#New Federalism Fund

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[allthecanadianpolitics]

“No more cuts.”

That was the message being spread across the steps of the Regina Legislative Building by over 3,000 teachers, students and community members on Saturday, during a rally for public education.

“This is just the beginning of the fight that we will have if we do not start seeing this government put a real investment into public education,” said Saskatchewan Teachers Federation (STF) president. Samantha Becotte,

People from across the province were in attendance, demanding the provincial government stop cuts to public education, and provide funding to meet all students’ needs.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[nando161mando]

Missouri is scheduled to execute Marcellus Williams on Sept. 24 for a crime he didn’t commit. The Party for Socialism and Liberation will also be holding an emergency protest toohis coming Monday at 5:30pm at the Federal Courthouse in Springfield.

[never-was-has-been]

[headlinehorizon]

Wisconsin Governor Uncovers Federal Funds to Save Child Care Program

https://headlinehorizon.com/Health/Coronavirus/969

In a surprising turn of events, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has secured $170 million in federal funds to prolong the much-needed childcare subsidy program. Despite opposition, Evers remains determined to keep the program running, ensuring support for families in need.

[shaktiknowledgeblog]

US Federal Reserve | FED | fed funds rate | Fed Impact |fed rate like | fed rate hike |fed interest rate hike | fed news

US Federal Reserve increases 0.25% in Fed Rate, tomorrow Indian Stock Market will be engaged Fed Rate Hike: Once again the US Federal Reserve has raised the Fed rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday। It will also affect the Indian stock market. US Federal Reserve hiked Fed Rate: The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised the Fed rate to 25 basis points। Since this announcement, the interest rate…

[secretsofradar]

Government of Canada supports The Secrets of Radar Museum through the Tourism Relief Fund

We simply can’t keep quiet about this wonderful funding news anymore! See below for more details!

The Secrets of Radar Museum received nearly $38,000 from Ontario’s Southwest Regional Tourism Organization through FedDev Ontario to support future growth, increase public access to its collections, and attract visitors.

November 8, 2022, London, Ontario

The tourism sector is vital to the economy and jobs in Ontario’s Southwest. The Secrets of Radar Museum is a distinct tourism destination that draws visitors from near and far. Not only does this relief fund allow us to move forward on major projects that preserve and present history within our region, the majority of our grant will be spent right here in southwestern Ontario with local vendors.

Today, The Secrets of Radar Museum received a non-repayable contribution of nearly $38,000 from Ontario’s Southwest Regional Tourism Organization to upgrade aging infrastructure to support public access. This is part of the Government of Canada’s Tourism Relief Fund, delivered by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario). Ontario’s Southwest Regional Tourism Organization received nearly $11 million from FedDev Ontario to help local tourism organizations and businesses safely welcome back visitors, recover from the impacts of the pandemic and prepare for future growth.

This investment will help The Secrets of Radar Museum adapt and recover to attract new visitors and drive economic growth in London.

READ THE FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE

[aanews69]

Immerse yourself in the high-stakes world of political strategy as we delve into the gripping narrative behind the latest government shutdown threat over a f...

[uniqueeval]

ETFs are set to hit record inflows, but this wild card could change it

Exchange-traded fund inflows have already topped monthly records in 2024, and managers think inflows could see an impact from the money market fund boom before year-end. “With that $6 trillion plus parked in money market funds, I do think that is really the biggest wild card for the remainder of the year,” Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week. “Whether it be…

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen defended the Internal Revenue Service in a speech Tuesday against repeated threats from Republicans to cut the agency’s funding.

“Playing politics with IRS funding is unacceptable. Cutting it would be damaging and irresponsible,” Yellen said.

The IRS was allocated an influx of $80 billion by the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, which passed last year. The funds are intended to help crack down on tax cheats and improve taxpayer service.

But the funding has become politically controversial.

