Patty Murray
Point Roberts residents want border restrictions lifted

By Tom Banse Jun. 24, 2021 08:33 AM EDT
POINT ROBERTS, Wash. (AP) — The owner of the only grocery store in the exclave of Point Roberts said she is tapped out and will have to close around July 15...

Dr. Mysheika W. Roberts, the health commissioner for Columbus Public Health, poses for a portrait in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday, April 14, 2021. Public health officials who have juggled bare-bones budgets for years are happy to have the additional money prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet they worry it will soon dry up as the pandemic recedes, continuing a boom-bust funding cycle that has plagued the U.S. public health system for decades. If budgets are slashed again, they warn, that could leave the nation where it was before covid: unprepared for a health crisis. “We need funds that we can depend on year after year,” says Roberts. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon)
Public health seeks steady funding, not feast or famine

By Michelle R. Smith, Lauren Weber And Hannah Recht Apr. 19, 2021 10:22 AM EDT

Dr. Mysheika W. Roberts, the health commissioner for Columbus Public Health, poses for a portrait in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday, April 14, 2021. Public health officials who have juggled bare-bones budgets for years are happy to have the additional money prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet they worry it will soon dry up as the pandemic recedes, continuing a boom-bust funding cycle that has plagued the U.S. public health system for decades. If budgets are slashed again, they warn, that could leave the nation where it was before covid: unprepared for a health crisis. “We need funds that we can depend on year after year,” says Roberts. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon)
Billions spent on coronavirus fight, but what happens next?

By Michelle R. Smith, Lauren Weber And Hannah Recht Apr. 19, 2021 10:00 AM EDT

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., left, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and others head to the chamber as the Senate holds a voting marathon on the Democrats' $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill that's expected to end with the chamber's approval of the measure, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, March 5, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Fighting Biden virus aid, GOP rekindles Obama-era strategy

By Lisa Mascaro Mar. 05, 2021 09:01 PM EST

Xavier Becerra listens during a confirmation hearing to be Secretary of Health and Human Services before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Sarah Silbiger/Pool via AP)
HHS pick says pandemic is top job, but agenda is broader

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar Feb. 23, 2021 12:12 AM EST

Editorial Roundup: Idaho

By The Associated Press Feb. 11, 2021 01:12 PM EST
Recent editorials from Idaho newspapers: As good as it is, Simpson’s plan isn’t enough Feb. 9 The...

Education Secretary nominee Miguel Cardona testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool)
Education nominee pledges new guidance, more virus testing

By Collin Binkley Feb. 03, 2021 09:32 AM EST

Airplane plant closing in Spokane suburb, costing 130 jobs

Jan. 28, 2021 11:08 AM EST
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — An aerospace factory in the Spokane area that once employed around 600 people is closing. Triumph Composite Systems...

The White House is illuminated after dark Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
The Latest: Seattle probes officers about Washington rally

Jan. 08, 2021 02:22 PM EST

This Jan. 23, 2020, photo shows the National Archives on Sand Point, Wash., that has about a million boxes of generally unique, original source documents and public records. More than two dozen Native American tribes and cultural groups from the Northwest and Alaska are suing the federal government to stop the sale of the National Archives building in Seattle, a plan that would force the relocation of millions of invaluable historical records to California and Missouri. (Alan Berner/The Seattle Times via AP)
Washington, Oregon, 29 tribes sue over plan to move archives

By Gene Johnson Jan. 04, 2021 05:38 PM EST

FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2020, file photo Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos speaks at the Phoenix International Academy in Phoenix. DeVos has extended the moratorium on student loan payments and the accrual of interest until Jan. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)
Spending bill to restore federal college grants for inmates

By Collin Binkley Dec. 21, 2020 06:10 PM EST

One of the first vials of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. Wake Forest Baptist received its first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday morning. Ten employees received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine Tuesday. Additional employees will be given the vaccine in the coming days. (Walt Unks/The Winston-Salem Journal via AP)
US angling to secure more of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar Dec. 16, 2020 02:05 PM EST

Pandemic postpones national math, reading tests until 2022

By Kantele Franko Nov. 25, 2020 06:49 PM EST
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — National reading and math tests long used to track what U.S. students know in those subjects are being postponed from next year to 2022...

FILE - In this Nov. 16, 2020, file photo, student nurse Ryan Eachus collects forms as cars line up for COVID-19 testing at a testing site set up the OC Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, Calif. Congress is bracing for President-elect Joe Biden to move beyond the Trump administration’s state-by-state approach to the COVID-19 crisis and build out a national strategy to fight the pandemic and distribute the eventual vaccine. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Congress braces for Biden's national coronavirus strategy

By Lisa Mascaro Nov. 25, 2020 10:51 AM EST

FILE - In this July 30, 2013, file photo, large banners hang in an atrium at the headquarters of Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, N.J. Johnson & Johnson is beginning a huge final-stage study Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020, to try to prove if a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine can protect against the virus. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)
Single-dose vaccine tested as US experts say no corners cut

By Lauran Neergaard And Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar Sep. 23, 2020 11:36 AM EDT

FILE - In this May 1, 2018, file photo, Former Donald Trump campaign official Michael Caputo, left, joined by his attorney Dennis C. Vacco, leaves after being interviewed by Senate Intelligence Committee staff investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, on Capitol Hill in Washington. A House subcommittee examining President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is launching an investigation into reports that political appointees have meddled with routine government scientific data to better align with Trump’s public statements. The Democrat-led subcommittee said Sept. 14, 2020 that it is requesting transcribed interviews with seven officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services, including communications aide Michael Caputo. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Health official on leave amid political interference furor

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar Sep. 16, 2020 02:08 PM EDT

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield holds up his mask as he speaks at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on a "Review of Coronavirus Response Efforts" on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)
Trump disputes health officials, sees mass vaccinations soon

By Matthew Perrone, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar And Mike Stobbe Sep. 16, 2020 08:31 AM EDT

FILE - In this May 1, 2018, file photo, Former Donald Trump campaign official Michael Caputo, left, joined by his attorney Dennis C. Vacco, leaves after being interviewed by Senate Intelligence Committee staff investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, on Capitol Hill in Washington. A House subcommittee examining President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is launching an investigation into reports that political appointees have meddled with routine government scientific data to better align with Trump’s public statements. The Democrat-led subcommittee said Sept. 14, 2020 that it is requesting transcribed interviews with seven officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services, including communications aide Michael Caputo. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Trump aide's no-holds-barred style sparks new COVID-19 furor

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar And Richard Lardner Sep. 15, 2020 03:38 PM EDT

Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, gives an opening statement during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing to discuss vaccines and protecting public health during the coronavirus pandemic on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020, in Washington. (Greg Nash/Pool via AP)
Vaccine by Nov. 3? Halted study explains just how unlikely

By Lauran Neergaard Sep. 09, 2020 10:21 AM EDT

Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Robert Redfield, speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing at the Department of Education building Wednesday, July 8, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
CDC head sticking to school-opening guides Trump criticized

By Jeff Amy And Carole Feldman Jul. 09, 2020 10:44 AM EDT