Month: September 2017

Senate, House, and Trump all poised to rip open pristine Arctic landscape in hunt for oil

climate, Lisa Murkowski, News

Forces in Congress are moving to open the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, bypassing debate by including the controversial move in the upcoming appropriations bill.

Alaska’s coastal plain, 1.5 million acres of protected land known as Area 1002, is the primary breeding ground for a unique herd of 195,000 porcupine caribou — which are, in turn, a staple for the indigenous Gwitchin tribe, who say their way of life would be irreparably change...

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Utah senator politicized bill that provides insurance to kids. Now his state is the first casualty.

Affordable Care Act, health, health care, News, obamacare, politics

Funding for the Children Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which covers 8.9 million children, expires Saturday because lawmakers were too busy trying to repeal-and-replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

CHIP provides low-cost health insurance to children in families that earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid. Enacted in 1997, CHIP is a companion program to Medicaid, where states had the option to set up an independent CHIP program or extend Medicaid eligibility to children up t...

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Tom Price took military jets abroad, bringing total cost of travel to more than $1 million

News, politics, tom-price, Trump administration

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price took military jets to Europe and Asia, Politico reported Thursday evening, bringing the total cost to taxpayers of Price’s travel to more than $1 million since May.

Price has been under scrutiny since Politico began reporting on his extensive use of chartered flights last week. On Thursday afternoon, Price said he would pay back the costs of his own seat on those chartered flights — just over $50,000 out of the total cost of more t...

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