Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Gableman changes his mind about that Rindfleisch appeal #JohnDoe #JohnDoeII #JohnDoe2
“A Wisconsin Supreme Court justice on Tuesday withdrew his unusual request asking for his colleagues on the state’s highest court to review its decision not to hear an appeal of a felony conviction from a former aide to Gov. Scott Walker.” – source Interesting. I feel loathe to speculate about this turn of events because more »
Here’s how much money Jeb Bush made in the last 30 years
In a single 1,150-page swoop, Presidential candidate Jeb Bush released 33 years of his tax returns on Tuesday. The figures and facts show that he and his wife paid an overall average tax rate of 36% and that the last years in particular have been booming. Bush earned nearly $29 million dollars from 2007-2013, the eight years following his tenure as Florida governor. But in previous years, the middle Bush son saw some big ups and downs in income. (Note: this is his earned income, separate from any inheritance already in the bank.) Starting with the $43,498 he earned in 1981, here is a rare single-graph look at three decades in a well-known politician’s income.
The post Here’s how much money Jeb Bush made in the last 30 years appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Washington State’s Faustian Bargain to Fund Transit
Washington Governor Jay Inslee and state legislators have agreed to enable funding for a major Seattle transit expansion, but the deal comes with drawbacks.
The Sound Transit 3 package would fund a $15 billion light rail expansion. Photo: Wikimedia
If approved, the state would fund a $15 billion package of transportation projects and, separately, authorize Sound Transit to raise $15 billion to expand light rail via regional taxes.
Martin H. Duke at Seattle Transit Blog reports that, as a concession to Republican lawmakers, Inslee accepted a “poison pill” that would prevent the state from adopting low-carbon fuel standards.
In addition, Duke says the agreement would fund road-building projects that have support from Republicans and Democrats.
[T]he package doesn’t adequately fund highway maintenance and actually makes the problem worse by adding many more decaying lane-miles on SR 520, I-405, SR 167, and in North Spokane. Highway expansion is a futile response to congestion, encourages environmentally damaging driving, and literally destroys neighborhoods. About the only good thing to say about it is that it’s funded by gas taxes, which in a small way offsets a little of the environmental carnage.
The poison pill and the highway funding have turned off some environmental orgs, according to Duke, and they’re lobbying lawmakers to reject the deal.
Elsewhere on the Network today: Greater Greater Washington reports on potential cuts to Metro service, and Mobilizing the Region says Governor Chris Christie and state lawmakers have officially doomed New Jersey transit users to fare hikes and service cuts.
Introducing Cash Rewards: A New Way for Developers to Monetize
Today we’re excited to announce the new Affiliate Program. Starting tomorrow, US based developers can earn $5 (USD) for every new US-based Uber user they refer.
Since the initial launch of our API in August, we’ve seen an overwhelming amount of apps integrate with Uber’s API. As we continue to grow, our team is always looking for new ways to support our developers. Whether we’re building new endpoints that enable richer experiences or creating new ways to help developers generate revenue, we will continue to raise the bar on how we best support the developer community.
Creating Value
In addition to the Cash Rewards that developers can earn, we will be featuring some of the highest performing apps on our new showcase page.
As an app developer, we understand that creating a good user experience is essential, but the ability to monetize your app can be the difference between a side project and building a meaningful business. We hope that this new program will offer developers a meaningful new way to monetize their apps and raise awareness for their hard work. If you want to learn more about how you can get started, visit our Uber API Affiliate Program page to learn more.
Gov. Brown signs strict school vaccine legislation
California Jerry Brown has signed legislation on Tuesday in Sacramento to approve one of the most strictest school vaccine laws in the country.
The bill will require nearly all schoolchildren to be vaccinated, with Brown saying science has shown that vaccines do wonders to protect students.
Read the entire article HERE.
Monday, June 29, 2015
'Guardians Of The Galaxy' Sequel Gets Official Title
2014's "Guardians of the Galaxy" was a massive hit. Even before the movie managed to pull in close to $800,000,000 at the box office worldwide, we knew there was going to be a sequel (even before the movie hit theaters we knew there was going to be a sequel). Now that sequel has a name.
On Monday, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige let it slip to Collider that the much-anticipated sequel will be called "Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2," and filming is set to start sometime around February or March 2016.
Details surrounding the sequel have been kept hush, hush, but "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn confirmed the title via Twitter later in the day:
"Vol. 2" seems to be a reference to the mix tape that Peter Quill aka Star-Lord’s (Chris Pratt) mother gave him as a child. And it seems fitting since Gunn told Collider that the sequel would "focus more intensely on some of the characters," and that fans could expect to "learn a lot about fathers."
"Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2" is currently set to hit theaters May 5, 2017.
On Monday, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige let it slip to Collider that the much-anticipated sequel will be called "Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2," and filming is set to start sometime around February or March 2016.
Details surrounding the sequel have been kept hush, hush, but "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn confirmed the title via Twitter later in the day:
Yes, the official title for the @Guardians sequel is GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2. Nice detective work, @colliderfrosty, etc! You got us!
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) June 29, 2015"Vol. 2" seems to be a reference to the mix tape that Peter Quill aka Star-Lord’s (Chris Pratt) mother gave him as a child. And it seems fitting since Gunn told Collider that the sequel would "focus more intensely on some of the characters," and that fans could expect to "learn a lot about fathers."
"Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2" is currently set to hit theaters May 5, 2017.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Firefighters share survival story from diving trip
Three Opelika, Alabama firefighters are sharing the story of their 12-hour ordeal in the ocean off the coast of Pensacola, Florida after trouble occurred during a scuba diving trip. Bryan Densel, Michael Bass and Jeff Thompson became separated from their boat because of a storm and had to deal with 10 foot waves, dehydration, hypothermia and the possibility of sharks. They didn’t give up but they also thought they were not getting out of this adventure alive.
WTVM.com-Columbus, GA News Weather
Click here if video above fails to play
“We went down the anchor rope, we got disoriented and away from the anchor rope. We didn’t go far but the water clouded up so fast,” he
recalled.
When the divers surfaced, the current had carried them 300 yards from their boat. After several hours of hard swimming, the three men couldn’t overcome the current and get back to their vessel.So they banded together and began praying. They focused on their families and not the sharks.
“I felt a few bumps on my tank and I got nudged a few times, but like I said mentally the two things we were thinking about were our families and we also focused on not thinking about sharks,” he said.
Everything Is Papier-Mâché On 'True Detective' Episode 2
The season premiere of "True Detective" proved divisive last week, but entertainment editors Erin Whitney and Matthew Jacobs are sticking to their promise to discuss the show every Sunday. This week's episode dove slightly deeper into the mystery of Ben Caspare's death. The city manager's grizzly autopsy report prompted Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ani (Rachel McAdams) to question whether a penchant for prostitutes led to his demise. Meanwhile, we got an unsettling look at Paul's (Taylor Kitsch) family life, more of the series' noirish driving scenes, Frank (Vince Vaughn) worrying about his riches and a cliffhanger that could (rightfully) take the show in a whole other direction. Let's discuss.
Spoiler alert for "True Detective" Season 2, Episode 2, "Night Finds You."
Matthew Jacobs: Hi, Erin! We were pretty cruel toward last week's premiere, and the comments on our review seem to indicate a good number of people agreed with us. Then again, we were graced with a slew of ad hominem attacks on Twitter and via email, so clearly some of you took the episode as seriously as it took itself. Sadly, I don't think I'll be able to please the latter crop, so prep your aggression now, gracious readers.
I will say that Episode 2 was marginally better than the first. But hold on while I nod off as Frank moans about his self-made wealth ("Everything is papier-mâché" is an actual line uttered -- twice) and while Ray, Ani and Paul exchange vacant side glares as they examine Ben Caspere's body. On the other side lies the season's first intriguing scene: Paul's mother stroking his back and using what I assume is some sort of creepy euphemism when she tells him twice that he can have his "old room" if he spends the night. What is happening there? Give me more of that -- it actually feels like there is a character with layers on the screen and not hollow bodies who shepherd the vague plot from one phase to the next.
Erin Whitney: Before I jump into this and thus throw myself into the gladiator pit against "True Detective" defenders, let me at least say that I'm not simply comparing this week's new episode to Season 1. I will reference the initial season, though, because it's difficult not to mourn something great in the midst of watching the melodramatic scenes from this week's episode.
That opening sequence where Frank recalls his childhood with his drunk father is painful to watch, but in the wrong way. What should play as a poignant emotional moment is instead drenched in cheap desperation. Way longer than necessary, the scene feels like it's ripped straight out of an actor's guidebook to auditioning: the hardened criminal shows his vulnerability by recounting memories of his abusive daddy locking him in the basement. Pizzolatto has somehow lost all sense of subtlety in his writing to the point that I can't help but wonder if he's playing a joke on us.
