Witnesses testified at a hearing on the Labor Department’s proposed
overtime rule for small businesses. The rule would extend overtime
protection to workers earning less than $50,440 annually.
Click here for video.
Source: C-SPAN
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
House Republicans Discuss Legislative Agenda
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and leadership colleagues speak with
reporters at the U.S. Capitol about their legislative agenda and respond
to questions on a range of issues, including unity within the
Republican Party.
Click here for video.
Source: C-SPAN
House Democratics Discuss Legislative Agenda and Campaign 2016
House Democratic leaders hold a news conference to discuss their party’s
legislative agenda and Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy and
rhetoric on the campaign trail.
Click here for video.
Source: C-SPAN
DASNY, State Health Department Expedite New York Hospitals’ Access to Funds
New York, N.Y. (May 11, 2016)
-- DASNY and the New York State Department of Health collaborated to
significantly expedite reimbursements from bond proceeds for New York
State’s hospitals, nursing homes and other health care institutions, Gerrard P. Bushell, DASNY President and CEO, and Health Commissioner Dr. Howard A. Zucker announced today. Quick access to their funds means these institutions can deliver more for New Yorkers.
“DASNY and the Department of Health collaborated to speed bond proceeds requisitions so New York’s health care institutions can focus on delivering high quality care rather than on idle funds,” Bushell said. “A healthy New York is a competitive New York.”
DASNY – the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York – sells tax-exempt bonds on behalf of these institutions, enabling them to obtain lower interest rates. To requisition the funds from these bond sales, health care institutions must demonstrate that they are seeking reimbursement or payment for appropriate capital expenditures. The streamlined process developed by DASNY and DOH maintains DOH’s important watchdog role of determining that funds are spent on projects that deliver for New York’s health care system.
DASNY, the number one issuer of tax-exempt bonds in the nation, has in its outstanding portfolio more than $5 billion of low-interest bonds issued on behalf of New York’s health care institutions.
“This joint effort by DASNY and the Department of Health will enable health care facilities to focus on delivering the best possible care to their patients and residents, not on getting reimbursements for their capital projects,” Dr. Zucker said. ”By streamlining the process, we are making it easier for these facilities to do the work they set out to do.”
“HANYS commends the Dormitory Authority and Department of Health for partnering to streamline and expedite the funding our hospitals and health systems need for critical transformative projects,” said Dennis Whalen, Healthcare Association of New York State President.
“New York’s hospitals applaud DASNY and DOH for streamlining the process by which they can access much-needed capital funding,” said Kenneth E. Raske, Greater New York Hospital Association President.
“These welcome, sensible changes will make it easier for hospitals to focus on their core mission of providing high-quality care to their patients and communities.”
“DASNY and the Department of Health collaborated to speed bond proceeds requisitions so New York’s health care institutions can focus on delivering high quality care rather than on idle funds,” Bushell said. “A healthy New York is a competitive New York.”
DASNY – the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York – sells tax-exempt bonds on behalf of these institutions, enabling them to obtain lower interest rates. To requisition the funds from these bond sales, health care institutions must demonstrate that they are seeking reimbursement or payment for appropriate capital expenditures. The streamlined process developed by DASNY and DOH maintains DOH’s important watchdog role of determining that funds are spent on projects that deliver for New York’s health care system.
DASNY, the number one issuer of tax-exempt bonds in the nation, has in its outstanding portfolio more than $5 billion of low-interest bonds issued on behalf of New York’s health care institutions.
“This joint effort by DASNY and the Department of Health will enable health care facilities to focus on delivering the best possible care to their patients and residents, not on getting reimbursements for their capital projects,” Dr. Zucker said. ”By streamlining the process, we are making it easier for these facilities to do the work they set out to do.”
“HANYS commends the Dormitory Authority and Department of Health for partnering to streamline and expedite the funding our hospitals and health systems need for critical transformative projects,” said Dennis Whalen, Healthcare Association of New York State President.
“New York’s hospitals applaud DASNY and DOH for streamlining the process by which they can access much-needed capital funding,” said Kenneth E. Raske, Greater New York Hospital Association President.
“These welcome, sensible changes will make it easier for hospitals to focus on their core mission of providing high-quality care to their patients and communities.”
