Bill Would Hold The New Education Choice Program To Its Budget – Berlindailysun

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CONCORD The Education Freedom Account program would be forced to live within its budget this fiscal year and next under a bill heard Wednesday.

For the current fiscal year, the program was budgeted for less than 30 students, but many more parents participated than planned and the program will cost more than $8 million.

House Bill 1684 would limit the amount taken from the Education Trust Fund for the grants to the money the Department of Education budgeted, $129,000 for this fiscal year and $3.3 million for fiscal year 2023.

This bill would give lawmakers an opportunity to question the executive branch on how they are spending taxpayer money and to ensure it is spent wisely and not on a runaway train, said the bills prime sponsor, Rep. David Luneau, D-Hopkinton. The (education freedom account program) has the potential to be a train wreck and this first year it has the potential to be a runaway train.

Luneau said Education Commissioner Frank Edelbluts estimates of the students leaving public schools for the program were not accurate, which has caused the states costs to rise significantly and could ultimately be a $75 million annual exposure for the state in figures from the Legislative Budget Assistant.

However, a number of parents and students participating in the program begged the House Education Committee not to pass the bill, saying the program has allowed them to have the most appropriate educational situation for those students.

Several said they could not afford to repay the money if the bill passed, and one Nashua parent said the real train wreck is the public school system and its one size fits all philosophy.

The law establishing the program was included in the states biennial budget package passed last year and allows the department to draw whatever is needed to pay for the grants from the Education Trust Fund.

Under the law, if the grants exceed the amount of money in the trust fund, then the state general fund would have to pay the grants.

The deficit would be reported to the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee, the governor, and Executive Council, but could not delay paying the grants to parents.

The Education Trust Fund pays adequacy grants to school districts and per-pupil grants to charter schools as well as other education costs.

Luneau noted the trust fund is based on estimates for what is needed to cover costs and if not enough money is in the fund after parental grants are paid, other areas would be squeezed and used the special education or catastrophic aid program as an example of one prorated in the past when the fund ran low of money.

He said the problem with the program stems from the commissioner estimating that 75 percent of students participating in the program would come from public schools, 15 percent form private schools and 10 from homeschooling.

Instead, Luneau said, 83 percent were from private and homeschooling programs and only 13 percent from public schools.

He said that greatly increases the states obligation because it was not paying for the private school and home school students, but is now.

He said if most of the students had come from public schools, the state obligation would not change, but it does when with private and homeschool students.

Luneau said the departments estimates and assumptions never had a thorough analysis as it was included in the budget that was approved by the Senate.

But Matt Southerton, director of policy and compliance for the Childrens Scholarship Fund New Hampshire, which administers the program, said his latest figures indicate slightly less than half of the 1,856 students participating in the program are from public schools, but he was not sure of the context compared to Luneaus figures.

Southerton noted the bill is retroactive and would defund about 1,800 students currently in the program, many from low-income families with no way to repay the grants.

If the budget were $3.3 million in fiscal 2023, he said someone would have to tell about 1,000 students they could no longer participate.

He also said the state has an obligation to provide a public education to every eligible student, so its exposure already exists without the freedom accounts.

Its very, very early in the program, and what this really is revenue sharing, Southerton said. We didnt know the participation would be so great, but we are thankful it was.

Committee member Rep. Glenn Cordelli, R-Tuftonboro, who supported the original bill establishing the accounts, asked Luneau what would happen if the program went to the original budget.

Luneau said if the money had already been paid, it is not likely anyone would want to claw back the funds, but a provision could be included to begin the cap next fiscal year.

But committee member Rep. Michael Moffett, R-Loudon, asked what happens to the current students and the prospective students looking at the program next year?

Have you given any thought for severing students from the EFA program who are in it, Moffett asked. If this moves forward, you will have to have a process for severing students.

Luneau said he is trying to stop a train wreck, but noted the parents of children who were in private schools and homeschooling, were paying for their childrens education before.

These are not kids who were pulled out of public schools., Luneau said, these kids were in a non-public school situation prior to this offering.

Shalimar Encarnacion, program and outreach coordinator for the Childrens Scholarship Fund, said the program is filling a great need.

In every school, especially in the public school system, kids are falling through the cracks, she said, and we are catching them and helping them.

She said the problems have grown since the pandemic began.

Brian Hawkins, representing the NEA-NH, was the only person testifying in favor of the bill.

Taking a look at budgeting the program going forward, is something his organization supports, he said.

Other states with programs like the EFA, expanded eligibility as they moved forward, Hawkins said, but the New Hampshire program had expanded eligibility when it began and knowing the cost going forward is important.

There is a process for the executive branch to seek more money for a program by going to the fiscal committee, Hawkins said. That process holds the executive branch accountable, and forces them to justify their request, he said.

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Bill Would Hold The New Education Choice Program To Its Budget - Berlindailysun

Immigration Fell as Conservatives Said Biden Fueled Crisis – The Intercept

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Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, speaks during a news conference with members of the House Freedom Caucus about immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 17, 2021.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Throughout 2021, Republican politicians and conservative pundits hammered the Biden administration over what they claimed was a crisis of uncontrolled immigration.

Images of migrants seeking to cross the border from Mexico in the early months of the new administration, which played in a seemingly endless loop on cable news, led to growing acceptance on the right of the great replacement conspiracy theory, claiming that President Joe Biden was throwing open the nations borders to nonwhite immigrants who would steal white Americans jobs and vote for Democrats. The Anti-Defamation League called for Fox News to fire pundit Tucker Carlson last year because he espoused the great replacement theory so aggressively and so often, but the racist trope has now become normalized within the Republican Party.

Even the mainstream press bought into the idea that there was a massive surge in illegal immigration and that Biden was mishandling the issue.

But rarely has such a long-running and widely accepted political and media narrative been so at odds with reality. In fact, immigration into the United States in 2021 plunged as a result of both a decline in international travel brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictive U.S. immigration policies, according to new report from the Census Bureau. The nations political and media classes were seemingly so obsessedover the images of migrants at the border that they failed to grasp the truth, which was that immigration levels collapsed in 2021.

The startling Census Bureau report found that net international migration into the United States increased by just 247,000 people in 2021, the lowest annual level for any year since at least 2010. Thats about half the number of people who came into the country between 2019 and 2020, during the Trump administration, when net international migration totaled 477,000. The 2021 figure was also far below the 1,049,000 who came into the U.S. between 2015 and 2016, the highest level for any year in that decade.

In 2021, the global movement of people was drastically cut by travel restrictions put in place by governments around the world as a result of the pandemic. Land borders between the United States, Mexico, and Canada were closed to nonessential travel for part of the year,along with many U.S. embassies and consulates abroad, where foreigners get visas to come here.

The Covid-19 pandemic significantly impacted international migration patterns both to and from the United States, according to the report, which is one of the governments first studies of 2021 immigration levels.

The Census Bureaus findings are based on a comprehensive annual survey of more than3 million households in the United States. To determine immigration levels, the bureaus American Community Survey asks where each person surveyed was living one year ago. Those who are foreign-born were also asked what year they came to live in the United States.

A Census Bureau analyst said in an interview that the annual survey is designed to detect changes in the levels of both documented and undocumented immigration. In order to get more responses to the survey among undocumented immigrants, the bureau does not ask whether each person is in the country legally. We make the assumption that the American Community Survey is picking up the undocumented, said the Census Bureau analyst, who asked not to be identified so he could speak freely.

To improve the surveys accuracy, the bureau supplemented its results with data from other agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the Justice Department, and the Department of Transportation. (The pandemic also impacted the Census Bureaus ability to collect data, especially in 2020, so it relied heavily on adjusted 2019 data to compareagainst 2021.)

Migrants hold a demonstration demanding clearer United States migration policies atthe San Ysidro Port of Entry in Tijuana, Mexico, on March 2, 2021.

Photo: Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images

The Census Bureaus report on immigration levels in 2021 was issued in late December, but it has received little media attention. That may be because the dramatic reduction in immigration in 2021 that it found is in sharp contrast to the narrative created early last year by conservative politicians and the press that immigration was out of control.

The media fixation on an immigration crisis began right after Biden took office, just at the moment when journalists were eager to prove that they could be tough on the new Democratic president after four years of Donald Trump. Questions about theimmigration dominated Bidens first formal press conference in March.

The situation at our southern border provides a perfect platform for [journalists] to show their even-handedness, Heather Digby Parton wrote in Salon last March. Unfortunately, as with most such media moments, its not even-handed in the least.

In fact, a Pew Research Center study found that a supposed immigration crisis was one of the most heavily covered issues by the press in the early days of the Biden administration. The Pew study, released last May, found that immigration was one of the five topics most covered by 25 major news outlets in the first 60 days of the Biden administration, accounting for 11 percent of all stories. It was also the issue that generated the most negative coverage of the administration of any of the top five issues covered, Pew found. About half the stories about the Biden administrations handling of immigration were negative, compared with just 15 percent that were positive. Pew also conducted a related survey to see how Americans media intake influenced how much they heard about the Biden administrations immigration policy. The survey found that 30 percent of all U.S. adults said they had heard a lot about the administrations immigration policies, while 45 percent of those who only got their political news from right-wing media said they had heard a lot about it.

About half the stories about the Biden administrations handling of immigration were negative, compared with just 15 percent that were positive.

In addition to the images of migrants on cable news, the skewed and ill-informed public debate on immigration in 2021 was stoked by a focus on misleading data. The key figure consistently cited by politicians and the media last year was the number of apprehensions along the southwestern border. That figure hit 1.7 million in fiscal year 2021, the highest level in 60 years, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. That surge in border apprehensions became the key talking point for critics who argued that the Biden administration had lost control over immigration.

But the data on border apprehensions only showed how many times migrants were stopped when they tried to get into the United States. A Homeland Security official said in an interview that the numbers are misleading because one migrant may try to cross the border several times and thuswould show up repeatedly in the total figures, inflating the numbers.

Ironically, one factor making it possible for migrants to keep trying to cross so many times is the governments use of a pandemic-related border restriction that was first put in place by the Trump administrationandhas continued under Biden. Citing Covid-19, the government has used a public health statute, known as Title 42, to carry out expulsions of migrants at the border without offering them the chance to request asylum. Title 42 expulsions happen so fast that migrants can try to cross again almost immediately.

The data on apprehensions also doesnt show how many migrants actually got into the United States and were allowed to stay.

There is no current data on how many migrants who were apprehended trying to cross the border in 2021 have been allowed to permanently stay in the United States, the Homeland Security official said. But the official pointed to the departments enforcement lifecycle reports from earlier years, which show that most migrants crossing the border are eventually sent home. A 2020 Homeland Security report found that of 3.5 million encounters on the southwestern border between 2014 and 2019, 51 percent of the migrants had already been repatriated, while only 8.1 percent, or 284,000, from that five-year period had been granted relief or other protection from removal.

The obsessionover the border apprehension data led politicians and journalists to completely miss the fact that overall immigration crateredduring Bidens first year in office.

A Now Hiring sign outside a gas station amid record job openings in the U.S. is seen in Seymour, Ind., on Dec. 6, 2021.

Photo: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Last years plunging immigration levels came at the same time as declining birth rates and rising mortality rates in the U.S.

The combination of low levels of immigration, a low birth rate, and a higher mortality rate trends worsened by the pandemic resulted in the slowest population growth for the United States in any year since the founding of the nation, the Census Bureau found in another new study. The U.S. population grew by only 0.1 percent in 2021, the lowest rate the Census Bureau has ever recorded. It was the first time since 1937, in the midst of the Great Depression, that Americas population grew by less than1 million, the Census Bureau found.

Sharply reduced immigration and low overall population growth come at the same time as a major labor shortage in the United States. The onset of the pandemic initially led to enormous job losses in 2020 as many businesses went into lockdown. A devastating recession was avoided, however, thanks to the governments stimulus packages and the Federal Reserves easy monetary policy. The governments aggressive fiscal and monetary pump-priming helped bring about a quick economic recovery and soaring demand for labor in 2021.

The combination of more job openings and fewer workers has forced companies to offer higher wages. Yet the labor shortage has persisted.

But in what has been nicknamed the Great Resignation, many people have not returned to the workforce. In an analysis of economic data, the Washington Post reported last month that 3.5 million fewer people are now employed than two years ago, but only about half of them arecurrently looking for a job. Many are older workers who decided during the pandemic to take early retirement.

