WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators on Thursday strictly limited who can receive Johnson &amp; Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine due to the ongoing risk of rare but serious blood clots.

The Food and Drug Administration said the shot should only be given to adults who cannot receive a different vaccine or specifically request J&amp;J’s vaccine. U.S. authorities for months have recommended that Americans starting their COVID-19 vaccinations use the Pfizer or Moderna shots instead.

FDA officials said in a statement that they decided to restrict J&amp;J’s vaccine after taking another look at data on the risk of life-threatening blood clots within two weeks of vaccination.

J&amp;J’s vaccine was initially considered an important tool in fighting the pandemic because it required only one shot. But the single-dose option proved less effective than two doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

In December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended prioritizing Moderna and Pfizer shots over J&amp;J’s because of its safety issues. Previously, U.S. officials had treated all three vaccines similarly because they’d each been shown to offer strong protection.

But follow-up studies have consistently shown lower effectiveness for J&amp;J’s vaccine. And while the blood clots seen with J&amp;J’s shot are rare, officials say they’re still occurring.

Federal scientists identified 60 cases, including nine that were fatal, as of mid-March. That amounts to one blood clot case per 3.23 million J&amp;J shots administered, the FDA said Thursday. The vaccine will carry a starker warning about potential “long-term and debilitating health consequences” of the side effect.

Under the new FDA instructions, J&amp;J’s vaccine could still be given to people who had a severe allergic reaction to one of the other vaccines and can’t receive an additional dose. J&amp;J’s shot could also be an option for people who refuse to receive the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, and therefore would otherwise remain unvaccinated, the agency said.

A J&amp;J spokesman said in an emailed statement: “Data continue to support a favorable benefit-risk profile for the Johnson &amp; Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in adults, when compared with no vaccine.”

Despite the restriction, FDA’s vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks said J&amp;J’s vaccine “still has a role in the current pandemic response in the United States and across the global community.”

The FDA based its decision on “our safety surveillance systems and our commitment to ensuring that science and data guide our decisions.”

The clotting problems first came up last spring, with the J&amp;J shot in the U.S. and with a similar vaccine made by AstraZeneca that is used in other countries. At that time, U.S. regulators decided the benefits of J&amp;J’s one-and-done vaccine outweighed what was considered a very rare risk — as long as recipients were warned.

COVID-19 causes deadly blood clots, too. But the vaccine-linked kind is different, believed to form because of a rogue immune reaction to the J&amp;J and AstraZeneca vaccines because of how they’re made. It forms in unusual places, such as veins that drain blood from the brain, and in patients who also develop abnormally low levels of the platelets that form clots. Symptoms of the unusual clots include severe headaches a week or two after the J&amp;J vaccination — not right away — as well as abdominal pain and nausea.

The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company announced last month that it didn’t expect a profit from the vaccine this year and was suspending sales projections.

The rollout of the company’s vaccine was hurt by a series of troubles, including manufacturing problems at a Baltimore factory that forced J&amp;J to import millions of doses from overseas.

Additionally, regulators added warnings about the blood clots and a rare neurological reaction called Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Pfizer and Moderna have provided the vast majority of COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. More than 200 million Americans have been fully vaccinated with the companies’ two-dose shots while less than 17 million Americans got the J&amp;J shot.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators on Thursday strictly limited who can receive Johnson &amp; Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine due to the ongoing risk of rare but serious blood clots.The Food and Drug Administration said the shot should only be given to adults who cannot receive a different vaccine or specifically request J&amp;J’s vaccine. U.S. authorities for months have recommended that Americans starting their COVID-19 vaccinations use the Pfizer or Moderna shots instead.FDA officials said in a statement that they decided to restrict J&amp;J’s vaccine after taking another look at data on the risk of life-threatening blood clots within two weeks of vaccination.J&amp;J’s vaccine was initially considered an important tool in fighting the pandemic because it required only one shot. But the single-dose option proved less effective than two doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.In December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended prioritizing Moderna and Pfizer shots over J&amp;J’s because of its safety issues. Previously, U.S. officials had treated all three vaccines similarly because they’d each been shown to offer strong protection.But follow-up studies have consistently shown lower effectiveness for J&amp;J’s vaccine. And while the blood clots seen with J&amp;J’s shot are rare, officials say they’re still occurring.Federal scientists identified 60 cases, including nine that were fatal, as of mid-March. That amounts to one blood clot case per 3.23 million J&amp;J shots administered, the FDA said Thursday. The vaccine will carry a starker warning about potential “long-term and debilitating health consequences” of the side effect.Under the new FDA instructions, J&amp;J’s vaccine could still be given to people who had a severe allergic reaction to one of the other vaccines and can’t receive an additional dose. J&amp;J’s shot could also be an option for people who refuse to receive the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, and therefore would otherwise remain unvaccinated, the agency said.A J&amp;J spokesman said in an emailed statement: “Data continue to support a favorable benefit-risk profile for the Johnson &amp; Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in adults, when compared with no vaccine.”Despite the restriction, FDA’s vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks said J&amp;J’s vaccine “still has a role in the current pandemic response in the United States and across the global community.”The FDA based its decision on “our safety surveillance systems and our commitment to ensuring that science and data guide our decisions.”The clotting problems first came up last spring, with the J&amp;J shot in the U.S. and with a similar vaccine made by AstraZeneca that is used in other countries. At that time, U.S. regulators decided the benefits of J&amp;J’s one-and-done vaccine outweighed what was considered a very rare risk — as long as recipients were warned.COVID-19 causes deadly blood clots, too. But the vaccine-linked kind is different, believed to form because of a rogue immune reaction to the J&amp;J and AstraZeneca vaccines because of how they’re made. It forms in unusual places, such as veins that drain blood from the brain, and in patients who also develop abnormally low levels of the platelets that form clots. Symptoms of the unusual clots include severe headaches a week or two after the J&amp;J vaccination — not right away — as well as abdominal pain and nausea.The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company announced last month that it didn’t expect a profit from the vaccine this year and was suspending sales projections.The rollout of the company’s vaccine was hurt by a series of troubles, including manufacturing problems at a Baltimore factory that forced J&amp;J to import millions of doses from overseas.Additionally, regulators added warnings about the blood clots and a rare neurological reaction called Guillain-Barré syndrome.Pfizer and Moderna have provided the vast majority of COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. More than 200 million Americans have been fully vaccinated with the companies’ two-dose shots while less than 17 million Americans got the J&amp;J shot.___

FDA restricts J&J's COVID-19 vaccine due to blood clot risk

By DAVID A. LIEB, MICHAEL CASEY and MICHELLE MINKOFF

Constructed four generations ago, the massive rock and clay dam at El Capitan Reservoir is capable of storing over 36 billion gallons of water, enough to supply every resident in San Diego for most of a year.

Today, it’s three-quarters empty, intentionally kept low because of concerns it could fail under the strain of too much water.

During “a big earthquake, you never know what’s going to happen, if this is going to hold,” said Samuel Santos, a longtime resident who frequently fishes near the dam.

<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21203119-dams_el-capitan-downgrade-letter" target="_blank">Seismic instability and a spillway in need of “significant repair”</a>&nbsp;led El Capitan to be added to a growing list of dams rated in poor condition or worse that would likely cause deaths downstream if they failed.

An Associated Press analysis tallied more than 2,200 high-hazard dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition across the U.S. — up substantially from a similar&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ne-state-wire-us-news-ap-top-news-sc-state-wire-dams-f5f09a300d394900a1a88362238dbf77">AP review conducted three years ago.</a>&nbsp;The actual number is likely even higher, although it’s unclear&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-dams-ac3d7561181d622b29983c15de84520b">because some states don’t track such data and many federal agencies refuse to release details about their dams’ conditions</a>.

The nation’s dams are on average over a half-century old and often present more of a hazard than envisioned when designed because homes, businesses or highways have cropped up below them. Meanwhile,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-europe-united-nations-weather-8d5e277660f7125ffdab7a833d9856a3">a warming atmosphere can bring stronger storms&nbsp;</a>with heavier rainfall that could overwhelm aging dams.

“All of a sudden, you’ve got older dams with a lower design criteria that now can potentially cause loss of life if they fail,” said Del Shannon, an engineer who is president of the U.S. Society on Dams.

“The number of deficient, high-hazard dams is increasing,” he said, adding that without investment in upgrades, that number will continue to rise.

Decades of deferred maintenance has worsened the problem. But a changing climate and extreme floods — such as the one that caused&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-ap-top-news-weather-in-state-wire-mi-state-wire-872186b0b79e45bd303a2113ad88e85c">the failure of two Michigan dams&nbsp;</a>and the evacuation of 10,000 people in 2020 — have brought a renewed focus to an often overlooked aspect of America’s critical infrastructure.

The $1 trillion infrastructure bill signed last year by President Joe Biden will&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-dams-190d4fd38cf1ec3a89b289b7a320cd86">pump about $3 billion into dam-related projects</a>, including hundreds of millions for state dam safety programs and repairs.

It marks “a tremendous leap and jump of funding,” said Kayed Lakhia, director of the National Dam Safety Program at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Yet it’s still just a fraction of the nearly $76 billion needed to fix the almost 89,000 dams owned by individuals, companies, community associations, state and local governments, and other entities besides the federal government,&nbsp;<a href="https://damsafety-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/files/Cost%20of%20Rehab%20Report-2022%20FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">according to a report by the Association of State Dam Safety Officials</a>.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lists about&nbsp;<a href="https://nid.sec.usace.army.mil/#/" target="_blank">92,000 dams in its nationwide database</a>, most of which are privately owned and regulated by states. Dams are classified according to the risk posed by failure, ranging from low to significant to high. A high hazard means lives could be lost if the dam fails.

Dams also are assessed by their condition. Those in the worst shape — categorized as poor or unsatisfactory — can have a variety of problems including cracks and erosion that could undermine a dam, or spillway outlets unable to release all the water after extraordinary rainfall.

The number of high-hazard dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition has risen partly because of stricter regulation. Some state programs, infused with millions of additional dollars, have stepped up inspections, reassessed whether old dams endanger new downstream developments and worked to identify dams long ago abandoned by their owners. Some also are updating the precipitation tools used to evaluate the risks.

