#Latest coverage limits.

[adhamabbas]

Don't treat me with logic and its severity, if the event was "heart".

[reasonsforhope]

Article | Paywall Free

"The Food and Drug Administration approved new mRNA coronavirus vaccines Thursday [August 22, 2024], clearing the way for shots manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to start hitting pharmacy shelves and doctor’s offices within a week.

Health officials encourage annual vaccination against the coronavirus, similar to yearly flu shots. Everyone 6 months and older should receive a new vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends.

The FDA has yet to approve an updated vaccine from Novavax, which uses a more conventional vaccine development method but has faced financial challenges.

Our scientific understanding of coronavirus vaccines has evolved since they debuted in late 2020. Here’s what to know about the new vaccines.

Why are there new vaccines?

The coronavirus keeps evolving to overcome our immune defenses, and the shield offered by vaccines weakens over time. That’s why federal health officials want people to get an annual updated coronavirus vaccine designed to target the latest variants. They approve them for release in late summer or early fall to coincide with flu shots that Americans are already used to getting.

The underlying vaccine technology and manufacturing process are the same, but components change to account for how the virus morphs. The new vaccines target the KP.2 variant because most recent covid cases are caused by that strain or closely related ones...

Do the vaccines prevent infection?

You probably know by now that vaccinated people can still get covid. But the shots do offer some protection against infection, just not the kind of protection you get from highly effective vaccines for other diseases such as measles.

The 2023-2024 vaccine provided 54 percent increased protection against symptomatic covid infections, according to a CDC study of people who tested for the coronavirus at pharmacies during the first four months after that year’s shot was released...

A nasal vaccine could be better at stopping infections outright by increasing immunity where they take hold, and one is being studied in a trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

If you really want to dodge covid, don’t rely on the vaccine alone and take other precautions such as masking or avoiding crowds...

Do the vaccines help prevent transmission?

You may remember from early coverage of coronavirus vaccines that it was unclear whether shots would reduce transmission. Now, scientists say the answer is yes — even if you’re actively shedding virus.

That’s because the vaccine creates antibodies that reduce the amount of virus entering your cells, limiting how much the virus can replicate and make you even sicker. When vaccination prevents symptoms such as coughing and sneezing, people expel fewer respiratory droplets carrying the virus. When it reduces the viral load in an infected person, people become less contagious.

That’s why Peter Hotez, a physician and co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, said he feels more comfortable in a crowded medical conference, where attendees are probably up to date on their vaccines, than in a crowded airport.

“By having so many vaccinated people, it’s decreasing the number of days you are shedding virus if you get a breakthrough infection, and it decreases the amount of virus you are shedding,” Hotez said.

Do vaccines prevent long covid?

While the threat of acute serious respiratory covid disease has faded, developing the lingering symptoms of “long covid” remains a concern for people who have had even mild cases. The CDC says vaccination is the “best available tool” to reduce the risk of long covid in children and adults. The exact mechanism is unclear, but experts theorize that vaccines help by reducing the severity of illness, which is a major risk factor for long covid.

When is the best time to get a new coronavirus vaccine?

It depends on your circumstances, including risk factors for severe disease, when you were last infected or vaccinated, and plans for the months ahead. It’s best to talk these issues through with a doctor.

If you are at high risk and have not recently been vaccinated or infected, you may want to get a shot as soon as possible while cases remain high. The summer wave has shown signs of peaking, but cases can still be elevated and take weeks to return to low levels. It’s hard to predict when a winter wave will begin....

Where do I find vaccines?

CVS said its expects to start administering them within days, and Walgreens said that it would start scheduling appointments to receive shots after Sept. 6 and that customers can walk in before then.

Availability at doctor’s offices might take longer. Finding shots for infants and toddlers could be more difficult because many pharmacies do not administer them and not every pediatrician’s office will stock them given low demand and limited storage space.

This year’s updated coronavirus vaccines are supposed to have a longer shelf life, which eases the financial pressures of stocking them.

The CDC plans to relaunch its vaccine locator when the new vaccines are widely available, and similar services are offered by Moderna and Pfizer."

-via The Washington Post, August 22, 2024

[inkyami]

As a foreigner, I am curious. What are the main differences between kokoshniks and other types of headresses?

Why thank you for asking!1 First and foremost, kokoshnik is a festive headdress of a married woman. It is essentially a hat and is meant to cover the hair — a huge difference in status (unmarried girls wear a single braid, married women pin hair around the head in two braids and cover it). It comes in an amazing variety of shapes depending on a region, though the south of Russia had their own amazing thing for most of history. We're used to see the ornate arch of kokoshnik, but the back was also very rich.

All the headdresses that have just a front piece and don't cover the top&back of the head would be a venets/koruna etc (wreath/crown) — a headband, a young woman's festive and wedding headgear. Those can also get ridiculously high and wide, but don't provide full coverage. They could also be paired with a braid decoration.

Now, the mixing up starts as early as late XVIII for aristocracy and XIX for everyone else. Thanks to Peter I's "embrace Europe, reject tradition" policy the upper class was pretty much entirely cut from Russian traditional culture. When the "slavic" style came back in trend (several times during wars) it ignored all original symbolism and was heavily changed to fit international beauty standards of the time. By the time of Nicholas II (and yet another wave of slavomania pre-revolution) every court headdress we see is clearly a headband/diadem in its structure but every description states "kokoshnik".

Important note: in 1830s court dress regulations there is still a clear difference between kokoshnik and a headband for married and unmarried ladies accordingly. However, every history text elects to call every headpiece a "modernized kokoshnik" In the latest years the "kokoshnik" (BUT ACTUALLY A VENETS/HEADBAND) became an insanely popular accessory in Russia and is made in tons of materials but in a very limited number of shapes. The results vary from beautiful to silly to atrocious (I'll spare you from looking at patriotic take on the mater). I'd love to wear one, but, to quote marquis de Custine, "it flatters beautiful faces and makes ugly ones even more so"

In short (HA) — kokoshnik is a full-covering headdress for married women. Every young heroine wearing what looks like a kokoshik from the front but sports a braid — wears a venets. Thankfully there are also a lot of artists dedicated to keeping the traditional crafts and garments alive, like Johann Nikadimus who does both replicas and modern designs and never fails to call things accordingly. Its breathtaking and very expensive, just like it was before. About southern kichka headdress

[wajjs]

We have the right to protest in Argentina.

EVERY WEDNESDAY retirees/pensioners have been gathering to protest in front of Congress.

EVERY WEDNESDAY the government launches an anti riot force to tear gass and violently repress people that are in their 70s, 80s, 90s.

THIS WEDNESDAY (MARCH 12, 2025) football fans joined the protests to give their support to the elders being abused by police forces every single week.

The government answered this by enforcing "special measures": FULL ON POLICE REPRESSION.

With full local news coverage, there are many videos of cops planting guns among protesters to justify their violent acts. There are many videos of cops hitting, pushing, and tear gassing elders.

With full local news coverage, cops shot at the head of a news photographer with a pressurized tear gas can, blowing the upper part of his skull open. Cops have caused this man to lose brain matter from the injury. He needed life saving surgery. The latest reports as of posting (March 13) say that, while the surgery was a success, he is not out of danger and he's in a very critical, very delicate state.

The government is now pushing forward punishment towards ALL football fans by limiting access to stadiums.

From the very start, our current government has tried to violate our right to protest by taking all possible measures to repress it and treat it as illegal. News coverage paints this as good and deserved.

This is in great part the fault of people without class consciousness AND without memory of what our history shows. We've gone through similar things during the 2001 crisis. There's nothing new under the sun.

Like we fought then, we have to fight now.

[detailtilted]

New Enhanced Edition - Fangoria 2008 with Jared

Direct link to video. Link to YouTube channel. (23 videos available.)

My latest video is up. This was at Fangoria in Austin, TX in January 2008.

Footage Found/Recovered

My video is a little over 42 minutes long. There's uninterrupted coverage from the beginning of the panel up until 39.5 minutes in. After that, there are two gaps of unknown length that I couldn't fill.

