NEBRASKA'S GAP BETWEEN URBAN AND RURAL VACCINATION IS WIDEST IN NATION

NEBRASKA- Nebraska’s rural communities have a long way to go to reach the levels of vaccination needed to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccination rates in rural Nebraska badly lag those in urban parts of the state. In fact, Nebraska’s rural rates are among the lowest in the region, according to a World-Herald analysis of county vaccination data.

Roughly 40% of Nebraska adults living in rural areas are fully vaccinated, compared with more than 60% of those living in the state’s metro areas. What’s more, the county-level data submitted to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that Nebraska’s rural-urban vaccination divide is the widest in the nation. And Nebraska’s rural vaccination gap among the vulnerable 65-and-over age group also appears to be the nation’s biggest.

“Communities that have chosen to not have a higher rate of vaccination are unfortunately setting themselves up to be preyed upon by some of these more transmissible variants,” said Dr. Mark Rupp, an infectious disease expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Nebraska can take a lesson from neighboring Missouri, whose rural vaccination rates are even lower.

The Delta variant has now rushed into that gap, leaving the Show-Me State with the nation’s highest current case rate and inundating rural hospital wards with COVID-19 patients, all at a time the pandemic is supposed to be ending.

Most of the counties with Nebraska’s lowest vaccination rates can be found in the Panhandle and the Sand Hills — sprawling, sparse grasslands where cattle are plentiful and conservatism and general distrust of government are high. In one Sand Hills county, figures suggest that only 11% of adults have been vaccinated.

For the full article click HERE

U.S. SUPREME COURT BACKS REFINERIES IN BIOFUEL WAIVER DISPUTE

WASHINGTON D.C.- The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday made it easier for small oil refineries to win exemptions from a federal law requiring increasing levels of ethanol and other renewable fuels to be blended into their products, a major setback for biofuel producers.

The justices overturned a lower court decision that had faulted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for giving refineries in Wyoming, Utah and Oklahoma extensions on waivers from renewable fuel standard (RFS) requirements under a law called the Clean Air Act even though the companies' prior exemptions had expired.

The extensions at issue were given to units of HollyFrontier Corp (HFC.N) and CVR Energy Inc (CVI.N).

The 6-3 ruling, authored by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, compared these extensions to ones granted in everyday life such as to a student wanting more time to complete a term paper even though the deadline has passed or a business contract whose term had expired.

"It is entirely natural - and consistent with ordinary usage - to seek an 'extension' of time even after some time lapse," Gorsuch said.

In a dissent, conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, faulted the ruling's interpretation of the word "extend." The "EPA cannot 'extend' an exemption that a refinery no longer has," Barrett wrote.

President Joe Biden's administration has been considering ways to provide relief to U.S. oil refiners from biofuel blending mandates.

For the full article click HERE

FORMER NEBRASKA PRISONS ADMINISTRATOR SUES STATE, SAYS PRISON WAS MANIPULATING HOUSING STATS

LANCASTER COUNTY- The administrator who oversaw the state prisons' mental health and substance abuse services and sex offender program is suing her former employer alleging, among other things, that the prison was manipulating housing statistics by moving inmates who weren't mentally ill into the mental health unit. In a lawsuit filed in Lancaster County District Court, Alice Mitwaruciu alleged that Dawn-Renee Smith, deputy director of the Department of Correctional Services since 2018, made clinical decisions affecting the mental health care and treatment of inmates, regardless of a lack of medical or mental health training.

Mitwaruciu, a Black woman from Kenya, also is alleging she faced racial discrimination while working for the prisons. She said prison leaders treated her in an overtly aggressive and disrespectful way and interfered with her ability to do her job by keeping her out of meetings that involved matters she oversaw. 

The case comes on the heels of lawmakers last month approving a $100,000 payment to settle a discrimination lawsuit filed against the prison by Razak Aljanabi, a former corporal at the Nebraska State Penitentiary who is from Iraq and a practicing Shia Muslim. 

