The Trump Administration Has Quietly Cut More Than $213 Million From Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs

The Trump Administration Has Quietly Cut More Than $213 Million From Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs image Without much warning, the Trump administration has gutted nearly $214 million from teen pregnancy prevention programs across the country. More than 80 organizations will lose Obama-era grants from the US Department of Health and Human Services that helped them fund programs for helping teens avoid unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Johns Hopkins University, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, the Chicago Department of Public Health, the University of Texas, and the...

President Trump’S Legal Team Is Looking To Investigate Mueller Aides

President Trump’s Legal Team Is Looking to Investigate Mueller Aides image (WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s legal team is evaluating potential conflicts of interest among members of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team, three people with knowledge of the matter said Thursday. The revelations come as Mueller’s investigation appears likely to probe some of the Trump family’s business ties. Attorney Jay Sekulow, a member of the president’s external legal team, told The Associated Press that the lawyers “will...

Donald Trump Is “Curious” About His Pardoning Power

From a Washington Post story today about the Trump-Russia investigation: Trump has asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the probe, according to one of those people….But one adviser said the president has simply expressed a curiosity in understanding the reach of his pardoning authority, […]

GOP Leaders Want To Vote On Health Care Soon. But They’Re Facing An Uphill Battle

GOP Leaders Want to Vote on Health Care Soon. But They’re Facing an Uphill Battle image (WASHINGTON) — Republican leaders pushed toward a Senate vote next Tuesday on resurrecting their nearly flat-lined health care bill. Their uphill drive was further complicated by the ailing GOP Sen. John McCain’s potential absence and a dreary report envisioning that the number of uninsured Americans would soar. The White House and GOP leaders fished Thursday for ways to win over recalcitrant senators, including an administration proposal to let states use Medicaid funds to help people buy...

Clickbait For The Day: How China Might Rule The World By 2050

China has an ambitious plan to lead the world in artificial intelligence by the end of the next decade: The country laid out a development plan on Thursday to become the world leader in A.I. by 2030, aiming to surpass its rivals technologically and build a domestic industry worth almost $150 billion. Released by the […]

Person Who Ate At Chipotle In Northern Virginia Tests Positive For Norovirus

Person Who Ate at Chipotle in Northern Virginia Tests Positive for Norovirus image (NEW YORK) — A person who reported eating at a Chipotle in northern Virginia has tested positive for norovirus. But health officials say that’s not yet enough to determine the cause of the roughly 60 reported illnesses it has identified. The location in Sterling, Virginia, was temporarily closed for cleaning this week after customers reported symptoms that Chipotle said were consistent with norovirus. That sent shares of the restaurant chain down, underscoring how vulnerable its reputation...

Betsy DeVos Defends School Choice After Hundreds Protest Her ALEC Speech

Betsy DeVos Defends School Choice After Hundreds Protest Her ALEC Speech image One day after hundreds of teachers, parents and students protested Betsy DeVos in Denver, the Education Secretary spoke Thursday to a friendly crowd in the city at the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). DeVos has long had ties to ALEC, a business-backed group that crafts conservative legislation at the state level and advocates for limited government. Nearly 2,000 state legislators across the country are members of ALEC, according to its website . Like DeVos, the...

Lunchtime Photo

It’s Thursday Dog Blogging! I was telling my sister last night that I find dogs to be difficult subjects. Pictures of cats I find almost inherently adorable. But pictures of dogs always seem kind of meh. I love dogs in person, but photos never seem to capture much of their personality. Maybe that’s why cats […]

CBO: Deductibles Under Republican Health Plan Would Hit $13,000

CBO has produced an analysis of the latest Senate health care bill, and it’s basically the same as the original version. Compared to Obamacare, it would leave 22 million more people uninsured, and the people who were insured would mostly be getting useless crap: Under this legislation, for a single policyholder purchasing an illustrative benchmark […]

Does Akie Abe Speak English?

