LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln woman accused of causing a crash last year that killed a motorcyclist last year has pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular homicide. 

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that 18-year-old Kylie Hill entered the plea Thursday and faces up to a year in jail when she's sentenced in March. 

Investigators say Hill was driving a vehicle south on 27th Street last March when she turned left in front of 19-year-old Simon Blair's northbound bike, causing the crash. 

Blair was taken to a local hospital, where he died.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln woman accused of causing a crash last year that killed a motorcyclist last year has pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular homicide. The Lincoln Journal Star reports that 18-year-old Kylie Hill entered the plea Thursday and faces up to a year in jail when she's sentenced in March. Investigators say Hill was driving a vehicle south on 27th Street last March when she turned left in front of 19-year-old Simon Blair's northbound bike, causing the crash. Blair was taken to a local hospital, where he died.

Lincoln woman involved in fatal crash pleads no contest

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Federal prosecutors in New Jersey say the operator of a failed multi-state nursing home chain failed to pay $29.5 million in payroll and unemployment taxes for his employees at 95 facilities he operated in 11 states. 

Authorities arrested Joseph Schwartz of Suffern, New York, on Thursday and charged him with willful failure to pay over employment taxes, evasion of unemployment taxes and failure to file annual financial reports. 

Authorities say his New Jersey-based Skyline Management Group had approximately 15,000 employees and Schwartz failed to pay their taxes from mid-2017 through June 2018. 

Prosecutors also allege Schwartz failed to file financial reports related to Skyline’s 401K retirement plan contributions that are automatically withdrawn from an employee’s pay.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Federal prosecutors in New Jersey say the operator of a failed multi-state nursing home chain failed to pay $29.5 million in payroll and unemployment taxes for his employees at 95 facilities he operated in 11 states. Authorities arrested Joseph Schwartz of Suffern, New York, on Thursday and charged him with willful failure to pay over employment taxes, evasion of unemployment taxes and failure to file annual financial reports. Authorities say his New Jersey-based Skyline Management Group had approximately 15,000 employees and Schwartz failed to pay their taxes from mid-2017 through June 2018. Prosecutors also allege Schwartz failed to file financial reports related to Skyline’s 401K retirement plan contributions that are automatically withdrawn from an employee’s pay.

Feds: Nursing home operator failed to pay $29.5M in taxes

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man charged with fatally hitting another man in his Lincoln front yard has pleaded no contest to attempting to leave the scene of a fatal accident and misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide. 

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that 31-year-old Hani Hadgi faces more time behind bars when he's sentenced in March. 

Prosecutors say Hadgi was driving a sport utility vehicle recklessly when he hit 41-year-old Victor Melendez the night of Sept. 22, 2020. 

An officer who arrived at the scene of the crash testified he saw Hadgi get out of the crashed SUV and leave in a red car, without checking on Melendez. 

Hadgi is already serving a two- to three-year prison sentence on separate drug charges.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/1/1642858831949.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man charged with fatally hitting another man in his Lincoln front yard has pleaded no contest to attempting to leave the scene of a fatal accident and misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide. The Lincoln Journal Star reports that 31-year-old Hani Hadgi faces more time behind bars when he's sentenced in March. Prosecutors say Hadgi was driving a sport utility vehicle recklessly when he hit 41-year-old Victor Melendez the night of Sept. 22, 2020. An officer who arrived at the scene of the crash testified he saw Hadgi get out of the crashed SUV and leave in a red car, without checking on Melendez. Hadgi is already serving a two- to three-year prison sentence on separate drug charges.

Man pleads no contest to 2020 fatal hit-and-run in Lincoln

GRAND ISLAND, Neb.-Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol have arrested a Minnesota man following a pursuit on Interstate 80 near Aurora.

At approximately 10:20 a.m. Friday, a trooper observed a Ford Fusion driving on the shoulder near Giltner, at mile marker 323. During the traffic stop, as the trooper was talking with the driver of the Fusion, the driver accelerated and fled at a high rate of speed. The trooper initiated a pursuit.

The suspect vehicle fled eastbound, reaching speeds in excess of 110 miles per hour while weaving through traffic and passing vehicles on the shoulder. The vehicle then exited I-80 at mile marker 332 and began traveling southbound. The trooper then performed a tactical vehicle intervention to bring the suspect vehicle to a stop.

The driver exited the vehicle and refused repeated commands from multiple troopers on scene. A trooper then successfully deployed a taser to bring the suspect into custody. Troopers located cocaine and marijuana in the suspect’s possession.

The suspect, Corey Davis, 25, of Redwood Falls, Minnesota, was arrested for felony flight to avoid arrest, willful reckless driving, possession of a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence, failure to obey a lawful order, obstructing a peace officer, resisting arrest, driving under suspension, and numerous traffic violations. He was lodged in Hamilton County Jail.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/1/1642857713198.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>News Release Nebraska State PatrolGRAND ISLAND, Neb.-Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol have arrested a Minnesota man following a pursuit on Interstate 80 near Aurora.At approximately 10:20 a.m. Friday, a trooper observed a Ford Fusion driving on the shoulder near Giltner, at mile marker 323. During the traffic stop, as the trooper was talking with the driver of the Fusion, the driver accelerated and fled at a high rate of speed. The trooper initiated a pursuit.The suspect vehicle fled eastbound, reaching speeds in excess of 110 miles per hour while weaving through traffic and passing vehicles on the shoulder. The vehicle then exited I-80 at mile marker 332 and began traveling southbound. The trooper then performed a tactical vehicle intervention to bring the suspect vehicle to a stop.The driver exited the vehicle and refused repeated commands from multiple troopers on scene. A trooper then successfully deployed a taser to bring the suspect into custody. Troopers located cocaine and marijuana in the suspect’s possession.The suspect, Corey Davis, 25, of Redwood Falls, Minnesota, was arrested for felony flight to avoid arrest, willful reckless driving, possession of a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence, failure to obey a lawful order, obstructing a peace officer, resisting arrest, driving under suspension, and numerous traffic violations. He was lodged in Hamilton County Jail.

Troopers arrest 1 following pursuit near Aurora

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of pro-life protesters were in a celebratory mood Friday as they rallied in the nation’s capital and marched to the Supreme Court with a growing sense of optimism that their goal was finally in reach: a sweeping rollback of abortion rights.

The March for Life, for decades an annual protest against abortion, was held&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-health-united-states-mississippi-65751e1b9ca7d34f1458ffe9729f82b2">as the Supreme Court has indicated it will allow states to impose tighter restrictions on abortion</a>&nbsp;with a ruling in the coming months — and possibly overturn the landmark 1973&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-health-religion-cdfb7122c609bd3563c2702af28d3254">Roe v. Wade</a>&nbsp;ruling that affirmed the constitutional right to an abortion.

“It doesn’t feel real. There’s so much hope and vibrancy and happiness and joy at this thing,” said Jordan Moorman of Cincinnati. “I really do believe that we’re in a post-Roe generation.”

The rally, held one day before the 49th anniversary of the Roe decision, is taking place amid a COVID-19 surge that limited turnout at the National Mall. Some abortion opponents posted on the event’s Facebook page that they will not attend because of COVID-19 vaccine mandates for people going to restaurants and other places&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-health-coronavirus-vaccine-district-of-columbia-a3d841949ada285dd8321e8a96c20687">in the District of Columbia</a>.

Still, the rally drew a crowd of thousands on a sunny but frigid day, with a heavy contingent of young people and students bussed in by schools and church groups. The mood was overwhelmingly optimistic, with many treating the end of Roe v Wade as an inevitability.

“Hopefully this will be the last March for Life,” said the Rev. Andrew Rudmann, a Catholic priest from New Orleans, who was attending his 11th event.

Rudmann said previous marches may have had larger crowds but he doesn’t recall this level of optimism. He said the crowds grew “gigantic” under former President Donald Trump and the movement’s enthusiasm grew with each Trump Supreme Court appointee. He proudly pointed out that his home Archdiocese of New Orleans includes the Catholic high school that educated Trump’s last appointee, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

“Sometimes I would come to the March and it would be great to be united with people who share my beliefs, but there would also be this heaviness,” he said. “This time the whole language and vibe is different.”

After the rally, the crowd marched to the Supreme Court with chants that included: “We love babies, yes we do, we love babies, how bout you?” and “hey hey, ho ho, Roe v Wade has got to go!”

Abortion rights groups worry that at least 26 states are in line to further limit abortion access if Roe is weakened or overturned. In December, the court indicated in a major case that it would uphold a Mississippi ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and allow states to ban abortion even earlier. The Mississippi case directly challenges Roe.

Courts have also dealt Texas abortion providers a string of defeats over efforts to block a law that since September has banned abortions once cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around six weeks and before some women know they are pregnant.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-53d084f9c8b2b9e3ee50df06224aaaa4">Another loss for Texas clinics came Thursday</a>, when the Supreme Court refused to speed up the ongoing challenge over the law, which providers say is now likely to stay in effect for the foreseeable future.

“This law is cruel and unconstitutional, and I am deeply disappointed that our judicial system has done very little to stop it,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman’s Health, which operates four abortion clinics in Texas.

Lawmakers from both parties weighed in Friday to note the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and reflect on the shifting political landscape surrounding abortion.

“It has been an eye-opening year for the cause of life in America, and we have made significant progress in defending our youngest and most vulnerable,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House.

“The stakes are higher than ever, with the health and autonomy of women and families across the country hanging in the balance as Republicans work to methodically challenge and overturn Roe,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. “It’s time to sound the alarm and make clear: decisions about our bodies, our health care and our future belong to us.”

Dozens of GOP lawmakers appeared at the march personally or as part of a video voicing their allegiance with those in attendance. White House press secretary Jen Psaki took note of the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling as part of Friday’s press briefing, saying that “reproductive health care has been under extreme and relentless assault ever since, especially in recent months.”

She said the Biden administration was committed to working with Congress to pass a bill that protects the right to provide and access abortion care free from forced waiting periods, biased counseling and other restrictions.

“We’re deeply committed to making sure everyone has access to care and we will defend it with every tool we have,” Psaki said.

Mississippi state Sen. Joey Fillingane, a Republican who pushed for the state’s strict abortion laws, said that if Roe were nullified, he expects states to take different approaches to setting their own abortion laws.

