Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Biden Administration Moves To Roll Back ‘Conscience’ Rule For Health Care Workers

The Biden administration will be soon doing away with Trump-era policies that gave medical workers such as doctors and others power to refuse to provide services that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs, Politico reportsFormer President Trump announced the rule in 2008, but it was never implemented.

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer struck the rule down in November 2019; his ruling stated it “would upend the legal status quo” and potentially jeopardize billions of dollars in federal health care funds.” If the rule had gone forward, doctors, nurses, medical students, and pharmacists could refuse to provide abortions, contraception, gender-affirming care, HIV and STD services, vasectomies, or any procedure they object to.

This is on the heels of many GOP-led states enacting restrictions on reproductive rights and transgender care. The Department of Health and Human Services could propose the change as soon as the end of the month. Currently, the step is under review at the Office of Management and Budget.

Source: Biden Administration Moves To Roll Back ‘Conscience’ Rule For Health Care Workers

40,000 Student Loans Could Be Immediately Canceled

The Biden Administration said on Thursday that it will make changes to how it administers some federal student loan repayments, a move that it says means at least 40,000 borrowers will have their debt canceled and millions more will be eligible to have their debts relieved three years earlier than expected.

The moves have the potential to have a major financial impact on Black borrowers, in particular, because students of color are more likely to finance college degrees and in turn, that debt becomes one of many factors that contributes to a persistent wealth gap in the United States.

Source: 40,000 Student Loans Could Be Immediately Canceled

Viewpoint: Abolish the H-2A Program! | Labor Notes

We need not just to end the H-2A temporary worker program, but to force Congress to allow people who to come to the U.S. to work as farmworkers to receive permanent residence visas, without being chained to growers or other corporations.

Instead of 317,000 visas of exploitation, we need visas that will allow migrants to live and work freely, with the same rights all other workers have, or should have. Migrants coming to work shouldn’t be held captive, in isolated barracks behind fences, but should be part of the farmworker communities already here…

Source: Viewpoint: Abolish the H-2A Program! | Labor Notes

Portal #atozchallenge #ukraine

penned in moon dust

My friend this is an interesting thing to have on a mirror. Vlad pointed to the lipstick heart.

My husband went in the bathroom and knew it was mine.

“You are alive.” He exhaled as if he had been holding his breath.

“Where?” Vlad looked in all directions. went to our secret cabinet and the note tumbled out.

“I know…” He looked at the envelop with the money. It was empty. “Good.” He patted his pocket grateful he had more just in case. “Let’s go find her.”

“Yes, now one suggestion. Those same people looking for her know about you. We need you to look more Ukrainian.”

Vlad always wore two pair of pants he pulled one pair off. “Put these on. Change sweaters.with me. Your beard looks good mess your hair. Take off your glasses. He pulled a wool beanie over my husband’s ears. Better.” He put my husband’s…

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Inoreader for Teams: Bring the content discovery and distribution to a higher level – Inoreader blog

Is your business dependent on regulation changes, brand monitoring, competition tracking, or trend discovery? With the expansion of the communication channels, discovering great content gets trickier and more complicated. Following a massive pile of sources or feeds eats time: yours and your team’s time.

Inoreader has the solution! Streamline your content discovery, consumption, and distribution, and get a better understanding of actual events and recent information…

…Team members can contribute to channels, sending articles together with comments and notes. The collaboration features make the channels valuable: your team will build a stream with relevant and filtered information.

Admins can delegate access to channels to different team members depending on their needs.

Integrate your Slack workspace or Microsoft Teams account, and Inoreader will automatically forward channel articles there…

Source: Inoreader for Teams: Bring the content discovery and distribution to a higher level – Inoreader blog

(Me: Inoreader is the app (phone as well as desktop-free and paid- that I use to track about 200+ blogs and news sources daily)

Who By Fire: Karakterleri ile Tanıştır: Lucy / Meet the Characters: Lucy

Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

Our next character from my Work In Progress: Who By Fire: I Will -Book 1, is Lucy :

I would like to learn the language of the Turk, one day.

Our quiet Lucy is a woman of hope. She will tell us next week of why she wishes to learn Ottoman Turkish.

I am currently outlining the scenes as a historical urban portal fantasy, sub-genre of either suspense or thriller.

Lucy, the -Protagonist’s Wife (J. Bell’s The Quadroon: Public Domain image from NYMet…)

Who by Fire: I Will is a historical fantasy novel cycle trilogy, I currently expect.

Working Cover for historical fantasy WiP

Action Prompts in support of empathy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Share two different reasons to write your own novel, or write your Grandmother‘s story, even if it’s not in novel form.

2.) Write a book, story, blog…

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Justice Department Issues Statement on Ruling in Health Freedom Defense Fund Inc, et. al. v. Biden, et. al. | OPA | Department of Justice (Masks required in public transportation)

“The Department of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) disagree with the district court’s decision and will appeal, subject to CDC’s conclusion that the order remains necessary for public health. The Department continues to believe that the order requiring masking in the transportation corridor is a valid exercise of the authority Congress has given CDC to protect the public health. That is an important authority the Department will continue to work to preserve.

“On April 13, 2022, before the district court’s decision, CDC explained that the order would remain in effect while it assessed current public health conditions, and that the Transportation Security Administration would extend its directive implementing the order until May 3 to facilitate CDC’s assessment.

“If CDC concludes that a mandatory order remains necessary for the public’s health after that assessment, the Department of Justice will appeal the district court’s decision.”

Source: Justice Department Issues Statement on Ruling in Health Freedom Defense Fund Inc, et. al. v. Biden, et. al. | OPA | Department of Justice