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Federal rule could gut $8.6B from Texas Medicaid

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:22 GMT

AUSTIN (Nexstar) -- A bipartisan group of state senators stood with faith leaders at the Texas Capitol Wednesday to push back on looming changes to Medicaid that could strip almost $9 billion out of the system and leave hundreds of thousands more Texans uninsured.The concern followed a February memo from the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that sought to end certain payment agreements between Texas and its hospitals. Texas taxes hospitals to cover the state's portion of Medicaid costs, and in return the state receives federal funds and the hospitals recover their taxes with state Medicaid funding. Texas hospitals also share their Medicaid funds to help hospitals that care for a higher proportion of low-income patients. The federal memo targets this arrangement as illegal."For forty years, we've had a good system where the state and the federal government cooperate with health care providers to provide care. This has been settled law for a long time. And Texas...

Free HIV tests at Walgreens: most adults below 64 have never tested

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:22 GMT

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A pharmacy chain is offering free HIV testing on June 27, when tests will be available for customers at more than 400 locations across the nation.Walgreens has partnered with the Kaiser Family Foundation to give anyone who wants to know their HIV status a free HIV test.The Centers for Disease Control recommends that adults be tested at least once a year, but the majority of adults below age 64 have never been tested for HIV. One out of every eight people who have HIV in the United States were not aware they have it.The CDC says you can take medicine to treat the virus if you know you have it. If you know that you don’t have HIV, you can take precautions to prevent HIV.It’s important to get an HIV test before you have sex with a new partner.Risk factors for HIV include having sex with someone whose sexual history you don’t know, being treated for hepatitis or tuberculosis in the past, being diagnosed with or treated for a different sexually transmitted d...

2 arrested, charged with evading police after south Austin shooting incident

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:22 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A Travis County arrest affidavit revealed additional details surrounding a police pursuit through south Austin Monday night after reports of a shooting.The affidavit said 27-year-old Raymond Anthony Valdez, the driver of the vehicle, was charged with evading detention in a motor vehicle. Travis County jail records showed he was booked on the charge and held on a $10,000 bond.According to the affidavit, Austin Police officers responded to a shoot/stab hotshot call in the 400 block of West Alpine Road at approximately 9:40 p.m. The 911 caller said a man was shot, and there was a possible home invasion. The caller also said there were three suspects wearing hoodies. PAST COVERAGE: Police: Person shot in south Austin Monday night At the scene, police saw a vehicle quickly leaving the parking lot with its headlights and taillights off. The affidavit said police shined a spotlight into the vehicle and saw three occupants.“Based on there being 3 occupants and the vehicle ...

Letters: It’s not the library they’re trying to save. It’s a building

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:22 GMT

It’s not the library. It’s a buildingThe headline in the Saturday, June 3, paper, “Suit filed to save library,” is misleading.  The Renovate 1558 group is not trying to save the library, they are trying to save the building. The library is the staff, services, materials and resources, programs, public gathering spaces and meeting and/or classrooms, as well as the community that uses them. It needs a building, but a building is only called a library because a library resides in it. The needs of a 21st Century library are very different from those that existed in the 1920s. A modern, accessible building is needed to serve the needs of its current and future users.If the building is so important to the Renovate 1558 group, perhaps they should find a comparable parcel of land in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood, buy it, and make an offer to the City and the Library Board to swap that land for the current library building.  That way the City and Library would have land on whic...

State officials warn of increase in 911 misdials

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:22 GMT

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety officials on Wednesday sought to bring attention to an increase in 911 misdials from smartphone and smartwatch emergency features.While research on the full effects have not been completed Dakota County officials reported seeing a more than 100% increase — totaling more than 1,000 additional abandoned calls — from Jan. 1 to May 31 in 2023 compared to the same time last year.Dana Wahlberg, director of the department’s Emergency Communications Network, said she thinks some of the abandoned calls are from pocket dials, emergency SOS features on smartphones and smartwatches as well as fall detection can all be accidentally activated without the owners knowledge.For android phones, after set up, emergency SOS will initiate after the power button is pressed five times. For iPhones emergency SOS initiates after the side and volume buttons are held down and a slider will appear with the option to call emergency services.After an ac...