“I think that’s the way it should be,” he said. “The laws in California, based on their population and what they want, may be very different than the laws in Mississippi based on what our population feels about the issue of life.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/1/1642798188768.png" alt="Lawmakers from both parties weighed in Friday to note the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and reflect on the shifting political landscape surrounding abortion. photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Lawmakers from both parties weighed in Friday to note the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and reflect on the shifting political landscape surrounding abortion. photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of pro-life protesters were in a celebratory mood Friday as they rallied in the nation’s capital and marched to the Supreme Court with a growing sense of optimism that their goal was finally in reach: a sweeping rollback of abortion rights.The March for Life, for decades an annual protest against abortion, was held&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-health-united-states-mississippi-65751e1b9ca7d34f1458ffe9729f82b2">as the Supreme Court has indicated it will allow states to impose tighter restrictions on abortion</a>&nbsp;with a ruling in the coming months — and possibly overturn the landmark 1973&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-health-religion-cdfb7122c609bd3563c2702af28d3254">Roe v. Wade</a>&nbsp;ruling that affirmed the constitutional right to an abortion.“It doesn’t feel real. There’s so much hope and vibrancy and happiness and joy at this thing,” said Jordan Moorman of Cincinnati. “I really do believe that we’re in a post-Roe generation.”The rally, held one day before the 49th anniversary of the Roe decision, is taking place amid a COVID-19 surge that limited turnout at the National Mall. Some abortion opponents posted on the event’s Facebook page that they will not attend because of COVID-19 vaccine mandates for people going to restaurants and other places&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-health-coronavirus-vaccine-district-of-columbia-a3d841949ada285dd8321e8a96c20687">in the District of Columbia</a>.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/1/1642798163305.png" alt="After the rally, the crowd marched to the Supreme Court with chants that included: “We love babies, yes we do, we love babies, how bout you?” and “hey hey, ho ho, Roe v Wade has got to go!”-photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>After the rally, the crowd marched to the Supreme Court with chants that included: “We love babies, yes we do, we love babies, how bout you?” and “hey hey, ho ho, Roe v Wade has got to go!”-photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>Still, the rally drew a crowd of thousands on a sunny but frigid day, with a heavy contingent of young people and students bussed in by schools and church groups. The mood was overwhelmingly optimistic, with many treating the end of Roe v Wade as an inevitability.“Hopefully this will be the last March for Life,” said the Rev. Andrew Rudmann, a Catholic priest from New Orleans, who was attending his 11th event.Rudmann said previous marches may have had larger crowds but he doesn’t recall this level of optimism. He said the crowds grew “gigantic” under former President Donald Trump and the movement’s enthusiasm grew with each Trump Supreme Court appointee. He proudly pointed out that his home Archdiocese of New Orleans includes the Catholic high school that educated Trump’s last appointee, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.“Sometimes I would come to the March and it would be great to be united with people who share my beliefs, but there would also be this heaviness,” he said. “This time the whole language and vibe is different.”After the rally, the crowd marched to the Supreme Court with chants that included: “We love babies, yes we do, we love babies, how bout you?” and “hey hey, ho ho, Roe v Wade has got to go!”Abortion rights groups worry that at least 26 states are in line to further limit abortion access if Roe is weakened or overturned. In December, the court indicated in a major case that it would uphold a Mississippi ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and allow states to ban abortion even earlier. The Mississippi case directly challenges Roe.Courts have also dealt Texas abortion providers a string of defeats over efforts to block a law that since September has banned abortions once cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around six weeks and before some women know they are pregnant.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-53d084f9c8b2b9e3ee50df06224aaaa4">Another loss for Texas clinics came Thursday</a>, when the Supreme Court refused to speed up the ongoing challenge over the law, which providers say is now likely to stay in effect for the foreseeable future.“This law is cruel and unconstitutional, and I am deeply disappointed that our judicial system has done very little to stop it,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman’s Health, which operates four abortion clinics in Texas.Lawmakers from both parties weighed in Friday to note the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and reflect on the shifting political landscape surrounding abortion.“It has been an eye-opening year for the cause of life in America, and we have made significant progress in defending our youngest and most vulnerable,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House.“The stakes are higher than ever, with the health and autonomy of women and families across the country hanging in the balance as Republicans work to methodically challenge and overturn Roe,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. “It’s time to sound the alarm and make clear: decisions about our bodies, our health care and our future belong to us.”Dozens of GOP lawmakers appeared at the march personally or as part of a video voicing their allegiance with those in attendance. White House press secretary Jen Psaki took note of the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling as part of Friday’s press briefing, saying that “reproductive health care has been under extreme and relentless assault ever since, especially in recent months.”She said the Biden administration was committed to working with Congress to pass a bill that protects the right to provide and access abortion care free from forced waiting periods, biased counseling and other restrictions.“We’re deeply committed to making sure everyone has access to care and we will defend it with every tool we have,” Psaki said.Mississippi state Sen. Joey Fillingane, a Republican who pushed for the state’s strict abortion laws, said that if Roe were nullified, he expects states to take different approaches to setting their own abortion laws.“I think that’s the way it should be,” he said. “The laws in California, based on their population and what they want, may be very different than the laws in Mississippi based on what our population feels about the issue of life.”___

Pro-Life protesters optimistic at March for Life in Washington

Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol have arrested two people after locating more than 200 pounds of marijuana and THC products during a traffic stop on Interstate 80.

At approximately 9:50 a.m. Thursday, a trooper observed an eastbound Winnebago RV speeding on I-80 at mile marker 348, near Bradshaw. During the traffic stop, an NSP K9 detected the odor of a controlled substance coming from inside the vehicle.

A search of the vehicle revealed 109 pounds of marijuana and 122 pounds of THC edibles. The driver, Adolfo Ramos, 26, of Riverside, California, and passenger Andrew Urena, 30, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, were both arrested for possession of marijuana – more than one pound, possession with intent to deliver, and no drug tax stamp.

Both were lodged in York County Jail. The York County Sheriff’s Office assisted in this incident.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/1/1642815443213.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>News Release Nebraska State PatrolTroopers with the Nebraska State Patrol have arrested two people after locating more than 200 pounds of marijuana and THC products during a traffic stop on Interstate 80.At approximately 9:50 a.m. Thursday, a trooper observed an eastbound Winnebago RV speeding on I-80 at mile marker 348, near Bradshaw. During the traffic stop, an NSP K9 detected the odor of a controlled substance coming from inside the vehicle.A search of the vehicle revealed 109 pounds of marijuana and 122 pounds of THC edibles. The driver, Adolfo Ramos, 26, of Riverside, California, and passenger Andrew Urena, 30, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, were both arrested for possession of marijuana – more than one pound, possession with intent to deliver, and no drug tax stamp.Both were lodged in York County Jail. The York County Sheriff’s Office assisted in this incident.

Troopers find 231 pounds of marijuana, THC products in I-80 stop

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. judge in Texas issued a nationwide injunction on Friday barring the federal government from enforcing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-health-lawsuits-1054028d7cbf0ef46f7ddadbdc4ae167">President Joe Biden’s requirement</a>&nbsp;that federal workers without qualifying medical or religious exemptions be vaccinated for COVID-19.

Judge Jeffrey Brown, who was appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of Texas by then-President Donald Trump, ruled that opponents of Biden’s vaccination mandate for federal employees were likely to succeed at trial and blocked the government from enforcing the requirement.

Biden announced in September that more than 3.5 million federal workers were required to undergo vaccination, with no option to get regularly tested instead, unless they secured approved medical or religious exemptions. The requirement kicked in in November, when the White House said more than 95% of federal workers were in compliance with the Biden mandate either by being vaccinated or by having requested an exemption — and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-health-business-travel-99b820492135ceeaf23e51b834d6ab79">92% were vaccinated</a>.

Those out of compliance with the policy were referred to counseling and could be terminated under an executive order signed by Biden.

Brown wrote that at issue was whether the president “can, with the stroke of a pen and without the input of Congress, require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment.” He added, “That, under the current state of the law as just recently expressed by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-vaccine-mandate-eb5899ae1fe5b62b6f4d51f54a3cd375">the Supreme Court</a>, is a bridge too far.”

The suit was brought by the group Feds for Medical Freedom.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. judge in Texas issued a nationwide injunction on Friday barring the federal government from enforcing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-health-lawsuits-1054028d7cbf0ef46f7ddadbdc4ae167">President Joe Biden’s requirement</a>&nbsp;that federal workers without qualifying medical or religious exemptions be vaccinated for COVID-19.Judge Jeffrey Brown, who was appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of Texas by then-President Donald Trump, ruled that opponents of Biden’s vaccination mandate for federal employees were likely to succeed at trial and blocked the government from enforcing the requirement.Biden announced in September that more than 3.5 million federal workers were required to undergo vaccination, with no option to get regularly tested instead, unless they secured approved medical or religious exemptions. The requirement kicked in in November, when the White House said more than 95% of federal workers were in compliance with the Biden mandate either by being vaccinated or by having requested an exemption — and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-health-business-travel-99b820492135ceeaf23e51b834d6ab79">92% were vaccinated</a>.Those out of compliance with the policy were referred to counseling and could be terminated under an executive order signed by Biden.Brown wrote that at issue was whether the president “can, with the stroke of a pen and without the input of Congress, require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment.” He added, “That, under the current state of the law as just recently expressed by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-vaccine-mandate-eb5899ae1fe5b62b6f4d51f54a3cd375">the Supreme Court</a>, is a bridge too far.”The suit was brought by the group Feds for Medical Freedom.

Another judge blocks Biden federal worker vaccine mandate

By JONEL ALECCIA <a href="https://khn.org/news/article/states-use-monoclonal-antibody-covid-treatment-ineffective-against-omicron/">Kaiser Health News</a>

As the omicron variant completes its sweep across the U.S., states with 
scarce supplies of monoclonal antibody therapies continue to use two 
treatments that federal health officials warn no longer work against the
 highly contagious version of the virus that causes covid-19. The 
antibody treatment now <a href="https://opendata.ncats.nih.gov/variant/activity">most recommended</a> is sotrovimab from GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology, and it’s in short supply.

Use of the newly ineffective treatments produced by Regeneron 
Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly and Co. is highest in a dozen states. They
 include several Southern states with some of the nation’s lowest 
vaccination rates, but also California, which ranks in the nation’s top 
20 for fully vaccinated residents, a KHN analysis of federal data shows.
 Many hospitals and clinics are still infusing the costly treatments — 
often charging hundreds of dollars a session — that public health 
officials now say are almost certainly useless.

That’s because of the near-total dominance of omicron, which accounted for <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#nowcasting">99.5% of new covid infections</a> in the U.S. during the week that ended Jan. 15, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That point was underscored this week by updated <a href="https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapies/statement-on-therapies-for-high-risk-nonhospitalized-patients/?utm_campaign=highlights">guidelines</a> from the National Institutes of Health that now recommend sotrovimab as the primary monoclonal treatment for the disease.

