BBC News | SNP holds and Lib Dem gain in Highlands and Islands BBC News The SNP have held all but one of their four Highlands and Islands seats in the election. Angus MacNeil was re-elected in the Western Isles' constituency Na h-Eileanan an Iar. Drew Hendry was returned as MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey ... |
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SNP holds and Lib Dem gain in Highlands and Islands - BBC News
Islands account for only 5% of landmass on Earth, but their protection is vital for preserving biodiversity and preventing extinctions. On many small islands around the world, invasive rats threaten ecological healthby eating eggs and hatchlings of native species. Once introduced to one island, invasive rats can travel to the nearest land mass and quickly spread. In New Zealands Hauraki Gulf, a series of small, rocky islands has become a potential stepping stone pathway for the spread of invasive rats.
Sprinkled throughout the Hauraki Gulf are small rock stacks that host a broad range of species, but because rats can swim, these islands are often faced with a serious problem. James Russell of University of Auckland recently visited these small rocks to see if any unwanted predators made their way to these small rocks.
The tiny Frenchmans Cap islet in the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand. Credit: James Russell
On many of the smaller islands, rats do not have enough resources to establish a robust population, but they can still do significant damage to native species as they pass through. Endemic species such as the Stack H. Stag Beetle, native reptiles, and seabirds are often of highest concern when rats are introduced in the Hauraki Gulf.
Maria Island in the Hauraki Gulf was one of these small islands where rats caused substantial damage, but this invasion also marked New Zealands first rat eradication project and is now predator free. Now conservationists are concerned about Rororoa Island where rats swam to, but efforts are underway to remove them before they cause substantial damage.
A spotted shag colony on a tiny rock stack in the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand. Credit: James Russell
Biosecurity is New Zealands first line of defense in protecting these small islands. Further out in the Gulf, the tiny islands are home to seabirds such as Gannets and Spotted Shags, which would be at risk if invasive predators came ashore. Protecting these hotbeds of biodiversity requires frequent evaluations. Conservationists and scientist much regularly check to see if rats have made their way from one island to another. Luckily, Russells latest trip did not turn up any such surprises, but the monitoring will continue.
Featured photo: Spotted Shag. Credit: Bernard Spragg. NZ Source: National Geographic
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Protecting Native Wildlife of the Hauraki Gulf Islands - Island Conservation News
Marine protected areas, set up to conserve marine ecosystems and species, accumulate pollutants swept in from mainland shores by ocean currents.
It would be natural to assume that remote and sparsely inhabited islands in the middle of the ocean are surrounded by crystal clear, clean waters. Unfortunately, such locations can be affected by marine pollution originating from thousands of kilometers away.
Human populations living at or near the coast are the main source of pollution in the oceans, particularly plastic debris. Once at sea, floating, suspended, and dissolved pollutants are carried by ocean currents and can move great distances over months, years, and decades. Robinson et al. introduce the concept of the connectivity footprint to demonstrate how remote oceanic areas are connected to continental coastlines via a flow of pollutants.
Their research focuses on marine protected areas (MPAs), a form of designation used internationally that seeks to conserve important ecosystems and protect threatened marine species, particularly by restricting human activities in the area.
The MPAs around four island groups (all of them British Overseas Territories) were selected for the study: Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands in the Southern Ocean, Ascension Island in the South Atlantic, and British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT, also called the Chagos Islands) in the Indian Ocean.
Using a global ocean general circulation model, the researchers released virtual particles from within the borders of the MPAs. The particles were released into the model at fixed time intervals and at a grid of locations (horizontal and vertical) over the period 2000 to 2009. Then, researchers followed the particles backward in time to assess their upstream origins to assess if, where, and when they had previously come into contact with land.
The researchers gathered data on human population density at those coastal locations to use as a proxy measure of the quantity of pollutants released into the ocean. Put together and taking into account seasonal and interannual variability in ocean currents, the data were used to calculate the annual connectivity footprint for each MPA.
The results show that the Pitcairn MPA has very low connectivity to land (0.06%) through ocean currents and faces no discernable risk from pollutants originating on the mainland. The South Georgia MPA has a low (2%) connectivity to land and a low exposure to pollutants. The Ascension MPA has medium connectivity (34%) to land and faces a significant risk. The BIOT MPA has high connectivity (71%) to land and faces high risk.
Marine protected areas represent a concerted effort to conserve valuable marine habitats and biodiversity. This study shows that granting protection from harmful human activities being carried out within the boundaries of a zone does not prevent the waters being polluted from upstream locations often many thousands of kilometers away. The connectivity footprint has the potential to be a useful tool in managing MPAs and in planning new ones. (Earths Future, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016EF000516, 2017)
Jenny Lunn, Contributing Writer
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Ocean Currents Push Mainland Pollution to Remote Islands - Eos
Updated June 09, 2017 12:00:46
The West Australian Government has abandoned plans to develop the state's newest national park within a coral archipelago, drawing ire from local tourism bodies.
The Houtman Abrolhos is a group of more than 120 windswept coral cays scattered off the coast of Geraldton, 400 kilometres north of Perth.
At a Liberal Party state conference in August, former premier Colin Barnett unveiled a plan to create a national park that would stretch across 90 per cent of the islands.
Twenty-one islands which house fishers' shacks, private jetties and Department of Fisheries infrastructure would have been excluded.
Camping would also have been offered for the first time under the project, in the hope of expanding tourism to the region.
At the time, Mr Barnett said the port city of Geraldton would reap significant economic rewards, as it was the ideal base for visitors to the Abrolhos.
But in a statement, new Environment Minister Stephen Dawson said the project would not be pursued by the McGowan Government.
"Plans to create the Abrolhos Islands National Park were announced by the former premier Colin Barnett before the 2017 state election as an election commitment," he said.
"While the McGowan Government is committed to the protection of world-class natural assets and the creation of national parks, our priorities for this term of government are the delivery of the commitments we brought to the election."
Since its inception as a commercial fishing zone, lobster and fishing permit holders have been the only people permitted to stay on the islands.
Jay Cox has owned and operated a cruise and charter business at the islands for 14 years and has long been pushing to boost tourism in the area.
He said the Government had made the wrong decision.
"All it's going to hurt is Geraldton and the Mid West," he said.
"There are a lot of businesses in Geraldton that are struggling.
"Tourism would go a long way to helping those businesses get more people into town.
"As it is now everyone just drives past Geraldton.
"We're not known as a tourism town and unless something happens in the tourism industry that gets people to stay for a while, everyone's going to keep passing it by.
"The Abrolhos would be a major attraction."
The Opposition has accused the Government of not offering an adequate justification for pulling the pin on the project.
