Monthly Archives: July 2017

The Health Care Freedom Act Hits The Senate Floor – The Atlantic

Posted: July 28, 2017 at 7:06 pm

The Senate is hurtling towards some resolution in the weeks-long saga of Obamacare repeal, and after several failed votes and amendments, the final draft is finally in view. At around 10 p.m. Thursday evening, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled the text of the Health Care Freedom Act, the more dignified official title for the skinny repeal.

The legislation, which was reportedly finalized over lunch today in the Senate, broadly resembles the details that have leaked out about the secret plan over the past week. It would repeal Obamacares individual mandate, and would repeal the employer mandate until 2025, where presumably that mandate would come back or would have to be re-repealed by Congress.

The skinny repeal extends a repeal of the medical-device tax through 2020 and defunds the Prevention and Public Health Fund. It would also more than double the limits of contributions to health-savings to allow people with HSAs more flexibility in paying for deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs. This provision is somewhat significant, because it would decrease federal revenues and would need a score from the Congressional Budget Office going forward in the process.

Although provisions in the original Senate Obamacare replacement bill to defund Planned Parenthood and allow states the ability to waive essential health benefits for some insurance plans on the exchanges were rejected under the Senate reconciliation rules by the parliamentarian, this bill devotes much of its language to creative rewrites to get around those rejections.

To start, the Health Care Freedom Act still bans funding from a number of different federal sources to public providers that provide abortionsa direct stab at Planned Parenthoodbut made those provisions more general. Originally, the Better Care Reconciliation Acts attempts to defund Planned Parenthood targeted all entities that received over $350 million in federal and state reimbursements, which would have only ensnared Planned Parenthood, because of its size. But this bill lowers that threshold to $1 million, which would presumably be less hyper-targeted, and only extends the ban for a year.

This bill also adds over $400 million to community health centers. Although that amount is not specified in the bill as an offset to defunding Planned Parenthood, the two were linked in the formal introduction of the bill to the floor by McConnell.

The second parliamentary-skirting action comes on the issue of state waivers. The BCRA attempted to give states wide flexibility to essentially ignore certain Obamacare rules for exchange plans (those sold in state insurance marketplaces set up by the law), including its requirements that plans cover certain services. It did that through expanding Obamacares existing State Innovation Waivers program, which allows states to create insurance programs that modify rules about plan benefits and the exchanges. Under that program, however, Obamacare implements guardrails specifying that these state waiver programs would have to still provide coverage that is as comprehensive and affordable as comparable exchange plans.

The BCRA plan to give states much more flexibility essentially violated those guardrails, but the skinny repeal bill keeps them in place. But theres a bit of a poison pill: Once states get the waiver, it appears their programs cant be revoked under law under the eight-year waiver window, which means states would be rather free to ignore guardrail rules for almost a decade at a time.

Reportedly, these tweakswhich clearly maintain at least some of the spirit of previous attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and allow insurers to offer less comprehensive coverageare enough to satisfy the parliamentarian and pass with a 50-vote majority.

According to a Congressional Budget Office score obtained by Senate Democratic staff, the effects of this bill are about what has been expected: 16 million more uninsured people and just under $200 billion in federal deficit savings. Although premium estimates were not part of the CBOs score tables, it appears this law will have comparable effects to a proto-skinny-repeal scored Wednesday, and will increase premiums by around 20 percent over the next decade.

Thats the gist of what Senate Republicans will vote on, and what could very well end up on President Trumps desk, should House Republicans not follow through on Speaker Paul Ryans lukewarm commitment to add more provisions in conference.

The so-called skinny repeal is not as skinny as expectedit repeals the mandates, and includes provisions like a restriction of Planned Parenthood and some insurance deregulationsand its effects on coverage and premiums would be significant. And soon, it could very well be the law of the land.

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White House tries to rebrand ‘skinny’ Obamacare repeal as ‘freedom bill’ – Politico

Posted: at 7:06 pm

The White House wants to rebrand an Obamacare effort on Capitol Hill, endorsing the term freedom bill on Thursday over "skinny repeal," as people following the Senate Republican push have been calling the plan.

