50 States News from across the USA
ALABAMA Montgomery: Montgomery Public Schools employees are set to return to their school buildings after spring break, about two months after being sent home to work virtually following several COVID-19 deaths among staff. Their first day back will be March 29. Students can return to classrooms starting April 5.
ALASKA Juneau: Gov. Mike Dunleavy is in quarantine after learning he was in close contact with someone later found to be positive for the coronavirus, his office said Monday.
ARIZONA Phoenix: The state’s superlow $240 maximum weekly unemployment benefit would increase to $320 by midsummer, and employers would have a small increase in their premiums, under a new proposal unveiled Tuesday by Republican Senate President Karen Fann.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: The state on Tuesday lowered the eligibility age for receiving the COVID-19 vaccine from 70 to 65, making shots available to another 115,000 people in the state, according to Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
CALIFORNIA San Francisco: As the vast majority of the state’s students approach one year of distance learning, Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed Tuesday that classrooms will reopen “very, very shortly.” But his forecast was called into question by Los Angeles teachers who continue to insist that the massive school district won’t open without more vaccinations.
COLORADO Fort Collins: Wastewater testing indicates Larimer County could be headed for another increase in coronavirus cases, with a “fairly significant” increase in viral load through Fort Collins and Loveland, county Health Director Tom Gonzales told county commissioners Tuesday.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: Dr. James Gill, the state’s chief medical examiner, told legislators Tuesday that his investigators have “identified many deaths” that should have been certified as COVID-19-related but were not, including nursing home and assisted living residents who have died during the pandemic.
DELAWARE Dover: An app that alerts residents to potential coronavirus exposure has been downloaded by more than 100,000 residents. The Delaware State News reports the state hoped to reach about 10% of the adult population, or about 77,000 Delawareans, when the COVID Alert DE app was launched in September.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Mayor Muriel Bowser’s older sister died Wednesday of complications related to COVID-19, the mayor said in a statement. Mercia Bowser served with Catholic Charities and the D.C. Office on Aging, WUSA-TV reports. The announcement of her only sister’s death came hours after the mayor declared Wednesday “A Day of Remembrance for Lives Lost to COVID-19” to mark the city’s 1,000th death from the virus.
FLORIDA Tallahassee: A community vaccine center will open Thursday on the Florida A&M University campus. The walk-up site at the Lawson Center will initially serve health care workers with direct patient contact and residents 65 and over.
GEORGIA Atlanta: Gov. Brian Kemp is throwing his support behind efforts to curb street racing and stunt driving, saying heavier penalties are needed to crack down on the illegal activities that Atlanta-area police agencies say spiked in the early days of the pandemic, when traffic thinned on roads.
HAWAII Honolulu: More than half of the state’s retailers expect to miss at least one full rent payment between now and June as the pandemic keeps business down, the Honolulu StarAdvertiser reports. A bill in the Hawaii House would establish a commercial rent relief grant program administered by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism using federal funds.
IDAHO Boise: A proposed law to trim a governor’s powers while increasing the Legislature’s during declared emergencies such as the pandemic will have unintended consequences, and parts are unconstitutional, the Idaho attorney general’s office said. The language is “overly broad and could introduce legal uncertainty into the Governor and the State’s authority to respond to disasters and emergencies,” Assistant Chief Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane wrote.
ILLINOIS Springfield: The state’s coronavirus positivity rate fell below 3% on Wednesday, despite a slight uptick in the number of people testing positive for the virus.
INDIANA Bloomington: Indiana University plans to hold in-person spring commencements at all its campuses, but only graduates will be permitted to attend under IU’s coronavirus policies, officials said.
IOWA Des Moines: Prompted by a fight with Des Moines Public Schools officials over in-person learning, Republicans in the state Senate are advancing a bill that would expand the reasons for disciplining superintendents and school board members to include “knowingly and intentionally” violating federal or state laws governing the operation of a school.
KANSAS Wichita: Hospitality businesses that got loans through an emergency relief fund at the beginning of the pandemic will no longer have to repay the money, Gov. Laura Kelly said Tuesday.
KENTUCKY Louisville: Gov. Andy Beshear loosened key COVID-19 guidance Tuesday, creating an easier path for more schools to reopen. In a new executive order, he recommends districts offer some form of in-person instruction by March 1 or seven days after educators complete their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. “We didn’t vaccinate our educators for nothing,” he said.
LOUISIANA Lafayette: Lafayette Parish bars can return to indoor alcohol consumption starting Thursday, as the parish’s coronavirus positivity rate held below 5% for a second week in a row Wednesday.
MAINE Paris: Town leaders say the governor’s executive order requiring people to wear masks violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The executive director of Disability Rights Maine said the advocacy group supports the mandates and called the resolution “a form of misguided civil disobedience.”
MARYLAND Annapolis: Gov. Larry Hogan said the state has entered into agreements with the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and Johns Hopkins University to more than double the state’s surveillance of different coronavirus strains.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Gov. Charlie Baker said the state is working to improve its vaccine finder website by creating what he described as a “digital waiting room.”
