SunSeeker
SunSeeker's JournalMessi bends it like Beckham for his Miami debut, as Becks watches in delight.
With the game tied 1-1 in minute 93, Messi scored on a free kick that curved right around the defenders and slipped into the top left corner of the goal, out of reach of the helpless goalie's outstretched hands, winning the game for Miami 2-1. Miami is in full Messi-mania!
The lovely curve can best be seen at the view at 0:20:
Beckham is co-owner of Inter Miami CF, and has seen ticket sales spike 558%, even with ticket prices shooting up 459%, since they signed Messi. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/07/18/messi-drives-miami-ticket-prices-up-500-ahead-of-debut/
More than 1 million people are dropped from Medicaid as states start a post-pandemic purge of rolls
Most got dropped for not filling out paperwork.
Though the eligibility review is required by the federal government, President’s Joe Biden’s administration isn’t too pleased at how efficiently some other states are accomplishing the task.
...
Florida has dropped several hundred thousand people, by far the most among states. The drop rate also has been particularly high in other states. For people whose cases were decided in May, around half or more got dropped in Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.
https://apnews.com/article/medicaid-eligibility-states-coronavirus-pandemic-46484af651466539d6874c1a97397b50?user_email=af4a3b628578e24fe3cc001524281964ec2742242ba6399b7768d46e524c3cce&utm_medium=Morning_Wire&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_campaign=MorningWire_June27_2023&utm_term=Morning%20Wire%20Subscribers
Really fishy how the red states manage to use paperwork technicalities to drop people from Medicaid. I wonder how many of those people even know they were dropped, or even received any paperwork to fill out. I imagine a lot of addresses on file are no longer current, and red states probably don't care if they're sending to the wrong address.
I predict our emergency rooms will be slammed this winter with newly uninsured and very sick patients. And covid has not gone away. There was a 9.1% increase in nationwide covid deaths in the last week. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_currenthospitalizations_testpositivity_00
More than 1 million people are dropped from Medicaid as states start a post-pandemic purge of rolls
Source: AP
More than 1 million people have been dropped from Medicaid in the past couple months as some states moved swiftly to halt health care coverage following the end of the coronavirus pandemic.
Most got dropped for not filling out paperwork.
Though the eligibility review is required by the federal government, President’s Joe Biden’s administration isn’t too pleased at how efficiently some other states are accomplishing the task.
Florida has dropped several hundred thousand people, by far the most among states. The drop rate also has been particularly high in other states. For people whose cases were decided in May, around half or more got dropped in Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/medicaid-eligibility-states-coronavirus-pandemic-46484af651466539d6874c1a97397b50?user_email=af4a3b628578e24fe3cc001524281964ec2742242ba6399b7768d46e524c3cce&utm_medium=Morning_Wire&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_campaign=MorningWire_June27_2023&utm_term=Morning%20Wire%20Subscribers
Really fishy how the red states manage to use paperwork technicalities to drop people from Medicaid. I wonder how many of those people even know they were dropped, or even received any paperwork to fill out. I imagine a lot of addresses on file are no longer current, and red states probably don't care if they're sending to the wrong address.
I predict our emergency rooms will be slammed this winter with newly uninsured and very sick patients. Covid has not gone away. There was a 9.1% increase in nationwide covid deaths in the last week. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_currenthospitalizations_testpositivity_00
Russian authorities launch criminal probe into Wagner Group over threats to oust defense minister
Source: AP
Authorities in Russia launched a criminal probe Friday against the owner of the Wagner Group military contractor over his alleged threats to oust Russia’s defense minister.
The announcement follows a statement from owner Yevgeny Prigozhin accusing Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering a rocket strike on Wagner’s field camps in the Ukraine where its soldier are fighting on behalf of Russia against Ukranian forces.
Prigozhin said that his troops would now move to punish Shoigu and urged the army not to offer resistance. Prigozhin declared that “this is not an armed rebellion, but a march of justice.”
