The Highlands TEa Party Weekly Meeting, March 11, 2014 – You do not want to miss this one, The public is welcome
March 6th, 2014 | 
Author: THE HIGHLANDS TEA PARTY 2014
Current meeting schedule 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th TUESDAY’s for 2014
LOCATION: Homers Smorgasbord. Meetings time 6:00 pm -8:00PM
Come early enjoy a great dinner and join us, we are non-partisan
Meeting schedule’s are subject to change please watch the web page for changes
THE PUBLIC IS CORDIALLY INVITED TO JOIN US
March 11, 2014
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN YOU
DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS MEETING
The Highlands Tea Party is Honored to Present
Billy & Karen Vaughn, The Proud Parents of
Aaron Vaughn, Seal Team VI ,
killed August 6, 2011 in Action in Afghanistan.
Tuesday night we will be presenting Billy and Karen Vaughn; they are going to give us the riveting facts about EXTORTION 17 ,the very preventable shooting down of the H-47 Chinook Chopper (call sign extortion 17) in Afghanistan that killed 30 Americans and 7 Afghan National Army troops. Fifteen of those killed were warriors from Seal Team VI, the same unit that killed Usama Bin Laden. One of those Seals was their son Aaron Vaughn, member of SEAL team VI.
God Bless Aaron, his team, and the rest of the
American service men taken in this tragic event.
Billy Vaughn is the Author of “Betrayed” The Shocking True Story of Extortion 17 as told by a Navy Seal’s Father.
Posted in 
HEADLINE NEWS & URGENT – ACTION ITEMS
HEADLINE NEWS
News you will not see on ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC
Click on Blue Headline for the story Updated 03/19/2014
- Rubio warns of UN Internet ‘takeover’ 03/10/2014
- WESTERN JOURNALISM – SOME GREAT ARTICLES 03/9/2014
- THE INEVITABILITY OF OBAMACARE FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS 03/09/2014
Updated 02/03/2014
Click on links to sign letters/petitions
IMPORTANT SIDEBARS
Check out the “RED” side bars for Interesting links.
“COMMON CORE” “INFO VIDEOS” , “POLLS”, “HEADLINE NEWS & ACTION ITEMS”,”AGENDA 21″,
“LETTERS TO EDITOR” “KRISSANNE HALL”, ” A VOICE FOR FREEDOM”, and many more.
Link up to the Highlands Tea Party, Contact Jeanne: jlparz@comcast.net, Join our mailing list get the latest alerts and web page updates. The Highlands Tea Party meets each Tuesday evening 6:00 PM at Homers Smorgasbord, 1000 Sebring Square, Sebring, FL 33872
The Highlands Tea Party is a member of the following organizations
Obamacare Limits How Much Seniors Can Spend Of Own Money on Healthcare Insurance
Something every Senior Citizen should be aware of, it is a matter of life and death!
Posted By Dave Jolly on Mar 10
We’ve been hearing about one negative aspect of Obamacare after another. Two years ago I reported on some 20 different taxes that were being imposed by Obamacare. From increases in taxes on dividends and medical devices, to increasing the medical deductions that you subtract from your itemized federal income tax from 7.5% to 10%.
According to a recent report from the Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics at the Nation Right to Life Committee, Obamacare is also imposing a 40% excise tax:
“Obamacare imposes a 40% excise tax on employer-paid health insurance premiums above a governmentally imposed limit that does not keep up with medical inflation. Consequently, insurance companies will be forced to impose increasingly severe restraints on policy-holders’ access to medical diagnosis and treatment—limits that will make it harder to get often-expensive treatments essential to combatting life-threatening illnesses.”
The same report also stated that the Independent Payment Advisory Board has been instructed to set limits to the spending on healthcare to a growth rate below the medical inflation rate. These spending limits will then be used to set limits on what treatments that patients can receive from their providers. This is what they call the quality and efficiency standards that will be imposed by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Additionally, people using the exchanges to get their plans are not allowed to spend what the government considers excessive or unjustified amounts for their health plans. It doesn’t matter if the insurers offer the same plans within or outside the exchanges.
Lastly, the report revealed that Obamacare is placing limits on seniors that may place many on them in danger of dying early. The report stated:
Read more atCLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE STORY
CPAC 2014 – Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)
Published on Mar 7, 2014
The Honorable Rick Santorum, former United States Senator for Pennsylvania, speaks at CPAC 2014 on March 7, 2014.
