Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalThey lost Medicaid when paperwork was sent to a pasture, signaling the mess to come
Three years ago, Mason Lester, a rambunctious toddler, tumbled off his family's porch and broke his wrist. His mother, nine months pregnant, rushed him to a nearby hospital, where she made a confounding discovery: Their health insurance had vanished.
Alarmed, Katie Lester called the Tennessee Medicaid agency, TennCare, which had covered her during a prior pregnancy and insured Mason since the day he was born.
TennCare said the family was no longer enrolled because they had failed to respond to a packet of essential paperwork. But Lester hadn't seen the packet, nor a termination letter. Years would pass before it became clear what went wrong: Due to a clerical error, TennCare had mailed both to a horse pasture.
The loss of Medicaid was catastrophic for the Lesters, an impoverished family that owns a small lawn-cutting business in Belfast, a town of 600 about an hour south of Nashville. Lester and her husband appealed TennCare's decision but were rejected. They reapplied and were denied after mailed paperwork once again failed to reach their home. The Lesters said they were left uninsured for most of the next three years, during which the coronavirus, injuries, and a cesarean birth buried them under more than $100,000 of debt, which savaged their credit and dashed plans to buy their first home.
"It was like we just got run over by a bus when I found out we didn't have insurance," Lester said.
The Lesters' story may be a warning of what's to come for many poor Americans. Because of the COVID-19 public health emergency, TennCare and Medicaid programs in other states largely have been barred from dropping anyone, and Medicaid enrollment has swelled to historical highs. But when the emergency is declared over, states will once again require families to prove they are poor enough to qualify for coverage. Millions are expected to lose their insurance in the year that follows, including countless people like the Lesters who meet the requirements for Medicaid but get lost in its labyrinthine bureaucracy.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/08/02/1114857641/lost-medicaid-paperwork
This happened in Tennessee, but it's happening all over.
The Marines are set to have the first Black 4-star general in their 246-year history
More than 35 years since his career in the U.S. Marine Corps began, Lt. Gen. Michael Langley will reach one of the highest ranks of the military.
On Aug. 1, the U.S. Senate confirmed Langley to become the first Black four-star general in the Marines' 246-year history. He will lead all U.S. military forces in Africa as chief of U.S. Africa Command.
A native of Shreveport, La., and the son of a former, noncommissioned officer in the Air Force, Langley has commanded at every level. His posts included Afghanistan during the war and various posts in Asia and Europe.
He assumed command of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa last year, "after his predecessor was removed amid allegations of using a racial slur for African Americans in front of troops," according to Stars and Stripes.
He also holds multiple advanced degrees, including masters in National Security Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College.
As of last year, Langley was one of only six Black generals in the Marines, Stars and Stripes reported.
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/20/1112558286/marines-first-black-four-star-general
My spousal unit is a Marine brat. Hooah!
Almost 600 Texas youth are trapped in a juvenile prison system on the brink of collapse
Texas’ juvenile prison system is nearing total collapse.Its five lockups are dangerously understaffed, an ongoing problem that worsened dramatically last year when its turnover rate hit more than 70%. The state has desperately tried to recruit employees, but most new hires are gone within six months.
Teachers and caseworkers routinely work in security roles so the prisons’ nearly 600 youth can get out of their cells to go to the bathroom or take showers. Still, children have reported being left to use water bottles as makeshift toilets.
On weekends, youth are often locked alone in cramped cells with only a mounted bookshelf and a thin mattress on a concrete block for up to 23 hours a day. The lucky ones have a small window to the outside.
The agency has largely stopped accepting newly sentenced teenagers from crowded county detention centers, fearing it can’t even protect the children already in its care.
And more and more, children are hurting themselves — sometimes severely — out of distress or as a way to get attention in their isolation. Nearly half of those locked in the state’s juvenile prisons this year have been on suicide watch.
The emergency is the predictable result of a state agency that has been entrenched in crisis for more than a decade. The Texas Juvenile Justice Department is under federal investigation for an alleged pattern of mistreatment and abuse, and it has gone through several iterations of major and moderate reform following scandals marked by sexual abuse and violence, including a full restructuring in 2011.
But the agency has never escaped its problem of chronic understaffing, exacerbating systemic failures and spurring a vicious cycle of worsening conditions for imprisoned children, as well as more difficult work and longer hours for the staff that remains. The agency consistently loses detention officers at a faster rate than any other position in Texas government, outpacing other hard-to-fill jobs like adult prison officers and caseworkers for Child Protective Services.
The staffing crisis only worsened following the pandemic and the subsequent wave of resignations throughout the country. And although agency leaders believe the flood of departures has eased, they are left clinging to startlingly few workers. In June, less than half of the agency’s officer positions were filled by active employees.
https://www.rawstory.com/almost-600-texas-youth-are-trapped-in-a-juvenile-prison-system-on-the-brink-of-collapse/
More shame for Texas---something else for Hot Wheels not to care about
Gatlinburg hotel kicks out guests for being close to bears
On Sunday morning, eyewitnesses described the blood-boiling moments when two people were seen actually walking up to a bear and petting it.
