"Greg Gianforte has won a special election for Montana’s sole seat in the House of Representatives, just one day after he was charged with misdemeanor assault for 'body-slamming' a Guardian reporter. Speaking at the G7 meeting in Sicily on Friday, Donald Trump called the victory a 'great win in Montana'." Continue reading →
If a vote was held in your town or city to build a single bus stop that cost $1,000,000 – do you think you or your neighbors would oppose it? If you found out your county had spent $80,000 torturing lab mice until they developed speech impediments, would you be writing angry letters to your…
"The president vowed to block German car exports to the U.S. during a meeting with top EU leaders on Thursday, according to German news magazine Der Spiegel. 'The Germans are bad, very bad,' Trump said, according to participants in the room who spoke to Der Spiegel. 'See the millions of cars they sell in the U.S., terrible. We will stop this.' The comments were said to have been made in a meeting with the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the European Council President Donald Tusk, who both showed support for Germany." Continue reading →
BATON ROUGE, La. (May 26, 2017) – On Wednesday, a Louisiana Senate committee approved a bill that would expand the state’s Right to Try law to include technology designed to help ALS patients with mobility. Passage into law would set the foundation to nullify in practice a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule that currently…
PHOENIX, Ariz. (May 26, 2017) – On Monday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed a bill that would have established a structure for a federally compliant hemp research program in the state. Sen. Sonny Borrelli (R-Lake Havasu City) introduced Senate Bill1337 (SB1337) on Jan. 31. Under the proposed law, industrial hemp would have been treated as…
"The FDA will promote the 'environmental, nutritional, food safety, economic, and humanitarian impacts' of biotech crops and food products." Continue reading →
"Aetna is saying goodbye to Obamacare. The insurance giant announced Wednesday that it would not offer policies in Nebraska or Delaware next year, completing its exit from the exchanges. Earlier this year, Aetna said it would pull out of Iowa and Virginia in 2018. The company said it expects to lose more than $200 million in its individual business line this year, on top of nearly $700 million in losses between 2014 and 2016. Aetna withdrew from 11 of its 15 markets for 2017. It has 255,000 Obamacare policyholders this year, down from 964,000 at the end of last year." Continue reading →
"Millions of Obamacare customers who do not qualify for financial aid to lower the cost of their health insurance — or who opt not to apply for such assistance — pay the full cost of coverage for their plans. While the Republican Obamacare replacement bill pending in Congress would increase the number of people who would qualify for subsidies, the bill is also expected to increase average premiums over the next two years higher than they would be under Obamacare." Continue reading →
"The list of states that have tried to go single-payer is still a small sample size, but a fairly wide ranging one. It includes states with large populations and small ones. States with a variety of economies and tax systems. States that are growing quickly and those that aren't. Despite that range of variables, one thing remains constant: state-level single-payer health plans would require massive increases in tax revenue, equal or larger than the amount of revenue consumed by every other state-level program in a single year." Continue reading →
CONCORD, N.H. (May 25, 2017) – The New Hampshire Senate killed a bill that would have banned “material support or resources” to warrantless federal spying. Rep. Neal Kurk and Rep. Carol McGuire sponsored House Bill 171 (HB171), along with two cosponsors. The legislation would prohibit the state or its political subdivisions from assisting a federal agency…