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Covid-19

GOP lawmaker doesn’t support suing UW

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A second Republican lawmaker says he doesn’t support suing the University of Wisconsin System over its COVID-19 protocols, deepening an intra-party squabble over whether the Legislature should take control of the system’s mitigation policies. Sen. Steve Nass, co-chair of the Legislature’s rules committee, has threatened to sue system officials if they don’t submit their COVID-19 plans to the committee for approval by Thursday. System President Tommy Thompson has refused to capitulate, saying the system has the right to manage itself. Thompson served ...

N-V school mask rule put on hold

NORWAY — The Norway-Vulcan School Board on Wednesday delayed a decision on requiring all or younger students and staff wear face masks when indoors to prevent the potential spread of COVID-19. The board now plans to have a Committee of the Whole meeting starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday, again in the fine arts center auditorium, to further discuss the issue and hopefully gather more coronavirus health statistics and data on how other school districts in the region are handling the matter. The regular board meeting is pushed back to 7 p.m. The board set Wednesday’s special two-hour ...

Legislature seeks to limit Whitmer’s use of alert system

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Republicans who control the Michigan Legislature want to limit Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's ability to send statewide emergency alerts to wireless devices and broadcast stations except for “immediate” threats. The Democratic governor's administration used a public alert ...

Wisconsin officials urge vaccines

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Health officials are warning Wisconsin residents to get vaccinated, wear masks and avoid indoor gatherings over the Labor Day weekend as the delta variant drives the state's COVID-19 case average to levels not seen in months. Wisconsin's seven-day case average stood at 1,699 as of Wednesday, the highest average since Jan. 15, when it stood at 1,990 cases, the state Department of Health Services reported. COVID-19 hospitalizations have spiked since early July as well. The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported 934 inpatients on Tuesday, the most since ...

Vaccine mandate blocked

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Western Michigan University from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine requirement against four female soccer players, ruling they are likely to prevail on claims it violates their constitutional religious rights. District Judge Paul Maloney in Grand Rapids, however, denied a motion by an employee who challenged Michigan State University's broader vaccination mandate. He issued the temporary restraining order on the day of Western's deadline for athletes to get an initial shot or be unable to practice or compete. He said while the ...

Social Security, Medicare stay under pressure

WASHINGTON (AP) — The sharp shock of the coronavirus recession pushed Social Security a year closer to insolvency but left Medicare’s exhaustion date unchanged, the government reported Tuesday in a counterintuitive assessment that deepens the uncertainty around the nation's bedrock retirement programs. The new projections in the annual Social Security and Medicare trustees reports indicate that Social Security's massive trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits in 2034 instead of last year's estimated exhaustion date of 2035. For the first time in 39 years the cost of ...