Shadow minister for tourism Libby Mettam said the proposal had progressed through Cabinet, with fishing and tourism boundaries established prior to the March state election.
"The commitment wasn't made during the election campaign," she said.
"It was well and truly outside the election cycle.
"What has happened here is we've seen a new Government come in and withdraw the support for something that was clearly progressing."
The area is the site of several shipwrecks, including the infamous Batavia, which was carrying gold, silver and 180 people when it went off course in 1629, and the Zeewijk which was wrecked in 1727.
Topics: government-and-politics, environment, environmental-management, houtman-abrolhos-6530-6530, wa, geraldton-6530
First posted June 09, 2017 08:36:23
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WA Government abandons national park plan for Abrolhos Islands - ABC Local
A sex tape starring one of this year's Love Island stars has emerged online.
Contestant Jessica Shears can be seen performing a sex act on a man in the video that was leaked on website PornHub yesterday.
It has, however, since been removed from the site.
It is believed that the video was leaked by the Devon glamour model's ex-boyfriend.
The 23-year-old has already caused a stir on the ITV2 dating show.
After going into the villa as a late arrival, Jessica upset Islander Montana Brown after stealing Dominc Lever from her and leaving her single.
Montana and Dom were coupled up during the first night at the villa until Jessica arrived and was given the power to split up one pairing.
Despite that, Montana and Dom later shared some steamy kisses in private and Dom assured Montana he wasnt interested in Jess.
Montana had thought they were a strong couple.
But that all changed after he was sent on a romantic date with Jess and realised how much he likes her, which meant having to break the news to Montana that things were over .
And viewers weren't happy, branding him a "snake".
Dom admitted to Jessica on Wednesday night he was feeling really torn about things, explaining: "I didnt get myself into this. You got me into this. I never thought Id be in this position.
"Do I play it safe and go with Montana or do I take a risk and enjoy myself with you?
"In the 24 hours Ive spent with either one of you, Ive had more fun with you. You surprised me, massively surprised me. Theres more to you than meets the eye."
ITV refused to comment when contacted by Mirror Online.
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Banks and other financial institutions all over the world have seen their fair share of computer glitches and errors. Bank of the Philippine Islands suffered from a recent glitch which could have had severe repercussions if not solved quickly. It turns out some users were complaining about how their bank accounts were suddenly missing a fair amount of money. This is never a positive development for any bank whatsoever.
Having customers complain about money in their bank accounts gone missing is a PR nightmare for any financial institution. News like this immediately creates a lot of speculation, which only makes the situation worse. For the Bank of the Philippine Islands, this nightmare scenario became very real two days ago. With multiple customers missing funds in their accounts, it quickly became evident an investigation had to be conducted to rectify this situation as quickly as possible.
Things only got worse when the bank was forced to suspend ATM withdrawals and online transactions a few hours later. Some people started spreading rumors about the bank being hacked, although it does not appear that was ever the case. However, not allowing customers to withdraw their own money from bank ATMs or complete online transactions only fuels these rumors even further, rather than address the problem at hand.
It didnt take long until a lot of bank customers publicly voiced their concern on social media. More complaints started coming in about missing money, and the rest of the customers were unable to access their funds. It turns out the bank was hit by a major software glitch, which caused user balances to display an incorrect amount. While such situations are still problematic, it is much better than having to deal with a potential hack.
More specifically, the Bank of Philippine Islands acknowledged their IT system caused a few issues. Some transactions were double-posted between April 27 and May 2. As a result, some users saw their account balances adjusted to make sure there were no discrepancies. This is a rather troublesome development for any banks IT infrastructure, but it looks like the institution is addressing the situation as we speak. The IT system has been kept offline for the remainder of last night and this morning, as engineers are working hard on manually restoring affected user accounts.
It is expected online transactions and bank ATM withdrawals will be resumed later this day, which is good news. For now, it remains unclear what caused the transition double-posting in the first place. It is evident the engineers have to go through the entire IT system to see what caused the problem and ensure it can never happen again. Not allowing customers to access their own funds is never the right course of action by any means.
Situations like these are a bank managers nightmare scenario come true. Technical glitches can affect any company at any given time, that much is evident. However, when things like these occur, all hell breaks loose pretty quickly. It will take some time until Bank of the Philippine Islands will regain customer trust after this PR nightmare. Thankfully, the bank was not hacked, which will put a lot of peoples minds at ease.
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Bank of the Philippine Islands Suspends ATM Withdrawals After IT Glitch - The Merkle
A biology professor at the University of Washington in Seattle believes the stress caused by President Donald Trumps time in office will lead to a permanent change in human genetics.
Peter Ward, a professor who works in the earth and space sciences department of UWs College of the Environment, offered his bizarre prediction to Gizmodo earlier this weekwhen the publication asked a handful of evolutionary biologists, Can superhuman mutants be living among us?
Ward argued that significant traumas like abuse or military combat cancause permanent change to the human genome. He went on to suggest Trumps presidency is akin to those traumas and will have an evolutionary consequence on humanity.
Were finding more and more that, for instance, people who have gone through combat, or women who have been abused when you have these horrendous episodes in life, it causes permanent change, which is then passed on to your kids, he said. These are actual genetic shifts that are taking place within people.
Those shifts, Ward contended, can cause huge evolutionary change.
He added: On a larger scale, the amount of stress that Americans are going through now, because of Trump there is going to be an evolutionary consequence.
Earlier in his statement, the professor also predicted the U.S. military willmanipulate genetics to create some sort of superhuman soldiers.
A soldier whos much harder to bleed to death, or a soldier that doesnt need to drink as much water, or doesnt need to eat for five or six days, or doesnt need to sleep any one of these things would be an enormous advantage in warfare, he said.
This isnt the first time Ward has raised eyebrows for his ideas.
In his 2009 book The Medea Hypothesis: Is Life on Earth Ultimately Self-Destructive? Wardargued that life on earth will cause its own destruction in order to save the planet.
He argued at the time, The Christian Science Monitor reported, that life will self-destruct prematurely, many years before the sun, which he believes will begin to expand in roughly one billion years, burns the biosphere away.
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Biology professor: Trump's presidency will permanently alter human ... - TheBlaze.com
New York Times | Republicans' Secretive Plan for Health Care New York Times Republicans in the Senate will need 50 votes to pass their version of the American Health Care Act. Several senators have expressed reservations about the House version of the bill, which withdraws federal support for Planned Parenthood and rolls back ... Parliamentarian threatens deadly blow to GOP healthcare bill McCaskill uses facts to slam Senate Republicans' health care process Senate GOP vows to continue doomed health care effort in secret |
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Republicans' Secretive Plan for Health Care - New York Times
By Andrew Siddons and Sandhya Raman, CQ Roll Call
Moderate Republicans on Thursday said they were getting closer to supporting an emerging Senate health package but are continuing to press for a slower phaseout of the Medicaid expansion than the House-passed bill set out.
