Candidates running for Libertarian, Independent

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Two of the candidates who are running in the Nov. 17 by-election may have different platforms, but one thing both the Independent candidate Dean Williams and Libertarian Party of Canada candidate Cory Lystang have in common is that they want a break from the Conservative government.

Dean Williams, who is originally from Whitecourt, said he decided to run independently because this keeps him free from all parties and he is able to do what he would like to see.

An independent vote can prove to be very influential. Because I think what I see is a three way split, said Williams last week.

Libertarian candidate Cory Lystang decided to run to bring freedom to Canadians after the party caught his attention about a year ago.

I am running. Its time we bring freedom, legalize freedom again, said Lystang in a recent interview.

To bring power back to municipal and provincial government. I discovered this party a year ago and I wanted to make a difference, see if I could get in there and bring back voice to Albertans, he added.

There are a total of five candidates to choose from in the by-election in the Yellowhead riding. In addition to Lystang and Williams, Ryan Maguhn is running for the Liberals, Jim Eglinski is running for the Conservatives and Eric Rosendahl is running for the NDP.

Lystang said people should choose his name on the ballot because it is time to hold the Conservatives accountable.

It has become extremely clear to me that our current government has lost touch with the reason that it exists. Redundant laws, huge spending and outright violations on our rights as Canadians, with no apparent accountability had almost driven me away from politics. Until I stumbled across a party with a message that said everything I felt, less government, lower taxes and more freedom, The Libertarian Party of Canada, said Lystang in an e-mail.

Williams said he feels that there is a lack of transparency with the current government. He went to film school and has professional experience as a cinematographer. He compared the Yellowhead MPs job to what he has been doing most of his life.

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Candidates running for Libertarian, Independent

Christian, atheist scientists tackle human nature

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Jason Koski/University Photography

Rosemary Avery, center, moderates a forum on what makes us human with Roald Hoffmann, right, and Praveen Sethupathy in Call Auditorium Nov. 12.

The question of what makes us human has been a source of discussion and conflict for centuries. Although the question remains unanswered, a Christian geneticist and an atheist chemist found that their views on the topic were not so different in a Nov. 12 campus conversation "Genes, Atoms or Something Else?" attended by more than 500 undergraduates.

Praveen Sethupathy, a geneticist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is a Christian. Nobel laureate Roald Hoffmann, Cornells Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters Emeritus, is an atheist.

The discussion began with what scientifically makes a human a human: DNA. Although he is a geneticist, Sethupathy was quick to point out the limitations of examining DNA in the search for human identity.

Our identities are influenced, but not fully determined by our genetics, Sethupathy said, explaining that the chemical packaging that surrounds DNA can be altered by any number of lifestyle choices like smoking and diet. Furthermore, these changes to the DNA packaging are in some cases hereditary.

Hoffmann agreed with Sethupathys assessment that genetic makeup is only a small part of human identity. Even with E. coli we share a substantial amount [of genetic material]. Does it free us of choices for good and for evil? No more than original sin prevents you from making a choice about being good or evil, Hoffmann said.

Both agreed that our genetics are not responsible for providing us with moral standards, although they agreed that morality is an important aspect of humanity. The presenters did not, however, agree on the source of objective moral standards.

I believe that there are objective moral standards and that they do come from [God], Sethupathy said, noting that he thought religious moral standards are sometimes imposed inappropriately.

Hoffmann said he believes that morality springs from human biology. I think ethics arises out of natural, personal and societal interactions, he said, noting that moral standards are very similar across cultures, despite different religious backgrounds.

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Christian, atheist scientists tackle human nature

Health Care For Illegals – Rpt: More Illegals Using Medicaid – Fox & Friends – Video

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Health Care For Illegals - Rpt: More Illegals Using Medicaid - Fox Friends
Health Care For Illegals - Rpt: More Illegals Using Medicaid - Fox Friends =========================================== **Please Click Below to SUBSCRIBE for More "NSTP" Videos: ...

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Health Care For Illegals - Rpt: More Illegals Using Medicaid - Fox & Friends - Video

Mpumalanga health department no longer under provincial administration – Video

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Mpumalanga health department no longer under provincial administration
The Mpumalanga health department is no longer under provincial administration. But the decision has not been well received. Opposition parties say it was premature, as many hospitals still...

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Mpumalanga health department no longer under provincial administration - Video

Natural Beauty, Sustainable Milk, Drinking Plastic + Eco Yoga – Video

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Natural Beauty, Sustainable Milk, Drinking Plastic + Eco Yoga
Skip forward to a section - TimeStamps Coming Soon* Ask questions here: http://bit.ly/evgweeklyqa http://www.ecovegangal.com "Healthy, Organic Vegan on a Budget" ebook: http://ecovegangal.c.

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Natural Beauty, Sustainable Milk, Drinking Plastic + Eco Yoga - Video

IUCN World Parks Congress 2014 – World Leaders’ Dialogues – ‘Health, Naturally’ – Video

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IUCN World Parks Congress 2014 - World Leaders #39; Dialogues - #39;Health, Naturally #39;
For millennia, communities have understood the inherent health benefits gained from nature. However, sprawling urbanization coupled with shrinking natural spaces has left society disconnected...

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IUCN World Parks Congress 2014 - World Leaders' Dialogues - 'Health, Naturally' - Video

Obama dismisses renewed criticism of health-care law in wake of Gruber video

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President Obama said Sunday that Russia will remain isolated in the international community if President Vladimir Putin continues to violate international law in Ukraine. (Reuters)

BRISBANE, Australia President Obama dismissed renewed criticism of his signature health-care law Sunday and disputed an assertion from a former adviser involved in its creation who said the administration had deceived lawmakers.