Jump ahead to the car scenes between Ray and Ani and the group meeting between all three detectives. Each of these plays like a parody of Season 1 and, in general, much of quality television. Their conversations seem superfluous, or at least insignificant to the plot at hand. They don't reveal any distinct or deeper qualities about the characters. Part of me thinks Pizzolatto has completely flipped his writing style to subvert our expectations of what TV should be, which is what Matt Johnston claimed in his Business Insider review. Even so, that's not remotely engaging or serving any storytelling or symbolic purpose (at least not yet). I pray my mind will be changed by the end of the season -- I desperately want to be in awe of this show. But so far, I'm simply not convinced.
Matt: I can't say I buy that there is that much self-awareness at play, but I've seen others make arguments about its meta relationship to prestige programming, too. The show doesn't seem to realize what it's lacking, which is a sense of identity within the world it depicts. Every location featured is a grubby, nondescript part of this fictional LA-adjacent town, and without color from local denizens drifting through the background, it is rendered culture-less. That's why I griped about the freeway shots last week -- they reflect the web of plots the show has weaved, but do little to immerse us in what makes this town tick and why Caspere's disappearance is worth eight talky hours of television. The same goes for the car scenes, where Ray and Ani carry on meaningless conversations that don't unearth much about their worldviews or the communities they defend. And that green screen? HBO, please tell me the screeners you provided to press still needed color-correction work, because damn. If we thought the aerial shots do nothing for the season's world-building, just look at the streets these characters drive down.
I thought the scene with Paul's mother accomplished what most of the others did not in hinting at a mysterious backstory that we actually want to take the time to understand. I criticized his suicidal bender last week, but could Paul actually be the season's best character? Not that he has much competition: I still don't understand much about Ani and it seems like the show thinks we know more about Frank than we actually do, while Ray is so on the nose that I understand far too much about him. But wait! Maybe he's dead? Those final few moments were pretty gripping, and it could point to interesting things to come. But I find it hard to believe he's actually a goner.
Erin: I enjoyed the scene between Paul and his mother as well and finally began to feel a sense of discomfort, which is something this season has lacked so far. But I also really loved the final scene with Ray in Caspere's secret home. The animal masks and vintage radio amped up the (possible) presence of the occult, and things were just starting to get interesting. Like you said, I can't imagine the season killing off its lead character just yet. Still, it feels a bit cheap to tease audiences with such a big cliffhanger so early on.
The lack of identity you mention is my main criticism of the first two episodes overall. This season has no sense of place, which is surprising for a plot so grounded in a distinct locale. The corruption and grimy immorality of last season hung over every episode, reminding viewers of the horrors of world Rust and Marty were immersed in. It's fine that Season 2 isn't trying to recreate that feeling, but it makes the atmosphere that much less intriguing. Why care about a kidnapped official from a city no one cares for in the first place? Even after two episodes, I still don't feel like we've witnessed enough of the idiosyncrasies of the fictional Vinci -- I'm longing to see more of it, but the low-quality crushing car scenes and brief shots of factories do little to characterize it. Whatever happens moving forward, I hope that final scene pays off in a major way.
Matt: It gave me the sense that Ray knew more than the audience did. There was a certain comfort on his face as he lurked through Caspere's home, implying his power-abusing corruption might extend to the expired city manager. That would give his need to retain custody over his possibly illegitimate son -- the part of his life that he sees as a saving grace -- a sense of purpose that stretches beyond clichéd daddy issues. Conversely, maybe he's working to crush Frank's entire operation after spending so much time indebted to him. That's a script-flipping I'd sign on for. Either would ground the mystery by contouring the good-or-evil debate the show hasn't convinced us to invest in regarding these characters. Maybe this is Season 2's turning point. Here's to hoping for a more immersive discussion next week.
Erin: The possibility of Ray withholding information and/or conning Frank all along is the most exciting theory yet, and one that could quickly turn me into a fan of this season. I've wondered whether scrutinizing this show episode by episode may hurt our perception of it. Last season I fell so deeply down the rabbit hole of uncovering the Yellow King's identity that I nearly lost sight of the overall story at hand. While I'm still skeptical, I am going to try to pull back a bit and let the next few episodes wash over me, and hopefully they will surprise us both.
"True Detective" airs on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET on HBO.
Spoiler alert for "True Detective" Season 2, Episode 2, "Night Finds You."
Matthew Jacobs: Hi, Erin! We were pretty cruel toward last week's premiere, and the comments on our review seem to indicate a good number of people agreed with us. Then again, we were graced with a slew of ad hominem attacks on Twitter and via email, so clearly some of you took the episode as seriously as it took itself. Sadly, I don't think I'll be able to please the latter crop, so prep your aggression now, gracious readers.
I will say that Episode 2 was marginally better than the first. But hold on while I nod off as Frank moans about his self-made wealth ("Everything is papier-mâché" is an actual line uttered -- twice) and while Ray, Ani and Paul exchange vacant side glares as they examine Ben Caspere's body. On the other side lies the season's first intriguing scene: Paul's mother stroking his back and using what I assume is some sort of creepy euphemism when she tells him twice that he can have his "old room" if he spends the night. What is happening there? Give me more of that -- it actually feels like there is a character with layers on the screen and not hollow bodies who shepherd the vague plot from one phase to the next.
Erin Whitney: Before I jump into this and thus throw myself into the gladiator pit against "True Detective" defenders, let me at least say that I'm not simply comparing this week's new episode to Season 1. I will reference the initial season, though, because it's difficult not to mourn something great in the midst of watching the melodramatic scenes from this week's episode.
That opening sequence where Frank recalls his childhood with his drunk father is painful to watch, but in the wrong way. What should play as a poignant emotional moment is instead drenched in cheap desperation. Way longer than necessary, the scene feels like it's ripped straight out of an actor's guidebook to auditioning: the hardened criminal shows his vulnerability by recounting memories of his abusive daddy locking him in the basement. Pizzolatto has somehow lost all sense of subtlety in his writing to the point that I can't help but wonder if he's playing a joke on us.
Jump ahead to the car scenes between Ray and Ani and the group meeting between all three detectives. Each of these plays like a parody of Season 1 and, in general, much of quality television. Their conversations seem superfluous, or at least insignificant to the plot at hand. They don't reveal any distinct or deeper qualities about the characters. Part of me thinks Pizzolatto has completely flipped his writing style to subvert our expectations of what TV should be, which is what Matt Johnston claimed in his Business Insider review. Even so, that's not remotely engaging or serving any storytelling or symbolic purpose (at least not yet). I pray my mind will be changed by the end of the season -- I desperately want to be in awe of this show. But so far, I'm simply not convinced.
Matt: I can't say I buy that there is that much self-awareness at play, but I've seen others make arguments about its meta relationship to prestige programming, too. The show doesn't seem to realize what it's lacking, which is a sense of identity within the world it depicts. Every location featured is a grubby, nondescript part of this fictional LA-adjacent town, and without color from local denizens drifting through the background, it is rendered culture-less. That's why I griped about the freeway shots last week -- they reflect the web of plots the show has weaved, but do little to immerse us in what makes this town tick and why Caspere's disappearance is worth eight talky hours of television. The same goes for the car scenes, where Ray and Ani carry on meaningless conversations that don't unearth much about their worldviews or the communities they defend. And that green screen? HBO, please tell me the screeners you provided to press still needed color-correction work, because damn. If we thought the aerial shots do nothing for the season's world-building, just look at the streets these characters drive down.
I thought the scene with Paul's mother accomplished what most of the others did not in hinting at a mysterious backstory that we actually want to take the time to understand. I criticized his suicidal bender last week, but could Paul actually be the season's best character? Not that he has much competition: I still don't understand much about Ani and it seems like the show thinks we know more about Frank than we actually do, while Ray is so on the nose that I understand far too much about him. But wait! Maybe he's dead? Those final few moments were pretty gripping, and it could point to interesting things to come. But I find it hard to believe he's actually a goner.
Erin: I enjoyed the scene between Paul and his mother as well and finally began to feel a sense of discomfort, which is something this season has lacked so far. But I also really loved the final scene with Ray in Caspere's secret home. The animal masks and vintage radio amped up the (possible) presence of the occult, and things were just starting to get interesting. Like you said, I can't imagine the season killing off its lead character just yet. Still, it feels a bit cheap to tease audiences with such a big cliffhanger so early on.
The lack of identity you mention is my main criticism of the first two episodes overall. This season has no sense of place, which is surprising for a plot so grounded in a distinct locale. The corruption and grimy immorality of last season hung over every episode, reminding viewers of the horrors of world Rust and Marty were immersed in. It's fine that Season 2 isn't trying to recreate that feeling, but it makes the atmosphere that much less intriguing. Why care about a kidnapped official from a city no one cares for in the first place? Even after two episodes, I still don't feel like we've witnessed enough of the idiosyncrasies of the fictional Vinci -- I'm longing to see more of it, but the low-quality crushing car scenes and brief shots of factories do little to characterize it. Whatever happens moving forward, I hope that final scene pays off in a major way.
