Latest Pandemics News
US population center trending toward South this decade
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The U.S. population center is on track this decade to take a southern swerve for the first time in history, and it's because of people like Owen Glick, who moved from California to Florida more than a year ago. Last year, the South outgrew other U.S. regions by...
Tyre Nichols remembered as beautiful soul with creative eye
On most weekends, Tyre Nichols would head to the city park, train his camera on the sky and wait for the sun to set. “Photography helps me look at the world in a more creative way. It expresses me in ways I cannot write down for people,” he wrote on his website. He preferred...
Pandemic, culture wars revive 'school choice' policy push
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Nichole Mason first became concerned when she learned administrators at her children's public school were allowing transgender students to use girls' bathrooms. Her frustrations mounted when she felt her children's next school went too far with how they enforced COVID...
Chipotle looks to hire 15,000 amid continuing labor shortage
Restaurants are beginning the new year with a recurring problem: labor shortages. Chipotle said Thursday it’s looking to hire 15,000 people in North America to ensure its stores are staffed up ahead of its busy spring season. Other chains are also looking for workers: Taco Bell has...
Walmart's Sam's Club to add 30 stores in next few years
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart said Thursday it plans to open more than 30 Sam's Club locations in the next few years, marking the first expansion since 2017. The nation's largest retailer, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, plans to open the first Sam's Club location as part of the...
Spain to end mandatory use of face masks on public transport
MADRID (AP) — Spain is set to end the mandatory use of face masks on public transport nearly three years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Spanish Health Minister Carolina Darias said Thursday that she would recommend that the government remove the health regulation when...
Airline, hotel elite status: Harder to get (or keep) in 2023
For the past couple of years, hotel and airline loyalty programs have extended elite status in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But in 2023, that’s coming to an end. A tsunami of downgrades will wipe out some travelers’ elite status because pandemic-era offers are expiring and loyalty...
Jill Biden donates inaugural wear, face masks to Smithsonian
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden says her Inauguration Day outfits, now featured in a Smithsonian museum exhibit about first ladies, were a “voice for me on one of the most important days of my life.” The dresses — one blue, one white — with matching coats and face masks...
Asia travel hotspots quiet as Chinese tourists stay away
CHIANG MAI, Thailand (AP) — Just a handful of Chinese visitors were posing for photos and basking in the sun this week in the market and plazas near Chiang Mai’s ancient Tha Phae Gate, one of many tourist hotspots still waiting for millions of Chinese travelers to return. The...
AG: Ex-parole board chair violated law; too late for charges
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A former Virginia Parole Board chair violated state policy and law in her handling of cases at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and could have faced criminal charges if not for the statute of limitations, the state's attorney general said Wednesday. ...
