Free Republic

The success or failure of the expansion of health-care coverage to most Americans will hinge on the state exchanges’ ability to provide affordable individual insurance rates. Unfortunately, some signs already suggest that this may not happen, at least for some people. While some Americans (mostly older and sicker) will benefit from lower rates, others (mostly younger and healthy) will see their rates go up significantly, even after counting federal subsidies. What this could mean is that some of them will choose to pay the individual-mandate penalty rather than get coverage. What happens in California is important, because some 5 million...

Aetna Inc. said it would stop selling individual health insurance policies in California next month, and nearly 50,000 existing policyholders will have to find new coverage by January. The company's announcement Monday comes a month after it opted not to participate in California's new state-run insurance market for consumers, a key component of the new federal healthcare law. Aetna was a distant fourth in the state's individual health market with a 5.2% market share in 2011, according to Citigroup data. Anthem Blue Cross, Kaiser Permanente and Blue Shield of California dominate that business with a collective 87% market share in...

California is so broke… It could be the setup to any number of outrageous punch lines, but few jokes could top the reality in one Golden State town. Antioch police are apparently experiencing a staff shortage so severe that public servants of all stripes are being drafted to help enforce law and order. An ongoing program known as “We’re Looking Out for You” provides training to local mail carriers and trash collectors in the hopes they will be able to spot crime being missed by genuine authority figures. The city of more than 100,000 currently deploys as few as five...

....Fame today is a matryoshka doll: inside each celebrity is a series of smaller, hollow simulacra, and, at the very core, there is a hard little being who feels buried alive. In Alexis’s gang there were four girls and three boys: the main culprit, Nick Prugo, was a gay kid working his way out of the closet. When he was eventually arrested by the police he was wearing a striped top he’d stolen from the house of the actor Orlando Bloom. And that’s what they did: after days of shopping or doing pilates, hanging out on MySpace, texting or oh-my-god-ing...

"It's a chain reaction – when people listen to music, they ask for alcohol, which will lead to adultery." Yep. Happens every time. "Music has magic, it gets in your blood and makes you want to get up and dance and forget your personality. Your butt is shaking and she's going to get up and her butt is going to shake – where is the religion then?" Where indeed? That's why Muhammad -- and Lenin -- hated music. Anyway, this Muslim music festival is going to go on, even though the imams are against music. But what is striking is...

As the state Senate finished voting Saturday on a bill to extend a tax on managed care plans, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg told reporters at the back of the room, "That is what's called a supermajority." Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to sign the spending plan before the next fiscal year begins July 1.

ModMark wrote: One of the coal plants shut down in Chicago was built ~90 years ago. While upgraded in the 1950's. it still did not meet EPA standards before Obama was elected. These plants were grandfather in when the clean air act was past. These ancient relics should have been converted to natural gas long ago.Do you really want to live next to one of these ancient plants? –in response to Obama Promise Kept: Coal Plants to go Bankrupt with New EPA Carbon Cap Dear Comrade Mark, The building was built 90 years ago, but the actual power plant generating electricity is considerably...

The Legislature passed a major piece of the federal Affordable Care Act on Saturday, opting to expand Medicaid to 1.4 million low-income Californians, as it rushed to meet its deadline to complete a state budget. The action came a day after lawmakers passed the main budget bill outlining a $96.3 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that starts in July. … “We don’t know for certain that this will contain the costs; that’s certainly the goal. But … we also make sure that health care is not considered a privilege of the fortunate few but as a basic human...

Jenny Price believes everyone should have access to the public beaches in Malibu Traditionally it has been hard for people to access the beaches because access is blocked by homes of the rich and famousShe has created an app which tells ordinary people which bogus 'No Trespassing' to ignoreBeachfront homeowners in the exclusive L.A. neighborhood of Malibu are up in arms about a new smartphone app which provides anyone using it with evaluable information about how to get to the area’s hard to reach public beaches. Environmental writer Jenny Price passionately believes that everyone deserves access to the area's public...

Aetna Inc said on Saturday it has notified California's insurance regulator that it plans to stop selling health policies to individual consumers in the state at the end of 2013. -snip- But people with individual health coverage with Aetna will have to find alternative coverage by year's end. -snip- The move comes as California, the country's most populous state, prepares for the fall launch of a state health exchange authorized by President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

Sen. Barbara Boxer is planning an amendment to the Senate's immigration bill which would redirect funds committed to border security to reimburse state and local governments providing health care to newly legalized immigrants. Boxer plans to take $250 million, and likely much more, out of border security and use it to underwrite uninsured immigrants health care costs.