Matt: It gave me the sense that Ray knew more than the audience did. There was a certain comfort on his face as he lurked through Caspere's home, implying his power-abusing corruption might extend to the expired city manager. That would give his need to retain custody over his possibly illegitimate son -- the part of his life that he sees as a saving grace -- a sense of purpose that stretches beyond clichéd daddy issues. Conversely, maybe he's working to crush Frank's entire operation after spending so much time indebted to him. That's a script-flipping I'd sign on for. Either would ground the mystery by contouring the good-or-evil debate the show hasn't convinced us to invest in regarding these characters. Maybe this is Season 2's turning point. Here's to hoping for a more immersive discussion next week.
Erin: The possibility of Ray withholding information and/or conning Frank all along is the most exciting theory yet, and one that could quickly turn me into a fan of this season. I've wondered whether scrutinizing this show episode by episode may hurt our perception of it. Last season I fell so deeply down the rabbit hole of uncovering the Yellow King's identity that I nearly lost sight of the overall story at hand. While I'm still skeptical, I am going to try to pull back a bit and let the next few episodes wash over me, and hopefully they will surprise us both.
"True Detective" airs on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET on HBO.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Black churches in the South reportedly targeted by arsonists
Six predominantly black churches in various cities in the South caught fire this week, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Three of the fires have been confirmed as cases of arson, two were likely accidental, and authorities are still investigating the cause of another.
The College Hills Seventh Day Adventist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee erupted into flames early Monday morning. The Knoxville Fire Department said an arsonist deliberately set fires in multiple locations around the church, according to local news station WATE.
Arson under investigation at African-American church in Knoxville – @ROOK_WATE's story @ 11 http://t.co/NRlbbVrwf8 pic.twitter.com/qcxbZFxJtN
— WATE 6 On Your Side (@6News) June 22, 2015
The next day, a church in Macon, Georgia that has been the target of burglaries in the past was set on fire as well.
God’s Power Church of Christ caught fire on Tuesday morning. TheMacon-Bibb County Fire Department told media that their investigation has confirmed the fire was set deliberately.
Chief Riggins: cause of church fire is suspicious. Live at 6 with more @13wmaznews pic.twitter.com/L1XZTsq4DY
— Claire Davis (@rclairedavis) June 23, 2015
Macon church fire ruled arson (via @justmcduffie): http://t.co/QzJ8RtSeu0 pic.twitter.com/WhZg9zwH6a
— 13WMAZ News (@13wmaznews) June 26, 2015
Early Wednesday, the Briar Creek Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina was found engulfed in flames, resulting in an estimated $250,000 in damage, according to the Associated Press. Firefighters determined the blaze was also purposefully set.
Church pastor: "No lives were lost. When I think about that, I'm extremely grateful." http://t.co/COuuHqUnrP pic.twitter.com/HpKe2dYtA0
— Ronnie Glassberg (@ronnieglassberg) June 26, 2015
The Glover Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Warrenville, South Carolina was destroyed by fire early Friday morning. State authorities and the FBI are both looking for a cause, the AP reported.
The historically black church in Warrenville was a two and a half hour drive from charleston’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, where nine were killed on June 17.
#Fire under investigation at predominantly black church in #Warrenville: http://t.co/1p2BGDU19n @AikenSheriff pic.twitter.com/1DnelIy5Fu
— Aiken Standard (@aikenstandard) June 27, 2015
Here are photos from the Glover Grove Baptist Church fire: http://t.co/iNWwGwKvfd pic.twitter.com/eO6ZMOo0NN
— Aiken Standard (@aikenstandard) June 26, 2015
The Fruitland Presbyterian Church in Gibson County, Tennessee burned down Wednesday, potentially due to lightning, though the cause is still under investigation, and the Greater Miracle Temple Apostolic Holiness Church in Tallahassee, Florida burned on Friday because of a downed electrical wire, local news stations reported.
Arson attacks on black churches became more frequent in the mid-to-late 1900s. Congress passed a law in 1996 that heightened the punishment for arson of a religious organization. The Atlantic chronicled this period of violence in an article written following the June 17 attack in Charleston.
A manifesto that was allegedly penned by Dylan Roof, the shooter in the attack at Charleston’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, said that Roof specifically chose the city because of its rich black history.
Mother Emanuel itself was burned to the ground by white supremacists in 1822.
The post Black churches in the South reportedly targeted by arsonists appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Early video: Pit bull mom & 7 puppies saved at body shop fire
Early video from LOUDLABS NEWS taken during a fire yesterday (Saturday) morning that started in the yard of an auto body shop in Compton, California. Firefighters were able to save seven 13-day old pit bull puppies and their mother but another dog died due to the fire. News coverage is here.
Pre-arrival video: Fire in hot tub building on 21st floor of Manhattan high-rise
UPDATE
Despite news reports to the contrary, the high-rise fire in Manhattan yesterday (Saturday) afternoon at 100 Riverside Boulevard did occur in a Trump building. The pre-arrival video above is from Brian Chambers and shows the fire burning in a hot tub building on the 21st floor of The Avery. No injuries reported. News coverage here.
EARLIER
In Manhattan this (Saturday) afternoon a fire at Trump Place on the Upper West Side.
Billowing black smoke was seen pouring out of the 21st floor of the high-rise building on West End Avenue near 65th Street just before 1 p.m.
The FDNY confirmed that the fire started on the terrace and was quickly contained.
huge fire on west side highway (I took this video) pic.twitter.com/Q11sw1Bru5
— sophie morello (@sophiee_annee_) June 27, 2015
Fire at #TrumpTower on Upper West Side http://t.co/C2IVxN4yFF #NewYork #UpperWestSide pic.twitter.com/CoqvQieT8Z
— Alan Smithee (@Negation2010) June 27, 2015
BREAKING: Fire on 21st floor of Trump Towers apartments on Manhattan’s upper west side via @FDNY #NYFire pic.twitter.com/RIfTasmxne
— John Bell (@NewsBell) June 27, 2015
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Why Send Humans To Space When We Can Send Robots?
We live in an exciting era. For the first time in half a century, we are embroiled in another great space race. With each passing day our understanding of ourselves and our universe allows for massive innovations in the fields of science and technology, such as computers that are learning to program themselves or developing cures for medical scourges of humanity like cancer or AIDS.
In the midst of these breakthroughs, it can be difficult to step back and approach such developments not only with a sense of wonder, but also with a critical eye. Perhaps the most crucial question of our times is: “At what cost?” It’s a question which despite its importance is nevertheless asked far too infrequently. Going to space is great, of course. But what does it mean for the future of humanity when the exploration of the final frontier is subject solely to the whims of corporations? Our scientific breakthroughs are undoubtedly astounding. But who is funding them and what are their motives?
In the midst of these breakthroughs, it can be difficult to step back and approach such developments not only with a sense of wonder, but also with a critical eye. Perhaps the most crucial question of our times is: “At what cost?” It’s a question which despite its importance is nevertheless asked far too infrequently. Going to space is great, of course. But what does it mean for the future of humanity when the exploration of the final frontier is subject solely to the whims of corporations? Our scientific breakthroughs are undoubtedly astounding. But who is funding them and what are their motives?
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
One-third of Greek ATMs temporarily run dry after referendum proposal
People line up at an ATM outside a National Bank branch in Athens, Greece early June 27, 2015. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a referendum on bailout demands from foreign creditors on Saturday, rejecting an “ultimatum” from lenders and putting a deal that could determine Greece’s future in Europe to a risky popular vote. Photo by Yiannis Panagopoulos/Eurokinissi/Reuters
More than one in three ATMs in Greece ran out of cash at some point Saturday as banks struggled to provide enough euro banknotes to keep the machines running while people scrambled to withdraw money.
The run on ATMs followed Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ call for a referendum on austerity terms demanded by the indebted country’s lenders, throwing debt negotiations into disarray and placing Greece on the verge of default.
Anxious Greeks withdrew around half a billion Euros, and long lines formed as people waited for technicians to refill the machines — including a roughly 40-person line for an ATM inside the Greek parliament, Reuters reported.
If Tsipras’ left-wing government fails to reach a deal with eurozone finance ministers to extend an expiring bailout program, the stage is set for Greece to default on a crucial International Monetary Fund payment Tuesday.
The post One-third of Greek ATMs temporarily run dry after referendum proposal appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
An Egyptian TV Show Pranked Paris Hilton With A Horrific Fake Plane Crash, And She Was Not Happy
Paris Hilton recently appeared on Egyptian actor Ramez Galal's prank show, "Ramez in Control" ("Ramez Wakel Elgaw") and was subjected to a terrifying hoax.
