I believe Angry Bear can present this excellent article on how the Supreme Court is evolving its interpretation of the Public Health. I am using it as informational and instructional to Angry Bear readers. A brief analysis of the SCOTUS philosophy on Public Health and their impact on the government and its legislation. It is brief enough and stated in nontechnical terms allowing a layman to pickup on it rather easily.

The Public Good on the Docket — The Supreme Court’s Evolving Approach to Public Health

by Joshua M. Sharfstein, M.D., and Lawrence O. Gostin, J.D.

The New England Journal of Medicine

A PERSPECTIVE

The preamble to the U.S. Constitution states that a central aim of government in U.S. democracy is to “promote the general

Each year in retirement, we take a certain amount of funds from our IRAs and it becomes income. This is a bit different than when we were paying regular income taxes on our yearly income minus investments. I was curious about this as the big story today is rich people slugging away thousands and maybe millions into investments. The investments grow and are not taxable until withdrawal (unless there is another way to avoid taxes). These are smarter people than I who are doing these investment maneuvers. I can pick stocks and funds and watch them grow. That is the limit of my expertise.

The big story is: In 2018, U.S. billionaires paid a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans for the first time in the nation’s history.” Naked

Saturday stuff to quibble about.

It appears Indiana Fever’s newest basketball player, Catlin Clark is being mobbed and followed as she travels to other cities to potentially play. It was bad in DFW Airport, Clark and her teammates were followed by reporters, with assorted other onlookers also wanting an eyeful of the star. The Indiana Fever team landed in Dallas via commercial air travel ahead of their preseason game against the Wings on Friday night.

What happened at DFW Airport is now being called an “incident,” with some calling for immediate changes in how the WNBA handles its travel. The “incident” then started going viral on social media … at which point media member Jemele Hill chimed in . . .

“Caitlyn Clark is hopefully going to

Ever since Reagan and Thatcher first tried them, trickle-down policies have exploded budget deficits and widened inequality. At best, they’ve temporarily increased consumer demand (the opposite of what’s needed during high inflation that Britain and much of the world are experiencing).

Reagan’s tax cuts and deregulation at the start of the 1980s were not responsible for America’s rapid growth through the late 1980s. His exorbitant spending (mostly on national defense) fueled a temporary boom that ended in a fierce recession. The Donald Trump White House’s tax cut never trickled down.

Yet the US never restored the highest marginal tax rates before Reagan, and deregulation – especially of financial markets – is a continuing legacy.

The result?

Doug Smith

Los Angeles Times

Monthly payments for housing could get thousands of homeless people off the streets. It sounds like a voucher idea where the funds could only be used only for housing, apartments and heat and electricity. Or paid directly. A stipulated basic income to house thousands of homeless people in various situations (apartments, boarding, with family or friends, etc.) as advocated by researchers.

The idea or potential policy is being presented as “Basic Housing Grants to Reduce Homelessness in Los Angeles, a rough draft by USC, UCLA, Homeless Policy Research, Pathways – Housing First, and the Economic RoundTable.

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The argument is the income could provide access to housing for a portion of the population who

SWI swissinfo.ch

An interesting story coming out of Switzerland about Nestlé. In 2017 Nestlé adds sugar to baby food in low-income countries, report finds . . . made the following plan:

Between 2017 and 2020 we want to reduce the added sugar in our products by a further 5%. In 2017 alone, Nestlé Switzerland withdrew 111 tonnes of sugar from its products, which is the equivalent of 22 million teaspoons or 444 million kcal. Much work had already been done in previous years: from 2014 to 2016, 116 tonnes of sugar were withdrawn from Nestlé products in Switzerland. This comprehensive renovation programme includes, for example, Hirz and LC1 fruit yoghurts, Cailler milk chocolate, Stalden cream and breakfast cereals such as Fitness. In addition,

By Matthew Cunnigham – Cook

The problems with Medicare Advantage is coding and pricing for care. And Fee for Service participants pay for the MA costs even though they do not use MA.

“When accounting for favorable selection of enrollees in MA and higher MA coding intensity, we estimate Medicare spends approximately 22 percent more for MA enrollees. This spend is more than if those beneficiaries were a part of FFS Medicare. The difference translates into a projected $83 billion in 2024.

The MedPac Commission acknowledges a portion of the higher payments to MA plans are for more generous supplemental benefits and better financial protection for MA enrollees. The Commission is concerned the relatively higher payments to MA plans are

Listening to the back and forth between the justices and Idaho’s Solicitor General, there is tension on display here. The Idaho Solicitor General appears to take the stance the abortion is available if necessary. The justices are questioning how such could be if doctors will not treat the women if abortion is needed. That being, doctors believe they blocked by Idaho’s abortion law.

