Health care workers quitting

New York (CNN Business) The union that was the first to win a representation vote at an Amazon facility has filed for an election among about 400 employees at another Amazon distribution center. The facility is in suburban Albany, New York. The National Labor Relations Board, which oversees union representation votes, has confirmed the filing but has yet to verify the signatures of the employees who signed cards asking for the vote. At least 30% of the employees in a potential bargaining unit need to sign cards for an election to be held. "We're proud and happy for these workers to be standing up and fighting for their rights," said Chris Smalls, president of the Amazon Labor Union, which won the vote at an Amazon facility on Staten Island, New York, in April, but lost the vote at a second nearby facility in May. 'It's war.' Tensions remain high at first Amazon warehouse in US to unionize Smalls said he is talking to employees who are … [Read more...] about Workers file for union vote at another Amazon facility

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin With fewer than 100 days until the midterms and President Biden's approval rating underwater, Democrats are desperate for a political win they can trumpet on the campaign trail. They're hoping the deceptively named Inflation Reduction Act is it. At the center of the bill is $64 billion in subsidies for health insurance purchased through Obamacare's exchanges. They're an extension of the subsidies created as part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act. They were supposed to expire at the end of this year—temporary measures to help households weather the economic impact of the pandemic. But if that happened, people would've received notices of massive premium hikes just before they headed to the polls. Hence, the Inflation Reduction Act's move to extend them for three more years, through 2025. It's a transparent ploy for votes. And it obscures just how much the Affordable Care Act has failed to live up to its name. … [Read more...] about Dems’ Reconciliation Package Obscures Obamacare’s Failures With Taxpayer Cash

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Inflation is up 8.5% since this time last year according to this morning’s CPI report . Economists expected the CPI to increase by 8.7% . Continued high inflation is lowering real earnings and undermining consumer confidence . The Federal Reserve has the biggest role to play in combatting high inflation, but better economic policies from President Biden and Congress would help. Inflation is fundamentally a problem of too much money chasing too few goods. The Federal Reserve controls the money supply, so it is ultimately responsible for the long-term path of inflation. Right now the economy is sending the Fed mixed signals: The latest jobs report shows the economy created 528,000 new jobs in July, but real GDP declined the last two quarters, which typically signals a recession. Labor productivity also fell each of the past two quarters, which is another sign of slower economic growth. The declines in real GDP … [Read more...] about Inflation Still High And Biden’s Policies Are Not Helping

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Does setting an ambitious goal encourage concerted efforts to reduce emissions, or is it more likely to make the public more cynical about the intractability of the problem? You might love or hate Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but I wish that subsequent presidents would forget about his “100 days” program which was intended to be an emergency action addressing the Great Depression. It has left at least some of his successors feeling they need to show similar verve in designing policies to address the most salient problems of the day. Most such have not been a success, with the Clinton effort to quickly fashion and enact a health care plan one of the most obvious failures. In keeping with tradition, the Biden Administration has come up with a goal of reducing American greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030. Biden’s vision has met with the usual degree of praise, scorn and skepticism, validating the old maxim ‘where you … [Read more...] about Biden’s Climate Goals Are Unrealistic. Does That Help Or Hurt Emissions Reduction?

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin While Congress is getting ready to raise federal taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), it hasn’t gone unnoticed that lawmakers in many state capitals are doing the opposite, enacting tax relief. “Widespread tax breaks in the nation’s statehouses stands in contrast to what’s happening in Washington,” Bloomberg reported on August 9, adding that nearly “two dozen states slashed personal or corporate income-tax rates in the past two years and more than a dozen enacted temporary relief in 2022.” In addition to cutting income tax burdens, there has been a recent trend of states moving from progressive to flat personal income tax rates. Georgia was among the states where legislation was enacted in 2022 to go to a flat tax. The income tax cut signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp (R-Ga.) in April, which will move Georgia from a progressive income tax code with a top rate of 5.75% … [Read more...] about Georgia Shows Contrasting Direction Of Federal & State Tax Burdens

