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President Biden on Tuesday repeated his call for more Americans to get vaccinated and boosted, and to wear masks to increase protection against COVID-19, as the fast-spreading Omicron variant drives soaring coronavirus infections. "We have the tools to protect people from severe illness due to Omicron — if people choose to use the tools," Biden said before meeting with the White House COVID-19 response team. "There's a lot of reason to be hopeful in [2022], but for God's sake, please take advantage of what's available." The comments came after the U.S. reported a million new cases in a single day, a figure probably inflated by holiday backlogs but still far beyond the previous record of 591,000 set on Thursday. The surge is overwhelming many hospitals.
Chicago Public Schools canceled Wednesday classes after the Chicago Teachers Union voted late Tuesday not to show up for in-person work out of concerns that COVID-19 protections against the fast-spreading Omicron coronavirus variant were insufficient. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D), CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, and public health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said at a news conference that children need to be back in the classroom, and they insisted that schools were safe with proper mitigation. Seventy-three percent of the teachers union's members supported the proposal to force instruction online just two...
(The Center Square) – A Minnesota court has ordered a man to pay nearly $2.5 million in damages, penalties and legal fees after a jury found he submitted nearly 100,000 fraudulent reimbursement cl...