Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro is part of a rising group of Democrats who are proudly showing their faith

PHILADELPHIA — Gov. Josh Shapiro had a big 2024 — from his star turn as a contender for the vice presidential ticket to his campaign trail cameos as a prominent Democratic election surrogate, and as a vocal supporter of Israel.

As the year comes to an end, his national profile has continued to grow, this time with a focus on how he uses his faith to connect with voters.

Shapiro has long made his Jewish faith a tenet of his public identity, and now as President Joe Biden, a practicing Catholic, cedes the White House to President-elect Donald Trump, who promotes his own branded Bibles, the New York Times is pointing to Shapiro as part of “a small but prominent cast of Scripture-quoting, religiously observant Democratic politicians.”

Many of them, the Times reports, are “poised to command national attention over the next four years.” Shapiro, Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Texas state Rep. James Talarico are newer Democratic Party leaders who haven’t shied away from speaking publicly about being religious in an effort to relate to voters across spiritual lines even as the party has garnered a reputation for being increasingly secular.

—The Philadelphia Inquirer

Breakthrough technology sees how cholesterol causes heart attacks

ATLANTA — The U.S. government’s premier research body has made an important discovery that could help create new drugs to lower “bad” cholesterol, and hopefully prevent heart attacks and stroke.

But the interesting part of that story isn’t just the discovery itself, but the technology responsible for it: a relatively new type of microscope that essentially froze LDL cholesterol molecules, allowing researchers for the first time to get a detailed view of the structure of LDL and find new ways to approach stopping LDL buildup into body.

The technology, cryo-electron microscopy, allowed National Institutes of Health scientists to view how LDL accumulates in the blood. The microscope’s inventors won the Nobel Prize in 2017, and the tech promises breakthroughs of all kinds in science.

Research with this tool is going to have serious health benefits, the NIH said, because it allowed them for the first time to see how “bad” cholesterol, known as low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol or LDL-C, builds up in the body, and causes heart attacks and strokes in people who have genetically high LDL cholesterol.

—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Destructive waves keep thrashing Santa Cruz, California: 'Mother Nature holds the cards'

To many locals, it feels like Santa Cruz's picturesque coast is being battered like never before.

Waves from strong winter storms and a pair of tsunamis have caused millions of dollars in damage to the wharf and marina area in recent years, including an onslaught of dangerous waves this week that washed almost 150 feet of its wharf out to sea.

A large section of the century-old wharf detached from the rest of the structure amid turbulent swells Monday, sending three people — all of whom survived — into the sea, casting a bathroom to float miles south and leaving onlookers in shock.

"The wharf's been around for over 100 years, and this is the first time I can remember anything like this happening," said Gino Marini, co-owner of Marini's Candies, which has its flagship store not far from where part of the wharf broke off. His family's business has been on the wharf for 40 years, and although he remembers storms that caused significant damage — pilings cracking or boats crashing — there's never been a collapse this major.

—Los Angeles Times

Ukraine risks losing all the Russian land it seized within months, US officials say

After a surprise offensive earlier this year, Ukraine’s forces have lost about half the territory seized in Russia’s Kursk region and may lose the rest in a matter of months, according to U.S. officials, potentially depriving Kyiv of important leverage for ceasefire talks with Russia.

Ukraine’s military is already grappling with a lack of manpower and uncertainty about the future flow of supplies from the U.S. and other allies, even as it struggles to fend off Russian advances in its east.

In Kursk, the region in western Russia where Ukrainian forces seized a swath of land, Ukrainian troops are also facing off against about 12,000 North Korean troops reinforcing the Russians.

With a more concerted effort by Moscow to push Ukrainian troops out of Kursk, possibly as soon as next month, Kyiv’s forces may only be able to hold the land until spring before they are forced to retreat — or risk being encircled — the U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss their confidential assessments.

—Bloomberg News