Aetna Inc (AET.N) said on Saturday it has notified California's insurance regulator that it plans to stop selling health policies to individual consumers in the state at the end of 2013. The company will continue to offer health insurance to employers and Medicare beneficiaries in California, as well as dental and life-insurance products, Aetna spokeswoman Anjie Coplin told Reuters. But people with individual health coverage with Aetna will have to find alternative coverage by year's end.Aetna had informed California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones of its decision to exit the market, Coplin said, but it was still in the process of...

A short, mind-boggling video about a fired California public transit worker (fired for poor work habits)earning over $300,000 per year AFTER she had been fired! And yes, at taxpayer expense. Anyone still wonder why California is going broke?

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who helped draft the immigration reform bill currently being discussed in the Senate, says he will walk away from the negotiations if it includes a controversial amendment to provide immigration benefits for gay couples. "If this bill has in it something that gives gay couples immigration rights and so forth, it kills the bill. I'm done," said Rubio during an interview on the Andrea Tantaros Show on Thursday. "I'm off it, and I've said that repeatedly. I don't think that's going to happen and it shouldn't happen. This is already a difficult enough issue as it...

RIVERSIDE COUNTY: Democratic chairman apologizes for comment The chairman of the Riverside County Democratic Central Committee is apologizing for making a reference to Vaudeville-era character “Stepin Fetchit,” who some consider racially insensitive. Howard Katz made the statement during a gathering of central committee membership in Moreno Valley on Monday, June 10. “It was a stupid statement,” said Katz, a retired IBM manager who lives in Temecula, during a phone interview Thursday morning. The incident has promoted calls for Katz’s resignation, but Basil Kimbrew, chairman of the California Friends of the African American Caucus, said that as far as he’s concerned...

I have scratched my head until it is raw, tried to get my brain to process this bit of information I gleaned and asked people I know what they can make of this term – environmental racism. Per the Daily Caller, environmentalists have accused the city of Los Angeles of environmental racism. The Los Angeles city council approved Rail Company’s BSNF $500 million project, the Southern California International Gateway (SCIG), which is located 4 miles from the ports of San Pedro, CA. BSNF states the distance trucks travel will be reduced with this project. Trucks now have to travel 24...

The Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is pressuring public schools in this country to make special accommodations for Muslim students and to deny comparable accommodations for students of other faiths. For example, CAIR’s instructional material for teachers entitled “An Educator’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices” advises schools to permit Muslim students who wish to attend Friday congregational worship (known as Jum’ah) to “request a temporary release from school.” In Michigan, CAIR went beyond dispensing general advice from its guidebook. In April, 2013, it pushed for public schools in Dearborn, Michigan to accommodate Muslim students who wish to comfortably...

Schools in the state of California will soon be required to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their preference. A bill being discussed in the state senate would mandate that schools have bathrooms and locker rooms that are fully equipped for transgender students, as well as requiring the schools to allow transgender students to take part in sports and other activities of the gender of their choosing. Assembly Bill 1266 is aimed at prohibiting “discrimination against transgender students” in the state’s school districts, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), the bill’s sponsor, told The Christian Post....

Last week, I spent some time traveling through a state that in recent years has become too much of a foreign territory for Republicans: California. The last Republican presidential nominee to win California was George H.W. Bush in 1988, and statewide gubernatorial and Senate candidates haven’t done as well. I think Republicans will not be a successful national party again until we can compete everywhere, every time, for every vote — coast to coast. I began my trip to California by speaking to technology companies and executives in Silicon Valley. I met with Facebook, eBay, Google and smaller companies. What...

Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, on Sunday had harsh words for the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald revealing last week that the National Security Agency is looking at phone records of virtually all Americans. Appearing on ABC’s This Week, Rogers said, “I know your reporter that you interviewed, Greenwald, says that he’s got it all and now is an expert on the program. He doesn't have a clue how this thing works” (video follows with transcript): Congressman Rogers on NSA Phone Surveillance: ‘Greenwald Doesn’t Have a Clue How This Thing Works’ GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, we're just about...

An elementary school in Hayward, Calif. will sponsor a toy gun trade-in, encouraging kids to swap their harmless toy weapons for a chance to win a new bicycle. The purpose of the trade-in is to stop children from playing with toy guns, which may make them more likely to commit violence with real guns, said Strobridge Elementary principal Chris Hill. “Playing with toys guns, saying ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ desensitizes them, so as they get older, it’s easier for them to use a real gun,” Hill said in a statement to Mercury News. The trade-in will take place on...