Jonathan Gruber, an economist, suggested last year that the legislation passed in part because of the stupidity of the American voter and a lack of transparency in its funding mechanisms.

I just heard about this, Obama said at a news conference after wrapping up two days of meetings with world leaders here at the Group of 20 summit. The fact that some adviser who never worked on our staff expressed his opinion that I completely disagree with it is no reflection on the actual process that was run.

It was the first time Obama had weighed in on the comments, which became public after he left Washington for a week-long trip to Asia.

Gruber is an MIT economics professor and health-care policy expert who was a paid consultant for the Obama administration on the Affordable Care Act. His remarks were captured last year in a video that recently circulated widely on social media, and they have been seized upon by Republicans who want to dismantle the law. Conservatives in both chambers of Congress have said they might call on Gruber to testify on Capitol Hill, a process that would reopen the ugly political fight over a law that has enrolled millions of Americans in new health-care plans.

We had a year-long debate, Obama told reporters Sunday. Go look back at your stories. One thing we cant say is that we didnt have a lengthy debate over health care in the United States. Every press outlet here should go back and pull up every clip and every story. Its fair to say there is not a provision in the health-care law that was not extensively debated and was not fully transparent.

Later Sunday, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said 100,000 people submitted applications for coverage under the Affordable Care Act on Saturday, the first day of the laws second enrollment period.

Speaking on NBCs Meet the Press, Burwell said that more than 500,000 people were able to log on to the governments Web site, HealthCare.gov, and that more than 1 million people have been window shopping for insurance options.

I think the vast majority of people coming to the site were able to get on and do what they had to do, she said.

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Obama dismisses renewed criticism of health-care law in wake of Gruber video

States working to fix health care websites – Healthcare.gov site runs smoothly – VIDEO: New 'Gruber-gate' video emerges

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BOSTON The state that served as a template for President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act had so much trouble coordinating with the federal government that it became a model of another sort: ineptitude.

The Massachusetts website, designed by the same contractor that worked on the troubled federal website, performed so poorly it prompted a public apology from Gov. Deval Patrick and forced health care officials to adopt a series of manual workarounds, creating a backlog of more than 50,000 paper applications.

Massachusetts was one of several states where the ambition of running their own health insurance marketplace inside a new federal system ran into a harsh reality.

Some, like Oregon and Nevada, folded and decided to go with the federal exchange for the second round of open enrollment, which began Saturday. Others, like Maryland and Massachusetts, fired their technology contractors and are hoping for better results this time.

It hasn't been cheap.

The original cost of Massachusetts' website was estimated at $174 million. That has jumped to $254 million. When launched, the website was incompatible with some browsers and was riddled with error messages and navigational problems. The problems were so bad, federal officials gave the state three extra months to meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.

Patrick said there won't be a repeat of the disastrous roll-out this time around, saying the state has "been testing and retesting" the revamped website.

Minnesota's state-run exchange, MNsure, wasn't ready for prime time when it launched in 2013. Some of the technical glitches that frustrated consumers remained unresolved by the time the open enrollment period closed. MNsure officials are promising a better experience this time -- with more call center workers and a website that's 75 percent faster. But they also acknowledge the system won't be perfect.

California's exchange also was ill-prepared to handle the high volume of calls, triggering long wait times at help centers and forcing the state to extend open enrollment for two weeks beyond the original March 31 deadline.

"It swamped us," said Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee, promising increased website capacity and extra call center staff.

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States working to fix health care websites - Healthcare.gov site runs smoothly - VIDEO: New 'Gruber-gate' video emerges

Health care website working well

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WASHINGTON (AP) As a crucial second sign-up season gears up, the Obama administration said Sunday that HealthCare.gov is stable and working well, a far cry from last year's frozen computer screens and frustrated customers.

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said she expects "strong and healthy growth" for 2015. About 7 million people are signed up, and Burwell expects to grow that by 2 million more or so.

The Congressional Budget Office has projected a total of 13 million enrolled for 2015, and some see the administration as trying to lower expectations.

Burwell told NBC's "Meet the Press" that 100,000 people had submitted new applications this weekend via the federal website serving 37 states. That's a big difference from last year, when only a handful of customers managed to enroll on the first day.

Burwell also said that a half-million people who already have coverage through the program were able to log into their accounts this time.

There were reports Saturday that returning customers had problems, and it appeared some of that may have been confusion trying to remember user names and passwords. Administration spokesman Aaron Albright said Sunday he had not seen any indication that the website was the cause.

Many returning customers had not reset their passwords, as they were asked to earlier this year. Some could not recall their accurate user names. A common mistake involved consumers who entered their email addresses as user names, when they had actually created a user name earlier on. That meant they couldn't get a password reset email from HealthCare.gov, because they did not use the correct user name.

Call centers have been helping resolve cases where consumers had trouble resetting their passwords, and the Health and Human Service Department said accounts were being unlocked on a timely basis. All told, the call centers had taken about 100,000 calls by Sunday morning, on a range of situations.

President Barack Obama noted the improvements. "HealthCare.gov works really well now," he said.

HealthCare.gov is an online marketplace that offers subsidized private coverage to people who don't have health insurance on the job. Because of political opposition and technical issues, the federal government is running the health insurance exchange in most states.

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Health care website working well