New York has about twice the number of high-hazard dams in poor condition as it did in 2018, when the AP collected data for its earlier analysis. The increase came as officials pushed to assess all high-hazard dams that were previously unrated.

The number of high-hazard dams in deficient condition in South Carolina rose by a third from 2018 to 2021, after lawmakers more than doubled annual funding for the state’s dam safety program. More than 70 dams failed in the state&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/4a1c80b473be4f82ab79f31512315983">amid heavy rains in 2015&nbsp;</a>and 2016. Since then, South Carolina has ramped up staffing, undertaken more regular inspections and begun mapping potential flood zones for low-hazard dams to determine if they should be reclassified as high hazard.

“When you had a storm of that magnitude and you have it happen again the next year, and dams continue to fail, we’ve got to be able to provide a response,” said Jill Stewart, the state’s director of dam safety and stormwater permitting.

Rhode Island examined the capacity of all its dam spillways after five dams failed during a storm in 2010. A 2019 study found that a quarter of its high-hazard dams couldn’t hold up to a 100-year storm — an event with a 1% chance of happening any year — and 17% couldn’t pass a 500-year storm, which has a 0.2% chance of occurring in a year.

The state was sharing the findings with dam owners and could require some to upgrade their spillways to meet state regulations.

Many old dams “are undersized for the kind of storms that we’re getting today and will be getting in the future,” said David Chopy, administrator of the Office of Compliance and Inspection at the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

Since 2019, California regulators have downgraded four of San Diego’s water supply dams from fair to poor condition because of deterioration and concerns they could fail because of an earthquake or extraordinary rainfall. As a result, the high-hazard dams at El Capitan, Hodges and Morena reservoirs all are restricted to holding less than half their capacities. The dam at Lower Otay Reservoir, also high hazard and in poor condition, is not restricted.

The lower water means Santos, who has been coming to El Capitan Reservoir since childhood, can’t find relief from shade trees when he fishes from the receding banks. His children don’t want to join him because it’s so hot.

“It’s sad to see it, because it’s just like a duck pond compared to what it used to be,” said another longtime resident, Bob Neal, who said his father-in-law helped build the dam in the 1930s.

The dam’s poor condition also means less water is stored to prepare for&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/environment-california-droughts-water-use-f42611bda2b9c86c39ada8990d98d72d">drought, which has become particularly severe</a>&nbsp;in the West. San Diego gets an average of just 10 inches of rain annually.

“These reservoirs are very important,” said Republican state Sen. Brian Jones, whose district includes the El Capitan and Lake Hodges dams. “We need to start spending the money on them to retrofit them, to get them up again back to full capacity.”

Jones is among several lawmakers pushing the state to carry out a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-environment-and-nature-california-droughts-science--74bbbd535f6519b8aa79d57737e6eef4">2014 ballot proposition that authorized billions of dollars for reservoir projects</a>. San Diego’s mayor also has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21203146-dams_san-diego-funding-request" target="_blank">urged the state to allot at least $3 billion</a>&nbsp;for dam repairs statewide.

For many dams, problems develop gradually and risks can be reduced by temporary measures, such as lowering water levels, until repairs can be made, said Ryan Stack, chief engineer at Missouri’s dam safety program.

“Unsatisfactory doesn’t necessarily mean helicopters and bells-and-whistles and everything going off for an immediate crisis,” Stack said.

But the risk from old, inadequate dams has become painfully evident in recent years.

In 2019, a rural Nebraska dam failed under extreme pressure from a raging flood of ice chunks, killing a man whose home was beneath the dam.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-dams-technology-floods-nebraska-6f6848e29ee7f82e61b83fb9c91b5fa5">An independent investigation</a>&nbsp;determined that state regulators should have classified the dam as “high hazard,” which could have led to a plan to increase its flood capacity and better warn residents downstream. The public utility that owned the dam agreed this year to a $2.5 million settlement for the man’s family while a lawsuit continues against the state.

In 2020, central Michigan’s Edenville Dam failed following heavy rainfall. The rupture unleashed a torrent on the Tittabawassee River, leading to the failure of Sanford Dam downstream and the evacuation of about 10,000 people.

The high-hazard Edenville Dam, built in 1924, had been rated in unsatisfactory condition in 2018 and lost its federal hydropower license due to a variety of issues, including a spillway incapable of standing up to a severe flood.

<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21868904-michigan-dam-failures-final-report_may-2022" target="_blank">An investigatory report</a>&nbsp;released Wednesday found that Edenville dam had deficiencies with its earthen embankment that could have been been caught and corrected if engineers had gone beyond visual inspections and conducted a more comprehensive review of the dam’s design and construction. Regulators across the country should learn from the Michigan failures, said John France, an engineer who led the investigation.

“No one has X-ray eyes,” France said Thursday. “You would have to look at the records, you would have to look at the test borings that were done and assimilate that all together.”

After the dam failures, Michigan beefed up its 2022 budget with $19 million for dam safety, plus money to hire more regulatory staff. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently signed legislation providing&nbsp;<a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(x0wzuio2gedzqixhexqf3cut))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&amp;objectName=2021-SB-0565" target="_blank">an additional $250 million for dams</a>, including about $200 million to repair those damaged by the 2020 floods.

The plan prioritizes high-risk dams “that can be ticking time bombs if they are not addressed,” said state Rep. Roger Hauck, a Republican whose district experienced flooding from the dam failures. “Dragging our feet or failing to get it done will only open the door to other catastrophes down the line.”

Other states also are pumping more money into dam safety. After Kansas exempted thousands of dams from state regulation in 2013, its allotment of annual federal dam safety funds plunged, leading to a decline in staffing and delays in handling permits and inspections. A budget passed by the Legislature this year will double state funding and staff for the dam safety office.

Facing a projected 20-year backlog of work, Missouri lawmakers last year added $75,000 to hire an additional dam safety engineer. But it’s taken 10 months to find someone qualified to fill the position.

Addressing the problems posed by old, unsafe dams can be challenging. Repairs can be costly and take years to complete. Attempts to remove dams — and empty the lakes they hold back — can spawn legal battles and a public outcry from those who rely on them for recreation or to sustain nearby property values.

A pair of high-hazard dams built in the mid-1800s near Cleveland are among those in need of major repair. Upper Shaker Lake, commonly known as Horseshoe Lake, was drained as a precaution after it developed sinkholes and cracks. The cities of Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights, which jointly manage the dams, last year approved a $28.3 million plan to remove Horseshoe Lake Dam, return the area to a free-flowing stream and rebuild Lower Shaker Lake Dam.

But the plan faces backlash from community members who formed a nonprofit to try to save Horseshoe Lake. They hired a law firm and engineering company, launched a fundraising drive and gathered about 2,000 online petition signatures.

“The lake is a beautiful, calming feature that is the central park of the Heights neighborhood,” said musician Bert Stratton, a resident helping to lead the efforts. “It’s where people come to congregate, and they have for over 100 years.”

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, which manages stormwater projects,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.neorsd.org/shaker-lakes-review-and-recommendations/" target="_blank">said Horseshoe Lake provides little flood-control benefit</a>&nbsp;and that the district won’t pay to rebuild it.

“People need to understand there is a major risk at this facility,” including the “probable loss of life if the dam blew out,” said Frank Greenland, the district’s director of watershed programs.

Decades of procrastination on repairs has led to the deterioration of other dams across the country. Some owners find it difficult to justify the costs of improving structures without facing an emergency.

