Disney To Open Affordable Housing Near Walt Disney World, Company Notes After Pounding By Gov. DeSantis; New Reedy Creek Board Has A Plan

Story by Jill Goldsmith • Yesterday 

Disney To Open Affordable Housing Near Walt Disney World, Company Notes After Pounding By Gov. DeSantis; New Reedy Creek Board Has A Plan© Provided by Deadline

Disney said Wednesday that “affordable and attainable housing” around Walt Disney World, which it first announced a year ago, will be ready to open in 2026. “This type of land contribution is unique and is one of many ways we are making a lasting impact in Central Florida,” according to a post on the Disney Parks Blog. It comes two days after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis included a lack affordable housing in the area on his list of reasons to slam the House of Mouse.

The governor even threatened to consider building a new state prison near WDW in an ongoing feud over who has operational control over thousands of acres in south Florida — Disney or the state.

Said Disney: “We’ve been making more and more progress on this initiative every day, and now, we’re thrilled to share that groundbreaking on this development is targeted for next year, with the first units anticipated to be completed in 2026.” It has expanded the project by 100 units to about 1,400.

“To be able to offer more units means even more Florida families will get access to attainable housing, in addition to creating new Florida jobs as part of the construction and operation.” It said the property is several miles from Magic Kingdom, near schools and shopping. The development will be privately financed and limited to applicants within a certain income range.

WDW President Jeff Vahle met earlier this week with developer The Michaels Organization “and we discussed how we hope this development inspires others in the community and across the country to support this important issue in innovative ways.” Disney also noted it recently joined Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida for the opening of a newly renovated youth center that included a $100,000 Disney grant. It also said Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort donated more than $300,000 to local community food banks.

The governor has drawn fire for retaliating against Disney after the conglom spoke out last year against a new state law critics dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” that forbids discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in public schools through third grade. Lawmakers rescinded Disney’s longstanding autonomy over what was called the Reedy Creek Improvement District, but appeared to have been outmaneuvered by a separate development deal that was a parting gift from the outgoing Disney-appointed Reedy Creek board. DeSantis vows to overturn that contract and assert control over the company, taking an aggressive stance against the state’s biggest taxpayer and one of its biggest employers.

“We’ve always respected and appreciated what the state has done for us, but it’s kind of been a two-way street,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said recently.

DeSantis’ new handpicked board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District met earlier today and discussed how they might proceed. The board will apparently argue that procedural flaws around public notice nullify the agreement that gave Disney exclusive development rights, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The deal was made publicly and out in the open, as Disney has said. But an attorney for the board today said state law requires notice to be mailed to all affected property owners ahead of time, which didn’t happen.

“The bottom line is that Disney engaged in a caper worthy of Scrooge McDuck to try to evade Florida law,” said David H. Thompson, a lawyer with the Cooper & Kirk law firm, according to the Sentinel.

A Disney rep wasn’t immediately available for comment.

As the battle in Florida continues, Disney staffers brace for company-wide layoffs next week.

Related video: DeSantis-picked board passes resolution to have 'superior authority' over Disney (WFTS Tampa, FL) Duration 2:04  View on Watch

More videos

NBC NewsDeSantis to nullify Disney deal that avoids state takeover of special district

3:07

WESH OrlandoDeSantis-picked board votes to give itself 'superior authority' over Disney

2:22

Money Talks NewsRon DeSantis Seeks to Control Disney World With State Oversight Powers

1:30

VIDEO

Global News'Muzzling the nurses and doctors': Sask. NDP calls out SHA staff memo
1:51

Navy chief defends nonbinary officer from GOP attacks over poem reading

Story by Julia Mueller • Yesterday 

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday on Tuesday defended a nonbinary officer from Republican criticism at a Senate Armed Services committee hearing.

Navy chief defends nonbinary officer from GOP attacks over poem reading© Provided by The Hill

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said during the hearing he had a lot of problems with a video on the Navy’s social media last week in which a nonbinary junior officer, Lt. j.g. Audrey Knutson, said the “coolest thing” about their deployment aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford last year was reading during an LGBTQ spoken-word poetry night.

Tuberville said he hopes officers are trained “to prioritize their sailors, not themselves” and asked Gilday whether it surprised him that the junior officer’s highlight was “about herself and her own achievement.”

The navy chief countered that he’s “particularly proud” of the sailor.

