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Students at Lorenzo G. Alarcon Elementary School this summer open boxes of school supplies paid for with Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds in San Elizario.

Texas schools got billions in federal pandemic relief. It is coming to an end as the school year starts.

Read full article: Texas schools got billions in federal pandemic relief. It is coming to an end as the school year starts.

Educators say they’ll struggle to keep the programs they created with those funds, highlighting their precarious situation without more state help.

This photo released by the Olympic Broadcasting Services shows Canadian Singer Celine Dion performing on the Eiffel Tower during the opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Olympic Broadcasting Services via AP)

Celine Dion makes musical comeback at Paris Olympics with Eiffel Tower serenade

Read full article: Celine Dion makes musical comeback at Paris Olympics with Eiffel Tower serenade

Celine Dion made a triumphant return Friday with a very public performance, closing out the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony from the Eiffel Tower.

Downtown Houston on Sept. 16, 2019. Texas Attorney General sued Harris County in April to block its guaranteed income program, which would give participants about $500 a month for 18 months with no strings attached. Advocates say guaranteed income programs are an effective tool to fight poverty but critics argue they amount to government overreach.

To fight poverty, some Texas cities gave aid with no strings attached. Conservatives are pushing back.

Read full article: To fight poverty, some Texas cities gave aid with no strings attached. Conservatives are pushing back.

Guaranteed income programs let participants use funds however they see fit. Critics argue they're not a good use of taxpayer dollars.

FILE - Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center nurse Maggie Bass, right, gives a COVID-19 vaccine to an unidentified person, Sept. 21, 2021, in Jackson, Miss. COVID-19 vaccines get updated each fall to match newer strains of the virus and government advisers on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, are urging that Americans' next shot target a strain called JN.1. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

FDA advisers urge targeting JN.1 strain in recipe for fall's COVID vaccines

Read full article: FDA advisers urge targeting JN.1 strain in recipe for fall's COVID vaccines

Government advisers say it’s time to update the recipe for the COVID-19 vaccines Americans will receive in the fall.

Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden pulls down his mask as he makes an unannounced stop at his childhood home on North Washington Avenue in the Green Ridge section of Scranton, Pa., to visit the current homeowner, Anne Kearns, Thursday, July 9, 2020. (Christopher Dolan/The Times-Tribune via AP)

Joe Biden wins Democratic primary in Puerto Rico

Read full article: Joe Biden wins Democratic primary in Puerto Rico

Joe Biden has won the Democratic presidential primary in Puerto Rico.

President Joe Biden arrives on Air Force One Wednesday March 20, 2024, at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Biden and Trump ask voters if they're 'better off' than they were 4 years ago. It's complicated

Read full article: Biden and Trump ask voters if they're 'better off' than they were 4 years ago. It's complicated

Both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden are posing the time-tested question “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”.

FILE - A Walgreens Pharmacy sign is seen, June 25, 2019, in Pittsburgh. Walgreens has been fined $275,000 by the state of Vermont as part of a settlement of complaints that some of national pharmacy chain's Vermont stores unexpectedly closed, had untenable working conditions for pharmacists, and made medication and vaccination errors during the coronavirus pandemic, the secretary of state announced Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

Walgreens to pay $275,000 to settle allegations in Vermont about service during pandemic

Read full article: Walgreens to pay $275,000 to settle allegations in Vermont about service during pandemic

Walgreens has agreed to pay $275,000 to settle allegations about service in some of the national pharmacy chain's Vermont stores during the coronavirus pandemic.

FILE - A flu vaccine is readied at the L.A. Care and Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plans' Community Resource Center in Lynwood, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. Health officials say flu and COVID-19 infections are expected to accelerate in the coming weeks, Friday, Dec. 22, 2023, fueled by holiday travel and gatherings, low vaccination rates, and a new COVID variant that seems to spread more easily. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

Flu and COVID infections are rising and could get worse over the holidays, CDC says

Read full article: Flu and COVID infections are rising and could get worse over the holidays, CDC says

U.S. health officials say flu and COVID-19 infections are expected to ramp up in the coming weeks.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton holds a press conference at the Houston Recovery Center on October 26, 2021.