Jewels667 on YouTube had 38 minutes' worth of great coverage for this event, but the videos had become private. (In 2021, YouTube automatically changed unlisted videos to private, so that might be what happened here.) I was able to make contact and they kindly made the videos public again, and granted me permission to use them for this project. I used 20.5 minutes' worth of their video and 31.5 minutes' worth of their audio. They had 3 minutes and 46 seconds of coverage that none of the other videos had and some of the better-quality audio. The videos have thousands of views, so a lot of you may have seen them before, but they were new to me and I was very excited about them.

@j2spntranscripts, who has incredible video-finding skills, also found two videos with 21 minutes' worth of coverage on DailyMotion that I hadn't run across myself. I didn't use a lot of content from them, but I did use a few minutes and it was very helpful to have another audio source to listen to when refining my subtitles. You can find the links on the aforementioned blog, or in the credits on my video description.

Audio

Jared called on fans in the audience to ask questions, and they didn't have mics, so they're usually very hard to hear. I determined which video source picked up the fan question the most clearly and included that in the audio. If it wasn't clearly audible in its original form, I increased the volume drastically and added some background noise suppression tools to try to make it as clear as possible. It helps a little, but there are still some fans who are nearly impossible to make out. You'll notice more audio fluctuations in this video than usual (mostly just when the fans are speaking) due to my sometimes-drastic audio manipulations to try to hear the fans.

What's Next?

I'm moving on to the Los Angeles convention from March 2008 next! While searching for more videos from this convention, I learned through an old post on LiveJournal that a fan going by the name of Candygramme had recorded some great videos from this event that aren't on YouTube. I was able to make contact and she generously sent me everything she had, so I'm excited to share them. The biggest treasure is the full video of the main J2 panel. She also caught about half of Jensen's solo panel and 4.5 minutes of the Breakfast. Her video quality was much better than the other videos I've found from this con.

For the parts of the panels not covered by her videos, the video quality will be very low and I expect there to be some large and frustrating gaps in Jared's solo panel. But the existing YouTube coverage of this con is limited and pretty difficult to watch, so I'm excited to put together something more coherent than what we have today, and I'm especially excited about the footage from Candygramme that newer fans have likely not seen.

Before/After Comparison Photos

The Fangoria videos didn't upscale, and the original colors weren't too bad, so you won't see a big improvement in video quality on this one.

A recap for anyone not familiar with this project…

In December 2023, I started a project to enhance old convention videos. The project is mostly focused on Jared and Jensen, but there will occasionally be videos with other actors. I'm upscaling the videos and making other visual improvements, adding extra content to clarify various references, and adding human-generated, color-coded subtitles so you can better understand the sometimes-chaotic audio. The subtitles can be auto-translated to other languages via YouTube.

My goal is to publish the best, most complete, and most watchable versions of these older convention panels yet seen, but this is only possible thanks to the fans who captured the footage in the first place and were generous enough to share it with other fans. My video descriptions on YouTube will always credit my sources.

If you have any old convention videos you'd be willing to contribute to this project, please message me! I can also be reached at DetailTilted@gmail.com. If I can get them to upscale (I can't always), I'd happily send the upscaled files back to you for your own collection whether I use them or not.

[probablyasocialecologist]

The Guardian has uncovered evidence showing how Israel has relaunched a controversial entity as part of a broader public relations campaign to target US college campuses and redefine antisemitism in US law. Seconds after a smoke alarm subsided during the hearing, Chikli assured the lawmakers that there was new money in the budget for a pushback campaign, which was separate from more traditional public relations and paid advertising content produced by the government. It included 80 programs already under way for advocacy efforts “to be done in the ‘Concert’ way”, he said. The “Concert” remark referred to a sprawling relaunch of a controversial Israeli government program initially known as Kela Shlomo, designed to carry out what Israel called “mass consciousness activities” targeted largely at the US and Europe. Concert, now known as Voices of Israel, previously worked with groups spearheading a campaign to pass so-called “anti-BDS” state laws that penalize Americans for engaging in boycotts or other non-violent protests of Israel. Its latest incarnation is part of a hardline and sometimes covert operation by the Israeli government to strike back at student protests, human rights organizations and other voices of dissent. Voices’ latest activities were conducted through non-profits and other entities that often do not disclose donor information. From October through May, Chikli has overseen at least 32m shekels, or about $8.6m, spent on government advocacy to reframe the public debate.

[...]

Haaretz and the New York Times recently revealed that Chikli’s ministry had tapped a public relations firm to secretly pressure American lawmakers. The firm used hundreds of fake accounts posting pro-Israel or anti-Muslim content on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram. (The diaspora affairs ministry denied involvement in the campaign, which reportedly provided about $2m to an Israeli firm for the social media posts.) But that effort is only one of many such campaigns coordinated by the ministry, which has received limited news coverage. The ministry of diaspora affairs and its partners compile weekly reports based on tips from pro-Israel US student groups, some of which receive funding from Israeli government sources. For example, Hillel International, a co-founder of the Israel on Campus Coalition network and one of the largest Jewish campus groups in the world, has reported financial and strategic support from Mosaic United, a public benefit corporation backed by Chikli’s ministry. The longstanding partnership is now being utilized to shape the political debate over Israel’s war. In February, Hillel’s chief executive, Adam Lehman, appeared before the Knesset to discuss the strategic partnership with Mosaic and the ministry of diaspora affairs, which he said had already produced results.

24 June 2024

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Sam Levin at The Guardian:

Steven Hotze, a Republican donor from Texas, has spent decades fighting against LGBTQ+ rights, with campaigns seeking to roll back protections for people he has deemed “termites”, “morally degenerate” and “satanic”. The Houston-area physician is not well-known in mainstream politics, and his efforts targeting queer and trans people have generally been local, with limited impact. His latest cause could be different. Hotze, 74, has sued the federal government to roll back healthcare coverage for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the HIV prevention medication. The case is now before the US supreme court, which is expected to rule in the coming weeks. A decision in his favor could upend healthcare access for LGBTQ+ people across the country – and derail a wide array of preventive treatments for tens of millions in the process. “People will die,” said Kae Greenberg, staff attorney with the Center for HIV Law and Policy, which filed a brief in the case. “Preventive healthcare saves lives, and this case is about whose lives we consider worth protecting. It’s about cutting off people’s care based on them being gay or substance users or living their lives in a way the plaintiffs do not approve of. It’s using the law to legitimize bigotry.” The case, Kennedy v Braidwood, originated with Hotze’s Christian healthcare firm, Braidwood Management, which filed a lawsuit in 2020 objecting to the federal requirement that his company’s insurance plan cover PrEP. Braidwood, another Christian business and two individuals argued the daily PrEP medications “facilitate and encourage homosexual behavior”, saying the government violated their religious beliefs by making them support “sexual promiscuity”.

Braidwood challenged the requirement under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, that insurers and group health plans cover preventive services, a provision that includes diabetes and cancer screenings, medications to reduce heart disease risks, contraception and vaccinations. Along with opposing PrEP, Hotze explicitly objected to STI screenings, counseling for alcohol use and childhood obesity interventions. A Texas district court sided with Braidwood, saying the US violated the firm’s religious freedom. The ruling also found that a taskforce of medical experts that recommended the preventive services covered by the ACA was unconstitutional because the experts hadn’t been confirmed by the Senate, and therefore health plans should not be required to cover the care.

The US government appealed the ruling on the taskforce, which is the issue now before the supreme court. The coverage mandates have remained in effect as the case has progressed, though the individual plaintiffs have been shielded from covering the services. The Trump administration has continued to defend the taskforce’s constitutionality, and the supreme court is not weighing religious objections. If the supreme court sides with Braidwood, it could lead to widespread loss of access to free preventive healthcare, with one study finding 39 million people received the threatened services. A 2023 Yale study estimated the loss of free PrEP could result in more than 2,000 preventable HIV infections within one year.

[...]