DASNY and DOH have transformed a once cumbersome and lengthy requisition process into one that is streamlined and efficient:
Three sets of hard copies of supporting documentation delivered to DOH have been replaced by one electronic submission.
The supporting documentation has been reduced to a five or six page submission to DOH.
Reviews and approvals are now occurring within 10 days, expediting the reimbursement to the client.
These
changes are the product of a listening tour conducted by Bushell. In
December, Bushell’s meetings with DASNY’s clients, partners and staff
resulted in an overhaul of DASNY’s financing guidelines and policy that
provided education and health care institutions with greater speed, certainty and flexibility when accessing the tax-exempt bond market through DASNY.
By issuing low-interest, tax-exempt bonds, DASNY is providing New York’s health care and higher education institutions savings that enable them to do more for New York’s patients and students. In this role, DASNY serves as an important bridge between the State and the institutions that anchor New York’s communities and economy.
Source: The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York
By issuing low-interest, tax-exempt bonds, DASNY is providing New York’s health care and higher education institutions savings that enable them to do more for New York’s patients and students. In this role, DASNY serves as an important bridge between the State and the institutions that anchor New York’s communities and economy.
Source: The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York
First Read: Irreconcilable Differences for Donald Trump and Paul Ryan
First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC
Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why
they matter.
Trump-ism vs. Ryan-ism: Some irreconcilable differences:
Ahead of his big meeting on Thursday with Donald
Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan was blunt about where he stands with his
party's presumptive presidential nominee. "We shouldn't just pretend
our party is unified when we know it is not," Ryan told the Wall Street Journal.
"We can't fake it, we can't pretend. We have to actually unify."
Click here for the full article.
White Nationalist to Be Trump Delegate
The following report was published on May 10, 2016.
Donald
Trump's campaign said a database glitch was responsible for a white
nationalist's name being submitted as a California delegate for the
presumptive GOP nominee. Tonight, the CA Secretary of State's office
says he will remain a delegate because the campaign didn't remove his
name before the deadline.
Click here for video.
Source: NBC News
Donald Trump Supporters Boost Bernie Sanders in West Virginia
Things got weird in West Virginia Tuesday night.
Bernie Sanders won the state's primary over
Hillary Clinton, and while the delegates he collects will do nothing to
knock the front-runner off her glide path to the Democratic nomination,
it will give the insurgent candidate a much-needed shot of adrenaline
during what could be a good month for him.
That part was expected. The rest was not.
West Virginia, like other Southern and
Appalachian states, is at the tail end of a long transition away from
Democratic Party, which once ruled the South, to the GOP, the natural
ideological home of its conservative voters.
Click here for the full article.
Low-Tech Trap Might Help Fight Zika Virus Outbreaks, CDC says
A low-tech mosquito trap might help control the
mosquitoes that spread Zika virus, as well as other viruses such as
dengue and chikungunya, government researchers said Tuesday.
The traps cut in half the number of cases of chikungunya when
they were used in a few neighborhoods in Puerto Rico over the winter, a
team at Puerto Rico's health department and the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention said.
"We think if it's effective against chikungunya virus transmission, then
it should be effective against transmission of other pathogens, such as
dengue and Zika viruses," said Tyler Sharp, an epidemiologist at the
CDC's dengue branch in Puerto Rico.
Click here for the full article.
Source: NBC News
Here's What Zika Virus Infection Looks Like
The man's Zika infection started with a headache. Within a day, a
red rash formed on his hands and arms and spread to his body. By the
third day, the rash had moved all the way down his body and his feet
were on fire.
A team of New York doctors who treated a Zika
patient said the symptoms are distinctive — and they want doctors around
the country to know what they look like so they can be on the lookout.
"Itching was not a major feature" for the
unidentified patient, they wrote in their report, published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association's JAMA Dermatology.
"The patient also noted that his eyes appeared
'bloodshot.' As the eruption faded on the upper body, it became more
apparent on the lower body," they wrote.
Click here for the full article.
Putin Says Crimea Now Free of Reliance on Kiev for its Power
Reuters, 11/05 16:54 CET
By Vladimir Soldatkin
SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) –
Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw the launch of a fourth and
final line supplying electricity from Russia to Crimea on Wednesday,
saying the project had broken an energy blockage he accused Kiev of
imposing on the peninsula.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014. Moscow
has since faced international condemnation and the logistical challenges
of sustaining a region that depended on Ukraine for much of its
supplies and has no land border with Russia.
