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‘Conscience’ bills let medical providers opt out of providing a wide range of care

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:25 GMT

Carly Graf | (TNS) KFF Health NewsA new Montana law will provide sweeping legal protections to health care practitioners who refuse to prescribe marijuana or participate in procedures and treatments such as abortion, medically assisted death, gender-affirming care, or others that run afoul of their ethical, moral, or religious beliefs or principles.The law, which goes into effect in October, will gut patients’ ability to take legal action if they believe they didn’t receive proper care due to a conscientious objection by a provider or an institution, such as a hospital.So-called medical conscience objection laws have existed at the state and federal levels for years, with most protecting providers who refuse to perform an abortion or sterilization procedure. But the new Montana law, and others like it that have passed or been introduced in statehouses across the U.S., goes further, to the point of undermining patient care and threatening the right of people to receive lifesaving and...

Bankrate: More cardholders carrying credit card balances in high rate environment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:25 GMT

Poonkulali Thangavelu | Bankrate.com (TNS)More cardholders are carrying more credit card debt than ever before, and they’re paying a steep price for the privilege, a Bankrate survey on credit card debt finds. According to new data, 47% of credit cardholders currently carry debt from month to month — up slightly from 46% in December 2022 and 39% in December 2021.While emergency expenses are the prime culprit, consumers are also hard pressed to chip away at the debt in today’s high interest rate environment. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, credit card debt was at $986 billion at the end of March, up $145 billion from the first quarter of 2022.Inflation, which has moderated after reaching a 40-year high of 9.1% in June last year, has pushed up the costs of the goods and services, while — at the same time — the Fed has raised its target interest rate past 5% through a series of rate hikes. This has taken average credit card interest rates north of 20%, making it more ...

In-state tuition for undocumented students becomes law under signed FY24 budget

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:25 GMT

Gov. Maura Healey signed a $55.9 billion budget Wednesday that provides eligible undocumented students in-state tuition rates at public universities and colleges and offers free meals for students at public and some private schools.The budget Healey signed largely avoids conflict with proposals approved by the Democratic-led Legislature last month. It also represents the latest spending plan outside of the pandemic since 2001, when lawmakers sent the budget to the governor’s desk in November and it was signed at the start of December.House Speaker Ronald Mariano said he was not surprised budget negotiations “went a little long” because of all the factors that were in play, including parallel conversations on tax relief and how to spend new surtax revenue.“But I’m constantly surprised that everyone seems to have forgotten what was at stake here and what we were trying to accomplish,” the Quincy Democrat told reporters. “And to come up with a document that is this fair, and as t...

Special counsel got a search warrant for Twitter to turn over info on Trump’s account, documents say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:25 GMT

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER | Associated PressSpecial counsel Jack Smith’s team obtained a search warrant in January for records related to former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account, and a judge levied a $350,000 fine on the company for a delay in complying, according to court documents released Wednesday.The details were included in a decision from the federal appeals court in Washington rejecting Twitter’s claim that it should not have been held in contempt or sanctioned.X, the San Francisco-based platform formerly known as Twitter, sent an automated reply to a request for comment, saying it would respond soon.The filing says prosecutors got the search warrant directing Twitter to produce information on Trump’s account after a court “found probable cause to search the Twitter account for evidence of criminal offenses.” The government also obtained a nondisclosure agreement prohibiting Twitter from disclosing the search warrant, the filing says...

Emergency official says multiple Maui wildfire burn patients have been flown to Honolulu hospital

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:25 GMT

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER | Associated PressHONOLULU (AP) — Wind-whipped wildfires raced through parts of Hawaii on Wednesday, destroying homes and businesses in a historic town on the island of Maui, injuring several people, forcing evacuations and leading some to flee to the relative safety of the ocean, where they were rescued by the Coast Guard.Fire was widespread in Lahaina Town, including on Front Street, a shopping and dining area that is popular with tourists, County of Maui spokesperson Mahina Martin said by phone early Wednesday. Traffic has been very heavy as people try to evacuate the area, and officials asked people who weren’t in an evacuation area to shelter in place to avoid adding to the traffic, she said. Photos posted by the county overnight showed a line of flames blazing across an intersection and leaping above buildings in the town center that dates to the 1700s and is on the National Register of Historic Places.“Do NOT go to Lahaina Town,” the county tweeted ...

