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Subsidy for COBRA health coverage to expire todayBy PHIL GALEWITZ Kaiser Health News Wednesday, August 31, 2011 WASHINGTON – One of the key consumer benefits of the federal stimulus package – subsidies to help laid-off workers continue their health care coverage – draws to a close today, raising concerns about how the unemployed will cover those expenses. It’s a dilemma that Holly Jespersen knows firsthand. She lost her job twice in the past two years – both times losing her employer-paid health insurance. But the second time, she paid about $350 a month more for insurance than she had the...

What will happen with Americans' health insurance in 2014 remains guesswork, but this much is clear: A significant number of employers will at least think about dropping coverage. That point was driven home again Wednesday with the release of another survey on how companies plan to address the sweeping changes generated by the Affordable Care Act of 2010. The latest results come from professional services firm Towers Watson, which said 9% of the midsize and large companies it recently polled plan to drop employer-sponsored health insurance after the Affordable Care Act takes effect in 2014. Other research has predicted that...

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<p>Multiple sources reporting that a gunman has shot up a childrens summer camp, adding to the terror from the earlier bombing.</p>

President Obama arrived home to the White House on Wednesday from his five-day trip to Latin America and found himself locked out of the French doors to the Oval Office, as captured by several news organizations. My Media Research Center colleague Tim Graham reminded me that back on Nov. 21, 2005, the New York Times published on its front page a photo of President George W. Bush making a face after trying to leave a press conference in Beijing through a locked door, accompanied by an article that mentioned the gaffe.

Strip club cited for lack of coverageThe Daily Item Sun Nov 28, 2010, 02:28 AM EST PORT TREVORTON -- The co-owners of a Snyder County strip club are facing more than 700 felony and misdemeanor charges for allegedly failing to provide employees with workers' compensation insurance coverage. Melvin J. and Michelle Mowery, of 213 S. Molasses St., Mount Pleasant Mills, are each facing charges for not having workers' compensation insurance for employees at the Routes 11-15 club at times between January 2006 and March 2010, according to criminal complaints filed by William Beates, an investigator with the state Department of...

With little doubt about the outcome of tomorrow's elections, the speculation turns to what the reaction will be to the historic GOP victories. Will President Barack Obama shift toward the political center? Will all those shiny new Republican lawmakers keep their campaign promises to shrink government and control spending? Will those in the Tea Party movement remain engaged and involved once this battle has been won? All those answers will come in time but what we'll probably find out instantly is will the mainstream media abandon its self-assigned role of liberal cheerleader and return to honest reporting?

Health-care reform will help young adults get coverageBy TIMOTHY CHAPMAN, ALTHEA FUNG AND ALLISON CHOPIN TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS Published: August 29, 2010 **SNIP** "Right now, at this band we make dirt," Dixon said. "As far as getting insurance, it's almost out of the question." **SNIP** New government regulations that go into effect Sept. 23 will allow young adults up to age 26 to join their parents' health-insurance plan. Previously, young adults who went to college were kept on their parents' health-insurance plan until they graduated, dropped out or reached a specified age, whichever came first. Young adults who did not...

Does President Obama have any idea what's in his own health-care reform law? Since he signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act a bit more than 100 days ago, the president has given a number of speeches and interviews in which he continues to say things that, well, just aren't so. Just last Friday, he told MSNBC's Chuck Todd that the law "not only makes sure everybody has access to coverage but is reducing costs." Wrong on both counts. The bill doesn't come close to giving "everybody" access to coverage. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 10 years from...

The Coast Guard has modified a policy on safety zones around boom deployed on oiled coastlines, a policy news organizations had said unnecessarily restricted coverage of the impact of the BP oil spill and efforts to clean it up. In a statement Monday night, the government's point man for the spill, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said new procedures permit credentialed news media free travel within the boom safety zones. News organizations, including The Associated Press, had argued being kept at least 65 feet away from the boom impeded the ability to cover the spill.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's top health care official put health insurers on notice Monday that the new health overhaul law requires them to cover kids with medical problems, trying to dispel uncertainty over a much-publicized benefit. It remained unclear if the sternly worded letter from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius would settle a dispute over a widely touted achievement of the health care law that Obama signed last week.

