Lawmakers in the state Senate took the final vote on these taxes on Thursday morning, sending them to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk where he's expected to sign the legislation before the end of the month. One proposal involves an increase in taxes on health plans, which experts say will raise rates for individuals with private health insurance by an average of $100 per year. This tax is expected to generate $2 billion annually to help fund Medi-Cal, the state's health insurance program for low-income residents. The second tax increase would impose a new sales tax on digital software, including programs like Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, Slack, and Workday. This tax, starting at 7.25%, could vary depending on the region of California where the software is purchased or used. The measure is projected to bring in approximately $900 million annually for the state's general fund. read more
Soon, however, the producers ran into obstacles. Officials from the county Beaches and Harbors Department and the California Coastal Commission told them they couldn't park their trucks overnight, light fires or drive on the sand. "We're a lifeguard show," "Baywatch" co-creator Greg Bonann remembers saying. "What do you mean we can't drive a truck on the beach?" Suddenly the show was at risk of becoming the wrong kind of symbol: this one, a victim of California's tangle of regulations. No one in power " not Newsom or L.A. Mayor Karen Bass " wanted to read the headline about "Baywatch" bailing out of Los Angeles. When elected leaders were summoned to the Fox lot to smooth things over, the show held all the leverage. "After a while, you have to sit down with the right people and say, Guys, do we want to have this show here or not?'" Bonann says. read more
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded Thursday night on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida. read more
An effort to repeal California's "top two" primary system is underway. "The grassroots repeal effort is fueled by concerns that California's primaries are disenfranchising a majority of California voters by limiting choice to candidates from one party," read a news release from Steven Mavigilo, the official proponent of the proposed measure. Implemented in 2011, the primary system allows voters in statewide contests to choose any candidate from any party in the primary, regardless of their party registration. The top two vote-getters then advance to the general election, even if they belong to the same party. read more
The US government has misspent almost $3 trillion since 2003, leading government auditors to make a fresh call for a federal data analytics centre " a proposal first suggested in 2022. Total improper payments reached $185.8 billion in 2025 alone, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) " up $24 billion on 2024 in the first rise for the statistic since 2021. Overpayments by federal agencies were the largest problem, accounting for 82% of the misspending, and just five programmes misspent $135.8 billion, with Medicare making $57 billion in improper payments. read more
#21 | POSTED BY LFTHNDTHRDS
pinklightrobot is lying ....
Tucker Carlson's mother, Lisa McNear Lombardi, was a free-spirited artist who mostly disappeared from his life when he was six years old
www.businessinsider.com
And no his father wasn't in the CIA either...
So is he a Democrat by Design ... FFS lyingliteBot you're worse than DonorBot.
And who do Brits blame? Immigrants. And that too is exactly what Putin and Farage was counting on.
#2 | Posted by snoofy
Same with the EU .. unmitigated illegal immigration will do that to a country or Union in this case.
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT heard chants of "send them back" and "shame on you" from MEPs as they approved the Migration and Asylum Pact.
The tougher rules will grant authorities much broader detention powers and allow for the creation of deportation centres outside the bloc.
Not all voted in favour of the changes, and a division emerged between Irish government supporting MEPs in Strasbourg.
www.msn.com
Spain and Italy at odds..
https://www.voiceofemirates.com/en/news/2026/06/20/escalating-european-dispute-over-migration-italy-
and-spain-disagree-on-deporting-asylum-seekers/
The UK economy has performed worse than the other 44 western nations since Brexit.
It was bad before Brexit.
tradingeconomics.com
Though it's a doomed job after Brexit, so maybe I hope he doesn't get the position
Have you ever watched Clarkson's Farm?
It will make your blood boil about how over-regulated that country is. Nothing will work until that gets fixed.
UK is a political economy, really is death by a thousand regulations ...
One final lesson to be taken from the show is that governments have to find a balance between facilitating and encouraging " or preferably just getting out of the way of " all those involved in doing a thing, and the laws and regulations tied around all of that so that one person's thing does not too much interfere with or destroy everyone else's thing. It seems pretty clear, made all the clearer by Clarkson's ventures, that we are now getting that balance dangerously wrong. Clarkson's farm is a noble venture that is, like Gulliver, tied down by a million tiny threads. As the show makes clear, each tiny thread in and of itself might seem pretty sensible and necessary. The danger is that as those threads multiply, the activity that produces all of our everyday miracles might yet find itself totally circumscribed.
moneyweek.com
~1/4 of EU countries are 50/50 about leaving ..
www.statista.com
Muscovy ducks. Non-native invasive species. The environmentalist fix is culling.
#4 | POSTED BY SITZKRIEG
Good eats ...
www.dartagnan.com
Trump drove his entire motorcade over the newly finished pool before it was re-filled for a photo-op, obviously ruining the sealant.
I'm glad we finally caught the Vandals.
To quote Corky's favorite poster on X....
There's the World Cup and a whole bunch of other ---- going on, please seek out a therapist if you're spending more than a few moments thinking about the White House Reflecting Pool. ~ Nate Silver
x.com
The year before the ACA, my wife's best pal and her husband got tossed into a high-risk pool after she survived breast cancer. He'd lost his corporate insurance when he had to take so much time to care for her. Their rate was $5000 a month, when the COBRA rate was ~$500/mo.
"Doing nothing" would've been disastrous. And cowardly.
#19 | Posted by Danforth a
Not sure but "she survived breast cancer." is a high-risk pool.
www.breastcancer.org
Look I feel for her, but it is what it is.
"Doing nothing" would've been disastrous. And cowardly.
For your situation.
The color scheme is great!!
It can also refuel mid-air.
~ DialAgain
But not the VC-25B.
12 hours is nothing really today, Quantus is doing a 20hr flight from Australia to London.
www.reuters.com
In many parts of Okiehomie, one must drive for more than an hour to reach an emergency room, or to deliver a baby
The density doesn't appear to be more or less than anywhere else in the country.
felt.com
Lots of Red State facilities to close.
So my understanding is the States were supposed to tax the hospitals evenly under Obamacare to get matching Federal funds..
So the States applied for what is called a "Uniformity Waiver". This allowed the State to charge only particular hospitals with the "tax", the tax was then Federal Government matched. So then the State would give the State "tax" back to the rural hospitals as "enhanced Medicaid reimbursement rates", and the State would use rest of the money else where.
IOW Those States that applied for the Waiver were taxing the rural areas, to pay for the urban areas. Private and suburban hospitals didn't have to pay the tax.
All the law did was close the waiver.
The States closing hospitals could have just had a fair tax on all its hospitals, but chose against that because .... idk why..
If you're really for socialized medicine, you should be ok with killing off the "Uniformity Waiver", and the States should apply the taxes to its hospitals evenly.
55yrs ago? LOL