Look, the administrations been working hand in hand on pushing repeal and replace of Obamacare, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters. We actually like the term freedom bill a lot better because we think it addresses what this bill actually is.

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Senate Republicans believe the skinny repeal legislation that, rather than totally repealing the 2010 law, would gut Obamacares individual and employer coverage mandates may be their only hope to pass a bill and move to talks with the House about health care legislation.

Despite its nickname, health policy experts say the skinny repeal could destabilize Obamacares insurance markets, spiking premiums and raising the number of uninsured Americans by millions.

But the nickname also could make the skinny repeal a tough sell to constituents because it suggests its a minimized form of the full repeal of Obamacare that Republicans have campaigned on for seven years,

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell emailed his caucus Thursday outlining the bills provisions. The employer mandate would be repealed for at least six years or eight years, according to sources who viewed the email.

The chamber will hold a series of votes later Thursday in a "vote-a-rama" to test what senators will support in an Obamacare replacement bill.

It removes a lot of those mandates that allow people to have the type of freedom, have states have the freedom that they want, Sanders said of the skinny bill, and that was one of the big priorities for this administration. Were, you know, happy about that progress, and were gonna wait and see where this bill ends up later this evening.

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Technology That Turns Obama’s Words Into Lip-Synced Videos to Be Featured at Siggraph – Variety

Posted: at 7:06 pm

A paper set to be delivered at next weeks Siggraph2017 conference has garnered a lot of pre-confab attention because the technology could possibly be used to produce fake news videos. But the technology described in the paper, Synthesizing Obama: Learning Lip Sync From Audio, could have many more beneficial uses, especially in the entertainment and gaming industries.

Researchers from the University of Washington have developed the technology to photorealistically put different words into former President Barack Obamas mouth, based on several hours of video footage from his weekly addresses. They used a recurrent neural network to study how Obamas mouth moves, then they manipulated his mouth and head motions as to sync them to rearranged words and sentences, creating new sentences.

Its easy to see how this could potentially be used for nefarious purposes, but the technology is a long way away from becoming widely available and it would be fairly easy to detect in fake videos, according to Supasorn Suwajanakorn, the lead author of the study. It would be relatively easy to develop a software to detect fake video, he says. Producing a truly realistic, hard-to-verify video may take much longer than that due to technical limitations.

Siggraphs conference chair Jerome Solomon, dean of Cogswell Polytechnical College, notes that any new technology can be used for good or bad. This is new technology in computer graphics, he explains. Were making things that might not be believable believable and worlds that dont exist exist. And I think people potentially using any technology out of our industry could use it for bad purposes or good.

Plus, Solomon says echoing Suwajanakorn, I think its a ways away from being available to everybody. Our conference is really a place where new technology comes in through our technical papers program, but it takes awhile for the technology to appear in the tools. Developers have to go and create the software to actually take this research and get it into the tools.

And there are a wide variety of uses for this particular technology.

Automatically editing video to allow accurate lip-sync to a new audio track is a novel advance on a very hot topic with many practical applications, says Marie-Paule Cani, Siggraphs technical paper chair. It could be used, for instance, to seamlessly dub a movie in a foreign language, or to correct what people said in video footage and no cost.

A number of papers and exhibits of new technology will be on display at Siggraph 2017, to be held July 30 through Aug. 3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Among the many new technologies will be a presentation by brain-computer interface company Neurable. They make a cap that you put on your head and it reads your brainwaves so you can use it instead of a mouse or a keyboard to do different things, says Solomon. Theyre coming to Siggraph with that technology to show how you can use it to play a game. Imagine playing a game without have a controller in your hand.

A new addition to Siggraph this year is a VR theater with ongoing programming. Were going to show VR films, Solomon explains. Well have high-end VR headsets and can actually demonstrate VR storytelling. With the sound and the high-end digital, its a really different experience.

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How New Technology Could Threaten a Woman’s Right to Abortion – Gizmodo

Posted: at 7:06 pm

In April, scientists achieved a major breakthrough that could one day drastically improve the fate of babies born extremely prematurely. Eight premature baby lambs spent their last month of development in an external womb that resembled a high-tech ziplock bag. At the time, the oldest lamb was nearly a year old, and still seemed to be developing normally.