Unless providers are certain they are still treating patients 
infected with the delta variant, they shouldn’t use the others, said Dr.
 Mark McClellan, director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy,
 who is also a former commissioner of the FDA and former administrator 
of CMS. And the delta variant is <a href="https://tracker.rosalind.bio/dashboard?number-of-days=30&amp;graph-display=count">increasingly rare</a>, accounting for 3% of cases in Louisiana, 7% in California, and 10% in Ohio, as examples.

“There’s not a medical justification based on the evidence on the Regeneron and Lilly products,” McClellan said.

Determining which patients are infected with the delta vs. omicron 
variant is complicated, said Dr. Christian Ramers, chief of population 
health and an infectious disease specialist at Family Health Centers of 
San Diego.

His clinic is one of the few sites in the nation using laboratory 
screening of positive PCR covid tests that can tell whether patients are
 infected with delta vs. omicron — and then treating them accordingly. 
“Otherwise, you’re giving this false sense of security to a patient that
 they’re getting treatment,” Ramers said. “I don’t think it is ethical, 
and it goes against the principle of doing no harm.”

Overall, U.S. hospitals used about 72,000 doses of the Regeneron and 
Lilly monoclonal antibody therapies from Jan. 5 through Jan. 18, 
according to the <a href="https://healthdata.gov/Hospital/COVID-19-Reported-Patient-Impact-and-Hospital-Capa/g62h-syeh">latest figures</a>
 from the Department of Health and Human Services. Data regarding 
hospital-level use of sotrovimab, which became available more recently 
than the other products, is not yet available on the HHS site.

By comparison, hospitals used about 153,000 courses of the Regeneron 
and Lilly treatments from Dec. 22 through Jan. 4. They used about 
169,000 courses from Aug. 26 through Sept. 8, near the height of the 
delta surge.

On Jan. 19, hospitals still had about 295,000 doses of the Regeneron and Lilly treatments on hand.

Nationwide, the federal government is distributing <a href="https://www.phe.gov/emergency/events/COVID19/therapeutics/distribution/Pages/data-tables.aspx">more than 50,000 courses</a>
 of sotrovimab per week, though it remains in short supply. The Biden 
administration has agreed to buy about 1 million doses, including about 
600,000 promised by March, <a href="https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/press-releases/gsk-and-vir-biotechnology-announce-united-states-government-agreement-to-purchase-additional-supply-of-sotrovimab/">GSK officials said.</a>

Respectively, Michigan, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Louisiana, 
California, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Ohio, New York, and Mississippi 
used the most courses of the Regeneron and Lilly treatments from Jan. 5 
through Jan. 18, KHN’s analysis showed.

In Florida, which used more than 5,200 courses of the outdated 
treatments during that two-week period, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has
 said he is not convinced that the Regeneron and Lilly products don’t 
work against omicron. In Florida, omicron accounted for <a href="https://tracker.rosalind.bio/dashboard?number-of-days=30&amp;graph-display=count">97% of cases</a> as of Jan. 20; delta accounted for 3%.

“We have had practitioners give both of those to people with omicron 
who said the symptoms got resolved,” he said in a Jan. 5 speech provided
 by his spokesperson, Christina Pushaw.

Federal health officials managing allocation of the monoclonal 
antibody therapies paused shipments of the Regeneron and Lilly 
treatments on Dec. 23, after laboratory tests showed they were less 
effective against the surging omicron variant than the delta variant. 
But the Biden administration <a href="https://www.phe.gov/emergency/events/COVID19/investigation-MCM/Bamlanivimab-etesevimab/Pages/bamlanivimab-etesevimab-regen-cov-ordering-update.aspx">resumed shipments on Dec. 31</a>,
 after complaints from DeSantis and some doctors that those therapies 
could still help people in places where the delta variant persisted.

Regeneron itself has said its antibody treatments are ineffective 
against the omicron variant. It contains more than 30 mutations in the 
virus’s spike protein, which makes the variant better at dodging the 
monoclonal antibody treatments.

“It’s really not justified at this point unless there’s some other 
underlying secondary gain, political pressure, or perhaps the providers 
are truly not in touch with the reality of the variant proportions,” 
Ramers said.

Earlier this month, HHS officials indicated that shipments of the 
three monoclonal antibody treatments would continue through Jan. 31, 
despite the growing proportion of omicron cases. A department 
spokesperson on background said the agency would continue to assess “any
 impacts to covid-19’s therapeutic allocations.”

Monoclonal antibody treatments are lab-based molecules that mimic the
 body’s immune response to infection. They are most often given through 
IV infusion, though some can be delivered with an injection. The federal
 government has agreed to purchase millions of doses of the Regeneron 
and Lilly products at a cost of about $2,100 per dose. The medicines are
 free to consumers, though hospitals and clinics do charge fees for 
administering the drugs and monitoring patients during the process.

Other treatments expected to be effective against omicron in 
high-risk, non-hospitalized patients include AstraZeneca’s Evusheld, a 
long-acting injectable monoclonal antibody for immunocompromised people,
 and a three-day infusion of Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir, which is 
approved by the FDA. New oral antiviral pills also are expected to be 
effective, although they, too, remain in short supply.

Providers in several states that have continued to use the Regeneron 
and Lilly products have offered varied reasons. Some said they believed 
delta infections continued to circulate locally; others said they felt 
desperate to try something.

Officials in Michigan, which used more than 5,800 doses of the 
Regeneron and Lilly products during the most recent two weeks, and 
California, which used more than 3,400, have allowed health care 
providers to use their clinical judgment about which treatment to 
prescribe.

But in Mississippi, where omicron is rampant and fewer than half of 
residents have been fully vaccinated, state health officer Dr. Thomas 
Dobbs called for an end to the use of the treatments.

“We will be recommending that clinicians and physicians do not use 
these products right now based on the distribution of omicron vs. 
delta,” he said during a recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO0N6_y9FTM">press conference.</a>

At Ramers’ clinic in San Diego, care providers have been dispensing 
scarce doses of the monoclonal antibody treatments only when they’re 
confident they’ll help. That has meant sending batches of positive PCR 
tests to a laboratory in nearby Irvine, where they are screened to see 
whether one of three target genes is not detected, a known marker for an
 omicron infection.

Patients infected with the delta variant were able to be treated with
 REGEN-COV, the Regeneron product, preserving sotrovimab for the growing
 number of omicron cases, said Pauline Lucatero, the clinic’s director 
of nursing.

“Looking into my patients’ eyes and seeing fear, just fear, all I 
could tell them is we believe this treatment works and we’re going to do
 everything we can to save as many people as we can,” she said.