In November last year, Crimea was plunged into darkness
when unidentified individuals blew up the power lines through which the
peninsula received the bulk of its power from the Ukrainian grid. Kiev
denied responsibility for the sabotage.
“I congratulate all of you on the completion of building
this energy bridge which has tied Crimea to Russia,” Putin said in a
video link from his Black Sea residence in Sochi, Russia, addressing
workers and engineers on the power line.
Click here for the full article.
Source: Euronews
Quietly, Vietnam Hosts Arms Gathering Attended by U.S. Companies
Reuters, 11/05 15:58 CET
By My Pham and Idrees Ali
HANOI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
Vietnam hosts a defense symposium this week attended by top American
arms manufacturers, ahead of a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama and
as Washington weighs whether to lift an arms embargo on its former
enemy.
Secrecy has surrounded the event staged by the communist
country and attended by firms including Boeing and Lockheed Martin. It
coincides with the biggest arms buildup in the country since the Vietnam
War.
There has been no mention in state-controlled media and defense reporters are not covering the forum. Efforts by Reuters to gain
permission to attend have been unsuccessful and Vietnam’s defense
ministry could not be reached for comment.
Vietnam has accelerated efforts to build a military
deterrent and is the world’s eighth largest weapons importer, as neighbor China intensifies its push to fortify South China Sea islands
it has either occupied or built from scratch.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute think-tank, which tracks defense trade over five-year periods,
Vietnam’s total arms imports during 2011-2015 represented a 699 percent
jump from 2006-2010.
Click here for the full article.
Source: Euronews
Which EU States are Out of Touch on Gay Marriage?
By Chris Harris
Italy is among EU countries out-of-touch with public opinion on gay rights, Euronews analysis of newly-published data reveals.
It is one of three states where a majority of citizens back same-sex
marriage but whose states have a less-than-impressive ranking when it
comes to legislation in this area.
The Czech Republic and Slovenia are the other countries where governments have not kept pace with the views of their citizens.
ILGA Europe, campaigners for gay rights, today released their latest rankings.
On family rights, which includes same-sex marriage, they gave all three
a rating of less than 50, with Italy scoring just four out of 100.
Yet a majority of citizens from Italy, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, surveyed in 2015 by Eurobarometer, backed the concept of same-sex marriage.
Germany, Finland, Austria and Malta are the states where the
majority of people questioned approve of full equal marriage rights for
gay people but whose states do not yet grant them.
Finland has granted equal marriage rights to gay couples but the law will not come into force until 2017.
Click here for the full article.
Source: Euronews
Monday, May 9, 2016
Discussion on Science, Technology and Math Education
Panelists, including NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, discuss the
future of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in
the U.S.
Click here for video.
Source: C-SPAN
Unpaid Taxes: The Impact on America
Wall Street Journal Tax Policy Reporter Richard Rubin discusses his story on IRS estimates that $450 billion in taxes goes unpaid every year, why that money is not being collected, and how those missing funds affect the federal budget.
Click here for video.
Source: C-SPAN
Bank Investigations and Financial Reform
Better Markets, Inc. President and CEO Dennis Kelleher discusses the
Justice Department’s investigation of banks involved in selling bad
mortgages ahead of the 2008 financial crash, as well as what has changed
since the passage of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act financial regulations law.
Click here for video.
Source: C-SPAN
FPWA 'Personally Speaking' Series: Women Faith Leaders
On May 11th, from 6-8 p.m., the next
installment of the FPWA Personally Speaking Series will focus on women faith
leaders and their journey to equity and empowerment.
Discussions will center on challenges
and triumphs, as well as faith leaders engagement with the New York City non-profit
philanthropic sectors to uplift and inspire some of the city's underserved
communities.
The women will also discuss the role they
play in strengthening the vulnerable and improving opportunity for all. There
will be an audience question and answer session following the panel. The event,
which will be held at 40 Broad Street, 5th Floor, is free and open to all.
Attendees will include: Jennifer Jones
Austin, FPWA CEO and Executive Director; Rev. Dr. Amy Butler, Senior Minister
Riverside Church; Linda Sarsour, Executive Director of the Arab American Association
of New York; and Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan Simpson, Executive Pastor of Concord
Baptist Church of Christ.
