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The Biden administration on Thursday released a rule for how health care providers and insurers should implement legislation prohibiting what are known as surprise medical bills. The rule outlines procedures for how disagreements between payers and providers over out-of-network rates should be resolved, provides self-paying and uninsured people a way to resolve payment disputes and provides a process for resolving payment disputes without placing patients in the middle, among other features.... ...President Trump signed the bill into law and the Biden administration has since then been working on crafting its regulations....

California gubernatorial candidate Caitlyn Jenner supports providing a pathway to citizenship for the state’s roughly two million illegal aliens. The former Olympic athlete turned transgender activist announced the policy position during an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, which is set to air Monday night.

A 'severe flu season' may have actually been the virus moving through the population, officials say. Though the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States was declared Jan. 20, preliminary evidence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that the disease may have actually been present in the United States at least a month earlier than that. Jeff Smith, a doctor and the county executive officer of Santa Clara County, told officials in that district this week that the disease had been "freewheeling" in the Bay Area possibly "for quite some time" prior to the earliest...

o casualties were reported but tents at the Moria camp were "almost entirely destroyed" and containers that provide additional accommodation and health and registration services were damaged, a police source in Athens told AFP. Firefighters were prevented from tackling the fire early on by clashes that broke out among rival nationalities in the camp, reports said. "Between 3,000 and 4,000 migrants fled the camp of Moria," to the surrounding fields, with strong winds fanning the flames also hampering firefighters, the police source said. However, once inside the firefighters were able to bring the fire under control. Police were sent out...

Belleville, New Jersey (My9NJ) - Longtime Belleville Councilwoman Marie Strumolo Burke is in hot water after allegedly going on a racist rant back in October. Mayor Raymond Kimble says her rant was picked up in the background of a voicemail to another councilman, who played it for the Mayor. On the recording you can hear a woman say: “This is going to be a f****** n***** town.” (snip) The councilwoman reportedly denies it’s her voice on the recording and accuses the mayor of dirty politics. (snip) “Listening to it repeatedly using critical listening skills that I’ve developed over 30 years,...

Yesterday was the 69th anniversary of the D-Day invasion and President Obama failed to say anything about it. There is no released statement on WhiteHouse.gov and nothing on the White House or Barack Obama twitter feeds about the anniversary. President Obama did not make any public remarks about the anniversary yesterday, either.

After five years of marriage, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are getting a divorce, PEOPLE has learned exclusively. "This is a personal and private matter for Katie and her family," says Holmes's attorney Jonathan Wolfe. "Katie's primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter's best interest."

(Info derived from linked article) Sunderland "reality" show was preplanned before Abby's misadventure: Adventures in Sunderland (Reality TV Show) Distribution Rights: Magnetic Entertainment Exec Producer: Magnetic Entertainment "A family oriented Adventure show, based on the Sunderland Family of Thousand Oaks, CA. We follow the family in their day-to-day lives as shipbuilder Laurence Sunderland and mother/teacher Marianne try to balance work and family." http://www.magneticent.com/html/projects.htm "Magnetic Entertainment" is the sponsor of the ill-fated voyage. (pdf list of sponsors) http://abbysunderland.com/images/sponsors/abby_sponsorship.pdf

When bombs and bullets left 37 dead during Friday prayers at a mosque in Pakistan, the insurgency was using the element of surprise. Unpredictability is the hallmark of modern insurgent attacks. However, the likelihood of such events, their timing and strength now can be estimated and managed before occurring, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Miami (UM). The study entitled "Common Ecology Quantifies Human Insurgency" was featured as the cover of the December 17, 2009 issue of Nature. The researchers and their collaborators analyzed the size and timing of 54,679 violent events reported in Afghanistan,...

No Suprise I've practiced this for hours, gone round and round And now I think that I've got it all down And as I say it louder I love how it sounds Cause I'm not taking the easy way out Not wrapping this in ribbons Shouldn't have to give a reason why... It's NO SURPRISE I won't be here tomorrow I can't believe that I stayed till today Yeah you and I will be a tough act to follow But I know in time we'll find this was NO SURPRISE It came out like a river once I let it...

BEIJING (AP) - The communist government's leading newspaper called Saturday to "resolutely crush" Tibetan demonstrations against Chinese rule. The statement came as international criticism against the crackdown on Tibetan protesters swelled. A senior EU official said European countries should not rule out threatening China with an Olympic boycott if violence continues in Tibet. Republican presidential hopeful John McCain and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi also joined the growing chorus of critics. Fighting back against the criticism, Beijing has begun releasing tallies of statements of support from foreign governments and trying to get its version of events before the international...