There’s an attitude among some dam owners of “oh, we’ll take care of it next year; oh, we’ll take care of it in three years; oh, let’s put together a plan,” said Bob Travis, managing partner of Risk Management Matters LLC, a consultant for community associations. “Meanwhile, that dam is getting older and older and older.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1651785251232.jpg" alt="Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By DAVID A. LIEB, MICHAEL CASEY and MICHELLE MINKOFF Constructed four generations ago, the massive rock and clay dam at El Capitan Reservoir is capable of storing over 36 billion gallons of water, enough to supply every resident in San Diego for most of a year.Today, it’s three-quarters empty, intentionally kept low because of concerns it could fail under the strain of too much water.During “a big earthquake, you never know what’s going to happen, if this is going to hold,” said Samuel Santos, a longtime resident who frequently fishes near the dam.<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21203119-dams_el-capitan-downgrade-letter" target="_blank">Seismic instability and a spillway in need of “significant repair”</a>&nbsp;led El Capitan to be added to a growing list of dams rated in poor condition or worse that would likely cause deaths downstream if they failed.An Associated Press analysis tallied more than 2,200 high-hazard dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition across the U.S. — up substantially from a similar&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ne-state-wire-us-news-ap-top-news-sc-state-wire-dams-f5f09a300d394900a1a88362238dbf77">AP review conducted three years ago.</a>&nbsp;The actual number is likely even higher, although it’s unclear&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-dams-ac3d7561181d622b29983c15de84520b">because some states don’t track such data and many federal agencies refuse to release details about their dams’ conditions</a>.The nation’s dams are on average over a half-century old and often present more of a hazard than envisioned when designed because homes, businesses or highways have cropped up below them. Meanwhile,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-europe-united-nations-weather-8d5e277660f7125ffdab7a833d9856a3">a warming atmosphere can bring stronger storms&nbsp;</a>with heavier rainfall that could overwhelm aging dams.“All of a sudden, you’ve got older dams with a lower design criteria that now can potentially cause loss of life if they fail,” said Del Shannon, an engineer who is president of the U.S. Society on Dams.“The number of deficient, high-hazard dams is increasing,” he said, adding that without investment in upgrades, that number will continue to rise.Decades of deferred maintenance has worsened the problem. But a changing climate and extreme floods — such as the one that caused&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-ap-top-news-weather-in-state-wire-mi-state-wire-872186b0b79e45bd303a2113ad88e85c">the failure of two Michigan dams&nbsp;</a>and the evacuation of 10,000 people in 2020 — have brought a renewed focus to an often overlooked aspect of America’s critical infrastructure.The $1 trillion infrastructure bill signed last year by President Joe Biden will&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-dams-190d4fd38cf1ec3a89b289b7a320cd86">pump about $3 billion into dam-related projects</a>, including hundreds of millions for state dam safety programs and repairs.It marks “a tremendous leap and jump of funding,” said Kayed Lakhia, director of the National Dam Safety Program at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.Yet it’s still just a fraction of the nearly $76 billion needed to fix the almost 89,000 dams owned by individuals, companies, community associations, state and local governments, and other entities besides the federal government,&nbsp;<a href="https://damsafety-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/files/Cost%20of%20Rehab%20Report-2022%20FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">according to a report by the Association of State Dam Safety Officials</a>.___The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lists about&nbsp;<a href="https://nid.sec.usace.army.mil/#/" target="_blank">92,000 dams in its nationwide database</a>, most of which are privately owned and regulated by states. Dams are classified according to the risk posed by failure, ranging from low to significant to high. A high hazard means lives could be lost if the dam fails.Dams also are assessed by their condition. Those in the worst shape — categorized as poor or unsatisfactory — can have a variety of problems including cracks and erosion that could undermine a dam, or spillway outlets unable to release all the water after extraordinary rainfall.The number of high-hazard dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition has risen partly because of stricter regulation. Some state programs, infused with millions of additional dollars, have stepped up inspections, reassessed whether old dams endanger new downstream developments and worked to identify dams long ago abandoned by their owners. Some also are updating the precipitation tools used to evaluate the risks.New York has about twice the number of high-hazard dams in poor condition as it did in 2018, when the AP collected data for its earlier analysis. The increase came as officials pushed to assess all high-hazard dams that were previously unrated.The number of high-hazard dams in deficient condition in South Carolina rose by a third from 2018 to 2021, after lawmakers more than doubled annual funding for the state’s dam safety program. More than 70 dams failed in the state&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/4a1c80b473be4f82ab79f31512315983">amid heavy rains in 2015&nbsp;</a>and 2016. Since then, South Carolina has ramped up staffing, undertaken more regular inspections and begun mapping potential flood zones for low-hazard dams to determine if they should be reclassified as high hazard.“When you had a storm of that magnitude and you have it happen again the next year, and dams continue to fail, we’ve got to be able to provide a response,” said Jill Stewart, the state’s director of dam safety and stormwater permitting.Rhode Island examined the capacity of all its dam spillways after five dams failed during a storm in 2010. A 2019 study found that a quarter of its high-hazard dams couldn’t hold up to a 100-year storm — an event with a 1% chance of happening any year — and 17% couldn’t pass a 500-year storm, which has a 0.2% chance of occurring in a year.The state was sharing the findings with dam owners and could require some to upgrade their spillways to meet state regulations.Many old dams “are undersized for the kind of storms that we’re getting today and will be getting in the future,” said David Chopy, administrator of the Office of Compliance and Inspection at the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.Since 2019, California regulators have downgraded four of San Diego’s water supply dams from fair to poor condition because of deterioration and concerns they could fail because of an earthquake or extraordinary rainfall. As a result, the high-hazard dams at El Capitan, Hodges and Morena reservoirs all are restricted to holding less than half their capacities. The dam at Lower Otay Reservoir, also high hazard and in poor condition, is not restricted.The lower water means Santos, who has been coming to El Capitan Reservoir since childhood, can’t find relief from shade trees when he fishes from the receding banks. His children don’t want to join him because it’s so hot.“It’s sad to see it, because it’s just like a duck pond compared to what it used to be,” said another longtime resident, Bob Neal, who said his father-in-law helped build the dam in the 1930s.The dam’s poor condition also means less water is stored to prepare for&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/environment-california-droughts-water-use-f42611bda2b9c86c39ada8990d98d72d">drought, which has become particularly severe</a>&nbsp;in the West. San Diego gets an average of just 10 inches of rain annually.“These reservoirs are very important,” said Republican state Sen. Brian Jones, whose district includes the El Capitan and Lake Hodges dams. “We need to start spending the money on them to retrofit them, to get them up again back to full capacity.”Jones is among several lawmakers pushing the state to carry out a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-environment-and-nature-california-droughts-science--74bbbd535f6519b8aa79d57737e6eef4">2014 ballot proposition that authorized billions of dollars for reservoir projects</a>. San Diego’s mayor also has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21203146-dams_san-diego-funding-request" target="_blank">urged the state to allot at least $3 billion</a>&nbsp;for dam repairs statewide.___For many dams, problems develop gradually and risks can be reduced by temporary measures, such as lowering water levels, until repairs can be made, said Ryan Stack, chief engineer at Missouri’s dam safety program.“Unsatisfactory doesn’t necessarily mean helicopters and bells-and-whistles and everything going off for an immediate crisis,” Stack said.But the risk from old, inadequate dams has become painfully evident in recent years.In 2019, a rural Nebraska dam failed under extreme pressure from a raging flood of ice chunks, killing a man whose home was beneath the dam.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-dams-technology-floods-nebraska-6f6848e29ee7f82e61b83fb9c91b5fa5">An independent investigation</a>&nbsp;determined that state regulators should have classified the dam as “high hazard,” which could have led to a plan to increase its flood capacity and better warn residents downstream. The public utility that owned the dam agreed this year to a $2.5 million settlement for the man’s family while a lawsuit continues against the state.In 2020, central Michigan’s Edenville Dam failed following heavy rainfall. The rupture unleashed a torrent on the Tittabawassee River, leading to the failure of Sanford Dam downstream and the evacuation of about 10,000 people.The high-hazard Edenville Dam, built in 1924, had been rated in unsatisfactory condition in 2018 and lost its federal hydropower license due to a variety of issues, including a spillway incapable of standing up to a severe flood.<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21868904-michigan-dam-failures-final-report_may-2022" target="_blank">An investigatory report</a>&nbsp;released Wednesday found that Edenville dam had deficiencies with its earthen embankment that could have been been caught and corrected if engineers had gone beyond visual inspections and conducted a more comprehensive review of the dam’s design and construction. Regulators across the country should learn from the Michigan failures, said John France, an engineer who led the investigation.“No one has X-ray eyes,” France said Thursday. “You would have to look at the records, you would have to look at the test borings that were done and assimilate that all together.”After the dam failures, Michigan beefed up its 2022 budget with $19 million for dam safety, plus money to hire more regulatory staff. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently signed legislation providing&nbsp;<a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(x0wzuio2gedzqixhexqf3cut))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&amp;objectName=2021-SB-0565" target="_blank">an additional $250 million for dams</a>, including about $200 million to repair those damaged by the 2020 floods.The plan prioritizes high-risk dams “that can be ticking time bombs if they are not addressed,” said state Rep. Roger Hauck, a Republican whose district experienced flooding from the dam failures. “Dragging our feet or failing to get it done will only open the door to other catastrophes down the line.”Other states also are pumping more money into dam safety. After Kansas exempted thousands of dams from state regulation in 2013, its allotment of annual federal dam safety funds plunged, leading to a decline in staffing and delays in handling permits and inspections. A budget passed by the Legislature this year will double state funding and staff for the dam safety office.Facing a projected 20-year backlog of work, Missouri lawmakers last year added $75,000 to hire an additional dam safety engineer. But it’s taken 10 months to find someone qualified to fill the position.Addressing the problems posed by old, unsafe dams can be challenging. Repairs can be costly and take years to complete. Attempts to remove dams — and empty the lakes they hold back — can spawn legal battles and a public outcry from those who rely on them for recreation or to sustain nearby property values.A pair of high-hazard dams built in the mid-1800s near Cleveland are among those in need of major repair. Upper Shaker Lake, commonly known as Horseshoe Lake, was drained as a precaution after it developed sinkholes and cracks. The cities of Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights, which jointly manage the dams, last year approved a $28.3 million plan to remove Horseshoe Lake Dam, return the area to a free-flowing stream and rebuild Lower Shaker Lake Dam.But the plan faces backlash from community members who formed a nonprofit to try to save Horseshoe Lake. They hired a law firm and engineering company, launched a fundraising drive and gathered about 2,000 online petition signatures.“The lake is a beautiful, calming feature that is the central park of the Heights neighborhood,” said musician Bert Stratton, a resident helping to lead the efforts. “It’s where people come to congregate, and they have for over 100 years.”The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, which manages stormwater projects,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.neorsd.org/shaker-lakes-review-and-recommendations/" target="_blank">said Horseshoe Lake provides little flood-control benefit</a>&nbsp;and that the district won’t pay to rebuild it.“People need to understand there is a major risk at this facility,” including the “probable loss of life if the dam blew out,” said Frank Greenland, the district’s director of watershed programs.Decades of procrastination on repairs has led to the deterioration of other dams across the country. Some owners find it difficult to justify the costs of improving structures without facing an emergency.There’s an attitude among some dam owners of “oh, we’ll take care of it next year; oh, we’ll take care of it in three years; oh, let’s put together a plan,” said Bob Travis, managing partner of Risk Management Matters LLC, a consultant for community associations. “Meanwhile, that dam is getting older and older and older.”

AP analysis finds growing number of poor, high-hazard dams

By TIM CARPENTER <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/briefs/moran-elizabeth-dole-pay-tribute-to-250000th-honor-flight-to-d-c-memorials/">Kansas Reflector</a>

TOPEKA — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of
 Kansas paid tribute to the 250,000 veterans who have taken an Honor 
Flight to the nation’s capital to visit memorials created in their 
honor.

“This place is special,” Moran said 
during a service at the World War II Memorial. “This place is important 
to our veterans, but it’s important to Americans. Today, we honor the 
Honor Flight Network – its creators, its founders, its inventors, its 
volunteers, its workforce – for making it possible for WWII veterans and
 now every other veteran to see the nation’s capital and to see the 
country that they served pay them the respect they deserve.”

He recalled a walk several days before the ribbon cutting event for 
the World War II Memorial in 2004, which was built with donations 
generated in part due to persistence of the late U.S. Sen. Robert Dole, 
also of Kansas.

Moran said he stepped around a security fence to get a look at the 
near-completed memorial. He located the Kansas marker before stepping 
away to telephone his father, Ray, in Plainville. His call went to voice
 mail rather than directly to the 90-plus-year-old World War II veteran 
of battlefields in the North Africa, Sicily and Italy.