This technology, if it works in humans, could one day prove lifesaving for the 30,000 or so babies each year that are born earlier than 26 weeks into pregnancy.

It could also complicateand even jeopardizethe right to an abortion in an America in which that right is predicated on whether a fetus is viable.

The Supreme Court has pegged the constitutional treatment of abortion to the viability of a fetus, I. Glenn Cohen, a Harvard Law School bioethicist, told Gizmodo. This has the potential to really disrupt things, first by asking the question of whether a fetus could be considered viable at the time of abortion if you could place it in an artificial womb.

Cohen raised this issue in a report for the Hastings Center published on Friday.

A normal human pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks. In Roe v. Wade, the case that ultimately legalized abortion in 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that whether a fetus was capable of surviving outside the womb was an important test of whether an abortion was legal. The Court said that viability typically began at some point during the third trimester, which begins at 24 weeks, but could really only be determined on a case by case basis. In 1992, Planned Parenthood vs. Casey reaffirmed that viability is key in defining a states power to regulate abortion. The number of weeks at which you can legally procure an abortion varies between 22 and 24 weeks by state. (If a womans health is at risk, the state cannot enforce an abortion ban at any stage of development.)

The human version of the external lamb womb that researchers eventually envision creating would be designed for premature babies born as early as 23 weeks. Researchers hope to test it on premature human babies within five years. (Lambs have a shorter gestation period; the 105- to 115-day-old premature lamb fetuses were the equivalent of about 23 weeks in a human.)

In the future, Cohen said, it stands to reason that this technology could save the lives of fetuses born even earlier. Imagine then, that you had made the decision to terminate a pregnancy at 18 weeks, but that such a technology technically made it viable for the fetus to be born at that point in development, then finish developing outside the womb. Would an abortion still be legal?

It could wind up being that you only have the right to an abortion up until you can put [a fetus]in the artificial womb, said Cohen. Its terrifying.

The advent of such artificial womb technology highlights how fragileand datedmuch of the law surrounding the right to an abortion really is.

In a 1983 decision, Justice Sandra Day OConnor argued that Roevs. Wade was on a collision course with itself, because improvements in technology would make it possible for a fetus to continually be viable earlier in the course of a pregnancy. In some cases, today, a fetus can now survive outside the womb at 22 weeks, two whole weeks earlier than at the time of Roe vs. Wade.

In 1990 a woman maybe could have an abortion at 25 weeks, but in 2020 perhaps it will be 20 weeks, said Cohen. Theres a problem when an abortion that would be legal in one decade is not in another under the Constitution.

Developing technology also tests the rhetoric surrounding the right to choose. A womans right to control her own body is a common legal and ethical argument made in favor of abortion. Under that logic, though, the law could simply compel a woman to put her fetus into an external womb, giving her back control of her own body but still forcing her into parenthood.

The way the law has thus far defined it, Cohen said, is that a woman has a right to stop carrying a child. It doesnt consider whether she also has a right to control what happens to the child if she is no longer responsible for carrying it. It could come down to an interpretation of what qualifies as control.

If you think the reason we have abortion rights is that women have a right to control their own bodies, this is saying you can control your own body, just give the fetus to someone else and theyll put it in an artificial womb, he said.

How invasive the procedure to remove a fetus, Cohen said, could influence how that all shakes out. If removing a fetus from the womb still required surgery, for example, a woman might be able to legally refuse surgery instead.

All of this may seem too hypothetical to be worth consideringafter all, theres no telling whether the technology that worked in lambs will translate to human babies. And the number of women who have abortions that late into their pregnancy is small. Somewhere around 9,090 women in the US had abortions after their 21st week of pregnancy in 2012, accounting for just 1.3 percent of all abortions. (Many of that subset seek abortions for health reasons. And again, new technologies would be unlikely to impact late-stage abortions deemed necessary for the health of a mother.)

