US President-elect Joe Biden has selected two former Obama administration officials for senior roles to help fight COVID-19, including the appointment of Jeff Zients as White House coronavirus coordinator, Politico reported on Thursday. Biden adviser Vivek Murthy will return to his role as Surgeon General but with a broader portfolio as the pandemic rages through...
Former US Ambassador to India Richard Verma has joined leading financial services company Mastercard as its executive vice-president for global public policy and regulatory affairs. In this capacity, Richard Verma will oversee the company's public policy, regulatory affairs and litigation teams around the world, Mastercard said in a statement. Verma joins Mastercard from capital advisory firm...
Indian-American Gitanjali Rao was selected from among 5000 nominees as TIME magazine’s first-ever ‘Kid of the Year’. A "brilliant" young scientist and inventor, Gitanjali, 15, was chosen for her "astonishing work" using technology to tackle issues ranging from contaminated drinking water to opioid addiction and cyberbullying. "The world belongs to those who shape it. And however...
Democratic District Leader Neeta Jain has picked up an endorsement from Rep. Carolyn Maloney in her bid to win an open City Council seat in Central Queens. Jain, a practicing psychologist, is one of 11 candidates who have filed petitions to run in the February special election to replace ex-Councilmember Rory Lancman in District 24. The district includes...
Several ideas about how to raise MTA fare and toll revenue — including implementing a flat fare for LIRR trips made between Long Island and New York City — will be the topic of a series of virtual public hearings that begin Tuesday. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is holding eight virtual public hearings through Dec....
The Mayor’s Office of ThriveNYC and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) announced that NYC Well, the City’s free helpline for mental health and substance use services, has responded to more than one million calls, texts, and chats from people seeking mental health support since launching in October 2016. During the COVID-19 pandemic,...
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday said that the city’s public schools will reopen on December 7 for 3-K, pre-K and kindergarten through fifth grade amid the pandemic. The announcement marks a major policy reversal for the nation's largest school system, less than two weeks after de Blasio, a Democrat, announced that...
Washington: The Centers for Disease Control on Wednesday urged Americans to postpone holiday travel after a busy Thanksgiving weekend that likely led to a further surge in coronavirus cases. “Cases are rising, hospitalizations are increasing and deaths are increasing,” said Henry Walke, the CDC’s Covid-19 incident manager during a press briefing. “We’re asking Americans to...
New York: Neera Tanden would become the first Indian American, and first woman of color, when confirmed, to head the influential Office of Management and Budget (OMB). But her formal nomination Tuesday by President-elect Joe Biden has drawn a fire of opposition from both Republicans and progressives alike. Currently she is the chief executive...