The Medicaid expansion question seems to remain the biggest unresolved issue as Republicans try to finalize a bill they can vote on before the end of June. To meet their timeline, they would have to send a bill to the Congressional Budget Office for a cost estimate by early next week, according to a Republican aide.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has proposed phasing out higher federal payments for people who sign up for Medicaid under the health laws expansion in three years. Ohio Republican Rob Portman and others such as Nevada's Dean Heller are pushing for a seven-year phaseout ending in 2027. Senators also are debating how much to reduce federal funding for Medicaid as compared to current law.
Portman told reporters Thursday that he was not ready to take a position on the Senates health care proposal, but said the fact that there was a plan at all made it easier to negotiate.
Were closer because theres a proposal out there, and this gives everybody the opportunity to weigh in, including me, whereas when it was just a wide-open discussion it was hard to come up with any consensus, he said.
While he wouldnt predict the ultimate length of time states would have to phase down the expansion of their Medicaid programs, Portman said he was pushing for a dedicated funding stream to help people struggling with drug addiction.
Medicaid, he said, is the major payer for the kind of drug treatment that is necessary right now with the opioid crisis and so many people being addicted. The alternative is bad for those individuals and their families but also more expensive for all taxpayers. He said he had an amount in mind, but wouldnt specify it.
Heller, another lawmaker from a state that expanded Medicaid who wants a longer phaseout, signaled that the Senate discussions were moving in the right direction. When asked if Senate leaders were receptive to a seven-year phase-out, he said, Theyre listening.
Heller also said he would oppose lowering the Medicaid growth rate beneath the level set out in the House-passed health care bill (HR 1628).
I just dont want to do worse than what the House did. And theres a push to bring it below the House, so thats an issue, Heller said.
Heller, who is up for re-election next year, also said he opposed language in the House bill that could allow states to loosen any protections for those with pre-existing conditions and opt out of providing the essential health benefits required by the 2010 law.
Sen. John Hoeven, R- N.D., told reporters that tax credits to help lower-income people pay for insurance were also still up for discussion.
Weve got to get a more robust refundable tax credit in place so you make sure that folks have coverage and you also need federal reinsurance for folks with chronic care and pre-existing conditions, he said.
Hoeven, responding to questions about whether some of the health laws taxes would remain in place for a longer time than the House bill in order to pay for a more generous package, said it would likely depend on the CBO estimate.
Groups that have pushed for the tax repeal upped their lobbying on Thursday in response to the uncertainty. Scott Whitaker, president of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, which represents the makers of medical devices, urged the Senate to immediately end the medical device tax.
Will device manufacturers spend hundreds of millions seeking next-generation technologies to improve patient lives? Or will they instead be forced to set those funds aside to pay the job-killing device tax? We need to bank on American innovation and kill this tax, he said. Not delay it. End it.
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Senate Moderates Say They Are Closer on Health Care - Roll Call
Rep. John Conyers and Sen. Bernie Sanders in Washington, D.C., on June 4, 2015. Sanders and Conyers have both supported single-payer.
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Single-payer health care is all the rage. At the start of the Obama presidency, the push for a Canadian-style, single-payer, taxpayer-funded universal health system was widely seen as a cause championed only by the hopelessly nave. Now, as the New York Times reports, support for single-payer is emerging as the consensus position among congressional Democrats, with 112 of 193 members of the House Democratic caucus co-sponsoring Rep. John Conyers Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act. In New York and California, meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers are pressing for state-based single-payer systems, and were seeing similar efforts pop up in other states as well. Bernie Sanders deserves much of the credit. Creating a single-payer system for all Americans was the centerpiece of his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, and Id honestly be surprised if the next Democratic nominee didnt take up the cause. Elizabeth Warren, to name one potential 2020 presidential candidate, is open to single-payer health care, and shes not alone.
Granted, support for single-payer is not quite as widespread among rank-and-file voters as it is among influential lefties. A Pew survey from January found that while 60 percent of Americans favored universal coverage in some form, only 28 percent supported single-payer per se. But other polls have found more favorable results, and my guess is that support for single-payer will keep increasing in the months and years to come. This is despite the fact that I believe creating a single-payer system would be a costly mistake, for reasons ably outlined by Chris Pope in National Review and Megan McArdle in Bloomberg View.
Why do I think single-payer health care will keep growing more popular? Part of it is the availability heuristic. The more familiar the idea of a single-payer health care system becomes, and the more mainstream Democratic politicians embrace it, the safer it will be for people to support the idea. A single-payer system is no longer seen as a crazily socialistic idea relegated to the fringes of the political debate. Its an idea that is taken seriously by serious people.
Indeed, a key part of the new push for single-payer health care is branding it Medicare for all. Medicare is a single-payer system that offers coverage to every American over the age of 65. Though no one would describe Medicare as perfect, its pretty popular. So naturally the idea of opening Medicare to everyone has a lot of appeal. Of course, theres a case to be made that Medicare has in some ways made Americas health system worse by serving the interests of politically powerful hospitals over those of patients, but I digress.
The single-payer cause also benefits from the fact that Obamacare has been a mixed bag. While coverage expansion via Medicaid appears to have gone fairly smoothly in the states that have signed up for it, the move to expand coverage via Obamacares new state-based insurance exchanges has been far rockier. If the exchanges represent the best managed competition can do, its no wonder many have concluded that the smarter move is to further expand public insurance programs, as weve been doing for decades under Democratic and Republican administrations alike. Medicare for all is, according to this line of thinking, simply the next logical step. Here too there is another way of looking at things: Had Obamacare used the exchanges more narrowly as a vehicle for insuring the uninsurable, not as a means of transforming the entire individual insurance market, it might have proven more popular and effective.
The most important reason for the single-payer boomlet is the health policy failures of Republicans.
But the most important reason behind the single-payer boomlet, I believe, is the health policy failures of Republicans. While the GOP has spent years attacking Obamacare, it has proven utterly incapable of offering an attractive alternative. If the GOP had such an alternative, it would nudge centrist Democrats in its direction. But as long as the right doesnt have a workable plan for fixing Americas health system, it should come as no surprise that the center of gravity on health policy is shifting left.
Lets say you buy the idea that Obamacare-compliant private insurance plans are way too expensive for the healthy and way too stingy for the sick, an argument Republicans have been making since the advent of the Affordable Care Act. Do you really trust the GOP to fix those problems? Or, given the parameters of the GOPs American Health Care Act, do you suspect theyll just slash subsidies for the poor and the sick and use the money to cut taxes for the rich? At the moment, the latter belief is an entirely rational one.