WASHINGTON — Just days after President Obama signed the new health care law, insurance companies are already arguing that, at least for now, they do not have to provide one of the benefits that the president calls a centerpiece of the law: coverage for certain children with pre-existing conditions. Mr. Obama, speaking at a health care rally in northern Virginia on March 19, said, “Starting this year, insurance companies will be banned forever from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions.”

I guess when President Obama uttered the promise "If you like your coverage you can keep it" he was speaking to the ruling elite. It must have been so since the adoring sycophants on the Hill were not exempted from this bill but their bosses were. How about that change guys? The following Fox News story outlines the controversy brewing in Washington:

The Congressional Budget Office predicts up to 10 million people would lose employer-sponsored health care coverage under Senate Democratic health care reform plan. The CBO released the data last night. "Firms that would choose not to offer coverage as a result of the proposal would tend to be smaller employers and employers that predominantly employ lower-wage workers‚"people who would be eligible for subsidies through the exchange," The CBO reports, "although some workers who would not have employment-based coverage because of the proposal would not be eligible for such subsidies."

“Planned and choreographed” incident similar to USAir Flight 300 Security incident aboard AirTran Flight 297 suggests terror “Dry Run”On November 17, an incident took place aboard AirTran Flight 297 scheduled to fly from Atlanta Hartsfield Airport to Houston that the media does not want to cover and everyone from the airline to the TSA and other government agencies want to keep very quiet. The reasons, I have been told, is fear of predatory lawsuits, negative publicity from accusations of religious profiling, and the obligatory subjugation to mindless mandatory Muslim sensitivity training that make a mockery of our American system of...

After months of what some critics called overexposure, President Obama has of late avoided questions from the White House press corps at large, closing the Oval Office to traditionally informal question-and-answer sessions with reporters and pulling back from the fast pace of news conferences he established when taking office. The president, whose job-approval ratings have been on a steady slide...

Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants could receive health care coverage from their employers under the bills winding their way through Congress, despite President Obama's explicit pledge that illegal immigrants would not benefit. The House bill mandates, and the Senate bill strongly encourages, businesses to extend health care coverage to all employees. But the bills do not have exemptions to screen out illegal immigrants, who usually obtain jobs by using false identities and are indistinguishable from legal workers.

BEIJING – Washington's ambassador to Beijing hit out Friday at negative U.S. media coverage of President Barack Obama's visit to China, saying it failed to take into account important progress on many issues. Although producing no breakthroughs on key issues, Obama's first state visit to the Asian giant that ended Wednesday was heralded by both sides as a success. The trip was the top news story in China, drawing strong interest from the Chinese public who, surveys suggest, are largely positive in their view of the American president.

Seinfeld fans should love Harry Reid's health scare plan. Reid wants to spend almost a trillion of your tax dollars over the next decade for ... nothing. According to reports, Reid's plan would leave 24 million people uninsured in 2019. That is approximately the same number of people that some studies show who are currently uninsured because they can't afford health insurance. One dirty, big secret that Dr. Reid, Nurse Nancy, and Orderly Obama don't want you to know is that a significant number of uninsured Americans can afford health insurance; they just choose not to purchase it. Many are...

THE health-care-reform debate is plagued by different num bers on how many Ameri cans lack health insurance, but we actually have excellent data on the question: Ninety percent of Americans are insured, according to the Census -- and even the president more or less concurs. The Census is the source for the much-cited figure of 46 million uninsured. Yet the very same table plainly indicates that 9 million of those are not US citizens. That leaves 37 million uninsured who are Americans. But there's more. In the same document, the Census also plainly states that "health-insurance coverage is underreported" in...

RC-East Media Ground Rules: 1. Media on Bagram Air Field will not take photographs, video or conduct interviews unless escorted by Public Affairs personnel. 2. All interviews will be on the record. 3. During interviews, no questions will be asked about the politics of the military. (e.g. Iraq war, equipment, readiness, funding, etc.) 4. When embedded with a unit, media must remain with that unit at all times. 5. The media is responsible for loading and carrying its own equipment at all times. 6. Media will not carry or possess personal weapons, knives, firearms, pornography or alcohol. 7. Visible light...

As health-care legislation advances through Congress, the young adults who were so vital to President Obama's election are emerging as a significant beneficiary of his top domestic priority, but they are also likely to play a major role in funding any reform. In a campaign-style rally Thursday at the University of Maryland at College Park, Obama will aim to tap his richest vein of support -- voters younger than 30 -- to help sell his reform plan to a more skeptical general public. "We're at an important turning point in our push for real reform," read the e-mailed invitation, "and...