Recorded at the American Conservative Union (ACU) Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2014, March 6-8, 2014, Washington, D.C.
Emory Riddle Aeronautical University – President Speakers Series: “Terrorism and Communication,” Dr. Jonathan Matusitz
Published on Mar 10, 2014
Thursday, March 6, 7 p.m. Dr. Jonathan Matusitz, associate professor in the Nicholson School of Communication at the University of Central Florida, will discuss his book, “Terrorism and Communication: A Critical Introduction,” and offer insights into specific areas of the world where terrorism is prevalent.
Obama drops Medicare changes
By Elise Viebeck
March 10, 2014
The Obama administration is abandoning a surprise plan to alter Medicare’s drug coverage after withering criticism from Congress and K Street.
Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner alerted lawmakers Monday that her agency would not go forward with a proposal to give insurers more leeway to limit the number of drugs they cover for Medicare beneficiaries.
Critics argued that making the change, which was designed to save money, would have hampered seniors’ access to necessary drugs.
Democrats worried the issue would hurt them in the midterm elections, and House Republicans had scheduled a vote this week on a bill blocking the regulation from going forward.
The about-face is the latest example in which the Obama administration has changed its healthcare policies to try to benefit the president’s party.
Tavenner’s announcement means Medicare will continue to subject six classes of prescription drugs to stringent rules requiring insurers to cover nearly all medications in those classes.
If the change had gone forward, only three classes of drugs — cancer, HIV and anti-seizure medications — would have been subject to those rules.
“We will engage in further stakeholder input before advancing some or all of the changes in these areas in future years,” Tavenner wrote in a letter to lawmakers announcing the administration was backing off.
“We are committed to continuing to work with Congress to continue to ensure that Parts C and D work best for Medicare beneficiaries.”
Seizing the opportunity, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called on the administration to go a step further and withdraw its proposed cut to Medicare Advantage.
Set to be finalized next month, the rate reduction is opposed by Republicans and some Democrats, and GOP campaign committees are already using it to target opponents.
“We remain concerned about the impact of ObamaCare’s looming cuts to Medicare Advantage, something that was not addressed in today’s announcement,” McConnell said in a statement.
“Seniors need to know whether the president will stand by his word, and that they can keep the plans they have and like.”
The Obama administration’s quixotic push to alter Part D in an election year stunned the healthcare world when the regulations came out in January.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) floated a long list of changes in addition to lifting “protected status” for three types of drugs.
One provision would have limited the number of Part D drug plans that insurance companies could offer in a specific region of the country.
Another would have relaxed the rules that govern plans’ preferred pharmacy networks, allowing all pharmacies to participate.
The regulations would have also permitted federal health officials to participate in negotiations between insurers and pharmacies in Part D for the first time.
Each change quickly triggered its own fight among industry groups.
Local pharmacies supported the relaxed rules for preferred networks, for example, while disease and patient groups slammed the changes to “protected status” drugs.
Altogether, the controversy produced an unprecedented backlash for the administration that united Republicans, Democrats and stakeholders across the healthcare world.
The CMS was flooded with communications from lawmakers, including a rare, unanimous letter from the Senate Finance Committee highlighting the likely harm to seniors.
The House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees also weighed in with a unique bi-panel, bipartisan letter opposing the changes.
Tavenner walked back nearly all of the proposed changes Monday but vowed to finalize several smaller provisions, like strengthening certain standards for drug prescribers, in short order.
“We plan to finalize proposals related to consumer protections, anti-fraud provisions that have bipartisan support and transparency after taking into consideration the comments received during the public comment period,” she wrote.
The announcement received swift praise from healthcare groups that emerged to fight the regulations, such as the Washington, D.C.-based Partnership for Part D Access.
“We are thrilled that CMS has listened to the loud chorus of support for maintaining beneficiary access to the life-saving drugs provided under Medicare Part D,” said Chuck Ingoglia, senior vice president of the National Council for Behavioral Health, which is spearheading the group.
“Although we need to remain vigilant on this issue, we commend today’s action by CMS will allow millions of seniors to continue to confidently rely upon Medicare to provide them the drugs they need.”
