Author: potus

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is taking new applications to conduct pilot programs in five different states focused on reducing federal assistance.The Administration for Children and Families is spearheading the program with a focus on reducing state’s reliance on federally funded programs like Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.“ACF is returning to the original intent of welfare reform to ensure our programs are laser-focused on delivering outcomes for families and results for taxpayers,” said Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary for ACF.The pilot will focus on programs that…

Amazon logo on a brick building exterior in San Francisco on Aug. 20, 2024.Smith Collection | Gado | Archive Photos | Getty ImagesAmazon is discontinuing its standalone free streaming TV service next month as it looks to consolidate its content offerings under Prime Video.The service, called Freevee, launched in 2019 underneath IMDb, the film and TV site Amazon bought in 1998. It offered a stable of free, ad-supported video, including original series and some Prime Video content, primarily through an app.The Freevee app will shut down in August, at which point users will be able to watch shows and movies…

Kat Abughazaleh is 26 years old, has personally faced the wrath of the world’s richest person, and is up against two career politicians in a congressional district that has not been competitive since 1998—a year before Abughazaleh was born. But that hasn’t stopped the social media influencer-turned-aspiring politician from running for Illinois’s 9th Congressional District. Abughazaleh gained initial stardom for her videos debunking falsehoods touted by then-Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson as part of her editorial position at Media Matters for America, a left-leaning journalism watchdog. But her criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza (Abughazaleh, herself, is of Palestinian descent),…

(The Center Square) — Colorado recently announced a $3 million grant to provide free naloxone to eligible organizations statewide.Naloxone, which is known by its brand name Narcan, is a medication used to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses. It works by blocking the effects of opioids such as heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone, etc. “Every life lost to an opioid overdose is one too many,” said Attorney General Phil Weiser. “This funding puts a proven tool in the hands of the people who need it most. We are using every resource available to protect communities, prevent overdoses, and support recovery.”This comes as fentanyl deaths in Colorado…

(The Center Square) – Although the United States and Canada reached an agreement to scrap Ottawa’s controversial Digital Services Tax – estimated to cost U.S. companies $1 billion annually – a much larger and ongoing dispute over drug prices is getting less attention.Canada’s government is keeping the price of American-made pharmaceuticals artificially low while U.S. consumers and taxpayers foot the bill, critics say. Now, some are calling on the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to take action.“Canada funds its welfare state by freeloading on U.S. medical goods and NATO,” Mark Merritt, founder of FAIR Rx, a group opposed to unfair health…

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed into law bills that would require a nuclear power siting study for the state and the creation of nuclear power summit.The bills require a temporary board to plan and hold a Wisconsin Nuclear Power Summit and a nuclear siting study for identifying potential communities ideal for nuclear power generation, including both existing and new sites.The siting study is funded by $2 million that is currently in the Wisconsin budget, set to be taken up Wednesday by the Wisconsin Legislature.“We can’t afford to choose between mitigating climate change and protecting our environment…

A representation of cryptocurrency Ethereum is placed on a PC motherboard in this illustration taken on June 16, 2023.Dado Ruvic | ReutersStocks tied to the price of ether, better known as ETH, were higher on Wednesday, reflecting renewed enthusiasm for the crypto asset amid a surge of interest in stablecoins and tokenization.BitMine Immersion Technologies, a bitcoin miner that announced plans this week to make ETH its primary treasury reserve asset, jumped about 20%. It’s gained more than 1,000% since the announcement. Betting platform SharpLink Gaming, which has also initiated an ETH treasury strategy, added more than 11%. Bit Digital, which last week…

CANNES — Robinhood stock hit the $100 mark for the first time, capping off a week of fresh all-time highs and renewed investor confidence. Shares are now tracking their best performance since April, up more than 30% since the trading app was snubbed from the S&P 500.The milestone follows a major strategic swing in Europe, where Robinhood unveiled its most ambitious crypto expansion to date — one aimed at re-engineering the financial infrastructure itself. At an event held in a Belle Époque mansion along the French Riviera, Robinhood executives laid out a vision to bring thousands of tokenized stocks, ETFs,…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Though patients don’t rush through the doors of this emergency room anymore, an empty hospital in Williamston, North Carolina, offers an evocative illustration of why Republican Sen. Thom Tillis would buck his party leaders to vote down President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy package. Martin General is one of a dozen hospitals that have closed in North Carolina over the last two decades. This is a problem that hospital systems and health experts warn may only worsen if the legislation passes with its $1 trillion cuts to the Medicaid program and new restrictions on enrollment in the…

(The Center Square) – In today’s edition of Illinois in Focus Daily, The Center Square Editor Greg Bishop provides the latest in the case challenging Illinois’ prohibition of carrying concealed carry on mass transit and shares a conversation with Illinois State Rifle Association Executive Director Richard Pearson about an appeals court setting Sept. 22 for oral arguments in the case challenging the state’s gun and magazine ban. Bishop also provides some of the reaction from Illinois to the so-called “big, beautiful bill” working through the U.S. Congress. In particular, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker says the bill will hurt Illinoisans health care,…