would take money from states that have invested heavily in the Affordable Care Act, then redistribute it to other states that haven’t. Aviva Aron-Dine is with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
AVIVA ARON-DINE: For a state like California or a Massachusetts or a New York, exactly the states that might be most motivated to at least try to preserve the ACA coverage gains – those are the states that would face the deepest cuts to their federal resources.
DEMBOSKY: The bill’s authors say their plan gives states more flexibility to build their own health systems. But California would lose 35 percent of its funding by 2026. That means millions of people with Medicaid and exchange plans would lose their insurance. A lot of those people are entrepreneurs and their employees. The head of the Small Business Majority in California, Mark Herbert, says the health funding cuts are bad for the economy, too.
MARK HERBERT: It would be massively destabilizing to the ability of small employers to attract talent. It would be very difficult for entrepreneurs and self-employed folks to access some level of coverage.
DEMBOSKY: Under the Affordable Care Act in California, a million and a half small business owners and employees got health coverage, and the state’s overall uninsured rate dropped by more than half. For NPR News, I’m April Dembosky in San Francisco.
ASHLEY LOPEZ, BYLINE: I’m Ashley Lopez in Austin. At first glance, it looks like Texas comes out as one of the big winners. Texas will get a windfall of $35 billion to help replace Obamacare exchanges and other programs, more than any other state. State officials get to decide how they want to spend that money. But Stacey Pogue with the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin says that doesn’t necessarily mean this is an improvement.
STACEY POGUE: Regardless of the size of the block grant, there’s just no assurance that it would translate into good coverage or coverage that’s affordable as what we have today.
LOPEZ: Texas already has the highest number of uninsured folks, and Pogue says the state just doesn’t have the infrastructure in place to expand coverage to more people. It didn’t expand Medicaid, and the state didn’t set up its own exchange. They used healthcare.gov.
POGUE: There’s no planning and no thought put into, how would we create affordable coverage for low-income Texans unlike the 31 states that have expanded Medicaid, have done some central planning? And Texas would be starting from scratch.
LOPEZ: She says it will also take a lot of political will to make sure the state is expanding health care. Pogue says that has been lacking among state lawmakers for years. And in order to get the block grant, states need to create something workable by 2020. For comparison, it took Massachusetts four years to set up its pre-Obamacare insurance market.
STACY WILSON: We are very concerned.
LOPEZ: That’s Stacy Wilson. She’s the president of the Children’s Hospital Association of Texas. She says this pot of money from Cassidy-Graham also doesn’t solve problems for Medicaid, 70 percent of which covers children. Wilson says that’s because the federal government would pay a fixed amount per person per capita cap, which locks in how much the state gets per Medicaid enrollee.
WILSON: We have very low per-capita costs already, and we get locked into that forever.
LOPEZ: A conservative policy group in Texas is also not happy about the bill. However, their concern is that it actually doesn’t go far enough to repeal Obamacare. For NPR News, I’m Ashley Lopez in Austin.
CHANG: This story is part of a partnership with NPR, local member stations and Kaiser Health News.
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Fantastic Fest 2017 Preview: 'The Square,' 'Five Fingers For Marseilles,' 'Anna and the Apocalypse' and More
Known as a launch pad for fright flicks, sci-fi adventures, thrillers, intense dramas and all types of weird comedies from the U.S. and abroad, Fantastic Fest kicks off tonight in Austin, Texas. Here’s a preview of what’s on tap.
The Wild, the West, the Women, the Rap Battle
Let’s start with several international stunners that we have seen and can recommend highly.
The Square
Visually striking and profoundly unsettling, The Square is an act of provocation masquerading as an art house drama. Christian is a museum curator in Sweden who is preoccupied with preparing a new exhibition of modern art. One morning he loses his watch, wallet and cufflinks, which leads him on a wild pursuit to retrieve his possessions. Instead, events soon spiral out of control in ways he could not have imagined and his entire world is turned upside down.
The movie poses a series of questions that are not easily answered and is consistently thoughtful and compelling. Elisabeth Moss costars as an American journalist and Dominic West provides timely support as an artist. The Square will open in theaters on October 27.
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Five Fingers For Marseilles
It may start like many a Western — wide open vistas, good guys in a small town on the edge of nowhere, bad guys with evil intentions — but this brooding drama plays out unlike any Western you’ve seen before. Though it looks like the Old West, the setting is actually modern-day South Africa. We’re introduced to five young, steadfast friends who are torn apart by unexpected violence.
Years later, one of them returns to find his hometown and his friends have changed drastically. His former comrades have stepped up into leadership roles, yet they’re compromised by corruption. A new villain has arisen, posing a grave threat to everyone. Shorn of sentimentality and constantly brewing with tension, this movie is brutal, moving and unforgettable. We’re eagerly awaiting word on U.S. distribution plans.
