Free Republic

Rod Coons and Florence Peace pay $403 a month for a family health plan that covers barely any medical care for either of them until he or she reaches $10,000 in claims in a given year. And that’s just the way they like it. “I’m only really interested in catastrophic coverage,” says Coons, 58, who retired last year after selling an electronics manufacturing business in Indianapolis. Beyond their premium, the couple typically spends no more than $500 annually on medical care, Coons says. “I’d prefer to stay with our current plan.” That won’t be an option next year. In 2014,...

A D.C. fire department ambulance customarily accompanies a presidential motorcade as it departs from the White House. But when a motorcade left Thursday, the ambulance remained behind on the South Lawn. It had run out of gas. In the latest blow to the reputation of the city’s beleaguered ambulance fleet, fire officials confirmed that the first-due medical responder to the White House had to be taken out of service while on a run to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. “The unit apparently did run out of gas, but a replacement unit was put in its place,” D.C. fire department spokesman Tim Wilson...

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Obamacare contains a blizzard of mandates and regulations that will make health insurance more costly. One of the most significant is its caps on out-of-pocket insurance costs, such as co-pays and deductibles. Section 2707(b) of the Public Health Service Act, as added by Obamacare, requires that “a group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage may not establish lifetime limits on the dollar value of benefits for the any participant or beneficiary.” Annual limits on cost-sharing are specified by Section 1302(c) of the Affordable Care Act; in addition, starting in 2014, deductibles are...

Paul and Chriss will be discussing the mysterious death (killing?) of Rolling Stones reporter Michael Hastings with San Diego reporter Kim Dvorak who has uncovered new information on the "incident".

My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips. Psalm 89:34

Hall & Oates has never won a Grammy but the No. 1 selling duo of all time has won something else: hipster respect. Putting aside those shoulder pads for a moment, Daryl Hall and John Oates looked like hand-picked opposites: The lanky blond Hall called himself the "more flamboyant" one, while the shorter dark-haired Oates — with his distinctive 'stache — embraced his role as "worker bee." But their union came from no design, except by the music gods: The Temple University students met in an elevator, both trying to duck a gunfight that had broken out at the Adelphi...

A verdict has been reached in the murder and racketeering trial of James “Whitey” Bulger, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced. The eight men and four women on the jury deliberated for more than 30 hours. The 32-count indictment before them accuses Bulger, 83, of the gangland shootings and strangulations of 19 men and women between 1973 and 1985, money laundering, extortion, drug distribution and illegal firearms possession. The former leader of the Winter Hill Gang faces a maximum sentence of life plus 30 years.

MANY American newspapers were doomed to decline from the moment the Internet arrived on personal computers. But The Washington Post, just sold off unexpectedly to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, was never really one of them. This is something the sentimental send-offs for the Graham family and its stewardship tended to ignore. As disruptive as the Internet has been for journalism, The Post was uniquely positioned to succeed amid the chaos. And it has struggled, in part, because the paper’s leaders failed to step into an online-era role that should have been theirs for the taking. The nature of that role is...

By PAUL PRESTON The new motto under the bear on the California State flag is going to have to be revised from “California Republic” to California Soviet Republic” if proposed Senate Bill 1 by State Senator Steinberg is passed and signed into law. SB 1 came about following the massive defeat of Prop. 31 in last November’s election which was defeated by California Voters 61% to 39%. Cal Watch Dog’s Wayne Lusvardi in his November 9, 2012 article tilted :http://calwatchdog.com/2012/11/09/prop-31-would-have-ended-californias-republic/“>Prop. 31 would have ended California’s republic”, commented “Republicanism Upheld Only by Accident: The reason attributed to Prop. 31 losing by...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – Two workers were hospitalized after opening a package at John F. Kennedy International Airport Sunday, but the substance inside – initially feared to be nerve gas – turned out only to be beauty supplies. As CBS 2’s Steve Langford reported, it was a tense scene at the U.S. Postal Service facility at the eastern edge of the airport Sunday. Port Authority police, the FDNY, and an FBI hazardous response team all rushed to the scene after the workers reported feeling ill. In this post-9/11 world, authorities respond quickly and forcefully out of an abundance of caution,...