Among the claims, he said during a roll call in 2016, a lieutenant announced the start of Ramadan to booing and laughing, then said "Believe me, I feel the same way" and laughed. A month later, he was told he wasn't allowed to pray during his shift and couldn't have his prayer rug or holy book on him, though other officers were able to have Bibles.

The Nebraska Attorney General's Office, which will represent the prison, declined to comment on the lawsuit Wednesday.

For the full article click HERE

NEBRASKA SENATOR MAKES ANOTHER RUN AT ANSWERS ON AltEn

MEAD- A Nebraska state senator is making another run at getting answers for residents who live near pesticide contamination from the AltEn ethanol plant at Mead. The ethanol plant discarded pesticide-laced byproduct on area fields, describing it as a soil amendment. Area residents have linked the compost to their pets stumbling about in a stupor, dead wildlife and their own bloody noses, headaches and respiratory problems. Those residents also have expressed frustration in getting answers from Nebraska officials. The contamination has led to voluntary cleanup by major seed companies.

Sen. Carol Blood, who will be hosting AltEn-related information sessions, has sent a lengthy list of questions to the Nebraska Departments of Agriculture, Environment and Energy and Natural Resources.

“Every single one of those questions came from the residents,” she said.

Separately, Sen. Bruce Bostelman, whose district includes Mead, has proposed a study of whether the state needs greater authority to respond to problems such as what occurred with AltEn. Amanda Woita, spokeswoman for the Department of Environment and Energy, said the agencies were working on answers to provide to Blood.

For the full article click HERE

INVESTIGATION OF OMAHA-AREA CHILD WELFARE CONTRACT RAISES ECHOES OF THE PAST

OMAHA- Testimony in a legislative investigation of the problematic contract for managing Omaha-area child welfare cases began Friday with the words of baseball great Yogi Berra. “It’s déjà vu all over again,” former State Sen. Kathy Campbell of Lincoln told a panel of lawmakers. Ten years ago, she headed up a legislative investigation into the state’s disastrous attempt to privatize the oversight of child welfare cases statewide. The effort was plagued with turmoil, and four of the five original contractors ended up dropping or losing their contracts within two years.

On Friday, Campbell provided an overview of that history to the committee that has been charged with looking into how Nebraska ended up signing a $197 million, five-year contract with St. Francis Ministries. The new contract was signed in late January, after interim St. Francis CEO William Clark told state lawmakers that the agency would be out of money to operate by Feb. 12, unless Nebraska agreed to pay more. The $147.3 million emergency contract ends Feb. 28, 2023, the month after Gov. Pete Ricketts is term-limited out of office. 

On Friday, Tom Kenny, an Omaha attorney hired by the investigative committee, reviewed the flaws he sees in the state’s procurement process. He said the process allows state agencies broad discretion in seeking and awarding contracts and does not provide many options for appealing their decisions. 

For the full article click HERE

APPEALS COURT SIDES WITH OPS IN LAWSUIT OVER SEXUAL ABUSE OF FORMER STUDENT

ST. LOUIS- A federal appeals court has sided with the Omaha Public Schools in a lawsuit filed by the family of a young woman who was sexually assaulted by her middle school teacher. The young woman, who attended Davis Middle School starting in 2013, was sexually assaulted by teacher Brian Robeson outside of school, in Robeson’s classroom during lunch, in a computer lab and in a school bathroom. When police interviewed her about what was happening, she was 14 and Robeson was 35. Robeson pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault. In 2016, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

In her ruling in November 2019, U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp said the family had to prove that the principal and OPS had “actual notice” that the girl was being assaulted and chose to not remedy the situation. In other words, they had to know that the sexual abuse was happening and do nothing. The family, Smith Camp said, failed to present any evidence that the principal had actual notice of the abuse. On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s ruling.

In an interview, Anna’s mother said the family was “devastated” by the court opinion.

The family’s next legal option would be to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Dave Domina, the family’s attorney, said they are reviewing their options. He said the case contains issues that might be of interest to the court. “The odds are always against you,” Domina said of getting a case before the country’s highest court. “That’s why you look at the issue; you don’t look at the odds.”

