Vaccination rates for U.S. kindergarteners are down again, and federal officials are launching a new campaign to try to bring them up. Usually, 94% to 95% of kindergarteners nationally are vaccinated against measles, tetanus, and certain other diseases. The vaccination rates dropped below 94% in the 2020-2021 school year. A new study finds they dropped again in the 2021-2022 school year, to about 93%. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the new data Thursday. This week, the CDC launched a campaign that includes new educational materials to help doctors talk to families about vaccinations.

Rising U.S. consumer prices moderated again last month, bolstering hopes that inflation's grip on the economy will continue to ease this year and possibly require less drastic action by the Federal Reserve to control it. Inflation declined to 6.5% in December compared with a year earlier. It was the sixth straight year-over-year slowdown. On a monthly basis, prices actually slipped 0.1% from November to December, the first such drop since May 2020. The softer readings add to growing signs that the worst inflation bout in four decades is steadily waning. Gas prices, which have tumbled, are likely to keep lowering overall inflation in the coming months.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve will push rates higher than previously expected and keep them there for an extended period, Chair Jerome…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Federal Reserve officials at their last meeting favored reducing the size of their interest rate hikes "soon''— just be…