Author
Parents and advocates scrutinize FDA delay in COVID vaccines for young kids
Clinical trials began in spring 2021 for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine tailored to infants and young children. After multiple variant surges, the trials had results by spring 2022. But it wasn’t until June 2022 that a federal panel looked at the Moderna trial results, alongside Pfizer’s similar vaccine, and gave its blessing. That delay left a […]
Ammon Bundy won’t respond to lawsuit, so St. Luke’s takes more legal action
Ammon Bundy and associate Diego Rodriguez are not following legal processes in a lawsuit that stems from a child protection case, according to new court filings. Bundy ignored a court order, and Rodriguez is nowhere to be found, according to motions and affidavits filed this month by St. Luke’s Health System and its fellow plaintiffs […]
The Biden administration said insurers must cover home COVID tests. It didn’t say how.
I read the announcement in January with mixed emotions: The Biden administration would soon require health insurers to pay for eight at-home, rapid COVID-19 tests per person, per month, it said. What a helpful move to improve testing access for Americans whose jobs, schooling and daily lives expose them to the virus, I thought. Especially […]
The “Great Resignation” comes to health care jobs in Idaho
It was a very 2022 get-together: women who connected on social media, meeting in person for the first time over wine and hors d’oeuvres at a business that teaches computer coding — to talk about what comes next when you leave a career in health care. Although it is well established that Americans rarely stay […]
Interior secretary announces health program for wildland firefighters at NIFC in Boise
BOISE, Idaho — The U.S. Interior Department will create a health and wellbeing program for wildland firefighters and boost spending on firefighting efforts by $103 million in fiscal 2022, Secretary Deb Haaland said Friday. The additional funding, which Haaland announced at the National Interagency Fire Center, comes as part of the $1.5 billion in last […]
Ada County a ‘rapid riser’ for COVID, hitting highest level of COVID impact Thursday
Ada County spent just one week at the “moderate” community level before hitting the federal threshold for the highest level of COVID-19 concern on Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses one set of data to determine how much the coronavirus is spreading in a community — and another set to determine how […]
Idaho’s federal lawmakers take gun money, won’t comment on gun control policies
Idaho’s congressional delegation has received hundreds of thousands of dollars of support from gun rights organizations — and has stayed mostly quiet on the topic of new gun safety and gun control proposals now making their way through the U.S. Congress. The four men who represent Idahoans in the U.S. House and Senate have yet […]
Idaho political leaders, groups react to reports of Patriot Front arrests in Coeur d’Alene
Law enforcement officers in Kootenai County arrested a truckful of men on Saturday on suspicion of conspiracy to riot during a Pride in the Park event in Coeur d’Alene. The group included a leader and members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front, according to reports. The 31 men came to North Idaho from at […]
Idaho agencies will host World Refugee Day celebration with food, dance, music, citizenship ceremony
Members of Idaho’s refugee community will gather in Boise and Twin Falls this month to mark World Refugee Day with music, food, dance and a citizenship ceremony. World Refugee Day recognizes people who fled their home countries to escape war or persecution. “It’s a day to remember the hardships that folks went through, but also […]
From the halls of Congress and the White House, to Saint Al’s in Boise
Lorenzo Olvera was ready for something new, but familiar. Olvera grew up in Caldwell, a child of immigrants from Mexico. He graduated 15 years ago from the College of Idaho and headed to Washington, D.C., to work in the halls of Congress and executive branch agencies, finally landing a job as director of the Senate […]
The pandemic isn’t over, Idaho. This is what COVID looks like here, today.
The World Health Organization declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020. The coronavirus had spread to at least 114 countries by then, and — though nobody knew it at the time — was already in Idaho. “Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause […]
Idaho bankruptcy rates are down. A lot. But things may not be what they seem.
When the pandemic arrived — prompting mass layoffs and short-lived restrictions on business activity — Idaho’s bankruptcy lawyers were told to expect the worst. “We were preparing for a tsunami of case filings” in the spring of 2020, said Stephen W. Kenyon, clerk of the U.S. District and Bankruptcy Courts for the District of Idaho. […]