For more on this article click HERE

GOV. RICKETTS SENDING NEBRASKA STATE TROOPERS TO SOUTHERN BORDER

LINCOLN- Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts announced Saturday that the state would be sending about 25 Nebraska state troopers to the nation’s border in Texas. Ricketts joined Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Idaho Gov. Brad Little in stating his plans to send law enforcement officers to the area after Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter requesting that other governors send available law enforcement resources to the border. 

The team of troopers will travel from Nebraska to Del Rio, Texas, later this month and will partner with the Texas Department of Public Safety to provide law enforcement assistance, according to a press release from the governor. They will be deployed for no longer than 16 days. Cody Thomas, spokesman for the Nebraska State Patrol, said some aspects are still being determined as part of the request, which was made under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a mutual aid agreement among the states that is typically used during emergencies.

“Nebraska is stepping up to help Texas respond to the ongoing crisis on their border with Mexico,” Ricketts said in the press release. “The disastrous policies of the Biden-Harris Administration created an immigration crisis on the border. While the federal government has fallen short in its response, Nebraska is happy to step up to provide assistance to Texas as they work to protect their communities and keep people safe.” 

For the full article click HERE

INFASTRUCTURE NEGOTIATORS AGREE TO FRAMEWORK FOR PACKAGE

WASHINGTON—Members of a bipartisan group negotiating a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure proposal said they had crafted a framework for an agreement, and lawmakers plan to meet with President Biden on Thursday to try to complete a deal. The Democrats and Republicans emerged from a meeting with top White House officials Wednesday saying work would continue on some unresolved details.

Recent talks have focused on how to finance the package, which drafts showed would spend $579 billion above expected federal levels for a total of $973 billion over five years and $1.2 trillion if continued over eight years. People familiar with the agreement said Wednesday night that the funding in the framework resembled levels in the drafts, with some putting the five-year new-spending proposal at $559 billion, because $20 billion in broadband funding would be repurposed from Covid-19 relief.

“For the most part we have a framework, but there are components within that framework that need to be worked out,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D., Mont.), one of the lawmakers negotiating the package."

For the full article click HERE

OMAHA VA EXPLORES PARTNERSHIP FOR NEW CARE FACILITY, INCLUDING POSSIBLY UNMC'S NExT

OMAHA- It’s been less than a year since the Omaha VA opened a new outpatient care facility to serve the region’s veterans, built through a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership with Omaha philanthropists. Now the Omaha VA is exploring another public-private partnership to improve inpatient hospital and surgical facilities for veterans — with one possibility discussed being to include such a facility as part of the massive Project NExT on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus.

To help lay the groundwork for a potential new inpatient facility, U.S. Rep. Don Bacon and U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer this week introduced legislation reauthorizing the CHIP-IN for Veterans Act, the 2016 federal law providing for public-private partnerships that made the Omaha outpatient care center possible.

The officials confirmed they also have spoken with UNMC Chancellor Dr. Jeffrey Gold about the possibility of including the inpatient facility within Project NExT — the planned multibillion-dollar teaching hospital on the UNMC campus that would have wings devoted to training health care workers to respond to national disasters. The VA said in a statement that the discussions to date have centered on learning more about Project NExT, its parameters and whether a VA facility could become part of it.

“At this point, the discussions have not gone beyond high-level strategic conversations,” the statement said.

For the full article click HERE

MOTOR FUELS TAX RATE SET FOR JULY 1 THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2021

NEBRASKA- The Nebraska motor fuels tax rate for July 1 through December 31, 2021, will be 27.7 cents per gallon, down from 28.7 cents per gallon. The components of the future and current rates include wholesale, variable, and fixed rates. The wholesale tax rate is set depending on the wholesale price of fuel. The variable tax rate is set to meet legislative appropriations. The fixed rate is set by statute.

For the full announcement click HERE

HEALTH STANDARDS CONTROVERSY SLOWS CHILD SEX ABUSE PREVENTION BILL IN NEBRASKA LEGISLATURE

LINCOLN- The firestorm over proposed health education standards could jeopardize a bill aimed at teaching children about staying safe from child sexual abuse. Legislative Bill 281 sailed out of the Education Committee and through first-round consideration by the full Legislature. But it did not get any further. State Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston, who introduced the measure and named it her priority for the year, said she decided to put it on hold until next year. She said she wanted to ensure that it would not get entangled in the health standards controversy. “I want to spend time over the summer looking into proper curriculum so as to not go into areas that would not be acceptable for parents,” she said.