The Russian Defense Ministry rejected Prigozhin’s claim and the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, the country’s top counter-terrorism structure, said it opened a criminal inquiry on charges of making calls for a military coup.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-war-russia-nuclear-647a545db4e4628676ff7db5b1bded34?user_email=af4a3b628578e24fe3cc001524281964ec2742242ba6399b7768d46e524c3cce&utm_medium=Afternoon_Wire&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_campaign=AfternoonWire_Jun23_2023&utm_term=Afternoon%20Wire
How Blue Houston Decreased Their Homelessness By 60%
This editorial outlining how Democratic-led Houston, despite a red state government, decreased their homeless population by 60%, should be a model for the nation:
We should note that homelessness got worse here before it got better. In 2011, the Houston area had one of the largest homeless populations in the country. With the threat of homelessness only increasing, and dismay over decades of substantial investments without results, our community was propelled into action.
...
This became particularly critical during Covid-19, when homelessness became a present danger to many people who were already living on the brink. As challenging as it was, we reframed this crisis as an opportunity to do more to assist them. The city of Houston and Harris County strategically invested federal pandemic aid, alongside contributions from private philanthropy, allowing our system to house, or offer homelessness diversion services to, more than 12,000 people during the pandemic. We housed the most vulnerable people first. When the average person sees someone experiencing homelessness and struggling with mental illness, they assume that individual is dangerous or needs hospitalization. Our experience is that most of these folks stabilize in housing with the appropriate level of services. We have also found that housing with supportive services is the solution to encampments — sites where unhoused people set up groups of tents. We have holistically decommissioned dozens of encampments by placing close to 400 people on the path to housing.
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We are doing this difficult work not just because it is the moral thing to do, but also because it is the fiscally responsible thing to do. It is less expensive to house an individual and provide services (we estimate about $18,000 per year) than the multiple of costs of putting people in jail or allowing them to suffer on the streets and being forced to make regular use of our emergency rooms (which national estimates range from $30,000 to $50,000 and up).
..
Since 2012, more than 28,000 people who have experienced homelessness in the greater Houston area have been housed. This has resulted in a more than a 60% decrease in overall homelessness in just over a decade.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/08/opinions/homelessness-solutions-houston-model-eichenbaum-nichols/index.html
A woman has been taken into custody 4 days after Ajike 'AJ' Owens was fatally shot after knocking
Source: CNN
A woman was taken into custody Tuesday night in connection with the death of 35-year-old Ajike “AJ” Owens, who was fatally shot last week in central Florida after knocking on a neighbor’s door, a sheriff’s office spokesperson said.
Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods told reporters Monday his office was rigorously investigating the case, and that authorities were working to determine “whether the deadly force was justified or not.”
Owens’ relatives have said they want the person who killed her arrested and charged.
They say the shooter, identified by police reports only as a 58-year-old White woman, harassed the Black mother and her children and had called them racial slurs prior to Friday’s killing in Marion County outside Ocala.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/06/us/ajike-aj-owens-florida-shot-what-we-know/index.html
Looks like the Sheriff was finally shamed into doing something, but it's not clear what if any charges there will be. The woman shot and killed AJ Owens through a closed door.
It appears GOP will allow Schumer to replace Feinstein on Judicary if she resigns.
“It’s the temporary substitution which is the unprecedented ask,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a GOP member of the Judiciary Committee, told HuffPost. “If she were no longer a senator, yes.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dianne-feinstein-democrats-gerontocracy_n_64408a35e4b0d84038864bc9
Fox Host Calls The Claims Aired By His Network 'Obviously False' Amid Settlement News
Source: Huffington Post
Reporting on breaking news that Dominion Voting Systems had settled its landmark defamation lawsuit against Fox News, Howard Kurtz said some of the claims his own network aired about the 2020 presidential election were “obviously false.”