San Diego man found dead on Tucson hike during extreme weather conditions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:25 GMT

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A California man reported missing on a hike in Tucson has been found dead, authorities said Wednesday.Pima County Sheriff’s officials say the body of 46-year-old Kyle Chance, of San Diego, was located near the Starr Pass area about 4 p.m. Tuesday.“There was no indication of foul play. More information regarding the cause of death will be available at a later date," Sheriff’s Deputy Gordon Downing said in a statement Wednesday. “The initial indication is that it was related to exposure to the weather conditions."The high in Tuscon was 93 degrees Fahrenheit (33.9 Celsius) Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.Downing said Chance started his hike around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and was reported missing later in the day.The sheriff department’s search and rescue crew joined Tucson police, Drexel Heights fire personnel and an Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter in the search.

Religious group sues Quebec government for blocking event over abortion concerns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:25 GMT

QUEBEC — A Christian group announced Wednesday it is suing the Quebec government after the tourism minister cancelled a religious gathering last June at a publicly owned convention centre because she assumed the event would promote anti-abortion views.British Columbia-based Harvest Ministries International filed a motion in Quebec Superior Court against Minister Caroline Proulx, the convention centre and Quebec’s attorney general. The court filing, dated Aug. 2, argues that the cancellation of the “Faith, Fire and Freedom” rally was a violation of the group’s Charter rights to non-discrimination and to freedom of religion, expression, opinion, and peaceful assembly. The group is asking for more than $200,000 in compensation for moral and material loss, and for punitive damages. It is also asking for a declaration that its rights were unjustly interfered with.In early June, Proulx cancelled a 10-day event at the Quebec City Convention Centre by Harvest Ministr...

Things to know about a vote in Ohio, court action in Kansas and Utah and other abortion developments

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:25 GMT

Voters in Ohio and judges across the U.S. are weighing in on the future of abortion access in several states more than a year after the nation’s top court overturned Roe v. Wade and the right to an abortion, setting off a series of policy shifts.Here are the latest developments.WHAT VOTERS SAYOhio voters on Tuesday rejected a ballot question that would have raised the threshold for future constitutional amendments and required at least 60% support for a measure to pass instead of a simple majority.The new policy would have been in place in November, when voters will be asked to amend the state constitution to give voters the right to make their own reproductive decisions, including both fertility treatment and abortion.Ohio, where Republicans control the state government, has a law banning abortions after cardiac activity can be detected — which is around six weeks and often before women realize they’re pregnant. Enforcement of the ban is on hold while courts consider its lega...

Ex-Las Vegas Raider Henry Ruggs sentenced to 3-plus years in prison for fatal DUI crash in Nevada

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:25 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Former Las Vegas Raiders player Henry Ruggs was sentenced Wednesday to at least three years in a Nevada prison for killing a woman in a fiery crash while driving his sports car drunk at speeds up to 156 mph on a city street nearly two years ago.“I sincerely apologize,” the former first-round NFL draft pick said as he stood for sentencing in Las Vegas after pleading guilty in May to felony DUI causing death and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, a charge carrying a six-month jail sentence that will be folded in with his three-to-10-year prison term.Ruggs, now 24, was cut by the Raiders while he was still hospitalized following the predawn crash on Nov. 2, 2021. The collision killed Tina Tintor and her dog, Max, and injured Ruggs’ passenger, Kiara Je’nai Kilgo-Washington, his fiancee and mother of their daughter.“I have no excuses,” Ruggs said, citing pain the case has caused his family, teammates and Tintor’s family. Ruggs said that after prison, he inte...

Singer and songwriter Sixto Rodriguez, subject of ‘Searching for Sugar Man’ documentary, dies at 81

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:40:25 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Sixto Rodriguez, who lived in obscurity as his music career flamed out early in the U.S. only to find success in South Africa and a stardom he was unaware of, died Tuesday in Detroit. He was 81.Rodriguez’s legacy would take off back home after the singer and songwriter became the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary “Searching for Sugar Man.”His death was announced on the Sugarman.org website and confirmed Wednesday by his granddaughter, Amanda Kennedy.He died following a short illness, according to his wife, Konny Rodriguez, 72.A 2013 Associated Press story referred to Rodriguez as “the greatest protest singer and songwriter that most people never heard of.”His albums flopped in the United States in the 1970s, but — unknown to him — he later became a star in South Africa where his songs protesting the Vietnam War, racial inequality, abuse of women and social mores inspired white liberals horrified by the country’s brutal racial segregation system of a...