A YouTube video from an episode of "Ramez in Control" shows Hilton in Dubai for the opening of a new hotel. Midway through the episode, the celebrity is invited on a jet for a 15-minute aerial tour of the city with Galal and other passengers. A few minutes after the plane is in the air, the pilot begins doing stunts that make it appear as if the plane is crashing.
In the video, Hilton and the other passengers begin to panic and scream as an alarm goes off and the plane appears to plummet. One passenger opens up the jet's side door and tosses a man out as Hilton screams "No" and "I don't want to jump."
The faked crash footage -- which is very disturbing to watch -- goes on for more than five minutes as Hilton continues to scream and cry, looking genuinely terrified. After the plane lands safely, Galal tells Hilton he is an Egyptian actor and that the crash was just a prank. It appears Hilton wasn't in on the joke, as she seems surprised and confused before yelling at the host, "I'm going to kill you."
"I almost thought I was going to die," she says, crying. "That's been my biggest fear my whole life, dying in a plane."
It's unclear when this episode of "Ramez in Control" originally aired, but Galal has pulled this prank -- and others -- during the past four Ramadans. Another video posted to YouTube includes a preview of various people involved in the plane crash hoax.
The show faced cancelation earlier this year, but not because of how upsetting the pranks appear to be for the show's victims. According to website Albawaba, Egypt's prosecutor general filed a lawsuit against Galal for reportedly "stealing the show's idea from Prosecutor General Ashraf Atef."
Previously, the host has tricked guests into believing they were being eaten by live sharks in the ocean, so clearly, Galal has no limits.
The Huffington Post could not immediately reach Hilton's reps for comment.
A YouTube video from an episode of "Ramez in Control" shows Hilton in Dubai for the opening of a new hotel. Midway through the episode, the celebrity is invited on a jet for a 15-minute aerial tour of the city with Galal and other passengers. A few minutes after the plane is in the air, the pilot begins doing stunts that make it appear as if the plane is crashing.
In the video, Hilton and the other passengers begin to panic and scream as an alarm goes off and the plane appears to plummet. One passenger opens up the jet's side door and tosses a man out as Hilton screams "No" and "I don't want to jump."
The faked crash footage -- which is very disturbing to watch -- goes on for more than five minutes as Hilton continues to scream and cry, looking genuinely terrified. After the plane lands safely, Galal tells Hilton he is an Egyptian actor and that the crash was just a prank. It appears Hilton wasn't in on the joke, as she seems surprised and confused before yelling at the host, "I'm going to kill you."
"I almost thought I was going to die," she says, crying. "That's been my biggest fear my whole life, dying in a plane."
It's unclear when this episode of "Ramez in Control" originally aired, but Galal has pulled this prank -- and others -- during the past four Ramadans. Another video posted to YouTube includes a preview of various people involved in the plane crash hoax.
The show faced cancelation earlier this year, but not because of how upsetting the pranks appear to be for the show's victims. According to website Albawaba, Egypt's prosecutor general filed a lawsuit against Galal for reportedly "stealing the show's idea from Prosecutor General Ashraf Atef."
Previously, the host has tricked guests into believing they were being eaten by live sharks in the ocean, so clearly, Galal has no limits.
The Huffington Post could not immediately reach Hilton's reps for comment.
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Virtual reality shows how dangerous it is to drive drunk and stoned
Looking inside the dome of the National Advanced Driving Simulator -1. Photo by University of Iowa National Advanced Driving Simulator
Virtual reality is shedding light on the dangers of driving stoned.
Currently in the U.S., police officers have limited resources to assess just how high a person is when driving under the influence of marijuana. Also unclear is the degree to which driving both drunk and stoned – the most common combination of substances seen among DUI cases — impairs one’s ability to pilot a vehicle.
Marilyn Huestis, a scientist at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, used the National Advanced Driving Simulator to tackle these issues one virtual road trip at a time.
The simulator consists of a car surrounded by a dome. Inside the dome is a 360-degree screen displaying the outside virtual world. The dome can tilt and move, mimicking the sensation of accelerating and braking.
This study was the first to record people’s saliva, blood and breath samples before, during and after driving under the influence. In the U.S., the only way to identify the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, in a driver’s body is through blood samples. These samples are typically taken 90 minutes to four hours after being pulled over. However, other countries use saliva samples, which provide more rapid results.
The team began by asking occasional marijuana and alcohol users to participate in a 45-minute driving simulation. Each participant drove the simulator multiple times under various states of inebriation: sober, after inhaling THC, after drinking alcohol, and under the influence of both THC and alcohol. The route changed each session, but always included interstate driving and city driving at nighttime.
Among the researcher’s findings: THC impairs the ability to stay within traffic lanes.
“A concentration of 13.1 nanograms per milliliter THC was an equivalent impairment to that of the illegal limit for alcohol at 0.08 percent at the time of driving,” said Huestis, lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
To put that in perspective, THC levels peak around 100 to 200 nanograms per milliliter within minutes of inhalation, but drop drastically into the single digits within a couple hours. Because of this plummet, the THC concentration measured while driving is much higher than what you would find in blood drawn hours after being suspected of driving under the influence.
This study found that the effects of driving both high and drunk were additive, meaning that if you smoke a joint and drink a beer, you are more impaired than if you had only smoked.
A view from inside the dome of the National Advanced Driving Simulator – 1. Photo by University of Iowa National Advanced Driving Simulator
Researchers also studied the effectiveness of roadside exams at detecting THC. In the U.S., if an officer suspects someone is driving while high, they are required by law to take the driver to a hospital to secure a blood sample. However, in Belgium, officers take an oral swab during the arrest that gets tested at the scene and later in a lab. Meanwhile In Germany, if someone tests positive for THC during a roadside saliva test, they have to submit a blood sample to confirm.
The team found that two saliva tests for THC — Dräger DrugTest® 5000 and Alere DDS2 — were as accurate as blood testing. The saliva tests remained accurate when participants were under the influence of both THC and alcohol.
A view from the outside of the National Advanced Driving Simulator – 1. The virtual screen and car sit inside the dome. Photo credit: University of Iowa National Advanced Driving Simulator
They also found that alcohol increases the body’s ability to absorb THC, meaning that you get more stoned if you smoke while drinking versus if you smoke while sober.
“When alcohol was present with cannabis, you had a significantly higher of peak THC,” Huestis said.
Cannabis also slows the rate at which alcohol is metabolized, dulling concentration. If you smoke before you drink, you’ll have to wait longer to sober up.
The post Virtual reality shows how dangerous it is to drive drunk and stoned appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
The presidential clown car: Trump trumps Walker, Bernie’s coming to WI, Jill Stein is in, and More
TRUMP ON TOP A FOX poll puts Jeb at #1 and Trump at #2 in New Hampshire. Scott Walker is not in the top. This Politico article says that the numbers are too good to be true and quotes pollsters who say “Everybody should calm down“. Whatever the case, I’m still going to take pleasure more »
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Taiwan Water Park Fire Leaves Over 200 Wounded
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A fire on a music stage spread into a crowd of spectators at a party Saturday night at a Taiwan water park, injuring more than 200 people, authorities said.
An accidental explosion of an unknown powder set off the fire near the stage in front of about 1,000 spectators, said Wang Wei-sheng, a liaison with the New Taipei City fire department command center.
Rescue workers tend to injured people at the Formosa Fun Coast amusement park after an explosion in the Pali district of New Taipei City on June 27, 2015. (AFP/Getty Images)
Wang said 83 people had serious injuries and 131 others have light injuries.
Taiwan's Central News Agency reported the fire at the Formosa Water Park in New Taipei City near the island's capital was quickly brought under control.
People carry an injured man at the Formosa Fun Coast amusement park after an explosion in the Pali district of New Taipei City on June 27, 2015. (AFP/Getty Images)
Video showed rescue workers and bystanders carrying burned and injured people on their backs, in inflatable boats and on stretchers to get medical treatment.
CNA reported witnesses as saying the fire spread quickly after the colored powder was blown into the air.
It wasn't clear if the colored powder was part of a performance. The cause of the fire is being investigated.
An accidental explosion of an unknown powder set off the fire near the stage in front of about 1,000 spectators, said Wang Wei-sheng, a liaison with the New Taipei City fire department command center.
Wang said 83 people had serious injuries and 131 others have light injuries.
Taiwan's Central News Agency reported the fire at the Formosa Water Park in New Taipei City near the island's capital was quickly brought under control.
Video showed rescue workers and bystanders carrying burned and injured people on their backs, in inflatable boats and on stretchers to get medical treatment.
CNA reported witnesses as saying the fire spread quickly after the colored powder was blown into the air.
It wasn't clear if the colored powder was part of a performance. The cause of the fire is being investigated.
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Fire At Black South Carolila Church Investigated
WARRENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Federal and state investigators are looking into a fire that destroyed a predominantly black church in South Carolina.