Phillip Reese, an assistant professor of journalism at California State University-Sacramento, contributed to this report.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/1/1642796023376.png" alt="Dr. Christian Ramers is an infectious disease specialist at Family Health Centers of San Diego, one of the few sites in the nation using lab screening that can tell whether patients are infected with the delta or omicron variant, then treating them accordingly. “Otherwise, you’re giving this false sense of security to a patient that they’re getting treatment,” Ramers says. (Family Health Centers of San Diego)" />
 <figcaption>Dr. Christian Ramers is an infectious disease specialist at Family Health Centers of San Diego, one of the few sites in the nation using lab screening that can tell whether patients are infected with the delta or omicron variant, then treating them accordingly. “Otherwise, you’re giving this false sense of security to a patient that they’re getting treatment,” Ramers says. (Family Health Centers of San Diego)</figcaption>
 </figure>By JONEL ALECCIA <a href="https://khn.org/news/article/states-use-monoclonal-antibody-covid-treatment-ineffective-against-omicron/">Kaiser Health News</a>As the omicron variant completes its sweep across the U.S., states with 
scarce supplies of monoclonal antibody therapies continue to use two 
treatments that federal health officials warn no longer work against the
 highly contagious version of the virus that causes covid-19. The 
antibody treatment now <a href="https://opendata.ncats.nih.gov/variant/activity">most recommended</a> is sotrovimab from GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology, and it’s in short supply.Use of the newly ineffective treatments produced by Regeneron 
Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly and Co. is highest in a dozen states. They
 include several Southern states with some of the nation’s lowest 
vaccination rates, but also California, which ranks in the nation’s top 
20 for fully vaccinated residents, a KHN analysis of federal data shows.
 Many hospitals and clinics are still infusing the costly treatments — 
often charging hundreds of dollars a session — that public health 
officials now say are almost certainly useless.That’s because of the near-total dominance of omicron, which accounted for <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#nowcasting">99.5% of new covid infections</a> in the U.S. during the week that ended Jan. 15, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.That point was underscored this week by updated <a href="https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapies/statement-on-therapies-for-high-risk-nonhospitalized-patients/?utm_campaign=highlights">guidelines</a> from the National Institutes of Health that now recommend sotrovimab as the primary monoclonal treatment for the disease.Unless providers are certain they are still treating patients 
infected with the delta variant, they shouldn’t use the others, said Dr.
 Mark McClellan, director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy,
 who is also a former commissioner of the FDA and former administrator 
of CMS. And the delta variant is <a href="https://tracker.rosalind.bio/dashboard?number-of-days=30&amp;graph-display=count">increasingly rare</a>, accounting for 3% of cases in Louisiana, 7% in California, and 10% in Ohio, as examples.“There’s not a medical justification based on the evidence on the Regeneron and Lilly products,” McClellan said.Determining which patients are infected with the delta vs. omicron 
variant is complicated, said Dr. Christian Ramers, chief of population 
health and an infectious disease specialist at Family Health Centers of 
San Diego.His clinic is one of the few sites in the nation using laboratory 
screening of positive PCR covid tests that can tell whether patients are
 infected with delta vs. omicron — and then treating them accordingly. 
“Otherwise, you’re giving this false sense of security to a patient that
 they’re getting treatment,” Ramers said. “I don’t think it is ethical, 
and it goes against the principle of doing no harm.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/1/1642796149905.png" alt="At Dr. Christian Ramers’ clinic in San Diego, care providers have been dispensing scarce doses of the monoclonal antibody treatments only when they’re confident they’ll help. Prescribing monoclonals that aren’t effective against the omicron variant “goes against the principle of doing no harm,” Ramers says. (Family Health Centers of San Diego)" />
 <figcaption>At Dr. Christian Ramers’ clinic in San Diego, care providers have been dispensing scarce doses of the monoclonal antibody treatments only when they’re confident they’ll help. Prescribing monoclonals that aren’t effective against the omicron variant “goes against the principle of doing no harm,” Ramers says. (Family Health Centers of San Diego)</figcaption>
 </figure>Overall, U.S. hospitals used about 72,000 doses of the Regeneron and 
Lilly monoclonal antibody therapies from Jan. 5 through Jan. 18, 
according to the <a href="https://healthdata.gov/Hospital/COVID-19-Reported-Patient-Impact-and-Hospital-Capa/g62h-syeh">latest figures</a>
 from the Department of Health and Human Services. Data regarding 
hospital-level use of sotrovimab, which became available more recently 
than the other products, is not yet available on the HHS site.By comparison, hospitals used about 153,000 courses of the Regeneron 
and Lilly treatments from Dec. 22 through Jan. 4. They used about 
169,000 courses from Aug. 26 through Sept. 8, near the height of the 
delta surge.On Jan. 19, hospitals still had about 295,000 doses of the Regeneron and Lilly treatments on hand.Nationwide, the federal government is distributing <a href="https://www.phe.gov/emergency/events/COVID19/therapeutics/distribution/Pages/data-tables.aspx">more than 50,000 courses</a>
 of sotrovimab per week, though it remains in short supply. The Biden 
administration has agreed to buy about 1 million doses, including about 
600,000 promised by March, <a href="https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/press-releases/gsk-and-vir-biotechnology-announce-united-states-government-agreement-to-purchase-additional-supply-of-sotrovimab/">GSK officials said.</a>Respectively, Michigan, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Louisiana, 
California, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Ohio, New York, and Mississippi 
used the most courses of the Regeneron and Lilly treatments from Jan. 5 
through Jan. 18, KHN’s analysis showed.In Florida, which used more than 5,200 courses of the outdated 
treatments during that two-week period, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has
 said he is not convinced that the Regeneron and Lilly products don’t 
work against omicron. In Florida, omicron accounted for <a href="https://tracker.rosalind.bio/dashboard?number-of-days=30&amp;graph-display=count">97% of cases</a> as of Jan. 20; delta accounted for 3%.“We have had practitioners give both of those to people with omicron 
who said the symptoms got resolved,” he said in a Jan. 5 speech provided
 by his spokesperson, Christina Pushaw.Federal health officials managing allocation of the monoclonal 
antibody therapies paused shipments of the Regeneron and Lilly 
treatments on Dec. 23, after laboratory tests showed they were less 
effective against the surging omicron variant than the delta variant. 
But the Biden administration <a href="https://www.phe.gov/emergency/events/COVID19/investigation-MCM/Bamlanivimab-etesevimab/Pages/bamlanivimab-etesevimab-regen-cov-ordering-update.aspx">resumed shipments on Dec. 31</a>,
 after complaints from DeSantis and some doctors that those therapies 
could still help people in places where the delta variant persisted.Regeneron itself has said its antibody treatments are ineffective 
against the omicron variant. It contains more than 30 mutations in the 
virus’s spike protein, which makes the variant better at dodging the 
monoclonal antibody treatments.“It’s really not justified at this point unless there’s some other 
underlying secondary gain, political pressure, or perhaps the providers 
are truly not in touch with the reality of the variant proportions,” 
Ramers said.Earlier this month, HHS officials indicated that shipments of the 
three monoclonal antibody treatments would continue through Jan. 31, 
despite the growing proportion of omicron cases. A department 
spokesperson on background said the agency would continue to assess “any
 impacts to covid-19’s therapeutic allocations.”Monoclonal antibody treatments are lab-based molecules that mimic the
 body’s immune response to infection. They are most often given through 
IV infusion, though some can be delivered with an injection. The federal
 government has agreed to purchase millions of doses of the Regeneron 
and Lilly products at a cost of about $2,100 per dose. The medicines are
 free to consumers, though hospitals and clinics do charge fees for 
administering the drugs and monitoring patients during the process.Other treatments expected to be effective against omicron in 
high-risk, non-hospitalized patients include AstraZeneca’s Evusheld, a 
long-acting injectable monoclonal antibody for immunocompromised people,
 and a three-day infusion of Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir, which is 
approved by the FDA. New oral antiviral pills also are expected to be 
effective, although they, too, remain in short supply.Providers in several states that have continued to use the Regeneron 
and Lilly products have offered varied reasons. Some said they believed 
delta infections continued to circulate locally; others said they felt 
desperate to try something.Officials in Michigan, which used more than 5,800 doses of the 
Regeneron and Lilly products during the most recent two weeks, and 
California, which used more than 3,400, have allowed health care 
providers to use their clinical judgment about which treatment to 
prescribe.But in Mississippi, where omicron is rampant and fewer than half of 
residents have been fully vaccinated, state health officer Dr. Thomas 
Dobbs called for an end to the use of the treatments.“We will be recommending that clinicians and physicians do not use 
these products right now based on the distribution of omicron vs. 
delta,” he said during a recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO0N6_y9FTM">press conference.</a>At Ramers’ clinic in San Diego, care providers have been dispensing 
scarce doses of the monoclonal antibody treatments only when they’re 
confident they’ll help. That has meant sending batches of positive PCR 
tests to a laboratory in nearby Irvine, where they are screened to see 
whether one of three target genes is not detected, a known marker for an
 omicron infection.Patients infected with the delta variant were able to be treated with
 REGEN-COV, the Regeneron product, preserving sotrovimab for the growing
 number of omicron cases, said Pauline Lucatero, the clinic’s director 
of nursing.“Looking into my patients’ eyes and seeing fear, just fear, all I 
could tell them is we believe this treatment works and we’re going to do
 everything we can to save as many people as we can,” she said.Phillip Reese, an assistant professor of journalism at California State University-Sacramento, contributed to this report.

Patient, beware: States still pushing ineffective COVID antibody treatments

OMAHA&nbsp; — The latest and greatest in the automotive industry will be on display this weekend at the Midlands International Auto Show and Nebraska State Troopers will be on hand to promote traffic safety.

“The Midlands Auto Show is an excellent place to connect with the public and the auto industry to promote traffic safety,” said Captain Matt Sutter, Commander of Troop A, based in Omaha. “We’ll have troopers there to showcase the life-saving power of seat belts, as well as discuss the dangers of impaired and distracted driving.”

The Midlands International Auto Show runs from Friday, January 21 through Sunday, January 23, at the CHI Health Center in Omaha. The event features the latest innovations of the automotive industry.

Visitors to the auto show will have the opportunity to experience seat belt demonstrations such as the NSP Seat Belt Persuader. The NSP booth is located in the center-rear of the exhibition hall. The NSP booth is made possible thanks to the Nebraska Department of Transportation – Highway Safety Office.

Visitors can get more information about the show at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.omahaautoshow.com/" target="_blank">Omaha Auto Show</a>.

OMAHA&nbsp; — The latest and greatest in the automotive industry will be on display this weekend at the Midlands International Auto Show and Nebraska State Troopers will be on hand to promote traffic safety.“The Midlands Auto Show is an excellent place to connect with the public and the auto industry to promote traffic safety,” said Captain Matt Sutter, Commander of Troop A, based in Omaha. “We’ll have troopers there to showcase the life-saving power of seat belts, as well as discuss the dangers of impaired and distracted driving.”The Midlands International Auto Show runs from Friday, January 21 through Sunday, January 23, at the CHI Health Center in Omaha. The event features the latest innovations of the automotive industry.Visitors to the auto show will have the opportunity to experience seat belt demonstrations such as the NSP Seat Belt Persuader. The NSP booth is located in the center-rear of the exhibition hall. The NSP booth is made possible thanks to the Nebraska Department of Transportation – Highway Safety Office.Visitors can get more information about the show at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.omahaautoshow.com/" target="_blank">Omaha Auto Show</a>.

Troopers highlight traffic safety at Midlands Auto Show

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the latest setback for abortion rights in Texas, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to speed up the ongoing court case over the state’s ban on most abortions.

Over dissents from the three liberal justices, the court declined to order a federal appeals court to return the case to a federal judge who had temporarily blocked the law’s enforcement. The court offered no explanation for its action.

The Texas ban is thus likely to remain in effect for the foreseeable future, following a decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to send the case to the Texas Supreme Court, which is entirely controlled by Republican justices and does not have to act immediately.

Abortion providers had asked the high court to countermand the appellate order, which they said in court papers has no purpose other than to delay legal proceedings and prevent clinics from offering abortions beyond around six weeks of pregnancy.

The law has devastated abortion care in Texas, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote. “Instead of stopping a Fifth Circuit panel from indulging Texas’ newest delay tactics, the Court allows the State yet again to extend the deprivation of the federal constitutional rights of its citizens through procedural manipulation,” Sotomayor wrote, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. “The Court may look the other way, but I cannot.”

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberals in December in a dissent that called for allowing a broader challenge to the law and a quick return to the lower federal court. Roberts did not note his position on Thursday.

Clinics fear that their challenge to the law might not be resolved before the justices rule in a Mississippi case that could roll back abortion rights across the country. That decision, which could overrule the landmark Roe v. Wade case from 1973, is expected by late June.

The Texas law that bans abortion once cardiac activity is detected — usually around six weeks, before some women know they are pregnant — has been in effect since September. Last month, the high court kept the law in place and allowed only a narrow challenge against the restrictions to proceed.

The providers thought their best chance for a favorable outcome was before U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin. Pitman issued an order in October blocking the law, though the appeals court put his ruling on hold just a couple of days later.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/12/1638369620989.png" alt="Abortion protesters outside the Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021-photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Abortion protesters outside the Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021-photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — In the latest setback for abortion rights in Texas, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to speed up the ongoing court case over the state’s ban on most abortions.Over dissents from the three liberal justices, the court declined to order a federal appeals court to return the case to a federal judge who had temporarily blocked the law’s enforcement. The court offered no explanation for its action.The Texas ban is thus likely to remain in effect for the foreseeable future, following a decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to send the case to the Texas Supreme Court, which is entirely controlled by Republican justices and does not have to act immediately.Abortion providers had asked the high court to countermand the appellate order, which they said in court papers has no purpose other than to delay legal proceedings and prevent clinics from offering abortions beyond around six weeks of pregnancy.The law has devastated abortion care in Texas, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote. “Instead of stopping a Fifth Circuit panel from indulging Texas’ newest delay tactics, the Court allows the State yet again to extend the deprivation of the federal constitutional rights of its citizens through procedural manipulation,” Sotomayor wrote, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. “The Court may look the other way, but I cannot.”Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberals in December in a dissent that called for allowing a broader challenge to the law and a quick return to the lower federal court. Roberts did not note his position on Thursday.Clinics fear that their challenge to the law might not be resolved before the justices rule in a Mississippi case that could roll back abortion rights across the country. That decision, which could overrule the landmark Roe v. Wade case from 1973, is expected by late June.The Texas law that bans abortion once cardiac activity is detected — usually around six weeks, before some women know they are pregnant — has been in effect since September. Last month, the high court kept the law in place and allowed only a narrow challenge against the restrictions to proceed.The providers thought their best chance for a favorable outcome was before U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin. Pitman issued an order in October blocking the law, though the appeals court put his ruling on hold just a couple of days later.

