Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
Schools in the Catholic Diocese of Spokane will follow Gov. Jay Inslee’s directive mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for all school employees throughout the state, including those in private schools. That did not necessarily seem to be the case last week, as Bishop Thomas Daly then said that while the diocese encourages vaccination, “we do not intend on violating the consciences of our Catholic school teachers nor do we intend on vouching for another person’s conscience.”
While no figures exist yet, health officials believe the COVID surge in Washington is likely leading to excess deaths when patients who normally would be able to get care are unable to be transferred to hospitals because there are no beds available. This is due to the more than 1,300 people being hospitalized for COVID-19 in Washington. “Hospitals throughout our state are full and at the highest level of occupancy our state has ever seen,” Dr. Steve Mitchell, medical director at the Washington Medical Coordination Center, which is coordinating patient transfers statewide.
Until Thursday, a room in the Kootenai Health Resources Center hosted nursing students and valuable training equipment. On Friday, employees spent the day pulling out carpets and putting in beds as they prepared for a surge of COVID-19 patients that showed no sign of slowing. “On a typical day, we’re admitting 12 to 16 patients, and we’re able to only discharge, eight to 14 of those,” said Karen Cabell, chief physicians executive officer at Kootenai Health, referring to those sick from COVID-19. “So we’re going up by one, two or five patients a day in total numbers in the hospital.”
Coronavirus cases in Washington are nearing peaks not seen in six months – and for parents readying for a new school year, navigating the path back to classrooms is suddenly fraught with tough questions. Will safety measures like masking and ventilation be enough to curb classroom outbreaks? How might the delta variant confound plans for in-person learning? And since masks are mandatory again, which ones are best for kids?
A number of U.S. companies are announcing new coronavirus vaccine mandates for their employees or expanding vaccine requirements after the Food and Drug Administration issued full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
As U.S. regulatory approval of Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 shot paves the way for companies to get more aggressive with immunizations, American workers are increasingly supportive of punitive measures for unvaccinated colleagues. A survey released Tuesday by human resources consultant Eagle Hill showed that 41% of workers polled agreed that nonvaccinated employees should pay higher insurance rates. Almost two-thirds said the unvaccinated shouldn’t get special allowances to work from home. A separate poll of employers found that the share of those imposing vaccine mandates or planning to do so in some way has more than doubled since the start of the year.
It had to be the shortest live board meeting in the history of Spokane Public Schools. Promptly at 7 p.m. Wednesday, board President Jerrall Haynes opened the meeting by asking attendees to follow Gov. Jay Inslee’s mask mandate. Several people refused, and seconds later, Haynes hit the gavel again and led other board members and staff out the door. The meeting continued via Zoom. The move wasn’t a surprise; the same thing happened Monday night at Central Valley and Tuesday at Nine Mile Falls, following repeated requests for attendees to wear masks.
Military troops must immediately begin to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a memo Wednesday, ordering service leaders to “impose ambitious timelines for implementation.” More than 800,000 service members have yet to get their shots, according to Pentagon data. And now that the Pfizer vaccine has received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration, the Defense Department is adding it to the list of required shots troops must get as part of their military service.
Just over half of Florida’s 2.8 million public school students now face mandates to wear masks in classrooms as a courtroom battle continues over efforts by Gov. Ron DeSantis to leave such decisions up to parents. A majority of school board members in Orange County told the superintendent on Tuesday to require most students to wear masks, and agreed with her recommendation to keep the mandate through Oct. 30.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed an executive order Wednesday making New Mexico the latest Western state to join an ambitious effort to conserve nearly one-third of America’s lands and waters by 2030. The Biden administration detailed its plans in May for achieving the goal, saying conservation and restoration of lands and waters was an urgent priority. Democratic officials and environmentalists see the effort as a tool to increase green space, protect drinking water sources and reduce wildfire risks. To make significant progress on the decadelong commitment, experts have said Western states must play a key role in the effort. ... Republican state Sen. Crystal Diamond of Elephant Butte said almost half of all land in New Mexico – the fifth largest state in the U.S. – is already owned and managed by either the state or federal government. “We all know that our family-owned, private land is better managed, utilized and preserved,” she said. “This 30x30 initiative set forth by the governor is a thinly veiled land grab, and the people of New Mexico will not stand for it.”