A decades-long mission

The high-stakes case, and Hotze’s role in it, have flown under the radar. But research from the progressive watchdog organization Accountable.US, which shared its findings with the Guardian, reveal the rightwing activist’s long history of pushing fringe ideologies before getting a signature cause before the supreme court. Hotze and his lawyers did not respond to requests for comment. In 1982, 31-year-old Hotze launched a petition in the city of Austin to legalize housing discrimination against gay people, the AP reported at the time. Heading a group called Austin Citizens for Decency, Hotze called gay residents “criminals” and “sodomites”, saying: “The issue is not housing. The issue is whether we allow our city council to grant public sanction to homosexual activity.” He said protecting LGBTQ+ people from discrimination is “like thieves or murderers trying to gain political power”. Hotze said in one interview he was less concerned about “property rights” and more worried about the “deviant, perverted lifestyle”. Voters overwhelmingly rejected his referendum. In 1985, Hotze backed a group of eight “anti-homosexual” Houston city council candidates identified as the “straight slate”. On ABC News, he stated, “We’re intolerant of those who participate in homosexual activity.” All eight candidates lost. Hotze runs the Hotze Health & Wellness Center, which has been in operation since 1989; Braidwood is his management firm that employs the center’s staff. He has marketed hormone therapies to treat a wide range of conditions and sold a vitamin product called Skinny Pak, the New York Times reported. Over the years, he has donated extensively to the Republican party and Texas politicians, including Senator Ted Cruz. Hotze’s public anti-LGBTQ+ activism picked up after the supreme court legalized gay marriage nationwide in 2015, with Hotze launching a “Faith Family Freedom Tour” and using the same homophobic language from his activism decades prior. Hotze said he was fighting a “wicked, evil movement” that celebrates anal sex, telling the Houston Chronicle: “Kids will be encouraged to practice sodomy in kindergarten.”

During the tour, he said “satanic cults” were behind gay rights, brandished a sword during a speech, and likened his fight to battling Nazis, the Texas Observer reported. That year, he and other rightwing activists successfully campaigned to repeal an equal rights Houston ordinance. At a 2016 evangelical conference, Hotze was filmed describing the LGBTQ+ rights movement as “termites [that] get into the wood of the house and … eat away at the moral fabric”. In 2017, Hotze rallied for Roy Moore, the failed Alabama senate candidate accused of sexually coercing teenagers in the 1970s. Hotze has also recently promoted anti-trans causes, testifying in 2023 in favor of a school district policy requiring staff to notify parents if students change their names or pronouns. Trans people, he said, “have a reprobate, perverted and morally degenerate mind”.

[...] In that case, and in the one now before the supreme court, Hotze has been represented by America First Legal, the rightwing legal group co-founded by Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s influential adviser. The organization has brought a string of lawsuits, including efforts to undo trans rights and complaints accusing companies of discriminating against white men. Hotze has also been represented by Jonathan Mitchell, an anti-abortion lawyer behind Texas’s so-called “bounty hunter law” that allows private citizens to sue providers or people who “aid or abet” the procedure.

Houston-based right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ extremist Steven Hotze has been on the scene for decades waging a war on the LGBTQ+ community. Now, Hotze has set his sights on healthcare coverage for PrEP in Kennedy v. Braidwood Management.

[tomorrowusa]

Democrat ousts incumbent Republican in Omaha mayoral race

Omaha Democrat John Ewing Jr. upset Republican incumbent Jean Stothert in the city's election for mayor on Tuesday.

Douglas County, Neb., Treasurer John Ewing Jr. (D) has ousted incumbent Republican Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert in the latest victory for Democrats during President Trump’s second term, Decision Desk HQ projects.  Ewing, who is also a former deputy chief of police for Omaha, will become the city’s first Black mayor. He denied Stothert a chance at an unprecedented fourth consecutive term in office in an election that was officially nonpartisan but featured a Democrat and a Republican facing off against each other.  The city hasn’t had a Democratic mayor since 2013, when then-incumbent Jim Suttle lost his reelection bid for a second term to Stothert, Omaha’s first female mayor, who has enjoyed comfortable electoral victories since then. Her closest race was in 2017, when she won by just less than 6 points.  But Democrats were hopeful about winning the race and electing Ewing. The city of Omaha and the wider 2nd Congressional District it is part of have been considered a “blue dot” where Democrats have found success in recent elections. 

The Blue Dot just got more blue. 🔵

This is the latest election since Trump's inauguration where Republicans were either defeated or suffered significant dropoffs in support.

Democrats notched a major victory in a Wisconsin state Supreme Court race last month in which the liberal candidate comfortably defeated her conservative opponent. Democratic candidates in two strongly Republican-leaning House districts in Florida that same night fell short of winning but made both of their races much closer than would normally be expected.  And the party picked up low-key but still major upset wins in a state Senate district in Iowa in January and a state Senate district in Pennsylvania in March. 

At the New York Times, Mitch Smith provides some background on the area.

Nebraska is dominated by Republicans, but Omaha is politically mixed, with more registered Democrats than Republicans. The city is home to several major businesses, including Union Pacific Railroad and Berkshire Hathaway, and is geographically quite large, with many suburban-feeling subdivisions inside city limits. Among the 40 most populous American cities, Omaha is one of only six with a Republican mayor, according to Ballotpedia. The Omaha area is represented in Congress by a moderate Republican, Representative Don Bacon, who has survived several Democratic attempts to unseat him, including last November by just under 2 points. In that same election, Kamala Harris won the electoral vote in Mr. Bacon’s district by just under 5 points. That congressional district includes suburban and rural areas in addition to Omaha.

Nebraska is unlikely to turn blue outside of the Blue Dot. But a slight but discernible shift seems to be gradually taking place there.

Here's a clip of Mayor-elect Ewing from last night's news coverage.

[saywhat-politics]

By  ZEKE MILLER and GEOFF MULVIHILL Updated 5:01 PM MST, January 28, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at cutting federal support for gender transitions for people under age 19, his latest move to roll back protections for transgender people across the country.

“It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures,” the order says.

The order directs that federally-run insurance programs, including TRICARE for military families and Medicaid, exclude coverage for such care and calls on the Department of Justice to vigorously pursue litigation and legislation to oppose the practice.

Medicaid programs in some states cover gender-affirming care. The new order suggests that practice could end and target hospitals and universities that receive federal money and provide the care.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Wednesday SpaceTime 20250423 Series 28 Episode 49

Lucy takes a close look at the asteroid Donaldjohanson

NASA’s Lucy mission to explore Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids is about to undertake a close flyby of the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson.

A new upper limit for the mass of Neutrinos

A new study has discovered the mass of one of the most enigmatic particles in the universe -- the neutrino -- is less than 0.45 electronvolts -- less than one-millionth the mass of an electron.

Intriguing Martian rocky outcrops discovered on the rim of Jezero Crater

NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover has discovered a cornucopia full of intriguing rocky outcrops on the rim of Jezero Crater.

The Science Report

The weather now really dose suddenly go from boiling hot to freezing cold more than it used to. 

A new study claims that lab-grown chicken nuggets could be a reality in the near future.

Psychologists are now warning about the potential dangers of having a relationship with your AI chatbot.

Alex on Tech: Google loses major court case

SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences.