Pristina - NATO-led peacekeepers have closed two border crossings toward Serbia on Tuesday and stepped up its presence in the area owing to an 'escalating situation' on the other side, police said in Pristina. The peacekeepers from the KFOR mission took control over the crossings from the Kosovo and international police, shortly before noon, spokesman Veton Elshani told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. 'There are two border crossings in northern Kosovo which are closed, at Janjine and Leposavic, due to the very serious situation which is escalating there,' Elshani said. One of the crossing points the Serbian side was torched and the...

Embedded Conference Special Events Keynote Speaker: Al Gore THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF TECHNOLOGY Tuesday, April 3 . 11:00AM - 12:00pm Consistently an active leader in technology, Vice President Gore discusses technological advancement and the potential of user involvement. He identifies key opportunities and challenges, charting a new digital society. Al Gore was inaugurated as the 45th Vice President of the United States on January 20, 1993. He is an active leader in technology and telecommunications and is keenly focused on global warming. His pioneering efforts to protect the earth's ozone layer and to clean up toxic-waste dumps were outlined in his...

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States has signaled to Gulf Arab allies that an attack on Iran could take place in 2007. Diplomatic sources said the Bush administration has raised the prospect of a U.S. strike on Iran over the next few months. The sources said the discussions with Gulf Cooperation Council states have also been conducted by U.S. Central Command as well as the U.S. intelligence community. "There has not been a U.S. commitment, but the discussions have been interpreted as an expression of intent," the source said. "Right now, the U.S. message is that the GCC must get...

WASHINGTON - The first Muslim member of Congress says the solution to Iraq lies in an immediate withdrawal of military forces and focusing instead on political and diplomatic efforts. "We could describe it as a redeployment or withdrawal, but I think we have run the course in terms of our ability to resolve this conflict militarily," said Rep. Keith Ellison (news, bio, voting record), a freshman Minnesota Democrat. "I think we need to have a political and economic and diplomatic engagement, and we need to encourage the forces that are in Iraq to begin to resolve the violence in Iraq,"...

Friday December 1, 11:29 AM Fiji military chief to watch rugby before coup SUVA (Reuters) - Fiji's military chief maintained his threat on Friday to stage a coup if the government failed to meet his demands, but added he would not act until after the annual military versus police rugby game in Suva later in the day. Military Commander Frank Bainimarama gave Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase a 24-hour ultimatum on Thursday to clean up his government or face a coup, despite winning a series of concessions from the prime minister. "I maintain my demands and the deadline still stands and...

The father of one of 3 soldiers abducted in 2000 charges that UNIFIL cooperated with Hizbullah in their murders. A film documentary of the abduction also includes the voice of Ron Arad (pictured). The families of Benny Avraham, Omar Souad and Adi Avitan - captured and killed in October 2000 and returned for burial in early 2004 - say the United Nations withheld information about film footage which shows their sons’ capture at Har Dov along the Israel-Lebanon border. The documentary about the kidnappings also features a clip that shows missing IAF navigator Ron Arad, who was captured after he...

Schnitt just announced the breaking news. The DNA for JM Karr is NOT a match for Jon Benet evidence.

Associated Press Rhonda Galbraith/AP Photo Members of the pop group 'N Sync, Lance Bass, left, Chris Kirkpatrick, second left, Justin Timberlake, center, JC Chasez, second right, and Joey Fatone, right, arrive at a party celebrating their entrance into motion pictures, at Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 16, 2000. NEW YORK - Lance Bass, band member of 'N Sync, says he's gay and in a "very stable" relationship with a reality show star. Bass, who formed 'N Sync with Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick, tells People magazine that he didn't earlier disclose his sexuality because...

WASHINGTON: Google, the world’s most popular Internet search engine, has found in a survey that mostly Muslim states seek access to sex-related websites and Pakistan tops the list. Google found that of the top 10 countries - searching for sex-related sites - six were Muslim, with Pakistan on the top. The other Muslim countries are Egypt at number 2, Iran at 4, Morocco at 5, Saudi Arabia at 7 and Turkey at 8. Non-Muslim states are Vietnam at 3, India at 6, Philippines at 9 and Poland at 10.