Utah to ban LGBTQ conversion therapy
The Utah State Legislature has unanimously approved a bill that enshrines into law a ban on LGBTQ conversion therapy. It now goes to Governor Spencer Cox, who has signaled support for it.
North & Central America
This archive covers progress stories from North and Central America, spanning the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the nations of Central America. Readers will find reporting on health, environment, community resilience, and policy advances across the region.
All U.S. military veterans in suicidal crisis are now eligible for free care
Unlike for most other medical benefits, veterans do not have to be enrolled in the VA system to be eligible. More than 18 million veterans in the U.S. could be eligible.
California approves $2.9 billion in funding for zero-emission transportation infrastructure
The funds will be used for the installation of more EV chargers, zero-emission trucks, school and transit buses, and hydrogen refueling technology.
First vaccine to target deadly fungal infections passes preclinical tests
Fungal infections kill an estimated 1.6 million people every year, yet until now no vaccine has ever existed for any of the major culprits. Researchers at the University of Georgia have developed a single shot that trains the immune system to recognize all three deadliest fungal genera simultaneously — a feat never before demonstrated in peer-reviewed research. Crucially, it reduced illness and death in immunocompromised animals, the very people most at risk. For a disease category the WHO only recently recognized as a global emergency, this candidate offers the first real hope of prevention.\n\n*(Word count: 88)*
Walmart raises minimum wage by 17%
Starting in early March, store employees will make between $14 and $19 an hour. About 340,000 store employees will get a raise because of the move.
Biden restores protections to Alaska’s Tongass National Forest
Alaska’s Tongass National Forest is once again off-limits to logging and new road construction, after the USDA restored protections across the 17-million-acre rainforest — a landscape slightly larger than West Virginia that holds nearly half of all carbon stored in U.S. national forests. Tribal Nations in Southeast Alaska, including the Organized Village of Kake, led the years-long push to bring the safeguards back. For communities who have hunted, fished, and lived among the 800-year-old cedars and wild salmon streams for thousands of years, it’s a hard-won recognition. The victory also points to something bigger: protecting old-growth forests at scale is one of the most affordable, ready-now climate tools we have — no new technology required, just the will to leave ancient places standing.
Moderna’s mRNA RSV vaccine delivers impressive Phase 3 trial results
For decades researchers have been trying to develop a vaccine for the deadly respiratory disease. It looks like 2023 will be the landmark year where not only one, but possibly three different vaccines are approved.
Crystalyne Curley becomes first female speaker of the Navajo Nation Council
Council Delegate Crystalyne Curley, 37, who represents Tachíí/Blue Gap, Many Farms, Nazlini, Tsélání/Cottonwood, Low Mountain, has become the first woman to head the Navajo Nation Council.
Canada to ban cosmetic testing on animals
The ban will cover a range of products, including make-up, perfume, body lotion, hair-styling products, shaving foam and nail polish. It would extend to cosmetics that contain animal-tested ingredients.
Pfizer to sell all its drugs in 45 low-income countries at non-profit price
Pfizer’s not-for-profit pricing pledge now spans all 500 of its medicines — including chemotherapy and oral cancer treatments — across 45 of the world’s lowest-income countries. That’s a major expansion of an accord the company launched in 2022, which originally covered only patented drugs. By including off-patent medicines too, Pfizer is acknowledging that even decades-old cancer treatments often remain out of reach where generic supply chains never took hold. For patients across much of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where cancer and heart disease are rising fast, this could quietly move the floor on what’s possible. And when the world’s largest drugmaker makes a move this broad, the rest of the industry tends to notice.