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Exemptions for required vaccines for US kindergartners reach record high

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:16 GMT

(CNN) — The percentage of kindergartners who received their state-required vaccines for measles remained below the federal target last school year, and the rate of vaccine exemptions for children reached the highest level ever reported in the United States, according to new data published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Coverage for four key vaccines — the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine; diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine; poliovirus vaccine; and varicella vaccine for chickenpox — declined in a majority of states for the 2022-23 school year, the report said. Lower levels of vaccine coverage raise the risk of outbreaks, leaving the country vulnerable to diseases that can cause severe illness and death.Vaccine coverage rates fell below 95% from the 2019-20 to 2021-22 school years, declining to about 93%. Last school year, coverage remained at about 93% for reported vaccinations, including 93.1% ...

‘I felt so naughty’: New open carry alcohol laws boost downtowns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:16 GMT

Kevin Hardy | (TNS) Stateline.orgHolly Smith Mount wanted to be first.Smith Mount, chair of the city council in Huntington, West Virginia, was determined to see her community launch the state’s initial outdoor drinking zone — an idea made possible only after the legislature changed the state’s alcohol law earlier this year.“I will fully admit I’m very competitive,” she told Stateline. “And I told the mayor, ‘I want to be first on this one.’”So, when Huntington’s downtown drinking district launched this fall, Smith Mount aimed to be at the front of the line to grab a beer from a local taphouse. The new program sanctions open containers of alcohol within designated boundaries officially known as a Private Outdoor Designated Area, or PODA.“I walked down the street and I felt so naughty,” she said. “I went into one of my favorite shops and I was like, ‘Look, I’ve got a beer!’”Huntington leaders saw the district as a way to encourage economic growth by drawing more people to the heart of...

You make the call. Charlie Winterhalter weathers storm to become Geneva’s defensive leader. ‘He’s that smart.’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:16 GMT

As a junior, Geneva’s Charlie Winterhalter started to emerge as the season moved along.Now, the 6-foot, 195-pound senior linebacker is not only making things happen as the team’s leading tackler, he’s also directing the traffic on the field for the Vikings.“My first job is to make sure everyone is in the right spot,” Winterhalter said. “It’s some pressure, but I called a little bit of the plays last year. During the week in practice, we make sure everyone knows what they’re doing.“I just make sure everyone is on the same page.”The decision to put that responsibility in Winterhalter’s hands was an easy one for coach Boone Thorgesen.“He’s the smartest kid on the team,” Thorgesen said. “We knew he could be the guy that could make the calls for our defense. He’s taken that responsibility and ran with it.“I don’t think he makes a wrong call in a game. He’s that smart. It̵...

States reconsider religious exemptions for vaccinations in child care

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:16 GMT

Matt Volz | KFF Health News (TNS)More than half the children who attend Munchkin Land Daycare near Billings, Montana, have special needs or compromised immune systems. The kids, who range in age from 4 months to 9 years, have conditions that include fetal alcohol syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and Down syndrome, according to owner Sheryl Hutzenbiler.“These families came to me knowing we could offer them a safe and healthy environment,” Hutzenbiler said. Part of ensuring that healthy environment is having a strong vaccination policy, she said, especially for those who are immunocompromised or too young to receive the full slate of childhood vaccines.So, when officials at Montana’s health department revived a proposal that would allow people to claim religious exemptions from immunization requirements at child care facilities, Hutzenbiler was both dismayed and relieved. Dismayed, because allowing more children to claim exemptions could compromise the community immunity levels necessary to...

Will the Fed raise interest rates one more time this year? Some economists aren’t convinced

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:16 GMT

Lane Gillespie | Bankrate.com (TNS)Consumers and investors were spared from a 12th rate hike when Federal Reserve officials voted in November to keep their benchmark borrowing rate steady.Don’t take the pause as an indication that officials are ready to sound the all-clear on their firefight against inflation.Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s main message after the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) November rate decision was that officials are not yet sure they’ve raised interest rates enough to quell inflation. That’s even as the Fed’s key borrowing benchmark sits at a 22-year high of 5.25%-5.5%.In economic projections last updated in September, officials indicated to Fed watchers that one more increase is on the table for this year. If approved, the move would bring the Fed’s key benchmark interest rate to a new 22-year high of 5.5%-5.75%. It could also possibly be the last rate hike. Just one official sees rates rising higher than that next year, those projections show.Those project...

