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Pitts: PBM reforms would boost insurer competition

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:10:13 GMT

Congress is poised to crack down on the drug-industry middlemen responsible for inflating the price of medicines. Pending bipartisan legislation in the House and the Senate would rein in these “pharmacy benefit managers” and strengthen competition among health insurers. The big winners will be patients, who could save billions of dollars at the pharmacy.PBMs act as brokers, negotiating with drug manufacturers on behalf of insurance companies. They decide which drugs each health plan covers, and at what price.This decision-making power gives them considerable bargaining leverage, which they use to extract discounts from drug makers in exchange for steering patients towards one drug company’s product, rather than another’s — regardless of their therapeutic differences.In theory, these negotiations ought to result in lower spending for patients. But it hasn’t worked out that way — because PBMs’ compensation is closely tied to the nominal ...

‘The Canterville Ghost’ a welcome screen haunt

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:10:13 GMT

The great perennial “The Canterville Ghost” based on a serialized 1887 short story by Oscar Wilde is back in the form of a “Downton Abbey”-esque, animated tale of an American family traveling from Boston to England and finding itself in a manor house haunted by a 300-year-old ghost. The film is notable for reuniting Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie of “Jeeves and Wooster” fame. Fry, giving his vocal instrument a Boris Karloff-twist, voices the ghost Sir Simon de Canterville, who was bricked up in a portion of the house and left to die three centuries earlier.Upon her arrival, Virginia Otis (an excellent Emily Carey of “House of the Dragon”), whose scientist father Hiram (David Harewood) calls her “Pumpkin,” comes across a history of “Canterville Chase” text and digs in. Her father wants to install modern electricity in the old manor. Her mischievous younger brothers Louis and Kent (a delightful Jakey Schiff and Bennett Miller) seek hijinks wherever they can find it. Virginia’s moth...

Sly Stone doesn’t come across as ‘Everyday People’ in memoir

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:10:13 GMT

Here is the most telling sentence in Sly Stone’s autobiography: “I would say that drugs didn’t affect me too much, but I didn’t have to be around me.”In the works for more than a decade, “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” is about drugs a lot of the time. And it’s about Stone not owning up to his responsibilities — musical appearances, child support payments, fidelity — much of the rest of the time.Written with music biographer Ben Greenman and “created in collaboration with Sly Stone’s manager, Arlene Hirschkowitz” (whatever that means), “Thank You” is a peculiar book. It captures what one assumes is Stone’s voice — laconic, fond of wordplay, non-judgmental — but also dispassionately observes his life from the point of view of someone who is outside it. This reaches its nadir in an odd chapter about Stone guest-hosting “The Mike Douglas Show,” which seems to have been written by a...

Higgins: Plenty of pork spending in Davis-Bacon

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:10:13 GMT

Forcing federally funded public works projects to pay the so-called prevailing wage is a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The intention behind the Davis-Bacon Wage Act, which requires any federal project to use prevailing wages, is to boost worker pay. The practical effect is to substantially drive up the cost of those projects.Those costs are ultimately paid for with taxpayer dollars, so it is ordinary citizens shouldering the higher costs. Instead, the government should institute a genuinely competitive bidding process, which would save taxpayers money.The Davis-Bacon Act was passed in 1931 and was initially meant to counter a Depression-era practice of literally busing in workers from a lower-paying region so employers didn’t have to hire local workers who would not work for the wages being offered.Busing in unskilled labor is rarely a factor with the law, as most federal projects involve skilled labor. The present-day purpose behind the Davis-Bacon Act is to boost unio...

Dear Abby: DIL’s fertility struggles strain on family

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:10:13 GMT

Dear Abby: My son married a wonderful woman. Sadly, they are having great difficulty conceiving a baby. They have opted out of many conventional medical procedures because of their religious beliefs, for which I admire them.While their struggles persist, another close family member has recently had a baby. My daughter-in-law has chosen not to see this family member or the baby because of the emotional pain of not being able to conceive herself. My son, who I know is torn, is supporting his wife. Our visits with them never include the new mom, dad and baby. My son has met the baby twice on the down-low without my DIL.Our hearts are heavy. Our nuclear family has always been close, but this is putting a strain on the rest of us, although we empathize with my DIL’s emotional pain. What advice can you offer for this situation? — Saddened in the EastDear Saddened: Your daughter-in-law’s circle of friends (not to mention family) is going to shrink to nothing if she persis...

