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Germinal centers are high-speed evolution machines. Tiny clusters in the lymph nodes, germinal centers refine antibodies through mutation and expansion until they produce high-affinity B cells adapted to keep different pathogens in check.
As Congress mulls potentially massive cuts to federal Medicaid funding, health centers that serve Native American communities, such as the Oneida Community Health Center near Green Bay, Wisconsin, are bracing for catastrophe. That’s because more than 40% of the about 15,000 patients the center serves are enrolled in Medicaid. Cuts to the program would be detrimental to those patients and the facility, said Debra Danforth, the director of the Oneida Comprehensive Health Division and a citizen of the Oneida Nation. “It would be a tremendous hit,” she said. The facility provides a range of services to most of the Oneida Nation’s 17,000 people, including ambulatory care, internal medicine, family practice, and obstetrics. The tribe is one of two in Wisconsin that have an “open-door policy,” Danforth said, which means that the facility is open to members of any federally recognized tribe. But Danforth and many other tribal health officials say Medicaid cuts would cause service reductions at health facilities that serve Native Americans. Indian Country has a unique relationship to Medicaid, because the program helps tribes cover chronic funding shortfalls from the Indian Health Service, the federal agency responsible for providing health care to Native Americans. Medicaid has accounted for about two-thirds of third-party revenue for tribal health providers, creating financial stability and helping facilities pay operational costs. More than a million Native Americans enrolled in Medicaid or the closely related Children’s Health Insurance Program also rely on the insurance to pay for care outside of tribal health facilities without going into significant medical debt. Tribal leaders are calling on Congress to exempt tribes from cuts and are preparing to fight to preserve their access. “Medicaid is one of the ways in which the federal government meets its trust and treaty obligations to provide health care to us,” said Liz Malerba, director of policy and legislative affairs for the United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund, a nonprofit policy advocacy organization for 33 tribes
Union Health is making a new bid to Indiana regulators to buy its rival hospital in Terre Haute as the door looks poised to close on such deals. The nonprofit health system is trying to leverage an existing state law to acquire Terre Haute Regional Hospital, the only other acute care hospital in Vigo County. After withdrawing its initial application in November amid pushback, Union has shifted its pitch to emphasize what it describes as Regional’s “declining position” while offering more concrete promises, such as limits on price increases. Union submitted its new application on Feb. 5 as Indiana lawmakers were attempting to nix such mergers in their state. Lawmakers then watered down a bill that threatened to forbid Union’s deal altogether, with the amended legislation now barring mergers sought after Feb. 15, leaving an opening for Union. That means the proposed merger will next face a showdown with the administration of Indiana’s new governor, which has signaled opposition to such deals. Indiana is among the latest states reconsidering Certificate of Public Advantage laws that greenlight hospital monopolies. This year, Tennessee lawmakers introduced a bill to restructure state oversight of these mergers after an attempt last year to repeal its COPA law. In 2023, Maine repealed its COPA law, joining Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, and North Dakota. “I would hope that they are reconsidering the laws because of the research on the long-run harms of COPAs,” said Christopher Garmon, a University of Missouri-Kansas City economist who has studied COPA mergers. Indiana is one of 19 states that still have COPA laws, which allow mergers that the Federal Trade Commission otherwise considers illegal because they reduce competition and often create monopolies. In exchange for approval of these deals, the merging hospitals typically agree to meet conditions imposed by their state to mitigate the harms of a monopoly. But health care economists and the FTC have said that state oversight cannot replace competition and that these mergers
NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, second from left, and NASA astronauts Nick Hague, second from right, and Suni Williams, right are seen inside a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft aboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN shortly after having landed in the water off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Hague, Gorbunov, Williams, and Wilmore are returning from a long-duration science expedition aboard the International Space Station.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s call with U.S. President Tweety McTreason is being viewed as a triumph in Moscow and an opportunity for more economic collaboration with Washington.
Federal workers with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the first government department targeted by DOGE, have locked down their credit, shut off their Alexas and turned to the secure, encrypted Signal app for communications — just as they’d operate in foreign, autocratic countries.
Russia and Ukraine accused each other early on Wednesday of launching air attacks that sparked fires and damaged infrastructure just hours after President Vladimir Putin agreed to a limited ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Biden administration is opening the West Coast to offshore wind. Companies have largely focused on the East Coast, like this wind farm off Block Island, Rhode Island.; Credit: Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images Lauren Sommer | NPR Updated May 25, 2021 at 2:56 PM ET The Biden administration plans to open the California coast to offshore wind development, ending a long-running stalemate with the Department of Defense that has been the biggest barrier to building wind power along the Pacific Coast. The move adds momentum to the administration’s goal of reaching 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035, coming just weeks after the country’s first large-scale offshore wind farm was approved off the coast of New England. Today, the country has just a handful of offshore wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean, with around a dozen wind farms being developed in federal waters off the East Coast. “It’s an announcement that will set the stage for the long term development of clean energy and the growth of a brand new made-in-America industry,” says national climate adviser Gina McCarthy. “Now we’re thinking big and thinking bold.” The agreement identifies two sites off Central and Northern California with the potential to install massive floating wind turbines that could produce 4.6 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power 1.6 million homes. Interest in offshore wind on the West Coast has grown for years, especially with California’s own ambitious goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The deep waters off the coast have the potential to produce a significant amount of energy. But the Defense Department has largely objected to the idea, since the Navy and Air Force use the area for training and testing operations. In response to the growing interest, the Navy released a map in 2017 putting large swaths of California waters off limits. In 2018, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management solicited interest from wind developers. But negotiations with the Department of Defense have been slow going
The former health secretary was giving evidence about medical equipment deals during the pandemic.
Listeriosis listed as cause of death in one NHS patient and two other deaths being investigated.
An anti-corruption charity finds significant concerns in £15.3bn worth of contracts awarded during the pandemic.
European Union regulators said the tech giants likely violated the law by unfairly boxing out smaller competitors, adding to tensions between Europe and the United States.
The Green Bay Packers have proposed banning the “tush push” play for the upcoming NFL season and beyond, the league confirmed on Wednesday.
