EFTA01195251.pdf

From: Gregory Brown To: undisclosed-recipients:; Bcc• jeevacation@gmail.com Subject: Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.. 08/16/2015 Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2015 04:08:47 +0000 Attachments: Avocados_Aren't_The_Only_Trendy_Food_That_May_Be_Endangered_Because_Of_The_ Drought_Huff_Post_April_24,_2015.docx; Gun-Death-Injury-Stat-Sheet-5-Year-Average- 2013-Updates-Jan-2015.pdf; I_Madt$41,879_As_An_AirBNB_Host_Kelly_Kampen_Huff_Post_June_1,_2015.docx; Why_conservatives_are_able_to_pass_such_harsh_restrictions_on_the_poor_Christopher_In graham_TWP_June_1,_2015.docx; Billy_Joel_bio.docx Inline-Images: image.png; image(1).png; image(2).png; image(3).png; image(4).png; image(5).png; image(6).png; image(7).png; image(8).png; image(9).png; image(10).png; image(11).png; image(12).png; image(13).png; image(14).png; image(15).png; image(16).png; image(17).png; image(18).png; image(19).png DEAR FRIEND Our Country's Cartoonish Gun Debate Isn't Just Idiotic It's Really Damaging On average more than 32,000 people were killed by gunfire each year. Additionally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 70,000 suffered nonfatal injuries from guns EFTA01195251 with an economic toll from gun violence that costs America an estimated $229 billion plus a year. Yet there is still a debate in America on whether or not to pass any new laws that might lower these numbers. To illustrate the banality of this is Mark Follman's article in Mother Jones magazine - Our Country's Cartoonish Gun Debate Isn't Just Idiotic—It's Really Damaging. To illustrate the core of the debate, Follman recants a KQED's Forum on gun violence where a former US Marine came on the air and criticized the National Rifle Association for lying, the next caller, another gun owner, promptly denounced him for speaking against the Second Amendment and being 'full of it." That was followed by a woman who wanted to know what could be done to prevent gun manufacturers from manufacturing guns, whether "we could stop it at the source." And that, in a nutshell, is pretty much the state of America's gun debate. Here's more of it—but also some vivid stories and data from those who know gun violence firsthand: Having reported on this subject intensively for the last three years, I'm still not totally sure whether guns kill people or people kill people, but I'm almost certain that you can be riddled to death with inanities. (See, for the umpteenth time: "Knives, baseball bats, and hands and feet kill people tool!"), said Follman. America has a problem with gun violence • One in three people in the U.S. know someone who has been shot. • On average, 32 Americans are murdered with guns every day and 140 are treated for a gun assault in an emergency room. • Every day on average, 51 people kill themselves with a firearm, and 45 people are shot or killed in an accident with a gun. • The U.S. firearm homicide rate is 20 times higher than the combined rates of 22 countries that are our peers in wealth and population. • A gun in the home is 22 times more likely to be used to kill or injure in a domestic homicide, suicide, or unintentional shooting than to be used in self-defense.5= Gun Violence Takes a Massive Toll on American Children • More than one in five U.S. teenagers (ages 14 to 17) report having witnessed a shooting. • An average of eight children and teens under the age of 20 are killed by guns every day. • American children die by guns 11 times as often as children in other high-income countries. • Youth (ages o to 19) in the most rural U.S. counties are as likely to die from a gunshot as those living in the most urban counties. Rural children die of more gun suicides and unintentional shooting deaths. Urban children die more often of gun homicides. EFTA01195252  • Firearm homicide is the second-leading cause of death (after motor vehicle crashes) for young people ages 1-19 in the U.S. • In 2007, more pre-school-aged children (85) were killed by guns than police officers were killed in the line of duty." Gun Violence is a Drain on U.S. Taxpayers • Medical treatment, criminal justice proceedings, new security precautions, and reductions in quality of life are estimated to cost U.S. citizens $ioo billion annually. • The lifetime medical cost for all gun violence victims in the United States is estimated at $2.3 billion, with almost half the costs borne by taxpayers. Americans Support Universal Background Checks • Nine out of to Americans agree that we should have universal background checks, including three out of four NRA members. • Since the Brady Law was initially passed, about 2 million attempts to purchase firearms have been blocked due to a background check. About half of these blocked attempts were by felons. • Unfortunately, our current background check system only applies to about 60% of gun sales, leaving 40% (online sales, purchases at gun shows, etc.) without a background check. This standoff is the result of media and political influence of the NRA, as the gun lobby has pulled off a messaging feat decades in the making — its leaders perpetually blasting away with the idea that any discussion of guns in America can be nothing other than a brutal dichotomy. You're either a defender of constitutional liberty, their premise goes, or you're an anti-freedom "gun grabber." While