Ten million new doses of vaccine against the H1N1 influenza virus will become available in the United States this week, Obama administration officials said over the weekend. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and presidential adviser David Axelrod said manufacturers were shipping vaccine seven days a week, and Axelrod predicted that the nation would have all the vaccine it needed "in very short order."
Officials had said that 40 million doses would be available by the end of October and that companies would be delivering 20 million doses per week by now. Sebelius said those estimates were based on vaccine makers' "overly optimistic" predictions.
Sebelius said the United States still intended to donate 10 percent of its vaccine to developing countries but not until priority U.S. populations had been vaccinated.
PALO ALTO, Calif.
Run of teen suicides by train torments city
Authorities are struggling with a recent cluster of teen suicides accomplished by stepping in front of trains. Four such suicides were reported here in less than six months.
Experts are struggling to understand what generates clusters of teen suicides and prevent them.
Police patrol the tracks while city officials negotiate with the railroad on a design to make them less accessible. Students are discouraged from erecting shrines at the sites, which might romanticize the deaths, and the media have been asked not to make public those locations.
Henry M. Gunn High School's 1,900 students also have created T-shirts with the message "Talk to Me" and formed pacts not to harm themselves.
MAINE
Polls predict close vote on gay marriage
Maine residents will decide Tuesday whether to let stand a law permitting same-sex marriage, an effort that has failed in every state where it has been put before voters.
Public opinion surveys in Maine show a dead heat on Question 1, which would cancel the marriage statute that passed the Legislature in May and was signed by Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat.
In the five other states where gay men and lesbians are allowed to marry, the laws were put in place by court rulings or legislatures but Baldacci expressed guarded optimism Sunday about the effort in Maine.
"I believe it's something in the water or the air in this state that recognizes individual rights and anti-discrimination attitudes," the governor said by phone from Augusta, the capital. "It's more of a libertarian-type state than it is Republican or Democrat. We have two Republican senators, two Democratic representatives and there have been two independent governors."
Elsewhere
Washington:The Supreme Court hears Jones vs. Harris Associates today, which raises questions about the market's ability to set "reasonable" corporate compensation. It may reveal clues about the court's view of recent interventions in the economy.
Cleveland:Six bodies found at the home of a convicted rapist were females and all were homicide victims, the coroner's office said Sunday.
Los Angeles:The search for nine people missing after a Coast Guard plane hit a Marine Corps helicopter over the Pacific is now a body recovery mission, officials said Sunday.
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