Related video: Former US Navy officer exposed for running pro-Kremlin disinformation account (Euronews)  Duration 2:38  View on Watch

NOT A PEEP OUT OF GOP

“Her grandfather served during World War II, and he was gay and he was ostracized in the very institution that she not only joined and is proud to be a part of, but she volunteered to deploy on Ford and she’ll likely deploy again next month when Ford goes back to sea,” Gilday said.

The Navy asks “people from all of the country, from all walks of life, from all different backgrounds to join,” and commanding officers have to build a “cohesive war-fighting team” based on trust, dignity and respect, he noted.

“That level of trust that a commanding officer develops across that unit has to be grounded on dignity and respect,” the navy chief added. “And so, if that officer can lawfully join the United States Navy, is willing to serve, and willing to take the same oath that you and I took to put their life on the line, then I’m proud to serve beside them.”

Tuberville parried that “the problem that I’m having is the obsession with race, gender, sex” and knocked what he perceived as a focus on self over team.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) shared the video on Twitter and wrote, “While China prepares for war this is what they have our @USNavy focused on.”

Why Republicans are proposing another enormous Medicaid cut

Story by Dylan Scott • Yesterday 

The House Republican majority has released its demands for major government spending cuts in exchange for increasing the federal debt limit. And they include a familiar target for conservatives: Medicaid.


In a Wall Street speech this week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy laid out his party’s plans for the upcoming federal debt-limit negotiations, likely to include a proposed Medicaid work requirement.© Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

It’s a gambit that may be more than a decade out of a date and could pose a political risk to the party. For years, Republicans have believed that Medicaid, which primarily serves low-income Americans, is less politically potent than Medicare or Social Security, two of the other core features of the US social safety net, and therefore a safer target for proposed cuts.

There may be some truth to that notion — but Medicaid is plenty popular on its own terms. Over the past two decades, the health insurance program has become an increasingly crucial part of the safety net. Enrollment has roughly doubled from about 46 million people in 2007 before the Great Recession to more than 92 million today. More than 75 percent of the US public says they have very or somewhat favorable views of the program. Two-thirds say they have some kind of connection to Medicaid, either because they themselves or a loved one was enrolled.

In state after state, when the question of expanding Medicaid to working-age, childless adults has been put to voters in red states, they’ve voted in favor of giving more people access to health insurance. Even the Republican legislature in North Carolina recently made peace with expanding the program.

The House’s work requirement proposal — dubbed a “community engagement” requirement in the bill’s text — would roll back those coverage gains by requiring many recipients to be working, looking for work, or participating in another kind of community service. Children under 18, adults over 56, people with mental or physical disabilities, and parents of dependent children would be exempted.

The Congressional Budget Office has previously estimated requiring non-disabled, non-elderly childless adults to work in order to receive Medicaid benefits would slash the program’s spending by $135 billion over 10 years — largely because more than 2 million people would lose coverage for failing to meet the work requirement.

The last time Republicans tried (and failed) to pass significant cuts to the Medicaid program, in the first year of the Trump presidency as part of their Affordable Care Act repeal plans, they paid the price during the 2018 midterm elections. So if Medicaid has proven popular quite recently, why have Republicans seemingly convinced themselves that they can try to cut it again without penalty?

The answer is partly about the method they’ve chosen to cut the program: work requirements, which leaders think will go over well in competitive congressional districts. But it’s also about how Republicans have (in some cases reluctantly) embraced other facets of the social safety net, leaving themselves with few other options.

The GOP has tried to cut other social welfare programs and failed

Related video: Mississippi joins states expanding Medicaid under 'pro-life agenda' (Scripps News) Duration 4:21  View on Watch

Scripps NewsMore states working to pay family members to care for their loved ones

4:46

WXII 12  Greensboro-Winston-SalemGovernor Cooper signs Medicaid expansion into Law

0:31

MSNBC   NC governor calls Medicaid expansion the 'working families bill of the decade'

5:44

Once upon a time, conservatives wanted to remake Social Security and Medicare just as eagerly as they still wish to overhaul Medicaid.

President George W. Bush invested much of his political capital in his second term in pursuing his doomed attempt to privatize Social Security. Paul Ryan, who became the party’s intellectual leader in the early 2010s as the Tea Party backlash to President Barack Obama was rising, made further privatizing Medicare a central plank of the Republican platform.