The combination of more job openings and fewer workers has forced companies to offer higher wages. Yet the labor shortage has persisted, leading to worsening supply chain problems and higher prices.

Low immigration is making the labor shortage worse. There are now about2 million fewer immigrants of working age than would have been expected before 2020, according to Giovanni Peri and Reem Zaiour, economists at the University of California, Davis. In an articlepublished this month, they estimated that nearly1 million of those lost immigrants would have been college-educated.

The steep drop in immigrant and nonimmigrant visa arrivals resulted in zero growth in working-age foreign-born people in the United States,they wrote.

2022may finally bring stability. In late 2021, there were some signs, particularly in government data about visa applications and international flights, that immigration levels were bouncing back from the stark lows earlier in the year. In the publicly available visa data that we have been monitoring in recent months, weve seen immigration levels higher, the Census Bureau analyst said. Weve seen visa data start to return to pre-pandemic levels, and airline international passenger counts are returning to pre-pandemic levels. Whether the ongoing omicron variant wave of the Covid-19 pandemic will once again lead to a plunge in immigration is yet to be determined.

But the toxic, anti-immigrant political climate in the United States underscored by right-wing conspiracy theories like the great replacement will make it exceedingly difficult to significantly increase immigration levels in order to ease labor shortages. Today conservatives loudly complain about inflation and supply chain woes, but their xenophobic fears seem to blind them to the economic and social dangers that can arise from chronically low levels of immigration.

In fact, the nationalist, anti-immigrant policies of theRepublican Partyare now dividingit from many of its traditional corporate supporters. To address the labor shortage, supply chain problems, and rising prices, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce long aGOP stalwart called earlier this month for a doubling of legal immigration.The fight over immigration could soon become a proxy for a broader war between the new, nationalist base of the Republican Party and itsmore traditional supporters in the business community.

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Immigration Fell as Conservatives Said Biden Fueled Crisis - The Intercept

The president we need, By Uddin Ifeanyi – Premium Times

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Evidentlynext year we will need more that a president with economic nous to navigate the minefield that the economy has become. There are trade-offs to be made. And as with the selection of the next batch of regulators for important parts of the economy, we must look increasingly to broad-spectrum competence in our choice of president.

In the more tribal space that politicking in Nigeria has become, it is no surprise that the flood of candidates announcing their bid for the office of president in next years general elections has been met by a cynical indifference to the truth. Still, despite the frenetic exertions of the incumbent government at the centre, one fact is beyond dispute: the Nigerian economy ails badly. On the back of this admission, my ideal candidate for president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria next year would be one who is comfortable with economics. He (the odds against a female candidate are, unfortunately, still very high) may yet consult marabouts, as leading politicians in these parts are wont to. He may well struggle with Macros in Excel. But, at the very least, given the depths that the economy has plumbed in the last decade, our next president should understand that the economys demand for reform, while inclusive of a root-and-branch review of the public sectors spending requirement, easily falls short of this deliverable. Stripped of all the fancy stuff, the national reform shopping list pullulates with low-hanging fruits.

Over the first hundred days of the administration, it should be easy to reverse the fiscal dominance (the central banks use of monetary policy to support the prices of government securities) that has seen the Central Bank of Nigerias initiatives favour fiscal repression (holding interest rates at low levels to depress the cost of servicing our growing public debt) over price stability. Would this by itself force inflation down? Not as far as the man on the street would want prices increases to fall.

For, in truth, we are not a low inflation environment. Infrastructure is too substandard across too many platforms and key governance processes riddled with inefficiency for this to be otherwise. But by bringing a stable price environment about (one in which the movements of domestic prices are less volatile and far more predictable), it should make planning easier, economy-wide. Would this policy plank reverse the nairas loss over the last four years? Alas, no. But again, stable prices (irrespective of the market) are always a net positive, especially if the overriding goal is to grow entrepreneurial activity. Such is the harmful effect of an unstable price regime in the making of domestic choices that we are having to deal with rising prices, despite the large levels of unemployment and underemployment across the economy. Do we need reminding that low growth and high inflation feed directly into the economys worsening security challenges?

Globally, the conversation around regulation of markets is transiting from the consumer welfare pillar to a more dynamic understanding of the alteration by the tech and comms revolution of the skein that girdles industries. Amazon, Facebook, etc. do not hurt consumer welfare.

This is why reforms to the markets are the next order of work. Forget about a workforce size review of the public sector. Desirable as part of the process of improving the public expenditure management framework, its gains come with a considerable lag, while its costs are borne upfront. So, this will require persuading large swathes of the electorate and the expenditure of dollops of political capital. It is far easier, therefore, to reform existing markets where private sector suppliers predominate. From cement through sugar, to the importation of new cars, we ought to demolish all oligopolistic and monopoly arrangements.

Globally, the conversation around regulation of markets is transiting from the consumer welfare pillar to a more dynamic understanding of the alteration by the tech and comms revolution of the skein that girdles industries. Amazon, Facebook, etc. do not hurt consumer welfare. Indeed, in most cases, the tech firms offer their services to their subscribers for free well, if you discount the monies to be made from the trove of personal data that they sit on. But such is their dominance of their respective spaces that regulators are being invited to relook the traditional focus on the welfare of consumers as the touchstone of the goal of realising efficient markets.

Because our markets have been largely stitched up, until now, the consumer welfare goal is still a valid one. Third activity level will, therefore, be to reform our regulatory environment. Our regulators, telecommunications, equity market, financial services, etc. must understand that a competitive environment is the best guarantee against producers stiffing consumers. And, thus, their central challenge is to allow the freedom of entry and exit of suppliers into any domestic market where private operators predominate, along with the free, unrestrained flow of information through those markets. The requirement that material information about a company is available to all shareholders at the same time, is obviously breached when managing directors of quoted companies spend their weekends at the country homes of the chairmen and members of their boards.

To change these laws in order to fast-track reforms, however well-intentioned or desirable, would fly in the teeth of the higher need of ring-fencing parts of the economy from short-term political considerations. That is if we can ignore the harm to the economy from a constantly changing policy environment.

At this point, wags will point out that even this minimal reform platform eventually comes up hard against legislative constraints: Enabling statutes designed to ensure the administrative and operational freedom of regulatory agencies to act in the best interest of the economy. To change these laws in order to fast-track reforms, however well-intentioned or desirable, would fly in the teeth of the higher need of ring-fencing parts of the economy from short-term political considerations. That is if we can ignore the harm to the economy from a constantly changing policy environment.

Evidently, then, next year we will need more that a president with economic nous to navigate the minefield that the economy has become. There are trade-offs to be made. And as with the selection of the next batch of regulators for important parts of the economy, we must look increasingly to broad-spectrum competence in our choice of president.

Uddin Ifeanyi, journalist manqu and retired civil servant, can be reached @IfeanyiUddin.

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The president we need, By Uddin Ifeanyi - Premium Times

What’s the point of Boris Johnson? – UnHerd

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When the Red Wall elected Boris Johnson, they thought they were getting an outsider who would take on the dreary consensus which has dominated Britain for 40 years. Instead, they got an establishment politician who spent much of the last year speaking to the values of metro cosmopolitans who represent neither a majority of the Conservative electorate nor the country.

The sheer scale of the disillusionment with Johnsons premiership struck me last week as I gave various talks in Westminster and listened to MPs voicing their frustration with the direction of travel. On the surface, their demands are clear and specific. Those among the new intake the 2019ers and Red Wallers want Johnsons advisors gone and No. 10 shaken up. They want the volume on Net Zero turned down and the volume on illegal migration turned up. They want Levelling-Up transformed from a narrow, hollow slogan into a serious, unifying and coherent project. And they want it done yesterday.

They also want Boris Johnson to govern as he campaigned; to spend more time outside of London, speaking on behalf of working people, taking on The Blob and offering policies that will resonate among the new Conservative voters, who not only gave him the Red Wall but lie at the heart of the realignment sweeping through the country. They complain about a Prime Minister whose talents as a campaigner and communicator are being squandered by advisors who neither understand this new conservatism nor the realignment on which it stands. This is compounded, they continue, by a Prime Minister who is simply too worried about being liked by the chattering classes and too reluctant to embrace the messaging and policies which would reinforce and retain his new electorate.

This disillusionment is reinforced by what many see as a deep generational and ideological rift inside the Conservative parliamentary party, a rift symbolised this week by one minister deriding Red Wallers as a load of fucking nobodies. One obvious question after the 2019 general election was how traditional True Blue free-traders would sit alongside a more blue-collar, one-nation conservatism. Fast forward to today and this rift is now on full display, reflected in the more than a few 2019ers who simply do not believe their southern, affluent and typically Oxbridge-educated colleagues are seriously invested in levelling-up the Red Wall, who they say resent the new focus on the north, who look at their partys new blue-collar voters with a combination of bemusement and snobbery and who, they say, remain much too wedded to the old conservatism of the Eighties, failing to grasp that the rules of engagement amid the new, post-2016 politics are very different.

There are certainly Thatcherites among the Red Wallers, who look back rather than forward. But there are just as many who complain that the new, post-2016 conservatism cannot answer the questions thrown up by the realignment by turning the clock back 40 years. Thatcherism, one MP points out, represented a genuine, radical and counter-cultural pushback to the dominant zeitgeist at the time. Anchored in a specific philosophy, it offered one answer to a set of questions thrown up by the chaos, gridlock and failure of the Seventies. Today, both the questions and the answers are very different and require a different approach. We have transitioned into a politics where providing people with cultural freedom has become just as important as providing them with economic freedom only the Conservative Party has failed to keep up.

This also finds its expression in an instinctive suspicion of whether Johnsons leadership rivals really could maintain and continue the realignment. You do not have to travel far in Conservative circles to find people who will tell you that anybody can lead a realignment. Just put a Sunak or a Truss on top and throw the working-class northerners a bit of Red Meat. But this is a fundamental misread.

Realignments are both bottom-up and top-down. They depend on underlying demographic trends which are pushing non-graduates and workers Right-wards and graduates and professionals Left-wards; but they also depend on the leaders who pull them into politics and turn them into votes. The realignment in Scotland would simply not have been possible without Nicola Sturgeon, in the same way that the realignment in America would not have been possible without Trump.

Boris Johnson is a greatly weakened figure but he has at least demonstrated proof of concept, driving the realignment by campaigning for Brexit (liking Johnson was a significant driver of public support for leaving the EU) and then tearing through the Red Wall (liking Johnson was a significant driver of Labour to Conservative defectors). While many of the new intake loathe what has become of Johnsons premiership, they can still sense his lingering appeal in parts of the country where, they say, other Conservatives would simply struggle if not fail to reach.

Some fear that a Prime Minister Sunak or Prime Minister Truss neither of whom are really known outside of the Westminster village would be unable to hold the coalition together, a coalition which Johnson himself did not simply mobilise in 2019 but over much of the last decade. While this relationship is damaged, it is also one which, like a long and difficult marriage, still has deep roots. It was shaped by Johnsons decision to campaign for Brexit, then against Theresa Mays Soft Brexit, and then to Get Brexit Done in 2019. In many respects, in the eyes of many voters, Boris Johnson is the realignment: he is the one politician who had the courage to go against the grain and offer the country a break from the dreary, narrow orthodoxy which had dominated their lives for decades.

People have swiftly forgotten that only eight months ago, Johnson won the Labour heartland of Hartlepool for the first time in decades. He has also enjoyed major gains at local elections across Labour strongholds; its all strong evidence that the realignment continues and is by no means in reverse. Twelve weeks ago, the party was averaging 40% in the polls.

Could Sunak, Truss or anyone else manage to hold and extend this coalition in the two years before the next general election? Some MPs describe Sunak as George Osborne 2.0: metropolitan, slick, London, competent but also disconnected from the blue-collar conservatives, the previously apathetic, cultural conservatives who now represent a major flank of the partys electorate. Sunak, they worry, seems more a relic from the Osborne days, than a counter-cultural general who can rally the masses. There is a counter argument to this, of course, which is that in recent polls Sunak performs strongly across northern England, even eclipsing Johnsons own ratings. But Sunaks critics reply that it is easy to be popular when you have given people 70 billion of furlough and much of the country still does not know who you are or what you really believe.