Local media outlets report the fire destroyed the Glover Grove Missionary Baptist Church in the small town of Warrenville on Friday morning.
Aiken County sheriff's deputies and agents from the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are looking into the fire.
Capt. Eric Abdullah, public information officer for the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, said no cause has been determined, and his office has given the case to investigators from SLED.
Recent fires have already caused damage to predominantly black churches in Charlotte, North Carolina and Macon, Georgia. In those instances, investigators say the fires were deliberately set.
Warrenville is 15 miles northeast of Augusta, Georgia.
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Engineers create collapsible battery powered with the help of dirty water
Engineers at Binghamton University created a paper origami biobattery that gets its charge from a drop of dirty water. Photo by Seokheun “Sean” Choi/Binghamton University
Two engineers at Binghamton University have developed a collapsible, bacteria-powered battery that uses the ancient Japanese paper folding art of origami, a report in the July issue of Nano Energy announced.
A drop of bacteria-laden liquid acts as a catalyst to power the paper battery, which folds into a square and costs five cents to make, according to its creator.
“Our simple and cheap origami biobattery is expected to be used especially in resource limited regions as a power source for other small devices like biosensors,” Seokheun “Sean” Choi, the battery’s creator and a professor at Binghamton, told PBS NewsHour.
For now, the battery is in the beginning stages of development.
Biobatteries (also known as microbial fuel cells) that generate electricity with the help of fuels like sugar glucose and even urine have been lauded for their ability to provide portable power sources, according to the November 2013 paper “The Future of Energy Bio Battery,” published in the International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology.
Choi’s creation could be used together with paper biosensors as part of a low-cost diagnostic device. One potential application of such a device is as a cost-effective disease testing kit for use in parts of the world with scant resources.
Biobatteries also have renewable and biodegradable components that forego the heavy metals used in traditional batteries, which can be hazardous to human health and the environment. Stormwater and sewer water fuel Choi’s battery.
Although similar batteries have been written about before in science journals, Shelley D. Minteer, USTAR Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science & Engineering at the University of Utah told PBS NewsHour this was the first report of a paper-based battery using an electrode coated in bacteria to power up.
“It is a creative and interesting design that has broad application for self-powered biosensors,” she said of the new battery created by Choi and his student, Hankeun Lee.
The four steps based on origami principles Choi and Lee used to fold up their biobattery. Image drawn by Jiaqi Zhang
These compact batteries do have their limitations. Since they are powered by living organisms, they must have the ideal conditions to grow and reproduce those organisms, Minteer said. In addition, the batteries have less energy density than chemical batteries as they become diluted by the water being added to them.
“These power sources are not going to be good for replacing grid power (not high enough power density),” Minteer said, “but will be ideal for powering biosensors, sensor networks, etc., where replacing batteries is not always feasible or practical.”
For more than 25 years, scientists have looked beyond the aesthetics of origami and at the math and science behind it to develop solutions to problems in fields like medicine.
Former physicist Robert Lang created a folding telescope, as well as a heart stent by using the design principles of origami. In 1995, scientists used the method to fold and deploy a solar panel array for a Japanese satellite.
Most recently, researchers at MIT created a mini origami robot that builds itself, digs, swims, climbs and carries, and then mostly dissolves when it is done.
The post Engineers create collapsible battery powered with the help of dirty water appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
IMF Has More Advice for U.S. Federal Reserve
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) made headlines earlier this month when it cut its estimates for U.S. growth and suggested the Federal Reserve should not raise interest rates until next year. Thursday the IMF followed up with a suggestion that the Fed should stop publishing the “dots” every three months. The Fed’s dot plot shows the [...]
A Fan Rushed The Stage During Kanye West's Glastonbury Festival Set
Sorry Kanye, but this fan doesn't want to let you finish.
During Kanye West's set at the Glastonbury Festival in Worthy Farm, England, on Saturday a man rushed the stage and began mocking the rapper. The man -- since revealed as English comedian Simon Brodkin, who performs as the character Lee Nelson -- came onstage during West's performance of "Black Skinhead." West continued rapping briefly, then stopped, throwing his hands in the air, as a security guard removed Brodkin. West then started the song over.
Brodkin, as Nelson, tweeted about why he interrupted the performance, saying that it was in response to festivalgoers' petition to remove West from the lineup. The petition, signed by almost 135,000 people, requested that West be replaced by a rock band. Before his performance Saturday, the "All Day" rapper told Q Magazine that the petition was "an insult to music fans all over the world."
Here's the stage rush again, because why not watch it on loop?
Image via Tumblr
During Kanye West's set at the Glastonbury Festival in Worthy Farm, England, on Saturday a man rushed the stage and began mocking the rapper. The man -- since revealed as English comedian Simon Brodkin, who performs as the character Lee Nelson -- came onstage during West's performance of "Black Skinhead." West continued rapping briefly, then stopped, throwing his hands in the air, as a security guard removed Brodkin. West then started the song over.
Brodkin, as Nelson, tweeted about why he interrupted the performance, saying that it was in response to festivalgoers' petition to remove West from the lineup. The petition, signed by almost 135,000 people, requested that West be replaced by a rock band. Before his performance Saturday, the "All Day" rapper told Q Magazine that the petition was "an insult to music fans all over the world."
Some people were saying Kanye shouldn't headline Glastonbury so I thought I'd give him a hand. pic.twitter.com/7KFk2kgjsM
— Lee Nelson (@RealLeeNelson) June 27, 2015Here's the stage rush again, because why not watch it on loop?
Image via Tumblr
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If I Find an Abandoned Baby, Can I Keep It?
Welcome to the new FindLaw series, "If I Find," where we'll discuss the rule of finders keepers as it applies to different topics. We hope you'll check back regularly! When Quasimodo was left on the doorstep of Notre Dame,...
Friday, June 26, 2015
Former HHS Secretary Sebelius says health law strengthened with latest Supreme Court decision
Kathleen Sebelius speaks during a business of health conversation at the Aspen Institute last year. Today, also in Aspen, Colo., the former Health and Human Services Secretary lauded the Supreme Court’s decision to continue subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images
ASPEN, Colo. — The Supreme Court decision on Thursday that allows insurance subsidies to continue flowing through the federal exchange was the “strongest possible” ruling for ensuring Obamacare survives into the future, former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Friday at the Aspen Ideas Festival.
Sebelius, who oversaw Obamacare’s passage and rocky implementation, told the NewsHour that the the decision will strengthen the law against leadership changes in the future.
SEBELIUS: The Chevron precedent (Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.) would have meant that the Court could have said, ‘We deferred to the IRS, the IRS determined that all marketplaces should have subsidies, and we defer to the agency. If that had been the basis for the decision, the next administration, with a different head of IRS, could have made a different interpretation, and could have reversed that saying, ‘Yes, in the Obama administration, the IRS ruled this way, but we ruled differently.’ But they didn’t use agency deference as the rationale. They used the way the law was written. So they found that the basis of the law meant that all exchanges should be eligible for subsidies. So it could have been a bit more tenuous. If the Chevron precedent had been used it could have been overturned in the future, this is now a ruling on the law itself. So absent repeal, it stands.
NEWSHOUR: How are you personally feeling about the decision?
SEBELIUS: You know, a lot of people always talk about what this says to the president, or how I feel. And we’ve been the lucky ones. I’ve always had affordable health care. But I get stopped on the street every day. I get stopped in the grocery store. I get stopped on an airplane. And people immediately tell me their story about their mother, their kid, themselves, and say, ‘This has changed my life. I can do things.’ There is a wonderful diner now open in Lawrence, Kan., the Ladybird Diner. Meg Heriford is the head of it. She was a waitress in a very popular restaurant down the street, when she opened her diner, and I was there eating her fabulous pies for the first time. She said, ‘I could only do this because of the Affordable Care Act. I have a preexisting health condition. I could not leave my job because I would never be insured. Having this law pass meant that I could fulfill my lifetime dream and open a diner.’ It’s wildly popular. She’s very happy. But I think that story is repeated now 10 million times. And it’s really fabulous.
The post Former HHS Secretary Sebelius says health law strengthened with latest Supreme Court decision appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
St. Louis Fire Department ambulance struck by bullet
The crew on the St. Louis Fire Department ambulance heard what they thought were either gunshots or fireworks Tuesday night as they drove in the 5900 block of Romaine in North St. Louis. They discovered this morning that it wasn’t fireworks.
Click here if the video above fails to play
The emergency crew contacted police to report the shots at approximately 11:45 p.m., but no victims or suspects were located.
On Wednesday morning, the crew discovered the ambulance they were in Tuesday night had ballistic damage, according to police.
Supreme Court upholds nationwide health care law subsidies
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court sent a clear message Thursday that President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul is here to stay, rejecting a major challenge that would have imperiled the landmark law and health insurance for millions of Americans.