the American medical community is nearly unanimous that gun violence is a serious public health threat, but yet, there remains precious little research on the problem, let alone funding to do more. This is really destructive to our ability to make progress. The debate posed as an "either or," which was done by strategists working for the NRA over a long period of time. They wanted people to think that either you protect the rights of all gun owners to keep their guns, or you do research on gun violence, and that the two are diametrically opposed. And they had a zero-tolerance philosophy that said, "You can't even discuss research on gun violence because that leads down the slippery slope of all of us losing our guns." And that's led us into the morass where we are today. We have seen with the Ebola scare how quickly and decisively the collective in America can move when it really wants. So what is different here? And where is the sanity of our politicians and the American public? Follman points out that after the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado (which cost that community at least floc, million), Mark Rosenberg, the former director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and one of his fiercest old adversaries, former Republican Rep. Jay Dickey of Arkansas published a joint op-ed in the Washington Post: "We were on opposite sides of EFTA01195253 the heated battle 16 years ago," they wrote, "but we are in strong agreement now that scientific research should be conducted into preventingfirearm injuries and that ways to preventfirearm deaths can befound without encroaching on the rights of legitimate gun owners. The same evidence- based approach that is saving millions of livesfrom motor-vehicle crashes, as well asfrom smoking, cancer and HIV/AIDS, can help reduce the toll of deaths and injuriesfrom gun violence." So why is this still a debate and I actually started writing this before the massacre in Charleston? ****** Dying to Breathe A Short Film Shows China's True Cost of Gold Saanxi, China: Since 2004 He Quangui has suffered from silicosis — an incurable disease that scars and hardens the lungs. He is one of six million Chinese workers with a lung disease caused by breathing dust in mines. Once farmers, men like Mr. He left en masse in the late 199os to work in gold mines — part of the army of migrant workers who powered China's economic boom in recent decades. They dug deep into the mountains for treasures. Years later, they came back with the lung disease silicosis, and now wait in their homes for death. He Quangui, lives in an old earthen house with his wife, Mi Shbdu. Mr. He has been struggling with silicosis for over ten years—surviving longer than most in his area. He keeps a notebook to record the names of those who've succumbed to silicosis. Flipping through it, he says: "I've watched them die, one by one. I know one day it will happen to me too." This is the unseen cost of gold mining in China — the world's top gold producer. In China, silicosis is considered a form of pneumoconiosis, which affects an estimated six million workers who toil in gold, coal, or silver mines or in stone-cutting factories. It's the country's most prevalent occupational disease. What the statistics can't capture are the miners' slow deaths. The men waste away, their lungs gradually scarring or becoming hardened from the dust they breathed years earlier. The disease is EFTA01195254 irreversible — a lung transplant is the only known cure — but is preventable with protective gear and ventilation while drilling. Mr. He says the type of mines he worked in lacked such safety measures. In recent years, mining conditions have improved, but out here in hardscrabble rural China, most workers cannot track down mine owners to cover medical bills and don't get treatment until it is too late. Most just give up as costs mount. Some commit suicide. Mr. He, once a healthy 143 pounds, deteriorate to a mere 88 pounds. He has suffered repeated collapses, and one suicide attempt in the middle of the night. He has said good-bye to his wife, family and friends many times, and then miraculously fought off severe tuberculosis and other ailments, living through another winter—the season silicosis patients fear most. The wooden coffin he built for himself sits under a dusty plastic shroud in the attic. For five years, his wife has been preparing the hand-sewn cloth shoes, five shirts, and three pairs of trousers he will wear to his grave as dictated by custom. After one of his many collapses, he whisper instructions in her ear: Buy thick white paper to line the coffin, do not spend too much money on religious rites or he will come back and haunt her, and wash his favorite faux leather jacket so he can wear it in death. Web Link: kttpiljproof.nationalgeographic.com/ams&thtlying-to-breathe-a-short- film-shows-chinas-true-cost-of-gold/? utm source=NatGeocom8rutm medium=Email&utm content=pom 2015o5318zutm ca mpaign =Content As one reader commented. They are the real heroes of the economic miracle which is China. It's painful to see millions like Mr. He suffering this way, after spending the best part of his youth trying his best to provide for his family. I want to focus on the positive messages in this video. Firstly, Mrs. He's love and affection for her husband is beyond anything I've