The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a report Tuesday estimating that at least 18 million people would lose health insurance in the first year if Republicans repeal ObamaCare without replacing it. The number without health insurance coverage would rise to 32 million in a decade, and premiums would double. Republicans are rushing to make good on a promise that people won't lose coverage. President-elect Donald Trump said over the weekend that he was completing a plan to provide "insurance for everybody." Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the outgoing secretary for health and human services, said that so far "we really haven't seen a plan" to replace provisions of the Affordable Care Act that Republicans want to dismantle.
Source: The Washington Post American Apparel will close all 110 of its U.S. stores within 100 days, the company announced Saturday, after being purchased by Montreal-based Gildan Activewear in an $88 million deal that does not include the brick-and-mortar locations. Known for its risqué marketing and American-made products, the clothing retailer was once valued at $1 billion, but it has not turned a profit in seven years. Its store closures follow similar recent announcements from brands including Macy's, The Limited, CVS, and Sears.
Source: Adweek, The A.V. Club At least 18 House Democrats will not attend President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration ceremonies this Friday, with some planning to leave for their home districts and others intending to march with protesters in Washington. Among those boycotting is Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the civil rights leader whom Trump criticized as "all talk" in the weekend before Martin Luther King Day. House Democratic leadership, however, will be there. "That's my responsibility," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "It is the wonderful thing about our country, the peaceful transfer of power." Broader anti-Trump protests started in Washington Saturday, with about 2,000 people rallying on the National Mall.
Source: Politico, CNN Several protesters, including NAACP President Cornell William Brooks, were arrested Tuesday after an hours-long sit-in by about two dozen civil rights activists at the Mobile, Alabama, office of Sen. Jeff Sessions, President-elect Donald J. Trump's nominee for attorney general. The protesters criticized Sessions' record on voting rights and race relations, and Brooks said he was "the worst possible nominee for attorney general at the worst possible moment," given ongoing controversies over voter suppression and police use of force against African-Americans. A Sessions spokeswoman called the NAACP's criticisms "false portrayals" that have been "rebuked and discredited." The sit-in came as 1,100 law school professors sent a letter urging the Senate not to confirm Sessions.
Source: Reuters, The New York Times At least 56 inmates were killed in a two-day riot that ended Monday at a prison in northern Brazil. The incident at the Anisio Jobim penitentiary started as a fight and escalated into an overnight battle in which several inmates were decapitated. The clash stemmed from a dispute between two drug-trafficking gangs. A local gang, called the Northern Family, attacked inmates linked to the Sao Paulo-based First Capital Command, Brazil's largest narco-trafficking gang. The gangs smuggled guns into the prison and took 74 inmates and 12 police officers hostage.
Source: The Washington Post, CNN Hundreds of sub-Saharan African migrants stormed a border fence in a bid to get into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on Sunday. Spain said the number of migrants who attempted the crossing reached 1,100. All reportedly were sent back to Morocco, except for two who were taken to a hospital in Ceuta. Morocco put the number of migrants at 800, and said they all had been arrested. Five police officers from Spain and 50 from Morocco were injured. In early December, another 400 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa forced their way over the Ceuta border.
Source: Reuters Dylann Roof, the admitted white supremacist convicted earlier this month of killing nine black Charleston churchgoers, will undergo a second competency hearing before the penalty phase of his trial starts next week. Jurors found Roof, 22, guilty of 33 federal counts, mostly involving hate crimes and obstruction of religion, and now must decide whether he will be sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty. Roof plans to represent himself during the penalty phase, but a standby counsel filed the motion requesting a hearing to determine whether Roof is fit to proceed. A previous competency hearing delayed jury selection in November before Roof was found competent to stand trial.
Source: USA Today Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday would be a day of mourning in his country after a Russian military jet crashed into the Black Sea shortly after taking off from Sochi on a flight to Syria, killing all 92 people on board. The victims included soldiers, reporters, and members of a world renowned Russian army choir, the Alexandrov Ensemble, who were on the way to perform for Russian troops. Russia's transport minister said on Sunday that investigators were considering the "entire spectrum" of possible causes for the Tu-154 transport plane's crash, and on Monday he said that the crash was likely due to pilot error or technical failure, not terrorism. The tragedy was the second in a week, following the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey in Ankara.
Source: BBC News Actress and Hollywood socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor died of heart failure Sunday in her Bel Air mansion. She was 99. Gabor, the most famous of three glamorous sisters from Hungary, appeared in more than 60 TV and feature films. Critics said her best roles were early in her career, in such films as 1952's Moulin Rouge and Orson Welles' 1958 classic Touch of Evil. Later she would be better known for her string of nine marriages, her tabloid-worthy behavior, and her one-liners. "I am a marvelous housekeeper," she once said. "Every time I leave a man I keep his house." In June 1989, she infamously slapped a Beverly Hills police officer who pulled over her Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible for a traffic violation, a scandal she made fun of in the movie The Naked Gun 2 1/2.
Source: Los Angeles Times, The New York Times Evacuations resumed in Aleppo early Monday, with at least 65 buses carrying 3,500 people out of the last rebel-held enclave in the war-ravaged Syrian city, according to a monitoring group. The United Nations Security Council plans to vote Monday on a draft resolution calling for neutral monitors to oversee the departure of rebels and civilians. Russia had threatened to veto the resolution, but promised to join a unanimous vote after last-minute negotiations, said Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. The evacuation process in Aleppo was temporarily held up on Sunday, a day after being renegotiated, when five evacuation buses were burned trying to enter government-held villages near Idlib Province.
Source: CNN, Reuters |
About This BlogCertain numerology has a strong connection with occultism. Various numbers from time-to-time appear in news articles, and one has to wonder if there isn't some occult significance behind this story. Archives
May 2021
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