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appalachiablue

Democrats Push To Retool Health Care Programs For Millions

(AP) Dental work for seniors on Medicare. An end to sky’s-the-limit pricing on prescription drugs. New options for long-term care at home. Coverage for low-income people locked out of Medicaid by ideological battles. Those are just some of the changes to health care that Democrats want to achieve with President Joe Biden’s massive “Build Back Better” plan. The $3.5 trillion domestic agenda bill touches almost all aspects of American life, from taxes to climate change, but the health care components are a cornerstone for Democrats, amplified during the COVID-19 crisis.

superpatriotman

Pfizer to seek vaccine authorization for ages 5-11. Says it is safe and effective

(NBC News) Pfizer-BioNTech said on Monday that the companies' two-dose Covid-19 vaccine was safe and showed a "robust" antibody response in children ages 5 to 11. Based on data collected in a trial that included more than 2,000 children, Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, said in a press release that the vaccine was "safe, well tolerated, and showed robust neutralizing antibody responses" for this age group.

Rhiannon12866

Democrats Introduce New legislation To Protect Voting Rights

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

Support for Abbott plunging in Texas

(The Hill) Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) job performance rating has fallen sharply, according to a new poll that shows a majority of Texans now disapprove of him. Forty-five percent of Texans approve of Abbott's performance as governor, while 54 percent say the state is headed in the wrong direction, according to the survey from The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler. Abbott's approval rating was at 59 percent prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

JHB

Monday TOONs

question everything

A Pediatrician Joined the School Board. Her Face Mask Recommendations Could Cost Her The Job.

(Wall Street Journal) When pediatrician Tracie Newman ran for school board here last year, so many residents were eager for her expert help guiding students through the pandemic that there was a waiting list for her campaign lawn signs. Now, some of those same parents are backing a recall campaign to get her off the board. hey say her recommendation that children wear masks this fall oversteps their right as parents to determine what is best for kids’ health and education. They have gathered thousands of signatures to remove her from the board, organized protests and questioned Dr. Newman’s integrity at school-board meetings.

Demovictory9

The shoe is on the other foot as workers exercise new power over employers

(Business Insider) Recruiters in several industries say they've never seen anything like it. "We are in such desperate need that I would literally hire anyone that passes the background check," said one food-service recruiter who is currently trying to staff a large food-service contract. Insider agreed to not publish her name or client. In the past six weeks alone, she told Insider, she scheduled 58 interviews for jobs ranging from $14 to $20 per hour, of which 27 candidates actually showed up. From there she scheduled eight for onboarding after they passed a background check, only to have just five show up for work. Of those five, three have ghosted her leaving only two out of the original 58 she considered.

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

Revealed: The Secret Money Trail Behind Kevin McCarthy's MAGA Makeover

(Rolling Stone) McCarthy’s extreme MAGA makeover was an awkward one. Yet he didn’t have to do it alone. At a critical moment in McCarthy’s ascent, a network of swampy operatives mobilized in his defense and a mysterious dark-money group carpet-bombed the airwaves to position McCarthy as the heir apparent to lead the Trump-era Republican Party. And when you follow that money, you discover a campaign of deception that’s even phonier than McCarthy’s rebirth as a right-wing MAGA congressman.

Eugene

Scoop: Beto plans Texas comeback in governor's race

(Axios) Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke is preparing to run for governor of Texas in 2022, with an announcement expected later this year, Texas political operatives tell Axios. O'Rourke's entry would give Democrats a high-profile candidate with a national fundraising network to challenge Republican Gov. Greg Abbott — and give O’Rourke, a former three-term congressman from El Paso and 2020 presidential candidate and voting rights activist, a path to a political comeback.

Omaha Steve

Senate parliamentarian deals blow to Dems' immigration push

(AP) Democrats can’t use their $3.5 trillion package bolstering social and climate programs to give millions of immigrants a chance to become citizens, the Senate’s parliamentarian said late Sunday, a crushing blow to what was the party’s clearest pathway in years to attaining that long-sought goal. The parliamentarian decided that the immigration language could not be included in an immense bill that’s been shielded from GOP filibusters. Left vulnerable to those bill-killing delays, which require 60 Senate votes to defuse, the immigration provisions have virtually no chance in the 50-50 Senate.