seen. Not forsaking him and still taking great pains to care for him. I truly have the greatest respect for Mrs. He. As much as Mr. He is suffering, I hope he will fight on, for the sake of his loving wife. My prayers are with the He family and the many families suffering the same fate. • humbled and inspired at the same time. Thank you for making this great video. With this I invite you to click on the above website to see the video. ****** AGAIN: YOUNG, BLACK, UNARMED AND NOW DEAD Young, Unarmed Black Man Killed By Cop Didn't Want To 'Die Too Young EFTA01195255 An unarmed black teenager in Texas was shot dead by a cop who had only recently graduated from the police academy. Just over a week before his death, a Twitter account that appears to belong to 19-year- old Christian Taylor includes messages about being afraid to die young. U October 13th @he_got_sneaks V Follow I don't wanna die too younggggg 5:16 PM - 30 Jul 2015 tl 10,332 * 6.418 Cops in Arlington responded to a burglary call around i MI. on August 7, 2015 when they came upon the suspect, Taylor, who had crashed his vehicle into a car dealership. Police said a struggle ensued between Taylor and 49-year-old officer Brad Miller before Miller fatally shot the suspect. The officer graduated from the police academy in March and was working under the supervision of a training officer. Police said Miller had no experience prior to joining the Arlington Police Department. He has been placed on paid administrative leave. Another social media post last year appearing to belong to Taylor said he didn't feel protected by police. October 13th 0+ ne_got_sneaks I don't feel protected by the police 8/12/14, 2:03 PM 150 RETWEETS 133 FAVORITES EFTA01195256 Taylor, who was a football player at Angelo State University in San Angelo, was described as a "good kid" by his great-uncle, Clyde Fuller. "He was a good kid. I don't see him stealing no car or nothing like that," Fuller told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Police Sgt. Paul Rodriguez told The Star- Telegram that surveillance video at the dealership shows Taylor damaging a parked car and later driving through the showroom glass. However, Rodriguez said that officers are not equipped with body cameras, and that they haven't found security video at the car dealership that would have captured the fatal encounter. This is an epidemic and for our political leaders and general public to not recognize the importance of addressing this tragic nationwide trend immediately it is beyond belief. We have to stop our police from acting as judge, jury and executor. How many children and young adults have to die before we stop excusing this abomination because in a humane society.... Black Lives Do Matter Obviously police training is a major part. But the idea that a black kid is considered a thug when he is killed by a police officer is ridiculous, even when he is a twelve year old playing with friends in a city park or obvious person suffering from a mental condition or an unarmed college football player who might be stealing a car, killing them is unacceptable. As someone who as a teenager took a joyride without permission, there but for the grace of God could have been me... By the way police in Norway hardly ever use their guns, a new report released by the Scandinavian country's government shows. In fact, it's been almost ro years since law enforcement shot and killed someone, in 2006. Perhaps the most telling instance was when terrorist Anders Breivik opened fire in 2011 and killed 77 people in Utoya and Oslo. Authorities fired back at him, all right, but only a single time. In 2014, officers drew their guns 42 times, but they fired just two shots while on duty. No one was hurt in either of those instances. Considering that police officers in the United States have killed more than 600 people this year alone, the report certainly is eye-opening. Of course, law enforcement officials in the United States face greater threats of violence while on duty. Still Norway is living proof that not only can a country produce almost all of its electric power using renewable energy, policing can be done without an epidemic of killing civilians. 5 Tax Myths That Republicans Believe 2,U.S. federal tax return 1040 form. The overwhelming premise is that every economic ailments can be cured with a tax cut. Here are some perennial Tax Myths -- and why you shouldn't believe any of them. MYTH #1: The way to create jobs and grow the economy is to cut taxes -- a lot. When Republicans talk about cutting taxes on the middle class you may end up with a few extra bucks in your pocket each paycheck, but the real winners are the rich and big corporations. The standard GOP position on tax cuts is to slash the top tax rate on the rich by more than one third and the corporate tax rate by about 3o percent. Millionaires would get an average tax cut of at least $200,000 a year, according to Citizens for Tax Justice. The only way they can pay for these gigantic tax cuts is to EFTA01195257 slash benefits and services for average Americans, cutting into everything from Medicaid and Medicare to child nutrition and education services. When it comes to taxes, what really matters to working Americans is seeing that the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. The loophole-ridden tax code encourages