Few issues divide Democrats more than energy policy, as we've learned as unions and environmentalists fight over the Keystone XL pipeline. More evidence now comes from California, where greens have lost an attempt to ban oil and gas hydraulic fracturing. Democratic leaders brought their fracking moratorium bill to the Assembly floor last week, and their rank and file revolted. The bill lost 37-24, with 12 Democrats joining 25 Republicans to defeat it. Another 18 Democrats abstained, and it's a good bet they were "no" votes who didn't want to publicly cross their leadership. This was a rare rout of the...

President Obama arrived in the Bay Area on Thursday for his umpty-umpteenth round of fundraisers with big-money donors, this time to benefit the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. His first stop at the home of multi-millionaire tech entrepreneur Michael McCue in an upscale suburban corner of Palo Alto didn’t go quite as planned when protesters showed up and made a ruckus, despite the White House’s determined attempts to keep the location of the fundraiser secret.

I give you some excerpts so you can understand the depths of the gun manufacturers', gun lobbyists' and right wing Christian racist tea bagger fascists in this terrible tragedy: TITLE: Santa Monica gunman had 'fascination with guns,' friend says. (Yep, that's the title.) FIRST SENTENCE OF THE STORY: A family friend of the gunman who killed four people during a Santa Monica shooting rampage said he had an intense interest in guns. LATER: The friend, who asked not to be identified, said John Zawahri, 24, had "a fascination with guns. We were all worried about it.... Everyone is wondering where...

John Zawahri lays dead on the sidewalk after shooting people and killing his own father and brother on Friday. (RYOT) Zawahri had mental issues as a juvenile. Authorities kept his name from the public for several hours. The LA Times reported: The suspect was identified by five law enforcement sources in Washington and Los Angeles as John Zawahri, in his 20s. Other sources with knowledge of the investigation said detectives believe the shooting was sparked by a family dispute of some kind but emphasized that the investigation was still in its early stages. The suspect’s past mental health issues occurred...

A gunman opened fire on a street corner near the campus of Santa Monica College, wounding at least four people, authorities said. Two people were later found dead in a burned home near the campus. It was not immediately clear if the two events were related. Police and witnesses said the gunfire began adjacent to the campus and about 3 miles from where President Barack Obama was attending a fundraising luncheon, just before noon. Police said a shooter was in custody and the campus was being searched for a possible second shooter. Jeff Furrows of the Santa Monica Fire Department...

“A confidential message from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, reproduced in [Diana] West’s new book, told [White House aide Harry] Hopkins that a ‘continuing’ investigation had discovered that Russian diplomat (and Comintern agent) Vasily Zarubin had made a payment to U.S. Communist Party official Steve Nelson to help place espionage agents ‘in industries engaged in secret war production … so that information could be obtained for transmittal to the Soviet Union.’ This information had come from a ‘bug’ at Nelson’s home in Oakland, California, through which the FBI first learned of the Soviet effort (code-named ‘Enormous’) to obtain the atomic...

California corrections officials say convicted serial killer Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker, has died in prison. San Quentin State Prison spokesman Lt. Sam Robinson says Ramirez died Friday morning. Ramirez was convicted of 13 murders that terrorized Southern California in 1984 and '85, and sentenced to death. Satanic symbols were left at murder scenes and some victims were forced to "swear to Satan" by the killer, who entered homes through unlocked windows and doors. Ramirez was captured and beaten in 1985 by residents of an East Los Angeles neighborhood while attempting a carjacking.

I am skeptical of even the smarter writers who have suggested that the California story is good news for health insurance premiums, or proof that Obamacare is already working. The newly released information from California provides them no basis for making such claims. And although the program’s failure is far from certain, there are already good reasons already to think we’re going to see much higher prices across the board for insurance products with little or no improvement compared to what’s already available

ItÂ’s commencement season. College seniors across the country are donning mortarboards, getting misty-eyed and preparing to face the realities of President Barack ObamaÂ’s sparkling economic recovery. The Daily Caller is a little misty-eyed, too, because college students will soon disperse from campuses for a long summer, which likely means far fewer stories about stupid and otherwise outrageous occurrences on campus. The time is right, then, to celebrate the academic year that was. Here are the 20 stupidest, most outrageous and most cringe-worthy campus moments of 2012-13. Florida Atlantic University: Worst university in AmericaWhat an embarrassing year for Florida Atlantic. The...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The FBI is searching the office of California state Sen. Ron Calderon but is not disclosing the reason for the investigation. Laura Eimiller, the spokeswoman for the FBI office in Los Angeles, said the warrants were served about 3 p.m. Tuesday and that agents were still inside the Capitol in the evening. She would not disclose the target of the search warrants, but Senate Chief Sergeant-at-Arms Tony Beard told The Associated Press it was Calderon.