Alito takes the chicken or the egg approach with US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar. He describes “situations where it is not clear which of two events should be considered the cause and which should be considered the effect, to express a scenario of infinite regress, or to express the difficulty of sequencing actions where each seems to depend on others being . . .

By Alan Collinge

Medium

A number of beltway “experts” are currently claiming that cancelling student loans would unduly benefit the wealthy. These claims are based upon blatantly flawed research, They have been used by very well-coordinated media/social media campaigns, designed to kill the push for student loan cancellation, and have flooded the zeitgeist in recent weeks.

Most recently, Professor Kent Smetters (The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania) is making claims. Claims the beneficiaries of Biden’s new plan canceling interest for people in repayment for 20 or more years have on average, a household income of $312,000. Prof. Smetters also claims Biden’s current cancellation proposals will “cost” the taxpayers over $500

By an old friend from “The Fray” Claude Scales

Self-Absorbed Boomer

Your smartphone, like mine, likely has the logo at left on it somewhere. I knew that “Bluetooth” was the name given to an ancient Scandinavian king, but had no clue why the app was named for him. Now, thanks to Rick Spilman in The Old Salt Blog, I know the reason. 

The logo is the Viking rune of King Harald “Blåtand” Gormsson, “Blåtand” is “Bluetooth” in English. The rune is a “bindrune” that combines the runes for “H” and “B.” Bluetooth was a Danish king (940-981) who united Denmark with Norway. According to Spilman, an engineer who was heavily involved in developing the technology that became Bluetooth, Jim Kardach, was responsible for giving it that name. Spilman gives

By Prof. Heather Cox Richardson

Letters from an American

What you are witnessing here is something a regular citizen would not have the ability to do in a court of law. So far, the court has shown much lenience for his and his attorneys’ antics. I have not seen this being tolerated. It is meant to wear the system down or provoke a response from the judges. A response which would play back to the fools in support of trump. Wisely, the court sticks to its regime.

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I will not spend the rest of 2024 focusing on Trump and the chaos in the Republican Party, but today it has been impossible to look away.

In Trump’s election interference trial in Manhattan, Judge Juan Merchan this morning dismissed one of the selected jurors after

Firearms and Public Health in the United States

David Hemenway, Ph.D

New England Journal of Medicine

I have added things I know of to this article. I have an aversion to the word gun or guns by themselves. So get used to it if you expect to comment on this issue. Firearms are killing tools. If you shoot targets like I did pre-USMC, you get really good at staying in the black at various distances.

This is a good article. It keeps the tragedy of the Columbine Massacre front and center. It should not be forgotten.

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On April 20, 1999, in Colorado, two high school students shot and killed 12 of their fellow students and a teacher. At the time, it was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. What has happened in the

Atlanta USPS Regional Processing and Distribution Centers crashes on launch

by Steve Hutkins

Save the Post Office

This is a long post. It is the only way Steve can get it across the issues created by Louis Dejoy’s incompetence. Look out 2024 Presidential Election, we will have a battle on our hands. Think of SCOTUS.

With the botched-up implementation of the new USPS Processing and Distribution Centers going on the way they are, we will see significant issues with the upcoming 2024 presidential elections. Time to stop the implementation and take alternative precautions to insure postal deliveries. And Fire Louis DeJoy.

Below? A picture of the person who “may” have the biggest impact on the 2024 election. All dressed out in a suit in a

SWI swissinfo.ch

Switzerland exceeded its voluntary gas savings target this winter. Compared to average consumption between 2017 and 2022, the target was to reduce gas consumption by 15%. However, according to provisional government figures, it was 23% less.

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Keystone-SDA

The target was 3,997 gigawatt hours (GWh) of gas savings, regardless of the weather, over the winter half-year, i.e. from the beginning of October 2023 to the end of March 2024. According to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy’s (SFOE) dashboard, 6,102 GWh have now been saved, although the figures for March are only estimates.  

January, which was 1.5°C warmer than the standard temperature, was the only one of the six autumn

By Clare Pastore

The Conversation

A small city in Oregon with one homeless shelter is enforcing a local anti-camping law. Enforcing it against people sleeping in public using a blanket or any other rudimentary protection against the weather. Enforcing it even if there was nowhere else to go.