As advanced, the bill would require four hours a year of sexual abuse prevention lessons for K-12 students. The lessons would have to be age-appropriate and use evidence-based methods to teach about body safety and about recognizing, refusing and reporting abuse. The bill would require schools to train teachers, administrators and other school staff about child sexual abuse prevention and reporting. Schools also would have to reach out to parents with information about preventing abuse and about discussing the topic with children.

Senator Albrecht noted that LB 281 would require that schools teach about child sex abuse prevention but would not mandate that they use a particular curriculum. She said the lessons could be part of teaching about safety.

Michael Carnes, a Wayne man who survived childhood sexual abuse and has pushed for the Nebraska legislation, said he understands Albrecht’s decision to delay her bill. But he said that the measure is needed and that leaving it to parents to teach prevention can be problematic because sometimes parents are the abusers.

“Kids need to know that sexual assault is wrong and that what they are experiencing is wrong,” he said. “We teach kids what to do in case of fire and in case of tornado. It blows my mind that we don’t teach them what to do in case of sexual abuse.”

For the full article click HERE

UNO CENTER HELPS DEVELOP BIDEN ADMINISTRATION'S STRATEGY TO COMBAT DOMESTIC TERRORISM

OMAHA- The Biden administration has announced a strategy to combat the threat of domestic terrorism, a plan developed with the help of a new counterterrorism program headquartered at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The new strategy, released Tuesday, comes more than five months after a mob of insurgents loyal to then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was voting to certify Joe Biden’s presidential win. 

“Domestic terrorism — driven by hate, bigotry and other forms of extremism — is a stain on the soul of America,” Biden said in a statement. “It goes against everything our country strives for, and it poses a direct challenge to our national security, democracy and unity.”

Academics from UNO’s year-old National Counterterrorism Innovation Technology and Education Center joined in the working groups that drew up the strategy, said Gina Ligon, the center’s director. The center was established at UNO last year with a $36.5 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security. It includes more than 50 academics at universities across the country. 

The strategy lays out broad goals that will be filled in with specific policies and structures in the months ahead, Ligon said. “(The strategy) is not just words. Its existence will free up resources,” she said. The key to the strategy is that it is focused not on a specific political ideology, Ligon said, but rather on a propensity for violence.

For the full article click HERE

THE NATURAL-GAS GLUT HAS EVAPORATED, DRIVING PRICES HIGHER

NATIONAL- Natural-gas prices are starting the summer air-conditioning season nearly twice as high as they were a year ago.

Demand for the fuel is picking up as the world’s economies reopen and as Americans dial down their thermostats for what is expected to be a hot summer. Meanwhile, U.S. producers have stuck to the skimpy drilling plans they sketched out when prices were lower, eliminating the glut that was keeping them depressed.  

Natural-gas futures ended Friday at $3.215 per million British thermal units, up 96% from a year ago and the highest price headed into summer since 2017. Futures traded even higher—and regional spot prices jumped—when triple-digit temperatures baked the Southwest earlier this month. Analysts expect prices to be even higher later in the year when it is time to fire up furnaces.

Besides being burned to generate electricity and for hot showers and cooking, natural gas is consumed in large volumes to make plastic, fertilizer, steel and cement. Monetary-policy makers don’t consider energy prices when gauging inflation because they are so volatile. Yet climbing gas prices are adding to the costs of producing manufactured goods at a time when investors are on edge about the potential for runaway inflation. 

Gas producers had suffered for years from low prices caused by their own market-glutting gushers. Shareholders and analysts pressured producers to focus less on growing volume and more on profitability. 

