Current Events

https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/chesterfield-county/virginia-state-university-campus-closed-on-sept-11/

Multiple departments continue to track the rise of COVID-19

https://app.powerbigov.us/view?r=eyJrIjoiMzY1ZmJlZjAtNWNhYi00YWFlLTgwMTUtNDBlOWQxMmY5YTk1IiwidCI6IjA0MzIwN2RmLWU2ODktNGJmNi05MDIwLTAxMDM4ZjExZjBiMSJ9

Pennsylvania has chosen to listen to doctors

Governor of New York allows New Yorkers the choice to continue getting COVID vaccine boosters without prescription

California, Oregon, and Washington band together to protect public health

This case may look to overturn the ban on open carry within the city of Lincoln to align with the state's Legislative Bill 77, which was passed in 2023 to allow open carry in the state of Nebraska.

Everytown For Gun Safety's website shows that weak gun laws like these lead to higher rates of gun violence. Mississippi allows open carry and has the highest rate of gun homicides in the country.

By contrast, Massachusetts regulates open carry and requires permits for concealed carry. Due to stricter gun laws, Massachusetts has the lowest rate of gun deaths.

Today, only two days after the latest school shooting in Minnesota, Nebraska Supreme Court continues to hear a case that may put Lincoln, Nebraska at risk of losing this protection.

https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/es/news/news-articles/report-of-armed-suspect-on-doane-university-campus-determined-to-be-swatting-call/

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2025/08/25/police-converge-on-university-of-tennessee-campus-but-no-weapon-found/85819110007/

https://abcnews.go.com/US/villanova-university-targeted-2nd-false-active-shooter-report/story?id=124934479

Many have been killed or injured by gunshots late Friday to early Saturday following 4th of July celebrations, according to multiple police departments. "Gunshots or Fireworks?" is a question too many Americans have had to ask.

https://www.wavy.com/news/virginia/5-people-injured-following-mass-shooting-incident-in-charlottesville/

More than 100,000 Nebraskans could lose health care coverage and six hospitals in rural parts of the state would likely close if the steep Medicaid cuts proposed in President Donald Trump's domestic policy bill become law, advocates warned Monday.

The sweeping measure that Trump has called on the Senate to pass before Independence Day would extend tax cuts enacted in 2017 and boost defense spending while cutting $1 trillion the next decade from the government insurance program that covers about 346,000 low-income Nebraskans.

As Senate Republicans spent Monday voting down Democratic attempts to scale back or remove the measure's cuts to Medicaid and federal nutrition programs, health care providers and advocates in Nebraska warned that those cuts would be "pretty much life-threatening" for the most vulnerable Nebraskans, particularly those in rural parts of the state.

At a virtual news conference Monday afternoon, Jed Hansen, the director of the Nebraska Rural Health Association, said the proposed cuts the GOP is working to enact would place strain on more than 20 maternal care wards, inpatient mental health care providers in Nebraska's panhandle and would likely force the outright closure of six rural hospitals within 24 months of the phased-in cuts taking full effect.

"With the Medicaid cuts, Webster County Hospital likely will close," said Tyler Sherman, a nurse at the facility in Red Cloud that, he said, is already "working in the red."

He warned that the hospital's closure would force residents of the south central Nebraska county that borders Kansas to seek care 40 miles north in Hastings.

"So if you call 911 with a heart attack, it's going to be 45 minutes to 50 minutes before you get to the nearest hospital that's open, versus five minutes with Webster County Hospital and other rural hospitals being open," he said.

Providers and advocates warned, too, that provisions in Trump's domestic policy bill could cost developmentally disabled Nebraskans their Medicaid coverage due to "deeply flawed" work requirements that, they said, don't provide adequate exemptions for "many people with real serious conditions."

They also said the proposed cuts would threaten funding for home- and community-based services for 15,000 intellectually and developmentally disabled Nebraskans that are funded with Medicaid waiver programs.

And, they warned, the cuts would impact more than just the most vulnerable Nebraskans — including increased costs for care from providers strained by Medicaid cuts and even increased property taxes levied in counties where local governments offer health services.

"We're all going to experience impacts of rising costs and the result of underfunded health systems," said Sarah Maresh, the program director for health care access at the nonprofit Nebraska Appleseed.

Hansen, the Rural Health Association director, said a proposed $25 billion rural relief fund the latest version of the bill would set aside for hospitals operating in the red nationwide "just isn't going to be enough."

He said his organization has "been clear all along" with Nebraska's congressional delegates — including Republican Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts — about what the proposed cuts would mean for the state's rural health care system.

"Talking with the Sen. Fischer and Sen. Ricketts teams, I think their goal right now is to try go get through the (bill) and then to work towards coming back and fighting for hospital funding," he said. "(There's) obviously a lot of risk in that. You just don't know the direction the political winds will go."

But neither appear inclined to vote against the bill that carries Trump's first-year agenda.

Both Fischer and Ricketts voted late Saturday to clear a key procedural step to proceed with the bill that two Republicans opposed. One of them, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, announced a day later that he wouldn't seek reelection next year.

In a Saturday interview with Fox News, Fischer hailed the provisions of the bill that would extend the 2017 tax cuts and bolster the child tax credit and defense spending, warning that failing to pass the measure would result in hikes for families.

"We want to make sure that doesn't happen to American families," she said. "We want to protect the security of this country. We want to provide for our military. That's what's involved in this discussion."

In a statement to the Journal Star on Monday, a spokeswoman for Fischer said the GOP is "strengthening Medicaid to ensure that it remains solvent for those who rely on it, including children and low-income and disabled Americans.”

An immunocompromised child has been infected with measles due to a decrease in vaccination in public schools as parents claim "religious exemptions", according to health officials.

The child received one MMR dose, but was too young to receive the second. Along with this, the child was immunocompromised. In an educated society, herd immunity would have protected this child. However, negligent parents have chosen not to vaccinate, putting children at risk.

In Lancaster county, "religious exemption" claims have increased from 1.8% to 4% in the past 5 years, according to the Flatwater Free Press. This has lowered kindergarten vaccination rates from 94.4% to 89%. 95% is needed for herd immunity.

This negligence puts children at risk of deadly diseases.

Measles is not the only risk. Recently, a child in Indiana died of vaccine preventable meningitis B within hours of being exposed to an unvaccinated child in a public school.

https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article307432611.html

Herd immunity is needed to protect everyone. Religious exemptions to vaccines have deadly consequences.