It is the third time the state has been found in contempt over foster care conditions since 2011.

Oscar Escamilla, acting executive officer of the U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley, said 250 to 300 kids enter daily and far fewer leave. Border Patrol agents asked them if they had a contact in the U.S. and allowed the child to call that person. The Border Patrol is apprehending far more children daily than Health and Human Services is placing with U.S. sponsors, leading to a severe backlog in the system. The Border Patrol generally is not supposed to detain children for more than three days, but Health and Human Services lacks space. More than 2,000 kids have been at the Donna facility for more than 72 hours, including 39 for more than 15 days.

It’s been about a week since hospitals in the Roanoke and Alleghany region started receiving doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. All major hospitals have gotten shipments of the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccine. WASHINGTON – Pfizer said Wednesday it will supply the U.S. government with an additional 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine under a new agreement between the pharmaceutical giant and the Trump administration. The government also has an option to purchase an additional 400 million doses. The government began shipping the Pfizer vaccine to states last week, and the one from Moderna this week.

Swift remains the county’s HHS director and it appears he assumed Emerick’s former role for a time, as he is also listed on the county’s website as its interim public health director. The Defenders found a media release from last month naming a new public health director for the county, however. When Bridger requested something from Emerick, Emerick would either say “it was a dumb request or that she couldn’t do everything” asked of her. “Multiple employees expressed concern about Dawn being rude, condescending and demeaning of (epidemiological) staff on calls with multiple people,” Bridger wrote. “There is also a glaring deficit in her ability to understand and explain epidemiology and public health science,” Bridger wrote.

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Health and Human Services will provide more than $168 million in emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food benefits to help people in the state during the COVID-19 response, Gov. HHS got federal approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide the maximum allowable number of SNAP benefits to recipients based on family size, according to a news release. Anyone receiving SNAP benefits is included. “SNAP, commonly referred to as the food stamp program, supplements the budget of the working poor. "The additional food subsidy announced today by Governor Abbott, although still supplemental, will help fill a portion of the financial gap created by the economic crisis resulting from this pandemic.

Another cohort of cruise ship passengers arrived at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland on Tuesday night to be quarantined for the coronavirus. In total, 380 passengers from the Grand Princess are expected to be quarantined at the base, a CDC official confirmed Monday. The evacuees live in Texas or surrounding states, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg previously said. Over the weekend, San Antonio city officials learned that Joint Base San Antonio Lackland will again quarantine passengers. Those people were flown back into the country from Wuhan, China, where the virus first spread, and from the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Japan.