This happened Sunday morning at the Quality Inn Creekside hotel in downtown Gatlinburg. Owner Raj Patel said he was made aware of the incident when he saw pictures of a woman extending her hand just inches away from a bear’s mouth.
Misty Chrismon captured those photos and said that the woman actually made contact with the bear, and the bear swiped at her moments after. It was only at that time that the woman left the bear alone.
“She was petting the nose and everything, and then she put her hand out pretending she had food for the bear,” said Chrismon.
https://www.wvlt.tv/2022/08/02/gatlinburg-hotel-kicks-out-guests-being-close-bears/
Another entry in the "people are stupid" contest. Bears are wildlife, dummy, even in downtown Gatlinburg!
Prison Cells Can Reach Nearly 150 Degrees in the South
Summers in the U.S. have been getting hotter year over year—and more dangerous as a result.
But very few Americans have to face the heat with next to no relief options like the country’s incarcerated population. Record-breaking temperatures can quickly become a health risk for the largely Black and Brown incarcerated population, particularly in the South.
Little has been done by U.S. prisons in recent years to combat their readiness for heat waves. In Texas, where just 20 percent of prison units in the state have air conditioning, cells regularly reach temperatures as high as 110 degrees, with some cells getting as hot as 149 degrees, according to a study released by the Texas A&M University Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center earlier this month. In Florida, where just 24 percent of prison units have air conditioning, prison reform activists recently told the Orlando Sentinel that cell temperatures exceed 100 degrees. And in Arizona, where temperatures as high as 120 degrees can result in the cancellation of flights, inmates were left outside to bear the brunt of it.
Texas, Arizona, and Florida are just three of 13 states that don’t have universal air conditioning in their prisons, according to the Prison Policy Initiative: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. Without air conditioning, which is mandatory in order to live comfortably in many of these states, inmates exposed to the heat for long periods of time can suffer from potentially fatal heat strokes, according to the Initiative, as well as adverse effects on their kidneys, liver, heart, and brains.
The effects that the grueling conditions of these prisons can have are made worse by the mandatory labor many of its inhabitants are forced to take part in, Jamila Johnson, deputy director for the Promise of Justice Initiative in Louisiana told VICE News.
“In the course of their day, there are people who are fully working in the fields, they're working in prison enterprises, working to make tags for license plates, doing other manufacturing work, working in kitchens,” Johnson said. “Those are our grueling jobs in the best of conditions.”
Working through the heat has always been a risk for American laborers. Between 2011 and 2019, at least 344 American workers died of heat stress in the U.S, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, with the agency adding that the figure is likely underreported.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7bbba/prison-cells-can-reach-nearly-150-degrees-in-the-south
This constitutes torture. And you also know that prison medical neglect is one of my hot buttons....
Putnam County judge suspended for remainder of term
A Putnam County judge has been suspended for the remainder of his term by the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct.
The board issued an order that detailed several complaints against Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Young, of Cookeville, who serves the 13th Judicial District, including sexual misconduct with a woman who was a party in an adoption case in his court.
Young is suspended for 30 days beginning on Aug. 2 through Aug. 31. Young’s term as judge ends on Aug. 31 after his defeat in the district’s primary election.
On June 7, Chelsey and Michael Hoover filed separate complaints claiming Young started inappropriate communications. Young allegedly started conversations with Chelsey Hoover that were flirtatious and sexual before, during and after she and Michael Hoover were parties in an adoption case his court heard on March 29.
According to a report, Chelsey Hoover claimed Young requested explicit pictures from her and that they had met on several occasions outside of the court, including at a hotel in Cookeville around April 28, where they had sex. Young allegedly suggested she use an app on her phone that would automatically delete their electronic communications.
When Chelsey Hoover allegedly met Young at the hotel, she presented him with legal documents in an unrelated custody matter he had pending in another court in his judicial district. Young allegedly provided Chelsey Hoover advice about her case, including how to get the judge handing it disqualifies from hearing the matter. He also was accused of advising her on how to replace her attorney.
https://www.wvlt.tv/2022/07/31/putnam-county-judge-suspended-remainder-term/
But wait, there's more! Any bets he's a RepubliKKKan?
Trump Fave in MI Thinks Child Predators Just Love Abortion
Michigan gubernatorial primary candidate Tudor Dixon made an especially striking argument about why abortion should be outlawed, at a recent campaign stop.
During a conversation about a proposed ballot referendum this year that would guarantee accessible abortion in the state, Dixon said that doing so would create “a safe haven for any type of predator out there.”
“If you’re a predator there’s nothing you like more than abortion. And if you can get a girl an abortion without her parents knowing you can keep hurting her,” Dixon said at a meet-and-greet at Na-Lar Farms last week.
“So we have to make sure we protect people from predators in this state. We cannot let this constitutional amendment be passed and give predators a chance to keep preying on young women,” she added.
In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last month, a decades-old state law banning abortion went into effect in Michigan, only providing exceptions for if the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. While the law has been at least temporarily blocked in court, Michiganders have been left in limbo over the future of abortion access in the state.
