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Humana wasn't kidding when it hinted last week of big premium hikes for 2017 in those ObamaCare markets where it remains. This year, the nation's fifth-largest insurer offers the cheapest bronze and silver plans in Michigan's largest market, including Detroit. But Humana has filed for a 50% premium hike for its low-cost silver plan. Meanwhile, Humana wants a 38% premium increase for its lowest-cost bronze plan. So far only Oregon, where insurers are requesting an average 27% premium hike, and Virginia, where insurers want an 18% hike, are the only two states to make all rate filings available.

the public pension debt for the 50 states and the District of Columbia jumped 84 percent in recent years, from $2.625 trillion in 2008 to $4.833 trillion in 2014. ... The highest pension debt/household is in Alaska, with an estimated $113,137 figure; Illinois and California are in the second and third highest rankings at more than $77,000 per household.” The lowest state pension debt per household is in Tennessee at $17,761. Illinois has the lowest “market funded ratio” (value of pension assets divided by market liability), at 23.3 percent. The other 49 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. have a market...

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas is set to deliver the 2016 commencement address to the graduating class of Hillsdale College on Saturday, May 14. This will mark one of the few times that Justice Thomas has spoken publicly since the surprising death of Justice Antonin Scalia back in February of this year. Statistics show that conservative leaning speakers such as Justice Thomas are becoming increasingly rare at graduation ceremonies around the country. According to Campus Reform, out of the top 100 universities, 40 of them are featuring explicitly liberal speakers at their commencement ceremonies. Only 10 are hosting...

CLEVELAND/NEW YORK - Bracing for a general election fight with Donald Trump, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton and her allies are putting resources into industrial states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania to try to block Trump from making inroads with working-class voters there. Labor leaders, progressive groups and Democratic operatives told Reuters in interviews that they took seriously Trump's appeal with white working-class voters and were studying how to respond to his promises to create jobs and negotiate better trade deals. The desire to stop the presumptive Republican presidential nominee from wresting away the support of unionized workers has even...

Posted on | May 8, 2016 | 1 Comment Economy is the most important issue for the voters. Poll after poll voters put economy as the number 1 issue. Today on CNN John King quoted recent polls. Overall around the country Trump beats Clinton on economy by 5%: Trump-50%, Clinton-45% What is really huge, is the fact that in the North-East, the rust belt, Trump beats her on economy by 25%: Trump- 59%, Clinton-34% This is extremely important as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan are the most important swing states.

It looks as though California will be considering a measure this November to legalize the recreational use of marijuana by adults over the age of 21. If the ballot measure actually makes the ballot, both California and Maine may soon be joining Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Alaska, and the District of Columbia as states where it's completely legal to toke up. To make the ballot, organizers had to garner more than 365,880 signatures. According to the coalition behind the ballot initiative, over 600,000 people have signed in support. Supporters of the measure include Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsome (D) and Facebook president...

Rima Fakih, the 2010 Miss USA who made headlines by becoming the beauty pageant’s first Muslim winner, is converting to Christianity. Fakih, who is from Michigan and is now 30, will marry Maronite Christian music producer Wassim Salibi later this month, according to Christian Today.

..files $500K lawsuit against the director for 'violating her civil rights' Shoshana Roberts says she was paid $200 to be filmed walking through the streets of Manhattan for 10 hours, with the resultant video of her being catcalled more than 100 times quickly going viral. Now the 24-year-old aspiring actress has filed a lawsuit against the director of the clip and the advocacy group who came up with the idea of documenting street harassment, claiming they did not get her written permission to air the video before using it to cash in on advertising. The two-minute footage received over 40...

Trump Effect – President Obama Issues Executive Order on Transfer of Executive Power… Posted on May 6, 2016 White House Version – President Obama has initiated an enhanced transition of power process through an executive order directed toward the assembly of a cross functional transition team from all cabinet members.Regular Speak Version – In case Trump wins this thing we’d better have an efficient process in place for shredding the evidence, and keeping all executive leadership from prosecution.View this document on Scribd

•Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich. •Gov. Charlie Baker, R-Mass. •Brian Bartlett •Glenn Beck •Michael Berry •Max Boot . •Brent Bozell •Bruce Carroll, GayPatriot.org •Jay Caruso •Mona Charen •Linda Chavez •Dean Clancy •Eliot Cohen •Former Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn. •Charles C. W. Cooke •Doug Coon •Rory Cooper •Jim Cunneen •Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla. •Steve Deace •Rep. Bob Dold, R-Ill. •Erick Erickson •Mindy Finn •David French •Jon Gabriel •Michael Graham •Jonah Goldberg •Alan Goldsmith •Stephen Gutowski •Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y. •Jamie Brown Hantman •Stephen Hayes •Doug Heye •Quin Hillyer •Ben Howe •Former Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C •Cheri Jacobus •Robert Kagan •Randy Kendrick, GOP...