Most recently, House Republicans voted to rescind $14.3 billion from the IRS to pay for an emergency aid package for Israel in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks, but the bill is unlikely to even get brought up for a vote in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

Newly minted House Speaker Mike Johnson said the IRS cuts would offset the spending for Israel, but independent budget experts have repeatedly said that taking money away from the IRS’ enforcement actions will actually add to the deficit. In fact, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said last week that cutting $14.3 billion from the IRS would reduce the amount of tax revenue the agency can collect by $26.8 billion over 10 years.

The House GOP has made several efforts to claw back some IRS funds since taking control of the chamber in January, and some Representatives have even called for abolishing the IRS altogether. Earlier this year, Republicans were successful in rescinding $20 billion from the IRS as part of a deal to address the debt ceiling.

Many Republicans claim the IRS will use the money to hound middle-class taxpayers and small business owners, though the Biden administration has said that taxpayers earning less than $400,000 a year won’t face an increase in taxes due to the new funding.

“Let me be as clear as possible. The IRS agenda in using Inflation Reduction Act funds is as follows: If you are middle- or low-income, better service; if you are wealthy, more scrutiny,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel in a speech he gave Tuesday following Yellen’s remarks.

IRS IMPROVEMENTS

The Biden administration is eager to show how the new funding is helping the IRS improve its taxpayer services and ramp up enforcement efforts.

“The new funding is driving change across the IRS, and we are seeing a wave of improvements that the agency hasn’t seen in a generation,” Werfel said.

During the 2023 filing season, the IRS was able to answer 3 million more calls and cut phone wait times to three minutes from 28 minutes compared with the year before after hiring 5,000 new customer service representatives. And by ramping up enforcement on millionaires this year, the IRS has collected $160 million in back taxes.

The IRS has also already met its goal, set earlier this year, to make sure taxpayers can respond to all IRS correspondence online. Previously, there were certain forms that could only be responded to on paper through the mail. As a result of this change, the IRS estimates more than 94% of individual taxpayers will no longer have to send mail to the agency.

The IRS has also put a plan in motion to digitize all paper-filed tax returns by 2025. The move is expected to cut processing times in half and speed up refunds by four weeks.

There are more improvements the IRS expects to roll out next year.

For example, the existing online tool known as “Where’s My Refund?” will be able to give taxpayers more detailed information about the status of their refund after filing their federal tax return, including whether the IRS needs them to respond to a letter requesting additional information.

The IRS is also expecting to provide more in-person tax filing support at its Taxpayer Assistance Centers. Taxpayers can go to those sites to receive free help from trained volunteers. The agency’s goal is to increase the number of taxpayers receiving free tax preparation help by around 50,000 in filing season 2024.

While these improvements are intended to give taxpayers fewer reasons to call the IRS, new technology is cutting down on wait times when they have to pick up the phone. The main IRS line now has a call-back option when the expected wait time exceeds 15 minutes. A caller can hang up and receive a call back later.

In addition, the IRS is currently working on building its own free tax filing program, known as Direct File, that will launch as a limited pilot program next year and be available to some taxpayers in 13 states.

[artisticdivasworld]

ATA Celebrates $200 Million Truck Parking Bill: What This Means for Truckers

Hey there, truckers and industry enthusiasts! We’ve got some fantastic news that’s set to make life on the road a bit more comfortable and a lot safer. The American Trucking Associations (ATA) is celebrating a major victory with the passing of the House Appropriations Bill, which earmarks a whopping $200 million for truck parking. Why This Matters If you’ve ever spent hours searching for a safe…

[reasonsforhope]

No paywall version here.

"Two and a half years ago, when I was asked to help write the most authoritative report on climate change in the United States, I hesitated...

In the end, I said yes, but reluctantly. Frankly, I was sick of admonishing people about how bad things could get. Scientists have raised the alarm over and over again, and still the temperature rises. Extreme events like heat waves, floods and droughts are becoming more severe and frequent, exactly as we predicted they would. We were proved right. It didn’t seem to matter.