MICHIGAN Lansing: More than 80% of the state’s school districts planned to offer some form of inperson instruction in February, a more than 20 percentage point increase over the previous month.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: The state’s largest gas utilities are warning about sky-high February heating bills because of historic cold weather. It’s never a good time for a big price hike, but a pandemic “is one of the worst times it could happen,” Ian Dobson, a representative for the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, told the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Teachers and first responders will be eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines starting Monday, Gov. Tate Reeves announced Tuesday.
MISSOURI St. Louis: About 46,000 Missourians were mistakenly overpaid unemployment benefits as part of the federal pandemic stimulus, and while the state wants the money back, some are having success in winning their appeals.
MONTANA Billings: The state is considering becoming the latest to intensify its hunt for welfare overpayments and fraud, a move expected to remove more than 1,500 people from low-income health coverage even as the pandemic has left more people needing help.
NEBRASKA Omaha: The number of new coronavirus cases continues to decline in the state, and the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 is at its lowest level since fall began, officials said.
NEVADA Las Vegas: Class-action lawsuits were filed against 10 major auto insurance companies on behalf of Nevada customers Tuesday, contending they charged excessive insurance premiums during the pandemic by failing to account for a drop in driving and crashes.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: Meeting indoors for the first time since September, the Republican-led state House gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a bill that would reverse and refund the fines paid by businesses that have violated emergency orders during the pandemic.
NEW JERSEY Andover: A woman who worked at a Sussex County nursing home – where authorities found bodies piled up in a makeshift morgue in a shed in April – died from complications of COVID-19 last year because the home failed to provide proper protective gear, her family alleged in a lawsuit filed this week.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Citing downward trends in new COVID-19 cases, top administrators with some of the largest health care networks in the state said this week that visitation restrictions at some hospitals were being eased for noncoronavirus patients.
NEW YORK Albany: Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s job-approval rating has slipped amid criticism over his administration’s handling of COVID-19 death data in nursing homes, though a pair of polls show more people still approve of his performance than disapprove.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: The state’s agriculture commissioner declared Wednesday that there will be state fairs this fall, and he encouraged people to get vaccinated to ensure the events will be safe in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and will lead to record attendance.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The Republican-controlled state House has passed legislation to legalize recreational marijuana. Lawmakers also passed a related bill Tuesday setting up a tax policy for cannabis. Both bills now go to the Senate.
OHIO Columbus: Gov. Mike DeWine and his wife, Fran, received the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday, the governor’s office reported.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Community leaders, health experts and elected officials gathered at the Capitol on Wednesday to call attention to racial disparities in vaccine distribution. The most recent data available from the state health department shows about 3% of people who have gotten both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine are Black, compared to more than 70% who are white.
OREGON Florence: The state has fined The New Blue Hen restaurant nearly $18,000 for willfully exposing workers to COVID-19 after an investigation in which officials say compliance officers were threatened.
PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: One of the state’s largest health networks allowed employees’ family members to skip the COVID-19 vaccine line. Geisinger’s decision to give special access to employees’ relatives at vaccine clinics earned a rebuke this week from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: A steep decrease in the number of people with COVID-19 who require hospitalization is allowing the state to close two field hospitals, the Department of Health said.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: Teachers, grocery store employees and other front-line essential workers could be eligible for vaccines in two to three weeks, the state’s top health official told lawmakers Tuesday.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: The annual Sioux Falls Stampede Wiener Dog Race returns Saturday with 30 dogs competing for the championship title. Three sections in the lower seating area will be reserved for spectators who plan to social distance, plus another section in the upper level.
TEXAS Austin: About 1,000 COVID-19 vaccines were lost to disruptions caused by last week’s cold wave, which a top state health official said Tuesday was a relatively small number of doses.
UTAH Salt Lake City: There’s more cash for lawmakers to spend, according to new revenue projections announced late last week. But legislative leaders said they had more than $2 billion in spending requests this year, and not all will be approved. Privately, leaders admit they may have made a mistake crowing about how well the state’s economy was performing in light of the pandemic.
VERMONT Montpelier: Lawmakers are preparing a COVID-19 relief measure to provide assistance to people and businesses across the state while waiting for Congress to pass a bigger package. The plan being considered supports a variety of programs for children, businesses and long-term investments in health care.
VIRGINIA Richmond: Gov. Ralph Northam announced Wednesday that he will begin loosening some coronavirus-related restrictions next week, affecting alcohol sales and late-night curfews, as key pandemic metrics continue to improve.
WASHINGTON Seattle: Seattle Public Schools is delaying a return to the classroom for its youngest students during the coronavirus pandemic by at least a week because it has yet to reach an agreement with the city’s teachers’ union.
WEST VIRGINIA Morgantown: Two food companies are contributing cash and other items to the student food pantry at West Virginia University. Kroger Mid-Atlantic contributed more than $50,000 in cash and equipment, and Kraft Heinz donated more than $10,000 in cash, food items and coolers for The Rack, the school said in a news release. The pantry has expanded to meet demand that has grown in recent years.
WISCONSIN Milwaukee: State health officials say they are ready to move forward with the second half of Phase 1B vaccinations next week, and educators will be first in line.
WYOMING Cheyenne: The Wyoming Department of Health is expanding preregistration for COVID-19 vaccines to people 65 and older, those with medical conditions listed in Phase 1B and caregivers of people with those medical conditions.