But Sandra Day OConnor was rightalready, states have been emboldened by improving neonatal care in making laws that restrict abortion earlier and earlier in a womans pregnancy. Physicians, legal experts and bioethicists have long taken issue with viability as a standard for legality. (There is a lot of inconclusive debate about what might make a better standard.)

There have always been problems with this standard, Cohen said. But now theres good reason to believe it could get even worse.

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Here’s Why Align Technology Marched Higher Again Today – Motley Fool

Posted: at 7:06 pm

What happened

Shares of Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALGN), an orthodontic-device company, rose about 10% during Friday's session. Record results released after the bell on Thursday should keep investors smiling all through the weekend.

Just as the analysts who pick stocks for our premium services predicted long ago, Align Technology's Invisalign tooth-straightening system is becoming increasingly popular. In the second quarter, the company shipped a record-breaking 231,900 cases, 31% more than it shipped during the same period last year.

Image source: Getty Images.

The number of cases of the translucent braces shipped wasn't the only figure that rose during the three months ended June. Second-quarter revenue jumped 32.3% year on year to $356.5 million, which was 14.9% more than the company raked in during the first quarter of the year. All channels performed well, but investors were pleased to hear growth in the important teen segment was especially strong.

Align Technology's braces might be barely visible, but the company's success is getting noticed. Following today's spike, the stock is up 103.1% over the past year. At its new high price, the shares trade at about 53 times this year's earnings expectations.

Although the stock might be trading at a sky-high multiple, there's probably more than enough demand to keep sales rising by double digits each quarter for years to come. Around the world, about 2.6 million patients with mild to moderate malocclusion have their teeth realigned by some means. These are the people best suited to treatment with the Invisalign system, but the potential market could be much larger.

The Invisalign system isn't anything like the metal-mouth image that usually comes to mind when people hear the word "braces." There could be a billion adults who want straighter teeth but don't want to broadcast it to their peers; Align's system is extremely discreet. I wouldn't be surprised if sales continue bursting for years to come.

Cory Renauer has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Align Technology. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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This creepy technology can read your emotions as you walk down the street – Mashable

Posted: at 7:06 pm


Mashable
This creepy technology can read your emotions as you walk down the street
Mashable
If this Russian tech company has its way, emotion-reading recognition is the cool kid on the block right now. With serious consequences for everyone's privacy and personal data. NTechLab ignited a controversy last year after it released FindFace, an ...

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Barclays Reports ‘Pretty Good Progress,’ and a $1.8 Billion Loss – New York Times

Posted: at 7:05 pm

Barclays results, however, showed the costs of its restructuring efforts.

The bank reported a loss of 1.4 billion pounds, or about $1.8 billion. That compared with a profit of 677 million in the second quarter of 2016.

But Mr. Staley, who joined Barclays in December 2015 as its third chief executive since 2012, said the bank had reduced the size of its so-called noncore operations to the point that the division could be closed. The bank could then shift capital within some businesses, he said, in order to focus on increasing its profitability.

Shares of Barclays were down less than 1 percent in midmorning trading in London on Friday.

During the quarter, the bank took a loss of 1.4 billion on reducing its stake in Barclays Africa Group and an impairment of 1.1 billion related to the business.

The British bank has cut its stake in the business to 15 percent in order to free itself from regulatory and capital requirements that have dragged on its balance sheet. Barclays had owned as much as 62.3 percent of the African business.

Barclays, which has operated in Africa for more than a century, first announced plans to sell down its controlling stake in March. The African business had been a key pillar for the bank under former chief executive Antony Jenkins.

During the quarter, Barclays also took a 700 million charge related to payment protection insurance. The insurance product was widely sold for more than two decades in Britain, targeting consumers taking out mortgages, credit cards or other loans.

But British regulators determined that complex pricing and detailed conditions on eligibility to make claims made the product inappropriate for some consumers. Compensation for those who were sold it improperly has cost the industry tens of billions of pounds.

Lloyds Banking Group, one of the biggest providers of the loan insurance in Britain, took a similar charge of 700 million as part of its second quarter results on Thursday.