Try Senator Dianne Feinstein in a Federal Court For Treason To The Constitution The Constitution was written to restrain the government. No amendment is more important for this purpose than the 2nd amendment. The 2nd amendment was written so the power could be kept with the citizenry in the face of a tyrannical government. It was well understood the Constitution acknowledged certain rights that could not be limited by government. Senator Dianne Feinstein has made it clear she does not believe in the Constitution or the inalienable rights of Americans to keep and bear arms. She is actively working to...

This is a story about politics and power in the golden land, and it begins with the money. In early May a luxury resort in Laguna Beach, Calif., hosted a five-day semi-annual meeting of the Democracy Alliance, a secret, invitation-only organization of liberal moneybags that since its formation in 2005 has directed some $500 million in contributions to progressive groups. Never has a wolves’ den been so posh.

This California proposal that will probably become law is going to be very popular in pro-gun control states. LA Times: Californians who want to buy ammunition would have to submit personal information and a $50 fee for a background check by the state, under a bill passed by the Senate. The state Department of Justice would determine whether buyers have a criminal record, severe mental illness or a restraining order that would disqualify them from owning guns. Ammo shops would check the name on buyers' driver's licenses against a state list of qualified purchasers. The goal of the bill is...

It was in 2011 that the Obama administration issued a regulation that required gun dealers in California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas to notify the ATF of anyone who purchased at least 2 semi-automatic weapons in a 5-day period. A gun trade group as well as 2 gun dealers in those states sued the administration over this regulation, saying that they overstepped their legal authority. The 3-judge panel ruled unanimously yesterday in favor of the ATF requirement, stating that the Gun Control Act of 1968 “unambiguously authorizes the [ATF’s] demand letter.” And to concerns by the challengers that the requirement...

SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers Wednesday advanced a dozen gun-control measures, including background checks for ammunition buyers, and gave early approval to a tax penalty on the Boy Scouts for barring openly gay leaders. Californians who want to buy ammunition would have to submit personal information and a $50 fee for a background check by the state, under a bill passed by the Senate. The Senate also OK'd a bill that would outlaw the sale, purchase and manufacture in California of semiautomatic rifles that can accommodate detachable magazines. The measure, SB 374 by Steinberg, also would require those who own such...

One of the most serious flaws with Obamacare is that its blizzard of regulations and mandates drives up the cost of insurance for people who buy it on their own. This problem will be especially acute when the law’s main provisions kick in on January 1, 2014, leading many to worry about health insurance “rate shock.” Last week, the state of California claimed that its version of Obamacare’s health insurance exchange would actually reduce premiums. “These rates are way below the worst-case gloom-and-doom scenarios we have heard,” boasted Peter Lee, executive director of the California exchange. Aetna CEO Bertolini: Get...

[A] move is afoot for a ... new energy development in the Golden State ... [in] the Monterey shale formation, a vast rock formation that is believed to hold one of the world's largest onshore reserves of shale oil.... Oil companies are seeking to stake their claim to this prize.... According to U.S. government estimates, as much as 15.4 billion barrels of oil could be locked within the Monterey shale. That would be more than double the amount of oil reckoned to lie within the Bakken shale, the booming play that has made North Dakota the nation's number 2 oil-producing...

Earlier this month, I explained four reasons why the Apple “tax avoidance� issue is empty political demagoguery. And Rand Paul gave some great remarks at a Senate hearing, excoriating some of his colleagues for trying to pillage the company. But this Robert Ariail cartoon may be the best summary of the issue. What makes this cartoon so effective is that it properly and cleverly identifies what’s really driving the political class on this issue. They want more revenue to finance a bigger burden of government spending. When I did my contest for best political cartoonist, I picked a cartoon about...

Do recently announced insurance rates for California's health exchange prove that worries about rate shock for health premiums are overblown? Not really. If anything, they suggest that concerns about big premium increases remain legitimate. At the end of last year, California’s health insurance regulators wrote a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warning that state officials expected health insurance “rate shock as markets transition to [Obamacare’s] rating rules.” But last week, after insurers participating in California’s health insurance exchange announced rates for the first year, supporters of the health care law were quick to declare that there...