Our report, which was released on Tuesday, contains more dire warnings. There are plenty of new reasons for despair. Thanks to recent scientific advances, we can now link climate change to specific extreme weather disasters, and we have a better understanding of how the feedback loops in the climate system can make warming even worse. We can also now more confidently forecast catastrophic outcomes if global emissions continue on their current trajectory.

But to me, the most surprising new finding in the Fifth National Climate Assessment is this: There has been genuine progress, too.

I’m used to mind-boggling numbers, and there are many of them in this report. Human beings have put about 1.6 trillion tons of carbon in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution — more than the weight of every living thing on Earth combined. But as we wrote the report, I learned other, even more mind-boggling numbers. In the last decade, the cost of wind energy has declined by 70 percent and solar has declined 90 percent. Renewables now make up 80 percent of new electricity generation capacity. Our country’s greenhouse gas emissions are falling, even as our G.D.P. and population grow.

In the report, we were tasked with projecting future climate change. We showed what the United States would look like if the world warms by 2 degrees Celsius. It wasn’t a pretty picture: more heat waves, more uncomfortably hot nights, more downpours, more droughts. If greenhouse emissions continue to rise, we could reach that point in the next couple of decades. If they fall a little, maybe we can stave it off until the middle of the century. But our findings also offered a glimmer of hope: If emissions fall dramatically, as the report suggested they could, we may never reach 2 degrees Celsius at all.

For the first time in my career, I felt something strange: optimism.

And that simple realization was enough to convince me that releasing yet another climate report was worthwhile.

Something has changed in the United States, and not just the climate. State, local and tribal governments all around the country have begun to take action. Some politicians now actually campaign on climate change, instead of ignoring or lying about it. Congress passed federal climate legislation — something I’d long regarded as impossible — in 2022 as we turned in the first draft.

[Note: She's talking about the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Act, which despite the names were the two biggest climate packages passed in US history. And their passage in mid 2022 was a big turning point: that's when, for the first time in decades, a lot of scientists started looking at the numbers - esp the ones that would come from the IRA's funding - and said "Wait, holy shit, we have an actual chance."]

And while the report stresses the urgency of limiting warming to prevent terrible risks, it has a new message, too: We can do this. We now know how to make the dramatic emissions cuts we’d need to limit warming, and it’s very possible to do this in a way that’s sustainable, healthy and fair.

The conversation has moved on, and the role of scientists has changed. We’re not just warning of danger anymore. We’re showing the way to safety.

I was wrong about those previous reports: They did matter, after all. While climate scientists were warning the world of disaster, a small army of scientists, engineers, policymakers and others were getting to work. These first responders have helped move us toward our climate goals. Our warnings did their job.

To limit global warming, we need many more people to get on board... We need to reach those who haven’t yet been moved by our warnings. I’m not talking about the fossil fuel industry here; nor do I particularly care about winning over the small but noisy group of committed climate deniers. But I believe we can reach the many people whose eyes glaze over when they hear yet another dire warning or see another report like the one we just published.

The reason is that now, we have a better story to tell. The evidence is clear: Responding to climate change will not only create a better world for our children and grandchildren, but it will also make the world better for us right now.

Eliminating the sources of greenhouse gas emissions will make our air and water cleaner, our economy stronger and our quality of life better. It could save hundreds of thousands or even millions of lives across the country through air quality benefits alone. Using land more wisely can both limit climate change and protect biodiversity. Climate change most strongly affects communities that get a raw deal in our society: people with low incomes, people of color, children and the elderly. And climate action can be an opportunity to redress legacies of racism, neglect and injustice.

I could still tell you scary stories about a future ravaged by climate change, and they’d be true, at least on the trajectory we’re currently on. But it’s also true that we have a once-in-human-history chance not only to prevent the worst effects but also to make the world better right now. It would be a shame to squander this opportunity. So I don’t just want to talk about the problems anymore. I want to talk about the solutions. Consider this your last warning from me."

-via New York Times. Opinion essay by leading climate scientist Kate Marvel. November 18, 2023.

