WASHINGTON D.C. - Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced a bill Wednesday that would ban doctors from performing life-altering and irreversible transgender procedures on kids across the country.
Marshall put forth the “Safeguarding The Overall Protection of Minors Act’’ to block doctors from giving kids puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, which can cause infertility, reduce bone density, and damage heart health. The legislation would also ban transgender surgeries for kids, including genital surgeries and removing the breasts of girls who identify as boys.
According to the text of the bill, doctors could be assessed a civil fine of up to $100,000 if they “knowingly perform, attempt to perform, conspire to perform, or provide a referral for any gender transition procedure on a minor.”
“Americans resoundingly rejected the Left’s dangerous transgender agenda. Let’s call it exactly what it is: child abuse,” Marshall, a doctor, said in a statement. “The days of demented doctors and activists getting rich off of mutilating, sterilizing, and castrating children are over.” Click here to read more.
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF - On the northern slope of Bernal Heights, amid bay windows adorned with rainbow Pride flags and leftover signs supporting Aaron Peskin for mayor, sits a 66-student school that weaves in lessons from the Bible with deep study of classical creeds and languages. Though it’s attended by kids whose families represent a cross-section of San Francisco, it was co-founded by a conservative Christian tech investor who has made no secret of his support for Donald Trump and his hard-right views on immigration, homosexuality, and abortion.
Donum Dei Classical Academy “exists to be a gift of God to the families and churches who call San Francisco home,” according to the school’s website. “We seek to impart a rich classical Christian curriculum full of Scriptural truth and life-giving experiences … in the hands of our godly, experienced teachers and education partners.”
Far from being a solitary conservative island in a roiling sea of secular progressivism, Donum Dei’s influence is expanding. The small school has grown by roughly 25 students since opening in 2019, and revenue from anonymous contributions increased from $45,692 that year to $773,319 in 2023. Click here to read more.
LANSING, Mich - Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is fighting against porch pirates with Christmas lights and holiday music.
The top cop in the Great Lakes State offered advice to Michiganders on Wednesday to help them avoid package thefts in the leadup to Christmas, one element of a Holiday Scams Campaign run by her Consumer Protection Team that launched on Black Friday.
“Whether it’s a package or a piece of mail, unattended deliveries are easy targets for porch pirates,” Nessel said in a statement. “By planning ahead and taking security measures, you can make sure your sell-deserved gifts and packages reach you safely while keeping thieves from stealing your holiday cheer.”
Much of the advice from the AG includes obvious anti-theft measures, such as shipping packages to secure locations like Amazon Lockers, FedEx offices, and workplaces. Click here to read more.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Bruce Kitt is one of the Medicare Advantage industry’s most lucrative customers.
The federal government pays his private Medicare Advantage insurer thousands of dollars a year to cover the cost of doctor visits, hospitalizations and other medical care that the 74-year-old retired aircraft mechanic might need.
But Kitt, an Air Force veteran who served in Thailand during the Vietnam War, gets almost all of his healthcare outside the Medicare system, through the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. The taxpayer-funded Department of Veterans Affairs health system provides low-cost or free care to Kitt and about nine million other qualifying veterans.
Kitt’s Medicare Advantage insurer, an affiliate of CVS Health’s Aetna unit, pays for almost nothing other than a $100 monthly cash-like rebate to Kitt as an incentive to keep him on its rolls. The government paid the insurer at least $6,000 to cover him in 2022, the year he joined the plan.
“I don’t think I’ve used my Medicare in years,” said Kitt, who lives in Eden Prairie, Minn. When he needed some eye tests, the VA, not his Medicare Advantage plan, paid for him to go to an outside clinic. “I’m pretty happy with the VA,” he said. “I look at the Medicare plan as a backup.” Click here to read more.
Don’t say that debanking is back, because it never went away. But with close allies of the new administration focused on the issue, reform may finally be in the offing. Three basic steps are needed, the first two of which can be done in no time at all: (1) block regulators from pressuring financial providers to drop disfavored customers; (2) require government officials to report and publicly disclose actions targeting protected speech and association; and (3) dial back anti-money laundering law, “the world’s least effective policy experiment.”
Credit venture capitalist Marc Andreessen for putting debanking in the spotlight. If his aim was to raise awareness by bringing it up in a discussion with Joe Rogan and a series of X posts, then it worked. The minor backlash of doubters prompted a wave of start-up founders, crypto enthusiasts, and others with…interesting (but lawful!) financial situations to share their experiences.
It’s harrowing stuff: credit cards and ATM cards all going dead at once, losing access to one’s own money with no way to pay the bills, purposefully vague termination letters and refusal to explain, and the fear that speaking out will make one permanently unbankable. The experience is a bit like being “unpersoned” in a party-state or getting caught up in the “social credit” systems of science fiction or, as some have it, current-day China. Click here to read more.