Texas attorney general sues Pfizer, claiming vaccines didn’t end pandemic quickly enough

Read full article: Texas attorney general sues Pfizer, claiming vaccines didn’t end pandemic quickly enough

Experts argue other assertions made in the lawsuit filing are completely unsubstantiated, such as one claiming that vaccinated people were more likely to die from COVID-19, which Texas health data disputes.

Medical personnel ralled against Houston Methodist Hospital's COVID-19 vaccine mandate outside the Baytown facility on June 7, 2021. Several employees who chose not to inoculate themselves worked their last shift Monday and will face job termination, a policy criticized by the protesters as unfair and unauthorized.

Ban on COVID vaccine mandates by private businesses, including health care facilities, passes Texas Senate

Read full article: Ban on COVID vaccine mandates by private businesses, including health care facilities, passes Texas Senate

The bill offers no exceptions for doctors’ offices, clinics or other health facilities. Senators agreed to let those entities require unvaccinated employees to wear personal protective gear or take other “reasonable” measures to manage the spread.

Health care workers wheel portable oxygen tanks to patients in the COVID care unit of Titus Regional Medical Center in Mount Pleasant on Aug. 19, 2021.

For Texans with long COVID, specialized centers can provide more effective treatments — if they can access them

Read full article: For Texans with long COVID, specialized centers can provide more effective treatments — if they can access them

Long COVID clinics in Texas are few and far between, often with months-long waitlists. But these centers can provide care that validates stigmatized patients, offers unique treatments and teaches physicians more about the new condition.

Arlington Firefighter Samuel Rochin, right, administers a COVID-19 vaccine to health care worker Vannia Atao at the Esports Stadium in Arlington on Jan. 05, 2021.

Texas lawmakers again try to prohibit private businesses from requiring COVID-19 vaccines

Read full article: Texas lawmakers again try to prohibit private businesses from requiring COVID-19 vaccines

A Senate panel on Tuesday advanced such a measure. The debate centered largely around the safety of the vaccine and whether doctors’ offices and health care facilities should be exempt.

Bereaved families hold pictures of their loved ones as they stand outside the opening hearing of Module 2 of the UK Covid 19 Inquiry, in London, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Bereaved families are coming together to protest the fact that in the module investigating core government decision making during the pandemic, only 1 bereaved family witness has been called to give evidence, out of the over 230,115 families bereaved by Covid 19. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Britain's COVID-19 response inquiry enters a second phase with political decisions in the spotlight

Read full article: Britain's COVID-19 response inquiry enters a second phase with political decisions in the spotlight

Britain's inquiry into the response to the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the nation has entered the second phase with political decision-making taking center stage.

President Joe Biden arrives with Capt. Larry Taylor, an Army pilot from the Vietnam War who risked his life to rescue a reconnaissance team that was about to be overrun by the enemy, to award him the Medal of Honor during a ceremony Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

To mask or not to mask? Biden goes both ways after first lady tests positive for COVID-19

Read full article: To mask or not to mask? Biden goes both ways after first lady tests positive for COVID-19

President Joe Biden turned up in a mask for the first time in months on Tuesday, a day after his wife tested positive for COVID-19.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visits the Evelina Children's ward at St Thomas' hospital to take part in a NHS Big Tea celebration to mark the 75th anniversary of the NHS, in central London, Tuesday July 4, 2023.. (Jack Hill/Pool Photo via AP)

Condition critical? Britain's beloved but battered National Health Service turns 75

Read full article: Condition critical? Britain's beloved but battered National Health Service turns 75

The U.K. is celebrating the 75th birthday of its beloved but increasingly creaky National Health Service.

Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a press conference in Austin on Dec. 17, 2020, regarding COVID-19 and the Pfizer vaccines that have been sent to hospitals across Texas. On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court gave Abbott a victory in his fight with urban-area leaders over mask mandates.