corporations to hide profits and ship jobs overseas. This holds down wages and denies us the revenue needed to fix roads and bridges, build schools and conduct life-saving medical research. As for the economy, rebuilding our infrastructure and providing Food Stamps for hungry kids generates a lot more jobs than does more take home pay for millionaires. If you want to address inequality, create a fair tax system. MYTH #2: The American corporate tax rate is the highest in the world and lowering it would boost our economy. The only number that matters when you're talking about tax rates is what is actually paid. While the U.S. corporate tax rate is 35 percent, the effective tax rate paid by U.S. companies on their worldwide income was a meager 13 percent in 2010, according to the Government Accountability Office. Many corporations — General Electric, Verizon, Priceline.com and 23 other big firms -- paid nothing at all in federal income taxes over a recent five-year period. The problem isn't that U.S. corporate tax rates are too high. It's that American corporations aren't paying what they should. While workers' wages are stagnant and corporate profits are sky high, the corporate share of federal revenue has plummeted. Real corporate tax reform would stop subsidizing U.S. corporations that ship jobs offshore and close loopholes so that they pay their fair share. MYTH #3: Corporations are holding more than $2 trillion in profits offshore because our corporate tax rate is too high, so we should drastically cut the tax rate to entice that money home. The reason there are $2.1 trillion in U.S. corporate profits offshore is to avoid paying U.S. taxes on the money. It's a giant tax dodge. Corporations can do this because of a loophole called "deferral." It allows them to delay indefinitely paying taxes on their offshore profits as long as they do not bring them back home as dividends paid to shareholders. However, companies can still bring the profits back and invest them in Treasury bonds or even the stock of other companies. In fact, much of the profits offshore are actually invested here. The answer isn't -- as Republican candidates will suggest -- drastically lowering the taxes due on that money to encourage corporations to "repatriate" it. We tried such a "tax holiday" before (in 2004). The only beneficiaries were the corporate executives and shareholders who used the money they brought home to beef up stock prices through repurchases, according to the Congressional Research Service. Many of these profits are "booked" in tax havens, where the tax rate is next to nothing - if not zero! But a lot of it is earned by the labor and innovation of U.S. workers. EFTA01195258 We need to make corporations bring those profits home. But they shouldn't get a sweetheart tax break to do it. They should pay what they owe each year. Congress should end deferral. Corporations would then play by the same rules as the rest of us. This would raise $600 billion over to years, according to Congress's Joint Tax Committee. MYTH #4: We need a flat tax to simplify the tax system and make it fairer. Americans angry about a rigged tax system are drawn to flat taxes. They assume that if everyone pays the same tax rate, special interests won't be able to bend the tax code to their will. But flat taxes are not fair taxes. Despite its loopholes, our current income tax system is still progressive: the higher your income the higher your tax rate. (I know income from investments, which are mostly owned by the rich, are taxed at a much lower rate.) Why? Flat taxes are regressive. Under a flat tax, the hedge fund manager on Wall Street would pay the same tax rate as the teacher educating his kids. Take former Gov. Rick Perry's flat tax plan. Someone making from $40,000 to $50,000 would pay about $250 more in taxes. Millionaires would get a $495,000 tax cut, on average, according to the Tax Policy Center. MYTH #5: The IRS has become a rogue agency and needs to be seriously reformed, if not abolished. Any staff abuses at the IRS must be addressed (and that process is underway), but hobbling the agency makes no sense. Unlike almost any other government agency, the IRS actually makes money for U.S. taxpayers: every dollar spent on enforcement brings in $io of revenue. If were really interested in bringing down our deficit and investing in our communities, we need to adequately fund the IRS. Cuts to its budget (an 18 percent reduction since 2010) hurt honest taxpayers because there are fewer employees to answer questions and fewer watchdogs going after tax cheats. ****** Why are conservatives able to pass such harsh restrictions on the poor EFTA01195259 Welfare restrictions have lately become fashionable in certain states, especially red ones. Missouri Republicans are trying to keep food stamp recipients from buying steak and seafood. Kansas wants to keep the poor from going to movies or the swimming pools. It also recently enacted cash withdrawal limits on welfare recipients that could drastically increase the amount of ATM fees the poor will have to pay. A new survey from YouGov helps explain why legislators may be able to enact such harsh restrictions. As you can see in the results below, Americans generally are uncomfortable with limits like the ban on steak and seafood or the ATM withdrawal caps. But they do support, by and