The questions are obvious and difficult to answer. How would Sunak, the partner of a billionaire, a graduate of Oxford and Stanford who wears 1,300 suits and starts his days spinning on a 2,000 bicycle while eating blueberries hold the Red Wall? We hear much about his support for traditional fiscal conservatism and the picture of Nigel Lawson which hangs over his desk, but is this really what the new conservative voters want? Is politics not in a state of realignment precisely because the managerial, technocratic and polished fiscal conservatism of the Cameroon and Osborne era, along with an acceptance of progressive politics, alienated so many? And given that friends of Sunak say he routinely prioritises avoiding disagreement over pinning his own political stripes to the mast, would such an approach really work in a politics that is far more polarised, cross-cutting and rooted more strongly in values than appeals to economic competence?

These doubts, these questions, are what have so far prevented more MPs from rebelling against Johnson. But how long will that hold? So weak is the Prime Minister, that he is now only one error, one leak, one policy blunder away from losing his grip on power altogether. Furthermore, MPs worry that even a Johnson reboot a Boris Johnson 2.0 is pointless unless it is anchored in a guiding philosophy which can reconnect him with his new voters.

One week its Net Zero and animal sentience, complained one MP, the next its tax rises. A political project which began life by promising the British people that it would be genuinely revolutionary that it would springboard from Brexit into far-reaching reforms which would overturn the orthodoxy and push the country in a completely new course has instead become glaringly conventional.

Boris Johnson was never going to be an ism. But in the early days of his counter-cultural premiership there was at least a small hope that he might at least surround himself with thinkers who genuinely grasp the realignment and can feed it with a radical new offer which cuts across Left and Right in the same way Brexit disrupted the old loyalties five years earlier. Today, though, they see a Prime Minister who is bobbing on the surface, trying to be all things to all voters with no clear sense of direction or underlying purpose.

And now his core voters, the ones who really matter, have noticed too. It is the Leavers, the workers, the Greggs Guys who are abandoning him in droves, running not to Labour, but into apathy, giving up on the one person who, in 2019, like Mrs Thatcher 40 years earlier, promised them that he would shatter the consensus and radically reshape the country. The difference between Thatcher and Johnson is that only one of them followed through. Where is that Boris?, asked one MP.

They have a point.

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What's the point of Boris Johnson? - UnHerd

Dr Jacqueline Rowarth: Why Utopia is still a long way off – New Zealand Herald

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Dr Jacqueline Rowarth. Photo / Supplied

Opinion: Futurists present Utopia for New Zealand in the next 20 years, yet how to achieve this vision is hazy and the execution steps are almost non-existent, Dr Jacqueline Rowarth writes.

It is the time of year when trends for the 12 months ahead are announced, goals are vocalised, and visions are created.

Fitting the pattern is the Utopia being presented to us by futurists, who promote the idea that - "This is what the world/NZ could look like, and this is how it would be achieved. All you have to do is"

The next word might be "believe".

There are certain similarities to political visions and, just like many, political or not, the strategy on how to achieve the vision is hazy and the execution steps are almost non-existent.

A recent vision, designed to inspire change, involves New Zealand being a world leader in natural infrastructure, clean hydrogen energy, engineered wood and high-quality low-emissions food within the next 20 years.

The change required to achieve this Utopia was acknowledged as challenging but thought "worth it" because the economy would be prosperous.

This last bit is the hiccup for at least some scientists, engineers and economists. Not all (stereotyping the whole of the professions would result in a whole lot of social media claims about "completely wrong"), but certainly some.

"Natural infrastructure" aligns with the "nature-based solutions" proposed by some pundits. Both sound great but meanings are variable.

The former might mean wooden buildings, as proposed for the rebuilding of Christchurch by then CEO of Scion (the forestry Crown Research Institute) Dr Warren Parker.

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Concrete, glass and steel dominated, however, and the economy of Canterbury and New Zealand thrived as the building industry boomed.

Wood was not considered seriously and Sir Bob Jones' plan for the world's highest wooden office tower (a 25 storey, 52m-tall building with laminated timber columns), announced in 2017, hasn't yet opened.

Other infrastructure such as roads, bridges and rail (which does appear in the new Utopia, with more people using public transport) also require concrete and steel.

The raw ingredients for both require mining, and in New Zealand, that means gaining approvals.

The environmental case for sand being mined for building and other infrastructure off Pakiri Beach, north of Auckland is already the subject of debate.

The application for mining off the South Taranaki Bight has been through several court processes and failed in the High Court last year.

The Utopian concept of natural infrastructure turns out to be an "emerging term to include native forests, wetlands, coastal environments and other ecosystems that store and clean water, protect against drought, flooding and storms, boost biodiversity and absorb carbon."

In the past (last year) natural resources and ecosystem services might have been used as descriptors.

These ecosystems are extremely important. They are part of life and add value through their very existence.

Ground-breaking work has attempted to quantify that value, and erudite as well as practical research papers have been written. The actual value of Natural Capital remains hard to quantify, however, and when people are asked to pay for it, the value changes.

"Who pays?" remains the issue. Most of the areas do not generate income per se. Many require income for maintenance.

As part of her doctoral studies, Dr Estelle Dominati (with supervisors Dr Alec Mackay from AgResearch and Dr Murray Patterson from Massey University) calculated the value of the ecosystem services provided by soil on a Waikato dairy farm.

Listen to Jamie Mackay interview Dr Jacqueline Rowarth on The Country below:

To replace the services given by the soil (such as food production, flood mitigation, filtering of contaminants etc) would have cost $16,390 per hectare per year in 2014.

The value of the milk produced per hectare was $4,757.

This leaves $11,000 per hectare which, if added to the cost of milk, would treble the base price.

The farmer manages the ecosystem services of the land to produce the milk and provide income to invest in the maintenance of the soil and enterprise, as well as pay taxes and rates so that national and local government can manage infrastructure and services as well.

The Utopian vision for 20 years hence involved the high quality, low emissions food which farmers already produce but in the future doing so will involve organic and regenerative agriculture.

This perpetuates the myth that organic and regenerative approaches produce fewer emissions and create fewer contaminants than conventional agriculture.

They don't. Per unit of food they usually have a greater impact. Again, research papers and reports are available to provide the information.

Green hydrogen, also suggested, is equally problematic.

It sounds good, but the energy required to create it currently outweighs the energy created. Hence the concept of "green" but it hasn't yet been proven: more research is necessary.

All of this means that Utopia is still a long way off but doesn't mean that sensible steps can't be taken. Scientific research and futurists agree that reducing fossil fuel use is vital.

The nose-to-tail holiday traffic over the holiday period indicates that rethinking the use of private cars hasn't yet featured in resolutions for the New Year.

There is still time to change and making the change is urgent. Scientists and futurists agree on that, too.

- Dr Jacqueline Rowarth, Adjunct Professor Lincoln University, is a farmer-elected director of DairyNZ and Ravensdown. The analysis and conclusions above are her own. jsrowarth@gmail.com

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Dr Jacqueline Rowarth: Why Utopia is still a long way off - New Zealand Herald

Irish Spring debuts first-ever Super Bowl spot and cleans up with a fresh rebrand – The Drum

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Colgate-Palmolive portfolio mainstay Irish Spring will make its Super Bowl debut at this years big game, today releasing a trailer for its utopia-inspired ad. In parallel with the advertising effort, the brand has announced it is rebranding with new formulas and packaging meant to appeal to young consumers.

Irish Spring, the classic soap brand born in 1970 Germany, today announced it will join heavy hitters Frito-Lay, Google, Taco Bell, Toyota and others at Super Bowl LVI on February 13. It will be the brands first-ever Super Bowl ad though not the first time that the brand has caused a football-related stir (a Georgia grocery store famously pulled the product from its shelves ahead of a University of Georgia game against Notre Dames Fighting Irish).

Irish Spring today unveiled a teaser for the spot that depicts an imagined utopia where everyone and everything smells fresh and clean. In the film, a middle-aged man in a graphic tee shirt arrives on a raft to a land of beautiful waterfalls and a community of white and beige-clad residents living in harmony. The land is dubbed Irish Spring, naturally. London-based TEN6 assisted in developing the creative.

Were all about nice smells and have dreamt up the magical nice-smelling world of Irish Spring to express that," Colgate-Palmolive's general manager of personal care for North America Emily Fong Mitchell tells The Drum. "To highlight our commitment to totally modernizing the brand, we wanted to create a TV spot that pays homage to the Irish Springs history and association with humor, nature, freshness and scent, while bringing it to life in a new way that explicitly shows Zillennial guys what were all about. And thats good smells.

The brand plans to run the full-length video in a 30-second in-game spot a move that will run it around $6.5m.

In tandem with its big game debut, the soap brand, owned by New York-based Colgate-Palmolive, has announced it is updating some of its formulas and will roll out new products in newly-designed packaging. The new packaging features a streamlined shape, a modernized logo and new graphics.

The new products will reportedly hit select shelves on Super Bowl Sunday, with additional rollouts slated for the weeks following the event.

Despite suffering supply chain challenges alongside countless other manufacturers and retailers, Colgate-Palmolive has fared relatively well in recent months. Though its latest earnings indicated mixed results, year-over-year revenue was up more than 6% year-over-year, from $4.15bn to $4.41bn. Rebranding and advertising efforts like those underway at Irish Spring could help the company accelerate this growth.

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Irish Spring debuts first-ever Super Bowl spot and cleans up with a fresh rebrand - The Drum

Lockout extended in Alice Springs, Amoonguna, Yuendumu and Yuelumu as the NT records 314 new cases – ABC News

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A lockout has been extended in Alice Springs and the remote communities of Amoonguna, Yuendumu and Yuelamu for a further seven days, the NT Health Minister has announced, as Central Australia's COVID-19 case numbers remain at a "concerning" level.

"What is concerning is the movement of [people]," Natasha Fyles said.

"We're seeing small case numbers popping up in large numbers of communities we know that we have a very transient community, and we're seeing that with our case numbers."

Under lockout restrictions, unvaccinated people can only leave their homes for essential reasons, while people who are fully vaccinated can live as normal with a mask mandate.

A lockdown has also been extended for another week in Galiwin'ku in East Arnhem Land.

Gunyangara (Ski Beach) will enter a seven-day lockdown, as will Utopia in Central Australia and Wurrumiyanga on the Tiwi Islands.

It comes as the NT recorded 314 new COVID-19 cases,more than two-thirds of which were detected using rapid antigen tests.

Sixty-three COVID patients are in hospital, with six receiving oxygen, and one is in intensive care.

It's the ninth day in a row the number of COVID-19 hospitalisations in the NT has increased.

Of the 4,048 active coronavirus cases in the NT, she said about 1,500 were in the Top End, 500 in Central Australia, 70 in East Arnhem Land, 200 in Big Rivers and about 30 in the Barkly.

The community of Utopia's lockdown began from 2pm on Saturday, Ms Fyles said.

"This is a community of concern for us," she said.

"There were 22 new cases in Utopia, and these cases were across four outstations."

Ms Fyles said the double-dose vaccination rate in Utopia was around 40 per cent.

"We really need the residents of Utopia to come forward and get vaccinated," she said.

"It is not too late. Our health teams will not be asking you questions they simply want you vaccinated."

Eight new cases were recorded at Amoonguna, and one new case was recorded at Yuelamu.

No new cases were recorded in Yuendumu, but Ms Fyles said, "the situation there remains concerning".

"Certainly we believe that COVID is present in that community, and people need to be very vigilant," she said.

Three new COVID-19 cases were recorded at HartsRange, all of whom are believed to have been infectious while in the community.

One new case was recorded at Docker River in a busy household with a large number of people, while another was recordedat Mount Leibig,one at Hermannsburg and one at Ti-Tree.

Ms Fyles said she understood coronavirus cases were present in all the town camps in Alice Springs.

Five new cases were recorded in Mataranka in the Big Rivers region.

Ten new cases were recorded in Galiwin'ku in East Arnhem Land,bringing the total number of cases there to 62 across 24 households.

On the Gove Peninsula, two new cases were recorded at Yirrkala, bringing that total cluster to 13, and five new cases were recorded at Gunyangara (Ski Beach).