But those proposals proved politically disastrous. Democrats campaigned against Bush’s Social Security proposal when they gained seats in the 2006 midterms. The 2012 Obama campaign hung Ryan’s Medicare overhaul on Mitt Romney, who had picked Ryan to be his vice presidential candidate.

Then in 2016, the window for so-called entitlement reform slammed shut. Donald Trump bulldozed through the Republican primary, where he promised not to cut Medicare and Social Security as so many GOP candidates before him had pledged to do. When Republicans retook the House in 2022 and began plotting for the pending debt-limit debate, they preemptively took Medicare and Social Security cuts off the table.

But there’s a reason Republicans had targeted those programs in the past: they are two of the biggest outlays in the federal budget. Social Security alone accounts for 20 percent of federal spending. Medicare covers another 12 percent or so. If you assume Republicans are unwilling to cut defense spending and veterans benefits, that means almost half of the federal budget is off limits from the start.

So what is the GOP willing to cut, or at least to propose cutting to start its negotiations with the Biden White House and Senate Democrats? Enter Medicaid. In a Monday speech given at the New York Stock Exchange, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy laid out his party’s priorities in the debt-ceiling talks and sought to justify their proposed cuts to social programs. He said he wanted the government to give Americans “a hand up, not a handout.”

There is a certain logic to Republicans’ commitment to pursuing Medicaid cuts: Social Security and Medicare are universal programs. Everyone pays in while they work, and then enjoys the benefits when they retire. Medicaid, on the other hand, is targeted to people who have low incomes. Republicans argue that this program, like food stamps and cash welfare, discourages people from seeking work, since they only qualify for benefits if their income is below a certain threshold.

“Assistance programs are supposed to be temporary, not permanent,” McCarthy said. “A hand up, not a handout. A bridge to independence, not a barrier.”

The problem is their diagnosis may be wrong. For starters, about two-thirds of the people covered by Medicaid — those who are children, elderly, or disabled — are usually exempted from work requirement proposals. Working-age adults who are expected to meet them can end up losing coverage even if they are attempting to satisfy it, if they have irregular work hours for example, or if they have trouble filing the necessary paperwork. One estimate of a Medicaid work requirement proposal in Michigan found that only about one-quarter of the people expected to lose their coverage were considered “out of work,” meaning they could work but weren’t. The rest were already working, retired, caring for a loved home at home, or unable to work for some other reason.

In Arkansas, where implementation of a work requirement was eventually blocked by a court order, nearly 17,000 people lost coverage after the requirement was put in place. Analyses later found that Medicaid beneficiaries had not started working more or earning more money as a result of the policy. Instead, lots of people got kicked off Medicaid, but it didn’t lead to an improvement in their economic status; they simply became uninsured.

Still, a little more than half of the Republican base continues to consider Medicaid more akin to welfare than health care. Punchbowl News reported that internal House GOP polling showed that work requirements were popular among voters in the competitive districts that will determine future House control.

Public polling suggests it’s a little more complicated than that. As I wrote in 2018, Americans are of two minds about work requirements. When asked if they support requiring work in order to receive certain government benefits, the public will generally say yes. But when those policies are framed differently, and particularly when they are portrayed as cuts, their popularity drops.

That is the risk for House Republicans in this debt-ceiling gambit: Medicaid spending cuts are deeply unpopular with both the American public and lawmakers. Two-thirds of Americans now say they oppose cutting Medicaid’s spending.

There’s even a risk that the GOP’s attempts to overhaul the program could further reinforce its popularity. An analysis published last year in the American Political Science Review studied the effects of the party’s attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, of which Medicaid expansion is a core part. The threat to the law helped to solidify its standing with the public, partly because Republican voters became more resistant to the possibility of losing benefits. Two of the Republican senators who doomed the party’s plans cited the Medicaid cuts as a major factor in their vote.

And yet, the GOP continues to pursue Medicaid cuts — perhaps because, on other programs, they have boxed themselves in.

Here's what's included in the Republican bill to lift the debt ceiling

Yesterday 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday unveiled a long-awaited GOP proposal to lift the debt limit and enact federal spending cuts.

What happens after US officially hits debt ceiling?  View on Watch  Duration 6:10

Speaking on the House floor, McCarthy outlined what's included in the so-called Limit, Save, Grow Act, designed to raise the debt limit into next year and also provide more than $4.5 trillion in savings.