large, limits on spending on adult businesses, movie theaters and alcoholic beverages. More than 4o percent of Americans even oppose low-income Americans using their welfare benefits to bring their kids to a swimming pool during the summer. And in all cases, Republicans support the limits more than Democrats or the general population. So when legislators in red states advance these types of policies, if they frame it as working to stop wasteful spending (and don't mention the most restrictive policies), they may actually get quite a bit of support. After all, when YouGov asked people if the poor should be ashamed for applying for or using welfare benefits, 1 in 5 Republicans said "yes," while another third of them said they weren't sure. Among Democrats those numbers were 9 and 12 percent, respectively. Take a more detailed look at the survey results below: EFTA01195260  Mixed feelings on welfare restrictions support Pycncasng loot stamo Urraungcaz rotraCiAvaiS ler Proms:sag . rtochents from &rung stews, *!flare f000ents to $25 a day fulls at $w seafood. coolues. era:mend energy dralkS 140 102 IN) 40 40 40 CT 40 02 40 20 20.1.I . O. O ALL D R ALL D R ALL D R Pron04 soma.% welfare funds Arabi:as% spending welfare Peohat,r4 Venoms *ewe at 40010e0nesses funds at move treaters funds on atoreht Leverages I . 102 1CO e CO CO 0 • ALL 0 It ALL 0 R Proutasng wonting *elate Faohetng spooaseg *elate funds on tobacco products flats at castros or 04021 gaming <stela/we/us 1CO, 100 CO 00 aD xr. • Au D R • Ala. D R v, AI 0 51 wONABLOG _.a 1015 vo,Go. se, Among the eight types of welfare restrictions YouGov polled on last month, limits on food purchases were by far the least popular. Only 28 percent of Americans overall thought these were a good idea. That figure fell to i8 percent for Democrats, and rose to 43 percent among Republicans. ATM withdrawal limits were similarly unpopular among all three groups. Interestingly, Americans said that welfare recipients shouldn't be able to use their funds at movie theaters and adult businesses (eg, strip clubs and the like) by nearly identical amounts -- 59 and 57 percent, respectively. There was widespread agreement that the poor shouldn't use welfare money to buy booze or cigarettes. And the most popular restriction was a ban on spending welfare checks at casinos. The gap between Republicans and Democrats was widest on the question of adult entertainment: 45 percent of Democrats supported a ban on welfare recipients spending their money at these establishments, versus 76 percent of Republicans. By contrast, the gap was the smallest -- 12 percentage points -- on the question about the alcohol ban. Overall the results suggest that conservative lawmakers supporting some of the more controversial restrictions, on cash withdrawals and food purchases, may be overplaying their hands. On the other hand, elements of their policies do have broad support. I definitely don't think that welfare recipients should be able to use food stamps in casinos or to buy alcohol but to deny them the use of swimming pools or to purchase ice cream or steaks is just mean spirited. More importantly we should see these people as victims instead of people gaming the system because even those who are actually gaming the system most of them are only just surviving. And although there are 49 million Americans receiving some sort of food assistance most are children, EFTA01195261 disabled, elderly and people who are just down on their luck. Again.... These people are victims so why are we treating them like freeloaders and criminals.... and this is my rant of the week WEEK's READINGS Paul Krugman condemns "compassionless conservatism": Politicians don't know how Americans actually live "American families could easily have much more security than they have" In his Friday New York Times column, economist Paul Krugman wrote about the findings of a Federal Reserve study on the financial well-being of U.S. households, which depicted a dire state of affairs for many Americans. For instance, three in 10 "nonelderly" American citizens reported that they have no retirement savings or pension, and often had to forego medical treatments because they couldn't afford it. Almost 25 percent of respondents reported having experienced financial hardship in 2014, while 47 percent said an surprise expense of $400 would require borrowing money or selling their possessions. Krugman argued that our nation's politicians are still oblivious to the average American's plight: EFTA01195262  I am not, or not only, talking about right-wing contempt for the poor, although the dominance of compassionless conservatism is a sight to behold. According to the Pew Research Center, more than three-quarters of conservatives believe that the poor "have it easy" thanks to government benefits; only 1 in 7 believe that the poor "have hard lives." And this attitude translates into policy. What we learn from the refusal of Republican-controlled states to expand Medicaid, even though the federal government would foot the bill, is that punishing the poor has become a goal in itself, one worth pursuing even if it hurts rather than helps state budgets. He continued to note that things could be worse. Social Security still exists, as do food stamps, unemployment insurance and Obamacare. Still — "American families could easily have much more security than they have," he concluded. "All it would take is for politicians and pundits to stop talking blithely about the need to cut `entitlements' and start looking the way their less-fortunate fellow citizens actually live." JOANNA ROTHKOPF - Salon Magazine — May 29. 