Author: Reporter

Should I stay or should I go, from Meta’s social media platforms? That is what some Facebook, Instagram, and Threads users have been wondering since Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s shocking announcement in January, in response to President Trump’s return to the White House. The company changed its rules on harmful content, such as hate speech, in what critics condemn as appeasement of Trump and disregard for public safety. The platform also abandoned its fact-checking program, replacing it with an ineffective crowdsourced solution. The changes have renewed interest among some users about deleting their Meta social media accounts. If you...

A long sliver of federal land along the Mexico-U.S. border that Donald Trump is turning over to the Department of Defense would be controlled by the Army as part of a base, which could allow troops to detain any trespassers, including migrants, said U.S. officials. The transfer of that border zone to military control, and making it part of an Army installation, is an attempt by the Trump administration to get around a federal law that prohibits U.S. troops from being used in domestic law enforcement on American soil. But if the troops are providing security for land that...

Donald Trump on April 14 reiterated that he would like to send U.S. citizens who commit violent crimes to prison in El Salvador, telling that country’s president, Nayib Bukele, that he would “have to build five more places” to hold the potential new arrivals. Trump’s regime has already deported immigrants to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison CECOT, known for its harsh conditions. The convicted felon and occupant of the White House has also said he is trying to find “legal” ways to apply extrajudicial tactics to ship U.S. citizens there, too. Trump has disingenuously insisted these would just be “violent...

Love them or hate them, it is hard to see health savings accounts losing traction any time soon. Used in conjunction with high-deductible healthcare plans, the accounts have been touted as a way to put downward pressure on healthcare costs. Even though HSAs are the only triple tax-advantaged vehicle in the tax code allowing for pretax contributions, tax-free compounding, and tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical expenses, few HSA owners fund the accounts to the maximum. HSA critics point out that the high-deductible healthcare plan/HSA combination is a good fit for the “healthy and wealthy” but is apt to be...

While obesity is high and holding steady in the U.S., the proportion of those with severe obesity, especially women, has climbed since a decade ago, according to new government research. The U.S. obesity rate is about 40%, according to a 2021-2023 survey of about 6,000 people. Nearly 1 in 10 of those surveyed reported severe obesity, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Women were nearly twice as likely as men to report severe obesity. The overall obesity rate appeared to tick down vs. the 2017-2020 survey, but the change was not considered statistically significant, the numbers...

Unlike scores of people who scrambled for the blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy to lose weight in recent years, Danielle Griffin had no trouble getting them. The 38-year-old information technology worker from New Mexico had a prescription. Her pharmacy had the drugs in stock. And her health insurance covered all but $25 to $50 of the monthly cost. For Griffin, the hardest part of using the new drugs wasn’t access. It was finding out that the much-hyped medications didn’t really work for her. “I have been on Wegovy for a year and a half and have only lost 13...