Court rejects attempt to block nation's most restrictive abortion law

NEW YORK (AP) — Meat Loaf, the heavyweight rock superstar loved by millions for his “Bat Out of Hell” album and for such theatrical, dark-hearted anthems as “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” and “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That),” has died. He was 74.

The singer born Marvin Lee Aday died Thursday, according to a family statement provided by his longtime agent Michael Greene.

“Our hearts are broken to announce that the incomparable Meat Loaf passed away tonight,” the statement said. “We know how much he meant to so many of you and we truly appreciate all of the love and support as we move through this time of grief in losing such an inspiring artist and beautiful man... From his heart to your souls…don’t ever stop rocking!”

No cause or other details were given, but Aday had numerous health scares over the years.

“Bat Out of a Hell,” his mega-selling collaboration with songwriter Jim Steinman and producer Todd Rundgren, came out in 1977 and made him one of the most recognizable performers in rock. Fans fell hard for the roaring vocals of the long-haired, 250-plus pound singer and for the comic non-romance of the title track, “You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth,” “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” and “Paradise By the Dashboard Light,” an operatic cautionary tale about going all the way. “Paradise” was a duet with Ellen Foley that featured play by play from New York Yankees broadcaster Phil Rizzuto, who alleged — to much skepticism — that he was unaware of any alternate meanings to reaching third base and heading for home.

After a slow start and mixed reviews, “Bat Out of a Hell” became one of the top-selling albums in history, with worldwide sales of more than 40 million copies. Meat Loaf wasn’t a consistent hit maker, especially after falling out for years with Steinman. But he maintained close ties with his fans through his manic live shows, social media and his many television, radio and film appearances, including “Fight Club” and cameos on “Glee” and “South Park.”

Friends and fans reacted to the death on social media.

“I hope paradise is as you remember it from the dashboard light, Meat Loaf,” actor Stephen Fry said on Twitter.

Meat Loaf’s biggest musical success after “Bat Out of Hell” was “Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell,” a 1993 reunion with Steinman that sold more than 15 million copies and featured the Grammy-winning single “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).”

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/new-york-new-york-city-music-celine-dion-jim-steinman-d8883fd53f04417143d59eddd06c5d07">Steinman died in April</a>.

Aday’s other albums included “Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose,” “Hell in a Handbasket” and “Braver Than We Are.”

A native of Dallas, Aday was the son of a school teacher who raised him on her own after divorcing his alcoholic father, a police officer. Aday was singing and acting in high school (Mick Jagger was an early favorite, so was Ethel Merman) and attended Lubbock Christian College and what is now the University of North Texas. Among his more notable childhood memories: Seeing John F. Kennedy arrive at Love Field in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, then learning the president had been assassinated and driving to Parkland Hospital and watching a bloodied Jackie Kennedy step out of a car.

He was still a teenager when his mother died and when he acquired the nickname Meat Loaf, the alleged origins of which range from his weight to a favorite recipe of his mother’s. He left for Los Angeles after college and was soon fronting the band Meat Loaf Soul. For years, he alternated between music and the stage, recording briefly for Motown, opening for such acts as the Who and the Grateful Dead and appearing in the Broadway production of “Hair.”

By the mid-1970s, he was playing the lobotomized biker Eddie in the theater and film versions of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” had served as an understudy for his friend John Belushi for the stage production of National Lampoon and had begun working with Steinman on “Bat Out of Hell.” The dense, pounding production was openly influenced by Wagner, Phil Spector and Bruce Springsteen, whose bandmates Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg played on the record. Rundgren initially thought of the album as a parody of Springsteen’s grandiose style.

Steinman had known Meat Loaf since the singer appeared in his 1973 musical “More Than You Deserve” and some of the songs on “Bat Out of Hell,” including “All Revved Up With No Place to Go,” were initially written for a planned stage show based on the story of Peter Pan. “Bat Out of Hell” took more than two years to find a taker as numerous record executives turned it down, including RCA’s Clive Davis, who disparaged Steinman’s songs and acknowledged that he had misjudged the singer: “The songs were coming over as very theatrical, and Meat Loaf, despite a powerful voice, just didn’t look like a star,” Davis wrote in his memoir, “The Soundtrack of My Life.”

With the help of another Springsteen sideman, Steve Van Zandt, “Bat Out of Hell” was acquired by Cleveland International, a subsidiary of Epic Records. The album made little impact until months after its release, when a concert video of the title track was aired on the British program the Old Grey Whistle Test. In the U.S., his connection to “Rocky Horror” helped when he convinced producer Lou Adler to use a video for “Paradise By the Dashboard Light” as a trailer for the cult movie. But Meat Loaf was so little known at first that he began his “Bat Out of Hell” tour in Chicago as the opening act for Cheap Trick, then one of the world’s hottest groups.

“I remember pulling up at the theater and it says, ‘TONIGHT: CHEAP TRICK, WITH MEAT LOAF.’ And I said to myself, ‘These people think we’re serving dinner,’” Meat Loaf explained in 2013 on the syndicated radio show “In the Studio.”

“And we walk out on stage and these people were such Cheap Trick fans they booed us from the start. They were getting up and giving us the finger. The first six rows stood up and screamed. ... When we finished, most of the boos had stopped and we were almost getting applause.”

He is survived by Deborah Gillespie, his wife since 2007, and by daughters Pearl and Amanda Aday.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/1/1642762468813.png" alt="“Bat Out of a Hell,” his mega-selling collaboration with songwriter Jim Steinman and producer Todd Rundgren, came out in 1977&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>“Bat Out of a Hell,” his mega-selling collaboration with songwriter Jim Steinman and producer Todd Rundgren, came out in 1977&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) — Meat Loaf, the heavyweight rock superstar loved by millions for his “Bat Out of Hell” album and for such theatrical, dark-hearted anthems as “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” and “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That),” has died. He was 74.The singer born Marvin Lee Aday died Thursday, according to a family statement provided by his longtime agent Michael Greene.“Our hearts are broken to announce that the incomparable Meat Loaf passed away tonight,” the statement said. “We know how much he meant to so many of you and we truly appreciate all of the love and support as we move through this time of grief in losing such an inspiring artist and beautiful man... From his heart to your souls…don’t ever stop rocking!”No cause or other details were given, but Aday had numerous health scares over the years.“Bat Out of a Hell,” his mega-selling collaboration with songwriter Jim Steinman and producer Todd Rundgren, came out in 1977 and made him one of the most recognizable performers in rock. Fans fell hard for the roaring vocals of the long-haired, 250-plus pound singer and for the comic non-romance of the title track, “You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth,” “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” and “Paradise By the Dashboard Light,” an operatic cautionary tale about going all the way. “Paradise” was a duet with Ellen Foley that featured play by play from New York Yankees broadcaster Phil Rizzuto, who alleged — to much skepticism — that he was unaware of any alternate meanings to reaching third base and heading for home.After a slow start and mixed reviews, “Bat Out of a Hell” became one of the top-selling albums in history, with worldwide sales of more than 40 million copies. Meat Loaf wasn’t a consistent hit maker, especially after falling out for years with Steinman. But he maintained close ties with his fans through his manic live shows, social media and his many television, radio and film appearances, including “Fight Club” and cameos on “Glee” and “South Park.”Friends and fans reacted to the death on social media.“I hope paradise is as you remember it from the dashboard light, Meat Loaf,” actor Stephen Fry said on Twitter.Meat Loaf’s biggest musical success after “Bat Out of Hell” was “Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell,” a 1993 reunion with Steinman that sold more than 15 million copies and featured the Grammy-winning single “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).”<a href="https://apnews.com/article/new-york-new-york-city-music-celine-dion-jim-steinman-d8883fd53f04417143d59eddd06c5d07">Steinman died in April</a>.Aday’s other albums included “Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose,” “Hell in a Handbasket” and “Braver Than We Are.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/1/1642762315280.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>A native of Dallas, Aday was the son of a school teacher who raised him on her own after divorcing his alcoholic father, a police officer. Aday was singing and acting in high school (Mick Jagger was an early favorite, so was Ethel Merman) and attended Lubbock Christian College and what is now the University of North Texas. Among his more notable childhood memories: Seeing John F. Kennedy arrive at Love Field in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, then learning the president had been assassinated and driving to Parkland Hospital and watching a bloodied Jackie Kennedy step out of a car.He was still a teenager when his mother died and when he acquired the nickname Meat Loaf, the alleged origins of which range from his weight to a favorite recipe of his mother’s. He left for Los Angeles after college and was soon fronting the band Meat Loaf Soul. For years, he alternated between music and the stage, recording briefly for Motown, opening for such acts as the Who and the Grateful Dead and appearing in the Broadway production of “Hair.”By the mid-1970s, he was playing the lobotomized biker Eddie in the theater and film versions of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” had served as an understudy for his friend John Belushi for the stage production of National Lampoon and had begun working with Steinman on “Bat Out of Hell.” The dense, pounding production was openly influenced by Wagner, Phil Spector and Bruce Springsteen, whose bandmates Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg played on the record. Rundgren initially thought of the album as a parody of Springsteen’s grandiose style.Steinman had known Meat Loaf since the singer appeared in his 1973 musical “More Than You Deserve” and some of the songs on “Bat Out of Hell,” including “All Revved Up With No Place to Go,” were initially written for a planned stage show based on the story of Peter Pan. “Bat Out of Hell” took more than two years to find a taker as numerous record executives turned it down, including RCA’s Clive Davis, who disparaged Steinman’s songs and acknowledged that he had misjudged the singer: “The songs were coming over as very theatrical, and Meat Loaf, despite a powerful voice, just didn’t look like a star,” Davis wrote in his memoir, “The Soundtrack of My Life.”With the help of another Springsteen sideman, Steve Van Zandt, “Bat Out of Hell” was acquired by Cleveland International, a subsidiary of Epic Records. The album made little impact until months after its release, when a concert video of the title track was aired on the British program the Old Grey Whistle Test. In the U.S., his connection to “Rocky Horror” helped when he convinced producer Lou Adler to use a video for “Paradise By the Dashboard Light” as a trailer for the cult movie. But Meat Loaf was so little known at first that he began his “Bat Out of Hell” tour in Chicago as the opening act for Cheap Trick, then one of the world’s hottest groups.“I remember pulling up at the theater and it says, ‘TONIGHT: CHEAP TRICK, WITH MEAT LOAF.’ And I said to myself, ‘These people think we’re serving dinner,’” Meat Loaf explained in 2013 on the syndicated radio show “In the Studio.”“And we walk out on stage and these people were such Cheap Trick fans they booed us from the start. They were getting up and giving us the finger. The first six rows stood up and screamed. ... When we finished, most of the boos had stopped and we were almost getting applause.”He is survived by Deborah Gillespie, his wife since 2007, and by daughters Pearl and Amanda Aday.___

Meat Loaf, 'Bat Out of Hell' rock superstar, dies at 74

U.S. households can now request free at-home COVID-19 test kits through a new <a href="https://www.today.com/video/biden-administration-launches-website-for-free-at-home-covid-19-tests-131182149956" target="_blank">Biden administration program</a>. But when the government rolls out big initiatives, such <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/21774-scam-alert-government-relief-checks-trigger-latest-coronavirus-scam">as the stimulus checks</a>, scammers typically find ways to take advantage. This time, watch out for <a href="https://www.bbb.org/all/spot-a-scam/how-to-identify-a-fake-website" target="_blank">lookalike websites</a> when requesting your tests. These scam sites may ask for payment or personal information, such as your Social Security number.