Moran recalled: “I said to the answering machine — it was so useful 
that the answering machine picked up because these are things that kids 
don’t easily say to their moms or dads — but I said, ‘Dad, I’m at the 
WWII memorial. It was built in your honor. I hope someday you can see 
it. And Dad, I want you to know that I respect you, I thank you for your
 service, and Dad, I love you.'”

Four years later, the elder Moran took part in an Honor Flight Network flight to see the World War II Memorial.

Former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, wife of Robert Dole, said her 
husband was proud to serve as co-chair of the World War II Memorial 
campaign. He spend many Saturdays meeting veterans who were on Honor 
Flights to Washington.

“I hope you take pride in seeing how your country has consecrated 
these precious grounds with memorials build in your honor,” she said. 
“This memorial is especially meaningful to me.”

She said the Honor Flight Network’s delivery of 250,000 veterans to 
Washington during the past 17 years was a testament to what American 
could be. Originally, the focus was on World War II veterans. It was 
later broadened to veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars as well as 
others.

“The story of Honor Flight is a wonderful reminder of what America is
 still capable of accomplishing when we rise to our best,” Dole said. 
“Recently, it has seemed like our nation has needed these reminders.”

Moran, who said his father had since passed away, said he made a 
habit of walking on the Mall when frustrated by serving in Congress. He 
searches for a different perspective by taking in the Lincoln Memorial, 
World War II Memorial, Vietnam Wall and Korean War Memorial.

“In each of those settings, I am reminded that we honor those who for
 no partisan, Republican or Democrat reason, served their country,” 
Moran said. “It’s a reminder to those of us who serve in Congress, and 
us as American citizens, there is a much higher calling than Republican 
this or Democrat that.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1651771774074.png" alt="Former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, wife of the late U.S. Sen. Robert Dole, and U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran spoke during a celebration of the 250,000th veteran to participate in an Honor Flight Network trip to Washington, D.C. (Kansas Reflector screen capture from Honor Flight Network)" />
 <figcaption>Former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, wife of the late U.S. Sen. Robert Dole, and U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran spoke during a celebration of the 250,000th veteran to participate in an Honor Flight Network trip to Washington, D.C. (Kansas Reflector screen capture from Honor Flight Network)</figcaption>
 </figure>By TIM CARPENTER <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/briefs/moran-elizabeth-dole-pay-tribute-to-250000th-honor-flight-to-d-c-memorials/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of
 Kansas paid tribute to the 250,000 veterans who have taken an Honor 
Flight to the nation’s capital to visit memorials created in their 
honor.“This place is special,” Moran said 
during a service at the World War II Memorial. “This place is important 
to our veterans, but it’s important to Americans. Today, we honor the 
Honor Flight Network – its creators, its founders, its inventors, its 
volunteers, its workforce – for making it possible for WWII veterans and
 now every other veteran to see the nation’s capital and to see the 
country that they served pay them the respect they deserve.”He recalled a walk several days before the ribbon cutting event for 
the World War II Memorial in 2004, which was built with donations 
generated in part due to persistence of the late U.S. Sen. Robert Dole, 
also of Kansas.Moran said he stepped around a security fence to get a look at the 
near-completed memorial. He located the Kansas marker before stepping 
away to telephone his father, Ray, in Plainville. His call went to voice
 mail rather than directly to the 90-plus-year-old World War II veteran 
of battlefields in the North Africa, Sicily and Italy.Moran recalled: “I said to the answering machine — it was so useful 
that the answering machine picked up because these are things that kids 
don’t easily say to their moms or dads — but I said, ‘Dad, I’m at the 
WWII memorial. It was built in your honor. I hope someday you can see 
it. And Dad, I want you to know that I respect you, I thank you for your
 service, and Dad, I love you.'”Four years later, the elder Moran took part in an Honor Flight Network flight to see the World War II Memorial.Former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, wife of Robert Dole, said her 
husband was proud to serve as co-chair of the World War II Memorial 
campaign. He spend many Saturdays meeting veterans who were on Honor 
Flights to Washington.“I hope you take pride in seeing how your country has consecrated 
these precious grounds with memorials build in your honor,” she said. 
“This memorial is especially meaningful to me.”She said the Honor Flight Network’s delivery of 250,000 veterans to 
Washington during the past 17 years was a testament to what American 
could be. Originally, the focus was on World War II veterans. It was 
later broadened to veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars as well as 
others.“The story of Honor Flight is a wonderful reminder of what America is
 still capable of accomplishing when we rise to our best,” Dole said. 
“Recently, it has seemed like our nation has needed these reminders.”Moran, who said his father had since passed away, said he made a 
habit of walking on the Mall when frustrated by serving in Congress. He 
searches for a different perspective by taking in the Lincoln Memorial, 
World War II Memorial, Vietnam Wall and Korean War Memorial.“In each of those settings, I am reminded that we honor those who for
 no partisan, Republican or Democrat reason, served their country,” 
Moran said. “It’s a reminder to those of us who serve in Congress, and 
us as American citizens, there is a much higher calling than Republican 
this or Democrat that.”

Moran, Dole pay tribute to 250,000th honor flight to D.C. memorials

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Bird flu is killing an alarming number of bald eagles and other wild birds, with many sick birds arriving at rehabilitation centers unsteady on their talons and unable to fly.

“It’s quite a sight to see an eagle with a six-foot wingspan having uncontrollable seizures because of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-health-environment-and-nature-iowa-agriculture-9245d97453568576bd0b564f9c52c343">highly pathogenic avian influenza</a>,” said Victoria Hall, executive director of the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center. “At that point, they’re so far into the disease there’s no treatment options left.”

The latest outbreak of the highly contagious virus has led to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-business-bird-flu-flu-animals-189a7c08d848047f00b3f7b5bec39e67">the culling of about 37 million chickens and turkeys&nbsp;</a>in U.S. farms since February, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed 956 cases of bird flu in wild birds, including at least 54 bald eagles. But the actual number is likely significantly higher because not every wild bird that dies is tested and the federal tally doesn’t include cases recorded by wildlife rehabilitation centers.

The latest reported toll is nearly 10 times higher than the 99 confirmed cases in wild birds during the last bird flu outbreak in 2015. This time, the virus has been detected in birds in 34 states, indicating it is far more widespread than seven years ago.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center also collects data from wildlife officials on suspected and confirmed bird flu deaths. It lists 8,536 recent wild bird deaths from avian influenza.

“This is definitely an unprecedented event,” said researcher Rebecca Poulson, who has been studying avian influenza for 15 years at the University of Georgia’s Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study. “The number of birds and species and states already in which it has been detected is pretty alarming.”

Water fowl including ducks and geese, which typically carry the virus, and the raptors and scavengers that feed on them are the most commonly sickened birds, but cases have been confirmed in more than three dozen species. Ducks and geese are usually able to live with the virus without getting sick, but latest variant is proving more contagious and more deadly.

“We are seeing a tremendous impact from this virus,” said Hall, whose Raptor Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, treats roughly 1,000 birds a year. “We are seeing birds coming in suffering from this virus every single day.”

Nearly 61% of the 188 birds the rehabilitation center has tested since late March have had bird flu and all but one of those died. Hall said the center had to set up an area where workers wearing protective gear test sick and injured birds for avian influenza and quarantine them before bringing them into the center, to avoid infecting other birds.

None of the 114 positive cases the center has recorded, including 28 bald eagles, are included in the USDA count, Hall said. She said a great horned owl recovered from the virus, giving her hope that some wild birds may be able to fight it off.

USDA officials haven’t responded to questions about why they are excluding the data from rehabilitation centers.

Scientists estimated in a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-ap-top-news-ct-state-wire-science-united-states-f9030a84058a44e29e808d8592dac19f">study published</a>&nbsp;three years ago that the number of wild birds in North America had fallen by nearly 3 billion since 1970 as humans continue to encroach on their habitat. But it’s too soon to know what impact the bird flu will have on bird populations because the outbreak is ongoing and there hasn’t been enough time to study it, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service veterinarian Samantha Gibbs, and other experts.

“We’re quite concerned. I think that we’re going to be watching very carefully what the mortality rates are throughout the spring and summer,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs and Poulson said they fear the virus could survive the summer, when it usually dies off, leading to fall infections when migratory birds return south. That happened in Europe, where the virus is circulating first.

Bald eagles — the U.S. national symbol since the 1700s — are among America’s most celebrated conservation success stories. With an estimated 300,000 bald eagles in the country today — a population that quadrupled between 2009 and 2021 — the bird was removed from the U.S. Endangered Species List in 2007. Given that, experts believe the species should weather the impact of this virus.

State and federal officials will track the success of nesting eagles this spring and summer to gauge the impact of the virus.

In Georgia, where three bald eagles that died tested positive for bird flu, the state Department of Natural Resources has documented a sharp drop in bald eagle reproduction this year in six coastal counties where many migratory birds spend the winter. Fewer than half of the 73 nests found there produced offspring, while nests elsewhere in the state had a success rate close to the average of 78% recorded in recent years.

Some experts, including Hall, suggest that residential bird feeders should be removed to avoid further spread of the virus, but the USDA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service haven’t recommended that because bird flu isn’t common among the songbirds that frequent backyards. Still, they say it’s important to regularly clean bird feeders to help limit the spread of other diseases.

“Wild birds could use all the help they can get right now,” Hall said.

When the virus is found on poultry farms, officials slaughter entire flocks to curb the spread, even when most birds have no symptoms. So far, 37.36 million birds have been killed in 32 states.

USDA officials stress that bird flu doesn’t jeopardize food safety because infected birds aren’t allowed to enter the food supply, and properly cooking poultry and eggs to 165 degrees Fahrenheit will kill any viruses or bacteria.

