Tim Fitzsimons, - NBC News/The Associated Press
Stephan: The sheer hateful ugliness and sexual dysfunction of Trump and his party just knows no bounds. Am I exaggerating? Read this.
The Trump administration moved Friday to roll back Obama-era protections for transgender patients, the third rule change issued this month that LGBTQ advocates say will sanction discrimination against transgender people.
The Health and Human Services Department’s proposed new rule, released Friday, says in effect that federal laws banning sex discrimination in health care don’t apply to people’s “gender identity.” The proposed rule from HHS reverses President Barack Obama’s administration, which found that the Affordable Care Act’s anti-discrimination section does indeed protect transgender people seeking health care services.
The rule can be finalized after a 60-day public comment period.
“When Congress prohibited sex discrimination, it did so according to the plain meaning of the term, and we are making our regulations conform,” HHS’ director of the Office of Civil Rights, Roger Severino, said in a statement announcing the proposed change.
LGBTQ rights groups denounced the move, as did Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., a vocal advocate for transgender equality.
“By repealing a regulation clarifying that LGBT people are protected against health care discrimination under the Affordable Care Act’s nondiscrimination provisions, the Trump Administration seeks to deny life-saving health care to LGBT people and others and replaces these critical […]
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Lee Fang, - The Intercept
Stephan: Here is some good news about coal. In spite of everything Trump and his administration, and the company itself have done, and are doing, to keep coal alive and polluting, the industry's days are numbered.
Coal is loaded onto hopper cars at Cloud Peak Energy’s Spring Creek Mine near Decker, Mont.
Credit: Matthew Brown/AP
The Bankruptcy of one of the largest domestic coal producers in the country has revealed that the company maintains financial ties to many of the leading groups that have sowed doubt over the human causes of global warming.
The disclosures are from Cloud Peak Energy, a Wyoming-based coal mining corporation that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 10. The company had been battered by low coal prices, including in international markets cultivated by the firm.
The documents in the court docket show that the coal giant gave contributions to leading think tanks that have attacked the link between the burning of fossil fuels and climate change, as well as to several conservative advocacy groups that have attempted to undermine policies intended to shift the economy toward renewable energy. The documents do not include information on the size of the contributions, yet, taken as a whole, the list of groups Cloud Peak Energy helped fund […]
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Andrew Emett, Staff Writer - Nation of Change
Stephan: Here is some good news about Johnson & Johnson being held responsible for something they knew caused health problems but sold anyway because money was more important than healthy customers.
Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty
Johnson & Johnson was recently ordered to pay $25 million in compensatory damages to a 66-year-old woman who contracted a rare asbestos-related cancer after decades of using J&J’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products. Next week, the New York jury will determine whether J&J is also liable for punitive damages in this case.
According to Donna Olson’s deposition, her mother used J&J’s Baby Powder during her daily baths since her birth in 1953 until 1961. At the age of eight, Olson continued using the product on her own and even used the product on her own daughter when she was born in 1991.
In 1995, Olson switched to J&J’s Shower to Shower after daily baths. She finally discontinued using the product after hearing about a possible link to ovarian cancer cases in 2015.
In May 2016, Olson was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma. During her deposition, she recalled repeatedly breathing in J&J talc products that bore no labels warning of potential risks to cancer.
Olson […]
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