You hear about the free COVID-19 tests and do a search for it online.
 Or you see a post or ad on social media or receive an unsolicited email
 or text. These communications urge you to request your free tests 
immediately by clicking on a link.

You follow the link to a website that looks official at first glance.
 It may have the United States Postal Service (USPS) logo, just like the
 real website. It also has a form to request your tests. But when you 
start filling out the form, you notice something unusual. This fake 
version may ask you for personal information, such as your Social 
Security number or Medicare ID. It could also request your credit card 
details, under the guise of <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/24189-bbb-tip-read-the-fine-print-before-signing-up-for-a-free-trial-offer" target="_blank">needing to pay for shipping</a>
 (note: the real page does not ask for payment or your SSN). Before you 
know it, you have given up your information to a scammer.

Learn more about <a href="https://www.bbb.org/all/spot-a-scam/how-to-identify-a-fake-website" target="_blank">identifying fake websites</a> and <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/21686-how-to-avoid-impostor-scams" target="_blank">spotting impostor scams</a>. Read about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/21989-top-6-coronavirus-scams-bbb" target="_blank">other popular COVID-19 scams</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/22395-bbb-scam-alert-want-a-covid-test-theres-a-scam-for-that" target="_blank">additional testing scams</a>.

If you’ve spotted a scam, report it to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bbb.org/ScamTracker" target="_blank">BBB Scam Tracker</a>, even if you didn’t fall victim or lose any money. Your report can help others avoid common scam tactics.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1579883951052.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>BBBU.S. households can now request free at-home COVID-19 test kits through a new <a href="https://www.today.com/video/biden-administration-launches-website-for-free-at-home-covid-19-tests-131182149956" target="_blank">Biden administration program</a>. But when the government rolls out big initiatives, such <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/21774-scam-alert-government-relief-checks-trigger-latest-coronavirus-scam">as the stimulus checks</a>, scammers typically find ways to take advantage. This time, watch out for <a href="https://www.bbb.org/all/spot-a-scam/how-to-identify-a-fake-website" target="_blank">lookalike websites</a> when requesting your tests. These scam sites may ask for payment or personal information, such as your Social Security number.<h2>How the scam may work</h2>You hear about the free COVID-19 tests and do a search for it online.
 Or you see a post or ad on social media or receive an unsolicited email
 or text. These communications urge you to request your free tests 
immediately by clicking on a link.You follow the link to a website that looks official at first glance.
 It may have the United States Postal Service (USPS) logo, just like the
 real website. It also has a form to request your tests. But when you 
start filling out the form, you notice something unusual. This fake 
version may ask you for personal information, such as your Social 
Security number or Medicare ID. It could also request your credit card 
details, under the guise of <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/24189-bbb-tip-read-the-fine-print-before-signing-up-for-a-free-trial-offer" target="_blank">needing to pay for shipping</a>
 (note: the real page does not ask for payment or your SSN). Before you 
know it, you have given up your information to a scammer.<h2>Tips to identify a fake website</h2><ul>
 <li>Look closely at the domain name.&nbsp;One way that fake 
websites trick people is by using a domain name that is extremely close 
to a real business’s or organization’s domain name. For example, the 
real COVID-19 test request website is <a href="https://special.usps.com/testkits" target="_blank">special.usps.com/testkits</a>.
 Scammers may swap two letters or make a slight misspelling. If you find
 a spelling error in the domain name, you’re not on the official site, 
and it’s best to close the tab. </li><li>Watch out for tricky subdomains. Sometimes 
attackers hope you will confuse a subdomain with the real domain name. 
For example, a scammer might use the subdomain name usps.faketestkit.com
 hoping you won’t notice that "faketestkit.com" is not the correct 
domain name to get your free test kit, which is usps.com. </li><li>The real website asks only for your name and address. You do not need to pay for the tests using the <a href="https://special.usps.com/testkits" target="_blank">government program</a> &nbsp;–
 even for shipping. And you will not be asked for insurance details, 
your Social Security number or any other sensitive information.</li>
 </ul><h2>For more information</h2>Learn more about <a href="https://www.bbb.org/all/spot-a-scam/how-to-identify-a-fake-website" target="_blank">identifying fake websites</a> and <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/21686-how-to-avoid-impostor-scams" target="_blank">spotting impostor scams</a>. Read about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/21989-top-6-coronavirus-scams-bbb" target="_blank">other popular COVID-19 scams</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/22395-bbb-scam-alert-want-a-covid-test-theres-a-scam-for-that" target="_blank">additional testing scams</a>.If you’ve spotted a scam, report it to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bbb.org/ScamTracker" target="_blank">BBB Scam Tracker</a>, even if you didn’t fall victim or lose any money. Your report can help others avoid common scam tactics.

Scam alert: Beware of phony forms when signing up for free COVID test

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Attorney General is accusing a couple from Brooklyn, New York, of committing a $59.6 million Medicaid fraud involving several nursing homes in Nebraska. 

In a complaint filed in Lancaster County, Joseph and Rosie Schwartz and Skyline Healthcare are accused of making decisions that were detrimental to 22 Nebraska nursing homes in order to enrich themselves. 

The homes were operated under the Cottonwood Healthcare name. 

The couple's facilities were put in receivership in 2018.

 The Lincoln Journal Star reports the lawsuit says the company made false records and did not maintain documents in order to receive payments to which they were not entitled.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/8/1567093537444.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Attorney General is accusing a couple from Brooklyn, New York, of committing a $59.6 million Medicaid fraud involving several nursing homes in Nebraska. In a complaint filed in Lancaster County, Joseph and Rosie Schwartz and Skyline Healthcare are accused of making decisions that were detrimental to 22 Nebraska nursing homes in order to enrich themselves. The homes were operated under the Cottonwood Healthcare name. The couple's facilities were put in receivership in 2018. The Lincoln Journal Star reports the lawsuit says the company made false records and did not maintain documents in order to receive payments to which they were not entitled.

New York couple accused of Nebraska nursing homes fraud

SEDGWICK COUNTY —A&nbsp; judge&nbsp;sentenced a Kansas&nbsp; man Wednesday for the July 2019 sex assault murder of a woman in her home.

John D. Pepper, 57, Wichita, was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 years for first-degree murder and 195 months for aggravated criminal sodomy, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office. The sentences will run consecutively.&nbsp;

Prosecutors said Pepper killed Rita Golden during the commission of a sex crime. Police said Golden let Pepper stay in her backyard and sometimes let him take naps and eat insider her home. 

An autopsy determined Golden died from a heart condition but she also had injuries associated with smothering and sexual assault.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/12/1577734968737.png" alt="John Pepper-photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>John Pepper-photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY —A&nbsp; judge&nbsp;sentenced a Kansas&nbsp; man Wednesday for the July 2019 sex assault murder of a woman in her home.John D. Pepper, 57, Wichita, was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 years for first-degree murder and 195 months for aggravated criminal sodomy, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office. The sentences will run consecutively.&nbsp;Prosecutors said Pepper killed Rita Golden during the commission of a sex crime. Police said Golden let Pepper stay in her backyard and sometimes let him take naps and eat insider her home. An autopsy determined Golden died from a heart condition but she also had injuries associated with smothering and sexual assault.--------

Kan. man sentenced in sex assault killing of woman who helped him

WASHINGTON (AP) —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-one-year-07788eba2c1eb84de0edf3dbe3f2d412">President Joe Biden</a>&nbsp;ends&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-joe-biden-europe-donald-trump-422b4b87a6e7b961977cedd9d33bb03c">his first year in the White House</a>&nbsp;with a clear majority of Americans for the first time disapproving of his handling of the presidency in the face of an unrelenting pandemic and roaring inflation, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

More Americans disapprove than approve of how Biden is handling his job as president, 56% to 43%. As of now, just 28% of Americans say they want Biden to run for reelection in 2024, including only 48% of Democrats.

Asked on Wednesday at&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-health-business-fdc4e641dc797b2a75131fd290c70f6d">a wide-ranging news conference</a>&nbsp;about his flagging popularity, Biden responded, “I don’t believe the polls.”

It’s a stark reversal from early in Biden’s presidency.

In July, 59% of Americans said they approved of Biden’s job performance in an AP-NORC poll. His approval rating dipped to 50% by late September in the aftermath of the chaotic and bloody U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan and amid surging coronavirus infections and the administration’s fitful efforts to push economic, infrastructure and tax policies through Congress.

The latest poll shows that Americans’ confidence in Biden’s handling of the pandemic — seen as a strength early in his administration — has further eroded as the omicron variant strains the health care system and further exhausts an American electorate that had hoped life would be back to a semblance of normalcy by now.

Just 45% say they approve of Biden’s handling of COVID-19, down from 57% in December and from 66% in July 2021.

Americans are even more downbeat about his handling of the economy, with just 37% approving. Growing angst about his economic policies comes as inflation rose at its fastest pace in nearly 40 years last month, a 7% spike from a year earlier that is increasing household expenses and eating into wage gains.

Joyce Bowen, 61, of Knoxville, Tennessee, said Biden deserves credit for encouraging Americans to get vaccinated, but she expressed frustration about the administration’s response to soaring inflation.

