Senate panel advances EPA nominee; GOP slams Interior pick
(Caroline Brehman/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON – A Senate committee has endorsed President Joe Biden's nomination of Michael Regan to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, setting up a vote in the full Senate. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee advanced Regan's nomination Tuesday on a 14-6 vote. Regan, who has served as North Carolina's top environmental regulator since 2017, would be the first Black man to run the EPA. A third Biden nominee, Deb Haaland, has not yet had a hearing on her selection to lead the Interior Department. AdHe also was concerned by Haaland's responses on issues such as wildlife management and access by hunters and sportsmen to public lands, Daines said.
Tim Cook says Apple's $100 million racial equity initiative is "about giving people opportunity"
Tech giant Apple is spending $100 million to expand opportunities for communities of color in technology and entrepreneurship. "Think of it as an innovation hub and we'll work on things from coding, to machine learning, to creativity, to entertainment arts," Cook said. As for Vice President Lisa Jackson, she first served as President Obama's EPA administrator before coming to Apple in 2013. "The first ever, in the United States, app developer academy," Jackson revealed, aimed at giving "some extra lift to Black and brown developers." "We have terms of service for our app store, and some of those terms of service he's in violation of."
cbsnews.com6 former EPA bosses call for agency reset after election
FILE - In this Sept. 21, 2017, file photo, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Building is shown in Washington. Six former Environmental Protection Agency chiefs are calling for an agency reset after President Donald Trumps regulation-chopping, industry-minded first term. The group is presenting a detailed action plan drafted by former EPA staffers for whoever wins the Nov. 3 presidential election. Most living former EPA heads joined in Wednesday's appeal, with Trumps first EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, being the notable exception. The group said the road map was meant to guide whatever administration the Nov. 3 presidential election puts in place, although many of the proposals are implicitly or explicitly critical of Trump EPA actions.
First COVID-19 vaccine tested in US poised for final testing
The first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. revved up peoples immune systems just the way scientists had hoped, researchers reported Tuesday -- as the shots are poised to begin key final testing. The first-step testing later was expanded to include dozens of older adults, the age group most at risk from COVID-19. Nearly two dozen possible COVID-19 vaccines are in various stages of testing around the world. Candidates from China and Britains Oxford University also are entering final testing stages. The 30,000-person study will mark the worlds largest study of a potential COVID-19 vaccine so far.
First human trial for coronavirus vaccine begins Monday in the US
Moderna has developed the first experimental coronavirus medicine, but an approved treatment is more than a year away. The National Institutes of Health, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, has been fast-tracking work with biotech company Moderna to develop a vaccine using the genetic sequence of the new coronavirus. The trial is taking place at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, Washington, where COVID-19 cases have surged and authorities have banned mass gatherings. The early-stage, or phase 1, trial will test the vaccine on 45 males and non-pregnant females between the ages of 18 and 55, according to trial details on NIH's website. He said the potential vaccine by Moderna contains genetic material called messenger RNA, or mRNA, that was produced in a lab.
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