All posts tagged: social issues

Trump picks Dr. Oz to lead massive Medicare and Medicaid agency CMS

Published by Sam

Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former celebrity TV host and Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, poses for a portrait outside a polling location during the primary election in Rockledge, Pennsylvania, May 17, 2022. Hannah Beier | Reuters President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would nominate Dr. Mehmet Oz — celebrity TV host and former U.S. Senate candidate — as Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator. CMS operates or oversees programs that provide health coverage to about half of Americans, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Obamacare marketplace exchange Healthcare.gov. Those four programs account for $1.6 trillion in spending, or nearly 25% of the entire federal budget, which Trump highlighted when he announced that Oz, a heart surgeon, was his pick to lead CMS, a division of the Health and Human Services Department. Trump said last week that he would nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist, as HHS secretary. Oz previously hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a syndicated daytime television program, for more than a …

Immigration plan on ballot could worsen worker shortage

Published by Sam

PHOENIX — Immigration is a top election issue across the country, but few places feel it more than Arizona, the only swing state along the southern border and home to one of the races that could make or break control of the Senate. Arizona businesses say a shortage of workers is threatening to hold up projects in industries such as construction, hospitality and agriculture — and that without changes to the federal immigration system, the economy could face a devastating hit. About 16.2% of Arizona’s workforce is made up of immigrants, according to a 2022 study by the American Immigration Council. Meanwhile, the state is also facing a job shortage, 197,000 as of June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monica Villalobos, the president and CEO of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the lack of labor is leading to larger economic impacts, such as on housing prices. “We have several members that are in the construction industry that aren’t able to find workers to complete projects,” she said. “And when they can’t …

Harris hits Trump on abortion in ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast

Published by Sam

Vice President Kamala Harris sits for an interview with Alex Cooper on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. Call Her Daddy Vice President Kamala Harris was all business in an interview on the sex-positive “Call Her Daddy” podcast that aired Sunday. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, spent the bulk of the roughly 40-minute conversation litigating her case against Donald Trump, blasting the Republican nominee’s track record on abortion and women’s rights. “There are now 20 states with Trump abortion bans,” Harris told “Call her Daddy” host Alex Cooper. “This is the same guy that said women should be punished for having abortions.” In 2022, three Supreme Court justices whom Trump nominated during his presidency were part of a majority that overturned Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that for a half-century had said there was a federal right to abortion. The decision allowed individual states to restrict or permit abortions as they saw fit. The “Call Her Daddy” podcast is largely popular with young women, a voter base Harris already polls strongly with. But the …

Gilead Lenacapavir cut HIV infections by 96% in trial

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A pharmacist holds a vial of lenacapavir, the new HIV prevention injectable drug. Nardus Engelbrecht | AP Gilead‘s twice-yearly shot reduced HIV infections by 96% in a second large study, the company said Thursday. The positive phase-three trial data on lenacapavir sets the stage for likely approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for HIV prevention. “Now that we have a comprehensive dataset across multiple study populations, Gilead will work urgently with regulatory, government, public health and community partners to ensure that, if approved, we can deliver twice-yearly lenacapavir for PrEP worldwide, for all those who want or need PrEP,” said Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day in a statement. PrEP or, pre-exposure prophylaxis, is medication taken to prevent getting HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gilead shares climbed more than 1% on Thursday. The company said 99.9% of participants who received lenacapavir did not acquire HIV, with two cases among 2,180 people. The trial included cisgender men, transgender men, transgender women and gender non-binary people who have sex with partners assigned …

Abortion bans drive away young talent: CNBC/Generation Lab survey

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Young people are seen on the Emory University campus in Atlanta, Georgia on October 14, 2022. Elijah Nouvelage | AFP | Getty Images The youngest generation of American workers is prepared to move away from states that pass abortion bans and to turn down job offers in states where bans are already in place, a new survey from CNBC/Generation Lab finds. The “Youth & Money in the USA” survey of more than 1,000 people between the ages of 18 and 34 found almost two-thirds of respondents, 62%, would “probably not” or “definitely not” live in a state that banned abortion. And 45% of those surveyed said that if they were to be offered a job in a state where abortion is illegal, they would either “definitely reject” or “probably reject” the offer. Another 35% said they would “probably accept” the job. And only 20% of respondents said they would definitely take the job. “These numbers on abortion have gigantic implications for just about every large company in America,” said Cyrus Beschloss, the CEO of The …

