The sponsor of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline says it is pulling the plug on the contentious project. The pipeline would have transported crude from the oil sand fields of western Canada to Steele City, Nebraska. Canadian officials failed to persuade the Biden administration to reverse its cancellation of the company's permit on the day the president took office. Calgary-based TC Energy said Wednesday it would work with government agencies “to ensure a safe termination of and exit from” the partially built project. Construction on the 1,200-mile line began last year when former President Donald Trump revived the long-delayed project after it had stalled under the Obama administration.
Iowa residents are no longer be able to use a state website to check their own vaccination histories or those of their children. The change was prompted by a national controversy over whether employers should be able to require workers to get a coronavirus vaccine and a state law banning use of government issuance of "vaccine passports.
Demand for vaccines in Iowa continues to decline with the state ordering fewer doses each week and sliding downward in its national ranking of fully vaccinated people.
Public health officials say Iowa ordered 2,450 doses for this week with just 16 out of Iowa’s 99 counties ordering doses. \ Federal data shows Iowa has slipped to 21st in the nation with 44.9% of the population fully vaccinated. Two weeks ago Iowa was 17th.