For the full article click HERE

AMAZON AND OTHER TECH GIANTS RACE TO BUY UP RENEWABLE ENERGY

The race to secure electricity deals for power-hungry data centers has tech companies reshaping the renewable-energy market and grappling with a new challenge: how to ensure their investments actually reduce emissions. Amazon said it planned Wednesday to announce commitments to buy 1.5 gigawatts of production capacity from 14 new solar and wind plants around the world as part of its push to purchase enough renewable energy to cover all of the company’s activities by 2025.

Tech companies are wielding their balance sheets to finance solar, wind and other renewable-energy projects on an unprecedented scale. In some countries, developers say tech companies’ willingness to spend upfront—signing commitments to buy energy at a certain price for long periods—has helped make corporations more important than government subsidies as the main drivers of renewable investment.

Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft Corp are four of the top six corporate buyers of publicly disclosed renewable-energy- purchase agreements, accounting for 30%, or 25.7 gigawatts, of the cumulative total from corporations globally, according to the research firm BloombergNEF. Amazon is the largest corporate purchaser world-wide, with other top purchasers including the French oil company TotalEnergies, and AT&T Inc.

“It’s almost like a stampede for clean energy,” said Michael Terrell, director of energy at Google.

For the full article click HERE

E-3 PILOT IS FIRST WOMAN TO TAKE COMMAND OF 55TH WING AT OFFUT AIR FORCE BASE

BELLEVUE- Col. Kristen Thompson took over command of Offutt Air Force Base’s 55th Wing on Tuesday from Col. Gavin Marks — a pair of leaders who represent historic firsts for the 80-year-old reconnaissance unit. Thompson is the first woman among the 65 officers who have commanded the unit since it was established in January 1941; Marks was the first African American. He led the 55th Wing through a tumultuous time that included the early stages of recovery from the March 2019 floods and the historic COVID-19 pandemic. “You definitely left your mark on the 55th Wing,” said Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, commander of the Texas-based 16th Air Force, who presided over the ceremony.

About 300 people, including Gov. Pete Ricketts, attended the ceremony at the base.

As he handed over command, Marks held Thompson’s arm aloft like a winning prizefighter, then gave her a long hug.

“You were born to lead. And this wing is ready for your leadership,” he said. Thompson, a 2001 graduate of the Air Force Academy, has accumulated more than 3,400 flight hours, including 600 combat hours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For the full article click HERE

NEBRASKA'S NEW HAIR DISCRIMINATION BAN CELEBRATED AT NORTH OMAHA EVENT

OMAHA- A crowded room in North Omaha buzzed with talk of liberation and progress on Friday, in celebration of a new state law that addresses racial discrimination on the basis of hair texture and style in the workplace. People gathered in the Highlander Accelerator to celebrate Legislative Bill 451, with Gov. Pete Ricketts signing ceremonial copies of the bill for key contributors to its passage. The bill expands a ban on racial discrimination in the workplace to include discrimination based on hair textures or styles historically associated with race, such as protective hairstyles that include braids, locks and twists.

State Sen. Terrell McKinney introduced the bill, which the Legislature passed on a 40-4 vote in April and Ricketts signed into law last month. “In the age where employment discrimination rarely presents itself in policies that explicitly exclude based on race, LB 451 addresses harmful practices that appear neutral but actually work to deny job opportunities for reasons that have nothing to do with your qualifications and ability to do a particular job,” McKinney said.    

McKinney has also introduced an interim study resolution to look at the impact of natural hair discrimination in educational settings. He said that his office will do research to see if that is an issue and if legislation might be necessary and that there may be a hearing on the issue. 

“If we are going to live up to our state’s motto, ‘Equality before the law,’ it’s important that we continue to make sure we do not have racial discrimination in the (workplace),” Ricketts said Friday. 

For the full article click HERE

BUFFET INSTITUTE DENIES PROMOTING CRITICAL RACE THEORY IN WEBINARS FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS

OMAHA- Critics say the Buffett Early Childhood Institute promoted the controversial critical race theory in webinars it held this spring for Omaha-area educators. But institute officials say that the webinars provided a safe and welcoming forum for educators in Douglas and Sarpy Counties to discuss racial issues and that the content was “anti-racist” but not critical race theory.