The show is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through your favourite podcast download provider or from www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com

SpaceTime is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

SpaceTime daily news blog: http://spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com/

SpaceTime facebook: www.facebook.com/spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime Instagram @spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime twitter feed @stuartgary

SpaceTime YouTube: @SpaceTimewithStuartGary

SpaceTime -- A brief history

SpaceTime is Australia’s most popular and respected astronomy and space science news program – averaging over two million downloads every year. We’re also number five in the United States.  The show reports on the latest stories and discoveries making news in astronomy, space flight, and science.  SpaceTime features weekly interviews with leading Australian scientists about their research.  The show began life in 1995 as ‘StarStuff’ on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) NewsRadio network.  Award winning investigative reporter Stuart Gary created the program during more than fifteen years as NewsRadio’s evening anchor and Science Editor.  Gary’s always loved science. He studied astronomy at university and was invited to undertake a PHD in astrophysics, but instead focused on his career in journalism and radio broadcasting. Gary’s radio career stretches back some 34 years including 26 at the ABC. He worked as an announcer and music DJ in commercial radio, before becoming a journalist and eventually joining ABC News and Current Affairs. He was part of the team that set up ABC NewsRadio and became one of its first on air presenters. When asked to put his science background to use, Gary developed StarStuff which he wrote, produced and hosted, consistently achieving 9 per cent of the national Australian radio audience based on the ABC’s Nielsen ratings survey figures for the five major Australian metro markets: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. That compares to the ABC’s overall radio listenership of just 5.6 per cent. The StarStuff podcast was published on line by ABC Science -- achieving over 1.3 million downloads annually.  However, after some 20 years, the show finally wrapped up in December 2015 following ABC funding cuts, and a redirection of available finances to increase sports and horse racing coverage.  Rather than continue with the ABC, Gary resigned so that he could keep the show going independently.  StarStuff was rebranded as “SpaceTime”, with the first episode being broadcast in February 2016.  Over the years, SpaceTime has grown, more than doubling its former ABC audience numbers and expanding to include new segments such as the Science Report -- which provides a wrap of general science news, weekly skeptical science features, special reports looking at the latest computer and technology news, and Skywatch – which provides a monthly guide to the night skies. The show is published three times weekly (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and available from the United States National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio, and through both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

[satoshi-mochida]

Cotton Reboot! High Tension! launches July 24 in Japan - Gematsu

Shoot ’em up sequel Cotton Reboot! High Tension! will launch for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Switch on July 24 in Japan, the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu reveals.

The game will cost 6,380 yen for the standard edition and 10,780 yen for the limited edition.

Any additional information that may be in the magazine was not posted.

If you missed our previous coverage, read more about Cotton Reboot! High Tension! here.

[cherrylng]

Muse The 2nd Law - Matt Bellamy interview [ROCKIN'ON (September 2012)]

The world's fastest coverage! MUSE "THE 2ND LAW"

Interview by YUKIKO KOJIMA

"In the process of building civilization, I realised that mankind has always tried to go against the laws of the universe. That’s why the starting point of this album is the “history of the struggle between mankind vs. nature and the universe”."

Muse's long-awaited interview! "The 2nd Law", the shocking new album from Muse!!

Muse's latest album, "The 2nd Law", has finally been completed. This is the fastest interview we’ve ever had with the band, which was conducted two days after we listened to the new album for the first time, when the recording of the songs had just been completed and the tracklist and song order had not yet been decided. This interview was meant as a preview of their new album, which will be released worldwide in September, but at this point I was still overwhelmed by what the three of them (especially Matt) had to say, which directly conveyed their enormous will, insatiable desire to explore music and out-of-the-ordinary ambition that they had already put into this album. The thirteen songs on this album contain such a huge amount of information (in terms of music and lyrics) that it’s impossible to grasp the full picture just by listening to them a few times. Even from a purely sound perspective, in addition to the guitar rock aspect with a strong heavy rock/metal influence, the classical music aspect with an emphasis on graceful piano and magnificent orchestra, the cutting-edge electronic music aspect, etc., this time there is also funk(!), and dubstep(!), there are minimal acoustic songs that are completely free of decoration, and majestic lyric songs like 70s progressive rock. The band’s newest innovations include the bold introduction of a dynamic and powerful brass section and live choir, and for the first time in Muse’s history, bassist Chris has written and sung lead vocals on two new songs. With each release to date, they have continued to surprise us and accelerate their unique, splendid, excessive and fantastical sound world, but with this latest release, "The 2nd Law" takes the band to a new level of scale, reaching the limit of what they have always been able to do. It’s been three years since Muse’s culmination, "The Resistance", and they've undergone another major transformation. We have already asked each member to tell us about the whole story. -Yukiko Kojima

MATTHEW BELLAMY INTERVIEW

"There's quite a bit of dance music on this album. We're definitely trying to groove and swing like never before on this album."

I just listened to your latest album "The 2nd Law" a few days ago, and this time the scale of the album is even more massive, both in terms of music and lyrics. There's so much information packed into one album that it's overwhelming, but first of all, what was it that you were aiming for in terms of the sound of this album, if you had a concept? 「The aim in terms of sound is actually the same as what the album title suggests. It's based on the whole principle of the universe, which is to expand to the extreme and then shrink again to the minimum. So there are songs on this album that are expanded to the limit in terms of sound, but at the same time there are also songs that are structured in the most minimal way possible. You can get a good idea of the contrast between "Supremacy" and "Madness" by comparing the two. If the former is a theatrical song that expands the grandeur and splendour of the sound, the latter is a minimalist, simple song that has been stripped down to the bare minimum of ornamentation. We also experimented with different approaches to sound production this time. For example, on "Follow Me", when we first recorded it, it was a normal rock sound with guitars, bass and drums, but on the final recording we replaced all the parts with an electro sound. By doing so, we wanted to keep the electro edge to the sound without losing the energy of a rock band. We also recorded "The 2nd Law (Unsustainable)" in the opposite way. We started with a dubstep electro sound and then re-recorded the whole thing with live instruments (guitars, bass, drums, orchestra, etc.) on the final recording. In fact, these two songs were the biggest challenge for us in terms of the sound of this album.」

There have been recent reports that you and David Campbell (Canadian composer and arranger, who has collaborated with U2 and Radiohead) co-wrote the songs for this album. Is there any truth to this? 「No, all the songs on this album were written by me and the other members of Muse. We also did all the orchestrations and arrangements ourselves, so David Campbell actually only helped us with some of the adaptations. He was the conductor of the orchestra, and acted as the organiser to gather the necessary musicians. So that NME article is quite misleading.」

So that's actually what it was about. As you said in a recent UK magazine, the songs on this album are all very different in terms of musicality, and the style is more varied than ever before. Especially "The 2nd Law (Unsustainable)", which even has elements of dubstep, was recently released on the official website as a trailer from the new album, which surprised many fans and caused controversy in many places. What was it that inspired you to take such a radical turn this time around? 「My personal interest started when I noticed that the dubstep genre has recently started to take on a very rocky nuance. I felt that it was getting very close to what rock used to have in terms of the feel of the sound, the tempo, the emotion that the sound itself evokes. What would it be like if we were to play this kind of feeling with live instruments? Wouldn't it be incredibly interesting? One of the challenges for us this time around was to translate these ideas into sound. When we went to see a dubstep artist live recently, the only instrument on stage was a laptop (laughs). What! They're going to do a live show with just that?!?! I wondered what it would be like if a band like us played this with live instruments? I thought it would probably be something pretty interesting! But although it's easier said than done, it was actually quite a lot of work. To be honest, it was quite a challenge, hahahaha.」

(laughs) I see. So are you mainly into dubstep artists these days? 「At the time of making this album, yes. If you ask me if I'm going to continue in this direction in the future, I'd say…… I don't know yet. It's the only song on the album that tends towards this kind of thing.」

In a recent interview with BBC Radio One, you also said that ‘one of the aims of this album was to emphasise the groove’. I thought this perspective and approach was more akin to that of a dance music artist than that of someone playing guitar rock. 「That could certainly be the case…… When I think about it again, there are probably quite a few parts of this album that are influenced by dance music. For example, "Panic Station" is almost funk, "Madness" has a blues or R&B feel to it, and "Follow Me" has a more traditional dance music beat. We're definitely trying to groove and swing more than ever on this album. Up until now, we've always avoided this kind of sound in Muse.」

Despite this, did you take this approach because you felt that groove was the decisive element missing in guitar bands these days? 「To be honest, it's quite common for guitar bands and bands that make rock music, including us, to forget about that from time to time. Rock itself originally came from groove-oriented music like blues, R&B and soul, but in the process of changing and progressing as a band, you forget the basics of that music without realising it. So we thought it would be good to try and remember some of the neglected aspects of that in this album.」

I see. And "Panic Station", which you described earlier as ‘funk’, has a disco-like groove in addition to funk, doesn't it? 「Yes, it does (laughs).」

