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There are 646 rural hospitals at risk of closure due to financial issues, comprising around 30 percent of all rural hospitals in the U.S., according to the Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform.The hospitals face losses on patient services as health plans aren't paying enough to cover the cost of care delivery. The losses will likely increase as inflation and workforce shortages persist, according to the report, which was released in April. While rural hospitals are receiving some support through grants, local tax revenues or other profits, they still have low financial reserves and remain at risk.More than half...

Last week, the largest West Coast port — the Port of Los Angeles — along with the Port of Long Beach experienced an unplanned 24-hour closure. The ports closed because dock workers simply didn’t show up, leaving the Thursday night shift and the Friday day shift unmanned. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union issued a statement saying workers not showing up for their shifts was no big deal:On the evening of Thursday, April 6, 2023, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 13 held its monthly membership meeting as is its contractual right. … Several thousand union members attend the...

Whole Foods opened its 64,000+ square foot “flagship” store in downtown San Francisco in March of 2022. On Monday, the grocery giant announced it was shuttering that location — at least for now.“We are closing our Trinity location only for the time being,” a Whole Foods spokesperson said in a statement. “If we feel we can ensure the safety of our team members in the store, we will evaluate a reopening of our Trinity location.”A City Hall source told The Standard the company cited deteriorating street conditions around drug use and crime near the grocery store as a reason for...

Not unlike many other corporations with retail locations in cities nationwide, Target is calling it quits on Philadelphia. They follow in the footsteps of Wawa, who we noted last year had enough of Philadelphia's crime and also picked up and left shop at several locations in Center City.Target, located just blocks from one Wawa that recently closed, is taking the same action, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. Its store at 12th and Chestnut streets in Center City will be closing after 7 years of operation. The 19,000 sq. foot store is going to be closing "due to several years...

In order to address the issue of shoplifting and retail theft, the final two Walmart stores in the city of Portland will shutter their doors in late March. FOX 12 Oregon reported that the Walmart locations at 1123 North Hayden Meadows Drive and 4200 Southeast 82nd Avenue at the Eastport Plaza would close on Mar. 24. "The decision to close these stores was made after a careful review of their overall performance. We consider many factors, including current and projected financial performance, location, population, customer needs, and the proximity of other nearby stores when making these difficult decisions. After we...

Washington state's biggest school district is considering shuttering some schools and laying off staff in the near future as enrollment rates continue to drop following the pandemic. Seattle Public Schools officials floated the idea of "consolidating" schools during a workshop reported on by The Seattle Times. Funding for most school districts is tied to the number of students, so declines in enrollment will likely contribute to budget shortfalls.

The Basilica at Cointe has been transformed into a climbing centre, the church at Bouhay into a shelter for women in distress, the chapel of Notre-Dame-en-Chemin at Boncelles into offices, housing is planned for the parish of Saint-Lambert de Soumagne or the former monastery at Chèvremont. There is no shortage of examples of changes in the use of religious sanctuaries in the Liège region, not to mention the hypothesis of a museum at Saint-Pholien in Outremeuse

For more than half-a-century, Uncle Sam has been giving banks the legal tools to snoop into the otherwise-private affairs of their customers. Now, they are monitoring the exercise of their Second Amendment rights. Thanks to a recent move by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO, headquartered in Switzerland), U.S. banks are starting to build databases on their customers’ purchases of firearms and ammunition. And, of course, they are ready and quite willing to share that information with federal law enforcement in the name of providing a public service to identify “mass shooters.”This invasion of privacy began in earnest with enactment...

Be our guest—at the unemployment bureau. Restaurants are failing faster in the United Kingdom than they did during the economically devastating COVID-19 pandemic, leading experts to predict over a third of UK “hospitality businesses” will close by 2023. I guess inflation wasn’t transitory there either. The Guardian blamed a “‘toxic mix’ of surging energy costs, staff shortages and falling bookings” for the crisis, as restaurant closures rose 60% this past year. And it’s not just restaurants affected, according to Steve Bannon, who posted on GETTR that “50% of all British small business said they would in all likelihood close shop...

As if John Fetterman’s debate with Dr. Oz wasn’t enough of a campaign killer, Joe Biden announced today that he will be closing coal plants in favor of wind and solar power.Joe Biden just said that he’s going to shut down coal plants all over America and replace them with wind and solar.Retweet so every voter in Pennsylvania and Ohio will see this.pic.twitter.com/65BvGIqzVG— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) November 4, 2022Let’s see how that goes over with Pennsylvania voters, especially considering that Fetterman claimed a while back he is against fracking, although he flip-flopped when asked about this in the debate.What happens...