2015 ****** Obamacare Works In Spite of What Republicans Claim T 0 Z 3 L P ED 4 pECIFD 5 E D r -zi , 6 When Republicans carry on about what a "disaster" the Affordable Care Act is, they rarely acknowledge that the law is helping millions of people get health insurance. But as Johnathan Cohen pointed out this week in an article in the Huffington Post, we don't need Republicans to tell us these things. We have data. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday released the latest results of the National Health Interview Survey. According to the survey, just 9.2 percent of the EFTA01195263 population, or about 29 million people, had no coverage during the first three months of 2015. That's down from 11.5 percent in 2014, 14.4 percent in 2013, and 16 percent back in 2010. And although the report doesn't identify a reason for the decline, the timing and characteristics of the trend make the primary reason obvious: It's President Barack Obama's signature health care law. Fewer People Are Uninsured Percent of people without health insurance, all ages, at time of interview 25, 0 20% 15.4% 15% • • 14.4% • -• _ b 1.5.1% 14.2% 10% N. 9.2% 5% 0% 1997 2005 2011 2013 2015 (January- March) Source. National Health Interyiew Survey THE HUFFINGTON POST After a long, slow rise in the proportion of Americans without insurance -- which for decades had only modest ups and downs -- the rate fell precipitously in 2014. That's the year that most of "Obamacare" took effect, expanding access to Medicaid for the poor and making subsidized, private health insurance available to working-class and middle-class people who couldn't get coverage through their workplaces. The proportion of Americans without health insurance has declined for all age groups, the NHIS data confirms. But the dramatic decline for the youngest age group, 18- to 24-year-olds, actually began a little earlier than the rest -- in 2011. That's another clue about the role of the Affordable Care Act, since it was in that year that the law began requiring insurers to let children stay on their parents' policies until age 26. The NHIS is one of several surveys that experts use to measure the number of Americans without health insurance. All of these studies come with caveats, idiosyncrasies and uncertainty. But each one, including a private survey the Gallup organization released just a few days ago, has produced a similar result. Of course, the goal of the Affordable Care Act isn't simply to help people get health insurance. It's also to make sure more people can pay for their medical bills and get access to care when they need it. New research suggests that this, too, is happening. A survey that the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation released at the end of July compared newly insured Californians with those who remained without coverage. The ones who had gotten health insurance, mostly through the Affordable Care Act, were substantially less likely to report having trouble paying for medical care -- and substantially more likely to say their health care needs were being met. That report became public just a week after a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association produced yet more evidence that the health care law had the net effect of improving access to medical care. EFTA01195264 Like all legislation, from laws creating new entitlements to those cutting taxes, the Affordable Care Act comes with real costs and trade-offs. The health care law imposes new taxes on the wealthy, for example, while pressing financial penalties on people who can afford to buy insurance but opt not to do so. The law has also forced some people buying insurance on their own to pay higher premiums than they did previously, because insurers can no longer deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions or sell policies that leave out benefits like prescriptions, rehabilitative services or maternity care. Meanwhile, even with the law's subsidies, insurance remains expensive for many working- and middle-class people. That may be one reason that the progress on covering the uninsured, though substantial, appears to be smaller than many experts predicted initially. It also explains why liberals have started pushing for more aggressive efforts at cost control (starting with the government using more leverage with the prescription drug industry) and more financial assistance or regulation to limit out-of-pocket expenses. Meanwhile, some intellectuals on the right are starting to talk about ways of transforming the law into a more conservative version of health care reform with less regulation and lower spending. These sorts of arguments, over how to change the Affordable Care Act, are likely to go on for a very long time. But the argument over whether the law is substantially reducing the number of Americans without health insurance, thereby achieving one of its primary goals, really should be over. "The health law remains controversial, and that will likely continue to be the case," said Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the