Abortion measure passes, then fails, in House Thursday, July 30, 2009 An anti-abortion amendment to a sweeping health overhaul bill was voted down in a House committee late Thursday — a dramatic reversal just hours after the measure initially was approved. The amendment said health care legislation moving through Congress may not impose requirements for coverage of abortion, except in limited cases. It was approved in the Energy and Commerce Committee after conservative Democrats joined Republicans to support it. But committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., invoked House rules that allowed him to bring up the amendment for a second vote,...

Massachusetts' budget forces retreat from universal coverage15. July 2009 18:40 "The new state budget in Massachusetts eliminates health care coverage for some 30,000 legal immigrants to help close a growing deficit, reversing progress toward universal coverage just as Congress looks to the state as a model for overhauling the nation’s health care system," the New York Times reports. The affected immigrants are permanent residents who have had green cards for less than five years and are insured through the Commonwealth Care program, an insurance program created by the 2006 law that brought near-universal coverage to Massachusetts. The cuts would save...

Senate bill fines people refusing health coverageBy RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR – 58 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines will raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which now imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage....

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Nearly two out of three Americans believe the media gave too much coverage to the death of Michael Jackson and just three percent think it was too little, according to a survey published on Wednesday. Twenty-nine percent of the 1,000 people polled June 26-29 for the survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press believe the coverage of Jackson's sudden death on Thursday at the age of 50 was the "right amount." Thirty percent of those polled said they followed the coverage of Jackson's death "very closely" while 28 percent said they followed...

Veterans Groups Protest Proposed Change In Coverage For Injuries, Conditions Related To Military ServiceArticle Date: 11 Mar 2009 - 5:00 PDT Several veterans groups "are lashing out" at the Obama administration over a policy proposal they say would "dramatically alter" how the Department of Veterans Affairs handles health insurance claims for veterans, The Hill reports. Under the policy, which is included in President Obama's fiscal year 2010 budget proposal, VA would bill health insurers for treatment of injuries and conditions sustained as a result of veterans' military service. Currently, VA covers those costs and bills health insurers only for treatment...

Oh, the broadcast cameos and photo ops are magnificent. but surprise: Even Pew Research says the press has turned "bearish" on President. Obama. Grrrr.

Main Entry:lick·spit·tle Pronunciation: \ˈlik-ˌspi-təl\ Function: nounDate:1825 : a fawning subordinate : toady Alternate spellings: ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN... Context Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). Servility Sycophant, parasite; toad, toady, toad-eater; tufthunter; snob, flunky, flunkey, yes-man, lapdog, spaniel, lickspittle, smell-feast, Graeculus esuriens, hanger on, cavaliere servente, led captain, carpet knight; timeserver, fortune hunter, Vicar of Bray, Sir-Pertinax, Max Sycophant, pickthank; flatterer; doer of dirty work; ame damnee, tool; reptile; slave; (servant); courtier; beat, dead beat, doughface , heeler, homme de cour, sponger, sucker, tagtail, truckler.

The Media Research Center has quantified, documented and exposed media bias for its 20 years of existence. But media bias has a new dimension – media garbage, which is false information or unsubstantiated rumors. Media garbage is an outgrowth of the speed and proliferation of 24/7 news, the Internet, the blogosphere and the race to be the first to report a sensational story, sensationalize a non-story or capture the often-desired mantel of journalistic achievement called “gotcha”. Ever since Dan Rather of CBS News was fired for insisting that phony National Guard records about President Bush were true, most media outlets...

Civic Center seems to be turning ugly. According to Metropolitan photographer Dawn Madura police started moving protesters in to the park. They had previously been in the streets. About 100 cops surrounded the park. Traffic had to be diverted. The march that wound through city streets, stopping traffic and causing police to scramble to mediate between motorists and marchers was dubbed "Reclaiming the Streets". The mass was made up of 37 different liberal groups that entered the streets without a permit. A young girl was seen being arrested for being in the street. She resisted arrest and was forced into...

McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis asked Sunday for a meeting with Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, to protest what the campaign called signs that the network is "abandoning non-partisan coverage of the Presidential race." Davis made the request Sunday in a letter that is part of an aggressive effort by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to counter news coverage he considers critical. Politico has asked NBC for a response and will post that here when it arrives.