Health officials also say bird flu doesn’t represent a significant health risk to people, even though&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-health-environment-colorado-b98906e0a1899bb1f92da30a7b1dbe28">one human case</a>&nbsp;of the disease was confirmed in Colorado last month. Officials say people are unlikely to catch the virus unless they have prolonged direct exposure to infected birds.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1651779833135.jpg" alt="Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By ASSOCIATED PRESSOMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Bird flu is killing an alarming number of bald eagles and other wild birds, with many sick birds arriving at rehabilitation centers unsteady on their talons and unable to fly.“It’s quite a sight to see an eagle with a six-foot wingspan having uncontrollable seizures because of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-health-environment-and-nature-iowa-agriculture-9245d97453568576bd0b564f9c52c343">highly pathogenic avian influenza</a>,” said Victoria Hall, executive director of the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center. “At that point, they’re so far into the disease there’s no treatment options left.”The latest outbreak of the highly contagious virus has led to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-business-bird-flu-flu-animals-189a7c08d848047f00b3f7b5bec39e67">the culling of about 37 million chickens and turkeys&nbsp;</a>in U.S. farms since February, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed 956 cases of bird flu in wild birds, including at least 54 bald eagles. But the actual number is likely significantly higher because not every wild bird that dies is tested and the federal tally doesn’t include cases recorded by wildlife rehabilitation centers.The latest reported toll is nearly 10 times higher than the 99 confirmed cases in wild birds during the last bird flu outbreak in 2015. This time, the virus has been detected in birds in 34 states, indicating it is far more widespread than seven years ago.The U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center also collects data from wildlife officials on suspected and confirmed bird flu deaths. It lists 8,536 recent wild bird deaths from avian influenza.“This is definitely an unprecedented event,” said researcher Rebecca Poulson, who has been studying avian influenza for 15 years at the University of Georgia’s Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study. “The number of birds and species and states already in which it has been detected is pretty alarming.”Water fowl including ducks and geese, which typically carry the virus, and the raptors and scavengers that feed on them are the most commonly sickened birds, but cases have been confirmed in more than three dozen species. Ducks and geese are usually able to live with the virus without getting sick, but latest variant is proving more contagious and more deadly.“We are seeing a tremendous impact from this virus,” said Hall, whose Raptor Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, treats roughly 1,000 birds a year. “We are seeing birds coming in suffering from this virus every single day.”Nearly 61% of the 188 birds the rehabilitation center has tested since late March have had bird flu and all but one of those died. Hall said the center had to set up an area where workers wearing protective gear test sick and injured birds for avian influenza and quarantine them before bringing them into the center, to avoid infecting other birds.None of the 114 positive cases the center has recorded, including 28 bald eagles, are included in the USDA count, Hall said. She said a great horned owl recovered from the virus, giving her hope that some wild birds may be able to fight it off.USDA officials haven’t responded to questions about why they are excluding the data from rehabilitation centers.Scientists estimated in a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-ap-top-news-ct-state-wire-science-united-states-f9030a84058a44e29e808d8592dac19f">study published</a>&nbsp;three years ago that the number of wild birds in North America had fallen by nearly 3 billion since 1970 as humans continue to encroach on their habitat. But it’s too soon to know what impact the bird flu will have on bird populations because the outbreak is ongoing and there hasn’t been enough time to study it, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service veterinarian Samantha Gibbs, and other experts.“We’re quite concerned. I think that we’re going to be watching very carefully what the mortality rates are throughout the spring and summer,” Gibbs said.Gibbs and Poulson said they fear the virus could survive the summer, when it usually dies off, leading to fall infections when migratory birds return south. That happened in Europe, where the virus is circulating first.Bald eagles — the U.S. national symbol since the 1700s — are among America’s most celebrated conservation success stories. With an estimated 300,000 bald eagles in the country today — a population that quadrupled between 2009 and 2021 — the bird was removed from the U.S. Endangered Species List in 2007. Given that, experts believe the species should weather the impact of this virus.State and federal officials will track the success of nesting eagles this spring and summer to gauge the impact of the virus.In Georgia, where three bald eagles that died tested positive for bird flu, the state Department of Natural Resources has documented a sharp drop in bald eagle reproduction this year in six coastal counties where many migratory birds spend the winter. Fewer than half of the 73 nests found there produced offspring, while nests elsewhere in the state had a success rate close to the average of 78% recorded in recent years.Some experts, including Hall, suggest that residential bird feeders should be removed to avoid further spread of the virus, but the USDA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service haven’t recommended that because bird flu isn’t common among the songbirds that frequent backyards. Still, they say it’s important to regularly clean bird feeders to help limit the spread of other diseases.“Wild birds could use all the help they can get right now,” Hall said.When the virus is found on poultry farms, officials slaughter entire flocks to curb the spread, even when most birds have no symptoms. So far, 37.36 million birds have been killed in 32 states.USDA officials stress that bird flu doesn’t jeopardize food safety because infected birds aren’t allowed to enter the food supply, and properly cooking poultry and eggs to 165 degrees Fahrenheit will kill any viruses or bacteria.Health officials also say bird flu doesn’t represent a significant health risk to people, even though&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-health-environment-colorado-b98906e0a1899bb1f92da30a7b1dbe28">one human case</a>&nbsp;of the disease was confirmed in Colorado last month. Officials say people are unlikely to catch the virus unless they have prolonged direct exposure to infected birds.

Bird flu takes unheard-of toll on bald eagles, other birds

WASHINGTON (AP) — Little doubt remains about what the Supreme Court plans to do with Roe v. Wade. But uncertainty abounds about ripple effects as the court nears a final opinion expected to overturn the landmark 1973 case that created a nationwide right to abortion.

(click below to listen to the President's comments)

A leaked first draft of the majority opinion in the case, authenticated Tuesday by the Supreme Court,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-samuel-alito-da04e9a762148eca89bfb198efa86b7b">suggests that a majority of justices are poised to toss out Roe.</a>&nbsp;The draft’s provocative rhetoric also is generating concern that LGTBQ advances and other matters based on the right to privacy&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-business-health-lifestyle-6cd65e467da1e0786968adf6b1e9078b">could be vulnerable in a newly hostile political environment.</a>

“This is about a lot more than abortion,” President Joe Biden warned Wednesday, saying the court’s draft opinion could jeopardize same-sex marriage, access to contraception and LGBTQ rights.

“What are the next things that are going to be attacked? Because this MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that’s existed in recent American history,” Biden said.

Court opinions can change in ways big and small throughout the drafting process. So while the eventual ruling in the abortion case appears all but assured, the written rationale — and its implications — may still be a hotly debated subject inside the court’s private chambers.

The draft’s potentially sweeping impact could be tempered by the other justices, or it could emerge largely unchanged — with what advocates and Biden say could bring even more severe consequences.

The draft opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, argues that unenumerated constitutional rights — those not explicitly mentioned in the document — must be “deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions.” And it says abortion doesn’t meet that standard.

Biden and others are sounding alarms that the same logic could be used to toss out other protections.

The president said he believed the conservative justices on today’s court would, like failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork in 1987, disagree with the court’s ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut, which said that a right to privacy exists that bars states from interfering in married couples’ right to buy and use contraceptives.

Cases like Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down sodomy laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy, and Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized gay marriage, are based at least in part on that same right to privacy.

Alito, in the draft opinion, explicitly states that the court is only targeting the right to abortion, not those other matters.

“We emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right,” the draft states. “Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”

Obergefell is different from Roe in that hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples have relied on it to wed and created legal bonds, like shared property, inheritance rights and “settled expectations about the future,” said Teresa Collett, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law and director of its Prolife Center.

Courts are usually loath to undo that kind of precedent. It stands in contrast to abortion, which is usually “a response to unplanned circumstances,” Collett said.

Obergefell, moreover, relies on the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause as well as the right to privacy.

The current Supreme Court abortion case specifically concerns a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks — before the “viability” standard set in the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which itself moved beyond Roe’s initial trimester framework for regulating abortion.

At arguments in December, all six conservative justices signaled they would uphold the Mississippi law, and five asked questions suggesting they supported overturning the right to abortion nationwide, leaving the issue up to individual states.

Only Chief Justice John Roberts seemed prepared to take the smaller step of upholding the 15-week ban, in essence overturning the court’s ruling in Casey, while leaving in place the right to an abortion in Roe.

Until now, the court has allowed states to regulate but not ban abortion before the point of viability, around 24 weeks. The court’s three liberal justices appeared certain to be in dissent.

Still, the language and tone Alito uses overall could encourage more challenges, said Jason Pierceson, professor of political science at the University of Illinois, Springfield. “If the right to privacy is deconstructed or is hollowed out, or is minimized, then those cases in particular have less standing,” Pierceson said.

A challenge to same-sex marriage could come before the high court on religious liberty grounds, for example, such as someone arguing their religious faith prevents them from recognizing same-sex marriage. Cases along those lines have been mostly about exceptions to anti-discrimination laws so far, Pierceson said, “but one could see potentially a broadening of the argument to the fact that maybe same-sex marriage laws are unconstitutional in the first place.”

LGBTQ rights have made rapid progress over the past decade, and public opinion overall has become much more supportive. But especially over the past year there has been a wave of bills in state legislatures aimed at transgender youth sports and healthcare, as well as talking about LGBTQ issues in certain classrooms. Backers of those bills generally argue they’re needed to protect kids and the rights of parents.

Against that backdrop, the draft opinion, if finalized, could “send up a flare” to conservative activists, said Sharon McGowan, legal director at Lambda Legal.

“Overturning Roe will be most dangerous because of the signal it will send lower courts to disregard all the other precedents that exist,” she said.

“It’s starting with abortion. It’s not going to end with abortion,” said Mini Timmaraju, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “So everyone needs to be very vigilant.”

Critics could also take a page from the anti-abortion playbook, which involved multiple measures over the decades that tackled the issue from different angles, imposed limits rather than sweeping prohibitions and employed unusual strategies like the civil-enforcement mechanism that’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-health-texas-oklahoma-528aede70223d68dd5ed09160098445f">already essentially allowed Texas to ban abortion,&nbsp;</a>said Alison Gash, a professor at the University of Oregon.

“It opens the door for all sorts of stuff that I think we’re probably going to see now that we’ve got a court that seems willing to support that kind of creativity,” she said. “It’s all speculation, but it seems perfectly plausible for us to see Republican experimentation on a whole bunch of policies that could be affected by this.”

