
Biden administration launching additional testing sites in six states
CNN
The Biden administration is opening additional federally run free Covid-19 testing sites in six states across the country -- Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Delaware, Texas and Washington -- as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to surge in the US.
"We have the tools we need to manage the surge in Omicron cases," White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters Wednesday, citing vaccinations and boosters, funding from the Covid relief package to help schools implement prevention measures and federal support for treatment and prevention.
The Biden administration, Zients said, "is deploying every available measure to help states communities and hospitals confront this Omicron challenge. Military doctors, nurses, and EMTs are now in place assisting local hospital staff and states across the country, with additional teams ready to deploy as needed."

Tennessee has passed a sweeping measure to combat bullying, targeting teenagers where it may hurt the most: revoking their ability to drive. The legislation, which took effect Tuesday, allows courts to suspend the driver’s licenses of minors found guilty of bullying or cyberbullying for up to a year.

House Republican Leadership Chairwoman Elise Stefanik is criticizing Columbia University’s president over past comments that the congresswoman said are a potential violation of the Civil Rights Act, including her call to have an Arab person on the university board, as the university faces continued investigations into its handling of antisemitism on campus.

As a judge is poised to decide whether Bryan Kohberger can accept a plea deal that would allow him to avoid the death penalty in the 2022 killings of four Idaho college students, one victim’s father says he views the deal as a relief from the pain and spectacle of a trial, while two others say they feel blindsided and robbed of desperately sought-after answers in the killings of their daughters.

The debris arrives in the rockets’ wake: melted plastics, aluminum and pieces of blue adhesive. It all ends up stranded on the sands of Bagdad beach in northern Tamaulipas, Mexico, home to an endangered species of sea turtle. Just across the border lies Starbase, SpaceX’s launchpad and company town in what once was called Boca Chica, Texas.