The part-time cleaner at a public library said she and her older brother, who she helps support, have been eating less meat to offset rising grocery costs and intermittent spikes at the gas pump that have whittled the purchasing power of her $754 biweekly paycheck.

“It’s just hard to keep food on the table and gas in the tank,” said Bowen, who voted for Biden but said she’d prefer he didn’t run again in 2024.

Only about a quarter were very confident that Biden “has the mental capability to serve effectively as president” or “is healthy enough to serve effectively as president.” Close to half are not confident in Biden’s mental capability or health.

Asked by a reporter at Wednesday’s news conference about other polling that shows a significant percentage of Americans had concerns about Biden’s mental health, the president shrugged off those findings.

Gary Cameron, 66, of Midwest City, Oklahoma, said the president’s verbal gaffes and age — at 79 Biden is the oldest U.S. president in history — don’t give him confidence that Biden has the skill or energy to pull the country out of its malaise.

“Whenever he does a speech on television, in your mind, you’re thinking ‘God, is this guy even going to get through this this speech?’” said Cameron, an independent who voted for Donald Trump in 2020.

Other respondents said that Biden’s age — and life experience that’s come with it — has proven to be an asset.

Nicole Jensen-Oost, 79, of Plano, Texas, said that Biden has demonstrated leadership and empathy through the pandemic by speaking of his own personal grief.

Biden frequently raises the deaths of his first wife and a daughter in a 1972 car crash as well as the loss of an adult son who died of cancer as he has sought to reassure Americans who have lost loved ones to the virus.

“This man has heart,” said Jensen-Oost, a Democrat and among the minority of respondents who said Biden is healthy enough to serve effectively as president. “He’s compassionate and the country needs that right now. We didn’t see a lot of compassion in the previous four years.”

The poll shows only about a quarter of Americans think the phrase “strong leader” describes Biden very well, while about that many say it’s a somewhat good description. Roughly half say he is not a strong leader. Views of Biden’s understanding of “the needs and problems of people like you” are similar.

Just 16% think Biden’s presidency has made the country more united; 43% think it’s more divided.

Harlan Epstein, of Cleveland, didn’t vote for Biden but was hopeful that the 46th president, who sold himself to American voters as a consensus builder, would govern from the ideological middle.

But Epstein, an independent, said Biden’s push for a $2 trillion climate and social services spending bill and his effort to force larger employers to require their workers to get vaccinated or undergo regular testing have undercut Biden’s centrist reputation.

“He’s got to tamp down his far-left wing and start focusing on moderate policies,” Epstein said.

Some on the left have also been frustrated with Biden.

The president’s first-year legislative victories included passage of a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package and a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, but he failed to win passage of his signature domestic spending initiative.

Zachary Lindahl, 34, of Raleigh, North Carolina, said he was disappointed that Biden has been unable to pass the spending package dubbed “Build Back Better,” as Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona balk at the costs and scope.

“It started off well with them passing the $1,400 checks,” said Lindahl, referring to stimulus payments that were part of the coronavirus relief package passed early in Biden’s term. “But as time went on, it’s been just more of the status quo. Any big idea, they are willing to compromise it down until there is no longer anything there.”

Not all is lost for Biden: Many continue to be at least somewhat positive toward the president, his character and his governing.

The new AP-NORC poll shows Biden is in a better position than Trump was at a similar point in his presidency. In February of 2018, just 35% of Americans said they approved of Trump,

Overall, though, 28% of Americans say they have “a great deal of confidence” in Biden to effectively manage the White House, down from 44% who said that one year ago, just after Biden took office. Another 33% say they have some confidence, while 38% say they have hardly any confidence in Biden to manage the executive branch.

Rev. Joseph Courtney, 32, an Episcopal chaplain in Los Angeles, said that Biden in some ways has been pretty much the president he expected, bringing a measure of confidence to the electorate by empowering experts and scientists in the country’s battle against the health and economic crises caused by the pandemic.

But Courtney said that Biden has yet to deliver on his promise to build consensus with Republicans or even some of the more conservative lawmakers in his Democratic party. Biden on the campaign trail said that his experience over 36 years in the Senate — and eight years as vice president — would help him rebuild Washington’s “broken” politics.

“He just keeps getting railroaded time and time again,” Courtney said. “I don’t understand specifically what he’s adding to the presidency that would make me want to support him running another term.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/1/1642678816205.png" alt="Just 45% say they approve of Biden’s handling of COVID-19, down from 57% in December and from 66% in July 2021-White House photo" />
 <figcaption>Just 45% say they approve of Biden’s handling of COVID-19, down from 57% in December and from 66% in July 2021-White House photo</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-one-year-07788eba2c1eb84de0edf3dbe3f2d412">President Joe Biden</a>&nbsp;ends&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-joe-biden-europe-donald-trump-422b4b87a6e7b961977cedd9d33bb03c">his first year in the White House</a>&nbsp;with a clear majority of Americans for the first time disapproving of his handling of the presidency in the face of an unrelenting pandemic and roaring inflation, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.<div><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FWhiteHouse%2Fvideos%2F486629802833516%2F&show_text=false&width=560&t=6" 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>More Americans disapprove than approve of how Biden is handling his job as president, 56% to 43%. As of now, just 28% of Americans say they want Biden to run for reelection in 2024, including only 48% of Democrats.Asked on Wednesday at&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-health-business-fdc4e641dc797b2a75131fd290c70f6d">a wide-ranging news conference</a>&nbsp;about his flagging popularity, Biden responded, “I don’t believe the polls.”It’s a stark reversal from early in Biden’s presidency.In July, 59% of Americans said they approved of Biden’s job performance in an AP-NORC poll. His approval rating dipped to 50% by late September in the aftermath of the chaotic and bloody U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan and amid surging coronavirus infections and the administration’s fitful efforts to push economic, infrastructure and tax policies through Congress.The latest poll shows that Americans’ confidence in Biden’s handling of the pandemic — seen as a strength early in his administration — has further eroded as the omicron variant strains the health care system and further exhausts an American electorate that had hoped life would be back to a semblance of normalcy by now.Just 45% say they approve of Biden’s handling of COVID-19, down from 57% in December and from 66% in July 2021.Americans are even more downbeat about his handling of the economy, with just 37% approving. Growing angst about his economic policies comes as inflation rose at its fastest pace in nearly 40 years last month, a 7% spike from a year earlier that is increasing household expenses and eating into wage gains.Joyce Bowen, 61, of Knoxville, Tennessee, said Biden deserves credit for encouraging Americans to get vaccinated, but she expressed frustration about the administration’s response to soaring inflation.The part-time cleaner at a public library said she and her older brother, who she helps support, have been eating less meat to offset rising grocery costs and intermittent spikes at the gas pump that have whittled the purchasing power of her $754 biweekly paycheck.“It’s just hard to keep food on the table and gas in the tank,” said Bowen, who voted for Biden but said she’d prefer he didn’t run again in 2024.Only about a quarter were very confident that Biden “has the mental capability to serve effectively as president” or “is healthy enough to serve effectively as president.” Close to half are not confident in Biden’s mental capability or health.Asked by a reporter at Wednesday’s news conference about other polling that shows a significant percentage of Americans had concerns about Biden’s mental health, the president shrugged off those findings.Gary Cameron, 66, of Midwest City, Oklahoma, said the president’s verbal gaffes and age — at 79 Biden is the oldest U.S. president in history — don’t give him confidence that Biden has the skill or energy to pull the country out of its malaise.“Whenever he does a speech on television, in your mind, you’re thinking ‘God, is this guy even going to get through this this speech?’” said Cameron, an independent who voted for Donald Trump in 2020.Other respondents said that Biden’s age — and life experience that’s come with it — has proven to be an asset.Nicole Jensen-Oost, 79, of Plano, Texas, said that Biden has demonstrated leadership and empathy through the pandemic by speaking of his own personal grief.Biden frequently raises the deaths of his first wife and a daughter in a 1972 car crash as well as the loss of an adult son who died of cancer as he has sought to reassure Americans who have lost loved ones to the virus.“This man has heart,” said Jensen-Oost, a Democrat and among the minority of respondents who said Biden is healthy enough to serve effectively as president. “He’s compassionate and the country needs that right now. We didn’t see a lot of compassion in the previous four years.”The poll shows only about a quarter of Americans think the phrase “strong leader” describes Biden very well, while about that many say it’s a somewhat good description. Roughly half say he is not a strong leader. Views of Biden’s understanding of “the needs and problems of people like you” are similar.Just 16% think Biden’s presidency has made the country more united; 43% think it’s more divided.Harlan Epstein, of Cleveland, didn’t vote for Biden but was hopeful that the 46th president, who sold himself to American voters as a consensus builder, would govern from the ideological middle.But Epstein, an independent, said Biden’s push for a $2 trillion climate and social services spending bill and his effort to force larger employers to require their workers to get vaccinated or undergo regular testing have undercut Biden’s centrist reputation.“He’s got to tamp down his far-left wing and start focusing on moderate policies,” Epstein said.Some on the left have also been frustrated with Biden.The president’s first-year legislative victories included passage of a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package and a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, but he failed to win passage of his signature domestic spending initiative.Zachary Lindahl, 34, of Raleigh, North Carolina, said he was disappointed that Biden has been unable to pass the spending package dubbed “Build Back Better,” as Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona balk at the costs and scope.“It started off well with them passing the $1,400 checks,” said Lindahl, referring to stimulus payments that were part of the coronavirus relief package passed early in Biden’s term. “But as time went on, it’s been just more of the status quo. Any big idea, they are willing to compromise it down until there is no longer anything there.”Not all is lost for Biden: Many continue to be at least somewhat positive toward the president, his character and his governing.The new AP-NORC poll shows Biden is in a better position than Trump was at a similar point in his presidency. In February of 2018, just 35% of Americans said they approved of Trump,Overall, though, 28% of Americans say they have “a great deal of confidence” in Biden to effectively manage the White House, down from 44% who said that one year ago, just after Biden took office. Another 33% say they have some confidence, while 38% say they have hardly any confidence in Biden to manage the executive branch.Rev. Joseph Courtney, 32, an Episcopal chaplain in Los Angeles, said that Biden in some ways has been pretty much the president he expected, bringing a measure of confidence to the electorate by empowering experts and scientists in the country’s battle against the health and economic crises caused by the pandemic.But Courtney said that Biden has yet to deliver on his promise to build consensus with Republicans or even some of the more conservative lawmakers in his Democratic party. Biden on the campaign trail said that his experience over 36 years in the Senate — and eight years as vice president — would help him rebuild Washington’s “broken” politics.“He just keeps getting railroaded time and time again,” Courtney said. “I don’t understand specifically what he’s adding to the presidency that would make me want to support him running another term.”

