Free Republic

SEATTLE — Two more deaths from coronavirus were reported Saturday, bringing the total to 17 in Washington state. So far, at least 104 have tested positive for COVID-19, health officials said. The deaths come just a day after three people died at EvergreenHealth Medical Hospital, officials said. One earlier reported death occurred in a patient never hospitalized and the other was a death at Harborview last week that was later found to have been likely caused by COVID-19. In total, there are 28 confirmed cases of coronavirus at EvergreenHealth. Of the 16 coronavirus deaths reported in King County, 14 are...

WIMAUMA, Fla. — President Trump's re-election campaign has announced Vice-President Pence will be attending a rally on Thursday, January 16 at the Valencia Lakes community in Wimauma. However, some residents said they are concerned about the "private" community hosting such a "public" event.

Republican Joe Arpaio, a close ally of President Trump and former sheriff known for his provocative approach to combatting illegal immigration, is running for Senate in Arizona. The 85-year-old Arpaio could shake up the late August Republican primary in a critical open-seat race to replace retiring Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. Trump pardoned Arpaio last summer, sparing the former sheriff jail time after he was convicted of ignoring a federal court order in a racial-profiling case. The polarizing yet iconic former Maricopa County sheriff, beloved by many conservatives for his hawkish immigration policies, presents an alternative to the unimpressive Kelli Ward...

THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG THE BLOG TUESDAY, AUGUST 4TH, 2009 AT 6:55 AM Facts Are Stubborn Things Posted by Macon Phillips Opponents of health insurance reform may find the truth a little inconvenient, but as our second president famously said, "facts are stubborn things." Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to "uncover" the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions. In this video, Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, addresses one example that makes it look like the President intends to...

Entitlements: Social Security's chief actuary reports that the social safety net will run a deficit for 2010, nine years earlier than predicted. Put down that big gavel, Madam Speaker, we're about to hit the iceberg. No sooner had House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, carrying the gavel used when Medicare was enacted, taken a victory lap around the Capitol Building after passage of the health care bill than did the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration report that his part of the social safety net had a big hole in it and would run a deficit for all of 2010. Stephen...

Should the “greatest good for the greatest number” be the guiding principle behind health care? As I have said before on Breakpoint, much of the hype and even hysteria surrounding the H1N1 flu strain is unwarranted. That’s not to say that the swine flu’s potential impact isn’t devastating—it is, but not in the way cable news would have us think. And now the Florida Department of Health has issued a set of guidelines that instructs hospitals on what to do “if the state is overwhelmed by [H1N1] cases.” The guidelines recommend that hospitals bar “patients with incurable cancer, end-stage multiple...

Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise. The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting there won’t be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. That hasn’t happened since automatic increases were adopted in 1975. By law, Social Security benefits cannot go down. Nevertheless, monthly payments would drop for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program because the premiums, which often are deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to go up slightly.

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2009/s09030006.htm Monday, March 2, 2009 Staying young and active all your life By Bill Ellis Special to ASSIST News Service SCOTT DEPOT, WV (ANS) -- A man, I know, had a birthday one-month after Christmas. His son who called from a distant city to wish him a Happy 79th Birthday said, “Dad if anybody asks you how old you are tell them, ‘I’m just barely in my seventies.’ They do not need to know which end of the seventies you are in. Not many people want to get older and yet very few...

Also: Look Below for CONTACT INFO for EVERY SINGLE STATE Washington, DC, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- AARP, the big lobby for older U.S. residents, plans to spend $5 million on a two-week ad campaign against a White House plan to privatize Social Security. "This is our signature issue," said Christine M. Donohoo, chief communications officer for AARP, which represents 36 million Americans 50 and older. "We will do what it takes." The full-page newspaper ads will begin appearing next week in 50 papers around the nation, warning that private Social Security accounts would be nothing but "Social Insecurity," the New...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Old people may hold the key to human civilization, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. They found evidence that, around 30,000 years ago, many more people started living into old age, in turn fueling a population explosion. Rachel Caspari of the University of Michigan and Sang-Hee Lee of the University of California at Riverside believe that groups in which old people survived better were more successful, in turn allowing more people to live into old age. "There has been a lot of speculation about what gave modern humans their evolutionary advantage. This research provides a simple explanation for...

FROM A DC COMMUTER Anti-War Protesters To nobody's surprise there were protesters today in DC, they attempted to disrupt the metro system and block the Key Bridge, a leading artery into DC from Northern Virginia. I got hosed twice because I come in from NoVA on the metro and it is raining hard which makes traffic worse any way. My commute was long and arduous and only caused further resentment for protesters (but that isn't the point of this thread). Anyway, I'll get to the point. I got off my train in Rosslyn because I had to use the bathroom...

Interest groups push tax reform in day at Capitol By Richard Locker locker@gomemphis.com March 21, 2002 NASHVILLE - More than 2,000 citizens flooded the Capitol Wednesday to deliver messages of support for tax reform and improved state services, including education, environmental protection and long-term care for the elderly. Members of groups ranging from the American Association of Retired Persons, Tennessee Catholics, the Memphis Chamber of Commerce and several environmental groups held their annual "lobby days," visiting legislators and other officials. The AARP sent 1,400 members from across the state, including 450 on nine buses from Memphis, with a strong message...