The Supreme Court’s decision to order the reinstatement of the “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy is sparking criticism from advocacy groups and praise by former President Donald Trump. It’s also prompting promises by the Biden administration to keep pushing back against a lower court’s decision to reactivate the policy, which forced people to wait in Mexico while seeking asylum in the U.S. The high court’s decision, which came late Tuesday, said the Biden administration likely violated federal law by trying to end the Trump-era program, known as the Migrant Protection Protocols. The ruling raised many questions, ranging from whether a legal challenge would prevail to the practical effects of reinstatement if it stands.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that as many as 1,500 Americans may be awaiting evacuation from Afghanistan, a figure that suggests the U.S. might accomplish its highest priority for the Kabul airlift – rescuing U.S. citizens – ahead of President Joe Biden’s Tuesday deadline despite growing concerns of terror threats targeting the airport. Untold thousands of at-risk Afghans, however, still are struggling to get into the Kabul airport, while many thousands of other Afghans already have been flown to safety in 12 days of round-the-clock flights.
A Northern California fire that gutted hundreds of homes advanced toward Lake Tahoe on Wednesday as thousands of firefighters tried to box in the flames and tourists who hoped to boat or swim were enveloped in a thick yellow haze of the nation’s worst air. In Southern California, an unknown number of remote homes and outbuildings burned after a fire broke out Wednesday afternoon and quickly ran through tinder-dry brush in mountains northeast of Los Angeles. Evacuations were ordered, and crews mounted an air attack to keep the South Fire from the tiny communities of Lytle Creek and Scotland near the Cajon Pass in San Bernardino County. ... Meanwhile, California’s Dixie Fire, the second-largest in state history at 1,148 square miles, was burning only about 65 miles to the north. New evacuations were ordered after winds pushed the blaze to the northeast on Wednesday, as flames crossed State Route 44 and headed toward campgrounds near Eagle Lake. ... In the southern Sierra Nevada, there was growing concern after the French Fire expanded near Lake Isabella, a popular fishing and boating destination. ... Nationally, 92 large fires were burning in a dozen mainly Western states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
The House committee investigating the January insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is demanding a trove of records from federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies, showing the sweep of the lawmakers’ review of the deadly attack by a mob of Donald Trump supporters. The request Wednesday seeks information about events leading up to the Jan. 6 riot, including communication within the White House under then-President Trump and other agencies, and information about planning and funding for rallies held in Washington. Among them is an event at the Ellipse, near the White House, featuring remarks by Trump where he egged on a crowd of thousands before loyalists stormed the Capitol.
Vice President Kamala Harris will turn her attention to issues surrounding worker rights and civil liberties Thursday as she closes out her visit to Southeast Asia, elevating activists in a region of the world known for its challenges and restrictions to human rights. Harris will participate in what her team is billing as a “changemakers” event in Vietnam with civil society and business leaders — as well as a press conference — before beginning the trip back home to the U.S. Vietnam has been criticized for restrictions on freedom of expression and the press, and its crackdown on individuals it deems political dissidents. The events cap off a weeklong trip that took Harris to Singapore and Vietnam in a bid to strengthen U.S. relations with the two countries and affirm the commitment to a region that’s grown increasingly important to U.S. efforts to counter China’s influence globally.
Sirhan B. Sirhan, convicted of the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, will face a California parole board for the 16th time Friday in a prison outside San Diego. But unlike the first 15 times, no prosecutor will stand to oppose the release of Sirhan, who is now 77.
Two members of Congress are facing condemnation and questions following their surprise visit to Afghanistan this week, which diverted resources from the U.S.’s chaotic withdrawal, enraged military leaders and led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to declare it not “a good idea.” Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., and Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., flew in on a charter aircraft and were on the ground at the Kabul airport for several hours Tuesday before flying out on a military plane.
States and localities have only distributed 11% of the tens of billions of dollars in federal rental assistance, the Treasury Department said Wednesday, the latest sign the program is struggling to reach the millions of tenants at risk of eviction.