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said that “what comes through loud and clear in the draft” is that the agenda “is not just to get rid of abortion but to ban contraception, to eliminate all the important progress that we’ve made about LGBTQ rights, about the rights of trans children, and also about racial equality.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Little doubt remains about what the Supreme Court plans to do with Roe v. Wade. But uncertainty abounds about ripple effects as the court nears a final opinion expected to overturn the landmark 1973 case that created a nationwide right to abortion.(click below to listen to the President's comments)<div><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FWhiteHouse%2Fvideos%2F1022615965085674%2F&show_text=false&width=560&t=584" width="560" height="314" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe></div>A leaked first draft of the majority opinion in the case, authenticated Tuesday by the Supreme Court,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-samuel-alito-da04e9a762148eca89bfb198efa86b7b">suggests that a majority of justices are poised to toss out Roe.</a>&nbsp;The draft’s provocative rhetoric also is generating concern that LGTBQ advances and other matters based on the right to privacy&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-business-health-lifestyle-6cd65e467da1e0786968adf6b1e9078b">could be vulnerable in a newly hostile political environment.</a>“This is about a lot more than abortion,” President Joe Biden warned Wednesday, saying the court’s draft opinion could jeopardize same-sex marriage, access to contraception and LGBTQ rights.“What are the next things that are going to be attacked? Because this MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that’s existed in recent American history,” Biden said.Court opinions can change in ways big and small throughout the drafting process. So while the eventual ruling in the abortion case appears all but assured, the written rationale — and its implications — may still be a hotly debated subject inside the court’s private chambers.The draft’s potentially sweeping impact could be tempered by the other justices, or it could emerge largely unchanged — with what advocates and Biden say could bring even more severe consequences.The draft opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, argues that unenumerated constitutional rights — those not explicitly mentioned in the document — must be “deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions.” And it says abortion doesn’t meet that standard.Biden and others are sounding alarms that the same logic could be used to toss out other protections.The president said he believed the conservative justices on today’s court would, like failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork in 1987, disagree with the court’s ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut, which said that a right to privacy exists that bars states from interfering in married couples’ right to buy and use contraceptives.Cases like Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down sodomy laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy, and Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized gay marriage, are based at least in part on that same right to privacy.Alito, in the draft opinion, explicitly states that the court is only targeting the right to abortion, not those other matters.“We emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right,” the draft states. “Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”Obergefell is different from Roe in that hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples have relied on it to wed and created legal bonds, like shared property, inheritance rights and “settled expectations about the future,” said Teresa Collett, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law and director of its Prolife Center.Courts are usually loath to undo that kind of precedent. It stands in contrast to abortion, which is usually “a response to unplanned circumstances,” Collett said.Obergefell, moreover, relies on the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause as well as the right to privacy.The current Supreme Court abortion case specifically concerns a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks — before the “viability” standard set in the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which itself moved beyond Roe’s initial trimester framework for regulating abortion.At arguments in December, all six conservative justices signaled they would uphold the Mississippi law, and five asked questions suggesting they supported overturning the right to abortion nationwide, leaving the issue up to individual states.Only Chief Justice John Roberts seemed prepared to take the smaller step of upholding the 15-week ban, in essence overturning the court’s ruling in Casey, while leaving in place the right to an abortion in Roe.Until now, the court has allowed states to regulate but not ban abortion before the point of viability, around 24 weeks. The court’s three liberal justices appeared certain to be in dissent.Still, the language and tone Alito uses overall could encourage more challenges, said Jason Pierceson, professor of political science at the University of Illinois, Springfield. “If the right to privacy is deconstructed or is hollowed out, or is minimized, then those cases in particular have less standing,” Pierceson said.A challenge to same-sex marriage could come before the high court on religious liberty grounds, for example, such as someone arguing their religious faith prevents them from recognizing same-sex marriage. Cases along those lines have been mostly about exceptions to anti-discrimination laws so far, Pierceson said, “but one could see potentially a broadening of the argument to the fact that maybe same-sex marriage laws are unconstitutional in the first place.”LGBTQ rights have made rapid progress over the past decade, and public opinion overall has become much more supportive. But especially over the past year there has been a wave of bills in state legislatures aimed at transgender youth sports and healthcare, as well as talking about LGBTQ issues in certain classrooms. Backers of those bills generally argue they’re needed to protect kids and the rights of parents.Against that backdrop, the draft opinion, if finalized, could “send up a flare” to conservative activists, said Sharon McGowan, legal director at Lambda Legal.“Overturning Roe will be most dangerous because of the signal it will send lower courts to disregard all the other precedents that exist,” she said.“It’s starting with abortion. It’s not going to end with abortion,” said Mini Timmaraju, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “So everyone needs to be very vigilant.”Critics could also take a page from the anti-abortion playbook, which involved multiple measures over the decades that tackled the issue from different angles, imposed limits rather than sweeping prohibitions and employed unusual strategies like the civil-enforcement mechanism that’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-health-texas-oklahoma-528aede70223d68dd5ed09160098445f">already essentially allowed Texas to ban abortion,&nbsp;</a>said Alison Gash, a professor at the University of Oregon.“It opens the door for all sorts of stuff that I think we’re probably going to see now that we’ve got a court that seems willing to support that kind of creativity,” she said. “It’s all speculation, but it seems perfectly plausible for us to see Republican experimentation on a whole bunch of policies that could be affected by this.”Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said that “what comes through loud and clear in the draft” is that the agenda “is not just to get rid of abortion but to ban contraception, to eliminate all the important progress that we’ve made about LGBTQ rights, about the rights of trans children, and also about racial equality.”

🎥President Biden: Other rights at risk if court overturns Roe

By CINDY GONZALEZ <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/valleys-3m-plant-announces-58-million-expansion/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

A $58 million expansion project creating about 50 new jobs is planned at the 3M facility in Valley, Nebraska.

The
 80,000-square-foot addition aims to grow production of 3M’s respiratory
 and hearing protection products, according to a news release from the 
company.

“Our
 colleagues at 3M’s Valley plant have played an important role providing
 critical supplies to frontline workers throughout the COVID-19 
pandemic,” said Matt Huset, plant director at the Valley site.

The
 additional investment in jobs, equipment and a warehouse is expected to
 help meet customer demand for the personal safety products. The company
 is working with the State of Nebraska to tap tax incentives available 
through ImagiNE Nebraska, the state program aimed at encouraging 
economic growth.

3M acquired the Valley site west of Omaha in 1979, which currently employs about 560 people.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1651772241358.png" alt="3M plant in Valley, Nebraska, announces expansion (Courtesy of 3M)" />
 <figcaption>3M plant in Valley, Nebraska, announces expansion (Courtesy of 3M)</figcaption>
 </figure>By CINDY GONZALEZ <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/valleys-3m-plant-announces-58-million-expansion/">Nebraska Examiner</a>A $58 million expansion project creating about 50 new jobs is planned at the 3M facility in Valley, Nebraska.The
 80,000-square-foot addition aims to grow production of 3M’s respiratory
 and hearing protection products, according to a news release from the 
company.“Our
 colleagues at 3M’s Valley plant have played an important role providing
 critical supplies to frontline workers throughout the COVID-19 
pandemic,” said Matt Huset, plant director at the Valley site.The
 additional investment in jobs, equipment and a warehouse is expected to
 help meet customer demand for the personal safety products. The company
 is working with the State of Nebraska to tap tax incentives available 
through ImagiNE Nebraska, the state program aimed at encouraging 
economic growth.3M acquired the Valley site west of Omaha in 1979, which currently employs about 560 people.&nbsp;

Nebraska 3M plant announces $58 million expansion

By PAUL HAMMEL <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/holland-childrens-institute-poll-finds-disconnect-between-voters-nebraska-legislature/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

LINCOLN
 — There’s a disconnect between voter opinions about tax breaks for the 
wealthy and actions by the Nebraska Legislature, according to a recent 
poll commissioned by the Omaha-based Holland Children’s Institute.

A
 March 16-21 survey of 620 registered Nebraska voters found majorities 
of respondents believe that state government has prioritized tax breaks 
for corporations and the wealthy over help for children and families.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“It
 seems really clear that voters are deeply aware and concerned that the 
focus is way too much on tax breaks for corporations and for those who 
have the most,” said Hadley Richters, CEO of the Holland organization.

The
 nonprofit has commissioned a series of Nebraska Voters’ Outlook polls 
in partnership with Patinkin Research Strategies, a Washington 
State-based polling firm that has worked primarily with Democrat 
candidates and unions.

The poll comes after state lawmakers passed what was billed as <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/04/07/praise-worries-greet-final-round-approval-of-nebraskas-900-million-tax-cut-package/">the largest tax cut in history</a>&nbsp;—
 gradual reductions in corporate income taxes, taxes on Social Security 
and state income taxes for families earning more than $60,000 a year.

The
 Holland poll found strong support for “fully funding K-12 education” 
(71%) and “ensuring Medicaid covers all uninsured, eligible Nebraska 
children” (70%), as well as increasing access to polling places and 
ballot drop boxes (74%). The poll indicated 69% of respondents opposed 
cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy.

Support
 for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour rose by 16 percentage 
points since July, to 60% in March, the poll indicated.

Results
 were mixed concerning education, with 51% support for tax credits for 
private school savings accounts, but 65% opposition to public funding of
 charter schools.

The
 polling was done via landline, cell phone, the internet and texts and 
had a margin of error of plus or minus 4%, according to John Carl 
Denkovich, the director of communications and program development for 
the Holland Institute.