One new case was recorded at Milingimbi, and on Groote Eylandt, five new cases recorded at Umbakumba and two new cases at Angurugu.

On the Tiwi Islands, one new case was recorded in Wurrumiyanga, which also entered a seven-day lockdown at 2pm.

"We have got strong concerns from the community, that they're worriedjust with some social unrest," Ms Fyles said.

"I understand that there's a large funeral that was intended to be held soon."

Ms Fyles said the lockdown was intended to limit movement and help authorities boost testing numbers in the community.

Of the new cases identified in Darwin, Ms Fyles said one was recorded at the Darwin prison and one at a Salvation Army hostel that was identified by Danila Dilba Aboriginal health service.

Nine new cases were recorded at the Batten Road accommodation centre, in Marrara, all of whom have been transferred to the Howard Springs quarantine facility.

Ms Fyles said315 people were currently isolating at Howard Springs.

She said there was"plenty of capacity" for coronaviruspatientsto isolate there if they felt well enough to be transferred from Royal Darwin or Palmerston hospitals to free up some beds.

"But if we've got a highly vaccinated population, if we can slow that spread, our health resources and our services can match the demand."

NT Acting Chief Health Officer Marco Briceno said coronavirus cases in the NT had stabilised over the past few weeks, with about 400 to 450 new cases on average recorded per day.

"We have seen in recent days a slight increase in our hospitalisations, and that is to be expected," Dr Briceno said.

"Hospitalisations tend to be late in the onset of the disease, and then to present later on and peak later."

He said the Territory's hospital admissions now represent 1.6 per cent of active cases across the Territory.

Hesaid many of those COVID patients were in hospital forreasons unrelated totreatment for coronavirus.

Dr Briceno also said health authorities in remote Aboriginal communities were prioritising patients that required a higher level of care due to pre-existing health conditions, followed by people who cannot safely isolate at home, followed by general community members.

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Lockout extended in Alice Springs, Amoonguna, Yuendumu and Yuelumu as the NT records 314 new cases - ABC News

The Growth in Number of ETF Strategies Also Hit a Record in 2021 – ETF Trends

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Along with attracting record inflows in 2021, the exchange traded fund universe also enjoyed a record expansion in total number of offerings last year as well.

According to Morningstar data, a total of 1,503 ETFs and exchange traded commodities were launched in 2021, compared to the previous record of 873 recorded in 2018, the Financial Times reports.

Meanwhile, 264 ETFs were liquidated or shuttered, which was lower than the 510 closed down in 2020 and the lowest number of removed products since 2014, when the industry was only a fraction of its current size. The low closure rate also translated to net growth in the ETF count to 1,239, or almost twice the previous record of 656 set in 2010.

The boom in listed ETF offerings also came when the ETF industry attracted over $1 trillion in net inflows for the calendar for the first time over the course of 2021, bringing the total assets under management to over $10 trillion.

The market and the [ETF]structure just seems to be getting hotter as a destination for money, Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, told the Financial Times.

[In the U.S.]flows were 80 per cent beyond their old record last year and launches 60 per cent. That is definitely correlation/causation, Balchunas said, adding that the strength of both flows and net ETF launches were driven by strong financial markets.

Kenneth Lamont, senior fund analyst for passive strategies at Morningstar, also highlighted varying drivers that backed the specific launches in different markets.

In Europe most new launches have been ESG [environmental, social, and governance]and/or thematic. In the US, the story is different where more than half of launches have been active ETFs, Lamont told the Financial Times.

Last year also stood out for the lower number of shuttered ETF strategies, especially in the second half of the year when only 102 ETFs closed down.

Balchunas attributed the sticking power of ETFs to markets being so agreeable last year, borderline utopia, with the S&P 500 rising 27% over 2021. In the U.S., 70.4% of ETFs brought in money over 2021, according to Bloomberg data, the highest percentage in the modern era.

It wasnt just the one thing that was working, Balchunas said. It was almost like the fish were jumping into the boat last year. It was just such a favourable year that there was no reason to close anything.

For more news, information, and strategy, visit ETF Trends.

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The Growth in Number of ETF Strategies Also Hit a Record in 2021 - ETF Trends

Is Star Trek’s Dream of a World Without Money Utopian or Dystopian? | Jon Hersey, Thomas Walker-Werth – Foundation for Economic Education

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In Star Trek: First Contact, Captain Picard explains to a 21st-century visitor, The economics of the future is somewhat different. You see, money doesnt exist in the 24th century.

Yusaku Maezawa, a multibillionaire who recently traveled to space, could double for just such a visitor. He recently echoed Picards idea in a press conference he gave from the International Space Station, saying,

Someday, money will disappear suddenly from this world. . . . my bank account will be zero. Everyones bank account will be zero. And everything in stores [will be] free. So, everyone can take everything for free from stores. If you love cars, you can ride a Ferrari as soon as you wantfor free.

The fashion tycoon added that capitalism is not sustainable and should be replaced with a money-free society as soon as possible, a view he promises to explain in a film he plans to make (which no doubt will cost a small fortune to produce). Is this a truly futuristic ideaone we should strive for? Or is it actually rather primitive and unworkable?

Capitalism, to the extent it has existed, has been incredibly successful at lifting most of humanity out of poverty, incentivizing the creation of incredible, life-enhancing technologies, such as those Maezawa used to make his fortunenot to mention, travel to space. But its long had its critics, and he is far from the first to propose a sort of Garden-of-Eden world where everything is plentiful and free. Karl Marx envisioned a similar utopia. Communism, he said, ultimately would bring about a world without money:

In the case of socialised production the money-capital is eliminated. Society distributes labour-power and means of production to the different branches of production. The producers may, for all it matters, receive paper vouchers entitling them to withdraw from the social supplies of consumer goods a quantity corresponding to their labour-time. These vouchers are not money. They do not circulate.

And although society distributes labour-powermeaning government planners tell people what to do to ensure that things (such as free Ferraris) get madeworkers could also all pursue whatever hobbies or occupations strike their fancy. [I]n communist society, Marx explained,

where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, to fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have in mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.

Because, in such a world, society regulates the general production, only social planners would need to worry about how all of this somehow adds up to meet everyones needs. The worker need not concern himself with producing in-demand goods that he can trade for others. As a modern utopian and self-described social engineer, Jacque Fresco, explains:

all goods and services are available to all people without the need for means of exchange such as money, credits, barter or any other means. For this to be achieved, all resources must be declared as the common heritage of all Earths inhabitants. Equipped with the latest scientific and technological marvels, humankind could reach extremely high productivity levels and create an abundance of resources.

In other words, a handful of technocrats would somehow make possible a couch potatos paradise. Thats not an idea that resonates with me or with the ambitious young people I know. On the other hand, burned-out Chinese workerswho recently launched the lying flat movement to popularize opting out of Xi Jinpings continual struggle toward tech dominancelikely would welcome the respite. Ironically, though, the Chinese Communist Party views this widespread acknowledgment of fatigue as subversive childishness, evidencing the individuals supposedly immoral desire to put his own selfish interests above those of the nation.

Under communism, a handful of technocrats would somehow make possible a couch potatos paradise. Thats not an idea that resonates with me or with the ambitious young people I know.

But, if not in the heart of communism, might Marxs Eden be workable elsewhere?

Although Marx considered himself a social scientist and economistand although his ideas are still some of the most widely taughtthey arent much taught in social science or economics departments, except as foils. Thats because virtually all of Marxs hypotheses have been debunked. For one, whos going to build the free Ferraris that Maezawa has dreamed up, never mind tackle more mundane tasks, with no incentive? But for those who dont find such commonsense thought experiments convincingor who think, as Marx did, that human nature will somehow mysteriously changethe impracticality of Marxs moneyless state was demonstrated by what Austrian economists have come to call the calculation problem. Ludwig von Mises once explained the problem as follows:

If a hydroelectric power station is to be built, one must know whether or not this is the most economical way to produce the energy needed. How can he know this if he cannot calculate costs and output?

We may admit that in its initial period a socialist regime could to some extent rely upon the experience of the preceding age of capitalism. But what is to be done later, as conditions change more and more? Of what use could the prices of 1900 be for the director in 1949? And what use can the director in 1980 derive from the knowledge of the prices of 1949?

The paradox of planning is that it cannot plan, because of the absence of economic calculation. What is called a planned economy is no economy at all. It is just a system of groping about in the dark.

In short, without prices, people have no relatable, quantifiable means of comparing and contrasting options about how to spend time and capital, which is vital for determining how best to use these naturally scarce resources. New Scientist magazine reported that in the future, cars could be powered by hazelnuts, said comedian Jimmy Fallon, in a skit that captures this point hilariously. Thats encouraging, considering an eight-ounce jar of hazelnuts costs about nine dollars. Yeah, Ive got an idea for a car that runs on bald eagle heads and Faberg eggs.

The paradox of planning is that it cannot plan, because of the absence of economic calculation. What is called a planned economy is no economy at all. It is just a system of groping about in the dark. Ludwig von Mises

But theres more. As has been shown with so many of Marxs ideas, a moneyless society is not only impractical, its also deeply immoral. Marx often grumbled about greedy capitalists alienating workers from their labor. The focus on efficiency, he said, reduced the worker to a mere extension of a factorys machines, rendering him a brute tool of capitalist exploitation.

Of course, workers chose industrial jobs because they paid better than those in agriculture and the like. And even if boring, such jobs rarely were so backbreaking as life on the farm. Far from alienating workers from their labor, the capitalist arranged new modes of production that vastly increased the value of that labor, not only for himself, but for workers, too. Whereas a slave truly is alienated from his laborhe works but is deprived of the fruits of his effortthe industrial worker could count on greater returns from his labor than ever before. Over the course of the Industrial Revolution and the following centuries, those returns have grown immensely and reduced the percentage of people living in extreme poverty from more than 80 percent to less than 20.

Money stores the value of ones effort. Its made possible by the legal protection of property rights. In the words of Francisco dAnconia from Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged:

Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgment of the traders.

Just as the worker owns himself, he owns the values he produces, on which his life depends, either directly or indirectly via the sale of those values. Without money and the property rights that underlie it, we all would be truly and fully alienated from our labor, left without enforceable claim to the values we spend our timeand thus our livescreating.

"Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort." Ayn Rand

Thats an idea hardly fit even for science fiction, one best relegated to the dystopian genre.

This piece is republished with permission from The Objective Standard.

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Is Star Trek's Dream of a World Without Money Utopian or Dystopian? | Jon Hersey, Thomas Walker-Werth - Foundation for Economic Education

What You Always Wanted To Know About Chelm Before You Ever Knew About Chelm – jewishboston.com

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One time, the fishermen of Chelm brought their problem to the town council. To understand their problem, you have to know that the favorite fish of Chelmers (people of Chelm call themselves Chelmers, just like people of New York are New Yorkers, people of Dublin are Dubliners, and people of Cincinnati areOK, back to the story)was herring: herring in vinegar, herring pickled, herring in wine, herring in sour cream, smoked herring. The craving was greatest when onions were harvested in late summer and early fall. But there was no herring in the Chelm River. The herring had to be brought downriver by barge. Chelms fishermen had an idea, but they needed the help of the town council. The fishermen reported that other towns on the river improved their fishing by raising lots of baby fish and releasing them into the river. This, the fishermen said, was called salting the river.

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Naturally, the town council immediately fell in love with this idea. The mayor even suggested that salting the river might help the local fish become more like herring. The council met for seven days and seven nights, trying to place a Chelm twist on the idea, to improve it as only the wise folk of Chelm can improve every idea. In the end, they dismissed the necessity of raising baby fish from scratch. Too much time. Too much bother. Instead, they sent Chelms fishermen upriver to Brisk to buy barrels of pickled herring. When the barrels arrived, the herring was tasted by members of the town council, approved, chopped by volunteers and thrown into the river. Thats right! The Chelm River was salted with thousands upon thousands of bits and pieces of pickled herring. The fishermen of Chelm happily look forwardin a year or soto raising their nets chock full of herring.

Of course, there was a real city of Chelm where a few Jews lived from medieval times onward. They tell me that the town does not move, but it is sometimes located in Russia, sometimes in Ukraine, sometimes in Poland. Right now it is in Poland, but with Putin on the move, if you blink, you might miss its next location.

