U.S. News

US health officials on Tuesday gave the final signoff to Pfizer’s kid-size COVID-19 shot, a milestone that opens a major expansion of the nation’s vaccination campaign to children as young as 5.

About 9,000 New York City municipal workers were put on unpaid leave for refusing to comply with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate that took effect Monday and thousands of city firefighters have called out sick in an apparent protest over the requirement, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The Supreme Court announced Monday it would not hear a challenge against New York’s requirement that employers provide abortion coverage with health insurance plans.

The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on challenges to the Texas law that bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Following three hours of argument presentation and questioning, a majority of the justices appeared willing to allow abortion providers in Texas to continue their challenge against the state’s new law.

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on Monday urged House progressives to “quit playing games” and support passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill that’s already passed the Senate.

The Biden administration has prepared shipments of low-dose COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5-11 ahead of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions final approval, according to reports.

The Supreme Court declined a request to block Maine’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare works on Friday.

The ballot proposal that goes to voters Tuesday has roots in the abolish-the-police movement that erupted after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer last year. It has drawn strong support from younger Black activists who were mobilized by Floyd’s death, as well as from some Black and white residents across this liberal city.

In September, a surgical team at NYU Langone Health performed the first successful animal-to-human transplant. Led by Dr. Robert Montgomery, the team attached a pig kidney to blood vessels on the exterior of a brain-dead patient’s leg. The animal biotechnology company Revivicor provided a genetically engineered pig for the experiment. The animal lacked the gene encoding the sugar molecule alpha-gal, known to trigger immediate organ rejection in humans.

Pro-Choice politicians and other supporters of abortion are celebrating a win in the Illinois legislature earlier in the week. Lawmakers voted to repeal the Parental Notification Act which required parents to be notified 48 hours in advance before their child could go through with an abortion.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody filed another lawsuit against the U.S. government Thursday, challenging the rule requiring companies that are federal contractors to show proof of vaccination or weekly COVID tests of their employees and calling it a “heavy-handed mandate never authorized by Congress.”

President Joe Biden delayed his departure to a pair of global summits Thursday so he could first visit the U.S. Capitol to tout the framework of a deal on his “Build Back Better” agenda.

The U.S. economy grew at the slowest pace of the recovery in the third quarter, but economists expect strong consumer demand and an easing pandemic to boost growth in the coming months despite lingering supply constraints.

Minneapolis residents are considering a measure that would replace the city police department with a Department of Public Safety, roughly 18 months after the George Floyd killing in the city that sparked nationwide calls for police reform.

A fast-food restaurant in California was shut down Tuesday for refusing to ask patrons to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test in order to enter the restaurant.

A Harvard professor of immunology who serves as a voting member of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee admitted Tuesday it won’t be clear whether vaccinating children against COVID-19 is safe until the shots are widely administered.

The U.S. State Department announced Wednesday it has issued the first U.S. passport with an X-gender marker for non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming persons.

The largest police union in New York City filed a lawsuit Monday in an effort to block the city’s vaccine mandate from taki ng effect.

Students in Loudoun County School District in Virginia walked out of class Tuesday in response to recent sexual assault allegations that took place on two high school campuses.

A non-profit organization representing Christian employers has filed suit against two federal government departments for issuing mandates that would require Christian employers and medical personnel to pay for or perform gender transition surgeries, Just the News reports. The suit claims the government mandates are in violation of constitutional religious freedom rights.