FULL TITLE: California Assembly passes bill specifically exempting abortion clinics from surgical building code standards The state of California, who often leads the nation in laws and legislation, has taken a step backwards, as the California State Assembly passed an act to amend the current health and safety code in state medical facilities in a manner that would allow Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics to have fewer requirements, allowing them to perform their life-taking surgeries in non-surgical facilities. Assembly Bill 980 passed Friday and now moves to the Senate for debate. Assembly Bill 980 amends current California building codes...

After Connecticut upped the anti ante, The Golden State Senate is doing its level best to reclaim its title as America’s number one slave state. To that end, “The California Senate on Wednesday approved a package of seven gun control bills, including background checks for people who buy ammunition, introduced in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.” Well, the latimes.com would say that wouldn’t they? Not to mention burying the big kahuna in the tenth paragraph. “The Senate also approved a bill that would outlaw the sale, purchase and manufacture in California of semiautomatic...

The state Senate approved legislation Wednesday that would use California’s tax policy in an attempt to pressure the Boy Scouts of America into fully accepting gay members. The bill would make the organization ineligible for nonprofit tax breaks, despite its vote last week to accept openly gay scouts while blocking gays from becoming scout leaders. ... It now goes to the Assembly. If the bill is eventually signed into law by the governor, the groups would have to pay corporate taxes on donations, membership dues and camp fees, while also paying sales tax on food, beverages and homemade items sold...

All In The Family The US has entered into a contract with a real estate firm to sell 56 buildings that currently house U.S. Post Offices. The government has decided it no longer needs these buildings, many of which are located on prime land in towns and cities across the country. The sale of these properties will fetch billions of dollars and a handsome 6% commission to the company handling the sales. That company belongs to a man named Richard Blum. Who is Richard Blum you ask? Why the husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein, that's who. What a bunch of...

Californians are fleeing the center of their big cities while suburbs are suffering from slow growth. If it were not for international in-migration, California’s older big cities would be suffering from population decline the same as Detroit. Texas has become the “New California” by figuring out the formula to sustain the population of its older city centers while its suburbs are booming at the same time.

SANTA FE — The vast, stunning swath of northern New Mexico split by the Rio Grande Gorge had barely been named a national monument when a Colorado utility began reaching out to local leaders about building a power line through the area. Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association is eyeing the possibility of running a line from a substation north of Alamosa, Colo., to a site somewhere west of Taos. “We are in the very initial stages of studying this project,” and no route has been identified, said Tri-State spokeswoman Sarah Carlisle. But the company’s study area for the Valley Corridor...

We have truly entered the world of "Alice in Wonderland" when the CEO of a company that pays $16 million a day in taxes is hauled up before a Congressional subcommittee to be denounced on nationwide television for not paying more. Apple CEO Tim Cook was denounced for contributing to "a worrisome federal deficit," according to Senator Carl Levin — one of the big-spending liberals in Congress who has had a lot more to do with creating that deficit than any private citizen has. Because of "gimmicks" used by businesses to reduce their taxes, Senator Levin said, "children across the...

California now has so much projected revenue that Sacramento legislators don't what to do with it, The New York Times' Adam Nagourney reports. The final budget surplus figure for 2014 will fall somewhere between $1.2 and $4.4 billion, depending on who's counting. "An unexpected surplus is fueling an argument over how the state should respond to its turn of good fortune," writes Nagourney. Just three years ago, of course, the state was running a $60 billion deficit. The surplus is almost certainly the result of wealthy Californians trying to bank capital gains before the Bush tax cuts expired, Nagourney says.

Yesterday, Covered California—the name given to the healthcare exchange created pursuant to the Affordable Care Act that will serve the largest population of insured citizens in the nation—released the premium rates submitted by participating health insurance companies for the three health insurance program categories (bronze, silver and gold) established by the Affordable Care Act, along with the catastrophic policy created for and available to those under the age of 30. Upon reviewing the data, I was indeed shocked by the proposed premium rates—but not in the way you might expect. The jolt that I was experiencing was not the result...

<p>One Friday morning this spring, I drove to Washington’s Dulles airport at dawn, to catch the first nonstop flight to San Francisco. When I got off the plane six hours later, the morning sun still slanting through the terminal windows, my cellphone began ringing practically as soon as I turned it on.</p>