If faced with a choice between the AHCA and Medicare for all, Republicans shouldnt be surprised if swing voters wind up going for the latter. The AHCA is an inchoate mess that evinces no grander philosophy for caring for the sick and vulnerable. Single-payer health care is, if nothing else, a coherent concept that represents a set of beliefs about how health care should work. If Republicans want the single-payer dream to go away, theyre going to have to come up with something better than the nothing they have now.
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In his session at America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Institute & Expo 2017 Institute & Expo, in Austin, Texas, Kaveh Savafi, MD, senior managing director for the health industry at consulting firm Accenture, discussed some of the biggest technology trends that are happening in the business world and drawing relevance to the world of healthcare.
Here, Safavi discusses his talk, Technology for People: The Era of the Intelligence Digital Health Enterprise.
Managed Healthcare Executive (MHE): Discuss some of the trends youre tracking for healthcare.
Safavi: The first trend is AI is the new UI, where AI means artificial intelligence and UI stands for user interface. Thats the concept of the actual experienceor the way that people interact with technology itselfis going to become smarter.
Ecosystem powerplace is the next trend were paying attention to. That means its really becoming clear that the amount of technology being used in healthcare today can never come from a single entity or company. Thus, its likely that people are going to work with technology platforms that are created with parts from multiple different companies and the companies themselves are going to have to figure out how to cooperate.
The third trend is what we call The workforce marketplace, which broadly refers to the fact that the distributed workforceand the ability to go out and find people you need to do workis no longer going to be limited to the traditional marketplace of your own employees. This is an extension of whats been talked about for a long time, but this is describing the technology as making it inevitable that the workforce you seek will come from different places than you normally would find them.
Design for humans is the fourth trend. Thats essentially the recognition that technology has to be designed to fit the way that humans live their livesas opposed to making people fit the technology. There are obviously healthcare examples, but in other cases there are lots of examples of where the technology has found its way much more easily into the way that you do workas opposed to you having to go figure it out.
The last one is a topic that we call The uncharted. By that, we mean that the technology is creating business and regulatory challengesand maybe ethical and social challengesthat we have no concept of; other than that we know that were opening up Pandoras box. Were going to see more and more that organizations are going to have to get together and think about how they want to address some of these unintended consequencesor even the necessary frameworks theyre going to needin order to be able to take full advantage of the technology.
MHE: Tell me more about what youre referring to with The uncharted.
Safavi: These issues go from very simple thingssuch as standard setting around blockchain, all the way to whats the responsible use for real artificial intelligence.
MHE: Make the connection for healthcare with The workforce marketplace.
Safavi: It ranges from clinical to non-clinical, and its all different parts of the business. We use a term called the liquid workforce, which is present everywhere. We did some surveys that showed that 71% of healthcare executives report that theyre already using on-demand labor platforms. That could be to a limited extent, but its not totally foreign in healthcare. And 80% said that they have to re-think their business model based on these types of technologies.
We see this on the delivery system side and on the provider side. You see examples of this with radiologists and pathologists and with home-based nursing. On the health plan side, youre starting to see nurses in utilization management; theyre call center employees. Other organizations have done the same thing; theyre gone to a distributed call center model.
You generally see people go to a liquid workforce in areas where youre looking for a highly-specialized skill or a very generalizable skill.
Whats complicated is the fact that, while this is going on, the artificial intelligence trend is going on. Thats where automation and artificial intelligence are being substituted for a certain amount of labor. And that impacts the nature of the work of your own workforce.
For example, say you have an employed workforce and they show up at your facility. The step may not be that were going to have a model where we can work with independent contractors and we can take them wherever theyre located, to a technology is going to replace a big part of what they do. Then the remaining people are going to have a very differentiated skill set.
Theres an ebb and flow here, in terms of how this works. The technology allows you to distribute your labor. At the same time, the technology begins to complement the labor in a different way.
MHE: Whats challenging about this particular trend?
Safavi: This will be a challenging trend to manage. Thats based on the pace of the technology replacing the work that people do. Youll see this in call centers and customer service on the payer side. On the provider side, youll see this with medical case management or utilization management, where nurse managers will be doing some of this work.
Some subset of nurse managers work is actually relatively routine. Thats information intake or the proving routine medical advice. Still another part of their work requires clinical judgment. Were already beginning to develop alternatives that can be a substitute for some part of these experts labor. That means the nurse managers spend all of their time doing the things for which theyre licensed. The things theyre not licensed for get done by a machine.
Thus, youre going to be looking for a higher-level of skill. Not only will this be a distributed workforce, but it will also be a higher-skilled workforce.
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What to make of the seeming momentum for aRepublican health-care bill in the Senate?
On the one hand, a bit of caution might be in order. There still isn't a bill. There isn't a Congressional Budget Office score. Republicans must keep their relative moderates on board without losing the most conservative senators; they may be achieving that, and they're still a few steps away from that. It wouldn't be the first time that a bill seemed to have momentum only to fall short once the actual votes werecounted.
That said, it's also quite possible that Mitch McConnell and other Republican leaders have threaded the needle.
A daily round-up of superb political insights.
Jonathan Bernstein's Early Returns
I continue to see the bill's progress not as a case of Republican politicians having enthusiasm for what they are passing, but a real fear of receiving the blame for killing off the repeal of Obamacare, the party's biggest legislative agenda for the last sevenyears. Right now, Paul Ryan and House Republicans overall are winning because they passed something (it doesn't matter what). It remains quite possible that congressional Republicans will wind up backing their way into actually enacting a law despite many, perhaps even most, believingthere's a good chance it will backfire on them.
In other words, this is not a case like the passage of the Affordable Care Act, in which most Democrats who supported it really wanted the bill to pass even if they understood the electoral danger involved. If any Republicans in Congress strongly support the bill they've been working on, they're doing a very good job of hiding that enthusiasm. This time, it's all about ducking blame.
1. Dan Drezner was ... not impressed with my case for how Donald Trump could reach adequacy. I of course agree with everything he says about Trump, and we're not actually likely to get a trial run for this one (because it won't be imposed on him), but I still think many people are vastly underestimating how much of a difference a first-rate chief of staff can make.
2. Dave Hopkins on the James Comey hearing. As he says, perhaps the most notable thing was that Senate Republicans were hardly eager to defend Trump.