Jury selection set to begin in the first trial in the Georgia election case against Trump and others

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:10:13 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Jury selection is set to begin Friday for the first defendant to go to trial in the Georgia case that accuses former President Donald Trump and others of illegally scheming to overturn the 2020 election in the state.Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro was indicted just over two months ago along with Trump and 17 others. Two of those others — including Sidney Powell, who was supposed to go on trial with Chesebro — have already pleaded guilty to reduced charges, and no trial date has been set yet for the rest.If Chesebro doesn’t take a plea deal before the trial starts, the proceedings will provide a first extensive look at the evidence that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her team have amassed against him and the rest of the defendants.Here’s what to expect:TRUMP WILL LOOM LARGE OVER THE TRIALThere’s little doubt that the former president will be a central figure in the proceedings, even though he’s not expected to be there. After all, the i...

Donald Trump is dominating the GOP primary and settling into a new role: Defendant

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:10:13 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — After turns as a real estate magnate, a New York tabloid mainstay, a reality TV star and president of the United States, Donald Trump is settling into a new role: defendant.The front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination spent two days this week in a Manhattan courtroom where a civil fraud trial is unfolding. Trump is accused of grossly inflating his net worth and the value of marquee assets on paperwork used to secure financing and make deals.In the courtroom, Trump is often subdued, sitting between his lawyers and staring straight ahead with a scowl as he studiously ignores his adversary, New York Attorney General Letitia James. But when he steps into the hallway where a phalanx of TV cameras awaits, Trump transforms into his familiar political persona, eager to spin the proceedings in his favor. “If I wasn’t here, probably — maybe — people wouldn’t see the facts the way they are,” Trump said during one of his swings before the cameras on Wednesda...

After 189 bodies were found in Colorado funeral home, evidence suggests families received fake ashes

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:10:13 GMT

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado funeral home where 189 decaying bodies were discovered this month appears to have fabricated cremation records and may have given families fake ashes, according to information gathered by The Associated Press from customers and crematories.The families that did business with Return to Nature Funeral Home fear their loved ones weren’t cremated at all and instead could be among the yet unidentified corpses authorities discovered after responding to a report of an “ abhorrent smell.”“My mom’s last wish was for her remains to be scattered in a place she loved, not rotting away in a building,” said Tanya Wilson, who believes the ashes she spread in Hawaii in August were fake. “Any peace that we had, thinking that we honored her wishes, you know, was just completely ripped away from us.”Return to Nature gave Wilson’s family and some others death certificates stating their loved ones’ remains had been handled by one of two crematories. But th...

Republicans are facing death threats as the election for speaker gets mired in personal feuds

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:10:13 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — It was the thing that was supposed to make Rep. Jim Jordan the 56th speaker of the House.An onslaught of pressure from the Republican Party base, allies predicted, would compel the GOP’s moderate and establishment members to support Jordan, a hero of the far-right, and help him secure the votes for the gavel. But as the pressure campaign devolved this week into death threats against lawmakers and their families, something unexpected happened: Positions hardened, and a ragtag coalition of roughly 20 House Republicans rose up to deny Jordan the speakership. In doing so, they defied a belief of many in Washington — that moderates have no backbone.“Bullying don’t work,” said Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican centrist who has led the opposition to Jordan’s nomination.Still, Bacon said the harassing text messages and phone calls have taken a toll. His wife slept with a loaded gun near her bedside one night. Other Republicans said their families have been thr...

Maryland police investigating fatal shooting of a circuit court judge

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:10:13 GMT

Authorities in Maryland were investigating the fatal shooting of a circuit court judge on Thursday night, a news report said.Circuit Court Administrative Judge Brett R. Wilson confirmed the investigation into the attack against a Washington County Circuit Court judge, the Herald-Mail reported.Washington County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Carly Hose said they are investigating a shooting.A Maryland State Police corporal told The Herald-Mail that state police were assisting the sheriff’s office in the area of Olde Waterford Road north of Hagerstown.Associated Press, The Associated Press