Twin Cities residents urged to reduce the 3.3 million tons of trash they produce each year

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:22 GMT

Recycling and composting programs need to be easier and more accessible if Twin Cities residents are going to reduce the 3.3 million tons of trash they send to landfills each year.Those are two key recommendations of a draft report by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, or MPCA, aimed at reducing the solid waste the seven county metro area generates over the next two decades.If nothing changes, state officials estimate the amount of trash sent to landfills could grow by almost 20 percent by 2042. Recycling has stagnated in recent years and some communities have seen a decline in participation in curbside programs.“We are going in the wrong direction,” said Kirk Koudelka, assistant commissioner for land policy and strategic initiatives at the MPCA, who discussed the draft plan Wednesday. “These goals are ambitious. Meeting them will require deep collaboration between local governments, individuals, and businesses.”Kirk Koudelka, assistant commissioner for ...

Norman Rockwell's 'Shiner' model celebrates 70th anniversary of Saturday Evening Post cover

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:22 GMT

CAPITAL REGION, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Norman Rockwell fans have something to celebrate -- the recent anniversary of one of his most iconic illustrations. NEWS10's Anya Tucker spoke with a Vermont woman who is very close to this special piece of art. Mary Whalen Leonard shares what it was like to work with the artist who told the story of America, not with words, but with a pen and paintbrush.70 years ago, Mary Whalen Leonard was the young model for Norman Rockwell’s “The Young Lady With The Shiner” featured on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on May 23rd, 1953. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! Mary told Anya that she was around 11-years-old when Rockwell discussed the idea of the illustration with her by asking her a question. “He said to me, ‘Wouldn’t you like to beat up your brothers?’ I had three brothers, so that kind of filled me with a little bit of glee,” she said. It was the kind of imagery that was pure Norman Rock...

Capital Region asthma, allergy experts talk health effects of wildfire smoke

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:22 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Your sinuses were probably already struggling through the start of allergy season. Now add to the mix a blanket of ash and smoke blowing in from Canada, and local doctors are flooded with concerned calls."You add wildfires to probably one of the worst seasonal pollen—tree pollen—allergies in history, it’s really complicating things," explains Dr. Gavin Setzen, president of Albany ENT.Local experts say for allergy sufferers, your airways are already pretty sensitive."[The smoke] doesn’t really cause an allergic reaction, but if you have an allergic disease, that’s an inflammatory condition, so any little irritant is going to bother you more than it does the typical person," says Dr. Thomas Flaim of Certified Allergy & Asthma Consultants.The tiny ash particles floating in with all the smoke can also complicate matters for asthma patients with similar sensitivity. Dr. Flaim suggests closely monitoring your medication intake."Use your rescue inhaler—your alb...

Judge weighs Missouri GOP dispute over estimated cost of allowing abortions

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:22 GMT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Two top Republican state officials argued Wednesday over how much it would cost Missouri to restore the right to abortion, with the state attorney general insisting that the figure should account for lost revenue that wouldn't be collected from people who otherwise would be born.The issue came up during a trial over a proposed ballot measure that would let voters decide in 2024 whether to amend the state constitution to guarantee abortion rights.Abortions were almost completely banned in Missouri following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. There are exceptions for medical emergencies, but not for cases of rape or incest.Supporters are trying to put a proposed amendment before voters next year that would protect abortion rights and pregnant women, as well as access to birth control. St. Charles County residents upset over home value assessment But the effort stalled in April because of a spat between Audit...

3 teens accused of breaking into O’Fallon home, stealing gun

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:22 GMT

O’FALLON, Mo. – Caught in the act. Three juvenile suspects are in custody, accused of breaking into an O’Fallon, Missouri, residence and stealing the homeowner’s weapon.Authorities said they are seeking charges against the teen suspects, who’re in the Juvenile Division.Officers said the 911 call made the difference.The dispatchers took the dramatic 911 call of a burglary in progress Tuesday around 5 p.m. on Mariposa Drive. A neighbor named Tom made the call.“I got on the phone right away and called 911 and told police what was going on,” he said. “We saw someone breaking into the windows.” St. Charles County residents upset over home value assessment Tom stopped his neighbor from entering the home, telling him three teens had gone inside, and that he’d already called police. He said police arrived in less than two minutes.“It absolutely could have been a worse outcome if the homeowner wouldn’t have been stopped from going inside. There’s no telling what could have happened there,”...