GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Louella Fredrickson has long created workarounds to fill gaps in the spotty medical care available to her as a member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana.

The 86-year-old uses dollar-store reading glasses to improve her blurry vision because she’s worried about the cost of an eye appointment. And ...Read more

DETROIT — From free needles to supervised injection sites where drug users can shoot up amid people trained to respond to overdoses to a vending machine that doles out Narcan, harm reduction — the newest strategy to stem the vast number of drug overdose deaths — is making headlines across the nation and in Michigan.

Reducing the harms ...Read more

What group is especially vulnerable to the ravages of COVID-19 even if fully vaccinated and boosted? Seniors. And who will have an especially tough time getting free at-home COVID tests under the Biden administration’s plan? Yes, seniors.

As of Jan. 15, private insurers are covering the cost of eight at-home rapid COVID tests each month for ...Read more

Hoping to bypass the veto of a Democratic governor who’s already used it before on a similar proposal, Republicans in Harrisburg are considering the use of a constitutional amendment to privatize the state-run liquor system.

Republicans have been trying to hand over the wine and spirits business to the private sector for years, and their ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Deaths from COVID-19 in Los Angeles County have soared over the last week, with officials saying most of the recent fatalities appear to be from the omicron variant.

The spread of the latest coronavirus variant has moved with unprecedented speed since December, although officials have said people who get infected with omicron ...Read more

MIAMI — Florida on Monday reported 44,010 COVID-19 cases and 426 new deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.

The CDC backlogs cases and deaths for Florida on Mondays and Thursdays, when multiple days in the past had their totals changed. In August, Florida began reporting ...Read more

NEW YORK — The 47-year-old ex-con who ambushed two NYPD officers in his mother’s Harlem apartment, killing one and gravely wounding the other before a third cop shot him, died Monday afternoon, a police official confirmed.

Lashawn McNeil died at Harlem Hospital at 1:38 p.m.

He was shot Friday night in the head and right arm by rookie ...Read more

NEW YORK — Disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti was so strapped for cash in 2018 that he stole from the client who put him on the map: porn star Stormy Daniels, federal prosecutors told a Manhattan jury Monday.

“This is a case about a lawyer who stole from his client ,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Rohrbach said during opening arguments....Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Republicans in a Florida Senate committee on Monday pushed through a bill that would bar the state from doing business with companies that transport undocumented migrants into the state, giving a nod to a controversial but key part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ election-year agenda.

The measure, approved by the Senate Judiciary ...Read more

MIAMI — The new Doral real estate venture launched by former president Donald Trump includes the traditional trappings of his promotional playbook: luxury amenities, access to high-end golf and a swaggering statement from Trump himself touting it as “perhaps the most exciting development in the Country.”

But as described in an application...Read more

SAN DIEGO — An F-35C jet crashed while attempting to land on the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson Monday, injuring seven sailors, the Navy said in a statement.

Three of the injured sailors were flown to a hospital in Manila, Philippines, and are in stable condition. Four injured sailors received treatment onboard the ship.

The pilot safely ...Read more

Infants in households that receive some kind of basic or guaranteed income payment may benefit on a neurological level from the support, a new study suggests.

The study randomly divided a group of 1,000 mothers and their infants into two groups: one received $333 a month, the other $20, according to a report published Jan. 24 in the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — With the crisis over a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine intensifying on Monday, U.S. officials placed thousands of troops on “high alert” and NATO took steps to position personnel and war machinery in Eastern Europe, further signs that a diplomatic solution to the standoff was nowhere within reach.

Biden administration ...Read more

New York’s mask mandate for schools and other public places was struck down by a Long Island judge who said it’s an illegal end-run around the constitution.

The mask-wearing rule was issued Dec. 10 by the state’s health commissioner, at the urging of Governor Kathy Hochul, at the start of the omicron surge of the coronavirus pandemic. A ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Three Baltimore firefighters were killed and a fourth remains on life support after being trapped in a blaze inside a vacant home Monday that is one of the deadliest in the city’s history.

The firefighters were inside a rowhouse in the city’s New Southwest/Mount Clare neighborhood when it partially collapsed.

Two firefighters...Read more

Members of Congress from both the House and Senate on Monday called for an investigation into the workings of special Border Patrol teams after human rights advocates raised concerns about evidence tampering.

In a letter sent to the Government Accountability Office, the chairs of the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees, House and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The company that provides Los Angeles County with coronavirus testing said it plans to sue Sheriff Alex Villanueva for defamation over claims the sheriff made alleging the company has links to the Chinese government.

Fulgent Genetics, the Temple City company contracted to administer tests and track the vaccination status of ...Read more

WASHINGTON — U.S. regulators restricted the use of a pair of COVID-19 monoclonal antibody therapies after scientific evidence suggested they are unlikely to be effective against the omicron variant.

The Food and Drug Administration said in a statement on Monday that it had decided to limit access to the treatments, which are made by Eli Lilly...Read more