CDC reports 216 child deaths this flu season, the most in 15 years

NEW YORK (AP) — More U.S. children have died this flu season than at any time since the swine flu pandemic 15 years ago. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday said 216 pediatric deaths already have been reported. That eclipses the 207 reported the previous flu season, and is the most since the 2009-2010 H1N1 global flu pandemic. There are likely several contributors to this season’s severity, but one pediatric infectious diseases specialist says a big one is that fewer children are getting flu shots. Flu vaccinations may not prevent people from getting sick, but research shows they do prevent hospitalizations and deaths.

7 people are dead after a truck and tour van collided near Yellowstone, police say

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A pickup truck and a tour van collided on a highway leading to Yellowstone National Park, leaving seven people dead and eight others injured, Idaho State Police said. The crash happened just before 7:15 p.m. Thursday near Henry’s Lake State Park in eastern Idaho, police said in a press release. Authorities have not said what led up to the crash. Both vehicles caught fire, the Idaho State Police said in a press release. The driver of the Dodge Ram pickup and six people inside the Mercedes passenger van died. The van was carrying a tour group of 14 people, and the surviving occupants were taken to hospitals with injuries, police spokesman Aaron Snell said.

Man sentenced to 53 years in hate-crime attack on Palestinian American boy, mother

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — A judge has sentenced an Illinois landlord to 53 years in prison for a hate-crime attack on a 6-year-old Muslim boy and the boy’s mother. Joseph Czuba was sentenced Friday. He did not speak during the hearing and his attorney didn’t immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment. Czuba was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of the boy’s mother, Hanan Shaheen. The 73-year-old Czuba targeted them in October 2023 because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas, which started days earlier. The family was renting rooms from Czuba at a suburban Chicago house at the time of the attack.

Judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from dismantling library services agency

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has agreed to temporarily block the Trump administration from taking any more steps to dismantle an agency that funds and promotes libraries across the nation. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled Thursday that plaintiffs who sued to preserve the Institute of Museum and Library Services are likely to show that the administration doesn’t have the legal authority to unilaterally shutter the agency, which Congress created. The American Library Association and a labor union filed a lawsuit last month to stop President Donald Trump’s administration from gutting the institute after the president signed a March 14 executive order that refers to it and several other federal agencies as “unnecessary.”