By Leann Ray | Editor-in-chief
“HPV vaccination is cancer prevention. It not only prevents cervical cancer, but other HPV-associated cancers like oropharyngeal cancer, anal cancer, vaginal, vulva and penile cancers as well. So we think that that lack of knowledge and the confusion among parents plays a big factor in it. So we do a lot to overcome those gaps.” — Lindsay Barr, program manager for the West Virginia Immunization Network
The West Virginia Oral Health Coalition and other organizations want state lawmakers to pass legislation allowing dentists and dental hygienists to administer the HPV vaccine. (Photo by Tunvarat Pruksachat/Getty Images)
By Lori Kersey
West Virginia’s HPV vaccination rates lag below the national average. The state has some of the highest rates for cancers associated with the virus.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, joined by, from left, fellow state attorneys Kris Kobach of Kansas, JB McCuskey of West Virginia and Mike Hilgers of Nebraska, held a news conference Oct. 14, 2026 at the Iowa State Capitol on state AGs pursuing litigation against OpenAI. (Photo via Iowa Attorney General’s Office’s Facebook page)
By Robin Opsahl
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and counterparts from three other states announced plans Wednesday to sue OpenAI in state courts, alleging ChatGPT harmed children and violated each state’s consumer fraud act.
NATIONAL
A courtroom at the Placer County Superior Court in Roseville, California, earlier this year. In California and other states, the rosters of public defenders have been shrinking at an alarming rate, often leaving defendants in jail for days, weeks or months without access to an attorney. (Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr./ CalMatters)
By David Montgomery
In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that under the Fourteenth Amendment, states must provide lawyers to criminal defendants who cannot afford one. But throughout Texas and many other states, the rosters of public defenders have been shrinking at an alarming rate, often leaving defendants in jail for days, weeks or months without access to an attorney.
By Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump Thursday announced that the execution of a man convicted of the Fort Hood shooting will not be livestreamed, a reversal after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that Nidal Hasan’s death by firing squad would be public.
By David Lightman
WASHINGTON —Suddenly there’s hope for cutting the reams of red tape that can make getting new energy projects a seemingly endless slog.
By Shauneen Miranda
WASHINGTON — Peter Daniell of Broomfield, Colorado, took home the grand prize Wednesday night after winning the National Civics Bee Championship in the nation’s capital.
ICYMI
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