Kurtz joined fellow Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto on “Your World” on Tuesday to cover the news. After reading the right-wing network’s statement on the matter, noting that the statement acknowledged Fox News had broadcast false claims about Dominion, Kurtz explained that the case centered on the false claims that Dominion’s voting machines were rigged.
“Former President Trump and his allies made this case on Fox and elsewhere, that somehow they were stealing votes from Donald Trump and flipping them for Joe Biden. That’s obviously false. Those were conspiracy theories,” he said.
“But the case would have revolved around whether Fox had done due diligence, whether it was reckless, whether it was simply reporting, as the network contends, on an extremely newsworthy matter argued by the then-president of the United States himself.”
Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fox-news-howard-kurtz-settlement-obviously-false_n_643f3067e4b03c1b88c3712a
Here's the video:
https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1648433404524867584
As Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out tonight, this was the first time anyone at Fox talked about the case on air. Fox had their so-called "media reporter," Howard Kurtz, speed talk his way through a brief statement. And it's notable that he referred to TFG as "former President Trump" (yes, he used the word "former"!).
Granted it was at mid-afternoon at one of the lower viewership hours, but getting any Fox personality to say "that's obviously false, those were conspiracy theories" is helpful, even if it didn't come with an apology. I guess getting $787.5M was enough of an apology for Dominion.
GOP won't let Schumer replace Feinstein on Judicary unless it's with Sinema
Replacing Feinstein on the panel, even on a short-term basis, would require approval from the full Senate. Schumer could ask for unanimous consent on a resolution to make that happen, but any one Republican member could object and block it.
In that case, Democrats would have to go through a lengthy process to garner the 60 votes required to break a filibuster — meaning 10 Republicans would have to join the other 50 Democratic members to allow Feinstein's replacement.
Five Republican aides involved in the process say GOP senators have not formalized a plan to address the Democratic request. But there appears to be broad consensus that Schumer and his colleagues will need to negotiate some sort of deal that Republicans would be willing to go along with, according to the aides.
Republicans have expressed more willingness to support a centrist candidate. Some have said a good fit would be Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona Democrat-turned-independent who has warm relationships with many in the GOP.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republicans-want-make-difficult-senate-replace-feinstein-key-panel-rcna79592
LAUSD reaches historic deal, meets demands of union workers following 3-day strike
Source: KTLA.com
The “historic” deal includes a 30% pay increase that Local 99 of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) had been seeking along with a vast expansion of benefits including:
-$2 per hour increase for all employees effective January 1, 2024
-6% ongoing wage increase retroactive to July 1, 2021
-7% ongoing wage increase retroactive to July 1, 2022
-7% ongoing wage increase effective July 1, 2023
-Members working at least part-time (four days or more) or more will receive fully paid healthcare benefits along with their dependents.
-$1,000 bonus for current employees with the district from 2020-21 “during adverse circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
-Raise the minimum wage to $22.52 an hour
-Increase hours and compensation for paraprofessionals serving students with special needs
-Invest $3 million in an Education and Professional Development Fund for SEIU members
...
The tentative agreement will be moved to union members to vote for its approval. If approved, the deal could prevent schools from being shuttered again as members were not opposed to another strike if negotiations failed to pan out.
“This week, the eyes of our entire nation were on the cooks, custodians and classroom aides who make education possible in Los Angeles, a workforce overwhelmingly made up of women and people of color,” said Max Arias, Executive Director of SEIU Local 99. “We emerged stronger than ever from this week’s strike and showed the entire nation that unions are the most powerful force for economic opportunity and equity. Members’ sacrifice, courage, and strength – and the solidarity of 35,000 teachers of UTLA – led to this moment.”
Read more: https://ktla.com/news/local-news/lausd-negotiations-continue-as-3-day-strike-ends-no-deal-reached/
A huge win for LA school workers, and for LA Mayor Karen Bass, who worked very hard to produce a deal.
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