“Do we teach critical race theory? The answer is no,” said Erin Owen, the institute’s director of communications and marketing. The dispute triggered an emotional outpouring Thursday evening as supporters and critics of the theory and its tenets packed a meeting of the coordinating council of the Learning Community of Douglas and Sarpy Counties.

Learning Community Council member Tim Hall, one of the critics, posted his concerns about the webinars on Facebook before the meeting. “The Buffett Institute receives over $100,000 per month of your tax dollars as a partner with the Learning Community,” Hall wrote. “We all know that the University of Nebraska receives hundreds of millions in tax support. It is unacceptable that such racist ideology propaganda is being pushed upon our children, and especially wrong that it is funded with your taxpayer dollars.” Council member Clarice Jackson said Hall’s post amounted to “fear baiting.” 

After about four hours of public comment and discussion, council members voted to approve the contracts. The council voted 8-3 to approve a four-year $13.8 million contract with the Buffett Institute to manage the Superintendents Early Childhood Plan, a bundle of programs for schools. Participating districts get $5.5 million of that.

For the full article click HERE

EXPANDING BROADBAND WOULD BENEFIT RED AMERICA MORE THAN BLUE

NATIONAL- It’s probably inadvertent, but the national map of broadband need published by the White House on Thursday offers an extra layer of information beyond its detailed look at Internet access in the United States. Those areas that are in greatest need of broadband are displayed in red, accidentally elevating another quality most share: They largely voted for Donald Trump in 2020.

The Census Bureau collects data on technology adoption across the country, releasing assessments of how common computer ownership or Internet access is at the state, county and Census tract level. If we compare the density of households without any type of computer (including smartphones) or broadband access to how a country voted in 2020, we see that Trump-voting counties are overrepresented in both groups.

The reason the White House released its map, of course, is to make the pitch for a broader investment in broadband in those rural areas.

“As we release this important data to the public, it paints a sobering view of the challenges facing far too many Americans as they try to connect to high-speed broadband and participate in our modern economy,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Axios.

Whether Congress supports an investment meant to close that gap will come down to politics. So it’s worth pointing out the extent to which more Republican areas are disproportionately affected by limited technology.

For the full article click HERE

SUPPLY CRUNCH RISKS EXTENDING INTO 2022, STOKING INFLATION

NATIONAL-  Supply constraints that have challenged businesses and caused shortages of everything from semiconductors to sweatpants are deepening, adding to pressure on inflation and testing the Federal Reserve’s resolve to keep juicing the economy.

Economists and business executives now say those supply-chain disruptions, key labor shortages and resurgent demand driven by multiple rounds of fiscal stimulus will persist through the end of the year, if not longer.

“It turns out it’s a heck of a lot easier to create demand than it is to—you know, to bring supply back up to snuff,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday after the central bank’s most recent policy meeting.

The squeeze on U.S. businesses shows little sign of letting up, particularly in the manufacturing sector.

The pace of manufacturing production and hiring slowed in May from the prior month even though new orders and order backlogs accelerated, according to the May Purchasing Managers Index published by the Institute for Supply Management.

A June report by the Institute of International Finance found that supplier delays that have pushed up the cost of manufactured goods around the world will likely persist into 2022, adding to global inflation concerns.

“What is happening now exceeds anything seen in recent history,” the report concludes.

For the full article click HERE

'SOFTWARE ERROR' AT HHS RESULTS IN DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION TO 'SMALL BATCH' OF PEOPLE

LINCOLN- The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services says a "software error" resulted in phone numbers and partial Social Security numbers being sent to a third party in April. The release of personal information, which was discovered by HHS on April 9, was disclosed in a June 7 letter to those who were affected.

The agency said it did not expect that individuals would be harmed because their names were not included in the information that was inadvertently sent to "another individual in the State of Nebraska." But the state urged those who received the letter to call the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — to put a fraud alert on their credit report. 

HHS said it implemented "an immediate solution" to the software error and was working on a long-term solution.

"We are committed to keeping your information safe and assure you we are doing everything possible to regain your trust," the letter signed by HIPAA Privacy Officer Keith Patton reads.

For the full article click HERE