Sep 13, 2017 - Health

GOP Senators' pitch for block grant health care funding

Senators Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham talk while walking to a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington. Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy pitched legislation Wednesday to block grant federal health care spending, rolling Medicaid and Affordable Care Act money into a fixed payment to each state. Graham said this would allow people to make their own decisions about their health care "instead of some bureaucrat in Washington."

"If you want a single health payer system, this is your worst nightmare. Bernie, this ends your dream," Graham said, referring to Senator Bernie Sanders' "Medicare for All" proposal.

Be smart: This is Republicans' last-ditch effort to repeal and replace the ACA before the clock runs out at the end of this month. So there's going to be a lot of chatter over the next few weeks about this, but it is almost certainly not going anywhere. Leadership isn't talking seriously about it, and it's very doubtful it has the 50 votes needed to pass.

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Axios

Updated 9 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Global: Total confirmed cases as of 8 p.m. ET: 18,185,015 — Total deaths: 691,303 — Total recoveries — 10,836,439 — Map.
U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 8 p.m. ET: 4,711,323 — Total deaths: 155,366 — Total recoveries: 1,513,446 — Total tests: 57,543,852 — Map.
Politics: White House will require staff to undergo randomized coronavirus testing — Pelosi says Birx "enabled" Trump on misinformation.
Sports: 13 members of St. Louis Cardinals test positive, prompting MLB to cancel Tigers series — Former FDA chief says MLB outbreaks should be warning sign for schools.
1 🎥 thing: "Tenet" may be the first major film to get a global pandemic release.

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Rebecca Falconer

Updated 36 mins ago - Energy & Environment

In photos: Thousands evacuated as Southern California fire grows

A plane makes a retardant drop on a ridge at the Apple Fire north of Banning in Riverside County, which "doubled in size" Saturday, per KTLA. Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

A massive wildfire that prompted mandatory evacuations in Southern California over the weekend burned 26,450 acres and was 5% contained by Monday afternoon, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.

The big picture: As California remains an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., some 15 separate fires are raging across the state. About 7,800 people were under evacuation orders from the Apple Fire, about 75 miles east of Los Angeles, as hundreds of firefighters battled the blaze. CalFire said Monday that a malfunction involving a "diesel-fueled vehicle emitting burning carbon from the exhaust system" started the Apple Fire.

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Orion Rummler

2 hours ago - Technology

Twitter faces FTC fine of up to $250 million over alleged privacy violations

Photo: Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket

The Federal Trade Commission has accused Twitter of using phone numbers and emails from its users to make targeted ads between 2013 and 2019, Twitter said in an SEC filing published Monday.

Why it matters: Twitter estimates that the FTC's draft complaint, which was sent a few days after its Q2 earnings report, could cost the company between $150 million and $250 million. The complaint is unrelated to the recent Twitter hack involving a bitcoin scam.

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