By taking up City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, SCOTUS will decide whether it is unconstitutional to punish homeless people for doing in public the things necessary to survive. Things such as sleeping outside, when there is no option to do them in private.

Some Background “Oyez“

Grants Pass, Oregon has a population of approximately 38,000. Of the population, somewhere between 50 and 600 persons are unhoused. Whatever the exact number of unhoused

George Stephanopoulos asked New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu 

by Prof. Heather Cox Richardson

Letters from an American

This Week, host George Stephanopoulos, “Just to sum up,”

“You support [Trump] for president even if he’s convicted in [the] classified documents [case]. You support him for president even though you believe he contributed to an insurrection. You support him for president even though you believe he’s lying about the last election. You support him for president even if he’s convicted in the Manhattan case. I just want to say, the answer to that is yes, correct?”

Sununu answered: “Yeah. Me and 51% of America.”

AB: I guess integrity goes out the window when it comes to politics and principle.

Aside from its

Medicaid Renewals

Of the people retaining Medicaid Coverage as of April 11, 2024 . . . Fifty-nine percent were renewed on an ex parte basis while 41% were renewed through a renewal form, though rates varied by state. Federal rules require states to first try to complete administrative (or “ex parte”) renewals by verifying ongoing eligibility through available data sources. Sources such as state wage databases. Doing this before they send a renewal form or requesting documentation from an enrollee.

Retaining Medicaid State by State

Fifty-nine percent of the people retaining Medicaid Coverage were able to retain Medicaid Through Ex Parte Processes. April 11, 2024.

As seen again and again, Texas does their best to eliminate those

By KFF

Pulled together data from KFF to get an idea of what is happening with US healthcare. Big issue is people do not know. Another issue is state’s resistance to enrolling people. Hope this helps . . .

Recent data on monthly Medicaid disenrollments, renewals, overall enrollment and other key indicators.

Figure 1 above . . .

At least 20,104,000 Medicaid enrollees have been disenrolled as of April 11, 2024, based on the most current data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. ~Thirty-one percent of people with a completed renewal were disenrolled in reporting states. Sixty-nine percent 69%, or 43.6 million enrollee’s coverage renewed (one reporting state does not include data on renewed enrollees). Data reported by states

Originally, I put this into print November 2013. I took from many sources to complete it. I think it meshes well and still stands the test of time. The student loan issues and debt are still in existence. The debt owed is fare larger now with much of it being accumulated interest on principle. The cause of much of this is largely due to Biden’s policies before he became President up though 2005. The numbers for those having student loans is far greater as is the debt also.

Previously, I had written on Fair Market Value and its use by the CBO’s Douglas Elmendorf to rate the risk of Student Loans as advocated by both The New America Foundation and the Heritage Foundation. A rebuttal answer to a partisan CBO, the right-leaning New America Foundation,

The one thing we keep on seeing is the manipulation of supply chain by circumstance to achive manufacturing shortfall, and influence to maximize profits. Much of what we have and are experiencing was avoidable. The tools exist to give better perspectives of what is going on from start to finish of product. As you read through my telling of what I see, you will get near the end and run into a link to a Vox article. It support what I am saying and have seen over the decades.

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A quarter of a century ago, Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation called attention to the acceleration of corporate, quasi-monopolistic control of America’s food system. The fallout of which has led to harmful consequences for workers, consumers, livestock, and the

By Dean Baker

Center for Economic and Policy Research

The inflation hawks took March’s CPI as cause for celebration, inflation may not be dead yet. There is no doubt that it was a disappointing report for those hoping we could put the pandemic inflation behind us. However, there still is not much basis for thinking the Fed needs to get out the nukes and start shooting big-time.

The key point to remember is this inflation continues to be driven overwhelmingly by rent. We know rental inflation will be falling because we have data on marketed units. The ones changing hands show sharply lower rental inflation. In some cases, indicators such as the BLS index for new tenants, actually show deflation.

The CPI rental indexes will follow the index

Arizona is a state which does not stand on its own for protecting the rights of its citizens. In this case, we speak of a woman’s right to determine what is right for her individual self and body. The Supreme Court revived a near-total abortion ban with its support of a 160-year-old law. The law provides no exceptions for rape or incest.

And, in its 4-2 opinion, the conservative majority wrote:

“Physicians are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman’s life, are illegal.”

