A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Insurers face a key deadline Wednesday to finalize contracts with states about how much they will charge customers who buy Obamacare plans.

Many of the largest insurers have decided not to sell plans on Obamacare’s exchanges at all, and many of those that are staying have filed rate increase proposals in the double digits. Those increases could go higher without payments the insurers expect to receive from the federal government, called cost-sharing reduction subsidies. Insurers say the pullouts and premium hikes are a result of uncertainty about the future of the healthcare law and financial losses.

The Trump administration has the authority to move the Sept. 27 deadline back, but it has not changed, according to a spokesman from the Department of Health and Human Services. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Senate leaders on Tuesday canceled plans to vote on an Obamacare repeal this week, marking a third straight failure for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and fellow Republicans who have been unable to fulfill their campaign promise.

Facing too many defections, Mr. McConnell concluded it didn’t make sense to move forward, and said the chamber will now turn to other business such as a massive tax code overhaul.

The failure leaves Obamacare intact, and Democrats begged the GOP to try for bipartisan fixes to prop up the struggling law. The Republican chairman of the health committee said he’ll try to restart negotiations. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – In a speech Tuesday marked by large doses of both statistics and humility, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen said that the economic outlook is highly uncertain, suggesting that the central bank will proceed slowly in raising interest rates and scaling back easy-money policies.

The Fed has been moving to reduce monetary support for the economy based on an assessment that the labor market is strengthening and that inflation, which has been unusually low, will soon stabilize.

Last week, the Fed announced it would begin unwinding the massive bond-buying effort it began after the financial crisis of 2007-08 and signaled that another interest rate hike, after two small increases this year, would come by December’s end. Policymakers foresee three rate hikes for next year. [ Source: L.A. Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Police will be deployed at polling stations to prevent people from voting in the Catalan independence referendum, the Spanish government has confirmed.

Although the Catalonia regional government has insisted the unilateral poll will go ahead on Sunday, the Spanish government has vowed to stop the vote, which it says is a clear violation of the constitution. Spain’s constitutional court has suspended the legislation underpinning the referendum while it rules on its legality.

A spokesman for the Spanish government’s Catalan delegation said on Tuesday that the region’s prosecutor had ordered the Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalonia’s police force, to take control of polling booths and identify those in charge. [ Source: UK Guardian (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Puerto Rico’s electricity systems are badly damaged after Hurricane Maria, and nearly half the U.S. territory’s residents lack drinking water following the storm, the Defense Department reported Tuesday.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority is “slowly restoring power to customers,” according to the most recent update, but 80 percent of the island’s electricity transmission lines and 100 percent of its distribution system are damaged. Transmission lines move electricity across long distances, while distribution lines deliver it to homes and businesses.

Only 11 of the island’s 69 hospitals have fuel or power. And 44 percent of Puerto Rico’s 3.5 million residents are still without clean drinking water, the Pentagon said. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Former Alabama Chief Supreme Court justice and conservative firebrand Roy Moore defeated Republican Sen. Luther Strange (Ala.) on Tuesday in Alabama’s special primary runoff.

Moore will face off against Democratic candidate Doug Jones in the general election on December 12 to determine who will permanently take over Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ former seat, to which Strange was originally appointed. [ Source: Washington Free Beacon (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell cut off the victory speech of Roger Moore on Tuesday night because he was talking about God.

Moore, who won the Alabama Senate Republican primary over Sen. Luther Strange (R., Ala.), delivered a victory speech shortly after being the projected winner.

“We have become a nation that has distanced ourself from the very foundation,” Moore said. “[George] Washington said of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion, and morality are indispensable … We’ve got to recognize that we’ve been separated by something that separation of church and state doesn’t stand for. It doesn’t separate us from God. Nothing can separate us from God.” [ Source: Washington Free Beacon (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The Washington Post has made a correction to an explosive cover story that undermines the entire premise of Monday’s front-page article headlined, “Obama sought to prod Facebook on Russia role.”

The problem, according to a Facebook executive, is that when Obama reached out to the social media giant in 2016 to discuss political disinformation spreading on the site, he didn’t actually call out Russia – essentially making the Post’s headline misleading and inaccurate. Or, as President Trump would call it, “fake news.”

As first reported by Axios, the Post added significant information to the digital version of the story with the disclaimer, “This story has been updated with an additional response from Facebook.” The response from Facebook that didn’t make the paper’s print edition is vital and changed the story enough that the word “Russia” was removed from the updated headline. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Iran’s deputy foreign minister pointed at the United States in warning on Tuesday that a new nuclear arms race and new competition to modernize nuclear weapons are starting.

Abbas Araghchi made the comments during a high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly to promote International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, calling that goal “a legal, political and moral responsibility.”

But, he said, despite the cessation of the nuclear arms race for some years, “recently we hear (an) alarming announcement by a nuclear-weapon state that it intends to continuously strengthen and expand its nuclear arsenal to ensure its place ‘at the top of the pack.’”

This was a clear reference to U.S. President Donald Trump’s comment in February that “a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack.” [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – President Trump, in just eight months in office, has succeeded in upending U.S. refugee policy, cutting by more than half the 110,000-refugee target that the Obama administration had bequeathed him and dramatically shifting the demographics of who is accepted.

Gone is President Obama’s overwhelming focus on Muslims, and particularly on Syrians fleeing a civil war that his administration facilitated. Under Mr. Trump, the rate of Syrian refugees has been cut by more than 80 percent, and Christians have overtaken Muslims in total refugees resettled.

“It’s impossible to escape the clear message that there’s a new sheriff in town,” said Matthew O’Brien, research director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for stricter refugee controls. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]