British banks expect to be able to draw a line on claims as regulators have set an August 2019 deadline for consumers to seek compensation.

But Barclays is still facing a series of other regulatory issues.

It was sued by the United States Justice Department in December over its sale of securities linked toxic mortgages.

British authorities filed criminal charges in June against the bank and several former executives, accusing them of conspiring to misrepresent arrangements made with the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar in 2008, as the bank raised capital to help it weather the financial crisis.

And, Mr. Staley himself is facing an inquiry by regulators over his handling of a whistle-blower complaint.

Revenue declined about 2 percent in the second quarter in its corporate and investment bank. The banks credit and equity trading businesses reported double-digit revenue gains, while its rates and currency trading business saw a 25 percent decline in revenue.

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Review: ‘The Incredible Jessica James’ Is a Bold Woman in Progress – New York Times

Posted: at 7:05 pm

Photo Jessica Williams in The Incredible Jessica James, streaming on Netflix. Credit Netflix

One of the best scenes in The Incredible Jessica James comes two-thirds of the way through the movie. Jessica, arguing with a guy shes sort of been seeing, delivers a kiss-off: Im freakin dope. That bold declaration not only represents a strong young woman but is also a gift for fans of the actress who plays her, Jessica Williams, the former Daily Show correspondent and current co-host of the 2 Dope Queens podcast.

And yet the struggle is real for her character. Jessica James is a Brooklyn playwright going through a weird transitional phase, not really coping well with a recent breakup (her ex-boyfriend keeps coming to an untimely end in her dreams) and trying to remain optimistic as rejection letters from theater companies pile up. Those notices share a wall in her Bushwick apartment with Playbill covers, posters for old school productions and inspirational quotes from Lillian Hellman.

Her love of theater is deep, as witnessed in scenes with young students in a playwriting class she teaches. She bonds with one, Shandra (a delightful Taliyah Whitaker), who shows promise but is also processing the recent divorce of her parents. The snappy dialogue makes Jessicas silly moments with the kids as well as heart-to-hearts with her friend Tasha (Nol Wells, just as charming as she was in Master of None) feel most lived-in and natural, even when she is asked to recommend a show for a friend of her mothers back home in Ohio whos heard good things about Jersey Boys. Jessica prefers dialogue-driven dramas that explore the human condition.

The director Jim Strouse wrote this movie, which began streaming Friday on Netflix, for Ms. Williams after she appeared in his 2015 film, People Places Things. The camera lovingly follows her on her adventures in the city, and its easy to see why he was inspired to give her this breakout role.

Her characters forthrightness draws in friends and intrigues potential suitors, including the recently divorced Boone (played by a scruffy and slightly goofy Chris ODowd). They are complete opposites but find themselves in bed after an awkward first date. Their courtship involves an elaborate plan to break free of the obsessive cycle of stalking their exes on social media. The solution: Each will follow the others ex.

But this is Ms. Williamss movie, and she owns it. (Though, with its strong ensemble Lakeith Stanfield plays her ex I kept thinking it could make for a smart series.) Shes a radiant, tall glass of dopeness and isnt afraid to tell you so. And in New York City, isnt that how the strong survive?

NYT Critics Pick

Director Jim Strouse

Writer Jim Strouse

Stars Lakeith Stanfield, Chris O'Dowd, Nol Wells, Jessica Williams, Zabryna Guevara

Running Time 1h 25m

Genre Comedy

The Incredible Jessica James Streaming on Netflix. Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes.

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Trump’s MS-13 crackdown: Why progress may be temporary – Fox Business

Posted: at 7:05 pm

President Donald Trump visited Long Island, New York,on Friday, where local law enforcement, with the support of federal agencies, has begun to make progress in the fight against the violent street gang MS-13.

"It is the policy of this administration to dismantle ... and eradicate MS-13," Trump said Friday. "One by one we're liberating our American towns."

Still, some law enforcement specialists caution theprogress the president hailed could be temporary, andthat this will be a battle that is won over the long-term.

