The big picture: The president has crafted a team of loyalists to advise him on the most pressing and important issues facing the nation both at home and abroad.
Black and Hispanic people paid more in out-of-pocket costs for maternal care than Asian and white people with the same commercial insurance, a new study published in JAMA Health Forum found.
Why it matters: Black mothers in the U.S. facea pregnancy-related death rate that is more than three times the rate for white mothers. About 80% of these deaths are preventable. The maternal mortality rate for Hispanic women is similar to that of white mothers but has surged in recent years.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s move to reduce public comments on certain federal health rules injects new uncertainty into the regulatory landscape and could help him make controversial policy decisions unchecked.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke of the benefits of the MMR vaccine on Sunday in response to a growing measles outbreak in Texas.
Why it matters: Kennedy has a long record of sowing skepticism about vaccines and last week appeared to downplay the situation in Texas when he described such outbreaks as "not unusual."
Former National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins unexpectedly retired on Friday, writing in a statement that employees of the government's biomedical research institution "deserve the utmost respect and support of all Americans."
The battle over a single state Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin is on track to be among the most expensive judicial races in history, fueled by donations from big fundraising names such as Elon Musk and George Soros.
Why it matters: Democrats and Republicans alike see the Wisconsin race as having outsized importance in politics, stretching far beyond the Dairy State.