Personally, it reminded me of the Rolling Stones in the late 70s, when they were writing songs like "Miss You". 「That's nice. That's cool.」

What exactly inspired this feeling? 「When we first formed the band, in our teenage years, we originally played funk rock. We were particularly into stuff like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Primus back then, and when we formed the band that would become Muse, we were playing that kind of sound. After we became Muse, we quickly went in a different direction. We also grew up in the 80s as adolescents, so we loved Prince and INXS and listened to them a lot. So we wrote "Panic Station" remembering that innocent feeling of being kids who were enjoying music, when we first discovered the joy of music.」

So this is a related question to what you've just said, but is it because you feel the limitations of the so-called "traditional guitar band format" made only with guitar, bass, and drums that you have started to use "dance music language" such as groove, funk, and dubstep so much in this album? 「There's always a danger of falling into that pitfall with a typical guitar band formation. That's why we've always tried to incorporate elements of all kinds of other genres into Muse, not just guitar rock, but also electronic music, pop, classical and orchestral music. I think this album has definitely defined the aspects of our interest in various genres in a clearer way.」

In fact, looking at the recent Anglo-American music scene, with a few exceptions such as Muse and U2, I think there is a general ‘situation where guitar rock bands are not selling well’. Why do you think this is? 「That part…… I think it has something to do with the sound approach of guitar bands today. When the guitar rock format was first established in the 70s, electric guitar sounds and powerful drums were certainly fresh and cutting-edge, but now that there are so many different sound techniques available, the usual guitar rock sound has lost its impact. The listeners' ears have become more discerning. In this day and age, trying to make music with just guitar, bass, drums and vocals is like putting limits on your own creativity. Well, at the time of writing a song, it doesn't matter what instruments you use. I think the most important thing for any band is always to create a sound, and especially in the current scene, an attention to electro sounds is an absolute must for making music. Listeners nowadays are rather more familiar with that kind of synth-driven sound.」

I see. So, going back to the topic of the new album, when I listened to the full album for the first time the other day, I got the impression that your guitar playing was "a little subdued" in the songs on this album, except for "Supremacy" and "Liquid State". Was this something you were conscious of? 「As for the guitar playing this time, I definitely wanted to play as natural and clean as possible, without adding any unnecessary effects. It was in the 90s when I was experimenting with different styles of playing, processing and searching for my own guitar tone, but now that I've developed my own style, I don't feel the need to do that anymore. That's why I tried not to play in a flamboyant way like I did before on this album, or rather, I played in a more organic way, so that my personality came out in an honest way.」

"I still think pop music is the best medium to connect with the younger generation. It's a really sad trend that a lot of stars these days are becoming indifferent to these issues."

But the ‘flamboyant guitar playing’, as you call it, has always been ‘the biggest selling point of the Muse sound’. I have a feeling that there will be some fans who will say, "It's a shame to suppress that! Please play harder!" 「(laughs) But actually, I thought there were more guitar solos in this album than in recent albums, such as the last one…… Well, in terms of the balance of the overall sound of the album, the guitar parts may have become somewhat less important than in the past. Also, for example, the guitar part in "Animals" has a very elaborate sound structure, so it may be that they don't have an obvious sound that says, "This is a guitar!". Even on "Survival" and "The 2nd Law (Unsustainable)", the guitar lead part comes out loud and strong, and personally I have no intention of consciously holding back on the guitar playing.」

I see (laughs), then I'll listen to the album more. 「Yeah, if you listen to the album carefully, I'm sure you'll understand what I'm trying to say here.」

I understand. Another thing I noticed with this album is that your vocal style has also changed. 「I've tried to change the way I sing on different songs this time. On the lighter songs like "Panic Station", I didn't want to take it too seriously, but rather wanted to bring out pure fun, and for songs with serious content like "Supremacy" and "Survival," I sang more dramatic and operatic, and for songs like "Madness," "Follow Me," and "Big Freeze," I tried to sing like a slightly arrogant pop star. The feel of each song on this album is very different, so I decided to change the way I sang to match them.」

Another new element of Muse that has appeared on this album is the bold use of brass in songs such as "Panic Station". What was your inspiration for this? 「Originally, that song was inspired by Stevie Wonder. I saw Stevie Wonder perform at Glastonbury Festival and I thought it was really interesting how the brass gradually builds up, mixed with his vocals and the band's sound. I was particularly impressed by the positive power of the brass, the positive power that cuts through any sound. So I thought that if we introduced this kind of instrument into our rock sound, we could create something really interesting.」

The trumpet player* in the brass section on this album is said to be the same man who played on "Superstition", written and recorded by Stevie Wonder 30-40 years ago. Is this true? 「Yes, it's the same man. David Campbell, the organiser of this album, who I mentioned earlier, has known him for a long time, and when I asked him about adding brass to the album, he immediately introduced me to the man who played with Stevie Wonder, with just one phone call.」

What? Such a legendary figure? That's amazing. Now, I have a few questions about the lyrics and themes of this album. First of all, the title of this album, "The 2nd Law", refers to the so-called ‘second law of thermodynamics’, which is the law concerning the direction of energy movement and the quality of energy. Can you start by explaining this in plain English? Last night, when I was reading through the references, it was hard to understand because of all the scientific jargon, but the more I read, the more I thought that this might be a theory related to the ‘decline in energy resources → energy crisis’ that the world is facing today. What do you think? 「That's exactly what it is. When I was making this album, all that was on the TV news every day was the collapse of the economic system caused by the energy crisis in modern society. Especially these days, Western societies depend on Middle Eastern countries for most of their power generation fuel and energy resources, such as oil, and as those resources dwindle and the cost of importing them increases, the economy is collapsing rapidly. I thought maybe we should think more deeply here about the fact that the current economic crisis is originally caused by the increasing difficulty in procuring cheap energy resources. So I went through a lot of literature and came across this "Second Law of Thermodynamics". I realised that in modern society, where everything depends on electronic technology, fuels for power generation such as oil and natural gas are indispensable, but that these energy resources, like all atoms in the universe, are being unilaterally consumed and depleted by us humans. Fossil fuels such as oil and coal, once used, can never be reused again as a good source of energy. Thermal power generation using fossil fuels is also fatally flawed in that it emits high levels of carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming. Despite this, we live in a modern society that is almost entirely dependent on electronic technology, and as the world's need for power generation increases, energy resources will continue to diminish, as discussed in the "Second Law of Thermodynamics", which is a law of nature and the universe. And I also realised that mankind has been trying to defy all these laws of the universe in the process of building civilization and discovering and consuming energy resources. So the lyrics for this album start with this theme of the "history of mankind's struggle against nature and the universe".」

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake last year and the subsequent nuclear power plant explosions, there has been a growing "anti-nuclear mood" in Japan. As electronic technology develops, the modern world's need for energy resources grows by the day, but if neither carbon-dioxide-emitting oil nor dangerous nuclear power is viable, then where do we get our energy resources from? What do you think is the answer to this dilemma we face today? We have solar power, we have wind power, but I don't think both of those together are going to be enough, given the huge fuel needs of the world today. 「Hmmm…… Personally, I think there are two possible choices right now. One is for the government to move towards having scientists research and develop ways to use solar power more effectively, but as you said, that's not going to be enough at the moment, unless we change our lifestyles to be less dependent on electricity ourselves. The second is to get scientists to research and develop a different way to avoid the problems with current nuclear power generation, which is that the current method of extracting energy heat through nuclear fission produces a lot of radioactive waste and has many other dangers, and to move in the direction of developing technology to switch to nuclear fusion energy. Fusion energy, unlike fission energy, can be produced without using uranium. The dangers associated with radioactive materials can be virtually eliminated. But this method is very difficult with the technology we have at the moment, and scientists around the world are still working to develop this technology, but I seriously think it's the only answer to the future energy crisis. Governments around the world should encourage and help more scientists to develop this technology. When fusion energy is used as a fuel for power generation, small, light nuclei such as hydrogen and helium are fused together to generate energy heat, but there are very few of these elements on earth. The best type of helium-3, which is ideal for creating nuclear fusion energy, is said to be surprisingly abundant on the surface of the moon, though. That is why governments and people around the world should work together to obtain this precious element as soon as possible and help the scientists who are developing this valuable technology. Considering the huge amount of money that governments around the world spend on wars and weapons, the amount of money spent on this valuable research is negligible.」

