In the uninsured rate, that is. Gallup reports another low in the uninsured rate, which they’ve been tracking for the past seven years. The rate fell another half of a percentage point, from 11.9 percent to 11.4 percent, in the last quarter. The uninsured rate has dropped nearly six percentage points since the fourth quarter of 2013, just before the requirement for …
It’s Not Just the NSA—the IRS Is Reading Your Emails Too By Thor Benson
The privacy of Americans’ email has an expiration date. Because of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA)—passed in 1986, long before electronic communications became prevalent in the United States—email content is easily accessible to many civil and law enforcement agencies as soon as it is at least 180 days old. Fortunately, politicians on both sides of the aisle are now backing …
SCOTUS Rules Against Limiting Mercury Pollution from Power Plants – Robert Harrington
The Supreme Court has issued yet another ruling that has many people up in arms. Environmental activists and health advocates alike are especially unhappy with their most recent decision concerning power plant emissions. Permitting mercury and other highly toxic air pollutants emitted from plants to remain insufficiently regulated will ultimately translate to higher healthcare costs around the country. The degree of …
Healthy People 2020 and the Decade of Vaccines – Dr. Sherri Tenpenny
Healthy People 2020’s latest recommendations are vast in scope and include government intrusion into nearly ever conceivable area of personal life and health, including a National Vaccine Plan. While it appears that the recent measles hysteria pushed a button that rocketed nearly all 50 states to introduce vaccine bills simultaneously, calling to restrict and/or remove vaccine exemptions for children, the plan has …
What Do Americans Think About Economic Inequality? – Lawrence Wittner
Are Americans disturbed about growing economic inequality in the United States? Numerous opinion surveys in recent years indicate that substantial majorities of Americans not only recognize that the gap between the wealthy and everyone else has grown, but favor greater economic equality. A Gallup poll conducted in April 2015 found that 63 percent of respondents believed that wealth in the United States should …
An Evangelical’s Lament By Leon W. Blevins
I am an evangelical Christian, which means that I openly share the “good news” of the saving grace of Jesus Christ, and I have personally accepted that saving grace for my sins. As a trained Southern Baptist minister and a political scientist, I am bothered by many politicians and preachers who proclaim what God intends for me, or us, to …
The Fight Over Obamacare Was a Giant Political Charade By Sonali Kolhatkar
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 25 that the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) subsidies for health insurance for the poor were indeed constitutional, liberals cheered. The last-ditch attempt by the right to gut President Obama’s signature act failed. In his weekly address, Obama triumphantly announced that “after more than fifty votes in Congress to repeal or weaken this law; …
High Court’s Ruling, Say Critics, Endorses ‘Torturing People to Death’ – Sarah Lazare
In the most closely-watched death penalty case in years, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-4(pdf) that Oklahoma can use the controversial and experimental execution drug midazolam that was behind the last year’s horrific killing of 38-year-old man Clayton Lockett—who writhed and groaned for 43 minutes before ultimately succumbing to a heart attack. The decision not only gives the approval for states …
Supreme Court rejects EPA’s regulation of power plants’ emissions of mercury and other toxins by Meteor Blades
The U.S. Supreme Court plunked a setback into the lap of the Environmental Protection Agency Monday by trashing the agency’s regulation of emissions of mercury and other air toxins (MATS) from electricity-generating plants. The court overturned a lower-court decision in the case of Michigan v. EPA stating that the agency had acted reasonably when it chose not to consider compliance costs first in its …
Why We Must Fight Economic Apartheid in America – ROBERT REICH
Almost lost by the wave of responses to the Supreme Court’s decisions last week upholding the Affordable Care Act and allowing gays and lesbians to marry was the significance of the Court’s third decision – on housing discrimination. In a 5-4 ruling, the Court found that the Fair Housing Act of 1968 requires plaintiffs to show only that the effect of a …