🎥 Poll: Biden approval hits new low at one-year mark as President

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Criminal investigators are telling South Dakota lawmakers that they didn’t believe the state’s attorney general when he told them he never saw the body of the man he fatally struck on the night of the 2020 crash. 

Investigators said they doubted the Republican attorney general’s insistence that he thought he hit an animal on Sept. 12, 2020.

 Ravnsborg says he didn't realize he struck 55-year-old Joseph Boever until returning to the scene the next day. 

But the investigators determined that Ravnsborg would have walked right past Boever’s body and the flashlight he had been carrying as he looked around the crash scene that night.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Criminal investigators are telling South Dakota lawmakers that they didn’t believe the state’s attorney general when he told them he never saw the body of the man he fatally struck on the night of the 2020 crash. Investigators said they doubted the Republican attorney general’s insistence that he thought he hit an animal on Sept. 12, 2020. Ravnsborg says he didn't realize he struck 55-year-old Joseph Boever until returning to the scene the next day. But the investigators determined that Ravnsborg would have walked right past Boever’s body and the flashlight he had been carrying as he looked around the crash scene that night.

Investigators say South Dakota AG was untruthful about crash

WASHINGTON — With filing season beginning January 24, the Internal 
Revenue Service reminded taxpayers about several key items to keep in 
mind when filing their federal income tax returns this year.

Given the unprecedented circumstances around the pandemic and unique 
challenges for this tax season, the IRS offers a 5-point checklist that 
can help many people speed tax return processing and refund delivery 
while avoiding delays.

1. File an accurate return and use e-file and direct deposit to avoid delays. Taxpayers should electronically file and choose&nbsp;<a href="https://www.irs.gov/refunds/get-your-refund-faster-tell-irs-to-direct-deposit-your-refund-to-one-two-or-three-accounts">direct deposit</a>&nbsp;as
 soon as they have everything they need to file an accurate return. 
Taxpayers have many choices, including using a trusted tax professional.
 For those using <a href="https://www.irs.gov/filing/e-file-options">e-file,</a>
 the software helps individuals avoid mistakes by doing the math. It 
guides people through each section of their tax return using a 
question-and-answer format.

2. For an accurate return, <a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/steps-to-take-now-to-get-a-jump-on-next-years-taxes">collect all documents</a> before preparing a tax return; make sure stimulus payment and advance Child Tax Credit information is accurate. In
 addition to collecting W-2s, Form 1099s and other income-related 
statements, it is important people have their advance Child Tax Credit 
and Economic Impact Payment information on hand when filing.

Both letters – 6419 and 6475 – include important information 
that can help people file an accurate 2021 tax return. If a return 
includes errors or is incomplete, it may require further review while 
the IRS corrects the error, which may slow the tax refund. Using this 
information when preparing a tax return electronically can reduce errors
 and avoid delays in processing.

3. Avoid lengthy phone delays; use online resources before calling the IRS. Phone demand on IRS assistance lines remains at record highs. To avoid lengthy delays, the IRS urges people to use IRS.gov to <a href="https://www.irs.gov/help/tax-law-questions">get answers to tax questions</a>, <a href="https://www.irs.gov/refunds">check a refund status</a> or <a href="https://www.irs.gov/payments">pay taxes</a>. There's no wait time or appointment needed — <a href="https://www.irs.gov/help/tools">online tools</a> and resources are available 24 hours a day.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599869632873.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>IRSWASHINGTON — With filing season beginning January 24, the Internal 
Revenue Service reminded taxpayers about several key items to keep in 
mind when filing their federal income tax returns this year.Given the unprecedented circumstances around the pandemic and unique 
challenges for this tax season, the IRS offers a 5-point checklist that 
can help many people speed tax return processing and refund delivery 
while avoiding delays.1. File an accurate return and use e-file and direct deposit to avoid delays. Taxpayers should electronically file and choose&nbsp;<a href="https://www.irs.gov/refunds/get-your-refund-faster-tell-irs-to-direct-deposit-your-refund-to-one-two-or-three-accounts">direct deposit</a>&nbsp;as
 soon as they have everything they need to file an accurate return. 
Taxpayers have many choices, including using a trusted tax professional.
 For those using <a href="https://www.irs.gov/filing/e-file-options">e-file,</a>
 the software helps individuals avoid mistakes by doing the math. It 
guides people through each section of their tax return using a 
question-and-answer format.2. For an accurate return, <a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/steps-to-take-now-to-get-a-jump-on-next-years-taxes">collect all documents</a> before preparing a tax return; make sure stimulus payment and advance Child Tax Credit information is accurate. In
 addition to collecting W-2s, Form 1099s and other income-related 
statements, it is important people have their advance Child Tax Credit 
and Economic Impact Payment information on hand when filing.<ul>
 <li>Advance CTC letter 6419: In late December 2021,
 and continuing into January, the IRS started sending letters to people 
who received advance CTC payments. The letter says, "2021 Total Advance 
Child Tax Credit (AdvCTC) Payments" near the top and, "Letter 6419" on 
the bottom righthand side of the page. Here's what people need to know:

	The letter contains important information that can help ensure the tax return is accurate.People who received advance CTC payments can also check the amount of the payments they received by using the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/child-tax-credit-update-portal">CTC Update Portal</a>&nbsp;available on IRS.gov.Eligible taxpayers who received advance Child Tax Credit payments 
should file a 2021 tax return to receive the second half of the credit. 
Eligible taxpayers who did not receive advance Child Tax Credit payments
 can claim the full credit by filing a tax return.</li><li>The letter contains important information that can help ensure the tax return is accurate.</li><li>People who received advance CTC payments can also check the amount of the payments they received by using the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/child-tax-credit-update-portal">CTC Update Portal</a>&nbsp;available on IRS.gov.</li><li>Eligible taxpayers who received advance Child Tax Credit payments 
should file a 2021 tax return to receive the second half of the credit. 
Eligible taxpayers who did not receive advance Child Tax Credit payments
 can claim the full credit by filing a tax return.</li><li>Third Economic Impact Payment letter 6475: In late
 January 2022, the IRS will begin issuing letters to people who received
 a third payment in late January 2021. The letter says, "Your Third 
Economic Impact Payment" near the top and, "Letter 6475" on the bottom 
righthand side of the page. Here's what people need to know:
	Most eligible people already received their stimulus payments. 
This letter will help individuals determine if they are eligible to 
claim the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/recovery-rebate-credit">Recovery Rebate Credit (RRC)</a> for missing stimulus payments.People who are eligible for RRC must file a 2021 tax return to claim their remaining stimulus amount.People can also use&nbsp;<a href="https://www.irs.gov/payments/your-online-account">IRS online account</a>&nbsp;to view their Economic Impact Payment amounts.</li><li>Most eligible people already received their stimulus payments. 
This letter will help individuals determine if they are eligible to 
claim the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/recovery-rebate-credit">Recovery Rebate Credit (RRC)</a> for missing stimulus payments.</li><li>People who are eligible for RRC must file a 2021 tax return to claim their remaining stimulus amount.</li><li>People can also use&nbsp;<a href="https://www.irs.gov/payments/your-online-account">IRS online account</a>&nbsp;to view their Economic Impact Payment amounts.</li>
 </ul>Both letters – 6419 and 6475 – include important information 
that can help people file an accurate 2021 tax return. If a return 
includes errors or is incomplete, it may require further review while 
the IRS corrects the error, which may slow the tax refund. Using this 
information when preparing a tax return electronically can reduce errors
 and avoid delays in processing.3. Avoid lengthy phone delays; use online resources before calling the IRS. Phone demand on IRS assistance lines remains at record highs. To avoid lengthy delays, the IRS urges people to use IRS.gov to <a href="https://www.irs.gov/help/tax-law-questions">get answers to tax questions</a>, <a href="https://www.irs.gov/refunds">check a refund status</a> or <a href="https://www.irs.gov/payments">pay taxes</a>. There's no wait time or appointment needed — <a href="https://www.irs.gov/help/tools">online tools</a> and resources are available 24 hours a day.Additionally, the IRS has several ways for taxpayers to stay up to date on important tax information:<ul>
 <li>Follow the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-social-media">IRS' official social media accounts</a> and <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/e-news-subscriptions">email subscription lists</a> to stay current on the latest tax topics and alerts.</li><li>Download the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs2goapp">IRS2Go mobile app</a>, watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/irsvideos">IRS YouTube videos</a>,
 or follow the IRS on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram for the 
latest updates on tax changes, scam alerts, initiatives, products and 
services.</li><li>Taxpayers can also get information in their preferred language. The
 IRS translates tax resources into several languages and currently has <a href="https://www.irs.gov/help/languages">basic tax information in 20 languages</a>. People can also file <a href="https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-schedule-lep">Schedule LEP, Request for Change in Language Preference</a>, to receive written communications from the IRS in their preferred language.</li>
 </ul>4. Waiting on a 2020 tax return to be processed? Special tip to help with e-filing a 2021 tax return: In order to <a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/electronic-filing-pin-request">validate and successfully submit an electronically filed tax return to the IRS</a>,
 taxpayers need their Adjusted Gross Income, or AGI, from their most 
recent tax return. For those waiting on their 2020 tax return to be 
processed, here's a special tip to ensure the tax return is accepted by 
the IRS for processing. Make sure to enter $0 (zero dollars) for last 
year's AGI on the 2021 tax return. For those who used a Non-Filer tool 
in 2021 to register for an advance Child Tax Credit or third Economic 
Impact Payment in 2021, they should enter $1 as their prior year AGI. 
Everyone else should enter their prior year's AGI from last year's 
return. Remember, if using the same tax preparation software as last year, this field will auto-populate.5.&nbsp;Free resources are available to help taxpayers file. During
 this challenging year, the IRS reminds taxpayers there are many options
 for free help, including many resources on IRS.gov. For those looking 
to avoid the delays with a paper tax return, <a href="https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free">IRS Free File</a>
 is an option. With Free File, leading tax software providers make their
 online products available for free as part of a 20-year partnership 
with the Internal Revenue Service. This year, there are eight products 
in English and two in Spanish. IRS Free File is available to any person 
or family who earned $73,000 or less in 2021. Qualified taxpayers can 
also find free one-on-one tax preparation help around the nation through
 the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/free-tax-return-preparation-for-qualifying-taxpayers">Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) programs</a>.