Zarifa Ghafari was a shining example of the new Afghanistan that many of the nation’s people hoped would emerge after years of Taliban rule: a young female mayor appointed in a country where women’s rights were suppressed under the hardline Islamist group. Now the 29-year-old is sitting in a German hotel after having fled her homeland along with thousands of other Afghans who fear the Taliban’s renewed takeover puts their lives at risk. In an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, Ghafari spoke about the pain she felt as she and her family prepared to fly out of Kabul following a harrowing effort to reach the airport.
Congress provided hundreds of millions of dollars to shore up the nation’s election system against cyberattacks and other threats, but roughly two-thirds of the money remained unspent just weeks before last year’s presidential election. A recently released federal report says the states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories had spent a little more than $255 million of $805 million in election security grants through Sept. 30 of last year, the latest figures available.
The international scientists dispatched to China by the World Health Organization to find out where the coronavirus came from said Wednesday the search has stalled and warned that the window of opportunity for solving the mystery is “closing fast.” Meanwhile, a U.S. intelligence review ordered up by President Joe Biden proved inconclusive about the virus’s origin, including whether it jumped from an animal to a human or escaped from a Chinese lab, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
If it’s a pandemic August in South Dakota, it must be Sturgis time – time again to count the rising cases, watch the divergent narratives spin out, and reflect on the unshakeable persistence of belief over fact. Because as the cases in South Dakota soar, the delta version of the motorcycle rally is shaping up to look a lot like the alpha version, which sent COVID-19 home with a significant number of bikers.
Oregon will deploy “crisis teams” of hundreds of nurses, respiratory therapists, paramedics and nursing assistants to regions of the state hardest hit by a surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations that have stretched hospitals to the limit, Gov. Kate Brown said Wednesday. The state has finalized a contract with a medical staffing company that will send up to 500 health care providers to central and southern Oregon, where hospitals have been slammed by a surge in coronavirus patients, most of them unvaccinated. Smaller teams will also head to long-term care facilities around the state.
At least four school districts have pushed back their start date in Oregon as COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations soar and the state introduced new vaccine requirements for teachers and school staff. The four districts, all in small, rural communities in southern and central Oregon, account for little more than 2,600 students combined.
The continued prevalence of the coronavirus claimed another summertime event in Spokane on Wednesday, as organizers announced the cancellation of Hoopfest 2021. The 3-on-3 basketball tournament had been scheduled for Sept. 11-12.
Spokane City Council candidate Tyler LeMasters must be removed from the general election ballot because he has not met the necessary residency requirements, a Spokane County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday. .... LeMasters had lived in Virginia from July 2019 to November 2020 while working for U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. He returned to Spokane in November and filed to run for City Council on May 18, 2021.
Parents take note: The Yakima School District will provide school supplies this year, eliminating the cost to families. Supplies will be provided by schools as needed for learning when classes start Wednesday, district officials said.
Eatonville High School is requiring some student-athletes and coaches to wear tracking monitors during practices. The monitors are intended to be a way to contract trace in the event of a positive COVID-19 case, to measure players’ proximity to others during practices and how long they were near them. In the event of a positive COVID-19 case, coaches and administrators will have instant data on which players would potentially need to quarantine.
About 75 people gathered in front of the Othello School District office Monday evening to protest an order from Gov. Jay Inslee requiring most school employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by Oct. 18. The protesters included Othello School District employees, health care workers and employees from other local school districts.
Hundreds of Palestinians on Wednesday demonstrated near the Israeli border in the southern Gaza Strip, calling on Israel to ease a crippling blockade days after a similar gathering ended in deadly clashes with the Israeli army.
The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant said Wednesday it plans to build an undersea tunnel so that massive amounts of treated but still radioactive water can be released into the ocean about 0.6 mile away from the plant to avoid interference with local fishing. The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, said it hopes to start releasing the water in spring 2023. TEPCO says hundreds of storage tanks at the plant need to be removed to make room for facilities necessary for the plant’s decommissioning.
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