"The American people have elected a divided government, and our government is a divine compromise," McCarthy said. "That is why the House, the Senate and the White House should be negotiating a responsible debt limit increase right now."


FILE - Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy speaks in New York City, April 17, 2023.

© Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters, FILE

The legislation would claw back unspent COVID-19 money, block federal student loan cancellation, rescind billions of dollars for the Internal Revenue Service provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, end green tax credits and put in place stricter work requirements for federal aid programs. It would also limit government spending to pre-inflationary, fiscal year 2022 levels and limit spending increases to 1% per year, according to McCarthy

MORE: 'Clock is ticking': Lawmakers return to Washington facing fast-approaching debt limit 'X-date'

President Joe Biden, who gave the proposal a chilly reception, last met with McCarthy to discuss the debt limit in February. Their standoff has intensified in recent weeks as lawmakers stare down a fast-approaching summer deadline to lift the debt ceiling or risk an economically catastrophic default.

In recent days, the House speaker has tried to amp up pressure on Biden and Democrats to negotiate. Biden and other party leaders have so far declined to do so as they push for a "clean" debt limit increase not tied to federal spending cuts.

"President Biden is skipping town to deliver a speech in Maryland, rather than sitting down to address the debt ceiling," McCarthy said on Wednesday. "He's giving America's debt the Southern border treatment: ignore it and hope that it goes away."MORE: Biden, McCarthy standoff over budget intensifies as deadline looms

Biden shot back at the Republican leader during his Maryland event, taking aim at McCarthy's debt ceiling comments delivered Monday at the New York Stock Exchange.

"They say they're going to default unless I agree to all these wacko notions they have. Default would be worse than totally irresponsible," Biden said.

Biden warned a default "would destroy this economy. And who do you think will hurt the most? You, hardworking people, the middle-class, neighborhoods I got raised in -- not the super wealthy or the powerful, but working folks."


FILE - President Joe Biden speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, April 18, 2023.© Susan Walsh/AP, FILE

The legislative text of the House GOP bill, which clocks in at 320 pages, was released shortly after McCarthy's remarks.

McCarthy said the chamber will vote as early as next week on the plan. While it's not yet clear he'll have the 218 votes necessary to pass it, he expressed optimism about its prospects.

"We're going to get there," he told reporters. "I never give up. We'll get them."

-ABC News' Gabe Ferris, Justin Gomez contributed to this report.

House Republicans want to ban student-loan forgiveness and immediately end the payment pause in their new debt ceiling bill

Story by asheffey@businessinsider.com (Ayelet Sheffey) • Yesterday

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. 

Alex Wong/Getty 

House Republicans unveiled their bill to raise the debt ceiling on Wednesday.

It includes banning student-loan forgiveness and immediately ending the payment pause.

The bill is unlikely to pass, but it comes at a time of extreme uncertainty for student-loan borrowers.

Republicans' debt ceiling bill is finally here, and it's bad news for student-loan borrowers.

On Wednesday, House Republicans unveiled a bill to raise the debt ceiling through March 2024, and alongside increasing the limit, they have 320 pages worth of proposed spending cuts alongside it. For example, the legislation includes strengthened work requirements for welfare programs like SNAP, clawing back unspent pandemic funds, and repealing environmental programs.

And President Joe Biden's student loan programs aren't off the hook. According to the bill text, Republicans want to end the student-loan payment pause immediately, prohibit the Education Department from carrying out Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers, block the department's new income-driven repayment plan, and prohibit the department from making any new changes to debt relief programs without congressional approval.



1 of 9 Photos in Gallery©STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
How 10 student-loan borrowers are coping with the highs and lows of Biden's debt relief announcement
Biden announced up to $20,000 in student-debt relief at the end of August.
Since then, two lawsuits have blocked the plan, and its fate rests with the Supreme Court.
Here are 10 borrowers' stories on what they have experienced since Biden's August announcement.

Student-loan borrowers have had quite the year in 2022 — and millions are confused about what it means for their finances in 2023.

In August, a moment millions of federal borrowers had been waiting years for finally arrived when President Joe Biden announced $20,000 in student-debt cancellation for Pell Grant recipients making under $125,000 a year, and $10,000 in relief for other federal borrowers under the same income cap.