Texas Supreme Court says Gov. Greg Abbott’s COVID ban on local mask rules was lawful

Read full article: Texas Supreme Court says Gov. Greg Abbott’s COVID ban on local mask rules was lawful

Several of Texas’ largest cities sought to put in place mask requirements, which Gov. Greg Abbott overturned. The ruling is a legal win for Republicans in Austin their ongoing symbolic fight with cities, often run by Democrats.

Jessica Lemmer goes over a fraction problem with her third grade math class on Jan. 14, 2018, at Edward Titche Elementary School in the Pleasant Grove area of Dallas.

Texas school ratings show improvement compared to 2019, but those in poorer neighborhoods still lag

Read full article: Texas school ratings show improvement compared to 2019, but those in poorer neighborhoods still lag

This year’s TEA ratings were done differently than in previous years. Instead of the usual A-F ratings, which were last given in 2019, the agency gave only A-C ratings. Districts and schools that would have received a D or F instead received a “Not Rated” label this year.

Loreli King holds up the pictures of her husband Vincent Marzello during a demonstrates as former Minister for Health, Matt Hancock arrives the Dorland House to give evidence at the Covid Inquiry in London, Tuesday, June 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

UK was ill-prepared for pandemic because resources were diverted to Brexit, ex-health chief says

Read full article: UK was ill-prepared for pandemic because resources were diverted to Brexit, ex-health chief says

Britain's former health secretary has told an official inquiry that the U.K. was ill-prepared for a pandemic partly because government resources had been diverted away from pandemic planning to brace for a possibly chaotic no-deal Brexit.

High school students between classes in the hallway at the high school in Buffalo, Texas, on March 28, 2019.

Texas schools say it’s time to stop tying mental health funding to school safety money

Read full article: Texas schools say it’s time to stop tying mental health funding to school safety money

Federal pandemic aid helped build public school mental health services in Texas. School officials now brace for the expiration of those funds next year. They’re urging lawmakers to create a dedicated funding stream for mental health assistance in schools.

Community health groups celebrate education, vaccinations as COVID-19 emergency declaration ends

Community health groups celebrate education, vaccinations as COVID-19 emergency declaration ends

Read full article: Community health groups celebrate education, vaccinations as COVID-19 emergency declaration ends

Dr. Adelita Cantu was the first person in Bexar County to get the first COVID-19 shot in Bexar County in December 2020. Since then, she's joined a community-wide coalition to educate and vaccinate the community to reduce COVID deaths.

FILE - A man walks through the snow covered Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Mount Lebanon, Pa., on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. U.S. deaths fell in 2022, as COVID-19 fatalities dropped by half from 2021 and the coronavirus dropped from being the nation's third leading cause of death to the fourth. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the 2022 numbers on Thursday, May 4, 2023, cautioning that they are preliminary and may change a little after further analysis. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

COVID dropped to 4th leading cause of death in US last year

Read full article: COVID dropped to 4th leading cause of death in US last year

U.S. deaths fell last year, and COVID-19 dropped to the No. 4 cause.

FILE - A passenger arrives from overseas at the arrivals hall of Haneda international airport in Tokyo, Nov. 8, 2021. Japan will lift its coronavirus border controls and no longer require entrants to show pre-departure negative tests and records of triple vaccinations beginning Saturday, April 28, 2023, as the countrys Golden Week holiday season begins and a large influx of foreign tourists are expected. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)

Japan to lift COVID-19 border controls before holiday week

Read full article: Japan to lift COVID-19 border controls before holiday week

Japan will lift most of its coronavirus border controls, including a requirement that entrants show proof of three vaccinations or a pre-departure negative test, beginning Saturday as the country’s Golden Week holiday season begins and a large influx of foreign tourists is expected.