3. Diana B. Greenwald and Mark Tessler at the Monkey Cage on Palestinian public opinion about institutions.
4. My Bloomberg View colleague Noah Feldman on new trouble for Trump from Comey's testimony.
5. Alyssa Rosenberg on Comey's performance.
6. And Kevin Kosar on the U.S. Post Office.
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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
To contact the author of this story: Jonathan Bernstein at jbernstein62@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brooke Sample at bsample1@bloomberg.net
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Republicans Aim to Win the Health-Care Blame Game - Bloomberg
Once again, womens health is in the crosshairs.
The budget unveiled by the White House last month adds insult to the injury of the GOP health bill passed earlier by the House of Representatives, which the Congressional Budget Office says will lead to 23 million more uninsured Americans and cuts $800 billion from Medicaid legislation The New York Times dubbed, especially disastrous for women. Taken together, womens ability to access necessary treatment and services and to secure insurance to pay for it are at a risk unseen in the contemporary era.
Now, as the Senate returns from recess and gets to work drafting its measure, we must be sure to hold Congress accountable. A bill that puts women last is unacceptable.
Included in the disastrous House bill are provisions blocking women from going to Planned Parenthood for preventive care (including birth control and cancer screenings), gutting maternity care and other essential health benefits, and making health care unaffordable for millions by allowing insurance companies in states that waive coverage rules to charge women whove given birth, or survived cancer, more for their premiums. If this bill and the budget becomes law, all women but especially working-class women, and poor women, as well as their families will suffer dire consequences to their health and lives. We cant let this happen.
Given this reality, its time to reflect on what it really means to support women and girls, truly creating a country where every American thrives.
Lets be clear once and for all: The entire conversation is a nonstarter without full support for womens health. Its on us to make sure every senator understands this.
During my eight years in the White House, I chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls. I was responsible for bringing elected officials, business and community leaders together to help drive the economy, expand access to the middle class, and most importantly, working to ensure equality and opportunity for all Americans, especially women and girls.
Of all this work, that last point providing equality and opportunity to all drove the agenda of the council. President Obama created the council to ensure that federal agencies were prioritizing the needs of women and girls in their policies, programs and legislation with the understanding that it is the governments highest purpose to help ensure all Americans are able to compete on a level playing field and achieve their dreams. He knew that the issues women face today, such as access to paid family and medical leave, equal pay for equal work, and affordable health care, are all connected and intertwined.
Planned Parenthood has a key role to play in access to affordable health care for women, and by extension their access to equality. Yet, Republican leaders in Congress have continued to push to defund Planned Parenthood and block women from going there to receive care. That is the opposite of what the White House Council on Women and Girls stood for, and if enacted, would result in millions of women losing access to care.
While much about the House of Representatives efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act was troubling, one of the most egregious moves was voting on the bill without even waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to update its analysis of the impact the legislation would have on the American people or the federal budget.
As the Senate has now turned to writing its version of the health care bill, as a former White House official who spent a lot of time focusing on women and girls, I am also troubled that Senate leaders appointed 13 men and zero women to their working group responsible for drafting their version of an ACA repeal bill. How could they not know that our interests cannot be adequately represented if we are not at the table?
As we wait for the Senate to produce its bill, it is tempting to give in to the anger and frustration that is so prevalent in our national discourse these days. But what motivates me to keep fighting are the incredible personal stories of access, treatment, recovery and hope that the Affordable Care Act made possible.
Planned Parenthood is a foundational part of that effort, and its work in providing access to care has helped people across our country take control of their health and lives. Two and a half million people visit Planned Parenthood each year for preventive health care, including birth control, cancer screenings and STD testing and treatment. One in five women in America relies on Planned Parenthood over her lifetime. For more than 100 years, it has helped women in this country get the care they need, which in turn has enabled women to contribute so much to this country.
The ACA was born of advocacy and I believe advocacy will save the ACA and health care for millions of women. Thats where voters come in. As the Senate drafts its version, I hope that millions of Americans tell their senators they must protect the health of women.
Valerie Jarrett is a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama and former chairwoman of the White House Council on Women and Girls. She wrote this commentary for CNN.
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Senate should aim to correct health care course - The Philadelphia Tribune
In early May, the American Health Care Act (ACHA) made its way out of the U.S. House of Representatives by a very tight vote. The bill, now under consideration by the Senate, made it through thanks to two critical amendments that garnered the support of key California Republicans.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has now confirmed what we long knew: The amendments made a bad bill worse, not better. There was, indeed, no valid excuse for supporting the AHCA.
This bill is troubling. If passed, the CBO estimates 23 million people would lose health insurance by 2026, with low-income and elderly Americans hit the hardest. Insurance companies could charge more to persons with pre-existing conditions, and states could cut vital health benefits.
The latest CBO analysis further confirms that the AHCA would put millions in jeopardy, and that the amendments introduced by Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., and Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., championed by Republican House members as the reason they supported the bill, did little to change its projected devastating impact.
Here in Los Angeles County, weve spoken regularly with Rep. Steve Knight, R-Santa Clarita, our areas only Republican representative, on the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on his district, and the potential effects of replacing the ACA with the proposed AHCA.
More than 80,000 people in Knights district currently benefit from the ACA, with close to 21,000 enrolled in Covered California and almost 60,000 adults newly covered as part of the Medi-Cal expansion. These people could all lose coverage under the AHCA.
The ACAs massive expansions in coverage allowed community providers to dramatically expand access to care.
The Antelope Valley Community Clinic, for example, opened in 2010, the year the ACA was passed. In just five years, the clinic went from providing 12,000 patient visits and 25 employees to 100,000 visits and 235 employees. Thanks to the ACA, the clinic expanded its facilities and became a one-stop shop for physical, mental and oral health needs for the underserved in the High Desert.
Antelope Valley residents can finally access comprehensive preventive services that keep them healthy and productive in society. If patients lose coverage under the AHCA, the clinic would be forced to choose between scaling back services or laying off staff. This would cost taxpayers more in the long run, as the newly uninsured would delay care and rely on the emergency room when they experience an avoidable health emergency.
In addition to the impact on the clinics, the broader community would suffer under a repeal of the ACA. Health care is a major employment sector in Los Angeles, and health care comprises the bulk of our middle-skill job growth.
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Congressman Knight has been very responsive to the clinics, hospitals, health plans and community partners in the district. Yet he ultimately supported the AHCA. He believed the Upton and MacArthur amendments would mitigate the impact of the bill on those with preexisting conditions.
Unfortunately, the CBO has debunked that myth, and its time for our legislators to look at the real impact of the bill.
There is no denying that these cuts are a serious attack on our nations healthcare system and will have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable among us, including children, women, seniors, people with disabilities, and low-middle class families.
As the Senate produces its version of the bill, in light of the analysis by the CBO its our hope that Knight and other House Republicans will reconsider their support for any bill that reduces coverage, disadvantages the sick, and leaves their communities worse off.