While the amount wasn't as expansive as many might have been hoping for — some Democratic lawmakers were pushing the president to cancel $50,000 in student debt — it still marked a significant step toward providing long-awaited relief to millions of Americans.

"For too many people, student loan debt has hindered their ability to achieve their dreams—including buying a home, starting a business, or providing for their family," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said after the loan forgiveness was announced. "Getting an education should set us free; not strap us down!"

But the relief quickly ran into hurdles. Since the loan forgiveness had an income cap, the Education Department was unable to automatically cancel the debt and needed until October to make an online application available for borrowers. Conservative groups used that time to file lawsuits to block the relief, and Biden's administration responding by further narrowing the eligibility for the relief to exclude some borrowers with privately-held loans to avoid litigation.

Still, just weeks after the application opened in early October, a ruling from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals paused the process, barring the department from processing any new applications, and another ruling from a Texas judge later ruled the relief is illegal.

Right before Thanksgiving, Biden extended the student-loan payment pause through June 30 or whenever the lawsuits are resolved — whichever comes first — meaning the fate of the relief ultimately rests with the Supreme Court, who will begin hearing arguments on February 28. Until then, borrowers' financial futures hang in the balance.


These proposals aren't surprising. Since Biden took office, many GOP lawmakers have slammed the president's debt relief plans, saying they are an overreach of authority and costly to taxpayers. After the president announced his broad debt relief plan at the end of August, two conservative-backed lawsuits paused its implementation, and the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the cases in February.

Related video: House Speaker Proposes Plan to Raise US Debt Ceiling and Avoid Default (Wibbitz - Politics)

Duration 1:30   View on Watch

More videos

NBC News'Offer a plan, not speeches': Biden criticizes Republicans' debt limit priorities

3:08

CNBCWe're not for the government defaulting on their debt, says Rep. French Hill

3:54

The Wall Street JournalHouse Speaker: ‘No-Strings-Attached Debt-Limit Increase Will Not Pass’

0:59

In light of the lawsuits, Biden extended the student-loan payment pause through 60 days after June 30, or 60 days after the Supreme Court issues a final decision on the legality of the relief — whichever happens first — but Republicans have continued to oppose the relief, most recently introducing a resolution to overturn the debt cancellation without waiting for a Supreme Court decision.

The House is set to vote on the bill next week, but even if it passes the House, it's highly likely it will not get enough votes in the Senate. And even if it does, Biden will almost certainly veto it because he has repeatedly stated that raising the debt ceiling should be bipartisan — and without any spending cuts attached.

Even so, millions of student-loan borrowers remain in limbo. The Education Department is planning to resume payments this year with or without the broad debt relief, and while it's working to implement changes to income-driven repayment plans and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, the lack of additional funding from Congress in this year's budget is causing delays with carrying out those reforms.

In the meantime, Democratic lawmakers and advocates have been urging Congress to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a financially catastrophic default. The Joint Economic Committee released a report last month that found private student-loan payments could surge if the US defaulted on its debt. And Melissa Byrne, executive director of We, the 45 Million — an advocacy group pushing for debt relief — said in a Wednesday statement that "McCarthy announced that he will hold the debt ceiling hostage and risk crashing the global economy in order to hurt 40M student loan borrowers and our families. "

"Everyone in the House and Senate must reject the Speakers and GOP efforts to repeal student loan relief, changes to PSLF + IDR, and preventing future relief," she said. "The American people deserve bett

Chemours, TC Energy to partner on clean hydrogen facilities

Story by Reuters • Yesterday 



(Reuters) -Chemical maker Chemours Co said on Wednesday it has partnered with TC Energy Corp to develop two clean hydrogen production facilities in West Virginia.


Illustration shows smartphone with TC Energy's logo displayed© Thomson Reuters

Clean hydrogen, made using renewable energy to power electrolyzers to convert water, is being backed by many governments for vehicles and energy plants, but it is currently too expensive for widespread use.

Related video: Why hydrogen and other 'clean energy bridges' will be crucial in the years ahead (CNBC)  Duration 3:07  View on Watch

The facilities would be located at or near Chemours' Washington Works and Belle manufacturing sites in West Virginia, the company said.

The agreement covers the companies' interest in developing, constructing and operating clean hydrogen production facilities and associated infrastructure.

