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President Barack Obama is expected to announce Friday that he has created a "Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument" that includes parts of eastern Napa County.
The White House revealed Obama's intentions on Thursday in a press release embargoed until early Friday morning Eastern time. The release called the area "a biodiversity hot spot."
President Obama used his own authority on Friday to make it official: A vast and varied expanse stretching from just northeast of Napa, into Mendocino County, will become the Berryessa-Snow Mountain National Monument.
The designation, under the 1906 Antiquities Act, could create California's biggest national monument–slightly edging out the recently-designated San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in Southern California. Initial announcements carried conflicting versions of the monument's size, from just under 331,000 acres to nearly 360,000.
Family members of several people who were killed by gun violence in America — including the recent shooting at a South Carolina church — clutched photos of loved ones as they stood next to top Democrats as part of a call for stricter gun control measures on Wednesday.
Andre Duncan, who lost his aunt, Myra Thompson, in the Charleston shooting last month said he believes the tragedy "made Charleston much stronger than it ever was".
Thompson was killed June 17 along with eight other parishioners at Emanuel AME Church when a gunman opened fire during a bible study session.
The South Carolina legislature is taking steps to remove the Confederate flagfrom the statehouse grounds following the mass shooting at a historic African-American church in Charleston, but a group of congressmen are arguing the tragedy should prompt a greater response. Specifically, they argue it should give the U.S. Congress one more significant reason to take up gun control.
Family members of the nine people killed in last month's shooting in a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, traveled to the nation's capital Wednesday to turn their grief into action.
The families, accompanied by Charleston community leaders and advocates for more stringent gun laws, called on lawmakers in Congress to push for a vote on legislation that would expand background checks for gun sales.
Since the shooting in Charleston, S.C. that killed nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said America has for some reason become focused on the symbol of the Confederate battle flag.
"It's a very strong symbol, but the fact still remains that though this young man worshiped that symbol, he carried out his desolate act with a gun," he said of the alleged shooter, Dylann Storm Roof, during press conference Wednesday.
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson (D-CA) Gregg Harper (R-MS), Diane Black (R-TN) and Peter Welch (D-VT) today introduced H.R. 2948, the Medicare Telehealth Parity Act of 2015. The bipartisan legislation will expand coverage of telehealth services under Medicare by putting them on the path toward parity with in-person health care visits. The use of technology in health care has created new ways for practitioners and patients to deliver and access care.
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) and Congressmen Charles W. Boustany, Jr., MD, (R-LA) and Mike Thompson (D-CA) introduced bipartisan companion language in the House (H.R. 2911) and Senate (S. 1697) known as the Small Business Healthcare Relief Act to roll back existing Treasury Department guidance issued under the authority of the Affordable Care Act prohibiting the use of Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs). Boustany and Thompson introduced the legislation last Congress.
Medicare, which sends about $300 million annually to Napa County and helps thousands of local residents age 65 and older with their medical expenses, is 50 years old this month.
On Monday, the Napa Senior Activity Center hosted a small Medicare birthday party. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, came to cut a cake in honor of the program.
"Show of hands – how many people here are beneficiaries of Medicare?" Thompson said to a roomful of about 40 seniors eating lunch.
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5) today announced a $10,856,088 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grant for Child Start, Inc. The funds will be used to provide Head Start and Early Head Start services to children and families throughout Napa and Solano Counties. The award is the first of a 5-year grant which Child Start, Inc. won through a competitive process established by HHS. Child Start, Inc. will receive a grant of the same amount for the next four years.