Louise McCarthy is president and CEO of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County. James A. Cook is CEO and founder of the Antelope Valley Community Clinic.
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Rep. Knight, the GOP health-care plan would hurt your district: Guest commentary - LA Daily News
The acquisition of Dutch commercial cell and gene therapy maker PharmaCell places Lonza as the leading CDMO in the space, the firm says.
The deal sees Switzerland-headquartered contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) add the assets and staff of PharmaCell to strengthen its cell and gene therapy offerings.
We had a manufacturing gap in the European market, especially related to products requiring regional manufacturing like the new immunotherapy products, Andreas Weiler, head of Emerging Technologies at Lonza, told Biopharma-Reporter. The acquisition of PharmaCell helps bridge that gap.
Financials details were not divulged but the deal sees Lonza add a 1,400m2 multiple product facility in Maastricht, The Netherlands and a 4,800m2 cell therapy manufacturing plant nearby in Geleen to its personalised medicine manufacturing network.
Lonzas current cell and gene therapy capabilities are located in Tuas, Singapore and at its site in Walkersville, Maryland (which recently received a US FDA warning letter ). The CDMO is also constructing a facility set to open this year at its Houston, Texas site with 14,000m2 of space dedicated to cell and gene therapy manufacturing.
And with the addition of PharmaCell, Lonza is now the leading contract development and manufacturing organisation offering an international cell and gene therapy manufacturing network, spanning the US, Europe and Asia, Weiler told us.
PharmaCell
The European CDMO was targeted due to its expertise in autologous products, where cells and genes are taken, engineered and then placed back into the patient. This complements our current allogeneic cell manufacturing offerings, Weiler said.
PharmaCell has won a number of contracts to make both clinical and commercial volumes of such therapies, including deals with Orchard Therapeutics and Lion Biotech , both announced this year.
The firm also made European supply of Dendreons prostate cancer therapy Provenge (Sipuleucel-T) until Dendreons buyer Valeant withdrew the Marketing Authorisation in 2015.
Last year, the firm reported sales of around 11m ($12.3m).
Weiler said Lonzas acquisition will have no impact to current contracts. PharmaCell is now part of Lonza and the new legal entity name is Lonza Netherlands, B.V. The name change has no impact on existing contracts.
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In Brief Toyota has partnered with Cartivator Resource Management to help develop a flying car that will play a special part in the upcoming Olympic games. A video of an unmanned test flight has surfaced online.
Toyota is amping up the race to make flying cars the vehicles of the future. Japans largest automobile company has invested nearly $400,000 in Cartivator Resource Management to develop a flying car for a very special purpose. Toyota is hoping that this single driver vehicle will be ready by 2020, in time to deliver the Olympic torch along its final stretch to open the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
A video was recently released showing an initial prototype being tested. These results, however, are less than spectacular, even with the interesting cinematography.
Toyota has also recently made headlines in acknowledging that their partnership with Elon Musks Tesla had come to a close at the end of last year. The automobile giant has since advanced their own electric car division tocompete with Teslaspopular line.
The team working on the flying car will use Toyotas investment to improve the design of the vehicle. With these improvements, they hope that a prototype will be ready to be piloted sometime in 2019.
Their work with Cartivatoris markedly more low-key than previous flying car concepts from Toyota. They introduced a futuristic concept car called the Concept-i at the most recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES). This concept had a lot more bells and whistles like an emotion reading artificial intelligence named Yui.
It is unclear at this point if either car will take off. Perhaps Toyota can give the flying car one last fighting chance to step out of the pages of science fiction and into reality.
See more here:
Toyota Is Eager to Bring a Flying Car to the 2020 Olympics - Futurism
Adding in changes to food stamps and TANF would provide another $400 billion over 10 years, Rep. Mark Meadows said. | Getty
By Aaron Lorenzo
06/09/2017 08:15 AM EDT
Updated 06/09/2017 08:09 AM EDT
House Freedom Caucus members will push for changes to two major welfare programs food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families as part of tax reform legislation, the group's chairman told POLITICO.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) also said the hardline conservative group's still-in-development bill wouldn't include a controversial tax on imports or immediate write-offs for business investments known as full expensing backed by House GOP leaders. The first is too unpopular and the second too expensive, he said.
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Meadows and others in the caucus expect to unveil more information about their plan at a Heritage Foundation event Friday
Republican congressional leaders and Trump administration officials have stepped up their efforts to reach a consensus on tax reform, hoping to enact the legislation this year. The Freedom Caucus's plans are likely to add another hurdle to that effort.
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Meadows said it helps the tax reform math to leave out full expensing if the tax on imports, known as a border adjustment, is also jettisoned. House GOP leaders are counting on border adjustment which would also make exports tax-free in a bid to bolster domestic production to generate more than $1 trillion over 10 years to help keep tax cuts from blowing a hole in the federal budget.
But the idea has split business leaders, with import-heavy companies like retailers fiercely opposing it and exporters pushing for it. It has also caused fissures within the congressional GOP Meadows estimated 75-80 House Republicans oppose it, along with up to half of Senate Republicans.
Meadows said adding in changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, and TANF would provide another $400 billion over 10 years, Meadows said.
Such additions and subtractions are aimed at a Freedom Caucus package that includes a corporate tax rate of 20 percent and an equal or just slightly higher rate on unincorporated businesses known as pass-throughs, Meadows said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has pushed for a 20 percent corporate rate and 25 percent for pass-throughs. President Donald Trump has proposed a single 15 percent tax on all business income.
How do we get to a 20 percent corporate and make sure theres a pass-through to LLCs and sole proprietorships and at the same time making sure that its not just a corporate tax cut but we actually make it fundamentally better for the person on Main Street? Meadows said. We believe it has to have both components.
For similar reasons, Freedom Caucus members dont want to alter the mortgage interest deduction, said Meadows. It could have too much impact on consumption in the U.S. economy, he said. (Congressional leaders and the Trump administration have also kept the mortgage deduction off limits.)
Were trying to look at how to make it better for consumers, not worse, so we really havent looked at that at all, Meadows said.
The caucus is trying to push the envelope on tax reform sooner rather than later.
Time is of the essence, Meadows said, who in recent days called for canceling the annual August recess for Congress in order to advance tax reform. Tax writers need to drop the discussion of border adjustment, he said, adding that White House officials have drawn the same conclusion.
Ryan and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) have yet to back off the idea, though. While the Freedom Caucus hasn't taken an official position on border adjustments, Meadows said the entire GOP conference needs to arrive at some type of an agreement on whats going to be included in a tax package and whats going to fall by the wayside.