This story was updated at 2:08 p.m.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/medicare/200338-obama-drops-medicare-changes#ixzz2vafymxWQ
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook
AMERICAN THINKER – Barack Hussein Soebarkah: In Two Places at the Same Time?
After reading this, check out the video under the “THTP Video” page you may find it very, very interesting.
Barack Hussein Soebarkah: In Two Places at the Same Time?
The 44th President of the United States is, of course, Barack Hussein Obama II.
Barack Hussein Obama II has also been known by names such as Barry Soetoro, Barry Obama, and Barack Hussein Obama (Soebarkah).
To be sure, only supposed madmen note that the name “Soebarkah” originated in very tight spatiotemporalproximity to the operations of a cult called “Subud” that was founded by a Muslim named Mohammad Subuh — a cult wherein personal name changes were the order of the day.
That Soebarkah’s mother associated with members of the cult, and that, some 45 years later, a leader of the cult (Deliana Loretta Fuddy) would be the first non-medical doctor in the state of Hawaii to run the State’s Department of Health (and therefore have custody over Soebarkah’s long form birth certificate) is, shall we say, rather odd — but nothing more than that, except to the most determined and deluded of conspiracy theorists.
Conspiracy theorists might add that cult leader Fuddy, relatively soon after her certification of Soebarkah’s origins, apparently perished in a plane crash survived by everyone on board including the cult leader herself — until the cult leader, post-collision, poetically disengaged a hand and was swallowed by the ocean.
But, this is truly sheer madness — all of it; there’s simply no denying it.
And yet, the depths of the madness inspired by the most transformative of presidents remain unfathomed — even by the most ardent of conspiracy theorists.
You see, there are certain very queer facts about the nameshifter that not even the most ardent conspiracy theorist will want to deny.
Astoundingly, it would appear that Soebarkah could be in two places at the same time.
Re-acquaint yourselves, if you will, with the Soebarkah version stamped May 3, 1990. On that date, as reflected by the Illinois Daily Herald, we have Soebarkah in his typical, comfortable, “Barack Obama” uniform.
He’s talking, of course, about stopping “racism” at its core and how bored he is with the suburbs, but we also hear:
Obama moved to Southeast Asia at age 2 when his parents divorced and his mother married an Indonesian. Until the fifth grade, Obama attended Indonesian schools, where most of his friends were the sons of servants, street peddlers, and farmers (emphasis added)
Got that “until the fifth grade” part?
Now the LA Times, March 19, 1990 (prepare yourself; it’s another tear-jerker):
Born in Hawaii, where his parents met in college, Obama was named Barack (blessed in Arabic) after his father. The elder Obama was among a generation of young Africans who came to the United States to study engineering, finance and medicine, skills that could be taken back home to build a new, strong Africa. In Hawaii, he married Obama’s mother, a white American from Wichita, Kan.
Two years later, Obama’s parents separated and he moved to a small village outside Jakarta, Indonesia, with his mother, an anthropologist. There, he spent his boyhood playing with the sons and daughters of rice farmers and rickshaw drivers, attending an Indonesian-speaking school, where he had little contact with Americans.
Every morning at 5, his mother would wake him to take correspondence classes for fear he would forget his English.
It was in Indonesia, Obama said, where he first became aware of abject poverty and despair…After six years in Indonesia, Obama was sent back to the United States to live with his maternal grandparents in Hawaii in preparation for college. It was then that he began to correspond with his father, a senior economist for the Kenyan finance ministry who recounted intriguing tales of an African heritage that Obama knew little about (emphases added.)
So, after six years in Indonesia preceded by two Hawaiian years before the separation of BHO I and Stanley Ann Dunham divorce (but click here for an interesting perspective on the BHO I//Dunham “marriage”), Soebarkah returns to the states to “prepare for college.”
OK, let’s just leave aside the “prepare for college” at what must have been a very early age nonsense — or, was it such an early age?
Never mind.
Instead, direct your attention to this October, 2008 text from Hawaii Business:
Now, kids from Hawaii’s public schools can also claim ties to the Democratic presidential nominee. I acquired the picture below from Winifred (Wakai) Otaguro, who was in Ms. Sakai’s kindergarten class at Noelani Elementary School in 1967. Otaguro’s mother, Betty Wakai, had written the names of most of the kids in the class on the back of the picture. Her writing identifies the first little boy in the third row as “Barry Obama.” Obama’s sister Maya Soetoro-Ng confirms that the boy is Obama, however, the Department of Education has been unable to find his records.