He said that weighting and quotas were used to produce a “statistically
 representative universe of registered voters in Nebraska” and to avoid a
 bias in polling during the 2016 and 2020 elections that 
underrepresented conservative Republican and independent voters.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/2/1646089328158.png" alt="The Nebraska State Capitol Building in Lincoln. (Rebecca S. Gratz for Nebraska Examiner)" />
 <figcaption>The Nebraska State Capitol Building in Lincoln. (Rebecca S. Gratz for Nebraska Examiner)</figcaption>
 </figure>By PAUL HAMMEL <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/holland-childrens-institute-poll-finds-disconnect-between-voters-nebraska-legislature/">Nebraska Examiner</a>LINCOLN
 — There’s a disconnect between voter opinions about tax breaks for the 
wealthy and actions by the Nebraska Legislature, according to a recent 
poll commissioned by the Omaha-based Holland Children’s Institute.A
 March 16-21 survey of 620 registered Nebraska voters found majorities 
of respondents believe that state government has prioritized tax breaks 
for corporations and the wealthy over help for children and families.&nbsp;&nbsp;“It
 seems really clear that voters are deeply aware and concerned that the 
focus is way too much on tax breaks for corporations and for those who 
have the most,” said Hadley Richters, CEO of the Holland organization.<h2>A series of polls</h2>The
 nonprofit has commissioned a series of Nebraska Voters’ Outlook polls 
in partnership with Patinkin Research Strategies, a Washington 
State-based polling firm that has worked primarily with Democrat 
candidates and unions.The poll comes after state lawmakers passed what was billed as <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/04/07/praise-worries-greet-final-round-approval-of-nebraskas-900-million-tax-cut-package/">the largest tax cut in history</a>&nbsp;—
 gradual reductions in corporate income taxes, taxes on Social Security 
and state income taxes for families earning more than $60,000 a year.The
 Holland poll found strong support for “fully funding K-12 education” 
(71%) and “ensuring Medicaid covers all uninsured, eligible Nebraska 
children” (70%), as well as increasing access to polling places and 
ballot drop boxes (74%). The poll indicated 69% of respondents opposed 
cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy.Support
 for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour rose by 16 percentage 
points since July, to 60% in March, the poll indicated.<h2>Mixed results on education</h2>Results
 were mixed concerning education, with 51% support for tax credits for 
private school savings accounts, but 65% opposition to public funding of
 charter schools.The
 polling was done via landline, cell phone, the internet and texts and 
had a margin of error of plus or minus 4%, according to John Carl 
Denkovich, the director of communications and program development for 
the Holland Institute.He said that weighting and quotas were used to produce a “statistically
 representative universe of registered voters in Nebraska” and to avoid a
 bias in polling during the 2016 and 2020 elections that 
underrepresented conservative Republican and independent voters.

Poll finds disconnect between voters, Nebraska Legislature

WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates resumed their ascent this week, as the key 30-year loan reached its highest point since 2009.

The increases came in the week preceding the widely anticipated action by the Federal Reserve, announced Wednesday, to intensify its fight against the worst inflation in 40 years by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/federal-reserve-interest-rate-inflation-8d5e20882cdfd7975ebb3bb48a437f11">raising its benchmark interest rate</a>&nbsp;by a half-percentage point and signaling further large rate hikes to come. The Fed’s move, its most aggressive since 2000, will bring higher costs for mortgages as well as credit cards, auto loans and other borrowing for individuals and businesses.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the 30-year rate rose to 5.27% from 5.1% last week, when it edged down after seven weeks of increases. By contrast, the average rate stood at 2.96% a year ago.

The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages, popular among those refinancing their homes, jumped to 4.52% from 4.4% last week.

With inflation at a four-decade high, rising mortgage rates, elevated home prices and tight supply of homes for sale, homeownership has become less attainable, especially for first-time buyers.

Some economists suggest that home sales this year could decline as much as 10% from 2021 levels.

In a statement Wednesday following their two-day meeting, Fed policymakers noted that Russia’s invasion and war on Ukraine is worsening inflation pressures by raising oil and food prices. Inflation, according to the Fed’s preferred gauge, reached 6.6% last month, the highest in four decades. It has been accelerated by a combination of robust consumer spending, chronic supply bottlenecks and sharply higher gas and food prices.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/6/1624025620777.png" alt="Photo David Condos / Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption>Photo David Condos / Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates resumed their ascent this week, as the key 30-year loan reached its highest point since 2009.The increases came in the week preceding the widely anticipated action by the Federal Reserve, announced Wednesday, to intensify its fight against the worst inflation in 40 years by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/federal-reserve-interest-rate-inflation-8d5e20882cdfd7975ebb3bb48a437f11">raising its benchmark interest rate</a>&nbsp;by a half-percentage point and signaling further large rate hikes to come. The Fed’s move, its most aggressive since 2000, will bring higher costs for mortgages as well as credit cards, auto loans and other borrowing for individuals and businesses.Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the 30-year rate rose to 5.27% from 5.1% last week, when it edged down after seven weeks of increases. By contrast, the average rate stood at 2.96% a year ago.The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages, popular among those refinancing their homes, jumped to 4.52% from 4.4% last week.With inflation at a four-decade high, rising mortgage rates, elevated home prices and tight supply of homes for sale, homeownership has become less attainable, especially for first-time buyers.Some economists suggest that home sales this year could decline as much as 10% from 2021 levels.In a statement Wednesday following their two-day meeting, Fed policymakers noted that Russia’s invasion and war on Ukraine is worsening inflation pressures by raising oil and food prices. Inflation, according to the Fed’s preferred gauge, reached 6.6% last month, the highest in four decades. It has been accelerated by a combination of robust consumer spending, chronic supply bottlenecks and sharply higher gas and food prices.

US mortgage rates surge to highest level since 2009

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization is estimating that nearly 15 million people were killed either by the coronavirus or by its impact on overwhelmed health systems in the past two years, more than double the official death toll of 6 million. Most of the fatalities were in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas.

In a report released on Thursday, the U.N. agency’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the figure as “sobering,” saying it should prompt countries to invest more in their capacities to quell future health emergencies.

Scientists tasked by WHO with calculating the actual number of COVID-19 deaths between January 2020 and the end of last year estimated there were between 13.3 million and 16.6 million deaths that were either caused directly by the coronavirus or were somehow attributed to the pandemic’s impact on health systems, like people with cancer unable to seek treatment when hospitals were full of COVID patients.

The figures are based on country-reported data and statistical modelling. WHO did not immediately break down the figures to distinguish between direct deaths from COVID-19 and others caused by the pandemic.

“This may seem like just a bean-counting exercise, but having these WHO numbers is so critical to understanding how we should combat future pandemics and continue to respond to this one,” said Albert Ko, an infectious diseases specialist at the Yale School of Public Health who was not linked to the WHO research. For example, Ko said, South Korea’s decision to invest heavily in public health after it suffered a severe outbreak of MERS allowed it to escape COVID-19 with a per-capita death rate around a 20th of that of the U.S.

Accurate numbers on COVID-19 deaths have been problematic throughout the pandemic, as the figures are only a fraction of the devastation wrought by the virus, largely because of limited testing and differences in how countries count COVID-19 deaths. According to government figures reported to WHO and to a separate count kept by Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-coronavirus-pandemic-science-business-health-69e8cbaebb653a0f1cb65ffe33d9afbd">6 million&nbsp;</a>reported coronavirus deaths to date.

Scientists at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington guessed there were more than 18 million COVID deaths from January 2020 to December 2021 in a recent study published in the journal Lancet, and a team led by Canadian researchers estimated there were more than 3 million uncounted coronavirus deaths in India alone.

Some countries, including India, have disputed WHO’s methodology for calculating COVID deaths, resisting the idea that there were many more deaths than officially counted. Earlier this week, the Indian government released new figures showing there were 474,806 more deaths in 2020 compared to the previous year, but did not say how many were tied to the pandemic. India did not release any death estimates for 2021, when the highly infectious&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/india-new-delhi-coronavirus-health-f2a4d130a41944720d9f687f7c5e53ce">delta variant</a>&nbsp;swept through the country, killing many thousands.

Yale’s Ko said better figures from WHO might also explain some lingering mysteries about the pandemic, like why&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-pandemics-united-nations-fcf28a83c9352a67e50aa2172eb01a2f">Africa&nbsp;</a>appears to have been one of the least affected by the virus, despite its low vaccination rates. “Were the mortality rates so low because we couldn’t count the deaths or was there some other factor to explain that?” he said, adding that the crush of deaths in rich countries like Britain and the U.S. proved that resources alone were insufficient to contain a global outbreak.

Dr. Bharat Pankhania, a public health specialist at Britain’s University of Exeter, said we may never get close to the true toll of COVID-19, particularly in poor countries.

“When you have a massive outbreak where people are dying in the streets because of a lack of oxygen, bodies were abandoned or people had to be&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-india-religion-coronavirus-c644fc9eb09beb04e16d0215a6693886">cremated quickly</a>&nbsp;because of cultural beliefs, we end up never knowing just how many people died,” he explained.

Although Pankhania said the currently estimated COVID-19 death toll still pales in comparison to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic — when experts estimate up to 100 million people died — he said the fact that so many people died despite the advances of modern medicine, including vaccines, is shameful.

He also warned the cost of COVID-19 could be far more damaging in the long term, given the increasing burden of long COVID.

“With the Spanish flu, there was the flu and then there were some (lung) illnesses people suffered, but that was it,” he said. “There was not an enduring immunological condition that we’re seeing right now with COVID,” he said.

“We do not know the extent to which people with long COVID will have their lives cut short and if they will have repeated infections that will cause them even more problems.”