On his program last night Fox News host Bill O'Reilly blasted his cable competitors for their "delight in showing Iraqi violence," a product of an editorial mindset at CNN and MSNBC that "want[s] Americans to think badly of President Bush." "And that strategy has succeeded," he added. O'Reilly's words came in response to remarks made by CNN president Jon Klein who accused FNC of dialing back Iraq coverage as violence in Iraq has increased. "It illustrates the danger of cheerleading for one particular point or another because they were obviously cheerleaders for the war," He told the AP. "When the...

BERKELEY -- By a unanimous vote, the Berkeley City Council took the first step Tuesday night toward including sex change surgery in employee health care benefits. The proposal is modeled after a similar benefit in effect in San Francisco since 2001. The council ordered the city manager to create a feasibility study before the measure comes back to the council in six months for final approval. The vote was cast without comment, in contrast to the media frenzy that broke out last week after the proposal was put on the agenda. Councilman Darryl Moore, who co-sponsored the resolution with his...

For all its firepower, Israel’s military is at a disadvantage fighting Hamas and Hezbollah because internationally accepted rules of military engagement hamstring democratic nation-states battling non-state terrorist groups. This is true even when terrorists show utter contempt for all standards of human decency and engage in wanton killing — a sign of how ineffective the rules of engagement are in today’s era of asymmetrical warfare.

ARE Californians taxed too much, or not enough? Taxes are the central question of how to fund Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's massive $12 billion expansion of government-run health care with its 4 percent payroll tax, 4 percent hospital tax and 2 percent doctor tax. Ironically, Schwarzenegger lambasted Phil Angelides during last year's gubernatorial campaign for wanting to raise taxes by $7 billion to create a new government health care entitlement. Angelides argued mightily that his proposal amounted to fees, not taxes. But the governor called Angelides' "fee" a "tax," so a "tax" it was. Now that Schwarzenegger is proposing a government...

Businesses are wary of a crop of new state health care proposals to reduce the number of uninsured, fearing the programs will drive up their expenses without solving the problem. Dissension already has surfaced: Maine's health insurers and businesses have balked at how the state's program to expand coverage has been funded and have filed several lawsuits over the policy. Smaller companies are especially worried, because they are less likely to provide health insurance than bigger concerns, and some of the proposals call for companies that don't provide coverage to pay into state funds. But experts note that if the...

Seven Days Before Election, TV Networks Give Good Press to Democrats, Smack GOP With Bad Press Media: Treats for Liberals, Tricks for GOP     Appearing on FNC’s The O’Reilly Factor last week, ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin admitted that the media elite have a bias problem. Citing this year’s adulatory coverage of liberal Democrat Nancy Pelosi compared to the mean-spirited coverage the networks dumped on Newt Gingrich back in 1994, Halperin confessed: "If I were a conservative, I understand why I would feel suspicious that I was not going to get a fair break at the end of an...

On Sept. 30, about 100 people carrying protest signs and handfuls of dirt rallied at the Alamo to protest Gov. Rick Perry's massive toll road plan. Perry's feisty challenger, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, spoke at the event, which was not covered by the Express-News. Our no-show wasn't a judgment call. A reporter who was notified about the rally simply did not pass the information on to editors who decide what to cover and who will cover it. It was a flub, primarily by the Express-News, but also by the organizer, the San Antonio Toll Party, which needs to be more effusive...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2006 – A Marine corporal quizzed top leaders at a recent Pentagon employees’ question-and-answer session about what the department can do to counter the reporting of negative news from Iraq and Afghanistan. “Negativity in the press is absolutely detrimental to the morale of our forces and our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Cpl. John A. Stukins said to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a Sept. 22 town hall meeting. “What are we doing to confront this problem and to better the morale of our...

Thousands of people on Medicaid in Michigan will not be able to fill their prescription at CVS drug stores. CVS said it will stop filling prescription from Midwest Health Plan starting Aug. 16. The drug store chain said it's taking the drastic step because it was unable to reach an agreeement with the insurer over reimbursement rates. Midwest Health is a Dearborn-based insurance carrier.

