The CDC said Ralph Abraham was stepping away from his role as principal deputy director so he can address family obligations. File Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA-EFE
Feb. 23 (UPI) — Ralph Abraham, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention principal deputy director and noted vaccine skeptic, announced Monday he’s stepping down from the role.
The CDC said he’s leaving the position as one of the top public health officials in the United States so he can “address unforeseen family obligations.” The agency provided no further details.
“It has been an honor to serve alongside the dedicated public health professionals at the CDC and to support the agency’s critical mission,” Abraham said in a statement.
The announcement comes less than three months after he was hired for the No. 2 position at the CDC.
Prior to his appointment at the CDC, Abraham served as Louisiana surgeon general. He caused controversy when he ordered the Louisiana Department of Health to stop recommending mass vaccinations in 2025.
At the time, he said the move was intended to rebuild trust with public health officials after it had been eroded by what he described as missteps during the COVID-19 pandemic. Abraham previously ordered state public health workers to stop promoting COVID-19, influenza or mpox vaccinations.
“Conversations about specific vaccines, and whether or not a vaccine is right for a specific person, are best had with the individual’s healthcare provider, who best understands their individual situation and relevant medical history,” Abraham wrote in a post on X in February 2025.
Feb. 16 (UPI) — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to take action on a petition calling for increased regulations on ultra-processed foods.
Kennedy said in an interview on CBS News’s 60 minutes on Sunday that he wants to address concerns raised by a citizen petition to the Food and Drug Administration. The petition seeks to limit exposure to ultra-processed foods and ingredients to prevent the risks of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
“There is no way for any American to know if a product is safe if it is ultra processed,” Kennedy said.
The petition seeks to make changes to the “Generally recognized as safe” exemption that allows food companies to verify the safety of foods and ingredients independently. Changes would include revoking the allowance of processed refined carbohydrates in food processing and removing such products from the shelves unless specifically authorized.
Kennedy said the exemption is a loophole that has allowed food companies to introduce “thousands upon thousands of new ingredients into our food supply.”
“This agency does not know how many ingredients there are in American food,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy clarified that it has not been determined that the Trump administration will regulate ultra-processed foods. The term “ultra-processed food” has not been defined by federal regulators.
Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler authored the petition. Kessler served under presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and was involved with “Operation Warp Speed” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kessler defined ultra-processed foods as refined sweeteners, refined flours and starches, and added fats and oils and salt. However, his petition is focused on refined sweeteners, flours and starches, which are processed refined carbohydrates.
Refined sweeteners include ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, glucose syrup and dextrose.
“These processed refined carbohydrates are central to the widespread availability of ultraprocessed foods,” Kessler writes. “This petition focuses on processed refined carbohydrates that are primary causal determinants of metabolic harm.”
Actor and director Robert Duvall talks about his new film “Assassination Tango” at a press conference during the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada on September 11, 2002. Duvall is best known for his role of Tom Hagen in “The Godfather.” Photo by Christine Chew/UPI | License Photo
As a child, I spent nearly every weekend with my best friend shooting hoops and jumping fences throughout Hollywood.
It was always amusing seeing tourists — especially foreigners — line up around buildings and outside nightclubs and lounges that held no meaning to me, at the time.
These monuments I ignored as a youngster became the must-see places of my teenage years and early 20s.
It was at the Viper Room where a 20-year-old me was tossed out of line trying to crash the same venue where Pearl Jam had played.
I was first scandalized by the price of a drink for a date’s $10 cocktail at the Troubadour in West Hollywood (I think I was making $6.50 an hour at the time). But I had to visit one of Jim Morrison’s favorite haunts.
It was fun to see favorites, but more importantly, to read about new places and legends.
Hopefully, there’s a spot that intrigues you. Let’s take a look at a few selections.
Capitol Records (Hollywood)
The most famous tower in all of music was never overtly intended to look like a stack of LPs and a stylus needle.
“The building was not designed as a cartoon or a giggle. To have it trivialized with the stack-of-records myth is annoying and dismaying,” architect Louis Naidorf has said of his Capitol Records Building. “There’s not a thing on the building that doesn’t have a solid purpose to it.”
That was no obstacle for it becoming emblematic of both Los Angeles and the record business. It’s still home to one of the most renowned recording studios on Earth, and its silhouette remains a Hollywood icon and a symbol of Los Angeles on par with the Hollywood sign nearby.
(Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times)
Elliott Smith Wall (Silver Lake)
The beloved singer-songwriter Elliott Smith posed at the swooping mural outside Solutions speaker repair in Silver Lake for the cover of his LP “Figure 8” in 2000.
After he died by suicide in 2003, the wall became an unofficial memorial for Smith, where fans left touching notes, song lyrics and nips of liquors mentioned in his songs.
While the wall has been cut out in spots to make room for various restaurants — and it’s often covered in more flagrant tagging — it’s still a living connection to one of the city’s most cherished voices.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Chaplin Studio (Hollywood)
John Mayer calls it “adult day care”: the historic recording studio behind the arched gates on La Brea Avenue where famous musicians have been keeping themselves — and one another — creatively occupied since the mid-1960s.
Known for decades as Henson Studios — and as A&M Studios before that — the 3-acre complex in the heart of Hollywood has played host to the creation of some of music’s most celebrated records, among them Carole King’s “Tapestry,” Joni Mitchell’s “Blue,” Guns N’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion” and D’Angelo’s “Black Messiah.”
Charlie Chaplin, who was born in London, began building the lot in 1917 in a white-and-brown English Tudor style; he went on to direct some of his best-known films, including “Modern Times” and “The Great Dictator,” on the property.
The Lighthouse Cafe (Hermosa Beach)
The Lighthouse Cafe might seem familiar from its cameo in the Oscar-winning movie “La La Land,” but this jazz cafe was once instrumental in shaping the West Coast jazz scene.
The beachside spot first opened as a restaurant in 1934 and was changed into a bar by the 1940s. It first started to play jazz in 1949 when the owner let bassist Howard Rumsey host a recurring jam session. The jams quickly began to draw both a vivacious crowd of listeners and a core group of budding jazz musicians.
Over the years, musicians like Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, Miles Davis and Max Roach all made regular appearances at the Lighthouse. Today, the venue still hosts jazz brunches every Sunday and other musical gigs throughout the week.
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