In the 16th century, the Jews of Chelm hired a rabbi named Elijah Baal Shem who came close to making them famous. His grandson later claimed that his holy Grandpa Elijah created a golem and brought it to life. This was not the famous golem of Pragueit was the nearly-famous golem of Chelm. Other than that, the Jews of Chelm were just like Jews in many other non-Jewish towns. Most of Chelms people were Ukrainian and the name Chelm comes from the Ukrainian word for plateau since the town is on a little rise. This is not the Chelm of the Chelm stories.

Even now, scholars are debating where the name Chelm came from our Jewish stories, but while I was sleeping one night after a rigorous day of writing comedy, an angel came and revealed it to me. The name Chelm comes from the Hebrew and Yiddish word for dream. Chelm is chalom. Chelm is also a place where everybody knows your name. But Chelm is not the first city in the history of the world to be inhabited entirely by fools.

Cicero, whose name almost nobody remembers these days, said that one ancient Greek village called Abdera was a town full of fools. Of course Cicero was a Roman politician and he could have made the same remark about Rome a hundred years earlier when the Emperor Caligula appointed his horse to be a Roman senator. But by the time Cicero came around to talk about the foolish ancient Greeks of Abdera, Caligulas horse had been removed from the Roman senate because the other senators objected that it could only vote neigh.

Another town of fools popped up around 1200, when King John of England was looking for a place to build his new hunting lodge. He sent out scouts to scour the countryside for a good spot. The people of Gotham did not want the king hunting in their village, so they conspired to behave as imbeciles when the kings scouts were about. Some Gothamites pretended they were building a wall to keep a bird penned in. Some Gothamites tumbled wheels of cheese downhill in hopes the cheese would deliver itself to the market at Nottingham. Some Gothamites pretended to be trying to drown an eel. When King John heard about the fools of Gotham, he decided to build elsewhere. The wise men of Gotham then boasted that more fools pass through Gotham than remain in it.

The stories of the wise men of Gotham are just as famous as the stories of the wise folk of Chelm. Talk about lost opportunities: When it came time for choosing a city for Batman and Robin, the inventors of the Joker, the Penguin and Mr. Freeze decided on Gotham because they did not think anyone in Hollywood could pronounce the ch in Chelm. But just imagine for a moment Chelm with its own chaped chrusader.

So far, we have cities of fools in ancient Greece, Rome and England, but it is not over. In 1516, Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia, a book about folks on an island he claimed was in the newly discovered New World. The book was in Latin, but in Greek, the word utopia literally means nowhere. In Germany, scholars read Utopia and thought Sir Thomas was foolish. An anonymous German gathered a bunch of stories about an imaginary town called Schilda. In Utopia, people of good sense, left on their own, solve problems and build a perfect society. In Schilda, people of good sense, left on their own, indulge in group-think and manage to mess up everything. They were a dystopia, a true city of fools.

Utopia was popular among scholars, but the Schilda stories, written in German, were wildly popular among all Germansnon-Jews and Jews alike. German Jews heard about the stories and wanted to read them. They could speak and understand German. They could read Hebrew. But few Jews back then could decipher the German alphabet. The obvious answer was to publish the in transliteration, sounding out the German in Hebrew characters. So the first Chelm stories were stories of the wise men of Schilda.

Press ahead 200 years and the Schilda stories were still being told and retold, printed and reprinted by Germans and Jews, but the Jewish versions had become more and more Yiddish. As Jewish variations crept into the stories, Jews discarded the town name of Schilda (no Jews lived there) and, by 1867, one version of the stories used the town name of Chelm for the very first time.

You know the rest. You saw it on Broadway in Fiddler on the Roof. In the 20th century, a bunch of Yiddish writers grabbed the Chelm stories and they became the Jewish Gone with the Wind. People like Shalom Aleichem and Mocher Seforim and Isaac Bashevis Singer lengthened the stories, took away a lot of the simple humor and added a lot of pathos and bathos to turn out nostalgia for the great days of Jewish Eastern Europe. Altogether, it has to be said, between the pogroms and the Holocaust, there were probably 40 or 50 great days in Eastern Europe to remember and Yiddish literature milked them for all they were worth.

Unfortunately, by this time, all that was left of the classic Chelm canon were a choice few stories that children easily understood. For decades, the same few stories were retold and re-illustrated as childrens books portraying the 40 or 50 good days of Eastern Europe. Increasingly, Chelms biting satire and social commentary was blunted.

You know what they say? Nostalgia is just not what it used to be. For me, Chelm is humor that Jews share with non-Jews; in fact, humor that Jews learned from non-Jews, before the 19th century. Chelm is either the Jewish version of or the creative spur for the town of Missitucky in Finians Rainbow. Chelm is the slapstick inspiration for the Marx brothers and the three stooges. Chelm is the derivation of the comedy of Burns and Allen and Jack Benny and Phil Silvers. You just need to read these stories as pure humor, slapstick humor and classic tales of the folk. Of course, if you read my book, The Wise Folk of Chelm, thats what you get.

The most repeated Chelm story of all time sums it all up. The rabbi of Chelm was asked, Which is more important? The sun or the moon? He replies, The moon. The sun shines in the day when there is plenty of light and we hardly need it at all. But the moon shines at night when we cant see much without it.

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Changing COVID-19 health advice, barriers to testing and isolating are disadvantaging Aboriginal Territorians, say peak bodies – ABC News

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Many Indigenous Territorians arefinding it increasingly difficult to isolate andkeep up with the frequent changes toCOVID-19 health advice, say leaders of Aboriginal peak bodies.

John Paterson, chief executive of the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance NT (AMSANT), said the "consistent changing of the different measures [and] different restrictions" was "really confusing".

"That model won't work here in the Northern Territory in our remote communities," he said.

"When we've got large populations residing in dwellings with 20+ people,you can't isolate and you can't do all of those other public health measures."

To overcome this barrier, he suggested the Commonwealth or NT governments set up Defence Force-styleisolation facilities in overcrowdedcommunities.

"If there's overcrowding in communities we need to get a team out there to assess whether it is viable to erect one of these huge defence [tents] these temporary isolation facilities," he said.

Mr Paterson said he also wanted more clinicians on the ground assessing and treating coronavirus patients in remote areas.

"Weneed help, and if we don't get help we're going to have a dire situation probably have deaths on our hands and we don't want to see that happening," he said.

The low-vaccinatedcommunity of Utopia in Central Australia entered a seven-day lockdown on Saturday after recording 22 coronavirus cases.

A further two cases were recorded on Sunday.

Michael Gravener, CEO of the local Urapuntja Aboriginal Corporation, said he was worried potential flooding ofkey roads would blockaccess to food and medicine during the lockdown.

"Our biggest concern is, in a few days if there's no back-up plan for things like if we can't access those homelands because of the weather, we've got the perfect storm here," hesaid.

"With more and more consistent rainfall, we could have serious issues getting in and out."

He said the NT government should have a "helicopter on stand-by for food drops if need be, and medicines for people".

"We've got the food, and the store's got the food, but the issue is with distributing it," he said.

Mr Gravener agreed"communication was a serious problem", sayinghe had no idea the homelands in Utopia wereentering lockdown until it was announced in Saturday'spress conference.

"A lot of people are really poor here, so to expect them to live in isolation in some of the housing conditions they live in, is a big ask," he said.

Hesaid he supported Mr Paterson's suggestion of setting up mobile isolation facilities, "even if it's a big tent system where you've got a fan and lots of airflow".

Another hurdlefacingsome Territorians is easy access to COVID-19 testing.

On Sunday, 212 new coronavirus cases were recorded in the NT overnight.

But Scott McIntyre, CEO of Thamarrurr Development Corporation, said people sleeping rough had found it difficult to get tested for the virus.

"There's no way for them to get to East Arm [testing clinic]," he said.

"We have had people catching taxis tothe testing clinic, spending over $100 in a taxi just to get there and get tested so they can get home.

"Some of those people in taxis are being turned away, and told there's too many people in the car. Some people have gone through to get RAT tests and been given PCRs."

Mr McIntyre saidthe corporation helpedabout 30 people from Wadeye in the West Daly region on Friday who were unable to get tested for coronavirusbefore they were due to travel.

"We found nine positive cases in that cohort," he said.

Mr McIntyre said the regular changes to COVID-19 health messaginghad made it difficult for some Territorians to keep up, especially if English wasn't their first language.

"It's not accessible to them from a language perspective, a world view perspective and the whole system is set up in a way that is really difficult for them to navigate," he said.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Health Minister Natasha Fyles said the government was willing to help improve access tocoronavirus testing.

"We're willing to work with those remote communities that have organisations that represent them, to try and ensure that there is a supply," she said.

"But we need to make sure that we keep our RAT tests for the clinical guidelines that our health officials have advised us."

The NT government said NT Health will continue to post regular coronavirus updates on its social media channels, including information about who needs to isolate and get tested.

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Changing COVID-19 health advice, barriers to testing and isolating are disadvantaging Aboriginal Territorians, say peak bodies - ABC News

Space Colonization – Top 3 Pros and Cons – ProCon.org

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While humans have long thought of gods living in the sky, the idea of space travel or humans living in space dates to at least 1610 after the invention of the telescope when German astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote to Italian astronomer Galileo: Let us create vessels and sails adjusted to the heavenly ether, and there will be plenty of people unafraid of the empty wastes. In the meantime, we shall prepare, for the brave sky-travellers, maps of the celestial bodies.

In popular culture, space travel dates back to at least the mid-1600s when Cyrano de Bergerac first wrote of traveling to space in a rocket. Space fantasies flourished after Jules Vernes From Earth to the Moon was published in 1865, and again when RKO Pictures released a film adaptation, A Trip to the Moon, in 1902. Dreams of space settlement hit a zenith in the 1950s with Walt Disney productions such as Man and the Moon, and science fiction novels including Ray Bradburys The Martian Chronicles (1950).

Fueling popular imagination at the time was the American space race with Russia, amid which NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was formed in the United States on July 29, 1958, when President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law. After the Russians put the first person, Yuri Gagarin, in space on Apr. 12, 1961, NASA put the first people, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on the Moon in July 1969. What was science fiction began to look more like possibility. Over the next six decades, NASA would launch space stations, land rovers on Mars, and orbit Pluto and Jupiter, among other accomplishments. Launched by President Trump in 2017, NASAs ongoing Artemis program intends to return humans to the Moon by 2024, landing the first woman on the lunar surface. The lunar launch is more likely to happen in 2025, due to a lag in space suit technology and delays with the Space Launch System rocket, the Orion capsule, and the lunar lander

As of June 17, 2021, three countries had space programs with human space flight capabilities: China, Russia, and the United States. Indias planned human space flights have been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but they may launch in 2023. However, NASA ended its space shuttle program in 2011 when the shuttle Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 21. NASA astronauts going into space afterward rode along with Russians until 2020 when SpaceX took over and first launched NASA astronauts into space on Apr. 23, 2021. SpaceX is a commercial space travel business owned by Elon Musk that has ignited commercial space travel enthusiasm and the idea of space tourism. Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos Blue Origin have generated similar excitement.

Richard Branson launched himself, two pilots, and three mission specialists into space from New Mexico for a 90-minute flight on the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission on July 11, 2021. The flight marked the first time that passengers, rather than astronauts, went into space.

Jeff Bezos followed on July 20, 2021, accompanied by his brother, Mark, and both the oldest and youngest people to go to space: 82-year-old Wally Funk, a female pilot who tested with NASA in the 1960s but never flew, and Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old student from the Netherlands. The fully automated, unpiloted Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launched on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and was named after Alan Shepard, who was the first American to travel into space on May 5, 1961.

The International Space Station has been continuously occupied by groups of six astronauts since Nov. 2000, for a total of 243 astronauts from 19 countries as of May 13, 2021. Astronauts spend an average of 182 days (about six months) aboard the ISS. As of Feb. 2020, Russian Valery Polyakov had spent the longest continuous time in space (437.7 days in 1994-1995 on space station Mir), followed by Russian Sergei Avdeyev (379.6 days in 1998-1999 on Mir), Russians Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov (365 days in 1987-1988 on Mir), Russian Mikhail Kornienko and American Scott Kelly (340.4 days in 2015-2016 on Mir and ISS respectively) and American Christina Koch (328 days in 2019-20 in ISS).

