The effort to vaccinate some of the country’s most vulnerable residents against covid-19 has been slowed by a federal program that sends retail pharmacists into nursing homes — accompanied by layers of bureaucracy and logistical snafus.

As of Thursday, more than 4.7 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna covid vaccines had been ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California legislators will again consider a bill to ban cosmetic surgery on small children born with atypical genitalia under a bill introduced Friday.

Senate Bill 225 by state Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, would delay procedures that are not deemed medically necessary until a child is 6 years old, a ...Read more

MIAMI — Florida’s Department of Health on Thursday confirmed 13,720 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 1,531,720. Also, 217 new resident deaths were announced, bringing the state’s resident death toll from the novel coronavirus to 23,613.

No new nonresident deaths were announced, leaving the nonresident ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General said Friday it would open an investigation into the department’s activities in the days preceding the violent attack on Congress and the Capitol as well as its response to that assault.

In a brief statement, the inspector general said it would “coordinate” its inquiry ...Read more

The COVID-19 variant that emerged in the U.K. and sparked concerns of faster spread could become dominant in the U.S. as soon as March, government public health researchers said in a report.

Several lines of evidence indicate the strain spreads faster than other versions, and steps should be taken to reduce its transmission, including increased...Read more

WASHINGTON — President-Elect Joe Biden proposed to overhaul eligibility rules for coronavirus vaccines and open more sites to receive shots, but his plan to rev up U.S. inoculations largely retains the bones of the Trump administration’s system.

Biden’s pledges are vague about timelines, reinforcing his previous warnings that there’ll ...Read more

The National Mall will be closed off to the public and thousands of heavily armed soldiers are expected to patrol the streets around the U.S. Capitol when Joe Biden is sworn in next week, federal law enforcement officials said Friday, as the nation continues to reel from political violence and the worst public health crisis in modern history.

...Read more

More than 250 authors, editors, agents, professors and others in the American literary community signed an open letter this week opposing any publisher that signs book deals with President Donald Trump or members of his administration.

Former DC Comics President Paul Levitz, journalist Sarah Weinman and “Little Fires Everywhere” author ...Read more

The U.S. government published a report Friday that triggers a land swap involving U.S. Native American land for an area that could become the largest copper mine in North America, pushing the project into the next phase in the permitting process.

The Forest Service’s final environmental impact statement finalizes a swap of land at Oak Flat in...Read more

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of fabricating a case against a former Mexican defense minister who was arrested on drug trafficking charges at Los Angeles International Airport last year.

López Obrador, who in November successfully pressured the U.S. ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The tumultuous final weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency have damaged his already low public standing, with 68% of Americans saying they want Trump’s political career to end.

A Pew Research Center survey released Friday shows Trump with the lowest approval number of his presidency at 29%, driven by last week’s assault on the...Read more

The U.S. Justice Department has filed criminal charges against 44 people accused of participating in last week’s Capitol riot, some of whom intended to capture and assassinate elected officials, according to reports Friday.

Murder was on the minds of some of the insurgents, according to federal officials, who cited “strong evidence” of a ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — As public health officials scramble to clear a backlog of unused COVID-19 vaccine by opening the process to anyone 65 or older, new data shows they failed to quickly deliver shots to the vast majority of California's most vulnerable residents, who were supposed to be the priority.

As of Sunday, only about 5% of long-term care ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler will serve as chief science officer of the COVID-19 response under the Biden administration.

Kessler will help lead Operation Warp Speed, the joint Pentagon and Department of Health and Human Services project to develop and distribute COVID-19 vaccines and other ...Read more

A retired Navy SEAL was so proud about participating in the storm on the Capitol that he reportedly filmed himself boasting about it and posted the footage online — prompting a call from the FBI.

Adam Newbold, 45, of Lisbon, Ohio, admitted to his participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection in a since-deleted video posted on his Facebook page, ...Read more

A refugee resettlement agency published a logistical outline Friday morning for the Biden administration to end President Donald Trump's "Remain in Mexico" program.

The heavily criticized program, known officially as Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, requires asylum seekers from Latin American countries other than Mexico to wait in Mexico ...Read more