FILE - This undated photo made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a strain of Candida auris cultured in a petri dish at a CDC laboratory. In a CDC paper published by the Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday, March 20, 2023, U.S. cases of the dangerous fungus tripled over just three years, and more than half of states have now reported it. (Shawn Lockhart/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via AP, File)

Superbug fungus cases rose dramatically during pandemic

Read full article: Superbug fungus cases rose dramatically during pandemic

U.S. cases of a dangerous fungus tripled over just three years, and more than half of states have now reported it.

FILE - Raccoon dogs are seen at a cage in Tokyo's Ueno zoo Saturday, May 24, 2003. International scientists who examined previously unavailable genetic data from samples collected at a market close to where the first human cases of COVID-19 were detected in China said they found suggestions the pandemic originated from animals, not a lab. Other experts have not yet verified their analysis, which also has not appeared so far in a peer-reviewed journal. (AP Photo/Chika Tsukumo, File)

New COVID origins data point to raccoon dogs in China market

Read full article: New COVID origins data point to raccoon dogs in China market

The mystery to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic now has some new clues.

FILE - The skyline of San Antonio's downtown business district is pictured, May 3, 2007. Eight of the 10 largest cities in the U.S. lost population during the first year of the pandemic, with only Phoenix and San Antonio gaining new residents from 2020 to 2021, according to new estimates, released Thursday, May 26, 2022, by the U.S. Census Bureau. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)

Texas opening applications for $98 million in available funds for rent, utility relief

Read full article: Texas opening applications for $98 million in available funds for rent, utility relief

The Texas Rent Relief Program has $98 million available to help people with rent and utility bills, and people will soon be able to apply for those funds.

FILE - An entrance to the U.S. Naval Academy campus in Annapolis, Md., is seen Jan. 9, 2014. Reported sexual assaults at the U.S. military academies shot up during the 2021-22 school year, and one in five female students surveyed said they experienced unwanted sexual contact, the Associated Press has learned. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Sexual assault reports increase at US military academies

Read full article: Sexual assault reports increase at US military academies

Reported sexual assaults at the U.S. military academies shot up during the 2021-22 school year.

An ironworker guides a beam during construction of a municipal building in Norristown, Pa., Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023. The strength of the American job market has consistently defied expectations throughout the economic tumult of the COVID years. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

US economy sending mixed signals: Here's what it all means

Read full article: US economy sending mixed signals: Here's what it all means

For a few weeks in late January and early February, the U.S. economy seemed to have reached a rare sweet spot.

FILE - Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock speaks during a coronavirus media briefing in Downing Street in London, Thursday, May 27, 2021. Britains former health minister Hancock denied wrongdoing on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, after a newspaper published extracts of private messages he sent in the first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool, File)

UK health chief's leaked messages revive raw pandemic debate

Read full article: UK health chief's leaked messages revive raw pandemic debate

COVID-19 has shot back into the headlines in Britain through the leak of more than 100,000 private messages sent or received by the health minister as the government scrambled to respond to the new respiratory virus.

FILE - Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock speaks during a coronavirus media briefing in Downing Street in London, Thursday, May 27, 2021. Britains former health minister Hancock denied wrongdoing on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, after a newspaper published extracts of private messages he sent in the first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool, File)

Ex-UK health chief defends record after COVID messages leak

Read full article: Ex-UK health chief defends record after COVID messages leak

Britain’s former health minister is denying wrongdoing after a newspaper published extracts of private messages he sent in the first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic.

FILE - Two nurses put a ventilator on a patient in a COVID-19 unit at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, Calif. Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021. California's COVID-19 emergency declaration ends on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. Gov. Gavin Newsom first issued the emergency declaration on March 4, 2020. The emergency ends just as California officially passed 100,000 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Final state emergencies winding down 3 years into pandemic

Read full article: Final state emergencies winding down 3 years into pandemic

California's coronavirus emergency declaration has ended.