In Jan. 2022, Space Entertainment Enterprise (SEE) announced plans for a film production studio and a sports arena in space. The module will be named SEE-1 and will dock on Axiom Station, which is the commercial wing of the International Space Station. SEE plans to host film and sports events, as well as content creation by Dec. 2024.

In a 2018 poll, 50% of Americans believed space tourism will be routine for ordinary people by 2068. 32% believed long-term habitable space colonies will be built by 2068. But 58% said they were definitely or probably not interested in going to space. And the majority (63%) stated NASAs top priority should be monitoring Earths climate, while only 18% said sending astronauts to Mars should be the highest priority and only 13% would prioritize sending astronauts to the Moon.

The most common ideas for space colonization include: settling Earths Moon, building on Mars, and constructing free-floating space stations.

Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, stated, I think there is a strong humanitarian argument for making life multi-planetary, in order to safeguard the existence of humanity in the event that something catastrophic were to happen, in which case being poor or having a disease would be irrelevant, because humanity would be extinct. It would be like, Good news, the problems of poverty and disease have been solved, but the bad news is there arent any humans left. I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness, to make sure it continues into the future.

According to some philosophies, humans are the only beings capable of morality, and, thus, preserving humanity is the highest moral imperative. Following from that premise, Brian Patrick Green, Director of Technology Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, concluded, Because space settlement gives humankind the opportunity to significantly raise the chances of survival for our species, it is therefore a moral imperative to settle space as quickly as possible.

Some theorists, including Gonzalo Munevar, PhD, interdisciplinary Professor Emeritus at Lawrence Technological University, believe colonizing space will increase clean energy on Earth, provide access to the solar systems resources, and increase knowledge of space and Earth. The benefits to humanity created by the resources and knowledge create a moral obligation to colonize space.

Sheri Wells-Jensen, PhD, Associate Professor of English at Bowling Green State University, argues that the moral imperative goes even further than simple preservation: [W]e have a moral obligation to improve: that is, to colonize yes, but to do it better: to actively unthink systems of oppression that we know exist. To spread ourselves without thought or care would probably result in failure: more planets spiraling toward global warming or space settlements filled with social unrest.

Fred Kennedy, PhD, President of Momentus, a space transportation company, explained, Ill assert that a fundamental truth repeatedly borne out by history is that expanding, outwardly-focused civilizations are far less likely to turn on themselves, and far more likely to expend their fecundity on growing habitations, conducting important research and creating wealth for their citizens. A civilization that turns away from discovery and growth stagnates. Kennedy pointed out that while humans still have problems to resolve on Earth including civil rights violations and wealth inequality, Forgoing opportunities to expand our presence into the cosmos to achieve better outcomes here at home hasnt eliminated these scourges. We shouldnt avoid exploring space based on the false dichotomy of fixing Earthly problems first.

Humans are not a species of stagnation. Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon.com who traveled to space in 2021, asserted that exploring space would result in expanded human genius: The solar system can easily support a trillion humans. And if we had a trillion humans, we would have a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts and unlimited, for all practical purposes, resources and solar power unlimited for all practical purposes.

Space, in particular, is connected to exploration and growth in the human imagination. In 2014 Elon Musk stated, Its obvious that space is deeply ingrained in the American psyche SpaceX is only 12 years old now. Between now and 2040, the companys lifespan will have tripled. If we have linear improvement in technology, as opposed to logarithmic, then we should have a significant base on Mars, perhaps with thousands or tens of thousands of people.

While Earth is experiencing devastating climate change effects that should be addressed, Earth will be habitable for at least 150 million years, if not over a billion years, based on current predictive models. Humans have time to explore and colonize space at the same time as we mend the effects of climate change on Earth.

Brian Patrick Green stated, Furthermore, we have to realize that solving Earths environmental problems is extremely difficult and so will take a very long time. And we can do this while also pursuing colonization.

Jeff Bezos suggested that we move all heavy industry off Earth and then zone Earth for residences and light industry only. Doing so could reverse some of the effects of climate change while colonizing space.

Munevar also suggested something similar in more detail: In the shorter term, a strong human presence throughout the solar system will be able to prevent catastrophes on Earth by, for example, deflecting asteroids on a collision course with us. This would also help preserve the rest of terrestrial life presumably something the critics would approve of. But eventually, we should be able to construct space colonies [structures in free space rather than on a planet or moon], which could house millions. These colonies would be positioned to construct massive solar power satellites to provide clean power to the Earth, as well as set up industries that on Earth create much environmental damage. Far from messing up environments that exist now, we would be creating them, with extraordinary attention to environmental sustainability.

Space Ecologist Joe Mascaro, PhD, summarized, To save the Earth, we have to go to Mars. Mascaro argues that expanding technology to go to Mars will help solve problems on Earth: The challenge of colonising Mars shares remarkable DNA with the challenges we face here on Earth. Living on Mars will require mastery of recycling matter and water, producing food from barren and arid soil, generating carbon-free nuclear and solar energy, building advanced batteries and materials, and extracting and storing carbon from atmospheric carbon dioxide and doing it all at once. The dreamers, thinkers and explorers who decide to go to Mars will, by necessity, fuel unprecedented lateral innovations [that will solve problems on Earth].

Briony Horgan, PhD, Assistant Professor of Planetary Science at Purdue University, explained that terraforming Mars is way beyond any kind of technology were going to have any time soon.

In one widely promoted plan, Mars needs to first be warmed to closer to Earths average temperature (from -60 C/-76 F to 15 C/59 F), which will take approximately 100 years. Then the planet must be made to produce oxygen so humans and other mammals can breathe, which will take about 100,000 years or more. And those two steps can only be taken once Mars is thoroughly investigated for water, carbon dioxide, and nitrates.

A 2018 NASA study concluded that, based on the levels of CO2 found on Mars, the above plan is not feasible. Lead author Bruce Jakosky, PhD, Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder, stated, terraforming Mars is not possible using present-day technology.

If a workable solution were found and implemented, a project of that magnitude would cost billions, perhaps trillions.

Billionaire Elon Musk explained that the SpaceX Mars colonization project would need one million people to pay $200,000 each just to move to and colonize Mars, which doesnt include the costs incurred before humans left Earth. Returning to the Moon would have cost an estimated $104 billion in 2005 (about $133 billion in 2019 dollars), or almost 7 times NASAs entire 2019 budget.

But, a person has yet to set foot on Mars, and no space station has been built on another planet or natural satellite.

Further, as Linda Billings, PhD, Research Professor at George Washington University, noted, all life on Earth evolved to live in Earth conditions If humans cant figure out how to adapt to, or arrest, changing conditions on Earth then I cant see how humans could figure out how to adapt to a totally alien environment.

If humans have the technology, knowledge, and ability to transform an uninhabitable planet, moon, or other place in space into an appealing home for humans, then surely we have the technology, knowledge, and ability to fix the problems weve created on Earth.

Lori Marino, PhD, Founder and Executive Director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy, asserted, [W]e are not capable of enacting a successful colonization of another planet. The fact that we have destroyed our home planet is prima facie evidence of this assertion. It is sheer hubris to even consider the question of whether we should go or not go as if we are deciding which movie to see this weekend because we really are not in a position to make that choice What objective person would hire humanity to colonize a virgin planet, given its abysmal past performance in caring for the Earths ecosystem (overpopulation, climate change, mass extinctions)?

Some assert that leaving Earth in shambles proves we are not ready to colonize space in terms of cultural, social, or moral infrastructure, regardless of technological advancements.

John Traphagan, PhD, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, argued, Colonization has the odor of running away from the problems weve created here; if we do that, we will simply bring those problems with us. We need a major change in how we think about what it means to be humanwe need to stop seeing our species as special and start seeing it as part of a collection of species. In my view, as long as we bring the [idea] of human exceptionalism with us to other worlds, we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes we have made here.

As novelist Andy Weir explained, The problem is that you still dont want to send humans to the moon. You want to send robots. Humans are soft and squishy and they die. Robots are hard and nobody gets upset when they die.

Bioethicist George Dvorsky summarized the hostile nature of Mars: The Red Planet is a cold, dead place, with an atmosphere about 100 times thinner than Earths. The paltry amount of air that does exist on Mars is primarily composed of noxious carbon dioxide, which does little to protect the surface from the Suns harmful rays. Air pressure on Mars is very low; at 600 Pascals, its only about 0.6 percent that of Earth. You might as well be exposed to the vacuum of space, resulting in a severe form of the bendsincluding ruptured lungs, dangerously swollen skin and body tissue, and ultimately death. The thin atmosphere also means that heat cannot be retained at the surface. The average temperature on Mars is -81 degrees Fahrenheit (-63 degrees Celsius), with temperatures dropping as low as -195 degrees F (-126 degrees C).

Meanwhile, lunar dust is made of shards of silica and cuts like glass. The dust clung to the space suits of Apollo astronauts, scratching their visors and getting in their eyes and throats, which could result in bronchitis or cancer. And the radiation on the Moon is about 200 times higher than on Earth, in addition to other problems colonizing the Moon would cause humans.

Humans would have a host of illnesses to deal with due to climate differences on Mars or the Moon: cancer, radiation illnesses, reproductive problems (or sterility), muscle degeneration, bone loss, skin burns, cardiovascular disease, depression, boredom, an inability to concentrate, high blood pressure, immune disorders, metabolic disorders, visual disorders, balance and sensorimotor problems, structural changes in the brain, nausea, dizziness, weakness, cognitive decline, and altered gene function, among others. Astronauts who have spent just a year in space have demonstrated irreversible health problems.

Humans havent even attempted to live in Antarctica or under Earths seas, which have many fewer challenges for human bodies, so why would humans want to live on a planet or on the Moon thats likely to kill them fairly immediately?

Discussion Questions

1. Should humans colonize space? Why or why not?

2. If humans were to colonize space, where should we start: Mars, Earths Moon, or another celestial body? And what should be done on that body: residences, industrialization, or another purpose? Explain your answer(s).

3. If humans were to colonize space, how could life on Earth change? And would these changes be good or bad? Explain your answer(s).

Take Action

1. Analyze Christopher Schabergs position that Were Already Colonizing Mars.

2. Consider the language used to talk about humans living in space with Bill Nye.

3. Explore George Dvorskys position that Humans Will Never Colonize Mars.

4. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the other side of the issue now helps you better argue your position.

5. Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives.

Sources

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Biden’s Year of Underachievement on Health Care – The Dispatch

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President Biden came into office in a strong position on health care, but broader strategic mistakes and limited ambitions are restricting what is possible even at this early stage of his term. Two consequential changesexpanded Affordable Care Act subsidies and prescription drug price controlsmight still get approved by Congress, but even their enactment would fall short of the hopes and expectations of his partys most active supporters. Disappointment over a missed opportunity now seems likely.

Underachievement was not inevitable. Biden delivered a surprisingly able performance on health care during his partys 2020 primaries. He was the most vocal opponent of Medicare for All, which was championed by many of his rivals, including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Staking out a more moderate positionwith convictionwas central to his victory. It turns out that many Democratic primary voters are no more eager than independents or Republicans to pay higher taxes, or lose their private insurance, in return for a single-payer plan.

In retrospect, Bidens views on a Canadian-style health system should be seen as an extension of a more general political instinct, which is to play it relatively safe on health care. It is not so much that he opposes Medicare for All on principle as that he sees it as an impossibly dangerous political project. His main argument against it was its cost, and the immense tax increase it would require, not that the government would deliver inferior care. He has seen firsthand the political damage big reform plans can inflict. He was vice president during the bruising battle over the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2010, which helped flip control of the House, and he saw Bill Clintons presidency nearly collapse over an epic health-care failure in 1994, which led to a GOP House for the first time in four decades. He has no interest in repeating those episodes, which means he instinctively steers away from controversial schemes.

The one exception in his campaign platforma public optionproves the rule. Biden pushed this idea as the main alternative to Medicare for All, and it is certainly popular among Democratic voters. A public option would give consumers the choice between staying with private insurance or opting for a government-run alternative. There would be no coercion. And yet it is one thing to debate this idea during a campaign, and quite another to try to get it through Congress. Needless to say, the insurance industry is not eager to see the federal government become a competitor. After the close results of the 2020 election, the Biden team quietly set aside the plan, and he has rarely mentioned it since.

