Author name: Michelle Weaver

Michelle Weaver is a news writer for the Bergen Newspaper Group. She has been writing professionally for over three years, and she loves her job because she gets to tell people's stories—whether they're a student who just made the honor roll, or a new business owner who just opened their doors.

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US births rose last year, but experts don't see it as a trend

NEW YORK — U.S. births rose slightly last year, but experts don’t see it as evidence of reversing a long-term decline. A little over 3.6 million births were reported for 2024, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention preliminary data. That’s 22,250 more than the final tally of 2023 U.S. births, which was released […]

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Report highlights how communities hardest hit by climate change can build resilient water systems

Malynndra Tome was helping to map livestock ponds in the Navajo Nation when she saw something that inspired her to act. An elderly woman was filling milk jugs with water at the back of a gas station in the Native American reservation, where about 30% of people live without running water. “How can we be

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Arizona Supreme Court taps AI avatars to make the judicial system more publicly accessible

PHOENIX — Arizona’s highest court has created a pair of AI-generated avatars to deliver news of every ruling issued by the justices, marking what is believed to be the first example in the U.S. of a state court system tapping artificial intelligence to build more human-like characters to connect with the public. A court in

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FDA staff return to crowded offices, broken equipment and missing chairs

WASHINGTON — Thousands of employees returned to the Food and Drug Administration’s headquarters Monday to find overflowing parking lots, long security lines and makeshift office spaces without chairs and other basic supplies. The FDA is the latest agency scrambling to meet the Trump administration’s return-to-office mandate, part of a flurry of actions — including firings

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Eat grass-fed beef, help the planet? Research says not so simple

For cattle fattened in fields instead of feedlots, the grass may be greener, but the carbon emissions are not. A study out Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that even in the most optimistic scenarios, grass-fed beef produces no less planet-warming carbon emissions than industrial beef. The finding calls into

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Dr. Mehmet Oz heads to the Senate with pitch to oversee America's health insurance programs

WASHINGTON — Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will testify before the Senate Finance Committee on Friday morning. The 64-year-old was a respected heart surgeon who turned into a popular TV pitchman. Now he has his sights on overseeing health insurance for about 150 million

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Vitamin A, While Helpful for Measles, Is Not a Replacement for Vaccination

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend vitamin A for all patients with measles — not just severe cases — but experts warn that this shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for vaccination. In a recent opinion piece for Fox News, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote that studies support the administration of vitamin A

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Historic Strike Involving Thousands of Oregon Healthcare Workers Comes to an End

began Jan. 10, has come to an end. Late Monday, eight RN bargaining units voted overwhelmingly to ratify their contracts and end the strike, which was believed to be the largest involving healthcare workers, and the first involving physicians, in the state’s history, according to the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA), which represented the workers. Among

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Neurologic Complications of Flu in Kids May Be Up This Year

MedPage Today story. Public health officials are looking into reports of a small potential uptick in neurologic complications of influenza in children — particularly a rapidly progressing and dangerous condition called acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE). Adrienne Randolph, MD, MSc, of Boston Children’s Hospital, said she reported about 12 potential cases of flu-associated ANE to CDC’s

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Doctor Stabbed in Chest; 'Hypnotic' Doc Faces Second Hearing; Nurse Assaulted

in the chest. (FOX 32) A physician in the U.K. is facing a second hearing over sexual misconduct allegations that he talked to female patients in a “hypnotic way.” (BBC News) A Florida nurse may lose her eyesight after a patient allegedly attacked her and broke nearly every bone in her face. A 33-year-old man

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