That's so true…… I agree with every one of those words. But on the other hand, in the UK and Japan these days, there seems to be an aspect where the ‘loss of political awareness among the younger generation’ is being lamented. Do you think it's still important to sing about serious social issues and raise them in your work in this day and age? 「Yes, I think it's very important. I think pop music is still one of the best mediums to connect directly with the younger generation. That's why we tried to delve deeper into our current political consciousness and social issues in the lyrics of songs like "Animals," "Explorers," "The 2nd Law (Unsustainable)," and "The 2nd Law (Isolated System)". I think it's a really sad trend that many of the stars in the rock/pop world these days are becoming more and more indifferent to these issues. In the 60s and 70s, rock was much more mobile in this aspect. In that sense, too, I feel that the rock/pop stars of today are becoming more and more disconnected from the listeners who live in today's society.」

Translator's Note: There are actually 3 interviews involving all the members in the same release issue, so I'm posting them accordingly.

[1] The trumpet player who contributed as part of the brass band in Muse's song "Panic Station" and for Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" is confirmed to be Steve Madaio. It's such a shame that despite being declared a legendary figure in the music world even by the journalist in this interview, there's no Wikipedia article of him. The top 4 websites that covered this legend were NAMM, the International Trumpet Guild, Desert Sun, and MuseWiki.

Please do support me via ko-fi! ☕

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Gary Taxali

* * * *

Harris-Walz demonstrate discipline and drive while Trump-Vance create new controversies

August 31, 2024

Robert B. Hubbell

Most of the stories on Friday were continuations of themes from the week. That’s good news because the Harris-Walz campaign continues to show discipline and drive while Trump and Vance create new controversies on a daily basis. Here are a few stories to discuss on Saturday:

Per AP, “Vice President Kamala Harris ’ campaign is announcing that it is launching a 50-plus stop “Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour,” as it looks to motivate voters ahead of November. The first stop will be next Tuesday with an event near former President Donald Trump’s Florida home in Palm Beach.”

The Harris-Walz campaign’s focus on reproductive liberty coincided with Trump's flip-flop on reproductive rights for women. Trump began the week by saying that his administration would be great for women’s reproductive rights. He said on Thursday that he would vote for a ballot initiative in Florida to end the six-week abortion ban currently in effect in Florida. After a backlash from evangelical groups, Trump announced on Friday that he would vote against the ballot amendment, thereby supporting the six-week ban. See WaPo, Trump backs keeping Florida’s six-week abortion ban. (Accessible to all.)

See also Trump’s latest waffling on reproductive health shows he’s still struggling to find an answer for what he created | CNN Politics.

The Harris-Walz campaign issued a statement that said, in part,

Donald Trump just made his position on abortion very clear: He will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme it applies before many women even know they are pregnant. Trump proudly brags about the role that he played in overturning Roe v. Wade and said there should be punishment for women who have an abortion. So, of course he thinks it's a 'beautiful thing' that women in Florida and across the country are being turned away from emergency rooms, face life-threatening situations, and are forced to travel hundreds of miles for the care they need.

Trump continues to struggle to explain his disgraceful actions at Arlington National Cemetery. At campaign stops on Friday, he twice told his audience that his campaign staff have urged him not to talk about it—but he could not stop himself. His explanations did not make things better. See NYTimes, A Defensive Trump Tries to Limit the Fallout of the Arlington Clash. (Accessible to all.)

Per NYTimes,

Mr. Trump insisted he had not taken the photos for the publicity. But earlier in the week, his campaign posted photos and footage from the visit on social media. A spokesman for the campaign also insisted that it had received permission to have a photographer at the gravesite, a notion the cemetery rejected in statements.

Despite the ongoing coverage of the dispute, the press is not digging for answers. There were a dozen witnesses to the scuffle, but no one has identified the campaign staff member who shoved the cemetery official. That is a knowable fact—and one certainly capable of ascertainment by the media. But the press seems to be giving Trump wide latitude on this story. Why??

There have been many fine essays written about the disgraceful campaign appearance by Trump at Arlington, but none finer than Lucian K. Truscott IV’s post on Substack, Trump manages to disrespect both veterans and women as Arlington visit blows up his campaign. Reading Truscott’s article is a worthy investment of your time over the Labor Day Weekend.

JD Vance tried to quell the outrage over Trump's post that suggested that Kamala Harris had succeeded as a politician by performing sexual acts to advance her career. During a morning interview on Friday, JD Vance dismissed the misogynistic attack on Kamala Harris as good-natured teasing. JD Vance said,

Donald Trump is a political candidate who isn’t stodgy, who likes to have some fun and likes to tell some jokes. I would much rather have a candidate who is willing to go off script, who is willing to give every interview, and who is willing to tell some jokes. I do think that’s how you lift people up. . . .

Let’s cut through the gaslighting. Suppose JD Vance’s wife came home from her job as a lawyer in a top law firm and said a male colleague had made a “joke” about her similar to Trump's “joke” about Kamala Harris. Are we expected to believe that JD Vance would say, “Usha! It was a joke! He was just trying to “lift you up”! Don’t be so stodgy!” Of course not! Vance would likely demand that the offending lawyer be fired and urge his wife to sue the law firm for maintaining a hostile workplace.

JD Vance and Trump are fooling no one. They are making things worse. Much.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[posttexasstressdisorder]

WhatMatters

Your guide to California policy and politics

By Lynn La

May 29, 2025

Presented by TURN – The Utility Reform Network, CA Primary Care Association, The Nature Conservancy and San Jose Spotlight

 

 

Good morning, California.

COVID-19 variant in CA, right on time for summer spike

A clinical lab scientist works with COVID-19 test samples in a lab at the Sonoma County Department of Public Health on June 8, 2021. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters

Stanford scientists have recently confirmed California’s first known infection of a highly transmissible COVID-19 variant, known as NB.1.8.1. Detected in the state as early as April 17, its symptoms do not appear to be any more severe than earlier strains so far, and because NB.1.8.1 is an Omicron variant, the latest vaccines should provide some immunity.

But NB.1.8.1 is more infectious: The strain has been spreading throughout Asia and Europe, and is responsible for the latest surge of infections in China. In addition to California, it has been reported in international visitors traveling through airports in Washington, New York and Virginia. Separate from airport travelers, the variant has also been reported in Ohio, Rhode Island and Hawaii.

Amid news of this latest strain, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it will limit COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to people ages 65 and older, and people who are at high risk for severe infections. In an article published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine, FDA officials said that “the benefit of repeat dosing — particularly among low-risk persons … is uncertain.” 

Historically the vaccine has been available to almost all people ages 6 months and older, and the new policy means that the FDA is no longer recommending the vaccine to healthy children and pregnant women. The FDA is led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has had a history of spreading widely debunked anti-vaccination views.

The FDA’s rule change comes two months after the California Department of Public Health said that President Donald Trump’s administration terminated more than $700 million in public health grants related to COVID-19 response.

Though there is no longer a pandemic, infections do tend to spike during the summer, with California seeing some of its highest surges last summer. More than 101,000 Californians have died from COVID-19 and more than 1 million Americans have died — exceeding by a wide margin American service member casualties in every war combined.

More honors: CalMatters won four Golden State Journalism Awards this year, with reporting that meets “the interests and needs of all Californians.” The awards were given for state Capitol and environment reporting, California Voices commentary and TV reporting driven by Digital Democracy.

Awards night: Join us for the NorCal Emmy Awards Gala on June 14 in Sacramento. The gala includes the inaugural California Correspondents’ Reception followed by the Emmy Awards Dinner, where CalMatters and CBS News California are nominated for awards. Enter the coupon code ‘CalMatters’ at checkout for a discount on tickets. The deadline to purchase is May 31.