What is left of the Biden health agenda is really two prominent proposals: an expansion of public subsidies for enrollment in ACA coverage and price controls on prescription drugs. Both are still in play, but their prospects have dimmed with the collapse of the administrations legislative strategy.

The expansion of the ACA got a running start in the $1.8 trillion COVID response plan Biden signed into law in March. Among its provisions was an increase in premium credits for households purchasing private insurance through the ACAs system of state-based exchanges. Under the original ACA law, households with incomes below 400 percent of the federal poverty line (FPL) are eligible for discounted premiums based on a schedule tied to annual incomes. Families with incomes between 100 and 133 percent of the FPL were required to pay about 2 percent of their incomes to secure coverage; the government would pay the balance. At 200 percent of the FPL, the required premium payment was capped at 6.5 percent of income. Above 400 percent of the FPL, there was no subsidization.

The 2021 law increased the subsidization of premiums for all income levels through 2022. Families with incomes below 150 percent of the FPL can now get a benchmark ACA plan for free. Further, even households over 400 percent of the FPL$111,000 for a family of four in 2022are now eligible for support, with their premiums capped at 8.5 percent of their incomes.

The Biden administration, along with almost every House and Senate Democrat, wants to extend the higher level of premium support beyond this year, and eventually permanently. That certainly remains the most likely scenario, given the history of entitlements. It is rare for Congress, even when Republicans are in control, to let benefits lapse after households become accustomed to them. The House version of the administrations Build Back Better plan includes an extension through 2025, at a cost of $74 billion. Permanent extension would add another $220 billion to the federal budget through 2031.

But this year may see a break from the usual pattern. The apparent collapse of Build Back Better in the Senate has created uncertainty over the fate of the ACA subsidies. If Congress fails to pass any version of BBB, it is possible that Democrats will have no pathway for enacting an extension given the likely opposition of most Republicans. The real possibility of a GOP takeover of the House, Senate, or both in the midterms further complicates the outlook.

The other major reform that is still standingpricing limits for a subset of prescription drugsis caught up in the same turmoil. The president has embraced the long-standing Democratic goal of direct negotiations between the federal government and the pharmaceutical industry over prices, which would then apply both within Medicare and private insurance. Divisions within the Democratic Party already have scaled back the reach of the emerging plan, but it could fall away entirely if the BBB is not resuscitated in some form. Sen. Joe Manchin is not the obstacle to these specific reforms (in fact, he has expressed unqualified support for them), but his opposition to the overall BBB construct imperils them nonetheless, because without BBB they cannot pass in the Senate.

Even without legislation, however, the Biden administration still has options to advance its partys goals in health careif it chooses to use them. The administration has substantial regulatory authority in the health sector that could be directed toward solving obvious problems, such as high prices for certain services. Most Democrats would like to see the federal government exert more control over costs, but embracing an aggressive plan carries risks too: The affected industries will resist and have some allies within the party. The presidents caution, not surprisingly, is influencing his top health officials, who are limiting what they will implement independently of legislation from Congress. Among other things, the administration has no clear plan for slowing rising costs, which is the principal defect of the current system and a major complaint of consumers. Price controls for prescription drugs will not solve that problem, as they account for just 10 percent of overall spending. The administration has yet to describe how it will check expenses for hospitalizations, physician services, or other types of care.

The alternatives to tighter price controls are stronger competitive forces and better management practices. The administration seems indifferent to both. It is pursuing stricter antitrust enforcement among hospitals and other providers of services, which is long overdue but unlikely to produce tangible results anytime soon. Meanwhile, it says it supports a signature initiative of the ACA yearsaccountable care organizations, which are provider-led managed care entitiesbut it has yet to offer a plan to improve upon their modest results.

It might have been possible to explain the administrations reticence to the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is understandably its primary focus in health care. But, even as cases spike once again, the administration is still pushing for child tax credits, universal pre-K subsidies, expanded childcare support, and new subsidies for a less carbon-intensive energy industry. There would be room for a serious plan to control health costs if the administration had one it was eager to execute. Some combination of lack of conviction and fear of a tough fight seems to have held it back.

The real risk for President Biden is that he will go into 2024 without much to show for his time in office. Within the Democratic party, health care is never far from the surface. Four years of drift would embolden the advocates of a more radical agenda. These progressives were trounced by Biden in 2020, but his hand would be considerably weaker if he (or a successor) enters the next battle emptyhanded.

James C. Capretta is a senior fellow and holds the Milton Friedman Chair at the American Enterprise Institute.

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Steward Health Care Week 24 high school star athletes of the week – Deseret News

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Boys Basketball

Carson Jones, Bonneville (Sr.)

Bonneville is off to an impressive 4-0 start in Region 5 and the steady play of senior Carson Jones is a big reason why.

Jones is averaging 14.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists this season for the Lakers.

Last week he scored 14 points in a 55-48 win over Box Elder and then two nights later scored 16 points in Bonnevilles 67-65 overtime win over Viewmont.

Carson Jones has been a 4-year contributor for Bonneville High School, and has continued to improve his game to the point here he is a double-double threat night after night for the Lakers. Carson has expanded his game and is now just as comfortable posting up as he is catching and facing behind the 3-point line, said Bonneville coach Kyle Bullinger.

Carson embodies everything that a high school program wants in its players: He is a tough, competitive, high character individual who excels off of the court as well as on the court.

Natalie Newton, Corner Canyon (Sr.)

Natalie Newton has a regular contributor for Corner Canyon the past three years and her consistency year and year and game after game has landed her in the school record books.

Newton knocked down three 3-pointers against Westlake last week and then two more against Skyridge giving 23 for the season and 107 for her career.

In the process she passed Corner Canyon alum, and current University of Utah player, Kemery Martin for most career 3-pointers in school history.

Nat is a cold-blooded shooter. Shes dealt with two full coaching staff changes, plenty of other adversity and continues to knock em down. I love her confidence in her shot, even right after a miss. She works tirelessly on her shot and it shows, said Corner Canyon coach Craig Morris.

Yan Dvorteskiy, West (Sr.)

With less than a month left in the season, freestyle specialist Yan Dvorteskiy heads into the home stretch of the season ready to end his career with a bang.

He ranks in the top 10 in 6A in all four individual freestyle events, including owning the second-best time in the state this season in the 200 freestyle with a 1:44.19. He owns the fifth-best time in Utah in the 100 and 500 freestyle.

Yan is mentally strong, competitive, and knows how to race. In practices he pushes himself to the maximum limit, said West coach Casey Jackson.

Dvorteskiy finished second at last years 6A state meet with a time of 4:46.57 and hell be the slight favorite in that even heading into this years state tournament.

Lauryn Hall, Davis (Sr.)

Lauryn Hall is the heart and soul of Davis swim team and she figures to be a regular on the podium as the season hits the home stretch.

Hall ranks in the top three in four different events in 6A this season, including a 6A-best 1:10.15 in the 100 breaststroke a stroke she only recently began focusing on.

Shes ranked second in 6A in the 50 freestyle, third in the freestyle and third in the 100 butterfly. She is the defending state champ in the 50 free.

We absolutely love having Lauryn on the Davis High swim team. She is one of our captains and is invested in every aspect of leading the team including working hard in practice, picking out classy apparel, motivating swimmers to be better and reaching out to those who need a friend, said Davis coach Kit Barker.

She has only lost twice in 20 individual races this year.

Josh Millward, Skyridge (Sr.)

A defending state champion, Josh Millward has re-established himself as the clear favorite to repeat at next months 6A state tournament.

Millward is undefeated in Utah this year, with his only three loses coming at the Reno Tournament of Champions where he placed eighth. He sits at 41-3 this season with 35 pins. He won the Layton Invite, Richardson Invite, Wasatch Duals and 6A Duals.

Off the mat, Millard maintains a 4.0 GPA and has a 35 ACT score. He has offers to wrestle in college at Stanford, Duke and UVU.

He is one of the best technical wrestlers in the state and is on the constant attack. He is a joy to watch wrestle. He has overcome a lot of trials and is always positive in everything he does. He truly represents the phrase Student-Athlete, said Skyridge coach Lyle Mangum.

Kaianne Sabagala, Timpview (Sr.)

A newcomer to Utah high school wrestling, she previously wrestled in Hawaii, Kaianne Sabagala is making a name for herself at 130 pounds.

She went 4-0 at the Bruin Round Robin tournament last week winning all four of her matches with a pin in the first period. Three of the four pins occurred in less than a minute.

Earlier this month at the Ross Brunson All-Star Duals at UVU, Sabagala beat Richs Nya Jolley with a first-period pin.

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Texas is now offering up to $5,000 hiring bonuses for these healthcare jobs – WFAA.com

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The Texas Health and Human Services Commission on Monday announced it will offer up to $5,000 in hiring bonuses for certain positions at state healthcare facilities.

DALLAS Texas is offering new incentives for people who get hired at state-run hospitals and living centers.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission announced on Monday that it will offer hiring bonuses of up to $5,000 for certain positions at state healthcare facilities.

The maximum bonuses will be for registered nurses, who can qualify for up to $5,000. Meanwhile, licensed vocational nurses can qualify for up to $3,500 in bonuses, and direct support professionals and psychiatric nursing assistants can receive up to $2,500.

The state is hoping the bonuses can help "recruit qualified, motivated health care professionals to help support residents" at state-run living center and hospitals, said Scott Schalchlin, deputy executive commissioner of the state health commission.

"Many people right now are looking for a new career or taking that next step in their current career," Schalchlin said in a news release. "We have some great opportunities for people who are interested in working in an environment where they can make a true difference in the lives of others every single day."

State healthcare positions are currently open across the state in such cities as Abilene, Austin, Denton, San Antonio, Wichita Falls, Terrell and Lubbock.

State-run living centers provide support for people who have intellectual or developmental disabilities. State-run hospitals provide inpatient psychiatric care for adults and children.

While it's not clear if state-run facilities have been hit by staffing shortages specifically resulting from the pandemic, the issue has been a problem across the country over since the COVID-19 outbreak began.

In September, health leaders reported a nurse staffing crisis, pointing to pandemic burnout and traveling-nurse positions that offer more lucrative pay as likely culprits.

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Texas is now offering up to $5,000 hiring bonuses for these healthcare jobs - WFAA.com

Caribou grabs $3M to remove the unexpected from healthcare cost planning – TechCrunch

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With almost 4,000 Medicare Advantage plans to choose from, it not only makes choosing one a complex decision, but making a wrong decision could affect the wallet if something unexpected should happen.

Miami-based startup Caribou aims to make that decision easier through its healthcare cost prediction and optimization software packaged into a SaaS business model designed for financial planners so they can advise their clients on the best plan.

The company, led by co-founders Christine Simone and Cory Blumenfeld and founding engineer Giorgio Delgado, gathers data on factors, like utilization, health conditions and medications, and provides financial advisors with a scalable tool to evaluate a clients healthcare planning needs.

Simone explained that financial advisors dont often ask clients about their medication costs or health conditions, so some of the pillars the company helps advisors and their clients identify include health plan selection and if you may need long-term care planning which Simone estimated 70% of people usually do.

Simone and Blumenfeld started Caribou in 2020 after careers in healthcare, where they saw stakeholders not addressing the financial component of care.

And that burden unfortunately gets placed on the consumer, Simone told TechCrunch. Every day we hear about rising healthcare costs and medical bankruptcy, and Im so excited that were empowering consumers to proactively plan for the costs and make smarter decisions using data.

The company raised $575,000 in early 2021, and today, announced another $3 million in a seed round to bring its total funding to $3.1 million.

The investment was led by Jack and Max Altman, who were joined by Lightspeed Scout Fund, Dash Fund, existing investors Garage Capital and N49P, as well as a group of angel investors, including Leslie Schrock, Plaid CTOJean-Denis Greze and Tribes Arjun Sethi.

Jack Altman said in a written statement that Caribou is picking up the healthcare planning where employers leave off.

Were seeing solutions in the employer space aiming to reduce healthcare spend for employees, companies and payers, he added. What happens once people leave those companies or their HR departments no longer have access to that data? Caribous positioning through the financial system lens is a great opportunity to reach a different segment of customers and offer them something incredibly valuable.

