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HHS Awards Over $225 Million to Improve Head Start Nutrition, Facilities and Services
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), today announced over $225 million in Head Start supplemental awards to strengthen nutrition services, improve facilities, and help programs address critical one-time needs to better serve children and families across the nation.
To deliver on President Trump’s directive to Make America Healthy Again, the awards include $89 million in supplemental nutrition funding for more than 400 Head Start grant recipients. This action builds on HHS’ 2025 investment of $62 million in supplemental nutrition funding to over 290 Head Start programs around the nation.
“Good health begins with good nutrition, and the earliest years of a child’s life shape health for decades to come,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “We are strengthening Head Start nutrition and creating healthier, safer environments that give children a stronger foundation for lifelong health. By putting prevention first, we are advancing President Trump’s commitment to Make America Healthy Again.”
Air Force Moves to Quickly Reinstate Airmen Discharged for Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine
The Air Force is speeding up the reinstatement of former airmen discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, including changes aimed at eliminating a roughly 30-day bottleneck in the application process, according to the service. The Air Force identified 377 former service members this spring who were involuntarily discharged “solely for declining the COVID-19 vaccination,” according to a March 19 news release.
The service declined to say Friday how many have applied for reinstatement or returned to uniform, but an unnamed spokesperson said by email Friday that the Air Force has seen a steady increase “in inquiries and active application packages.” Procedural changes announced Aug. 11 are intended to ease an average 30-day delay associated with medical clearances, according to the Air Force.
Each applicant also will be assigned a counselor to guide them through the process. “The Department of the Air Force is unwavering in its commitment to remedying the injustice caused by the previous COVID-19 vaccination mandate,” Air Force Undersecretary Matthew Lohmeier said in a statement provided Friday by the spokesperson.
How Lee Zeldin Turned the EPA Into a Shield for Polluters
From Mount Storm Lake came sounds of happy children. On the dock, fishermen stood with their lines in the water. The sun turned the surface of the lake a light, ethereal blue. It was a picture-perfect June weekend in West Virginia’s eastern panhandle. For residents and tourists alike, the appeal of this region is indisputable. People are drawn to its photogenic beauty. At Blackwater Falls State Park, for example, hiking trails wind past waterfalls edged by cliffs. Black bears prowl the thick pine woods.
Then there’s the Mount Storm Power Station, which burns 15,000 tons of coal per day, towering over the lake. I climbed a fire tower in the Monongahela National Forest, and there they were, punching through the horizon.
For over a century, West Virginia’s fortunes were tied to one of the dirtiest forms of energy on the planet. In the process of mining coal, cleaning and transporting the rock, and burning it for energy, coal operations dump planet-warming carbon dioxide and methane emissions into the air and heavy metals into the soil and bodies of water.
According to one state estimate, the production of coal in West Virginia peaked in 1997, then started falling. At least 10 coal plants have been retired since 2005. Now greener sources of energy have come online, thanks to a combination of grassroots activism and progressively cheaper renewable energy. Along a ridgeline of the Allegheny Front, the Mount Storm Wind Farm boasts 132 wind turbines capable of generating up to 264 megawatts of electricity. But President Donald Trump loves to promote coal and slam wind farms.
Cyclospora Outbreak Followed Years of Declining FDA Foreign Inspections
A nationwide outbreak of cyclospora tied to contaminated lettuce has heightened safety concerns about imported food, while underscoring a longer-term trend: U.S. regulators are conducting fewer international inspections to catch contaminated produce before it lands on American plates.
Food and Drug Administration inspections of foreign food sites — including the Mexican farm linked to the ongoing outbreak — are down nearly 35% since 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to agency records reviewed by The Associated Press. The pandemic kicked off a wave of retirements and departures among FDA inspectors that continues to this day.
Even before COVID-19, the agency had long failed to hit its congressionally mandated targets for international inspections. And recent staffing cuts, reorganizations and other upheavals under President Donald Trump could mean even fewer inspections in the years ahead, according to former senior FDA officials.
