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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
Starting Monday, all travelers entering the United States will have to show a negative COVID test from the day before their flight in order to get into the country. As the omicron variant continues to pop up around the globe, including in a handful of states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it was clamping down on its testing requirements for entry into the country.
With the omicron variant likely on its way to Washington and demand for boosters high, the state is working to increase access to COVID-19 vaccinations, Gov. Jay Inslee said. Inslee said the state saw a 75% increase in the number of people using the Department of Health vaccine locator in the past three days. But he warns it may take some time for everyone to get their dose.
Two of Washington’s senior politicians are calling for a new study in an effort to alleviate the housing shortage for servicemembers at Fairchild Air Force Base. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray and Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers want the Air Force to do what it calls a “housing requirement and market analysis” at the base. That study would give the Air Force up-to-date information on Fairchild’s housing needs. Murray and McMorris Rodgers say the study is necessary because too many Fairchild servicemembers are struggling to find an affordable place to live.
President Joe Biden on Friday signed into law the stopgap spending bill that will keep the federal government running through Feb. 18, after congressional leaders defused a partisan standoff over federal vaccine mandates.
U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian planning is underway for a possible military offensive against Ukraine that could begin as soon as early 2022 and would include an estimated 175,000 personnel, according to an administration official. The new intelligence finding estimates that half of the Russian personel are already deployed along various points near Ukraine’s border, according to a Biden administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the finding.
Sen. Bernie Sanders is asking the White House to cut back a big Medicare premium hike set to take effect in weeks and tied to a pricey Alzheimer’s drug whose benefits have been widely questioned. In a letter Friday to President Joe Biden, the Vermont Independent called on the president to act immediately to prevent the portion of an “outrageous increase” in Medicare premiums that’s attributable to Aduhelm, a newly approved Alzheimer’s medicine from drugmaker Biogen priced at $56,000 a year. If Biden agreed and found a way to do it, a planned January increase of $21.60 a month to Medicare’s “Part B” premium for outpatient care would be slashed closer to $10. The monthly premium for 2022 would drop from $170.10 to about $159.
Dr. Sikhulile Moyo was analyzing COVID-19 samples in his lab in Botswana last week when he noticed they looked startlingly different from others. Within days, the world was ablaze with the news that the coronavirus had a new variant of concern – one that appears to be driving a dramatic surge in South Africa and offering a glimpse of where the pandemic might be headed. New COVID-19 cases in South Africa have burgeoned from about 200 a day in mid-November to more than 16,000 on Friday. Omicron was detected over a week ago in the country’s most populous province, Gauteng, and has since spread to all eight other provinces, Health Minister Joe Phaahla said. ... It’s not clear if the variant causes more serious illness or can evade the protection of vaccines. Phaahla noted that only a small number of people who have been vaccinated have gotten sick, mostly with mild cases, while the vast majority of those who have been hospitalized were not vaccinated.
As Donald Trump’s lawyers try to block the White House from releasing records to the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, the former president faces a flurry of other investigations that could come to a head in the coming weeks and the new year. That includes two major state criminal investigations – one in New York and one in Georgia – and lawsuits concerning sexual assault allegations, a fight over an inheritance and questions of whether he should be held personally liable for inciting the insurrection. Trump has long dismissed the investigations as nothing more than a politically motivated “witch hunt” that began with the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. But while Trump has spent most of his life dodging legal consequences, he is no longer shielded by the protections against indictment enjoyed by sitting presidents. And any charges – which would be the first against a former president in the nation’s history – could affect both his businesses and his future political prospects as he mulls running for a second term.
During his confirmation to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh convinced Sen. Susan Collins that he thought a woman’s right to an abortion was “settled law,” calling the court cases affirming it “precedent on precedent” that could not be casually overturned. Amy Coney Barrett told senators during her Senate confirmation hearing that laws could not be undone simply by personal beliefs, including her own. “It’s not the law of Amy,” she quipped. But during this week’s landmark Supreme Court hearing over a Mississippi law that could curtail if not outright end a woman’s right to abortion, the two newest justices struck a markedly different tone, drawing lines of questioning widely viewed as part of the court’s willingness to dismantle decades old decisions on access to abortion services.
The arrival of the omicron variant of the coronavirus in the U.S. has health officials in some communities reviving contact tracing operations in an attempt to slow and better understand its spread as scientists study how contagious it is and whether it can thwart vaccines.
Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service is temporarily closing its doors to the public and limiting intake of stray pets after the sudden and unexpected deaths of two dogs from a bacterial infection. The closure starting Friday was spurred by test results received that day that indicated streptococcus zooepidemicus was present at SCRAPS, the county said in a news release. The two dogs that died had no symptoms, but sick dogs may exhibit coughing, nasal discharge, fever and retching that can look like vomiting. The bacteria can spread through the air, as well as through bodily fluids and contaminated surfaces.
Seattle, a city known for soggy weather, has seen its wettest fall on record. The National Weather Service says 19.04 inches of rain fell between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30, breaking a record set in 2006. A series of wet storms caused by so-called “atmospheric rivers” pounded the Pacific Northwest, causing widespread flooding and damage.
Much like an only child of parents in a divorce proceeding, the U.S. Constitution has been clutched at by both sides of the ideological divide, each of which insists that its claim is the more legitimate and the other’s distorts reality. The right is certain the Constitution protects “religious liberty,” “individual freedom” and the ability to own any variety of weaponry, while the left asserts that the document protects the right of women to have an abortion and ensures all Americans are allowed to vote, thereby preserving the Framers’ goal of majority rule. Both sides are wrong.
The Washington Supreme Court on Friday accepted the legislative and congressional maps drawn by the state redistricting commission, declining to take on the role to redraw the maps themselves.
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