West
An Idaho health department isn’t allowed to give COVID-19 vaccines anymore. Experts say it’s a first
A regional public health department in Idaho is no longer providing COVID-19 vaccines to residents in six counties after a narrow decision by its board.
Southwest District Health appears to be the first in the nation to be restricted from giving COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccinations are an essential function of a public health department.
TUBERCULOSIS HAS OVERTAKEN COVID AS WORLD’S DEADLIEST INFECTIOUS DISEASE
While policymakers in Texas banned health departments from promoting COVID vaccines and Florida’s surgeon general bucked medical consensus to recommend against the vaccine, governmental bodies across the country haven’t blocked the vaccines outright.
“I’m not aware of anything else like this,” said Adriane Casalotti, chief of government and public affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials. She said health departments have stopped offering the vaccine because of cost or low demand, but not based on “a judgment of the medical product itself.”
The six-county district along the Idaho-Oregon border includes three counties in the Boise metropolitan area. Demand for COVID vaccines in the health district has declined — with 1,601 given in 2021 to 64 so far in 2024. The same is true for other vaccines: Idaho has the highest childhood vaccination exemption rate in the nation, and last year, the Southwest District Health Department rushed to contain a rare measles outbreak that sickened 10.
On Oct. 22, the health department’s board voted 4-3 in favor of the ban — despite Southwest’s medical director testifying to the vaccine’s necessity.
A syringe lies next to vials of COVID-19 booster vaccines at an inoculation station in Jackson, Miss., Friday, Nov. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
“Our request of the board is that we would be able to carry and offer those (vaccines), recognizing that we always have these discussions of risks and benefits,” Dr. Perry Jansen said at the meeting. “This is not a blind, everybody-gets-a-shot approach. This is a thoughtful approach.”
Opposite Jansen’s plea were more than 290 public comments, many of which called for an end to vaccine mandates or taxpayer funding of the vaccines, neither of which are happening in the district. At the meeting, many people who spoke are nationally known for making the rounds to testify against COVID vaccines, including Dr. Peter McCullough, a Texas cardiologist who sells “contagion emergency kits” that include ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine — drugs that have not been approved to treat COVID-19 and can have dangerous side effects.
Board Chairman Kelly Aberasturi was familiar with many of the voices who wanted the ban, especially from earlier local protests of pandemic measures.
Aberasturi, who told The Associated Press that he’s skeptical of COVID-19 vaccines and national public health leaders, said in the meeting and in an interview with the AP that he was supportive of but “disappointed” in the board’s decision.
He said the board had overstepped the relationship between patients and their doctors — and possibly opened a door to blocking other vaccines or treatments.
Board members in favor of the decision argued people can get vaccinated elsewhere, and that providing the shots was equivalent to signing off on their safety. (Some people may be reluctant to get vaccinated or boosted because of misinformation about the shots despite evidence that they’re safe and have saved millions of lives.)
The people getting vaccinated at the health department — including people without housing, people who are homebound and those in long-term care facilities or in the immigration process — had no other options, Jansen and Aberasturi said.
“I’ve been homeless in my lifetime, so I understand how difficult it can be when you’re … trying to get by and get ahead,” Aberasturi said. “This is where we should be stepping in and helping.
“But we have some board members who have never been there, so they don’t understand what it’s like.”
State health officials have said that they “recommend that people consider the COVID-19 vaccine.” Idaho health department spokesperson AJ McWhorter declined to comment on “public health district business,” but noted that COVID-19 vaccines are still available at community health centers for people who are uninsured.
Aberasturi said he plans to ask at the next board meeting if the health department can at least be allowed to vaccinate older patients and residents of long-term care facilities, adding that the board is supposed to be caring for the “health and well-being” of the district’s residents. “But I believe the way we went about this thing is we didn’t do that due diligence.”
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San Francisco, CA
PHOTOS: 2026 San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade
Sunday, March 8, 2026 12:26AM
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Thousands are flocking to San Francisco on Saturday to join Lunar New Year festivities and watch the Chinese New Year Parade.