(Reporting by Ankit Kumar; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Dhanya Ann Thoppil)

Canadians with celiac disease especially hard hit by grocery price pain, group says

Story by The Canadian Press •

When Samantha Mackey was diagnosed with celiac disease a few years ago, she was relieved that there was something she could do to finally stop feeling sick.


But the diagnosis also "turns your life upside down," she said.

"I can remember, you know, once standing in a supermarket and just wanting to cry because being so overwhelmed by the amount of effort that goes into just a basic need of groceries,” said Mackey, who lives in Conception Bay South, N.L.

Unless it specifically carried a certified gluten free symbol from Celiac Canada, she had to pore over the list of ingredients on every food item, as many products people often don't associate with gluten — including salad dressings and condiments — contain it.

The other shock, Mackey said, was the higher price tag on gluten-free food.

“Right from the day I was diagnosed, our grocery bill went up significantly and added hundreds of dollars a month to our bill,” she said.

Those prices have been increasing even more along with the rising cost of groceries overall. Celiac Canada says gluten-free products cost between 150 and 500 per cent more than their regular gluten-containing equivalents.

About one per cent of the Canadian population has celiac disease, the association says.

The autoimmune disorder is triggered by gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley grains, said Dr. Ines Pinto-Sanchez, director of the Adult Celiac Clinic at McMaster University.

"For someone with celiac disease, eating even a small quantity of gluten leads to inflammation of the gut lining and various symptoms such as diarrhea, constipation, vomiting, bloating, tiredness, and headaches," said Pinto-Sanchez, who is also an investigator with the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute at the university.

They can also suffer long-term complications such as nutrient deficiencies, a higher risk of viral infections and pneumonia, increased risk of broken bones and a higher risk of bowel cancer, she said.

"It is essential that people with celiac disease stick to a gluten-free diet, which is medically indicated and not a personal choice," Pinto-Sanchez said.

In a survey Celiac Canada conducted late last year of 7,400 Canadians who must eat gluten-free because of their disorder, almost 93 per cent said they feel the cost of gluten-free food was more expensive than before the pandemic. Of those respondents, more than a third said they have had to adjust their finances to be able to buy the groceries they need, and one per cent have had to turn to food banks.

The federal government's recently tabled budget includes a one-time grocery rebate for "low- and modest-income Canadians" that it says is meant to provide relief for Canadians as prices soar.


That rebate would be up to $153 per adult and $81 per child. Someone who is single could also receive an additional $81. Eligible seniors could receive $225.

But because gluten-free food costs so much more, Celiac Canada is calling for an increased rebate specifically for people with celiac disease in that income bracket.

The association is asking the federal government for a celiac rebate of up to $230 per adult and $122.50 per child, with an extra $122.50 for people who are single.

"This is their medication," said Melissa Secord, executive director of Celiac Canada, of eating gluten-free food. "There is no cure. There's no other treatment."

Because even a small amount of gluten can harm them, people with celiac disease sometimes keep their entire households gluten-free, Secord said.

“It's just too risky to have different meals going on in the house," said Mackey, whose husband and four-year-old daughter also eat gluten-free.

That means even higher grocery bills.

“At this point, I mean, we spend more on groceries than we do our mortgage payments,” Mackey said.

“We're in the position the whole country is (in) dealing with the cost of food being skyrocketed," she said.

"A loaf of (gluten-free) bread is eight to 10 dollars.”

The Canada Revenue Agency does allow people with celiac disease to claim "the incremental costs associated with buying gluten-free food products as a medical expense," its website says.

But doing so is an onerous task with little payout at the end, Secord said.

People must itemize every gluten-free item they buy during the year, compare it to the equivalent regular item and claim the difference.

They must also claim only the portion of the product that the person with celiac disease ate.

The system is "just unworkable for the average Canadian," Secord said, noting that 80 per cent of participants in Celiac Canada survey said they don't claim the benefit.

"It ends up that the average person might get back 30 bucks," she said.

Instead, Celiac Canada is lobbying for a flat tax credit of $1,000.

"The rising cost of living is a challenge for many Canadians and that is why our government is providing targeted, fiscally-responsible, and compassionate support for those who need it most through the one-time Grocery Rebate," said Adrienne Vaupshas, press secretary for Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, in an emailed response to The Canadian Press.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2023.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press

DARK SKIES POLLUTION

Starlink launches new Maritime plan for internet access at sea

Story by MobileSyrup • Yesterday 

Oceanbound Starlink customers can now access a new ‘Maritime’ plan offering 50GB of data at sea.