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization is estimating that nearly 15 million people were killed either by the coronavirus or by its impact on overwhelmed health systems in the past two years, more than double the official death toll of 6 million. Most of the fatalities were in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas.In a report released on Thursday, the U.N. agency’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the figure as “sobering,” saying it should prompt countries to invest more in their capacities to quell future health emergencies.Scientists tasked by WHO with calculating the actual number of COVID-19 deaths between January 2020 and the end of last year estimated there were between 13.3 million and 16.6 million deaths that were either caused directly by the coronavirus or were somehow attributed to the pandemic’s impact on health systems, like people with cancer unable to seek treatment when hospitals were full of COVID patients.The figures are based on country-reported data and statistical modelling. WHO did not immediately break down the figures to distinguish between direct deaths from COVID-19 and others caused by the pandemic.“This may seem like just a bean-counting exercise, but having these WHO numbers is so critical to understanding how we should combat future pandemics and continue to respond to this one,” said Albert Ko, an infectious diseases specialist at the Yale School of Public Health who was not linked to the WHO research. For example, Ko said, South Korea’s decision to invest heavily in public health after it suffered a severe outbreak of MERS allowed it to escape COVID-19 with a per-capita death rate around a 20th of that of the U.S.Accurate numbers on COVID-19 deaths have been problematic throughout the pandemic, as the figures are only a fraction of the devastation wrought by the virus, largely because of limited testing and differences in how countries count COVID-19 deaths. According to government figures reported to WHO and to a separate count kept by Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-coronavirus-pandemic-science-business-health-69e8cbaebb653a0f1cb65ffe33d9afbd">6 million&nbsp;</a>reported coronavirus deaths to date.Scientists at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington guessed there were more than 18 million COVID deaths from January 2020 to December 2021 in a recent study published in the journal Lancet, and a team led by Canadian researchers estimated there were more than 3 million uncounted coronavirus deaths in India alone.Some countries, including India, have disputed WHO’s methodology for calculating COVID deaths, resisting the idea that there were many more deaths than officially counted. Earlier this week, the Indian government released new figures showing there were 474,806 more deaths in 2020 compared to the previous year, but did not say how many were tied to the pandemic. India did not release any death estimates for 2021, when the highly infectious&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/india-new-delhi-coronavirus-health-f2a4d130a41944720d9f687f7c5e53ce">delta variant</a>&nbsp;swept through the country, killing many thousands.Yale’s Ko said better figures from WHO might also explain some lingering mysteries about the pandemic, like why&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-pandemics-united-nations-fcf28a83c9352a67e50aa2172eb01a2f">Africa&nbsp;</a>appears to have been one of the least affected by the virus, despite its low vaccination rates. “Were the mortality rates so low because we couldn’t count the deaths or was there some other factor to explain that?” he said, adding that the crush of deaths in rich countries like Britain and the U.S. proved that resources alone were insufficient to contain a global outbreak.Dr. Bharat Pankhania, a public health specialist at Britain’s University of Exeter, said we may never get close to the true toll of COVID-19, particularly in poor countries.“When you have a massive outbreak where people are dying in the streets because of a lack of oxygen, bodies were abandoned or people had to be&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-india-religion-coronavirus-c644fc9eb09beb04e16d0215a6693886">cremated quickly</a>&nbsp;because of cultural beliefs, we end up never knowing just how many people died,” he explained.Although Pankhania said the currently estimated COVID-19 death toll still pales in comparison to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic — when experts estimate up to 100 million people died — he said the fact that so many people died despite the advances of modern medicine, including vaccines, is shameful.He also warned the cost of COVID-19 could be far more damaging in the long term, given the increasing burden of long COVID.“With the Spanish flu, there was the flu and then there were some (lung) illnesses people suffered, but that was it,” he said. “There was not an enduring immunological condition that we’re seeing right now with COVID,” he said.“We do not know the extent to which people with long COVID will have their lives cut short and if they will have repeated infections that will cause them even more problems.”____

WHO: Nearly 15M deaths associated with COVID-19

By ANNA HELHOSKI of NerdWallet&nbsp;&nbsp;

More U.S. workers than ever hold a graduate degree. Years of intensifying job requirements and headlines declaring a master’s “the new bachelor’s degree” nudged a record number of students into grad school.

And yet more well-paying jobs no longer require a college degree at all. In this tight labor market, do college grads need a master’s degree to compete? Maybe not.

“We have all reduced our almost obsession with the master’s degree,” says Johnny C. Taylor Jr., CEO and president of the Society for Human Resource Management.

Anecdotal and statistical evidence shows employers were already pulling back degree requirements even before the pandemic: Data from a job market analysis done by the Burning Glass Institute show a reduction in middle-skills and high-skills requirements — jobs that require more education than a high school diploma — from 2017 to 2019.

If fewer employers are requiring grad degrees to gain entrance to good jobs, prospective students should assess whether advanced degrees are worth taking on debt.

SOME FIELDS STILL REQUIRE ADVANCED DEGREES

Advanced degrees are still the key to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/is-college-worth-it?utm_campaign=ct_prod&amp;utm_source=ap&amp;utm_medium=mpsyn" target="_blank">entering certain professions</a>: Medicine, law and teaching come to mind. In other fields, as long as you can convey you have the skills an employer is looking for, you can get a job without an advanced degree, says Brad Hershbein, senior economist and deputy director of research for the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

ADVANCED DEGREES COULD HEDGE AGAINST A RECESSION

Employers are likely reducing education requirements to fill slots, which can be difficult in a tight labor market like this one, experts say. But that doesn’t mean it will last.

“Nobody can quite explain what we’re going through now; I think everyone thinks it’s temporary,” says Gordon Lafer, a professor in the Labor Education &amp; Research Center at the University of Oregon.

Holding an advanced degree could provide a safeguard for the future. If the economic tide turns , Taylor says, the degree becomes a differentiator.

Advanced degrees tend to correlate with lower unemployment rates compared with bachelor’s or associate degrees. But generally, any degree acts as a buffer against unemployment.

During the Great Recession, those with bachelor’s degrees and higher were more likely to keep their jobs, according to 2014 research by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce . The same goes for job retention during the early days of the pandemic, according to June 2020 data from The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

GRADUATE PROGRAMS DON’T ALWAYS PAY OFF

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1651753256994.jpg" alt="Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By ANNA HELHOSKI of NerdWallet&nbsp;&nbsp;More U.S. workers than ever hold a graduate degree. Years of intensifying job requirements and headlines declaring a master’s “the new bachelor’s degree” nudged a record number of students into grad school.And yet more well-paying jobs no longer require a college degree at all. In this tight labor market, do college grads need a master’s degree to compete? Maybe not.“We have all reduced our almost obsession with the master’s degree,” says Johnny C. Taylor Jr., CEO and president of the Society for Human Resource Management.Anecdotal and statistical evidence shows employers were already pulling back degree requirements even before the pandemic: Data from a job market analysis done by the Burning Glass Institute show a reduction in middle-skills and high-skills requirements — jobs that require more education than a high school diploma — from 2017 to 2019.If fewer employers are requiring grad degrees to gain entrance to good jobs, prospective students should assess whether advanced degrees are worth taking on debt.SOME FIELDS STILL REQUIRE ADVANCED DEGREESAdvanced degrees are still the key to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/is-college-worth-it?utm_campaign=ct_prod&amp;utm_source=ap&amp;utm_medium=mpsyn" target="_blank">entering certain professions</a>: Medicine, law and teaching come to mind. In other fields, as long as you can convey you have the skills an employer is looking for, you can get a job without an advanced degree, says Brad Hershbein, senior economist and deputy director of research for the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, Michigan.ADVANCED DEGREES COULD HEDGE AGAINST A RECESSIONEmployers are likely reducing education requirements to fill slots, which can be difficult in a tight labor market like this one, experts say. But that doesn’t mean it will last.“Nobody can quite explain what we’re going through now; I think everyone thinks it’s temporary,” says Gordon Lafer, a professor in the Labor Education &amp; Research Center at the University of Oregon.Holding an advanced degree could provide a safeguard for the future. If the economic tide turns , Taylor says, the degree becomes a differentiator.Advanced degrees tend to correlate with lower unemployment rates compared with bachelor’s or associate degrees. But generally, any degree acts as a buffer against unemployment.During the Great Recession, those with bachelor’s degrees and higher were more likely to keep their jobs, according to 2014 research by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce . The same goes for job retention during the early days of the pandemic, according to June 2020 data from The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.GRADUATE PROGRAMS DON’T ALWAYS PAY OFFWhat consumers need is data that show program-specific outcomes like graduates’ employment rates and average salaries. These are woefully difficult to find. For example, the College Scorecard, a data tool from the U.S. Department of Education , which provides information on outcomes like graduation rates and post-graduate salaries, doesn’t include graduate-level data by major.The lack of transparency makes it harder for prospective students to make an informed decision. And that could lead some to end up with debt they’re unable to repay.“Not everyone realizes there’s a risk that it’s a bad financial investment,” says Hershbein.Graduate loan debt has reached an all-time high, according to data from the federal government and think tanks like the Center for American Progress and Brookings. Unlike undergraduate loans, which have stricter limits on the amount of debt students can take on annually, federal Grad PLUS and private graduate loans allow students to borrow up to the cost of attendance, so it’s easier to rack up debt.Your earnings after attaining a grad degree will largely depend on your field and employer. Outcomes in some fields are easier to predict than in others, says Hershbein.“Teachers’ master’s degrees are carefully calibrated; based on union contracts they know what the pay is going to be,” says Hershbein. But outcomes for master’s in areas like public policy or fine arts are more of an unknown, he adds.MASTER’S PROGRAMS ARE NOT ALL EQUALWhere you get your degree also matters. “If you’re getting an online master’s degree from the University of Phoenix it will pay off less than a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania,” Hershbein says.Taylor says the nature of remote learning during the pandemic erased some of the bias around online programs, but employer preference is still skewed toward degrees from elite colleges.“I think we have to be honest with ourselves: There’s always an elitism that plays itself into the hiring process,” says Taylor.For graduate students, attending a highly selective university might help them make professional connections to more easily get a job. And grad programs are “cash cows” for universities, says Hershbein. Universities count on the prestige of their undergraduate degrees to attract graduate students into expensive programs.Students then rack up exorbitant debt for degrees that might not pay off.An estimated 40% of master’s degree programs do not pay off at all, according to February 2022 data from the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, a nonprofit think tank.The uncertainty means prospective students will need to do some legwork to prevent graduate school from harming their finances more than it helps their employment prospects. That means graduate applicants should:— Start with the graduate program costs on a school’s website.— Search earnings and entry-level degree requirements for occupations using the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook.— Scour other tools that list program types and outcomes by degree level including the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-a-graduate-degree-worth-the-debt-check-it-here-11626355788" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/collegepayoff2021/" target="_blank">Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce</a>.___________________________________________This article was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Anna Helhoski is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: anna@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @AnnaHelhoski.RELATED LINKS:NerdWallet: Calculate: Are Student Loans Worth It Based on Your Major&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/is-college-worth-it?utm_campaign=ct_prod&amp;utm_source=ap&amp;utm_medium=mpsyn" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://bit.ly/nerdwallet-is-college-worth-it-college-debt-calculator" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/nerdwallet-is-college-worth-it-college-debt-calculator</a>Wall Street Journal: Is a Graduate Degree Worth the Debt? Check It Here&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-a-graduate-degree-worth-the-debt-check-it-here-11626355788" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-a-graduate-degree-worth-the-debt-check-it-here-11626355788" target="_blank">https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-a-graduate-degree-worth-the-debt-check-it-here-11626355788</a>Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce&nbsp;<a href="https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/collegepayoff2021/" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/collegepayoff2021/" target="_blank">https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/collegepayoff2021/</a>