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin For two years, the Covid-19 pandemic rattled financial markets, dominated news coverage and disrupted daily life in ways most Americans would never have predicted. But now, in year three, the coronavirus has been downgraded to a persistent yet manageable threat—on par with the flu. Thanks to some familiar medical solutions (vaccines, antiviral meds and public safety measures), three-quarters of Americans say the worst of Covid-19 is behind us. Now, a new disaster looms. American healthcare stands in direct path of the perfect storm. Forecasting disaster Doomsday predictions often prove wrong or overinflated. But, in 2004, a team of hurricane experts at Louisiana State University predicted “ a catastrophe [is] right on the horizon .” They were right. Less than a year later, New Orleans was eleven feet under water. Hurricane Katrina killed 1,833 people and left thousands more homeless. How did the researchers … [Read more...] about These 3 Healthcare Threats Will Do More Damage Than Covid-19

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Jackline Cherono walks in from tending to her acre of tea in Ainamoi, a settlement in Kenya's Kericho County where she works as a lead farmer. The lettering, “Toror Tea Factory” embroidered on her iridescent yellow jumpsuit pops out against the vibrant greens of dense Camellia sinensis leaves. Jackline’s confident, wise and upbeat personality disguises the burden of grief that she has carried since the loss of her father to leukemia and her mother to high blood pressure just a few years ago. The death of both of her parents to non-communicable diseases was life-changing, giving Jackline no choice but to prematurely conclude her studies at Jomo Kenyatta University, where she had been studying public health. She had financial obligations at home. “My siblings need me,” she says, wiping away tears. Jackline is among many people in Kericho County whose lives have been turned upside down by health issues. For those who … [Read more...] about A Healthy Food Movement Comes To Kenya’s Tea Capital

Former president of Kiehl’s Chris Salgardo dedicated 18 years of his career to leading the New York-based brand to becoming one of the best-selling beauty brands in history. Today, more than two years after leaving Kiehl’s, Salgardo launches Atwater , a men’s grooming range named after his father’s hometown in California. At launch, Atwater will comprise of 10 products—ranging from cleanser to exfoliant to moisturizer—and will be available via direct-to-consumer channels as well as in Nordstrom store locations in the United States. advertisement advertisement Atwater is the latest beauty brand to launch in recent memory that’s founded by industry veterans with decades of experience and institutional knowledge at their disposal—legendary makeup artist Bobbi Brown brought Jones Road to market the moment her 25-year non-compete lifted in 2020, and former Estee Lauder VP Chaz Giles debuted personalized skin-care platform Revea last year. … [Read more...] about Former Kiehl’s president Chris Salgardo launches Atwater, a grooming brand for men

St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) and its transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) teams of care marked a milestone in Philippine medical history recently by completing its 200th single team of care TAVR procedure. TAVR is a minimally invasive surgery that replaces a diseased aortic valve with a man-made one using catheters, without opening the chest, without a heart-lung machine or general anesthesia . This landmark heart operation is an important step in the advancement of new and advanced minimally invasive techniques designed to improve the lives of Filipinos suffering from aortic valve disease. It symbolizes clinical excellence and medical innovation as it sets standards for the introduction of new and advanced therapies into the country’s medical delivery services. The TAVR’s quality controlled outcomes of care are at par with those reported by leading international institutions. Leading this historical operation was Dr. Fabio Enrique Posas, a pioneer in the … [Read more...] about St. Luke’s TAVR treatment reaches milestone in PH medical history

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The more transmissible BA.5 Omicron subvariant is still spreading. The U.S. has been having an average of 42,816 Covid-19-related hospitalizations and 490 Covid-19-related deaths a day, according to the New York Times , and who knows how many new cases of long Covid a day. Oh, and there have been more and more reports of Paxlovid rebound occuring where people have turned Covid-19 positive after completing the five-day course of the medication and then testing negative, as I recently covered for Forbes . So, with all this happening, what should the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) do? Strengthen Covid-19 precautions? Re-emphasize existing precautions at least? Ummm, how about further relaxing recommended Covid-19 precautions? Is that your final answer? Wouldn’t you like to phone a friend? Well, the last of these options is basically what the CDC did on Thursday when they issued updated guidelines . … [Read more...] about New CDC Covid-19 Quarantine Guidelines Viewed As ‘Giving Up’ On Pandemic Response