December 18, 2014

What's happening

Rahm Emanuel cuts workers' pensions

The number of uninsured Americans fell by 6.8 million over the first two quarters of 2014, preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health Interview Survey show. Some 12.2 percent of Americans were uninsured in the first six months of 2014, the CDC data show, a 2.2 percentage-point decline from 2013 and the lowest rate since the CDC first collected these data in 1997.  The uninsured rate has fallen by nearly a quarter since peaking at 16.0 percent in 2010.

The Islamic State has published it own penal code, which harshly penalizes actions such as sodomy and blasphemy with punishments including execution, crucifixion, lashing, and the severing of limbs, among other penalties.  . . . . At least 150 women who refused to marry militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, were executed in the western Iraqi province of Al-Anbar,


How the poor get cut out of welfare

Baseball officials, team executives, scouts, agents and fans began to speculate about how soon major league teams might be able to sign players in Cuba. Some even wondered whether Major League Baseball might be tempted to relocate a team like the Tampa Bay Rays, which has a feeble fan base, to Havana, where it would most likely be a sensation. Others questioned how rich the Cuban talent pool really was. At one point , Major League Baseball became so concerned about the reaction to Obama’s announcement that it sent a directive to its 30 teams pointing out that it remained illegal to scout players in Cuba or to sign them, because the U.S. embargo of the island remained in effect.

Cuomo bans fracking in New York state

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