President Biden plans to order a $15 minimum wage for federal contractors.
Joseph R. Biden Jr., then vice president, at a 2015 event calling for a $15 minimum wage in New York.Credit.Damon Winter/The New York Times
April 27, 2021, 6:00 a.m. ET
President Biden plans to sign an executive order on Tuesday raising the minimum wage paid by federal contractors to $15 an hour, the latest in a set of ambitious pro-labor moves at the outset of his administration.
The new minimum is expected to take effect next year and is likely to affect hundreds of thousands of workers, according to a White House document. The current minimum is $10.95 under an order that President Barack Obama signed in 2014. Like that order, the new one will require that the new minimum wage rise with inflation.
Federal Inspectors Fear More Vaccines Were Exposed to Contamination
Last month, up to 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine had to be discarded at Emergent’s factory in Baltimore. A new report says problems were not fully investigated and other doses may be compromised.
Inspectors found fault with a vaccine plant run by Emergent BioSolutions in Baltimore.Credit.Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse Getty Images
April 21, 2021Updated 9:09 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON Federal regulators have found serious flaws at the Baltimore plant that had to throw out up to 15 million possibly contaminated doses of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine casting doubt on further production in the United States of a vaccine that the government once viewed as essential in fighting the pandemic.
Scott Cohen of Plainview, N.Y., nearly died from the effects of Covid-19 and received convalescent plasma as part of his treatment. When he later recovered, he went on to donate his own plasma 11 times.Credit.Desiree Rios for The New York Times
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The Covid-19 Plasma Boom Is Over. What Did We Learn From It?
The U.S. government invested $800 million in plasma when the country was desperate for Covid-19 treatments. A year later, the program has fizzled.
Scott Cohen of Plainview, N.Y., nearly died from the effects of Covid-19 and received convalescent plasma as part of his treatment. When he later recovered, he went on to donate his own plasma 11 times.Credit.Desiree Rios for The New York Times
The European Union’s failure to secure adequate vaccine supplies, followed by an export ban, has dented the reputation of the bloc’s leaders. It may also hurt their ability to act in other areas.