Whether you call it the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, or in the words of a dissenting justice, SCOTUScare, Obama’s signature domestic achievement is, as the president himself put it, “reality.”
The 6-3 ruling, which upheld financial aid to millions of low- and middle-income Americans to help pay for insurance premiums regardless of where they live, was the second major victory in three years for Obama in politically charged Supreme Court tests of the law. And it came on the same day the court gave him an unexpected victory on another subject, preserving a key tool the administration uses to fight housing bias.
Obama greeted news of the health care decision by declaring the law is no longer about politics but the benefits millions of people are receiving. “This is no longer about a law,” he said in the White House Rose Garden. “This is health care in America.”
Declining to concede, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said Republicans, who have voted more than 50 times to undo the law, will “continue our efforts to repeal the law and replace it with patient-centered solutions that meet the needs of seniors, small business owners, and middle-class families.” However, he declined to commit to a vote this year.
Several Republican presidential candidates said they would continue the fight, ensuring it will be an issue in the campaign.
Other legal challenges are working their way through the courts, but they appear to pose lesser threats to the law, which passed Congress without a single Republican vote in 2010 and has now withstood two stern challenges at the Supreme Court.
At the court, Chief Justice John Roberts again wrote the opinion in support of the law, just as he did in 2012. His four liberal colleagues were with him three years ago and again on Thursday. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a dissenter in 2012, was part of the majority this time.
Roberts said that to read the law the way challengers wanted — limiting tax credits to people who live in states that set up their own health insurance marketplaces — would lead to a “calamitous result” that Congress could not have intended.
“Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them,” Roberts declared in the majority opinion.
Justice Antonin Scalia, in a dissent he summarized from the bench, strongly disagreed. “We should start calling this law SCOTUScare,” he said, using an acronym for the Supreme Court and suggesting his colleagues’ ownership of the law by virtue of their twice stepping in to save it from what he considered worthy challenges.
His comment drew a smile from Roberts, his seatmate and the object of Scala’s ire.
Scalia said that Roberts’ 2012 decision that upheld the law and his opinion on Thursday “will publish forever the discouraging truth that the Supreme Court of the United States favors some laws over others and is prepared to do whatever it takes to uphold and assist its favorites.”
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas joined the dissent, as they did in 2012.
Nationally, 10.2 million people have signed up for health insurance under the law. That includes 8.7 million who are receiving an average subsidy of $272 a month to help pay their premiums. Of those receiving subsidies, 6.4 million were at risk of losing that aid because they live in states that did not set up their own insurance exchanges.
The health insurance industry breathed a sigh of relief, and a national organization representing state regulators from both political parties said the court’s decision will mean stable markets for consumers.
Shares of publicly traded hospital operators including HCA Holdings Inc. and Tenet Healthcare Corp. soared after the ruling. Investors had worried that many patients would drop their coverage if they no longer had tax credits to help pay.
The legal case against nationwide subsidies relied on four words — “established by the state” — in the more than 900-page law.
The law’s opponents argued that the vast majority of people who now get help paying for premiums are ineligible for their federal tax credits. That is because roughly three dozen states opted against creating their own health insurance marketplaces, or exchanges, and instead rely on the federal healthcare.gov site to help people find coverage if they don’t have it through their jobs.
In the challengers’ view, the phrase “established by the state” demonstrated that subsidies were to be available only to people in states that set up their own exchanges.
The administration, congressional Democrats and 22 states responded that it would make no sense to interpret the law that way. The idea was to decrease the number of uninsured, preventing insurers from denying coverage because of “pre-existing” health conditions, requiring almost everyone to be insured and providing financial help to those who otherwise would spend too much of their paychecks on premiums.
The point of the last piece, the subsidies, is to keep enough people in the pool of insured to avoid triggering a disastrous decline in enrollment, a growing proportion of less healthy people and then premium increases.
Several portions of the law indicate that consumers can claim tax credits no matter where they live. No member of Congress said at the time that subsidies would be limited, and several states said in a separate brief to the court that they had no inkling they had to set up their own exchanges for their residents to get tax credits.
Roberts pointed out that the law “contains more than a few examples of inartful drafting,” including three separate sections numbered 1563. He said the court’s duty was to read the provision at issue in context and with the larger picture in mind.
In Scalia’s view, Roberts was engaging in “somersaults of statutory interpretation” that were redolent of the chief justice’s efforts to save the law in 2012.
The 2012 case took place in the midst of Obama’s re-election campaign, when the president was touting the largest expansion of the social safety net since the advent of Medicare nearly a half-century earlier. But at the time, promised benefits of the Affordable Care Act were mostly in the future. Many of its provisions had yet to take effect.
In 2015, the landscape has changed, although the partisan and ideological divisions remain.
The case is King v. Burwell, 14-114.
The post Supreme Court upholds nationwide health care law subsidies appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Gableman hopes to reel Rindfleisch (and Scott Walker’s secrets) back to Wisconsin
Dear Readers: We have some John Doe II news to talk about. I’m not absolutely positive what’s up – but I have some strong suspicions, which I will go into. Whatever’s going down, the timing of this could not be more threatening to Scott Walker’s impending presidential campaign. First you need to know that the more »
Sightseeing Plane Crashes In Alaska, Killing All 9 On Board, Authorities Say
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Authorities say all nine people aboard a sightseeing airplane died when it crashed Thursday in southeast Alaska.
Clint Johnson, head of the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska office, confirmed weather is preventing the recovery of bodies Thursday evening off a cliff about 20 miles northeast of Ketchikan.
Attempts to recover the bodies will resume Friday.
The plane was carrying eight cruise ship passengers and a pilot. It went missing Thursday afternoon and was crashed against the granite rock face of a southeast Alaska cliff.
Clint Johnson, head of the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska office, confirmed weather is preventing the recovery of bodies Thursday evening off a cliff about 20 miles northeast of Ketchikan.
Attempts to recover the bodies will resume Friday.
The plane was carrying eight cruise ship passengers and a pilot. It went missing Thursday afternoon and was crashed against the granite rock face of a southeast Alaska cliff.
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Having survived court ruling, what’s next challenge for health insurance markets?
Supporters of the Affordable Care Act gather outside the Supreme Court shortly after the court upheld the nationwide tax subsidies under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. Photo by Corinne Segal
Despite having survived a challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal government’s health insurance markets face weighty struggles as they try to keep prices under control, entice more consumers and encourage quality medical care.
The government’s insurance markets — as well as more than a dozen run by states — have been operating for less than two years and are about to lose their training wheels. Start-up funds that have helped stabilize prices and partially pay for administration of the marketplaces are ending, feeding fears that premiums may rise after next year at a steeper rate.
There are still 18 million uninsured people who are eligible for coverage but have not purchased insurance. Without broader participation, insurers may be pressed to raise rates as they get a more complete picture of how much medical care their current customers are using.
“It has proven to be harder to get people to sign up for exchanges and keep them than experts expected,” said Caroline Pearson, an executive at Avalere Health, a Washington consulting firm. “Hispanics, young people and men are still lagging in enrollment and it still seems like the exchanges have not figured out how to reach them.”
Insurers in a handful of states have proposed increasing premiums for the cheapest “silver” plans by an average of 4.5 percent next year, according to an analysis by Avalere. That was slightly higher than last year’s 4 percent increase for the cheapest silver plans in all states, Pearson said. Consumers who want to stick with their current plans may see larger increases, as insurers are trying to enact double-digit price increases for some policies.
Burden For Consumers
More than 10 million people buy insurance through the online marketplaces set up by the Affordable Care Act, or ACA. About six of every seven of those people are getting financial assistance from the federal government. Even with that help, health care costs can be substantial, with premiums for some reaching nearly a tenth of their gross incomes.
For instance, families of three earning $73,000 have to pay nearly $7,000 on premiums despite also receiving subsidies They still face deductibles, which this year averaged around $2,500 for the most common types of insurance plans, known as silver tiers. If a family required extensive medical care and reached the maximum they would be held responsible for — $13,200 this year—their total health care-related bills, including premiums, would exceed $20,000, or 28 percent of their gross incomes.
“Even some of those who are eligible for financial assistance are still finding the coverage not to be affordable for them,” said Linda Blumberg, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, Washington think tank.
With the end of start-up funds from the federal government, exchanges need to support their continuing responsibilities, which include running the call centers that offer consumer assistance, operating the exchange websites where people choose plans and marketing their efforts to encourage the uninsured to sign up. Most exchanges, including the federal healthcare.gov site, are funded through an assessment on each plan that is sold, although some receive support from state budgets. Revenue has been volatile, and some marketplaces have been caught short when lower enrollment or smaller premiums led to smaller fees. Some states are considering handing their marketplaces over to healthcare.gov.
“We don’t have a clear sense of how much it costs to maintain these programs,” said Kevin Lucia, project director at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute.