Kaiser Foundation. "But we now have facts that can be used to judge the ACA rather than hypothetical arguments, and there's no doubt at this point that more people are getting insured and it's making a difference in their lives." And two years into Obamacare, only one state — Texas — still has more than 20% uninsured, while at the other end of the scale, only five states' populations were so well-insured in 2013 that fewer than 1 in 10 adult residents lacked insurance. Today, more than half the states have achieved that goal. The state-by-state insurance levels, which detail how rapidly the insurance picture has changed since President Obama's signature healthcare reform started, come from a large-scale, twice-a-year survey by Gallup. The survey included more than 178,00o adults in 2013, before the law took effect, and 88,667 in the first half of 2015, allowing unusually precise estimates of the effect the law has had at the state level. Texas, whose officials have strongly resisted cooperation with the new law, had the highest level of residents lacking insurance before the law took effect and has made among the least progress of any state. Its uninsurance rate fell from 27% in 2013 to just under 21% in the first half of this year, making it the only state that has more than one-fifth of its residents uninsured. By contrast, in Arkansas and Kentucky, both of which started above 20% uninsured, just 9% of adult residents lack insurance. California has gone from just under 22% without insurance to just under 12%, experiencing the largest number of newly insured people in the country. In addition to Texas, most of the states with the highest levels of adults lacking insurance are located in the South and interior West in states including Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada. By contrast, most of the New EFTA01195265 England states have 5% or fewer of their residents uninsured, a mark also achieved by Iowa, Minnesota and Hawaii. Reality is that conservatives fear has truly come to pass. Health reform has apparently succeeded. The government can actually make a positive difference in people's lives. The horror. This is a major blow to those that proclaim "government" is bad a per Reagan's... The Obamacare law has two main ways of insuring people who do not get health coverage at their jobs. People can sign up to buy insurance through the law's online marketplaces and receive government help with the cost if their incomes are below around $97,000 for a family of four. Those whose incomes are too low to buy insurance on the exchanges can qualify for Medicaid. About half the states have expanded Medicaid under the law. Most of the states that continue to have high levels of uninsured residents have declined Medicaid expansion, which many Republican governors and state legislators oppose. Why ****** Airbnb Airbnb is a website for people to rent out lodging where it connects hosts and travelers and enables transactions without owning any rooms itself. Today it has over 1,000,000 listings in 34,000 cities and 190 countries. Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company is privately owned and operated by Airbnb, Inc. Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site. Every property is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users, reviews by previous guests, as well as a response rating and private messaging system. Airbnb's primary source of revenue comes from service fees from bookings. Fees range between 6% and 12% depending on the price of the booking. Airbnb also charges the host 3% from each guest booking for credit card processing. Because a majority of Airbnb guests are vacation rentals, the company says that the average guest stay was 5.5 days, compared to 3.5 days for hotel guests, and the average guest spent $1,045 during their stay, compared to the $840 spent by hotel guests. And unlike traditional hotels, Airbnb scales not by scaling inventory but by increasing the hosts and travelers and matching them with each other. 2airbob bedroom Airbnb is an online marketplace for vacation rentals that connects users with property to rent with users looking to rent the space. Users are categorized as "Hosts" and "Guests;" both of which must register with Airbnb using a variety of means. A valid email address and valid telephone were initially the only requirements to build a unique user profile on the website, however as of April 2013, a scan of a government issued ID is now required. Profiles include details such as user reviews and shared social connections to build a reputation and trust among users of the marketplace. Other elements of the Airbnb profile include user recommendations and a private messaging system. In addition to providing personal information, hosts display listing details including price, amenities, house rules, imagery, and detailed information about their neighborhood. Due to the nature of the business, a merit EFTA01195266 system is in place to allow guests and hosts to leave references and ratings which are displayed to the public in order to provide an evaluation method. It is one of those stories that seem to happen over and over in Silicon Valley. Shortly after moving to San Francisco in October 2007, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia created the initial concept for AirBed & Breakfast