In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

Seven million: "Beating expectations, President Barack Obama's health care overhaul was on track to sign up more than 7 million Americans for health insurance on deadline day Monday, government officials told The Associated Press."

Meanwhile: "On the final day of Obamacare's open enrollment, Fox News host Jenna Lee hammered Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) about why Republicans have yet to offer a comprehensive alternative to the health law—despite repeatedly voting for its repeal." She bluntly asked: "What is preventing the Republicans from putting forward a real plan that everybody can look at, even before November?" LOL. Oh boy. When the GOP has lost Fox News...

Support is prevention: "While large organizations and local governments believe that preventing teenage pregnancy is achievable through expensive public service campaigns like New York City's controversial $400,000 public service campaign, which do not lend themselves to quantifiable data regarding their success, these groups are failing to realize that supporting teenage parents and their families would go a long way in preventing teenage pregnancy now and in the future—such as by helping them to stay in school and complete their education, as well as access to safe, quality, and affordable day care services, health services, housing, career readiness services, and more." This is just a terrific piece by Gloria Malone.

This is what our democracy now looks like (thanks, Citizens United!): "It's hard to imagine a political spectacle more loathsome than the parade of Republican presidential candidates who spent the last few days bowing and scraping before the mighty bank account of the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. ...The ability of one man and his money to engender so much bootlicking among serious candidates, which ought to be frightening, has now become commonplace. Why talk directly to voters when you can get a billionaire to help you manipulate them with a barrage of false television ads, as the Koch brothers are doing with Republican Senate candidates around the country. It's a cynical calculation that is turning people away from political involvement. Mr. Adelson thinks that's not only terrific, but hilarious. Politico reported that at a party on Saturday night for the Republican Jewish Coalition, Mr. Adelson said he couldn't give the group the $50 million it requested because its director didn't have change for $1 billion." Oh my aching sides.

[Content Note: Worker exploitation; death] The invisible hand of the market won't catch you: "Tower climbing, a small field of roughly 10,000 workers, has been called the most dangerous job in America. And as ProPublica and Frontline reported in 2012, cell phone carriers and tower owners have insulated themselves from legal and regulatory liability for on-the-job injuries by delegating this work to layers of subcontractors. Now, for the first time, OSHA is systematically tracking which companies subcontractors were working for when accidents occurred, collecting paperwork that spells out such relationships. In a letter sent in February to industry employers and state wireless associations, the agency criticized 'check the box' language written into contracts that doesn't set out clear standards for safety." Cue the cries about how regulation is a job-killer. Which seems especially pathetic when people are literally getting killed on the job.

This is interesting: "Methane-spewing microbes—not volcanoes or asteroids—triggered a global catastrophe 252 million years ago that wiped out nearly all life on Earth, according to a new theory put forward by scientists. The mass extinction represented the worst of five such catastophic events thought to have occured during the history of the planet, with more than 90 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land vertebrates were wiped out. The scale of this even drawfs the calamity that doomed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, thought to have been triggered by a six-mile wide asteroid smacking the planet." Interesting and also terrifying: "The resulting outburst of methane produced effects similar to those predicted by current models of global climate change: a sudden, extreme rise in temperatures, combined with acidification of the oceans."

And finally: RIP Frankie Knuckles. [Note: Video may begin playing automatically at link.]