Arizona citizens may get a chance to decide whether to keep the ban or revoke it this November. What was an anti-abortion stance (quietly and some vocally) for Republicans in AZ, has become “oh, we are neutral on this issue.” The Republican

I touched on a commentary at another site where the commentary was about healthcare. The sites author was advocating for the increase of the Social Security cap only on high income earners. There is a ground swell for taxing the rich more, which is acceptable to most. When we look at this closely, there is an argument for some of this to occur. The level or percentage of total income exposed to Social Security taxes has decreased for the higher in income. We could improve upon this and increase Social Security taxable income accordingly.

Or we could increase the tax on income for Social Security and also increase taxes on the rich?However, while advocating the Northwest Plan, the author could not see the viability of its impact on individuals even

Since I use the VA, I find this message by Suzanne and Steve to be discerning. I had thought with the changes in leadership, the VA would begin to act like a VA and take back all of the programs which were being out sourced to external expensive healthcare. Study after study has shown, VA care is as good and more likely better than commercial enterprise healthcare. And yet, we are here again fighting a battle to keep the VA. This should have been won and ended over the last couple of years.

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Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early

While Project 2025 plots VA dismantling, its Biden-appointed leader tells workers to ‘stay out of politics.’

The American Prospect

During a recent campaign speech in North Carolina, former President Donald

An older salesman (Lou Haer) used to call on me at Oscar Mayer when I was buying all of OM’s packaging and labels. We would talk and have lunch. Visited him at his home in the suburbs of Chicago with my three and my wife. He took my two younger boys and I trout fishing at a manmade large aerated pond. They enjoined it immensely at 10 and eight years old.

He had a philosophy though for college football and other sports, which the students gave greater emphasis too than studies.

“Give them a Degree in Football!” Read on . . .

Deion Sanders rips into team after email from professor, exposes player’s NFL Draft grades, Athlon Sports | News, Expert Predictions, and Betting Previews, Kevin Borba

“This semester has been extremely challenging for

The Biden administration will soon roll out a new student loan forgiveness proposal that could impact millions of Americans. For years, Joe Biden has been against Student Loan forgiveness. Now he is seeking forgiveness for making student loans totally unforgiveable.

The proposed student loan program is smaller in scope than President Joe Biden’s first education debt relief plan which the Supreme Court ultimately blocked. Rough estimates by higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz, the new aid package could still forgive the debt for as many as 10 million Americans.

The Wall Street Journal says President Joe Biden is planning to provide details of his new debt forgiveness plan during a speech Monday (April 8?) in Madison, Wisconsin. The timing of

Brief recital of the costs and efforts of hospitals getting reimbursed by commercial healthcare insurance. It appears to be worsening. And the efforts to collect are costly.

A Survey of Healthcare Insurance Practices

Survey Methodology

– 304 respondents, representing 772 hospitals, completed the survey. Not every respondent answered each question. All respondents are members of the American Hospital Association.– Web-survey administered between December 2021 and February 2022. Some participants opted to complete the survey using handwritten responses.– Results represent hospitals in 47 states. No responses were received from hospitals or health systems in New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, D.C

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Payer

By Christina Clark

Iconic Detroit writer and activist John Sinclair died on Tuesday morning at the age of 82 after spending two weeks at DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital for declining health. His cause of death was congestive heart failure, his publicist told the Detroit News. 

An advocate for his art, Sinclair served as the manager for MC5, a rock band from Lincoln Park, between 1966 and 1969, and was well-known for his support of the Civil Rights movement, having co-founded the anti-racist White Panther Party, which worked alongside the Black Panther Party, as well as his work to legalize marijuana in Michigan.

In 1969, he was arrested for possession of two joints and sentenced to 10 years in prison. A protest in support of Sinclair known as

Not 100 percent here. You will have to travel to the rest of the story to get the complete version of the Summary and My Take by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Official Newsletter on recent events. It is interesting and there is enough here to draw a conclusion.

1 When night came, the white waves rolled back and forth in the moonlight, and the wind brought the sound of the great sea’s voice to the men on the shore. And they felt that they could then understand. 

Stephen Crane, “The Open Boat”

– My Take These final words of Stephen Crane’s famous short story “The Open Boat” have haunted me since I first read them when I was a teenager. What did the “great sea’s voice” tell them that they “finally” understood? What mysteries were revealed?

In the

Happy Easter, or happy whatever way you celebrate the coming of spring. Yesterday the good Christian Tim Walberg, who has ineffectually represented a chunk of southern Michigan in Congress since 2010, apparently called for us to use nuclear weapons in Gaza to “get it over quick.”

He was, of course, once a Bible salesman.

Jack Lessenberry

Tags: Evolution