Starlink launches new Maritime plan for internet access at sea© Provided by MobileSyrup

The plan costs $329 a month in Canada and is in addition to a $3,170 one-time hardware cost. According to Starlink’s website, it provides coverage to “boats of all sizes” and offers download speeds of 220Mbps.

The 50GB of data counts as ‘priority’ data and includes access while at sea. Once customers use all the priority data, they can access unlimited data on inland coverage, such as on lakes and rivers, wherever the company’s services are available.

Starlink says customers can purchase additional priority data with ocean access through their account “at a later date.

Generic abortion pill maker GenBioPro sues FDA over its response to orders halting drug’s approval

Story by Tierney Sneed • Yesterday 

The US manufacturer of the generic version of a medication abortion drug sued the Biden administration Wednesday, the latest legal development in the dramatic court fight over abortion pills.

The company GenBioPro alleges that the US Food and Drug Administration has violated the Constitution’s Due Process Clause and other laws in how the agency has responded to recent court orders halting the approval of the generic version of the drug, mifepristone.

GenBioPro is seeking a court order that would require the FDA to go through certain procedural steps laid out under federal law before declaring its mifepristone product unapproved. The company is also asking the court to bar the federal government from taking enforcement actions against the company before the FDA had gone through statutory process of withdrawing or suspending the drug.

The new lawsuit was filed in federal court in Maryland and sets up a third legal battlefront over access to abortion pills.

The Supreme Court is currently considering whether to freeze the court orders that emerged from a separate lawsuit, filed by anti-abortion activists in Texas, that would undo the 2019 approval of the generic version of the drug and reverse other steps the FDA has taken in recent years to make abortion pills easier to obtain. Those orders have been paused by Supreme Court until 11:59 p.m. ET Wednesday, while the justices decide whether the Texas case rulings should be kept on hold for a longer period of time.

It is unclear how the new lawsuit will impact the other legal flashpoints over mifepristone. GenBioPro is not a party in the lawsuit in front of the Supreme Court. In a third case, filed in Washington state by Democratic state attorneys general, a federal judge ordered the FDA to not take any steps that would reduce mifepristone in the 18 jurisdictions behind the lawsuit, which seeks to expand access to abortion pills.

The new lawsuit provides a behind-the-scenes view of the fallout from the anti-abortion litigation in Texas. The complaint zeroes in on how the federal government has said in court filings in that case that recent court orders have the effect of making GenBioPro’s product “misbranded” and leave the generic version of the drug “without an effective drug approval.”

The company argues that the FDA is causing GenBioPro “imminent, catastrophic, and irreparable harm” by making those characterizations while ignoring the “statutory and regulatory procedures” for withdrawing a drug.

The lawsuit describes several attempts by GenBioPro to get assurances from the FDA that it would go through the multistep withdrawal process mandated by Congress before pulling the drug from the market. The company alleges that the agency did not offer those assurances, nor did it respond to the company’s requests for a non-enforcement directive that would shield the company, its business partners and its customers from any FDA enforcement actions based on the court orders in the Texas case.

“GenBioPro faces a credible, serious threat of FDCA enforcement if it attempts to continue producing and marketing mifepristone,” the lawsuit says, referring to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which sets out how the FDA goes about its regulatory process. “With the specter of criminal prosecution looming, GenBioPro may be obligated to undertake recalls, cancel contracted manufacturing and hold or destroy perishable inventory.”

GenBioPro’s lawsuit names as its defendants the FDA, the Justice Department and Department of Health and Human Services.

The FDA and the Justice Department declined to comment on the lawsuit. HHS referred CNN to the response from the FDA.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Jessica Schneider and Carma Hassan contributed to this report.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Manhattan parking garage that collapsed, killing 1, had open property violations, records show

Story by Julian Cummings •CNN - Yesterday 

A parking garage that collapsed Tuesday in lower Manhattan, killing one person and injuring five others, had six open building violations, three of which were classified as “hazardous,” New York City Department of Buildings records show.

CNN
Video shows aftermath of parking garage collapse
View on Watch
Duration 0:34

The garage, on Ann Street in the Financial District, was a four-story building that “pancaked … all the way to the cellar floor,” Department of Buildings acting Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik said.

