Free Republic

The first month of the new health law’s rollout reveals an unexpected pattern in several states: a crush of people applying for an expansion of Medicaid and a trickle of sign-ups for private insurance. This early imbalance — in some places, nine out of 10 enrollees are in Medicaid — has taken some experts by surprise. The Affordable Care Act, which expanded Medicaid to cover millions of the poorest Americans who couldn’t otherwise afford coverage, envisions a more even split with an expanded, robust private market. “When we first saw the numbers, everyone’s eyes kind of bugged out,” said Matt...

A family was surprised to find a pipe stuffed with marijuana inside a Kids Meal box that was purchased from the Burger King in Dundee Tuesday night, police said. The investigation led to charges being sought against an employee and two other young men all from the Dundee area. The marijuana was not intended to be sold in the children’s meal box, police said. Dundee Police Chief Dave Uhl said a 23-year-old employee admitted to placing the pipe inside a Kids Meal box in an apparent effort to hide the pot while he was working.

CONCORD -- Earlier this year, Contra Costa County won the right to run a health care call center, where workers will answer questions to help implement the president's Affordable Care Act. Area politicians called the 200-plus jobs it would bring to the region an economic coup. Now, with two months to go before the Concord operation opens to serve the public, information has surfaced that about half the jobs are part-time, with no health benefits ... The Contra Costa County supervisor whose district includes the call center called the whole hiring process -- which attracted about 7,000 applicants -- a...

Federal judge blocks lawsuits against Detroit’s bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes stopped three lawsuits threatening to undo the city’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing. Detroit retirees had argued that the bankruptcy could dimish their pensions. DETROIT — A federal judge agreed with Detroit on Wednesday and stopped any lawsuits challenging the city's bankruptcy, declaring his courtroom the exclusive venue for legal action in the largest filing by a local government in U.S. history. The decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes was a major victory for Detroit, especially after an Ingham County judge last week said that Gov. Rick Snyder ignored the...

Officials In Yankton Put Out Unusual Fire YANKTON, SD - Firefighters in Yankton were called to extinguish an unusual blaze that involved an apparent small animal and a smoke bomb. A resident who noticed a large hole had been dug in his yard overnight dropped a smoke bomb down the hole Sunday afternoon to scare off the varmint. The result was flames shooting from the ground. Officials believe the animal might have chewed or clawed its way through a gas line, and the smoke bomb ignited the fumes. Firefighters monitored the scene for nearly an hour until a gas company...

The Supreme Court’s rulings in favor of same-sex marriage Wednesday were greeted with excitement by polygamists across the country, who viewed the gay rights victory as a crucial step toward the country’s inevitable acceptance of plural marriage. Anne Wilde, a vocal advocate for polygamist rights who practiced the lifestyle herself until her husband died in 2003, praised the court’s decision as a sign that society’s stringent attachment to traditional “family values” is evolving. “I was very glad… The nuclear family, with a dad and a mom and two or three kids, is not the majority anymore,” said Wilde. “Now...

3rd September 1967: Traffic in Sweden switched from driving on the left to driving on the right “Dagen H (H day) was the day on which traffic in Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. The change was widely unpopular, The campaign included displaying the Dagen H logo on various commemorative items, including milk cartons, men’s shorts and women’s underwear. Swedish television held a contest for songs about the change; the winning entry was Håll dig till höger, Svensson (‘Keep to the right, Svensson’) by Rock-Boris.”

Film Studios Say New York Gun Law May Ban Props ALBANY — The sweeping gun control measure signed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and hailed by Democratic leaders has a surprising critic: Hollywood. Officials in the movie and television industry say the new laws could prevent them from using the lifelike assault weapons and high-capacity magazines that they have employed in shows like “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and films like “The Dark Knight Rises.” Twenty-seven film and television projects, including programs like “Blue Bloods” and “Person of Interest,” are now in production in New York State using assault...

Officials in West Hollywood are warning members of the public to protect themselves against meningococcal infection, an illness caused by a bacteria or virus that can be fatal. City Councilman John Duran held a news conference Friday afternoon alongside Chris Brown, director of health and mental health for the LA Gay and Lesbian Center, to sound an alarm. Duran told NBC4 one of his long-time supporters -- a 33-year-old gay man -- had been diagnosed with meningitis two days ago, was hospitalized and is now in a coma. The man died Friday afternoon, Duran said. The man had attended an...

Calif. mayor charged for drunken fit over milkshake, report says (CBS) ATWATER, Calif. - Craig Mooneyham, who was filling in as mayor of Atwater, Calif., is accused of throwing a drunken fit over a $7 milkshake, CBS Sacramento reports. According to the station, witnesses say the mayor was so mad about having to pay $7 for a banana milkshake, he started cursing and nearly got into a fight. "He was just throwing the f-bombs and pretty much everything else," Liliana Gracian, an employee of Fosters Freeze, a fast-food chain, told the station. Mooneyham reportedly swore he was overcharged for extra...