Caribous software has only been in the market for a few months, but the company is already racking up dozens of customers, including BLB&B Advisors, CapSouth Wealth Management and Jackson Square Capital.

Though it was too early to talk about growth metrics, Simone says growth, especially off of the open enrollment season in the fourth quarter, was crazy busy in terms of adoption, and now the company is at a threshold of putting firms on a waitlist. Current customers represent tens of thousands of end clients, and the company is already able to prove that it saved consumers hundreds of thousands of dollars in healthcare costs.

The new funding will be invested in product development to be able to provide more robust financial insights and reach wider-scale distribution. The company also aims to grow its customer success team and double its overall employee headcount by the end of the year.

Caribous goal is to focus on the end consumer, so while it is distributing its software through the financial industry, its product roadmap also includes different distribution channels, including technology platforms that consumers could access directly.

Theres only 39% of Americans that work with a financial advisor, so we also need to be looking at opportunities outside of financial advisors, Simone said. We want to be able to distribute our tool like a back-end plug-in embedded into some of these other financial technology platforms to give access to more consumers.

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Caribou grabs $3M to remove the unexpected from healthcare cost planning - TechCrunch

Opinion: Crucial action on health care worker shortage is missing from ambitious legislative priorities – Des Moines Register

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Jo Kline| Guest columnist

Iowa struggles with child care and workforce crises

Iowa business leaders and child care advocates join together to tackle the shortage of safe, affordable child care.

Zach Boyden-Holmes, DesMoines

The health care worker shortage is getting very real as postponed procedures, hospital bed shortages and the scarcity of specialists become the new normal. Many hope this crunch will dissipate along with COVID-19, but this perfect storm has been in the works for decades. With the goal of achieving the best health outcomes, it is essential health care consumers understand whats truly at stake and how Iowas policy makers and stakeholders are working to prepare.

Conspicuous by their absence from Iowa political leaders top priorities for 2022 are legitimate plans to address health care worker shortages. Demography is destiny, and once 79 million boomers arrived, there was bound to be an inordinate number of seniors 70 years later. The dependency ratio of a population is the number of young and old residents for every 100 persons aged 18 to 64 (the workers). Credit the boomers for a record-setting ratio of 82 in the 1960s. As the cohort of potential workers declines, Iowa's dependency ratio is slated to reach 78 by 2030. Look around: Every industry with growth over the past 50 years now finds a large portion of its workforce exiting. That includes education, law enforcement, skilled trades and the travel industry.

Say hello to the Great Health Care Resignation of 2021 and Beyond. Among affected industries, health care is served a double demographic blow: Demand for its services mounts just as the pool of employees shrinks. Furthermore, the pandemic has devastated health care workers. Burnout is reflected in a recent survey showing many plan to leave their current areas of practice by the end of 2022 (yes, this year):

Setting aside the continuing risks of rural hospital closings, is Iowa prepared for whats coming? Were ranked 45th for our provider-to-patient ratio, and Iowa Workforce Development projects we should be growing the number of doctors by 160 every year to cover exits and increased demand. That's not going too well. From 2010 to 2020, we gained an average of only 33 physicians per year, and in 2021 wait for it the total dropped by 241. Do we need to train more doctors? Perhaps, but I also know that of those who complete residencies in Iowa, less than half stay to practice here. Thats a life-altering brain drain.

The nationwide nursing sector needs to grow by 276,800 jobs before 2031. Being ranked 48th in the nation for nurses pay will not help in filling the 2,500 positions we need to add every year to offset Iowas losses and growth on top of the unanticipated vacancies we now have. At the same time, although there are enough classroom seats for those who apply, the number of RN and LPN graduates are down. Im sorry, but all this does not add up to being ahead of the curve.

The largest category, home health and personal care aides, is found in hospitals, care facilities and home settings. Nationwide, there is a projected need for an additional 1.1 million jobs by 2030. For its share, Iowa must staff 9,000 additional caregiver jobs annually to cover exits and increased demand. Just to be clear, every health-care-related profession has similar forecasts, such as dentists, physician assistants, technicians, therapists, administrators and social workers, to name just a few.

I think one has to work to overlook these unmistakable obstacles to present and future access, and the requisite systemic adjustments are solely in the hands of our policymakers and stakeholders. For constituents, whats left is to raise our expectations for long overdue leadership while becoming fully engaged health care consumers and advocates. Likewise, it will fall to Iowas towns, faith communities, advocacy groups and even neighborhoods to step forward and demand the assistance required to help residents make efficient use of available resources. Iowas aging population will swell until at least 2060, and denial is not a planning strategy.

There is much we would wish for Iowa. As important as growth is to our states future, be assured that every person or business considering Iowa as a new home will place access to quality health care as a top priority. Health care access rests on the foundation of an empowered and self-sustaining workforce, and we cannot afford to court expansion at the cost of safeguarding Iowans well being. Time is of the essence.

Jo Kline, a patients' rights advocate and attorney, is the author of "Patient or Pawn?: Epic fails in health care, the approaching perfect storm and strategies for self-preservation." http://www.JoKline.net.

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Opinion: Crucial action on health care worker shortage is missing from ambitious legislative priorities - Des Moines Register

Employee Assistance Program takes a proactive approach to worker mental health care – The Aspen Times

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Kris Mattera knows that life in the Roaring Fork Valley can be stressful.

As the executive director of the Basalt Chamber of Commerce, shes heard as much from members of the organization that represents local businesses. And with the COVID-19 pandemic in play, people are stretched even thinner on both fronts, both at home and at work, Mattera said.

Its just a lot for people to handle, and were just trying to get as many resources out there and available to people, so they can take advantage of them and kind of improve their situation because this doesnt appear to be a situation thats going to go away anytime soon, Mattera said.

That acknowledgment was the impetus behind the chambers decision to offer discounted group rates to members for Triad, an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) based out of Grand Junction that offers mental health services and other life tools and resources for workers through their employers.

The Basalt Chamber of Commerce announced the benefit about a year ago but it had been in the works since 2020. The Aspen Chamber Resort Association now offers a similar discount program for its members for Triad; a kickoff webinar took place on Jan. 19. For both chamber programs, monthly rates start at $3.05 for each employee and may get even lower if more members sign up.

We knew (these services) were critical prior to the pandemic, but even moreso (now) youre seeing a lot of people discussing employee stress, mental wellness, coping mechanisms all these different factors that are happening, Mattera said. This is just yet another tool in the toolbox, and a low-cost way of providing benefits to employees that they may not otherwise have access to.

Triad takes a more proactive approach and often a more affordable one to employees well-being than might otherwise be covered with insurance for mental health care, according to John Gribben, the companys co-founder and owner-manager.

Counseling services are very much part of the program; the number of free sessions per employee depends on the package that employers sign up for. But employers can also add on legal and financial consultations, crisis support or workplace trainings for resiliency, communication skills or conflict resolution the idea being that if employees can address some of the external stressors in their lives, it might help with their internal mental health too, Gribben said.

That whole body mentality could go a long way for the sustainability and wellbeing of the local workforce, according to Christina King, a Basalt-based therapist who contracts with Triad and some other employee assistance programs.

It also has a return on investment that manifests in employees who are more present and more productive, King noted. The proactive approach might also help employees get help for mental health challenges before they require more intensive intervention.

When we dont address mental health in the workplace, or we dont really care and support our employees to support their needs, or create that mindset, (then) were spending more money on them on their insurances, or on whatever care they need for addiction, for anxiety, for depression, for them not showing up to work because of those issues, King said.

Many of the largest employers in the valley already offer employee assistance programs think Aspen Skiing Co., school districts, hospitals and municipal governments, according to Gribben.

But participation isnt as high for smaller businesses and employers with just a handful or a couple dozen staffers, Gribben said. He thinks that might be because a smaller employer either doesnt know about and or doesnt think they can afford an EAP, Gribben said. Thats where local business chambers come in, on both the promotion and the rate front.

Like King, Gribben and Mattera also identified what Gribben called a bottom-line benefit that adds to the more altruistic sales pitch of worker wellness.

I think having access to these resources, giving people different ways to cope, is really helpful. The greater the mental well-being of your employees, the more productive they are, the better it is for business, Mattera said.

If we all have great mental hygiene, thats good for the entire valley, she added.

kwilliams@aspentimes.com

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Employee Assistance Program takes a proactive approach to worker mental health care - The Aspen Times

‘Its been a tough couple of years’: Reinforcements to help exhausted hospital health care workers – WLWT Cincinnati

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Hospitals jammed with the highest number of COVID-19 patients on record are beginning to get some relief as the Ohio National Guard arrives and reinforcements of a different kind step up to the task.The National Guard sent 70 troops to UC Hospital to help out in several clinical and non-clinical roles. They add to the 20 already there to help with the testing efforts.The troops are needed because of the high number of COVID-19 patients and the high number of staff out because of COVID-related issues.There are also other efforts to reinforce hospital health care workers."Our teams are doing a great job, but our teams are tired. Its been a tough couple of years," said vice president and chief nursing officer for the Good Samaritan region at TriHealth.TriHealth has a program called Helping Hands that puts more nursing staff in the hospital."We've reached out to these other areas which could be our physician practices or anyone that's not working at the bedside that can come in and help," Macy said. "We can use these resources anywhere because it's going to help in all of our units."So far, about 100 nurses have stepped up to help out.St. Elizabeth has a similar program that recruits nurses from outside the hospital to help relieve the pressure of the staffing situation. "If there are opportunities for folks who do not have front-line patient care jobs, if there are opportunities for them to volunteer and help, we're asking them to do that at this point," said St. Elizabeth COVID Dr. Jim Horn.

Hospitals jammed with the highest number of COVID-19 patients on record are beginning to get some relief as the Ohio National Guard arrives and reinforcements of a different kind step up to the task.

The National Guard sent 70 troops to UC Hospital to help out in several clinical and non-clinical roles. They add to the 20 already there to help with the testing efforts.

The troops are needed because of the high number of COVID-19 patients and the high number of staff out because of COVID-related issues.

There are also other efforts to reinforce hospital health care workers.

"Our teams are doing a great job, but our teams are tired. Its been a tough couple of years," said vice president and chief nursing officer for the Good Samaritan region at TriHealth.

TriHealth has a program called Helping Hands that puts more nursing staff in the hospital.

"We've reached out to these other areas which could be our physician practices or anyone that's not working at the bedside that can come in and help," Macy said. "We can use these resources anywhere because it's going to help in all of our units."

So far, about 100 nurses have stepped up to help out.

St. Elizabeth has a similar program that recruits nurses from outside the hospital to help relieve the pressure of the staffing situation.

"If there are opportunities for folks who do not have front-line patient care jobs, if there are opportunities for them to volunteer and help, we're asking them to do that at this point," said St. Elizabeth COVID Dr. Jim Horn.

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'Its been a tough couple of years': Reinforcements to help exhausted hospital health care workers - WLWT Cincinnati

Death of Stanford nurse brings attention to healthcare workers mental health – KRON4

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STANFORD, Calif. (KRON) Its a problem facing health care workers across the country, including here in the Bay Area.

Friends of a Stanford nurse who committed suicide last week say his death is bringing attention the to importance of mental health for healthcare workers.

A recent study says that over the past two years of caring for COVID patients, nurses and other first responders reported high levels of stress, depression, and fatigue.

Friends and co-workers of 27-year-old Michael Odell are heartbroken.

The travel ICU nurse from Oklahoma had been working at Stanford Hospital before committing suicide last week.

Josh Paredes was best friends with Odell. As a fellow nurse, he says the stresses of the job have become overwhelming for so many in the health care field.

Paredes believes its important for people to hear Odells story.

A recent study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine included a survey of more than 500 doctors, nurses, and other health care workers who have been treating COVID patients.

Within it, they found 74% saying they were depressed, 37% reported they were experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and 15% said they have had thoughts of suicide or self-harm.

Stanford nurse Gabby Ladue helped in the frantic two-day search for Odell who abruptly left work and went missing last Tuesday.

The search ended tragically on Thursday when Odells body was found at the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge.

Ladue says right now frontline workers across the country need more support.

Odells colleagues are hoping employers will step up in their efforts to address the well-being of their workers.

For Paredes, Odells death is pointing out the need for these conversations.

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Death of Stanford nurse brings attention to healthcare workers mental health - KRON4