The cause is under investigation, but officials have said they believe it was a “structural collapse.”

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is investigating the collapse, it said Wednesday. The office said in a statement it “cannot confirm details of an ongoing investigation.”

The fire department used a robotic dog and drones to search the building for people because it was “completely unstable,” New York Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference. Everyone was believed to be accounted for, Chief of Fire Operations John Esposito said.

The building has six open property violations – three of which are classified as hazardous, according to Department of Buildings records. The three open hazardous violations date back to 2003, 2009, and 2013.

The two earliest hazardous violations describe “defective concrete with exposed rear cracks,” and “broken & defective fire stairs,” a “loose piece of concrete in danger of falling @ various locations” and a “defective exit,” in addition to other issues, according to the online violation summaries.

The 2013 hazardous violation was focused on improper access to exits, according to the summary.

The building’s owners have paid a total of $2,200 in fines stemming from the three open hazardous violations, according to records. Since 1976, the building has been cited for 64 violations. It was built in 1920s and converted to a parking garage in 1957, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine told CNN.

Little Man Parking is the operator of the garage. CNN has reached out to the operator but has not heard back.

Adams had earlier said there were no open violations or active complaints about the building prior to its collapse.

Witness saw cars falling into a hole

"It looked like the floor caved in," Zach Powers said. - Courtesy Zach Powers

Zach Powers, a freshman at Pace University, told CNN he was in his dorm Tuesday afternoon when he heard a loud bang followed by heavy rumbling.

“It lasted for 10 seconds, which was surreal,” he said. “Then I see smoke flying towards our window, so I walk over to the window and see cars falling into a hole that’s in the middle of the garage.”

“We got out of the building before the smoke cleared,” he said.

Video taken by Powers from his dorm, which is on the seventh floor, shows the collapsed garage with multiple damaged vehicles.

Four of the injured were taken to a hospital and were in stable condition, Esposito said. One person refused medical attention.

At least one worker in the building was trapped on one of the upper floors of the garage and while he was conscious and alert, he couldn’t evacuate to a lower floor. Rescuers were able to get him out across the roof to a nearby building and bring him down to safety, Esposito said.

Firefighters initially began searching the building on foot, but the building continued to collapse and rescue personnel were pulled back from the site due to its instability, Esposito said, calling it an “extremely dangerous operation.”

The body of the lone victim is still inside the building and will not be removed until the place is structurally sound, according to fire department spokesperson Amanda Farinacci.

“The building is in bad shape and needs to be stabilized,” she said.

The area around the collapse would be closed for some time, Levine said.

“They’re not going to be cleaning up and going home tonight,” he said. “This is going to take a while to make it safe for the public.”

Engineers with the Department of Buildings will continue to check adjoining buildings, review drone footage and building records, and investigate possible reasons for the collapse, Vilenchik said.

This headline and story have been updated with details of the parking garage building violations.

CNN’s Nicki Brown, Gloria Pazmino, Sharif Paget and Elizabeth Stuart contributed to this report.

At least 7 of the men caught crossing border from Manitoba are Mexican: officials

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

WARROAD, Minn. — United States officials say at least seven of the nine men caught crossing the border this week from southeast Manitoba are Mexican citizens.


At least 7 of the men caught crossing border from Manitoba are Mexican: officials© Provided by The Canadian Press

RCMP were first alerted to the group when one of them called 911 early Tuesday suffering from the cold weather.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency says the migrants were found in a flooded bog west of Warroad, Minn., southwest of an official port of entry near Sprague, Man.

The agency says temperatures in the bog were below freezing and agents wore protective suits to guard against the frigid water.

There was a report of a missing person but the agency says searches on both sides of the border did not find anyone.

Two of the migrants are still receiving medical care and officials have not determined their nationality.

“The outcome could have been much worse if not for the quick notification from RCMP and the response of our agents," chief patrol agent Scott D. Garrett said in a news release Wednesday.

The men range from age 19 to 46 and did not have proper immigration documents allowing them to enter or remain in the U.S., the agency said.

In October, the agency reported arresting 12 migrants from Ireland and the United Kingdom in the same general area.

In January of last year, a family of four from India froze to death while trying to walk across the border further west, near Emerson, Man.

Steve Shand, a Florida resident, was charged with human smuggling in that case.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2023.

The Canadian Press