You will note that the Hawaii Business link features a 1967 Noelani Elementary School photo of the kindergartener “Barry Obama” (Soebarkah??) in the third row.
I thought we were told that Soebarkah was in Indonesia at kindergartener age?
Upon reflection, though, there is obviously no problem here. Soebarkah, by way of a highly classified Subud incantation, perhaps simply folded time and space and was in both locales at once.
Or, was he a kindergartener preparing for college — genius supreme that he incontrovertibly is?
Or not.
Of course Soebarkah himself did not fold time and space; of course he is not a genius supreme.
The genuine, non-conspiratorial explanation is much more mundane.
Soebarkah lived in Indonesia, then appeared in Hawaii for a very brief spell, then moved right back to Indonesia, and then back to Hawaii again.
We can confirm this by consulting Department of Education records.
Except we can’t, of course, because by mere happenstance the Department of Education “has been unable to find his records.”
Perhaps instead we could simply examine the 1965 passport of Stanley Ann Dunham? Nope; the State Department informs us that Dunham’s passport materials were destroyed as a matter of routine.
Clearly, these sorts of thing often happen.
Just as it frequently happens that the National Student Clearinghouse – responsible for collegiate education verification — goes back and forth on a whether a person was enrolled at an institution for one year or two years — as it did with Soebarkah.
And, literary agents often, out of nowhere, suppose that their US born clients were in fact born in Kenya.
In addition, and just as unquestionably, the passports of presidential candidates with rock solid identities are breached every election cycle.
In view of the foregoing, it should be obvious that everything is cool with Soebarkah’s Social Security Number, his Selective Service card, and so on; only racists and those who oppose amnesty think otherwise.
Any conclusions to the contrary obviously amount to nothing more than conspiracy theories — racist aspersions cast upon a president whose identity is as constant and known as Ronald Reagan’s was.
Dr. Jason Kissner is associate professor of criminology at California State University, Fresno. You can reach him at crimprof2010@hotmail.com.
Democrat Climate Caucus Reveals Its Stupidity
Wish I could stay up all night and watch this clown act.
JEN
Democrat Climate Caucus Reveals Its Stupidity
By Alan Caruba
EPA Attacks Prospect of World’s Largest Copper Mine
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I could write every day about some new obscene Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) effort to thwart energy the nation needs, forcing the shutdown more coal-fired plants and the mines that supply them. Goodbye thousands of jobs, goodbye electrical energy. The White House has delayed the construction of the Keystone Xl pipeline to transmit oil from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast.Purported to be David Letterman’s Top Ten
This has not been Validated, I think it is a very accurate of description of how Democrats vote and think, it covers all of the issue’s their President Elect has accomplished or supports on their behalf.
#10. I vote Democrat because I love the fact that I can now marry whatever I want. I’ve decided to marry my German Shepherd.
#9. I vote Democrat because I believe oil companies’ profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene, but the government taxing the same gallon at 15% isn’t.
#8. I vote Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would.
#7. I vote Democrat because Freedom of Speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.
#6. I vote Democrat because I’m way too irresponsible to own a gun, and I know that my local police are all I need to protect me from murderers and thieves. I am also thankful that we have a 911 service that get police to your home in order to identify your body after a home invasion.
#5. I vote Democrat because I’m not concerned about millions of babies being aborted so long as we keep all death row inmates alive and comfy.
#4. I vote Democrat because I think illegal aliens have a right to free health care, education, and Social Security benefits, and we should take away Social Security from those who paid into it.
#3. I vote Democrat because I believe that businesses should not be allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as the Democrat Party sees fit.
#2. I vote Democrat because I believe liberal judges need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit fringe kooks who would never get their agendas past the voters.
…And the #1 reason I vote Democrat is because I think it’s better to pay $billions$ for oil to people who hate us, but not drill our own because it might upset some endangered beetle, gopher or fish here in America. We don’t care about the beetles, gophers or fish in those other countries.
genius and stupidity
is that
genius has its limits.
CAN YOU GUESS WHO I AM?