Its important that we start discussing principles and concepts that need to be in place so that we act in the next few weeks, not the next few months, at least on starting the ball rolling with legislative text where we can all start to review it, Meadows said.
The Freedom Caucus had a hand in reshaping health care overhaul legislation that ultimately passed the House after weeks of fits and starts. The caucus, which Meadows said counts 36 members, wants to influence tax reform at an earlier stage in the debate, he has said.
To get tax reform, Republicans need to reach a budget agreement among various moderate and conservative factions on spending levels, Meadows said, pointing to a budget maneuver known as reconciliation that would let Republicans get around a Democratic filibuster in the Senate.
We do have a seat at the table, he said. Probably the biggest leverage has nothing to do with tax reform. It has more to do with the budget and budget reconciliation.
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House Freedom Caucus ties food stamp, TANF changes to tax reform - Politico
With the countrys eyes on Comey, Trump enlists evangelicals to push Senate on health bill and says he'll prevail, as the Bible says.
Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, listens to remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, where President Donald Trump spoke on Feb. 2, 2017. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
As Washington sat transfixed before the image of former FBI Director James Comey spilling some beans on the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump went to work. An expert in creating crises, Trump is not the kind to let his handiwork go to waste.
At a conference of mostly evangelical Christians convened in Washington, DC, by Republican political operative Ralph Reed, Trump reminded attendees of the Faith and Freedom Coalitions annual Road to Majority conference of their agenda and his. If he made any reference to the drama unfolding before the Senate Intelligence Committee, it was this: As you know, were under siege; you understand that, the president said. But we will come out bigger, better and stronger than ever you watch.
BY Adele Stan | February 2, 2017
Expressing his appreciation to members of the Faith and Freedom Coalition for their work on his behalf during the 2016 presidential race, Trump cited some 22 million pieces of mail sent, 16 million videos shared, 10 million phone calls made and 1.2 million doors knocked on in the key battleground states. He quoted the Book of Isaiah from the teleprompter.
He went on to recount what he had already delivered for his religious supporters: a drastic reduction in illegal crossings on the southern border; the appointment of Neil Gorsuch, a foe of abortion rights, to the Supreme Court; an executive action on religious freedom, a withdrawal of aid to overseas humanitarian groups that dare to speak of abortion, and withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. That last one elicited a raucous and sustained cheer from the assembled, seeing as how its very name combines two mutually repugnant ideas: the fact of climate change and a city in which people speak French.
Without naming it as such, Trump noted the leaked draft of a rule revision, dated May 27, under consideration at the Department of Health and Human Services that would appear to definitively permit religious orders that run hospitals and social service agencies to flout the current mandate that employer-provided health insurance include coverage for prescription contraceptives. The Little Sisters of the Poor, Trump said, referring to a Catholic religious order that brought a lawsuit against the Obama administration that challenged the mandate, had just won big with his executive actions on behalf of religious freedom. The president pointed at two nuns in the audience. Stand up, he instructed them. You dont mess with the Little Sisters, he quipped. Never mind that the nuns obediently standing were from an entirely different order (the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist); they were old women in habits. They would do. The optics worked.
BY Theo Anderson | April 20, 2017
He went on at length to describe his instruction to the IRS to refrain from investigating houses of worship for political activity that would threaten their non-profit status as an unleashing of free speech from the pulpits of the nation.
The audience then received an accounting of the agenda yet to be undertaken the part that requires legislation by Congress. Trump came to Road to Majority to set its army of socially conservative, mostly white churchgoers to work on Capitol Hill, lobbying senators and members of the House, as many groups do during national conference. But few get their marching orders directly from the president, even if not said in so many words.
First on the presidents list was the health care bill that is currently stalled in the Senate.
Restoring freedom and opportunity also means repealing and replacing the disaster known as He put his hand to is ear.
Obamacare! the crowd shouted.
That was easy, Trump replied. Something I hope great is going to come out through [Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell in the Senate.
The next big item was tax reform the biggest tax cut ever, he said. But sadly, Trump added, they would have to pass each of these measures without a single Democratic vote, because Democrats are obstructionists who are bad, right now, for the country.
The entrenched interests and failed bitter voices in Washington will do everything in their power to try and stop us from this righteous cause to try to stop all of you, Trump said. They will lie, they will obstruct, they will spread their hatred and their prejudice, but we will not back down from doing what is right. Because, as the Bible tells us, we know that the truth will prevail, that Gods glorious wisdom will shine through, and that the good and decent people of this country will get the change they voted for, and that they so richly deserve.
He patted himself on the back for deporting people he deemed gang members and drug dealers, and characterized his summit with Saudi leaders as a blow against global terrorism.
As the Bible tells us, we know that the truth will prevail, that Gods glorious wisdom will shine through, and that the good and decent people of this country will get the change they voted for, and that they so richly deserve.
He made a call for unity, noting that whether we are black, brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood.
In America, he said, we dont worship government; we worship God.
The speech, delivered at the conference luncheon, was well-received. Afterward, attendees boarded busses headed for the Capitol the Senates Dirksen Office Building, to be exact. There they would be treated to a town hall-style meeting with McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other Republican lawmakers. The meeting was closed to the press.
Once it concluded, members of the group would lobby the senators from their respective states.
Milling outside the hearing room where the town hall would take place, Rebecca Clutter, a woman who looked to be in her 50s or 60s, offered her assessment of the presidents speech. [I]t was amazing and awesome and it hit all the points, said Clutter, who had traveled to Washington from Ohio, where she had knocked on doors during the campaign under the aegis of Women for Trump.
Casey Matta, a student at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, also loved the presidents speech, naming as his favorite points Trumps anti-abortion rhetoric and something about the Paris [climate accord].
Asked how the US withdrawal from the climate accord agreement fit in with the religious purpose of the Faith and Freedom Coalition event, Matta thought a minute. Well, I think its like a Republican religious convention so when he brings that kind of stuff for conservatives I agree with that.
What did he make of the probe of Russian meddling in the US election, and contacts between Trump campaign figures and Russian officials? Matta said he didnt believe that Russia had intervened in the election. By his lights, it was all a put-up job by Democrats.
I think [Trump] definitely is being targeted, with the Democrats and everything. I mean, they need to cool it, he said. Give him some time to worry about what hes got to worry about now.
Right now, Trump is worrying about, among other things, getting a legislative win. And Casey Matta, Rebecca Clutter, and hundreds of others came to the nations capital to help him get it, all in the name of God.
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Trump Brings Out the Bible for Faith and Freedom - BillMoyers.com
Meredith MacLeod, CTVNews.ca Published Friday, June 9, 2017 12:16PM EDT Last Updated Friday, June 9, 2017 12:32PM EDT
Perhaps you feel unshackled today?