Governor Snyder signed the Rape Survivor Child Custody Act into law on May 3. The new law helps prevent a rapist from gaining custody of a child. The law was included in a larger package of bills addressing domestic violence that Governor Snyder also signed. Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said, “Half of women who become pregnant through rape don’t have abortions and most of those women decide to keep their child. Michigan was not doing enough to protect women from their attackers in those circumstances.” Under old state law a parent whose child was conceived through...

A Detroit teacher sickout continued into a second day on Tuesday, as the city's school district reeled from a funding crisis that could threaten some educators' paychecks. All but a handful of the city's 97 public schools were closed as of 7 a.m., NBC affiliate WDIV reported. Dozens of teachers gathered outside district headquarters in red union t-shirts and with signs with messages like "No pay no work" and "DPS better have my money" and "This is teacher abuse." Meanwhile, Detroit was dealing with a second crisis — this one related to the solvency of the city's water system. The...

DENVER — The Environmental Protection Agency came under fire Thursday after an official said the agency would not fully cover a Colorado county’s expenses stemming from the EPA-caused toxic wastewater spill at the Gold King Mine. Colorado Republicans blasted the agency after the Durango Herald reported that an EPA official nixed some of La Plata County’s proposed cooperative agreement for $2.4 million in spill-related costs over 10 years at a Wednesday board of county commissioners meeting. Sen. Cory Gardner, Colorado Republican, described the report as “outrageous” and “yet another example of the Washington double standard,” adding that he would work...

A rare blood infection is claiming lives, and the CDC can't pinpoint the source. The infection, caused by the Elizabethkingia anophelis bacteria, has killed 17 people in Wisconsin since November and just claimed a life in Michigan, the Detroit News reports. Elizabethkingia is often found in water and soil, but – until now – has seldom caused infections. So far, 54 Wisconsin residents have contracted the infection, CNN reports. "We don't see 48 of the identical organism causing an outbreak like this very often," Michael Bell, deputy director for the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at the Centers for Disease...

Aquarius’s new take on internal combustion engines will be the big leap forward that vehicles need, says company founder. The notoriously conservative car business – autos, after all, are still largely powered by the internal combustion engine, developed nearly 150 years ago – is in for big changes, according to Gal Fridman, chief marketing officer and co-founder of Aquarius Engines. “Our enhanced engine design uses energy much more efficiently, and eliminates the valves and rods that cause energy loss,” he said. “If a car equipped with a modern standard internal combustion engine can go about 600 kilometers on a tank...

Lawyers for residents of Flint, Michigan, have filed a $220.2 million damages claim alleging negligence on the part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency contributed to dangerous lead levels in the city's water supply. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Michael Pitt said his firm Royal Oak, Michigan's Pitt McGehee Palmer & Rivers, along with others, had filed an administrative complaint on Monday with the EPA alleging injuries to over 500 people. They said they would file a similar complaint next week covering 250 more Flint residents. Federal law requires that such complaints be filed as precursors to actual lawsuits...

A Kalamazoo mother says her daughter has been isolated and bullied all because her father followed the law. As Newschannel 3 reported, the KRESA West Campus was locked down after the father of a 4-year-old legally open carried his gun on campus. Now, the man's wife is speaking out for the first time about the ramifications of that decision. The mother says her daughter refuses to go back to the music class, because she's alone. All of the students have been transferred to another class on a different campus. The mom says her husband just wants to protect his daughter,...

resident Obama argued that the US does not have more people in prison than any other developed country “because we have more criminals. It’s because we have criminal justice policies, including unfair sentencing laws, that need to be reformed.” He added “simply locking people up doesn’t make communities safer” because “It doesn’t deal with the conditions that lead people to criminal activity in the first place, or to return to prison later.”

More than 500 pounds of commercial grade fireworks were stolen off a CSX train bound for Detroit. Federal law enforcement agencies are searching for the missing cargo, considered explosives due to the amount missing. About 15 to 20 pounds were recovered in southwest Detroit near the CSX Depot on the southwest side, according to Donald Dawkins of CSX. The 32 case commercial grade aerial shells are categorized as not for public use.

Pro-Kasich MS GOP threatens Trump/Cruz convention attendees with “badge or guns” Pro-Kasich? They support John Kasich?A couple of years ago I had the benefit in honor of campaigning with Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel in the state of Mississippi as he was trying to get elected to the Senate and knock off Sen. Thad Cochran . He was met by the Republican state GOP supported by the National Republican Senate Committee (by the way, Sen. Ted Cruz was vice chairman at the time) who used liberal racist fear tactics to defeat him. NOTE: Cruz didn’t participate in this particular strategy by...