Other Stories You Should Know 

Kicking Californians off Medi-Cal?

Longtime caretaker Marie Locoh helps Cynde Soto at her home in Long Beach on May 26, 2025. Photo by Alisha Jucevic for CalMatters

Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed reinstating a limit on assets for Medi-Cal enrollees. Critics are concerned doing so would keep thousands of low-income seniors and disabled people from having vital health coverage, writes CalMatters’ Kristen Hwang.

California last year eliminated its cap on how much in assets a person could own to qualify for Medi-Cal. That led to an unanticipated number of people enrolling for Medical, according to the Newsom administration. 

So, amid multibillion-dollar budget deficits for both the state and Medi-cal, the governor wants to bring back an asset limit which was originally set in 1989: $2,000 for individuals 65 and older, as well as those with disabilities. Among other things, assets include life insurance, cash on hand, savings accounts and even owning some funeral plots.

Newsom said the proposal would save the state $94 million this year and $500 million the next. But those opposed say it would create a financial cliff for those about to turn 65, and that it’s nearly impossible to live with just $2,000 in assets in California — especially if you must pay costly medical expenses. 

Read more here.

 

Housing prices contribute to transit woes

A VTA Light Rail train passes an apartment complex in San Jose on May 10, 2019. Photo by Dai Sugano, Bay Area News Group

Public transit systems across California are facing a “fiscal cliff,” and there are a number of reasons why ridership is down: Aging transit infrastructure, more people are owning cars and a lack of robust, on-going investment from state and federal governments, to name a few.

But as CalMatters’ Ben Christopher explains, there is another, less obvious reason: California’s housing affordability crisis. 

In neighborhoods located in Los Angeles and Orange counties that have reliable buses and trains systems, transit ridership tended to decrease where rents were rising, according to a 2024 study by UCLA researchers. At South L.A. Chinatown, for example, average rents went up $379 and transit use fell by 21%. In a part of San Fernando Valley’s Pacoima, rent was up $305, ridership was down 28%. 

The findings suggest that gentrification — in addition to widening economic inequalities — displaces some residents who rely on transit systems. When they move to other neighborhoods where the transit system may not be as good, they are pushed further away from their jobs, leading to more driving, more traffic and more pollution. 

Read more here.

 

And lastly: Trump freezes grants for LA clean trucks

Semi-trucks exit Yusen Terminals at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro on Feb. 11, 2025. Photo by Joel Angel Juarez for CalMatters

As part of an effort to claw back billions of dollars in green energy funding, the Trump administration has frozen $250 million in grants to a nonprofit helping companies replace diesel trucks at the L.A. and Long Beach ports. CalMatters’ Alejandro Lazo and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on the legal dispute as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.

  

California Voices

CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: A lawsuit currently before a superior court judge in L.A. County reignites the never-ending war between public schools and charter schools.

CalMatters contributor Jim Newton: In the effort to save L.A.’s MacArthur Park, local officials and community activists are clashing over the role of police and the limitations of social policy.

Other things worth your time:

Some stories may require a subscription to read.

Newsom defends podcast, doubles down on criticism of Democrats // The San Francisco Standard

Trump lawyer says US plans to sue UC over antisemitism allegations // Los Angeles Times

Federal grant cuts hit CA universities hard, putting research in limbo // EdSource

18 people went to jail in Sacramento County for being homeless, records show // The Sacramento Bee

This CA highway is now a park. The cars are gone, but not the anger // The New York Times

PG&E sees ‘huge’ data center demand in San Jose area as tech expands // The Mercury News

Fresno hasn’t tapped San Joaquin River’s potential. Could it be city’s main draw? // The Fresno Bee

Funding for LA’s emergency management unit, vital to Palisades recovery, remains static // Los Angeles Times

Under Fire Act, inmate firefighters could have a new pipeline to employment // Los Angeles Times

UCSD study: Tijuana sewage isn’t the only pollutant detectible in the air // The San Diego Union-Tribune

 

See you next time!

Tips, insight or feedback? Email whatmatters@calmatters.org. Subscribe to CalMatters newsletters here. Follow CalMatters on Facebook and Twitter.

 

     

 

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CalMatters 1017 L Street #261 Sacramento, CA 95814 United States

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jonathan Cohn at HuffPost:

The questions surrounding the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson are going to take a while to answer definitively, even if police in Pennsylvania have now arrested and charged a man in connection with the shooting. The question of how Americans feel about the health insurance industry, on the other hand, leaves little room for doubt. On social media and in everyday conversations, Americans have joked about last week’s shooting in New York ― and in some cases even suggested that Thompson deserved to die ― because of what they say his company and his industry have done to stop people from getting health care. As HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery and Arthur Delaney reported last week, lots of people wrote variations on “thoughts and prayers are out of network,” invoking a familiar piece of insurance terminology. Under an item where New York officials sought tips on finding the killer, one commenter said “my regular insurance doesn’t cover vision so I can’t really see” while another wrote “we need prior authorization first” — once again, using insurance company lingo.

You don’t have to be a corporate shill to find that reaction dehumanizing and disturbing. Taking satisfaction in somebody’s killing feels like the sort of thing that was clearly out of bounds before social media made it easy for people to express their worst instincts aloud and then be rewarded for it with even more attention. “In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero,” Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.) said in a Monday news conference detailing the latest developments on the case. “Hear me on this: He is no hero. ... In America, we do not kill people in cold blood to express policy differences or a viewpoint.” But you also don’t have to condone the online reaction, let alone the killing itself, to understand where it came from or why somebody associated with the insurance industry would inspire such hostility. And you don’t have to think commercial insurers are primarily responsible for the problems of American health care to spot the role they’ve played in its well-documented dysfunction.

How And Why Insurers Became So Unpopular

That role starts with the limits on medical care that have been the reference point on social media for the past week. More than half of Americans with private insurance say they’ve had trouble using their coverage ― like running into treatment denials or struggling with small provider networks ― according to polling from KFF, the California-based health care research organization. The number is even higher for those who say they have health problems, which suggests the people most likely to encounter these obstacles are the ones who need health care the most. These obstacles have existed for a while, and this is not the first time outrage over them has spawned a broader conversation about whether to curb insurance industry behavior. Back in the late 1990s, Congress spent several years debating whether to pass a “patient’s bill of rights” that would have given everyday Americans more power to challenge treatment decisions and even sue insurers in court. You could tell the idea was popular by looking at the polls, which showed strong support from across the political spectrum. Or you could just go to the movies. In a key scene from the 1997 film “As Good As It Gets,” a main character played by Helen Hunt cursed insurers as “fucking … bastard pieces of shit” because they had denied tests and treatments for her asthmatic son. Audiences around the country broke into spontaneous applause.

At the time, the insurance industry and its allies argued that their limits on care were cutting down on unnecessary, sometimes harmful treatments that people didn’t really need — and, more importantly, holding down the cost of health care. If not for tools of what became known as “managed care,” insurers said, Americans would have to pay even more when they went to the doctor’s office, hospital or pharmacy, and many would have to skip care altogether. Insurers and their allies make the same arguments today. And they are not exactly wrong when it comes to the deeper problems of American health care or the role insurers can play in addressing them. There are reams of data to suggest the system is rife with mistreatment and over-treatment, and that the main reason American health care costs so much is that the providers and producers of care have so much power to set such high prices.

[...]

How Insurers Behave Today

You can still see vestiges of that approach in organizations like Kaiser Permanente, the nonprofit descendant of those shipyard clinics. And while it’s hard to quantify insurer performance, one telling measure is the rate of treatment denials — which for Kaiser, according to a recent report from the website ValuePenguin, is just 7% of claims. But the industry average is 16%. The industry leader at 32% is UnitedHealthcare, the company Thompson led. And it’s not just the volume of denials raising questions about the conduct and priorities of big commercial insurers. It’s the nature of the denials, which have come to light through legal proceedings, congressional testimony and journalistic exposés. Among the latter was a monthslong ProPublica investigation of algorithms and other tools United was using ― as the report put it ― to “police mental health care with arbitrary thresholds and cost-driven targets.” United told ProPublica its practices were “an important part of making sure patients get access to safe, effective and affordable treatment.” Providers, patients and mental health care advocates who the reporters quoted in the article disagreed, arguing the limits routinely deprived people of care they needed. That is the very same thing Miranda Yaver, a health policy professor at the University of Pittsburgh, found in her research for a forthcoming book about American health insurance companies and the ways they restrict treatment.