President Trump’s description of being seated next to Akie Abe at the G20 dinner is getting a lot of attention: TRUMP: So, I was seated next to the wife of Prime Minister Abe [Shinzo Abe of Japan], who I think is a terrific guy, and she’s a terrific woman, but doesn’t speak English. HABERMAN: Like, […]

Robert Mueller Is All Over Trump’S Dubious Business Practices

Unsurprisingly, Bloomberg reports today that Robert Mueller’s investigation into Donald Trump has widened considerably from Russian campaign collusion: FBI investigators and others are looking at Russian purchases of apartments in Trump buildings … SoHo development with Russian associates … 2013 Miss Universe pageant … sale of a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch … dealings […]

Raw Data: Women’S Usual Weekly Earnings Vs. Men’S

I don’t have any special reason for posting this. I just happened to be looking at it. For full-time workers, women’s earnings have been steadily getting closer to men’s for the past four decades, but that seems to have leveled out since the end of the recession. It’s been stuck at around 81-82 percent ever […]

Donald Trump Still Confused About Life Insurance Vs. Health Insurance

This is hardly the most important part of Donald Trump’s interview with the New York Times today, but still: So pre-existing conditions are a tough deal. Because you are basically saying from the moment the insurance, you’re 21 years old, you start working and you’re paying $12 a year for insurance, and by the time […]

Trump: Jeff Sessions Should Have Muzzled The FBI

I can only assume that Donald Trump barely even knows what he’s saying anymore. Here he is during an interview with the New York Times, griping about Attorney General Jeff Sessions: In a remarkable public break with one of his earliest political supporters, Mr. Trump complained that Mr. Sessions’s decision ultimately led to the appointment […]

Too. Many. Ideas.

From a Vox roundup of Republican reactions to the failure of their health care bill, here is senator John Thune: Some Democrats have claimed Obamacare repeal collapsed because Republicans spent years falsely promising on the campaign trail that they had a better alternative waiting in the wings. But Thune said he’d drawn just the opposite […]

Quote Of The Day: How To Use Facts And Figures Properly

From the president of the United States, asked about the unemployment rate: When we got those great reports, I kept saying—you know, those numbers were 4.2, 4.3—I said, for a long time, they don’t matter. But now I accept those numbers very proudly. I say they do matter. This is laughable, but here’s the thing: […]

Lunchtime Photo

I like this picture a lot, and it was a stroke of luck. The swells at Huntington Beach were tiny the day I was there, but one of them hit just right to produce a splash about eight feet high. I was in the right place at the right time, and happened to have my […]

Meet The Former Republican Governor Fighting The Worst Humanitarian Crisis Since 1945

Meet the Former Republican Governor Fighting the Worst Humanitarian Crisis Since 1945 image A former Republican governor is asking Congress to step up U.S. funding to fight what some are calling the worst humanitarian crisis since 1945: four simultaneous famines. On Tuesday, former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, who now serves as head of the World Food Programme , testified about the massive food shortages brought on by drought and war that are endangering the lives of more than 20 million people in South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria. A non-profit, food assistance branch of the...

CBO: The Senate’S Latest Health Bill Would Leave 22 Million Uninsured

CBO: The Senate’s Latest Health Bill Would Leave 22 Million Uninsured image The latest version of the Senate Republicans’ health care bill would result in an additional 22 million people becoming uninsured, according to a Thursday report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, or CBO. The report analyzed an updated version of the bill which includes additional funding for opioid recovery programs and out-of-pocket expenses. But the CBO did not factor in a version of an amendment first proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz which would allow Americans to purchase cheaper...

State Attorneys General Urge Betsy DeVos To Keep Protections For Campus Sexual Assault Victims

State Attorneys General Urge Betsy DeVos to Keep Protections for Campus Sexual Assault Victims image Twenty state attorneys general sent a letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Wednesday, urging her not to roll back Obama-era guidance that added protections for victims of campus sexual assault. The letter — sent by Democratic attorneys general — came a week after DeVos held meetings with a variety of advocacy groups on the topic of campus sexual assault. DeVos met with sexual assault victims, who urged her to keep the guidance in place, as well as advocates for people who...