If premiums rise, the bill for federal taxpayers who fund the subsidies will increase as well. The government has been giving insurers some breathing room by limiting their losses and taking over the costs of the most expensive cases, but that financial assistance ends in 2017. “As it’s fading out, it’s putting upward pressure on premiums,” said Evan Saltzman, an analyst at the RAND Corp.
James Capretta, a former George W. Bush administration budget official now at the American Enterprise Institute, said it will take several years of exchange experience for insurers to know how much medical care their customers use —and if it matches what they expected.
“The biggest open issue is what the risk profile turns out to be,” Capretta said. “We’ll know more about that in 2016 and we’ll know even more about that in 2018.”
Star Ratings Coming
While the exchange websites have mostly surmounted their early technical problems, they still lack key pieces of information about the quality of the various plans, which the health law required. The federal Department of Health and Human Services plans to require exchanges to display quality ratings for each plan, which will be represented by a five-star scale, in time for people buying their coverage for 2017.
To devise these ratings, the department this year is testing a satisfaction survey for consumers, asking people to rate on scales of 0 to 10 their health plan, personal doctor, specialists, ease of getting care and other aspects of their experience. The agency is also preparing to collect a few dozen measures of clinical quality. Many are rudimentary, such as whether children had a preventive care visit and whether adults received flu shots.
Government quality rating efforts elsewhere have shown how challenging it is to fairly differentiate between providers. A current effort to evaluate the medical care provided by large medical groups rated 85 percent of them as average. The government has been more discerning about private Medicare Advantage insurance plans, though regulators have been refining those scores since stars were first awarded in 2008. A third of plans were given four or more stars this year, and 4 percent earned 2 1/2 stars or fewer.
“This has always been the big question about the ACA,” said Lanhee Chen, a researcher at the Hoover Institution. “Are people going to be able to make educated choices?”
Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
The post Having survived court ruling, what’s next challenge for health insurance markets? appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Kurt Cobain's Death Should Be Reinvestigated, Says Former Seattle Police Chief
Spoiler alert: Director Benjamin Statler's docudrama "Soaked In Bleach" ends with former Seattle Police chief Norm Stamper saying he would reopen the investigation into the death of Kurt Cobain, if he were calling the shots today.
But Stamper was the guy in charge from 1994 to 2000, including the time of Cobain's death. He now insists that Seattle Police should "have taken steps to study patterns involved in the behavior of key individuals who had a motive to see Kurt Cobain dead."
He went on to to say that, "If in fact Kurt Cobain was murdered, as opposed to having committed suicide, and it was possible to learn that, shame on us for not doing that. That was in fact our responsibility. It’s about right and wrong. It’s about honor. It’s about ethics.”
Stamper hammered home his point, adding: “If we didn’t get it right the first time, we damn well better get it right the second time, and I would tell you right now if I were the Chief of Police, I would reopen this investigation.”
The movie, which is told from the perspective of private investigator Tom Grant, (who was hired by Cobain's wife Courtney Love to find her husband after he went missing from a rehab center in Los Angeles), is woven together through reenactments of the the hours of recorded conversations between Grant and Love, and interviews with experts who refuse to believe Cobain died by suicide.
The present-day Seattle Police Department do not share their sentiments. Last year, just before the 20th anniversary of Cobain's death, rumors began flying that authorities were about to reopen an investigation after it was reported they had developed four rolls of film from the crime scene that had been sitting in an evidence vault.
While the photos were released to the public, the Seattle PD made it very clear they were not reopening the case. “No change, no developments, no new leads,” a police spokeswoman said, while the department tweeted, "Our detective reviewed the case file anticipating questions surrounding the closed Cobain case as the 20 yr anniversary approaches."
The movie addressed the undeveloped film and reenacts a scene in which Grant is told the photos will probably never be developed because they "don't develop photos on suicides." "Soaked In Bleach" goes on to claim that "by their negligent death investigation," the Seattle Police:
But Stamper was the guy in charge from 1994 to 2000, including the time of Cobain's death. He now insists that Seattle Police should "have taken steps to study patterns involved in the behavior of key individuals who had a motive to see Kurt Cobain dead."
He went on to to say that, "If in fact Kurt Cobain was murdered, as opposed to having committed suicide, and it was possible to learn that, shame on us for not doing that. That was in fact our responsibility. It’s about right and wrong. It’s about honor. It’s about ethics.”
Stamper hammered home his point, adding: “If we didn’t get it right the first time, we damn well better get it right the second time, and I would tell you right now if I were the Chief of Police, I would reopen this investigation.”
The movie, which is told from the perspective of private investigator Tom Grant, (who was hired by Cobain's wife Courtney Love to find her husband after he went missing from a rehab center in Los Angeles), is woven together through reenactments of the the hours of recorded conversations between Grant and Love, and interviews with experts who refuse to believe Cobain died by suicide.
The present-day Seattle Police Department do not share their sentiments. Last year, just before the 20th anniversary of Cobain's death, rumors began flying that authorities were about to reopen an investigation after it was reported they had developed four rolls of film from the crime scene that had been sitting in an evidence vault.
While the photos were released to the public, the Seattle PD made it very clear they were not reopening the case. “No change, no developments, no new leads,” a police spokeswoman said, while the department tweeted, "Our detective reviewed the case file anticipating questions surrounding the closed Cobain case as the 20 yr anniversary approaches."
The movie addressed the undeveloped film and reenacts a scene in which Grant is told the photos will probably never be developed because they "don't develop photos on suicides." "Soaked In Bleach" goes on to claim that "by their negligent death investigation," the Seattle Police:
- Allowed Kurt Cobain to be cremated 6 days after being discovered.
- Waited 30 days to process the shotgun for fingerprints.
- Gave Courtney Love the shotgun to have it melted down.
- Allowed the greenhouse crime scene to be torn down and destroyed.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
How to Deal With Suspected Shoplifters (Legally)
I'm sure there are a million things you'd like to do to a shoplifter in your store. That's your merchandise (and hard earned revenue) walking out the door. But you don't want to get in trouble yourself, right? So...
WATCH: Funeral of Charleston shooting victim, S.C. Sen. Clementa Pinckney
PBS NewsHour will live stream the funeral services for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, scheduled for 11 a.m. EDT Friday, in the player above.
Live coverage of the funeral for South Carolina state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, will start at 11 a.m. EDT on Friday. President Barack Obama will deliver the eulogy.
Pinckney was fatally shot, along with eight other church members, in a mass killing during evening Bible study at Emanuel AME Church last Wednesday, June 17. He was 41, and the father of two.
His funeral will broadcast live from the TD Arena at the College of Charleston.
The post WATCH: Funeral of Charleston shooting victim, S.C. Sen. Clementa Pinckney appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Obama's Legacy Takes Shape With The Help Of Unlikely Allies
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Long past the prime of his presidency, Barack Obama is defying the lame-duck label and solidifying the contours of his legacy with the help of unlikely allies in Congress and the Supreme Court.
Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, the high court preserved Obama's signature health care law Thursday, hours before a Republican-controlled Congress paved the way for an Asia-Pacific trade pact at the center of the president's international agenda. The Supreme Court also handed Obama a surprise win by upholding a key tool used to fight housing discrimination.
"This was a good day for America," Obama said, speaking from the White House Rose Garden shortly after the court rulings.
For a president deep into his second term, the legal and legislative victories were a vindication of policy priorities that have sapped his political capital and exposed rifts with his own Democratic Party. The back-to-back successes also energized a weary White House, with senior officials and longtime advisers making little effort to hide their glee.
"I don't think that a lot of people expected that a lame-duck president could still very actively lead on every major issue being debated today," said Bill Burton, a former White House and campaign adviser to Obama.
The coming days could bring further clarity to president's legacy, as U.S. negotiators work feverishly to finalize a nuclear deal with Iran ahead of a June 30 deadline. While securing an elusive agreement would mark a major foreign policy breakthrough for Obama, it could be months or even years before it's known if a deal successfully prevents Iran from building a bomb.
Against the backdrop of his recent successes, Obama will also confront the stark limitations of his presidency when he travels to Charleston, South Carolina, Friday to deliver a eulogy for victims of last week's massacre at a black church. Obama has failed to make any progress on gun control legislation, and even against the backdrop of the tragedy in South Carolina, he made clear he had given up hope of pursuing such measures again during his remaining 19 months in office.
Despite the unfinished business Obama will leave behind, Thursday's health care ruling largely answered what has long been one of the biggest questions looming over his White House: Would the sweeping health care overhaul that has fueled so much Republican hostility toward Obama survive his presidency?
Now, that answer is all but guaranteed to be yes.
The Supreme Court ruling marked the second time the justices have saved the health care law, with Roberts writing the majority opinion both times. In an ironic twist, Obama as a senator voted against Roberts when he was nominated by former Republican President George W. Bush.