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CPAC 2014 – Sarah Palin “THIS IS A GREAT AWAKENING”
Published on Mar 9, 2014
Sarah Palin delivered the final big speech of CPAC Saturday evening, and brought the crowd to its feet multiple times with a fiery, optimistic speech that included more than a few barbs at President Obama, “MSLSD,” and the GOP establishment, calling them “complacent ones.. working the statist agenda of Obama’s.” She cried, “This is a great awakening! The age of Obama is almost over!”
She was happy at how much more fired up people are this year, saying that despite the media dismissing Benghazi, the IRS, and Obama’s “dopey wobbling on the world stage,” “Americans aren’t quite as obedient as they thought we were.” In honor of Ted Cruz’s big filibuster last year, Palin even did a little Dr. Seuss during her speech, starting out by saying, “I do not like this Uncle Sam. I do not like his health care scam.”
When Palin talked about 2016, members of the audience chanted, “Run, Sarah, run!” She deadpanned, “I should, I didn’t get to run this morning.”
In 2008 America Voted for HOPE & CHANGE – Is this what you received?
In 2008 America voted for
HOPE & CHANGE,
I ask you to view this video
see what America really received.
Do you want another 8 years of this
HOPE & CHANGE?
Ted Cruz Calls For the Abolition of the IRS!
Click here for video of CPAC speech
So let it be officially known that Ted Cruz has adopted a Political Outcast plank as part of his own platform. I pray he keeps hammering at it.
From the National Review blog:
“We ought to abolish the IRS and instead move to a simple flat tax,” Cruz said on Fox News over the weekend.
“Put down how much you earn, put down a deduction for charitable contributions, for home mortgage, and how much you owe,” he continued. “It ought to be just a simple, one-page postcard.”
“Take the agents, bureaucracy out of Washington, and limit the power of the government,” he said.
Some thoughts:
First, some will complain that, unlike Ron Paul, he is not campaigning to abolish the income tax. But remember, the IRS is completely a machine in the hands of Democrats for destroying the Republican base. The Democrats know it and openly talk about it. This is what is driving Ted Cruz and I think it is good to stay on point. Trying to end income tax would raise a whole new level of opposition that might jeopardize this needed reform.
Second, though, I am not excited that Cruz mentioned deducting the home mortgage. Why not just set the flat rate low enough to make homeowners okay with losing the deduction? There is no need to manipulate people through the tax code to induce them to prefer buying to renting.
Third, the only reason this is really exciting is because of who Ted Cruz is. If almost any other politician advocated this position I would assume that they were just trying to get votes and planning on “growing in office” if they won an election (Rand Paul being a possible exception). Not Cruz. All the people in the media and the GOP who claim he damaged “the Republican brand” (right, because the GOP brand was soooo good before the shutdown) just don’t get it. Or perhaps they do and that makes them hate Cruz all the more. Cruz has more credit with voters than probably any other politician because he has proven that he does what he believes in.
So he is probably the only one who could speak about abolishing the IRS and give voters an immediate certainty that he will do all he can to abolish the IRS.
May God grant him success and us deliverance!
Read more at http://politicaloutcast.com/2014/03/ted-cruz-calls-abolition-irs/#zr2JJiK4TPThHmyt.99
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi Weekly Report to the People
This week is National Consumer Protection Week, and I am dedicated to protecting Florida’s consumers. Floridians work hard to earn a living, and businesses work hard to remain profitable. Deceptive and unfair business practices can be costly to both consumers and legitimate businesses.My Division of Consumer Protection works tirelessly to enforce Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, which is intended to protect individual consumers and legitimate businesses from various types of illegal conduct in trade or commerce. Through our enforcement efforts, we have obtained $207 million in judgments and settlements on behalf of Florida consumers since January 2011. In addition, my office played a lead role in achieving the second largest civil settlement ever obtained by state attorneys general—the National Mortgage Settlement. Combined, we have achieved $9.85 billion in consumer protection judgments and settlements.
Deceptive and unfair business practices harm our consumers and our economy by bilking hard-earned dollars from Florida consumers and creating an unequal playing field for legitimate businesses. I will continue to do everything in my power to protect consumers and businesses from these unscrupulous practices. If you believe you or someone you know has been a victim of a consumer protection scam, do not hesitate to call my Consumer Protection hotline at 1-866-9-NO-SCAM.