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Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
The movie provides a peek into the life of the man who created the comic book character Wonder Woman, as well as the complicated relationships that informed it. Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall and Bella Heathcote star; look for it in theaters on October 13.
Rebecca Hall continues to crush every single performance she gives. Professor Marston & the Wonder Women may be her best yet#TIFF17pic.twitter.com/yQaG8GBbcw
— ErikDavis (@ErikDavis) September 9, 2017
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Bodied
The latest from director Joseph Kahn (Detention) follows a grad student who becomes obsessed with battle rap. Distribution plans are expected to be announced soon.
BODIED is like the WHITE MAN CAN’T JUMP of battle-rap movies. Really fun, crowd loved it.#TIFF17pic.twitter.com/hWww4YgjwH
— ErikDavis (@ErikDavis) September 8, 2017
Coming Soon: Tight Places, Intense Encounters, Violence Unleashed
Listed in release date order, here are seven slices of upcoming genre goodness.
Gerald’s Game
Carla Gallo stars as a woman who finds herself tied up on a bed, alone and many miles from anyone else. Bruce Greenwood also stars. The dramatic thriller debuts on Netflix on September 29.
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Brawl in Cell Block 99
Vince Vaughn stars as a former boxer who turns drug runner and ends up in prison, where he must fight for his life. The violent action-drama opens in theaters on October 6.
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Wheelman
In this thriller, Frank Grillo is a double-crossed getaway driver who seeks revenge. The movie debuts on Netflix on October 20.
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Blade of the Immortal
Celebrated Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike follows a samurai who cannot be killed as he comes to the aid of a young girl whose family has been slaughtered. Expect wanton slaughter and many, many dead bodies in this action thriller, due in theaters on November 3.
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The Killing of a Sacred Deer
The life of a surgeon (Colin Farrell) begins to fall apart in this psychological horror movie. Nicole Kidman also stars; look for it in theaters on November 3.
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Thelma
A young woman discovers that she has fantastic powers, but this is anything but a typical super powered adventure. Instead, we’re anticipating a mysterious, slow-building drama from Danish director Joachim Trier (Louder Than Bombs). It opens on November 10.
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Revenge
A woman exacts revenge upon wealthy men for their heinous crimes. Matilda Lutz stars; the extreme horror thriller will open in theaters in early 2018 and then will be available exclusively on the Shudder streaming service
Bonus Picks: Make Room for the Truly Weird and Disturbing
All three of these movies will be enjoying their world premieres at Fantastic Fest. We’re hoping to hear great things.
Anna and the Apocalypse
A musical? From Scotland? With zombies? At a high school? Yes, yes, yes and yes are the answers to those questions. Judging by the first trailer, we’re hoping for a truly unique experience about the power and meaning of true friendship.
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Applecart
A vacation in the snowy woods turns into a bloody nightmare of epic proportions. Barbara Crampton, Brea Grant and A.J. Bowen star.
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Tigers Are Not Afraid
A young girl ends up on the street after her mother disappears, finding refuge with a gang of children who are more dangerous than they look. The fantasy thriller hails from Mexico.
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Facebook To Turn Over 3,000 Ads To Congress In Russian Election Interference Probe
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, seen here in May, has announced new rules intended to remove ads that interfere with the integrity of elections.
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Facebook will provide the contents of 3,000 ads purchased by a Russian agency to Congress. The political ads ran during the 2016 presidential election campaign. The move comes amid growing pressure on the social network from members of Congress to release the ads.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg live-streamed a statement in which he said that his company was “actively working” with the U.S. government in the ongoing Russia investigations.
Zuckerberg also announced a series of rule changes on the site that he hoped would help guard against interference with elections in the future.
Users have been able to look up the company behind an ad they see, but now they will also be able to see who else was targeted by that company. A move that might give people get a sense of the motivations of the advertiser.
Other steps Zuckerberg announced include stronger policies for review at the company for political ads and it will add another 250 employees to focus on election integrity and security.
In a nod to Facebook’s failure previously to guard against state actors using the site to interfere with elections, Zuckerberg said, “It’s a new challenge for Internet communities.” But, he said, “If that’s what we must do then we are committed to rising to the occasion.”
However, Zuckerberg said it wasn’t likely that Facebook will be able to catch all bad content.
“We don’t check what people say before they say it,” he said. “And frankly, I don’t think our society should want us to.”
The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee have been seeking to bring Facebook executives before their committee since the company first revealed the existence of the Russian backed ads two weeks ago. But, some critics say the site should go even further and reveal to specific users whether they were targeted by foreign governments.