Source:
Mercury
Trailblazers in Black History: Otis Boykin, Inventor
Uploaded to YouTube on Mar 14, 2011.
The segment was produced and edited by Jarel Martin, Director of Technical Services for RMGradio,org.
First Read's Morning Clips: Trump v. Romney
OFF TO THE RACES: "Ungrateful"
Over the weekend, Trump told one of us(!) that Mitt Romney was "ungrateful" for Trump's help during the 2012 campaign.
Sarah Palin says she'll work for Paul Ryan's primary opponent because of Ryan's reluctance to support Donald Trump.
The New York Times
writes that Trump's clash with Ryan is a sign of things to come. "Mr.
Trump's warning was his latest affront to Republicans who have urged him
to adopt a more cooperative and unifying tone. And it amounted to an
extraordinary escalation in tensions between the party's presumptive
nominee and its highest-ranking officeholder."
POLITICO notes that a lot of GOP veteran operatives aren't interested in working for Trump's administration.
Not every down-ballot candidate is worried about Trump, writes the Wall Street Journal.
"Some Republicans are worried, now that Mr. Trump has all but clinched
the GOP nomination, that his inflammatory rhetoric about Muslims,
immigrants and women will tarnish the entire GOP ticket in the general
election. But a smaller and less-noticed pack of GOP candidates has
fully embraced Mr. Trump, inspired by his blunt talk and nationalist
message. Some were dismissed as fringe candidates in past elections
because of their anti-immigrant platforms, but they now see the GOP
standard-bearer offering political cover."
Click here for the full article.
Source: NBC News
West Virginia State Senate Candidate, a Veteran, Brutally Beaten
West Virginia state Senate candidate Richard
Ojeda was brutally beaten during a cookout Sunday — just two days before
his primary — and nearly run over with a pickup truck, Ojeda told NBC
News.
Jonathan Stuart Porter, 41, was in custody
Sunday. State Trooper Zachary Holden told NBC News he was being held on
suspicion of malicious assault, malicious attempted assault and felony
destruction of property.
Click here for the full article.
Source: NBC News
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory Faces Monday Deadline on LGBT Law
North Carolina on Monday filed a lawsuit against the federal
government in response to a letter from the Justice Department that gave
the state until the end of the day to scrap a controversial law
regarding access to public bathrooms or risk losing hundreds of millions
of dollars in federal funding.
Gov. Pat McCrory was given until Monday to
notify the Justice Department that he would not enforce House Bill No.
2, which the federal government says limits protections for LGBT people.
The measure has drawn a firestorm of protest from across the country.
Note: This is a breaking news story, so visit NBC News for updates.
Note: This is a breaking news story, so visit NBC News for updates.
Click here for the full article.
Inside 'Hackerville': Romania's Cybercriminal Hub
NBC News goes inside the town in Transylvania that is not only ground zero for cybercrime, but also for fighting it.
Frank Levingston, Believed to Be Oldest U.S. Veteran, Dies at 110
The man believed to be the nation's oldest military veteran has died at 110.
Frank Levingston, who served in the U.S. Army in Italy during World War II, died on Tuesday, his family told NBC station KPLC.
Note: The report was originally published on May 7, 2016.
Click here for the full article.
Source: NBC News
From The G-Man salutes the World War II veteran and his service to the country with the following video tribute. May he forever rest in peace.
BBC Correspondent Expelled from North Korea Over Reporting
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
Reuters, 09/05 11:57 CET
By James Pearson
PYONGYANG (Reuters) – North Korea expelled a BBC
journalist on Monday over his reporting, the broadcaster and a North
Korean official said, as a large group of foreign media members visited
the isolated country to cover a rare ruling party congress.
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes was detained on Friday as he was
about to leave the country and taken away for eight hours of questioning
and “made to sign a statement”, the network said.
The British reporter was on a flight for Beijing on Monday afternoon along with a BBC producer and cameraman he was travelling with, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Wingfield-Hayes had “distorted facts and realities” in
his coverage, North Korean official O Ryong Il said in announcing that
Wingfield-Hayes, who is based in Tokyo, was being expelled and would
never be let in again.
“They were speaking very ill of the system, the
leadership of the country,” O, who is secretary general of a National
Peace Committee, told reporters in Pyongyang, according to a video clip
published by the Associated Press.
Click here for the full article.
Source: Euronews
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