Flood insurance hikes hitting Floridians hard, Tampa TribuneFlorida joins federal lawsuit against BP for 2010 oil spill, The Florida Current
Fla. A.G. Pam Bondi announces breakup of international drug trafficking operation, BIZPac Review
Attorney General Bondi’s Office Obtains Settlement with Gatorland ToyotaAttorney General Pam Bondi’s office announced a settlement with Gatorland Toyota, resolving allegations that former sales representatives engaged in high-pressure sales tactics and failed to clearly and conspicuously disclose the cost of products and services associated with the purchase or lease of an automobile. Gatorland cooperated with the investigation, which found that former sales representatives failed to follow company sales guidelines. More
Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Drug Enforcement Administration Announce Arrests of International Drug Traffickers
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Mark R. Trouville, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Special Agent in Charge, Miami Field Division announced the arrest of members of an international drug trafficking organization for their involvement in a drug smuggling ring spanning from South America to New York.
This week, DEA agents from the Orlando District Office served arrest warrants in Puerto Rico, Orlando and New York, arresting 10 members of a drug trafficking organization and seizing cocaine, heroin, money, vehicles and guns. The conspirators were trafficking large amounts of cocaine and heroin from South America, through Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, into Florida, Massachusetts and New York. More
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Statement on Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Environmental Lawsuit
Attorney General Pam Bondi issued the following statement regarding the lawsuit filed seeking a declaratory judgment establishing the liability of BP and other companies for the natural resource damages sustained by the State of Florida as a result of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
“Today’s filing is a crucial step toward securing the necessary restoration of our vital natural resources as we continue our efforts to ensure that Florida is made whole from the devastating environmental and economic consequences of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill disaster.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit Recovers Nearly $70,000 in Omnicare, Inc. Illegal Kickback Settlement
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Florida, as part of a national settlement against Omnicare, Inc., has recovered nearly $70,000. The settlement resolves allegations that Omnicare violated federal and state law, including the Federal False Claims Act, the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute, and certain states’ false claims acts, with respect to the prescription drug Aranesp, a drug used for patients with chronic kidney disease. More
Attorney General Pam Bondi Announces Claims Process for Eligible Purchasers of DRAM Memory Chips and Products Containing DRAM Chips from $310 Million Price-fixing Settlement
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that consumers can now file claims to recover money from multi-state settlements totaling $310 million. The settlements resolve claims alleging price-fixing among major manufacturers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a common form of memory chip found in high technology devices. Individuals and businesses that purchased various DRAM electronic devices from someone other than a DRAM manufacturer between Jan. 1, 1998 and Dec. 31, 2002 can file claims to recover money from the settlement fund by visiting DRAMclaims.com or by calling 1-800-589-1425. Eligible consumers must submit their claim forms by Aug. 1, 2014. More
Genzyme Corp. to Pay $22.28 Million to Resolve False Claims Allegations Related to “Slurry” Used in Patients
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Florida, 47 other states and the federal government entered a $22.28 million settlement with Genzyme Corp. Genzyme is a biotechnology corporation based in Cambridge, Mass., and it was acquired by Sanofi-Aventis SA in April 2011. The settlement resolves allegations that the company marketed and caused false claims to be submitted to federal and state health care programs for use of a “slurry” version of its Seprafilm adhesion barrier. As part of the settlement, Florida will receive $85,553 in restitution and other recoveries. More
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Members of the Statewide Task Force on Prescription Drug Abuse and Newborns Release 2014 Progress Report
Attorney General Pam Bondi convened the Statewide Task Force on Prescription Drug Abuse and Newborns on Monday to discuss and release the Task Force’s 2014 report. The report provides an update on the implementation of the Task Force’s recommendations to combat Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). NAS refers to a group of medical complications associated with the withdrawal process newborns typically experience after birth if their mothers have abused prescription drugs during pregnancy.
“We must do everything in our power to protect the most vulnerable victims of prescription drug abuse—babies whose mothers abuse drugs while pregnant,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Today’s report shows that in Florida we are taking the necessary steps toward protecting babies from Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.” More
On Monday, Attorney General Bondi convened the Statewide Task Force on Prescription Drug Abuse and Newborns.