Aside from being a Friday on the cusp of summer, this Friday, June 9 is special because it is Tax Freedom Day, says the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute.
This is the day average Canadians officially start working to bring home the bacon to their own larders, rather than turning it over to tax collectors, according to the think-tank.
Tax Freedom Day is highly dependent on the province in which you live because provincial tax rates vary a great deal. The earliest comes in Alberta on May 21 and the latest in Newfoundland and Labrador on June 25.
The Fraser Institute has a tax freedom calculator that takes into account the province you live in, family status and income.
The average Canadian family (of two or more people) will earn $108,674 in income in 2017 and pay a total of $47,135 in taxes, says the Fraser Institute, based on models created from data from Statistics Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency. That translates to 43.4 per cent paid out in taxes of kinds income, property, fuel, sales, health, carbon, sin and a range of hidden taxes. If all that tax had to be paid up front, it would leave the average Canadian family paying every dollar earned until June 8 to local, provincial and federal taxes.
It's difficult for average Canadians to add up all the taxes they pay in a year because the different levels of government levy such a wide range of taxes, and thats why we do these calculations to give Canadians a better understanding of exactly how much they pay to government, said Charles Lammam, director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute, in a news release.
Tax Freedom Day helps put the total tax burden into perspective, and helps Canadians understand just how much of their money they pay in taxes every year.
A day later in 2017
This years national tax freedom celebration comes a day later than it did in 2016 because the average tax bill is expected to increase faster (at 2.4 per cent) than growth in income (2.2 per cent).
Canadas Tax Freedom Day has been as late as June 25 in 2000, according to the right-leaning Fraser Institute. In 1961, it was May 3 (thats the first time the calculation was made) and in 1981, it was May 30.
Pattie Lovett-Reid, chief financial commentator for CTV News, says there is disagreement about the Fraser Institutes calculation. The left-leaning Broadbent Institute in Ottawa, for instance, says its inflated and that only two per cent of working Canadians pay more than 30 per cent in income taxes and that the effective tax rate for the typical Canadian family is more like 24 per cent.
Bottom line is death, taxes, those are the only certainties we know for sure and taxes get paid because they go into healthcare, infrastructure and different programs, she told BNN Friday.
The Fraser Institute says its tax freedom calculation is not intended to question the value Canadians get for their taxes but to look at the price paid for a product government."
"Tax Freedom Day is not a reflection of the quality of the product, how much of it each of us receives, or whether we get our money's worth. These are questions only each of us can answer for ourselves."
Forecasts indicate Canadians will pay, on average, $1,126 more in taxes this year, says the think-tank. Almost half of that ($542) is income taxes, while sales taxes will increase $311 and energy-related taxes will climb $204.
But, according to the report, "liquor, tobacco, amusement, and other excise taxes, payroll and health taxes, and import duties," all will decline.
The Fraser Institute also calculates what it calls the Balanced Budget Tax Freedom Day. That marks when tax freedom would arrive - June 18 this year - if governments had to increase taxes to balance budgets, rather than using deficits to cover spending.
Read the full Tax Freedom Day report here.
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More than 100 people came out to Liberty High School on Thursday evening for the first of two public hearings on the Freedom Plan. More than 30 of those took to one of two microphones in order to read their comments into the official public record.
The majority of those comments were negative in some fashion, criticizing either certain components in the proposed plan, its overall theme or the process by which it had been drafted through the Carroll County planning commission.
"I don't believe this plan promotes a balance of environmental resources it seems biased towards business development," one woman told the planning commission, which was there to listen to comments but did not respond. "We do not need another grocery store or nail salon."
The Freedom Plan creates a guide for future long-term growth in the South Carroll area, in terms of roads, resources and future land use designations, which can then guide future zoning changes. State guidelines require the plan be updated every 10 years, but the Freedom Plan was last updated in 2001 the planning commission spent the past year drafting a new plan, which it accepted in April.
After a second public hearing on Tuesday, June 20, the planning commission will vote and could then approve the plan, which would send it to the County Board of Commissioners for another round of discussion. The commissioners can then reject the plan outright, alter it in some fashion or vote to adopt the plan, which would then be implemented.
Many of those who spoke were concerned about future land use designations for three properties the Wolf, Beatty and Gibson parcels from agricultural, industrial or low-density residential to medium density residential and how those potential additional homes could impact the community. They hoped the commission might take their comments and make changes to the plan before voting to approve it.
Patricia Dorsey, who lives along Md. 32, said she already has to time her walks with her dog around peak traffic times, and worries about how many more homes could lead to even worse traffic. She noted that she has been around long enough that it is not change alone, but the impact of certain changes, that concern her.
"I've lived here since 1976, even before Carrolltowne Mall was here," she said "I have seen a lot of changes."
Traffic was also a concern for George Gray, who lives on Monroe Avenue. He noted that traffic on Md. 32 and Md. 26 were already bad when he first moved to the area 17 years ago, but that the neighborhoods had always been quiet and safe. He worried that some proposed road changes could funnel much more traffic off of Md. 32 and into those same neighborhoods.
But Gray also noted that he had been to many such meetings and heard many of the same comments he was hearing from speakers Thursday.
"You are listening to us, but I am not sure there are a lot of changes being made," he said.
There were some speakers who voiced their support for the plan. Some, like Michael Reeves, were associated with developers he said he was with Williams Quarters LLC.
"I believe it's a good plan," Reeves told those assembled. "I have petitions from other citizens and business that support the plan, and depend on growth to survive."
Reeves passed his petition to the planning commission and also stated that he believed the number of houses some speakers believed would be built on the Wolf, Gibson and Beatty properties if the plan passed, were not realistic.
"The density of 900 units on those three properties can't physically fit," he said.
One of the last people to speak was Heidi Beatty Condon, one-fourth owner of the Beatty property, who spoke of property rights while also acknowledging she was grieving for her father, who had held the property since 1958 and had recently died.
"I know a lot of people are upset because you are not going to have a farm in your backyard anymore and I get that, but it doesn't give you the right to ask that park be built there. You think that doesn't devalue the property for the property owner?" she asked.
"I hear a lot of people wanting to say what happens to other people's property. Well, maybe you should pull your money together and buy it."
jon.kelvey@carrollcountytimes.com
410-857-3317
twitter.com/CCT_Health
What: Last public hearing on the Freedom Plan
When: 8:30 to 9 a.m. Tuesday, June 20, Last call for written comment is 9 a.m.
Where: Reagan Room of the Carroll County Office Building, 225 N. Center St., Westminster.
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Freedom Plan gets load of criticism, some support at hearing - Carroll County Times