Starbucks is closing 16 locations in cities around the nation after the coffee giant’s employees reported a string of “personal safety” incidents, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Translation: Crime is skyrocketing and our workers are too terrified to even show up at these locations.The company will shutter six stores in both Seattle and Los Angeles, two in Portland, and one each in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. by the end of July. What do all those locations have in common? They’re in deep-blue areas with soft-on-crime district attorneys and past support of the “defund the police” movement. How’d that work...

The ruling on Wednesday is the first win in appellate court for a restaurant seeking business interruption insurance losses.. Oceana Grill, Bourbon Street’s tourist-centric restaurant loved by New Orleans hotel concierges, has won the country’s first victory in appellate court for an insured business seeking damages related to COVID-19 shutdown losses. A split Louisiana court found the policy’s definition of “direct physical loss or damage” ambiguous, ruling in favor of the restaurant on Wednesday, June 15. Cajun Conti, the company that owns Oceana Grill, among other French Quarter tourist haunts, sued Lloyd’s of London on March 20, 2020 — the...

Restaurant and bar operators spent much of the pandemic pivoting to adhere to everchanging safety guidelines, adjusting business models and feeding their communities to keep the lights on amid staff shortages, regular recurring closures and reopenings, disruptions in the supply chain and cost increases from food to rent.

A hospital in Maine announced it would suspend emergency-level care at its walk-in location due to a staffing shortage, coming about a week after a facility in Minnesota suspended its urgent care and emergency room service. York Hospital said it is suspending emergency care at the Wells, Maine, facility starting Oct. 25. “York Hospital in Wells will temporarily suspend emergency-level care,” the hospital said in a statement. “Wells Walk-In Care will continue to offer urgent care to all patients” seven days per week but won’t operate 24 hours per day. “If you are experiencing life-threatening symptoms (severe pain, difficulty breathing)...

The dysfunctional federal jail where Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in 2019 will be closed “at least temporarily,” the Justice Department said Thursday. The Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan could be shut down as soon as the coming month, sources say. “In an effort to address the issues at MCC NY as quickly and efficiently as possible, the Department has decided to close the MCC, at least temporarily, until those issues have been resolved. Planning for the deactivation is under way, and we will have more updates as that process continues,” a DOJ spokeswoman said in a statement. Sources were...

The 48-year-old Interstate 40 bridge between Arkansas and Tennessee was rated as being in “fair” condition with a sufficiency factor of 58% before a “significant” fracture was discovered on May 11. The structure has remained closed to traffic since that time as crews work to repair the damage, first stabilizing the bridge to accommodate the equipment needed and then removing and replacing the damaged portion of a 900-foot structural beam. The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) said a fracture may be caused by overload, shock, fatigue or stress. A critical fracture could lead to collapse, if not properly repaired and...

Thursday, Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) spoke about the Biden administration’s decision to close Mount Rushmore for the Fourth of July festivities, a contrast to a year earlier when then-President Donald Trump spoke before a fireworks display. The South Dakota Republican slammed the move, claiming it was part of the “radical left’s agenda.” “You know, the decision was really arbitrary,” she said. “That’s why we’ll be appealing this decision, and the fight isn’t over. There wasn’t specific reasons that had credibility, and we call this an unlawful act to not make sure that we can conduct our celebration on July 3...

Cyber attacks on businesses are increasing and creating such a trail of damage it's pushing many firms to the brink of closure, a new international survey has found. According to the Hiscox Cyber Readiness report 2021 some 43 per cent of companies report having been targeted with over a quarter experiencing five assaults or more. One in six businesses attacked (17 percent) also reveal how the financial impact has threatened the company’s future. ... Ransomware now commonplace: Around one in every six firms attacked was targeted with ransomware and more than half paid up. In the US, the proportion paying...

Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo, who on Friday declared “gas is over,” is pushing for the closure of more oil pipelines around the country just days after several states experienced gas shortages due to the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline following a cyberattack. Mark Ruffalo tweeted his message Friday, blaming former President Donald Trump for “rubber stamping” so many “risky” pipelines. He encouraged his fans to follow a campaign called “Stop Trump Pipelines,” which is pressuring the Biden administration to shut down the Enbridge Line 5 in Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as other pipeline projects.

China's mass closure of Catholic orphanages, largely made up of children with mental and physical disabilities, betrays the hope of the controversial 2018 Vatican agreement that promised a “better day” for the Church, a priest has said. In a recent article published by Asia News, a Chinese priest who goes by P. Wendao urged the pope and the universal Church to stop the closure of Catholic orphanages after authorities with the Chinese Communist Party shuttered several homes, transferring children — many of them disabled — to other facilities. “It is clear that those government officials are not planning to serve...