On Tuesday, Attorney General Bondi met with Palm Beach County elected officials, including commissioners and State Attorney Dave Aronberg.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Bondi met with the State Law Enforcement Chiefs Association Winners. The SLECA Investigator of the Year is Detective David O’Dell with the Department of Financial Services, Bureau of Fire and Arson Investigations. The SLECA Officer of the Year is Officer Lee Lawshe, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. O’Dell and Lawshe were accompanied by their wives.
On Thursday, Attorney General Bondi, the Governor and other Cabinet members recognized Citizen Services Directors for their outstanding work serving Foridians.
What benefit to citizens is mass immigration?
When George F. Will writes, people pay attention. That’s because the columnist for The Washington Post usually has something thoughtful to say. But on immigration policy, Will recently dished up some recycled U.S. Chamber of Commerce talking points instead of thoughtful insight. In a nutshell, Will’s Feb. 15 Viewpoint column (“Immigration reform is right thing to do”) adopts the business lobby’s line that lots more immigration is the key to “restoring America’s economic vigor,” while ignoring the realities of the past 40 years.
PHOTO BY LIGHT PRODUCTIONS INC
Dan Stein
If mass immigration is the key to a robust economy, why are we in such bad shape? Why are more than 20 million people unemployed, or stuck in low-paying or part-time jobs? Why are tens of millions more working-age adults out of the labor force entirely? Why are we in danger of losing our middle class? After all, between 1971 and 2010, we admitted 31,427,846 legal immigrants to our country, and another 12 million are believed to be here illegally.
With all that immigration we should have prosperity coming out of our ears, by Will’s estimation. But we don’t. By all economic indicators, we are substantially less well-off (except for those at the very top of the socioeconomic ladder) than we were 40 years ago. Not only that, at the height of our economic prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s, when the rising tide really did lift all boats, immigration levels were about half of what they have been since 1970.
The obvious conclusion is that smart immigration policies can maximize the benefits of a healthy economy, or minimize the harm of an ailing one, but they are certainly not the key to economic vigor.
The unprecedented prosperity we enjoyed after World War II was due, in large measure, to a unique confluence of circumstances: Our traditional economic competitors were rebuilding from a brutal war fought on their soil; Soviet-style communism was proving to be a monumental failure; China and other Asian competitors had yet to emerge; the Third World had no economic infrastructure to speak of; energy was cheap, and human labor could not yet be replaced by machines and computers. Since 1970, every single one of these factors has changed dramatically.
Low immigration rates during the 1950s and 1960s enhanced the value of labor in the United States and contributed to the emergence of a dominant middle class. With relatively few foreign workers entering the U.S. labor force, American business was forced to tap underutilized domestic human resources. During this period, women and minorities made unprecedented economic gains.
Since 1970, renewed large-scale immigration has exacerbated all of the other factors that have contributed to undermining the middle class. Against the backdrop of an embattled middle class, Will blithely touts the Congressional Budget Office’s assessment of the Senate-passed immigration bill as though it were good news for American workers: The CBO “says an initial slight reduction of low wages (0.1 percent in a decade) will be followed by increased economic growth partly attributable to immigrants,” Will writes.
He seems almost cavalier about the toll such policies would have on millions of American workers whose wages have stagnated or declined over the past 40 years. It is hard to imagine that millions of struggling American workers are going to view another decade without a raise as a strong selling point for the immigration policies Will is peddling.
He also fails to recognize that even if the CBO’s crystal ball is accurate 10 years into the future, “increased economic growth” does not necessarily translate into greater prosperity for average workers. Based on recent economic trends, most of the benefit will accrue to folks in Will’s income bracket, which may be why the business lobby is spending lavishly in an effort to get the U.S. House to act.
For all of Will’s laments about how the American workers are faring in this “wretched recovery,” he seems to miss the obvious: Of all the factors sapping the economic vigor of the middle class, immigration may be one of the few that is within our power to mitigate. We cannot change the realities of a global economy or technology that contribute to the disappearance of jobs and the erosion of American wages. What we can do is institute and enforce sensible immigration policies that limit the supply of workers chasing the jobs and wages that remain. Sadly, the immigration reforms he supports would do precisely the opposite.
Dan Stein is president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (fairus.org).
http://www.commercialappeal.
