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WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House announced Thursday that it is dedicating another $10 billion to try to drive up vaccination rates in low-income, minority and rural enclaves throughout the country.

The effort, which is funded through the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package passed earlier this month, will include $6 billion in funding for community health centers to expand COVID-19 vaccinations, testing and other preventive health care for populations at higher risk for the virus.

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Hundreds of mourners gathered Wednesday night at a candlelight vigil to remember the 10 people gunned down at a supermarket in a Colorado college town, while the 21-year-old man suspected of carrying out the rampage prepared for his first court appearance Thursday morning.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Inmates used hammers to attack staff members during a failed attempt to escape an Iowa prison, killing a nurse and a correctional officer, kidnapping a third employee and severely injuring an inmate who intervened, authorities said Wednesday.

Those killed in Tuesday’s attack at the Anamosa State Penitentiary were identified as 50-year-old nurse Lorena Schulte, of Cedar Rapids, and 46-year-old Officer Robert McFarland, of Ely. Both worked at the prison in Anamosa in eastern Iowa for more than a decade.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of American bald eagles has quadrupled since 2009, with more than 300,000 birds soaring over the lower 48 states, government scientists said in a report Wednesday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said bald eagles, the national symbol that once teetered on the brink of extinction, have flourished in recent years, growing to more than 71,400 nesting pairs and an estimated 316,700 individual birds.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the White House effort to tackle the migration challenge at the U.S. southern border and work with Central American nations to address root causes of the problem.

Biden made the announcement as he and Harris met at the White House on Wednesday with Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandra Mayorkas and other immigration advisers to discuss the increase in migrants, including many unaccompanied minors, arriving at the border in recent weeks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are renewing their efforts to muscle through the largest overhaul of U.S. elections in a generation, setting up a fight with Republicans that could bring partisan tensions to a climax in the evenly split Senate and become a defining issue for President Joe Biden.

(AP) --- AstraZeneca insisted Wednesday that its COVID-19 vaccine is strongly effective even after counting additional illnesses in its disputed U.S. study, the latest in an extraordinary public rift with American officials.

In a late-night press release, AstraZeneca said it had recalculated data from that study and concluded the vaccine is 76% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, instead of the 79% it had claimed earlier in the week.

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — An employee of the Colorado supermarket where a gunman killed 10 people watched as the assailant opened fire and narrowly escaped his notice while joining with other bystanders in a desperate scramble to get away.

Emily Giffen, 27, was smoking outside the store Monday during a break when she heard multiple loud pops that she knew were not fireworks. She said she saw a man running across an intersection suddenly fall over and another man approach him in a crouch and fire several rounds at close range.

NEW YORK, March 24. /TASS/: The latest steps by the US Joe Biden-led administration, which have caused soaring tensions in relations with Russia and China, may be Washington’s attempt to distract attention from domestic problems, Political Science and International Relations Professor Andrei Korobkov, of the Middle Tennessee State University, has told TASS.

UNITED NATIONS, March 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations, United States, Russia and the European Union met virtually on Tuesday to discuss relaunching their long-stalled effort to get Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate a two-state solution to their decades-old conflict.

A brief statement from the four mediators, known as the Quartet, said envoys discussed returning “to meaningful negotiations that will lead to a two-state solution, including tangible steps to advance freedom, security and prosperity for Palestinians and Israelis, which is important in its own right”.