during the Industrial Design Conference held by Industrial Designers Society of America. The original site offered short-term living quarters, breakfast and a unique business networking opportunity for attendees who were unable to book a hotel in the saturated market. At the time, roommates Chesky and Gebbia could not afford the rent for their loft in San Francisco. They made their living room into a bed and breakfast, accommodating three guests on air mattresses and providing homemade breakfast. In February 2008, Harvard graduate and technical architect Nathan Blecharczyk joined as the third co-founder of AirBed & Breakfast. During the company's initial stages, the founders focused on high-profile events where alternative lodging was scarce. The site Airbedandbreakfast.com officially launched on August 11, 2008. To help fund the site, the founders created special edition breakfast cereals, with presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain as the inspiration for "Obama O's" and "Cap'n McCains". In two months, 800 boxes of cereal were sold at $40 each, which generated more than $30,000 for the company's incubation and attracted Y Combinator's Paul Graham. After its inauguration, the site expanded to include properties in the market between hotels and CouchSurfing. In January 2009, Y Combinator invited Chesky, Gebbia and Blecharczyk to join the incubator's winter session for three months of training. With the website already built, they used the $20,000 Y-Combinator investment to fly to New York to meet users and promote the site. They returned to San Francisco with a profitable business model to present to West Coast investors. In March 2009, the name Airbedandbreakfast.com was shortened to Airbnb.com, and the site's content had expanded from air beds and shared spaces to a variety of properties including entire homes and apartments, private rooms, castles, boats, manors, tree houses, tipis, igloos, private islands and other properties. One year later, there were 15 people working from Chesky and Gebbia's loft apartment on Rausch Street in San Francisco. To make room for employees, Brian Chesky gave up his bedroom and lived through the Airbnb service until the company moved into its first office space. The company continued to experience rapid growth through the year and in November 2010 raised $7.2 million in Series A funding from Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital, and announced that out of 700,000 nights booked, 8o% had occurred in the past six months. On May 25, 2011, actor and partner at A-Grade Investments Ashton Kutcher announced a significant investment in the company and his role as a strategic brand advisor for the company. In May 2011, Airbnb acquired a German competitor, Accoleo. This acquisition launched the first international Airbnb office in Hamburg. Then, in October 2011, Airbnb established its second international office in London. Given the growth of international users, Airbnb opened 6 additional international offices in early 2012. These cities include Paris, Milan, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Moscow, and Sao Paulo. These are in addition to existing offices in San Francisco, London, Hamburg, and Berlin where Airbnb maintains its international presence for the EMEA markets within a German EFTA01195267 incubator space. Airbnb announced in September 2013 that its European headquarters would be located in Dublin. At the beginning of November 2012, Chesky announced his focus on Australia, the second largest Airbnb market behind the United States, as well as Thailand and Indonesia. To support this effort, Airbnb opened its 11th office in Sydney. The Australian consumer accounts for one-tenth of the Airbnb user base. Weeks after announcing the focus on Australia, Airbnb announced its strategy to move more aggressively into the Asian market with the launch of their newest headquarters in Singapore. The company's goal is to acquire an additional 2 million properties within the continent. Airbnb announced it has expanded to Cuba in early April 2015, becoming one of the first American businesses to do so. This followed the Obama administrations easing restrictions on U.S. businesses to operate in Cuba. So whether you are a potential Guest or a Host Airbnb has changed the landscape of vocational lodging around the world more than anything since the introduction of discount airlines. Obviously this is a pretty good business as Airbnb is now valued at $2o billion which is not bad for a couple of guys who couldn't pay the rent seven years ago. For more information please feel free to download the attached Huffington Post article — I Made $41,879 As An AirBNB Host — by Airbnb super host, Kelly Kampen. ****** Solar is "In" Move over, shale. The sun is now thefastest-growing source of U.S. electricity. 2015 could be call the Year of Solar as it is now the fastest-growing source of U.S. electricity. Although solar still accounts for less than 1 percent of total U.S. power production, behind coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear and hydroelectric solar power capacity in the U.S. has jumped 20-fold since 2008. Solar capacity surged 3o percent in 2014 to more than 20 gigawatts and will more than double by the end of 2016, according to the Washington-based Solar Energy Industries Association. That's eno