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Bipartisan Senate Negotiators Say They Reach A Deal On Infrastructure After Hiccups

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  Bipartisan Senate negotiators said they have reached a deal on an infrastructure package, and a procedural vote on the measure is expected to take place Wednesday evening. GOP Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio told reporters the group reached agreement on the major issues and were still working on legislative text. "We are prepared to move forward," Portman said after the Republicans working on the deal met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who was leading talks for the 10 Democrats at the negotiating table, told reporters on Capitol Hill that "we are very excited to have a deal" and said that she had spoken with President Biden about it. Biden later told reporters he was "feeling confident" about the bill. In an address Wednesday afternoon at a truck plant in Pennsylvania, Biden added that he was working with Democrats and Republicans on the deal because "while there's a lot we don't agree on, I belie

State workers in New York must be vaccinated or get weekly tests, Cuomo says.

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Responding to lagging vaccination rates and a rise in coronavirus cases, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Wednesday that New York’s tens of thousands of state employees would be required to show proof of vaccination or face weekly testing. The governor also announced a much stricter mandate for state-run hospitals, saying that all “patient-facing” health care workers at those facilities would be required to be vaccinated, without the option of regular testing instead. Mr. Cuomo’s announcement comes two days after  Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a similar requirement for New York City’s government work force  of 300,000 employees. Much of the nation is grappling with the rapid spread of the Delta coronavirus variant. Earlier this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California announced his own requirement that would cover 246,000 state government employees, as well as two million health care workers in the public and private sectors. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will re