While House Republicans may still hold votes to repeal the health care measure, as they have already done more than 50 times, the Senate and Obama's veto power prevent such efforts from going any further. And even if Obama is succeeded by a Republican president, fully repealing the law could become less politically palatable given the millions of Americans who have gained health care coverage through its mandates.
"The 6-3 decision is strong validation of the constitutionality of the law," White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said of the court's ruling. "Coupled with over 16 million people who currently have health care who didn't have it before, that makes it very difficult to unwind."
Still, some Republican presidential candidates insisted that remained their goal.
"This decision is not the end of the fight against Obamacare," said Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor. "I will work with Congress to repeal and replace this flawed law with conservative reforms that empower consumers with more choices and control over their health care decisions."
Obama had to flip Washington's standard political scorecard in order to get support for the Asia-Pacific trade pact. While Republicans are largely supportive of free trade, many of Obama's fellow Democrats fear such agreements put American workers at a disadvantage and have weak environmental protections.
Just two weeks ago, Democrats dealt Obama an embarrassing defeat on trade, leaving him searching for a solution with many of the same Republicans lawmakers who decry the health care law.
The unusual coalition succeeded. On Wednesday, Obama secured the authority to get fast approval for a final Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, and on Thursday, Congress sent a workers' assistance package to his desk.
White House officials cast Obama's successful dealings with Republicans as evidence of what they had hoped would be another piece of the president's legacy: an ability to work with his political opponents and curb Washington's intense partisanship.
But few in the White House or elsewhere in the nation's capital expect this brief detente between Obama and the GOP to last for long, especially as they stare down deadlines this fall on taxes and spending - issues that have rivaled health care in driving deep divisions between the Democratic White House and Republican lawmakers.
"It's going to give the White House some momentum going into the fall," said Jim Manley, a former adviser to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "But I don't think anyone can expect the efforts to work with Republicans on trade to translate into help on these tax and spending issues."
Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, the high court preserved Obama's signature health care law Thursday, hours before a Republican-controlled Congress paved the way for an Asia-Pacific trade pact at the center of the president's international agenda. The Supreme Court also handed Obama a surprise win by upholding a key tool used to fight housing discrimination.
"This was a good day for America," Obama said, speaking from the White House Rose Garden shortly after the court rulings.
For a president deep into his second term, the legal and legislative victories were a vindication of policy priorities that have sapped his political capital and exposed rifts with his own Democratic Party. The back-to-back successes also energized a weary White House, with senior officials and longtime advisers making little effort to hide their glee.
"I don't think that a lot of people expected that a lame-duck president could still very actively lead on every major issue being debated today," said Bill Burton, a former White House and campaign adviser to Obama.
The coming days could bring further clarity to president's legacy, as U.S. negotiators work feverishly to finalize a nuclear deal with Iran ahead of a June 30 deadline. While securing an elusive agreement would mark a major foreign policy breakthrough for Obama, it could be months or even years before it's known if a deal successfully prevents Iran from building a bomb.
Against the backdrop of his recent successes, Obama will also confront the stark limitations of his presidency when he travels to Charleston, South Carolina, Friday to deliver a eulogy for victims of last week's massacre at a black church. Obama has failed to make any progress on gun control legislation, and even against the backdrop of the tragedy in South Carolina, he made clear he had given up hope of pursuing such measures again during his remaining 19 months in office.
Despite the unfinished business Obama will leave behind, Thursday's health care ruling largely answered what has long been one of the biggest questions looming over his White House: Would the sweeping health care overhaul that has fueled so much Republican hostility toward Obama survive his presidency?
Now, that answer is all but guaranteed to be yes.
The Supreme Court ruling marked the second time the justices have saved the health care law, with Roberts writing the majority opinion both times. In an ironic twist, Obama as a senator voted against Roberts when he was nominated by former Republican President George W. Bush.
While House Republicans may still hold votes to repeal the health care measure, as they have already done more than 50 times, the Senate and Obama's veto power prevent such efforts from going any further. And even if Obama is succeeded by a Republican president, fully repealing the law could become less politically palatable given the millions of Americans who have gained health care coverage through its mandates.
"The 6-3 decision is strong validation of the constitutionality of the law," White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said of the court's ruling. "Coupled with over 16 million people who currently have health care who didn't have it before, that makes it very difficult to unwind."
Still, some Republican presidential candidates insisted that remained their goal.
"This decision is not the end of the fight against Obamacare," said Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor. "I will work with Congress to repeal and replace this flawed law with conservative reforms that empower consumers with more choices and control over their health care decisions."
Obama had to flip Washington's standard political scorecard in order to get support for the Asia-Pacific trade pact. While Republicans are largely supportive of free trade, many of Obama's fellow Democrats fear such agreements put American workers at a disadvantage and have weak environmental protections.
Just two weeks ago, Democrats dealt Obama an embarrassing defeat on trade, leaving him searching for a solution with many of the same Republicans lawmakers who decry the health care law.
The unusual coalition succeeded. On Wednesday, Obama secured the authority to get fast approval for a final Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, and on Thursday, Congress sent a workers' assistance package to his desk.
White House officials cast Obama's successful dealings with Republicans as evidence of what they had hoped would be another piece of the president's legacy: an ability to work with his political opponents and curb Washington's intense partisanship.
But few in the White House or elsewhere in the nation's capital expect this brief detente between Obama and the GOP to last for long, especially as they stare down deadlines this fall on taxes and spending - issues that have rivaled health care in driving deep divisions between the Democratic White House and Republican lawmakers.
"It's going to give the White House some momentum going into the fall," said Jim Manley, a former adviser to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "But I don't think anyone can expect the efforts to work with Republicans on trade to translate into help on these tax and spending issues."
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Atlanta’s Big Turnaround in Walkable Development
Graph via ATL Urbanist
A new report that quantifies development in walkable urban places (“WalkUPs”) has good news for Atlanta.
Darin at ATL Urbanist reports:
A full 50 percent of new properties developed in the Atlanta region from 2009-2014 happened in walkable urban places, which is not only a higher amount than what’s happening in the other regions as charted here, it also shows a much bigger jump between that time period versus what was happening in 1992-2000, when the Atlanta region was really lagging behind and producing a lot of new construction in sprawling patterns
The studies are showing a shift away from car-centric development patterns that dominated development in US metros during the latter half of the 20th century.
According to the report, 73 percent of WalkUP development from 2009 to 2013 occurred in areas served by MARTA.
“[T]here’s also a trend happening in the absorption of empty office space in Atlanta’s walkable intown areas that are near transit,” writes Darin. “Just this week we have news that Coke is moving another 500 employees from suburbs to existing offices in Downtown Atlanta — this comes on top of another recent shift that saw Coke relocating 2,000 workers to the downtown locations.”
Elsewhere on the Network today: Streets.mn notes the discrepancy between riders and seats on Minneapolis Metro, and Washington Area Bicyclist Association says a pending DC Council bill would help cyclists recover damages after a crash.
SUSD trip to Vegas cleared up
Earlier this week, I was handed a hand-written note that was sent to the newsroom with no return address.
“200 Stockton Unified employees went to Las Vegas. Is this supposed to help educate the students?” is all it read.
Now, before you start picturing teachers and administrators sitting at slot machines and throwing television sets out a hotel room window at The Bellagio, in reality, the Vegas trip is in fact helping educate students.
A group of 200 teachers, counselors and principals from Stockton Unified took part in a Professional Learning Communities conference in Las Vegas earlier this month, explained district spokeswoman Dianne Barth in an email.
While seeing the words “teachers,” “education,” and “Vegas” together in a sentence is certainly worth a slight head tilt, the conference is dedicated to professional development for educators set in a group setting.
High performing districts have board members attend so they can build shared knowledge. Teachers and principals can collaborate ideas and are asked questions such as “What are you trying to teach? How do you know if your students learned and understood the material you taught? What do you do if they did not? What do you do next if they did get it?”
“This conference is popular because the teachers who have gone before have come back saying they got a lot out of it,” said Barth. Stockton Unified has attended the PLC conference for the last three years and she said Lodi is another district that does the same.
“The trip is approved for those attending from individual schools and costs for attendance were paid out of categorical funds targeted for professional development school site councils,” Barth wrote.
Edison High School Principal Brian Biedermann said his school has been practicing the PLC process for six years and he has taken a majority of his staff to PLCs conferences. He agrees that there’s nothing quite like the renewed energy, commitment, and shared knowledge created, and Edison is always excited to participate.
“I can see how some could view conferences in Vegas as a waste of time. That is a narrow minded view,” said Edison High School Principal in an email.
“My team has several pre-planning meetings (to prep for the conference) and we meet several times when we return to capture our learning and prepare our action plans for the coming year.”
It’s far from lounging poolside and sharing a vodka-cranberry with a Playboy bunny.
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