The World Cup is generating record television audiences for soccer in the U.S. But some diehard fans think the coverage deserves a red card. Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN and ABC have been hit with complaints from soccer devotees that their telecasts are unsophisticated and mistake-ridden. The popular Web site Big Soccer has a thread titled "Pick your favorite insane thing said by the announcers so far."A major gripe: ESPN selected an announcer, Dave O'Brien, who had never called a soccer game before this year to serve as the tournament's lead play-by-play man. Some English-speaking viewers have switched to Spanish-language Univision,...

  For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryMay 6, 2006 President's Radio Address       Audio      In Focus: Medicare      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Today I want to talk with you about the new Medicare prescription drug coverage that went into effect at the start of this year. Everyone on Medicare is eligible for this new coverage, but the enrollment deadline of May 15th is just over a week away. For those of you with Medicare who have not yet signed up, it is important for you to review your options and choose a plan. By enrolling before the deadline, you...

An Assembly committee approved a bill Tuesday that would mandate Californians buy health insurance coverage much like drivers are required to purchase auto insurance. Although California voters and politicians repeatedly have rejected forcing individuals and employers to pay for a universal insurance program, lawmakers are seeking to capitalize on the momentum from a new Massachusetts law that will make that state the first in the country to establish mandatory health insurance. "We have a choice about whether we're going to stay stuck in the mud," said Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael. "We have a situation where we have 20 percent...

South Korean media protest North Korea press freedoms 1 hour, 28 minutes ago South Korean reporters covering inter-Korean family reunions in North Korea are returning home in protest at press freedom curbs, media pool reports said. North Korean officials prevented two South Korean broadcasters from transmitting stories earlier in the week and asked one reporter from the SBS commercial television network to leave the country on Wednesday. "Because of the North's restrictions on media coverage, a reporter from SBS had to return to South Korea and the principle of press freedom has been breached," the 24 reporters said in a...

"From what I've seen thus far, much of the reporting in the U.S. and abroad has exaggerated the situation, according to General Casey. The number of attacks on mosques, as he pointed out, had been exaggerated. The number of Iraqi deaths had been exaggerated. The behavior of the Iraqi security forces had been mischaracterized in some instances. And I guess that is to say nothing of the apparently inaccurate and harmful reports of U.S. military conduct in connection with a bus filled with passengers in Iraq. Interestingly, all of the exaggerations seem to be on one side. It isn't as...

Sitting in armchairs waiting for handouts not the best way to get scoops Members of the elite White House press corps this week have acted more like animals that have been kept in captivity for so long that they can’t find news unless it is forced down their open gullets at a daily press briefing. The Cheney hunting accident story embarrassingly revealed this fact, which probably explains the greater-than-normal anger and outrage of White House correspondents over the last few days. “Why weren’t we told?” has been the refrain, not “How did we miss that story?” The White House press...

Isn't nonstop fawning press coverage wonderful? Other than entrenched, well-connected liberals like Al Franken, of course, who exactly would have an idea of how that feels? For the Radio Equalizer, the toughest task is weeding through it, otherwise we'd cover nothing but Frankenfluff (a term we coined to describe the particular level of positive press Al routinely enjoys). Even this mainstream media lovefest can have pitfalls for unsuspecting recipients, however. Why? Because it eventually leads to carelessness and overconfidence. Particularly during recent television interviews, we've already seen that in Franken, who can't seem to understand why anyone wouldn't find the...

NBC did not interrupt its broadcast of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade yesterday to bring viewers the news that an M&M balloon had crashed into a light pole, injuring two sisters. In fact, when the time came in the tightly scripted three-hour program for the M&Ms' appearance, NBC weaved in tape of the balloon crossing the finish line at last year's parade - even as the damaged balloon itself was being dragged from the accident scene. At 11:47 a.m., as an 11-year-old girl and her 26-year-old sister were being treated for injuries, the parade's on-air announcers - Katie Couric, Matt...

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." -- Old adage "Well, there you go again." -- Ronald Reagan There they go indeed. And shame on anyone for believing them anymore. I mean, of course, the elite liberal media, who will stop at nothing to topple the Bush presidency. Not even if it means manipulating the news about war and natural disasters. Remember all those New Orleans horror stories, the ones that could've given Attila the Hun goosebumps? An Editor & Publisher headline that screamed, "Mortuary Director Tells Local Paper 40,000 Could Be Lost in Hurricane"?...