[jcmarchi]

How to Write a Perfect Home Health Care Business Plan? - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/how-to-write-a-perfect-home-health-care-business-plan-technology-org/

How to Write a Perfect Home Health Care Business Plan? - Technology Org

The population of the world is aging. The World Health Organization estimates that by 2030 one in six people will be over 60.

The home health care sector is complex, with many layers of issues. These range from staffing and licensing to liability concerns. You’ll still need a business strategy to help you navigate the challenges of this industry and to focus on providing quality care.

Medical workers, health care – artistic interpretation. Image credit: Freepik, free license

Why do you need to have a Business Plan for your Home Health Care Company?

Writing a business proposal is essential when you are starting a healthcare company. This ensures you can think beyond your own expertise as a healthcare professional, and that you will be able to manage the day-to-day operation, billing and insurance snafus and large startup costs.

With the best intentions and extensive knowledge, you can enter into this industry. You will not be able to run a successful company without a business plan.

Why do Home Care Businesses need Plans?

It is important to write up a business plan regardless of the industry as it gives you a roadmap to where your business currently stands and where it could potentially head in the future. 

If you are seeking a business loan or external funding to cover your startup expenses, having a well-thought-out business plan is crucial for influencing an investor’s decision. A good business plan will show investors:

Your business has cash flow

There is steady growth in the industry

A strong client base is available

By covering these three areas, you’ll be well positioned to receive working capital to help you set your home care business up for success. 

How to craft an Effective Home Health Care Business Plan?

This guide will highlight specific areas you should consider when drafting a business plan for home health care. For more information on creating a detailed business plan, you can view our step by step guide.

Define your vision

This question will help you to create a road map for your business. It goes beyond describing what type of home-health care business you plan to open. This is a chance to describe your core values and long-term goals, as well as the impact you want to have on your clients’ lives.

Specify your service

You will probably offer a wide range of services as a home healthcare business. Will you focus on a particular area, such as post-surgery or elder care? Will you provide a broader range of services, such as medication management?

It’s also worth noting if you can manage special requests from clients based on their individual needs.

Identify your target audience

Home health care services that specialize in elderly or disabled care will serve this specific market. A home health care service that offers post-operative care or palliative services would appeal to a completely different market.

The Census Bureau can provide you with a good estimate of the number of seniors in the area that you intend to serve.

Understanding insurance and pricing

It’s a good idea to compare prices with other home care providers in the area before you price your service. You can use this information to set a benchmark for your own business and position it based on its value or quality.

Home health care may be covered by different insurance plans. Some offer comprehensive coverage, while others cover only specific treatments and services. To ensure that your services qualify for reimbursement, you should be aware of the limitations and requirements for each insurance plan. For example, some plans require prior authorization, while others only require a doctor’s referral.

Staffing and licensing requirements

The health care sector is particularly affected by worker shortages. You can expect fewer customers, a lower level of service, and possibly higher employee costs if you don’t have the right number or employees. You need a documented plan which takes into consideration the roles of employees, how many will be needed, and potential expenses.

Licenses and permits are also required for home health care businesses. The requirements may differ depending on where you live and what services you intend to provide. It’s important to know the local requirements so that you can avoid legal problems in the future. It may be helpful to your internal management to list the agencies and regulations that govern your business at all levels: local, state and federal.

Create a Plan for Risk Management

Consider conducting a comprehensive risk assessment, taking into consideration your location, the services you offer, and the qualifications of your employees. After identifying potential risks, describe what you will do to reduce or eliminate them. You can, for example, implement employee training to prevent fraud or malpractice or invest in insurance to cover your business against liability claims.

This step-by-step framework will guide you to create a successful business plan for home care. However, some adjustments may be needed in terms of pre-planning or research.

A well-supported business plan can be a great asset when you want to convince lenders to finance your home care business.

[autisticadvocacy]

“This historic proposed rule will advance justice for people with disabilities and help ensure they are not subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving funding from HHS just because they have a disability.”