WATCH: SF Chinese New Year Parade 2026 on ABC7
The streets will be filled with dancing, floats and so much more.
Here’s a look at some of the most memorable moments through images.
Copyright © 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.
Denver, CO
Brothers sentenced to 40 and 40 years for deadly,
Two brothers who were involved in the 2024 drive-by shooting death of a man outside the Downtown Aquarium in Denver were sentenced to serve decades in prison.
Antonio Vasquez, 21, and Jason Trujillo, Jr., 19, were sentenced on Friday to 40 years and 20 years, respectively, in state prison. Both brothers pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and a number of charges, including first-degree murder, were dropped as a result.
Vasquez, who was 19 at the time of the shooting, fired the weapon that killed 19-year-old Dacien Salazar over two years ago, according to investigators. Trujillo, who was 17 at the time, drove the car.
“Dacien Salazar’s murder was not just a tragedy for his friends and family, it was a crime that shocked countless Denver residents — a shooting in broad daylight in a busy public place,” Denver District Attorney John Walsh said in a statement on Friday. “Today’s sentences ensure that Antonio Vasquez and Jason Trujillo will pay a heavy price for their cold-blooded actions.”
The shooting occurred on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 2024, outside the popular aquarium near Interstate 25 and Water Street.
Given the location of the shooting, and before police knew if it was random or targeted, a large police presence was seen at the aquarium soon after the 911 calls came in.
Salazar was taken to the hospital but later died of his injuries, according to Denver police. After the shooting, the brothers took off southwest, toward the REI store, and investigators worked to develop information about the suspects.
Salazar was at the aquarium with two other people. The three left Pueblo earlier in the day and got to the aquarium around 2 p.m. that day, a witness told investigators. They left about an hour later, and as they were walking back to the car they came in, a black Chevrolet sedan pulled up and a person, later identified as Vasquez, was in the back seat with a black ski mask on and started shooting.
Salazar was the only person struck by gunfire that afternoon.
One of Salazar’s friends told police that Salazar “had a lot of people that were after him.” That person’s name was redacted in a 10-page arrest report, as was the rest of the paragraph after that claim.
One person interviewed by police told a detective that they saw threats against him on Facebook, made by Trujillo and three other people, whose names were redacted. Screenshots of the threats were also fully redacted in the arrest report.
Forensic investigators say they matched the ammunition used in a shooting in Pueblo, allegedly involving at least one of the suspects, to the one used to kill Salazar. Many details surrounding the Pueblo shooting were redacted, but the report says that .223-caliber rifle ammo was recovered from both scenes.
Court records don’t show any criminal cases out of Pueblo for either brother, aside from a 2022 traffic ticket for Vasquez.
Investigators went through traffic camera footage near the shooting and found the car that matched wintesses’ description and saw it had a temporary license plate. Detectives traced the ownership of the car back to a Pueblo address and then honed in on a cellphone that pinged cell towers in Pueblo, Littleton, and Denver during the time before, during, and after the shooting.
They traced the movement of the car and phone to a hotel — although the exact hotel’s name is redacted from the arrest report — and got security camera footage, which detectives say showed Vasquez and Trujillo leaving and returning to the hotel before and after the shooting.
They were arrested in early May, formally charged on May 8 — both as adults — and held on a $1 million cash-only bond.
Seattle, WA
Natural gas leak prompts evacuations in Leschi neighborhood – Fire Line
SEATTLE – At 10:42 a.m., The Seattle Fire Department’s Fire Alarm Center received a 911 call reporting a broken natural gas line in the 3000 block of S. Jackson St. Crews arrived on scene and began investigating.

The gas line supplied a single-family residence. The home was evacuated. Natural gas readings in the area and wind direction prompted crews to evacuate all residences for one block to the north of the broken gas line.
Firefighters set up an exclusionary zone to keep people from entering the impacted area. Fire crews along with Seattle Police and King County Metro used apparatus to block streets from Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. at S. Jackson St. to 31st Ave. S. and the Northbound lanes of S. Washington St.
Puget Sound Energy arrived and secured the gas leak by 1 p.m. All residents were able to safely reoccupy their homes. No injuries reported.
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