Public Posts North Palm Sp... North Palm Springs, CA

"Fran Ruhl’s family received a startling letter from the Iowa Department of Human Services four weeks after she died in January 2022 ~ The letter got right to the point: Iowa’s Medicaid program had spent $226,611.35 for Ruhl’s health care, and the government was entitled to recoup that money from her estate, including nearly any assets she owned or had a share in. If a spouse or disabled child survived Ruhl, the collection could be delayed until after their death, but the money would still be owed ~ The notice said the family had 30 days to respond" Read more.

"The insurance industry and Republicans are using the debt ceiling fight and President Biden’s vows not to cut Medicare to fend off changes to private Medicare Advantage plans, which are popular among the public but have faced criticism about their costs to the government."  More at Roll Call ➜

Get the facts - Understand the size and state of the American people with this Census Bureau data. Track population changes by region of the country and by age and how much the US population grows year after year. Dig into the educational level of American adults, how many young adults live at home, even how the average family size has changed since the 1940s.

More at USAFacts ➜

The 2022 report found climate and health impact of natural Gas stoves which can release methane and other pollutants through leaks and incomplete combustion, exposing people to respiratory disease-triggering pollutants. Stanford researchers estimate that methane leaking from stoves inside U.S. homes has the same climate impact as about 500,000 gasoline-powered cars.  Last December, U.S. Senator Cory Booker and U.S. Representative Don Beyer urged Alexander Hoehn-Saric, Chair of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to address this problem. 

Off in the distance,
hearing sound of a drum.
Is it a signal now
of what is to come?

"Moore v. Harper is a test of whether this Supreme Court can ever be trusted with power." Click to read th full article at Vox

"Northwest SOIL promised to help students with serious disabilities. But when school districts urged action, the state let the private school stay open and receive millions in tax dollars..... For years, the complaints languished with Washington state education officials." ...."Northwest SOIL’s corporate owner, Universal Health Services, has for years skimped on staffing and basic resources while pressuring managers to enroll more students than the staff could handle..." Read more at ProPublica

An analysis released by Accountable.US "reveals that election-deniers that ran for federal office during the 2022 cycle received nearly $65 million from all corporate interests combined including trade groups, despite their open peddling of false claims undermining confidence in democracy. The National Association of Realtors (Realtors PAC) ranked as the top overall donor with over $821,000 in contributions". Read the full article at Accountable.US

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln gave a two minute speech that has been quoted ever since. There are five copies of the speech. All written in Lincoln’s handwriting. Each copy differs slightly, probably as a result of Lincoln’s self-editing. The Library of Congress has two copies of the address, Cornell University has one, the Illinois State Historical Library has one, and one is in the Lincoln room in the White House.
                 The Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

"In the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, more than 100 major companies pledged to suspend political giving to the members of Congress who voted to invalidate Joe Biden's presidential victory." However, since then, "At least 228 Fortune 500 companies have provided financial support to members of Congress who sought to invalidate the 2020 presidential election results. Together, the companies have poured a total of nearly $13.2 million into those politicians’ war chests. By contrast, about 100 companies from the Fortune list have not given to these members through their corporate PACs". Read more

"The state officials who administer fair, accessible and secure elections have historically operated quietly without garnering much public attention. Elections happen, votes are counted, the winners are declared and democracy moves on".

"But since 2020, secretaries of state and other state officials who oversee elections have come under increasing scrutiny and been exposed to increasing abuse"......... "given the increasingly polarized and hostile political environment in the U.S., is the country about to experience an Election Day filled with conflict, contested election results and chief election officials who are no longer trusted?.... Read more