Mickelson expects to make 'drastic' changes LA QUINTA — San Diego professional golfer Phil Mickelson said after the final round of the PGA Tour’s Humana Challenge on Sunday that he will have to make “drastic changes” in his life because of the federal and state taxes he is paying, and he confirmed that his decision to not buy an interest in the Padres was directly related to his financial situation. "I'll probably talk more in depth next week (at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines). I'm not going to jump the gun,” Mickelson said. “There are going to be...

Not long ago, quinoa was just an obscure Peruvian grain you could only buy in wholefood shops. We struggled to pronounce it (it's keen-wa, not qui-no-a), yet it was feted by food lovers as a novel addition to the familiar ranks of couscous and rice. Dieticians clucked over quinoa approvingly because it ticked the low-fat box and fitted in with government healthy eating advice to "base your meals on starchy foods". Adventurous eaters liked its slightly bitter taste and the little white curls that formed around the grains. Vegans embraced quinoa as a credibly nutritious substitute for meat. Unusual among...

The armies of allah are CONVERGING RIGHT NOW towards Damascus. The sole obstacle is the Assad régime. Once Assad is down (and he will be, it’s only a matter of time: the Obama régime, al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia are ALL against Assad), the armies of allah will mobilize in order to raid JERUSALEM. Should we not mobilize? Should we not be trying urgently to mobilize the antisemitic "Christians" among us, with the use of Reason, to become friends of the Jewish People -- in order to get their support in the CRUSADE to protect JERUSALEM? Abram...

In 1996, John Ross penned what has become a classic story of what might happen when the federal government oversteps its bounds and clamps down too hard on guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans. So chilling is the story, so graphic in its descriptions of how some Americans might fight back, that Mr. Ross and his wife were hounded and intimidated by federal authorities. Yet the title of his novel speaks loudly about what the gun-grabbers can expect when they legislate from emotion rather than fact. There, in Unintended Consequences, many of them lost their fictional lives. Here, in...

Several news staffers at the Madison-based radio station WTDY have been laid off, including talk-show host John "Sly" Sylvester. A company memo says the layoffs included all but one member of the news, traffic and on-air staff at 1670 WTDY-AM and 106.7 WTDY-FM. The WTDY website has been replaced by a holiday message, and the station began airing Christmas music Wednesday. Station operations manager Randy Hawke says officials will announce the new format after the holidays. Sylvester tells WISC-TV ( http://bit.ly/UMT7Mh) he was surprised to hear he and six or seven others were being let go. He says his show...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — About 625 people will be laid off when Cliffs Natural Resources idles a Michigan mine and cuts production at a Minnesota operation due to declining demand for iron ore, the company announced Monday. Two of the four production lines at Northshore Mining's taconite plant in Silver Bay will shut down effective Jan. 5, resulting in 125 layoffs, said Cliffs' Minnesota spokeswoman Sandy Karnowski. It has not been determined how those layoffs will be distributed between the plant and Northshore's mine in Babbitt, she said. Cliffs also plans an extended summer shutdown at the Empire Mine near Palmer,...

GE Healthcare said Friday it is cutting 2 percent of its jobs in Wisconsin, where it has 6,500 employees, and 10 percent of its workforce in Vermont, where it employs about 500 people. The Waukesha-based medical equipment manufacturer said it needs to make "tough decisions in the current economic climate" and was looking for ways to streamline its operations and lower costs. "This will reduce complexity, speed up decision making and help us become more accessible to our customers," said GE spokesman Benjamin Fox. "It also addresses the continued economic challenges in Europe and the U.S., and it will position...

Medical supply giant Stryker is the latest company to announce job cuts in anticipation of coming costs associated with ObamaCare, even though the man who inherited a fortune from the company's founder is a fan. The company will cut 1,170 jobs, or five percent of its worldwide workforce, despite the fact that the founder's grandson was one of the largest contributors to President Obama’s re-election campaign. Medical tech scion Jon Stryker, whose net worth is currently estimated at $1.2 billion, contributed $2 million to the Priorities USA Action super PAC and has given $66,000 in contributions to Obama and the...

Comcast Corp's NBCUniversal entertainment unit is laying off about 500 employees at cable channels, Jay Leno's late-night TV show and the Universal Pictures movie studio, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Monday. The cuts add up to about 1.5 percent of the company's workforce of 30,000 employees, the source said. A large portion of the layoffs occurred at the G4 cable channel, a network about video games and the gaming culture, the source said. Two of the network's shows were recently canceled. Other layoffs occurred about two months ago at "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," which...

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