Organizers for the proposed ballot referendum argue it’s a means to protect pregnant people from carrying unwanted pregnancies, including those caused by rape or incest. The website for the coalition backing the proposal, Reproductive Freedom For All, says the proposed referendum would affirm that “every person” has access to “political interference about all matters relating to pregnancy, including birth control, abortion, prenatal care, and childbirth.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-fave-tudor-dixon-in-michigan-thinks-child-predators-just-love-abortion?ref=home
This sick obsession with "child predators" says a lot about the GQP
Okla. downgrades school district over complaint it shamed White people
The Oklahoma State Board of Education voted this week to downgrade the accreditation of Tulsa Public Schools after a teacher reportedly complained that the school district’s training materials “shame white people.”
The board voted 4-2 to lower the status of Tulsa Public Schools to “accredited with warning” on Thursday after the State Department of Education determined an implicit bias training for teachers in August 2021 violated House Bill 1775. The law, which restricts discussions of race and sex in public schools, is widely seen as targeting critical race theory. The state investigation began after a complaint from a teacher who has not been publicly identified, according to the Oklahoman.
The board also demoted another district, Mustang Public Schools near Oklahoma City, to “accredited with warning” after it self-reported that a teacher had violated House Bill 1775 by using an exercise that made students uncomfortable on account of their race or sex.
The demotions mark the first enforcement action under the law, which Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed in May 2021, the Oklahoman reported. All four members who voted to downgrade the districts were appointed by Stitt.
The law does not explicitly mention critical race theory — an academic framework for examining the way laws and policies perpetuate systemic racism — but prohibits teaching what it calls “discriminatory principles,” including that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/07/30/crt-oklahoma-tulsa-schools-shame-white/?itid=hp_national
Oklahoma, you are not OK!
How burn pits may have raised veterans' risk of rare cancers and respiratory illnesses
A bipartisan measure to expand medical coverage for millions of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans exposed to toxic burn pits stalled on Thursday, after 25 Republican senators who supported the bill last month reversed their stance.
The move prevented the legislation from reaching President Biden's desk. The bill has already passed in the House, and a previous version passed in the Senate last month, before a few changes were made. Proponents of the measure were surprised that the current version did not sail through again.
At issue is the way military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan disposed of waste from around 2010 to 2015: by dumping it in a pit and setting it on fire in the open air.
Many veterans attribute health problems that arose later, such as cancer and respiratory illness, to exposure to chemicals released into the air via these fires. The smoke carried a range of harmful substances, including lead, mercury, benzene, hydrocarbons, dioxins and volatile organic compounds.
"Those who were deployed at bases where burn pits were used clearly had exposure to agents that are known to be harmful," said David Savitz, an epidemiology professor at the Brown University School of Public Health.
The legislation would have expanded health care access to more than 3.5 million veterans who were exposed to toxins while serving in the military after Sept. 11, 2001. It also would have added 23 illnesses, including several cancers, to the list of conditions eligible for federal health care coverage.
The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 — or PACT Act, as it’s known — was named after a U.S. veteran who attributed his lung cancer to burn pit exposure. Robinson died of his illness in 2020.
Savitz and other experts said burning waste the way the military did could certainly raise the risk of disease, but more research is needed to know if the conditions veterans are reporting were directly caused by burn pits. Regardless, they think veterans should be able to get the care they seek.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/burn-pits-veterans-healthcare-risks-cancers-respiratory-illness-rcna40669
If we "wait for all the research" we'll be waiting till doomsday. Fuck the RepubliKKKans.
America First is laying plans to perpetuate Trumpism beyond Trump
He spoke in lurid detail of cities overrun by violent crime. He railed against the media, deep state and liberal elites. And he touted his wall with a dire warning: “Millions of illegal aliens are stampeding across our wide open borders, pouring into our country. It’s an invasion.”
Donald Trump’s return to Washington this week was deja vu all over again. The former US president’s 90-minute speech at a luxury hotel was eerily reminiscent of the nativist-populist campaign that won him the White House in 2016. But while Trump himself never evolves, his audience this time around was different.
While the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a rightwing thinktank, was happy to indulge the garrulous showman at its inaugural summit, it also maintained a cold-eyed focus on the future. Over two days Trump’s allies and alumni laid out a blueprint for a return to power and a second term more authoritarian, more extreme and more ruthless than the first.
The institute – evidently untroubled by the associations of the phrase “America First” with Nazi sympathisers who wanted to keep the US out of the second world war – has 150 staff, including nine former Trump administration cabinet officials and more than 50 former senior staff and officials. Familiar faces such as Kellyanne Conway, Larry Kudlow and Mark Meadows were feted at the conference.
The AFPI is led by Brooke Rollins, a former domestic policy adviser in the White House, who boasted how the 15-month-old organisation put “boots on the ground” in 32 states on issues from “election integrity to school choice and patriotic education to health care transparency to taxes and spending to fatherhood initiatives to border security to big tech censorship”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/30/america-first-trumpism-beyond-trump
We can't let these fascists win
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayCurrent location: Virginia
Member since: Wed Jun 1, 2011, 07:34 PM
Number of posts: 9,998