FILE - This 2020 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, which cause COVID-19. A crucial question has eluded governments and health agencies since the COVID-19 pandemic began: Did the virus originate in animals or leak from a Chinese lab? Now, the U.S. Department of Energy has assessed with low confidence that it began with a lab leak although others in the U.S. intelligence community disagree. (Hannah A. Bullock, Azaibi Tamin/CDC via AP, File)

Coronavirus origins still a mystery 3 years into pandemic

Read full article: Coronavirus origins still a mystery 3 years into pandemic

Did the coronavirus originate in animals or leak from a Chinese lab.

FILE - Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022, in Washington. House Republicans kicked off an investigation Monday, Feb. 13, 2023, into the origins of COVID-19 by issuing a series of letters to current and former Biden administration officials for documents and testimony, including Fauci who until December served as Bidens chief medical adviser. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

GOP launches probe into COVID origins with letter to Fauci

Read full article: GOP launches probe into COVID origins with letter to Fauci

House Republicans have kicked off an investigation into the origins of COVID-19 by issuing a series of letters to current and former Biden administration officials for documents and testimony.

FILE - A help wanted sign is displayed at a restaurant in Arlington Heights, Ill., Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. On Thursday, the Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

More Americans apply for jobless benefits last week

Read full article: More Americans apply for jobless benefits last week

More Americans filed for jobless benefits last week, but layoffs remain historically low despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate policy intended to cool the economy and bring down inflation.

Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a press conference in Austin on Dec. 17, 2020, regarding COVID-19 and the Pfizer vaccines that have been sent to hospitals across Texas.

Gov. Greg Abbott says he won’t give up COVID-era power until Texas lawmakers ban vaccine mandates, strengthen border

Read full article: Gov. Greg Abbott says he won’t give up COVID-era power until Texas lawmakers ban vaccine mandates, strengthen border

Abbott doubles down on his long-standing call to lawmakers to prohibit local governments from enacting mask and vaccine mandates.

Patients receive intravenous drips in an emergency ward in Beijing, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. China on Thursday accused "some Western media" of bias, smears and political manipulation in their coverage of China's abrupt ending of its strict "zero-COVID" policy, as it issued a vigorous defense of actions taken to prepare for the change of strategy. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

WHO: COVID still an emergency but nearing ‘inflection’ point

Read full article: WHO: COVID still an emergency but nearing ‘inflection’ point

The World Health Organization chief says the coronavirus remains a global health emergency.

A worker guides a bin into position at a construction site, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023, in Miami. The Commerce Department issues its first of three estimates of how the U.S. economy performed in the fourth quarter of 2022. On Thursday, the Commerce Department issues its first of three estimates of how the U.S. economy performed in the fourth quarter of 2022.(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

EXPLAINER: How will we know if the U.S. is in recession?

Read full article: EXPLAINER: How will we know if the U.S. is in recession?

A second consecutive quarter of economic growth underscored Thursday that the nation isn’t in a recession despite high inflation and the Federal Reserve’s fastest pace of interest rate hikes in four decades.

Texas National Guard and Texas DPS officers position themselves on the banks of the Rio Grande on Dec. 20, 2022, in El Paso. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled to keep in place Title 42, the pandemic-era health policy to quickly turn immigrants back at the U.S.-Mexico border, for now.

U.S. Supreme Court rules to keep Title 42, the pandemic-era policy to quickly turn away migrants, for now

Read full article: U.S. Supreme Court rules to keep Title 42, the pandemic-era policy to quickly turn away migrants, for now

The court ordered the Biden administration to continue enforcing the policy while Texas and other states that want to keep the Trump-era rule in place prepare their legal arguments.

Secetary of State John Scott watches voting machines undergo a state-mandated test at the Hays County government building in San Marcos on Sept. 21. Scott, the states chief election official, released a 359-page audit Monday of the 2020 elections in Texas.

Texas elections secure despite COVID-related “irregularities” in 2020, audit finds

Read full article: Texas elections secure despite COVID-related “irregularities” in 2020, audit finds

Four Texas counties were evaluated in a 359-page audit released by Secretary of State John Scott on Monday, two weeks before he steps down as chief election official.