Why election polls were wrong in 2016 and 2020 — and what’s changing

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Voters fill out their ballots on January 23, 2024 in Loudon, New Hampshire. With Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dropping out of the race two days earlier, Republican presidential candidates former President Donald Trump and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley are battling it out in this first-in-the-nation primary. Tasos Katopodis | Getty Images 2014 was the first year Lonna Atkeson remembers receiving hate mail. Atkeson, a political scientist who researches election surveys and public opinion, has been conducting voter polls since 2004. She is currently a professor at Florida State University and has authored several books. But a decade into her polling work, she said, the angry messages began rolling in. “I started getting letters from people saying, ‘You’re part of the problem. You’re not part of the solution. I’m not going to answer your surveys anymore. You’re an evil academic trying to brainwash our children,’” Atkeson recalled in an interview with CNBC. For Atkeson, those notes marked a shift: a more polarized electorate had begun to lose faith in institutions like polling and voters might …

Trump campaign lawyers seek to quit discrimination case

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Presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures in a press conference unveiling his comprehensive tax reform plan at Trump Tower. Andy Katz | Lightrocket | Getty Images A federal judge in New York scheduled a closed-door meeting Wednesday afternoon on a request by lawyers for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to withdraw from a gender discrimination lawsuit filed by former senior advisor to his 2016 White House bid. The law firm at LaRocca, Hornik, Greenberg, Kittredge, Carlin & McPartland asked to withdraw from the case filed by Arlene “A.J.” Delgado last Friday in a court motion, because of what it called “an irreparable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship between the Firm and the Campaign.” The filings said the firm “respectfully requests leave to explain to the Court in camera” the details of that breakdown. In camera proceedings are conducted by judges without members of the public or press present. Magistrate Judge Katharine Parker said she would conduct an in camera conference on the firm’s request starting at 3 p.m. ET Wednesday “with the defendants and their attorneys.” Parker’s …

Biden replaces Obama infrastructure policy amid Chinese cyberthreats

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US President Joe Biden speaks after signing the foreign aid bill at the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 24, 2024. Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images President Joe Biden on Tuesday updated a more than decade-old policy to protect U.S. critical infrastructure sectors like energy and financial services from foreign attacks as public officials continue to sound the alarm on Chinese cyberthreats. Biden’s new policy is largely a rewrite of the Obama administration’s rule to safeguard U.S. critical infrastructure called the Presidential Policy Directive, or PPD-21, which was published in 2013. The effort to redraft that Obama-era infrastructure policy began over a year ago, in part to modernize it and keep up with hackers who have benefited from over a decade of technological advancement. “The threat environment has changed significantly since PPD-21 was issued in 2013, shifting from counterterrorism to strategic competition, advances in technology like artificial intelligence and malicious cyberactivity from nation-state actors,” a senior administration official said on a Monday call with reporters. At its core, Biden’s updated policy lays …

Senate launches investigation into high prices of Ozempic and Wegovy in the U.S.

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The anti-diabetic medication “Ozempic” (semaglutide) made by Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk. Joel Saget | AFP | Getty Images The U.S. Senate has launched an investigation into the high price of Novo Nordisk‘s popular weight loss and diabetes drugs Ozempic and Wegovy in the United States. The investigation into the Danish drugmaker was announced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. “The scientists at Novo Nordisk deserve great credit for developing these drugs that have the potential to be a game changer for millions of Americans struggling with type 2 diabetes and obesity,” Sanders said in a Wednesday letter to CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen. “As important as these drugs are, they will not do any good for the millions of patients who cannot afford them,” wrote Sanders. Sanders also laid out in stark terms the dilemma facing American insurers, including the government, given how high the costs are for the potentially life-changing drugs. “If the prices for these products are not substantially reduced they also have …

Biden issues new rules for airlines to require automatic cash refunds, prohibit surprise fees

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If an airline cancels your flight, remember that you’re entitled to a full refund. Bunhill | E+ | Getty Images The Biden administration on Wednesday unveiled two new rules that will directly affect the millions of Americans who fly commercially every year. The first rule requires airlines to be more transparent about extra fees. The second rule requires airlines to issue cash refunds automatically, rather than in response to customer requests. The various provisions of the new rules, issued by the Department of Transportation, will be implemented on different timelines ranging from six months to two years. “Passengers deserve to get their money back when an airline owes them — without headaches or haggling,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a press release on the new refund rule. The rule mandates that airlines automatically give passengers their full money back in several cases: when flights are canceled or significantly changed, when baggage return is significantly delayed and when customers do not receive inflight amenities like Wi-Fi that they have paid for. The other rule aims …