MS-13 is nowhere out in the force that they used to be, Michael Balboni, founder of securities firm Redland Strategies and former homeland security advisor for New York State, told FOX Business. [Law enforcement is] driving them underground, which is probably a good thing and a bad thing One day theyre going to come back.

Recent attention focused on MS-13, which has been reinforced by the president and his administration, has helped local communities obtain additional resources in their battle against the street gang, Balboni said. While MS-13 has been on one of its most deadly tears through Long Island since it took root there about 30 years ago, perception is that the tides are turning. Earlier this month, more than 15 suspected gang members were arrested, some of whom are believed to be connected to the violent deaths of four individuals in April.

Balboni said President Trumps visit to the region is an important step, but the complex underground world that MS-13 thrives in has an elaborate history that has proven difficult to stamp out.

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Its about sustainability for the safety of the people, you cant walk away from this, he said.

MS-13, a group that was started by Central American immigrants in Los Angeles in the 1980s, is known for its ruthless and violent tactics notably using machetes to hack victims. Most of the founding members were from El Salvador and fled to the U.S. during the countrys civil war that lasted 12 years, from 1980-92. Since then the gangs membership has ballooned to at least 10,000 members in the United States and more than 30,000 worldwide, according to the FBI and Treasury Department.

For years, MS-13 flourished by feeding off of immigrant communities that have suffered in silence, according to Balboni. The perpetuation of that process had made this a really challenging effort for law enforcement, he said.

Unlike other gangs, MS-13 is not particularly well-funded or organized. It traditionally resorts to theft, human trafficking, sex trafficking, selling drugs and extortion for financing, as previously reported by FOX Business. However, on Long Island the group has fostered an underground economy that law enforcement officials have largely been unable to reach over the past 20 to 30 years.

This is a really difficult thing to pry out into the open, Balboni said, adding that Trumps visit to Long Island shows real leadership on this issue.

On Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions flew to El Salvador to tackle MS-13 at its source. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) told FOX Business the administration has been coordinating with officials in the Central American country in order to combat the threat across multiple fronts. The Department of Justice applauded the arrests of more than 100 MS-13 members in El SalvadorThursday.

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Cycling: "Great progress" made in restoring UCI’s reputation – Cookson – Reuters

Posted: at 7:05 pm

LONDON (Reuters) - Brian Cookson, facing an election challenge for his presidency of cycling's governing body the UCI, launched a strong defence of his stewardship on Friday and said he expects to win another four-year period in office.

He believes he has greatly improved the disastrous and controversy-ridden organisation he took over in 2013 and will continue to do so, especially in the areas of anti-doping, women's cycling and inspiring participation in the sport.

The 66-year-old Briton beat Irishman Pat McQuaid in the last election and was hoping to be unopposed this time.

He is being challenged, however, by UCI vice-president and European Cycling Union president David Lappartient from France, who Cookson described as having been the leader of the opposition for some time.

The Frenchman announced his candidacy last month, 24 hours before the deadline.

The restoration of UCI's credibility was an absolutely essential step, given the disastrous state of our reputation at the time, and I think we've made great progress, Cookson told a news conference.

I worked very quickly to rebuild relations with the World Anti-Doping Agency at every level and we are now a highly trusted partner within the anti-doping community.

People have to believe and trust in our sport. I set about rebuilding the integrity of it because we suffered a lot of reputational damage. German television had actually stopped covering the Tour de France and four years ago we were threatened with being removed from the Olympics.

He pointed to a new ethics code, strengthening the UCI's financial position and growing cycling worldwide, with a record number of nations at the Rio Olympic Games and the development of the UCI Women's World Tour, with equal prize money.

His manifesto includes continuing the global development of cycling, keeping an eye on the ball with anti-doping and using the elite level of cycling to inspire people to get on a bike for health benefits."

Criticised publicly by his predecessor McQuaid, who called him a fraud, and by the disgraced former world champion and seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, Cookson said: I don't want their support. (Their criticism) is the best possible endorsement of me.

The vote among 45 delegates will take place on Sept. 21 during the UCI road world championships in Norway.

I think I have substantial support from all (geographical) areas, Cookson said. Do I think I'll win? Yes.

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