COLUMBIA, S.C. — Governors took sweeping actions during earlier surges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many closed schools and ordered businesses shut down. They issued mask mandates, vaccine requirements and even quarantines in some places for people who had traveled to out-of-state hot ...

ALBANY (AP) — Millions of New Yorkers should expect tax relief, thanks to the next state budget, but it’s far from clear how the state will use billions in rising tax revenues this year. Any big spending increases will depend in part on the fine print in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget ...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Principals, superintendents and counselors are filling in as substitutes in classrooms as the surge in coronavirus infections further strains schools that already had been struggling with staffing shortages. In Cincinnati, dozens of employees from the central office ...

NEW YORK (AP) — New York is joining a handful of states in requiring health care workers to get a COVID-19 booster shot. Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday that she was expanding on a vaccine mandate she instituted last fall requiring health care workers to get vaccinated because too many ...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania has begun working to boost the number of hospital beds and organize "strike teams" of extra healthcare workers for hospitals and nursing homes struggling with surging COVID-19-related caseloads and staffing shortages, Gov. Tom Wolf's office said ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added a modest 199,000 jobs last month while the unemployment rate fell sharply, at a time when businesses are struggling to fill jobs with many Americans remaining reluctant to return to the workforce. At the same time, Friday's jobs report from the Labor ...