From USA TODAY Network and wire reports
Alabama
Montgomery: Gov. Kay Ivey announced Wednesday that she’s running for reelection, citing Alabama’s “bucket load of common sense” in its response to the coronavirus pandemic. Ivey, 76, made the announcement in a video message released by her campaign. The Republican emphasized her administration’s investment in infrastructure, job creation, Alabama’s pandemic recovery and its low unemployment rate. “Alabama is working again, and the best is yet to come,” Ivey said in her distinct Southern drawl. Ivey faced both praise and criticism for her handling of the pandemic. Unlike some Southern governors, she issued a statewide mask order, a move that was criticized by some conservatives but won her praise from health officials and others for following scientific recommendations. That mask order has ended. She has often embraced GOP priorities during her four years in office, including signing the nation’s most stringent aborti
Delaware News Journal
Fifty-one state employees made more than $200,000 in 2020, nearly double the number of people who made that sum the year before.
That s according to a database of state employee salaries provided by the state Office of Management and Budget.
The plethora of high earners is due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic demanding more hours of top health officials and Black Lives Matter protests prompting police to clock in an unrivaled amount of overtime.
Dr. Rick Hong, the medical director of the Division of Public Health, was the highest-paid employee last year – and the only employee to make above $300,000. His total earnings amounted to $301,321, which includes overtime and other earnings.
When he began his weekly press briefing on Tuesday, May 25, Gov. John Carney was smiling and noticeably more at ease than he had been last spring, when he began
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Johnson & Johnson vaccine clinics cancelled through Friday, April 23
State officials announced Thursday that Vermont will follow the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and extend the pause on the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for an additional week. The federal pause is in place to allow the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices the time it needs to gather more data about reported side effects. The committee will meet again next week.
This means that all Vermont Johnson & Johnson appointments will be cancelled through Friday, April 23. Anyone who had an appointment cancelled through the state registration system should call 855-722-7878. The Health Department is working hard to open as many additional appointments as possible for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and expects everyone impacted by this pause will be able to get an