Florida is experiencing a measles outbreak with 9 people currently infected. “Measles is not just a rash,” and shouldn’t be something to dismi…
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Indiana’s state House has advanced an education bill meant to address the state's long declining literacy rates. Lawmakers voted largely along party lines Tuesday to approve legislation that would hold back thousands more third graders who don’t pass the state’s literacy test. Top Republicans in the General Assembly, Gov. Eric Holcomb and the Indiana Department of Education support the bill. Opponents include some Democratic lawmakers say retention could emotionally harm students and strain school resources. The bill requires final approval in the Senate and the governor's signature before it would become law.
Alabama lawmakers have begun scrambling for ways to protect in vitro fertilization services after a state Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos could be considered children under state law. Three providers paused services in the wake of the ruling. Separate proposals were being prepared in the House and Senate that would seek to prevent a fertilized egg from being recognized as a human life or an unborn child until it is implanted in a woman’s uterus. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said the state wants to foster a culture of life and said that includes “couples hoping and praying to be parents who utilize IVF.”
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More in vitro fertilization providers in Alabama have paused parts of their treatment after the state Supreme Court ruled frozen embryos are legally considered children. Alabama Fertility Services said in a statement Thursday that the clinic “made the impossibly difficult decision to hold new IVF treatments due to the legal risk to our clinic and our embryologists." The Center for Reproductive Medicine at Mobile Infirmary also has decided to pause IVF treatment because of the ruling. The decisions come a day after the University of Alabama at Birmingham health system said it is pausing in vitro fertilization treatments to evaluate whether patients or doctors could face criminal charges or punitive damages for IVF treatments.
The Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. This is raising concerns about how the decision could affect in vitro fertilization, commonly known as IVF. The fertility treatment involves retrieving a woman's eggs and combining them with a man's sperm in a lab dish. A few days after fertilization, one or more embryos are placed in the uterus and healthy embryos that are not transferred may be frozen and stored. Frozen embryos can be used for future pregnancies, and are stored at places such as hospital labs or reproductive medicine centers.
An animated fetus that develops over the course of a three-minute video has become a new front in state-level abortion politics. Bills have been proposed in the Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and West Virginia legislatures to require public school students to watch a video like Baby Olivia, which was created by an organization that opposes abortion. The legislation mirrors a law passed in North Dakota last year. The organization, Live Action, and supporters of the legislation say it would teach kids where they came from and encourage an appreciation for human life. But some educators and physicians say the video is deceptive and problematic for a young audience.
Alabama’s Supreme Court Rules , Embryos Are ‘Extrauterine Children’. The first-of-its-kind ruling was made on Feb. 16. It "could have widespre…
The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos created during fertility treatments should be considered children under state law. Justices issued the ruling Friday in a pair of wrongful death cases brought by couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic. Justices said an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.” The ruling brought a rush of warnings from groups and advocates who said it would have sweeping implications for fertility treatments in the state.
The World Food Program has paused deliveries of food to isolated northern Gaza because of increasing chaos across the territory, hiking fears of potential starvation. A study by the U.N. children’s agency warned that one in six children in the north are acutely malnourished. Entry of aid trucks into the besieged territory has sharply declined by more than half the past two weeks, according to U.N. figures. Overwhelmed U.N. and relief workers said aid intake and distribution has been crippled by Israeli failure to ensure convoys’ safety amid its advancing assault and a breakdown in security, with hungry Palestinians frequently overwhelming trucks to take food.
The White House continues to warn Israel against expanding its offensive into Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip. National Security spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday that if Israel’s military doesn’t properly account for the safety of Palestinian refugees there, “an operation in Rafah would be a disaster.” More than half the territory’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge in Rafah, many crowding into tent camps and overflowing U.N. shelters near the Egyptian border. A top Hamas political leader was in Cairo on Tuesday as the U.S., Egypt and Qatar try to mediate another cease-fire, but there were no expectations of a breakthrough.
It started out as a 911 call about a domestic incident in a Minneapolis suburb. It ended with two police officers, a firefighter and the suspect dead and a third officer wounded. A medical examiner says Officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, and firefighter Adam Finseth died of gunshot wounds at a Minneapolis hospital Sunday morning. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension named the man who killed them as Shannon Gooden. A medical examiner said Tuesday that Gooden shot himself in the head. Court records show Gooden wasn’t legally allowed to have guns and had been entangled in a yearslong dispute over the custody and financial support of his three oldest children.
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Police say the shooting that left one person dead and nearly two dozen injured after the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade appeared to stem from a dispute between several people. Police Chief Stacey Graves said Thursday that the 22 injured people ranged in age from 8 to 47 years old, with half of them were under the age of 16. A mother of two was killed. Police say they detained three juveniles but released one who they determined wasn’t involved, leaving two in custody. Investigators are asking for witnesses and victims to call a dedicated hotline. The shooting outside the city's historic Union Station happened despite the presence of more than 800 police officers.
More Republican lawmakers in states around the U.S. are getting behind the idea of using taxpayer money to subsidize child care. The pandemic became a turning point by underscoring how precarious the industry is and how many working parents rely on it. As federal pandemic aid dries up, Republican state lawmakers are embracing plans to support child care as a workforce issue — and even making it central to their policy agendas. Child care advocates say the investments are not enough and called on Congress to authorize a new round of money to keep the child care industry afloat.
The war in Gaza has sparked a humanitarian catastrophe that has prompted shortages of the most basic necessities. Among those hardest hit are babies, young children and their parents. Diapers and baby formula are hard to find or have become unaffordable as prices spike. Parents are looking to inadequate or even unsafe alternatives, such as giving solid food to infants younger than 6 months old. Aid deliveries are sporadic, hobbled by Israeli restrictions and the relentless fighting. Aid agencies say children's needs in the war-torn territory far exceed the aid that's coming in.
A new Harvard University study found that half of U.S. renters are paying nearly a third of their income on rent. Monthly rent has outpaced income across the U.S., and forced many to make tough decisions between everyday necessities and a home. In turn, a record number of people are becoming homeless and evictions filings have ratcheted up as pandemic-era eviction moratoriums and federal assistance ends. The widespread hardship has prompted state lawmakers across the U.S. to throw the kitchen sink at the problem in 2024. State proposals include everything from installing protections from eviction to capping annual rent increases.
Lawmakers in Indiana have promised to take steps to make child care more available and affordable this legislative session. In a similar move to what other states have proposed, Indiana lawmakers are looking to expand voucher assistance to child care workers whose own children need care. Other legislative pieces seek to lower the minimum age of child care workers, make for-profit centers tax exempt and ease licensing requirements. While the first deadline for bills to reach an initial vote comes early next week, lawmakers can alter and add to legislation as the session continues.
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A poll by NatWest Rooster Money of 1,000 children and parents in the UK found that most kids would prefer money over physical gifts on Christmas.
A new study published in the Journal Pediatrics contradicts hopes of declining obesity rates among US kids, revealing an increase in severe obesity.
In Malaga, Spain, a police officer dressed up as the iconic Spiderman visited sick children at a hospital to bring them a bit of holiday cheer…