A lighter lasagna that still packs a cheesy punch

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:16 GMT

Suddenly, we are experiencing cooler weather; holiday season is around the corner and more substantial dishes start landing on my dinner table. Lasagna was always one of those dishes but over the past couple of years it began to feel a bit too rich with all that cheese. Everything changed, though, when I made this Chicken and Mushroom Lasagna recipe, which I adapted from Gourmet magazine. It certainly satisfies any lingering lasagna cravings without having to take a nap after the meal.The flavor reminded me of a pizza I ate in a small Italian restaurant in Mill Valley years ago. Chicken was an uncommon item on pizza back then, and my husband and I were immediately hooked. For months after that, we ate it almost weekly.This lasagna has the same delicious combination of chicken and mushrooms along with a cheesy white sauce that gives this dish a luscious flavor. Like a traditional lasagna, there are a few steps, but you can double the recipe for another meal or two and even freeze it....

US childhood vaccination exemptions reach their highest level ever

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:16 GMT

By MIKE STOBBE (AP Medical Writer)NEW YORK (AP) — The proportion of U.S. kindergartners exempted from school vaccination requirements has hit its highest level ever, 3%, U.S. health officials said Thursday.More parents are questioning routine childhood vaccinations that they used to automatically accept, an effect of the political schism that emerged during the pandemic around COVID-19 vaccines, experts say.Even though more kids were given exemptions, the national vaccination rate held steady: 93% of kindergarteners got their required shots for the 2022-2023 school year, the same as the year before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report Thursday. The rate was 95% in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic.“The bad news is that it’s gone down since the pandemic and still hasn’t rebounded,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, a University of Colorado pediatric infectious diseases specialist. “The good news is that the vast majority...

Donald Trump’s lawyers ask ‘directed verdict’ ending civil fraud trial in the ex-president’s favor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:16 GMT

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyers made a longshot bid Thursday to put an immediate end to the New York civil fraud trial that threatens his real estate empire, arguing that state lawyers had failed to prove that the former president intended to dupe banks, insurers and others by inflating his wealth on financial statements.Trump’s lawyers asked Judge Arthur Engoron to clear the 2024 Republican front-runner, his namesake company and other defendants of wrongdoing at the halfway point in the trial of state Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit.“There’s no victim. There’s no complainant. There’s no injury. All of that is established now by the evidence,” Trump lawyer Christopher Kise said. He argued that state lawyers had failed to meet “any legal standard” to prove allegations of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.State lawyer Kevin...

‘The monsters and opioids had her.’ N.S. minister describes daughter’s addiction

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:16 GMT

HALIFAX — The scourge that is Canada’s opioid addiction crisis was laid bare in the Nova Scotia legislature this week as politicians of every stripe rose to share personal stories about their struggles with this notorious class of drugs.As members of the house of assembly prepared late Wednesday to vote on a bill aimed at holding opioid manufacturers more accountable for their actions, Progressive Conservative John White described how he became addicted to opioid painkillers in 2005 after he was struck by a drunk driver.“I was in my own world,” he told a hushed legislature. “I’d rub my face, and it felt like somebody else’s face. Nothing around me mattered to me.” The member for Glace Bay-Dominion, a hardscrabble riding in eastern Cape Breton, recalled the moment he told his doctor he wanted to end his drug dependence.“I remember lying in bed in a fetal position, and I didn’t know if I was going to see the morning,” he said...

Emhoff visits New York’s Cornell University as he seeks to reassure Jewish community after threats

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:16 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, met with students and administrators at Cornell University on Thursday to offer support to the school’s Jewish community after threats of violence amid Israel’s war against Hamas.Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of a nationally elected U.S. leader, met with the university president, chief of police and other administrators, and hosted a roundtable with Jewish students in the same kosher dining hall that was forced to closed due to the threats.A Cornell junior was a arrested last month for allegedly leaving threatening messages on a Greek life website unaffiliated with the school in Ithaca, New York. They included posts calling for the deaths of Jewish people and threatening to “shoot up 104 west,” a university dining hall that caters predominantly to kosher diets and is next to the Cornell Jewish Center. The White House said students shared with Emhoff “their personal experiences and reactions to the threats ...