[...]

How Insurers Helped To Build The U.S. System

Reformers have been trying to create a system like that here in the U.S. for nearly a hundred years. They’ve never been able to overcome the political opposition. Whole books have been written on the complex story of why this kept happening. A big, politically inconvenient part of the saga is that most Americans have health insurance and, notwithstanding their feelings about the industry as a whole, are wary of giving up what they have. But another big part of the story is the opposition of industry groups that profit from the status quo. That very much includes health insurers, who eagerly joined the fight against Harry Truman’s national health insurance proposal in the late 1940s, led the charge against Bill Clinton’s ill-fated universal coverage plan in the early 1990s and pushed back on the (far more modest) reforms that eventually became the Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare,” in the late aughts.

[...] The data backs up that claim: Administrative costs in the U.S. health care system are the highest among economically advanced counties. The same goes for the salaries of American insurance executives that at the high end of the scale can exceed $20 million a year. Again, none of that justifies celebrating one executive’s slaying, let alone the killing itself. And depending on your political priors, it may not even justify forcing insurers to change their behavior. But making the case that their practices are beneficial means convincing skeptical Americans who were clearly angry at insurers before Thompson’s killing and are unlikely to change their feelings any time soon.

The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson at the hands of Luigi Mangione reveals a dark underbelly about the legitimate frustrations aimed at health care insurers, who hand out routine denials or delays of service to its customers.

[yourreddancer]

The 10 states where abortion rights will be on the ballot this fall

After months of gathering signatures, filing petitions and navigating lawsuits, constitutional amendments that would protect or expand abortion rights are officially set to appear on the general election ballot in 10 states.

Voters in the swing states (Arizona and Nevada), blue-leaning states (Colorado, Maryland and New York) and red-leaning states (Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota) will have the ability to directly decide the future of abortion access this fall. Among the organizers who submitted signatures to qualify an abortion rights amendment for this year's ballot, only those in Arkansas fell short.

These 10 initiatives will be the latest to pursue enshrining abortion access in a state's constitution since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Here is what the proposed amendments would do if passed — and how they would impact current abortion care laws in those states.

Arizona

The proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot in this crucial southwestern battleground would create a “fundamental right” to an abortion up until fetal viability, or about the 24th week of pregnancy. After that point, the measure would bar the state from restricting abortion in situations when the health or the life of the pregnant person is at risk, according to the treating health care professional.

Under current Arizona law, abortion is legal up until the 15th week of pregnancy, with an exception after that to save the woman’s life and no exceptions after that for rape or incest. If voters approve the proposed ballot measure in November, it would effectively undo the 15-week ban. It needs a simple majority of support to pass.

Colorado

The proposed amendment in Colorado would declare formally that “the right to abortion is hereby recognized” and that “government shall not deny, impede or discriminate against the exercise of that right.”

It also explicitly states that the government may not prohibit health insurance coverage for abortion, including insurance plans for public employees and publicly funded insurance plans. That provision would effectively undo a 1984 law that barred people from using their health insurance to pay for abortion care.

The ballot measure in Colorado — where there are no laws restricting abortion and no gestational limits at all for women seeking an abortion — is intended to formally enshrine those rights, a move organizers say is crucial to prevent lawmakers from having any future opportunity to undo them.

To pass in November, the measure requires the support of 55% of voters under state law, not just a simple majority.

Florida

The state's ballot initiative would bar restrictions on abortion before fetal viability and would include exceptions past that point for “the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”

Passage of the amendment would effectively undo the state’s six-week ban on abortion, which includes exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the woman.

Under Florida law, the measure must receive the support of 60% of voters in November, rather than a simple majority, to pass.

Maryland

Lawmakers, who control the amendment process in Maryland rather than citizens, voted to place a measure on the ballot that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

It would add language to guaranteeing the right to “to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end one’s own pregnancy.”

Abortion is already legal in the state through fetal viability, with exceptions afterward when the woman’s life or health is at risk, or when a fetal anomaly is detected. A simple majority is needed for passage.

Missouri 

Missouri's amendment would enshrine language in the state constitution to protect abortion rights up until fetal viability, with exceptions after that point for the life and health of the mother.

The amendment specifically states that the government “shall not deny or infringe upon a person’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” which the amendment defines as all decisions related to reproductive health care, explicitly including “birth control,” “abortion care” and “miscarriage care” — up until fetal viability. The proposal also deems any “denial, interference, delay or restriction” of such care as “invalid.”

After that point, the government may regulate abortion except in cases where a treating health care professional has judged the “life or physical or mental health” of the mother to be at risk.

At the same time, the amendment would allow lawmakers and state officials to restrict or limit abortion rights in situations in which doing so “is for the limited purpose and has the limited effect of improving or maintaining the health of a person seeking care, is consistent with widely accepted clinical standards of practice and evidence-based medicine, and does not infringe on that person’s autonomous decision-making.”

Missouri currently has one of the strictest abortion bans in the U.S. in place, with exceptions to protect the life of the mother and for medical emergencies. If the amendment were to pass, it would effectively undo that law. A simple majority is needed for passage.

Montana

The ballot measure in Montana would amend the state constitution to provide a right to “make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion.” It would also “prohibit the government from denying or burdening the right to abortion before fetal viability,” and  “prohibit the government from denying or burdening access to an abortion when a treating healthcare professional determines it is medically indicated to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”

Abortion is currently legal in Montana until fetal viability, so enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution would serve to make it more difficult for lawmakers to undo current protections in the future. A simple majority is needed for passage.

Nebraska

In Nebraska, two dueling constitutional amendments will appear on the November ballot.

One of the ballot measures, known as “Protect the Right to Abortion,” would amend the state’s constitution to state that “all persons shall have a fundamental right to abortion until fetal viability, or when needed to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient.”

The other, called “Protect Women and Children,” bars abortions in the second and third trimesters, except in the case of a medical emergency or when the pregnancy is a result of sexual assault or incest.

Nebraska law currently bans abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and saving the mother’s life. The pro-abortion rights measure would effectively undo that law, while the other would basically codify the law in the state constitution.

For a ballot measure to pass in Nebraska, it needs to receive a majority of the vote and at least 35% of the total votes cast in the election in favor of it. If both amendments pass, the one with the most votes prevails.

Nevada

In Nevada, abortion is already legal until the 24th week of pregnancy. But fearing that such rights could be undone in the future, reproductive rights advocates succeeded in placing a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would enshrine similar language, protecting abortion rights up until fetal viability.

Under state law, even if the measure passes in November, voters would need to approve it again in 2026 before the Nevada constitution is formally amended.

New York

As in Maryland, lawmakers, not citizens, control the amendment process in New York. State legislators voted to put a measure on the ballot that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

The Equal Protection of Law Amendment doesn’t actually explicitly mention abortion, but would enshrine rights in the state constitution designed to protect against anything the government does to affect a person’s “pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”

In New York, abortion is legal up to around the 24th week of pregnancy. Passage of the proposal — which requires a simple majority — would effectively cement those projections constitutionally.

South Dakota

The proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot in South Dakota would make abortion legal in all situations in the first trimester of pregnancy. It would allow “regulation” by the state of abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy, but such regulation “must be reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman.”

The amendment would allow “regulation or prohibition” by the state in the third trimester, except in cases when a physician has determined that the care would be necessary to “preserve the life or health” of the woman.

If it passes, the amendment would effectively undo the state’s near-total ban on abortion, which snapped back into effect after Roe v. Wade was struck down in 2022. The law, which abortion advocates say is among the harshest in the U.S., prohibits all abortions except when necessary to save the woman’s life.

The ballot measure will need to win a simple majority to pass.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com